The sun started setting upon the assault on the factory, with both teams running towards their objective through one of the many slopes connecting to the center of the quarry. They were approaching the building from the side in a diagonal line to not come directly to the open entrance, so they swiveled through mining machinery scattered outside, trying to advance cautiously by taking cover every few moves. But as they got closer to the left side of the factory, they noticed there weren’t any side doors for them to flank, so they could only head to the front section, which appeared to be a big warehouse, although it was the smallest section in comparison to the other structures attached behind it.
With the Heartaches at the front, running faster than the rookies but not Panda nor Cookie, they were the first to reach the entrance. They stopped right before entering to have a listen for any danger, but it sounded like not a single person was found inside. Turning the corner to the large, industrial, arched metal door, they stumbled upon an appalling scene immediately. Even though there wasn’t any noise or enemies in sight, there were clear signs that a tragedy had occurred, and the distressing silence only made the situation more horrifying as they had a full view of the atrocity their enemies had committed.
They discovered a large pile of unrecognizable mass and blood in the middle of the hall. Taking a closer look, it was a mountain of dead factory workers, all cut up in pieces that were still bleeding, creating a pool underneath that almost reached the door. After stepping through the door, the sight stunned them, prompting them to stay in place as they tried to assess the situation. They could even inspect their surroundings with the dismay of finding all the deceased bystanders right in front of them, but that didn’t stop EchoForce from coming in without a warning of what they would come across.
–We are too late…– Agnus muttered in shock, quickly growing discouraged but more frustrated, having to hold her anger as she tried to look around the pile of bodies in search of more clues, despite it being the biggest hint they needed.
The other Heartaches remained frozen, speechless, and seemingly not even able to speak as their distant stares focused on the macabre picture that only haunted them more as they kept looking. But as they were blocking the entrance to the rest of the team, Panda and the rookies were forced to squeeze in to figure out what was going on. And as soon as they did, they seemingly regretted their decision instantly since they were even more shocked by the blood scene they had found.
–Oh my go-... What happened here?– Chappy exclaimed in pure terror, almost in disbelief, to see a pile of dead bodies in such an unnatural manner that it was hard to distinguish. He laughed nervously before the horrifying realization consumed him, inducing a dread that spread to his peers with a mere glance, although they were also struggling to make sense of what they were seeing.
–What is that?? Is this a joke?– Ace asked incredulously, cracking up nervously as well, but unlike Chappy, he remained somewhat delusional as he refused to accept what he saw and distracted himself with his teammates, but their reactions were just as disquieting.
Shade was disturbed, but he seemed to be the first to compose himself as he stayed close to Panda and kept an eye out for enemies nearby. Saint also tried to be more reasonable, even though he was still disgusted and unnerved. But with Ace, Chappy, and some of the Heartaches beginning to whimper and shudder uncontrollably, they couldn’t let the others focus. And as much as they tried to ignore their overwhelming collective anguish, just being in the vicinity of the harrowing sight was tearing them apart.
–Who would do this? I-is it coming for us?– Zoey asked while trembling and stammering, trying to be wary of the surroundings, but her stress and fear were getting to her. She had to look over at Saint for some sort of comfort, but he was just as speechless and distraught and struggled to come up with a response.
–I- Uhh, no… I don’t know… Are they…?– Saint muttered insecurely before glancing at Panda to get reassurance, although he didn’t seem to be paying attention to him, so instead, he tried to collect himself without worrying about the others. He was already collecting himself and starting to rationalize what they were dealing with, but for his friends, it was the first time witnessing a slaughter like this, so they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Even when they started to make sense of it, they remained in denial and tried to look away, but at the same time, they were fixated on the pile of bodies, prompting Panda to stand in front to block the view and prevent them from being too traumatized.
Panda stayed at the entrance with the rookies, blocking the way for Cookie, who had gotten an idea of what they had encountered but was still curious to see. But as he tried to get closer, he noticed that only Agnus, Kayden, and Zayn were approaching the pile to start looking around the room. The rookies stepped aside, and so did Saint to comfort them in any way he could, even though he tried to follow Panda and Cookie as they stepped forward to analyze the situation.
They looked around the hall, noticing several doors on their left, with only two doorways on the right, which seemed to lead to a locker room and shower. Right next to these, there was a narrow, metal staircase that led to a catwalk above them, hugging all sides of the room as it connected to more doors on the second floor, as well as what looked like a medium-sized office from what they saw inside through the large window in front of them. Their attention almost immediately shifted towards it since all the other doors were either closed or seemed to be empty. But the more they stared ahead, the more their skepticism grew due to the tense silence and lack of enemies.
–They must be clearing the place an-...– Cookie commented as he looked directly in front of him, over the pile of bodies, where the building continued with a wide, open corridor. But before getting a closer look, they were all caught off guard by the stomps and violent creeks of the doors opening all around them. The enemy popped out of seemingly all possible locations, completely surrounding them, at least from above, where one in particular held his rifle over the catwalk from behind the Heartaches and Cookie, and without hesitation, he opened fire.
Panda instantly deployed his shield to protect his squad from the incoming fire from above. He only had to worry about the gunmen in front since he was standing right below the catwalk. But while he kept the rookies safe, he could only watch as the Heartaches had no way to defend themselves. Right after one of the attackers shot at Cookie, only missing miraculously, both he and the Heartaches dispersed to hide under the catwalk and take cover in corners. But as there were also enemies coming out of the side rooms, Agnus Kayden, Ryu, and Pan had to rush into the showers to fight them off, with the other Heartaches going to the opposite side to give the others a chance to dodge the bullets.
However, with more starting to come downstairs, Panda pulled out his machine gun and returned fire to the catwalk above, first shooting directly up at their feet before aiming at the stairs to block their only path down to their level. His heavy bursts of high-caliber bullets annihilated anyone who tried to catch the Heartaches while they cleared the rooms at the sides. But as more enemies gathered at the office in front, taking better positions to shoot down at them, Panda had to draw his gun for a brief moment to scare them off, which resulted in him taking out a whole row easily, but it was the cost of allowing the others to rush down the staircase.
With the Heartaches busy fighting in close quarters to take advantage of their short-ranged skills, Cookie stepped out of cover to block the stairs as armed men came down. But with some jumping directly to the first floor to get a drop on him, he defended himself while Panda tried to pick off anyone who posed an immediate danger. They were quickly overwhelmed as more enemies made their way down, but despite being able to corner the Heartaches in the bathroom, they just ran away upon seeing Panda’s firepower.
They headed down the corridor in front, quickly disappearing, but not without shooting blindly at the team to prevent them from following. Cookie still tried, but with the rookies panicking, Panda ordered him to assist the Heartaches while he cleared a way for the rookies. They had turned it around on the enemies, now putting them in a tight spot as they closed down on the rooms, although Panda and Cookie allowed the Heartaches to finish off any enemies found inside, which they did in a matter of seconds.
–Split up and follow them!– Panda ordered as the Heartaches were already giving chase to the fleeting enemies. Cookie got ahead of his squad and ran towards the corridor, where they quickly lost the enemies as the hallway split up into two diagonal stairs that led to a higher floor, around the same level as the catwalk but wider. The Heartaches took the left path, with Cookie running down the right, forcing Panda to catch up to him, leaving the rookies behind, who remained in shock.
Saint had trouble choosing who to follow and couldn’t keep up with all the movement. But after noticing his friends frozen in place, he hurried them, and without a moment to think of the situation, they just followed the orders and began running as well without saying a word, even though they were already hyperventilating or growing extremely tense. And while Saint wasn’t as agitated as them, he did seem worried since he kept looking back at the pile of dead bodies, which had only grown with all the enemies Panda managed to take down.
But as a trail of dying men led them to their objective, he couldn’t help but notice one of the rifles that the enemy had dropped on his way to the corridor. It looked makeshift and very old, and it almost broke from the fall, but it seemed familiar in his eyes. His suspicion was also raised at the sight of the outfits the enemy was wearing. But as he couldn’t linger at the moment and was starting to lag behind, he only gave the weapon a brief look before running with his squad, though the doubt remained and caused him to hold his sword with uncertainty.
Running through both sides of the corridor, the teams had a hard time seeing in front of them as they lacked light, especially in the right hallway. They did get to see more blood splattered on the walls, next to a couple more dead workers, as well as some corpses that seemed to belong to the enemy. But as the Heartaches were fully focused on catching the perpetrators, they didn’t pay much attention to their surroundings and kept chasing up the stairs. Only Faye took a peek out of the only window on the left side in the middle of the hallway, seeing a thick pipe connecting to the side of the elevated structure they were on, which appeared to be right below the large conveyor transfer tower from what they had seen before on the outside.
The hallways were mostly empty, and they were relatively short as there were only two corners to turn, with the first one leading to a straight section past the diagonal stairs. But there were even more staircases on both sides, with each hallway leading to the center, which Nolyn quickly checked before continuing to run as it was clear the enemies kept heading straight. Chappy managed to take a better look as he and the rookies fell behind a little, mostly from the fear of finding more dead bodies on the next corner. But just like Nolyn, he didn’t find anything, and with Saint catching up to Cookie and Panda, they turned the other corner at the end, which led them inwards to an intersection with a large room behind a metal shutter, as well as the window next to it, facing the other side.
Both Panda and the Heartaches had made their way to the closed shutters, where they took a moment to look at each other through the window between them, noticing one large conveyor belt inside the small section separating them. But unlike them, Panda had access to a different room to his right, which he didn’t bother to check since it looked dark and empty, but Saint did keep an eye on it, as there seemed to be another direction to take just in case.
But since they could hear the enemy running behind the shutters, Panda and Agnus tried to find a way to force them open while the rookies caught up to the rest of the team. Cookie noticed the room next to them, and with Saint, they walked in for a quick check. It appeared to be a diner filled with tables, which were now covered in blood and holding dead bodies in chairs. While Cookie quickly dismissed it since there was clearly no one alive in there, not even behind the counter, Saint was a bit more thorough and walked around the room for slightly longer.
That’s when he noticed a door behind the counter, which seemed to lead outside straight to a courtyard with more machinery. However, he didn’t pay this much attention, nor did he try to open the closed curtains covering the windows of the diner, as he focused on another detail that confirmed his suspicions. Scattered around the diner, there were mostly workers, but Saint found another makeshift rifle on one of the tables, which he tried to pick up, only to realize where it came from the second he saw it up close.
–Antipunks? What are they doing here?– Saint asked in disbelief as he picked up one of the distinct rifles of a dead antipunk on one of the tables. He looked around the dark room for answers, but since most of the team was waiting behind Panda, trying to help him with the locked shutter, he was only heard by Cookie, who was just about to leave the room to join them.
–Yea, it was obvious. They are probably trying to refine the echolite they collected…– Cookie replied casually before leaving the diner, consequently confusing Saint for a moment, as he was starting to grasp the situation and the type of enemy they were facing. He was able to focus shortly after, and while still undecisive, he joined his squad in their attempt to breach the shutter that Panda was trying to push through.
–Stay put, they could be waiting here…– Panda ordered quietly after noticing that the enemy right behind the shutter had stopped blocking it. He could now lift it up, although it was too heavy since he was forcing the door mechanism, needing Cookie to use the rounded end of his sword as a lever to pry it upwards. But as he waited for Agnus to give him the signal from the other side while they also struggled to open their respective shutters, the rookies pulled out their swords and assumed positions. And once both teams were ready, they coordinated a simultaneous breach to charge into whatever was waiting behind those doors.
