- Ten minutes?! How are we supposed to thwart their plan if we only have ten minutes?! - Sebastian exclaimed upon hearing the message.
- It's not just us. Everyone here is in danger - Arika noted.
- Good thing that people are fleeing - I remembered the space shuttles flying away.
- Shouldn't we be moving by now? - Amber asked. We decided to get going.
Pretty much every other room looked like this corridor, just with different computer arrays. However, all of this changed when we found the core itself.
It was a massive metal sphere connected to our corridor by a catwalk, hanging above a narrow shaft that made looking down scary. Carefully, we walked over to the sphere.
- You know, there's one thing that puzzles me: what happened to Dawn? - Claudius broke the silence - She wasn't chasing us and the commandos didn't catch her. Where is she?
None of us knew how to respond. Dawn's absence was truly bizzare. As I tried to come up with a solution, we reached the core. Inside of the sphere, we were met with a hallway that had walls made of servers. The lamps on the ceiling were flickering every now and then and the floor was lined with tangled wires that we had to navigate past.
- Since HISS has opened the hatches, I guess we should shut it down? - Claudius said.
- I think that's a bad idea, because HISS manages everything here, not just the oxygen. If we shut the system down, the food production, water flow, the power grid and every robot will stop functioning. It would be even worse than now - Arika opposed.
- Plus, we don't even know where HISS is... - Sebastian remarked.
- HISS is the core. All of those servers, wires, screens... They're all a part of it - Arika replied.
Finally, we found something of use: a massive processor surrounded by a circular desk with computers on it. There was a lot of code on the screens, and it was written purely in Star Cipher, which meant it was the time to fully crack it.
Arika sat down on the nearest chair and whipped up the virtual measuring tape again. It took us a lot of time to decrypt everything on the screen, to the point where I believe that the Perseids deliberately made cracking the Star Cipher so tedious that people would give up trying. But we didn't.
- We have only six minutes left. Is this code relevant to us? - Sebastian asked.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvRUENFQJqA
- It is, as it pinpoints the location of the AI supervisor. The real one - Arika replied - He's just to the side of the core, in the generator wing.
- Than what are we waiting for?! Let's go! - Amber ran out of the core, with us following her.
I looked at my phone and started a timer so that we'll know how much time we have left.
The generator wing was labelled with yellow text on the wall that just said "Generators". As we ran, I tripped on a wire and faceplanted onto the floor. Luckily, my glasses didn't shatter. They must be made of a really strong material.
The lights were so dim that they barely helped in exploring the area. The generators were yellow and box-shaped, and their electric hum was the only noise we heard, aside from our own breathing. This changed when we caught metallic footsteps ahead of us. They only meant one thing: rogue androids.
One of them approached us, not from ahead, but from behind. Amber let out a high-pitched squeal of surprise. The robot didn't waste a second and instantly went on the offensive. Amber tried to punch it, but missed. The bot knocked her over and continued to us.
If there was one thing I remembered from my short training on Earth, it was that anything can be used as a weapon against enemies. We were training with blankets, barrels, cardboard boxes... I decided to use the wires.
I grabbed one and pulled it up. Claudius soon realised what I was up to and helped me out. The android tripped over the wire, as its sensors didn't detect it in the darkness. Meanwhile, Amber got up and finished off the attacker as we advanced forward.
It turned out that the AI supervisor was bound by the mechanical rope and was heavily guarded. As soon as the first android tripped on the wire, four others emerged from the shadows, ready to fight.
- Security system breached, notifying additional forces - HISS announced.
Luckily, we managed to defeat them. One was thrown into a generator by Arika and electrocuted, the second and third bots smashed into each other and the fourth one was broken by Claudius and his screwdriver. I looked at my phone in horror. Four and a half minutes remained until the entire oxygen supply went down the drain.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVtRbGeSlCm
- Why did we go on this side quest of finding the supervisor when the oxygen is depleting rapidly? - Claudius asked.
- I need to get this guy's keycard, as it is the only thing that unlocks HISS's source code, which I need - Arika informed us.
Unfortunately, the rope was tied around the AI supervisor's pelvis, blocking his pockets where the keycard was kept. Sebastian noticed that one of the robots had very sharp fingers by touching them on accident. We decided to use them to cut the rope, as the screwdriver could hurt the man.
It worked, but it took us even more time. Now, we only had three minutes left, so Arika snatched the keycard and we ran back to the core as fast as possible. Arika wanted to sit down, but she ran into the chair with enough velocity to knock it over, so she just stood in front of the computer and scanned the keycard against its camera. The Star Cipher turned into normal code and Arika started programming.
- My plan is to undo the code from the last two days, which will hopefully cancel the asphyxiation and revert HISS to its normal state - Arika explained and we watched with tension as her fingers danced on the keyboard.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8YeNttZpkF
She finished when we had a minute left and we started to feel pain from the lack of oxygen. Arika quickly tapped the enter key and we waited as the code loaded.
- Hold your breath - Sebastian told us.
The countdown continued as the file was uploading. When we reached 99 percent, there were only five seconds left on the timer, and they could be the last seconds of my life. I looked around the area, as I didn't have any other plans for my last seconds in this universe.
However, they were not the last. Right as the timer reached zero, the file was fully loaded.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKLyTP3Etzx
- Restoring oxygen supply. Redirecting oxygen from backup storage... - HISS informed us and we rejoiced.
However, reverting all of the code from the last two days also brought back the blackout from earlier for a bit. HISS soon resolved it by using the energy surplus, but we were spooked when everything went dark for a bit.
As I gazed upon my friends, I saw someone behind us. When I turned around, I saw Dawn Baker with two laser blasters and an oxygen tank strapped to her back.
- You think that you'll stop us? We thwarted your scheme and the station is filling with air again... - despite our accomplishments, Sebastian seemed sad and I was the only one who knew why.
Before we discovered Dawn's true intentions, she seemed to be a very nice, sweet girl and Sebastian was smitten. However, his dreams were reduced to rubble as the truth was unveiled. Now, he was dealing with a weird mix of lost hope, sadness and anger. He told me all of this when we were stuck in the lunar lava tubes and I noticed his bad mood. The three emotions now merged into a fierce action: he jumped onto Dawn and attacked her.
- What are you doing, you pillock?! - Dawn pushed him off - You know that you haven't thwarted our scheme?!20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOTxJCSIdmn
- Why is that? - I asked in fear, watching the situation from afar.
- This whole place is about to come crashing down - Dawn hissed.
ns216.73.216.33da2
and then Add to home screen.