{"sf1_id":794418,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Degredation.6","author":"MagnumGit","words":2722,"posted_at":"2014-12-11T06:46:00.000Z","tags":["Colonies","Human","Mild Drama","Mild Romance","Mild-Drama","Military","Sci-Fi","Totalitarian","space"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/794418-degredation-6","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/794418","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=794418\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"\nThere is a place\nwithin every colony where the decent and fair-minded people dare not speak of\nor go. It is a sequestered place far from view, hidden and shunned. \nThere are those\nin every colony, who are shunned, hated and jeered. They are scum and\naberrations among the normal of daily life. They are shunned, exiled and left\nto die.\nBut.\nLike attracts\nlike.\nThese are the\nWarrens. \nThey came into\nexistence on Odon by accident, really. Before the sprawling factory complex\nthat exists today, those who lived here survived underground, huddled away in\nmassive underground shelters, free from the punishing gaze of the sun and the\ndestructive storm ridden elements of the planets surface. There they mined, and\ntoiled, trading the precious stones and oils that they leached from the tunnel\nwalls for food and drink. The lucky few who struck it big found transport and\nescaped the tunnels. From birth children are born wishing to escape. Few did\nand even fewer survived in doing so. \nIt was only when\na battered Fyrainian fleet stumbled into this forgotten sector, running from\nthe pursuing venerated USCA Destroyer Fires\nof Holocaust did the USCA turn its attention to the blighted world. \nThe fleeing\nFyranians had gone to ground, abandoning their ships and taking to the surface\nof several of the ice-worlds in the system. The Fires of Holocaust's supporting fleet was forced to take a lengthy\ncampaign in dislodging the entrenched enemy, so furious was their defense it\nwas only when the Fires of Holocaust unleashed\nits anti-ship payload upon the surface of the moons, shattering the celestial\nbodies completely did their resistance meet its end. \nSuch drastic\naction did not come without consequences though, the ice fragments found their\nwas to the colonies of Odon, crashing to the surface the fragments of the moon\nseeded the dead world with water, and larger meteorites cracked open vast veins\nof ore near the surface. Such an explosion of mineral ore attracted the attention\nof the Sector command, and within months the manufactory that now rests on the\nsurface of the planet was born.\nThe underground\nshelters were forgotten in favor of the now slightly more habitable surface.\nThe shelters had suffered under the fragments of the destroyed moons that fell\nto their surface, vast floods and cracked rock and a ceaseless year of\nearthquakes and tremors destroyed most of the passages that the colonists\nrelied on, and many shelters were shattered wrecks no longer habitable. \nNone lived\nunderground anymore, the local populace now recruited to the forges that\nsupplied the furious war in the stars beyond. The people lived amongst the\nforges, and after while the old tunnels leading to the shelters were used for\ndisposal purposes and forge runoff. \nNobody\nlived down there anyways...\nNo one lived down\nthere, yet, is a more correct term.\nFor years this continued, the forges ran, the Shelters rotted, and the people\nlived their simple lives. Complacency breeds discomfort and stagnation gives\nbirth to idle minds who are wanton to change. \nThe riots were\ninevitable, and the brutal suppression of them was also inevitable, the CA\nmobilized within minutes of the first sign being lifted and before the first\nmarch even began the black, armored APC's of the Civilian Affairs Enforcement\nOfficers had detained more than a thousand, and executed just as many. \nThe colonists\nsoon fell back into line, silent, and complacent in their duties, none would\nspeak of the horror of that day, among the dead that lay trampled on the\nstreets in the ensuing panic were families, the young mauled and broken by the\ntreads of wheels and synchronized boot-steps. \nIt is such the\ncase that the outspoken among these people are found missing in the night, or\nby a mishap in the forges. Not by the CA's hand. But by their own people, those\nwho seek nothing but routine and live only to avoid the wrath that was shown to\nthem from before. \nThere is still\nrefuge for these outspoken few, cast out by society they found the warrens,\nthose underground places long since thought forgotten and abandoned by the\nchildren they sheltered so long ago where once more hosts of a defiant few.\nEvery so often the CA would take notice of these settlements deep underground,\nraids would be launched against these enemies-of-the-state, they were to be\nhunted down and destroyed, such tasks were thought easy by the men and women\namong the CA's Enforcers. \nIt was not. \nThe first raid\never launched was not heard from again, the second -a rescue team- found the\nremains of the first patrol deep within the snaking tunnel systems,\nhalf-devoured corpses floating in raw sewage, bloated beyond recognition and\nhost to maggot-life. \nThe Rescue team\nwas beset by those that they were sent to destroy soon after, out of the ten\nonly four managed to make back to the surface, and even then one died from\ninfection, and another shot himself. \nNo such purges\nhave been taken from then on. \nThe inhabitants\nof The Warrens' had become bestial things, hardened by their environment and\nmutated by the toxins and waste that they live amongst. Some go mad when they\nseek refuge down there, most do not live for long, the toxins kill the old or\nyoung, and if a family were to even dream of living there they would be\nhard-pressed to survive long enough to find the few still habitable pockets\nleft within that hell hole. Even then you were likely to be dragged to the\nground kicking and screaming by your 'neighbors' as your flesh would be ripened\nby the over-world and such meat is a rare delicacy. \n...\nIt is a testament\nto the strength of man that even in such an adverse environment man would still\nthrive, huddled together and insane, but alive. The air they breathe is toxic\nand the tunnels are dark and the select few still uncorrupted shelters are\ntribal battleground between bands of humans looking to survive. But they are\nalive. They cannot expect much more when in such a place. Waking to the same\nflickering light you fell asleep under, and waking hooked up in a cage, crammed\ntogether with other unfortunates being sized up by starving bandits is a small\nvictory all of its own. \nSalvaging is a\nmust, the life blood of the Warrens is the steady stream of refuse and scrap\nthat flows down the access tunnels and pools in underground tram stations\nbefore draining away into deeper pools flowing to the terraformed oceans. \nScavengers pick\nthrough metal bits that flow downstream, occasionally they might stumble across\na nest of the native vermin that infest the underground passages, and if they\nwere swift enough to catch one they had a meal for the day. Even better would\nbe if they were to find a cluster of fungal spores found only around the sewage\nflows. IF the pods were cooked right, one would be able to escape the dank\nhateful environment for a night or two, wandering instead in sunlit\ndreamscapes. \nDown, deep in the\nforgotten parts of the Warren, scurrying through the oldest tunnels that\nexisted long before man had descended into the first cavern of this damned\nworld centuries ago. There is water, pure, un diluted refreshing water. In this\nsubterranean hell, water is life. And those who have dominion over these few\nwells held power. Water was currency was much as scrap was. If scrap was\npennies, then water was diamonds. \nTo eat was a\ndifferent matter entirely. Meat was meat, no matter the source of the meat.\nVermin or mutant, man or otherwise, so long as it filled the belly of the\ndepraved it would suffice. Of course this was not without some stipulation,\nthere needed to be some form of law, lest the fragile community built upon the\nfilth and waste of others would fall entirely. \n...\n\"Jusa' keep wach\n'bit lunger, I'most got dis 'ere scrub out.\" The voice was like a raccoon\nthrown against a heating-iron, only worse. \"nYeh,\" the second figure was\nquieter, though no less\nHunched broken\nforms scurry along rusted tracks, cold faded metal walls and a ceiling picked\nclean of wires and lights. Malformed hands scrape along the walls, tracing over\ngrooves worn away by time and toil, scratched away by rocks and rebar a\nlanguage of those who only knew of the pale light of fires that die all too\noften. \n\"S'mmer, dis 'ay\"\na wet squeaking voice tests the shadows, the soft patting of stunted limbs on\nrock. \n\"yuh?\" a\nresponse. \n\"Gid it op'n,\nSach's sed id be 'ere.\" More movement, soft, quick and jerky figure feels its\nway through the shadows. \n\"Nuff'in.\" It\nspeaks, raspy and cold.\n\"Naw, id be duwn\n'ere, fon' it.\" A crueler voice, a harsher tone lashes out against quivering\nfigures. \n\"isat it?\" \n\"Fink id is.\" The\nnaisley voice draws down to the floor, limbs scrape against rock until a latch\nis felt, hands grasp and pull. \nThe Tunnel is\nfilled with the sound of stressed metal, only the sound of dripping water\nstriking cold rock is heard for a moment.\n\"Whydigya stop?\" \n\"Dun wan tah wake\ndeh Grablers. Can smell 'em.\"\n\"Only scut-rats\n'roun here. Grablers lef dis place while go, nevu stay roun' long afta' a\nkil'.\" \n\"y'sure?\"\n\"Yuh, been\ntrailin' dem grablers fer years.\"\nThe groaning of\nmetal, slower and softer this time.\nA dim flicker in\nthe darkness, a blinding sun to the hunched, withered faces that cluster around\nthe hole in the stone floor, the hatch is pulled open as a foul stench wafts up\nfrom the hole. \n\"D'un look at dah\nlight.\" A man, ragged hair and sunken eyes looks at the group assembled, his\nteeth are rotten, and red raw muscles show beneath translucent skin, snakes of\npurple veins pulse over his hunched back. \"Blind-yah.\" He nods, but the group\nignores him, instead staring down into the maintenance room in the floor of the\ntunnel. A ghastly stench wafts up, the stagnant air long undisturbed now flows\nfree into the tunnel air. \n\"S'mmer, check id\nout duwn der.\" One of the five pushes the miniscule frame of a girl forward,\nbleached white skin and hair, She trembles as she creeps to the edge, shadowed\nface ducking away from the light. \"I sed git duwn der!\" An arm lashes out and\npunches the girl in the back, sending her fragile frame toppling over the edge\ninto the room. \nAll is quiet as\nthe group watches her from above, pale wet eyes staring eagerly down as the\ngirl scrambles to her feet. She crawls on her hands and knees, scuffed red from\nconstant use. \"S'good?\" A man with half his face missing asks through a mangled\nmouth.\n \"S'good.\" The soft whisper from below would\nhave been missed by any surface dweller. But was picked up by the tribe of\nfreaks and deviants assembled above. \nThe jostled each\nother as they scrambled down the ladder, others just dropped down to the floor\nrather then wait. \n\"Gid yur hans off\ndat!\" the man with the translucent skin snapped, stumbling over to the girl as\nhis feet were twisted things, a mess of bone and muscle grown inwards instead\nof out. \nThe Girl was\nviciously biting at the arm of a human corpse half decayed, tearing off chunks\nof grey flesh with a fanged maw. The man balled his fist and punched at her,\nshe shielded her head until she was forced to release her 'prize.' \"Gid up an'\nout!\" the man screamed. \"Stupit' bish'.\" The others assembled at the far\ncorner, sifting through ransacked shelves and rotting wooden drawers, picking\nat mold encrusted notebooks. Some examined broken electronics, turning them\nover in their hands as if that would discern its use.\nA woman, half\nwalked and limped to the skinless man, \"We get sum?\" She mumbled, half of her\nface limb \"Hungy...\" She said, her eyes straying to the corpse, what used to be\none of them, a tunnel dweller cornered and killed. Half of the body was\nmissing; everything below the torso was a mangled mess, meat picked clean off\nof the bone. \nThe skinless man\nsnapped his head up to look at them, they began to gather around him, hunger\nclear in their eyes. \"Uh minute, I lead y'all 'ere didn' I?\" He spoke between\nmouthfuls, tearing decaying flesh from the corpse with his teeth.\n\"Yuh sed der was\nmore.\" Another man spoke, normal, save for the fact that another shriveled pair\nof arms sprouted from his torso, curled around themselves, his face mired in\neternal agony as his organs coiled around bones that should not have been\nthere. \n\"Der is, in duh\nuder room ova der'.\" The skinless man pointed a hand with too many fingers at a\nblack stained doorway, the door itself torn away to reveal nothing, the room\nwas pitch black but the stench coming from it made even the tunnel dwellers\ngag. \n\"All yer's, dis\nun' 'ere's mine.\" \n\"Soun's gud.\" The\nman with the mangled face nodded, his hulking frame lumbered into the\npitch-blackness and was seeming enveloped by the absoluteness of it. It was\nminutes before her came back out, \"Ain' nofing ere!\" He shouted, his mouth\nspewing forth a combination of spit and blood, his meaty fist came into contact\nwith the skinless mans face, knocking him away from the corpse and nocking it\naside. A pile of maggot-like things spilled out from its exposed back, the\nthree other tunnel-dwellers fell to their knees, grabbing at the corpse-worms. \n\"Y'fukin cheat!\"\nthe man with the ruined face throttled the skinless tunnel dweller; his massive\nframe overpowered the stunt-legged mutant. \"Fink you can drag us 'ere and\n'spect us to be fien wif nuffin?\" He roared. \"Gonna make you pay fer dis!\" The\napproximation of a sneer crossed his face, the thick hands of the man with no\ngrabbed at the Skinless man's arms, and he pulled. \n...\nThe girl stared\nvacant eyed down at the hatch, she didn't react when the screaming began and\nthe wet sounds of flesh being ripped from the still living echoed out of the\nentrance to the macabre room. She licked at her lips and tried to pry the last\npieces of human flesh from in-between her fang like teeth, failing at that she\nfelt her way through the darkness until she reached the familiar coldness of\nthe tunnel wall. She sat her naked body against it, her world silent save for\nthe wet smacks from the hatch, and dark save for the small column of light\nshooting up towards the ceiling, illuminating patches of the massive air vents\nthat used to push air through these tunnels and shelters. \nThat's when she\nsaw the shape moving inside one of them. \nShe froze,\nreflexively. Her body stiffening as she traced the shadow stepping over the air\nvents, quiet it was. Not a single sound as it paused beneath one of the vents\nleading into the tunnel. \nA single claw\npeeled back the metal grating barring its way. A shape detached itself from the\ncavern roof, falling back into shadow, the would-be girl sat in silence,\nunmoving and uncaring as the eternal underground night seemed to reject this\nbeast within it's midst, as if reality itself wanted to deny it's presence. yet\nit wouldn't let them go. It was a misshapen thing, given the echo of it's\npresence, the slumping gaited crawl that dragged it along the ground, malformed\nbones parodied into motion by a cruel birth\nMaybe she got\nlucky, or that the sounds of slaughter and gluttony emanating from the portal\nbelow drew its attention away from her, or perhaps it just didn't care.\nWhatever the reason, the shape in the darkness crawled its way closer to the\ngleaming portal of light. \nA massive,\ninhuman hand gripped the ledge down into the room, pallid, white skin marred\nblack by decay.\nThe screaming soon came\nafter. The child stood, staring down into the room, the walls stained in blood\nand broken bone, the sound of dragging echoed up to her as the last mangled\nbody was pulled out of her view.  She\nturned numbly, hand against the smooth rock wall she led herself back down,\ndeeper into the pits. \n \n"}