Universal Chaos - Web of Chaos

Chapter 3 - Top Off

Sept 19, 2229

The next morning. Inside an old closed-down store, two young men, Lel and Erwin sat around poking at their PADs. Lel's drone unfolded a few times to have a seventeen-inch screen as he used the base for game controls.

A knock sounded from the back door. "He's here." Erwin got up dumping a small bag of chips on the ground. Indifferent to the spilled chips, he put his PAD away.

Lel had his PAD fold back up and put it in his pocket as they hurried to the door.

Opening the door, Erwin saw Joe carried a large helmet.

"Here." Joe shoved the helmet into Erwin's stomach.

"Umph... What's this, Sir?"

"It's Rephaim exo-armor. We're unloading it. You and the new recruit can keep an eye on it."

Lel didn't say anything. He carried some of the exo-armor and hid it behind a dusty pile of vintage clothes.

Getting all the pieces in the building, they buried them with some more clothes.

"You'll stay here and guard this place newbie," said Erwin punching Lel in the shoulder in a light-hearted manner.

"Come on." Lel tilted his head back and bit his lower lip.

"Only following orders. Don't worry, I'll make sure ya get into action real soon."

Joe and Erwin got in the pickup truck and drove off.

Once they had left, Lel wandered over to the Rephaim exo-armor, took the helmet, and strolled back to the front room. He put it down on a table and sat down studying it. A minute later he got out his PAD, had it unfolded, and played a game.

****

With the local authorities not being the fastest to get an operation going, Gill sat waiting in his car. Having his car pull over to the curb, he opened a window. A small drone flew out and up into the sky. On his display, he observed a twenty story building two blocks away from him. Between larger apartment buildings and towering skyscrapers, it had one entrance on the front.

A black truck hovering twenty feet above Gill flew past at high speed. Video Gill received from his drones showed three more trucks flying in from different directions. One landed on the roof of the twenty story building. The other three were in front of the building at different levels.

Piling out of the truck on the roof a SWAT team formed a semicircle. A silver squid-like Sepiida drone about six feet long came out of it. It stood on its tentacles, and a glowing yellow Dunamis crystal came out from the center where the legs met. The Sepiida lowered its main body section closer to the roof, and the Dunamis cut a circle through it with ease. The circular slice fell into the building, and the drone put its tentacles together, climbing down into the hole. The SWAT team jumped in one by one.

The other trucks hovered out front, opened their rear doors, and backed up to windows. The SWAT teams blasted the window frames, kicked them in, and leaped.

Gill accessed the Sepiida's system and could see what it saw. The SWAT team was unaware of the level of access he had in their government systems.

Inside, the drone floated down the hallway. If any residents of the building used to be out in the open, they were sure to be hiding after all the noise.

Following close behind the Sepiida the SWAT team had one member covering their backs.

The drone scanned right through the walls, locating people. Using its metal appendages, it pushed a door cracking it into pieces; many metal locks broke off the door and fell with clunks to the floor. Wrapping its tentacles around the door frame, it pulled itself and floated into the room.