(3rd Pov)
David sat frozen in front of the terminal, thoughts racing through his mind as the screen showed unchangingly.
He only thawed when his eyes focused on a single detail more important than anything else that made him tighten his fists.
LAST ACCESS: 8/28/28 (15 minutes ago)
'He is still in the facility,' David thought. Of course, who "he" was still remained a question.
But as David combed through the events that had happened in this facility, he couldn't help but wonder if he was blind. With a backhand, he destroyed the terminal's screen. "They weren't trying to stop us; they were trying to stall us," he muttered to himself.
"Sheila, Jorge! On me," David ordered as he moved toward the server room exit.
Meanwhile, he got on the comms. Time was of the essence, but there was a lot of work to do to hunt down the system's intruder. "Jenkins," he said, momentarily forgetting about the man's rank, "Quickly, pull up the recordings for the secondary server room from fifteen minutes ago. An alien was in there; I want to know what it is and a description of its armor."
"Uh oh, I know that look," he heard Sheila's voice from behind him as he finished his command and turned around.
"We hit a snag, Dave?" Jorge asked concernedly.
"Snag? No, we have damn near shit the bed," David expressed before turning on his com again.
"Daisy, Cal status?" he asked with a hurried tone.
"Literally a door away from the secondary server room, but still engaged in a fight," Daisy said
"Forget about the server room for now," David said. "Stand by for more instructions, and finish your fight quickly."
"Is there a problem, David?" Cal asked, noticing the urgency in his voice.
'Obviously there is a problem; why would I be changing the plan if there wasn't?' David thought, shaking his head.
"Hey, Captain found the Elite!" Jenkins spoke, getting David's attention. "The ugly bastard is wearing red with blue accents; his armor is different from the standard armor so he's special. He is also a big fucker and moving with two other of his friends in the same armor, but he has this purple seashell-looking thing on his hip."
"Good," David said, "Now find where the three of them are and close every bulkhead between them and the nearest exit ASAP,"
"Roger,"
David finally turned to address Sheila and Jorge, "Follow me. There is an armory nearby I will fill you in as we walk,"
"What about the Sergeant?" Jorge asked, reminding David of Johnson, who was still setting explosives in the server room.
"Later, this takes priority; besides, the Sergeant can hold his own," David said as they walked down the hall.
"The quick version is that our objective has already been copied by our guests and is currently en route to the quickest exit out of this steel trap," David said to the silent acknowledgement of his teammates and through the comms to his other two on the floor below them.
"We are looking for an elite of a new classification in red armor and blue accents. He is part of a three-member fire team and has a purple data transference device on his hip. It looks like a seashell."
"Cat and mouse, then, huh?" Jorge said, understanding the new role.
"Something like that," David agreed as they reached the armory.
After breaking in, they took a glance at the various equipment and supplies. "Ditch the suppressors. Spring for whatever has a lot of stopping power," David said, pulling a shotgun from a rack.
He paused, hearing a small chuckle from Sheila. He turned to look at her, "Stealth mission…right?" she mocked.
David didn't respond, only shaking his head, attaching a pair of SMGs to his thigh mag locks. To his side, Jorge whistled as he picked up a M247 heavy machine gun, "Didn't expect to find this in a research facility."
He did a mock pose with the weapon. "It suits you," Sheila gave him a thumbs up.
Meanwhile, David found something curious: a series 8 jetpack. He checked, finding it fully fueled, and placed it on his back, the magnetic mounts suctioning it tightly to himself.
'I can do with the extra mobility.'
"Found those elites," Jenkins' voice came through their helmets. "I don't know why they are so important, but they are hauling ass like they just robbed a bank," he said before giving David the position and direction the enemies were moving toward.
"The security lockdown sequence is still partially active, so I can't just lock every exit. Our resident dead guy's key card didn't have proper clearance for that,"
David didn't like the sound of that.
"But I can trick them into heading down rather than up. Some real rat-in-a-maze type shit," Jenkins added
"Do what you can, keep me updated on where they are headed, and we'll cut them off," David said before turning to Jorge and Sheila, "Let's move."
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"GAH," a grunt screamed as it dropped from the rounds of a suppressed rifle. Two green blurs passed its body in the next moment
"Uh-hang a lef-no right at the next hall," Jenkins spoke to Daisy and Cal as they sprinted through the hall.
The pair stutter-stepped left before turning and heading right. "Get the damn directions right," Daisy growled as she spotted another jackal and belted out another burst of 7.62.
Jenkins' strained voice came through their helmets, "I am trying! But I am having to keep track of three damn group movements at the same time- wait, take that maintenance corridor on your left!" he ordered as the Spartans busted through a smaller doorway in single file.
The corridor was dark for a moment as Jenkins looked for the control to turn on the lights. Cal looked down and noticed they were running on top of a see-through grate; the light of the floor below barely illuminated the Spartans' boots.
The metal grate echoed with every step. The corridor itself was almost too close for comfort, the Spartan's shoulder nearly clipping the walls.
"Stay straight for three hallways, then take the fourth intersection; go right."
Their legs pumped as lights in the hall turned on, illuminating the hall that was still shrouded by the shadows of mechanical pumps and valves.
At the fourth intersection, they turned down the maintenance hallway, and Cal's eye instantly caught something below them. Three distinct figures, bigger than humans, even larger than herself, moved in the same direction.
"Daisy-" Cal began to say
"I see them," Daisy cut her off, staring down at the aliens that seemed to be ignorant of the pair above them.
"Private Jenkins, is there an access point from this hallway to the floor below?" Cal asked calmly despite the physical output.
There was a pause while Jenkins was staring at floor blueprints and layouts. "Ah- no, I was kind of hoping there was a vent or duct you guys could kick out that wasn't on these plans."
"There is a freight elevator, but that is at the end of the floo-"
"Forget it," Daisy cut in once again, "We don't have the time," she said, picking up the pace.
Once again her arm began to reach over her back.
"Wait Daisy-" Cal tried to stop.
FWOOOSH
Daisy fired another rocket, blasting the grate in front of the two females. Smoke and debris filled the air as the rocket soared before an explosion buckled the flooring. Lighting ahead was destroyed, making the dust obscure any vision.
Before Cal could say anything else, Daisy was already diving into the smoke.
She came out through the other side on top of one of the Elites. They rolled, and the Elite thrashed, throwing Daisy off. She sprang up, hitting her back against the wall behind her. At the same time, the alien stood up to face her, igniting a gauntlet projecting an energy dagger from its wrist.
Daisy got into a defensive stance for close combat. She let her eyes move down to check, only for her throat to tighten. "Damn it, I got the wrong one."
Ahead, still sprinting down the hallway were the other two elites, ignoring the Spartan behind them as their shields blinked with flickers of light as rifle rounds impacted.
Above, Cal fired her DMR before the elites disappeared out of sight.
In front of Daisy, the red-armored elite pounced forward with a thrust of his arm. To which Daisy rolled under before sending out a hook that was barely caught by the quadruple-lipped alien.
Daisy pushed forward, slamming the creature into the opposite wall of the hallway. It pulled back its bladed hand only for Daisy to latch onto its wrist, forcing the blade up in the air.
"Cal, go after them; we can't let them get away!" Daisy said through her teeth as she brought her arms out to her sides and slammed her helmeted forehead into the elite's jaw. A spittle of blood landed on her visor as a few white teeth fell to the ground.
"Understood," Cal jumped down without a second thought. If Daisy said she was fine, then she was fine.
Daisy stepped back, getting some space as she pulled out her own combat knife, holding it in a reverse grip in her right hand. The elite had recovered too, and judging by the look in its eyes, it was enraged to have been struck first.
The two stalked each other in a circular shuffle as if they were tracing the area of their arena. One with a damaged but infuriated visage, and the other stone cold but filled with aggression.
The elite lunged once again, bringing his blade in a cruel arc.
"Let's make this quick."
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"Where the hell are these guys going?"
Jenkins had his helmet in his hand as he was staring at the paths the elites were headed. He had been waiting to shut them down the moment they extended out, heading for a particular exit.
Yet they just kept running in the direction that would take them deeper into the facility.
"Captain, take those stairs and stand by; these guys might be going lower," Jenkins spoke through the communication uplink.
"Solid copy," the response came.
He watched for a moment longer, cameras following the aliens as they began entering a stairwell that only descended. "They're heading lower; proceed down another flight," Jenkins said as he became more confused by the moment.
'Why would a rat be headed deeper into a trap?' he asked himself as he looked down at the plans.
So deep in thought, he never heard the loud thuds that echoed in the hall outside the security center.
"I'd only head deeper into a trap…. If I actually had a way out," he murmured as he turned to the board of the facility's levels. It read out each numbered level and the floor's purpose.
His eyes widened as he read the last floor, "When the hell did they have that!?" he nearly shouted. He turned back to the console, unable to hear the suppressed SMG fire from the hall.
Confirming his suspicions, he began to speak into the com, "Captain, I figured out where they are going! You have to head to the bottom of the facility they are trying-"
WABAAAAM
Jenkins stopped mid-sentence as he heard a loud crash that rocked the security center.
He felt the hair under his pressurized suit stand up as he slowly turned his body. He swallowed hard as the sound of an animal's deep breathing seemed to fill his helmet's speakers.
Jenkins had to crane his neck to look up at the Brute Chieftain that stood in the doorway. He held a gravity hammer in one hand, and rage filled his neanderthal eyes. Small pinholes of blood leaked from gaps in his garb.
All Jenkins could do was sigh as he looked up at the Brute. "Today really isn't my day."