Chapter 9: Empty Space Out of Control
What had awaited them through the door at the end of the hallway had surprised Rico. The area was built completely of Pioneer 1's technology. The rooms were brightly lit with fluorescent lights that reflected off the clean white floor, showing their reflections somewhat. Computer monitors and miscellaneous equipment were scattered about, data and readouts scrolling down the light green screens. Rico had immediately tried to get into the computers to see what information about this place they held, but nothing came up. It was then, while they were both trying to figure out a way to get the data they wanted, that they first came across the guardians of this place.
The halls were filled with robotic guardians, ones that Rico recognized as formerly being used for industrial work. They had been modified and changed to fit a combat role, something that Rico knew couldn't have been done by any monster. The question that now nagged at the back of her mind was if this was done by someone from Pioneer 1. If so, then why?
Rico plunged her Red Daggers into the grayish-black chests of two humanoid robots that stood just above her height, ripping them out sideways and cutting through the vital circuitry of the robots. Their three red robotic eyes dimmed as they crashed to the ground with a loud clatter. A third came from behind, but Rico spun around swiftly and sliced through its neck with ease, oil spilling from the severed connections as it joined the first two Gillchics. She stared at the fallen robots before looking past it, seeing Danielle cornered by three of the machines, her Autogun firing rapidly. There was a fourth one closer to her, and it had braced itself while raising its right arm, a crossbow-like apparatus opening.
"Danielle, catch! Aim for their heads!" she shouted, placing the Red Dagger in her left hand with the other in her right, taking out her Red Handgun and slinging it high up into the air. Danielle raised her head and managed to catch it in her right hand, firing both of the weapons at her attackers now with her teeth bared. As she aimed at the two Gillchics on the right and left, the Photon shots melted quickly through the metal and destroying the vital circuitry in their heads. Rico watched as the panting teen brought the guns together on the final Gillchic that stood right in front of her, not even bothering aiming at its head as a hail of Photon bullets slammed into its metal chest and sent it crashing backwards, electricity crackling over its body.
Rico scanned their immediate surroundings, satisfied when she saw that nothing else was coming. She strode over to Danielle, exchanging the Red Daggers for her Red Saber as she placed a hand on Danielle's shoulder. Sweat covered the teen's face as she glanced up, still panting somewhat as she handed back the Red Handgun. "Man, those things are tough… Not even safe at long-range from those walking tin cans."
Rico couldn't help but break into a slight grin while she put away the Red Handgun. Even in this situation, Danielle was opening up and showing her slight sense of humor. It was good that she was no longer so tensed up and nervous. That would just result in mistakes during fighting if she was too tightly wound up. "Yeah, they're challenging, but it shouldn't be too tough if you watch your surroundings when you're fighting."
"Yeah, I don't think I'll be forgetting that anytime soon…" She cringed, rubbing the back of her left shoulder where one of them had managed to get a good hit in from behind. "We should probably get moving though, huh? Don't doubt there's a ton of those things around here if this place is anything like what the caves were."
She's even developing some leadership potential. Maybe once we get out of this and find a way to let Pioneer 2 know we're down here, she can become a pretty great Ranger…
Rico just nodded now, watching as Danielle brushed away a few strands of brown hair from her blue eyes. When she had nodded that she was ready, the two walked forward towards the only unlocked door in the room. The air was filled with the noise of unnamed machines doing their mysterious work in these mines. Rico couldn't help but wonder why the government had built such a place so deep beneath the ground. She had already left a few message capsules recording her thoughts and observations, including about how she speculated that this was where all of the missing materials from Pioneer 1 had gone. The technology here was some of the most advance that she had seen here on Ragol, which meant that the Alliance of Nations must have placed a lot of this equipment on Pioneer 1 before launch. But why? What were they digging for? And had her teacher, Heathcliff Flowen, been involved in all of this?
Rico stopped abruptly, the all-too-familiar sound of a short range teleportation system being used reaching her ears. She held out a hand to stop Danielle, scanning around to see where the machine was. Oddly enough, though, no machines were around them. The room was pretty large and square-shaped, doors at the four corners of the room. They stood on a platform that's flooring contained parts that were a translucent sky blue. She frowned and pulled up the area map on her arm unit, but no orange blips showed up. "Come on," she said quietly, equipping her Red Partisan now. She could feel that something was watching them, but what? And where in the world was it?
There was a metallic clang from behind them, something like metal hitting metal. Rico spun on her heel to attack, but she only had time to see a humanoid robot with broad shoulders and blue armor leapt at her with an energy blade extended from its forearm, its red eyes locked on her. Pain ripped through her side as she was hit, her armor taking the brunt of the damage but the force of the blow still enough to send her crashing to the floor. Her eyes flickered quickly to her arm unit, which identified the robot as a Sinow Beat, jumped atop her and pinned her to the floor with one hand. Even as she struggled against it, it raised its right hand, the wrist blade extending before it lashed out at her neck to deal a fatal blow. Rico had to let go of her Red Partisan to catch the arm, the blade mere inches from her neck. She could feel the heat of the Photons burning her neck as she struggled to hold back the powerful arm. "Danielle, help!" she shouted, arms shaking as the blade inched towards her skin. She risked glancing to the right for just a few seconds, only to see Danielle trying to hold her own against a gold-armored Sinow Gold.
The machine bounded forward with incredible speed, Danielle backpedaling away from it as fast as she could while firing her Sniper. The Sinow Gold landed and brought its blade down, sparks flying as it sliced cleanly through the Sniper. Danielle's face paled as she dropped the sparking remains of the weapon and took a step back, apparently trying to come up with a better plan.
"Dang it!" Rico growled, glaring into her attacker's glowing red eyes. Her anger burned bright within her, and she focused on using that anger to fuel her Foie technique. Where she gripped the machine's arm, the blue metal slowly began to grow red hot. The Sinow Beat's red eyes flickered sideways to its arm before it leapt backwards away from Rico. She wasted no time in rising to her feet and snatching up her Red Partisan. With a single swing the red Photon blade sliced through the wires on the neck, Rico spinning the weapon before impaling the tip straight through its head. Ripping out the Red Partisan's blade, she let the machine drop to the floor while spinning to face Danielle's attacker.
By now Danielle had drawn her Autogun and was doing a pretty good job of dodging most of the strikes. That was, until now. She was backed against a wall with no place to go, the Sinow Gold leaping through the air at her with a slight whine of its leg servos. Danielle ducked and dove to the ground, the machine getting its blade stuck in the wall as sparks flew. Danielle scrambled to her feet and took aim at its legs, firing at the back of its knee joints. The Sinow Gold crashed to the ground, not even able to get its arm beneath it before a trio of Photon bullets pierced into its head.
She's getting better, Rico thought to herself before she turned to face another Sinow Beat that had dropped down. Instead of attacking, this one crossed its arms, strange energy flickering about its frame before several copies spread out around them from it. To make matters worse, the small floating machines called Canadines had also appeared, most of them rising into the air to attack with long range Zonde strikes.
"Uh, Rico?"
"Take out the Canadines and cover me! I'll handle the Sinow Beat!" She slid into a fighting stance with the Red Partisan, the copies all starting towards her. She was trying to figure out which one was the real one when she noticed a distinct difference.
Only one of them has a different color of light on its shoulders…
Smirking, Rico rushed in while Photon bullets flew overhead at the hovering, green-armored Canadines that targeted her with a red laser. The original Sinow Beat went to pull back its arm to strike, but Rico dashed right by while plunging the Red Partisan into its side near the shoulder joint. She shoved it in as deep as she could before wrenching the weapon sideways, the machine shuddering as the Photons melted through internal wiring. She pulled it out now, watching it collapse to the ground without moving, its red eyes dimming.
Bits of metal rained down from above now, a Canadine that had very nearly shocked her with a Zonde strike exploding beneath the rain of Photon bullets. She glanced up, seeing the last one fall to the bullets being fired.
Rico relaxed as the doors ahead of them unlocked, her area radar showing the room as cleared of any enemies. She headed back over to Danielle, who was nudging the remains of her destroyed Sniper with her foot. "How'd you hold up?"
"Fine, but I can't say the same for my rifle. What about you? I saw that hit you took."
Rico glanced down at her side, the slight trickle of blood already clotting. She was fortunate that her armor had taken the brunt of the damage. "Nothing too serious, thankfully. If I hadn't moved when I did, then we'd have a reason to be worried." She rested the pole of the partisan on her shoulder as she checked the area map once more, trying to judge which direction they needed to head. "What I managed to find out about the area from one of those computers is that there is a lift down to the next level in this area. Since there were no survivors here, there may be some down there." She was starting for the door in the northeast corner, glancing over her shoulder at her friend. She looked like she was lost in her thoughts right now, much to Rico's surprise. "You okay?"
Danielle blinked a few times before raising her head to look at Rico. "Yeah, I'm okay… Just wondering if we'll really find anyone down there. With all of these crazy machines running around, do you really think someone survived both the explosion and them?"
Rico stepped through the doorway, spotting the service elevator she had mentioned before. "To be honest, I really don't know. But if there is even the slightest chance that someone is still alive, I won't hesitate to take it. I made a promise to protect everyone, and I won't give up searching." She strode into one of the lifts, Danielle following her in as she pressed a button to descend to the next level. Rico knew that there was something else troubling Danielle, something that she wasn't ready to mention just yet. She looked scared of something here, but what?
Biting her lower lip slightly, Rico leaned back as the elevator descended into the darkness.
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Danielle cautiously followed Rico through the darkened hallways and rooms, wondering why this section of the mines seemed so run-down compared to the clean, bright upper level. There were gashes in the steel walls and over some of the computer panels, electricity sparking from torn wires and circuitry. Mining equipment was broken down in almost every place they passed through, the air carrying the smell of burnt rubber and melted steel.
"Stick close," Rico whispered as she slowly proceeded forward, Red Mechguns drawn. The room beyond the ruined hallway was pretty large, damaged robotic parts that looked like they were from a tan version of Gillchics littering the ground. With each step they nudged one of those chunks of metal, the unseeing eyes of the robotic heads staring up at them. Needless to say Danielle was pretty anxious to get out of the room, but Rico was taking it slowly and cautiously.
Danielle heard a slight humming sound, her eyes darting about the room quickly. "Rico…?" She held up a hand to quiet Danielle, her red eyes narrowing as she looked across the room. A small machine hovered over the ground in the northeast corner, yellow rods sticking out from the sides as it spun rather slowly in a clockwise direction. "Huh? What the…?"
The room suddenly filled with sound and activity, the pieces on the floor pulling together on their own to form completed robots. The Dubchics paused, not moving before their eyes began to glow and they activated completely. Danielle couldn't figure out how in the world they managed to come together after being completely destroyed, but Rico had already figured it out. "That floating machine is the control unit! Take it out, Danielle!"
"Uh, alright!" Rico stepped forward past her, swinging the Red Sword with such force that any machine struck was completely cleaved through. As soon as the parts hit the floor, though, they immediately began to reform and rise back up, shambling towards her now like some kind of zombie.
Great, zombie robots, Danielle thought grimly, leveling her Autogun as she aimed in the direction of the control unit. Several Dubchics were in the way, the teen having to dodge beneath several strikes while firing at others that stood right in front of her. The bullets weren't doing much good, so she took out her Brand instead and pushed through the robots. The blue Photon blade hummed with each swing, a path slowly being cleared in front of her. When she finally reached the control unit, she was about to cut the thing in half when a blow struck the back of her head and sent her crashing forward to the ground with a cry. She gasped, holding the back of her head as she glanced back at the Dubchic that stood over her, its laser crossbow aimed right at her with the beam charging. Still in a slight daze, Danielle rolled out of the way right as the laser bolt tore into the metal floor. She was right under the control unit now, and a quick glance over her shoulder told her that the Dubchics that weren't trying to overwhelm Rico were heading right for her.
Danielle rose to her knees and shoved the Brand's tip right up through the bottom of the control unit. Sparks flew as she withdrew the weapon, the machine exploding into bits of metal. The Dubchics immediately froze in place, electricity crackling over their bodies before each one of them fell to the floor with a crash, their pieces scattering. Warily, Danielle watched the pieces to make sure that they didn't reform again, but this time they stayed down.
Danielle let out a breath of relief, her shoulders slumping as she wiped the sweat from her forehead. Rico joined her, looking pretty worn out from having to hold those things off. "Well, that wasn't too bad," Danielle murmured. "At least they have a really big weakness. Getting to the control unit is the hardest part of it." She cringed as she touched the back of her head, feeling a knot begin to swell up. Apparently the Dubchic had landed only a glancing blow. A full-on strike would have wound up with Danielle being totally knocked out.
"So far it's been easy to take the machines down. The hardest we've run into so far are the Sinow Beats and Sinow Golds. As long as we don't run into anything worse, we should be okay." She was smiling encouragingly, but as she glanced forward at the door in front of them, her smile faded. "I just hope we find someone soon… We've been at this forever. We need to rest."
Danielle glanced up at Rico, noticing her friend's weariness. Their short breaks had barely been enough to keep them going. Even the hunter was getting worn out from the constant fighting. But was there really any place for them to rest at in these mines filled with out-of-control robots?
How long have we been down here? There's no way to tell if it's a day or night anymore. Has it been days…? I can't tell anymore…
Rico saying her name snapped her out of her tired thoughts. Danielle shook her head a bit, feeling like a thick fog had settled in her mind. "Sorry… My mind wandered… You mentioning that we need to rest reminded me of just how tired I am. Heck, I can't even think straight right now."
"It's okay. Just try to focus as best as you can. We'll take a break soon." Rico pushed up her glasses slightly, red eyes narrowing as they stepped through into another hallway. As soon as Danielle took a step forward, Rico grabbed her shoulder to hold her back. "Don't. The hallway is filled with mines."
Danielle blinked rapidly, squinting as she tried to spot the said traps. "I don't see them…"
Rico tapped the side of her glasses slightly, smirking just a bit. "These aren't just for helping me to see, you know. The lenses are made to detect traps also." She took out her Red Handgun, taking careful aim and shooting down the hovering traps as she slowly proceeded down the corridor. The next room stretched out a good ways in front of them. Computer screens that opened and closed lined the wall straight across from them, a single door in the middle. For some reason, fear gripped her heart tightly in its icy hand, Danielle trembling a bit.
Why? Why am I so scared? Something about this place… I can't go inside…!
She froze up now, her heart racing quickly as she panicked. A strange mechanical sound came from behind. Something huge had begun moving, the whine of joints and servos reaching her ears. Rico had glanced back, eyes growing wide at whatever she saw behind them. At the same time, a hulking green-and-orange assault mecha appeared in front of them, its multiple red eyes glowing as it started up, the double-headed axe that was the emblem of the Pioneer 1 Army on the side of its "shoulders". Hatches opened on its armor, revealing several red-tipped missiles in their launch tubes.
"Uh, Rico…" Danielle stammered, swallowing hard. This was not good.
"I see them. Garanz… As soon as they fire, run. Those homing missiles aren't too fast. We should be able to—" She was cut off by two Sinow Beats and two Sinow Golds dropping down from the ceiling, one on each side of the Garanz.
This really isn't good. What the heck are those huge Garanz doing in a place like this? Are they guarding something?
Danielle gripped her Autogun tight, her blue eyes flickering about the room quickly. "Well, uh… got a plan?" she asked Rico, glancing sideways at her as her friend drew her Red Sword.
Rico stared down the Sinow Gold in front of her as its energy blade extended from its wrist. "Yeah," she answered, lifting the Red Sword with ease despite the exhaustion she was feeling right now. "Take them all out."
The Sinow Gold directly in front of them leapt forward, as did the other three. The missile hatches on the Garanz's swung open as they unleashed their missile payloads on the two survivors.