“Move it people!”

As Mike and his team move to a point of fire in the large room, the second half of his squadron rushed into the large underground facility and broke off to the two most frontal turrets. A large thunderous noise had been emanating from the single metal shutter that led deeper into the facility, and not fifteen seconds ago did the large screen above it activate showing a two-minute countdown.

Waiting for the second team took one-minute thirty. Only thirty seconds remained for them to get prepped for a possible assault on their position.

“That thing is going to open any second!” Corporal Richard shouted as the booming on the door suddenly stopped and silence filled the room.

As the group aimed their rifles at the large door, a thunderous crash emerged shaking the entire room. A large dent had formed in the door and Mike stood back up from the sudden shock. He slowly moved to Lieutenant Bishop who was manning the front-left turret and he patted the junior officer’s shoulder.

“Keep that turret up. Watch those fields of fire.”

“Ready!”

A second shockwave shook the room as a bright pulse burst through the door and a large being stumbled out catching its footing. A gentle white light surrounded what looked to be a sentient ghoul or zombie; its charred, rotten skin exposed internal organs and pieces of bone and blood coated every inch of skin. The light suddenly turned into a deep green as the being turned directly towards Mike with a burning glare.

“I finally get to use this thing! Time for you to die!”

The staff sergeant froze in place. The monster had just spoken.

As the monster stood the eight shooters, the reports of their weapons cracked, and a hail of bullets slammed into the monster cutting holes through its chest and spouting blood all over the ground. Before any of them had the time to reload, a green mist circled the monster and slowly began to stitch the wounds gained back together.

“What the fuck!?” Richard shouted as he moved to the back of the room. The monster was now focused on him.

“The mist came from the tank on the back!” Agent Jorge announced running alongside the corporal as the monster slowly chased them while swinging his hands with sharp talon-like claws.

With the monster at the back of the room, Mike aimed his rifle and took a precise shot at the tank, but the bullet barely made a scratch as it ricochets and landed in the brick wall nearby. Half of his team maneuvered around the large monster in the confined environment using the lab equipment to temporarily the monster. The staff sergeant’s heart skipped a beat as Richard just barely dogged one of the talons that tore through the brick wall above him. This was beyond the skill and capabilities of his squadron, but he would be damned if Raven got away before they had the chance to eliminate him.

“Lecca! Any chance you can negate that thing?” Mike shouted over the chaos as the monster, now named “Ripper” by Richard, tore through the central tower making it collapse to the ground and shaking the entire arena.

“No, it’s mechanical! Not magic!” She responded making the man click his tongue in frustration.

Observing the situation as his men scrambled around for their lives, Mike analyzed the situation and thought quickly. He leaped down from the turret stand he and Lieutenant Bishop were at and sprinted forward leaving the silver-haired princess confused. She herself watched what the staff sergeant was doing as he quickly raised his rifle and shot the head of the Ripper three times pulling the attention of the monster onto himself.

For everyone else, he was making a suicide move, but the princess aimed to exploit the monster’s attention on her Reclaimer.

“Turrets! Aim for the tank on the back, destroy it!” She ordered moving parallel to Mike as he ran across the room. She aimed her bolt-action rifle and aimed downed the iron sights with the intention of firing the weapon.

The wooden weapon dropped onto the ground.

A familiar white colored, gold embroidered, lever-action rifle sat neatly into her hands.

It had been forever since she last materialized a weapon, something that would use her nullification magic. She aimed the rifle at the tank and slowly exiled as the weapon sway became minimal. The screams of the turrets firing a barrage of bullets into the tank had made the monster slow and swing his arms around as he tried to hide the large object healing him, but as the princess slowly squeezed the trigger, a bullet of pure mana pierced one of the four large tubes hanging on the tank cutting it in half and spreading the green mist into the arena.

Taking a breath, Lecca tried to adjust the seal on her mask, but it was negligible as the Ripper let out an ear-piercing screech staggering everyone in the room.

“Keep it up!” Mike bellowed as he caught his breath and began to run once more as the Ripper had decided to target Lieutenant Bishop who had gotten off the turret to save his own life.

“Turret’s overheated!” The lieutenant cried as he just narrowly avoided the swipe of the monster as it hit the ammo belt on the gun rendering it disabled until another belt was fed into it. The lieutenant quickly moved alongside McCann as they grabbed a nearby box of ammunition and took it to the turret across the room.

More gunfire emerged from the riflemen below as they did a considerable amount of damage to the Ripper. The lack of the single tube prevented an adequate amount of mist from dispersing and healing the more critical wounds that marred his legs and chest. The Ripper was now moving sluggishly letting Mike’s squadron move around with ease as they kept their distance from the large monster.

“God damn Federation Agents!” The Ripper cursed in a distorted voice as he began to spit saliva all over the arena.

“Turret is up!” Bishop announced as he cocked up the gun and readied himself for the target to run into his field of fire.

“I’ve had enough of you all!”

As the monster stood back up on his feet, Lecca was the designated target. With his red eyes, the monster charged with a limp. The princess sprinted down the room as the monster slammed into the wall sending debris all around where he stood. She continued to run along the perimeter with the Ripper on her tail, she only had a few seconds to end up in the kill-zone set up by the lieutenants before she was cut to shreds.

Breaking for the center and sliding underneath the collapsed center tower, the Ripper exposed its back to Bishop letting the lieutenant destroy the second tube with a hail of bullets. It took exactly fifty rounds to cut through the thick material it was made out of, but it provided an opening as the Ripper staggered and dropped to his knees.

As the green mist once more flooded the arena, the rest of Mike’s fireteam moved closer as they unloaded more bullets directly into the head of the Ripper tearing off chunks of flesh and spreading crimson blood all over the ground. As the third tube funneled more of the mist onto the wounds and the Ripper stood up, the monster quickly and unstably rushed towards the turret where Bishop was and threw his entire body into the weapon crushing it and the operator within a mere second.

“Lieutenant!” Mike cried out as he moved to the side.

“Someone, pull him away from the turret!” Richard ordered as McCann rushed over and redirected Mike from running straight at the monster.

“You son of a bitch!” The staff sergeant bellowed.

“Corporal, get on the next turret! We’ll have to take both tubes out at the same time!” Lecca instructed as she began to run to an elevated position on the center tower.

Gunfire peppered the Ripper as he was drawn towards Agent Levin. The OMFS field agent was up next and hastily guided the monster away from where Lieutenant Bishop had been crushed allowing both Mike and McCann to access the area. “C’mon! That all you got?” The agent taunted as he ditched his weapon choosing to focus on running ahead to the next kill-zone.

As the agent ran interference with the Ripper, Mike slid under a piece of rebar and a large stack of rubble as he reached the point where Bishop was standing. He quickly looked around searching for the lieutenant, and as he found the junior officer, his heart froze as he stood in above the man that was laying against the ground.

“Boss.” The lieutenant chocked out.

The mangled body of the turret was well lodged into the chest of Lieutenant Bishop. Blood and body matter were scattered where he landed, and a stream of blood pooled down the side of his head. His armor had been torn to shreds and the clothing that remained was mixed in with the gaping wound in his torso. The younger man took his bent hand and covered his wound trying to hide the embarrassment that was plastered on his face.

“Don’t worry about me. Go kill that fucking monster.” He ordered reaching out his free hand with a plastic explosive sitting in his palm. He shoved the explosive into McCann’s chest and nodded at his squadron leader as he lowered his hand and took steady, slow breaths.

Tapping Lieutenant McCann on the shoulder, Mike turned around swiftly raising his rifle towards the Ripper. Keeping the reticle steady on the back of the Ripper, the staff sergeant located a spot where he could place the plastic explosive to maximize the amount of damage done.

“Disable that fucking tank!” Mike barked over his radio as he marched forward moving in between the scattered debris that littered the arena.

“Suppressing!”

Firing their weapons in succession, McCann, Richard, and Levin shot bullet-after-bullet as they aimed to provide an opening for Lecca and the corporal to eliminate the final two cylinders. The damage done by each shot was counteracted by the remaining mist that hastily exited. The mix of the green mist and red blood painted an unsettling picture, and Mike was about to run directly into the hell that had taken Bishop out of action.

The Ripper screamed in pain as the unrelenting hail of bullets tore through his body and the mist healed it at the same time. He only had a few seconds to turn and eliminate the shooters firing at him, and once he did, he snapped his head backwards as he heard the cocking of a rifle.

“Bingo.” A bell like voice echoed in his ears.

A sharp noise emerged from the Ripper’s back tank and a second hail of bullets cut open the remaining cylinder causing the rest of the green mist to scatter onto the ground and evaporate within seconds. Shrapnel and metal shards fell to the ground and a sudden, agonizing pain emerged from the Ripper’s legs and he fell to the ground while screaming his lungs out. As he thrashed on the ground, an opening was presented to Mike as he held the plastic explosive in both of his hands.

“Plant the fucking bomb!”

Reacting to the voice that barked at him over the radio, the staff sergeant lunged forward and made a suicidal break for the exposed skin on the back of the Ripper. He was playing with his life. His fireteam began to take potshots at the monster’s head attempting to keep it distracted as their squadron leader raced to plant the explosives. As rummaged and crawled his way over the toxic, and deteriorating skin of the Ripper, Mike worked through the sludge as he found an opening where the spine was exposed, and he activated the explosive charge before jumping off and sprinting for his life towards the others.

The rest of the squadron took cover behind whatever they could find be it a ruble of bricks or a small wall. Nike hopped behind a pile of rubble and kept his body low on the ground, he just laid next to the princess. Upon realizing that everyone had reached a minimum safe distance, which wasn’t far considering the size of the room, Lieutenant McCann activated the detonator as he spoke a single word through his radio.

“Flicker!”

Lieutenant Bishop let out a crude laugh as he dug his hand into the gaping wound in his chest.

In an instant the entire room was devoid of noise as the explosive detonated. A thick cloud of smoke, blood, and embers made it near impossible to see more than a single foot ahead, and the vibrations and shockwave sent tremors throughout the entire underground laboratory.

A layer of dust covered the squadron as they slowly adjusted to the new environment. Mike found himself supporting his body on the rubble next to him as he slowly raised himself off the ground. He held his protected ears when he could as the ear pros, he had on did little to stop the volume of an explosion so close to him. Taking deep breaths through his mask, he patted down is body trying to determine if he was injured from the blast.

In an instant he noticed Princess Lecca stumbling to her feet. Before she could collapse to her knees, the staff sergeant grasped her torso and held her in both of his arms. He whispered in her ear and only gained a light nod. The two separated silently as the others stirred from their positions on the ground.

Mike slowly raised his hand and activated his goggles. The blue augmented HUD was now displayed before him. Flipping a switch on the side of the goggles, it took but a single second for the thermal imaging package to be painted in a white-hot overlay. He scanned the area spotting the still warm chucks of flesh that had not been completely eviscerated by the explosive. Taking a deep breath as he realized that the Ripper was finally dead, the staff sergeant returned to searching for Lieutenant Bishop in the vain hope that he was still alive.

“Everyone okay?” Lecca shouted over the confusion.

“Yup!”

“Really!?”

“Now you’re asking that?”

The three voices of Richard, Jorge, and McCann said simultaneously.

“Good to go, boss!”

Going silent, the entire squadron turned around to the person that called out last.

A whisper escaped McCann’s mouth, “Bishop?”

The lieutenant was standing in front of the remaining seven riflemen. The junior officer stood before them with a gaping hole in his chest that was overflowing with a unknown black sludge. Lecca froze at the sight. Stepping forward with no problem whatsoever, the lieutenant racked his machine pistol and checked its magazine.

“I’m still going to die; I just extended my life with a bit of dark magic.” Lamenting in a soft voice, the golden-haired man looked up with a smile. He had accepted his fate. All he did was push it back just a bit longer.

“What the fuck?”

Richard was beyond bewildered by the situation. No one, especially the corporal expect to see Bishop up wand walking like nothing had happened to him.

Deactivating his goggles Mike walked over, his expression hidden behind the mask he wore. “You still a shooter?” His words were short and to the point. It was obvious he did not want to dwell on the timer that the lieutenant had just announced without a single ounce of worry or remorse.

“Yes, staff sergeant.”

“Stay behind us.” He said turning to the metallic door and stepping in front of it with his squadron following close behind.

As they slowly entered the darkened hall that the now deceased monster revealed, the group stayed in a single line as they walked down the claustrophobic environment. The silence was overbearing, but it wasn’t enough to distract the riflemen as they continued further in. As they grew closer to the next section, the sounds of computers beeping alerted the eight to a possible enemy presence.

“Allen “Ripper” Gold, eliminated.”

A strong mechanical voice echoed throughout the pitch-black hallway. Then a second voice entered the intercom.

“I thought the entrance was blocked off. We have intruders?”

“Confirmed, OMFS agents, detected.”

“Fucking hell. Agents, I know you can hear this. Fuck off and die, would you?” The man was annoyed by what had happened to the Ripper, and he cut himself short on the intercom leaving the eight to continue moving in the pure darkness.

Reaching the end of the hall, a set of tunnels was revealed. The group seemed to be entering through a maintenance area to the underground train network, but something felt off. Heavy amounts of dust covered everything and the few lights that illuminated the dark environment flickered in and out as they struggled to stay alive.

At the end of the final hall, a security and quarantine gate blocked the only entrance to a stairwell that led deeper underground. Watching Lieutenant McCann and Corporal Richard approach the gate, the rest of the squadron waited in silence as the two opened the single door on the gate sending a sharp echo down the stairs and into the deep abyss below.

Moving forward without a word, the two fireteams split off on either side of the stairwell and proceeded without hesitation. Their weapons were raised and trained at the hall that led to another doorway.

There, a shadow moved.

Six bullets ripped through the air at the target. A man dropped to the ground screaming in pain as he held his legs, a small pistol laid by his side. Activating the flashlight attached to the end of his rifle, Richard led the way as he steadied the bright light showing room just ahead.

“One down.” McCann said keep his sub-machine gun aimed at the man rolling in pain on the ground.

“Go for flash.” Mike ordered as he passed an unusual stun grenade to Lieutenant Bishop.

Priming the stun grenade and tossing it into the room, Mike activated his goggles and polarized his visor as a single bright flash emerged from the grenade along with a thunderous noise which echoed throughout the tunnels and hallways.

Moving forward and peeling left, Richard used his flashlight to scan the room until he crossed over an armed individual who was just recovering from the flash. In the blink of an eye, he snapped his rifle to the target and fired three bullets into the man’s chest and pelvis making him drop the to the ground, dead. The corporal watched the dead body through his polarized goggles. His eyes narrowed at the shotgun the identified man had.

Looking at the corner of his goggles, Richard swiped a magazine from his plate carrier and replaced the one that was in his rifle. Then slinging his weapon on his chest, the young corporal knelt and took the shotgun from the deceased man taking what ammunition there was in the man’s jacket totaling twenty four shells.

“Corporal?” Lecca asked softly as she walked over keeping her lever-action rifle aimed at the door just ahead of Richard.

“I like to keep this for close encounters.”

“Right, you’re on point.”

Walking ahead to the door, Mike moved on the right side as the other team secured the longer hallway. With Richard taking his place, the staff sergeant moved to the other side of the door and firmly readied himself. Trying the knob, the door was apparently locked and the men waited for Mike to make his next move.

Moving in front of the door and using his right leg, a single kick near the handle was all it took for the door to break open. Stepping hastily to the side, Mike watched as Richard and Jorge entered the room.

“Entering main hall. Both connect to your room.”

Hearing Bishop’s voice over the radio, the team continued forward with Mike following short behind his teammates. On the other side of a wall with large vents at the top, Mike heard the other members of his squadron moving on the others side. Guiding themselves on a sharp corner, gunfire erupted from the other side of the wall and bullets sped past the team as Bishop and McCann engaged hostiles on the other side of the wall. Feminine screams emerged and upon turning the corner with their weapons raised, Mike’s team spotted a dead gunman and a single female mage with a casting book in her bloodied hands.

“Clear!”

“Move up!”

In a synchronized movement, the eight pilled to the only door that proceeded deeper into the metro tunnels. The dusty air made it hard to see in the low light environment but there was just enough light to see the warning painted on the doorway. “Restricted area” it read provided a foreboding feeling to everyone present.

Moving swiftly and placing a small charge on the doorway, McCann moved to the side with the detonator in his hand.

“Element of surprise is no longer with us, expect anything.” The lieutenant said over the radio.

“Go for breach.”

“Flicker.”

A bright light emerged from the metal door as the mana crystal held within the charge burned out and melted away the lock. Within a single second a small dust cloud disturbed the dust around as the door was thrown off its hinges and into the next room.

One-by-one the squadron entered a pitch-black hallway. Only small pockets of red lights illuminated small sections of the large, empty feeling corridor they had just entered. Stalking through the red lights, the team moved swiftly aiming to find their target before he fled deeper into this abyss.

“Two pathways.”

Richard eyed the next upcoming area with a healthy amount of suspicion.

“Same room. Look’s to be some kind of energy management facility.” Jorge commented passing by the many switches and cooling fans that littered the hall.

“Boss!”

The sudden call of Lieutenant McCann snapped everyone forward to the call of his voice. Keeping their weapons at the ready, the seven slowly moved forward to the end of the hall where the path divergence laid. Covering each side, the squadron covered the junior officer as he fiddled with his flashlight trying to reactivate it.

“Lieutenant?” Mike asked as he moved up next to McCann.

Smacking his flashlight and turning it on, the first thing Mike saw was a pool of blood on the ground.

“You’re going to want to see this.”

Looking up from the reflective puddle on the ground, Mike held his breath as he saw a splatter of red covering the wall and in the center a picture of pure horror; pinned to the wall and hanging if as nailed to a cross, a naked, deceased woman stared at the eight with lifeless eyes. Bugs and maggots crawled all over her skin trying to lay eggs in her orifices. The uneasy stench of iron and feces made it hard to stand nearby.

Through his goggles, Mike could see the remaining thermal heat that the body held.

All life had long faded away.

His mouth parted and no word escaped. He didn’t know what to say, not that anything he had in mind would be appropriate to share to his teammates.

This was once a hunt for a terrorist. The mission had had changed. This was a hunt for a demon.

It didn’t matter if Raven was once a hero.

A shadow had covered the Federation, and the dead were waiting to reclaim their lands.

Publicly Available Information: Intercepted Transmissions — An offer:

“Normally I would like to hold meetings face-to-face but there is no guarantee which way you will react to an agent of the OMFS suddenly showing up on your doorstep. You and I both know that both the Federation of Zivaland and the Kingdom of Yondel won’t last another day under the current circumstances that this world has been thrown into. There’s nothing stopping the most feral of men from stepping out of line and creating their own societies. But me? Oh, I’m going to make the best of this very moment. Do you know how many people died to get here? How many were lost within the Frontier and beyond? In order to prosper people like me need to give up the oaths we previously held. I have already done it. Everything I once stood for, I disavowed! I’m giving up everything! Those people, they don’t care! Common sense was long abandoned, there is nothing left to protect or save! There are no demons or saints in this world, just men that are willing to go to the extremes for survival. All the heinous shit you’ve done, it’s just the beginning of the deconstruction of this world. You know this to be true, contact me when you’ve thought about this… Admiral Martian is trying to fix all this, but he’s not going to make it in time. I’ll catch you around at the usual place…”