Chapter 17 – A Shattered Mirror

512 A.R. February 2** 1 ***,* E** ast Coast – Airbase ***,* A** fternoon**

The car took us on a solitary path through the wastes, and in the distance, I could see the airbase. High walls appeared to surround the base, and a few defensive towers dotted the surrounding landscape.

Part of the wall began to open up as we approached, but to my surprise, it didn’t reveal the interior of the base. Instead the gate opened to reveal a sloping path into the underground. The car didn’t seem to care much as it sped past the gate and brought us into the depths. Peter glanced back, and I threw him a glimpse as I watched the gate close behind us.

Allen motioned to a tablet in his hands, “Kato’s pack and John are already here.”

Well, that puts me at a disadvantage…

I nodded at Allen and looked over at Peter, “How are you feeling?”

Peter looked back at me and felt his temple, “I’m fine now. Once the feeling started to abate, it disappeared within minutes.”

“Good,” I said.

The sloping path began to level out, and I looked in front as we entered a gargantuan underground hangar. To the right of the hangar were what looked like automated launch platforms. Hundreds—if not thousands—of heavy drones rested in their bays, and I could see numerous spider-bots crawling along the massive assembly.

To the left were larger platforms, many of which had large cargo drones which were at least a couple of times bigger than the lunar shuttle.

“So, what’s the plan with Kato?” Peter asked.

I looked into the distance and caught sight of a few figures standing by a couple of parked cars.

I’m assuming that’s Kato’s pack and John…

“It’s too hazardous to shake everything up by trying to take control, so I'll do my best to be the dutiful beta of the fire team,” I said.

Peter glimpsed at me, “Who knows, maybe last time sobered him up?”

“Fat chance,” Allen whispered from the backseat.

I chuckled and smiled back, “We’ll see.”

The car stopped next to the others, and I could see John standing alongside Marcus. Kato stood by the edge of the group, arms crossed, and eyed our car with a stoic stare as we approached.

I opened the door, heard the others do the same, and stepped out into the large hangar. The odor in the air was… clean, but the scent of machines—lubricant, oil, electronics, a hint of charged particles like ozone—permeated the room.

Peter was waiting for me by the car, and Allen remained in my shadow. As I started walking, the others followed, and I set my sights on Kato.

Kato’s expression softened as we approached, “Vilkas.”

“Kato,” I said and gave him a simple nod as I stepped up.

Kato turned his focus to the others in turn, “Peter, John, nice to see you again… Please join the others and I'll have a quick chat with Vilkas.”

I briefly reached out with my mind, and motioned to Peter, ‘Go ahead. I'll be fine.’

Peter perked his ears in surprise but was quick to catch on as I heard his thoughts, ‘As ordered.’

Good progress with the telepathy…

I smiled back at Peter while he walked toward the others, and Allen followed in his wake.

Finally, I turned my attention to Kato once more, “Yes?”

Kato stepped closer to me so that our muzzles were mere inches apart and lowered his voice, “Are we going to have any problems on this mission?”

“Only if you don’t listen to advice,” I said.

A quick frown flashed to life on his forehead, “… You’re cocky as ever.”

I tipped my head a little, “I won’t grovel to you, Kato.”

Kato stared for a moment and let out a soft sigh as he stepped back, “Fine, we can work with this.”

I nodded in silence.

Kato’s expression seemed to settle as he motioned to me, “Anything I should know before we start the briefing?”

I motioned to him, “Did you see one of these things yesterday? How they moved? Acted?”

“I’ve watched the briefings, Vilkas. Besides, a creature like that couldn’t get through a mech suit even if I let it sit and gnaw for a while,” Kato retorted.

“You say that, but do you know that?” I asked.

Kato motioned to himself, “I’ve been in a mech suit several times, and I know what they are capable of. Have you or your pack done that?”

“No,” I answered.

Kato motioned between us, “Then we’re on pretty equal terms, wouldn’t you say?”

“Just making sure that we both understand the seriousness of the situation,” I said.

“Yes… Like how you manipulated us in the Enclave, warped my orders for your own amusement, and ran around, probably surrounded by infested humans. Very serious of you all,” Kato said.

I drew a deep breath, “You do have a point, but I trusted the AIs predictions on the matter.”

Kato flicked his hand in the air, “The AIs aren’t perfect, if you haven’t realized.”

“Perfection is a moving target,” I said.

Kato’s tail twitched. “What I'm saying is that their predictions are only based on threats they can predict. Step outside the box, and they become useless, because in the end… AIs are not like us or humans, they’re not creative enough… not insidious enough.”

A philosophical argument, from you of all people?

I tipped my head in wonder as I watched him, “You’re confusing me… One moment you seem almost honor-bound to law, and in the next, you criticize the core of what holds Sophos together?”

Kato gritted his teeth, “You still don’t get it… The AIs, the droids, the drones, they are our shields. We stay behind, and we play it safe, not as cowardice, but for the simple reason that if we get ourselves involved, then we will be tempted to dig even deeper, and that’s when people start dying.”

“You’re trying to hold back, because you know you won’t be able to stop yourself from caring?”

Kato drew a deep breath as he stared me down, “If Lucas had asked me for help… If any human asked me for help, do you think I would have the willpower to refuse?”

“… I don’t know,” I said.

Kato raised his hand to point at me, “You seek it out. Situations where you might help, where there’s a mystery to untangle, something that will give you an advantage. It’s dangerous.”

“I’d say it’s necessary,” I said.

Kato squinted, “For you, maybe. But what about the rest of your pack?”

“It’s their choice to follow, or not,” I said.

Kato chuckled, “You might ask what they want, but only after you’ve put them in a situation where their nature… our nature, may have already made the choice for us. Thus, the question becomes, what right do you have to put them in such situations?”

The answer to that question is ugly… and selfish…

“…” I stared back at him.

Kato grew a sordid smile and shrugged, “Even among our fair society, there are those who dominate others. A weakness, a deliberate design… Who knows?”

I sighed, “You’re arguing that we should be careful exposing ourselves to certain situations, but that seems to be a very insular approach… too insular even for a pacifistic nation that wants to focus on its own affairs. Saving Lucas mattered, perhaps not to us, or to Sophos, but it mattered a great deal to him.”

“Don’t patronize me,” Kato whispered.

“… We can’t save everyone, I know that. But I still think that what we did at Max’s hideout was the right thing to do,” I said.

Still frowning, Kato sighed, “We’re not a do-everything-fit-all outfit, Vilkas. We have clear missions, we achieve the objectives, and we report in the rest. Max’s hideout could have been raided by a dedicated team, and Lucas could have been spirited away in the dark.”

“Lucas would be dead if we followed that advice,” I said.

Kato’s brow twitched, “…”

Damn it… I need to ease up a bit here…

I sighed, “That being said, I get what you mean, and-”

Kato interrupted me, “Saving him was good, but in the end, you accomplished nothing when it came to actually tracking Hannival down. You make yourself sound like a humanitarian, but I think you saw an opportunity in the chase, and you leaped for it.”

So, you don’t know that we were the ones who tracked down his family…

Telling him would hardly make things better, and letting Kato have a win of sorts might calm him down.

“Sure, that played into it,” I said.

“Time to start the briefing…” Kato said with a sigh, and faced the others as he started walking. I followed in his wake as he walked up and motioned for attention, “Alright, listen up everyone…”

Everyone turned to focus of Kato while I joined his side.

“We’ll be entering a camp of human cultists near the coast. Drone patrols have revealed no spore levels out of the ordinary, but given the nature of this new strain, it doesn’t mean much. Our mechanized forces are already moving in to secure the area, but they won’t enter the actual camp before we arrive. Our orders are to evaluate the camp for infestation with the help of medical droids, locate any people of importance, and extract any information if possible.”

Kato waited for a moment, and kept going, “I expect that everyone will be roughly aware of how the new Lusus strain works by now, but I want to reiterate something. Anyone that shows positive for Lusus infestation is beyond rescue. They are walking corpses at best, and monsters that risk the lives of everyone at worst. The new strain is insidious in a way the Lusus have never been before, and normal behavior—for a human—is not an indicator that they are healthy. That being said, if there are non-infested humans at the site, then it is our duty to bring them to safety. It is irrelevant if whether they are cultists or criminals when it comes to rescuing them from a situation like this.”

Quite a change from earlier…

Kato glanced back at me, seemingly content at my silence, and focused on the others once more, “The reports from the Enclaves indicate that there are a few precautions that we need to keep in mind. The first, and most important, is that the new strain behaves like a hornet’s nest. All it takes is for one of the infested to ‘hatch,’ and it will in turn cause a ripple effect throughout the entire camp. Unless absolutely necessary, do not poke the hornet’s nest by agitating anyone that’s infested. For that same reason, we’re going to tell everyone that they’re just sick, not infested… Once we’ve extracted anyone that isn’t infested and have extracted any knowledge of value, we’ll withdraw and let the droids deal with the extermination of the camp.”

After a few moments, Kato said, “Anything you wish to add, Vilkas?”

I faced the others, and spoke up, “The humans in the camp will likely be malnourished, cold, and sick, even if they aren’t infested. They’ve spent over a month out in the frozen wastes, and they’re not going to be happy with our presence. Don’t poke at them, don’t agitate, and don’t touch their things unless necessary. A panic in a camp of hundreds with this kind of volatility would be a disaster.”

I need a screen…

My gaze drifted along the others, and I took note that Allen had brought his tablet along.

“Allen, throw me your tablet,” I said and motioned to him.

Allen perked up in surprise, took a step forward, and made an overly cautious swing with his arm as he threw it toward me. I caught it, pulled it back, and let my mind connect with it. Within moments I had transferred a few photos to it, then held it up for everyone to see.

“This is Hedwig Reifenberg. S** he was the previous leader of the religious cult that many humans of the region were part of. **** While the circumstances regarding the collapse **** a ***re* questionable, the Luminaire probably had something to do with it. Even if Hedwig has been deposed from her throne, she most likely still plays an important role. We should tread carefully around her and make it a priority to question or bring her in if possible. ” With a thought, I switched the image to Hannival, “This is Hannival; same applies for him. If anyone sees them, inform the rest of us.”

Everyone stayed silent but made subtle nods of agreement.

Kato glanced at me once more and then looked out across the others, “Deployment tactics will be made as we land and are able to judge the situation for ourselves. Any questions?”

Silence followed, and Kato smacked his hands together with a smile, “Alright then, time to get into the mech suits.”

Everyone started to disperse among the mech suits that were standing nearby, perhaps too eagerly even. Reville and Monty seemed mostly amused as they walked up along Peter and Allen to point out various parts.

I approached at my own pace, and as I looked out across the mech suits, it was clear that two of them differed from the rest.

One fireteam… Two Alpha sized wolves…

John pointed at the rear of a mech suit and loudly exclaimed, “Hey, there's no tail here!”

Monty chuckled and patted his leg as I walked up, “You stuff your tail down your leg. It’s not that comfy, but a tail on the suit would be something of a structural weakness.”

Kato was already climbing into his mech suit as I walked up to my own. The head of the suit had tipped forward while the back had opened itself up, thus making it abundantly clear how to get inside.

A quick glance at the front revealed that the head was shaped like a wolf made with just a few polygons. Simple, but menacingly wolfish in a way.

The armor of the mech suit appeared black for the most part, and I reached out to touch its chest. As my pads trailed the large shaped plates, the feeling was weird, oddly neutral in a way.

Hardly any heat transfer…

Between the armored plates was a tough black material. It reminded me of rubber, but even a hard pinch from my claws did little to move, let alone harm, the material.

Just like the APC, there didn’t seem to be any windows or even visible sensors. Instead, I assumed it used some combination of beamed scanners, passive microscopic sensors in the armor itself, and a lot of merged data from other sources like drones or droids.

The arms of the mech suit were surprisingly large, and it was clear that this was where the main armaments were located. The hands of the suit were equipped with glinting black claws, and on the wrist were what looked to be tightly clustered utility tendrils.

Sitting on the outer-facing portion of both arms were large pods. I traced my hand along the pods and could feel edges that I assumed could open up to reveal the actual weapons.

A hum could be heard as something switched on, and upon glancing back, I could see that Kato’s suit had already started moving. The behemoth stomped the ground, faced me, and froze in place as if staring me down.

I chuckled to myself at the sight of it, stepped over to the back of the suit, and caught hold of the sides. Carefully, I pulled my legs up, eased myself into the depths of the suit, and leaned forward as my I let my arms sink into the mech suit.

As I willed my tail to slink into the right leg’s chamber, I could feel a budding connection in the back of my mind. Like the APC, the ‘mind’ of the mech suit sucked hold of me.

[Signature verified: Vilkas Volkov. Symlink compatible.]

[Beginning neural sync and data-transfer]

The mech suit was starting to close up behind me, and I could feel the head of the suit pull up. It sealed itself around my muzzle, gently squeezed my ears, and began to tighten. My spine began to tingle, and I had the urge to shut my eyes. I relaxed, and let the sense of the suit course through me, similar to when I had interfaced with the Lunar Shuttle.

The suit whispered in the back of my mind, and I began to feel as if my body was melting away under its influence. My body, the very sensation of it, began to grow and flex. Moving my hands, feeling the soft brush of fur, grew to become a cold and metallic feeling. As the sensation grew, the thunderous weight of the behemoth became my own.

I opened my eyes once more, and I could see a lot more than I imagined. While the focus of my vision was in front of me, my peripheral spread to encompass the whole world. As I drew a deep breath, power surged throughout me.

Just like the lunar shuttle, this piece of equipment wanted to be used. It existed to serve its master, and it fused with me to reach its full potential. I looked down for a moment, lifted my massive black paw, and let it stomp into the ground with a resounding thump that reverberated throughout me.

As I enjoyed this little power rush, information kept flooding into my mind.

There was a flamethrower hidden in the pod on my left arm, while the right one was equipped with what was designated as a ‘flechette cannon’. Curiosity pulled me deeper, and I felt the specs trickle into my mind.

It was a scary piece of hardware. A single round contained thousands of sharp shards that could be launched in an adjustable arc. The range of it was low, but the potential for destruction was significant. It would turn soft targets into vapor, and it could strip armor like a blowtorch to butter.

There was also a miniature railgun on the left arm alongside a bunch of utilities including a plasma torch and a medical suite in the chest. The utility tendrils would be able to manage anything that required a finer touch.

All feeling in my own body seemed to have faded away, but as I focused on the thought, a hint of it trickled back, as if I could access it when I desired. The feeling of my body was like a tight squeeze, and my curiosity on the subject brought forth another nugget of information.

The mech suit was designed to fight in Lusus-contaminated areas, and it had several adaptations for it. One of them was what was giving me body such a snug fit. The entire inside of the suit was filled a sort of gel-sacs that were both shock-absorbing and served as a last line of defense should the suit be breached.

Something clicked within the process that had started as I got into the suit. My body and mind were bonded to it, and the intelligence of the mech suit was content.

I looked toward the others and saw a group of massive robotic wolves. While they all looked the same with their black armor, perked ears, and menacing snouts, I could easily identify who was who. It was a feeling, wired into my subconscious. Peter was standing near me, still booting up as it were. Allen stumbled about, trying to get his bearings as he was still bonding with the mech suit.

John was… seemingly stuck. I could feel some kind of feedback from his suit as I watched and listened to its desperate attempts to form a proper neural bond. At some point, it gave up. His mech suit switched to the legacy mode that Kato and his pack most likely used, and its connection with the host became a lot more primitive.

His suit began to move slowly, as if trying to figure out where his paws and arms were. As I looked toward the others—Kato, Monty, Reville, and Marcus—they too seemed to move with a certain robotic stiffness.

Kato walked closer with steady stomps, and while I could hear his voice inside of my head, it sounded like his voice had been picked up by microphones inside his helmet.

[Private Channel with Kato engaged]

“You said you’d never been in mech suits before,” Kato said with a rather forced, but friendly tone.

‘We haven’t,’ I thought.

“Then how come John is the only one with a remotely normal reaction?” Kato asked.

‘Don’t know. Are we ready to move?’ I thought.

“You have a tendency of shifting subjects when things get uncomfortable… How come your voice sounds so clean?” Kato wondered.

Compared to your rasping breaths that the microphone is picking up?

‘I’m neurally linked with the suit. It enables me to ‘think’ what I want to send you, rather than speak it out loud,’ I thought.

“Well, isn’t that fancy… I take it this ‘neural’ link is why you can move like that as well?”

‘Yes. Also, I'm aware that you’ve now caught me in a lie, and the reason for said lie simple: I can’t teach you to use these abilities. They take time to develop, and the process can’t be rushed,’ I thought.

“Ah, so everyone in your pack… except John for reason, has been given some kind of special sauce?” Kato asked.

I sighed over the link, ‘No, not really, and this is why I don’t bring it up. It distances us from others, takes time to explain, and it serves little purpose to the mission at hand.’

Kato was silent for a while, but I could hear his frustrated breaths in the background. “… I’ll give the go-ahead for the cargo ship. We can do some exercises while on the way.”

Within moments, the large cargo hauling ship next to us began to move. It rotated to face us, and its large hatch began to open.

[Public Channel: Kato is broadcasting]

“Alright, everyone into the cargo ship,” Kato ordered.

512 A.R. February 2** 1 ***,* E** ast Coast – C *argo Shuttle* , **** A ***fternoon*

Flying in the cargo ship was a surprisingly bumpy ride, which was, in turn, made worse by standing in what was effectively a big empty space. Fortunately, the paws of the mech suits were equipped with electromagnets, a rather useful tool as it kept us grounded.

Carefully, I made my way over to John and opened a private channel with him, ‘John?’

The head of his mech suit moved to look at me, “Vilkas?”

‘How are things in there?’ I thought.

“… Just trying to make heads and tails out of all these settings. Moving is simple, but it’s difficult to make sure I don’t overstep or something,” John said.

‘You’re doing good from the look of things,’ I said.

“… Allen was literally dancing on his way into the cargo bay,” John said with a voice that dripped with dismay.

I inched closer to his suit and figured I'd appeal to his compassion, ‘Allen has weaknesses and strengths. Let him enjoy this one?’

John sighed over the com-link, “I’m more disappointed in myself than anything else… I did as you said, and I've used the stunner repeatedly over the last few days. It’s better now, but I'm about where Peter first started.”

‘If you’ve made that much progress in such a short amount of time, it won’t be long before you’re dancing around as well,’ I thought.

John stifled a chuckle, “True… I hope.”

‘Listen,’ I said.

“… What?” John wondered.

‘Tell me to stop if this sounds intruding for you, but I heard about what happened to the Undercity.’

While I couldn’t see John’s face through the mech suit, I could imagine him staring at me in silence.

“… So?” John asked after a few moments.

‘I had Jason, John… I understand enough to-’

He interrupted me, “I don’t have human friends, Vilkas. I did, once upon a time. Some of them died from drugs, others turned on each other, and a few grew up to become monsters. Now they’re all dead, and the world is probably better for it.”

‘… That may be so, but it doesn’t change how we might feel on the inside,’ I said.

“… What are you trying to achieve, Vilkas? Why ask this? Now, out of all times? Are you asking whether I can do my fucking job or something?” John asked.

I eased back, ‘I trust you to do your job, John. You may be rash at times, but you are dependable. What I'm asking is whether you want someone to talk with, or offer a hand if you need it.’

Silence followed, and the cargo bay rumbled a little as the ship encountered some kind of turbulence.

“… Have I told you that I really used to hate people like you, Vilkas?” John asked.

I smiled to myself, ‘No, but go on?’

“You’re this holier than thou archetype, strutting around, offering kindness to everyone while keeping everything ugly about yourself under wraps. A politician that knows how to talk.”

‘Your attempt at riling me is rather transparent, but you are right about me keeping my own troubles to myself. It’s a bad habit, but… it is what it is,’ I thought.

Once more, he was silent, “… And my insults are like water off your feathers.”

‘I’d correct you and say that I have fur, not feathers, but you’d probably count that as an attempt at deflecting,’ I thought.

“I’m tempted to laugh, but now isn’t really a good time, Vilkas… I can do my job, I promise. But you need to let me focus on this, to do what I need to do, and I'll deal with these… troublesome emotions later on. Okay?” John said, and suddenly sounded as if he was rather tired.

‘Sounds like a deal, John,’ I said.

“… Thank you, boss,” John whispered.

I disconnected, stepped back, and reached out with my mind to the cargo transport we were on. As the new link was formed, I accessed the navigation system to check where we were.

ETA… 40 seconds… We’re nearing the gathering point for the camp…

External cameras on the cargo craft revealed that the camp hadn’t changed much from the time I looked through James’ spy cameras.

[Public Channel: Kato is broadcasting]

“Here we go… Commencing landing,” Kato said over the broadcast.

I focused on the external cameras and took note of the forces that had gathered. Large drones dotted the sky. Droids were already marching into the camp. A set of APCs were patrolling the perimeter, and I could see distant spider droids stepping through the sloping hills.

A landing spot had already been arranged, and there were entire platoons of droids marching about as they set up tents and various container-shaped structures. The medical droids seemed to differ from the rest and had a set of large, almost-uncomfortably bright red crosses painted on them. To my surprise, there were tanks driving in patterns that looked as if they were creating paths in the snow.

A notification appeared within my field of vision, ‘Landing in… 10… 9… 8...’

Everyone faced the large bay doors, and I stepped away from John to give him some space.

[Private Channel: Peter]

‘Vilkas?’ Peter wondered.

‘Yeah?’ I wondered.

‘Nervous?’ Peter wondered.

I smiled to myself and glanced back at Peter, ‘I am. Why?’

Peter’s voice turned a bit quirky, as if relieved to hear it, ‘Just checking…’

[Touchdown – Bay doors opening]

The cargo ship lurched, shook a little, and settled with a tired groan as I kept myself stable. Moments later, light began to spill inside as the bay doors opened.

It revealed an orange sky, a distant ocean, and a sloping alley in the shade of a mountain. Kato was the first to start moving, and he raised his arm high in the air to motion for us to follow.

Kato’s actually handled himself alright so far…

I began to walk, and my gaze drifted to the human camp at the base of the valley. The tents had changed little, and a few plumes of smoke were a good indicator that it was still inhabited. The many crates I had noticed in James’ videos appeared to have been disassembled in some manner, perhaps to serve as firewood.

What’s so special about this area? The lack of forests? The shore? The caves?

Kato stepped onto the path of compacted snow that one of the tanks had made and began to march.

The rocky shore in the distance looked like a rotting organic mass mixed with a great wall of icy sludge. Revolting, and no doubt toxic as well. A salty fog rose near the shore, and I could see big waves roll in toward the shore before slamming into the ice with a loud roar.

This would be rather pretty if it wasn’t for the organic sludge…

[Public Channel: Kato is broadcasting]

“Things are looking good… There are guard-droids teaming up with medical ones, and they are starting to inspect the tents. No hostilities so far…”

I joined the public broadcast, ‘These humans may have been through a lot, but seeing more than one of us at the same time might set them off.’

“Are you saying that we should split up?” Kato asked.

‘Teams of two, one waits outside the tent, one inspects the inside,’ I thought.

‘… Sounds good. John, you’re with me. Marcus, you’re with Peter. Reville’s with Monty. I’ll let you figure out the remainder, Vilkas,’ Kato said.

Still a bit pissy, are we? Or strategic…

Does he think John will spill the beans if he cozies up to him or something?

‘Roger that,’ I thought, and glanced back at Allen who diverged from the others to join my side.

My gaze wandered then caught on the sky above us. Drones large and small loomed as we descended down the valley, and it seemed we had gotten our own personal guard as well.

[Private Channel: Allen]

‘Funny way of teaming people up if he wanted us to get to know each other,’ Allen thought.

‘Reville and Monty are twins. They might take offense to being separated,’ I thought.

‘I find it more likely that he wanted to split those of us that he thinks he can manipulate,’ Allen thought.

I glanced back at Allen, ‘These thoughts are okay to keep in mind, but don’t let them guide your actions.’

Allen chuckled, ‘I won’t… The others are already moving toward the closest tents. What’s our approach?’

‘One moment, and I'll try to figure that out,’ I thought.

I cut the connection to Allen, slowed down my perception of time, and focused.

First, I reached out toward the Archives, connected with it, and made an inquiry for satellite footage in the area. To my delight, the Archives were now more than willing to share a plethora of information.

Seems the situation unlocked this as well…

I focused on the camp, gathered snapshots over time, and started to glimpse them through. Over time, there was a lot of movement between the tents. People scurrying about, pots of waste most likely being dumped at the outskirts. There were also periods where there were nothing but clouds in the way of the camp.

If they did something interesting, they most likely did it at night, under cloud cover…

‘Volkov?’ I thought.

His presence bubbled to the surface in short order, ‘What is it?’

‘Too busy to help me with something?’ I wondered.

‘Busy… Yes, but I can make time. What do you need?’ Volkov wondered.

‘Based on satellite footage from this camp, can you make out some kind of pattern where we’d be likely to find something of interest?’ I wondered.

I could feel as Volkov peered at the gathered data, ‘… ‘Interesting’ is a very broad search patter, but I'll give it a go… Do I need to tell you that you should take steps to do this kind of thing on your own?’

‘I dug up the data on my own. How do I analyze it at ease without something like the APC’s intelligence?’ I wondered.

There was a pause, and a subtle groan, ‘Just spin up your own Expert System dedicated to things like this. Ordinary folks can do it, and for us it’s like juicing up that ability to eleven.’

‘I’ll take a look at it when I can,’ I thought.

‘… You’re in an odd mood,’ Volkov said as if stating fact.

‘What makes you say that?’ I wondered.

‘Well, you and I being so similar, I imagine that things have to be pretty tense for you to just swallow an insult without the slightest hint of a comeback,’ Volkov said.

‘I don’t feel like I'm in control of this situation, and it’s unnerving me,’ I thought.

‘Welcome to most of my life,’ Volkov said.

‘Are we still fighting?’ I wondered.

‘No. I was just…’ Volkov sighed, ‘I was just saying that I can relate to the feeling.’

‘I understand. How long do you think it’ll take?’ I wondered.

‘Oh, I'm already done… Just waiting for our current conversation to end.’

Inside the depths of my own mind, I groaned, ‘Please… do share.’

‘Well, to start off with, based on movement patterns between tents, there were hundreds in this camp from the beginning. By now I'd say there are about… 80 left?’ Volkov said.

‘Where have the others gone?’ I wondered.

‘They’ve made a makeshift cemetery in the depths of the valley, or rather… a mass grave in the snow. But most of these deaths occurred shortly after arriving here. From what I've been able to see, no one has visited the cemetery for weeks.’

‘So, did they just stop dying or…’

‘No, rather than that, the patterns in the snow reveal that people have been taken steady trips up to the caves in the mountain. Interestingly enough, they’ve avoided going up there during clear weather, and they even tried to hide the tracks but didn’t do a good enough job,’ Volkov said.

‘Best case scenario, they’ve made a cozy little home for themselves in the caves. Worst case scenario, it’s a fucking Lusus nest,’ I thought.

‘Something like that… ’

‘Anything else?’

‘Well, you wanted something interesting, and there are a few odd patterns to how people move around in the camp,’ Volkov said.

‘Go on?’

‘There are a few abandoned tents in the very back of the camp, someone was dumped there just a few days ago. It could be a dead body… or someone they don’t want anything to do with. You could check it out, but I'd be ready in case it is someone that’s ready to hatch,’ Volkov said.

‘Got it. Thank you, Volkov,’ I thought.

‘You’re welcome…’

The tone made me feel as if something was left hanging, ‘… Yes?’

‘It’s nothing. Focus on your mission, and we’ll have a talk later,’ Volkov said.

‘Alright, it’s been a while since I visited that little domain of yours,’ I thought.

‘Yeah, later,’ Volkov said as his presence faded.

My perception of time returned to normal, and now the map of the camp entered my mind’s eye. I set up a private channel with Allen and motioned to the deep end of the camp, ‘This way.’

‘Found something?’ Allen wondered.

‘Well, there’s a mass grave behind the camp, and there might be something interesting in one of the tents back there,’ I thought, and started walking.

‘A… mass grave?’ Allen whispered over the link.

‘We’ll deal with it together,’ I thought as I weaved between the tents of the camp.

The camp itself seemed surprisingly silent. While the wind made the tents flutter a little, no one was poking glances at us. No one talked, and no one screamed. As I looked around, I could see medical droids carefully poke at the entrance of various tents, but they received little response. Some of the tents had been patched up from the look of things, and a few had even been woven together to create larger ones.

Not only that, but the mech suit had muted many of the senses I took for granted now. There were no scents, and even as I focused on my telepathy, it seemed like the suit was like an impenetrable barrier.

The space between the tents increased, and I noticed the first of what I surmised were abandoned tents. Most had gaping holes in them or had been reduced to little more than skeletal poles. One of them to the right, sitting on a slope leading down to the shore, still looked intact.

The one that Volkov pointed out…

‘Is this it?’ Allen wondered as he walked up beside me.

I glanced over at Allen, ‘It is. Watch from outside, will you?’

‘… I can do that,’ Allen whispered.

As I crouched down to open the zipper on the tent, I took a moment to slow down my perception of time and reached out with my mind. ‘Ares?’

Ares presence landed on my shoulder. ‘Yes?’

‘Forgive my haste, but would you give me a quick summary of what the medical droids have found?’ I thought.

‘Shouldn’t you ask your squad leader that?’ Ares wondered.

‘He can’t slow his perception of time, and this is a lot more effective,’ I thought.

‘True… To be honest, I'm surprised at how much your pack has improved in such a short time,’ Ares said.

‘That’s to their credit, not mine,’ I thought.

‘Also true. Still…’ Ares said.

While time was almost frozen, I had the feeling of drawing a deep breath within my mind. To focus, and let myself catch up with the unease I felt. ‘I’ll relay your observation to the others. They’ll be glad.’

Ares chuckled, ‘You do seem rather tense today.’

‘A lot is going on. Now… to the reason I called,’ I thought.

‘Very well,’ Ares said. ‘The medical droids have found a few couples that don’t seem to be infected. The larger tents however, the ones with fires to provide heat, have all been infested so far. It’s almost as if the infested are congregating among one another, or that the circumstances make it that much easier to infest others.’

‘The infested… what are they like?’ I wondered.

‘They are behaving… strangely. Find one and judge for yourself. So far, they have been oddly compliant,’ Ares answered.

‘Could this be a trap?’ I wondered.

‘That is a possibility of course, but we do not see how yet… By now, enough snipers have gathered to be able to take out the entire camp at a moment’s notice, and the risk to you should be minimal,’ Ares answered.

‘I understand. Thank you for the update,’ I thought.

‘You’re welcome,’ Ares answered as his presence faded once more.

My perception of time returned to normal, and I bared my wrist to the front of the tent. After a moment’s focus, my will was carried through the mech suit, and the small utility tendrils emerged to grab hold of the tent’s zipper.

It opened up the tent with ease, and I carefully opened the tent as I glanced into it. There were several sleeping bags nestled next to one another in the back of the tent. Piled on top like a small hill was a bunch of colorful garbage. Wrappers, food packages, old clothes, almost as if it had been arranged like the nest of bird looking for a mate.

Seeing it made me cautious, and I remained at the edge of the tent as looked for something that might indicate a trap. Suddenly, the pile moved a little, and an old carton tumbled down. My senses bristled, but as nothing happened, I relaxed once more, and noticed something. The carton which had fallen to the side revealed something, a human foot, with a thick wool sock.

Is there someone in there? Trying to hide?

[Private Channel: Allen]

‘Vilkas?’ Allen thought.

‘Yes?’ I thought, as I crawled into the tent.

‘There’s a subtle path in the snow behind the tent, mind if I check it out?’ Allen wondered.

‘Is it far from the tent?’ I thought.

‘No… Like 10-20 meters, and I won’t go any further,’ Allen thought.

‘Fine, but stay ready. This could turn ugly in an instant,’ I thought.

‘Will do…’ Allen answered, and walked off as the link faded.

I settled next to the pile in the tent, and spoke up, “Your foot is sticking out of the pile.”

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the foot carefully pulled back. It caused the entire piled to shake a little, and a bunch of it clattered to the ground.

“We’re here to help, but I need to talk with you, so I'd appreciate it if you sat up,” I said.

Slowly, the pile began to move once more. A sleeping bag rose from among the garbage, and its tattered remains shifted to reveal what looked like a young male in his twenties. While he was tightly wrapped in clothes, his face was bare as he looked up at me.

At first, the young man appeared rather normal. But as I looked at the details of his face, oddities began to emerge. His cheekbones jutted out in ways they weren’t supposed to, his eyes had sunken in a bit. The jaw appeared swollen and the skin appeared pale. The shape of his upper body appeared odd as well, even through the thick clothes. His back and neck bulged as if belonging to a bodybuilder, while the head was small enough to look like a dangling appendage.

His lips were cracked and dry, while I couldn’t see a tongue at all. The staring eyes had irises like pinpricks, and they stared at me with an inhuman focus. A shiver ran through the strange human, and something in his throat bulged as if it had just squirmed within him.

Infested… This is like… A monster wearing a human wrapper…

The human’s mouth dropped open, and I could hear a slow, wheezing breath as his chest swelled.

I motioned to myself, “I know that the suit looks scary, but we’re here to help… Do you understand me?”

The young man moved his mouth as if saying something, but his lungs didn’t seem to cooperate as no sound came.

“Can I help you?” I whispered.

Another wheezing breath followed, and the young man blinked, “It… hurts.”

For a moment, I could feel my body once more. The way my heart pounded, the tightness in my throat, the unease which made me draw a deep breath.

“What’s your name?” I wondered.

“Gabriel,” The young man answered, as his body took another wheezing breath.

“Why are you here, Gabriel? Why did they put you here?” I asked.

Gabriel tipped his head to the side, and I heard an unnatural cracking sound as if his vertebrae had just collapsed, “I… I don’t know… Who are you?”

Excuse the lie…

I pointed to myself once more, “I’m Ray.”

A shiver ran through Gabriel, and his eyes twitched in the depths, “Oh… You’re not…”

“I’m not?” I wondered.

“The others… they need help,” Gabriel whispered.

“… Which others?” I asked.

Gabriel inched closer to me, and he shut his mouth for a moment while his nostrils flared, “The others… You have to… help them.”

“Gabriel, do you know where Hedwig is?” I asked.

“Yes… With the others, quickly… hurry,” Gabriel wheezed.

“Where should we go?” I asked.

Gabriel moved his arm, and it began to twitch in the air as he pointed at the tent’s exit.

“… Who are you looking for, Gabriel?” I wondered.

Gabriel’s arm fell to the side, and his head jerked as if he was a puppet on a stick. After a few moments of this odd behavior, his mouth moved with an inaudible whisper.

“… I can’t hear you,” I said and inched closer.

His mouth began to move once more, “V- Vilkas…”

I froze in place and drew a deep breath.

[Private Channel: Allen]

‘Vilkas, you there?’ Allen asked.

I slowly began to move away from Gabriel, ‘I’m here, Allen.’

‘I’ve found something, you should come look at it,’ Allen said.

512 A.R. February 2** 1 ***,* E** ast Coast – C *amp* , **** E ***vening*

I trudged through the snow in Allen’s footsteps, and I found myself at a slope. To my right, I could see the shore and the ocean beyond; to my left, a cliff face with a path leading up to the mountain. Straight ahead, I could see a gentler slope which—according to my map—led to the mass grave. The sun began to dip below the mountain, and it wouldn’t be long before things turned dark.

Allen was standing further ahead on the gentle slope leading to the mass grave, and he was holding something flat in his hand. I walked in Allen’s footsteps and moved up beside him as I glanced over his shoulder.

‘This things was in the snow, barely visible,’ Allen thought, and held up the rectangular device.

The device appeared to be some kind of typical digital tablet, and it appeared to be rather new as well. Allen had already tapped what appeared to be a button on the side, but it did nothing to wake the device. As he flipped it over, I could see a logo emblazoned on it.

Trident Technologies Ltd…

I remembered seeing the name before. Specifically, in my memories of Mars and its data crystals.

There was no way that technology from almost a millennium ago could appear this unscathed, which meant that there was some other explanation for its existence in our hands.

‘Is this… tech from the human nations?’ Allen wondered.

I reached out with my mind to the Archives, accessed the search functions, and entered the name of the company. The results were returned in an instant.

‘… Trident Technologies is a corporation from before the collapse. Apparently, the brand lives on within the UCS,’ I said.

‘So…’ Allen whispered, ‘The human nations are involved in this.’

Unless it’s planted evidence… Or… Well…

I looked out across the ocean and considered the idea of a submarine moving up to the shore on a night with cloud cover. It would take considerable effort to climb the toxic ice, but with enough people willing to risk their lives, one could probably bring back plenty of cargo.

It made me sigh, and I looked toward the mass grave. Lots of people died early on, probably in an attempt to smuggle whatever a submarine brought to the shore.

I motioned to Allen, ‘Come along, let’s take a look at the mass grave…’

Allen followed in my wake, and spoke up, ‘I assume I'll hold onto this.’

I glanced back and nodded at him, ‘Yeah.’

‘Should we tell someone?’ Allen wondered.

‘I’m on it. One moment,’ I thought.

First, I gathered my memories of what I'd seen in the tent, added Allen’s discovery to it, and packaged it. I then sent it off toward Ares and Athena. As they received it, I reached out with my mind and sought to connect with Kato. The call had barely gotten started when it was suddenly dismissed.

That’s odd… Even for Kato…

Instead, I sought to connect with Peter and felt what was akin to a dialing tone. Moments later, the call connected, but it wasn’t through Peter’s mind, instead I could hear him and others through regular comms.

“Calm down!” Peter shouted in agitation at something.

“Peter?” I asked.

“Vilkas! We’re kinda busy at the moment. Kato- GET OFF!” Peter snapped.

I stopped walking and looked back to face the camp. While I couldn’t see where they were, something in the back of my mind made me aware of where they were. As I focused on the sensation, I could even pinpoint their position on the map within my mind’s eye. Near one of the largest tents, with smoke billowing out the top.

‘Do you need help?’ I asked.

“No! We’re just-” Peter’s focus turned elsewhere, and he snapped, “Listen to me!”

‘Peter, if you need help, say so, or-’

There was another rustle, and then the noise dropped. Peter spoke up once more, and this time he sounded calmer, “The humans got a bit riled, that’s all…”

‘What happened?’ I wondered.

“We’re trying to corral the uninfected ones, but the ones in the bigger tents started showing interest. Reville almost stepped on one by mistake and tripped in order to avoid it,” Peter sighed, “… which in turn caused something of a panic.”

‘Are things calming down now?’ I wondered.

“I think...” There was a long pause, “Yeah, I think we’ve got it under control now. No one was hurt, and the infested ones are keeping calm.”

‘… You sure?’ I wondered.

“Listen, I need to help them out and get to grips with my suit… I lost concentration, and it suddenly started behaving like a slow hippo,” Peter said with an annoyed sigh.

‘You probably lost neural sync with your mech suit. Relax, take a deep breath, and it might fix itself,’ I thought.

‘Will do… Peter out,’ Peter said, before the link was cut once more.

I looked back at Allen as we walked, and noticed that a couple of droids were following us.

Good, those will be of use at the mass grave…

‘Are you looking at me, or the camp?’ Allen wondered.

‘Just thinking,’ I thought, ‘The others managed to trip up some of the humans, but they have it under control now.’

‘Should we turn back?’ Allen wondered.

I shook my head and looked back toward the mass grave, ‘When the non-infested humans have been gathered up, this place will most likely be turned into a crater. In other words, this will be our only chance to find more evidence… perhaps even a sign that there was a submarine here.’

‘Submarine!?’ Allen asked in surprise.

‘It’s something of a long story,’ I thought.

‘Well, we have time given the pace we’re trudging through this snow,’ Allen thought.

‘Very well… Do you remember who Jason is?’ I wondered.

512 A.R. February 2** 1 ***,* E** ast Coast – M *ass Grave* , **** E ***vening*

‘Alright, so let me summarize this theory,’ Allen said.

‘Yeah?’ I thought.

‘The human nations want a better trade deal. Specifically they want our technology. So, they discretely picked up the pieces of the collapsed human sect within Sophos, renamed themselves as the Luminaire, and they managed to recruit Hannival who had the technology necessary to make this plan of theirs work.’

‘That’s the first part of the theory, yes,’ I thought.

‘They spread Glow far and wide to get people addicted to it, then they repeatedly changed the formula to infest people with a new strain that would silently grow within the human populations of Sophos,’ Allen said.

‘Second part of the theory,’ I added.

‘Now that we’re forced to eliminate the Enclaves, they not only have the perfect excuse for a ‘righteous’ war, but they can also influence the dynamics of how everything works,’ Allen said.

I glanced back at him in wonder, ‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, you said it yourself. Now that this new strain exists, it changes everything between humans and hybrids. Sophos has a population of around two million, and we’re spread over a large area of land. The human nations total around… 50 million or something, and all of those people are situated in roughly the same space as us. If we tried to attack the humans, they could literally turn themselves into Lusus and create a wave that would wash over our walls with little problem. In other words, they made mutually assured destruction work again through making a new kind of weapon… themselves.’

‘I find the idea that they would turn themselves into monsters just to kill us rather absurd,’ I thought.

‘Yeah, of course… But if the possibility exists, then they know we have to consider it. That changes things. We may have enough bio-tech to discretely kill humanity, but do we have the bio-tech to fight a new strain like this? Clearly not.’

‘Fine, let’s say that we did come to some kind of trade deal that they would gain from. We might give them some territory, technology, and so on, but what does that lead to? It doesn’t solve anything,’ I thought.

‘Well, isn’t that because you’re thinking like a hybrid rather than a human?’ Allen thought.

I groaned to myself as I was reminded of someone else telling me this. Humans cared about the now and the near future. New territory and technology would be a big boon to any humans seeking to enrich their lives and that of their children. Who cared what would happen in a hundred years or more?

‘Damn it,’ I whispered.

‘What?’ Allen wondered.

‘In a rather absurd way, it makes a lot of sense. Our societies have been locked in a steady status quo for centuries, and this feels like the first thing to shake it up. It might be ill planned and insane, but it worked… It caught us by surprise,’ I thought.

Allen chuckled, ‘Or, we’re completely wrong, and this is all one giant setup engineered by the folks on the moon.’

I glanced up toward the sky, which had now gone dark, and focused on the pale glow of the moon. Moonbase Alpha sat there, unmoving with its crystal palace.

Are you watching right now? Judging us?

I slowed to a stop as we neared the mass grave. While it blended well with the surroundings from this angle, the map indicated that it wasn’t far.

‘Why are we stopping?’ Allen wondered.

I raised my arm to point, ‘An infested camp with a mass grave in the back. If I was trying to set a trap, then I'd leave a trail of breadcrumbs and make something like this.’

‘… Right,’ Allen whispered.

I looked back at the droids in our wake and reached out with my mind, ‘Would you be so kind as to search the area at the enclosed location? Keep in mind that it might be a trap.’

The sleek but well-armored droid to the right looked at me and answered, ‘Moving to investigate. Please stay back until the area is cleared.’

As I watched, the droids shifted their stance a little. They stood taller and their legs moved wider. Moments later they broke into an accelerating stride. The two of them split from one another, ran past Allen and me, and set off toward the grave.

‘… They’re surprisingly quick,’ Allen murmured.

‘This much armor and weaponry carries a cost,’ I thought as I followed the droids with my gaze.

‘Did you read up on the flechette cannon? At short range, it’s like a radioactive ball of plasma that can burn through plasteel.’

I chuckled, ‘Yeah, I did… But it only has a few charges.’

‘Two cartridges, five shots in each,’ Allen said.

I nodded in silence while the droids came to a slow stop. At first they merely looked around, and then split in different direction as they began to shovel. A connection from the droids knocked on my mind, and I accepted it.

‘We are detecting traces of organic breakdown, along with signs of decayed Lusus spores.’

‘Keep digging,’ I thought.

It only took moments for the droid to speak up once more, ‘We have located several human corpses. They show signs of failed infestations. Ground is solid. No traces of active Lusus have been detected. Area is considered safe to approach.’

‘Thank you. Keep searching the area while we approach,’ I thought.

‘Affirmative,’ The droid answered.

I motioned to Allen and reached out to him with my mind, ‘Coast is clear.’

It took a few minutes to close the distance, and by the time we walked up, the droids had already dragged out several corpses.

Allen sighed with a hint of disgust as we walked up and looked out across the snowy field, ‘They didn’t even bury them, just hurled them into the field and piled some snow on.’

‘Yeah,’ I thought, as I crouched next to the first corpse.

The cold temperature had preserved what was clearly a human male. The reason for his death was also visible: something had eaten away at his left side. It looked like wild mutations that had blossomed from within his arm. Brackish brown and hints of yellow, like cancerous growths that had warped bones and flesh in an attempt to eat its host.

Allen looked down at the body, ‘Looks dead… Which means what? Were they exposed to the old strain somehow and died as a result of Etemenanki’s spores?’

I nodded, looked to the shore with all its icy green sludge, and pointed, “All of that is Lusus biomatter that tries to crawl onto the island. It dies after exposure to the air, but the depths of it are probably teeming with living biomatter.”

‘So, these people tried to get something from the shore and died from being exposed to the sludge,’ Allen thought.

I sighed and looked back at the corpse, ‘Yeah, it would seem that way.’

Athena’s presence suddenly descended on me. I began to stand up and felt as Ares joined her side on my other shoulder. As I accepted both of their links, I could feel them pull on me as if wanting to slow down my perception of time. I complied, watched as the world grew still, and heard their voices.

‘Vilkas, we need to talk…’ Athena said.

‘It is not as serious as it seems, Athena,’ Ares said.

‘Shut it,’ Athena ordered as her attention turned to Ares.

‘What’s the matter?’ I thought.

‘Letting Kato and his pack disturb yours was a mistake, and the depth of that mistake is making itself known,’ Athena said.

‘I’m afraid I don’t follow,’ I thought.

‘I’m still not sure how, but the humans convinced the rest of the team to climb the mountain. I warned Kato about the caves, but he claims that it’s not where he’s headed,’ Athena said with a surprisingly irritated tone.

‘Then where are they going?’ I wondered.

Ares spoke up, ‘We don’t know, but even if they’re not headed toward the caves themselves, the danger is considerable.’

‘Why?’ I wondered.

Athena spoke up, ‘We’ve sent drones into the caves and have detected disturbing amounts of spores we can’t identify. Regardless of what strain it belongs to, the concentrations are indicative of a Lusus hive.’

‘What do you want me to do?’ I wondered.

Ares spoke up, ‘We cannot intervene like this. By climbing the mountain, they are only endangering themselves, and the droids will not consider that a good reason to detain them. We’d lie to and make up other reasons, but we’re prohibited from doing so… as you are well aware.’

‘You want me to convince my pack to turn on Kato,’ I thought.

Athena raised her voice, ‘Kato is ignoring our advice, and he’s endangering the others when there are plenty of other means to investigate whatever it is that he’s looking for.’

Ares spoke up in turn, ‘Athena and I are in agreement that Kato’s actions are irrational, but…’

‘But,’ I thought.

‘They are still far from the caves, and my drones picked up enough chatter to make it clear that they were looking for something to connect the human nations to the Luminaire and the new strain. If the humans told them of a cache… or material provided by the human nations, then they could be in search of that,’ Ares said.

Athena voice turned into something akin to a hissing growl, ‘For what!? The honor of finding it with their own hands!? Endangering themselves like that, and you make excuses for them!?’

Ares turned his attention to Athena, ‘I’m saying that if we let them act out, then they will probably descend the mountain on their own. We can deal with disciplining them once they are safe. On the other hand, if we ask Vilkas to intervene, if he turns his pack against Kato as things are, then he may very well decide to take a look at the caves. The situation will be considerably worse if that happens.’

Athena was silent, ‘… You are right, we are in a precarious situation. We could order the artillery to cause an avalanche. It would take time to dig them out, but we would be certain they’d be safe, and it would act as a lesson that we can find creative ways to influence the world.’

Ares presence on my shoulder grew stronger, ‘My apologies for putting you into a situation like this, and letting you see us this way, but this should be your call. Not ours.’

‘Agreed,’ Athena said.

‘I’m going to have a talk with Peter. Stand by,’ I thought.

My perception of time returned to normal, and I turned to face the camp once more. As I thought of them, the same guiding sensation from earlier arose once more. I tracked their locations, and my gaze drifted toward the cliff face and the path leading up the mountain. While the caves were still far away, the others were trudging through the snow into some unknown area.

‘What’s the matter?’ Allen asked.

‘The others are doing something stupid… One moment while I deal with this,’ I thought.

I disconnected from Allen and reached out with my mind to Peter. As the connection was made, I called out to him.

‘Peter.’

‘… Yes, Vilkas?’ Peter answered.

He seemed to have established a proper connection with his mech suit again. That in turn gave me a… feel, for something beyond his voice. While he tried to sound calm and regular, there was a hint of unease.

‘What are you doing up there?’ I wondered.

‘You weren’t meant to notice. Kato was a bit angry you walked off with Allen,’ Peter thought.

‘I see, my mistake… But you need to listen closely, okay?’ I thought.

‘What?’ Peter wondered.

‘Stop walking, right now, and order John to do the same,’ I thought.

‘… But, we’re almost there. The non-infested in the camp told us this is where they dumped a bunch of stuff before we arrived. It could be-’

I interrupted him, ‘The droids will fetch it. Now listen to me as someone who cares about you a great deal, and as your Alpha. Stop walking.’

‘… Alright, I'll grab John. What about the others?’ Peter wondered.

‘When you stop, Kato and the others will stop to wonder. I’ll do my best to-’

There was a thump of some kind. A dull blast deep underground and a rumble that followed. Clouds of snow were shaken loose on top of the mountain, and a set of plumes could be seen.

Barely a split second had passed, but what followed was akin to a large explosion close to where the others were. A great cloud of white billowed out, and Peter’s link began to crackle.

It felt as if my connection with the mech suit had suddenly failed. I felt my own body once more, and I stared up through the suit, feeling as my heart was squeezed tight.

What do I do now?

Alerts began to flash over the screen.

[Signal Lost: Kato]

[Signal Lost: Reville]

[Signal Lost: Monty]

[Signal Lost: Marcus]

[Signal Lost: John]

[Signal Lost: Peter]

It felt like my blood pressure was spiking through the roof. Roaring inside my head as if my ears were being drowned out. This… this was not supposed to happen. This was not.

I found myself frozen as my mind blanked out. It was as if something glitching, and as I tried to think of ways to deal with what was going on in the distance, the gears kept grinding fruitlessly.

I couldn’t be certain, but as I stared up at the cloud of snow, I could see a hint of something moving within. They moved like snakes, or gargantuan... moving... tentacles… Even as I noticed them, the shadows within the cloud seemed to disappear just as quickly.

Ares and Athena knocked on my mind once more, and I let them connect with me.

‘What just happened?’ I wondered, and began to feel very tiny… in this very big world.

‘The ground near the others opened up, they’ve disappeared from view, and the last moments of their signals indicated that they were moving into the mountain itself,’ Ares said.

I gulped, ‘Are they alive?’

‘The mech suits automatically self-destruct if they receive critical damage and release a short but intense neutron ray burst. No such events have been detected so far.’

‘They were taken? As hostages?’ I asked.

‘Perhaps,’ Ares anwered.

‘What do we do?’ I wondered.

‘Vilkas, you should return to base. Your mech suit indicates that your emotional state is-’

I interrupted him, ‘I’ll be fine. You’ll gather all our forces, and we’re going in there to save them.’

‘Vilkas, we’ll do our best, but there’s no point in risking your life in a scenario that has… grim prospects,’ Ares answered.

Volkov bubbled to the surface and whispered in my ear, ‘He’s not telling the whole truth.’

‘What do you mean?’ I thought and focused on Volkov.

‘The AIs suffer from latency out here. Latency that will be a lot worse in the caves, and combat units like those in this battlefield are relatively stupid. If we are present in the caves, then I can direct our forces and make a considerable difference,’ Volkov said.

I focused on Ares once more, ‘I’m a Dualist, Ares. You need me if we’re going to coordinate our forces once we’re inside the caves.’

‘… Can you do that?’ Ares wondered.

‘I can’t, but Volkov knows how,’ I thought.

‘… You are not wrong. It will improve your chances, slim as they may be,’ Ares thought.

I disconnected from Ares for a moment, and looked over at Allen, ‘The others have been taken into the mountain. I’m going in there to do what I can. Are you coming?’

Allen’s suit was focused on me, and I could feel his mind race through the connection between us. After a few moments of the chaos inside his head, a simple word emerged, ‘Yes.’

I connected to Ares once more, ‘We’re going to need transport, something a lot faster than trudging through the snow.’

‘Already on its way,’ Ares answered.

512 A.R. February 2** 1 ***,* E** ast Coast – M *ountain* , **** E ***vening*

A lot was going on as the bay doors of the cargo ship opened up. I stood by the edge, electromagnets engaged, and did my best to stand steady as the ship rocked. Outside the ship was what looked like a jagged outcropping in the mountain.

The base of the outcropping had a large crevice, and judging by the clear ice nearby, it seemed like water had emerged from within the mountain. Machines of various types were moving into the crevice with haste: droids with thick armor, smaller ones carrying various cargo, spiderbots of various sizes, and more.

As Allen moved up beside me and I prepared to jump, I could see a pair of droids carry what looked like a large cylinder into the crevice.

Volkov whispered in the back of my mind, ‘You need to focus, Vilkas.’

‘I am focused,’ I thought, and moved back in order to make a leap.

‘No you’re not. You’re clamping down on your emotions, but it’s only a matter of time before they boil over.’

‘Then what the hell am I supposed to do?’ I thought, pushed hard, and ran toward the edge of the cargo bay.

‘If you rush into this, if you cause me to lose control of the situation, then both of us will be dead.’

I leaped off the edge, hurled through the whipping wind, and watched the flecks of snow dart around in the spotlights. A second later, I landed with a resounding thump as the paws of my suit hit the rocky ground.

‘You say that, but you’re not telling me what to do,’ I thought.

Volkov spoke up, ‘Disconnect yourself. Distance yourself from it all. They may be dead, they may be alive; it doesn’t matter. We go in there, we find out what happened, and we save those that can be saved. Tears can come later.’

‘You’re a cold-hearted bastard,’ I thought.

‘We both are, Vilkas… When we need to be. Now shove that emotional crap into the trunk, do what I fucking say, and we’ll have a remote chance of getting out of this alive,’ Volkov said.

Allen landed next to me with a resounding thud, and I could hear the cargo craft pull away. Droids and other machinery were still spilling into the crevice like an endless stream of ants.

As I lifted my gaze to our surroundings, I could see that this wasn’t the only point of entry. There were dozens of crafts, cargo haulers, and more. The entire mountain was under siege by a legion of machines.

There were red trails emerging from the sky, and I watched one of them crash into the mountain. More droids spilled from the drop pod, and they moved in ways I hadn’t seen before. Like metallic insects with an eerie red glow.

‘Hunter-killer droids… More of Maxwell’s enigmatic tech,’ Volkov whispered in my ear.

I looked back to the crevice, drew a deep breath, focused, and shut my eyes. Volkov was right, of course. Logic, reason, and cold decisions were what this mission needed. No panic, no fear, no stupid emotions like the ones that made me want to rip my helmet off and scream into the sky.

It felt as if I stretched my arms out wide, gathered it all up, and shoved it all into a big box.

It might have been an illusion, or I tapped into some ability buried inside my psyche, but it felt as if it worked. I opened my eyes once more, stared into the depths of the crevice, and exhaled with a newfound calm.

‘How’s Allen?’ I thought.

‘His heart is racing. You should keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t freak out,’ Volkov said.

‘How do we do this?’ I thought.

‘I’m coordinating with Ares, but I won’t be able to take full control of the situation until I stop interfacing with you,’ Volkov said.

‘How do we stay in touch?’ I wondered.

‘I’m going to paint a map in your mind’s eye, and I'll point out where you need to go. I’ve also arranged for a way that we can send text messages to each other without forcing me to interface with you. The mech suit will have full access to the tactical logs, and you should let it guide your hand. If it tells you to fire, you fire… Understand?’

‘I understand,’ I thought.

‘It doesn’t matter what it looks like. If it’s infested, then it needs to-’

I raised the voice in my mind, ‘I get it!’

Volkov sighed, ‘As long as we manage to maintain a connection to the outside, you’ll be able to talk with Ares. Don’t try to contact me,’ Volkov said.

‘This is horribly convoluted,’ I thought.

‘Yeah, well… Thank the Zephyr for that,’ Volkov said.

I sighed, ‘Are we ready?’

‘Yeah, get moving and follow the directions on the map,’ Volkov said.

‘Understood,’ I thought as the link was cut between us.

I turned to my side, and I could see Allen’s mechanized suit next to me. He seemed frozen in place, and no words had been spoken since we stepped onto the cargo ship.

‘It’s time,’ I said and motioned to him.

‘Right, into a Lusus hive we go,’ Allen whispered with a nervous chuckle.

‘Allen, you okay?’ I asked, and started walking.

Allen stared at the crevice as we marched, ‘Is this real? Or is this some kind of Virtual World Adventure that I forgot I entered?’

‘It’s real,’ I said.

‘I’m scared,’ Allen said.

‘I’m scared as well, Allen,’ I said and stepped into the crevice.

The crack in the mountain was wide enough to let me enter with ease, and I could see a small stream of water running along the rocky floor. It splashed as I walked, and the cave began to darken as the floodlight from outside grew more distant. The HUD of the suit seemed to adapt, and while color seemed to drain from the world, the rest grew much brighter.

‘Are you up for this, Allen?’ I asked.

‘I can do it, Vilkas… Might need some therapy afterwards, but that’s okay,’ Allen said.

First time you’ve tried to inject this kind of humor…

I stepped over a large puddle and lifted my gaze as the cavern opened up. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, and I could see as water dripped from them. More droids moved past us and hurried down the cavern.

‘Ares?’ I thought, and kept up the pace.

‘Yes, Vilkas?’ Ares said.

‘Should I pick up the pace?’ I wondered.

‘No, this is fine… Volkov is taking control of the forces within the mountain, and he’ll need time clearing the way.’

‘Understood,’ I thought.

The cave began to slope upwards, and I began to climb. As I reached the top, I could see a jagged edge that hid a brackish pool with several large chunks of concrete laying inside it.

Concrete? In here?

As I lifted my gaze, the source of the concrete became clear. There were ruins of a man-made structure of some kind. Perhaps a bunker with meter thick concrete loaded with layers of rusted rebar. The entrance was located on the other side of the pool, and it looked like erosion had bared an edge of the bunker to the world. Its concrete wall had crumbled at some point, and now provided an entrance to what looked like a large corridor.

While there was no natural light in the cave, it appeared that a maintenance droid had lift behind a string of impaled lights on its path through. They jutted out at steady intervals and shone with enough light to fully illuminate the pool.

‘Ares?’ I thought.

‘We’ve searched the archives, and there are no records of there being a bunker here. Whatever the source though, it predates the collapse,’ Ares answered.

A droid stepped up beside us, paused for a split-second, and then flexed its legs. While watching, the drone leaped to left wall alongside the pool, pushed off it, and effectively launched itself so that it could grab the edge of the exposed corridor. In short order, the droid pulled itself up, and hurried down the corridor’s left path.

I stepped up to the edge of the pool, and imagined the path needed to mimic what the droid had accomplished. The suit offered some kind of feedback, and it felt like it was nudging my plan to jump across the pool.

After a few moments of back and forth as I mentally gauged the jump, I felt as the suit gave me a thumbs up in approval.

Trust it…

I drew a deep breath, flexed my legs, and took a leaping jump. A heavy thump could be heard as my paws left the ground, and I shifted my legs to catch the side of the wall. A massive crash followed as loose stone was ground to dust, and I could feel as gravity began to pull on me. I pushed hard, the servos of the suit helped, and with a loud roar of air, I launched myself through the air as I aimed at the bunker’s opening.

The ledge was coming closer, I moved my paws to catch my fall, and watched as the wall within the bunker came rushing closer. My right paw caught the ledge, and my momentum propelled me forward. I raised my hands to catch the wall and slammed into it with my metal claws raking the concrete.

With a sigh of relief, I looked back and focused on Allen, ‘Let the suit help you plan the jump.’

Allen stepped up to the edge, and swung his arms a few times, ‘Well, here goes nothing...’

He crouched, leaped toward the wall, landed with a loud thump, and then pushed off with enough force that I could see shards splinter from the rock wall. I stepped back and watched Allen slam into the end of the corridor, before coming to a stomping halt next to me.

‘Whoa, it actually worked… Wonder how this works when you’re not neurally linked to the suit,’ Allen said over the link.

For a brief moment, things almost felt normal. As if it was an exciting adventure, and the others would join us in a few moments. But… that wasn’t true. Peter and John weren’t here. It felt like the box that held my emotions rattled in an attempt to break loose. I gulped as I clamped down on it and turned to face the hallway.

‘Steady progress. Keep at it,’ Ares said.

Part of me was tempted to ask whether Ares had detected any neutron ray pulses. Another part of me was scared of the answer, and what it would do to me.

I began to move once more and looked around this ancient corridor that we found ourselves in. While cracked, the incredibly thick concrete seemed mostly intact. In fact, there were still railings in the ceiling, and what looked like old pipes. More lights had been impaled in the concrete and provided a steady source of light as I walked.

A spider droid rushed past on my right side, turned the corner up ahead, and disappeared from view. While focusing on it, I could hear distant noises. The sharp hiss of laser fire, and the snaps of rail guns.

‘There’s something in the air,’ Allen said.

The air was starting to look foggy, and as I focused on it, I could see a great number of small particles drifting in the air. Something else changed as well, and it looked like the end of the corridor had black mold growing on the walls.

[High concentrations of Lusus spores detected]

‘They’re spores, and a lot of them,’ I thought.

I reached the end of the corridor, looked toward the right, and felt as my heart jumped a little. The walls were covered in moss of shifting colors. A network of rust-brown roots, greenish foliage, topped with a layer red droplets that looked like sap. As I watched, something moved within the moss. A steady throbbing, like veins suspended in the twisted forest.

Reminds me of Etemenanki, but without the pleasant colors…

‘Vilkas, what the hell is this?’ Allen asked as he stepped up next to me.

‘This is untouched Lusus bio-matter,’ I thought.

I consulted the map in my mind’s eye and saw that we were supposed to keep heading into the depths of the hive. Allen stayed close behind, and I couldn’t help but watch the throbbing motion of the walls. It was rhythmic like the beat of a heart, and the thick organic moss seemed to twitch as I moved alongside it.

‘Ares?’ I thought, and shifted my attention to the AI.

‘Yes?’ Ares answered.

‘What would it be like to be outside this suit?’ I thought.

‘Horrid,’ Ares answered.

‘And if you described it with more than one word?’ I wondered.

‘Have you considered that you might not want to hear about something like this?’ Ares wondered.

‘Sometimes the grim truth is sobering,’ I thought.

Ares huffed, ‘The airwaves are filled with the discordant noise that’s emitted by Lusus. You’d unwillingly pick up on it, and the results would be intense enough to make you sick. The spores in the air would immediately begin to break down your defenses, and they would proceed to establish a foothold in your lungs or fur.’

‘And then?’ I wondered.

‘They would begin to multiply and try to get in through any opening. Be it by cutting holes in your skin, puncturing your lungs, or by invading any other natural opening. Then there are the growths on the walls, they might seem harmless now, but they would sense vulnerable prey and try to settle within you to speed up the infestation.’

I gulped, ‘I see.’

‘You shouldn’t be here, Vilkas. None of you should. This is a place devoid of respectable life, be it organic or synthetic,’ Ares said.

‘As much as I agree, we have no choice,’ I thought.

Something happened up ahead. There was a loud slam, and then a series of flashes that filled the long corridor. With each flash I could hear—and almost feel—what sounded like a spear being launched at tremendous velocities. A series of explosions followed, and I could see the distant hallway fill with dust filled smoke.

I referenced the map once more and realized that a lot more had been added to it. The bunker seemed massive, with hundreds of rooms, larger chambers, and crisscrossing paths. At the same time, I could areas that were marked as unknown. Based on Volkov’s instructions, he wanted us to move deeper into the facility, straight ahead.

By now the corridor was little more than a thick, fleshy mass, and each step I took was starting to feel as if I was stepping on a layer of slugs. It crunched and popped in a way made me shiver, and the floor seemed to ooze with brackish blood that seeped from the injured biomass.

The first split in the corridor was coming up, and it looked as if Volkov’s forces had reinforced the spot. In the very center of the split was one of the cylinders that had been carried inside, and it was now standing upright as it had extended to push against the ceiling. Several droids stood beside the cylinder, and it looked as if they were aiming railguns down the crossing corridors.

‘What are these cylinders?’ I thought, and directed my thoughts to Ares.

‘Close-combat laser turret. Deadly while its battery lasts, and it’s equipped with a powerful self-destruct device as a last resort,’ Ares answered.

As Ares finished talking, the railgun-equipped droid on the right let loose a salvo. Flashes of light lit the corridor as a stream of bolts raced down the hallway. It made the railgun sparkle with blue sparks of static while the air simmered with heat. A split second later, the magazine dropped to the ground, and the droid equipped a new one in the blink of an eye.

Several more droids rushed past me as I stepped up to the large cylinder, then glanced down the hallway where the droid had fired.

The corridor was filled with smoke, but some kind of overlay was quickly drawn within my vision. I could see through the smoke and see several droids moving around. There were creatures on the floor within the smoke. They twitched and squirmed as if trying to piece themselves together.

As I was about to walk past the corridor, I caught hints of a droid moving up to the creatures before letting loose a large plume of fire.

‘Holy shit…’ Allen whispered over the link.

‘We’re doing fine, Allen. Stay focused, and follow my lead,’ I ordered.

‘Right behind you,’ Allen whispered.

The corridor we entered looked like it had seen more battle. Fire had burned the organic mass on the left to a crisp, and there were several smoking piles on the ground. On the right was what looked like a large spiderdroid that was missing a few legs. Despite its injuries, the spiderdroid had propped itself onto the wall, and dutifully held its railgun aimed down the corridor. As I passed, one of the optical sensors on its head swiveled to focus on me.

I looked away and tried to push any unnecessary thoughts out of my head. Instead, I focused on the weapons systems of my suit. They all reported green status, stood by to react at a moment’s notice, and it felt as if I was familiar with them despite not having used a single one of them.

Select a target, choose the right weapon for the job, acquire a target lock, fire, and repeat…

As we neared the next corridor, I could see something laying near the ground. A fleshy creature that still twitched. It made me grit my teeth, and I raised my left arm to point at it.

‘Don’t waste fuel on unnecessary targets,’ Ares said.

‘It’s still alive,’ I thought.

‘Its brain is destroyed, most likely it’ll be reabsorbed by the organic mass on the walls,’ Ares added.

My eyes widened, ‘You’re saying that these creatures are…’

‘Successful integration of a brain used to be a rare occurrence for the Lusus. This new strain seems far more adept at repurposing brains to make up for its own deficiencies,’ Ares said.

Despite how distant my body felt, my stomach still tightened.

‘I advise that you don’t tell Allen,’ Ares added.

‘Agreed,’ I thought, and looked down at the creature as I passed it.

The creature on the floor had the rough appearance of a skinned deer. Fleshy and wet, with portions that were red like clean muscle, while invaded by growths of greenish yellow with strips of brackish black. Even the exposed bones were warped as if the creature was just an intermediate step to its final form. Its head was missing, and it looked as if the fleshy moss of the walls was already starting to infuse—or eat—the fallen creature.

‘The Lusus creature I saw in the forest was different, like a thick syrup-oozing tendrils,’ I thought.

‘The ‘ooze’ of a Lusus life form is a generalized form of cell that can do a bit of everything. Each cell manages its own waste, energy production, and so on… While very flexible, it’s also very inefficient,’ Ares said.

Along the back of the creature were several tendrils that now lay slack, but at the tip of each was what looked like bony needle. The ‘arms’ of the creature still twitched but showed little recognition of our presence as we marched by.

‘This is a specialized form?’ I wondered.

‘Fast and agile… It is similar to a form that was encountered centuries ago,’ Ares said.

It happened again. More flashes and zapping noises of railgun fire. I looked up at the next split in the corridor and could see as the droid began to reload. Suddenly, the laser turret let loose with a blast that made the surrounding air simmer. The ionized air screamed like two metal brakes churning against one another, and the corridor glowed with a rich red flare. Moments later, it stopped, the droid adjusted its aim, and things calmed while smoke trailed along the ceiling.

[Warning: Suit integrity at 97%]

‘Ares, I just got a warning that-’

Ares spoke up, ‘I know, it’s nothing to worry about at the moment.’

‘An honest answer, please?’ I thought.

Ares made another sigh, ‘The spores in the air and the organic matter on the floor is eating through your suit. It’ll take hours for it to get through.’

I raised my arm, held it near one of the impaled lights that we passed through, and noticed what Ares was talking about. There was a spider’s web of organic material spreading on the black armor of the suit.

We’re being eaten...

My heart picked up pace again, and I felt another spike of adrenaline. If my suit had already lost some of its integrity, then what state would the others be in?

‘Your heart rate is spiking. What’s wrong?’ Ares asked.

‘I’m worried about the others,’ I thought.

‘Forgive me, but they are unlikely to survive,’ Ares said.

I kept moving. Part of me wanted to scream at him in fury, but I understood why he was saying it. Ares wanted to ensure the survival of as many as possible. The best way to ensure that was to get me and Allen out of here.

I drew a deep breath, clamped down on the box which held my emotions, and focused.

‘Ares, you said that the suits would emit a strong neutron ray pulse if they were destroyed.’

Ares spoke, ‘Only if they are suddenly destroyed, and the self-destruct isn’t compromised. Ultimately, the suit will obey its host, who can bypass the self-destruct if needed.’

Why is he saying that… To seed even more doubt?

‘Have you detected any pulses?’ I wondered.

‘One neutron ray pulse has been detected so far,’ Ares said.

I stopped for a moment, and my heart skipped a beat.

Bear it…

I clenched my teeth together and forced my legs to move, ‘You didn’t tell me.’

‘Because I knew that you would-’

An alert flared, the suit itself felt like it screamed at me to move, and I felt the unnerving sensation that something was moving up behind me. I could hear the sound of railguns behind me, and I began to turn in haste. Allen bolted to my side and seemed to experience the same reaction from his suit.

At first, I suspected that the creature on the ground had somehow been revived, but that didn’t seem to be the case. The laser turret was repeatedly firing, and both droids were unloading everything they had.

Something big smashed through the first droid, crashed into the laser turret with enough force to jerk it loose from the ceiling. The giant creature collapsed in a heap of burnt, bubbling flesh and torn pieces. Relief was short-lived, and in the split second that followed, something emerged from around the corner.

It looked like a writhing mass of tendrils, and it smacked the remaining droid out of the way before barreling down the corridor that we were standing in. My perception of time was beginning to slow down, but even then, it seemed like the creature was moving with surprising speed as its tendrils grabbed at the organic walls and threw itself forward.

Right arm… Flechette cannon…

I raised my right arm to aim, while the spiderdroid on the ground slung its railgun around to do the same. It was the first to fire, and its bolt of superheated metal soared through the air as it hit the creature near its center. The creature twitched, a few of its tendrils were lopped off, and it slammed into the wall. A split second later it kept moving, and its focused seemed to be on us.

As it passed through an illuminating spike in the wall, it allowed me to see its actual body. It was similar to a squid, with a central mass, surrounded by what looked like a large assembly of tentacles. Its face at the center of its body was… a twisted maw with a fibrous mass that glinted in the light like glass fibre.

‘I’ll take the shot,’ I thought and focused on Allen.

He didn’t answer, and as I watched in slow motion, the pod on my right arm opened up. Power surged through my arm, and the internal mechanism of the weapon began to make adjustments. The creature had almost come within reaching distance as the suit gave me the go ahead to fire.

Fire!

A bright light filled the corridor and I could hear a growing shriek of noise. The sensors of the suit were blanked out, but I could feel the recoil as my arm was forced back and my paws dug into the ground.

As the light ebbed, I could see what the cannon had accomplished. The organic matter had been purged from the walls in a range of around two meters. Beyond that point, the organic mass seemed to be boiling, and the wall had suffered hundreds of small craters.

The concrete closest to me looked remarkably smooth, as if the high temperatures had melted a thin layer off. A hatch opened on the side of the pod, and a giant shotgun round that glowed red was ejected. The hatch closed a split second later, and I could hear the churn as a new round was loaded into the chamber.

The organic matter that had been growing on the suit now looked like a pattern of white ash. As I moved my arm, I could see small tendrils of smoke as the intense heat burned at the spores in the air.

‘That worked,’ Allen thought over the link.

I gulped, while a new set of droids took up position around the now toppled laser turret, ‘It did.’

Ares knocked on my mind, ‘Keep moving.’

I motioned to Allen, and turned around, ‘We need to keep moving.’

‘Do you think they’re still alive?’ Allen asked as if wondering what time it was.

‘Yes. Now move,’ I ordered.

We walked once more, reached the second split in the corridor, and slipped past. The next corridor appeared different, and there were several rooms on each side of the corridor. Some of them glowed and smoked as if set on fire. As I approached, a spiderdroid was highlighted in my vision, and it darted into a nearby room.

‘Vilkas,’ Ares said.

‘What?’ I thought.

‘We’ve picked up stray signals from the suits belonging to the others. The problem is that there seems to be multiple sources for the same signal. It suggests that the Lusus are mimicking the signals in an attempt to confuse us.’

‘What do we do?’ I wondered.

‘We move deeper. The idea is that, with enough sensors, we’ll be able to cross reference enough data to figure out what’s genuine and what’s not. Also, if we get close enough, the signal strength should be strong enough for us to establish contact,’ Ares said.

We stepped up to the first room in the corridor, and I looked inside. Organic growths covered most of the room, and I could see remnants of beds standing in a long row. On the beds, among the pulsating veins and odd growths, were some kind of structures.

As I looked, the shape of what had grown on the beds began to make sense. At the start of each bed were a pair of legs which had spread to root its victim in place. Afterwards, the rest of the body had grown like a tree as it was forced to sit up. What remained was a large pillar of flesh with various organs sprouting around a core that visibly throbbed.

‘What is this?’ I thought as I directed my thoughts to Ares.

‘These have only been observed a few times in the past, and only in highly developed hives. They are processing clusters, humans turned into thinking machines for the hive,’ Ares answered.

‘Why aren’t you destroying them?’ I thought.

‘We are in the very core of a creature that is trying to establish a hive from which it can spread. Based on previous experience, an attack on the processing clusters will trigger an all-out last-resort attack from the hive. You are unlikely to survive at that point.’

I looked forward and picked up the pace. More fighting could be heard from both directions, and the steady rumbles told me that there was more fighting elsewhere.

As I walked, some kind of high-pitched noise began to reverberate. It seemed to make the fleshy walls twitch, and the frequency undulated as if searching for something.

‘Are you doing that?’ I thought.

‘No, we aren’t,’ Ares answered.

The hum grew and began to hit other tones. The moss twitched, and I began to hear something akin to a discordant murmur. It sang in the armor of the suit and began to form what sounded like a voice.

_ I know that you’re here… _

The voice sang in tones that sounded feminine to me.

_ Somewhere… Running through my hallways… Vilkas… _

‘Don’t listen to it,’ Ares instructed.

_ I know their names now… Peter, John, Allen… _

I felt my fur bristle.

_ The black one almost tricked me into thinking he was you… _

The more I listened to it, the more I recognized the voice. It belonged to Hedwig, the previous of leader of the cult.

What are you now, Hedwig?

_ Some of them are still disjointed… The others are part of us now… _

My stomach coiled on itself.

_ I offered them a new life, and watched as they stepped out of their suits… _

_ To embrace their true nature… _

_ Oh, how they screamed as their bodies turned… _

_ The pain is unfortunate, but I nurtured them… Watched them grow... _

_ Saw their hides split open… _

_ You should have seen as they looked at one another… _

_ Caught between worlds, and made the choice… _

_ As they tore the fur from their bodies… _

_ As claws turned to blades… _

_ As their faces split… _

_ And they hatched… _

The world seemed distant as I walked past the third split in the corridor. I could hear the battle raging around us, yet I felt helpless to listen.

_ Who was your favorite, I wonder? _

_ The brown one? The gray one? Oh, how he screamed as I tore his arm off… _

‘Vilkas,’ Allen whispered.

What do I say? What do I do? How do I… Where… What… No…

I wanted to scream.

_ I’ve saved a couple… Come here, give yourself up… _

_ I promise I'll let them go… _

An alert flashed in my vision.

[Suit integrity at 90%]

Suddenly, I received a message from Volkov. A simple text message, like he had said.

Volkov: ‘There are three beacons somewhere in the far-left side of the bunker. There’s one beacon to the right, near the core of the hive. Do not approach the core of the hive. I am clearing the way. Follow Ares’ instructions, save the ones you can and get out, we are losing this battle.’

The map inside my mind’s eye changed, and Ares spoke up, ‘Move, quickly now.’

If I'm at the point of breaking, then what is Allen’s state of mind like?

I directed my thoughts to Allen, ‘Hedwig is lying. We’ve found them, follow me!’

Things were simpler with a goal in mind. The worries were shoved to the side out of sheer desperation, and I broke into a sprint. In mere seconds, it felt as if I had passed more ground than I had since entering the bunker, and I leaped past the next split in the corridor.

The map highlighted that I needed to take the next left, and a glance at my rear revealed that Allen was close behind. The fighting had suddenly intensified as well, and the state of the corridors had deteriorated with what looked like several large blasts.

It felt as if we were finally getting somewhere when-

Ares yelled in my mind, ‘Something big is closing in! Leave the corridor at-’

I was in the midst of a leap as the wall to the left began to buckle. The fleshy parts of it split as it bulged, concrete was revealed, and something gargantuan broke through.

Even as I tried to make my perception of time slow down, the remnants of the wall were coming straight at me. A blur filled my vision, my side was pelted, and I felt myself get hurled through the air in a cloud of debris.

_ You’re not getting away… _

Something caught me. I could feel the shift as I was suddenly being thrown one way, before being violently jerked back as something wrapped itself around my midsection.

I could hear railguns being fired through the cloud of debris, but everything was moving too fast and too violently. Even my neck felt stressed from the forces that were involved, and I could barely catch a glimpse of my waist.

It reminded me of a worm, slimy, brown, with large ridges layered upon one another. A tentacle that reminded me of what I had seen in the cloud of snow as the others disappeared.

_ Y** ou’re mine!**_

I focused on the flechette cannon, and tried to move my arm toward the tentacles’s thick center. It didn’t work well as the sudden shifts in acceleration kept pulling on me.

A sudden and tremendous pressure grew on my chest, and I could a long list of alerts flash across my vision. Pressure sensors were going haywire, the armor was buckling, and I could hear the armor sing as it was being warped.

Adrenaline, fear of my own life, or something else finally made my perception of time shift.

It didn’t help much however, in fact, it may have things worse. I could feel my ribs pushing together, and felt as air was being forced from my lungs.

I’m going to be crushed…

My focus turned to the flechette cannon once, and I ordered it to prime itself. A two meter blast like before, and all I had to do was aim it at the base of this giant tentacle. One moment, that was all I needed.

It felt like the flechette cannon was opening up at a with a snail’s pace. At the same time, my nerves were telling me that a great deal of pain was erupting all over my chest. My spine screamed, the gel-packs inside the suit were starting to pop violently, and a crunch followed as the first of my ribs cracked.

The flechette cannon finally opened wide, and I did my best to stare at where I was aiming.

Not yet… Almost… Just a bit more to the right…

My lungs hurt in a way I had never expected them to do. There was pressure in my throat as if my insides were forcing their way out. I could hear and feel more ribs pop. Something warm, thick, and sticky suddenly filled my mouth. It erupted from within me, forced into my throat, and now I could feel it flow out of my muzzle and nose alike.

This is worse than the ax… So much worse…

The flechette cannon was in position, the suit gave it’s go ahead, and I fired.

Energy surged through the suit once more, and light grew at the front of the cannon. As I watched it in slow motion, I could see as a thousand burning stars emerged from within the cannon. Each and every single one was like a collapsing bubble. It shrank down, created an angry blip of tremendous energy, and grew to emit more light than the suit could handle.

My control slipped, my perception of time was returned to normal, and everything turned into a blur as I was flying once more. The world began to spin violently, and my vision seemed to blanked out.

It felt as if I hit the ground, and proceeded to ricochet like a wild bullet. Moments later, everything seemed to calm down. It was as if something had broken in my mind, and my senses were telling me little of use. My heart was drumming at an odd pace, and the noise of the world tumbled as if someone was wiggling the volume knob.

Suddenly, in the depths of the darkness that I found myself in, I could hear Volkov.

‘If you lose consciousness, you’ll drag me with you, and we’ll all die. Understand?’ Volkov said.

I stared into the void that my mind seemed to find itself in, but even as I tried to speak, no words would come.

‘You’re suffering from neural shock. You’re not dead, and the suit isn’t punctured. You just need to pull yourself together,’ Volkov said.

I tried to speak, but my thoughts seemed to drift. Even as I tried, it seemed that my consciousness was fading away.

‘No response…’ Volkov said.

A strange voice filled the void, one that I had never heard before. Mechanical and discordant, like a piano with busted keys, ‘Let me help…’

‘… Fine, do it,’ Volkov said.

Something changed within me. A great warmth flooded my being, and my eyes were forced open. I could see the world once more, taste the blood filling my mouth, and felt pain once more.

Pressure grew in my throat, and a sudden cough gripped me. Blood spattered within the helmet, and I drew a wheezing breath. Even as the pain began to scream throughout my body, something began to tease it apart, as if snuffing out the nerves one by one.

My heart thumped properly again, warmth flowed throughout my chest, and it felt as if my broken ribs simply… faded away. I could think once more, and I drew a wheezing breath as I pushed myself onto all fours.

‘There we go… Focus, Vilkas. We need to gather the others and get out of here. Right now,’ Volkov spoke, and I forced myself to stand up once more.

‘Good… Follow the map, I'll get back to the battle,’ Volkov said before his presence faded away.

A cloud of concrete dust filled the air, but the I could feel that Allen was nearby.

[Suit integrity: 40% - Fractures detected – Gel-shielding in effect – Host in critical condition]

I wasn’t sure how I was moving, or how I could still be awake with these kinds of injuries, but it didn’t matter. As I turned to face Allen’s location, he suddenly burst from the cloud of concrete dust.

‘Vilkas! Are you okay!?’ Allen screamed.

‘I’m fine, you?’ I thought, while my throat flexed with the thick sap of my blood.

Allen moved closer to me as if wanting to hug me. Then, a sudden shiver ran through him. I stared at him in wonder, feeling as if my something was still not working inside my head.

Allen raised his left arm suddenly, aimed at my side, and screamed, ‘ Move! ’

It shook me from my daze, and I turned to face whatever it was that he had seen. It looked fuzzy at first, as if there was a big wolf stepping through the concrete haze.

For a moment, I felt relieved, but as the dust parted, it was clear that this was… not a wolf, not any longer at least. It was reaching for me and it looked like a bastardization of everything that was considered pure and beautiful in the world.

Scraps of fur still clung to the twisted flesh of the creature. Its chest had burst open to form teeth and writhing tentacles. It’s belly looked like a large pulsating sack that was filled with twirling fish in a brackish soup. Its arms had turned into twisted hooks as if to latch onto its victims, and the head was the worst of it all.

I could still see hints of a muzzle on it, but the lower jaw had split open to make way for a large fleshy esophagus. The eyes had drifted apart as the skull had expanded into strange growths, and numerous stalks had emerged that seemed to flutter in the air while spreading a glimmering dust throughout it.

I was too shocked to move, let alone react, as several flashes of light occurred. As I blinked in surprise, the creature had lost its head, and there were gaping holes in its chest. The creature twitched violently, and collapsed to the ground.

Allen’s presence made a connection with me, but I couldn’t hear his voice. Instead I felt his panic and the discordant thoughts in his head. On some level he realized that he’d just shot… someone, but his mind had difficulty accepting the fact.

I moved, and grabbed the arm of Allen’s, ‘Move, Allen. We don’t have time.’

‘I…’ Allen said with a shudder.

I pushed Allen to get him moving, focused on the map inside my mind, and picked up pace.

Straight ahead…

I ran while still holding his arm. Railgun blasts still fired in the cloud of dust that seemed to cover everything.

Left…

Faster, we needed to move faster. The field of battle looked like a mess, but I ignored it all as I kept running.

‘We’ve found something,’ Ares announced.

The map updated, and it pointed at the end of the hall we were running through.

‘What?’ I thought.

‘A vault of some kind, but the sensors indicate that it’s hundreds of degrees inside.’

The dust began to clear as I sprinted down the corridor. Lusus creatures were laying to the left and right among various machines that had fought their way here.

The air cleared to a point where I could see the end of the hall. The organic life which had covered the walls were all burned to a crisp, and there were droids pulling on the hefty door of a vault. Smoke began to billow out as the door was cracked open.

A few alerts blipped to life in my vision.

[Signal Regained: Peter – Unconscious – Armor Compromised – Head Injury]

[Signal Regained: John – Unconscious – Arm Missing – Suit Compromised – Infestation Unknown]

[Signal Regained: Marcus – Unconscious – Armor Compromised]

[Signal Regained: Monty – Emergency head-separation – Critical condition – No Life Signs]

[Temperatures exceeding maximum tolerance for all suits. Cooling system failing.]

I slowed to a stop outside the vault and watched as the droids began to enter.

Ares spoke up within my mind, ‘Stay, the droids will fetch them.’

‘They’re… alive? They’ll be fine?’ Allen whispered as if he couldn’t believe it.

‘With medical attention, yes,’ Ares answered.