“This place is bigger than I expected.” Ricky remarked while the group crawled on their bellies towards the edge of a mighty depression of unearthed ancient ruins.
“It’s quite remarkable just how quickly the worker drones can accomplish something like this. A week ago this was all just flat land.”
“They don’t need to sleep, or stop for a break.” Bingo returned. “It’s not that remarkable really.”
“Where is the thing you need to get to here?” Ricky asked the old Titan next to him.
“I’ve done extensive research into this site.” Eligah said thoughtfully while scanning the snakelike pits and trenches below. “Professor Ingo indicated that this site may be about two thousand years old. The theory was that this place was called Gideron.”
“No offense Eligah, but history was never my best subject.” Ricky frowned.
“If this is indeed Gideron, then the theory is that the temple in the center of the ancient city should house the great Pheonix. It’s this statue that would have held the Pheonix flame.”
This brought the attention of the cyborg, whose ears perked on top of his head.
“The Phoenix Flame? That’s just an old comic book tale right? The supernatural defender of Titan?”
“That’s what we’re here to find out.” Eligah responded.
“What are we waiting for? Let’s get this over with so we can get back to the ship and replicate some food. I’m starving!” Rocco slid down the side of the embankment before the others could protest.
Ricky especially wanted to form a plan to get to the middle. The small maze of trenches were swarming with Constructo 500 construction armor units and it seemed from his vantage point to be nearly impossible to make their way into the heart of the site without being spotted. With his brother already moving into action, he had little choice in the matter but to follow.
Bingo helped to lower Eligah down to Ricky’s waiting arms but made no move to follow. He instead stood to his full height, which left him visible for quite a distance away and scanned the area with his eyes.
“I’ve got an idea. I’m going to try to draw some attention away from you guys. If I don’t make it back and find you here, I’ll meet back up at the ship.”
The cyborg Wolverine then leaped effortlessly across the divide of the trench and began making his way quickly towards a group of worker drones. Ricky watched this but did not question it, he quietly encouraged the other two to follow him quickly into the narrow walls of the maze.
As they neared the first group of unearthed buildings, which appeared to be ancient single room houses, they ran across the first of many Constructo 500 units. Ricky nodded to his brother and walked right up to the robotic unit, which turned to regard the intruder.
“Hey there. I was wondering if you could direct me towards Furwood? I heard it’s near here but I seem to have gotten myself lost.”
The robotic unit stood up and processed this information for a long moment, all the while Rocco was sneaking around the backside of the clay hut to come up behind the robot.
“You are unauthorized for this site.” Came a predictable response from an inbuilt speaker system in the bottom portion of the large squarish head of the unit.
“Oh, I’m sorry then. I didn’t know this place was off limits. I’m just looking for directions…”
Ricky was cut off then by his brother smashing the unit over the head with his batons. A brief violent outburst occurred unit the solidly built head was thoroughly bashed in, and the lights on the side of the unit’s head turned black as it crumpled lifelessly to the ground.
“Do you have to be so aggressive?” Ricky asked his brother, who had exploded into a fit of seeming rage, bashing the unit over and over rapidly.
“Just getting out a bit of frustration.”
Another unit came around the narrow passageway at that time, and Rocco slunk behind the clay hut quickly. They used the same ruse once again, and after the second unit was destroyed, they drug the malfunctioning scrap into the small hut to hide them for now.
The trio quickly continued on down the corridor, turned several corners, until they came upon an open squarish dug out site, with a few more ancient structures standing open to the air. Ricky peered around the corner and saw a security drone standing watch over the site, with its back turned to them. He took the initiative to sneak up behind it and plunge the energy knife into the back of its head. Rocco was there to scoop up the remains and carried it back out of sight.
There were perhaps forty construction units working diligently in the open area, along with a handful of security drones standing around brandishing weapons in a threatening manner. There didn’t appear to be a way past all of that to get where they needed to go without being seen.
Ricky continued to mull this over, hoping some desperate plan would come to him. Before he could come up with anything however, Eligah pointed out the sudden presence of the short Wolverine making his way into the open area. Several of the security drones instantly made their way over to challenge the intruder, and though he was too far away to effectively hear what he was saying to them, he must have been spinning some type of yarn, for the drones did not attack. Ricky noticed that most of the other units had turned momentarily at least to regard the situation, and he slapped his brother’s arm to signal their chance.
The trio carefully made their way through the area, sticking closely to the walls of the trench to minimize their chances of being spotted. They moved as quickly as possible until they hit the opening of another passage and took it. To Ricky’s great relief, they were not challenged or halted.
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Eligah was heavily winded by this point. Keeping up with the young and athletic Titans was difficult for one as old as him. Ricky wanted to be through the area as quickly as possible to avoid being spotted but had no choice but to slow their advance down the next corridor, which went partially underground.
They all ducked into a partially uncovered alcove covered in hieroglyphics while a half-dozen security units passed by on a patrol before continuing on. Their luck held up as they managed to sneak by or take down several more robots on their way towards the central part of the site.
Finally, the group came to another large square opening in the trench with several white tents set up with a wide variety of artifacts laid out on fold-out tables. There were a number of live Titans examining these items while a dozen security drones stood sentry. On the outskirts of the dugout area were a few access tunnels leading underground, and here there were several contruction drones coming and going with dutiful purpose.
Eligah paused to both catch his breath and look around the area. The more he saw the more excited his countenance became. He eventually began pointing impatiently towards the dark openings leading underground.
“That’s…that has to be it! The central temple grounds have got to be underground.”
“Good. Now how do we get across there without getting every Zenith robot in the area after us?” Ricky mused aloud.
“Don’t forget the army back in town no doubt still looking for us.” Rocco added proudly.
Ricky gazed across the small field in front of the trio. He had not noticed it before but on top of the security drones, there were also three mobile gun platforms, which were a robotic type of walking quadruped frame with dual linked machine guns mounted on top. These made no attempt at bipedal Titan forms like the regular battle drones. The top mounted gun platforms had a full 360 degree range of motion and could fire in any direction due to a sort of ball bearing type of apparatus that made up the central portion of their body.
“Those are going to be difficult to get past.” Ricky pointed them out.
“They’re guarding the entrance.” Eligah agreed. “I wonder if they know what this place is?”
“Anyone got any ideas?”
“Maybe we could rush past them?” Rocco suggested.
“You can’t outrun bullets.” Ricky frowned.
“Perhaps we could wait until nightfall?” Eligah mused.
“I don’t think that will work either.” Ricky returned. “Some of the Titans may leave, but we’re left with the same problem of the robots. They don’t clock out and take the night off.”
“Right, right. Of course you’re right.” Eligah looked disappointed. “But what about those tents right over there? Those could be temporary shelters.”
The small older Titan pointed to a series of long white barracks styled tents that had been pitched in the corner closest to them. They certainly did look capable of holding sleeping cots and perhaps personal effects. Which brought Ricky alongside Eligah’s point.
“They might have spare uniforms.” Ricky nodded. “You two stay here and out of sight. I’m gonna go check it out.”
Ricky had to wait until an opportune moment to run out into the open. There were some unoccupied machines over by the tents that would shield him from view. He waited until the right moment and sprinted across to the machines, which he slid behind quickly. He waited several moments to see if any alarms were raised. When nothing started ringing, beeping or shouting, he peeked out to make sure nothing was casting suspicion in his direction. Then he slipped inside one of the tents.
Inside, he realized he hit the jackpot right away. There was a footlocker at the end of a barracks style sleeping cot, draped over the top of which was a white lab coat. He slid his arms through the lab coat quickly, while connecting his Net-com monocle to their private room.
“Yo, Rocky, you there?”
“I’m here Rick, what’s going on? Is everyone safe?”
“Yeah, we’re good for the time being. Can you get into this footlocker?” Ricky bent down to examine the locked container. It was locked mechanically.
It took a moment for Rocky to patch his Net-com monocle into Ricky’s, but soon he was looking out of his brother’s point of view.
“Get down and get a better view. Right in the middle of your sight picture.” Rocky suggested.
Ricky knelt down eye level with the locker, which looked much more like a piece of complicated machinery than a simple toolbox with a lock slapped on. It didn’t actually have a discernable lid at all, and looked more likely that once unlocked, plate would move aside like a puzzle.
“Ouch. How badly do you need this opened?” Rocky asked.
“It would be a big help. I’m hoping there might be more uniforms or key cards or something else that might help us get by here without another damned shootout. Why, is it too hard to get into?”
“It’s a simple four-digit PIN, and I can run an algorithm to find the correct sequence easy enough…but it looks like its also got a scent lock.”
Scent locks were fairly common among Titans. Many different species of Titans, particularly the Canids had highly sophisticated olfactory capabilities. Because of this, among many of the species that had heightened senses, the subtle differences in scent were nuianced, subtle and very difficult to fool.
“Look around there and see if you can find something to identify the owner.” Rocky instructed.
Right away, Ricky looked around and found a name embossed onto the locker.
“Right, got it.” Rocky saw it through his feed and put it into a database right away. “Now I just have to run it through and find this Davo in Zenith’s employee archives. It might take a few moments.”
“So you’re saying that you can fool a scent lock?” Ricky asked incredulously. One of the reasons scent locks were so popular in certain security areas was because they were supposed to be nearly impossible to fool through computer means.
“He’s a mustelid.” Rocky eventually answered, which did not however answer Ricky’s question exactly.
“You didn’t answer. Can these things be tricked?”
“I’m not sure. Theoretically…maybe.”
“How can you change my actual scent so this lock reads it? That just doesn’t make sense.”
“It’s not about changing your scent at all. It’s about changing what data the lock thinks it’s receiving.”
“This is going to be over my head isn’t it mate?”
“You’re short. Most things are over your head.” Rocky quipped in response. “I’m looking it up now and it looks like that model locker is a smart locker.”
“Okay…?”
“Which means it’s online. A normal “dumb” scent lock can’t be fooled. It simply receives a scent input and unlocks or doesn’t. But since this is plugged into the Titannet to receive software updates…”
“You can get into its programming.”
“…exactly. Stand by.”
Minutes went by and Ricky began to feel very exposed hiding inside the tent. At any moment one of the workers could go on a break or something and come right in and find him there. While he waited for his brother to do his tech magic he decided to be proactive and peek out the front flap in order to keep watch in case someone was coming. His luck held and after a lengthy period of time, his brother finally responded from back in the ship.
“Go. Present your scent to the locker.”
“Right. Hope you know what you’re doing.”
“Of course I do. Usually. Let’s just hope Deathstalker219 knows what he is doing.”
“Who?” Ricky asked while making his way back to the footlocker and presenting his arm.
“The guy that wrote this tutorial I found. How to hack a Suncrown model K-8 locker with scentlock.”
Ricky held his breath. The hatch shot open, and panels began to shift and move aside like some transforming toy. In moments, the entire locker was opened and inside was a treasure trove of goodies that helped him form a plan to get past the defenses.