Chapter 10
Hyperion Station: Technologies Department
They went through the large double doors with a sense of trepidation. Beyond those first two loaders, no others had appeared. They both strongly doubted that was all that there was on the station, and both believed they were entering their den, so they proceeded with guns drawn and up, ready for a fight.
Gaige double checked the Maliwan caustic SMG she was using, it was one of Artemis's older models, and then felt the other girl looking at her with a question.
"What?"
"Huh? Oh, I was wondering how you were doing, I mean your, ah, Anarchy? How charged are you?"
"The tank is empty. It goes away when I sleep. So I need kills."
"Right" Artemis responded switching to her pistol "I'll try and take their arms off and leave the kill to you."
"You should probably still use your sniper rifle. We don't know what we may find."
"It's alright. I can switch pretty fast, and besides, I have more ammo for the pistol anyway."
"Just don't come crying to me if you get yourself killed."
"Deal."
Artemis moved down the short hall to scout and quickly came back, switching to her rifle as she did.
"Well that didn't take long to go back on." Gaige said smirking.
The other girl motioned for her to be quieter and whispered "There's a giant loader ahead, doesn't seem to have noticed us yet, but I think it might be one of those WAR loaders you mentioned."
Gaige mouthed a curse and strained to see ahead, but couldn't, while she asked Artemis "So can we get around it?"
"Doubtful. Though I am reluctant to take it on."
"Oh? Why's that?"
"Well, it seemed like those other things didn't want to come in here, and since there are still loaders working over here, I would guess that that thing has been keeping them out."
"So if we destroy it we could upset whatever balance there is here."
"Right. Well that, the fact that if we engage it, it will no doubt summon back up, and the fact that I don't want to fight it also add in."
"Well we could go back and try one of the other doors."
"No, I'm pretty sure that that girl said something about Technologies being where she was at, so we're gonna have to go through here to find her."
"Well let's see it, and then kill it."
Artemis led the way ahead and they soon found themselves in a large reception type area, with a long wide counter with stations set up at it. On the floor they could make out what had once been lines to wait in. Off to the sides were doors leading out, as well as another to one side of the counter. To the other was a flight of stairs leading up. And in the middle of the area was a massive WAR loader standing guard.
Gaige looked around, there would be no chance of sneaking around it, especially since they didn't know which way they were going. So she gave a signal to the other two and lined up her gun.
Artemis exhaled and fired, aiming at the narrow gap in the shoulder. Her shot struck, tearing through the hoses and wires, throwing sparks and electing a noise from the loader. Less than a second later both Deathtrap and Gaige unleashed their shots into its other shoulder. Before the loader could even fully stand Artemis shot a second time severing the first of its arms before sinking her next two shots into the red lens in the middle of its head. At the same time its other arm fell off leaving behind a gooey trail of caustic sludge. It took a staggered step back under the onslaught and then fell forward, crashing into the ground to lie still.
A tense moment passed as the girls waited for reinforcements to arrive, and due to their reflexes were able to duck back as twin ceiling turrets appeared and started firing.
Artemis sheltered against the wall and reloaded while waiting for a break in the firing. The instant it happened, she was around the corner and fired twice before ducking back. At the same time Gaige did the same.
They ducked back as the turrets resumed fire and the girls waited. The next time there was a break they spun out and fired again, causing both the turrets to explode.
They positioned themselves against the walls, looking out and waited, while Gaige having emptied her clip, spent a second to reload. After a few moments passed and nothing else emerged they stepped out.
"Well that was"
"Don't say it."
"Huh?"
"Don't say it. Do not say it, bad luck."
"I was just gonna comment on how cool that loader was. What's bad luck about that?"
"Oh, sorry."
"It's fine, anyway I suppose we should have a look around before moving on."
"Right, babe? Eyes out."
"Urrur"
They casually hopped over the counter as Deathtrap stood guard. Behind the counter was the most untouched area they had found, with the possible exception of some of the residential quarters. Things were neatly filed away, chairs were pushed in, there was no litter, only dust on the ground, and unfortunately, nothing useful.
The shelves held employee logs, but all the projects were listed under cyphers like T-Exp 136 and Project Golem.
The only thing of immediate relevance that they found was an ECHO labeled Tech Orientation.
Hey there, Handsome Jack here, welcoming you to your new career.
Here at the Odysseus project you can...blow it out your ass.
I mean who writes this crap?
Listen, you already know why you're here, if you don't just find your nearest airlock and save us all a lot of trouble.
All you need to know is this, you have two main jobs, the first, and most important is to keep an eye on those freaks in the bio-lab. Seriously, if they get out of line, deal with them. Permanently. Use a loader or something if you have to.
The second thing is to figure out whatever project you are assigned to, and get it working.
That's it.
See that wasn't so hard now was it.
So quit listening to this and get to work, I'm not paying you to sit around listening to how awesome I am.
Though I really can't blame you for wanting to.
"No wonder this thing had a layer of dust on it. What a dick."
"Oh, that's him being polite."
"Still, we did learn what this project is called, even if we have no idea what that means."
"Project Odysseus? I really hate these code-named things. I mean, what does it even mean? Does it mean anything?"
"You'll just go nuts if you try and think about it too much."
"Right. So which way?"
"Hmm, my guess is that the side doors will lead to some kind of loader bays, or work areas, so maybe up?"
"Good a direction as any I suppose."
The two of them jumped the counter and rejoined Deathtrap before heading to the staircase. Artemis drew her pistol and took point, with the big robot taking up the rear guard.
Gaige watched as the other girl slid up the stairs silently, before popping around the corner in a rush. Finding nothing of note waiting for them she motioned for the others to follow and they soon found themselves on the second floor.
And standing in their way was a massive blast door.
"Huh. Well that's inconvenient."
"Any chance you can open it?"
"Not from here. There's got to be a control panel somewhere, or an override, or something."
They scanned the immediate area and found nothing, no panel, no controls, only smooth walls.
"Well maybe we can find something downstairs." Gaige said without much hope.
"What about the computers behind the reception desk?"
"No good, they're dead, I tried them when we were looking behind the desk.
They went back down and looked at the remaining three doors. "Guess we can try that one next." She said pointing to the one next to the reception desk.
Since it still had power, they used one of the key cards to open it and found themselves looking into a short hallway with another door at the end. They looked at each other and shrugged before moving in and swiping the card at the far end, only to get a red light and an error noise. Looking back, they spotted a switch at the far end and when they hit it, the first door slid shut and after a few seconds of hissing as the air cycled, the far light turned green and the door opened.
They stepped through to what must have been some kind of workshop, with areas set up and partitioned off with translucent barricades. Tools and equipment were left all over the place and the smell of death assaulted their senses.
Looking closer, they could make out the bodies of some of the dead technicians, as well as blood sprays across a few of the barricades. Standing, as silent guardians of the dead, were three loaders, each in a state of partial completion. None of them moved in response to the doors opening.
No one moved for a few seconds, waiting to see if the loaders would respond. None of them did, not a twitch nor a light came on, so the two girls and robot moved into the room.
They moved up and Gaige checked the loaders before relaxing a bit and saying "They aren't operational, this one's missing a power core, that one's down a CPU and that one, well whoever was working on it, must have been an idiot."
"Good. But what do you think happened in here?"
"You mean other than a crime against robotics? Someone got killed. Couple someones to be more exact. Look, you want robots? I'm your girl. Crime scene analysis? Not so much."
"Foregnsicks. I think that's the word for that."
"Forensics. See I knew you'd know the right word for that, I just couldn't think of it. Anyway, you're more of the expert on that. What do you think killed them?"
Artemis went behind one of the partitions and crouched next to the corpse.
"Well, this guy at least was stabbed. Note the screwdriver still sticking out of the wound. That's usually a pretty good indicator."
"Wow, really? You're so good at this, maybe you should switch careers to it."
"Hay, you're the one who asked."
"Sorry, just kinda embarrassing when it's that easy."
"Right. Well this guy is a bit harder, but if I had to guess, I'd say he got smacked from behind, probably by a wrench or something. And this one looks to be the same."
"What's it all mean?"
"Rough guess? Someone went berserk. Don't know for sure, but maybe someone couldn't handle being locked in anymore, and the rest were trying to build these bots to help them get out, and one of them lost it and went on a spree."
"Probably the one building that bot."
"Could be, I mean if he was as bad as you say he is, and I have no reason to doubt you, then maybe he couldn't take having his incompetence mocked. Or her I suppose. His or her incompetence."
"Either way, we should have a look around and see if we can find anything useful, especially for getting that door open."
They got to their now customary thing of splitting up and scouring the area. Gaige had to keep reminding herself not to examine the loaders too closely, so she went out further, to the edge of the room and began looking near one of the large side doors. So, she wasn't nearby when Artemis found the blueprints to the loaders fallen on the floor in one of the partitioned off work areas.
She flipped through them, understanding enough to be able to get the gist of what was on them. She folded them and tucked them in her bag before continuing on. Before long she had made her way to the far end of the room and stood in front of another massive door, one large enough that even the WAR loader could walk through it easily.
As she stared at the door, she tried to figure out what might be on the other side, and the only thing that came to mind was a storeroom filled with loaders. She shuddered at the thought of an army of the WAR loaders marching through the door and turned back, hustling to the center of the room as Gaige and Deathtrap headed that way as well.
"So, what'd ya find?" Gaige asked hopefully
"I found something for you to look at once we get back to the ship, but nothing to help us immediately."
"Oh, what is it?"
"You're gonna badger me until I tell you aren't you."
"Probably."
"Urra"
"Fine. I found the schematics for those loaders, and no you can't see them until we're out of here."
"What? Why?"
"Cause if I give them to you now, we won't be able to move forward for an hour or so as you go over them, and then take the loaders apart, and we need to get moving."
"No I won't. Five minutes, just let me look at them for five minutes? No? How about one minute? Just a glance? Please?"
"Urarar" As if sensing that the other girls resolve was weakening Deathtrap interrupted to get them back on track.
"Fine, I'll wait." Gaige said sulkily.
"Good, now what'd you find?"
"Nothing much, just some ECHO labeled 'Trial 327' that I haven't listened to."
She popped it into her player and a female and male voices came on.
Are you recording this? Good.
This will be trial 327. We used the new sample to try and supplement the existing data to work the faults out of the subjects and will be trying formula S164. Are the security systems in place?
Yes ma'am.
Very well, proceed with the injections.
(muffled screaming)
Yes, yes, fascinating...No, no, damn, this one isn't working either. Terminate the experiment.
Yes ma'am.
(gunfire and then silence)
Well, clean this up and proceed with the next subject.
Right away ma'am.
(muttered)crazy bitch
The girls listened to the ECHO fall silent.
After a few seconds Gaige started up with "Who were they? What were they doing? And why was this down here?"
As if in answer the ECHO crackled causing both girls to jump
I hate having to reuse these things.
Never can tell if I'm in the right place on them.
But we have no choice since those bastards stole all the unused ones from storage.
Anyway, enough of that.
The loaders are proceeding nicely, we should be done before the end of the week, well I guess that depends on what day it is. Ever since the doors closed, time has become, well, pointless.
Anyways, both Griff and mine should be done, at least if that idiot Narem doesn't kill us first.
I mean look at that waste of parts.
But to be fair, the lock down has been rough on all of us, and Narem was, is, one of the best minds here, so we have to put up with it for a little longer.
Anyway, the loader experiments have been proceeding at a good pace, all things considered.
We'll need to go upstairs and get the keys to the supervisors' office to get the
(space full)
"Get the what!" Gaige yelled.
"Well, if we can find it, the office that is, we can find out."
"But we would need the key, and that's upstairs."
"Who do you think we are?"
"Point. Let's go."
"Now the only question is where is the office."
Gaige deflated slightly "It wasn't your way?"
"No, mine ended in a massive door, that I don't want to go through unless we have to."
"Why? Is this another of those scardy cat things?"
"No. It's just that the only thing I've seen around here that would need a door that big is one of those WAR loaders, and I can't figure out why they'd need to get one of those in here. And if that isn't it, I don't think I want to know what they were moving through it. Besides, I would guess that whatever is on the other side of the door, would probably connect to the smaller door in the entrance area."
"OK all valid points, let's go my way."
She led them to the other end of the room to where a normal sized door was set off to one side and a larger door, about the size of the one they had entered into this wing through, was set in the middle.
They opted for the smaller door.
Opening the door, they found another short hallway with a sealed door at the other end. Following the procedure from the first hall opened it, leading them to an intersection, with one side going out a short ways and ending in a door that they figured would lead to the same room as the larger door, the other way led to a short hall with doors on either side. Most of them were typical office type doors, but the end one was reinforced.
Not wanting to overlook something they checked the doors on the sides as they went, and found what Gaige recognized as mechanical engineering offices and work rooms, much like she had worked briefly in. In fact, just looking at them caused a sudden wave of boredom to surge over her. Shaking her head, she stepped into one of them to see what they had been working on.
She looked up from the scattered plans to see that Artemis had moved into the room and was looking at her.
"What?"
"How long are you gonna be?"
"What da ya mean?"
"Well you've been looking at those papers for like, ten minutes or so."
"No way. It hasn't been anywhere close to that."
"Urgru"
"What? Wow, I guess I really do lose track of time when I'm working."
"Well, what are they?"
"That's just it, I'm not entirely sure. They all seem to be for a specific purpose, but I can't figure it out, not without knowing more of what they were doing here. Or trying to."
"Should we gather them up and take them with?"
"Hmmm, it's tempting, but no. Too many to take with right now. Oh, but take these three. And this book. They seem like I could make something wicked with them."
"Right." And she carefully stuffed them into her backpack while shooing Gaige out of the room.
"Now you said earlier that you can pick a lock if it's in front of you?"
"Did I? Maybe. Well let's see it."
She crouched in front of the reinforced door and examined the lock.
"Wow. Seriously? You go to all that work to get a nice solid door, reinforce the walls, get the best lock money can buy, and then leave your hinges exposed. I mean for starters, who swings their door into the hallway, that's against some kind of building code or something. Anyway, give me a second. Oh, and give me one of those tools you picked up earlier, no not that one, yeah, that one. Right here we go."
And with a few swings of her hammer and a little work from Deathtrap they had the door loose and gently set it down in the hall.
"Voila." She said with a triumphant smile.
"Nicely done."
"Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week."
"I hope not."
"Yeah, me to. Let's see what they were hiding."
They moved into what was defiantly a supervisors/ office while Deathtrap waited in the hall. The desk, the chairs, all the way to the dead plant in the corner, every inch was so stereotypical that Gaige found herself looking under the desk for a hidden button that would lead to some secret room.
"What are you doing?"
"Looking for a hidden switch."
"What?"
"Look, this room's way to boring to be an actual supervisors' office. So there has to be more to it."
"Or it could just be a corporate thing. Bland room for a bland job?"
"I hope not, now it's usually under the desk."
"It's on the bookshelf."
"What?"
"Behind you. That book and that gear both have marks on them. No not that, hold on." She walked around the desk and pointed "This one."
"How could you even see that from there, I mean, I'm right in front of it and I can barely see it."
She examined the objects and gave them a twist and a push and the walls on either side of the door swung inward, completely blocking the door.