Its presence wasn’t so much “spotted” first as it was felt.

  A paralyzing terror took hold of everyone’s nerves simultaneously around the massive complex of the pillar. Their natural instincts could only so much as identify that there was something unnatural there, but otherwise were hopeless at figuring out what to do with such overwhelming neural information.

  And then after a few tense seconds, the feeling subsided and passed.

  Chatter between comms worked up into a fervor. Some claim to have witnessed an omniscient entity through a sixth sense. Others claim to have seen dimly glowing eyes that bore a hole straight through the core of their soul. All claim to have felt or seen the presence of something.

  “I can’t breathe,” chokes Calian, trembling.

  “Yeah, what was that?” whispers Reja. “You all felt that, right?”

  “Felt what?” asks Hilgo.

  “Really?” replies Vertan. “You didn’t feel that just now?”

  “You guys okay?” asks Hilgo. “I feel fine, really.”

  “Lucky!” exclaims Calian.

  “I guess I must have missed it?” says Hilgo.

  “You guess?” scoffs Vertan. “You did miss it, then! You would know right away if you felt that or not.”

  “I swear I heard a voice coming from that wall behind us,” whispers Reja.

  “Alright, that’s enough, you’re making me more scared,” mutters Calian.

  “What do you mean?” says Reja. “The thing could be anywhere.”

  “Stop.”

  “I’m just saying!”

  “Guys!” says Vertan. “We need to focus. What are we looking at, here?”

  “I don’t know what half of that stuff is and I’m not touching it,” declares Hilgo.

  “Hilgo, we still need to do something about this if we’re going to solve anything!” snaps Vertan. “We’re past playing safe!”

  “Alright, alright!” says Hilgo. “I just don’t want to accidentally blow us up!”

  “I don’t think it works like that here,” notes Calian.

  “Maybe it does with all that shit looking like that in there,” responds Hilgo.

  “Okay, so what’s the deal?” asks Reja. “We need to fix it back to the way it was? How are we supposed to do that?”

  “Do we have to?” asks Vertan.

  “What?” says Hilgo.

  “Do we have to fix it?” continues Vertan.

  “Well, yeah?” replies Reja.

  “No, I meant, all of this in here looks deliberate,” says Vertan. “Whatever it is needs the anchor to be intact for now, so why don’t we just wreck it?”

  “I wouldn’t do that,” says Hilgo. “What would the consequences of that be?”

  “Oh come on, they can send people in to fix it after,” says Vertan. “The planet’s wrecked anyway.”

  “I meant if we don’t know what we’re doing, what’s stopping us from breaking the last thread and collapsing the whole planet altogether?” continues Hilgo. “We’re the last Base standing!”

  “Oh, right.”

  “On the other hand,” adds Calian. “All this tampering and it’s still standing. So what’s really the risk of us doing the same?”

  “Right?” says Reja. “We don’t need it to work, we just need it to not implode.”

  Looking back into the machinery, Vertan struggled to comprehend and make sense of the complexity. His intuition is only able to bring him towards knowing that things shouldn’t really look the way they do, but not why. He has no knowledge nor basis as to how everything should have looked beforehand.

  Another pulse comes from the anchors, and within such close proximity, this pushes everyone back a slight bit.

  Peering closer, a thought struck Vertan. What if he could find the source of that pulse? His eyes scanning over the parts, cables, pipes, and wires, he ultimately finds nothing too substantial; the area from which it happened is too general.

  But something catches his eye.

  “Hey guys, it wouldn’t hurt if I pull just this one piece out, right?” he asks.

  “Which piece?” asks Hilgo.

  “This part, whatever it is, right here!” Vertan points out.

  “I don’t know, man!” says Hilgo.

  “I say go for it,” says Calian.

  “What is it, exactly—?” asks Reja.

  Without any more anticipation, Vertan pulls out the blocky piece of machinery. Immediately, the anchor seemed to return to a normal state of equilibrium, and different parts of it seemed to reconfigure, as though relieved of a certain pain. Climbing back down, Vertan held it up for inspection. It looked nothing like what they were familiar with, even if it could be recognizable as “technology”.

  However, just as he had thought, turning it around, he sees what he was looking for. Foreign writing. Symbols.

  “Can anyone read that?” asks Calian.

  “What language is that?” asks Reja.

  “I don’t know, looks nothing like what I’d recognize,” says Hilgo.

  “Wait, Hilgo,” Vertan realizes. “I remember now!”

  “Remember what?” asks Hilgo.

  “The same kind of symbols you saw!” exclaims Vertan.

  “Right, right,” says Hilgo.

  “You remember?” continues Vertan. “You drew those down right before we came here! From that Tank Demon we fought a few weeks ago, remember?”

  “Oh that’s right, yeah!” exclaims Hilgo.

  “Wait, that whole thing?” asks Calian. “So there’s the same thing here, then?”

  “Well I mean, isn’t this all connected anyways?” asks Reja. “What’s new about this, here?”

  “I’m not too sure, I didn’t think about it much,” says Hilgo. “I just wrote it down out of curiosity.”

  “You always overthink everything, Hilgo,” scoffs Vertan, rolling his eyes. “This is big! How are you missing this?”

  “I mean I haven’t thought of it much since I got here,” says Hilgo. “A lot has happened.”

  “Fair.”

  A beep comes through comms notifications.

  “Hold on, I got that,” says Vertan.

  “Careful, I think that’s—,” interjects Hilgo.

  Confused, Vertan sees in his HUD that the notification is coming from Hilgo’s identification. A glitch? Someone else having to borrow his suit? No matter, he picks it up nonetheless.

  “Hello?” says Vertan.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Vertan!” the voice calls back. “Are you safe? Are you alive? I got your location and I’m headed to the pillar with several others right now!”

  Vertan’s heart sinks to the pit of his stomach.

  “Vertan, are you there?”

  “I still am.”

  “Everything okay?”

  “Is that really you, Hilgo?”

  “Yes! What are you talking about? I thought I’ve lost you, I’ve been trying to get back in contact with your comms since forever. Listen, hold tight, we’re coming, Fero and Syani are with us, just—”

  “What’s the name of our homeworld?”

  “What?”

  “Say it.”

  “Ulminh! What are you talking about? Is everything…”

  Turning his head back, his heart began thumping.

  “Hilgo?” Vertan asks Hilgo in front of him.

  “Hm?” grunts Hilgo.

  “What’s the name of our homeworld?”

  “Oh, our homeworld?” says Hilgo. “What, why?”

  “Just answer the question,” demands Vertan, his breath shaking.

  “What’s going on?” asks Calian.

  “Oolmeen,” says Hilgo.

  *****

  Rushing down the hall leading the pack, Hilgo arrives with Fero, Syani, and thirteen others, rushing in to find themselves right in the middle of chaos.

  “Vertan!” Hilgo calls out. “Where are you, man?! Vertan!”

  A familiar voice screams out.

  “The rest of you help the others! Fero! Syani! Come with me!”

  The three of them rush over amidst the ongoing firefight, struggling to trace the source of the scream. Eventually at last, Hilgo locates Vertan behind one of the anchors.

  “Vertan!” exclaims Hilgo. “We’re here!”

  “Fuck!” screams Vertan. “Shit!”

  “Vertan! It’s me! It’s okay—!”

  “GET AWAY FROM ME!”

  “What are you talking about?! It’s me!”

  “How do I know that?!”

  “What’s—holy shit!”

  Hilgo covers his eyes, turning them away from the eviscerated remains of Calian and Reja smeared across the floor and walls, dripping down the railings. Syani cries out in despair at the sight.

  “I shot it and it’s not dead!” Vertan continues to screech. “I shot it and it’s not dead!”

  Gunfire continues to thunder around the chamber.

  One by one, their numbers dwindled as they each got picked off.

  “Vertan!” Hilgo shouts. “Get up! We can’t keep staying here! We’ve got to move!”

  Still trembling but regaining focus, Vertan nods profusely and stands up shakily, with Hilgo supporting him. Fero fires off desperate shots at ghosts. Syani has fallen to her knees by Reja’s head.

  A blur of motion approaches them, and in a reflex, Vertan accidentally fires off a shot, the blur appearing to take a hit. The dim trail of red instantly changes direction and velocity, heading elsewhere.

  But it had come too close and too late, and Fero had already been turned to paste on impact on the other side of the chamber.

  Together, the remaining three got up, Hilgo mostly dragging Vertan and Syani with him away from their position at the anchor. Stepping over bodies, they find a row of terminals, and take cover behind there. Perhaps the illusion of temporary safety there is more mentally acceptable than being out in the open, even if they know that they could be found regardless. They take a moment to recharge or reload their guns.

  “Shit!” Hilgo cursed under his breath. “Everyone here alright?”

  “Reja…” Syani whispered.

  “I’m alright enough,” says Vertan, catching his breath.

  “What’s happened here?” asks Hilgo. “What’s going on?”

  “It was impersonating you,” says Vertan.

  “What?”

  “That wasn’t you.”

  “What wasn’t me?”

  “It literally looked like you were with us the whole time!”

  “What are—that’s why you asked about our homeworld?”

  “Yes.”

  “Holy fuck.”

  Peering out, Syani watches the disorder continue to unfold. As though a quantum hiccup, the pillar restabilizes itself, a reverse pulse tugging them towards the pillar.

  Seemingly from nowhere, objects began sliding into existence for a moment as a consequence. A tank crashes through, crushing several people, before it falls into the abyss below with a thunderous crash. Troops of different armies spill through, in confusion and bewilderment, bearing the markings of a unit long deemed missing in action. Many either fell into the abyss below or fell to the Abomination.

  Looking into the crowds, Vertan notices someone leading the charge of his squad. His face appeared familiar, though he hadn’t seen it in years.

  Father—?

  And as soon as they had appeared, they vanished back into the chaos.

  “Vertan!”

  Vertan turns back around to face Hilgo and Syani. With a blink, he snaps back into focus.

  “Oh, right!” he exclaims. “Hilgo, take a look at this.”

  Vertan hands him the bulky piece of machinery he had recovered earlier. An overhead explosion across the chamber causes them to instinctively duck down.

  “What is this—?” asks Hilgo, examining it. “Oh, oh! I see!”

  “Yes! Do you see?”

  “It’s those symbols! The markings!”

  “The same ones on the Tank Demon, remember?”

  “The Tank Demon?” asks Syani. “What are we talking about?”

  “These kinds of symbols were found on the Tank Demon, too!” exclaims Vertan.

  “I know!” shouts Syani. “But what does that mean for us?”

  “It means we can beat it!”

  Looking around at the terminals, Vertan finds a screen flickering the diagnostics of Base Seven’s pillar. Twelve of the sixteen anchors are displaying abnormal behaviors, while the other four are either shut down or still at equilibrium.

  “Ok, I think I got it!” Vertan exclaims.

  “What is it?” asks Hilgo.

  “You see this?” Vertan points to the strange machine in his hand. “We’ve got to find things like this at every affected anchor and pull it out!”

  “Oh, got it!” exclaims Hilgo.

  “The nearest one is just up there!” says Syani, pointing to an anchor just ahead of the terminals they hid within. “I’ll make a run for it, you two stay on comms and tell me if it works!”

  “I’ll go with you!” declares Hilgo.

  “No, you two stay!” commands Syani.

  “You’re going alone?” asks Vertan. “Why?”

  “Either one of us dies, or two of us dies!” says Syani.

  “No, let me go, then,” says Vertan. “I already pulled this one out, I know what to look for.”

  “I’m going!” shouts Syani, holding back tears. “At least if I go out, I’ll be with her again.”

  “What do you mean—?!”

  Hilgo hushes Vertan.

  “Just go,” he nods solemnly. “No time.”

  Syani rushes off to the anchor, machine in hand. Quickly, she sets her helmet to scan for any similarities embedded in the anchor. After a few tense moments and narrowly dodging a flying body, she finds what she is looking for.

  “I got it!” she calls over comms.

  “Pull it out!” shouts Vertan as he watches the screen with Hilgo.

  With a mighty tug, she yanks out the machine, snapping it from its wires and cables, almost tripping backwards and accidentally dropping it over the railing to the floor below.

  “Did it work?!” Syani asks.

  Looking at the screen, they can see now that the nearest anchor had returned to an offline state and no longer reported abnormal behavior. It had gone back down to eleven affected anchors out of sixteen surrounding the pillar.

  “It did!” said Hilgo. “It worked! We have to get to the others now!”

  “Got it—!” says Syani before being cut off.

  In the distance, Vertan and Hilgo could make out bits and pieces of Syani falling down one after the other into the abyss below, her suit shredded like paper. The two lower their heads.

  *****

  The numbers continued to dwindle. Slowly, the battle began to quiet as the last survivors got picked off. Vertan and Hilgo’s discovery was easily drowned amidst the physical havoc and communications noise. The chamber had become a mess of mangled corpses, blood, and strewn equipment, but miraculously, most of the structures, pillar, anchors, and so on seems to have survived intact.

  It seemed to be rather ominously intentional.

  Racing around to each anchor, one by one, alternating between each other, Hilgo and Vertan disables each anchor, banking on the rest of the troops battling to draw out the fight away from them. Eleven affected anchors came down to nine, seven, five, three, two.

  “We just have one more!” shouts Vertan. “This is it!”

  “Let’s move!” adds Hilgo. “Let’s—wait, pull back!”

  “Why?!”

  “Pull back for now! It’s too risky!”

  “When we’re this close?!”

  “Vertan!”

  “Hilgo!”

  “Everyone’s clumped together up there!”

  “The Abomination won’t risk damaging the anchor!”

  “You’ll get yourself killed!”

  “We don’t have time! I’m going over!”

  “Stop! No! Not yet!”

  Vertan continues over in a desperate attempt to finish the job. Thinking quickly, Hilgo frantically looks around, and finds a ring portal off of a dead body. Opening it, he sets it in a secluded spot, connects it to his, and runs off to chase down Vertan, his longer legs soon catching him up.

  “Vertan!”

  “Hilgo!”

  “No!”

  A blur of motion sets in, and with the last drop of effort he could muster, Hilgo jumps and throws the ring over Vertan, transporting him back to where they were. Falling to the floor, Vertan scrambles to his feet to find a massacre before his eyes across the perimeter.

  Hilgo is beat down in the distance, and his upper body falls through the other side of the ring portal before it gets smashed.

  Hilgo’s severed upper body falls to the floor behind Vertan. Frantically scrambling over, Vertan holds him in his arms.

  An attempt at any last words dies with him in his last breaths.