Corporate Heist

(Author's note: Big mc thankies to this goober for proofreading all of this. Well, I say 'proofread', but we just sat in a call for three hours talking about conspiracy theories. Anyways, get to reading.)

A black landing craft descended in front of a run-down building in the middle of nowhere. White rocks surrounded all but the makeshift landing zone, the stone and the building's wood appeared to be ready to crumble at the slightest touch.

Driver: "You sure this is the place? Looks like it'll fall down on you."

Boss: "What do you expect? Place was built on an asteroid."

Zulu: "My drill might bring the whole place down, ya know?"

Boss: "We've all seen your drill. It's not all that; we'll be fine once we get to where we need to be ."

Driver: "Badum bum."

Boss: "Subpar da dum tss, Driver."

They opened the landing craft; three people exited the ship; the fourth stayed.

Zulu was a Chira and the group's engineer. He was the oldest of the four, but he had no interest in criminal planning and preferred to build things. Despite his aversion to the noise of his favorite hobby, he had built two machines to complement each other: the first was a drill that could cut through any tough material in a reasonable amount of time, though it did require several drill heads to do so.

The second machine was a long, flexible, narrow metallic tube that had a gas line, a blowtorch head, a mechanical movement system, and a camera. See, the drill bits were narrow as well, only 2 inches in diameter, and the tube was just smaller than that. Zulu would funnel it through the hole, use a remote control to steer the tube to the holding pins on vault doors, and melt through them, all with the help of a micro camera.

Overall, in the grand scheme of criminal equipment, they were a tad bit outdated, but that's how corporate sponsorship goes.

The boss was a Kitsche and a young criminal mastermind; he pulled over 250 jobs, but only two of them resulted in casualties. Zulu was a longtime partner of his as well.

Then there was the rookie, a rather disheveled Notail, who answered the listing for this job. There was no real history--just an extra set of hands to help carry things. The boss didn't mind them being an alpha class; if anything, it would make them work harder, or it could backfire and they could be deadweight, but the boss needed at least four people to be considered by the company.

The entire operation was to open up a vault in an old research facility to gain access to information that was presumably worth millions of points, and as far as they knew, no one else outside of the company had even heard of the place.

Finally, the pilot: she was obviously a getaway pilot, a tourist with a little experience, but in this backwoods area, a skilled pilot wasn't required.

They unloaded their equipment: a generator, the large drill, a series of power cords, lights, boxes of gadgets, and the narrow metal tube. Using foldable carts, they rolled it through the front door, turned on their flashlights, and it was a mess. fallen rafters, shattered glass, and wooden chairs and desks smashed and splintered. The vault door was already open.

Zulu: "Oh, real nice boss, some other low lives got here before us; did you even bother checking this place out before you called?"

Boss: "You like having a job, Zulu? Don't answer that. The point is, if you continue to complain, I will have you buried alive. And that's not the vault, not the main one. At one point, this entire place was this big research station. Whoever came by must have given up after seeing what their initial reward was. The one we want is about 30 feet under us."

They all looked down.

Zulu: "Uh, boss, my drill won't get us that far."

Boss: "There is an opening ; we just have to find it."

Zulu: "Oh goodie, just what I wanted to do."

Boss: "Second Warning, don't push it, and why do you think I brought the rookie with us?"

Zulu: "To carry shite?"

Boss: "Pretty much, yeah."

The rookie careened their head towards the two, pantomiming various forms of strangulation in the air while kicking aside stray rocks.

They searched for several minutes; all doors led to offices, employee areas, and a whole lot of nothing.

Zulu: "What about the floor? Could be a hatch."

The boss looked at him, then started kicking away the wood and concrete debris; they all joined in. By the time they realized there was no hatch, the whole floor had been thoroughly swept by foot.

Zulu: "Boss, I think you got your info wrong; there's nothing here. It serves you right for trusting a bunch of skeptics with points to throw around."

Rookie: "Perfect place to hide a vault.WvW"

Boss: "See? Even the rookie gets it. And when this is all over we're go-"

The boss was cut short by a sudden tone from his communicator.

Boss: "Hold that thought."

The boss tore through his pant leg to grab his communicator, his rage at a high

Boss:"WHAT!?"

Driver: "Hey, so, uh, I got a call on the other line for you; I'm just wondering if you're cool with it or if you want me to hang up."

Boss: "What are you, my secretary?" Yeah, put 'em on."

The line hung for a second.

Zulu: "Think there's like a button around here? This place used to be a research station, so I'm guessing they had money, and you know how people with money like their secret buttons that lead to their secret vaults."

Boss: "Doubt i-"

The line opened with a loud, maniacal laugh.

Figure on phone: "You're a fool, Lemni, thinking you could steal my bounty!" "There are a lot of people who want this treasure; you'd be better off leaving it to the pros!"

Boss: "wuh...Clego Why are you calling me? Wait, how do you know about the vault!"

Clego: "You seriously think that that corporation was going to stay loyal to a ragtag group of idiots? Darling, it's first come, first served, and I intend to turn in the bounty for that there vault first... And I'm telling you how superior I am to you, duh. Robots, laugh into the communicator to reinforce the fact that Lemni is a joke!

Robots: "monotone laughter."

Boss: "DON'T CALL ME THAT IN FRONT OF MY CREW!

Clego:"Awww wittle kitty mad?"

Boss: "THAT IS A VERY DEROG-

Zulu waves his hand in a ''stop it, you don't want to argue with the person that hangs around with tweeps'' motion.

Boss stomps on the ground and gives zulu a thumbs up.

Boss:Clego, delete this number now, or I will have my crew set up the orbital cannon and blow you out of the sky!

Clego: "Ha! We both know you can't set up an orbital cannon in time to stop me!"

Zulu: "Or that we have one at all..."

Boss: "Shut it, Zulu."

Clego: "So what are you going to do, Lemni? HMMMMMM? Either way, I win this verbal battle!"

Boss: "Not if I'm the bigger person and hang up first."

The boss and Clego raced to hit their respective communicators' "end call" buttons first.

Fortuna rolled a 70 and a 23! We're rolling the big dice this time, folks.

Boss manages to hit the "end call" button first, his body numbed by the adrenaline required for the task.

The communicator rang again, and instinctively, the boss answered.

Clego: "You fool! I can still just call you again!"

Fortnuna rolls a 42! The boss suffers 5 points of psycic damage and damages his communicator in rage. The real fun started at 43.

Zulu: Boss! Please calm down! If we work quickly, we can finish the job before Clego can land!

Boss: "Yeah, probably.... Zulu, where's the sledge hammer?"

Zulu pointed to the wall next to the front door. The boss picked it up, went to the center of the room, and slammed it down on the floor, the wood splintering to reveal more of the concrete base.

Zulu: "You're not seriously going to smack your way down there, are ya?"

Boss: "Yeah, so what? My guess is that whoever was originally here sealed the vault under the floor when they left; hit the right spot and we might find it."

Zulu: "Or jam it shut."

Boss: "If that drill can't get through concrete, then you better leave now. I know it was a special request, but that's on the list of basic needs for a drill to be a drill."

As the boss smashed the floorboards, Zulu muttered wishes of being back home, but not before slipping another hammer to the rookie, responding with an even more irritated stare, accompanied by a sigh. Zulu popped open a soda and sat in a corner, occasionally trying to call out to where he presumed the driver was, but she was fast asleep.

They would check the time, but the corporation strictly requested no major electronics, and none of them wore watches. Of course, the boss and driver didn't follow this rule due to "objective completion assurance" purposes or something along those lines; it only made the job slower when Zulu thought about it.

High-pitched slamming was their music for the next 20 to 30 minutes, along with concrete and wood shattering at them. Eventually a crack and an even higher pitched ding reverberated through the back room and into the front. The boss stopped, realizing that Rookie wasn't even in the same room, he was back in the manager's office.

Rookie: "Uhhh, I think I got something in here!WvW"

Zulu, hearing the faint noise, bounced up from his corner and hurried back there; the boss was recovering from all the hammering. He laid the tool down by a wall and made his way behind the teller desks. "Smarter than I'm paying him to be." The boss thought to himself, seeing little to no damage done to the floor in the rookie's designated hammering area.

Sure enough, there was a metal trim around a square wooden hatch. The boss fingered at the loop handle and with some effort freed it from the concrete; it had been plastered there for well over 100 years. Lifting the hatch slowly, there was surprisingly little dust or odor coming from the dark room beyond them.

Boss: "Odd, no smell of decay, not even from the wood."

Zulu: "Does that mean someone was here already?"

Boss: "I don't think so, maybe just preserved better than we thought.... Go get the equipment.

Me and the rookie will check it out."

Zulu nodded and rushed out of the room.

Boss: "Best test these steps; we don't need our equipment breaking our only exit."

Rookie: "You didn't bring a ladder with you ?WvW"

Boss: "You think I'm stupid? Who doesn't bring an emergency ladder with them? We did, but it'll take us all night to fish the equipment back up if the stairs go; that's why we have braces we'll put under them."

After 5 minutes, Zulu returned with two trolleys, one carrying his prized tools and the other with the various equipment they needed. The boss and rookie went down first with the braces and reinforced the steps, while Zulu was setting up the generators in the office room. As the rookie was rummaging through the bin for more braces, he saw a container within the bin, opened it, and saw multiple bricks of explosives.

Rookie: "Uhh what are these for ? WvW"

Boss: "Plan B."

Zulu: "We'll give the door a nice request to move if my 'morning-after' drill doesn't work."

The boss chuckled a bit; the rookie scoffed and got more braces. Soon enough, the stairs could handle around 15 tons of weight.

Zulu: "So how are we plannin' to get this shite down the stairs? We didn't bring a ramp."

Boss: "I would have, but I had a feeling the entrance would be too small for it. Besides, no one's

around, and the further we get into this, the better I like our chances, so we might as well test these braces."

Zulu lowered his head in feigned pain. "Just be gentle."

The boss and rookie braced the trolley on the steps as Zulu pushed it from the top floor.

Even from the landing craft, the thuds could be heard. Zulu frantically checked his drill and torch, feverishly making sure nothing was damaged. The boss and rookie were kneeling down, breathing heavily, their arms aching.

Zulu: "Holy..."

They both looked up at him, then to where his hands were pointing. A massive vault door stood nearly as tall as the ceiling, which was 15 feet high. It was the biggest door Zulu had seen.

Boss: "9 feet of steel and concrete."

Rookie: "Definitely had some dough.WvW"

Boss: "Rookie, get the lights; we're gonna be a while."

Rookie hurriedly climbed the dented stairs. Zulu and Boss just stood there, staring at the door.

Zulu: "How do you suppose we get the drill back up?"

Boss: "We'll blow out the stairs and get a winch tomorrow. If we're lucky the Hag that's making a

straight shot for us will think it's garbage,"

Zulu:" What did you just call my drill?"

The rookie could be heard fumbling around, hitting things against the walls and the floor, until he appeared downstairs with the two work lights.The hallway was at least 60 feet long and 20 feet wide, with plenty of elbow room and just enough extension cords.

The boss and Zulu carted the drill and torch down the hall, and the rookie unraveled the cord as they went. The Rook set up the lights while Boss and Zulu strained to lift the drill off the cart. With a lot of racket and cursing, they finally had it in position. Zulu plugged it in, and all the LEDs and screens popped on.

While Zulu was making some last-minute adjustments, the boss inspected the door. It started as a key lock, and presumably if they had the key and unlocked it, the second level, a combination ring turned with bars, would be activated, and once that was solved, the third layer, a flat combination ring that used symbols rather than numbers or letters, would be activated.

Boss: "So how many drill bits will it take?"

Zulu: "At least 3 to get all the way through; I brought 6 but this shite doesn't look like any ''vault'' I've seen before."

Boss: "Let's get started."

Zulu inserted the first drill bit into a metal pole about 4 feet long and 2 inches in diameter. He positioned the rig so that the drill tip was only an inch away from the key lock, then turned it on. It was loud, and accompanied by the echo from the hallway, it was almost deafening. The boss handed Rook some ear plugs. Zulu used a hand crank and slowly edged the bit closer to the lock.

30 seconds passed, then a brain-splitting grinding sound rang out; the drill finally made contact with the metal and was slowly sanding away at it. After a minute, Zulu chimed in.

Zulu: "Well, I think she'll hold, now we just have to wait until this bit wears down."

The boss pulled three lawn chairs out of one of the bins, handed one to the rookie, and tossed

the other to Zulu.

Boss: "You should've packed a grill."

30 minutes passed, the drill was only a few inches in, they had another 8 and a half feet to go. The boss got up.

Boss: "Stay with the drill, Rookie. Learn a thing or two, and Zulu is a butterfingers; make sure he

doesn't drop anything important. I gotta go make sure Clego hasn't gotten into orbit yet."

Rookie: "Who exactly is 'clego'?You seemed a bit aggravated while talking to them earlier.WvW"

The suddenness of the question caught the boss off guard. He wanted to kick the rookie in the shins; such defiance would not be tolerated! However, according to the "anger management" classes, he was paid too many credits for: "They can ask questions and deserve answers." Stupid mandated classes paid out of his own pocket.

Boss: They were an old flame of mine.There! Are you happy?

The boss scurries away.

He ran toward the back of the hall. There was a darker layer that ended a few feet from the stairs. It looked like scorch marks from a fire. There must have been some even older-school robbers who tried to burn down the place. He picked up a piece of the concrete, he tried to rub off the soot but it was stuck on there, then he broke it apart, charred inside and out. Must've been a real hot fire.

Boss let the thought out of his mind as he exited the building to look at the sky and into space. There was a dot that seemed to move, a dot that was slowly moving closer and closer to the surface of the asteroid. The boss pulled his blaster from its holster, aimed at the dot, and slowly pulled the trigger, just getting the feel of it before heading back inside.

The boss's communicator went off, slightly burning up against his pants pocket. Noticing the issue, the boss quickly grabbed it, barely seeing the notification through the cracked screen.

Zulu: "Hey boss, listen, I'm going to see if I can't weaken the metal by running the torch inside the drill hole."

The boss was surprised that he was still able to get texts from the thing, and even more so when he was able to type out a response. The reliability of the brand was sure to make him a

returning customer after the operation was over.

Boss: "You got enough fuel for that?"

Zulu: "More than enough."

Boss: "Do it."

The idea wasn't great for the drills' longtime welfare, but even Zulu accepted that his baby was likely going to need to be left behind.

The boss continued inside, deciding to take a detour up the stairs into the office rooms, there he looked around, curious to see if any records were left over, maybe a clue into what was in the vault or what was being researched here. One of the room's shelves held some sciencey-looking books, books with hundreds of experiment records, and some of the notable discoveries; one book was hollowed out, with nothing inside, and was most likely taken when the place went out of operation.

He went over to the broken desk and pried open the drawers; nothing but dust and wood chips. The largest drawer at the bottom right, where documents are usually kept, was empty too. However, he could see a crease in the side of the drawer, like the bottom of it wasn't fully connected... Of course it wasn't, as he thought, a false bottom.

He flipped out his knife and levered the bottom piece out, and with plenty of dust, sure enough, there was something in there. It was a leather-bound case, the letters printed onto

to the material, read "Ellis Casey." The boss knew that name--a high-level scientist who had his name associated with a lot of big projects. He kept his own contributions a secret, but everyone knew he was one of the smartest men in the universe at the time. His death was a mystery; he was an outwardly stable man who simply vanished, and the only certainty was that he was working on some great cure for the clockwork plague that had spread throughout the cosmos.

He unwound the thread holding the lid on, pulled it back, then a loud crackling from his communicator sounded, making him jump slightly. Maybe not wholly invincible.

He put his communicator back in his pants pocket making sure the thing wouldn't explode. He spread open the binder, dozens of papers, old looking but the words were in perfect condition. He started from the front.

Tenth day of experimentation with the latest suspected cure: No updates

Twentieth day of experimentation with the latest suspected cure: No updates

Sixtieth day of experimentation with the latest suspected cure: No updates

Hundredth day of experimentation with the latest suspected cure: possible positive reaction; further experimentation required.

It went on like that for months, but one entry stuck out.

Fortieth day of experimentation with second version of latest suspected cure:

Mr. Casey came into my office, needing a special request. Had an item that required only the utmost protection. I reminded him that he had several suspected cures secured in our standard vault and assured him that our current safe was more than capable of keeping his prized possessions secured. However, he quickly explained the workings of our vault door, its size, material and thickness, stating that this wasn't nearly enough for his latest creation. I asked him what he suggested. To my obvious surprise, he wanted the facility to build a new vault, a bigger and more secure one, underground. I explained to him that we don't have nearly the means to build such a thing. That's when he offered to use his money to build it; he had more than enough to do it. I agreed to it, reasoning that we could always use another vault for our future cures, so he snapped quickly, saying that it would only be for this specific one, no one else could know about it, and nothing else could be stored in it. Reluctantly, I agreed; I ordered in the materials and the workers, and within 3 months, the vault was complete. He returned several days later, thanking me for fulfilling his request. I asked him what he had put in there, to which he only replied, "Cash should be the only bargaining chip in any deal. Just keep on working on the current strains." With that, he left the facility. I never could get into the vault, since he paid for it, he was the only one who knew the combination.

The boss was thoroughly confused. What was so important that he needed a whole new vault built? Something created before all life?Fast track ticket to Fortuna? He ran through the other documents in the folder; everything else was more repetitive updates, which stopped after about thirty years, presumably when the facility went out of business.

He sat down on the floor against the wall, letting the cold wood cool him off. He rubbed his eyes then stretched his neck, there was an uneasy feeling he was getting, ever since that drill shaved away the first piece of metal. He looked back over to the desk, then to the folder. The Boss decided that he would keep it for the novelty of the papers. He got up, picked up the folder and

put it with the other equipment in the main room.

Back in the office he picked up the wooden cover, pulled out his knife again and carved into the wood "if you're reading this, better luck somewhere else". He put his knife away then put the cover back in the drawer. An idea hit him, he felt the underpart of the drawer above the bottom one, sure enough he felt paper.

He pulled the top drawer out, flipped it over and found a piece of paper nailed to it, he gently tore it away and read it.

To whom it may concern, this is Ellis Casey, the one and only. If you're reading this, you're probably a nosy little thief. I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone discovered this place, either because one of my men wanted my research or because he couldn't keep his mouth shut and told one of his worthless kids about it.

I've got bad news for you: what's in that vault isn't money; it's something worse than money could ever be... Maybe that makes it more valuable.

I'm going to tell you exactly what's in there to keep you and the rest of us safe. A virus, that's right, you greedy bastard, a virus. Not just any virus, but a strain of clockwork made by accident while trying to cook up a cure.

I had some proxy wars going on, bringing in all kinds of findings from people who thought they could try and take the spot in history away from me and my less-than-needed associates; most were just speculation. This smaller group of researchers wanted in badly, probably because they were frustrated with the progress they were making. They weren't able to pay in cash to work with me, so they gave me a box. It was a "real cure," and it was guaranteed to reach the people with me as the face of the reveal; I asked them why they didn't sell it already. Apparently, demand for a miracle cure made by a group of school friends who had mixed up some random crap in their garage wasn't in high demand. You can't blame 'em for trying.

I took it since it was better to be safe than sorry, and you never know if some big corporation with some cash would have bought it sooner or later.

That box sat on my home desk for a week, and after that, I stopped going in there, preferring to stay out of that room, the house, and even the property as much as possible.

went back into my office room to get some documents, and when I did... I could hear voices around me; I couldn't make them out, but my eyes were drawn to that box, so I undid the latch and opened it. Have you ever felt the pressure from dynamite? That's what it felt like when I opened it. I would have run out of there like a clockwork out of fire if I hadn't been so tired of that box. The inner walls and underside of the lid had this crude skin grown onto them.

Several days later, the inside of the box was getting black marks on it, like it was being burned or rotted; it never reached outside the box, though. I believe I broke the seal that kept this... corruption from leaving the box, but the splashes of the facility's various serums that had gotten on my clothing and thus my home kept it from spreading; at least, that's my best guess.

I knew I needed to seal it off, somewhere away from everyone. I couldn't put it here; too many people would try to ransack this place after I'm gone.

That was when I went to the facility and made them build me a vault for it.

Those serum stains are on the inside of the door, the walls, and the floor. They prevent whatever is inside from spreading, and they should be active for a couple hundred years after being released. I made sure of that when I made them myself. Should you be dumb enough to open that vault, there should still be some serums left around the facility when I'm gone, but if there aren't, well, I sure do hope you're brave enough to make the sacrifice of blowing up whatever you used to get here... Or maybe you should start a fire, either to burn the clockwork and render it useless for a short time, or to destroy the atmosphere we've created on our little asteroid.

The Boss was thoroughly dumbfounded, either a way to throw off less savvy crooks, or Casey went senile. Either way, there had to be something good in there to write something like this.

He folded up the paper, when heading back to the rest of the group he noticed that the concrete around the hatch was a slightly different color than the rest of the floor, he shook his head and headed back down stairs.

The torch was on the floor, still cooling down. The drill was pushing out metal and bits of concrete. This would've gone much faster had Zulu been allowed to use modern equipment, but the corporation that hired them had a budget, and he respected that.

Boss: "How much further?"

Zulu: "About an inch left."

Boss: "Good. I wanna get out of here soon."

He stood next to the drill, anticipating the moment it broke through. A moment passed, and the drill lunged forward slightly.

Zulu: "And there we are!"

The boss sighed in relief, and while Zulu got the torch ready again, the boss called Rook over to help him move the drill. They both grabbed the front and heaved. Nothing. They kept trying until Zulu interrupted them.

Zulu: "It would help if you put it in reverse."

Boss and Rook looked at each other and then hit the reverse button. Again and again they pulled it back, but it wouldn't budge; even the drill stopped spinning.

Zulu: "Probably stuck on the concrete or some..."

The drill started going in a clockwise motion. The boss looked at the reverse switch: still in the active position.

The engine started to grind.

Zulu: "Turn it off before it blows!"

Before they could turn it off, the motor made a loud crack and died.

Zulu: "Oh, yeah, real nice guys. You know how long it took me to make this thing?"

Boss: "How hard is it to replace a motor? Like a few minutes' work? We'll come back for it; it's sure to be left alone now. Just hurry up and get it out of the way.

Zulu: "Man, that was custom fitted; it took me 3 days just to machine everything."

Boss: "If only you spent that much time on a woman."

Zulu: "Shut it."

Zulu went to loosen the drill bit, but as he did, the whole machine started to shake.

Rookie: "Is this thing going to blo...WvW"

The drill shot out from the vault door all the way down the hall. They all looked at the drill, then at each other, then slowly at the hole, and then the lights died.

A white light slowly emanated from the hole. Zulu, still on the floor, crawled up to the hole and listened in. After a few seconds he reeled back.

Zulu: "There's somethin' in there; I heard something move by the hole; I don't know how, but I heard something!"

Boss: "How? That thing's been closed for a century!"

Zulu: "Yeah? And I heard something move, so you tell me."

Then the vault light flickered.

Boss: "Well, that answers that."

Zulu: "I don't like this. Boss, another group had to have found this place!"

Rookie: "Then how was the hatch sealed with concrete? I say we crack it open and see what's in there.WvW"

Boss: "Zulu is right; this is weird. Whatever is in there shouldn't be there; if it's some kind of light,

that means someone set it up, but for what purpose?"

Zulu: "Well, if we opened it the right way, we'd probably get blinded by some kind of booby trap."

Rookie: "Oh, come on! You really think they'd set something like that? How would a previous team know others would find this place? I think it's a safe bet to say we can go in; probably just a chemical reaction.WvW"

Zulu: "Thermite is the only reaction that could get that bright."

Boss: "If it was thermite, it could have been activated by the drill going through and some

sparks; maybe there was enough pressure to eject the drill like that... if that's the case, all we have to do is wait for it to die down."

Rookie: "We might lose whatever is in there; we need to get in there now.WvW"

Boss: "I am not about to go in there with so many unknowns; thermite doesn't explain the movement."

Rookie: "Maybe it burned down a support beam! We need to get in there now!WvW"

Boss: "Rook, we wait. Period."

The boss and Zulu started thinking to themselves, but the rook was getting more and more antsy. As the boss knelt down to look into the hole, a low rumble was felt along with some kind of uproar from the other side of the vault door. Finally, the rook snapped; he pulled a blaster from his pocket and aimed it at them.

Zulu: "Woah, woah, woah, what the hell are you doing man?!"

Boss: "Lies and deception, Zulu, that's what it's been from the start.... What's in there, kid?"

Rookie: "If only you knew.WvW"

Boss: "You're no rookie... The ''cure''.... Casey was right.."

Zulu: "Casey? You mean Ellis Casey?"

Boss: "Yeah, he got his hands on a serum, made him hear things, feel uneasy, in fact the box he

kept it in, it was turning black, like the marks on the wall..."

Zulu: "The burn marks?"

Boss: "Corruption of the matter."

Rookie: "Very perceptive, I like that about you.WvW"

Zulu: "How does the Rookie know?"

Boss: "It's obvious Zulu; he jumped at this job, took it for a low pay, he barely made any dents in the floor before he found the hatch, the concrete on the hatch was a different color, my guess is he resealed it himself. I found some papers in the office desk, old but the ink was fresh, like someone restored them to lead on other thieves. He fumbled it though, I found one last page under another drawer, told about what Casey went through. So tell me kid, what do you get out of all this? I wanna know before I put you six feet under."

Rookie: "I get to live... Those damn nightmares leave me... Do you know what it's like to be afraid to go to sleep? knowing that you're going to see stuff you don't want to? It only gets worse the longer they don't get their blood.WvW"

Boss: "How many others have been down here?"

The rookie laughed: "The first team was 2 years ago; I really was a rookie back then. They were just some hobbyists who had the legend given to them by some family friends and thought that this would be a nice project to work on. We picked the lock then used an x-ray to solve the other ones. When we opened it, the same light came through, but we were too desperate to get in. All we found was a small open capsule, and as soon as we all got in one by one, we started to lose ourselves... The ones that died started to mutate, their bodies congealing into each other. I got out and closed the door, but the nightmares started a few weeks after, telling me to bring more. I've brought 14 groups down here, the last one was 3 months ago.WvW"

Boss: "They must be getting bad, the nightmares. That's why you were so desperate to get this job."

Rookie: "Like you wouldn't believe.

While holding the gun on them the Rookie backed up towards the safe, putting in the combination for the number lock, then the symbol lock. He turned back to Zulu.

Rookie: "You, come over here.WvW"

The boss looked towards Zulu, who let out a sigh

Rookie: "We don't have all night.WvW"

Zulu begrudgingly walked over to Rook, hands in the air. Rookie turned him around, put the gun

to his head and walked him up next to the wall. Rook struggled a bit and turned the large vault wheel, With even more struggling he started to nudge it forward. Just as the smallest opening formed between the wall and the door, the same blinding white light poured out from the vault, lighting up the hallway.

It was quiet save for Rook catching his breath.

Rookie: "Unfortunately for Zulu here, they like their prey alive.WvW"

He took the blaster off his head and shot him in the leg. Rook quickly aimed the gun at Boss. The Boss was focused on Zulu, the Rook on the door. Zulu's blood leaked into the small opening, It was then quickly sucked into the vault. Zulu was in too much pain to focus on anything but his leg.

A faint whispering could be heard just under Zulu's pained voice. That's when the beam of light grew, the door was opening more. It started at the bottom of the door then more came out from the higher points, like a wall of lumpy flesh. It almost had shape but at the same time was too uneven to make sense. Another grossly thick appendage grew out from the flesh, crawling along the floor towards Zulu.

Boss: "Zulu get..."

Rookie: "Not a word.WvW"

The Boss clenched his fist as the limb grew inches away. In all his years of tense situations with law enforcement, this was by far the fastest his heart had ever beat. The protrusion made contact with Zulu's left leg making him finally aware of what was happening. His breathing stopped, shock laid in. It quickly encased his leg and pulled, that's when Zulu finally got his senses back to yell.

The Rookie was fully immersed with Zulu and the flesh. The boss took this chance, pulling out

his own blaster and firing the moment he thought he could hit the rookie.

Fortuna rolls a 38 Not a great shot, but a shot nonetheless.

Rook dropped the blaster and fell over. Rook recovered, but not quickly enough to react to the boss striking him over the head with the handle of his blaster.

At this point Zulu was already half way into the vault; Tentacles of metal and rotting flesh were pierced into his skin.

Boss: "I'm sorry, Sev."

He shot Zulu in the head, a quick death.

The flesh receded back into the vault. The Rookie moaned in pain, the Boss shot him in the other leg sending a new wave of pain.

Boss: "How does that feel? you know I'm bettin' if I give you to them, they won't hassle me with those ''nightmares''."

The Rookie's movement became erratic .

Rookie: "No...No listen, one sacrifice is enough! We can both get out of here alive! In fact you haven't even been exposed, you don't need to do this! WvW"

Boss: "That 'sacrifice' was a good friend of mine. No... I'll get my blood too."

The Boss shot The Rookie's arms then dragged him next to the door, getting far enough away to not get pulled in. The Rookie looked into the light, his breathing heavy. When the flesh came out for him, he didn't bother yelling; just a glare of pure hatred toward the Boss.

The flesh pulled him in quickly. After it disappeared into the vault the Boss braced the vault door and pushed. However, something seemed to be pushing against the other side. With a great deal of struggling, Boss was finally able to shut those few inches. He turned the wheel, spun the symbol lock, then the number dial. The drill hole was still open, he ran to the end of the hallway, picked up some concrete and rushed back to the vault door. He broke up the pieces and stuffed them into the hole till the light was obscured.

The Boss backed away from the hole and sat against the wall, shaking hard and breathing even harder. It was dark in there and all he could see was that flesh in his head. He turned on his flashlight and went down to the end of the hallway again, opened the bin and dug into it. He found the explosives.

He spent the next 10 minutes carefully placing the explosives along the walls; not too close to the vault door and not too close to the hatch. He carried the torch out of the hallway, into the office, took the braces off the stairs and climbed them one final time. Closing the hatch, he detonated the bricks. The building shook, walls in other rooms collapsed, more debris fell in the building, but the important parts remained. After it settled he lifted the hatch, dust exploded outwards. Looking in, cement and dirt blocked his view of the door, hopefully it was blocked enough.

He took one of the sledge hammers, knocked down the walls in the office room and the hallway just outside it to deter anyone from trying to get in. He had one last brick left; he placed it on the

floor of the main room.

The Boss entered the landing craft.

Driver: "Hey, where are the others?"

Before she got an answer Boss blew the brick and brought the front of the building down.

Driver: "What are you doing, man? Where the hell are the others!?"

Boss: "Drive."

Driver: "No, no, no hold on now. What happened to Zulu and the Rookie?"

The boss looked her right in the eyes.

Boss: "Drive the ship... or I will."

She didn't say another word.

The ship slowly faded into the dark of space.

And the lights from a greater ship approached the ruins.