The following morning Spud and Ali were back in the vehicle to continue their work. This time Ali was busy working the computer systems rather than helping Spud because her decryption programs had finished running. It wasn't enough to get her full access, but it was a start. She had plenty of experience with different systems, plenty of experience with computers and plenty of experience hijacking unfamiliar systems.

"Hey, Spud, have you seen anything that looks like a redundant power system?" Ali asked over her shoulder.

"Only about twenty!" The engineer joked back. "Why?"

"I think I've isolated a hidden database but there is some serious security on it. I was hoping to power down the thing locking me out."

Spud moved to look over Ali's shoulder. She was proficient enough to follow the computer systems, but she knew her limitations when it came to running or infiltrating them. "I think I have seen that," she said as she pointed to a junction on Ali's schematic. She bustled back to the systems she'd been working on as she activated her holographic headpiece to overlay the system specs. "Found it!"

Ali didn't interrupt as Spud worked, waiting patiently until the system she was interested in deactivated. "Yes!" She celebrated happily before jumping straight back in just in case any fail-safes activated and she was rudely kicked back out. "Oh, my…" She trailed off as she realised just how much they'd uncovered, downloading it to a remote data drive.

"What?" Spud asked, clambering back to where Ali was. "Whoa…"

Ali tapped open her comm. "Rila, you still up for some danger?"

~-x-~

"Are we sure about this?" Wood asked.

"Totally," Ali lied.

"We've come this far, no point stopping now," Rila replied with a relaxed tone, clearly amused.

"I dunno, this guy is a walking disaster zone."

"Pot, kettle, black."

Ali smiled to herself as she turned back to where Rila was looking through a pair of binoculars at the building that they had found within the data-cache from the vehicle. Their data indicated it was some kind of base. Ali had her scanner out and was trying to ascertain just what level of danger they were walking into. Wood was there as backup - or as Rila put it, cannon fodder. "Anything?"

"It looks abandoned," Rila confirmed, "I can't see or sense anything."

"Then we better go and investigate."

They made their way carefully towards the building in question. The overgrown flora - though Lartyne had repeatedly told them it was perfectly normal and that all their plants were simply under-sized - making things a little trickier, but at least it provided them with good cover. They got to the door undetected. Rila and Ali automatically framed it, Rila with her energy pistol raised and her hand hovering above the door release, Ali had her scanner raised and her pistol in her other hand that was loosely at her side. Wood was ready with his energy rifle to watch their backs. They had already agreed that Rila should go first as she'd be the fastest to react to any trap warnings Ali gave.

They shared a quick look to confirm that they were all ready and Ali nodded to Rila. The door slid open easily and Rila carefully stepped forward with her pistol raised, almost surprised that she got most of the way into the room and not only did she not sense anyone, but Ali hadn't detected any people or traps either.

They cleared the whole ground floor without incident, by which time they'd confirmed that they were alone. "Am I the only one getting more suspicious?" Wood asked.

"No," both Rila and Ali replied.

"Okay, we've got a floor above and a floor below us," Ali explained as she continued to scan their surroundings. "If you were running a terrorist group where would you hide all the top secret records?"

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"Basement," both Rila and Wood replied without hesitation. Ali nodded her agreement and they carefully made their way down to the lower level. They found a jackpot of supplies, including weapons and heavy armour. "I recognise that logo," Wood said as Ali brushed off some dust from the foremost armour.

"Yeah," Ali agreed as they all shared a surprised look. It was the Cosmos' Champions logo, the same outfit that they had supplied with weapons Security Core could track. How had Security Core not made the link? Or seen this coming and intervened?

Ali directed Rila to watch their backs as Wood made sure nothing was about to literally blow up in their faces and Ali carefully searched for their files or other information. Thankfully there was nothing primed as a booby trap so that just left them with any information they could find. Which consisted of a few tablets that Ali's cursory glance over looked like accounting and stock takes, but she still downloaded it to a remote data-drive so that she could peruse it properly later.

"Maybe they're smarter than we thought, and keep the records in the less obvious place?" Rila half suggested. It was clear by the way she was holding herself - including her tentacles - that she expected trouble. It was making her edgier that they hadn't found it yet.

"Smarter would mean that they don't keep their records here," Ali corrected. Rila had to give her that one as they made their way back up the stairs.

The first floor looked much like what most people would visualise when asked to picture a dormitory. Scattered bunk beds with a few crates strewn about, most of which looked recently abandoned. In some ways they weren't surprised. They hadn't apprehended the person who'd been watching them, so it made sense that they would warn their fellow comrades that there was a chance they'd be discovered. Though based on the number of recently cleared personal storage bins, their little group of three would've been vastly outnumbered if the mercs had been home.

"I guess they didn't want to risk a disturbance?" Wood suggested though he was still sighting down his rifle.

"With three of us? That's an easy ambush," Rila corrected, her pistol raised in the same way as the three of them carefully made their way through. Ali's scanner hadn't picked up any traps yet so she was pausing to have quick glances into compartments to see if anything had been left behind. Though this went some way to confirming the Cosmos' Champions' presence as so many items were branded with their logo and colours. "I'm more concerned why they'd leave the weapons and armour…"

"Most difficult thing to move on short notice," Ali suggested hopefully. Rila didn't believe her, though both she and Wood wanted to. "It looks like there's an office through there, maybe we'll get lucky."

"Given our track record…" Wood trailed off.

"I dunno, we did manage to stop Bert… twice in my case," Ali said with her eyes glued to her scanner. "Wait, Rila!" She suddenly called as something flashed angrily on the screen, darting to try and pull the other woman out of the way.

Too late, Rila had already tripped the activator for whatever trap it was. Instead, as Ali rushed forward towards Rila she allowed her momentum to carry them both out of the way of the noise of explosion and cracking rocks. Protecting themselves as best they could with their arms as they pressed themselves against the wall they waited until the world stopped trembling and shaking around them. For a moment they just listened to the sound of their own breathing evening out as they confirmed they were still alive, before gingerly uncurling to take in the scene around them.

They shared a look and nodded to each other. Rila stood up first as Ali reached to retrieve her scanner. "Wood?" She called as her hand clasped around the now battered and dust covered object. The fact that she didn't receive a reply distracted her entirely from it. She looked up and shared a worried look with Rila. "Wood!" They both shouted as Ali also scrambled to her feet.

Ali was getting sick of looking at broken buildings. Whatever that trap had been, it had blown out part of the ceiling and the centre of the floor causing a cave in to the floors below. From the damage they could see some of it had clearly gone through to the basement. They were lucky that nothing had propagated and really blasted them sky high. "Ben!" She shouted again, veering between being ready to kick his arse into next week for scaring them and panicking about what state he must be in to not reply.

Ali thumped her scanner to try and kick it back into life as Rila slowly picked her way into the rubble. Her tentacles swimming around her head as she used her telepathic powers to try and sense him.

Both of their attentions were suddenly diverted as part of where the ceiling had fallen against the wall moved, both women raising their weapons towards it. Rila trained on it with determined focus as Ali's eyes briefly diverted to glance at her scanner again as she shook it. "It's him," Rila said as she lowered her weapon, relaxing considerably and moved to help Wood shift the rubble out of his way.

Ali ignored the overwhelming relief that flooded her system at that. Instead she holstered her pistol and turned her attention back to her scanner to try and get the damn thing working properly again. "Anything broken?" She asked.

"Your concern is touching," Wood retorted with a cough. "Nothing Narla can't easily fix."

"We're lucky that the basement didn't blow out," Rila agreed, taking a step back once she was sure Wood was as okay as he said.

"So much for our theory that they didn't want to risk a disturbance," Ali said without raising her eyes from tinkering. "Which begs the question; why did they leave?"