96 – Experimental Chamber 005 (2)
The lights hanging from the ceiling flickered.
But the darkness did not fade away.
The glowing embers were undoubtedly rising from the red-hot barrel and the heat and light on the floor.
The king commander was dead.
Without even uttering a scream.
Leaving nothing behind.
Now that iron had turned into liquid, who knows, it might be swimming somewhere together.
“…How is this possible? No, after all… Was it true that they joined hands with Mircis?”
[:: Prototype Gamma overheating confirmed. Activating cooling process ::]
– Empty. Empty. Empty…
The lights began to go out one by one.
Simultaneously, shadows cast upon the faces of the mainlanders.
“——— Commander King.”
However, the three screens continued to flicker and move rapidly.
“There was a reason why Experiment Room 005 was manually operated. Look here.”
“Yes, I know – sister. I’ll try opening the passage door. Would you shake the central network a bit?”
“I’m already doing that, Lieutenant Lee. Could you lend a hand?”
Smoke billowed out from the weapon snatched from the two in an instant, and the barrel turned red.
Left, and then right.
Like nodding its head, the massive chunk of iron began to sway.
[:: Abnormal Access Confirmed for Prototype Weapon ::]
Steam spewed out once again, but this time the lid remained closed.
The straightened barrel, about to spread wide, froze in place.
“…Understood. Boy, focus on opening the passage.
Surviving members… no, let’s try to cut off the power grid of the weapon for the members.
Comrade Yeon, Comrade Yeon, do you copy?”
The one dragging the person who had lost a leg as far away as possible urgently covered their ears.
Then, they caught sight of the passage leading to the weapon pointed at them.
A straight leg.
Below that, numerous front lines were lined up like a mesh… cliffs.
“We need to destroy the front lines with the explosives we brought. If we delay the charge or make it impossible—”
[…Trying it directly in the exhaust port, is it impossible?]
“It can’t be done alone. Safely work on the front lines. We need to buy time to escape.”
The mission had already been ruined with the death of the commander.
Whether it was the one gritting their teeth against the heat felt in their legs or those urgently searching the screen…
Everyone had the same thought.
“Withdrawing through the exhaust port… is an act of suicide, lad.”
“Are you trying to sneak in now? Whether hit by a big cannon or shot by a small gun, dying is the same, right?”
Saying so, he flexed his clenched wrist.
Then, on the screen, images of numerous barricades began to appear.
TG 001, 002, 003…
Numerous squares and rectangles, spaces composed of alphabets and numbers…
Slowly, the internal structure of the facility was dissected by eight hands.
[:: Simultaneous abnormal access confirmed for internal facility ::]
[:: Activate response process beta ::]
One of the crew members carrying a bag moved their legs diligently, stepped on the rail, and mounted the weapon.
At that moment, the wires and pipes on the motionless weapon separated with a sound.
“What?!”
On both sides of the weapon were not walls but ‘barricades.’
The number 05 spread apart on both sides, and the weapon, in an instant adjustment, made its passage a straight line –
With a frictional sound, it slid across the floor, advancing towards the unilluminated passage.
Then, the space containing the abyss disappeared before the eyes of the officer.
[Did you just see that, Officer Lee? The passage is here. It’s dark, but it leads outside!]
However, the technicians paid attention to a different sound.
It wasn’t the door, but the warning emanating from the speaker that posed a problem.
“Process Beta? What is that – “
“…Signal detected. Unmanned drones.”
In the eyes of the man with the black gauntlet, numerous points were reflected.
Also, in front of the man who hastily jumped back to the floor, the opening ceiling came into view.
Those with blue sensors emitted straight-line light in all directions –
– Zoom.
Staining those sensors red, weapons emerged from below.
Same color, same sound, but smaller in size.
“Are they planning to standardize plasma weapons? Even on those drones…”
The man with the bomb bag loaded his rifle, which had been encircling him, pointed it towards the sky, and pulled the trigger.
And, just like the groaning figure in pain, he lifted the gun thrown on the ground, scattering bullets.
Blinking lights, and occasional darkness.
What illuminated it were the flashes bursting from the muzzle.
“005… 005… the passage, ah, damn it. How many passages are there?!”
Spaces appearing between the opening and closing lights hanging from the ceiling.
Spaces between beams of light, opening and closing, where weapons fall apart before they can charge, and winged machines that get stuck in opening and closing doors, unable to stabilize and plummet.
Amidst countless noises and lights, those scrutinizing the structure of a room resembling a complex maze find themselves slowly, deliberately, prying open the barrier of the corridor where the weapons disappeared.
“Found it. Let’s go!”
” ——— Comrades, the passage is open! Let’s move!”
Foreign languages filled the room.
However, the two soldiers gripping their guns continued to roll their heads back towards the sky.
They paid no attention to the open passage.
With eyes that had turned crimson, changed.
“Darn it, did they inject combat stimulants…”
“Then we should be the ones to go out first. Let’s take them as we go down.”
Throwing down the rope used to descend earlier, one by one, they began tying themselves and descending, the deafening noise and vibrations gradually becoming audible.
The boy opened the screen he had closed.
“…what?”
[:: Project Gamma Unit 2 Placement ::]
“Unit 2? What the hell is that?!”
The same form as what they had seen.
The same structure.
And the same size.
What appeared from the opposite direction of the iron corridor where the weapons vanished was another plasma cannon.
“It can’t be happening.
Using a cannon of this magnitude again?”
Drones descended from the ceiling.
But this time, they weren’t armed; they had arms.
Swiftly, they moved towards the wires, grabbing and fitting them into the slots on the wall.
Each movement accompanied by the crackling of electricity slicing through the air.
“Are they going to fire again, with those…”
“We’re out of time, move!”
“Engineer Yeon! Hurry with the thousand units…!”
– Beep…
It wasn’t a flash that made ears ache, noses sting, and eyes blind.
But a clear beam of light pierced through, catching the man firing his gun off guard.
“…Agh, ahhhhh!!”
His scream filled the space, but the subsequent sound was only the hollow click of an empty magazine, signifying the price paid: a blue rod piercing through his head.
From Noble mtl dot com
“Damn it, Engineer Yeon!”
“The combat drug’s useless, run!”
The boy’s hand struck the man’s back as they followed the man and woman ahead.
Towards the cannons slowly rumbling to life, they ran.
[:: Automation Process A stopped. Switching to manual operation – ::]
“I’ll switch to Automation Process A, then we’ll redirect our fire forward instead – whoa?!”
“Be careful!”
As if anticipating the impending fall, the masked woman embraced the boy, lifting him up.
Grabbing his slightly dazed face firmly, her hands striking his back were – rough.
“Snap out of it, switch to Automation Process, before it’s too late…!”
A pungent smell stinging the nose.
Almost too difficult to open his eyes, the ramparts beginning to glow.
[:: Error. Manual control disengaged. Initiating Automation Process A ::]
[:: Error, inaccessible during process execution ::]
In anticipation of the expected outcome, the boy immediately closed the screen and looked back.
However, the continentals did not follow.
Not even Captain Lee.
Suddenly, his eyes turned red, picking up the fallen gun from the ground, he raised it to the sky, shouting –
“aaah!!”
Instead of rational words, he only screamed, spraying bullets in all directions.
It was a concoction created for war.
A substance that muddled the human mind, elevating only aggression.
“What are you doing?! Run! We need to close the barricade!”
[:: Error. Checking barricade status during Automation Process ::]
[:: Barricade blocked according to the process ::]
The boy sprinted toward the closing iron door.
As the tracks severed and the devices securing the door fell one by one –
He finally threw himself into the disappearing gap.
– Thud.
The trio, escaping through the flashing light, vanished into the darkness where nothing could be seen.
Until the blue light revealed itself from the mask.
“Is everyone okay?”
“Yeah… that was close.”
“Heh, heh, heh, heh…”
A bottle with an open lid was handed to the boy panting heavily, striking his chest continuously.
With a gentle touch on his back, his face covered in sweat nodded, accepting it.
“Hoo, thanks.”
“How old are you?”
“Why suddenly ask about my age?”
As if reminiscing something with that question, he hesitated…
Finally, his lips parted.
“…I thought you were quite brave for your age.
I wish I had been like that too.”
Upon hearing this, the boy closed his mouth, which had been open to drink water.
However, no matter how intensely he stared… he couldn’t see the face beyond the mask.
“Sorry, I spoke unnecessarily. I’ll take a short break. I’ll check where we are roughly.”
She, who had briefly lowered her head, touching my arm, soon turned her face towards the front of the massive corridor.
A space devoid of light.
Rail tracks for transportation, yet no door with the sign ‘Authorized Personnel Only’ could be found no matter how hard one searched.
“As expected… This space must be entirely composed of machines, right?
Just like the drone from earlier.”
“Yes, that’s right. PRT – 000… Incheon Independence… Since then, they’ve been pushing the entire city with CI and FT units.”
A war caused not by people but by artificial intelligence believed to be tools of the people.
Actions taken not in obedience to given commands but autonomously setting goals and striving to achieve them.
“What do you think? Really… What did PRT – 000 do to them -“
“It couldn’t have been like that.”
Listening to the conversation in silence, the boy sitting hesitantly in his place carefully observed the two figures moving in the darkness.
Twisting his wrist slightly, he opened the screen.
“…Taehyuk, surely.”
Two syllables of a faintly called name.
The boy’s eyes widened at that.