Gray

  The day Gray had been dreading finally arrived. He was bored of playing Doom Shooters.

  He flicked through random videos on Blingo, barely watching any of them, before pressing the tiny button on his wristband. The holographic display blinked out, plunging the room back into dull silence.

  With a sigh, he stared at the grey ceiling above him. The underground facility was nothing but dull metal walls, cold floors, and a maze of corridors linking one hub to the next.

  During the day, it almost felt alive. Scientists and scholars came and went, hauling complicated equipment, arguing over theories, conducting research that Gray barely understood. Despite his prior belief that science guys were always boring, some of them were surprisingly fun to talk to.

  Just yesterday, a young scholar had excitedly explained the workings of a pre-Zoran computer. Gray had listened more closely than he expected. Whether that was genuine interest or simply because he was bored out of his wits in this place, he wasn’t sure.

  Now, though, there was nothing to keep him entertained. The entire facility was sleeping.

  Gray shifted in his chair and glanced through the glass cabin outside the entrance to the main hub. Kent lay inside, fast asleep, unmoving.

  Two hours.

  The clock on his wristphone HUD mocked him. He leaned his head back and exhaled. The shift felt endless. At that point, he would’ve welcomed a minor fire accident, power fluctuation—anything to break the monotony.

  What he didn’t expect, however, was for every siren in the facility to erupt at once.

  Gray jolted so hard his chair screeched against the floor. In his two years stationed here, he’d never heard the alarms outside of drills. The sharp sound clawed through his skull, flooding his chest with panic.

  “Project Breach. Project Breach. Please report to your superiors.”

  “Kent!” Gray shouted, scrambling to his feet.

  Despite the cacophony, Kent hadn’t moved.

  Heart pounding, Gray rushed inside the glass cabin. He grabbed Kent’s shoulder and shook him hard.

  Nothing. The body slumped heavily against him.

  A chill crept up his spine. He turned Kent over—and froze.

  A clean hole, no wider than a coin, had burned straight through Kent’s back. The edges glowed faintly, still hissing with residual heat..

  Gray stumbled back, bile rising in his throat.

  Just hours ago, Kent had bid him goodnight and gone to sleep. After that, neither of them had moved. And yet, somehow, Kent had been killed. Gray’s thoughts raced. Had it happened during his washroom break?

  His hands fumbled for his wristphone, frantically punching in Jorge’s contact. A red warning flashed across his screen: NETWORK OFFLINE.

  The sirens wailed louder, and the sight of Kent—his closest thing to a friend down here—made his vision swim.

  You need to move; a quiet voice urged from the back of his mind.

  Swallowing the acid in his throat, Gray forced his legs to work. He unholstered his pistol and stepped out of the cabin.

  He swept the weapon’s flashlight across the corners, the beam cutting through the flashing red emergency lights. His finger hovered over the trigger, shaking.

  He became painfully aware of his mental state when his wristphone buzzed.

  “Warning: heavy stress levels detected. Please take NeuroCalm shots.”

  “Shut up,” Gray hissed, dismissing the notification. If he calmed down now, he’d be dead.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  At the end of the tunnel, sealed metal doors loomed beneath a pulsing red warning: RESTRICTED ACCESS.

  A scanner sat beside them. Gray raised his wrist instinctively—

  The scanner blinked green on its own.

  Gray’s chest tightened. The doors slid open with a mechanical hiss.

  Beyond them lay a wider corridor, bathed in flashing red emergency lights. The sirens screamed louder there, echoing off the walls.

  He took one step inside and stopped.

  A guard sat slumped against the wall, face pale. His eyes and mouth were frozen wide open, caught in a final moment of shock. Further down, another body lay face down. Then another.

  Gray’s breath hitched. The entire corridor was a graveyard. He counted at least fifteen bodies, scattered across the floor. Every single one bore the same scorched wound.

  His mind refused to process the slaughter. It felt like a simulation. A nightmare.

  Before he could gather his thoughts, footsteps echoed.

  Gray snapped his pistol up, aiming blindly down the corridor.

  His heart jumped with every passing second. But the footsteps stopped. He waited a moment longer before slowly lowering his pistol.

  Almost as if on cue, a sharp hiss sliced through the noise of the sirens. Something buzzed past his head, so close he felt the air tear beside his ear.

  His reflexes took over, and he fired blindly ahead of him.

  A figure materialized from the gloom, dressed in tactical black armour, face obscured by an armoured helmet.

  Gray’s first shot scorched the wall. The intruder didn't flinch, raising a suppressed pistol.

  Gray adjusted his aim and squeezed the trigger again. A blast of energy surged from his weapon, slamming into the intruder’s helmet. His face sizzled as the energy burned through the helmet, sending him crumpling backward.

  More footsteps echoed from the T-junction ahead.

  Gray didn't wait. He squeezed the trigger and held on to it. A small heat bar on the barrel began to climb, turning from blue to angry orange. The weapon vibrated violently in his grip, searing his palm.

  Two more intruders rounded the corner, moving with lethal synchronization. But they got no chance to register the scene. The moment their silhouettes overlapped, Gray released the trigger.

  The gun roared, releasing a volatile orb of superheated energy. It slammed into the lead attacker’s gut, the blast tearing through him and sending the second man flying backwards as well.

  The booming echo faded, leaving a silence in its wake.

  Gray stood panting, staring at the carnage. It took several seconds for his mind to catch up. For the first time in real life, he had killed someone.

  He forced his legs to move, treading lightly. The corridor split ahead.

  He had no orders. No backup. But he knew where they were going.

  The Zora.

  It was the reason why the facility existed at all. Whoever those intruders were, they had to be after it.

  He took a left turn and was greeted by more bodies, all lying on the ground in odd angles. The nightmare was only getting deeper.

  At the end of the corridor stood another metal door, larger than the rest.

  Gray advanced carefully. Halfway there, a faint sound reached him, barely audible over the sirens. A low hum of energy, murmured voices… and screams.

  He frantically turned his head, straining to pinpoint the source of the sound.

  A narrow glass window lined the wall to his left. Gray edged closer and peered inside.

  At first, he saw nothing.

  Then a guard was slammed against the glass from the inside. A figure in black stood over him, wielding a blade that shimmered with purplish energy.

  With a fluid motion, the intruder drove the blade through the guard. He tried to scream, but the intruder clamped a gloved hand over his mouth.

  Gray’s breath hitched.

  As the guard collapsed, Gray caught sight of a symbol etched into the killer’s glove: A stylized 'Z' intertwined with a jagged '3'.

  The intruder tilted his head, locking eyes with Gray through the glass.

  Gray scrambled back, nearly tripping over his own feet. The door to the room hissed open.

  He didn’t look back. He ran.

  His vision tunnelled, the only thing mattering was the heavy blast door at the end of the hall. He reached the panel, slapping his wristband against it.

  Access Granted.

  He dove through, and the heavy doors slammed shut behind him, the magnetic locks engaging with a reassuring thud.

  Gray leaned against the cold metal, gasping for air. He was safe—for now, at least.

  Despite the terror, the sight of the room still stole the breath from his lungs.

  The chamber stretched before him, vast and silent. The walls were no different from the rest of the facility, but the scale of the room was overwhelming. The far end faded into shadow.

  And there it was.

  The spaceship dominated the chamber like a silent monument. It wasn't sleek like modern crafts. Flat aluminium panels overlapped and met at thick reinforcing rings. The surface was scarred with tiny pits and scuffs from centuries ago. A long line of darkened viewports ran along the hull.

  The relic of humanity’s greatest achievement.

  Whoever the intruders were, this was what they’d come for.

  Gray allowed himself a single breath of relief. The chamber controls were isolated from the main network, secured by a separate system. Breaking into it wouldn’t be easy. He just had to wait for —

  BOOM.

  The sound crippled him, dropping him to his knees. Dust and debris rained above as the ceiling split open, revealing the night sky.

  A black chopper descended through the breach, its armoured hull gleaming. Its thrusters rotated smoothly, adjusting as it aligned itself with the opening.

  The side doors slid open, revealing a squad of men in the same tactical gear, repelling lines already dropping.

  Gray raised his pistol. A pathetic gesture against the war machine.

  Before he could fire, a second explosion rocked the roof above him. A slab of debris slammed into the back of his head, sending him sprawling.

  He tried to rise, but a heavy blow to his back pinned him to the floor, forcing a sharp cry out of him.

  Then everything went grey.