The Cakemen had been waiting outside the complex for four days. They were waiting for the right timing, but the longer they waited, the more Lex’s men were growing anxious. It was a delicate operation. The compound has a complex system of heavily armed guards. There was no apparent gap in their rotation. A watch tower lorded over the area.

Those four days were grueling. The weather was terrible. Snow fell for hours on end, but they couldn’t move about freely to keep warm else they be spotted by the watch tower. In the end, they kept to their small snow dugouts, trying their best not to freeze to death.

Lex sat on watch, keeping track of the movements of the guards through the telescope and infrared feature of his military grade meta-link. He was glad that he had invested in heat cloaking material for his men’s equipment to prevent the guards from doing the same. It was expensive and hard to get a hold of, but after all the stealth missions they had undertaken, it proved well worth it.

As he watched, he felt himself grow grateful to his men for putting up with his selfish desires. Most of their missions into the USCU held little profit. They could earn a little from people requesting their family members to be brought over to New Poland, but most of their income came from guarding private companies or state sponsored missions that usually involved fighting in skirmishes with the USCU. That made it easier to pick up the volunteer work.

This mission in particular profited them even less than usual and held substantially more risk. They had never delved this deep into USCU territory. They were deep in Siberia, and it made the men tense. That his twenty-four men came with him on such a suicide mission showed how much faith they put in Lex.

Pandora. It had always been an elusive organization. Only those in the right circles knew about it, and those that did could only guess at their links to the USCU. The rumor mill said they kidnapped kids off streets and experimented on them until they died. The scientists at Pandora were said to be some kind of evolvist fanatics, striving to discover the way humans were meant to involve by looking especially at genetic mutations. As such, many children with different mutations were taken, some speculated even into the thousands. Some even thought that the abduction of Alicia Whitehill nine years ago had been the work of Pandora, maybe even through the influence of the USCU.

Lex had a soft spot for children, and with every mission into the USCU, it only grew. Anyone who hurt a child was a monster, and he wouldn’t let them go unpunished. When he received a location pin that was in the middle of the Siberian wasteland, he could only come up with three possibilities as to why. A secret prisoner of war concentration camp, a very complex and difficult to preform prank, or the all elusive Pandora. He had a hunch it was the third, and he was willing to risk it all if children were involved.

And yet, even with this risk, his men still followed him. It caused a lump in his throat. When he offered his gratitude, his men brushed it off. Mevin, his second, even said with a laugh, “Well, if it happens to be Pandora, we could always sell off the location and whatever else we find to the highest bidder. It’d make all of this jecking cold worth it.”

Lost in his thoughts, Lex was startled when lights began flashing in the compound. The guards moved quickly, but almost with confusion. At first, Lex thought they had been discovered, but then he became confused as several rushed inside.

Something’s happening in there, he thought. He watched for a few seconds more, then stood up.

“The guards are distracted. Here’s our lucky break, you roats. Grab your stuff. We’re headed in,” he said over their closed-circuit meta-link transceiver. He watched as his men clambered out of their dugouts. They checked silent guns and loaded cartridges, snapped on rapid vibrating bayonets, and secured their poly carbon fiber armored-skins. They looked to Lex and nodded, then moved all as one towards the complex.

The guards remaining outside went down without a sound. They quietly slipped in and immediately came to an intersection. Lex signaled that they should split up. Traveling down the long hallways, they took down every guard they came across with silent precision. The longer they remained unnoticed, the greater chance they had of getting out alive with the target of rescue.

“Hime,” Mavin said over the link. He was in a different group than Lex.

“I told you not to call me that. Who wants to be called something that means ‘princess’ of all things,” Lex responded as his group turned a corner.

“Hime, just listen. You mentioned earlier that we should take out the security feed room if we came across it. It went worse than we thought. We caught them by surprise, but they acted fast and barricaded the door. There was eight, but it looks like we only managed to take down two. They got David and Oliver, and Venny is hurt pretty bad. It’s probably safe to assume they know about us now.”

Lex gritted his teeth. “Alright, full force then. No holding back. Try to keep Venny alive if you can, but prioritize your own lives. I don’t want anyone else dying one me.” Several guards rushed at them. He grunted in annoyance and waved his group forward.

“Yes, Hime,” his men responded.

“Shut it,” he said while pushing his bayonet through a guard’s heart. “Venny, you hanging it there?”

“Yeah. They got in a shot at my stomach, but I can handle it. Thanks, Hime. You know I hate being a burden,” Venny laughed weakly.

“Try not to die. I’ll treat you to some cake if you make it.”

Venny laughed. “I’ll be holding you to it, Hime.”

“Mevin, I’m punching you after this for that ridiculous nickname.” Mevin laughed. Lex motioned his group to move forward once more. They passed by the corpses of the guards they had just met. Please be alive, he thought as he sent a message. He grew anxious as minutes passed. Then, a location ping popped up on his link. He grinned.

“Alright, you roats. We got our target location. This is where the real fun starts.”