Slugs bounced off ancient machines, buckshot rattling off rock and metal alike, and the faint acrid hiss of laser fire flashed through any open space between the score of armed men and the quartette of running explorers as they tried to keep out of range and line of sight of their pursuers. The crack of small arms fire echoed off the machinery, the walls of the vast chamber swallowing the sound with their distance. All the four explorers could do was run, following the lengths of the conveyors, and ducking under them when the chance came to avoid another flurry of shots.

“You were saying about not easily finding us?” Shouted Ithaca at Dannal as they dove under a conveyor just a few foot off the ground, Oldra following as Ipra vaulted over it easily. “These guys found us fast enough!”

“Maybe they followed the Otricori, and heard us talking?” Suggested Oldra, huffing back to her feet, and yelping as a bullet hit a girder next to her.

“How they found us isn’t important!” Shouted Dannal, as something wooshed overhead and detonated amongst the conveyors, scattering rock and grit everywhere. “What matters is that they’re armed and we’re not going to be able to keep up this pace!”

A vast tangle of conveyors came into view ahead of them. “Keep going!” Shouted Ithaca, as they ducked under the lower end of one running down from the ceiling far above them. “We just need to find a way to lose them!”

Orange light filtered down from somewhere far overhead, and the indecipherable instructions started to echo through the vast chamber.

Ipra looked up into the darkness above them. “I believe I am beginning to partially decipher what these instructions are saying.” She said as she rolled over and then under a pair of conveyors that Oldra had paused on to help Dannal over. “I believe a new process is about to start.”

“Was it the orange warning lights that gave it away?” Said Oldra, throwing herself clear of the top of the conveyor as a bullet pinged away into the darkness. “My guess, it’s something far above us, given where the lights are.”

Almost at once a deep roar and grinding started far over their heads. Within seconds, tiny bits of stone were raining down on them, pattering off their heads, scattering onto the ground around them. A thin rain of dust followed as well

“ITHACA!” Came Notrotu’s voice again, angrier than the first time. “GIVE ME THE WATCH!”

“I do not understand.” said Ipra as there was a boom from another grenade, which had bounced somewhere into the conveyors to their right. “Why would he want the watch that he gave you? If it is so important, why not keep hold of it?”

“Less speculation,” said Dannal, “more running!” He helped Oldra over a low level conveyor running out of the ground, and reached out to help Ipra.

A bullet, or maybe a stray bit from a shotgun shell, caught Dannal in the arm. It tore open his upper arm, leaving a deep gash, and as he screamed he fell backwards, landing hard on the other side. 

“DANNAL!” Shouted Ipra, and she leapt over, pulling her partner onto his feet, checking his arm. “Are you okay?”

“Forget the arm, RUN!” He shouted, grabbing his arm to the wound and the chase continued, the others now having to help Dannal over some of the lower conveyors, as he couldn’t use his right arm at all any more.

The shooting continued, as inaccurate as ever. When they paused for a moment to breath, having found momentary shelter behind some form of large merging section, Ithaca thought about that.

“They’re not trying to hit us.” She said softly.

“What did you say?” Asked Oldra, who was closest. The sound of grinding from far above had all but drowned out the quiet tones that Ithaca had used.

“They’re not trying to hit us. Their aim can’t be that bad!” Ithaca said, as a shotgun’s shot rattled off somewhere to the far left.

“Tell that to my arm.” said Dannal, as Ipra finished applying a bandage to it.

“I think that was a ricochet.” Ithaca said softly. “I think we’re being driven somewhere.”

“Towards what?” Said Ipra. “There are no other people down here. We have moved far too quickly so far to be overtaken.”

Ithaca started to nod, then stopped. “The Otricori?” She said, looking to their faces for any indication they agreed with her. “They overtook us. They looked like they were looking for something, or someone?”

Oldra glanced around the machine, trying to see any of their persuers. “So, of the three groups down here, there’s us, a shouty Cathinis with loud guns, and three people in power armour, being sneaky?” She slowly stood, indicating the others to stand as well. “I think we’re in a lot of trouble.”

The others started to stand, when Ithaca, glancing up, grabbed Dannal’s arm. “Stop.” She hissed. He froze, and followed her gaze. Something moved above them, fast and soundless, vanishing towards where the firing was coming from.

“ITHACA!” Shouted Notrotu’s voice again, before it moved into a softer tone. “I don’t want to hurt you, Ithaca! I just want the watch! Just leave it on a conveyor, or out in the open, and we can pretend this didn’t happen!” There was a pause, and glancing around the machines and peering through the conveyors, Ithaca could make him out with a dozen others, all armed. One was carrying what looked like a bulky tablet and was studying it intently. “Or,” Notrotu continued, “we can continue to hunt you. I know someone with you is hurt, we’ve seen the blood! How about you give up the watch, and we can give you a nice BIG bag of medical supplies.” 

Ithaca watched Notrotu stalking around the small open space he and his companions were in, but a movement above them drew her eye. Something was climbing down from a high conveyor, and dropped into the back of the group silently, before standing to over seven feet in height.

The unis of the Otriconi were the smallest and slimmest of their race, but given the bulk and size of the others, that meant very little. This one drew two short swords from somewhere on it’s person, and in a flash of movement, sliced the first of Notrotu’s companions into three equal parts. They didn’t even have a chance to scream before the figure moved in a blur of speed that seemed impossible for someone in power armour.

The sound of the cadaver hitting the floor drew the attention of the others though, and Notrotu was bringing up a heavy pistol as another of his companions was sliced in half and decapitated in the same balletic movement. There was a boom of the pistol going off, the round finding its mark in the exposed forehead of the Otriconi, but to Ithaca’s horror, the figure barely staggered. The flattened round was plucked from it’s face, and tossed lightly away, as Notrotu looked on in horror at the figure as it cocked it’s head at the glassy-skinned anthropoid, and rushed in again.

“KILL IT!” Bellowed Notrotu, stepping back as one of the others brought up a shotgun and fired, the shot tearing through the cloak worn by the unis, as it leapt sideways suddenly, and sliced through the arm of the figure carrying the grenade launcher.

The figure spasmed backwards, it’s dismembered hand squeezing, and a grenade belched out of the barrel almost straight upwards. All eyes turned to follow it, as it was lost in the gloom. Then there was a crack far above, and the deepest, ugliest groan Ithaca had ever heard.

She looked back down into the combat, which was over. The Otriconi had vanished as easily as they’d snuck in, but Notrotu had already realised something that Ithaca was only starting to piece together.

“RUN!” Shouted Notrotu and Ipra at the same moment, and the two parties fled in opposite directions, clambering and scattering as fast as they could.

“What’s wrong?” Panted Oldra as they swung around the bottom of another conveyor section. There was a crash from far overhead, and seconds later something hit the ground far behind them, a rock the size of a small shack slamming into a set of conveyors, shattering them like glass.

“That grenade dislodged some of the roof.” Said Ipra as another slab the size of a transport pod crushed a merging section like a tin can under a sledgehammer. 

“You think that’s enough to bring the roof down entirely?” Asked Dannal as they rounded another section, smaller bits of rock slamming into the machines now.

“I wish.” The synthetic said, as spray started to fill the air from above. “We are under Lake Ornkara. It is almost 5 miles deep above us.” The spray was getting worse. “I am worried that-”

She didn’t have to finish the sentence as a roar sounded from above, and the sound of rushing water overtook the sound of breaking rock. The voice that announced the incomprehensible actions of the machines within the chamber started to speak again, but it was ignored by all as Ipra grabbed Ithaca and hauled her up onto a conveyor.

They just managed to get a story up from the ground when the torrent of water swept through where they’d been standing, dragging away everything in its path. Even the conveyors, built on sturdy legs as thick as people, groaned and flexed under the pressure. Other conveyors were torn out of the ground, swinging wildly as the water buffeted them, throwing one against their refuge. 

The legs snapped as claxons sounded, the rush of water increasing, not as it grew deeper, but as vast chasms opened in the floor, and as the water rushed away, the legs of their conveyor finally collapsed, slamming sideways and tipping the four of them into the yawning gap in the cavern floor.

Far above, in deep darkness, the flow of water stopped. Something thick, brown and rapidly solidifying drooled out of the crack caused by the explosive, hardening rapidly into rock indistinguishable from the rock around. Inside of five minutes of the torrent starting, the last of the water drained away, leaving only small puddles where it had once been.