5 Nest no. 1
The megacity of Arcology-1 was an incredible feat of engineering. Riley had no doubt about that. He used to read about how the people who designed this place did it, and still couldn't wrap his head around it.
According to his feeble grab on the city's history, when the Final War hit, the city only had 10 million people. That number became 50 million after 20 years, and 100 million after 50 years. Now the number was estimated between 110 and 115 million people.
And to think that the infrastructure to support more than 100 million people were already in place when the war began. Living space, transportation, industrial area, farming area and so on. Everything was there, and only minimal alteration was needed when the place began filling up. It was both brilliant and quite terrifying.
That said, Riley was still scratching his head over one simple question.
For all the excellent engineering, why couldn't the city keep the mutated creatures off the sewers?
After the Final War turned most of Earth into an uninhabitable wasteland and killed most of the wildlife, the surviving creatures were mutated into all sorts of bizarre and dangerous abominations. As they stumbled around aimlessly in the Great Wasteland, some chanced upon one of the city's sewer exits, made their way inside and began nesting, feeding on human waste and other plants and creatures. There was practically a whole ecosystem down here.
Inevitably, the creatures would run into some poor maintenance workers or homeless vagrants, and the sightings would be reported. Scout teams would be sent down to locate and "tag" the nests, registering their locations to the central database. The exterminating job colloquially called "bug hunt" would then be assigned to Armed Freelancers. Riley's examination is, in effect "the taste of things to come," a way to get the would-be graduates ready for the real world.
Riley shook his head, dispelling the errant thoughts and focused on the path ahead. He was walking slowly through the tunnel. Walking beside him are Cheng, Mako, and Jenkins. Mr. Goodman hung back a dozen meters.
None of them spoke. They were focused on inspecting their surroundings. The only sounds heard were the squishing their boots made on the ground, which was covered with moss and waste. The air was damp and smelled faintly of decomposing organic matter.
Although he already knew it by heart, Riley still discretely pulled up the mission briefing on his HUD and gave it another once over.
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> Mission ID GAF-32E9084
> Status: Compulsory [Details]. Difficulty: H [Details]
> Mission time remaining: 23:17:36
> Pri. Objective: Destroy tagged nests [Nests remaining: 4/4]
> Sec. Objective #1: Restore air filter system in affected area.
> Sec. Objective #2: Tag and destroy additional nests.
> Description: On August 5th, 2257, four nests were sighted in section DT-89-SW… [more]
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When they were assigned the mission 5 days ago, the team began planning. Using the intel of the tagged nests along with the schematic of the sewer system, the team figured out their approach. It took a lot of debating until everyone agreed with Riley's plan to hit one nest at a time, from the smallest to the biggest.
In fact, most of the debating was to convince Cheng that, while this approach looked much less "cool" than jumping straight in the middle of the nests, standing back-to-back and shooting everything that moved, it would keep them alive and eligible for future jobs.
Ahead of Riley was a corner. The letters DT-89-SW Section R was on the wall, in light-reflecting orange paint. He halted and held up a fist.
"Nest #1 at 400 meters. Let's set it up!"
Cheng opened his backpack and took out a dozen objects of varying shapes and sizes. These were different types of mines: quick-drying foam, anti-personnel, concussion, disruptor and so on. Following the pattern the team had worked out earlier, Cheng began planting and activating the mines, with Riley assisting him and Mako keeping a lookout.
This was their improvised "fall-back area." In case they were overwhelmed, the team would be able to retreat through this part of the tunnel. The mines would be detonated behind them, slowing down the pursuers.
After Cheng and Riley finished with the mines, Riley said "Alright team. Comm check."
The four-man group sounded out one by one to make sure their communication channel was working properly. Earlier, they had configured their smart-pads to automatically reject calls from outside, only maintaining a constant connection to each other. Then they did a final weapon and equipment check.
Ignoring Mr. Goodman's gaze on his back, Riley spoke. "Mako, one eye on the motion detector. Jenkins, don't do anything stupid. Cheng, keep an eye on him. I'll take point."
"Got it. Jenkins, keep your finger off the trigger!" Cheng spoke. He eyed the nervous Jenkins who was gripping his shotgun tightly.
Riley peered around the corner. According to the map, there was supposed to be a 3-way junction at 400 meters ahead. The 5-meter wide and 4-meter high tunnel was supposed to branch off in two opposite directions. However, the two branches are practically invisible, as they were covered by a gigantic mound made of a brown slime.
This is a "typical" termite's nest. Created from the termite's secretion, the brown slime, the nest was used to protect their eggs and larvae, as well as the queen. The same slime could be seen covering the floor and wall around the nest.
The "termites," insects whose size ranged from a small dog to a pig, were scurrying around, some expanding the nest, others carrying food into it. The quiet clickety-clack of hundreds of feet echoed faintly through the tunnel.
Riley zoomed in with his optics. Ignoring the various readings of temperature, humidity, etc churned out by the HUD, he highlighted the termite nest.
[ Target acquired. Visible hostiles: 80~120 ]
Based on the termites' usual hive behavior, Riley estimated their full number to be between 180 and 250. He then made a few calculations and talked to the rest of the team.
"Alright. Show time, guys. I'll start with a William Pete. Everyone else, hold your fire."
Riley unslung the Fauci-67 grenade launcher on his back and ensured the correct round was loaded. Shouldering the weapon, he confirmed the target, flipped the safety and pulled the trigger.
With a "Fwoomph!" the WP grenade was launched out of the barrel. It sailed through the air and buried itself into the thick brown slime. Riley held his breath. After a second that felt like a minute, a muffled explosion tore the nest apart. The area around it became completely obscured by white smoke.
William Pete rounds, a.k.a. WP or White Phosphorus was a type of incendiary munitions. Although the chemical composition of these modern rounds was nothing similar to when they were first introduced almost 300 years ago, the name stuck.
The released substance would cling to every surface, then burn at a temperature that is almost always lethal to living things but was almost completely harmless to man-made infrastructure such as the sewer walls. Because of their smoke-like form, they would be able to fill up the nooks and crannies of empty structures, like a termite's nest, and cook everything within. After ten minutes, the chemicals would completely disperse and become inert.
Compared to Napalm or Nano-pyro rounds, the effect of WP rounds looked extremely subdued. However, their efficiency cannot be argued with. Above all, they were cheap, which was the best selling point.
The result was instant pandemonium. The air was thick with the acrid smell of WP mixed with cooked termite flesh, filled with the eardrum-shattering screech of the dying termites. Wincing at the screech, Riley switched his optics to infra-red to better observe the termites through the thick smoke. Their movement, which was bustling before, reached a feverish pitch.
The termites were confused, incapable of processing the disaster, and were torn between self-preservation instinct and hive duty. They both wanted to get away from the scorching substance and wanted to rescue as many eggs as possible. Soon, they were joined by other termites which were out foraging earlier. Unable to find the aggressors and debilitated by conflicting intentions, the termites ran around like headless chicken until most were killed in the burning smoke.
After the smoke had dispersed completely, Riley secured the grenade launcher to the small of his back, slipped on the gas mask and readied his sidearm.
"Alright, guys. Let's move!"
Riley left his cover and began making his way toward the nest, flanked on both sides by Cheng, Mako, and Jenkins. Together, they moved in a reversed V formation, with Riley at the point, each person covering a small angle.
As they approach the enemies, they spread out a little to give each other space. Slowly and methodically, they advanced and killed the injured termites, keeping an eye on each other to maintain formation. The still aggressive insects each got a few rounds to the face, while the weak one could simply be disposed of with a stomp of their boots.
When it became apparent that the termites are too injured to move quickly, Riley and Mako began using their tonfa to save ammo. With a big grin, Cheng whipped out his staff and went to town on the poor termites. Jenkins hung back and only occasionally took pot shots at a twitching termite.
"Jenkins, if you want to shoot, stay in the front! Don't walk behind us!" After a stray shot landed too close to his hand, Cheng turned around and snapped at Jenkins, who meekly held his fire.
They killed everything that moved and after Cheng tore away a section of the nest that was relatively intact, the four saw the nest queen.
