"Yes, sir! Someone has triggered the trip system... If no-one of us is out there, then someone from out there is coming down here!"
"I thought we lost them?"
THEROS asked UOPETA. We had lost them according to UOPETA, but the situation was difficult enough as it was, let alone adding a stalker to the mix!
"We did! But they must have reacquired our trail... I was sure we had lost them..."
"Did you manage to get a look at whoever was following you? Was it a HoN Co. guard or Creeper...? How many were there?"
"From what I could tell, there was one of them, but I couldn't tell who or what it was..."
"Well it doesn't matter now... Everyone up to the main gate, and prepare for anything! It is likely to be a guard, or someone else from HoN Co.!"
Of course! I had been thinking it could be a Creeper, but I realised whoever they were needed to activate the walkway to gain access! Otherwise the hatch wouldn't lift! A Creeper or a random animal wouldn't be able to do that! This was for real! We all ran down towards the barricade, swords at the ready! If this was a proper assault, the blow pipes were not an option! We were going to have to use these swords, and despite my usual pacifistic nature, the moral implications of killing someone never came to light at the time... All I knew and cared about was an intruder had gained access to our base, and my life was in a precarious position! We all lined up along the barricade, looking to see who had made their way down, expecting to see HoN Co. guards.
"Are they within the hatch?"
"Yes. They're between the hatch and us..."
"Good! Lock the hatch down! If there's only one we can trap them, and if there are more, we've locked the others out. Keep the master switch on."
THEROS flipped a lever, and there was a clunk. There was then a high pitched yelp, almost as if in response to the sound of the hatch locking. We all heard it!
"COME OUT, AND SURRENDER PEACEFULLY! YOU'RE TRAPPED AND HAVE NOWHERE TO GO!"
COLUS's thundering words echoed around the chamber. They were met with silence...
"ONE..."
"TWO..."
"Wait wait wait!"
A girl wearing a white lab coat appeared from the shadows of the wooden alcove that lead up to the hatch. She was shaking nervously, head bowed as she came into the light of the lava trench. Then I realised who it was... We'd met mere hours ago...
We all lowered our swords reflexively. All except COLUS who maintained his authoritative stance...
"Who are you?"
The girl began speaking, stammering slightly, most likely due to nerves:
"My... my name is Amie... Professor Amie Fenrii..."
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm... I followed three men who went in this direction... They... They were moving away from where I was working..."
COLUS decided to play it dumb:
"And where might that be?"
"At the HoN Co. lightning tower... I... I fell asleep... I think... I heard voices... Unfamiliar voices... So I followed them... They brought me here..."
"How did you gain entry? This place is sealed from the outside!"
"I saw one of the men use a switch or a lever from behind a rock and go... Go down in to the water... I used the switch myself... I followed them..."
"Do you work for HoN Co.? Are you a spy?"
"No no! Nothing like that! I just followed those three men... I do work for HoN Co. ... Well... Did..."
"What do you mean "did"?"
"I quit... Just now..."
"We can't trust your word. This could still be a cover. Prove it!"
"We've been watching... They've been watching you, very recently... They've noticed the loss of a few portals... They want to kill you all, but they can't trace you... I'm just a scientist... I didn't find out when HoN Co. were using these portals for until a few weeks back! I was horrified! I've been looking for an excuse to leave since then..."
"That doesn't prove your innocence..."
"I know what you're trying to do... I want to help! I can give you the location of a few portals... Surely that'll prove I'm not with HoN Co. any more?"
Oddly, at this point, OROTHO looked rather furious, and stormed off, presumably back to his lab. What was that about? I could see from COLUS's face that he was thinking about it. It was a good proposition: she tells us where a few portals are, we find and destroy them, and then... Well We would get to that later... Then again, she could be lying: they could be traps set up for us and the Lone 7 is torn apart!
"Prove it! Tell us where one portal is?"
"Erm...You already destroyed the one on the island off to the East... Erm... There's a Class B portal to the immediate South of the lightning tower. Buried about twenty feet below the surface..."
COLUS turned around the THEROS who already had the map out.
"I can't say for sure, but we have flagged an area near there as a possible portal site... She could be telling the truth..."
"Alright, here's what we're going to do! We're bringing you into this base and securing you in a locked location. You'll remain there until we have actual proof a portal exists there... If not, well I suppose I don;t need to say. This is your one chance... You better be right! Lower the barricade and bring up the walkway."
The barricade quickly disappeared to form the basis for the floor and ceiling, and the walkway steadily rose from the lava.
"Slowly make your way across. No sudden movements..."
The girl slowly began walking towards us across the walkway, head bowed, hands shaking uncontrollably! I couldn't imagine what stress she was going through right now, let alone what she was thinking about... Once she got over to our side, COLUS approached her, sword at the ready. He led her across, down the stairs towards the discussion room.
"We have a lot of questions for you..."
----
After a few hours of talking, we had gained some valuable information from her: she was indeed a HoN Co. scientist - proven by the company logo on her lab coat - and she had informed us of their experiments. Unfortunately, she also confirmed the success of the recent portal replication tests... She said that the guards had been placing them all over the place and activating them, checking the link to nearby inactive secondary portals. They had managed to establish a secure connection with numerous secondary portals, bringing them online, which in turn brought three more primary portals online. She confirmed our suspicions about the primary portals: they are quite literally indestructible. However, THEROS had shown her a map, and she had confirmed the location of multiple portals in the areas we had ringed. The two locations we never found anything in she crossed off, saying there was no record of one being there... It started to look like she was actually doing some good for us! She was the chief researcher for the secondary portal replication project, so that would slow that down considerably!
We're all being cautious of her. We only know what she's told us, which admittedly is a lot, but it could still all be false. How do we know she doesn't have a transceiver on her which is telling HoN Co. where she is, and ultimately where we are? I put this concern to COLUS, but he informed me that the base was lead lined, and would block almost any incoming or outgoing signals unless we wanted them to. That was how the radios worked when we contacted the base from the outside then... For now, Amie has been placed in a make-shift cell where we can keep an eye on her, whilst myself, THEROS and UOPETA go out to the South in search of this portal she indicated... I don't know why, but she's beginning to grow on me... I just hope she's not wrong...
Syeonyx signing off
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