Resurgence - Alaric Hunts for Clues

October 3152
Terra
Alaric had been driven to a point of anger and confusion, ever since Stone’s last insults.  On his desk were the daily, seemingly out of reach, plans the former Exarch of the now dead Republic of the Sphere had schemed up.  As the years ticked by and the troublesome Terran population was slowly brought into the society of Clan life, the daily happenings had kept him from his own search for answers.  Finally, enough time had passed and a level of calm had reached most of the birthplace of humanity.
He followed the dark corridor to the place where Stone had slept for years, while his nation was attacked from all sides. While this location had not been hidden from him, he ensured that no one entered it, as it was his to discover. This time though, Chance was not with him, she was handling what he hoped would be the end of the resistance in Japan. 
Two points of Black Wolf Battle Armor flanked the passageway behind him with the remaining three points of the star waiting outside, should any funny business take place.  He was even armed with a rifle and pistol and the facility had been searched through the various systems for traps and came up clean. 
Content with the situation, the ilKhan approached the door, still open, presumably from when Tucker Harwell found Stone asleep. Walking into the large doorframe, standing in the center, Alaric looked around.  To his right, he could see a wall of screens, then above him he saw more and more as he looked at all the walls.  Some feeds overlooked offices, many were dead feeds, likely from the massive fighting over the worlds once controlled by the Republic. 
He approached the empty tube that was clearly was where Stone himself slept.  As Alaric looked it over and circled around it, he could see on the floor a darkened spot that resembled a human body.  “Could the Devlin Stone that died have been a double?” he thought, giving him pause. While it greatly concerned him, given Stone’s schemes, he put that thought behind him.  He walked to the foot of the tube where some more panels were displaying nothing but static.
Alaric came around a desk that had various monitors powered up, awaiting a user’s input.  While clearly old and dusty, they were certainly high end at the time they were installed.  He looked over the desk, checking underneath it just to be safe, and once satisfied, took a seat on the hard plastic rolling chair.  Taking a moment to look the room over again, he spotted a camera feed to the empty Exarch’s office.  Other feeds from various facilities showed his own Wolves or Terran civilians at work.
Exploring the computer interface for a moment, Alaric figured out how to navigate it.  Likely heavily simplified, given it would need to be for a man waking up after years of cryogenic sleep.  A number of basic options were available, ‘Cryo chamber feed’, ‘HPG Status’, ‘News Headlines’, and more, followed by a more detailed list.  Curious, he punched in the ‘Cryo chamber feed’ selection and waited as it loaded for a moment.  The screen read a couple options with dates, however, there were two that caught his interest, given the massive spread in time:
August 11, 3130 – Cryo Activation event
April 1, 3145 – Cryo Deactivation event (motion detected)
He selected the August date and watched the conversation between the two men, it was so odd seeing Stone years younger, after their interactions during Clan Wolf’s conquest of Terra.  The laser shot through the head of the man named ‘John’, given their recent discussion of how long they had known each other struck Alaric as dishonorable.  He watched Stone get settled and activated the cryopod, then the screens began powering off and the room went dark. 
The screen then lit up again, displaying the April date, showing the doorway open with the night vision setting.  Tucker Harwell, the younger man accompanying Stone at his death bed walked in.  Alaric watched intently through their interaction, seeing how Stone took to waking back up, how he was so frail and weak as he willed himself to wake up.  He observed the animosity of the younger man speaking to the founder of the Republic and everything it had suffered.  The entire conversation played out to Stone’s resolve building statement, “Want to help me fix it?”
With that the two men left the chamber through the doorway Alaric had entered.  The rest was history and now Clan Wolf controlled Terra.  While the video was interesting, it did not provide him any real answers.  He now noticed that there was a blinking green light next to “HPG Status”.  After selecting the list item, it brought up a new list.  This list broke into multiple sections, ‘major activity’ and ‘standard activity’. Selecting ‘major activity’:
AUGUST 4, 3132 - CLARION CALL ACTIVATED
JUNE 5, 3152 – DISCORDANT MANTLE ACTIVATED
“What the hell happened in June?!” he said out loud, his blood suddenly boiling.  Had someone been using this facility to undermine the ilClan? The Star League he is building?  Quickly, he selected the minor event listings.  It was a burst of data throughout the month of June.  All of the messages were titled similarly:
HELL’S BREACH – COGDELL
HELL’S BREACH – MORVEN
HELL’S BREACH – DURAN
HELL’S BREACH – KANDERSTAG
HELL’S BREACH – KIRKCALDY
HELL’S BREACH – ANGELL
HELL’S BREACH – ESCOBAS
The list continued on and on.  Alaric’s eyes were wide, his teeth clenched, he snarled at the screen.  No additional data would display on any of the dozens of world names, some he recognized as involved in the escalating conflict across the Inner Sphere. Finally, reaching his limit of frustration, he punched the screen, sending it flying off the desk and bouncing off the cryotube and onto the floor.  Then, both his fists slammed down on the desk.
He looked up to see a Battle Armor trooper take out part of the doorway as he came rushing in, scanning for threats, the chunks of rubble slammed into a couple screens, shattering them. 
“Stand down!” the menacing trooper shouted, gravely concerned his ilKhan was in danger as he looked for a target near Alaric.
“At ease trooper, that was me.”
“Aff, ilKhan, should I remain here?”
“Neg, return to your position.”
Once the trooper had stepped back out of the chamber he ran his hands through his hair, he inserted a drive into the computer that was now missing a monitor and it began running a series of commands, extracting all the data it could.  Looking at the next computer he saw a different icon, this one read, “ALARIC”.
“So Stone did return here” Alaric said to himself. He reached over to play the video, the screen went black, the lights cut out.
Then, all of the remaining panels on the wall at the head of the cryopod came to life, it was Stone’s face, it covered the entire wall.  “Welcome to my resting place, Alaric.”
Alaric slightly recoiled, placing his hand on his pistol with the sudden appearance of his former foe.
“If you are seeing this video, somehow, you took Terra.  I would also venture to say I have died.”  Stone thoughtfully paused at the realization.  With a slight shake of his head, Stone continued, his face extending far above Alaric, looking down on him. 
“I love the Republic and no one, not even you, have the power to end it, even if you have cast it into space and adrift in the Inner Sphere.  There are contingencies, should this unlikely scenario have played out.  Some are to save my people and to provide them a future, some are to take away your victory, and some are to seek retribution. Many sacrifices have been made to ensure that anyone who took away my Republic will not be allowed to keep their prize, will not keep Terra.”
“Have you figured out what “Shadowed Depths” or “Lightsbane” are yet?” Stone grinned and paused, holding the grin.
Alaric seethed and snarled.
“I have left just enough data on these machines to give you an idea that something very….. intense lays in your future.  Your short tenure as ilKhan will likely not be remembered.  Causing the destruction of your own Clan?  Losing the ilKhan and ilClanship less than a decade after claiming it?  Failing to create a new Star League?”  Stone paused again, still grinning. 
“Bringing Malvina because you could not defeat the Republic on your own, and you knew it, was as dishonorable as could be.  Never forget, you could not take Terra with your own Clan.  Your Wolf warriors were not strong enough.  You were not clever enough.  In hindsight, I should have cut off the putrid green bird’s head, then used those easily manipulated fools to wipe you and your dogs out.”  Again, Stone shook his head thoughtfully. 
“Alas, I am not gaining anymore enjoyment from this speech.  I suspect our conversation today will be our last, lucky me, this hospital bed is atrocious. Good luck, Alaric, you’re going to need it.”
Alaric was red in the face as Stone’s final grin disappeared, the screens all reverting to their previous feed and the room’s lighting being restored.  He reached down to grab the drive he had inserted into the computer.  He was so lost in thought, confusion, and anger he missed it.  He grazed his hand against the front of the panel to find his hand burning hot. “Dezgra trash!” he blurted out as he grasped his hand and looked down.
There was molten components oozing from the computer’s various slots and the drive was on the floor, partially covered in the ooze, melting away.  As he rubbed his hand, one screen he had not noticed caught his eye, near where Stone’s eyes had been in the recording.  He squinted, it looked so famili… it was his own office!  There was a feed to the ilKhan’s office in this very room! The screen died seconds later.
Looking around the room, the various computers were all doing the same thing as the one before him, melting down; a few moments later, the screens all went dead.  He quickly jumped up and left the room, his footsteps thundering up the corridor to his waiting troopers. 
“Star Commander, seal that chamber!” he shouted, his troopers moving toward and past him towards the cryo tube’s chamber, soon to erase Devlin Stone’s resting place.  
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>>ilKhan of what?<<
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>>ilKhan of Nothing<<
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Category:Resurgence
Category:Works by Minis&Dumbbells