Exterminator : The Dark Beneath

“In the 20th and 21 century the modern world instigated huge numbers of regulations to ensure the safety of workers and civilians in the workplace, from controlling and use of hazardous chemicals, to enforcing the rights of workers to a clean, safe, work environments. As we spread into space these practices changed, as companies and colonies moved out of the jurisdiction of international law. Sometimes this was a bad thing, greedy corporations and morally bankrupt governments cutting back on worker rights for profit, in other cases it saw a increase in regulations as companies sought to appear caring and considerate. For the most part through, it led to confusion, rules on the use of ozone depleting gasses don’t have much purpose on a planet with no ozone layer, and it’s difficult to see the point in water pollution laws on a planet with no liquid water. Nevertheless, throughout colonized space, mankind has yet to escape the almost deliberate aggravation caused by health and safety regulations”

-Siear Has-sari, Law in Lawless Space, a documentary.

11:15,Shuttle port

April shifted awkwardly on the crate, trying to find a more comfortable sitting position as she waited, for once slightly glad that her genetics had given her a generous posterior. She managed to find a slightly more comfortable angle and looked around the cargo bay, wondering again how long it took to get a simple coffee. Juliet and the Professor had left 20 minutes ago to get refreshments, leaving April stuck waiting outside the entrance to the refrigerated storage unit with several workers, who kept eying her up, two security guards in their blue and black padded uniforms, and Matthews, who she tried to ignore.

She’d never really gotten along with Juliet’s ex. Even back in university she’d found him arrogant and a little too intense, but when he and Juliet started dating she’d tried to put on the appearance of friendliness for her friend’s sake. Now his dickishness had been exposed she no longer had to pretend, but as they worked together it was slightly awkward.

The two security guards mostly ignored them, intent on their own conversation whilst standing in front of the doors. They’d been sent along with the Professor as an escort, ostensibly to help him with the workers and bureaucracy, but April was fairly sure it was just to stop the team ignoring the lock down and getting their reagents and samples.

She ground her teeth slightly in frustration at the hold up. Years of work, of frustrations, late nights and setbacks to reach a break through. Then weeks of space-travel to the ass end of nowhere to a new lab and now they were delayed by some Fucking mutant space Rodents! She glared sullenly at the guards, standing in their reinforced jumpsuits with sidearm’s on their hips. Why weren’t they in there taking care of the Rats, they had guns for Pete’s sake, why weren’t they using them?

The workers behind her laughed at something, and she caught them glancing at her from the corner of her eye. She turned and glared at them, causing one to cough in embarrassment and look away, but a big man just gave her a grin and leered at her. She considered giving them a piece of her mind, but reined her anger in. Barely. As obnoxious as the guy was she didn’t really have the energy to make something of it. She guessed he was handsome in a way, his strong features and a muscular frame probably set female hearts aflutter, or at least affected some part of her anatomy, but she didn’t go for guys. Her preferences had always leaned to her own sex, although she laughed when people said it was because she had a better insight into the female mind. She’d had always found the female mind to be the more complex and Machiavellian of the sexes, and she should know. Only Jack had ever caught her interest, and they’d ended up breaking up as painfully as could be imagined. And then he had to go and turn up on this miserable planet.

After seeing him yesterday, she and Juliet had been in shock for hours, following their Corp guide to their shared apartment on autopilot, barely holding it together long enough to put down their luggage before it hit them. All the guilt and loss, heartache and betrayal. They’d lent on to each other for support for hours, taking comfort in their friendship. Hell, Juliet was closer to her then her so called family, accepting her in all her facets, unlike the strict Catholic parents who prayed for their homosexual daughter’s soul whilst refusing to even see her.

“April,” Juliet said softly from beside her, making her jump slightly. ”I’ve got your coffee Hun!”

April looked up at her friend through blurry eyes, suddenly realizing that she’s been gently crying. She roughly wiped her face as Juliet moved to block her from prying eyes. She sniffed and took the coffee, giving her friend a wan grin.

“Thanks Jules. I guess I need some re-hydration. Looks like my eyes were leaking. Any news on the schedule?”

Juliet looked at her, one delicate eyebrow raised at the clumsy deflection, but nodded over to Doctor Branson, who had started a conversation with the team.

“They’re sending a Exterminator to clear out the rats any time now. Someone called Martinez,“ she said, forestalling April’s question.

“My ears are burning,“ came a voice from nearby, as a solid looking Hispanic man approached them. He had short dark hair, greying at the temples, and was wearing some kind of environmental suit in the same colour scheme as the uniform Jack had on when they saw him yesterday, yellow body with black pads for the shoulders, knees, and vitals. A small communication devise was slotted into his ear, with a little microphone bud pointing to his mouth.

“Ah, excellent my dear fellow,” Branson said loudly, hurrying over to the newcomer and shaking his hand. “Could you begin clearing out the pests immediately, please, it’s imperative, absolutely imperative, that we get our supplies moved to our labs as soon as possible. Time is of the essence!”

The Exterminator looked slightly put off balance by the Doctor’s impeccable Etonian accent, something rarely heard outside Southern England or maybe the Britannia colonies near Orion. He gently removed his hand from the Professors grip, before pulling out his smart-pad, typing on the hand sized sandwich of clear-glass and electronics before nodding at the professor.

“Doctor Branson, yes? I’m Exterminator Martinez. My colleague and I have been assigned to clear the cold storage bay. Your gear is a priority but until my colleague gets here I can’t open the door. I’m here to coordinate with you and ensure regulations are followed and to help with cleanup afterwards.”

He turned to the security guards, leaving the Doctor spluttering behind him. The old man looked ready to explode when Juliet gently took his arm.

“Calm down professor, he’s just doing his job, I’m sure we’ll be allowed in shortly.”

The old man huffed and grumbled for a moment before taking a deep breath and letting it out. He shot the girls an apologetic look.

“I’m sorry my dears, it’s just this is so frustrating. We have to wait for some overgrown rodents to be dispatched by barely trained pest controllers, who will be using fire to deal with them. Fire! Near our reagents! And the worst thing is, if we’d just been allowed to take the materials straight to the lab, none of this would have happened. It’s terribly..terrible!”

Juliet patted his arm calmingly and the three settled down to wait, Juliet and the Doctor talking quietly as April tried playing star civilization on her smart pad to distract herself. She’d just managed to balance her colonies energy production and research costs when the Exterminator broke off his conversation with the guard and raised his pad to his face.

“Well he’s here, entering the bay now!“ Martinez pressed one hand to his ear for a moment, apparently listening to something ,before walking to the cold bay controls on the airlock door frame. He looked over it for a moment, before turning to the nearby workers who had moved closer at his arrival.

“Anyway to light the room?”

“There are a few,” one replied, ”But several have been broken for a week or so and no one had gotten around to replace them. There’s been too much work to do prepping for the solar storm.”

Martinez sighed and spoke into his smart-pad.

“Sorry amigo, no can do. Apparently a few lights are waiting on repairs!” He listened for a moment before grinning “Well, at least your suited to hunting in the dark. Can’t be worse than the under works.”

April craned forward, trying to see the screen past Martinez’ shoulder, and caught a flash of orange light. The exterminator frowned and cocked his head, attending to his communicator.“Nests. Really? Shouldn’t be this high up!”

“What do you mean nests?“ April interrupted, still trying to make out anything from the camera.

“Rats breed by creating nests with embryonic sacks,“ he said distractedly, his eyes still on the screen. ”The mothers give birth to their young before they’re fully developed, and the sack protects and nurtures them until the pups are ready. It lets the mothers move around and collect food. The problem is they shouldn’t be making nests this close to the surface. Conditions are much drier than they like and the atmospheric content isn’t right for them. In a few generations they’ll probably adapt due to the residual EVO changes in their DNA, but they shouldn’t be up here.”

A dull boom echoed through the wall in front of them, and Doctor Branson jumped to his feet.

“For the love of God man, tell him to be carefully! Any damage to the supplies..”

“Yes yes, any damage is bad, blah, blah.” Martinez said absently, waving the Professor off with one hand. ”Look, my friend is a professional. He’ll try to minimize any collateral damage, but you should know that the rats would have done much worse. Anything organic in there is just food to them.”

Another bang echoed from the cold store, and April caught sight of a tongue of flame in the monitor.

“Is he using a flamethrower?” she asked in disbelief.

“Yep, Model 18B Thermal Lance, Let’s you customize the level you want to barbecue something.”

“Why a flamethrower and not a gun?” she asked, glancing at the security guards sidearm, ”Couldn’t we just get them to shoot the Rats?”

“You could, but it not efficient. Something to do with their organs or nerves I think. You can shoot them full of holes, but unless you hit the heart or brain it takes forever for them to die.” They sat there for another five minutes, listening for any more impact noises from the store, but it remained quiet. Finally, the Exterminator smart-pad pinged and he smiled before turning to the group.

“OK, ladies and gents, my friend has cleared out all the rats he can find so he’s heading out. Me and the two rent ’a cops over here will head in and check there aren’t any survivors playing dead and then you’ll be free to grab your science stuff while we go and grab some Cervezas.“ April and Juliet moved to the entrance , the rest of the team waiting anxiously nearby.

“God, I hope the samples are OK!“ Juliet prayed as she shifted impatiently from foot to foot, ”We can’t afford to spend another month sequencing and testing!”

“It’ll be fine“ April replied, trying to sound confident. “I’m sure the Exterminator was careful.” Juliet raised an eyebrow at her in disbelief.

There was a hiss as the inner airlock door opened, mist and steam filled the inside, obscuring its contents. April felt a slight tremor through the floor and wondered what it was before hearing heavy footsteps from the Airlock. The outer door hissed and pulled upwards allowing the mist to pour out and revealing a hulking figure, like a medieval knight pulled forwards in time. It must have stood a bit more than 2 metres high, thick articulated plate armoured boots and legs leading upwards to the torso, covered by further protective plates , and the cased shoulders and arms. The figure was splattered in off-red liquid, along with soot marks, but she could just make out patched of in bright yellow and black paint underneath in classic bio-hazard warning colours. It’s helmet was large and angular, with a reflective V shaped visor and lenses and other pickup devises around its sides.

The team unconsciously moved back, some primitive part of their brain’s recognizing something potentially dangerous had appeared in their mists, but Martinez stepped forwards and shaped the figure on its shoulder.

“Hey amigo, maybe next time you should try avoiding some of the blood instead of painting your suit with it no?”

“Didn’t have a lot of choice!“ came a electronically tinged voice from inside as the suit’s wearer lifted his hands to remove the helmet. But April had already guessed who was inside.

“Hello, Jack!“ she greeted gently as Juliet put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Her team were looking on in confusion, presumably unsure as to how she already knew his name. But Matthews’ eyes widened in surprise at seeing Jack, recognizing him from the few pictures Juliet kept of her time in Uni.

“Hello April, Juliet.” He replied calmly, his eyes blank as he overlooked the team. ”You can retrieve your equipment now, although you’ll need to let a decontamination team in first. There were more Rats then the report implied and it got, messy in there.” He turned to his colleague. “Martinez, you OK to do clean up? I need to walk through one of the cleaning stations over there before the blood sets.”

“Sure man” Martinez replied with a grin as he peered at Jack’s blood splattered suit” You’ve done the hard part. Me and the port workers can do the rest”

Jack nodded and started off without across the bay, workers moving out of his way without a word. April started forward, part of her desperate to talk to him, but Juliet gently held her back.

“Not now,” she said quietly, ”We need to help with our equipment remember. Besides, none of us are going anywhere apparently. I’m sure we’ll have another chance to talk to him at some point, after we’ve all had some time to get used to the idea”

April nodded reluctantly and turned back to the store to wait as Martinez and the security guards entered, Doctor Branson and the team waiting impatiently outside, but somehow she couldn’t quite muster the same excitement she had before.

Jack walked out of the monorail station and headed straight to the cafe, trying to get some decent food in him before heading to the Geoplant. Commuters moved out of his way in alarm at the sight and sound of his suit, flickers of apprehension and not a little awe, together with some confusion as MUTT followed. As he approached the station exit, one of the security guards posted as security spotted him and jumped slightly in alarm, pointing Jack out to his older colleagues. The senior guard frowned and walked to intercept him, his blue security form dwarfed by Jack.

“Hey, You’re not allowed to wear that in public spaces, your upsetting the residents “

Jack looked down at him and sighted, perhaps he should have removed it, but the hell with finding a way to lug it back without resorting to stealing a cargo drone.

“Look officer, my boss says head to the station. I head to the station. I do my job. I was expecting to be able to go home and get some sleep, but now he’s ordered me down ARC to the Geoplant ASAP. So frankly, I don’t have the time, patience, or desire to take off the suit and put it back on again just to conform to the ARC’s delicate sensibilities, so if you don’t mind,“ He announced , striding by the man, whose face was now approaching a shade of crimson, ”I’m going to get some food before I head off.”

Walking out of the station he stopped at his food stand, tipping the wide eyed attendant a bit extra as he stood and ate his burger, having retracted his faceplate, holding it delicately between the fat metal fingers of his gauntlets so as not to accidentally crush it. A small crowd of people had stopped to stare at him, some looking on in interest, others in confused or anger at his presence, breaking their comfortable routine. The harsh angles, colouring and size of his yellow and black painted suit stood out against the tastefully colourings and smooth aesthetics of the hub area.

Finishing his food, he headed off along the main avenue towards a cargo lift to the Exterminators bay, calmly watching people part before him. It was kind of fun actually, seeing how people reacted to the suit. He still received looks of distaste, but it’s takes a lot of willpower to be dismissive of 2 meters and 250kg of armoured exoskeleton walking by you. Different groups seemed to react in interesting ways, Suited executives and management types often glared at him whilst looking apprehensive, although he did get one or two admiring looks from a trio of business suited ladies. Apparently a bit of the rough was still a thing. The scientists generally looked anxious or intrigued, whilst the few workers he saw almost ignored him.

At first Jack thought it was just a exposure thing, that the workers were more likely to see an Exterminator where they worked than the scientists or executives who primarily worked in the upper level, but as he walked Jack wondered it wasn’t deeper than that. Perhaps it wasn’t him or the suit but what they represented.

He was walking along a lower middle section of the ARC, not quite a privileged area but nice enough, smooth aesthetics, tastefully white and cream colourings and generally frequented by the better off residents. The people here were more likely to spend their time in well appointed offices or labs, and so probably saw very little of the ARC’s behind the scenes workings, so maybe that was part of the problem. The Exterminators personified the dirty truth of the ARC that, for all its style and elegance, underneath it ran on sweat and metal, blood and dirt. In a building designed as a temple to money and science, the suit was a throwback to a time where violence was the way of the world.

“Or” Jack muttered to himself” I’m just talking out of my ass and they just don’t like us.”

He tried to ignore the looks as he moved along, but today he was just too emotionally raw to shrug them off. Seeing Juliet and April again just dredged up memories of happier times now forever tainted. All the pain and disappointment he’d buried were coming to the surface and now they lived in the ARC he’d constantly be on the defensive, wondering if he’d bump into them around the next corner. In practice it seemed unlikely; judging by the treatment their new team was receiving it was fairly obvious they were VIPs, probably housed mid-ARC, or possibly higher. He could count the number of times he’d been that high on a blind butcher’s fingers, and he doubted they’d be wandering around down-ARC for anything but the hub station, so the likelihood of running into them was low. But still, knowing they were there was going to be nerve wracking.

He caught the lift upwards and headed to the Exterminators offices, but couldn’t help but look at it with new eyes, realizing that somewhere along the way it had become more than just a set of rooms for him. When he’d arrived at the ARC he’d only been out of prison for a few months, long enough for basic training in a grey walled Gentech facility on a planet whose name he never bothered to learn. A month for a cybernetics clinic’s team to surgically implant his DNI and ports, and then two months of torturous healing and training by an ex-army sergeant in how to wear and use the Rx Exosuit.

Moving to the Arc had been a shock after years of prison life. The other Exterminators hadn’t made him welcome, but that didn’t bother him after Hades. The job was hard, the hours long and his accommodation crappy, but slowly he’d rebuilt himself, not into the Jack he’d been before prison, the wide eyed idealist, but into someone else. Someone stronger, more independent, and a lot more closed off. But that was OK, because for a while he had a purpose, a goal. Work hard, save money, get home.

But now the old Jack was being revived by the girls’ presence, and suddenly the fragile peace of mind he’d built himself was crumbling around him.

Walking into the office he could see Stevens typing away, but ignored him as he set about changing MUTT’s load-out for later when he headed down ARC after catching some rest and servicing the suit.

He was actually looking forward to going into the under-works. Hopefully the work might help him reclaim some of the balance he’d so carefully built himself, but in the back of his mind he knew the truth. Running away wasn’t going to help him with this, eventually he’d have to confront the matter or try and get a transfer, because he couldn’t live with his past looking over his shoulder like this. Not anymore.