A layer of ancient dust shifted as Rush opened the door to the hallway. What few lights remained operational flickered on as they sensed motion for the first time in centuries. There was another door on the opposite end of the hallway with what looked like a secure lock, while four doors spread across the hall appeared less secure.

“Elvis, you’ve got the map,” Rush said. “Where do we go?”

“Is there a reason we can’t go everywhere?”

“Being efficient is being profitable,” Rush said. His mother had told him that often enough for it to stick.

“Well, I am afraid my knowledge of this facility does not extend to the contents of individual rooms,” Elvis said. “It can’t hurt to check, at least.”

Rush shrugged and went to the first door on the right. After a quick scan for any hidden security measures, Rush popped it open and peered inside. It was a small space, primarily occupied by a large desk and a few filing cabinets. A few decayed remnants of paper laid on the desk, their contents long since lost to time, alongside a single cracked computer.

“An office,” Rush said. He’d found more than a few over years of junking. Not particularly useful, but the computers usually held a few scrap circuits that were worth an acceptable amount. “We can pick it apart later.”

“Actually, Mr. Rush, might I suggest trying to operate the computer? There’s a chance I may be able to interface with it. At the very least we can glean more information about this facility.”

Over the years, Rush had found a handful of computers that still “worked”, but he had given up trying to access them after the first few tries. They always had some kind of security system that prevented access. It was easier for everyone to just disassemble them and use the components to make something else later than try to pierce Kell Tech security. Elvis, however, had an innate ability to interface with Kell Tech, so Rush figured it was worth a shot this time.

The chair behind the desk fell to pieces at the slightest touch, so Rush kneeled in front of the computer instead, and held a hand against it. Elvis’s silvery nanomachines surged out of the armor for a second, washing over the device, and then retracted back.

“No luck,” Elvis said. “But perhaps one of the other offices.”

The second office was also a bust, but the third sparked to life at Elvis’s prodding. Rush sat back and watched as the screen flickered with a flurry of information.

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“Not much to see here, Mr. Rush. Seems like this office was primarily responsible for tracking the inventory of the gift shop up front.”

“Maybe they had more shirts in storage,” Rush said. More clothes would be nice, at least.

“Unlikely. These last few correspondences are about the entire facility being closed down,” Elvis explained. “Not much information. Apparently someone in charge wanted the ‘access point’ closed.”

“Access point? Access to what?”

“That is the question, Mr. Rush,” Elvis said. “And the answer presumably lies behind the door at the end of the hall.”

Rush checked the final office, just to be sure, and found nothing useful before he headed to the final doorway. There was a scanner next to the door, with the faint outline of a hand still visible upon it. Rush pressed his palm against it, but not the sake of scanning. His gauntlet made that impossible anyway. Elvis rushed out of the armored glove and sank into the circuitry of the scanner for about two seconds.

“Uh oh.”

The lights went out, and the door leading back to the entrance slammed shut. Rush drew his hand back and saw that the hand scanner was now flashing red.

“It appears more security systems are still functional, Mr. Rush.”

“I saw.”

Rush made a quick dash to the other end of the hall and tried to grab the sealed door and force it open. The prodigious strength of the Scrapper suit failed to force it open, and a few quick blows didn’t dent it. His repeated blows were soon matched from the other side, in an even less effective fashion.

“Rush? What’s going on?” Giza asked, her voice muffled from the far side of the door. “Are you okay?”

“I triggered some kind of security lockdown,” Rush said. Even faced with the prospect of being locked inside an ancient, buried facility forever, Rush didn’t sound particularly nervous -or emotional at all. “Get everyone else out of the room. I’m going to shoot the door open.”

“Got it, I’ll have us all out of here in five minutes. Be safe, Rush.”

Rush patiently waited, counting out the time in his head.

“I can run a stopwatch for you, if you’d like,” Elvis said.

“Okay, do that.”

A few numbers appeared on the helmet’s HUD. The timer ticked all the way up to twenty-seven before Rush heard a door open. Unfortunately, it was not the one he was standing in front of. Rush turned around and, for a second, thought he was looking in the mirror. An armored, humanoid figure, synthetic muscles whirring against the strain of age, shambled through the door, metal fists clenched.

Rush blasted it with the concussive cannon. He already had it prepared, and saw no reason not to use it right away. Even through his helmet’s hearing protection, the massive shockwave in such a small room set his ears ringing. He shook his head clear and looked back at where the drone had been -and where it still was. The humanoid security drone was still standing, and the door behind it was heavily dented.

“Oh, it has an energy redirection field,” Elvis said. He then ran a few more thought processes in his head. “Oh no. It has an energy redirection field.”

Entirely unaffected by the violent shock, the robotic drone stepped forward once more, and then lunged towards Rush.