Reygi,
Kandahar, Afghanistan
Secronom
Research Facility
April
20, 2001
1700
Local Time
“Drop the gun!” Robertson held his
M16 behind Vladamir’s head.
“UNSC…” Vladamir muttered under his
breath as he turned slowly.
Vladamir placed his AK47 on the desk
and raised his hands. He noticed five marines pointing their guns at him and
decided not to fight back.
“Frederick, this is May’s team here, we have a
Lieutenant Vladamir here.” May spoke on the RaidComm as she looked at
Vladamir’s name stenciled on his uniform.
“Copy May, see if your team can find
controls to disable the sentry guns.” Frederick
spoke back.
Cookson picked up Vladamir’s AK47
while Hariprasad put on handcuffs and restrained Vladamir to a desk.
“Good idea.” Cookson looked at
Vladamir firmly restrained to the desk.
“Since we got a job to do, might as
well get him later once we’re done. Makes my life a whole lot easier.”Hariprasad reasoned.
“Let’s move marines.” May
interrupted with an order.
The marines left the front desk and
continued to walk down the hallway. Cookson took one last look before turning
his back on Vladamir and entering a room with his marines. The room Cookson
entered was a typical office. There were around ten cubicles with a boardroom
at the end.
“Check the desks, see if we can get
an idea of what this facility is about.” May ordered.
As the marines spread out to do
their searching, May went directly to the boardroom to take a look. May opened
the door and saw a table with chairs neatly stacked against the wall.
“Is it me or am I the only one who’s
wondering why Secronom left this facility?” Robertson hollered as he rummaged
through the desk.
“Me too…this is odd how they
abandoned a facility with so much luxury and defense.” Hariprasad agreed.
“Exactly.” Robertson closed the
drawer and opened another drawer.
“Found a keycard.” Cookson exclaimed
as he held a black Secronom keycard in the air.
May walked out of the boardroom with
a disappointed face and saw Cookson holding a keycard.
“Found something?” May widened her
eyes.
“A keycard. Perhaps we can access
restricted areas?” Cookson asked.
“Let’s go find the room for defense
controls so we can bring the rest of the team to conduct a full search of the
building.” May pointed out the room.
The marines ran out of the room and
looked around. As Green scanned the hallway back and forth for some sort of
directory, he looked at the front desk where they originally came from. To his
surprise, the desk was empty. Vladamir was gone and the handcuffs dangled from
the handles.
“He’s gone.” Green spoke loudly as
he readied his gun.
“What? How?” May looked at the empty
desk.
The marines shuffled back to the
desk and noticed the handcuff in perfect condition.
“He must have had a key…I forgot to
check.” Hariprasad frowned.
“He can’t be too far.” May looked
around at both ends of the hall.
“Think he went back to the vent?”
Hariprasad asked.
“No, it’s a choke point. He could be
on this level or up or down…” Green replied.
“Let’s get the defenses offline so
reinforcements can arrive.” May steered her team back to focus.
“Orders ma’am?” Robertson asked.
“Cookson and Green will cover one
floor down while the rest of us take on this level.” May answered.
“Got it ma’am.” Cookson saluted and
waved at Green to head for the stairs.
May watched Cookson and Green enter
the stairwell before looking at the remaining marines.
“Hariprasad, take point. First room
on the right, let’s go.” May ordered.
Hariprasad nodded and quickly rushed
to the door with his M16 held firmly. May nodded her head at Robertson who
immediately opened the door. Hariprasad rushed into the room and was followed
by May. The two marines scanned the room thoroughly before Robertson entered.
“Clear.” Hariprasad announced.
“Spread out and search the room
quickly.” May replied.
* * *
Cookson opened the door marked “B1”
in the stairwell and stuck out his gun. Green walked out of the stairwell behind
Cookson and studied the floor. The layout was the same as each floor except
most of the doors had a “Restricted Access” sign beside the doors.
“Keycard?” Green pointed at the sign
as he approached a door.
“Let’s give it a try.” Cookson
nodded as he swiped the keycard into the door.
The door slid open and the marines
readied their guns. The room appeared to be a small room filled with cabinets.
Cookson tried to open a cabinet, but it was locked.
“These look like personnel files…”
Green looked at some stickers on the top of a cabinet.
“We’ll come back later. Next room,
let’s go.” Cookson walked out of the room.
Cookson walked to the door adjacent
to it and swiped the keycard. The door hissed open and the lights turned on
instantaneously.
“Green, take a look at this.”
Cookson’s eyes widened.
Green turned his head into the room
and saw a room full of computer servers. In the center was a giant monitor with
a keyboard. The marines stepped inside and the door hissed closed. Cookson
approached the keyboard and tapped it.
“Welcome to the Secronom Archives.”
the computer spoke and the monitor brightened.
“This is some computer we’ve got.”
Green exclaimed.
“Voice recognition enabled.” the
computer spoke.
“Disable sentry gun defenses.”
Cookson commanded.
“Unable to comply, please go to the
Control Room.” the computer answered.
“Where is the Control Room?” Cookson
asked.
“The Control Room is exactly one
floor below this one in Room B215.” the computer answered.
“Green, inform May that we’ve
located the room to turn off the guns.” Cookson looked at Green.
“Got it.” Green nodded.
“Show me building schematics.”
Cookson spoke to the computer.
“Sergeant May, this is Cookson’s
team, we have the location of the controls for the defenses.” Green spoke on the
RaidComm.
“Where is it Green?” May replied.
“Level B2 in Room 215.” Green
answered.
“Here, give her this.” Cookson
tossed the Secronom keycard to Green.
“May, please meet us at B1 so we can
give you the keycard for access. Right now, Cookson and I are going over the
Secronom Archives.” Green requested.
“Alright, on our way down.” May
responded without hesitation.
Cookson stared at the monitor as the
computer displayed the building schematics. He used the keyboard to navigate
through the floor. The research facility appeared to have seven levels with two
sub-levels making a total of nine levels to explore.
“Tell me about this research
facility.” Cookson rubbed his chin as he continued to look at the monitor.
“Secronom Research Facility Alpha
Foxtrot Golf Zero One, also known as Scorpion’s Lair, was a facility focused on
bioweapons warfare. Constructed in 1990, this facility is no longer in service
as of 1998…” the computer reported.
“Not in service?” Cookson
interrupted.
“That is correct. The Board has
issued the decommission of this facility and ordered a lockdown to secure its
assets.” the computer replied.
“The Board?” Cookson was getting
overloaded with information.
“Playing voice recording from the
Board stating the decommission.” the computer monitor showed a Secronom logo.
“Facility Alpha Foxtrot Golf Zero
One will be decommissioned according to the Desert Contingency Plan. The
facility will undergo a lockdown to ensure nothing gets in or out.” a man with
a deep voice spoke.
“Tell me about the plan.” Cookson
was intrigued.
“The Desert Contingency Plan was a
plan made to ensure the safety and security of Secronom’s assets from the
public. Originally made for medical and research information protection, the
plan was modified when Operation Scarab King became online.” the computer
answered.
“Is that the thing we’re looking
for?” Green interrupted.
“I don’t know Green. Computer, tell
me about Operation Scarab King.” Cookson demanded.
“Operation Scarab King was an
operation that focused on experimenting the viral mutations of the Nerotonin-4
with the bioweapons division. End of record.” the computer replied.
“You mentioned the operation was a
research program. What happened to it?” Cookson investigated.
“Test subjects in the operation
escaped from Level Zulu and quarantine procedures became in effect.” the
computer answered.
“Escaped? That’s not good.” Green
laughed nervously.
“Computer, tell me where is Level
Zulu. I didn’t see that level in the building schematics.” Cookson raised his
eyebrow.
“Searching…Level Zulu is not on the
database. Please see a senior scientist for more information.” the computer
monitor flashed a “Classified” on the screen.
“Great, we have unknown hostiles
roaming around and we don’t know where.” Green exclaimed sarcastically.
“Let’s regroup with May and head to
the Control Room. Maybe we can get more Intel about this place.” Cookson walked
away from the computer and walked to the door.
“Let’s beat the Russians.” Green
reminded.
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