OSaBC : The Bird of Hermes

Chapter Thirteen: Unreal Monstrosity


A/N: MUCH credit to EnigmaticOne, who spent hours and hours gathering the RP notes up, typing them in, and cleaning up the grammar. Any mistakes are mine, not his.


"And you felt that informing us of this was...what?"

"Not under your purview, Admiral. Doctor Yang was seconded to HERMES to report on abuses just like this. He died a hero. Castigating him for failing - or not reporting to you - only cheapens his death."

"I'm sorry, but I wasn't aware HADES was an SA secondment group. Oddly enough we classify it as a terrorist organization."

"Admiral, don't be pedantic. We classified Cerberus as a terrorist organization, too, and your involvement with them was above board, no?"

-Admiral Branson and AIS Minister Aloxius Manswell, 'Redacted Subsections, Reports on the Magog Incident'


The big man's tired features shifted from nervous to alarmed as he glanced back over his shoulder, then back at Kinnix's team and pinnace.

"Hello?" He looked back at the raging fight, his hands loosely wrapped around a big rifle, then back again at the raging fight behind him.

"I assume you're Bright. Correct?" Kinnix probed, his voice tight and hard.

Bright narrowed his eyes. "Well that's not comforting...I'm assuming Admiral Vandefar didn't send you to pick me up if you're assuming who I am." He sighed. "Not that it fucking matters. My ride's shot to a big pile of glowing slag, and the ground vehicle isn't... optimal. Yes, I am Jeff Bright. Now, not to be ungrateful, but who are you?"

"I'm General Kinnix. These are my men. As for Synthia, well, I'm certainly here because she... sent us in a way." The General gestured back out the door. "We can talk about that when there's not a fucking war going on a hundred meters away. Is your leg okay?"

Bright's expression, what Kinnix could make out of it through his clear-fronted helmet, seemed skeptical, but he nodded.

"Yeah, it's all cyber." Another glance over his shoulder, and his voice tightened. "Listen, we need to get the hell out of here. The things out there are not friendly. Two kinds. One is made up of black wool and bones and spikes and black nano and fucks you up if you touch it. Energy blasts, gravity waves and other crazy stuff. The others are corpses, somehow mushed together. Very very fast, they use bone swords and I saw them cut through a meter-thick plascrete wall. We can discuss further once we get away from this mess. To the south. Keep your pinnace below five hundred meters at all costs, above that, and shit starts firing at anything trying to leave."

Bright jerked a thumb at the base behind him. "That place was just a fallback point. I've got a map of the sites on this place and some idea of what is going on, General. But I'd need to know why you are here. I told my backup to get the fuck out of here."

"Your backup is the reason we came directly here, she's still hiding her ship by a gas giant. We passed another slagged ship on the way, big trap too. C'mon, we need to get moving." Kinnix explained, turning towards the cockpit, "Get us somewhere a little more friendly, Matt, low and steady, let's not dodge any more ground fire."

Bright followed him into the pinnace.

"Roger that." Matthew brought the ship up and away from the ruined base, hands moving swiftly across the controls.

"One more thing," Bright warned as the hatch shut behind him. "You cannot transmit out on open frequencies. Use a beacon or something. Anything not pure tightbeam will draw the fuzzy things – they find all active transmissions and go after them. It takes a bit for them to get there, but they always find you. Tightbeam and laser doesn't draw them but I don't have a tightbeam transmitter."

He stopped, catching sight of Varian offering the currently open bottle to Bright with a slightly inquisitive tilt of his head. Bright shook his head incredulously.

"No offense, but after what the fuck I've seen out there, I'm not taking off my helmet. And this isn't the time to drink." In a lower voice, he muttered, "Not enough drink in the goddamned galaxy to blot this place out anyway."

"Absurdity is an excellent way to ignore reality for a while," Varian commented. "Once the planets start getting in staring matches with you, you need to ignore things." The AIS agent sniffed. "In more serious news, General, I'm pretty sure this ancient rust-bucket doesn't have tightbeam radio, and if it did we'd need to turn the VI back on to run it..."

He glanced at the food processing unit, still covered in burnt nutrigoop, and Kinnix gave a bark of laughter. Bright arched an eyebrow then turned to face Kinnix. "General, we met... once, I think. Watson evaluation when you were commanding Second Solguard. Why are you here, sir? A favor for Admiral Vandefar?"

"Time to put our game faces on gentlemen. Looks like Mr. Bright here has gone through quite an ordeal, and what he knows could help us." The General sighed loudly. "To answer your question, I'm here because one of my sons is part of this mess; the assholes in R&D are writing him and his team off. And I suspect, given she didn't mention anything about you being alive, they've written you for that matter. I'm not so quick to write off anyone."

Bright held a troubled expression. "Your son would be Marcus Kinnix, a captain with HERMES?"

"Shit, you found him already?" Daniel exclaimed incredulously.

"Not exactly." Bright replied before locking eyes with Kinnix.

"Yeah, that's my boy. How badly is this mission going fubar?" Kinnix asked, not expecting any good answers.

"Mission? Fuck, sir. This isn't a mission. This is an everfucking nightmare." Bright groused. "The mission commander, Admiral Vandefar's niece, has gone rogue. The records I found so far indicate she manually overrode the kill-switch devices installed into the team."

"There's an active, hostile black nano infective agent out there - not airborne or I'd be dead - but nasty, and it turns people into, well…" He grimaced. "Vomit zombies. I KNOW that sounds crazy. But there were two people in stasis and infected, and it made them worse IN STASIS, so..."

He shuddered. "It was worse on the Decca. The entire crew was either omnifucked by black nano, torn to pieces, or just flat out missing – and I think the black fuzz crap was eating the ship There's a landing base south of here - it's blown to hell now. Found a file at the landing base, showed him and two other marines in stasis at the 'main site.' This and two other supply depots are listed and then a northern base and a primary and secondary 'dig site.'"

"Lovely." Varian summarized. "How close to the base he's at can we land?"

"I'd be careful." Bright opined. "The… things seem to be getting more and more pissed off. I killed one with flashbangs and explosive rounds and a plasma detpack trap, but that was dicey."

In the distance behind them, there was a blast. "Heh. Fusion charges went off. Roast in hell, assholes. I am pretty sure Vandefar isn't going to like my report, but we need to glass this fucking planet ASAP. And I'll be honest - the report didn't list if your son was infected or not. If he IS, sir… that is not something our science can... fix. I met a survivor, and she was. She said she wasn't herself. And the infected were insane."

"Your backup probably isn't moving until you're safe," Kinnix told Bright. "And Vandefar is sending in her own troubleshooters. Though I think it's more of a 'kill everything' order. And if my son is infected... Well, let's cross that hurdle when we get to it."

The ship continued in hover mode, moving away from the site very slowly at ninety meters above the ground. Sensors, such as they were with no VI, were clear, nothing following them showing up, although Matthew kept a sharp eye on the rear facing cameras just in case.

After eating a ration bar through the intake port on his suit, Bright pulled out a flimsiplast map, lighting it up with a touch. "This base here was Depot 1. Depot 2 is forty klicks due east. There's a slag road burned into the ground between both depots and the south and north main bases. South is destroyed; that marine I met blew herself up with it. There's a shuttle there, but it's full of nano shit and blood vomit. Both are hazards."

"I had a ground vehicle, an old GRIZLI convert. Came here, got jumped by the corpse things, then the black balls showed up and I barely got out in time. Depot was mostly emptied by Vandefar. She was headed west – to the secondary dig site - for some reason, no records on that. The north base is here, and that's supposedly where your son is with two others in stasis—roughly 100 klicks north-northeast. The problem is security will likely be on. I was checking the depot bases hoping for a login. I am not much of a hacker. I've got, uh, a helper, but it can't interface directly."

"I brought the best one I know," Kinnix assured him. "Even if he's a bit of an idiot. You have any other objectives before you help us? Because once I grab my boy, we are booking it out of this cursed place and never coming back."

"Amen to that, General." Daniel cheered from the back.

Bright leaned back. "My orders, such as they were, are fucked. I was to recover survivors, and I had a ship capable of loading them and putting them in stasis. Those things blew up my ship. Vandefar wanted data recovery too, but that was secondary to rescuing the people. Except there's no one to rescue – most of them are dead or worse. If you can get the survivors out - minus the niece, fuck that crazy bint - I'll call it done."

"Sounds like a plan. We head for the main base; you can take the other survivors back with you." Kinnix agreed. "My... orders are to take my boy with me back to the Citadel."

Bright gave him a strange look at the odd emphasis Kinnix put on the word 'orders', before grimacing. "I get you are not exactly sure you can trust me. That being said, you'll excuse me if I am a little curious why a Lord General is doing pickup on a shithole planet in what looks very much like a FCW era Turian combat pinnace." Bright raised the obvious question.

"This is Lord of Sol business. Once we get back to Alliance space, you'll be briefed in on it." Kinnix bluffed.

Bright arched an eyebrow then shrugged. "If you say so." He tapped the map. "I would, however, point out one slight problem. As I said, the other shuttle was omnifucked. I had driven away from the base a bit before I decided to try using it as a repeater. So I went back and made a drone to do remote coding. Once the goddamned thing got up above 500 meters, about a dozen beams of... of... fucking bullshit - I don't know what they were, they glowed purple - blew it out of the sky."

"We'll need something to distract the GTS... There are supposed to be more shuttles at the Depot, while there may not be anything at the northern base. I know you probably want to head straight there, but..." Bright trailed off, glancing around.

"Good idea, but we should swing there after the main base." Kinnix insisted. "We don't want the enemy to break anything, do we? We grab the survivors and then head to the shuttles; maybe the enemy will head to the main base while we mess with the shuttles."

Bright leaned back against the wall. "You're the general. Sir."

Kinnix raised an eyebrow. "Speak your mind, Bright."

Bright rubbed his chin. "Not sure. These things are... well, the corpse things sure as fuck are not smart, just fast as fuck. The fuzzy ones are kind of smart sometimes. They seem more confused, and well, the corpse things are just unreasonably fuckass angry."

"We could use the missiles for the distraction," Matthew suggested. "It won't give us much time, but better than nothing." Something flickered on the sensors, but he wasn't sure what without the VI to scan or resolve it. "I've got a ping here, but no idea what it might be. Keep your seats buckled, folks."

He studied the instruments, frowning. "Some kind of... energy disruption. Whatever the sensor ghost is sir, it's... above us?"

The general looked to grab hold of something to keep himself in place. "This gonna suck," Daniel predicted with a premonition of worry.

Whether due to nerves or intuition, Matthew again reacted to something he could barely identify or see. The pinnace slewed to the right, and a moment later, a hellish blast of purplish light and energy stormed by. It struck the base's ruins in the distance with an explosion that sent the ship into a spin.

Matthew cursed wildly as the blast wave flung the pinnace about, fighting the controls as it skidded in mid-air. A second later, there was an ugly crunch as it smashed into the ground, and the lights skipped off and on as the ship bounced. It went airborne again, and the ship steadied itself, the subVI units controlling the mass core stabilizing the ship in the air. With no VI, there was no damage report, although the status panel lights indicated no hull breaches or core issues.

"Matt, what the fuck was that?" Kinnix yelled.

"My trademark evasive maneuvers," Matthew screamed, visibly on edge. "AND IF ANYONE WANTS TO TAKE OVER, YOU ARE MORE THAN WELCOME!"

"Yeah, you can miss me with that shit. I'm good, but not that good." Georg responded much more calmly.

"I mean, if you insist, I'll fly. Remember, I've never not crashed." Kinnix proffered to his beleaguered pilot.

"Also a pass, milord." Georg firmly told him. "I've seen your flying."

"Hard pass." Daniel agreed.

"Someone check the cameras for me; I don't want to miss a beat right now." Matthew requested.

"I'm guessing that was, what, turbulence or some shit?" Bright asked.

The pilot shook his head. "No idea until we look at the cams...and I'm a bit too busy flying to do that."

"Varian, you're our intel guy and the drunk." Kinnix turned to the AIS agent. Bright watched, vaguely bemused, as Varian levered himself up.

"One drink does not make me drunk." Varian protested as he shifted over to the co-pilot's seat. The cameras were simple remote telescoping types, useful for recon. Varian noted (with a mix of amusement and alarm) turian clawspeak symbols on all the lense insets, aiming the remote cameras towards the crater the sensors reported.

After a long moment, the AIS agent sighed. "Dear God, I wish I was drunk. The site is gone, Kinnix. The crater is damn near two clicks wide and half as deep, which doesn't even make sense."

The image pulled up and projected on an internal haptic display confirmed his words. "If that had been aimed at us, we would have stopped existing."

The entire area was, in fact, a glowing firestorm. And then, as they watched, something stepped out of that hellish inferno.

"Jesus, Mary and Victor." Daniel swore in horror.

It was similar to the black-furred things previously seen but on a much larger scale. Almost fifteen meters tall and more than twenty across, it had six disjointed legs of reddish material, massive bone spars circling it, and something like wheels rotating across its top. A thousand mouths, gnashing with needle teeth and leaking black ooze, crisscrossed its surface, and a single massive eye occupied the center of the body.

It walked out of the fires as if they weren't even there, stalking over to where the ship had touched down. A beam of silvery-white light traced over the ground, and then the thing looked around, almost lazily, before tentacles erupted from its lower half.

A dozen smaller black-furred things - like a tangled collection of vines with fur and legs and mouths - burst free of the corrupted soil and began circling slowly, reminiscent of some kind of demented bloodhounds.

Varian just blinked slowly. "In my professional opinion, that is something for the next guy to deal with. When we are far, far away."

"Yes." Kinnix declared. "Let's speed up. Matt. Fast as fuck time. Remember flying in the FCW. Well, that but faster."

"On it." Matthew promptly ramped up the speed.

"...I hate this fucking planet." Bright muttered.

"I am fairly certain that every organic being who has ever set foot, fin, or motive appendage in this gods-forsaken system agrees with you." Varian told him.

Matthew turned the craft north, being very careful to stay below 500 meters. Amusingly, aside from the disagreeable nature of the landscape, the next twenty minutes passed peacefully.

There were a lot - dozens - of 'sensor ghosts' but most seemed focused on the northwest. Plus also another alarming rad spike to the far east. Matt wasn't sure, but - given the sensor suite was hardly designed for it - at the range estimate of over 900 kilometers, the rads must be in the omega band.

He mentioned this to the rest, and Kinnix shuddered. It had been a long time since he'd had to do the math in his head, but he was pretty sure that omega band rads were not measured in megaSiverts, but fucking gigaSieverts. Even the Black Glassing on Earth wasn't an omega band.

Matthew was almost sure the sensors weren't calibrated for this, and it shouldn't be that bad.

Except they were getting about double the normal background rads, expected since that went off. Nothing even remotely dangerous, but alarming.

The northern base entered their sensor range. According to the sensors, there was no sign of 'abnormal' creatures anywhere near it. They had signs of very heavy fighting, but the pinnace needed to get closer for more detail. And whatever was going on; the site displayed active power generation.

"Take us in, really slow. I don't want to get shot down." Kinnix told Matt.

"Varian, keep an eye on the camera and look around." Matt told his co-pilot.

"No, I was thinking of turning it off and flying in blind. Possibly buck naked and slapping my ass at them." Varian's voice was dry as sand and only slightly less abrasive.

"I might pay to see that." Kinnix joked.

"Kinnix, this entire thing is insane, but I haven't cracked yet." Varian replied.

The ship came in from the south. The north base resided on a flat, transparent sheet of ruddy reddish-brown dirt, most likely leveled by running a fusion torch over the land. The south end held two landing pads. One clear, and could accommodate the ship. The other had a shuttle on it. The shuttle's windshield shattered and stained with blood; the hatch was torn off. Black stains and bits of fur lined the ragged doorway, a pair of twisted corpses visible just inside the shuttle.

The base itself comprised three buildings made of heavy-duty plastcrete. Two were mostly squarish, the second two stories tall, and the third very long with warehouse-style doors—a pair of civilian-conversion trucks on old GRIZLI frames parked near the south warehouse.

Both appeared to be clean. Several contorted bodies litter the ground outside. "I really don't trust this, Bright. You know where the survivors are?"

"Not sure, General," Bright answered him. "This is a different layout than the last base. And I didn't do a lot of poking around, to be honest. that shuttle looks, uh, suspicious, though."

Then they saw the single heavily armored JOTUN moving around in a square patrol box. It had one of its weapon arms melted off and its torso littered with cuts, but it was still moving.

The ship passed overhead, and the comms console reported a standard IFF ping/response on the Alliance IFF channel. The ship immediately replied, and the JOTUN continued its patrol.

"Well, the mech might be compromised." Kinnix evaluated the situation. "Shuttle probably has a lot of nasty hiding in it. And I'm very much certain that those bodies will probably get up and try to eat us. Every movie has that. And this is fucked enough for that to be true."

"To be fair, general, the bodies were already pretty dead at the other base." Bright commented.

Varian focused on the mech. "Kinnix, can you work some command override magic on the JOTUN? Get me its logs? Also, make sure it is still ours."

Kinnix did have Lord of Sol command override codes. But he needed to either give those verbally in person or risk a burst radio transmission. "I'm not transmitting shit, I can give them in person, but it might try to kill us first. I can try if you really want a pet."

"Not to be a dick, milord," Georg chided, "but can't you just rig up a loudspeaker or something?"

"Sure, you want to turn on your omnitool VI to do it with?" Kinnix's voice was withering with irony. "I can scream out the door," Kinnix explained to his knight. "But then you still have to transmit to get the files."

Bright started looking a little strained, something Kinnix and Varian both noted.

"Bright?"

"I, uh...well, I have an option too. But you won't like it." Bright finally admitted. "Does this shuttle have a laser link?"

"Yes. It has a laser link. But that thing uses a VI, how do we know it isn't compromised?" Kinnix inquired.

"We know it is compromised." Agent Varian stated. "The food processor VI was pinged from orbit."

Bright grimaced. "The Admiral felt that based on reports VI was... likely to be a problem down here. All my gear is non-VI for that reason, but to retrieve information without VI is almost impossible. I have, a, uh, solid-state... device that can use the laser link."

"It can't be hacked because… of how it's made. I'd rather not go into further details, but I've already accessed compromised shit on the Decca and the south base with it and had no issues."

Though very suspicious, Varian nodded. "If it has worked on this hellhole before, then I say give it a shot. But isolate the system from the rest of the ship, just in case."

"Oh, don't worry. It's gonna be isolated." Bright promised. "General?"

"If it worked, then fine, but if it so much as looks wrong, I'm going to shoot it and kick it out the airlock." Kinnix warned Bright.

Though his voice was a little strained, Bright laughed, all the same, tapped an internal commlink, then moved over to the comms console. "Okay." He tapped several buttons, a bit hesitantly, and then looked at the screen.

"ACCESSING RECORDS." It outputted. "WARNING: This unit has been set to READ ONLY MODE due to REASON: EXECUTIVE OVERRIDE NINE-SIX-SIX-DELTA, AUTHORIZATION, KINNIX, Marcus A.

"No commands without SUPERNOVA authority will be accepted. All downloads have been disabled. All off-unit processing has been removed."

"LOADING. PLEASE WAIT. QUERY IDENTIFICATION COMPLETE. IFF CONFIRMED. WELCOME, ADMIRAL AHERN."

Bright raised his eyebrows sharply at that, but Kinnix merely waved it off. "We'll explain later, Major."

"AVAILABLE FUNCTIONS - LOG - SENSOR - STATUS - WEAPONS AUTHORIZATION - COMMS LOG."

"Give me sensors first, then comms." Varian instructed Bright.

"WORKING."

"SENSOR SWEEP COMMENCING."

"RADIOACTIVITY: NOMINAL. BIOLOGICAL AGENTS: NULL DETECTION. NANOLOGICAL AGENTS: WARNING SHUTTLE AREA ALPHA CONTAMINATED. WARNING. OBJECT AT 340 degrees south bearing 9 mark 2 CONTAMINATED. ANOMALY SWEEP: CLEAR LIFE SIGNS: MULTIPLE (AIRBORNE), MULTIPLE (STASIS UNITS, WAREHOUSE A), FADING (NOT NOMINAL), COMMAND CENTER."

"SEISMIC READINGS REPORT ACTIVITY ROUGHLY EIGHT HUNDRED FOUR SIX FOUR KILOMETERS EAST."

"COMMS LOG COUNTERMANDED. COMMS LOG DELETED BY REMOTE COMMAND, USER UNKNOWN. AUTHORIZATION STAMP – AIS COMMAND GAMMA GAMMA NINE."

Varian cursed soundly. "That's Old Man Aloixus personal auth! The fuck is going on down here, General?"

Kinnix shook his head. "Let it finish."

"SENSOR SWEEP COMPLETE. CLASSIFICATION: MODIFIED SAFE."

"RECOMMEND AIR ISOLATION, COMPLETE ENVIRONMENTAL SUIT, ACTIVE NANOCOUNTER AGENT ORPHEUS. WARNING: STOCKS OF NANOCOUNTER AGENT ORPHEUS DEPLETED."

"ALERT: REMINDER THAT BASE IS LOCKED DOWN VIA AUTHORIZATION PANDORA. AUTHORIZING AGENT VANDEFAR, CIANA L."

"I believe I can override that. Can we land somewhere other than the landing pads?" Kinnix asked Matthew, "I don't trust that other shuttle."

The pinnace's landing gear was damaged from the earlier impact, as was the landing spar. Still, despite this, Matthew touched the ship down with elegance on the north side of the base, using an outcropping of rock to balance the damaged gear and leaving the ship level as it softly touched down.

Upon exiting the shuttle, Matthew and Georg examined the damage. One of the external HE3 tanks cracked but intact and not leaking. The rear landing spar, though, was crumbled and too twisted up to fix. At most, it might withstand two or three more landings but not much more than that. The front landing gear was bent but fixable with omni-gel bracing.

More concerningly, the under armor had mostly broken off. A hit to the shuttle to the bottom would damage the hull's integrity. Other than that, the ship seemed intact.

The general checked his gear and guns. "I'll go first and get the JOTUN to stand down, maybe have it move the ice boxes with us."

The air here felt still. The base itself was clean but with flashing alarm lights. The ground, Kinnix observed, was polished from the fusion torch that cleared it, the ruddy material underneath a mix of what looks like fused dirt and bones.

Maybe thousands of bones.

The shuttle pads loomed in the distance, and from here, he could see the far side of the shuttle. Four more bodies were propped up against it, each one slumped in death, having been shot in the head with some kind of weapon that didn't leave much of the heads behind and put four titanic gouges in the shuttle's sides.

All of the corpses were twisted. Some had black jutting bones and diamond-shaped carbon black scales, others discolored and withered looking and misshapen, with black vomit splattered from the remains of the jaw of one. The last corpse was covered in gently waving black fur or wool… material and wrapped in plastic hazmat sheeting, with what looked suspiciously like a motion-sensing mine.

And someone had used an omnitool to carve a message into the shuttle's side:

"STAY THE FUCK AWAY."

The entire group stared at the bleak words marred along the shuttle's flank.

"...Well. And now we can't even have a drink, fuck me running." Georg complained.

"I say we do as they asked and not go fucking near it." Varian stated the obvious.

"You think?" Bright dryly responded. "Look, here's what I know. The fuzz shit was on the Decca and spreading, and the survivor I found at the other base was turning into one of those things with black scales and black bones. She said it was shifting her, and in the end, she'd have turned into a vomit zombie. Don't get close to it, and you should be fine. Besides, that shuttle is fucked already. The windshield is busted."

Looking at the stompy patrol of the JOTUN mech, he frowned. "...Also, General, we're well within that thing's scan/react range, and it's ignoring us."

"Perhaps it's not looking for us," Kinnix replied. "If I was trying to defend this place. I would have it searching for the contagion. Not us. And for all we know, it's a fucking living creature that just wants to sing and dance with all life. Let's just not touch it. And steer as clear as possible of it."

"Understood. As for the stuff..." Bright shrugged. "I tried running a remote analysis using a drone connected by omni-lead. The stuff is some kind of super-nano-tech. Too small to be resolved by the nanometer scale instruments I had and completely reactive. I was drawing on solar and Brownian motion for power and ambient heat… like Grey-Goo class dissumlat weapons, but worse. But the stuff also limits its spread somehow."

"Alright. If push comes to shove, maybe detonate a LINUS on it. Probably kill whatever bastard it got on too, but it is probably a better death than getting greyed." Varian decided from hearing that.

Bright cast a further concern look at Kinnix. "I'm aware you want to find your son and get the fuck out of here, General. But reading that text file the JOTUN sent seems to indicate two things. One, that the base is on lockdown, so to get to the warehouse, we either have to override that in the command center or blow a hole in it."

"Second, there's a 'fading' life sign in the command center. Someone who might have fucking answers." He pulled out a dedicated scanner unit, frowning as he tapped through the controls.

"The thing's sensors are right. I don't detect any, uh, contamination around the base doors themselves, just the shuttle and whatever the fuck happened to the bastards outside it."

"Can we cut through quietly with the tools we brought?" Kinnix asked. "As a backup plan. In case whoever in there is, you know, goo."

"It's hardened armaplast on the outside. That would take a lot of time. We could try to hack the door, but you know that won't really work well if this is stock SA lockdown. Standard lockdowns engage positive hydraulics then kill the power." Bright gave a grim smile. "If you want, I can check the command center by myself."

"I was afraid you were going to say that." Kinnix sighed. "Just once, I wanted things to go right. Bright. You pick someone to come with you and go check out the Command Center. I'm gonna dig in here with the others and, well, get ready to save the day when this goes pear-shaped."

"I need to get in there anyway to prep a drone to burst-transmit to Sara." Bright told him, glancing over the team. "I think the AIS Agent would be the most useful in assisting me. I'd keep your pinnace hot and ready to move, though."

Varian clicked his Impactor into carbine mode. "Noted. You on point?" Bright nodded. "I'll stay in regular comms and link my armor cam to channel 9, general."

Bright moved out, followed more hesitantly by Varian. The others tucked in behind the plastcrete walls set up near the base's outskirts, while Matthew kept the engines prepped and sensors scanning continuously. The general unfolded his Nightmare and prepared for the worst.

Once Bright and Varian got closer, the JOTUN mech halted, scanned them, then stomped past, ignoring them entirely. The left-most building was helpfully stenciled 'Command Center/Lab,' while the rightmost was stenciled 'Barracks/Living.'

There was, the two noted, an additional body in front of the barracks. Unlike the corpses near the shuttle pad, this one appeared burnt. Though the corpse was curled up, they realized after a second or two that it was off. The skull was far too elongated, the arms were waxy and misshapen, the legs retrograde. The spine had visible bone knobs poking through the cooked and charred flesh.

Not alien... but who knew what? Bright grimaced as he looked at it. "Fuck." He exhaled, then turned to Varian.

"At the supply base, there were a lot of these things. There are two packs of baddies on the planet. The black fur guys, and these assholes. They, whatever they are, merge and fuse corpses. "They don't seem reactive like the black fur things, though."

He turned to the door, impressively set into an armored frame, with a keypad and haptic screen to one side. Bright unslung his backpack, then pulled out a set of omnileads and hooked them up to something in the backpack. He clipped the other ends of the leads to the pad input prongs and then subvocalized something on a private channel Varian couldn't hear.

Varian stood by; carbine pointed at the corpse. Just in case. Being a hyper-alert paranoid AIS agent, he realized - with considerable alarm - that the burned corpse was still active, just breathing very, very slowly.

A second later, the door gave an extremely unpleasant chime, the door keypad went dark, and the door opened. Bright put away the leads and slung his backpack, picking up his rifle a moment later and glancing at Varian. "...Agent?"

"Moving." Varian calmly brought his carbine up and fired several bursts into it. One burst to the head, another two into the center mass where the heart and lungs would be.

The shots hit cleanly, pulping the already ravaged head and blowing smoking holes in the chest. The corpse jerked back about a foot...and then slowly got to its feet, ravaged flesh rushing together.

The cracked, leathery ball of a head split open along the front top, revealing a glowing reddish horizontal slit, and the mouth opened with a hiss.

"Humans..." The voice merely the exhalation of dead air, the rotted features of a face shifting malevolently as it began to move forward.

Bright barely had time to lift his rifle before the thunder of a minigun went off, as the JOTUN swiveled and opened fire with precision aim. For some reason, using flechettes instead of regular rounds, the cloud of razor-sharp metal literally cut the thing into a dozen smoking chunks leaking something dark blue and runny.

Varian turned and nodded to the JOTUN. "New plan, assume all corpses aren't corpses."

"ANOMALOUS LIFEFORM DISRUPTED. WARNING. DISMEMBERMENT OR COMPLETE IMMOLATION REQUIRED FOR ALL CAMAZOTZ-CLASS ANOMALIES."

The JOTUN rescanned them both.

"NO CORRUPTION DETECTED. RESUMING PATROL. REPENSUM EST CANICULA."

The JOTUN continued its methodical march, pausing briefly to stomp the remains into the ground, leaving blue footprints behind.

Varian grinned. "God, I love JOTUN mechs."

"...Well." Bright's visible non-cybernetic eye was wide behind the clear section of his helmet's faceplate. "Lovely. Let's get inside and see how bad things are, shall we agent?"

Bright took a moment to plant what looked suspiciously like a remote-detonation mine by the entrance before moving in, rifle ready. Varian followed up, scanning around, carbine up.

The interior of the command center was somehow underwhelming. It had a pair of comms consoles, between them a haptic screen on the far wall, and what looked like a holotable for real-time comms.

An ENCOUNTER suit - powered hazmat armor rated to resist kappa levels of radiation and almost all known chemical, biological, and nano agents - was neatly stowed on the far wall.

To their immediate left stood a comms repeater, shot a dozen times. Next to the device rested the corpse of a slender Asian man in SA undress fatigues. His head was an appalling mess, and judging by the Boomer pistol in his hand, he'd shot himself.

Curiously, instead of stairs, an access hatch and ladder led upward. A paper map occupied the leftmost wall, with several sites marked in red or green.

The leftmost comm console blinked, showing a recorded message, while the right was on closer inspection some kind of status console.

Varian's keen eyes picked up on something immediately. The corpse held an omni-tool in its other hand, with two OSDs scattered on the ground next to the repeater. They had been shot, but OSDs were tough.

Bright scanned the room before kneeling next to the corpse, motioning Varian to stay back. "Mm. So, this is bullshit, I can tell you already. First of all, unless this guy shot himself in the back of the head, this isn't self-inflicted, but someone posed the goddamned body that way."

He gestured to the blood spatter, Varian taking pictures of the corpse and the map while listening to Bright.

"Second, not enough blood. There should be a fucking pool of it, not a spray of blood, and that is it. This poor bastard was already dead."

Bright pulled out a rod from his backpack, which he extended and used to flip the corpse over. He recoiled immediately, as the entire back of the man was literally torn open, with savage long claw marks embedded in torn flesh and ripped cloth. Most of the internal organs were missing or lacerated into mush. Most ominously, a set of silvery wires running from the spine and to the brain were severed cleanly.

"Shit. Something tore out his dead-man switch."

"Has to be fairly intelligent then." Varian mused.

Bright used the manipulator to ease the omnitool out of the man's hand, then probed the flesh. "...Temp sensor says he's room temp, but no rigor mortis. And he's fucking sterile, no microbial life detected." Bright stood, frowning as he pulled out a baggie from his side pocket and picked up the OSD without touching it. "I hate this fucking planet. I really do."

"Have any of the things around here acted smart?" Varian asked. "Haven't seen much of that from the masses we have spotted."

"It's hard to say," Bright answered. "The horn things, the black fur things, examined my ship. S...uh, Seems like they fiddled with the drive core, and it went all kaboom on them. That implies they must have not even know what the fuck it was since nothing smart would do that."

"Probably the corpse-things." Varian reasoned. "Maybe riding off the intelligence of whatever they hijacked?"

"But we still have the missing Ashland ships and station, all of which had mass cores… so I'm not sure." Bright shrugged, examining the suit, then slowly taking a step back. "The suit shows pitting, the left foot breached, and the entire faceplate is covered in blood from the inside." He glanced at it, then the corpse, then back at it. "If I had to make a guess, agent..."

He gestured. "Whatever this poor bastard found, someone wanted to be kept quiet. Someone shot him, then made it look like a suicide to a casual glance, along with whatever is on this omni-tool, which is probably bullshit. The comms repeater was shot by the same caliber of pistol that did in the back of his head, but something tore out his goddamn spine and the kill switch - and after he was dead. This is, as my wife used to say, extremely fucking sus."

Bright glanced around the room, then took his own pictures of the map and the corpse.

"Did they try to scrub the mission at some point? That could give us a time before which it was ripped out." Varian suggested.

"Possibly." Bright exhaled. "Let's check out the status console before we look at that comm."

He wandered over to the rightmost console, frowning as he looked over it.

The status console was a repurposed multifunction comms display. Four haptic screens on the right, a keyboard, and inputs for sensor leads, OSDs, and data cards were all surmounted by what looked suspiciously like a VI access panel. Said panel had been ripped open, and the VI unit on the ground in melted chunks.

The top haptic screen displayed base sensor information. The middle upper one showed details about the power generator and defenses, the lower middle screen team life signs, and the bottom one listed alerts.

Bright hesitantly tapped the lower middle life sign screen. It produced a scrolling list of names in red, with either 'DECEASED,' 'CORRUPTED,' or 'ANOMALOUS RESULT.'

Then two flashing red names.

"Lieutenant Barret Asiva, Comms Tech. DECEASED. WARNING. FILE OVERRIDDEN, AUTHORITY, VANDEFAR, CIANA. SECURE KILLSWITCH DEVICE MISSING."

"Sergeant Calvin Rogas, Hazard-Condition Pilot, ENCOUNTER. ANOMALOUS RESULT."

Then three blue names.

"Captain Marcus Kinnix (STASIS, STABLE, NOMINAL) Lieutenant Mira Jackson (STASIS, STABLE, NOMINAL) Gunnery Sergeant Adam Morrison (STASIS, INJURED, NOMINAL)"

"Warehouse One (LOCKDOWN, AUTHORIZATION, CHU, YANG XI) - stable."

And then the last name.

"Primary Researcher Yang Xi Chu (SEVERELY INJURED, CORRUPTION DETECTED). LOCATION BEACON ACTIVE. LOCATION: BARRACKS/LIVING AREA."

Bright unslung his backpack and withdrew the omni-leads again after carefully examining the console. "So… Your boy and two other marines are in the warehouse. And I presume our corpse here is poor Lt. Asiva."

"I don't like what this implies about what is in the barracks with the head researcher. I especially don't like that we are probably going to have to poke in there anyway." Varian said.

"Doctor Yang Chu was listed at the first base as 'UNKNOWN' status. But he's in the next building over. And yeah." Bright agreed, "On the other hand, maybe the comm console has answers. I'm going to try to undo the lockdown, check the base status, and see if I can't launch a comm drone. If I pilot it far enough away before transmitting, we should be safe."

"Try it. If we all die, at least those poor sods can up and fuck off somewhere safe." Varian concurred.

Bright tapped the top screen first. "...Oookay. So, first thing. There is a goddamned crater at least 20 klicks wide east of here, and if these sensors are correct, all the fuckass shit on the planet is rushing that direction. Lines up with that big rad burst, I think. Y'know, not that I'm goddamned freaking out or anything, but can we not go east? Looks like the bulk of what is moving east is south of here. Shouldn't bother us directly. But there's... a lot of movement."

"Nothing we care about there, and everything we would like to avoid," Varian remarked. "I agree, let's not."

Bright turned to face the AIS agent. "The sensors indicate a mass of 'anomalies' measuring two and a half klicks long, running or moving or something at over 200 kilometers an hour. "We need to update the general that engaging this... force at range is probably impossible. Unless we're airborne."

"I feel much more confident in my agreement. Let's avoid them as much as possible." Varian declared. "No, not even airborne. Just fucking don't. No good could come of that. Don't give him ideas."

Bright turned back to the console. "Second, uh… so there's something inside that goddamned encounter suit, and the sensors aren't sure if it's alive, or organic… or if it's there or not at any given moment. So keep your distance from that thing."

Varian quietly loaded a LINIUS into his under-barrel grenade launcher. "Noted."

"Third, the base is powered off of an eezo driven system and several RTGs. Uptime remaining is about a year. The defenses were all recoded by this Chu guy sixteen hours ago. They're mostly drop turrets and a lightweight GARDIAN pylon. The latter is useless without a VI, but the turrets are subVI and could be handy if we wanna take them with us. Fourth, there's a life sign in the next building, like I said. The lockdown requires his authorization or that of Ciana Vandefar. The warehouse is rigged to blow the fuck up if it's breached without clearance."

"Great. I assume there aren't any backdoors to that?" Varian sighed.

"There are two alerts, and then one canceled alert. The alerts are 'loss of comms with Base Dig Site' and 'loss of comms, Unit command.' The deleted alert is 'HERMES TRIGGER SANCTION - GOI-941 'Ythrongi' - REMOVE AND CLEAR ALL SA PRESENCE AND NOTIFY OMEGA RESPONSE ASAP.' And none that I can find that I can be sure are safe, as far as backdoors go, no."

Then he considered what he'd read off. "What is Omega Response? The Omega Battlegroup? Isn't that just SOLGUARD reserves or some shit?" He stepped away from the console and moved towards the comms console with Varian while keeping a wary eye on the ENCOUNTER suit.

"Three messages on the commlog from Chu. One from Captain Kinnix. One from the Decca. And..." He paused. "...One from Ciana Vandefar." He turned to Varian. "Should we go get the general? Or just read?"

"Can you download them and playback them later? When we are inside a secure perimeter?"

"Yes." Bright pulled out another baggie, this one with a laser-reader, and scanned the messages. As he finished, the comms console chimed.

"Alert. Incoming automated transmission. Source: Unknown. Signal Strength: Unknown. Encryption: HERMES-6 ADORIOR HEADER. SA Regulations require immediate playback. Beginning."

A cold, hard voice with a trace of a Hispanic accent spoke.

"To any remaining HERMES teams, forces, or deployed assets on planet codename 'Rho-19.' This is the third message being sent. All HERMES forces are to fall back to extraction positions immediately after deploying black nano dissimulat dissolving agents to conceal our presence on the world."

"Any and all research is to be destroyed. Researcher Ciana Vandefar is to be shot and then immediately immolated with plasma. Any infected, compromised, or otherwise not nominal forces are to have their kill switches detonated or manually executed. All VI's are to be destroyed immediately. All data storage is to be incinerated."

"Be advised unauthorized assets under the Lord of Sol General Kinnix are either already on site or incoming. They are to be executed forthwith."

"ACHE LAMEO recovery teams will be onsite in six hours and are tasked with data recovery. HERMES is to withdraw immediately."

"OMEGA RESPONSE under Alvarado Sanction, Alvarez Protocol will arrive in twelve to fourty eight hours. At that time, we will execute kinetic, and nano bombardment of the surface until the planet is cleared. We will not evacuate any remaining assets."

"You must reply within the next hour, or we will assume no extant HERMES Forces exist and move immediately towards sterilization."

"May God and Victor guide us all."

At this, Bright arched an eyebrow.

Varian held his carbine at just under the level that would be threatening. "I do hope you aren't thinking of doing what they asked about us because you would lose that fight."

"Not even close." Bright replied. "I am more worried about how we are receiving this message. It implies they have another ship in-system already. "I gotta comm Sara. Give me a minute; then we'll go back to the shuttle." He began tapping keys.

"Unless you are confident in your bullshitting, we should probably crack the popsicles out and get a response to them before they wipe us from high orbit." Varian advised.

"I agree, but I'd really prefer a plan where I don't abandon the daughter of my oldest friend if you don't mind." Bright coldly replied.

"Instead, you transmit to them, confirming their presence to whatever is here right now?" Varian questioned.

"No, I'm prepping a drone to do a burst transmit tight beam to her location once the drone has moved about fifty klicks south of here. I would suggest replying to THEIR transmission at all is... probably not good. We don't have any HERMES call signs or code words, after all." Bright tapped a few more keys, turned, then gazed thoughtfully at the suit before tossing a motion-sensing mine at its feet.

"The popsicles do. I am sure Kinnix can work his fatherly charm on his kid and get us the magic words to not get obliterated." Varian figured.

Bright paused to disarm his explosive by the door, then headed out with his rifle up. Varian double-timed it, keeping his carbine on the suit until he got out.

The outside was clear. For reasons they couldn't fathom, the JOTUN had kicked the remains of that... corpse thing further away from the door and now grimly stood on the shuttle pad, both weapons leveled directly at the corpses on the side of the shuttle.

To the east...

Bright skidded to a halt and audibly gasped, making Varian turn. The entire sky to the east now lit in shades of lurid, almost blood-red light and flashes of yellow lightning. Huge clouds roiled and churned, blotting out the sun, casting everything into vermilion shadows.

It must be well over 500 kilometers away, and yet there were shapes Varian could see in the distance even at this great range. A blast punched a hole in the atmosphere, with storm clouds circling it sullenly as air rushed back into the gap.

"Yes, we should definitely not go in that direction."

Bright rattled off a string of completely impossible anatomical acts and religious figures before moving towards the pinnace at a faster rate, Varian following along at a solid pace.

The JOTUN observed the light show and lifted its blocky head. "WARNING. RADIATION DETECTED. BETA BANDS. .4 millisieverts. Suggest augmentation with radiation-proof equipment."

The pair made it back to the pinnace with no issues. Unsurprisingly, Georg was nervously looking at the sky.

"Hermes has a ship in-system – or on the way – and is planning on wiping this place. Vandefar's niece seems to have gone rogue, and they are dropping black nano and running for it before an organization that I was fairly sure was a myth to scare new analysts turns up to delete everything on here in twelve to fifteen hours. Also, they are under orders to shoot the lot of us." Varian summarized for the group.

"Also, we have some comm messages we downloaded, one from your son." Bright added. "There's some ... freaky shit in that comm center, and ... well, I noticed the hatch leading to the lab had been welded shut. We brought the message here for dumb display on the haptic screen."

"Wonderful. What's the bad news?" Daniel sarcastically asked.

"They made that myth really fucking terrifying, and I am not sure it was lies. We really shouldn't be here when they are." Varian replied, completely serious.

"How do we get my son out?" Kinnix asked, single-minded.

Bright nodded. "There is a survivor, sir. In the barracks. Looks like the base is locked down to avoid… something. We tamper with the warehouse; the guy in the barracks has it rigged to blow up. So we need to go in and talk to him. If we can undo the lockdown, the stasis units have built-in mass effect lifters, from what I can tell. Wouldn't take five minutes to get them loaded. I was able to crack the door to comms, so I can try to crack the warehouse door, sir."

"So I shoot a hole in the door. And get the fucker to let us get in and go. And If he's difficult. Well. I'm sure one of the fine gentlemen with us will make him cooperative." Kinnix mused.

Varian shook his head. "Warehouse is rigged to blow if it is breached. Don't do that."

Bright glanced at Varian. "Should we review the comm messages from this guy or your son? Or just go in blind?"

Varian's face showed what he thought was obvious. "Review first. Going in blind into a nano weapon infested area sounds like a great way to die."

"Once again," Daniel remarked, "the AIShole is the voice of reason."

"Put them up on a secured screen. Keep security. I don't trust something not to attack." Kinnix cautioned.

Bright fiddled a bit with whatever the fuck he had in that backpack and connected an omni-lead to the scanner. "Lo-fi laser beaming, one way only."

The first message chronologically was from Kinnix's son. Marcus wore a black and red version of the SA fatigues, with a flash on his right side that looked like the chemical symbol for mercury.

To the majority, he looked tired, but to his father, he looked drawn. Something was wrong with his expression as if he'd seen something that he can't reconcile. Marcus was pale and too thin, and there was a tremor in his voice Kinnix did not recall.

"Command Log, Site date… fuck. Ten days? Nine? I can't remember. I am declaring operation 539-RV a complete failure. The first research team is almost entirely dead. Researcher Chu is compromised, but his device seems to have stabilized his condition for the moment. He still can't move or leave, and from what he's told us, I'm beginning to think we were set up."

He swallowed. "The second research team with Ciana is just… fucking missing. We can't find them, and whatever the fuck happened to Chief Daniels and Jessa is nothing we're equipped to deal with. Our ship was shot out of the sky, and our shuttles are all contaminated. The only working way off this hellhole is the other research team's shuttle… and that's with Ciana, wherever she is."

"To make matters worse, our killswitches were remotely cut off. The code entries make it look like Ciana did it, but I'm not stupid. She doesn't have access to mine. Someone has gotten inside our systems, and it's someone IN HERMES."

"I've sent a codeword message to Father. No details, but he'll come. As stupid as I was not to listen to him, he'll still come. Now I regret sending it." Marcus exhaled. "The only resource I have left at this point is you, Barret. Get in touch with Chief Altis at the secondary base, tell her to bring up a GRIZLI. I'll put myself and my remaining two guys on ice and have Yang lock the place down until she gets here. Once we have a GRIZLI, we can move Yang and get back to the dig site. If we can get on the shuttle and out of here, we can try to make a run for it."

"If not, that's still better than whatever happened to fucking Daniels. Christ. If I don't make it or if something goes wrong, Barret, get off the planet. Go to Terra Nova. Tell my father I said, 'The axe broke because the haft was rotten.' He'll make sure you are taken care of."

Kinnix narrowed his eyes, his younger expression an eerie mirror of his father. "And don't trust Rogas, either. I know EXCLUSION suits are supposed to be immune, but… something is wrong with him. He just sits there singing to himself. Be CAREFUL."

He glanced away with a slanted smile, sad and empty. "Hehe. Fruit doesn't fall far from the tree, I guess. I'd not be here if I hadn't been sleeping with Ciana. Take care, Barret. And remember." The message ended in static.

"Damn, I'm proud of that boy." General Kinnix exulted. "Took right after me. A little too much... so. Which one did you find in there?"

The comments of his companions were entirely predictable.

"Like father, like son." Varian.

"This family, I swear..." Matthew.

"GodDAMNIT General." Daniel.

Bright was chewing on something else. "...Varian. Aren't EXCLUSION suits dark red and black? That was a bright yellow ENCOUNTER suit."

Varian exhaled. "Anyone here got light anti-armor?"

"And this is why I dropped a motion-sensing mine by its feet." Bright affirmed. "Still..." He tapped a control. "Door explosive is re-armed."

He turned back to the screen. "We have one from Vandefar and three from Chu. Vandefar is next. It's short."

It played.

"Message incoming."

"Lieutenant Asiva, this is Doctor Vandefar. You have probably received conflicting messages from both Captain Kinnix and Captain Esee. "HERMES mission remits for this exploration were backed by the High Lords of Sol. I should not have to remind you of your duty."

"In any event, I have received word that we are to prepare for extraction. Chu is not viable. Go ahead and execute him. Captain Kinnix has been relieved of command per orders from Captain Esee. He, Jackson, and that... person, Mira, are to be arrested. We'll let Black Rendition deal with them."

"I've spoken with Sergeant Rogas and given him detailed instructions. Follow them to the letter. You have your orders, Lieutenant. Vandefar out."

Bright grimaced and tapped his recorder, three short text messages from Chu showing up on the screen.

MESSAGE TIMESTAMP: 5 hours, 43 minutes ago:

CHU to KINNIX: "Understood. Rogas is acting strange. Just asked me code for the ENCOUNTER suit locker. Why?"

MESSAGE TIMESTAMP: 4 hours, 11 minutes ago:

"DECCA, come in, this is GROUND BOY. I am declaring CONDITION Yucatec, repeat condition Yucatec."

"GROUND BOY, this is DECCA. Understood. We will break from orbit and begin close burn for surface support mission in five."

"DECCA, this is GROUND BOY. Be advised command is compromised."

"...DECCA? Please reply."

"...I'm gonna fucking die."

MESSAGE TIMESTAMP: 3 hours, six minutes ago:

"Any receiving station, or recovery forces, or... fuck, whatever stupid bastard gets sent to do recon/recov."

"This is Doctor Yang Chu, Xian Cadet Branch, House Chu. Primary researcher for HERMES."

"I am declaring condition Yucatec, complete loss of project command, violation of security and comms protocols, and active xenotech infection."

"There is an active class K or possibly KX nanoinfective agent on this world, which forms intelligent nanite colonies with a... resemblance... to some angels in the Book of Revelations."

"The other primary researcher has been mentally compromised. Comms tech is murdered, and most likely, so is our hostile environment tech. There are three marines in stasis with the warehouse rigged to blow if they are actually infected and try to get out."

"All pertinent information is in the lab. I am infected and compromised. I have managed to stave off progression due to the anti-cancer nanite system I have as well as using a number of questionable nano injections and some manual work."

"The site is definitely nothing we've hit before, and the Admiral isn't going to pull us out."

"Get the lab data and - if they're clean - please get the three marines out, then level this place. Fire from far orbit using steered torpedoes."

"I'd make this a visual comm, but you don't want to see what I've turned into."

"Chu signing off. Shangdi baohu wo."

"You know, I feel like I keep repeating myself, but...that's just fucking great," Georg growled. "Why exactly do I feel like I've been dropped into a fucking live-action reenactment of FUCKING ALIENS?"

"How the fuck does he expect us to do that through his lockdown?" Varian demanded.

"...Ah, there's metadata in the comms, sir." Bright clarified. "A code to the door of the barracks. General… I'd recommend we go in and investigate. At worst, it would take five minutes, then another ten to load up the stasis pods."

"May I propose you all put a timer just to remind you that we are on borrowed time?" Matt bluntly asked the others.

"Are you suggesting we split up, Matt?" Kinnix queried.

"No, just act quickly. I'm really not liking this accursed thing, and I'm the one in a naval suit. The radiation is right now slow-cooking you, and the monster can appear at any moment." Matthew replied testily.

"...Point." Bright acknowledged, undoing his omni-lead and putting his backpack back on. "I would suggest Matt keeps the shuttle ready while we speak to this Chu, then unlock the warehouse. But that's your call."

"Unless he makes an excellent argument, I am not sure we should listen to him about the lab data." Varian said.

"We don't know his argument, though, agent. And well," Bright grimaced. "I suspect that Vandefar sent me to be expended. She gave me a ship with the capacity to get everyone off, but she had to have known this place was fucked."

Varian sighed, standing up. "Alright then. Barracks, then warehouse, then maybe the lab, then somewhere not here."

"Bright. Do you have clearance to talk to him and not get shot?" Kinnix asked. "Cuz if I do, he may kill me."

"I can certainly try." That was all Bright could offer.

Their rad sensors indicated additional radiation as they approached the barracks, still well within safe ranges for the time being. Their progress was made somewhat less stressful by the JOTUN visibly stomping around again and immolating the bodies near the shuttle.

The barracks opened with the disappointingly lame codeword 'Caduceus.' Unlike the somewhat suspect atmosphere of the Command Center, the barracks was stolid. Neatly made beds, a kitchen console, boxes of "SA Nutritious Food Product" with "YOU FUCKING LIAR" scrawled on them, and a rack of coffee mugs.

In the lead, Bright held up a 'stop' fist as he took in the far side of the room.

Hooked to the medical bay, augmented by a stack of machinery and an omnifactory unit, rested a gaunt man in a black and red uniform. His Eurochinese features were harsh - deeply slanted eyebrows over narrow black eyes, long planes and hard lines for his mouth and cheeks - but his voice was soft, almost apologetic.

"...Ah. Visitors." He coughed wetly. "I would recommend staying at the doorway or at least behind that red line on the floor."

A red line of paint crossed the floor about four feet in front of Bright. "I'd come forward to greet you properly, but I am not exactly mobile. I was expecting a great deal more 'flamethrower' or 'grenade toss,' and not someone who isn't instantly killing me, so can you please identify yourself?"

"My name is Bright," Jeff answered. "There are others with me, here. We got your message and need to know what is happening - and how to unlock the warehouse without it blowing up."

Yang Chu eyed the others speculatively. "...You are an extremely hard-looking man, Mr... Bright. You wanting to unlock the warehouse and not asking after research data..." he broke into a cough before continuing, "...lets me further know you are not supposed to be here. Good."

"As for what happened..." He shrugged. "Shenghuo hen youqu… for, ah, certain values of 'fun.'" His eyes flickered over Varian, then narrowing over the knights.

"The 'short' version is that we have awoken something we should have left alone and that we are all likely to die unless it is contained. The lab in the command center has details on the things we found here, as well as the methods we managed to combat it with. I put the marines in stasis in the warehouse at the instruction of my CO, and I rigged it to blow to keep them from being... compromised."

He tilted his head. "I will be happy to cooperate with you if you will do me a favor once we are done."

Yang Chu watched as Bright uncertainly glanced back at Kinnix.

"What's the favor, friend? You want us to save the gentlemen in the warehouse? Because that's already the plan." The general casually answered.

Yang examined him closely, and then his eyes lit up in recognition. "You must be Marcus' father. That is further confirmation. Good." He subtly relaxed and let go of what, Kinnix realized a moment later was a fucking antimatter fleck canister. "Given I received explicit instructions to kill you on sight, I presume you are not working for HERMES?

"No. They would probably have me shot." Kinnix snorted.

Yang inclined his head. "Most likely, milord, they would. HERMES was...corrupted some time ago, I believe. Given my own inclusion... well, that is of no moment. Time is of the essence." He emitted another series of coughs and glanced at his hand, black veins visibly present. "My methods of staving off nanological sequestration will not last much longer. My favor is simple, milord."

"The data in the lab is one part of two copies of a summary of all we have learned here. The race that lived here was called the Ythrongi. The best translation of that would be 'Choir.' This hell world was some kind of a combination of a prison, a temple, and a lab. Whoever built it wanted to test and see what other races would do if exposed to it. It is analyzing everything, and the entire system is in some way alive... althoughit is not clear if it was always that way or if something arrived later. This is accursed knowledge, milord. It cannot be researched safely. I will deal with this copy of the research myself."

Yang patted the canister next to him almost affectionately. "The other cache is at Supply Base Echo, along with the manifest from the dig site and the comm logs. You need to get that copy and escape with your lives. The data is dangerous, but so is ignorance."

"They have shuttles there? We need cover to escape." Kinnix asked.

Yang paused. "There are a handful of remote work pods and shuttles at Base Echo, yes. There is also a radio beacon. The devils in black do not like wideband radio sources and attack them violently, as well as airborne craft. But their attacks are slow. Distract them and then risk a full power 'punch' burst from your FTL to put yourself beyond their range."

"Oh, that will cause a ruckus." Kinnix chuckled. "Probably enough to slip out in the confusion. You have anyone we want to contact with a last message?"

Yang laughed. "No, milord. Like your son, I was unwise enough to think Ciana Vandefar was human instead of a black widow in human shape. House Chu sees all cadet lines as bastards and will probably laugh at my demise. Other than that, I have no one left to care about me."

He tapped on a haptic pad in front of him. "I put the marines in stasis. The infection is dangerous, milord. You cannot tell if you are infected or not until as long as fifteen hours afterward. The lab data contains the complete list of nanopurgatives and EM frequencies needed to deactivate the infection but only works if you have not started showing any outer stigmata. I have also unlocked the warehouse. I am almost certain your son and Lieutenant Mira are clean. I am unsure of the last. Each one is in a laser steel containment enclosure with the name on top. You may wish to do a scan before opening Gunny Morrison's capsule."

"Do they have enough power for a few days?" Varian asked, obviously not in favor of opening them at this location if so.

"They have power for approximately six more days once unhooked from the power net," Yang assured them with a smile. "The lab data also includes a digitally signed copy of the Red Notes sent to authorize this debacle… and the fact that someone in Ache Lameo deactivated the killswitch protocols. This may seem pointless now, but it implies someone is playing a much larger game than even I was aware of."

"I know you probably wish to reclaim your son and leave, and I do not blame you. But without the data, if anything gets out of this system, millions will die without the purging formula, and the people behind this will never be brought to justice. I will be in no condition to protest if you decide not to follow up on my suggestion, so..."

"Wo hui heping di si. Which is more than I deserve." Yang reached across to an OSD wrapped up in anti-tamper plastic and, with a flick of his wrist, tossed it to Bright, landing about a foot away from the investigator.

"That OSD will generate a response-code call to the incoming teams that HERMES personnel are still alive if you wish to engage in luring fools to this hellhole to cover your escape. The warehouse also contains - or should contain - several more of these." He tapped the fleck cannister.

"Please leave one behind at Base Echo before you go." Yang's smile turned vicious and cruel. "Preferably on motion sensing. You see, I would not want my dear colleagues in Ache Lamao to receive anything but the very warmest of welcomes."

Bright bent over, picking up the OSD with a set of thick plastic baggies, and taking care to place it in a sealed EMP baggie before putting it in a sample container. "That's the General's call, Mr. Chu."

"I agree with Mr. Chu on this one." Kinnix coldly said. "They may be Alliance personnel. But if they live. They risk it getting out. Better to die instantly than become... something else. No offense." He quickly apologized to Bright.

"None taken, sir. Is there anything we can do for you, Mr. Chu?"

"...Tell Captain Kinnix we were both fools." Yang sadly admitted. "And that Mira and I... never... it was appearances only. She does not deserve to be mistreated, especially not over Ciana. Other than that, the quicker you collect your people and go, the quicker I can end this nightmare." He gestured to the black veins now slowly becoming visible along his throat.

"You uh. Want anything for the pain? Or you know. A timed mine just in case?" Kinnix offered sympathetically.

Yang Chu patted the canister again. "If this does not suffice, you'll see behind me I have the main power conduit for the base. I am almost certain 2 million volts at 800 amps will be sufficient sterilization. As for the pain, you know you are lost when the pain stops." He closed his eyes. "...Mine stopped an hour ago. Go in safety, milord."

"May God and Victor guide you to the afterlife." The general bowed his head slightly.

The warehouse opened to the code and itself looked normal at first. There were three heavy pods for suits on the left wall. One had been opened, leaving the remains of something black and red on the floor, along with a great pile of blood and meat.

The blood was studded here and there with black particles and hazy, slimy-looking black strings connected to bits of the suit's remains on the floor. The other two were untouhched but one was empty.

There were three heavy containment vessels on the far side of the warehouse, each on a mass effect lifter pad. Someone had stenciled in crude paint atop: "MARCUS," "MIRA," and "ADAM."

The first two looked normal, the sensor panel on top glowing a soft, comforting green. The third pod labeled ADAM, bulged in places. A black liquid stained the sides, and the status panel was dark, with flickers of static.

"Get two normal looking pods loaded up." General Kinnix barked. "And stay the fuck away from that one. We can't risk the other two; it might have infected them. Or they might be clean. Either way, we need that second part. And, let's not touch Adam's - Poor guy - but it's probably better if he doesn't wake up."

"Yeah, definitely infected." Varian assessed. "Do these things have a self-purge or a self destruct? That we can set off with a stick?"

"The antimatter charge will handle it. Let's get going. Now." Kinnix snapped.

Marcus and Mira's pods moved easily, both status panels indicating no issues or 'contamination.' The group loaded the two pods aboard the pinnace's cargo section.

Based on Bright's pictures of the paper map and the data they had, the base Yang mentioned was thankfully not to the east, instead roughly 40 kilometers north/northwest.

The pinnace began rising into the air when something yellow smashed out of the Command Center building, lunging at the ship.

However, before Matthew could do anything, a long blast from the JOTUN caught the yellow blur in midair, sending it back into the dirt.

The JOTUN gave a digital roar, stomping forward and firing. The ENCOUNTER suit staggered, long rivulets of silvery liquid coming out and hardening.

The thing lifted its arms, which ruptured along the sides, revealing silver feathers, shards of glass, or… they couldn't even be sure anymore - along with the thing shapeshifting.

And then there was a note, like a song.

To Varian, it was just an annoying noise, like scratches on a chalkboard. Matthew and Kinnix both heard a song, albeit the kind played by tone-deaf children.

Daniel, on the other hand, heard a melody.

"Lost-seeking long-flowering hopes adrift -"

The beautiful silvered notes of the song were brutally cut short by the JOTUN's charge, its mechanical claw crushing the suit as the mech brought up the heavy flamer on its other arm.

"CONTAMINATION DETECTED. PURGING." The thing thrashed as it was set aflame, then it spat out a Word.

That was the only way to describe it. It echoed inside everyone's heads, even though they couldn't possibly hear it. And it hurt. It was like a thousand nails of glass, ripping furrows of confusion through their minds.

The general shook himself, and roared. "MATT, GET US THE FUCK OUT OF HERE NOW!" Matthew accelerated away faster, and the pain faded, but in the distance, the JOTUN staggered.

"SUFFER NOT THE UNCLEAN." The JOTUN detonated itself violently, an explosion sending the thing flying, smashing into the Command Center.

A moment later, the ship received a tight beam laser burst from Yang Chu. "Godspeed."

X-BoH-X

Aboard the Impious Delight, Sara Ryder bit her lip as she examined the sensors, her copy of SAM's voice cool in her ear.

"I have detected a large matter/antimatter detonation at the landing site. A pinnace is accelerating away."

She only nodded and exhaled. "Thanks, Sam. Go ahead and decrypt the message Jeff sent, please."

SAM's voice was apologetic. "I already have, Mistress Sara. The message is short. "RUN NOW. INCOMING DANGER. DOUBLECROSSED. GET BACK TO ALEC. TELL HIM 'MOONRISE.'"

X-BoH-X

Aboard the pinnace, Georg sighed. "No, Georg, we don't need a JOTUN. It's too expensive." The knight muttered darkly. "And I don't even want to fucking know what the hell was in that damned suit, either."

He glanced at Bright, who looked exceedingly pale and sat down somewhat hard. "...Bright?"

"...I...I did a scan of the blood. From the suit and whatever that was in the warehouse. Took a while." Bright explained. "The pile of meat in the warehouse was genotyped to the genescan for Calvin Rogas."

He shuddered. "...The blood in the suit and around it genetypes out to Ciana Vandefar."

Georg looked confused. So did Kinnix. "That was... ah. Well, we won't have to worry about her. That's good, right?"

"...General, I kept the remote cameras going." Bright told him. The image he beamed to the haptic screen displayed the destruction of the base. The matter-antimatter explosion obliterated everything, including the shuttle pads. But the cameras showed something like a streak of silver headed east a split second before the detonation.

"She wasn't here." Varian insisted. "She was off on whatever in the high fuck she was doing."

"Then explain to me," Kinnix demanded. "How the fuck, was she here and there? You're suggesting it can clone people."

"I have no fucking idea." Bright responded. "But... I think she must have murdered this Rogas guy and taken his shape or something. And probably set up the suicide guy the way he was. If we had gone into that lab, with no other way out…"

He trailed off, then spoke in a softer tone."Things are making a lot more sense now. Like the comms situation being fucked up."

"Or whatever it was is pretending to be her to fool scans and stuff. Imagine a spy that can become the genetic copy of its target. Able to sneak into a facility..." Kinnix pondered the disturbing prospect.

The pinnace continued forward, and Matthew noticed that the wind and turbulence he experienced earlier had disappeared. The ground was mostly black basalt instead of corpse mounds and ruined buildings, and in the far distance up ahead, a forest of those twisted vine trees brushed a large hill.

Ten minutes later, they found the second base, seemingly clear of weird shit. Four shuttles, all with no stains. No dead bodies. No fur. The 'large hill,' they could now tell, was the corpse of some kind of thing, badly decayed, three kilometers long - or more - with a big dig pit excavated next to this corpse.

"...well, this already looks like a fun time." Varian deadpanned.