Explosions, loud noises, "robots talking"
Transitions, 'thoughts', "internal voices"
Videocalls, comm systems, Echo devices, "Recorded echo tapes or messages"
(Author's notes, Authors notes, Author's notes)
Ahh, back for more aren't you? I bet you are really liking this story I'm telling you. Heh, and the others told me no one would believe it...now they owe me 10 drinks each... But anyway, let's take back from where we left off shall we? Kenneth and Jack were at the moment stuck on the lower levels of the Hyperion facility after encountering a huge robot that was attacking two girls that seemed human but were actually almost all machine parts. Now they have to get out of the facility and figure out where the hell they are...and the girls may be the answer for that
Hyperion research facility, R&D level, Unknown time
Kenneth was once again in the same room that woke up on and where Jack put him through the Cyber-U program to save his life, except this time he wasn't being subject to a painful procedure to save his life by a mysterious voice he didn't knew. Right now, he was watching Jack interacting with the console to make the machines of the Cyber-U program function, with iDoll Sun and Soldier FA, the two robot girls from earlier strapped on the operations table of the room, well at least iDoll Sun was on the table, since they were two of them and they only had one table, Kenneth improvised another operations table by using metal slabs from the walls and some scraps from the destroyed prototypes.
"I have to ask this again Jack, are you sure this is going to work? You have been working on them for a while now" Kenneth asked looking at Jack, trying his best to not look at the machines working on the girls as they tried to fix them.
"Yes, I am pretty sure it will work kid, have some faith in me, ok?" Jack said not looking at Kenenth, already busy making the machines fix the two girls as parts were being replaced, wires being connected and some extra parts being added "Fixing a pair of human looking machines is way easier than trying to save a dying man after an explosion from an eridium reactor believe it or not...it's taking longer because I have to make sure they obey us and only us"
"You really think they will shoot us in the head as soon as we get out?" Kenneth said a bit surprised; I mean considering their situation a bit of precaution was welcome, but Kenneth wasn't exactly sure on what Jack was trying to accomplish with this.
"Listen pal, these girls are the answer to our survival here, but as of right now we don't who they for, who or what made them, if they come alone or with someone else, nothing of the sorts" Jack argued as he kept working, the machines continuing their work on the girls as they mixed in some Hyperion technology on them "Call it a failsafe of sorts, by using some parts of the loaders, plus some extra modifications, we make sure that they are completely loyal to us, without damaging their brains"
"Ok, I will make like any of that made sense and trust that they will be loyal, I mean you are the intelligent AI after all" Kenneth said scratching his head, meanwhile the repairs of the two girls were done by now, the machines went back into the ceiling as the digistruct machines came down to scan them, as the scanning process began Kenneth held his buzz axe tightly. After a couple seconds the scanning ended and the two girls were soon digistructed back to life.
The changes were noticeable, Soldier FA attire changed to having her skintight suit being a brighter yellow, her military attire was changed to resemble more the usual gear used by the Hyperion Combat engineers, but with two major exceptions, first and foremost her shield was gone and it seemed like she had a replacement, and second, her visor no longer covered her face so her green eyes be visible, instead she had a mouth piece of a smile of very sharp demonic teeth hanging from her neck, as her hair was shortened, reaching around her elbows.
iDoll Sun also had some changes, her clothing was still revealing, she was in a yellow leotard with black designs on the borders, but now she had shorter thigh highs, and her boots were metallic yellow, so she was showing more leg than before without counting her very short black shorts. from the waist up she had a tactical vest, shoulder pauldrons and arm armor similar to the ones of Hyperion soldiers, and her visor was also changed to not cover her face, instead she now had a more transparent red visor that allowed for her blue eyes to be seen, while her hair was still on two ponytails, but with red tips now.
What the two had in common was their armor and clothes coloring scheme fitting to be more Hyperion, the Hyperion logo on the back of their armor...and the fact the two of them had their chests and butts enlarged one size.
"Ok, I like the redesigns" Kenneth admitted looking at them, as Jack stood next to him with a smile "But was the "assets" enlargement really necessary? I mean they were hot before but now...damn"
"I had to make space somewhere to fit the upgrades you know?" Jack said jokingly, which prompted Kenneth to look at him with a raised eyebrow with a "really?" kind of look, which made Jack laugh a bit "Ok, their upgrades aren't there, but hey can't a thinking AI have some fun?"
Kenneth was going to respond, but they soon heard the girls groan as they stumbled forwards and backwards as their new bodies began to function.
"ugh, my head...it hurts so much" iDoll Sun held her head as she stood against the wall for support, not really noticing her new visor or her changes just yet.
"My core feels all tingly and weird...like it was stabbed or something" FA said as she stumbled about to fall, but Kenneth thought quickly and held her, helping her get her balance.
"Got you" he said as the two soon regained their sense fully and began to function properly. With that out of the way, the two girls soon noticed Kenneth in the room and took a few steps back, FA now off his arms.
"It's you again! The guy from when the Rapture attacked" iDoll Sun said as she pointed at Kenneth, she then noticed Soldier FA and her changes, being more surprised than before "FA, look at yourself! You are...You are repaired!"
"Look at me? look at you, you look even more sexy than before!" Soldier FA said after looking at herself, which prompted iDoll Sun to look at herself, seeing her changes as she finally noticed her changed visor, taking it off and seeing it. "Who repaired us?"
"You are welcome" Kenneth say with a smile leaning against the console, getting the attention of the two girls "wasn't easy, lots of circuitry and pieces I never saw, but it was doable in the end"
"You...you fixed us?" Soldier FA said looking at him with shock, same with iDoll Sun "but...we barely know you...and you probably know even less about us"
"Does it matter? the two of you were in danger, and I don't exactly leave people hanging to die, especially considering someone also saved me without knowing me" Kenneth said with a smirk giving a discreet glance at Jack, who simply smirked back. Kenneth then looked back at the girls just in time as they lunged at him, falling down to the floor which shocked him. As Kenneth recovered from the shock, he saw Soldier FA and iDoll Sun hugging him, both of them smiling brightly.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" the two of them were saying smiling from ear to ear, iDoll Sun even had a couple tears on her eyes as she hugged him. Kenneth wasn't entirely sure how to react, he tried to get a bit of help from Jack, but he decided to disappear, making Kenneth sigh as he looked at the two girls, smiling as he patted their heads.
"Hey, it was nothing really" he said as the two girls finally calmed down and stopped hugging him, letting him stand up as the girls also stood up, still smiling "Now, I believe introductions are in order, name's Kenneth...Jackson, Kenneth Jackson"
"I am pretty sure that is not your real name at all" Jack said inside of Kenneth's head.
'Yeah but considering this isn't Pandora AND that I have you stuck in my head, it honestly feels fitting changing my name a bit' Kenneth thought, which thankfully only Jack could hear.
"Oh right, umm" Soldier FA stood firm and did a military salute "MPN Soldier FA model 871234 reporting!"
"MPN iDoll Sun model 223901 reporting!" said iDoll Sun doing the same military salute as FA.
"Ok, that is a mouthful" he said as he looked at them, scratching his head "What does MPN stand for exactly?"
"It stands for "Mass Produced Nikkes", FA and I are just some of many models like us...well, like us before getting these upgrades" iDoll Sun said as she looked at her new body again, all the while Soldier FA was checking her new clothing, which still felt surreal to her.
"Huh, so you two are cannon fodder in a way?" Kenneth said, using a term that was probably kind of vulgar or hurtful, but it was the right terminology to an extent. iDoll Sun and Soldier FA had sad expressions hearing it and just nodded looking at the floor. "Ok, first things first...I'm going to give you two names"
This caught the attention of the two girls, who looked a bit more confused and interested on the whole getting a name thing.
"names?...why are you giving us names?" iDoll Sun asked with a curious expression, smiling slightly at the idea of getting a name.
"Well first off, since I repaired you that much, I feel like you aren't exactly iDoll Sun and Soldier FA anymore" he said looking them, which wasn't exactly wrong, they were pretty much new models after all the things changed on them "But also, if there are really hundreds of you, I would like to call you something that's easier to remember and that feels more personal than a serial number you know?"
"That's true, calling someone 223901 doesn't really have a good ring to it" Jack added inside of Kenneth's head
"Ok but...what names would you even give us?" FA said a bit curious as she looked at iDoll Sun and at herself, trying to find anything "I don't really know if we have any distinctive features"
"Hey man, maybe I can help with that" Jack said appearing in his hologram form next to Kenneth with a smile, but when he spoke it seemed to scare the two girls as they jumped a bit took some steps backwards, the shock very apparent on their faces as they looked around.
"W-Who's there?! Who said that?!" said iDoll Sun in shock as FA tried to go for her shotgun but found nothing, as she then raised her fists to fight...not sure how that would have served her against a foe she can't see but ok. "Kenneth, did you hear it too?!"
'uuhh, Jack, explain please?' Kenneth said unsure on how they could hear but not see Jack.
"Already on it" Jack added as the girls looked a bit more confused but then Jack cleared his throat to get their attention, as they kept looking around "Hello to the two of you, my name is Jack"
"Where in the hell are you?!" FA said again looking around, not finding him still "Are you hiding?!"
"Not really, if I tried to hide, I wouldn't be able to" Jack said as he walked in front of FA, she was clearly not seeing him so he just smirked "I'm an AI that works alongside Kenneth here, I helped him man the machines that repaired the two of you"
"Oh, so you are with him? well, then a pleasure to meet you...I guess" iDoll Sun said with a nervous smile, not entirely sure how to treat Jack since she can't see him. "But anyways, how exactly would you help us with the whole naming situation?"
"Well, when repairing you two I made some design choices, mainly to make sure two are more unique" Jack said as he walked around them. The girls could not see him, but he was pointing at certain elements of their attires "FA for example resembles a sort of demon I read about, something called ...Oni I think"
"Oni...yeah, I like it. I actually like Oni, that could be my name!" FA said with a smile, she seemed to like the name judging from her smile and her little jumps that made Kenneth smile due to how cute she looked...ignoring the bouncing of her assets but anyways.
"As for you Sun" Jack said now more focused on iDoll Sun "I had a feeling we could get you more shine, so how about Solaris, I think it fits you well"
"Because her original name is Sun or because her smile is so pretty it shines like a sun?" Kenneth asked without really thinking, earning a blush from iDoll Sun and a giggle from Oni, Kenneth looked at them and didn't exactly realize his comment, which earned a sigh from Jack "what?"
"R-regardless, I like the name of Solaris, I would love to adopt it" the now renamed Solaris said with a smile as she managed to control her blushing.
"Then I just have to do something real quick" Jack said as he touched the heads of both girls, making their eyes shine blue for a few seconds before he let them go "Ok, everything is done, welcome aboard Oni and Solaris"
"Thanks mister Jack" Oni said with a smile as Jack's hologram disappeared and went back into Kenneth's head.
'Ok, what did you do to them?' Kenneth asked mentally to Jack as Oni and Solaris talked in a friendly manner
"Just a little rewiring so they respond to the new names only, now back to our main priority" Jack said inside of Kenneth's head, to which Kenneth nodded and so he looked back at the girls.
"Ok ladies, now that the two of you are out of immediate danger, I hope you don't mind me asking you a couple questions" he said as the girls looked at him walk from one side of the room to the other "like for example, how did the two of you got here in the first place?"
"We were sent with a commander and the rest of an exploration group to investigate a mysterious energy spike reading we received earlier today" Solaris explained as she went through her memory of the previous events leading to this "We created an access point into a hangar on the upper levels and-"
"Let me stop you right there, the hangars?" Jack said reappearing on his hologram form as he stood next to him, he was about to say something else, but he thought about it, so he decided to say something else "I thought those were locked with the magnetic locks, nothing comes in and nothing comes out"
"They were locked, that's why we used a power tool to create an entrance" Oni explained as Solaris nodded "our mission was to see what was in there and collect everything that seemed useful, but we came into a problem that the controls of the hangar had no power, so Solaris and I were sent to find the generator...and that's when the raptures attacked"
"Raptures, you keep mentioning them" Kenneth mentioned scratching his head "I thought it was the name of the robot that tried to vaporize you earlier, but there's more of these things?"
"You don't know what raptures are?" Solaris asked to which Kenneth just shake his head no, clearly having no idea what a rapture even was, this made Solaris and Oni to look at each other and nod before looking back at him, more serious this time "raptures are...not from this planet, they are a race of mechanical aliens that arrived over 100 years ago, they conquered the surface of the planet, forced humanity to live underground"
"Almost sounds like something we know about" Jack said leaning on one of the walls as Kenneth mentally laughed, considering something similar happened in Pandora when Hyperion first came over for the eridium, except back in Pandora they didn't have to destroy everything, it was enough just with the strategic locations "and this underground settlement of humanity, you know where it is located?"
"Affirmative mister Jack" Oni answered with a nod "The Ark to be more precise, the remnant of humanity lives down there, safe from the raptures as they send nikkes to the surface"
"And I'll assume that the nikkes are like you, human looking machines armed to fight the raptures" Kenneth said making a guess, Solaris and Oni nodded again, Kenneth and Jack looked at each other and nodded, Jack disappearing again into Kenneth's head as he stretched "welp, we might as well get out of here and pay a visit to this Ark you mention, maybe there we can start getting some answers in a...more hospitalizing location that isn't a weapon research facility"
"Well, that whole weapon research facility part would explain the weird rifle you used on the Loud Mouth rapture" Solaris said scratching her head "but we might have a problem, our old weapons are almost out of ammo and I don't know if your...axe buzzsaw thingy will be enough to destroy the raptures on the upper levels"
"What part of weapon research facility didn't you hear?" Kenneth said with a laugh as he walked out of the room they were in and checked some of the closed doors, Oni and Solaris walked behind him, pretty confused as to what he was doing.
Soon enough though Kenneth stopped in front of one of the bigger doors as he smirked, he then pressed a button on the door's panel to open the door, however it was locked with a password, so Kenneth digitally hacked the panel to unlock it. This worked and soon enough the door opened, and the lights of the room turned on as the walls also opened, revealing a huge plethora of guns hanging from the walls, we are talking assault rifles, shotguns, LMGs, submachineguns, pistols, revolvers, sniper rifles, some grenades, there was even a rocket launcher and a grenade launcher in there.
(I know that in Borderlands AR's and LMG's are kind of lumped together, or tell me when an AR had 60 bullets from a drum magazine that looked like one from an Mg42...or a Negev, so for the sake of the plot, LMG's and AR's are two different weapon types)
"Alright ladies" Kenneth said as he pressed another button on the panel, making a bunch of Hyperion branded crates to drop from the ceiling and land on the floor with thud. Kenneth kicked one of the crates, making it open revealing a huge amount of ammunition "gear up, because we are getting out of here, even if we have to shoot our way out"
"Wow...ok that's a lot of guns" Oni said as she looked at the guns hanging from the walls, kind of eyeing a few shotguns "but are we sure they will be able to destroy the raptures? I mean normal human weaponry couldn't even scratch them"
"We won't know until we try them, right?" Kenneth said with a grin as he picked two pistols he holstered on his hip and grabbed a light machine gun, but right as he did that the sound of metal clanging against walls began to sound from above, as if something was coming down a metal duct or something "and I think we will try them now!"
Kenneth then threw the LMG to Solaris, who caught and quickly grabbed ammo for herself, Oni meanwhile grabbed a shotgun and a submachine gun alongside ammo. Kenneth was the last one as he grabbed an AR and ammo for all his weapons. The trio then took cover right outside the elevator, Solaris was on the right behind a constructor holding her LMG, Oni was on the left behind a pair of metal crates, loading her shotgun before pumping it, and Kenneth was facing the elevator directly, behind a banged-up weapon crate as he loaded a magazine on the AR.
'Jack, what can you tell me?' Kenneth thought as he aimed the AR at the elevator, while the clanging noises kept coming, increasing in volume and quantity, as they got closer.
"I count about 2 dozen objects coming down at high speeds, they seem to be coming down all at the same time, they are way smaller than the first one we fought" Jack informed him as the trio waited for the enemy to come in...and after a few seconds, the raptures began to pour out of the elevator, some walking in crab legs and others were floating, they all had the metallic robotic design to them.
"Encounter!" Solaris and Oni yelled as the raptures opened fire at them, firing some lasers that hit their cover.
'Ok...this better work!' Kenneth thought as he looked over his cover holding the AR and fire at some raptures firing at his position, hitting some of them and actually destroying two of them with the volley of bullets...most to his shock "Wait, that worked?!"
"That worked?!" Oni yelled in surprise seeing the results, she then looked at her shotgun and back the raptures, a determined expression on her face as she rose from her cover and fired at the raptures close to her position, blowing up 3 of them as the ones that didn't die pulled back "I'll be damned this actually works, can you believe it Solaris?"
However, Solaris was kind of busy focusing on shooting down the raptures targeting her, firing her LMG as the raptures fell down one after another due to the concentrated fire. Oni noticed and went back to shooting the raptures, moving behind another crate for cover that was closer to Kenneth, who was reloading his AR.
"Well, we know the weapons work at least" Kenneth said as he peeked over his cover and fired some shots at the raptures. killing two of them as the others scattered a bit and kept firing at him "Oni, I need you to destroy the raptures scattering, it's getting annoying trying to kill them if they keep escaping!"
"Roger that boss!" Oni said as Kenneth went back to firing at the raptures, only destroying one as the others scattered away from the line of fire, but Oni aimed at the raptures scattering towards her position and fired the shotgun at them, destroying the raptures that tried to avoid the fire from Kenneth. As this was going on the raptures that were walking on the ground began to get in formation and fired upon Oni's position, making her duck behind her cover.
"Ok this scrap machines are smarter than I thought" Kenneth said covering from the concentrated Rapture fire "Solaris, move to the right flank and light those machines up!"
"Copy that boss!" Solaris said as she moved from her cover, reloading her LMG on the way as she moved until she reached a turned off badass loader that was flanking the position of the organized raptures, taking position and aiming the LMG "ok, eat this!"
With that Solaris opened fire upon the raptures' formation, hitting them directly as many of them ended up exploding and the others tried to move away but Kenneth and Oni finished them off before they could escape properly.
"Nicely done Solaris!" Kenneth said as the fight continued, Kenenth reloaded his AR as Oni provided cover for him "Jack, give me an update!"
"Raptures are pulling back, I sense one more wave of raptures coming down the elevator shaft, there's a pretty big rapture coming down too!" Jack said inside of Kenneth's head, seemingly focused on the current situation as well "not as big as the first one we fought, but seems like it's the leader of this group"
"Gotcha, seems like we are facing the last ones" Kenneth said as he switched his AR for the two pistols he had, taking a look from his cover he saw a few of the raptures coming from the elevator as they approached to attack, making Kenneth smirk "time to dance"
Kenneth then leaped over his cover and fired his pistols at the raptures, hitting the raptures but it was surprisingly accurate, hitting the shiny spot of the raptures with each bullet he fired, which shocked him a lot. He was aiming at them, but he knew his own aim wasn't that great to hit their shining points with that accuracy.
"You are welcome by the way" Jack said with a laugh inside of Kenneth's head, even though he couldn't see it Kenneth imagined Jack had a huge smile right now "part of the upgrades I gave you includes better aim, just bear in mind this only works with small guns"
"That is pretty welcome" Kenenth said with a big smile as he kept firing the pistols at the Raptures, making them drop dead one shot at a time, that was until he had to reload, making him hide behind a crate "Solaris, Oni, let's clean this up, I want all LMG fire on the raptures coming out of the elevator, Oni you and I are going to pick off the ones that manage to get in, got it?"
"Understood commander!" both Solaris and Oni said with smiles on their faces, although Jack was curious about what they answered with.
"Commander?" Jack said inside of Kenneth's mind, who didn't give it much importance as he finished reloading and went back to firing at the raptures as Oni took cover and fired at the raptures too, with Solaris providing support by destroying the raptures before they managed to get out. That's when Jack sensed something "Here comes the horde leader!"
"Alright, let's see what kind of ugly creature is leading this group of this scrap heads" Kenneth said keeping his pistols full of ammo, and just in time too as the leader of the rapture group arrived, it was some weird type of spider rapture that seemed to be bigger than all the others.
(listen only the lord class and tyrant class raptures have full pictures; I need to take some creative liberties)
"Confirmed, Arkanoid master class rapture!" Oni said as she blasted a trio of raptures with her shotgun, all the while the Arkanoid rapture fired multiple lasers at them, Kenneth took cover behind another crate to avoid the lasers while Solaris and Oni fired at it, however the Arkanoid rapture quickly jumped onto a wall and began walking around the place, avoiding incoming fire with speed as the remaining regular raptures kept providing cover fire for it.
"That thing is definitely smarter than its smaller surrogates!" Kenneth said as he reloaded his pistols, moving from one cover to the next as the raptures kept firing at him but he managed to dodge their shots before taking some of them out "Oni, think you can blow up that thing with a well-placed shot?!"
"I'll have to get close enough for that!" Oni said as she took out a rapture flanking her position "and with the raptures rushing on us that's easier said than done!"
"You two go for it, I'll cover you the best I can!" Solaris said as she fired her LMG at the raptures, blowing up many of them as the Arkanoid rapture moved away from it, not really focusing on its position in relation to Oni and Kenneth.
"You heard her Oni, we might only get one shot at this!" Kenneth said to Oni, who nodded and began to run from cover to cover, trying to get close to one of the walls of the room as Solaris kept using her LMG fire to force the Arkanoid rapture to move around the walls, trying to guide it down and towards Oni. After a bit Solaris managed to get the Arkanoid low enough as Oni got on top of a turned off constructor before jumping at the nearing Arkanoid, hanging onto it for dear life as it tried to shake her off.
"Stay put you huge spider shaped junk machine!" Oni said angrily before grabbing her shotgun and putting the barrel of it right at the core of the Arkanoid rapture, then shooting it and making the core blow up, making the rapture screech as it made a sudden move, sending Oni down and making her land on a loader, crushing it but kind of softening her landing "oww, did we win?"
"You tell me" Kenneth said with a smile as the remains of the lord class fell down to the floor as well, while the smaller raptures were either already dead or retreating "nice shooting out there Oni, one slug straight down its head"
"hehe, thanks commander" Oni said with a smile as she lowered her shotgun, sighing in relief that the fight was over as Solaris leaned against a crate, her LMG next to her as she closed her eyes, however Oni managed to see something from where she was standing, because while Kenneth was facing, behind him a trio of raptures with rocket launchers popped out from behind some deactivated badass loaders, the raptures got in position, aiming at Kenneth as they readied the rockets "Commander watch out!"
Kenneth was a bit confused as Oni moved past him, at the same time the raptures fired a barrage of rockets at them as Oni stoof in front of Kenenth, who finally saw the rockets incoming at them, by the time he noticed the rockets were right on top of them and...
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
"Commander! Oni!" Solaris yelled in panic as the explosions of the rockets were happening on the position where the previously mentioned duo was standing, Solaris then grabbed her LMG and gunned down the raptures firing the rockets, destroying them as she then looked back at the position were the rockets impacted, a smoke cloud covering it now as Solaris looked worried and scared, she couldn't lose Oni and Kenneth, one was her sister in arms and the other saved her...but then she heard coughs.
As the smoke began to dissipate, a dim blue light could be seen shining between the smoke, as the smoke dissipated more and more it soon revealed Oni and Kenneth were still alive, Oni right in front of Kenneth as she had 4 panels sticking out of her back and pointed to the front of where her body was facing, the panels were generating a blue energy shield in front of her which one could assume are what blocked the rockets.
"Wha...what in the actual hell?" Oni said surprised seeing the force field in front of her, as she then saw the panels by looking to her sides.
"Well, that is certainly an upgrade that's for sure" Kenenth said with a smile although inside he was shaking by how close they were to dying "Jack, is this an upgrade you gave her?"
"Pretty much yeah" Jack said as he appeared in hologram form next to Kenneth so the girls could hear him, he was leaning against a crate looking at them "I used part of some experimental Hyperion tech that were supposed to be used for new loaders, but I feel like these two would make better use for it."
"That honestly sounds pretty great!" Oni said smiling excitedly as she looked at the energy shield, moving to confirm if it moved with her, which it did "Solaris this could be groundbreaking!"
"It really could yeah" Solaris said going over to them with a big smile on her face, her LMG hanging from her back before looking at her body as she looked around, probably trying to find Jack "Jack, is there a way to know what my upgrades are?"
"That would ruin the surprise now, wouldn't it?" Jack said with a smirk, making Solaris pout as Oni kept moving around, seeing how the energy shield kept following her and being right in front of her, Jack sighed seeing that "if you want to turn it off, it should have a mental trigger you can use to turn it on and off at will or it will turn off alone if no new threats appear"
Almost on queue, the energy shield disappeared as the panels retracted back into Oni's body, looking like she didn't have them in the first place, Oni could probably assume it was for aesthetics since the panels being obviously seen would be an eye sore.
"Good news I detect no more Raptures heading down the elevator...the bad news is that using the elevator to get up to the hangar is out of question since the noise might attract more raptures to us" Jack explained as he zipped around the room, one could guess that since he was a hologram he didn't had to walk that much.
"Hyperion making a one entrance and one exit secret room in a weapon facility? who could have figured" Kenneth said sarcastically as he leaned against a wall, seemingly thinking about what to do next, all the while Jack's hologram stood next to him "the amount of tech in this facility is too much for a simple elevator, you sure Hyperion didn't make a backdoor or something?"
"If I had to guess" Jack started as he began to hack one of the panels on the wall, trying to find a solution "engineers would probably never use the elevator for fixing stuff from floor to floor and loaders are too big and cumbersome to use as fixers, this leads me to believe they may have built an emergency passage to bypass any major tech failures"
"Well, that gives us some hope at the very least" Kenneth said as he looked at Oni and Solaris "you two go stock up on ammo and grenades, Jack and I will try to find that passage"
"Roger that commander/Understood commander" both girls said before they left back for the armory room, letting Jack and Kenneth talk alone while they tried to figure out where the passage even was.
"Ok Jack, I will assume you can give us a secure channel to talk so speak, you have any new opinions on this...place we may have landed?" Kenneth asked looking at the walls, seeing if any of them looked slightly different than the others. Jack simply sighed as he materialized sitting on a crate.
"I am getting more and more mixed feelings on this place, I mean we are dealing with a race of robot aliens that pretty much wiped-out humanity, not even Hyperion's operation on Elpis was this botched" Jack said with a sigh, he was paying attention to the talk, but was scanning the walls for any access point "But this is just at face value, we should probably see how they manage in the first place, who knows, maybe they actually have prospects to get out"
"Yeah, we will have to see about that" Kenneth said as he looked at one of the walls, having an odd feeling about this one, he began to feel for it as he ran a hand on it, trying to find any crevasses or irregularities on the surface, soon finding a small separation between two walls, with that in mind Kenneth went looking for a panel or an access point, without much success. "Please tell me we have corrosive grenades"
"I have a better idea" Jack said as he pointed at a bunch of turned off EXP loaders, Kenneth seemed to get the idea as he smiled and went over to them.
Meanwhile, Solaris and Oni were in the armory, Oni grabbing more ammo for her shotgun and also picking up a handgun with ammo for it, while Solaris seemed to be looking at the many options for AR's that were there, this caught the attention of Oni once she got done getting ammo.
"what's on your mind Sol?" Oni said walking up to her squad partner, slinging the shotgun on her back.
"For one I am trying to find a suitable AR, the LMG is fine but I need a weapon that won't hinder my mobility that much" she said grabbing one of the assault rifles and holding it in combat position, taking aim for a few seconds before lowering and returning it to its place "that, and I was also thinking about...well, our partners"
"You mean commander Kenneth and Jack?" Oni asked, not realizing how , earning a nod from Solaris as she grabbed another AR from the ones on display "they seem like good people, even if Jack being an AI is kind of weird...even if it's just one of many weird things they have"
"I smell your usual suspicions creeping up again" she said putting the AR back in its place, looking at Oni for a few seconds as she put her left hand on her hips "alright, spill it, what is it?
"It's about Kenneth and Jack, their whole being is kind of weird to me" Oni said looking pretty serious, pacing back and forth along the room "we know nothing about these two, I did a quick search on them, no results at all. Not on the big three's data bases, not on the civilian lists, there's nothing about them in any way, shape or form...isn't it weird?"
"I can see why you are paranoid, but they also saved us and gave us a new chance at life, plus commander Kenneth is a massive improvement over Wulfric" Solaris said before grabbing yet another assault rifle and seeing it. Oni had to agree with many of the things Solaris said, Kenneth was a massive improvement over their previous commander, who was probably dead now, and he seemed know his stuff around this new tech... but that didn't stop her from feeling like something was wrong with all of this, they were inside of the facility they were sent to investigate, they seem to know a lot about the tech and didn't knew anything about the raptures, granted that could be chalked up to amnesia or being frozen in time but it was still odd "look, we can ask them more in detail once we get out of here, I have a feeling they would be willing to do that since I doubt the high chances of getting shot in the head are that appealing."
"You make a good point, suppose that's fair" she said, before then remembering something, their mission before coming to the facility "but what about the rescue operation? the other squadron sent there may need reinforcements"
"Maybe we can convince him to help us get there, they probably still have the transport since I bet my rations that the raptures already destroyed the transport that got us here" she said as she finally felt satisfied with the AR she picked and put it on her back, picking up some ammo for it too "that and this might get him some brownie points to the Ark, helping two squads is no minor feat"
"Ok, you make very good points there, and besides, they at the very least seem somewhat sane" she said smiling to herself, after all between the 3 of them and Jack, what could be the worst that could happen while getting out of there?
"Hey girls, finally found a way out of here!" Kenneth yelled at them, making the two Nikkes smile as they took their new equipment and headed out to finally get out of this place...hopefully in one piece
What do you think eh? Pretty impressive I know and soon enough the stories of Pandora and this world will collide face first like a rocket shot from a motorized bandit...bad analogy? Well come up with one yourself! I'll go to take a nap.