* * *
My heart filled with awe as I stepped through the massive doorway of this millennia-old sealed dungeon where no human had ever trodden before.
The long dark tunnel led into the absolute unknown. No Disciples in sight: they had advanced a lot while we'd held counsel.
Kathryn was trailing behind, moaning. Admittedly I was getting a bit fed up with her.
Far ahead, a few red markers flashed and disappeared, barely within my scanners' range. I slowed down. Were they some Disciples signaling to those left behind? Or did the marks belong to some local mobs? I just couldn't tell at this distance.
The tunnel went on and on, straight as an arrow. Its 3D map updated promptly — not that there was much to update, that is. We were deep in the heart of a rock formation.
Finally I could make out the ragged edge of a chasm followed by an enormous cavity. Could that be the cave Kathryn had mentioned?
We took another hundred paces, approaching the drop. My Piercing Vision ability kicked in, adding all sort of detail to the map.
I had thought we'd have to grope our way through a maze of narrow tunnels and cramped rooms. But my mind expander began drawing a majestic panorama of palatial halls cut in the limestone.
“Kathryn? I thought this was supposed to be a lab?”
“That's what Dargian chronicles say.”
“And where is it?” Foggs asked.
“I don't know, do I? They also mentioned a Founders' Temple and a Temple of Light but we failed to pinpoint their location. I wonder if they're underground too?”
“Maybe,” I said. “There's so many of these caves here. And none of them look particularly like a research lab.”
We stopped by the jagged edge of a small platform. A footworn stone staircase led below, hewn out of two translucent deposits of calcite. Everywhere you turned, you could see the rusted-through remains of primitive lamps. In the past, they must have refracted the calcite crystals' light, creating a dazzlingly impressive display.
We walked down the stairs. The red markers reappeared; now they were about a hundred and fifty feet below right in front of us. The distance was quite safe, so we continued our descent.
The staircase brought us to an artificial cave. Its floor sloped slightly. The nanites kept streaming new data which made the picture slightly clearer. We stood in the beginning of a long succession of enormous halls connected by vaulting passages. The enfilade formed a downward spiral boring deep into the hill.
I studied the vaulted ceiling closely but saw no sign of any air vents.
The deep silence was only disturbed by the quiet warble of water and echoing droplets. My scanner revealed the outlines of ancient carvings under the thick layer of mineral deposits covering the walls. We started coming across statues and whole clusters of sculptures apparently mounted here centuries ago. The faces of weird fantastic creatures were chipped and cracked: lime isn't the strongest of stone. The floor here was littered with fragments of rock. We had to watch our step for fear of alarming the enemy.
I kept filming everything, checking whatever I could see around me. I didn't forget who used to be the true gods of this temple. Unfortunately, most of the sculptures depicted scenes from Dargian history. I came across quite a few life-size sculptures of various models of drones. In one of the halls we discovered copies of spaceships and orbital stations cut in the rock. Still, there was no direct evidence of what the Founders used to look like. Did that mean that the Dargians had never actually seen them? Had those mythical creatures already left the Darg system by the time its inhabitants had formed their own culture?
This piqued my scientific interest. The place was surely a treasure trove brimming with discoveries.
The organic life detector pinged. I gestured my group to stop. The bio hazard bar was hovering in the yellow sector which was normal, considering we were on an alien planet. The Disciples were about a hundred feet ahead of us; they moved confidently showing no signs of anxiety.
I looked around me. The mind expander added detail to the picture. Next to the pedestal of a crumbled sculpture, the remains of two Dargians lay by the wall. Their clothes had long since rotted away; their weapons had turned into layers of rust. Their empty eye sockets were filled with a fluorescent moss-like organism which had triggered my bio hazard indicator.
I tried to come closer but immediately the bio hazard bar peaked into the red as the “moss” began seeping out of its dwelling.
Kathryn frantically motioned me to leave it alone.
I obeyed — but not Vandal. He noticed something among the dead remains. His vulturine shadow darted across the room, grabbed the item and recoiled, barely avoiding a strand of translucent fibers that shot out, aimed at his face.
“Phew,” he breathed a sigh of relief without taking his eyes off the fibrous lump wriggling on the floor. He unclenched his fist and glanced at the object. “Sorry, guys. Binds on pickup,” he averted his stare.
“Can I at least take a look at the stats?” Foggs asked good-naturedly.
A Dargian combat co-processor made to the Founders' specs.
Item class: rare
Can be connected to a dedicated gear slot or to an available implant socket (optional).
+1 to Combat Skills
+10% to Accuracy.
+5% to your chances to deal a critical hit.
Owning the item overrides any Dargian weapon usage restrictions.
“Useful,” Vandal hurried to put the item away. “When we're done with the quest, we really should come back here and check out all the nooks and crannies. These rooms are huge!”
“Agreed,” I said. “Just please be more careful in the future.”
* * *
My scanners soon detected a weak power imprint deep within the caves. Was this the force shield Kathryn had been talking about?
I couldn't yet tell. Our advance was now hindered by the growing caliber of the debris. The darkness had retreated. The colonies of moss lurked everywhere now.
Here we constantly kept coming across the remains of Dargians. Soon Foggs was in luck too. He'd found a mini personal defense generator, albeit completely dead. Our standard-issue micro nuclear batteries wouldn't fit it. The item's stats confirmed what Kathryn had said. A thousand years ago, Dargian technologies used to be much more advanced. At the moment, I was too busy scanning but I'd already told myself to take Vandal up on his offer. These cellars were begging to be looted!
Finally we'd finished another room and found ourselves in an arching gallery. One of its walls was blank while the other was formed by a row of columns disappearing into the darkness. Further on, an enormous cave opened up to us.
The Dargians had already descended there. Gingerly we followed them. The walls here were covered in solidified bubbles, molten and deformed by bursts of force weapons. Numerous bits of metal stuck in the rock betrayed the place's technological nature.
The cave gave me the shivers. A complex mechanical structure listed across its far end. It looked suspiciously like a fragment of a spaceship. I could make out parts of its hull structures and the shimmer of an unusual force field streaming across its armor plates. In places, this shimmer condensed into the shapes of fiery tridents: the Disciples' logo that the Dargians must have used to seal the power shield confining the ancient evil.
I caught myself thinking that I'd developed a tendency to mystify the events. Still, I couldn't help it: this was the impression these caves gave me. Everywhere I looked, I saw evidence of a desperate combat that had scorched these rooms a thousand years ago. The floor was covered in a hardened layer of long-decayed burnt remains. The skeletons of cyber machines towered like pylons around the room. Light beamed through the holes in their bodies, its flecks playing over the metallic stalactites.
The Disciples' weak signatures were almost lost in the background hum. Now I could understand why they were so confident. Between the massive power unit feeding the force shield and lots of minor emitters still functioning in the caves,
potential enemy sensors would have a hard job detecting the Dargians' advance.
The dark deserted halls we'd left behind were only a foretaste of the unique dungeon.
We lay low, watching. Vandal and Foggs cast anxious glances around, craning their necks to afford themselves a better view. Their standard-issue implants were not a patch on my and Kathryn's Synapses. I had to stream our data to them.
My self-learning mind expander kept improving itself, re-calibrating the sensors to increase their efficiency. Now I could “see” the Dargians as 3D figures filled with some clear jelly. I still couldn't make out any details but I didn't really need to for the time being. All I needed was to understand what they were doing.
Two Disciples approached the force field and parted, walking along its edges in opposite directions, tracing the outline of the mysterious ship (if it was indeed a ship).
I could see where the generators were located. Why wouldn't they simply disconnect them? I got the impression that the Dargians knew some other way of penetrating the shield. They walked past the emitters, stopped in front of two of the fiery tridents and began manipulating them.
The tridents disappeared. Immediately one of the shield's segments just opposite the ship's oblong hatch lost its intensity and died, revealing a safe passage.
The Disciples weren't in a hurry to go in. Their group split. A few of the Dargians began setting up some weapons opposite the entrance, their transparent shapes dexterously assembling mountings and plasma generators.
We exchanged glances.
I began checking the mnemonic communications channel. There was no way we could use regular comms. Kathryn's weak reply was tinged with fear. She didn't say anything; still, her mental state left a bad premonition in me.
Vandal was all nerves too. Zander, that place must be packed with loot! I mean, super loot!
His thoughts were ragged and awkward — he apparently wasn't used to this type of contact.
Foggs was remarkably calm. He was busy appraising the Dargians' positions. His comments were clear and to the point, They're a bit too far from the entrance, don't you think? They must be setting up a field of fire. I don't think we'll have any problems going in. I doubt they'll notice us.
One of the Disciples headed for the oblong hatch. His outline flared up as he walked through the weakening force field, then disappeared from my mental eye's view. Simultaneously, the massive armor plate of the hatch which was twice his height slid aside.
A dull yellow light seeped from within.
* * *
The inside of the passage smelled of decay.
“Zander,” it was Kathryn who couldn't keep still anymore. “Are you sure we need to risk this?”
“You have any other option?” I asked calmly even though the pressure kept building with every step I took. Both Vandal and Foggs followed our mnemonic dialogue as she hadn't bothered to PM me.
“We can go back and look for an emergency exit in one of those large halls,” she said haltingly.
“Just relax and enjoy the game!” Vandal butted in. “Shame the Disciples can't give us a free ride. At least we'll have a look around. We might even find an exit that will open up somewhere past their cordons. Why not? It's been quite a hike!”
“You two don't know what you're talking about!” there just was no stopping her. “And Zander is taking advantage of it! The artifact the Disciples want to activate will kill us!”
“Calm down,” I cut her short. “Vandal is right. As long as we have the Disciples leading the way, we have nothing to fear. True, we won't get any XP from the mobs they'll kill but at least it'll allow us to get close enough to Genesis.”
“And then what?” Vandal raised an inquiring eyebrow.
“I'll use the technology scanner to scan it and create its exact copy.”
“Will a copy count?” Foggs asked, businesslike. “Aren't we supposed to deliver the artifact itself to this hybrid?”
“Don't you worry,” I said. “Ingmud will be more than happy to make do with the scanner files.”
“Count me in, then!” Vandal had apparently seen enough of the Disciples' weapons and gear to realize that the local mobs and bosses might be way out of our league. “We'll do as much of this dungeon as we can. As for the artifact, it's the luck of the draw, isn't it?”
“The location might be contaminated with deadly viruses,” Kathryn began.
“That's exactly what we have metabolic implants for,” Foggs said.
“It didn't help me much with the Daugoths' venom,” she snapped.
“You're alive, aren’t you?”
“You're saying this because you don't know what it feels like to be rotting alive!”
“Suit up,” I ordered. “Kathryn, you don't have to go if you don't want to. Stay here and wait for us to come back.”
“So much for your quest, then?” she quipped.
“It's not my quest anymore. It's our quest,” I turned to the others. “The reward is variable, remember?”
Neither Vandal nor Foggs needed convincing. Both were experienced players who knew very well that this was the only chance they might ever get with this location. This was a quest dungeon open as part of some mysterious “alternative plot line”. So they absolutely had to jump on the bandwagon. Apart from a few apparent problems, the ancient laboratory could also offer some very useful surprises.
Foggs gave my words some thought. “Count me in.”
“And me,” Vandal nodded his agreement.
Kathryn didn't say anything. She was sulking. But she must have been scared of staying behind all alone. Those caves had no other exit, and she knew it.
* * *
A dimly-lit corridor led from the entrance into the depths of the ancient structure.
While we'd been arguing, the figures of the Dargians had disappeared in the dark. Our sensors had lost them.
“Come on, quick!”
The sleepless night and all the trials and tribulations of the previous day were now showing. My Physical Energy indicator faded, shrinking, as it turned yellow.
I noticed that the others had a much better reading. Before, I'd never bothered to ask myself how much of the body's energy our brains actually consumed. I believed that fatigue was a purely physical state. Only after I'd had the neuroimplant installed did I realize that brain activity could exhaust our bodies, completely depleting them of energy. I’d especially noticed it during my fighter pilot training.
Direct neurosensory contact with cyber systems had hardened my mind but apparently, that wasn't enough to power the constant use of my new skills. I understood why so many players back at Argus had only had the most basic implants installed, delegating the lion's share of mnemonic load to their built-in gear modules.
I tried to contact Liori but the system rejected me,
The external neuronet is currently busy and not available. You don't have enough energy to maintain mnemonic contact. In order to continue, you should have a higher level of your Mnemotechnics skill. Alternatively, have some rest and try again.
“Kathryn, do you have any exo for mental abilities?”
“Will a buff to Intellect do?”
“Dunno. I can try.”
“Wait,” she gave me a close look. My skin prickled, awash with scanning waves. “I'm surprised you're still standing,” she said.
I was surprised, too. My metabolic implant was in constant overdrive. She must have worked it out by her scanner's readings.
“Here, take it,” Kathryn handed me a clip of syringes. “Click it into your life support slot. Your implant knows how much to inject. Don't quit the overdrive mode quite yet. It can be dangerous.”
“Thanks. I owe you.”
Kathryn may well have been an expert in her field but I just couldn't suppress my dislike of her. It was probably mutual.
Actually, I felt much better. I could finally think straight. I used the chance to check on my abilities. All active. The nanite replication icon had activated
too. I could see much better now, focusing on the details that only a moment ago had escaped my attention.
“I love their interior design,” Vandal stopped, casting a wary look around.
We exited the tunnel and found ourselves in the doorway of a rather unusual large room. It had no partitions, only the framework and small dimly lit platforms set up at different heights off the floor. As I scanned the open space, I realized that in the past the structure had been divided into several floors forming a tall tower. Judging by the presence of numerous disused emitters, each of its floors had once been split into a great many rooms separated by force fields.
A gravity elevator shaft ran the whole height of the tower, its rings reaching up to an infinite height. That was good news: apparently, there was another exit here after all.
The Disciples were still about a hundred feet ahead of us but now they'd split, hiding in the shadows of the gigantic machines.
I kept switching between various perception modes trying to work out what had forced them to take cover.
The organic life detector was going off the scale, reporting the highest levels of bio hazard. Everywhere you turned, every object was highlighted in red. I queried Kathryn for more information, then took a better look. Only now did it dawn on me that everything around me was covered in living flesh.
The Dargians had noticed the danger just in time. Had they advanced any further, they would have betrayed their presence. The floor around was bulging with muscles, occasionally shuddering as they contracted. All vertical surfaces showed the same activity. I adjusted my sensors. Now I could see clearly: every beam and piece of equipment in the room, the acceleration rings and even the overhanging cables were all woven with living tissues!
Kathryn's answer only made things worse. The scans I'd received from her showed clearly a complex interlacement of nervous and circulatory systems all over the room. Which meant that these lumps of flesh were in fact one single organism!
We just couldn't make it any further. I could understand the Disciples' predicament. They had apparently counted on sliding past the local mobs unnoticed but there was no way they could do it now. Personally, I'd have never risked stepping onto this living carpet of muscle. The creature was obliged to have felt it and react. The question was, what would its reactions be? Somehow I doubted the thing would be so kind as to allow us to walk all over it.
The Outlaw (Phantom Server: Book #2) Page 18