“It can’t possibly be that simple.” Cato said with reservations.
“It never is.” Gabriel replied, knowing from experience how right Cato was.
With Gabriel taking point, the squad approached the tunnel entrance step by cautious step, walking past the macabre display. Gabriel stepped over the threshold and planted his foot on the smooth floor. As his armoured boot connected with the floor he felt a tiny tremor reverberate in his sole, like a wave of vibrations rippling outwards from his foot.
Of course it was a trap.
A chorus of mechanical shrieking erupted from the crucified ‘corpses’. The scarecrow-like monstrosities began to thrash in their restraints, shaking the pikes from side to side as they struggled to be free. Their eyelids were open, revealing that their eyes had been replaced with cybernetic implants which glowed electric blue. They backed away from the passageway and grouped together with their backs to the elevator.
“Weapons free!” Gabriel shouted.
The squad opened fire on the mutilated monstrosities; but to their surprise, their bullets were deflected to the sides in flashes of energy. The research staff had surgically implanted shield generators inside the scarecrows’ bodies – an innovation both twisted and ingenious – protecting the creatures from small arms fire.
The scarecrows broke free of their restraints and dropped down to the ground, landing deftly on their feet. One of them picked up the giant pike on which it had been crucified and hurled it like a javelin at the squad. The 12 foot long scaffolding rod travelled slowly enough to pass through Viker’s shields whilst connecting with his stomach with enough force to knock him backwards. But it rebounded from his armour and fell harmlessly to the ground, the sharpened tip blunted to a stub without leaving a scratch.
Bale and Cato covered Viker as he got back on his feet, overwhelming the scarecrow’s shields at point-blank range with concentrated fire to the head. The second scarecrow took a running jump at Gabriel, arms spread out as if it could fly. Gabriel readied a concussive shot and fell onto his back as the semi-machine monstrosity pounced at him, lining the barrel up with the incoming creature’s mouth and pulling the trigger.
The concussive shot was a shower of ball-bearings sprayed at the target for maximum impact force rather than penetration – no good at range, but lethal up-close. The shot entered through the scarecrow’s howling maw, blasting out the back of its head. Gabriel tossed the half-headed corpse to one side and returned to his feet.
The third and fourth cybernetic scarecrows had attempted the same airborne pounce. One landed on top of Viker, grabbing him by the shoulders. Viker deftly planted his foot on his incoming opponent and performed a reverse roll, using the cybernetic zombie’s own momentum to flip it head over heels onto its own back. Viker then leapt back to his feet and executed the scarecrow with a single shot to the head.
Bale was slower to react as the fourth scarecrow tackled him to the ground and began pummelling and clawing at his helmet like a rabid beast. Cato grabbed the scarecrow by the ankles and yanked it backwards onto its stomach, then knelt down on its back, grabbed it by the head and chin, and snapped its neck 180 degrees around.
With its head facing backwards, the surgically-enhanced scarecrow screamed at Cato, treating him to the revolting view of a face that was both half-rotted and mechanically enhanced. The scarecrow smacked Cato in the head, knocking him down before trying to climb on top of him. Bale charged forwards and struck the creature under the chin with the butt of his gun, sending it flying backwards before following up with a kill shot through the skull.
More shots rang out, this time from the passage entrance. Flashes of gunfire illuminated the darkened passageway as more enemies joined the fight. Several stray shots hit the squad’s shields as they took cover on either side of the entrance, returning fire into the passageway.
The squad switched their HUD filters to false-colour thermal enhancement, turning the walls of the pitch black passageway to a cool shade of blue with computer generated contouring superimposed over the edges and angles. Highlighted in red were several hostile silhouettes, shooting at them from the cover of the passageway.
Viker removed a frag grenade from his belt, primed it, and tossed it down the corridor. It bounced off the walls and exploded in mid-air, spraying hypersonic shards in all directions and shredding the targets’ comparatively light body armour. The squad followed up with kill bursts before the survivors could recover.
“Forward!” Gabriel ordered, “If we keep moving, they can’t pin us down!”
The squad followed Gabriel into the passageway as more defenders appeared. Viker raised his hand and activated the wrist-shield he had taken earlier. The oval-shaped energy shield appeared as distortion in the false colour enhancement filters; but it easily deflected the incoming gunfire as the squad returned fire, dispatching the defenders with ease.
Viker took point and led the squad down the right hand fork of the corridor with Gabriel beside him, while Cato and Bale covered the rear. The squad followed the spyware’s map through an otherwise bewildering maze of corridors and cube-shaped chambers, all of which looked identical and engineered to mathematical precision.
More familiar was the blood-red graffiti on the walls and floors – and even some on the ceilings. In addition to scientific equations and passages of alien script, there were more of the same pseudo-religious scribblings they had seen earlier.
‘PEACE THROUGH SUBMISSION.’
‘THE VOICE SPEAKS TRUTH.’
There was no time to wonder at the distinctly alien architecture, or messages painted on almost every surface, as the squad entered yet another chamber and were promptly fired upon by entrenched defenders.
The squad rolled into cover behind a set of equipment crates as a hailstorm of bullets greeted them, punching shallow holes in the crates or glancing off the metal edges with audible pings. Many of the bullets struck the opposite wall – not one of them leaving a discernible mark on the alien material – before clattering to the floor.
High speed motion capture software in Gabriel’s HUD allowed him to see the bullets’ trajectories as thin red streaks in his visor, some of which were coming down at them at an angle. Gabriel returned fire, aiming for the square-shaped spaces at the top of the opposite wall; the spray of bullets he fired ricocheted off the roof and silenced the intended targets.
The suppressing fire continued from behind makeshift barricades on the other side. Viker stepped out from behind the crates to confront them with wrist-shield raised. The gunfire was redirected towards Viker, bursts of bullets zeroing in on him before swerving abruptly sideways as they came into contact with the wrist-shield.
Cato returned fire from the cover of Viker’s wrist-shield to distract the defenders while Gabriel and Bale snuck around the side. Bale removed an explosive from his belt, primed it, and tossed it at the enemy with a flick of his wrist. The device travelled through the air in an arc, spinning at high speed like a gyro-ball before detonating behind the defenders.
The explosive core flash-heated an outer layer of gas into an ionised state, discharging it in the form of an arc of plasma which overwhelmed the defenders’ shielding and ate straight through their armour and flesh. The squad could imagine – even though they couldn’t hear – the dying screams of the defenders as they were scorched to death by the superhot plasma.
The squad didn’t pause for a moment. They continued through the alien labyrinth, and were ambushed repeatedly by waves of lightly armed, by highly determined defenders. Of course, the fighters were no match for commandoes, and they were steadily beaten back.