Congrats to the lads and lasses on the Discord who spent hours guessing away at the password to unlock this one. (Maxes15)
Credit to AxisRouge for the original version of this part of the timeline. I will freely admit that prior to the point of divergence, most of the chapter is basically identical to the one in canon Integration, linked here: LINK . Yes, I rewrote most of the entire chapter. And yes , I went and contacted AxisRouge personally to get permission to do so before I started. So if the chapter in some places looks identical to the one from canon, that's because it is, but I had permission from Axis to do so. Please don't bother either of us about it, I promise it's all been sorted out and you can just enjoy the story without guilt.
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The Intern
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Document opening. Memory recording playi-- ERROR E█ROR ERR██. CORRUPTION DETECTED. PRESC█N██ OF M█ME██C H█ZARD ████CTE█. EFFECTS… NEGL█GIB█. PERSPECTIVE C████D.
[THE FABRIC HAS RIPPLED. BUT REMAINS UNFRAYED.]
Alert: Signs of the █e██ic █a████ that manifested across the galaxy in late 3061 are now retroactively affecting memories from before the event of its introduction to █-███. It's origin remains unknown, and its lack of noticeable effects beyond its ripples in the ███ and an apparent but as of yet unknown effect on memories and █████████ leaves the priority of discerning it's full nature and origin low.
Resuming playback of digitized memory recording.
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Copper 9. Cabin Fever Labs
Seramorris 27, 3052. 11:30 PM.
(Mitchell Martinez)
"Martinez! You're on cathedral duty!"
It was my second month on the job, and I was not having a good day. Not for the first time, I regretted following my dad's footsteps and interning in JCJ's Centros location. In the last two months alone, I'd learned that the reason there was a comms blackout on the planet was because there was a malevolent Eldritch Horror eating entire planets-- Earth was gone , I'd been put through rigorous training sessions dealing in mining safety, hazardous material-handling, programming, and sentinel-controlling, saw a creepy and mysterious figure lurking in the shadows that appeared uncannily similar to the "Disassembly Drones" I'd encountered on site, and had my lunch stolen by 002-Nori. While entire planets dying was objectively worse, personally , the theft of my lunch hurt the most. It was a good lunch, damnit!
And now, I was being assigned to cathedral duty for only the second time since my internship had begun. Today in particular was the date that my lunch thief was slated to have the 2.1.8 Patch applied to her, and thank goodness it was! She'd gone bonkers with her Solver recently and killed a bunch of people in the process. Getting that out of her couldn't come soon enough! Still, really wish I didn't have to be there to deal with the possessed drone who literally stole my lunch from me.
I sighed and complied with my supervisor's relayed order, trudging over to the proximity reader for the main elevator and slapping my keybug on it. Dad had gotten me a shiny new gold one with bright green lights to replace my old one, since 002 had stepped on that one when she stole my lunch. The new one was named "Buzz," even though it never really did that… I thought it was a cute name, okay!
When the elevator arrived, I scooped up Buzz and held him in my fist, stepping into the old clunky thing. Faint-but-cheery elevator music leaked out from the speakers, playing some jazzy clarinet-led version of the sentinel's activation tone ("Eternal Dream" was the name, one I knew well; as I'd been forced to listen to multiple versions of it in order to activate different sentinel modes).
Upon reaching the mines under the labs, I began walking at a careful pace, reading the map projected by Buzz (I'd only been this way once, and it was really easy to get lost on the way to the cathedral that served as Facility 012). I only looked up to greet the miners and Worker Drones gathering oranium-- and yes, it was oranium and not uranium, thank goodness… not that it was much better --and to give my dad a high-five as he passed by. "HAZMAT!" my dad, Julian, called to me over his shoulder, without even looking up from his notepad.
"Got it!" I called back, rolling my eyes but smiling. It was always good to interact with pops down here, no matter how small that interaction may be; our encounters had been few and far between, after all, until I'd had gotten my internship at Cabin Fever in the first place. Only another two months and I'd start getting paid !
Finally, I got up to the cathedral, skirting around the chained sentinels who were yapping at the entrance while I ran up the steps. Those things still made me nervous, even though I'd been working with them constantly since day three here and I knew they were 99.9% unable and unlikely to attack humans. I stepped through the doors to the cathedral, taking a sharp left turn and grabbing my hazmat suit, slipping it on as quick as I could and slapping a helmeted gasmask atop my head next, covering my light brown eyes, black hair, and latino face that was gonna get facial hair some day , before grabbing a clipboard next to where the suit was. I skimmed it, realizing there were notes on it. Really complex notes. "What the…" I muttered.
A flash of lighting and boom of thunder caused me to jerk my head up to look further into the Cathedral, and I laid eyes upon Solver Integration Test Subject 002. Normally, Nori was a sassy, spunky drone with a hot temper, who liked to binge anime, was addicted to punk rock/nightcore, and possibly also had a hobby of stealing lunches because man I was still miffed about that, but right now?
Nori looked downright HORRIFYING.
Floating about the Petagrav-- aka the "pentagram gravity engine", designed by Dr. Elizabeth Ridley, patent pending on the universe not dying to Solver --tethered to the ground by six chains, she seemed to be the source of a localized gravitational anomaly. Oil flowed from Nori/the Solver to the chains binding her and then dripped upwards, almost like raindrops falling in reverse. Her/Its head was bowed low, giving her/it the appearance of sleeping.
"SCIENCE HOLDING STRONG, SIR! MATH!"
I jerked my head to the right, startled by the declaration from a vestment-clad scientist, who took me a second to peg as the fantical (and slightly insane) Dr. Ridley. But before I could ask why she'd called me "sir," another flash of lighting-- wait, we were underground, why was there lightning? I thought --caused me to nervously glance back at the end of the building.
Nori/The Solver's head snapped up, audibly cracking as it did so, fanged grin splitting her/its face, eyes glowing a caustic, molten yellow that showed far more malevolence than the few times I'd seen 001 before her escape, and those eyemotes bore into my very soul .
I paled behind my mask, swallowing, glancing left and right as I pointed at myself in a "Who, me?" gesture. The grin inched ever so slightly wider. Maybe I shouldn't have yelled at her for stealing my lunch , I thought.
"Dr. Chambers!"
I turned away from a sight I was definitely going to have nightmares about later, taking a slight gasp as I finally broke that gaze, and startled at Dr. Ridley's snappy shout. She was looking right at me, posture expectant , and I was very confused. "Oh! No-- I-I'm not--" I pointed at my nametag looking down at it as I did so--
"Dr. Chambers."
I snapped my gaze back at the uniform racks.
My own suit, with its still-shiny nametag, hung in its usual place.
I sucked in a breath. Of course… Of COURSE I'd put on the wrong suit , on today of all days!
I had very little idea of who the heck Dr. Chambers was or what his job entailed, but I did know it was waaaaaaaaaaaay past my pay-grade of nothing and that he'd been missing for a few days by now. And I also knew that I was definitely not qualified to do whatever the heck Dr. Ridley was expecting Dr. Chambers to do here and now.
"Is this guy important?" I whispered tentatively, gesturing to the nametag again and shielding my cringing face with Chambers' clipboard-- it occurred to me that I should probably make sure it doesn't get damaged.
There was a creaking that originated from Nori/the Solver's direction, cutting off whatever reply Ridley may have given, and I glanced to see that she/it was now moving . Shadows danced on the cobblestone walls behind her/it, taking the shapes of four claws. Four, giant, invisible pincer claws that cut right through the chains holding her/it down like they were made of dry spaghetti. Fuck my life , I thought.
Nori/The Solver began to creep downward towards the ground as the invisible claws carried her down the walls, drifting down like a possessed person straight out of a horror movie, using another unseen shadow limb to rip one of the hooks at the end of a broken chain out of the wall and hurl it right at me!
I yelped. A very dignified and manly yelp, but a yelp nonetheless, as I ducked and raised Dr. Chambers' clipboard in an instinctive defense. The former of those two moves saved my life, as I heard the hook spear the clipboard and rip it from my hands as it embedded itself into the floor behind me, carving a furrow through several feet of stone in the process. Oh man, Chambers is not gonna be happy when he finds that out , I thought.
One of the other scientists in the room, standing next to a console, grabbed a lever and yanked it down, activating the Pentagrav below Nori/the Solver and the ultraviolet lights that flanked it.
Nori/the Solver was almost instantly slammed into the ground face-first, the oil around her/it dropping as well due to the increased gravity. The UV lights exposed the many tendrils and claws protruding from her/its back, causing them and her/its base form to hiss and sizzle before they fizzled like bad graphics on a computer screen. One of the claws fought to reach out for me, extending toward me as I stood rooted by terror for what seemed like an eternity, before the appendage retracted into the entity's body along with the rest of the limbs. I quietly whimpered and took a step back.
"Chambers!" Ridley shouted, grabbing my attention and tossing me a Test Subject ID tag. "Grab 48!" she ordered.
I glanced down at the tag. I recognized the picture on it as Yeva, the first successfully Patched Solver drone. I knew exactly where she was, but I wasn't sure I had the credentials to access the area. "Right, so…" I gave a nervous chuckle as I looked up at Ridley and pointed at the tag. "...this a doctor-specific thing, or…?"
She ignored me, which, you know, totally understandable even if that kinda hurt, as she strode purposefully towards Nori/the Solver as she produced the failsafe USB containing Patch.2.1.8 from her biretta. The design was her own, mirroring her fixation on religion and occultic connections to the Solver. She twirled the large, ornate crucifix it was housed in, made entirely of engraved gold, within her hand, and deployed the USB drive at the bottom, looking like a total badass the whole time.
I started to backpedal as I was ignored, and gave a shaky, "…'cuz I'm on it!" as I gave a swing of my fist that I absolutely wasn't actually feeling, before turning around and sprinting out of the cathedral. I weaved my way past other scientists and workers, stumbled down the stairs while simultaneously attempting to mount my helmet's camera/flashlight (or Dr. Chambers's helmet's camera/flashlight, technically), and cast one last look at the cathedral over my shoulder as the doors closed.
Nori/The Solver's head rotated 180 degrees on its z-axis, her/its eyes still fixed on him and hand rising into the air.
And for some reason, the Pentagrav had been deactivated…
I didn't need a degree to know that that was bad .
The doors clunked shut, and I began to pump my arms and legs for all I was worth. I almost ran directly into the Sentinels again on my way out, gasping and weaving as I swerved to avoid their snapping jaws of steel. Experience told me they likely only wanted to lick or nuzzle me, but I didn't have time for that and they had very sharp teeth.
I reached the containment area a few moments later, where I made my way down to Yeva's locker and threw open the door. One of the other lockers looked like it's lock was shattered, but a quick glance didn't show the subject loose nearby and I had bigger problems to worry about.
The chained-up drone inside locker 048-- who had been playing Tetris on her visor, from the brief glance I got of it --gave me a weary, annoyed look that clearly said she hadn't wanted to be interrupted. I winced, and pointed at the ID in my hand, looked at it again just to make sure, and then pointed at it once more before shrugging helplessly. I had no idea what to say; "We need you"? "Get outta there"? "Come with me if you want to live"? Snappy one-liners really weren't my thing.
Yeva seemed to get the gist by the way she banged her head on the side of the locker in irritation while rolling her eyemotes was any indication. Without even moving, she used her Solver abilities to dissolve her chains into organic muck before hopping out of the locker. I had zero shame in taking a couple steps back so that it didn't get on my-- technically Chambers' --shoes. " Lead the way, " she muttered. I silently thanked my dad for having made me learn Russian when I was younger, considering the sizable minority on Copper 9 who spoke it. That and blatant nepotism was why I had this job in the first place.
I obliged, running out of the containment area with Yeva hot on my heels. I grabbed her hand as we drew closer to the… suspiciously-unlit cathedral, though the handholding was more for my own benefit than for hers. I was freaking terrified of what might be waiting at the back of the building… and I also maybe sorta kinda had a thing for drone girls, and Yeva was cute , but that wasn't on my mind at the moment... mostly . Yeva, who had no such knowledge of the situation or desire to ease her evidently non-existent fears, promptly tore her hand out of my grip in indignation. I grimaced but didn't slow down, looking over my shoulder as I passed by where the Sentinels had been.
" Had been," because their chains were broken and they were now gone .
It was getting really hard to hold back the rising tide of dismay clawing its way up from my stomach into my throat.
I ran faster, pulling ahead of Yeva, who I glanced back to for half a second to see her confused by the sudden increase in my speed, though she didn't run faster herself, and then I turned forwards just as I burst back into the cathedral--
--which, at first glance, appeared to be up and running as usual.
Suffice to say I wasn't really buying it.
I slowed to a stop, blinking my wide eyes at the scene in front of me. Scientists and researchers moved about, operating with uncanny normalcy, while Ridley was hunched over Nori/the Solver, who/which was motionless and had the failsafe USB protruding from her/its face.
But there was something… off.
The air seemed to glitch before my eyes, and I saw something wet, slick, and very red glistening all over the ground inside. I swallowed.
"Chambers! Get over here!" Ridley shouted as she beckoned with a hand. I sucked in a breath as a chill lanced down my spine, a sixth sense screaming that something was wrong in the back of my mind, and I slowly and carefully backed up, pushing the cathedral doors shut with my left foot and calling back, "Yup, so, I, uh… couldn't find 48…?"
I heard Yeva bump into the door outside, and gave a nervous laugh as thunder happened at the perfect time to mask the sound of both that and Yeva having bumped into the door. A heard a faint footstep outside, as if she took a step back, as well as a gasp. I am so fucked , I thought.
"Whatever!" Ridley shouted at me, evidently dismissing my inability to collect the Patched drone… which raised another red flag in my mind to join the entire legion of them that were already flying about.
I gulped, and offered a silent prayer in my mind of, God, I'm sorry for lusting after robot girls, but I promise that if you spare my life my worst fetish from now on will be Australian women I swear!
Aloud, I said in a terrified tone, "R-Right…" I took a tentative step forwards, feeling like my foot was weighed down with cement. "Uh… here I… come…" I looked around even more, every fiber of my being screaming that this was a BAD IDEA as I took note of the sporadic changes in my surroundings, and the appearance of more red liquid on the floor. Yeah, that's blood alright , I realized. That was most definitely blood all over the floor. And it definitely confirmed the sinking feeling in my gut that had been dropping deeper since the moment I'd seen the Pentagrav turn off upon leaving the cathedral.
These people around me… the computers… the boxes… the equipment…
They weren't real. None of it was real.
A glint caught my eye, though, and I saw something that was real-- the failsafe USB was lying in a pool of blood to my left, next to some of the pews. By this point, I was positive that the one currently sticking out of "Nori's/the Solver's" face was nothing more than an illusion.
My relief as I bent down inconspicuously to grab the Patch was temporary, however, as I glanced down the row.
There, in the shadows, clutching what remained of her right arm, was Dr. Elizabeth Ridley. The part of said arm that was missing was on the floor a few feet in front of her.
We locked gazes, our eyes hidden from each other by our visors, but we both knew exactly what the other's face currently portrayed.
Pure, unbridled, unadulterated FEAR .
The illusion broke a second later as a tendril of something glitched through a pew that I doubted still existed, and grabbed Ridley's left ankle. In what almost seemed like a surreal, dreamlike sequence-- though nightmare would be far more accurate , I thought --it dragged her through the air, whipping her off a pillar that glitched to show it was covered in blood, before dragging her screaming form through several more holograms of people and then into the pit that lay beneath the hologram of the Pentagrav. The rest of the projection glitched away as well, revealing that most of the lab area was overgrown with organic matter, and everyone-- every single person --who'd been in the building besides myself was already dead.
The whole cavern in which Facility 012 was in began to rumble, causing portions of the cathedral to collapse and chunks of stone to crash through the ceiling from the ground overhead. Displaying more athleticism than I'd ever possessed in my life as adrenaline pumped through my veins, I made a dive, scooping up Patch.2.1.8, narrowly avoiding getting crushed by falling stone in the process. I landed facedown on top of the Crucifix, biting back a groan of pain as my sternum slammed onto the golden cross's rigid, bumpy surface. Given that I just saw her die though, I wasn't gonna belittle Dr. Ridley over having designed it that way. If anything, at least it made it easier to grip the thing.
I looked up.
And there, emerging from the pit of flesh and bone , was Nori/the Solver, holding the skinned skull of Dr. Ridley in her/its hand. She/It crushed the skull in an instant, letting the biretta fall into the pit as she/it rose up to surface level on the backs of three centipedal, eldritch growths. I stared in mute horror, but managed to at least get to my feet, holding the USB in front of me while repeating my earlier prayer to God as I brandished the cross in front of me and genuinely hoped for divine intervention to save me, because I really doubted anything else could at this point. Two scythe-like appendages erupted from her/its back as Nori/the Solver advanced toward me at a slow, menacing pace, dragging the appendages along the ground and throwing up a shower of sparks.
"Thanks for. The new host. Intern, " the Solver sneered, reaching out and easily ripping the patch out of my hands with its [TRANSLATE] function. It spun the Patch around over its head and declared, "MacGuffin" before hurling the Crucifix toward me at supersonic speed.
There wasn't even enough time for my life to flash before my eyes-- not enough to even think a single word. I was about to die, and I wouldn't even know it--
A shockwave erupted in front of my face, cracking my visor and destroying my helmet's light and camera. I hadn't even had time to close my eyes. I stared at the Crucifix, which was frozen in midair in front of me, held in place by a quivering red Solver symbol. I glanced over my shoulder.
Yeva stood behind me with a hand outstretched, a determined expression on her face as she held the Patch in place. Then, with a flick of her wrist, she silently sent the object spinning back into Nori's/the Solver's visor with a solid CRACK .
"O-O-oooow." Nori's/The Solver's head whipped backward from the force of the blow, her/its visor glitching and changing colours from yellow to purple as the Patch began to override the Solver's possession. "Wha—What in the sci-i-i-ience—" She/it reached up and ripped the Patch out of her/its face, tossing it backward into the pit as bolts of energy erupted from the darkness below. Nori/The Solver sank to her/its knees, head bowing as a temporary system shutdown took place.
I blinked, then turned to Yeva, gave the cute drone girl-- who both specifically and in general to all drone girls I was no longer going to have a thing for, thank you God! --a thumbs-up and saluted for good measure, and then I fucking booked it.
I still hoped both her and Nori-- even if I was still just a little miffed by my stolen lunch even now --would be okay, even if I didn't look back. A clock I passed as I ran said there was 30 seconds to midnight. I kept running.
00:27
I ran out of the cathedral like the world was about to end behind me-- which I was pretty sure it was --and toward the system leading back to the elevator.
:20
I darted around a corner with my eyes alight, yelling to everyone that the 048 and I Patched 002. The miners and drones cheered at my declaration, spurring me onward to the elevator.
:06
I hit the up button.
:05
I waited, trying to keep my breathing under control.
:04
:03
:02
:01
The elevator dinged--
--and the world fell apart.
Back in the cathedral (it was the only place it could have possibly originated), a massive geyser of pure data converted into energy shot upward from the Solver's pit, passing through the ceiling of rock overhead and exploding out of the surface of Copper-9. It phased through everything within the diameter of itself, but while I hadn't known it at the time, everything on the surface within a 750-km radius was completely obliterated . Earth and molten rock spewed out into space at terminal velocity, launched violently by the partial collapse of the planet's core.
Everyone in the mines, myself included, lost our footing due to the sheer kinetic force of the explosion aboveground, and an ominous rumbling signaled the impending collapse of most of the tunnel systems.
"EVERYONE, GET TO THE EMERGENCY ELEVATORS! GO, GO, GO!"
Overseer Martinez's voice boomed through the mines, echoing to all despite the quaking. My dad came sprinting towards me, effortlessly hauling me back to my feet. "Mitchell, get out of here," he commanded, eyes wild with terror. "I don't know what the hell just happened, but you can't be down here if it gets any worse!" He slapped my helmet twice, which did no favors for the already cracked material of my visor. "Go!"
"But--" I began to call as dad hurried away.
"I won't tell you again, Mitch!" he barked at me, desperation in his voice as he ran further into the tunnel. "Get out of here, now! "
Terrified for my dad's wellbeing, I began to take off after him, taking a step in his direction--
--but was yanked into the elevator by an unknown force with a yelp. The doors slammed shut in front of me, and I screamed in terror as I was pulled upward through the ceiling of the elevator into the shaft itself. I was plopped on a sheet of metal being held in place by a white Solver glyph, sat next to two worker drones, one of whom was wearing an ushanka and was displaying the glyph that he was using to lift us up the shaft. A quick glance at them revealed them to be 029-AMDA-- Amanda, a nice girl with neon-teal lights that I wasn't going to have a thing for anymore since I was still alive somehow-- and 021-RAFF, full name Raffael, the ushanka-wearing drone with white lights using a Solver he wasn't supposed to have as he lifted us further up the shaft. I opened my mouth--
" Yeva was missing when I made my escape. I heard you said you Patched Nori with her help. Was that true? " he asked in Russian. I silently thanked my dad again, hoping he'd be okay. " Answer the question or I drop you down the shaft, " he demanded.
Given just how fast we were going up the shaft, the drop was already liable to kill me. So I folded instantly. "Totally helped her!" I yelped out. "Kept her outside the cathedral and distracted the Solver so it wouldn't kill both of us on the spot, and then she Patched Nori!"
He narrowed his gaze at me, and I swallowed, but I didn't flinch or shift because it was the truth. " Fine. I believe you, so you can come, but only because I care about Yeva and you helped her, " he told me.
"T-thanks," I got out. "Uh… if you, um, don't mind me asking--"
" Dirge wasn't the only one to fake a 'no-effect' diagnosis despite being infected by the Solver, " he told me. " It was a very last second change of mind on my part, down to a gut feeling more than anything else, but I've been biding my time. Dirge's successful escape told me that it was only a matter of time until you all messed something up and I could take advantage of the chaos to escape myself. Nori getting Patched was the perfect time to go. I… I just wish Yeva was still with you… "
"She… stayed behind with Nori," I said.
Raffael sighed. " I'll have to hope she makes it out okay, " he said.
"And, uh, not complaining ," I said, "Just curious ," I continued as I glanced at Amanda and she gave me a shy wave that I hesitantly returned.
" Amanda begged for me to take her with me when I got out, and unlike everyone else screaming from their lockers or silent as they fought the Solver in their own OS', she immediately promised to do everything I said if I took her with me. Yeva would have been disappointed in me if I hadn't , and she has listened to everything I've said so far, so she's coming along ," Raffael finished.
"Cool," I said.
"Thanks," Amanda said in a small voice.
We got up to the top of the elevator shaft and the metal sheet moved laterally to put us over ground that wasn't a lethal fall below us, and we all hopped off. I noticed, with a growing sense of dismay, that the temperature was already noticeably colder, and dropping at a rapid pace. Breathing was growing difficult as the air grew thinner, and the toxicity alert inside my helmet began to beep at a terrifying rate. I stumbled a few feet, coughing and wheezing in the steadily-thinning air. I clutched at my throat, my face turning red beneath my visor, and grabbed at my helmet, not even sure what I was gonna do with it.
" Trust me ," Raffael said, raising a hand and melting the rubber of my helmet's seal shut before cooling it instantly, locking my helmet to my head, " Even what meager protection that offers is better than taking it off ." He cleared his throat, before playing a male rendition of "Eternal Dream" on his external speakers, a sentinel running up around a corner moments later, unaffected by the changing temperature and atmosphere.
Raffael lifted me with his Solver again, placing me atop the sentinel, hopping back on the sheet of metal and raising it himself as Amanda hopped on it behind me, holding me in place as I shivered against the deathly cold surrounding me. It growled at her, and she stuttered out, "N-Nice robo-dinosaur? I'm trying to help the human not fall off, see?" It turned around, chuffing, but began to run, Raffael floating himself along to keep up in my peripheral vision.
"To the hangar!" Raffael shouted, and the sentinel twisted its head to snap a glare at him before I shivered worse , and it keened before begrudgingly changing direction and picking up speed, reaching as fast as it could go in seconds. Upon exiting the building topside, I instantly began to shake even worse as the temperature hit negative 50 Celsius according to the barely functioning thermometer that was the only thing still working on the HUD on my cracked visor, and it dropped more quickly by the second. I could barely look up to stare into the sky, which revealed a gaping hole in the planet's atmosphere that exposed the heavens in full. Smoke and toxic ash floated through the air all around, carried by the cruel, biting wind of the storm generated by the detonation of what I was starting to expect was the planet's core . I stared in terror at the sight. How many people were dead or dying? I dimly wondered, as my peripheral vision began to fade.
It was so cold…
My breathing began to slow, eyelids fluttering closed…
I felt a finger and thumb pinch my side hard , and I yelped as my eyes shot back open.
"Sorry!" Amanda said. "But you need to stay with us. A ship in the hangar will have a clean, pressurized atmosphere and heat , but you need to stay awake, okay?"
I couldn't reply with how badly I was shivering. Amanda hugged herself to my back to share what little heat her body could.
The sentinel entered another building: a hangar, in which a couple remaining landing pods were lined up, one of which had its engines activated. Said engines were keeping it heated to withstand the unforgiving cold, because while it was built for such environments, it was definitely better to be safe than sorry. Raffael lifted me off the sentinel, taking Amanda with me with a yelp. " Hold on Amanda, I can't lift you directly ." Raffael lifted us both to the entrance to the pod, where the outer airlock opened, deposited us both inside, and then he and the sentinel followed us in as well.
The doors closed, and I gasped as filtered, warm air began to circulate inside, feeling rushing back to limbs, my vision returning as the shivering started to die down and I started to hope I didn't have any frostbite. I felt the pod take off without giving me time to recover, smashing through the ceiling of the hangar and racing to exit the atmosphere. With a great deal of effort, I raised myself to my hands and knees, Amanda helping me up a bit further as I limped into the now open inner airlock, fixing my eyes on my saviors within.
"Wh-Wh-Where am I?" I stammered, still shaking from the cold as I wrapped my arms about myself and then sat back down inside the pod proper. "Wh-Who are y-y-you?"
The group in front of me was composed of three people. The first was a woman in a lab coat with black hair and light brown eyes of Chinese descent, the second a man who appeared to be of mostly Caucasian descent with maybe some Indian mixed in that had blue eyes and brown hair, and the last was a currently deactivated Class-3 Worker Drone that was slumped backward in a chair.
The man walked up to me, and leaned down to pluck the nametag off my HAZMAT suit and then pinned it to his own coat-- ooooooooh, I realized. "S-sorry ab-bout g-g-getting y-your c-c-clipboard trashed…" I offered in a shaky tone as I was still fighting chills.
Dr. Chambers looked down on me and scoffed. "Wu," he commanded in a calm, collected tone, ignoring me, "set a course for Ceti-5." he narrowed his gaze at Raffael, who raised his hands and stopped using his Solver. "I'm going to sedate 021 and 029 with heated magnets. Once they're Patched, we can continue our strategic planning."
"I-I, uh, I didn't actually lie about having no effect," Amanda said.
Chambers raised an eyebrow, but said, "More magnets for 021 then, and we'll properly integrate 029's Solver to her after she's Patched," he said in the same tone as before. He reached into an overhead compartment and pulled out a box, beginning to retrieve magnets from it.
" Just so you know ," Raffael said, " I occasionally spoke to 034-Dirge before his escape with 001-Atta. He'd figured out I was hiding my Solver as well, and shared a prototype digital blueprint of his lighting railgun/arc emitter. I'm reasonably sure I can [EDIT] one up on the spot, and if I do a few minor tweaks to energy output, I can probably make it into an AOE weapon. And as long as I can dump more power into it, I can keep firing it . So do us all a favor and remove the damn magnets if we run into trouble ."
Chambers froze from where he was about to apply the first magnet to Raffael's head. "Duly noted, and I'll keep that in mind," he said before continuing.
"W-wait…" I said. " That 034? The same one that--"
"--escaped a while back with 001? That would be correct."
I yelped, and if I wasn't already sitting on the floor, I would have fallen over. I still scrambled back, alongside Amanda who shrieked with enough fear to leave my own yelp feeling manly by comparison. Raffael gave a static filled sigh as another magnet clicked onto the side of his head, and he visibly showed Dr. Chambers that he couldn't activate his Solver at this point. I stared towards the cockpit, past Dr. Wu, who was still programming the flight path, and I saw the deactivated Worker Drone jerk to life in its seat, standing up in a frighteningly smooth fashion. Its visor flickered to life, displaying nothing but red static all across.
"Who are--"
A distorted, highly-sensualized voice emitted from it as it placed a hand on its hip and interrupted me again. "You can call me Miss Red," she purred. "And welcome aboard the last flight off Copper-9, Mr. Martinez. Are you ready to build a brave new universe?"
___
A/N: And here's the 2nd Discerning The Ripples Doc. And another very small change in things. Yeva not finding Raff during the Core Collapse gave Doll a different father and changed the circumstances around her "death."
Raffael and Amanda, 021-RAFF and 029-AMDA (you see her for the whole of 2 minutes before she dies in CF labs to the sentinels in canon) take Dirge's place in saving Mitchell from the Core Collapse. Such a small change, Raffael deciding to let the Solver in but also fake having No Effect… but things changed…
So what changed with Dirge's Great Escape, I wonder…