Erb felt a little flush as he walked back into the hall, he hadn’t noticed it at first, but it was becoming apparent; the air was getting hotter.

Environmental controls were clearly off or the air would have been breathable. He checked his heads-up, he still had hours of oxygen before the rebreather would need to recharge, but his suit was just a second skin, not designed to deal with harsh climes.

He needed either proper integrate gear, or to get out of Dodge.

He followed the map to the elevator and with Dog’s help pried it open, it was much easier now with him here.

“So, no power, how’re we gettin up there bud?”

Dog thankfully was yet again well equipped.

He stood up to full height, the secondary arms grabbing their gear and reorganizing till he stood open.

“Duh, you’re an exo. Forgot that a minute.”

Erb climbed in, Dog’s harness slipping into place around him, closing like a suit of armour trapping Erb in darkness for a moment, till his heads-up flashed and he could see everything in a sonar format, all shades of grey.

“Slick,” Erb mumbled, flexing his hands and watching Dog’s claws flex in response.

“Well, next stop, penthouse, menswear, and environmental scanning.”

He chuckled at his own joke and began the climb.

Thankfully it didn’t take too long, though he did note, that the higher he climbed the hotter it was getting. And just like his basic suit, Dog’s frame wasn’t designed to keep him cool. As it was, his suit had a hard time integrating with Dog period, and Erb kept slipping about as he moved, which made Dog jittery.

As soon as they reached the third floor he pried the door open and hopped up into the hall. Dog was more than happy it seemed to get back control, and the two of them stepped apart.

“Thanks for the lift. I promise, we’ll find a proper interG after. Need to see what we’re dealing with outside first. I mean, who knows, if it’s real bad I might just~”

He hadn’t fallen into a dark spot yet, but that thought of ending it crossed his mind so suddenly he couldn’t stop it.

“Dog, you follow my orders right?”

Dog stopped, turning to Look up at Erb with that big robot eye, nodding.

“Good, uh, promise me you won’t let me~”

Erb stopped again, he couldn’t say it out loud, he didn’t know how to. So he just pet Dog.

“Promise me you’ve got my back.”

Dog gave a little thumbs up.

Erb smiled, it made him feel better to talk.

The halls here were set up in a wheel shape, the upper levels all in a circle around the elevator. The next two floors up were mostly sensor arrays and the drone lab according to the map, but here on the third was system control.

He followed the hall from the elevator to the outer ring, looking up through the glass tube, then down.

Below he could see what looked like a magma flow. It made sense. He had a vague memory of this, the whole base had been built inside a mountain with geothermal power to last ages. It made sense that over time the mountain might change.

How long had he been asleep?

He was about to learn.