![Rhagosus Facility [not one of mine!] (click for larger image!)](../../renders2/fullsize/barracks.jpg)
Arriving back in the Cheltac system, the Brazos rendezvoused with the waiting Esrator, and Artanis and the Marines reported what they'd seen to the Protoss Executor Aldaris.
This was what the Protoss commander had been waiting for; a clear target, Zerg and blasphemous part-Zerg gathered together, on a world almost devoid of innocent sentient life. A clean target he could unleash his weapons against with a clear conscience. Ordering the Brazos loaded into the warship's giant cargo bay, Aldaris gave the order to jump for Rhagosus.
Seven days later, the mighty Protoss warship dropped out of Jump, 600,000 miles from the surface of the prison planet. The cloak flickered on, and the Protoss crew set about the task of examining the system.
What they found was a considerable shock. The squadron of destroyers, the marine base on Swabs, all were gone. The logs of the sensor balls left on the surface by the Brazos on her first visit told the story.
Two days after the Marines' departure, a small vessel had arrived insystem, remained a few hours, and then jumped out. The base had been galvanized into immediate activity.
A strong force of Ultramarines had emerged from the barracks, travelling directly to each of the prisoner villages in turn instead of performing text-book approaches as before. On arrival, they brutally wiped out all resistance and destroyed all structures. Then they returned to the base, and within hours 200-ton Iylvirs were emerging from the hangars and lifting into the skies. Within twelve hours the base was completely abandoned.
Carefully, the human and Protoss allies scanned the base; the power plant was barely ticking over, neutrino signatures elsewhere were greatly reduced, radio transmissions were negligible, and no movements were visible.
Aldaris suggested a change of plan. From a military invasion, this had changed to an abandoned human-built base to be searched for clues. This seemed a job best assigned to humans, and he was quick to agree to the Marines' suggestion that they take the Brazos down and investigate. Artanis would go as psionic backup and Protoss liaison. Deep densitometer scans had produced a rough layout of the walls and rooms within the structure.
Barracks Map (click for larger image) |
After a couple of low passes, during which the defence turrets didn't move at all, the Brazos settled gently onto the parade ground outside the main gate of the facility and shut down her cloak. Captain Maclean waited, fingers poised over the controls, ready to send the vessel leaping for the skies at the least sign of trouble, but nothing happened.
Reassured, Lieutenant Stalker detailed privates Phartwell, de Molay and Reagan, along with Artanis, to explore the base, retaining Hanmore and his three troopers as reserve. Cautiously disembarking, the three approached the base entrance. |
Gazing up at the massive, fifty-foot doors, the marines began to wonder whether explosives would be enough or if they'd need to use ship lasers. Then they noticed two smaller doors at either side. These had access panels, but there was no power to them.
Reagan produced his Protoss-made portable generator, and Jacques hooked it up to the lock systems, before splicing his encryption computer into the data cables. To his surprise, though, the access code wasn't ciphered with the Conspiracy's private code; just with "normal" IM security codes, for which his own computer already had the required overrides. A minute or so later, the lock clicked and the door hung loose.
Moving inwards, the marines began exploring the barracks. It was clear from the outset that the place was deserted. The giant entrance hall,[28] a normal feature of such buildings, was conspicuously bereft of the honoured battle banners and trophies normally hung on display, and also of the giant Imperial Sunburst normally mounted at the top end to remind the troops of what they were serving.
Moving through, the team found the entrance to the lift shaft leading down to the peculiar concentric deep rooms buried in the chest of the mountain [16]. . Without power, of course, the lift was unresponsive, so Jacques used his sabre to cut a hole in its' floor, and strung his climbing ropes down the pit. Climbing down, the group found themselves in a circular hallway, massively constructed of heavy armour-grade cerametal and lined with doors labelled alternately "Weapons" and "Ammunition".
With great caution, they examined the lock mechanisms on the doors. Sure enough, though the doors to the weapons were unaffected, the ammo store doors were trapped, and trapped with such devilish skill that the first bypass Jacques rigged was completely ineffective. It took both Jacques and Reagan over an hour of patient work to work out where the trap circuits were and disable them.
Finally gaining access, the marines opened the doors and discovered racks upon racks of storage for weapons and ammunition. All were empty, save for one single magazine, knocked out of view under a shelf. Jacques examined it carefully without touching it, noting as he did so the peculiar radiation given off by it. Then he picked it up. The clip was heavy, far too heavy; and the rounds, strange fat cartridges unlike anything they'd seen before, were huge, 20mm or so at least. If these were CPR rounds, surely nothing human could endure the recoil. The projectile was a sabot round of some sort, and it was this that emanated such strange EM radiation. Jacques dropped the magazine in his pack and they moved on.
Exploring above, they found empty offices, labelled as belonging to Base Commander Harrison, Chief Instructor Benchley, Chief Science Officer Feist and Regimental CO Colonel Urssain - Uriah had a nasty surprise searching Urssain's desk, as a hand grenade had been set in a drawer. It blew him across the room, but his Protoss shield protected him from further damage.
Across the hall, they found accommodation blocks, empty again, though Jacques found a shredded bar bill from Cispar which proved Urssain had been in the base, and Uriah found a diary, once owned by a Lieutenant William Coyle. Coyle's account slid from pride at his commission and prestigious posting to horror at what he'd stumbled into, and documented his determination to either get out or warn someone before what he referred to as "the Gilussor Stunt." This last entry was dated 099/1106.
Beyond that, a dark hallway turned out to be the entrance to the brig, and in one of the cells, Uriah and Jacques found six terrified, starved and exhausted scientists; Brend, Williams, Turnbull, Anthony, Wood and Taylor according to their name badges. These were specialists in the artificially cultured Zerg Creep that nourished the Ultramarines, and had rebelled when Col Urssain had announced the regiment was going out on active service over a year early - and against an Imperial world. Horror-stricken at the news that their project had been a criminal piece of treason rather than a patriotic piece of Imperial weapons research, they had tried to stop Urssain, and had been locked up to die as a reward.
Obviously, as evidence of the Conspiracy, these fellows were priceless. They also had a great deal of knowledge of the creatures within fearsome Ultramarine armour; they were all too eager to explain the problems with the current hatch. While basically functional, the Ultramarines tended to exhibit what the scientists called "unexpected reactions" in certain situations.
Guided by the scientists, the marines quickly explored the rest of the base. Reagan jumpered external power into one of the food processors in the refectory, and fed the desperately hungry scientists; after that, they were all too glad to guide the marines to the main computers. Rather than investigate the data in situ, the computers were physically dismantled, and the holostorage crystal cores extracted for later examination.
Passing through the armour store - where they were disturbed to observe more than five thousand battledress lockers, all built to a noticeably larger scale than their own back on the Brazos - they reached the hatchery. It was a vast, arched hall, lined with internal cameras and automatic defence lasers. Filling the far third was a large area of purple-yellow Creep, similar to what they saw on Sirnoth, but instead of the distinctive extruded Zerg "buildings", pieces of gleaming-human made machinery protruded from the stuff in various places. In the centre was a hunched, stunted, but recognizable Zerg Hatchery. Several broken and empty egg-cases were littered around it, and one or two larvae squatted near, unmoving.
A sickbay, obviously for the human inhabitants, provoked a short stop as Jacques pocketed a hasty handfull of drugs from the once-locked cabinets. Passing through the vast, domed Ultramarine quarters - lined edge-to-edge with artificially-engendered and sustained Creep - they came to the sealed tunnels leading to the strange distant chamber on a distant peak [21]. None of the scientists had ever been there; they said they thought it had something to do with "failures".
This was enough to pique the Marines' interest. Investigating, they found a single round room, sectioned off into a cylindrical enclosure. While the outer area (where they were), was clean and antiseptic, the inner area was dark, and filled with dark masses of ...something. Tendrils, strands and spikes were visible, and the whole mass was moving, very slightly. For a moment a more solid shadow was visible, deep in the centre, and then it was gone.
Jacques tapped speculatively on the glass, and all were startled when a fluid, urbane voice responded, "Yes? What is it this time?"
Surprised, the marines talked to the voice. Rational and reasoned, it conversed with them, explaining that it was a prisoner - had never known anywhere else - and more than anything else wanted to be free, to learn about the world outside. Asked if it sought revenge, it demurred, claiming that vengance was not important to it. Uriah looked at Artanis, but the Protoss Templar shook his head - a gesture he'd picked up from the humans. the Thing was not on the Human, Protoss or Zerg mental wavelengths; he couldn't reach its' mind. Every indication, though, seemed to be of a creature of considerable intelligence, kept prisoner in ignorance.
On a whim, almost, Jacques opened the inner enclosure and freed the Thing. As it emerged, the six scientists huddled in the far corner, almost hysterical with terror, but the Thing made no hostile moves. Their fear was understandable, however. The Thing was over seven feet tall, a twisted, mutated, travesty of something that might once have been human. Its' surface appeared partly melted, and was adorned with spikes, tendrils and mismatched limbs. Its' speech, however, was rational and intelligent, and it seemed genuinely grateful and friendly, even when Jacques conferred the sobriquet "Bob the Blob" on it. Rounding on the terrified scientists, Jacques tasked them with caring for Bob, with death as payment for failure.
Satisfied they'd gleaned what they could from the barracks, the marines returned to the powerplant, and, using several of the atomic missiles from the defence system, rigged a set of demolition charges powerful enough to blow the base off the face of the planet. From orbit, as Bob the Blob began voraciously devouring the information stored in the ship's library, the Marines watched as a thundering nuclear blast reduced the Rhagosus Facility to one of the smouldering craters that were becoming all too familiar in the wake of the Brazos. |
