"So Cap, what was all that screaming about? Sounded like old-fashioned fisticuffs going on in your tent" Reaper asked. Joeseph "Reaper" Readings was not a particularly astute man. His question only brought wincing embarrassment to the party surrounding him. Dizzy tried to shush him, placing her index finger across her lips, but Reaper was too dense to realize. In his mind, everyone seemed even more interested in the captain's night exploits. Perhaps they had the same perverse thoughts as he, as he thought the captain was in a furious masturbation session. Something he wished he could do in privacy.
"So, you been waxing the pole hard huh? I can see it in your face" Reaper spoke nonchalantly. Dizzy slapped down Reaper's head, leaving a nice sized welt where her heavy glove landed. He howled in pain as his bald head shined red with Dizzy's hand print.
Ryuki intervened before Reapers face was turned into a large red dot. "Eh, you know what, I wish. I had a dream , I dont know what it was but it was vivid. I was in an elevator shaft, found it at the far end of this bay,jumping up with my mech till I reached an open door. I went through it and at the end something was shining so bright. I dont know , a premonition maybe?".
"Well, if it was true, then there should be some kind of access hatch in this bay " Ross spoke as he inhaled the scent of freshly brewed french vanilla coffee. "Maybe its a service elevator, that should be big enough to carry our mechs, though not the spiders", he continued.
"Sure, lets do that. Is anyone doing repairs or maintenance?" Ryuki asked. "Nope, Ive got absolutely nothing to do, Sir" Karin replied. "Good, lets meet up in twenty minutes, enough time to get morning business doen , aye?" Ryuki replied.
Breakfast ended and each went their own way. Twenty minutes until the first expedition deeper into the space hulk. What was waiting for them on the inside? They had only pierced the skin of the beast, made their home into the subcutaneous layer. What to talk on such a mission? They all figured at least one weapon needed to come along. The FRX-17 portable flamethrower had a range of 20 meters and a cone of fire of 15 degrees. A large blue flame sat at the nose, waiting for something to ignite. Ten litre gas cannisters screwed into the gun into an underside flip-out armored receiver. The Dragon, it was called, a fire breathing monster sure to bring ruin to anything in the path of its breath.
The mechs were beat up, dents and worn paint pockmarking the machines. Bits and pieces of armor scraped off, others completely covered in freezing ice. Blast marks from their fight in the hangar scarred the armor plating. Possibly the worst damage was the infiltration of water into the motorized joints. The heat given off by the high energy current coarsing through the mech were enough to evaporate any water that seeped in. But if left offline, the heat would dissipated and the water would be given a chance to freeze solid. The joints would break apart , the motors would succumb to the icy knives. Maybe a flamethrower could keep the ice from forming.
On the cargo sleds that the spiders pulled were crates and containers filled with weapons and ammunition. Rocket pods, folding flak cannons, field artillery , all that they could salvage from the empty HQ. Even macro-scale flamthrowers fueled by barrels of gellied petroluem were loaded up. Now all these weapons were welded, strapped or otherwise affixed to the mech bodies. These machines , once sleek and agile had been turned into a pile of rockets,shells and gun barrels. Movement was highly restricted by the protruding weaponry,turning the Zephyrs into walking turrets.
The pilot deck wasn't left alone either. Inside were stacks of rations, boxes of ammunition and cannisters of fire extinguishers. There was little room left, not enough to let someone drop into the passenger seat. Even if it was possible, the seat was full with rifles and grenades.
The tight quarters of the pilot deck constrained armor choices. Ryuki wanted to wear his combat suit, with motorized joints and built in armaments. His only choice then was the EVA suit, a thin outfit that felt just a bit too tight. The fabric was specially designed to retain heat and to deflect cosmic radiation. It would only provide a few minutes of protection should the reactor meltdown, though.
Only three of the suits would be sent out for the expedition, the other two remaining with the spider mechs . Ryuki, Ross and Karin opted to go,carrying with them a long thick cable to provide uninterrupted power and communications should they need it.
The rusted and worn hulks began to move out into the dark side of the bay. Lack of light rendered the night vision goggles useless, as they needed at least a bit of light to augment vision. Thus, they switched on the headlights and lamps , shining hundreds of thousands of lumens into the dark corners. A sigh of relief, no sight of unfriendly aliens.
They began to tap the walls for hollow spaces behind them but the familiar thunk of steel on steel was the only thing they found. They paced up and down the dark edges , looking for any sign of a elevator door. Empty crates fell in their path, rusted gurneys and cranes sat silent in their wake.
Ross had trouble seeing where he was going. Periodically, the camera's on his mech would fog up , and only time away from the search would remove it. It seemed to happen on a regular schedule though. Odd, Ross thought. There wasn't a leak in his suit, none of the pressure sensors in the reactor coolant system were reading a hunch, he decided to pace the walls.
When his cameras fogged up again, he marked his map. He paced to the right from the spot, to let his cameras defog, for a few minutes. He came back , going past it in the opposite direction he first encountered the fog. Again, his cameras fogged. There was a source of warm air behind the wall facing him, no doubt the elevator shaft that the captain spoke about.
"Sir, I think I found it" Ryuki's radio clattered. At Ross's position, he found the lieutenant standing outside his mech, holding a fire extinguisher in his hands. Once Ryuki arrived, Ross blasted the wall with it. The thick white exhaust splashed onto the wall then drifted down the the floor. Spurts of the white fog burst through the panels , making out a large double door. "Thats it, thats it" Ryuki said as he stood atop his own mech, the heat swirling around him as it escaped from the open pilot deck.
"Alright, so we have to pry it open. How do we do that?" Ross yelled out. " We need something strong but flat, a lever" Ryuki said. In the middle of an abandoned cargo hold, surrounded by refuse, there had to be something useful. "Lets start disassembling some girders and walls" after a few moments of quiet contemplation.
The cutting torches were different from the welders. The flame was longer ,brighter ,hotter. They were called plasma lances. Superheated fluid, composed of ions from sacrificial matter, swirling like a storm's eye inside the electromagnetic containment where they are born.
Beams of plasma pierced through loose steel , burning through red holes , leaving rapidly cooling scars. The long plates were cut up into thin levers. Their ends were burnished and ground to points, perfect for fitting between the thin panel lines of the walls. The plasma torches burned bright , painting the walls cobalt blue as they sliced through metal.
The mechs gripped the levers and thrusted them into the walls marked off by tape. The sharp ends pierced through. A strong push was enough to force the lever deeper, establishing a strong foothold. The mechs pulled and pulled on the levers causing the the doors to bend. The bolts that held them in place popped out of their sockets, the sliding joint splintered to pieces and the doors whined as they were torn from their moorings. They bounced onto the floor, rattling the entire bay, maybe the entire ship.
Past the doors was an impenetrable darkness. Flashing lights into the shaft only revealed the other side of the shaft, a motley assembly of severed cables ,rotten steel and paper refuse. Pointing upwards only revealed the next two landings above them. None of the doors were open which meant the levers would have to be used again.
The rocket claws were aimed up , hopefully at the fifth floor. The captain's dream pointed to the top floor where the light resided. It was there that he thought they would find escape, or at the very least answers before their impending doom.
Karin fired her claw to where she thought was the top floor. The rocket motors burst into action, launching the claw up at a blazing speed. The claws extended, read the grab whatever came its way. It smashed into the wall , unleashing a crashing rattle. Bits of the floor came crashing down but the claw remained firm. Karin pulled back on the winch, pulling herself up .
As the mech rose up, its lamps turned on, in search for something interesting.
She only reached the fourth floor but found the doors loose. She punched through the door, knocking it off its frame to reveal a still lit floor. "Cap, power's still up on this floor" she radioed down. Pack up and head up there? At least scout it out, he thought. Was this what he saw, he thought. What else could it be? Light is the opposite of darkness, right. Nothing is hidden in the light, its all there to see. Nothing hiding, waiting in the darkened corners. It was good, he knew it. It had to be.
All the mechs were to be mobilized. For pacification if the need arises. The door into the powered floor was only wide enough for one mech at a time. A preliminary investigation showed that the floor was large enough to take the entire platoon. Odd though, that while the floor is powered, the elevator wasn't. Why would only that floor be on? At least to his knowledge, nothing else was powered.
Up they went, one by one. There were five of them, leaving two behind. Wasp and Dizzy stayed behind, each one piloting a spider and ready with emergency medical equipment. Dizzy kept an eye on the communication and power cables.
Once they had all reached the floor, they split into two groups, each assigned to one side of the floor. Ryuki and Ross took what they assumed was the east side, while Karin, Reaper and Barry took the west side. They split off, leaving the cable behind with a short range transceiver to allow them to have uninterrupted comms.
The rooms were large and white, with tables arranged in rows, each table nearly ten meters long. These steel tables were topped with white ceramic slabs , with troughs on the sides. Ryuki zoomed into the trough and spotted dark stains leading to the drain. It seemed each table had a separate drain. Perhaps it was a kitchen, there were ovens after all.
The white walls were much less immaculate than on cursory investigation. Water stains, from decades of dripping water. Blotches of mold growing from the cracks, darkening the walls. Under the forests of mold, the bare steel walls showed, rusted and eaten away by frozen water.
No, the water isn't frozen. Its wet ,dripping like sweat. The room had been used recently.
