-Megavent 27: North Sector 18 (Halfway between C & D Sites)-
"God, it stinks down here," Eve complained, covering her nose. "Why does it smell so bad?"
~Michael Feld - Security Clearance Level 2~
Michael blinked with surprise when he checked his personnel files through his RIG to see a permanent upgrade to Level 2. They were walking down a dark maintenance tunnel toward a processing plant with only their flashlights to see what was in front of and behind them.
"Buildup in the extraction vents," Michael idly replied while he thought about his security. "Several thousand people eating, shitting, and recycling only to consume it again later has to be processed somewhere."
He sniffed before finally looking up.
"This colony runs on a closed airtight system but there is always some loss, like through airlock usage and microleaks from the diggers' suits," Michael explained.
"Large amounts of hydrogen, methane, ammonia... They have plenty of safety procedures to keep the gases separate but maybe you heard of the industrial sector's explosion on Mars a few decades ago? It killed a few thousand people so now processing plants are kept miles out from any colony district."
"Ugh. They could at least build a tram network out here."
"Yeah," Michael sighed, his legs feeling tired as well. "They really could. We're almost at the ventilation shaft."
Eve had transferred the job data over to his RIG earlier. Some of the filters and atmospheric scrubbers were reading red so a diagnostics team, Michael and Eve, were sent out.
"This is a serious leak. We shouldn't be smelling so many organics," Michael coughed with a wrinkled nose before halting in his tracks.
"Michael?"
The Marker was spreading a living tissue substance across the colony if I remember right.
Looking down at his person, the only tools he had on him outside of a basic toolkit was a welding torch.
It's just like Neumann from the comics...
"Please don't tell me you're losing your shit again," Eve groaned, looking up and down the dark tunnel they'd been walking for miles already.
"I'm not," Michael snapped. "I'm thinking. And I'm hoping this isn't the start of something painful."
"Tell me about it. Just the thought of having to make multiple trips is draining."
Their footsteps echoed loudly against the metallic floor as they continued until they eventually arrived. A large cylinder shaft with walkways on multiple levels.
"God damn it..." Michael hissed in frustration, his flashlight hovering on a fleshy, pink and red substance latched onto a scrubber.
"What is it?" Eve asked with disgust, holding her nose more firmly now. "It stinks. This is definitely it. Are the solid particles not being separated out from the gases?"
Reaching into her belt, she pulled out her own welding tool and ignited it.
"Stop!" Michael slapped her hand down. "Those are combustible! Are you trying to start a fire?"
"Oh shit. Right, sorry..."
Michael shook his head in irritation. She blinked several times, looking at it in her hand before realizing her near-fatal mistake.
"Shit," she muttered.
"Yeah shit. You're not thinking straight!"
Now I know why that old mechanic got mad at Neumann. Who knows what could've happened.
But she shouldn't have slipped up like a rookie. Is it from the lack of sleep or the Marker's influence. Alma got rid of it though...
"Do you think it's from the headaches or lack of sleep?" Michael asked.
She shook her head. "Both. As I said, I haven't been sleeping well as of late and I've been getting these strange nightmares and migraines."
Michael's mind flashed back to the wisps Alma showed him. Mainly to the sphere surrounding him where the orange wisps from assumingly the Marker couldn't penetrate. The moment this shift was over, she'd be exposed to it again.
Unless we sleep in the same room, she's cooked.
Alma's help only delayed the inevitable, Michael grimly thought. Theoretically, MAYBE, it stops psychotic breaks from happening while she's with me, but it won't stop lapses in judgment or undo the changes already done to her mind.
Just like Isaac and Nolan Stross.
While thinking this, he was carefully undoing the latches keeping the scrubber held in place with her help. Eve had a heavy guilty atmosphere around her which made it awkward but not unwarranted.
But those two had heavy exposure to the Marker. If I keep her close and stop her from visiting the Marker in person, maybe she can survive? At least the mind manipulation. I'd be behaving like a Lexine variant where I can shield people around me from the mind games.
"Yuck," Eve gagged, flinching away after undoing the latches on her side. "It's moving! I'm not a biologist but it shouldn't be moving!"
"No, it shouldn't," Michael nodded, picking it up by the corners after checking his RIG console again. "Nearest incinerator is a mile out. Radio in the situation. This probably isn't the only one. We'll need a separate crew to bring in the replacements as we go."
It was heavy. At least 20 kg (45 lbs+).
He had to drop it several times along the way even with Eve trying to help by holding up a corner. Each time they dropped it, a nasty squelch accompanied it and a gooey smudge was left on the ground.
"We'll have to retrace our steps and burn each one," Michael said.
"Ugh..."
And that is exactly what they did. When they finally dumped it into an incinerator and began their walk back, another crew arrived with a rolling cart holding handful of scrubbers.
"Hey, why can't we ride on one of those?" Eve complained loudly with her arms hanging limply at her sides.
"Because they're not for us to use," one of the two grumbled. "Don't hop on them. Trust us, we've tried. They weigh them before heading out and they have built in sensors that signal back with a video snapshot if any unusual weight is detected."
"That's bullshit!"
"You're telling us," he snorted. "Normally we wouldn't need you guys but several of our own have called off sick. Something about headaches and not feeling too good."
"What a bunch of prima donnas," the other grumbled, grunting as he heaved out the first scrubber and looked at the empty slot. "So where's this weird substance y'all found?"
Eve and Michael exchanged glances before Michael took in a deep breath.
"You'll see it soon enough."
------
~Apartment 23 - Row D4 B-Block~
Gunshots echoed after Neumann stormed the room with his female partner, Cortez. One of the corpses rose from the ground, mutating with bone spikes growing from its palms, and stabbed Cortez in the shoulder leaving Neumann to fire at it alone.
After an intense struggle, he fell to the ground entangled by strange tendrils wrapping around him and began reaching for his taser that had fallen out of his belt and zapped it. It howled and growled in pain andits tendrils entangling him retracted immediately.
"Neumann?" Two more P-Sec officers nearby sprinted to the scene, alert and ready after the recent string of events. "What's going o—"
They raised their guns but the creature already bolted, crashing through and shattering a window overlooking the lower apartment rows.
"What the fuck was that?!"
Scrambling to his feet, Neumann panted while trying to regain composure after the life-and-death fight.
"Hell if I know! But something tells me this is going to be a long night," Neumann wiped his forehead of sweat before his troubled gaze snapped to Cortez's injured body.
"She's alive! Get a medic and put out a search! Whatever that thing is, we need to find it before it causes more havoc!"