Exterminator : The Dark Beneath
Hell

“Somebody once wrote: ’Hell is the impossibility of reason.′ That’s what this place feels like. Hell. I hate it already and it’s only been a week.”

-Platoon, Chris Taylor,

22:43 , the Geoplant

Adams watched the group of workers close the lift doors with envy, their tired but happy faces doing nothing to alleviate his misery of being stuck down here any longer. The shower and change of under-suit had helped, being clean felt amazing after 3 days of sitting in his own BO, but he potentially still had days down here before he could leave. . He stood in the inflatable Atmo tent He and Andrews had set up in a storeroom, it walls made of treated plastic held ridged by a small pump, creating a series of rooms for them to sleep in and shower whilst it filtered the air to be breathable. His armour stood in the small airlock. He should have run a few diagnostics or cleaned it up a bit, but really couldn’t be bothered.

He scratched his arm and shifted from foot to foot, his skin crawling. He glanced through the clear window of the tent, looking out into the plant. Seeing no one he sidled over and tapped its control, frosting the plastic to block the view.

He opened his pocket and pulled out a small vial of nova coke, lifting it to his eye with one hand whilst the other pulled his eyelid out before gently pouring the fine white crystals under the lid. He blinked rapidly as it almost instantly dissolved and began absorbing into his bloodstream, hitting him with an almost physical force, dragging the air from his lungs as a feeling of euphoria and weightlessness rolled over him.

He giggled a few times, rocking drunkenly before sitting back into one of the fold out chairs, the uncomfortable ridged plastic transformed into decadent comfort by the drugs. He sat there for a while, mind just drifting when he heard a odd beeping noise. He peered around with bloodshot eyes, trying to make out the source before realizing it was coming from his pocket. Reaching in he found his smart-pad bleeping with a call.

“Fuck off!” he mumbled angrily” Can’t a guy just have a few moments to himself?”

He left it sounding for a few minutes, hoping the caller would get the message and piss off, but it just kept going and going. The incesant noise started to eat away at his high, until finally he snapped and answered.

“What? I’m on my fucking break!”

“I don’t care!“ Marcus snapped, his voice tinny with interference from the Plant. “We’ve located some Rats in a nearby shaft, right off one of our temporary bunk rooms. Andrews and Jack are busy so put on you big boy pants and get us Sorted!” He finished with a bellow before hanging up.

Adams swore and kicked out in frustration, the high of the nova coke waned but the weightlessness remained, leaving him feeling disconnected and spaced out, not a great thing before stepping into several hundred kilograms of Armoured Exosuit. Swearing constantly, he stood and angrily tore off his tack-suit and hastily put on his under suit, wincing as he connected the pluming. He surged to his feet and almost immediately stumbled into the wall as the room swam. Taking a deep breath, he stood and slowly made his way to the airlock and got into his foul smelling suit, grimacing in distaste as he smelt the stale air in the mask.

“Should have fucking cleaned it out!” he berated himself as the visor lowered.

He stomped out of the airlock and out the office door, sending several workers leaping to the side as he barged past, their angry cries just adding to his foul mood. Barging out of the bunkroom he moved along the platform and through the small airlock into the old supervisor’s office, one of the only rooms in the plant sealed to keep in breathable atmo. His abrupt entrance startled several workers clustered around a thick duct recessed into the wall. He headed over to them Shoving past the fold out bunks and equipment crates.

“So where’s the Rats?” he demanded loudly, several men pulling back in alarm at his tone. One of them pointed to the duct and swiftly moved to let Adams closer to study it. The metal shaft was set into the wall with a tiny access panel for drone cleaners set in the side. Adams tried to peer through it, his eyes struggling to focus properly through the drugs, but couldn’t see far inside due to the angle.

“You sure they’re in there?” he questioned the men behind him, opening his visor for a moment to gently rub his eyes with his gauntlets.

“Yer bruv’!” one replied “your drone found it real quick like when we put it in the duct. Creepy freaks been sitting right’ by our bunks all this time!”

Adam stood and looked at the duct, thinking for a moment before losing patience and reaching to grip either side of the metal box.

“Hey man!” a worker said in alarm “what are you..” Adams sunk his fingers into the metal and began to pull.

“What the fuck are you doing man?” A worker shouted behind him, “you’ll break the atmo seal!”

“Well you can fix it after” Adams replied as two bulky workers tried to pull him away from the duct, their muscle having zero effect against the might of the suit. The other men were scrambling to put on their masks as they hurled abuse at him. Suddenly he realized what he was doing removed his hands, leaving the metal edges crumpled but intact.

“Fine, well do it your way,” he conceded, trying to hide how shaken he was by the loss of control. “Bring over some cutting gear. We’ll cut the panel off and replace it when I’m done.”

He tried to hide his shivering as a worker readied the cutter, his colleagues huddled together giving Adams angry stares. He’d let the drugs cloud his decisions again. If the workers said anything to Marcus he might get written up, which would mean a mandatory drug screening which, considering he’s done severally illegally and semi-legal narcotics just this week, would get him sent back to prison.

As the whine of the cutter filled the room he turned, flipped his visor and put a E-stick to his mouth with shaking hands, hoping the nicotine would help mellow the Nova coke still in his system before Marcus showed up.

Clive and the rest of the men allowed back to the AEC where exhausted but ecstatic, joking and laughing as the lift from the Geoplant reached the connecting corridor, its door sliding back to reveal the long stretch of sealed off entrances with the next lift at the far end. At this level the corridor had concrete facing, painted an off white, with lighting every few meters, with a few dark patches where bulbs had failed. The group started walking, two of his buddies discussing their plans.

“Man, I can’t wait to get back topside and have a proper shower!” Barron declared, a grin on the muscular mans dark skinned face.

“Yep, hot shower, hot meal, hot wife. Not necessarily in that order.” Replied Devon, the skinny white dude looking comically small next to his friend.

“I’d pick the wife first man!”

“What? You ain’t married!“

“I know man, I was talking about your wife!”

The group burst into laughter as the Devon pounced on Barron in mock rage, the larger man holding up his hands in mock surrender, causing Clive to grin. He’s been worried about Karl for the last few days and was looking forward to getting top side and seeing him, Marcus having settled his fears about his friends safety somewhat after assuring him that Karl bad most likely bunked off to see Michelle. When he saw him again Clive would was trying to work out if he’d be more relieved to see him or pissed that he made him worry.

Looking at the far door, for a moment Clive thought he saw a figure standing in the entrance to the lift, but before he could say anything it was gone. Shaking his head, he passed it off as figment of his imagination brought on by his tired brain.

They were halfway along the corridor when Barron slowed, an odd look on his wide dark skinned face.

“Hey, that access doors open”

Clive followed his pointing finger to the door in question, not seeing it at first due to the darkness in this section. The door was indeed open, sticking out into the corridor at a 45 degree angle.

“What fucking moron would leave that open?”

“More importantly why would they be out there anyway. Nothing but dust and Rats out there. We need to shut it now before any get in and give the Exec’s reason to extend the lock down!” Barron and another of the group tried to push the door, straining for a moment before breaking off with a curse.

“It won’t budge, check the hinges!”

Clive knelt down and inspected them with his pocket light, the small but powerful beam highlighting the dull metallic grey of the hinges and shining off some strangely bright patches on the metal. He lent closer and realized what they were.

“Someone welded them open!” he announced in confusion, ”It’s messy work but effective”

“Why the fuck would someone...hey, you guys hear that?”

Clive turned to question the speaker when he paused, his ears picking up a faint but growing noise. It sounded like a distant rumble, reminding Clive of something he couldn’t place for a moment before he realized it sounded a bit like heavy rain on a roof, something he hadn’t heard for years on a barren rock like Ares. It was getting louder and deeper, accompanied by a lighter higher sound, like ceramics rubbing together.

“What the fuck is that?“ Devon whispered, stepping back from the door. Barron’s reached into his overalls and pulled out a torch, turning it on and peering out into the darkness beyond the corridor.

“Hey, do you guys see little points of light?” he asked, raising his voice slightly as the sound increased.

“We should get out of here guys,“ Devon insisted, his voice raising in alarm. The sound was even louder now, starting to reverberate of the walls of the corridor. Clive backed away from the door, still trying to see into the darkness past Barron’s wide shoulders. He began to make out small points of light, tiny at first but increasing in numbers and intensity until the corridor beyond was filled with red dots, moving in the darkness.

“Barron let’s go” Devon shouted, and his friend finally seemed to catch his worry, stepping back towards the doorway when something moved in the outer edge of his torchlight. At first Clive thought it was some kind of dark liquid because of the way it seemed to flow over the corridor floor, but to his horror he realized what it was. Creatures, black creatures running towards the doorway, so many that they formed a living tide of bodies.

He screamed and turned, instinctively running back down the corridor towards the Geoplant lift. Barron’s cried out and leapt through the door, but misjudged his landing and crashed into the wall, only to have a black missile launch through the doorway and latch on his leg. Bellowing in pain the powerful man kicked out, dislodging the creature but tearing a chunk of calf muscle out. He leapt forwards and stomped down on the thing, steel toed work boots and his weight crashing down on the creature with a crunch that sounded like someone stepping on a huge beetle. He started to ruin but stumbled as his leg gave out, sending him sprawling to the floor.

Clive was halfway to the lift by know, with the majority of the group just behind him, but Devon turned on hearing his friends cry and raced back to help him stand, the smaller man struggling to support his weight as they limped forwards. Clive reached the lift and turned, shouting and beckoning the others to catch up. He stared in horror as the tide of creatures started to pour out of the open doorway into the corridor, their bodies only visible in the dark section due to them being silhouetted against the light behind. Another man reached the lift and started to close it, but Clive jammed his foot into place.

“We have to wait for the others!“ he screamed, desperately waiving the men on. Devon and Barons where desperately hobbling closer, the Big man begging his friend to run, but Devon refusing, when with terrifying speed the tide of things poured out of the darkness and over the two men, bearing them down in a fury of black bodies, the two friends horrific screams filling the corridor. Clive was almost sobbing in terror and moved his foot, allowing the other men to desperately try and close the door. The last straggler was still sprinting to towards him, begging them to stop, but a darting black shape latched onto his leg, sending him sprawling.

Clive could see the man was done, but the heavy lift door was taking too long to close, he turned and hit the down button, causing the lift to jerk for a moment as its safety systems refused to move. Screaming in terror Clive pounded on the controls until something broke, and suddenly they were moving, the other men hastily letting go of the partially shut doors as they descended.

“What the fuck, what the fuck!” Clive babbled, his mind trying to fight through the terror as they descended into safety. “What the ..”

Something landed next to him with a crunch, and he leapt back with a shout, looking down to see a badly mangled black form about the side of a small dog lying broken on the metal floor. Another hit the floor beside it with a thump, its solid body like a hammer blow on the metal. Another fell, striking the man next to him with a crunch, snapping his neck with the force of impact.

Clive pressed himself to the lift wall and stared up in horror. The shaft above them was covered in a moving tide of creatures, climbing down the shaft wall and somehow gaining on the lift. More bodies dropped, the creatures beginning to survive the fall. A hot lance of agony cut into his leg as one bit him, followed by another and then another. The men in the lift cried out in pain and terror as they fought, but were pulled down by the growing numbers. Flesh and bone parting under razor sharp teeth and claws as their screams echoed in the darkness of the lift shaft.

Jack stormed up the metal stairway, his metal boots actually deforming the steps with the force of impact.

“Marcus!“ he bellowed into his coms, “Marcus come in God damn it!”

“What?” came a startled reply as his suit finally pierced the interference, ”what’s the problem?”

“Where are you?” Jack panted as he neared the top, his adrenalin fighting his fatigue after sprinting up nine stories.

“I’m just about to send up the next group to the ARC,” Marcus relied, his voice tinged with worry as he studied the small picture of Jacks face in his smart pad. ”What’s going on. Did you replace Karl?”

“Yes!“ Jack gasped out, slowing as he reached the top level, ”something serious is going on Marcus, and it’s not the Rats!”

He stumbled along the walkway, the clip clop of the MUTT echoing behind him as the drone finally caught up. Marcus was hurrying along the walkway towards him, leaving several excited looking workers waiting by the lift.

“What’s the problem Jack?“ he asked quietly when they met, glancing around to make-sure none of his workers could overhear them “And what did you say about Karl? I couldn’t hear properly over this bloody interference!” Jack stood up straight and looked Marcus in the eye.

“I’m sorry Marcus, but I’m pretty sure he’s dead, I found the remains of a body in a side room by the station.”

Marcus looked at him squarely for a moment before turning away, gazing out over the plant to the far wall, where the group waiting for the elevator were joking around.

“Well shit!” he said quietly, shoulder sagging, “not the first man to die under my command, but the first I’ve lost as supervisor. What happened? A collapse?”

“Marcus, this wasn’t a accident. I think something killed him and then ate him!”

Marcus spun to face Jack, his eyes wide with shock.

“WHAT?” he shouted, causing workers around the level to look at him in surprise. “What?” he said more quietly, leaning forwards, ”Eaten? You think the Rats did it?”

“I’m not sure, it’s possible, if he was injured maybe or near a nest. But I don’t think so.” Jack weighed his words carefully. “Over the last few weeks I’ve been seeing changes in the Rats behaviour, them moving closer to the surface, pushing into areas they’re not suited for, signs of wounds that don’t match with infighting.” He took a breath and pressed on “All odd, unless you factor in the emergence of some new species, something predatory driving them out of their tunnels.”

Marcus looked at him with a mixture of disbelief and worry” But there aren’t any native species on Ares, Jack, nothing beyond the lichen anyway.”

“I know that, but something is down there, and I think..”

They were interrupted by a worker near the lift shouting to them.“BOSS” he said waving over, “the lift is coming back down!”

Marcus frowned and looked at his smart pad.

“The replacements are early, they shouldn’t be here for another hour at least!” He started along the walkway, and after a moment’s hesitation Jack followed.

“Marcus, we need to do something about this now!”

“Jack, I can’t!“ he snapped over his shoulder, “ I’m sorry but I can’t just start acting on your hunches, not without any evidence..”

He was interrupted by screams of pain and horror from the workers barracks, a burst of fire briefly visible through its small window. Jack started to run towards the door as the sounds continued, accompanied with the unmistakable shriek of a lance in full flame.

Adams tapped his armoured foot impatiently and fought the need to scratch his itching arms as the workers cut thought the Duct, having carefully turned off the rooms air purifiers in preparation for the loss in containment, each man was now in their full gear and masks.

“Come on guys!” he snapped, “I need this done now!”

“What? You got somewhere to be?” a worker remarked dryly, triggering laughter from the other men. Adams ground his teeth in irritation. His buzz was fully gone now, flushed away by this bloody farce of a job, and now his cravings were back in full force. He reached into his thigh storage pouch and surreptitiously pulled out a E-cig, raising his visor to quickly pop it into his mouth and light it as the men were busy, not that they would care, but one word to Marcus or Golden Boy and he’d get reported.

“Ok..it’s just about...there” the cutter said with a grunt…. ”it’s free.”

Adams stepped forwards as the worker hastily moved back, and griped the duct cover, lifting the heavy metal without any effort and placing it by his feet. The vent beyond the square hole was pitch black, so he triggered his headlights, revealing a junction of ducts, one moving vertically from above to fall downwards, whilst two more headed off horizontally at angles from him to meet large grated fans about ten meters down. His beam picking out further junctions a bit furthers down from him, probably splitting off to run to the other offices that weren’t atmo sealed.

“Well shit” he complained with feeling “There could be half a KM of ducts and vents worming through this level alone. No wonder we’ve been missing rats!”

He knelt and picked up a set of drones, frowning as the end of the E-cig flared and sparked slightly. Shit! I should have brought a new dispenser, this one’s right on the brink!

He rose and triggered the drone, sending one up the vent and the other down, the sound of their tiny rotors and the blue of their ruining lights quickly swallowed up by the darkness. He was just about to reach for another set when the drone below pinged a contact.

“The fuck” he muttered to himself, freeing his lance and readying it before leaning over to look down the shaft and, his beam struggling to Peirce the darkness below. He played his light around, trying to identify any rats, but the shaft had been cut out of a pre-existing fissure, and had bumps and wobbles that broke up his line of sight, along with square gaps of other side ducts branching of from it.

He was just about to give up when something flashed across and side duct below, startling him and causing his lips to open, dropping the glowing e-cig in his helmet. He instinctively stood, accidentally flinging the glowing cig into his face, its sparking end hitting his cheek.

“FUCK” he roared as it burnt his skin. He pulled backwards and triggered his visor, letting it drop to the floor. “Piece of shit!”

He knelt and angrily picked it up, leaving his visor open as he considered. He returned it to his mouth when a worker behind him gasped and swore

“What the fuck is that!”

Instinctively he looked up and froze as he looked into a pair of beady red eyes just a few inches from his face, set in the head of a black-scaled nightmare.

He opened his mouth to shout when the thing leapt forwards, its jaw distending to reveal sharp jagged teeth before lunging at his face. Its bite covered his nose and cheek, teeth slicing through his cheeks and into the bone beneath, crunching as it dug in. He howled in pain and terror, leaping backwards and trying to pull the creature from his face, instinctively clenching his hands in pain. The lance triggered as he flailed, sending a burning torrent of liquid fire around the room and bathing several workers in fuel, turning them into screaming human torches. He careened backwards, another worker dying as a flailing arm smashed into his head, the servo powered blow driving the limb with enough force to explode his skull like a melon and shower the terrified men behind in blood, bone, and brain.

Adams continued shrieking and flailing, stumbling around the room blindly until he managed to get a hand around the creature and clenched his fist, powerful digits crunching its body into paste and pulling it away from him. Even as it died, the thing refused to release its grip, and as he pulled the neck parted, leaving its jaws still latched firmly onto Adams’ skull. His head swam, the creature’s toxic venom already working its way through his skull, shutting down nerves and paralyzing muscles. In a normal human this would have caused paralysis and helplessness, however Adams’ DNI meant that his suits’ movements were partially controlled by brain neurons, so even as his body tried to shut down, the confused messages coursing through his damaged mind where still directing the suit.

His movements were wild, but his random careening around the room finally brought him to the airlock, the thin doors crumpling under the suits mass as he plunged through crashing out across the walkway and through the safety barrier. He plummeted down, lance triggering to send out a spiralling blast of flame as he tumbled, catching some unlucky workers on the way down, until he finally reached the bottom, smashing into the top of the Geoplant with a boom and shriek of metal, a quarter tonne of man, metal, and ceramics travelling at high speed more than enough to punch through the protective shell covering the transformers.

Electricity arced through the suit, scorching through his body in arches of white pain before burning the last flickers of life out Adams and causing the electronics of the suit to short out. It lay over two transformers, allowing electricity to arc between them as the metal of the suit started to glow cherry red. Nearby workers hit the emergency extinguishers, but the whole station was in chaos, Alarms blared out through the plant, fires caused by the lance roared on several levels and the Geo cap itself had sheets of electricity arcing off it to ground on the safety scaffolds around, even as the metal and ceramic of the Exosuit at its core became superheated by the electricity coursing thought it and started to burn.

Jack watched in horror as Adams went over the edge, flame reaching out from his lance as he fell before hitting top of the Geothermal generator with a boom that reverberated through the huge shaft. He wrenched his eyes from the body below, and ran towards the now burning office to try and save any survivors when the lift doors opened ahead of him, revealing blood splattered walls and a pile of mangled body’s barely visible beneath a writhing mass of pitch black things!

workers shouted in alarm and horror as the creatures poured out of the lift, launching themselves at anyone nearby to pull them to the ground, the roughly small dog sized creatures tearing into the orange clad bodies with a flash of white teeth and black claws.

Marcus bellowed behind him and tried to run to help his men but Jack stepped in the way, hastily unlimbering his Lance.

“Stay behind me!!“He bellowed, adjusting the nozzle of the barrel before firing a narrow stream of fire to lance a creature off a nearby worker, the impact blasting the creature backwards and into the wall behind. Jack stepped forwards, a quick glance taking in the workers ruined chest and torn lungs in horror. The creature had only been on him for a few seconds.

He triggered the lance again, trying blast the things off the men, but there were too many. As he looked the downed workers stopped struggling, organs and flesh already torn and consumed. He swallowed bile and quickly widened the lance nozzle before hosing the bodies and creatures in fire, the slickly fuel mix coating them in flame. The creatures shrieked like metal etching across stone, writhing in the heat. Some scuttled towards him despite the fire cooking their flesh, and he stumbled backwards, watching as they collapsed one by one.

He watched the burning bodies, feeling numbs as the fire consumed the once living humans and slowly became aware of a voice echoing in his coms as he tried to pull himself back to the present.

“Jack, JACK!” Marcus shouted and waved animatedly in front of his visor, “JACK!”

“OK! OK!” Jack mumbled as he tried to focus, ”I’m OK!”

“Come on son, don’t shock out on me! I need you” the grizzled supervisor shouted, waving directions at nearby workers. “Shit’s hit the fan. We need to evacuate now!”

Jack looked around, trying to regain his bearings. Fire was pouring out of the bunk room and the lift was a charnel house. He could see fires burning on the levels below and flashed of electricity from the crumpled Geoplant cap, so bright that it was causing his visor to darken to protect his eyes.

Marcus had run over the lift, pressing the controls for a few seconds before slamming his arm into them and kicking the blood covered wall.

“THE LIFTS FUCKED!!“ He bellowed in anger, his teeth grinding behind his mask, “WE NEED ANOTHER WAY OUT FOR MY MEN!”

Jack looked around and tried to think. Even if they could fix the lift in the next few minutes only a few men could travel in it at a time, and from the looks of it the upper corridor must have the creatures in it as well.

As if summoned by his thoughts a black blur shot out of the burning bunk room and slammed into him with a crunch,bareley moving him as its skull fractured on his armour. He glanced at it in shock, noting the clear resemblance to the Rats, although it was bigger, with larger claws and teeth, bulker limbs and seemed to be covered in triangular black scales that overlapped like mail to protect it.

Screams came from the levels below and Jack watched in horror as more creatures appeared, leaping in ones, then twos to attack workers already struggling to fight the fire that was steadily spreading. They must be coming from the ducts, he thought, but how did they get through the sealed sections and tunnels, gnawing through the metal covers to enter the plant perhaps. Hold on, he thought, the tunnels.

“Marcus!“ he shouted to the supervisor as he tried to organize this levels scattered workers, “The old rail lines! If we can get to them, we can walk along to the station under the shuttle port and up!”

Marcus nodded and started shouting to his workers and Jack turned and ran towards the staircase, readying his lance. The creatures seemed to be incredibly tough and resistant to his flame, but seemed to go down with a large enough blast. He eyed his fuel gauge, glad it was still almost full, and adjusted the output for a shorter flame but higher temperature. He clomped down the first turning and onto the level below, almost immediately pouring fire onto a trio of creatures savaging a fallen man. One managed to avoid the burst of flame, and rushed at him but he quickly raised a armoured foot and brought it down on the creature’s back with enough force to flatten it , feeling the crunch of armoured scales giving way under the force.

“Jack!“ SAM spoke suddenly, ”Exterminator Andrews on the coms, his signal is badly degraded but I’ve analysed his suit telemetry’s and he appears to be taking damage on the level below!”

“WHAT!” Jack shouted distractedly as he hosed down another charging creature, “How can these things be damaging his suit?”

“I am unsure, although their claws and teeth appear formidable!”

He turned and fired another gout at a second group of creatures rushing along the walkway at him, one even clambering along the yellow and black painted safety rail that overlooked the plant. Behind him Marcus had organized a handful of survivors into a ragged group, armed with pipes and wrenches, even a rivet gun or two. A creature leaped for the level above, bearing a man to the floor in a screaming heap. Jack turned to help but couldn’t trigger the lance for fear of friendly fire, but Marcus was already reacting, lunging forwards with a heavy bar to deal the creature a resounding smash, knocking it off the bleeding man to slide along the floor. Jack looked on in astonishment as the creature leapt back to its feet, apparently unharmed, only just managing to bring his lance to bear before the creature leaped again, bathing it in fire.

Marcus crouched over the downed man before looking up at Jack and shaking his head, gesturing downward with is free hand. Swallowing bile Jack quickly lead them down to the next level, most of it already ablaze. He looked across to the far walkway and swore as he saw flame licking over the red painted hydrogen lines.

“Marcus!” he bellowed “We need to hurry! The hydrogen’s going to go up soon!”

He moved down the next stairs, lance splitting flame at any creatures who approached. They seemed to fear the fire and heat, but had no hesitancy at hurling themselves at his armoured frame or the group of men behind him. As Jack and the survivors moved down more men joined them but it was clear that most of the workers in the plant had been killed, some by the smoke and fire that was rapidly turning it into a towering inferno, and the rest by the creatures that stalked them through the chaos like black shadows.

As Jack reached the third from last level he began to make out the whine of a lance bayonet over the fire and screams, it seemed to be coming from the level below. He turned to the next stairway, beckoning Marcus and the survivors when a metal beam crashed into his shoulders from above, its weight sending him to his knees, his suit took the bulk of the impact but his breath was blasted from his lungs and he felt the compression through his shoulders, back and knees.

He tried to move but one end of the torn metal had punched through the walkway beside him and stuck, pinning him against the wall. He eyed the hole beside him where the beam had torn through the tough alloy like paper. If it had hit straight on even his suit might have been pierced.

“You OK?” Marcus shouted over the din, his workers swarming around Jack, he nodded and gestured his predicament. Marcus quickly saw his problem and directing his men to help. Together they quickly managed to shift the beam enough for Jack to struggle free.

“Thanks guys” he panted, the adrenalin in his system making his head spin, “ We’ve got two more levels before the bottom. Andrews is below so we should get some more firepower.”

The men around him were ragged and exhausted, outfits torn, bloodied, and burnt. Several where nursing injuries, and two were being supported by their Friends. Jack looked at his suit clock and realized in shock that it had only been a few minutes since Adams’ death. Somehow it felt like he’d been fighting for hours.

A bellow of rage from below jogged him into action, and he hustled down the next stairs into a scene from hell.

The last level before the bottom of the plant was larger than the rest, with wide spaces cut into the rock around it to house the hydrogen extraction systems and to store the heavy machinery and cranes necessary to work on the plant core itself. The area was littered with bodies, workers and creatures covered the floor or lay over workbenches and machinery. Pockets of fighting continued amongst the flames, several workers having barricaded themselves in a side room, using tools like makeshift spears and welding torches to repulse a swarm of creatures that seemed to be trying to gnaw their way through the pressed metal walls of the room.

In the centre of the storage space was a chaotic melee of creatures and fire, with Andrews’ towering figure in the middle, wildly swinging his lance with the nanobladed bayonet engaged, its edge howling as it sliced through flesh, scale and bone. The man’s armour was red and black with blood, with several creatures latched onto his arms and shoulders through sheer jaw power. Andrews flung himself against a nearby crane, is suit crashing into it to flatten the creatures on his back into paste, the impact moving the multi-ton machine back several feet back.

Jack sprang into action, charging towards Andrews with his lance engaged, washing fire over the creatures around him. At first they didn’t react to the fire, so intent where they on the prey before them, allowing him to sweep the area in cleansing fire. Andrews was still swinging, stamping on any black scales shape near him and shouting obscenities into the air. Between them they quickly killed the group attacking him, and Jack was just dousing the final writhing shaped in more flame when he glimpsed something swinging at him. He leapt back just avoiding the shrieking blade of the Andrews lance.

“ANDREWS ITS ME!!” he bellowed as the other Exterminator swung again, a glimpse through his cracked visor showing his eyes wide and bloodshot. “CALM DOWN!!!”

The man swung again and Jack jumped backwards, landing in a crouch that bucked the metal floor beneath him.

“ANDREWS, WAKE THE FUCK UP!”

The man was readying to swing again when he slowed, thought apparently returning.

“Golden boy?“ he gasped, his chest heaving from his exertions, “thought you’d be rat shit by now!”

“Still alive, unlike a lot of other men here!“ Jack replied, cautiously getting to his feet whilst warily keeping a eye on Andrews.” The top lift is gone, no getting out that way. We’re heading to the rail tunnel.” As he talked he ran an eye over Andrews’ suit, noting the rents and tears in the ceramic and metal casing, particularly around the thinner joint sections. The man was swaying on his feet, and Jack could see the red of human blood amongst the black purple ichor the creatures bled.

A shout from the side drew his attention to Marcus and his men, the others only just reaching this level. They looked around in horror before spotting the surviving workers trapped in the room, the exhausted men shouting as they immediately moved to help their friends. Jack broke into a run to join them before the exhausted workers got themselves killed by the swarm, using his lance to lay careful gouts of fire to burn the creatures without incinerating the men in the room beyond. The fire tore through the creatures, and once the swarm was thinned be He moved forwards to stamp on the few creatures to close to the walls to burn, whilst triggering his bayonet to deploy and slicing into the rest.

The workers inside piled out as soon as they could, huddling with Marcus and the other survivors as the supervisor bellowed the plan over the increasing noise.

“Jack“ SAM interrupted, her calm tone odd amongst the chaos around them, ”My sensors are detecting increasing numbers of the unidentified creatures in the levels above. I suggest withdrawing immediately!”

“Marcus!“ he bellowed over to the workers, “ We need to go NOW!” He turned to Andrews and signalled the swaying man. “You Ok to move?”

“I’m Fan-fuckin’ tastic” the big man growled, raising his battered and scratched visor to spit, “take more than a few overgrown mutants to keep me down!”

Nodding, Jack turned and moved back to the last flight of stairs, nervously eying his rapidly decreasing lance fuel. The weapon itself ran on hydrogen cells, but the fuel was a separate addition. Given time he could replenish it with the right materials, but his gauge was reading less than a quarter full. His suit was also reading damage, some from falling debris, others from the creatures’ attacks. None had managed to pierce the outer layer yet, but from the look of Andrews’ suit, it was just a matter of time before a lucky tooth or claw got through.

He reached the flight of stairs and checked for creatures. Seeing none at hand he hustled down to the ground floor. Ahead of him rose the crumpled dome of the geothermal generator, sheets of electricity pouring off it as the transformers’ continued to short. How the thing was still running was a tribute to its rugged design but its failure to shut down was worrying Jack. A stray bolt of electricity could potential ignite the hydrogen stores, although that was just a matter of time as the fire spread.

His visor darkened to protect his eyes from the flare, and as he peered through the glare Jack could just make out the remains of Adam’s suit, glowing a near white-hot with fire running along it as the alloys burnt. Soon the plant would fail; Jack hoped that the ARC’s own power systems would be sufficient to power it.

Footsteps on the stairs behind him heralded Marcus and the other survivors, the men wincing and shielding their eyes against the heat and brilliant light pouring from the centre of the room. Jack turned and headed towards the old control room, leaning inside to look for creatures, not trusting his radar, given the amount of electromagnetic interference being kicked off by the core.

“Looks clear, Marcus!“ he hollered over his shoulder, “get the men moving!” He moved swiftly inside as the workers began to hurry through, raising his visor for a moment to wipe the sweat running from his brow, the combined stress and heat beginning to get to him. He had just closed the visor when he noticed a dark patch moving through the smoke on the far side of the room. He peered at it in confusion, watching it pour around the half obscured machinery, for a moment thinking it was water from a ruptured pipe. The smoke cleared for an instant and his eyes widened in horror as he saw clearly to its source, a wave of creatures scuttling across the ruined floor towards the control room.

“EVERYONE IN NOW!” he hollered, grabbed the nearest worker and flinging him through the door whilst triggering his lance at full spread. With a shriek of compressed gas, it spat a torrential cone of fire, flowing out of the door and over the tide of creatures, searing flesh and scale. The front edge of the swarm skittered and shrieked as they burnt, their cries so piercing Jack flinched ever with his inbuilt sound buffers.

He slowly began to retreat into the control room, carefully playing the flame over the front wave of creatures to stop any dashing past him. Workers were sprinting out of the room and down the tunnel leading to the old rail station as Marcus waved them by with frantic hand motions. Out of the corner of his eye Jack could just see Adams’ body through the eruptions of electricity rolling between the transformers and the fire from burning metal.

“WE NEED TO EVACUATE!” Marcus shouted, only Jack’s computer enhanced hearing letting him hear the man, “WHEN THE FLAME REACHES THE HYDROGEN PIPES THIS WHOLE PLACE IS GOING TO BLOW!”

“GO!!” Jack hollered back through his speaker whilst slowly retreating, still pouring flame through the doorway to dissuade the growing wave of creatures. “I’LL BE RIGHT BEHIND YOU!” He used his suits’ sensors to scan the room, mapping his path to the tunnel without having to turn away from the door. The fuel for the lance was burning through rapidly with its continued use, and the barrel’s heat gauge was spiking alarmingly. He ordered SAM to send the MUTT with the workers and focused on slowly retreating.

Halfway into his slow retreat across the room his flame started to lose coverage of the door, and creatures started to slip by. He lost track of them in the rows of control consoles, but he dared not stop flaming the doorways to dissuade others.

An urgent ping from his radar alerted Jack that something large was heading towards him through the door and he braced himself for whatever new horror appeared. Suddenly a figure flew through the flame, fire rolling off metal and ceramic as Andrews careened through the door, blindly smashing into a panel and crumpling it under his mass, reinforced metal crumpling like tinfoil. His armour was rent and battered and Jack swore as he saw creatures still clinging to his colleague’s armour, powerful teeth locked into place in joints and seams even as the abating fire killed them.

Andrews was screaming and thrashing, trying to crush the things biting him and extinguish the fuel still burning on his suit. Jack leaped forward and grabbed the handle between the other suits shoulders, and began to pull him back, his other arm desperately swinging his lance around to play fire over the approaching creatures, who were now swarming through the uncovered doorway.

A flailing limp struck Jack in the helmet, making his head ring like a bell and causing him to stagger slightly.

“IT’S JACK, YOU IDIOT!STOP HITTING ME AND FLAME THESE FUCKERS!”

Andrews seemed to hear him, and pulled his lance free from his holster, the sturdy weapon miraculously undamaged from the impact. Jack strained, his suit working to drag the other man rapidly across the metal floor, sparks flaring as the hardened armour of Andrew’s suit carved into it. Jack dragged him through the tunnel entrance way as they both doused the control room in flame, consoles and screens blazing away in the rapidly growing inferno.

A sudden pain in his wrist made Jack cry out and he looked down to see one of the creatures latched onto his elbow, its hideous face further disfigured by the horrific burns covering half its body. Despite this, it still hung onto his arm like a dog-sized tick. He smashed his elbow into the tunnel wall, screaming at the pain even as the impact crushed the hideous thing almost in half.

The burning control seemed to stem the tide for a moment, and Andrews managed to stumble to his feet, Armour rent and bloodied. He turned and barged Jack out of the way in his desperation to flee, sending him smashing painfully into the wall, shoulder plates chipping the rock. He swore and quickly brought his lance back up and triggered another gout of flame towards the door at the sight of dark shaped moving through the inferno, eying his rapidly diminishing fuel gauge with a sinking heart.

He glanced backwards to see Andrews almost crush a group of workers standing by the door, who scattered for a moment before Marcus moved into view, furiously beckoning him towards them.

“GET READY!” Jack shouted over the shriek of the lance, ”I CAN’T HOLD THEM BACK FOR LONG!”

Step by step he moved backwards, working the flame over the tide of burned bodies, but the creatures kept coming, pouring over their dead in a tide, behaving more like a swarm of insects than mammals’ - if that’s what they were.

The lance began to splutter, the torrent coming in bursts and pops as his HUD’s fuel meter reached empty. Swearing he leapt backwards through the door, Marcus and another worker almost instantly slamming it. They started to turn the handle the mass of creatures smashed into its far side, forcing the door to partially open and knocking them backwards, Marcus stumbling to the floor as the door hit his head.

“MOVE!” Jack shouted and slammed his shoulder into the barrier, the servos in his legs straining as he struggled to keep the door shut, his boots scraping on the rubble and dust strewn floor.

“TURN THE BLOODY WHEEL!!” he bellowed, straining to hold back the increasing pressure. The creatures must have been piling up on the other side, and the scratching of claws on teeth against the temped metal sounded like some hellish symphony. One of the workers bravely ducked under his arm and span the wheel, rotating the bolts inside the door into the metal door frame, locking it in place. Jack stumbled back slightly , gasping for air as he and the nearby workers eyed the door, watch it shake perceptibly as the creatures continued to slam into its surface, but it appeared to be holding.

“What are we going to do boss?“ one of the workers asked Marcus, terror lacing his voice, “how the hell are we going to get back topside?” Several other workers echoed his question, voices rising in volume as the adrenalin wore off and the enormity of the situation sank in.

“What where those fucking things?”

“How are we going to get home?”

“We’re trapped down here with them, fucking trapped!”

Jack glanced around and saw that only about ten workers had made it down the tunnel, ten of the fifty or so who had been working to renovate the plant. Several were lying on the dusty floor, nursing injuries as their friends tried desperately to help them. Andrews had walked slightly down the track to sit with his back to a pillar and the group of workers were kneeling around Marcus, who was still lying on the floor with a dazed expression as a worker tried to staunch a deep gash in his head. Their panic was growing and the volume rose as they shouted to be heard over the constant screeching of the door.

Jack had to do something to halt the panic, so he set his speakers on high and bellowed.

“ENOUGH!”

His voice echoed through the station, with enough volume for the arguing workers to wince and shy away, and even Andrews turned to look at him as the sound slowly faded out. “We can’t panic here,“ he went on in a more measured tone, trying to keep his voice steady. “If we lose our heads down here we all die!”

He quickly turned and pointed his chest light at the blocked rail tunnel.

“That’s our way out. These tunnels run all the way to the surface. 5 kilometres in that direction is a access shaft that leads into the shuttle port. I’m not saying it will be easy for you guys, but we should be able to make it before the cold and damp get too bad.”

“Are you crazy!” one of the workers shouted, standing from where he’d been tending to a injured colleague. ”Those tunnels are death-traps, and they’re probably swarming with whatever those things are! We should stay put and wait for help from the ARC!”

“How long do you think that will take?” Jack replied, his attention still on the vibrating door, scratching and groans of tortured metal still sounding from its surface. “This door might hold, but there a are probably other ways in here, and your O2 packs won’t last that long!” Jack gestured down at his Exosuit. “I could last days in this, you guys not so much.”

“EVERYONE SHUT IT! “ Marcus bellowed, struggling to his feet only to wobble alarmingly, his friend holding him steady. “WE NEED TO MOVE NOW!!!” The other worker tried to interrupt him but Marcus was already limping to the rail tunnel entrance, shouting for Jack to follow him.

“You need to get this open now dammit!” He shouted before turning to his men, borderline panic in his face “The plant is on FIRE YOU IDIOTS. FIRE!”

“Oh shit” a worker whispered, his dark skin paling in horror, “the fuel stores!”

“Right!” Marcus continued in a more controlled voice, as Jack began turning the heavy wheel lock on the access point, muscles and servos straining to turn the corroded metal. “ We don’t have long before they go up, and once that happens there’s no guarantee this place won’t come down on our heads or fill with fire. We need to move now.”

With a screech of tortured metal the access door finally opened, cold clammy air pouring in from the stygian darkness of the tunnel beyond. Jack stepped through and played his lamplight around the rail tunnel, noting that, although there was a layer of rock dust along the floor, the tunnel itself appeared to be in good condition. He also couldn’t see signs of any living thing, apart from the odd streak of fungus lining the walls and ceiling.

“Looks clear!” he called back,” You should start sending guys through”

“ALRIGHT MEN!” Marcus bellowed, half pushing his helper through as workers started filing past Jack, “Everyone grab one of the injured and lets...”

The ground heaved as a dull boom echoed through the rock, sending workers stumbling and making the dust dance.

Marcus spun to look back towards the plant, “Oh shit..”

The door they had just come through shattered outward, spinning across the room propelled on a torrent of rolling flame. Time seemed to slow for Jack, his arm moving with glacial slowness to pull a worker through the access door. His eyes met Marcus’s as the supervisor turned, grasping the door and heaving it closed with him on the other side, the heavy metal moving with painfully slowness in Jacks glacial perception.

He reached out to try and grab the man, but the flame rolled towards them, silhouetting Marcus as he desperately struggled to close the door. Jack forced his bulk between the partially closed entrance and the workers as the flame hit, trying to shield them.

The world sped back up as the fire reached the doorway, blasting through the centimetres wide gap to lift Jack’s entire quarter tonne mass off the floor and send him spinning across the room. He hit something solid and everything went black.