Battletech: Biohazard (Commissioned)

[Baldrick the Wise]

I guess rear facing lasers are not that bad idea when you are facing the Thing's ornery cousin.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 12

"We need to kill that thing!" Jill said as Leon dodged yet another attack while desperately trying to reach the waypoint that would render them out of range of the self-destruct sequence.

"It healed from a direct PPC shot," Leon retorted. "And some point blank lasers. Whatever it takes to kill this thing, I do not have the means," A tentacle narrowly missed the back of the cockpit, and Leon pushed the myomers of the Black Knight harder than they were ever designed for. Overriding safeties designed to prevent mechs from tearing themselves apart, he began to move faster than a Black Knight had moved for a long time. Pushing the 'mech ever faster until he eventually left the Nemesis in the dust, arriving at the waypoint just in time for the actuators and myomers in the leg to fail and send the 'mech crashing to the ground.

The trio woke up several minutes later, Claire had managed to hold onto Jill, but Leon had failed to secure one of the buckles on his harness, and had been thrown down onto the armored glass.

"Shit," Leon swore as he blinked and looked around. "Everyone alright?"

"Had better days," Claire muttered, easing Jill down to said glass next to Leon before hitting the emergency release on the hatch. "You think this thing can go any further?"

"No," Leon shook his head. "Not with the damage I took beforehand and the amount of wear I just forced the myomers through."

"Well, we might want to see if we can get it up one more time," Clair said after poking her head out of the hatch. "That thing is coming back for another attack."

"Is the door closing?" Jill asked, blinking the black out of her eyes.

"Yes," Claire replied. "But not fast enough to prevent it from getting here."

"Small arms might be able to force it back," Jill shrugged.

"Or," Leon looked at the 'mech. "We run, and leave behind a surprise for it."

"The 'mech is still salvageable," Claire looked surprised at the idea. "You sure destroying it is a good idea?"

"Better the 'mech than us," Leon nodded. "Now, both of you get clear. I am going to set things up for our little friend out there."

Claire helped pull Jill out of the 'mech and the two of them began moving further into the tunnels. The door slowly continued to shut behind them while Leon rigged the self-destruct and overload of the fusion reactor to a countdown.

As he was climbing out of the downed mech's cockpit, Leon heard the roar of Nemesis and shuddered. If this thing had survived mech-grade weapons, then it was likely going to be essentially impervious to any of the small arms he could bring to bear. Still, he didn't need to kill it with this, he only needed it to try and tear at the Black Knight. So, instead of tossing the grenade attached to his cooling vest, Leon dropped down to the ground and began to sprint away. So far, the creature hadn't shown too much heightened senses, and it was possible it would be intent on trying to get at the people it thought was within the 'mech.

If Leon had looked at the timer before climbing out, he'd have seen that there was only thirty seconds left on the timer for the full self-destruct of the HIVE facility. But he hadn't, and he sprinted to join Jill and Claire without looking back. Hope that they would go ignored carrying him through and pushing his muscles ever harder.

As he rounded the corner, he felt the ground rumble, and shake as if an earthquake had struck, and he heard the sound of the massive blast doors locking before he stumbled into the pocket that Claire and Jill had pulled themselves into. Crouching down and covering their ears, they waited as the shaking continued, followed by a burst of heat and light from the door area when the Black Knight's engine exploded, taking Nemesis with it.

Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, the ground stopped shaking, and Leon began leading the pair out of the tunnels towards the DOME complex that he'd found earlier.

They didn't look behind them, intent on getting off of Raccoon City. An AI was in their backpack with all of the intel they would need to bring back to Chris and the rest of the STARS of the 7th Kommando.

If they had looked behind them, they'd have seen the wreckage of a 'mech, and the organic matter of what had once been a Nemesis-modified Tyrant. The mutant mostly vaporised by the destruction.

What was left behind though, was something that wouldn't have been seen by the trio if they had returned until it was too late.

The parasite that had modified the Tyrant still lived. And even worse, it remembered. So, as it slowly began to crawl after them, it would eventually find a new host, it would track them down, and one day, when they had long thought this enemy dead and gone, it would kill them.

---

It took the trio the better part of three hours of blindly walking to reach the section that Leon had initially found and escaped from the Grim Reaper and his assistants. The door to the DOME facility remained open, and there were a handful of technicians documenting everything the facility had to offer.

None of the three bothered asking questions. Umbrella was the enemy, and everyone who was willing to work with them was the enemy as well.

So, they waited by the doors for an opportune moment. One second in which the guards were distracted by talking to each other before they stepped out and eliminated everyone alive.

The guards were the first to get bursts of automatic fire from Claire and Jill, while the techs received a handful of well-placed shots from Leon's handgun. Then they moved in and began clearing everything.

"Looks like they took two of the 'mechs," Leon commented, looking up at the pair of mediums that had been left behind. "I'll ride jump for one of you."

"Looks like they already fueled them up," Clair said, staring up at the factory-white Griffin.

"Leon, we need to see if they left our gear in the hotel room," Jill said, climbing up the gantry towards the Shadow Hawk. "Take one of their vehicles and see if you can recover any of it if it is still there. If not, we will meet you at the spaceport. A dropship will be taking us off of this rock, or we will be making them take us off this place."

"Yes, ma'am," Leon nodded, moving to the guard and stripping anything useful off him before loading himself and the gear into a small truck.

Claire and Jill finished prepping the 'mechs before climbing in and activating them, driving them out via the sewer tunnels and heading for the surface, leaving the bodies of Umbrella men and women in their wake.

One such body was the barely alive Matthew Addison. He lay in a pool of his own blood, waiting to die. Instead, something strange happened. Matt was not aware of this, but Nemesis had entered the hangar a scarce few minutes after the STARS members had left, and it had found the one person living to become a new host.

Slowly crawling over him, the parasite eventually entered into his body via the holes that had been opened by the bullets, using its advanced healing, it closed them up and began repairing its host. As it slowly took over, it began to analyze the mind of the guard, searching through for things that might lead to it tracking down and overcoming its prey.

Eventually, it stumbled across a conversation in which they identified themselves. Nemesis didn't yet understand all of the words, but it latched onto that one thing, and as the human that had once been Matthew Addison opened his eyes and mouth to scream before losing his identity. The only thing that came out was a mixture between a scream, a growl, and the roar of a tyrant.

"STAAAAAAARRRRRSSSS!!!!!" Nemesis roared. It now knew who it would be hunting.

Pulling back all of the obvious mutations into the form of the human, Nemesis stopped. It needed to learn. A predator who did not study its prey would soon find itself among them. And Nemesis was perfection.

 

[Baldrick the Wise]

Wouldn't want to be on the Dropship/Jumpship that this thing will board.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 13

Date: August 12, 3004
Location: Hidden Umbrella Facility, Free Worlds League

"It seems we have another casualty," Oswell Spencer handed a report over to Marcus. "Our agents within Comstar report that the Raccoon City Facility is destroyed.

"It is of no consequence," James Marcus shrugged, looking out over the lab that he managed. The pair still looked like they did when they'd begun working with the Progenitor Virus. Their youth, bodies, and minds were stronger then they'd ever been back then. "Every Alicia believes that they are the only one. Marcus gestured towards where full-grown female clones of his long-lost daughter continued to be grown. "It is why they are so capable at the tasks in which we assign them. They are bred for excellence, to do as we would have them."

"I still believe the other programs are more critical," Spencer shook his head at his friend's enthusiasm. "However, I am willing to accept that your program has had its merits over the years."

"The only true problem we face is with Alice herself," Marcus agreed. "The fact that we were arrogant and forgot to code a failsafe into her genetic code was a mistake."

"A mistake that has long since been rectified," Spencer agreed. "Now, Edward has an update on our attempts to break into the facilities we located in the former Rim Worlds Republics. It is likely that Amaris was among the first to experiment with the virus, and they may have been able to do things with it that we haven't."

"It's a shame that the majority of the Rim Worlds projects we have discovered so far were limited to mechs and other mechanical industries," Marcus shook his head. "The scientists were brilliant, but they were not looking in the right direction if they truly wanted to win the war."

This was a discussion the pair had had many times over the decades since they'd founded Umbrella. But it never grew old for them. After all, they had succeeded in doing something with the Progenitor that the Star League had not, and the Rim Worlds Republic. At least so far as they had been able to tell, had not cared to expand into such avenues. Not that bioweapons were off-limits for Stefan Amaris, but that he had mostly wanted to rule over the Star League and the Terran Hegemony. Not over a bunch of corpses.

The Trio that founded and led Umbrella had a different goal. They wanted to create and become the most perfect biological beings that existed. Perfect cellular restoration, near-impervious to modern ballistics and 'mechs. Immortality was what they sought out, and they believed they were on the verge of achieving it.

Reaching the room where Edward was waiting for them, the two turned and sealed the room shut behind them.

"I believe I have found the one of the Republic's primary bioweapons research facilities," Edward said, handing the other two men copies of his notes. "It may not contain their Progenitor research laboratories, but it is likely that it will point us in the correct direction."

"I'll alert the current Alicia of this facility that we'll be taking a leave of absence," Marcus said, flipping through Edward's notes. "At least there don't seem to be drones guarding this location."

"If there were, our security would be adept at handling them," Spencer waved that concern away. "They've learned quite a bit since we began."

"The new programming for the Tyrants that transfers knowledge has indeed proben useful," Edward nodded. "However, it has made them a bit more… Independent, and I'm uncertain as to how such independence might affect them at a later date."

There were concerns with that in testing," Spencer nodded. "However, we have solved such issues by ensuring that we eradicate them after a period of two years. The sub-strains of the Nemesis parasite allow for tweaks, but past two years, they begin to completely take over the host Tyrant's mind. Our ranks are constantly rotated to ensure our safety."

"I know all of this," Edward sighed. "But I am not as versed in the biological fields as either of you. So, I still maintain some concerns. Even with our own 'upgrades', we have not fully accomplished all that we have set out to do."

"Not yet," Marcus shook his head. "But we are close; and once we do succeed, we will be able to work on the other plans we put in place."

"The Ark is not ready yet," Edward replied. "It will take many years before it is ready."

"We have time," Spencer chuckled softly. "And when we succeed, we will have all the time in the universe to accomplish our goals. Now, tell me, where is the new facility you have uncovered?"

"It's a system to the galactic 'north'," Edward began. "I'm certain that it had a name at one point, but the current is merely a designation from the old Terran Hegemony and modern Comstar Astrophysicists. HWY-Rimward-Anti-Spinward-005. The world is mostly terraformed and ready for human habitation, if a bit still on the hostile side. As near as I can tell, it was abandoned after the Rim Worlds Republic was absorbed by the Lyran Commonwealth and the Free Worlds League. As it was still in the process of being terraformed, it was deemed too costly to maintain and was ignored. Of course, worlds like that were prime opportunities for the Rim Worlds Republic to use as staging grounds for their fight against the Terran Hegemony. Slightly outside of the SLDFs purview, still being maintained by SLDF funds, and entirely forgettable if funds were allocated towards it. Just the way that Amaris liked it."

"We did have our accountants review just how he managed to do everything on the budgets he had, right?" Marcus asked.

"We did," Edward answered. "Creative bookkeeping is usually frowned upon. But there are times when funds need to disappear without making a fuss. If nothing else, the RWR perfected that art."

"Now, the facility is buried in a mountain range in the planetary south, near the poles. I expect that if it's anything like the SLDF bioresearch facilities we uncovered, that it's likely anchored to the bedrock. However, my scouts report that there is a potential human village in said mountains. It may be worth checking out the village to see if we can uncover the reason for their survival in such hostile environments."

"We'll add it to the list of things to work on while there," Marcus tapped the table in front of him. "It may be worth bringing an Alicia along for secretarial and research assistance along with the tyrants."

"We have our goals," Spencer said, leaning forward. "As long as they are supported, you can do as you like. As we established in the beginning. Now, you said there was a village, is there anything that our scouts reported in regards to the status of said village?"

"No," Edward shook his head. "Only that there were people living in it and that it was present. They did not believe it was their place to continue as we are more likely to want to conduct the research ourselves…"



Date: August 13, 3004
Location: Milligan, Federated Suns

"How many of the Hazerdous Environment Suits would you like to purchase?" The local ISBC Storefront salesman asked Chris Redfield.

"As many as you have available for that sort of thing," Chris replied. "We're mostly an infantry unit, and we lost a lot of our gear when we split off from the mercs we were working with before."

"Unit-owned equipment can be a pain," The salesman, Lee, his nametag said, agreed. "We usually deal in bulk orders of several thousand. But, our job here at the ISBC stores is to ensure that people have as much access to the proper equipment to combat BOWs as they possibly can. Tell me how many you need, and I'll ring you up right now and have someone drop it off at a warehouse or storage unit for you."


"That would be extremely helpful," Chris towered over everyone else in the store. "Do they come in sizes that would fit me or a handful of others that are my size?"

"Unfortunately, you're going to have to have your own quartermasters make modifications to the suits," Lee frowned. "We stock a large variety of sizes. But specimens of your build are rare enough that it's not worth spending the resources on manufacturing them. We only have a one percent markup on our HEVs. Just enough to cover the cost of production, stocking, and shipping them across the Inner Sphere."

"I did have some other questions regarding their utility in combats that aren't involving BOWs," Chris said.

"Ask away," Lee shrugged. "I've fought against some outbreaks, and I can tell you what field modifications we made to the suits from the factories to ensure that they were better suited to different missions. Just because we fight BOWs doesn't mean that we have to ignore the human element. There are far too often times when they're working hand in hand to do something."

"Okay, how does it work with captured sneak suits? What modifications should we consider for longevity's sake-"

Chris was interrupted in his questions by another STARS member entering the room and pulling the Elemental down to whisper in his ear.

"My apologies," Chris said to Lee. "I'll be back to finish payment for the order. I've just been informed that another member of our infantry group has made landfall, and I need to meet them."

"I'll be here," Lee smiled. "Happy to help."

"Now, let's see what took Jill so long," Chris muttered. "She was supposed to be one of the first ones here."

 

[Baldrick the Wise]

Only Umbrella would be dissapointed by Star League era mech facility.