POV: Gamma

Gunfire awoke him. He peeked out from the ledge in the back of the big cage, where he had made his new bed after the other Subjects had broken out after he had. They'd broken open the Big Cage in the chaos while he'd hidden from the guards. He'd made it nice and cold, and it was the perfect place to sleep.

He was instantly awake instantly when he saw them enter the old watching room. There were five of them, dressed in blocky grey armor and black clothes. They were like the original guards, the ones who hit him with the buzzing sticks and worked for the Blue-Eyed One…

One of them was wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a brightly-colored cloth around its neck. Long hair the color of the big cages sand hung down her back, her face pock-marked with small dots. She held a shotgun low to the ground, as well as a long knife on her back. She spoke with a weird lilt, saying, "Looks clear."

"Affirm", the second one said. This one had darker skin and long hair down his back like cords hanging from a socket. He wore a headset, a long rifle held up as he propped it against the wall of the cage.

The third one came to a stop and held up a hand. This one had narrow eyes and a harsh glare, like the one that accompanied the Blue-Eyed One. He held a common rifle with some weird red devices hooked onto it, similar to the ones the Grey-and-Red Armored soldiers that took away the other two subjects. One of the weird flying boxes hovered next to him, whirring and buzzing like a big bug.

The fourth lugged a big cannon as he hopped into the big cage. He was the biggest of all of them, with no hair at all and a piece of black cloth over one eye. He glowered, before stopping and gesturing.

The last dropped in, following behind the big one. Unlike the black clothes of the others, this one wore green under his armor. He had greying hair and facial hair, a rifle held high as he spoke into something in his ear. "Tygan. Are we still clear?"

Someone must be looking in. Like the mechanical eyes the White-Coats used to watch him when they had him perform 'tests'. They would know he was in there; hiding would do nothing. He had to fight. He grabbed the rifle that one of the Ones-Like-Him had left behind, slithering down from his sleeping crevice.

He slid behind a rocky outcropping coated in ice, back pressed to the cool surface. It helped soothe his nerves, and he popped out of cover.

He fired at the one with the long rifle, a bolt of green plasma shooting toward the human. He ducked, flakes of molten metal shooting out near him. Gamma hissed, extending his jaw at the other humans, before ducking back behind the pillar.

The other humans spread out, ducking behind the rocks or sheets of ice. The one with the shotgun came around to the left, getting in position to fire at him. He ducked further behind the boulder as the shot rang out, a spray of pellets slamming into the ice next to him.

He shot across the opening to another piece of cover, smooth scales allowing him to quickly cover the distance on the ice-covered ground. As he did, he threw one of the grenades he found abandoned after returning to the facility. It sailed off the pillar of rock he was on, landing near the bald one. "Bollocks", he heard, before the boom deafened the room.

More gunfire erupted as he finally found cover, chipping the rocks and tearing apart the fake, frost-coated plants. He slunk down towards the ground, aiming at the one in green that was pressing towards him. Another blast of plasma, once again just short, sent him ducking back into cover.

However, he knew he wasn't in a good position. Two coming in from the side, another moving around the flank and the long-rifle aimed at him. He couldn't move. He was trapped. He had to get out. Had to get out, get away, do something to escape the humans. He couldn't go back into that cage. He couldn't!

As if responding to his wishes to escape, a burst of purple light exploded next to him. It solidified into a dark purple mass, swirling and shifting and crackling with sparks. He blinked, before deciding to not question his good luck.

"Stop it!", the one in green yelled as Gamma broke cover. He slithered as fast as he could. Faster than he had in any of the tests, faster than when the quake had broken his cage. He dove for the purple tear, almost seeing the strange landscape beyond-

-Until an impact like a kick and a stinging burn slammed into his shoulder.

XXXXX

POV: SGT. S. Kincade

As Kincade pumped the action of her shotgun, she saw the Viper slump against the icy floor. Its plasma rifle skittered across the floor, well out of reach. The psionic tear closed almost as suddenly as it had appeared, leaving the only lights in the room to be the shaky emergency lights above them.

Kincade stood up, calling, "Target down!" Cries of 'Affirm' and 'Clear' came from the rest of her squad, while she climbed up onto the pillar of rock the Viper had used as a sniper post. She turned around, helping to pull Central Officer Bradford up after her. "You alright, sir?"

"I'm good, Sergeant", he said, turning towards the body that had drawn them into this testing room.

While Central spoke to Tygan over comms and examined the body, Kincade looked down at the rest of her Fireteam. Williamson, the big Brit who acted as their Grenadier was standing back up, groaning and muttering a string of strange expletives under his breath. Their Specialist, Naumov, had initiated an Aid Protocol onto the big Brit. Tifour continued to scan the area with his sniper rifle, as if still paranoid that another Viper would come out to attack them.

Speaking of Vipers, Kincade was suddenly startled when the Viper began to move again. Yellowish ichor dripped from his shoulder, coating his pale scales and the dark blue armor on his chest. He tried to right himself, falling back to the icy ground. He looked down the length of his coils, finally seeming to notice her as she had raised her shotgun at him.

He… held out a hand. "No. Shoot", he managed to get out between rasping breaths. His eyes were wide, slit pupils almost invisible to her. His breathing was fast, only forcing more blood to pump out of his bleeding shoulder.

"Uh, Central?", she asked, drawing the attention of both Bradford and the rest of her Fireteam. "I think this Viper is… trying to surrender?"

Bradford stood and advanced on the Viper, keeping his rifle angled down. The look on his face was unreadable, even as he knelt down and removed the knife always clipped to his shoulder. "Where's Doctor Vahlen?"

The Viper had backed away from Bradford's advance as much as it could, finding itself pressed against one of the rocks that dotted the room. It continued to breathe rapidly, gazing up at Bradford with an expression she'd never seen on one of the aliens before: Fear. "W-who?"

"Doctor Vahlen", Bradford said, his voice approaching a snarl while his face remained a mask of calm. "Where is she?"

It was definitely hyperventilating, the blood flowing out no matter how much the Viper put pressure on it. Its eyes darted between Bradford and herself, trying in vain to get further away from them. Despite it being the biggest and one of the scariest Vipers that Kincade had ever seen, seeing it in this position made it seem almost… small. With one final effort, it tried to hoist itself upright, only to fall over and nearly fall into a heap, eyes falling shut.

By then, the whole of the Fireteam was gathered on the outcropping, watching the Viper as Bradford interrogated it. All of them stared in silence, watching as the Viper slumped down, more blood spilling onto the ground. Finally, after a few uncomfortable seconds, Naumov asked, "OK… Was it just me, or did that Viper just have a panic attack?"

"Tygan, Commander", Bradford said, bringing his hand up to his ear to call into the Avenger. "Are you getting this?"