11.
The League officer I clutched in my arms started to go limp. His legs had been flailing as I lifted him from the ground, but were now motionless in the display's reflection.
12.
"Key Subject 6-07 "Reaper" wandering the forest with its pack."
In only a matter of seconds, the petty officer I had sneaked up on was now subdued. Body empty of strength as his brain starved of blood from my hold on his neck. The soldier behind me was continuing his report, unaware as to what had happened. My arms tensed as a final burst of power tilted up the head caught in the crook of my elbow.
—Cruck.
"Key Subject 6-14 "Viper" …"
The dull snap of bone echoed louder than expected. I could only lay the officer in his seat sloppily before stepping back as I heard the chair swivel. Head tilted at an unnatural angle, the officer laid crooked in the chair before the communications interface.
"Sir… ?"
The soldier must have heard the spine breaking despite me trying to control myself. He was now looking at his superior across the room, brows furrowed when no answer came. Standing up, his hand went to draw the pistol holstered on his chest. As he took a few steps closer, I saw his throat ripple up in a shaken gulp while I crept forward. Still concealed by this body's camouflage.
"… Are you alright?"
Even if his pistol was trained on the officer's body, faint acridity drifted in the air as his eyes kept searching the silent room for an answer that never came. He was only a step away from my reach.
—Click.
—BANG!
As the shot went off, my two hands extended their nails for his head. One hand stifled the scream that rose up from his mouth as the bullet impact dispelled the camouflage. The other's nails dug into the scalp on the back of his skull. Then twisted.
—Snap.
Even when his body tumbled forward with a thud, the soldier wide-eyed gaze stayed frozen on the ceiling. Two nails reached into the new wound and plucked the bullet from inside.
—Plink.
The tiny caliber had lacked the stopping power to penetrate dense abdominal muscles. With the bullet removed, the warm itch of healing had set in and would soon close the oozing wound.
In the renewed silence, I stood alone above the collapsed soldier. The display he had left was still active. Bearing a large topographic map on its surface, colored dots kept moving around. In the center, a single gray box was labeled SO-16. The same markings outside the compound. 6-04, 6-02, 6-07, 6-14… They were all there, along with many others even if they were not labeled.
S6-14[K]/VIPER/
The last read-out the solider had made before meeting his end. Enlarged, a rectangular video feed lay beside the unmoving dot. The image was dark, night having already long set. Under the ambient moonlight, a large pile of plant debris and some ivory bones were the only things I could barely see. Until the body hidden below it shifted ever so slightly. Scattered glints of light peeked out from where the debris had fallen, bouncing off the dark scales of a long and coiled up organism.
Surveillance cameras were indeed installed in the forest as suspected.
I was careful not to scratch the display as a nail-tipped finger reached out to tap the display. Then nothing when it touched the screen. Tapping again, still nothing. I could hear the click of the sickle claw hitting the floor before I pressed the finger hard into the screen.
Finally, even if there was now a small scratch, the display had reacted.
S6-14[K]/VIPER/K-CLEARANCE REQUIRED
Only a vital sign appeared next to the dot. Any and all information regarding the creature beyond a visual feed and a slow heartbeat were obscured. A limitation from the soldier's limited clearance.
—Click.
Trying my luck, I aimed for 6-07 as it rapidly moved north. Surrounded by several other dots, the display's delayed response to my touch showed an unintended result when it instead hit an unlabeled dot.
S5-11/OSTROM/SPECIMEN 13/…
The vital signs displayed were elevated and the monitor feed barely showed the raptor-like beast coursing through the forest along with others. The physical description that accompanied it matched the feathered trio I had encountered earlier. But not the taller figure I occasionally glimpsed in their midst. This one stood taller than the others, covered in dark scales that glinted like the Viper instead of feathers. Malformed arms were tipped by claws far exceeding the sickles that adorned its feet.
It should be key subject S6-07[K]/REAPER/.
If Viper laid still to the west of the compound, Reaper seemed to be roaming the forest I had traversed south of the compound. 6-04 was at the center of the lake to the north, and 6-02 still a bit further northwest along the river that broke off and continued from the lake.
At that moment, a chime came from the other side of the room where the comms interface was. The post log-in screen now occupied by a large communications request which would go unanswered.
The unresponsive map display only allowed me to catch a glimpse of S6-04[K]/CROC/ before the room went dark. Large black scales like jagged plates of armor on its back were the last images I saw as power went out. The League had detected the anomaly with SO-16 and chose to cut power supplied to its facilities.
Croc had laying on small rocky outcrop in the center of the lake. Yet the map also showed a number of gray dots on the way to and surrounding the south bank of the lake. Conspicuously empty of any other life-form markers, it was the Succession rally point in the ecosphere.
Twisting the handle of the blast door the two League soldiers had closed, moonlight once again illuminated the now dead outpost before I squeezed my way through the opening. Claws and talons pulling at the outside wall as the dark carapace on my back broke off parts of the reinforce concrete.
—Click.
The noisy echo of the sickle claw hitting the steel mesh platform I stood upon before I leapt to the clearing below. Soft forest soil pounded under my feet when I started to run north, disappearing into the tree-line. Towards the rally point the League would soon identify.
Perhaps the body I now occupied was another subject of the ongoing experiment within this facility we were sent to disrupt. Even if I hadn't seen it on the map.
L6-73, the very first room I had broken out of. Inky black skin, and dark carapace covering my back in a thick armor. Similar to the key subject monitored in this League outpost even if my body bore no other resemblance to them.
Restricted entry S6-73[K].
The soldier turned monster.