Chapter 10: Rot Below Ice

📍 Location: Antarctic Dead Zone – GOC Ice Lab Theta-12 ❄️ Scene 1: Arrival

The trio stood in front of a towering icy facility half-buried in snow. Cold wind bit at their faces, and even with thermal suits, frost began to settle on their armor.

Lucas (reading the mission file):

"No life signs for 48 hours. Last audio transmission was… screaming."

Nick (shivering):

"Okay, I vote we don't go into the haunted science bunker of doom. Anyone second that?"

Emma (pulling up her hood):

"Denied. You're the muscle. Muscle goes first."

Nick:

"…Not even five minutes of flirting, and I'm demoted to 'muscle.'"

🧊 Scene 2: The Frostbitten Facility

Inside the GOC facility, frozen bodies lay sprawled, eyes wide open, faces stuck in silent terror. Some walls had strange black markings, as if something melted and slithered across them.

Lucas (whispering):

"These aren't Neuroxin wounds… They've mutated into something else."

Emma (examining a body):

"They're still warm. Something is preserving them."

Suddenly—

CRACK!

The ice behind them shattered as a twisted creature lunged out—a reanimated soldier with half a Neuroxin face. Its voice was garbled… yet it spoke.

Infected Soldier:

"The blood… the blood sings… Millar…"

Nick (shouting):

"NOPE. Nope. Nope. Burn it!"

He body-slammed the thing into a reactor core panel. Lucas ignited a plasma line from broken coolant pipes and scorched it, while Emma phased through the steam and snapped its neck from behind.

⚠️ Scene 3: Enemy Type

Lucas (analyzing tissue):

"These are Type 1 Glacials, infected by a psychic bio-virus."

Emma:

"Meaning?"

Lucas:

"They're being puppeted by a single controller. Likely a Type 2—somewhere in the lower cryo tunnels."

Nick:

"Awesome. We love underground ice zombies."

🧨 Scene 4: Tunnel Showdown

The team descended into the reactor zone, where the temperature dropped below survivable limits. Emma's suit began to glitch.

Emma (teeth chattering):

"Lucas… if I freeze to death, you owe me a date."

Lucas (without missing a beat):

"Deal. But not if you're dead."

Emma (surprised, smiling):

"...Smooth."

They reached the central cryo-chamber—a huge domed ice vault glowing faint blue. In the center stood the Type 2 Neuroxin, hunched over, wrapped in a frozen exo-bio suit, wires and tendrils fusing into the walls. It spoke with multiple voices.

Type 2 – Drogg:

"We are preservation. You are corruption. The Earth will be frozen in silence."

Lucas (to the team):

"Nick, disrupt the power lines. Emma, flank. I'll bait."

Nick (charging up):

"Berserk mode. On. Time to smash a snow demon."

Nick burst through the ice pipes, causing steam to blast and obscure vision. Lucas dodged Drogg's whip-flesh arms, luring it to an exposed coolant line. Emma used the mist to phase silently behind it.

SLASH!

She sliced its spinal column open, and Lucas jammed a forged spike made from cryo-core alloy into the weak point.

Drogg screamed—exploding into shards of black ice.

🌃 Scene 5: Date… Kinda

Back at the GOC base camp, with hot cocoa in hand and warm clothes on, Emma sat beside Lucas, staring at the frozen landscape outside the base window.

Emma:

"You remembered what I said."

Lucas (sipping his drink):

"I don't forget much."

Emma (smirking):

"So… was this our first date?"

Lucas (shrugging):

"Unless you'd prefer dinner over ice zombies."

Emma (laughs):

"I like it cold."

They sat in a quiet moment… until—

CRASH!

A trash bin tumbled behind them. Emma and Lucas turned sharply.

Nick (popping up behind a barrel, holding binoculars and a mustache disguise):

"Don't mind me! Just a lone civilian admiring the majestic cold air!"

Emma (eye twitching):

"Nick… are you spying on us?"

Nick (grinning):

"I prefer the term 'romantic field analyst.'"

Lucas (to Emma):

"This is why we can't have peace."

Nick (putting arms around both of them):

"Teamwork, baby! Squad love forever! Now… who wants frozen marshmallows?"