Chapter 1: Leaving the Nest, part 12 – ‘The skeletons of society.’
Tim approached the large steel hinged door that lead into the Generator Room, guiding his flashlight over it he could see that all of the manual turn bolts that would usually hold the door in a sort of locked state were all open. There was a thick steel holster on one side of the door which obviously served as the lock for the door. It had nothing in it; the bolt itself was retracted into the wall, the cold lifeless wires that would usually supply it with life now serving only to weight it down in its wall mounted slide in grave.
Tim realized that there was in fact nothing locking this door at all, the only reason it wasn’t open was because the large round tunable handle that sat center piece of the door was in the closed position, looking at the door you could clearly see the mechanism that connected to the handle, it was a simple system, you turn the handle and four small metal army slid outward from the door, holding it shut, turning the handle the other way pulled the mechanism back and opened the door.
Tim clenched his flashlight between his teeth and gripped the ancient cold steel handle with both hands. It was rough to the touch, the fragile peeling paint digging into his palms before cracking and collapsing under the weight of his hands. Holding the handle tightly Tim began to turn, this was no easy task, the handle had lain here dormant and unused for so long that it had become very stiff. At last the handle began to give way, slowly turning and then *CLUNK* it broke into a loose full spin, Tim’s hand went flying off the side as the handle, once more free to move, span rapidly for a moment. The bolts holding the door slid back coming to a stop in sequence with the handle with a loud clang as metal mechanisms clashed for the first time in a long time.
The group was silent as the door moved slightly, the bolts which had held it in place now moved from their posts the door was once again able to swing open, albeit with a little coaxing. Tim grabbed the round handle once again and pulled on it, the door shuddered and jerked as it awkwardly swung open, oil had long ago become a myth to this door. Tim was surprised as a fine layer of dust fell from the inside of the door illuminated in the torch light as the door swung past his shoulder, the door came to a rest with a light thud, this door had not been opened for a very long time it appeared.
“Common.” Tim gestured to his party and lifted one foot over the bottom rim of the door, bringing it down on the other side with a light knock as his leather boot came down onto the metal grid below it.
Tim brought the flashlight back into his hands and pulled himself through the door arch. The air seemed thick and dull and it had a musky smell, it appeared as though this door had been cut off from any sort of real ventilation for a long time. Tim looked directly ahead of himself with the flashlight, he was stood on a walkway which went on for about three more meters and then ended. Tim walked over to the railing at the edge and peered over the end, his eye following the direction of his flashlight beam.
This room was much larger than he had expected, the generator rooms in the Vault were tiny in comparison, though really that was to be expected as the Vault was made in a compact design. The room was about ten meters square and was divided into two floors. The walkway that Tim was stood on being the upper floor, a suspended gangway with various computers and monitoring equipment lining the back wall, at the far end of the walkway appeared to be a ladder which leads down to the floor below. About one third of the room was taken up by a massive power generator; it was cold and silent with patches of rust forming on the larger surfaces and pipe work.
Tim wondered along the walkway observing the floor below, the area was much tighter and less spacious than the walkway; it had pieces of generator machinery all over it. Dials, switchboards, piping valve networks, open electronic contraptions and large batteries which hooked up to the generator. Clearly the generator was controlled from the walk way while being run and maintained from down below. The room was sealed and there was no apparent way in apart from the one door which at least meant they were safe for the time being from any sort of back attack.
“Keep an eye on the door.” Tim said. Two of the men in the party stayed at the door, peering out into the corridor while gripping their 9mm side arms, covering the rest of the party.
“AHHHH!” A shriek came from the woman of the party which made the whole party jump.
Spinning in that direction to see what the commotion was about Tim laid eyes on what had made her scream. Her torch was illuminating a rotted skeleton; it was sitting in one corner of the walkway between two computer terminals, the top half of its torso was missing along with its head. Its right arm was lying over its leg, hooked on its finger was the pin from a grenade. There were scorch marks all around it and the computer nearest it was heavily damaged, the front panel had been blown inwards and various shards of computer chips and loose wired were scattered in the immediate area. The top of the computer had most of its keys melted and you could clearly make out black scorches where it had once been on fire. A red fire extinguisher was on the floor by the feet of the skeleton; it was spent and had probably been used by one of the skeletons co workers to put out the fire in the computer. It was a grim sight.
“Looks like he killed himself…” One man commented, as he stepped around the corpse, never taking his eyes off it.
“How do you know it’s a male?” Another of the party commented.
Tim looked over the computers, looking for the one that turned the generator on. He found it; the ancient device had a thin layer of dust over it and, like everything else in this base, appeared cold and dead. Tim glanced over the panel and then reached down and pressed the button marked “System-Check”. Nothing happened, the click of the button popping in and out being the only result. Next he tried the “Generator Start” button, nothing. He tried various other dials and buttons on the control board; Low Output, Generator start, Direct Feed, Generator Start, Battery Feed, Generator start, Reserve battery power, generator start. Clearly they didn’t build them like they used too, the generator was motionless and refused to show even a hint of life.
“It’s fried.” Tim said.
Tim clambered down the ladder to the cramped floor space below, moving between the various pieces of machinery and components, checking each one with his flashlight to see if there was an obvious fault. Tim had no idea what he was doing; he wasn’t a repair man, not by any means. Most of the equipment appeared to be in relatively good condition, most of it was just dusty and inert. Then Tim reached the four large batteries which were hooked directly into the generator, they appeared to be fine apart for a bit of rust and neglect.
“Anyone got any sort of repair skills?” Tim Said, hoping there was a simple solution.
“Yes, sir. Passed my class six engineers a few weeks ago, sir.” One of the men on the door said.
“Alright, get down here. Someone else take his place.” Tim said.
As requested the man started to make his way down to where Tim was while another of the party took up his sentry post by the door. When he reached the lower floor he started to make his way along to where Tim was. Examining the machinery as he passed it with his flashlight, every few paces he would stop and look at something a little closer for a moment before moving on. He was muttering a comment about each piece of the generator as he passed it.
“Yep… That will need cleaning… Needs fresh fuses but they should be alright for now… Looks fine… Busted, but we don’t really need that anyway… Yep… Looks fine… Looks fine… Uh-oh.” The class six engineer came to a halt.
“What is it?” Tim said.
“Looks like the Water Chip is missing.” He said, leaning in to examine the offending area more closely.
“Oh no wait, here it is.” He said, pulling his head back out from amongst the components.
Tim felt a shiver go up his spine, as if a ghost had just taken a run up and booted him up the arse. He watched as the engineer continued his quick run through of everything.
“Ah I see… Yep… What the hell is- Oh I see, for the ground water… Hmm… Ventilation will need seeing to no doubt… yep… looks fine… busted, but not needed… Uhh.... Yeah, right.” The man stood up straight once again, having just examined the entire length of the generators innards.
“It’s all fine, as far as I can tell.” The man concluded.
“Of course it won’t work, but nothing major. Nothing big needs replacing, it’s all small stuff. We have most of the parts top side, there is one problem however.” He continued.
“…Well?” Tim said.
“It’s dry, the batteries are completely drained and this is one of the later models, the ones with no manual start. If we ever want to get this thing running, we are going to need a power source to charge the batteries just enough to turn the engine over once or twice.” He explained.
“Great… Do we have anything like that topside?” Tim asked.
“Not as far as I know, you’re not looking at a small charge from a torch light or something, you’d need… hmm… I would say at least three micro fusion cells; make it five to be sure. We don’t have any tech like that topside, no sir, but there is bound to be some somewhere, those type forty three micro fusion cells are far superior to the cheap mass produced ones you could get over in the US. I would bet good money that there were still a fair few of those lying around. In fact, as I recall every base should have a small stockpile of them. If we can find that they we could probably get this baby running with a bit of TLC.” The engineer smiled and stepped back, taking one last look at the generator he turned and then made his way back up to the walkway above.
Tim followed his example, taking one last glance at the dormant generator he made his way back past all the machinery and then started to ascend the ladder. Reaching the top he swung his foot around and stepped off the ladder.
“So, where would you find this fusion cell stockpile? Near by?” Tim pitched the question that for some reason he felt he wasn’t going to like the answer too. The engineer paused for a brief moment before answering.
“Well, not around here that’s for sure. It would have its own labeled room, but I have no idea where it would be on this base. There isn’t really a set place for them to go, they are more of a ‘just in case the backup systems backup system fails’. So they were usually neglected in the base layouts, no one ever dreamt they might actually be used. Heh, I guess this shows they were there for a good reason, huh?” The engineer grinned slightly.
Tim sighed lightly, and thought things through. They would have to delve deeper into the base to find this storage place, which meant they would probably have to confront the monster that was lurking around down here. Tim knew this wasn’t going to be simple when he slid into the base through the window on his ass with his gun drawn. ‘Walk in, hit the lights, watch all the critters run in fear’ would have been ideal, but now this could get mucky. Now he and his companions might well end up having to wade into the shit holding their nuts in their teeth.
“Alright, let’s head out.” Tim said. He still hadn’t got quite used to issuing orders.
“Where too, sir?” One of the party members asked.
Tim considered for a moment.
A: Head through the machine shop, it has various routes leading off from it; find out what areas lie beyond it. (+ 1 Strength)
B: Head back down the corridor which they came down towards the armoury and computer core. (+ 1 Agility)
The choice, as always, is yours. Think about your options.
As you all picked up, the generator is the obvious choice to look at first, but think; one way in or out means no way to run if the monster comes knocking. 
