Dept. of [WITHHELD] Report on Little Polo
Intercepted by Agent J Faustus
Written by Robert Lambent, Maintenance Technician
(Specialisation: Sub Zero Temperatures) SCL 10.3
The Dept. has been unable to locate Mr Lambent since receiving this report.
"This all happened a coupla weeks ago and I'm starting to get scared. Mary said I should write it all down and pass it to you 'cause you'd know what to do.
"I was called in to supervise the upgrade of a coolant system in the core block of Little Polo. You know the big heat sinks running down the middle of the towers? I was in charge of stripping down the central systems and giving them a complete refit. This was a sweet contract too, because Little Polo is one *expensive* resort. All of us, supervisors and above, got free use of the slopes and three free lessons. Larry and some of the boys were getting pretty good on their snow boards last time I saw them.
"Anyway, we'd been working for three weeks straight and the renovation was going just fine. There'd been some worried Wraiths coming and giving us grief, they said there shouldn't be a temperature rise near level zero 'or else'. Level zero? Ground level? It’s the upper stories I'd have been worrying about. That’s were the rain freezes, that's were Little Polo makes its money. Can't have a ski resort in Mort without snow, right? But no! I get all these yowling Wraiths saying they were going to snipe the rug offa my head if the basement don't stay cold. What was I meant to do?
"Larry and the others had gone for their first boarding lesson. We'd started installing new systems, everything was going fine. I would have gone with the guys, but someone kept messing with one of our backup generators, number 12, moving it! Damn thing must've weighed 4000kgs, but still someone kept moving it. I said I'd catch up with them on the slope, then I headed down towards the genny. When I got there, same thing as always. Whole damn thing had been shifted out into the middle of the street! I could see scuff marks in the ice where it had been dragged. Then I noticed the wall.
"The generator must've been giving out some heat, cause the frost that usually coats the walls down here was just starting to re freeze. Scariest damn thing. You know the way frost looks sometimes? All patterns, sometimes looks like faces or something? Well it was kinda like that. Crazy spirals and lines. Reminded me of the letters them Ebans use, only not as ... well ... pretty.
"It was when I was looking at the patterns that I noticed the wall wasn't as innocent as it seemed. I've done some structural engineering in my time, and believe me, I can spot a dud wall a mile off, but this wall was real well designed. Took me almost 20 minutes of freezing my ass off before I found the opening mechanism, and it turned out to be colder inside than out. There was a passageway and some steps down, all the concrete hidden behind a thick shield of ice. As I followed the slope down, I got less and less sure that there was concrete behind the ice though. It took on this crazy translucent quality, looked like you could see a coupla metres into it, but you *couldn't* have, not unless the ice had replaced the load bearing walls, and there had to be some *serious* load-bearing walls down there.
"At the end of the passage was a chamber. Huge. At least 10m high, probably close to 100m by 100m and I *know* there aren't any chambers of that size down there. I know that for a fact. No-one's gone over the Sector’s schematics in more detail than me, that’s for damn sure!
"In the centre of the chamber was a lowered area, about 15 m to the side, and filling the area was this ... this *thing*. It was immense, it filled the depression where it sat, it's sides overflowed into the room. A huge mass of saggy flesh, tens of tonnes, covered in thick loose sparsely haired skin. It was heaving and pitching in places, breathing I guess.
"When I started to approach I noticed the floor of the chamber was thick with a mixture of snow and animal bones. Millions of tiny bones, rats, frogs, maybe small dogs at the biggest. The first step into the room caused a kind of crackling noise. I froze. When I looked up, the thing was watching me.
"Two eyes had opened up within the mass, two sickly yellowish blood shot eyes, feline, and tiny in comparison with the bulk of its body. The heap of flesh shifted in my mind, I experienced a change of perspective. What was before me was a Wraith! The hairs covering its mottled flesh were that kinda pink colour, and I could make out these diseased flaps of skin which might have been ears. I couldn't see any arms or legs, maybe they were concealed beneath its bulk, or maybe they'd been swallowed up into all the fat. The head was barely differentiated from the mass of the body, but the eyes! The eyes glared at me with such an instinctive hatred, an intelligent malevolence I can barely describe.
"I don't know what happened next. I shrieked and ran. In the passage I passed a group of Wraiths carrying little elaborate cages from which came the frantic squeaks of small distressed animals. I fear I may have sounded very like those poor doomed creatures as I ran. The Wraiths did not pursue me of course, if they had I don't think I'd have out ran them, do you? I don't know why they didn't either, not like it would have been any trouble for them. I recognised one of them too. [NAME WITHHELD], you know, the one with the knives who's just getting big on the contract circuit.
"I hope you can help me out. I haven't left the apartment in weeks. Too many of them are snipers, I'm just glad I don't have exterior windows. Can you protect me? I'm terrified that any day now they'll come for me. I don't think Larry or the guys believe I'm off sick anymore, but I made them quarantine level zero. Told them there was some infectious remains of Wraith Raider meals, you know what shit they like to eat. When I sleep I can still see that things eyes, hating me. You gotta help me. I wouldn't be calling this favour in if the Dept. didn't owe me something."
Departmental Note:
No risk of exposure at this time. All information has been successfully repressed. Our contact on Polo has expressed gratitude for the manner in which we handled the affair.