[b][color=ed1c24]DEMON 688[/color][/b]

Where polished brass surfaces had once crowded the core of the facility, ash and fog now concealed their gleam. Though they did not much consider it now, the engineers that survived would later think themselves grateful for respite from the dangerous reflections that now roamed their home and workplace.

Another burst of escaping steam hissed into the corridor, adding weight to the hot mist. Somewhere in the grey and the noise, the outline of the foreign entity still moved.

[color=ed1c24]"Directions unclear,"[/color] clacked and rasped the voice of the intruder. Impatience mounting like pressure in the stressed machinery that littered the giant factory's top floor, Sikksayt rammed its bladepoint into the nearest porthole, wrenched it away again with a horrible keening shriek of glass. Beyond the window, sunset, and smoking chimneys. [color=ed1c24]"Repeat them."[/color]

But the engineer had already crawled away into the fog, and Sikksayt could no longer see who or what was hiding behind the cloud. Nor could it see which route down the hallway lead to the roof, or even distinguish the walls from the doors.

The demon was furious, and it was upset, and it was hopelessly lost.

[color=ed1c24]"State name and nature,"[/color] it barked desperately into the tangled pipeworks behind the grey, and decided that, in the absence of a guide, one route was as good as any.