Lair of the Mantis, Pt. 2
10 Oct 2024Dwayne "Nova" Smith
June 15th 2330Well... damn... I was really hoping for a more positive ending for poor Leon.
After I was done unloading my loot into the hold of the Frontier, (and done listening to Heller's wisecracks) I made my way back into the Mantis facility. Picking my way through hallways and stairwells, careful to check and make sure that no one else had come through since my last trip, I finally made my way back down to the room with the big pipe.
I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I decided to check the bodies of the Spacers one last time, just to make sure I didn't miss a credstick, I guess... I'm both glad and sad that I did that, because in an interior pocket I found a slate that had a note that was simply titled "Leon's Corpse". That hit me like a ton of bricks. I never met the man, and from the slate's I'd found so far, he sounded like a bit of a fop, but for some reason I was really hoping that he'd managed to make it to heart of the facility, find whatever his inheritance was, and had simply rode off into the sunset. The slate showed otherwise. Apparently Leon was caught in one of the facilities traps and died. Damn Spacers had even fought over who got to loot the body. Bastards.
Which I suppose answers the question of "who set the traps." I guess Leon's mother set the traps. The Mantis set the traps. As... some sort of cruel test, I guess? This facility was undiscovered for god knows how long, I doubt she trapped this place as a precaution against looters. Which means the Mantis set up a gauntlet for her own son, knowing full well that he could, and probably would die trying to complete it. That's just... tragic. And I thought I had a bad relationship with my parents? Although... Spacers did find this place. And not just one or two, I've had to fight through a practical horde of them... Maybe she had a point? Maybe...
After that depressing moment I pressed onwards. I'd come too far now to turn back. That wouldn't be a very good story afterall. Something tells me even Mateo would laugh at me if I did that.
I wound through a couple more hallways, down another flight of stairs and past quite a bit more machinery and piping that did... something, I assume? Look, I'm not particularly well versed in outpost engineering, I haven't the slightest clue what most of this stuff does, but it must be important for something, or it wouldn't be here. Something tells me the Mantis isn't just a fan of the aesthetics of big industrial piping.
Anyways... Took me a few more minutes, but I finally found my next batch of spacers. Three of them, sitting around a cot and a couple of chairs they'd set up. Spacers must have been here longer than I thought. I made quick work of the three I saw, but there bodies hitting the ground alerted two others who rushed in from an adjoining room. I kicked myself for not taking a few moments and properly scoping things out before I started shooting, but self-flagellation could wait. At that moment I had two angry Spacers rushing towards me, both raising weapons on me. I made good use of the aforementioned giant pipes and ducked behind cover just as they started shooting. I could just see one of them through the gap between pipes, which meant this was bad cover. If I could see them, they could see me. Wanting to end this quickly I gambled and popped out as soon as I heard a click indicating one of them needed a reload. I was hoping I could drop the one who still had ammo before the other had a chance to reload and thankfully my gamble paid off. I mean... of course it did. Otherwise I wouldn't be here dictating this log... Hmmm..
So... having cleared the room, I took a moment to loot the bodies, hoping to find another clue to the facility. My curiosity was rewarded with another slate, this time another message from Leon! Well, not, like... a "message", per say. Just... another of Leon's logs. It was bitter sweet hearing Leon's voice again, knowing the outcome already, but the message was interesting. He'd just put it all together and realized his mother was, well, the Mantis. To say he sounded surprised would be a Barrett level exaggeration. He was incredulous. Could not believe it was true. But them he started thinking. Said his mom never did explain where she got her fortune. Never did explain why she was able to handle herself in any situation they found themselves in. Never did explain why she sent him here, or what was waiting for him. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I felt just a little pride knowing I'd put the pieces about the Mantis together apparently quicker than her own son. Still... the facility just kept going, ever downward. I still had more to explore.
Soon enough I found myself at the mouth of a much wider area, the biggest I'd come across so far. I could immediately see three Spacers gathered around a table playing cards, and judging from the light I could see bobbing along the wall from around the corner, there was at least one more. What I wasn't expecting was the other three spacers sitting on a couch on the other end of the room. They were hidden behind another large piece of machinery when I first looked into the room. The three Spacers I could see however, were all far enough away, and at the perfect height, that my Beowulf felt like the better option. So I holstered my Regulator, unslung the Beowulf, and braced myself on the door frame, holding my breathe as I took aim at their heads.
Three quick shots later and all of them were slumped in their chairs, none of them even having time to get up, or shout in alarm. Damn I'm quick. I know I was proud of my smarts earlier, but can I also be proud of my shooting too? No? Alright, fine...
The shots were so quick in fact, that the fourth Spacer I'd guessed at when I first looked at the room didn't even come to investigate when his compatriots conversation abruptly went silent. I supposed given enough time, even a Spacer would grow curious eventually, but time is not something I gave that asshole. Quick as I dared I rounded the corner and found him facing away from me. Perfect for another quiet kill.
Like I mentioned earlier, I was surprised to see another group of Spacers in the opposite corner of the room, but luckily I had good cover, and the patience of a saint. Waiting for them to all be in good sight lines, I simply lined up my shots... and only hit 1 of them. So much for being proud of my shots, right?
The other two sprung to their feet and booked it, initially behind the couch for some quick cover, and then behind some pipes and machinery for some actual cover. I am once again going to thank myself for putting a recon sight on my Beowulf though, because that thing lit those dudes up perfectly. And with some of that saintly patience, I was able to wait them both out, staying quiet long enough that they got curious and poked their heads out of cover. Of course, given the recon sight, I already knew where they were, so they both quickly joined the lost list of dead Spacers in the Lair of the Mantis.
Now... this next bit, I'm not particularly proud of. But it happened, so... Here we go.
Once I was done with those last couple Spacers I made my way through the room towards a door I could see on the other side that had a couple of busted turrets laying before it. Figured it was the obvious next step. And who was there waiting for me? If you guessed a Spacer lying in wait, ready to kill me, you would, surprisingly be wrong. It was a Spacer lying in wait, ready to bargain with me. See, this one was a little smarter than the average Spacer, and, seeing how I'd cut my way through all of his "friends" so far, wasn't exactly keen on fighting me. I'm not usually one to offer mercy to Spacers, they're the scum of the galaxy afterall, but I was in a good mood. Given the turrets, I was clearly getting close. I'd cleaned out a good amount of Spacers already, and if poor Leon was dead, that means there was a good chance no one had ever actually made it to the end of the facility and taken the Mantis' inheritance. I could feel the possibilities calling to me, beckoning me forward.
So it's understandable that when this Spacer dick put his hands up and begged me not to shoot him, well, I did just that. He wanted to talk, ok, let's talk. He said his name was Livvey, and that he knew how the traps worked. Judging by the number of dead Spacers I'd seen so far, my guess was he meant "trap bad, don't touch", which, yeah, no shit. Said the next hallway had a hell of a trap in it that had killed everyone who had gone in so far. He said he could be useful to me if I let him have just a taste of the cache at the end of the journey. I hate to admit it, but I was seriously considering using him, if for nothing else than as a meat shield against whatever trap was in the next hallway.
But that's when I saw the body at his feet. It took me a moment to realize it wasn't just another Spacer, but the fine Neon-style suit belied who it really was. I asked the Spacer who the corpse on the floor was and you could just see this look of glee come over the bastards face. "That's the Mantis' son! Stupid asshole fell for one of his mother's own traps! See this is why you need me! I can help you through the traps like even the Mantis' own son couldn't!".
*sigh* I don't know what came over me. For some reason seeing poor Leon splayed out on the floor with this vulture cackling above his body just made me snap. I didn't even give Livvey another word. Just raised my gun and blew him away. The shock on his face was something... Anyways, I checked his pockets and didn't find a key or another slate or anything, so I hauled Leon's body towards a chair further back in the room, just somewhere to put him for now. I'll pull him out of the facility when this is all over and get Heller and Lin to help me dig a proper grave for him. Poor bastard should get more than that, but it's all I can give him right now.
I'm, uh, taking a moment to gather myself before I head down this mystery hallway of death. This time I was smart and brought a Boom Pop! and a couple of Chunks in with me, that way I didn't have to keep going back to the Frontier. I'll leave these extra weapons with Leon for now. I doubt there are any more Spacers behind me, and if the traps are going to shoot at me, I'd like to be as nimble as possible.
So, for now, Dwayne out.