Laboratory maintenance

The landing had been just as rough as their flight down from orbit, Dustin bringing the shuttle in as hard as he dared given the circumstances. As he killed the power and the whine of the engines spooled down, the man in the seat next to him glanced at one of the gauges and spoke up. “Hull’s pretty hot. Give it a minute before we pop the hatch to be on the safe side; don’t want to cook ourselves by accident.”

Dustin frowned at Macch’s words. “Can we do anything about it? The longer it’s radiating heat, the longer we look like a big glowing mark on the horizon to anyone looking out from the lab.” He knew it wasn’t going to be possible; the shuttle wasn’t really designed for the job they’d asked of it, but felt like voicing his concerns regardless.

In answer, the spy just shook his head before rising to go and help Linth prepare the camouflage netting they’d be covering their transport with… or at least they would be as soon as it became safe to step outside.

Those few minutes while the hull cooled felt like an eternity to Dustin, the gauge barely moving as he watched the external temperature finally drop back towards normal. The instant the heat shields had cooled to a manageable range, he rose from his seat and darted to the door with the others following close behind. Once outside, the two spies proceeded to begin hauling the reinforced netting over the hull - and while they did that, Defia and Yril’k fanned out to see if there were any signs that their arrival had been spotted.

Reconvening in a pocket of tall grass that lay between the shuttle and their planned access point into the facility a short time later, the group double checked their equipment for the last time before they began their infiltration. “No sign’k of any alerts.” Yril’k said, flexing her blade arms as they worked.

Defia nodded in response, before gesturing towards where the ventilation shaft was located beyond their limited cover. “Statement. I am not detecting any additional changes to our planned entry point from the diagrams. Addendum-inquiry. Are we clear to proceed?”

The group exchanged glances, then nodded. Keeping low, the party moved through the grass as quietly and carefully as possible, followed by a rapid sprint from the edge of the greenery to the metal housing of the ventilation unit. The construction was clearly artificial, a box of metal glittering in the sunlight from where it sat on a plinth of what looked like some form of concrete. As Macch pulled a set of devices from his pocket and went to work on getting them an access point, Defia knelt and tapped the surface underfoot.

“Statement. This aggregate substance has a limited quantity of Fractal mass integrated with it. Hypothesis. They are using it for self-repair capability, to prevent minor damage from causing a loss of structural integrity.” Behind her, a grate clanged as it fell down and struck the floor, the edges still smoking slightly where Macch’s acidic toys had eaten through the metal.

“Give it a moment while I spritz some neutralizer on the bits I just etched out and we’re good to go,” the spy commented, picking up the last of the devices he’d prepared and pointing it towards the frothing material slowly dripping around the edge of the hole he’d created. As he did so, Linth carefully picked up the fallen grate and moved it out of the way, ensuring there would be no obstructions once they were ready to breach the facility.

The light in the shaft was odd as Dustin descended, his belt clipped firmly to the twisted cable they’d clamped onto the outside of the housing above. Dark, glittering, a combination of the material around him and the glow of his helmet torch that put him on edge as he slid past a side turning that they’d discounted; according to the plans, it just lead to a water treatment area.

The torch had its glow turned right down so that there was less risk of them being spotted during the climb if anyone happened to walk into the disused room they were hoping to find at the bottom. As for the tunnel walls… the area near the surface had just been plain steel, but the lower they got the more bands of Fractal mass were integrated into the construction.

That fact worried him more than anything else. It was one thing for the Durathisians to have small amounts of Fractal technology used for assassinations or to give the best of their starships an edge. It was quite another to find it being used in general construction, even if that construction was a highly secret facility. Defia too looked worried - at least as far as he could tell her expression from where she hung above him in the gloom of their descent.

Any further thoughts on the nature of their enemy were halted moments later with his feet striking the metal plating at the bottom of the shaft. Signalling for those above to halt their climb, Dustin bent and peered out through the vent grating.

The room beyond was dark and cluttered. After a moment’s hesitation, Dustin opted to risk turning up the brightness on his torch. Dust motes danced in the beam as he took in more of the room before dimming it again. Cleaning supplies, storage crates - all covered in a thin layer of grime that suggested a lack of regular visitors. Lowering himself carefully, he leaned back against the wall of the shaft and kicked out hard.

A stack of cleaning material he’d spotted during his visual sweep of their entry point broke the grating’s fall as Dustin’s blow knocked it out of the frame. Scrambling down after it, he readied his pulse carbine before leaning back into the vent to signal the rest of the group to proceed.

Gathering by the door once everyone was down, Macch risked pulling it slightly open and glancing outside. Swiftly closing it again, he nodded to the others. “Corridor’s clear. Linnie, signal our contact?”

The big man pulled a transmitter from the hip pouch he’d attached to his belt alongside his two massive blades. Carefully, he extended the antenna and pressed the activator, the device looking like a toy in his hands. “Signalling now… No response.”

Dustin grimaced. “Give it five, then signal again. If there’s still no response, we go loud.”

Five minutes ticked by glacially slowly. It didn’t help that the entire group were on edge now; despite the disused nature of the room they were in, there was always a risk that today would be the day it stopped being disused. As it was, the soft click from a timer on Linth’s wrist made most of them jump before the giant once again pressed the button on the transmitter. “Still no response. We going loud?”

Dustin sighed and nodded. “Defia, with me. Everyone else - move out.” The rogue Fractal moved alongside him, and a moment later all six of them burst out of the storage room and into a flat run.

The passageway was thankfully clear, but Dustin didn’t hang around to see if it’d remain that way. No sooner had they cleared the door than he and Defia hared off to the left, leaving the others behind. In theory, if Defia’s reasoning was sound then the passage they were heading down should take them towards the research labs she thought were most likely to be producing the Fractal mass, while the others were heading towards the brig and the weapons facilities for their own challenges.

Rounding a corner, Dustin spotted a camera mounted on the ceiling, with what looked like a turret barrel protruding from underneath it. Deciding that firstly leaving a hostile weapon pointed at him was a foolish idea, and secondly that this was as good a point as any to start the distraction that the others would need for their own missions, he drew his weapon up to his shoulder, aimed and fired.

The camera and it’s associated turret let out a shower of sparks as the pulse round struck, Dustin’s weapon tearing through circuits and mounting alike to leave the device hanging from the ceiling by half-broken data cables. Moving forward, he hurried past the wreckage with Defia close on his heels as they approached the next door. Dipping inside, he wondered why no alarm had sounded, then snapped off two more shots as further camera-turrets began to rotate towards their position.

Still with no alarm or sign of anyone, they crossed what appeared to be a room studying soil samples, darted down a flight of stairs, and stepped into an area filled with glowing cylindrical vats that put Dustin far too much in mind of the chamber from which he’d rescued Aricia. Defia froze when she saw the vats, before moving to rest a hand on the glass as she gazed at what was floating inside; Dustin crossed the distance to her after sweeping the room and sniping yet another camera. “What is it, love?” he asked - but before she could do more than turn her head to reply, red light flooded the room as the alarms finally triggered.