Insight flashed again, and I grabbed onto Mira and rolled with all of my might, falling off the platform and onto the rails. I landed on my back, the full weight of both of us crushing my spine into the rail hard enough to bruise.

The drop in elevation gave us just enough time to recover from the ambush as we bolted to our feet. My light flashed to our attacker; a creature stood at the edge of the platform. It looked human- er, it looked like it had been human at some point.

It had a repulsive hunger in its eyes reminiscent of a ghoul, and yet its body looked as if it had been heavily affected by HMV. Such a thing was incredibly rare. It was called Human Mutation Virus after all.

Ghouls were the victims of the incurable AGD, or the Aetherial Ghoulification Disease, and typically had invulnerability to other viruses and diseases. If, by some serious misfortune, a ghoul caught HMV shortly before AGD, both would kick into effect creating such a monstrosity.

It had several limbs like a spider, its four original human ones slightly shorter than four bony protrusions. Its body was hunched back due to the shortness of its human limbs, and the thing stared down at us for a brief moment. Its mandibles, as if it wasn’t creepy enough, clacked together sharply.

Aetherial Perception triggered, allowing me to see a halo of corruptive influence about the things head. It was nauseating to look at, so I decided to turn the Perk off till I got back above ground.

Mira reacted far faster than I, and instantly unloaded into the monster with her SMG. The muzzle flash illuminated the immediate area, casting a long shadow as the monster dodged out of the spray with all of the sickening agility its eight legs granted it.

I didn’t hesitate to follow in her footsteps and aim my shotgun, locking onto the spider creature the best I could. My spread was all over the place, and the kick hit me like a sledgehammer.

The creature easily slunk behind the abandoned train, leaking rotten blood from a few points. For the most part, it looked entirely unharmed as it got behind cover. I backed up, keeping my gun levered at the subway train as I put up distance. We had the range advantage here, so it's best we used it. Mira thought in a similar process to me, and we both moved back several yards.

Mira cracked a glow stick and tossed it at the train, granting us a better visual of the monster’s hiding place. She spoke, her voice several times louder than normal as it bounced around the subway tunnel. “Shit! Just your luck to run into a variant ghoul.”

“You’re blaming me for this?” I asked in faux outrage, catching onto her plan immediately. I moved fast, my hand shaking slightly as I popped open the breach and shoved another shell into it.

Ghouls were nothing more than instinctual hunters, with variants sometimes being a bit smarter. Such a low intelligence level made engineering its psyche, if I could even call it that, incredibly easy.

“Who else would I blame?” Mira stamped her foot and turned towards me, moving her gun loosely in my direction.

At that moment, seeing our ‘fight’, the ghoul burst out from the train and leaped at us in a fit of speed. Jumping was generally a poor idea in combat. Since it was in the air, it was incredibly easy to track the monster since it lost its ability to dodge. I squeezed the trigger just as Mira flicked back and followed suit.

The variant moved its limbs, attempting to block our efforts. It somewhat succeeded, halting its immediate demise. Fortunately for us, its limbs were almost entirely obliterated by our combined efforts as it hit the ground hard in a spray of rotten blood.

The ghoul struggled to desperately crawl away with its last arm. It didn't get far before Mira popped several shots into the monster’s head, killing it in a spray of rotten gray matter. Good riddance... I may have some hangups about killing people, but the many bloodthirsty monsters in this world didn't get the same treatment. At least, most of them.

“You okay?” Mira asked as she kept her gun raised and looked around for other threats.

I finished my reload and pressed a hand against my back, feeling a definite bruise under my clothing. “A bit bruised… you?”

“Nova.”

We waited for several minutes to see if something else would come running at the sound of gunshots, but nothing did. Cautiously. we moved back towards the platform and then moved onto the train itself. Since it was flipped over sideways, there were enough hands and footholds to easily get up onto the ruined vehicle.

The top, or the side where the door had been, had a massive hole in it, and it was evident the train had acted as the variant’s nest. I peeked into the hole only to see a mess of gore, half-rotten bodies, and blood splattered around like the twigs of a bird’s nest. Bits of cement and metal were bent and wrapped around everywhere as if to further reinforce the train's defenses.

Mira gagged from over my shoulder and backed up several steps. “That’s disturbing… man am I glad these things mostly filter out scents.”

I didn’t back off like she did and instead took a closer look at some of the corpses. Most of them looked to be Scavs based on the welded armor that ultimately proved useless for their survival. Good riddance. There were a few clad in destroyed armor though. “Does that look like FSA armor?”

Mira glared at me before moving back to the hole and peeking in. “Yeah… no way I’m going to check it though. I- I’ll keep watch.”

Coward. I looked around the inside of the train a bit more, making sure there were no other threats, before jumping down into the variant ghoul’s nest. My feet squelched against a rotten pile of clothes as I landed.

The inside was just as disturbing as it looked from above. Gore and bones were scattered everywhere, though I mostly ignored them as I checked the armored corps. There, almost lost in the mess, glinted a FSA dog tag. I moved about the rest of the nest, collecting nine other tags. “Looks like I found a squad…”

“Damn… what a shit way to go. Anything salvageable?” Mira’s voice echoed in my ear.

I looked around more, but all of the gear had long been ripped to shreds. The variant ghoul had destroyed every last bit, probably in an attempt to better its nest. It didn’t seem to like the guns though considering the small pile in the far corner of the subway train. All broken beyond repair. Since there were weapons, there was probably ammo buried amongst all the filth... I wasn't that desperate though. Just the thought of sifting through rotting gore made my skin crawl. “No.” I moved back to the drop-in and stretched my arms up. “Help me up.”

I could see her brows knit together as she leaned over the ledge and pulled me up like I was nothing more than a feather. “Well, we only have a hundred and ninety-nine more to find...”

I checked each of the tags. Fortunately, Edward Smith was not among them. There was a chance, however abysmally small, that he may be alive and Granny Smith didn’t wait all these years for nothing. “At least we know we’re in the right area.”

 

We took a short break at the platform to relax and eat, silage of course, before heading on. We had already been down here for several hours, and we would have to turn back soon if we wanted to make it back to the Jade Fang-controlled exit before dawn. It had already passed midnight, yet neither one of us wanted to sleep down here, so we pressed on.

I checked the map. Unfortunately, we passed our mark by without a further hint of the military's presence. We were a couple of miles off-track from Talus Tower too. The subway platform we fought the variant at sat just past the tower.

Mira stopped me as we approached the end of the subway tunnel. The roof had collapsed at some point, and a cave branched out from it down into the depths of the planet. “I think we passed it.”

I checked the Mapp™. “Let’s head back to the platform. Maybe we can get up into one of the old subway stations.”

“Right.” Mira shrugged. “You think we’ll actually find all of the lost troops?”

I stayed silent as I really thought about it. Originally, it was my opinion that we wouldn’t find any of the two hundred. Now though? “Not all of them… probably find at least remnants though.”

“What do you think happened?” Mira bounced ahead stiffly.

“Who knows? As you said, Uncle Ezra suspected a Fedra conspiracy. I dunno about that though. It has too many moving parts.” It was common sense that more moving parts in a conspiracy directly equals fewer chances of keeping it hidden… though it didn’t stay hidden. Granny Smith was one of those moving parts that moved just out of line.

Mira turned and glanced over her shoulder at me. “Chek, but it makes the most sense. I mean, two hundred soldiers disappeared.”

“Maybe.”

“We were getting chased around above ground, so obviously something is going on.” She rolled her eyes at me.

My shoulders rose into a shrug. “I guess. Still, it could be some other group than Fedra.” There were all kinds of groups in the world aside from gangs and corporations. It just feels a bit dumb to lock into it being Fedra without concrete evidence.

“I guess… still, Fedra makes the most sense…”

We returned to silence until we arrived back at the subway platform. Three of the exits were caved in, but one of them remained clear of obstructions. I didn’t go in, however. Insight triggered, causing me to look around.

“What is it?” Mira stopped behind me

I crouched down and got a closer look at the ground. “There are footprints… very recently.”

“Someone else is down here… what are the chances it's that group that was following us?” Mira’s clothes rustled as she brought her gun back to attention and backed away from the entrance.

I arced an eyebrow at her before following her back to the tunnels. “You really think they followed us all this way without us noticing?”

She shrugged. “They coulda. Pa’ always says thinking yourself infallible is a surefire way to fall.”

“I remember.” There’s no way that we were followed though. No- we could’ve been followed, but whoever this was definitely didn’t follow us. “The tracks show that they came from inside the subway station though. Maybe they came over upon hearing the ruckus caused by our fight with the variant.”

Mira visibly tensed up, and her grip tightened around the SMG. “Then this place is guarded… we need to be super careful from here on in.”

“Yeah…” I stood back up and handed her the glow stick. “I’ll check ahead.”

Although her mouth was hidden by the mask, her eyes and brows still let me know she was frowning. “What if you get ambushed? This looks to be a rather large group, and I’ll be too far back to do anything.”

“Like you could do anything if a Fedra death squad was camping out? We have a much higher chance if I scout, and then we plan over both of us falling into an ambush and dying. And! And there might not even be a Fedra ambush. It could just be Scavs or something.”

“Fine… but- just be careful, okay?” Mira rested her hand on my shoulder, making me feel quite short now that we were standing like this… when did she get so- so big? Or have I just not grown over the past several years? Damnit!

I eyed her hand. “No problem, choom. Stealth is my middle name.” Damnit! Why do I keep defaulting to calling stuff my middle name? Surely there was something cooler I could say. I just sound dumb.

She chuckled, though it sounded far more forced than her usual laugh. “Right. Alright, I’ll hang back.”

I nodded one last time at her before ascending the staircase into the station itself, careful to not leave any traces as I stepped in the already-made footprints to avoid leaving traces of my own. It opened out into a rather long hallway with dozens of abandoned shops lining it. The dust and debris covered the majority of their entrances, showing that no one had been through in a long time. It was odd, like looking into a massive time capsule. The tracks lead down the middle of the path, further into the depths.

I ducked my head around a corner, spotting the ancient entrance into the place just past some turnstiles. As soon as I peaked, I saw an issue. Seven people were sitting around a cave entrance, all seven heavily armed. All seven were equipped the same, suggesting a group backing them. They looked to be arguing based on the rapid movements of two of the seven.

I was hesitant to reveal myself for several reasons. The second biggest one is the shoot-first mentality of the Underground. The biggest reason was the feeling I got from the group. Their posture and uniformity was something that the local gangs and organizations didn’t have; training. At least, the majority. I knew a few elite squads amongst the Jade Fang, but they were elites. They could easily outpace these squads.

No, their equipment and obvious signs of training suggest something a little higher up from a gang, but not an elite team of operatives. Maybe a corporate security team, or some other paramilitary group like… a Fedra squad… maybe they were right after all.

After seeing all I could, I backed up and very carefully made my way back to the subway platform to find Mira pacing back and forth. “I’m back.” I relayed the detes of the situation as I propped myself up against a wall.

“So they're hostile one way or another, and the odds aren’t in our favor.” She rubbed a hand across her eyes- rather, she tried to but was blocked by the mask. “Can we- can we sneak by?”

I looked at her like she was insane. “Assuming you could even get into the station without being heard, then still no. They were standing at the entrance.”

“Right…”

We were silent for a moment, both trying to come up with ideas on how to proceed. “Do we want to just delta?” I asked.

She shook her head. “We can’t just leave now that we’re so close… and besides, that group is most likely guarding this area. Even if we came back later, they might still be here. Pa’ can’t send an investigation squad without concrete evidence of foul play.”

I didn’t want to admit it, but the odds of this whole thing being a conspiracy were rapidly increasing. ‘Course, there was the chance, however minor, that they were just a group traveling through the area. But she was right; there was a far higher likelihood that they were guarding this section of the Underground considering their actions. Otherwise, why would they stick around the area for hours after the variant fight?

Mira quit pacing and looked over at me. “Should we ambush them?”