'Hmm…'
Mark silently deliberated the choice before him, on one hand he could kill this guard and use the IFF on his vacuum suit to open the door to the underground facility, on the other hand he could continue floating right behind him and wait for him to complete his round and open the door for him
'It would be so easy too...'
Mark stretched his head out and opened his hand around the neck of the vacuum suit clad guard only just avoiding touching it directly, having spent 2 days on the surface of the red moon already Mark had gotten used to avoiding direct line of sight of the personnel he had encountered. With the 1st auxiliary hiding him completely from all surveillance equipment, the only things he had to stay out of sight of was the pair of MK. 1 eyeballs the security personal all came equipped with
'I still have a few hours before things kick off, but following this oblivious creature around seems boring'
Mark let out a sigh, he knew he was getting impatient, and how could he not? This bag of meat was all that stood between him and direct access to the underground bunker complex filled with fragile Ficer processing cores and even more fragile egghead scientists, both of which would be so very satisfying cracking open
'...Well judging by the tacks left behind in the stale dust he should loop around to one of the secured entrances soon enough'
Mark let out another sigh, what was the point in having a single guard patrol these empty abandoned tunnels anyway?
'Hmm… Maybe it isn't a duty as much as taking a walk while being on the clock? These tunnels aren't much to look at though'
While Mark continued to mentally weigh the pros and cons to killing the guard, the guard continued his patrol in blissful ignorance of the cosmic entity that floated right behind him
'...Hmm'
Mark felt something, it wasn't as much of a scent as it was some sort of hateful aura. However, he still felt like it smelt horrid
"Luna, come in"
After Mark called Luna up, he continued following after the guard for a few meters before it responded
[What is it, Mark?]
"There's something down here, it doesn't feel right"
[Are you still good to go?]
Mark watched the guard he was following after for a few moments to make sure the flesh bag was still oblivious before he answered
"I might not be"
[Lisa is securing the command bunker, please be sure if you want us to pull out]
Mark nodded and continued mulling it over as he followed behind the oblivious guard before he arrived at a conclusion
'Safety comes first…'
Mark watched the guard arrive at the air lock and slowly flowed backwards to begin pulling out, however the moment the guard cycled the airlock Mark felt his mind go blank as the horrid smell enveloped him, then rage took over
"FUCK THAT, THEY NEED TO DIE!"
Mark immediately brought up his rifle and ventilated the back of the guard's head before he flew into the airlock and slammed against the inner part of the air lock. He needed to destroy it, whatever it was didn't matter at the moment
[Mark? Mark, what is going on?]
Mark continued to wail on the inner door of the airlock for a few hits more before he managed to scrape enough reason together to pull up and shoulder his rifle and squeezing the trigger, emptying the first magazine Mark quickly released it and seated a new one before he continued unloading into the inner door which eventually punctured and emergency cycled the air lock
"IT'S IN HERE SOMEWHERE!"
Now with an even clearer access to the research bunker Mark flew ahead into the hallway, he slammed into the wall at the end before continuing down a hallway and torpedoing straight through a clear glass door into a large common area filled with people
"IN THE WAY, YOU ARE IN THE WAY!"
Mark roared, frothing at the mouth as he tore through the people that were unlucky enough to block his way as he continued in a straight line towards the hateful aura he sensed within the bunker. By now security had been alerted and made strong although futile attempts at stopping his rampage though the bunker
"ARRGH!"
The pain hit him before he realized what had happened as he crashed to the ground, looking down his side Mark saw a large hole had been burned into the side of his vacuum suit, under it a large chunk of his side had been burned away
"FUCK YOU!"
Acting quickly, Mark rolled to the side and saw another large burn mark appear where he had just been laying, the pain burned some of his rage away, leaving cold reason in its place as he suddenly realized he was in deep shit and quickly pulled a grenade off his belt as he rolled into cover behind a counter of a central food station
"Thermal weapons are effective! Get the Captain out of here"
Mark chucked the grenade a few meters away, after he released the spoon white smoke spewed out of the grenade and quickly spread inside the large open common hall buying Mark some time as he checked over his rifle and found a large bend in the barrel
'Of course it's fucking busted…'
Mark threw the rifle aside and drew his side arm, the pistol wasn't much, but it was better than nothing
'Ugh… It's taking over again'
As the wound on Mark's side regenerated, his pain rapidly disappeared along with his reasoning
"Luna, there's something down here. It's robbing me of my reasoning"
[Message received, we're pulling out of the station. We'll be on the surface in 8 minutes]
"No, stick to the plan"
[But we can't r—]
"I said stick to the plan, you know damn well you wouldn't make it through the surface batteries in the Sparrow"
[...Alright, please be safe Mark]
Mark pulled another smoke grenade out from his belt and threw it away from his cover, by now a large smoke screen had formed
'Thermal weapons should be rendered ineffective, they're not pushing my position either… Don't tell me that was the actual captain of the border fleet?'
Before Mark could continue speculating, his reason was once again robbed, and he continued charging towards the hateful aura. As he charged down hallway after hallway he encountered increasingly little resistance, no armed personal and no sealed bulkheads bared his passage as he continued rampaging into a large empty warehouse
"WHERE!? WHERE ARE YOU!?"
A moment after he yelled, an invisible force clamped down around him and froze him in place, then a familiar emotionless voice echoed out in the empty room
"I am disappointed, Mark"
Mark struggled against the invisible force that constrained him, which only resulted in it tightening around him further as the floor planes slid away revealing a large circle of machinery that rose out of the surrounding floor, a moment later Mark's rage disappeared along with the invisible force that constrained him. This allowed him to think logically again and quickly find the source of the voice
"You… No wonder I didn't notice you"
Standing against the wall to his left were a singular guild android, its body was exploded outwards and disconnected panels and modules floated around a black spherical core that sat in the center of the disconnected arms, legs and head
"All that potential, an unaging, transforming body, free mobility in all axes of movement… And you used it for petty vengeance"
"Don't call it that, people don't like it when you put down their feelings and aspirations"
The guild android's body finished reassembling as it walked over and stood in front of the invisible barrier that separated the two, it studied Mark in silence until he asked
"So?"
The guild android blinked its artificial eyelids twice before it spoke
"Ah, right… I have learned two things from our short acquaintance, would you like to hear them?"
Mark shrugged
"Why not?"
The guild android flashed a smile and spoke calmly
"Firstly, people don't like to be reminded of their biological and evolutionary traits that linger from a time when their species were less advanced"
"Yeah, that's what I just told you. What else?"
The guild android remained silent as the wall panels behind it began moving, the wall practically slit down into the floor revealing a line of unpowered illumination panels
"The second thing would be that your kind have to be put down when discovered, the few we have in captivity are enough for study"
The guild android narrowed its fake eyelids slowly before adding
"There's no real biological diversity between the subjects anyhow"
"Bitch"
The guild android remained silent as the outermost light panels lit up, Mark felt it at once, like his skin were being roasted as it turned light gray. Despite the pain, he kept his mouth shut and feigned calm as he glared back at the punchable face of the guild android that stood just beyond the barrier, even as he became increasingly panicked
'The shielding is ship class, a single concentrated impact could break the barrier—'
Mark's mind raced as he went through scenario after scenario, however when the 2nd set of panels lit up his scored of thoughts due to the overwhelming pain, he roared in agony as his skin turned gray and began flaking off his body. Soon he was reduced to a shivering husk curled up on the floor, then his consciousness faded
-
"Where..?"
Mark blinked twice before his eyes adjusted, he looked around the strange space he had found himself in, he floated over the surface of a blue lake that spread as far as he could see, letting out a sigh he muttered
"I never thought the afterlife would look like this…"
Sitting down he gazed out over the still endless lake for a few moments before he began sinking towards the water, within moments he plunged into the watery abyss where he continued getting pulled down into the chilled infinity that spread out under him. Mark felt his mind grow calm, then tired before he caught sight of something massive under him
'A whale?'
Whatever it was, it was massive, the lumbering shadow tore through the water rising upwards towards him far faster than it seemed capable of. It grew larger and larger as it approached, and with it, Mark saw what it was. The thing he had thought a whale was simply the massive head of an eyeless serpent that rushed up from the abyss, a jagged slit of silver spread across the center of its head teeth the size of limps bared themselves even as the creature's mouth was shut, purple scales covered its body and gleamed despite the low lighting
'Well, shit'
Mark tried to move, to resist the pull and flee from the creature, however he found his body completely paralyzed as the creature opened its mouth, rows upon rows of jagged teeth were revealed. It roared in anger as it shot up towards him, however it didn't swallow him whole, instead it passed right past him at amazing speed, Mark twisted around and saw it race towards the surface
"What the fuck..?"
Then the pull increased, turning him back around. There he saw it, light shone at the bottom of this abyss
It looked like the surface of a lake