Damien watched as Kat’s silhouette disappeared down the dim corridor toward the center of the building where the outside light barely penetrated. The 3D projection in the corner of his sight told him he was on the south end of the second floor, and by rotating it slightly, he deduced that the stairwell beside him would provide the shortest path to the control room.

With a clear route in sight, he took off at a hurried pace. Fractured light beamed in through the grimy, half-broken windows, tainting the path with a dirty beige tint. With each step he took, small clouds of dingy air curled out from under his feet all the way up to his nose.

Man… I wish the dust of all things wasn’t so realistic.

Keeping a close watch on the projection, he confirmed that it was updating his location in real time as he made his way up the stairs and on to the third floor. From here, three separate corridors made themselves available to him, just as shown on the overlay. Each aisle could take him to his destination, but only one held the shortest path.

He stepped forward towards the first corridor and glanced around the corner. Just like on the lower floor, the light coming in from the windows didn’t reach far. Most of the ceiling lights above had been trashed completely, and the few that remained flickered on and off with a weak, dying pulse. Still, it appeared to be empty, and with no enemies in sight, he cautiously stepped into the first passage.

Creeping deeper toward the center, a pair of voices slowly became more and more audible. He slowed his pace until he reached an intersection between two halls, and the conversation became clearer.

“I’m telling you, man, we can’t trust them.” A deep voice said. “Those fuckers are gonna backstab us the first chance they get.”

“Ain’t that the truth.” The other replied. “We just gotta stab their backs first.”

With his nerves beginning to spike, Damien gripped his katana tightly. The voices came from the right, but the path to the control room was to the left. If I go left, they might spot me and shoot. He thought to himself. Or worse, they might alert the others. Should I go right and take them out first?

“Anyways,” the deeper voice said. “I’m gonna go and get a look at him for myself. I wanna see the son of a bitch with my own eyes.”

“Try not to fall in love.” The other said with a chuckle. “I’ll come around once I’m done installing that upgrade module on my gun.”

Heavy footsteps slammed into the ground, making it clear that they were moving out. Damien listened intently and noticed that the sounds of one pair of footsteps trailed off, while the other became louder. They’re splitting up, and one of them’s coming my way.

I’d like to strike now and catch the closer one off-guard, but I can’t confirm that the other one is actually gone… Best to play it safe.

He took a few steps back and clutched his weapon as he pressed himself tightly against the wall. A moment later, a bald figure appeared from around the corner, his gaze focused intently on a bright tablet screen that he held in his hand. The man thumbed through the tablet as he continued walking forward, unaware of Damien’s presence.

A quick visual scan of the target triggered a small window to appear above the man’s head.

Skulls Solider

Level: 1

Weapons: ?

Armor: ?

The window swiftly vanished when the man disappeared around the corner. Damien waited a short moment after the Skull advanced to step forward. Peaking around the corner to his right, he saw that no one was there. The other man had left.

A notification popped up abruptly.

Call from Kat.

Answer - Cancel

The alert caught him off guard. How was Kat calling him? He chose the Answer option, and Kat’s voice played clearly in his head. “Yo, you in there yet?”

Damien kept his voice down as he spoke. “How did you-”

“Don’t worry about that.” She said in a hushed tone. “I’ll explain later, are you in the control room?”

“Not yet. I ran into a few of them and opted to take cover.”

Kat snorted. “We don’t have all day, cupcake. You should probably make use of that weapon I gave you. Don’t be a pansy.”

She sure has a way with words… Damien thought.

“I’ll keep the comm channel open for now.” She said. “Let me know when you’re done on your end.”

“Got it.”

Despite the unnecessary name-calling, Kat had a point. This was his chance to get a surprise attack off, and he couldn’t let the opportunity slip.

With his mind made up, Damien turned left and crept forward toward his target. The Skull member continued walking ahead, and Damien tried his best to keep his footsteps quiet as he advanced. Once the distance had been closed to only a few feet, the enemy stopped abruptly, and his head began to rotate.

Damn! He heard me!

Without hesitation, Damien lunged forward and swung his katana with a wild hack. The enemy swerved backwards, but the blade caught his arm, ripping it cleanly off. Wires dangled loosely from the mangled limb.

“Who the fuck’re you?” The bald man barked as he reached for his holster with the remaining arm. Damien rushed in, and swiped the gun out of the man’s hand, knocking it to the ground with a clang.

Damien stepped forward once again and used his whole body to deliver a forceful slash. The blade connected cleanly with his opponent, and he felt the weight of the steel cut straight through the target’s chest, unleashing a spray of blood and dropping him to the ground.

I wasn’t as sneaky as I’d hoped, Damien thought as he looked down at his fallen enemy.

For a moment, he considered hiding the body but ultimately decided against it. There was no time to waste, and his destination was just up ahead.

A few paces later, he reached the control room, and much to his relief, it was unlocked. Inside the small room, a large table topped with a mess of papers and small machines took up virtually the entirety of the space. A collection of screens just above the mess all connected to the single laptop on the table.

That must be the main controller, Damien thought. He pulled out the small electronic stick that Kat had given him and placed it into one of the sockets on the side of the laptop. A black window immediately popped up on the laptop screen, flooding it with an indecipherable sequence of letters and numbers. At the bottom, a progress bar quickly filled up.

Kat’s voice came to life in his head. “You in yet?”

“Yeah.” Damien said. “I’m uploading the virus now.”

“Good. Just give me the word.”

As he waited for the upload to complete, Damien observed all the technology that had been laid out across the table. It all looked like high tech machinery, but one item in particular caught his attention: a small, silver brick that took up half the size of his palm. As he held his gaze on the brick, an overlay appeared beside it.

Basic Upgrade Module Used to upgrade standard weapons and gear.

The description brought a wide smile to his face.

Might as well take it, he thought to himself as he pocketed the item. I wonder what kind of upgrades I can get with this…

He turned his attention back to the laptop and watched as the progress bar steadily filled up. Once it hit 100%, an alert popped up stating that the application had completed successfully. He withdrew the stick and placed it back in his pocket. “All done here, Kat.”

The communication line ended abruptly without a reply. A second later, the familiar sound of gun shots filled the building.

Guess she doesn’t waste time… I’ll leave the rest to her.

Damien exited the control room and made his way back along the route he’d entered from. To his surprise, the explosions of gunfire didn’t startle him like before; he’d already gotten used to them.

As he walked, he heard the rhythms of gunfire change suddenly. The less frequent blasts of pistol began to drown out, replaced by the the booming rings of nonstop automatic fire.

That has to be the turret machine gun. Damien thought. Did the virus not work?

Another call came in from Kat, and when he answered, the relentless sounds of bullets clashing into metal greeted him.

“Hey, Damien,” Kat said, her voice barely audible over the gunfire. “I think I’m gonna need some help down here.”