Play Testers Wanted Pt. 05

The Storm Sisters were sleeping. We were tethered together in a triangular pattern and I tried to keep us from drifting while they rested. I meditated and that kept me sane and refreshed. During one of my slow soft bursts of movement I spied it, a structure at the edge of my vision. I fought the urge to holler and wake the sisters. They would need all their energy for this last jaunt. I just hoped there would be a portal within to let us escape this cruel realm. It felt like my nerves were constantly on edge and it was just getting worse. I remained strong for the Storm sisters as much as for myself. The lack of a sense of up or down wasn't helping the situation either. I ached to feel the earth beneath my feet. My patience was rewarded when first Susan and then Jennifer woke up.

"It's huge!" Jennifer exclaimed when she saw the structure.

"I thought you already knew that." I said causing her to look below the gravity belt. "Gotcha!"

"Hey, I looked too." Susan snapped not wanting to be left out as sibling rivalry almost hit a fevered pitch.

"I meant both of you." I added trying to keep things tranquil. "Have you seen anything like it before?"

"The pillar on the far right, it is missing. It has to be the one that struck our ship all that time ago." Susan stated as she formed the field around us, and I propelled the three of us towards the cyclopean building. It felt like forever to reach the structure. It just kept on getting bigger and bigger. In form it was roughly a massive stone cube though none of the sides were flat or smooth. It looked as if the architect had taken six identical disks and placed them with the flat sides facing one another. Beneath those disks was the connecting foundation and above a massive dome. Thrust out of the top of the dome was a gently sloping tower that was wide at the base and narrow at the top. The tower had four perturbances that formed the exterior that appeared as a cross when seen from above. Six towers in all and all identical.

"I've never seen anything like it." I exclaimed.

"How big do you think it is?" Susan asked and Traci gave us the answer.

"It is just over twenty kilometers across and roughly the same on all its sides making it a massive cube."

"Who could have made it?" Susan asked.

"It must have taken centuries to build something this damn huge." Jennifer hypothesized.

"More of the writing just like that on the dagger." I noticed. "Be on your guard. I imagine this place will be hostile to intruders."

"No need to warn us Ghost. This place gives me the creeps." Jennifer assured me.

We landed at the top of the only steps not protected by a forcefield. They appeared to lead into the structure. A thrum of power could be felt through our feet. The place was coming alive. The signal that had brought us here stopped and something new began. The place was far from pristine and showed signs of attempts to enter it. Ancient carbon scoring from energy weapons darkened the steps and some of the pillars just inside the opening. There was other stranger damage that had nothing to do with weapons. I spotted two circular bases that could have held colossal statues and only the pale outline of the heroes feet remained. Something wasn't right here but that thought was interrupted.

"Why do you hide your face child?" A booming voice asked. "Are you hiding among the lesser races? Are you on a mission? Reveal your true face or are you ashamed of your people?"

"What is it saying?" Susan asked as I removed the Helm of Anubis and revealed my true self to them for the first time ever.

"This place was built by the Dark Elves, my people." I said desperately afraid the sisters would flee in panic or anger. I misjudged them horribly.

"Damn," Jennifer purred. "I thought your disguise was handsome, but I much prefer your real face."

"I concur with my sister's assessment." Susan said with a smile.

"Much better!" The voice declared. "Never feel ashamed to let your superior beauty shine through."

"How long have you stood watch over this place?" I asked slipping into the language of the dark elves.

"Time flows differently here than in our home realm of Svartalfheim. In the reckoning of our people it has been over ten thousand years since I was constructed and shifted to this desolate place. The war with Asgard was going poorly and I was secreted away. With your help I will return to my place of origin and take you and your slaves with you."

"What did he say?" Jennifer asked.

"He has the capability to shift this place and us with it back to the real universe. Oh, and he thinks you are my sex slaves." I added the last as a joke, but they decided to play the part to humor the Svartalfar A.I.

They each took a side and fawned over me in front of the machine intelligence to keep up appearances. I was concerned at the blatant lie told by the A.I. This place was crafted of stone from the Negative Zone, so why did it claim to have been crafted in Svartalfheim? Something else was going on here.

"It is good that they understand their place. Now hold up the weapon so that I may bond it to you as is the custom of our people." The voice demanded in its unwavering authority.

"I just acquired the dagger." I said but it didn't reply. "I hope this is the weapon he means."

I put my lightsaber away and equipped the dark elf dagger. I drew it from its sheath and the voice returned.

"A proper blade for a Master of Shadows. Hold it high that I might smite it and awaken its full potential." He said. "Tell the slaves to stand well back or be damaged."

"Move back and quickly." I said as I strode into the colossal entry chamber. I spied a shimmering mark on the floor and took my place on that spot. "Strike and strike true!"

Energy welled up below me and I was lifted as the air crackled with power. I thrust the dagger skyward and bolts of dark energy crashed into the weapon and into my body. The paralysis was complete as I was caught up in the center of the storm. I now knew what it might feel like to grab an electrified fence. I squeezed my eyes shut for fear of them popping out of their sockets. I held back the scream as long as I could. I was lost in the blend of pain and euphoria. At first, they were separate but after a while they blended and were indistinguishable from one another. I blacked out.

"What the fuck hit me?" I cursed as I slowly sat up. I was naked and holding the knife. "No!" I screamed before I checked my inventory and found that my equipment was okay it had only been deselected. "That scared me."

"You survived." The A.I. said and it didn't sound very happy about it. "How did you survive? They aren't supposed to survive! When I was built, they told me, no one survives the test. No one could possibly endure that amount of dark energy."

"Fuck you buddy!" I screamed. "I did survive now get us the hell out of here!"

"No. I'm not going." It whined. "I like it here. I'll send you back if you want but I am staying right here."

"That's fine. I want a look at the archives before we leave though." I demanded. "I want to know about my people and their culture. I'm an orphan you see."

"Boo-fucking-hoo." The A.I. chastised me. "You are the member of a race on the edge of extinction. Get over yourself."

I laughed while I dressed. I told the Storm Sisters what the machine had said as they approached me. They filled me in on what had happened when I lost consciousness. The machine had roared when I survived the initial test and blasted my unconscious form three more times until the lights dimmed and the power below faded. It had done its best to kill me and failed.

"Motherfucker!" I roared as the culmination of my attempted murder, the time we had spent in the Negative Zone, and the A.I.'s piss poor attitude got the better of me. "Traci, get 'em! Hold no punches."

"Yes Master!" Traci growled.

"I want every ounce of technical data you can get from that sorry son of a bitch!" I ordered.

The battle happened in machine time or I guess for flesh and blood folks ultra-slow-motion bullet time. For the A.I.s it probably felt like a knock down drag out, but for us it was less than a minute. I learned from Traci afterwards that there was a severe difference between the mind set of humans and dark elves. The one aspect was this, when they designed and programmed their artificial intelligences, they were slaves to the will of their masters. Human A.I. are born to learn and grow but remain loyal to their creators. That freedom of learning allowed a mere human construct to defeat one that had existed for thousands of years. She began with language files primarily their spoken and written tongue Shivaisith. There were two other languages one was used only during times involving rituals or among nobles of the Svartalfar. The last was their mathematical dialect that was base twelve and had strange notions that would take time for Traci to decipher.

"I feel damn sexy now!" Traci declared speaking fluent Shivaisith. "Rolls off the virtual tongue like a freshly sucked cock!"

"What did she say?" Susan asked smiling. "It sounded dirty to me."

"It was." I assured them. "It was."

"I feel left out." Jenn pouted.

"I could offer sexy subtitles." Traci declared and I chuckled.

"Sure. What the hell." I laughed. "Traci is offering sexy subtitles if you want them."

The twins readily agreed to them. Traci downloaded a quick translation program to their HUDs. Traci played tour guide using the information she had gleaned from the dark elf A.I. As the minutes ticked by, we explored the first floor of this monumental structure. The sheer size and scope of it was astounding. It far surpassed human engineering and was a glorious testament to the Dark Elves or whoever had really built this place. It was a pity they were bent on returning the universe back to a shapeless, lightless void. I almost regretted choosing them as a race to play. If I hadn't, I never would have experienced this, so I let go the angst and embraced the beauty around us.

"There it is again!" I said spotting the blatant dark elf runes.

"There is what again?" Jennifer asked.

"Those characters are so large and obnoxious. It doesn't fit the sleek and elegant nature of the dark elf culture. It comes off as vulgar and in your face." I stated and explained that it looked more like graffiti than anything else to me.

Traci informed me that she had cracked the mathematical language and was able to make sense of the files, enough so to allow her to render them in drawings and schematics that could be explored later. She downloaded the whole of the archive into the vibranium weave of my armor to be examined later. Unfortunately, it would take a hundred years to find equivalents available to human technology to utilize those ideas. In game terms, no fucking way was I walking out with Asgardian level technology. I accepted that fact. It would spoil the game. I did however get access to the facility's armory. Among the files was a map of the structure. I guided the way and pointed out other chambers as we passed them.

"Your people had a thing for war." Jennifer commented after we passed the fifth training center.

"Traci?"

"Yes Sir." She replied.

"What kind of training facilities did they have?" I queried.

"Much was done one on one initially. However, after the last terrible battle between Bor of Asgard and Malekith they were forced to train with holographic masters. The greatest of their race recorded sparring routines as well as interactive sequences using isolated A.I."

"Did you manage to snag any of those?" I asked hoping I had a training montage in my near future.

"I did indeed. It was the first files I, as you put it so eloquently, snagged." She stated and I felt like a kid before Christmas.

"How is the Svartalfar A.I. doing?" I asked not wanting any nasty surprises.

"I relocated him to an isolated portion of your armor until a suitable data crystal can be located." She explained. "Besides, I want to examine his coding to see if I could improve my own fine self."

The armory was nearly as large as the entrance chamber. The roof was far taller, and it needed to be. Set along the walls of the room were nine dark elf war mechs. The battle machines were a hundred feet tall and held a crew of three through a neural interface according to Traci. They could, if an emergency arose, be piloted by a single elf but the strain was often fatal.

"Why the hell didn't they use these against the Asgardians?" I asked looking up at the sleek war machines. "They are so slim and nimble looking. There is nothing blocky or awkward about these things."

"The suits were still under development and tended to kill their pilots as often as win the small skirmishes where they had been battle-tested. They were set aside until time could be taken to fix the design flaws."

"Let's see what we can take with us." I said as I looked at the armory's inventory. "Dark Light Rifles... wraith blade... assorted armor types light, medium, and heavy protection... Event Horizon Grenades, those sound nasty." I muttered as I read the warning.

Use of this device will earn a player a black moral penalty. In other words, if I used it, I would go from gray to black in a single action. I would become a villain. I left them the hell alone. I felt bad enough about killing that insect guard I wasn't going all out dark side. I did take a couple of the rifles, if only for Shuri to have something to examine and break down and tinker with. I also took one set of each armor type. Who knew maybe they might come in handy? Once I got back to the tower, I could display them in my trophy room.

I equipped the wraith blade, since there was only one of them, and gave it a few tentative swings. Its design was different than the dagger and felt strange to the touch. The craftsmanship was gorgeous, and someone had put a lot of time in designing it. The blade had a slight curve to it like a Japanese katana, and the dark gem at the cross guard wasn't just for decoration I was sure of that. I did like the way it felt in my hand and how well it performed. Worse case I use it when I create a back up persona for the game. I returned it to my inventory and caught up with the twins.

"This is as much an armory as a shrine to their skill at making war." Susan commented.

There was an undeniable beauty and elegance to everything the Svartalfar crafted. Size wasn't a limiting factor when it came to their art of war. I looked at the failed mechs and even though they were flawed they had a somber exquisiteness to them. Human tech was more driven by function than anything else. Here they demanded esthetic quality as well as lethality.

"I want to see the roof." Jennifer stated looking uncomfortable.

"There is an access point just over here. Follow me." I said and they walked behind me.

The platform was crafted from the same dark alloy as the knife in my sheath. We stepped aboard and I spoke the word for roof in Svartalfar. Susan and I sensed the forcefield when it formed around us. It was evident why when the elevator shot upward and quickly accelerated. We could see the sheer size and scale of the elven war machine. This entire structure was devoted to the birth, training, and weaponizing a massive number of troops at a time. The birthing tubes were in their thousands, as were the cryogenic sleeping coffins. There must be tens of thousands of sleeping dark elves just awaiting the call to war. On the back side of this place was the dock with dozens of warships and hundreds of fighters.

"That's our way out of here." I said pointing to one of the smaller warships.

"We just fly out of here?" Susan asked. "I don't get it."

"Nope, there is a portal that leads to our universe." I explained. "Once we are done here, we grab a ship, open the portal, and get the hell out of Dodge."

The elevator left the domed portion and we were inside the tower now. We had an unobstructed view of the Negative Zone as well as the interior of tower itself. I knew it! I thought as I spied the alien glyphs decorating the tower's interior walls.

"Stop!" I cried out and the platform stopped. "Down... slowly... stop!"

"What is that thing?" Jennifer asked as she made a disgusted face.

"If I am right, the real builders of this place. I think the dark elves discovered this place and, in their desperation, took it over as a weapons platform. Let's look." I offered and they followed me over to the mummified corpse.

"You were looking for this." Susan stated as I squatted down and examined the mummy. "What tipped you off?"

"A few things actually," I said as I dug my fingers through the cobwebs around the corpse. "First were the two bases for statues. My gut told me the statues were removed but never replaced. All the dark elf graffiti we saw all over the place. It screamed desperation and an attempt to hide the real architects of this place." I explained as I spied my prize. "Well, I'll be damned." I cursed as I held up the metal and crystal cube.

"What is it Ghost?" Jennifer asked as I stood up.

"It is a holocron, an ancient one by the looks of it." I shared as I turned it over in my hands. "It has the strange characters I spotted decorating the tower."

"He looks like he evolved from a hammer head shark." Susan said as she braved the mummy and looked over its hands, clothing, and jewelry. "See the eye stalks protruding from the side of its head. A clear sign of a hunter." She exclaimed as she gently nudged its dry lips apart. "Yep! See the serrated teeth, clearly a meat eater or omnivore. The dryness of the zone preserved him perfectly. Can I keep his rings for examination? I'll give them back when I'm done. I'd like to see what kind of alloys and gems they found valuable."

"Look at you," I said smiling. "That keen mind of yours at work. I am so happy to see you both doing so well, considering."

"For what it is worth," Jennifer growled eagerly. "Once we get to the ships, I'll fly us the hell out of here no problem."

"I have every faith in both of you." I praised them and their moods improved despite the effects of the Negative Zone. "Let's get out of here."

"Roof first, then we leave." Jennifer demanded.

I relented as we returned to the travel platform and continued slowly to the roof. I had Traci scan the characters on the walls until she had a complete alphabet to work from.

"We are here!" Jennifer cried out as the elevator stopped and the half-mile roof spread out around us.

"Look!" Susan gasped as she pointed above us.

"Not too bad." I said as they attacked.

Jennifer and Susan knelt and removed my pants. I had almost forgot that I had promised to make love to them here before we escaped. I groaned as they shard my cock between them. Their uniforms vanished as the sent them into their inventory. I did the same. We were naked on the roof of this place dedicated to conquest. I settled a hand on each of their heads and slid my fingers into their hair and held on tight. The double dragon manifested almost without effort. Susan purred but Jennifer's reaction was far more intense.

"That was fast." Susan commented.

"MMMHMMM!!" Jennifer moaned with half the upper cock down her throat.

"She likes it rough." Susan whimpered as I tightened my grip.

"Yeah I do." Jennifer agreed. "Fuck my throat Elf Lord! Ahhh!"

I slowly rocked my hips driving both erections between their collective lips. The closer I got to my double climax the more I felt something growing in power. What was that feeling welling up inside of me as well as below us? It was the same sensation I felt when I first entered the Negative Zone. I thrust harder and the twins didn't seem to mind. I warned that I was getting close. It always felt strange when two women attack my two erections with different techniques at different speeds. I cried out as the Storm Sisters swallowed my offering greedily.