27

The homeless had used the abandoned subway systems for as long as memory served. Their tunnels tapped into power and clean water providing them with some comfort. Jaime sent medical teams down to screen for tuberculosis, cholera, leprosy, and other 3^rd-world conditions. Despite the harsh conditions and smell, the mole-people called it home. Pod 612 may have destroyed the entire public center of UNATCO, and severely damaged the west-wing of levels 1 through 6 –with damage lessening with depth. Levels 7 through 9 were untouched, lying below level 6 they were safe from harm.

SHODAN needed vital components from the Manhattan Institute, things that she could not locate in the base. She scanned all available maps and pod sensor readings for escape routes and found one a quarter of a mile away from level 6 west-wing sub-level 2, the second floor of the basement of robotics. The droids would have to be upgraded soon. They were annoyingly limited and she had updated their programming as much as she could, but they would do and not provide clues of her presence. She didn’t need techs finding her advanced programming and technology just yet; she wasn’t strong enough yet. Very soon it wouldn’t matter.

28

The suit had finished its upgrade cycle. The augmentation canister provided him with an anti-projectile defensive shield; the others were newer systems that the suit rejected. Alex powered up, reloaded his assault shotgun with Sabot shells, strapped his wrench and stealth pistol to his quick release belt, and opened the doors of hell.

The sabot shells ripped the sentry to shreds, its armor pierced in several places and exploded from the inside out. Two scramblers thrown in opposite directions down the hall took out three security bots. The pounding continued and he was in no mood to find out what was happening. He needed to get to the surface and help coordinate recovery operations.

His escape was rough and cost him dearly. Bots had triggered the scramblers trying to move to robotics, but had recovered when functional bots recharged them and transferred programming. Alex toasted two of the heavy security bots with a spare scrambler, blasted three bots, and slammed the blast-door manual override switch.

Tracer was in the level two landing with a dozen maintenance personnel who had been working throughout operations and a tech from the mall luck enough to be replacing holo-emitters at the time. He was skilled in first-aid and trained in cybernetic medicine, but Tracer was not able to save the man. Several others were gravely wounded and would not be able to travel any further. Lieutenant Geiron had tried to get as many people as he could into the freezers, but other tried to run to the central shaft only to be blown apart. He himself was knocked unconscious by the blast and unable to deactivate the freeze settings; the survivors were sure to die unless rescued.

29

Alex was able to locate several pockets of survivors on the recreation level. The destruction was everywhere; smoke filled the corridor thick and acrid. Without the AESDA’s visual system, movement and survival would be impossible. A once beautiful sub-oceanic park now looked like a battlefield. Its tropical forest looked like so much burning trash. The reinforced dome that once provided breathtaking views the likes of which only fabled Captain Nemo beheld were now blackened with the soot of plant and beast alike. A pair of lovers locked in personal protest against relations between base personnel now clung together, spooning eternally amid the ashes and vapor of dreams never realized. Initial biometrics readings registered zero on Alex’s HUD, but still he scanned every corner, observation room, dining hall and restaurant, and no longer secret storage closet and maintenance center; still nothing and no one had been spared as the air ignited.

The mall was a shadow of its former glory. The emergency powered lights cut through the smoke like tiny knives providing a grim view of something only Dante could properly put to words. Alex scanned several faint life-signs in the freezers of the mall’s three restaurants and general food court. The survivors numbered 14 and using Morse-Code Alex told them to hold fast until rescue crews arrived. He had no idea how long it would take, so he hacked and deactivated the refrigeration cycles to keep them from freezing. The circulation system could begin clearing the noxious air, but was out of commission. Alex looked its components over and found the source of the malfunction to be a fried secondary circuit board and leaky coolant hose. He didn’t have any of the equipment with him so he tried contacting maintenance to send bots in, but the communication system was acting up making communication impossible. He had to find an operational communication panel. Alex scoured the mall finding nothing save for death and ruin. In a secluded storage wing, he found a communication panel and called in repair bots.

30

SHODAN finally had a lock on the insect on the recreation level and it was waiting for her to send repair bots to restore circulator function; something she could do easily from where she was, but best not to arouse suspicion. Her repair bots would arrive and perform the requested duty, study the insect for future dissection, and prepare the base for operation once the infections left. She had more important tasks and did want to give the insect reason to explore lower levels where she was vulnerable.

The tunneling lasers were having little affect on the treated soil, which was impregnated with zircon crystals no larger than peas. Engineers had treated for five meters between the base and the ten-meter containment wall that surrounded the base. Anyone using tunneling lasers risked their lives. Conventional drills would likewise be rendered inoperative by the spaghetti-like chains that would wrap around bits and swell in the presence of water. The sub-sonic impact guns liquefied tons of soil that ran like mud down into the hole blasted through to the storage area of level 7, which had been emptied by cargo movers. With the storage area sealed shut the bots wouldn’t face becoming trapped in the flow.

Five humanoid medical droids were brought online and ordered down to the drilling operation; they had the manual dexterity to fire GEP guns recovered from the weapon repair room in robotics. The AP-warheads in the armory were recovered and used to blow the obstruction blocking access to the robotics lab. Over 230 warheads were lowered to the medical bots armed with GEP guns. The 40 by 40-foot section of the ferrocrete containment wall held as the tunneling lasers tried to bore guide holes for explosives, but they burnt out after cutting several holes 3-meters into the uniform slab. The sonic devices were worthless against ferrocrete; they simply didn’t have the power to phase it. The advanced optics of the medical droids allowed them to fire AP-warheads into the channels creating small pockets where they detonated. With the ferrocrete out of the way and the medical bots and security bots evacuated to higher levels of robotics, the heavy security bots pounded a ramp down from the first floor to the second sub-basement. Huge sections of sheet armor were welded and riveted to the fallen walls to create a passable surface. Fitted with sub-sonic drilling guns, the heavy bots locked themselves into the floor and began tunneling a corridor through which a convoy could pass. The floor was rough, but pounded flat by the heavy footfalls of 5-ton bots. They reached the subway tunnel wall and fired high-explosive warheads shattering the slab like a mallet would a walnut revealing an alien blue glow 30m away.