The duct wasn't long. After about ten meters, they dropped out into another corridor. This was indeed the peripheral area of the laboratory section. The environment seemed slightly better than the main corridor, but the walls were still coated with the gray film, and the energy signature in the air remained potent.
Having temporarily shaken their pursuers, the three leaned against the wall, catching their breath. Rex checked his weapon's energy reserves, while Kael vigilantly watched both ends of the hallway.
Suddenly, a violent, tearing pain seized Kael's head!
"Urgh—!" He grunted, involuntarily dropping to one knee, his combat blade nearly slipping from his grasp. The scene before him twisted and flickered.
No longer the dim corridor, but... the blinding flash of red alarm lights! No longer the cracking of crystals, but... the shriek of energy overloads and the piercing screams of humans!
*"...Fall back! All units fall back! That thing is alive! It's in our minds...!"* A blurred, terror-filled comms fragment exploded in his mind.
*A dazzling gray-white light erupted from a constantly shifting crystal, instantly swallowing one of his squad members. The member didn't vanish but froze in place, their skin visibly losing color, turning gray-white, its texture shifting to a mix of rock and crystal, their face locked in a final mask of horror...*
*"...Kael! Get out! Leave us! Seal it in here! Forever...!"* Another voice, his lieutenant from back then, the voice distorting before being replaced by an inhuman, sharp screech.
Fragments of memory, like beasts breaking their cages, savagely assaulted his core consciousness. The sealed details of the 'Pandora' mission were being forcibly activated by the horrifyingly similar scene and energy signature before him!
"Commander?!" Lia immediately noticed his abnormal state, crouching and aiming her scanner at him. "Your vitals are showing extreme fluctuations! Neural current overload!"
"Sir? What's wrong? Hit by that energy from those things?" Rex tensed, his weapon instinctively covering their surroundings for threats.
Kael shook his head violently, trying to dispel the horrific visions. Simulated cold sweat beaded on his temple. He saw it. Ten years ago, his squad had been consumed, transformed by that same thing! They didn't die in a simple energy collapse; they were assimilated, just like the outpost members he saw now!
That crystal... What was it trying to do then? Why was he the only survivor? What *really* happened at the end of that encrypted memory?
The intense headache slowly receded, but a deeper, colder fear and anger spread within him. He wasn't just on a mission; he was facing the same demon that had destroyed his former comrades.
He slowly rose to his feet, an unprecedented cold glint in his optical eyes.
"I'm fine," his voice was hoarse but resolute. "Just... remembered some things."
He raised a hand, pointing towards the heavy door at the end of the corridor, marked "LEVEL 3 ISOLATION LAB." That door was also partially covered by the gray crystalline material, but it seemed more... "attended to." The crystalline growth was denser, as if guarding something, or perhaps... imprisoning something.
From the door's seams leaked a denser, more ominous gray-white glow than anywhere else in the corridor.
The source of the energy. The core of the sentience. The answer to everything... was behind that door.
"It's in there," Kael's voice was low, like an echo from the abyss. "The thing from ten years ago... and the thing here... are the same."
He tightened his grip on the high-frequency combat blade. Its vibrating hum returned, sharper than before, filled with a determined, lethal intent.
"This time, there will be no survivors."
"Either we destroy it, or... we become part of it."