By David C. Daoust
Colin Vice moved like a shadow through the lower passageways of the old repurposed Crucible of Halfhul. One foot in front of the other, just, with the added intention of not being heard. Nor seen, really, but the lighting was sparse and far between. Not to mention these levels were so incredibly uninviting; the air was humid and the heat- stifling, it smelled of old metal and stagnant air. Who would want to come down here? He had not been in years, and even when he was, it was only for a few moments- in passing.
The sound of that continuous clank and then clink of heavy machinery, was what had led him there. At these levels the noise seemed to shake the entire station. Up above the sound was barely noticeable– the only reason he had even detected it, was thanks to that vat of nutrient rich liquid his natural body was stored within, when he was sent on missions. The liquid had amplified the vibrations, which allowed him to make note of it.
Of course, the first time he had heard the clinking clank, he was leaving for Twin Crown; didn’t really give him an opportunity to investigate. Truth was- he had forgotten all about it. That is until his most recent return. This time, Deloris, and all those lovely nurses, were slow to pull him up from his pod. He started to gain consciousness long before Deloris got a chance to slap him in the face a few times. Ultimately, it made him wonder if all that slapping was even a necessary part of the procedure… But also, gave him the few moments he needed to once again wonder where the hell that clank of machinery was coming from.
Colin left behind the dark uncomfortable corridors as he crossed the threshold into the Crucibles belly. The massive chamber stretched beneath him. Levels of metal-grated walkways led down similarly constructed stairs, into the massive machinery of old Mining-bot factories. The clink and clank that led him here, was now a cacophony of skull-rattling noise, the only notable source, were those moving parts that distinguished their noise from the din. Below, heat radiated upward, molten steel glowed red from vats larger than Colin’s quarters.
Colin found that if he kept his feet closer to the wall, where the grating held more support, the catwalks were much less likely to ring out with his footfalls. Granted, it would just be adding to the cacophony, seemed to Colin the high-pitched ring may carry. This technique brought him all the way down to the old factory floor with none the wiser. Not that he’d actually found anyone, as of yet.
The factories were intended to be dormant, as they were when the Organization had first moved their operations here. They were now, clearly, fully operational. Fact was, if someone had ordered these factories to be put back online, it had to have been his father. Colin had not seen hide nor hair of his father in longer than was the norm. Colin knew Bernard Vice was a busy man, but even so, and largely thanks to the new information he had gleaned from his trip to New Runnymede, Colin felt like, maybe, something was amiss.
Bernard was expected at that convention. At the time, Colin was not surprised that his father may blow off such an event– though once he learned of its importance, learned of just how much planning must have been involved, he felt there had to be something going on. Which explained all Colin’s stealthy maneuvering, within, what was pretty much his home.
It was not beyond Colin that these factories were designed for only one purpose, to construct the oversized Mining-bots this Crucible once used to mine the Resource Planets. Given what Colin knew, he felt he had a pretty solid guess as to what to expect was being spit out the other side– and it was not going to be Mining-bots.
The manufacturing machines were fairly closed off, the working parts housed behind walls all their own; Where one may expect to see machines, wielding and connecting random parts into a greater whole, there was just the noise coming from within.
It was actually a fairly long walk, between these massive machines, throughout the raucous belly, that caused Colin to drop the shadow routine. At this point, if someone found him, they found him, he was not going to be stopped or turned away. Not until he got some answers.
Still- he did not detect a single human presence. It was a fully automated operation. That is, except for the very end, where inspectors monitored the cooled constructs that were the end result…
It was here he found a single man standing over the work being done below. He could not believe who he found. Seriously, he doubted his own senses. It was not until Colin was standing directly next to the man, that he accepted that it was, indeed, his father.
Colin was somewhat relieved, though still, fairly confounded. At least he’d have his answers, at long last.
The noise was so loud, that his father probably did not understand the greeting, yet Colin did successfully get his attention.
His father said something back, Colin could not understand it– Colin leaned in to hear better, yet this action caused his eye to catch the aforementioned ‘cooled constructs’ below. While he had guessed right, that it was not the mining-bots that were being constructed, Colin Vice fully expected to find the arachnid-like ‘Battle Drones’ below.
Not so.
What he found in their place, were the long Red Serpentine Forms, which -he- had never seen before.
Those of the Red Faction, however, knew them as ‘Assault-bots’.
Colin glanced at his father in puzzlement.
Bernard leaned in to repeat himself, yelled over the din, “No- I’m not your father.”
Just as those words sank into his mind, he felt the vice-like grip, clamp around his arms. Colin was suddenly lifted into the air as the assault-bot, that had slithered up behind him, stood high on his snake-like tail to leave Colin dangling, truly helpless.
‘That can’t be’, he thought. He managed to crane his head around to witness the bot behind him, and thought, ‘that’s not possible!’
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