Chapter 4 – Loud Noises
Lix Brandishes his cutlass in his right hand holding his rifle over his left shoulder, he feels a psychic presence touch him as the large elevator doors to open.
“THIS IS OFFICER GREEN WITH THE CRIMSON SOUL ENFORCERS, YOU ARE TRESPASSING ON GOVERNMENT PROPERTY, IDENTIFY YOURSELF IMMEDIAT-. Officer green loudly gasps when she sees the mangled monster corpse and Three Butchers ready to cut her head off.
“So it did notice trespassers.” Fizz comments as the party lowers their weapons still at the ready
“We are butchers of house Delltronious from Herons shore, I am Lix Delltronious at your service”
“I take it this was your doing then?” Green asks pointing her spear and the corpse.
“Everything but the killshot.” Lix reply's “Tell me officer are you aware of any security changes here in the last hundred years?”
“No idea, I just transferred out of Gaia’s promise, Im actually here on an unrelated investigation.” She responds as she walks over to the windowed office “I take it you three broke into the office upstairs?”
“We can comp the damages.” Hait says and is about to continue...
“SHIT, GET DOWN” lix yells throwing his sword down and aiming his rifle towards green as she reaches for the office doorknob
Without time for thought Green throws herself through the door as a red beam of light streams from down the hallway where green was almost hitting Hait, immediately in response Lixs rifle cracks a deafening roar in the enclosed station turning whatever fired into charred carrion.
“GODDAMN MY FUCKING EARS LIX” Fizz yells as he and Hait take cover by the entrance to the hallway
Meanwhile Lix grabs his sword, slings his rifle onto his back and moves towards the window of the office tapping the glass with a glowing finger causing the glass to shatter into harmless dust.“So what where you investigating?” Lix asks as he jumps into the office and helps Green up
“Accounting errors” she jokes halfheartedly “Congratulations by the way” she says making her way to a dusty desk across from the door.
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Lix peaks into dark, empty, now bloodstained hallway “What did I win?”
“You and your party are now deputized by the authority of Crimson Soul and will aid in my investigation, we can discuss payment later.” She announces as the computer boots into a text only terminal “Now please figure out who the fuck that was while I work this thing.”
“Yes ma'am” Lix reply's in a mocking tone “HAIT! Cover the hallway. FIZZ! Look after the officer.”
“Right”~”Right”
Hait pulls a metal arrow off his quiver dipping into a container at his side.
Lix slowly moves into the hallway creating dim light in his off hand, as he moves he opens and checks each of the side rooms finding nothing but packed storage, extra oxygen, and spare parts..
“So what exactly are you looking for?” Fizz asks entering the office as Clair unsuccessfully attempts to access the terminal.
“Im trying to see if there's any obvious discrepancy's in the transport records but I cant access them.” Clair says getting up from the desk “There should be a safe with mechanically entered records somewhere in here, how good is your feel zone?”
Fizz leans against the wall and reply's “Lix says I should practice it more but all the shit we hunt knows right where we are the moment it touches them.”
“I suppose its more useful if your work has you announcing your presence anyways, give me a minute.” Clair stands in center of the room a begins to focus.
Meanwhile Lix fails to identify the person he just shot as all that remains is pair of legs and copious amounts of bio-mechanical viscera.
“ALL CLEAR FOR NOW!” Lix yells back to the rest of the group, he walks past the mangled corpse to a heavy looking air lock door a large dent obvious on its face. Next to airlock an inactive control panel sits completely unresponsive to Lix’s fiddling.
With the all clear Hait shifts his focus on the way they came in and continues to keep watch.
“Got it!” Green exclaims as she presses a finger onto a completely clear part of wall, it pushes in like a button and with a loud click a small section wall next to it swings open and pops out a small metal cartridge.
“That's it?” Fizz asks looking at metal object
“Not quite, there's a sealed machine behind the wall that keeps the data, this is just a removable copy,” She reply's pulling out the cartridge “we will however have to read it in Herons shore.”
“How do we know its not tampered with?” Fizz asks
“We cant know until we read it but as far as im aware this form of data storage is permanent and the entire machine encased in concrete would have to be tampered with for this to be inaccurate.” Green pockets the cartridge and continues “This is all I came for, we should probably leave.”
“yea this place is giving me the worst kind of vibes” Fizz leaves the office and shouts to Lix “WE GOT IT, LETS GO”
“PERFECT” Lix yells back turning away from the door and heading back towards the party
before he even can make it halfway back however Three things happen
First Lix hears the airlock open behind him
Then Lix hears Hait scream ahead of him
Finally the loudest sound Lix has ever heard echos through the concrete tomb