I was looking through the holographic sight I had added to my Vector. Staring down the dark corridor of whatever part of the Deep Roads we were in, to my relief we appeared to be in relative safety for the moment. I was wearing a black combat outfit, with a military issue backpack. Knee protectors, elbow protectors, and padded gloves. I had a black military helmet with a night vision mount, the night vision goggle covered my right eye, painting everything in shades of green. The caves had been near pitch black, luckily 'standard gear' like what I was using was free. I was also wearing a light kevlar vest, after some investigating, I was sure it would stop an arrow or a blade.

Another attachment I had added to my vector was a laser pointer, it was only visible through the night vision but it would help coördinate shots with the rest of my team. We were all wearing similar gear, everything tinted black. We had even used black with dark grey to paint our faces, hoping that the camouflage would help. We moved closer to each other, I glanced at Aviva and she gave me the signal to start scouting further down the tunnel. I nodded and with a deep breath started making my way further down. I put down each foot with extreme care, moving slowly to avoid giving away sudden movement. The night-vision helped slightly, but it was hard to make it some smaller objects. Having the other eye uncovered helped me see better.

I kept my Vector at the ready, peeking around corners. It was not just the darkspawn I had to worry about but deep-stalkers, giant-spiders and who knows what other monstrosities hid in the deep dark areas of this world. I stared down my gun looking at the suppressor I had bought with my last remaining point. Only me and Aviva had a suppressor, I was in front while Aviva covered the rear. The sounds of the other guns would echo miles throughout the tunnels, something we hoped to avoid as long as possible. When I first fired the Vector without the suppressor I was surprised at the amount of noise it made. It hurt my eardrums to fire the gun, Reg's gun was even worse. Then when I put on the suppressor the sound was still loud, not like the soft pfft in the movies. It sounded more like dropping a book on the floor. A somewhat loud poof, still way softer than it would make otherwise, making it a near necessity in underground warfare.

I felt my insides bunch up as I once more realized the implications. I would have to take down the targets in front of me, by myself. Unless I could find a way around whatever it was, the mission was to survive. It was similar in parameters to our last mission, so I assumed we would earn points per day we managed to survive. Meaning avoiding attention was our number one priority. All of this kept circling through my mind as I meticulously made my way further down the tunnel. I froze as I heard footsteps, the clack of metal on stone. I raised a fist, telling the others to hold. They stopped behind me and I carefully made my way forward, there was a curve ahead and I could tell the footsteps were getting closer.

I remembered what Aviva had said, avoid using the guns if at all possible. Even with suppressors, the sound would echo a lot further than we would like. I drew my knife, feeling in my gut that this was a terrible idea. But we had agreed, each of us had to get used to combat, even if it meant failing a mission earlier than planned. I would have to kill whatever was headed our way myself, the blood started thrumming in my ears as my heart worked over time. I drew my knife in a reverse grip, settling into a sprinters stance just around the corner. My enhanced leg tensing, ready to make the spurt to whatever came around the corner.

Step.. Step.. The creature drew closer, the scent of blood and rot pierced my nostrils. I tensed, now I was sure it was a darkspawn. Step... Step... Only a few more steps, my breath turned ragged as I did my best to keep it quiet. Then it appeared around the corner, the hideous face of a hurlock. It looked like a human with its flesh ripped off, teeth filed to sharp points, cruel bead eyes, warpaint on its twisted flesh. Like a coil, I burst forward in a flash of movement. The hurlocks eyes widened slightly, I rammed my knife under its chin, colliding with the monster with more force than I had expected. Instinct took over as twisted in the air, trying to avoid letting the metal armored Hurlock crash into the floor giving away our position. I smashed into the ground, somewhat muting the sound. The hurlock collapsed on top of me, unmoving. I froze as I focused on my hearing, trying to detect if anything had heard the short but brutal fight.

To my relief I heard nothing except the rest of my squad, Ivan pulled the hurlock off me and put him against a wall. It took a while to ease my heart and calm my breathing. Ivan gave me a hand and helped me up. I forced a grin at the others, “Well that is what I call a bloody rush” I whispered. The others chuckled softly.

After a few seconds, I felt good to go. Aviva asked me how I felt. I told her I felt fine and resumed walking down the tunnels. Then I started noticing bones, small animal bones, then larger more humanoid seeming bones. I picked up one of the bones to investigate it, rows upon rows of teeth marks were evident on the bone. I knew what that meant, deep-stalkers. I whispered a soft curse.

“What's wrong?” Eva softly whispered.

I clenched then unclenched my fists, “Deep-stalkers.” I answered just as softly. “Imagine velociraptors with the mouth of a lamprey eel. That can dig and camouflage itself to look exactly like a rock.”

I heard a few more muttered curses behind me, I didn't blame them. They had been easy opponents in the game, but if you looked up what they looked like and what they could do. Yea, definitely did not want to fight a whole pack of the things. That right there was the problem, the things only attacked if they had a major numerical advantage. Then they had poison, acid, and paralytic spit that they could shoot. I let the others know of their other abilities and they cursed once more, I heard Aviva murmer that she wished she had chosen heat vision goggles instead. Then Reg spoke up, “I brought heat vision, though it could be useful I have it in my backpack.”

Aviva nodded at him with appreciation and told him to put them on. I warned him not to rely on the goggles, the deepstalkers might be cold-blooded creatures after all. They did come from the reptilian family. I continued forward, eying every single rock with distrust. The danger was nearly palpable, the air got thicker, it even seemed darker despite my night-vision. My breathing became labored, the tension spread throughout my body. My muscles felt tight, I raised my weapon, peering through the scope. That's when it happened, movement. I froze, the others noticed and took up their formation.

A sudden roar caused my hairs to stand up. I twisted and looked at another entrance to the cave. Then another roar was sounded behind us. Aviva cursed and spun around, roars resounded through the tunnel system, heavy thudding footsteps crashed through the tunnels. I knew that sound, I was pretty sure. I swiveled my gaze around the cave, desperately looking for an exit. There was none. There were three entrances to this cave, and the fuckers were coming from all of them. “Back to back in the middle!” Aviva roared.

We listened to her command and rushed into the middle of the cave, I let out a series of curses under my breath. This was worse than deep-stalkers, much worse. The howls and screeches of a horde of dark-spawn was turning into a cacophony of terror. The harmonious sound of impending doom, “Fire-at-will!” Aviva roared.

I couldn't help it, I had to ask. “Who the fuck is will!” I heard the forced chuckles around me. I turned to Eva, “Eva! If we're fucked you run! Use that invisibility and survive as long as you can! We need those points!”

She grimaced, but nodded. She holstered her pistol and shouldered her rifle, aiming down the scope at an entrance. Then we saw it, the first of them. I muttered a curse, the horns, the armour, the sheer size. A mother-flipping Ogre, not a normal one of course. That would have been too easy, no this fucker right here was an alpha!

Eva did not hesitate she aimed down her scope, took a breath and fired. With an explosion of sound, the bullet left the rifle. The ogre jerked, blood splattered the wall, then it roared in anger. Other darkspawn flowing around it while it paused. Aviva roared another command, “Eva, Reg take that tunnel! Zoa on me! We take the one to their right, Ivan you take the left!” We shouted our agreement and took our position, they were still out of range for our guns, he tunnels stretched over a kilometer long. Our guns could reach but our effectiveness would fade. Eva kept firing as fast as she could, pulling back the bolt after every shot, the sound of bullets hitting the floor echoing through-out the cave.

Nine-hundred meters, eight, seven, six. I held my breath as they came closer Reginald Aviva and Ivan began firing at the six hundred meters. I felt the urge to open fire but knew that my sub-machine gun would be ineffective at this range. I tensed as I waited for the darkspawn to get closer. My finger started twitching close to the trigger, I had checked if I had the safety off six times. I felt the urge to check again, I controlled myself. Three-hundred, Two-hundred! They were within range, I aimed down my holo-scope and fired. The smash of recoil into my shoulder and hands familiar after the training. I kept my gun under control and fired in two round bursts, picking my targets. Aim for the chest, aim for the chest! I kept repeating the mantra as I fired at the oncoming horde.

The splashes of blood, turning into a red haze as the bullets tore into the enemy, Aviva had switched her rifle to automatic fire and was tearing into the enemy. I paced myself to her reload, waiting for a brief lapse in her fire to switch to automatic. Once she started firing again I took the opportunity to reload. I repeated the pattern, I briefly thought about how lucky Ivan was to not have to reload, he had a belt-fed Gatling gun, meaning an endless stream of bullets appeared from a pouch in his backpack. It looked odd, and I had no idea how that worked. I mentally shook my head as I focused on the task at hand. The snarling viscous darkspawn kept pushing forward, regardless of our efforts and wave of bullets.

Darkspawn corpses littering the floor, being stampeded upon by their savage brethren. They rushed forth like an endless tidal wave. Then there was a shift in ranks, genlocks came forward. Carrying insanely heavy and most importantly thick steel shields. They pushed forward, covering the rest of the darkspawn. My bullets could not penetrate the shields, with a clang they ricocheted off the shields and walls. I cursed, I remembered these genlocks from the third game in the series. I thought they wouldn't appear here. I loosed another series of curses.

I racked my brain trying to figure out what to do, I didn't know. I stared around at the rest of the group, frustration apparent on their faces. “Eva!” I yelled, “It's time!”

She shook her head, “Not yet, we can still fight more!”

“Eva!” Aviva's voice rang throughout the cave, “Now!” Anything else she might have wanted to say was overwhelmed by the screeches of the darkspawn, only to have those drowned out by the sudden resounding war-drums. The booming sound of the drums reverberated throughout the cave, I could feel the sound vibrating through my body, my hairs on end from the booms. I saw Eva shed her military clothing, activate the suit and disappear. I released a breath I didn't even know I was holding. I focused on the ever closing darkspawn, marching upon us, they almost managed to break through the entrance. Despite our short conversation we had not stopped firing, we now only managed to occasionally kill one of the spawn.

A hail of bullets met an endless tide of tainted bodies, eventually, the tide broke out of the entrance. That is where things truly went side-ways. They spread out through the cave, no longer in an easy to fire at kill-zone. We cursed and we kept on firing, I felt a tap on my shoulder that told me Eva was leaving. I grinned, the spawn would never notice. I roared my defiance at the oncoming horde, hearing the others do the same. In front of me, an Ogre came pounding towards me, not the alpha I had seen before but a regular one. I aimed at its head and pulled the trigger, a rain of lead exploded into the ogre's face, tearing it to shreds.

A crash from the side caused me to flinch, an ogre had broken through and had grabbed Reg. I cursed and turned to aim at the ogre. The ogre grabbed Reg's head in one of its massive hands, I heard muffled screaming as Reg desperately slammed his knife into its hand. With a howl of anger, the ogre squeezed., crushing Reg's skull. My insides were in turmoil, my blood froze in my veins as I watched the ruined corpse of my friend fall onto the floor. With a roar of anger I released a burst towards the monsters head, the bullets exploding into its skull spreading blood, flesh and bone across the horde behind it. Ivan, Aviva and myself were pressed back, we slowly retreated until our backs were against the wall. The slobbering mouths of the dark-spawn mere meters away.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, lady luck proved me wrong. Deepstalkers exploded from their hiding spots. They burst up from the ground, rushed through small holes in the wall and tore into the ranks of darkspawn. My brain was in shambles, I had no idea what the hell was going on. It made no sense for the deepstalkers to suddenly emerge, they were overall cowardly creatures. There were far too many of the spawn for it to make sense for them to attack. I had no time to further consider what happened as the Alpha ogre angrily charged towards our position. It threw or smashed anything that got in its way as it stampeded through the ranks. Ivan saw it coming and fired at it with his gatling gun, its inches thick armor plating strong enough to stop the bullets. Doing nothing but enraging the creature further.

It kept pushing forward, one of its massive armored arms in front of its face to protect its eyes. Aviva switched fire to the creature, it lowered its head and charged at us like a bull. I dove to the right, just in time to narrowly dodge one of its horns as it nearly gouged me. Ivan had not been so lucky. To my surprise, the russian had a manic smile on his face. I saw him pull the pin from a grenade and shove it in the ogre's mouth together with his hand. The ogre in a reflex bit down, the resulting blast of the explosion tore the creature into bits. The parts of its gore showering the hungry spawn with blood. Ivan to my great surprise was still alive, he was on his knees, growling at the enemy as he kept firing at them. Eventually, the spawn overwhelmed him and I saw him go down surrounded by a mass of the monsters.

Only me and Aviva were left, I was surprised that I was still standing to be honest. Perhaps the spawn had focused the ones with the heavier weapons. It made sense in a way I guess, an unusually ugly spawn charged at me, close enough that he could decapitate me with ease. To my surprise, a screeching deepstalker tackled him instead. Saved by monsters from monsters, now that is something else. I noticed that my thinking had gone from calm and focused to somewhat insane rambling. I always did that when I was on edge, don't know why. I shot a genlock trying to smash my leg with a mace. I think it's my defense mechanism, everyone does something right? I kick a hurlock who swung his greatsword at me, my enhanced leg crushing its ribs, smashing it into the ones behind him. Knocking them over like bowling pins.

Aviva was firing away, creepily calm under certain death. I admired that, she looked pretty hot covered in blood. Her dark hair and amber eyes sparkling as she murdered the shit out of evil. What a hero, a sexy one at that. What the fuck is wrong with me, I'm about to die and here I am getting a mother ffing hard-on? Her gun was ripped from her hands by a hurlock alpha, she snarled at the creature and rewarded his effort by jamming her knife into its eye. Another hurlock tackled her to the ground, she tore its throat out with her teeth. Damn this woman made killing look sensual, I mentally slapped myself. Get your shit together Zoa!

Aviva eventually stopped moving, spears rammed through her body. The spawn were converging on my location, my vector was torn from my hands and a sword was headed for my face. Then I was suddenly slammed into the floor. Something had pulled my legs out from under me, unintentionally prolonging my life. I felt rows of teeth piercing my enhanced leg, I glanced back and a stalker, an unusually large one was dragging me into a hole. I let the creature drag me, whatever was in the hole had to be a far-sight better than all the creatures up here. I winced in pain as the teeth tore through my skin, then I felt my stomach heave as I fell through the hole, slamming into the floor.

I blinked as I tried to regain my senses. The large deepstalker lunged for my head and I rolled away in the nick of time. I drew my knife and faced the creature snarling. It charged at me, I swung at it nicking the tip of its maw. It screeched in pain and backed off a bit, giving me the stink eye. I glared back at the creature and grinned in grim determination. I would delay my death by a minute or even a second if I could. The deepstalker charged me once more, this time I let it come closer. It went for my throat, I leaned back letting myself fall as the creature tried to tear a chunk of my flesh. Then I rammed my knife into its eye. The stalker collapsed onto my body, its heavy body connecting with my face, my head smashed into the floor and my vision went dark.