Awaken Online: Inferno (Tarot #3)

by Travis Bagwell

  And putting all of that aside, was it possible to recreate this sort of magical tech?

  “It appears that the facility was attacked and has been placed in a level 3 security lockdown,” the elemental reported.

  Finn gestured at Kyyle to speak up. If the earth elemental thought he was a new member of the staff, then maybe they could use that.

  “Do you know when the facility was attacked?” Kyyle asked tentatively.

  “That is unknown. Some information is corrupted. It appears that one of the adjoining sections of the facility has been powered down, and the main conduits to this reception area were damaged – one or both of which may explain the power loss. I suspect that disruption may have caused the data corruption. Although, from the existing records, I estimate that at least fifty years have passed. Perhaps longer.”

  “Is there any record of what caused the lockdown?” Kyyle asked.

  The elemental’s eyes flashed once more, and suddenly an image flickered into existence above the console. It looked almost like their in-game prompts, except the panel glowed with telltale mana in Finn’s enhanced sight – a mixture of air, water, and light. As he looked on, the panel rippled, and a man’s face abruptly resolved into focus. His cheeks were streaked with sweat and dust, and his robes were torn with what appeared to be drops of blood staining the hem. A chime blared in the background, and lights flashed behind him in an undulating pattern. Some sort of warning siren most likely.

  “We’re under attack,” the man gasped, breathing hard. Finn could hear a familiar sizzling sound and saw a beam of fire lance across the screen behind him. That must have been one of the security mechs that had attacked them, but they didn’t have a good view of what they were firing at.

  The man ignored the battle raging around him. “We knew this day would come eventually… just not this soon. The zealots have already breached the entrance to the Forge. I am placing the facility under a level 3 lockdown. All staff are to remain in place until further notice. We must protect our research and equipment. Otherwise, they may destroy centuries of progress…”

  An explosion interrupted the recording, knocking the man to the side, and a roar of noise echoed across the room. The image winked out, leaving the group standing silently in the orange-tinted glow of the reception room.

  “Okay…” Julia muttered. “Anyone else getting a bad feeling about this?”

  “Yeah,” Finn replied in a distracted voice.

  His guess was that this place had probably been destroyed closer to a century ago. That was consistent with what Kalisha and Silver had implied. Maybe this battle had been part of Bilel’s attack on the Seer and her followers? Or perhaps there was something more at play… The Seer had alluded to a big misstep nearly a century ago that had forced herself and her so-called siblings into some sort of celestial timeout. Had the attack on the facility been part of that larger war on the gods?

  Although, none of those questions helped them right now.

  “Are we able to access other parts of the facility?” Finn asked the attendant. “Or is there some type of map of the facility that you can access?” he added quickly.

  Without answering, the elemental’s hand shifted, and another pulse of mana flowed through the console. An image flickered into existence in front of them, showing the layout of the Forge. It was divided into a six-sided star, each triangular area containing a separate wing. A large hexagonal room hovered in the dead center of the facility with separate blast doors providing access to each of the six sections. Even more unusual, Finn noticed that there was a colored dot located along each of the six tips of the star, those points of light each corresponding to a different color – red, blue, yellow, green, black, and white. All six sections were highlighted in a faint, translucent reddish hue.

  The group was shown as a cluster of three dots – located in a reception area along the northern edge of the facility and sandwiched between two of the triangular sections.

  “What does this mean?” Kyyle asked. “This red highlighting?”

  “Those are areas that went into lockdown. Those orders are still in effect,” the elemental rumbled in reply.

  “Can we deactivate the security?” Julia interjected. “Maybe open one of these two doors leading farther into the facility,” she offered, gesturing at the two massive panels of stone and metal that lingered behind them.

  A pause, and then the elemental replied. “I am unable to process that command. The blast doors cannot be opened while the security lockdown is in place, and only a supervisor can lift the lockdown.”

  Finn rubbed at his temple with one hand. “Okay. Let’s try this a different way. We’re looking for schematics and designs. Where are those stored?”

  The hexagonal room in the center of the facility was briefly highlighted. “High-level designs and technology are stored in the central chamber.”

  “How do we access that room?” Kyyle asked.

  “Access can only be obtained through one of the six sections. However, that will require lifting the security lockdown and restoring the facility’s power.”

  “Didn’t we do that already? Restore power, I mean?” Finn asked in confusion, glancing at the faintly glowing walls of the reception area.

  The elemental turned to face him. “Someone activated the reception area’s emergency power. A localized mana core installed in the floor is currently providing limited power to this room. However, access to the facility’s primary power is still offline.” Two small dots next to each of the blast doors were highlighted. “It appears that the conduits connecting the reception area to the rest of the facility were damaged.”

  Finn could easily see why one conduit had been taken offline. The righthand blast door was still intact, but something had blown a massive chunk out of the adjoining wall. A crater nearly three feet wide and as many feet deep had been carved in the rock, metallic debris melted against the stone. Maybe Kalisha’s mercenaries had tried blasting their way inside. Although, even a brief glance with his Mana Sight indicated that there were still several more feet of solid rock and crystal behind that crater. This facility had clearly been designed to take a beating.

  His brow furrowed as he looked at the second blast door leading into the fire section. It was intact, and the surrounding walls hadn’t been damaged. Which begged the question of how that conduit had been disabled.

  If it wasn’t damaged from the outside, then something must have disabled the conduit from the inside.

  “The logs indicate that power to the nearby fire section went offline sometime after the initial attack, although I see no evidence that the section was breached,” the attendant rumbled, highlighting the section behind the undamaged blast door. “It’s possible that the power to that area was manually taken offline, which may explain why no mana is flowing from that section into the reception area.”

  “Okay, so can we go through the fire mana section to reach that central chamber? If the power is out, maybe we can open that interior blast door leading to the central forge without lifting the lockdown or obtaining supervisor credentials,” Finn said, tapping at the hexagonal room in the center of the facility.

  “No,” the attendant answered. “The fire pylon will need to be restored before you may access the Forge’s central chamber. All six pylons must be operational to access the facility’s central chamber, and each of the interior blast doors was designed with fail-safes to prevent entry if one or more pylons were disabled.”

  “Mana pylons?” Julia muttered. “Seriously, what the hell is this place?”

  “I think they’re these dots,” Finn murmured, tapping at the circles along each of the six points of the star. “See how they’re colored to correspond to a different affinity? My guess is that each section is related to a specific type of mana.”

  “That’s correct,” the earth elemental replied. “If the fire mana pylon is offline, it will need to be restarted to restore power to that section.”

  Finn just sho
ok his head. Restarted? What did that mean?

  The crystals he had encountered so far in-game were basically just rechargeable mana batteries – able to store a specific amount of mana, which was depleted upon use. That was consistent with the way the elemental had described the backup power for the reception area. So, what exactly did these pylons do? The attendant seemed to be implying that they… generated mana? Maybe like some sort of nuclear reactor, but for magical energy?

  Kyyle glanced at Finn, and he saw the same realization reflected in his gaze. Imagine the things they could do with a mana generator…

  He shook his head. That didn’t help them right now. Their primary goal was accessing the Forge’s central chamber to recover something to help them defend against Bilel’s relic – if that was indeed where the facility’s technology and designs were still stored. Finn was a bit skeptical that the information available through the reception console was accurate. It had been anywhere between 50 and 100 years since this place was operational.

  A lot could change in that time.

  “Okay,” Finn began, thinking aloud. “So, it sounds like we need to restore the fire mana pylon and find ‘supervisor’ credentials that we can use to lift the security lockdown. That should grant us access to this central chamber?”

  “That is correct,” the attendant replied.

  “And I’m guessing we can’t reactivate the fire mana pylon from here,” he continued, tapping at the fire section on the map.

  “That is also correct,” the elemental replied. “Physical access to the pylon is necessary to restart it.”

  “Because of course it is,” Kyyle said with a sigh. “Okay, so how can we access the fire mana section of the facility?”

  “The facility is currently under a security level 3—”

  “Yeah, yeah. We know,” Finn said, interrupting the elemental. “Is there any other way to open the blast door – maybe some sort of emergency protocol in the event the staff were to get trapped inside?” he asked hopefully, waving at the door behind him.

  The earth elemental just stared back blankly in response.

  “Maybe Kyyle should try zapping him with earth mana again,” Daniel offered, floating around the attendant’s head. “From what I can tell, this guy is a few rocks short of a quarry – if you catch my meaning.”

  When no one responded, Daniel continued. “In other words, this floating pile of rubble seems brain dead. Maybe they lobotomize their elementals,” he added, just a trace of smugness entering his voice.

  Finn just sighed, rubbing at his temple. He barely spared any attention to Daniel’s jabs at the attendant, his thoughts beating again on the problem that was laid out before them.

  “I’m not sure that’s the issue…” Kyyle began, shaking his head at Daniel.

  Julia was chewing on her lip as she studied the map of the facility, her eyes darting between the blast door and the floating image. “Maybe we could just cut or blast our way into the fire section?” she offered.

  “Dissolve isn’t going to work on these walls or the blast door,” Kyyle replied sourly as he walked toward the portal and inspected it closely. “Not with the way they seem to be laced with crystal and charged with mana from the backup fire mana core.” He waved at the other door. “And it looks like someone already tried the brute force approach with that one. Appears that didn’t work out too well.”

  “Maybe there’s a ventilation system?” Julia suggested. At Finn’s raised eyebrow, she continued, “What? Haven’t you seen movies where they breach some sort of top-secret lab? There are always air ducts. Besides, the staff still need to breathe down here somehow.”

  “The facility lacks ventilation ducts,” the attendant interjected. “They were considered an obvious security risk during construction. Instead, each section is equipped with basic life support crystals – water, earth, and air mana, specifically.”

  “Oh, c’mon!” Julia snapped. “We have a quest. We need to get inside. There has to be a way to make that happen. Decades of videogame experience have taught me that. Otherwise, how is this shit fair and balanced?”

  “I don’t understand the query,” the elemental replied. “Could you please repeat the question?”

  “Sure! How many floating semi-sentient rocks does it take to open a gods damned door?” Julia shot back.

  “I don’t understand—”

  “There’s no point in yelling at him,” Kyyle interrupted. “He’s just an attendant. Sort of like a more basic version of Daniel.”

  “Exactly. I’m a far superior model,” Daniel observed, floating around the earth elemental. “Just imagine how much mana it must take just to keep this guy afloat. Inefficient if you ask me.”

  Finn frowned at that comment. It seemed that Daniel was becoming jealous of all the attention the earth elemental was getting. But that wasn’t what had made him pause…

  Daniel’s remark about the attendant raised an interesting question. They had been attacked by that damaged mech when they opened the facility entrance. However, the reception area had lost power a long time ago, and all of the other attendants had been powered down. So how had the mech still been online after all this time?

  “Actually, let’s try a different line of questioning,” Finn began, turning back to the earth elemental. “How exactly did you go offline, and why are there no more of the security mechs in here?”

  “My mana core was forcefully drained some time ago. I’m not certain how or why this was done,” the elemental rumbled in response. “The new supervisor has briefly recharged my mana core. But I estimate that I only have approximately a day or two of mana before I will need to replenish my energy, either with an ambient source of earth mana or the assistance of a mage with the suitable affinity.

  “As for your second question, the security mechs in the reception area have all been disabled. I have no recollection of how that happened, and the reception console’s records do not provide any additional clarity.”

  Finn chewed on that response. “Forcefully drained” didn’t sound good. And they had passed plenty more piles of rubble on the way in – likely the remains of other earth elementals. Maybe the security mechs had repurposed the earth elementals’ energy to stay online? And judging from the damage to the mech they had encountered, several decades’ worth of adventurers might have gradually destroyed the mechs that had been stationed in this reception area.

  Although, that didn’t bode well for what they might find inside the fire section…

  “Could the security mechs have drained your mana to stay online?” Finn asked, hesitantly, already dreading the answer to that question.

  A pause from the elemental. “That is… possible,” the attendant answered. “That may also explain why the reception area’s power originally went offline. The facility’s security could have rerouted mana from other systems. Although, that doesn’t address why the main conduits to the rest of the facility were severed, or why the fire pylon was taken offline.”

  “So, what he’s saying is that the security mechs are possibly draining other attendants and systems to stay online?” Kyyle asked in an incredulous voice.

  “I mean, it makes sense,” Julia replied thoughtfully. “During a lockdown, it would follow that they would prioritize security over everything else. There may be an override in place, or the security mechs were designed to leech power from other systems.”

  “So maybe the security is offline in the fire section. Or maybe the mechs are all still active, and they’ve been draining power from everything else,” Kyyle said with a sigh. “That might even explain why the fire pylon is offline.”

  Silence lingered in the room as they processed that thought.

  “Either way,” Julia began, “that still leaves us with the problem of how the hell we’re going to get inside…”

  Finn’s mind was already chipping away at that problem.

  He rubbed absently at the simmering ache in his left stump as he stared at the blast door leadi
ng to the fire mana section, peering closer with his Mana Sight. His vision quickly became hazy as he tried to look past the door. The crystalline lines running through the rock created interference that made it difficult to get a clear view. However, Finn’s focus wasn’t on the section on the other side of that door… but on the structure of the portal itself.

  He could see that the door was nearly four feet thick and was constructed of reinforced stone and metal panels. It appeared to be designed to slide into the adjoining wall. The stone itself was also warded against magical attacks. Runes were etched into the surface of the stone and glowed faintly, charged by the mana coursing through the walls. Those wards would likely hold a charge for quite some time, which might explain why the other blast door was undamaged. Though the surrounding walls had taken a beating. If Kalisha’s mercenary group had tried to blast their way inside, they would barely have dented the door itself.

  His focus shifted to the door’s locking mechanism. The portal was bolted shut with six large metal rods located along the righthand side of the doorway, the deadbolts held firmly in place with ropes of fire mana. The pattern of that mana resembled Finn’s Imbue Fire, which he supposed made sense. Although, he saw no wards on the deadbolts themselves – only on the surface of the door.

  So, the blast doors use something similar to a magnetic lock, Finn thought to himself. Other explorers must not have been able to detect or manipulate the deadbolts. However, if I could push the bolts out of place with Imbue Fire, then Julia might be able to shove the damn thing open. But that’s going to require deactivating the power to the reception area in order to disable the locking mechanism.

  His gaze shifted back to the reception console. Maybe I could drain the backup power…

  Finn rubbed at the base of his left arm, that ever-present, simmering ache lingering there. His tentative plan was going to come with a cost. After the fight with the Khamsin back in the Hive and forging Julia’s armor, he’d already increased his infection level to 21%. What he was contemplating would increase the infection further. Although, he didn’t exactly see another option…