Jyn was the first to step through. He raised his gun and cautiously stepped over what had once been a part of the wall. Taking a defensive position near the entryway, he signalled for the others to join. They squeezed through the hole and soon the entire team was in the restricted section of the facility.

Jyn’s heart beat rapidly in his chest. His ears pricked when he heard a small, scuffing noise to his left. He whirled around, searching for the culprit, only to see Beor standing there innocently. Some of the tension bled out of his shoulders as he relaxed slightly. “We’re in uncharted territory,” Jyn said. “While the other teams are off doing their own thing, it’s best to assume we won’t have any backup. Stay alert. Stay ready. Stay focused. Call out any signs of movement you see or anything you hear. We’re going to explore this part of the facility room by room. Let’s move out.”

The team spread out in the wide hallway and began walking in formation. They came across their first door.

“I’ve got this,” Beor said confidently. He took out the badge that had served them well thus far and sauntered up to the door. Nothing happened.

“I thought you had this, babe,” Rann teased.

“Why isn’t it working? It worked everywhere else,” Beor said.

“Probably for the same reason that the key didn’t let you access the restricted area to begin with. It most likely doesn’t have a high enough clearance,” Tassie chimed over their comms. “You need to find a new key that works for this area.”

“Well how are we supposed to do that?” Beor asked. “It’s not like we have aliens waltzing out of the walls towards us to hand deliver one.”

A bubbling, melting, hiss came from further down the corridor, causing the entire team to freeze and go silent. The pitter-patter of many feet made their way towards them around the bend, a long shadow the first sign that it was upon them. One of the insectoid creatures turned the corner, coming face to face with them, and froze at the sight of the intruders.

The creature’s antennae twitched rapidly as it swiveled its head, trying to find the best way out. It settled on going back the way it came, turning around to run. Jyn didn’t hesitate and took the shot, hitting it square in the back. The gru’ul fell to the ground screaming until Jyn put it out of its misery. Rann looked over at Jyn.

“What?” he shrugged. “It was either going to run away or kill itself. At least this way we get its badge.”

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Beor said. “One of those uglies did just come waltzing towards us.” He ran up to the still smoking body on the floor and searched it for a badge. Locating it, he pulled it off and inspected it. It was a slightly different shape and design than the other one he had. He put the two side by side to compare them. They were both the same burnt orange colour. The new badge was hexagonal with grooves running from the edges towards the dark purple bead in the centre, whereas the first badge they found was circular and flat and had the same small bead in the centre.

Beor walked back up to the door that had refused to open and marvelled as it melted away. “Have I ever said how cool that actually is? Because watching the wall literally disappear is pretty damn cool.”

The rest of the team pushed past him to enter to the room. Jyn and Eimir hauled in the dead body, ignoring the trail of green blood left behind. With this, their presence in the restricted section wouldn’t be noticed as quickly by the gru’ul, as long as one didn’t notice the blood stains. They still didn’t know how many enemies there were in this part of the facility and Jyn wasn’t willing to take the chance of blatantly tipping them off by leaving a body out in the open.

Inside the room, they found several data terminals along the walls, as well as what appeared to be some kind of exercise equipment in the middle. “That’s strange,” Rann commented. “This almost looks like a weird kind of gym. None of this equipment looks like it’s adapted to the gru’ul though. What purpose does it have?”

Eimir inspected one of the dumbbells housed on a rack. He picked it up, surprised at how light it was. “I don’t know what kind of equipment is this light. Maybe it has a different purpose?” He set the weight back down where he found it.

“There’s clearly nothing to see here,” Jyn said as he walked around the room. “Let’s leave and go to the next room.”

They continued searching the facility, entering each room they came across and inspecting the alien equipment, looking for clues as to their purpose. Every room they entered was empty, allowing them to search freely without worry of an ambush.

As they ventured further into the facility, strange runic symbols began to appear along the walls. Some corridors had them while others didn’t, confusing the team. “What are these?” Rann asked while looking at the strange red symbols painted along the wall. Rann sent Tassie her visual through her helmet. “Tassie, can you identify them?”

“I don’t know,” came Tassie’s reply. “There’s still much about the gru’ul that we don’t know. I’ll try running it through our database and see what pops up. Be careful.”

Jyn raised his fist, calling his team to a halt. Rann, Beor and Eimir immediately froze in place, not moving. They glanced towards Jyn, waiting for the next command. “We shouldn’t move until we know what these symbols mean. They’re becoming more common, and we need more information before continuing.”

The team waited, each taking up a defensive position in the hallway they were in. Keeping an eye out for any sudden change in their environment, they patiently listened to Tassie when she announced, “I’ve got it! Give me a sec.”

Tassie read over what she found pertaining to the runic symbol. “. . . very few of these special symbols are known to us, but we have managed to learn some. One of the first ones we ever learned were the ones for danger. This document shall spare you the harrowing details, but we have very good reason to fear this symbol. Even with all of their marvelous technology, the gru’ul still fear for it. This symbol is a warning to all who come across it that they are in the vicinity of one of the most dangerous biohazards they have discovered. If you see this symbol, turn back or proceed knowing you will most likely die.”

Stolen story; please report.

Jyn let out a sigh of relief. He’d made the right call not to venture forth without being prepared. “Should we try to figure out what’s there or leave?” he asked the team. “I won’t force anybody into this decision. I want to see where everyone stands before deciding.”

Beor and Rann looked at each other. “I say we go,” Rann said “It’s probably the reason Reya was tortured. If it’s a secret, then they most likely wanted to know how we found out about it. I say we find out about it for real.”

“Babe, are you sure?” Beor asked hesitantly. “This seems a little dangerous, even for me.”

“Positive,” Rann said with steel behind her eyes. Beor knew that there would be no changing her mind over the matter. The red symbols shone ominously in the low light of the corridor as he contemplated his decision. Rann waited patiently with a fervent gaze locked on him as the seconds passed by.

“Alright, let’s go then,” he decided.

“If that’s two for, then I say we go take a look. Today seems like a good day to die,” Eimir chimed in, earning him a few looks. “Although I’d prefer it if we lived instead,” he added hastily.

“Fine, we’ll proceed, but we do so slowly,” Jyn said. “We don’t know when or where we’ll encounter whatever it is that these warnings were put here for.” His statement earned stiff nods from the rest as they carefully moved forward. Every corner, every door and every room was treated as though they would encounter the entity responsible for the signs.

Tassie helped guide them through the restricted area, constantly updating her map with every new corridor the team entered. Rann glanced at the mini map displayed through her HUD in the top left corner of her field of vision when they reached a dead end.

“Dead end, Tassie. The trail stops here. We have to double-back and go another way,” Rann informed her. Tassie brought them to another corridor that they hadn’t explored yet. Cautiously, they checked out the new area one step at a time.

“Did you hear that?” Eimir said, spooked. “It sounded like a door opening. Over there,” he pointed down the hall towards the intersection on the left. The others followed his finger, but saw nothing but glistening grey walls and blue, pulsing lines.

“We didn’t hear anything, Eimir.” Rann said.

“I’m telling you, I heard it. We should go check it out.”

Jyn instructed the team to be at the ready in case things went wrong. They approached the split in the corridor and took up their positions. Eimir, being the one who made the discovery, was the one to check down the hall to confirm whether or not there was anything there. Quickly, he peered around the wall with a raised gun to protect himself from any potential threats.

An empty corridor greeted him. There was no sign of any movement, only a single door along the wall of the long hallway. “There’s nothing here,” Eimir reported. He stood up and entered the hallway. “There’s only a door. That’s it.”

“See, so you heard nothing then,” Rann said. “Now let’s move on and find that thing.”

“Hold up, Rann,” Jyn instructed. He moved further down the hall and stopped in front of the door. “Maybe Eimir did hear something, and it went through the door.”

“But that would require a key,” Rann protested.

“Maybe whatever it was has a key and ducked out of sight before we found it. Beor, come open the door. The rest of you, get ready.”

Beor walked over and the door opened, revealing a large, poorly lit room with many broken terminals. Large strands of DNA floated in the centre of the room, casting an eerie glow. A panicked clicking noise caught Beor’s attention. Behind the central terminal, a figure moved, obscured by the projections and the long shadows they cast.

“Guys, there’s something in the room here. I can’t quite make it out from here.” He raised his gun and trained it on the moving shadow.

It darted towards the next terminal over and began furiously typing on a strange looking keyboard. Beor waited for it to do something else, but quickly realized that typing was all it seemed interested in. The others joined him and looked in the direction Beor was pointing his gun in.

In the low light of the room, the lone gru’ul shrieked in a panicked tone and renewed its typing at a faster pace. It completely ignored the new arrivals that threatened it, focusing instead on its task. The others weren’t able to see what was on the screen from where they stood.

“Freeze,” Jyn shouted. The gru’ul ignored him, typing away. “I said freeze,” Jyn shouted. The alien finally lifted its gaze from the screen and took notice of Jyn. It raised its hidden arm, revealing a gun. Beor instinctively shot at it, narrowly missing and hitting the terminal instead. The alien jerked back, shrieking, and dropped its weapon. It scrambled to try and pick it up but was too late.

Rann and Eimir fired warning shots on the ground in front of it, causing it to freeze. Their shots ate into the metallic floor, blackening it, a promise of what was to come if it tried again. Jyn ran over towards it cautiously and located the weapon. Not wanting to get near the creature, wary of its wicked claws, he opted to shoot the gun, damaging it beyond use.

“Nice shot,” Rann said, impressed. Jyn backed up and, along with Rann and Beor, aimed his gun at the alien that was standing stock still. The cracks in its carapace stood out, the obvious imperfection catching everyone’s attention.

Eimir put his pack down and rummaged through it. Withdrawing a translator that they’d found in another room, he held it in his hand in front of him and spoke. “This should help us,” he said. “I don’t know how it works since there are no obvious buttons,” he explained as he inspected the object, “but maybe it will let us communicate with it.”

Once Eimir finished speaking, the orb immediately emitted a series of shrieks, hisses and clicks. “Or it can just do its own thing,” he chimed. Once again, the orb translated Eimir’s words once he was done speaking. The rest of team kept their guns trained on the unarmed gru’ul, their eyes never leaving it. Upon hearing the translator, the gru’ul spoke up. Hearing the alien language caused everyone to stiffen.

“A’vaare,” came the mechanical voice of the translator. “You are too late. The data here has been corrupted. You will find nothing even if you kill me.”

“Why kill you when we can capture you?” Jyn said. “I’m sure you’re just full of knowledge on what this place actually is. Tassie,” he said into his comms, “call another squad to the entrance of this section. We’ll hand off our captive to them and continue searching this place after.”

“On it,” came her reply. “I’ll inform the Commander that we’ve found somebody in a secret portion of the facility.” Tassie went silent for several seconds, during which the others surrounded the gru’ul from all sides. “Alright, there’s a team on their way. Can you guys make it back to the entrance, or do you need me to help?”

“We should be good to make it back,” Jyn said. “You make sure the others are ready to meet us when we get there.”

“Understood.”

Jyn returned his gaze to the alien in front of him. “I suggest you listen,” he said in a hard voice. “I’m in no mood to play games. If you do anything other than what we tell you or go anywhere other than where we direct you, I’m going to shoot off your limbs one by one. I don’t care if I have to drag you back to our base.” He waited for the translator to do its job. The others shared a look but didn’t say anything. “If there’s any sudden movement, shoot,” he instructed, oblivious to his teammates. “Remove your badge and place it on the ground.” The translator spoke and the hideous alien obliged. Eimir picked up the object for safekeeping. “Now follow.”

They exited the room and began their journey back through the twisting maze of corridors that brought them there to begin with. Following the map Tassie made for them allowed for the team to swiftly make their way back.

“What are the symbols in the halls for?” Jyn asked as they passed one. The gru’ul remained silent. “How did you get those cracks in your shell?” Jyn tried a different approach. The gru’ul still refused to utter so much as a single word. “Fine,” Jyn growled. “We’ll get you to talk, one way or another.”