Lunar Conspiracy

Let Sleeping Androids Lie

Kartk led the way through a large set of doors, rifle leading.  Jornea had set them down outside a lone building that looked like a hangar bay or a barracks building.  Maybe a research facility.  Her reasoning had been that a single building could only hold so many Androids, and if they turned out to be unfriendly then the less of them there were to fight the better.

Tava had found this reasoning sound.

She reached up to adjust the mask over the lower portion of her face as she followed Kartk in.  The planet didn't have an atmosphere that would support humans.  Or any other species that required an Oxygen/Carbon Dioxide mix.  Which meant that Kartk, Jornea, Kit and Tava all had to don respirators before leaving Athena.  Yggdrasil had taken a look at the atmospheric scan and decided he could go without, as long as he didn't spend too long on the surface at one go.

Tava had been a little wary about all five of them going on this expedition, but the only non-essential personnel were, technically, Jornea and herself.  And neither of them wanted to miss out on a chance to explore a legendary planet that supposedly housed a long lost species.

She glanced over her shoulder as the little troop turned on lights to combat the darkness inside the building.  Jornea was striding along, perfectly at ease.  As she always seemed to be.  She had freed up her paired light pistols for easy access however.  Yggdrasil and Kit hadn't bothered with weapons at all.  Tava had her heavy pistol in her hand and her thin blade hanging from her belt, unwilling to trust these Androids would be relaxed about someone finding their hiding place.  Kartk had shared her misgivings and was almost jumpy as he looked for anything waiting to ambush them.

"This place is kinda creepy."  Jornea's voice echoed, despite the muffling behind her respirator.  She grinned when Kartk whirled around with a finger over his lips.  Tava pressed her lips together, nervously searching the building.  It almost looked like the place had had no intended purpose.  Shelves stood in random locations while odd looking machines and tanks took up more space.  Some of them hissed or rattled on occasion.  Tubing and wires hung down in the way all over the place while a network of pipes just obscured vision even more as they snaked all over, connecting the various machines.

Tava tightened her grip on her pistol as Kartk finished glaring at Jornea and resumed his slow pacing into the building.  They followed the maze of networked machines, growing increasingly wary as they found nothing to indicate there were any Androids here.  She shone her light around when it looked like they had arrived in the middle of whatever this facility had been, frowning and tense.

"Maybe there's no one here," she whispered.

Yggdrasil glanced around, his skin darkening, though it was impossible to tell what exact color in the dim light.  "It would certainly make our endeavor less problematic if they registered life signs."

Kit snorted behind his respirator, little clawed paws adjusting it in an effort to make more room for his snout.  "Make it less problematic if we had some decent lighting too."  His yellow eyes flicked up towards the ceiling, then fixed on something as he reached over to smack Jornea's calf.  She glanced down at him, then up to whatever he was looking at.  She grinned as she offered him a hand, then hefted him up off the floor and into the air.

Kit landed lightly on a grouping of pipes and he steadied himself before starting along the narrow avenue on all fours.  Tava hissed a warning to be careful after him, knowing that to forbid him would be useless.  She shivered when he glanced down at her and his eyes reflected the light eerily.  The effect was even worse when he grinned, showing off sharp teeth that glinted in the low light.  Then he was disappearing.

Kartk shook his head and turned his attention back to the stacks and piles of junk half hidden behind dangling tubes.  "This place is a death trap and the rat wants to wander off by himself."