//------------------------------// // Chapter Thirty Four: Flickering Lights // Story: We don't go to Sub-Level Five // by RadBunny //------------------------------// “Watch our backs, Astral. Let’s go,” Sassi ordered softly. Astral nodded despite the vice clamped around his stomach. Yet something burned in the Thestral’s chest to combat the rising nausea. The two carefully walked up the stairs, noting how a dozen decomposing bodies were shoved to one side of the stairwell. On poking her head out of the exit, Sassi took a few tentative steps forward and nodded. The eerie silence ate at Astral’s nerves, the large series of rooms matching the Silo One transit station. If he had to guess, it was a standard layout. This station, thankfully, lacked the decorative body parts of Silo One. Instead, there was a disturbing lack of bodies. The blood-covered desks, chairs, sofas, and monitors indicated that hadn’t always been the case. His hypothesis about the design held true, as the security station was located where Sassi’s had been in the previous Silo. They turned the corner- The stallion nearly ran into Sassi, the mare’s breath quickening ever so slightly. Turning his head to briefly look, Astral felt his heart drop. The Security Station door had been torn from its mounts, the forelimb-thick and garage-door sized steel apparatus firmly embedded in the right wall. “Sassi?” he asked, turning back to scan the floor and ceiling. “That was our safe checkpoint. There are a few backup stations on the levels below us. It’s a dead-end here aside from a single hallway. There are very few things that could have done that damage. Every floor has at least one smaller reinforced security checkpoint no matter what. So, we should keep moving.” “No argument here.” The two traversed the remainder of the blood-splattered tiles, eventually arriving at a familiar set of elevators. Hopping in one, Astral watched as Sassi punched in the override code, tapping the floor below them. “We’re on floor eight?” he asked, Sassi nodding as the elevator dropped. “Silo Two isn’t like One. It doesn’t have a concealment section of four levels. It’s underground. Level One is still buried underneath a mountain of rock,” she explained. “It deals with the nasty stuff, so it needed to be more secure. Silo Three is even deeper and more secluded. I don’t know nearly as much about it, since the majority is condemned and quarantined.” “Ah,” was all he could say. “Level Nine is just administrative stuff. Simple office layout, desks along multiple hallways at head-high cubicles. Security station is to our left,” she instructed. “Let’s just get there and figure out our next step.” “Hopefully nothing too exciting then.” Astral’s reply made Sassi huff slightly in amusement. The doors opened, and the two trotted out across the fairly-clean tile. Aside from desks and papers being strewn about, there wasn’t any initial sign of death and destruction on the floor. The Thestrals moved down the halls, the silence almost being worse than knowing there was an imminent threat. The security station’s door was battered and only hanging on by a hinge, but it was intact. The room was a simple one; a few computer terminals, screens, and empty weapons lockers along the walls. Sassi immediately began to tap at the shimmering keyboard, frowning as only a few of the screens turned on. “Cameras are fried. This Silo is a mess,” she muttered. “I can at least send a brief message to Vial.” A short ‘we are here’ email was sent, but the mare frowned. “Hmm. The connection is shoddy. It may take some time to even send.” “Uh, Sassi?” Astral asked, pointing to a screen. The stallion’s eyes were wide as he stared. “What is that?” The creature slowly stalking a hallway on one of the cameras nearly filled up the entire screen. It had the same general shape as a Skitter, but thick muscles and armored plates had replaced the usually spindly limb and skeletal torso. “That is a Queen Guard,” Sassi muttered, “I’ve never seen one outside of the two kept under heavy guard. I never had the chance to go to those levels more than once or twice. But if one is stalking the halls on level Forty-Nine, then that means there are more. That explains the door we saw.” “I assume that means bad news? That’s a big…thing.” “Very bad. We could take one out between the two of us with these guns. But you’d want a grenade launcher for it. On the plus side, it moves slower than the Skitters but is harder to kill.” “Fantastic.” “Eh, will be a fun challenge!” Sassi said, perking up a bit. “We shouldn’t have to worry about them up here. They’re kept close to the Queen, hence the name. Considering it takes a lot of resources to grow them, I doubt there are more than five. Maybe ten total if I had to guess with available biomass. We’ll watch the cameras for a bit and then move on. If there isn’t one on this floor or any others nearby, it likely they tore the security section apart and then retreated to the Queen.” The camera watching was informative but did nothing to assuage Astral’s nerves. This Silo felt different. Odd, off, in a way. “So, off to the elevators?” Astral asked, Sassi nodding firmly. “Yep. There’s nothing left on this floor, and things seem to be clear. So down we go.” “Hi Ho, Hi Ho…” Astral muttered, Sassi letting out a soft *snrk*. The two of them then left the relative safety of the security checkpoint. Staying quiet, they made their way back to the elevators, Sassi punching in the override code and the 20th-floor button. “I wouldn’t want to go more than ten floors at a time,” she explained as the elevator began to move. “Last thing we want is to walk into a Skitter trap. I’d prefer to go the last few floors one at a time if we can.” The elevator abruptly halted, the two of them stumbling as a familiar voice chimed out over the speaker. “Warning. Automatic authorization for the floor-locking elevator system has been disabled. Failure in primary and secondary systems. Manual reset required at junction stations before proceeding. Audio announcements at intermittent levels.” “That doesn’t sound good,” Astral muttered as Sassi let out an annoyed hiss. “It means we can’t travel more than a few floors at a time,” she said, “there’s a manual reset on every floor we’ll need to power cycle before the elevators unlock. It shouldn’t take long each time, but it adds risk. It’s supposed to be a safeguard, but now is a royal pain in the flank.” “I always hated those kinds of video game levels,” Astral replied with a grunt. “Please walk through fire and death to flick a switch. I can’t say my view has changed now that I’m in it.” Another soft snort from Sassi was her reply, the elevator doors opening. On the plus side, ‘intermittent levels’ of audio meant no obnoxious voice apparently. “This level should be simple. Just a server room,” Sassi said quietly as they excited the copy-and-paste layout of the elevator lobby. “On the right is where the relay switches are. I’ll show you how to do it.” Astral nodded, his throat abruptly dry. Any lessened nerves had given way to the familiar undercurrent of tension as they walked. The server racks hummed with their various lights blinking, only a few blood stains here and there to mark any absence of normality. The relay entrance was a simple, office door set in the wall. Sassi cleared the room, a chime over the helmet radio indicating for Astral to step inside. What looked like a bunch of normal, household fuses greeted the pair. Sassi gestured to a larger array of switches and dials with an armored hoof. “These are the ones that have to be engaged to allow the elevators to proceed,” she explained. “Usually marked by the ‘F-L’ letters. Floor Lockout. You just make sure these dials are set to ‘on’,” her hoof adjusted the panel. “And then flick these switches.” With a simple flick of her wrist, Sassi made the two red lights over the fuse-like devices green, the mare nodding in approval. “Simple enough?” Astral nodded, the two quickly making their way back to the elevator. “Simple enough. I can handle that if I have to.” The elevator doors closed. They managed to travel two floors before the lockout engaged again, Sassi nodding slowly. “Two floors…this may take us a bit if that’s the limit,” she muttered. “This one is a large gym, basically. Firearm shooting range, sparring arenas, basically anything training-related. It’s a bit of a walk for this one. With a bit of luck, we’ll be clear.” The door opened, and a microwave-sized Spider promptly launched itself at Astral’s face.