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The next morning, everyone was up at around 6 in the morning. James and the other starting packing up everything we had made regular use of for these past few weeks while Magellan and I got ready for the trip to Area Seven. After some talk, Mike had opted to sit this one out so he could help the others move the base of operations. Alcatraz was still in pretty lousy shape, plus, he still said he didn't feel like getting dressed at the moment, Matt wanted to come and help, but Sarah said hell no. Jacob showed me to the shop where the chemical suits were. The suits were made of tight fitting rubber that was jet black with a grey hex pattern in it, my guess was for looks. Once I was in the suit, my gear fit over it quite easily and the air filtration equipment fit rather nicely into the pack on the back of my vest. Since Magellan was an AI with a fully synthetic body, unlike Alcatraz, who simply had computers running enhanced biological systems, he didn't need a suit and opted to travel quite lightly, only the AK I kept in my pack with a few mags and his Sig. I on the other hand, had decided to conserve the ammunition for the high power, so I switched it out with the Bow that James had given me.

"Tyler said to radio him once you hit level six", Jacob said as I finished getting the arrows for the bow into my vest, "you should beable to reach level six from the same stairwell that accesses the cafeteria."

"Okay", I said, "where do I need to go after I get done at Area 7?"

"James will send you the map", Jacob said, "as for getting to Area 7 in the first place, you just need to follow the stairwell until you hit level six, after that you follow the signs that are on the ceiling, the door to Area Seven will have Red Tape on it."

"Alright", I said putting the bow in a holster on my leg, "guess I'll see you guys in a few hours."

Magellan and I left the machine shop and walked down the hall to the stair well. I opened the door and he went inside first, gun drawn. At the top of the first set of stairs, I checked the pipe that was barricading the door, it was still solid as a rock, which was good because I could see quite a few Skins on the other side.

"The fuck are those?", Magellan asked.

"Skins", I said, "mutated humans that are damn near impossible to kill. The High-Power can't even one shot them."

"Wonderful ", He said as we continued to climb the stairs. The door for level six was at the top of the stair well and past it I could see more of the same, twisted pieces of metal, flashing red lights and broken glass. There was blood everywhere. As if that wasn't enough by itself, I could tell by the way it smelled it was fresh....very fresh, no more than 10-20 minutes.

"Aw fuck", I sighed as I pulled open the door. The room we came out in was about 20 feet back and 20 feet across with four, ten by ten labs, met to be run by two or three people by my guess. In the room itself, at the way back, there were about 10 corpses, seven humans and Three K-Class Xenomorph. The humans were dressed in lab coats, and the Xenomorphs were security workers because they still had their body armor on. They had been lined up against the wall and machine gunned. It didn't take a genius to figure that out, never mind the fact that there were spent links and 5.56 cases everywhere. The air stunk of gun powder, burnt metal and fear.

"How did we not hear this?", I asked as I turned my radio on.

"500 feet of concrete and steel will absorb a lot of sound", Magellan sighed, "if there weapons were suppressed, we could have been right above or underneath them and still never would have known."

'James", I called, ", you there?"

'Yeah I'm here", James answered, 'were just about to move, what ya got?"

"An execution", I sighed, "I've got seven scientists and three security guards, lined up against the wall and shot. The air here still stinks of blood and fear, I'm thinking we missed it by about ten minutes."

There was a long pause.

"How did we not hear it?", James asked.

"Magellan said the walls and floor probably absorbed most of the sound", I said, "there's also a possibility that they were using silenced weapons."

James sighed, "keep pushing forward son, turn off those protocols and then haul ass back here."

"Got it", I said, "out."

"Let's go", I said, "if you get a clear shot at any lab security drones you take it."

Magellan nodded as we proceeded from the room and into the main area of Floor 6. We stopped at a navigation port to check a map of the area and learned that Area 7 was down the hall right in front of us and to the left. We proceeded in that direction, coming to a door that looked like it had been electronically sealed at some point, but had un sealed in the first days of the out break when the power had gone out. The door also looked like it was spring loaded, in addition to the 33K pound Hydraulic rods that worked most of the doors in this damn place.

"Magellan", I said pulling on the suits helmet and turning on the air purifier, "gimme a hand with this, it looks like it's spring loaded."

Magellan slung the AK over his back and grabbed one side of the door while I grabbed the other side. It took every ounce of strength in both our bodies to pull those doors open. Once we had them open, I almost couldn't pick up my FAL because my arms were so overtaxed. When Magellan and I stepped inside the door, it didn't take me long to see what James had met by contamination. The room was completely destroyed. The concrete was decaying, the metal support pillars were rusted out and there were bones tangled in the wires of the ceiling still strapped with rusted Exo's and weapons. There was red, gory biomatter growing all over the place. It was up the walls, on the floor, on the ceiling, collecting in nasty looking pillars and was even pulsating in yellow lumps in certain places. Those yellow lumps seemed to almost be alive and not at all happy there home was being invaded.

"What the hell?", Magellan asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine", I said raising my rifle to my shoulder and letting a round go at one of the bubbles. It impacted at an angle and took a chunk of flesh out of the top. The yellow creature squealed in pain before promptly exploding and sending glowing yellow pus everywhere. When the pus made contact with my suit, it slid right off and fell to the ground, but the bit that hit the barrel of my gun peeled the paint off.

"Acidic blood", I sighed, "how is that possible?"

"There is a lot of Chemical 240 in this bio matter", Magellan said, "there's a lot of number 12 as well and traces of Red Star...maybe I should have come with a suit after all."

I shook my head, "I warned you not to take the hot pan out of the oven because you'd get burnt, guess what?"

"I just got burned", Magellan sighed.

"Yeah", I said, "let's just shut off those safety procedures and get our asses out of here."

Magellan and I continued to look through Area Seven, hoping to find a sign to point us to the Safety Room, when I heard something dart across the bio matter on the floor. I turned around just in time to see pale, skinny legs disappear into an Air vent. With out even thinking about it, I raised my FAL and emptied a third of the clip into the vent. There was a low snarl and a hideous, pale skinned creature fell from the air vent onto it's back, but promptly got up and started staring me down.

It was about seven feet long and was extremely skinny. It wasn't so far gone that I could see it's bones, but it was getting there. It had no hair, was covered in bruises, lacerations and scrapes and cuts. It had frosty blue eyes, which was a characteristic I hadn't seen in any of the mutants here. It seemed fully aware of it's surroundings and was obviously very angry.

"The fuck did you shoot me for!?", it growled.

I lowered my weapon slightly, "hhhhhmmmmmm", I said sarcastically, "maybe because everything that scampers around here like you has tried to kill me!?"

"Well I can promise you I'm not going to try and kill you", it said, "I like living too much."

"What you are doing is existing, my mutated friend", Magellan said, "not living."

"Everyday spent above ground is a good day", the Trog answered, "who are you two anyway? People haven't been to this area since....longer than I can remember."

"My name's Skyline and this is my buddy Magellan", I said, 'were bounty hunters who were hired by James to rescue survivors and kill off the mutants...but since your clearly not dangerous, I think you've bought yourself a pass. Were here at the moment to find the safety protocols and disengage them."

The Trog shook his head, "only if you have a death wish. Turn that off and the 300 will burn this place to the ground."

"We've got a software patch that allows us to turn off individual procedures", Magellan said, "but we need help getting there."

"I know where that room is", The Trog said, "follow me, but keep your weapons ready, were bound to run into a few of my lesser minded friends."

"Don't have to tell me twice", I sighed, "lead the way."

The Trog started down a long hallway that was lined with more rust and biomatter. At the end of the hallway was a large security door that was covered in matter so thick that I was very sure that we would need a flame thrower to get through.

"Crap", the Trog sighed, "there's no way were getting through that, I don't figure you guys have an incendiary on you?"

'What about an incendiary tipped arrow?", I asked reaching for the bow.

"That might work", the Trog said, 'won't know until we try."

"We should take a few steps back", I said retracing about halfway down the hallway. I drew the bow back, finding that the pull was extremely heavy, even before I had it pulled all the way back, the string felt like it would cut through my fingers if I tried to draw it any further. By the time I had it all the way back, I could hear the bow itself creaking with the tension. I let the arrow go. When the string returned to normal tension, the bow actually recoiled, about as much as the Automag I would say. The arrow buried itself into the biomatter that was covering the doorway and exploded, instantly vaporizing the matter around it and sending the rest up in flames. Before long, the matter was melted away and Magellan, myself and our mutated acquaintance were inside a decayed room full of old computers and what looked like a 400 gallon tank which was labeled, "Platinum Based Termite-Liquid-95%, Gaseous-5% exercise extreme flammability caution."

The Trog gulped, "when SD gets triggered that stuff get's gasified and pumped into the air. The spark starts in the room with the Cluster 300 and blows it's way up, which not only vaporizes everything inside the building, but it also caves it in."

"Comforting to know", Magellan sighed as he plugged the Usb drive into the computer, "gimme about 10 minutes to get this software updated and to turn off the safety procedures."

I reached for my radio, but the Trog stopped me, "let me call", he said, "please."

"Okay", I said handing it to him, "push to talk."

He held the radio up to his mouth, "James", he said, "Skyline needs to know how to render the SD systems inoperable."

"Who is this?", James asked.

"Staff Sargent Alex", The Trog said, "Area 7 Security."

There was a pause.

"Alex?", James said, "I haven't heard from you since the Spill, where are you?"

"With your boys Skyline and Magellan", Alex said, "where do you find these people boss? A Xenomorph and an AI in a Synthetic body."

There was another pause.

"How long have you been up there?", James asked.

"Since the spill", Alex sighed, "I'm what you call a Trog now."

Yet another pause.

"That's some rough shit brother", James said, "Im gonna hand the Radio over to Tyler, he knows what to do."

"Alright Sky", Tyler said, "can you send me a picture of the SD system ?"

I pulled out my PDA and snapped a picture, promptly sending it to Tyler.

"Okay", Tyler said, "that's a 400 gallon tank of liquid Platinum thermite, listen carefully because if that shit catches a spark your gonna die a very slow, agonizing death."

"Thanks for saying that", I sighed, "how do I turn the damn thing off?"

"First off", Tyler said, "there's a Pressure release valve at the bottom of the tank, for now, make sure that's closed."

I bent down and checked the valve, it was rusted shut.

"Damn thing is rusted pretty tightly", I said, "looks closed though."

"I hope your strong because you will have to get that valve open here in a minute", Tyler said, "next step, there should be a key pad with a screen above it on the side of the tank."

I inspected the tank, near a content and pressure chart, was a small key pad with A-Q and 1-7. One of the stranger things I had seen these past few weeks.

"I found it", I said, "what next?"

"Enter QBADCF-7736541213", Tyler said, "all caps for the letters."

I entered the code on the key pad and then pressed enter the screen read "CHDISK is verifying clearance domain...accepted, please select action." A list of options appeared on the screen. "Pressurize Tank", "Activate Blow Down Drum", "Release Tank Pressure", "activate self destruct system."

"It's asking me for an action", I said.

"Yes", Tyler said, "pressurize the tank. Once it hits 330PSI, open the rusty valve on the bottom of the tank and then Activate The Blow Down Drum."

I selected Pressurize Tank and then started trying to open the rusty valve, but it wasn't going to even budge, and if it did it would be because it broke off, we needed to derust it somehow.

"I have to derust this somehow", I said sitting back, "I can't move it alone." "Gimme about 20 seconds", Alex said, "I think I might have something."

Alex left the room and came back with a small spray can. He shook it up and sprayed the valve with it. A white foam covered the valve, sizzled for about 20 seconds, turned brown and then fell off, leaving behind a chrome colored valve that looked almost brand new.

"Wow", I said, "I'd like to have a can of that, what is it?"

"The label says Rust B Gone", Alex said.

"In the most literal sense of the word", I laughed as I opened the valve, "Tyler, pressure is at 330 and the valve is open."

"I see it", Tyler said, "go ahead and activate the blow down drums, once those come online, every single Trog there is gonna come running, so be ready before you pull that switch."

"Safety protocols are off line", Magellan said, "I'm ready to go."

I looked at Alex, "We could leave and you could pull that switch."

"Go", Alex said, "hurry up, I'll give you thirty seconds before I bring those drums online. If I can find a radio that works, I'll contact you later."

I nodded as Magellan and I ran from the room. We were almost to the exit of Area Seven when a red light flashed.

"Blow Down Drums are online", CHDISK said in a robotic voice, "Lab Safety procedures disengaged."

As Magellan and I exited area Seven and sealed the door behind us, my radio chirped, it was Martin.

"You just can't waste any opportunity to prolong your own fate can you?", he asked, more sounding like a sneer than anything else, "you killed Lockheart, so I can't send any Power Armor out to get you. With the blow down drums online, I have no more thermite to access certain areas of the lab and since CHDISK is a total prick, I can't seal you in Level Six, so if you can't handle these Juggernauts, I'm gonna be really happy, so please, do me a solid and DIE!"

"Skyline", James said, "three Armored Juggernauts are headed your way, recommend you switch to heavy weapons."

"What heavy weapons?", I asked, "I left the High-Power with you."

"The bow", James said, "those guys won't stand a chance against it."

"Are you crazy!?", I asked as bullets started ripping through the door, seconds later, three guys in some serious body armor walked in packing big Belt Fed 30-06 machine guns, "these guys are walking tanks! Magellan find some cover!"

The glass and metal walls of our room began to splinter and shatter as the Jugs hosed down the entire 1000 square foot room with red hot lead. Magellan and I had dove to opposite sides of the room and were crawling around on our elbows just trying to stay out of the line of fire, that much lead would rip me open like a water balloon and tear Magellan to pieces. I could feel the bullets whizzing over my head and hear the pings as the bounced off the walls in another random direction. I didn't know how much ammo these guys had, but I could already hear one of them saying.

'Gun down, stand by."

Seconds after I heard a bolt slam forward, I heard another voice

"Gun down, stand by."

A second dust cover closed and another bolt came forward, along with a third voice.

"Gun down stand by."

Soon the spray of 30-06 was back at full thrust. I righted myself behind a thick steel beam and pulled a grenade out of my vest. I pulled the pin off of it and as I reached around the pillar to throw it, two bullets tore through my hand. One of them went through my wrist, the other went through the grenade's detonator and tore straight through my palm, almost splitting my hand in half. I hollered from the pain as the acid covered grenade fell to the ground and dissolved. There wasn't much I could down now except cower and try and keep out of the line of fire for as long as possible and hope they would run out of ammo, but even if they did I still had nothing that could get through their armor, and even if the bow could they would have me on my back long before I could put enough pull behind the arrow to punch through.

In the spray of lead, steel and glass, I noticed a vile of test tubes on the ground, which was glowing green. It was in a five cell rack and marked "Mod Beta-32910".

"Sarah's Swarm Mod", I said reaching for it with my good hand. There was only one dose left in the rack, and I didn't even know if it would work, or what it would do to me if it didn't, but fuck it, a swarm of killer hornets would be just what we needed right now and if it killed me in the process it was my time to go anyway. Without hesitation I pulled the needle from the rack, cut the gloves off the hazmat suit, rolled up the sleeves and stuck myself in my bad arm, quickly emptying the Vial's contents into my veins. There was an audible sound like bones braking and reshaping and then the tearing of flesh as my Chitin Exoskeleton cracked open and red, gory warts grew from inside. All up and down my arm these warts turned into holes and huge, red and black hornets started crawling out of my arm, the same thing had happened with my neck and my other arm. Soon I was a little more than a walking hornets nest. As weird and slightly horrifying as it was, it was also awesome. I stood up and looked at the Juggernauts, holding both my arms out.

"Merry Christmas mother fuckers", I shouted as the hornets flew from my body by the thousands, quickly covering the juggernauts from head to toe. Pain filled screams soon replaced the gunfire.

"GET THEM OFF!!!", the female juggernaut shouted, "GET THEM OFF!"

"There crawling inside me!", a second one screamed as he started trying to pull off his armor, "THERE INSIDE ME!"

I reached for the bow, putting a single arrow in the string and pulling it back as quickly as I could. I let it go and the bow sent the titanium tipped arrow flying through the skull of the Female juggernaut, pinning her to the wall. Her death seemed to make the hornets lose interest and attack the other two. When I managed to get arrows at them, it was the same case, the hornets lost interest and returned to me, crawling back into the holes they came from. The holes then closed up, the warts receded and the cracks in my Exo Skeleton closed up, as if nothing had even happened in the first place.

"That", Magellan said emerging from his hiding spot underneath a desk, "was fucking horrifying."

"Yeah", I sighed, "lets hope I don't have to use that one again. Jacob, where do we go from here?"