The world compressed into the screaming rockets hurtling towards them.
Fear was a cold knot in Alex's gut, but desperation was a fire in his veins.
He poured every ounce of will into the convergence of powers: the Enforcer's raw Strength, the subtle Static charge, and the newly absorbed, thrumming Kinetic Dampener.
It wasn't elegant. It wasn't controlled. It was a raw, instinctive lash-out.
As the first rocket neared, the air around Alex's outstretched hands didn't just shimmer; it warped.
A barely visible field, shot through with faint blue sparks and feeling strangely… dense, snapped into existence.
WHUMP!
The rocket struck the field. Instead of exploding catastrophically, its warhead detonated prematurely, the concussive force absorbed and then, unbelievably, rebounded outwards in a chaotic, undirected shockwave.
It was as if Alex had momentarily become a solid, electrified wall.
The rebound wasn't powerful enough to send the rocket back at its firers, but the shockwave slammed into the UGF heavy weapons team, staggering them, throwing off their aim for the follow-up shots.
Dust and debris filled the corridor.
"What in the void was THAT?!" Kai yelled, staring at Alex with wide, incredulous eyes.
Lena was gaping, her Mind Core flaring as she tried to comprehend the energy signature.
Alex himself was on his knees, gasping. The effort had been immense, draining him almost completely.
His head pounded, the Echoes a raging storm. Overload was setting in fast.
The Kinetic Dampening effect felt shredded, the Static Core faint, only the base Strength still a dull throb. He'd pushed too hard, fused too erratically.
"System… overload…" Voss muttered, rushing to his side, her scanner already active. "Alex, your bio-signatures are critical! You need to stop!"
But the UGF troopers were recovering. They wouldn't be surprised twice.
"Lena! The doors!" Kai barked, pulling Alex roughly to his feet. "Get them open, now!"
Lena, snapping out of her shock, rushed to an ancient control panel near the transit line's blast doors, her fingers flying across its grimy interface, her Mind Core aiding her as she bypassed decades of UGF lockouts. Sparks flew from the console.
"Almost… there!"
More UGF soldiers were flooding the corridor behind the heavy weapons team, their numbers swelling. Commander Zane was throwing everything he had at them.
One of Kai's Crows, a young woman named Anya who'd fought bravely, cried out as an energy bolt caught her in the leg. She went down, exposed.
Without thinking, Alex, despite his drained state, lurched towards her. He still had some residual Strength.
He reached her, trying to pull her back, when a UGF officer – different from the others, wearing sleeker, charcoal-grey armor that denoted a specialized unit – stepped calmly through the chaos.
This one wasn't just a grunt. There was an aura of cold, lethal competence about him.
The officer raised a sidearm, not aimed at Alex, but at Anya. A mercy shot, or an execution.
Suddenly, the officer paused. His helmeted head tilted, as if listening to something only he could hear. His visor, usually opaque, flickered, revealing cold, intelligent eyes that fixed directly on Alex.
They widened, almost imperceptibly.
"Subject designation: Chimera," the officer's voice, metallic and calm, echoed through his external speakers. It wasn't a question. It was a statement.
A chillingly familiar one. "Anomaly confirmed. Energy signature… consistent with Project Echo-Five suppressed archives."
Alex froze. Chimera? Project Echo-Five? The terms meant nothing to him, yet they resonated with a terrifying familiarity within the Enforcer Lieutenant's Echoes, a flicker of deep-seated UGF dread.
Voss gasped, her face paling dramatically. "No… it can't be. That project was… eradicated."
The UGF officer ignored her. His weapon remained trained on Anya, but his attention was solely on Alex.
"Surrender, Chimera. Your unique physiology is too valuable to destroy outright. Commander Zane wishes to… debrief you personally."
"The doors are open!" Lena shrieked, as the massive transit line blast doors groaned, then began to slide apart, revealing a dark, cavernous tunnel beyond.
Kai didn't hesitate. "Crows! Through the tunnel! Move!" He grabbed the injured Anya, hauling her up.
The charcoal-armored UGF officer finally shifted his aim towards Alex. "Unfortunate. Containment protocol Gamma initiated."
From hidden compartments in his armor, small, disc-like drones whirred to life, their optical sensors glowing red. They shot towards Alex with terrifying speed.
"Alex, get out of there!" Voss screamed, tugging at his arm.
But Alex was rooted to the spot, the officer's words – Chimera, Project Echo-Five – igniting a firestorm of confused, fragmented images from the absorbed Lieutenant's mind: flashes of sterile labs, screaming subjects, unethical experiments, and a deep-seated UGF directive to terminate any surviving specimens on sight.
This wasn't just about an Absorber Gene anymore. This was something older, darker. Something the UGF had tried to bury.
And Commander Zane knew all about it.
The drones were almost on him.