Location: Terra Colony Andromeda
North Sector - Outpost Draco - Classified Control Room
Date: February 1, 2050
Set to one side of the dimly lit room, taking up the entire face of the wall, a massive display was the only source of illumination. It blipped as icons across its screen’s enormous height and width scrambled from point to point. Red icons symbolized enemies, while green represented the allies and operatives. The colors intermingled in gathered pockets of activity, scurrying around like rats in a trap.
A certain group of red icons hurriedly fled to a shaded area near the top of the display. Shaded in green, it denoted a forest-like terrain. Other spots of gray indicated rocky valleys and a lighter shade of green represented grasslands. Crisscrossing lines divided them, identifying elevation, longitude, and latitude.
There was a dull atmosphere in the room’s air, one devoid of any emotion besides a constant focus at the task at hand. Not a single person wasted a second of time. They continuously studied the data on their screens, making examinations, and sending reports in a rapid process of key taps and eye blinks.
A communications operator, wearing a black visored helmet that obscured the top part of their face, glanced up from a console and studied the new incoming alerts before looking back down at his controls. He was not alone in this. The same actions repeated by dozens of identical operators who sat in neat rows and columns, both behind and in front of him.
In all, they and their individual consoles occupied over half the room, filling it with the sounds of their soft breaths and the taps of their keyboards.
“Commander, incoming messages from the headmaster.” An operator called out over the comm system through their helmet, hands still working the controls of her console. “Sir, he wants an answer concerning the safety of the students. What should we do?”
Urgent as it seemed, the operator didn’t get an instant response. Back towards the wall opposite to the massive display, the one in charge was sitting on a bench with his head down. Blonde bangs fell down his forehead as he stared at the blunt black visor of the helmet in his hands. The symbol, I, was embossed in white at the top. It could be interpreted as the capital letter i or the roman numeral for one.
Itsuki knew it meant both. He thumbed the symbol as a pair of medics, wearing black just like everyone else here, secured sets of armor plating to his sleek fitting augment suit. A hiss of air erupted from the ports on the back of his suit when the medic to the left of Itsuki inserted a syringe into his arm. A cocktail of medical drugs flooded his bloodstream through the suit’s integrated life support system.
Itsuki winced as old pains flared up all over his body.
“Sir?” The operator’s voice repeated in his ear, requesting for orders. “Sir, what should we do?”
“Ignore it.” Itsuki replied. “Broadcast a standard black out message. We’re no longer listening and we’re no longer taking requests. Going forward, we’re taking matters into our own hands.” He got up, the pair of medics following as they ran diagnostics on his armor system and the condition of his health. “Concerning the students, continue monitoring them through the communication earpieces.” He stopped behind the last row of consoles, tiredly eyeing the massive display. “Are the preparations ready?”
The nearest operator got up from their seat and handed Itsuki a datapad. “Black out is in effect, sir. All communications have been disrupted. Not a word can get out and not a word can get into the terracolony, just as ordered by Operative 05. The students have also been thrown into utter confusion. We are ready to deploy at your command.”
“Good.” Itsuki handed back the datapad, then asked, “What’s the situation with the distractions? Are the intruders acting as we predicted?”
The operator nodded. “Within 84% of all overall predictions.”
“Then we shall begin.” Itsuki clamped his helmet over his head, locks hissing, sealing him into his combat suit. The only way for him to get out of this suit now was to either use specialized equipment, or scrape him out like some stubborn mollusk. He eye flicked a command in his HUD. “All kill teams, deploy and begin extermination. It’s time we hunt this infestation of vermin. Rid them from this world.”
Everyone on the line, including the operators, affirmed with a resounding call of, Yes Sir, and went about their work, all of them efficient as a machine. No one questioned Itsuki. No one questioned what they were about to do. No one questioned how much blood they would spill, and no one cared how morally gray they were.
Itsuki felt a pang of regret in his chest. That was new. He’d long killed his emotions. Perhaps his recent recovery wasn’t complete. He assumed it had to be related to what happened in the private ICU, but he didn’t remember what had occurred during his time there. He recalled a recollection, but it was gone now, blocked by his own will and choice.
Still, that time was the likely source of this new discomfort.
This must be.. regret. He thought, coldly identifying the lucid emotion. But that’s in the past.
A new disgust speared him. Now that was nothing new. Self Loathing, a hatred for what I’ve become. It wasn’t unique, not after having it weigh on him for over a decade.
Turning, he walked to the exit. The sealed bulkhead was sluggishly coming undone as he joined a group of five all armored in black like him. They lazily saluted and acknowledged him as he neared. The tallest of the five came forward and offered a spare rifle to Itsuki as he went to take up a position at the front of the team. They fell in as Itsuki racked the rifle's charging bolt and stepped past the bulk head’s black and yellow striped boundary.
There is no turning back. It’s time to hunt. It’s time to kill. It’s all the same.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/V6VRp0t4/1738455707953.jpg]image [https://i.postimg.cc/V6VRp0t4/1738455707953.jpg]
***
Andromeda - Main Underground Habitat
“Run! Move! Move! Move!” Amanda called out, beckoning to her fellow classmates to follow. Her heel shifted the dirt as she turned and vaulted over a massive fallen tree trunk. The next second, it exploded behind her, splintering out as thumping gunfire resounded, ripping away chunks of tree bark. Landing feet first on the other side, Amanda turned and caught Dahlia as she almost fumbled over what was left of the tree’s trunk. “Come on! Quick!”
Amanda grabbed her hand and started running, daring to not look back. Behind them, a constant wailing haunted their ears, paired with the chaotic cacophony of an unseen battle. More gunfire ripped overhead, the booming of grenades sent the world shaking, and the rising smell of blood in the air was enough to stain their crumbling sanity.
It had been less than half an hour since they arrived in this underground world away from the surface. It had seemed like a magical place at first, an Eden of lush greenery and plentiful life. Their group had departed the lift after realizing there was no way to go back the way they came. With no other choice, they picked a direction and hoped to reach the boundary to find an exit of sorts.
But then the previous alerts that had been blaring in their ears became louder. They all glanced up in time to see the distant ignition of explosions bursting out from the far walls bordering this false world. The fiery blasts pock marked the illusionary walls. That was when the curtain fell from their eyes. The blue sky was the first to go, replaced when whatever mechanisms failed and undid the illusion, revealing a ceiling of unforgiving gray steel.
They felt like they were in a cage now. Then all light flicked out of existence, plunging them into pitch black darkness for stressful seconds. Only when the violent flash of red alarm lights finally came on did everyone let out a sigh, taking some solace for what little light there was. But it didn’t last. The sound of a gunshot went off. Amanda had thought it was her own imagination, a trick that her baffled mind was playing. Then she saw someone next to her fall, heard them thump dully to the forest floor, and saw bloody holes in their back.
Amanda touched her cheek and found it to be wet. Her fingertips smelled of iron, an astringent and pungent scent. It was blood. Human blood. Then another person fell, then another and another, each one preceded by a singular or burst of hollow pops coming from somewhere off in the mess of trees surrounding them.
A handful of seconds passed before everyone began to run and scream. More gunfire, rapid and wild, kicked everything into a further frenzy. Amanda had turned to her left and then the right in a panic, trying to find where this attack was coming, trying to find where to run for safety. Eventually, she took her chances with a dense looking forest just a few meters out of reach and screamed for everyone to follow.
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She didn’t know who had died just now, she just knew she needed to run. To survive, to get as many people as possible out of here.
“What in the world is going on!” She heard Stella behind her on her left, with Shisuki and Ikki keeping pace on either side of her. Stella’s voice was breathy, not from exhaust, but from stress. “Is this part of the extra training?” She asked. “If it is, this is going way too far.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time.” Amanda added. “But you’re right, something is very wrong.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Shisuki snapped. “Just keep running. Whatever is happening we need to get through this if we want to find out the truth.”
Stella frowned. “But.. But what if..” She was cut off as Ikki tackled her to the ground and threw them both behind a thick set tree. “Wha. what the? Ikki, what are you?”
“Take Cover!” Ikki bellowed and hugged Stella into his chest, curling himself into a ball. “Incoming!”
The flash of an explosion erupted, and engulfing fires rushed over a line of brush 3 meters to their left. Branches snapped away, shrapnel sliced leaves and tore into trees. Amanda held Dahlia to her chest, her hand outstretched to form a barrier of ice to weather the oncoming debris. Chunks of her barrier were already cracked away as a successive bombardment landed all around them. Richard was thrown to the ground, coughing as the air was knocked out of his lungs.
“Over here!” Shisuki called out, knelt behind her own barrier of water. She held out a hand that Richard crawled to before being hauled him up to his feet. “Are you injured?”
Richard patted himself down, singed a little on his arm. “No, I’m fine, but I don’t think I’d survive if I took those blasts head on without my aura.”
“Agreed.” Said Shisuki. She opened her comm system with an eye blink. “Everyone, be on guard and stay on the lookout for a flanking attack. If you can get a visual, call it out.”
“These must be the intruders from the alarm.” Richard suggested. “I’m starting to believe that this isn’t part of the training anymore.”
“I think you’re right.” Agreed Amanda. She gritted her teeth, barely able to keep her barrier up. Whoever was attacking them understood that a constant focusing of fire was the right way to go about in dealing with explorers. “Whoever they are, they fight pretty good, and dirty too.”
“Then let’s fight back.” Stella boldly announced. She attempted to get up but Ikki held her down. “Hey, Ikki. Let go already.”
Ikki shook his head. “No, we can’t, not when we don’t know the full situation.”
“He’s right.” Amanda said. “We don’t even know how many of them are out there. For all we know there might be a hundred, and I don’t think we can handle that many. Also, we’re just students. By how they were able to get the drop on us, they must be pros, maybe some kind of hired mercenaries? Either way, we’re outgunned, and we don’t have a clear picture of the situation. So running is our best option.”
“B-But where do we go?” Dahlia asked, voice trembling. She was scared, they all were. “What are we supposed to do? There’s no way back with the lift and we don’t know where the exit is.”
Amanda clicked her tongue. This is hell. She thought. This is fucking hell. We should’ve turned back when we had the chance.
“Grah!” A howling student ran out from the brush. His eyes went to them, pleading for help. Blood dripped down his face, making him seem insane. “No!” He screamed, “I don’t want to die! I don’t..”
Something caught him in the back and he was thrown around, spinning around before he fell on his back, gurgling blood that filled his punctured lungs and rose in his throat. Dahlia saw the fist sized hole in the center of his chest and yelped, her deerlike ears curling in on themselves. Amanda covered Dahlia's eyes, moving away to get closer to Shisuki while shrapnel and debris bounced off her barrier.
“We’re sitting ducks here. Shisuki, do you know how to get out of here?” Amanda asked. “You said you’ve been to one of these places, isn’t there an emergency exit or something?”
“Possibly. I’ve only been to the ones in Japan, and this one may have been built differently.” Shisuki examined the surroundings, looking up through the treeline to get a grasp of how far they were from the borders of this underground habitat. She grimaced, that wasn’t a good sign. “By my estimation, we’re directly at the center of this place.”
Amanda nodded. “Then it doesn’t matter which way we run then. Ikki, Stella, get ready to move. Pick a direction and we’ll follow. Me and Shisuki will lay down cover fire.” She looked to Richard and patted Dahlia’s back. “Richard, take Dahlia with you, I need you to keep her safe when it’s your turn to go.”
“Got it.” Richard nodded as Amanda released Dahlia into his care. Dahlia initially hesitated to let go of Amanda but took Richard’s arm in with a firm hold. She still was uneasy though. “It’s alright.” Richard assured. “We’ll make it through this, just stay strong.”
Dahlia sniffed, wiping a tear from her eyes with her arm. “I.. I’ll try.”
“Ready, Shisuki?” Amanda asked. “I’ll burn through all my core energy if this keeps up.”
Shisuki stood from her knelt posture with blades of water forming in between each of her fingers. “Just give the signal. I’ll hit the right while you get the left. I’m not expecting to hit anything since we can’t see the enemy, but we can make it harder for them to hit us.”
“Then on my mark.” Amanda materialized her sword and formed a shield of ice on her left wrist. “3, 2..” She took a deep breath, eyes glowing with an icy blue hue. “1! Now!”
All at once, Shisuki disabled her barrier of water and threw two handfuls of water daggers towards the trees. They splashed loudly, barreling through trunk after trunk before bubbling up blasts of water that rose in columns higher than the tree cover. The incoming gunfire and grenades momentarily stopped. Whoever was out there had been spooked.
Ikki and Stella used this chance to break out into a sprint, running to the untouched trees off to their right. The ground behind them began to be shot up, dirt flying up as rounds chased in the wake of their footsteps.
“Go!” Amanda shouted. She swung her sword out to send forth a barrage of ice spears. Following the general direction of where the gunfire was coming from, she hoped she’d hit something, even glancing at whoever was out there would be good enough for her.
The gunfire once again stopped and Richard was the next to break out into a run. He carried Dahlia in his arms, shouldering past a thick low hanging branch that got in his way. Grenades thundered around them, tripping Richard up. Shisuki attempted to follow up with an attack of her own to cover him, but a hail of tracer bullets homed in on her and she was forced back on the defensive.
Dahlia screamed as Richard took the brunt of the grenade’s punishing shock. Clumps of thrown up dirt and shards of rock bruised his back. Nevertheless, he toughed it out, running until he reached where Ikki and Stella had gone. Amanda watched as he vanished amongst the dense green foliage, relieved that he’d made it.
“Now it’s our turn.” Said Amanda, volleying ice spears in between the trees. They impacted and covered the trees in a thin veil of ice, adjoining them to create a makeshift wall. While not as sturdy as her usual barriers, it would be useful enough as an obstacle. “It won’t hold for long, but it will do. Quick, let’s catch up.”
They sprinted, rejoining the others a couple minutes later. They stopped running after clearing the forest and took refuge under a cliff that bordered a rocky valley. The environment seemingly changed on dime, and Amanda wondered just how many biomes were contained down here.
She caught her breath and asked, “Anyone injured?”
Ikki raised his hand, showing the splotch of blood in his palm and revealing a gunshot wound in his lower right thigh. “A bullet clipped me on the way out.” He said a little pained, sitting down with Stella’s help. “I don’t think it hit an artery, but I can’t run with this leg for long.”
Stella got a good look at the wound. “This is pretty bad, but I should be able to cauterize it with my flames. Do we have anything we can use as a bandage to cover it up?”
Amanda shook her head. They weren’t given any first aid kits before being brought here. All they had were their uniforms and whatever was in their pockets, which wasn’t much.
“Here, let's use this.” Amanda reached for the hem of her shirt, ready to rip off a piece of her uniform to use it as a bandage. “We can’t sanitize it, but..”
“Wait.” Dahlia interrupted. She was unsteady on her feet as Richard set her down. She went over and knelt next to Ikki, studying his injury with a practiced look. “I.. I can heal it.” She said shakily. “This.. should be simple enough.” She locked eyes with Ikki, then turned away. “That.. that is.. If you’ll let me.”
Ikki smiled. “Please do. And thanks, we’re lucky to have you.”
Dahlia blushed and distracted herself by getting to work on healing his leg. Amanda decided that Dahlia still seemed to have an awkward air when she interacted with others. The girl was always on guard, mostly with those she didn’t know, which was understandable. Though, she was warming up to Amanda and her friends.
There’s at least a silver lining to this. Amanda sarcastically snorted softly to herself. We’re bonding, isn’t that great. She patted Dahlia on the back, much to the girl’s embarrassment. “So where to?” Amanda turned to Shisuki. “Whoever attacked us is probably on our tail, so let’s be quick and get moving soon.”.
“Agreed.” Shisuki crossed arms under her chest and studied the horizon. She held a hand over her brow for shade as the sky returned somewhat to that artificial blue color. The landscape now looked more normal, with the exception that the sky was obviously fake since parts of it were a steel gray color. “There.” Shisuki pointed downhill at the dark crevasses amongst the pale rocks of the valley. “We should head down and use that area to hide as we try to find a way out.”
Amanda shot everyone a look, silently asking for their input. They answered with curt nods. “Then it’s decided.” Amanda said, “Shisuki, how far do you think we’re from the boundary walls?”
“Perhaps 50 miles.” Shisuki scratched her chin, thinking. “Though it may be more. Again, I have to stress how enormous this place is. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Amanda went to the edge of the ledge, basking in all the colors of this artificial underground world before her. The air seemed pure, yet there was an almost minute difference from the real thing. “Yeah, neither have I. This is a big first for me. Too bad we can’t enjoy it.”
She narrowed her gaze. Her instincts told her that someone was hunting them, hunting the students. The question of who the intruders were popped up again. She wondered what the purpose of this attack was, and what the academy was doing to fix the situation. Were they doing anything? And how did they let this happen in the first place?
Well, if we want to find out, we’ll have to survive. Amanda sniffed the air. While she didn’t have the acute sense of smell like beast humans, she could tell that danger was ahead by how the air felt. It was harsh, hazed with metal and smoke. This place is becoming a battlefield, a real battlefield. And we could die.
There was no safety net now. There was no support. Their survival was now down to their own choices. One mistake could be the end. One slip up could get someone killed. The weight of that settled in Amanda’s stomach, and this time it wasn’t because of indigestion or stress. It was instead her helpless fear taking shape.
Run, we have to keep running.