Chapter 2: Crime and Punishment

Saying it was chaos would be an understatement. Projectiles, fire, and lasers were launched continuously between the quadrupeds and whatever was on the other side of the portal. The machines were being focused individually as they evaded enemy fire while the air was filled with small drones assisting by making repairs. I had to roll out of the way and hide before they determine that I was a threat.

Meanwhile the Exo left behind was busy corrupting the storage systems and uploading a virus meant to wreak havoc on any hardware it encountered.

The Cardinal and his men made it to their vessels and were on track to the surface. An incoming signal was sent to his ship.

"Father, I don't think the structure will last any minute longer, but the corruption protocol is about finished," the Exo stated as he drew his rifle and started shooting control panels.

"Good, hurry and head to the rendezvous point and we'll extract you. The strike force is on their way with a nuke to insert as we speak."

"Also there's been a development, you should be receiving video feeds from the drones now," the Exo continued to race towards the decompression chamber leading to the launch rooms.

Moreau glanced at his video feed and smiled. He then contacted the Salvage team and gave them their new mission.

<Damn, I need a weapon, > I thought.

I took cover behind a burnt metallic corpse of a quadruped. My eyes turned white as I located and determined how the portal is tied to reality; I then decided to summon my favorite badass weapon. A few seconds later, an object fell and embedded itself right in front of me. I grasped the hilt and pulled Excalibur out the floor. Wielding it alone calmed my nerves and gave me the confidence I needed to see this through.

Now, as everyone can guess already, I'm not the brightest bulb around. Where does the sword descended from? I've always seen it fall from the sky in the past. Now imagine you're in a research laboratory 5 miles underwater and something pierced itself through the hulls. As I ran behind the portal to severe its connections to reality, everyone was immediately subjected to the incredible amount of pressure outside. Excalibur managed to do its job right as water burst through and everyone, men and machine were crushed.

"Corpse recovered from the site floating at ... hours, oh my g ... he's ... alive!"

"Good, tell Dr. Fer ... that I have a live ... for him to play with."

I continued to slip in and out of consciousness. I once woke up and saw a white room with technicians setting up a large machine beside my bed and men in white robes standing at the back watching.

A doctor began talking, "He's awake but won't be able to respond. It's amazing to watch his body heals itself, if we can somehow copy this over to our men, think of the possibilities."

A voice in the back asked, "So about when do you think he will be able to stand trial?"

The doctor scratched his beard and thought, "I would like to give him a week but in his condition ... two days probably."

<Shit, > I groaned before passing out.

August 30, 2031 Private French Villa

Cardinal Moreau stepped inside his private conference room and secured the entry.

He sat down and sighed as he ruminated, <I would skip if only His Holiness had not insisted on this meeting. I wonder how much longer I'll last, here, before they'll retire or transfer me. God, I miss those days hunting down heretics.>

He began to reminisce his glory days when a voice spoke out, "All participants are present, ten seconds until the meeting begin."

The screens came to life as each showed different bishops with a large screen centered displaying a tired looking man in his nineties. He began, "Let's get this over with. Moreau begin with your reports."

"Yes Father," Moreau said as he begins selecting video clips. "We only have about a minute of footage before the structure collapsed. Our techs have predicted that our dogs would've held off any entry through the portal until our strike force arrives. As you can see our dogs performed admirably and we were glad that we took extreme heat into account during combat."

The clip continued playing to the end. "We have confirmed that the portal is no longer there. We believe that the person you saw in the clip is the survivor we have hospitalized," Moreau then sat upright and leaned forward, "Also recovered from the site was Excalibur."

The participants frowned and one asked, "You assured us that our vault is impenetrable in the past."

"It is, according to our records, Excalibur is the only weapon that has been misplaced since storage. This is the eighth time we have retrieved the sword," Moreau paused then continued, "The mere presence of the sword, along with Dr. Fermi's reports, leads us to believe this man is The Heretic."

The others began discussing among themselves when His Holiness spoke up, "Tell me Moreau, how you planned to close the portal? Your team carried none of the fabled weapons from the vault."

Moreau explained slowly, "I am trying to set a precedent for my successors. It is my belief that we should rely on technology instead of pagan artifacts to accomplish our missions. Saying that, my plan was to shove a nuclear warhead through the portal and remotely detonate it."

Cardinal Farkas immediately shouted, "ARE YOU SERIOUS? THAT'S THE WORST IDEA EVER! We know little of what the other side is capable of, maybe they could've cleaned up or contain the fall out and radiation. Portals were never closed before using brute force or explosions!"

"That's a lot of maybe's there. We won't know until next time. Now I vote that we should place The Heretic under your care Farkas after his trial. Does anyone disagree?"

None objected and they continue to argue over other issues. Ten minutes later His Holiness interrupted, "I'm sorry to cut my participation short but I have an appointment coming soon. Before I go, how long do you guys think the next portal will appear?"

Farkas answered, "If there are no surprises, I would say we put the Capitalist research back about five years in this area. If they attempt again."

"Start working on a media campaign to knock them down a peg," His Holiness signed off with. The meeting ended a minute later with the participants exhausted.

Moreau left the room and started walking to his basement. On the way he passes by several guns, swords, and other weapons on display cases along with trophies. No furniture or decorations could be seen with the exception of a painting of an angelic warrior striking down a demon. His windows were blacked out and no conventional forms of entertainment were present. After his palm was read, the basement door opened, beckoning him down a set of stairs. He walked to a room filled with large freezers and opened one.

He reached in and retrieved a bag containing a skull. <Hello old friend, > he smiled as he relived their last encounter.

September 1, 2031

I woke up when the doctor stabbed a needle into my left shoulder.

"What was that?" I whispered. Since I've been sleeping so much, my mouth was dry and had trouble speaking. Dr. Fermi replied, "Just a poison we custom made to counter your body's unique healing capacity. We'll apply the antidote once we're done with you to make sure you don't go disappearing on us."

I wasn't sure if he was telling the truth but he wasn't smiling when he slowly poured water down my lips and left the room. A party of soldiers in huge suits entered and stationed themselves around the room, followed by a group of old men in white cloaks.

One man stepped forward and asked, "Where did your order go in 2012?"

I stared at him in confusion, "What are you talking about? I was borne in 2012; I don't remember any 'order', much less anything."

He frowned and continued, "How did you come in possession with that sword we found near you? In fact, how did you gain access to that lab?"

I closed my mouth and started thinking. At this point my left shoulder started itching but I just ignore the sensation. "I would like a lawyer now."