Chrome Symphony - Chapter 4

Elise sighed. "This route's no good." She held her rifle carefully at her side, even if they hadn't run into much in the way of resistance. "We'll need another way down. I'm not sure where they're likely holding Mr. Price, or if he's even still there, but we don't want to be caught on the wrong side if they shut all the bulkheads.

She silently prayed whatever fire-suppression systems the base had were up to the task, if the fire alarm was what had tripped earlier. And hat they were well on the other side of any areas that might be venting atmosphere, for that matter. This was her first op in space, but it didn't take much to imagine some of the major risks.

"We'll need another way down. If whatever skeleton-crew of guards doesn't stop us, we keep going, if they do, we can tr to bluff our way through because s***'s clearly hitting the fan and if you can't access the local wireless, hey probably don't have solid comms, either."

Duncan and Shell nodded. "Already on it," Shell said as she studied her map of the facility. "Looks like we'll have to backtrack to the last floor and follow a few hallways to another stairwell."

"The lack of a 'net is really getting to me," Duncan added. "I don't want to say it's unnatural, but to be completely cut out like this is unsettling."

"We can hope to find a security center, or some place to establish a wire connection," Shell suggested.

Elise looked at the others. "Just so you know, this is...uh, not atypical in this line of work." She pushed her mask up long enough to give a sheepish smile. "It's rare that something completely unexpected or unplanned doesn't complicate matters. As-is, our best bet is t get further away from whatever damage and hope we can wait it out or find a secondary dock to get off this rock."

The whole group turned around, giving up on the caved-in stairwell as a lost cause. On their way toward another way down, they ran across what looked from around the corner like a makeshift security checkpoint. Elise took her mask off and tossed it at Jess. "Here, Laz, this'll do a sight better than those glasses. I'll need to be seen anyway."

She signaled for the others to follow her lead, and quickly ran out, still carrying the gun long enough to "notice" the guards and quickly drop it, throwing her hands up. "Ah! Holy crackers!"

The guards were, for the most part, unamused. "Stay right where you are, and don't move!"

"Don't you recognize me, damn it!? I'm Eclair Antares!" Elise repeated the name a second time, enunciating each syllable very deliberately. "I was here for a concert and something absolutely crazy happened on the upper levels. We managed to get here in all the confusion and don't know what's going on." She did her best to put on something of the frightened and confused act.

"Why the hell are you running around with a gun, then?"

"Don't you know Crest is proud that I don't need bodyguards? What if someone was trying to kill me?"

"Your story doesn't add up," said one of the guards. "Eclair arrived today and a fuel shipment arrived today, but only one shuttle arrived in the dock."

The other guard spoke up. "Look, Miss Antares, a lot of us here are big fans but we've got a job to do. Don't you know what's going on?"

Duncan stepped forward. "Actually, we don't," he said. "One minute we're playing a set on stage, then when we take a short break, we hear these explosions, take cover in a stairwell, and then find ourselves unable to get back out."

The guard looked at Duncan for a moment. He sized him up and seemed to consider him non-threatening enough.

"Listen, old man," said the guard. "We're ALL trapped down here."

Both of the guards lowered their guns.

The other guard spoke up. "The last thing we heard before the comms went out was that a fire broke out near the auditorium and spread through the ventilation ducts. We had a shipment of... 'fuel'... in the docks that got ignited..."

The first guard interrupted the other guard. "Shut the hell up, man!"

The second guard became agitated. "Who cares now? You think we're going to make it out alive?!"

Duncan put his hands out in a "wait" gesture. "Fellas," said Duncan, "Let's try to work together, here. We want to find a way out as much as you do."

The guard nodded. "Old man, if you can find us a way out, we'll help you all as much as we can."

The guards had noticed Renk's military outfit and were eyeing him carefully as they walked down the hallway. A slight haze was slowly beginning to form in the air as they walked along. Most of the group was openly carrying guns. The guards allowed Elise to pick up her weapon and bring it along with her, assuming that the facility had come under attack earlier by an unknown group.

"You look like you're with the military," said one of the guards to Renk. "So why are you dressed like that if you're in a band?"

"It's a costume, pal," said Renk, with a lot of annoyance in his voice. Working with the Herei Mob Army was making Renk very agitated, in addition to the suspicion Renk had about Dr. Heimborem. The air, which was getting harder to breathe, wasn't helping his mood, either.

Renk looked at Jess. She didn't even bother to hide the fact that she hated having to play along, though she didn't express it verbally. Renk walked over close to Jess and whispered to her, "try to play along for now."

Trying to help Jess, Renk asked one of the guards, "I heard the president of Crest corporation had been here to oversee some project. Was he watching our performance?"

The guard snickered. "You're asking a lot of questions. Don't push your luck."

Renk shrugged, "Alright, alright. I was just wondering since he is technically our boss."

The smoke was now making it very hard to breathe.

The group walked up to a large set of elevator doors.

"Something's horribly wrong with the atmospheric control system," mentioned a guard. "This part of the facility is isolate from the upper levels. Did the fire spread somehow?"

Duncan shook his head. "If it has, we're in serious trouble."

Renk replied, "If the fire spread, we are going to run out of oxygen."

The large elevator doors had a sign above them that read, "RESTRICTED". One of the guards tried to activate the elevator, but it would not react.

"Dammit," said the guard. "We could get down to the core if this elevator worked. It's completely isolated from the rest of the facility and we can at least breathe down there."

Shell walked over to the control panel and plugged in some cords that were attached to her. After a few minutes, the panel lights came on and the door opened. Everyone quickly walked inside.

"Looks like you managed to get this reconnected to the emergency power," said the guard. "Miss, you just saved our asses."

It was a long elevator ride down.

After a few more moments, one of the guards spoke again. "Alright, look. We're going into a top secret area. At this point, we're traitors to the Herei Mob Army, but honestly, we just don't want to die. If you have questions, bud, just ask," said the guard, looking at Renk.

"Thank you," replied Renk. "Just tell us where Mr. Price is."

"Sure," sighed the guard. "We're compartmentalized, just so you know, but the last we heard, he went to that concert. They more or less let him wander freely after striking a deal with our bosses that his daughter wouldn't be harmed."

The elevator reached the bottom after several minutes. The doors opened and everyone walked out into a long, curved hallway.

Jess looked around. Sure enough, this area was completely isolated from the rest of the facility. The air was clean and the entire area looked very sterile.

Jess had kept her mouth shut for a good long while. She couldn't bring herself to speak to the guards, knowing that they worked for the organization that had murdered her mother and kidnapped her father. They're lying about him, she thought as they continued to walk through the corridor. He wouldn't give up security codes, not even for false promises of my safety.

Finally, Jess could take no more of the tension. She removed her mask and spoke up.

"There's no way Crest would be working on a secret weapon here," she muttered.

One of the guards turned around. Fortunately, the two guards that had agreed to help the group did not immediately recognize who she was.

"This facility used to be owned by Crest corporation, lady," replied the guard. "The people who hired us took ownership of it years ago."

"Why would Crest abandon something like this," demanded Jess. "If they scrapped the project, they wouldn't just leave it intact."

The guard started to become suspicious of Jess. "I don't know who you are," said the guard, "but that's all above my pay grade. We just started a couple weeks ago to beef up security."

Jess scratched her head. Some of the tension had been broken when she heard that.

"Wait, are you or are you not with the Herei Mob Army?" she asked impatiently.

"Like I said, we're just jobbers. It's a paycheck, kid. We know that Herei's into some nasty s*** but we have to eat," said the other guard.

"That's your excuse?!" shouted Jess. "You'll willing serve an organization that murders people?"

Atlas interrupted. "I don't think this is the right time to discuss this..."

Jess interrupted Atlas. "Then when is?! After these goons kill my father?!"

Jess stopped herself. She knew that she just made a huge mistake.

"Aw, s***," muttered Renk.

Both of the guards stopped in their tracks and turned around.

"Wait," said the guard. "You're... Mr. Price's daughter. You're... supposed to be... dead...?!"

Just then, a couple of bullets struck the guards in their heads, killing them instantly. Jess, Elise, Atlas, and Renk drew their weapons. Duncan and Shell took defensive positions.

Turning around, Jess saw a man with two military guys accompanying him.

Renk gasped. "General Mulhauser!" he yelled. Renk kept his gun pointed at the General, knowing that he had just shot the two guards dead.

General Mulhauser laughed. "Ha ha! After those goons kills your father?! Are you stupid, Princess Crest? YOU already did a fine job killing him!"

Jess's right eye widened and glowed bright green. A primal look of unbridled rage swept over her face.

"The f*** do you mean, you fat, pompous derelict," Jess growled.

She drew her sword and lunged at him. One of Mulhauser's guards knocked her to the floor. Atlas rushed over to her and pointed his gun directly at Mulhauser's head.

Mulhauser laughed again. "You stupid little b****. You little spoiled, entitled, prima donna designer baby."

Jess sprang to her feet and grasped her sword tightly. Both guards had their guns trained on her and Atlas.

"How STUPID are you, Princess Crest?" asked Benton Mulhauser, rhetorically. "You got careless in your little stunt back up on that stage while your has-been throwaway Eclair clone was busy singing that s***ty noise you call music."

Jess glanced back at Elise. She and Renk both had their rifles trained on Benton.

"Come now, you're trapped just like your father was when you burned him alive," said Benton.

Jess lunged at Benton again, this time being shot in the arm by one of the guards. Jess screamed in pain, dropping her sword.

"I mean, just like this mass murderer here," said Benton, looking at Atlas directly in the eye. "Surely he must have enjoyed the opportunity to help you. He helped you BURN THEM ALL ALIVE."

Atlas's pupils contracted. "YOU SHUT UP," screamed Atlas.

Benton laughed again, more arrogantly than before. "Like you didn't LOVE IT," he yelled at Atlas. "Princess Crest cuts the gas lines and you all set the place on fire before scurrying away like rats from a sinking ship, only you morons go below deck instead, trapping the lot of you."

Atlas collapsed to his knees, speechless.

"We... did... what," mumbled Jess. She felt faint.

"Oh, but it gets even better," bellowed General Mulhauser. "You were mules for a shipment of high explosive, courtesy of our operative back the L1 colony. Too bad it all went to waste thanks to your little fire burning out of control. So, you finally managed to get revenge on the Herei Mob Army but you had to barbecue your daddy in the process!"

Renk fired a warning shot at Benton. "That's enough!" shouted Renk. "I KNEW you reeked of corruption!"

Jess regained her focus and charged at one of Benton's guards, slashing him across the chest and sending him flying into the wall.

With Elise and Renk still pointing their weapons at General Mulhauser and his remaining soldier, Shell checked her map. She and Duncan had taken refuge just inside a small office that had been unlocked. The power was still out, so Shell was unable to plug into any of the network sockets to connect.

Shell heard Elise yell to her, "Shell! Check the map and find a path out of here!"

Shell accessed her local map. They had taken a long elevator down to an area that the now-deceased guards, who had helped guide them down, called the "core". This area wasn't on her map. In fact, while performing X-ray scans and other analysis, it was not apparent that anything existed in the center of the asteroid. Shell could calculate from the elevator ride that they had indeed traveled to the center of the asteroid.

Shell looked over at Duncan. He was trying to see if he could connect any of the network equipment in the office to the emergency power system, to no avail.

"I think we're going to have to find a path on foot," she told Duncan. "The others are in a standoff with that general, so let's motor while we have a chance."

Duncan and Shell ran out of the office and away from the group, going further down the hall. Aside from the commotion back there, it was ominously quiet and dark.

"It seems almost too quiet down here," commented Duncan.

After exploring the corridors for a few more minutes, Elise sent Shell a message via a direct wireless connection. She had used one of the communicators Duncan had handed out, which was able to bypass the 'net entirely. Since there was no network, this was the only way to communicate.

General Wind Bag and his henchman ran off.

You find a way out of this rock yet?

Shell and Duncan came upon a large door. After hacking (and temporarily powering) the door, it opened and led down another long hallway to what seemed like the very center.

An enormous room was before them. Although there was very little light, Shell could see her surroundings through her infrared vision. A giant sphere was in the center of the room, surrounded by all kinds of equipment that Shell could not recognize.

Duncan sent a message back to Elise and the others soon arrived.

"What the hell is that thing," said Renk.

"Likely Crest's secret project," replied Elise.

Underneath the giant sphere, Shell saw General Mulhauser and his guard. He began to clap slowly.

"Nosey, aren't we," said Benton. "Well, at least you get to meet this guy before you leave this life."

"What is that and what are you doing with it," demanded Renk.

"Never mind what this is," said Benton, in an impatient and condescending tone. "You got a good look at it. Now you can die happy!"

The General and his companion ran off through a door on the far side of the room. Next to it, a large garage door opened and an automated combat mecha raced out of it. The mecha began to fly toward them, narrowly avoiding contact with the giant sphere in the center of the room.

"Incoming!" yelled Renk.

Shell immediately began attempts to take control of the giant weaponized machine. Duncan started charging up an aether attack while Renk, Atlas, Elise, and Jess fired upon it with their assault rifles.