-Vroom!-
A soft grinding noise was uttered from the gigantic gates, akin to hundreds of large bronze gears turning simultaneously. Though it couldn't be further from the truth, as gears and their subsequent usage went out of business after the crash of steampunk novels in the 2040s, leading many to lament their fate. Grandpa Orion was one of them, and so he set out to add a gear sound effect on every factory he owned, ignoring the fact that adding this small little feature, almost blew his family's cover, multiple times actually; but that's a story for another day...
"Hoo boy... we own all of this?"
Arms akimbo, Staring straight at the hundreds of meters of pure metal was a shocked Gerald, his mouth opened in incredulity. Honestly, anyone would be justified being surprised, let alone Gerald and Ann, who had lived most of their life in mediocrity, and even brief periods of poverty. After all, though Ann was a university lecturer and a genius. Her importance as an educator had taken a back seat since the development of the portable supercomputer: Haze-ρ, and their higher salaries in the 2020s, went with them. Since even being a genius has its limits, and Ann's ceilings weren't anything astonishing like Da Vinci's.
"...Yes, apparently they weren't joking when they said they owned almost all the major arms companies in the world... then still managed to hide from the world's purview,"
"Well, since we inherited the factories from them, it's time to look for the geezer's blueprints then sell it!"
"Gerald! We can't just sell something we inherited! Even after all the trouble that Max went through to get to us,"
Saying this, she turned her head slightly to look at Max, but as if he never heard anyone, he didn't react. Just quietly following them, almost like a doll with its strings cut.
Walking on the path to the factory, they had the chance to actually study the entirety of the giant structure. They were astounded, it was imperiously tall, with a giant circular spire reaching out to the sky, with a blue ring hovering the top, not unlike a halo. Furthermore, it had an industrial feel to it, like it had been there since the 1800s, yet it looked somewhat alien, something you'd see while watching a futuristic movie, making for a humorous juxtaposition. After a few moments of silence, Gerald spoke up, but instead of speaking out loud, he spoke through their connection instead.
'Look, I don't want to sell the old man's stuff either, but look at how we're living now, and tell me how we could be living after selling these blueprints,'
'But didn't you see the letter? the weapons made by the Williams are on another scale compared to the stuff the world has now,'
'Pshh, it can't be that bad, after all; how much more advanced can they get, a few more recoil suppressing guns or something like that would probably be the best of it,'
As they were arguing internally, they finally reached the actual entrance of the factory itself: a giant gat measuring about five meters in height, it had a rusty blue colour, looking to be between 40-50 years of age, and to set the mood, was mixed with a few browns and blacks attained from ageing and neglect.
Immediately, something felt off; the entrance, had no doors, but there were hinges, torn and shattered they may be, but hinges nonetheless. Now I know you may be ahead of me so yes, the doors were ripped from their hinges, proof of that were 2 pieces of metal, destroyed and pierced through by some spherical object.
'Oi, someone's been here before,'
'Mm, and they weren't meant to be, otherwise they wouldn't have destroyed the door,'
As they were about to head in, Max finally said something:
"You can go in first, I'll see you off,"
""?""
"...I have visited this factory once, and it was there I saw your grandfather's face for the first time, I can't bring myself to go in any further,"
Understanding his situation, both Gerald and Ann stayed quiet and simply nodded, before turning back their attention to the entrance of the factory, getting ready to enter. Ann signalled for him to go first.
Nodding in silent agreement, Gerald started moving as stealthily as possible, lest an unknown threat appears before them. Studying the inside of the factory with the limited light its window let in, he could see 2 floors above the one he was standing on, the first being office rooms and the second being too high up for him to get a clear view of.
Ann, seeing him having a clear interest in the upper floors, allowed him to go exploring when she saw his pleading look. After seeing her lover off, Ann began studying the ground floor; the first of which was the clear disuse of the factory's facilities: the various welding machines and laser cutters were broken down and had bugs and plants living within them, actually, at least half of the factory-like that, while the other half were machines with such precise parts it would have been almost impossible for any organism to live in there while simultaneously being able to be seen by the naked eye.
Then there was the giant hallway that led to the giant spire-like erection in the middle of the compound, and though it wasn't a short trip from here to there by any means, she could still see the doors firmly shut on the other end of the hallway, with a black lining on the brown willowy wood that made it somehow ominous. Frightened by the possibility of danger on the other side, she didn't bother going there for the time being.
'Hey,, Ann! look what I found!'
As they continued their search, Gerald suddenly shouted out telepathically, his voice filled with excitement, like he had struck gold. Ann looked to where he was and saw him inside an office room one floor above her, It was one of those transparent office rooms, with its walls made of tempered glass. Though it was only one of many such offices on the first and second floor.
'Coming!'
Responding to his shout, Ann began climbing up the stairs, it's footing uneven, likely from prolonged exposure to the elements. Reaching the second floor and the office room where Gerald was, she saw him looking under the desktop with a purple flashlight in his hands. His face grinning from end-to-end.
"What is it?"
"A code,"
"?"
Clearly noticing her confusion, Gerald began explaining in more detail:
"It should be a code to one of the blueprints the gramps told us about, but damn he wasn't lying when he said happy hunting, took me a while to get the code,"
"What do you mean?"
"I didn't really find the code, the first thing I saw was actually a note. It had a rough sketch for a weapon I've never seen before, here, I'll show you,"
Gerald began searching through his pockets before finally retrieving a small piece of folded paper, when he unfolded it, it showed a short SMG, and though both Ann and Gerald had no idea what it was, it resembled a more complicated looking KRISS vector, And since it was here, in this factory, it naturally was a weapon also crippled by the GMTT and sent through the annals of history.
"Anyways, there was a riddle on the back of the note, and after a few more looking around following the clues, I found an ultraviolet pen, which had a message telling me to shine it under the desk, this is where I found the code. Here, try it for yourself,"
Taking the pen from his hands, she shone a light where he pointed and saw three sets of numbers and letters.
'0S5 6G8 7Y7... Gerald, Ann. Congratulations on finding this, It's called the CRYSIS, the blueprints are in the safe under the carpet near the entrance. Take this to the Axel-Road to create it. P.S. it's the giant tower you saw, behind the brown and black door.'
Finished reading the little message left for the two of them, Ann looked at Gerald, who immediately took out the blueprints from a small bag he carried with him. There, they saw the completed details of the weapon, instead of just a rough sketch, details I will omit, as they will be relevant later.
Finished studying the papers, the once smiling Gerald had a grim look on his face, slowly, he spoke:
"This can never be released to the public... The potential casualties will be astronomical, even more so considering this was a civilian weapon and the large drought in new arms technology,"
"I agree, but what are we going to do with this then if we're not going to sell it?"
Hearing her question, Gerald closed his eyes for a brief moment, cold beads of sweat rolling down his cheeks, his eyebrows twitching, trying to think of a suitable answer to her question, before opening his eyes wide, resolutely announcing:
"Let's revive it,"
"What?"
"The family business, even before coming together, our families still worked with weapons,"
"...So you're saying-"
"Mn, this time, there's no more room for mistakes, if we lose, the world will fall to ruin,"
"But if we win?"
"The world will be under our control,"
Hearing his preposterous answer, Ann also started smiling, as if laughing at his naivety, but her next words said otherwise. As she stood up along with Gerald, she smiled and said:
"Let's do it, those old fogeys in the government treated us like shit, so they can't blame us for rebelling... After all, an eye for an eye,"
Finishing her statement, she stared at Gerald, who nodded curtly, before going down the stairs, heading for the ominous door; the only thing standing between them, and the key to their victory...