The Hive ii

Jiro’s strike team raced towards blaring alarms at Reclamation Facility 19.

Emergency broadcasts warned of multiple perimeter breaches unleashing unknown infected entities that overwhelmed barrier fortifications.

Peering down at the besieged bunker from hovering transports, Jiro barely recognized the installation.

Entire barricade walls had been torn open and reinforcement droids lay shattered across rubble-strewn courtyards.

Strange mucus-like substances covered mangled synthetic corpses.

Jiro realized whatever monstrosities now occupied the base must wield unanticipated corrosive weaponry to melt metal exoskeleton infrastructure with ease.

As they descended cautiously towards the chaos, Jiro tried raising Facility Commander Silva.

Only static answered until a bone-chilling screech echoed through communications...then silence again.

*******

The team readied neutron rifles preparing to confront the unknown enemy.

....Lt Zuri directed their squadron to land at Emergency Platform 6 located along the facility’s least-compromised perimeter section.

As the transports’ rear bay doors opened,

....Jiro was slammed by putrid smells of smoking acid, burnt electronics and death. Scanning the area, no signs of bodies or blood, just broken droids sitting in pools of sizzling chemicals.

What the hell had overwhelmed this place so quickly and totally?

.....Picking their way through mangled machinery carcasses, Jiro spotted the opening to Silva’s command bunker.

.....He signaled Zuri to access override controls unsealing the entrance since whatever horrors roamed inside clearly now had free reign anyway.

.........Sparking wires dangled from where reinforced gates had been torn violently aside.

....The team switched on shoulder lamps piercing dark corridors until reaching the central hub chambers.

Again signs of battle filled the environment - shredded console displays, overturned equipment, dangling cables flowing with viscous fluids.

Jiro realized whatever invaded the base appeared more intent on systematic industrial destruction than combat with personnel or consuming paltry flesh rewards.

Finding interface stations still partly functioning, Jiro connected modified uplinks to bypass corrupted systems and access recent activity logs.

..Towering monitor displays flickered to life projecting glitch-filled footage captured by base security cameras.

....Jiro tried adjusting filters to clear corruption.

Suddenly a flash image made him reel back in shock - some colossal oozing slime creature was throttling poor Commander Silva slamming his body repeatedly against iron walls while howling screams turned to wet gurgles then sickening silence.

....Vital sign monitors captured terror heart rates spiking base personnel seeing extra limbs and gnashing tendrils flailing...then flat-lining as the attacking horrors advanced.

Pausing imagery on the clearest shots, Jiro’s blood ran cold examining the monstrosity - a mutagenic fusion of cellular matter combining insect hives, reptilian scales and metabolic energy channels, unlike any lifeform classifications he knew.

.......Zuri gasped guessing its morphological integration too seamless to be some mad scientist’s demented creation - this Unknown Threat signaled Protean’s evolution transcended predictive models.

......Jiro swallowed hard realizing Silva’s garbled distress signal was no exaggeration - apocalyptic revelations walked here now. Survival meant immediately locating armoury stores before they fell into demonic demands...

Heading towards sub-level stairwells, motion trackers started registering signals closing from multiple directions.

......Zuri confirmed no tagged friends were still registered alive on biometric scans...

..whatever surrounded them now had slaughtered all 500 personnel and who knew what infections spawned inside their harvested corpses.

Back to back, they descended cautiously towards tunnels linking to hangars and weapons depots.

....The team hugged hallway walls nearing the motor pool gateway.

...Jiro peered slowly around the corner and felt vertigo smash his senses - some wretched bio-mass encased the entire area.

Omni-directional eyepieces tried futilely measuring the creature’s sprawling scale and protruding appendages grafting more stolen flesh into its bulk.

....Jiro blinked against madness recognizing oozing remnants of personnel embedded across the expanding horror.

....Lt Zuri forced down her panic whispering if original hive prototypes escaped Crypt 6’s abyssal labs then god preserves them now.

.....Jiro tilled shock aside re-focusing the mission - if armories got assimilated too then little hope remained.

...Signaling Zuri, he tossed EMP grenades towards semi-formed drone spawns at the monster’s feeding edge hoping to distract assimilation long enough for them to sprint unseen behind enemy lines understanding no retreat existed except through hell’s belly itself.

Choking fumes blanketed their coughing dash past primordial enveloping horrors dwarfing nightmares.

.....The creature seemed focused on non-living structures allowing their vulnerable sprint towards rear depot airlocks.

************

Gasping the filtered air, Jiro desperately punched security codes knowing the clock ticked against them before horrors gluttonous for slaughter found their trail.

....Zuri stood guard while Jiro located neutron missiles hoping to detonate calibrated ionic explosions catalyzing enough molecular disruption across the creature’s monstrous scale to damage its physical integrity.

Jiro knew a doomsday clock ticked down for Earth from the first lab that dared breed Protean.

All creation faced an an existential deadline against an ancient immortal evil discovered instead of designed it seemed. Escape fantasies evaporated - now battle lines converged here for souls of humanity hanging by bare threads of fate’s weaving.

Jiro steeled his heart for Armageddon raging outside metallic gates. Shoulder to shoulder with loyal Zuri unto certain death,

Jiro hoisted the biggest smart launcher wrapping fate’s hands around this missile with a simple prayer

-- - “For all who died in freedom’s name from the dawn of time, guide my shot destroying this demon’s cyclopean crimes!”

Zuri opened the airlock as Jiro fired, the doors slammed shut sputtering against acidic projectiles.

...Shaking the gates with volcanic fury, the shadow leviathan shrieked towards the discharge of their defiant weapons.

Racing for upper levels, Jiro and Zuri heard demonic wails crescendo in eldritch frequencies before a sudden violent implosion rumbled throughout the facility - god willing the sound of behemoth blasphemies banished back behind reality’s curtain by brave souls battling unholy fates.

....Uploading mission outcomes towards Venus Beachby emergency burst relay, Jiro left Q-COM transmission in Venkman’s trembling hands now:

“Base 19 is gone - worst case cryptid breach confirmed by horrors my eyes witnessed beyond belief.

Protean transcended is loose. Secure all cities immediately and pray our End Times can still be survived...”