Chapter Text
“Your new designation is LSTR-S2301.”
That was what she had been told upon arriving at Sierpinski. She nodded, the same nod later given to the site administrator as he explained her role there.
She stepped into the cold mineshaft elevator with five other Replika, making a team of six: one LSTR, two ARARs, and three MNHRs, who would be performing the bulk of the excavating. The Aras were about as quiet as she was, only occasionally muttering something to each other, but the Mynahs were chatty the entire descent.
“Did they find something, Quarz?”
“Adler sounded… scared?”
“But it’s just rock?”
“What if someone was there before us?”
“How would someone be down there? We dug these tunnels?”
“I mean like… old people? Way before people?”
“Do you think there were way before people here, Topas?”
“I don’t know… but something is down there, that’s why we have Elster now.”
She’d only been ambiently listening to the conversation until that point, but when the Mynah behind her said her name, she turned her head just barely in their direction.
She felt a massive but gentle hand grab her shoulder. “You’ll keep us safe from any monsters, right?”
Elster turned around and saw all three Mynahs looking at her with some amount of worry, the most pronounced on the one that had grasped her shoulder.
She nodded. “You’ll all be okay.”
The Mynah in the middle of the three sighed with relief. “That’s good.”
The one to her right took a step forward. “LSTRs are soldiers, right?”
Elster tried not to grimace too visibly at the word she chose, she knew none of them meant anything bad by it. “I’m a combat-rated engineer, to be specific.”
“Then… what is down there?”
Elster briefly turned her head away. Just before she had been sent down to the mines, the Adler had taken her to the armoury and equipped her with an Inorcon bullpup rifle, an Einhorn revolver, a flare gun, several grenades, and a machete.
“What’s down there that I need all this equipment, sir?”
He didn’t say anything.
Elster looked at each of the timid, slightly worried Mynahs and gave a quick tug on her rifle’s shoulder strap. “I don’t know, but whatever might be, I’ll keep you all safe from it.”
The next time the elevator descended to the mines, it was Elster alone.
When she got to the final shaft, she saw a Mynah, along with several other corrupted Replika guarding the hatch. This Elster hadn’t met any of them, but when she saw the Mynah, a twinge of regret interrupted her thought.
She raised her shotgun and whispered, “I’m sorry.”