"So Diz, what the hell is going on?" Wasp asked. "The hell do I know!" Dizzy replied. This was all just too strange. A work site that's evacuated as if people just got up and walked away, like they were going home. An HQ that is dead silent. On a planet that seems to be one giant snowball. What could either of them know.
"I don't understand a thing thats going on ,Wasp. But this is something serious. Really serious. Super serious, right." Dizzy said. Her eyes strained against the intensely bright light reflected from the permafrost.. "Stupid ice, I should have brought some sunglasses or something". Wasp flipped a switch , the windows polarized. "You could have told me about that" Dizzy said.
With no storm to impede them, the trek lasted shorter than expected. The huge dish antenna atop the base slowly revealed itself above a snow dune. Something was wrong. The dish was blasted, panels missing and whole chunks scattered. "Ah slag" was all Dizzy could muster.
Wasp called in , every channel she knew. Nothing. Not even static. "Its like everything's been shutdown. Maybe its spring cleaning?" she said. "Yeah, thats why the shuttles disappeared too?". Wasp quickly twisted to see the landing pad. They were all gone. "What the frakking hell?" she yelled out.
Dizzy used the last of the fuel in the boosters to jump over the dunes. Her mech went down skiing towards the base, its tracked heels at full throttle to push it even faster. The snow compressed under its feet, a thin layer of water formed. Its feet became skates, but its weight was too much to handle. "Hey hey hey!" Wasp yelled. The mech teetered to the right, its weapon racks drawing it to the ground.
Dizzy jettisoned the shoulder missile pods. Still not enough. She tossed the rifles, box ammunition, the magnetic mines. It was still tilting. She thrusted the arm controls forward then back. A long blade popped out from the right arm. A pull of another switch detonated the clamps that held it to the arm.
"Ah always that stupid sword" , Wasp commented.
Now balanced, they quickly arrived at the base. Loading mechs were out on the tarmac, left behind by the fleeing base staff. They had the courtesy of locking up after they left though. "Well, Im hoping this means they're coming back." Dizzy said. "Or maybe they wanted to keep someone out" Wasp replied.
The loading bay doors were unresponsive. Even the override codes were failing. They were locked out on purpose. "Well , what the hell" Wasp said. "Alright, we're gonna do something a bit different. She told Wasp to bring a loader to the door. With two mechs, it would be easier to lift the door.
The loading mech's clawed hands dug into the door, perforating it. Dizzy's Zephyr grasped hold of metal handles at the bottom of the door. "On three we lift" she said over the radio. One Two Three. They both lifted. The door resisted. Another count to three. They lifted , pulling their arm controls as hard as possible. Actuators groaned and the door screeched. Something broke when the door launched upward. The loader was totaled, its arms torn off its sockets. "You ok in there?" Dizzy radioed.
"Yeah , yeah. Im fine" an annoyed Wasp responded back. They marched inside to find the loading bay completely cleaned. "Looks like they put everything back in place? I don't think anythings missing" Dizzy noted. The tractors were parked inside a shed , the ammo containers piled up at the other end of the bay. "Why wouldn't they take any of this stuff?" Wasp's voice echoed in the desolate building.
"Lets just get the gear and get the hell out" Dizzy said.
"Alright, record everything the sensors pick up. I'll be keeping a voice log" Ryuki said. The flamethrowers were arrayed one on the shoulder and one in each arm. "Why flamers though?" Ross said. "For the frakking xenos , man." Barry replied.
Missiles, guns, autorifles and cannons. Not a single weapon was left. "These guys are gonna sink through the snow with all this gear" Barry said. "We still have the sled so we'll use that" Ryuki said with a finger pointed to the Thunderhammer. "Alright guys, one more check. Make sure you take some food with you, I don't know how long we'll be down there". Ryuki said.
The radio chirped. The base was empty. The comm antenna blown to bits. No one around and the shuttles were gone. They were already halfway back to the recon post by the time she called in. Some very bad news , Ryuki noted. How would the others handle it. They were officially stranded on the planet until the next supply ship arrived, if one was scheduled at all.
No time to lie , he thought. They were in a bad situation and the only way out was to make sure everyone knew as much as possible. He called everyone together inside the recon post. Whatever speech he could think of would have fallen flat on their ears once they heard what happened at the base. "Alright guys, here is the blunt truth. HQ is deserted, the ships have disappeared off the landing zone. The radio antenna is busted. We are stuck here for the time being". He waited for a response. Only Barry said anything, mostly unintelligible cursing. "Alright then, in about two hours the Zhuk with the rest of our gear will get here. Load up essentials, this situation is probably going to get worse".
The Zhuk was one hour away. A storm was extending out from the horizon. Dark clouds swirled , bloated in the sky. It too was closing on them. Ryuki stood on top of the watch tower outside of the recon post. He scanned the horizon , noting the small silhouette of a spider approaching. Howling wind reached pushed him against the inner walls. Forceful gusts kept him unbalanced. Struggling to plant his feet firmly onto the floor he felt the floor and the walls sway. Though the winds were strong, the tower was low to the ground with a wide base made of thick concrete and steel. It couldn't be the wind making the tower to shake. It couldn't be. It wasn't strong enough. No, no something was happening under the tower.
"Any reports on the seismographs?" he called in. Barry answered , a bit surprised "this is the first time Im hearing that we've got a seismograph. Let me go check what it says". Barry found the computer screen showing various sensor read outs. Temperature, solar activity , infrared and many more sensor output, in a rainbow of colors and shapes. He tapped the screen to see the rest of the charts. Nothing unusual , he thought. Another tap, another screen appeared. The multicolored lines were jumbled against the black background. Lines folded on top of each other, stretching out then pulling back down. Plots turned fuzzy and indiscernible, a chaotic mosaic of sensor readings. . They oscillated wildly , turning into jagged peaks and troughs. He scanned the titles; ultrasonic ,magnetometer, gravimeter and finally the seismographic chart. It was slowly rising.
"Sir, the seismograph is showing activity is increasing, slowly increasing" Barry called back to Ryuki. What did it mean, Barry wondered and would Ryuki know any more then him? Maybe it was the Zhuk approaching. But the tremors were unnoticeable until the realization that they were happening at that very moment.
Another call, this time from Dizzy. Twenty minutes out. Cracks appeared along the edges of the recon post and tower. Ryuki watched from above as one long crack traveled all the way to the dig site a kilometer away. This wasn't natural, Ryuki thought. Dizzy never said anything about tremors when she called in. New cracks formed, this time surrounding the giant crag , the loud cracking of ice followed.
"Everyone get ready to leave as soon as Dizzy gets here. Get everything on the sled. Karin, Ross , Reaper, load the Zephyrs onto the sled and take the Thunderhammer. Head towards the entrance and wait inside. Do not go down the elevator until I give the go".
"Sir, the ground is turning to mush here, I don't think we can make it. Even if we did, if we go down, how the hell will that be better when we got a veritable earth spasm going on here? Karin called in. "Trust me on this, the dig site was reinforced. They built it solid" hey replied.
Karin and Ross moved the extra Zephyrs onto the sled, siting them down , almost in fetal positions. Reaper climbed up into the spider-mech , up a metal ladder then through a heavy ,hardened hatched. The start up procedure was long , Reaper knew. It was up to him to make sure that everything worked.
A roar sounded through the desolate wasteland. An icy shard erupted form the ground. "Dizzy , get your Zhuk into the dig site. We're abandoning the outpost" Ryuki radioed. "Alright, we can see the watch tower, we'll be in the dig site in about ten minutes" she replied, with a seeming intensity and nervousness in her voice. She felt the ground begin to shiver, the vibrations making their way through the armor plating and hydraulic actuators, through the blast shield surrounding the crew compartment . The eerie sounds of distant crashes ringing inside the command deck, through the thick plating and armored cage.
The Thunderhammer was already halfway to the gate when Ryuki crossed into the complex. Ross's mech walked in backwards, slowly, with its autorifle poised to fire. "Alright, you go down first Ross, when the Thunderhammer comes in , I'll send it down. Ill bring Dizzy down on the last ride. Secure the floor when you get there" Ryuki ordered.
Down the platform went , Ross alone with his flood lights beaming into the void. Karin's mech reached the platform once it came back up , its huge frame barely fitting onto the elevator. The sled was disconnected and left with Ryuki. Down and up again the platform went. Ryuki pushed the sled onto the platform and sent it back down. He turned his view port out towards the entrance to see the Zhuk only minutes away. His palms became sweaty upon realizing how much the ground was waving in the distance, like a solid ice sea. The waves lifted the Zhuk up and then let it down. Tension built up in his neck as he focused on Dizzy's mech. His muscles ached of exhaustion again. The pressure was building, how long could he take it, he wondered. Cold sweat ran down his back, his palms becoming more moist as Dizzy closed in.
A relieving wave of endorphins rushed through his body when the Zhuk stepped onto the platform. The elevator came back up when the ground broke apart. Just enough time left to push the sled and go down. The relentless thunder of breaking ice sounded as if the planet was being torn apart. The cold sweats didn't stop until the roars dulled out at the bottom of the elevator shaft.
"Alright, so we're down here. What now?" Barry asked. "The planet is cracking apart up there. Wait. Why's it so quiet down here? Its like completely silent. Nothing. Nothing happening, no sounds. That doesn't make any sense".
"Yeah, something's night right about this place. Thats why we're down here. The HQ commander was not right, the base staff were not right. Nothing is right. And this place is probably why. Did you guys notice that the labs were completely automated?" Ryuki said.
"Yeah, wouldn't the scientists be in there working or something? They seemed to just go back and forth between there and here. Lets check on what they were working on" Ross said.
"I'll check if the mains are on. If they aren't we can hook the Zhuk and Thunderhammer up and run off their compact fusion reactors", Karin said.
"No, wait we shut down the main generator, its on back up power right now. Go straight to hooking in the spiders" Ryuki commented.
Ryuki worked through each desk, looking for anything, a report or some notes. There had to be something that could tell them what was going on. He checked the computers. Nope, the main lines were still down. How much back up power was there, he wondered.
He wandered around , sifting through papers and notebooks. Nothing strange or unusual , though the research conducted was strange. There were outlines, technical specifications for things that didn't exist. This was supposed to be a dig site, exobiology and archeology. What were they doing here with futuristic designs.
The drawers were all left unlocked, he found. More notes and lab books , all detailing weapon systems that were much to large to be inside the complex. No, these weren't just too big, they were too powerful too. Most modern capital ship weapons were focused multi-petawatt solid state lasers. Tens of billions of peta-watts. More than enough to ignite a new star. Or collapse it.
"Hey cap, I found a map. It doesn't look right man. It's got another elevator shaft that goes about a kilometer down. I thought that black rock up top was what they were working on?" Wasp called out. The lights flickered ,the power had switched over.
"Sir ,the power's back on. But reactors are steady but there's some kind of weird power drain coming from somewhere. How big is this place supposed to be to take that kind of power?" Karin said.
"Wasp, find that elevator, get the Zephyrs up and running, set up a perimeter in the main hall. Close off the residential area and make sure those vents are sealed tight" Ryuki ordered.
Everyone was surprised. What was going on, what was it they were supposed to be ready for. "Get on it guys" he told his dumbfounded crew.
"Everyone, make sure you're armed" he yelled out.
"Sir with all due respect, what the hell?" Barry asked. "I'm going to hold a debrief once Wasp and his group get back".
"Yeah but whats up with this elevator? Whats so special about it? Where does it go?"
"I'll explain it soon enough".
Wasp, with the help of Reaper and Dizzy , trekked into the lab complex. It was split into cells ,separated by thick glass walls. The roof was vaulted and high, with vents along the sides where the roof met the walls. The air was musty , like the entire wing was shut off for years. But it couldn't have been. The labs were well stocked with the most modern equipment available.
They searched the labs and found notebooks and lab journals , dated just recently. But the air felt old, very old. Ancient. Where was it coming from , why did it fill them with dread.
"This place, this place is not right. It feels like its been here for ages, but everything in here is new" Reaper said. "Lets find that elevator and get the hell out".
Wasp spotted something as they headed further inside. An open notebook. It was thicker than the others with a heavily bound hard cover. Maybe its some ancient book of the dead, she joked. She kept her eyes on it, until they had passed into the back of the wing.
Nothing. No doors nor any kind of exit. "What in the proper hell?" Wasp said. The map showed the wing ending with a hallway into a storage complex. It can't just end there. "Alright guys, we have to find some other way to the storage complex", she said.
"No, lets leave. We can't find this elevator, no point in staying here. Look, your map is wrong, there's nothing here" he said, his voice faltering."No its here, it has to be. Why the hell would they have made a fake map just lying around. Listen, you can go if you want but when the cap says why you came back alone , you're going to have to tell him you were a wimp".
"FINE! Whatever, lets just get this over with" Reaper's voice echoed.
Wasp went back to the lab she saw earlier, with the open hardcover. It lay on a white top table at the back of the lab. Sheets of paper were strewn around it, torn pages from a book. Looking closer, it was obvious they came from the open book. Sections from it were missing, with only the jagged scraps still attached to the spine.
She went through the book, skimming every page. It was a personal journal it seemed. There were pages about personal relationships and gossip. From be beginning till the middle, it was all the same. Then , the words changed. The handwriting was still the same ,but the sentences seemed foreign. Like someone had took the time and effort to replicate the script but ignored completely the intent of the words. Like a simulacrum trying to copy its progenitor but missing the subtlety of personality.
What was that feeling, she wondered. That deep,dark dread. The idea that something could be so similar yet so different. The dim research wing seemed to become just a little darker. This notion pricked her mind, embedding itself into her surroundings and invading her psyche. Fear. A tangled hand out of the darkness ,reaching out to her, stretching its fingers, waiting for you to grasp it, accept it , be consumed by it. It was a small idea , the notion of something replacing you, something almost like you but just a little different, was enough to make her wonder, what the hell went on down here. That inkling of thought let the darkness seep. Acceptance of the idea that something was not right. Now there was no way to ignore that hand ,waiting for you.
She took the book, the others needed to see it for themselves.
