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Chapter 9: Base
SYSTEMS DIAGNOSTIC RUNNING
REFRESH DAMAGE REPORT
GENERAL SYSTEMS OPERATING AT 97
SECONDARIES OFFLINE
EMERGENCY SYSTEMS OFFLINE
REACTIVATE
Ace's consciousness returned to him as his systems came back online. The room he was in was pitch black, and quite obviously not the medical facility he was supposed to teleport into. His danger level jumped immediately as his low-light visor cut in, and he triggered his jump jets just as the auto cannons began firing at his position. Their tracking was slow, and he was able to unsling his assault rifle and destroy them with explosive shells.
Taking a moment to assess his surroundings, Ace recoiled in horror. All around him lay the stacked bodies of once-heroes, riddled with bullet holes. Blood ran in rivulets down onto the floor, where it pooled and congealed. Many of the faces were ones Ace recognized, Jade Savior among them.
After a second, Ace was forced to tone down his emotion circuit. He refused to turn it off entirely, because the grief at this sight was natural, but he had to escape this place, and he couldn't if he was overwhelmed by emotion.
He wondered where he was. Obviously, something had gone haywire in the teleportation grid… someone must have tampered with it; Maarlynd's spies, no doubt. Now it was sending the unconscious superheroes here, to this death pit.
Ace looked slowly around the room. As far as he could tell, it was totally sealed off. He activated his x-ray visor and made another sweep, but couldn't find any evidence of a seal or of a tunnel behind the walls. He was trapped here, it would seem.
Impossible, of course; the teleportation grid needed a direct wire access to a location in order to teleport someone there. There had to be a control center somewhere nearby… but not necessarily on a level plain! Ace looked up, and sure enough, wires ran through the ceiling and connected to a room overhead.
Triggering his jump boosters, Ace fired upward and smashed through the ceiling. As the dust cleared, he took a quick look around. The room was filled with circuitry and wiring so thick that no one could possibly be here round the clock. It had to be computer controlled, with just enough room for emergency maintenance.
Ace accessed the local computer terminal. Usually, he could crack any system, since he was a computer himself and thus had innate knowledge of how one worked, but this system incorporated the heaviest security measures he had ever known. It went far beyond normal countermeasures; passwords were easy, bioprints could be faked, but the entire operating system of this terminal was encoded, with a unique keyboard setup done entirely with non-English symbols, a unique computer operating system, and what appeared to be an AI dedicated defense program. There was no way anyone could crack this kind of security. Ace wasn't sure how the people who used it got past their own security.
Option A fails, go with option B, Ace thought, unclipping an EMP grenade off his belt. As he emerged from the room, he activated the bomb and tossed it back in behind him. There was a soft explosion, followed by a crackling sound as dozens of wires discharged and fried. That should end the redirection, Ace thought to himself.
With that, Ace turned around. Ahead of him was a heavy metallic door. Beside it was a wall-mounted keypad. Most people would be balked at this. Ace, on the other hand, could relay directly with the computer inside. The terminal may have been a unique operating system, but keypads were all done the same, and with a bit of rewiring, Ace was easily able to access the door controls.
The door slid open. The hall inside was well lit and clean, with smooth stone walls and steel flooring. It was a short hallway leading to another door, with a second hallway crossing it. Down the side hallways were several dozen doors leading into small rooms; as far as Ace could tell, a prison block.
Crossing the hallway, Ace again accessed the keypad and opened the door. Two guards were chatting at what appeared to be a security checkpoint ahead. Ace ducked to the side as they looked at the open doorway.
"Check it out," one of them said. "I'll call in a report. If you're not back in two minutes, I'm calling in reinforcements." The other guard nodded, picked up his sidearm, and walked to the door.
"All clear!" he shouted. "Must've been a short. Get a maintenance team down here to check it out." He shut the door and walked back to his seat.
Once out of sight of the guards, Ace deactivated his cloaking system. He had emerged from the checkpoint into another long hallway, this one curving gently in each direction, so it would form a circle if it went far enough. It was well lit and the walls were smooth, with what appeared to be alarm boxes every few yards. Ace concluded that it must be the central hallway of the complex, and the alarm boxes implied that it was home to patrolling guards.
CLOAKING DEVICE OPERATING AT 100
POWER SYSTEM ROUTER ACTIVE
Satisfied that he could maintain cloak, Ace reactivated the device and began walking down the hallway. Several times, he passed a trio of guards on patrol; once, a large group of guards jogged down the hallway, obviously intent on their destination. Hallways branched off to the left, opposite the direction of the curve.
Ace concluded that the circle was some 80 yards in diameter, and he had traversed most of it before finding a heavily guarded door that branched off into the center of the circle. Unsure of how to proceed, he stepped to the side and reran the trip in his mind.
As far as he could tell, he was in a GAC base; possibly the main base. It was definitely underground, and extremely well guarded. The inside of the circle was so heavily guarded that it must be either the control room or the elevator to the surface. Either way, Ace was intent on accessing that room… and either way, if he did, he would no longer have any need for stealth.
He walked gently between the guards, getting as close as possible without alerting them to his presence. Then, reaching down, he triggered a nerve gas grenade.
The guards slumped to the floor, unconscious. Accessing the code pad, Ace opened the door and slipped through. He found himself on a short catwalk over a shallow trench. The trench was crisscrossed with laser beams, and auto guns on the ceiling and walls watched over the area. On the other end of the catwalk was one more door.
He opened it. Stepping through, he filed one last command—the catwalk behind him dropped, leaving no way to follow him in. Even as it happened, he heard shouts in the room ahead of him and bullets began whizzing past him.
Spinning around, he unslung his rifle and dove to the side. Six guards were converging on his position. Before they began firing again, Ace launched an M60 grenade into their formation.
Alarms sounded even as the grenade went off, spraying shrapnel and blood everywhere.
He was in what appeared to be the control room itself. Several computer terminals were arranged around the room, each with two people sitting at them. Some were looking at Ace in surprise; most were ignoring the situation completely and continuing their work.
And in the center of it all, standing up from his chair, was Maarlynd himself.