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The Twilight Cage
Topic Started: May 28 2012, 06:36 PM (33 Views)
Fran
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Posted by: Shade Nocturnus Nov 30 2010, 08:47 PM
The day was like any other day. Like everyone else, Shade stumbled groggily from her sleep alcove at precisely 05:00... not that night and day had any true meaning here… and into her sonic shower. It felt good to have gentle vibrations loosen and remove the particles of dry sweat and dirt from the pores of her skin. After a meal of some tasteless, yet highly nutritious grey matter, Shade was ready to take up her post.

She made her way down the corridors, passing the same grey bulkheads that she and her people had walked past for as long as she could remember. Cloaked figures looked up from their tasks and peered at her with glinting eyes out from under their hoods at the familiar sounds of her footsteps. Or perhaps it was a trace of some scent that the sterile environment could not eradicate, no matter how hard it was meant to try. Most of the glancing shadows merely shuffled aside to be out of Shade’s path, but others jumped as though she’d scalded on the end of a glowing, hot iron. Their scent of fear wafted through the recycled air like a perfume.

With a grin, Shade drew back her hood. They should fear her! She was the favored one… personally hand-picked two decades ago by Lord Ix himself out the Weaning Ward out of hundreds of mewling hatchlings. She alone had stood apart… She alone had been worthy. Often did she so enjoy reminding the rest of the Nocturnus people that this was her empire as much as it belonged to Lord Ix. This day, like any other day, her fellow echidna scrambled to attention…much to her amusement… when the doors to the bridge hissed open, and her feet crossed the threshold. With a curt nod to the commanding officers, they went back to work.

‘Work’ usually involved repairs and system maintenance. Shade knew that the Nocturnus had drifted in this void that Ix had termed ‘The Twilight Cage’ for many years… he never however stated how many… and any of the ship’s records revealed the information she’d attempted to research on her own. Routine upkeep was necessary for survival in this harsh empty place.

It was nearly 07:00 now, and Shade took her position before her own work station; fingers flying over keys and buttons, eyes flickering across holograms and vid-screens that told in detail of what tasks were completed by her subjects, and which still awaited completion.

“A word, Mistress..”

Shade, scowled. How dare she be interrupted. She looked up from her task to see a male pulling down the hood of his cloak to reveal his face. He may have been a handsome echidna once. But what was left of his countenance was riddled with scars, and strange mechanical modifications. The most striking, and perhaps even unnerving of these features was his left eye— or, ‘ocular-implant’ …whatever the fool had decided to call it. Shade always felt that he could ‘see’ her in ways that he should not. She suppressed a shutter, and turned her eyes back to the console in front of her. “What is it, Morik?”

The echidna couldn’t help but let her voice growl a little as she spoke. Morik, according to some of the others, was once Lord Ix’s favorite before her. They had falling out, and she was his replacement. His bitterness towards her was as unhidden as her contempt for his presence, and the enmity between them was almost pliable. Morik was dangerously crafty and clever. It was better to keep him her under own watchful eye. It the rumor was true, Shade had no doubt that when that ‘eye’ rolled around in his skull, Morik was plotting some way to remove her. Both of them knew however, that Morik’s aging body was no match for her. Small wonder Ix chose her rather than this pathetic male… Such cowardice!

Shade had to admit though, when Morik was not plotting ways to turn Ix against her, his cleverness had its uses. She waited with a bored expression as the male echidna expressed concern over a strange energy reading and the effects it was having on the Nocturnus’ systems throughout the complex. It was the same if not similar to other problems they’d been having throughout the ship for several days. After a brief discussion on the best ways to amend the problems, and which echidnas would be better assigned to the tasks, Morik turned to attend to other things. He stopped and the spines rippled on his head before he looked back.

“As you may have seen, the communication channels are currently nonfunctional. Thus, I am to report to you that Lord Ix wishes to meet with you is chambers. His droid never specified as to when.”

She blinked at the older echidna as he bared his teeth with a sneering smile. Without further instructions, he turned his back on Shade and strode to an engineering terminal.

Ix wanted to speak with her? That message might’ve been given hours ago! Did she do something wrong that he didn’t send the droid to report to her himself? Why did it go to Morik instead? Shade glared at the back of the male’s head. He glanced back at her with that roving ‘eye,’ and she thought she seen the corner of his mouth twitch just a little. He intercepted that droid! Suddenly, she felt the urge to smash her fist through the back of his filthy skull. However, such an act would be pointless. He was after all, one of the more competent members of their race…


And so it was, that that day, had begun its shift from the monotony of every other ordinary day. Shade found herself later that morning before the doors to Ix’s palace; the “palace” being nothing more than an entire deck in the middle of the Nocturnus devoted to himself and his fancies. She supposed the old man deserved it, it was he who had rescued their people and built this vast ship to be their home.

After removing the glove from her right hand, she placed her palm against the pad on the doorjab. The door hissed open and Shade stepped through. Behind the door was a long corridor. The hall way was dim… drab and as colorless as the rest of the complex… lit only with long white lights that stretched the length of the cave-like tunnel. She knew this path well, and so she was somewhat surprised to find another door his open on her left as she walked past it. She paused and stared; caught somewhere between curiosity and apprehension. This doorway revealed another corridor, this one was warmer in color. Instead of the grey bulkheads, this one was of sandy-brown stone and the lights along the walls were colored crystals set in ornate sconces like elaborate torches. To be sure, Shade had never been down this part of the ship before.

“This way,” a gentle yet firm voice echoed around her.

Shade took a breath and continued on. Her eyes gazed up in wonder, the sound of her footsteps rebounding softly off of the mortar and masonry that took the place of the more familiar firma-plast and metal that she was accustomed to. Hieroglyphs and images of echidnas kneeling in reverence all carved in relief, danced the length of the top of the walls… from one corridor to another.


The voice spoke again, startling her out of her gaping. “To your right, now…”

Transfixed as she was, were it not for the compelling timbre of the other’s voice she would have missed this cleverly concealed intersection of hallways; so unbroken was the pattern above. Here the mulled glow of the colored crystals dimmed once again, and the tunnel opened into a vast chamber. Now, Shade recognized her surrounds once again. Vid-screens stretching from floor to ceiling flickered around the room. Smaller screens overlapped the larger, each displaying images of some area of the Nocturnus and its population of hooded echidnas. Shade looked on some of these screens as she watched her people scurry about the decks of the ship with all the precision of ants; each one doing his or her assigned task to utmost efficiency. Morik, Shade was filled with chagrin to see, was still delegating orders on her bridge. Had he ever come to this place the way she’d just done?

“Ah, there you are Little One.”

Shade turned to view the owner of the voice. In the middle of the room, was a round stone dias-like platform; the same stone work relieved of the same carvings and images that were in the corridors… now that she reflected on it. Curious, indeed. And beautiful. But not nearly as beautiful or as awe inspiring as the figure seated on the dias; as though it were a throne. He was of course, another echidna. But his body was so buried beneath machines and various technologies so alien that only he himself knew what each part was capable of. Some of it, Shade surmised, was to aid his aging body… The rest? There were rumors amongst the clan… But Ix was the guardian of her people wasn’t he?

Shade knelt before the short steps leading up to where the old echidna sat. “I came as soon as I received word, my lord. There were… delays.”

The figure chuckled was warmly as though addressing a child. “Yes, I am aware. Tell me, what did you think of my little short cut? Hmmm?”

The female echidna remained silent. The unknown passageway was so mysterious, and in a way, rather misplaced on ship made of metal and other modern materials. Why did Lord Ix, bring her through those particular corridors? The confusion must have shown on her face, as her silent answer elicited a hum of interest from her leader.

“Ah… most curious, wasn’t it?”

Shade took the tone as permission to look up. “Is that what you wanted to speak with me about, my liege?”

The old echidna leaned back in his chair. “It is part of it,” he agreed. With a wave of his hand, all the vid-screens around them went blank except for the one directly behind her. “Join me, my little Adumbral…” he invited, “I wish to show you something more.”

Shade could not conceal the smile that spread across her face, and in heartbeats she was standing on Ix’s right side.

“Once, we were a great people…”

“The Nocturnus,” she interrupted, “are still a great people, my lord.”

“Though that is true, we are not nearly as we were. Our people ruled on Mobius.” Ix lifted a finger and closed his eyes. Out of the corner of one of Shade’s, she seen a tiny blue light wink on inside the older echidna’s metal cowl. The vid-screen in front of them changed. Instead of the interior of the ship, the screen was a window to another world. The landscape sprawled to the horizon with trees and mountains. The sky was a brilliant blue that reflected with stark brilliance off of raging waterfalls, and a great city made of stone. The city, Shade reflected… had many of the same carvings and glyphs that adorned Ix’s most secret chambers. Echidnas of every age, gender, and color went about their paces; tending gardens or chatting beside graceful water fountains. “These are my memories that you are witnessing…” Lord Ix informed his small audience. And indeed, Shade could see repeated glimpses of various echidna faces. In particular, was one image of a certain echidna male that showed up more than others. Ix allowed one of these particular portraits to freeze frame. “My brother,” he replied, once again reading the unspoken question on Shade’s face.

“You had a brother?” Shade was clearly dumfounded. She had never dreamed that Lord Ix could ever have had siblings.

Ix sighed, “Alas, like it so happens in many families, he and I never were so very close. We had a ‘disagreement’ as it were one might say, and we both went our separate ways. You see, he was next in line for the succession of “Guardian” according to our ancestors’ misguided beliefs. I on the other hand, wanted no part of such pagan fantasies… I wanted to evolve, to become more than what we were… to show to our people, that there was a better way of life, other than sacrificing ourselves and kneeling before stone statues. I taught others this truth, and soon our people became just as divided as myself and my brother.”

“That’s terrible!” Shade couldn’t help but exclaim.

Ix grunted in response, “I agree with you! Dividing our people was the most foolish thing I have ever done.”

“But wouldn’t we have been stronger as a united people?”

“Yes. However, my brother banished us non-existant crimes! He threatened the innocent lives of the echidnas of our tribe. So I… we… our people… built this great ship to be our home. A place of sanctuary where there was none for us. Of course, I have tried on numerous occasions to reconcile with my brother, but… he would hear none of it.” The image on the vid-screen turned to one of smaller ships flying around the hull of the Nocturnus in a firey evening sky. Clouds of fire erupted in the air as other vehicles and air craft joined them. “He attacked us,” Ix’s voice grew tight for a breath or two. “It was he who called on the angel of chaos…” There was a faint image on the screen now; one Shade could barely make out. If this were a memory, perhaps Ix himself had only been able to see a glimpse of the figure in it. There was a sudden grip, and Shade looked to see that Ix had turned to grasp her by the hand. “I didn’t believe such things could exist. Shamed to say, I was wrong. So dreadfully wrong. The chaos demon destroyed our defenses and crippled the Nocturnus… banishing us to this energy void that we cannot escape.”

Shade winced as the old echidna’s metal grip further pinched the skin of her fingers right through her gloves.

“I have thought long and hard, and have attempted every calculation and equation to create the very kind of energy that trapped us here. Alas, I have failed.” Ix stood up and released her hand. He strode forward and the vid-screen changed to reveal images that Shade was more familiar with. The same schematics that she and her fellow echidnas have been brooding over for the past weeks. “You may have taken note of the influx of unexplainable radiations wrecking havoc on some of our most sophisticated of technologies. Curiously, these energy patterns are similar, if not identical to those our computers recorded on the day we were banished here to our “Cage.” The void it seems, is in a state of flux. Holes are appearing at random, but none large enough for our ship to slip through.” Shade watched Ix pace as he spoke.

“This could explain some of the transmissions we have been receiving.”

“Yes it does. It seems the rest of Mobius has evolved on its own, despite my brother‘s warnings.”

“Perhaps we can isolate the pattern, and open a hole oursel—”

“Too dangerous.” Ix cut in, but offered no further explanation on ‘why.’ “Do you see this creature?” The old echidna paced back to his chair and tapped a button. The image of a blue hedgehog grinned back at them from the screen. “He is called, ‘Sonic’… ” Ix explained as he touched a different key. Another image of the same Mobian appeared beside it, only in this picture the creature glowed with a yellow light. The image was fuzzy… as though the person who recorded was granted only a glimpse.

Hmmmm…

“I believe, he has the power to release us from our prison.”

Shade looked up at Ix. “How will he help us?” distain laced her voice as she observed the unlikely-looking creature before her.

Lord Ix grinned, his canines glinting in the light of the vid-screen for the quickest of heartbeats. Shade looked again, but his smile had returned to the warm placid one he’d worn when she walked into the room. “Trust me, he will come…” He waved to Shade’s left and with the whisper of servo motors and the light click of metallic footsteps on tiled floor, one of Ix’s personal automatons detached itself from the wall and strode to the back of the room. “I have a mission for you, my dearest.”

Shade watched as the fake echidna returned from the back of the room with another machine just like it. Between them on a levitating stretcher, gleamed another black robot. With wide eyes, she tore her gaze from the two machines and their burden to look back at her master.

“Because these holes that appear are too small to fit the Nocturnus through, doesn’t mean you can’t get through.”

“Me?!” the female finally snapped out of her surprise. Leave the Nocturnus and the clan of echidnas that had adopted its name? “Why me?”

“Two reasons, little one.” Ix rested a hand on her shoulder. “The first, because I am not certain how stable this Cage will remain, if these energy fluctuations continue. We need that spiny little mammal not only if we wish to be free, but if we hope to survive. The second, because you are the only one whom I can entrust with this task.”

Not even Kragook? Shade felt a sense of boastful pride at that moment. “I will do then as you say.”

Ix’s metallic grip tightened. “As I knew you would.” The echidna released her and beckoned her to follow him down to the floor. “In shuttle bay R-49, I have a modified craft waiting for you. The technologies of Mobius have advanced much since our imprisonment, and many of them may require stern ways to counter and combat them… before and after you reach your destination.” As they approached the black robot, Lord Ix picked up the head and Shade suddenly realized that it was a helmet! As gentle as a grandfather, Ix placed the cowl over her head. The view through the visor was astonishing, and he chuckled at her gasp of pleasant surprise. “This armor is bio-coded to your DNA and will only work for you. Better this way than to have my labors falling into the wrong hands.”

“I won’t let it have a chance to.” Shade growled with self-assured pride.

“Of course,” was the male’s only comment to her valor. Ix turned his forearm over and with a click he produced a small, flat circuit-board strip. “This contains the instructions on how to use it. Study it… download it… Imprint it if you wish. Either way, you must be prepared to launch in seventy-two hours. That is when I have calculated the next rift to appear.”

“Yes, my lord.” Shade’s voice exclaimed from the microphone inside the helmet.

With another wave of his hand, the two robots came forward and assisted Shade with rest of her suit. Without warning, the monotony of Shade’s life as she thought it to be, ended abruptly.



The next thing she knew, her tiny shuttle was hurtling through the atmosphere of a world she had only seen in stories. The murky nothingness of the Twilight Cage became fast approaching mountains that loomed ominously on the horizon. Tall and hardy, northern pines bent in the wind of her passing, as Shade’s little ship rocketed over the tops of their highest boughs. When the echidna had her craft leveled out and began putting the ship through its landing procedures, alarms chimed and buzzed throughout the cockpit. A quick glance at the radar revealed twenty or so individual dots converging on her coordinates… Fast!

Heart thudding more from excitement than fear, Shade grasped the shuttle’s controls and whipped the tiny craft into a sharp bank to the left. The other airborne machines broke formation to avoid collision. Some angled for height, others streaked down towards the forest below. The lucky ones that gained altitude, regrouped to join others of their flock… the not so lucky blew apart as they slammed into trees. Fire erupted from below when burning fuel met with super-heated pitch.

More alarms chimed when the machines following Shade’s shuttle opened fire. The air around the ship flickered in green when the tiny missiles peppered her shields. Ix’s technology was no match for them. The ammunition from the smaller aircraft was hardly any different to deflect than atmospheric debris. What the shield might not handle, was an unexpected kamikaze attempt. A few tried, but Shade snapped her craft into a barrel roll; leaving the martyring pests to zip over, under, and around her harmlessly. Growing bored with the ‘cat and mouse’ game, Shade growled and locket their positions into her targeting scanner. The sickle-shaped machines disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

By now, Shade had well missed her landing coordinates. The mountain range that loomed so on the horizon now thrust up, around, and beneath her like craggy fingers into the sky. These weren’t the same mountains that she’d seen in Lord Ix’s memories. Wind whistled though the snow dusted passages, buffeting her tiny ship around like a kitten would a feather. The ones she’d seen in Ix’s visions were green, lush, and vibrant. The shields flickered outside her window again, and this time, Shade wasn’t so quick to dodge a kamikaze attack. Her shield strength dropped to ninety percent. Gritting her teeth, the echidna hairpinned around the south pinnacle of the closest mountain. Out of view for a few heartbeats, the female then reached over on the controls to activate the ship’s cloaking abilities. Now out of sight completely, Shade climbed higher into the atmosphere. At the apex of the ship’s climb, she dropped the nose backward and plummeted towards the earth in a great swoop; all lasers blazing.

How dare the fire on her?! Now they would pay for their transgressions!

The mountains groaned under the thunder of exploding machines, and the roar of afterburners. She laughed at the sight. This was too much like fun to be work! However the euphoria was short lived. The seriousness of her mission required no further delays. Lord Ix was depending on her! She would not let him down.

Enemies destroyed, she reprogrammed the location Ix had given her into the landing procedures. To her surprise, the shuttle bucked on the way down. Scanners buzzed and then went blank. When her target coordinates came back online, the shuttled rerouted itself to land somewhere out in the sea. Shade sighed and switched the controls over to manual.

That meant… finding this ’Sonic’ person on foot.

The echidna chose to guide the shuttle to a secluded area just north of a wide meadow just outside of the area that blacked-out her console. No sense in attempting that again. Who knew what would happen!? Then leaving the ship cloaked from the prying of both natural and artificial eyes, Shade set out to find a way to free the Nocturnus.
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