Chrome Symphony - Chapter 4

A loud alarm began to reverberate through the building. It was muffled but still discernible in the stairwell.

Atlas stumbled back to his feet after the explosion and heard the alarm.

"s***, they're on to us already?!" said Atlas. He ran back up the stairs and tried to open the door so he could see if any guards were coming. The door had been sealed shut.

"Duncan," shouted Atlas, down the stairs, "can you hack the lock to this door?"

After a few seconds, Duncan shouted back, "The system's down! I can't access any of the locks right now!"

Atlas stood next to the door a minute and listened to the alarm. That's not an intruder alarm, he thought. That is a fire alarm. He ran back down the stairs to meet the others.

"I don't think they know what we're up to, guys," said Atlas, with a hint of fear and disgust in his voice. "That's the fire alarm. Did someone trigger it as part of a diversion?"

Duncan and Shell both shook their heads.

"Could there be an actual fire? Maybe it was from whatever just caused that loud noise and shaking," replied Renk.

Atlas sat on the steps. He began to feel nauseous.

"Those smoke grenades aren't incendiary, right," Atlas asked Elise.

Elise shook her head. "Of course they aren't. You should know that, being military," she replied.

Atlas wiped his brow. "Right, right, just checking. We only used non-lethal weapons to blind and confuse them, I know."

Jess shrugged and looked at Atlas, having a confused look on her face. "I'm sure it has nothing to do with the explosion or the fire alarm. Remember, we're in a weapons manufacturing facility! Maybe a test just went wrong somewhere nearby," she said to Atlas, trying to reassure him.

Atlas stood up. "I'm sorry, everyone. It's just... sometimes... I get these flashbacks, y'know?"

Renk impatiently gestured to everyone to follow him further down the stairs. "Come on, we don't have all day here," he growled. "We may have sealed 'em in the auditorium but they won't stay sealed forever."

Atlas caught up with Renk as they continued to descend the stairwell. Renk patted Atlas on the back. "It's going to be fine, buddy," said Renk. "Just focus on the mission."

At the bottom of the stairwell, Renk opened the door. The fire alarm was still blaring.

He poked his head through the doorway. The hall was illuminated by emergency lights. A lone guard was walking down the hall, oblivious to Renk's presence. The others remained hidden underneath the stairwell as Renk quietly sneaked out into the hallway when the guard was walking away.

Renk concentrated as hard as he could. The emergency lights changed from amber to deep red as time slowed down around Renk. He darted out of the stairwell and ran toward the guard as fast as he could. Renk grabbed the guard, put him in a tight stranglehold, and allowed time to return to normal as he choked the guard and dragged him back into the stairwell before any other guards could see him.

Inside the stairwell, Renk shut the door behind him and Atlas held a gun to the guard's head.

"Talk and live," grumbled Renk to the guard. "Where is Richard Price being held?"

The guard remained silent. Atlas pressed his gun right against the guard's forehead. Elise stood over the guard, ready to take action if he resisted.

"Richard Price," prodded Renk. "WHERE. IS. HE."

The guard stuttered, "They... they struck a deal with him, said... told me, last I heard, he was going to cooperate..."

Jess walked over to them. "He WHAT?!" she yelled.

"He was going to provide access to... um, something..." whimpered the guard. "In... in exchange for leaving his daughter alone, he was gonna..."

"Spit it out!" yelled Jess. Renk shushed her.

"The code for the weapon that Crest developed here," said the guard. "I swear, that's all I know!"

Renk shook his head. "I'm getting real tired of this s***," he growled. "Where is Richard Price?"

"They were going to let him talk to Eclair," said the guard. "He insisted that he meet with her after the concert to find out why Crest allowed her to come here."

Jess put her hand over her mouth. "No..."

"Then they said his daughter was reported to be dead and he went ape-s***! He demanded to be allowed contact with Crest to confirm one way or another..." said the guard.

Renk tightened his grip on the guard's neck. "Did he go to the concert?" demanded Renk.

"I don't know!" shouted the guard. Atlas fired a tranquilizer dart into the guard's chest. The guard had shouted a bit too loudly and he had to be silenced for the time being.

"Dammit," exclaimed Renk. "This is getting complicated."

More footsteps could be heard in the hallway. There was enough space underneath the stairs for everyone to hide, so they kept themselves underneath the stairs as a small group of Herei Mob Army staff frantically rushed up the stairs. Renk dragged the unconscious guard under the stairs with them.

Duncan could overhear some of what they were saying:

"They've got a torch to open the door."

"Everyone has to evacuate. There's a huge fire near the docks, they don't know what happened."

"Was it that new fuel shipment? I knew that shuttle seemed suspicious."

"I heard it was a gas leak."

"The mess hall, cargo docks, and the auditorium were all destroyed and they haven't gotten it under control yet."

Duncan gulped. He was still unable to access the security cameras. Shell had been desperately trying to regain access, too. It was difficult to fly blind in this situation and it was very unusual to have zero access to nearby systems. The sensation was quite foreign to Duncan after being so used to hacking into everything around him.

"So, they're evacuating the whole facility," whispered Duncan. "Not even a skeleton crew?"

"That's highly unusual," commented Renk. "For a place like this, they wouldn't evacuate every soul unless they were damned sure the whole place was about to go up."

"I suppose we shouldn't make too many assumptions," replied Duncan. "We don't know for sure what caused that explosion or if what they're talking about is even accurate."

After the evacuating guards had cleared the stairwell by cutting down a door on one of the upper floors, Duncan, Shell, Jess, Atlas, Renk, and Elise headed out into the hallway. It was very dark but there were no more guards around.

Accessing a copy of the map that Duncan had stored in his own gear, he puzzled over where to go next.

"We can't go back up the way we came," said Duncan. "It's quite a trek to the next stairwell."

Camay had lost contact with Duncan, Shell, and the others. Frustrated and worried, she continuously scanned the network for signs of any of them reconnecting.

One of Camay's fellow scientists came running into her office.

"Dr. Thameh!" said the scientist, who was another A.I. using a proxy android.

"Yes, Jax, what's the matter?" replied Camay.

"You might want to check the telescope. It's pointed at NEA726, where one of our cargo shuttles docked today."

Camay nodded. "Yes, I know about that. I authorized and remotely piloted the shuttle there, then lost contact with its occupants."

Jax had a terrified look on her face. "That's all fine and good but look at the video feed."

Camay accessed the video feed from the telescope. She enhanced the image a little and fell back in her seat, mouth agape, in total shock.

A large area, including the entire shuttle dock of the facility, was completely gone. A crater filled with molten metal was where the dock and the surrounding structure had been just a few hours prior.

"I don't believe it..." said Camay, struggling to find words.

"It's unlikely anyone survived," said Jax.

Dr. Heimborem came running into the office. "Dr. Thameh, something has happened to the factory on NEA726...", he said.

Camay interrupted him. "I know, there was a huge chunk of the place destroyed." Camay stood up and looked at Dr. Heimborem directly. "How did this happen? What was the cargo on our shuttle," she demanded.

"Just neutralized engine fuel," replied Ray. "Completely non-volatile but they wouldn't even know the difference until they tried to use it."

Camay nodded. "I know. The dummy fuel isn't reactive. That couldn't have been the cause," she replied.

Dr. Heimborem pointed to something on the map of the facility, which Camay had obtained from Duncan earlier and had displayed on a large screen in her office. "Dr. Thameh, if they were on top few levels, they can't possibly be..."

"Alive," interrupted Camay. "That much is obvious. That part is completely obliterated."

Dr. Heimborem continued to point at the map. "Sadly, yes, but the facility runs all the way to the very center of the asteroid. The lower levels are heavily fortified so the main parts of the factory would not be affected," he replied.

"I've lost all contact with them," said Camay. "It doesn't bode well."

The group sneaked through the hallways, watching out for additional guards as they went. Shell shuffled over to the door to another stairwell and poked her head inside. The coast was clear, so she motioned the others to follow her.

As they ascended the stairs, Shell noticed the air was getting hard to breathe.

"I can smell smoke," said Shell. "It's getting stronger as we go."

"There's some bad fumes in here," mentioned Duncan. He started to cover his nose.

Around the fourth level from the surface, the stairs were blocked by rubble. Collapsed support beams and other structural material had completely filled in the stairs and it was impossible to see beyond it.

Shell noticed that the rubble was still smoldering. "This is bad," she said. "We might be trapped."

The area was eerily silent, aside from the faint echoes of the fire alarm. Even the emergency lights were dead on the past couple of floors they had passed.

Shell was able to establish brief network connections with some systems but the camera feeds were all dead.

"We need to figure out what's happened and how we get out of here," she said.