This is Sorenson to any remaining CEC personnel. Track towards Ellie Langford's RIG.
Her group is farthest ahead and has cleared a path free of those things, but it's closing off fast.
We gotta go Boss, more's coming.
Don't think, just move.
6 Hour Earlier
Beep, beep, beep, bee-
Frank Sorenson hit the snooze button on his alarm clock and got up, the coffee machine flipped on automatically. He walked into the bathroom, dropped off his shorts, and stepped into the shower. The sensors in the shower scanned his body temperature and the air temperature and set the water to the perfect temperature. It felt good on his neck. He stepped out of the shower and put on some black cargo pants, a white t-shirt, a vest that had a holographic projector and RIG (Resource Integration Gear) on the spine. It provided most forms of identification for people as well as being able to perform triage and treatment if it contains adequate levels of medical-gel. The gel works in conjunction with the RIGs triage system to disperse adequate amounts of healing agent into the bloodstream. It also has communicators on the wrist that ran to his palm and a visual display of your vital signs via a colored holographic bar on your spine, and his satchel. His friends ask why he carries a satchel. But as advanced as it is, his suit can hold very few things with its advanced matter de/recompose system. He has seen some heavy duty suits that can hold a lot more than his, but he wasn't graced with such pleasantries. So he likes to come prepared with extra storage. He slipped the vest on and felt a tingle down his spine as the RIG linked with his body and the RIGs spine filled with an cyan hologram, indicating he was in a healthy condition.
He walked into the kitchen and grabbed the ready cup of coffee, made perfect everyday by an advanced computer system. When he stepped near the door it went from an orange LOCKED to a cyan OPEN? All holograms were usually in two different colors cyan for good orange for bad. Although it was a little more complicated than that, that's basically what it amounted to. He waved his palm sensor over the hologram and it went away. The door opened. As he stepped out the door of his apartment, floor 17, Titan Heights, he was contacted via RIG-LINK by his friend-since-grade-school Kaleb. And a slightly distorted blue image of his face popped up. He was just like Sorenson in almost every way.
"Sorenson, you heading to work?"
"Yeah Kaleb, why?"
"I need you to stop by the store and pick up a new semi-conductor."
"You crazy? Those things go for 3000 creds!"
"The boss wants it, fast. He said he would add it plus 5 percent on Fridays pay."
"Alright, I need to head through there anyway to get to the Transportation Hub."
"See you at work, Kaleb out."
The image of Kaleb went away and by this time he was at the elevator to the Transportation Hub. Sorenson worked at CEC in the Titan Mines. He had a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering and was stuck in the ground, literally. He stepped into the elevator and noticed a flashing light on his wrist, meaning someone left him a message.
~~Frank, I stopped to get some breakfast. So can you wait for me at the tram station? Thanks.~~
The message was from his close friend and fellow co-worker Ellie. She was the only person that called him by his first name, Frank. Everyone else, even his best friend Kaleb, have adopted calling him by his last name, Sorenson. They have been close friends since high school and they graduated from MIT back on Earth. They specialized in different fields, Ellie in piloting heavy machinery and Sorenson in mechanical and electrical engineering, but for work he basically did what ever Kaleb 'surveyed'. He was a Xenogeologist, which was just a fancy word for space rock examiner. Sorenson's always wanted more from their relationship. But she has always been more interested in Kaleb that way and more of a friend of Sorenson. Looks are one of the things that Kaleb had over Sorenson. Kaleb had blue eyes and blonde hair , was 5' 10" and looked like a movie star. Sorenson had short black hair and dark brown eyes. He was good looking but he had a gruff 'tough guy' look about him and was 6' 3". Which scared off most girls. Kaleb was strong but Sorenson was built better than him. He left a message on Ellie's RIG
~~I need to head to the store to pick up some parts for the boss so I'll meet you there.~~
The elevator stopped on the first floor and he walked down a hall and took a left. At the end of the hall was the Transportation Hub and at the entrance was the store. With advancement in technology they made all store purchases through a computer operated kiosk. He walked up to the store booth and it scanned his RIG and came online with a greeting.
Welcome CEC Mechanical Engineer Frank Sorenson, Credit balance; 3623
"Guess I'm gonna go without buying food this week." he mumbled to himself.
The holographic display popped up showing the different categories of things. Depending on your RIG status you can buy everything from cooking supplies to military grade weapons. Today he was buying a gold semi-conductor. They were for some of the machinery, they enhanced the flow of power to the machine and kept it from over heating.
He clicked on the option saying SEMI-CONDUCTORS. Then he clicked on the picture of the gold semi-conductor.
Transaction complete, credits subtracted from account, depositing item.
The kiosk deposited the semi-conductor. He grabbed it and put it in his satchel. He took a sip of his coffee and continued down the hall a few meters and it opened up to the south entrance of the Transportation Hub. It was a large atrium and had two doors on the north and south with constantly changing train schedules above both doors. And there were trams on the east and west. There was much through traffic because there was one train station per sections of Titan station and there were four sections. He walked through the crowds to the center of the room and took a seat on one of the benches. He took another sip from his coffee and looked to the left and he saw Ellie coming from the opposite way, the north side. She was beautiful as usual. Her hair was done in two long pigtails, it was obviously rushed. She was wearing a red tank top and khaki pants, with a breakfast burrito in her hand, probably from one of the food dispensers, and a coffee.
"Hey Ellie! Over here," said Sorenson.
"Oh, there you are Frank" replied Ellie as she looked around for a second then found him. Sorenson stood up.
"Come on, if we hurry we can make the eight o'clock train to the C.E.C. Building and we won't have to wait for the eight thirty and be late."
"Alright"
They made their way into the train just as the doors closed. The train quickly got up to speed and they were headed to the Titan C.E.C. Headquarters. They talked about the same stuff on their way there as every other day. How crowded the Transportation Hub was, how bad the food was, and other random things to pass the time. The train came to a stop and they got off. It opened into an atrium but smaller than the one in the Transportation Hub. It also had 2 stories, one open. At the far end of the room was double doors to the facility and above that was a video screen displaying The CEC logo. A C with a rotating red planet in the crest. Under it was the slogan.
C.E.C. Powering humanity into the future…
At the double doors stood Kaleb. They walked over to him.
"Come on guys lets go clock in. Its Nearly eight thirty," said Kaleb.
They walked over to the double doors and the scanner above the doors scanned each of their RIGs. It said
Welcome C.E.C. employees Frank Sorenson and Ellie Langford.
Hmm, Kaleb must have clocked in already. They entered the facility and there were people everywhere. Well C.E.C. was the main employer on Titan. Their boss, Williams, walked up to them. He was a hard core fifty something that was retired from the EDF Marines but didn't like the life of a retiree.
"We need you guys to head out to the Government Sector and burn off the ice building up on the damaged heater. Then replace the circuit board on one of the heaters. That's why I had you buy that semi-conductor. So gather the rest of your team and head out."
"Alright, we'll get it done," answered Kaleb before everyone else.
"Frank and I will go get the shuttle ready. Kaleb, can you go get the rest of the crew?" said Ellie.
"Yeah," replied Kaleb.
Sorenson and Ellie went to the hangar and loaded the machinery. The tools they brought aboard are: a PFM-100 Hydrazine Torch, a 711 MarkCL Rivet Gun and a few plasma saws for the larger chunks of ice. Not much more should be needed to replace a few parts and melt some ice. They should be back in less than an hour. The rest of the crew arrived. There were ten people counting Sorenson, Ellie, and Kaleb. Most of them were just for inspecting.
The three of us could do the job ourselves, honestly we don't even need Kaleb, but they want it done as fast and as thorough as we can, thought Sorenson. He was normally on a different shift than Ellie and Kaleb, he was on shift 2 and they were on shift 1, but they wanted someone as careful as Sorenson to make sure that it went alright.
"Everyone load up," said Kaleb.
They were taking a small shuttle to the underside of the Government Sector. Sorenson didn't know why they were in such a rush to keep it warm in there. Very few people were even allowed in there.
The shuttle wasn't very big inside but had three rooms. The cockpit, the cargo room, and the flight lounge. Which just consisted of a few metal benches and a table in the middle. Sorenson walked into the cargo room and grabbed a box. The box contained a Class 1 Miner RIG. It had titanium ribs on the right shoulder and chest, skin tight jumpsuit with a small holographic projector on the front. He took off his leather jacket and vest and sat them next to the box. He then slipped into the jumpsuit and felt the RIG link to his nervous system, you never got use to that. The suit sealed around his neck. It felt very tight. Then he slipped on the gravity boots. He grabbed PFM-100 torch and loaded a two-hundred-fifty unit fuel tank. The torch was remarkably small and light. The tool itself was barely larger than his hand and weighed two pounds. The added dual fuel tank weighed about four pounds and comprised of two internal tanks of liquid hydrazine and dinitrogen tetroxide surrounded by a larger tank to make it easier to change the fuel. A single tank could burn continuously on low setting for about five minutes at four hundred degrees Celsius. On the highest consumption setting, it could burn continuously for about thirty seconds at four thousand degrees Celsius. He liked somewhere in the middle while melting the ice. He put two extra tanks on his belt. He then grabbed a plasma saw and locked it into the holster on his left thigh. He picked up the helmet out of the box and pulled it over his head. The helmet hissed signifying the seal was air tight. The air tasted like chemicals. The helmet was made of lightweight metal and had 2 slits in the front emanating a faint cyan light. The front plate also folded up to show the face of the wearer. He needed to wear this because the iced up heater was on the outside of the station. The filter in the helmet cleaned out the air around him. The heads-up display of the helmet kicked in. It displayed a square in the bottom right corner with his heart rate in it. The square was color coded according to his RIG status on his spine. It also had internal and external thermometers. The helmet also linked with the PFM-100 showing how many units it had left in the bottom left corner. When he was done suiting up he got a call from Ellie
"We're almost there. Hook up to the 'leash' then I'll open the cargo door."
The 'leash' was a tube that supplied his suit with oxygen and kept him from floating out into deep space as well. If for some reason he was disconnected, his suit had a two minute emergency tank. Hopefully that wouldn't happen.
"Alright, I'm connected," said Sorenson over the radio to Ellie.
After a few seconds the cargo door opened and he felt the weight of the gravity boots kick in. He took a deep breath then took the leap of faith from the shuttle to the underside of the marker site. The suits they make now have built in thrusters but he was stuck with the old models where you had to jump everywhere. He hit the wall and almost had the air knocked out of him. But the boots connected and he stood back up. He gave up thinking of which way was up long ago. It was very quiet. He could only hear the sound of his slow but steady breathing. Then Kaleb broke the silence.
"I've uploaded the location to your RIG. Your locator should show the way."
The RIG also had a wrist waypoint system with a holographic map that provided pinpoint locating and guidance that made Satellite Positioning seem stone age. He opened his left hand completely and a blue holographic line emitted from his palm showing the most direct route to the required location. He followed the line straight for a few meters then it went into a tunnel. The tunnel was pitch black because the power generator was running on five percent efficiency for life support of the Government Sector. This was because if the generator was running any more it would stop up from the ice and that could possibly cause a nuclear meltdown. And that wouldn't be good. He only had a small flashlight on his helmet. But his primary lighting tool was a glow worm. It was a six inch rod that contained two chemicals that, when friction is applied between the two, they produce an ultra bright green glow for about five minutes. One thing they have over traditional glow worms is after the glow dies down, it can be shaken again for another five minutes of light, indefinitely. When he stepped into the cold darkness the helmets sensors clicked on the headlamp. He opened a pocket on his belt and pulled out the glow worm. He shook it until it wouldn't get any brighter. He then clipped it to the hook on his left peck.
He noticed that the farther into the darkness he went, the more the temperature dropped. He was already at three degrees Celsius and dropping. He noticed ice forming along the inside. He saw the heater ahead about five meters. When he suddenly couldn't move forward. The leash wasn't long enough.
"Shit," said Sorenson irately.
"What's wrong?" said Kaleb. Sorenson forgot he was still connected.
"The fucking leash isn't long enough. How can you guys overlook something like that!?"
"What do you mean it isn't long enough?"
"I mean, the heater is right in front of me but I can't reach it."
"Damn it, well I guess you have to come back and we'll have to get a longer one."
"I'm coming back," Sorenson let out a sigh, "what a waste of-."
"Sorenson, I just got a message from the top. They said to get it done now or your fired."
"Ok," Sorenson took a deep breath before finishing, "shut off the oxygen supply. I'm going to disconnect from the leash and do everything I need to, then reconnect."
"Your crazy Sorenson! I've never had someone use the emergency air reserves and I'm not planning on it just because of a short fucking leash. And by the time you melt the ice and replace the semi-conductor you will have run out of air!"
"Good point," Sorenson thought for a second, "I've got an idea."
"What?"
" If I use the lighter on the torch to light a whole container of fuel then if I can throw it in the right place, the container will burst sending the ignited fuel over the ice, melting it. Then I disconnect, and go replace the semi-conductor. With plenty of air to spare."
"That's a crazy idea. But it should work."
He pulled out one of the spare fuel tanks and lit the lid of the canister and pulled it back ready to throw. If he missed it could damage the machine permanently. He threw the canister and it landed directly in the center, perfect. The fuel went everywhere just like he said it would and melted the ice.
"Disconnect." said Sorenson.
The leash hissed as it disconnected and his two minute air counter started dwindling. He ran as fast as the gravity boots could alternate from connected to disconnected. He was twenty meters away. By the time he reached them he had a minute and forty seconds left in his O 2 tank. The blue holographic screen popped up in front of him and he rushed through the replacement procedure. He had sixty three seconds of air left. The screen read
Ejecting semi-conductor…
He pulled out the old semi-conductor. It was all burnt up and almost broke clean in half, it looked intentional, but he would worry about that later. He then put in the new semi-conductor and put the old one in the empty pocket.
…Processing…
…Completed… Rebooting power system…
The lights booted up. He had twenty nine seconds of air left. It was getting difficult to breathe. Sorenson looked around. Where the fuck was the leash? He noticed that the leash had floated back through the tunnel. He didn't have enough air to reach. He started to panic. Then he saw an open airlock at the opposite end of the room. He backed against the wall and put his feet against them. He coiled up gaining power. Then he jumped. He hit the wall and almost had the air knocked out of him. He started opening the door. Twelve seconds. The door opened and the stepped inside. Come on shut! He thought, not having enough air to say it. Five seconds. He could barley breath. The door shut and his air tank sensed the rising oxygen levels and automatically filled his air tank. He took off his helmet. He was breathing heavily. He almost didn't make it. He almost died because some fucking EarthGov jackasses couldn't go a little longer without perfect air conditioning.
"You alright Sorenson? You're RIG status is off the charts," said Kaleb with a bit of worry in his voice.
"Yeah," replied Sorenson trying to catch his breath, "I made it, barley. But where am I? And why didn't we work from this airlock instead of bringing a shuttle?"
"According to your RIG you're somewhere inside Site 12 and to answer your other question, we didn't know anything about this entrance."
"Just bring the shuttle to the nearest dock and I'll meet you there."
"Oka-," Kaleb paused, "Sorry Sorenson, Williams wants us to head to the Titan Mines. He says they are having a lot of problems, and a lot of no-shows. Mostly them damn Unis. Must be a holiday or some shit. He needs you to meet up with the rest of your shift at Working Tools, they had to pick up some equipment there because a lot of the equipment isn't showing up either."
"Something's wrong, I got a feeling in my gut."
"Yeah, if I find out anything I'll let you know."
"Roger that"
Kaleb's blue tinted image went away. He had finally started breathing normally. The room was dark. He just noticed that his glow worm had faded out. He unclipped it, shook it, then clipped it back. There was a locked door on the other side of the room. He could tell because doors had holograms on them that said if it was locked or unlocked. He picked up his helmet and walked towards the door. He heard muffled unintelligible talking on the other side. He started banging on the door and then said,
"Hey, hey, can someone unlock this door? Hey!"
No response. He was startled when they contacted him via his RIG-Link. The man was wearing blue Kevlar and Titanium vacuum rated body armor and helmet with a full faced blue glass visor. He was a TSSG Officer or Titan Station Security Guard. Basically police with access to military grad tech.
"Who are you? What are you doing here? Do you know this is a restricted area?" said the officer with a stern, demanding voice.
"I'm a CEC mechanic. I was sent to do some repairs to the heater. I encountered some… problems and had to enter this airlock. I mean, it was open."
"Very well, I'll unlock the door and have one of my privates escort you back to the CEC Headquarters," the officer was clearly irritated.
There was a rapid tapping sound then a loud bang . The officer looked up then raised his Divot, the standard police and security pistol.
"Oh God, what the hell is that?!" the officer had fear and horror in his voice.
"Shit, it's got David," said someone Sorenson couldn't see, followed by a murderous scream then flat line of a RIG.
"OPEN FIRE!" said the officer.
The video cut out. Sorenson could hear the muffled sound of gunfire and screams behind the door. He quickly went to the panel next to the door and removed it. Then started wiring the door, trying to unlock it.
"Shit, shit, shit, come on," said Sorenson worriedly.
The door flew open and he ran inside ready to help. But was stopped dead in his tracks by what he saw. He had a sick feeling in his stomach. There was blood everywhere. The walls, the floor, the ceiling. And body parts from the dead officers. One of them had their abdomen ripped open with his entrails hanging out. Then he heard the slow, steady beeping of a RIG in critical condition. He looked to the left and there was the officer he was talking to before, whatever happened, happened. His left arm and both legs were slashed clean off and was slowly bleeding out. The RIG is capable of sealing lacerations, but not total dismemberment. He was still alive, and he said,
"They're here. I told… I told them they would come, but they didn't listen… You have to warn him. You have to warn Tiedemann."
"Warn him about what, and who's they?" He didn't know what this officer was talking about. But whatever it was it killed an entire security team.
He thought he heard something, but the only words he caught were marker and necro something. Necro, necro means dead. And the Marker? What did that thing have to do with this? Then the officers RIG flat lined signaling his heart had stopped. What should he do? Leave these men here, dismembered and dead? All he knew is he needed to tell Hans Tiedemann, the Director of Operations over the Sprawl, about this. Maybe he knew more.
He was about to walk out of the room but before he did he remembered that he sat down his torch. He didn't know who or what did this. But he didn't want to be caught unarmed if he found it. He picked up the torch and began running to the Transportation Hub. After running for about five minutes he stopped when he heard a bang. A bang that sounded just like the one before the soldiers were killed. Fuck, its back. He turned around and before he could react he was tackled to the ground by it. It raised its arm, with a bloody machete like blade at the end, and came at him He grabbed its arms, they were disfigured and boney.
"What the fuck?"
Both him and the, thing, were locked in a grapple. The creature was a lot stronger than it looked. The blade was getting closer to his head. He couldn't beat it like this. He head butted the creature and got the advantage and threw it off of him. He stomped on the creature's head. The heavy gravity boots crushed its mutilated skull like a grape. He stepped back and the creature got back up. He pinned it against the wall and pulled out his plasma saw, cut both of both arms and threw it to the ground. The thing was still flopping around without its arms and legs. He shook his head in disbelief. He pulled out the flamethrower and emptied half of the tank on it before it stopped moving. He looked at the creature. Its body was disgusting, it was bloody and disfigured. Was it a person? It was wearing clothes. It was so human, but at the same time so alien. Then he looked at himself. His helmet was dinted and he was doused in its blood. Now he knew what the soldier was talking about, the necro-somethings. What should I call these things, thought Sorenson, its primary form of attack was its bone blades and it could really fuck thing up with them, the proof was in the room he was just in. Slasher that's what he would call them, because they slashed and slashed and slashed until their target was a pile of ground beef. But what does this… this… thing, have to do with the marker. He was more confused than before. He ran as fast as he could to the Transportation Hub. But when he showed up people were gasping and staring. He forgot about all of the blood stains on his suit.
"No wait, its not what you think. I was attacked by… something." said Sorenson in distraught.
"What was it?" said one of the people in the crowd.
"I… I… I don't know."
"How do you not know what attacked you," said someone else.
"I've never seen it before. It killed an entire security team and almost killed me."
"How did you survive? Or did you kill them?"
"What? No, I didn't kill them. And maybe they didn't know to cut there limbs off."
"That's it I'm calling the police."
No one believed him. What was he going to do?