The EMP grenade exploded with a brilliant crackle of blue sparks, seconds before the harsh lights blew out to throw the entire egg room into darkness.

The Wisemen instantly rushed into the room, guided only by their infrared goggles, and wordlessly opened fire on the startled Bears. Two dropped immediately, but the others managed to scramble for cover to shoot at the intruders themselves. The Wisemen instantly got out of the line of the fire, muttering curses under their breaths.

Harrison slid behind a steel crate, right besides Santos. "Now what?" He hissed, ducking out of instinct when a bullet impacted just above his head. He didn't think this had been the original plan, because the Wisemen were just as pinned as the Bears were.

But then he noticed the arch of the Captain's neck, and he just knew she was smirking. "See? That's the difference between Marines and Blackwatch. Blackwatch cheats." She yanked her arm around the crate, and fired several shots at the closest eggs. They splattered into every direction.

Seconds later, ear-splitting shrieks drowned out the deafening roar of the gunfire. The Wisemen instantly pulled their rifles against their chests and curled up, knees in front of their bodies. Harrison and Duke mimicked them, more out of shock and confusion than any sense to actually drop their weapons while they were being surrounded by enemies- just in time to avoid a massive bulk of countless black bodies swarm into the egg room. Screeching they lunged towards the Bears, completely ignoring the other six intruders. He could hear the Bears swear as they fired blindly into the pack.

It only served to make the things angrier.
Harrison grimaced. They can tell apart a threat and a non-threat, and will attack the threat first. The 'Specialist' (Mercer? the Wisemen called him that) had told them during their briefing.
And damn him, but he was right on that one- the Bugs were focusing their rage on the Bears only, because the Bears were the only ones shooting their weapons.
The same weapons that destroyed the eggs- even if it weren't the Bears that did the deed. But they were holding rifles, and that probably meant to the Bugs that they were the attackers. Animals weren't supposed to be that vengeful. Or smart.

But it was a chance- as long they kept their weapons down, the Bugs should take care of the Bears, right?

When the Captain suddenly got to her feet and targeted her rifle towards the pack and the Bears, and the other Wisemen copied her, he kind of went blank. Did they try to get their shit wrecked?

"Okay guys, they're distracted. Fry 'em!" God, he was trusting a group of morons with no self-preservation with his life.
"Just remember, we might need one guy alive as snack for Zeus." Scratch that, sociopaths with no self-preservation.

Redstone snorted. "Eh. Do you really think we got time to babysit some asshole through enemy territory?"

"Besides", Anders added, "If he didn't grab himself a Bear when he had the chance, then I won't be picking up his slack."

Santos hummed. "Fair. In that case", she tilted her head towards Jackson. "Dave. You may use the fun toys."

"Did I tell you that I love it when you talk to me like that?" The Gunner claimed, with one hand pressed against his chest. His other was plucking the grenade launcher he'd been carrying the whole time from its holster.

The following explosion was incredibly loud, and eye-searing bright on their infrared goggles.

But the flames didn't stop there- they continued burning through black-shelled bodies in an ever-increasing pace, and several of the Bugs fell back, thrashing and screeching as they collapsed into a twitching pile on the floor.

Which bumped the Wisemen up to 'Sociopaths with no self-preservation and access to illegal weaponry'. Harrison shuddered, despite priding himself in being pretty level-headed.

Blackwatch didn't pay the screeching Bugs any mind, just aimed at whatever was still moving. Harrison was pretty sure he saw acid blood splatter on one Bear at least, and watched in mute horror how the corrosive liquid literally ate the man away. While he was still alive and screaming the entire time.

The Wisemen didn't show any reaction to the scene either as they slowly started pushing into the room. The grenade launcher went off a few times more, bathing more of the pack in fire. By now, the Bugs had realized that the other humans were a viable threat themselves, but they already lost too many of their numbers.

Faced with two sides of soldiers assaulting them, the Bugs started to frenzy. It was easy to see- they scrambled over each other- but they scrambled in order to try and decide who to attack first. They weren't panicking because they were scared, they were panicking because they were being presented with two threats, where there had been only one before.

Fucking biological weapons. Even outnumbered and outgunned they were trying to figure out who to attack first- the threat that was closer, or the threat that was larger?

...The Bears were nearly all gone anyways. What were they waiting...
for...?

Harrison spun on his heel, infrared goggles catching sight of the eggs hidden in a far corner of the room.

The open eggs.

Harrison's breath was caught in his throat, but his mind was already whirring in overtime, trying to-

His body moved without his consciousness catching up on it. His hand snapped out and he heard his voice clearly in the roar of the war zone he was currently in. "Anders! Duck!"

The Wiseman did without hesitation, ducking and rolling behind cover while the Marine fired a single bullet straight through the space his head had been occupying just a second before.

The spider thing that had tried to ambush the man fell back and dropped to the floor with a wet splat.

The entire room seemed to freeze while the Wisemen stared at the carcass with varying levels of confusion.
Then came the shock. The surprise. The disbelief.

Screeching yanked them from their stupor and they whirled back to face the Bugs, as the pack swarmed towards them like a single mind in several dozen bodies (when did they become so many?)

Harrison swore, rifle swinging into position. Duke was tense, muttering under his breath, but the Wisemen...

The Wisemen were laughing.

At first, he thought he must have misheard, or maybe the air filter in his mask was faulty and he was hallucinating (which made for bad news), but when Duke stepped back, watching Blackwatch nervously, he realized that it was real.

(Sociopaths with no self preservation and a thing for illegal weaponry)

"Yo, Frosty!", Redstone called out without taking his focus off the swarm, "Make sure we don't get ambushed, or Cross is going to be pissed." There wasn't any sign of tension in his voice, but he could see the way the Wisemen kept checking their surroundings for the parasites, so they weren't completely oblivious and left their literal lives in his hands. (He didn't know whether he should feel honored or annoyed they were treating him like an intern)

When the last of the black things collapsed to the ground with its legs shot clean off and finished with a large-caliber shot that exploded its skull, the room fell silent save for the hiss of the acid blood curdling at contact with air. Harrison's ears were still ringing from the roar of the gunfire, though he still heard Duke's hushed voice. "Christ, Frosty, these guys are nuts."

"I am aware", the Marine returned with a grimace. He carefully made his way over to the eggs, keeping an eye on the still closed ones before he counted the empty ones. Six exactly, and he'd only taken down one spider thing. He cleared his throat. "Five of the parasites are still unaccounted for", he pointed out.

"At least", Anders threw in. Right. At least, because there could very well be more around. The Wiseman motioned for him to come over. "Anything else?"

"Nothing as far as I can see", he glanced at the carcasses. "You did a good job there."

"Pf. Just another day on the job", the man commented easily. "But seriously, thanks for the warning back there."

Harrison nodded. "We're on the same team, I won't let anything happen to any of you." Besides, nobody deserved being torn apart from the inside like Chris was.

The Wiseman seemed a bit surprised at his blunt delivery, but was saved from a response when Santos gave the order to regroup.

"One last sweep, then we'll continue." There was still one egg pit left which they had to take out, and they had to find the Queen, too.

Harrison swallowed briefly at the sight of the carnage wrought on the other side of the room. The Bugs' carcasses littered the floor (and one was somehow stuck to a wall), and none of them were in one piece.
Neither were the Bears' bodies.

Blackwatch really hadn't worried about collateral damage when they decided to bring in the big guns. (But then again, wasn't that their usual M.O., to never leave behind any survivors?)

Duke couldn't hide the full-body shiver that ran down his spine as he grimaced and tried to turn his focus elsewhere.
That was how he spotted the survivor.

Duke made a motion, and the Wisemen turned their attention on the Bear too. Santos cocked her head, and Harrison knew she was smirking under her mask. "Well, well. Still alive there?"

The man shuddered and wheezed, but bared his teeth in a blood-stained grin. "Still. No- no thanks to you." Yeah, with all those holes in him, he probably wouldn't live too long. It was a wonder he was still conscious at all.

The Blackwatch captain only shrugged. "Yeah, so you know, it was completely your fault."

The man coughed, and made a thoughtful face. "Guess so", he admitted after a moment. "Should- should've stayed with weapons and secrets."

"Shoulda, woulda, coulda, pal", Jackson grumbled, nudging the man's nearly dismembered leg with the toe of his boot. "You started playin' with those Bugs. Thought they were some form of gun you could sell to the highest bidder. Well, newsflash, pal, they're not."

"Learned that one too", the Bear scoffed. "Way before Eisenberg did. Or Weyland. Or Bishop. But we also learnt how to deal with them." His grin widened. "We would've sold the solution."

Harrison felt his stomach drop. Why did he expect anything else with these guys? First they imported the Bugs, and then they went to sell their knowledge to whoever found themselves neck-deep in parasites.

The Wisemen snorted in unison, and the Captain lifted her handgun to level it at the man's head. "See this? The shit you're doing is the only reason Blackwatch exists. We don't like fuckers playing with Bioweapons."

The Bear laughed again, interrupted by hacking coughs. "Really? Big words coming from the same assholes that dropped a virus on Manhattan."

Santos shrugged, her aim never moving off the man. "Yeah, but we got rid of the guys that did it, and we're cleaning house now. Better for our karma and all that shit, you get me?"

The Bear wheezed, indicating the holes in his body with a nod of his chin. "Then shoot me. You'd be doing me a favor. And anyways, the General won't let my sacrifice be for nothing."

"We'll see about that", Santos scoffed and pulled the trigger. The Bear's head exploded in a shower of blood, brain and bones, painting the wall behind him with abstract art. The Captain casually slipped the safety back on and returned the gun into its holster. "Search them", she ordered her men. "Look for a working radio." She stepped around the carnage, stopping to eye the eggs and the charges set up around them before she set off again and headed towards another exit "And find me the damn trigger."

Heller could have gotten outside several times over already. More than once he'd caught the scent of fresh air coming in from the openings along the ceiling, and he could have easily headed up and been outside instead of being down here and clamp down on the fear of being buried alive (again).
But if he'd left, then the men would be alone with the Bugs, and they barely had enough weaponry or flares to make it outside. Never mind that basically the entire current team was incapacitated in one way or another. Two were completely unconscious, and the other three weren't doing so well either. Heller knew he was the only one who got off easy, though that was only because he was cheating.

Well, there was only one option left then, he was going to get these guys to the surface and then go back down and eradicate every last Bug he found.

He had the feeling Mercer would appreciate the plan too, even if he didn't comment on it. The Runner likely didn't notice his thoughts, either. Inside the Hive, the Bugs' voices were everywhere, louder than even the constant background chatter of Blacklight.

Heller had long since stopped trying to figure out what exactly the creatures were trying to do, just kept his eyes open for anything red entering his line of vision, and his ears for anything that sounded like claws. Latter was a lot harder, because these things no longer relayed on psychological warfare as they've done before. Now they were completely silent, never betraying their position until they struck.

Instead, they snuck closer before trying to attack- which was definitely a bit tougher to figure out because they were using every crevice and corner to do so, but Heller could often spot them before they got close and pick them off in time.

Which was why they hadn't approached anymore, but where watching from a distance. He could see them, red spots just around the next bend, only gone once they got close.
They were watching them, waiting for the perfect moment, maybe? Trying to figure out the threat level?

Or were they just making sure they were walking into a trap?

At this point, he wouldn't put it past them- the ceiling collapse had been their work, after all. So they were no longer just animals in his opinion, but more in kin with really smart Hunters.

Which put them right back into his comfort zone. Infected he could deal with. And, to be honest, he was itching to try out this new acid resistance of his for real. The last time had been over too quick, and he'd been focusing on snapping necks instead of going for his claws. He really wanted to try out the armor he could feel lurking under his skin.

...Maybe he should tone things down until he got the squad to safety?
Heller grimaced briefly. Shit, he'd gotten into his own head again. It had been a while since Blacklight's desire to go out and attack whatever he perceived as threat had completely run his normal mind off the tracks, though he'd never been so naive to believe he had it under control. Just did a whole lot of work to ignore it. This now has taken him a bit unexpected, and it took him a moment to figure out just what had thrown him out of the loop like that.

It were the Bugs.

More specifically, their Hivemind. He could hear it, hissing inside his head, and the instincts he's gotten ever since he's been infected had switched all his systems to high alert.

He had no choice but to listen to it and take out all of the creatures, but he was going to get the team out of here first.

Because they weren't looking too good. Decker didn't stir, and Heller didn't like he could sense the weak heartbeat against his back (all things considered a weak heartbeat was still leagues better than a missing one). Hall wasn't looking very alive either, but he knew she was still alive. MacAlistair himself seemed to be close to reeling over under her weight, and the piece of rebar that went through his arm probably didn't feel too comforting either. Estoban was constantly panting, breathing very shallow in order to not agitate his broken ribs any further, but with Shugi needing to use him as a crutch, he didn't get very far on that front.

Heller craned his neck upwards, squinting at the tunnels above them. No red yet, though he knew they were watching. Weren't approaching though, which was fine for now.

"Hades!" His head snapped around towards the sound of his codename, and his eyes instantly found the Blackwatch Pilot, who was staring off into the middle distance.

"Shit, Ian. Nice catch", Estoban whistled.

Heller turned his head, noticing the stairwell now too. He clicked his tongue. "Well, guess getting out just got a lot easier." If it actually went up, and not down, that was.

Shugi winced. "No chance at finding an elevator, maybe?" He shifted his busted leg for emphasize.

Estoban snorted. "I'm not sure I would trust an elevator in this place."

The Marine hummed. "Yeah. Guess so."

"You think you can deal?"

"Have to", he grimaced.

Heller slowly went to the front, and peeked into the stairwell. It went up, alright, and there were at least two landings that he could see. Additionally, there was barely any Hive Material coating the area, meaning the Bugs likely had little interest in it. Good enough.

They started climbing with only minimal complaints, and so far, they were secure. Heller didn't see anything red above or below them, and they made it to the first landing without problems.

His back stiffened when something rumbled above them, shaking the walls. The others had stopped too, eyes equally narrow behind their masks.

"Tremors?" Shugi asked carefully.

"No natural ones", MacAlistair pointed out. "Too short. Too sudden. Another cave-in, maybe?"

Heller furrowed his brows. "I think it's been an explosion. Somewhere above us."

Estoban perked up. "The Boss, maybe?"

"Maybe. Maybe the others. Harrison could still be alive." Or maybe it was somebody else. WY. The Bears? He shook his head. "At any rate, it worked like a beacon. If they didn't set it off, Mercer and Cross will probably have noticed it as well."

And likely go there. Mercer mentioned that there were more tunnels that would loop back into the first egg chamber. Heller wondered whether he should ask the Runner, but then he heard the low hateful hiss of the Bugs inside his head and decided it could wait. He wasn't going to throw himself into the deep end until he got the team to safety.

With one gesture from him, the other three started moving again. Their progress was only slow, as they gingerly picked their way upwards. All of them were trying to stay as close to the walls as possible, and more than once Heller heard the derelict construction groan beneath them.

They made it to the second landing, when suddenly the door to the first one exploded inwards.
The men's heads snapped around as they reached for their rifles as a massive shape stepped a clawed foot into the stairwell, snarling.

A Bug, but the largest one he'd seen so far. Towering even over him, with pitch-black armor and wide shoulders. It stood straighter than the others, and its spikes were pointed, not dull like the other's. A massive crest decorated its elongated head.

Heller growled in reply, slowly putting Decker down on the floor. "Watch out for anything that might try to sneak up on you."

Shugi's jaw opened as he tried to question something, when MacAlistair gave a loose salute. "Acknowledged, Hades. Give 'em Hell."

The Evolved grinned and vaulted over the railing to hit the floor just in front of the big thing. It didn't seem to be disturbed by his appearance, it just ducked its head and snarled at him, way deeper than the screeches of its siblings. Heller snarled right back, arms flung to the sides as his claws broke his skin.

The Bug didn't wait for him to finish posturing, just threw itself at him. But that was fine, Heller was done playing nice anyways. He ducked under a wide swing of the thing and slammed his claws against its chest-
The result was pretty underwhelming, if he was honest with himself. His claws mostly glanced off the Bug's shell, leaving only superficial scratches, while the thing barely reeled. Instead, it swung its skeletal arm down, and Heller actually had to block the blow in order to protect his skull.

Nice

Had been a while since he's faced off with an enemy that forced him to actually reconsider his usual tactics. It was refreshing.

The Evolved grinned and kicked out to throw the thing off balance. It shrieked as its tail whipped through the air, and Heller used that moment to dodge to the side and quickly pull back his claws in order to armor his hands and forearms into his massive, club-like Hammerfists. Using his own momentum, he swung back to the front and brought the fists down onto the ground, cracking the aged concrete and sending the creature stumbling. He instantly followed up with a violent uppercut that pulverized the thing's lower jaw, before he pulled the fists back down and flattened it into the ground.

Then he paused, watching the carcass for any eventual motion. Nothing, and that would have surprised him, because the thing's skull looked more like a rotten egg that splattered against the sidewalk.

Satisfied with his scan, Heller stepped back and casually shook out his paws, shaking the yellowish goo off. When its drops met the concrete, the residue acid started eating through the material for a few seconds, though it didn't affect him anymore.
Well, his shirt had holes in it now, but that was why he bought these things in cheap bulks. He brushed off whatever still clung to him before heading back upstairs. Shugi's eyes were blown wide, and he seemed to be torn between running off and hiding, and staying with the guy that could come out unscathed fist-fighting acid-spewing monsters. MacAlistair and Estoban were whistling, and the pilot pointed at the Evolved. "Say, that's new, isn't it?"

"New?" Heller cocked his head. "Care to explain?"

"Armor", Estoban added. "Didn't see one on you before."

The Evolved cocked his head, taking notice of the black serrated chitin plates that coated his upper torso, going all the way up his neck and cranium, from the feeling of it. He blinked. "Huh." Mercer did say he'd given him armor, but he kind of expected that it wouldn't work, like it hadn't worked the entire time before. He clenched his fists and willed them to change back, though they only shrunk in size, and retained the chitinous surface. It was glossy black, with bright blue biolumniscent areas between the single plates.

Blue was a new color, usually the Infected's shells were more in the orange spectrum. Still, it worked and that was all that counted. Heller simply shrugged and went to pick up Decker again, when he paused. Gunshots. Relatively nearby. Snarls, not screeches.

He shifted the hold on the man, then turned to MacAlistair. "I'll take Hall. You help Estoban. We need to hurry."

The Wisemen didn't question, just handed the Sergeant over and went to assist the wounded man. That way, they could increase their previous molasses-like speed.
When they reached the third landing and Heller booted down the door, they froze when they too heard the combat noises.

Screeches, rifle shots, and the unmistakably sound of a grenade launcher going off. "Dave", MacAlistair hissed. "He had a grenade launcher"

Heller grit his teeth. "They're pinned down", he snarled, "Surrounded by Bugs."

Shugi's head snapped to the two Wisemen, and nodded grimly. "Sarge! Get to it! We'll follow at a slower pace."

The Evolved tilted his head in reply, and put Decker down before he broke into a sprint down the spongy hallways.

The weapon discharge grew louder, now coupled with the stench of gunpowder and the ear-splitting screech of the Bugs. A massive industrial-looking steel divider blocked the pathway, though the Evolved only ducked his head behind his arms, and picked up his speed.

With the force of a semi truck he collided with the solid obstacle, ripping it right out of its guide rail and collapsing it inside.

Seconds later, he hit the floor with a solid crack, looking up to realize he walked right into an ambush.

The Wisemen had finished scavenging the corpses of the Bears, and walked out of the egg room. Duke and Harrison followed them a little slower, and with less enthusiasm- both of them were nervous. Given what they just experienced, they weren't too keen on trusting the black soldiers anymore.
They still followed after them, because it were their orders, and because they were even less keen on staying inside a room that was about to blow.

Captain Santos took the team down the hallway and around a bend before she ordered Redstone to press the trigger. The explosion, though muffled by distance and spongy tissues, still shook the walls around them and made their teeth clatter. Harrison could smell the stench of burnt flesh, despite his Gas Mask, and immediately knew that they weren't going to head back that way.

Duke's tense shoulders told him he was thinking the same. Harrison sighed, and scooted closer to Santos. His motion detector was wailing, dozens of shapes were moving on the screen, though luckily, none of them were too close to them at the moment. "Ma'am?"

"The Bears must have come in from another entrance. We'll follow this tunnel, and try to find it", she decided. "Worst thing, we'll circle back to the first pit." She lifted her head. "Anders, how's it going?"

The Wiseman was currently fiddling with a radio, and a small toughbook. "They must have had a dead man's switch, or had had time to change the codes. Gotta crack it first, or else it'll just be dead circuits."

A blip on the detector came up a little too close for Harrison's taste, and Santos picked it up. "Will this work on the move?"

"Yeah. System's automated. Should have a result in a few minutes."

"Good. Then let's get going." She glanced up at the ceiling, and the air vent grates. "Too many openings here."

She got up from her crouch and was about to walk a step when she suddenly jerked back. Harrison's head snapped around, and he witnessed the pale spider thing leaping right at her. Without thinking, he shoved her to the side, bringing up his forearm in the process. The spider thing hit his arm and its legs snapped close around it with crushing force, though was more or less harmless for now.

Santos swore as more dots appeared on the motion detector. "Incoming!"

More spiders leapt at the team. Jackson covered Anders and took down the one trying to jump the tech with a single shot, while Duke and Redstone both dived to the side to let another one hit the wall besides their heads. In an instant, Duke whirled around and jabbed his combat knife into its back, severing its spine and pinning it to the plaster, while Redstone fired two shots at another that tried to ambush them. Both parasites went limp and dropped to the floor.

The one that grabbed Harrison's arm now realized its mistake and loosened its hold, just enough for Santos to pry it off with the butt of her rifle, then slam it into the floor to shoot it from point-blank. "Move it!" She barked even before the thing stopped twitching.

The team didn't dally, getting to their feet to rush down the hallway, though without leaving their surrounding out of their eyes.

Something cracked behind them, and pieces of the ceiling caved in when a ghastly roar echoed from the darkness. Harrison saw something move in the dust, and fired several shots into its direction- but the plink sounds he heard over the thunder of his rifle discharging meant that the rounds ricocheted off instead of going in.

Then another piece of ceiling collapsed, and he noticed dozens of black bodies twist inside the crawl space.

"It's a trap!" He shouted to be heard, "They're chasing us into a fucking trap!"

"I noticed!" Santos bit back, "But I'd rather take my chances with things I actually have a chance to kill instead of getting caught in another cave-in!" She craned her neck around, and he could feel the grim determination in her gaze, without even seeing her eyes. "I'd rather die getting shredded by a ton of monsters instead of getting dragged off to serve as their fucking brood chamber!"

Harrison glanced back at Duke. Duke snorted. "Fuck this, you want to live forever, Frosty?"

"Well, actually..." He trailed off. "Well, got no choice there. Better go down in a Blaze of Glory, huh?"

"They'll find we'll be tough to take down", Jackson crowed with what was definitely glee in his voice, "'Cuz we survived fuckin' Zeus on our asses, the giant-ass Bug Monster in New Marais, and the literal Beast. Let's show these sons-of-bitches we don't fear them!"

Redstone, who was running to the very front, threw his shoulder into a derelict-looking door to break it open. The team rushed in, finding themselves in a large hall-like room. A production facility, maybe? Harrison wasn't so sure, just followed after the squad as they ran across the wide-open space to reach the other side-

The Wisemen stopped abruptly, feet skidding across the ground when another pack of Bugs appeared in front of them. Three of them were very big, towering over the others, and shaking their crested heads like they were taunting them.

"Formation!" Santos snapped, and the team instantly gathered in a circle, backs to backs and rifles pointing outwards.

The entire room was crawling. Dozens over dozens of black and brown armored bodies swarmed towards them. The motion detector's signals had long since changed into a long whine.

This...this was no longer pack hunting, Harrison realized with a start even as his finger squeezed down on the trigger to spray the swarm with bullets, because these things were obviously no longer interested in taking them alive.

No. They were out for revenge, to destroy them just like they destroyed their eggs.

That combination didn't exactly make the team confident, and they were in already over their heads with just the normal Bugs.

The big guys? They laughed off the assault rifles, so Harrison didn't even try getting even with a shotgun. The only thing that seemed to work somewhat were the combustion grenades Blackwatch employed.

But, ah.

The grenade launcher clicked empty.

Jackson pressed the trigger a few more times, though nothing happened. "Fuck" He swapped to his assault rifle. "Captain, I'm out."

Santos only let out a sigh. "I'm going to haunt his ass if Cross doesn't avenge us and burns down this whole fucking place."

Despite everything, Anders bit out a bark of laughter. "'If', Renee? You know damn well he's not gonna sit by and twiddle his thumbs."

"He did nothing", Jackson threw in. "When the germ killed David, and Dennis, and Amanda." He scowled briefly. "He did nothing when the germ killed Ty."

Harrison didn't know what that was about, but from the mournful tone the other Wisemen made, he guessed it was something raw.

"This is different though", Redstone insisted, as he took off the head of a particular aggressive Bug that tried to jump the squad. Its body fell back into the winding masses of its siblings.

They weren't going to get out of here, were they?

Harrison swallowed once, and shoved a fresh clip into his rifle. No use thinking those thoughts, they weren't dead yet, and the Wisemen were doing a fantastic job keeping the Bugs at a distance. Carcasses piled up, making it harder for the others to reach them, but the big guys continued being a problem. So far, only an unholy amount of ammo managed to get through. The singular heavy machine gun they had was doing a better job, but he knew they didn't have many shots with it.

And they couldn't call for help either, not to mention that whatever Help they could rouse would be too late anyways. They were truly abandoned here-

The steel divider that made up one section of the wall exploded.

One of the things that had saved his life a lot more times than he cared to count was his ability to realize what kind of situation he was in currently, and react accordingly.
And right now, the right thing to do was to leap the distance over to the Wiseman/Marine squad trapped in the middle of the room and get them over to the hallway he just came through so they wouldn't have to face enemies from all sides. Besides, the other five were back there, and it would be a nice surprise.

Heller hit the floor hard and swung his Blade in an arch, decapitating several of these things in one swing. The Wisemen at his back fluidly shifted to shoot around him instead of at him, so they recognized him despite his new armor.

Good, he wasn't keen on healing gunshot wounds when his stomach was already starting to complain.

"When you see an opening", he began, his voice carrying over the roar of the gunfire and the screeches of the enemy, "Get over to the divider!"

"Prep us an escape route and we will", the closest Wiseman snarled. Anders? Yeah, that was Anders.

Heller nodded. "Acknowledged." He dashed to the front, blade slicing through another group of Bugs to make them back off. The Wisemen huddle carefully inched his way, wary of the hissing acid puddles.

But the Bugs- they had it out for them, not him. Heller just hoped Mercer hadn't wanted to keep his presence hidden inside the Hivemind, because this was about the only thing he knew that would work. His teeth grit as he opened himself to their voices, biting back the urge to hiss when he was assaulted by the hundredfold orders to kill the humans.

Oh yeah, he got a few things to tell them, too. "Yeah, hard pass on that one, you bastards." He didn't know whether they understood what he was saying, seeing as they were smart, but didn't have the abstract minds humans had.

But something worked, because the swarm hesitated. Heller set his face in a scowl and dragged the tip of his Blade through the ground. "You want them, you have to go through me first."

The things screeched again, claws raking the floor. Heller grabbed one and casually tore it in halves and dropped it. The upper part of its body scrambled uselessly as its system failed and it perished. Heller snarled again. "That's right, I'll kill every last one of you before you can so much as touch my team, get it?"

He flinched briefly when one loud voice ripped through his mind. Kill

Just one order, and the most of the swarm suddenly changed target and came right at him. Some still went after the Wisemen, but that wasn't such an overwhelming force anymore, and they should be able to deal with them. He had a different problem now.

He spun in place, letting his sword rip through these things to give himself room to maneuver. Once they were off his back, he kicked off the floor and leapt straight upwards, bones and tissues straining to alter his limbs. Claws receded and muscles bulged under dark skin and armor. When he crashed back down, his downwards punch displaced so much air, it acted like a invisible sledgehammer.

The closest Bugs to him died instantly, the high pressure on the insides of their bodies rupturing their own surfaces and exploded them. Guts and acid splattered around him, never harming his body. With Acid resistance, this wasn't anything different to fighting hordes of Infected, or Corrupted.

And those hadn't had a chance against him. Heller grinned.

Hi, so I managed to finish another chapter. Believe me, I hate having to postpone it just as much as you, but I haven't figured out how to effectively use the few hours I have after work.
Just so you know, I think this will have about 13 chapters in total, so just a little longer!

Anyways, we're closing in on the Boss Fight right now.

On a completely unrelated note, I got the 'Deus Ex: Blacklight' novel, and read it in a week while on the train to school. Now I really want to write something with Deus Ex. Adam meets Alex, the viral supermutant Alex, not the Juggernaut feisty pilot Alex, that is. Just throwing out ideas here.

See you around.