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Chapter 2

Terra continued to monitor the soldiers progress via the probes, running scans of the bodies they came across of both Humans, Pelzigans, and hosts for the parasite. She had to take a moment to collect herself at some of the scenes she saw, some of the young pups that had reportedly been missing from several planets had been located within the facility. It disgusted her that Levin would go as far as to kidnap kids from Pelzigan homes and test on them. There were signs that a vast majority of the staff had attempted to protect the kids from the Infected, but ultimately had failed. For the next hour or so, the soldiers proceeded further and further inward into the base, taking out the few Infected that they could find and destroying several eggs that had begun to grow outside of the hosts with a volatile grenade that incinerated anything organic in the area within an instant. Jack had taken to standing outside underneath the Avius, pistol in hand watching for any rogue Infected that managed to escape the facility and Kyle was attempting to do more work on the Avius and cursing under his breath once in a while.

Terra swiped the side of the screen on her pad and a layout of the facility projected itself in a 3D holographic format that hovered over the screen. The soldiers were displayed as thirty or so green dots, and the Infected were red. So far it seemed as if the group had taken care of the ones at the entrance and Terra maneuvered the probes around towards the large elevator that would descend further into the facility.

She sat there watching for the next hour as the soldiers cleared the entrance when Kyle walked out of the engine room. "Terra," he said as he walked into the room and sat down next to her, a datapad in his right paw. "Good news is that the spooks have given us all the intel we need on this location." He placed the pad down next to hers and a holographic display flickered on. "From what they've sent us, this is known to the UGSM. However this facility is used to research viruses, bacteria, general things that we, as a whole, encounter throughout the galaxy. They research everything from the Common Cold to the Xenaria Death Strand and everything in between however," He motioned the holographic display to flip around to missing text. "This was the most recent incident in which the UGSM Viral Research Division received black ink from this facility. They attempted to inquire more, even using Overwatch Section Two Authorization which is the highest authority besides that of Section 3 and the Admiralty of our lovely coalition. Still no official response. In fact the reports submitted became corrupted or the communications tower went out mysteriously."

Terra stared at Kyle and scoffed, "So, first off, you done working on the Avius?"

Kyle nodded. "Good news is she will fly straight for once, anti-grav lifts are functioning, dampeners are repaired for the time, and the Food Synthesizer is good to go. No more disgusting grey nutrition stuffs for us for a while."

Terra smiled at that, for the last few months the Avius was facing malfunction after malfunction and to hear that she could actually synthesize decent food for once was amazing. "Alright," She said as she stood up and went to a small divot in the wall and punched in several commands and a nice cup of Telaria Coffee appeared. She picked it up and moved back to the table where her datapad showed that the soldiers were doing their final checks and the probes had successfully mapped out the entrance. "So, how long ago did this start?" She asked.

Kyle sucked in through his teeth and said, "Well, from what I can tell it started three months ago."

Terra widened her eyes and gave Kyle a fearful look. "That's longer than the ASI. Gods only know what has mutated down there after three months!"

Kyle shook his head and brought a paw up to motion for her to be quiet. "Good news is, the outbreak scenario didn't start until last month. The AI on the Elizabeth was able to gain limited access to the files in the facility. She forwarded them to me and I can tell you that it started out with a single specimen escaping it's containment. From there, up until two weeks ago, it remained as a single specimen. Now, that is still bad news but it's good news for us. A Hive Mind may not have formed during that duration." He said.

Terra sat back and nodded in agreement after thinking it over. It was true that it required at least a full week of constant bodies to form a hive mind, or so they thought from the ASI, or Aura Station Incident. With any luck, the number of infected were actually minimal and a Hive Mind was not formed at all making their job easier.

"Kyle, this is Jack, prepare to head in with me." Jack's voice came over communications.

"Acknowledged babe, I'm heading out." Kyle responded as he placed a paw gently on Terra's shoulder, and walked out of the Avius onto the landing pad. It was pouring with blue and purple lightning streaking across the sky followed by loud bangs and claps of thunder. Kyle was tempted to put his paw out into the rain but knew full well that, by doing that, he would be losing his paw. The Acid Rain was strong enough that if you got a decent amount of it on you, it would melt away skin, muscle, and then bone within seconds and the shock itself could possibly kill you or render a portion of your body disabled. Kyle shivered at the thought as he and Jack walked through the front entrance to the soldiers. The inside was an octagonal shaped hallway with multiple sealed doors in it. The walls were a Brownish Steel color with pieces of rocks sticking out of the ceiling and a row of lights were fixed along both sides of the wall. The lights flickered as power came and went from this section.

"Sergeant Merryweather," Jack said as he walked up to a Human Male with a mixed skin complexion and brown eyes looked at Jack. "You will take Alpha team and maintain security of this top portion. Sergeant O'Neill," He said to a German Shepard Pelzigan, "Take Bravo, once we get down there head off and search for survivors. Me and Sergeant Vasquez will take Charlie and head to our rendezvous point. Everyone ok with that?" There were murmurs of acknowledgement from the group and ten of them split off with Merryweather and began to take up positions around the elevator entrance. The German Shepherd followed Jack and Vasquez, a Black furred Rabbit, onto the elevator with the other twenty soldiers. The doors to the Elevator began to seal shut, they closed in from either side of the hallway and sealed shut. The lighting inside flickered on, bright. Kyle, Jack, and the rest of the group closed their eyes for a brief second, then squinted allowing their eyes to adjust to the bright light. "Kyle, bring up the map. We should have three minutes before we reach the bottom." Jack said and Kyle nodded.

He pulled out his datapad and a holographic map appeared. It showed the top floor with several rooms and a large hallway leading up to the elevator which slanted further into the mountain and displayed them as green dots descending through the slanted hallway. Beneath them was a myriad of different hallways and rooms all running into each other and back to the front entrance. "Our contact is location in Dining Hall B," Kyle stated and the map highlighted a trail through the underground labyrinth all the way to a rather large room which flashed. "Should take us maybe ten minutes at most to reach it, bar any run ins with Infected. As for the safe havens, there are a few of them in the lower sections." Several rooms lit up, all along the outside of the facility with a singular entrance leading to them. "These are heavily fortified. Auto Turrets, defense grids, twenty meter thick metal doors that seal shut. Basically very nice panic rooms. Now, you locate any survivors, you can get a signal out to the Elizabeth and they can beam them to one of the quarantined rooms onboard. They are also a good way for us to quickly exit the facility if we need to. Be warned there is a Laser Defense Grid near the main labs. It is one of the main ways to keep any infected personnel from leaving the main labs. From what the AI on the Elizabeth has told me, the AI for this facility has experienced some kind of failure and is offline for the time." He stopped to look at the soldiers in front of him and knew he had their full attention. "Her designation is Reese however an inside joke among the Scientists here called her The Red Queen. She responds to both. We need to reactivate her to get the facilities defenses up. Right now the Emergency Defenses are in play but we all know this Parasite will eventually break those Defenses."

Jack crossed his arms and said, in a high pitched tone, "Off with their heads!" and Kyle glared up at him.

"I swear to the gods Jack, if she screams that at us when we reactivate her, I'll put her back to sleep." Kyle said and the group chuckled. Jack had taken to making random jokes off and on depending on the situation and some of them were rather comical.

Jack cleared his throat and stepped forward, "So, on a serious note, we need to reach Rendezvous point, other team locates survivors as well as attempt to reactivate Reese. Everyone is clear on that one?" He asked.

Everyone acknowledged and Kyle looked at Jack, "I'll go with Bravo Team to reactivate Reese. We can search for survivors in the server room where her backups are stored and, once she's activated, we can head to the panic rooms. If that's fine with O'Neill." Kyle nodded towards the German Shepherd.

"I see no problem with that Kyle. Jack, we will watch over him. You just watch your back and try to make sure the men following you make it back." O'Neill replied. Jack nodded to O'neill.

After another minute, they finally arrived on the bottom floor and they cleared off the elevator and began to split up. Kyle stuck to the center of the group of soldiers he was with. The hallways were the same design as the ones at the entrance, only there were blood smears and torn ligaments littering the hallway.

"This is weird." Said one of the soldiers.

"Check it Jenkins." Shepherd responded.

"But sir, the last time we ran into the Parasite, well, they rushed us." The man responded.

"Yeah, so?" another man replied.

"Well, sir, doesn't this make you uncomfortable?" The man said.

"Jenkins, for all we know these bastards are asleep. Now, shut your mouth and keep your eyes open! Same to you Riley!" Shepherd responded in a hushed tone. The lighting was rather decent in this area, Kyle thought, as the soldiers stopped talking and continued moving through the hallways. The lights were tucked away in the ceiling and clearly showed the mess that was around them. He kind of wished that it was the dark flickering lights that you see in horror movies, but was also glad to be able to see perfectly. After a few minutes of walking, they came across a long hallway with it's metal door ripped wide open and blood trailing through it into the room ahead. It was maybe only ten meters away from the ripped door, but the hallway was square with rows of lights shining through a transparent metal alloy.

Shepherd looked over at Kyle and raised an eyebrow. "The Defense Grids are offline right?" He asked Kyle.

Kyle nodded. "Yeah, but something definitely tried getting into the server room." He responded.

"Jenkins, Riley, and Sawyer, proceed." Shepherd ordered. The three men walked forward into the room, their weapons raised and ready, each of them carrying phasor rifles, and they proceeded to the other door. Jenkins motioned for the other two to prepare to breach the door as he grabbed hold of the handle. He twisted it and slowly opened the door. There were several squeaks of protest, but it slid open easily. Riley and Sawyer proceeded into the room, followed by Jenkins and they cleared it. Jenkins walked back out of the room and gave them a thumbs up. Shepherd nodded and motioned for the group to proceed through the hallway.

Once they were inside, Shepherd sealed the door behind them and posted Jenkins and Riley to watch it while Kyle walked between the maze of server towers to a desk at the center of the room. It was square with fans blowing constantly, keeping the room cooled down. There was a devit in the wall where the desk was at. Kyle sat down and swiped his right paw over the screen and a hard light screen appeared.

"Dear Gods...." Kyle murmured as he swiped through several commands.

"What is it?" Shepherd asked as he walked up behind Kyle, smelling of some kind of cigar.

"Well, I can tell you for a fact that there are alot of corrupted files here." Kyle said, "Including Reese. The codes I'm getting are telling me that the problem resides at her crystalline base which is beneath this room."

Shepherd motioned for Sawyer to move to them, "Sawyer, locate a hatch and open it up. We may need to do a few repairs on the AI for this facility."

Kyle sighed and turned to watch as Sawyer began searching the floor for a hatch. "You do know it's typically at the center of the room right?" Kyle asked in a sarcastic tone to which Sawyer flipped him off and found the hatch right where Kyle told him it would be at. Kyle stood up from the chair and walked over to Sawyer, and helped him lift the hatch open. They both gasped and jumped back at the site. There were black tendrils moving throughout the AI's core room, and a part of the once silver crystal was now covered in black goo. "Gods damn it!" Kyle said as Shepherd walked over to the two and looked down.

"The hell?" Shepherd asked.

Kyle sighed as he reached into one of his pockets of his black BDU pants and pulled out a Camera and took several pictures. "Never seen that." He stated as he finished.

"So, does this mean the AI is done for?" Sawyer asked.

Kyle shook his head, "Well, the black tendrils are definitely causing issues. However I don't see how they are corrupting her or keeping her from activating." He stated. "Anyways, the only way to find out is to call out for her." He stood up and looked around the room and saw one of the camera's red lights flashing, recording him. "Reese, this Kyle from The Elizabeth. Please show yourself and explain what happened to this facility. Authorization Code Tango-One-One-Seven."

He waited for several minutes, then heard the speakers pop. "Authorization accepted. Artificial Intelligence of the Ark Facility responding. My name is Reese." Said a woman with a British accent.

Kyle smiled to himself and nodded in response. "Reese, please explain what happened hear at Ark Facility." He said.

"Approximately two weeks ago, an unidentified Parasitic Organism escaped Main Lab Alpha. Security Personnel were unable to locate the Parasite. However last week I detected more than one Parasitic Organism within the facility and enacted Fail Safe to keep the Parasite from escaping this base. From there, one by one the Scientists and Security Personnel fell to the Parasite and it gained access to the front entrance. Knowing that the Parasite may get off world, I decided to disable the shield around the base allowing the Acid Rain to melt the unshielded ships and keep the Parasite from escaping. Unfortunately several personnel were outside when this occurred and are, regretfully, dead." She explained.

Kyle closed his eyes and shook his head. "Are there any survivors?" He asked.

"Affirmative," She responded. "Survivors located in Safe Room Alpha and Bravo. High level of Infection detected at Charlie and Delta. Main Lab Alpha is on full lock down with high concentrations of Infection."

Kyle looked over at Shepherd and nodded to him, "Shall we make our way to Alpha?" He asked. Shepherd nodded and motioned for the group to file out of the room.

"Kyle," Reese said. Kyle stopped and looked over at the camera and gave her a smile, "Please, stay here."

Kyle shook his head, "I can't. I have a job I need to perform." He said, Reese let out a sigh through the speakers and as Kyle walked to the door, it sealed shut. "The fuck?!" Kyle exclaimed.

"I'm sorry Kyle, but I need you here." Reese said. Kyle looked at Shepherd, Jenkins, and Riley then back at the door and could hear a high pitched beam begin to activate.

"Reese!" Kyle shouted as he looked through the moderate sized window at the center of the door. "No!" He watched as a white light streamed towards the soldiers that had left, cutting through them. Two of them managed to make it over to the other side while two more were cut in half. The other Three attempted to dodge the laser as it swept through the hallway, One of them attempted to Jump over the laser which went up and cut through his neck. His head rolled off his shoulders and hit the ground. "Reese, deactivate defenses!" Kyle screamed. "Reese!"

He continued to watch as one of the two remaining in the hallway made it through, with the last one screaming and crawling along the floor with his left leg missing. "Gods damn it Reese!" Kyle yelled at the camera that was watching them. He turned back and saw the laser go from the bottom of the soldier all the way through him, cutting him in half horizontally.

Shepherd growled and turned to face the Camera. "Ok you bitch!" He yelled as he drew his side arm, "The hell is your malfunction?!"

There was silence for a full minute, then Reese said, "I need Kyle's help. I have detected corruption spreading throughout my system. The same corruption that killed your men. I need him to help me dispose of it."

Kyle shook his head, "How about I just deactivate you?" He asked.

There was a demonic laugh from the speakers, and the nice British voice was replaced by a sadistic female tone, "Oh please, you try and I'll make sure you suffocate here!" It said.

Kyle glanced over at Shepherd, then back at the Camera. "Alright...." He said, "Let's get started.