Perceived Threat Act 1 (mlctale1)
perceivedthreat.png

Afghanistan, 198X

Act 1

The mountainside was on fire. An absurd amount of firepower was being dumped down onto the village below — with the mujahideen doing their very best to return the favor — and Agent Lynn was still trying to figure out who or what to shoot at while also dodging the occasional RPG fired their way.

Spent magazines and bullet casings littered the ground around her like confetti from a parade. Similarly, there were dozens of mujahideen corpses strewn all around the battered village at random, giving Lynn a grim reminder of just how devastating and carefully planned out their assault was. Half an hour ago, the squad was stealthily trudging through the mountains of Afghanistan towards the village, carefully positioning themselves in a sort of wide oval around a village nestled in the saddle-shaped valley, one team on each hill overlooking the settlement.

Now, their height advantage and firepower had become especially evident, considering that much of the village had been reduced to smoldering rubble from just half an hour of fighting. Explosions and flashes from rocket launchers and grenade launchers peppered the town, sending thick plumes of smoke and dust high into the sky, and above all, Lynn could hear the constant crackling and popping of combined arms fire from the hill parallel to her own. The second team truly had been giving the mujahideen hell, and there were no signs that they would be letting up soon.

Amid the gratuitous display of force and ultraviolence, there was also a strange display of masculinity on the attackers' side, and it didn't take Lynn that long to see it was coming from their squad leader, a tough-jawed and stern-eyed man adjacent to her codenamed Colt.

With the physique of a Renaissance statue, Agent Colt stood proudly and powerfully atop a large boulder, providing covering fire for his comrades with the M60 he was currently hipfiring, doing so as if it were a simple task. Lynn knew that most of the other agents in the squad were similarly muscled, some rolling up the sleeves of their BDUs like they wanted to show off their muscles or tattoos. However, there was something about Colt's courage and machismo that seemed to emanate "alpha" energy typical of a natural leader, giving them someone to rally behind or look up to.

Lynn was almost too entranced by the man's posture and confidence to notice that she was being called upon by her leader. "Lynn! 40 mike-mike on that building!"

Nodding, Lynn raised her AUG and snapped her attention towards the building, a much larger compound that the mujahideen were using as an improvised fortress. Squeezing the trigger of her M203, she fired off a single grenade with a thwoonk, the ensuing explosion obscuring her vision in a thin layer of dust and bringing about a sudden silence, before the enemy began shooting once again, another RPG whistling by their ears.

"Motherfuckers! I'll show you a real RPG." Colt cursed audibly and slung his gun to his side, pulling something much larger and much more imposing than his gun from the back of his vest. He primed the safety and called out loud to his comrades as he got into a crouch. "SMAW OUT! CLEAR BACKBLAST!"

Another agent nearby looked to Colt, and then behind him, before responding, "BACKBLAST CLEAR!"

Lynn then quickly hit the deck and covered her head with her hands.

With a harsh WHOOOOSHH, the rocket was away, followed by a deafening clap and an even louder boom from the village. The building they had been shooting at collapsed almost instantly from the blast, dust billowing high into the air as the fighters inside the building were helplessly buried under tons of mud bricks and concrete.

A sullen silence filled the air as the dust rose from around Colt's body. Confident with his work, he shouldered his launcher, dropping the spent munition casing beside his feet as he gave a toothy smile. "Muj didn't stand a chance. Kappa Squad, you know what to do! Sweep the town, find the ess-cee-pee, and let's get the hell outta here." He raised a hand to the headset he wore, pushing the mic closer to his mouth. "I'll call for extraction."

"Yes, sir." Lynn grumbled, the ringing in her ears finally subsiding as she got back up onto her feet. She slung her rifle to her hip and unceremoniously proceeded down to the village. Colt at least could rest, seeing as his job was all but done, but Lynn and the others still had work to do. In terms of work, though, mop-up wasn't exactly the most thrilling of tasks, especially when dealing with the aftermath of overwhelming firepower put upon an enemy like this.

The SCP they were looking for had been tipped off to them by a local Field Agent, and was apparently some low-level cognitohazard that their commanders believed was responsible for some strange happenings in the area among the locals. Thus, Kappa Squad was quickly formed and called in to retrieve it. Simple, really, but the fact that it had been passed between mujahideen, Afghan government, and Soviet hands far too many times now necessitated it be locked up for good by the Foundation's safe hands.

Even if it was so "safe," Lynn knew she couldn't take any chances. Something classified as Safe could be easy to contain, but who knew what it could do? Would it straight up atomize you or turn you into primordial goop if you touched it incorrectly? Would it permanently fuck with your mind and turn you into little more than a monkey in a human body? That was the catch to these retrieval jobs — too many "what-if's" and high risks, and your life was almost constantly on the line. It certainly beat staying in sterile offices and deep underground facilities all day, and it paid well, but it was harrowing work.

Hopefully it won't turn me into a human frog or something. Lynn tried to joke to herself to lighten the mood, but given the presence of death all around her, and the overwhelming sense of dread that came with retrieval duty, it wasn't helping at all.

The eerie silence only further unnerved Lynn as she methodically scanned the dusty husks of empty buildings and cautiously peered over mud brick walls alike. A platoon-sized mujahideen force had been cut through like they were nothing by Kappa Squad, but it only perplexed Lynn further as to why the muj would be guarding a supposedly anomalous object with only a platoon, given the increasingly pervasive eyes of the Soviets and their enigmatic GRU-P division, whom the Foundation were very much aware of. She figured they'd task a few more guys defending it… but, then again, she never really understood their thought process.

Nevertheless, she kept searching the buildings, eventually coming across a house that had yet to be cleared, freshly scarred from the engagement earlier. With a powerful kick, the door swung open, her rifle barrel entering the house first as she switched on her attached flashlight and snapped to the left.

The light passed over the mangled body of a mujahideen, still clutching an AK-47 in one hand, the other holding onto something with a vice grip. His face was permanently fixated in that of panic, but that was the least of her concerns. The object shone under Lynn's light like a reflective belt, and as she reached for it with a free hand and pried it out of the muj's hands, she immediately realized how round it was — not too heavy for her hands, too.

It was a lead sphere, no larger than a baseball, void of any strange thaumaturgic runes or alien characters or anything…so.. it was just a sphere. But the fact that it was in the hands of this mujahideen fighter told a different story, and given the thing's otherworldly roundness, she put two and two together and immediately figured out what it was without a second thought.

She reached for the radio strapped to her vest and keyed it.

AGENT LYNN

«Colt, this is Lynn. Found the Scip. It was on some dead muj, looks like a sphere, and my brain hasn't been melted yet. How copy?»

AGENT BUCK

«*Scoff* So much for a cognitohazard.»

AGENT COLT

«Good work, Lynn! Head to the rendezvous point, and let's get the hell out of these mountains once and for all. Colt, out.»

Lynn couldn't help but look back at the man's face as she locked the SCP into a hard case strapped to her vest. His gaze was that of fear, panic, as if he'd seen something and was scrambling to get away, only to die mid-escape. Agent Buck, another member of Kappa Squad, was right: maybe it was just a harmless low-level cognitohazard… but Lynn wasn't so sure about this one. Primarily because of the dead mujahideen's expression.

What could have been so terrifying about an otherwise innocuous, harmless sphere?


Suggested Reading Music


The sun had begun to set over the mountains of Afghanistan, which stretched out into every direction around them like a film reel on repeat. The world was basked in a reddish-orange glow, supplementing Kovac's silhouette with an ominous dark aura as he stood out over their lookout. The Keffiyeh he wore that blew in the wind gave Jai the impression that their leader was wearing a cape, silently peering out over the landscape as if it were his own.

Jai approached the man slowly and quietly, careful not to disturb his commander, but then immediately decided to make his efforts void by clearing his throat. "Uh, boss.."

Kovac turned to his underling as Jai continued, "Foundation retrieval unit picked up the artifact, boss. Everyone's in position for the ambush."

"Very well, all according to plan." Kovac replied, his voice slow and smooth, as if every word was carefully chosen. "Remember, once we recover the artifact, our extraction point is the village of Darawesh. Don't be late."

Jai gave a nod, turning around to return to his own post, but then paused.

A stray thought had been creeping into his mind ever since he took up this mission, ultimately bringing him back to Kovac. Unlike many of the other Insurgents on his team, who seemed to be mercenaries or other outsourced and otherwise disposable hired guns from around the world, Kovac was a veteran from a much more seasoned, organized, and secretive group, perhaps even a member of the proper Chaos Insurgency they all fought for. The strong jaw, imposing scar along his cheek, and the presence of an eyepatch told a story that didn't need to be explained by word of mouth: simply put, he'd seen some shit.

Kovac had connections and knowledge that the average CI grunt didn't have, and information which could one day prove useful to Jai if he wanted to make it far or get out of a sticky situation with his skin intact. Not to mention, he and Kovac were on amicable terms, as he was practically his Lieutenant. Getting stuff like this was just as easy as asking him a question.

Jai pivoted back around to Kovac, executing an almost perfect about face as he stepped back to his commander. "Uh.. Kovac?"

Kovac turned silently, nodding upwards.

"..Did Command give us any details on this anomaly? Aside from 'it's round,' of course?"

Kovac relaxed his shoulders as he began his prolonged monologue. "Delta Command's gonna promote me for this one, y'know? I was given a dossier before taking up this job, some leaked intel from the Russians regarding what the Foundation's calling a "low-level cognitohazard," essentially."

He chuckled, then continued, "At first glance, Jai, I thought they had sent me the wrong dossier, but even after I read it through a second time, running my finger along every single word…" He paused, raising his index finger for emphasis. "I found out what I was looking at. Soviets and muj making strange sightings in the heat? Legends of the Barmanou lurking in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan? It was almost too easy. Ya know what it is?"

Kovac paused, as if for dramatic effect, then lowered his raised finger as he balled his fist. "A weapon. An opportunity to sow chaos among our enemies, and it's just what we need. Command hasn't said much, but something like this really has the potential to screw with people, which is why we're goin' in to find it first."

Jai almost gave a sigh right there. That cryptic response… didn't answer any of his questions at all, but at least it confirmed his suspicions of the anomaly's application of a weapon. Maybe it could be used as a bargaining tool, or a weapon of his own… or, maybe, it was just a harmless low-level cognitohazard. Maybe he was overthinking it.

Or maybe he wasn't, given the last object they had nabbed before the Foundation had turned out to be something that teleported one of their team members halfway into a boulder. Point was, Jai couldn't really trust anyone or anything, not even Command, given they hardly ever told them what it was that they were picking up, until it was too late.

Disappointed with his findings, Jai nodded. "Very well."

He turned to leave, but was surprised to hear Kovac calling upon him for a change. "Oh, and one last thing, Jai.."

Jai turned around once more. "Yeah?"

Most of Kovac's face was masked in shadows, sans his one good eye, which Jai could see was narrowed in anger. "If you see a Foundation operative with a strong jaw, leave him for me. Colt and I have some unfinished business to take care of."


The boombox aboard the helicopter blared as the rotors whirred on, but Lynn sat silently, essentially meditating to herself as the retrieval chopper maneuvered its way through vast valleys and atop mountains alike. The saying they gave every agent assigned to the region was true: Afghanistan was a big place, raw and untamed, yet brimming with danger on every dusty peak they flew over.

However, for a place colloquially known as the Graveyard of Empires, it was still strikingly beautiful, especially at sunset. Lynn would miss these sunsets, as this would be one of the last missions they'd take in the region. Rumors of a Foundation deployment to the jungles of South America were enough to at least pique someone's interest. It was a welcome change at least.

"You've been kinda quiet, Lynn," Agent Buck, one of her comrades in Fireteam 1, asked, slowly chewing on something. "That Scip do something to your head?"

Buck likely meant well, but Lynn wasn't an expert on reading people. She figured that given his laid-back attitude and increasingly flirty behavior towards Lynn, he likely meant something else.

"Shove it up your ass, Buck." Lynn lowered her helmet over her face, as if to give an inclination that she wanted some rest, but the bespectacled Buck only smirked and scoffed. "Just askin'."

Amid the music playing in the background, the red lamp-lit helicopter cabin was filled with back-and-forth banter that Lynn only partially paid attention to.

A baritone voice she recognized as Agent Spade, their resident sniper, spoke up first. "Buck, give Lynn some rest, the Scip clearly was so unbelievably spooky that she had to lock it up in a hard case."

Buck scoffed again, turning to their leader. "What about you, Colt? Ultimate badass here might be immune to shit like that. Remember the story where he took out that Sarkic dude with only his knife?"

"Hated that guy." Colt responded rather succinctly. "I had to curb stomp him eight times until I was sure he was dead. Body manipulators 'r one thing, but cognitohazards are a totally different beast. You might think you're hot shit, up until the thing starts fucking with your mind. I'd say Lynn took that cognitohazard like a champ."

"Yeah… say, just saw a flash of light—did we pass by any radio towers during insertion?"

Buck's last remark caused Lynn to lurch up from her semi-asleep state and snap her head out towards the window—but by the time she did so, it was already too late.

A sudden detonation rumbled above their Black Hawk, causing a massive yaw to the side and a cacophony of alarms and buzzers in the cabin as the pilots frantically tried to autorotate to regain control of their helicopter. Judging by how fast the ground was approaching, their efforts were ultimately in vain.

Colt shouted, "Everyone, brace! Brace! Brace!"

That wasn't something one could really accomplish easily when the world was spinning faster than you could think. The mountains of Afghanistan made their way to the pinks and reds of the twilight sky as the Black Hawk slammed into something hard. It promptly bounced off it, gliding through the air like a frisbee and giving Lynn the feeling of weightlessness. It then slammed into something so hard that Lynn thought she had died upon impact, the world going dark as the helicopter finally came to an unceremonious halt by a cliff.

Unfortunately, Lynn was not dead, and still had motion in her body. The SCP's hard case was still strapped to her, safe and sound. Finally, almost as if it were a truly twisted joke, the boombox was still playing music, albeit the sound was somewhat distorted.

In his typical sarcastic tone, Agent Buck broke the groaning and moaning: "Sound off if you're dead… fuck me in the ass, dude."

Eight responses in the squad came, confirming that everyone had survived, sans the pilots. Lynn let out an audible groan as she readjusted to her surroundings, tapping the hard case as if to check and see if the SCP was okay in there.

"I'm up," she announced last, unstrapping herself from her seat as she suddenly fell to the floo—no, wait, roof, of the helicopter cabin. She stirred for a moment, groaned, and then got back onto her feet, checking her weapon. They'd somehow landed upside down, with one hatch effectively warped shut. The windows in the cockpit could be broken, but unless you were a contortionist, there was no way you could squeeze your way out with so much heavy gear. Plus, that would take way too much time, when whomever had shot them down was likely advancing on their position now.

"Hold on, lemme find a side that's not pointing out to certain death," Colt announced, facing towards the other side of the helicopter. He grabbed the door handle and, with a powerful grunt, slid the hatch open. He motioned for the others to follow. "Let's go, ladies!"

One by one, Kappa exited the crashed aircraft, the rock music from the helicopter boombox steadily fading away into background noise as they transitioned from a march into a jog. They only had mere minutes before whomever shot them down inevitably arrived, so it was best spent gaining as much ground away from the crash site as possible, and finding a new location to extract from.

The squad's guns were pointed at cliffs and rocky hilltops as they entered a gulch, with Colt barking out positions for his people to move to. Lynn stuck by a tree atop a small mound, giving her ample cover and enough room to still be able to fire with her weapon.

Agent Spade had moved to a rocky knoll, giving himself the advantage of height as he set up his rifle. As she saw Colt and the others pull down their thermal goggles from their helmets, she did so as well, the world plunging into a bluish tint, the agents around her all colored a hot yellow from their body heat.

AGENT COLT

«Spade, talk to me…»

AGENT SPADE

«Colt, got eyes on a squad of foot mobiles. Cliffs, bearing three-one-zero. One hundred meters.»

Lynn snapped over to the cliffs in respect to her compass… seeing nothing.

AGENT COLT

«Shit.. CI. You've gotta be fuckin' kidding me.»

AGENT BUCK

«Huh?»

???

«Miss me, Colt? It's been a while.»

An agent in Fireteam 2 began to call out something, but was cut off as a bullet ripped through his arm, the man dropping to the dirt as everyone opened fire on the cliffs, with Colt maintaining a constant, steady stream of fire on the enemy above. The dark world around them was lit up by the occasional red streak of tracer fire as Colt grabbed the injured agent by his collar and yanked him back behind a boulder for cover.

Amid the shooting, a low boom from Spade's position rang out, likely meaning he had dropped someone.

AGENT COLT

«Spade!»

AGENT SPADE

«Dropped one. Is that a motherfuckin' RPG..?»

AGENT COLT

«HIT THE DIRT!»

An explosion went off behind Lynn, practically blowing the wind out of her lungs as Colt cursed out loud, scrambling to his feet. "Oh, goddammit! Trying to treat this man here!"

Buck poked his head out from behind a rock. "Colt, you alright?"

"As you can clearly see, NO! I am not okay!" After he bandaged the injured agent's arm, Colt slung his weapon to his side, cursing as he loaded his SMAW and hefted it onto his shoulder. "Can't see shit in this, even with night sights!"

Lynn tried to get a bead on the man with her rifle, to no avail. "Fuck! Need a flare?"

"Yes PLEASE!" Colt answered hysterically. At that point, Lynn popped open the M203, loaded in a flare round, and fired into the sky. The land, barely lit up by the last lights of twilight, suddenly became bright as if it were daytime, effectively making the dark figures of gunmen in balaclavas stand out like a sore thumb to Colt.

"Kappa, waste those fuckers!" Colt dropped to a knee. "CLEAR BACKBLAST!"

With an earth-shaking boom, Colt fired his rocket launcher again, blowing a group of Insurgents in his sights to smithereens. Seeing as he was out of ammo, Colt dropped the spent launcher and quickly whipped out his LMG, firing upon the fleeing Insurgents on the hilltops with the same ferocity as their assault on the village from earlier today.

"Get some, get some!" He called out. "Kappa, keep up the tempo, we'll have 'em on the run in no time!"


The fact that they outnumbered and surrounded the Foundation force 3 to 1, yet were still being pushed back by overwhelming firepower, perturbed Jai. It only made Kovac even more angry as he saw his arch nemesis figuratively carrying his comrades with his LMG even as explosions went off around him and tracers lit up his form.

KOVAC

«I see…»

JULY

«Kovac, this is July! Alpha and West are down! They're breaking through the left flank and are on the move!»

JAI

«One of them's lagging behind, I think they've got the anomaly on them!»

KOVAC

«Recovery of the anomaly is priority one. July, have your fireteam solidify the flanks and push through, don't let them reach the next sector. Jai, get that anomaly.»

Jai stumbled for a moment as he sprinted across the rocky hilltops, trying to match his pace with the SCP team, and ducking as the occasional bullet passed over his body. The agent that currently had the anomaly on their person was doing a good job at firing off flares that lit up the landscape, thus exposing CI members waiting for the perfect ambush and leaving them open to be gunned down by Colt, their leader.

Jai slid down a rocky hill on his butt and came to a halt behind a boulder. Catching his breath for a moment, he raised his M16 and fired a three-round burst downrange, seeing his rounds pepper around the agent's feet. For his blunder, he was met with a wall of automatic AUG fire in his direction, rounds hissing past the boulder he took cover behind.

Just as he was about to pop back out and relocate, his radio crackled to life.

KLS2H

«DELTA COMMAND TO JAI.»

Delta Command was the callsign of whomever—or, whatever—their leadership was, who spoke very little, if at all, to them, during the entire operation. Whereas lesser commanders on the ground constantly kept tabs, Delta Command just… watched, and listened. Their modulated voice sounded inhuman, slowed and slurred as if it were intentional, but disobeying their orders were grounds to get yourself fucked in the future.

JAI

«…Go ahead, Command?»

KLS2H

«RECOVERY OF THE ANOMALY IS OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE. AS YOU KNOW, EVERY ACTION IS AN INTRICATE AND IMPORTANT STEP IN A FAR GREATER PLAN.»

JAI

«…»

KLS2H

«YOU ARE TO DISREGARD ALL PREVIOUS ORDERS GIVEN TO YOU. WE OF COMMAND ORDER YOU TO RETRIEVE THE ANOMALY AND DELIVER IT TO US.»

JAI

«It's in the hands of a Founda-»

KLS2H

«REPEAT AFTER US, ON UNICOM.»


JAI

«Oh s-shit! Contact

KOVAC

«What?!»

AGENT BUCK

«Wrong comms, dumbass

JAI

«What the fuck is that?! Biped-no, quadruped! It's fast, bearing two-one-oh FUCK

Jai's comms abruptly cut out, and as Kovac snapped over to the man's position, he was already gone, but something else caught his attention. Dust rose and fell akin to someone running across open ground, but his comrades shooting at something imperceptible was enough to make him question what the fuck was going on.

KOVAC

«All units, fucking REPORT! What the FUCK is going on?»

JULY

«Kovac, this is July! Something's moving fast on thermals, and the Foundation's shooting it, too!»

BRAVO

«OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT—»

KOVAC

«I need a description, damn it! Jai, get that damn anomaly and get the hell out of there. July, have your team cover him! Everyone else, fall back to the extraction point, this is a fucking bust!»

JAI

«*Panting* Moving! *Panting

JULY

«Affirmative! We're going to—SKKKRRREEEEEEEE»

The brief staccato of automatic gunfire and screaming behind Kovac, followed by the ear-splitting screech of something that could be heard both in person and on the radio, confirmed Kovac's worst suspicions: A third party had joined the fray.

When he looked back towards July's position, human limbs and weapons were scattered along the cliffs, the fresh blood painting the hills sparkling faintly under the twilight sky.

A large object slammed into Kovac's side, effortlessly taking him off his feet and into the air. When he finally stopped rolling down the hill, he saw he was facing the sky before his view was eclipsed by something massive and semiopaque.

The CI vet's thought processes came to a halt at this metaphorical brick wall. So, he only chuckled at the black mass looming above him. He was someone who had seen it all and had it all. He frequently dabbled in the unknown and unnatural as if it were normal. He was practically untouchable by the Foundation's terms, so much so, that he could sit out in the public without worrying about a Foundation sniper taking off his head from a mile away.

Then, along comes this thing, and his sense of superiority is immediately neutralized. His face was full of pure, unadulterated fear and dread, wholly understanding what it was capable of, but not where it came from, or why it appeared, only that it was here.

He knew he stood no chance. All he could do now was pray for a quick and painless death… but, as he did so, his mind began putting together pieces, eventually forming a coherent story.

Then it clicked.

"Ah, so that's how it is…"

A tooth and static-filled maw opened wide and plunged towards his face.


Suggested Reading Music


The CI's gunfire and sudden outburst on comms was erratic enough… but then, the gunfire ceased altogether, save for the occasional burst of fire and scream-filled callout. Now, it just made things scary.

In light of all this, Kappa Squad kept moving, albeit at a much quicker pace. The confirmation of an anomalous monster lurking about definitely was a screwball in their plans, but so long as they kept their tempo, they'd be making a lot of distance from the massacre and the monster.

Lynn saw that Colt's expression had changed almost completely. Rather than being stoic and brave as usual, it was that of attentiveness, maybe even a sliver of fear. His voice was hushed, but still assertive, as he checked the rear flank. "Alright people, keep it going, move, move, MOVE! Moon's out, NODs out!"

They made their way through the hills as the last lights of twilight began to melt down into the onyx-colored spikes of the ancient mountain ranges, plunging the world into darkness. They reactivated their night vision, the world turning into a deep green as Agent Spade, in front of the squad, held up a balled fist with his free hand, signaling them to halt.

He crouched down over a body that lacked any Foundation-related IFF, being little more than a man in a simple khaki uniform with no national insignia, in stark contrast to the distinct "chocolate chip" desert-pattern uniforms the Foundation squad wore. Strange of all, the head seemed to be missing…

"Found his head." Spade gulped, pointing to a black mass in some shrubbery a few yards away, blood splattering the ground at random areas in a vague trail towards the bush. "Lotta bodies here. Counting seven CI goons."

"Whatever took out these CI boys had made damn sure it was quick, methodical, and gnarly…" Colt muttered, his monologue being cut off by a scream in the darkness and more automatic gunfire. He took the lead, making sure to gingerly step over the gore that covered their path. Lynn tried her best to slow her breathing and calm down, but the carnage seemed to be too much — even if the enemy they fought were just otherwise disposable CI grunts, it still was disturbing to see them like this.

The occasional crackle of gunfire in the background still kept them on edge, but, at that point, it was quite far out. "We've got this last canyon to pass through, but we're gonna be in the open," Colt informed the others. "Security formation, keep it slow, don't wander off. We're not out of this yet. Just gotta head to the mountains and wait this out, fire off a flare."

The squad's wedge formation turned into that of a slow moving circle, with each member covering a different section of the terrain as they advanced, effectively allowing them to see 360º all around.

It was silent, almost too silent, and as Lynn scanned the darkness, she suddenly looked to her side, at Agent Buck. She could see that he had an intense, concentrated glare at something off in the distance, his eyes visible and lit up green from behind the NVGs. That was the glare Buck had when he knew what he was looking at and intended to kill, but by his rigid body language gave off a few more emotions to Lynn.

Most notably, fear.

As he tensed up, raising his weapon up from a low ready position… Buck was already gone, his gun clattering to the ground as Colt whipped around to Lynn's side, aiming at a dark tendril that had come from the rocks nearby.

"CONTAAACT!" Colt's callout was supplemented by Buck's shrill wailing as something much larger than him bounded atop the boulder, some sharpened, improvised claws scraping against the rocks as it stood up in its full form. Buck's upper body was grabbed by a crude replication of a three-fingered, vaguely saurian hand, his body instantly cleft in twain by a swipe of another tendril.

As Lynn put her eyes upon the creature, no words could describe what she was feeling right now—was it astonishment? Fear? Rage? Moreover, she couldn't understand what she was seeing, given the thing seemed to fade in and out of focus, and was covered in an almost constant grainy effect.

While she couldn't get a grasp on what she was feeling, one thing was for sure—the sight of Buck's torso being lobbed across the canyon was enough for her commander to regain his composure and snap his weapon up at the monster.

"Lynn, I'll buy you some time to get the Scip outta here. Get to the mountains." He then paused for dramatic effect. "Run."

Colt's order came in a very un-Colt-like and dread-filled tone as he raised his LMG, and as Lynn turned tail and hurriedly sprinted away, he snapped his attention back to the monster. "Kappa squad, ENGAGE! Kill this E.T. FUCK right NOW!"

The world was practically lit up by automatic gunfire as Kappa engaged, Colt hipfiring once again with his LMG. He immediately regretted trashing his SMAW as he saw the thing tank most of the bullets, a veritable mound of bullet casings forming by their feet. The monster's claws dug into the stone, lobbing the boulder towards them effortlessly. Once he gave the order, the unit scattered as the creature's tendrils retracted into its body. It forced itself into the air, practically melting into the darkness as they frantically tried to regain visual of the thing.

Colt saw that another Agent was grabbed out of the darkness and practically splattered against the ground. He continued firing upon it in the darkness, only stopping once he was out of ammo, at which point he promptly reloaded the LMG. "Kappa, talk to me!"

He had little time to react as another agent began screaming, a third, then fourth body, flying through the air. Before he knew it, the monster was back, its maw wide open as it roared in their faces, the scream of another member of Kappa team drowned out by the deafening, otherworldly call of the beast.

Spade had been crippled by the beast's landing, his spine evidently broken as it loomed atop him like a predator inspecting its kill. With a swipe forwards, it threw Spade forwards, only to lob him backwards and away from Colt before he had the opportunity to help his comrade. His screaming body disappeared into the night, but judging by the thud and abrupt silence that came after his wailing, he was dead upon impact.

Colt cried out in anger as he turned to his last remaining comrade, the injured agent he had been treating before. He ducked out of the way as a tendril swiped over him, watching it smash through a rock formation nearby as if it were a child's plastic playset.

"Go! Run! I'll buy you time!" Colt screamed at him. "Go, NOW!"

Colt's overwhelming firepower and skill became evident as he picked up another agent's assault rifle, firing both his machine gun and the rifle from different arms at the monster. When they ran out of ammo, Colt sidestepped out of the way of another tendril, eventually dropping both weapons as he dove for Spade's sniper, breaking into a roll as soon as he picked up the weapon. It kicked like a mule when hip fired, but at least he saw he was doing damage — ethereal viscera splattered against the ground with each shot, but he surely had caught the monster's attention…all according to plan.

It turned and lunged at him, and he dropped the sniper and threw his body to the side.

He only barely dodged the monster's first swing, but couldn't move quickly enough to evade the second. The tendril sliced through his vest in a diagonal motion, the force of the blow knocking him airborne for what felt like an eternity before hard ground met his back, blood soaking the vest and black shirt he wore beneath it.

On his back, Colt watched weakly as two friendly silhouettes desperately fled into the mountains. He had managed to save them, his team, and they'd live to fight the unknown for another day. He had faith in Lynn for being able to safeguard the Scip from Insurgent and monster alike, and they'd make it out of it. He knew it.

The monster loomed over him, raising a tendril to deliver the killing blow. He gave a chuckle as the monster stopped, its head just now focusing on the grenade in Colt's hands, the pin in his other fingers.

"I'll see you in hell, you bastard," He gurgled, looking up at the face of the anomaly with a bloody smile. "That is, if the line's not short enough."



Jai messily sprinted away, the increasingly dark world around him now periodically lit up by automatic gunfire as he sprinted for the mountains, doing his best to flee from the chaos he had caused. Despite this, Command's words still echoed in his mind that he needed to locate that anomaly.

But did he really?

He paused as he heard labored breathing and the clinking of gear, then began to reconsider his words as he waited in the shadows until the noise drew closer. Reaching up to his tactical vest, he unsheathed his combat knife, waited some more, then channeled as much strength as he could into a tackle as he leaped out.

He sent the SCP agent down onto their back toughly, one arm pinning them down as the other held the blade of the knife to their throat. The agent scored a hook across his face with one hand then pushed him off with their legs, scrambling for the hard case that had fallen off their person.

Jai kicked the agent's weapon away with his free leg, standing up just as the agent did. The agent scrambled for a pistol by their side, but Jai was faster, swiftly disarming the agent and tossing the pistol to the side.

He was met with only a humanoid in SCP-branded tactical gear that vaguely resembled a human, face masked by a balaclava and helmet and goggles, much like his own attire. The two stared each other down for a moment, little emotion visible from each of their faces aside from body language.

Jai slowly raised his hands, letting the knife fall to the dirt. "If you know what's good for you," He paused, pointing to the SCP-emblazoned hard case on the ground. "You'll give that to me. You've got no idea what—"

"And let you and whatever fuckin' monster that is get away?" A female voice answered him, and Jai saw that she was slowly creeping for the case. Just as he was about to reach for a hidden pistol in a holster on the small of his back, an otherworldly call broke their train of thought. The agent's radio activated as they both looked off towards the darkness.

AGENT DUNN

«…Lynn?! *panting* It's Dunn, I—ohmygodOH FUCK WHAT IS THAT- *gunfire

Then, Jai's radio came on.

BRAVO

«Jai? Kovac? J-July? ANYONE, PLEASE—»

Gunfire crackled in the background, followed by screaming…and then silence. Jai and the "Lynn" agent both looked at each other, then at the darkness, then back at each other, as if they understood what needed to be done without saying any more words.

Jai slowly nodded. "Let's agree to disagree-"

The Agent grabbed the hard case, immediately recovering her gear and aiming towards Jai. "I don't know why I'm doing this, but go. This is coming with me. If I were you, I'd run." Then, more sternly, "Don't follow me."

Her form disappeared into the darkness, and before Jai knew it, she was gone. He could sense genuine fear in her voice, but given that she was armed and held the Scip, wasn't in any room to challenge her or help her.

As he recovered his own gear and prepared to escape into the night, Jai's mind was marred with conflict and regret. Mulling over Delta Command's orders, the presence of the anomaly, and the introduction of the monster certainly was enough for just one day…but then, Jai began thinking on the occurrences, and why they happened.

Piecing together a story, the realization suddenly hit him like a metaphorical baseball bat to the neck as he practically melted and dropped to his knees, feeling utterly weak as he finally realized his actions.

What have I done?