"Our job is not done yet, Lyle tells me you came across a parallel wall as well, correct?" The group that was with Lyle concurred. The FAC consultant who was standing in front of the now fading altered adjusted his scarf and tucked it back into his jacket. His badge read Amir along with some title in a language Marco could not make out. Despite it's tremendous size, it's lack of an aggressive outburst showed that the altered was in the same Class as those on the ground with it.
One of the men stepped up towards the two staffers. "If our guns cannot do anything against these two, why bring a pack like ours to a mission like this?" There was a silent agreement within the group that whatever was going on in the cave was maybe beyond the reach of an average handler, especially for a group without the appropriate rifling.
Amir stepped back from the pile of corpses and licked his top lip while looking at the group, he had a thick squared off beard with a brown eyes that bordered on a crimson color. He ran the tip of his tongue right under his moustache and spoke with a slight Canadian accent. "Because you are elite fighters, and realistically, you are all the best we can get." He began to walk down the tunnel through the way they were supposed to be headed.
"Now, we need two or three of you to stay behind and stay by the injured while we figure out how to get outer comms." Almost half of the group raised their hands. "Mind you, if we lack in the manpower, it becomes everyone's problem the instant one of us comes down. Two fissures are no joke." Amir turned around again and faced the group, none of them had their hands raised at this point. He pointed at two near the back and signaled them to return to the entrance.
The rest of the group, 11 total, made their way down to the fork again.
"Out of the mist on the left came the same type of attack, I believe we cannot afford to be without the strength of... What's his name?" Amir whispered to Lyle. "It's Marco." "Marco over here" he pointed with a wagging finger. Marco and Bodhi stepped up again, with both of his hands at his side, a single loud gunshot rang down one of the tunnels but the rest of the group was unbothered.
"I know you can also see through the mist as well, uhhh..." He pointed at Bodhi and looked at Lyle for an answer, snapping his fingers "Bodhi. Marco, you are with me, Bodhi you stay with Lyle."
The two groups separated again, Marco was now amongst a group with complete strangers. He stood in the middle of 5 of them, Amir being in front to the left. They arrived at the right turn in the tunnel, all 6 stood in a line on the wall before the corner. On the wall to the left were the remnant craters of the previous attack. Amir waved Marco over with his gun in his hand.
"No mist, right?" Marco looked to make sure, none at all, he shook his head. "You peek your head around and tell us what you see." Marco was about to do so immediately, Amir grabbed him by the shoulder and tugged him back lightly. "Make sure to not get your head blown off."
He leaned out, his eyes barely peeked out of a slight divot in the corner. A singular altered, extremely skinny and tall, his head nearly touched the roof of the 20 foot cave. It's proportions were that of a extremely elongated man, mostly proportional other than the extreme verticality. It's elbows were stuck to it's side with both of it's forearms that ended in points aimed forward. He didn't have even half a second to get a good look at it before from one of it's ends came flying a projectile that smashed into the wall behind him at high velocity.
"What did you see?" Amir asked Marco. "One big one, but..." One thing he did note was that behind it, unlike the fat one that came from the right, was a pack of altered that were crammed into a small indentation in the wall. They were all bound together by something that was holding them in place. He peeked his head back over the wall, seeing it step towards the small group, picking one out from the wall and setting it free.
"What the fuck." Said Marco out loud. The monster turned around and fired, nearly hitting Marco over the head again. He retreated slightly, focusing on his left hand again.
"It's big, it's holding other altered captive, and it's... letting them free?" Amir stood up from the wall, seeing if he could get a look at what he was talking about but the mist covered up the path. "It's coming." Said Marco while aiming his gun towards the hallway.
He fired and dispatched of the altered in one shot, it was even smaller in size, it fell to the floor in one motion before it could even realize what hit it. They could also hear the echoes of shooting from the opposite end.
"Can you dispatch it?" Amir asked, clutching onto his gun. Marco licked his lips, tasting the remains of the blood on his mustache. He looked down at his hand, contemplating whether it would be a necessary measure. He had one last good look at the altered who fired another rod in his direction.
he picked some blood from his mustache and flicked it. He nodded quickly, jumping