First draft
Lightning rippled around the horizon as the AMU raced through the snow, rammed into the antiblast doors at maximum speed and only stopped when it met a wall. The collision was so brutal, Dia heard the metal joints of her exoskeleton screeching as she tried standing up. The light tank had been built to last, but now its front was crushed, while plaster, debris, and snow were scattered across the entrance room.
Dia heard Willis puke then curse as he and the rest of the group stumbled out of the AMU. They were still groggy, trying to find their bearings, when half a dozen men came running, guns blazing. Dia and the others had no time to think, and returned fire. The gunfight that followed was short as much as it was brutal. Armed only with simple laser pistols, the guards looked more like warehousemen than trained soldiers. But although they were clearly outgunned and wore no body armor of any kind, they displayed unusual courage and resilience, resisting till the bitter end. It was all useless, of course. The low-energy guns the guards were using were utterly ineffective against their exoskeletons. Dia and the others wiped them out with methodic, ruthless efficiency.
"Was this the last of them?" Sarah asked when the smoke faded.
Willis looked grim. "For now."
Rodriguez looked at the charred remains and shook her head. "These guys...what were they thinking? Why didn't they just surrender?"
"Maybe they had a death wish." Willis shrugged. "Who cares."
"Ok, enough talk. We have to find the Lab." Omen took charge of the situation. "Fanning..."
He started, but much to his dismay, the pirate was nowhere to be found.
"Oh, come on." Dia made an exasperated sound. "Not this again!"
Everyone started looking around but without luck. Fanning was gone.
"That son of a..." Willis started cursing. "I knew it! I knew he'd screw us over!"
"Yeah, yeah. Now really isn't the time, Jacob." Rodriguez said.
"Yeah, Willis, calm down." Dia interjected. "I understand how you feel but..."
"Calm down?! How can I calm down?!" Willis said, still worked up. "That guy's making us look like a bunch of amateurs!"
"It's not that hard."
Willis whipped his head toward Omen, "And what's that supposed to mean?"
Omen shrugged. "Nothing, really. It's just that if you are a pro, you should act like one."
Willis looked at him in resentment, but at least he stopped shouting.
Sarah, who had been silent so far, asked, "What we do now?"
Dia looked at Omen, leaving the decision to him.
"We have to find him." That was all he said. Dia wasn't sure he was talking about Fanning.
"How?" Willis asked. "This place is a maze."
"For starters, let's go down one level and find the elevator."
No one objected. They decided to split into two groups to cover more ground. Since Omen and Willis were like oil and water, Dia joined the mercs while Omen went with Sarah.
Dia and the others went through a doorway at the end of a long corridor that opened into a large but bare room. Six sets of bunk beds were lined up in a row, while the rest of the room was empty except for an old computer left forgotten on a dirt-cheap plastic desk.
"What is this place?" Rodriguez asked.
"The guards' quarter, probably." Dia answered.
it reminded her a bit of her dorm at the Academy, only much dirtier. A thick layer of grime and dust coated the floor, but the dust wasn't uniform.
"Yup. Definitely a man's room." Willis looked at the erotic olo-posters and calendars hanging on the walls with glee.
Dia shook her head in mock disgust.
"Sweetie," Rodriguez called out suddenly. "you have to read this."
Dia turned a saw the merc sitting at the desk. Rodriguez had somehow managed to turn on the computer.
Dia bent over her shoulder and glanced at the screen. "Looks like some kind of diary."
She started skimming through the text until she found something interesting.
"According to this, the guards weren't allowed to leave this place. Those men...they have been here for more than five years." Stunned surprise echoed in Dia's voice.
"Five years in this shithole?" Willis made a small grunt of disgust. "I would have gone mad. Why didn't they just leave?"
"Sadly, they didn't have a choice." Rodriguez said, her tone unusually gloomy. "The Umbra made sure of that."
Willis frowned. "What do you mean?"
"She means that he was threatening them." Dia said, her voice stronger, hot with anger. "The guards couldn't leave, not without putting their families in danger."
There was a quiet, deadly silence, then Rodriguez sighed.
"At least now we know why they didn't surrender." The merc remarked, her voice full of pity.
"Using their families to blackmail them." Dia shook her head. "That's a new low, even for him."
They left the place without saying another word. Then they resumed their search until they found a room different from the others. It was big, maybe over three hundred square meters. It was filled to the brim with stacked crates, except for the right corner of the room which was empty.
Dia approached the nearest crate, and lifted the lid, her breath getting ragged. It was full of Spice. She suddenly felt giddy with excitement, just like a kid in a candy store. Although most of the Spice was the watered-down version, there were a few vials Dia could use.
She had just finished scooping them up when Rodriguez said, "Dia, look."
Dia turned around and saw Rodriguez bending over a crate. The merc had something in her hand, maybe a datapad or similar device. "What is it?"
"Looks like...a shipping list." Rodriguez answered, a hint of hesitation in her voice.
"Are you saying...the Umbra was planning to ship this stuff off-world?"
"I'm afraid so. But that's not the worst part." Rodriguez said with heavy heart, handing her the device.
As Dia scrolled down the list her expression went from serious to apprehensive, her face losing color until it was almost chalk-like. "Most of the planets on this list are imperial worlds." She said, her voice barely a whisper. She shook her head, shrugging off that oppressive feeling. "Luckily we made it in time. I dread to think of what might have happened otherwise." Dia said with a shiver.
"I wouldn't celebrate just yet." Willis gestured toward the empty corner. "Have you seen this?"
Dia looked in the direction he indicated and frowned. "There is nothing there."
Willis gave her an annoyed look. "Look closer."
Irked by his brusqueness, Dia's frown turned into a scowl, but she did as he asked. She crouched down, then squinted her eyes, noticing there was some kind of dust marks on the floor. The shape of the marks was rectangular. Something had been left there long enough to gather dust.
"A lot of crates were here." Dia said absentmindedly.
Willis nodded. "Someone moved them." He gave her a meaningful glance, and added, "Recently."
"Maybe they shipped the crates to Daxum." Dia said hesitantly, as if unable to believe her own words.
Willis shrugged, uncaring. "Maybe, but I doubt it. The are no more...clients on Daxum. The Umbra got rid of the junkies weeks ago."
Dia's expression turned haggard, her face paling even further.
Rodriguez cleared her throat. "Let's not jump to conclusions. They could have moved the crates for any reason. Who knows, maybe they were just rearranging the warehouse."
Willis shrugged, again. "I guess everything is possible."
"We should rejoin the others." Rodriguez continued. "Maybe they have had better luck finding the turbolift."
Still rattled, Dia only managed a weak nod. As soon as they reached the rendezvous point, Dia realized Rodriguez was right. Omen and Sarah had indeed found the turbolift. Suspiciously enough, it had been left unattended. No one tried to stop them when they boarded it.
Dia pointed that out to Rodriguez. "Don't you think this place is a bit understaffed?"
"Now that you mention it..." The merc nodded slowly. "It's odd. By now they should know we are here."
"So, why is the elevator still working?" Willis looked around at each of them in turn. "They could have disabled it remotely, but they didn't. It makes no sense...unless "
The atmosphere instantly turned awkward.
"You're just being paranoid." Rodriguez said dismissively, probably trying to reduce the tension.
"You know that I'm right." Willis insisted. "An army could be waiting for us down here for all we know."
While the elevator continued its descent, a tense silence hung in the air. They double-checked their guns, making sure they were fully loaded, and prepared for the worst. However, when the elevator doors finally opened, what they found wasn't an army, but an empty room. It was relieving, though a bit anticlimactic.
"See? I told you you were wrong." Rodriguez said to Willis.
Willis grumbled something Dia didn't catch, but he seemed relieved, all things considered. They all were. As far as Dia was concerned, however, it didn't last long. Maybe it was because of the deserted hallways, or her newfound claustrophobia, a result of Reyes and Gibson's experiments, but Dia felt a vague sense of unease. Even worse, she thought she had been here before, even though she knew it was impossible. One thing was sure, the base wasn't built deep underground as Fanning had said, but just a few hundred meters below the planet's surface. Curiously enough, the walls, the ceiling and sometimes even the floor, weren't manmade, but irregular, jagged and made of stone.
This place looks like some sort of cave...or maybe a glacier.
Dia involuntarily shivered, remembering the ice that once filled her. Maybe it was just her imagination, but for a moment, she thought she was back to that place of her dream. She could almost hear a voice, a distant roar of pain. She tried to shrug off the sudden pinch of fear that crawled up and down her spine, but as they kept exploring, going deeper into the deserted base, her unease only grew. Gradually, the voice became stronger, more urgent. It was like it was trying to tell her something, but the words sounded completely unintelligible. Yet she could still hear it in her head, she could feel the weight of a mind so different from her own that it seemed alien. Only when someone called her, Dia realized she'd stopped walking.
"Dia? Is everything alright?" Rodriguez, who was standing beside her, asked. She sounded worried.
Dia looked around, trying to find her bearings. She felt her throat dry and shook her head. "I was just wondering...where are all the guards?"
"Maybe the Umbra didn't have many men left?" Rodriguez suggested.
"Or maybe we just haven't seen them yet." Willis said gloomily. "Maybe they're out there, waiting to jump on us."
"Enough, Jacob." Rodriguez rebuffed him. "I'm tired of your pessimistic..."
Rodriguez kept talking but Dia couldn't hear them anymore. Hundreds, maybe thousands of voices drowned out their conversation. They seemed to come out of nowhere. Dia looked around, but the others didn't seem to have noticed anything.
As soon as they turned around the corner, however, she understood where those voices came from. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of stasis pods, placed one on top of the other. The resemblance to what she had seen on Aegis IV was uncanny.
"Holy mother of God." Willis said softly. "What...what is this?"
"I've seen something like this before. On Aegis IV." Dia said like she was in trance.
"Those people look human though." Omen commented.
"Human? Not entirely." Sarah said, pointing toward a pod with her finger.
The person inside was more machine than man. His limbs, eyes and even his pelvis were mechanical, while metal plates covered most of his body. A cyborg. He wasn't the only one.
"These are not normal augmentations." Dia commented.
"No, they're not." Omen said softly.
He sounded so distressed, Dia couldn't help but steal a glance at him. He looked pained, his gaze locked on the pods.
"Omen?"
"Corporal." Omen said in a formal tone, his expression flattening into neutrality. "I know some of those men."
Dia looked at him in surprise. "You know them? How can you know them?"
"Because I served with them."
Dia's eyes widened. "Don't tell me..."
Omen nodded grimly. "They are soldiers, Dia. Imperial soldiers."