Ancient Research Facility
Offshore, West of Ossyria
23rd April 2042
2110 Local Time

Known officially as Grid 033/092, the mysterious complex was discovered a decade ago during a routine sweep by radar usually used to locate astray ships. Immediately Orbis dock administrators notified authorities and extensive search commenced. A month later, the Orbis dock received an official report which ended with the anomaly being cleared as just a glitch in the radar. What had been actually discovered was far more sinister.

The oppressive gloom did nothing to raise Information Systems Technician Daniel’s spirits. The central console was being rather stubborn today and had refused the technician’s efforts to access several miscellaneous files. Bitterly he pounded on the keyboard and swore as for the thirty-sixth time the runes flashed a blood red and a string of words materialised on the screen, informing him of six hundred and twenty-four separate errors, corruptions and missing data codes. Sighing, he slumped back into his chair and massaged his temple with the tip of his fingers. These sorts of problems never happened to Anna.

Information Systems Specialist Anna cast a worrying look at her frustrated protégé before returning to the control room’s industrial processing unit. She disassembled the panelling and inspected the mana drives with her pen torch. Four canisters were attached to the machine, interlaced with numerous wires. Three of the four canisters had a healthy blue glow whilst the fourth one was a dangerous shade of green. Slowly the specialist ceased the mana flow with her magically tuned spanner and carefully removed the volatile contents. Flicking open the arcane case with her spare hand, she slid the canister into the protective case and activated magic guard around it, just in case it decided to explode. Any sudden movements would cause the aged canister to detonate.

Technician Neil clambered down the slimy and corroded stairwell, his ear torch faintly illuminating the gloomy hallway. Slipping on the algae covered steps, he instinctively grabbed the handrail. Cursing, he wiped his hand against his trousers and continued his descent. The light revealed a worn sign which was engraved into the stone walls.
“Level Fifty Nine: Silver Laboratory and Containment Cages Ninety to One Hundred”
His boots squelched on the damp floor as he strode down the corridor. Conjuring a fireball in his left hand, he lazily flicked it into a torch holder bracketed near the ceiling. All the levels in this archaic structure used mana force lights, which were much more efficient than regular torches and only disappeared when the mana lines were cut. The technician repeated this process all down the hall before stopping at another stairwell. Peering down, he could see a washing floor of midnight black. The ocean was still flooding the level below him and he doubted it would clear soon, perhaps in a few months.

The dark unforgiving sky soon started to release torrents of rain. Slow at first but steadily picking up, creating an insistent patter which seeped into the building. Anna flicked through her reports one more time, adjusting her glasses as she did so.
“Hmm, new floor recovered… pending search and recovery… Errors in main console… Fixed… Crew quarters clean…” She murmured idly. Her apprentice Daniel had disappeared downstairs, probably to vent some anger after today’s events. She heard Paul disassembling a mana generator in the next room and she stood up from her chair to supervise.

Daniel swore continuously as he stamped down the staircases. He often did this when he was frustrated and angry, which he was right now. He stopped after his feet start to hurt and there was no further else to go, he had just reached the newly recovered level. Exhaling sharply, the technician strode down the corridor and suddenly stopped. An icy blast of wind cut across his neck and he shivered involuntarily.
Comeinhere
Blinking he shook his head. Blood started to stream from his nose.
Comeinhere
Daniel knew something was wrong and tried to turn around and run but his body would not obey him. In despair, he willed himself to move and with a roar he slammed his fist into the wall. The voice in his head seemed to fade away as he groaned in pain. He was pretty sure he had at least fractured a few fingers and he had definitely scraped his knuckles badly. After the pain ebbed slightly, he looked up and noticed that the metal panel had been dented in quite sufficiently. Curious, he used his uninjured had to probe the panel and it came away quite easily.

The hidden room was unlike the corridor it was covered up from. Instead of metal panelling and stone floors, it had what appeared to be some metallic reflective alloy which covered the walls, floor and ceiling. There was a raised pentagonal platform in the centre of the room and in the centre of that was a plinth with some obscured object on it. Daniel strode surprisingly confident to the plinth and stared wondrously at the object. His eyes were strange, the whites of his eyes were black and his iris was yellow. Slowly he pulled the black hexagram pattern cloth off to reveal an amethyst purple orb. The possessed technician smiled then laughed, his maniacal voice echoed through the passage.

Anna was assisting Paul with the wiring when all the lights in the room, level and in fact the whole structure disappeared, leaving the two technicians with just their ear torches to see. Paul wiped his brow and dropped his spanner.
“Umm, did I do that? I swear this wasn’t one of the main generators, and I haven’t even disconnected the power feed yet.” He protested, adjusting his ear torch to maximum power.
“Ow, hey watch where you’re pointing that thing.” Anna retorted as Paul panned the torch light over her eyes. Fumbling around, the specialist knew the main generators could not be all malfunctioning for the control room’s hardware was still operating, their hazard lights and runes casting a luminous glow in the otherwise dark room. Another chilling fact was the noise, or rather, the lack of. Only the stormy weather outside the research facilities penetrated the silence.

Fine-tuning her microbead, Anna proceeded to converse with the other personnel in the area. Besides her crew of technicians, there was a team of surveyors headed by one Senior Inspector Dennis Lam.
“Dennis, do you have a blackout? Dennis?” She quipped, rising from her haunches.
“Hey Anna, in fact we do, you might want to warn us before you cut the power, we were in the middle of –”
“I didn’t cut the power.” Anna interrupted urgently, glancing up at the ventilation system.
“Well our boys and girls down here didn’t do it.” Came the reply. Switching to frequency eleven – her crew’s frequency, she ordered everyone to report in.
“Paul here, I’m right next to you.” Paul informed and Anna could hear the double report, once next to her and another with the microbead.
“This is Neil; floor Seventy-Four, one below you.” A voice muttered and Anna could hear faint footsteps to her right.
“Joe, on the sixty-ninth, no jokes please.”
“Quan here, I’m with Joe.”
Anna mentally checked off the names. Two were missing, Louie and Daniel.
“Louie, Daniel are you there?”
Silence.
“This isn’t funny, Louie? Daniel? Report in!” Her voice was still calm but with a hint of anxiety and a splash of concern.
Silence.
Then…
“…lo? Hello? Anna? Specialist An… is Louie here, level… two, what happened?” The microbead crackled. Either Louie had messed up his communications device again or more likely it was almost out of power. Still, Daniel was still missing.
“Daniel?”
A burst of static hit the line.
“Daniel? Where are you? Is your gear down?”
Another burst of static.
Then a hair-raising scream pierced through from the floors below.