Chapter 148: Chapter 144

“Don’t chance it, put ‘em down!” Edward pulled his rifle’s trigger as he gave the order, and his friends and comrades by the entrance followed without hesitation. Shards of Tiberium sliced through the air to shred the oncoming mob. The troopers had to disable the runes on their helmets as eldritch energies spiked to highly distracting levels.

 

The ghouls’ mindless roars were drowned out by the whips of electricity that sparked out of them. The electrical tendrils did no harm as they lashed out against the ghouls, but Edward noted how each arc left small soot marks on the concrete that it contacted and, more concerningly, created bright little holes of molten metal on metallic surfaces. 

 

As they shambled up on their fused limbs, some of the ghouls crackled with thunderclaps that rattled throughout the underground space and a blinding brightness that made the troopers’ visors automatically darken to prevent visual impairment. Those ghouls then vanished from multispectrum sight, and Edward initially thought they had exploded due to some sort of instability. 

 

Then more localized lightning erupted, some in mid air, some amongst the ghoulish mob, some in the empty spaces around it, and those missing ghouls returned. The young commander had to steady his shaking nerves when he saw how one multi-limbed ghoul flashed into existence between a trio of other ghouls, and the three ghouls were yanked in towards the sparking teleporter, leaving a larger amalgamation of flailing limbs and snapping heads.

 

Of course, the new, larger mess of limbs didn’t have the decency to just keel over and die, and continued its interrupted climb up to the troopers. More of these larger monstrosities were being created as more ghouls randomly teleported amongst their fellows. 

 

It was taking more focused fire to fully stop one of these brutes, as head shots were becoming useless since it became very clear that you needed to shred every single head on a fused body to stop it from moving, and some of those heads were inconveniently located. Complete shredding of the malformed torsos were needed, and sometimes too many limbs got in the way for the crystal shards to make good work of each target.

 

“Ah shit,” Edward cursed. “Lyons, you seeing this bullshit?”

 

The reply was flat and dead serious. “Yes. Sev’s been informed of this development as well.”

 

“Noted.” The company commander switched back to the general channel to return to his duties, feeling a spike in expectations now. “Back into the tunnels!”

 

1st Company fell back in good order, setting up further back to use their ranged advantage against a funneled enemy. By the time the lightning-wreathed ghouls showed up at the entrance their numbers had thinned, but their total mass had not. 

 

Several bloated, grotesque giants crawled and half-rolled on too many limbs, the arms and legs not contacting the ground writhing uselessly in the air. Whips of lightning scorched black trails across the concrete and melted the blast doors out of shape. If not for the fact that a couple of them had sparked out of existence and reappeared several yards in closer to the troopers, these ghouls would’ve made for easy targets. It also didn’t help that any corpse that was fused into a teleporting ghoul didn’t slow down the abominations at all, but instead the once-dead limbs began flailing and clawing with the liveliness of their new host.

 

Sylvie and a few others tried switching to white lasers, but the beams only punched cauterized holes and didn’t slow down the lumbering masses of flesh too much. If anything, everyone noticed how the targets were spitting out more arcs of lightning after each lancing strike.

 

“So, fuck using energy weapons. Good to know. Switch back to T-shards.”

 

Despite the unnatural abilities, and with a good distance still separating the Nexus soldiers from the ghouls, the fused ghouls were eventually shredded down to gory bits as the storm of crystalline shards won over the crackling mass of fused bodies. More thorough handheld scanners were brought out, and only when they confirmed the fading of metanatural energies back to (still high) ambient levels from the piles of flesh did 1st Company dare wade through the bloodied tunnel back into the massive lab. Even then, handfuls of Tiberium powder were sprinkled before the troopers to absorb any lingering eldritch energies just to be sure.

 

The troopers took no chances, especially not with unidentified eldritch phenomena as disturbing as this. Edward wanted to keep the 1st Company’s record as spotless as he could, and with any luck, whatever tech or rituals used to create these horrors could be found back in that chamber so that this whole encounter wouldn’t be a complete waste.

 

They returned to the chamber to find the catwalks somehow still in place despite the pockmarks of holes melted through them. A smoky haze filled the cavernous room, and a more mundane scanner picked up dangerous levels of ozone in the air to go with the high levels of FEV contamination. Despite the silence, Edward felt a tight tension, an invisible heavy pressure pushing down on his mind.

 

A new beacon was placed just outside, and he hoped that whatever metanatural buildup wouldn’t interfere too much with Nexus teleportation. From the feeling of things, there was another threat waiting to be sprung. Despite that, the platoons streamed down the catwalks in good order, the catwalks remaining structurally sound as dozens of boots cautiously made their way to the bottom of the oversized lab.

 

Everyone was informed enough in rituals and Blacksite Tleilax to give the circular plate at the center of the floor a wide berth, especially with a number of large contraptions dangling above it. They did find the source of FEV emissions though: four broken vats crusted in the dried concoction hugged one end of the room, with a broken metal piping that had clearly burst and swung down to rupture said containers. If Edward had to guess, it was the rupturing that caused the ghoulification of the personnel here, but surely that wasn’t enough to trigger the lightning-teleport abilities.

 

Turning back to the metal plate and the devices looming over it, Edward squinted at the electronics as he fell into thought. Did their tech somehow turn eldritch, or was it on purpose? Nothing looked out of the ordinary from old world tech, at least on the outside. Maybe it’s in the programming? Curie did mention something about memetic hazards being able to be stored digitally…

 

He decided to leave those questions for the specialists, and settle on securing the area. Out of the corner of his eyes, Rebecca and Allie produced more Tiberium powder to sprinkle on the terminal and the other artefacts around it. Edward didn’t notice the motion sensor until its light blinked to life as Allie’s fingers waved before it and a psychic shriek tore exploded in his mind, sending him and everyone else down to their knees.

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His armor felt warm around him, probably from the warding glyphs straining as it absorbed the eldritch shockwave. Despite that, Edward could taste blood in the back of his throat and irritatingly dribbling down his nose.

 

“Nnh… Not good…”

 

With a groan, Edward got up to his knees, just in time to see a massive ball lightning hovering above the metal plate. Allie and Rebecca were still getting up when a whip of lightning lashed out against them. The girls screamed as they were sent flying back, and Edward watched in horror as his friends slammed into the server stacks behind them and with a blinding spark they melted seamlessly into it…as did their overlapping arms fused into one.

 

“Clear the space, now!” Sarah’s voice broke through the shock and lent the commander strength to rise and move, yanking Sylvie out of her stupor. The general channel was filled with the agonized groans of the two fused troopers, as well as the confused and pained noises of the others.

 

Another shriek, and this time Edward glanced over his shoulder to see a retreating Philip being flung, sparking each time his body slammed through a desk, a cabinet, and finally landing neck-first on the railings of a catwalk’s stairs. Sylvie cried out at her husband’s quivering, choking form, breaking Edward’s hold to rush to him. Edward followed along as he struggled to keep order in the communications channel.

 

“Evac the room now!”

 

Philip didn’t look so good. The railing ran through his neck and left wrist, while his right arm vanished into a dented cabinet and his thighs were right in the middle of an office desk. Acting quickly, Edward brought out his blade to cut him out of the railings, leaving Sylvie to carry Philip and jet out to safety while he kept an eye out for the rest of his troops.

 

Things were not getting any better. The ball lightning was moving with clear intent towards the withdrawing troops, and lightning arced out to send the boys and girls flying and fusing with their environment. Vicky dragged a whole section of catwalk with her as her left side was dragged along and fused with it. Colin was thrown into Gina at an odd angle, and only the latter could scream as their bodies became one, her arm fully buried in the neck and face of the former.

 

And then Edward felt the invisible gaze of the crackling orb fixed onto him, and as fast as he was in Sardaukar armor, as honed as his reflexes were, he could not dodge lightning. The commander of 1st Company fought back the blinding pain as he was slammed into the ground. 

 

Forcing open his teary eyes, Edward found his left foot and his entire lower right leg disappeared into the concrete. The pain threatened to drag him into unconsciousness, despite his armor’s life support flooding him with a cocktail of stimulants and painkillers. He could feel his leg, and even through the pain it felt far larger and more unnatural than what he was used to. Acting purely on instinct, Edward drew in quick breaths before lifting his blade again and severing his legs at their fused points.

 

It took an immense amount of willpower and six near-incapacitating swings to hack through his ankles and knees. He bit off a good chunk of his inner cheeks as he fought back screams, and a third of his tongue fell out into his helmet on the last swing. Still though, he was free, and Edward immediately activated his jet packs to fly him out. He didn’t have enough in him to note he comms slowly breaking down into chaos, with Sarah’s commands the only thing keeping the company from fully panicking. Edward landed on the edge of the top catwalk, right in front of the entrance, where Lynn and Sarah quickly rushed out to drag him into safety. 

 

Or they were about to, when another whip of lightning flicked out towards them. All three screamed as the arc crashed into them and tossed them back. Edward drew in a pained breath as he braced himself for the agony that was sure to come. He prayed that his mutilated body wouldn’t end up completely buried in concrete, or be fused into one of his friends. 

 

This was not a good way to go. Worse, this was the worst way possible for the 1st Company to get its first true casualties.

 

Edward’s flight was abruptly halted, though he was aware enough through the haze of pain to realize that he was still in the air. With greater effort he forced his eyes open once more, and the commander found himself floating in mid-air. Lynn and Sarah were hovering beside him as well, hints of confusion leaking through their pained expression. A glance around found other troopers in similar states, some just inches from hitting each other or their environment.

 

And then Edward and the others like him were floating back into the safe darkness of the tunnel, and as they did so a figure strode past them towards the entrance, the tails of the familiar black greatcoat flowing in his wake.

 

“How dare you.”

 

Sev was here, and even with his back towards the tunnel and the rescued troopers, Edward and the others could feel their ruler’s wrath.

 

Despite the intense pain, despite the horror of befell his friends, Edward grinned.

 

Sev was here.