Chapter 15
((The engineers have entered the shell!)) came the report. ((Approximately four minutes to Control Room infiltration.))
((Passageway to Control Room secured. Holding against further attack. Brace for contact through emergency entrances!))
The Kelbrids were split as the Sweep took the main corridor through the spine of the station. The action would cause the Kelbrids to resort to other means, and we were ready and waiting for surprises to jump out at us. We just had to wait a little longer to allow the Engineers to take the Control Room and corrupt the systems.
Our eyes were glued to the emergency hangar entrance. It was silent. Completely. The expectation was to hear echoes from far off, indicating that somebody or something was coming through. But there was absolutely nothing.
((They are taking a long time,)) Menderash said to Jake. ((Perhaps the crew is smaller than expected. The Sweep Party may have taken them out.))
Jake was not so easily convinced. ((The Kelbrids aren't stupid. They'll have measures to deal with this. It can't be over so easy.))
Arkv was beginning perimeter scans, wandering around the edge of the hangar, his weapon in hand like a third eye forever trained forward. It all seemed clear and calm, and so it remained for two or three more minutes.
((Engineers are below the Control Room. Sweep Party, prepare to clear path.))
((Sweep entering the Control Room. Brace for contact!))
((Control Room breached!))
SLAM!
We jumped back away from the door as it suddenly blasted shut! Jake almost collapsed backward over the rail behind us, and I noticed his weapon was no longer on his person. A crumpled mess of metal was pincered between the door and the frame.
((Brace! Brace!)) Arkv boomed! It was not only our door. The doors to the passageway and the storage had also spontaneously clamped shut.
The surprise had come. Closed off from the others, we could only await what the Kelbrids had in store. It was not something that Arkv had planned for.
((Open the doors!)) he demanded. ((Restore through-routes!))
Jake reacted quickest and charged ahead to barge his shoulder against the hard metal of the door. He bounced back off of it just as Menderash and I positioned for reinforcement. I grabbed for the gun trapped in the frame and tried to pry the door open with it. The barrel snapped away with ease, and I was left with useless, twisted metal. I threw it to one side and joined in using brute momentum and strength. I pressed both hands to the door and used all I could to shift it.
Nothing. It didn't budge an inch.
((The doors have locked!)) Santorelli shouted.
((Survey!)) Arkv called. ((Get the machine on the storage door! We've been locked in the Hangar!))
((On our way, sir!))
((Get a move on!)) he demanded.
He came away from the far wall, head swiveling with alertness, left and right. Something was coming for us, but not even he knew what.
Then, Fruyt sensed them. He spoke with alarm, and I saw him back up against the wall by the storage compartment. ((Unknown entities approaching from above! Six!))
Every head in the room shot up to discover the six things he was referring to. They floated down mutely, spreading outwards towards the walls. They looked like flying security cameras, though bulky and intimidating, shimmering gray all over, and they hovered steadily in the air.
((Avoid them!)) Arkv said. Then he reached into a belt around his waist, pulling out an entirely different weapon to the paralysis gun. It was square and black. He aimed and fired, sending a sizzling purple beam at the closest descending object. The blast hit, but nothing came of the attack. The object continued its trajectory unencumbered. Two of them were headed for us with beady mechanical pupils, arriving close with a haunting whir. When it became clear that its route would come to direct contact, we made the collective decision to move. We abandoned the emergency entrance, taking Arkv's new order as priority.
((More of them!)) Fruyt warned. With a glance, I shuddered to see at least another six floating down from the high ceiling. Fruyt had moved away from beside the storage entrance, chased by a single one of the flying contraptions.
Marco and Santorelli had split. I saw Marco bolting towards us, seeking safety in numbers. On the other hand, Santorelli was reaching down behind a small Kelbrid transporter that looked somewhat like a miniature X-Wing without a sheltered cockpit. When he stood tall again, he was clutching a large metal pole in his purple claws.
((Little fuckers!)) he barked as he stormed forward with intent to swing. The machine took aim and seemed to slow in the air as he stomped closer. It clicked, something churned, and just as Santorelli's pole came crashing to its frame, sending it sideways, there came a sudden and continuous spurt of green gas! It was thick and dark, and it billowed in a narrow stream before blossoming into an ugly swelling cloud.
((Get away from that! Don't get yourself killed, you thick-headed ape!)) Arkv screamed. Santorelli jumped away from the stream of green smoke that poured as the machine turned itself back around to aim. He kept away from it, and seeing that his attack had no lasting effect, he took the wise decision to retreat.
He came back to us, but the machine followed. As did four others. They were going to trap us.
((We need to find out how to disable these things!)) Marco said.
((Just keep away from them,)) Jake insisted, though he looked internally indecisive. ((Split if you need to.))
Arkv was still some way across the hangar, trying to identify a way past three machines that were tracking him. He bellowed again at the Survey Party, hidden somewhere behind the locked Storage door. ((Get us out of here! NOW!))
((We're trying!)) the Survey leader responded desperately. ((Something's interfering with the electronics! Our jammers have been blocked!))
((Open that door!)) Arkv reiterated.
Our gazes tracked the machines around us firmly. Their approaches had changed. Slowed. Some of them moved sideways, forming a curved line, side-by-side with each other. They were trying to move us back. We remained as a group, still so uncertain. Fruyt and Arkv were on the other side.
((They're moving us back towards the emergency entrance, Jake,)) Menderash informed.
((Don't let them. Split!))
On the order, we attempted it. Everybody picked a direction, the clearest pathways around the many flying machines that tried to enclose us. Fruyt had moved closer to the center of the hangar, followed by two of the flying machines, and he had sensed our movements. ((Keep away from edges,)) he warned. ((Don't get trapped!))
But it wasn't that easy. There were enough machines that everybody was being tracked by two at a time, and the faster we moved, the quicker they would follow. It was a cat and mouse game, and the cats had formed a collective intelligence bent on one goal. I found myself constantly turning back as if to head to the emergency entrance, failing to outwit the adept machines. If we allowed them to catch us or strayed too close, a spurt of the green gas would fire. It almost caught my tail when I took a hairpin turn to dodge, and just being skimmed by the cloud sent pain shooting through my neurons, and with it, I yelled out. I weaved in and out of machinery in the center of the hangar, trying to avoid their infinite gazes.
Arkv had been assessing the scenario, himself trying to evade the mysterious robots. Repeated reports of the Survey Party's failure to activate the cutting machinery forced him into snap decisions, but it was a situation with little reprieve. We couldn't keep running in ever-decreasing circles.
It was only a matter of time before somebody fell foul.
I was back near the emergency entrance. There, the flying machines seemed less aggressive, more content with our positioning. Jake was curious, and his infrequent calls were to monitor their activities based on positioning. Eventually, we became more clumped, and when we ended up near the still-locked emergency entrance, the spurts of green gas ceased. Jake was about to reach a firm conclusion and announce it to Arkv and Fruyt, who remained a little further away.
Our grouping caused another behavioral change. I saw three of the machines turn away, satisfied that the others around us were substantial. They went over towards the nearest second target. Arkv was near the storage doors, hoping for the Survey Party to break through. He kept in contact with everybody, still wholly in charge of the operation, urging the Sweep Party onwards to disable the ship.
Six machines were on him. It was too much. He tried to dodge two but ran into the arriving three. The aggressive robots fired, shooting simultaneous streams of gas in his direction! He fell into the cloud, and his screams of agony were instant.
((Arkv!)) Fruyt cried out in horror! He switched direction, lunging towards the incident.
Arkv stumbled forward, emerging from the cloud with bulging eyes and a gaping mouth. His body looked like it had been dipped in oil, soaked and shimmering in the lighting of the hangar.
And in an instant, when he'd frozen in place with a stunned expression, he burst into flame.