Rony's voice came low through DJ's ear.
"Be ready. They've got some backward stuff, But that's Pull-water tech, you better be prepared."
DJ didn't answer, he just looked at the feed.
The two groups rounded adjacent hallways, now only separated by a metal door and a perpendicular junction.
Distance closing.
" They are at the metal door ahead of you. I've marked there location on you HUD." Dj noded and stopped in front of that door. And Rony said in earpiece.
" Lights out in three… two… one."
The emergency system died.
Complete darkness swallowed the corridor.
Except—
DJ's red LED eyes.
On the other side of the metal door, the squad halted instantly.
The leader , the one of the lean-suited pair adjusted his head slightly. Unlike the others, he wore narrow Nichison night vision tactical lenses that glowed faint blue, he could detect the movement on the other side of the door.
He spoke calmly into comms.
"Do not panic. Gunners, suppress."
Three heavy units stepped forward into a V-shaped firing line. One back. Two ahead.
Their barrels began spinning.
Then-
They opened fire.
The corridor exploded in light.
Muzzle flashes strobed violently in the darkness. Thousands of rounds tore through metal walls, ripped into the door, shredded the air.
Concrete cracked, sparks flew, Shrapnel screams.
The heavy barrels glowed orange as they continued firing till it turned red and Molten fragments began dripping from the muzzle edges.
The leader raised his hand.
"Cease."
The gunfire stopped instantly.
Smoke filled the corridor.
The metal door was all gone
Beyond it laid Silence.
The leader narrowed his eyes behind blue lenses, his voice stayed calm.
"Flamethrower unit. Advance."
Three stepped forward in V-formation again, two ahead, one behind they mirrored he gunners' earlier pattern.
With a sharp hiss, they ignited their pilot flames.
Orange light flooded the corridor, pushing back the darkness inch by inch. Burn marks and shredded metal cast long, violent shadows across the walls.
They stepped past the bullet-riddled doorway, Slowly. There steps filled with controlled precision.
The leader scanned the are and found nothing, his indicators showed ever thing clear. He noded and ordered them to move .
There squad has taken a few steps when from the corner. Two pairs of red LED eyes ignited in the dark beside them, too close. To dodge.
Before the front man could react, a black-armored figure surged from the shadows.
DJ's left hand clamped onto the first soldier's flamethrower nozzle and twisted it sideways.
The man panicked.
He squeezed the trigger.
A torrent of fire erupted.and engulfed the two men in front of him.
They screamed as flames washed over their armor, catching exposed joints and fuel lines.
DJ didn't hesitate.
He wrenched the weapon free and pivoted, sweeping the burning arc toward the second half of the formation.
The corridor became an inferno.
The heavy gunners didn't fall back.
They planted their feet and took the fire head-on, thick exo-armor absorbing the worst of it, but the searing heat wasn't a to scoff at, one of them Couldn't handle it.
Behind the flames, the leader's Nichison night lenses flickered with overheating warnings.
"Gunners. Fire."
They opened up blindly.
The rotating barrels roared again, spraying rounds through fire and smoke, and DJ was already moving.
The spider drones detached from the ceiling and dropped small canisters as they descended.
The flames abruptly shifted color, Blue foam exploded outward in dense bursts.
Made our of suppression compound.
It swallowed the burning soldiers instantly, hardening over them like expanding ice. Three flamethrower operators hit the ground, trapped and immobilized inside crackling blue casing.
The gunfire stopped.
The fire died.
Smoke rolled low across the floor.
The leader signaled forward movement.
"Advance. Confirm."
They stepped cautiously through the haze.
Three flamethrower units — down.
Encased.
Groaning beneath hardened suppressant foam.
The leader's eyes narrowed.
"He's isolating units one by one."
He tapped his comm.
"HQ, report intruder position."
Only static answered,.The interference was complete. Rong has done his job, and There voices didn't reach them.
The squad regrouped and pushed deeper.yjis time even slower now, close together weapons raised to be fire anytime.
They were moving with cautious when from deeper inside the facility, sound of Heavy gunfire erupted again.
It was the other part of there people, they hears A flamethrower , Metal being tore and sounds Explosions echoed around the corridor.
The squad froze.
The leader raised a hand.
"Hold." he said the moment firing begun. They heard all the ordeal, and then A sharp concussive blast happened than another. nd after a last explosion the firing completely stopped. The ball went dead silent like it was before.
After that for nearly a full minute Only the faint crackle of damaged wiring could be heard mized with breathing of the remaining sper forces there.
"Move," the leader ordered, controlling his emotions.
They followed the sound trail through scorched corridors and shattered steel.
And found them, the Ten other operators, down.
Some burned Some slammed into walls hard enough to crater concrete. Others entangled in collapsed exo-frames. There Armor dented, Weapons twisted and Walls blackened with flame thrower.
Whatever had hit them was precise and brutal.
The leader scanned the corridor. He didn't find the perpetrator. But the marks and the controlled damage told him many things.
"He's conserving energy," the leader murmured.
"Striking in fragments."
They didn't get time to examine the fallen properly.
The surviving sub-leader, half-conscious, his visor cracked coughed out one word:
"…Flashbangs…"
A metallic ting echoed across the floor.
A small sphere rolled out from beneath a shattered console and stopped between their boots.
"Duck—!" the leader shouted.
But it was Too late.
The grenade detonated in a violent burst of white light and concussive sound.
The corridor became pure brightness.
Optics overloaded.
Pull-water visors glitched.
Even reinforced filters couldn't compensate in time.
Through the bloom of white flashbank, Two red LED eyes cut forward.
DJ dropped from above.
He landed directly in front of the nearest heavy gunner and Before the man could recover, DJ ripped one rotating barrel assembly clean off its mount with a savage twist. Sparks burst from torn wiring.
Then he released An electric-charged punch slammed into the gunner's chest plate.
Voltage surged through the exo-frame.
The heavy unit convulsed violently and collapsed, smoke curling from melted circuits.
DJ rolled another sphere across the ground.
Second flashbang.
Another blinding detonation.
Before vision returned, DJ had already moved.
He grabbed the second gunner by the head brace and drove a brutal knee into the armor seam at his abdomen joint. The reinforced plate buckled inward. DJ followed with a point-blank energy pulse from his gauntlet.
The third gunner caught the blast full in the chest and crashed backward into the wall, unconscious.
But the energy-unit operators were faster.
Three lean armored figures recovered first from the flash and raised their forearms.
Blue-white energy blasts tore across the corridor.
One hit DJ square in the shoulder. His suit sparked violently.
He staggered.
Another blast hit his thigh, A third scorched across his ribs,.They didn't stop firing, And neither did he.
DJ walked through it.
Energy strikes pounded against already-damaged armor. Warning signals screamed across his HUD.
ENERGY RESERVE: 14%
STRUCTURAL STRESS CRITICAL
He closed the distance.
One operator fired again, DJ punched straight through his chest plate, discharging a violent shock that dropped him instantly.
He pivoted and kicked the second operator hard enough to lift him off the ground and slam him into a support column.
The third tried to retreat but DJ grabbed him by the helmet and smashed his head against the concrete wall.
The impact cracked the visor, He slid down, unconscious.
DJ exhaled sharply, and a spin kick caught him across the jaw.
The leader.
He was the only one remained. He was faster than others.
DJ fell back two steps.
The leader didn't pause.
He rushed forward with disciplined rhythm kick, elbow, straight punch, low sweep. Each strike measured. No wasted motion.
DJ tried to counter, but the man's timing was razor sharp. He attacked in tempo, denying DJ space to reset.
A sharp kick to DJ's ribs than An elbow to his collar joint.
Before DJ could stabilize, the leader pulled a compact stick grenade from his belt, slammed it against DJ's waist, and it magnetically locked in place.
He drove a full-force kick into DJ's chest.and launched him through a side-room doorway.
The grenade detonated mid-air.
The explosion shattered every window in the room and blasted furniture into splinters.
Flames licked outward through the doorway.
The leader didn't wait.
He grabbed a fallen flamethrower unit, primed it, and unleashed a continuous stream of fire straight into the room.
The flames roared, filling the entire interior. Paint blistered Metal warped, Heat shimmered violently.
He emptied the tank completely.
Than Silence followed.
The corridor glowed orange from reflected firelight, The leader stepped closer, peering into the burning room.
Night vision was useless in the inferno. He removed the lenses.
The raw firelight illuminated the wreckage.
Burning debris.
Collapsed shelving.Molten fixtures.
But.Nobody, was there.
He frowned,.He started to turn when.A closed fist filled his vision. The man recoiled, expecting an impact but none came. Instead a gray vapor exploded outward at point-blank range.
The leader inhaled involuntarily.
He staggered once.yhan Twice and finally collapsed cold.
DJ stood over him, breathing hard.
Energy reserve: 9%
Around him, groans echoed from scattered survivors.
He turned without hesitation. One operator attempted to push himself up.
DJ struck him down with a single blunt hit.
Another twitched trying to reach for a weapon, DJ just kicked the weapon away.
The corridor was now dim, burning, and filled with smoke. DJ grabbed a small ball from his back, and tossed it in the burning room, a blue foam filled the area. Halting the fire midway.
DJ stepped over the fallen leader.
Red LED eyes still glowing.
And moved deeper into the building.