Means to an End
10/2/109
“Breathe, San, remember to breathe,” the voice in her head said,
whispering in her mind. One of the hardest habits to break when
entering and exiting “ghost mode” (her favorite name for “ghosting”) was
changing breathing habits. Getting this far was easy- simple stealth,
with a few uses of ghost mode for brief periods, was enough to sneak in
to the ancient palace, one of the few in the world that had somehow
survived the Cataclysm.
Mononoke
silently cursed herself to agreeing to do this for her employer.
“Never trust those tentacles, no matter what ends it is going for in
support of you- it wants this for some nefarious reason.” She then
remembered the promise of eliminating a giant blight in the forest, and
the long term benefits to the animals.
“This is worth it, no matter what.” She steadied her breathing, and went through the walls into the catacombs.
“Oh no, this is not creepy at all,” she whispered to herself, and went
down the stairs with both pistols out. “I wonder if mummies are laser
resistant?” she thought out loud. She checked to see if the air was
breathable, and finding surprisingly that it was she took off her
helmet.
“Wow,
this place is gorgeous- all for dead people.” She knew that this was
supposedly a God’s tomb, but she did not believe in Gods. "This was a
lot of time spent on a myth. Osiris worship must have been a really big
deal.
“See
San, bringing your enviro suit is going to come in handy- whatever is
blocking that circular staircase sure looks nasty.” Mononoke plunged
into the poisonous liquid, coming after moments into a new room- blocked
completely by walls, decorated with scenes of ancient Egyptian Gods.
She looked for the picture that her employer had said the target was
behind.
Bowing with a flourish at the wall in front of her, Mononoke entered
ghost mode again, saying, “Secret entries bypassed at will- nothing
stops me!”. Saying that, she stopped almost immediately, as the
entryway was too much to not admire.
“Well, I cannot carry all of that solid gold- F%#@ me.” She took a
moment to admire the work, sealed away from all eyes for thousands of
years. “I hope that someone got something from ‘Osiris’ for all that.”
She scoffed, and moved on.
She began to look for the frieze that held the target- which according
to her employer was deliberately of Osiris’ enemy, Anubis.
“Ah, there you are,” and she got out of her small pack a hammer and chisel.
“No Godly protections, no mummies, just the wack jobs in the palace
above who worship that Pharaoh who runs this country. Now all I have to
do is bag this and sneak back out. Easy peasy.”
Mononoke unceremoniously shoved her target in a bag for her employer.
“Sure doesn’t look like much- no blade, nothing special. I wonder why
Zhi wants this?”
Mononoke carefully retraced her steps- while she acted cavalier, she
knew that the magical and physical traps which she had not triggered on
the way in still were there on her way back.
“Someone went through here, I feel it,” the woman said, right next to
Mononoke’s ghost form. The woman set her ornate sword down, to feel the
wall, and that was just too much temptation for Mononoke.
She grabbed the sword, and immediately dove through the floor in
ghost mode- finding that this area actually was a basement, in use.
Bouncing firmly off a crate, Mononoke made her way quickly toward the
side door she had come in- one floor above her. She quickly grabbed 2
crates to stack, climbed out, and exited- Sprinting toward the harbor.
Seconds later alarms were sounding behind her. “Well San, lets hope
the ship is ready to go. You will have to sneak on to not draw any
attention. At least I got this awesome sword for my trouble….”
Pictures are of Montazah Palace and the Kom El Shoqafa Catacombs in Alexandria.
