This is Rodan, lead scientist here at the Cerulean Science Base. Our purpose? As passed down by Lord Mizar, we will experiment with the thirteen DNA cultures provided to us. These DNA cultures have been siphoned off of Lord Mizar himself, and we will not waste the valuable opportunity.
"This looks promising…" Vela whispered to herself, inwardly proud of her discovery. This was the Jackpot. On the screen, the lead scientist, Radan, continued to speak.
Day 12: The first batch of DNA altered Drones seems promising. Though young, they show exceptional dexterity and strength. Some resemble Drones, while others don't resemble the typical Drone at all. Our dream of an army of super soldiers is slowly becoming a reality, and we will be remembered as the Scientists who carried it out!
Nae walked slowly, trying not to make a sound. She shivered in her bundle of clothes, and held Vela's watch close, following the indicator towards her position. It was very dark, and extremely quiet. Nae couldn't help but feel unnerved, even though she knew someone like Vela had gone before her. Taking a deep breath, she descended the stairs towards Deck 25.
Day 23:
We've hit a brick wall in our experiments. We are attempting to bring life to these samples, but the specimen spliced from the originals are quite… volatile. Several injuries have occurred, and we've had to take more stringent precautions while handling the beasts. In some cases, the subject had to prematurely terminated to preserve the safety of the crew.
Those that started out with Drone Soldier qualities have all died of severe internal organ failure. Only the malformed, mutated beasts remain. Is this, perhaps, what Lord Mizar intended the whole time?
We have managed to keep at least one creature from each culture alive, and their growth is remarkable. Some are even growing too large for their cages already. There are talks of using stasis to halt their advancement while we get a handle on the results of the experiments. If you ask me, I think we're moving this project a little too fast.
Vela leaned in closer, intrigued. "Mutated Beasts…?" Her eyes flicked towards an image that flashed by in the top left corner, one of the developing experiments. Something about it was… familiar...
Day 47:
The subjects have finally stabilized to the point where they no longer require daily injections of the cultures in order to stay alive. We are beginning the process of weening them off of the DNA injections. In total, there are 14 experiments left, the extra resulting from a set of twins born from DNA Culture 3.
Although from a Scientific standpoint, progress has been good… I'm wary. While most of the subjects are docile, and open to outside influence and learning, others are more violent and aggressive. One in particular makes my feelers stand on end, Subject 5.
Looking back through prior records, it seems this aggressive trait was also present in the failed experiments. In conclusion I believe the DNA culture used to breed the creature to be responsible for the qualities of it's reincarnation.
Training and induction is set to begin next week. I'm planning strategies to try and minimize injuries to personnel, but with Subject 5… I'll need to be creative.
As Radan continued with his reports, Vela ran through some more of the pictures. The one that looked familiar, Subject 6, flew in front of the screen, starting from it's "Birth". As the pictures progressed, the beige creature grew larger, grew more appendages, and grew more familiar. Vela inhaled sharply as she realized what this place really was.
Day 71:
All Subjects have been cleared for transport to their designated assignments. All except Subject 5, of course. Lord Mizar is pleased with the results of our project, and has promised rewards to all those involved. At this point, though, I don't think anyone cares. Personally, I'm just glad this program finished with as few casualties as it did. If I'd known now what I knew when we started this project, I never would have accepted it.
The project has taken it's toll on other members as well. We all knew we were here to make superior soldiers… but I don't think anyone really understood what that could mean. What we've made here… these abominations should not exist. And I'm not the only one who thinks so, either. I'm actually a member of the majority.
It's little late to worry about that now. The transport ship for the Subjects arrives this afternoon. Just in time, too. Our weather technician says a pretty strong storm is going to pass over us. We'll be isolated from the rest of the universe for a few days, at least.
As for Subject 5… I'm deeming him a failed experiment. Lord Mizar may not like it, but there's no way I can, in good conscience, expose this creature to the outside world. It's aggression is unparalleled, and it's strength is legendary. Yesterday, one of the soldiers went a little to far with suppression, and accidentally shot it's leg off. Today, that leg has completely regenerated.
We've taken to freezing Subject 5 just to transport him within the facility, and sometimes even that is a hassle. The flame he generates inside his own body keeps his core temperature warm, and several times, he's nearly escaped containment. Tonight, we're putting him in cold storage. For good. After we process him for expulsion, I plan on ending him.
An analog thermometer in the upper right hand corner of the Main Control Console, unnoticed by Vela, rose to negative six degrees, and a small warning light next to it, covered in ice and frost, began to blip.
Vela shivered. Not because she was cold, but because as she listened to the reports, she couldn't help but feel like something incredibly bad was about to happen.
"We need to get out of here… now."
Day 72:
Disaster struck. Subject 5 managed to escape his confinement after feigning a frozen state. Everyone on it's detail is dead. Now he lurks in the shadows, picking off scientists and soldiers here and there. It's really just a matter of who he decides to grab next.
The storm is still raging outside. The lower exits are blocked off already, though some try to leave through them anyways. Going outside is suicide in this weather, though I can't say staying here is much better.
Scelley has been working on a weapon to cool down Subject 5 more rapidly, a Freeze Gun of sorts. He's been poring over Subject 5's data, trying to come up with a solution. Most of the Scientists think it's hopeless, but I'm going to help him any way that I can. If he's successful, we may make it out of this nightmare.
In the bowels of the Laboratory, thirteen tubular stasis chambers formed an all encompassing circle. In between them and littered throughout, research materials and documents were spread about, along with hundreds of shipping boxes full of advanced technology and high yield explosive weapons. The stasis chambers sat, vacant, empty of their former occupants… all but one.
Inside the open pod emblazoned with the number five, an ice statue's heart began to beat. One, two, three, four…
Inside the monstrosity's belly, a wisp of a fire began to burn. Small and insignificant at first, it grew rapidly in size, filling it's underside and warming the rest of it's body. Ice began to fall off in chunks as the creature became more and more in control of it's own functions. Slowly, it opened one of it's burning red-orange eyes.
Day 73:
Scelley is dead. We found his remains a few minutes ago. No one here understands the scribbles he wrote on the wall. No one but me. I've modified the weapon Scelley was working on using his final calculations.
Negative Seven. That's temperature below which all bodily functions of Subject 5 cease, and the only temperature below which it can be considered safe to approach him. The weapon still has a few kinks. I need to finish it before Subject 5 decides to come after me.
I don't think it was a coincidence that Scelley was targeted. This thing is smarter than we give it credit for.
As Nae reached the final flight of stairs down to Deck 25, and started down immediately. Her eyes were glued to the locator watch on her wrist, in an attempt to ignore the pit in her stomach, her instinct screaming at her at the top of it's lungs to run away.
So focused was she on the watch, that she didn't notice an overly rusty and degraded step. As Nae placed her full weight on the step, it gave way, plunging her into the inky darkness below.
Day 74:
A group of scientists tried the force the freight door open… I killed them…
Scelley's weapon works exactly as promised, but I fear I will not have the time to utilize it. Subject 5 must have seen the weapon in action. People are falling dead left and right. He's hunting for it. For me. The element of surprise was our only hope, and now we've lost it.
I know what Subject 5 is capable of. The fact that he was watching the Freight door as the scientists tried to open it is proof that it is intelligent. It wants to get out. And I know enough from his anatomy to realize that this place cannot hold him. It was never meant to.
I now put in motion my final plan. I've redirected the heat exchanger coils we ran from the planet's mantle for heating to the water storage tanks outside the facility, and increased their pressure to approximately seven thousand pounds. With this, our heating system has effectively become a cooling system.
Subject 5, the next batch of experiments on Deck 26, and all the doomed Scientists in this damned facility… none of us will leave this place. To whoever finds this message, know that these "Generals" of Lord Mizar must be eliminated. They are far too powerful. On the disk in my left hand, I am leaving the entirety of my and my team's research. Use it to find their weakness. Use it to redeem our honor.
May the universe forgive us.
"Deck 26?" Vela exclaimed. A loud clanging noise followed by a shriek caused her to whip her head around towards the entrance. "Shoot! Nae!"
"Ouch…" Everything hurt. Slowly, Nae brought herself to a sitting position, checking herself for injuries. She was pretty battered, but not broken anywhere. Looking up and around, she took in her surroundings. The entire floor she was on served as one room, filled with boxes like a warehouse. She could see through the grating of the deck above her, and the hole where she fell through the stairs. In the center of the room, a horizontal square gate on the ceiling provided freight elevator access.
Her eyes lowered to the ground around her, and Nae nearly leapt out of her own skin. Dozens of bodies and assorted body parts were strewn all over the floor, in a much higher concentration than on the other levels. She took deep breaths, calming herself before moving.
She was along one of the walls of the room, and behind her, a large cylinder sat, half open. The placard on the pod had the number five written into it.
The half open door seemed inviting, almost as if beckoning her to look inside. Nae knew it was a bad idea, but before she could argue against her curiosity, she found herself moving towards the capsule. Frost and melting ice littered the immediate outside area of the machine, and a malfunctioning, flickering light shone from inside. She peeked her head inside the pod…
Empty. Nae sighed in relief, realizing that she'd actually had been holding her breath. She chuckled to herself, trying to cheer herself up.
"See?" she spoke aloud. "Nothing there. Nothing to be scared of. I can't believe I let myself…"
Whoosh…
The sound of rushing air reached Nae's ears. The sound had come from directly behind her. Her blood turned to ice in her veins, and she turned, not out of courage, but fear. The only sight that greeted her was several stacks of boxes.
"Vela…?" the Tribal called out, hopeful. She ventured into the maze of boxes, looking for a stack high enough to reach the grating above. Something wasn't right here, and she didn't want to hang out and find out what.
One stack of boxes, closer to the center of the room, reached clear up to the grating on the 25th Deck. Nae began climbing up, using other boxes as footholds. She nimbly maneuvered to the top, then pressed up against the bottom of the grating, head up, checking it's strength. A low growling in front of her made her freeze.
Lowering her head slowly, Nae looked down into the face of a super sized black ant. It's six legs were razor sharp, and the tip of it's lower abdomen extended into two sharp points. The center section of it's exoskeleton glowed orange, casting faint light across the floor. It clicked it's pincers together loudly right in front of Nae's face, then opened it's maw and howled, a mane of fire erupting from around it's neck.
The tribal, overcome with fear, took a step back, and lost her footing on the box, sending her crashing, once again, to the floor below. Pain from her fall ignored, Nae scrabbled furiously to back away to somewhere safe. The beast followed her, sticking it's head around a corner, making eye contact. It opened it's mouth and roared loudly, it's mane of burning flames making a second appearance.
The monster roared again, this time sending a blast of flames in Nae's direction. Nae, still crawling, rolled to her right, behind a stack of boxes and out of the Fire Bug's line of sight. The two foot area she'd been in a moment before was burned to a crisp. She bolted across the room, between stacks of paper, trying to maintain her cover. She didn't have anything that could fight that… thing.
Nae stopped for a moment, catching her breath behind a stack of blue boxes. She readied her bow, knowing it wouldn't do much against such an enemy. I just need to survive until Vela finds me…
Directly above her, Subject Five sat with it's claws gripped to the grating, hanging upside down. It lowered it's head down, making no sound as it's jaws drew closer and closer to Nae, completely oblivious to it. Just a little closer...
"Nae, look out!" Vela shouted. Her call was immediately followed by an explosion, as three rockets slammed into the side of Subject Five, sending it hurtling across the room. Vela appeared next to Nae, grabbing her arm and dragging her towards the center of the room. A small console was sticking up from the ground, a control pad for the freight elevator. Vela didn't hesitate, immediately putting in the call.
Subject Five quickly rose to it's feet, shaking off the blow. The hole in it's side where the rockets hit bubbled, clogged, the repaired itself as it stood. Fear began to overtake Nae, and her knees began to buckle under her own weight. That thing was a monster, without a doubt.
"Snap out of it!" Vela's face appeared in front of the Tribal's vision. "Focus on me, can you do that?"
"Yes," she responded automatically. She could feel her senses returning, and her knees stopped shaking.
"Good, take this," Vela shoved a blue and red firearm into Nae's hand, giving her a chance to firmly grasp it. It fit well in her hand, and she inspected it quickly.
"What is this?"
"It should be able to slow that thing down. I need you to do that while I shoot it with this." Vela held up her Tri-rocket launcher, ejecting the now spent cartridge and adding another. "It'll be another twenty seconds before the Elevator makes it down here. We need to be alive when that happens."
Subject Five was up. Fully regenerated, it started to rampage, forging a straight path through clutter, boxes, and storage containers to reach them. Nae took aim and fired her new gun, holding it steady on the Fire Ant. She pulled the trigger, holding it back while following the Ant's path with the Freeze Gun. The effect was instantaneous. A blue-white light erupted from the end of the gun, consuming Subject Five entirely. Nae continued to hold down the trigger until it's energy was exhausted, and let out little more than a wisp.
Vela stepped up to plate next. She walked towards the frozen bug boldly, blasting away with her Rockets as she approached. Large chunks of frozen sections of Subject Five's body exploded and broke off easily. Within seconds, Subject Five had been reduced to it's middle section, which still glowed with an unnatural light. Vela discarded her empty Tri-Rocket ammo casings and took stock. Five shots left.
"Too easy," Vela laughed to herself as she returned to Nae. The ceiling had opened up, and the Freight Elevator was docking with the 26th Deck. It was a traditional cable elevator, with cable supports at each of the four corners. As they stepped onto the platform, Nae tugged Vela's sleeve.
"I don't think you were wrong about it being 'too easy'," she pointed to Subject Five's remains, which had begun to writhe and shake. Out of the middle section, a rapidly growing head, tail, and six legs began to appear. Subject Five turned it's still forming head towards Vela and Nae and screeched, the fire from his mane slightly less impressive, but still as terrifying.
"Awww, crap. Go, let's go!" Vela ushered Nae onto the elevator and took the controls, directing it to rise as fast as possible. The cage began to rise, too slowly for Vela's liking.
"Vela, he's coming back!" Nae shouted as she looked over the side. The elevator had already made it to the bottom of the 24th floor, but Subject Five had jumped into the freight shaft along with elevator, and was now crawling around the outside edges, trying to find an opening to grab one of the two girls. In boughs of frustration, he blew fire all around, which reached up and around the elevator itself.
"Nae, I need you to stop his fire! That's his most dangerous weapon right now!" Vela directed. "He hasn't fully regenerated yet, so that Freeze Gun is probably a lot more useful!"
The Tribal nodded in understanding. She eased over to one of the elevator's edges, looking over the side. A plume of fire and smoke erupted in front of her face, and Nae leapt backwards, an instinctual move that saved her life.
"He was waiting for me!" Nae informed Vela. "I need a distration!"
The twin looked around frantically for something appropriate. Above them, on the 18th floor, a pallet of Drone weaponry and ammo caught her eye.
"One homemade Vela distraction, coming right up!" she replied. Slamming another ammo cartridge into her Tri-Rocket Launcher, Vela aimed well and chose her moment. "Get ready, Nae!" The Tribal braced herself on the opposite wall as the elevator passed the 18th floor and Vela fired.
The rocket's explosion had an incredible effect, igniting dozens of other bullets and rockets on the pallet. The force of the explosion caused the elevator to lift on Vela's side and sink on Nae's side, causing the Tribal to hang over the edge of the railing. Subject Five moved quickly to dodge the explosion, leaping from one side of the shaft to the other… right underneath Nae and her gun, held at the ready.
"Eat this, bug brain!" Nae squeezed the trigger, loosing a tidal wave of sub-zero energy at the Fire Ant. The frigid blast caught Subject Five in the face, enveloping his mandibles, eyes, and feelers. The elevator quickly righted itself, yanking Nae back into safer territory as Subject Five screamed in pain and discomfort. "Vela, shoot him now!"
Vela expertly jumped over the elevator's rail, hanging on with her left hand and aiming with her right. Subject Five was stationary on the 17th floor, futilely clawing at his own face, desperate to remove the ice.
"You shouldn't eat desert before dinner, freak," She loosed one of her Tri-Rockets, blasting the Ant's head into billions of ice crystals. The rest of the body went limp, hanging in place. Vela knew it wasn't dead, though. It wouldn't be long before that head regenerated, and Subject Five would be right back on their heels. And she only had four shots left.
Nae grabbed Vela's arm and helped her back onto the elevator, now at the 12th floor.
"We need to get to the 5th Level," Vela reminded. "We came in through the freight entrance, so we still have… seventeen more floors to go."
"Do you think we'll make it out before he regenerates?"
"That doesn't matter," Vela shook her head. "This facility wasn't made to contain it. The only reason he hasn't broken out yet is because he hasn't tried. We need to kill this thing before it escapes."
"Any ideas on how to do that?" Nae asked, hopeful.
"No."
"Did you really have to say 'no'?" Nae exclaimed. "Couldn't you have just said 'not yet', or 'I am working on it'?"
Wham! A thudding noise resounded as the northern side of the elevator lifted a good eight feet into the air, then slammed back down. The stress on the cables holding the elevator proved to be too much, and the two cables on the northern side snapped. Vela leaped to the opposite side, grabbing the elevator rail with one hand and clasping Nae's arm in the other.
It became obvious what had happened. Subject Five had regenerated, and had rammed one side of the elevator in an attempt to knock them off. Instead, it had broken the elevator, which now hung vertically, still rising to the top of the shaft.
Vela could see the abomination crawling up the northern side of the shaft. Now it could pull up beside them, attack them with fire without the elevator floor getting in the way. It was going for the kill.
"Nae, shoot his mouth!" Vela ordered. Nae twisted to get a clear shot as the Fire Ant opened it's maw, flames beginning to erupt from it's gullet. Subject Five shot off a ball of flame, headed straight for Vela. Just when she thought the end had come, Nae sprayed down the fireball with her freeze gun, stooping it in mid flight and sending it careening down the elevator shaft. Her next shot iced over the insect's mouth, once again preventing him from using his flame.
Good, Vela thought to herself. Without his fire, he'll be forced to stick to close range attacks with his claws. And as soon as he gets close…
"All right, great shot!" Vela congratulated Nae. "Quick, climb up onto the rail! I've got a plan!"
Subject Five furiously shook his head in frustration, attempting to dislodge the ice clinging to his face, sending fiery sparks from his mane shooting in all directions. After a few moment's struggle, he gave up, and instead crawled around the shaft, approaching the elevator platform from beneath. Above him, Vela and Nae each took up a position above the two remaining support cables.
Just a little closer…
Enormous razor sharp claws tore into the bottom of the vertically hanging platform, the Fire Ant pulling himself towards the seemingly helpless pair. Only seemingly though.
"Now, Vela!" Nae called out. Vela took aim with her Tri-Rockets, destroying the last two supports holding the Elevator Platform in the shaft. The entire cage dropped, with Subject Five still attached, down into the abyss below. The girls held fast to the cables, which sped towards the top of the shaft, their weight now released.
"Let go!" Vela commanded as they reached the fifth level above the main entrance. They floated upwards for a moment, still carried by their momentum, before landing on their feet on the floor in front of them. They were once again standing in the entranceway to the Laboratory, with a host of frozen Drones to greet them. The two sped by the lifeless statues, towards Vela's blue cruiser just outside.
A resounding roar knocked both off their feet, and Vela looked back to see the unthinkable. Somehow, someway, the experiment had made it's way back up to the top of the shaft. It's mane of fire extended more than three times the size of it's own head, a sure sign that this thing was pissed.
"Vela!" Nae panicked. Her sudden fall had caused her to injure her ankle, and try as she might, she could not move more than a foot before collapsing back to the ground. "Vela! Help!"
Vela froze for split second, uncertain as to what to do. The ship loomed just in front of her, and an angry blight of Mizar's Army rampaged behind her. One thing was for sure, though. She wasn't leaving Nae behind.
The moment ended, and Vela found herself sprinting full speed towards Nae's struggling form. The Fire Ant cleared the edge of the shaft, and began galloping toward them as fast as it's legs could carry it. It was now a race. Who would reach the helpless Tribal first?
In a burst of inspiration, Vela slid as she approached Nae, scooping up the discarded Freeze Gun at her side and coming to rest near Nae's feet. Subject Five dove, jaws and claws flashing and waving. Vela brought the Freeze gun to bear, blasting the monster's midsection with sub cooled energy. The Ant froze in place, it's body unable to properly function at the temperatures it was now exposed to.
Vela stood, slamming in her last two Tri Rocket cartridges, and fired. The rockets zoomed towards the two counterweights holding the massive freight door in place above them. The door shook, buckled, then eventually dropped on it's preset path, still guided by the grooves in the sides. Unable to escape, Subject Five could only look on as the door crushed his frozen midsection, spilling a bright, eery orange and yellow fluid across the snow.
Subject Five screamed, the immeasurable pain caused by his mortal wound given voice. Vela and Nae stood by quietly as the flames protruding from the experiment's neck grew smaller and smaller, and the fire in it's eyes faded to black.
"What the heck was that thing?!" Nae practically screamed. Safe inside Vela's ship, Nae tended to her injured ankle as Vela prepped the ship for takeoff.
"One of Mizar's 'Generals'," Vela explained. "This outpost had one purpose: to breed a wave of Super Soldiers to carry out Mizar's will. Barry's will, I mean."
"One of? How many are there?"
"Thirteen total. If Juno and I had known there were so many more of these things, we would have never taken a desk job back on Earth."
"You've fought them before?" Nae inquired.
"Yes," Vela answered. "Once at the Ichor Base, and another more recently. You remember that thing at Mizar's Palace, right? That was one of them. Juno took out one Tawfret, and Lupus took out a pair of twins on Eschebone. Plus our friend Subject Five, here…"
"That makes six down, and seven more to go," Nae finished. "So, what's our next move?"
"We're going to save Juno," Vela gripped her steering console tightly. "The second most aggressive experiment was sent to Sekhmet."