Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 116: Nymph Base
After they reached the bottom they drove for an hour before arriving at the door to the abandoned underwater Grand Hexarian Base. The doors were only a bit taller than the van they drove up in. Jace hopped out of the van again to push open the doors which only took him a few moments. Then they were driving into a dark room.
Jace walked over to a wall panel he could see near the entrance and opened it up then flicked the switch. Then lights began blinking high above them and then… nothing. The lights switched off.
"Ha…" Jace sighed aloud. "The generator died. Go ahead and start looking through some boxes. I will go and fix the generator and then head up to the command room." Jace told them before he pulled on his aviator glasses and switched something in them so he could see in the dark.
"Sure, what do you want us to do with anything interesting we find?" Tako asked as Jace walked off into the darkness.
"Mark it, once I get the systems running I will take a look at everything and we can determine what we want to take with us." Jace called back as he walked to a hatch he found. To the side of it was a sign that said, 'Maintenance, armory, training area.'
CREAK!
The metal made a loud screeching noise as he opened it up. It was heavy and difficult to move because of the layer of rust covering the hinges. Once it was open all the way he stepped through the door and followed the signs leading him to the maintenance area.
He went through several more doors before he arrived at the maintenance area. It was a massive area with three areas. The first area had rusted pipes and puddles of water, a clear indicator that it was the facility's plumbing. The second area next to it were pipes running into the ceiling and ventilation shafts, for a facility this far underground it was probably air recycling. The third had wires and bundles of wires running into other areas, definitely this facility's power generator.
Walking over to it he put his hand on the machine and began reading the schematic in his mind. It was surprisingly still functional, it appeared that someone within the last few years had been making modifications to get it running again.
All Jace needed to do was make a few tweaks and then jumpstart it. It would take him ten minutes at most. Once he was finished making the final modifications he put his hands on the base's generator and channeled electricity through his body into the machine.
The veins on his hands pulsated a bluish green for a minute as he powered so much electricity into the machine then everything began lighting up. The lits in the room began running and then the other two areas began rumbling and making noise as power began supplying them.
Jace moved over to the generator's interface and began redirecting the power only into the components of the base they need. The lights, the base's central elevator, and the command center. Once that was done the other two machines stopped humming.
He walked back up to the main floor and then started following the signs leading him to the command center. This time it was much easier to follow the signs because the lights were on instead of him using the nightvision function in his aviator glasses.
Arriving at the command center he recognized the similarity to a Vexical spaceship. But he ignored that and walked over to the windows that were overlooking the facility.
"Wow…" Jace whistled in appreciation as he looked over the facility. The schematics did not do this place justice. It was a massive facility spanning at least five miles across and two miles in width. It seems they had entered through a corner of the facility.
The base had wooden boxes filling it that had seemed to have been arranged into segments because some were smaller than others while other groupings seemed to have an overflowing amount of things. It seems Devan had built up far more of an abundance of unsellable goods than he had originally.
Jace then began looking around the command center. He eventually found the systems he needed as he hooked up the control for the large central elevator that sat in the center of the facility. Then he used the base's communication system to connect to the Anvil.
After a few moments the captain of the Anvil answered but all that appeared was a blurry message. "Spectre Jace, this is the Anvil do you read? Are you ready for us to pick you up at the specified coordinates?" The Anvil's captain asked.
"Not quite yet sir. I was just testing to make sure the communication system worked. We will grab anything we find of use and put it on the elevator. I will send a message when we start ascending from the base. If I am right it will take about an hour for us to reach a height where you could pick us up." Jace explained as he looked over the data about the central elevator that was in this base.
Since this base was a secret rearming and refueling facility it had an elevator that could directly go up to a waiting spaceship and do anything they could from up there. It was actually pretty clever considering the fact that it had gone unnoticed by the Woltar for many years. But the time these elevators take is abysmal.
But considering it would be putting a roof above them after they reached the roof of the base he would be lying if he said he was not worried. This elevator had so many components that he had to worry about still working. He did not care if the base flooded after they left but he was worried that the walls and roof for the elevator would no longer be able to hold up to the water pressure.
"Understood Spectre Jace. We will wait for your call, Anvil out." The call then ended. Jace then began making his way down to the open area of the base.
When he arrived it was to the sight of all three of them looking at the same thing. He could not see it since it was still in a box but he could pick up their conversation.
"I think it can still be considered a mecha." Vana told them with a shrug.
"No, this is definitely a tank. I mean look at that cannon." Ulin pointed out while pointing at something.
"Yeah, but it has legs." Vana looked at the machine and pointed to the lower part of the box.
Jace walked up behind them and got a look at what they were talking about and raised an eyebrow in surprise. It had six legs with a small body probably only big enough for a single pilot. With no obvious way to look out of the body it probably had screens inside that would be used for looking externally. Then on the roof was the cannon they were talking about with what looked like a holder for a magazine.
"What do you think, Jace?" Tako asked as he glanced behind him at Jace.
"It's a mecha. If it was a tank it would have far more protection for the pilot but that pilot's chamber looks like a heavy round from a handgun could penetrate it." Jace explained with a shrug.
"Ah damnit, does that mean we cannot use it?" Ulin asked while pouting.
"Ehh….not necessarily we just need to bring it back with us and make modifications to turn it into a tank." Jace answered with a chuckle. "By the way these groups of boxes are broken up into sections of some type of system. Have you figured out how they were divided up yet?" Jace asked them.
"Yeah, it is divided into weapons, foods, medical stuff, etcetera etcetera. You get the idea." Vana answered as she pointed at a few other boxes they opened in other areas.
Jace nodded and then looked over the box with the spider-mecha in it. But he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the symbol indicating the country of origin. "Saint spiked on a stick. This is from the Imperium." Jace's words caused the others to race over and see the symbol.
"How did someone like Devan manage to get a mecha from that nation? They have their borders sealed tight. Did he smuggle them out?" Vana asked in surprise.
"No, that is not possible. Everyone has tried sneaking into the country without any success." Tako pointed out as he let out a breath of air.
"Then maybe someone came out with it." Everything began aligning in his mind but he did not want to make a jump to a conclusion without conclusive evidence. "Move all the things from our van onto the central elevator over there. Then move this mecha and its box over there as well." Jace told them.
Then Jace began looking around for some more useful pieces of weaponry. Eventually finding a clipboard with a list of everything on it in the weapons section. It sped up the work several times as he moved through marking some boxes and leaving others alone.
Five hours later they were exhausted, tired, and ready to leave.
