Research and Development

Dustin followed Yril’k’s lead, her chitin glinting in the dim light projected by their torches as they moved along seemingly featureless dark corridors. Their boots made soft clinking noises as they moved, the only sound in the pitch black of the complex. So far at least, the plans that Defia had sketched out for them seemed to be holding true, letting them navigate reasonably swiftly. Down to the end of the corridor, turning left then right around a T-junction, then onward into the abyss.

The group hesitated when they reached another door. This one shouldn’t have been there according to Defia’s plans, and Dustin glanced quickly at the Fractal woman who he was concerned to see was frowning. “Statement.” She said softly, stepping forward. “Passage seal unexpected. Label markers indicate it leads to research area. Addendum. Suggest biologicals brace themselves for likely evidence of dissection of local life forms to determine evolutionary level. Unfortunate.”

Swallowing hard, Dustin nodded for the red-eyed woman to open the door. One more curious burst of noise at the edge of hearing, and the blockage opened like the iris of a camera, revealing a room that was dimly lit by blue and green glow coming from a range of tanks. To Dustin’s immense relief, while there was evidence of unspoken horrors in the form of bloodstains on some of the surfaces, all but one tank was empty; the solitary occupant of the room being one of the natives.

She floated in the glowing gel, her body covered in a simple dress that stuck to her skin where it was soaked through by the substance she was suspended in. Her wings - delicate, pearl coloured and looking like those of a butterfly - extended from her back, while her hair had been slicked down by the gel to show off two tiny antennae that revealed that her species was indeed insectoid in origin despite their largely mammalian appearance.

Defia stepped up to the tube and tilted her head to one side. “Statement. Unit is being preserved for study. Estimated time since capture three days seven hours eight minutes. Based on protocol, she will be terminated and dissected in approximately three further days after routine bio-monitoring has completed. Analysis. We can proceed, and return for the unit on our way out. Retrieval of this unit likely to be prioritized by the prime unit, correct?”

It took Dustin a moment to work out what Defia had suggested, then he nodded. Pressing a hand briefly against the cold glass of the tube, he stared up at the captive. “We’ll be back for you, don’t worry.” He muttered, then turned and walked briskly over to where Yril’k and her team were already waiting by yet another doorway. “We’ll also strip this lab and the rest of the complex for anything that might prove useful if we can.” He added, earning an acknowledging nod from his security officer before Defia opened their path forward once more.

The first sign of hostile life came a short while later. As they rounded a corner, the Fractal woman reached out a hand, grabbing the back of Dustin’s suit and tugging him back just before a needle-thin dart slammed into the wall next to where his head had been. “Medical equipment re-purposed as weaponry. Monitoring drone detected.” Defia said, as the security team moved into action, pulse carbine rounds lighting up the passageway and slamming into a shadowy form that ducked around the next corner.

Dustin didn’t comment on her lack of the usual vocal tick of “Statement” - he was glad she’d suppressed it during a firefight. Unslinging his own weapon, he crouched low, following Yril’k’s lead as the Vex’ess warrior stalked towards her prey, blade arms fully extended with her pulse carbine held ready in the space between them. A series of clicks, and her squad moved into position before spinning around the corner as one, weapons spitting fire.

“Statement. Unit termination announcement pulse issued. Facility control transferring to next available unit.” Defia’s head tilted from one side to another. “Statement. We should hurry, they are likely to realize I am here soon.” Dustin nodded, and the party picked up the pace, traveling downward through dark corridors and shadowy empty rooms.

The next attack came from the rear, darts slamming into Defia’s form before anyone could react. She hissed, holes opening in her body as she expelled the foreign matter to clatter on the floor a moment before a pulse of electricity arced out from it. “Statement. They have detected me. Moving to contingency plan.” She said, darting forward; they’d discussed what to do in the event the Fractals in the facility spotted her - the presence of a rogue Fractal might cause them to do all kinds of things with their communicators, and so the plan was for her to break from the group and only focus on getting the information needed.

Dustin dropped to one knee, his pulse carbine sending flashes of light behind him. “Yril’k!” he called over his shoulder as the security team’s weapons began to bark around him. The Vex’ess woman gave a chittering acknowledgment and sprinted after Defia’s rapidly vanishing form. Out of all of them, the warrior bug was the only one that Dustin felt comfortable sending alone as a bodyguard for the rogue Fractal; she would keep Defia safe while Dustin and the team cleaned up the mess they were in and fought their way down to re-join the women.

Defia moved swiftly down dark corridors, her optics switching up into high gear as she moved fully from the visible spectrum to tracing the moving patterns of nanites and electricity through the complex. Another drone emerged from a side passage and swung at her - too slow; she was not hampered by the drive to integrate herself with the biologicals now and so moved with eerie precision. Her form warped like water, neatly splitting around the incoming blow, the drone’s makeshift weapon passing through the gap before she reformed and sped on. Behind her, the sharp sound of metal on chitin indicated unit Yril’k had engaged the drone; given the termination pulse that came shortly afterward, Defia surmised that the warrior had decapitated it with one of her bladed arms.

“Keep moving’k.” The insect woman said a moment later, catching Defia up with long predatory strides. “I sense’k motion ahead. I will deal with them’k.” Before the rogue Fractal could comment, her guardian had moved further on along the passageway, pulse carbine humming a gentle song of ****.

The passage they were on opened out into the communications array a short distance further; as Defia arrived she spotted Yril’k engaging with one of the drones they had both sensed. The other - a lower grade cleaning unit - appeared to be attempting to access the communications grid. Defia darted forward, her hand slamming into the back of it’s head before it could react. There was a momentary whine, a sensation of sparking light and the smell of overheated electrics and the drone slumped forward. Withdrawing her fist, Defia contemplated the light blue and silver patterns that were etched onto it for a second, then reached forward and touched the array.

Dustin entered the chamber, tired and covered in scrapes from dodging enemy fire but otherwise unharmed some time later. “All clear?” he asked the waiting Yril’k after she’d lowered her weapon - the insect woman having levelled it at the passage he had emerged from, clearly reacting to the noise he and the party had made. “Defia’k is in communion with the machine’k. She tells me everything’k is proceeding as planned.” The Vex’ess warrior shrugged. “I am unable’k to determine if this is true.”

The group hovered nervously around the Fractal woman, pulse carbines swivelling towards any sounds - imagined or real - for quite some time before she lifted her hand from the strange set of cylinders and spikes that made up the Fractal communicator. “Statement. I detect no further drones in this facility; you can relax. Additional information. I retrieved significant data from the grid before I was detected and expunged. Local cluster has disconnected this facility; I believe I was able to disguise our actions as a failure due to biological interference.”

Yril’k kept her weapon poised, but her shoulders visibly relaxed at Defia’s words. “You’k believe you have hidden our involvement’k? That reduces the risk of enemy’k countermeasures.” The warrior woman took a breath, then nodded. “Captain’k, we should return to the surface’k. We have what we came for’k. And if you wish to rescue the native’k it would be advisable to do so before our nerves’k become too frayed by the dark.”

The passage back up through the Fractal base was tense. Even with Defia’s assurance that there were no further living drones waiting to launch attacks on them from the shadows, the overwhelming sense of unease caused by alien corridors filled with darkness and cold black metal remained, and Dustin was very glad when they made it back to the dim glow from the goo-filled tank containing the butterfly woman they intended to rescue.

Staring up at her, he glanced to Defia. “Will she wake up as soon as the tank is drained? And is it safe to get her out, or should we wait until Bleu is available?” The Fractal tilted her head to one side, considering the matter, then pressed her hand against the control panel of the tube. “Statement. Maintaining the unit in suspension until medical services can be administered is advisable. Analysis. We can connect the tank to the shuttle’s power grid. Internal batteries will hold it during transit to the shuttle. We can then return to the ship until unit designation Bleu is present to assist in awakening the unit.”