Chapter Five
A minute after her engagement with what she called a hopper-beetle, Selina was now staring down a pack of them. Apparently her previous fight got their attention. The creatures hissed menacingly and snapped their jaws at her, but she just stood firm with her railgun ready.
"Alright you buggers, let's play."
The five monstrosities began their charge. Selina lined up the lead creature in her sights and fired. The creature exploded instantly and two of its companions fell to the floor after having four of their legs blown off.
But two of them were still charging at Selina, she acquired the one on the right and obliterated it then took a step back to build some space before firing to take out the other one. With them out of the way, Selina effortlessly dispatched the two hopper-beetles thrashing about on the floor.
"Cat Zero-One to Ice Queen and Athena, I now have six ugly bugger kills to my name. This railgun is awesome."
"Good shooting, Cat Zero-One. You are currently twenty meters from the first lab wing. There might be more hostiles in the area so proceed with caution," Sandra said.
"Copy."
Lab Wing One
After feasting on the corpses of some workers, a hopper-beetle emerged from Lab Seven with blood on its face and roared. Sensing another potential meal approaching, it turned to the left and started trotting down the hallway pass the carnage around it.
A few seconds later, there was a brief purple flash followed by an explosion. Selina was halfway down the hall when she made the shot. After walking through the smoke, she came upon the lab wing and saw multiple bodies torn asunder. It was pretty much the same thing in the labs too, after checking all eight labs, she activated her radio.
"Ice Queen, this is Cat Zero-One. I just swept through Lab Wing OIne and found no survivors. Several people were killed out in the hallway and others were killed in the labs. They all had their doors knocked down by the creatures."
"The emergency seals should've been engaged over those doors the moment the breach occurred," Ashley said.
"If they were engaged, they did absolutely nothing to protect the people inside. And to be honest, I think you'll be better off blowing this place to bits."
"We already have assets on standby for such a contingency. But the Pentagon is still hoping that the place can be cleared and reclaimed, of course that all depends on the severity of the infestation which we still need to determine along with its source. You're doing a great job so far, Agent Kyle. Continue mission."
"Copy, Ice Queen. Cat Zero-One out."
Back in the ops center, one of the radar screens started beeping.
"General Hayes, a bogey just showed up on radar and is heading towards Facility-45," Air Force Captain, Corey Dunham said.
"How far out is it?"
"Currently six miles from the exclusion zone and closing, Ma'am. I just got an ID on it…it's a Cessna-680."
"That's a business jet. Something tells me it isn't flying towards restricted airspace by accident."
"Do you think it belongs to Wayne Enterprises, Ashley?"
"Fifty bucks says yes, Sandra. Who else besides us and them know about the place?"
"General, air traffic control reports that the craft is not responding to their hails. It is now two miles from the exclusion zone."'
"If we can't get their attention the easy way, we'll get it the hard way," Sandra said with her arms folded.
"I actually like the hard way," Ashley replied.
The next report from Dunham was of the bogey breaching the exclusion zone and Sky-Tigers One and Two moving to intercept.
