T-053 Mutant sludger

Threshold Institute · Case file T-053

Number

T-053 in the catalogue

Kind

Creature

Class

Class II: dangerous, and held in a cell

Found

Year 46, month 10, day 2

Where found

The nuclear plant's reactor building

Status

More of them wade through the plant, indoors and in the yard

Now

At the nuclear plant

Part

Part IV: The planet and the pollution

Containment procedures

The one specimen was held in a cell with a sealed drain. Its cell had to be hosed out twice a day, and the water from it was kept in sealed tanks, since no drain could take it.

Field guidance for the nuclear plant: it leaks a toxic sludge as it walks and leaves puddles of it behind. Standing in its sludge poisons the body as polluted air does. A gas mask holds it off; antitox pills clear it. Do not stand in a puddle to fire.

Description

A bloated, slow creature of the nuclear plant, one of the infected (T-048) swollen by the plant's pollution until it leaks. Its skin is stretched thin and grey-green, and the sludge runs from it at every step; where it stands for long, the floor under it is eaten pale. More of them wade through the plant, indoors and in the yard.

Discovery

Halden's third trip reached the reactor building, as planned (T-052), and found its floors covered with puddles of sludge, and the thing that left them. The trail of puddles led from the reactor hall's cooling pool up two flights of stairs and out into the yard, and Rehn's instruments, which could not read the field outside, read the sludge at once, and at the top of their scale.

Addenda

Addendum T-053-1

Incident report, Year 46, month 10, day 2

Filed by Erik Halden.

Brandt and Lehto stood in a puddle to fire at it. The sludge came through their boots. They had the signs of foul air within minutes. Their masks held off the worst of it; the pills cleared what the masks did not. We brought it in alive, on the forklift again.

Addendum T-053-2

Test log, Year 46, months 10 and 11

Supervised by Tomas Rehn.

The sludge holds the same poison as the pollution field (T-047), many times thicker. The plant has made the pollution into a creature, and the creature makes more pollution where it walks.

Addendum T-053-3

Rehn's report to the Directorate, Year 46, month 12, day 20 (in full)

Masks and pills put the poison off. Nothing the Institute has stops it. The field has grown every month since the launch site. No cell or seal holds it. Its source lies on the planet, out of reach, and nothing on earth that we know of can touch it.

Addendum T-053-4

Minutes of the Directorate, Year 46, month 12, day 28 (extract)

The Director asked Dr Rehn whether anything beyond T-001 could. Dr Rehn answered that he did not know, and that the one team that went deep enough to know did not come back (T-031). Asked what the risk of a deep team would be, he answered that it would be the risk Anneli Sund's team took.

What followed

Order of the Directorate, entered Year 47, month 1, day 3: send a team through T-001, along the route of the lost expedition, and bring back anything that works against the pollution (T-054).

Previous fileT-052 Mutant crawlerPart IV: The planet and the pollution Next fileT-054 Porcelain MaskPart V: The widening

In the file

• People: Tomas Rehn, Anneli Sund, Erik Halden, Sami Lehto and Brandt.
• Places: The cells, The lost expedition’s camp, The launch site and The nuclear plant.

In the game

The note you find in the game:

Year 46, month 10, day 2. Recovered from the nuclear plant's reactor building by Erik Halden's third trip, which found its floors covered with puddles of sludge and the thing that left them. The trail led from the reactor hall's cooling pool up two flights of stairs and out into the yard, and Tomas Rehn's instruments read the sludge at the top of their scale.

Bloated and slow, it leaks a toxic sludge as it walks and leaves puddles of it behind.

Standing in its sludge poisons the body as polluted air does. A gas mask holds it off; antitox pills clear it.

Its cell had to be hosed out twice a day. Status: more of them wade through the plant, indoors and in the yard.

Today it is found at the nuclear plant.

It goes down after losing 3200 ml of its 7200 ml of blood. How it hunts and where it turns up: see the zombies page.