Vivid Stars Online

I tensed as the alarm sounded out, echoing through the massive hangar around us. For a moment I let myself hope it would all come to nothing, that whatever defenses this place once had were no longer functional.

Then all hell broke loose as panels in both walls of the corridor in front of us slid down. Squat robotic figures rolled out of them, three feet tall and nearly as wide. Worse, they were armed, each of them wielding a pair of long guns in their robotic hands.

“Get into cover,” Linnea shouted from next to me as she pulled Elana back from the open door. Then she took a position on the right side of the opening, firing her Long Rife in rapid-fire mode down the hallway.

I mirrored her stance on the left side of the door, firing my pistol at the first bot I could see. I hit it, leaving a smoking crater in the middle of its body. Then it responded with a hail of small plasma bolts.

Ducking back out of sight saved me from most of them, however, I still ended up with several burns on my right arm. They hurt like hell and it took all my experience and concentration to keep fighting through them.

Damn, I thought in shock, I knew the plasma was dangerous but I didn’t expect it to hurt quite this much. Glancing across at Linnea, I saw her grimacing and holding her left arm as well, without the benefit of my stats it must be even worse for her.

“Hold them off for a bit,” Elana yelled from behind us. “I’m picking up some kind of network connection from them like they're remotely controlled. If I can figure out how to block it, then I might be able to shut them off.”

That was easier said than done, however, I didn’t see that we had much of a choice. I nodded across at Linnea before we both ducked around our corners and opened fire.

The robots paused where they were advancing as plasma splattered against their chassis. While I doubted they had a sense of self-preservation, whatever was controlling them seemed to want to keep them intact.

They began reversing back into their hiding holes within the walls, returning fire as they did so. I shielded my face with my left arm but otherwise ignored the painful spatter against my body.

Between Linnea and me, we turned one into a smoking wreck before they got into cover. Shortly after that, we had to call off our attack to escape the sheer weight of fire that the remaining three bots put out.

It seemed they had a far better rate of fire while standing still and were more accurate to boot.

“How is that electronic warfare going, Elana?” I yelled back into the hangar as a torrent of plasma poured out of the doorway to my right. It was far too dangerous to move out of cover again, we would just have to hope she could finish in time.

Worse, I could just hear the whirring of wheels over the endless cracks of plasma. Pulling up my scanner, I winced at what I saw. It showed four red dots in the corridor, one of them being completely still.

The remaining three were slowly advancing one at a time, presumably while the other two lay down covering fire. We wouldn’t have long until they reached the hangar and gunned us down in the open space.

“Just a second,” she replied from where she was sitting on the floor. She was fiddling with her watch, her drone partially disassembled in front of her.

“And… done,” she said with a sigh of relief. Suddenly the plasma fire cut off, leaving the hangar oddly quiet as the echoes faded. “I don’t know how long this is going to last though,” she continued. “So you two had better go finish them off while you can.”

I nodded in understanding before moving into the hallway. Only a foot from the door, I found the first bot, its arms hanging limply by its sides. I put five rounds into the center of its body, melting almost all the way through it.

Linnea did the same for another next to me, having shifted her Long Rifle into sniper mode to save ammo. Then we worked together on the third and final one, only relaxing when it too was wrecked.

I turned to face Linnea, only to pause in shock at the level of damage she’d taken. While none of the individual shots had been large, she’d been sprayed down with a lot of them. Her right side had dozens of painful-looking burns, and unlike me, she’d been wielding a two-handed weapon.

Without being able to shield it, even her face had several burns, though luckily none had hit an eye.

“We’d better get you patched up,” I said, horrified at how bad it was. While I probably had as many hitting my torso, each of my wounds was significantly smaller than hers. Once again, my Toughness had saved me from the worst of the damage.

She nodded, then winced in pain at the movement. I pulled my pack off, located the burn cream, and began dabbing it on her wounds. While she tried to insist on doing it herself at first, she soon stopped complaining as the relief from the cream began setting in.

Once I'd finished, Linnea insisted on returning the favor, and I sat back against the wall as I let her work. Once we were both done, we each pulled fresh shirts from our packs. It was lucky that the facility was warm enough that we’d removed our winter coats.

We only had a single one of those each, so it would have been disastrous if they’d been significantly damaged. We still had to make our way back down the rest of the mountain after this.

When we were both ready, we moved back into the room to find Elana. I’d found it odd that she hadn’t come to help with the first aid, however, when I saw her I understood why.

Somehow, she’d entirely reconfigured her drone while we’d been patching ourselves up. It was now sitting upright on her shoulder and sporting a large antenna.

“Hey guys,” she said as we approached. “I’ve been working on something a little more permanent in case there are more of those bots in here. This baby,” she patted the antenna as she talked. “Should keep up a permanent jamming field around us.”

“While it’s going to block us from communicating with our watches, it should shut down any robots we encounter as well.” She finished with a proud grin.

I nodded in thought. Given how dangerous they’d been, I was willing to trade our communication abilities to avoid fighting any more of them. We would just have to make sure we weren’t separated.

“I’m guessing it can’t fly or shoot anymore now?” I asked.

She nodded, her smile fading a little. “Yep,” she said in response. “No more distractions, I’m afraid.” Then her eyes focused in on Linnea with a gasp and she rushed over and started fussing with her sister's injuries.

I gave them a little space, moving back into the corridor to look at the remains of our foes. While we’d wrecked most of their torsos, their arms and the attached guns were still in good condition.

“Think you can remove these Elana,” I asked when we entered the hallway a few minutes later.”

She tsked, then moved over and examined them for a minute. Finally, she pulled a tool from her back and began unscrewing something on their shoulders. Ten minutes later, we had a small stack of robotic arms and guns.

“Hah!” she exclaimed in joy as she finished the last one. “Now that was good XP, I’m nearly to level four already.” Grinned up at us ecstatically as she finished.

Considering that she’d only just leveled to three on the way up here, that was good progress. Linnea and I both congratulated her before we began psyching ourselves up to advance.

This facility proved to bewas far more dangerous than I’d expected. Even if Elana could stop more of the robots from attacking us, I couldn’t help but worry about what else we might encounter.

Gathering our courage, we moved on, leaving our loot stacked in a corner of the hangar. We’d hopefully be able to come back for it later.

The corridor extended behind the hangar for thirty feet of featureless metal before branching into three more corridors at a crossroads. They all looked largely the same, with no writing or markings showing where they would lead.

I stared at them for a minute before shrugging and gesturing toward the left. It was as good a direction as any and I’d read that it was a suitable method for finding your way in a labyrinth.

Turning, Linnea and I advanced first, wary of any danger. Elana followed along a few paces behind, ready to run for safety if something happened. Nothing sprang out at us, however, and we advanced until I heard a soft thrumming coming from behind us.

Linnea must have heard it as well, as she was already turning before I reacted. I heard her gasp in shock, then saw the problem myself.

Behind us was a shimmering force field, very similar to the ones I’d seen used in the security checkpoints when I’d first arrived. On its own, that wouldn’t have been the worst thing to see, except that it had trapped Elana on the other side.

She was pressed up against it looking scared, and Linnea rushed over to the barrier. Looking at Elana, I could see that she was speaking, however, no sound came through the force field.

Fuck, I thought as I tried to process the situation. The facility had separated our weakest member from the group, the worst person to be left on her own. If it had to be someone, I’d have preferred it was myself or Linnea. At least we could fight on our own if needed.

I tried calling Elana on my watch before remembering that her jamming field would block communication. Moving up to where Linnea was searching the barrier for a weak point, I mimed turning off her jamming device.

She shook her head, looking scared as she pointed at the surrounding walls.

I suppose that’s fair, I thought as I nodded at her. If a jamming field was all that was stopping murder robots from coming out of the walls, I probably wouldn’t turn it off either. Not even if it meant being able to call the rest of our group.

Sighing, I joined Linnea as she searched the walls and the barrier itself. Even after searching for several minutes, however, we weren’t able to find a way through. Linnea even tried firing at the wall and the barrier, her shot reflecting off both and nearly taking us out.

Finally, she just slumped against the wall, looking shocked. I couldn’t blame her, this was far from an ideal situation.

On the other side of the barrier, Elana looked up from her watch, shaking her head sadly. While we were limited to miming our intentions, I imagined she was indicating that she’d failed to take down the barrier through technological means as well.

I sat down across from Linnea, trying to think of a solution. The only thing I could think of was to loop back around to meet Elana, coming via one of the other corridors.

While that would mean leaving her alone, it would likely be the only way to get to her. Assuming that the facility couldn’t just keep locking areas down, of course. If that was possible, then we were doomed already.

Sighing again, I turned to Linnea and tried to break the news carefully. “We might need to try to find another way around,” I said, keeping my voice soft and gentle. “It may be the only way to reach her.”

Linnea shook her head, looking distraught. “I can’t just leave her,” she said, gesturing toward where Elana was fiddling with her watch again. “What if she takes it down and we’ve gotten lost somewhere else in the facility?”

I winced but nodded in response. While I didn’t think that was likely, I wasn’t about to force her to leave either. “OK,“ I said. “I'll go then and you can keep an eye on her.”

“Thanks, Jared,” she sighed, sinking further against the wall. “Please find a way around to her. Even if you can’t get back to me after that, I’d feel a lot better if she wasn’t alone.”

I nodded before turning to face Elana behind the barrier. It took a few moments before I got her attention by waving. Once her eyes were on me, I pointed at myself, then further down the corridor. Finally, I mimed walking in a circle around to her.

She glanced at where Linnea was still slumped against the wall, then turned to me and mouthed a 'Thank you' at me.

With a last look at the two of them, I turned and walked away. Hopefully, the entire facility wouldn’t be locked down and there would be a way to loop around.