Habitat 17 (Cookie)

Foot after foot pressed forward in rapid succession, the scruffy-looking young man attempting to outrun his pursuers. Wrapped around his torso was his bag of possessions, and tightly gripped in his right hand was his pistol. The young man rushed down the hallway, making it around the corner and swiftly spinning around to take aim at his opponents. Glancing at his watch and back at the end of the hall, Alex attempted to calculate whether he should run or fend off these people till he shifted.

10 seconds left...screw it.

The drifter pushed himself away from the wall, the sharp pain of the bullet in his shoulder emanating throughout that region of his body. The sound of footsteps soon followed behind him, and Alex began to pick up his pace. He came to the exit doors and pushed it open with all his might, only to be blinded by a floodlight. The sounds of a helicopter up above, dozens of rifles clicking, and a man on a megaphone ordering for him to get on the ground filled Alex's ears, but he hardly felt any fear.

"5...4...3..." Alex counted to himself with a mutter, his arms raised as he saw four heavily-armed men dressed in SWAT uniforms approaching him cautiously. His teeth clenched at the pain in his shoulder, the drifter continued to count. "...2...1."

With one, Alex held his breath and closed his eyes as the world vibrated rapidly. Suddenly, everything went quiet and dark, and the young man opened his eyes and gripped onto his pistol. Reaching for his flashlight in his bag, the young man pulled it out and flicked it on, brightening the area before him. Spinning around on instinct, he gave a sweep of his immediate vicinity, the cone of light illuminating nothing but tables, chairs, and empty space beyond. His heart pounding with stress, the drifter felt his muscles spasm as a rush of cold air came in contact with his skin. Breathing rapidly, he also noticed that his breath was visible in the form of a distinct smoke.

The young man slowly made his way through the area, passing between tables and over broken chairs, scanning the vicinity and faintly making out what appeared to be a large structure built for social gathering, not unlike a mall. The escalators were a dead giveaway, but what made the situation worse was the fact that they were inactive, and covered with a fine layer of ice. In fact, everything was covered by this incredibly thin layer of ice, bringing Alex to question why on earth the temperature was so low in this place.

Making his way up the escalator, the rugged traveler began to shiver as the darkness and the cold took their toll on him. Alex had encountered bizarre universes before, but this seemed much more disturbing based on the fact that it seemed utterly abandoned and devoid of any life. Even for someone who could never stay dead permanently, the transdimensional drifter still felt some fear in the face of forces that could wipe out entire populations. As he continued to traverse through the abandoned complex, Alex began to uncover pieces of the mystery behind its dark, cold emptiness. What appeared to be a mall was in fact just that, yet all but the most mundane of objects had been removed from the stores. Alex could assume that the compound had been ransacked, though there were no signs of violence, struggles, or even bodies.

Taking one step in front of what appeared to be a metal door, Alex cautiously studied the device and saw there were no doors. Perhaps it was automatic? That brought to question what the power source was, and how advanced the civilization that forged such technology really was. Placing his pistol and flashlight on the ground, the young man brought his fingers to the thin crack in the doorway, managing to slowly pull it open with all of his strength. The bitter cold stung his hands as he began to yank the door open forcefully, eventually making him quit halfway through because of the sheer pain. Picking up his gun and light off the ground, Alex took a step through the crack and entered a dilapidated hallway.

The decay in this place just doesn't stop, does it? The drifter thought to himself as he stepped over broken glass from weathered out light bulbs, the shards cracking under the soles of his shoes. I'll probably need to start a fire soon, if I can't find any power to this dump.

Moving further along down the corridor, Alex began to realize that the structure was far larger than he anticipated, and seemingly lacked windows and door to the outside world. Whoever built this structure had intended for the residents to stay indoors, apparently. The crunching of glass, mixed with the grinding of thin ice and concrete below filled the silence that ever-presently hung in the air. There literally was no one here but Alex, unless they were desperately hiding for their very life in this place. Through the trekking, the young man came to a door with a handle, which also had flickering light seeping through its cracks.

Gripping tightly onto the pistol and flicking off his flashlight, Alex came closer to the door and put away his light. His free hand sliding across the handle, the young man waited for a moment before he pulled open the door and pointed his gun to nothing but a wall of concrete with '17-4A' painted on it in bold, red capitals. Whatever each of the numbers meant, Alex could only conclude that this place was even bigger than he discovered from sweeping just most of this floor: it had to be enormous.

Taking a step towards the railing of the staircase, the drifter peered down into the darkness of the lower floors, seeing nothing but endless staircases. Some of them were broken entirely, preventing movement from one floor to the next, and in other places the lights were busted out, leaving one flight of stairs entirely enveloped in darkness. Looking up, Alex saw only a handful of staircases to go, this facet combined with the sensation of cold air falling downwards onto him. Whatever was the source of the low temperature, it had to be up and not down.

Making his way up the concrete steps, the young man continued to ponder what was the origin of this structure, as well as its currently dismal state. The creators must have been incredibly advanced, and to abandon such a building would've been rather foolish unless faced with extreme disaster. In any case, Alex noticed that the lettering changed from '17-4A' to '17-3A', as he progressed higher and higher each floor. Reaching the doorway that led to floor '17-1A', he once again brought his hand to the handle of the door, and suddenly pulled it open to point his gun into the flickering light on the ceiling.

The atmosphere of this floor was obviously different from that of 17-4A, in the fact that functioning lights, even just flickering and on the verge of being total nonfunctional, were incredibly common. Despite the colder temperatures, Alex knew that this part of the structure was much more important than those below, causing him to question the actual design of the entire facility. However, there were only a few ways one could discover the design: exit the building and see it from afar, connect to any functioning systems that provided schematics, or the remote possibility of encountering someone with knowledge of the structure itself. To the drifter, only the first two options were most likely, despite the possibility that the building had no exit or functioning system with schematics.

The crackle of electricity pierced the silence of the icy expanse as miniature lightning bolts danced around a point and eventually coalesced into a luminous sphere, followed by a loud snap and a burst of blinding white light as a figure appeared in that very same place. Aprella's hair billowed slightly as a steady breeze immediately buffeted her and tossed it about, but that was quickly followed by a sudden gasp as the cold bit viciously into her skin. She had just jumped from the mild temperate climate of her own Earth into an atmosphere with a temperature several degrees below zero, and her plugsuit together with her relatively thin jacket and pants were hardly enough to keep the cold at bay.

"Bloody hell it's cold!" she exclaimed, wondering whether she should notify headquarters to send her more appropriate clothing or if she should just make do with what she was wearing and improvise. At the moment though she simply settled for extending her left arm as a white translucent ether flowed out from around her wrist, forming a protective oval spheroid around her that would at least prevent her from losing heat too fast. Of course it was only a temporary measure and she would have to find another solution if she was going to spend at least twenty-four hours in this place. "Of all the realities I could have jumped to, I ended up with the frigid desert one..." she added with a sort of matter-of-factly bitterness.

Folding her right arm the rings on her gauntlets slid towards her wrist and a holographic screen coalesced above her forearm, showing various bits of information about her surroundings and changing as she pointed it in different directions in the hopes of finding anything interesting. "Oh this better not be an Unbloomed planet. I am not spending twenty-four hours in this place doing absolutely nothing but investigating the bloody rocks." A small beep on the screen captured her attention and she narrowed her eyes slightly at the display, pursing her lips in thought as she read off the information.

There was apparently an almost indiscernible heat source a few miles away from where she was, but the signal was far too weak to really hint at anything specific being there. Nevertheless following the signal would be a better and frankly much more interesting course of action than just simply loitering around aimlessly. Aprella took a deep breath and then white ether began to exude from around her boots, propelling her upwards as the ethereal capsule still surrounding her shifted into a more aerodynamic shape. A second later her momentum shifted forward and she set off in a straight line towards the heat signature she had detected.

The barren expanse of ice seemed to stretch indefinitely in all directions as she sped along just a few metres off the ground. There seemed to be no sign of advanced life-forms whatsoever and Aprella couldn't help but wonder if this really was an Unbloomed planet or whether some worldwide ecologic disaster had brought it to this state. Her intended destination eventually appeared in the far distance and she couldn't help but arch an eyebrow at what she saw, her previous question pretty much answering itself. A black metallic dome of considerable size sat seemingly in the middle of nowhere, heavily fortified as if it was meant to keep something outside. Nevertheless it had deteriorated to a large extent and parts of it where lined with large cracks while others were missing completely, not large enough for a person to enter the dome but more than enough to let the cold seep into the structure.

She touched down a small distance from the structure and began to investigate it, walking around its circumference which was about two hundred metres long. The screen reappeared over her forearm as she directed it towards the building, the software attempting to analyse the composition of the material and discover what the purpose of the structure was. "Well this is interesting... Some alloy of adamantium I haven't encountered before. And quite a lot of it." Walking up to the dome she slid a hand outside her cocoon and tapped her knuckles against the metallic surface, only to find that there was no sound whatsoever coming from it. "Just as I thought, passive energy dissipation... They were really serious about keeping something out... which only raises the question of how do I get in," she added, grinning with delighted curiosity.

A sudden noise behind Aprella alerted her senses and she spun out of the way just as a large black claw plunged into the snow where she stood but a moment ago. This was quickly followed by another identical claw thrusting towards her new position, Aprella cartwheeling away as it collided noiselessly with the smooth metallic surface of the dome. Taking a few cautious steps back she turned to look at her assailant, her senses alert and her body primed for fast reflexes. It could best be described as a gargantuan arachnid of sorts although it was unlike any she had ever seen in her travels, and it had burrowed straight out of the frigid ground to attack her.

The carapace was incredibly smooth and rounded almost like it had just gotten off the production line of a mysterious factory, completely black and with no discernible features whatsoever on its surface. Three pairs of legs extended from underneath the carapace and ended in three-clawed slightly webbed feet, obviously to allow for better traction when traversing the icy terrain. Aside from that the creature had two menacing scythe-like appendages in front which where the weapons used to attack Aprella, as well as a multitude of small undeveloped appendages visible underneath the carapace. For a moment she wondered whether the creature could sense her presence without eyes or any other sensory organ visible, but her question was immediately answered when it lunged at her with those deadly scythes.

She jumped a good distance back to avoid this new attack and quickly proceeded to scan the creature before it had another chance to lunge at her. What she saw on the holographic display surprised her so much that she arched both eyebrows. "...This can't be right..." she said, jumping to the side to avoid yet another attack. "How can a non-sentient creature have an EV signature that strong? It's... detecting my presence using my EV signature." Tilting her head to the side slightly she looked at the creature with renewed interest, a grin spreading along her lips. "No matter, we'll see what kind of a fight it can put up."

The protective spheroid around her dissipated and she was once again buffeted by the icy winds, but she intended to keep the battle as short as possible. The white ether gathered around her wrists once more and formed two solid blades extending about three feet in front of her, with a very sharp edge and great durability while still remaining incredibly lightweight. The creature wasted no time in pressing its attack and swiping downwards at her with both its scythes, Aprella quickly bringing up one of the blades to parry the attack. However, the claws pressed down on Aprella with a lot more strength than she had expected and slowly began to force her down into the icy ground. Her quick wits kicked into action and she swung her second blade into the side of the scythe-wielding appendages, severing both and causing the creature to retreat away from her.

She wasn't quite finished though and this time it was her turn to make a move, swiping down with both her blades straight at the creature's carapace. The result was to see them bounce off harmlessly like a rubber ball on a hard surface, with enough force to push Aprella a few steps back. "...EV-resistant armour...?" she said incredulously, eyes widening considerably. Meanwhile, the creature's two damaged appendages seemed to shrivel somewhat grotesquely before disconnecting from the carapace and falling off, only for a new set of scythes to grow out of the undeveloped appendages beneath the carapace.

"Now that's interesting..." she said with fascination, but her moment of awe was quickly cut short as another one of the creatures burst out of the ground behind her, swiping rather unsuccessfully at the dhampir who quickly jumped out of the way and closer to the dome. And then behind her now two assailants sprang out another three of the things out of the ice, all of them apparently interested in slicing and dicing the outnumbered Aprella. "Oh this is bollocks!" she exclaimed in frustration, but just then everything around her changed.

A low whirring sound could be heard from inside the structure as if something was charging up, and a moment later the entire surface of the dome sans the damaged areas turned into a brilliant silver hue accompanied by a dull metallic ringing. Aprella had the impression that someone or something had activated the abandoned structure, and with that had also turned the defence systems on. All around the circumference of the dome as well as in a circle about half-way to the top sprang out what appeared to defence turrets, though truth be told a number of them were damaged beyond use.

The turrets sought out their targets automatically and Aprella witnessed an intense white beam melting straight through the carapace of the creature closest to her, almost like how one would expect steel to melt under extreme temperatures. They kept firing at the rest of the creatures and this gave Aprella the opportunity to scan one of the turrets in order to gather some information. "...Anti-EV energy beams? Oh I definitely have to investigate this place, our anti-EV technology is still on a largely experimental stage." However the attack was far from over and even as the last creature died another ten sprang out of the ground. It seemed that the disturbance here had been picked up by the creatures and reinforcements were rushing in, a hunch which was proven right as more continued to arrive all around the dome. Pretty soon the vast majority of the turrets were swarmed by these strange beings, some of them hacking and slashing while others grew completely different appendages to attack the defences, until the turrets began to explode violently one-by-one.

Aprella might've had a penchant for recklessness and rash behaviour, but she knew she had no chance of dealing with such numbers of these creatures, especially with her body losing heat as rapidly as it was. Much to her surprise a much louder noise sounded from the dome and the entire structure began to rise out of the ground, until it had the shape of a hemisphere and a proportionately larger circumference. From the almost vertical surface now behind her opened what appeared to be a tunnel straight into the structure, large enough to let a human comfortably walk inside but small enough to impede the entrance of the creatures. Aprella looked at the entrance and pursed her lips in thought, before another exploding turret brought her attention back to the growing masses of creatures which would only be coming after her when they were done with the defences.

"...Bloody hell," she muttered defeatedly, before dashing inside the unknown structure, the wall behind her slamming shut and casting her in pitch darkness. She paused for a moment and began to walk down the tunnel as the walls slowly merged together behind her, completely sealing off the outside world though Aprella was sure it was only time before the creatures made their way inside through the damaged bulkhead that was this dome. A bit off in the distance Aprella saw several flickering lights and slowly made her way towards them.