Stryker and his crew proceeded with caution down to the lower level. The research and development area had an extremely similar layout and decor to the living quarters upstairs. A long hallway lined with doors, decked out with sterile white-paneled walls, and blindingly bright fluorescent lighting.
"Main Lab's got some kind of blast door." Stryker recalled
"odds are they've locked themselves in there. Big one on the left."The floor-to-ceiling door glimmered ominously as they approached. Unlike everything else in this place, it was made of jet-black steel. There were no windows to look through and confirm the scientists were even in there, but the eerie silence (save for the faint sounds of the battle happening upstairs) was sign enough. Rifle still in hand, Stryker leaned in to try and listen at the door. Nothing. He brought up a hand and knocked three times. The door shot open in a flash and before anyone could react, Stryker had three guns directly in his face.
"WHOA WAIT!" he shouted.
"DROP 'EM!" Grayson said, his gun jumping up to a ready stance.
Amy's body tensed. She drew in a sharp breath and took a step back, aiming her pistol dead center at the scientist's chest, the bright red dot sitting comfortably just off to the right of his heart. But even though he was standing across from her, his focus rested entirely on Stryker and the others.
Benny had raised his rifle in tandem with the others, aiming down the ironsights at the armed men in lab coats staring them down. He aimed center of mass at one of the other scientists on the side as Amy and Grayson already had the middle one well covered.
The scientists stared them down, unmoving but for slight quivers of their hands.
"Who are you?" The lead one demanded "Don't bullshit, you're clearly not Alliance marines."
"You're right" he replied, keeping his one free hand up in the air, the other, still holding his rifle loosely by his side
"We're not Alliance, but we work for them. Project Revenant.""Never heard of you."
"Well, you wouldn't, it's classified.""Ok, here's what's going to happen, you drop your guns and come inside. Alone. Convince me you are who you say you are, or I'll blow your head off."
"You'll do no such fuckin' thing" Grayson growled, his finger slipping closer to the trigger.
"Easy Grayson, stay calm, we're all friends here" He turned to the scientist
"Ok, I agree to your terms" He laid his rifle against the wall and slipped off his grenade belt and pistol holster. He stepped over the threshold and got one last word in with his team before the door snapped shut.
"Benny, if they do shoot me... blow the place up."Benny grunted in annoyance at the turn the conversation had taken, knowing their allies in the upper floors were getting shot every second they spent down here.
"Jus' dinnae take so bloody long, aye? I migh' get bored..." He replied grumpily through his sealed helmet's internal speakers as he lowered his rifle and fiddled with Skelly's interface to prepare the remote triggers on his charges for immediate detonation.
The lab was, unsurprisingly, full of computer terminals, long work benches and counter tops. That same too-white color scheme, reflecting the glare of the bright overhead lights. The scientists were all human, six men, four women. In the center of the room, with a few of the scientists clustered around it, was a large glass case. On first inspection, it looked empty, but then Stryker say it, a little speck of darkness, floating around like a drop of water in zero-G. He didn't know what it was, but he knew it was nothing good.
"Enough staring" the lead scientist said "Talk."
"Well, to start, if you're planning on shooting me, might wanna take the safety off of that thing first" he quipped with a grin behind his helmet's visor before continuing
"Executor Lara started Project Revenant almost ten months ago. Criminals and mercenaries forced into running black-ops in exchange for reduced sentences, or other rewards. We were sent here on her orders to retrieve you, your team, and all your research. You sent a transmission encoded under channel 815-V a few days ago. I'm supposed to quote a recall order number...... 7Y86.""That checks out." One of the others with a gun said to the leader.
"Alright then." All three men finally lowered their guns and the lead researcher stepped forward to extend a hand to Stryker.
"Dr. Robert Micolashe. Apologies for all that unpleasantness. My colleagues and I were expecting more.... official individuals."
"Stryker... just Stryker" he replied as he took the handshake. Ignoring the second half of his statement, he pressed on "Impressive setup."
"Ah yes, spared no expense. Our benefactors wanted to ensure we had top of the line technology for our efforts here."
"And what exactly were you doing, if you don't mind my asking?"Micolashe lit up at the question. The man was clearly passionate about the project as he launched into his explanation.
"We were tasked with researching the applications of dark matter. It's quite something really, we've already made several breakthroughs, like how to harness it's energy. They're actually testing a new transmutation process over there now. The machine absorbs light, any source of light at all, and puts it through a process of convergence whereby it becomes dark matter. From here it's only a matter of time until we harness it's potential energy, then we'll really make progress, but our representative with the Alliance was so excited by the machine alone that he must have ordered our recall sooner than anticipated."
'Yeah something like that' Stryker said, unable to stop staring at the black bubble floating in its casing. He was utterly horrified and disgusted with everyone in the room at how joyful they appeared to be. How blissfully unaware they seemed to be of the monstrosity they had created. Still he had to play along for now.
"That's really amazing, and as much as I want to hear more, time is of the essence. How long would it take you folks to be ready to leave?"Micolashe's response was cut off by a loud bang from above.
"What the devil was that?"
"Three days ago, a Skaldurm raiding party touched down on the planet. They killed or enslaved everyone in the town and that's why we were sent for you. They captured one of my people and followed the beacon from the access terminal right out to us, the rest of my team is up there now holding them off, so as I was saying, time is of the essence. Pack up quickly and get moving..... now if you'll excuse me for a second while I check in with the folks upstairs.""What the hell?"Amy activated her sensor, but the scans didn't pick up any movement in their vicinity. Even though the four of them seemed to be safe at the moment, the same wasn't true for the rest of the team upstairs.
Inside, Stryker stepped off to the side and discreetly activated the deep-space-exposure seals on his helmet. The scientists in the room wouldn't be able to hear him speak as he opened up a comms channel to converse privately with Grayson, Benny, and Amy. Dark thoughts swirled around in his head as he started to speak. In that moment, only one thing was certain- these people couldn't be allowed to get back to the Alliance.
"I don't have long, they think I'm checking in on the others. I know why the Alliance needs these guys. They've created a functional black-hole generator. The Alliance could destroy entire systems if they weaponize it, which you know is exactly the reason they wanted to invent it. I don't care that we're working for them, no one deserves this kind of power.... we have to kill the eggheads and destroy this place. Nothing, and I mean nothing, makes it back to the Alliance. Soon as the door opens, draw your weapons and cut the fuckers down." Benny's helmet was already sealed beforehand, so he simply had to shut off his speakers to respond to Stryker.
"Is yer bum oot tha' windae? Artificial black holes?!" He replied, his knowledge of physics making it hard to believe that they would actually be able to achieve what Stryker said they did. Nonetheless, he prepared his rifle and aimed at the door from his hip, intending to unload in a sweeping motion in full auto so he wouldn't waste time aiming at them.
"Jus' stay outta tha' killzone, aye?" He said to Stryker over the comms, not wanting their ambush to turn into a case of friendly fire.
The idea didn't sit right with Amy. She was a criminal, sure, but she wasn't a murderer. Multiple thoughts crossed her mind, including the option to destroy their equipment and leave them stranded somewhere, but the Alliance would find out one way or the other, so at that point, it wasn't even an argument to simply follow Stryker's plan.
Grayson, rifle at the ready, glanced over at Amy. From her stance and the look on the bit of her face he could see, he could tell she wasn't a fan of the idea. She couldn't see his face through his helmet visor, but he reached over, touched her shoulder and nodded, silently saying 'it's ok'
"Ready mate" he said into the comms
"Now, like Benny said, you keep your head down, unless yer plannin' on gettin' a hole in the head."Noticing Micolashe turning his attention over towards him, Stryker didn't have enough time to verbally reply, he tapped the transmit button twice, sending two quick chirps out over the comms channel. He only had a minute or two to formulate a plan of how to disarm the three men holding guns and get out of the way of his team's line of fire.
Amy readied her weapon once more, looking over at Grayson as she posed a question.
"Is he usually this...reckless?" she asked, hoping that Stryker's line of communication really was dead.
"Is this abrupt behavior normal?""No, this is new love" he replied
"He's never been like this before, not since I've known 'im at least."It looked like the scientists were nearly ready to go, several boxes of datapads, hard drives and other data storage devices lined the counters closest to the door. Stryker saw one of the armed researchers stride towards the blast door, he called back to his colleagues, something about needing to grab all the observation room hard drives. Now or never.
He walked on a collision course with the researcher, his eyes firmly locked on the man's pistol, loosely hung at his side. Quick as a whip, Stryker threw a solid punch to the man's throat and with his other hand, yanked the pistol away from him, flicked the safety off and brought it up to his head. The gunshot echoed loudly around the room as the man fell to the side, dead instantly, blood spatter and brain pan covering the jet-black blast door. Taking advantage of the researcher's shock, he leapt over and bashed the door controls, allowing his team to come inside.
A gunshot went off inside and not even moments later, the heavy doors opened up to allow them access. Amy's attention was immediately diverted to one of the scientists rushing for something near the wall. She took aim and fired off two shots, both hitting his left side below his arm. The man fell to the ground, seemingly dead. She then went on to target one of the women running around. Surprisingly, Amy managed to get a headshot on her, blood and brain matter contrasting against the heavy white of the room as the lifeless body unceremoniously dropped to the ground. Amy could hear the gunshots around her that were dwindling down the team. She had hoped for another solution, but each trigger pull was another terrible reminder that such idea wasn't possible.
Amy then cut a corner around a row of stations and immediately aimed down to a female scientist cowering on the floor. She was crying, nervously yelling up at Amy for her life to be spared. She seemed really distraught, and although the red dot sat on her forehead, Amy was having trouble pulling the trigger.
As soon as the doors opened, Benny pressed down on the trigger of the rifle. His weapon unloaded into the defenseless scientists on full-auto, with him sweeping the area and hitting various furniture and computer terminals as he did. Watching the bodies fall from the weapons of both he and his allies was oddly satisfying. He found himself smiling under his helmet as the kick from his gun coincided with the scientists' bodies rag-dolling before falling into a bloody mess on the floor as the room erupted with broken items.
Eventually, almost all the scientists were killed and then only one remained. A female scientist that was cowering in fear in a corner, screaming "P-please no! D-don't shoot! Please! I'm n-not armed! Please d-don't k-kill me!"
Benny was about to plug a round into her when he had an idea. He lowered his weapon, turned on his helmet speakers, and approached the woman.
"Hey... Calm down now lil lassie. Me gun's down, see?" He said as he shook his rifle and held it casually.
"Today's yer lucky day, y'know? Y'see, we need someone ta' tell us where all yer research is. We'd use tha' computers here but it looks like some o' them got beaten right proper, aye? Tell us, did ya save everythin' in this room, or are there backups somewhere?" He said as he knelt down to face her at eye level.
"We'd really love ta' see wot ye've been werkin' on and it would be such a waste to have that data an' your brilliant mind join yer friends here, aye? Couldinnae you show us where ta' find wot's left?" He said, struggling not to let his laughter out, settling for smiling widely underneath his helmet, sure that she couldn't see him through it. The woman stared at him through tear-stained eyes, before hesitantly nodding. "Y-y...Y-yes. T-the data it's... i-it's all here. H-had to... Had to protect in c-case of... l-lab breach," She answered.
"I see... Thanks, lass. Ye've been a big help," He said before he quickly aimed Skelly up at her face and fired the wrist-laser multiple times into her face, sending her backing up against the wall as her melted skin went up in smoke, bone and teeth bared.
Benny slowly stood up, his body spasming as if hiccuping, but actually holding back a wheezing fit of laughter as he turned towards his allies.
"I... heheh... G-guess ya could say she... GOT BURNT! AHAHAH!" He finished as he fully burst into laughter, hunching over his front and facing the floor as he tapped into Skelly's interface to begin preparing the data erasing virus for insertion into the remaining functional terminals.
Amy's weapon hung down by her side, the anger that was suddenly building up threatening to unleash hell on Ben if she didn't suddenly develop the self-control to counter it.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!"With her free hand, Amy grabbed Ben's shoulder and pulled hard enough to have him face her. Using that same momentum, she pushed his back against the floor-to-ceiling column so that he was stuck with nowhere to go. Just as quickly, Amy brought up the gun and shoved it against his neck.
"Who do you think you are killing her like that?"Benny scowled at Amy from underneath his helmet when she pushed him against the pillar and held him at gunpoint.
"I'm jus' carryin' out tha' bloody cap'n's orders, lass! Nothin' gets back to tha' Alliance, aye? I was makin' sure these eggheads dinnae have any other backups elsewhere that coulda' been salvaged. They cannae tell us that if they're all dead, can they?! Now we know how ta' destroy it all. If anythin' got back to tha' Alliance an' they finish wot they started 'ere, how many planets will be destroyed? What gives you the right ta' risk tha' fates of entire populations?" He started. Then a sinister grin formed on his face
"Oh tha's right... That's old hat ta' you isn't it, Mrs. Spy? Playin' puppetmaster with people's lives... heheh..." He said, almost taunting her to pull the trigger, if just to spite her by showing everyone he hit a nerve.
Grayson had been silently, dutifully finishing off any of the scientists who had survived the initial attack, single shot, between the eyes. When he saw Amy grab onto Benny and pull her gun on him, he stopped and rushed over, with Stryker on his heels.
"That's enough!" Stryker said, getting a hand in between them and separating them
"we still have a job to do here, and it's not gonna work if we start turning on one another. We can talk about this later, for now it's in the past."Amy stared in silence for a moment before she pushed him off in a harsh manner, taking a few steps back. She didn't attack Ben for the simple fact that Grayson and Stryker had stepped in, despite of his words and actions.
"Ya did cross a bit of a line though Benny" Grayson interjected, keeping a hand out across Amy's front to keep her from lunging back at Benny if the tensions boiled over again.
Benny only grunted in response as he got back to work on the total data erasure virus.
"None of us were good people ta' begin with, lass. It's a bit late ta' question our methods..." He mumbled bitterly as he busied himself with his work.
Dr. Micolashe was still clinging to life, he'd taken a bullet or three to the midsection, and his once white lab coat was now stained with red. A stream of blood flowed freely from his mouth and his vision was going blurry. The man who claimed to be their savior appeared in front of him.
"Why?" he asked, wheezing greatly through the effort of talking.
"Because you thought you were heroes" Stryker said solemnly
"you were already hearing the songs they'd write about you, the tales they'd tell of the monsters you slayed but you were never heroes, you were the monsters. Waiting in their den for a hero to come. Now, I'm no saint, I've got no illusions about that, but I'm still human, aren't I? Couldn't just stand by and let you get away with a million holocausts."Before Micolashe could respond, Stryker put the barrel of the pistol he'd stolen against his head and pulled the trigger. It was done. He stood up straight, dropped the empty pistol and walked back to the door of the lab to retrieve his own discarded weapons.
"Sorry about that," Amy whispered to Grayson, apologizing for her behavior. Even though it hadn't been aimed at him, she still felt the need to apologize. A final shot went off in the room, and it was obvious that Stryker had finished off the last remaining scientist. With virtually nothing left to do given her skillset, Amy began to search the pockets of the deceased for anything they could use down the road, and she consciously made the effort to ignore the gory display of the female scientist Ben had killed. It really was a tragedy that such smart minds would be so blind as to the implications their work could bring.
But as she was going around, an idea suddenly popped in her mind. Amy reached for a small capsule on her utility belt and walked over to the dead woman. She knelt down next to her, collected a blood sample, and quietly got back up again.
Grayson simply nodded at Amy's apology as she wandered off. He didn't know how to feel about what just happened. He'd killed defenseless people before, it was part of his job before this, to kill whoever was on the contract. And of all the marks he'd ever taken out, he was fairly confident that none of them had been complicit to crimes like these scientists had, but there was something different about this. Something about them screaming, begging for their lives, and all of it doing nothing to help their situation. It was the closest thing to remorse he'd ever felt.
"Ok, we're not done yet. We still gotta get out of here and wipe out all trace of what happened. The fight's still raging upstairs, so Grayson, Amy, the two of you head back up and assist, we'll signal when it's time to start evacuating. Benny, you're with me, we're gonna rig this place to blow. Amy, take my rifle, you're gonna need the firepower up there. I only took a couple of spare mags, but Grayson, you carrying anything that'll fit it?"Sure thing, thanks." Amy reached for the rifle, avoiding eye contact with Stryker for the moment given the interaction they'd had a few minutes earlier.
"Yup, right here" he responded, tapping at a pair of ammo pouches on the right side of his belt.
"Alright, good luck." As they headed off, Stryker tuned his comms back into the team's main channel and started a transmission out to the others.
"Stryker here. We're gonna start evacuating in just a few minutes. Hang in there guys." With that done, he turned over to look at Benny
"let's get to work.""Abou' bloody time!" He said as he finished sending the data virus to the terminals to begin erasing every packet of information not needed to keep the computers working while they got on with their tasks.
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