//Soundtrack - Shelter From the Storm 2022 Remaster (The Stipendium)

After finishing eating the materials necessary, the Hatchlings and I made our way back to the Hangar, being very careful when we walked through the open room in which I first woke up. I didn’t want a run-in with whatever was calling this facility home. At least not without a lot of fire power and some proper armour, whatever that armour may look like.

Eventually we made our way back to the hangar which was the exact same we left it, corpse and all.

“Alright guys, let’s split up and check the room. If you find any more doors or consoles or whatever tell me so I can try to open it. If you find any materials you think we need, collect it all near the entrance to the starship.”

I thought I did a good job with ordering them around, as alien as it felt. Although, at this point I kind of just accepted all the weird shit going on around me. There was nothing I could do about it anyways.

We took our time looking around, and after what felt like hours Beta informed me that she had found something. When I made my way over I found her in some form of command room or something similar. It was filled with desks and computers, touch panels and whatnot, basically whatever you may find in some Sci Fi command room.

Touching one of the panels at random I got a familiar prompt.

Alert: Computer Module has lost all power. Reactivate the power grid to reinstate normal Computer functionality.

Alert: Subject [Hexclaw Hatchling] NULL possesses [ERROR].

Alert: Use [ERROR] to override?

Y / N

With a quick mental acknowledgment the panel booted up.

“How curious. It seems you found the central control room for Hangar 5. You can pretty much control everything from here, including the crane, hangar doors, power distribution and more.”, Orion supplied helpfully. I was starting to like his presence.

“Well, let’s see if we can’t get the Hangar Doors open. I doubt I have enough mana to keep this running for long, so let’s hurry it up.”

As it turned out, opening the Hangar doors without checking the outside was a mistake.

When I selected the option to open the giant doors behind the derelict starship, said doors started to move, slowly. It was almost painfully slow. A myriad of alerts went off, orange warning lights started glowing, filling the Hangar with a rather ominous atmosphere. Then we were hit with a bone chilling cold creeping in from the outside.

A look outside explained the sudden temperature.

As far as the eyes could reach was frozen wasteland with heavy snowstorms. In the distance I could barely see a mountain range ranging from the left most corner that I could see to the right most, almost looking like it was encircling whatever corner of the world we were in.

As quickly as I gave the command to open the door, I decided to close them again. I might be able to withstand the cold if I got some kind of bonfire going, but I wasn’t going to test the theory and I didn’t want either myself or the Hatchlings freezing to death.

“Well, that does answer one question”, I said, my teeth chattering a little.

“It does indeed. Although I’m surprised, while we are on a moon last time I checked it had a hospitable atmosphere and reasonable weather.”

Orion’s comment didn’t surprise me too much. It was obvious that something had to have happened for the entire complex to be left in such a state and catastrophic weather changes were definitely up there as possible culprits.

Although one thing bugged me. It took me quite a while to realise what it was, but when it clicked I frowned. The note from the last survivors in the starship had spoken about the end, and while it was certainly possible, it didn’t seem to be referencing some kind of natural disaster. Or maybe that was just me being pessimistic. Who knew.

One thing that did help was that I remembered the mention of weapons in the captain quarters in those same notes.

“Alright. I don’t think we can do anything with the access to the outside. But it did help me remember something. Beta, gather the others, we’ll head back into the ship. With a little bit of luck we can find some usable weapons there.”

While I had found the captain's quarters, the whole situation with the Hive had kind of interrupted my thought process at that moment. Hopefully we could find the weapons stored there.

Getting back inside went much smoother than the last time, mostly because I started to get used to the additional limbs I now had. I still took quite a lot longer than the Hatchlings. Some Prime I was…

Eventually we arrived back in the captain’s quarters of the VIP deck, or whatever it was. It didn’t take long to find the storage locker in question, it was the only one that was locked.

A quick usage of [ERROR] and it opened without a fuss. Inside we found exactly what we were looking for. A myriad of different rifles, pistols, shotguns, and ammunition.

The only problem was that I had no clue if any of it was still usable.

“Uhm… Orion? Any idea if any of this is still in one piece?”

There was a moment of silence before the AI replied, “While most weapons show significant signs of wear and damage, there should be enough working weaponry to outfit the four of you.”

It took us a while to sort through all the unusable stuff and sort out the still worthwhile weapons. They looked suitably science fiction, with sleek angular lines and clean surfaces. Or at least I thought they might have been clean once.

I didn’t know much about weaponry, but it looked like we had two rifles, three pistols, a shotgun, and enough ammunition for the respective weapons to use them for a while. The only question remaining was if they would be sufficient to deal with the other dwellers of this post apocalyptic moon station.

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Time would tell, I guess. Even if I really didn’t look forward to trying it. The chances for something going wrong were quite high and I doubted I’d get a third chance at life. If this was indeed try number two, I still wasn’t entirely sure what was going on.

I knew I was procrastinating, I didn’t want to see what the last door in that room held and I definitely didn’t want to meet the locals. But it was inevitable, if I wanted to make any progress. No matter where I was, no matter who I was, I wanted to survive, and I couldn’t do that while sitting on my weird alien ass and twiddling my three pairs of thumbs.

And I had finally run out of excuses to stay away from the lion’s den. So, with a heavy heart and just a medium amount of anxiety I ordered the Hatchlings out and on our way to the big central room.

“Can you do anything to help out?”, I asked Orion, already knowing the answer. I didn’t really think there was a chance, I only wanted to distract myself.

“I am afraid not. My current capabilities are quite limited. Unless you can just summon up a whole fabrication centre with a working power plant, I’m afraid the best I can do is moral support.”, he said.

“I’m not quite there yet”, I mumbled.

We made good enough time, only slowed down by me slightly due to my unease and the fact I couldn’t remember ever having touched a firearm, yet being intimately familiar with how I was supposed to use it, worrying me even more. I couldn’t be sure if it was just part of the confusing mess that was my memories, or if it was simply normal in this timeline that everyone and everything newly born just knew how these things worked.

It might sound crazy but evolutionary theory and instinctive understanding can work with a lot more than people gave it credit for.

Eventually we made it back to the big empty room with the blown out door, courtesy to our neighbours, and I was keeping my weapon at the ready. I wasn’t surprised at all to see that my Hatchlings were utterly unconcerned about their own safety, preferring to scout things out to prevent me from getting mauled the first chance I got.

While I understood that that was simply due to me being the prime, I had to admit it made my heart warm up to them slowly but surely. Being cared for like that wasn’t something I was used to and it was nice.

Even if they were weird alien people with 5 limbs too many.

The three were slow, but steady in their approach, and after confirming nothing big or hostile was present, Beta went in first.

Alpha stayed closest to me slightly in front of me, probably because of the whole Diplomat thing she was working towards, while Gamma picked up the rear.

A moment passed, then Alpha nodded, obviously they had some non-verbal conversation skills, or maybe Skills, to which I was not privy.

We walked slowly through the hallway that seemed to be in an even worse shape, if that was even possible. The rooms on each side had been broken open and thrashed, obviously nothing left of interest inside.

What was weird was that the temperature rose a little, not much, but enough to be sensible, but it never got too bad.

Eventually we ended up at another crossroads, the hallway continuing to the left and the right, but both sides looked identical for the most part, leading around a corner on each side after some distance.

Beta looked at me inquisitively, obviously asking for directions. Not sure what she expected me to do, I had just about as much information about anything than she had.

I was just about to speak, despite not wanting to, to ask Orion for help, but he beat me to it.

“While I do not have up to date layout schematics, the facility so far seemed unchanged, aside from the obvious dilapidation. If your goal is to find the power generation unit you need to head east, follow the hallway, which eventually leads to one of the main hub areas, from which we need to see if there are any working elevators or working stairs not on the main schematic.”

I nodded in silent thanks and was just about to move, when I realised I had no idea where east was. Orion seemed to notice my cluelessness and a green arrow appeared in my vision, making me blink a few times. I should not have been surprised, if I can get weird boxes of text I should also be able to see other forms of AR overlay.

The arrow led us right, and I motioned Beta in the right direction. She went of immediately, and while she was obviously good in stealthy movement, her handling of her sidearm showed that she had no clue how to correctly use it.

I had asked them about that before and it turns out they had no clue how to operate them. Luckily I, with the help of Orion, was able to show them at least the basics, but considering that neither of us was feeling confident, we had agreed for the Hatchlings to do most of the shooting.

Mainly that was their idea, after I had told them what the weapons were capable of, and what could happen if they were used the wrong way, they unanimously decided to only let me carry the two leftover pistols, with both rifles, carried by Beta and Gamma, and Alpha getting both the shotgun and the remaining pistol.

Technically I could use both of them in a two handed grip, but I had no clue how to actually use my additional manipulator arms, so I didn’t try anything fancy and just carried the second gun with one, which was an insanely weird feeling.

Alpha, of course, had none of those compunctions, having full instinctual control over her additional limbs. But I had to admit, it looked ridiculous.

The other reason why we had agreed to such a setup was my capabilities with magic, or magick.

While he wasn’t an expert on the matter Orion did explain the difference was a matter of scale, everything big enough was automatically categorised as magick, which kind of left me hoping I wouldn’t need to use it. I didn’t want to accidentally kill us all with a basic spell.

We made our way through the hallway slowly, creeping up around the corner after Beta had given us the okay. We found ourselves in yet another hallway with doors on each side, some of which had some remaining debris in them, while others were entirely empty, outside of the wrecks of the doors punched in by the rest of the inhabitants.

Eventually, I hadn’t checked the time, although by my estimate the otherwise five minute walk had stretched to just under half an hour of creeping about and checking rooms, we arrived at another big door, which was of course destroyed. One side was removed entirely and on the floor, while the other side was bent around the corner.

Beta went inside and checked the room, another big one although not quite as big as the one I woke up in, and after a few moments Alpha signalled us inside.

As we entered I could see it was quite similar, yet also different. It was clearly some sort of hub area with two giant gates on the left and right of us, and what appeared to be storefronts opposite of us. At least there were a lot of shelves and counters and such. There was no way to figure out exactly what it was with all the dilapidation happening over time.

“The elevators should be just ahead and through the eastern gate. If they are not functional, which I doubt, there might be maintenance access a hallway over through one of the maintenance tunnels. Those would usually not show up on public maps, however, and only be known to the personnel in question.”

I nodded silently at Orion’s words, although personally I was questioning the design since in case of power failure there would be no way for those who didn’t know to get up or down.

I signalled Beta over into the direction and she followed suit, making her way over and checking through the gate, which was open just enough for whatever could pass through the smaller doors to fit there as well.

Which, to be fair, was still a giant opening, but compared to the gates, felt small.

As we walked the temperature continued to rise, although I still didn’t feel any discomfort from it.

We were just about to reach the elevators, I could already see them, when a low growl came from behind us. Immediately we all turned around and my eyes widened in shock.

Behind us, on the opposite side of the hub we had just come through, stood a giant of a beast.

It was built like a mix between a rhino and a gorilla, although that was only the general shape, with two massive pairs of arms and a gigantic double horn on its head. It had two small arms on the back of it, as well as two long tails, although compared to it size they seemed almost laughable thin.

Its two trios of eyes and silver teeth completed the picture, I had no doubt it was another variant of the Hexclaw Swarm Intelligence species.

And as that revelation worked its way through my thoughts it sniffed the air, turned to us, and then growled. Loudly.

Before I could even react it started to run at us full tilt, the grown shaking from its mass.

We were in really big shit…