5th Column Comics: The Indigo Codex #8 (of 8)
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HMS Sussex, En-route to the Netherlands Antilles - 1942
Victoria sat in the small office, her head bowed as she waited for Major Hotchkiss to arrive for her debriefing in regards to the Ruston assassination on Pizo. She wasn't quite sure how much she should tell her superiors about the events on Stromboli, or how much they would believe.
"Sorry I'm late Agent Scahill." A voice mumbled as the major walked into the office, along with another man who Victoria didn't recognise. "Our guest here was running a little late due to problems over the Solomon Islands."
"Quite understandable." Victoria answered, as she slipped the black tablet under her files. "And that is something we need to talk about, understanding. What we found on Stromboli should never be discussed outside this room. If it were people would accuse us of insanity."
"Understood Agent Scahill, in your initial telegram you sadly reported the deaths of Sargent Gareth Williams and Herr Lykos," Hotchkiss stated, as his guest took a seat in the corner of the room, "may I ask how they died?"
"Williams was killed by a mortar strike, as for Karl, he went to finish Ruston as the volcano began to erupt..."
**
San Vincenzo, Stromboli, 1942
Thick black cables snaked over the walls, there razor tipped ends slashing across Karl's face, before warping out of shape under the sheer mental pressure his mind was exerting. With a roar that almost merged with the volcanic fury sounding around him, Karl telekinetically ripped the cables blocking his path, and emerged into the chamber where the sarcophagus stood.
"You may have thwarted my plan but I will escape this tomb." Ruston sneered as he picked up a dropped MP-38 and opened fire. With a snort of pain, Karl held out his palm and stopped the bullets, at least most of them, one solitary round stabbed into his neck, a gush of blood spraying from his wound. A sneer spread across his face Ruston advanced on Karl, his MP-38 tossed aside as he drew a dagger, the sigil of the Third Reich scratched into the blade. "Auf Wiedersehen Herr Lykos." He coughed, as he stabbed the blade into Karl's chest.
Overcome with pain Karl slammed his hands down on the floor, cracks appearing as the volcanic rock was obliterated to reveal a network of long tendrils sticking out of the bottom of the sarcophagus, the alien device held aloft over the volcanoes caldera.
"Goodbye Ingrid." Karl whispered as he hit one of the tendrils, before slipping off into the magma below, his body incinerating before it even impacted with the molten rock. Far above Ruston held onto the base of the sarcophagus, the cables on his back extending and hefting him back to the safety of solid ground. Twisting the dials on the face of the sarcophagus, he watched as the lid peeled away, his body slumping inside.
"Even if I must wait a century I will return." He announced, as the lid reformed plunging him into darkness. "And when I do, the world will tremble with fear at my second coming."
**
HMS Sussex, En=route to the Netherlands Antilles - 1942
"I see." Hotchkiss stated, as he scribbled something down. "For now Karl Lykos will be classified as MIA. So far I have heard nothing that I find unbelievable."
"I had an encounter with the artefact I mentioned in my telegram. I'm not sure how, but I saw the future, or at the very least a future, since hopefully I managed to prevent it." Victoria announced. "We were at war again, this time in a city of towers and against," she shrugged before taking a deep breath, "a host from the heavens."
"Are you sure you didn’t hallucinate this encounter?" Hotchkiss asked cautiously.
"No she wasn't, I can tell from her tone, her body language and a dozen other things that Agent Scahill believes this to be true." The visitor announced, as he got up and extended a hand to Victoria, the gesture accompanied by, "Agent Christopher Pfeifer, OSS."
"I would be more inclined to believe you if we could replicate this apparent vision you experienced." Hotchkiss sighed. "Tell me, is it possible to remove the Sarcophagus from Axis held territory?"
"No," Victoria replied meekly. "I was given a date of this war of the future. The attack comes on the 17th of September, 2017, and by the looks of it, we're not ready all because we move the sarcophagus. If that doesn't happen, we get another one hundred years to prepare"
"What can we do to ready ourselves?" Christopher asked.
"We need a plan ready to defend ourselves." Victoria answered, "We need something or someone ready to stand up with the CBTF to defend our homes. We need to build an action plan designed to stop this invasion from the skies. And most of all we need to keep it secret until the day we need to use it."
"We don't need an action plan, we need a response." Christopher replied. "And we need an archive that'll hold what that response is. It needs to be somewhere unremarkable, somewhere out of the way."
"What about Fort Indigo?" Victoria suggested, as she removed a map. "I'm visiting there after this meeting, I could find somewhere to set up a workspace and a storage facility."
"Not alone you won't, you and I have work to do." Christopher announced.
"Promise me one thing though." Victoria asked, as she shuffled her files. "Promise me that nothing will be taken off the island and that the sarcophagus chamber will remain sealed."
**
Stromboli, Italy, 1946
The M32 Recovery Vehicle smashed down the brittle rock door into the mountain, before backing off slightly. Running the steel winch cable into the volcano, the US Army engineer came to a stop as he laid eyes on the alien structure hovering over a crystal floor.
"Beautiful isn't it?" The voice of his superior General Robert Greenwood asked. "Too bad it's not the removal of crystal that we have been ordered to complete." He added, his lined face gleaming in the light shining off his medals for patriotic service.
"Where are we sending that thing too?" The private asked, as he hooked the winch onto the front of the sarcophagus.
"It's destined for a secret archive in Fort Indigo as per the orders from that guy from the OSS." General Greenwood announced, as he turned and headed out of the cavern, his subordinate hot on his heels as the winch began to turn. "If you ask me this whole thing is going to be nothing but trouble."
**
Undisclosed Location
A metal tentacle twisted the valve, the top illuminating as blue gas flowed through the pipes connecting it to the walls of the chamber. With a hiss a central tank rose from the floor, a miniature tornado revolving in the bright blue water.
"Status update?" A voice from within the tornado asked, as a ceramic cylinder mounted on several tentacles climbed up to the wall of the tank.
"The terraforming programme in the Chi Quadrant has been activated." The drone outside the tank answered as a second drone emerged.
"Systems are coming online Prime Theologian, we are sending activation signals to the rest of the fleet." The second drone announced as a pulse of gas went through the pipes, the ceramic wall of the chamber rippling before becoming transparent and revealing a field of asteroids. Seconds later several of the rocks burst open to reveal large bulbous tick like ships.
"Alert the fleet, we move on the third planet of the Chi Quadrant." The Prime Theologian inside the tank ordered. "On arrival we scuttle the ships over the position of our terraforming agent." It added as the wall returned to its opaque state. "Send a message to our mining teams and the occupation force to be ready for limited resistance from the aboriginal forces. They are no danger to us, with the Empire in ruins, there is nothing that can stop us from taking this world for ourselves."
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