Nexus

peered down the mountain ridge studying the ruins in the valley below through electro-binoculars.

The crumbling facility matched overhead surveillance captures - this ghost complex must be the one Captain Venkman briefed about Nexus.

As the squadron Reg-Commander, Jiro needed to confirm intelligence suspicions before risking troops towards dangers unknown.

Built into the foothills according to network archives, Nexus operated as a genetics research station under corporate shells before the Protean outbreaks.

Minimal data survived about experiments conducted or personnel fates once continental quarantines, martial law and social collapse snowballed.

.....Venkman secured coded communiques referencing "Patient Alpha" test subjects held at an unnamed remote laboratory location - Nexus seemed the probable site of those early viral trials.

Jiro signalled his platoon to descend towards decrepit outer gates torn off hinges by machinery decades abandoned to corroding fates.

******Shattered barricades suggested panicked abandoning, not tactical withdrawals. Advancing slowly across rubble-strewn courtyards, Jiro wondered what sins or secrets bred here now buried beneath decay. There - an exposed underpass leading towards bunker subsurface levels!

Jiro disliked splitting teams uncertain about internal integrity threats but their mission mandated investigating every abandoned corner. He dispatched Lt. Halsey's crew to search topside remains while leading the Alpha platoon spelunking into the abyssal archive maze perhaps holding outbreak ground zero revelations.

Motioning troops to activate shoulder lamps piercing the darkness, Jiro spotted occasional spray-painted quarantine warnings from some past fleeing exodus.

*******Soldiers fanned through ad hoc barricades towards a blockade with a carved message proclaiming "Abandon Hope" in strange occult symbols. Blast residue marks told battles past

while the skull effigy hinted at darker truths. What occurred in this isolated labyrinth hiding humanity's tormentors? Beyond sealed gates, instruments register a red breathable atmosphere and steady structural integrity.

Jiro approved the Alpha squad breaching the threshold into medical isolation wings and specimen laboratories with weapons ready against unknown threats.

The deeper they delved through cryogenic chambers, surgical theatres and testing cubicles, the more unease gripped their stomachs.

*******Jiro half-expected crazed zombie scientists to emerge from the maze of workstations and data consoles obscured beneath dust and sins. Something catastrophic occurred judging by evacuation piles and iron-barred quarantine gates.

Jiro guessed

when early gene therapies unleashed Protean's cruel evolutionary appetite to assimilate improved hosts, no defence could rescue poor souls once microscopic progenitors turned body temples into butcher shops crafting new generations. Jiro shuddered against memories from hopeless early outbreak days watching death's mercy unleashed.

Finally,

they reached central operations where Lt. Riley discovered functional terminals.

Jiro eagerly accessed mission logs detailing Nexus's beginnings as a commercial venture fusing biotech innovations before shifting towards military contracts for Project Ascension's classified human augmentation initiatives seeking to craft superior survivors. Jiro scoffed guessing arrogant academicians and greedy weapon dealers alike raced recklessly on roads towards hell once Protean's unnatural selection turned tables against bio-alchemists brewing hybrid chimeras.

Riley signalled she cracked doctors' private research notes buried beneath encryption rubble.

Jiro crossed ethical lines scanning annotated gene therapy trials utilizing institutionalized mental patients, orphans and refugees as test populations blending customized Protean strains aiming to improve physiological resilience, boost cognitive acuities even extend lifespans towards immortality. Instead, damned progress birthed nightmares -

the integrated custom cocktail named Chimera degraded a patient's internal organs before suddenly evolving into aggressive behaviours. Jiro swallowed bile seeing chained feral children transform into scarcely recognizable entities by slide-log capture dates. When a containment breach infected staff scientists themselves, a total Nexus meltdown infected the region sparking global contagions.

Jiro stabilized cracking a voice and murmuring:

"No wonder civilizations crashed once this escaped Pandora's box..."

Suddenly, emergency klaxons blared as facility safeguards detected intruders.

Jiro ordered immediate evacuations towards extraction points before they got trapped below.

Rallying his troop, Jiro vowed to expose these uncovered truths about early outbreaks that sprang from inhuman experiments.

Never again could science sacrifice innocents chasing nightmares. Whatever future civilizations rose from ashes, ethics must limit exploring paths towards Armageddon.

Nearing surface exits, the team encountered massive humanoid entities grotesquely fused with machinery assault chassis. Jiro realized Nexus automatons awoke defending forgotten robotics labs.

Taking defensive positions, soldiers emptied plasma rifles burning through metallic carapaces while avoiding generalized return fire.

Jiro guessed they stumbled into experimental cyborg BARRIER security forces seeking to safeguard buried sins. He screamed final retreats towards ascending elevators ferrying half his troops past collapsing ceilings before a deafening blast sealed the complex forever behind ancient horror tales. Jiro solemnly saluted the lost as surface transports hurried his battered platoon towards home.

Mission logs copied from Nexus servers continued damning doctors who chose unleashing hellfires first.

Jiro considered erasing such profane truths but resolved next generations must remember what engineered the downfall of nations once humanity rebuilds from rubble.

He penned encrypted warnings to Venkman about revisited outbreak sites: "Whatever pasts we inherit shape chaotic futures coming, yet losing our humanity abandoning moral courage condemns civilizations eternally.

My devotion towards life and liberty's shared hopes stays steadfast despite the painful revelations we survived at Nexus forerunner tombs. Here's towards redeeming dreams from spirits that endured hell believing better days await somehow."

Transmitting off towards uncertain sunsets,

Jiro wished fallen comrades peace after escaping that den of demons. NexusWould the same ambitious demons return resurrecting fresh miseries under new guises?

....Jiro vowed to oppose any power that dared repeat such arrogant atrocities. Staring towards the horizon as darkness approached, Jiro tightened his armor preparing for battles yet to come...