Underwater city, project U-T0. The underwater facility located somewhere in the pacific ocean, is the main research complex of Alliance. After the total annihilation of Hive, it was decided that underground facilities with only one way out were too dangerous, as experiments could still manage to slip through quarantine area. Therefore it was decided to create new facilities where no one could escape without special equipment. Such places were Earth orbit, moon and ocean depths. Reason for using underwater facility as the main research center was the cost effectiveness. While using more resources than average underground facilities, it still used much less resources than the ones orbiting Earth, and the moon facilities were still under construction. Nevertheless the underwater facilities were one of the most secure. “Unless we're talking about that one in active volcano. But it's not cost effective, not at all.” There however was a facility located in the muzzle of volcano “Which location I won't tell you-” which was located in Philippines. “Spoilsport.” But the amount of resources needed for it's maintenance were much higher than those of underwater facilities, coming close to the cost of orbital facilities of the same size. "Yeah, but moon facilities with matter fabricator are actually quite cheap, you know? The only troubles there are building the facility and getting new personnel. Also they have quite bad WI-Fi."

Currently Archie was going to meet with the Blanchett Fontaine, the person behind the new teleportation theory introduced back at 2020. But until 2024 he was not taken seriously by governments. But when he introduced his first short range teleportation device, he immediately made quite a lot of enemies, but also allies. "And if you're wondering if he's my target, then no. I already done with Cheng Sung. Quite notorious Chinese scientist behind the forced evolution." As Archie said, Cheng Sung was the one who started super soldier project. His experiments were unpredictable, volatile and extremely violent. "And the investigation is currently delayed, until the mutant threat is resolved."

"Finally!" Archie stepped off the submarine. "The so called Atlantis! OK, now, tell me where's my welcoming committee?"

"Welcome to the Utopia. You're the person we asked for, Crow?" It was one of the many aliases of Archie. In Chili he was known as Archie, in Europe he was known as Janus, for China it was Nexus and Alliance knew him as Crow.

"Yeah, that's me." Crow looked around the place. "So what's the mission? It was not specified in the briefing, but I was told to take my top combat gear. Not mentioning you hired Rhinos."

"I'm not authorized to tell you about the situation, therefore we are going to meet with the Captain O'Neil."

"Captain? What's she doing here?" Captain O'Neil, was very notorious Alliance commander, known for acts of extreme violence, going as far as wiping out whole city in order to kill rogue spec ops unit. "Oh speak of the devil."

"Crow." The source of the feminine voice that sent chills to anyone who knew of her. "Long time no see. Guess those bastards decided to spent hefty sum to get you."Considering that she was very muscular woman, who could put most bodybuilders to shame. She was using exo-suit specifically designed to met 300 kiloton bomb and leave mostly unscratched.

"Hi musclebrain. Haven't heard any news involving you for a while, thought you got killed somewhere."

"Hah! Those bastards prefer everything to be done secretly. You're probably a billionaire by now, with all those contracts they send you." she looked over Crow and smirked. "Still a cheapskate I see."

"No need for fancy suits if yours is not tattered." Crow smiled back. "But don't worry, This time it's war, so I got proper gear with me." he motioned back to the sub. "How about we spar after the contract? I'm going to kick your ass this time"

"Survive it first."

"What's the matter anyway? Why did your superiors enlisted us on this stuff? Don't tell me you found Cthulhu, I don't want to fight some sort of god."

"It's... not Cthulhu. You probably heard of Blanchett Fontaine?" Crow nodded. "Then you also heard of his theory. You can say that his theory was incorrect."

"How much?"

"As one of my subordinates said, it looks like 'Warp technology'." Crow had bewildered expression.

"Demons? We will actually fight demons? Damn, I knew it would something fun on the apocalypse, or judgment day, or whatever the shit those fanatics spouted, but actual demons?"

"Regretting agreeing to the contract?"

"HELL NO! It's demons! Say, you guys have chainsaw?"

"No. What's the stuff with chainsaw anyway? You're the fifth person asking me this." O'Neil never liked media, and always trained, being born into the survivalist family she was taught to survive in the wilderness. She is also a bookworm.

"Demons and chainsaw, or chainswords, come hand in hand. How am I supposed to be the demon menace without a chainsaw? It's like fighting zombies without machete and shotgun. But enough of that, let's go and get official briefing, shall we?" And so they moved to the meeting hall, where all the materials regarding the 'Warp' were.

Little did they know what that actually was. The phenomenon they classified as 'Warp' was actually a rift to another dimension, much like many science fictions described. The warp in the true meaning was supposed to open a trans-dimensional crack or hole, which could, with the help of specially designed beacons, allow the near instant transportation of materials through space. But what Fontaine failed to theorize is the possibility of something existing in the 'Warp'. Unfortunately for him, the, what humans decided to call, demons, were the original inhabitants of the 'Warp'. And they could easily locate the beacon signal and after locating said beacon they managed to enter the crack leading to earth. It ended in most of the section 8 being massacred, with section 7 and 9 being sealed off in order to delay the otherworldly invaders.

With Crow and O'Neil being in the meeting hall, as well as all the participants in operation 'Flood Gate' the briefing started.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"We are going in, kill some otherworldly stuff and get paid. That's the briefing. Enemies are unknown, strength and numbers unknown. The mercs are going through the section 9, the Alliance will go through section 7. Our goal is to locate the beacon and destroy it. Dr Fontaine was KIA, and with him and most of the data destroyed in the initial invasion of demons, the beacon is the reason they invaded, so we must destroy it, and any demons with it." that was the speech of O'Neil.

"Crush, kill and destroy! After the mission is complete, drinks are on me." Speech of Crow was much more effective, at least on mercenaries.

-0-0-0-

Crow POV

You ever dreamed for being the hero, savior of the world or some other shit like that? Must confess, I never wanted to be one, mostly because they tend to have little to no salary, constant fines and no private life. Why am I doing what I'm doing? Well, it's demons. If there's demons, zombies or some other fantasy stuff then count me in, even if it means being a hero, but as I'm getting paid for this mission, I'm not considered hero, right? The only thing I'm quite salty about is Alliance bastards decided to withhold information, so I couldn't grab a chainsaw. On the other hand I managed to 'convince' O'Neil about giving me minigun, if I can't rip and tear with chainsaw, I will rip and tear with minigun, though it's not the same.

"So, Crow, any orders towards my boys?" The shit eating voice of Payne is annoying as always. He has to be grinning under that helmet of his, just as usual.

"Your squad, your orders. I'll be the regular support on this mission, just as on any other mission involving you guys." This one is 3rd mission with Rhinos. I would gladly decline it, but the Big Boss, as we call our, well, boss, decided that me being here is 'good for morale', as I had no failed missions, yet.

"Got it, 'Lordship'." and about that nickname, it's the fault of boss, again. You see, I'm in charge of this mission. But I'm too lazy, so Payne is in charge, but I'm the independent one here. When he heard that it was supposed to be my time to shine, he decided to challenge me to the duel. It couldn't be considered a proper duel, as we were just beating the shit out of each other in VR, but nevertheless it was his loss. And now this bastard calls me 'Lordship', as I'm officially in charge, but gave him the authority to command troops, making him some sort of retainer of mine.

"So, what type of demons will we meet? I want the big ones using magic, with horns and hooves, maybe with tails and wings too." and... everyone's silent. "Come on guys! It's D-E-M-O-N-S! Demons! And we're on the underwater base! Just think that we're on Mars and enjoy yourselves." Do they even look at me?

"Hostile. 100 meters and closing in. Fire at will." poor demon, he doesn't stand a

"Chance?" I noticed something behind me and dashed right. "It's teleporting!" and it tried to punch me just after I dashed. Unfortunately for this moron I have a shotgun, so one shot in his face... Bastard teleported behind one of the rhinos, and ripped the poor idiot in half, while shouting something. Too bad that I already fired two shots at him in the meantime. The demon staggered, and nearby rhinos just riddled him afterwards.

"And we got a casualty. Not even ten minutes passed." I decided to come closer to what remained of it's body. It was all black, I mean had black blood, not skin, as there was little to no skin left.

"What are you doing idiot! This thing can be toxic!" talk about Payne in the ass.

"Yeah, yeah, got it mom." I came a bit closer and used the ripped off arm of the merc to poke this demon. Of course I poked it with the fleshy part of arm, not armored, as to see if it's blood could be toxic or otherwise harmful. Well it is harmful, considering that what's left of the skin and muscles start sizzling and boiling. "Well, you were right about it being toxic." I showed the hand I borrowed. "Looks like it's slow and painful death from acid and poison. See what happened to the hand after it was bathed in blood?" Good guys, no one even-

"{throws up}." one of the mercenaries vomited.

"You moron! Was it necessary?!" Payne. What a moron.

"Of course, or you thought I was going to use my hand? I'm psychotic, not stupid." I looked at the corridor from which demon came. "So how are we going to proceed? This fucker could teleport." after I asked that, Payne started ordering soldiers around. I decided to stay out of it, as I'm not a team player. One should know his weaknesses, and strengths, if one have them. In the meantime I checked my gear. The power armor on me was of new design, as well as the exo-suit I was in, but I couldn't confirm my looks. Actually what one call exo-suit is a proper power armor, but due to it's menacing looks, bulkiness and weight, it was decided to call it an exo-suit. The power armor is more of a skin-tight suit with medieval-looking armor over it, or high-tech fantasy armor. My weapons now consist of a 'borrowed' minigun, don't actually recognize this model, but it uses .308 bullets, 7.62 if you prefer military variation. Then I have a multi-chambered shotgun with 3 types of ammunition loaded, slugs, buckshot and explosive rounds, more akin to concussion grenades. Also LLC-41 multi-purpose energy rifle, as well as my RM-49 combat knives. Few grenades, one nuclear core in the exo-suit and a big-ass sword. Once I checked myself over, the Payne was done issuing orders.

With all that organizing out of the way, we were slowly creeping in the enemy territory. And I must say, it was not that hard. That teleporter was just one of a kind, probably some rare demon which decided to show off and get noticed. The regular demons were a bit less of a threat. Well, they could launch fireballs, were tough as nails and one was even flying, but flyer couldn't use that advantage of his properly, so he was shoot down quite quickly. Others were a bit more of a threat, and we got a few wounded from fireballs, and one dead idiot. Wear the fucking helmet! Otherwise the mission was easy so far, just take a stroll in the park, shoot humans and animals, in this case it was underdome and demons. After around an hour of running and gunning, we got to the gates of section 8.

"Hey, O'Neil? We're at the 8, where are you? O'Neil? Musclebrain?" oh come on! That would be quite anticlimactic if you were dead. "Anyone on the other end?"

"{Static}" And there are no one.

"Guess we're on our own. Let's continue our mission?” with a few grunts from mercenaries we moved out in the enemy territory.

Surprisingly demons were even weaker after we neared testing lab, either they threw all their forces to hinder our progress, or they were 'newborns'. Either case, it was easy dispatching them. The only problem was some sort of big bad demon, as he managed to kill two Rhino members and injure 10 more. By the time we came to the origin of demon invasion, if it could be called that, I was the only one covered in demon blood. What can I say, I love fighting in melee, despite my words that I would act as support. Strangely, the demon blood was either weak, or I was the abnormal one, as I had no troubles with it, or it was just that my armor was corrosion resistant and airtight. Power armor is great thing, especially exo-suits. My power armor have energy weapons and hidden blades, and exo-suit could use force enough to lift a 2 ton car. Minigun was almost out of ammo, considering how much this thing ate it was no surprise. Demon hides were highly resistant to bullets, but armor piercing bullets and energy weapons done wonders dispatching them.

"Hey, is that beacon?" I asked while taking some sort of rod in my hands.

"Probably. Should we destroy it?" looking at this beacon I almost hallucinated with dialogue wheel.

"Sure." And I hit it against the floor. Strangely, it worked.

But whatever happened after that is quite fuzzy, as next thing I saw was purple sky and charred ground. No rhinos in sight and a few of the demons I encountered at lab. There were total of 4 demons in front of me all had hooves and small horns on their heads, but I couldn't see their eyes, so I riddled them minigun, after which I had no more bullets in it and could without any consequences get rid of it.

“Yanno, I imagined hell a bit more differently. I guess that it's my responsibility to paint it in black.” I smiled while grabbing my shotgun in hands. “I really should have brought napalm. And chainsaw.”