[PRP] Artifacts 101 (Lucky, Gale, Rep, Mark, Carl)

[Zoobey]

ARCTIC BASE - GALE

"Hopefully a way in," came Samuel's muffled reply, as he wrapped his fingers around the vents too and pulled. At first nothing happened, and then slowly there was a slight creak and-

- "Back up." he suddenly said, taking out his runic dagger and prying the rest of the grate wide open. He stared dubiously at the large pipe opening that lead straight down into nothingness. "Well, if we die, at least we die warm." He was about to step into it when he paused. "You know what, I think you unofficially outrank me Gale, so you first."

kuropeco

 

[Zoobey]

ARCTIC BASE - REP

"You still okay in there?" came Sam's voice through the headset. "Me and Gale found some sort of entrance- " a pause - "maybe. We'll try to meet up inside."

The headset fell silent immediately afterwards, followed by static.

It was oddly too quiet in the area, no alarms, no flashing lights, no noises, nothing but every step Rep took punctuated again and again. Upon closer examination, each door seemed to be numbered from one to six, testing them proved that they did open, but the narrow tunnels they were connected to lead to vastly different directions.

And it was on door three that Rep would see her. Not the weapon, but Alice, just the faintest of outlines, who brought one finger to her non-existent lips before disappearing through the door.

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

ARCTIC BASE - REP

Rep nodded as the headset cut out, genuinely impressed it had been able to function through the steel reinforcement at all. This whole place was goddamn weird and he had the same strange vibe as a game where you stumbled into an underground lab full of sealed up experiments left to rot. When he tried the doors it was with absolute caution.

Alice though gave him a better idea about where to go. Maybe once upon a time he would have been leery about following things that maybe didn't ******** exist, but at this point he had decided to trust them regardless because there were literally no other sensible options.

 

[Zoobey]

The door opened with a heavy clank, leaving an equally abandoned hallway still covered in steel alloy. There were two what looked like security feed rooms up ahead leading to another set of stairs going down - and there were people in the rooms but all of them were for some reason slumped over on their worktables, heavily breathing.

Sleeping.

Through the multiple camera feeds it showed the entire place oddly silent, devoid of sentries. Where there were sentries they also were unmoving.

The screens themselves were labelled in sequence, the first being 01 - LAB, 02 - LAB, onwards, and then into 01 - CENTRAL, 02 - CENTRAL which showed a series of crosscrossing hallways leading to a cafeteria, elevators, a series of washrooms, what possibly were dormitories and office space, and then further down the screens past 01 - ENGINE, 02 - ENGINE, 01 - PRISON, 02- PRISON, 01 - VAULT.

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

ARCTIC BASE - REP

As Rep passed the sleeping people he realised that it was probable that Alice had been helping him more than leading him in the right direction, he secretly hoped that Circe ransacked their minds for daring to imprison her when she was free. And she would be free, he'd do whatever he could to ensure that.

As he went, he carefully searching each feed for any signs of people who hadn't been put to sleep.

It was the vault which held his attention most of all though, and he tried to use the various screens to give an idea where it was.

 

[Zoobey]

ARCTIC BASE - REP

The screens were simple to navigate, using the keyboard and simply tapping enter or any of the directional keys would immediately bring up the next panel. There was only one camera focused on the vault, and bringing it up on the main computer screen just listed a bunch of numbers:

01 - CLOSED
02 - CLOSED
03 - CLOSED
04 - CLOSED


And so on so forth, going down to the hundreds.

There was one however, that was different, in blinking red lights continuously flashing

423 - OPEN

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

ARCTIC BASE - REP

Rep tried the headset just in case, relaying the vault number, the fact people seemed to be asleep down here and that it was safer than it seemed, he didn't expect it to reach the surface but he wasn't about to leave the others in the dark if he could avoid it.

He hoped Carl was okay with just Lucky and Mark as his caretakers, neither of whom had huge track records of avoiding trouble.

He needed to get down to that vault and see what was in 423.

If it was something ******** grail-y he was leaving. "Come on wee doll lassie." he hissed under his breath. "I don't know what sort of time we ******** have."

 

[Zoobey]

ARCTIC BASE - REP

"It's what?" came Samuel's muffled voice through the headset. There was the howl of wind and heavy static. "-find a - down there and check it out. We'll- a distraction."

The sentry next to Rep suddenly began to snore loudly, scratching himself before turning around. A key card jangled around his neck, dangling tantalizingly.

On the computer screen, there were a bunch of menu options including DIRECTORY, and LOGIN TIME. Clicking on the directory would lead to a very in-depth map of the area. It showed that Rep was actually quite close to the vault-

- About three-hundred floors directly above it, with only an elevator to his left outside as passageway in between.

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

ARCTIC BASE - REP

The more he blundered around down here the more Rep realised that he wasn't really a spy. James Bond might have been Scottish but he was also a hell of a lot more competent and fictional* than Rep was, as things were, he only had any idea where he was from sheer luck and that same luck and help was the only reason he'd found where he was right now.

The guy next to him making noise caught his attention only briefly before he went to the map which was what he needed, stopping to snap a picture of it on his phone. Three hundred floors was a long long ******** way down, he thought dizzily, it was one way to end up entombed in the arctic for ever and never to see Harrison again.

<> Tracey said. <>

Very very carefully, trying not to wake the sleeping guy, he retrieved the key card, but even as he did so in his other hand held a runic dagger poised over the guy's throat if he did wake up. He'd learned some things from Cael, and sometimes a scorched earth policy was what you needed. It was in the guy's best interests not to wake up and for the keycard to be obtained with minimal mess.

He hated taking lifts, it was always too ******** confined, too prone to breaking down.


*so meta  

[Zoobey]

ARCTIC BASE - REP

The sentry relinquished the key card without any effort, still fast asleep. For a moment it almost felt like someone was tugging against the back of Rep's coat, telling him to hurry, though he couldn't visibly see anything, proving that perhaps sometimes assistance was also a contribution to luck.

When he arrived at the elevator, it was already open, just the single one waiting for him.

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

ARCTIC BASE - REP

Rep went in, pulling his coat a little closer as he tried to warm up his hands a bit, looking for a place to slot in the keycard and aiming to go as close to the floor with the open vault as he was able, hoping to whatever god listened to hunters that they'd all still be out up here when he got back.

 

[Zoobey]

ARCTIC BASE - REP

The elevator ride was incredibly long and silent; it felt like forever as it sank deep, deep down, without any indicator of how far Rep had gone. Perhaps at this point he might have experienced a degree of sinking claustrophobia, the responsibility on his shoulders.

Finally, what seemed like hours later, the elevator dinged and opened smoothly. A low light buzzed overhead, revealing a long walkway that joined into a large central circle pillar. The pillar had a ladderway going up, branching out to several more pillars going all directions like a mechanical tree.

And in a large cylinder around the pillar were thousands of what looked like vaults, each one labelled with a number. There was only one open, blinking red, at nearly the very top of the pillar.

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

ARCTIC BASE - REP

The lift freaked him out, it was too far, too deep down without any way out, like walking right into a trap. He didn't know why any of this was open to him, he didn't know if it was a setup and the open vault was just bait to bring him down here.

He had no option but to trust and to keep going.

Climbing the ladder was a dizzying experience and the only thing that kept him going was the fact that heights had become familiar after years of using his fear charge which had him leap very very high every time. He'd gotten better at landings but he still knew the ******** backlash of hitting the floor even being braced with fear.

If he fell it would probably be death.

He tried not to look down, climbing up and up and up towards the blinking beacon of red.

 

[Zoobey]

White.

There was no transition, one minute Rep was climbing the ladder perched on what seemed like infinity, the next he was here. Again.

She sat at the table, the same one from his room, but her form was transparent, faded, as if she would disappear any second. She put a finger to he lips, pointing to a bird resting in a cage. "He's sleeping, let him rest."

At last, she gathered herself up, what remained of her, and extended one hand to Rep. "Will you return my favour?"

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

ARCTIC BASE - REP

Circe looked in dire straits, faint and ghostly in a way he'd never seen before as he adjusted once again to being yanked into some other reality than his own. He looked pretty tired himself.

Rep was terrified of the figure in front of him and what she was capable of, the fact she could take his memories away and leave him with nothing at all, a person who couldn't remember Harrison or anything that had brought him here to this day in the Arctic. But Rep was nothing at all if not loyal, and even afraid as he was of what could happen if he complied he took a deep breath and steeled himself.

"I will. Whatever that means" he said. "You saved me. I don't forget the people who save me."

And he took her hand.