Location: North-Western Oregon, USA

Unit: GOU, Coalition forces

Date: July 24th, 2021 CE

Suddenly, a door swung open, and a tiny fraction of green light emanated from a face in the dark. The face was of a soldier covered by patches of light and dark brown. A second face appeared, this one dressed in a black balaclava. While anyone hidden in the room may have thought they were invisible, to these soldiers they were as clear as daylight.

One of them fired off a single shot penetrating a box and someone cried out in pain before slumping to the floor.

"Good shot," a noticeably Canadian voice said.

Richards, an ex-82nd Airborne officer smiled beneath the camo cream, "Yeah these thermals are banging." 

The Canadian chuckled, "Must be nice having a government care about their soldiers, ours just advises us to kill ourselves ha!"

Richards tilted his head beneath the thermal vision goggles, "What?"

The Canadian punched Richards in the shoulder and shook his head, before attempting to walk back into the main corridor, "On second thoughts... don't worry!"

Richards stood there perplexed, "Uh, does Mclaw know? Baker, does Mclaw know? You know this is information he should know."

The Canadian soldier named Paul Baker chuckled, "Of course Mclaw knows, he beat the ever-living shit out of the veteran 'support' guy," Baker continued back into the main corridor and walked up to Mabasa and Gibson kneeling in the hallway, "Dead end that way."

Mabasa nodded making a mark on his wrist console, "I see, so the predictions were registered to slightly too high."

Gibson sighed, "Mclaws gonna be pissed at the surveillance teams, he gave them one job and they fucked it up."

"May they rest in peace," Another South African man walked forward chuckling to himself, "Any way we just gonna sit here forever, John?"

Mabasa rolled his eyes, "We're on mission use last names, Heynes," Mabasa stood up gripping the pistol grip of his R4, "Actually you can take point for that!"

Heynes, the other South African smiled, "Sure, are we going straight for the main room?"

Mabasa nodded, "Yep so you should get moving."

***

"What do you mean there is another entrance? The plans didn't say anything about that!" A Texan voice spoke.

Mclaw rolled his eyes in frustration, "Yes, the original plan was to push all remaining NZA soldiers to this choke point where we would have our support units light them up as they exit and take anyone who chose to surrender, quite obviously we didn't expect any to surrender so we informed a few select officers of the plan and that's it; they would order the troops into position before the ambush."

The Master Sergeant nodded, "You think there is another rat?"

Mclaw tilted his head from side to side, "If one made it into the British Armed forces, I guarantee you we have at least a few sleeper agents in the American special forces groups," Mclaw looked over the Delta Operator's shoulder, "Fucking finally." He tapped a stick of metal on a metal magazine and placed his hand on his head.

Two British soldiers armed with L85A3 rifles ran up to Mclaw immediately going to a knee, "Captain, I didn't expect to see you here, is there a change of plans?"

 Mclaw nodded, "The advance taskforce of Dens were almost wiped out by NZA snipers, they walked into a trap," Mclaw paused for a second, "Now I'm gonna take the remaining Delta members and enter through the second hatch."

The British officer nodded, "Understood Sir, what are your next instructions?"

"Set up a defensive perimeter, expect the arrival of both enemy and friendly forces, their unit is the American First Special Forces Group, first battalion. Inform them to hold down the other entrance until further notice," Mclaw responded.

The Briton complied immediately, "It will be done."

Mclaw and the Army officer stood up each returning to their respective unit. Mclaw indicated for Delta to follow him as he opened a hatch, it was quiet but lit by white light. Looking back to the remaining Delta he and drew his pistol and a rope; chucking one side down he tied it to the hatch lid, "Let us descend."

***

"SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!" Heynes yelled beneath waves of gunfire, "I really regret taking point!"

Soman placed a rifle shield and a mirror on her weapon before having it slowly peek around the edge of the box she hid behind; suddenly she pulled the trigger dropping three NZA Deathtroopers, "Heynes! Laydown suppressive fire, even if it's blind!"

Heynes looked at her and slowly pulled something from his belt, still keeping eye contact with her he stared deep into her soul from across the room.

"Heynes, no, we are too far in... it's too dangerous," Soman raised her eyebrows at the small ball in his hand.

Heynes placed the small ball back into his belt before quickly pulling a small tube out and throwing it behind his head.

"You absolute--" Soman was cut off as an explosion of light and ear-shattering sound filled the room.

Immediately they both stood up firing into the concussed enemy, ears still ringing. Sweeping the room with their rifles, there was no movement. Soman took a step forward into the pile of bodies carefully analysing them and making sure the death troopers really were the dead ones, "We are going to have a lengthy conversation later about the use of grenades near dangerous chemicals," Soman spoke, "Probably with Mclaw."

Heynes shrugged, "It's not that deep, you got three, the rest were mine."

Soman turned back, "It's not about who gets what, it's about who makes it out alive; that's what Mclaw taught us!"

Heynes tilted his head, "Mclaw also taught us the mission comes first, and that we have to take risks to win."

Soman scowled, "What you did was downright dangerous, don't do it again, end of story."

Heynes chuckled and replied sarcastically, "Yes ma'am!" Giving a little salute he walked to the next door, right next to where Soman was standing, he nodded at her and she reluctantly nodded back, immediately swinging the door open Soman ran in with Heynes on her heel.

As much as Soman couldn't stand Heynes back in the barracks, neither could most of the members of the GOU, they all recognised him as highly gifted in the art of being lucky, something Mclaw valued a lot.

Entering the white room the two Operators received no bullets... but rather a large group of human-sized test tubes. The room was dimly lit by a few ceiling lights and the occasional console. Soman hoisted her rifle onto her back before unclipping the hook on her sidearm, keeping her palm on the back of the grip she walked up to one of the glass test tubes, "This is Burns 2-3, me and 2-4 have discovered something odd, come to room 2L."

A voice came back through her radio, "Understood 2-3, this is Overwatch we are sending Burns 2-1 to your position now."

Soman looked back at Heynes who was also observing the tube across from her, "What the hell is this?"

Heynes shrugged, "No idea, could it be the liquid version of the gas?"

Soman didn't answer, not sure what to say, but looking down the corridor she observed hundreds upon hundreds of the vats; she wondered if the NZA really needed all of this just to take out the Allied Armed Force... or was it something more sinister?

"Holy shit," Heynes's eyes widened upon seeing a sight even he found slightly horrific, several heads were pasted on the wall, eye sockets dripping with blood with no eyes to be seen. The jaws of the heads were wide open while saliva dribbled out. On the floor beneath them sat several bodies in the upright position all missing heads. 

Soman walked up to the mess with a worried look, "Those monsters," she reached inside one of the soldier's shirts revealing a set of dog tags, "Marine 1209, Oceanic Empire, 1st battalion." She tilted her head, "Are these deserters?"

Heynes looked over Soman's shoulder, "I thought the NZA were infected, and what's this nation? The Oceanic Empire?"

Soman looked back at him, "The Oceanic Empire is the official name for the NZA, dumbass, didn't you listen to the declaration of war speech?"

Heynes scratched his head, "Declaration of war speech... uh no, I was woken up in the middle of the night and told that we were now at war with New Zealand and Australia... and that there had been three nuclear strikes across the globe."

Soman sighed turning away from the horrible mess behind her, taking a step away she noticed a shadow appear behind her, turning to her left she saw Heynes slumped against the wall bloody, Realising what had happened she turned back to the heads only to black out immediately.

***

Mabasa bashed on the door, "It's us! Soman! Let us in! Soman! Heynes! Open up!" He paused pulling back, "I'm going to break it down."

Gibson put his hand in the way to indicate Mabasa should stop, "Somethings not right, Richards your turn."

Richards nodded pulling something from his belt and placing it over his eyes, "Oh shit, well done, Gibson; there seems to be some type of explosive around the door frame," looking closer, he turned a wheel on the side of his small machine over his eyes, "Seems to be an electrical trap, that means it was deep underground during the EMP."

Gibson nodded before turning to his long-range radio, "This is Burns 1-2, Alpine 1-1, do you copy? I need a favour."

"Roger, Burns 1-2, we hear you loud and clear, what do you need?" Zeller's voice responded.

"There seems to be an electrical tripwire, I need Alpine 1-4 to cancel a signal without setting it off," Gibson nodded as he spoke.

There was a pause before another Canadian soldier spoke, "This is Alpine 1-4, what do you need again, me to disarm a trap?" Gibson raised an eyebrow preparing to respond, but she answered first, "Sure can do, hitting the electrical box now, Burns 2-3 seems to be the closest. Hitting it... now."

The Canadian hits a final button on her wrist console before continuing the trek with the rest of Alpine unit.

Mabasa slowly opened the door an inch before Gibson kicked it off its hinges, no explosion, Gibson and Richards rushed in with Mabasa entering behind them, "Wait was 2-3 Soman?"

Richards looked at him, "It was..." all three of their eyes went wide and quickly exited the room back into the place filled with bodies of dead death troopers. Rifles raise they aimed down the corridor as something approached them...

"No need to be scared boys... its just me," a familiar voice said. 

None of them could see the face but the body was dripping blood rapidly, and with every pace more blood stained the floor.

Richards spoke, "Halt!" the body kept on moving, "I SAID HALT!" he aimed down the sights.

Suddenly the light above him started to flicker, "Why are you being so hostile Richards?" The body spoke again, "It's just... Heynes."

The body stepped into the light face cut apart with blood pouring from the cheeks of the soldier. Mabasa froze staring at the tattered body of a man who he knew well, the man still stood upright even though his left leg faced the wrong way and his posture looked slightly bent.

In his hand, he still held his pistol a standard M45 given to all GOU members. He immediately raised the pistol and went to pull the trigger, but Mabasa was too fast; holding down his own trigger, one after the other, bullets rained through the air onto the ex-GOU member.

The first one slammed into his pistol shattering it, the next two into his shoulder and then three more into his legs tearing them off. Blood started to pour out into the drains of each side, but the no-legged man lifted up his chin, "That hurt, Mabasa, I thought we were friends?" He started to crawl to the three GOU members as they watched in horror.

Mabasa gulped stepping forward, "What the hell happened to you?"

Heynes stopped moving and spoke again, "I was given a better purpose, an instruction; if it was complete I would live eternally in peace and harmony."

Mabasa raised his rifle, "What was that instruction?"

Heynes smiled, "Kill the GOU," He bit something on his lip and smiled, "Goodbye Mabasa." Suddenly an explosion started to fill the end of the room.

Mabasa's eyes widened, "RUN!" He yelled before ditching his rifle and dropping several other pouches. All three of their hearts were racing, as they struggled to outrun the explosion. Suddenly something hit Mabasa in the shoulder, he turned to look what it was but when he turned he noticed a red fireball right behind him. Diving to the ground he felt his back start to melt, an unendurable pain seeping into his back. He yelled out, "HELP, IT BURNS!"

But slowly he started to black out and fade into darkness.