Chapter 008: B-Grade Resource Harvest
Perfect darkness fell.
Click.
With the sound of the last emergency light dying, the machine room became a vacuum-sealed tomb, void of all light and sound. All Logan could hear was his own ragged breathing, Eva's faint groans from the far side, and…
Pzzk...
The sound of smoke rising from his own hand.
He lay on the floor in the same position he'd been thrown. He had no feeling in his right hand, which had been gripping the steel hammer. The thick leather work glove couldn't withstand the ultra-high temperature of the arc flash and had melted into the flesh beneath it, becoming a single, carbonized mass.
A horrific pain seared his brain, but Logan didn't even groan. He suppressed the agony in his burnt hand and pushed himself up with his left.
His vision was black, but [Master Blueprint] did not stop. In the darkness, a blue 3D wireframe perfectly reconstructed the machine room's layout. He immediately used the [Master Blueprint] scan function to check the status of the fallen Dam Guardian.
[Target: Dam Guardian (B-Grade Mutant)]
[Status: Function Offline (Main Power Grid Shock).]
[Analysis: ...Internal 'B-Grade Mana Crystal Reactor' overloaded due to electrocution.]
[Warning: Reactor destabilizing. 65% probability of meltdown within 10 minutes.]
Logan gritted his teeth.
'I'm sitting on a B-Grade time bomb.'
At the same time, the last system warning flashed through his mind.
[Power Supply to 'Project Ark' Subterranean Containment Facility... Failure.]
The power was out. Something in the basement had been released. And in their only escape route, this machine room, there was now a bomb set to go off in 10 minutes. It was the worst possible situation.
He turned his head, checking the wireframe silhouette of Eva. She was leaning against the wall, motionless.
[Status: Critical Injury. Reduced consciousness due to shock. Immediate action required.]
It was then.
Skitter... shrrk...
A very faint, but distinct sound began to echo from the dam's lower levels, from the darkness beyond the bulkhead the monster had torn open. It wasn't the sound of one or two.
It was the horrifying, scraping sound of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of something crawling up the walls and through the pipes.
Logan was facing two massive crises. An internal B-Grade bomb, set to detonate in 10 minutes. And an external, unknown enemy, set to overrun the machine room in 10 minutes.
His mind became ice-cold. [Master Blueprint] calculated thousands of variables. Run? With a burnt hand and an unconscious S-Grade resource in tow? Into the same darkness those creatures were crawling out of? Impossible.
That left only one path.
'Prioritize and focus.'
Logan's gaze fixed on the B-Grade time bomb, the corpse of the 'Dam Guardian,' which was flashing red in his vision.
'That B-Grade reactor is a threat. But at the same time... it's the only resource that can solve this situation.'
To fight the enemies in the dark, he needed light and power. And the only thing that could supply that power was, ironically, the B-Grade reactor on the verge of meltdown. He had to stop the meltdown, and, simultaneously, steal its power. All within 10 minutes.
***
"Keohk… hhk…"
Logan slung the semi-conscious Eva over his shoulder. With her D-Grade mechanical legs broken, she was completely helpless. He ignored the pain in his burnt right hand and carried her to the safest corner of the machine room, behind the massive turbine generator.
He pulled the last compression bandage from his backpack and re-wrapped her torn-open side.
"Don't die. You haven't earned your keep yet."
Leaving those words—whether whispered to her or muttered to himself, he didn't know—he headed back to the Dam Guardian's corpse.
He picked up the 'Plasma Cutter' he had made earlier with his burnt right hand. The melted glove and flesh underneath prevented his fingers from bending properly, but he ignored it, forcing his grip around the tool. He connected the C-Grade power core to the cutter with his left hand.
Fshooo...
A blue flame flickered to life, faintly illuminating the darkness.
[Time Bomb Remaining: 9 minutes 15 seconds.]
"Ten minutes. I'll end this in ten minutes."
Logan climbed onto the Dam Guardian's massive steel body. His [Master Blueprint] projected a blue 3D guideline over the monster's corpse.
[B-Grade Mana Crystal Reactor Extraction Plan.]
[Phase 1: Deconstruct 1st Chest Armor Plate. (Est. Time: 2 minutes)]
[Phase 2: Disconnect internal coolant pipes. (Caution: High-pressure steam)]
[Phase 3: Cut 4 reactor mounting bolts. (20% risk of triggering meltdown)]
He pressed the cutter to the Phase 1 chest plate. A B-Grade monster's armor was tough enough to repel a B-Grade plasma cannon. Let alone a B-Grade cutter he'd just jury-rigged.
VREEEEE-!
The roar of plasma meeting steel filled the machine room. Logan fought the cutter's recoil with his burnt right hand. Blood gushed from the scorched wound, but his hand did not move an inch.
Skitter...! Kirik!
The sounds from the basement had reached the doorway. In the darkness, the scraping of dozens of slender legs on the concrete floor was becoming clearer.
[Time Remaining: 7 minutes 30 seconds.]
Logan was drenched in sweat. Not from pain or tension, but from the intense heat of cutting through the B-Grade armor plate. Finally, the 1st armor plate glowed red-hot and fell away. Inside, a tangle of the dam's control cables and the monster's nervous system was wrapped around the B-Grade reactor, which was pulsing with a red light.
[Phase 2 initiated. Disconnecting coolant pipes.]
Skitter!
Just then, from the darkness of the torn bulkhead, something emerged. It was a leg, made of a chitin so black it gleamed even in the pitch-dark.
A 'Stalker.'
A mutant species from before the Apocalypse, which had lived in the 'Project Ark' subterranean containment facility, feeding on energy. It despised light, a apex predator that was most active in complete darkness, just like this.
One Stalker carefully entered the machine room.
Logan ignored it. He couldn't kill the Stalker. His objective was the reactor, and only the reactor.
He aimed the cutter at the coolant pipes connected to it. [Master Blueprint] warned him.
[Warning: Cutting pipe will release residual high-pressure steam!]
Logan cut the pipe without hesitation.
SHUU-KWAAAA!
An incredible blast of steam erupted, hitting Logan full in the face.
"Kugh!"
He was thrown from the monster's body, rolling across the floor.
KISSHAAA!
The Stalker, reacting to his grunt and the hissing steam, leaped toward him from the darkness.
Even as he rolled, Logan instinctively swung the steel hammer he still held in his left hand.
THWACK!
The hammer made a direct hit on the Stalker's head. With the sound of shattering chitin, the Stalker flew sideways, spewing green fluid.
[Time Remaining: 5 minutes 00 seconds.]
Kisha! Kishashasha!
As if enraged by their comrade's death, a swarm of dozens of Stalkers began to pour out from the bulkhead.
***
"Damn it...!"
Logan crawled back onto the monster's corpse. The Stalkers were swarming the machine room floor, a black sea of chitin. In the total darkness, they were precisely tracking Logan's position and the hot, glowing reactor.
[Phase 3 initiated. Cutting 4 mounting bolts.]
Logan swung the cutter wildly. Stalkers were beginning to crawl up the Dam Guardian's body.
One. He smashes the head of a climbing Stalker with the hammer in his left hand.
Thwack!
Two. He melts the second bolt with the cutter.
Vzzzzk!
Three. He stomps a Stalker clinging to his leg, crushing it with his work boot.
Krunch!
Four. The moment he cut the last bolt, the reactor began to glow bright red, resonating.
[Warning! Reactor Meltdown Imminent!]
Logan shoved his burnt right hand under the reactor and 'extracted' the glowing B-Grade Mana Crystal Reactor whole.
"KRAAAAAAGH!"
He screamed as his flesh seared, but he did not let go. Clutching the reactor to his chest, he ran through the swarming Stalkers and back to the workbench.
[Time Remaining: 30 seconds.]
He slammed the reactor onto the workbench. He activated [Master Blueprint].
'Stalkers are coming. I need light and power.'
He connected the B-Grade reactor to the dam's 'Emergency Power Grid'—separate from the main grid.
[Connecting B-Grade Reactor... Compatibility 45%. Forcing system synchronization.]
CH-ZZZZZZT-!
In that instant, the yellow emergency lights in the machine room all flickered back to life.
KEEEEEEEE-!
The Stalkers, seeing light for the first time, shrieked in unison and fell into chaos, beginning to attack each other. They hesitated. Logan didn't miss that one-second opening. He dragged the massive 'steel jaw' and 'armor plates' from the Dam Guardian's corpse in front of the workbench.
[Blueprint Generated: Temporary Barricade (C-Grade).]
He switched the plasma cutter to welding mode and began to frantically fuse the armor plates together. It was a minimal defensive line to protect himself and the unconscious Eva. The Stalkers adapted to the light and began to renew their assault, this time on the barricade.
Kang! Ka-kang!
Sharp talons scraped against the steel plates.
Behind his temporary wall, Logan picked up the B-Grade plasma cannon he had given up on repairing.
'Now that I have a B-Grade power source, I don't need three minutes.'
He pulled the main cable from the B-Grade reactor on the emergency grid and jammed it directly into the plasma cannon's broken power port.
BZZZZ-KRAKOOOOM-!
[Warning! B-Grade Power Source forcibly hotwired to B-Grade Weapon!]
[Switching to Overcharge Mode! Stability not guaranteed past 3 shots!]
The cannon's barrel began to glow past red, emitting a blinding white light. The moment the first Stalker scrambled over the barricade, Logan shoved the glowing muzzle into its maw.
With the unconscious Eva at his back, he muttered to the swarm of dozens of Stalkers.
"Now... this is a fair fight."