A long narrow corridor greeted us when the elevator doors finally opened up.
Only three fluorescent lights were illuminating our path to a doorway at the end of the hall (the middle one was flickering slightly), where there appeared to be a reception desk positioned adjacent to the door. Shephard and I followed behind Doctor Mofuni while he held Rod in both hands. We were not even halfway down the hall when I spotted a distinct white pill-shaped object right behind the reception desk, and its bright red optic flickered to life as we approached.
"Everyone, stop!" I cried out, deploying my staff and conjuring a protective shield around us with a sift punt of its hilt against the ground. That made everyone incredibly startled as my magic bubble encased us.
"Whoa! Easy there, baby blue, that's only the receptionist!" Rod insisted. I eyed the turret standing silently behind the desk before looking to Rod again in confusion.
"What?" I blinked.
"Totally for real," Rod doubly insisted. "She's got no bullets left in her. She wouldn't hurt a fly, you'll see."
I wasn't so convinced, which impelled Shephard to not let his guard down either. "There was a turret behind the desk the last time I was here, my girl," Mofuni interpolated as if this was the most normal thing in the world. "No need to get your tail in a tizzy."
That narrow shape and white exterior was something I was already well-trained to assume was hostile, so I remained less than convinced, but I nevertheless put my trust in the Aperture associates given their prior working life in this facility. I reluctantly cancelled my shield spell and allowed the party to persist―though Shephard and I were content to let Mofuni and Rod remain in the lead.
We all came up to the desk when the turret behind the desk fully acknowledged us. "Hello…" it greeted in that deceptively soft voice, its single red optic flickering as it spoke.
"How ya doing, sweety? Is that new polish I see? It really highlights your cute little divots," Rod said, putting on a swove spin in his voice with an accompanying softening of his optic shudders. The turret giggled like a little songbird in response.
"Oh, please, you'll make me blush!" the turret replied, its red optic noticeably brighter and redder now. Mofuni then stepped in.
"Hello there," he began, sounding more professional than Rod. "Me and my guests would like to access the Division. Would you be so kind as to buzz us in?"
"Of course, sir…" the turret answered. "Please lean into the retinal scanner…"
A little compartment on the dusty desk opened up, allowing for a sturdy device with a goggle piece to rise up and present itself to Mofuni. Without a second thought, Mofuni leaned forward and snuggly fit his eyes into the eyepiece as a series of beeping sounds went off before concluding with an accomplished-sounding ding. It appeared to have worked."
"Welcome back, Doctor Mofuni…" the turret said, expanding its gun panels in a fluttery manner―which made me grab my staff even tighter. "Enjoy your visit…"
The heavy doors groaned before parting open to reveal another sparsely lit area, one with tiled floors and a few lit signs along the walls. We then walked past the turret receptionist in an orderly fashion. Me and Shephard were the last to enter as we stared at the turret receptionist with mistrust, but the turret remained silent, continuously staring unblinkingly at the space beyond its desk.
Having power still working down here did little to make it any more inviting than the previous sections of the facility I traversed through.
It was cold and clammy down here; the tiled floors would have been quite the slippery hazard had we not been wearing our boots. The cool air was stagnant, occupied only by the soft ambient sounds of buzzing lights and distant water droplets dripping in numerous places. The only warmth we found down here was what was radiating off of the occasional steampipe lining the walls, something Shephard found great comfort in seeing as he was the only one still in his fatigues and not in proper winter wear.
Despite the copious signs of desertion and lack of upkeep, this subsector was perhaps the most preserved place I have seen so far on this end of Arbeit #1. These halls we wandered down, these labs we passed, looked like they had only been abandoned for a few weeks give or take. There may have been a lot of sectional flooding and water damage along some walls, but aside from that, this division was left relatively pristine.
There were several labs we passed along the way as we followed the signs to the teleporter chamber. A lot of them had lingering remnants of very foul smells coming out of them, which were offensive to my strong olfactory senses. I had been made aware that these were examination rooms where Xen flora was examined, and the occasional fauna specimen that was wrangled and brought back. It was apparent that maybe a few specimens were being dissected when the whole facility was abruptly disbanded. I peeked through a few windows of the doors that were closed, plastered with all kinds of biohazard signs and warnings for respirator masks, and saw horrid black sludge on the operating tables and on the floor amongst surgical equipment. If the smell in those rooms was not unpleasant, it was poisonous.
"Well, aside from the discernible lack of housecleaning, this place is in considerably better shape than I expected so far," Doctor Mofuni deduced as we persisted in our pace towards the teleportation chamber.
"Yeah, especially if you're like one of those people who collect exotic mushrooms," Rod added wittingly. "This area might be a breathing hazard and should rightfully be condemned, but you can acquire some glowing shitakes. Good for radioactive wellingtons if you gotta lead belly."
"The hell are you talking about?" Shephard asked, a little impatient with Rod's endless wisecracking.
"Making light of a dreary situation, kid. Helps with morale," Rod insisted.
"I'd rather it be quiet and keep a sharp mind than distract myself with awful one-liners," Shephard replied harshly. I quite agreed with his philosophy.
"Hey. Nobody likes a heckler, my boy," Mofuni disciplined with a stern, disproving shake of his head. "Don't come to the skit if you don't like the material."
"Are we in at a standup in some bar's basement? Or are we here on a mission?" Shephard frowned indignantly.
"Doesn't have to be one or the other," Mofuni argued. "If one were to―"
"WEE WEE TRACK!" Rod shouted loudly as we rounded a corner, startling everyone and myself considerably―so much so my tail puffed up. Mofuni actually dropped Rod on his foot, which not only hurt him but made Rod roll around a bit on the floor, which made him groan dizzily.
"Jesus; the hell's wrong with you?" Shephard winced, taking great displeasure with our AI companion.
"Oh, my toes have been smashed, but I'm all right otherwise…" Mofuni glared at Shephard sarcastically with hissing teeth as he hopped on one foot while holding the other, trying to soothe his injury awkwardly.
While the boys were busy sneering at each other, I walked over and picked up Rod, where he promptly spun his circular core around to look at me. "Whoa~. Sorry about that, kid; my euphoric dilators overloaded themselves for a second there," he lamented, twitching his shudders like he was indeed outputting more power than he had in his battery.
"Euphoric?" I wondered curiously. "What roused that?"
"What I found down the end of that shaft! Take a look for me, won't ya?"
I stepped out into the intersecting hall. The one on the right further down the division towards the teleport chamber while the one on the left was dead, filled with crates and other equipment. Rod's optic was jerking in that direction, so I knew that's where he wanted to look.
"Ah! Il mio bastone da culo!" Rod exclaimed with delight in an odd human language I didn't know.
"What is it?" I asked, right as Mofuni and Shephard stepped out next to me to see for themselves.
"That metal arm on the end of the management rail on the ceiling," Rod emphasised. "I can hook right onto it and I can move myself around among other dubious shenanigans! All for science, of course."
I saw the mechanical arm he was talking about, dangling from the hollow metal rail from the ceiling. I had noticed a whole network of these rails running along the ceiling since coming down here but never thought much of them initially. I was now more curious as to the purpose of those rails now that this finding had been discovered.
"Oh joy!" Mofuni said elatedly. "I was wondering when we'd encounter one of these hookups. My girl? May I have him?"
I complied and handed Rod to him, making me curious as to what he was about to do with him as Shephard and I stayed back and watched. As if he had done this several times before, Mofuni walked up and inspected the dangling mechanical arm, noted the outlet end that was fixed horizontally and promptly stuck Rod's rear three-pronged plug directly into it, making a resounding clicking sound. Little crevices on the arm flickered blue for a moment in activation before Mofuni took a step back, releasing Rod, allowing him to take control of the arm fixed to his spherical body.
Rod rose higher off the ground as he took control of the arm, enabling himself to spin around at will as he gained a new sense of autonomy. "Stupendous!" he cheered with joy. "It's like I'm ice skating with a plug in my butt!"
"Ugh…" Shephard murmured uncomfortably, holding his forehead. I was more intrigued by the contraption than I was put off by Rod's remark. It was then I understood the purpose of this extension.
"Does this allow you to move about the facility without human assistance?" I asked, walking up next to the Doctor.
"It's a great thing ain't it?" Rod said as he stopped spinning around, commanding the arm to slide up the rail to get closer to me. He was also able to express himself much better now that he didn't have to be held by his articulated handlebars. "There used to be a whole fleet of pumpkins like me who operated in aiding the old science team with whatever they needed. They couldn't hope to haul us everywhere they went, so management rails were installed. I can glide around just about anywhere now! A good thing we found this one arm still intact; I was getting worried we wouldn't find any."
I was happy for him to gain some freedom, and I was also happy for my arms. It was liberating not to have to carry him around anymore like I had been running through the test chambers all that time―even if Doctor Mofuni had been handling him during this leg of the journey. It was refreshing to see Rod operate as his own independent individual, even if he was bound to a linear rail.
"Me too, my friend," Mofuni conceded. "We'll surely get a lot more done in reactivating the teleporter now that you've got a way to access the internal breaker chambers. Flipping them on manually would have been a nightmare."
"You got that right, string bean," Rod nodded gladly. "Many prospects are sure to occur now that I'm a recertified mobile menace. Come and follow the yapping metal ball if you want to still find Captain Flint's trove!"
It was neat getting to see Rod glide swiftly up and down the hallway on his new transportation apparatus.
He was clearly enjoying himself too; he was flying forward and behind us just for the fun of it while he was getting adjusted to it, and bobbing his spherical body up and down as he hummed a merry tune to himself. Just having a jolly good time. It was good for these dreary industrial walls to finally have laughter ringing down them―even if it was synthetic.
While chummy with his upgrade, Rod was still goal-oriented. He continued to guide us down the halls on his little rail and pointed out bits of interest, such as what function each lab served and who was the lead doctor on those given projects at the time of his reign on the place. I knew we had to be getting close once the halls began to descend, and the imagery and posters around us conveyed harsher warnings of radioactive material and the requirement of special suits in certain containment areas.
Eventually, quite sooner than I anticipated, we at least made it to the survey supply depot, which had a direct entryway to Arbeit's teleporter. The sector we found the survey supply depot had a much higher ceiling and an array of large frosted glass windows which allowed limited viewing access to the room beyond. We could see that lights were still on inside, so we felt confident the double-latched doors were working as well.
Doctor Mofuni proudly strutted towards the retinal scanner to let us in, only to discover the modulator mounted next to the door appeared partially dismantled for reasons unknown―perhaps maintenance. Fortunately, it was revealed that there was an alternative way inside. And Rod, in a particularly helpful mood now, offered assistance.
"Hey, Doc? Why don't you dismount me and plug me into that manual override right there?" Rod suggested, eyeing the outlet stuck to what looked to be a rotating plate in the wall on the other side of the closed doors. "I wanna see if we can persuade that cute little bypassor to let us through by giving her a little bit of me?"
"Ah, great thinking, my friend," Mofuni snapped his fingers in delight, promptly grabbing Rod's handlebars and momentarily removing him from the management rail―which was no longer fixed directly to the high ceiling and was suspended above the floor by thin metal beams that were still attached to the ceiling. "I have little reason to suspect a little gatekeeper like that will be hard-pressed on preventing the overseer from going where he wished to go while in his portable core frame."
"Hah, you'd be surprised," Rod said as Mofuni carried him over to the mount by the door. "It isn't often I get to try out a different position. I once met up with the fax machine upstairs in shipping management; I told her I wanted to send my grandma an email wishing her a happy birthday before she―"
"How about we just open the door?" Shephard sternly insisted, looking and sounding quite impatient. It looked like he was asserting his former rank as squad leader to keep the group on task, but I detected a subtle facet of desperation in his voice. I realised through some very passive mind-reading that he was adamant about keeping Rod from finishing that joke. And given that Rod's initiation was positioned in the context of being inserted into something, I wasn't particularly eager to know where the joke was leading me and quietly commended Shephard for stepping in.
Mofuni glared at Shephard indignantly, though Rod had a very unexpected reaction. "Oh my golly gee, leatherhead. You don't know how lucky you are that you interrupted that stream of algorithmic data going through my motherboard."
"Don't worry, I think I got an idea," Shephard replied, crossing his arms with cautioned relief.
"Heh. Yeah," Rod nodded anxiously before looking at the scientist holding him. "Hook me up, won't you? You have no idea how much danger we're in from an uncontrollable copulation joke thanks to my programming."
Mofuni may have been waning slightly in cognitive stability currently, but he retained enough clarity to quickly shove Rod into the port by the door. Roused by Rod's insertion, four thin apparatuses tucked away inside the disk sprung forward and clung onto his handlebars, pulling them back towards the wall, which fastened him even firmer into place.
"Oh thank God, you've just aver―" Rod then abruptly shut up as his optic enlarged and stiffened out, spinning around sporadically as a series of beeping sounds emanated from the 'bypasser' he was hooked up to. After three seconds of this, the doors to the survey supply depot groaned before splitting open, revealing that their mechanisms consisted of rolling cogs meshing on a track of teeth in the floor. Rod's unbreaking sequence seemed to end the moment the doors ceased opening, allowing his optic to return to normal as it began looking around in mild disorientation while blinking his shudders twitchingly.
"Okay, there you are! Doors opened!" he announced triumphantly before sharply looking up at Mofuni urgently. "Okay, lanky, get me back onto my thingy, I gotta get inside before I begin to register my current position!"
Mofuni snatched Rod right out of the wall without a word and promptly stuck him back onto the apparatus connecting him to his management rail. "All right, cruise on in, have a look around while I start getting things warmed up for you!" he instructed, trying to sound upbeat when he was obviously anxious to leave―and leave he did swiftly.
Rod shot down his management rail, moving quickly away from us, intersecting a set of points on his rail which redirected him to another track that took him up the wall. "The hell are you going?" Shephard called up to him.
"Defying practically questionable software! I'm doing all of us a favour!" Rob replied, ascending higher and higher into the cavernous ceiling before his track took him straight into a square cavity in the wall. It was so high up that I didn't see it at first.
"What is wrong with that thing?" Shephard wondered, crossing his arms in befuddlement.
"He says his programmer trained him to imitate a stand-up comedian," I informed. "Though his programming is flawed. He warned me while down in the depths after finding him that he could say tasteless things purely out of impulse and to go easy on him for it."
"Oh, I believe her," Mofuni agreed, motioning us to follow him as he marched towards the now-open door. "He was smart to get out of here when he did. Even I could sense the lowbrow sex jokes coming a mile away the moment he alluded to one when he suggested the mount in the wall."
"So much for AI being the future. Always inventing new ways to be utterly stupid," Shephard grunted contentiously as he and I followed.
"Working for the future doesn't always guarantee it'll end in prosperity, you know," Mofuni rebuffed as if that was a plausible defence.
"Yeah. It's big-brained bozos like you that made this Combine shit happen in the first place, after all," Shephard retorted.
"At least we had brains, unlike certain enlisted jarheads I know," Mofuni bitterly replied.
"Enough, both of you," I intervened. "We're friends. Friends don't squabble like little kits."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Sorry, ma'am," they both said begrudgingly.