Gavin Luper
8th March 2004, 04:51 AM
G'day!
This is my new fic. I just have to warn everyone that the prologue is a bit full-on and quite different to the rest of the fic, but it does get a lot better.
So yeah - please read!
The First March
--------------------------
Prologue
The moon was hidden behind the clouds as a tall figure crept stealthily around the high-fenced perimeter of the Ellence Royal Museum. The museum was the biggest in the country and, on this night, the most protected: a recent delivery had seen the ancient Mythikian Jewels arrive for a two-day display in the museum’s archaeology exhibit. Dozens of armed guards were posted both outside the museum’s stone walls and inside the hallways, so that any chance of the jewels disappearing appeared to be a great unlikelihood.
Despite this, a person was creeping round the tall iron fence that surrounded the building. Dressed simply in casual jeans and a top, the young girl circled slowly, choosing her moment of invasion carefully. She had one aim in mind: to get her hands on the Mythikian Jewels. She slipped along the fence in silence, unseen by any guards. Abruptly, the moon emerged from behind the cloud; the street was at once flooded with revealing moonlight.
The invader paused, her heart pumping hard. Moving as slowly as possible, she extended an arm into her pocket and retrieved two thick gloves, slipping them swiftly onto each hand. Then, just as silently, the invader produced a sleek silver revolver from her belt, grasping it firmly with her gloved hands. She stood straight and silent, awaiting her cue …
A loud bang of gunfire echoed from the other side of the museum and, at the same time, the moon’s silvery rays were cloaked by another blanket of cloud. On the other side of the iron fence, several guards were rushing to attend to the commotion. Gunfire was now coming in long bursts from some other point around the edge of the museum. The moment the last of the guards had disappeared around the corner of the two-storey museum, the invader leapt into action: her first task was, she believed, far too easy. She sprinted along the fence line until she reached the side gate with its entry keypad. A light blinked scarlet above the iron gate. The only possible way in to the museum was the legal way – punching in the password on the keypad at the side gate. The fence was hardly an entry point: twelve feet high, its lower half was made of smooth stone, devoid of any footholds, whilst the upper half of the fence consisted of iron bars, tall and pointed at the very top.
The invader located the electronic keypad, built into the stone wall. Without hesitation, she punched in seven digits with her gloved hand. The light above the keypad blinked green and a great grinding sound punctured the sounds of the distant gunfire, which had increased in frequency.
The gate had opened barely twelve inches when the invader slipped through it and into the museum compound. Her heart pounded as she ran for the glass doorway that the guards had abandoned in their haste to investigate the gunshots. The moon reappeared again as the invader reached a set of stone steps leading up to the glass entrance doors; excited, she pelted up the steps, ready to enter the corridors of the museum –
“ No you don’t!”
A man came flying from the foot of the stone steps behind her, grabbing the invader at her ankles. She toppled instantly onto the steps, but with lightning speed she twisted her foot around and delivered a sharp kick to her attacker’s face. There was a resounding crack; the man’s nose broke as the invader threw him off her and returned to her feet once more.
“ Yes I do,” she said defiantly. The man, who was quite solid, was rising, standing halfway up the stairs, his hand clasped to his bleeding nose. Without a hint of mercy, the invader swept her foot around and connected with his ankles, sending the guard flying backwards and landing, with an enormous crunching sound, at the foot of the stairs.
The invader wiped sweat from her brow as she stood over the motionless guard. With a smile of grim satisfaction, she pulled a chain of keys from his belt. Trusting that there would be no further attackers, she turned the key in the lock secured around the heavy doors and swung them open, continuing into the museum.
It was dark. No lights were burning, and worst of all for the invader, there was no map for her to follow. It was all up to chance from here on in.
‘ Come on,’ she thought, hurrying silently through the dark corridors. The lack of guards was unnerving her, for it surely meant that she was nowhere near her goal?
The invader crept onwards, slinking down a side passage and taking two right turns, but still the corridors of the museum were enemy free. She shivered in the unnaturally cool air conditioning around her and took one step forward, but she never got any closer than that to the hidden room containing the Mythikian Jewels.
“ SECURITY BREACH LEVEL THREE! ALL PERSONNEL TO SECTION C7!”
A loud voice bellowed all around the museum, coming from all directions and echoing violently in the hollow corridor. At the same time, a shrill siren began ringing throughout the complex, alerting everyone in the building to the breach of security. A dozen footsteps could be heard marching towards the corridor the invader was in; she froze in her tracks. Why was the alarm going off now? She had not tripped over any wires or stepped over any obvious boundary, had she? Still, there was little time for questions. By the echoey sounds within the museum, the guards had almost reached her, and she had not moved a step. Flustered for the first time in her life, the invader about-faced and set off at a run down the corridor again, her revolver held out like a sword in front of her. But it was difficult to run in the pitch-blackness, and after a few metres the invader felt another person – a man, judging by the size of him – run full-pelt into her. Both she and the man toppled to the ground; her head banged the wall painfully.
“ Ow!” she cried involuntarily.
There was an urgent scrabbling sound around her as the man groped around the floor for something. The invader looked up, rubbing her head, and gasped: the man held a torch in one hand, and in the other was an small and plain cloth bag, closed by a drawstring. She gaped – it was he, not her, who had set off the alarm. The man before her had reached the Jewels, and succeeded. She tried to stand up, in order to take the cloth bag from him. She didn’t get it, but the man relinquished his grip; the bag dropped to the ground and hastened fingers scooped it up.
Before the invader could get her thoughts in order, the man’s footsteps petered out into the distance as a second set of footsteps began to come closer.
The invader’s head was swimming. She rubbed it with her gloved hand, but it did not help; her eyes were blurred, her ears ringing with the ongoing squeal of the intruder siren. Once more, she tried to return to her feet in the dark, but apparently a guard had caught up with her, for a firm hand had clamped down on her shoulder.
“ Got her! Over he-eere …” The guard collapsed as the invader mustered her strength and kicked him sharply in the groin.
The invader rose to her feet and, almost completely unable to see, she ran onwards, her revolver outstretched. People were approaching her from in front; desperate for her own escape, she pulled the trigger; a flash of light, a loud BANG and a shout indicated that she had shot down one of the guards.
‘ Why me?’ the invader thought bitterly as she struggled to run onwards. She turned a corner and smiled darkly – there was faint moonlight coming down this corridor … she was close to the door.
“ STOP!”
Another guard. Behind her, this time. The invader fired three shots haphazardly over her shoulder and again heard a yell – she had hit. But there were scores of footsteps echoing behind her now, she had to move along quickly … turning a corner, her vision began to clear. There they were – the doors, straight ahead. Only ten metres away. The invader pelted for the door, her head and heart hammering. Five metres … louder footsteps amongst the siren … three metres left … a panicked shout … half a metre … a series of metallic clicks behind her …
The invader burst into the moonlight and onto the top of the staircase. She took her first step, and at the same time, there was an explosion of gunfire behind her …
At the foot of the stairs, her body was sprawled beside her earlier victim’s. It could fight no more.
This is my new fic. I just have to warn everyone that the prologue is a bit full-on and quite different to the rest of the fic, but it does get a lot better.
So yeah - please read!
The First March
--------------------------
Prologue
The moon was hidden behind the clouds as a tall figure crept stealthily around the high-fenced perimeter of the Ellence Royal Museum. The museum was the biggest in the country and, on this night, the most protected: a recent delivery had seen the ancient Mythikian Jewels arrive for a two-day display in the museum’s archaeology exhibit. Dozens of armed guards were posted both outside the museum’s stone walls and inside the hallways, so that any chance of the jewels disappearing appeared to be a great unlikelihood.
Despite this, a person was creeping round the tall iron fence that surrounded the building. Dressed simply in casual jeans and a top, the young girl circled slowly, choosing her moment of invasion carefully. She had one aim in mind: to get her hands on the Mythikian Jewels. She slipped along the fence in silence, unseen by any guards. Abruptly, the moon emerged from behind the cloud; the street was at once flooded with revealing moonlight.
The invader paused, her heart pumping hard. Moving as slowly as possible, she extended an arm into her pocket and retrieved two thick gloves, slipping them swiftly onto each hand. Then, just as silently, the invader produced a sleek silver revolver from her belt, grasping it firmly with her gloved hands. She stood straight and silent, awaiting her cue …
A loud bang of gunfire echoed from the other side of the museum and, at the same time, the moon’s silvery rays were cloaked by another blanket of cloud. On the other side of the iron fence, several guards were rushing to attend to the commotion. Gunfire was now coming in long bursts from some other point around the edge of the museum. The moment the last of the guards had disappeared around the corner of the two-storey museum, the invader leapt into action: her first task was, she believed, far too easy. She sprinted along the fence line until she reached the side gate with its entry keypad. A light blinked scarlet above the iron gate. The only possible way in to the museum was the legal way – punching in the password on the keypad at the side gate. The fence was hardly an entry point: twelve feet high, its lower half was made of smooth stone, devoid of any footholds, whilst the upper half of the fence consisted of iron bars, tall and pointed at the very top.
The invader located the electronic keypad, built into the stone wall. Without hesitation, she punched in seven digits with her gloved hand. The light above the keypad blinked green and a great grinding sound punctured the sounds of the distant gunfire, which had increased in frequency.
The gate had opened barely twelve inches when the invader slipped through it and into the museum compound. Her heart pounded as she ran for the glass doorway that the guards had abandoned in their haste to investigate the gunshots. The moon reappeared again as the invader reached a set of stone steps leading up to the glass entrance doors; excited, she pelted up the steps, ready to enter the corridors of the museum –
“ No you don’t!”
A man came flying from the foot of the stone steps behind her, grabbing the invader at her ankles. She toppled instantly onto the steps, but with lightning speed she twisted her foot around and delivered a sharp kick to her attacker’s face. There was a resounding crack; the man’s nose broke as the invader threw him off her and returned to her feet once more.
“ Yes I do,” she said defiantly. The man, who was quite solid, was rising, standing halfway up the stairs, his hand clasped to his bleeding nose. Without a hint of mercy, the invader swept her foot around and connected with his ankles, sending the guard flying backwards and landing, with an enormous crunching sound, at the foot of the stairs.
The invader wiped sweat from her brow as she stood over the motionless guard. With a smile of grim satisfaction, she pulled a chain of keys from his belt. Trusting that there would be no further attackers, she turned the key in the lock secured around the heavy doors and swung them open, continuing into the museum.
It was dark. No lights were burning, and worst of all for the invader, there was no map for her to follow. It was all up to chance from here on in.
‘ Come on,’ she thought, hurrying silently through the dark corridors. The lack of guards was unnerving her, for it surely meant that she was nowhere near her goal?
The invader crept onwards, slinking down a side passage and taking two right turns, but still the corridors of the museum were enemy free. She shivered in the unnaturally cool air conditioning around her and took one step forward, but she never got any closer than that to the hidden room containing the Mythikian Jewels.
“ SECURITY BREACH LEVEL THREE! ALL PERSONNEL TO SECTION C7!”
A loud voice bellowed all around the museum, coming from all directions and echoing violently in the hollow corridor. At the same time, a shrill siren began ringing throughout the complex, alerting everyone in the building to the breach of security. A dozen footsteps could be heard marching towards the corridor the invader was in; she froze in her tracks. Why was the alarm going off now? She had not tripped over any wires or stepped over any obvious boundary, had she? Still, there was little time for questions. By the echoey sounds within the museum, the guards had almost reached her, and she had not moved a step. Flustered for the first time in her life, the invader about-faced and set off at a run down the corridor again, her revolver held out like a sword in front of her. But it was difficult to run in the pitch-blackness, and after a few metres the invader felt another person – a man, judging by the size of him – run full-pelt into her. Both she and the man toppled to the ground; her head banged the wall painfully.
“ Ow!” she cried involuntarily.
There was an urgent scrabbling sound around her as the man groped around the floor for something. The invader looked up, rubbing her head, and gasped: the man held a torch in one hand, and in the other was an small and plain cloth bag, closed by a drawstring. She gaped – it was he, not her, who had set off the alarm. The man before her had reached the Jewels, and succeeded. She tried to stand up, in order to take the cloth bag from him. She didn’t get it, but the man relinquished his grip; the bag dropped to the ground and hastened fingers scooped it up.
Before the invader could get her thoughts in order, the man’s footsteps petered out into the distance as a second set of footsteps began to come closer.
The invader’s head was swimming. She rubbed it with her gloved hand, but it did not help; her eyes were blurred, her ears ringing with the ongoing squeal of the intruder siren. Once more, she tried to return to her feet in the dark, but apparently a guard had caught up with her, for a firm hand had clamped down on her shoulder.
“ Got her! Over he-eere …” The guard collapsed as the invader mustered her strength and kicked him sharply in the groin.
The invader rose to her feet and, almost completely unable to see, she ran onwards, her revolver outstretched. People were approaching her from in front; desperate for her own escape, she pulled the trigger; a flash of light, a loud BANG and a shout indicated that she had shot down one of the guards.
‘ Why me?’ the invader thought bitterly as she struggled to run onwards. She turned a corner and smiled darkly – there was faint moonlight coming down this corridor … she was close to the door.
“ STOP!”
Another guard. Behind her, this time. The invader fired three shots haphazardly over her shoulder and again heard a yell – she had hit. But there were scores of footsteps echoing behind her now, she had to move along quickly … turning a corner, her vision began to clear. There they were – the doors, straight ahead. Only ten metres away. The invader pelted for the door, her head and heart hammering. Five metres … louder footsteps amongst the siren … three metres left … a panicked shout … half a metre … a series of metallic clicks behind her …
The invader burst into the moonlight and onto the top of the staircase. She took her first step, and at the same time, there was an explosion of gunfire behind her …
At the foot of the stairs, her body was sprawled beside her earlier victim’s. It could fight no more.