Chapter Text
Orpheus
Chapter 1
The sound of metal sliding against metal filled the air. It was accompanied by the tick of the clock in the rationing office. I almost didn’t notice it. I had been in here so long I was used to it by now. Good ole Sierpinski. Old tech, old resources, and old Replikas. And a whole lot of bullshit. This damn place turned into a meaty madhouse. And there still hasn’t been any word from command. No one has come through here except that LSTR unit and that one gestalt. No transmissions, no back up, no anything.
I don’t even know how long I’ve been here. This whole place was getting pretty bad few a weeks, but things only got really nasty a week ago? Two? Maybe more? Maybe less? Gah! I should've kept count. Now I’m here in the rationing office with nothing to do. All I have are my guns, stun rod, my ammo, and my me. That’s it. There are worse places to be stuck. But there are better too. I’m bored out of my mind.
Worse still, I feel dirty. I’d kill for a shower right. Or just some soap. There are some bathrooms nearby, but I’d rather not leave and risk running into anything. I should save my ammo for important things. If command or the Commander wake up, I’ll likely be apart of whatever effort there is to retake the facility. So I best stay prepared. Or...maybe I should leave.
S-2306 already booked it. She stopped in to tell me to leave and to snag a repair patch. Maybe I should go too. The elevator isn’t fair and I still have my keycard. I could just walk out of here. But then what? I go for a walk? Leng isn’t the most pleasant of places. Sure, there are other settlements here but most are military, kilmaforming facilities, or other mines. All of which have a military presence. If I could reach one of these places, I might be able to tell them about what happened here. That’s if they believed me and didn’t immediately decommission me for sounding insane. Which I would if I told them about good ole Sierpinski.
Fuck.
There was a space port that was somewhat nearby. Pretty sure it was in the middle of a military base, however. That’s where I landed on Leng. It might be possible to slip into the base and then slip aboard a frigate. Once aboard it wouldn’t be hard to pretend like I’m on reassignment. The trouble would be getting into the base and figuring out what to do once I land.
My eyes squeezed shut as I tried to think of a plan. My head hurt. Dammit. This always happened whenever I thought to hard about something. Maybe it was in my programming. My job is to keep order after all. Not come up with wild schemes. Fuck. I can’t do this alone. I wish Hunter was here. She’d know what to do. Always did.
But shes not here. Just me. And I feel dirty and my head hurts. This sucks. I guess I should stay put then. Stew in my grime and wait until command comes knocking. My headache might eventually go away too. If I had a nice book that might help. But there’s none here. Those would all be in the library.
Klunk.
I smacked my head against my knee. Damn. Nothing was ever easy. Hmm. Well the library isn’t that far away. I could go down the elevator, and take the stairs. There might be some...obstacles but I do have my guns. And all this sitting here and feeling gross and thinking has pissed me off. Yeah. I could use some stress relief.
My eyes shot open. I rose from the ground and checked my guns. Shotgun, magnum, and stun rod are immaculate as always. Perfectly maintained and itching for action. Just like me. Oh I’m getting excited already! If anyone or anything gets in my way, I’ll shoot it. Easy as that. The library is a short elevator ride and a stairwell away. Maybe if I get bored I’ll go the long way. The showers might still be working too.
The door to rationing office opened. No one was in the hallway. I took one look back at the sanctuary that was that office. Then I readied my shotgun and checked my corners. Good ole Sierpinski had seen better days, but nothing so far. A little blood on the ground and some damage to the wall. That’s all. Carefully, I moved into the next hallway. This time there were two corpses. EULR units. Good riddance. Annoying bitches. Both looked thoroughly dead and disturbingly rotten. A sign of the infection, I’m sure. Disgusting. I continued down the hallway and got to the other door when my sensors flared up. Sound. Movement. I spun around as fast as I could.
One of the EULR units was standing now. The second one screamed and shot to her feet. I felt myself twitch. They both stammered toward me. One had a knife. That was enough to justify this.
I pulled the trigger.
The shotgun slug sent the knife wielding EULR off her feet. The other one seemed to flinch. I hesitated again.
“Don’t,” I ordered.
The EULR screamed in response. Blood and bile gushed from her mouth. Fuck this. I pulled the trigger again. The slug sent her flying too. Both weren’t moving now. I knew this disease was bad but fuck. This was something out of mythology. it felt like I was in Tartarus. They were like shades or something, and I was who? Sisyphus? I hope not. Ixion? No, I’m not horny. Cerberus? No that’s ridiculous. Hmm. I’d have to think of who I was on my way to the library. Sierpinski really was like Tartarus. A hellish place. It wasn’t paradise before, but there was less blood. Less corpses. Less screaming.
I moved through the door. Now I was in the elevator lobby. It was oddly peaceful. Better than the south corridor. The Protektor elevator was still working too. Perfect. I lowered my gun and grabbed my keycard. The elevator opened and I stepped inside. Easy as that. Too easy. I only had to shoot two EULR units. I was hoping for something more fun. Heh.
A chuckle left me. My hand reached up to my face. Why did I laugh? A creeping, black thought slithered into my mind. I had been under a lot of stress lately, and I’ve been feeling more and more agitated. This sounded like persona degradation. As the Protektor Controller, I was trained to spot degradation. After all, I was often the one carrying out the decommissioning of degraded units. If I was degrading myself, maybe it was best to solve the problem before it got worst. My hands gripped my shotgun. I looked down at the pristine weapon. It would be pretty easy. Painless even.
Ding!
The elevator signaled to me that I arrived on the sixth floor. The door opened up and I was greeted with warm, refreshing air. Blue sky met blue ocean. I stepped out onto white sand. It crunched softly beneath me. The gentle sound of lapping waves filled my ears as well as the sounds of birds. In the distant, white stone buildings nestled against green hills across the azure waters.
I blinked. Where am I? Vineta? My head swirled. Something about this beach, this view. It was achingly familiar. My metallic bones could feel it. The shotgun fell from my hands. It gently splashed into the sand. What was wrong with me?
A laugh.
A giggle. Not from me. No, someone else. There! At the edge of the beach, there was a woman? Two women. A short one laying on a towel. She giggled and laughed. A book rested by her side. A taller woman, next to her smiled. Her hands held aloft a wooden instrument. It was U shaped and had strings running through it. A lyre. That’s what its called. A lyre. I didn’t know anything about music, I hated music. But I knew that was a lyre.
The two women looked at each other and smiled. Sweet music echoed on the air as the tall woman plucked the lyre. Tears rushed from my face. Why was I crying? The music? I hated music! What was happening?
My fist punched the steel floor. I left a good dent in the elevator lobby floor. Wait. I looked up. I was on my knees in the north hallway. Directly in front of the Protektor elevator. My shotgun was next to me. Tears were on my face. What the hell?
Quickly, I jumped to my feet with my shotgun. A scan of the room told me no one else was here. Good. That was a stupid mistake. Idiot. I could have been killed if something was here. The room was in better shape than some. This was a pretty familiar hallway. The showers were down the hall. So was the shooting range and the first dorms. I wonder if I scoreboard was still there. If Hunter was here, she’d say we should go test out the range. Then she’d perfect score me over and over until I got mad and she laughed. Oh. I kind of missed that. No time to think about that now. Wherever Hunter was, I hope she was okay. I hope she got out of here. I hope that Eule was worth it. I hope they got out of here.
The door to flood overflow opened. I stepped through and continued on my journey. Down, down, down into the Controller Accommodations. My floor. An intimately familiar place. I knew exactly how to get to the library from here. There was a good chance more units would be down here. I checked my guns and readied myself. In the distance, I heard gunshots. Maybe that LSTR unit was making her way through the floors.
Oh well, I didn’t care about that. I stepped through the door and was greeted by a long hallway. Two STAR units. Both standing. Both rotting. They looked at me and I raised my shotgun. The first shot exploded into the nearest one. She dropped her baton and fell to her knees. She wasn’t down, but the second one was mid sprint at me. I pumped the gun, the shell flickered out, and I landed another slug right into the second one’s face. It splattered, but she kept trudging towards me. Damn bullet resistant armor. I let her stumble towards me before I raised my leg and kicked. A loud crack echoed into the hallway as my foot broke through her chest armor. She stumbled back. I drew my stun rod.
Cool black metal shoved itself against the open wound on the STAR’s face. I lit the baton up. Blue sparks exploded from it and surged into the STAR. A garbled scream left her as her body seized and then smoked. She stopped moving.
The other STAR was back on her feet, but I was already on top of her. I kicked her knee out and she stumbled over. Then I zapped her too. Shoved the rod right where my slug blew a hole into. Smoked bellowed out of her and I let the rod really roast her. She stopped moving too.
“Whoo!” I cheered. That felt good! Much better than the EULR units. Still, these two weren’t that dangerous. They fought like animals but only half as vicious. They were no Minotaur, Troll, or Fomorian. They were just Replikas. Just Replikas. Hm.
It was hard to tell who these STARs were. There’s a good chance I’ve seen them before. Maybe talked to them too. I am the Protektor Controller. There’s no doubt orders I once gave reached their ears. Maybe Hunter knew them. She could have bunked with them. Maybe they were friends.
“Fuck,” I mumbled and kept moving.
The door to the east hallway slid open. No one in here. There was a dead STAR unit towards the KLBR study. It didn’t move as I walked by, so I continued into the Library hallway. Almost there.
“RAAAH!” a scream exploded in front of me. A EULR unit was right in front of the door. I stopped her with the barrel of my shotgun. I fired. A slug exploded into her chest and she slumped over. The scream alerted a STAR unit and a EULR unit. Their faces were damn near melted off. Like something right out of Tartarus. The EULR unit backed up while the STAR pushed forward. She had some wicked looking blade in her hand.
A glittering shell popped from my shotgun as I pumped it. This could be fun. I raised my shotgun at the STAR. Her rotten face followed the gun. Oh she was going to try and dodge. Well, I had an idea. I aimed my gun carefully. Kept her attention on it. And in one swift motion, I drew my magnum and shot the EULR unit behind her. The EULR unit made a sound and toppled over as the bullet splattered her chest.
The STAR unit turned to see her and screamed. My hand was already back on the shotgun. I fired. Half of the STAR’s head joined the EULR unit. With one step I was on top of her. She weakly swung her blade at me. Without effort, I dodged it. Next I swung my shotgun into her head. She stumbled and I kicked. The kick sent her into the wall. A satisfying snap echoed in the hallway. The STAR stopped moving. Mission success.
Now as long as there was nothing in the library, I was set. After a brief reloading session, I went inside of the library. My guard was still up. That EULR managed to surprise me. Thankfully my reflexes were still sharp. If they hadn’t been, I could be in trouble.
Calm ambiance greeted me as I stepped into the library. No Replikas. No screaming. Just books. The place looked almost normal too. Sure there were some books around here and what looked like some empty tea cups. But it was well maintained. Maybe it was more like no infected Replikas got in here. You did need a keycard to get in.
Sniff.
I raised my shotgun at the noise. There, sitting in the corner still as a rock, was KLBR unit. Uninfected. She looked at me with wet eyes. I didn’t know any KLBR survived. I lowered my shotgun. The little unit was curled into a ball.
“Sieben?” her small voice cracked. Her breaths were shaky.
“Yeah. Who the hell are you?” I asked.
“Don’t you remember me? KLBR-S2302? Um, some people call me Tee?”
I took a moment to think. KLBR-S2302 was not the usually KLBR I dealt with. That was S2301. She was the one I worked the most with. Especially when we were talking about ADLR. Who the hell knows where she went. S2302 didn’t ring much of a bell.
“No. I don’t think I remember you,” I squinted at her. “And Tee? Like the drink?”
“Oh, uh, yeah cause I leave my mugs out pretty often. Marz gave me the nickname after she kept having to hound me for not turning in my mugs to the kitchen. She was running out of them,” Tee chuckled. Her eyes were still wet and her smile did not seem genuine. I guess it was still somehow funny to her.
“I see.”
“But uh, we have talked before Sieben. Well, I’ve seen you around a lot. And talked.”
“Mhm.”
“So its, uh, good to see you! I didn’t know you were alive. Um, actually what are you doing here?”