Mercenaries’ Tale – 4.17 Transformation
The Central Hub was a large reception area one would typically expect to find in a scientific institution. It was a round room, a reception desk at its centre flanked by an identical set of spiral staircases that led to the upper floors, their design intending to invoke images of DNA spirals. Everything was white and metallic with the exception of the green notice board panels and defunct computer screens that stretched from floor to ceiling. Helpful displays of leaflets and posters were attached to the notice boards informing guests of Genetix’s work in gene therapies, genetically modified crops and livestock, as well as the use of bio-circuitry in prosthetic limbs and organs. The room itself was lacking in power, the lights out save for the red glow leading to the nearest exits.
The exits themselves were glass doors that currently had four foot of snow pressed up against them on the other side.
“Ah, I see what you meant by the blizzard…” Käsehändler noted as he spotted the state of the outside world, “however did you get in here?”
“Door to the lab block was clear. Shouldn’t have to walk all the way back round there though, we can climb out through here,” was Doug’s reply. The doctor eyed the piled up snow beyond the glass with apprehension.
“….This is going to be terribly undignified, isn’t it?” he asked, imagining himself struggling to haul his bulk over the mound.
“Would you prefer to take your chances with whatever other creatures are loose in the facility?” this came from Kate, the red head keeping her weapon trained on the door they had entered by.
“Well… when you put it like that…” the doctor began to approach the glass doors, “just what is your plan for when we’re outside, anyway?”
“Find Archie, help him take out that fucked-up-faced arsehole if he hasn’t already done it and get the hell outta dodge!” Doug summarised enthusiastically.
“You think that you can compete with a pair of grade 6 magi?” there was a mix of surprise and awe in Käsehändler’s voice.
“Hey, I already cut the fucker’s arm off!”
“And I blew him up. Twice.”
“So I think we ain’t to be underestimated, myself,” Doug flashed a grin at the scientist. Tilo wasn’t sure if the mercenaries’ confidence was 100 percent justified or not but he couldn’t help feel a little more at ease in the face of Doug’s pure force of personality. The doctor had to hand it to them as well; they were still alive after all…
Doug had hopped over the security barrier – opting to avoid the metal detectors set up there just in case they were still active – and was now in the process of examining the doors. They were locked, the glass reinforced. His arm was probably strong enough to punch through, or at least it would have been if he hadn’t been forced to eject most of it in order to activate chainsaw mode.
“Alright, stand back. This might get messy,” he announced as he prepared to reactivate the saw in order to see if he could simply cut his way out.
“Hold on, I hear someone coming!” this came from Kate, the red head straining her ears as she listened out for potential threats. It sounded like footsteps approaching from the upper levels. It didn’t sound like more experiments though; some heeled shoes maybe? Also the distinctive sound of the hydraulics of an armoured suit, the footfalls heavy and echoing down the corridors.
Doug and Kate exchanged a glance as they both calculated their odds. They had fought off Salmanic Troopers before but it would be more pertinent to save their resources and energy for facing off against Abaddon. Doug found himself swearing under his breath as he grabbed the doctor by the arm and dragged him over to an alcove hidden under the stairs, Kate swiftly joining them.
The footsteps came closer, voices joining the sounds of click-clacking heels and stomping metal boots.
“-is quite unnecessary,”
“Silverton is very aware of what we are after,”
“And is welcome to call us whenever he wishes to further discuss,”
“Matters,” the unique cadence of the Alexandretta Sisters sounded from somewhere above, the group now at the top of the stairs.
“Maybe,” the electronic tones of someone speaking through an armoured helmet began, “but Mr Salmanic feels you haven’t been entirely honest with him and that you’ll be more useful at the Tower.”
“We have been nothing but,”
“Upfront with your employer!”
“Right, which is why our men found decades worth of compiled data on the Salmanics, is it?”
“A mere precaution to protect us from,”
“Victor Salmanic before he,”
“Passed. Nothing more,”
“And the rest of it? The data on the Mayor, PSF accounts, The Pillars at large? I bet you even have stuff on ms Silvia in your horde! She’s just a kid!” the sisters remained silent as they were escorted down the stairs. From their hiding place, the mercs could see that the twins were flanked by 6 armed guards, each one in Salmanic armoured suits.
“Don’t get too upset though. I’d consider toping ya if it were my family you were spying on but Mr Salmanic wants to put your aethionics knowledge to good use. Play your cards right and you might just get outta this alive,”
“We assure you that,”
“Our potential death is far from,”
“Likely, Sergeant,”
“Yeah? Why’s that then?”
The sisters merely smiled in response, the conversation and their progression beyond the hall stalling as the sounds of heavy footfalls echoed from the corridor that led back towards specimen containment. A moment later, a grizzled man with a nasty scar down the right side of his face emerged. His once pristine uniform had been ripped open by something razor sharp and he was bleeding profusely. This didn’t seem to bother him, however, the man levelling a FBG at the Salmanic Troopers.
“Hold it right there!” he sternly stated in a voice the mercs recognised as being the one that had come from the tannoy the moment the trap had separated them. His name tag identified him as Captain Barnes.
The Troopers seemed more surprised than worried at the appearance of the heavily armed Captain, the group merely staring at the man for a brief moment. The Sisters merely took this in stride.
“Ah, Captain Barnes,”
“How is the containment issue?”
“We’ve shutdown the Specimen Containment Wing but a number of specimen somehow managed to breach into the warehouse, or at least what’s left of it. The security teams are dealing with it now, Ma’ams,” Barnes casually informed them as he kept his weapon trained on the trespassers.
“Good. And the,”
“Backup generators?”
“Online, Ma’ams, along with all the cameras,”
“Good, we shall enjoy,”
“Examining the test data later…”
What happened next took place so quickly, the mercs barely had time to register what had transpired.
The Sisters turned and embraced one another, their bodies moulding together into a roiling ball of flesh. As the Salmanic Troopers became aware that something horrific was happening to their hostages, spindly arms shot forth from the ball with a sickening squelching sound. There were four or them, each one elongated and barbed. The front set ended in wickedly sharp, taloned claws. The back set were meatier and ended in a thick, club-like hoof, the appendage reaching down to the ground.
Next the heads emerged, the features gaunt and skull-like with long fangs and large ears reminiscent of a bat’s. Thick, green-tinted mucus dribbled down their maws in grotesque globs. They hissed and screamed as the metamorphosis continued.
The rest of the blob writhed and compressed as a torso and four insectoid legs formed at the bottom. The torso stretched out of proportion and was segmented like an ant’s, the waist thinning down to be as skinny as a man’s leg before ballooning out like a centaurs to make room for the skinny yet muscular and barbed legs.
The thing was practically naked, only scraps of clothing left over. Most of the Alexandretta’s clothes had been shredded as this new entity grew in their place. It was twice the size of what the sisters had originally been and was now surveying the shocked Troopers hungrily.
In the blink of an eye, one of the heads swung round and chomped down on the head of one of the Salmanic men. The sound of grinding steel could be heard as it wrenched the head free of the torso and swallowed it, the man collapsing dead at its feet as they finished.
This acted like a wake-up call, the Troopers springing to action. Most opened fire on the creature, a couple tried to run for the door only to find Captain Barnes had sealed them in whilst they were distracted by the sister’s transformation. The Sisters paid them no mind as they beat on the door, screaming for help. Instead, the Sisters swiped a hoofed arm at the nearest Trooper, sending him flying across the room and slamming into a wall with a sickening thud. The Sisters then swiped at another with their claws, lifting the Trooper up and using him to scatter the others before leaping on and eviscerating one of the men that had attempted to flee.
The gun fire was doing little to nothing to slow them down, the bullets being ejected from the creature’s body as it rapidly healed. There was nothing the Troopers could do, the Sisters picking them apart in a matter of seconds.
And during all of this, the mercs watched aghast, fear setting in as they realised just how powerful the Sisters actually were. All they could do was hide and pray they weren’t next…
Five minutes later and the screams had subsided. All that was left of the Troopers were chunks of meat that were yet to be scooped out of what remained of their armour. The mutated Sisters were picking clean their teeth in satisfaction.
The Mercs waited.
Dr Käsehändler did his best to stifle a whimper as he cowered behind them.
“That was a most successful field test…” one of the heads hissed as it surveyed the corpses.
“Very successful. But what is it we can hear?” the other head wondered aloud, it’s ears twitching. The mercs held their breath. Käsehändler shrunk further back, biting down on a fist in the hopes that would muffle any noise that he was making.
“…we hear three little heartbeats all a flutter… the scent of fear is still in the air…” the first head observed. It was impossible to tell which head had been which sister, both now completely inhuman.
The second head began to sniff loudly.
“We know these scents… Dr Käsehändler has wandered far from his den… but who are his friends?”
“I believe that’s little Katherine and the third must be the puppy dog that follows her around…”
“How quaint…did the little puppy escape confinement to run to her rescue?” the creature disappeared from view as it began to pace around the room. The next thing the mercs knew, the stairs were being ripped from their housing and two ugly faces were peering down at them.
“Well, Puppy, did you?” asked the left head in a sing-song voice as she stared at Doug, thick drool running down her chin.
Post by Sam | February 4, 2023 at 12:01 pm | The Mercenaries' Tale | No comment
Tags: Blaise, Doctor Tilo Kasehandler, Doug McCracken, Forest Canyon, Genetix, Kate O'Donnell, Mad Science, Mutants, Polaris, Salmanic Incorporated, The Alexandretta Sisters, the Mercs