“You’ve done well for your first week,” Andries said as he led Mai into the sewers. She was used to the stench of them now but suspected that if she were ever to leave she’d be a pariah.

No matter how hard I wash, I’ll never get this stink out.

“That said, I’m going to take you on a new assignment. Hope you’re up to a bit of excitement.’

“Excitement? Thought you’d never ask,” she grinned. Shovelling shit got repetitive. It was understood that she’d need to learn the basics of working in the sewers, but it wasn’t the most demanding of jobs, no matter how dangerous Andries and the others claimed it was.

CLEAR THE FAT PLUG FROM THE PIPE

DO YOU ACCEPT YES/NO?

She pressed YES without thinking. A guideline appeared, leading out of the sewer they were in. A countdown showed that they had over five hundred paces to go before reaching their destination.

“How’s your climbing?”

“Basic, don’t mind heights either,” she said, raising her eyebrows inquisitively.

“Good, we’ve got a plug. We’ve got to head down Sewer Pipe 165 and clear it.”

“Plug? What’s that?” although she had an idea as to what it might have been and was dreading the answer.

“From the look on your face, you already know what it is. Or have an idea at least. It’s a large glob of fat, waste, and excrement that has caused a blockage. Whereas bergs will move along the tunnels, plugs just ram things up. We’re going to have to enter the pipe, and then clear the blockage.” He laughed at the look on her face, and she found she had to join in. It was too ridiculous to not.

“Do we need special equipment? I’m guessing we won’t be able to hold our breath all that time?”

His smile disappeared. “Ah, yes. You’ll need another suit. I’ll unlock it now. As your mentor, Madam Sun has authorised me to give you whatever tools you need.” He paused, clearly going through the relevant menus. “It’s going to cost though. Like everything here.”

HAZARDOUS ENVIRONMENT SUIT UNLOCKED

500 UC TO PURCHASE

DO YOU ACCEPT YES/NO?

Five hundred fucking credits! Her mouth dried at the thought. That was fifty whole days of hitting quota. Not paying off a debt, but just hitting quota. And there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.

It felt as though a fire had been lit in her belly. It went beyond anger, and there was only one way she could direct it. The Celestial Court, the Emperor, the Empire. Even though she was trying her hardest to work, to be a good citizen and get back to her sister, she was being held back. Punished even.

Still, as she opened the menu to look at it she had to admit that the suit looked the business. It was composed of an all-in-one suit with a hood which also incorporated a full-face visor and breathing equipment. Over that went shin-high boots, shin pads, knee pads, thigh armour, breast- and back-plates, armoured gloves, vambraces and shoulder pads.

Looking at its stats she saw that it had one called ‘SOAK’. Blink-clicking, she quickly read up on it.

Soak

Certain items give a degree of protection to the user. This is called SOAK. Every item has a SOAK value, and this indicates how much damage the item is able to absorb before being rendered useless.

SOAK on armour that the user is wearing does not stop users from all attacks. A Flak Jacket will not stop a 3-finger-wide laser blast but will absorb up to 95% of all damage from a light pistol bullet.

Conversely, a light pistol round won’t cause any damage to the user of a mecha suit but will still continue to contribute to the SOAK being reduced (albeit at a negligible rate). Once the SOAK limit has been reached, 100% of damage will get through to the wearer.

Okay, totally understandable, she thought as she looked at the BIO-MASS cost of the suit. At 5% it wasn’t too expensive, and she’d remembered to pack some energy bars so would be able to replace the lost BIO-MASS easily.

Bracing herself for the pain to come, she selected the suit, pleased that she only let out a slight squeak as the nanites in her formed the suit around her body. Hopefully she would get used to the pain associated with the nanites making things from her templates and eventually not notice them.

“Suits you,” Andries said approvingly. “Now you’ve formed it, you should be able to see a sub-menu under ‘Personalise’. You can change the colours of the various armour pieces, as well as the base colour of the suit over-all.”

Mai took a quick look, shutting the menu just as quickly as soon as she saw that each one of the colour combinations had a cost from a couple of credits through to thousands for a particularly garish neo-pink and gold combination.

“I’ll stick with this,” she gestured at her suit which was a sickly yellow with red armour. Easy to spot against the never-ending river of brown surrounding them. Andries shrugged, changing his suit to a bright red cover-all and yellow armour, almost a direct opposite of hers.

“Okay, let’s crack on. The plug won’t clear itself and we’ve got a long day ahead of us,” he rubbed his hands together as he spoke.

“Why are you so excited?” Mai asked, slightly worried to see her mentor quite so excited about clearing what was essentially the equivalent of a large turd blocking a pipe. Or so she hoped.

“Because there’s a better chance of finding something worth finding, if you know what I mean. Everything coming down that pipe is currently hanging there. Once it hits the sewers it can flow in any direction. We’ll split whatever we find, seventy-thirty. And yes, I’m the seventy.”

Mai opened her mouth to protest but closed it with a snap when Andries tilted his head. It was clear there was no chance of negotiation, and thirty per cent of nothing – her cynicism remained unbowed – wasn’t something she was prepared to argue over.

But she felt a sense of pride at the trust he was showing in her. She’d watched other mentors and their charges and they’d only really shown the basics before leaving them to it. They never seemed to mix, or hang around like Andries. She liked that. It showed her that Andries viewed her as something more than just a job, but as someone he liked to be with and who he genuinely wanted to help her be the best she could be.

“I kinda thought they’d have closed the pipe off,” shouted Andries as they stood watching a river of human waste pour past the pipe entry hatch they’d just opened.

Mai looked at the guideline for the mission. The plug was another fifty metres below them. She didn’t want to risk poking her head out to see how far the trapped waste had risen. Andries started shouting, she couldn’t quite hear what he was saying over the roar of the effluent, but from the look on his face, he wasn’t being very polite.

And like that, the torrent stopped. The absence of noise was shocking. Mai hadn’t realised just how loud it had been in the tight confines of their service corridor.

“That’s settled,” Andries said rather smugly as he leaned through the hatch and looked down. “Still, looks like it’s going to be pretty deep.”

“How deep is pretty deep?” asked Mai as she poked her head out next to his. The pipe was massive, easily thirty paces across. Which she hoped meant that the effluent wouldn’t be too deep.

“Waist high. Maybe more,” he rubbed at his visor as if touching his chin. “We’ll secure our lines to here, rappel down and use a staff to gauge depth. After that, we clear the plug.”

“How the hells are we going to rappel down there? We can’t dig out a plug that large all by ourselves!” She wasn’t fussed by the height, she’d been higher, but she hadn’t rappelled before, so couldn’t work out how they’d make their way down.

“I’ll create a rope, it’s only going to be one per cent BIO-MASS or so. It’s not too far, and you’ll most likely get a new skill by the end of it. And the explosives will be created by accessing the explosives menu. Here, I’ll unlock the menu. No weapons though, so don’t even go asking for mono-wire bouncing mines.”

“That’s a thing?” she asked, hoping she didn’t sound too eager. Just the name had her imagination conjuring up all sorts of images. “That sounds amazing, I would love to see that in action!”

“But unfortunately you’re just a sewer worker. Not a Culler, not a soldier, not even a bounty hunter. A shit sweeper. And all we get is blocks of explosive to do our job. Mind you ...” he paused and lowered his voice. “They are such fucking fun! Plus you can stick stuff into the explosive which makes them really good for trapping mogwai and such. Don’t tell anyone I said that, mind.”

“My lips are sealed,” Mai drew a line across her visor before opening up her items menu and scrolling down until she reached EXPLOSIVES. “Five per cent per kilo. How big a bang is that?”

“It’ll vaporise you, and three generations of ancestors. But,” he formed a block of explosive and quickly tossed it to her. Fumbling, she hugged it to her chest. “It only explodes if a detonator is in it. You can drop it, cut, even burn it, and it won’t blow.”

“Not. Fucking. Funny,” she slammed it back into his chest, making him grunt in pain.

HIT! 1% DAMAGE

“Oops,” she simpered as Andries rubbed at his chest. “So sorry.”

FINE – ATTACKING FELLOW WORKER -10UC

That wiped the smile off her face and put one on his.

“Just to say, I get informed of any transgressions. Needless to say, in this instance that notification was a tad redundant.”

What the hells? He knows every single time I do something wrong? Fortunately, she’d kept her nose clean since arriving at the sewers. Everything she did wrong not only punished her, but also punished her sister, and there wasn’t a chance she would jeopardise her sister intentionally.

“You look like a lizog licking piss off a cactus. Don’t do anything wrong, I won’t hear about it. And you’ll clear your debt faster too.”

“Whatever,” she groused back. “Shall we just do this?”

Andries didn’t reply, just set about forming a thin rope with carabiner then attached it to a stanchion, giving it a firm tug. Creating another rope, he followed the same procedure before passing it to her and showing her how to attach it to herself. ”I’ll give you the template as well, but I’ll make the rope, I’ve got a better eye.”

“Ready?” and before she could answer he dove head first through the hatch.