Exterminator : The Dark Beneath

“Organizing workers it like herding cats, especially after a extended shift deep underground. Organizing Exterminators to work with your men? Well, just imagine its feral cats in powered body armour, on no, actually you don’t have to imagine”

-Marcus Flint, Geoplant shift supervisor

12th September, Geoplant

Geo-plant supervisor Marcus Flint shifted from foot to foot in impatience as he watched the numbers on the lift flicker down, finally bringing the Exterminators. Standing alone in the corridor he could allow himself to show the tension he was feeling after the better part of two days stuck in the plant. In front of the men he had to remain calm, his years in the UNSF having instilled the need to set an example to the troops, but inside he was becoming more and more stressed.

The whole plant was under lock down until they removed the Rats, the risk of them spreading into the lower levels of the ARC itself was deemed unacceptable by the higher ups, the idea of filthy rodents getting into their nice clean building sent the exec’s into fits of anxiety. Marcus grinned darkly as he imagined a Rat running into one of their fancy parties, scuttling through huge rooms filled with artwork glass whilst glamorously dressed men and women shrieking in shock, dropping their plates and squashing canapés underfoot.

The clunk of the elevator cut off his pleasant daydream, and he quickly straightened his back, unconsciously falling into parade ground rest. The segmented metal shutter slid upwards, revealing the grilled lift doors, which rolled up with the sound of metal sliding over metal, revealing two hulking Exosuits inside. Bulky layers of metal and ceramic plates covered them, adding significant bulk to the men inside, unlit lamps were set into the chest pieces and either side of the mirrored glass of the helmets, rendering their wearers anonymous. Marcus fought the instinctive urge to step back as the sight of the armoured forms, a primitive part of his mind instinctively recognizing them for what they were, instruments of death.

“Well, ’ello there Mr Flint!” boomed a rough, digitized voice from the larger form, its tone filled with mocking politeness. The figures faceplate cleared to reveal a unpleasantly grinning face. ”Did some limp dick workers call for the big boys?”

Marcus couldn’t quite hold back grimace of distaste as he recognized Andrews, which almost certainly meant the other smaller figure was Adams, or ‘Twitch’ as the men called him. Internally he cursed his luck at getting these two. He’d hoped for Martinez. The older Exterminator was a solid guy, one of the few who didn’t have a violent criminal record. Barring him, the other one, Jack, would have been acceptable. A bit weird, but polite and professional.

Instead he got twiddle dumb and twiddle murderer, one a borderline sociopath who inevitably riled the other workers, and the other a addict who always stuck off to snort, swallow or inject his latest fix

“Andrews, Adams.” He greeted them, trying to keep the dislike from his voice. ”If you’d follow me?”

The two men moved out of the cargo lift, causing it to rise slightly as the heavy suits moved off. Behind them two MUTT units stood and followed them, their forms reminding him of a large dog fashioned from metal and ceramic, albeit one with no real head or neck. The MUTTS were laden with sealed gear crates, secured onto their frames to augment their internal storage spaces. The Exterminators were obviously expecting a long stay.

Marcus walked along the corridor, passing sealed off doorways leading to areas of the upper mines no longer in use. The other end of the corridor was a second lift leading down to the Geoplant. During the designing of the power station, the planners had designed it so there was no direct elevator access from the plant straight to the ARC, not wanting the risk of an explosion travelling up the shaft. When the mine was still running other paths could be taken to the surface, like the rail system, but now the elevators were the only access routes not locked off,

Pulling down the gridded door, Marcus triggered the elevator to begin the hundred-metre descent to the works. As it started he could glimpse the blast doors closing once again, preventing anything moving in or out of the elevator shaft. He ignored the armoured forms behind him, and focused on mentally working out how to speed up the Rat hunt when Andrews spoke up, his voice mocking.

“So, you guys let a few Rats inside and now we need to clean it up. Thanks for that, I really enjoy dicking around down here cleaning up after you wankers!”

“It was more than a Few fucking Rats!“ Marcus snapped, whirling around to face the hulking form, ” There were dozens, maybe a hundred in total. That’s not normal, even you know that!“ He turned back to face the doors, trying to calm himself. ”Something’s disturbing them, forcing them to move up from deeper in the mines. I’ve never seen them swarm, especially into a well lit area.”

“Well, they ’ave been pretty odd recently,“ the big man admitted grudgingly, “ Golden boy ran into a nest in the old waste pipes. That’s, what, a few hundred metres from here?”

Marcus nodded, trying to remember the layout of the mine, although calling it that was something of a misnomer. The original tunnels had all been dug searching for the seams of heavy metals that that attracted the Corp to the planet in the first place. As the mine extended downwards and increased in size, the increase in miners led to habitation being built onsite. Empty caverns were converted into homes, infrastructure, and utilities. The first Geoplants were sunk deep below the working levels to harness the planet’s heat, with the other utilities branching off them.

When the seams had started to fail or become unprofitable to extract, the Corp looked for a new revenue stream and started on the ARC overhead, shutting down the mines and removing the inhabitants. Much of the infrastructure and utilities were abandoned but some, like the Geoplants and main water purification units, remained useful, so the overseers decided to leave them in place until the ARC was complete, However the ARC had never weaned itself off them.

On their corporate spiel, Gentech claimed the Archaeology was almost self-sufficient, generating its own power via the Tech glass solar protection and its fusion reactors, when the reality was they’d never stopped relying on the older systems. In theory the ARC could support itself, but why start up the internal systems, when they could save wear and tear for several decades by wringing the last dregs of life from the old works. So several of the old plants remained in use, little pockets of life and activity in the dark emptiness of the labyrinth of tunnels, accessed almost exclusively from the surface.

Standing in the lift, Marcus could hear the near constant whine of servos as Adams twitched and fidgeted behind him, living up to his nickname. Marcus just prayed the addict wasn’t on something right now, they needed both men at their best if they wanted to get this shit storm sorted ASAP.

The lift began to slow as it approached the top of the plant, and when it finally stopped Marcus keyed in his code to open the doors, sliding back to reveal the open walkway that overlooked the works. Bellow them the plant stretched down for 15 stories, each ringed with walkways to give workers access to the huge array of pipes, conduits and cooling towers that acted to produce the power and catalyse the hydrogen extraction. The two Exterminators leaned carefully over the edge, even Andrews’ brash nature respectful of the drop.

“Alright,“ Marcus announced, turning to the Exterminators, ”I’ve set up bunks for my workers over to the right in a old office. It’s the one place in the plant that has an airlock and its own air system, so they can catch some shuteye without having to wear the masks. The sub-control room and control systems are also on this level, but as they’re airtight the Rats shouldn’t be able to penetrate them.” He gestured for them to follow him as he made his way down the stairs to the next level, continuing his briefing;

“There’s some store rooms up here you can use for your Gear. Your boss said you might need a place to rest.” He turned and looked levelly at the two men.”

“I cannot emphasis enough how important it is that you don’t damage any of the equipment. This applies to everything down here but especially the red pipes you can see in the far corner. They’re carrying the hydrogen produced by the electro-catalyser downstairs. Any damage or leaks could be catastrophic.”

Adams shifted nervously, an odd sight considering the bulk of his armour.

“Why do you have hydrogen production down here? I thought this was a geothermal plant. Don’t you use heat from rocks or something?”

Marcus shook his head slightly in exasperation. “Yes we’re a geothermal energy plant, so our energy production uses ‘hot rocks or something’ But we use ground water and recycled steam and water to produce hydrogen for use in fuel cells and fusion plants, like the transports and generators upstairs. This whole area is full of water pockets and subterranean rivers, we use the groundwater in the Geoplant, but also direct some of the electricity to separate hydrogen for fuel cells”

“Seems pretty stupid,” Andrews commented, “putting all of this in one space. Asking for fuck-ups!”

“I didn’t design the bloody thing,” Marcus snapped, ”It was implemented for efficiency. Besides it’s not important for you to think why, the fact is it IS!” He took a deep breath, fiddling with the breather mask for a moment, before continuing. ”Anyway, don’t damage to pipes, the electrolyze, the generators...you know what, just be careful of all the equipment. Now, what can we do to help you get this done quickly?”

Andrews moved over to his MUTT and retracted some of the four legged drones armour to reveal several sealed cases. He opened one revealing a series of small multi limbed drones set into expanded grey foam. He took one out and activated it somehow, causing its legs to wiggle.

“These little Beauties have some complicated name, but we call them Ratters. Basic little drones quipped with Sonics and tasters.” He placed it on the piping beside them on the wall, and Marcus watched the drone’s insect-like legs attach to the pipe, before it scuttled up its length as Andrews continued.

“We’ll place more of these on the bottom of the plant. They’ll head into vents, between pipes and into nooks and crannies and scare the Rats out.“ The big man grinned unpleasantly and hoisted his lance around, triggering the pilot light “Then we have a rodent barbecue!”

Marcus stepped back slightly at the sight of the flame, causing Andrews to laugh unpleasantly, before killing the light and holstering the lance.

“Your boys can help by keeping an eye on side rooms and the like as we move up, this will go a lot quicker if we don’t have to move up and down more than a few times”

“How long do you predict this will take to clear so I can call off the lock down? My workers have been stuck here for two days already!”

“Depends, don’t it?“ Andrews said with a shrug, his plated shoulders mirroring his action with a slight wine of servos. ”If your boys let as many Rats in as you said, and there are many areas we need to search, it could take a few days to get the whole place clear. But before you get your panties in twist we will get going at it as fast as we can. I don’t want to be down here any longer than my mate Twitch here!” He finished, slapping a heavy metal hand down on Adam’s shoulder in a clang of metal on metal.

“Twitch here has some of the hover drones on him, so while my little stingers flush the rats out, they’ll fly through the vents and locate any stragglers for us and ping your boys for help. Now,“ the big man finished, “Let’s get this shit started!“

Marcus watched the two walk off and wearily rubbed his face. This was going to be a long few days.