Solflare: The Painter's Secret-Chapter 94: First Task: Survive the Landing

A soft chime from the wristband hummed in the air as a holographic display flashed above it: Transport ready. Proceed.

Leon’s stomach churned as the door he entered through sealed behind him.

He bent down, snatched the black book he had unintentionally dropped from the floor, and clutched it to his chest like a shield before stepping forward.

Another door slid open as he approached, showing him the outside view. There, two figures waited, clad in the same black bodysuit as him, but theirs had a sharp, silver insignia stitched over the left shoulder.

They wore full helmets with mirrored visors that reflected the dying light and Leon’s own face back at him when he looked at them.

"Follow me," one of them said and gestured at Leon.

Leon took a steadying breath and stepped out of the airlock. A faint metallic tang flew across Leon’s face as he followed them and descended a ramp that had carvings all over.

The ramp led them into a vast shelter, and in the center was a space vehicle that made the MRAP look like a child’s toy.

The vehicle was a sleek, angular craft of about fifty feet long, spearhead-designed to pierce the sky.

As they neared it, a ramp descended from its belly with a hydraulic hiss. Pisssss.

The two guys wearing the helmets stopped at its base in unison, their boots clicking together. They placed their hands stiffly at their sides, like soldiers at attention.

"You board alone," the one who gestured said in a flat voice.

’Alone?’ Leon blinked twice and tore his gaze from the impassive visors and looked up the ramp into the dark maw of the craft.

Leon’s heart hammered against his ribs as he forced one foot in front of the other. He wrapped his fingers around a cold metal handrail and used it to pull himself up.

When the ramp moved upward, the interior of the craft was a reinforced alloy wall, a few empty harness seats bolted to the floor, and at the far end was a single central chair facing a large viewscreen.

As the ramp sealed behind him, the cabin plunged into darkness. There, the central chair pivoted silently on its base and turned to face Leon.

’Is someone in that chair? Or is it just moving on its own?’ Leon’s mind froze when he saw a figure sitting calmly in it.

His mind replayed all the faces from the hospital; then, in the fraction of a second, the face of the doctor that screamed at him landed hand in hand with the face of the man in the chair.

Now, the man looked utterly different. He wore a version of the black suit, unadorned, which seemed to blend him into the shadows of the chair.

"Sit," the man said in a commanding tone and gestured at the empty harnessed chair.

"You’re the one who turned a nurse to skeleton and rebuilt the dead boy’s body, right?" the man said in a clinical tone. "I am Lieutenant Prince. You will refer to me as such."

Before Leon could process the name or the bizarre shift in the man’s expression, the spearhead shuddered.

The force threw everything aside, including Leon from his seat. His shoulders smacked hard against the cold alloy wall; a burst of pain snaked down his joints.

The black book tumbled from his grip and skittered across the floor.

Lieutenant Prince didn’t flinch. He simply watched Leon’s clumsy struggle and the faint, gold-tinged glow that had flickered over the knuckles of Leon’s black gloves when he braced against the wall.

"Interesting," Prince murmured, "an autonomic response to threat. Just like you used." He gave a grim nod, then gestured to one of the harness seats bolted to the wall. "Strap in there. Or the next jolt will paint you across the ceiling."

The ship banked sharply as if emphasizing his point and threw Leon sideways.

Leon scrambled on hands and knees, the world tilting, and finally lunged for the offered seat. He fumbled as well with the harness buckles with his clumsy fingers.

Lieutenant Prince kept his one hand resting calmly on the arms of his chair, observing Leon’s struggle without offering any help.

He brushed a finger at his lips the moment Leon managed to snap the final buckle. "Congratulations on making me look unfit for my post," he said in a voice devoid of warmth.

"Now, you and I are assets. One that will likely try to kill the other when this is done."

After a few minutes, the viewscreen in front of Prince flickered and resolved into a tarrying image. It showed they were plunging toward a massive, serpentine canyon ripped through the earth like a god’s claw mark.

And swarming up from those depths were creatures that were larger than any Leon had ever seen before, their carapaces an iridescent black that also seemed to drink the light.

"The spearhead won’t land at any destination," Prince stated, his eyes locked on the swarm. "The first task is to survive the landing. Then, reach the rendezvous point marked on your wristband."

’Survive the landing, how?’ Leon’s eyes widened as he stared from the swarming horrors on the screen to Prince’s impassive face.

Prince tapped his own wristband. And on the viewscreen, a single pulsing green dot appeared. "The local fauna appear... motivated."

A harsh, mechanical hiss erupted from beneath them as a seam of brilliant white light cut across the floor between Leon and Prince. It kept widening rapidly into a rectangular opening.

Roaring winds and a chorus of chittering screams flooded the cabin.

"Go!" Prince shouted.

’What the fuck! What if I die?’ Leon screamed in his thoughts. His throat went dry as his legs felt like pillars of stone, refusing to move.

"Nah, I am not jumping," he said in a voice that got lost in the wind. "So long as this craft is still hovering, I can just stay in it."

As soon as his voice faded, a piercing electronic alarm blared through the cabin with flickering red light, staggering his heartbeat.

Pee! Pee! Pee!

"Three seconds to blast," the AI voice from his wristband intoned calmly.

Leon clawed at the harness and then hurled himself out of the seat toward the screaming, light-filled void.

He tried to scream as he fell, but the rushing air stole his breath away.

The world turned into a tumbling blur of purple sky and jagged stone. With shrieks, the creatures adjusted their swarm and dove, their limbs reaching for the small falling figure.