Chapter 24

I holster my sidearm and inspect the surroundings inside the space I now stand in. I consult the structure layout on my mGlass, which was compiled with data from our recon drone. Data gathered using ground-penetrating LIDAR (Light-based detection and ranging).

After a scowl at my device, I slot it in its rightful place in a pouch on my belt. Letting my Z&M 56 dangle by it's sling at my stomach as I shoulder the shotgun I brought as a backup. I lower a set of low-light vision goggles over my face to allow me to see in the dark. The LLV filter kicks on and I am able to see the interior of a corridor of the facility.

There are a few charred corpses littered in the hallways and the exits have been sealed off. It seems they had evacuated this space. This meant they knew I was coming. Internally I weighed my options carefully in my mind.

First option: breach the door using another breaching explosive. The most direct route. Too risky.

Second option: seek a alternative entry such as an unused entrance on the surface. Eats up valuable time. likely the safest route.

Third option: find a grate for the ventilation shafts to bypass the obvious chokepoint that I was standing in. likely they will have security forces behind both sealed blast doors lying in wait for the intruder.

I sling my shotgun over a shoulder and look around, Finding a grate on the wall that was just a few centimeters above my height. I frown, as there was a fastener that was too high for me to reach up above. So, I decide on the finesse route.

Keeping my eyes on the grate, I focus on the presence of the fasteners and I imagine in my minds' eye a socket wrench turning them loose. And the fasteners start to unscrew from their tightened position and out of the grate. I then imagine two arms reaching up and lowering the grate. As I do, the grate lowers to lean on the bulkhead.

Using both arms, I hoist myself up onto the lip of the ductwork. My hands denting the metal duct slightly as I strain to keep a firm grip to pull my own weight up. I manage to get a foot over the ledge and pull myself up the rest of the way.

I unholster my sidearm and crawl forward towards the first bulkhead fan. Looking around, I spot an electrical panel on the side wall of the ducts on my left. A motor relay service box, perhaps? I roll onto my side and with some effort, prying open the box. I jam my knife into the contents of the box blade first. The innards fry and I notice the duct fans seizing. After removing the blade from the box I crawl through them and press on to the next room, making sure to keep my noise to a minimum as my advance continues.

Eventually I find another grate on the bulkhead in the next room, realizing I am now on the other side of the door. I catch sight of a group of Iridian guards behind a deployable barrier waiting for me to breach the door.

I inch forward little by little as I overhear them talking. "Who is on the other side?" One voice says, and I hear a snort "it does not matter, we have them bottled up in that corridor. Our sisters are on the other side to prevent their escape in the other direction. The only thing they can do is go back out of the breach they created."

After some more slow movement in the confined space; I roll slowly onto my back and coil my legs tightly into my chest, positioning to kick the grate off the wall. I take a deep breath and thrust my feet forward. My feet impact the grate and dent it, shearing the bolts off at their stems and hurling the grate across the room into the opposing wall.

I quickly vault out of the ducts as I exhale and somersault towards the first iridian, the muzzle of my sidearm in perfect line with their chin as I pull the trigger and the suppressed sidearm goes off with a thump. Their skullcap hitting the ceiling in fragments with a smear of brain matter and lighter red blood. One down.

Wasting no time, I kick the dead body at the other three Iridian women and bowl them over with their deceased comrade as I lunge at the second one, grabbing their left wrist and with a twist, I force them to lock their arm with their palm against their waist, then I twist it again to lock their elbow and fully extend their arm, mounting their elbow over my shoulder and with an effortless pull, the snap of bone echoes in the room, followed by a shrill scream.

I let go and turn to shoot the third woman in the gut and then turn around again to deliver a heel kick to my opponent's knee. The snap of bone and a scream follow as their knee disintegrates into several pieces and they are forced to kneel to account for the change in their balance.

Propping my arm on their shoulder, I shoot the fourth woman in the right shoulder and send them staggering backwards with the impact of the bullet before I use a knee to deliver a blow to my opponent's jaw. Two down.

I turn again to look behind me and the third woman grabs my wrist, but it is futile. Iridians are physically weaker than a human, and alone are no match for a Chimera. I palm their face and dig a nail into their eye socket. Coring out their eyeball as they scream.

After blinding them in one eye, I level the muzzle of my suppressed sidearm with their nose bridge and squeeze the trigger. The bullet drilling a dime-sized hole in their nose-bridge, passing through their brain stem and hippocampus before exiting out the other side of their head, taking fragments of their cervical vertebrae and brain matter with it before impacting the bulkhead. Three down.

I feel a sharp pain in my back just below my left kidney and I grunt in pain, using a balled fist to deliver a heavy blow to the new opponent's abdomen just below the lowermost ribtip. They grunt in pain and I deliver the same blow again, then I find their arm with that hand, gripping their wrist tightly. The crackle of bone and the snapping of connective tissue accompanies my iron grip on their arm.

I twist their wrist rather far over and their elbow creaks as I apply more and more pressure. Eventually the woman's eyes bulge in their sockets from strained effort against my strength before I apply even more pressure and torque their elbow laterally. A snapping noise similar to the snapping of a tree branch echoes and their elbow gives way under the strain of my application of lateral pressure. The woman shrieks and I throw them across the room into a wall by their shoulder. Dislocating it against the bulkhead.

I walk up slowly to the disoriented, hurting and dazed woman and put one hand on the back of their head towards the top-left corner and the other arm wraps around their neck below their jaw. With a push of my hand atop their skullcap, a crackle of bone sounds as their cervical vertebrae crack and their spinal cord severs at the C3 and C4 vertebrae, killing them. Four down.

I look around at the rest of the room, no more hostiles. Four enemy killed in action. I holster my sidearm after quickly changing magazines, slipping a fresh one out of my belt pouches nested between my palm and three fingers, while using my index finger and thumb in my left hand to extract the partially emptied magazine. Slipping the new magazine into the magwell and slipping the partial into the pouch before I approach the door

I pause before I open the door to feel a the stab wound in my lower back. I find the hilt of the weapon protruding from my back and slowly pull it out.. I groan at the pain before I find a syringe on my belt in a series of small pouches, injecting my abdomen with the contents near the stab wound site. A quick hardening gel seals the wound and holds any broken bones in place, allowing me to press on.

After some time combing the hallways, it becomes apparent they have evacuated this sector of the facility. I happen across a mainframe computer and I plug a data chip in. transferring a computer worm to extract data to the chip. It takes a few moments before it finds data to extract. In the meantime I scour the room for anything useful or of value.

Among the chairs and haptic interfaces, I come across a short straight blade. "Ann Ilh'ri?" I muse. It has a black hilt with a gilded rim at the scabbard. The blade itself is a dagger with a thin blade, akin to a rapier's. I partially unsheathe the blade to gauge the quality. There is a green sheen to it indicating an alloy of synthetic crystal and tempered metal alloy of some unknown composition.

I purse my lips thoughtfully and slip the blade back in the scabbard. When I return, Farsa can tell me more perhaps. At this point a green light on the data chip signals that the worm has completed its task. I stride over to the console and retrieve the chip, slipping it into my cleavage for safekeeping before I turn for the exit to the corridor, I take a slow and cautious pace as I advance to the shuttle hangar nearby.