Wind tearing at his robes, Travaz clawed his way to the console, bionic fingers grabbing at the grilled flooring of the lift for extra leverage every step. He probably stood a good chance of simply walking, weighed down by his augmentations, but the risks certainly weren't worth it. Clambering over to the console, he moved to enter an emergency stop code, but upon seeing the lightless keypad, lowered his hand to the console's maintenance panel immediately below. A pull at the handle - locked. Flattening his fingers, Travaz jabbed his hand through the gap in the panel inbetween the hinges, the thin cover yielding easily to his enhanced strength. Ripping the panel free, his utility mechadendrite slipping out from under his robes and extending several tools and a light to illuminate the wiring within, for Malakai to activate the emergency brakes. The moment the light hit the inside both the mechadendrite and Travaz flinched back. "By the Omnissiah!" The wiring had been...
altered, somehow, cables cut free and retied in a disturbing pattern that started flooding his cybereyes with static and his cogitators with white noise and... pain. He hadn't felt physical pain in years.
Breaking away with an effort, Travaz subvocalised to the others, "The moment we stop falling, that console needs to die."
"What?"
"Why?"
"You'll see. I'm going to activate the manual release. If that doesn't work... Oh, rust it! I'll make it work. Now, when I yell brace, BRACE!"
Reeling from the warped console, he moved to the grill that covered the usual location of the manual brake on this model of hive elevator, tied his kitbag immediately behind him, and grabbed hold of the grill with both hands. Reaching back with his servoarms as far as he could, he plunged them both over his shoulders into and through the gratings either side of the grill, opening the grips fully and locking himself in place. The utility mechadendrite extended its cutting torch and Travaz began cutting a wide circle in the grill around his hands. The white actinic light of the torch was near blinding in the dimly lit shaft as it moved smoothly from one link to the next. Molten metal dripped upwards from the severed ends of the grill, droplets alighting on his robe and the ones not cooled by the rushing wind igniting slightly while Travaz worked, uncaring. He dulled his audioreceptors to drown out the screeching of metal and rumble of movement from the massive platform falling as he finally burned through the final link. Tossing the grill aside with both hands, the torch retracted, glowing slightly, as the light extended again and showed the Enginseer the manual brake release. It was a large, brutally crude lever, clearly designed to be used by three men at the least. Stunningly impractical, yet this model of lift was so reliable it almost never had to be used.
"Don't mean to distract you, techpriest, but you're on fir-"
"Then don't distract me!"
Travaz slipped into the opening, feet planted firmly on one side of the brake as he grabbed it firmly. His servoarms stretched out to give him as much play as possible as he got into optimal position, servomotors ready to exert themselves to the fullest. The smoke flowing past him would normally concern him, but it could wait to be worried over after this task was accomplished. Malakai readied himself, then maximised the volume on his speakers.
"Warp damn it, Travaz! You're burning u-"
"
BRACE!"
He threw his full force against the lever, servomotors screaming as they worked against the massive brake. It resisted at first, then with an almighty CTHUNK it flipped up, slamming out the emergency brakes to all sides of the falling elevator. The effect was immediate - all the men on the platform slammed into the hard surface, and the screeching of brakes increased tenfold at first, then descended from the crescendo as it began to slow, gradually. The lift had started lowering at a speed slower than its original descent when Talic looked up, then over and said shakily, "Well, that wasn't so ba-"
The elevator dropped out the bottom of the shaft, falling freely past the molten ends of the severed floor down the vast gap between unfinished hive sublevel sectors. Yelled shouts echoed out into the darkness as the platform began to spin in freefall, before smashing into the nearest side and bouncing most of the group onto the hard concrete floor of an abandoned sublevel edge. Alens picked himself up, wincing in pain, then looked around the party. Cimsran staggered to his feet, as Stumpy stayed where he had rolled, longlas somehow out and aimed as he scanned the surrounding area. Talic was lying down, wincing in what seemed like a suspiciously melodramatic way, while Travaz-
Alens spun. Travaz was still on the platform, trying to pull a servoarm out from the grating it had locked itself into, now jammed itself from the grating warping under the force of the impact. The platform teetered in the corner of a support pillar and the opposite side of the sublevel, the unfinished section's missing walls the only reason the group hadn't smashed into them and fell down the near-endless shaft. Metal ground as the elevator started to slip further towards the shaft as the Enginseer struggled with his wayward servoarm, his robe merrily blazing away around him with the lack of updraft blowing it out.
"Cut it loose and run, techpriest!" Talic yelled from besides Alens, having materialised beside him without him noticing.
"I'd rather die then lose one of my gifts, Starsearch!" came the voxed reply.
"You'll get the chance to do both in a moment!"
The servoarm came free finally, bright shining tears in the paint visible on the surface, and Travaz turned and ran towards the edge nearest the void. The added weight as the burning techpriest clomped his way down the perilously steep slope tipped the balance, the platform groaning omniously as it began to topple into the abyss.
"What in the Emperor's name do you think you're doing?!
"Don't worry, I have a plan."
"Don't worry?! You've killed yourself!"
"Relax, just get ready to catch me if you can."
"Catch?
Catch?!"
The platform began to drop, and Malakai sprinted as fast as he could towards the falling edge, using the momentum from the falling to jump as far as possible. As he leapt from the platform, aghast faces watching him fly across the blackened void beneath him, he knew he couldn't possibly make their level. As he fell past their faces, he was afraid he wasn't going to make the level below, either. "Oh, rust..."
Alens and Talic watched Travaz smash ribs first into the floor of the level immediately below them, glinting arms scrabbling at the surface before a servoarm punched a grip in the concrete. Achingly, the Enginseer pulled himself up and rolled onto the side, resting a moment before sitting up and beating out the flames now just beginning to lick at the kitbag, before finally tearing off the blazing robe and falling flat on his back.
"Travaz, report." Alens yelled down from his higher position.
"I'm alive," he voxed back, servomotors clicking softly as they cooled down. "Some damage to minor systems, two motors on my left servoarm and right knee need replacing, a couple of burnt pipes need patching, everything else is superficial. Worst damage is to my robe, it's burnt beyond repair."
"Speaking of repairs, can you perform them from here?"
"Affirmative, I have the necessary replacements. It'll take a little time, though, and until the knee is fixed I'm not moving anyway. Can you get down to me?"
Stumpy's voice echoed over the edge, "I've spotted a staircase about a klick away, this nightvision scope is great. I can even see the floor number we're on here, sublevel 61."
"We're very close. OK, Travaz, we're making our way down to your level and rendevous. I recommend you fix the knee as a priority and move to a less conspicious location. We'll contact you when we hit sublevel 62's edge here."
"Understood. Until later, gentlemen."
The rest of the group headed off to the staircase as Travaz sat up and began unscrewing a covering plate from his leg. There were few things in life he enjoyed more then repairing something.
This post has been edited by Travaz Malakai: 10 December 2010 - 08:16 PM
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