H.O.M.E. 19
by
Fin
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"This is Cloud Giant to Golden Goose. Over!"
"I repeat. This is Cloud Giant to Golden Goose. Can you read me?"
"James, I said I wouldn't be using your new pet names," said the blonde clone as he hid in an abandoned alley of Outer Ring City.
"These aren't pet names Sammy. They are in case anyone is listening to our transmissions," responded his brother soldier boyfriend somewhere from the roofs above.
"Well in that case dude, I doubt it matters," replied the boy into his earpiece. "No one can really tell us all apart anyways."
Sammy leaned out around the corner of the alleyway to take a glance at the Umon assembly area filled with hundrends of identical copies of himself of various different ages.
It was almost time.
The others had already joined the staging area before him, filing in one by one separately as to not arouse suspicion. The lad would be the last to be joining the group, and had stayed behind to make sure all made it into the crowd of Umon clones successfully.
The Blades had been conducting reconnaissance for several days now, observing The Council's actions at several of these assembly areas before being willing to send in any agents of their own. The issue however was that after a certain quota of Sams had arrived at the drop off location, the aliens would escort them somewhere underground out of sight. And what happened after that was unfortunately largely still unknown.
Sammy had tried to question some of his returning siblings surreptitiously as they left the restricted area. All however seemed to be suffering from sort of amnesia and could not remember any specific details on their experience. While this alone was nearly bad enough for Franklin, code named Bean Magic, to force an abort to the mission, the exact same amount of clones returned to the exact same area each and every time. This meant none were being held indefinitely by The Council somewhere else, and eased some of the tension that any boys sent in would not be returning.
Additionally, on Bean Magic's behest, Slim conducted one of his biocellular scans of one of these returning lads, snatching him into a darkened sidestreet of the city. When the Slime Lord, code name Goat's Milk, had not found evidence of any new Fever contagion, or actually anything wrong with the clone at all besides his missing memory, the greenlight for the mission was finally given.
Operation Being Stalkers was a go!
Sammy and his twins from The Exo Club were to infiltrate The Council's facility, avoid whatever mind blanking technology was being used on the clones, and return back to their comrades to inform them of anything and everything they had seen while underground. No one was comfortable with the risks they were about to take, but if The Blades and co. wanted to learn the secrets the rulers of Outer Ring City were hiding, it still seemed like their best shot at such a discovery.
"Alright, I'm about to head in."
"Come back to me in one piece Golden Goose."
"I'll do my best you weirdo."
Acting as casual as he could, in the least subversive spy like manner the lad could imagine, Sammy joined his brothers in the cordoned off area across the street. The clones that belonged to his group were all wearing earpieces disguised as jewelry, not only to communicate to each other quietly, but also just tell each other apart from the rest of the amassed identical servants.
"Alright, can you all read me? I've made this frequency just for us," said Sammy to his friends.
A chorus of affirmatives responded.
"Wait. We aren't going to be use our code names?" asked one.
"As if! We aren't like some freaks or anything," replied another.
Another chorus of unanimous agreement from the clones rang in all their ears.
It was only a few minutes later that a set of Council guards arrived to escort the boys to their next destination. Eyeing the armed alien soldiers at the entrance to the stairwell, Sammy briefly felt some mild trepidation at how much under he was about take on. But fear was not the most natural companion to his Blade DNA, and soon the boy was marching down into the darkness, success of his mission paramount in his young mind.
Unfortunately the journey inside the ring itself was longer than any had wanted it to be, and the boys had lost communication with their eyes and ears on the surface almost immediately. It would just be them from here on out, and every step further into the black took them farther and farther away from the hopes of any successful rescue if needed.
"How much further is it?" whispered one.
"Something is wrong. I know it," said another.
"Quiet all of you," ordered Sammy under his breath. "We stay on target. Remember we have each other."
"Sir, yes Sir! Golden Goose Sir!"
Hushed giggles from them all.
Eventually the mass of clone boys reached the bottom of their long spiral descent, a massive chamber embedded deep within The Core. None had ever seen anything like it. In fact few in Outer Ring City ever had. Whatever The Council had decided to hide down here, it had stayed that way for as many Cycles as it had been locked away.
"Alright slaves. Listen here," said a huge oblong red beast. "You have one task, and one task only."
Walking to the closest wall of the huge circular dome the alien began again.
"You are to place your hands against the metal, and leave them there until you are told."
Sammy had no idea what such an act could possibly do, but their next course of action was abundantly clear.
"Everyone know the plan now?" he asked his young comrades.
"Don't touch the wall," was the correct answer he heard back in his ear.
The hundreds of clones were then arranged along the outside circumference of the room, most of them immediately resting their palms against the silver smooth surface of the chamber. Sammy and his co-conspirators however only mocked such actions, letting their hands hover just inches from the metal they were supposed to touch.
"What do we do now?" questioned one as he stood still in place beside the rest.
"We wait," answered Sammy, unsure of what was to actually happen next.
If any of the boys though had wondered on the wisdom of avoiding contact with the gigantic metallic hemisphere they now stood inside, such thoughts were laid to rest as some sort of electric current began to run through the clones whom had.
Standing with their hands pressed against the walls as ordered, these Sams started to vibrate in the darkness, their eyes lidded but moving rapidly underneath.
"What's happening to them?"
"Better yet, what's that sound?"
"Look... at the center of the room!"
The chamber echoed with a deep rumble as out from the flat surface of the floor rose a gigantic metal spike. The gleaming shaft spiraled upward as it grew, seemingly as if from sheer magic.
Sammy was astounded. This was what they were doing down here!?
The huge silver spire rose steadily above them all, entering the tunnel in the ceiling from which they had all descended. Whatever its true purpose, the construction of such obelisk was clearly the reason why the clones were brought here. The Sams were being used to manipulate the foundation of the ring itself!
The undercover boys watched the magnificent sight in awe as the metal spike continued to rise toward the surface of Outer Ring City above, far into the darkness out of sight The team had discovered what they had hoped to find down here! But that success did not stop at least one of them from searching for more answers if there any left for him still to find.
Seeing a small black opening in the surface of the room nearby, Sammy made a break for the hole when next the guards were not looking. In the narrow passageway beyond, a mess of tangled cables and rods weaved through the maintenance corridor, the likes of which were of a technology the boy had never seen. Careful to avoid contact with any of their glowing surfaces, the lad crawled on his hands and knees deeper into the unknown beyond.
Finally the cramped hallway ended in some sort of dimly lit exterior antechamber. Slowly making his way forward into the black as best he could manage, Sammy however saw nothing of immediate use. Then his foot catching something obscured by the darkness below, the boy tripped unceramoniously, sprawling haphazardly onto the floor.
Whatever it had been however, enganged some sort of holographic display that lit the room immediately. And what the lad saw next sent a horrific chill up his spine.
The blonde boy was surrounded by a mass of pale skeletons.
And to his ever widening and fearful eyes a video next began to play.
"Hello those of you watching in posterity!" said a beaming Umon in a white labcoat. "This is the live recording of the inaugural firing of The Stellar Engine!"
Applause from the hologram echoed throughout the still room.
"With the energy soon under our command, no generation will ever lack of a want again!" called out the man to an audience of fellow scientists. "I want to thank you all for your tireless labor that has made this miracle ours!"
Hoots and hollers sounded once more.
"Doctor, if you would please do the honors," said the hologram with a smile.
More enthusiastic cheers.
More endless applause.
But when nothing seemed to eventually occur at all... their sound slowly faded.
The man then looked off frame of the recording to his coworker nearby, a look of puzzlement crossing his exuberant features for only but a moment, before the video went white with static... leaving only their remains illuminated in the darkness of the present.
The blonde boy was left shaking.
It could not be. It just could not be!
It was a truth too incomprensible to even consider. To even think! But somehow the evidence was still there lying dead in front of his eyes, their ghastly skeletons frozen in place forever.
Somehow in someway... The Idiots had been human...