The Assault on Horizon Site 3

March 14, 2042 – 12 Hours Until Awakening

The bodies of the Horizon strike team lay strewn across the courtyard of Fort Valor, their equipment scorched and broken.

The air smelled of burning metal and cooked flesh.

I knelt beside one of the corpses—a soldier with a bullet hole through the base of his skull—and pried off his utility harness.

The harness contained:

Spare rifle magazines.Fragmentation grenades.A sleek, black comm unit.

The comm device was intact. I turned it on and connected to Horizon's encrypted frequency.

The channel crackled with panicked voices.

"...Team Beta has gone dark… no comms from Fort Valor... requesting intel on enemy capabilities."

Another voice answered, calm and authoritative:

"Omega Cell confirms full team loss. Target is hostile, high-priority. Tech exceeds projections."

A short pause.

"Prepare Site 3 for defensive lockdown. Reinforcements ETA: 6 hours."

Six hours.

That was how long I had before they reinforced their command post.

I dragged the soldier's body behind a concrete barrier and wiped the blood from my gloves.

[Hypermind] activated automatically, displaying a mental flowchart of next steps.

Assess Horizon Site 3 defenses.Identify and disable external surveillance.Infiltrate the power plant.Eliminate Horizon personnel.Sabotage their command systems.

I returned to the command center and powered up the military-grade tablet from the strike team.

A satellite map showed Horizon Site 3—an old natural gas power plant on the western outskirts of New Vale City.

High perimeter walls.Automated turrets on the rooftops.Two primary entrances:

North gate (main convoy route).South service entrance (staff access).

Secondary vulnerabilities:

Cooling towers – Structural weak points.Electrical substation – Potential overload target.

I opened my weapons locker and suited up for war.

✔ Shock Gauntlets: Fully charged.✔ Arc Baton: High-voltage mode enabled.✔ Plasma Rifle Mk II: Coils recalibrated for sustained fire.✔ EMP Mines: 3 units, manually triggered.✔ Pipe Bombs: 4 devices, pressure-triggered.✔ Glock 19: 4 magazines loaded with armor-piercing rounds.

I pulled on my customized combat vest, reinforced with ceramic plates and ballistic fabric.

The weight was familiar now.

The SUV's engine rumbled softly as I followed side roads toward the industrial zone.

The city's collapse had accelerated.

Along the streets, I saw:

Looters smashing pharmacy windows, fighting over antibiotics.Cars overturned, their occupants either missing or ripped apart.Mutant crows circling in tight flocks, dive-bombing survivors.

I passed a family trapped in their car, surrounded by mutated dogs with pale, hairless skin and oversized jaws.

I almost stopped.

But helping them would only waste time and ammo.

So I kept driving.

I parked a block away from the power plant, leaving the SUV behind.

The facility loomed in the distance—a gray concrete structure surrounded by metal fencing and four massive cooling towers venting steam into the sky.

Through the binoculars, I identified:

Six guards patrolling the fence line—standard Horizon gear, M4 carbines and body armor.Two rooftop turrets mounted on swiveling platforms—likely motion and heat-tracking models.A reinforced entrance gate with a biometric keypad.

They weren't expecting immediate retaliation.

That was their first mistake.

I crept through the overgrown brush, planting three EMP mines near the fence line.

I waited until the two nearest guards walked past each other, then triggered the mines.

BZZZZZT!

The mines discharged with a sharp crack, frying the turret systems and the guards' communication devices.

The turrets jerked once, then went limp.

The guards froze.

I fired the plasma rifle.

THOOM!

The bolt hit the first guard in the spine, melting through armor and flesh. He collapsed, screaming as molten metal fused to his skin.

The second guard tried to raise his rifle.

I activated my shock gauntlets and sprinted forward.

He fired—three shots—two missed, the third hit my left shoulder plate. The impact bruised but didn't penetrate.

I punched him square in the chest.

BZZZZZT!

The electricity arched through his torso, making him convulse violently.

Blood burst from his nose and ears.

He collapsed.

I cut a section of the fence with my plasma torch and slid inside.

The power plant was mostly quiet—the hum of machinery drowned out by the wailing sirens of distant city chaos.

I approached the south service entrance and pried open the keypad panel.

Inside, I rewired the biometric scanner to accept universal admin access codes—a backdoor that military facilities often shared.

Code: 000519.

The lock clicked.

The door opened.

The interior hallways were dimly lit, with exposed pipes running along the ceilings.

The comm device on my wrist crackled:

"All units—be advised—perimeter sensors offline. Possible intruder. Lockdown in progress."

Shit. They're adapting faster than expected.

I sprinted toward the control center, using the facility map on my stolen tablet to navigate.

Ahead, I heard boots on concrete—two guards approaching from the left corridor.

I slid into a maintenance alcove and crouched.

The guards passed, rifles raised.

I triggered a pipe bomb and tossed it down the hallway.

BOOM!

The blast shredded them, body parts hitting the walls like wet meat.

I reached the main control room door—a reinforced steel slab with an electronic lock.

I planted two magnetic charges and detonated them remotely.

CRACK!

The door buckled inward, and I moved in.

Four operators sat at consoles, Project Horizon uniforms crisp and clean.

One reached for a sidearm.

I shot him in the face.

BANG!

Blood sprayed across the monitors.

Another tried to trigger an alarm panel.

I fired the plasma rifle.

THOOM!

The bolt hit him in the chest, melting through his ribcage.

The remaining two raised their hands, eyes wide.

"Wait—don't shoot!" one begged.

I stepped closer.

"Who authorized Operation Genesis?" I asked.

The man stammered. "I-I don't know—it's above my clearance!"

I tightened my grip on the shock gauntlet.

"Who gave the order to accelerate the mutations?"

"R-Riker! Captain Riker!"

I clenched my fist and discharged the shock gauntlet against his skull.

He collapsed, twitching.

The last man pissed himself.

"Please! I just—I'm just a tech! I don't know anything!"

I hesitated.

I needed more intel.

I pulled out a zip tie and secured his wrists to the console chair.

scanned the main terminal.

Files labeled:

"Mutation Sequences – Phase Two""Civilian Power Grid Override""Neural Control Protocols – Prototype"

I transferred the data to my portable drive.

The control center's mainframe also contained access codes for Horizon's other sites.

I planted the last pipe bomb beneath the server rack and set a ten-minute timer.

As I turned to leave, the surviving tech whimpered.

"What… what happens when you leave?" he asked.

I didn't answer.

I moved back toward the service entrance.

The corridor was silent, except for the faint beeping of the bomb timer in the distance.

As I stepped outside, I saw movement to my left.

A lone soldier stood there, weapon raised.

I fired the Glock instinctively.

BANG! BANG!

Two rounds to the sternum.

He dropped instantly.

I climbed into my SUV, reversed down the access road, and watched the facility disappear in the rearview mirror.

At exactly ten minutes, the pipe bomb detonated.

The explosion consumed the power plant's control hub, sending flames and debris skyward.

Back at Fort Valor, I plugged the stolen data drive into my workstation.

The files painted a disturbing picture.

Project Horizon wasn't just observing the awakening event—they were trying to control it.

Key details stood out:

Neural Resonance Towers: Horizon had built transmission towers across the city, capable of emitting high-frequency signals designed to influence mutant behavior.

Target Zones:

New Vale City was labeled "Primary Control Site."Signal Activation: Scheduled for March 15, 12:00 a.m.

Objective:

Trigger mass awakening early.Direct mutated creatures toward critical infrastructure.Subjugate surviving civilians through neural interference.

I leaned back in my chair.

Project Horizon wasn't just adapting to the apocalypse.

They were engineering it.The awakening event was hours away.

If I didn't stop the resonance towers, Horizon would gain control of the city's mutants.

I needed to find the tower network and destroy it.

Fast.