Chapter 11: Nowhere to Run
Their feet pounded on the metal as they ran through dimly-lit corridors, rushing through the rooms with the mechanical army hot on their trail. Rico's eyes darted around quickly, watching their surroundings while they ran. Only one door was unlocked and open in each room, and she couldn't help but feel that they were being led by the AI in charge of the mines to some unknown destination.
I would stay and fight, but I don't have nearly enough supplies for both of us.
"Rico, the door's locked!"
She immediately looked forward, seeing the door before them. A palm reader was to the left of it, illuminated with teal light, and the door itself was designed different from what Rico could tell with their limited light. This had to be the door to the AI's control room, the monitor room. "Danielle, can you hack into the reader?" She looked towards the teen as they skidded to a halt in front of the door, noticing the look of uncertainty on her face.
"A hand scanner? I doubt it, but I can try. I've never even attempted something like this. All that I've learned was from messing around with computers without my dad knowing." Danielle swallowed hard as she stepped over to the hand scanner, glancing over it.
Yeah, you may be self-taught, but you're better at this stuff than a lot of people I know, Rico thought to herself, watching as Danielle checked the device. When a panicked look crossed her face, Rico knew they were in trouble and immediately spun around, taking her Red Handgun into hand. She had it leveled at the last door they had come through, trying to figure out how long it would take the robotic army to reach them. Could she even hold them off long enough for Danielle to get it open?
Minutes seemed to pass by as she stood there aiming at the door, sweat trickling down her face. She didn't dare lower the weapon for even a second to wipe it away, hearing Danielle's soft mutterings as she tried to figure something out. Why hadn't they come yet? Had they given up the chase?
A hiss came from behind, along with the sound of Danielle gasping in surprise. Confused, Rico glanced over her shoulder, seeing the monitor room door now with a shocked-looking Danielle staring at it dumbfounded. Without wasting a moment, Rico grabbed Danielle by her arm and pulled her through. The door closed with a soft hiss behind them, the only sound in the room now the hum of the monitors and their heavy breathing.
Danielle pulled away slowly now, making her way to one of the computer consoles. Rico frowned somewhat, not sure what she was doing as she joined her friend at the console. "What's wrong?"
"Rico, look at these readouts… The government was mining for something." She still looked a bit uneasy about being in the mines, but now that she had found something that got her interest, she was immediately focused. She squinted, trying to scan the lines of rapidly scrolling text. "It was… the D-Factor?" Danielle murmured, looking confused. "Rico, isn't that the stuff they put in Mags?"
Rico gave her a surprised look as she asked this, not expecting Danielle to know about this. That was when she realized that Danielle had probably learned about it from her father or one of his associates. "Yeah, it is. It's put as the core of the Mag with the Emotional AI regulating it. It's an energy source somewhat similar to Photons, but it's different… They say that the D-Factor, the D-Cells, seem to be trying to change, to evolve." She was about to say more when the lights and monitors all shut off, plunging the room into darkness. Rico muttered darkly under her breath, taking her Red Saber once more from storage and using its dim red light to illuminate the keyboard.
Danielle tapped a few keys on the keyboard, a frown on her face. "What the? What's going on?" Danielle murmured nervously, keeping her voice low.
"Not sure. Try the computers."
"Can't. The keys are locked." Danielle glanced back at her now, worried.
Rico frowned as she looked around the rest of the room. Had it been a trap? Were they going to be stuck in here, left to starve and dehydrate, dying a slow death?
Without warning, red emergency lights began to flash as the normal lights snapped on, making them both recoil and forcing their eyes to quickly adjust. Alarm klaxons wailed while the monitors flickered to life, a strange machine lowering from the ceiling. Rico recognized it as an electrical generator that was capable of throwing bolts strong enough to kill an unprotected person. Rico gritted her teeth as she saw the floating head that was Vol Opt's self-created avatar, readying her weapon.
"Wait, we're fighting the area's AI? How're we supposed to beat it!?"
Rico frowned, not taking her eyes off of Vol Opt's circling avatar. "I don't know, unless…" She glanced at the background of the screens. The one that Vol Opt appeared on turned red in the background with a target reticule barely visible on the screen. "Hit those monitors that it appears on! Aim at the top screen and I'll get the bottom ones!"
Danielle seemed doubtful that such a strategy would work, but she complied nonetheless, taking up her Autogun and firing well-placed shots at the large screen Vol Opt was on as Rico took her Red Sword in hand, swinging the massive blade with ease at the smaller screen that lacked Vol Opt's image but still had the red backgrounds. Glass shattered as the weapon found its mark, shards of it pelting her face and scraping her skin. The room rocked slightly, a mechanical cry of pain filling the air. As the large screen shattered beneath the hail of Photon bullets, Vol Opt's avatar moved to another screen, but Rico and Danielle repeated their previous attacks on it.
Vol Opt turned to face them, abruptly vanishing from the screen as a mechanical hum reached Rico's ears. Six mechanical pillars about a foot higher than Rico rose from openings in the floor, robotic "faces" on each of them. All of them were composed of red metal with blue-lighted faces except for one, which had a red flashing face instead. Noticing energy charging near its top, Rico moved in to destroy it while Danielle fired as fast as she could. Unfortunately she couldn't move fast enough, the pillar and the volt generator on the ceiling launching a bolt of electricity that Rico, the charge surging through her armor before jumping to Danielle.
Rico bared her teeth, hearing Danielle cry out in pain. Electricity ran along Rico's armor before dissipating, the attack thankfully not hurting as much as what it could have. Her armor had taken the brunt of it. "Danielle?"
The teen was on her knees, gasping somewhat. Her weaker frame hadn't been able to absorb much of the damage. "I… I'm good… Just a bit stunned…" She shook her head a bit, trying to shake off the shock as she stumbled to her feet, glaring at Vol Opt's avatar. "This thing is starting to tick me off…"
Rico nodded, lifting the Red Sword up once more while holding its blade tightly. As soon as Vol Opt moved to the screens behind her, she spun and tore through the glass monitors. She caught sight of the avatar on the larger screen before it vanished beneath the rain of blue Photon bullets.
The entire room began to shake now, the glass of the unbroken monitors shattering as explosions rocked the monitors. Rico cringed at the wave of heat that washed over them, noticing that the ceiling was parting and a massive machine was descending into the room. Red steel armor covered its grey core body, four different sides to the machine. The side that faced Rico had a type of sleek-looking head with a blue visor and a glowing sky-blue section in the middle of it. To the left was a side with a gunmetal grey covering, and to the right was one with "vents" of the same color and a type of targeting laser on top.
Rico stared in slight amazement at the machine before her, wondering just why such a thing was built for Vol Opt. She heard a hatch open and Danielle's surprised cry before the sound of something launched reached her ears. Danielle began to run along the perimeter of the room, two homing missiles slowly closing in on her. Swiftly, Rico swapped the sword for her Red Mechguns and leveled them both, squinting somewhat. With a quick pull of the triggers, two yellow Photon bullets met the missiles head-on in midair, causing them to explode just out of range of Danielle. Rico only had time to feel a second of relief before she heard an odd sound like that of an energy weapon firing before a mixture of stone and metal shot up around her, trapping her in a prison. The sound of a weapon being charged reached her ears, and she knew that she was in deep trouble. "Danielle!" she shouted, unable to move to try and attack the walls of the prison.
The hum of a saber-type weapon was barely audible over the charging attack, Rico's heart pounding as each second passed on with agonizing slowness. Tendrils of fear crept through her as she prayed that Danielle could get through in time. Just as the charging reached a steady pitch, the pressure against her left side vanished, and Danielle's slick hands grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of that stone-and-metal prison. The force of Danielle pulling sent them both to the ground, Rico managing to catch a glimpse of the front of Vol Opt's mechanical body. Multiple lasers were all aimed at that prison, and in an instant there was a brilliant flash of light before the prison was completely obliterated in a single blast.
Rico slowly rose to her feet, shakily pulling Danielle up beside her. If she had been caught in that blast, she would have been instantly killed. She glanced over at their mechanical oppressor now, which was turning to face them, bringing the side with the vents to bear. Two targeting lasers locked on to them, the vents opening and red light building up.
This thing isn't giving us any time to even attack it. How're we supposed to beat it?
Rico hesitated, trying to figure out what its next attack could possible be. She was about to try to strike at it when she heard the screeching of metal from above. Her body acted completely on instinct as she grabbed Danielle and pulled the teen to the side just as a pillar of red steel tore down through the ceiling and slammed into the floor with enough force to dent the metal. Scraps of metal littered the floor as the pillar lifted into the air, preparing to come down again. Rico noticed that the lasers were still locked onto them at the same time as she saw the gap between the bottom of Vol Opt's body and the floor. It would be a very tight fit for her, but Vol Opt wouldn't be able to hit them there, giving them time to develop a plan.
"Dive under its body!" Rico shouted over the screeching metal while putting away her Red Mechguns. Not even waiting for a reply, Rico dove for the narrow opening, pushing her hands and feet against the floor to get into the gap. Danielle moved with a bit more ease due to being younger and smaller, managing to pull her legs in before they were crushed by the striking pillar.
Vol Opt continued to slam the pillar down repeatedly on the floor, almost as if it was furious that they were hiding from it. Rico allowed a slight smirk now, fixing her glasses with her right hand somewhat. "Smart move," Danielle murmured, sounding both impressed and relieved. "Get to where it can't hit us. But now what?"
Rico looked around a bit before glancing up at the metal body above them that was Vol Opt's core. Taking her Red Saber in hand, she nodded up at the body. "Hit him where it hurts, that's what. Get your Brand." She watched Danielle take the weapon out once more, having stored it in order to get under Vol Opt without injuring herself. Rico turned over onto her back now, staring up at the body. "One… two…" She tightly gripped the Red Saber, shifting around a bit to get into a good position for striking. The pounding became more intense, almost frantic, as if Vol Opt knew what they were planning.
Let's see how you like this!!
"Three!" Together, they thrust their sabers deep into the metal, the Photon blades melting slowly through the steel. Rico felt heat wash over her arms as the Red Saber slowly slid deeper into its body. With a jolt, Vol Opt began to retreat back through the opening in the ceiling, sparks and flame coming from the twin gashes in its underside. Rico rose to her feet, watching the machine until the hatch in the ceiling closed and hid it from view. Sweat made her uniform cling even more tightly to her body than it normally did, her glasses wanting to slide down her nose.
Beside her, Danielle stood up while trying to catch her breath, worn out from the running around and fighting. She was doubled over somewhat with her hands on her knees, her weapon stored once more. As she was about to say something, the only other door in the monitor room opened with a hiss, startling her and making her take a step back somewhat. Once she realized it was just the door, she relaxed somewhat. "Geeze…" she muttered under her breath, shaking her head.
"Come on, let's get out of here before it decides to come back," Rico suggested, not too keen on staying in here any longer than what she had to.
Merely nodding, Danielle followed close behind Rico as she led the way through the newly opened door. It opened into a passageway much darker than the monitor room, and as soon as they had passed through, the door slid shut just as stealthily as it had opened. Rico took a cautious step forward, her foot nudging several thick cables that were strewn across the floor. In the dim light of the corridor she could see those cables stretching on before them, all of them heading back towards the monitor room.
"What is this place?" she heard Danielle whisper. There was something about the air that seemed forbidding and oppressive, and even Rico couldn't help but lower her own voice quite a bit.
"I'm not sure. There's something wrong about this place, though." She cautiously continued forward, sweaty hands holding on tight to the Red Saber's hilt. She was careful to make sure that she didn't carelessly trip over any of the thick cables on the ground, noticing that the metal floor gave away to rough ground a few feet in. Not only that, but the passage was widening considerably into an antechamber hewed from rock. Containers of unknown supplies littered the area, the cables leading to a few scattered terminals close to an ancient-looking door. Awed, Rico stepped forward to examine the relic, realizing with excitement that this was proof that her theory was correct. "Incredible… There really was an ancient civilization on Ragol! This is proof!"
She didn't notice how Danielle stared at that sealed door with apprehension and hesitancy, not sharing Rico's excitement about the find. The scientist in Rico was already bursting forth, and she recorded message capsules with a voice full of excitement. At the door was a computer with the military's translations so far of the symbols on the door. The program to examine the data was still running, but Rico was able to figure out what she needed with relative ease. The three circular symbols on the door's ancient surface matched those that had been on the three monuments they found, one symbol glowing red, one glowing blue, and one glowing green. Taking out one more capsule, Rico took a deep breath and calmed herself, speaking slowly as she brought up the data she herself had translated so far on her arm unit.
"The government was decoding the characters as well. Here is their analysis. I'll try and fill in the gaps with my own data. 'Light, darkness,… a pair, no,… exist, no exist… unlimited, seal,… MUUT DITTS POUMN.' She paused now, raising her eyes up to that door as she contemplated the words in her mind and tried to understand them. "What's the last line? An incantation? Seal, seal… What is sealed? Where? Is it this door? Was it sealed with the words MUUT DITTS POUMN? Maybe each word in the incantation represents something? We found three monuments… Are they the keys to open the door?"
As soon as she finished speaking, she heard Danielle gasp in surprise and felt a slight rumbling beneath her feet. She immediately stood to her feet and stepped back from the monument, Danielle joining her with her Brand in hand. The ancient door was opening.