Inferno Station (Helltroopers Book 1)

by Isaac Stone

  “I have identification on him,” Theo announced over the team channel. “Dr. Stephen Brynne. He’s in charge of research on hazardous waste disposal for the station. I don’t know why he’s here or if this description is true, but it’s what is coming up on my database.”

  “Let me see if I can learn anything from him, watch my six,” Ash told them as he stepped forward. From what he could see, the rest of them still hid among the piles of debris along the walls of the receiving room. He could tell the large room had junk stacked up everywhere in no particular pattern. Someone had ripped through many of the supplies after the bodies were dead and gone through most of the storage containers.

  “Dr. Brynne,” Ash announced to the crazed scientist when he was sure the man was at an angle where he could see him, “I’m with Team Omega. We were sent here to find someone. Can you tell me what is going on? I can summon a rescue ship and get you people off the station.”

  The man stopped his maddened dance and slowly turned to look in the direction of him. Ash wasn’t concerned. He carried the big impact gun and didn’t think the scientist would be so insane as to charge him. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the rest of his crew sweep the perimeter with their guns, ready to shoot at anything that might attack them. They carried heat swords as back-ups, short wands that could heat to stellar temperatures and burn through anything in their path.

  “Unknown pleasures,” the scientist said to him. “I’ve been looking for another man to take me by the leg. Show me the way, to Saint Juarez. Pleasures! Such pleasures! Why leave?” He began to dribble saliva down his chin.

  “Dr. Brynne,” Ash said to him, “what are you talking about.” He wasn’t scared of the man, just worried he might charge and be shot.

  “Heh, heh, heh,” the half-naked fat man giggled. “Oh, shit, he’s coming for us! He’ll get you too!” The look of an imbecile disappeared in his face and was replaced by that of fear.

  “You have to run!” the scientist screamed and shot away from Ash. He ran far away and fell to the floor. Ash stood in place and watched the man crawl under some broken crates.

  “Omega rally on me,” Ash instructed, “Something scarred him; I don’t know what it was. We need to make our way to the next level. Christ, I didn’t even get a chance to ask him about where Haddo went.” Ash listened with his earplugs as the rest of his crew marched forward and joined him.

  “Say, boss,” he heard Costa speak a term he didn’t like him to use, “I’m picking up some movement right in front of us. It’s awful big and coming into range.” Ash turned around and looked straight in front of him.

  The visual assist worked hard to bring the object into view as it walked up to them. Because of the smoke and darkness, it hid itself well and took a few seconds for the computer enhancement to kick in and give them something to see.

  It was an automated battle droid. Used at the end of the Colony Wars on Mars decades ago, the robotic war machines were banned after the final treaties were signed which brought the wars to an end. They were such savage machines that after the wars no one ever wanted to see them in use again. Even the existing ones were supposedly dismantled and any new research was banned by various conventions.

  However, these regulations didn’t seem to be in effect on Inferno Station. Ash had enough time to realize what they were up against before giving the order. He watched as the multitude of mounted guns aboard the mechanical monstrosity began to move downward in their direction. In few seconds, it would splatter their remains on the floor.

  “Weapons free!” he called out to the crew. “Take it down!” He whipped up his impact gun and began to shoot at it as he scrambled for cover.

  Although muffled by the helm, Ash could hear the guns of his crew open up on the droid and shower the darkness with sparks from dozens of high velocity impacts. The receiving room was deafening as the noise of the miniature cannons reverberated off the sickly metal walls. His people were swift to obey and precise with their weapons, and Ash prayed that it would be enough. In the gloom he saw Jack catch several rounds from one of the droid’s smaller weapons, thankfully his armor protected him even though the force of the blows knocked him onto his back.

  By what stroke of luck watched over Team Omega Ash did not know, but Ash’s prayers were answered in an instant as one of the impact rounds struck the droid’s targeting system, probably from Costa. As the battle droid fought to regain its footing the weapons began firing wildly, filling the chamber with yet more thunder and shrieking projectiles. Team Omega was already on the move, and leapt for cover as they did their best to keep laying punishment down on the droid. Many of the cowering survivors of the station, including the obese doctor, were torn to pieces by the droid’s weapon as it flailed and fired despite the withering fusillade of rounds pounding into its thick metal hide. The mechanical beast fired off one round that tore chunks out of the rock floor near them before its left leg collapsed under the force of the slugs.

  Ash watched as the one of its two legs was blown off. Another lucky hit right at the articulated joint. The giant robot toppled over and slammed into the floor, its turret guns continuing to fire even as it went down. The guns stopped moving when Costa concentrated his shots on the barrels of the weapon and watched sparks glitter all over the room.

  Jack activated his heat sword and ran over to the droid as soon as the turrets stopped firing. With one thrust, he plunged the white-hot rod into the center torso and pulled back. The droid had been somewhat tall before going down, but the control unit was located in the center torso. With one swath, he gutted it and the robot quit its movement.

  “Always wanted to do that,” Jack announced as he shut down the heat sword.

  Ash and the rest of Team Omega went over to look at the remains of the robot. It lay on its side and didn’t move, although electrical sparks shot out of it. The sensors on his suite showed the presences of ozone from the electrical fire. Guns leveled at it they examined the remains and took some pictures.

  “A real antique,” Kris announced. “Those things haven’t been in use for a long time, it’s actually a miracle this one was still operational. I thought I’d never have the opportunity to see one.”

  “Those things aren’t supposed to be around,” Theo spouted. “Not even in museums. Where the hell did they get one?”

  “I’d have been fine without having to see one,” Makulah observed. “If that targeting computer stayed active even a few seconds longer the rest of us might be on the floor instead of this thing. Check out those guns, no wonder that man ran off and hid.” He turned to Ash. “So what do we do now?”

  “Count our blessings, we got damn lucky this time.” Ash replied. “Let’s go see what toys they have for us in the next level. We’re just getting started. I see there is an elevator or a set of stairs to take down to the next one. Which method does everyone want to take?”

  They all voted in favor of the stairs.

  Whatever had been in the next level was on fire. Team Omega walked down a brief flight of stairs to walk into a raging blaze. The entire section was full of objects burnt to cinders or fires still consuming things. They couldn’t see any bodies this time, but they might be part of the ash in the corners of the large room. From the temperature gauge on Ash’s arm, it appeared there were an entire suite of rooms down here and they were all on fire. Those that were not still had enough background heat to indicate their interiors were burnt to a crisp.

  “I don’t think he’s on this level,” Costa mentioned. “What do you think, Char?”

  “I can’t access a thing down here,” the box responded. “This place was torched several times. Whatever was here was supposed to be burnt. It’s taken several attempts, but someone wanted to be thorough.” They could see fire light from several of the rooms in front of them.

  “Any idea what this place used to be?” Ash asked Barbara Ann. She still wore no shoes, but the heat and rough floor didn’t seem to bother her.

  �
�A bordello,” she told him. “This was a fancy whorehouse used by the research scientist who worked further down. My memories appear to be unlocking at each level.”

  “Well ain’t that a point of interest,” Ash observed. “Okay, let’s keep moving. I’m guessing we’re going to use the stairs again.” He led the way in the direction of them.

  8

  “Now what in the world was here?” Ash asked himself as they entered the next level. They’d walked down a short flight of stairs to find some kind of food processing plant in shambles.

  “Do you have any idea what was down here? You triggered yet?” He asked Barbara Ann.

  She shook her head. “I have no information in regards to it. My last memory was unlocked only so far as the burning room above us.” She looked around the ruined and wrecked machinery with curiosity.

  “Who would want to smash a calorie press?” Ester questioned as she picked through the remains of a machine on the floor. Someone had taken a blunt object and torn it apart.

  The entire level was full of broken parts and greasy packages. The light was still on and there were no fires as on this level. Ash kicked at a large tank and watched it roll to one side of the room. In the center of the level was some kind of production office.

  “I don’t think this was for research,” Kris pointed out as she looked at some hoses still attached to a packaging machine on the floor. “I think this place made food to feed the people who were living here.” She walked over to a large hopper and looked inside it.

  The hopper was full of mold growing on something that smelled disgusting even through their helmet respirators, which should have been nearly impossible. Ash began to wonder if the sight of it was so disgusting that he was imagining the smell. Even though there was nothing in this area to threaten them, it still smelled and looked disgusting. More mold grew from nutrients spilt on the floor.

  “This place makes me want to puke,” Costa announced. “It can’t have been like this for very long. I don’t want to think about how it will look when the mold growth really takes off.” He tried to look away from something black and fuzzy on the floor.

  “Five days,” Theo said as he looked through some paper in the production center. “No one has made an entry in five days, as least that’s what Char and I can see on the logs. And the records do show it was to produce swill to feed the prisoners.”

  “What was inside the swill?” Asked Ester as she walked up next to him.

  “Actually,” Theo said. “It’s quite nutritious. I think it was supposed to look disgusting so you wouldn’t eat too much of it. Something tells me it had the taste of raw wood.”

  “Proceed to the next level?” Costa asked as he kicked some parts out of his way.

  “Might as well,” Ash replied. Nothing to be gained here and I don’t think Haddo is hiding in this place.”

  Team Omega was at the bottom of the next flight of stairs when Costa asked Ash, off the team channel, helmet to helmet, if he was aware they were being followed. Both of them did their best not to look back at the shadow that moved in the dark.

  “I’m aware of it,” Ash told him. “Who or whatever it is doesn’t want us to know we’re being followed, but the sounds are there. Just pretend you don’t notice a thing and continue onward.” He stared ahead at the next floor as they came to the landing down the stairs.

  “I’m trying my best,” Costa replied. “The others might know about our tail and we’re trying to do what we can to ignore it. It’s too small to be another fighting robot, but I worry it’s one of those scientists who were around the fire in that receiving room.”

  “Shouldn’t be too hard to take out,” Ash observed. “Although you can never be too careful with a crazy person. They won’t react the same way a normal person will.”

  “And there could be more than one,” Costa added.

  There were no fires in this section and Ash hoped they’d left them behind. It was full of workstations and reams of paper scattered all over the floor. This level was a bit smaller than the previous one, but he understood that each level had its own particular shape and size. They were hollowed out of an asteroid, so one level didn’t depend on the next for support. Even the gravity was much lower than Earth standard on this planetoid, but the crew was getting used to it by now.

  It was silent. No one was here, just like the previous level. Ash slung his gun over one shoulder and began to walk around the rooms before him. The make-up seemed familiar, but he couldn’t quite place the arrangement. All of these rooms and levels had particular functions, although none of them seemed to have much to do with each other. Ash could understand why you might want a food-processing center to feed the prisoners who were transferred to the station. But there were easier ways to do it.

  He saw a strange symbol on the wall and walked over to look at it. The symbol was made of an interconnected line and wrapped around a poster. Ash looked it over and tried to figure out what purpose it served. There wasn’t a whole lot that made sense about Inferno Station and he couldn’t help but speculate it was some kind of mental treatment facility at one time. The corporation hadn’t told him the truth about it, but he needed to find Simon Haddo get paid before he could get of this rock, so he stuck with it.

  “This is some kind of financial center,” Ester announced as she looked over one of the workstations. “I’ve had a look at these prints and they’re spread sheets. Someone was tracking all kinds of money flow through the system from here.” She picked up a stack of paper and held it up for everyone to see. “Appears they were doing pretty good, too.”

  “Char,” Costa asked the AI, glancing down at the small unit on Theo’s belt out of sheer habit, despite the fact that Char was patched into everyone’s headset, “Do you pick up anything in this place?”

  “I can’t raise a thing here,” Char replied. “Someone came in and wiped everything clean. The only record of what took place is on those stacks of paper. And you can easily burn those.”

  “May I see that?” Barbara Ann’s faint voice called out to Ester who still held the stack of papers.

  Ester gave Ash a confused look. “It’s alright,” he told her. “Seems like somebody at corporate intended for Barbara Ann to help us out on this one.”

  The android went over the stack Ester carried and gently took it from her. She shuffled through them for a few seconds, oblivious to the team as the troopers fanned out and created a defensive perimeter despite the seeming lack of hostiles. It still amazed Ash this tiny woman was in fact grown in a laboratory and could cross the empty regions of space without a suit. The amount of money that sort of feat represented was astronomical. Barbara Ann stopped her paper shuffling when she came to something of interest and closed her eyes. Then she returned the stack to Ester.

  “The pass code was in there,” she said, “Right where they knew we would find it.” She closed her eyes for a few more seconds and opened them again.

  “I think she’s unblocked something,” Theo commented.

  “This place,” she began, “was set-up to make someone a lot of money. The rest of the corporate board didn’t know about it, but they soon found out. It wasn’t even supposed to be on a research station. The people who organized the team from off-station, which ran this operation, have are either missing or dead. As are the financial analysts who did the heavy work prior to activation of this station. The money it generated was for another operation, and someone wiped out every individual who helped get this going. Start-up capital to keep the other project in the black is my guess.”

  “So what happened to all the number crunchers and traders who staffed this place and did the actual work?” Jack asked her as he swept his rifle across the empty chamber.

  “I don’t know,” she explained. “And only the inner circle is dead. More people worked on this level than were officially on the payroll. It was supposed to be a very stealth operation.”

  Barbara Ann placed one hand on her head. “This is the only new
information I have,” she stated.

  “Not a whole lot,” Ash told her. “But at least we don’t have to worry about something big and ugly attacking us here.” He glanced back to the stairs that led up to the previous level. “Reasonably assured, that is.”

  “I think we’ve seen enough here,” Ash announced to everyone.

  They descended the next flight of stairs to another open area. This time the landing came out to the top level of the room. Before then lay an open pit.

  “Any one have the slightest idea what this place is about?” Ash put the question out. He walked forward to the open pit, but couldn’t see down inside it. Once again, there were no sounds from the room.

  “Appears to be some flat spot down at the bottom,” Theo commented. “I’ve seen this arrangement somewhere before.” He cradled his gun under one arm.

  “Is every one of these places deserted?” Makulah asked. He held his gun tight as well and walked with slow, sure steps.

  The ground in front of them was made of the same stone structure as the rest of the asteroid. It appeared to have been carved out of it at some time in the past. There was no way to date this place, even if the documents they were furnished by the corporation claimed it was only a few years old. Hollowing out an asteroid wasn’t that difficult given available technology, and the lack of any atmosphere to interfere with the process. Many habitations in the system were built the same way.

  Ash walked fifty yards ahead and stared down into the illuminated pit. Around the sides of it, he saw seats, which terminated at a wall at the bottom. They separated the center from the rest of the structure. The flat center was lined with sand. It was brushed out to make a smooth bed. The lights also showed a large riser at one end. Across from him, he saw individual boxes for people who wanted privacy to look down into the place.

  Then it struck him what this was all about.