NoveLight ™
"Hangar cleared. No further support expected. Any areas needing assistance?"
"That was fast, rookie. There are about three left here, so let’s wrap this up and join the others. You go help the New Rookie and Mecha Rookie."
"Ugh, there are so many enemies here! I barely cleared half of them, and the others are chasing me like they're about to kill me!"
"Left, left! Ugh! There are still 8 left here! Help!"
Five minutes after the Red, Violet, Blue, and Green teams landed in the high-value research facility, half of them had already been wiped out.
The comms were in total chaos. Gunfire, voices, grenade explosions, and occasional terrifying crashes and screams filled the air. While the situation seemed almost balanced, as the defenders' advantage slowly faded, the tide was beginning to shift.
In the middle of the chaotic transmission, a few were able to catch the crucial bits of information, piecing together the bigger picture in their minds. And yet, there was no need to worry about Lorenatina with her electric-powered file bunker. The real issue was elsewhere.
Harmony and the Cato-Jin team.
They urgently needed support.
‘Red that entered the main hall is almost done... The real problem is the 20 enemies that came in through the elevators on the 2nd floor’s cargo and Green corridors.’
I continued across the hangar hallway, listening carefully.
From my right ear, I could hear the sounds of fighting from the main hall, while from my left, I could hear more intense fighting from the 2nd-floor cargo and Green corridors. Of course, the left was louder. A few seconds ago, Lorenatina said they had nearly finished cleaning up their side.
So, without hesitation, I made my way toward the Green corridor. Surprisingly, the situation was dire on Harmony’s side. Having set traps all over the Green Room, medical stairway, storage, and sterile labs, the enemies that had entered that area chose to push forward instead of crawling into the trap-filled rooms.
Red, Violet, Blue, Green. The Artemis strike team's commander was the traitorous Icarus Operator, and when the team had equipped exoskeletons, the firepower was overwhelming. This meant that if they were caught off guard, they could easily be overwhelmed, so I needed to rush to support Harmony.
While maintaining my speed, I provided precise support fire.
Unfortunately, two members of Blue team had tried to flank through the server room and had come out into the hallway. This meant they were easy targets for me. As the bullets flew, I threw a grenade with my tail, hitting one of Blue team’s flanking members right between the eyes.
A flash of light and an explosion, followed by a combination of shrapnel and steel balls, dazzled the enemies in front of me.
"Aaaargh-!"
Boom!
One enemy collapsed, shredded to pieces, while the other, unable to escape the blast radius, took five armor-piercing rounds to the face.
With those two eliminated, I looted their equipment, gathering about five grenades, and retreated to join Harmony, handing them over. Her expression lit up immediately.
"I knew I could count on you, Sensei!"
"Let’s wrap this up and head out."
Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to set traps and push Blue team into them. The battle had turned out to be more straightforward than expected. In other words, it was a relatively standard small-scale skirmish.
The point man’s role was to absorb fire from the front while briefing everyone on the enemies’ positions, while Harmony handled the back, tossing grenades or shooting to draw out the enemies. The disadvantage, however, was the cramped space, which slowed things down.
"Let’s throw a smoke grenade and flank through the server room. We’ll hold out as best we can."
"I’ll move quickly."
"That’s the plan."
I opened my multi-use pouch and readied a black smoke grenade.
Harmony tensed, and as soon as she threw a grenade to block the enemy's advance, we both prepared to rush as soon as the path cleared.
After a few seconds, the smoke grenade arced through the air and landed in the corridor, at which point an unexpected voice crackled through the comms.
"You don’t need to."
"Huh?"
A horrific scream echoed through the black smoke. The painful groans pierced through the comms, followed by the sound of planks cracking and a final dying gasp, signaling that someone had just died. The smoke that was supposed to conceal us turned into a slasher movie scene on the other side.
As Harmony, who was about to rush forward, wore a slightly puzzled expression and returned to her original position, the black smoke began to clear. Lorenatina, now covered in gold liquid, sheathed her spear-like file bunker with her right hand.
At that moment, several thoughts rushed through my mind. But one intuition stood out the most…
"So this is how Moni must have felt when I was running around with an axe."
"Now you get it?"
While Moni and I watched in a half-dazed state, Lorenatina turned her head and, in a blur of speed, sprinted toward the 2nd-floor isolation tent.
It was then that I realized I had forgotten about Cato and Jin.
With a half-dazed expression, I spoke up.
"Let’s go help the other two."
"Yeah..."
It was time to clean up the facility.
"Green team was wiped out in 1 minute and 20 seconds, Red team in 2 minutes and 25 seconds, Blue team next… unlucky bunch."
"We should retreat via the elevator now."
"Dammit, that Gamma-type bastard, there are two Archetype-level enemies among them. You could’ve at least warned us before betraying."
As the elevator doors opened, Violet Team, who had occupied the cargo corridor, medical rooms, and hallways, was pushed back less than five minutes into the fight and were now retreating to the elevator area. Even though they had enough firepower to obliterate the facility, they were quickly overwhelmed.
Three teams out of the four sent to the facility were obliterated after a direct confrontation. The reason was simple: Archetypes, and the unidentified entities with comparable force, were involved. The enemies they had underestimated were proving to be more formidable than expected.
The team leader of Violet Team, staring anxiously at the descending elevator, knew this wasn’t just a regular mission anymore.
It wasn’t the mere presence of a mad scientist descending into the battle that caused concern. The scientists from Artemis had long since discarded the morals of humanity, using their resources more efficiently than anyone else. They were the definition of mad scientists, straight out of the movies.
Just as the elevator doors opened, two UGVs resembling large dogs, loaded with grenades and miniguns, emerged and began firing into the air, plunging the situation into chaos.
Then, a well-dressed figure, none other than Dr. Simon, emerged from the elevator.
"…What the hell are you doing here, Dr. Simon?"
"I couldn’t miss it. When a creation awakens a new intelligence, it’s only right to come and witness it firsthand."
"Stay back! It’s too dangerous."
"I’m already aware of the risks. Don’t worry. I trust you, I trust the exoskeletons, and I trust the attack dogs."
Dr. Simon calmly surveyed the area despite the deafening roar of the minigun. He didn’t seem concerned about anything other than his personal interest, his gaze cold and focused.
And as expected, he activated his mic, and his voice echoed over the speakers attached to the attack dogs.
"A civilized person should know when to put down the weapon and face each other, even in a battlefield like this. Archetype, Gamma, show me your faces. Artemis has been searching for you for years. I’m not a fan of places like this."
In response, multiple grenade clusters flew his way.
After the explosion and chaos subsided, to everyone’s surprise, no one had been injured. Only one of the UGVs was destroyed, its remains scattered across the floor. Simon, unfazed, looked down at the destroyed UGV and smiled slightly.
"Well then, it looks like we have no choice but to move forward. But this was expected. If we can bring Gamma and Archetype back to Artemis, it would be more than worth the 40 losses."
"What are you talking about, 40 losses?"
"40... wait, dammit! Block him!"
"I told you, I trust you all."
With that, Simon activated the tablet in his hand, and just as the screen began to flicker with data, two metallic spheres rolled out from the UGVs. They were large, melon-sized, and rolled slowly towards the remaining Violet team members.
"Looks like you’ve been hiding there, Gamma. Let’s reconnect with Artemis and head home."
As Simon began manipulating the tablet, the eight remaining Violet team members charged toward the enemies, bullets piercing their bodies without any sign of stopping.
Simon’s expression twisted into one of greed and joy as he watched his "discovery," but it didn’t last long.
Someone snatched the tablet from his hands.
"Seems like you've been hiding there, Gamma. Let’s reconnect with Artemis and head home."
As Simon fiddled with the tablet, the eight remaining Violet team members, ignoring the pain of bullets lodged in their bodies, charged toward the enemies. The scene felt like something out of a nightmare, as the bodies moved with grim determination.
Simon's expression twisted into a mix of greed and joy as he watched his "discovery," but it didn't last long.
Someone swiftly snatched the tablet from his hands.
"Hmm, so this is what Artemis' tablets look like nowadays. I might need to recover this."
Simon’s eyes widened in disbelief.
A situation completely beyond his comprehension had unfolded. Someone had appeared out of nowhere. In the midst of this absurd scenario, he forgot to check for anyone around him, even though he should’ve been on guard. By the time he turned around to look for the Violet team, he was already too late.
"Ugh…!"
"Argh…!"
The words died in Simon's throat as something, moving at an unimaginable speed, pierced through the augmented Violet team operator. His body, enhanced with exoskeletons, was nothing more than a fragile shell now.
The assailant had moved too quickly for the human eye to track, their weapon—a spear—piercing through the Violet team operator's neck, and his back was punctured where the battery had been attached.
As Simon gazed at the spectacle, his eyes fixated on the assailant, who moved with inhuman speed, slicing through his guards in the blink of an eye.
His breath caught in his throat, and he could only gape, utterly stunned.
The attacker, hidden in the shadows, revealed themselves in an instant, and it was then that Simon realized just how far beyond his understanding they were.
After a few moments, Simon glanced back at the operator he had just betrayed. The operator was laying on the ground, now reduced to a lifeless body, a clear indication that his life had been taken in an instant.
"…It looks like we won’t be needing this anymore."
With a twisted smile, Lorenatina, holding the tablet in one hand, walked toward the disabled UGVs, where the team members had all been wiped out. She spoke coldly.
"You wanted to reconnect with Artemis? Well, looks like that's not happening. Not anymore."
She pressed a few buttons on the tablet and, with a click, deactivated the remaining UGVs and their programming.
"Done," she said as she tossed the tablet aside. "Now, let's finish what we came for."
The sound of her gun being reloaded echoed in the quiet, while Simon, stunned by the betrayal, could barely muster a word as he struggled to stay conscious.
"You're quite the interesting specimen, but you're too late. You won't make it out of here alive."
Simon’s mind raced, but his body was failing him. The last thing he saw before everything went black was Lorenatina walking away, her shadow casting a long, ominous figure in the dimly lit corridor.