Tunnel Rat Volume 1 will be be STUBBING on NOV. 1st!

Eight hours before a group of Volgard mercenaries made a bad decision, five ninjas began their stealthy trip through the ventilation ducts and service tunnels of a Section controlled by Rhebus Labs International and the area leased by the Manpower corporation. The areas recently leased by Rhebus were in dire need of maintenance and repair. The ductwork was filthy and rusted, with many leaks. It was making the ninjas twitch and shudder, and they stopped frequently to make notes and take pictures, discussing where and when to begin the work. This slowed their progress getting to their true destination by three hours. There was nothing for it, though. They were in a stressful situation, seeing tasks all around them, and they simply couldn't ignore the sight of so much work that needed to be done in an area they now controlled.

Nina finished a report on a section of broken and leaking fluid pipe and sent it to their job queue. "I'm going to instruct the engineering section to begin hiring at 150% of normal starting pay and double the firm's size. We're going to need more people."

Algernon paused on his report. "I already sent a memo for them to double their employee numbers. You had to have seen the request."

"I did, but it's not enough. I want to double it again and pay more."

Zander looked at the two of them. "Don't create more work for us; coordinate your actions. You'll need to give raises to all existing employees, or those not making an amount equal to the new people hired will quit and reapply, causing chaos for HR. I'm authorizing all current employees to be given a 20% raise or moved to 160% of the new-hiring salary, whichever is more. That should raise morale and guarantee us the best of the available workforce."

Nina giggled. "I started to wonder about the cost, but we're redistributing more of Victor's money faster, so who cares?" Everyone agreed with that sentiment. They held a meeting for twenty minutes and then decided to ask for a complete overhaul of all the ductwork, pipes, air handlers, electrical lines, and pneumatic delivery tubes. After that was done, they felt a lot of their tension dissipate and could keep focused on the main mission. Crossing into Section H, they felt no need to worry about fixing things - that was Manpower's responsibility. Also, much of the work had already been done. Arriving at the area they suspected the vault to be in, they found it deserted. The security cameras showed nothing, and they moved carefully forward using ultra-silent scouting drones that constantly checked for motion or sound.

"They have this area locked up and aren't using human resources to guard it. This is much easier than anticipated."

Bork scowled. "Too easy. I get it that most of their people are in Geneva, and the rest are dealing with goons hired by Victor, but it bothers me. Are we missing something?"

Zander shrugged. "We won't know until it bites us in the ass, and we have to deal with it. We control their security systems and all sensors. They won't show us moving through these rooms. There's nothing on IR, UV, audio, or anything else we can test for. Nina has her micro-scouts moving ahead of us, as well as our sensor drones."

Nina whispered in his ear. "And we are ninjas!"

Zander smiled. "That too! Now let's find that vault and then run home to a festival of ice cream and looking at new data."

The vault wasn't difficult for them to find, even hidden as it was. Locks yielded to them, and they were soon setting up the equipment to bypass the locking mechanism on the vault itself. A sweep of the offices, desks, and computers yielded no clues or hidden passwords. This was disappointing as 69% of the time they raided offices, they found passwords or entry codes written somewhere as a reminder for humans without perfect memories. These doctors had been more careful, a testament to their years on the run. After the equipment was set up, there was nothing to do for hours except wait. Boredom set in, and each person sat very still, plugged into data pads, playing games, reading, or working on individual projects.

Onyx suddenly stiffened as he watched an amazing video from Section E, broadcast over Wi-Fi from the cameras worn by the mercenaries looking for Belinda Seimovich. The others noticed and became curious. He sent messages to Zander, Nina, and Algernon to brace for a Gale-Force 9 Borkstorm. They deployed around Bork, and Zander put one finger up to his lips, reminding Bork they needed silence. Then they all looked at the video Onyx had already seen three times. It was Milo. It had to be Milo. The idea that Claw Master had two people their size who could move like that while wearing familiar-looking armor was next to zero. It began like a scene from an action movie with the Volgard teams moving in and scooping up people much smaller than them. Then, a bit of violence and the hero appeared, giving them their last warning.

After that, it was a horror movie as they watched Milo accelerate into a series of rolls and acrobatics while his claws sliced through armor and flesh and his metal tail broke bones. Lasers flashed and flesh charred, men collapsing to the floor or trying to dodge out of the way of a whirling dervish moving too fast to avoid. Blood was everywhere, men were puking, and Bork saw an eyeball explode from no visible source. Then, the mistake of too much momentum took him past the crowd and resulted in a barrage of bullets that slammed him into a wall. The final scene became an action movie again, as an annoyed old man killed a cocky young bastard trying to take his gun. Finally, there was a strange scene as Milo got to his feet, and the remaining mercenaries lost all hope and focused on their wounds.

Bork's eyes were wild as they held him and kept him quiet. After watching it three times, he settled down a bit. They left him to watch the video repeatedly until he'd seen every detail he needed to see. Finally, he whispered, "Milo has gone feral. The years of being alone have driven him insane. He could be hiding, and no one would know he existed. Instead, he's building laser-armed robot drones and assault armor with nano-molecular blades and using infrasound blasters. He's claimed a section of the habitat as his and will defend it viciously against anyone who challenges him!"

Zander whistled softly. Nina patted Bork on his head, "Very good, Bork. That's far less crazy than what I thought you'd come up with."

Onyx revealed that he'd picked up the video as it was broadcast over the Wi-Fi system by one of the Volgard technicians sending the home office a report. "That's all from the individual badge cams, put together into a video by the technician. I also have the individual feeds we can review, showing each man's point of view."

Nina focused on the fleeing people. "I've identified most of the family. Several were on Milo's team in the SC6 competition. The older woman is mother to two of them."

Onyx was drumming his fingers. "So, he had a purpose beyond defending his territory. He was protecting friends."

Bork shook his head. "We can't count on that!"

Onyx scowled back. "We can. He's been observed in public in Section H, with hundreds of people around him. He can work with others to solve problems. He has family and friends. He saved Nina and me when he could have escaped and left us in the game. Those aren't the actions of someone who's gone insane."

Bork considered that and then grinned. "He's playing a long game, purposefully acting sane and pretending to make friends to throw us off the track and disguise his true mental state. He anticipated us finding him, and now he's trying to confuse us while warning us to stay clear of Section E. And, uh..."

Algernon slowed the fights down and focused on individual attacks. "He could have caused many more fatalities. His strikes were to disable, and yes, sometimes that caused excessive bleeding, but he could have gone for their throats or hearts. His Roomba could have aimed for heads."

Nina watched Milo as he moved through the thugs. "I've seen that style before." She sent links to a video on one of the gaming channels a minute later. "Look what we have today, folks! We sent four of our play group to start new ratkin characters in four Hollows. This is footage from Limburger Hollow during claw fighting classes. Who knew the rats had studied under Bruce Lee? And if you want to see some really crazy stuff, our Premium Supporters can watch an intense tournament between veteran fighters. It's coming up in an hour, so if you aren't Premium yet, send over your 49.99 for this month and look at our latest Premium Deluxe Video. Crazy stuff, folks, I wouldn't lie."

The next video started, and the camera angles indicated two people were filming. The contestants were the old fighting master, his young apprentice, a hulking cheese fiend, and a poisonous female assassin. Fascinated, the five ninjas watched the full two-hour video as the four fighters did their best to kill each other. And without their rapid regeneration and a basket of healing potions, someone certainly would have died. The apprentice, in particular, took horrific blows from the cheese fiend that he bounced back from immediately and kept fighting. They cut the video when the talking began again.

Zander looked at Onxy and Nina. "I apologize. That game looks fething cool! The apprentice, Tallsqueak, that's who you met?"

Nina nodded. "Yes, it was months before this was taken, but that's him. I'd recognize those whiskers anywhere."

Algernon had hooked two data-pads together to run video and a third to analyze the moves. "I'm comparing the moves used in that video to the ones used in the fight with Volgard. There are similarities to the style used in the game, and the bulk of the style has no real-world analog. Somehow, Milo is adapting his fighting style from the game to the real world and has created a suit of armor to give him the claws and tail to go along with the moves."

Zander tried to access the cameras in Section E but gave up on finding more video five minutes later. "I can't access any camera in Section E; they are on a completely different system. I can't break in from here."

"That isn't normal. He's mixing his game persona with his real one. Nothing good can come from that." Bork was still working on new conspiracy theories and would be for days.

Onyx shrugged. "Who's to say Milo isn't normal and the rest of us are aberrations?"

Zander considered the statement, then shook his head. "Naw, that's crazy talk. How could anyone look at a group of five high-tech ninjas staring at gaming footage and think we weren't normal."

"Point taken. And I will add that the last code has been found, and we can open the vault." They drew straws, and to her delight, Nina won. She loved going first. The rest backed off two rooms away in case of an explosion. She opened the vault and stared inside at row after row of empty shelves, an involuntary growl escaping her throat. The rest came running, stopping when they saw they were too late. The only thing in the vault was a few empty carrying cases. All of them began checking things and talking at once.

"Nothing was found in Victor's plane; he wouldn't have left them elsewhere."

"Same with the doctor's."

"There's no indication anyone else had access to these labs."

"They aren't anywhere in Manpower's area, nor do the security tapes show anyone moving them."

Zander was hacking the interior system as far as he could. "The vault was accessed early on the morning Victor left, and the door was open for over an hour, after which it was sealed with new codes, and only one Admin. That's when they were taken."

Onyx looked up. "I'd have used the air system; check all the vents."

Eventually, they found a way out of the rooms. Careful inspection of one grill and the duct behind it showed it had been tampered with and restored. They sealed the vault again, took their equipment, and left by that route. Four hours later, they found evidence that small wheeled vehicles had probably been used to move the data. A huge section of ductwork had been cleaned, with false trails leading to elevator shafts, but they found small tracks in one area where a wheel squished a bug. Following the minute traces of bug juice on the floor gave them a direction to push forward for more clues. The convoy had headed toward Section E. No one felt like continuing past the border of E and H, not with the footage of Milo dealing with Volgard fresh in their minds. They retreated to their own territory and then swapped ninja uniforms for fuzzy pajamas. Large bowls of sugary cereal and a Moose and Squirrel marathon were needed to recover their spirits.

Onyx grabbed the biggest cereal bowl he could find, filling it with Chocolate Covered Sugar Bombs. "I declare the Night of the Ninjas to be over, and vote for the start of Fuzzy Sugar-Rush Day." All agreed and settled in for some needed mental recovery time.

Zander nudged Bork. "Look on the bright side. We didn't get the disks, but at least someone in the family did."

Bork didn't look happy. "Yes, but what will he do with them?"

Nina threw a piece of toast at him, starting a food fight. "Don't know. I don't care. Figure it out later. I need cartoons and some downtime." Even Bork had to agree with that.