Downtown Los Angeles
MIST Containment Team On-Station
1147 PST

Word had come in fast of the Neo-Mitochondrion Creature infestation at the apartment building. That was good; it meant that a quarantine had been set, insuring that they wouldn't spread into the city and create an epidemic event. A quarantine force composed of the Los Angeles Police Department, SWAT, and the California National Guard had the building and two surrounding city blocks on complete lockdown; no civilians could get in, no NMCs could get out.

On the roof of an adjacent building, the spotter of a two-man SWAT sniper team looked up as an unmarked UH-60 Black Hawk passed overhead, coming to a hover over a cleared landing zone before gently lowering down to the ground. As it settled, the right-side doors, the ones facing the infested building, slid open, allowing the occupants to step out.

MIST Hunter Aya Brea was the first out of the helicopter, her attention focused on the target building. As usual, she carried no visible armaments, but was capably equipped to handle the situation. Between her modified Beretta 93R and her mitochondrial parasitic powers, she was more than a match for almost any enemy she faced.

Directly behind her came a young woman in her mid-teens, looking exactly like a younger version of Aya. That was natural, considering that Eve Brea was a genetic clone of her 'step-sister.' Unlike Aya, Eve eschewed the use of firearms, depending primarily on her mitochondrial powers and the twin-bladed sword sheathed at her right hip. Despite being only nine years old chronologically, artificial tampering with her mitochondrial power had accelerated her aging to the point where she was twice that age physically.

The next figure to step out of the helicopter looked like it had stepped straight out of a Star Wars movie. Clad from head to toe in bulky, off-white body armor with orange paint applied to it, the figure was armed with a stocky, modular weapon system resembling nothing in use by modern militaries. Even the figure's head was covered by a full helmet, a glowing blue T-shaped visor hiding the figure's face.

Three more figures in identical armor followed the first out of the helicopter. The only visible differences were in the paint schemes on their armor and the configuration of the weapons they carried. The first had green striping on his armor and had the same weapon configuration as the orange-striped figure.

After him came a figure whose armor bore a blood red-painted handprint across the face, though one would be hard pressed to tell whether or not it was really paint. His weapon configuration consisted of a powerful scope attachment and the elongated barrel of a sniper rifle.

The last figure to step out of the helicopter had black and yellow-orange markings on his armor, and there was a large, tubular mount attached to the side of his weapon suggested anti-armor ordnance. He was the first to speak.

"Wouldn't it be easier just to blow the place up?"

It was the green-striped figure that answered. "Destroying the building doesn't guarantee one hundred percent elimination of the targets, Six-Two. It'd be a nightmare ten times worse than Geonosis if any of these things escaped."

As the group drew to a halt, the orange-striped figure turned back to face Six-Two. "Look on the bright side, Scorch," he said in an accented voice. "They'll probably let you blow it up after we've cleared it out. That way everybody goes home happy. The threat gets eliminated, Sev gets to kill everything he comes across, and you get to blow up the building."

"What about Fixer?" Six-Two, Scorch, asked, gesturing to the green commando with his weapon.

"Fixer will be happy that he gets to go home at all," the orange figure answered.

Aya and Eve joined the knot of commandos as the red-painted sniper pulled a large, saucer-shaped device out of his pack and tossed it haphazardly on the ground in the center of their group. The top of the device lit up, and a holographic three-dimensional map of the target building coalesced out of thin air before them.

"Infrared scans confirm that there are several concentrations of warm bodies in specific areas on all three floors," Aya said, pointing to different positions in the rotating map. "Mostly small targets, which means that most of what we'll encounter will be standard NMCs, not artificial ones."

"Infrared can't distinguish between targets and noncombatants," Fixer pointed out, staring into the projection. "The only way to know for certain is to clear the building room-by-room."

"Good," Sev muttered, fondly stroking his weapon. "More things to kill."

Eve gave him a look, then leaned in to ask Scorch, "Is he always like that?"

"He'll be better once he's killed something," the demolitions expert replied.

"Okay, we've got two main entrance points," the orange commando said. "Primary entranceway into the apartments here, where we are, and a secondary cleaning crew entrance around the side."

"Eve and I will take the secondary entrance," Aya said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "It'll be cramped quarters, and the two of us will be more effective in such an enclosed space than all four of you."

"Got it. Then we'll hit the main entrance. Deltas, mount up."

As the holographic map vanished, the four commandos made final checks on their weapons systems, changing setup to preferred weapon mounts, pulling out hissing energy cells and returning them, then checking the integrity of their armor systems.

Aya did a credible job of not gaping at the commandos' exotic and utterly-alien kit, but Eve was not in such control of her reactions. She stared with an open-mouthed naivety at the four commandos busily gearing themselves up.

After securing his packet of grenades, the orange commando noticed Eve staring and nodded in her direction, since she couldn't see his game smile through his helmet. "Time to make their eyes water, eh?"

She cocked her head to the side, unfamiliar with the phrase, then looked toward Sev, who proceeded to pantomime a myriad of ways to inflict death on various beings. She shuddered at some of the moves, then turned away.

"Stop scaring the kids, Sev," the orange commando ordered.

"You got it, Three-Eight."

"Everybody set?" Aya asked. The commandos and Eve indicated they were. "Okay then. Good luck, guys."

With that, she and Eve trotted around the side of the building.

The four commandos moved up to the main entrance and took flanking positions on the door; Three-Eight and Fixer to the right, Scorch and Sev to the left.

"Breach that door, Deltas," Three-Eight ordered.

Without hesitation, Fixer stepped up to the door and set a breach charge in the middle of the oak doors, then primed it. "Arming…" On the left of the doors, Sev was already sighting down his weapon as Scorch readied a flash grenade in his hand. "Charge set!"

Fixer ducked back to the right side of the door as the three-second timer ran out, the blast blowing the doors off the hinges. Scorch immediately rolled the flash grenade in. "Grenade in!"

A second later, the grenade exploded in a brilliant flash of light, blinding any NMCs inside the building. Sev rose to his feet, his weapon spitting blue light at targets inside.

"Move in, Deltas!" Three-Eight shouted, rising up and charging into the building.