Area 12 - Engage!!

The Onslaught

The air in the Chimera lab turned electric, the literal smell of ozone clashing with the iron tang of fresh blood.

"Break contact! Rearward move, now!" Sheridan’s voice was a whip-crack, cutting through the mechanical whirr of the constructs. "Vance, Hudson, get that portal open! Move, move, move!"

The squad didn't hesitate. They shifted into a fighting withdrawal, boots skidding on the slick floor as they funneled toward a heavy reinforced side door. But the Chimera wasn't content to let its 'raw materials' walk away.

The lead construct’s GAU-19 began its predatory cycle—a low, mechanical growl that vibrated in the soldiers' teeth. Simultaneously, the second horror—the one with the hydraulic jaw-arm—lunged with terrifying speed.

"Contact front! Left flank closing!" Hudson yelled, his rifle up, but the beast was already on him. The hydraulic claw snapped shut inches from his tactical vest, the metal teeth grinding together with a sound like a car crusher.

"Get off him!" Frosty roared, unleashing a rhythmic burst from his LMG. The 7.62mm rounds chewed into the creature's stitched torso, sending grey, bloodless flesh spraying across the lab benches. It staggered, but it didn't fall. It didn't even scream.

To their right, the third construct began to arc. Purple-white lightning danced between the capacitors fused to its ribs, jumping to the nearby metal sequencing equipment. The air began to hum with a lethal charge.

"Suppressing fire! Paint 'em red!" Sheridan commanded, her L85A3 barking in three-round controlled pairs.

The squad opened up in unison. A wall of 5.56mm lead slammed into the monsters. Bullets tore through muscle, shattered bone, and sparked off the integrated machinery, but the constructs kept coming. They moved like puppets pulled by wire—staggering under the kinetic force but showing zero physiological shock.

The Grenade

"Door's hot! We’re through!" Vance screamed, slamming his shoulder into the side door and holding it open.

"Go! Go! Go!" Miller shouted, providing overwatch as Hudson and Somers scrambled into the darkness beyond.

Jane was the last one at the threshold. Behind her, the GAU-19 hit full centrifugal speed. BRRRRRRRRRRT. The first .50 caliber rounds slammed into the doorframe, missing Jane’s shoulder by inches. The impact didn't just chip the wall; it vaporized chunks of concrete, showering her in a blinding spray of grit and splinters.

"Frag out!" Jane roared.

She didn't throw it like a baseball; she kept it low, a professional underarm bowl that sent the L109A1 High Explosive grenade skittering across the blood-slicked floor, right into the path of the advancing GAU-19 construct.

She dove through the doorway just as the world turned into a white-hot roar. The pressure wave slammed the heavy door shut behind her, the sound of the explosion muffled by the thick steel, followed immediately by the discordant screech of twisted metal and the sudden silence of the machine gun.

Into the Dark

Jane scrambled to her feet, coughing out a lungful of dust. She was in a narrow, unlit maintenance corridor. The only light came from the dancing red tactical lasers of her team as they scanned the new environment "Status report! Everyone whole?" she hissed, checking her own limbs.

"I’m green, Ma'am," Miller whispered back, his voice tight. "But those things... Captain, those rounds should have dropped a rhino. We're just poking holes in them."

"They aren't running on biology anymore, Sergeant," Jane replied, clicking a fresh magazine into her rifle with a metallic snick. The blue and red highlights in her hair were now coated in grey concrete dust. "They're running on whatever Stenn has left in that server. Vance, find us a floor plan. We need to find the 'brain' of this place before they reset their breakers."

She looked back at the door. The steel was dented outward, the heat of the explosion already radiating through the metal.

"Move fast," she ordered. "That grenade just bought us a minute. I don't intend to waste it."