There wasn't anything in this world Mable was worth. Having been born a ninth daughter to a poor family of miners, the moment this fact of her existence had been made, she had been abandoned to a small orphanage within the hive of an industrial world. Being told she wasn't expected to live beyond her twenties, as either the toxins in the mine she wasn't worth being protected from would kill her – or that through prostitution and disease she would die in the next 'generational wave' – she had tried her best to prove the matron and sisters of the orphanage wrong.
Turns out, they were completely right, but wrong about the method in which she'd die. Now currently being hunted by a cult of elongated headed xeno-worshippers, Mable sat within a stone closet she had barricaded within the old church she had been raised within.
She was thirteen, and going to die. Pathetically, and horrifically, judging by the promises of the muttering mutants that had heard her flee after they had ruthlessly gunned down the others in the orphanage. Unwittingly saving her from being made a slave of a different kind, these creatures promised to free her of all bodily functions and join them in what was beginning to sound more and more like a soup bath – which Mable had decided was not a sexual innuendo. Fairly certain that the figures were going to kill her and eat her body as they continued to call out, trying to coax her out of hiding, Mable sat patiently in the darkness of the stone closet hoping that the alien-worshippers would get bored of searching for her. While waiting in silence, too afraid to get up, breathe, or move, Mable realized she felt air shifting on her neck… but not from the door she had quietly shifted things around to barricade herself within.
Knowing that the temple she inhabited was ancient, as the dust that clung to every surface of the structure was supposedly as sacred as the depiction of the Emperor currently being defaced in altar room, Mable would quietly search for the airflow – hoping there was a chute or secret exit she could hide in. Knowing that one of the children had fallen down a shaft when the floor boards gave out a few years ago, as the sisters had warned her what would happen to her if she interrupted their sacred rituals, Mable eventually found the source of air movement, and then pushed her weak body against the abrasive stone that cut into her hand.
Closing her eyes and internalizing the pain, not wanting to yelp and alert those who were looking for her in the culling of this part of the city, Mable eventually gained traction on the stone. Having to sit up straighter, kneel properly to put her weight against the secret door, Mable then felt the stone begin to slowly move.
Making a grating noise as the stone pushed against itself, Mable discovered that the secret door had a mind of its own as it continued to rumble open. Hearing steps immediately investigating the noise, and then a clawed hand scratching against the door, Mable helped the hidden hatch open as she pushed and squeezed against it – managing to get enough of a space to crawl through as the autogun of the xeno-lover deafened the room with its volley.
Feeling pain in her elbows, hands, face, and knees as she slid down the rock tunnel, hitting a stone wall. Falling down in a switch-back pattern, Mable would descend into the underbelly of the orphanage without much effort on her own, the ease at which he speeding along being nerve wracking as her vision was stolen by the darkness. Coming to a stop for a moment, she would horrifyingly hear the scratching noise of something pursuing her through the tunnel, prompting Mable to crawl faster and faster away – unable to think as she felt her blood leave her scratched skin. Mindlessly fleeing, having no other option than to move forward, Mable descended.
Her father would be proud of her, she thought briefly. Knowing he had been a miner – as most men were in the lower hive of Hisperia Prime Majoris – the man having once been buried deep below the earth after a cave in. Having only survived by crawling through a hole that was half the size of himself, he had dug himself out, telling his family of the heroic story that he had gained with his survival.
'I could only do it because I knew you all were waiting for me.'
That had been one of the few times she had been considered a part of the family.
It pained her, knowing that they were likely just as dead as the matron was.
Yet, like her father, she crawled. They, or someone, was waiting for her. Surely, she wasn't the only survivor. Others would come, or were hiding like her. She needed to leave… and find them.
So, she descended into the darkness. Without a flashlight, bleeding, and being pursued by something, she would push and shove her way downwards, moving into darkened tunnels that went from stone, to metal, back to stone, and then, surprisingly, into rotten wood. Crashing through whatever box or floor that she fell on as her sudden journey came to an abrupt stop, Mable groaned out in pain, and then heard an awful hissing noise. Blinking as she stared at a metal pipe that was releasing a hiss of air next to a dimly glowing green light, Mable would slowly stand, ignoring the pain of splinters in her hands and legs as her lower hem of her dress that had shielded her from most of the debris tore at the wooden flooring that tried to keep her down.
Pushing herself back up onto the floor she had crashed through, looking up at the hole in the darkness she had fallen down, and remembering that something had been crawling after her in the darkness, Mable quickly moved away, and began to look for an exit. Not finding an immediate door or portal, Mable quickly checked the light and hissing pipe, blinking at the human skull that was mounted in the wall with a green glowing lens dimly shining from its right eye-socket. Tapping the light, recognizing it as a servitor that was entrusted with dangerous labor, Mable would quickly retract her hand as the voice spoke in an old-timey, ancient tongue, being completely indecipherable.
"I don't have time for this…" Mable breathed out, and then heard a word from what little she understood from the prayers her matrons had forced her to say.
"Ordo Chronos." It stated with a faded, echoing blitz of static, and as Mable repeated herself, hearing a scratching noise beginning to echo from the darkness, she would quickly whisper to the skull.
"I don't have time. Help me, please."
"Request, acknowledged." The static said once more, distorting as it switched from what she assumed was High Gothic to the more commonly used Low Gothic.
Feeling quite fortunate as the solid wall around her began to hiss open further, Mable would squeeze through a stone door that shifted with metal – illuminated by a low red light as she stepped barefoot on a metal grate. Turning to see a creature begin to descend into the shadows of the room, falling as she had and impaling itself on a wooden spike, Mable heard a call from the servitor that began to let out an alarm.
"Xeno detected. Sealing." The voice declared boldly… and then, as she watched the stone door shut as the crawling thing of flesh and teeth began to slither towards the entrance like a snake, she heard a faint, whispered, dying cry of the servitor. "Goodbye."
Wanting to cry as she looked at the sealed entrance she had been allowed through, Mable would instead inhale deeply, and look down the metal hallway that was being illuminated by a red light that took her deeper into the labyrinth underneath the orphanage.
She felt somewhat safer, as she exited the long winding hallway, finding another door that was already opened. Then feeling quite horrible as she found a mummified cadaver sitting upright next to a destroyed logic engine that had its screen broken, Mable looked at the pistol the person had died holding in his endless gaze towards the broken device. No surgeon or healer, all Mable could do was place her hands together in the symbol of the aquila, and then pick up the heavy metal pistol – not knowing how to properly use it, but feeling the Emperor wouldn't have put it in front of her if he didn't want her to have it.
While moving the pistol, she would be greatly startled as the cadaver's arm fell out from the sleeve of his rotten shirt, and as she carried the weapon free into the air, Mable would also carry the arm that a metal bracelet dropped from. Crying out briefly as the sudden, unexpected bone arm slapped her in her very tender knee, Mable inhaled again, and listened to see if she was still alone. Not hearing any scratching or hissing, she would look at the metal bracelet that had dropped to the floor… and then, seeing a strange symbol she was unfamiliar with, Mable would thoughtlessly put the bracelet on her left wrist.
This, she would come to understand, was a mistake – as the bracelet immediately squeezed onto her wrist and would not come off regardless of what she did. Biting at it, pulling at it, and briefly considering shooting the bracelet, Mable looked at the constricting binding… and was forced to ignore it as she continued to explore the… workshop? Laboratory? Shrine?
She was unsure what she was looking at, if she was being honest with herself. Looking over the other logic engines that had been broken, the entire room being desks, chairs, and broken metal, Mable eventually found a rather ornate looking statue of a bronze clock that had long since stopped ticking downwards. Thinking nothing of it after it failed to start, Mable would head to the metal door that was guarded by another servitor-skull – this one with a red eye instead of a green eye. Tapping on the glass-lens with her non-pistol hand, Mable would watch as the red light suddenly emitted outwards, ran over her person, and then focused on her left wrist.
"Access Granted. Welcome, Priam."
Feeling quite lucky, as she had been under the assumption that servitors rarely did what were asked – and honestly thinking it had been a miracle that she had managed to get through the entrance in the first place, Mable quickly went into the next room… which was also in a complete ruin.
She was in some kind of facility, Mable decided. Perhaps a small-scale factory, where people would slap on the keys of a logic engine all day, rather than the ones where a worker spent their days on an assembly line. Unsure exactly what they could be making on the rare technology, but thinking it must have been important if they had gone to the trouble of building their facility under a temple, Mable would explore destroyed room after destroyed room… but not once found another cadaver. Wondering if this 'Priam' character had accidentally locked himself in the room, and then shot himself – or if he had been the only one murdered and forgotten about after criminals shot up his workplace, Mable would find herself circling until she decided to take the descender deeper into the facility.
Walking through a small hallway that showed the universal staircase picture on the wall, only to find a door ripped out of the wall right before the descending stairs – the servitor having been shot on the down-stairs side – Mable began to doubt that simple goons had murdered poor Priam. Stepping into a chamber that had clearly had some kind of explosive go off within, Mable began to find several dead bodies – some clad in black armor, whereas others were dressed in simple white garb, holding pistols much like the one she now held onto. Finding rifles that were too big and heavy for her to wield, Mable continued to step over the… perhaps thirty? Thirty-five? Dead people that were laying on the metal floor. Wondering what it had been these people had fought over or for to get this outcome, Mable would jump at her own reflection, before staring through the heavy glass at something…
Something beautiful, Mable decided for herself as she looked at what the white-garbed dead had to have been guarding. Seeing through the laser-marred glass an object generating a faint, colorless light, Mable would look at a chamber that had only one entrance visible on the other side of the facility.
Wondering if Priam had been allowed access into the strange wonder these men had died to either protect or capture, Mable would begin to look for the entrance into the alluring room.
Finding a pair of black-uniformed men having died in front of the entrance to the strange room, cleaved down and their mummified remains spilled all over the doorway, Mable slowly worked her way through the gross mess, trying not to step in any of the remains with her bare feet. Reaching the servitor, Mable was scanned by the red-light, and given a rejection from the static voice from the new skull's mouth.
"Access Denied. A warning has been issued to your supervisor, Researcher Priam."
A researcher, Mable thought… wondering what kind of research was allowed within the Imperium of Man, which she had been told had learned all of the secrets of the universe. Having been taught that ignorance was a virtue, Mable would look around for a way to enter the room… and as she looked at the mummified remains, an explosive key would be provided to her. Unsure what these intruders had been doing before getting cut down, Mable looked at the men's hands, and found a satchel similar to what the miners occasionally used.
Remembering her father telling her family about 'Det-Packs' that blew up rock too tough for picks or drills to get through, Mable wondered if these men had a similar device. Clicking the red button that was next to a digital counter sewn into the satchel, and immediately seeing a small count-down begin with fifteen digits beginning to descend, Mable quickly ran away from the door – unsure how big of a blast the device would create. Ducking as she left the room to an adjacent one, and then sitting behind a metal desk next to the mummified remains of a researcher that had taken cover in the same spot during the shoot-out that had claimed his life, Mable would not get a chance to find a different shelter as the detonation shook the world.
Not wanting to get up after the deafening shockwave went off, Mable would remind herself that her father had used these tools with careless abandon before, having told stories of throwing these down mineshafts for fun. Remembering how he had laughed about such tales, Mable stood… not having fun at all as she investigated the door she had just destroyed. Blinking at the warped metal that was now cracked opened, rather than fully destroyed, Mable would look at the now scattered dead men whose remains she had just made worse… and then decided she was well beyond showing any respect to the men who she were already dead.
Pushing herself into the room of broken metal – careful not to stand on anything that could cut her feet, Mable continued forward to the alluring white light. Having seen the angular orb from afar, and hearing a dull hum begin to emit as she felt the air on her arms stand on end, Mable slowly walked along the catwalk… looking down into what appeared to be an endless chute that led into the hive below. Wondering where such a thing even went, but too afraid to investigate, Mable would look to the orb… that seemed to pulsate at her approach.
What was she even doing, Mable asked herself as she stared at the hovering object that so many people had died around… who knows how many years ago. Wondering if she was just being a foolish child, the voice of the chiding matron likely having been correct as she stared at the object that was generating a faint heat that dried the tears and blood on her arms, Mable would slowly let out a sigh… knowing that the det-pack's explosion likely would be drawing more attention of the mutants that had pursued her. Chances were, she was going to die here – whether it be to starvation, dehydration, or to the xeno-scum that had made her run here.
It was all so pointless, Mable realized… never having even had the chance to grow up to be useful. Being but a spare child, Mable was a daughter who had lost her family while they were still around… one of the few orphans of choice, rather out of circumstance. Given to an orphanage, refused, rejected, and left to her own devices, she was now staring at a strange orb, and…
She felt sadness, as she realized this was the end of her little adventure. This was the culmination of her life – left to rot with cadavers, or be consumed by mutants that wanted to eat her. She was just an insignificant bug in the hive city, and just another life that never had a chance to begin.
Sitting down beside the metal orb, at least enjoying the light source that reminded her of their planet's distant star, rather than the dull red glow that illuminated this research facility, Mable would hold onto the metal hand-guard of the catwalk, and look over at the darkness below.
Where she would wonder if she should just try her luck with another plummet into the unknown.
After ruminating for what felt like an hour, Mable stood, and then looked to the orb. Deciding then to talk, as it had been a long time since she had used her own voice, Mable let out a wordless wail at her own existence, enjoying the echo as she tried to cheer herself up.
"Alright Mable! If we're going to die, let's do it looking where we're going. What do you say, Mister Orb?"
Strangely, the humming did grow louder as she addressed the object. Blinking at that, the floating angular sphere continuing to just levitate, Mable… tilted her head in confusion, and spoke again – wondering if it was reacting to her question, or if she was just hearing things.
"Do you… want to go down? Or take our chances looking for another exit?" Mable asked… and as she gained two long, drawn-out, almost wheezing hums… she would question the thing. "Unless you have a suggestion?"
Unsure if what she was hearing was a sing-song, or a chime, or the distant laugh of a child, Mable wondered what exactly she was interacting with.
"I'm listening if you're willing to speak." Mable offered the orb, the device, perhaps having the intelligence of a servitor, letting out a low-hum, into a high-whir of a noise, back into a high-humming noise. Feeling as if a syllable was trying to form, Mable just… nodded along with the device that was clearly reacting to her voice. Unsure what she was dealing with in this moment, but choosing that having a thing making noise wasn't the worst thing she could be dealing with at the moment, Mable let out a breath as she spoke. "Well… if you're talking, I can't understand you… but, and I'm not lying here – we're both kind of doomed here. Maybe you're fine with that, since… well, you're surrounded by a bunch of dead guys already, and have been for who knows how long, but I'm not wanting to get put into a soup and eaten. So… if you kill me, please make sure they don't eat me, okay?"
There was no response this time to her voice.
Then reaching out and touching the orb, thinking herself crazy, Mable felt truly stupid as an electric shock coursed through her body, and knocked her unconscious.
When she awoke, the light had vanished. Blinking at the dimly glowing red illumination that moved from the damaged windows into the chamber, Mable would let out a groan as she began to stand up. Briefly looking around the room for the orb, yet not seeing its light, nor hearing its hum… or, well, anything really, Mable would glance to the pit… and then decide it would be better to look for a side-exit before deciding to jump to what was likely her death.
What Mable did not expect was the door being sealed.
Wondering if the damage had repaired itself as she approached, more confused than anything else as she moved to the manual exit button and pressed it, Mable would initially dismiss the sight – feeling a bit rattled after being shocked. Then, as the door smoothly opened rather than denying her access, she would feel more surprise as she stared at two living men clad in black uniforms and wearing body-armor like the dead men she had stepped around to get into this room in the first place. Blinking, just… in confusion at the two men who held a rifle and a det-pack in their hands respectfully, Mable would see the men look to the pistol in her hand – and then, before she could even speak or let out a warning that she wasn't a threat – the man with the rifle would raise his weapon to shoot her down.
Holding her arms in front of her face, as if it would protect her from the energy weapon, Mable would instinctively scream out as the clack and hiss of the weapon discharged into the glass next to the door… and as she waited for pain to fell her, Mable would slowly tilt backwards and fall to her butt as she looked at a shining silver blade having extended from her metal bracelet and having seamlessly cut the men in two.
Horrified by the stench of blood and spray of viscera, Mable stared blankly as the blade quickly retracted into the metal bracelet she had put on… and, seemingly made of liquid, pool around the plate that had once been scanned. Just… processing the smell as the door shut, and then… turning back towards the glass, looking at figures moving and shambling in the darkness, Mable would quietly speak out – and hear a reacting hum to her question.
"Mister… Orb? Are you… was that… did you kill them?"
High-pitch.
Happy, or perhaps excited, Mable… instinctively felt. Not seeing the orb, not seeing a light, but definitely hearing the same wordless noise, Mable slowly found her footing as she pulled herself up with the help of the guardrail… and then speak up.
"Um… I don't know what's happening, but… thanks for not letting them shoot me? I think this… this is all one big misunderstanding, so… maybe we can try talking to them first?"
Low-hum. Sad hum? Unsure, Mable would question herself, more so than the noise echoing in her head.
"Mable, are you losing it? Are you going crazy? I think you're going crazy, Mable."
High-pitch. Agreement? Careless disregard?
She was uncertain, but stood up and called into the room beyond the metal door that she slowly manually opened again.
"Hello?"
Hearing heavy-footsteps, Mable would drop the rusted gun of someone who was dead… and as she looked at more of the black-armored men, she would hold out her hands to show she was unarmed, but stay within the metal door that a servitor was yelling at her for being within.
"I'm unarmed! Don't shoot me, please! I'm not supposed to be here!"
"Clear portal. Clear portal. Clear portal."
"Identify yourself!" Mable heard, and as she peeked from the door, seeing a small squad of four people in the room she had taken cover in when she originally detonated the explosive, Mable would… hesitate, as she saw a man in the back of their room's facial features illuminate as she heard a scream of panic, and then the hiss-clack of a laser gun shoot a person who was hiding under a desk.
"U-uhm. I'm… I'm Mable, I'm… an orphan, and I snuck… what… what are you guys doing here? You're… killing people."
"Mable, you are in an inquisitional dead-site. Come out, and be judged by the Emperor."
What? That sounded like… super foreboding. Like, scary, foreboding.
"Clear portal. Clear portal. Clear portal."
"Um. You're going to shoot me, right?" Mable asked, the clarifying question not being immediately responded to. "O-okay, well, um. I'm really not worth the… power-cell, so, like, what if you just… do what you're going to do, and I'll wait behind the door until you leave?"
"Sir, I can nade' it." Mable heard muttered, and as she instinctively took a step backwards, the servitor would immediately shut the door. Considering her options then, Mable would see through the glass that the five, perhaps six figures that were moving around still were beginning to shift to watch her… and as she slowly sat next to the door, knowing that if they were going to blow in, they couldn't just open it, Mable… hesitated, as she thought out loud.
"Hey… did we go back in time?"
High-pitched cheer, as if it was proud of her for figuring it out. Looking at her wrist that had the liquid metal shifting around her skin, Mable would grimace… and then question the entity further that was clearly intelligent.
"You're not some, like… monster, or something right? Xeno? You don't want to kill me, right?"
Silence.
She really didn't like the fact she got silence from the intelligent metal on her wrist. Like, not at all.
"Okay, well, like, I'm either going to die to the monsters who want to eat me, get shot by those guys, or get killed by you, so if we could work something out where I maybe don't get killed, I'm more than willing to, like, listen to reason right now." Mable heroically stated, trying to think through the situation she found herself in. "Like, if you could have escaped on your own, you would have, right? I don't know how your time travel works, or how far back or forward you can go, but… if you can go back and forth, but can't move around, that's kind of a shitty deal, right? What if I act as your legs, and… I don't know! Leave? Don't you want to leave?"
A pause. Tactical. Thoughtful.
Then an even, upper-lower hum.
A maybe? A non-committal affirmation?
Mable found it funny that it reminded her of her father when she asked if they were coming back for her.
Perhaps too funny, as her laugh drew las-fire that deflected off the heavy windows. Knowing that the windows hadn't been breached long after this moment, Mable would slowly stand up, nervously looking at the two people that had tried to shoot her or break the glass to shoot her… and then breathe in… and out.
"Okay, well, if you let me get shot, then it's not my problem what happens to you, okay? So… protect your legs, please." Mable practically begged to herself as she remembered the path to the stairs… and then, inhaling sharply, slapped the escape button.
As she ran forward, screaming, Mable heard the hiss-clack and sizzle of laser superheating and boiling the surface of the metal flooring. Charging with abandon towards the only exit she knew, watching as the liquid metal flew out of her bracelet, expanded, and then shrunk to catch a laser beam, or shift to cut at a man she ran past, Mable did not stop to look at the effect of the wrist-mounted liquid. Dodging behind desks she had walked around earlier, Mable screamed as a grenade detonated in the room she had just fled – the man that had been cut being thrown to his likely eternal resting spot as she found the ascending stairs. Rushing up the metal as the las-fire stopped, the thudding of boots in this newest pursuit not being nearly as threatening as the slithering hissing monsters, Mable slammed heavily into a metal door that had been destroyed her first time around… and as she looked at the servitor, she would hear a voice call out to her over the servitor's static-voice-box.
"I'm going to die before I let the Ordos Chronos die like dogs! Your stupid calendar isn't going to stop this vital research! Don't you-"
"SCAN THE BRACELET!" Mable shouted at the skull, as she saw a flashlight illuminate the door from below her. Watching the silver shift down her arm, creating a contrail as she instinctively ducked, holding out her arm to the servitor's eye, Mable would watch the red scanner lock onto the device, and process her order while she was mocked by the voice.
"I've disabled access codes to all other security logs, dumb-fuck! You're not getting in! I'm willing to die in here, are…"
The door opened.
Mable dove through, and the door immediately resealed itself. Staring blankly at where several las-shots had come from, Mable used the door that would be blown open later to stand up. Looking towards the room where she had found Priam, Mable rushed to her feet as she already heard shooting towards the servitor that had scanned her bracelet… and shutting the doors behind her, she would eventually enter a room filled with currently undamaged logic engines.
"Priam?" Mable asked as she called into the room… and as she found the man she had met as a skeleton, aiming a pistol at her while sitting down with a poorly bandaged leg and gripping his flank, Mable… frowned as the man stared at her in confusion.
"Who… what the hell are you?"
"Priam, I… I don't know what's happening here, but I'm… pretty sure I'm from the future. There's a hallway that leads to a temple that way, right?"
"An engine room… but y-yes. You… this… this can't be happening. It… the artefact worked?"
"Uh." Mable whispered, looking to the liquid metal that was content to sit on her bracelet.
"I…" Priam, the older man started, and then let out a painful gasp that turned into a maddened laugh. "I… can't believe it. It worked! It really…"
The distant las-fire would get the researcher's bearded, tired face to switch from desperate excitement, to a terrible dread.
"Um." Mable started… and then gestured to the man's wristband. "I… I don't really think it will matter at this point, but you should keep that on, since, I'm like, wearing it too now. They… uh, will break through that door, but won't stay around forever, so… they never changed the codes, I guess. I'm… sorry, for what happens to you."
"Oh… it's… it's fine, I guess." Priam muttered bravely, looking down to his bloody hand, where he was concealing a wound. Looking up to her with perhaps the saddest expression she had ever seen on someone's face, Priam would give her a warning. "I don't know if you will be able to find her, but if she's alive, try to talk to Inquisitor Redmane. She… collected, the artefact from a fallen machine cult, who worshipped that… thing, like a god. It's their fault these… idiots, are here. I don't know what her plan was after we figured out how to work it, but… she wanted to use it to save the Imperium. Maybe… she can help you."
"T-thanks." Mable whispered… and then looked to the hallway she had walked through earlier today? Unsure how she should even describe her location, Mable would just nod to herself, and then turn to Priam with one last request. "Um, can you… make sure that the exterior servitor is nice? And to keep Xeno-threats out? This… well, I guess there's no point in telling you, but… when I'm from, there's this xeno-cult uprising killing everyone."
"Ah." Priam stated, shifting to his logic engine that would soon be shattered, likely. "Hate it when that happens. Good luck… what's your name again?"
"Mable." She answered… and then fled as she heard a distant detonation reverberate, she truly didn't want to linger any longer.
"I think they just used a bigger explosive. Take care, Mable." Priam told her… and as she ran for the exit, he would shout at his apparent foes as he continued to type on his logic engine. "Come get some, you dumb-fucks! I'm not afraid of you!"
Not turning back, as she already knew how Priam would meet his end… Mable could not help but feel the low-pitched hum was echoing, or perhaps mirroring, her grief as she sprinted barefooted down the metal hall.