Underground City – Skybridge. Condition: Critical.
"DON'T LOOK DOWN! KEEP RUNNING!"
Sir Rianor's shout was nearly swallowed by the sound of cracking glass.
The Sudrath expedition party was sprinting across the Skybridge—a transparent glass corridor suspended fifty meters above the asphalt streets, connecting the office buildings to the central plaza of the Control Tower.
The glass beneath their feet was already spider-webbed with cracks. The bridge's metal framework groaned in agony, protesting the weight of twenty-five armored individuals running in unison.
And outside the glass... a nightmare was unfolding.
Thousands of pale mutants crawled along the exterior walls of the buildings, scaling the bridge's pillars like ants swarming sugar. They pounded on the glass with their bare hands and heads.
BAM! BAM! SHATTER!
One of the glass panels on the right side burst inward.
A gaunt, pale hand reached in, trying to claw at Lady Rumina.
"KYAA!" Rumina shrieked.
SLASH!
Lady Rhea severed the hand with her dagger in one swift motion without breaking her stride. "Don't stop, Rumi! Run!"
However, the sheer weight of the thousands of mutants climbing the bridge was too much.
The ancient metal structure could no longer hold.
KREAAAKKK...
The bridge tilted drastically to the left.
The suspension cables snapped one by one. TING! TING!
"THE BRIDGE IS COLLAPSING!" Captain Garrick bellowed.
The floor ahead of them began to crumble, creating a wide chasm just before the entrance to the Central Tower. The gap was about five meters.
"JUMP!" Sir Riven roared.
The Iron Mercs leaped one after another. Their armor was heavy, but adrenaline made them fly. They landed, rolling onto the concrete floor of the Tower's plaza.
Rianor and Rumina ran. But they were not physical athletes.
The floor beneath their feet gave way.
"BROTHER NOR!"
They fell.
"GOT YOU!"
A massive hand grabbed the collars of Rianor and Rumina simultaneously.
Sir Riven.
His legs were hooked into the remaining iron frame of the bridge, his body hanging upside down over the mutant-infested abyss below. His arm muscles bulged, straining against the weight of his two siblings plus gravity.
"What are you dazing for? Get up!" Riven grunted, his face turning crimson from the exertion.
With one powerful heave—using physical-enhancement Aura—Riven hurled Rianor and Rumina upward, across the chasm, where they landed safely on the Tower's floor.
Riven then swung his own body and leaped after them.
THUD.
Riven landed just as the remainder of the bridge collapsed entirely, plummeting into the thousands of mutants below.
BOOM!
Dust billowed.
They were safe. For now.
"Into the Tower! Move!"
Central Command – Ground Floor, Central Tower.
They burst through the thick glass doors of the tower lobby.
The atmosphere inside was entirely different. The air was clean, cold, and sterile. No dust. No foul stench.
The lobby was vast, with elegant white metal walls. In the center of the room stood a massive semi-circular console facing a giant black wall screen.
"There it is!" Rianor sprinted toward the console. "The Main Terminal!"
"Hold the door!" Riven shouted.
The lobby glass began to crack. Thousands of mutants who had survived the bridge collapse were now flooding the front plaza, slamming their bodies against the reinforced glass.
DUM! DUM! DUM!
The glass was thick, but cracks began to spread like a spider web.
"Elara! I need power!" Rianor shouted.
He wiped the dust from the console panel. There were many buttons, levers, and crystal slots he didn't understand. But he saw one large slot with a familiar shape.
A slot for an Energy Core.
"The backup batteries are completely dead," Rianor said in a panic. "We need an initial jumpstart to ignite the reactor!"
Elara ran over. "How much?"
"Everything! Empty your Mana, El!"
Elara pressed both hands against the metal panel. She closed her eyes.
"Rumi! Connect the bypass circuits!" Elara screamed, cold sweat pouring down her face. "I can't hold a Mana current this large alone! The machine will explode!"
Rumina dove under the console desk. Her nimble hands pulled out two thick cables and connected them manually.
"Hold on, Sister El! I'm diverting the current to the cooling system!" Rumina shouted.
CLICK. Rumina locked a manual lever.
Elara let out a scream, channeling the remainder of her magical energy as the primary trigger. Rumina maintained the machine's physical stability to prevent a short circuit.
WUNG... WUNG...
Indicator lights on the console began to flicker on one by one. Red. Yellow.
The massive screen in front of them blinked to life. The PROJECT LEGION logo appeared, spinning.
But outside, the lobby glass shattered.
PRANG!
"THEY'RE IN!" Garrick shouted.
"HOLD THEM OFF!" Riven stepped forward. He stood at the gap of the broken door.
The final stand.
Riven swung his Chain-Axe. VROOOM!
The black blood of mutants sprayed across the sterile white walls.
Rhea danced beside him, her daggers moving like lightning, piercing eyes and throats.
The Iron Mercs fired their remaining rounds. BANG! BANG!
"HURRY UP, NOR!" Riven shouted. A mutant managed to bite his armored shoulder, making him wince. "I CAN'T HOLD AN ENTIRE CITY ALONE!"
At the console, Rianor's fingers danced across a holographic keyboard. He didn't understand the language, but he understood the logic patterns. Mathematics was the universal language.
ACCESS DENIED. ACCESS DENIED.
The red screen flashed.
"Dammit! It needs an authorization code!" Rianor cursed.
"Use this!" Rumina threw the Foreman's Logbook they had found at the previous campsite (Layer 1). On the last page was a series of numbers written in blood.
Nor saw the numbers.
0-4-5-A-L-P-H-A.
He typed it in.
ACCESS GRANTED.
The screen turned Green.
The main menu appeared: SYSTEM DEFENSE PROTOCOL.
"ACTIVATE IT!" Rianor shouted as he slammed the ENTER key with all his might.
BEEP.
A low siren echoed throughout the city.
WOOOP... WOOOP...
A cold, robotic female voice spoke from speakers hidden in the ceiling.
"Warning: Biological Contamination Detected in All Sectors. Activating Sterilization Protocol Level 5."
"Automated Weapon Systems: ONLINE."
Outside the tower, from the rooftops of skyscrapers, from beneath the sidewalks, and from the tower walls... hidden panels opened.
Thousands of Gatling Gun Turrets and Laser Cannons emerged.
Their sensors scanned the area.
They detected thousands of unregistered biological targets (Mutants).
"Target Acquired. Purge Initiated."
BRRT! BRRT! BRRT!
Hell was unleashed.
Thousands of automated rifles fired simultaneously. Bolts of light (plasma) and physical rounds rained down on the city streets.
Red laser beams cut through the air, bisecting mutant bodies as they climbed the tower.
In the lobby, Riven dropped his axe and covered his ears. The sound of gunfire outside was so deafening that the floor vibrated.
The mutant attacking Riven suddenly had its head explode, shot by an Internal Turret that emerged from the lobby ceiling.
"Get down!" Rianor shouted. "Those turrets will shoot anything that moves!"
The Sudrath party hit the lobby floor.
The turret above their heads rotated, scanning them. Its sensor light was red.
Targeting...
"Nor! Turn off the ones inside!" Rhea screamed.
Nor typed frantically.
"Override Friend-or-Foe Identification. Add Group: Human_Survivors."
The turret's sensor light turned Green.
The weapon rotated away, refocusing its aim on the mutants outside the door.
Five minutes later.
The gunfire ceased.
The Underground City returned to silence. But this time, it was a different silence.
The streets outside were littered with charred, smoking mutant carcasses.
The city's streetlights began to flicker on one by one.
CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.
From absolute darkness, the dead city transformed into a sea of light. Building lights, street lights, tower lights.
It was a breathtaking sight. A metropolis rising from the grave.
Riven stood up slowly, wiping mutant blood from his face. He walked to the shattered glass window, staring at the now brilliantly lit city.
"It's so beautiful..." Rumina whispered, her eyes sparkling with the city's reflection.
Rianor leaned against the console, sliding to the floor as his legs gave out. Elara sat beside him, completely breathless.
"We did it," Rianor whispered. "We have the key."
"We have Electricity."