If Tribals and Hitmen Weren't Enough, Part II

The wires wound around the camp, but they didn't seem to have an end. Artemis followed them all around the camp, tracking their EM field.

"Great gobs of Einstein's shit, where the hell does this end?" Artemis yelled. He looked around the dilapidated camp, trying to think of some sort of solution to the source of the power. Initially, he only wanted to see where it was coming from out of curiosity...but now...it was a full fledged unhealthy obsession. If he had the capability too anymore, he'd have had a stress induced aneurysm by now (all that happened now is his screens turned slightly red).

"Hey, uh, floating robot guy....." Arien called from a nearby building.

"That's Dr. Artemis K. Pritchard VI to you, plebeian"

"Just...come see this"

Artemis went into the dilapidated building to find Arien and Plisken staring at a slightly damaged tv screen. In front of it was a disorganized assortment of chairs.

"What...is it some kind of presentation?" Artemis asked, obsessively arranging the chairs back into rows.

Plisken started the presentation. The Serraco and Pantheon logos were displayed on the screen.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of 5th Rapid Response Division, this is Supreme Commander Anson. If you are viewing this video, than the worst has happened at Delta facility and a full site redaction is required. If you have a weak heart and will not be able to carry out your duties, report to the command center for decommissioning...you are not fit for Pantheon. Otherwise, pay attention, and remember the pre-video assignments"

The screen continuously updated with the division assignments, showing where the individual teams would be sent.

"First unit is responsible for preventing escape and enacting a quarantine of the area. Disable all vehicles in the underground depot, destroy all orbiting starships, and disable any shuttles that remain in the area.

Second unit is responsible for the location and elimination of all personnel, vital, un-essential, or otherwise. Do not listen to anything said by site personnel, as they have likely become irrational due to the incidents occurring within their facility.

Third unit is responsible for destruction of all experiments and data. All experiments are to be incinerated, this includes living experiments. All data, in any form, is to be destroyed either by incineration or deletion of data on computers.

Once the process is complete, the bunker is to be permanently sealed. Under no circumstances is the reactor to be set to detonate, or any explosives used. Destruction will leave too many contaminants behind that can be tracked back to our parent company, as well as polluting the local ecosystem, drawing more attention to the site.

Get out there and protect the company, Commander Anson out"

The trio stared at the screen. "So, what the hell happened here?" Arien said.

"Serraco, up to no good as always. The fucking bastards have no morals" Artemis commented. "But...this underground complex they mentioned...it might be the source of the power. Hell, it might be responsible for a lot of things that are wrong with this planet"

"Well, I'm for exploring it, there's definitely something down there" Plisken said. "We can recover some weaponry from the armory before heading in. Artemis, do you think you could find the entrance of the bunker?"

"Yes, but I want to leave some sort of means for the others to find us first"

"Alright, do that and meet us in the armory, come on Velera" Plisken and Arien left to go grab some weaponry from the armory. Artemis set out for the central command center, traveling across the majority of the camp to get there.

He finally started to see bodies, or rather, skeletons in heavily decayed uniforms and armor. He wondered what happened in the bunker (and ultimately, what was waiting for them....since it seemed the Pantheon regiment hadn't succeeded in their goals), and what caused the deaths of all these men and women (other than the fact that this fatal expedition was well over a few million years ago).

He entered the command center, carefully floating through, trying to find some sort of working broadcast unit.

At the central console was a skeleton wearing an officer's uniform, with a hole in it's skull. An audio journal sat in front of him, a few logs recorded. Artemis played the last few as he went to work trying to set up a broadcast of some sort (Sven had grown tired of the one Artemis had set up on him and tore it off his body).

"PERSONAL LOG, COLONEL JOHN CARSON, LOG EIGHTY EIGHT, PLAYBACK: The situation in the bunker is getting out of control, the experiments are too much for us...we've suffered too many casualties. I've asked for reinforcements, but I've gotten no reply. In the meantime, I'm sending shock troops down with the heaviest shit we've got...hopefully we can control the situation. LOG EIGHTY NINE, PLAYBACK: I had the bunker sealed off, hopefully the Machine can't broadcast with the doors closed...my fucking head is killing me and I don't know how much more I can take! We also disabled the reactors, that prick is working on auxiliary, if we're still alive ten years from now...we'll finally have an end to those broadcasts. LOG NINETY, PLAYBACK: The transports got recalled by command, they weren't satisfied with the situation down here and left us stranded. Sure, we could use the starbugs in storage, but we don't have any stasis units to keep us alive during the trip home. We lost control...and now we're going to die here. My men have been deserting and committing suicide in droves....and some good news, the power in the bunker went out...for now. To whomever finds this, either leave now, or put one in your head...it'll save you some trouble.....*BLAM*"

The sound cut out after the gunshot. Artemis erased all of the logs, and pushed them to the back of his artificial memory.

"AUDIO LOG ONE, RECORDING" the machine said. Artemis started drawing something on the wall in marker, as he recorded the message for the others.

"This is Artemis, we've found an underground facility that we believe may have the answers to some of what's wrong with this planet, and maybe even a way off. The final logs mention starbugs in the bunker, I don't know if they're still there, but it's worth a shot. Plisken, Sven, Arien, and I are going inside the bunker to look around. There's weapons and armor in the armory near the center of the camp, grab some and meet us inside, I'll turn on my beacon. Artemis out"

Artemis hung the small device up on the wall, next to a marker rendition of Blue Dwarf's insignia. He then turned back to the broadcast relay, uploaded a song from his hard-drive, and set it to broadcast.

Billy Preston's Outa Space started broadcasting across the region, which Artemis would be just enough to attract the others, but not any of the natives or the heavily armed death squads.

OOC-I'll leave this area open for Arien, Sven and Plisken to retrieve some weapons from the armory and maybe post some discoveries of their own.

Later

Artemis tracked the wires (which were underground, which is why he couldn't find them) to a large lake, with a thundering waterfall.

"Okay Artemis, where uh...where is it?" Asked Plisken.

"I don't know, this is just where they end!" Artemis said. "Maybe....maybe it's hidden? If you were installing an illegal research bunker would you just leave it in the open?"

Everyone looked around.

"How do you get inside? Maybe there's some sort of access unit" said Sven.

"AURAL ACCESS UNIT ACTIVATED" a computerized voice said. "PASSWORD REQUIRED"

"Oh...." The group milled, trying to think of something to tell it.

"Uh, hint?" Artemis asked.

"HINT: THE EARLIEST FORM OF THIS WAS TRACED TO THE PERSIAN EMPIRE, WHO WOULD POUR GRAPE JUICE CONCENTRATE OVER SNOW AND EAT IT AS A TREAT"

"Uh...snow? Like a snow cone?" Plisken said.

"INCORRECT, TWO TRIES REMAINING"

"No, no, that's a more recent name" said Artemis, trying to figure out the answer. "Snow...snow...so it's frozen..."

"Slushies?" Arien said.

"INCORRECT, ONE TRY REMAINING"

"No...uh...WHAT IS ICE CREAM?!" Artemis yelled.

"Correct. Password accepted" The waterfall parted, revealed a colossal bunker door. The lake water slowly receded, revealing a metal bridge. The door slowly opened, revealing a dark, terrifyingly dilapidated bunker.

The group entered the bunker, and slowly descended into darkness, their only lights being pitifully dim torchlights from the armory.

They approached a series of elevators, each going to a different sector in the bunker.

"Let's start at the bottom and work our way back up, our first priority is finding and security a Starbug, next is possibly finding some answers" Said Plisken as the group entered an elevator. Plisken tapped the bottom, and the elevator began a slow descent.

Seconds passed in silence before the elevator jolted, and the air vent grid fell onto the group. A lanky, albino mutant reached into the elevator, trying to grab someone with it's razor sharp claws. Somebody opened fire on it, missing and hitting something important. The elevator plummeted into darkness.....

<tag>
Sorry if this seems a little...dicey in spots, I'm a little worn out. I'll elaborate more on the mutants and stuff later.

We're not alone...we're with some sort of mutants that can track us through darkness, and there's thousands of them!

Did anyone else hear the broadcast?