As she led Kael into Cryo-Bay Alpha, Sera's boots clattered on the grated floor. His arm weighed heavily over her shoulder, and his bloody pipe dragged it. As two more pods—Units 735 and 736—hissed open, Sera's amber eyes darted across the bay and her jaw tensed.
"More people destroying this tomb is exactly what I need," she muttered. The first girl's orange hair escaped from her pod as she stretched out. Her cryosuits were translucent patches that kept to her body like sticky silk, highlighting all of her curves in the flickering light as she sat up and felt dazed.
When she saw how thin her suit was, she shivered, her brown eyes widened, and she swiftly crossed her arms over her chest.
Her cheeks turned red as she whispered, "Oh, this isn't good." In the meantime, a girl with pink hair bounced out of her pod. Flashes of skin glowed under the lights as her already-worn-down cryosuit split along her sides and thighs.
"What a nap!" "Hey, who's that guy with the pipe?" she asked. "And why is it so damn cold?" Her smile fell on Kae, who is motionless because his Night Vision ability is capturing too much detail on her outfit. Kael tried to turn his head away as his face flushed and his hands tightened around the pipe.
When he saw the girls, he stuttered, "A-Asha, their suits are… uh..falling apart." "What should I do?" He attempted to gaze at the ceiling, but Rosa spun around him playfully, making her suit's tears worse, and his eyes flicked back, blushing.
Asha's calm voice responded: "Kael, the suit" structural integrity is compromised by prolonged cryogenic exposure and auxiliary power at 35%. Storage Locker B-7, 10 meters west, contains replacement jumpsuits. Your heart rate is 33% above baseline, suggesting… non-strategic visual focus. Retrieve the jumpsuits immediately."
Sera hears Kael mumbling and moves in front of him between him and the girls obstructing his view. "Look up, you idiot!When she realized that the thin fabric of her suit wasn't much better, she snapped, her face flushing.
"And stop speaking to that AI as if it were your best friend!"
"Pay attention to this mess!" With a hint of annoyance, her tone was poisonous. Sera's eye twitched as the pink girl winked and stepped onto her pod's
"Aw, he's blushing! Never seen girls like us before, huh?"
He fidgets and tries to look away from the girls, saying, "Y-You can call me Kael..... nice to meet you guys."
"Names Rosa cutie" the pink girl blows him a kiss, kael who sees it looks away while blushing.
The girl with the orange hair, who is still hiding, smiles shyly. My name is Clara, and my suit isn't holding up.
"Kael, is there anything else we could wear.. Would you please?" Her soft voice broke through the confusion, but as she tightened her arms, her blush matched Kael's. Sera's anger erupted, and her fists clenched.
"Stop prancing around, Rosa! It's not a show!" She rushed in Kael's direction. "And you, before I knock you back unconscious, get those jumpsuits!" she yelled, pushing him in the direction of the locker."
Kael staggered to Locker B-7, almost dropping his pipe. "I'm not looking! I promise!" With his eyes fixed on the ground, he yelled as he took out jumpsuits and threw one to Rosa and Clara. Rosa twirled to catch hers and winked once more. "Many thanks, hero! When you're nervous you're entertaining!"
Asha: "Affinity with Subject Clara: +3% for your help." Subject Rosa: +2% for enthusiastic participation. Seraphina, the subject: -3% for perceived lack of control. Social dynamics: Extremely violent. It is advised to stay focused on the goal to prevent further escalation.
Clara wears the jump suit over her cryosuit. Sera muttered in the corner and zipped up her own jumpsuit from the locker, her glare softened slightly as she caught Kael's earnest nod.
"Thanks for helping out, Kael." Her warm smile helped to defuse the tension. Sera crossed her arms and muttered, "That's funny, you need to be more useful.We're in a Vault with who-knows-what still lurking, and you were tripping over air before."
"We're in a Vault with monsters, and you're tripping over the cables." She added You said you fought those… things… to get the power back on. And mentioned an AI. Start talking about it Kael. I want every detail. What happened while we were sleeping? What is 'Asha,' and what exactly did you do?"
The motion tugged at Kael's injuries as he leaned back against the chilly metal of a nearby console. Despite his wince, he looked directly into Sera's demanding eyes. He had to give them an explanation. He had to explain himself to everyone. The past few hours, or were they days?.. It had the feel of a dream.
"Okay. Yeah. It's… it's a lot." Kael said, his voice still a little hoarse but getting a little stronger. He took a shaky breath. "The Vault's energy was almost gone when I woke up, and Asha, the AI in my head, told me that she was a part of something called the Phoenix Core that my parents, I believe, implanted in me. She said we needed to get more energy or all your pods would fail and die."
Clara appears worried, and Rosa's eyes widen with curiosity. As Asha stated, he made an effort to keep things straightforward. With a vague downward gesture, Kael said, "But after the first option we did… there wasn't enough energy. Asha said the only real chance was the Auxiliary Fusion Core, its way down in Sub-Level Engineering." He remembered those moments when he saw the 'Shamblers'
"So, I went. I-It was bad." His voice trailed off as he talked about the Shamblers after describing the descent and the suffocating darkness. With a soft gasp, Clara's hand shot to her mouth. Rosa's typically lighthearted smile disappeared, giving way to a serious look. With her arms still crossed, Sera listened carefully, but there was a new, concentrated intensity in her critical gaze.
"There were… so many of them. Guarding the door to the core's control room. Asha said they used to be people from here." Kael touched his still-tender right arm without noticing, and his voice cracked slightly.
"I had to create a diversion, so I damaged a console with my pipe. It made a big flash, and I stunned some of it." He went on to describe the grueling battle with the Alpha Shambler and the others, the extreme desperation, the way his pipe bent, and how he narrowly avoided being killed by the blast door. Though he didn't focus on the blood, his description was sufficiently graphic.
"I got the core online. The breakers, the coolant lever… just like Asha said. And then…" Kael said, his voice fading to a near whisper.
He paused, glancing down at his hands. "Then I think… I think I died, Sera." This time, Rosa let out an audible gasp. Clara appeared on the verge of tears. For a brief moment, even Sera's cold demeanor appeared to break, and her eyes barely widened.
Asha: Her voice chiming in Kael's head as a gentle reminder. "Explain the Phoenix Protocol's intervention, Kael. They need to understand your resilience is not… conventional,"
Kael(He looked up and met Sera's gaze): "Asha called it a 'Resurrection Sub-Routine.' Part of the Phoenix Protocol. She said my… my vital signs stopped. But the system… it brought me back. Drained a lot of its energy, she said. Said it sacrificed some… some other stuff to do it."
Kael: "And then, Asha said, the Vault's defenses activated. They… they cleaned out the rest of the Shamblers, the rats… everything was bad inside the Vault, she thinks." The memories were still fresh, and he was worn out. With a look of awe and shock in their eyes, the three recently roused girls gazed at him.
Kael (offering a weak tired smile, very much like trying to reassure someone after a terrible ordeal): "So, yeah. That's… that's what happened. The power's on. And Asha says… you're all safe now. Inside the Vault, at least."
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Authors Note:
If you like these chapter please reward me your powerstones master's.