From what Hal could tell, there was no living person throughout the rest of the warehouse- at least, none nearby enough to hassle him while he got suited up. Hal gripped tightly on both his guitar case and the card key needed to access the suit’s functions as he approached the suit proper. After loading up the guitar case and the recovered nutrient bars in the storage slot behind the seat, Hal hopped in and switched on the systems.
He checked the battery charge. 52%, a decent charge, if unexpected. Then again, there was not as much heavy lifting during the recent shift. Hal recalled that that much of a charge would grant him about seven hours of movement without using the loader arms.
The loader glided along the floor on small, sphere-like wheels. The humming, heavy-duty electromagnets near the base kept the loader from tilting when making hard turns, and also allowed the suit to remain attached to the station during exterior jobs. Hal directed the mech to the modification station, and activated the automated system. Pretty soon, the exoskeleton was covered in a space-grade material and sealed-up like an exo-suit.
There was a distant crash. Though the exo-suit muffled sound like a beast, Hal was still able to hear the world outside of the suit. It sounded like someone busted the door open somehow. Hal did not want to find out. He had to get to the safest place he knew: The isolation of space. With that safety, he’d be able to access one of the exterior terminals and communicate with the station AI. Hopefully it would have some kind of information.
As the exo-suit ran tests, the humming of the electromagnets seemed to attract the attention of whoever broke the door open. There were a few people carrying blunt objects, but they were paying attention to the unarmed people that looked as much of a mess as that first thing Hal encountered.
“Come on, damnit!” Hal cursed as the safety protocol during the exo-suit tests prevented his control. There were people getting killed out there, and he couldn’t do anything. Curse his timing! Two out of the three were tackled and being mauled. The last one was losing his lunch and his cool. Even from a distance, Hal could tell through the suit’s HUD that the poor guy was shaking.
Finally, the tests were passed, and Hal got control of the loader. Gliding along the floor, Hal lowered the arms to waist level. Hal soared past the last guy and rammed both loader arms through the two things. “Yes! Saved! Man, that was awesome!” Hal whooped as the things slipped off of the now-bloodied loader arms. “You okay, dude?” He called to the last survivor as he confirmed that the freaks were no longer moving.
Hal did not realise two things, however. The first was that the space-grade exo-suit limited clear communication from him to anyone through the short-wave radio, a channel exclusively used by loaders like his own, as well as other authorized equipment. The second was that the two killed survivors slowly rose up, despite having their necks chewed to pieces. Hal turned around just in time to see the two new freaks maul the last poor man.
“No… Goddamnit NO!” Hal pounded the arm rest. The two things rose up as they shifted their attention to the humming electromagnets. They stumbled in their approach while the third poor soul squirmed as he bled out. There was no saving that poor man, let alone the gratitude of the poor man. I'm supposed to be a hero…
Hal slapped himself. He had to focus; he needed to get outside and get in contact with the station AI. He needed to get to the safety of outer space so he could get his bearings.
Knowing he had to do it, he moved the exo-suit forward at full speed. He shoved right through the three of them. The bleeding out guy probably would have turned into one of the freaks like the other two just did.
He heard muffled sounds as more entered the warehouse. Hal turned to find more weird-looking savages. There were a lot of them. Hal doubted their bare hands would be able to do any damage to the exosuit, but he didn’t want to risk it. Hal directed the exo-suit to the airlock. He had to get out of here.
Once inside the air lock, Hal realised that he couldn’t actually activate the doors on his own, unless he was outside of the suit. As the savages started pouring in, Hal pulled the controls to the side, causing the loader to spin on the spot. The loader arms clipped at the things, but the sheer number of them caused the loader to stall. He was about to be swarmed after losing momentum when the doors automatically shut, and the air lock depressurized when the outer doors opened. The AI apparently automatically did this sort of thing.
As the outside sound faded and the freaks were launched out into space, Hal finally could hear nothing but himself… and he realised he was still hyperventilating. Normally, this amount of hyperventilation would cause him to pass out, but his synthetic lungs were strong.
“Come on, Hal,” he told himself encouragingly as he directed the exo-suit out of the airlock and onto the flat surface of the exterior, “I’m safe now… I’m safe now…” He repeated this to himself until the air lock door closed far behind him. By that time, he finally calmed down.