Sarge led the team through the corridors back to the lab. He carried Destroyer's bloody body over his back. Reaper walked behind Sarge, carrying Portman's body. Kid and Mira took up the rear, carrying both weapons of their fallen comrades. As they entered the Infirmary, Duke and Sam stood by the nanowall where a creature was trapped. Duke looked up from the wall as they entered. His eyes locked on Destroyer instantly.
"Destroyer?" Duke demanded.
"And Portman." Reaper replied.
"What the fuck happened, man?" Duke asked. He walked to Sarge's side and eased Destroyer off. "I got him. I got him!"
Mira sympathized with Duke. Destroyer and he had grown up together. For Duke, it wasn't losing a friend, it was losing a brother. She pulled the strap of Destroyers weapon off her back and set it down on a nearby gurney. She winced as her left shoulder pinched a nerve.
Sarge looked at the nanowall and to the glass. "What the hell is this? And who's goddamn blood is on that window?"
"Goat's." Sam answered. "He killed himself."
Mira frowned. She walked to the window. She spotted Goat lying on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. She turned away quickly and made her way back across the room.
"What do you mean he killed himself? He was already dead?" Sarge replied.
"It's true. It was Goat." Duke said. "He was changing into one of these mother fuckers and he killed himself!"
"We found two more dead scientists at the dig. Thurman and a balding guy with glasses." Reaper explained. He pulled Portman's second tag off from his neck.
"Doctor Clay." Sam answered. She walked to Portman's side, examining his neck. "Did you check their necks? Were there any open wounds on their necks?"
"We were conducting a firefight not an autopsy." Reaper answered.
Sam walked back to Duke's side and knelt by Destroyer, checking beneath his collar.
"We came up to find six scientists. Four are known dead, and Doctor Willits is probably KIA somewhere down in that sewer." Sarge explained. "The only one missing is Doctor Carmack. Has Doctor Carmack showed up yet?"
Duke turned his head over his shoulder. "Oh he's shown up alright."
Sam rose from the floor. "Look at the left ear."
Sarge frowned but walked to the nanowall. He looked at the left side of its face where fresh blood oozed from a gap on its face. "Son of a bitch."
"And this other ones Steve Willits. I'm going to run the DNA, check against his med records." Sam explained.
"What the hell were you people working on up here?" Sarge demanded.
"We're analyzing bones, artifacts; we're not doing anything like this." Sam replied.
"Then what the fuck is that?" Sarge asked, pointing to the nanowall.
"It must be a genetic mutation. Something environmental or viral. I don't know." Sam explained. "It may even be reversible."
Sarge looked at Sam with a hard gaze. "It's irreversible, Doctor."
Sam shook her head. "Not necessarily."
"Doctor Carmack's condition is irreversible." Sarge said. He reached to his hip and pulled out his back up pistol.
Mira's eyes grew wide as she watched Sarge walk back to Carmack. He put the gun into its mouth and pulled the trigger.
"No!" Sam screamed.
Black blood burst from Carmack's blown out skull, dripping down the wall.
"Because Carmack's condition is that he's dead." Sarge explained.
Reaper knew that killing the creature had killed whatever was left of Carmack. Whatever chance there had been of bringing the man back was now gone with the blood running down the nanowall. He turned to his side, catching Mira's concerned look.
"Saege deystvuyet drugaya." She whispered.
Reaper frowned. He glanced toward Sarge, who had yet to notice them. "Chto ty imeyesh' v vidu?"
"Vy tochno znayete, chto ya imeyu v vidu. Vy videli eto . On skazal Razrushitel' snimat Portman i ostavit' yego zdes' , chtoby umeret'." Mira explained.
"Portman buduchi kisku." Reaper replied.
"Kid, you and Duke get back to the dig and you make sure those dead scientists, are really dead." Sarge ordered.
"On tolknul meyna v stenu i vozlagayet vinu na menya v smerti kozla." Reaper watched Mira closely, looking for any sign that she was lying. But he knew her tactics too well, she wasn't lying. Her eyes held Reaper's gaze sharply. "YA ne dumayu, serzhant nakhoditsya v pravil'nom nabor uma bol'she."
Sarge turned to Mira. "Mira get your ass to the Ark and make sure it's secure. I don't give a fuck if your arm is about to fall off, do not fuck this up."
Reaper's brows furrowed slightly.
Mira only nodded. She looked back to Reaper. "Nablyudat' za vashey spinoy."
"Ty tozhe." He replied.
Mira turned and followed Kid and Duke out into the hall. The door sealed behind her, redirecting Reaper's attention. Sarge was standing near Sam, physically scaring her now. Reaper moved toward his sister, if it came down to his mission and her protection, Sam would win, consequences be damned.
Sarge tuned to Sam and took an intimidating step towards her. "I have lost four soldiers. What were you people experimenting with up here?"
Sam took a fearful step back.
"I'm not going to ask you again." Sarge warned.
"I told you, it's an archeological research center." Sam whispered.
Reaper carefully watched Sarge and Sam, ready move. But there was something that Sam was saying that didn't add up in the fucked up mission. Either she wasn't telling them honestly, or she didn't know.
"You think I'm lying to you is that it?" Sam asked. "Think I'm hiding something? I'm telling the truth."
"What were you downloading?" Reaper asked, catching both Sam's and Sarge's attention. "What were you sent to protect?"
Sam's eyes filled with fear and betrayal. Reaper could see she was close to her breaking point. He couldn't blame her. After everything she'd seen in the past few hours, he was surprised and proud of how long she'd held it together. But he could see that she couldn't handle the thought of her brother taking sides against her. Her voice pleaded with him as she spoke again. "The research data!"
"Research into what?" He pressed.
Sam's shocked physique faltered. She slowly turned her head to the computer console to her right. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the green disks. Sam walked to the console and inserted the first disk. Sarge and Reaper walked to the console and watched over Sam's shoulder. Sam searched through the files on the disk, but the disks contents pertained to the archeology finds. She ejected the disk and grabbed a new one. But the second disk had only agricultural finds. Sam inserted the third disk.
Carmack's face appeared on the screen. Behind him were the remaining five members of his team. Carmack walked from the computer and joined his team in the lab.
"Subject was injected with study agent at 00.03." Carmack's voice explained. He stood over a man strapped onto a gurney, injected something into the man's arm. "Vitals normal. Elevated heart rate attributable to subject's anxiety. C 24 successfully grated to marker cells at 00.09."
"You reconstructed chromosome mutation in a human subject." Reaper said.
Sam shook her head. "We were never going to do human studies."
"What the hell are we looking at?" Sarge asked.
Reaper glanced to Sarge and sighed. "Genesis, chapter one." He muttered. Damn scientists playing god again.
"Subject moved into protected observation area at 00.17." Carmack continued. The man strapped to the gurney was lifted down into the holding cell past the genetics lab. The same cell Destroyer had died in. "Subject: Curtis Stalh. Crime, multiple murders. Status: condemned to execution."
Suddenly Stalh lurched on the gurney. His back arched up and his screams echoed through the cell.
Sam's eyes drew from the screen to her right. She caught sight of a small rack filled with multiple viral cylinders. She walked around Reaper and picked up one of the cylinders. Black labeling on the cylinder marked it as; C-24. "Chromosome twenty-four!"
"Oh my god." Reaper muttered. Suddenly everything made sense. C-24, the synthetic chromosome. He watched the screen as Stalh pulled at his gurney restraints. His body was changing as the chromosome attacked his body. This was UAC's fault.
"Forty-nine minutes after injection, genetic mutations began to visually manifest on subjects extremities." Carmack continued.
Reaper couldn't watch any more. He stopped the disk and pulled it from the console. "This is what you're here to protect."
Sam shook her head. "It doesn't make any sense."
"You trusted them, they lied to you." Reaper answered. He shook his head. "They used you Sam."
"If he perfected xeno-genesis-"
"Don't you get it? It's this place, it's hell. It always was!" Reaper replied. He gripped the disked tightly in his hand. "This shit ends here." He walked back to the desk and gathered up the other disks.
"What are you doing?" Sarge asked.
"We need to destroy these disks." Reaper explained.
"That's UAC property." Sarge stated.
"Fuck UAC, we take these back they're just -"
Sarge grabbed Reaper's wrist hard. "We take the data back."
Reaper looked at Sarge in disbelief. "Sarge do you not see what's going on here?"
"I didn't see shit. And I ain't paid to see shit. I have my orders and so do you." Sarge explained. He looked at Sam. "Is this everything?"
"I..." Sam stuttered.
"I said, is this everything?" Sarge demanded. His patience was far from expended by now.
"I...h-h-have three more to download." Sam answered.
"Then do it." He ordered.
"Sarge, we got a problem. One of the dead scientists is missing." Kid explained.
not too much changed here.
translations
Sarge is acting different. Sarge deystvuyet drugaya.
What do you mean? Chto ty imeyesh' v vidu ?
You know exactly what I mean. You've seen it. He told Destroyer to shoot Portman and leave him here to die. Vy tochno znayete, chto ya imeyu v vidu . Vy videli eto . On skazal Razrushitel' snimat' Portman i ostavit' yego zdes' , chtoby umeret'.
Portman was being a pussy. Portman buduchi kisku.
He shoved me into a wall and puts the blame on me for Goat's death. On tolknul menya v stenu i vozlagayet vinu na menya v smerti kozla.
I don't think Sarge is in the right mind set anymore. YA ne dumayu, serzhant nakhoditsya v pravil'nom nabor uma bol'she.
Watch your back. Nablyudat' za vashey spinoy.
You too. Ty tozhe.