Convergence

by Cabochard

Chapter 2: Plans

Chapter 2: Plans

The elevator came open at the basement, and I just lay in it for a few minutes. What I had just seen had shaken me, and laying there just felt natural. Perfectly, one hundred and ten percent natural. In fact, why couldn't I just stay there and not deal with whatever the hell that thing had been? I mean, if you ignore something, it just goes away, right? I was distracted from this line of thought by the ding of elevator doors closing. Not wanting to find out whether that thing upstairs knew how to call an elevator, I got up and exited.

The elevator opened into a waiting room. The walls were lined with spaceport chairs, and several lines of them went down the center, the chairs back to back. A single large ,sliding metal door, just like the one in the landing bay, was at the opposite end from the elevator. The standard lights, lining the ceiling, were completely out, a few lying on the floor and on top of the chairs. On the walls, the red emergency lights were on, deepening the shadows and practically saying "Welcome to Hell". On a wall to my left was a map of the station, comprised of both a top-down map and a depth map. The basement, of course, was at the bottom, roughly half a mile underground.

I started to make my way towards the door, carefully picking my way over the broken glass from the light. Then, I stopped. I realized something: I had no clue where I was going. The only direction I had in mind was "away". Away from what, you ask? Just away. Away from the elevator, away from the monster upstairs, away from whatever was going on. With this in mind, I began to devise a brilliant plan: I would run. Or, more accurately, I would fly. I wasn't sure whether or not I could fly the shuttle, but I wouldn't have to find out if I could contact Trigger.

I flipped on my comm, and switched to the team's personal channel. "Trigger, this is Wrenches. Can you hear me?" Static. "Trigger, this is Wrenches. Can you hear me?" Static. "Trigger? Solara? Anyone?" Still static. Damn it. There were two possibilities. Either my comm was broken, or it simply wasn't powerful enough. I ran a quick diagnostic on it, and my RIG told me it was fine. Then, another possibility crossed my mind. Maybe they were dead. Maybe I was all alone, on this rock, with no one-

I shut down that line of thought before I fell to the ground in despair. Since my comm was fine, the problem must be range. I walked over to the map and checked it. I quickly found what I was looking for. The comm station, which, as long as it was intact, would provide me with the range to contact anyone within the galaxy. It was pretty much at the opposite end of the station from where I was, but an elevator at the other end of the basement would get me pretty close. Of course, I had to get there first.

I plugged my RIG into the panel on the side of the map, and downloaded one. This one would provide me with data on the state of the station, and update in real-time. The map reported several breaches into the station that had been locked down. Without a full engineering team, I would probably never be able to safely open those doors, so I began to chart a safe path to the elevator. It was fairly roundabout, and best described as "the scenic route", but it would get me where I wanted to be.

The trip would take a while, so I got moving. I went through the door, and began to move, jumping at every shifting shadow, and peering around every corner before turning it. Of course, this was absolutely useless, as I would soon find out. The monsters don't just stand in the middle of the hallway waiting for somepony to happen along. I walked along for a few minutes, and grew bored with the lack of anything happening. I started to calm down and the memory of my encounter faded. Maybe I'd imagined it. Maybe all I'd seen had been a pony in a complicated RIG. Or maybe a costume. Yeah, a costume made sense. That was totally it.

I was allowed to think that for ten whole seconds. Then, the ceiling exploded.

Pieces of metal grating rained down on me from above, quickly followed by a heavier object, which made a squelch as it bounced off of me and hit the ground. The squelching object was followed by a screeching mass of flesh and bone, jumping down on me from above. I barely saw it out of the corner of my eye before it slammed into my back, it's sharp bone-spear-things scrabbling wildly at my armor, trying to find a weak spot. It was having a bit of difficulty, despite the obvious weak spots where the armor plates came together, mainly because the whole time I was screaming and trying to run away. My laser saw was trying to cut it, but was having a bit of difficulty due to the fact it didn't have a 360 degree rotation. I managed to get out from under it, and I ran, not even turning around to take a look.

I ran down the hallway and hung a left, no longer following my planned route. Behind me, I could hear the monster running after me. I turned a corner and saw the thing that would save my life; a hatch was set into the wall. I quickly opened it by pressing my hoof against the hoof-reader and letting it scan my engineering code. It opened quickly and I jumped in, letting it slam shut behind me. In an effort to reduce the number of injuries, these hatches, designated SL5H, or Security Level Five Hatches, would open to no one but a trained engineer. This was because they lead to dangerous areas; reactor cores, engineering workstations, armories, and even medbays are designated Level Five, and any maintenance hatches leading there are locked down.

This one came out into an engineering station. They were designated Level Five after the people up top figured out that laser saws and blowtorches are fairly dangerous. The place was devoid of bodies, but there was plenty of equipment lying all over the place. It was a simple set up, with a few desks set up around the place, a few lying on their sides, with the papers that had once been on them strewn all across the floor. Against the back wall was a workbench, and, opposite from it, was a door.

I ran over to the workbench, and immediately got to work. The laser saw was dangerous in its own right, but would need modifications if it was going to be my only weapon. After a few seconds working, I figured out I didn't have the pieces necessary to modify it too extensively. After a few minutes of searching, I happened on enough pieces to widen the blast by a few inches. Enough to turn it into a more effective weapon, and increase its range by a few feet. Still not a perfect weapon, but closer than it had been before.

With my modification as complete as it was going to be, I sank to the ground next to the workbench and checked my map. I was far off course, naturally, With a few seconds of work, I figured a path, through a large cargo offloading area. The map didn't include an image of the terrain down there, but I assumed it'd be tight. This path would extend my trip by half an hour, but it was faster, and safer, than trying to retrace my steps.

With my plans made, I decided to rest in my "safe area" for a few minutes. I had a long trip ahead of me...

Author's Note:

Sorry this one took so long. Life has interfered in my writing for the last time! Hopefully, the next one will be out faster, better written, and longer!