The UGF drones, sleek and menacing, homed in on Alex with chilling precision.
He was drained, his newly acquired powers sputtering like dying embers, the Echoes a raging headache threatening to split his skull.
This charcoal-armored officer, radiating an aura of calm deadliness, was unlike any UGF soldier he'd faced.
Chimera. The word echoed in his mind, not his own thought, but a deeply ingrained fear from the absorbed Lieutenant's memories –
a designation for failed, unstable UGF experiments, monstrous amalgamations of man and machine, or worse, man and xeno-genetics. Subjects to be terminated with extreme prejudice.
Project Echo-Five. A whisper of forbidden knowledge, files triple-redacted, facilities scoured from existence. The Lieutenant's Echo provided only fragmented, nightmarish glimpses.
But there was no time to decipher the horrific implications. The drones were almost upon him.
Acting on raw, panicked instinct, Alex twisted, using the last vestiges of his absorbed Strength to shove a nearby stack of discarded supply crates into the drones' path.
They slammed into the obstacle, some exploding in showers of sparks, others recalibrating, their red optics still fixed on him.
"Alex! Come on!" Voss yelled, already halfway through the gaping blast doors into the darkness of the transit tunnel.
Lena and the remaining Crows, including Kai supporting the injured Anya, were disappearing into the gloom.
He scrambled back, every muscle protesting. The charcoal-armored officer didn't pursue immediately. He simply watched, his stance relaxed but predatory, as if Alex were an interesting specimen whose escape attempt was merely part of the observation.
"Target is mobile, Designation: Chimera-Alpha," the officer reported calmly into his comms. "Confirming active 'Absorber' trait. Proceeding with Phase Two containment."
Alex plunged into the pitch-black transit tunnel just as the blast doors began to groan shut behind him, Lena likely triggering an emergency seal from the other side.
The sudden darkness was disorienting, the air cold and stale, smelling of ancient dust and decay.
He stumbled, his hand brushing against the tunnel wall. A new, faint Echo brushed his senses – not from a person, but from the place.
A lingering residue of countless journeys, of hurried footsteps, of faint, almost imperceptible UGF energy signatures. This tunnel wasn't entirely forgotten.
"Alex? You okay?" Kai's voice was a strained whisper nearby. The Crows had activated glow-sticks, casting a pale, eerie light.
"Fine," Alex lied, his head still pounding. "That officer… he knew. He called me Chimera."
Voss, who had been tending to Anya, went rigid. Her face, in the faint glow, was a mask of horror.
"Project Chimera… it wasn't Echo-Five. Echo-Five was the xenogenetic research division I was part of. The one that theorized the Absorber Gene and its link to alien precursor tech.
Project Chimera was… something else. Something later. Something they built on our confiscated, twisted research after they shut us down."
Her voice trembled. "They were trying to artificially replicate the Absorber Gene. Create… programmable living weapons. The early subjects were… unstable. Horrific failures. Most died in agony. The few who survived… they weren't human anymore. The UGF ordered a complete purge. Total information blackout. I thought… I thought they'd destroyed all records, all remnants."
A cold dread seeped into Alex. So, he wasn't just a natural mutation. The UGF saw him as a continuation, or perhaps a perfected version, of their most monstrous experiments.
That explained Zane's obsessive pursuit. Alex wasn't just a threat; he was a ghost of the UGF's own dark past, come back to haunt them.
"This 'Chimera-Alpha' designation," Lena said, her voice hushed, her Mind Core pulsing as she tried to process the information,
"it implies there were others. Or that you're… the primary."
The ground vibrated again, this time a rhythmic, heavy thumping approaching from the direction they'd come. Not explosions, but something mechanical, heavy.
"They're not giving up," Kai said grimly.
"Those blast doors won't hold them for long. We need to keep moving. This transit line should lead to an old interchange hub. From there, we might be able to access deeper, unlisted sections of the underworks."
As they hurried through the oppressive darkness, Voss walked beside Alex. "The officer back there… specialized unit. Did you… absorb anything from him?"
Alex frowned, trying to focus past the cacophony in his head. The contact had been minimal, and the drones had been the immediate threat.
"I… I don't think so. Maybe a faint… tactical awareness? Cold. Very analytical." He paused.
"And something else. A faint energy signature… almost like a dampening field around him. Not kinetic, but… energy-based. Like he was shielded against Core abilities."
Voss's eyes widened. "Null-Field Emitters. Experimental UGF tech.
Designed to disrupt or weaken Gene Core outputs. Very rare, very dangerous. If he had one active…" That explained why the officer seemed so confident.
Their desperate flight was punctuated by more alien visions flashing through Alex's mind.
The crystalline city under twin purple suns, but now, he saw figures. Tall, slender beings, cloaked in light, their forms indistinct. And the glyph he'd seen earlier, now overlaid with intricate, shifting patterns. It felt less like a warning, and more like… a key. Or a map.
He mentioned the recurring glyph to Voss.
"A glyph?" she mused, distracted by the immediate danger but clearly intrigued. "Ancient alien languages often relied on symbolic representations of complex concepts. If your Absorber Gene is truly linked to their technology…"
"Boss, listen!" one of the Crows at point hissed, holding up a hand.
The rhythmic thumping was closer. And with it, a new sound – a high-pitched, unsettling whine.
Lena, using her Mind Core to scan their surroundings, suddenly gasped.
"They're through the blast doors! And they've deployed… Stalker Mechs! Two of them! Lightly armed, but fast, designed for tunnel pursuit!"
Just then, a beam of intense red light lanced through the darkness from behind, striking the tunnel wall near them, showering them with rock splinters. The Stalker Mechs were equipped with powerful cutting lasers.
They were being hunted like rats in a pipe. And their pursuers had just upgraded their extermination tools.