Chapter 3 - Deepworks

Jerro was encapsulated by rushing water. The current formed a sphere that warped around him accompanied by an audible frequency that modulated with his movement. He approached a long control panel nested among an array of pipes and gauges.

Another beaver joined his side, merging her protective bubble with Jerro's. “Keeper Aleese, I’m not sure we are going to be able to close the breach from here, but I thought I could at least triage the damage,” Jerro stuttered, struggling to raise his voice over the sound of water blasting around them.

“Good thinking, Cog Wavetail,” Keeper Aleese reassured Jerro with calm respect. “Just as I trained you in Builders Basic, we must first define the problem if we are to find a solution.”

Jerro restrained a smile, pulled up a series of holographic monitors and began moving his paws, quickly engaging the translucent interface. He toggled a set of ribbon sliders into position then pulled back to the screens and started flipping through scenes, grabbing them with a paw and tossing them to the side.

“Keeper, if I perform an emergency closure on access tunnels thirteen through twenty I think we can slow the flooding.”

Keeper Aleese pulled up a schematic of Deepworks on another display, spinning it from a side profile to birds eye plan view. She zoomed in to inspect the layout of the specified tunnels. “Agreed, we can also reduce sluice gate two alpha to ten percent capacity.”

Jerro reached up and started flipping over a row of green switches, each one clicking firmly and shifting to red. The Keeper spun a dial back with one paw while using her other to move the screen, monitoring the flow rate of the gate.

“This won't stop the flooding but it should buy the emergency response team some time.” Keeper Aleese said.

“What do you think caused this?” Jerro asked.

“I’m unsure… pull the screens back up.” The Keeper commanded.

Jerro quickly drew the screens into place by spreading his paws and returned to scanning the various locations throughout Deepworks.

“There!” The Keeper pointed at one of the four displays halting Jerro’s progress. Three dark cloaked figures moved hurriedly down a pipe-lined corridor. 

“This wasn’t an accident?” Jerro asked. 

“I’d bet a thousand greens that it wasn’t. In all my years, I’ve never seen a malfunction or accident of this magnitude.” The Keeper paused, pointing to the bottom left display as the three obscured shapes entered from the left, moving through a round tunnel lined with a parallel piping. “That tunnel leads directly to the turbine gallery. We’re closer than any of the response teams. You can call in the repair location as we move.”

She strode towards a row of lockers and pulled out two large metallic discs. After giving them a rhythmic tap, they sprung to life, hovering half a tail above the ground. She quickly jumped on one. Jerro joined her on the other. As he stepped up, his webbed foot slipped off and he ended up mounting the circular platform stomach first by spinning his lower body around. The Keeper observed Jerro while he awkwardly maneuvered his pear body onto the disk.

The Keeper shot a patient flat lipped smile at Jerro. “Are you ready Cog Wavetail?”

“Affirmative Keeper!” Jerro responded, standing to his feet.

With their sound spheres shielding them from the torrent, they shot down the arched passage where the flows had subsided.

“What if they beat us to the turbines? What if they’re able to do more damage?” Jerro asked as they swept down a long straight section of tunnel. 

The Keeper looked back over her shoulder. “Just call in the repair location to the third shift and stay on my tail. I’ll report to Ordinate Rull and let him know we need backup.”

Jerro did as he was ordered, forming a mental link with the third shift, his paw bracing his temple. “They’ve been notified.”

They sped through the tunnels, making quick work of the route they knew so well. A pale figure with ghost white damp fur lay motionless across the corridor, its webbed feet wallowed in the stream of water rippling down the center of the corridor. The long thick rat tail was wrenched horrifically in a knot and it’s limbs were frozen in contorted poses. “Keeper… it’s a nutria sentinel” Jerro addressed her with a gasp, “What happened to her?” 

The Keeper hopped off her disc, checking for a pulse on the bleach white rodent. She shook her head side to side. “I don’t know... but we are going to find out. This one’s gone, I’ll call this in to Ordinate Rull as well, we’ve got to keep moving.”

They were nearing the location where they had seen the figures shuffling down the hall on the holographic monitor. “We’re getting close. Stay vigilant.” Jerro shifted his webbed feet and attempted to turn his disc to observe behind him. His balance faltered and he aborted the movement. He closed his eyes and placed a paw to his temple again. 

The Keeper turned her head over her shoulder. “No need to send a pulse scan, I performed one already and didn’t detect the creatures or anyone else. Save your energy, we’re already stretched thin.”

“Affirmative Keeper!” Jerro responded.

Jerro and The Keeper made it to the circular door at the end of the tunnel. They stepped off and deactivated their hovering discs. Jerro made it off without repeating his previous struggle to get on. Stenciled above the door in blocked white letters read ‘TURBINE GALLERY II’. The door was propped open by the locking bar which hadn’t been reengaged to seal the door. This part of Deepworks was dry, aside from the common minor leaks which pinged occasionally from the old gaskets joining the pipes. 

The Keeper pushed open the door slowly, Jerro on her tail. They entered a long room with high ceilings that was packed with a repeating array of large half cylinders and robust pipework. These were connected to rectangular units spanning the far wall and generated a roaring hum.

The Keeper looked at Jerro and without moving her mouth communicated into his mind. “Stay quiet and stay close.”

Jerro’s mouth tightened and he nodded with affirmation.

As they stealthily wove their way through the vibrating metal maze, a distant chatter became prominent through the white noise. There were a series of high pitched squeaks, a short throaty shriek that faded, then another round of screeches. The Keeper looked back at Jerro, her eyes narrowed and face tightened. Jerro raised his eyebrows and turned his paws upward in front of him. As they approached the unfamiliar sounds, a faint blood-red glow found its way between the machinery, casting shadowed movement from the scene on the near wall.

Before they could catch a glimpse of the scene, a deep guttural voice stopped them in their tracks. The Keeper and Jerro froze and stacked tightly against the side of the nearest purring turbine. The Keeper reached up and flipped down a transparent monocular eyepiece, Jerro followed suit.

With swift tactical precision they moved around the corner. Paw to temple, the other outstretched facing forward.

The three small figures they had observed on screen were suspended mid-air, their cloak hoods had fallen back exposing stout furry heads with pointed snouts. The bodies of these foreign transgressors were contorted, and their limbs wrenched in pain. The source of the blood-red light revealed itself. Filaments of energy were being drawn from the smaller members of this horrific formation. At the focal point of the coalescing crimson gyre was a larger heavily muscled version of its smaller counterparts. Smoothly wielding its sharp claws the behemoth gestured in a vortex. A maniacal smile stood as foundation to the vicious nose and sallow sunken porcelain eyes. What stood out to Jerro, though, were the teeth. Fangs, the kind you would see on big cats or other predators, protruded down and out of its wicked mouth.

The Keeper and Jerro had frozen, stupefied by the stage of alien information which had penetrated their familiar world. The larger creature's focus shifted downward where its smile faded and was replaced by a devilish glare. It locked eyes with the Keeper. Her eyes rolled back exposing the whites and she began to burrow into the mind of the beast, her outstretched paw grasping in the blank air. 

Jerro felt it with the force of a sledge hammer, a wave of nausea and a splitting headache overwhelmed his body taking him to his knees. He looked over to the Keeper for help, only to realize he was merely collateral. She doubled over and released a guttural scream that echoed off the empty stone walls.

Sanguine coils of energy formed between them, wafting through the air away from Keeper Aleese, flowing into this vicious monster. The three smaller creatures had fallen to the ground and were starting to squirm. The Keeper began to lift into the air and was drawn towards the hulking vampiric form. The monster laughed with deep vengeful glee that reverberated through Jerro with the explosiveness of a shockwave.

He looked around the room helplessly, shooting glances at the generators, up to the ceiling and back to the turbines. The monster stood on a large pad with a series of nested triangles forming a twelve point star. This pad was connected to the machinery by thick tentacles. These heavy cables expanded and shrank like a flexible straw drawing a thick substance. As the engorged section moved from turbine to platform, it released a deep orange glow that highlighted the veiny structure. Jerro’s monocular picked up an anomaly in the sidewall of one of the pipes which illuminated in his eyepiece with a blue waveform pulse. It was a high-pressure pipe coming off the turbine. The corrupted growth had spread small fingers along the pipes like tree roots searching for water, compromising the structure of this pipe. His face flipped from helpless concern to concentrated determination.

Manipulating the water in the pipe, he created a zone of pressure that induced powerful shockwaves. The hollow column of steel shook violently and began hammering as every molecule attempted to escape. The pipe burst, and the rush of water inundated the creatures, knocking down the two nearest to the rupture. His movement now mimicked that of Keeper Aleese as he pressed a paw to his temple and outstretched the other. He turned his attention to the smaller creatures and targeted the only one remaining on its feet.

Jerro reached into its mind. It was chaotic, full of malice and hate like he had never felt before, as if this was its only purpose. He saw flashes of a darkened landscape with a deep maroon skyline. The creature was flying on a wide winged stark grey bird with a thick bill. The scene jumped suddenly. Another, smaller member of its kind embraced it. The stark contrast of love and comfort with malice was followed by a brief moment of calm solace. This feeling overwhelmed Jerro as he observed these memories, attempting to find a weakness to allow him to mold it’s mind to his bidding. Jerro’s eyes softened and his mouth relaxed, melding with these dueling emotions. Then nothing.

He looked up to see the creature gone, only a red mist remaining where it stood. The pale giant pointed its knife finger at the location with a sinister grin. The other two squeaked and ran behind the dominant malefactor. Jerro could see them reaching into a small bag. Where they pulled out a hollow metal hoop and expanded it to the size of a wide doorway. They threw it to the far wall where it adhered. Beginning from the smooth circumference, it filled with a black liquid that wavered as if it were the surface of a raging ocean, lapping out then sucking back, ultimately calming to modest peaks.

His vision shot back to the Keeper who was being drawn within touch of the vampiric monster. Her once smooth brown coat had become coarse and bleach white. Her body was withered and anemic like an old apple core that had been left to rot in the desert. Her strong flat paddle tail dangled limply. All the while the color of the demon darkened, its coat turning a shade of burnt charcoal.

Jerro shook his head and grit his teeth. His feet carried him forward without consent from his body. He charged the overpowering animal and unleashed his most fierce battle cry. One of the smaller monsters stepped out from behind the pale beast and lifted a paw at Jerro. He felt himself become weightless as his momentum shifted from forwards to backwards as he soared across the room. 

Jerro opened his eyes to a blurred room devoid of the blood red light, replaced by the standard subtle blue lighting of Deepworks and The Burrow. The rhythmic hum of the generators dominated again. Jerro attempted to stand but was quickly brought back to his side where he lay against the cool damp stone wall. His focus began to return along with the biting headache. He propped himself up with his right arm and released a stream of bile which puddled and ran back towards him. He looked down to his leg, a white jagged stick protruded from his blood soaked fur.

Scanning the room, he could see a distant disheveled stark white pile. Arm over arm he drug his broken body along the cobble floor, stopping every few pulls to grimace and catch his breath. When he finally reached the withered lump, he reached out a paw and grasped the side, rolling over the Keeper.

“Keeper!” he cried out, scrambling to feel for a pulse. She was still, opaque glass marbles replaced her eyes, streams of blood ran from the corners of her eyes and down out of her nose and ears.

Jerro lay next to her for a moment before he heard the approaching slaps of webbed paws from down gallery.

“We’re over here!” He yelled as loud as he could muster. “Help, please, help her!”

A series of thin tailed nutria sentinels rushed into the space between the turbines where the battle had unfolded.

An aged greying sentinel kneeled beside Jerro and placed a paw on his chest, then started assessing his vitals. “You’re gonna be okay pup.”

Jerro reached out to Keeper Aleese. “What about her?”

Another light brown sentinel kneeled beside the Keeper. She pursed her lips flat and squinted, shaking her head. 

Jerro’s vision narrowed, absolute darkness worked its way in from the peripheries and he turned his head over to see a rotund beaver approach with a gnarled cane. A scar graced his silver face, crossing over a patched eye.

“Ordinate Rull, The Keeper is gone, this Cog needs to get medical attention right away.” a sentinel said to the old beaver.

Muffled chatter filled the turbine gallery and Jerro’s vision closed to a pinpoint as he was lifted off the gritty surface.