Chapter Two: Breach

The base was alive with the sounds of war. Alarms blared. Engines screamed. Overhead, floodlights swept the compound like frantic eyes scanning for monsters. The gates slammed shut behind the speeding van as Squad Delta-V rolled to a stop.

Captain Jayden Kross jumped down first, knees aching, blood drying on his armor. Around him, soldiers scrambled to unload civilians. Medics shouted. Engineers dragged mech limbs toward hangars. The chaos hadn’t ended—it had only shifted.

Mason helped a limping Lena Cho out of the van. "If this is a rescue, I want my receipt."

"Shut up and breathe, sniper," Kross said, eyes already scanning the area. "Where's command?"

A massive figure emerged from the crowd. Commander Rylas Vane, the Mech Commander, stood like a statue of war—tall, scarred, armored in matte exo-gear with a shoulder-to-hip mech control rig.

"Delta-V," Rylas growled. "Heard you brought hell with you."

"Hell hit first," Kross replied. "We need every unit on high alert. The city’s gone. Civilians are being devoured by sentient sink creatures."

Rylas grunted. "Mechs are charging. Thirty minutes, tops. Till then, it’s boots and grit."

The warning sirens changed pitch—longer, deeper. Not a drill.

"Commander!" a scout ran up, panting. "They’re at the main gates. At least fifty of them. Maybe more."

Before anyone could respond, another transmission crackled over the comms:

"Command, this is Tunnel Unit 4! We’ve got movement down here! I repeat, movement in the maintenance tunnels!"

Rylas turned to Kross. "You know your squad better than I do."

Jayden didn’t hesitate. "Delta-V, we split."

Before they moved, Jayden looked at each face.
They had trained in freezing rain, shared rations under shellfire, laughed in bullet-scarred barracks.
Some had watched friends die. Some had died and come back.
"We survive," Jayden said low. "Like always."

He pointed, commanding with a sharp tone:

"Mason, Lena, Boone, Raj—with me. We hold the line up front. Ella, Reed, Tariq, Niko, Harper—get underground, secure the tunnels. Don’t let them overrun us from below."

Harper swallowed. "Tunnels, huh? Creepy murder maze. Just what I wanted."

"Eyes up and guns hotter than hell," Ella snapped, loading her futuristic shotgun. "Let's move."

Jayden's boots hit the gravel as he sprinted to the outer wall. Sinks—a tide of metal and porcelain—were already crashing against automated turrets. Several climbed over the barriers, hissing with fury.

"Open fire!" Jayden roared.

Their rifles lit the night. Sinks shattered in showers of steam and sparks, but for every one that fell, three more clawed through.

Boone fired his pulse-cannon, blowing a cluster apart.

"They don’t stop!" Raj yelled.

"Then neither do we!" Kross shouted.

Suddenly, a chunk of wall exploded—a larger Sink, bulkier and fused with rebar armor, smashed through. Jayden ducked and unloaded three shots to its chest. Sparks flew. It didn't slow.

"Aim for the vents under the rim!" Lena screamed.

Raj adjusted, fired. The creature collapsed in a hiss of steam.

The tunnel air was thick with dust and rot. Reed used his wrist console to light the way as the squad crept forward.

"Motion ahead," Reed warned.

Niko flinched. "I hate this. I really hate this."

As they passed a collapsed section, Reed's light caught something on the wall—handprints. Dozens. Burned into the concrete.
"These weren’t here before," Niko whispered.
Ella glanced at them and muttered, "Then we’re not the first squad down here."

Suddenly, Sinks lunged from ceiling ducts. Screaming metal. Blades flailing. Harper opened fire with a triple-barrel plasma rifle, lighting the dark with strobing death.

"Down!" Ella pulled Niko away just as a Sink swiped.

Tariq fired a round straight into its underbelly port. The thing imploded.

"Nice shot," Harper muttered. "You’re less useless than I thought."

They fought forward, foot by foot. Tunnel by tunnel. Blood on the walls. Smoke in their lungs.

Jayden was beginning to believe they might actually hold the front. The Sinks slowed. Turrets recalibrated. Mechs were almost fully powered.

Then the ground shook.

Not a tremor.

A quake.

The outer barricade erupted like a volcano. Concrete shattered. Smoke and dust filled the air.

From the ruin, a monstrous figure emerged—seven feet tall, its body a nightmare of obsidian ceramic and muscle-like hydraulics. Its “crown” was jagged, pulsing with red lines like veins.
It moved with precision—not like a machine, not like a beast... but like both.
When it opened its mouth, the air didn’t just vibrate—it felt like it screamed into your spine.

Then came the beams.
Twin lasers of blinding scarlet.
A hangar split in two. The ground caught fire. Screams tore through the smoke.

Raj screamed over comms. "What is that?!"

Jayden stared in stunned silence as the monster took another step forward.

This wasn’t just a new wave.

It was an evolution.

Chapter Two – End.