Chapter 59: The High Rolls Massacre

Shifting the weight on her hip, Rachel tilted her head, ears raised to the ceiling as she passively scanned for where this person was nearby. She couldn’t quite place the location, but she’d heard the cadence in this person’s way of speaking recently, despite the filter.

Saint Barbara held a thoughtful note while studying the transforming avatar of the hacker. "Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Astra a Hindu word used to describe projectile weapons?"

"Oh, quite perceptive and on-point, Barb! Heh. Yes, among many other things," she chimed, the male avatar pixelating to be replaced by a female nurse, blowing a bubble. "A star, a deity, one of the four weapons that are capable of destroying a whole universe, I’m quite the firecracker! Figured something out, Rachel? Hmm?"

Rachel’s eyes widened as they darted to the left, to the break room where the nurse had earlier gone to retrieve coffee, although the connection swiftly collided with her distrust. If Astra could hack into so many devices and spy on people, she could be using the young woman to play with them. She was currently alone, casually playing with her phone.

"I’ll save my thoughts for now," she returned, keeping her posture and attitude lax.

"Boring! Know what isn’t, though? Getting my hands on this bit of information. What’s this about, General?"

Astra’s pixel art changed to a grinning little boy with devil’s horns as the screen fritzed, displaying what appeared to be military body-cam footage of a scene out of a horror movie.

Barbara grimaced, and Tom cursed. That didn’t stop Astra as more angles and recorded conversations about the incident followed. The hacker seemed to have recorded things that had been between the President and the four-star general. As if to add dramatic effect, suspenseful music was layered over the recording like some kind of movie trailer.

"What are you showing me, Tom?"

"High Rolls, New Mexico’s Crystal event. Population: 1,604, including tourists passing through."

"Casualties?"

"...1,604."

"My God. This is the worst attack on American soil since... It looks like..."

"The Scarlet Hand I briefed you on. We aren’t ruling anything out at this time. It is consistent with some of the ritualistic practices we’ve discovered thus far after raiding a few known cult associates’ homes, but it is still too early to say for certain, sir."

The President’s throat became hoarse as the images showed a shiny, black, stone-like ground in a devastated area. Occult markings were drawn all across the unnatural, rocky surface, symbols still glowing with a hellish flame.

Spiked to charred wooden stakes were the corpses of people—children, women, and men—positioned in some colossal pattern they had yet to see, skin flayed, shining with the same light as the obsidian flooring.

Somehow, they’d been entirely drained of blood and organs by the victim’s collapsed figures, the liquid being dumped inside a twenty-by-twenty centimeter ravine that ran around the entire city. Signs of vomit were seen from the soldiers while securing the area, and, by the conversations and expressions, she could see the scent of over a thousand people’s rotting innards permeating the unhallowed area.

The President coughed as the footage from a drone showed the devastated area from above, displaying a demonic decagram written in an alien language. The symbols were congruent with side-by-side comparisons to the ones made in what appeared to be Scarlet’s basement.

"General, are you telling me the Scarlet Hand and these aliens worship the same thing; are they responsible for The Oscillation? How long did it take for these aliens to do this?!"

"Less than two hours, our time."

"God help us..."

Tom’s grave tone held a deep rumble. "As of right now, I don’t know if they are connected, but what I do know is we are ill-prepared to handle the kind of powers that made this kind of attack. Color, shape, and size, among many other factors, seem to correlate to the level of firepower these Crystals will produce."

"What’s your current assessment?"

"Green is the weakest, followed by blue and purple Crystals."

"The Miami one with the toad assassins you showed me was blue? And the High Rolls’?"

"Purple...the same as the one that was recently discovered in Billings, Montana."

"Shit. The evacuation?"

"It’s already underway."

"I see that look on your face, Tom. What is this mission statement—what kind of response are you recommending—a nuke?! And to be set on a signal cut protocol—nuke our own—a US city, Tom?! Do you have any idea about the blowback we’ll get!"

"Sir..." The saliva in Rachel’s throat dried up at the general’s voice. "High Rolls... The scientists’ preliminary reports state the stone and trees aren’t native to Earth. Nothing from the settlement was left standing—the forest, buildings, goods—everything was plastered with this black stone that goes down at least five meters at the edges. We can’t cut it with diamond chisels... We’re ill-prepared for this war as it stands. Hit it with our best, and work down from there if possible."

Rachel couldn’t breathe as the President let out a tired sigh. "Haaa. How much time do we have until they come through?"

"Hard to say. We’re dealing with forces we don’t understand. If we can’t handle this in our own backyard, then the rest of the world doesn’t stand a chance."

A pause that followed was deafening before the words left the most powerful man in the world’s throat. "Prepare the nuke, and coordinate a full evacuation of the Billings area."

The devilish avatar of a little girl returned. "Chills!"

Tom’s face appeared in a window on the bottom right, eyes hard, fingers linked, and coldly staring at the screen. "Is your intention to release this to the public, thereby inciting panic and anarchy, or as blackmail?"

"What?! By no means!" The image swapped to a haloed angel boy with wings. "I had to sneak surprisingly close to Captain Saint here to get access to your private channel in order to get this information. It was really quite thrilling! No... I’m far more interested in lending you a helping hand! After all, I live in this world, too, and who doesn’t want to play a part in something this cool?"

Barbara frowned at learning the hacker had not only used her to get into the general’s heavily guarded devices but had possibly met her somewhere along the flight to Miami.

Rachel crossed her arms as the nurse got up and started exiting the room with a hum, still on her phone. The lunar hare kept close track of her movements through the halls and the passing comments she made to others.

"You hinted that you have the answer as to why rescuing the fairy is so critical. Care to enlighten us?"

"Before that, Rachel, I found this part of your interview with Doctor Richard quite enthralling... Private military?" A wicked grin lit the angel’s face. "The general was thinking the same thing, considering the threats the world is now facing with these invasions. Isn’t that right, Tommy?"

The man didn’t twitch at her provocation as he bluntly stated, "I assume you already have my conversation with the President."

"Tee-hee. This one?"

A new recording played in the background. "There’s going to be an arms race between all the nations regarding these people with powers, and we’ve already seen what low-level thugs and criminals can do. We need to act fast so we don’t alienate them. We can’t fight a war on multiple unknown fronts."

"Tell that to Congress and the Senate," the President snarled. "Senator Benjamin’s mother was murdered in the Seattle Vampire Massacre, and we still haven’t been able to locate him after the slaughter. I’m getting heavy opposition, and all of the negative press on mythickin and legendkin isn’t making it easier."

"I have a few groups across the United States—and outside of it—I can pull in to provide a more positive light, but I need more time to vet them. Fable is at the top of the list, and they’re also verifying a few things you’ve mentioned...some things you’ve said are new to me, though.

"If this leveling system is legitimate, we’re looking at individuals that could be at the level of a nuke or greater in time... We have to get ahead of this now, and with the introduction of gods and goddesses..."

"One thing at a time, Tom—ugh. Everything we know about the universe was just pulled out from under our feet. Now the UK Prime Minister is blowing up my phone, demanding answers as to the giant tree growing outside of his window that the CIA director is telling me was created by the US ambassador’s daughter!"

Astra giggled as the recording cut. "I quite enjoyed that last part. Well, General, now that I have your attention, want to know what I think as a master of the web, considering I likely have far more information than you?"