“Get the cover off of that junction.” Access remarked, gesturing towards a sheer drop into complete darkness. “I’ll be happy to see sunlight again after this.”
“We’re leaving a ton of evidence that we were here.”
“I know, but we don’t have much choice.” Access grunted. “By now the others should’ve done their thing and gotten the data the client wants, if not, we’ll improvise and make a quick exit.”
The opening into the duct leading down wasn’t wide enough for them both to jump down at once, so they went one at a time, allowing some time between jumps so they didn’t land on top of each other. The drop was well within the rated distance their cybernetic limbs could handle, but they did some damage to the duct work as they hit the bottom as a result of the forces involved.
“Ducts are corroded, watch your step.” Snowy pointed out, removing his hoof from a hole he’d made. “Looks like concrete on the other side, we’re probably in the foundations right now.”
“Right about where we want to be, just above the maintenance areas, right?”
“That is correct, there should be access hatches we can use nearby.”
“Say, how many drops did we make back there?” Access said, feeling at the joins between the duct sections as they walked. “Not that it matters, but I’m surprised at the lack of ladders around here. Workplace safety would have a field day if they knew about this.”
“Jokes aside, since there aren’t any dead bodies around I would surmise that there is a way out that doesn’t involve a lot of… paperwork, so to speak.” Snowy answered. “As for how far underground we are, I’d say that we’re somewhere around where the Genetech office is, vertically speaking that is.”
There was a dim spot of light in the distance, probably the only source of light they’d seen a good while. It was a small industrial cage light, which emitted a sickly red light onto its surroundings. It marked the entrance of a small alcove probably once used as a place to take shelter while the system was running or to provide access to the duct work.
This assumption proved to be correct as at the very back of the alcove, behind a rusted corrugated steel door was a ladder that led up through a hatch that didn’t appear to be locked.
Access clambered up the ladder and pushed gently against the hatch to see if it’d open without destructive force, and open it did. The sudden bright light blinded Access for a moment before his cyberoptics adjusted.
There was a group of industrial elevators clustered around a central brick and steel column, with hallways leading off in multiple directions.
“Got a hallway, elevators, can’t see anyone though.”
“Hear anything?”
“Electrical transformers, water pipes, not much else.”
“Alright, lets go find the nearest access point, we should be close enough to make contact if we relay through one.”
“Good idea.”
Matterhorn raised his sidearm at the stallion, who didn’t even flinch at the prospect of having a firearm that could knock golf ball sized holes in things pointed at him. Instead, the stallion approached the side of the machine, and grasped at a rusted side panel, never taking his eyes off the floor.
It soon became obvious after a few attempts to get his attention that the stallion was blind, or could only see to the floor and not much else.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“We’re… GeneTech employees on assignment.” Matterhorn bluffed. “We were unaware that anyone was still down here.”
“That is a lie, or perhaps not the whole truth.” the stallion said with a smile spreading across his face. “Nobody that this machinery services ever comes down here, and I doubt anyone up there remembers anyone down here.”
“We need a way out, preferably quickly.”
The stallion nodded.
“There are things in the tunnels behind those doors you would scarcely believe, remnants of GeneTech’s experimentation.” the stallion remarked. “They’re using their own employees as test subjects for some kind of experiment, those that make the cut are made use of as their betters see fit, the ones that don’t… are disposed of.”
“You don’t look like the kind of pony that should have that kind of information.” Phantom remarked. “Who are you exactly?”
“Me? I am the caretaker assigned to take care of this machinery.” the stallion remarked dryly. “It breaks down often, but I usually get it working again.”
“And this terminal?” Phantom continued. “I think it might be older than me.”
“I use it to request supplies, as well as access select files on the GeneTech subnet, but my failing vision makes it hard to use at the best of times.” the stallion said. “The things I order get delivered via those pneumatic tubes over there. It’s old tech, but it works well enough.”
“You… have access to their subnet down here?”
“I thought that might’ve piqued your interest.” Matterhorn chuckled. “Can you access the data we need from there?”
“Probably, but it’ll take a moment.”
The stallion let out a raspy chuckle. “I had you figured for the edgerunner types, and it seems I was correct in that assessment.”
“I hope you don’t mean to try and stop us.”
“GeneTech has it coming, and you can thank their past and present actions for that. They sent me down here only to forget they even did it, then filled the old tunnels with their failed experiments.” the stallion spat. “So, you want a way out of their dumping ground, yes? It seems to me that the tunnels are your only option.”
“I mean, we could just head out the intake ducts up there.” Matterhorn remarked. “To be frank, i couldn’t care if a few suit’s air gets a little stale.”
“No, we should take the tunnels.” Phantom remarked from behind the terminal. “We’re actually quite close to an exit, but it’s through those sealed security doors we saw back there.”
“How do we get them open though, weren’t they sealed?”
“Just one remains operational according to this floor plan, thats the one we’ll use.”
Matterhorn was first out the door, weapon in hoof. Next was Phantom who hurried away from the terminal with the kind of urgency one would expect from a Netrunner, but Star stayed back for a few moments.
She felt a certain sense of pity for the stallion. Blind, old, barely able to speak or even move at a normal pace by this point in his life, yet he still worked for those above him, literally and figuratively.
The stallion looked in her direction for a moment, smirked, then continued with his allotted tasks in a methodical albeit slow manner.
When Star rejoined the others, they were all the way down the hall stood at the security door Phantom mentioned. She had herself wired into its control board, but seemed to be having trouble getting it to open as the board booted her out the system every few attempts.
She refused to accept that her cyberware wasn’t cut out for the job and assumed it was because the system was old and decrepit enough to need a lighter touch.
“Did you find what we needed?” Matterhorn asked, peering down the hallway as if he expected something hostile to jump them at any moment. “If this ends in us not getting paid…”
“Yes, yes, I got it.” Phantom answered defensively. “It’s safely stored on a memory chip, encrypted as per the client’s instructions.”
It was a few moments more before the security door’s control board finally allowed it to open, though it only rose up enough for them to crawl underneath before the whole thing stopped working for good.
Mercifully, it did not fall on them as they worked their way underneath. The hallway was completely devoid of any light apart from the little amount that leaked from the space they entered from, although the general layout was at least similar enough to feel their way around.
Matterhorn grabbed Star and pushed her backwards suddenly at an intersection, signaling that they should immediately shut up and pointed around the corner at a dark shape hanging from the ceiling.
It was the thin, emaciated frame of a Bat Pony laying on some water pipes, sound asleep but very much on guard. Its ears flicked at the slightest noise, near or far, audible or not and it yawned sleepily at times.
“Sneak past, or take it out?” Star mouthed.
Matterhorn shook his head and rounded the corner. With the aid of some of his cyberware designed to aid stealth in situations like this, he silently slipped past the sleeping creature and he motioned for the others to follow him at a safe distance.
There were two more laying among some loose cabling in one direction, but the other direction was clear, at least it seemed so to Matterhorn’s eyes.
It occurred to him that some of the eurobits he’d earned while doing merc work might’ve been better spent on some updated optics, but no, he spent much of it on cyberware and a heavy pistol which he could not use unless he wanted every single one of these creatures to wake up at once.
“How many of these things do you think there are?” Star said quietly. “Phantom?”
“No idea.” she replied. “We should assume they outnumber us by a large margin.”
A loud bang echoed in the distance, source unknown. It was loud enough to draw the attention of the creatures laying among the loose cabling, which elicited a low growl from them.
“Side room, now!” Phantom half-shouted.
They hurried into a side room down the clear hallway to hopefully wait the creatures out, at least until a couple of them started to wander. Phantom could hear their hoofsteps through the door, but there wasn’t any indication the creatures could sense their presence, at least not yet.
“The exit hatch is down that hallway we saw, past those creatures.” Phantom pointed out. “It’s not ideal that they’re awake, but hopefully they’ll get out of our way naturally and we can just slip past.”
“What about the others?” Star inquired. “Have either of you heard from them?”
“They’re probably still trying to find a way to reach us, we lost contact before everything went to hell.” Phantom grunted. “I doubt they’ll be much help, worst case scenario is that we’ll come back to a couple of flash-fried corpses.”
“What if that noise was them coming to help?”
“If it was, they have a funny way of helping since it woke up a couple of this creatures. Even if they were here, they probably don’t know what’s down here waiting for them.” Matterhorn stressed. “If by some miracle that is them, they’ll find a way to contact us.”