by S. A. Lusher
Drake was relieved to see that they seemed to have exhausted the local supply of bad guys. They managed to get to the second node and put some holes through it. Overhead, some of the lights flickered and died once more.
“All right,” Drake said, turning back the way they’d come. “Let’s get this over with.”
* * * * *
This was looking very bad.
Eric frantically searched through the menus of the access console he’d located, putting all his technical skills to use as he tried to come up with some means of locating Porter. Once he’d gotten back inside and received his update from Drake, he and Porter had coordinated on where they were going to meet. And so he’d set off, making his way quickly through the bleak metal corridors towards the agreed-upon spot.
But halfway there, he’d received a cry of help. Porter was under attack and then she’d been abruptly cut off mid-transmission. With no other recourse, Eric had sprinted the rest of the way there, putting down half a dozen meat puppets in the process. Unfortunately, by the time he’d gotten there, there was no sign of Porter and she wouldn’t answer the comms. Drake and Stacker were too far away and too busy to help, so he knew he needed to deal with this on his own. With no other options available, he’d found a terminal and started hunting.
LifeScan was out, he couldn’t access it from here. And there was no security system that he knew of, no way to track her visually. As he sat there in frustration, knowing every second that ticked by was another second something might be happening to her, that the window to get to her was closing, he called out over the comms again.
As he did, abruptly, an idea came to him.
The radio. If she was receiving his calls, he might be able to track her that way. He was reluctant to use Erebus’ own system to do so but he was sure that the fucker had a dozen different ways of tracking them anyway, so he pressed on. A minute later, he had it set up and he called out to her again. Sure enough, there she was. Not too far away and the route there was simple. She didn’t seem to be moving. He wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad sign, though he didn’t see how it could be good. None of this nightmare was good.
Memorizing the route, Eric turned and sprinted off once more, pushing himself harder. As he turned a corner, he found himself facing another trio of meat machines, which were already making their way towards him. Growling in frustration, he skidded to a halt, raised his rifle and fired. One shot popped out and connected with the forehead of the first awful construction, causing it to drop to the floor like someone had cut its strings. As the other two opened fire, Eric snapped his rifle to the left, readjusting his aim, and fired twice more. One shot turn a glowering red eye into a spray of gore and sparks, the other opened up a hole in its cheek.
Eric felt two bullets ping off his armor and he put down the third creature. Even before it hit the floor, he was off and sprinting again. He tried to keep his mind straight as he hit the end of the corridor and took a right. Almost there. Just find Porter and investigate the potential location of Allan. That was it. Either rescue him or move on and help Drake and Stacker take out Erebus. And then they could go. They could walk straight out of here, back to the ship and leave this miserable, uncharted wasteland of a planet.
He was close now.
Up ahead, he could hear noises. Humming, buzzing, drilling, sparking. Not good. That sounded like one of those fucking labs where they created more of themselves. And it was right where Porter was supposed to be. Pushing himself harder, Eric ran full tilt down the corridor and came crashing in through the door.
He came into an infirmary turned into a butcher’s shop.
There were a quartet of the mock surgeons moving slowly among the bodies, half a dozen of them stretched out on bloodstained examination tables. Eric immediately recognized one of them. Porter. She didn’t look like they’d gotten to her yet. He offered headshots all around, putting down the medical meat machines and then hurried over to Porter. She was unconscious and, mercifully, undamaged. They’d taken her out of her armor.
He spent a moment trying to wake her up while also checking her over for damage. She didn’t seem to be seriously injured, just some bruises and scrapes that he was sure they’d all accumulated over the course of this mission. Finally, she came around, her eyes opening up. She jerked in surprise when she saw him leaning over her but quickly calmed down.
“What happened?” he asked.
“I was attacked,” she replied, sitting up slowly. She winced and gingerly rubbed her head. “I was jumped, ambushed. Slammed me in the head hard enough to knock me out,” she murmured. Slowly, she stood up. Eric watched her, worried she might have a concussion or worse. But she stayed steady and abruptly marched across the room. He followed her progress and saw that her armor had been stacked on a table.
“How long was I out?” she asked as she pulled it back on.
“Not long, maybe fifteen minutes,” he replied.
“Well, that’s good at least,” she muttered.
“Are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine.”
Porter finished getting her suit back on just in time. As she was grabbing her rifle and checking it over, they heard heavy footfalls on rapid approach. Never a good sign. The pair of them hurried back out into the main corridor and found themselves staring at yet another new horror. This one was definitely something he’d never seen before...except that he had seen it, he realized slowly as the thing stomped towards him.
Although it was in the shape of the other elemental things he’d been facing down, it was constructed that same dark rock he’d seen up on the planet’s surface. In fact, it reminded him distinctly of the rock beasts they’d faced on their way into the cave system. Apparently, Erebus had been busy adapting them for its own uses. Eric and Porter immediately raised their rifles and opened fire, emptying half their magazines into the thing.
It didn’t stop. It didn’t even slow down.
Apparently, Erebus had made it more resistant.
“Um...fuck,” Eric said. “Now what?”
“Run!” Porter snapped as she primed and tossed a grenade towards it.
Both of them turned and ran away as quickly as they could, their metal boots clanging against the deckplates. Eric’s mind kicked up into overdrive as he looked around for something to use, anything that could be used against the rock elemental.
He saw a large open doorway in the right side of the corridor and ducked into it, yelling for Porter to follow him. They came into a massive warehouse-like room that came complete with stacks of crates and larger crates hanging from overhead on a track system designed to move them about. Eric felt a plan get thrown together in his head.
“Up there! We have to get it under the crate!” he called.
“How do we drop it?” Porter replied, immediately understanding the plan.
“Um...fuck,” Eric muttered, looking around frantically. The rock creature was approaching. At least it was slow.
“Controls!” Porter called, sprinting off towards them. Eric looked ahead of her and saw what appeared to be a control booth up on the second story. Porter was rushing up the stairs that led to the catwalks overhead. “Get it under the crate! I’ll do the rest!” she called.
Eric swallowed nervously and turned back around just in time to see the rock behemoth stepping in through the doorway. It seemed more like a brute of close ranged attacks, unlike its brothers. It couldn’t shoot anything. On the other hand...Eric shouted and dove to the side as the creature snagged a crate in passing and hurled it almost casually directly towards him. It sailed in a dead straight line right towards him, no arc, no curve. He barely managed to get out of the way and the thing shot past him, missing him by inches.
It crashed into a pile of crates somewhere way behind him.
This thing was fucking strong.
He made a note not to get anywhere near it. If it got its hands on him, that would be the end. The thing was still stomping towards him, leaving dents in t
he deckplates. He had no idea if this was going to work or not. The rock creature seemed pretty damned tough. Regaining his feet, he lined himself up with the crate and started backing up, opening fire on the creature. The bullets just bounced off its hardened natural armor. Glancing back up at the crate behind him as he reloaded, Eric prayed that it was full of something really fucking heavy.
Within a few seconds, he was in the shadow of the crate.
Eric kept backing up. The thing was still coming right for him. As soon as he was clear of the crate and the monster was beneath it, Porter hit the release. The crate sailed through the air and smashed into the monster, which disappeared immediately beneath it. The crate hit it, and the floor, and then kept on going without stopping.
All that was left was a hole in the floor.
“Well...that works too,” Eric muttered, walking slowly up to the hole and staring cautiously over the edge.
He could see the lava pit below and couldn’t see the creature.
“Damn,” Porter said, making her way down the stairs. “Didn’t expect that.”
“Either way, it got the job done. Let’s go track down that lead,” Eric replied.
She nodded and the pair of them headed out of the warehouse.
CHAPTER 12
–Environmental Instability–
“Callie, what the fuck is happening!?” Greg demanded. The base had gone dark and now was beginning to groan and shudder around them.
“So, um, we might have fucked up,” Callie replied.
“Yes...” he prompted.
“We accidentally destroyed the primary reactor...and apparently it was powering a series of plates built into the hull of this place and...okay, basically, short answer is that without power, this place will succumb to the pressure of the water. We’ll be crushed. Now, emergency lights are still on and we didn’t all die immediately, so it means that there must be some power left coming from somewhere. I managed to get to a terminal and determined that there are actually some tertiary generators that we overlooked. Only one of them is functioning, for some reason. I think we’ll need a minimum of three going.”
“So we turn them on,” Greg replied.
“Yes. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to get to both of them. There’s one that should be somewhere around your present location. Find a terminal, access the map while there’s still power. The room you’re looking for is shaped like a diamond. It should stand out. Get there as quick as you can and turn it on.”
Greg sighed heavily. “On it.”
Just another fucking stumbling block. At least he was properly motivated. The emergency lights had indeed come on and the whole area was bathed in a deep red light. To make matters worse, the whole base was still trembling as the pressures of the ocean around it threatened to crush them all. Time was most definitely a factor.
“Come on, I saw a terminal back down the corridor,” Greg said, turning and jogging back the way they’d come.
Mertz followed him and the pair of them retraced their route back to the terminal he’d spied earlier. Greg quickly booted up the terminal and navigated the menus as fast as he could. The screen was noticeably dimmer than the other terminals he’d used and passed by. Working quickly, he found the map and located their current position. There was indeed a diamond shaped room just a few corridors over.
“Come on,” Greg said, hoping that he could get there in time. And that he could figure out how to get the damned generator online.
The pair of them jogged down the corridor and broke right at a T junction, keeping their eyes open in the dim red gloom for hostiles. Anything could be lurking in the shadows. Greg suddenly wondered if Erebus was still online. Maybe if it was offline, cut off from its lifeblood, then the elementals and meat machines would be rendered non-functional as well and this whole thing would be a hell of a lot easier. God, to be able to just do their job and complete their objectives without having to shoot it out every ten fucking minutes with insane robot monsters…
It would certainly be nice.
As Greg neared the end of the passageway he was in, he became aware of a pounding sound. It was erratic and uncertain. He couldn’t be sure what was making it. Cold tension crept over him. Cautiously edging up to the corner that would lead him into the next hallway, constantly aware of the slowly worsening trembling all around them, he peered slowly around. His hopes fell as he saw the familiar figure of a fairly large meat machine. He began to ready himself, preparing to kill it, but something made him hesitate.
There was something really odd about this one.
The creature was staggering down the corridor, periodically beating its fists against the wall, denting the metal. It suddenly cut loose with a long, low howl of what sounded like fury and agony. Greg began to raise his rifle.
“What is it?” Mertz whispered.
The creature abruptly snapped its gaze back around to face Greg and the second it laid eyes on him, it began shrieking wildly and sprinting right towards him. Letting out a shout of terror, Greg raised his rifle and opened fire. Unfortunately, between the shaking of the base and his own fear and the erratic movements of the creature, he couldn’t land a shot on it. Within seconds the thing was practically in his face and it launched itself at him. Greg grunted as he was shoved down onto his back, the creature on top of him.
It wrapped its one remaining hand around his throat and hit him in the helmet with the barrel growing from its other wrist. Blind panic ignited within him like a detonating warhead and he struggled against the creature, but it was far stronger than he was. Just as he was seriously beginning to question what in the fuck he was going to do, the thing’s head abruptly snapped to the side and blood sprayed across his visor.
The grip loosened, although Mertz had to help him pry the fingers off.
“Damn,” Greg said, coughing. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” Mertz replied as he shoved the corpse off of him. “What the hell happened? They’ve never done that before.”
“I think Erebus isn’t controlling them anymore,” Greg replied, recovering his rifle and getting slowly to his feet.
“So...left to their own devices, this things are totally fucking insane?”
“Seems so. Come on.”
They continued down the passageway as the base shook around them, moving as quickly as they dared. They weren’t all that far away now. Turning a few more corners, Greg finally spied the door that would take them to the tertiary generator. How many fucking generators did this place have? He supposed he shouldn’t be complaining, though he had to admit he was nervous as hell about turning the power back on, even a fraction of it. What if Erebus was just waiting for the opportunity? It wasn’t like they had any choice though.
The shaking was getting worse and the constant sounds of metallic groaning only served to motivate him to move faster. The pair of them came into the diamond shaped room and Greg looked frantically around. His eyes fell on a familiar control panel across the way and he quickly crossed over to it. Letting his rifle hang by its sling, he studied it.
“Okay, this I recognize,” he said as he began to work it.
“Can you turn it on?” Mertz asked, watching the door.
“I can turn it on. The real question is: will it turn on?”
“Well, hurry up, I hear more crazy fuckers coming our way,” Mertz replied.
Sighing, Greg went as quickly as he could through the activation procedure. Ten seconds bled by. Then fifteen. After twenty, he began to hear the noises as well. Banging and screaming. It sounded like there were definitely more than one of them this time. Greg could feel sweat beginning to trickle down his back and forehead. Abruptly, the whole room lit up. The generator churned to life. Greg let out a sigh of relief.
“They’re here!” Mertz called.
Greg spun around and saw the man halfway out into the corridor, opening fire. Abruptly, he pulled back and hardly a second after he did something barreled past the doorway in a blur. The shrieking
was louder than ever now. Greg brought his rifle up just in time as another figure lurched into a view, a meat machine in all of its grimy and decayed glory. The only good news, Greg thought as he opened fire on the rapidly advancing creature, was that they seemed to have forgotten how to use the weapons Erebus had given them.
Unfortunately, what they lacked in projectile attack potential they more than made up for in ravenous, vicious insanity.
The creature flopped forward as he put a shot through its head and came to a skidding halt just a few feet from him on the deckplates. Hardly before he could readjust his aim, another two shrieking drones were clawing their way into the room. He and Mertz stood in the center of the room and opened fire, putting them down. Then putting down the next two. And three more after that. After expending three magazines apiece, the last body finally fell and all was silent. As he shakily reloaded, Greg realized that something had changed.
The trembling had subsided and he heard only the occasional metallic groan.
Callie and Keron must have gotten their half of the job done. “We need to keep moving,” Greg said, pushing his way through the corpses.
They were almost done.
* * * * *
Callie couldn’t believe her bad luck.
Though, on the other hand, she figured as she hurried down yet another anonymous corridor, this one trembling and leaking water in two places, she supposed that she had good luck, too. As bad as the reactor core was and as shitty as their current situation was, she was grateful that she at least had a way of stabilizing it all. Hopefully for long enough to get Allan and get the fuck out of here. Once they were free, the base could collapse in on itself and explode for all she cared. Honestly, she hoped that’s what did happen.
