Purge

DATE: Year 315-A. Sol 12

LOCATION: Pluto Underground Complex (Vault Sector)

The sheer force of the electrical arc threw Lijo backward. He hit the frosted deck plating hard.

When his vision finally cleared, the absolute darkness had returned, pierced only by the faint glow of his visor's HUD.

The maintenance drone was dead. More importantly, the vault was silent.

Freed from the WIP robot’s forced override, the massive basalt door of the Deep Archives began to grind shut.

Kora leaned against the door, pressing her gloved hand against the cold stone.

-It’s orphaned, Kora whispered. The WIP network can't touch it now. It’s just... stone and memory.

Lijo pushed himself off the floor. He checked his HUD.

Remaining Time: 0 Beats.Cabin Pressure: 8% (Purge Initiated).

Then, he heard it.

A low, mournful three-tone sequence echoed down the massive vertical shaft from the upper levels. The Venting Protocol had begun.

A sudden rush of wind swept through the chamber, pulling the crystalline frost off the deck plating and sucking it toward the open lift shaft. The primary airlocks on the surface had opened.

-We need to move! Lijo shouted.

He lunged for the mechanical lift-dray. The drone's dead weight was leaning against it, but the Primary Core block was still intact on the pallet. Lijo slammed his fist onto the dray's manual emergency winch mechanism.

-The lift is dead! Kora yelled over the howling wind, struggling to stay on her feet as the depressurization dragged at her heavy thermal coat.

-We aren't taking the lift! Lijo yelled back.

He grabbed the end of the winch cable and snapped the heavy carabiner onto the reinforced D-ring of his scavenger harness. He grabbed Kora by the shoulder, shoving her against his chest and throwing a secondary safety strap around her waist, locking her to his rig.

-Hold onto the harness and don't let go, Lijo commanded.

Kora clamped her arms around the heavy straps as the air pressure continued to plummet.

Lijo reached down and slammed the dray's mechanical release. The high-tension winch, powered by the physical weight of the Core block dropping a few inches on the dray's internal suspension, retracted the cable and Lijo and Kora were yanked off the deck plating.

They rocketed up into the dark vertical shaft just as the sub-level below them plunged into a total vacuum.