Alien Gears

Chapter 10: Factory Floor

FACTORY FLOOR

I had reached the factory floor, and it seemed I probably wouldn't be welcome here either. The whole area seemed to be set out for the purpose of being hazardous. Firstly, the floor of the factory didn't conform to any safety standards. The surface was covered in a thick, murky residue, making walking difficult and it was coated with oil making the going slippery and treacherous. Holes and chasms had opened up across the floor and continued downwards into black, possibly deep enough to fall through the bottom of the beast and out into the living world, had it been mobile.

The COLOSSUS, at least as far as I knew, was still in the confines of the cave which it had carved itself out in the highlands, still hopefully dormant. I probably would have heard the thunder of a thousand weapons being discharged at its body had it started to awaken.

Another big danger on the floor of the factory that I could now see was the moving machinery. Invisible to my eyes when I was high above the room, it was now apparent that many of the machines operated on closed tracks, grinding along on great rolling gears. They slowly rolled back and forth along the assembly lines, picking up half built robotic guards and placing them on other belts or cutting lumps of rubble apart or even casting pools of molten slag into basic ingots. The room was alive with the machinery and it was important to keep an eye on it lest I lose an arm or leg.

A less predictable possible hazard that was also present on the factory floor had been much easier to keep an eye on when I was higher up. I had already noticed a couple of them slowly moving past, rolling on tracks or marching along on several legs. Whereas the machinery was a definite danger, I had no idea as to how these drones were going to react if I interrupted their workflow. Possibly they would just leave me to continue my stealthy passage peacefully, or maybe they would pull electric exterminator weaponry on me and not return to their posts until I was most definitely dead. I wasn't willing to find out. I had to be most careful around this particular danger.

I moved out from behind the large rotating oil pump that I had been taking cover behind and slowly made my way across to the next set of stationary machines: a bank of rollers on which one of the assembly lines was rolled. I carefully waited until one of the mechanical arms slid across the rails in front of me before darting across, feet dragging in the viscous sludge. An abyss yawned to the right of me so I moved right up to the bank to the left of me, not wanting to walk onto a slippery slope or over an area where the floor opened up beneath me.

Once I was clear of the void I sped up, hoping to make it to the dark grey wall before any of the drones could detect me. As I pushed myself against the solid wall, one passed along the passage to the left. I was well within the labyrinth now, I realised. There was no way out short of pressing forward.

After making it through several runs between banks of machinery I had made it to the centre of the room. Unfortunately I encountered a sight that I hoped I would not have seen ever again. I had seen some of the guardian bots inactive on the belts above, but the ones on the floor down here in the middle were definitely alive. Their heads pulsed occasionally as they turned back and forth, probably looking for the intruder who had upset their systems upstairs so badly. I gulped. Crossing this room along the floor was not going to happen with the presence of these guards. I needed to get higher up. Looking at the belts moving across above the factory floor, I had a plan which I hoped to be ingenious. I looked around for a few minutes then I found a ramp that led up onto the slow moving conveyor. I quickly ran towards the ramp, forgetting everything important that I should have already been doing.

I came face to face with the drone as I came round the corner. It was one of the larger drones, with a body like a container truck on six widespread legs. It stared down at me from one unblinking mechanical stalk eye, then, like I should have expected to happen, a klaxon started to blare.

Ignoring the chaos and sonic anarchy I had just caused, which was the band of armed bots suddenly realising I was hiding within the thick of them, I began to run towards the drone. Its body dropped down as it moved into a defensive position, lowering down to head height. As I ran beneath its cube shaped head I dropped to my knees and conducted a massive knee-slide, emerging from behind its descending body as it hit the floor. I was up and running towards the ramp as it slowly began to turn.

I was almost there I realized, though more of the bots on patrol were closing in fast, easily visible over my shoulder. The drone was too slow to properly pursue me but it was probably calling in more of its brethren to cut me off. As a drone emerged from one of the side passages, I finally reached the bottom of the ramp. I dragged myself up the slippery surface onto the platform beside the belt

. I saw a console button on the platform which I hammered with my fist. A dull clunk resonated and the ramp slowly began to pull up off the ground. I had finally escaped my pursuers, and thinking I had a chance to stand and celebrate for a minute, failed to notice the mechanical arm overhead. I was cleanly knocked straight off the platform and onto the slowly accelerating conveyor belt.