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When we made it back to the lounge, I couldn't help but notice that the lights in the stairwell and on our level were back in operation and the few security cameras we had were once again online. James, Allen and Tyler were standing outside of the lounge door waiting for us and seemed a little shocked at Alcatraz's condition.

"Jesus", Tyler said, "what happened to you?"

Alcatraz yawned, "monsters, rouge security guards, Martin's little range day, lack of food, water, sleep, low battery, take your pick. Exo is starting to hurt too."

"Come with me and I'll help you out", Tyler said, "leave your stuff here, Skyline will bring it by later."

Alcatraz set down his pack and sniper rifle and then followed Tyler down the hall and into Sarah's lab. When they disappeared around the corner, I turned to James.

"What happened with the lights?", I asked, "they're on again?"

"I sent Allen and Jacob down to the Generator room", James said, "Allen reported that they had their cables cut. The cuts were clean too, it was done on purpose, by who, I don't know, but once we got power back, I called up Martin, against my better judgment, and asked him if he had lost power."

"What he say?", I asked.

"He asked me how I managed to cut his cables without frying myself or getting torn to pieces by his security forces", James answered, "also..."

"Also what?", I asked.

"Jacob found something I think you should see", Allen said, "come with me, Mike, you too."

Mike and I followed Allen down the hall to Jacob's lab. Allen opened the door and we stepped inside. The layout was almost identical to Sarah's lab, but lacked the Autopsy table. There were two stacks of cabinets against the left hand wall with a counter running along the top of the lower stack that was loaded with all kinds of chemistry equipment as well as a lot of the stuff that Sarah had. Jacob's setup looked a lot more specialized though, like it was more geared towards Bio-Mechanical research, rather than just standard biological. On the right hand side of the wall was a giant, stainless steel object that looked almost like a moonshine still. There were two stainless barrels with a computer that seemed to be going at full steam ahead. Copper wiring and blue and red tubes were connecting the barrels and what sounded like a small pump was causing the set up to emit a faint hum. Jacob was sitting in front of a laptop reading numbers on a blue screen, readout from whatever that machine was. Also in the back of the lab, something I almost missed, were two bodies covered by white sheets.

"Jacob", Allen said, "they're back."

"Not a moment too soon", Jacob said turning around from the computer, "guys, I think you should see these."

Jacob walked to the back of the lab and pulled the sheets of two dead guards. There upper torso's were nearly gone and the left half of their bodies were practically split off, like someone had struck them at an angle with a extremely sharp sword, or perhaps an energy weapon. The hole in their torsos looked to be from a 20 millimeter sniper rifle at maybe a hundred yards or so, and if that was the case then it was a miracle that they still had bodies to recover in the first place. I didn't see any bones other than the broken ends of what little of their rib cages remained. There were weird marks on their skin that almost resembled acidic burns. l. For the life of me, I couldn't think what reason Jacob and Allen might have had to drag them back.

"Martin's playing with his 20mm again", Mike sighed.

"That's what we thought at first", Jacob said, "but the deeper I went, the more I found."

"What do you mean?", I asked

"I ran a Biopsy on both bodies and what I found was that the men died within ten minutes of each other", Jacob said, "what intrigues me was that I found they had the same blood type, A Positive, but that might just be a coincidence. They both had each others blood on their skin and each displayed similar chemicals within their circulatory systems, it seems to be a kind of breeding fluid, but if it is, then it's from a species I've never seen before, Sarah couldn't figure out exactly what it was either. The deeper I went, the weirder things got."

"Weird how?", I asked.

"Sky, do you know about Hellbugs?", Jacob asked.

I shrugged.

"I didn't think so", Jacob answered, "a Hellbug is a creature that classifies as a parasite due to the fact that it lays it's eggs in a host, and then the offspring eats the victim from the inside out. Tough little fuckers they are too, one case had an infant shot point blank, execution style in the head and it survived. What can you do to kill them? Not a whole lot, maybe run them over with a tank."

"Cut to the chase", I said, "do we have a Hellbug problem?"

"No", Jacob said.

"Then why you bringing it up?", I asked, "your losing me here brother."

"Bare with me", Jacob said, "The pattern of what these guys are missing fits with that of a Hellbug Egg Cluster, missing bones, lack of spinal fluid and marks on their flesh resembling acidic burns. What tipped me off that it can't possibly be a Hellbug though is the nature of the way the blood clotted, and the chemicals present. There's a shit ton of Red Code in the brains of both men as well as traces of Ex-12."

"Ex 12?", I asked.

"A chemical that is fine tuned to kill Hellbugs", Jacob said, "it looks as if EX-12 wasn't being used by these men to flush a Hellbug Egg Cluster out of their system, rather, it was being used by whatever was feeding off them as an agent to stabilize their feeding process. Case in point, these men committed suicide, I pulled a .50 Action round out of each of their heads, this...happened later."

"How old are these bodies?", Mike asked.

"Blood's fresh, doesn't stink no maggots", Jacob said.

"Jacob enough", Allen said.

"Well he asked me", Jacob answered, "isn't more than a day.

"Where'd you find them?", Mike asked pulling out his PDA.

"Just inside of the generator room", Jacob said.

"Were there any tracks? Other bones?", Mike asked

"Come on", Allen said, "I would have noticed them. What's the big deal?"

Mike held up his PDA, "the deal is that no parasitic life forms registered within this lab have been any where near there for days."

"Well that doesn't make any sense", Jacob said, "if it wasn't Martin or Hellbugs then you'd be saying..."

"That there's something else in the labs", Allen said facing me, "killing people."

"Let's not jump to conclusions", Mike said, "maybe that something is just a person, a murderer or another lab specimen were not considering."

I looked at him.

"I mean not that it's a good thing", he added quickly.

"Well whoever or whatever it was, were gonna have to go find them", I said, "damn. The suck factor climbs ever higher."

"The last known point of non synthetic contact was in the Deadscape Laboratory", Allen said, "now that the power is back and the 300 is online, Tyler and I will beable to support you and Mike from here."

I lowered my voice, "we are playing a very dangerous game here Allen, everytime I step outside our little safe area without a new tactic under my belt is an increase in the chance that I don't make it back. We can't keep playing on Level 10 with level one weapons, we need something new."

"What do you mean?", Allen asked.

"The suit that I wore out to Ransol had a chip in it that was capable of taking on Magellan's programming", I told him, "problem is that there is no way I could wear that suit around the lab and still fight effectively, there needs to be something smaller that I can use to take him with me so I can fall back on him when the situation goes to shit."

"Well", Jacob said, "I don't see anything other than a suit fitting your needs, for now, the coolant suit can be stripped down and stream lined. I'll cut the selves off and tie up the loose ends, get rid of the systems other than what you need, if I do it right, you'll beable to carry your AI into combat at the cost of only a few ounces, if I get the chance I'll see about integrating him into a Synthetic Protoform, but until then you'll be stuck with an undersuit."

"As long as I can get him back into this game", I said, "now where's this Deadscape?"

"Way in the back of the labs", Allen said, "it's about five miles from here and by foot it's a four hour trip, but assuming the monorail still works, you could get there in a half hour."

"Monorail?", I asked.

"It's a dual rail bullet train that we use to get to the way back areas of the lab", Mike said, "I actually took it up here when the outbreak started."

"What kind of condition was it in?", Allen asked.

"Had a few scrapes", Mike said, "nothing big though."

"But how did it run?", Allen asked.

"Kind of a rough ride because the wheels kept losing traction", Mike said, "but otherwise all the essential components seemed to be intact."

"Sounds like the sand tanks are empty", Allen said, "when you get there, refill the tanks if you can, but otherwise hop on and get going, I'll hit your PDA with the position of the Level 4 station once you get going."

In nodded my reply and Mike and I walked out of Jacob's lab to find Alcatraz waiting in the hallway, looking quite different than when we had found him. The sores around his Exo brackets had been bandaged, his hair had been cut close to his head and he had changed out of his old, sweat soaked torn clothes into a pair of black cargo pants, combat boots, a skin tight Exo shirt and he had a Hardlight PDA clinging to his wrist. His shotgun was in hand and his 20mm was broken down into four pieces in a sacbborad on his back. All around he looked a lot better.

"Your looking better", I commented.

Alcatraz shrugged, "it's amazing what a simple battery change and a change of clothes and do for you. Mind if I tag along? Looking for a little bit of payback."

"Where were going is far away from Martin", Mike said.

"Don't care", Alcatraz answered, "if killing a few cockroaches keeps me from taking my anger out on the first person who looks at me funny, then so be it."

"You can tag along but stay back and make use of that Exo if enemies get to close", I said, "I'll not have any one, especially a teenager, dying on my watch."

"Understood", Alcatraz said quietly as Mike and I started down the hall. I check my PDA for the map and then we proceeded through a large Hydraulic door with a sign on it that read, "-To Common Areas, Level 4 Technology Labs, Synthetic R&D, Monorail Boarding, Mall."

"They have a Mall here?", Alcatraz asked.

Mike nodded, "a couple of years now in fact. We get a such shit load of visitors to this lab on a regular bases that James created a sealed area where vendors and restaurant owners could set up shop."

"Wish I had known that", Alcatraz said, "I would have had a place to spend all that money my Mom gave me for my birthdays over these past few years."

"Your a synthetic", I said as I pryed open a metal security grate, "how do you have a birthday?"

Alcatraz gave me a funny look, "what you think I was just pieced together on a work bench?"

"Yes", I said with a toothy grin.

"Wrong Xeno", Alcatraz smiled, "I had a biological mother just like you do."

"Did", I told him as I stopped the group to peer around a corner, finding it was clear and giving the signal to press on.

"Did?", Alcatraz asked.

I nodded, "she died a couple of days ago. Courtesy of our batshit crazy Biologist friend Walnuts."

The atmosphere went from somewhat cheerful to gloomy and I found myself dropping my head a bit. I was still feeling the pain in my chest from when my heart had stopped for about a half a minute after my Mom's death. It was sharp, tight, stabbing feeling that I was sure would never completely go away and no painkiller could even begin to hope to try and touch it. I hoped that killing Martin would help ease it a little, but I also knew how much she and Dad both respected the Scrolls which all Xenos on Bespin lived by. One of the many Commandments, was to never kill for sport or revenge. It just added to my misery to think about how Mom would see my intention to do just that.

"I'm sorry", Alcatraz said.

"Don't be", I said, "it ain't your fault kid, it's Martin's. He's gonna pay for it."

"Take your relaxation periods where you may", Mike sighed, "that got gloomy real fast."

"Let's put aside and focus on the mission then", I said lifting another gate and stepping into the Monorail station.

The giant room housed not only what could be described as a badass looking train, but an entire shopping district as well. There were four restaurants on the left side of the room that were spaced about 10 or so feet from each other with small alley ways in between. There were escalators on each side of the restaurants that led up to a larger looking area that was quiet as a mouse. There was a glass roof that allowed the harsh light from Ios's sun to beam down on the textured stainless steel tiles and the sliver tinted glass of the guard rails and walk ways that encircled the entire boarding area. The train itself was nearly 200 feet long and some of that extended to the tunnel behind it. It was painted a bright blue color with the Biosphere Labs logo accompanying a Blaze Bioscience logo. It was armed as well. On the front and back cars were two sets of twin 55mm Auto cannons and two .50 caliber machines rested on top of the trains engine. I could also see panels above the auto cannons that were sticking out to me as hidden missile pods, Redstar's by my guess.

"55 millimeters, twin fifties, Redstar rockets", I said as I pryed open the doors, "you bastards are ready for a World War."

"Never mind the fact that everything in here will kill and eat you if you give it a funny look", Alcatraz said sarcastically.

"Good point", I answered, "Mike, Allen said something about sand tanks?"

"Yeah", he answered, "the train shoots sand between the wheels and the rail to get traction, when I rode it up here, the TCS was flashing on and off every five or six seconds, so I'm guessing that the tanks are empty."

"Where would we find what we need to re fill them?", I asked.

"I saw a small utility door back aways", Mike said, "there might be some there."

I turned to face Alcatraz, "stay here, don't move until we come back."

"You know I can probably lift more with one arm than the both of you can together", Alcatraz said, "If you weren't gonna let me help then why'd you agree to let me come along?"

"He has a point", Mike said, "those sandbags are 3-400 pounds each and it will take at least six bags to refill all the tanks, the more energy we save, the better."

I sighed and shifted my glance between the two of them, quickly realizing that I wasn't going to win the argument.

"Fine", I said, "let's check it out."

We backtracked into the hallway and Mike showed me the metal utility door. When I tried the knob, it didn't move even a hundredth of the inch. I should have guessed, everything in this lab was built like an artificial planet.

"Locked tighter than a bank vault", I said inspecting the door, "I don't see any hinges to blow off and I doubt that I'm strong enough to brake it down."

"You might not", Mike said, "but I bet Alcatraz can."

I looked at him.

"Yeah", Al said, "my own strength plus the Exo I bet I can knock it right off."

"Your up then", I said stepping back.

Alcatraz stepped up to the door and looked at it for a few seconds before throwing a hard punch right above the dead bolt. A sound like a gunshot tore through the hallways and there was a huge dent in the door, but it was still not going anywhere. Alcatraz huffed and bashed into the door again, still it held up. Then, with an annoyed look on his face, he raised his foot and kicked the door clean off the hinges. I was sure they heard the sound back at the lounge and thought that I was shooting at something.

"Doors open", Alcatraz smirked, "I think there might be goodies inside."

I smiled as I stepped inside the closet, "I need to get one of those."

There was a shelf in the back of the closet with four racks that held two big bags each of what I assumed was the track sand.

"This what we need?", I asked slinging the FAL over my shoulder.

Mike inspected each bag, "yep, six 400 pound bags, let's get to work."

Alcatraz and I stepped out of Mike's way as he picked up one of the huge bags and carried it out. Alcatraz stepped in front of me, grabbed two of the bags and carried them out as if they were weightless.

"Yeah", I smiled as I lifted one of the extremely heavy bags to my shoulders, "gotta get me one of those Exo's."

I walked the bag back out to the train where Mike had one of the sand tanks open and was working on the next one while Alcatraz was going back for the last two. I set the bag down in the pile Mike had near the first open tank and then looked at him.

"Want me to start filling this tank?", I asked.

"Go ahead", Mike said, "try to lose as little as possible please, otherwise we'll be going no where."

I nodded and pulled my knife out of my vest, slicing the bag open with ease. I set the blade down, lifted the bag of track sand to my knee and then slowly began to pour the granulated stone into the tank. It didn't take that long to fill, 2 or three minutes. I capped the tank, tossed the empty bag aside and the started on the next one as Mike and Alcatraz started on the opposite side of the train. Within a ten minute time frame the tanks were full and we were on board.

Alcatraz and I took seats as Mike slung his rifle over his shoulder and walked up to the control console. He pressed a few buttons and then the doors closed behind us. He turned a key and what sounded like a diesel engine woke up. The train gave a lurch and then began it's march forward. I could hear the transmission change gears as we entered a long tunnel that wasn't lit very well. The lights inside the train cabin came on with the headlights on the front of the train that showed only dark bricks and metal rails. The tunnel must have been pretty long, as I couldn't see any light at the end.

"And now we wait", I said leaning back, "how fast can this thing go?"

"About 75 miles an hour", Mike said, "shouldn't take more than ten minutes or so, assuming of course something hasn't fucked up the rails ahead."

"Let's hope", I said, "I need everything I've got to face whatever horrors await us next."

"Amen to that", Alcatraz sighed.

When the train tunnel ended several minutes later. I found we were now traversing a glass tube that snaked through a huge desert. All I could see for miles around was an ocean of golden colored sand and red rocks, similar to what the surface of Mars had once been. The glass tunnel we were in was covered in grit and had been abraded beyond saving in certain areas, but you could still see for a long ways out, which was pretty cool if I was honest with myself

"What kind of planet is this?", I asked, "it was all rolling jungle when I got here and now it's all sand? All I could see from orbit was green."

"What you saw was the outer layer of the atmosphere", Alcatraz stated, "Ios's environment can change on the dime. Sure it's classified as a forest planet, but that's only because of the majority of the continents have 45 percent or more covered by forest. If you go by that logic, Earth is considered an Aquatic planet because it's really covered by a single body of water and the continents are islands, even though they have huge deserts and arctic regions."

"That's actually a pretty sound observation", Mike said, "lots of people on Earth don't even seem to know that."

"You people teach me something new like every five minutes", I said, "if I wanted to go to Collage I would have."

Alcatraz laughed, "well when you work a 15 hour shift protecting scientists who can't help but rave about their latest discovery and explain every minute detail, you pick up a few things."

"Makes sense", I said.

The train continued down the glass tube. I figured we must have been at the half way point or so when the ground began to shake very heavily with a very distinct, four second period between each shake. At first I thought it must have been a tremor, but it went on for almost two minutes before subsiding. During the shakes, I was certain that I saw something huge disappear behind a sand dune, but then again, it might have just been a few dunes themselves playing tricks on my eyes.

"Must have been a pretty big Quake somewhere close by for us to be feeling that", Mike said.

"They weren't as bad as the 9.9 we had a couple years ago", Alcatraz said, "damn near brought down the whole lab and killed a lot of people in the Treetops after the vibrations knocked them off their posts."

"Does this planet treat anything beside meat eating plants with any kind of care?", I asked.

"Dirt", Alcatraz laughed.

The train pressed on until we entered another station that was constructed of what looked like solid steel. There were huge wooden beams that were acting as supports and it had the same glass roof as the previous station. It was smaller, maybe 500 or so feet up as opposed to the previous station's thousand or more, but still huge. The train started to slow down as we entered and downshifted until it was going slow enough to apply the air brakes and come to a stop. The station itself was trashed and there were bottles, papers, hamburger boxes any manner of derbies and junk was laying all over the place.

"What happened here?", I asked turning to Mike.

"Riots", Mike said, "people were calm when the outbreak first started and everyone was certain that Security would crush everything infected within 2-6 hours. When that happened the opposite way, people went nuts."

"I can imagine", I said as I stepped out of the train. My ears soon found what sounded almost like an intercom broadcast, it was faint and I could only make out a bunch of staticy garbled mess, but it was there. It sounded like it was coming from down the station.

"Hey guys", I said pulling my FAL off my shoulder, "you hear that?"

"here what?", Mike asked.

"That intercom message", I said stepping forward, "listen."

They paused.

"Yeah", Alcatraz said, "I hear it, sounds like it's about 500 feet up the station...should we check it out?"

"I think so", I said, "I've got a weird feeling about it though, so let's take this mice and slow."

"Lead the way", Mike said.

I nodded and started forward, thinking about each footstep, somewhat worried that I might step on something that would go through my boot or maybe on a small creature hiding in the trash. Mike was surveying every inch of the station, as if he were attempting to locate something, while Alcatraz just seemed jumpy.

"You okay Al?', I asked.

"You guys feel like were being watched?", he asked.

"No", I answered, "why? What makes you think were being watched."

"I've got this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach", Alcatraz said, "everything feels wrong, out of place, someone's been here in the past couple of hours, I can feel it."

"Looks like were about to find out", I said as I spotted a long black cable that was plugged into a 400 volt, 60 amp outlet looking like it might have been used to charge electrical components on the train. It was around two inches thick and slunk from the outlet and around the corner. I gave the signal to hold position and then I followed the cable to the corner, finding that it went up a stair case and disappeared over the edge. I signaled Mike to come forward and use the other side of the wall as cover, and for Alcatraz to fall in behind me. I waited for Mike to take cover behind the wall and Alcatraz to get behind me before I signaled to Mike that I was going up the stairs and wanted him to follow me up five seconds after I began my climb. He nodded to me and I flipped my FAL off safe and started up the stairs, keeping my tail suspended above the stairs to avoid as much noise as I could. I climbed five steps exactly before I was able to peer over the corner, just enough to see what was around and not get my head blown off by possible snipers. It was a wide open, terminal type area with a large amount of security barricades that seemed undamaged. There was a multitude of spent brass on the floor ranging from 9mm all the way up to the mighty .50BMG. Empty magazines accompanied used up rifles and handguns on the floors along with a few dead bodies of what looked like a desert version of the vine people.

I started back up the stairs again as Mike came up behind me and Alcatraz behind him. As I cleared the top of the stairs, I saw what was sending out the broadcast. There was a small, black kitchen shelf that was holding a laptop and desktop computer along with a spider's web of wiring and a bouquet of speakers that looked like they should be hanging from the ceiling, rather than sitting on a shelf.

"Clear", I said lowering my weapon.

"Clear Right", Alcatraz said.

"Clear Left", Mike said.

"What the hell is that thing?", Alcatraz asked.

"Some kind of relay beacon", I said walking to it and pressing some buttons on the laptop, which brought up the rely software screen, "it's hooked directly into the station PA system and it's been online for", I pressed a few more buttons and then clicked OK in a pop up screen. The Next screen to come up told me that the relay had been active for only 24 hours, '24 hours."

"It's not security issue", Mike said inspecting it, "someone built this out of spare parts, but who?"

"Probably the same people who've been ghosting us", Alcatraz said.

"You know", Mike said, "it does feel like we may be being watched."

"Let me radio it to James", I said turning on my radio, "James', it's Skyline, I've got something."

The only thing I heard from James' end was static.

"James", I said again, "It's Skyline, are you there."

Static.

"Fucking coms", I snuffed, "the range and the building materials are playing hell with my radio."

Alcatraz stepped up to the beacon, "okay, this is really, really disturbing."

"You can actually understand that garbled mess?", I asked.

"Yeah", Alcatraz said, "I managed to pull it off the PC and onto my PDA, I played it in my ear buds."

"Let's hear it", I said.

Alcatraz pulled out his PDA and pressed a few buttons before hitting Play.

"To any security personnel, hell anyone left, Martin is responsible for the outbreak of Chemical 240, his original intent was to produce an army of mutated creatures to devour and clean the lab of all humans and synthetics so he would be free to pursue his goal of Genetic Superiority however it escalated beyond his control. Chemical 240 has now infected an unknown bio logical matter capable of rapidly infecting and manipulating any biological, Mechanical or Energy based system. A few of my friends and I managed to set up containment fields in the Deadscape Research facility and then evacuate to Specimen Beta 327's holding pen. Beta seemed happy to see us in the first few hours and it seemed as if we had an ally, but 327, AKA Jourmungand, had been infected by the new Specimen Gamma 73 Redstar and quickly turned hostile. I went for help and left them with a S&S M20 and hopefully enough .950 TREX ammunition to keep Jourmungand at bay. If your hearing this, my suits contamination interface has failed and it wont belong before Redstar takes it's hold on my system and turns me into...one of those things. If you can, take the Nexus to #327's holding area and rescue my friends, try not to harm 327 if you can help it, as you may need a live specimen to study Redstar's effects. If you manage, tell my wife", I heard the slide of a Desert Eagle, probably .50 Action or .50 Magnum, jam forward, "I will not submit to Redstar, it will not have me, Taylor, I love you. This is Doctor John Hargreave, signing off...for good."

The transmission ended with a gunshot.

"Man shot himself in the head?", Alcatraz asked, "how much willpower would you have to have to do that?"

"That was a .50 Magnum Hyper Velocity round", I said replaying the sound in my head, "probably hand loaded. A round like that is powerful enough to brake most bullet proof glass, if he used it to commit suicide, then he was making sure that his brain popped inside his skull so Redstar wouldn't have anything left to control."

"Ouch", Alcatraz stated.

"Nah", I said, "he didn't feel it. What I wanna know though is who the hell is Jourmungand."

"Hell of an observation Sky", Mike said, "I haven't heard of this Jourmungand other than he was pretty pleasant to be around and that he was huge."

"How huge is huge?", I asked.

"I overheard one man putting him at ten feet wide and five hundred feet long", Mike said, "but then his friend said he was 20x1000."

"Either way I'm wanting to pay this Jourmungand a visit", I said, "I want to know more about this Redstar entity and find these people Dr. Hargreave was talking about, but to do that we need to find the Nexus."

Mike nodded and pulled out his PDA, beginning to flip through the maps that he had downloaded from the 300 a few days ago.

"The Nexus looks like its a couple floors above us", Mike said.

"Well let's get going then", I said, "power's out, so we need to find the stair well, check and see if there's any usable ammunition around here too, I have a feeling we'll need everything we can get our hands around."

With that, Matt began to look for the stair well, while Mike and I started to pick through the piles of brass and guns. I managed to find several, partially loaded magazines of .223, which I handed off to Mike as well as an older looking M14 that still had a half a clip loaded into it. The gun had a nice, long rang scope on it and was also suppressed. I picked it up and slung it over my shoulder next to the High-Power. I managed to find a few more stray bullets and partially loaded magazines before Matt called out.

"Guys! I found the stairwell!"

Mike and I stopped our search and walked over to him. He was standing beside a locked, windowless door that read, "stairs. ITN, Research labs, Cafeteria."

"I can hear a few things inside the stairs", Matt said, "I have no idea what they are though."

I flipped the FAL off safe, "then I lead, Alcatraz, your in the middle and Mike brings up the rear."

They nodded to me and Alcatraz punched the door off the hinges. We funneled in with me first, him second and Mike bringing up the rear. At the top of the staircase was a pale gray, human like creature that was down on all fours and definitely knew we were there. It turned it's head in our direction, opened it's fang lined, four part mouth and let off a sound that struck me as similar to a feeder before slinking down the stairs after us. I placed the ritecile on it's head and fired two rounds, which stopped the creature surprisingly quick, so quick in fact that I shot it again just to make sure it was dead.

"That died almost too quickly", I said kicking it, still not convinced it was dead.

"You shot twice in the face", Matt commented, "how could it not be dead?"

"Well considering that fucker Allen and I shot to pieces the day that I showed up here", I said, "Atlas, that Japanese Hornet, the Drill Tank and that thing we fought when we came after you, you see why I have my doubts. Nothing in this lab has been that easy to kill, unless you count the Vine People, damn things die when you sneeze at them."

"This must be what Dr. John was talking about when he refereed to "those Things", Mike said inspecting the body, "I wonder if this is what was inside those guys that Jacob and Allen showed us back at the lab."

"That doesn't make any sense", I said, "remember those guys committed suicide and Jacob said that whatever was inside them was parasitical."

"Maybe Redstar is a Mutative Parasite", Mike said.

"Come again?", Alcatraz asked.

"A parasite that takes over it's host and stops it's heart", Mike said, "the infected host is rendered "dead" by the heart stoppage, but actually remains alive, just dormant while the parasite mutates it into a completely new creature."

"And if the host interferes", I said, "the results must be...rather explosive. A cut off from the main parasite in the chest cavity from the brain stem or a stoppage of oxygen supply must trigger some kind of self destruct mechanism, that way if the host were to...say try and strangle themselves, or perhaps try to flush it out of their system, the parasite can kill them on it's way out."

Alcatraz shivered, "glad I'm a Synthetic."

"And I'm glad I have acid for blood", I said.

Mike gave us a dirty look.

"Uh", I said, "sorry?"

Mike shook his head, "let's keep going."

I nodded and started up the stairs again. We cleared several hundred stair steps before coming to a door that read, "To Nexus Bay".

"Prepare for entry", I said point at the door.

"Stacking up", Mike said.

Alcatraz took the right side of the door and mike the left, while I got behind Mike. Through the wall, I could hear what sounded like at least ten or maybe even twenty of those things.

"What do you wanna do boss?", Mike asked, "I can hear a shit ton of those things out there."

"Breach and clear", I whispered.

Alcatraz nodded and kicked the door off the hinges and the three of us funneled into the Nexus Bay. Not counting the two that Alcatraz had somehow managed to kill with the door, I counted 15 of the creatures we had seen in the stairwell. The area itself was a giant glass dome that housed a second, smaller, crystal roofed stainless steel dome with heavy, armored Tungsten doors. There were six heavy steel supports that I could see holding up the armored walls and the crystal dome roof and I could see solar paneling around the top most section of the roof.

"Weapons free!", I shouted raising my OSW to my shoulder.

Mike dropped to his stomach and started taking pot shots as Alcatraz let them get close to him and then used either his Remington or his Exo to kill them as I started sighting in the creatures one by one and making head shots. One at a time, we dispatched the horde of mutated humans and then proceeded to the entrance of the secondary dome marked "Deadscape Hot Weather Research Internal Transport Nexus." Upon closer inspection, I realized that there was no way even Alcatraz with his Exo was going to be getting that fucker open. The doors were at least four feet of solid Tungsten with what I assumed was a Titanium dead bolt, which was electronic and it wasn't powered, which likely meant that the Nexus was out of commission as well.

"Well", Alcatraz stated, sounding rather depressed, "I doubt I'm getting that one open."

"Me too", I said, "but see what you and Mike can do, I'm going to try and punch a signal through to James."

I stepped out of their way, stepping over the bodies of the dead mutants and walking to a window. I broke it out and then opened the radio to James.

"James", I said, "it's Skyline, do you read me?"

There was a small amount of static in the background, but I heard James very clearly.

"I read you Skyline", he said, "tell me you have good news."

"I wish I could", I said, "the Signal you picked up out here turned out to be a distress message planted by Dr. Jacob Hargreave. He stated in his message that The Outbrake was started by Martin as a way of cleaning out the lab so he would be free to pursue his goal of Genetic Superiority, but it escalated beyond his control, leading to the formation of Gamma 73, which he dubs Redstar. He said that it can rapidly infect and manipulate any biological, Mechanical or energy based system and and inspection of a dead Redstar subject lead Mike and I to believe that the bodies that Allen and Jacob recovered are failed Redstar infections, we fought off a shitload of the fuckers in the Nexus Bay area."

James sighed, "anything else?"

"The Nexus is locked tighter than a bank vault", I said, "I need to get in so I can rescue possible survivors in Specimen Beta 327's containment area."

"I'll hand it off to Tyler", James said as I started back towards the Nexus door, "327 is relatively docile, so you shouldn't have to worry about him unless Redstar has a hold of him."

"It does if Dr. Hargreave is to be believed", I answered.

"Watch yourself Skyline", James said as Tyler's voice replaced his.

"Skyline", Tyler said, "I'm gonna walk you through this just like I did the Generators and the Cluster 300. First, what's the Nexus Number? It should tell you right above the deadbolt Key Pad."

I put my radio down and looked at the key pad, finding 2016 written on a piece of paper.

"The number is 2016", I said.

"Okay", Tyler said, "give a few seconds while I bring the Deadscape Systems online."

There was a few seconds of pause and then the key pad numbers lit up and a voice cracked over the intercoms. "Power restored. All systems functioning at optimal capacity."

"Okay", I said, "power's back."

"The key code is 60626", Tyler said.

I punched the key code into the pad and the dead bolt inside the huge doors unlocked and they slid open, revealing the inactive Nexus to us. It looked very similar in design to the one at Ransol and had the same Initiation terminal. I walked over to it and found that it was like the interface on the three hundred, just a blank screen with a cursor.

"Alright Tyler", I said, "I'm at the terminal, what do I do?"

"For a Nexus", Tyler said, "first type in "Initiate Nexus Boot Sequence #2016 Rit/ID 4000."

I typed it in and a message similar to booting the three hundred popped up.

"CHDISK is verifying Nexus #....accepted. CHDSIK is verifying Rit/ID...accepted. Set Rit-Volume now."

"It's asking for a Rit-Volume", I told Tyler,.

"Right", he answered, "type in Set Rit-Volume/2301RT4."

I punched in the Rit-Volume and CHDISK responded immediately.

"CHDISK is verifying Rit-Volume....accepted. Set Software-CAD/OS System now."

"It's asking me for a Software-CAD and an OS System", I said.

"Right", Tyler said, "here's where things get a bit tricky, type in "Set System Options/Retrieve Data Folders/Display Items."

I typed it in.

"CHDISK is retrieving OS/Software-CAD folders...done. Please select proper operating files."

CHDISK showed me more files than I had ever seen in one place and all of them had weird Binary Code names with text characters that I had never seen in my life.

"All I see is a jumbled mess of folders with Binary names", I said, "how do I know which is the right one?"

"Like I said", Tyler answered, "this is a tricky bit, there are more Nexus lockouts and crashes because of this step because of any other. CHDISK had a Nexus hacked a few years ago and implemented this step as a security measure. What your going to do is type in "Set Software-CAD o98IER32u1" the the folder pops up, left click and click "Set OS System/Software-CAD. Make sure O and U are lower case and make sure I, E and R are capitalized otherwise CHDISK will tell you to fuck off."

I typed in what Tyler told me and a single folder popped up. I clicked it and then clicked "Set OS System/Software-CAD and the security program wasted no time with replying.

"CHDISK is verifying OS Install is un corrupted....completed. OS System is not corrupted. Data integrity at 100% Enter Inquiry."

"It's asking me for Inquiry", I said.

"Enter Inquiry-00967213", Tyler said.

I typed it in. The old style key clicking against the silicon chip underneath them as my clawed fingers glided across them.

"CHDISK as received Inquiry, verifying....accepted. Nexus is 100% operational. Initiating start up sequence."

There was the sound of an electric motor winding up and soon the energy orbs there floating out of the Nexus Nodes and there was more Text on the computer.

"Set Nexus Destination now, enter all entities to teleport."

"It's asking me to set Nexus destination and enter all entities to teleport", I said.

"For Nexus destination", Tyler said, "enter Containment Area-QW-#327. For teleportation numbers, just type three."

I typed in the numbers.

"Stand by for teleporting procedure", CHDISK wrote as I walked to the center of the Nexus, with mike and Alcatraz soon joining me.

"Time to pay this Jourmungand a visit", I said as the Nexus fired up. There was a flash of bright white light and we were standing in a a sandstone bowl with a giant hole in the middle. There was a sand bag emplacement up on a ledge behind us with a M20 machine gun and two people, a boy and a girl about Alcatraz's age behind it.

"Get over here", the boy shouted, "Jourmungand will be back any second!"

The three of us ran over to the sand bags, climbed up the steep rock face and went up and over the sand bags. The emplacement went into the mountain about 20 feet or so. In the very back, there were four sleeping bags, a crate that held a depleted stock of food and two, nearly empty water bottles. There was also an AK-47 resting on top of two ammo boxes marked "20 cartridges. .950 Tyrannosaurs Hollow Point.

"Who are you?", the girl asked without looking away from the sight of the Machine gun.

"Skyline Iemse", I said, "I was hired by James to locate and rescue all survivors as well as terminate any creatures on sight."

"Your a little late then", she snuffed, "fucking Redstar is infecting everything that moves or takes a charge."

"Are you two infected", Mike asked.

The boy, who had a compound bow in his hand nodded, "our suits can't hold it back much longer. Were out of food and close to out of water. The M20 has 40 rounds of .950 out of the 600 that Dr. John left us, please tell me he's okay?"

I shook my head, "he left us a message. His suits contamination interface failed, he committed suicide."

I saw the girls face drop and the boy sighed.

"Fucking figures", He snuffed, "that old man was willing to throw babies under a train if it meant he could stay ahead of Redstar. This is so unfair!"

"It is what it is", I said, "do you have any idea how to get out of here?"

"The only way out is through Jourmungand's tunnel", the girl said, "but he's been..."

The ground started to shake and then several gory looking, human like heads on what I guessed where spider legs flew from the hole and started up the wall to the emplacement.

"Here he comes again!", The girl said pulling a 45 from a holster on her leg, "don't let these damn things touch you! They'll take control of your body!"

Mike and I leaned over the emplacement and started picking off the Headcrabs as Alcatraz started putting his 20mm together. He managed to get it put together when the wind started to blow and I found that the sand bags, the ammo and everything else that wasn't bolted down started being sucked towards the hole.

"What the hell is he doing!", the girl shouted as the wind sucked us off the perch. I managed to get my claws into the sandstone and Alcatraz grabbed a hold of a piece of rock in the cliff. Alcatraz also managed to catch Mike and the boy grabbed a hold of my tail, but the girl wasn't so lucky. She was sucked to the edge of the hole and then disappeared into the abyss.

"Kate!", the boy yelled, "noooo!!!!"

Seconds after Kate went over the edge, the suction stopped and a mist of red flew from the hole. The four of us pulled ourselves back up onto the ledge.

"Mike!", I ordered, "get your ass on that machine gun! Alcatraz, be ready to empty a magazine of 20mm at whatever comes out of that hole. Kid, are you ready to use that bow?"

"You better believe it", the boy growled.

"Excellent", I said, "let's show this Jourmungand he's fucked with the wrong people."

No sooner that my words tumbled pass my teeth that Jourmungand revealed himself. He was the single biggest fucking worm that I had ever seen in my life. He was at least 20 feet wide and at the present moment he was rising some 600 feet in the air, blotting out the sun. His mouth had four pieces that hid the hundred or so, combat knife sized fangs that lined the back of his throat. The four pieces came out to form a kind of pincer that were also lined with knife sized fangs and they reminded me of that Japanese Hornet at the industrial complex. He looked down at us and let off a roar so loud that it felt like a blast of hot wind.

"Your a big mother fucker", Mike said, "but that don't mean you can't die!"

"Let him have it!", I shouted as I raised the FAL and let the bullets fly. The kid let the arrows go as fast as he could draw the bow, Mike held down the trigger of that M20 and Alcatraz was hurling 20mm slugs as fast as he could work the action. When my FAL ran dry, I let it fall to my side and reached for the High-Power. I let the rounds go at the same time and once again, the recoil knocked me flat on my back and made Jourmungand roar in pain. When I recovered, I noticed that I had taken one of his mouth parts off. The area where it had once bend was now pouring with dark red blood as if it were a water hose.

Enraged, I watched as he rose up another 200 feet in the air, roared so loud it hurt my ears and then came back down to our level, almost so I could see down his throat. From the depths of his gaping maw came a red, dripping ball of obsidian.

"Jump!", I shouted as I dove face first over the edge. Mike and Alcatraz followed me, but the kid with the bow didn't make it before the ball exploded in the cove. I then watched as Jourmungand slammed his wrecking ball of a head into the cove and collapsed it before retreating underground and a swarm of Headcrabs came up to take us out for him.

"Kill these nasty things!", I growled as I crushed one underneath by boot.

"With pleasure", Alcatraz's said as he racked his Remington.

"When Jourmungand comes back up", I said as I drew my sword and slashed one of the crabs out of the air, "aim for the head."

Mike and Alcatraz acknowledged me as we continued to fight off the head crabs. One of them managed to jump at me while I was focused on another one and crawled up my pants leg and then onto my arm. I grabbed it off and sank my claws into it's head while it reached for me with it's spider legs. I hissed, opened my mouth wide and bit the entire front part of it's face off and then threw it down the hole as I speared another one with my tail.

Soon after that the suction started again and the crabs quickly disappeared down the hole. I threw myself away from the hole and sank my claws into the sandstone as Alcatraz jammed his knife down into the ground and Mike took a hold of him. The suction stopped and Jourmungand once again revealed himself. Immediately we set upon him with our high caliber weapons and wasted no time in taking the other three mouth pieces off. Jourmungand rose to a full thousand foot height and let off a roar so loud the three of us were driven to our knees.

"He's gonna pop our brains if that keeps up!", I shouted, but knew I wasn't heard. Jourmungand ceased his roar and came back down while we were still disoriented and targeted Alcatraz first. He spit out what looked like saliva and covered Alcatraz in what appeared to be spider webbing before retreating into the hole. Alcatraz managed to get free of it just as Jourmungand popped out of the hole with his head lowered like a battering ram. Alcatraz swung his fist and knocked Jourmungand out of the way, causing him to smash his head into the cannon walls. The impacted caused a rock to fall down on top of his head. The force of the boulder jarred the giant, infected worm just long enough for Alcatraz to grab a hold of his head and slam it down onto the rock.

"Hold still you little prick", Alcatraz growled as he pulled an incendiary grenade out of his belt, "this won't hurt a bit!"

Jourmungand let off another roar and flung Alcatraz at least 500 feet into the air, out of my sight. Mike and I pulled ourselves out of the sand. I could feel the blood running out of my ears and my brain felt like it had split down the middle. If he pulled another roar like that, our ear drums would pop for sure.

"If he pulls that shit again were done for", I yelled at Mike.

"Keep shooting!", Mike yelled back as we opened fire on Jourmungand.

Seconds after my weapon clicked dry, Alcatraz came falling out of the sky and bashed Jourmungand's head to the ground so it was level with us.

"Throw a grenade down his throat!", Alcatraz shouted.

I wasted no time pulling a grenade off my vest and chucking it down the worms throat. Alcatraz jumped off as Jourmungand's head popped like a grape and sent hot red blood all over the sand stone walls.

"That was for those kids bitch", Mike laughed as he stuck another magazine into his M4.

I huffed, "my ears hurt. Mike how are you?"

Mike put his hand over his ear and pulled it away bloody, "everything seems quieter than normal."

"Alcatraz?", I asked, "what about you?"

"I'm fine", he answered, "built in recovery systems."

"Good then", I said, "the girl said the only way out was through his tunnel, guess what? Down the hole we go."

The three of us jumped down the hole and into a dark ass tunnel with nothing but sand as far as I could see. I didn't see any traces of the kids, so I assumed that Jourmungand must have eaten them and the blood was just what happened when he bit down.

"No blood", Mike said, "whats up with that? The walls should be coated with the stuff."

"Who gives a flying fuck?", I asked, "let's just get to the end of this fucker and get home."

Mike sighed and we walked on. We tugged through the dark dusty tunnel for what seemed like hours and made countless twists and turns. We backtracked, got lost and ended up back at the starting line countless times before we ended up in what seemed like a basement and eventually the train station. It was now dark outside and Ios's aquatic moon was casting a blue glow throughout the vacant station. The trains lights were on and I could hear soft music playing inside.

"Finally", Alcatraz yawned, "batteries starting to die off again."

"My back hurts too", Mike said.

"My whole body hurts", I said as we walked to the tail engine of the train. We boarded and took seats as Mike fired up the engine. There was a grinding sound and the train lurched forward, headed back for our home station.