The hum of the electric engine was the only sound on the desolate stretch of road. The armored transport rolled steadily through the darkness of the Pennsylvania countryside.
Inside, the air was cool, recycled by the internal climate control of the MARK IV Tactical Assault suits. Five figures sat in the rear compartment, their black matte armor absorbing the faint ambient light from the dashboard. On the chest of each suit, the word RED was stenciled in blood colored crimson.
Red One sat nearest the door. He rolled his neck, the servos in the suit whining almost imperceptibly. He looked down at his gloved hands. Under the armor, he was now a perfect physical replica of Sergeant Miller, a known wetwork operative for General Raddock, a man who had publicly opposed Spencer Industries' encroachment into the defense sector.
"Check your faces," Red One said, his voice a distorted growl through the helmet's comms.
Red Two (sitting opposite him) tapped the side of his helmet. "Biometrics confirmed. I am Corporal Banks."
"Confirmed," Red Three said from the back. "Lieutenant Kovacs."
"Good," Red One said. "The Argus satellite passes overhead in four minutes."
"Distance to target?" Red Four asked.
"Five kilometers out," Red Two replied. "We are at the drop point. Any closer and the ground sensors will pick up the tire vibrations."
Red One reached forward and tapped the Auto pilot. "Maintain speed, thirty kilometers per hour."
The vehicle's computer chirped a confirmation.
The rear doors hissed open. The five armored figures stepped out onto the asphalt, the night air heavy with the scent of pine and damp earth. The car continued rolling down the road, a ghost ship drifting into the night.
They stood on the shoulder of the road. Five kilometers of dense forest stood between them and Project Odessa, the buried secret that had birthed the world's greatest nightmare.
Red Two stepped to the center. "Link up. We will need five jumps to breach the perimeter."
Red One took Red Two's right hand. Red Three took the left. Red Four and Red Five grasped the shoulders of the others.
"Grip check," Red Two said. "Jump one. Three, two, one."
Pop.
One moment they were standing on the roadside. Next, they were deep in the forest, surrounded by towering oaks.
"One kilometer," Red Two stated, his breathing steady. "Re-orienting. North north west. Jump two."
Pop.
They appeared in the ground wet with mud.
"Jump three."
Pop.
They were on a ridge now. Through the trees, the faint glow of security floodlights was visible in the distance.
"Jump four."
Pop.
The hum of a perimeter fence generator was audible.
"Jump five. Execute."
Pop.
They materialized on the concrete access road, directly in front of the heavy steel gate of the facility. Two guards stood in the guard booth. They jumped, startled by the sudden appearance of five armored giants out of thin air.
One guard reached for the panic button.
Red Four stepped forward, extending a hand. "Sleep."
The guard's eyes rolled back in his head, his hand going limp inches from the alarm. He slumped forward onto the console.
The second guard fumbled for his rifle, his mouth opening to scream.
"Drop," Red Four commanded, focusing his will.
The guard's knees buckled. He collapsed to the concrete, unconscious before he hit the ground.
Red Three raised a hand. The air around the surveillance camera mounted on the gate post shimmered. Instantly, a thick coating of white frost encased the lens, blinding it.
Red One walked to the massive steel gate. It was designed to stop a truck ramming it at full speed. He jammed his armored fingers into the small gap between the two sliding doors.
He pulled.
There was a screech of tearing metal that sounded like a dying beast. The heavy steel gears of the gate mechanism shattered with a sound like a gunshot. The doors groaned, warped and then slid apart, the metal buckling under the impossible force.
They moved into the facility courtyard. It was a concrete box buried in the earth. The entrance to the underground lab was a heavy blast door set into a concrete bunker.
Red One approached the blast door.
CLANG.
The door caved in, a massive dent appearing in the center. The locking mechanism sheared off. He grabbed the edge of the warped metal and ripped the door from its frame, tossing it aside like a piece of cardboard.
They descended the ramp into the earth. The air grew colder. The smell of ozone and antiseptic became overpowering.
A squad of four Vought security personnel came running down the corridor, weapons raised.
"Hold fire!" the lead guard shouted. "Identify your… "
Red Three swept his hand in a horizontal arc.
"Freeze."
The air in the corridor turned white. The temperature dropped to absolute zero in a moment. The four guards flash frozen mid stride, their bodies turning into statues of ice, their faces locked in expressions of surprise.
Red One walked forward.
Crunch.
Shatter.
The frozen bodies disintegrated into thousands of shards of red ice and frozen flesh as the armored suit plowed through them.
They reached the main laboratory floor. It was a underground complex filled with humming machinery, glass observation tanks and rows of medical beds.
Technicians and scientists in white coats froze as the five black armored figures marched in.
"Security!" a scientist screamed, reaching for a phone.
Red Five (who had been walking silently at the back) shrank.
In the blink of an eye, he was a speck on the floor, moving at sixty miles per hour. He shot up the leg of the scientist's table, launched himself into the air and resized to full mass but only six inches of height… right at the scientist's neck.
He struck the scientist's jugular with a force that decapitated him internally.
The scientist dropped.
Red One grabbed a security guard by the vest and threw him. The man flew fifty feet, slamming into a reinforced glass wall with enough force to liquefy his internal organs.
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