BY THE 22ND CENTURY, THE 13TH-CENTURY monastery of St John’s, located on a tiny offshore island, has become an army-owned Alpha-Grade industrial facility. This factory, run by the contractors Morpoth Jetsan, mines the million tons of acid buried beneath it. For two years, Foreman Miranda Cleaves has led a crew of four – Jimmy Wicks, Jennifer Lucas, Dicken and Buzzer – in pumping 200 tons of unrefined corrosive to the mainland.
The lethal acid initially led to the loss of a worker every week. Now, mining is performed by dopplegängers – or Gangers – of the crew. The team plumb in via a harness to direct a duplicate created from ‘the Flesh’. When accidents occur, the damaged Ganger is disposed of and a replacement made, allowing contractors to continue handling the raw material.