dangling over the cliff. Derek was terrified, his fingers barely clasping the dangling body, his own body shaking with exhaustion. And there hovered Benzaiten...motionless, the pleasure of witnessing Derek's hopelessness coming off him in waves.
BOOM!
August plunged his fists into Derek's back, his hands sinking into the body. He sprawled his fingers open–Derek sprung alive, his chest heaving forward, his hands balled into fists as his body let off a tidal wave of sonic energy dissolving the blast, overcoming Benzaiten, shattering his mask, shredding his armor, rippling through the edifice, the glass shuddering then blowing from the panes.
Derek fell to his knees...then to the ground. August. He rolled to his back, and saw his last friend standing over him, translucent, a ghost.
"Augie, no. You can't leave me."
" Abbey's alive. I'm..." He vanished.
Blackout.
<<>>
"We should've done something." Susie. "You said it was a low security facility."
"There was nothing we could do. We had to pick our moment to go in." Dr. Farling.
"I could've smashed–"
"You wouldn't have gotten close enough. I've seen the Benzaiten's capabilities in demonstrations. We did the right thing–the only sane thing." Her voice trembled.
"Look–"
"Silence, Susie. Please..." A sniffle. "Just focus on getting us home."
Derek couldn't open his eyes. He didn't want to. He saw Augie sitting in the void before him. He smiled; August smiled back.
CHAPTER FOUR
The State of Our Great Projects
In the rear of Cassandra Farling's office, there is a metal nub on the floor attached to the base molding. Small, slim, and obscured by the shadow of a tall plant, it is nearly invisible to the naked eye. With the press of a foot, the nub activates, creating a split in spacetime, a portal to a negative space that is not here, but there. In this blackness now, Daniel Sutheford, inheritor and CEO of Hyperion enterprises, is seated, awaiting the arrival of Dr. Farling, who he assumed was informing Silby Masters and Cliff O'Brien that their presence were not necessary for this particular meeting. In the meantime, he divided his attention between the tragic events of the day and the holographic image of the news anchor giving his report:
"Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of The Great Deal, a global initiative to recover from the universal depression that ravaged both the western and eastern hemispheres..." In The Great Era, economic unions are at the forefront of worldwide politics. Centered around the theories of "Project-Based Economics" and "Web Economics," each union, a collective of governments, pooled and focused their resources around a single "futuristic" project of visionary ambition, leading to a smorgasbord of technological advances in various fields. Generally considered a success, there is still a concern, some say a paranoia, around the largely militaristic vision of the mother projects, some even fearing that the combination of economic-turned-political ties between major governments and the mass weaponizing of the projects could lead to an apocalyptic third world war.
However today, the state of the unions are stable. The solidified European Union, based in London, continues to work on The Air Naval Program, also known as Leviathan, a fleet of airborne carriers and military bases housing the leading fighter aircrafts. The once literary moors of the English countryside are now the grounds for construction, a field where Leviathan's carcasses are laid. Meanwhile, university labs continue to research the union funded project. The advances in hover technology which may allow for Leviathan's flight has already revolutionized public transportation through the creation of turbulence-reduced, fuel-efficient, superspeed hoverjets and hovermetros. As the European continent and Russia seem to have found a balance of authority that is efficient and equitable, all eyes are still on the disconcertingly quiet Germany. Tensions have calmed since the
BOOM!
August plunged his fists into Derek's back, his hands sinking into the body. He sprawled his fingers open–Derek sprung alive, his chest heaving forward, his hands balled into fists as his body let off a tidal wave of sonic energy dissolving the blast, overcoming Benzaiten, shattering his mask, shredding his armor, rippling through the edifice, the glass shuddering then blowing from the panes.
Derek fell to his knees...then to the ground. August. He rolled to his back, and saw his last friend standing over him, translucent, a ghost.
"Augie, no. You can't leave me."
" Abbey's alive. I'm..." He vanished.
Blackout.
<<>>
"We should've done something." Susie. "You said it was a low security facility."
"There was nothing we could do. We had to pick our moment to go in." Dr. Farling.
"I could've smashed–"
"You wouldn't have gotten close enough. I've seen the Benzaiten's capabilities in demonstrations. We did the right thing–the only sane thing." Her voice trembled.
"Look–"
"Silence, Susie. Please..." A sniffle. "Just focus on getting us home."
Derek couldn't open his eyes. He didn't want to. He saw Augie sitting in the void before him. He smiled; August smiled back.
CHAPTER FOUR
The State of Our Great Projects
In the rear of Cassandra Farling's office, there is a metal nub on the floor attached to the base molding. Small, slim, and obscured by the shadow of a tall plant, it is nearly invisible to the naked eye. With the press of a foot, the nub activates, creating a split in spacetime, a portal to a negative space that is not here, but there. In this blackness now, Daniel Sutheford, inheritor and CEO of Hyperion enterprises, is seated, awaiting the arrival of Dr. Farling, who he assumed was informing Silby Masters and Cliff O'Brien that their presence were not necessary for this particular meeting. In the meantime, he divided his attention between the tragic events of the day and the holographic image of the news anchor giving his report:
"Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of The Great Deal, a global initiative to recover from the universal depression that ravaged both the western and eastern hemispheres..." In The Great Era, economic unions are at the forefront of worldwide politics. Centered around the theories of "Project-Based Economics" and "Web Economics," each union, a collective of governments, pooled and focused their resources around a single "futuristic" project of visionary ambition, leading to a smorgasbord of technological advances in various fields. Generally considered a success, there is still a concern, some say a paranoia, around the largely militaristic vision of the mother projects, some even fearing that the combination of economic-turned-political ties between major governments and the mass weaponizing of the projects could lead to an apocalyptic third world war.
However today, the state of the unions are stable. The solidified European Union, based in London, continues to work on The Air Naval Program, also known as Leviathan, a fleet of airborne carriers and military bases housing the leading fighter aircrafts. The once literary moors of the English countryside are now the grounds for construction, a field where Leviathan's carcasses are laid. Meanwhile, university labs continue to research the union funded project. The advances in hover technology which may allow for Leviathan's flight has already revolutionized public transportation through the creation of turbulence-reduced, fuel-efficient, superspeed hoverjets and hovermetros. As the European continent and Russia seem to have found a balance of authority that is efficient and equitable, all eyes are still on the disconcertingly quiet Germany. Tensions have calmed since the
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