The following content is from the perspective of Captain Karina Reyes Pruce.
Inside the dimly lit, crimson cabin of the Pelican, Pruce sat alongside twenty other USS operatives, all maintaining the same posture, awaiting the imminent 'jump'.
Soon, the red lights extinguished, replaced by a green glow.
The pilot's voice came through everyone's helmet comms: "Approaching designated airspace. Gamma Task Force, prepare for deployment."
Upon hearing the alert, Pruce and the USS operatives stood up in unison, facing the gradually opening hatch.
"Whoosh—!"
A blast of cold air instantly filled the cabin.
The pilot's voice returned through the comms: "Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the designated airspace. Please jump before the optimal window closes."
Before the words finished, Pruce, standing at the very front, dashed straight out of the cabin, then leaped into the void, with the other twenty USS operatives following close behind.
Accompanied by the howling wind and the morning light of the sunrise, the twenty-one figures plummeted rapidly from a thousand meters in the sky.
Through the various data displayed on her helmet screen, Pruce knew exactly when she would land.
She kept an eye on the ground distance shown on the screen, and the moment the number dropped below one hundred, she changed her posture, bending her knees and pointing her feet downwards.
The USS operatives who jumped with her performed the same action.
And then…
"Boom—! Boom—!"
They all landed 'steadily', but the combined weight of each person and their approximately 400-pound bio-armor kicked up clouds of dust from the open ground outside the nuclear power plant.
"Hoo-ha-."
Inside her helmet, Pruce maintained steady breathing, showing no signs of the tension one might expect from a parachute-less jump from a thousand meters.
After all, within Umbrella's various military formations, the USS, who only followed the orders of the Olympus Board, were the strongest existence besides the Spartans.
Especially since the USS operatives, unbeknownst to themselves, had been assimilated and upgraded by William, granting each of them the physical prowess and special abilities of Ghost Agents.
A mere thousand-meter jump posed no difficulty for the USS operatives.
Before the dust had settled, Pruce led the USS operatives out of the craters they had created, moving to a spot not far from the perimeter of the nuclear power plant.
They formed groups of four.
Four groups positioned themselves at the corners of the formation, while Pruce led one group in the center.
They all remained in a semi-crouched position, maintaining vigilance.
Standing in the very center, Pruce surveyed her surroundings, observing the situation nearby.
Before her was an ordinary nuclear power plant with a concrete exterior and a rectangular structure.
The area around the power plant was overgrown with weeds and dense forests, and the open ground where they stood was also encroached upon by grass.
If one were to observe it purely from the outside, it would be easy to assume that the place had long been abandoned, just an undeveloped plot of land.
However, when Pruce activated the scanning function on her helmet screen, the area appeared 'exceptionally lively'.
The outlined amorphous lifeforms stood all around them, seemingly caught off guard by her and the USS operatives' extraordinary landing, which was why they hadn't initiated an attack.
Seeing this, Pruce gripped her plasma rifle and first reported to Rebecca at the airbase: "Doctor, it seems your prediction was correct. This is the lair of those amorphous lifeforms."
Rebecca's reply quickly came through the comms: "Captain, please be extra careful."
"Understood."
Pruce nodded slightly, then ordered the USS operatives: "Gamma Task Force, prepare for combat. Let's eliminate these ghostly fellows outside first."
"Yes." (x20)
As soon as Pruce finished giving the order, the amorphous lifeforms stopped their daze and charged towards the USS operatives' position.
At the same time, the USS operatives used their bio-armor's auxiliary aiming function to lock their weapons onto the fast-moving anomalies.
"Swish, swish, swish!"
Instantly, emerald green light scattered, streaking out to hit the amorphous lifeforms that solid projectiles could not kill.
Then…
"Splat! Splat!" Explosive sounds erupted continuously.
The anomalies, which were previously unkillable, instantly disintegrated, exploded, and 'died' upon encountering the superheated plasma projectiles.
With just one round of concentrated fire, the anomalies that had been rampaging through Chisinau, slaughtering innocent civilians, multinational alliance soldiers, and rebels, could finally be taken down.
The amorphous lifeforms did not stop because of their comrades' deaths; instead, it seemed to enrage them even more.
They charged frantically.
But this had almost no effect on the USS operatives.
Pruce and her subordinates coordinated with each other, with no collective reload window, and they also released the USS-exclusive psionic shockwave as an auxiliary attack.
The amorphous lifeforms had been invincible and lawless because solid projectiles could not inflict effective damage on them.
Otherwise, with their crude attack methods, they would struggle even against a four-person Delta team, let alone the USS, who represented the pinnacle of human capability.
Before long, all the amorphous lifeforms outside the nuclear power plant were cleanly eliminated by the USS operatives led by Pruce.
They then advanced towards the interior of the nuclear power plant, maintaining sufficient distance between each group and providing mutual cover.
However, before they could enter, the dispersed amorphous lifeforms began to re-coalesce.
For this reason, Pruce ordered three USS teams to remain at the entrance, while she and the other two teams proceeded inward.
Upon entering, they discovered that it was not an ordinary nuclear power plant structure at all, but rather resembled a research base for high-end weapons.
However, the facilities were old, most of them products of the 1990s, with only a few modern pieces of equipment.
What puzzled Pruce and the task force was that they did not encounter any attacks from the amorphous lifeforms as they continued to delve deeper.
While puzzled, they smoothly arrived at the innermost facility.
They saw that it was like a factory production line, with large, human-sized containers inside, using condensed matter to '3D print' the lifeforms they had encountered outside.
Since the printing was not complete, these lifeforms had not yet 'come to life'.
Continuing further inside, Pruce and her team discovered numerous containers, but these did not contain condensed matter. Instead, they held complete human brains, spinal cords, and nervous systems.
There were no bodies, tissues, or organs.
Most importantly, next to each container, there was a display showing the physiological status of the contents, which made one feel very uncomfortable.
However, Pruce paid no attention to these details. Instead, she approached a container and reported: "Doctor, do you see this? This place feels like… a ghost factory."
Rebecca's reply came through the comms: "Captain, I believe the true lifeforms controlling the condensed matter are inside those containers you're seeing.
Destroying them should stop this anomaly."
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