The first thing Yukari noticed was the sheer scale of this place. Seeing it on a map is one thing, but as the group headed down a corridor, glass lining the sides showing the huge central chamber, the fact that they could build such a structure in such a short time once again put the Universal Union back into perspective.
The central chamber was a huge tower, burrowing deep into the earth. Numerous bridges connected parts of the facility to it, like a spider-web of connections, all leading to this central pillar. Yukari's mind wandered to some of the original scouting they had done on Citadels shortly after the Seven-Hour War, and what they were seeing was eerily similar.
Thumper systems were lined vertically down the walls, their steady beat of seismic activity keeping the nearby Antlion nest at bay, an almost music-like rhythm to their pounding. They were taken out of their thoughts as the group came to a stop at a corner. Zero did a small peek before looking back to the group, raising four fingers.
The meaning was near instantly figured. Four soldiers around the corner. Zero readied the AR2 in their hands, counting down the fingers before moving around the corner.
A small control center of some sorts awaited them, the soldiers on various terminals, and certainly not prepared for an AR2 firing into two, near instantly killing the pair.
Yukari then followed, her SPAS turning another soldier's head into pulp.
The last, who actually had a small amount of time to react pulled their USP, but Zero answered it with a final trio of pulses.
Thus, the area fell silent as the rest moved in. the other rebel picked up an AR2 off of the bodies, dropping the MP7 in exchange as Zero and Nitori moved over to a terminal.
"We can control the central elevator's movement from here, I think." Nitori spoke as they took out an override tool, zapping the terminal's keypad with a precise voltage to open it up before beginning to type.
"Okay, yep. I'll bring it up to us. This is probably going to cause some attention." Nitori added.
"Do it." Zero replied. Nitori merely nodded, as the sound of the elevator's mechanism began.
And not but two seconds later, the nearest intercom sounded.
"Alert. Primary elevator shaft activated without authorization. Deploy, diagnose, dissect." came the echoing and quite loud voice of Overwatch's backup AI.
"Nitori and I will cover the rear. Yukari, Mokou, cover each of the tunnels beside the elevator door." Zero started, looking to the rebel.
"What is your name?" Zero plainly asked.
"Abraham." they answered quickly.
"Abraham, you give support to whichever tunnel needs the most help." Zero ordered.
Everyone in the group nodded, getting to positions as the elevator continued to move. Quiet was followed by the sounds of footsteps, along with the distinct noise that Combine soldiers made when moving.
Yukari's side was the first to get troops, the first being blown away with a double barreled shot. Abraham moved over, supplementing their occasional booms with controlled bursts of dark-energy infused pulses.
Zero and Nitori's avenue became active next as the sound of an alarm blared, the two firing in turn as they covered each other's reloads.. Zero knew what the alarm meant. The threat to the facility was now fully confirmed. They would be begin pulling whatever or whoever they could to deal with the issue. In a base like this, that response was usually swift and lethal. Thus, even with the lowered personnel, they still had to move fast.
"ETA on the elevator?" Zero questioned. The blue-haired youkai leaned over while she reloaded.
"A minute at worst, thirty seconds at best!" Nitori called over the gunfire.
Zero mentally grimaced. That means there was easily enough time for them to be overwhelmed. Mokou's tunnel filled with green light as soldiers were melted to a cinder, and Yukari's rang of numerous buckshot, Abraham filling the gaps of their long reloads with MP7 fire.
Zero counted the seconds in their head, and they could hear the elevator approaching. However, another sound caught their attention. Heavy footsteps. Footsteps they knew all too well.
"Hunter inbound." Zero spoke firmly.
"In here?! There's no room to maneuver, we'll be shredded!" Nitori spoke up.
Zero's thoughts calculated, and what would normally be a quite stupid idea came up in their head.
"Does anybody have a grenade?"
"I have three, catch!" Abraham replied, Zero stowing the AR2 for a moment as they caught the incoming grenade easily.
"Nitori, back away from the hallway for a moment." Zero ordered. Nitori did so, but kept her weapon raised towards it. The triple thump-thump-thump of the Hunter approached rapidly, and right before it rounded the corner, Zero pulled the pin of the grenade, taking a step forward and shoving the grenade bottom first into one of the Hunter's infamous flechette-firing holes.
The hunter nearly made a squealing noise at the action, completely confused by the act, which as the beeping of the grenade grew more rapid, Zero punctuated it with a kick, sending the Hunter stumbling back into the wall before the Elite pulled themselves behind the nearest wall.
The explosion caused ringing ears as it detonated, a frenzied, garbled screech halfway getting out of the synth before the systems completely failed. The entire central body of the Hunter exploded in a shower of white blood and organs, the walls, ceilings, and floor plastered with gore from the remnants as what little was left fell limp to the floor, the entire scene almost resembling what would occur if a spill of mayonnaise happened. The smell of burnt flesh and blood countered that assumption, though.
"Holy shit." Mokou glanced over. "Now that's a fuckin' good use for a grenade if i've ever seen one."
Zero pulled out their AR2 once more as the elevator finally approached, it's glass-lined door opening without a sound.
"Move!" Zero ordered, and the group fell back from their hallways, some sending off some parting shots as they left the body-filled corridors behind them as they got inside the elevator. Nitori moved over to the control panel, typing in commands with it's rather obscure interface.
"Right, and here… we go!" Nitori spoke,and the elevator began to move again, back down into the depths it came from.
Zero surveyed the cargo elevator, noting it's numerous boxes and storage containers. Mokou was immediately beginning to rifle through some of them, seeing if they could find anything helpful.
"Status?" Zero spoke, looking over to everyone as they caught their breath.
"10 shells left, including the ones in the shotgun." Yukari spoke. "I'm fine otherwise."
"Two magazines in spare. A stray shot busted the sight, though." Abraham spoke.
"One on my end. Bullet scraped my leg, but I'm mostly fine." Nitori affirmed.
"30 pulses left in my AR2." Zero responded themselves. "Search the containers. Perhaps there's something in here that could help us when we hit the bottom."
And thus, several began searching.
"So, considering you just blew up a Hunter in a tight corridor, how bad do you think the response will be?" Yukari asked as they found the opening to a container, finding a couple of AR2s, one of which they took in addition to a pair of magazines, tossing another pair over to Zero as they spoke.
"They'll likely be waiting for us. The schematics show there being a large hall before where we need to get to. Chances are they were expecting us to go up, however, so there's a solid possibility they won't be as prepared as they'd like themselves to be." Zero explained as they found little of use.
"I'd still lean on the negative side, considering how much shit has backfired." Mokou started, opening another box and pausing for a moment, registering what was inside for a moment before a devious look came onto their face. "Hey, Kawashiro?"
Nitori looked up from a box of their own, tossing aside some metal pieces. "Yeah?"
"Do you think you can do anything with this?" Mokou moved over, gesturing towards the crate.
Nitori's face turned to curiosity as they moved over, looking inside, a sly smile creeping onto their face. "This? Oh, I can work with this."
"Alert, malignants en route to lower levels. All strike teams available are to mobilize immediately to sub-level 16." The voice of Overwatch was even harsher when it came from internal comms.
Strike Team Alpha-Tri heard the order, but they were already en-route. Numerous forces were. The grey drones moved down to the large storage room, a large junction for most of the base's supplies. Barricades of all sorts were being created, whether from simple plates or proper energy shielding. At least two dozen soldiers were already on location.
The soldiers only knew three things. The enemy was to come down the central elevator. That they were heavily armed, and that teams Theta-Epsilon, Gamma, and Phi were all confirmed KIA, along with a Hunter-Killer unit.
Thus, they were expecting a large number. Practically every soldier was dead silent, even over comms as the elevator's noise came into hearing range. Weapons were checked across the board, Pulse rifles were aimed, Shotguns hid behind large containers, and SMGs were kept in reserve in case the first line fell.
They were ready for a bunch of motley rebels.
So when the door opened, all forces were surprised when a literal swarm of Manhacks and Rollermines moved out.
Pulse shots fired, but only damaged some as the veritable and innumerable mechanical grinders flew in every direction, flying at high speeds towards their former masters. Rollermines propelled themselves towards barricades, bullets practically doing nothing to stop them as some more hasty barricades straight collapsed from the impact.
The cacophony of noise was only exacerbated by the arrival of the actual crew behind it. Zero and Mokou moved to cover swiftly while their distraction worked it's magic, Abraham and Nitori putting down a pair of turrets on opposite sides of the doorway, covering numerous angles and further forcing the strike teams into cover. Yukari stayed in the elevator's doorway, controlled pulses taking out some of the more panicked soldiers on the flanks.
Zero continued forth, rounding a corner of a container only to come face-to-face with a shotgunner.
Working on pure instinct alone, Zero wrenched the gun to the side as they fired, releasing one hand on it before hitting them hard in the side of the helmet, The light within one eye crackling out as the glass was heavily cracked from the blow. It sent the shotgunner's head into the side of the container, causing further disorientation for the brown and orange soldier. However, they did have enough in them to use the gun defensively, raising it as Zero went for another punch. The gunner swiftly changed his position on the shotgun, swinging it barrel first at Zero as a makeshift bat.
Zero ducked the hit, a distinct clanging noise resonating as the shotgun hit the container. They used their position to shove the gunner hard, giving them ample room to finish the shotgunner off with a trio of pulses to an already damaged helmet.
They caught their breath for only a moment before another soldier came into view, SMG fire clipping their chest and shoulder before Zero had a chance to retaliate. A stream of green energy ended that one however, Mokou moving into view afterwards.
"Fuck, cyclops, we gotta' stop meeting like this." Mokou spoke as they lent an arm to help the Elite up.
"Thank you." Zero calmly replied, gaining their bearings. The wounds didn't impede too much, but they certainly hurt, their armor's chemical supplies being used up quite a time ago.
"No problem. Now, let's get through this hellhole." Mokou assured, the two moving forth as the first line began to retreat. The second line came up to meet the group, their rapid-fire MP7s capable of pushing back the swarms of Manhacks more easily.
The turrets were pushed a little forward, covering flanks as Abraham and Yukari kept the front suppressed.
Zero and Mokou moved along the sidelines quickly, flanking the second line. The stream of plasma went out, it's unstable natures arcing violently across the line as several scrambled to moved away from it, firing all the while, puncturing Mokou's chest with bullet-holes before Zero moved beside, sniper in hand as one soldier's helmet was completely shattered by a quick shot from the rifle. This brief shift of attention gave Mokou enough time to torch the rest after a brief recovery.
The immortal breathed out heavily. "Fuckin'... that shrapnel's gonna' be a bitch to get out later."
"Can you still fight?" Zero asked, holstering the rifle.
"Yeah, yeah. Just… gotta catch my breath. Think that might've punctured a lung." Mokou spoke, leaning against the side of the nearest container.
Meanwhile, the rest had pushed the forces out of the room for the moment. Nitori managing to get to the room's main console, rapidly typing even as the screen flashed red in defiance. Another blast from their small EMP tool corrected that issue, and the main doors and elevator to the storage room were sealed shut.
"Alright, We're safe for a few minutes, at least!" The group gathered around the console, most looking a little worse for wear, numerous scrapes and bruises from bullets impacting light armor.
"Right, now where is this synth production line?" Yukari questioned.
"Should be straight ahead from the room. It's the only door I left unlocked. Once we get that hijacked, this should become way easier." Nitori explained.
"Let's get moving." Zero spoke, the rest of the group beginning to follow behind as the central door burst open, a force knocking back the group as each was restrained as if constrained by an invisible hand.
As Zero recovered, they were the first to realize what this was, something they dreaded, especially as the slug-like form of an Advisor fully entered the room. Pain resonated throughout the heads of the group as it approached, especially towards Zero.
It's mechanical blue eye's optic focused, their optics shrinking akin to the shutter on a camera as the emanation of feelings found itself in Zero's head, echoing not anger, but sheer disappointment at the Elite's actions.
The Advisor put them to the side for now as they telepathically lifted and examined the others, noting the odd one out, Abraham. They knew the rest needed to be captured, but this one… this one could easily be used for information.
Abraham's eyes narrowed as they could guess this too, and as the Advisor examined, they used the little movement of their hands they could manage to pull a grenade from their belt, finger nestled in it's pin as they knew the alternative. While several continued to struggle, Yukari noted those motions, simply breathing outward while otherwise concealing their reactions.
The Advisor spun them around, preparing it's long barbed tongue as Abraham pulled the pin, muffling the beeping with their other hand as they counted in their head, tossing the grenade lightly upwards as the tongue pierced into the Rebel's neck, killing them near instantly, and very soon afterwards, an explosion occurred, the Advisor only realizing the ruse too late as the beeping was uncovered.
The explosion caused the Advisor to screech, flailing it's mechanical arms as it helplessly took shrapnel after shrapnel, knocking the creature backwards.
The telekinetic hold faltered as alien blood spilled. Zero wasted no time as they picked up their AR2 from the ground and began to fire. The first shot impacted, but the Advisor was already pulling objects from the surroundings to use as cover, barrels, crates and numerous pieces of metal swirled around the recovering slug as it's pain was refocused into rage. Even as it bled, metal fragments flew outwards to the group as it ripped apart surrounding containers to make more projectiles and shielding for itself.
The group scattered, each remaining member sprinting behind containers as they picked up whatever they could find for use as a weapon. Most were at least scraped by incoming fire as they moved behind cover, Zero and Nitori finding themselves behind the same shipping container.
"Nitori." Zero spoke, sounding a little exasperated. "Do you think you can still reconfigure that synth production line?"
Nitori caught her breath as she wiped a line of blood off her face, numerous scratches noted. "P-probably. That thing's gonna' make it hard, though."
"Leave that to us." Zero replied. "We can hold and distract it. You go as soon as it's attention is firmly on us."
"Are you-" Nitori's reply was interrupted by Zero putting an arm on the kappa's shoulder.
"Trust me." Zero affirmed.
Nitori paused for a moment, eyes darting, before they gave a nod.
Zero checked what they had. An MP7. Nothing compared to a pulse, but passable for what they needed to do.
A ringing headache kept them slightly bleary, the raw psychic energy permeating power through the air. Zero then steadied themselves before running out of cover, firing their SMG at the Advisor. Several layers of scrap around the creature simply adjusted on a whim, each intercepting bullet after bullet as it's two camera-like eyes swivelled to look at them. Their lenses were cracked, flickering light, but what light still remained emanated cold fury.
Rebar and shard of metal were flung outward, barely clipping the Elite's armor as they made it to Mokou's container.
"Fuck, cyclops, what the hell are you-" Mokou was interrupted by the screech of the Advisor, forcing both to pause for a moment as a wave of pain came through their heads.
"We need to buy time." Zero explained simply.
Mokou looked confused until they realized what the Elite was thinking. "Alright. Plan?"
"Attack from multiple angles. Thing can only focus fire on one thing at a time without sacrificing aim and speed. Plus, better chance for something to get through." Zero elaborated.
"Fine, makes sense. If I can get my Immolator from out there…" Mokou thought out loud.
"I have a grenade, that combined with fire could give you enough time. You know where it is?"
"Yeah, I saw it. You ready?" Mokou spoke as they readied their own grabbed MP7.
"No, but it will have to do." Zero mentioned before peeking out from the opposite side of the container. The Advisor quickly refocused, slinging shard after shard as the immortal slipped out from the other side.
Zero noted the Advisor's tendency to grab almost anything that came in it's range, and thus prepped the grenade, chucking it over the container as well as continuing to fire from the side. The Advisor expecting such a maneuver however, flinging the grenade right back in their direction. The Elite dived for cover as the grenade flew, their low position to the ground partially protecting them from shrapnel, even through they could feel a shard or two pierce their armor.
But the sound of screeching sounded regardless, as Mokou managed to get her Immolator. The mere presence of the beam corroded through numerous layers of metal, eating through the Advisor's defenses quite quickly, shifting the Advisor's full attention to Mokou.
The blast of a shotgun followed as screeching turned to squeals. Yukari's position was perfect for her SPAS to fire upon the Advisor, a near full load of buckshot piercing delicate squishy flesh.
Waves of pain radiated outward, disrupting all three. Vision blurred, noses bled, the world practically seemed to shift as the Advisor's panic and power rose in equal numbers, the slug ripping off sheets of the ceiling to refuel it's protection.
Zero had barely recovered by this point, just getting to their feet as they felt the sharp tang of their own blood in their mouth. A glow of pulsing power emanated further outward as the walls shuddered in response. This was the true power of an Advisor, of one of the great leaders of the Universal Union. The very cover the three were behind were beginning to become torn apart, the creature's shield becoming a tornado of material, spinning with enough speed to turn anything that dared try to pierce through it into mincemeat.
And as their cover faded, the Advisor's attention was firmly turned onto the recovering Elite. There was no word to describe the intensity of emotions the Advisor conveyed through the air, a whirlwind of rage, disappointment, fear, and a want for vengeance to override it all. They knew what led to this moment, that this little incursion would've never happened without the traitor, that the pain they felt was because of THEM.
Zero hopelessly fired the MP7 in defiance, the bullets practically bouncing off the shield as a shard was launched even quicker than they could react, piercing through their armor as easily as cardboard. Pain filled their senses, their weapon ripped from their hands as two more shards joined them, paced slowly. Breathing became difficult, the Elite sent to the floor as the Advisor savored sharing the pain, the sphere of death inching closer as the Advisor approached.
The Elite could barely move now, their HUD flashing constant warnings as dizziness began to grow.
The Elite could swear they could hear the slug laughing at them. However, the Elite's attention was then drawn to one last thing.
The doors on the opposite end of the room had opened. And through them, they could see the air warp, curling in on itself. They knew what it was, and as the Advisor stopped, they knew it too.
A moment later, and a blue blast of energy was hurled at impossibly fast speeds, impacting the Advisor's shield with the force of a freight train. The shield partially disintegrated, the slug being flung against the wall behind them as the rest of the scrap fell helplessly to the ground, the remains of a half-vaporized Advisor and the view of others moving towards them being the last thing the Elite saw before everything turned to darkness once more.
Author's Notes
Well, it's been a while. Too damn much of a while.
As I may have spoken of before, whenever I don't write a story in time for my attention to begin drifting, it practically never gets done. I'm terrible with the long term. However, that's no excuse for how terrible I am at this. I should probably be hung, flayed, gutted, strapped to a wheel, and numerous other things. Shit like this reminds me of how terrible I am. Regardless, I said I would finish this story, and I will. I don't know when the next chapter will be out.
Probably next year, with how my mind keeps drifting and the fact that I deserve to be flogged. Don't take that as literal, though, i'm probably going to start to try working on the next one right after I finish writing and posting this.
Emphasis on try, though. There's no amount of the word "sorry" that I can say to alleviate how much I feel I should apologize for my shite writing.
See you then, I guess. If anyone's even still interested by then.