NOVEL NEXT 2.35 A Whole Kilo of Precaution
Ricky woke up several hours later with notifications floating in his vision, starting with an alert that he failed to attune to the relic and followed by him gaining, and then healing, a concussion wound. He didn't recall the latter messages but they did explain the slimy bandages on his head, and Ricky felt a bit more empathy for when Phanya woke up confused and irritable from her own knockout. He really needed to make some helmets for everyone, but before that thought could form into a plan the demonic hairclip rattled against its cage and Ricky fell off the cot with a yelp.
"Oh joy Ricky, you've awoken!" Tapper cheered, and Ricky pulled off the soggy bandages to find the robot's glowing eyes uncomfortably close to his face. "How is your head trauma?"
"Uh, much better now, thanks Tapper," Ricky said as he gently pushed the other out of his personal bubble. Only then did Ricky notice how still and quiet the cabin was behind Tapper, and that something outside had cast the interior in shadow. Ricky thought he could see a massive smile just outside the window, and he hoped it was just the last remnants of his concussion. "Wait, why aren't we moving? Where is everyone?"
"We recently reached the medical facility, and our compatriots are currently staking out the scene. It is quite exciting to approach an unknown situation with a plan, for once!" Tapper tittered, and threw open the jitney's side door to the outside world. They had parked the jitney underneath a large billboard for cover, advertising a fertility service subscription that promised minimal birth defects. "Salazar found an excellent hiding spot, although the advertised woman is rather… disquieting," Tapper explained, glanced up at the very happy and very pregnant woman smiling down at them before he turned away with an electronic shudder.
A voice hissed for silence, and Ricky looked down to see Salazar and Phanya crouched beneath one end of the billboard. He strained to peek over their heads and saw that they were on an outcropping midway up a large garbage dune, overlooking a squat white building near the middle of a round clearing. He could see and hear raiders on the far side of the building, and every so often Salazar or Phanya would quietly comment to the other about the raiders' movements.
"How bad is it? Are they hunting us?" Ricky whispered, but Phanya scoffed at the question.
"Nah, nothing like that. Just watching them to see how they act." Phanya lowered a pair of binoculars and rubbed her eyes as she continued, "Looks like it's just a dozen or so raiders, but they aren't actively looting the place. More likely they're just squatting in the entrance, so they must've stumbled across the building by accident and don't even know what it is."
"What is a medical research facility doing all the way out here in the wastes by itself, anyways?" Ricky asked, trying and failing to sneak the binoculars out of Phanya's grasp.
"It wasn't always. Look at the clearing," Salazar said, and drew a wide circle in the air with his hand. Ricky took a second look beneath the layer of grime and garbage, and saw the outlines of old parking spaces around concrete stumps for streetlights. The ground here wasn't just blank tarmac; it used to be an actual parking lot. "This place got hit by the Phase Shift. A strong one, to warp the whole building in one piece. I'm even still reading some really faint energy signatures, so it probably still has emergency power running."
"And? Have we formulated a plan for ingress?" Tapper asked, his legs twitching as he struggled to contain his excitement.
Salazar groaned slightly and said, "Cool your vents, bot. I'm still looking up possible security breaches for this system, there's a lot for Soni to sift through without knowing the exact model and firmware."
"I should be good, but I'll keep watching them for changes just in case," Phanya hummed. "I don't think the raiders have explored this side of the building even once."
"Then we should all make the most of this short break," Tapper agreed, before he snapped his metal fingers. "Oh! I can make more healing potions! Come along Kakisi, I must… erm, milk you."
"Gross. Anything I can do to help anyone that doesn't involve milking octolusks?" Ricky asked, and a chorus of shrugs answered.
"I dunno man, go craft something?" Phanya suggested, dismissing the conversation as she returned to the binoculars.
Ricky followed Tapper back into the jitney, and sat down at the workbench in a huff. "'Go craft something,' as if that's just a thing I do," Ricky quietly groused to himself. "Maybe if I knew what we were getting into, or had more stupid spell components, or more stupid gears…" Ricky groaned into his hands, jumped to his feet, and started pacing. Being productive always helped keep the frustration at bay, but it only took a minute to reboot his hauler suit and then he went right back to pacing. Eventually Ricky got so fed up that he slipped into his suit, grabbed a pile of curved metal panels in the back of the car, and started maneuvering them piece by piece out through the roof hatch.
"Ricky, what are you doing?" Tapper asked, when he noticed the quiet swearing from above his head.
"I'm installing the weapon mount I looted off the bounty hunter's buggy. I think it'll fit right over the hatch."
"Even though you have no ranged weapon on which to mount?"
Ricky internally counted to five, and reminded himself that Tapper was genuinely asking. "I will eventually, Tapper. Might have to fight those raiders, and we might loot a gun from them." He finished welding the weapon mount in place and hopped down, pivoting to the jitney's computer. Salazar hadn't sat down there ever since they left the Glass Eye, and Ricky was starting to see the computer desk as his own little workshop.
[Installed Add-ons: (5/6)]
[Add-on: Weapon Mount (Mk II)
Universal grips can hold one single handheld weapon of any size, granting a bonus 1d6 to attack rolls made with that weapon. The nest can freely rotate a full 360° and grants partial cover, with an armor rating equal to the add-on's rank (2).]
"Well, at least that much worked."
"What much worked?" Phanya asked, stepping into the cabin.
"Ricky successfully installed the weapon mount on our roof! Even though he does not yet have any use for it," Tapper helpfully answered, and Ricky sighed.
"Cool, cool. Ricky, why are you so dang bummed right now?" Phanya asked, and she leaned in when he leaned away. "We're hitting a proper adventure, man. Quests, loot, perks, all the stuff you want. So what gives?"
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Ricky groaned, but Phanya's cool stare bore down like a glacier. "I'm missing something," he finally admitted. "You and Tapper know what you're doing, but my class isn't meshing yet."
Tapper patted his friend on the shoulder and said, "Rest assured Ricky, I have no idea what I am doing." His friend snorted. "This is a learning experience for all of us. Maybe you are simply too crafty for your own good! I have seen you masterfully craft both armaments and gizmos, but to my knowledge you have never attempted to craft an armament gizmo."
Heavy silence grew long in the cabin.
"Oh my god."
"Ricky."
"Oh my god."
"You… you never thought…" Phanya panted, fighting against the laughter that threatened to boil over in her voice. "You never combined them?"
"Are you kids done screwing around — " Salazar started, but paused mid-sentence when he poked his head in and beheld his party: Ricky clutching his head in his hands while he mournfully groaned, Phanya clutching her stomach while she laughed on the floor, and Tapper clutching at straws while he looked back and forth between the two. "Damnit bot, what in the hell did you do now?"
"Um. Rest assured Salazar, I have no idea what I did."
Several minutes later and the quartet was on the move, carefully picking their way down the garbage dune while carrying every empty bag they could find. They left Makenna in charge of guarding the jitney and Kakisi in charge of guarding Makenna, and Tapper kept getting distracted by his own mixed emotions. He wasn't worried for their safety within the armored vehicle, so did this mean he missed the slimy little familiar? Tapper bumped into Salazar, who chewed him out through whispers, and he tried to stand guard while the other worked on the rear door's lock. Thankfully, Phanya's predictions held true as the raiders never bothered to patrol the entire perimeter, and the heavy metal door squealed open.
Everyone stared silently into the thick darkness beyond. Dim fluorescent bulbs floated in the shadows, but they did nothing to illuminate the space within the building.
"...Alright bot, you first."
"What? Why me?" Tapper asked, pointing an accusatory finger back at Salazar. "You're the one that's an expert in espionage!"
"Listen here, some really high-security facilities include that security in their emergency power. If that's the case here, then that might involve scanners checking for life signs. Until we know for sure, you're less likely to trigger a response. Probably."
Ricky awkwardly scratched his head and said, "Hate to admit it, but he has a point. We believe in you, Tapper!" Salazar punctuated the encouragement, and took advantage of the distraction, by shouldering Tapper over the threshold before he could react. Tapper's limbs windmilled as he danced for balance, and several emotions flashed through his mind. Betrayal and fear raged at being shoved into the darkness, anything could jump out at him!
Tapper's eyes grew brighter until cones of light swept the room, and he realized that he was standing in a short hallway with a small security desk off to the side. Nothing unnatural, nothing dangerous, nothing out of the ordinary aside from the weakness of the overhead lights. He stuck his head back outside, and everyone else flinched away by the smallest degree.
"I can find no scanners nor threats to organic life. Also, is it a normal emotional response to feel exaggerated fear towards the mere concept of darkness?"
No one said anything in response, but Tapper's social algorithms tracked their body language. The three humanoids shared looks of fear, anxiety, and embarrassment before Phanya finally moved. She stuck a hand over the threshold and waited for something to bite her, and when nothing happened she took one long step inside and blew out a long breath. Ricky hopped through right after and Salazar eventually followed, hugging himself against the cooler interior temperature.
"Just the jitters. Happens all the time," Salazar grumbled.
"What's that smell?" Ricky asked, loud enough for Salazar to shush him.
"There are no contaminants in the air that my sensors can detect," Tapper explained. "It is actually quite a bit cleaner than you are used to, Ricky, though I believe you would call the air here 'stale.'"
"Be quiet already," Salazar hissed. "Don't forget the freaking raiders just on the other side of the building, so keep low and shut up. Now come on, we're looking for any storage room or a treatment wing."
Salazar marched ahead, the two swirling green circles of his goggles the only thing to follow in the darkness whenever he got too far away. He stopped at every door and intersection, peeking around every corner with an overabundance of caution. Logically Tapper understood why, but after the sixth identical office he started to grow impatient. The facility wasn't a dungeon like Tapper had secretly hoped, and so far the only interesting thing he could note was the quantity of ancient paper littering the floor. Most of the memos carried the same logo for Phusion Pharma®, but without context the information they contained was worthless.
The space was messy but not damaged, as if its occupants had all evacuated in a hurry and left the building to be reclaimed by dust. At one point they encountered a set of security doors, and both light and sound trickled in through the narrow slat windows. Like Skidmark said, no point in even bothering with the front half of the building.
Eventually they exhausted all options to find nothing but offices, and the party gathered in a small alcove with two unpowered elevators and a set of fire escape stairs. That same sense of dreadful foreboding crept up Tapper's emotions, but he fought them back and led the way down the bare concrete steps. The next floor down held the same alcove, but the hallway out quickly ended in a heavy metal security door. A sign above the door read 'LABORATORY — AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY' and Salazar breathed a sigh of relief.
"Finally, there's gotta be something good behind here. Just give me a second…" Salazar muttered, sliding a card into the security reader with wires attached to his wrist computer. After a tense minute the door hissed and slid open, revealing a very short pathway the size of a walk-in closet. Tapper stepped in, examined another security door at the far end and vents lining the two side walls, and gave a thumbs-up when nothing attacked him. Salazar scoffed and bumped Tapper out of the way, slipping his skeleton keycard into the closet's interior reader.
Phanya and Ricky yelped when the door slid shut on their faces. Inside, a dim white bulb lit above and a gentle chime sounded, followed by a feminine robot voice reading off instructions. "Please raise your hands above your head and stand still for the decontamination sequence." Then, silence.
"I believe it is waiting for you to follow instructions, Salazar."
"Shut up, bot. And put your hands down."
The white light above turned red. "Error: Insufficient energy, please check power supply," the robotic voice said. Then it repeated the message, and Salazar swore at full volume.
"I'm stuck in a loop! It won't open either door without cycling, but there isn't enough voltage to even fake a cycle."
"Lucky for us, I happen to know a nifty trick for opening locked doors!"
Salazar paused for several seconds as endless nightmare scenarios paraded through his mind. "...No. Whatever the hell that means, no. Do not touch anything." He dismissed Tapper and pounded on the door, shouting instructions at the other two.
Tapper looked down at his hand, and up at Salazar's back. He knew they were supposed to keep their magic secret, but maybe this will impress Salazar so much that they can all speak with more openness going forward. He poked a finger at the far door, felt the mana swelling within his chest, and whispered, "Suck."
The overhead light sparked and blew out, the robotic voice warbled and silenced, and stillness fell until the only signs of life were two mismatched pairs of glowing, glaring eyes.
"Oh my, what an unexpected result."
"I hate you. I hate you so much."