Shadow Slave

Chapter 876: LO49

Sunny woke up with a start. The familiar sounds and vibrations of the Rhino told him that everything was okay, and that the vehicle was moving at high speed toward its destination. No one seemed to be attacking them...

And yet, for some reason, he felt a sense of deep unease. Sunny frowned and rose from his bed, then went over to the pilot's cabin. On his way, he passed Kim, who was running diagnostics on the secondary control panel, and Samara, who was tinkering with her rifle on the workstation in the cargo bay.

Reaching the front of the Rhino, Sunny silently looked through the armored windshield at the white wall of the blizzard that enveloped the world. Of course, he could have just accessed the feeds of external cameras from the command suite, but he trusted his own eyes much more.

...Nothing seemed out of place.

He hesitated for a few moments, then spoke to Luster:

"Did something happen just now?"

The young man glanced at him in confusion.

"Uh... no? Oh, there was a tiny spike of seismic activity a few minutes ago, but that's nothing unusual. Happens all the time. Don't worry, sir... we'll reach the installation in about half an hour."

Sunny scowled.

"...Good."

He returned to the lounge area, poured himself a cup of coffee, and then walked over to the command suite.

"Kimmy, contact the research facility. Tell them we'll be arriving soon."

activated the transmitter and sent a communication request to the installation they were approaching. For a few minutes, there was only static on the channel. Kim frowned, then

Still, nothing.

took a

"What, no one's responding?"

the monitors, then said in

it's just... uh, our signal doesn't seem to

scratched the back of

them for an update on the installation's

did as she was told, but there was still no result.

can't contact Army Command, either,

remained silent for a few

off from everyone? Is it because of

to experience a complete communication blackout. After all, Sunny had spent a

Kim hesitated.

blizzard is not supposed to mess with the signal

Sunny rubbed his face.

"That doesn't sound good...'

sighed, then sent his shadows out into the snowstorm. They spread around the speeding Rhino, searching for any sign of danger that could have been hiding in the white haze.

Minutes passed by without anything happening. Soon, there was a soft sound and some movement in the lounge area - Belle, Quentin, and Dorn returned from the Dream Realm and climbed out of the sleeping nooks, looking rested and refreshed. Even though the big man still showed some discomfort, his injury was well on its

flew by. Sunny caught sight of the research installation

facility looked more like a small fortress settlement than a scientific base. It was perched dangerously close to the ocean shore, and had a thick wall surrounding it, with powerful turrets aiming at the dark waves. There was a large dome-like

its premises, but considering that there was a sizable garrison of Awakened guarding the installation - complete with an Ascended commander - it had to be pretty

evidence that the scientists living here were doing very valuable work, though, was the fact that Sunny and his

down. We're