“It’s hella rainy today.”
Yonas sighed through his wide-visored gas mask as he slipped on black boots. He was dressed like Eisha next to him, in the same drab, olive green, synthetic environmental suit. Their rugged black skin, black hair, and bright brown eyes were obscured by the bleak outfits. The rush of heavy rain ran down the entrance’s gutters.
“Pollution is especially bad today.” Eisha, adjusted her blackened apron. “Why do we still have a shortage with all this pollution?”
“All for the quota, all for the war.” Yonas fidgeted with his mask’s filter cartridge. “Heard there’s a ration surplus, hopefully they’ll come in soon.”
“Really? I need it now.” Eisha brushed some grime off her shoulders. “I need new boots. How can the city of Debis Adari function without boots?”
“I hear ya, I’m on my last pair.” Yonas pressed the side of his face and a lens extended, covering an eye. “Think our concerns got through?”
“No, but I like to imagine they did. Hard for anything to function since the Stratoclysm.”
Yonas shook his head. “The last thing I need is stepping in toxic waste and getting mut-feet.”
“At least no one will look at you differently here, unlike those in Amerus-Eaglia… as they will… you know…”
“Amerus…” Yonas’ eyes softened. “Oh your friend online…?”
“Yeah.” Eisha sighed. “Her sister told me about how it turned into scales… there was a forced examination…”
“That’s the story…? I am sorry, Eisha. The Imperial Republic can’t keep getting away with this… ”
”I still talk to her sister, it’s odd but comforting for both of us.”
“Were you both talking to each other prior?”
“Not much, but we do now… but enough about that, you prepared to go to the reclamation zone, Yonas?”
“No, I don’t want to deal with the toxic refuse.” Yonas nodded. “But yes I want to see you pilot the workmech.”
“Oh because of the refit?”
Yonas became excited. “We got the sludgesaw! Not only can we cut the biogunk and hose that toxic waste easily, but if we are attacked by wildlife again, we can rip them to shreds!”
“I won’t lie, it does sound fun. And combine that with the flamethrower…”
“It sounds like a blast!” There were stars in Yonas’ eyes beneath his mask.
“Any filth critter that comes across us is barbecue.”
“Don’t make me think of those disgusting things as food.”
Hidden was Eisha’s smirk as she chuckled. “Come, we need to go to the staging gate.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Debis Adari, the city of towers, was slathered in grime and rust as public monitors gazed over each corner and center. The green dreary clouds, fed by industrial smoke, lay a downpour into watery rapids towards the storm drains.
“Hope they fixed the flooding issues.” Yonas said. “Debis Adari is already piled with problems.” Yonas sighed before changing to a whisper. “I hope it’s not the end of Dabisumari.”
“Cheer up, our Combine-Republic’s been through centuries of war and it’s not going to end now. Besides that, they opened new channels in the toxland. It will be fine as long as we don’t, you know, jump into them.”
The two of them approached a gigantic gate leading to a quarantined section of the city. Beyond the giant metiglask windows of metallic glass upon the gate’s walls was a waste dump. Before the gate was their workforce gathering and two bipedal mechs side by side.
One bipedal workmech was known as the gutterbelt: thick, broad, squat, and equipped with jetpacks and wide barrels. Its barrels were for spraying cleansing chemicals or blasting incredible air pressure, all hooked up to a fuel backpack. Its stature allowed it to withstand rushing torrents of sludge.
Then there was the tall, modified carbis-hand: humanoid, wide cockpit screen, a dextrous hand armed with a heavy flamer, a large rotary sludgesaw on the other that can rip through metal, and two short-ranged fusion cutter lasers on its torso.
Both mechs could clear out waste and wipe out nasty creatures from the dark corners of the refuse.
“Damn,” Yonas’ eyes studied the carbis-hand, “looks more fun than I expected.”
Eisha cracked her knuckles. “That carbis-hand’s mine.”
As the two approached their same-suited co-workers, the work captain wore a fancy, grey, padded exosuit with a white and black armband and shiny visor helmet.
“Just in time. Eisha, you’re in the carbis-hand. Yonah, you’re on a chem-spray.” The Work Captain switched to a yell as they spoke to the broader workforce. “Get ready! We’ll be leaving soon. We’re clearing out the lower ducts down the valley in quadrant D before we clean up the pump station! They’ve already redirected the flow so we shouldn’t have too hard of a time. You know the drill, keep an eye on each other and watch out for any small movements. Once we are able to restore the pump station, our future jobs should be easier.”
“Phew, I hope that’s true.” Yonas sighed. “This shit is hard.”
“I’m going to wreck that slime.” Eisha approached the carbis-hand with a wicked smile.
“Please do.”
* * *
The Dabisumarian workforce descended into the fetid channels of industrial waste and grime that plastered the outer city valley of toxland with all its slurry under the dark sky. Their cleansing flamethrowers, purging chemical solutions, and dissolving gasses opened the way to the lower depths where the worst of the acrid refuse resided. Living slimes of waste populated the valley but were no match to their tools and armed guards, especially the strange “melted” mutant creatures that inhabited the area. The enormous mechs cut through, towering over them as platforms of purification that made their jobs much quicker. Despite the mechs getting the large chunks of waste out, the finer details were left to the foot crew.
“Carbis-hand to the pump station.” The work captain ordered under the rainfall. “Squads 1 and 2 are with her! gutterbelt and squads 3 and 4 are to remain at the central duct.”
The work force split up as the Eisha lumbered the carbis-hand over to the dilapidated pump station.
“Is this pump station really salvageable? Looks like there’s an infestation of filth critters.”
“Hoping it is.” Yonas sounded over the radio.
Up above the valley was the pump station: a metallicrete of metal infused concrete, right-triangular complex lined with giant rowed pipes, waste vats, chimney stacks, and enormous pistons. Corroding it was a heavy layer of toxic goo that seeped into its cracks and crevices.
“Oh, yep, there’s a grapesquid in there, it just ran over the catwalk.”
Eisha saw a short, stumpy, two legged, maroon animal wrapped in spotted patterns with a bundled mass of eyes and a multitude of long tentacular lips.
“Ugh, I hate those things.”
Eisha engaged the sludgesaw that revved up with the mechanized fury of grinding gears and hydraulics, it cut against the solid gunk that coated the structure and the sides of the channel. Further loosening it was the blazing burn of the heavy flamer and the buzzing light streams of the piercing fusion cutters.
“Time to clean.”
An hour passed.
The duct was cleared and two groups were in its tunnel. The gunk was melted away to flow down the sewery path. Eisha almost cleared the station’s outer structure as her groups engaged the inner structure.
“This thing is so much fun, it works much faster than I hoped.”
“Eisha, there’s something wrong.” Yonas looked down from the grate of the pump station. “There’s screaming!”
The lumbering carbis-hand turned to the tunnel duct as shouts echoed down the tunnel.
“Monster!” One of the many workers cried as they fled. “A helrog!”
As the guards escaped from the duct, they fired back within with their ballistic rifles.
The work captain sounded over the radio. “All hands on deck! A giant-class helrog is attacking!”
“What?” Eisha said.
The gutterbelt slowly backed out of the tunnel, it fired its screeching pressure cannon and a torrent of chemicals as four huge claws, connected to elongated scaled arms, wrapped the entrance of the tunnel. Using the momentum of its hands, a centaur-like reptilian beast with six glowing crimson eyes, four gnarled horns, two acid dripping mouths, standing on three legs had charged at the gutterbelt. The gutterbelt was knocked over with a splashing thud, enveloped by the helrog’s mass to be utterly ravaged by its sweeping claws. It tore into its already feeble armor with its powerful slashes, the armor was not thick nor military grade.
“Get off of them!” Eisha floored the carbis-hand, revving up the mighty roaring saw into a thumping charge. “You want to know why they call me Eisha the Ripper!”
Eisha swung the screaming sludgesaw at the helrog, jabbing it away into a bloody shriek. The centaurian mass of the helrog shuddered, its mouth angrily ruptured gasses as its sickly, blonde, toxic blood splattered and trickled.
“Because I’ll rip your innards and all!” Eisha sprayed a blast of vibrant fire from the other arm. “Come one, come all and see the mess I will make!”
The helrog roared with its wet, gurgling throat and sloppily charged its putrid mass at the carbis-hand. Its clawed arms swiped wildly in anger, thrashing everything around it and vaporized all who foolishly remained in the vicinity.
“Come at me, filth!” Eisha revved up the roaring arm into a right hook as the beast slammed into her.
The sludgesaw drove deep into the monster’s side as it maimed the carbis-hand with a barrage of slashes. Flurries of sparks and metal scattered from the blows as Eisha retaliated by firing the thin, screeching fusion cutters to pierce its thick hide. The saw attack relieved the carbis-hand of the charge’s blow, keeping it standing up.
“Kick its ass, Eisha!” Yonas yelled.
Their co-workers started yelling over the communication channels.
“You got this!”
“Take ‘em out behind the shed!”
“Tan its hide!”
“Kill it! Kill it! Kill it good so I can eat good tonight!”
The helrog jumped back with a splash, bleeding and limping from the powerful sludgesaw that left a wide vertical gnash in its side. Its putrid mass shambled around the mech, agile and quick as the carbis-hand struggled to rotate to its movements. The helrog then rushed Eisha as she lifted the sludgesaw arm. It smashed into the side of the saw hand as the carbis-hand almost fell over. Then the beast stood on its hindlegs and hurled itself onto the mech as the final tipping point. The carbis-hand slammed onto the ground as Eisha was assaulted by the gravity, banging against the console and seat, left bleeding and bruised.
“I’ll tear you to shreds like all the others!” Fire and anger boiled in Eisha’s eyes.
The helrog pressed against the carbis-hand, flailing its claws and wild mouths, only held back by the sludgesaw arm.
“Burn in hell!” Eisha rotated what she could, raising the heavy flamer and aiming the fusion cutters. “So I can serve you to Yonas as rations!”
“Damn it Eisha!” Yonas crackled over the radio. “That was Yazid who ate all the rations!”
“And!? I’m going to be feeding you all!” Singing lights and hellfire blasted at the helrog.
The helrog roared as it was slathered with Eisha’s fury. The carbis-hand struggled to aim, but it finally clicked as Eisha focused into its upper mouth. The flames filled one of its maws and the piercing lights ripped through its palate. The helrog recoiled back, stunned from the pain and agony that coursed through its insides as it bellowed a horrid wet scream.
“Move you hunk of junk!” Eisha brought the carbis-hand back standing. “Yeaaaah, heh, heh, time to butcher this meat!”
The helrog shook and flailed its disproportionate body, it then returned to an earthshaking charge as refuse sprayed everywhere. The spinning saw was lit ablaze as she brought the arms to work in unison and engaged the mech to charge head on, all weapons firing hot and the saw arm cocked.
“I’ll grind you into a feast you mutant beast!” Eisha let her saw fist loose. “Helrog dinner coming up!”
The infernal sludgesaw stabbed dead center of the helrog, the horrid beast shrieked as its body was pierced and grinded. Blood and flesh showered the area as the helrog was split in twain to the might of the flaming saw. The surviving work crew cheered at the display as they tried to not be coated or crushed by the gore.
The carbis-hand stepped back and Eisha sat up in a cheer.
“Hell yeah!” She yelled, fist raised before sinking back in her seat and a hand to the bruise. “Chalk up another in my name.”
“Think we can actually harvest this for food?” Yonas said.
“Whether or not we can, I’m going to do it anyway.”
“W-why?”
“Why not have an arsenal of poison just in case?”
“Don’t answer me with a questi—” Over Eisha’s intercom came the sound of ruffling followed by a prolonged sigh. “I worry about you at times.”
“We’re eatin’ well tonight.” Eisha popped a numbing medicine in her mouth from the side storage of the seat.
“It better be eating out.”
Yonas pressed a button and the pump station came to life, heavy liquids flowing through its pipelines and tubes, its pistons raising up and down, and gyros spinning and turning.
“Finally.” Yonas relaxed into a dilapidated cushioned seat. “Job’s done.”
“Hey Yonas! I got a huge chunk of fat from the helrog! You want some deep fried steak?”
Yonas shook slightly. “I almost threw up in my mouth.”
Eisha laughed. “I can use this and our victory as leverage to get some new boots for us and put ourselves first on the distribution list.”
Yonas blinked, rubbing his forehead.
“I hate how you get like this, Ms. Ripper, but if I can get some boots, do it.”
Zelastar 