Awaken Online: Inferno (Tarot #3)

by Travis Bagwell

  “Yes, sir. The experiments conducted here can often be dangerous. Each compartment and hallway was designed to be locked off in the event of an accident. Security was paramount in the Forge’s design.”

  Finn just shook his head at that. He didn’t want to speculate at what sort of “experiments” the staff might have been performing down here. Although, on second thought, could it be any worse than these mech-human hybrids?

  “What’re you thinking?” Julia asked.

  “That I might have a way of dealing with these things,” Finn replied slowly, his eyes still on the map and tracing a circuitous path through the facility. His attention snapped back to Julia. “Kyyle and I need to stay here and keep our mana use to a minimum. We’re just too exposed with the way these things scan for mana. You, however, are at an advantage. How would you feel about doing a little scouting again?”

  His daughter gave him a shrug. “If it gets us the hell out of this place, I’m down. What do you have in mind?”

  Finn traced a path through the map of the section with his finger, leaving a glowing yellow line in its wake. “You should check these areas for obstructions. We’re looking for a clear path through the complex that is roughly circular. Also, identify the location of any of these creatures you find with a waypoint marker,” Finn instructed.

  His attention shifted to the chamber that contained the fire pylon – that room resting at the tip of the triangular section. He had a bad feeling about what they might find inside. Even from this distance and with the intervening layers of mana and conductive crystal, he could still make out the dull glow of the other five pylons. He wasn’t certain he wanted to consider what the mechs might have created with that sort of power.

  He just had to hope the staff had taken out the pylon before they’d had a chance to access that chamber.

  “Just stay clear of the pylon room,” Finn instructed. “You might also want to ditch the armor and maintain Sneak for the moment. We still can’t be certain whether these creatures can detect noise or regular spectrums of light. I think it’s safe to assume that whatever is happening here may be similar to a mutation. Which means some of the creatures may have developed other abilities.”

  “Got it,” Julia replied with a curt nod. She began stripping her metal armor and placing the pieces carefully in her pack. Once finished, she strapped down her shield tightly, hung her lance at her waist, and gave Finn a parting glance. “Be back in a second. Don’t have too much fun without me.”

  “Be careful,” was Finn’s only reply.

  “Always,” she shot back with a grin before racing down the hall.

  Finn’s and Kyyle’s eyes followed her as she swiftly disappeared into the gloom that blanketed the hallway. “So, uh, what do we do in the meantime?” the earth mage asked.

  “We wait,” Finn answered, leaning against the nearby wall. “And hope she doesn’t come running back with a few dozen of those creatures on her heels… or we get detected before she can return,” he offered, sparing a glance at Daniel and Brock. The elementals likely stood out like beacons of mana to the mech-human hybrids.

  “Perfect…” the earth mage muttered.

  A brief pause.

  “So, while we’re waiting, you want to come up with a name for these things? They’re like a brand-new species – even by this world’s standards. And we’re the first to discover them!” Kyyle rubbed at his chin. “Plus, just calling them cyborgs or something feels uninspired.

  “How about homo roboticus?”

  Finn was already rubbing at his temple.

  “Or maybe the core-ruption?” Daniel offered hesitantly.

  “Ha, that’s awesome!” Kyyle replied, earning him an appreciative glow from the fire elemental. “I’d give you a hi-five, but you don’t really have hands.”

  Finn just grimaced. “Did you not get it?” Daniel asked as he observed Finn’s reaction. “Because they have mana cores and they’ve been corrupted—”

  “I definitely got it,” Finn replied in a pained voice.

  “I’m personally fond of ferronics,” Brock rumbled. “Since they’re comprised of both ferrous and biologic materials.”

  “The earth bro delivers with a decent name,” Kyyle said with a grin. He raised his hand to give the earth elemental a hi-five, but the floating pile of rubble just stared in confusion at the proffered limb.

  “You’re supposed to tap my hand with yours,” Kyyle explained.

  “Ahh, understood,” Brock replied. He promptly smacked his rocky palm against Kyyle’s, the force of the blow sending the earth mage stumbling backward into the nearby wall and the air exiting his lungs in a whoosh.

  “Fuck… Ow,” Kyyle muttered, gasping for breath.

  “Are you okay?” Brock asked, a tinge of concern entering his voice.

  “Yeah, yeah. Just a little more gentle next time,” Kyyle grunted, leaning over and resting his palms on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.

  “Of course, the pile of rubble would mess it up,” Daniel grumbled. “Waste of working limbs, if you ask me.”

  Finn let out a soft sigh, his eyes on the hallway as it stretched off into shadowy darkness. He was just beginning to realize that they had another danger to worry about. If Julia didn’t make it back soon, they wouldn’t need to worry about the mech-human hybrids.

  Finn would probably end up killing his teammates himself…

  Chapter 16 - Distracting

  “Whew! I’m never doing that again,” Julia exclaimed as she dropped from Sneak. She immediately doubled over, hands on her knees, and her breath coming in great heaving gasps.

  “It looks like good cardio, though,” Kyyle offered with a grin. “Something about corrupted mechs looking to tear you limb from limb and borrow a few body parts makes for great motivation. They should come up with something similar in the real world.”

  Julia just glared at him. “Yeah. Well, next time, you can give it a shot.”

  “Yeah, no thanks. I’d die. Quickly. I’m man enough to admit that,” Kyyle replied. “But Brock and I are fantastic moral support.” The earth elemental’s glowing green eyes simply stared at Julia silently.

  “Yeah… I see that,” she retorted.

  Meanwhile, Finn’s attention had drifted to the darkened hallway, and he clutched at a metal sphere. He was watching for the telltale flicker of mana that would give away one of the mechs. However, he was hesitant to cast Imbue Fire for fear of accidentally drawing the attention of the creatures. “Were you followed?” he asked.

  “No, those… things pretty much seemed to ignore me.”

  “Corrupted,” Kyyle corrected. This earned him a questioning glance from Julia. “That’s what we landed on while you were gone.” As he noticed her expression, he continued defensively. “See? We didn’t just sit here, twiddling our thumbs while you did all of the work. Daniel came up with the name, actually.” The fire elemental pulsed happily and dipped through the air at that comment.

  “It’s because they have—” Daniel began.

  Julia shook her head as she straightened. “I figured it out. Trust me. Sounds like you all have been real busy while I was gone.”

  “You took a while,” Finn observed in a dry tone. “I very nearly saved the mechs the trouble and killed them all myself.”

  “Well, I’m glad you didn’t! I come bearing some good news,” Julia said with a grin.

  With a flick of her wrist, she brought up her map and rotated the display, the familiar six-sided image of the Forge coming into view. The group had entered the reception area, which was located directly between the triangular fire and air mana sections. They were currently standing in a long hallway between the reception area and the fire area, which they assumed must act as some sort of security checkpoint.

  Julia’s fingers traced a line down the hallway from where they were standing until she reached the fire mana section. She then marked a winding path through the area before doubling back, her trail terminating in a large r
oom. As she lifted her hand away, the glowing yellow trail remained, highlighting a clear path through the section.

  “It took me some time, but I managed to identify the doors that are currently bolted closed.” As she spoke, Julia highlighted a series of thin red lines along many of the rooms. “There’s no power keeping the doors closed, of course, but I imagine it would take some time to get them opened.” She glanced at Finn. “And the mana needed to accomplish that is going to draw some attention. This path passes through most of the rooms and then terminates in a dead-end in this last chamber.”

  “And the corrupted?” Finn asked, deliberately ignoring the smile that swept across Kyyle’s face when he used Daniel’s name for the human-mech hybrids.

  Julia nodded, and with another flick of her wrist, a series of yellow dots appeared on the map. “I marked all of the… corrupted that I found. Weirdly, they were spread out around the section. Maybe they returned to their original posts or something?” she offered, gesturing at the security checkpoint door beside them. She let out a sigh. “And I can’t guarantee that I detected all of them. I wasn’t able to find a path through every room since some were dead-ends or sealed off entirely.”

  Finn winced as he saw the number of markers. There were at least 70. That was a bit low, wasn’t it? Brock had indicated that there were likely closer to 150-200. Maybe more of the security mechs were inactive, in storage, or locked in other portions of the section. He hesitated. Or, there could be another answer…

  “It looks like we might have only identified a little under half of them,” Finn murmured.

  Julia just nodded, a grim expression on her face.

  “Hmm, that’s… not great,” Kyyle murmured, staring at the map. “We run the risk of drawing more if we start throwing around a lot of mana. But their sensor range seems limited – at least based on the one we encountered.” His eyes darted to Finn. “And you’ve had trouble penetrating these walls with your Mana Sight. It might be safe to assume that the corrupted have the same limitation.”

  Finn nodded as he stared at the map. “Yeah. Yeah, I think this could still work.”

  “What could still work exactly?” Julia asked, glancing at Finn in confusion.

  He’d forgotten he hadn’t shared his plan with his daughter. While they were waiting, he and Kyyle had gone over his latest “batshit-strategy-to-get-them-all-killed” – as Daniel liked to call it.

  “Okay, so fighting these corrupted is a daunting task with their regeneration, right?” Finn began. This earned him a nod from Julia. “Except we don’t really need to take out all of these mechs. Or any of them, actually. We just need to clear a path to the fire pylon and buy ourselves enough time to bring the power back online and find some supervisor credentials,” he explained, tapping at the tip of the triangle. Julia’s path had taken her right past the entrance to the pylon chamber.

  “That room is locked tight,” his daughter offered. “I didn’t linger long, but it looks like it’s sealed with another blast door similar to the one in the reception area. It might take us some time to crack.”

  Finn nodded. “Which means we first need to lure the corrupted away and trap them the same way we did with that one,” he replied, gesturing at the room beside them. “That way, we have some time to work on the blast door to the fire pylon chamber and search the rest of this section.”

  He tapped at several of the rooms and hallways adjacent to the entrance to the chamber with the fire pylon, highlighting open doorways. “I could seal off the passages into this cluster of rooms. We just need to lure the mechs out first…”

  Julia chewed on her lip as she stared at the map, her brow furrowed. “I see what you’re thinking. We send in some bait, lure the corrupted out of these specific areas and into a dead-end passage, seal off the entrance, and then work on blocking off these doors to the other rooms. That would secure us a safe area around the entrance to the pylon chamber.”

  “Exactly,” Finn said with a curt nod.

  And avoiding a fight means I can slow the spread of the infection, Finn added silently, trying his best to ignore the burning sensation that lingered in his arm and chest. He’d still have to use some mana to close the doors behind them… but that was an acceptable cost.

  “Assuming they can’t just tear down the door,” Kyyle added with a sour expression, glancing at the doorway beside them. “One was enough to do some damage. What could a few dozen do?”

  Finn rubbed at his neck, where that throbbing ache was beginning to creep upward. “We’ll just have to take that risk. We can also use multiple doors.” He tapped at Julia’s map. “We can use this hallway leading to the trap-chamber. That’ll give us at least two doors.” He glanced at Kyyle. “Worst case, you and I could probably reinforce the walls with an additional barrier of earth and some of the dark metal we found down in the Abyss.” This earned him a reluctant nod from Kyyle.

  “Okay, this is starting to sound like it might work,” Julia said, staring at the map. Then her attention shifted to Finn. “Which just means we need some decent bait.”

  The group all turned to look at Daniel, where he floated nearby. His fire dimmed noticeably as he realized that they were all staring at him. “Why are you…? No! Just no. I’m not going to be the bait – again!”

  “You’re the best choice,” Finn explained. “You’re fast, you can fly, and you’re semi-corporeal. And most importantly, you give off an intense fire mana signature.”

  “Translation: I’m expendable, and I glow,” Daniel retorted. “What fantastic qualifications!”

  Finn suppressed the urge to snap at the recalcitrant AI. While he was delighted that Daniel was evolving, at times, it felt like he was dealing with a surly teenager. Silence descended upon the darkened hallway as Finn stared at the AI, the tension only broken by the faint grinding rumble of Brock’s body.

  Although, as Finn glanced at the earth elemental, a thought occurred to him…

  “You know what? You’re right. You probably shouldn’t go,” Finn began. “Especially not now that we have Brock here. His rock body should protect him from the corrupted, and he’s much more familiar with the facility.” Daniel’s form flickered uncertainly, and his nervous dance through the air slowed.

  “What are you talking about? I saw a lot of drained attendants—” Julia started to say but cut herself off at a discreet gesture from Finn.

  “But Brock here is special,” Finn said, laying it on thick now. “Clearly, he’s one of the stronger elementals if he’s survived this long. He’s actually a perfect fit for this mission.”

  “I would be happy to be of assistance,” Brock rumbled in a neutral tone.

  “I’m not sure…” Daniel began weakly.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Finn said, waving absently at the fire elemental. “You can stay back here and light up the hallway or something. We’ll always need a floating lantern, and we should each focus on playing to our strengths.”

  “I’m not just a flying candle!” Daniel bit back, his body flaring brightly. “I’m the best fit for this assignment. You think this floating pile of rubble can move as fast as me? He’ll get taken out in the first room.”

  “Are you sure you’re really up to it, though?” Finn asked, injecting some doubt into his voice and suppressing the smile that threatened to creep across his face. “I mean, I don’t think you’ve handled anything this complicated before—”

  “You mean, can I fly in a predetermined path?” Daniel demanded. “Don’t insult me. I’m just worried that you fleshy humans and this slow-moving avalanche can’t keep up.”

  Finn rubbed at his mouth to cover his smile. “Well, in that case, maybe you’re right.”

  “Damn straight,” Daniel grumbled.

  Finn turned back to Julia and Kyyle, who were both struggling not to laugh. The earth mage had already brought up his console, eyeing Daniel as he tapped out a few notes. Finn could easily anticipate what Kyyle was thinking. It seemed Daniel had evolved enough
that he was susceptible to jealousy and a touch of reverse psychology. Or, that had at least been a very convincing imitation of self-awareness.

  At that thought, the Seer’s words echoed through his head.

  If the memories are the same, the behavior identical, what is the difference?

  He would have to cling to that hope – that Daniel’s evolution was real. Or so close that it didn’t make any substantive difference. That faint flicker of sentience gave him hope that they could make it through this place. That they could defeat the Emir.

  That they could bring Rachael back.

  “Alright, we have a plan, and the clock is still ticking,” Finn said, forcing himself to focus. “Everyone grab your gear. We move in five.”

  ***

  “Alright, we’re ready when you are,” Finn said, eyeing Daniel where the AI floated beside him. His light had begun to dim over the last few minutes, worry overcoming his initial indignant anger and jealousy.

  Moving slowly and lowering his voice so only Finn could hear, Daniel asked, “What if… what if the corrupted can drain me?”

  Finn hesitated at that question. His thoughts drifted back to the jagged crystal that rested in Brock’s chest. He supposed it was possible. The game was still treating Daniel as a fire elemental, after all – his pet designation aside. Finn had gotten used to thinking of the AI as immortal, but could the corrupted actually hurt him?

  “Don’t give them a chance,” Finn replied quietly. “Just fly fast and stay as close to the ceiling as possible. Unless these things have evolved the ability to fly, that should keep you protected.”

  Daniel’s form flickered again. He didn’t seem convinced.

  “We’re counting on you, Daniel. You’ve got this,” Finn added, trying to reassure the AI. He was concerned that, unlike many other occasions, Daniel hadn’t attempted to articulate the probability of them failing. What did that indicate? That he was trying to avoid thinking about that information?