S2, 07 Escape From London (LB) (July 7, 2015)

Corresponding text underneath each picture.

**17th June 2095: Present Day**

A burst of dust drifted down from a crack in the concrete ceiling as the constant *boom*ing of explosions far above us echoed out.

We had been trapped in this cold, dark basement for over a fortnight now. The Collective’s attacks were relentless. Even from down here in relative safety, the attacks raining down on the whole area were easily audible. They didn’t seem to have been able to pinpoint our exact location though, otherwise we would surely have all been dead by now. After the first few days of the bombardment, Colonel Cosor’s team had received word from Lieutenant Williams that he and just a handful of men had managed to retreat to safety – everybody else had been killed.

However, it wasn’t long after that the power to the building had been lost and all of the equipment that they had re-set up down here had turned off. As had the lights. After searching the storage crates, a handful of emergency lamps had been discovered, but because we didn’t know how long we would be stuck down here, Cosor had sensibly ordered that only one was to be lit at a time, to preserve the lifespan of them.

We had also found some cardboard boxes full of crisps stored down here and so for pretty much the first week, we all lived off of crisps. It wasn’t a pleasant experience to say the least. However, after the first week, there was a bit of a lull in the bombardment and so Cosor himself led a small team upstairs to see how much damage had been done, or rather, how much was left sanding and to also try and find food. They had returned with several crates of assorted packets and tinned food and also with news that pretty much everything above ground for several blocks was now rubble.

Luckily the stairs up from the basement and into the corridor leading to the building’s lobby was unblocked, meaning that as soon as the attacks stopped, we could escape.

At least that had been the plan, but that was a week ago and a week of constant bombing, well…. whatever it was they were doing up there, energy bombing it seemed, could change a lot.

Before the power had gone out, the officers had received word from the scientists who had created the Ossillium shield that they thought they had figured out why it’s effects had only been temporary.

They had said that for the effects to last, the Ossillium had to constantly be present. Hence why there was apparently no Collective presence on Rerador, the planet where Ossillium came from. So when the shield reached its maximum size and closed off, the Ossillium presence vanished and allowed the Collective to begin using their powers again.

We thought we had found a solution to the galactic scourge. Like fly spray to a wasp we had used our shield with confidence that it would do its job. And it had appeared to have worked, but then the effects wore off and the wasp had come back for revenge. All we’d succeeded in doing was making the Collective angry and also alerted them to the fact that the GI knew about Ossillium. We didn’t know if the Collective themselves knew about the ore yet, or if they’d encountered it before in their universal travels, but if they didn’t, they certainly did now!

I had been surprised a couple of days ago when my comlink had begun beeping. I had answered the call to find Eris, sister of the Collective Archmage, looking at me. She had requested to find out how to contact Mr. Grey. I wasn’t sure what for, but she seemed to need information. And it there was one thing Mr. Grey and his boss, The Brain were good at, it was finding out information. I told her what she needed and she vanished from sight, leaving us alone once again in the dark.

So here we sat. Miserable, cold and hungry. Tracks was okay about the hungry and cold part but he was running low on power and had therefore gotten rather grumpy.

It was currently about 2 o’clock in the morning and as many people as could were asleep. However, most of us, myself included, found it hard to sleep through the explosions. I was sat leaning back against one of the bare walls, exhausted, staring into space. However, Cosor, who was sat not far from me suddenly sat upright and caught my attention. I watched him, frowning, as he appeared to be listening. I listened too and suddenly realised that the explosions had stopped. He caught me watching him and put a finger to his lip, telling me to keep silent and I nodded in reply.

We waited for an hour but the bombing didn’t resume. At that point Cosor decided that it was time for us to get out of here.

Everybody was woken up and we packed up what we could carry, the rest was left behind, and headed up the stairs and into the main building. Thankfully the passage remained un-blocked and we quickly found ourselves standing in the ruins of the once grand lobby.

Cosor: “Keep your wits about you, people.” He reminded everyone as we cautiously moved towards the door. He popped outside to take a look around and a few seconds later, returned giving us the all clear.

The plan was that we were going to head towards the building that Lieutenant Williams had said they were taking shelter in a couple of weeks ago. If they were still there, we would get together and decide what to do next. If not, we would try and get as far away from here as possible before finding a way of calling for help.

We stuck together and cautiously made our way through the darkness and the decimated streets, heading away from the Collective and the Shard, which towered above everything for miles around, even more so now that most of the buildings in the area had been flattened.

It felt good to breath in fresh air after being stuck underground for so long, albeit fresh air filled with dust.

We walked on through the night, expecting at any moment to come under fire once again, however after roughly an hour of walking, no attacks had come and we made it to the shop that had been the other survivor’s hideout.

Cosor pushed open the door to the little corner shop and very slowly stepped into the dark room. There were no lights on and as I watched, he kept his gun ready, just in case.

Voice: “Who’s there?” a man’s voice came from the darkness and Cosor froze just a foot inside the door.

Cosor: “Colonel Cosor of the Galactic Imperium.” He stated, still keeping on alert, however he needn’t have.

Williams: “Oh, Colonel!” Williams sighed with relief as he emerged from the back of the room. “You made it.”

Cosor signalled for us all to follow him inside and we did so.

Cosor: “It’s good to see you, Lieutenant.”

We followed Williams into the back of the store, which was lit and where the other survivors were resting up and then spent the next couple of hours exchanging stories of what had happened. Williams’ men hadn’t heard the explanation about the Ossillium shield and so the officers from our lot told them about that and Cosor and Williams themselves started talking about plans.

After plugging Tracks into the mains to recharge, I myself, now that we were away from the noise and were relatively safe, fell fast asleep.

Even before I had fully awoken, I knew that something was wrong. By the time I had fully come around, I was aware that somebody, a man, was shouting – terrified. I snapped fully awake and leapt to my feet. Everybody was pressed together at one end of the room and at the far end, closest to the door, was a single man, the one who was screaming. I scrabbled to my feet as I noticed why.

The man was an Aurellian soldier, yet he had his arms stretched out in front of him, almost as if he was trying to get away from them, and to be honest I couldn’t blame him.

Because they were on fire.

In the palm of each hand sat a swirling ball of flame. He cried out for help with a wild look in his eyes and I turned to look at the other men, most of whom looked equally as scared.

Cosor: “Just calm down!” he shouted but the soldier just screamed again and now the fire grew. It leapt from his hands and struck the wall leaving two scorch marks.

Cosor: “What are you doing?”

Man: “Make it stop!”

Suddenly the fire in his right palm expanded in a bright flash and engulfed his whole arm. Where the fire in his palms seemed not to have been causing any pain, this fire clearly was. He batted at his burning arm but only made the situation worse.

We watched on in horror as the fire spread and could do nothing about it.

A shot rang out and the poor, burning man dropped dead to the ground and instantly the fires in his palms vanished, leaving only his arm burning. We all turned to see who had fired the shot and found Williams, shaking in fear, his gun still outstretched. He let it go and it tumbled from his hands as the whole room stood still in shock at everything that had just happened.

For several seconds nobody moved.

Cosor: “Everybody, remain calm.” He ordered in his quiet, calm attitude. “Hawkins, Dezharbi, please see to Mr. Colley. Everybody else is to assemble on the shop floor and prepare to move out in five minutes.”

Slowly people started to move around and follow out the colonel’s orders. The two men instructed went over and began to try and extinguish the flames and I started to unplug Tracks from the power socket.

Tank: “What the hell was that?” I muttered to Tracks as I sorted him out.

Cosor: “Rockwell.” I started as the voice came from behind me. For a big guy, he was surprisingly quiet. I straightened up and turned around.

Tank: “Sir.”

Cosor: “Do you have any idea what happened there?”

Tank: “No, haven’t a clue. With respect though, sir, why are you asking me and not your officers?”

Cosor: “Because we’re all in the same position here. None of us knew that was going to happen and none of us know exactly what *did* happen. However, you risked your life to go into enemy territory to retrieve a datapad for us. My officers hide in a computer room all day and at the first sign of trouble would probably bolt. Williams is a Lieutenant and look what he did. I know I can trust you.”

Tank: “Oh… Thank you, sir.” I hadn’t really expected that.

Cosor: “Listen, we need to get out of here. We need to get word of this to somebody who can actually do something about it. We have no communications here and trying to sneak everybody away to safety is going to take far too long. We have no idea what we’re dealing with. I need you to get out of here and find out what the hell is going on; find out if this is an isolated incident or whether this has happened anywhere else.”

I nodded in agreement.

Cosor: “Take two men with you as an escort and leave as soon as you can.”

Tank: “Yessir.”

Five minutes later, everybody was assembled on the shop floor and Cosor briefed us on his new plan. He was going to lead them even further back from the front lines and try to find some sort of active communications to call for help. I didn’t listen to the details though because I’d already got my mission.

As soon as Cosor lead everybody outside, Tracks and I, along with the 2 soldiers whom I’d asked to accompany us, split away from everybody else and we began the treacherous jog back through the bombed out East-end, heading for our distant ship.

It took us until dawn, but thankfully the journey was un-eventful. We arrived at where we had locked down the Viper and after saying our thank you’s to the soldiers, we bid them farewell and prepared for take-off.

However, seconds after I had launched the engine, a volley of shots came out of nowhere and clanged off of the hull. The two soldiers outside began firing at something behind us. I brought the Viper into a hover and began to rotate us to face our enemy, but as I did so two bursts of some sort of energy spell hit the soldiers and they exploded in ashes. I sent out a volley from the machine gun in the general direction of the attacks and then tilted us up and away.

We began to head away from the scene but suddenly the ship rocked with two blasts. I glanced in the mirror and to my horror saw that we were being pursued by two Collective fighters!

Another shot from one of their ships rocked us in the air and I did everything I could to keep us steady.

Tracks squealed mechanically.

Tank: “I know, I know, alright!”

I had to lose these fighters or we’d never make it. I aimed us ground-ward again and we headed back down towards the buildings of the city. The fighters followed us and so began the chase.

I darted between two tower blocks but the nimble Collective fighters stayed hot on my tail. I took us down as low as I dared go and we ended up zooming along at almost street level. They opened fire again and the air around us shook with the shots. People on the streets screamed in fear and I knew I had to keep them safe. I brought us up again but the ships were still on our tail. They chased us across London and I began to realise that they appeared to be trying to corral us back towards their territory.

Strangely coloured blasts started firing up at us from the ground – obviously Collective mages witnessing the chase from below.

The Shard loomed large and black, dead ahead of us and suddenly an idea struck me.

Tracks mechanically asked a question, pointing at the giant cruiser we were heading towards.

Tank: “Yes, I’ve seen it.” I replied quickly, busy concentrating on my plan.

Tank: “Come on…” I quietly egged the Collective ships chasing me. “Come on, follow me. That’s it.”

They were still hot on my tail and I was still dodging blasts from their weapons. I was also still heading straight for their landed cruiser.

We were close now. Getting closer by the second. But that was part of the plan. I knew by now what the Viper was capable of. What I didn’t know was how nimble those enemy ships were. Or how good their reaction times were. I was hoping and praying that the answer to at least one of those was ‘not very.’

Tracks shouted something that I’m pretty sure was my name and I rammed the controls, pushing us into a steep upwards arc.

One of the enemy fighters reacted faster than the other and began to follow us, but the other was no so quick and ploughed straight into the side of their own cruiser in a fiery explosion.

Tank: “Yes!” I cheered.

Now I only had one to content with. But this pilot was clearly much better than the first. I knew that if I couldn’t out manoeuvre him, I was going to have to shoot him down. But to do that I needed to be behind him. And to get behind him, I was going to have to try something fancy.

Tracks whirred questioningly, worried.

Tank: “Don’t worry… I know what I’m doing.” I assured him through gritted teeth as our craft began to shake under the strain of the arc. “I think.” I added.

We had passed the top of the Shard now and were high above the city, up in the clouds, and I knew that that Collective ship was still right behind me. We broke through the grey clouds and into the light of the early morning,

And as we did so, I switched off the Viper’s engine.

Tracks squawked in alarm and very quickly we stopped heading up. Milliseconds later, still facing skywards, the ship began to fall back and we began plummeting down to Earth.

A second or two later, we fell right past the Collective ship, which was still among the clouds. As we did so, I punched the engine back into life and with a strain that made the ship rattle, we stopped hurtling towards the ground.

I lined him up and opened fire with our machine gun.

Taken by surprise, he didn’t have time to steer away and under our fire, his engine exploded and with a trail of smoke, he began the long plummet back towards the ground.

Tank: “Alright!” I grinned at Tracks, who, if he’d ben human, I’m sure would have bene mopping the sweat from his brow. “Now, let’s get outta here.”

We headed North. I didn’t want to leave our homeworld just yet, plus I needed to make some important calls about what had happened back in the shop – find out if anybody knew what the heck was going on.

When we landed in a grassy field on the outskirts of a city in what I guessed was Scotland, both Tracks and I got out to stretch our legs.

I sat on the Viper’s wing and pulled out my comlink. Typing in Gr. Grey’s number, I waited for him to appear.

Mr. Grey: “Mr. Rockwell.” He greeted.

Tank: “Hey.”

Mr. Grey: “You didn’t get back to me with regards to the package you were meant to deliver. Did everything go okay?”

Tank: “Well, not really.”

I explained everything that had happened to him, including the shield only working temporarily and then lead on to tell him about what had happened in the shop.

Tank: “Have you any idea what’s going on?”

Mr. Grey: “I’m afraid to report that, while I do not know what’s happening, reports of this sort of thing have been coming in from all over the system. My agents on various worlds have reported witnessing people, ordinary people, suddenly showing signs of strange abilities and not being able to control them. This is most worrisome indeed.”

Tank: “How? How can normal people just randomly start using, well, not using, but possessing Collective powers?”

Mr. Grey: “I do not know Tank. But The Brain is looking into it and when he finds an answer, I will be sure to let you know.”

Tank: “Does he have any ideas at all?”

Mr. Grey: “Currently, the most likely cause is that it is a virus. Some sort of bug that the Collective brought with them into our system and now ordinary people are catching it. The Brain needs to do some tests and check on some things, but it is likely that those showing symptoms have come into contact with The Collective at some point.”

Oh dear… that didn’t sound good. I’d just spent a fair amount of time at the front lines and had even gone into enemy territory and had been inside their camp!

Mr. Grey: “If I were you I would lay low for a little while and at all costs, stay away from the Collective.”

Tank: “I will do. Thanks.”

Mr. Grey: “A pleasure.”

He ended the link and I was left sitting there on the Viper’s wing, worrying that I may have caught this intergalactic space virus and that at any time, I could start showing signs of strange powers that I wouldn’t be able to control.

I hadn’t heard him get there but from behind me Tracks made a mechanical “Uh-ooooh.” Sound and I couldn’t help but smirk. I turned around and gave him a playful shove. He wandered off, chuckling and I sat there, looking out over the city towards an ancient castle on a hill at the far side.

Mr. Grey had told me to lay low until he found out the answers, but I was too impatient for that. I needed to know if I had got this space bug or not. I needed answers. At that thought I tutted aloud.

That seemed to be the story of my life. All I’d done since getting out of jail was look for answers.

I had so many questions still. In fact, I was still no closer to finding out the truth about my parent’s murders than I was when I was in jail!

But now I had this to worry about and for now, until I knew whether or not I was in the clear, this took precedence.

Wait! Suddenly I had an idea, I entered a different number into my com’ and waited.

Eris: “Hello Tank.” She greeted when she picked up.

Tank: “Hi Eris. Um, I was hoping you could help me?”

Eris: “What’s the matter?”

I explained the situation to her – about what I myself had seen and about how Mr. Grey had said similar things were happening all over. And also about how worried I was.

Eris: “Hmm… that is very strange. If there is such a bug or disease, then it is not one that we know of. It may be something created by Azgoth’s men to use in the war.”

Tank: “But if that’s the case, why is it affecting random people? Why is it not just soldiers who are experiencing it?”

Eris: “I couldn’t tell you, Tank. But I will look into it, that’s for certain.”

Tank: “Thank you.”

Eris: “You’re more than welcome. I’ll get back to you when I know more.”

Tank: “Thanks.”

The call terminated and I tucked the device back into my belt. With a sigh, happy to be away from imminent danger and knowing that I could do no more for now apart from wait, I laid back on the wing and stared up at the morning sky.

**BONUS PICTURES:**

An alternative image of them in the destroyed lobby.

The destroyed lobby set.

The basement set.

The Viper in the field.

N.B. Many thanks to Iris AD for making the Collective ship and to Joel Buchholz for allowing me to use the images of his city.

Also, the comlink call from Eris which Tank mentions near the start of the episode can be seen in full in Iris AD's Season 2 Episode 2: Destiny

As my series is going to be jumping around though time, I will include a date on each episode and add it to the timeline at the end of each episode so that you can follow it.

TIMELINE