The earth-heat channel tunnels beneath Sub-Level 3 were choking, flooded with forty-degree steam and the violent crackle of ungrounded spark arcs.
High-voltage copper power bars, thick as tree trunks and carrying forty thousand volts of earth-heat power from the deep fiery turbines, hung from the arched stonework ceiling. Three of the main power bars had been cut by explosive charges, their frayed copper braids thrashing against the wet concrete floor like dying serpents, discharging blinding cascades of blue sparks that lit up the dark hall in uneven flashes.
At the far end of the tunnel, forty Spliced Burrowing Maulers were tearing into the main shield charge bank banks.
They were hulking, underground amalgams. Quadrupeds with the thick, blubber-padded hides of naked mole-rats, their forelimbs armed with diamond-tipped digging claws capable of chewing through heavy concrete at three meters a minute. Guiding them were four Sovereign Chimera saboteurs clad in rubberized dangerous-environment suits, wildly planting satchels of volatile bio-sludge into the transformer cores.
The warning klaxons were screaming through the steam:
WARNING: Slamming SHIELD Power stone AT 14% TOTAL GRID COLLAPSE IN T-MINUS 04:12
“If the shield drops, Gate Four loses its nearby moving bending barrier,” Arthur Vance whispered. He crouched at the tunnel entrance.
