September 5th, 2000, 12:30 am:
Los Angeles.
The helicopter ride is short, and before long we are descending to land. The destruction of the upper floors of the Akropolis tower is still visible even from quite a distance away.
The helicopter drops us off at the nearby LAPD building and we make our way outside. A car is already waiting for us as we head for the MIST offices.
Neither of my car partners seem interested in talking much, so I don't attempt to draw them in to conversation.
Instead, I spend most of the drive discussing the various scans with EFA.
"The man in the armour was interesting. Look at these gene scans. He's like a hybrid of whatever race you would call Aya, and that implanted monster we fought in the tunnels."
"It makes no sense though EFA, from previous scans this combination shouldn't be possible. It's like Aya had a kid with one of those monsters and it got artificially aged up. Look at the telomeres. It's like he's barely three years old."
"You can see the original human DNA in there. Likely some sort of experimental treatment. Maybe a better form of transformation for more trusted people?"
"Anything on that implant we found."
"Nothing interesting on the function or makeup yet, but the transmission terminated in the southwest, about 20 miles north of the town of Dryfield in Nevada. Out in the wilderness of the Mojave desert."
"Anything there of interest?"
"Not that I can see Boss, a lot of those shelter prepper types and an unusually strong local militia presence, but nothing that isn't mirrored elsewhere across the state."
"No towns or facilities?"
"I can't tell you. There's no real google maps here, GPS is rudimentary and low resolution, at least the ones I can access, the only reason I've been able to pull the info I have is archived news articles."
"Looks like we are headed out to the desert then."
…
The car arrives at a small office building downtown, small enough I'm not surprised it doesnt have a helipad.
Aya turns to me. "Welcome to M.I.S.T headquarters. We need to debrief but then you can be on your way."
She turns to step into the building ahead of me but pauses and looks back.
"Thanks for the help on the Helipad. I may have been able to take him regardless, but your assistance was appreciated."
She walks ahead as Rupert nods his head toward the rooftop access indicating for me to follow.
What follows is a quick, but comprehensive debrief in a small office with the two of them, and their boss, Director Baldwin.
He's a pompous slimeball, but he runs a pretty tight ship. We go through my actions in the tower prior to shit kicking off. They also pull my hunt footage with my co-operation, and I get a pretty hefty BP bonus. Once my ID is confirmed and my footage is archived Aya and Rupert leave. Im sure they have a busy few weeks ahead of them after losing half a skyscraper to monster terrorists.
Baldwin shows me out of the building, as I leave he catches my attention one last time.
"If you are ever looking for more reliable work, contact me. I can probably fast track you into the academy based on this footage and your results."
Even if I was planning on staying here in this world, I doubt my fictitious background would stand up to full federal scrutiny.
"Thanks, I'll keep it in mind."
It's 2am. And even with all my advantages, I am beat.
"EFA, please continue work on the scans, I'm going to catch some sleep, wake me at 6am please I need to source transport out to the signal source in Nevada."
I manage to flag a late-night taxi, and head for my Motel.
In hindsight, it's been a wild day, even with my life as it has been so far. A running battle with genetic monstrosities in a massive skyscraper culminating in a helicopter escape with two cops as the building explodes beneath us.
Sounds like an episode of "Capes of our lives".
I check my key as I get in bed. Half full.
Looks like I can leave soon, but not before I solve the mystery of this implant. It would kill me If I left with all these unanswered questions.
Tomorrow, we track that damn signal.
September 5th, 2000, 06:00 am:
Los Angeles.
I awaken with a start.
EFA has basically done the equivalent of poking me in the brain.
"Just waking you up as you asked boss."
"No problem EFA, just acclimating to the rapid wakeup."
I feel pretty refreshed after the eventful day even with minimal sleep. The nanobiotics work a treat for reducing my required sleep cycles. Fast regeneration comes in handy again!
"EFA look for motorbikes for sale in the local area, If I end up needing to go leave it somewhere it'll be easier to transport or hide as needed."
Plus, i kinda still need the practice after Sherrels impromptu lessons.
"I have three results already, two sport bikes and one cruiser close by."
"Specs on the cruiser?"
"1600 CC, Yamaha, $12000 though."
"Can we afford it?"
"Easily, with what I've been siphoning you could buy a fleet."
"Fine, message the seller, may as well ride in style."
Heading out to look at the bike and it's a genuine Yamaha Road Star. Damn I'll have to bring this back with me if I can! It's an anachronistic piece of beauty. I buy straight up without a loan or finance which surprises the dealer.
Todays plan is simple, head out to the transmission point of origin for the implant and poke around. Make some deep scans, see if there are any facilities in the area, and failing that any cave facilities or canyons, anything that could hide some sort of control facility for the implant. I'm mightily intrigued to find the source of this tech.
I pick up a bunch of food, drink and ammunition supplies on my way out of town. The portal is handy as hell and no reason not to stock up. I also end up using my bonus BP to pick up a "PA3" shotgun and a bunch of high gauge buckshot at the bounty office on my way. I might not need it but better to have it to hand, no point in keeping all these BP burning a hole in my pocket (or retina in this case)
No time to do any real modifications to this one, but well. It's a Shotgun. There's not all that much I can do to it compared to the pistol. I'm not at all familiar with the brand but it seems to be a more reliable version of the SPAS12.
Shopping trip taken care of, I hit the road and speed toward my destination.
…
Long drives are boring. A little more interesting being in my third universe and all, but still.
Boring.
Luckily the place I am headed to is close to the border between California and Nevada, but still a good 4–5-hour ride from LA. And that's with me pretty much flooring it.
I've spent half the trip reviewing scans. That's how bored I am. The disparity between this place and Bet is still startling. There's quite a large disparity even to my original world too, it's like walking into your house and someone has moved all your stuff a few inches in random directions. It's the same house and decor, but it isn't quite as familiar as you would like. The buildings and road layouts are all strange too. Much more Japanese in feel and design.
Hopefully I'll have a way back here after I make my way back to Bet. There is a lot to love about a world without constant parahuman menace. A nice possible retirement destination.
Damn I must be bored if I'm already thinking about retirement.
As I ride on in loneliness, I start to think of home.
Wait no. Bet, not home.
When did I start to think of Bet as home…
I wonder what will happen when I get back. Kaiser and the bitch brigade must be both pissed off and slightly worried at the fact I disappeared the way I did. Hopefully Sherrel isn't worrying about me too much.
I'm still wondering if I killed Purity on my way out. The energy pistol doesn't hit hard, but her head snapped back with some force.
Fuck her, I refuse to care after she helped the rest of the Hitler crew attack me. If she's dead. She's dead.
I'm finally on the home stretch. I passed the border with Nevada a good while ago as the urban sprawl turned to the quintessential "American desert" landscape. Dryfield will be not far away on my right as I head down the dusty old road. I don't plan on stopping however.
There's hills and mountains all around as I instruct EFA to scan for anything unusual.
The transmission originated in the area just north of me.
"Boss, the range isn't great, but local maps from a quick search of the survey maps for the area show a few old mine systems connected to the roads. Look for tracks on your left, and specifically look for signs of recent entry, tracks etc."
"Got it EFA, keep full scans up."
"Also boss, I thought this would be of interest to you. I've been checking newspaper archives from the area. There's been reports of missing and mutilated pets and cattle in the Dryfield area, going back months. Possibly years."
Now that is extremely interesting. What secrets does that little backwater town hold I wonder.
…
I thought the trip down here would be the worst part of this journey.
I was wrong.
Moving from dusty track to dusty track, checking for signs of movement, anything to break up the monotony.
Mentally taxing to the extreme.
The sun has long passed its zenith now, and is starting to sink as afternoon turns to early evening.
I filled up as I left town, and I'm down to about 40% of my Tank. Things are going to get dicey fuel wise soon.
"Boss, Scans are picking up multiple life signs on the mesa next to us, lifeform unrecognised."
I turn to the mesa and catch a silhouette of a horse like creature with an extremely long neck.
Followed by five more.
And they're all looking down at me.
A chilling howl goes through the air, as the creatures disappear over the ridge above.
"Boss, single tire tracks on the road to the left, toward the mesa."
"Towards those things!?"
"Sorry Boss, but yes."
Well.
In for a penny and all that.
I rapidly turn the bike to the left as the track comes into view, and gun it while EFA directs me after the tracks.
I hear the tumbling of rocks to my left as one of the creatures charges toward me downhill. How the hell did it get down here so fast!
Catching a better look at the monster, this thing isn't like a horse at all. It's like someone stretched a lion and gave it a human face. It's rapid too, keeping pace with the Bike at the highest speed I can manage down this off-track dusty road.
Two more join the chase as I max out the throttle. I pull my pistol from the portal and start taking shots as I ride.
A normal man would not be able to control the bike like this, but with my increased strength I can manage pot shots while controlling the bikes direction one handed. I don't seem to be getting through the face or torso, unless I hit an eye. So im aiming at the legs. This pays off wonderfully as the beasts stumble, though they still don't fall, it at least slows them down.
"EFA I need a choke point to use the shotgun or this is going to be a short trip!"
I should have looked for a Jeep or something…
"Boss, there is a cave entrance to your left now, right on the edge of my outer range. Overlaying trajectory. It's away from where the tracks go, but it's too small for those things to enter comfortably."
"Got it."
I gun it off road following the safe trajectory EFA has laid out for me. As I approach the cliff wall, the ground starts to rumble and the horse-lion things immediately back off.
"EFA what the hell was that."
"Not a clue at the minute boss, some sort of localised tectonic event."
"Bit coincidental?"
"I'll keep scanning but with the range as limited as it is, unlikely to find much."
One of the first things I will be doing on my return is developing ways to extend personal scan range.
Before long, I finally reach the opening EFA has been directing me towards.
"EFA, scan this cave there's no way this is natural."
The 'cave' is 7ft high and about a foot and a half wide and dips into the cave wall in a straight line.
"It's man made boss, maybe a guide hole for the mines, or even an abandoned attempt at a mine."
"How deep does it go."
"Outside my range boss, but it goes deep. There's something mechanical further in though for sure."
"Will the bike fit in there?"
"It'll be a tight fit, but you could bury it outside if need be."
That sounds like the best idea. I quickly scan for observation devices, something is really pinging my paranoia here. It almost felt like the lion horses were herding me here.
I then use the matter manipulator to open up a pit, I lower the bike in and then cover it with a fabricated tarp, followed by a thin layer of sand and plant debris.
No-one is destroying my bike while im away!
I pull out my flashlight, and head toward the cave.
"Maintain full scan awareness, no downtime, use as much energy as you need."
"Got it Boss."
I descend into the cave system full of trepidation.
September 5th, 2000, 05:00 pm:
Nevada – Mojave Desert, somewhere north of LA.
If anyone ever tells you spelunking is fun, reach over and give them a slap from me.
Efa might be scanning for dangers, but in doing so it means I have to scan for trip hazards myself. I move at a shuffling walk after my third time tripping in the dark with my flashlight pointed forward.
Progress is slow as EFA is cataloguing incredibly unusual scans. Including a metallic wall somewhere beneath us that shockingly the scanners are struggling to penetrate.
Yes, the mass effect scanner, even if only this weakened-range personal version is actually struggling with something in this backwards fresh into the new millennium world.
Another strange technological leap in this extremely strangely developed world.
There is also machinery and cabling all through the walls, with an active electrical current. I'm speculating that im in some sort of back door entrance to either a prepper shelter, or some major major mining operation. Still no sign of any cameras or such yet.
After navigating through what feels like an endless cave system, and avoiding multiple pitfalls and dead ends, we come upon a door with a control panel, EFA manages to hack through it but not without some difficulty.
The cave beyond widens into a much larger cave system.
Stalactites drip from the ceiling as I move forward and my flashlight illuminates the cavern roof. Pillars reach ceiling to floor and there is a hell of a lot of machinery embedded in the floor here.
Ahead of me, is a dark wall with a metal door inset into it.
This cave is huge, part of the floor is strange too, some sort of lumpy soft mess. This room is incredibly unusual. A blend of mechanical, natural rock and metal. It kind of looks like a half-finished underground room.
"Uh Boss, you either need to move back the way you came or get your ass through that door."
"What's up EFA?"
"You know how sometimes when you are looking at a smaller thing, you miss the bigger thing that was in front of you?"
"I don't like where this is going."
"I was preoccupied with all the machinery and missed the fact that that floor is alive boss. It has a life sign, very deep, low level, could almost be confused with a fungus or even a tree at this level, but alive for sure."
"Okay, why is that so important?"
The wall on the far left of the cavern suddenly moves as the room starts to shake.
"Because the life signs suddenly started getting stronger."
The cavern wall starts to lift up as the floor starts to shake.
What I thought were pillars were actually big metallic hoses, that disconnect from the living floor and retract into the ceiling. I quickly take cover behind a nearby rock formation.
The far wall opens to the darkening sky outside. The opposite side of the mesa I am currently inside of.
Lights flash on and I quickly switch off my light as the floor rises.
What I previously thought was a floor is in fact a giant, fat sleeping monster. Scans show it as incredibly similar to the fat ones from the Akropolis tower. And it's waking up as it's lifesigns jump from "part of the background" to "Holy shit there's a 20 foot monster in front of me."
And seemingly having a cannon for a mouth.
The beast thankfully hasn't seen me.
It raises it's head to the ceiling and spurts out a massive gout of fire as it crawls bodily out of the huge cavern and stands up outside, before lumbering off towards Dryfield.
So it wasn't a cannon, it was just a giant flamethrower.
…
Well that just happened.
The wall lowers and the lights switch off again as we are plunged into darkness in a now empty cavern.
I'm going to have to go warn the town aren't I?
I turn to make my way back outside, but the passage I entered through is gone.
"The passage completely closed over as the beast was rising from the floor on that giant elevator. Maybe a safety feature?"
Looks like I have no choice but to continue onwards.
I really don't like this.
…
Through the big metal door I go, and the deeper I move, the more mechanical the area gets, and harder and harder to scan.
"EFA, What the hell are these walls even made of?"
"Some sort of rubidium/tungsten/uranium alloy, getting scans of mercury and gold within the lattice too. Then both coated in and internally reinforced by thick plates of Lead, then again in Titanium. The lattice it's arranged in to would be nearly impervious to most energy weaponry below a certain level, though incredibly susceptible to a physical strike, which is what the titanium gridding is for I suppose."
"Take detailed scans and store for analysis. This could be useful for us too if we can duplicate the lattice."
"It wouldn't be useful as armour, without the coating its radioactive."
"Not for something man sized, no."
Scans become spottier and spottier as we descend into the seemingly abandoned and unobserved facility. Until I finally give the order to abandon scans outside of the room we are currently in.
"Just ping every so often to make sure we aren't missing something major, but it's a waste of power currently."
"Got it boss."
"When we get out of here we need to do a deep dive into the Omni-Tools systems. While the range isn't fantastic on the manmade model, there is no way the scanner should be getting blocked by terrestrial materials. It's weaker here than it is on Bet for some reason."
"I can only postulate that either something didn't quite cross over when we jumped across universal boundaries, or that the forge granted items are weaker without an active connection to the forge."
"Regardless, put this in the schedule for future testing. Ill hand it off to a clone if need be, but we absolutely have to get to the bottom of this. If we have to spend some time building some more powerful scanning apparatus within my body for the omni tool to use, then so be it. It's possible that sacrificing the outer shell of the omni tool apparatus in order to mount it internally has had an effect too.
"Got it Boss."
The wide corridor we are in ends in a set of doors set in opposite sides of the end of the corridor. One is marked "Entrance" and the other as "Exit only." A biohazard sign and a "decontamination" sign are above the entrance room.
"Before I make a big mistake of stepping into what looks like a sealed decontamination room, have you managed to hit any sort of access point to hack in?"
"No boss, everything is either wired, or air gapped. There's no access point to the greater network with a wireless protocol or receiver of any sort for me to tap in to. I can see network activity but have no way to interfere with it as it is."
"Damn I was afraid of that. As we move in I'll try to find a terminal."
A panel to the side of the door has buttons for starting a decontamination protocol. Against my better judgement and with no easy way to retreat without spending a good amount of time crafting mining equipment, I decide to push on.
If I hit any major issues I can just pull out the staff and go plasma blade if I have to. Even though the main armour is gone, I still have a lot of options. Enchanted clothes and weapons should make short work of almost anything if I have to 'go loud' so to speak.
The decontamination room opens and I step in. Along one wall, a row of empty decontamination suits, and on the far wall, and identical door to the one I came in through. A bank of fans on the right hand wall start up as the room is flooded with a pale white gas.
"A simple combined antiseptic/antibiotic compound, nothing dodgy on scans boss."
Decontamination surprisingly goes without a hitch, the gas drains and I am declared 'free of contaminants' by the system. Neither me nor EFA detected any scans so I have no clue how they decide that but I'm not looking a gift lion-horse in the mouth.
I step out into a corridor filled with pipes, and a metal floor.
These guys really leaned into the 'evil lab' aesthetic. I can dig it, but damn.
Talk about playing up to a stereotype.
There are five doors in this stubby corridor, and I decide to take them in order.
The two rooms on the left are useless. Just dormitories with no electronics other than clocks and nothing special. The first room on the right is a nice find as it seems to be a small armoury. All the guns are broken but I pick up a very nice quantity of various forms of ammunition. Waste not, want not!
The last room on the right is where my composure drops.
The room is a lab, kitted out with everything you would expect.
Except for the wall of test tubes filled with people in various stages of transformation into monsters. Some of them are kids.
"EFA, what's the status on those people?"
"All dead boss, I'm sorry. The solution they are suspended in seems to be some sort of nutrient solution designed to keep the mitochondria from dissolving the body so they can be studied in various stages of the transformation."
I grit my teeth.
They're killing bloody kids.
"While it likely doesn't soften the blow at all, they all seem to be clones, there are signs of rapid aging protocols all throughout the genome."
"Show me."
EFA overlays her scans into my vision, and I see what she means. Signs of straining on the telomeres indicating a forcible rapid aging.
The mitochondria info is actually invaluable, but coming at this cost…
Even if they are clones, they're still kids.
I move to a terminal on the single desk in here, the first example of a computer I've seen in this place.
Old blocky CRT monitor and all.
Thankfully the idiot has clues to his password on a nearby whiteboard. It takes no time at all to break in.
What I find is astounding.
This little facility I'm in is one of a few satellite facilities based in the various Mesas dotted around Dryfield, each one designed to study a particular form of the creatures people transform in to.
These people are the ones causing the transformations. The implant is a combined tracking and 'communication' implant. They're interested in finding a way to force some sort of fresh evolution of humanity into those creatures. The ones I've been facing are completely different to the ones from the 'blockade' incident. Those were semi-natural evolutions forced by the mitochondria by Eve.
These ones are man-made, and in some ways, tailored to the user. The big flamethrower NMC that legged it off toward Dryfield? Completely manmade. And it used to be a person.
The techniques while incredibly immoral, are extremely advanced. I need to store this info for later.
There's no USB or obvious interaction slot on the PC or I would download this all to my phone, instead I prepare flick through screen after screen of info as EFA manually transcribes it all.
However I have a spark of inspiration at the best possible time. This is where the Omni-tool really comes into its own.
I simply set the tool to image the entire system wholesale. The primitive hard drives have no protection against this unlike the systems in the time it came from. The platters still need to be spun up however, the tool limited by the technology of this time.
As the data parses I start to read through some of it.
There are references through the documents to a 'neo-ark'. Some sort of shelter beneath the main facility, and directions to a mineshaft entrance to the main shelter.
There is apparently another entrance in Dryfield, though according to the docs here, it is sealed.
I need to make my way over there, apparently the info stored here is only relevant to this particular experiment, and there is a cache of info over at the main base on the overall process.
While I probably don't need that info in order to leave.
The medic in me wants it more than anything. This could lead to a whole new level of nanobiotic development.
Finally finished with the imaging, I make my way to the final door.
I enter the door into a charnel house. EFA is immediately scanning as the incredibly thick door that was previously blocking our scans opens.
The room is full of dead scientists, seemingly executed where they worked. Shattered test tubes around an immense laboratory and pools of blood and various other fluids dot the room.
Some of these people were literally eviscerated, with what must be a colossal blade or claw of some sort.
"Boss, I'm getting really strange readings in here, it's like life signs that appear and disappear at random. Be careful."
As I move to step further into the room, I hear a swishing in the air above me and on instinct roll backwards through the door.
In front of my eyes the air shimmers and a giant 6-legged spider looking monstrosity walking on the ceiling fades into existence. Followed by multiple smaller ones on the floor.
"Theyre using some sort of stealth field EFA, sweep to scan for it now we know it's there."
The big spider starts to glow and it's front two legs start to point at me, I dodge left while pulling my shotgun off my back and rack it. I feel like the 9mm just isn't going to cut it.
Two shimmering green projectiles fire off the front legs of the abomination, I dodge them and they sizzle against the wall.
Well, no getting hit by the glowing spider bullets then.
I quickly return fire while backing off toward the decontamination room.
"At least we know why we haven't seen anyone else here."
"The bigger question is boss, if all those scientists were already dead, who let the big flamethrower beast outside?"
"Let's look into that when I don't have a gang of stealth spiders trying to perforate me."
I continue to fire, thankfully the small ones die quickly but the big one is shaking off the buckshot like it's nothing.
I knew I should have picked up some slugs.
I back off down the corridor firing and reloading almost without thought, I press the decontamination button as I finally reach the door.
The monitor flashes up with the most unwelcome message.
"Cycling. Please wait."
Are you kidding me!
I fire shell after shell off, the small ones seem to be dead now but the big one is still firing and approaching slowly.
It's regenerating from being hit with regular ammo. The buckshot literally being pushed out and clattering on the metal grated floor.
Well then, looks like I have the tool for this job.
I return my shotgun to be back and pull the Jabberwock claw. The thing tilts it's head as if wondering where I pulled the sword from.
It doesn't expect me to charge it, and it rears back as I approach a lot quicker than it was probably expecting. As it swipes at me I roll under it, removing two of it's legs as it screams out and tries to drop back into stealth.
I'm having none of that as I slam the blade directly into its skull.
It sags and immediately starts to disintegrate.
I turn to bask in my victory as a loud shriek sounds.
And a veritable avalanche of the smaller spiders is barrelling toward me from the room I left.
Okay maybe killing the big one hasn't ended up as I planned.
I book it back to the decontamination room door, thankfully now open, and slam my fist onto the initiation button. The door closes as the spiders reach it and I am treated to shrieking skittering sounds of madness on the other side.
"EFA, I think it's time to go home. I really didn't sign up for this."
I check my key, 85% full. Not long now till I can leave though in retrospect. I likely won't try to leave until I have gotten to the bottom of this plan to forcibly evolve the entire world.
I'd like to have the option to one day come back and explore here and the extinction of humanity won't be conducive to that I think.
The decontamination procedure begins, but this time the gas is blue.
"Boss, that's reading as an anaesthetic! You are resistant and your nanobiotics will counter it until the concentration gets too high, but you can't stay in it for too long, you won't resist it forever!"
It's just one thing after another.
I quickly look around for a release lever, there's one on the far wall which I press to no effect.
I try to force the door back, better the enemy you know, but no luck there either. I can't get a fingerhold on either door.
There are two large vents on the right, lacking any other better option I yank off the vent covers.
As I do, two small turrets emerge from the wall opposite.
What hell I didn't have any scans of observation equipment!
"Boss they're all hardened the same way the walls are, we will need to adapt scans."
I pull my Beretta and take out the turrets before they even have time to aim at me. They're hardened, but not bullet resistant it seems.
I wonder why everything is hardened against energy-based attacks but not much against standard firearms…
However, I have bigger problems to worry about.
It looks like I am being observed after all. Nothing in visual scans though, so the cameras must be embedded. And I'm trapped in a room filling with a general anaesthetic gas that my resistance to will eventually run out.
I quickly return back to the vents I was investigating; they seem to drop off deeper into the facility.
"EFA are you getting anything on scans at all?"
"Tilted at various points from a 60-45 degree angle, terminates about 80ft below us, you can survive the drop at this angle but it won't be comfortable. Use your strength to slow down your descent as you go if you can."
Unconscious with strangers who likely know I have abilities above the norm, or uncomfortable and deeper underground.
Option 2 it is.
I rip out the covering and the fan with my bare hands and chuck myself feet first into the chute.
I've been on worse slides in my life, but before long the chute widens too much for me to brace myself slower, and I slowly pick up speed.
With no warning I am ejected into the junk pile to end all junk piles.
In the dark.
I switch my flashlight on to a horror show of old mechanical junk and rotting flesh.
"EFA, note to self. Don't throw myself into the garbage chute of a decontamination chamber in future."
"Noted boss."
"Do you think I'm too young to retire?"
"Probably."
Quickly shaking myself free of the hunk of crap I landed in, I move to a relatively clear grated floor.
Looking around and im feeling the "a new hope" vibes right about now.
Looking around, there's a large metal door in the far wall, and not much else. There are a bunch of chute entrances above, it looks like this is the central trash processing for the entire set of facilities.
"EFA anything of value in this pile of crap?"
"Yes, actually, there's a lot of junk electronics and scrap metal that you can take into the Omni tool buffers and the matter manipulator that will be quite helpful in future. All basic compounds, but free is free."
"Got ya, cheers EFA."
I quickly get to work with the Omni tool and matter manipulator breaking down piles of junk and pretty much filling up the buffers of both tools with lots of useful raw materials. Nothing super advanced but it's nice to have most of the basic resource buffers full, just in case.
While the tools are breaking down the materials I investigate the room more, It looks like this is where they just dump any broken machinery along with any failed experiments. There aren't any life signs here but im not taking that for granted after the flamethrower behemoth. That thing registered as dead right before it woke up.
Moving to the door I quickly check out the access panel, but there doesn't seem to be any power running through it.
And this door is absolutely huge. As a test I try to dig my fingers in and force it open.
Between my undersuit and the bionics, I'm pretty damn strong. But not enough for this door.
I'm going to have to check all the edge walls to see if there's a power interface anywhere.
Looking round the room, this could take a while.