Vivid Stars Online

As the doors lifted high enough to see inside, they revealed a cavernous hangar similar to the underground one at the previous facility. While it was once again empty of ships, there were four large robotic figures standing a short distance from the door.

A mechanical voice echoed from one of them as we came into sight, speaking in the Arkathian tongue. Without Elana here, I would have to figure out how to translate it myself. Luckily, they did not as yet appear to be hostile, so I had time to do so.

“Hold up,” I said, gesturing to the others to stay in cover. “I should be able to translate that, but it might take a minute.” I took a moment to shuffle to the side of the door with Adam’s help, then began pulling up screens on my watch.

I was already familiar with pushing information into my translation program from when I translated the Arkathian tablet. All I should need to do in order to get it to work was to figure out how to transfer the data being picked up by the watch's speakers.

It took a few minutes to find the right settings, however soon after that, we were hearing the translated version.

“…Entry will be met with terminal force. Intruders be warned that this is a secure military facility. Unauthorized entry will be met with terminal force.”

‘Right,” Adam drawled from beside me. “That’s not ominous at all.”

I could only nod in agreement. The voice had been continuously repeating itself since we arrived and it continued to do so as we sat there trying to decide what to do. I wasn’t sure if it was just a recording or another AI, however, it seemed best to assume this worst in this case.

With the robots inside the hanger still dormant, I gestured Linnea over for discussion. “OK,” I said once we were all gathered. “I’m pretty sure they're going to wake up and attack as soon as we enter. While there is a chance I might be able to fake credentials with my Psionics, I wouldn’t count on it. Opening a door is one thing, tricking an AI is another.”

Linnea nodded across from me. “I think you're right. Last time, we didn’t get attacked until we breached a secure area. For some reason, the hanger seems to be secured this time, so I agree that we’ll be attacked on entry.”

“If there’s no time limit, then it might be worth having a rest first,” Adam gestured to my wounds as he continued. “Perhaps camp here near the door for the night and tackle it in the morning?”

That’s not a bad idea, I mused with a grimace. Waiting a day will make supplies a little tight, however, I don’t like the idea of facing those robots in my current condition. One night won’t be enough to fully heal me, but it should get me back into fight shape.

“OK then,” I said with a sigh. “That’s a good idea, I won't be much use without rest. We’ll make camp here as Adam suggested and head in first thing tomorrow.”

This presented a risk of the AI inside preparing while we waited, however, I judged the benefits of resting to be worth it. If we were lucky, then it wouldn’t fully activate until we triggered the security. If not, then I would at least be able to stand on my own to face whatever it had prepared.

I considered closing the door while we made camp, however, eventually decided against it. If there was even a chance that the AI was preparing for us, then it was possible that it might revoke my ability to open them. In that case, I needed to at least leave the main door open, as there was no way we were going to be able to force ourselves through it.

Dinner that night was a little tense with the robots so close at hand, however, as they continued to just stand there broadcasting their message, we slowly relaxed. While the noise was a little annoying, it was also reassuring in a way.

As long as they were warning us, we could be reasonably confident that they weren’t about to attack. Silence, in fact, would be an indicator of danger. With that in mind, we organized shifts to both watch for any wandering monsters and to keep an eye and an ear on the robots inside.

Once everything was prepared, I left Linnea on the first watch as I slipped into my tent and logged out. In the real world, I changed the bandage on my mostly healed arm, ate dinner, and then fell into bed.

The next morning, I logged in to take over the last three-hour watch from Adam. His was the worst situation as he split his sleep into two three-hour segments with his watch in the middle.

I always felt a little bad that I couldn’t take a turn on the middle watch with my requirement to be out of the game for a full six hours, however, the other two took it in stride. If anything, Adam seemed surprised, and thankful, that I was even taking watches at all.

The next three hours were uneventful. No Beasts wandered anywhere near the facility and the robots continued spouting their warning message. It ended up being a boring and tiresome activity, however, I stayed vigilant and did not succumb to the urge to read on my watch.

Instead, I spent most of sitting against the wall to rest as much as possible. My injuries were significantly improved after the night’s rest, even more than I expected from the advanced medicine we had access to.

The only thing I could think of was that one of my stats, most likely Toughness, also improved healing speed. With the significant improvements it had seen from the enhancement elixir and my level up, I was seeing a noticeable improvement rather than a gradual change.

While moving still brought about some pain, I no longer felt like I was going to faint when supporting my own weight. I would probably be a little slow and stiffer than normal, however, I would be good to fight.

Once the three hours were up, we began planning our attack on the hangar. The largest advantage that we had was time to prepare and to place ourselves in optimal positions.

There were four robots standing around the hanger and with the vision from her scope, Linnea could give us detailed information on them. They were vaguely humanoid, though larger than any human, at eight feet tall.

They were bulky as well, with attachments on their arms that suggested they had once been worker robots. One even had a shovel attachment that looked like it was intended for shoveling snow, while others had various futuristic-looking tools.

All of them, however, had wicked-looking plasma guns bolted to their arms. They looked like guns that had been mounted on the smaller security robots from the last facility but mounted on a far more formidable frame.

“So I’d wager that the AI here has been rather more active that the last one,” Linnea said as she finished describing them. “Assuming there is an AI that is, something had to have beefed up the security here, after all.”

“Yeah,” I responded with a sigh. “Though I suppose we should be thankful that there aren’t larger robots or mechs or something waiting for us. I’m a little surprised there wasn’t heavier security for it to use already.”

Adam piped in from next to us. “We’ve never particularly liked mechanical security here on Altheias, too easy to hack and turn against you. We usually only use it to complement or as a backup to human soldiers. Perhaps they were the same?”

“That makes sense,” I said with a nod. “Whatever the reason, I’m glad for it, dealing with what’s in front of us will be difficult enough.”

We spent over half an hour planning before we were happy. Linnea set herself up further back behind a snow-covered boulder, while Adam and I took a position on either side of the open door. This provided us all cover while still allowing us to all fire.

I would edge my way into the facility and attempt to reason with the AI, citing my Item Attunement ability as proof that I should have access. On the off chance that worked, it would save us a fight, however, we were expecting it to fail.

In that case, I would dart back into cover while Adam and Linnea focused fire on one of the robots. Once safe, I would join them and we would attempt to destroy them one by one without taking too much damage ourselves.

It wasn’t the most detailed plan, however, it was the one that we believed had the greatest chance of success. With a deep breath, I checked both of the others were in position before I advanced.

I had already tested that my watch could translate English back into Arkathian, so I spoke as I entered. “I have authorization, do not fire. If you scan me, you will detect the psionic ability that proves I am a member of these facilities.”

When they didn’t immediately fire upon me, I paused and actually began to hope that it might work. Then the voice spoke again. “Successfulness detection of Item Attunement ability, unsuccessful detection of Arkathian genome. I don’t know how you stole the creator’s power alien. I will, however, focus the full resources of this facility toward your destruction.”

As the last word echoed through the hangar, the robots in front of me whirred to life and began raising their arms. With a muttered curse, I spun for the door and dove through the opening, barely avoiding a hail of small plasma bolts.

As we had expected, the robots were using the weapons from the previous facility. While none of their bolts were enough to kill you in a single strike, the accumulation of damage from the hail of small projectiles would destroy you if they all hit.

Shots peppered the snow beside me with smoking holes, and I didn’t dare to even stick my gun around the corner to attempt a shot. Luckily, I wasn’t alone and the roar of Adam’s shotgun was followed by the loud crack of Linnea’s rifle in sniper mode.

This led to a drastic reduction in the number of shots coming my way as most of the robots redirected their fire at Adam, with Linnea being far out of range. With the reduction in fire, I empowered a shot and tilted my arm and a single eye around the corner.

Grunting as a couple of shots struck my arm, I aimed as quickly as I could and opened fire on the already damaged robot on my right. As soon as I’d pulled the trigger, I returned to safety, wincing at the pain. Even my gun was singed in multiple places, though thankfully it was made of plasma-resistant metal for exactly this reason.

If not, I would be worried about it being destroyed after only a couple of passes. With a deep breath, I empowered another shot and psyched myself up to dive around the corner again. Across from me, Adam was entirely pinned down with three robots still focusing their fire on him.

While he was safe for now, the clanking of metal on concrete suggested that the robots were moving out of the hangar. I was able to confirm this as I ducked around the corner again and lined up another shot.

All four robots were advancing toward the edge of the hangar, where they could remove the advantage of our cover. If we let that happen, it would soon be over as Adam and I died under a hail of fire.

The rightmost robot, at least, was looking in a bad way, with multiple gaping holes in its structure. I fired my second empowered shot at it before ducking back into cover as multiple shots strike my gun and the arm behind it.

An explosion followed by the crash of something hitting the ground suggested my shot had landed, and perhaps taken the robot out as well. “Fall back to secondary positions,” I shouted across at Adam. “They’ll be at the door soon.”

He nodded grimly before sprinting off to the right down the wall. I did the same on the left before moving out into the snow. Soon we had taken up position behind rocks much like Linnea had, drastically opening the range of the fight and ensuring that we could keep our cover.

This was actually an almost ideal situation for us, if we could draw the robots out, then we could maintain the advantage. Sure enough, they stepped out of the hangar seconds later, only to be met with another wave of fire from us.

We all focused on the new rightmost one, though it was difficult for Adam and me at this range. He switched to slug mode while I avoided empowering any more shots, as I was only hitting about half the time at this range.

Still, it was enough, and we were able to systematically take down the robots one at a time with only a few more burns between us. Out in the open, we just had too many advantages, particularly with Linnea’s sniper rifle.

Victorious, we took a moment to patch ourselves up before advancing to the facility. With the AI’s dire pronouncement, I was sure it would prepare for us now if it hadn’t been before. As such, we no longer had the luxury of time.

We would have to take it out as soon as possible.