Halfway to the stage, an indicator on my wrist started blinking red. I looked down just in ti to catch a list of warnings from my Blinder. Overheating sat as the topmost warning. A shutdown was imminent. About fifteen minutes seed to be the life span of the Blinder.
I sped up my movents, nearly sprinting past clueless robots. If my readings were right, it would be a matter of seconds till the Blinder shut off. If I was caught out here without my Blinder active? I sped up once more. I clambered up onto the stage, ducking into the first bit of cover I saw—a wardrobe.
I cracked the door, sliding into it just as the fail-safes built into my Blinder shut the thing off entirely. The wardrobe was incredibly cramped with quite a few props thrown into it. It was a safe spot from prying eyes though- rather, prying optics. I shimmied around, careful not to bump too much as I shifted my pack to my chest.
I lightly tapped on the Blinder, testing the outer shell’s heat levels. Hot, but not scalding. I wrapped my frigid hands around it, using the cooling from Cold-Blooded to speed up the cooling process. For several monts, I just chilled.
How am I going to go from here? I thought back to the blueprint I morized thanks to Eidetic Schematic. The staircase back here led down into a large chamber of sorts. Probably a eting room, if I had to guess. Off that eting room was prop storage, the Archives, individual offices, and a cafeteria. Quite the subterranean setup Acun Industrial had back in the day.
I was interested in the Archives and the lower offices. Prop storage and the cafeteria might have so things of note for the rest of the company though. Hmm… maybe they still have a working printer in the offices? I could always copy the blueprint over onto the holo-puck, but there was only one of them. It’d be a good idea to pass around a paper copy to every squad so they’d know what to look for. I’d have to look for one when I got in there.
I sat in the cluttered wardrobe, my limbs cramping up as I regretted my choice of hiding spot. As I patiently waited for my tech to cool, my mind drifted to various topics and ideas. Most of them weren’t worth their space of brain matter. A few were though. My mind inevitably drifted to the blueprints I’d copied from the charger and bots.
At first, I hadn’t been super serious about the idea of making sentry guns I could carry around. Now though? It really wasn’t that complicated. Take the robotic attendants here for example. They had a lot of extra moving parts since they could walk around on their own, but the basics for their guns and targeting arrays really weren’t all that complex.
The most difficult part would be the software for the sentries. I could probably buy a targeting algorithm from a Night Market though. The rest of the hardware I either had, could find the scrap to make, or could print with the SITCH. I could even incorporate plastic for the most part to keep the sentry lightweight and portable.
It also didn’t have to be a machine gun turret either. I could just as easily make it as small and compact as a pistol. And there were so tiny pistols out there. Sure, their power would be lacking greatly. A dozen micro sentry turrets setup would sure as hell ruin an attacker's day though.
While my mind was on it, and I was surrounded by enemies, I got to thinking a bit more about my style of fighting. My biggest issue with fighting was obvious—getting shot at. I hated it. Everyone in their right mind hated it. Nothing was worse than being on death’s edge.
If I went to a trick, trap, and ambush type combat style though, I could leave it all up to my traps and live happily and freely away from the fighting. Let my gear do it all. I had Tech at a high level for a reason, after all. And so traps really weren’t that complicated. Hell, I could whip them up almost anywhere with almost anything by this point.
I’d done that type of fighting before. And it worked flawlessly. Well- almost flawlessly. I had the Wendigo kill in mind. Sure, I had so help at the end there with that abyssal creature at the depths of that horrifying underground lake, but tricking the beast had been incredibly satisfying.
I should prepare more than just simple turrets though just in case… I could do fire bombs tied to a piece of string quite easily… or maybe so kind of proximity explosive? Or maybe I should look into getting so charms and talismans when I get back to the city? I was far less iffy on magic than I used to be. Shen Kang Keiji had plenty for to peruse.
I stayed trapped in the wardrobe for nearly an hour as I waited for my Blinder’s sensors to drop below acceptable levels. It was rather boring, but it needed to be done. Once I felt safe enough, I slunk out of the piece of furniture.
The bots were still on patrol as I headed for the stairs. I did take the ti to pass by one of the turrets hanging from a low point in the roof and get my first look at it. They were a fairly simple design all things considered. Not nearly as good as modern stuff in terms of range, firepower, and detection.
The targeting arrays in the thing were terrible too. Probably only had enough range to shoot the area directly below them. If the Crimson Company kept their eyes peeled, pushing through should be easy. Especially with most, if not all, of the bots disabled. Speaking of, once I found that technical blueprint, I should move around and disable the rest of the charging ports just to be safe.
I worked my way down the stairs, filling a chill in the air unrelated to Cold-Blooded as I descended into the depths. The lights flickered ahead, casting deep shadows as if to hide so dark horror. Not ominous in the slightest.
I stalked down the stairs, stumbling across a massive cubicle farm. Not the eting room I was expecting, though I guess it made sense. Don’t know what kind of operation they were running that required a cubicle farm and separate offices, but there was no denying Acun Industrial liked to do things big.
The cubicle farm was quite eerie. Ages-old terminals lay still on, their flickering screens shining dimly onto the roof. Combined with a dark haze that smothered the space, the atmosphere felt extraordinarily heavy.
There was a constant whooshing of air down here too, almost as if the air conditioner was broken. So kind of liquid trickled in the distance, ruining the otherwise silent chamber. I took a step forward, pausing before a failed bot. The tal chassis was lying twisted and broken. Its limbs were missing, and its head was barely attached by chords.
I nudged it with my foot, shifting the robot around. So kind of abyssal black liquid covered the bot’s neck and waist. I flicked on the Gone module of my cyber eye for once, analyzing the substance. An error popped into my HUD. It wasn’t organic. What was it then? I tapped it with my foot. Not acidic. Or at least, not too acidic.
My head snapped up as sothing rustled around deeper in the cubicle farm. I raised my rifle just in case as I stared out at the dark haze. It was bad enough that I couldn’t see more than a couple cubicles in front of but with sothing out there in it? Before doing anything, I placed a Scouter-Listener combo on a nearby shelf and turned them on.
I slowly stalked forward, anxious about the imminent darkness. I felt a drop of dread-induced sweat drip down my spine even through Cold-Blooded. Can’t even imagine the overwhelming fear that must be radiating out of this place to accomplish such a thing. It made hesitant to move, though Insight remained silent outside of the occasional gaze.
I needed to get into the Archives. My lungs filled with air as I took a deep breath. What to do… Hmm… Push on for now. I passed the first couple cubicles as a sound resonated from deep within the fog. A ‘dum dum’, constantly repeating. The slow heartbeat grew louder as I took a step further.
My hands shook slightly as I walked past a few more cubicles, the sound amping in my ears. My back broke out into a cold sweat entirely, overpowering Cold-Blooded with intense emotion. Nice to know overwhelming emotion could break Cold-Blooded’s effects easily, but now really wasn’t the ti. At least my rationale remained, even if my body reacted strongly.
Sothing slithered around behind , knocking into the cubicles before vanishing into the dark haze. I stood at a cross intersection between rows of cubicles, darkness on all sides. A chill went down my spine. It could be anywhere. Whatever it was.
My heart hamred in my chest, matching the tempo set by the obnoxiously loud heartbeat in the distance. This wouldn’t do. I stuck out my hand and called quietly, “Corvid.”
A thrum of Insight hit as the Aether shifted just in front of . The familiar shape of the avian popped out, flapping its wings a few tis before settling on my outstretched hand. “Caw?”
The bird looked around the hazy underground with idle eyes as I spoke to him. “Go check out the area for danger… How bad is the haze for you?”
”Caw- caw caw.” He waved his wing about lightly.
“Nova.” At least it wasn’t affecting him as badly. Might not even be an actual haze then? This could be so kind of illusion. “Stay safe.”
Corvid patted his chest. “Caw!”
As the crow sprite flew off, I ducked into one of the cubicles, taking sanctuary from my creepy surroundings. I checked on my Scouter and Listener’s feeds, finding them blocked. So kind of single jamr… damn it. Should I turn around? No. I heard sothing behind . Better I just wait for Corvid to return before making my move.
I turned around, checking the terminal in the cubicle. It had a command prompt turned on as it ran so kind of program. Text constantly flitted across the screen, though it didn’t look like any language I understood. It was made up of a series of symbols. Mostly different skulls and bones which was just… perfect. What were Acun Industrial up to to have this as their operating system?
Sothing heavy hit the ground far out in the haze as a crow cawed sharply several tis. Sounds of a scuffle sounded off, ending just as quickly as they started. I ducked down, my heart slamming into my chest as I dropped into a crouch and raised my rifle.
With my head below the desk, I spotted the cords connecting to the terminal. Or at least, what should’ve been the cords. Instead, roots had grown up, snaking against the cubicle’s back wall as they plugged into the terminal. A creeping realization hit as I realized things weren’t nearly as simple as they seed.
“Corvid!” I whispered as I stood up and peeked out into the rows of cubicles. Nothing. I moved forward, checking another cubicle across the way only to find the sa issue. Roots acted as the terminal’s wires.
Sothing was deeply, deeply wrong here. I moved back to my original cubicle, hiding in it as I pushed myself into the back corner. I kept an eye on both the entrance and the roots as I awaited the return of Corvid.
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