We entered the facility to see hallways to the left and right, curving in the distance around the stasis chamber where Tiff’s true body was being held. Elvis had given us detailed schematics of the facility, so we knew exactly where we were. What we didn’t know was where the other security detail was. I could see mobs if they were within about 100 yards of me, but I saw nothing right now.

  “We need to move fast. Is your suit all good?” I asked CJ as we stood in the hall, preparing to make our push to the stasis chamber.

  “Yeah, all good,” he said. “I noticed you leveled up. Is it supposed to be this easy?” he asked through the internal comms channel.

  CJ was right. I had gotten credit for the kills in the cargo bay, and I was now Level 8. I also wondered if it would continue to be this easy to gain levels. I also guessed I was getting more credit for killing enemies that were at a higher level than me. I took a second to pull up my updated stats.

  Name – Andrew Timothy Dawes

  Race – Human

  Level – P-8

  Class – Havok Bringer

  Stats :

  Strength – P8 – 22%%

  Intelligence – P8 – 98%

  Dexterity – P8 – 34%

  Defense – P8 – 03%

  Current skills:

  Make me feel good, Daddy – Health stim activation

  Baby needs his baba – Stamina Stim recovery

  Current abilities:

  Pulsar Blast

  After a quick review of my new stats, it was time to get back on task.

  “We can worry about stats and levels when we get out of this place. Right now, we need to focus on finding Tiff’s body and trying to stay away from that other security detail if we can.” Elvis took the liberty of uploading the facility's schematics into my interface, allowing us to have a good idea of where we were going. I didn’t realize how big this place was, though. The circumference was at least five or six miles, so we were gonna have some walking to do.

  The facility was a cold, sterile place. The inside hallways were dark as the robotic security drones didn’t need light to see. Bundles of metal conduit ran along the ceiling, snaking along like metallic serpents in the dark. The walls and floor were a dark charcoal grey, and there were well-worn lines down the middle from the never-ending pre-programmed security details. The air smelled stale and old, the life support systems had only been activated when we entered through the exterior door and it was obvious that it had been a long time since anything that breathed had been here. Needless to say, this place wasn’t inviting and obviously not meant for any biological life form to live long-term.

  “Okay, let’s take the right-side hallway. The entrance to the stasis chamber should be about halfway around,” I said to CJ as we started jogging toward the door.

  “Hey Andy, stupid question, but how are we going to get back out of here?” CJ asked as we jogged. “That big metal door is kind of a problem since we planned to leave the same way we came in.”

  “I don’t know yet; I could really use Tiff and Elvis right now. Shouldn’t there be a maintenance bot or something?” I asked.

  “You’re right!” CJ shouted. “I remember Elvis pointing out the maintenance stations when we were planning. There should be one a couple hundred yards past the Stasis chamber entrance,” he said excitedly.

  “Okay, I’ll get Tiff. You can go ahead to the maintenance station and see if you can figure out how to get them into the cargo bay. There should be some sort of panel or something we can use to input off-schedule maintenance requests. That’s the best hope we have right now. If it doesn’t work, we’re going to have to try our luck with grenades,” I said, shrugging.

  “Fuck that, bro. We are not throwing a bunch of grenades at a sealed safety door in hopes that it will blow. Do you just think about every action movie ever created and try to formulate a plan based on what the action hero would do?!” CJ was looking at me as we jogged.

  “I’m just throwing ideas out, CJ. We aren’t exactly prepared for this scenario,” I said.

  After a few more minutes, we arrived at the stasis chamber door. I had CJ run ahead and start working on getting that bay door with plans to meet him back at the Pup after I got Tiff’s body. He ran off down the hallway, and I entered the stasis chamber. The chamber was jarring in its juxtaposition to the outer hallway. Bright white light filled the massive room, which stretched from one side of the station to the other, with only the outer hallway running along the outside of the room. The inside was completely empty. The entire roof emitted a soft white glow, but there were no light fixtures. Instead, the whole ceiling seemed to be a light. The floor was spotless white, leading me to believe that nobody had ever walked here; it almost looked like laminate, but there were no individual tiles. In the middle of the room stood a lone cylindrical tank with Tubes snaking in from the floor and ceiling. In the tank, Tiff floated, wearing a white body suit, and looking lifeless.

  I didn’t know what to expect when I saw Tiff’s true body. I knew she would be here, but how could anyone prepare themselves for this? I had just been talking with her a few hours ago, yet here she was. Her body floating in this tank, her eyes closed, no signs of life. Yet I knew she was alive.

  I ran to the tank to get started. It had four glass viewing panels, one on each side of the tank, stretching from the base to the top. Aside from the viewing panels, the tank was white metal from floor to ceiling.

  “Fuck it,” I said, equipping my armor and drawing on every ounce of my enhanced strength that I could muster. I punched one of the glass panels, cracking it. Spiderwebs formed throughout the glass, and Tiff’s body began jerking repeatedly. I reared back once again and punched the glass a second time. This time, the glass shattered, and the liquid began to pour out along with Tiff’s body. I caught her as she slid out of the tank. I deactivated my armor and knelt down, her body cradled in my arms, “Tiff, Tiff, wake up,” she didn’t move. I put a finger to her neck to check for a pulse, not knowing if it would even work since I wasn’t familiar with her anatomy.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “C’mon Tiff, we gotta get out of here! You need to wake up!” I shook her gently, trying to help her regain consciousness. Suddenly, she heaved, and her eyes shot open, shining impossibly blue, a sign of her alien origins. “Andrew?” she asked as she coughed the liquid out of her lungs.

  “Yeah, I got you,” I said, pulling her tight and sighing with relief. “Take a second to get your bearings, but we’ve got to move soon. A lot has happened since we entered the dampening field.”

  “Well, I’m glad I’m out of that tank, but you are going to have to get me back to the Pup. Once I leave this room, the dampening field will begin to affect me again. CJ can carry me with the Havok Hound suit. Where is he?” Tiff asked as she sat up.

  “Well, we kind of destroyed the force field on the docking bay door. CJ is trying to assign a maintenance bot to see if he can get it repaired. We were supposed to meet him back in the Pup after I got you,” I said.

  Tiff just shook her head in disgust. “I don’t even want to know right now, Andrew. We can debrief once we’re back on the Bloodhound. You will need to call CJ and let him know to come get me and bring me to the Pup.”

  I nodded and activated my comms. “CJ, how’s it going?”

  “All good here,” he replied. “The maintenance bot is at the generator now. I asked it for an ETA, and it said it would take 10 minutes.”

  “Okay, I need you to hustle back and get Tiff. She won’t be conscious once she leaves this room. It’s time to test the speed on that suit, red line it, and get back here quick,” I said.

  “Got it. I was waiting for an excuse to redline this bitch!” he said. “I’ll be there in 3 minutes.”

  “Okay, we will be wai-“

  BOOOM!!!

  A grenade exploded, sending Tiff and me hurling through the air. As I was flying through the air, I equipped my armor just in time to cushion my fall, but Tiff wasn’t as lucky. She was thrown back into the stasis tank and was lying on the floor unconscious. The previously spotless white floor was now stained with a puddle of blue blood flowing from a wound in the back of her head.

  “What the hell was that?!” CJ’s voice was fading in and out.

  I pushed myself up from the ground, shaking my head, trying to get my bearings. My health bar was under 20%. I mentally selected a health stim to top it back off, and as I did, I saw the message pop up on my interface.

  Verbal command required for skill activation.

  I shook my head, trying to clear the fog, and realized that Randi’s punishment was being enforced at the worst possible time. I didn’t have time for pride right now, though. “M…make me…feel good…Daddy,” I barely managed to get the words out, but I did all the same. I heard the reassuring hiss of the health stim activating, to my relief.

  “I’m not sure. Something exploded, and Tiff is injured. I need you to get here fast!” I shouted.

  “One minute, I’m close,” CJ said. “Just hold on, Andy, I’m also…”

  CJ’s words faded as I saw them coming through the smoke. The second security detail was here, and this time, they didn’t give any warnings. They just opened fire. I jumped to my left side, trying to draw the fire away from Tiff so she wouldn’t be hit with a stray bullet. I jumped up and ran as fast as my armor would carry me, trying to get behind them.

  “CJ, it’s the second security detail. GET HERE, NOW!” I shouted.

  At that moment, CJ’s suit exploded into the room, running full speed. I could see him in the distance. The suit had to be running 35-40 miles an hour. He was about half a mile away, but he was covering the distance at a blinding pace. I kept running, trying to get behind CJ; his suit would have to act as my cover since there was no other cover available in this room.

  “I have three minutes left on my armor, CJ; we need to finish this fast!” I shouted.

  As CJ finally reached my position, I fell in behind him. CJ raised his weapon at the Mech guard positioned to the left of the Giant Mech. “I’ll focus fire on the one on the left; you take the one on the right,” he said.

  “Got it. We can both attack the Mech once the guards are down!” I responded.

  We ran faster than any human could, but our aim was still perfect. CJ landed several shots on the left guard, but it wasn’t going down easy as it continued to fire. Several of the kinetic rounds from the Mech guards hit CJ’s suit, but it continued to absorb the damage. As I was running, I morphed my sidearm into the long-range rifle version, aimed, and took off the head of the guard on the right with one shot. I ignored the kill notification that flashed across my interface.

  “One down. We gotta keep them away from Tiff!” I said as CJ, and I continued running. Just then, the Mech fired a concentrated laser beam, removing the right arm of CJ’s suit and grazing my left upper arm. My suit self-repaired, and I took very little damage from the blast. I quickly glanced at my health gauge to see that it was still over 90%. More pressing was my armor’s power indicator, which was now flashing as it dipped steadily lower.

  “Shit, my suit is down to 30% power. We have got to take that Mech out, Andy. Stay on the guard located on the Mech’s right, and I’ll go straight for the Mech,” CJ’s drop suit wasn’t faring any better, it seemed. he reached down and pulled a two-foot-long combat knife from a sheath on his left leg. The blade glowed brightly as he ran. We were about 25 feet away from the Mech when CJ jumped and landed right on the Mech’s body. He started hacking at anything that looked important as the Mech spun and tried to rid itself of the unwanted passenger.

  I broke off and headed straight for the Mech guard. I hit the ground and slid toward It as it fired its weapon in my direction, luckily missing most of its shots. I slid past the guard and grabbed its right ankle, spinning myself up behind it and grabbing it in a bear hug under its arms. I leaned into my increased strength stat and heaved the heavy robot up, suplexing it headfirst into the ground. The Mech guard’s head was caved in, and it stopped moving as it lay in a sparking, smoking heap.

  “Scratch one more guard!” I said, ignoring another kill notification as I jumped back up into action to help CJ, who was still riding the Mech. The Mech was on its last legs, smoke rising from its back and several wires and hoses hanging loosely all over its body. I pulled up my sidearm, took aim, and fired five rounds of the powered energy blasts directly into the center mass of its upper body section. With this, the Mech stopped and slowly settled to the ground. No explosion, no crazy ending. It just powered down.

  “Holy shit! We’re alive!” CJ shouted as he dismounted the disabled Mech.

  “To be fair, you were never in danger of dying, bro,” I shot back as we both ran over to Tiff. “She isn’t moving. We have got to get her back to the Bloodhound and let Elvis fix her up.” I looked over at CJ. “Can you carry her with the missing arm?” I asked.

  “Yeah, no problem. You will just need to pick her up for me, then I can hold her while we run back to the Pup,” he said.

  “Okay, my armor is spent,” I said as my armor deactivated. “It will be a few minutes before I can reactivate it. You run ahead with Tiff, and I’ll be right behind you.”

  I gently picked up Tiff and placed her over the drop suit’s shoulder. CJ took off immediately, running at a fast pace, but not as fast as he had been when he was trying to get back to the stasis chamber. I was about two minutes behind them, but I didn’t want to reactivate my armor just in case I needed it.

  When I entered the cargo bay, I saw that the force field had been repaired and the safety door had been raised. CJ had already spun the Pup around and was preparing for a quick evac. I ran toward the ship and saw that he had Tiff’s body secured and was waving for me to hurry up.

  “Initiate the auto-pilot sequence; get the ship moving!” I yelled to CJ as I continued running toward the Pup. CJ spun around and tapped the display to initiate the pup’s autopilot. The ship’s propulsion systems activated as he did, and the Pup levitated gently off the ground. I was almost there.

  That’s when I felt the blade push through my back and out the front of my abdomen. I stopped running, looked down, and felt the wound with both hands. The blade was sharp, jagged, and covered in hot red blood, my blood.

  “GO! GET TIFF BACK TO THE SHIP!” I screamed as my legs faltered, and I fell to my knees.

  CJ was screaming something incoherent as the Pup shot out of the cargo bay door. The pup’s rear door slid shut as he pressed against it before disappearing completely.

  “I told you I would be watching… human,” a voice hissed in my ear from behind.

  Everything went black.