SoS B1 C5 X4: Restoring Power
Back aboard the trundler, the crew had begun to worry. Strange sounds were emanating from the gates of Vien, monstrous reports and howls muffled by the heavy metal doors. Narissa Stanhope stood on one of the metal gratings ringing the trundler car, hand over her brow and stern expression on her face.
“Allarah,” she said, lighting a cigarette. “They estimated half an hour and it’s been three times that. At what point do we mount the rescue party? Day isn’t exactly long here, and I’d rather not be a sitting duck at night if there’s supposed to be ghosts around.”
Allarah frowned. "Five minutes from now. Who do you have in mind?" Allarah leaned against the railing looking at the gates. She could feel her skin crawling.
Narissa took a long drag, held it, and tapped her cigarette out on the railing. She inspected it, and tucked it away for later. Had to ration, she only had a carton or two.
"The best or second best fighter from each Banner is in there. Another party might meet the same fate. I've been trying to figure it out since the moment they left." Morkun wasn't in the cabin with them, but Allarah got the feeling that the Aen was wishing she'd listened to him now about the mountain pass.
She kicked herself again. "I'll go in." She walked over to the intercom. "Faction leaders, report to the cabin immediately." She turned back to Narissa. "Sorry, but I think more input will be needed."
Narissa arched her brow and frowned. "And if you go in and die? We all fall apart. You've got Venistasia's word, nobody else has that." She re-lit her cigarette. This was a two-puff problem. Maybe three.
The cabin wasn't quite packed, but there was a definite over-closeness to the five sharing a cabin at the same time. Lots of opinions, very little agreement, and outright rivalries made just standing near each other a trial. To their credit, they kept it civil.
Tyodor leaned against the wall, arms crossed. Dimmu and Morkun sat. Old Narissa watched from the door frame, exhaling the last plume of smoke before tamping out her cig again.
"Where's my man," Tyodor asked, all bristle and accusation.
Somewhere in there someone had procured Allarah a cup of tea. She wasn't sure whom, but it sat next to her on a console, steaming.
"Still inside, along with all of our men, and I plan to rectify this. It was my choice to send your men in so it's on me to get them out. To that end, I'm going in and I need two people to join me." She glanced around the room. "Narissa, I'll leave the trundler to you while I'm out. I want you to pull through those gates as soon as they open. Well, unless you object."
Narissa shook her head. Orders were orders, and while Narissa had a good head for leadership on her shoulders she seemed most comfortable not being the main lead. "Understood ma'am."
"Who were you thinking to join you?" Morkun asked.
"I was hoping to take Ijin Wu and Lysjho. Dimmu, how is Lysjho in a fight?"
"Not phenomenal. He can work in a pinch and has some training, but it's not exactly his calling," Dimmu said. "I would recommend Synna before Lysjho."
"Will Mir be alright without her?" She frowned ever so slightly.
He nodded. "I'll look after her. I'd offer to let her come along, but this isn't the proper circumstance for it."
"Alright then." She nodded to Dimmu and called for Ijin and Synna to prepare over the intercom. Turning back to the group she said, "I'll be heading out as soon as they're ready. Any objections?"
"Just you three?" Morkun asked.
"It hardly makes sense to further endanger the group as a whole. We should be alright once we meet up with the others regardless." She smiled teasingly, "Unless you want to come as well?"
He bristled, but did not respond.
Ijin and Synna were armed and armored in record time.
"Vannik is still in there, I can feel it," Ijin said, shoving her helmet on. Synna gave her an inquisitive look as she pulled up her plated hood.
"Be careful out there," Narissa remarked. "If we lose you lot there's going the be an uncomfortable ratio of men to women."
"Isn't there already?" Allarah shrugged and smiled. "Keep the Trundler safe, and power the deflectors after we enter the city. There should be plenty of power to hold up the shields if you forego heating and keep power usage to a minimum." She checked her pack once more and nodded. "We're off then."
The trio followed the same trail the others had taken, using Ijin as their compass and Synna as their map.
"They tried to cover their trail... did a decent job, too," Synna remarked, a hand out in front of her. Wisps of meta curled around her fingers. She pulled her hand back, as though stung. "It's not safe to observe the auric band if you can help it, lots of pain there." She rubbed her temples.
They continued. Things in the dark skittered away from them. They were about halfway there when a great hum began to resonate through the walls.
Tskhan pulled energy from the lights to cast an immolation spell at the nearest monstrosity. His flames pulsed out in a curling plume. The skreavers hissed and dodged away, chitinous feet finding purchase in the walls so that they could dart up along them. Meanwhile Vannik shot another killing it. More were flooding into the hall, wriggling out from burrows within the debris.
Immuena blasted the hall, dispersing any magic with her spell. Unfortunately, the insects weren't magical in the slightest. Their mandibles and fangs dug into Tskhan, chewing dime-sized holes through his armor. Tskhan lashed out with his flames once more and burned the nearest seven Skreavers unable to dodge his attack. Vannik shot four more with fatal precision. Laemon darted forward and sliced another in half with his blade. The last of the miserable creatures sped forward to make a final attack at Tskhan, unfortunately for them, he parried their attacks, killing them in the process.
After that din, the silence was ringing. It practically screamed at them from down the long gullet of the hallway. A loud clatter rang out as Gruist yanked another piston from the bulkhead, then moved to help Dmitri with the last one.
"Good job team!" Immuena's voice rose and her posture fell not long after. Leaning against a nearby wall, she kept watch on the hall.
With one last grunt Gruist ripped the final piston free. He jammed his gauntlet into the clasp of the door, braced, and wrenched the sucker open with a growl in his part and a screeching on its. The room beyond was large, all machinery and wires and dead consoles. Several large energy turbines took up the bulk of the floor space, and brittle corpses festooned the workings.
"Everyone halt." Immuena stepped into the entrance of the room and began divining. Had there been ghosts, she wanted everyone to know immediately. "Come in everyone, no more ghosts here."
Tskhan proceeded to follow Immuena into the room. "I ain't afraid of no ghost, Immuena." he said, picking up speed and jogging past her.
Ignoring Tskhan's brash actions, "We need to investigate those corpses and the generator. I'll gladly do either." Immuena looked toward the group for a volunteer.
Vannik stepped forward. "I'll check out the bodies.
"I'll watch his back," Gruist said, peering around the darkness with his flashlight. Dmitry didn't say anything.
"Alright." Immuena observed the workings of the turbines and kept Dmitri in the corner of her eye.
Once everyone set to their tasks Dmitri looked around, visor catching the reflected glow of their various flashlights. He turned to face the door gun at the ready, flashlight facing down the gullet of the hall.
"I'm starting to wonder if Allarah should've come." Immuena laughed uncomfortably.
The machinery was numerous and, by Federation standards, a bit shoddy, but at least it seemed straightforward enough. Immuena found levers on the turbines to couple the contacts, small starter engines to get them started, and a control panel.
"Vannik, Gruist, you two find anything out?"
"They're very dead!" Gruist called back.
"I'm no expert," Vannik added, "But given how darkened and dried the meat is on them I'm going to guess they froze to death. Ghosts might have swarmed them while they were in here, attracted by... oh. The trundler guide said something about the ghosts being attracted to energy, didn't it?" Immuena gave a light chuckle to Gruist's comment.
"It did indeed. There was a fairly sizable debate over whether or not we turn this sector on immediately. The consensus was that Vien's known threat level had a better survival chance than the unknown and longer mountain path around it. Our goal is to repower the rails, too." She paused for a breath and looked over the control panels, "Laemon's a great seer. Everyone, get ready to fight more ghosts! We're not powering this up until you are. On the chance that they take a corporeal form, be ready for that too."
"Once you're ready, take hold of a lever. We're going to couple them all at once."
"Dmitri! How do think we should handle the door? Are there others?"
"There's another, but it's on the far side," Dmitry said. "Opposite the direction we came from. I don't imagine it will take us backwards easily."
His hand was on his hip, resting on the pommel of some sort of blade. He stepped to the closest turbine and gripped the lever.
"I'm ready."
"Ready," Vannik said.
Gruist grunted and squared his shoulders. "Everyone behind me if it comes to it. I can't hurt them much, but I can stall them, Tskhan, kin, are you well?" The Shejlt had taken a few hard hits in the last fight.
"I could be worse but I doubt the specters are anything we can't handle." Tskhan positioned himself next to Gruist and prepared for the enviable waves of approaching specters. "You ready Immuena?"
"Lastly, anyone who can't immolate the ghosts, focus on defending only." to calm her nerves, Immuena took one last deep breath, "Ready, go!"
They pulled the levers.
The couplings made contact, sparks charging between them. The starter generators kicked on and begun to spin with a shattering screeching. Underneath that unbearable pitch another sound rose. A deep, throbbing hum--organ-rattling and tear-inducing in the depth of its bass--resonated through the room, rattling detritus--coffee cups, clipboards, manuals, bones--from the consoles.
The darkness answered back, but they did not hear it until the hum subsided to more bearable levels. It was a gurgled caterwaul that chilled the blood.
The lights all began to charge up at once, revealing hallways lined with corpses and worse.
Vien was awake.
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