(Viewpoint: Roum)
The corridors have changed.
I was running after the crowd
The space was becoming
Darker.
Narrower.
Or maybe it's me who's not breathing as well.
The walls vibrate. A deep rumble runs through the entire structure, as if something is striking from the outside. From afar. But getting closer.
The officers around me are not speaking.
They are walking.
Synchronized.
Our halos have turned red.
[AUTHORIZED COMBAT EQUIPMENT]
[ MODE COMBAT ]
Trapdoors open along the wall.
Weapons are sliding towards us.
White reinforcements.
Full-face helmet.
Opaque visor.
I freeze for a second before putting my helmet on and my glasses on.
This is the first time.
– … it's moving … I murmured.
[GET READY TO BE DEPLOYED]
Around me, they put on the equipment without hesitation.
As if they had been waiting for this moment all their lives.
I grip my weapon tightly.
I never came here to sacrifice myself.
I stretch my arms.
The torso.
The fasteners lock automatically.
The glasses slide down in front of my eyes.
Black .
Infrared vision.
Thermal data.
Energy signatures.
The world is turning red and white.
My breathing echoes through the headphones.
– Here we go… I breathed.
[WEST EXIT OPEN]
[JUMP]
The armored doors swung open.
A heavy wind almost carries us away
I put my arm out in front of me against the wind
Out.
The sky is black, not grey as usual.
Clouds moving from the ground.
Split open by storms.
Like a tear in the landscape, black in the distance
below us.
The wave.
A tide of compact shadows advancing like an organic wall. It crawls. It twists. It rumbles.
A noise that is not a sound.
Pressure in the head.
In front of us.
[JUMP, ASSISTANT]
The platform retracted beneath our feet, dangling us in the void, carried away by the wind. Everyone sprang into action, balancing their boots, running through the green, luminous void.
But I was swayed along by the wind
Shit
I passed between two gigantic figures.
I stop dead in my tracks.
"Finally…," I said, approaching one of them.
They are enormous.
Having a human form.
Perhaps fifteen meters high.
One suit of white armor and one black armor.
Massive shoulders.
Articulated arms like war machines.
Jetpacks that emit a bluish light.
TRACK.
Real ones.
We were already standing between the assistants and the wave.
Then.
Without audible command.
They are loading.
The entire surface trembled within my body.
The engines are screaming.
And the ground bends
Charge headlong into the mass of shadow.
Impact.
BOOM!
An explosion of white light rips through the front of the wave and violently pulls me away from its shoulder.
I am thrown into the void
falling continuously
Losing myself in the shadows.
swallowed by the wave.
The TRACK, meanwhile, almost completely disappears into the black mass continuing its advance.
His severed arm tears away, scatters dark fragments that dissolve into smoke.
BOOM!
I was just following wherever the wind wanted to throw me.
Collapsed heavily, rolling on a rather soft mass
– aïe !
My glasses were broken but functional.
Around me,
Agents formed a hill of Corp
YUCK!
I jump up
they take a step back.
I feel my throat tighten.
Right next to it, it was flattened on the ground, crushed like tomatoes.
– he steps right on them…
And yet.
The agents are being deployed online.
– FORMATION .
They are not trembling.
Not one.
As if the word "fear" had been erased from their programming.
I draw my weapon
concentrated impulse.
The tip charges and releases an electrical charge, smoking everything in its path, with the pressure dislocating my arm at the same time.
Amazing
The ground becomes covered with black residue, which dissipates as cold vapor.
The two giant tracks continue to clear the way through the wave
Masses of shadow detach themselves and rush towards our line.
I raise my weapon.
It's heavier now.
It's more.
Shoot
A flash of white.
The silhouette explodes into fragments.
I release my weapon
More, tackle
hit me from behind.
A violent impact that makes me roll on the ground.
Blurred vision.
Red alert in my helmet.
[DAMAGED ARMOR: 82%]
– Ooh, that hurts
With my finger tightly on the trigger, I continue to fire.
Until it disappears.
The wave roared.