In a dimly lit workshop where it was barely possible to work, Dr. Elías "Helios" Brandt was arguing heatedly with the guards, who insisted on forcing the team to work despite the alarming circumstances at the base.
Communications were cut off, all systems were on high alert, and the guards, tense, looked around nervously... with good reason.
Suddenly, the lights went out in the workshop, just as a shadow dropped silently from the ceiling.
After the room filled with grunts and the sounds of blows, the emergency lighting reactivated, revealing the guards sprawled unconscious on the floor. Standing at the center of the room was a man with gray hair.
His right eye was covered by a technological eyepatch, and he wore armor which, upon closer inspection, was actually his mechanical body. Fixing his gaze on the Doctor, Jack asked, "Dr. Elías Brandt?"
"Yes…?" Brandt replied, visibly frightened.
Jack took a step forward. "Tell me, Doctor, how many of your team are here against their will?"
Some of those present tensed up, but Dr. Elías, almost as if in a trance, rigidly pointed to three other people and added, indicating himself, "Just the four of us. The others… were hired."
"Perfect," Jack replied coldly, as he slid his hand toward his thigh, causing a compartment in his leg to open and reveal his Auto 9, an advanced, automated pistol.
Without hesitation, he used it against the remaining engineers and scientists who, in desperation, tried to reach the alarm. The projectiles hit them with precision, injecting a sedative that acted instantly, causing those who were moving to make hard "landings," crashing into tables and lab tools before collapsing motionless on the floor.
Jack reholstered his Auto 9 into the compartment on his thigh and approached the trembling Dr. Brandt. "Relax, Doctor. I'm here to rescue you."
"Who… who sent you?" Brandt asked, still bewildered.
"Maverick, the anti-terrorist corporation, hired by Lazarus to investigate the information Lieutenant Norris sent us."
Hearing James's name, the Doctor sighed in relief. "Did Lieutenant Norris manage to transmit the information I gave him?"
"Was it you who gave it to him?" Jack inquired, slightly surprised.
"That's right. They only showed him a small section of the base, carefully arranged to look like an Armstech facility," Dr. Brandt replied, his voice a barely audible murmur of fear and caution. "I managed to hack into their systems just enough to send him a file with evidence about…" His voice trailed off, as if weighing how much truth he could reveal.
"The Rex Project?" Jack interrupted, his tone laden with suspicion
"Exactly, it was the only thing I managed to transmit in time," the doctor confirmed, straightening slightly as he spoke the words.
Jack leaned toward him, his gaze severe. "Are there other dangerous projects underway here?"
The doctor's eyes widened in alarm, his face shadowed by memories. "More than one? They're carrying out dozens of projects that would turn anyone's stomach!" he exclaimed, his voice rising a notch.
"Like the Husks?" Jack asked.
"The Husks?" The doctor seemed confused for a second before realizing what he meant. "You mean the infected? So you've already encountered them?"
Jack nodded calmly. "Yes, in a small abandoned town."
The doctor paled, horror reflected in his eyes. "They're already using them? Oh, my God… you have to stop it! Do you hear me? You have to stop that thing!" he pleaded, his voice trembling.
Jack placed a steady hand on the doctor's shoulder, trying to calm him. "Calm down, Doctor. What are you referring to?"
"The Daemon…" the doctor whispered, his eyes wide, gaze fixed on an invisible point in the room. It seemed that his prolonged confinement had taken a toll on his sanity. "The infected came from a Daemon. I think they brought it from the other side of the Wall."
Noticing his colleague's agitation, one of the engineers, also working against his will, stepped in to clarify. "It all started with a failed Armstech project that was trying to complete an old United Nations Space Agency (UNSA) initiative," he explained in a steady, clear tone, though he couldn't hide the unease on his face.
"They aimed to develop a self-repairing, ultra-light, self-replicating material. The idea was to create a network of microbots—not as advanced as nanobots but capable of assembling and repairing themselves—forming self-sustaining structures in remote and hostile environments.
Perfect for resource-rich zones that are hard to reach for humans: asteroids, moons, even planets. Imagine entire bases built by these robots, ready before a single human ever sets foot on them."
"But, as with all nanobots, control was the biggest problem," he continued, lowering his voice to an almost confessional tone. "Despite advanced artificial intelligence and massive servers, they barely managed to control even a small fraction of these microbots. The sheer number of processes needed to coordinate a network like this overloaded the available infrastructure, making real-time management impossible."
The engineer paused to take a breath before continuing. "Then they tried something different: a command virus. This virus was designed to infect and reprogram the microbots in waves, sending commands in a distributed and efficient way. Instead of coordinating each bot individually, the virus would 'infect' each bot with precise instructions to work in sync with the rest. This allowed the microbots to update their orders without direct connection or constant supervision."
Dr. Brandt, who had been listening intently, lifted his head with a heavy expression, as if everything revealed so far was only the beginning of the real horror. "At first, it seemed like a significant improvement, but the real problem came when they tried to find a Daemon powerful enough to increase the number of infected microbots."
Jack watched him closely, equally intrigued and alarmed, as the doctor continued. "We don't know how they did it, but they pulled a dangerous Daemon from… the other side of the Wall. When they introduced it to the microbots, the bot network turned into an infection. Anyone who came into contact with them, even just a few microbots, was doomed. The bots mine the bones and use minerals from the blood to self-replicate, like a parasite devouring its host… until it finally kills them, and the Daemon takes control… of what's left."
Upon hearing this, Jack sighed, weary. "Ahmmm… did you hear that?" he murmured, more to himself than to anyone else.
"Who are you talking to?" the doctor asked, bewildered. The base interfered with any external communication, and with the system currently down, it seemed impossible to contact anyone.
["Yes, I heard it. I'm already over the Blackdoor coordinates. We may lose contact as soon as I go in. Get the doctor and the others out of there. Take them somewhere safe."]
Jack mentally acknowledged Sora's words and said, "Understood."
-
Deviating slightly from his route to acquire the "materials" he was missing…
The area surrounding one of the main armories of Shadow Mosses was heavily guarded. The armored entrance was watched by armed guards, while the surrounding corridors—dimly lit by emergency lights flickering softly at irregular intervals—were patrolled by around fifty guards covering the area.
One of the soldiers watching the entrance scanned the hallway with a nervous glance, thinking he saw something at the far end of the corridor: a dark figure, motionless, barely distinguishable in the shadows.
Uneasy, he took a few steps forward, abandoning his position and raising his weapon while scanning every dark corner of the hall. He walked slowly, each step echoing against the metal floor beneath his boots, until he reached the end and turned the corner, exhaling in relief upon confirming the corridor was empty.
However, his calm vanished when he saw, in the polished reflection of one of the metal panels lining the hallway, the same hooded figure he thought he'd seen... motionless, right behind him.
At that exact moment, a holographic alert flashed above his head, accompanied by an "unmistakable" alarm buzz—a sound that seemed to perfectly convey his shock.
The soldier's training and instincts took over, and as he turned quickly, he dropped his rifle and drew his pistol in one fluid motion. But, as if it were child's play, the hooded figure gently placed a hand on the pistol's barrel, disarming him in an instant and sending the weapon clattering to the floor. Before he could react, the soldier felt the cold touch of a silencer under his jaw.
And… the last thing he saw were ice-blue eyes burning coldly from the shadows of the hood. A second later, Sora pulled the trigger without hesitation, killing him instantly, without a trace of mercy.
After discovering the Micro-bots and understanding how closely they collaborated with the other side of the Wall, it was the final straw that drained any remaining empathy he might have felt for any member of the terrorist organization.
Immediately after, another unmistakable alarm buzz echoed down the hallway, surprising both Sora and another soldier, who had been alerted by the holographic exclamation hovering over his head in the middle of the corridor, prompting him to check his comrade's position.
As he aimed his rifle, Sora didn't move an inch—until something dropped onto the soldier, coiling around his neck like a python with such force that the guard immediately released his weapon and clutched at his throat, desperately trying to free himself.
Before he could, two faint flashes lit up the dark corridor, followed by two bullets piercing his chest, stopping him.
Sora moved forward and, as he approached, whispered, "Good job," addressing W0rm. The metallic creature uncoiled from the soldier's neck and slid happily down his leg. It had been W0rm who created the holograms above the guards' heads and played the alarm sounds every time they detected it, under Sora's command.
Without even glancing down as he stepped over him, Sora fired a couple more shots into the fallen soldier's body, ensuring he was dead.
As soon as he turned the corner toward the armored doors of the armory, Sora pulled a small rectangular box from beneath his poncho. On one side, a warning was engraved: [FRONT TOWARD ENEMY]. Without looking back, he tossed it seemingly carelessly.
The box activated its sensors instantly, and just before hitting the ground, it magnetically attached itself to the base of the hallway wall. An invisible laser, undetectable to the human eye, projected from the side with the inscription, lying in wait.
Upon reaching the armored doors of the armory, Sora extended a cable from his black, cybernetic hand and connected it to the access terminal. His fingers then sprang to life across the keyboard.
Wasting no time, Sora activated his cybernetic hand, which opened to reveal tiny mech tendrils that joined the symphony of typing on the keyboard. In seconds, a swarm of commands flooded the system as the screen became saturated with lines of code typed at an inhuman speed.
The armory doors, like those in the mines, were impossible to open silently. As they activated, pneumatic arms caused the security speakers to emit a piercing alarm that echoed through the entire area, alerting nearby guards. Hearing the alert and noticing that the opening was unscheduled, the guards rushed over from various hallways.
As they approached, they paused upon discovering the bodies of their fallen comrades, which inadvertently caused them to group together. Then, confirming the presence of intruders, they rushed toward the armory—completely overlooking the magnetic Claymore attached to the wall, waiting for them.
When the first of the guards broke the invisible laser, the Claymore… didn't detonate. It was programmed to wait a few moments to ensure its lethal zone was as "complete" as possible before going off with a muffled blast that shook the hallway.
The explosion unleashed a burst of reinforced tungsten flechette projectiles, expanding in a cone. Screams echoed instantly as the ultra-sharp projectiles pierced through armor and flesh, tearing into the guards and leaving a trail of glowing sparks.
The close-range brutality of the blast left the few survivors and wounded disoriented, their ears ringing from the explosion, accompanied by a deafening hum.
Even so, as more soldiers approached, Sora didn't even face them. Instead… he activated the area defenses he'd just hacked. Quickly, the surroundings of the armory turned into a battlefield, with the soldiers fighting against their own turrets.
With gunfire sounding behind him, Sora disconnected from the terminal and entered the armory. Ignoring the thousands of weapons neatly arranged on the shelves, he grabbed a few tactical bags and headed straight for the explosives section.
Then, he collected every volatile thing he could find. After all, the Fox Islands were volcanic in origin, and if he planned to reactivate the fault, he would need a "big" explosion.
After filling three bags, Sora reached into one and pulled out a white brick. He activated the timer, dropped it on the floor, and slowly exited the arsenal. Carrying the three bags—two on his back and one in his hand—he used the silencer barrel of his SOCOM pistol, held in his other hand, to press the door's lock button.
As he moved away, shooting any soldier who approached, an explosion erupted behind him, shaking the entire floor and destroying one of the most important armories of Shadow Moses
-
Upon reaching the coordinates of the Backdoor
Sora found himself in an unfinished wing of Shadow Mosses, a secluded section isolated from the main facilities. This area broke away from the geometric pattern that defined the complex; it was as if the architects had intentionally deviated to reach these specific coordinates.
The wing was divided into two sectors: an area still under construction and a "civilian" zone, where several families were confined under constant surveillance.
Sora moved stealthily through the ventilation ducts and maintenance corridors, heading toward the construction area, searching for a way to descend. A sudden interference on his radio stopped him.
["Okami, do you copy?"] Jack's voice echoed in his ear.
Sora hesitated for a moment, tempted to ignore him; it was likely another last-minute complication. Resigned, he sighed and responded, "What is it?!"
["We have a problem,"] Jack said, making Sora grit his teeth. For a second, he couldn't help but think, 'No shit?' Holding himself back from saying it aloud.
Jack continued, ["I managed to get the scientists and Dr. Elias to a… safe place, at least for now. But there's a hitch: they won't cooperate with us unless we secure their families. They're afraid that, once it's discovered they're gone, there will be repercussions. That's why-"]
Jack paused, watching as Sora's signal faded from the map, knowing what he would ask him next.
["Too late for that!"] Jack exclaimed at his partner's audacity. ["The wing you're in is exactly where they're holding the families."]
Sora snorted, frustrated, and snapped, "What the hell do you expect me to do, huh? Take them on a stroll to the Backdoor?"
["If you really plan to blow up the base, we can't let those innocent families die,"] Jack replied firmly, making it clear he wouldn't allow it.
["With the communications down, the base is in chaos,"] Jack continued. ["It'll take them longer to notice Dr. Elias is gone, and even longer to react and use his family. That gives you plenty of time to handle the Backdoor. When you're done, get the families out."]
Sora gritted his teeth. "And what the hell are you going to do in the meantime, have a drink?"
["No, Dr. Elias and the others have promised to help us, as long as we give them our word that we'll also get their families out,"] Jack explained.
"What are you waiting for? Tell them yes!" Sora exclaimed.
In a stiff, almost irritating tone, Jack replied, ["I'm not giving my word until I'm sure you'll handle it."]
"Ahmmm..." Sora sighed, missing Morgan, his former partner on missions like this. He wouldn't have wasted time with trivial chatter; he'd have sent a straightforward message like:
[When you get out, handle the families. The eggheads are driving me nuts with their whining...]
Sora took a breath, resigned. "Fine, Jack... when I'm done... I'll take care of the families."
["Alright... thank you"] Jack replied, and the line cut off as abruptly as it had begun.
Reaching the construction area, Sora activated the echolocation on his nanobots. The sound waves from his steps bounced off surfaces, tracing a mental map of the terrain in search of a way down. The scan was going well, until the signal abruptly cut off.
In front of him was a reinforced room that absorbed any echo. The massive doors, layered with hardened metal, looked more designed to contain something than to prevent entry. The concrete and steel walls reinforced the sense of entrapment.
Sora manipulated the terminal beside the doors and managed to open them. They slid open with a heavy creak, revealing a huge room lined with a copper mesh—a Faraday cage that blocked all signals and isolated any external connection.
Above, a massive turbine spun slowly, generating a constant airflow that pushed gases rising from the volcanic rock opening in the center of the room. It looked like a dark throat, so deep Sora couldn't see the bottom.
The turbine's low hum and the pressure from the wind gave the room a sense of relentless hostility while keeping the air breathable.
To one side, Sora noticed heat-insulated silver jumpsuits, air pumps, and a single-person lift—state-of-the-art models, indicating that someone had used them recently. Being lazy to waste time making the elevator operational...
Sora decided on something... more direct. He pulled out two glow sticks, cracked them with a snap of his artificial hand, and tossed them into the abyss. The lights spiraled downward, casting a green glow on the walls as they fell.
Hearing the rapid thudding of his heart in his ears, Sora smiled to himself, adjusted his gear, stretched his arms out… and, without hesitation, embraced the darkness in a leap of faith.
Disappearing into the depths along with the last traces of green light.
-
Accelerating at 9.8 meters per second squared, Sora descended for exactly 31.76 seconds, covering 4,987 meters. Nearly five kilometers of freefall later, just before reaching the bottom, he fired the retractable grappling hook from his black arm. A brutal jolt tore through his joints, intensified by the three backpacks full of explosives he carried, as he came to an abrupt stop, avoiding a deadly impact with the ground.
Then he quickly released the hook and twisted his body to dissipate as much force as possible before landing deftly at the bottom of an enormous volcanic cavern—so vast and dark that its end couldn't be seen.
The air around him was dense and searing, filled with a mix of particles and toxic gases that seeped from cracks in the ground. The atmosphere was saturated with an acrid, metallic, and sulfurous stench that irritated his eyes and airways with every breath, leaving a burning sensation in his throat.
Unbothered, Sora activated the nanobots embedded in his tattoos as he moved. Like a swarm of synchronized micro-machines, they detached from his skin and gathered in his scarf, forming a filter that purified the air.
Simultaneously, specialized filters formed inside his trachea and around his alveoli to cleanse any remaining toxins that inevitably managed to seep through.
After steadying his breath, he tried connecting to the network: "[Eco… can you hear me?]" he asked, his voice slightly distorted by the nanobots shielding his throat.
All he received in return was a deafening hum of interference, prompting him to tap lightly on one of the ring-shaped piercings in his ear that acted as an antenna, but the result was the same: silence, broken only by static and distortion.
With no other option, Sora began to carefully move deeper into the cave. As he advanced, he used echolocation to detect weak points in the structure. After locating them, he reached into one of the three backpacks he carried, set the timer on each charge, placed it, and continued onward.
After a few minutes of moving forward and as he prepared to descend further, Sora couldn't help but frown as a wave of heat struck him directly, along with high levels of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and carbon monoxide (CO) in the air.
Deploying more nanobots to cover the exposed parts of his skin, he continued to advance through the extreme environment... one clearly unfit for humans.
As Sora touched down, she was greeted by a cavern even vaster than the last, now intensely illuminated by the glow of magma churning below. She had reached the fault line, directly beneath the island that had spawned this entire underground maze. The pressure and heat from the magma created scalding air currents, while the ground rumbled with a steady throb, as if the earth itself were breathing.
Then, Sora froze. Right in the center of the cavern, she spotted a colossal structure, partially submerged in the lake of magma. An enormous metal dome, still only half-built, rose like a steel island in the molten sea.
The dome was surrounded by massive pillars that pierced the cavern ceiling, holding and anchoring it in place. Thick pipes extended from these pillars directly into the bubbling magma. The pipes looked like the structure's veins, running through the ground and connecting to the central dome, as if they were drawing thermal energy from the magma itself.
"What the hell is this…?!" Sora exclaimed, a mix of surprise and apprehension in his voice.
He had expected to find some sort of structure or a small base to protect the Backdoor… but this exceeded all his expectations. Feeling an alarming hunch, he searched in his cyberspace for the data Jarvis had obtained over four years ago from the Night Corp construction team.
He found no matches with the extreme temperatures surrounding him until he reviewed the discarded records: a series of extreme values, seemingly meaningless… until now. Finally, the data started to fit together, revealing to him what his brothers behind the Blackwall had been secretly building for more than twenty years. Although, in this specific case, judging by the scene in front of him, the work appeared to be unfinished.
Determined to uncover what they were planning, Sora wasted no more time. He activated his grapple and rose up to one of the pipes ascending from the magma, moving quickly and balancing himself on them. The scorching heat penetrated even his armor, burning its surface and forcing Sora to deploy additional nanobots to maintain the integrity of his equipment as he advanced.
Upon reaching the colossal dome-shaped structure suspended above the fault, he was met with a completely deserted environment, like an abandoned construction zone. Conveyor belts, robotic arms, and industrial machinery showed slight traces of wear and rust.
As he began moving through the machinery, Sora felt as if he were being watched. He was able to triangulate the various hidden cameras observing him within the abandoned structure.
Taking advantage of a blind spot in the surveillance, Sora subtly slipped W0rm out of his sleeve. The cybernetic creature dropped precisely and slipped into the shadows, disappearing among the dense machinery.
He continued onward until one of the conveyor belts, still warm from recent use, caught his attention. There, among metallic debris and exposed cables, he found something disturbingly familiar: the top half of a silver drone, identical to those that had attacked Iron Beast, partially assembled.
"So, this is where they created them," Sora murmured. Barely had he spoken these words when a metallic echo reverberated through the structure, as if it had heard him and was now waking from its slumber.
Suddenly, a deep roar filled the air. Robotic arms and conveyor belts sprang to life, composing a mechanical symphony that grew in intensity. Steam pipes began to hiss, releasing scorching bursts as the magma's heat evaporated the water, generating extreme pressure to drive hidden turbines within the dome.
In front of him, the half-assembled silver drone powered on: a faint dark-blue light glowed in its lenses, and from within the machine, a familiar voice—neither robotic nor human—spoke with a hint of pleasure: ["I'm glad to see you again… brother."]
Sora took half a step back, stunned. He instantly recognized that voice and muttered through gritted teeth, "Prospera…"
In that moment, five small aerial drones approached, aligning around him. They activated their holographic projectors, each taking the form of avatars of the beings ruling behind the Blackwall—his "brothers" created by Professor Turin.