Sean felt they were making good headway, it even seemed that with all the physical exertion his ankle ached less. It may just be the adrenalin though, he thought. They had gone quite a distance down the corridor, through the interstitial space, until Nine stopped at another neglected-looking access hatch.

"This should get us near another stairwell," Daniel informed. "Just a few more flights and we should be on the same level as the Mag Station."

"Are you sure a Mag-Lev is the best way to go?" Miller asked. "It just seems a bit too obvious, as far as escapes go."

"I know what you mean." Daniel agreed. "You'll just have to trust me."

It was not the answer Miller wanted, but he did not want to stand there and debate it. Nine opened the door cautiously and popped out into a mechanical service closet. He helped the rest exit the small hatch until they all stood nearly nose-to-nose in the small space. Nine and Daniel listened at the door and when they felt it was safe, they quickly exited into the hall, guns drawn. The hall was empty, dark, and very unfamiliar, lit only with emergency lighting. Daniel and Nine had a brief Com-Link conversation.

"We're lost." Daniel told the group. "And something has happened, the power grid is offline."

"You're shitting me." Trey responded.

"About which part?" Miller replied sarcastically.

"This does not appear to be an area Nine or I have been privy to. This building has a lot of secrets, and being military does not necessarily give you an all access pass. We have never seen anything like this."

"Me neither." Miller said under his breath, looking about in awe. He did not know how to describe it, the architecture seemed old and modern at the same time. Everything had a smoothness to it, no sharp edges, the walls had an unexpected warmth when he touched them. The e-lighting seemed out of place here, like it was tacked on-- an after-thought or retrofit.

"So what now?" Sean said interrupting Miller's wonderment.

"We're still trying to get to the MagLevs, we just need to find out if we are lower or higher than we thought. We have to be close." Daniel said as he checked Abi again. "Nine thinks we might actually be lower than we think, it was hard to determine how far down the effluent tunnel we went."

Nine checked a couple doors and went down the hall a ways in one direction and peered around a corner before coming back.

"All clear." Daniel relayed the findings. "Kind of strange."

"This is freaking me out a bit, I'll admit." Trey whispered, adjusting his hold on Abi. "Let's not stand around."

"Agreed." Daniel answered.

They moved cautiously through the labyrinth of shadowy hallways. Most doors were numbered, with five digits embossed in them, and intersections had no placards providing useful information. While Sean also noticed everything seemed distinctly different from the area of the building they were held in, the significance of this did not strike him.

After some more wandering Nine jimmied a locked door, breaking his knife in the process, and they entered what appeared to be a store room. It seemed unused for some time though. Nine curiously touched a metallic plate on the wall near the door, illuminating the room, and began another Com-Link conversation with Daniel which Miller soon interrupted.

"Where the hell is the light coming from?"

"What light?" Daniel asked, not noticing what Miller had.

"The light - the room is lit, but there is no light source, what the hell?" Miller explained. The others began looking about the room, scrutinizing the ceiling and walls, but Miller was right, not only was there no light source, but there were no discernible shadows.

"Weird." Trey offered.

"More than weird." Miller replied, flicking the light on and off.

"Ok, enough with the lights." Daniel scolded, somewhat annoyed. "I think we might know what this is." All the eyes in the room fell onto Daniel. "Back in the academy, one of the recruits used to talk about how the Centreon was built over top some Second Age structure. It's something that Nine and I have heard since, from time to time, but the validity of the rumour was hard to determine. Looks like it might be true though."

"That would make this door over a thousand years old - it looks brand new!" Miller exclaimed. "Is that possible?"

"I can't say for sure, Miller," Daniel replied. "This area is like nothing I've seen before in the Centreon. If it is Second Age, I can see them keeping us in the dark about it, most things about the Second Age are usually kept confidential. For one reason or another, it's not information the oligarchs want to share."

"So what's that mean to our escape?" Sean asked.

"Doesn't change anything," Daniel began. "We just have to find our way out to more familiar surroundings. Nine and I have Navigation and Mapping implants, but they went offline some time ago, diagnostics says we have lost the feed. At first I though it was done by Command to disorient us, but now I think it's something else. Anyway, best to keep moving and find some stairs."

They soon found themselves back out in the dim hallway, Miller was still obsessing about the light in the closet, although he kept his comments to himself. Nine was on point, Daniel acted as rear guard, trailing the group by several meters. They proceeded down a corridor that seemed to grow darker the further down they went. At one point Sean's good foot collided with an unseen toolbox, upsetting the thing and scattering the contents across the floor. Sean swore aloud, Nine hushed him.

"Dammit Miller," he hissed at his crutch. "At least steer me around the objects."

"Sorry, but I can barely see anything, ocular auggies would be useful right around now." Miller apologized. He had considered upgrading his eyes recently, but until now it seemed like too much of a splurge. He could almost make out an intersection ahead. Nine had held up for a second to help Trey adjust Abi again, Sean and Miller plodded on.

They came to the intersection, a tee, where their corridor met another which terminated at a large, strange looking, glossy black metallic door that garnered their attention.

"Don't see a door like that too often." Sean admitted.

"More Second Age stuff? Must be something important in there, that's a heavy duty door. Nic would love something like that for his lab." Miller replied.

Just then they heard heavy footfalls from up the intersecting hallway, they both turned to see a distant silhouette, backlit by the emergency lights. It was a huge figure, the bulk of its frame occupied most of the hallway. Nine caught up with them and peered up the hall, his retinal implants giving him an enhanced view and immediate identification. A Guardian!

The Guardian was initially perplexed seeing the two people down the hall, given that the area was suppose to be clear. Once he saw the Paladin, his implants immediately informed him it was a rogue agent and he brought his enormous gun to bear. He might accomplish two things at once here, he thought.

In a split second Nine reacted, tackling Sean and Miller to the floor as he shouted, "Guardian!"

The Guardian reacted instinctively, raising the gun and firing without so much as a second though. The Gatsu discharged unleashing it's deadly projectile with a cacophonous blast. A hardened alloy penetrator travelleing at over 15 km per second streaked passed the Paladin, missing him by a fraction of an inch, but scored a direct hit on Wagner's door.

There was an explosion of molten metal in all directions as the penetrator tore through it, essentially shattering the door. The built up pressure on the inside exploded outward sending everyone, including the Guardian who had not anchored himself, crashing to the ground.

Wagner sensed the breech and immediately triggered the reactor detonation sequence. Fail-safes disengaged, cooling systems halted and the carefully controlled power systems started down the path toward critical failure. Now it was just a matter of time.

Outside the obliterated, smoldering door Nine extracted himself from the rubble, checked his firearm and quickly peered around the corner down toward where the Guardian had been. The corridor was obstructed by wreckage and burning debris. The smokey fires provided further visual impairment.

"Everyone okay?" Daniel called out as he cleared debris off his sister.

Trey muttered something unintelligible, a large gash in the side of his head was bleeding freely and a sizable goose-egg was already rising up. Daniel quickly produced a compression bandage and bound the wound. Trey rose wobbly to his feet and staggered against the wall.

"Anyone else injured?" Daniel repeated.

Miller and Sean surprising answered in the negative, the door to the Cortex was surrounded by a large bulkhead which deflected the blast outward and away from where they were sprawled out on the floor. Both had serious tinnitus from the blast, but other than that neither had so much as a scratch. Nine had caught a piece of shrapnel in the foot, but he could still walk on it, his foot would have to wait.

"We need to move." Daniel stated, picking up Abi. "That way, now!" He motioned down the hall toward Sean and Miller.

Nine covered the corner for any sign of the Guardian as the group picked themselves up and started off down the hallway.

"What the hell was that?" Trey asked, turning to Sean.

"A Guardian, I guess." Sean answered.

"I thought they just manned those towers." Miller added.

"The do a lot more than that," Daniel chimed in as he caught up. "Like the Paladins, the Guardians do whatever is required of them."

"So they sent a Guardian after us?" Miller asked.

"That doesn't make much sense, a Guardian is not the right asset for the job. Another Paladin team would make the most sense, unless they think I could compromise the other units."

"Can you?" Miller asked.

"I don't think so. Nine and Thirteen and I have been on many missions together, we are bonded in a way that goes beyond the ComLink coupling. I trust them and they trust me. The ComLink technology is designed with anti-tamper protection and has other safe guards that are suppose to prevent a Captain from commandeering unassigned units."

"Who controls the Guardians?" Miller continued.

"As I understand it the Guardians take orders the old-fashioned way, and are largely autonomous. They likely have implants for comms and such, they are definitely heavily augmented, mechanically, biologically, you name it. I haven't worked closely with any of them though. The Guardian project predates the Paladins, it's older tech with a very different mandate. Brutes for the battlefield basically."

"I had no idea they were so big." Sean joined in.

"Yeah, he nearly took up the entire hallway. Where do they find people that big?" Miller asked.

"They make them that way." Daniel informed. "Make no mistake, despite appearances, the Guardians are not human. As I understand it, their biological component was required to address problems with purely mechanical units of similar purpose. The Oligarchy has delved into many dark, ethically questionable areas of science and technology."

"How do you know?"

"The Paladins of Epsilon are the product of similar research. People like Nine and myself are the current generation, others came before us, some generations were deeply flawed, and before those came the years of rampant unrestricted R&D. In the early days of trying to engineer a better soldier, Meta scientists made a lot of mistakes. Actually, mistake kind of implies something accidental, they were conducting experiments at the request of the Oligarchs, experiments that often crossed the line between right and wrong, at least as most people would see it."

"Man, Nic would love to hear this stuff!" Miller said.

"Nic?" Daniel asked.

"In a sense, Nic is why we are all here." Sean answered, "He's really the driving force behind our group and the reason we were looking into Susan's Plague."

"Ah." Daniel's voice trailed off, "We better keep the chatter down, we can talk more once we're out of here."

The group continued on in silence, through the maze of halls and corridors. They occasionally passed through unmanned security check-points, Sean wondered why the entire level was devoid of personnel. Nine was ever-vigilant of another run-in with a Guardian or other agent of the Meta Security forces. Trey followed a ways behind Nine, his head wound had started to bleed through the dressing and he stumbled every so often, but he did not complain. Farther back still Daniel, Abi, Sean and Miller followed as a group.

Miller noticed subtle changes in the decor and architecture as they went, from the old-modern of what may have been Second Age, to what appeared to be just plain old. From there things seemed to grow more modern every so often, until the area they currently passed through which seemed very similar to the area they were being held prisoner in. It reminded him of tree rings, the outermost ring being the newest.

Nine paused, knelt and held up a clenched fist at the intersection of another hallway. The group all ducked into nearby doorways and alcoves. Daniel explained to the others, "Looks like we're in luck, Nine spotted a Mag-Lev sign down that hall. Close now, real close. Trey, how's the head?"

"I can manage." Trey replied stoically, pressing a hand to the dressing. It came away bloodied. He frowned.

"OK, Nine will proceed ahead down the hall to check if it's clear. Once he gives the go, we proceed quick and quiet, okay?"

Everyone nodded.

Nine slipped around the corner and made a stealthy beeline for the sign, which he found sat just outside a security door. Through the door he could see stairs leading up. The door appeared to require CIT key activation to operate, that would be a problem. He returned to the group so they could come up with a plan. They spoke in hushed tones, debating how to defeat the door security to gain access to the stairs.

Miller explained that without the support of someone like Nic, they had very few options, he suggested one of two mechanicals hacks. Either try to bypass the CIT reader, or blow the door off it's hinges. The latter suggestion was partly in jest. However, Nine still had a small amount of explosives in his pack and he was more than willing to force the door if needed. The problem with either option was the potential of an alarm being raised, an explosion would definitely get someone's attention. Daniel gave Miller the green light to attempt the bypass, handing him a small multitool. Only Nine and Miller journeyed back to the door, the rest remained concealed in the shadows. Sean took the time to try to coax Abi back to consciousness, but she would not rouse.

"Don't worry, I think she'll come out of in it time." Daniel assured Sean. "You really care for her, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do." Sean admitted without hesitation.

"Take this." Daniel pulled a Netpod from his pocket, "she's going to have a lot of questions when she wakes up. Some of the answers are on here."

"Why don't you answer them?"

"I'm not going with you."

"You can't stay here, they'll kill you for sure."

"Nine and I can be tracked very easily, we cannot hide, even if I still have some allies in Epsilon command, the Oligarchs have their own resources. Something appears to be interfering with that presently, which is why we have not run into more resistance, but we cannot risk coming with you. It would be best if Nine and I went in another direction."

Sean was silent, he sensed there was more Daniel was not telling, but he did not wish to pry. "We can never repay you."

"Take care of my little sister, that is all I ask." Daniel checked his watch and peeked around the corner. He Comlinked Nine who looked up and replied that Miller had the panel apart and was trying to bypass without setting of alarms.

"Do you guys hear that?" Trey interrupted.

"Hear what?" Sean asked.

"I dunno, it's like a high pitch noise or something, every so often I hear it, almost like an electric motor running at high speed."

"You got your bell rung pretty good, maybe it's from that." Sean exchanged glances with Daniel, who shrugged.

"Hmmm, maybe, I did start hearing it just after that, now that you mention it." Trey tilted his head back and forth like a dog listening to a whistle. "Seems to be gone."

Sean noticed Miller do a little fist pump at the same time Daniel announced, "They got it, door's opened." They moved quickly and arrive to find the door only partly ajar.

"This isn't exactly opened." Trey observed.

"The locks disengaged, but the servos for the door seem to be offline, we have to force it." Miller informed. Daniel and Nine both got their hands on the door and forced it open. "The whole place seems to have power issues."

"With any luck, it's also affecting the internal security grid." Daniel said taking a quick look down the hall behind them. "Let's not stand around waiting for it to come back online."

With little prompting they ascended furtively up a few flights to a solid metal door with a small window that overlooked the Centreon Mag-Lev station. The underground station was the main hub for all Mag-Lev traffic in and out of the Core. Sean peered through the window, the Mag-Lev platforms were almost entirely devoid of commuters, it appeared they were in luck, now was the time. Sean pushed through the door, Daniel caught his shoulder and pulled him back.

"Not yet." He said.

"Why not? There's almost no one out there."

"That's exactly why, we'll be far more difficult to spot if we are in a large crowd. We'll wait a bit."

So they sat quietly, on the floor or perched on the step waiting for rush hour. Occasionally a small intra-Core Mag-Lev would glide in and a few people would disembark, a few others would get on, but other than that, the massive collection of platforms were mostly deserted.

"I hear it again." Trey announced.

"Yeah, I hear it too," Miller acknowledge. "I heard it downstairs when I was working on the door as well."

"So I'm not crazy. It seems louder this time." Trey moved his head around trying to get a bearing on the sound. "I can't tell where it's coming from."

Everyone listened intently, they could all hear it now.

"Seems to be lasting longer too." Miller added.

Nine gave Daniel a look and a brief Com-Linked exchange.

"I don't like the sound of it either." Daniel answered out loud. "The sooner we get out of here the better."

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