"Hudson, no one's begging you to drink it!"
Suddenly, a roar with a Russian accent came from behind Hicks and Hudson.
The two of them turned around.
The layout of the dormitory was clear at a glance.
A long rectangle, forty square meters in size.
Three single bunk beds were flush against the left wall, with individual wardrobes and desks underneath.
On the right wall were three mounted individual combat systems, weapon racks holding M41A and M56 firearms, and two crates of ammunition and equipment.
In the center of the room were a square table and wooden chairs.
On the far wall, the door was to the left, while a protrusion on the right housed a bathroom equipped with a shower.
Adjacent to the bathroom was a simple kitchen, equipped with a sink, cabinets, a small refrigerator, and a two-burner electric stove.
Gina, wearing a black tank top and possessing a build noticeably sturdier than the average woman, was standing behind the electric stove preparing breakfast for the three of them.
Seemingly extremely displeased by Hudson's complaining, she clenched her right fist and said angrily, "If you don't like drinking it, then spit it out!"
"Alright, that's enough."
Hicks walked between the two of them, took a sip of his coffee, and frowned slightly.
He then asked, "Gina, what's for breakfast today?"
"The usual: fried eggs, luncheon meat, and boiled peas," Gina replied, her tone softening a bit.
After all, no matter how nice Hicks was, he was still her superior Commander.
"Sigh... that's women for you," Hudson shook his head helplessly and sat down at the square table with Hicks.
However, Hudson's expression was no longer carefree; instead, it turned solemn as he said:
"Hicks, these past few days... the atmosphere of the entire colony hasn't been right. More and more people are acting strange, and even violent incidents have suddenly spiked.
"What's even stranger is that when we arrive at the scene of an incident, those miners act like..."
"They're hiding something from us," Hicks cut in, his eyes filled with a chill.
"The asteroid colony lacks Serana's surveillance, and the control is held by those people from The Chief Corporation."
"Is it possible that The Chief Corporation found something but doesn't want to tell us? Are they secretly shipping it back to Earth?" Gina speculated as she brought over the plates.
"That's very likely," Hicks seemed to agree with this view.
"Whatever, let's just burst into the Control Room later and demand an explanation from those Chief Corporation people!" Hudson brandished his spoon.
"Hudson," Gina said, rolling her eyes at him as she sat down at the table.
"Use your brain, will you? That doesn't follow company protocol at all. We should notify the company first and have them send technicians and support troops here for a thorough search."
"No," Hicks waved his hand, looking at his two subordinates, and said in a low voice:
"Hudson is right. If The Chief Corporation really discovered something, they will definitely do everything in their power to obstruct the company's investigation."
"But... why...?"
Hudson scratched his head and asked; his suggestion just now had been mere venting, and he hadn't expected it to actually be adopted.
Gina also looked at Hicks with a puzzled expression.
"..." Hicks looked at his two extremely 'well-matched' subordinates, feeling quite speechless, but he still explained patiently:
"The company's business has already monopolized many sectors, leaving competing enterprises gasping for air. If The Chief Corporation discovered some kind of anomaly on this asteroid... they would certainly hide it to advance their own technological level."
"Ugh..." Hearing this, Hudson said with a look of disgust, "Without our Umbrella's level of technology, they dare to research anomalies on a whim? They're not afraid of dying."
"Until we have enough evidence, let's not notify the company to send reinforcements for now, so as not to alert The Chief Corporation," Hicks said.
He then looked at the weapons displayed nearby, his face showing uncontrollable pride and confidence as he said calmly:
"Our equipment alone is enough to handle those puny Chief Corporation Security Personnel. Besides, we have Umbrella backing us."
"Haha! Exactly! Our Marine Corps isn't the bottom-tier 'fourth-class citizens' anymore!" Hudson laughed loudly.
Gina, who had joined Umbrella less than six months ago, asked with some confusion, "Why is the Marine Corps considered fourth-class?"
"..." (x2)
...
Afterward, the three quickly finished their daily breakfast, helped each other don their individual equipment and mechanical skeletons, and chambered their weapons.
As the heavy Machine Gunner, Gina also attached the M56 to the mechanical arm on her waist.
Even if The Chief Corporation hadn't hidden any anomalies and Hicks' team had made a blunder, Umbrella wouldn't blame them.
Because staying highly vigilant at all times is the most basic quality of every Umbrella employee, along with having strong crisis prevention and management skills.
Fully armed, the three left their dormitory equipped with a combination lock and headed toward the colony's Control Room.
The lights embedded in the rock walls flickered from time to time, as if due to quality issues or something else.
This made the colony within the enclosed space seem even more eerie and dark.
They arrived at the Living Area.
The space became more open.
The layout of the houses was similar to their dormitory, all being caves excavated from the interior of the asteroid's rock walls, but the decor was certainly superior to their room.
The miners' relatives had also come to settle on FJ336 to alleviate psychological and physical loneliness.
But the Living Area was not as lively as usual; instead, it was... extremely bloody, with bloody handprints all over the walls.
The miners' relatives seemed to have suddenly gone mad en masse, using various implements in their hands to commit suicide.
What distressed the three even more was when they looked at the first house on the left; through the glass window, they saw a mother dazed, violently slamming her swaddled infant onto the ground.
Not only that, but she also picked up a fruit knife from the table and raised her hand high, clearly intending to stab herself in the abdomen.
!
Seeing this, Hicks immediately ordered, "Quick! Stop her!"
"Yes!" (x2)
The three of them sprinted to the front of the house and used the strength of their mechanical skeletons to kick the door open, but they were a step too late.
With a "squelch!" sound.
The fruit knife easily pierced her apron and clothing, plunging straight into the mother's abdomen. Her body swayed weakly for a moment before she collapsed to the ground.
"No!"
Hicks, who was at the front, let out a roar. He rushed forward to support her, half-kneeling beside the mother with a pained expression on his face.
"Hudson! Quick! Use the Bio-foam on her! Gina! Check the child's condition!"
"Yes!" Hudson, having caught up, also knelt down and prepared to pull a canister of Bio-foam from his waist pouch to stop the mother's bleeding.
"Sigh." Gina, checking the infant on the floor, let out a heavy sigh and shook her head. "Officer... it's too late..."
However, the mother showed a frenzied expression and even twisted the fruit knife lodged in her abdomen, screaming:
"They! They want our corpses!"
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