The rest of the ride passed in a blur. I think I spent time asking questions but by the time we arrived, the only thing I could think about was how crazy it was that I was running into danger instead of away from it. Someone-I think maybe Merlin-finally took the time to explain Twists. Apparently whatever process brought us into the Logorinth brought with it remnants of things from the real world. Those creatures, twisted and corrupted by the System, became roaming creatures that might be around any corner.
Please be something friendly. Please be a Twisted Sloth or something. I thought as the ride settled into place.
“Relax, Tee.” Rhodes eyed me critically. “You’re looking real pale. Just stay behind Golem and watch our backs. Don’t fight, just call for help if you see something.”
I nodded. This was maybe the forth or fifth time hearing those instructions.
“Door’s open.” Merlin called from the console.
The massive doors in the transport’s wall screeched open. Merlin and Gorgon stepped out first and, after a moment gestured for the rest of us to follow. A wave of nausea hit me as I stepped off.
“Shit. Did we know it’s a red zone?” Rhodes asked.
Merlin shook his head. “It was blue when Minos was sent. Must have changed to red during the rumble.”
I stared between the two of them before opening my menus hoping for a clue.
[Extended Interface Activated]
Name: Tee (Self-assigned)
TL: 10
Potential: 2047/2048 [Alert: Growth Limited 16:46]
Combatant Class: Unassigned [Alert: 9 Threat Levels Earned Classless]
Noncombatant Class: Unassigned [Alert: 9 Threat Levels Earned Classless]
Qualifications: 3
Muscular Output: 1.06 [.07 - 14:15:28.02]
Motor Reflex: 0.95 [.01 - 14:15:28.46]
(Cognitive Processes: 1.61)
Predictive Analysis: 1.72 [.17 - 14:15:28.39]
Memory: 0.56
The dim red text that greeted me was a big damned clue.
“I’m guessing the zone thing is about the menus?”
“And that sickness you felt as we got off the ride. The Logorinth has many different zones and you can feel the System switch over when you cross between them.” Golem said, leaning down to talk quietly while the others huddled. “Not every zone is equally safe. Red zones are known for having really good loot but also being a bit… nasty?”
“What does ‘nasty’ mean?”
“It means we might encounter meaner twists, unexpected traps, and maybe even some rot if we’re not careful. Definitely stay back.”
I nodded, only now realizing I was gripping my knife so hard my fingers hurt. I’m not built for this.
Rhodes and Gorgon turned to the rest of us while Merlin moved to the one doorway on the opposite side of the room. Rhodes settled his eyes on me and rubbed his stubbly chin as he laid out the situation.
“The zone still allows Gorgon to map it, thank the System. We’ve plotted a route to Minos that won’t require moving through any live rooms or locked doors but we’re going to move fast and quiet. Don’t trigger any panels, don’t talk loud, and if we get into a fight let me and Merlin end it fast. Clear?”
Golem and I nodded.
With a tap of a few buttons, the door slid open revealing a hallway with barely enough room for us to stand two-by-two, the walls twisted and an uneven floor broken up by sharp metal edges. We entered, Rhodes and Gorgon at the lead, Merlin beside me and Golem taking up the rear.
Every twenty steps small hatches with their own panels on the surface blinked on as we approached. Many of them showed red lock symbols and ominous red squares. I kept my hands to myself and noticed everyone shuffled away from them.
The next few minutes were a blur of similar hallways broken up by Gorgon turning us at random moments to go through this hatch or that one. Twice, we had to pause and pick new routes. The first came as a doorway that we’d just opened snapped shut before we could enter it and showed the familiar red lock. Rhodes and Gorgon exchanged a look but said nothing before taking us further down the hallway. The second came as the ground shuddered and the hallway further in front collapsed with a thundering groan of metal. Golem’s hand stopped me from screaming and after doubling back for a few hundred paces, we went through a door we’d passed. I understood none of it.
“We’re closing in on them. Stay cautious.” Rhodes called from the front.
“Do we know their status?” The massive woman behind me replied.
“No. This zone appears to jam long-range life scanners.”
“I hate this, Captain.”
“You and me both,”
A small light grew stronger over the massive shoulders of Rhodes. A large open hatch with a few bizarre lit symbols above it came into view and, rushing forward with the rest, I flinched as a glowing window snapped into existence over them as we crossed the boundary.
[ADAPTIVE FILTER]
Containment Chamber: WARNING! BREACHED! WARNING!
We entered a huge, oval chamber lit from a hundred different places. Gone were the gray-and-corroded metal walls of the Logorinth. In their place, every surface of the containment chamber sported cream tiles with domed The smell of blood filled my nostrils.
[Directive Assigned]
Directive: Seal the Breach
Priority: Mandatory
Incentive: True - Specifics Upon Evaluation
A maladaptive class 14 has escaped processing containment. Eliminate the threat. Follow the path indicated by with yellow to arrive at your directive. All zone exits have been sealed until the maladaptives are eliminated.
“Aw shit, Captain. You seeing what I’m seeing?” Gorgon cursed.
“Ayup. A challenge room.” Rhodes turned to me. “Sometimes the System decides to assign ‘challenges.’ Good news, it usually gives you something for them.”
“And the bad news?” I asked, dreading the answer.
“The bad news is that you have to survive the challenge and they don’t let you leave til it’s done.” Golem said with a frown.
Rhodes nodded. “Stay glued to Golem while we figure out the challenge.”
I glanced around before seeing a faint depression on a distant wall with a telltale yellow light over it. I tried to act casual. “Rhodes, is there a reason that light is yellow?”
Everyone turned to look.
“Good eyes, newbie. Indicator lights are a good sign. Let’s move!”
The rooms of this particular zone tended towards a faint purple and unlike the claustrophobic paths we’d taken to get here, most of the rooms we passed through sprawled, with high ceilings that receded into darkness, massive piles of assorted mechanical clutter creating dizzyingly tall hills. Sections of the ground sunk down low enough that moisture dripping from the ceiling formed pools. The whole structure felt like an ambush. Gorgon and Merlin clearly agreed as they scouted forward cautiously.
“Guys, there are traps here. Keep an eye out.” Gorgon called from around one of the hills.
I rounded it in time to watch her fling a series of small balls towards random pools of water. As each connected, a holographic icon flickered into existence before highlighting something the size of a torso under the water.
“What the hell are those?” Golem stared down a few feet from one, her hands squeezing the massive maul in her hands.
“Looks like some kind of crusher trap. I’m guessing there’s one on the ceiling and they meet in the middle.”
Merlin and I shuddered and we walked real gingerly around the closest few we made steady progress pausing only at specific places as Gorgon or Merlin pointed out worrying signs. A bloody smear on the ground here, a handprint on the edge of some junk there.
“Keep it moving folks,” Our leader called as our mood dampened. “Minos is good enough a few wounds doesn’t mean it’s over.”
As we progressed through the next few rooms in a similar fashion, Gorgon stopped us only once to trigger an unavoidable trap. Her guess proved right as the mound erupted upwards and another slammed down from above. I tried not to imagine a person between them.
A soft sound echoed out in response to the crash from somewhere ahead of us.
“Do you—” Gorgon said holding up her hand. “It’s somebody screaming. Harbinger I think.”
She stared directly at Rhodes before he nodded. The petite woman turned in a single movement and ran faster than I’d ever seen a person move, tossing more of her holo-balls as she went.
“Gorgon is advance scouting. Everyone, pay close attention to the markers.”
Merlin blew a few strands of blonde hair out of his face and grudgingly took the lead solo.
The next few minutes were agony as my mind conjured traps in every puddle, certain that Gorgon must have missed one. None triggered but I was sure any moment that would change. By the time that we’d made it through two more rooms, we could hear Gorgon calling us.
“This way Captain! I got two in need of stasis!”
Our lead scout darted off, not quite as fast as Gorgon had left us. I watched his gangly body lope through the water with no grace at all. The rest of us tromped as quickly as we could around the last few hills.
Gorgon waved from the side of one more hill as she pressed her hand into the torso of a small Asian woman. The woman groaned and kept her head back as her hand rested on a dark mound beside her.
“Harbinger has a gut wound and Snap is missing an arm.” I could hear Gorgon’s voice quiver on every word. She was close to snapping. “I’ve tied off the arm and I’m compressing the gut wound but I need a stasis NOW.”
All of the perpetual man-child qualities of Merlin dropped away as he knelt next to the two, his hands up and dancing through the air. Gorgon pulled back as a faint blue glow snapped into place around the woman and what I now realized was a second person’s unconscious body.
“They’re sealed, Captain. We should have a two hour window before we need to return and med-vac them.”
Rhodes glanced between them. “Did they tell you anything?”
“Yeah,” Gorgon replied, snapping her gaze off of our rescuees. “Something attacked them from the room challenge behind us and they’ve been trying to outrun it. Minos took it in circles but couldn’t lose it. Told these two to make a run for it and tried rearguarding with Attila that way.”
Gorgon pointed into one of the shadowed corners of the room where a small hatch opened. We reluctantly stepped away from the stasis field.
“Same instructions as before, people. Merlin and Gorgon advance. I’ll follow. Golem, stay with Tee in the rear and watch for flankers.”
It took a few more rooms before we found a massive Polynesian man covered in tatu standing in front of another transluscent glowing wall. Hex after glowing hex the size of my head and rimmed in sharp, white light connected to seal something on the other side. The man’s hands traced along the air and the surface of the wall flickered and pulsed with every movement. Without even approaching I could see him flagging. As we drew up behind him, I tried to peek through to see it what he was facing.
The creatures before us might have once been small animals, possibly rabbits. With wires protruding between torn flesh and metal frames grafted onto their small bodies they were abominations now. A few dozen sat motionless on a mound of metal and cloth on the other side of Minos' wall. Rhodes and Golem positioned themselves in front of the exhausted Minos.
"Thank the System you got here, Captain. I don't have much left and they already got Attila." Minos said, choking up on the last few words.
I realized the mound they were standing atop was what remained of a body. My stomach flipped.
"You did good, Minos. We're here. What can you tell me about these Twists?"
Minos shuddered. "They're fast, Cap. Maybe hoppers. They have a group mind and there's at least a hundred more after these. They cut and run and they've got no fear."
Rhodes frowned. "Let's see if we can fix that. Drop the wall."
As Minos lowered his hand the glowing barrier separating us from the beasts flickered and vanished. The Twists turned as one to stare at us.
"Creepy." I said absently.
Golem held her hand up and I had my first chance to see where her name came from. Massive plates of metal tore off the walls and wrapped around her equally massive body until a vaguely human shape over 8 feet tall had replaced her.
Rhodes raised his own hand and shards like glass formed in the air, hovering. As the first wave of Twists kept into action Rhodes fired his missiles, killing a handful in midair. The remainder... vanished.
"Gorgon, I need a stun field!"
"On it Captain!"
Gorgon pushed me aside and tossed a set of metal balls down the hallway. As they flew, they sent beam after beam of blue light highlighting Twists blinking in and out as they rushed towards us; a living wave crashing down the hall.
Gorgon grinned manically before her eyes flashed red. The lit shapes froze.
"Merlin, burn it down!"
"Be fast!" Gorgon grunted. "Minos wasn't kidding. They're a groupmind and it's resisting me!"
I looked over at the rat-like guy still beside me in time to see him drawing a complicated pattern in glowing lines. The pattern flashed and vanished. Fire exploded forth in its place and rushed between Rhodes and Golem. Wave after wave of frozen Twists shrieked as the fire consumed them.
My menus were stacking notification after notification.
"Are we-"
Golem started to ask before something rose behind the mound. If the others resembled rabbits, this creature was as large as a wolf. For a moment it stared across the wreckage between us and then… it blinked. The crack of space tearing gave way to the sound of screaming as the massive beast appeared above Golem and crashed down. I could hear her grunting and struggling beneath it. I rushed forward and stabbed at the creature's haunches as it held Golem down with its weight. A single paw slapped out into my face and sent me flying. Rhodes slammed his mace into the beast's shoulder. It staggered off Golem and turned towards him.
A soft chittering from the wall at my back was the only warning before dozens of twists erupted from behind us and launched over my head. Most passed me by, a few began biting as I tried to hack away at them climbing over me. I screamed and slashed, pain and blood taking every thought in my head. I heard Merlin yell something before a wave of fire roiled over me, scalding a few spots and igniting the rabbits. Most of the ones still on me fell away and the last few I hacked at until they too died. Somewhere in the chaos, the wolf-like creature had fallen. Golem, battered but alive, gave me a thumbs up from her seated position.
[Directive Complete]
Directive Evaluation: Sufficient
Individual Evaluation: Negligible
Relative Threat Evaluation: Extreme [Unclassed Modifier]
Incentive Authorization: A class pod has been fabricated within the incentive chamber. Follow the path indicated by green to arrive there.
“Holy shit, ladies and gentleman.” Merlin crowed. “I think we survived!”
“Golem, are you all there?”
“Never better, Cap.” Golem chimed in.
The massive, dusky-skinned man next to Rhodes stared out across the battleground. His mouth quivered and his hands flexed as his eyes darted from place to place. He’s having a precursive episode of combat stress reaction. He needs to be stabilized.
“I-I don’t know what wrong, Captain. It was a blue zone. I kept us tight and clustered. I—”
“You’re in shock, Minos. Have a seat.” Rhodes gently pushed him down to sit at the wall. “A rumble shifted your zone. You did the best you could and Harbinger and Snap made it. Gorgon stabilized them before we came.”
I rushed and knelt next to the man. Despite the massive number of holes in my memory, this much came to me in a rush. “Minos is it?”
He nodded at me, his eyes still looking over my shoulder.
“Look at me, Minos. Look at me.” I snapped a few times and smiled as he looked in my eyes. “You’re going through something right now. It’s a lot. Captain and the rest are going to make sure we’re safe, I’m sure. I want you to breathe with my snaps to help your brain process things. Every time I snap, you switch between inhaling and exhaling. You got all that?”
“Y-yeah. Alright.” Even as he answered me, the big guy’s eyes were partially glazed over. I laid one hand on his shoulder and began snapping my fingers in a square, as I walked him through the relaxation technique.
“That’s right. In. Slower. Slower. Out. Slow and steady. Good. Good. In…”
Almost of minute of this and I saw his hands steady and the whites of his eyes recede.
“Good. Are you with us?”
“I’m with you. Do I… know you?”
I laughed. “Nope, fresh today.”
“Oh man,” He chuckled. “A newbie is —“
Rhodes laughed and clapped us each on the shoulder. Minos flinched slightly but mellowed back down. Definitely signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. I noted before pausing at the thought. Was I a psychiatrist or something?
“You did good, newbie.”
I smiled before looking back at my patient. There would be no privacy here but letting him walk away without anything more was an unsecured risk.
“Minos, you’re going to have nightmares. Probably bad ones tonight and a lot of them over the next few weeks. That’s normal and natural. You need to talk with someone about them and get it all out. If you don’t, that wired feeling you have right now? It’s going to settle in.”
“And you aren’t? I saw the twists flood you.”
I shuddered, thinking back to the wave of biting and clawing bodies. “Yeah. And I’m going to talk about them to some people too. Because silence isn’t strength. It’s how darkness festers.”
Minos started to say something before pausing and nodding. “Got it, doc.”
“Just a helper.” I smiled and raised my hands in surrender.
Gorgon, Merlin and Golem finally joined us at the wall.
“So are we going to collect the loot, Captain?” Merlin asked. I could practically see him rubbing his hands together.
Golem pointed back to a green light shining down the hallway we’d come down.
“Sure,” Rhodes replied. “Gorgon, go collect Snap and Harbinger and then we’ll head out.”
The grizzled man eyed me ruefully. “Sorry about the detours but scrappers love loot.”
“I’m in no rush.” I replied with a smile.