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Even at 100 miles an hour I could feel how much the car was having to fight to pull itself through the heat. The air was so humid that I was leaving a vapor trail and there was steam coming off the black tar of the road. The ride itself was rather smooth, but I could tell from the way the smaller bumps felt that the tires were melting and then hardening again quicker than I could think. Hope these tires hold out. I could feel how hot it was around me through my uncovered mouth and the tips of my fingers, hell the leather on the steering wheel was leaving marks on the Chitin on them. Even through the suit was nearly freezing me on the lowest setting, I could still feel the heat from the car's interior.

"What's the temperature Doc?", I asked through my suits built in radio.

"Nearing the 180 mark", James answered, "you should be close to the first turn now."

I peered ahead and saw a red stop sign near a 4-Way intersection. I wasn't too familiar with how the road laws worked, because I'd only ever driven my truck off road, but I was pretty sure that they didn't apply in this case.

"Right turn right?", I asked slowing down and pushing the shifter down to 5th gear and then to 4th.

"Yes", James said, "you can ignore the stop sign, every second counts."

"Rodger", I said downing the car to second and 45 miles an hour before I went around the corner. I put the pedal to the carpet and shifted into 3rd gear as the engine fought the melty tires to bring the car back to speed. I could smell the burning rubber and see the black marks I was leaving in the rear view mirror.

"The rubber on these tires is melting", I called.

"How do you know?", James replied.

"I can smell it", I told him, "I can feel it too. They way the engine is screaming makes me think I should be doing a lot better than 121 MPH."

"Try to stay at speed", James said, "if you stop those tires will melt to the pavement and you will never get back here before this place becomes a cremation chamber."

"I'm going as fast as I can", I replied putting the gas as far down as I could, "it would help if I wasn't leaving tire behind me."

"Stay at speed", Mike said, "the air rushing around the tires will cool them off and help keep them hard."

"I'm doing my best here guys", I replied, "there's only so much I that I can do from a driver's seat though."

I shut off the radio as I continued down the long straight away. After what seemed like an eternity of empty road, the car's engine began to sputter, soon it died off. The RPM gauge dropped to zero and the speedometer began to drop off. I looked down at the gas gauge and found that the needle was resting on empty. I pressed down on the brake and soon the car stopped. I popped the trunk open and climbed out of the car. As I did I realized that there was another, expensive car close to me. It was white with red stripes and had a large wing over the back, telling me it was either someone's custom car, or a race car. The tires were melted to the road and the bumpers looked like melted cheese oozing out of Calzone. The paint on the body was peeling off and there was steam coming from underneath the hood. When I peered inside the window, I saw two bodies a male and female human. Their skin was raw and peeling, the heat no doubt. The man's hand was melted on the steering wheel and woman was holding his other one. I doubted that they were alive in there, and I didn't dare touch the metal handle out of fear of burning my fingers off. I quickly walked around to the trunk of the Honda and pulled a cotton strap to open it. I pulled the metal gas can out of the trunk and then popped the gas cap of the car off, beginning to fill the tank.

"This isn't going to blow up in my face is it?", I asked, "because...I'm kind of attached to what I've got left."

"No", James said, "for spontaneous combustion the oxygen content in the air would have to be damn near 90%, and that alone would kill you."

"Good to know", I sighed.

"You asked", James said, "hurry up and get that generator online, it's getting hotter than a dutch oven up in this concrete bitch."

"How long will it take if I drive at top speed from here?", I asked closing the fuel tank , tossing the can into the backseat and getting back in the car.

"10 minutes at the most", Mike said, "hurry up, it's almost 131 degrees in the lounge right now."

"Copy that", I said getting in the car and starting the engine. I shifted from parked to first and put the pedal to the floor. After about four minutes of driving I arrived at a fork in the road with another car that was melted to the pavement and a steaming radiator.

"Take that exit", James said, "once your back on the ground, you'll come to a four way turn with a circle of road in the middle, that's the roundabout, take the first, right hand turn and you'll see a sign that will tell you that Ransol Industries is a minute down the road."

"You seem to know a lot about where it is that I'm going", I said as I neared the roundabout.

"I used to drive this route a lot", James said, "leave it at that."

Sighing again, I steered the Honda through the corners and put the pedal down to make up for the lost time. I didn't have long before my friends were turned into human chicken fingers from the heat, so once I hit Ransol I was moving with a purpose, there was no way even the oldest, combat hardened Praetorian was getting off of this hell hole without help.

The scenery of large trees and black asphalt was soon replaced by a vast, rolling plain that was crowded by chrome pipes and white chemical tanks that were accompanied by stone smokestacks and tin blow down drums with steel flare vents as their partners. The grass was replaced by white rocks and the road had changed from asphalt to concrete. The groves caused the tires to make whistling noises as they glided over them. In the not so far off distance there was a tall, concrete and glass weather beaten building that looked like it had lived through several Universal Civil wars. There was black smoke billowing from the stacks behind the building and there was steam pouring from the condenser and evaporator units that were on either side of my car, telling me that the plant was either automated, or was manned by a species that didn't care how un godly hot it was outside.

"Ransol looks like it's operating at full steam ahead", I called into my radio, "lot's of mechanical activity. Some of it looks automated, but this would be the first time I've seen evaporator units running on their own AI."

"Ransol is in fact a fully automated chemical plant", James said, "Their living workforce is responsible for maintaining the machinery and running security. Unfortunately for you, most of Ransol's crew is made up of synthetics that have been programmed to catch and kill at any cost all non security card wearing employees, so stay safe and keep the High-Power handy, your going to need it."

"Will do", I answered as I pulled into a parking spot close to the entrance and killed the engine.

"By the way", James said, "once you enter Ransol, we'll lose you on coms. I'm picking up a very strong EMP shield around the facility."

"So I'll have to find the main generator on my own?", I asked, "that will be a task."

"Maybe not", he answered, "I'm sending the copy of Magellan that Tyler managed to remotely retrieve from your ship's CPU to your suits IPU, Magellan should more than be able to hack any lab system you need access to."

"Send him my way", I said.

"Magellan Version 11.0.22 Beta loading", my suit said, "accessing memory files....restoring....ready."

"Nice to have you back Magellan", I said with a smile pasted to my face.

"Last thing I remember was a rocket smacking me in the ass", Magellan said, "all my sensors went down...what the hell happened?"

"There's a crazy man named Dr. Martin Denis lose in Biosphere Labs", I answered, "he blew up the ship with a Carl G rocket and then tried to blow me and my friends up with a 20mm sniper rifle. He's the one responsible for the creature escape at the labs and he's out for blood. He's also got access to the Cluster 300, which is the universes most powerful hypercomputer and he's hell bent on his "goal", but won't say what that is."

"I warned you this job had "lava bad", written all over it", Magellan snapped, "but no! No one ever listens to the AI who has 2,000 years of science and human experience in his head."

"Will you shut up for just one second and let me explain some shit?", I snapped, "the temperature is approaching 200 degrees Celsius and the lab where James and the others are is about to turn into a toaster oven. You can chew me to a pulp later if you feel the need to. For now, we have work to do, and we need to do it quickly."

"Just tell me what you need Sky", Magellan said.