Disclaimer: This is just a quick short story I did after a very long hiatus.


Alright...

Alright, you can do this.

You got this, just like training. Two in the chest, one in the head.

Simple.

He pressed up against his partner, they were back to back. Nothing but a door and some cold, hard steel surrounding them. His partner leaned back, signaling it was time to breach. He took a deep breathe through his environmental mask and clenched his rifle, flinching slightly at the sounds of screaming and gunshots in the distance. The entire ARK smelled like gunpowder and smoke at this point.

It was a massacre.

The goggles of his mask began to fog up from his haphazard breathing, but he didn't care. The only thing he could see was the yellow flashes from the ARK's emergency lighting alarm. He leaned back, his skin making contact with his baggy hazardous protection suit, which was now just a bag of sweat. He kept leaning, waiting for his partner to move.

What was a fraction of a second felt like an eternity, but his partner finally went into position. He quickly flipped around and faced the door in front of him, his partner was on the other side. His partner lifted his hand and counted his fingers down from three. Once he hit one? All hell broke loose.

The door slid open as they both entered the room. All the lab coats looked like a pristine sea of white. The white slowly faded to a deep red as the two opened fire on the room's inhabitants. He never let his finger stray from the trigger. Body after body flopped around the room as he continued to pump brass into their bodies. Their screams were short lived as the scientists were cut down.

The smoke danced around the room as the clanging of casings made a symphony of death. They lowered their weapons once the bodies stopped twitching. Did he feel like a monster? Of course.

Did he want to do this? No.

Did he have to?

Billions would parish if he didn't.

His partner doubled over, dropping his rifle and clenching his stomach, "Whoa, hey, you good?" He rushed over to him.

"Am I good?" His partner turned his head towards him, looking him dead in the eye which was visible behind his mask's goggles, "We just... all of those people..." He looked at the floor, "I'm going to be sick."

The yelling and gunshots were nonstop, it was hard to even hold a conversation, never mind trying to help someone live with genocide, "I know, but... We got a job to do. This is for the good of all of Mobius."

His partner pushed himself away from him, "Dammit, save me your patriotic crap!" He dropped his rifle and stood erect, "There's no excuse for this!" He waved to the pile of dead bodies they both created, "G.U.N is evil! The Federation is evil!"

He stared at his partner, "Evil? Wake up, this isn't some cartoon! These people are sick, if they go back to Mobius like this, there's no way we contain this kind of outbreak!"

"I don't want to be a part of this..." His partner lowered his shoulders and looked down to the blood and bullet covered floor, "I'm done, man."

He spread his feet apart and positioned his rifle in the low ready, trying to anticipate his partner, "What are you going to do?"

"Free myself from living with this guilt," Air squeezed out his pressured mask as he slowly removed it. He took a couple of deep breaths and dropped his mask to the floor.

He shook his head, "Dammit, man, come on..."

"Just do it."

"Hell, no."

He quickly turned around and began to exit the room, keeping a tight hold on his weapon, "Where are you going? You can't just leave me here!" His partner yelled in between fits of coughing.

He sighed and pulled his pistol out from his chest holster while holding his rifle in his other hand, "You're right... I'm sorry."

He faced his partner with his pistol raised. His partner closed his eyes and he sent three rounds into his chest. He stumbled backwards until slamming into the steel wall behind him. He slowly slid down the wall, leaving a trail of blood. His partner looked him again in the eyes as he clenched his chest and struggled to breathe.

"Goodbye, man," He exited the room, the metal door slid behind him.

He advanced through the ARK, passing body after body. It was eerily empty, but he could hear the gunfire elsewhere on the ARK. He knew that's where the bulk of the G.U.N personnel would be. Might as well regroup there. Hopefully he was done killing.

"This way, Shadow! Hurry!" Apparently not.

He readied his rifle and followed the sound of the young girl's voice. The winding halls of the ARK made it a complete maze. It wasn't any easier thanks to the main power being cut when the raid began.

He eventually came to a section of the ARK that was completely cut of from any power. The door that led to this part of the ARK seemed like a portal to a shadowy realm, a limbo of complete darkness. He simply turned on the flashlight at the end of his rifle and quickly ruined any mystery the darkness held.

It seemed like a standard research room, basic high-tech looking stuff, things he couldn't begin to wrap his head around. He continued his scan and stood in amazement at the equipment he soon discovered. It looked like firearms, but not any he was familiar with. They were bulky and made of a shiny silver with violet accents decorated around them. They all took odd shapes and looked like they weren't designed for human hands. In the center of the room was a tissue sample of sorts. The skin on the sample was black and red. It looked extremely rough, like a tough leather. There was also some sort of containment pod in the back of the room, but it was empty. The door was shut, but nothing was in it.

"What the hell?" He was finally able to speak. As his words left his mouth he heard a quiet gasp. He quickly shifted his rifle's flashlight to the source: a young blonde girl. Before he could squeeze the trigger she was dragged out by what looked like a black blur. The bullets that managed to escape his barrel safely struck the metal wall where she once was, "Damn!"

He took off sprinting from the pitch black room, trying his best to follow the girl. Keeping a close eye on her blue dress as she swiftly evaded every shot he popped off at her. His labored breathing caused a layer of moisture to form on his goggles,and his body quickly drenched itself in sweat. It was like a rainstorm was going on inside his protective suit. Through his fogged up goggles the blue dress was the only thing he could focus on.

"Come on! Stop running!" He didn't know why he yelled at them, he knew they wouldn't stop. Maybe he was just hoping to take a breather.

He continued to take pot-shots at his victims. He couldn't allow anyone to escape... Mobius couldn't allow anyone to escape. She eventually ran into a long corridor that was covered in glass, showing the beauty of space itself. He would've stopped to enjoy the view if the fate of a planet wasn't in his hands.

"Screw this..." He stopped and fired several shots into one the large windows near the young girl. It shattered and began sucking everything it could into the void of space. The girl began to slide towards it, but whatever was with her was able to overcome it and continued forward. It made its way into the room at the end of the long corridor, perfectly safe. He also felt the force of the vacuum and lost his footing. He began to roll towards the window and started screaming. His rifle was ripped from his grasp and shot out into the void.

This was it.

Why did he shoot the window? Maybe it was just a last ditch effort to take her out.

Unfortunately it turned out to be his mistake.

He was quickly picked up and thrown to the open window before slamming against a steel shutter. Luckily for him, it closed right before he was flung outside the ARK. He just sat there for a moment, his heart racing. He shot up as he came back to reality and sprinted towards the door, drawing his pistol.

He barged into the room and finally came face to face with the young girl. What was with her was sealed inside an escape pod, something that G.U.N was sure to cut the power from. It looked like a black hedgehog, but that didn't matter right now. He turned his pistol to the girl and she let out a gasp before slamming her hand on a control table across the room.

He furrowed a brow for a second before an announcer came over the intercom, Manual override, ejecting pod.

"No!" He shot at the escape pod several times, failing to cause any damage.

"Maria!" The hedgehog yelled as it was quickly dropped from the ARK and sent down to Mobius.

"No! No! No!" He turned to the young girl who had tears in her eyes, "You idiot! Why would you do that?" He yelled at the girl.

"Why would you do this?" She yelled back, choking up from her tears.

He gritted his teeth, but let out a sigh, "You people are sick. We can't have you going back... Home," He raised his pistol to the girl's center mass, "I guess it doesn't even matter now, huh? Congratulations, you've destroyed all of Mobius."

"I didn't..."

"That thing was a carrier! You're a carrier!"

"Please..."

"Listen, kid, I know it doesn't mean anything, but I'm sorry," He focused his sights on her, "I didn't join G.U.N to do... this. I wanted to help my country, and I am. I have no choice."

"We always have a choice."

"I wish it was that simple, kid. I really do."

Alright...

Alright, you can do this.

You got this, just like training. Two in the chest, one in the head.

Simple.

... Right?