"Maybe we should keep these two together?" one of my colleagues asked as he wrote up a report regarding the dead goldhands. A frown developed on my features as I stared at the camera feed. Were these two bonding or something? Were Gladiator-12 and 27 able to speak to each other?
See, if Gladiator-27 had been put in its correct cage, we might be able to research this. But, no, it was hurriedly put in a cage near Gladiator-12 because of her usual behaviour. Which, really should not have happened as they were empty for a reason. That reason was she kept killing her neighbours.
"Unless, it's because those other creatures couldn't speak?" I thought out loud as I leaned past my colleague. Staring deep into the camera as the pair kept at it. Doing whatever it was that they were doing. Our newest one seemed to be drawing something.
"Quite possibly, isn't that the reason we kept Gladiator-27 alive?" he asked as he spun away from the computer.
"There were many reasons, but the fact it spoke the Spire-Lord's name is one reason alright." I tell him before moving on with my life. This wasn't my department at all and its head would likely moan if I kept snooping in it. But, maybe just one more visit down into the main complex... Just to see what was going on.
"Will you need a security escort?" I was then asked as my keying in of the password notified the main computer.
"No, that would probably set them off. Besides, we have lost enough goldhands already." I tell them before the door closed behind me. With my nose taking in sterile air no longer but rather a filthy stench similar to a farm. A very peculiar farm as there were many different smells mixed into all of this. But, I stopped once I reached the walkway.
There was no way I'd be able to sneak near them if my feet were banging and banging. So, perhaps, I might just have to hope I would not interrupt their conversation. Maybe they would carry on with it? Or, they'd stop like two girls gossiping about someone right next to them.
If they did not mind my presence near them, then, all the better. If they did, then, I might as well leave as I would not be able to learn anything from this encounter. Which, if that turned out to be the case. I might just pass by another place before heading back to my facility.
"Can you move closer to the light?" I heard the insect-like one ask the prized captive. Something that it did not seem to understand at first until Gladiator-27 began to explain it. Then, it did move over to that spot. But why, that is what I was about to find out.
From what I could see from my vantage point, it seemed that Gladiator-27 was inspecting 12's armour. The steel-gold alloy we fused onto its arms and tail once it had proven itself a capable warrior. Even if it seemed to go through bursts of reluctance when we did not urge it to with violence. This was a nearly two-point-five-metre tall, naturally armoured creature with dagger-like claws and it was passive?
Yeah, right.
"Come closer." Gladiator-27 then ordered as it slowly moved closer to Gladiator-12. Its own claws reached out for the shock harness on the other. But, Gladiator-12 reacted to that violently and moved away. Smashing the bars near it in order to intimidate Gladiator-27 away.
It was not scared, however, it moved with caution, but it was not scared! Or maybe I just could not tell as this thing was not human. Or, at least, not fully human as the biology department here had found signs of human DNA. But, that might have just been something it ate, a slightly concerning detail.
Now, however, it seemed like Gladiator-27 had broken the trust with Gladiator-12. It was now refusing to go near the other and as such, I had no reason to be here. Maybe this was an orchestrated plan, but, I also had no real want to wait around. We had plenty of time to research them both, after all.
"Alright, have fun you two." I told them casually before I headed back to the entrance. Keying in the passcode once more before waiting this time for someone to open the door. A reason why they say not to go in here undeclared as you could end up locked in. An odd safety measure I never really got.
"Woah, only a brief time and you already stink." the one who opened the door for me joked before I nudged past them.
"Woah, only a brief touch and you already reek you disgusting thing." I said back to him in a harsh tone before I headed on my way. Pulling out a little piece of paper and then a lighter once I was outside. And then, my hand came back out with a pinch of dried out plant stuff. Good old and reliable river weeds, full of nice and intoxicating gasses waiting to be burned.
And once it was all made, I put the freshly made cigarette to my lips and lit it up. Taking a long drawn in breath from it before huffing it all out. Smiling slightly as I tried to decipher steam from smoke as I was now outside. Standing about the wind-swept mountains and their bitter landscape.
"Okay, Project Fire Trail. Which way did I have to go to get to you..." I pondered out loud before I started aimlessly walking. Occupying my mind with useless speech as I followed the large power cables going about the place. Each one boiling to the touch and emitting waves of visible heat distortions. I could even relight my cigarette on them!
Which I did, briefly when I was done with it or rather, forced to be done with it. Despite the place being a mountain-placed sauna. They did not like anything warm, hot or heated really going into Project Fire Trail. Which was a shame, because I liked to be inside a warm building after travelling a cold mountain path.
"Doctor Ea'enk, what do we owe the pleasure?" the Department Head asked as I walked through his door. Shivering more the moment the doors closed than when I was outside. And when I saw the blue faces of those working here, I shivered some more. How anyone is willing to work in a place colder than a freezer baffled me.
"Nothing much, Department Head, just here to have a look around." I tell him as I started walking into his facility. Annoying him both because I had just arrived here to walk around and the fact I don't bother learning anyone's names. I don't even know the name of my boss!
"We've talked about this! You can't just keep coming here unannounced! You aren't a Spire-Lord!"
"No, I'm just your younger senior from the parent facility and as such hold all the rights to do so." I tell him as I headed towards the heart of Fire Trail. Sticking close to the cables like everyone else here does before I reached the main chamber. Having passed a highly guarded room just before I got into it. I really wished we never had to use that room...
It was our failsafe room that was more guarded than the main chamber where the dangerous animal was. A direct link to a magic-based superweapon that, in theory, should completely kill everything in this mountain. How, I did not know, I just know it always had a highly-decorated group of goldhands near it. It would be nice if it was just a killswitch for our easily-angered guest, but it wasn't...
It just had to be a barely tested bomb with a theoretical explosive yield of twenty kilotons... Surprisingly, much weaker than that blast that preceded Gladiator-27's arrival. Which, knowing Spire-Lord Iishar Ho, we'd be seeing a potentially stronger bomb get installed. Once we figure out how it made that much power, of course.
"It's a good thing the security for this thing was provided by Iishar's dealers, no?" I asked the Department Head who had followed me all the way here.
"Maybe we can go to them and get you a lesson in manners." he scoffed out while I kept my attention on the living furnace before me. Even with this machine, us draining it and all the coolers near us, it was still hot enough to cook a man alive. I was only able to avoid so much of the heat because I kept to the edge near the coolers.
"Remind me, if this thing was to break out, why is the failsafe so close to the creature itself?"
"Ask the architect, something that I am not." he told me before he tried to grab me to drag me out.
"Don't touch me." I tell him before his hands go on me. Keeping my attention on what was before me and watching others as they took data samples. Mostly just temperature and how well the machinery was holding up. But, crucial data all the same.
"Well, if you're so worried about the failsafe system we have in place, let me remind you we have a big maintenance overhaul coming up soon." he whispered into my ear which left me shivering in fear. I always hated these events, the issues here always spilt out to the other facilities. And, we always had casualty paperwork to handle. Not because the creature escaped, but because its power was that intense without the safety measures we had in place...
It quite often got to the point that we had to just drag in cheap workers from the lower floors. Just so that we did not lose our actually good ones to the dangers of this place. But, thankfully, with each overhaul, we are seeing subtle reductions in how dangerous it is. Like one or two fewer deaths each time. The Spire-Lords saw that as progress, though.
But, then, I thought of a comeback to his snark, "Well, it's you who will be killed should it get out." I said with an attempt at a shrug. Heading back out once I had, had enough of standing before this creature. Because, oddly enough, despite how powerful and dangerous it was, standing before it seemed to make you just a bit healthier. Perhaps it had something to do with those goldish pills we got?
The workers we called in to be killed off in order to get Fire Trail modified dropped dead in peculiar ways. They always had these blue lines about them not long after they enter. And, if they are especially unlucky, they blow up and set off a chain of them. Which, is very terrifying, especially the first time that happened with our old engineering team.
All of them just gone in but a single moment. How the people beyond the wastes ever learned how to harness this power was truly baffling. To be in a land where this strange terror was everywhere. How could any civilisation develop if everyone kept blowing up!?
"Spire-Lord Iishar Ho!? To what do we owe the pleasure?" I then found myself saying when I nearly ran into our main patron of sorts. With the woman in question immediately baring down on me when she saw me.
"There's been an incident back at Tobaballe. Something magical in nature has attacked the front portion. Stolen all of our workers from the farms there." She quickly explained to me as Fire Trail's Department Head came by. And, like me, he reacted pretty much the same way.
"Spire-Lord Iishar Ho!? To what do we owe the pleasure?" he unintentionally repeated.
"Gather up all your development teams and meet me in the main conference room in the main building. Me and the others want defence solutions and we want them now!" she ordered which sent us all off running to gather up the necessary people.