Chronicles of Tomorrow: Echoes from the Future Ep. 14: Unearthly
21st May 2355, 2250 hours
I am feeling absolutely numb or extremely tense. But I know is that my senses aren’t working properly. I am writing my journal in a cavern. It’s so dark in here, I can smell dried blood all around. They have taken Husky captive, that’s a line no one should cross. I won’t let them harm him in any way. He is the only one in this whole world who accepts me for what I am. I won’t lose him whatever it takes. I did not see this coming. I will make them pay, I will show them the true definition of wrath.
Yesterday was all fine, I spent most of my time tuning the car, my guns and preparing for the journey. Husky’s life support system was infused with solidified nutrients which will vaporize in a sustained manner and keep him full when required. We slept early and started today at five o’clock in the morning, long before we could see the diffused sunlight. Those scrawny rays tell us when the sun is up. We moved due North, our heading maintained towards Cold Fields. The terrain was already known and mapped, I could drive much faster. We didn’t witness any developments this time either. Smooth paths helped us reach the site of the crater in about four and a half hours. It was still oozing yellow smoke, but with lower intensity yet poisoning the area surrounding it.
The coordinates of the nuclear facility from the data I had recovered from the Underhold placed it ten kilometres further north of the crater. As we got closer to the facility, something felt eerie. It felt like everything was literally dead around us even the aberrant wind. I had initially assumed that the sensors in the car were malfunctioning, it had been a moderately rough ride. But it was something else, Husky was whining but not in the usual joyful manner, I could sense the fear of the unknown. The surroundings were unusually quiet, as if an unknown predator had taken over that place. I skirted around the periphery once to make sure there were no surprises lurking somewhere. The walls were too thick and tall for a simple research facilty but there were no active defenses, just some rundown turrets. After being satisfied, we got put on our suits and stepped out of our vehicle on a thick coat of smoke and ash. It was snowing heavily.
The facility entrance was not what I expected. The photos and videos of this place had told me a different story. This bugger had blast doors for an entrance. Were they expecting armed assault or was it something else? Though the huge concrete doors showed visible cracks around their base and the sides, nothing a few shots from my Reaper couldn’t fix. The vacant sentry posts on the sides of the gates looked ghastly. The whole compund felt haunted, unknown danger lurking somewhere. Snow was falling hard, mixed with radioactive ash but all I heard was dead silence. Something, that is worse than noisy humans is complete silence. I thought I saw someone in the turret on my right. I turned in that direction, to find just a skull wearing a helmet. According to my data, the facility had a capacity of 50 megawatts, being a research facility and not a power station but it looked much larger. It is quite possible that the people running the facility took care that the real nature of their work remained hidden. It is already a mystery how they managed to keep this place hidden from the erstwhile government or even the satellites, mayb it was some under the table understanding. The only names mentioned in the dossiers were of the staff, which clearly meant the administrative heads were connected politically. There’s no use contemplating, those heads would have been decomposed by now, like that skull on the sentry post. I fire two shots from my small Reaper at the thick steel rails supporting the blast doors and they came crumbling down. It didn’t make sense going in on foot, the blast left a huge gaping hole. We saw a road behing the hole, definitely built for military vehicles. We got back in the car and drove inside, to the front entrance of the building. The facility, when it was operational definitely had a tight security.
The entrance was built to withstand missile strikes. It was secured by a three stage AI embedded security system, as per the model number, but all out of service. A backup power source was mentioned in the data but there was no chance it would be operational now. Hopefully, the automated security force namely a few automated turrets and sentry robots, was also nonfunctional now. Opening the building entrance was tricky, I could not risk any damage to the integrity of the facility by a massive explosion. I made a small incision near each joint using the laser drill on my Omnilamp and put two small demolition charges inside it. The gates dropped down as soon as the explosives went off. We walked in after a few seconds as the dust settled down.
The scene inside was not what I had expected. We were greeted by what used to be a Reception cum Security cubicle but the glass windows of the whole section were shattered, their frames bent, consoles broken. There were human skeletons at every seat. I walked further in, as silently as possible. Husky understood and silently walked beside me. Even he seemed shocked but his raised neck told me he was alert. I was trying to figure out the events that led to this scenario. A large glass door beyond the security desk took us deeper into the facility. The door was wide open, not broken into. There were no signs of force. The dossier said, the facility was remotely controlled by an AI. Did the AI go rogue? I did have a blueprint with me but the layout, passages with lined floor and ceilings told me the blueprint was almost a hogwash. It had one piece of information correct, the number of floors. I found a broken down elevator after crossing a series of glass walled laboratories. There were 7 levels in the facility, the one we were standing on, 3 below us and 3 above. I decided to check one of the laboratories, maybe if I could power up one of the computers I could find more accurate details. Luckily, I found one that looked functional, after crossing series of skeletons in lab coats or pre-war military gear. I downloaded the data for later use.
My hand console created a map of the facility.
The bottom three levels housed a VI generation nuclear reactor, too large for a 50MW nuclear research center. The people running this facility knew exactly how much information to leak. I smiled, such brain activity is hard to come by. They housed the reactor enough below the ground to mask the radioactive signature. The dossier didn’t say much about the research going on here but the data I obtained from the lab terminal did say they were testing new elements to be used in a nuclear arsenal along with other stuff.
I decided to check the upper levels first. There was supposed to be a central lab which oversaw all operations. I might find another computer which might work if supplied with power. I needed to know the condition of the reactor before going below. We checked the ground level thoroughly even though I knew we wouldn’t find anything worthwhile. We only found more skeletons and some powered down sentry bots. All signs hinted at a calculated accident, more like mass murder. What terrible thing happened that led to such an event? I observed bullet holes in a few of the skeletons. The AI had definitely gone rogue or acted on soeone else’s orders. I kept the small Reaper handy in case some bots were still functional. The reaper needed bullets more subtle than miniature nuclear misslies. It was not safe operating it in enclosed areas.
An emergency staircase nea the elevator took us to the first floor but we were completely unaware of what was waiting for us.
To be continued…
