by James Walker
Tensed for a fight, they followed the blood trail around the corner. After several meters, the blood trail ended abruptly at a dark puddle. Cena knelt next to the puddle and briefly flicked on her light to provide additional illumination.
“Where...?” she whispered.
Vic glanced around, finding no clues to the whereabouts of whomever had left the blood trail. No one could survive that kind of blood loss for long, so there should have been a body. Perhaps the wounded individual had received first aid and pressed onward?
“Ack,” Cena exclaimed.
Vic turned to face her and found her gripping the back of her neck. “What's wrong?”
“Something dripped on me.”
Cena pulled her hand away from her neck and found it covered with viscous liquid. Another drop fell at her feet and she glanced upward. Vic followed her gaze and found the ceiling over her head stained with a dark fluid that slowly leaked through the seams around the tiles, dripping to the floor.
“What the hell?” Tinubu hissed.
Cena backed away from the puddle and readied her shotgun. As they stared at the dripping ceiling, something crashed behind them. They spun around and saw one of the ceiling tiles spasming in its frame farther down the corridor. They brought their weapons to their shoulders, taking aim at the convulsing tile.
“Whoever you are, come out with your...” Tinubu started.
He trailed off as some kind of slime seeped from the cracks around the tile and fell to the floor, emitting acrid steam. Something uttered a bestial hiss that seemed to fill the very air around them, distorting the facility into something vile and alien.
“Screw this.”
Cena fired off three quick blasts from her shotgun, pumping and shooting with practiced ease. The shots roared through the formerly silent corridor, punching a couple dozen tightly patterned holes in the jumping ceiling tile. Vic and Tinubu followed suit by firing several rounds from their rifles into the tile. A piercing shriek rang through the gunfire and the lurker in the ceiling sped away from them at great speed, the tiles banging and spasming with its passage. Soon it was gone, leaving Vic and the others staring down the empty corridor. After several seconds, they slowly lowered their weapons.
“That wasn't human,” Cena said. “And it wasn't no drone, either.”
“Then what the hell was it?” Vic whispered.
No one answered him.
“I'm more worried about Pierson than ever,” Tinubu said. “We need to figure out what the hell happened here, and we need to do it fast, before that thing comes back.”
Cena fed several shells into her magazine to replace those she had unloaded into the ceiling, then they resumed their exploration. They stayed alert for any sign of creatures traveling through the ceiling, but an unnatural silence had once again descended on the facility. It was not the silence of inactivity, but rather the watchful quiet of a predator observing its prey. The dim emergency lighting and foul atmosphere of the facility made Vic's skin crawl.
Soon they found more evidence of their inhuman adversary's presence: another section of ceiling where the tiles had been disturbed, stained by a sickly white fluid. Proceeding with extreme caution, they rounded another bend and passed a pair of inoperative elevators. Near the elevators, a set of doors provided access to a stairwell. Cena eased the doors open and ventured inside, nearly slipping on a half-dried pool of blood.
“Blinding Light,” she hissed.
They filed down one flight of stairs and opened the doors to the next floor, where they emerged into a vast room packed with cubicles. The reek of fresh death hung in the air, making Vic's stomach churn. They proceeded along the closest divider and soon came upon the body of a portly female office worker lying in a pool of blood. Cena crept forward, knelt next to the body, and flicked on her helmet light to examine it.
“Guts spilled out,” she reported, her nose wrinkled in disgust. “Wound is so huge, she must have bled out inside a minute. These look like claw marks, only I ain't never heard of an animal with claws this big.”
“Just what the hell are we dealing with here?” Tinubu wondered. “When Pierson said the Xenolists were going to infiltrate this data facility, I expected a raid by special operatives, not some monster movie bullshit.”
“Biological weapons?” Vic suggested. “I've heard rumors of programs to breed genetically modified animals for use as organic battle drones.”
“Just what we need,” Tinubu said. “Smoker the bear going postal on us.”
They continued exploring the office space, with Cena still leading the way. Turning a corner to venture down an aisle, she nearly stumbled over the disemboweled corpse of another office worker. They tried activating several of the terminals in the cubicles, but the holo interfaces remained silent and unresponsive.
“Guess the emergency power system doesn't supply electricity to the office computers,” Tinubu whispered.
Just then, a sudden noise from deeper in the sea of cubicles brought their weapons to their shoulders. Vic strained his ears trying to identify the rapid clinking sound. Tinubu silently motioned for Vic and Cena to spread out and approach the noise from opposite sides. They made their way through the cubicles at a crouch until they found the aisle the noise was emanating from. Tinubu came up behind Vic as he made his way cautiously down the aisle while Cena approached from the opposite side. Once they had drawn within a few meters of the sound, Vic and Cena darted forward, their weapons up and ready to fire.
“Please don't shoot,” a terrified voice cried.
A mousy, prematurely balding man with thick glasses and rumpled business attire was cowering under his desk, staring down the muzzles of Vic's and Cena's guns through terrified eyes. Vic identified the source of the noise as his coffee cup, which was rattling in reaction to his trembling body vibrating the cubicle. The trembling stopped as he thrust his hands feebly against the bottom of his desk in a gesture of surrender.
“We've got a survivor,” Cena reported.
Tinubu came forward and peered down at the cowering office worker. “You two keep an eye out for hostiles,” he ordered. “I'll see what I can get out of our little friend here.”
Vic and Cena moved to the ends of the aisle while Tinubu knelt in front of the survivor. Vic kept an ear on the conversation as he scanned his surroundings for enemies.
“A—are you guys part of a rescue team?” the survivor stammered.
“Yeah,” Tinubu lied. “What the hell happened here? This place is a slaughterhouse.”
“We were attacked,” the survivor said. “By men in masks and black cloaks and m—monsters. They tore through security like they weren't even there.”
“How long ago did this happen?”
“I don't know, I don't know. I hid under my desk when they tore through here and somehow they didn't notice me. It feels like I've been hiding here for most of the day.”
“It couldn't have been that long. The bodies are too fresh.”
“At least a couple of hours, then.” The survivor's trembling voice rose in pitch, and Vic winced inwardly, wishing he would be quieter. “A—are you going to evacuate me? I just want to get the hell out of here.”
“Not yet, but don't worry, we'll keep you safe,” Tinubu said, his voice confident and reassuring. “What can you tell us about the attackers? What are these 'monsters'?”
“I don't know. I've been hiding here the whole time, so I didn't get a good look at them. But they're horribly quick, and they rip through human bodies like wet tissue paper.”
“And the men in black cloaks were controlling them?”
“They must have been. The monsters didn't attack them.”
Tinubu paused. “We need to find out what the attackers were after. The only reason they'd attack a former P.S.A. data facility is because they wanted classified information. The terminals in this area are all down. Can you take us to one that works?”
“Most of the terminals went down when we lost power,” the survivor
explained. “But the central server should still be online.”
“Can you take us there?”
“I know where it is, but I can't get in. You need special access.”
“Don't worry about that. We've got all the special access we need right here.” Tinubu tapped the barrel of his battle rifle. “I'm Captain Tinubu. What's your name, sir?”
“L—Lloyd Carper.”
“All right, Mr. Carper. Take us to the server room so we can complete our investigation, and then we'll get you out of here. I promise we won't let anything happen to you.”
“OK. I hope this doesn't take long.”
Tinubu helped Carper to his feet, then their group resumed their formation, with Cena at point and Tinubu guarding the rear. Carper was placed in the middle, under Vic's watch. They began threading their way through the maze of cubicles, following Carper's directions.
“So, um,” Carper said, “where's the rest of your team? This isn't all of you, is it?”
“We've got a VTOL on the roof,” Tinubu replied. “The rest of our team is guarding our ride out of here.”
“Oh, great,” Carper muttered.
Carper guided them back toward the stairwell, staring frightfully at the ruined bodies of his former coworkers. As they neared the stairwell, Tinubu spun around and aimed his rifle down the aisle whence they had just come. The others turned and looked back at him.
“What's wrong?” Vic whispered.
“Saw movement,” Tinubu replied. “It's gone now.”
Something thumped within the maze of cubicles, then a wet growl issued forth, seemingly coming from everywhere at once. The growl conveyed a sense of more than mere bestial rage: it was the utterance of an evil sentience, an intelligence bent on the suffering and destruction of its prey.
“They're back,” Carper whimpered. “Oh god, oh god, oh god.”
“Get to the stairwell,” Tinubu ordered. “If it tries to follow us there, we can fill the doorway with a curtain of bullets.”
They turned and ran for the stairs. Something crashed and panted from within the cubicles, gaining fast. Just as they reached the stairwell doors, a chair came flying out of the aisle behind them and slammed against the wall next to Vic, shattering into several pieces. Cena flung the doors open and all four of them bolted into the stairwell. Cena slammed the doors shut, then she, Vic, and Tinubu took position on the stairs and leveled their weapons at the door.
Many seconds passed in tense silence. Finally, they heard a heavy thump, then a steaming liquid flowed underneath the door, emitting an acrid stench. A twisted hand appeared in the door's window and dragged a set of sickle-like claws against it, cutting into the glass like nails on a chalkboard.
Cena fired off two blasts from her shotgun, shattering the window and pouring pellets into the hand behind it. A fountain of black blood flew through the window and spattered onto the landing. A shrill cry issued forth and the creature galloped away.
Cena pumped her shotgun and loaded two more rounds. “Easy. These jacked up attack dogs ain't all that.”
Carper stared at her in disbelief. “Some dog,” he exclaimed. “Creatures that tore our armed security forces to shreds! You don't know what you're dealing with.”
“Whatever they are, they bleed just like everybody else,” Cena replied. “That's all I need to know.”
“We keep moving,” Tinubu said. “Let's get this over with so we can get the hell out of this nightmare.”
A creeping dread was growing within Vic's mind. He approached Tinubu and whispered, “Are you sure it wouldn't be wiser to abort the mission? We never expected that the Xenolists would have left forces behind after their attack, let alone some kind of genetically engineered monsters. We may be in over our heads here.”
Tinubu hesitated. After a moment's indecision, he shook his head. “We know next to nothing about these Xenolists. The only way we can get some leads about what happened to Pierson is by investigating this attack. We owe him that much.”
“Yeah,” Vic conceded. “I guess you're right. Let's be quick about it, then.”
At Carper's reluctant direction, they continued several flights down the stairwell, all the way past the first floor and into the basement. The only sounds were the echoes of their footfalls, but a fetid thickness in the air gave the impression of being deep within a monstrous lair, reminding them that they were not alone within the data facility's labyrinthine confines.
Carper directed them to exit the stairwell at the first subbasement level. They proceeded down another corridor until they reached a series of obliterated doors flanked by card readers and biometric identification panels. Shrapnel and scorch marks suggested that someone else had already forced their way through the security layers. Cena treaded cautiously through the debris, with the others following several paces behind.
“Looks like the Xenolists were after the main server room too,” Tinubu observed.
Beyond the destroyed doors, they found a large, circular room with a column-shaped server core in the center—or what was left of it. The core's outer shell had been blasted open with explosives, exposing the faces of scorched, mangled circuitry underneath. The body of an elderly man in a business suit lay next to the mangled core, with a single bullet hole in its head.
“Damn,” Tinubu exclaimed, his normally stolid face twisted in frustration.
“That's Director Dupont,” Carper gasped.
“It looks like a total loss.” Tinubu turned to Carper. “Is there anything you can do?”
Carper composed himself with surprising swiftness. “Um, let's see.” He made his way to a nearby terminal and booted it up. “As I thought, this room still has power. Give me a second and we'll see if there's anything left of the server. It's more resilient than you'd think; there might still be some functioning circuitry left in there. And there's a backup kept in a hardened bunker deeper inside.”
“Watch the door, you two,” Tinubu ordered Vic and Cena. “I'll give Mr. Carper a hand.”
Vic and Cena kept their weapons trained on the door, occasionally glancing at Carper working on the terminal. Vic wasn't sure whether the single entrance was a curse or a blessing. On the one hand, anything hunting them had only one way to get in. Conversely, they had only one way out, meaning they could be trapped, if the monsters were intelligent enough for such tactics.
“OK, I'm in,” Carper said.
“What kind of access do you have?” Tinubu asked.
“Level three,” Carper replied. “Which lets me see a lot, but I can't access the top secret stuff. Let's see here. Nope, the main server is toast. Guess it wasn't as hardened as I thought. The backup is still online, though.”
“What can you see?” Tinubu asked. “Any sign of what the attackers were after?”
“Yeah, they didn't really bother to clean up after themselves,” Carper said. “Guess they were in a hurry and figured blowing up the central core would cover their tracks. There's a recent level one access by the director. They must have held him at gunpoint and forced him to use his top access on the system.”
Tinubu glanced at the corpse. “And when they were finished, they disposed of him.”
“Poor bastard,” Carper said. “I didn't really like him, but damn, what a way to go.”
“So what else can you find?” Tinubu asked.
“Um, let's see.” Carper's fingers danced over the keys. “Huge copy operation to external media. Looks like they were after... the genetic database?”
“What's that?”
“Back when the Union was in charge, the P.S.A. kept detailed biometric records of every last colonist, including genetic data. We haven't been keeping the database current, but we've still got the old data lying around. Looks like they took everything we had, and then deleted it all after they were done copying it. Just a basic clear records operation, though. The data is probably still recoverable.”
“It is? Can you do it right now?”
Carper shook his head. “That would t
ake hours, at least. Besides, I don't have the necessary access privileges.”
“No helping it, then.” Tinubu's expression grew reflective. “So was the whole point of this attack to gain access to the genetic database? But why?”
Tinubu's contemplation was interrupted by a deep rumble that shook the entire structure, causing a curtain of dust to fall from the ceiling. Then came the far-off, muffled sound of a bestial shriek, followed by several sharp cracks.
“What the hell was that?” Vic exclaimed.
“I think we've overstayed our welcome, Captain,” Cena said.
“I'm afraid you're right,” Tinubu said. “We're moving out, now.”
They exited the server room and ran for the stairwell, with Carper panting behind them. “What's going on?” he gasped. “Don't tell me the attackers have come back.”
“We're not sticking around to find out,” Tinubu called back.
The rumble of another muffled explosion shook through the compound. Vic cursed the silence particles that prevented them from contacting their extraction VTOL. When the rebels had first released the silence particles across Chalice years ago, it had helped even the odds against the Theran Union's military superiority by preventing their army of drones from being operated remotely and executing long-range coordinated actions. Now that the Insurrection was over, the silence particles served to hinder everyone equally.
They bolted into the stairwell and began making their way back up the many flights to the top floor. As Carper started to lag behind, they had to pause to wait for him to catch up.
“This is some rescue,” Carper panted. “Is ISEC suffering from a crippling manpower shortage or something?”
“You can go back to hiding under your desk if you'd like,” Cena replied.
“No, I—I'll stay with you.”
Soon they reached the top floor and began backtracking through the winding corridors toward the roof. As they rounded a corner, they spotted a bipedal battle drone at the opposite end of the corridor. They drew back around the corner just as the drone pivoted and opened fire with its arm mounted autocannons, spraying the walls and floor with hot lead and filling the hallway with a thunderous cacophony.
