The command was given with a silent, three-fingered hand signal.
Three.
Two.
One.
Go.
In the space between one breath and the next, the shadows in the corridor detached themselves from the walls and became a whirlwind of silent, lethal motion.
Lin Mei moved first. She exploded from her hiding spot, her 'Nyx' Boots making no sound on the polished floor. Her target: the technician on the left. The man, lulled into a state of bored complacency by his routine watch, didn't even have time to register her presence. His first inkling of danger was a sudden, sharp pressure in his solar plexus as Lin Mei's palm struck him, forcing every ounce of air from his lungs in a silent, choked gasp. Before his brain could even process the pain, her other hand, hardened like a blade, chopped down with surgical precision on the vagus nerve cluster in his neck. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he crumpled to the floor like a discarded puppet, unconscious before he even knew he was under attack.
Simultaneously, Tien, the leader of the Iron Vultures, moved on the second target. The second technician, hearing the faint thump of his partner's body hitting the floor, started to turn, his mouth opening to shout a warning. The warning never came. A shadow enveloped him from behind. One of Tien's large, scarred hands clamped over the man's mouth, stifling any sound, while his other arm wrapped around his neck in a perfect, inescapable sleeper hold. The man struggled for three frantic, silent seconds, his legs kicking uselessly, before his body went limp.
The entire, brutal takedown had lasted less than five seconds. It was a masterpiece of silent, coordinated violence.
"Clear," Swift, the scout, whispered as she and Echo, the tech expert, slipped into the room. They immediately got to work, Echo locking the door from the inside and overriding its external access panel, while Swift disabled the room's single, internal camera with a quick, targeted energy pulse from her sidearm.
Lin Mei's eyes ignored the unconscious bodies on the floor. They snapped immediately to the main console, to the large, holographic countdown timer.
[RIFT STABILIZATION SEQUENCE: 00:14:41]
Fourteen minutes. Their real enemy was the clock.
"Echo, get to work!" she commanded.
The power conduit room was not a greasy, noisy engine room. It was a sterile, humming sanctuary dedicated to a single, monstrous purpose. At its center, a single, massive armored conduit, as thick as a man's torso, ran from the floor to the ceiling. It was encased in a silver, crystalline alloy and hummed with an immense, contained power, making the very air around it vibrate. This was the umbilical cord feeding the Rift Stabilizer, the heart of the entire facility.
Echo rushed forward, his plasma cutter humming to life. He projected the complex cutting pattern Hephaestus had designed directly onto the conduit's casing. It wasn't a simple slice; it was an intricate pattern of lines and angles designed to cause a catastrophic feedback loop.
"Beginning the cut," he said, his voice tight with concentration as the plasma cutter's brilliant, white-hot tip touched the conduit's surface.
Sparks flew. The outer casing began to melt with agonizing slowness. And then, everything went wrong.
A shrill, electronic alarm, different from the facility-wide klaxon, blared through the room. On the main console, a new message flashed in red. [WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED THERMAL INCREASE DETECTED ON PRIMARY CONDUIT CASING. AUTOMATED INTERNAL DEFENSE PROTOCOL INITIATED.]
"What?!" Swift yelled. "That wasn't in the schematics!"
Hidden panels on the walls slid open with a pneumatic hiss, revealing a dozen automated defense turrets. Without warning, they began to fire, spitting bolts of superheated plasma across the room.
The chamber instantly transformed into a hellscape of ricocheting energy bolts. "Take cover!" Lin Mei roared. She and Tien immediately returned fire, their own energy pistols blasting at the automated defenses. Swift, using her incredible agility, became a blur, drawing the fire of half the turrets as she dodged and weaved between the server racks in a deadly dance.
"Echo, do not stop cutting!" Lin Mei commanded, her voice a steel whip over the chaos. "No matter what, do not stop!"
The tech expert, shielded by his teammates' bodies, grit his teeth and continued his work, sweat pouring down his face as plasma bolts seared the air inches from his head. The conduit's armor was thicker than Hephaestus had anticipated. It was a slow, agonizing process.
The countdown clock continued its merciless descent. [12:30] [11:45]
One by one, the turrets exploded under the team's concentrated fire, but the damage was done. The firefight, however brief, had undoubtedly triggered a high-level alert throughout the entire underground facility. They could now hear the heavy, rhythmic thud of armored boots approaching from the corridor. Fast.
"They're coming!" Swift yelled, taking out the last turret. "At least a dozen of them! Elite guards!"
"Echo, status!" Lin Mei barked.
"Almost there! Just a few more seconds!"
The door to the room didn't open. It was blasted inwards, sent flying across the chamber in a shower of molten metal. Standing in the ruined doorway, framed by the smoke, was Jiao Long. 'Specter'. He was flanked by his personal guard, the best soldiers Prometheus had to offer. A cruel, amused smirk played on his lips.
"Well, well," he said, his voice a smooth, confident purr that was more terrifying than any shout. "It seems some rats have gotten into the engine room."
Lin Mei and her team were trapped. In front of them, the enemy's trump card. Behind them, the humming conduit. The clock on the wall showed less than ten minutes.
Specter's body flickered, his form dissolving into a semi-translucent shadow, his B-Rank stealth ability activating. "Let's play," his disembodied voice echoed through the sparking, chaotic chamber.
The hunt had just become a battle for survival.