The Underground City – Skybridge. Status: Critical.
"DON'T LOOK DOWN! JUST KEEP RUNNING!"
Rianor's shout was nearly drowned out by the agonizing groan of shattering glass. The Sudrath expedition party raced across the Skybridge—a transparent glass corridor suspended fifty meters above the asphalt streets, connecting the office towers to the Central Tower's plaza.
The glass beneath their iron-shod boots was already spiderwebbed with a million fractures. The bridge's metallic skeleton shrieked in protest under the weight of twenty-five people in heavy plate armor running in unison. Yet, outside the glass, a true nightmare was ascending.
Thousands of pale mutants scurried up the building walls, scaling the bridge's support pillars with the frantic speed of ants discovering sugar. They hammered against the glass with bare fists and hardened foreheads.
BAM! BAM! CRACK!
A glass panel on the right side shattered into a thousand shards. A gaunt, pale hand lunged through the gap, claws snapping at Rumina's ankle.
"KYAA!" Rumina shrieked, her footing slipping.
SLASH!
Rhea severed the hand in one fluid, surgical strike without missing a step. "Don't stop, Rumina! Move!"
The sheer mass of mutants clinging to the bridge finally reached a breaking point. The ancient metal structure gave way.
KREAAAKKK...
The bridge tilted violently to the left. The suspension cables snapped one by one with a deafening metallic TINK! TINK!
"THE BRIDGE IS GOING DOWN!" Captain Garrick roared, his eyes wide with terror.
The floor ahead of them buckled and fell away, creating a yawning chasm just before the Central Tower's entrance. It was a five-meter gap—a leap of faith into death.
"JUMP! NOW!" Riven commanded.
The Iron Mercs leaped one by one. Their armor was heavy, but adrenaline gave them temporary wings. They landed hard, rolling across the cold concrete of the tower plaza. Rianor and Rumina were the last in line, but their physiques weren't built for such athletics. The floor crumbled beneath their feet just as they prepared to spring.
"BROTHER RIVEN!"
They began to freefall.
"GOT YOU!"
A massive hand clamped onto the collars of Rianor and Rumina's tunics simultaneously. Riven, his legs hooked into the remains of the bridge's iron frame, hung upside down over the abyss where thousands of mutants waited below. Riven's arm muscles bulged like corded rope, the veins in his neck looking as if they might burst under the combined weight of his siblings and the pull of gravity.
"Stop staring and climb!" Riven grunted, his face a violent shade of crimson.
With a powerful heave reinforced by his Orange Aura, Riven hurled Rianor and Rumina upward, sending them sailing across the chasm to land safely on the tower floor. Riven then swung his own body, leaping across with every ounce of strength he had left.
THUD.
Riven landed just as the remains of the bridge collapsed entirely, plummeting into the sea of mutants below.
BOOM!
Concrete dust billowed in thick clouds. They were safe—at least for the next few minutes. "Inside the tower! Move!"
Central Command – Tower Ground Floor.
They burst through the heavy glass doors of the tower lobby. Inside, the atmosphere was entirely different. The air was clean, chilled, and sterile. No dust, no rot. The sprawling lobby was dominated by elegant white metallic walls. At the center of the room sat a gargantuan, semi-circular console facing a massive wall of black screens.
"That's it!" Rianor sprinted toward the console. "The Main Terminal!"
"Hold the door!" Riven barked.
The lobby glass began to groan. Thousands of mutants who had survived the bridge collapse were now swarming the plaza, hurling their bodies against the reinforced glass. DUM! DUM! DUM! Fractures began to spiderweb across the surface.
"Elara! I need an electrical surge!" Rianor shouted, frantically wiping dust from the console panel. He found a large, familiar-looking slot. The Power Core slot. "The backup batteries are dead. We need a jumpstart to prime the main reactor!"
Elara sprinted over, her face ashen with exhaustion. "How much?"
"Everything! Drain your entire Mana pool, Elara!"
Elara slammed her palms onto the metal panel. She closed her eyes, channeling her deepest reserves.
"Rumina! Connect the bypass circuits now!" Elara gasped, cold sweat pouring down her temples. "I can't hold this much current alone! The system might blow!"
Rumina dove beneath the console. Her nimble fingers yanked thick cables and reconnected them manually with blurring speed.
"Hold on, Elara! I'm diverting the surge to the secondary coolers!" Rumina yelled. CLICK. She locked a manual lever into place.
Elara let out a muffled scream, funneling the last of her magical energy as a trigger. WUNG... WUNG... Indicator lights on the console began to flicker one by one. Red. Yellow. The gargantuan screen in front of them suddenly flared to life, displaying a static-laced PROJECT LEGION logo.
But outside, the lobby glass finally failed.
SHATTER!
"THEY'RE IN!" Garrick roared.
"HOLD THE LINE!" Riven charged forward, taking his stand at the breach.
The final struggle erupted in the sterile lobby. Riven swung his Chain-Axe, VROOOM! Black mutant blood sprayed, staining the pristine white walls. Rhea danced beside him, her daggers moving like lightning, piercing eye sockets and throats.
"HURRY, RIANOR!" Riven shouted, wincing as a mutant's teeth found the shoulder of his armor. "I CAN'T HOLD OFF AN ENTIRE CITY ALONE!"
At the console, Rianor's fingers danced across a holographic keyboard. His eyes narrowed, trying to dissect the logic patterns of this ancient machine.
ACCESS DENIED. ACCESS DENIED. The red screen mocked him.
"Dammit! It needs an authorization code!" Rianor cursed.
"Use this!" Rumina tossed the Foreman's Logbook they had found earlier. On the final page, a series of numbers was scribbled in a frantic, bloody hand.
0-4-5-A-L-P-H-A.
Rianor typed it in, his fingers trembling.
ACCESS GRANTED.
The screen flashed a brilliant green. The main menu appeared: SYSTEM DEFENSE PROTOCOL.
"FIRE IT UP!" Rianor roared, slamming the ENTER key.
BEEP.
A low siren echoed throughout every corner of the city. WOOOP... WOOOP... A cold, mechanical female voice spoke from the ceiling.
"Warning: Biological Contamination Detected in All Sectors. Activating Sterilization Protocol Level 5. Automated Weapon Systems: ONLINE."
Outside the tower, hidden panels on rooftops and sidewalks slid open. Thousands of turrets and laser cannons emerged in unison. Their sensors swept the area, scanning for unregistered biological signatures.
"Target Acquired. Purge Initiated."
BRRT! BRRT! BRRT!
Hell was unleashed. Thousands of automated rifles fired simultaneously, raining plasma and physical rounds upon the city streets. Crimson laser beams cut through the air, bisecting mutants as they scaled the tower walls.
In the lobby, Riven dropped his axe and covered his ears. The vibration from the relentless gunfire outside rattled his very marrow. A mutant lunging at Riven suddenly had its head vaporized by an internal turret that emerged from the lobby ceiling.
"Get down! Everyone, get down!" Rianor commanded. "Those turrets will shred anything that moves!"
The Sudrath party hit the floor, lying in the black sludge of mutant blood. The turret above them swiveled, its sensor pulsing red as it scanned them.
Targeting...
"Rianor! Kill the internal ones!" Rhea screamed in panic.
Rianor typed with frantic speed. "Override Friend-or-Foe Identification. Add Group: Human_Survivors."
The turret's sensor light turned a steady green. The weapon swiveled away, returning its aim to the mutants trying to crawl through the door.
Five minutes later, the gunfire ceased. The Underground City returned to silence, but this was a different kind of quiet. Streetlights began to flicker on, one by one. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.
The dead city was suddenly transformed into a sea of radiance. Building lights, streetlamps, and the tower's spire glowed brilliantly, banishing millennia of darkness in an instant.
Riven rose slowly, wiping mutant blood from his face. He stood transfixed before the window, staring at the metropolis that had just risen from its grave.
"It's beautiful..." Rumina whispered, her eyes sparkling as they reflected the city lights.
Rianor collapsed onto the floor, his legs feeling like jelly. Elara slumped beside him, her breath ragged from mana exhaustion.
"We did it," Rianor whispered softly. "We have the key now. We have power."