〔Conurbation Haven〕
〔Airspace〕
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〔2/5/2306 16:43〕
"Finally we can leave this hellhole behind us" joked Erik, as the entire Archetype Commando gathered in a Chameleon that has been brought to the Council by a pilot from the Second Urban Flight Squadron. "Jo, I'm proud of you. Very professional this time."
***Huh, I took on two of Sarrmen's hell hounds and she is the one who is praised to the skies? For what?***
Jo folded her arms, "I told you before it was a one-time exception." She looked around sheepishly. "Why are we even here now, I guess you don't want to take us on a joyride, Erik?"
"I wish it was one. But unfortunately, it's more serious. Zero, did you get the mission data?"
"Just received it, I'll forward it to you" the boy explained.
﹝OPERATION VERMINTIDE﹞
﹝¤ District -25 | Food Stacks﹞
﹝Authorisations Level 9﹞
"So we are rat-catchers again..." Jo said bored.
"Madame Lebigot has told me about a small mishap in her food laboratories" Erik explained. "The little mishap has now devoured up to level Minus 25."
"Like a plague of locusts," Dawn compared.
"Only that the locusts in the case are mutants and instead of cornfields they attack humans," Jo said ironically.
"Jo is right. We have to stop the critters before they reach higher levels. Yet we must also avoid attracting too much attention, so we don't ruin Lebigot's reputation and that of her food stacks."
As Erik said that, Dawn noticed the Chameleon's mimicry mode. On the outside of the aircraft, there were innumerable tiny sequins that acted as mirrors to project light from one side of the plane to the other.
The concentrated looking pilot interjected, "Arrival in two minutes".
"Zero, what else do we need to know?"
Zero began to explain "Unfortunately, there are no survivors to report, but the surveillance camera footage I was able to analyze shows that they are galvanic creatures that feed on electricity. They come from the food stacks in District Minus 27 but those districts are a huge, poorly monitored maze. Some of them probably worked at the factory. They most likely have some kind of incubation chamber that they all come out of."
"You said they were mutants? What if Patient Zero is also their queen?" Dawn suspected.
"I don´t think I´m a queen, but hey it´s a childhood dream."
"Very funny Zero. We must go to the source of the plague. No matter what it is." Erik ended the speculation.
They reached a wide parking level consisting of three levels and three lanes each. In six of the nine lanes, there were Quadro cars, flying quadrocopters for passenger transport. On the other three were massive partially loaded food freighters.
" Every ten levels there is a parking deck, but this one is also the loading station for the food stacks," said the pilot before Archetype Commando disembarked. "The coast is clear. Good luck on the mission!"
The parking deck was characterized by abandoned vehicles and the only thing audible was machine rattling from a distance. Otherwise, it was dead silent. Green steam rose from the lower levels, filling the air around Dawn with smog. He noticed that his synchrotron vision turned on automatically because of it. On his HUD he looked at a map of the area. He now communicated with his comrades via his comms.
Erik gave the instructions, "We need to get to the vacuum elevator to get down to the food stacks."
Dawn saw a waypoint on his HUD that he followed, not paying much attention to his surroundings. With tunnel vision of his waypoint and his menu, he collided with something that was heading in the opposite direction.
Relieved, he noticed it was only Jo, she pulled out her plasma knife before she realized she was´s dealing with Dawn. "Watch out, idiot, if I was one of them, you'd be dead by now."
"You're going the wrong way, Jo."
"I'm supposed to believe you now, rookie?"
The green mist they were talking about gradually cleared a little so that Dawn could see not only Jo's heat signature but her whole appearance.
In the meantime, she must have made herself ready for battle, because she wore dark, tight-fitting, in places reinforced battle armor and a helmet under which her ponytail was hidden. Stop-short she faced Dawn, who looked at her in surprise.
"That armor suits you well, I'm glad to see you're protecting yourself."
At that moment Dawn heard the childish giggles of JP and Zero who could not hold them back anymore through his communication channel.
***Damn, why is this always on? Why isn't it on push-to-talk? Is there no such thing as privacy?***
"Concentration now" Erik admonished them.
Jo used her plasma knife to make the typical head-off gesture in Dawn's direction.
Dawn set himself in motion again and ran along the path to the elevator. When he reached it, he noticed an accumulation of alkaline acids dripping from the elevator.
Electrolytes... galvanic creatures... They have to be there.
As he approached the elevator, he noticed his Jugem Blades, which now automatically extended to open the broken sealed door. JP supported him with his MV ST4 Support Turret that he placed down quickly. "Move in!"
SPLAT!
The door opened and a stream of crawling creeps came towards Dawn, moving out of the shaft, confused and one on top of the other. Chainbits jumped back and forth between them. They had human anatomical features of the extremities, but the rest of her body was deformed beyond recognition. They crawled on four legs in Dawn's direction, but he fought them off with his Jugem Blades, whereupon the mutant creatures burst with a fountain of acid.
More and more endless floods seemed to come through to the top and there was still no end in sight. The creatures' soggy taps were unremitting.
"Their queen is down there. In the food factory," Erik said. "Whether we like it or not, we have to go down the shaft. Zero, is the lift still running?"
"I don't have access to it, but if you can buy me some time, then..."
"It's just going to keep building up. There's no time. We'll just have to do this the old-fashioned way then" Erik said while shooting the mutants with his full-automatic railgun.
He cleared his way and shot down into the abyss, exploding the creatures in droves.
Zero indicated that he didn't need much more time until he controlled the system of the elevator from which the goods of the food stacks normally came upwards.
WHAMMM!
A heavy cabin came from above and crushed the mutants under his load.
"Always happy to," Zero said with a grin. They then went into the elevator. It took them down for a while until all they saw above and below them were piled up rice paddies with just enough space between them for fully automated disc-shaped mowing robots to move back and forth. The plants were apparently growing without the influence of light or water.
Then they were in a section with green liquid tanks, in which small animals have driven around, which consisted of one hundred percent fatty meat.
"Here it will be. Such a filthy mess..." JP was shocked.
"If the people in this town knew what to eat, they would lynch the old witch Lebigot," Erik said.
Such an animal fell out of a tank that had cracked due to excess pressure. It lay helplessly on the ground and JP stroked it full of pity. It was spherical and resembled a pig, but was much more fleshy and its eyes and ears were completely covered by meat. JP explained to Dawn "This is a Fooba. It means food balloon. They are genetically manipulated to grow the maximum amount of flesh. And they are dependent on the substances in that tank."
"So it's going to die without them?" Dawn asked sadly.
"No, it never even lived," JP said, and gave the animal a coup de grace that did not even flinch for a moment.
"No wonder there's a mutant plague here, in those genetic experiments they play Russian roulette with nature," Dawn admitted.
"But isn't it the same for you? These pigs are like this for one reason only, and it's the same with you, Dawn" Jo asked cheekily.
"Huh? You compare me to a Fooba?" Dawn turned away shaking his head and scanned the environment and noticed an increased energy signature in a chamber behind the long rows of Fooba tanks. "There are more of them back there in the control room. Do you see anything?"
"I don't have camera data from that room" Zero denied.
Determined, the Archetype Commando proceeded to the door of the control center. Her heavy footsteps echoed through the factory, where only a bubbling sound from the fooba tanks could be heard. Erik loaded his rifle quickly. It was a half-open standing iron door that seemed to be chipped away or bitten off. A light weeping came out of the room, and in between something that sounded like tortured screams. When the squad arrived at the room, Dawn could use his synchrotron vision to see a giant mutant through the door, whose abdomen was replaced by random machine parts. Around them, several ball-shaped objects laid filled with organic matter inside.
Erik was impatient "Tell us. What do you see, Dawn?"
"The queen with her larvae. And right now, she's eating...."