TSW - Chapter 7: Remnants (6) - Chambers 7 & 8

Danton sighed for a second and tried to comfort Deanna. She was now sat on the floor her knees brought to her chest, her arms wrapped around them. He could hear her sobbing and wandered why the woman had left. Deanna was unresponsive, she gently rocked forwards and back her eyes turning red with tears. He shook his head to break away from the sight of Deanna. It was now down to him to get them out if he could. He patted himself down to look for the mechanist's tools he had taken from Coe and pulled out a screwdriver. He examined the panel above and below seeking a weak point. There was an obvious panel below him and steeped gingerly to the side, knowing the dangers of coming into contact with wall of solid light.

Below him lay a matrix of crystals and beams of light. They reflected in different crystals, changing their paths before exiting the box that the crystals were housed in. He toyed with the idea of removing one or two to see where the light would go, and found that removing one allowed the beam of light to continue to the casing, which started to smoke a little. He then tried to place the crystal in the field of light. It was like forcing it through treacle, the barrier buzzing as it was being pierced. Eventually the crystal was partially through but the light did not seem to part like falling water. It enveloped the crystal leaving Danton no room to escape. He removed two more and with the same difficulty forced them through. They reacted almost instantly when the last one was placed. The crystals focused light, as he had already seen and now they were doing the same to the barrier. A continuous beam of light, much stronger than that below him now started to burn a hole into the side of the control panel. It was a slow smoulder and with what he thought were a few spare moments he tried to pry the rest of the crystals out, the beams of light now causing them to overheat.  With the beam unwatched it had gathered power and had soon burned through the outer casing and was now causing a fire inside the machinery. The barriers soon dropped only moments before the contraption erupted in a violent explosion of metal, rock and flame. Danton had at least a notion of what he was doing in the back of his mind and was prepared for any event but Deanna had been face down and curled up. She was caught in the explosion, her skin sliced by the debris. She yelled out in pain and clasped at her wounds, her blood felt tacky between her fingers.

Danton dived over to her to tend to Deanna's wounds but she recoiled. She was angry that he hadn't warned her and blamed him for the injuries she sustained but most of all, she didn't want him to notice her blood. He didn't know how to react but the felt the blame in the pit of his stomach. Part of it was from her but most was caused by his own guilt. He had lost Raneaux and in his mind had nearly killed Deanna.  He swallowed his emotions and turned his attention to where had had been standing. The crystals had survived so were pocketed for future use. The control panel completely destroyed but the beam had not merely cut through it, it had also tunnelled its way through the cavern wall to the other side. With a little coaxing, he convinced Deanna that this was perhaps their best bet for survival and went in first. His idea fell short as a few feet from the other side, the tunnel narrowed and he became stuck. One hand lay in front while another was stuck behind him. Without thinking he awkwardly reached for the cloak and tried his best to cover himself with it. Deanna looked on in frustration before he completely vanished from view. Seconds past and panic set in, the fear of going back to the chamber before was nearly outweighed by the fact Danton had left her. She closed her eyes and tried to breathe calmly. He still did not return. In the darkness behind her a pale spindly hand hesitated over her ankle before grasping it tightly and dragging her out.

Across the underground river Mhaast and Xera had started to hear buzzing noises from the cavern behind them. Mhaast was a little apprehensive, the fact that the automatons ns were still alive and the security measures were still active meant that this place could still be in use. He told Xera to stand back as he fiddled with his shoulder augmentations. A small hatch opened from his left side and to Xera, a small cannon somehow, almost impossibly folded out from the aperture. It moved with his head movements, tracking his eyes to his intended target. He approached the shadows cautiously and rolled a glowglobe across the floor for light. Five winged mechanical insects were stabbing into the corpse of a dead monstrosity like he had seen earlier. Upon noticing him they rose into the air and were greeted by a barrage of pellets that had been fired from Mhaast's shoulder mounted artillery. The shells burst into a brilliant flames a spectacular light show that melted the metal of the creatures until they were nothing more than molten puddles.  This was met by the synthetic shriek of a woman which sent shivers down Xera's spine. 

The woman covered in black hexagonal scales emerged from the crack in the wall. Her body twisted and contorted in inhumane ways but her dark orange eyes always fixed forward. With unnatural speed and obvious anger she lashed out at Mhaast slicing into him over and over with her claws. Xera had hardly any time to react, only able to fire off a few bolts of Shatterstone before Mhaast's body blocked his aim. Mhaast soon felt himself slipping, his augmentations were slowing him down. He had upgraded his body for a purpose, to be faster and stronger than any human. He felt betrayed by his own body which fuelled his anger. He was desperate to prove to himself that all he had sacrificed had not been for naught and channelled his rage into his great axe. Moments later, with his wounds bleeding onto the floor, the woman fell to ground. She had been cleaved in two. 

TSW - Chapter 7: Remnants (5) - Chambers 6 & 7

Deanna was loosing control of her composure. Faced with the hideous laughter and silence from the other side of the cave in, she did what she could with reckless abandon. A beam of light pierced the rubble and blasted it away. The dust quickly settled in the chambers, Raneaux had disappeared. Danton knew what he would find on the other side but did not want to admit it. The laughter and the memories of the shifting house from weeks ago played in his mind. Nothing there had seemed real either. They had been pawns in a game they were forced to play and here again they were being toyed with. He tried to calm Deanna's nerves to no avail and felt the only way to do so now, was see it to the end.

He pressed onwards trying to find a semblance of Raneaux. The cave gave little clue as to where she had gone. A shadow on the floor ahead left a lump in his throat. It was a body, he was sure of that, covered in a cloak. Raneaux had not been wearing such an item but couldn't rule out the possibility that she was underneath. He left Deanna to explore what she wished as he silently investigated. His hand trembled as he lifted the garment and sighed with relief as the body underneath was not hers. The figure had been preserved in the dry air down here, a man much older than himself covered in puncture wounds. The skin was dark around them, blackened but not charred. It had started to spread across his skin in a geometric pattern of hexagons, plate like but still his skin. To the side of the body, an unmarked canister lay on the ground. He took it in hopes that it may be valuable and with that, he turned his attention to the cloak. It was covered in circuits with wires laced into the fabric connecting them. He pulled it up around his neck and for a brief moment and Deanna was now alone in the cavern. He appeared again moments later as if he had never left but now breathless, aching and with the cloak covered in blood. He had no memory of where he been. If Deanna saw the marred cloak it may panic her further and he quickly bundled it up around the canister and stowed it out of sight.

He grabbed her by the hand, noticing that she trembled in his grasp. His words failed him so he gently lead her through the opening at the other end in hope for answers. Another body lay in the next cavern. He tried to steer her away but her curiosity drew her to it. He had no qualms in letting her satisfy this notion, presuming the body to be deceased. It too had the same geometric skin as the body before but this time the woman here was covered head to toe. She wore no clothes and had no hair and the extent of whatever transformation had befallen her was easily seen. The body however was not a corpse. In a blink of eye it was stood on its feet, its eyes a glowing muddied orange. Deanna's grasp tightened as she stepped backwards.

The woman addressed them both, with eyes scanning every inch of skin. Her voice was synthetic and vibrated like an insect's wings. She denounced them as human and coldly catalogued them. Danton tried to converse with the woman but she answered no questions, she only posed them. She noted how their hearts were racing and from the walls, the woman summoned five wasp like creatures almost a foot long. They circled the two of them adjusting their flight as Deanna shifted on her feet. The woman tilted her head in what seemed to be confusion. She told them both that their existence was inconclusive, their forms masking their inhumanness. Deanna argued that she was human, nothing more nothing less but her appeals were refuted. The woman told them that modifications were needed for conversion and they were escorted by the buzzing drones further into the cave.

It seemed that the stone had not changed most of this cavern. The metal plated walls were unmarred and the floor rose half an inch from the stone with hexagonal plates. A hum of machinery was now distinct from that of the wings of the creatures that flew around them. They passed a fenced off fissure in the middle of the room which dropped down to only darkness. They were forced  up a small set of stairs and around the corner towards a faint glow of light. In front of them was a machine set in-between two large hexagonal platforms that were raised from the floor. Above each was the same, lowered from the tiled ceiling above. Wires passed from the central contraption  along the wall to the bottom of the platforms. Danton and Deanna were  separated and stood on each platform. The woman turned her attention to control panel in the middle and started to operate it. A solid light, just like the barriers from the room with the stone table now caged them in. A few seconds passed before three beams of light crossed above their heads from corner to corner. They generated an intense heat and buzzed louder than the wings of the insects and the machinery put together.

The hexagonal cross started to lower, which instilled panic in both of them. No matter how much they pleaded, the woman did not respond.  The insects crawled in the walls again and disappeared from view. In a brief moment of composure, Deanna tried to reach into the mind of the woman, hoping to find a semblance of humanity. What she found were confused and conflicting thoughts, a mind that held many voices all in conversation. Only one was the woman's and she was angry. Their scans were inconclusive, they were neither human, nor inhuman or beast. The woman's voice then responded to calls for her attention. Two humans had apparently entered another laboratory and their scans were far more conclusive. One was augmented with meta but they were both ripe for conversion. She stopped her scans, the beams however still left over their heads and contorted her body in unnatural ways to fit into the crevice in the rock to the left of Danton and followed her insects.          

TSW - Chapter 7: Remnants (4) - Chambers 4 & 5

With the first creature dead, the other was now bearing down. Xera could only look on as the creature battered Mhaast again and again. With its form now fully flesh and metal, it was harder to hit. Its movements were unpredictable as it constantly gained strength and stamina. For every second it was still breathing its mass increased; the valves and tubes pumped more chemicals into its body, the electronics stimulated more and more muscles. Mhaast tired to match it force for force but found himself outmatched. Not only could it hit harder and faster, it was able to somehow split its concentration between the two effortlessly, striking with one movement, then dodging the blasts from Shatterstone.  Even with Mhaast's great axe it was a slog of a fight, it wore down his systems and his endurance. A few lucky strikes against its enhancements debilitated it but it still kept coming. With one last swing Mhasst tried to hew into the flesh of the creature, only to miss. In such close quarters however he managed to head butt the creature and with all its other wounds, it fell to the floor dead.

They were both drained and exhausted. The security measures down here, wherever here was, were nothing short of devastating and they hoped that the others were faring better. Xera tried to contact Raneaux but his thoughts were unanswered. He didn't know if she was dead, alive or perhaps the caverns were preventing their communication but they had to press forward. He didn't mention to Mhaast about Raneaux, it was probably best he didn't know. As they both looked down at the bodies of the two hulks, they came to the conclusion that they had nothing of note to take. Mhaast had considered trying to remove their augmentations for himself but not knowing much about anatomy and due to how foreign these creatures were to him, he did not want to damage the implants let alone try to enhance himself with broken pieces. Like the table before, the stone slab in this room also had a port that he could interface with. More undecipherable information streamed through his mind. He found what possibly could be a way to change everyone's hexagon to a neutral white but in the process he was blasted away from the console by a bolt of energy. As he crumpled to the floor in pain, he found both he and Xera were now upon dark orange. He rubbed his head with what he thought was his hand but found that was instead his new tail and the shock brought him to his feet. It was decided then by both of them that messing with the ancient technology was a stupid idea and was not to be repeated.

They turned left as they headed out of the room, a little more cautious of the stonework around them. The passed the bend in the pathway and it opened up into another forked path. To the immediate left was  what seemed to be a workshop. There were shelves and tables, more metal than stone around the outside of the room. They were covered in scraps of paper, broken machinery, pieces of metal and most disturbing of all, rotten body parts. There were four, almost pristine white machines that lay littered on the surface of the tables. They seemed to be the source of the rot, splattered with dried blood that had once pooled underneath them. In the dim light, one started to spark and shudder. Its mechanical limbs whirred, pincers on one side sliced through the air while the other, fluids and dust were sprayed against the wall. A rumble came from what seemed to be a hopper at the back of the machine between the two jets that were built into it. This was where the blood was most obvious and soon the reason became clear. A warped and mouldy foot was spat at their feet before the machine faded back to its original state. Mhaast could sense these machines were still functional on some level, perhaps sleeping in some powered down state. They backed away with fear slowly gripping them. This was a mistake. Unbeknownst to them they passed another set of pillars, setting off another security measure. The corridor they had entered from was now closing shut, five sets of foot thick metal rose up from the ground with a heavy echoed thud. They were individually blocking the way back from a few feet away until one by one entrance was no longer discernible from the walls of the cave. 

On the other side of the labyrinth of caverns; Danton, Deanna and Raneaux had been following what seemed to be signs of Lina. A scrap of cloth had been found next to a narrow pathway in the rocks. Raneaux had ventured in first, being an experienced caver and delver for artefacts. She told both of them to wait for her to return. It seemed to her that the pathway had been much larger and a possible cave in had nearly blocked the entire path although she was unsure how recent it was. She presumed it was safe enough for her to crawl through but for both of them to follow her. She knew  she would have to secure it first. Reneaux soon disappeared from view, slipping in between the rocks. A minute or so passed and she could still be heard trying to scramble through. Another minute went past and they could hear her swearing at the rocks, a side of her Danton hadn't seen before. She seemed more open and honest, perhaps being in civilization had closed her off, shut down her true self. There then came a sigh of relief as she seemed to have made it through to the other side. Danton then waited for her to call them through or at least offer them guidance on how to proceed. There was nothing. Another minute passed and the cavern was still silent. He thought about calling out to her and as he parted his lips to speak, a shrill scream deafened him and Deanna, followed by the ever present laughter.

TSW - Chapter 7: Remnants (3) - Chamber 3

The fog soon dissipated, sucked through the cracks in the walls. There was a brief moment of confusion as the group gathered their thoughts as they regained their sight.  Although Danton, Xera and Raneaux had presumed Deanna had been in similar circumstances; her initial emotional breakdown and continuous sobbing proved otherwise. The dim light provided enough for Danton to see her clearly but he constantly blinked in disbelief. Her skin was turning pale and translucent. It was similar to the creatures they had encountered but there was something different; her skin did not have a pinkish hue, it was in fact turning green. She looked at the group and saw their eyes staring at her and she instantly withdrew into herself. A curled up against the wall and huddled, pulling her knees into her chest. Danton went to go comfort her but the conversation was awkward at best, he fumbled over his words and she seemed unable to stop crying.

Mhaast looked down at both of them, a little confused about the way Danton was reacting. It was not until Xera shouted at him that he broke his concentration. He seemed frightened, although intrigued. The fog has left its mark on Mhaast as well, although he did not feel it at first. It was only when Xera pointed out a biomechanical tendril that he felt the change. It was a composite of flesh and metal, the same as his own body but it seemed to resemble a scorpion's tail protruding from his lower back. With hardly any effort, he found he was able to control it as instinctively as his own limbs. Raneaux was not concerned with any of it and was back with the stone table. She had been trying to work out what the room was used  and if she could deactivate the field that blocked their way.

Now a little more confident in his walk, Mhaast strode over to the table and plugged himself back in. He gave a wink to Raneaux as he did so. The language that had initially confused him was slowly forming into words he understood. There were snippets of  brief phrases, 'containment lockdown', 'experiment chambers' and 'security protocols'. Xera assumed on this information that the hexagons beneath their feet were a kind of identification and presumed that the colours all of them bar Raneaux were sporting were not in their favour. Mhaast found more information, a possibility to change their status via a security panel but the map he had found within the stone systems resembled nothing of their surroundings. He was thankfully however able to remove the light barrier but other than that, he was stumped.

Deanna, with a lot of coaxing, had finally calmed down although her mind raced with what she was becoming. She desperately wanted to escape and led the way back to the central chamber, grabbing Danton's hand so he kept up as they passed the creatures that were still losing their minds. She breathed a little easier being by the water and hardly noticed Danton's hand lingering a little longer in her grasp. Xera coughed as he looked over to them both and Danton quickly pulled his hand to his side. For a split second Lina appeared to Deanna, in a room full of toys surrounded by tall pale figures. The room was dim and the figures were  illuminated in the darkness. She had a smile on her face, seemingly content. Deanna  dared not blink in case this was real but her eyes succumbed to dust and as she blinked she found herself being helped up by Danton from the floor. They were all concerned now.  She had fallen without speaking but her eyes remained open for more than a minute, staring blankly at the cavern ceiling. Danton was visibly shaken, a side Xera had not seen which made him nervous as well. His bravado tried to cover it up, telling Mhaast and Xera to search the side of the cave system where they were currently, while he and the two girls crossed the waters to the other bank to explore.

This didn't sit well with Xera but seeing how well armed Mhaast was gave him comfort and the man's ties with Silas would hopefully mean he was seasoned fighter. After Raneaux  re-established her mental link with them, they left the three and headed to the second pathway. The stone floor gave way to more metal plates. The walls too resembled that of the cavern with the stone table. To the right of them they found another set of pillars opening out into a smaller chamber. The path ahead  wrapped around to the left and blocked their view so they decided to take their chances on the room. There was a stone table inside, angled facing the back wall. Flanking this were two statues. They were similar to that of the creatures they had encountered before but far larger. Every muscle in their bodies were nearly bursting out of their skin casing. The sculptures were similar in composition to that of Mhaast; with tubes, wires and ports at every angle, as well as a myriad of implants and plates.

Xera hesitated for a second before Mhaast pushed him through into the room. Their light orange hexagons beneath their feet darkened. An audible crack of stone came from the back of the room, as the wires shook, and the tubes started to throb with a grey liquid. Mhaast launched into the left one as soon as he heard the sound. He cleaved his great axe into the creature, dismembering an arm before it was able to fully gain consciousness. The stone-like quality of both of them were slowly fading into flesh as Xera fired a bolt of energy from his Shatterstone. They pummelled the creature again and again as it was brought to life, turning from rock and flesh to body parts and crystal.  The last bolt fired by Xera finished off the creature. It's body fully crystallised on impact and it explosively shattered, sending shards of crystal towards Mhaast. As he took cover to avoid the shrapnel, the second statue had come to life. It loomed over him, breathing heavily with the sound of pistons  and pulsing liquid echoing in the chamber.