TOW72

Chapter 72 - The Other War
Black River Canyonlands
Valence, Babylon
Pentagon Worlds, Clan Space
August 10th, 3063
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Ten sneak-suited figures kept to the rocks surrounding the large tunnel cut in the windward face of the black rock protected by a coarse circle of wire fencing. Above them Babylon’s mighty sun Tigris fueled blazing hot winds that fell at great speed from Valence’s equatorial rift. Volcanic tuff and pebbles loosened by freeze-thaw were propelled at nearly a hundred kilometers per hour posing serious hazards to unarmored wanderers. The figures kept low beneath the larger boulders shielding themselves from the onslaught until reaching the shallow tunnel. Their further progress was hindered by a set of armored louvers that had locked into position to protect the interior from the windstorm outside.
Now within the relative safety of this shallow and claustrophobic tunnel the group depolarized their faceplates and looked around. The group’s armor had taken a pounding from the windblown debris and more gravel followed them. Their hollow impacts echoing within the ferrocrete tube.
Rebekah pushed against the slats which were solidly closed even to Jamal’s strength. “Well it was this or trying to hide from aerial recon drones.”
“I think you made the right choice.” Ajmal signaled to the abtakha Nova Cat and Smoke Jaguar Techs of the Aerospace phenotype that looked small even compared to Rebekah. Both set about finding some access port they could plug into in order to open the slats and allow their entry. Meanwhile the others checked their gear unrolling the heavy clothes it was packed in during their transit from the black river to their objective to protect it from sand and weather. All except Jamal whose sword he proudly said, “Never jams or gets sand in it.”
Each tech had their Descartes IIC PEC (Portable Engineering Computer) up and started working through various subsystems with assistance from its expert systems which also powered the Omnimech’s advanced DI computer, “Rebekah, come over here.”
She did and looked over the underground base’s diagrams displayed on the screen. Each turn which matched those from her secret sources and were overlaid with technical markings. “Well that is either a positive or a negative Parido. Can you get the louvers open?”
The slight Smoke Jaguar’s computer went through several display tabs, “We can, but it would attract attention from the control room. Downlink from MetWatch says the storm will last another hour. Once night falls and the winds shift at least some of them should open normally to restore ventilation.”
“This tunnel connects to the old sector, quiaff?”
“Aff.”
“With the louvers closed the fans further in would be off, quiaff?”
“Aff.”
“Would it be easier to pause the fans or open the louvers?”
Both tapped on their PECs, “There is a maintenance access tunnel next to the fan assembly that we should be able to open. It is very narrow likely designed for Aero pheno Techs and unlikely to allow passage for an Elemental like Jamal or even the Vaga. We and you should be able to fit.”
The other seven volunteers looked at the trio with mild concern behind their faceplates, “The three of us are not going into unknown territory without some kind of backup.”
Jean Nova tapped furiously on his PEC plugging in extended modules to simulate a system response, “We might be able to spoof a MetWatch warning that will get the system to close the louvers and stop the fan but it will have to be done from an electronics closet so I can access the appropriate systems.”
Parido Smoke looked over the simulation from his companion, “It has a high chance of success, Commander. Once the warning elapses they will be none the wiser.”
“Then its greenlit. See what you can find out about what kind of security is inside while we wait.”
“Those systems are on a separate circuit, but we will try.” He looked over to Jean and closed the channel to Rebekah while they went over a plan.
She returned to the group who were furiously scrubbing fine windblown grit out of their Kaskans. All except Jamal who had apparently taken this time to fall asleep with his sword in the crook of his immense arm likely with a smile on his face. Her own coyote brown Mark 39’s filters were clogged with silt despite her best efforts to seal the bag. She removed and replaced them with fresh ones still sealed in their aluminum pouch. A thorough check of its integral power cell verified it was operational and at full power.
As if on a schedule some of the louvers opened and they encountered a secondary fence. Some time with bolt cutters left them enough space to squeeze through. Jamal pushed forward after removing most of his equipment in order to fit through the mesh. “How many of these fences are there, Commander?”
“That should be the last of them, the compound didn’t want any creepy crawlies to get inside.”
“Some of them are good eating.”
Parido snickered over the comm-channel, “Remember that whole pot of prawns you ate in Port Logan that one Remembrance Day?”
“How could I forget?”
“Well you did drink a two-liter bottle of whisky by yourself.”
“It was weak sauce unless you’re an Aero.”
“It was over forty percent!”
“Hardly felt over thirty.”
“That’s not how the video remembers it.”
The party continued onward till they reached the low powered set of fans, the sharp metal blades sliced through the air pulling it firmly inside the large underground habitat. As they were all wearing their helmets the breeze was felt only through the motion of the sneak suit. A maintenance hatch was sunk into the ground nearby as illustrated on the plans. Perido and Jean carefully looked over it, “Its rigged with an alarm but we can re-route it.”
Rebekah felt uneasy going into the base with only techs for backup and knowing some of the experiments they were conducting, “Do it.”
Both techs set to work carefully unpacking a probe capable of reaching into the delicate fiber optic datalink. With some careful technical skill the alarm cable was disrupted, and a laser cutter sliced through enough of the grate to allow the smaller Clanners to enter. Rebekah hopped down into a crouch and checked for signs of activity on the floor. “Very dusty, no footprints or signs of crawl. Probably be a long time before they realize we broke in.”
“That’s what you were hoping for quiaff?”
“Aff. Jean, Perido hop down. Everyone else wait for those fans to stop moving. We will open a door from inside.” She cradled her rifle within its bag in her arms and strapped her pack behind her in order to drag it through the passage. Fine particulate jostled free from the floor and stayed in suspension far longer than expected as she army crawled through them. “Keep your helmets on. You don’t want to breath in this dust.”
A skeletal looking Cyclops drone patrolled the quiet benighted corridors of the Valence Shell facility’s old sector. Its treads kicked up dust which had been gathered over the past decade, ever since a reactor containment breach required the area be abandoned. Its monocular thermal vision picked up no heat signatures as it continued on with its rounds.
Rebekah and the Techs watched the drone depart, “Sentry drones?”
“Might be the only one on patrol and it looked unarmed. There are probably others recharging elsewhere. Which way to the electronics cabinet?”
Perido knife handed to the their right and stopped before a plain looking door with an alphanumeric code painted on it. The Tech removed her PEC and hacked the door open just in time to enter before the drone completed another circuit. Although unseen by them it paused at the door registering a slight thermal anomaly on the floor but no structural issues with the door which was at the proper slightly elevated temperature. The anomaly was tagged for further investigation.
Inside the cramped electronics closet racks of computer equipment beeped and illuminated in sequence like a great Christmas tree, something no one had seen in person within Clanspace for centuries. The silvered thermal sneak suits absorbed the ambient heat causing their users to begin sweating more vigorously than before. “I hope you can work fast, Jean.”
The Nova Cat was already plugged into a server rack running diagnostics on the system to determine how far they could reach from here. “I can get into some lower level systems from here and can take over the three drones if we want but it would be obvious something is going on if anyone was looking."
"In the meantime I can spoof the ventilation and let everyone else in and probably open the door. There’s a hard block into the main cluster and the door to get into it is not on this system.” said the Rebekah
“Can you give me details on their patrol paths?”
She tapped away on the PEC, “Looks like they are limited to the hallways. Any room interior should be safe. This whole sector seems to be abandoned, no lights are active, no heat, limited water chiefly to cool something very hot and more than enough power to recharge the drones.”
“An old reactor?”
“No, seems consistent with a large fuel cell generator in the low megawatts range. Probably not old though.”
“Some kind of standby power?”
“My guess is actually a remnant of an older co-gen plant tied into the base’s fission reactor. Many of these room names had some kind of industrial purpose.”
“Why leave it on then if this area is abandoned?”
“Maybe they need the extra power for something.”
“Get me tracking on the drones and piggy-back off their sensors. Don’t change any motor or control processes. I am going to let everyone else in.”
Fifteen minutes later the team was reassembled within the remains of an old electronics semiworks plant. Old machines and tools lie abandoned casting geometric shadows in the lights of their sneak suit harnesses. The techs sat next to one another near the center of the group; a holographic schematic appeared above their PECs. “We have to find an alternate way to get in. There is an airlock type door between here and the main compound that is isolated from this network.”
Jamal hefted the heavy sword to his large shoulders, “How sturdy is it?”
Rebekah motioned for him to put the sword down, “You could probably force it, but the alarms would sound, and we’d be screwed.”
Ajmal rose from his seated position, “How bout we draw someone through? One of ours can then take their place or a tech could try and access the door while they are away.”
“It would be risky. Portal doors are always remotely monitored.”
“It is evening, and you cats might be able to spoof it. How many techs would they potentially have on staff, Commander?”
She shrugged, “Unknown, as far as the roster notes there are only one hundred fifty staff. Mostly Scientists and their associated support teams.”
The Vaga Chief pointed toward an emergency shower, “I say we wash off the grit from outside to restore our stealth and then disable one of the drone’s tracks. You can take away its eyes for a moment, quiaff?”
“Aff. unless someone is in control the camera only scans a fairly narrow cone mainly for pathfinding. We can ensure it is looking elsewhere.”
“Good, Beka. Can you disable this robot’s treads with your laser?”
In her head Rebekah was overjoyed, ‘Finally I get a chance to use it for real.’
“I can.” she told them
“I say we try that and see what happens.” Vaga Chief told her
Within Valence Shell’s robotic monitoring room a blinking light and mild alarm woke up Technician E Valo who in turn roused his companion who had been up to that moment snoozing in their chairs while tell-tales and other lights flickered indicating the basic status of the facility’s support robots. Since it was primarily a bio and chemical warfare lab run by Scientists most operations were conducted by robotics to save on decontamination. The spots that weren’t were not the support crew’s concern.
“Conners, it’s one of the drones from downstairs again.”
The drone’s feed came up on the screen, Tech R Conners aimed the camera down and saw that its tread had fallen off the road wheels. “Not again. I swear each time we fix these things they fall apart faster. Didn’t this one get a new track two weeks ago.”
“Maybe it didn’t get tensioned enough.”
“I’ll take it up with depot crew in the morning.” The two techs squared off to one another in their chairs, “Rock, paper, scissors to suit up.”
RPS had only just been reintroduced by the Hellions (as Blitz with different names for the shapes) who had claimed it as their own before the 2SLDF Garrison on Huntress corrected them. Valo lost so Valo had to put on the silvered environmental protection suit with Conner’s help and take the twenty-minute ride down to Old Sector in order to service the wayward drone and he couldn’t to activate its replacement and transport it to the depot.
Conners saw his partner on the CCTV as he keyed into the comm-line. “Just leave it on manual. I won’t be long.”
“Roger that. I’m heading off to lunch so see you in fifteen.”
“Copy. Don’t touch mine Conners or there will be lashing.”
“Like I’m afraid of HR. Besides ever since you went flexitarian the quality of your stolen meals has diminished. You look good in the suit though.”
“You wish you looked as good, in and out of it.”
The airlock cycled, “Heading in now.”
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