Chapter 5

The Diary of Maya Morceaux

April 13, 3236

I'm so tired right now I don't know what to do. I've been up for nearly two days straight now, and so many things have happened that I just don't know where to begin.

Well, for starters, Tantalus was almost killed in a fight when we got back to the beach. We managed to get him back here before he passed away, but in the confusion we still didn't have a chance to really figure out what was going on there. Kyros and the others destroyed whatever it was that Robotnik was building, but didn't have time to analyze it since we all were on the way to Robotropolis to try and find something to help Tantalus.

I had nearly given up hope at that point, since we didn't find the blood that we needed and time was beginning to run out for Tantalus. Just when all seemed lost, and it even looked like we might not make it back alive, some strangers turned up in Robotropolis that helped us escape. Although I still find it a little hard to believe, they claimed that they were the remnants of the army, and that they've been hiding out just like we have all this time.

Turns out they were telling the truth. They took us back to some old overlander arcology a good distance away from here and introduced us to their leader: Major Simmin. Although we were in a hurry and were pretty much begging for help, he agreed to give us the blood that we needed for Tantalus. Under one condition though. They want our help later with something to do with their water supply.

At this point I can't pay that any attention though. Sissera immediately put the blood to use, and she tells me that Tantalus is going to be alright for now. I'm still very worried about him though, since she put off the surgery until tomorrow. She said that while he is stable, he seems to be showing signs of an infection and she's hesitant to perform the operation until it clears up. Thankfully we still have plenty of antibiotics, so with a little luck maybe it's only a minor set back.

I'm also worried about Sissera. The poor dear has been up just as long as we have, and while she hasn't been getting shot at she has had to sit there and watch him come close to death too many times to count. She also seems very worried about her ability to perform the surgery, but if she doesn't do it no one else can. The army claims that they have a hospital in the arcology, so I'm tempted to ask them if they can do it instead, but we've already taken the blood from them and I have faith in Sissera.

I'm going to go check up on her in a minute, everyone else was too sleepy to keep watch for her so she got the computers to keep track of him while she caught a wink of sleep. I know she needs to get some rest like the rest of us, but I hope she doesn't wait until it's too late.

As Maya approached the door to the infirmary, she could already tell that something was wrong. Instead of the silence that Sissera had left it in, alarming beeps and the sound of someone shuffling around were barely audible through the thin prefab walls. She took a deep breath and edged the door open, revealing a much busier scene than she had hoped for.

Sissera fumbled with the computers at the end of the room and yanked her coat off with a frustrated grunt. She ran her fingers through her quills and looked up with a thoroughly weary expression. "Huh?"

Maya stepped inside and shut the door. She placed her hand over her heart and asked, "Dear, is everything alright?"

Sissera looked down and shook her head before weakly replying, "No, something is wrong." She made an obscure gesture toward the computer to her side and continued, "The computer woke me. His temperature has gone up now to around thirty seven and a half degrees, and it believed that his infection had gotten worse."

"Has it?"

"I'll say," Sissera replied, eyes wide open and concern plastered on her face. "I don't know exactly why, but whatever sort of infection he has is antibiotic resistant, and has started to cause more damage."

Maya blinked in disbelief and walked over to the comatose squirrel lying on the bed. "What do you mean, what kind of damage?"

Sissera plopped down into a vacant seat and looked away. "His other kidney is failing."

"No... please don't say that..."

She rested her face in her hands and went on, "That's what the computer tells me. I can't say for sure why since the organ itself appears fine. It just looks like it can't filter out his blood well enough and it's beginning to fail. I can't tell yet if the infection has anything to do with it, but I can almost guarantee it."

Maya stared at Tantalus and watched as his face periodically twitched as if in pain. She backed away and placed her hand over her mouth to stifle a whimper. "There's nothing you can do then?" she managed at last.

Sissera sighed and looked away again. "I don't know if I could pull it off, but a kidney transplant would probably work. But, just like with the blood I don't know which of us if any would work, and if his body rejected it he would die almost immediately." She wiped a tear away and sniffled, "I don't know what to do..."

Maya walked over to her and crouched. She placed her arms around her and offered a weak embrace before saying, "Don't worry about it." She bit back a cry of her own and said, "You've done the best you can, it was just his time. How long do you think he has?"

Sissera shook her head and remained silent for a few seconds. "A day, two at most." She scowled and glared at the offending computer screen. "I just wish there was something... anything I could do. Even if I tried using someone else's kidney as far as I know I'd just end up killing them too."

Maya tried to think of a comforting comment but came up dry. Sissera was completely right in that it was probably not worth the risk to try and go ahead with a transplant, but Maya didn't know if she would be able to stand Tantalus dieing. Everyone of them was like a child she never had. Possible solutions entered her mind and immediately left as she shot them down. In a world like this, there was no solution left. The only thing she could think of that could save his life at this point would be to roboticize him, and even if Robotnik agreed to do it she could never do that to him. Her mind drifted to the events from the previous day and the soldiers that were gracious enough to lend them the blood.

"Wait..." she found herself uttering involuntarily. "Maybe the soldiers that gave us the blood have something that can help."

Sissera looked up and stared at her intently. "D-do you think so?"

"Well they said that they had a surgical ward. Would there be something there that you could use?"

"Anything would be better than what I've thrown together here," Sissera replied. "But... I would still need a replacement kidney unless they have an organ cloner there, and I don't think that anyone had anything like that except for... the overlanders..." Her expression shifted to hope as she pondered. "An overlander arcology... yeah, they might have what we need!"

Maya let out a half cheer and said, "Great! I'll contact Major Simmin and find out if they are willing to help us out some more."

Seltic blinked wearily and leaned onto the table he sat at. Half of the others were now sitting around the dinner table, drifting into the room like zombies after being awakened by Maya less than an hour before. He propped his chin up in his hand and yawned loudly as he awaited something interesting to happen. Maya hadn't explained the situation very thoroughly, and even if she had he probably wouldn't have understood in his sleepy daze. The only things he caught from her quiet attempt to wake him were that Tantalus wasn't doing well, and that the army had already called in their favor.

He slumped forward lazily and tried to think over the number of things that could be wrong with the arcology's water supply system. Given that he had only manged to snag a little over six hours of sleep in the past two days, his groggy stupor wasn't helping him think. Of the myriad possibilities that his brain actually managed to put together, he couldn't help but get a distinct feeling that he wouldn't be much too much use. If there was a relatively simple mechanical problem or something electrical, he might be able to help, but if there was a serious breach in a pipe or a pump failure he didn't know what he could do.

As he thought, Kaplain staggered into the room and plopped down at the table. Kaplain had been a mechanic before Robotnik ruined the world, and he had certainly proved his skill during his stay with them. If he couldn't do much himself, maybe Kaplain might know more about how to fix it. Kaplain half-smiled at him and asked, "So, what exactly are we doing?"

"I don't know exactly... but I think Maya was in contact with the army earlier today. Seems they're already expecting our help."

The deer nodded lightly and leaned back into his seat. "Do you think they could have let us sleep a little more first?"

Stanley looked up from his spot further down the table and replied, "It wasn't them wanting us this early. Seems like Maya called them up looking for more stuff to help Tantalus, and they said if she wanted to come get it that it would be best if we went ahead and helped them too."

Kaplain stretched and yawned widely before replying, "Oh, okay. How is Tantalus?"

"Not good from what I hear," Seltic said. "I didn't talk with Sissera yet, but Maya said he wasn't doing well."

"Like... how bad?"

He shrugged. "Like I said, I don't know. The blood was only part one of getting him better I guess, maybe something else went wrong."

The small group sat silently for a moment before Kyros spoke up, "I hope they aren't expecting much from us. Tantalus isn't going to be able to be put on the back burner much longer. Not to mention we're not going to be much help like this..."

As he finished the door to the room creaked open, revealing a tired and grimy Sissera. She removed a lightly bloodied coat and placed it on the rack at the door before finding an empty seat at the table. She quietly stared down at the table as she sat, avoiding eye contact with the others.

"How is he?" Kyros broke the silence, similarly staring away blankly and unaware of her desire for privacy.

She remained silent for several seconds before letting out a lengthy exhausted sigh. "Bad. Just bad..." After an awkward period of quiet, she continued, "The machines can keep him alive for another day or two... but his body can't fight off the infection he's acquired from somewhere."

Seltic looked up and asked, "What kind of infection? Nothing serious that could spread, right?"

She shrugged. "I-I don't know. It might be nothing at all, maybe even a cold out of control, considering that antibiotics aren't doing any good. What's so bad is that whatever it is, it's causing his good kidney to fail. Even with all of the blood in the world, without a working kidney..."

"Man..." Kaplain whispered to himself. "We can't donate one?"

"It would be possible... but I'm afraid to even try it. Just like with the blood, if his body rejects it he would almost certainly die. But then it just puts one of you at risk if I did it wrong, and I couldn't try it knowing that."

Kyros looked over and asked, "So what can the army do about it?"

"It was along shot, but Maya asked if they had any sort of advanced overlander technology that might be able to help." Sissera rubbed her weak eyes and went on, "They didn't have what I was hoping for... but it turns out that there were a number of cybernetic organs in storage, and they did have a kidney. If we can get it in time, it would be perfect since it would work even better than his natural one did and the infection wouldn't really affect it."

Kyros raised an eyebrow. "So... if the army is taking us along on a scavenger hunt while you get what you need, where will he be? I mean, who knows how long that could take? Do they really expect us to search around with them while he's laying here dieing?"

She shook her head and answered, "I don't know. Maya talked with them. There's no real risk of him dieing today, so if we get it by tonight I think he'll be alright. But I'm with you... I hate leaving him here while we're away, but I'm also very worried about moving him."

"You may as well stay here again then," Seltic said, returning his attention to the conversation from the more interesting sounds in the kitchen. "I doubt one more person is going to speed things up much, and you being here might keep Tantalus around a little longer if something happens."

Sissera nodded slightly and turned to face the kitchen door as it creaked open. "We'll see what Maya says."

As if on cue, Maya stepped quietly into the room, took attendance mentally and said, "Okay... Vladimir and Marcus aren't here yet, but we can go ahead and get started eating. We're sort of in a hurry." She glanced at Sissera's solemn expression and added, "I guess everyone knows about Tantalus then."

She wrung her hands nervously and brushed a hair out of her face and after receiving a few nods, she said, "I'm sorry, but we only had the supplies to make some more sandwiches. So, everyone eat quickly so we can get on the move." She made a concerned expression and asked, "Everyone does know where we're going and what we're doing, right?"

Kyros grunted and looked up. "The army wants us to go ahead and fix their water problem right?"

"Yes, but only because I called in for more help for Tantalus. They have a replacement kidney for him, and since we needed to go get it they wanted us to assist in a search this afternoon." She frowned and said, "I know everyone is very tired, but this is Tantalus' last chance, so I hope you all understand."

"So then, who's staying here with him? Shouldn't Sissera stay just in case she needs him?" Kyros asked.

"Yes, I suppose so. The army wanted as many hands available as possible, but I don't think it will matter." She looked over to Sissera and tried to make eye contact. "I guess you should stay here then."

Kyros groaned and looked down at his watch. The army had arranged to meet with them at a staging point in the mountains about a kilometer outside of Robotropolis nearly twenty minutes ago, and they were just now nearing the spot. He mulled over the possibility of the soldiers mistaking their looted SWATbot pod as the real deal and shooting them down, and considered radioing ahead to signal their approach. Breaking radio silence might only alert Robotnik to their presence though, and ending the mission before it got started would certainly sour their relation with the soldiers and deprive them of the kidney they needed.

"Any sight of them yet?" Maya asked anxiously from the back seat of the pod.

Kyros scanned the craggy rocks below for a few seconds, noticing nothing. "Not yet."

She leaned forward into the front of the cabin and peered through the windshield herself. "Oh I hope they didn't leave without us."

A glint of flickering light caught Kyros' attention as he stared at the mountainous terrain. As he studied the area for a moment, the movement of a handful of bodies became apparent, and he could make out something waving a glowing rod at them. "There they are."

He tapped Kaplain on the shoulder and directed him to their position, wondering for a moment if he should have just piloted the ship himself. Kaplain nodded and steered the ship to change course, and Kyros braced himself as the ship began to list to the side.

As they drew near, the drab gray armor of the soldiers became obvious, and Kyros noted a number of them taking up positions to engage them if they turned up to be the wrong SWATbot pod. He tried to pick out anyone he recognized from before, but at this range it was still impossible to tell who was who. He pointed to a vacant spot behind the troops and said to Kaplain, "Set it down back there I suppose. There should be enough room for Stanley to set down back there too."

"Alright." Kaplain slowed the ship and began an approach to the site. He chuckled and said, "I hope they don't think we're with Robotnik and shoot us out of the sky."

"They'd have probably done that by now if they were going to," Seltic replied from the back. "If their fight yesterday was typical they probably have plenty of long ranged weapons, they could have blown us away minutes ago."

Kyros braced again as the ship began to descend, awaiting the sudden unpleasant jar at the end. He rubbed his eyes and sighed. "That's reassuring at least, maybe if we stick with them they can mop the floor with Robotnik and we can call it a day."

Maya eagerly pressed the control for the side door and said, "It's not that simple. Major Simmin wants us to see this through since he's giving us the kidney too. If we don't find what they need today, he might call on us again later."

"Great," Kyros replied, rocking to his feet. "Then let's not mess this up. I don't want this to turn into a two month game of hide and seek."

Maya led them down the boarding ramp and into the searing arid heat of the mountain. Kyros balked at the unforgiving weather outside and cursed Robotnik in his mind for the thousandth time for destroying the ecosystem. All things considered, he'd much prefer that the unpredictable weather had picked to be raining or snowing, but at least this way the visibility wouldn't be impaired.

Among the soldiers assembled a short distance away, two obviously equine members began to approach them, weapons readied and stance tense. Kyros picked out the taller more feminine soldier and questioned, "Sergeant?"

The corporal beside her snorted and replied, "You're late."

Sergeant Morgan looked in his direction, but through her armored helmet Kyros couldn't make out her expression. "That's enough, Sam." She returned her attention to Kyros and his associates and said, "I'm glad that you're finally here. Every minute we're out here increases the chances that Robotnik will discover us."

Maya stepped up beside Kyros and offered an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, we had some complications. So, what's the plan?"

"Alright, here's what we've drawn up so far," the horse replied. She lowered her rifle and pointed back at the soldiers keeping the area secure, continuing, "Since you can't be tied into our network, we'll have to keep communication to a minimum, and because we can't share intel, we figure that it's best that we split into two groups. That way we won't slow each other down."

She handed a paper to Maya containing a number of diagrams and went on, "I'll take my squad and check the junk yards further up for the replacement parts we need. The areas that are marked on this map indicate where we think that the water delivery and sewage systems might contain similar parts, so it's probably a good place to start looking."

Behind them, Seltic asked, "Wait, so what exactly are we looking for? A pump? Pipes?"

"It's in the data there," the sergeant answered. "Well, the parts we lost anyway. We don't know if we'll be able to find others like them, so if you can find something similar it may have to do. I take it that you know enough about this sort of thing to make that kind of judgment?"

Kyros wiped the sweat from his forehead and cringed at the thought of remaining in the furnace-like heat for any longer. "We'll figure something out," he answered for Seltic, desperate to get things going as soon as possible.

The two soldiers exchanged looks before the sergeant offered a nod. "Alright then, stick close to us as we breach security, we'll cover you. After that, you're on your own. Of course, try not to alert the robots if we can get inside unseen."

"Sounds good to me," he replied. The soldiers certainly were better equipped than his own ragtag group, but he felt safer working without them. If for no other reason, they seemed to attract much more attention when Robotnik did discover them, and he wasn't in any hurry to be in a war zone again any time soon. As the soldiers formed up around their leader, Kyros waved his own party over to himself.

The sergeant pointed at Corporal Fields and said, "Take your fire team and cover us as we approach, let me know immediately if you see anything that looks like a SWATbot." She looked over to Kyros and added, "You too."

He nodded and puzzled over her command for a moment. After having a friend be the victim of one of the machines so recently he could understand her caution, but all things considered the SWATbots were a very low level threat compared to the other things in Robotropolis. "Alright... any particular reason you're watching for SWATbots instead of something like buzzbombers?"

She continued to stare at him with the blank expression of her mask. "We don't want to take the risk of one of the newer models showing up unexpectedly again."

Kyros blinked in confusion. "New models?"

The sergeant stood erect and motioned for her comrades to stand down for a moment. She turned her head slightly and asked, "You mean... you didn't know?" Kyros replied with a continued look of confusion and shook his head, prompting her to finish, "Oh, we didn't even think to tell you guys."

Kyros raised an eyebrow and thought over what she said. Things began to fall into place now. In all of their years of fighting against Robotnik, SWATbots had always proven to be horribly underpowered for the jobs they were given. Their weapons couldn't penetrate even light armor, and a single shot from even a handgun was generally enough to down one. But now that he thought about it, the SWATbots they encountered at the beach, especially the one that nearly killed Tantalus, were much more durable and apparently wielded better weapons. Not to mention the one that killed the other soldier earlier.

"Anyway," she continued, "About two months ago, we started running into SWATbots that were able to survive an extreme amount of damage and had a variety of weapons powerful enough to penetrate even light vehicle armor. At first we thought it was just a series of flukes until we started spying on Robotnik. Turns out, he's been researching the new designs for over a year now and intends to replace all of Robotropolis' security with them."

The thought of the equivalent of combat specialist roboticized Mobians guarding everything in Robotropolis immediately passed through his mind. He fought back an overpowering feeling of dread and said, "I see. Do you have some plan if we run into a squad of them?"

"Not really," She replied. "Particle beam weapons seem to still affect them more or less, it just takes more shots. The major is drawing up plans to destroy the new factories, but we're in no position to even begin yet."

Kyros thought over the SWATbots encountered at the beach and tried to reassure himself that they were still very much destructible at least. With a little luck perhaps they wouldn't run into any today anyway. "Alright, I'll let you know if we see one. Let's go."

Sergeant Morgan nodded in agreement and said, "Okay, form up. Blackwell, you're on point." She followed after another of the anonymous soldiers as it ran up to the front of the pack, and raised her weapon in readiness. "Everyone stay low and be on the lookout for anything."

Stanley silently moved up against the natural cover that the mountain stone provided and waited for the others to fall into line behind him. He continued to cautiously eye the movements of the massive city a couple hundred meters ahead and tensed as a shadow shifted ahead of them. The Royal Army soldiers were some distance ahead, each team taking up positions in cover and watching as the other moved ahead.

"All clear so far?" Kyros whispered from behind him.

"Yeah, security doesn't appear too interested in this area. I just hope that they've got a plan on getting in though, because there's no way to get inside from this way without being seen," he replied, trying to get a feel for their surroundings. It had been so long since they had been on this side of Robotropolis that he had no plan for getting inside like they normally would, and had no idea what to expect from security once they did get closer. Up ahead, one of the fire team leaders motioned for them to approach.

Stanley took one more quick look around for any sort of airborne surveillance before darting from cover down the mountain side. Behind him, the others noisily made their own way down to the stone formation that the soldiers hid behind.

Corporal Fields waved them over and quietly said, "We've arranged for a distraction in just a moment. A missile is inbound and aimed at a transformer grid inside Robotropolis. When it hits, power will drop for a few minutes. With any luck the robots will run over to investigate, if not let us take them down with the particle rifles."

Stanley nodded and crouched lower behind the outcropping. It would take a great deal of luck and precision if the soldiers intended to take the robots down without letting them alert Robotnik, but at least with the particle rifles they had a chance. Regular weapons would take far too long to down them, save perhaps an EMP explosive. He glanced behind himself at Kyros and Vladimir and wondered for a moment if one of them had decided to bring such a weapon along.

He sat in silence for what felt like half an hour before the barely audible low rumble of a rocket overhead began to become obvious. He chanced a glance up at the clear sky, shielding his eyes from the overbearing sun as he searched for the small missile.

"Alright, incoming," the corporal muttered to the group as he stood slightly to peer over their stony cover. "Impact in less than a minute." He looked over to Stanley and continued, "Once it hits, wait for us to move out. We'll signal you over when it's clear."

Kyros flicked the safety on his weapon and said, "Ok, let's make this quick. I think my skin is boiling here."

As the corporal predicted, the missile quickly came into view and disappeared among the sea of buildings that formed Robotropolis. The explosion was unimpressive, appearing to fail to even demolish a single structure. The initial detonation was followed shortly be a number of smaller explosions, obscured by blocks of assorted buildings. An instant later, several large electrical arcs sprayed sparks and bolts of lightning along a large power line, and power dropped. The laser turrets previously scanning the horizon suddenly ground to a halt, and the few lights feebly glowing in the bright daylight dimmed.

As the handful of patrolling robots stopped in their tracks and stared into the city, Corporal Fields tensed and raised his weapon, followed by the other four soldiers accompanying him. Seconds passed, and the robots continued to stare without taking action.

"What are they doing?" one of the soldiers questioned, taking aim at the nearest robot.

"They're not taking the bait," Corporal Fields replied. He also took aim and said, "They must have orders to not leave their patrol no matter what. Get ready to take them down on the Sergeant's order."

Stanley watched intently as they continued to keep aim on their targets, awaiting the command to fire. His eye caught the distinctive glint of moving metal under bright light. One of the half dozen robots had returned to its patrol, and the exposed troops had been spotted. As usual, it threw its arm up in their direction and shouted something to its companions.

"Fire!" the corporal shouted without wasting a moment.

His order came an instant too late, and the first shot fired came from the robots. It exploded against the corporal's shoulder armor, shattering the metal and ceramic plate into hundreds of fragments. Scores of particle beams answered the single laser, instantly felling the handful of surprised and uncoordinated defenders.

Stanley ignored the twitching and sparking robots in favor of examining the injured corporal. The other soldiers were crowded around him, trying to help him to his feet. He snorted and growled a curse as he staggered up, clutching at his shoulder. "Come on, let's go! No time to wait for more to show up!"

The corporal grabbed his weapon and cautiously removed the remains of his ablative shoulder guard before bolting around the outcropping, followed by all other troops. As they fell into line behind the other squad a few meters ahead, Stanley looked back to Kyros and asked, "Does that mean us too?"

"It does now, let's go," the echidna replied without a thought.

"Alright." Stanley waited for Kyros to make the first move before charging after him. The sound of dozens upon dozens of boots thundering down the shallow incline echoed against the shear cliffs around them, and Stanley knew it would certainly be making enough noise to warn any robots still in the area. He hopped over the smoldering and twisted remains of one of the destroyed security robots and hoped against reason that their path would be clear inside Robotropolis.

The moment the thought left his mind, a gut wrenching sound met his ears. "Security breach detected. Combat protocol engaged." Just meters away were a pair of SWATbots, hastily charging toward the mob. "Echidna alert, priority two," one of the two machines announced as it caught sight of Kyros, followed by it raising its weapon in their general direction.

A pulsing blue beam of energy stabbed out at them from its arm, clearly marking it as one of the new generation. In mere moments the soldiers took notice of the approaching robots and scattered, taking aim and releasing a flurry of shots before even coming to a stop. Both SWATbots staggered and slowed to a crawl as they were barraged by repeated particle blasts.

Despite the incredible volume of fire pouring into them, they continued forward and returned the attack. A soldier fell with a shriek as a beam exploded against his body, and another dropped to his knees as a shot knocked his weapon away and obliterated it. The volleys of particle shots were followed by Kyros leading his team in the attack, and the SWATbots finally began to show signs of damage as dozens more lasers and plasma blasts slammed against them.

The two were finally destroyed as Vladimir and another soldier hit them with shots from their grenade launchers. The rents and holes in their armor were ripped open and annihilated as the incredible heat and shrapnel hammered them, and they fell in twisted heaps. Despite the staggering damage dealt to them, they continued to weakly twitch and babble on in confused and distorted grunts.

"I'm fine..." the fallen soldier called weakly as the scene settled. The others helped him to his feet and removed the smashed and ruined chest guard hanging limply by its straps. "At least we know the composite armor helps..."

Sergeant Morgan quickly surveyed their surroundings and waited for the other soldier to recover a pistol from a hip holster before saying, "Okay everyone, Robotnik is going to have legions of robots check this place out in minutes, let's move now before it's too late."

Seltic folded the sheet of paper in his hand as best he could, trying to avoid tearing it as it grew damp from the muggy surroundings. Noxious and pestilent-looking fumes poured from the sewage and sludge processing plants a short way off, condensing into a thin and nearly unbearable fog at ground level. He dodged a hole in the pavement carved by acidic runoff and handed the sheet to Kaplain, saying, "Any of this look familiar to you? This isn't really my specialty."

Kaplain lowered his weapon and grasped the sheet. He looked up to ensure that his path was clear for a few steps and unfolded the sheet before staring at the hastily scribbled diagrams. Despite the damp air beginning to cause the ink to run and fade, he made out a few different types of what appeared to be large water pumps, valves and fittings. "This isn't really my specialty either, but I think between the two of us we can figure it out. It doesn't look like much other than piping and pumps to fit it."

Maya skipped up behind them eagerly and peered at the sheet before saying, "I hope you boys can figure something out, and I hope we find what we're looking for soon. Tantalus depends on it."

Seltic sighed and cut a corner to follow Stanley and Kyros, who were leading the group through the twisted and blocked streets. "I hope so too. Do you think that they'd deny us what we need if we don't find what we're looking for today?"

"I don't think so," she replied in a nasally voice as she pinched her nose to avoid breathing a particularly unpleasant gout of fumes. "But, I'm sure they won't just keep handing stuff out if we don't. I'd like to think that they are reasonable people, but I know I wouldn't give everything away for someone I barely knew."

Kyros looked back and added, "Me neither. Plus, I'd really like to avoid having to come back here for this if we can help it, which means we need to find something that'll work. If it's not what they want exactly, but it works, then tough."

"I'm with you," Seltic said. He paused to allow Vladimir to move ahead and begin scouting for possible contacts before saying, "I just want this whole situation to be over. I hate being in limbo like this with Tantalus. Hopefully he'll make it... but given what we've got to go through just to give him a chance..."

Maya looked down and replied, "I know, I know. I just wish there was something else we could do." She sighed and went on, "I'm just trying not to think about the bad possibilities."

Kyros held his hand up to halt the group's progress and asked, "Okay, I think we're getting close to the right station. Where exactly were we supposed to go?"

Kaplain stared at the sheet in his hand for a second before deciding to hand it over to Kyros. "Uh, maybe you'd best check it yourself."

"Of course they wouldn't put the exact spot on here," Kyros said to himself as he glanced over the faded images. "Well, we're in the right area, should it matter which building we choose?" he asked, looking in the general direction of Seltic and Kaplain.

Seltic shrugged and looked around for a sign or indicator of the contents of the buildings next to them and replied, "If what we're looking for is here, there will probably be dozens of the parts strewn about the buildings. I guess we should just pick one and give it a look. That sure beats standing around wondering what to do."

"Any building that has treatment or pumping parts in it would probably have the best chance of having what we're looking for," Kaplain added. He pointed to the building taking up the entire view from the far side of the alley and said, "Given the amount of large pipes coming out of that building I'd say it's a good place to start."

Kyros stuffed the paper into his pocket and said, "Okay then, let's check for bots and head in."

Seltic leaned up against the wall next to him as he thought over what they were looking for, trying to avoid placing his hands near any of the sinister looking fluids dripping from seams in the pipes nearby. He glanced at the building Kaplain pointed out and an unsettling thought entered his mind as he stared at the massive delivery system pipes jutting from it.

"How big of a thing are we looking for here?"

Everyone stopped to stare at him for a moment. "What do you mean? You don't know?"

"No, and that's got me worried. They aren't looking for something several meters in diameter are they? There's no way we'd remove such a thing much less get it out of here."

"I don't think so," Kaplain replied. "Surely they wouldn't have sent teams out like this to look for it if was that big, would they? Let me see the paper again."

Kyros continued to check the streets as he blindly removed the page from his pocket and handed it over. "Make it quick, I think we've got a clear run if we go soon."

"Let's go then," he said. "Just looking at the numbers here it looks small enough to carry off."

Stanley stepped cautiously into the street to make a final check for patrolling security robots before saying, "Okay then, let's go. Make a break for the maintenance hatches over by the pipes."

Kyros ducked under a low pipe as he continued to follow Stanley into the bowels of the water processing facility. He hadn't expected much security in the relatively unimportant structure, but the complete lack of anything so far was beginning to concern him. If everything had been diverted from here to investigate their blundered entry earlier, it would only be a matter of time before the armed guards returned to their posts.

"Why does Robotnik even need a water treatment plant like this?" Kaplain asked from somewhere behind him. "It's not like he actually cleans the water he uses."

"Must just have been here since before the takeover," Seltic answered. "I suppose he never found a need to demolish it to build over it."

Kyros stopped to ponder the direction to take at an intersection, his boots clanging unnervingly loudly on the suspended catwalk. "Well, his laziness is our gain. Maybe he at least kept the place maintained somewhat. It would really suck if we found the pump and stuff only to have it rusted and falling apart."

"I wouldn't count on that," Seltic said unnecessarily. "But, maybe whatever we find wouldn't have been used much."

Kyros continued to analyze the three branching paths before them and asked, "Any idea which way we should go?"

"Just follow the pipes I guess," Kaplain answered.

Seltic stepped up and added, "Like he said, there's bound to be more than one part like what we're looking for in here.

"Fine, maybe we should split up then." Kyros turned to face the group and said, "Seltic and Vladimir, come with me. Kaplain, you're with Stanley and Maya."

"Sounds fine, let's go," Stanley said, motioning for his newly assigned squad to follow him down a path to their right.

Kyros waited for the group to thin as they headed off before leading his own squad down the path straight ahead. Dozens of pipes of varying size and level of disrepair lined the ceiling above them, leading off into the exposed facility for what seemed to be hundreds of meters before disappearing behind large tanks. "You got the paper?" he asked Seltic, realizing too late to ask for it before hand.

"Yeah, Kaplain said he can find what we need without it. It's probably best that I keep it."

"Right. Come on then, Vlad, keep an eye out for security."

As the badger offered a typical grunt of confirmation, Kyros returned his attention to analyzing the piping around him. He had only a vague idea of what to look for, and even then there was no guarantee that what the soldiers wanted would be exactly what they found. He glanced behind him and asked Seltic, "Okay, so what exactly does this pump thing look like?"

Seltic replied with a prolonged sigh, which usually meant that a short speech was about to follow. "That's the tricky part. We have the diagram here, but like the sergeant said, we probably won't find the same part that they lost. Anything similar should work though.

"For that matter, the arcology's technology is probably going to be a good bit more advanced than what's in here. Everything the overlanders had was more advanced, and I'd imagine that would include this too."

Kyros chuckled and said, "We're not looking for weapons and stuff here, it can't be that different can it?"

"Probably not... but you never know. Just looking at this diagram, it would seem to me that the arcology was using some sort of advanced electromagnetic field system to pump the water, and it was computer controlled. Anything in here would probably just be run of the mill parts, and given the size of the pump I'd imagine that would make it a lot less efficient."

"Will it work?"

"It's hard to say. I believe so, but water pressure would probably be a lot less. It's a whole lot better than nothing at any rate."

Kyros started down a staircase, trying to make as little noise as possible on the rickety catwalk. "If it works, that's all I care about. That's all they asked for, and they can figure the rest out."

"Yeah, I guess so. I just hope we can find it in the first place," Seltic replied as he followed him down to the lower level. "The pump system they had was just as simple plug-in type thing from the looks of it. It just fit between two pipes and when wired up to a controller system it would make the water move. If there's something similar here, it will probably look like a box about two thirds of a meter on each side."

Kyros pointed to a few pipes lining the wall to their left, running through a rectangular box before disappearing into the ground below. "You mean something like that?"

Seltic shot a glance to the construction and answered, "Yeah, actually. This won't work because it's feeding several small pipes instead of a large one, but it is something like what we'd need."

"You sure it won't work? That would be just too convenient I guess."

"I'm pretty sure. The pipe that it will need to feed was half a meter across, and this pump is for three much smaller pipes." He studied it for a moment more and noted a pair of flexible hoses exposed on its side. "Like I figured... these are pneumatic pressure pumps too, much less powerful."

"Great," Kyros said with a groan. "At least we know that there's something like it here. Were there any other parts we needed?"

"Some valves and pipe parts, but I'm not concerned about that. If it really comes down to it I think we have those parts back at Armadi."

Kyros turned away from the pipes and stared at a large row of enormous water storage tanks lining a far wall. "Maybe we should check those, they'd have to have some kind of pump system attached to them."

"Any luck?" Maya called down to Kaplain from her position on a scaffold above a tangle of pipes and cables. She tried to pick out the deer's blue coat through the mass of tubes and wires, desperately hoping that they would find what they needed soon.

"Not yet. All of this stuff looks too small," he called back, louder than she was comfortable with.

"Try to keep it down guys," Stanley said as he searched the paths visible around them for movement. "We don't want to get caught up down here by security, there's no way out except through them."

Kaplain stepped over to a clear area below and flashed them a small smirk. "Sorry. There's a few more places down here that look promising though, come on down."

Maya immediately started off toward the stairs leading down, anxious to offer whatever help she could to speed up the process. She nervously scanned the level below for any movement other than Kaplain before stepping down onto the badly stained and cracked concrete floor. She hurried over to Kaplain's side and stared blankly into another pile of assorted cables and flexible pipes that he was searching through.

"Nothing here, all of this is too small," he muttered to himself. "We've got to find some fairly big stuff if we're to have any hope of repairing the arcology's water system. All of this looks like its just feeding some chemical sensors or something. We need to find a water main or something... but then I don't know how we're going to shut the flow off."

"Would something like that be further down maybe?" Stanley asked as he joined them.

"Possibly, if nothing else there's bound to be the connections to the sewage system further down. Not that we'd be able to actually use something that large."

Stanley looked over to a screen covered door further down at the end of the path and said, "Well, that looks like an elevator of some sort, think we should give it a shot?"

"Sure, we're not gonna find anything here."

Maya swallowed and took a deep breath. Kaplain was right about that, but by going further down they were making it harder to get out in a hurry if things turned bad. At least with Stanley they would probably notice trouble before it started, but even a small force would either pin them in or call for reinforcements that would.

As the other two began making their way toward the unsafe looking elevator, she brushed the thoughts from her mind and pressed on after them. They had to take risks now, it was the only hope Tantalus had left.

"This doesn't look like it's been used in years," Kaplain grumbled at the ramshackle rusted components of the elevator that were exposed. "I hope it'll hold together."

"Don't say it that way," Stanley mumbled as he forced the jammed screen open. He stepped inside cautiously, listening for any telltale sounds of the weakened metal cracking or giving away. With no stomach churning groans emanating from the cart, he motioned the other two inside. "Seems safe, let's just hope it's got power."

Maya shut her eyes as Stanley pressed a button to send them to the lowest level of the building. The cart sat still for a moment as the sound of electrical lines around them began to hum with energy, finally lurching slightly as it began to descend. Rusted and unmaintained gears ground and squealed as they lowered the cart, and Maya hoped that if they didn't suddenly fail and send them to their death that they at least wouldn't alert security. They couldn't possibly go much further without running into something armed and ready to kill them.

An unspeakable feeling of relief washed over her as the worn elevator systems ground to a halt and silence at the basement floor. She took several more deep breaths to calm herself again, and stepped out of the cart first. As before, there was no sign of any defense forces in the area, only an apparently endless sea of storage tanks and piping.

She shrieked and jumped at a sudden shrill hiss behind her. She stumbled backward into a tank and covered her chest as her heart began to beat uncontrollably. As she tried to gather her wits, she noticed a breached pipe beneath the elevator venting steam with a weak hiss. Inside the elevator Kaplain and Stanley had dove for the floor and tried to find the source of their apparent attacker. As they too became aware of the source of the sound, they cautiously rose to their feet and exited the elevator cart.

Kaplain weakly rubbed his own chest and groaned at the dull pain his elevated heart rate and blood pressure caused. Ever since the day he had been deroboticized, he suffered pain like this when stressed, and the thought of a robot suddenly leaping upon them was certainly enough to count. He gasped a few times and rubbed his aching temples before saying, "Geeze... I thought it was all over just now..."

Maya closed her eyes and took a moment to calm down. "Me too. Did any robots hear that?"

Stanley looked around quickly and said, "I don't see any at least. Let's get going before something else goes wrong."

Kaplain tried to ignore the persisting dull pain in his head as he observed the array of connecting pipes attached to the storage tank in front of him. Just like the dozen before it, it had parts similar to what they needed, but were too small. He looked up and stared over a pair of much larger tanks situated in a recess in the floor to his right, and began walking over to them. Large tanks might have larger parts after all.

He rubbed an ache in his hip where Seltic had rebuilt his previously robotic body. If they did run into a robot now, he only hoped they managed to defeat it without dragging the fight on. He cautiously hopped down into the hole housing the tanks, grunting as the shock jarred his aching joints. The massive tanks towered over him, humming curiously as some internal machinery churned along.

He pressed on and shuffled over to four massive pipes jutting from the walls and leading into the tanks. The size of these was much more promising, and with renewed hope he twisted his way past a tangle of cables to reach the base of the tanks. He felt his heart rate climb again with excitement as his eyes tracked over the machinery attached to the tanks. Just a meter ahead sat two large water pumps chugging along quietly, perfect for what they needed.

"Hey guys, I think I found what we need!" he shouted without thought to the possible security robots that might overhear them. He fiddled with the tools on his belt and found a wrench that looked large enough to unscrew the bolts fastening the pump to the pipes around it. With all of his energy, he thrust his weight into the wrench to close the valve, prompting a loud hiss as the system vented pressure. He waited for the pressure indicator to fall to nearly zero, and began working on the fasteners.

Stanley appeared at the guard rail above him. "You found it?" he asked, excitement clear in his voice.

"Yeah, I think this will work. I even found two, just in case something goes wrong with one."

"Great, need some help?"

Before Kaplain could reply, "Yeah," Stanley was already down in the pit with him. He helped him force the bolts loose on the piping, straining against the rusted-together metal. As they finally cracked the final bolt loose, a sudden forceful blast of steam and water sprayed them down and blew the pump off, shearing off the damaged bolts.

The blast of water quickly slowed and died out, leaving them completely soaked but triumphant. Kaplain checked the pump quickly for damage before hoisting it up to the level above them. "Go get Maya, she needs to contact the others so they can come help us grab these and get out of here."

Stanley began to move for the stairs moments before the two hears Maya issue another startled cry. Both barreled up the stairs and looked in her direction, sure that they would find robots dragging her off to her doom or shooting at them. Instead, they found her staring down Kyros.

After a berating from Maya for sneaking up on her, he looked up and called to them, "Hey guys, we found something that will work. We've already contacted the others and let them know."

"We found something too," Kaplain said as he walked closer, ignoring the throbbing pain that returned from the excitement just now. "So we should have plenty to get things fixed."

"Excellent, they're on their way now to help us move the parts out of here. The sergeant said that they'd be here in about ten minutes."

Maya looked around nervously and said, "Are we safe here?"

"Yeah, actually," Kyros replied, abnormally confident in the statement. "She said that they haven't encountered but one robot so far. They had a few recon flights come in and check the place out since we've been here. Apparently almost all of the security and work forces have been diverted somewhere else. There's only a handful of bots keeping tabs on everything around here."

"Wh...why? Is Robotnik building something secret somewhere?"

"The sergeant said that they've noticed this for a while now, but can't find anything particularly unusual. Apparently it's just Robotnik trying out new security patrols or something, and this place apparently isn't that valuable.

"Anyway, let's grab the parts you found, I'm ready to get out of here as soon as they show up."