The sterile laboratory transformed into a kill-zone with terrifying speed.
Armored panels slid open at both ends of the circular corridor, and squads of Vanguard soldiers, clad in matte-black combat armor and wielding advanced plasma rifles, began to pour in.
They moved with the cold, disciplined precision of a well-oiled machine, their formations flawless, their lines of fire perfectly coordinated.
Kiera became a whirlwind of motion.
"Joric, get him out of that chair! Ryu, with me!" she commanded, her voice cutting through the rising din of battle.
She met the first wave of soldiers head-on, her blade a silver serpent in the flashing red emergency lights.
Even with her power diminished, her skill was breathtaking.
She didn't have the strength to shatter their defenses, so she became a ghost, flowing around their attacks, her sword a needle finding the infinitesimal gaps in their armor—a joint, a visor slit, a power conduit.
For every shot they fired, she was already somewhere else, disabling a soldier with a precise, non-lethal strike before moving on to the next.
She was a surgeon in a room full of butchers.
Joric, taking cover behind a thick support pillar, did his part, laying down a surprisingly effective field of covering fire with a stolen plasma rifle.
"I may be a medic, but I remember which end of this thing goes 'bang'!" he yelled, his shots forcing a squad of soldiers to duck for cover, buying Kiera precious seconds.
Ryu became their force multiplier. He stood back-to-back with Kiera, his hands pressed against the smooth, white floor, and unleashed his power not as a single, chaotic blast, but as a series of controlled, tactical strikes.
He sent focused ripples of kinetic force along the floor, buckling the soldiers' knees and shattering their formations.
He caused the metal wall panels to vibrate at a disorienting frequency, throwing off their aim.
He was not a warrior, but a combat engineer, turning Vex's own sterile environment against his forces.
But they were hopelessly, brutally outnumbered.
For every soldier Kiera disabled, for every squad Ryu managed to disorient, two more would pour into the corridor.
And they weren't trying to kill them, which was worse.
They were herding them. Their fire was disciplined, their movements calculated, always pushing the small team back, away from the exits, down a specific wing of the laboratory.
"They're forcing us south!" Kiera shouted, parrying a plasma bolt that sizzled past her ear.
"Why? What's in the south-wing?"
The answer became terrifyingly clear as the Vanguard soldiers suddenly, and in perfect unison, ceased their fire.
They fell back, their retreat as disciplined as their advance, sealing the corridor behind them. Kiera, Joric, and Ryu found themselves in a new chamber, a vast, circular laboratory.
In the center, a single figure stood waiting, his arms crossed, a cold, predatory smile on his face.
It was Silas. He was clad in a new, more advanced suit of the black filament armor, its surface shimmering with contained, stable power.
"Vex sends his regards," Silas sneered.
"He was so disappointed with my performance in the Rust-maze. He's since provided me with… significant upgrades. He wants to see what his new creation can do against his most spectacular failure."
The trap hadn't just been to catch them.
It was a gladiatorial arena, and Vex had just released his prize champion.