FSE

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I brought up my PDA the second I was in the hallway. I navigated to the maps and found a JPEG file that had a big blue "NEW FILE" on it. I clicked on it and found that it was the map to the Biome's. From where I was it was straight down the hallway to my left, and out the large door at the end, which I could actually see from where I was. Didn't really need a map for that. I stuffed my PDA back into my vest and began a sprint down the hall, coming to a stop at the huge, heavy, 20 gauge steel door. There were four heavy, snap locks on the top and bottom of the door and two on each side with two hydraulic clutch locks in the middle. A more through inspection revealed no manual overrides. Bad news. I wasn't strong enough to try to claw through the locks, and I didn't think that I could carry enough explosives to blow through it.

"Okay...that's a big ass door. Allen", I said getting onto my radio, "problem, the incredible hulk's front door is blocking my path."

"Look at the bottom of the door", Allen replied, "there should be a label that says "Warning, 33,000 pound hydraulic hatch."

I pulled my flashlight out of my vest and scanned the bottom of the door, in the middle was an orange sticker that said "Warning, 33,000 pound hydraulic hatch."

"I see it", I called.

"Pull it off", Allen said, "underneath there's a red level. Press it in and it will release all of the hydraulic fluid in the locking systems, you should then be able to undo the locks and pull it open yourself."

I poked a hole in the sticker and slid my hand inside, peeling the sticker right off, finding the little red level. I pushed it down, it didn't budge. A littler harder, no budge. I pushed down with everything that I had, it just barely moved. Grunting, I stood up and bashed into it with the buttstock of my FAL. The heavy level gave in and there were several loud hissing noises and then a sound like someone spilled a cup of water as all the clear hydraulic fluid poured out over the ground. I waited until the steam had been reduced to a drip before I started undoing the locks. Even without the fluid inside of them, I was fighting an almost sixteen ton door with locks on it that weighed more than I did. I grabbed one of the clasps on the top of the door and pulled as hard as I could, barely even moving it, draining the blood out of my hands and numbing them in the process. I let go of the tank masquerading as a lock and shook the feeling back into my hands. I grabbed a hold of it again and put all of my quarter ton into pulling it down, finding that it snapped open fairly easily. I repeated the processes on the rest of the locks and soon the door had cracked open just enough for me to see light from behind it. I shouldered my FAL and stuck my fingers in the crack. With everything my body had, I pulled the door open inch by inch.

After a few minutes, I was met with a harsh light which made my eyes hurt even underneath the shielding of my visor. When I finally recovered enough to see again, what I saw stunned me.

The landscape in the "labs" was lush and green. There were trees growing on top of mounds and there was a river running through the area and the bluish green grass was still damp from morning dew. I could hear the calls of various wildlife and even see a few birds in the area. There was a giant, steel net above me that was being supported by four, fucking enormous steel pillars in each corner and there were a few buildings bu lit in the tops of the giant Java Trees. There were vines growing up the walls and the trunks of trees and there were even a few fish swimming in the river below me. A giant water fall coming from the wall fed the river and gave a few of the interesting fish the current they needed to glide.

"Feels like so long since I've seen natural light", I said to myself as I grabbed my FAL off my back.

"Finally a signal", Magellan's voice chirped on my PDA, "Skyline, you there?"

"Good to hear your voice again Magellan", I said.

"What happened to you?", Magellan asked, "you've been dark for nearly 20 hours."

"The lab is in a quarantine", I said, "the walls are so thick no signal can get through. Anyway,I need to find a security guard and a set of generators, how long before it get's dark again?"

"The day and night cycles on Ios are relatively rapid at about 15 hours.", Magellan answered, "further more, the planet's moon periodically interrupts the day/night cycle, bringing temporary one hour patches of night during the day."

"In other words I won't be able to enjoy the sunlight for extended periods of time", I said frowning a little.

"Sorry", Magellan said, "not every job is peaches and cream."

I shook my head and started walking. I crossed over the river by means of a metal bridge and to a metal sign post that had several blue screens. On them were directions to different labs sets. The first screen had the direction to Lab set 1, which consisted of 39-41 and 43 while set two had Labs 45, 47 and 49 and set three contained Labs 51, 53 and 55. According to the maps, Lab 45 was 172 meters due northeast of my current location, so I started in that direction.

The path led up a long, winding hill that was lined with trees and shrubs, some of them made gurgling noises when I got close. I wasn't sure what was causing that, but made a mental note to stay far, far away from them. At the top of the hill was a big metal building with a faded, red 45 painted on it.

At the entrance to the lab were several humanoid, plant like creatures that were clawing at the door, leaving deep gashes in the steel. They stood at about 6 feet tall. They had all kinds of spikes and thorns on their heads and backs and several vine like tentacles growing from their arms that looked to be about three or four feet long. They didn't look all that strong though. Deciding to use the fact that they didn't see me to my advantage, I shouldered my FAL, sighted in ones head and let the round off. The creature's dome split like a weak grape and sent a light green colored paste that had the consistency of mud all over the door.

The others flung around and started lumbering towards me. I sighted in the second one and let the shot off, tearing it's arm right out of it's socket and sending it spinning to the ground. The remaining three creatures then charged me. Weak yes, slow? By no definition of the word. The came so quickly I didn't even have time to think about engaging them with my rifle. The all crashed into me at once, putting me flat on my back. They than began viciously clawing at my vest and biting at me. I shot my head forward and snapped my jaws shut one one of the creatures, getting a mouth full of bone, brain and goo that tasted so horribly bad that it triggered my gag reflex before I could even spit it out. When I finally managed to get it out of my mouth and turn my attention on the last two plant men, they had ceased clawing at my vest and were now trying to bite into my neck. I managed to get my tail around and stab one of them through the skull, but his friend moved out of the way just in time, avoiding my razor and managing to bite me. Mistake. There was a loud sizzling sound and an ear splitting sherik as the creature jumped off me. As it reared back, I yanked my Automag from it's holster and put four rounds into it's gut, the bullets ripping huge holes into it's chest and abdomen. It fell back and didn't get up. I took a deep breath and sat up, instantly my stomach began to convulse and I threw up everything I had eaten the night before along with straight stomach acid, which promptly began eating the grass and dirt around it. When my stomach was finally empty, I was left with a throbbing pain and a horrible aftertaste.

"Note to self", I said wiping my mouth, "don't bite the Vine People."

I stuffed my Automag back into my holster and went for my canteen. I rinsed out my mouth and then grabbed my FAL, sprinting up to the door. It was a lot less heavy looking than the one that had led into the Biome's and only had one lock on it. I banged on it a few times before I heard someone say, "what the hell now?"

"Mike", I said, "it's Skyline."

"How do I know?", he replied.

"Mutants don't knock first", I answered, "open the damn door."

The door slid open and the beat up, blond haired green eyed man was standing there with a worn-out looking desert tan M4 carbine with a grenade launcher and EoTech sight as well as Juggernaut Tactical muzzle brake with a colt 45 military as his secondary.

"Your taller in person", he said as I stepped inside.

"We can skip that and come back to it later", I told him taking another drink from my canteen, "where are the generators."

"About a forty meter hike from here", Mike said, "problem is, the Plant People you killed outside are attracted to noise of any sound level, when I start trying to jump the generators, there gonna come running in the dozens, hundreds even."

"How many creatures do you guys have here?", I asked.

"It's a 4 square mile lab that reaches 40 stories up", Mike said, "thousands? Hundreds of thousands?"

I sighed, this was getting to be too much. What had I gotten myself into?

"I only have 300 rounds on me", I said, "I had 360, but..never mind. How much ammo you have?"

Mike felt his vest, "I have 14 rounds in this clip and two more in my vest...so 74 for my AR and about 100 for my 45."

"And your M203?."

Mike opened his grenade launcher and let a spent shell fall to the ground. He opened his last M203 pouch and loaded in an incendiary round.

"One shot", he said.

I sighed, "all this hardware you people have and you ain't got no ammo?"

"Well forgive me", Mike said, "I've been fighting for my life these past few weeks and ammo tends to go away pretty quickly when your shooting into hordes of plant based humans."

I sighed again and put my canteen away, "if worse comes to worse I'll fight the way Xeno's a known for."

"Maybe you won't have to", Mike said, "just before you showed up, Allen radioed me and told me about a sniper tower close to where I was. We have a lot of them set up in this part of the lab to deal with all of the troublesome mutants that escape. By lab rules they must be stocked with an 8mm rifle and at least 500 rounds of ammunition. If it's close to the generators, maybe you could use it to snipe what ever shows up while I work on them."

I nodded, "take me to it."

I stood up as Mike opened the door and peeked out. When he saw that there were no plant people waiting for us walked out and I followed him. We walked along side the metal wall of the labs until we hit a small drop off. Just below the drop was a tall tree with a ladder attached to it. I could see a metal hatch up in the tree.

"You should be able to see the generator building from that hide", Mike said, "I'll head there once you give me the go ahead."

I nodded and handed him my sword, "just in case you run out of ammo, start swinging and it will cut through anything that's not made of stone or metal."

"No way you might need it", Mike said.

"I've got a vest full of ammo, claws, teeth, a razor tipped tail and a body full of acid", I replied, "you might need it first."

He nodded and slung it over his back as I shouldered my FAL and started up the metal ladder. It was about 300 feet to the hatch. When I got there, I pushed the hatch open and pulled myself up into a quite spacious sniper tower. There was a couch in one corner, a small crate in the corner marked "Cartridge Box-8mm Super Magnum", a small Tube TV sitting on a wooden box in front of the couch and a hammock above the couch.

In the corner with two ammo boxes next to it was the rifle. It was desert tan with a ported triangular barrel, right hand bolt action, Bi-Pod, the same angular grip that was on the High-Power and my FAL and played host to a huge scope that looked like it belonged on a Barrett .50 cal. Love to have one of those bad boys right about now. I picked up the rifle and pulled the action open, revealing a shiny, 8mm round, ready to rock. I peered through the mill dot scope and noticed a large, garage door building that I assumed was the generator room.

"I got the building sighted in", I said into my radio, "get going Mike."

"Rodger", Mike called, "beginning my advance."

A few minutes later, Mike opened the huge garage door and walked inside, out of my sight.

"Oh shit Skyline", he called, "one of these generators has been chewed on by something. I don't know if I can fix this."

"What's wrong with it?", I asked.

"The wires look like some one ate them, shit them out and then hooked them back up", Mike replied, "even if I could get it running it doesn't look like it would be of use."

"Hang on, let me call Allen."

"Allen, it's Skyline, come in."

"I read ya Sky, what's up?"

"Mike said that one of the generators looks like it's been chewed on", I said, "he's not sure if he can get it running."

"Which number is it?", Allen asked.

"34", Mike replied.

"Our lab requires 34, 35 and 37", Allen said, "you have to get it running, do you have your PDA on you?"

"Yes", Mike replied.

"Then send us a picture and listen very careful to Tyler, he's gonna talk you through it."

There was a pause and then Tyler came over the radio.

"All right Mikey", Tyler said, "looks like Generator 34 is a Briggs & Straton Propane InteleGEN 45 Super Volt, one of their bigger, more complicated models. Looks like the starting cables are chewed up, but there's fail safe built in. There are two thick black cables in the back of the main wire bundle, one has a yellow stripe and the other is red, do you see them?"

"Yeah I see them", Mike said.

"Good", Tyler said, "those are your jumper cables. To start the generator you will have to turn those cables around and make an X with them, that will route power to the fuel motor and if you flip the "On" switch it will fill the carburetor with meth."

There was a slight pause, "red light's flashing like someone's having a heart attack", Mike said.

"Yes", Tyler said, "your fuel pump is receiving power just flip the fuel pump switch.

There was another pause, "I'm getting a loud humming noise."

"The carburetor should be filling with Meth", Tyler said, "try giving it a start."

I could hear the generator cough to life, only to quickly die again.

"It died on me", Mike said.

I didn't hear what Tyler replied as I shifted my focus to a few of the Vine People who had begun closing in on Mike's location. I sighted in the back of one of the creatures and let a round go. The kick hurt my shoulder a little, but the trade off was that I blew off the top half of my target.

"Got baddies moving in", I said letting off another round, sheering apart my target, "hurry up with your drug addicted generator."

I could hear the Briggs coughing as I shot another one of the Vine People dead. I worked the action of the slightly imposing rifle and sent the cartridge spinning through the air before it hit the glass on the window with a soft clank. I pushed the action forward and loaded in a new round as I sighted in another one of the plant freaks. I let the round off and struck one in the neck, which tore through the three in front of him, dropping them in a pile where they stood.

"TombTrigger509", I said as I worked the action, "multi kill. Care package ready for delivery." If only this was Call Of Duty.

"I think it's bad gas", Mike said, "I remember my old man had one of these Briggs, about the only thing that ever brought her down was when she was trying to slurp off jellied propane."

"Then there must be a clog in the fuel lines", Tyler said, "take the plastic covering off the carburetor and use one of the syringes from your medical kit to give it a direct shot of the Meth, Propane mix, there should be some of the stuff in barrels down there."

I could hear the clanking of barrels as I let off the last round in my chamber. I pulled the action open and clicked out the ten round magazine, I grabbed a fresh mag from one of the boxes and clicked it in place, slamming the action closed. I sighted in another one of the Vine People and let the round off. Despite not having missed one yet, the longer Mike took, the more seemed to show up. I suspected they were not only hearing the sound of the Briggs, but also the radio's signal.

"Hurry it up Mike", I said letting off another round, "there are more coming than I can put down."

I heard a faint squirting sound over the radio and then the sound of the generator's starting motor come on. It roared to life and hummed like it was running on full strength. I sighed a relived sigh, glad that it was running. Then I heard it sputter and die off. Fuck.

"Come on baby", Mike said, there was another faint squirt, "come on, run for me."

I heard the Briggs start again, run for a few seconds and die off. Mike tried again to start it, producing a similar result. The wheels on the bus went round and round as Mike tried to start the generator and got the same thing, a few seconds of full strength and then sputter and a die off. Meanwhile, I was dropping the Vine People as fast I could sight and work the action, but they just kept coming. I had been through nearly 120 rounds when Mike called over the radio again.

"She's not getting any gas", he said, "there's a clog somewhere, could be in the lines or somewhere in the carburetor or even the meth injectors. If it had fuel stabilizer in it we might be getting some...wait a minute..."

I heard the distinct sound of Velcro and then another squirt, and another. The very familiar sound of the starter motor and then the hum of the running generator. This time, it didn't die after a few seconds, but kept going.

"Yes!", Mike said, "got it. Moving onto the next two."

Soon the sounds of two more Briggs generators filled the area. Not long after that my sniper fire was joined by the sounds of automatic .223 fire. I sighted in the last creature in the group and let the round off, emptying my current magazine. I pulled the bolt open and was in the middle of the reload when Mike came out and locked the door behind him.

"Come on Skyline!", he shouted, "let's make a run for it!"

I set the Mauser down on the floor boards, closed up the two ammo boxes and tossed them down. I slung the Mauser over my shoulder and slid down the ladder, grabbing up the two heavy ammo boxes and running to meet Mike, who was making a beeline for the heavy door that had led me in. I could hear the Vine People charging after us and judging by the sound, there were a lot of them, attracted by the gun fire no doubt.

"Jesus how many of them are back there?", Mike asked.

"Don't care!", I said feeling cold, moss like fungus as one of them grabbed at my tail, "just run for your life! They'll tear us to pieces if they catch us!"

I heard gun fire brake out. I looked ahead of me to see Allen crouched down in the lit doorway with his M240 rocking. Mike and I weaved through Allen's storm of .308 and slid into the doorway. Allen stood up and continued to shoot his Bravo one handed as he hit a switch and the door slammed shut behind us.

"Like a stroll in the park huh?", I said.