Chapter 11 – Terraniux
The doors shut behind them and they noticed one big difference now the pump had been activated; the bio waste below had gone. They followed their tracks back to where they'd come from but no other doors had magically appeared like they seemed to have hoped for. Instead, they lowered themselves down to the level below which was once occupied by the bio waste. They walked around for a few moments, occasionally slipping over on the slimy surface and having to grab onto one of the others for support.
"I'm beginning to think this was a bad idea," Riker noted, glancing at his feet.
"Could you see anywhere else to go?" Malik queried.
"No, I guess not."
"Well then; after you."
Riker climbed up into one of the pipes and walked along the uneven flooring to a large door ahead. Malik and Kargoth followed him through it, slipping down a steep side into another large pipe below. Using a slightly less steep side, they climber up the other end and emerged into another dip where another door was ahead of them. They seemed to be making progress once again.
The doors opened to permit them and they found themselves at the bottom of a pit. They walked around and eventually came to a lift which took them up to the surface level where a few Mercenaries were sat around a wall panel. They jumped to attention at their presence and started firing at them, one of the activating a strange sort of shielding device around itself and running around quickly. Not put off by this, the prisoners stood their ground and killed the two Mercenaries quickly, the one which was once shielded falling down into the pit to its death. Malik approached the console they had been reading and activated the translator, reading the message out.
"Section C, not filled," he stated.
"Well observed," Kargoth replied, looking down into the pit.
"There's one of those buttons again," Riker pointed out.
"They seem to be all over the place!"
"And they seem to help us get out! Go for it Riker," Malik cut in.
Riker walked around the outside of the pit and jumped over a crack in the ground, landing hard on his feet. He approached the button and pushed it in, the red glow turning into a purplish hue. He returned to the others as they walked up a stair case and exited Section C for a main set of catwalks. They walked around them and came to a door which was barred shut with a sign across it.
"Simple this time," Malik explained. "It says Access Denied."
"I feel we'll be hearing a lot of that," Kargoth said, grimly.
"That's what comes for being an intruder."
They left the door behind and came to another one of the waste pits. This time, the Translator indicated this was Section A and was 100 full. It also contained three Mercenaries, which was a bit of the blow. During the fight that followed, Malik was desperately wishing he had a better weapon to fight with. A Stinger was not really a match for these Mercenaries, who were heavily armoured and armed with a little Gattling gun and a rocket launcher.
He had to rely on the back up assistance of Riker once he'd shredded his Mercenary to pieces with the Flak Cannon. The small cannon which once belonged to a Skaarj Trooper was now beginning to overtake Kargoth's 8-ball gun on some accounts; it was certainly much better at killing the Mercs. By the time Riker had killed his and assisted Malik, Kargoth had smacked down her target.
"I think Flak beats 8-ball today," Riker commented, smirking.
"For once I'll have to agree with you one something," Kargoth grumbled.
"Oh halleluiah!" Malik replied, sarcastically.
He approached the button and pushed it in, once again turning it into the purplish shade like the previous button. The three of them left Section A satisfied and carried on along the catwalk set to Section B, which was 48 full according to Malik's Universal Translator. With only one Merc this time around, they had an easy ride through the to the button at the other end, which Kargoth went for seeing as the 8-ball gun was beginning to run a little low on ammunition. She didn't particularly want to rely on her supercharged dispersion pistol, even if it was a nice, compact little weapon.
Like the other button, it too turned into the purplish shade and now all three buttons had been pushed. The prisoners made their way back through to the catwalk section and back to the door, but it was still locked.
"Now where the hell do we go," Malik growled.
"Clearly out lucky button thing didn't work this time," Riker noted.
"Perhaps it's activated something else this time."
"I did notice some door ways in the three Sections," Kargoth cut in. "Perhaps where they lead to those handy little controls have activated. Maybe we just need to look around a little more rather than assume the obvious all the time."
"Let's go back and investigate these doors then."
Letting Kargoth lead the way back to Section C, they followed her back down the staircase, around the side of the bio waste filled pit and into one of the covered doorways she'd found. They came to a little area which was full of more bio waste but contained a lift at one end. They approached it, Malik walking up to the computer screen and reading the message it held.
"Lift inoperable due to a broken pipe," he read. "Hmm, helpful."
Malik looked up into the lift shaft above, seeing that one of the pipes had been bent and was now blocking the path upwards. He could see a doorway up above where the lift would have taken them to. They needed to get up there.
"Perhaps there's another lift on the other side," Kargoth suggested.
"There's only one way to find out," Malik replied.
They worked their way back round to Section A before finding lift one which was in operation. They travelled up to the levels above, which looked like greenhouses used for growing strange looking plants. There were several Mercenaries on guard but they fended them off easily, Kargoth having to go astray up a lift where she found some more 8-balls to reload her rocket launcher with. The others followed her up there, Riker having to defend her from a nearby Merc with his Flak Cannon.
They proceeded into the room which the Mercenary had come in from and found themselves in an area with several lifts. One of the doors seemed to have control centre access, but the message this time was slightly different. It said control centre access was needed before granting permission to Noork's Elbow. They gathered that had to be the way out of Terraniux. It would hopefully take them further to ISV-Kran.
There were three lifts in the small room, so they decided to take one each up to the next level. Kargoth picked up another weapon power up for the dispersion pistol which was floating on its usual shots of blue energy. She watched the gun change shape once again into something more powerful as the men searched the upper area for a way to the control centre. There was nothing here except a set of scuba gear which Riker claimed for himself. Now they were both equipped for underwater passage.
"There's nothing up here," Malik concluded.
"No control centre, no nothing!" Riker added. "Only some medical kits."
"We'd better take those just in case," Kargoth noted. "You never know."
"We can't carry everything we come across, Kargoth."
"And besides," Malik cut in. "They'll have stuff like that at ISV-Kran."
"Who knows how far away that is," Kargoth pointed out.
"My gut feeling says not far."
"Yeah, until lunch time!" Riker laughed.
Once realising there was nothing much up here, the three of them headed down back to the greenhouses via the lifts. They came into Greenhouse 2 and were met with more resistance which Kargoth met with her newly transformed dispersion pistol. It seemed to work very well once again. It even managed to completely disintegrate one of the heads of the Mercs.
"Lovely!" Kargoth grinned.
"There we go! A way out!" Riker pointed out.
They approached the door which he'd spotted and pushed the button to lower it, climbing up into the next room. There was nothing in here except for another door which said 'entry to Noork's Elbow can only be granted by control centre access'. Other than that, there was only a pipe contained more bio waste below them. Unfortunately, it looked like they had to swim down through it.
"We've all got aqua lungs," Malik noted.
"Come on," Kargoth complained. "Water is slightly different to bio waste!"
"She's right, what if it's toxic," Riker agreed.
Malik sighed and put his hand into the slightly viscous green fluid. He took his hand out again and showed it to the others. Yes, it had not been damaged by the stuff, but it was awfully slimy and smelt a little bit like strong petrol. Kargoth didn't mind the smell, but Riker wasn't overly keen.
"It's the only way to the control centre," Malik explained.
"I could always meet you by the door," Riker shrugged.
"No; no one is splitting up. We stick together, understood?"
Kargoth smiled. "Perfectly."
The three of them, though slightly unwillingly, dived into the bio waste tube and swam to the bottom, their aqua lungs kicking in. It was rather useful seeing as it prevented any bio waste getting into their mouths and possible contaminating them. Kargoth took the lead and took out a torch she had found on the Vortex Rikers, switching it on and watching the beam search out a path for them to follow.
They swam down into a pipe which was pitch black and smelt strongly of the strange bio waste. Kargoth lead them down along it and out of the waste at a maximum peak of the pipe's bend. They slid down the pipe and out into what appeared to be the control centre. They were met by three Mercenaries who were waiting for them with their rocket launchers and little Gattling Guns ready. It didn't take long to attack them all, but they seemed to lose interest in Malik after a while.
Letting Riker and Kargoth finish off their enemies, Malik wondered over to a glass panel which was flashing with blue lights. He looked beyond it and saw an area they had not yet been in. Perhaps this was Noork's Elbow. However, his attention soon turned on a strange looking weapon mounted on a pedestal in front of the window. He picked it up, seeing the pipe which connected the barrel of the gun to a container at the back which was filled with a bright green slime. The Translator called it a GES Bio Rifle. It sounded pretty interesting.
Turning around, he saw that Riker was in trouble. The Merc and knocked his Flak Cannon out of his hand at sent it skidding across the floor. Malik charged up a large clump of bio waste into the barrel of the rifle and fired it at the Mercenary. It was a large, slow moving globular shaped splodge of bright green slime and as soon as it hit the Merc, it clung to its skin and blew him to bits. Malik laughed and stroked the barrel of his new weapon. It would go alongside his Stinger nicely.
"What's that?" Kargoth asked with interest.
"A GES Bio Rifle," he explained. "Uses this waste I imagine."
"Sounds lovely."
She crossed the room to where the Mercenary's body parts had been scattered into a small heap. She smelt the air around it, noticing the faint petroleum smell that was common to the waste in Terraniux.
"Yeah, definitely the same stuff," she commented.
"Let's get out of here," Malik noted.
"Yeah, before the smell of this stuff intoxicates me!" Riker shook his head.
He sneezed loudly as Malik crossed the room and opened the door to the control centre. They found themselves out on the catwalk centre besides the three Sections of bio waste pits, but they already knew where to go from their previous adventure to find the control centre. They made there way over to Section A and found the lift which took them up to the greenhouses above.
They were met with resistance along the way but they easily managed to cut through them with Malik's Bio Rifle, Kargoth's 8-ball gun and Riker's Flak Cannon. After killing the last Merc that got in their way, they found the lift they'd used before to find the control centre access and returned there to find the door that was previously locked now open. Riker disintegrated the Mercenary beyond the door while Malik found some more ammunition to collect for his Bio Rifle and Kargoth pushed a button. That triggered a lift which came down at the far end.
"Is that it?" she asked.
Malik glanced at his Translator.
"Yeah, that's the lift to Noork's Elbow," he noted.
"Then let's go and pay a visit."
The three of them stepped onto the lift which took them down to a different level and stopped them in front of a door. They approached the door and it opened, stepping out into some fresh air for the first time in a while since they first entered the Terraniux Compound.