Tech Planet (Project NightStorm Book 2) Page 13

  "This one, oh and a beer," Ray said, pointing to the menu item. He took off his jacket and draped it over the back of the chair.

  "Coming right up."

  "Interesting choice," from behind the pit Aster stepped. Ray's hand went straight for his newly acquired gun. He had no trouble getting the gun down to the planet's surface, there were no checks and people carried weapons freely.

  "I haven't had a good steak in a while, not since the redwood mission some three years ago," Ray said. Under the table he positioned the gun, all he needed to do was pull the trigger and Niko's killer would be no more.

  "Well I must say you are looking better than I expect-" Aster's words were cut short by the boom of the gun, the flash of light under the table. The round caught her in the chest a shot straight at the heart. She wobbled slightly. Ray was on his feet shot after shot firing from the gun some catching Aster others missing but she wouldn't go down.

  Ray looked up at the large neon sign...

  "Can you tell what he's thinking?" Aster asked.

  "Yes, unloading his gun into you. I've set him in a loop for now, once you die the loop repeats," Lucian replied.

  "You let him kill me?" Aster said.

  "It's easier for the mind to process if you perform an action you really want to."

  Aster placed her hand on Ray's shoulder, she drew her head level to his and looked into his eyes. The steak on the table had gone cold, the body of the waiter lay crumpled beside the fire pit.

  "He should be ready to accept Nightstorm level three, you know we've never had a subject that made it that far before."

  "Did you ever work out why the process caused them to go insane?" Lucian asked.

  "Nightstorm changes the brain structure, re-organising neurons and pulses, its incredibly complicated, the technology needed time to learn. Hence all the testing. Take him to the transport, I got word we are close to uncovering what we need." Aster said.

  March fiddled with the handcuffs, there was a basic dampener designed to block her access to the overlay. She knew it was there because her overlay reported on it, the cuffs were very old and had nowhere near the power needed to block her military grade hardware. In the bottom of her vision, she had two small squares, one of the Doc's feed and one of Johns.

  She could see the Doc was with Tidal and Jenkins who periodically moved around on his bed. Johns was sat staring at a wall, much like the one in front of her, only he didn't have a questioner sat in a chair in his.

  The room was lit by a small sphere placed in the centre of the desk, the main lighting was out though it occasionally flared as she assumed technicians were working on the problem in the background.

  "Why did you come to the station?" the questioner asked, his long grey hair falling loosely across his face, each time it did he pushed it out of the way.

  "For help, our ship was damaged in a pirate attack, our scorch drive failed and this was the closest harbour," March said. The questioner gave her an encouraging smile.

  "What did you do to the station to cause the power to fail?"

  "Nothing, why would we attack the very place we need help from. Without our core repaired we are stuck here," March said.

  "I ask again why did you come to the station?"

  "OK, we could spend all night with you asking me questions and me repeating answers but I don't think we are going to get anywhere."

  "Why did you come to the station?"

  March sighed, she set herself on autopilot as the same two questions were repeated over and over. Her main focus, however, was focused on the doctor and Johns feeds.

  Jenkins was stirring the doctor was stood over him, March watched his hand gestures as he glided through medical interfaces changing settings on the different machines. Johns was no longer staring at a wall instead he was led on his back looking up at the ceiling.

  "Where are the other members of your crew?"

  "Wow a new question, did the same answers over and over and over again bore you?" the questioner didn't respond. "No matter, I don't know they could be anywhere the captain was on a dungeon bust and Ray well is Ray, I lost his tracker hours ago," March said.

  In the corner of her vision, she noticed Jenkins eyes open and the Doc help him into an upright sitting position, Jenkins winked at her or at the Doc.

  "Why is your crew so small?"

  "I think the question you should ask is why my captain is so tight? The crew is small because he would rather spend the mission credit on ship-wide upgrades," March said.

  "So your story is your ship is in distress with missing crew members, injured crew members who had nothing to do with the current situation on the station."

  "Good summary, completely true. Perhaps we can help I have some of the brightest minds at my disposal. We can help try and solve whatever is happening here."

  The questioner stood, "send her back to the cells, we will try again tomorrow."

  March clicked her thumb out of joint and bit down on the side of her cheek, the handcuffs were lose to start with and the extra space she created by distending her thumb meant that she easily removed the metal band. She pushed her thumb back into place, the relief from the pain was instant, she closed her eyes for a second gathering her thoughts, now she had a weapon and free hands. She waited for the guard.

  17

  Enter the Shark

  Arri helped Books out of the water, for the most part, she had been able to swim back down the passage un-aided. He pulled himself out shortly afterwards, belly flopping on to the cold floor legs dangling over the edge still in the water. He hauled his new gun to his side, spray flew in all directions as it parted the water and splashed down on the shelf. He reached up and tapped the first button of his neckband, the head shield vanished. He took a long deep breath of dungeon air, savouring the slight musky smell. The aqua suits helmet had felt a little claustrophobic and it felt good to breathe out without feeling its touch on his face.

  "What happened?" Galdan asked as Grayson applied bottled water to Books.

  "There is a partial cave-in of the tunnel, we made it into the chamber beyond and encountered a giant tentacled monster which took a bit of killing," Arri said. The ground below him started to shake again and he pulled his legs swiftly out of the water.

  "We can't stay here much longer, the dungeon is becoming unstable," Echo said.

  "Just give me a moment, is stability a problem for dungeons?" Arri asked.

  "A few have been known to collapse, the last one was twelve years ago, four people died when it caved in," Echo said.

  "Plate tectonics?" Galdan asked.

  "No one is sure, as it doesn't happen often the station hasn't committed resources to its study," Books said taking a bite of the bar Grayson had provided her. "If this place is unstable we need to find a way out as soon as possible."

  "Fine let's find out what else is down there," Arri said pressing the first button on his neck, the shield reappeared.

  Arri led the team into the water and down to the narrow passage using the suits jets to propel him, the fight with the monster had taken a lot of energy and he was feeling quite bruised.

  "Times like these it would have been really handy to have my space armour, extra protection, enhanced healing and painkillers," Arri said.

  "Would it work underwater?" Galdan asked.

  "Not really tried it, I know it uses some sort of jet. Humm thinks I need to have a conversation with Tidal."

  "Can you imagine getting stuck at the bottom of a place like this?" Galdan said, "those suits are not light."

  "Couldn't you pull your way up using your arms?" Arri said.

  "The walls are quite smooth here, you might not get a handhold."

  "The passage gets narrow in places but you guys should be able to make it through. Just keep close and shout if you encounter any problems."

  The remains of the monster littered the chamber beyond. The water had cleared and most of the chunks had fallen to the floor. The body had been rippe
d cleanly in two by massively overpowered gun.

  "What the hell is that thing? You fought against that?" Galdan said.

  "Yeah, some underwater monster, but what I don't understand is why it looks designed for this environment," Arri said.

  "From what we have seen the dungeon defences are adaptive, so when this place flooded they adapted," Books said.

  "So the tentacles are part of the design change, they remind me of something its just on the tip of my tongue."

  At the back of the chamber another corridor provided an exit, this one had a slight pink tint to it with a mostly level floor. Jets of bubbles stood in vertical columns at evenly spaced intervals. Arri swam with his newfound gun held the same way as the harpoon one, out in front breaking through the water point first.

  The bubbles obscured his vision creating an even more claustrophobic atmosphere, Arri started to breathe in short quick breaths. Trailing behind him the dungeon busting team were swimming in single file. Once he broke a bubble stream it took only a few seconds for it to reform, the air in the water coming from small cracks in the floor.

  "Try to say closer, I am going to pick up the pace, I really want to see where this goes to," Arri said.

  "Right behind you, do you see those cracks?" Galdan said.

  "It looks like this place has been unstable for a while."

  "There were no reports of quakes, as I couldn't find any when we looked into this place," Books said.

  "The storm above might be causing this, you wouldn't believe the power that thing has," Grayson said, "I've heard tales of people being ripped apart in microseconds."

  "The storm we escaped, how big was that one?" Arri asked.

  "As far as I could see looking left and right," Echo said, "the biggest storm we ever had was on my tenth birthday for five-day cycles it consumed the planet. I remember everyone being scared."

  The corridor opened up into another chamber, much larger than the first, the same containers were stacked all over the floor. Something big darkened the water in the distance. Arri swam towards it his suits jets pushing him quickly through the water. As the object emerged from rippling in the distance he realised it was a lot of containers stacked on top of each other reaching up to the sky.

  "The place is vast, I can't see the roof," Arri said.

  "We need to grab the contents of some containers," Books said, "we need to at least cover the costs of this bust."

  "Let's keep them sealed, we can open them later, wouldn't want any water damage," Grayson said.

  "Well I vote we look for a way out first, you can have all the money in the world but if we starve to death or run out of air what's the point," Arri said.

  Hand over hand he glided up the large stack at the centre of the room, high above the base of the chamber the water stopped, opening up into a giant air-filled space. Arri pulled himself up water falling away from his aqua suit and splashing to the ground creating small puddles. The light beam of his neckband showed the containers had created a significantly sized island. In places, there were gaps where the water created neat lines between two connecting containers but for the most part, it was solid.

  He watched as the team rose up creating pools of water where their feet fell. Grayson and Echo produced two spheres which glowed with low light, they chose a dense area of containers to create a mini-camp with the two lights combined at the centre.

  "Is there any bottled water left?" Arri asked.

  "We have enough for two more days," Grayson said as he handed him a bottle. From way near the back of the room a large rushing sound was heard as if a large amount of water was displaced. Arri turned his head with a quick snap of his neck, eyes searching quickly but encountering only the slight reflection of light off the water, then he noticed the stillness broken by small ripples.

  Looking off into the darkness trying to see, Arri lifted his new gun bringing its barrel in line with his vision. He liked the balance of this weapon, its weight gave it a feeling of sturdiness, something heavy and real, unlike the underwater world they had just exited.

  "I think something is out there," Arri said.

  Echo pulled her knees into her chest, Books crossed her arms in front of her body. Grayson stood up and looked in the direction Arri was, Galdan slowly turned through three hundred and sixty degrees looking out over the water.

  "If this is like the design of others, there will be another tunnel towards the back of the chamber that should head back towards the surface," Books said.

  "Lend me one of those Harpoon guns and do we have any more of those light spheres?" Arri said. Echo offered her harpoon resting it on the palm of her outstretched hand.

  Grayson rummaged around in his backpack, "two more light emitting spheres."

  "Great they might come in handy, look after my new gun I'll be back in a few," Arri said. He jogged to the edge of the containers and then dived head first into the water.

  "Is he always like that," Grayson asked.

  "You do realise I can hear you over the comms," Arri said.

  "I know, but seriously its like you act before you even consider the consequences."

  "Humm think of it like this, we could sit around talking, it's not going to change the fact we need to go into the water to find out what's down there. I prefer action to talk, don't get me wrong it has it's place but in this instance, I believe action is needed."

  "He's always like that, a person of action and without the captain's actions I wouldn't be here," Galdan said.

  Arri's concentration was brought back to his task, at the very edge of his visual range something big moved. He increased the aqua suits speed streaking towards the disturbance. The chamber was the largest he had seen so far, containers were stacked at least two high in most places. He felt the pressure wave gently pushing at him. The large shape became clear, cigar-like, moving rapidly. He strained his eyes trying to work out what his beam of light was glinting off.

  Arri brought himself to a full stop the object in the water was moving fast each second revealing more horrific details. He realised he had been holding his breath and forced the air out of his lungs, his mind screamed at him to flee. He kicked his legs out in the direction of the monster and spiralled his body, setting the aqua suit to its highest movement speed. He looked back the thing was closing on him, he could now clearly see the massive teeth attached to a vast mouth that lolled open in an evil grin.

  He neared the surface as he approached the centre island, the monster behind exploded into the air, crashing back down only feet away. The pressure of the water forced him down bubbles clouded everything, his heart hammered in his chest. He lashed out with the Harpoon, turning patches of the dark water bright green with the intensity of the shots.

  He felt hands grabbing at him, Grayson and Galdan pulled him from the water, behind him the monster breached the surface again, jumping high into the air before slamming back down in a flurry of teeth and spray.

  "So. Looks like we. Found what's down. There," Arri said gulping in a large lung full of breath. He scrambled to his feet pushing Galdan slightly as he was too slow to get out of the way. He sprinted over to the large gun, executing a forward roll he picked it up in one motion coming to rest in a kneeling position. The gun pointed in the direction of the monster, his heart and breathing still rapid, sweat rolled down his face into his eyes moderately blurring his vision. The monster broke the surface again, leaping high mouth opening showing its toothy weapons of death.

  Arri fired, the shot sang out and echoed back across the chamber, the large accelerated projectile missed shattering into the far side wall. The containers below their feet shook a little. He pulled the trigger again but this time nothing happened, only a small click could be heard.

  "I've never seen anything like that," Books said.

  "Its a demon freed from hell," Galdan said hand gripping tightly the harpoon gun.

  Arri dropped the gun, his harpoon was floating away from the island, he lept up from the kneeling p
osition and started to run back along the containers. At the last moment he dived forward on to his stomach and slid along, arm out at maximum stretch as he grabbed at the sinking harpoon, he managed to scoop it up on the first attempt. Grayson again helped him by pulling him back from the edge.

  They had put the final two sphere light sources near one edge of the island, the light allowed them to look out over the water. The creature below would sometimes skim the surface causing waves to lap gently at the sides of the containers, it hadn't jumped since it went for Arri in the initial rush.

  "Well, the heavy gun looks like it's in a recharge process," Echo said handing the weapon back to Arri, "not that I'm an expert but I have seen similar before at the station markets."

  He held the gun at arm's length looking at a small glowing bar that moved slowly from left to right. He placed it back on the ground and turned to look out at the water, the creature was circling. Every few minutes it would swim into the light smooth shiny body breaching the surface.

  "That gun might be a solution but we have no way of knowing how many shots it has or even if it has another," Grayson said, "we need an alternative plan."

  "Its close to a shark in design," Books said, "but lacking the iconic fins it looks to be using jets instead."

  "If we can hold it in one place, we could use the harpoon guns to kill it or at least disable it. We have two problems as things stand, the shark," Arri said nodding at Books, "and we don't know where the second tunnel is."

  "What if there isn't a second tunnel?" Galdan asked.

  "If we deal with the first problem the second can be solved over time," Arri said.

  "How do we get it in one place?" Echo asked.

  "Bait," Arri said, "if one of us gets into the water, moves around in one location draws the shark in. The others take up position on the island ready to shoot, the bait gives the signal. Something like shoot it I'm going to die and we shoot it with everything we've got."