595 burst through a particularly flammable clump of matter with the staircase just a dozen metres away when the source of the chittering sound revealed itself. An armoured carapace with four insect legs, a long jagged tail and slime-dashed teeth clacked out of the tunnel and chittered furiously. Freyr screamed.

The Agent charged her shotgun to full power, narrowed the vector and fired at the monster. A sheet of plasma covered the front half of its body just as it began clambering up the side of the platform from the tracks. It screamed, recoiling back underneath the parapet where 595 lost sight of it.

A gurgling cry issued from the opposite tunnel; the Agent swivelled towards the new threat as it appeared on her sensory grid. Before she could complete the turn, two vines decoupled from pillars either side of the way forward and lunged at her. 595, fully dialled in behind the stubby shotgun, blew one of the vines to pieces before it gave an electronic sigh as the energy cell drained. The second vine wrapped around the gun and tried to yank it from her hands, so 595 grabbed the Rothian energy sword from her waist, flicked it on and slashed the vine in half.

The Agent shook the vine off the shotgun, then compacted it down as far as it would go and magnetised it to her chest plate. There was no time to reload now. She glanced behind her, but realised Dr Lang was no longer there.

Freyr recoiled from the terrible fascination of the creature coming for them, and stumbled off to the right, towards the middle of the platform. She fired her blaster wildly in front of her, still shouting and swearing, until another of the creatures burst from the tunnel on the opposite side of the platform. Freyr’s shout raised in pitch, and she turned tail to run back the way they’d come.

Seeing as 595 was leading the way, Vreta took up guarding the rear alongside Freyr they were moving forward. As such, he was in a position to notice when she strayed. She was frightened, understandably. Vreta was frightened, and it was only training that kept him calm and focused. He just kept his mind on moving from one moment to the next, and in this moment, he needed to keep their team cohesive.

Freyr would find herself stopped as Vreta took hold her her arm. It was her weapon arm he grabbed, just to make sure she did not fire on him in a panic. At the same time, Rhia had been observing 595’s fight with one of the creatures. She analyzed the effect of the Agent’s shotgun on the creature and used the data to calibrate the efficient power setting for Vreta’s own weapon. As Vreta took aim, holding his rifle underarm in his other hand, she swapped the rifle to its scattershot setting. While not the most stable firing position, the reticle painted on his HUD allowed him to put shots on target.

Having Freyr firing wildly at anything that moved was more of a risk than a benefit, so Vreta took immediate action to address the issue. “Stay calm, and just stick close to me. You don’t need to shoot unless they are getting close enough to threaten you. Just stay with me and let me protect you. I want you to grab my tail, and don’t let go.”

“Umm, ok!” Freyr replied, fumbling for the proffered tail-end one hand while keeping her pistol up with the other. Another chittering screech made her flinch; Freyr looked over and saw the slavering monster closest to them hop up onto the platform. It clicked deftly through the vine-covered alleys, striking a diagonal line between them and the stairway.

“It's female!” Freyr gasped, mainly to herself. Through the vines, an egg sac was fleetingly visible under the thorax, behind the arms. She’d never seen Cradle creatures displaying the ability to procreate, but she pushed the thought from her mind as a gurgling snarl issued from the other side of the platform. Freyr’s view was obscured by rapidly growing vegetation, but she imagined the other one was not best pleased. “Oh no. Let's get out of here!” She pleaded again.

There were a handful of reasons that Vreta had Freyr hold on to him. The foremost was to reduce the chance of her panicking. She simply did not have the training to stay calm under this much pressure. Physically holding on to him would be a constant reminder that he was there and able to protect her, which, unless Human psychology was drastically different from his expectations, would reduce panic. Even if it did not, it would at least make sure she knew which direction to go at all times so they did not end up separated. At this stage, they could not afford any delays or detours.

“We will, just hold on and stay close.” Vreta replied. He did not have near as much of an academic interest in these creatures, as his focus was purely on survival. Even if it wasn’t, he did not have enough background knowledge on the Cradle to know why the creature was significant. He fired another pair of shots at the creature, but kept moving at a steady pace to catch up to 595. “Agent, we’re behind you! Moving to catch up.” He shouted ahead, intent on shooting his way through anything that might get in his way.

595 only made it a few more strides before the creature she’d hit with her shotgun reappeared. Clambering up onto the platform, ablaze with light blue fire and screeching manically, it slashed at her with one of its dagger-like legs. The Agent dived away from the lunge, rolled among the slithering vines, jumped to her feet, turned and swung the blade with all her might.

The plasma blade scythed straight through the middle of the monster’s beak as it rushed forward, cutting the end off each. It reared up and pirouetted madly to get away; its razor tail flicked round smashed into 595’s side. She flew through the air towards the stairs, scraping her helmet against the ceiling then bouncing off a vine-covered pillar before rolling over a few times, right into the path of second creature. The automatically deactivated blade clattered by the steps.

Moving to cut off Vreta and Freyr before this bite-sized woman arrived in its lap, the female creature charged forward, jaws extending out past its beak to crunch 595’s neck.

Overall, Rhia was more effective in combat when she was in control, but if there was an advantage to being in the backseat, so to speak, it was that she could devote more processor time to analysis. These creatures were yet another new monstrosity to be thought up by some twisted intelligence in the Cradle, or perhaps Rothia’s Object, if it was already joining with the Cradle. She did not know the purpose behind these creatures, as many of them, witnessed both here and on Rothia, did not seem to be natural. Were they created intentionally in these forms, or perhaps they were allowed to evolve over time in a Cradle-like environment? But then, what would be the reason for an existence adapted only to the artificial environment? The entity in the Object had claimed its people were life-seeders, but none of the creatures in the simulation would be at all adapted to any sort of known habitable environment. Something simply did not add up.

For combat analysis, the situation was simpler. The creatures were quick, but still easy enough for Rhia to track. It helped that the female creature made her target abundantly clear. With he speed of Rhia’s processor, she could plot out its projected path on Vreta’s HUD while marking potential weakpoints. In this case, she pointed out its open beak and the jaws emerging from within. As Vreta took aim, she adjusted the choke to maximize hit probability, as well as making minor adjustments to his aim as he moved. Vreta fired a scattershot at the lunging creature, intent on putting an unhealthy amount of superheated plasma down its throat.

The female creature’s fleshy jaw melted under the plasma fusillade, but it didn’t stop coming. Burbling with rage, it reared up and stamped on 595’s midriff with both front legs. The Agent’s battered shield popped under the weight of the impact. She scrambled wildly for the Rothian sword, just out of reach, while trying to maneuver out from underneath the creature.

Bouncing off 595’s shield before it broke, the creature reared up for another attempt. Freyr shot underneath Vreta’s shoulder at the thing, with the occasional shot activating the Rothian’s shield too. A spine-tingling roar emanated from the other side of the platform, and she caught a glimpse of the other creature running, off to their left. “Look out!" Freyr shouted, still holding onto Vreta’s tail.

Rhia was surprised the first shot did not take down the female creature. She expected the heat to burn through its skull from underneath, though it was entirely possible it had unusual biology. Regardless, Vreta had to keep up the pressure, since the Agent did not seem to be able to defend herself at the moment. As soon as Vreta’s own shields flared, he tugged his tail to the side to encourage Freyr to stand in a more preferable spot. He also heard her warning, though Rhia had been tracking the other creature the entire time. It was still distant enough, being on the other side of the platform, that Vreta could spare a few shots to assist 595.

Since they did not know the creature’s internal biology, Rhia marked more general targets on the female creature. She knew their weapon could penetrate the creature’s armored exterior, it was just a matter of picking the right targets. Vreta’s first shot was towards the creature’s neck, which was one of the most common vital areas across most animals. The second was towards one of its front legs to compromise its mobility and help give the Agent an edge in protecting herself.

Vreta had to swap targets quickly to the second creature. Agent 595 had already cut through its beak during her struggle, so Vreta focused on disabling the other weapons the creatures tended to use. As it was sprinting towards them, Vreta fired shots at both of its front legs. They were relatively thin, so successful hits could potentially melt them in half. Likely not lethal damage, but ultimately, they did not need to kill these creatures. Crippling them to the point that they could escape would be just as much of a victory.

As soon as the creature reared up, 595 crawled backwards over the uneven vines, one arm reaching for the Rothian sword. She wasn’t looking when a second barrage of plasma splashed all over her attacker’s neck area. The superheated particles on the exterior joined with the coating that was currently melting the creature’s throat. The monster’s head listed alarmingly towards Vreta, and its screech slurred into a loud humming. Its leg glowed bright as the third shot sprayed it, but the incredibly strong superstructure remained intact.

595 grasped the sword with one hand and turned to look at the creature just as one of its legs came down on her thigh, piercing the armour and the flesh behind her bone. The Agent roared out loud as the razor-sharp end twisted around when the creature tried to drunkenly pivot towards the Rothian. Activating the sword in her left hand, 595 swung it into the insect’s midriff and tried to pull it through. She added her other hand to the hilt as the beast writhed sluggishly around, a sickly slicing sound filling the subway.

The other creature did not take this well. Issuing a final terrifying war cry, it raised its front arms as if to throttle Vreta, who was in front of it, and shambled forward alarmingly fast. Freyr moved with Vreta’s tail as he swivelled to address the other threat, and noticed now that the other creature was considerably smaller and stockier than the female 595 was now cutting into. The shots to its legs slowed it slightly, but it carried on despite the risk of collapse. It used its tail to cross the final distance, leaping at Vreta like some flying, plasmafied spider. Freyr screamed and fired at its underside, flaring the Rothian’s shields again by mistake.

The action moved quickly as the beasts pounced upon them. They moved with speed and ferocity, and after firing on the encroaching creature’s legs, Vreta had only seconds to react. They were seconds which Rhia intended to use wisely. Her processor clock ticked over from one nanosecond to the next as she watched the creature inching steadily closer through the air through Vreta’s eyes. The neuron connections between his artificial eyes and brain had been replaced with higher speed connections, so his vision could actually update their mind fast enough to take advantage of her processing speed. And of course, she had his other sensors available to feed her data. Between his vision and echolocation data, she had precise measurements of the position and velocity of every part of the creature they could detect.

Naturally, trajectory calculations were trivial to Rhia. Even the simplest of AI could handle basic physics calculations. What was more difficult would be making accurate analysis of their strategic options based on the observational data she had collected so far. Regardless of how quickly she could think, Vreta was still limited in how well he could react to her recommendations in the seconds he would have. She had to make sure that every bit of the information she gave him was accurate.

Let’s see, what can we do about this? Rhia thought as she took a good look at the numbers the physics algorithms were giving her. Plotted out visually, the creature would be landing pretty much right on him, spiked legs first. Okay, not a great start. Need some penetration values; what have I got?

The likelihood of armor penetration would be given by the force that would be applied on the contact area, combined with the estimated strength of the spikes’ material composition, compared to the known strength of Vreta’s armor. Luckily, Rhia did have a few points of reference to estimate the material density and approximate strength of the carapace. Assuming this creature was not exceptionally different in composition from the female, she had observed values for its impact force against 595, as well as its speed and resistance to changes in motion. From that, she could get a reasonable estimate on its mass and density. The carapace’s strength was harder, but between the two creatures, their legs had taken three shots of known power from Vreta’s weapon. That provided enough data points for her to make a ballpark estimate of the material’s durability. Combined with the velocity calculations, the lower end of that range would still have Vreta’s armor holding, though the upper end became more worrisome. Of course, that would not do.

Okay, definitely got to do something about that. Start strafing right, rotate the hips, and… Rhia projected a few of the possible positions Vreta could take before impact. With quick enough movement, he could angle his torso so that the spike would strike a glancing blow against his armor, while still keeping in a position to defend Freyr. Adjusting for the force of the new impact, the armor would hold for any values within the range of Rhia’s estimates. Better. Now for the counter

Rhia did not estimate that Vreta could overpower the creature, but he did have the strength to fight back. He would just need to leverage the creature’s momentum against it. Based on the position he was going to move to, Rhia identified the points to grab on the beast’s underside so Vreta could duck underneath and throw the creature mostly in the direction of its own momentum up against one of the columns behind him. From there, Vreta would have a chance to open fire.

Rhia had the plan set, and so she projected each recommended action on Vreta’s HUD from moment to moment. She also spurred his muscles to move at the right times in the right ways to make each motion seem almost like instinct. Still, regardless of how much detail Rhia put into planning, they were still limited by Vreta’s ability to execute on that plan in real time. He could think quickly, but not nearly as quickly as her.

To Vreta, following Rhia’s instruction was like following a sixth sense. It felt like his subconscious guided him from one movement to the next. He started to strafe and turn his body so the spike would glance off of his armor. He let go of his rifle, ducked down low, and went to grab the creature as it flew overhead to throw it up against the column behind him. At the same time, he used his tail to push Freyr out of the path of danger. If all went well, he would draw his pistol and open fire into the creature’s underbelly at full power until it died, or something else happened. A Rothian sidearm did have comparable power to a rifle, but merely lacked in the versatility of firing modes and long range accuracy.

Vreta’s maneuver would’ve panned out, if it weren’t for some unusually dexterous arms on the monster’s front. As the Rothian tried to guide the male creature into a pillar, they reached down and grabbed hold of his helmet, grasping tight. Instead of being propelled away, some of the force was transferred back into Vreta’s legs as the creature swung round.

With a chittering squeal it wrapped around him like an apron, back two insect legs scraping and dancing along the ground. The front two legs flicked back and forth, trying to make a purchase on his shoulders and chestplate. What was left of its jaw crunched against the top of Vreta’s head.

Freyr screamed and let go of Vreta’s tail, firing full auto into the melee as she made a run towards the stairs. She didn’t make it far, as the desperate female creature in front lunged at her. Unfortunately, that sudden movement applied the final bit of pressure required to finish 595’s work.

The front half of the female came free from the back half. A bright plasma cut through the middle opened up. Gouts of black ichor sprayed all over Freyr and the Agent. The creature’s egg sac burst, sending a slurry of fluid and eggs all over 595 as she struggled to get up. The two parts of the female collapsed in opposite directions, twitching furiously on the floor.

“Help me!” 595 winced, extending an arm from her position, partially covered by the front half. Her other hand held the activated energy sword. Freyr rushed over and started to pull her from the mess. Shrieking filled the subway from the separate struggle nearby.

Rhia was not expecting its dexterity to be the unknown variable, but in any case, she worked quickly to adapt. She loosened the safeties on Vreta’s muscles to give him a better chance of taking this creature head-to-head. Luckily, its damaged jaw meant that it could not find much purchase biting down on his head. Teeth scraped against the armor, but could not get around his head to actually start concentrating the force. As far as grappling was concerned, the jaws that would normally be its main weapon were damaged. Being an animal, it may not have been creative enough to understand how to overcome its injury.

The creature was already grabbing a hold of him, so Vreta grabbed it right back in return. He got one hand on its neck, and another on the base of its left spike, then turned around and slammed it up against the column himself. A part of the column was crushed and crumbled under the force of the hit. From there, he released his grip with both hands and started to strike it in every way he could. Powerful, unrestrained blows to the bottom and side of the creature’s head came from one hand, while the other grabbed the knife from his magnetic holster and started to make quick jabs across any bit of soft tissue he could see. He kicked with the clawed boots of one foot, and even delivered a headbutt to try and smash in its teeth. He did not know its vital areas, precisely, but he could at least overwhelm it with attacks and give it enough injuries to make it reconsider wanting to be close to Vreta.

Grabbing hold of Freyr’s hand, 595 pulled herself up and immediately yelled out in pain as the female’s leg moved with her. Looking down, she saw that the sharp hooked end was still embedded in her flesh. The Agent glanced up at the brawl unfolding; she couldn’t help right away, but she held something that could.

“Hot on your left, catch!” 595 called, underarm flicking the activated energy sword through the air towards the Rothian. It was a good throw - left unattended her suit projected it would spin clean through the slugging match. Plenty of opportunity to be creative with it. A stream of energy bolts preceded the sword from Freyr’s pistol, melting into the beast’s battered carapace and splashing off Vreta’s shields.

“Quick. Hold the leg.” 595 pointed, holding onto the bottom of the handrail heading up the stairs to steady herself. Freyr nodded as her pistol powered down, stepping hastily over the twitching corpse to get in a better position. 595 gritted her teeth when the scientist held the leg taut, then pulled. Pain.

The male creature, meanwhile, screeched and recoiled under the blows to various parts of its body. It surged forward, thrusting its front legs at the big lizard, then backed up to try and escape. The pillar it was up against seemed to disagree; it groaned and dust fell from the ceiling. The creature’s long tail wrapped around Vreta’s right leg and pulled hard.

In this position, the creature could not deliver a full-force blow with its legs, so their spikes merely scratched the surface of Vreta’s armor. Although, its tail proved to be more of a threat as it wrapped around his leg. Getting Vreta to the ground would go a long way to putting the creature in a position to do some real damage.

Underneath his helmet, Vreta was gritting his teeth. In the moment he had to react, Vreta dug his foot into the ground…quite literally. He jabbed a clawed boot into the platform itself, giving him a firm position to resist the pull of the creature’s tail trying to sweep him off of his feet. Rhia closely monitored the forces being applied across the affected sections of his leg armor, though the platform’s floor would likely give before that would, and indeed, that was precisely what started happening.

Vreta had not intended to resist forever. He only intended just to buy a few moments. Rhia tracked the plasma blade through the air during its flight and directed Vreta on when to intercept it. Without so much as taking his eyes off of the creature, he snatched the blade out of the air just before its tail jerked his foot out of the ground.

Vreta hit the ground hard as he fell onto his back. The beast wasted no time climbing onto him to pin him down, while raising one leg high up in the air to finally be able to get a good amount of force behind its spike. With Vreta’s blade in hand, though, it was already too late for it. As the leg started to jab downward, it was met with a swing that cut through the leg both in the middle of the spike, and father down close to the joint. Vreta wasted no time following through, using the momentum of the first swing to start a second cutting diagonally through the thickest part of its body to maximize the damage.

“I can’t get free, I’m gonna need to angle it.” Freyr looked up at the Agent with wide eyes, still holding the leg.

“Just fucking get it out, I don’t care ho-“ 595 yelled against gritted teeth as Freyr moved the leg from side to side while pulling hard. The Agent glanced over at Vreta as he succeeded in cutting the male creature in half. A giant spray of ichor coated his armour. At least that was one less thing to worry about. She groaned again as Freyr twisted the spike, then looked down as with a squelch it came free.

“I got it!” Freyr announced, pleased with her handiwork. She dumped the twitching leg onto the floor. “Thanks.” 595 grunted, checking the wound. Where the spike had pierced her armour, she could see a slick black underlayer creeping over her skin to close it off again. She instructed her suit to clean the wound and stitch her thigh back together as best it could.

“About time.” 595 tapped her wrist while looking at Vreta. “We’ve well and truly missed our window now.”

“We have to keep going. The entity may still be contactable.” Freyr asserted, surprising even herself. More than half of her being wanted to get as far away from the Cradle as possible. It just so happened that the smaller half was the half that mattered.

Vreta flicked off his plasma blade before both halves of the creature had even hit the ground. Since his weapon cauterized the wounds as it made them, he was spared at least most of the creature’s fluids, though not all of them. Regardless, he could not afford to waste time. Every second mattered, and they needed to get to their destination. He holstered both his knife and plasma blade, then picked back up his rifle off the ground before sprinting over to 595 and Freyr.

Silently at first, Vreta moved towards the stairway, then motioned for Freyr to fall in line just behind him. “We need to move quickly. I can sense them, more creatures on approach. These or…something else.” He informed them. Rhia had put up warnings of what she was detecting via echolocation before the second creature was even dead.

Vreta did not worry about any other concerns other than what was directly ahead of them. This time, he took the lead as he guided them up the stairs towards the surface, and closer to their destination. Regardless of what he might have done had he been in control sooner, there was no time for worry or doubts right now.

595’s suit sent an enhanced ping through the subway, and her motion tracker blew up with objects. All converging on their location from the four tunnel openings. “I see them. Get going, now!” She snapped, pushing Freyr up the steps ahead of her. She grasped the shotgun magnetised to her chestplate and pulled it away from her - it expanded out again into a combat ready state.

With a steady hand, she flicked the spent battery out from underneath the weapon. The sound of it clattering down the stairs echoed around the now-peaceful subway station.However, simmering beyond the border of regular hearing she could just about detect more chittering and the click-clack of legs. Breathing deeply and evenly, 595 pulled another energy cell away from her armour and clicked it into the shotgun’s battery housing.

A sharp pain from her leg made 595 hiss. She could feel her suit performing emergency surgery on her thigh to stop the bleeding and maximise operational effectiveness. The Agent was starting to feel weird, like when they had been inside the Navigator the second time around. She blinked heavily multiple times to try and clear her head.

595 glanced behind and below her at the subway station entrance. Superimposed on her view, the image of two novitiates looking at her against the backdrop of Interceptor troop bay flickered into being. She recognised them immediately.”Such...violence, in our name. Who knows what you’ll do next.” A hoarse whisper wrapped around her mind.

Freyr faltered on the steps as the shimmering impression of David appeared in front of her, leaning in for their first kiss at one of the university fundraisers they both attended. Freyr felt the hair on top of his head between her fingers as her eyes closed. “Would you really sacrifice yourself, to save someone you loved?” A voice murmured.

A different voice appeared in Vreta’s mind, speaking as a native Rothian would. “I have lived long enough to know that all things come to an end. Have you?”

Vreta gripped his weapon tightly, continuing to press on towards the surface. The situation was hard to interpret from within. Once they reached their destination, they would have the tools to expand their perspective on what was happening. The voice was something strange; perhaps something from within the Cradle? He suspected there might be an intelligence within the Cradle, guiding its actions, but he hoped it was nothing from within the Object they had recovered.

I’ve lived long enough to see nature defied at every turn. Death is no different. Vreta thought with a distinct conviction as they emerged from the subway. He made a quick assessment of the surroundings the moment they came into view. The headquarters itself was now in sight, with just a park between them. The quickest route would be through a grassy, vegetated area surrounding a statue. Vreta was, at this point, inherently suspicious of the plant life, considering how the Cradle always seemed to work through organic agents. However, he had seen more than enough cases of the Cradle suddenly taking over artificial areas to realize that it did not seem to matter. Perhaps the fact that the park was already filled with living beings would make it more difficult for the Cradle to take their place?

“There are the headquarters. What area do we need to reach?” Vreta asked.

“Yes! Where are they? Hey! Answer me!” Freyr pleaded, standing still on the steps, switching her comms to private. She didn’t want the others to hear her like this. The voice didn’t respond, and the vision of her husband subsided.

Even if 595 had recognised her charge’s distress inside her suit, now was definitely not the time to have her elaborate. She pushed the scientist forward again, continually looking back down the stairs. Lots of slimy shapes were surging into the subway.

Despite her emotions, Freyr gasped when she emerged from the mouth of the stairway and looked upwards. She switched back to team comms. “Woah! That’s new...” The skeins of purple light crisscrossing the sim ceiling above were pulsing 24% brighter than previous records, her suit informed her. This bathed the low, circular shape of GCHQ and the surrounding parks in sickly purple twilight. Freyr wondered if this was a sign of the Object assuming direct control over the Cradle.

Vreta’s questioning woke Freyr from her reverie “Oh, ummmm…Let me think...”.

“Anywhere but here, please.” 595 interjected, her back nearly touching Freyr’s. A dozen smaller versions of the monsters they’d just killed were congregating around the eviscerated corpses and chittering angrily. The Agent pointed her shotgun down the stairs, ready to shoot.

“Ok! Erm...one of the Ops Centres i suppose. I was hoping CraSec would take us right there. I think that's a side entrance over there.” Freyr pointed to a brightly lit gateway between four pillars. “That’s good enough for me, lets get a move on!” 595 urged.

Vreta was not as familiar with the Cradle’s normal state to recognize immediately what was wrong, though Rhia was already drawing comparisons between current observations and saved data on both the Cradle and Object. Even if she could not draw any conclusions at the moment, she still needed to try and consider the possibilities. With so many unknowns ahead of them, any edge she could manage to give would be valuable. She supposed they could potentially see if Vreta’s idea about living things had merit, as they needed to cross through one of the parks to reach the entrance Freyr pointed out. Naturally, nothing would stop the Cradle beings from simply chasing them, but if the Cradle was unable to suddenly overtake the plant life, as it often did with inanimate materials, then that would provide at least some advantage.

Vreta quickly grabbed Freyr’s hand to encourage her to follow along as they stepped out onto the grass. He made sure to specifically grab the hand holding her weapon so she could only open fire when he allowed her to. His shields had recharged by this point, but he was growing more annoyed by his shields consistently taking…unnecessary damage in the midst of the fight. If they all made it through this, he was going to be quite insistent on her getting more practice in a simulator.

Keeping close together, the team started to move as quickly as they could to reach the headquarters. Whatever they found within, they needed to reach it as soon as they could.