Bluegate//Demon_Project:Stress
Peter briefly examined the large metal door in front of him. It was a sturdy steel and titanium construction, the perfect door for blocking the entrance to a bunker. However, its placement this deep into the Bluegate/Demon Project subterranean research compound suggested that it was actually meant to keep someone... or something from getting out rather than getting in.
He glanced at the door terminal to his right, a podium with a hologram interface. It was currently grumbling faintly, and periodically flashing white and orange. Thea, his team's hacker for this mission, had broken into the compound's network from a terminal just inside the main defenses, and was currently tearing through the door's security. According to the information she had gathered shortly after breaking into the system, their target was supposed to be right behind this door.
Behind Peter, his assault platoon guarded the corridors leading away from their position. Five teams of five soldiers each, for a total of twenty-five heavily armored, well-armed, and disciplined killing machines. Another twenty-five man platoon was back near the top of the compound, protecting Thea. Her physical body was utterly helpless as long as her mind remained jacked into the network.
With a quiet whirr, the podium's interface hologram turned blue and displayed Bluegate's symbol. The large bunker-door lifted up, revealing a sinister-looking laboratory. The three semicircular desks were small and well-organized, their built-in monitors displaying some sort of biological readouts; most of the room was taken up by eight strange, transparent canisters full of thick, multicolored chemicals. In the middle of the far wall was a large cylindrical tank, filled with a bubbling green liquid. Inside it floated the man they had come to rescue, completely naked except for a breathing mask strapped to his nose and mouth and a Medusa-like mess of electrodes and IV tubes connected to various points on his body. That man was Operative Lucas "Junior" Jameson.
One five-soldier entry team followed Peter into the laboratory. Thea had already broken into the lab's systems and started the draining process. Peter and his team walked over to the tank, opening it and disconnecting Lucas as soon as the fluid had finished draining out.
"This is Spear Platoon, we have the target," Peter radioed to Thea. "Proceeding to rendezvous with Falcon. Over."
"This is Shield Platoon," responded Thea. "Copy that, Spear. Removing traces of our operation here, will then proceed to rendezvous with Eagle. See you back at base. Over and out."
Lucas woke up groggily as the platoon's medics examined and clothed him. He mumbled something unintelligible. Peter lifted the visor on his helmet and walked over.
"Hey, Junior," he said, "I'm here. We got you. We're getting you out of here. Don't worry."
Lucas only seemed to vaguely recognize him. "No..." he mumbled. "Can't... can't go. Leave me... here. I... I'm dangerous. Can't fix..."
"Just rest," said Peter. "I'm sure we can fix whatever they did to you once we get back to base. Just relax and let us do the work."
"Can't..." groaned Lucas, "Can't fix a monster..."
The platoon hurried towards the exit. They were 5 floors underground, and the locks Thea had set, holding most of the Bluegate soldiers inside their barracks, would only last for a few more minutes before someone hacked through. They reached the cargo elevator unimpeded, but Peter got a comm signal from Thea as they passed the third floor.
"This is Shield Platoon, floodgates are down," said Thea. "Repeat, floodgates are down. We are at rendezvous point with Eagle, but we can't lift off properly with this much incoming fire. Will try to sap power from compound generators to recharge dropship defensive systems. Be on your guard. Over."
"This is Spear Platoon," replied Peter, "Copy that, Shield. We will head over to reinforce your position. Over and out."
Lucas continued to mumble something to himself, supported by two of the three medics in Peter's platoon. The cargo elevator stopped at floor 0, ground level. Just as the doors opened, Peter ordered his platoon to flash and smoke the rooms leading towards the exit, switching his visor to thermal-vision along with the rest of the soldiers. The five soldiers wearing Titan-4 Armor Enhancement Suites deployed mobile barriers just as a hail of gunfire poured into the cargo elevator. The Bluegate soldiers had finally broken through Thea's locks, meaning Peter only had a few brief minutes before his platoon would not only be outgunned, but also outnumbered.
The Titan-4 soldiers pushed forward, their barriers soaking up enemy gunfire; meanwhile, the rest of Peter's squad did their best to lay down cover fire. Round after round slammed into the Titan-4 barriers, yet they continued to inch forward. A couple of Peter's soldiers, armed with grenade launchers, cut a swath through the Bluegate soldiers, but it wouldn't last for long. The smoke and repeated flash grenades made it difficult to see anything, even with the soldiers' thermal-vision active. The deafening noise of the gunfight only made things worse.
As they reached the halfway point between the cargo elevator and the surface exit, the barrier on one of the Titan-4 soldiers crackled, spat out a shower of sparks and smoke, and failed. He was riddled with bullets almost immediately, and the soldiers he had been protecting fell soon after. The other four Titan-4s' barriers were weakening, too, and the fall of one Titan-4 had allowed the Bluegate soldiers to concentrate more fire on the others' barriers. Another one fell. Peter swore in frustration. They were so close to the end, and already he had lost ten men.
He felt a hand on his shoulder. Lucas was standing behind him, wearing a pair of shorts and a wifebeater. But something was... wrong about him. His eyes had a strange, predatory glint to them. And vertical pupils. His stance was not the slightly slouched, relaxed pose Peter had always seen him in. Lucas looked like he was itching to tear something apart, and only just barely restraining himself. He was also far more muscular than Peter had remembered.
"Leave... them... to me," growled Lucas in a strange, guttural voice that Peter had never heard before. "And... stand... out of... the way."
Before Peter could react, Lucas tensed, screaming like a man being tortured to death. His muscles swelled, bulging, and his clothes burst, falling away in rags. His head warped, elongating into a reptilian, almost dragon-like snout, complete with a double row of teeth. A long, powerful tail sprouted from his lower back. His hands and feet stretched and grew, forming massive, sharp talons. His whole body grew a short, thick coat of red fur. At some point during the transformation, Lucas' tortured screaming had turned into a guttural roar, a deep, gravelly war-cry that touched the most primeval parts of Peter's brain. Every fiber in Peter's body was begging him to run away. Away from this artificial apex predator, this unnatural monster.
Is this... wondered a tiny voice in the back of Peter's mind, is this what Demon Project has been working on? Turning people into monsters? Demons?
With another terrifying roar, the demon charged and leaped over the Titan-4 soldiers. The gunfire had briefly stopped due to Lucas' screaming and roaring, but the Bluegate soldiers started firing upon the demon as soon as it burst through the last of the smoke. It was too fast. Unnaturally fast, said the tiny voice in Peter's head. The demon took a handful of rifle rounds to the flank and tore into one group of Bluegate soldiers, quite literally shredding them in a matter of seconds. It didn't even appear to notice the wounds. The Bluegate soldiers deployed their own Titan-4 AES, but the demon charged up and crushed it between its powerful talons and jaws as if the barrier had been made of wet paper. The demon charged through the Bluegate soldiers, toward the exit, leaving a trail of gore and carnage in its wake.
After a few seconds, Peter realized why the demon had been able to ignore all of those gunshot wounds. Each wound on its body was gone by the next time Peter managed to get a good look at it. The demon was healing at a rate that would have been considered physically impossible by any biologist Peter could think of, and yet there it was, shrugging off rifle fire like so much rain.
Peter finally recovered slightly from the shock of what he had just seen, and hurried his platoon toward the exit. They barely slowed to finish off the few Bluegate soldiers the demon had left behind, but the enemy was broken and disorganized now. It was like crushing insects on the sidewalk. Less than a minute later, Peter and his platoon reached the exit, where two dropships were warming up to lift off. Any Bluegate soldiers that had been outside were now dead, torn to shreds or riddled with gunfire. Thea's platoon had also taken casualties, about as heavily as Peter's platoon had.
They were all staring at an unconscious, human Lucas. He was lying on a pile of gore and carnage, surrounded by the mutilated corpses of his enemies. Peter had never seen anyone sleeping so peacefully before.
