The stars shown clearly, Like pin holes in the black of night, as the moon rose to the top of its nightly journey, lighting the surface of Rubi-Ka and casting eerie shadows across the landscape. Trees and grass spread randomly over the rocky terrain that surrounded the Stret river here, giving the local lifeforms shade and food. A few rocks slide down the cliff wall facing the waters of the Stret, then more followed, rolling down the wall to drop into the waters below, breaking the silence of the night with their splashes. An arm shot from the wall of Rock, moving quickly to clear a hole so the rest of the figure could slide free. Pulling himself from the wall, Garret "Valaik" Clasen fell, tumbling down the same path the rocks had moments before to land with a loud splash in the water. Swimming slowly to shore, Valaik crawled to lie on the shore, the water having washed off some of the dirt and blood that had covered his face and arms, his now wet clothes torn to the point of being almost unrecognizable.
"I never....thought I'd be so happy to see those damned stars." mumbled Valaik as he lay looking up at the stars, not caring about the new wounds he had collected in his fall.
Slowly he raised his hand to his face and kissed the Ring of Thorns that grasped his finger tightly, digging into the flesh, His wedding ring given to him by his wife. Laughing lightly a smile slowly crossed his grimy face, remembering all that had happened these last few days. Slowly he climbed painfully to his feet, checking himself out to see if any of the new wounds were serious, most were minor cuts, and one deep cut ran down his calf. Pulling off the remains of his shirt, he tied it around the would to keep the bleeding to a minimum, then began a slow walk north. Moving slowly through the night, doing his best to avoid the predators in this region, Valaik's mind began to drift back to the events that he had just been through.
3 Days Earlier...
The base smelled of cleaning fluids and lubricant as Valaik walked along the halls, Inspecting the base one last time before he was satisfied that it was complete, for the most part. Two more levels were being constructed beneath the hangar level to accomodate the new facilities that would store the influx of offworld goods before they could make their way, through multiple fronts, into the population of Rubi-Ka. Smiling he made his way to a secure section at the end of the corridor, the facilities central computer confirming his identity with his Palm and Retinal scans before releasing the locks on the door. Moving into the storeroom Valaik scanned the crates that lined the walls, all marked with a large Omni-Tek Logo. Nodding his approval that everything he had ordered had arrived ahead of schedule, Valaik made a note on his wrist comp to transfer a bonus into the account of a certain Omni-Admin employee. Making his way back into the cooridor, He ran into an Engineer that was standing just outside the door.
"WHoa! Geez, don't just on the otherside of doors, gonna end up getting hurt." Said Valaik as he straightened his shirt.
"Sorry sorry, I was looking for you and the computer told me you were here. Seems there is a problem down on Sublevel Two. Some kinda cave that's not on the charts and that didn't show up on our sensor scans for some reason. The rest of the Engineering team thought you should Suit up and come down to have a look and tell us what you want to do." spoke the Engineer as he adjusted his glasses in a decidedly nasal voice, seeming the textbook description of a Tech weenie.
"Alright, I'll suit up and meet you on the lift down to Sub Two. Gimme 10 minutes or so." spoke Valaik as he moved off down the hall to the lift that would take him down to the hanger level where the Modified Battle Suits they used for hazardous areas. The lift quickly took him down where he quickly got off and made his way to the Storage room for Suits, his mind going over the details of the next few days. Devil's Advocate was having a party Saturday night and hoped it to be a large one, a Return to what they had been originally known for, Entertainment, giving people a place to have fun. Smiling he tapped the control next to the door and stepped inside, Saturday night was gonna be fun, only thing that could make it better was if his wife could be there with him. The smile never left his face as he made his way to the suit with his name on the chest, tapping the access code into the controls beside it, he took a few steps back as the suit slide out and rotated, oppening with a hiss of air to allow him to climb inside the reinforced exoskeleton. Climbing up onto the suit Valaik slid his legs down inside of it, followed by his arms, and finally letting the suits Memory Gel interior to shape itself to his body as he told the suits computer to seal the suits rear hatch.
"Ok, Computer, Full systems check, Error Report only please." spoke Valaik as the suit finished sealing and pressurised, moving his arms to remind himself of his more limited range of motion now.
Moving out slowly into the room, Valaik made sure all the suits limbs would move as they were supposed to, the microsensors inside the suit picking up his own movements and transfering those to the suit, allowing him to move the half ton battle suit with little effort. A green indicator light began to glow on his heads up display, indicating that all systems were running
within the operational design of the suit. He moved out into the hall and down a newly cut cooridor at the end, moving down to the heavy frieght lift that would take him down into the sublevels. Seeing the Engineer here already and suited up he couldn't help but think of himself as slow, being a Fixer that was not something he ever cared to be called by anyone. Moving into the lift alongside the Engineer, he activated the external speaker with the chin-plate in the suit.
"Beat me here did ya ? No matter, I didn't catch your name earlier and it also seems to be on the edge of my mind, but I can't grab on." spoke Valaik through the suits speaker system as the Engineer tapped the controls that would lower them down to Sublevel Two.
"Oh sorry, I am Chief Surveryor Gabriel Sims, I have only been working here for a few weeks. Rather tight security for a storage facility, don't you think ? I mean none of the folks here even know where we are, or refuse to comment on it." spoke the
engineer, his suit causing his nasal voice to sound higher pitched.
"Yes, competition is rough and sometimes its better to keep a few places private that you can fall back on without worrying about some competitor getting upset with you and blowing the place into low orbit." Said Valaik with a light chuckle as the lift reached Sublevel Two, the doors grinding slowly open to expose the cut rock that made up this level.
Moving off of the lift the two Battle Suit Clad figures made their way slowly down the freshly cut cooridor, the uneven floor making their suits internal gyro's work harder than usual to keep them upright. The cooridor was lit by a series of glowlamps that had been placed along the ceiling, Valaik smiled a little at that, he hated bright light, it was painful. His eyes were hyper sensitive for some reason that the Doctors on the mudball mining world of his birth could never explain, but it gave him excellent night vision but also forced him to take caution around bright lights which could cause headaches, daze him, or even knock him out if they were bright enough.
"Right up here sir, the dig team broke through into this cavern a few days ago. Seems to go pretty deep and we can hear water running, possibly an underground stream. Also, the rocks here are loaded down with Notum and something else, it makes all sensor readings go crazy, one of the other engineers even thinks that it may cause the Reclamation technology to malfuncion, but no one is crazy enough to let us test that." Spoke the engineer as they came upon a dark hole at the end of the cooridor.
"Yeah, I can imagine. Well, we have no clue whats down there, but we do know that water is getting in and out somewhere so someone may be able to do the same. Lets seal up this cooridor, that should keep this area nice and secure. Make sure to place some seismographic monitors here as well, in case someone decides to try and dig their way in." Valaik said as he gazed over the hole and let his suits forearm lamp shine down into the hole.
An explosion threw the pair forward, the concussion wave throwing them both from their feet and against the wall at the end of the cooridor hanging halfway over the openning into the cavern below. Valaik glanced back in the direction of the explosion as soon as he impacted on the wall, the suit taking almost all of the impact, in time to see a ball of plasma roaring down the cooridor towards him. Valaik pushed the unmoving form of the Engineer's suit into the hole, then followed him in, dropping into the darkness belew, turning as he did in time to see the flames consume the area where he had just been and shooting downwards towards him. The flames covered his suit for a moment and he heard an alarm sound, the fire so hot that it could be felt through the insulation of the suit. Spinning as he fell, Valaik caught sight of the Cavern floor far below, illuminated by the flames, a mass of razor shart stalagmites, and he was rushing right for them. He fell free of the flames moments before the suit impacted the ground, smashing into the rock with all the momentum the suit had collected in its fall. His head smashed into the suit controls on impact, the suit screaming as metal gave from the impact, robbing Valaik of consciousness.
Distantly Valaik heard the suit reading off the damage, as if hearing it through water, slowly he climbed back to consciousness and the suits female voice began to make more sense.
"Suit Integrity at 86%, Oxygen Supply at 46%, Mobility at 87%, Primary Power Offline, Auxilary Power at...." spoke the suits voice, continuously repeating the full list.
"Computer.....Shut....Shut down....audio alerts." said Valaik, forcing the words from his mouth, trying to gather the breath in
his lungs to speak.
The computer stopped its status report and Valaik moved to get up, noticing that it was harder now than before, the sensors in the suit must have been damaged from the fall. Pushing his way to his feet, Valaik looked around, the area barely lighted by some luminus fungus of some type spread around the cavern. Valaik was surprised to see the suits wrist lamp in working condition and activated it, piercing the darkness with a beam of light, moving it slowly around the area he took in his surroundings. The walls rose up for what appeared to be 200 meters to the roof and he saw the hole he had come through, now a dried lump of reformed stone, the heat of the fire had liquified the rock and sealed off the opening. Sighing Valaik continued to scan the cavern, then came across something he had forgotten, the Engineer in the other battle suit. He hadn't been so lucky in the fall, a stalagmite had pierced the chest of the suit and now it lay impaled upon it. Moving in close Valaik expected to see the suit
Empty, but what he saw surprised him and sent a chill down his spine, the engineer was still in the suit, dead, and the body hadn't been reclaimed.
"Looks like the poor guy was right, Ressurection Technology doesn't seem to work down here, neither do Comm units it seems." muttered Valaik as he tried to place an comm signal to anyone that would respond, recieving only static in response to his efforts.
Suddenly a stored message indicator began to flash inside the suit, thinking he might be able to recieve signals but not transmit, Valaik told the computer to play the message. His heart stopped when an image overlayed itself on his heads up display, a image of a man he knew all too well, Thelonis, his face stretched into a broad smile.
"Hello Garret, I do hope this message finds you before you die. I really wish I could be there to watch the fun but unfortunately I'm not here for you, killing you is just a bonus. Well I do hope you're in a lot of pain and it really is too bad that the bomb was set to go off earlier than when I told the Engineer but you always taught me to never leave a witness. Now I have business to take care of, what is that you call yourself now, Valaik ? Now do take your time dying, I'd hate to think I went to all of this trouble for you to just keel over on me." spoke the image, a nastry grin on its face the whole time, then blinked out, leaving Valaik alone in the cave.
Glancing around, Valaik looked for another way out of the cave, the water had to be comming in somewhere and getting out somewhere else, but which way to go was the question. Choosing the tunnel with the most room Valaik began to force the suit along, finding it much more difficult to move now, keeping his light ahead of him so he could better see. The tunnel had to be twenty meters high and the fifteen wide. Valaik noticed that the sharp rocks that lined the walls of the main cavern were broken here, some recently, he continued on but wrote it off as a curious event, wondering if the explosion had caused it. After a few hundred meters the tunnel began to turn, slowly slanting down according to the suits internal sensors. Valaik debated turning around and checking the other tunnel but continued on, hoping to find a tunnel branching off that would lead him to the surface.
Looking forward to more
Telonis seems like a bad, bad man. Hope he gets his just desserts!