Prism and The Red Wolves

After each of them climbed out of the elevator recess and onto the floor of the security room, they were surprised that none of the wall or floor lights came on automatically. The illuminator grenade’s light was not as bright since it was within the recessed divot, so each of them had to rely on their shoulder-mounted flashlights. They walked past the incapacitated spider-tanks as carefully as they could, not wanting to trigger any sort of self-destruct or auto-repair system.

After a few more meters of walking, they made it to the center of the room, which contained a smaller security room with a large wrap-around window. The security room, like the one in the room above them, offered a panoptic view of the platform elevators. On either side of the security room were two large gates, each leading to a separate wing of the lower levels.

After Leanna unlocked its door with a magnetic tool, Ursun entered the security room first to check for threats. The room was dark, but empty. He beckoned Leanna inside, and she quickly plugged her dronepack into the command console and got to work.

Ursun watched as a variety of information flashed across her glasses in quick succession while her fingers tapped away at her virtual keyboard. It didn’t take long for her to look over at Ursun and let him know that she was ready to brief everyone on what she’d discovered. The two of them left the security room and joined the others in front of it.

“Good news?” Lorias asked cheekily.

“Sort of. I found out why the lights aren’t coming on; well, the bright ones, in any case. The entire lower levels are funneling over 90% of their power to one location a couple of floors beneath us. I wasn’t able to find out anything about that room except for its name; A-Lab.” Leanna spoke quickly, knowing that they were short on time.

“Explains why it’s practically freezing down here.” Jaik commented with an uncontrollable shiver of his body.

“Any more spider-tanks on our way there?” Srell asked while gripping the handle of his holstered shotgun.

“I wasn’t able to find out much about the security situation down here because of the whole “tandem operation” system they’ve got. Basically, two authorized users have to be present in both the upper and lower security stations for anyone to get full access to the security system. What I was able to find out is that the power systems for the lower level suffered some sort of critical issue a few decades ago, so a lot of the security features that are still active upstairs don’t work down here anymore.” Leanna explained in great detail.

“So…is that a yes or a no to the spider-tanks?” Srell said after scratching his head.

“I doubt it. These are specialized units, and a bit too big to prowl the halls. They were only still active because they have their own power supplies.” Leanna didn’t sound too confident in her answer.

Ursun realized that they might have another fight on their hands, and planned accordingly.

“Send us the lower level map data with the shortest route to our target. If we meet any resistance, then my coilgun’s microwave pulse emitter should handle it.” Ursun ordered.

His words comforted his teammates, but they all knew that the situation was still largely too unknown to make any guarantees.

Once they all knew where they were going, Ursun walked over to the rightmost gate and pulled its manual operation handle on the wall beside it. The ten-foot tall metal doors slowly slid open as steam began to be released from either side of its frame. Green linear lights along the length of the newly revealed hallway provided a soft glow that barely illuminated their path forward.

“Let’s move it. The clock is ticking.” Ursun commanded. His words were strong and urgent.

The mercenaries nearly ran the entire way to A-Lab. Their path was completely unhindered, with not a single guard robot, trap, or turret to stop them. They’d seen high-energy laser emitters on the walls of the hallways they went through, but Leanna’s scans showed that none of them were active.

Due to the sudden increase in the temperature of the hallway, it became clear to all of them when they’d made it near the lab. A few lights began to turn on once they were in the lab’s hallway, literally lighting their way to their target. Jaik’s breathing became slightly labored as anxiety crept into his mind. The others paid him no mind as they were coolly focused on completing their mission as quickly as possible.

The door to A-Lab was wider than the other room doors that they’d seen. A large red “A” was painted on the door, and a security console sat beside the entryway. A series of gun turrets were attached to the ceiling in front of the door, arranged in a circular formation. There were also indications of closed gas tubes on the floor, and laser emitters on the walls.

“It’s safe to say that these security measures are all active and tied to that security console at the door.” Leanna stated while she pointed at each weapon system before them.

“Can you hack it?” Ursun asked Leanna.

“If it’s a solitary unit, then yes. If it is tied into the tandem security system, then we’re probably dead once I connect to it.” Leanna explained.

“Shift your dronepack to drone mode. We’ll all head back upstairs to the hallway above and you can run the hack remotely. That way, we’ll avoid these traps either way.” Ursun ordered.

Leanna nodded in affirmation, happy with his plan. She took off her backpack and set it on the ground near the A-Lab door. With a tap of her glasses and a few motions of her hands, six insect-like legs unfurled from the backpack. A thick, shiny, chitinous rod retracted from its back. A series of shiny black and yellow orbs appeared on its surface, which were its eye-cameras and other sensory organs. In a few seconds, the dronepack had turned into an insectoid drone with full freedom-of-movement.

With a nod to Ursun and the others, the mercenaries ran back to the stairway room at the end of the hall. They all stopped once they’d made it to the end of the above hallway, just outside of the stairway room. Once the door to the room was closed, Ursun gave Leanna a thumbs-up to start her hack attempt.

Leanna’s glasses flashed a myriad of colors while she leaned against a nearby wall and began controlling her dronepack remotely. She had the living drone climb up onto the security console they’d just left and jack into it with a prehensile cable. Within seconds, Leanna was able to fully access the A-Lab’s door security system, which surprised her.

“Looks good so far. Too good.” Leanna said to her teammates standing nearby.

Srell sighed worriedly. He had a penchant for skepticism, even of his teammates’ abilities sometimes.

“You’ve got this.” Jaik said hopefully. He didn’t sound as confident as he wanted to be.

Leanna continued her hack for a few more moments. She was glad to see that the door ran on a completely independent system. She was able to disable the door’s surrounding weapons systems and open the door in under a minute.

“We’re in. Not a problem.” Leanna said with a thumbs-up of her own to Ursun.

Ursun calmly nodded his approval. She hadn’t let him down in the year that she’d been a member of his team, at least not in any significant way.

“Use the drone to scan the room. If it looks safe, we’ll head down immediately. We’ve got about fifteen minutes until we expect the Queen’s forces to arrive. Keep that in mind, folks.” Ursun said with a seriousness that told everyone that they were down to the wire.

“On it,” was all that Leanna said while viewing the room’s interior through her dronepack’s visual sensors. The room was filled with an obscuring mist that crept along its copper flooring. The dronepack’s sensors told her that the mist was just simple water vapor. “Looks strange, but otherwise safe.” She stated before sharing her feed with the others on their arm displays.

Several large tubes came up from the floor and the ceiling, all leading to the center of the room. There stood a large modified rejuv-pod, devices normally meant to heal serious injuries in a closed environment while immersing its inhabitant in a mixture of biological and synthetic medical compounds. There were several old computer consoles surrounding the pod, all of which were alight and functioning.

“By the way, I discovered a secret VIP staff elevator not far from A-Lab that leads straight above-ground. I was able to activate it from this security console. It’ll be waiting for us.” Leanna said, eliciting smiles from her teammates and an impressed head nod from Ursun.

“With me.” Ursun said before storming through the door near to them and rushing down the stairs to their target. The other Red Wolves followed quickly on his heels. A few seconds later, they were all standing in front of the large rejuv-pod, which towered over them. Its liquid contents were glowing with a dull pink color from an ovular window on the front of its door, which completely obscured the pod’s occupant. The luminescent pink liquid looked familiar to Jaik.

Leanna retrieved her dronepack and deactivated its drone mode. The living drone quickly changed itself back into a seemingly-lifeless hard-cased red backpack. Leanna reconnected it to her back, which once again made a short hissing sound.

Ursun stood still except for his slowly swiveling head, which looked around the room like a security camera. He looked out for threats, but didn’t find any obvious ones. Srell and Jaik shivered uncontrollably. They both crossed their arms and rubbed their sides in a desperate attempt to warm themselves up. Lorias seemed completely unfazed by the cold, which made Srell look at him angrily.

“It’s got to be below freezing in here!” Srell yelled. A visible cloud of vapor shot from his mouth when he spoke.

Jaik looked over at Ursun, who motioned with his large right hand for the junior merc to get to work on the medical devices.

“Right, on it, sir.” Jaik said nervously while rushing over to the most intricate computer console beside the rejuv-pod.

Jaik began tapping away at its outdated keys, becoming familiar with its system and displays. It only took him a minute to access the controls and information that they all needed.

“Just like I thought. This pod is actually filled with a powerful soporific solution normally used to keep large animals unconscious during surgery. Its one of the strongest anesthetic compounds known to science. Anything that’s put in a vat of the stuff should be dead…but the “patient’s” vitals are all…well, from what I can tell...it’s still alive in there, just asleep.” Jaik’s words were a mixture of certainty and uncertainty.

Jaik was a prodigy, having been a marvel to the Red Wolves’ research institute, the Lyceum. He’d finished first in his class in medical school, and had invented several devices before he’d reached the age of 16. But despite all that he knew about chemistry, biology, and technology, Jaik was at a loss to explain the anatomical data that he read on the computer’s displays.

“Is it safe to open and retrieve the target?” Ursun said with a hint of impatience in his voice.

“I…I think so.” Jaik nodded awkwardly.

“Then pop it open.” Ursun ordered.

With a few keystrokes, Jaik sent the command to open the rejuv-pod. Several circular door locks along its surface began to spin, followed by a loud “CLANK”. Shortly after, the pod began to make a hissing sound, and then a gurgling sound. Its glowing pink contents began to quickly drain out of the pod, traveling to an unknown place through some of the pod’s connected thick opaque tubing.

After nearly a minute, the doorway to the pod slowly slid upwards at an angle, revealing a humanoid figure that was obscured by the room’s mist. The grayish vapor had quickly drifted into the pod once it had opened. The Red Wolves stood motionless, not sure of what danger awaited them from the still body before them.

To the surprise of the rest of them, Jaik was the first to approach the pod. In almost one fluid motion, he stepped up a small platform into the recessed interior of the pod. He swatted away the mist so that he could get a better view of the figure within. Jaik was surprised to find a petite young man resting on a series of padded strips that lined the pod’s occupant area. Jaik looked over the man meticulously, checking for any oddities that his body might possess.

The man had light-brown skin and no hair on his head, save for black eyebrows and eyelashes. He looked as if he could be either in his late teens or early twenties, and he was completely nude. He slumbered peacefully, looking almost cherubic while his head rested at an angle on a strip of glossy red padding within the pod. He had a lean-muscled build, and looked to be no taller than 170 centimeters. In Jaik’s estimation, the young man looked perfectly fine, with not even a blemish on his skin.

Jaik was entranced by him; his very existence there was a mystery that Jaik wanted to solve.

“What is the target’s condition?” Ursun yelled over to Jaik, whose armored body was completely obscuring the unknown young man from the others.

Jaik clumsily withdrew his medscanner from off of his utility belt. He nearly dropped it after being suddenly called out of his focused visual examination. The device was small enough to fit in his hand, but powerful enough to scan for and relay intricate details about living organisms. It, too, was alive; much of the sophisticated technology that the Red Wolves used was biological.

Jaik held the device a short distance away from the sleeping man and began to slowly wave it over the length of his body. Jaik looked curiously at the device’s display screen and saw similar information to what the medical console had showed him. The medscanner throbbed in Jaik’s hand as it tried to make sense of the more irregular information that it was receiving from its sensory organs.

The young man was alive and breathing, but unconscious. His brain and other organ activity, however, were harder to ascertain. Jaik wasn’t sure if he should further sedate the mystery man, as Jaik couldn’t even be sure if the man’s physiology would be affected by the drugs that Jaik had brought. More of the pink soporific that had been in the rejuv-pod was nowhere to be seen. Its use had gone out of style a century ago, so Jaik hadn’t even thought of bringing it to use on their target.

In the interest of time, Jaik decided to give his commander a simple answer.

“He’s good. Asleep and awaiting transport.” Jaik informed the others without taking his eyes off of their target.

“Well, grab him and don’t let go. We’ve got five minutes before the Queen’s cronies are on our ass,” said Ursun to Jaik before looking sternly at the rest of his team. “Double-time, people. Let’s get out of here.” He ordered.

Ursun took off running out of the room and headed for the VIP staff elevator at the end of the hallway that they were on. The others quickly followed him. Jaik slung the young man’s body over his shoulder and did his best to keep up.

Jaik worried about how roughly he would need to handle the mysterious man on their escape from the island, and if the man would be injured in the process. In any case, Jaik did his best to focus on his teammates in front of him as they ran, not wanting to let them down.

“Here.” Leanna pointed to a section of wall that Ursun almost ran past.

With a few taps of Leanna’s fingers on the wall, the section of wall slid away, revealing a simple elevator that could barely house ten people.

“Looks like it was here so that the A-Lab scientists could make a hasty escape if things went to crap down here.” Srell said while they stepped into the elevator.

During their three minute ride to the surface, the mercenaries kept looking at the unconscious man hanging on Jaik’s armored shoulder. Jaik felt bad for the young man, as his nude behind was on full display to the others.

“I wish that I’d brought something for him to wear.” Jaik said meekly, which made Srell and Lorias laugh.

Jaik, irritated by the two, turned his back to the others so that only the man’s arms, back, and head were visible to them.

“Looks pretty young. I don’t know how that’s possible for a guy who’s been asleep for a hundred years.” Leanna said with an inquisitive look on her face. “I don’t know of a rejuv-pod that can keep someone in stasis like that.” She added, running through the possibilities in her mind.

“Certainly not ones made a century ago. That’s around the time they were first created.” Jaik turned his head towards Leanna to say.

“Leave the speculation to the nerds at the Lyceum.” Ursun said dismissively.

The irony of his words wasn’t lost on Jaik and Leanna, since they both had been invited to join the premier research institute of the Red Wolves after they’d graduated from the mercenary company’s military and medical school, respectively.

“Once we’re on the surface, we’ll need to contact the ship. They should be able to locate us using our transponders and direct us to a pickup point nearby.” Ursun explained.

Leanna nodded to her commander, certain that she could make it happen.

When the doors to the elevator opened, there were vines completely blocking their exit. Lorias approached the front of the elevator booth, smiled back at the others, and pulled out a variable knife that he always carried in addition to his former sword. He set it to cauterize mode, and got to work efficiently cutting the thick vines out of their way in under a minute. Once the way was clear, the five mercenaries and their sleeping target made their way into the unknown area of jungle around them. The elevator’s structure was small, overgrown, and effectively invisible from the air.

“I’ve reestablished mission comms. I’m relaying everything that’s happened to us to the ship, and they’re sending us directions to the nearest suitable beach for pickup. And head’s up; there are hostile on the island, looking for us.” Leanna’s good news was mixed with bad, but it provided a relief to her teammates.

They knew that they’d probably encounter the Queen’s forces on the island, and they were prepared for it.

They all looked at the new tactical data that had been uploaded to their arm displays by their ship a few moments later. They had several meters of dense jungle to traverse through, but were confident that they could make it out. Jaik held onto the body of their target tightly. He was determined to keep the mysterious man safe.

“Jaik, stay behind me and Srell. Leanna and Lorias will be the eyes in the back of our head, taking up the rear. Let’s get to that beach!” Ursun commanded with gusto.

In their inviolable formation, the Red Wolves pushed forward.