Chapter 426
Chapter 426
“All four turrets have now been upgraded to Rank III,” Marcus reported with a hint of satisfaction. “Our fabricators are now also capable of producing all the necessary parts for mechs, and I’ve just received word that assembly of the very first unit is already underway. Drone production is running steadily as well. Overall, I’d say our progress is moving along at an impressive pace.”
Samantha looked far from satisfied, though. She sat in her chair before a bank of computer monitors, each displaying feeds from various surveillance cameras installed throughout the base. For a moment, she silently studied the screens, observing the bustling activity within the base. Her people were busy bringing in resources and feeding them into numerous machines, which were manufacturing all kinds of equipment.
Marcus was right. It was impressive how much they had accomplished in such a short time. Still, they lagged far behind the other two strongholds. Most importantly, they were nowhere near ready to face the morphus.
She turned her gaze to Marcus and said, “We need to be developing much faster than that.”
“You’re asking for the impossible,” Marcus answered, forcing his tone to remain even. They had already discussed this issue countless times, yet she kept bringing it up.
“Our people just need to work harder, that’s all,” she said stubbornly.
Marcus shifted his weight, folding his arms across his chest.
“We already work as hard as we can,” he replied, deliberately using the word “we” instead of “our people”. The choice wasn’t accidental. It was a quiet rebellion against the invisible line Samantha often drew between herself and the rest of their group. Even though he was her second-in-command, he disliked any hint of hierarchy that made them feel divided. To him, they were one body, one team, bound together by the same exhausting labor and shared hopes.
Samantha drew a breath to speak, but he cut in before she could get a single word out. “We’re all in this together, pushing our limits every day,” he said, hoping to bridge the gap between leadership and the workforce.
“I get that,” she responded, her voice calm but resolute. “Still, we have to catch up to the level of development the other two bases have, and we need to do it soon.”
“On the contrary, there’s no rush. Right now, Rank V is the highest level of development any of us can reach. Sure, both Catalina and Melissa have already upgraded their bases to that rank, but at the pace we’re developing, we’ll catch up to them in no time. You just need to be a little more patient.”
Samantha was about to insist that it wasn’t impatience driving her when movement on one of the monitors stole her attention. She turned her head toward it. The display showed the live feed from a turret’s onboard camera. The turret had swiveled to aim at a specific point beyond the perimeter wall.
At first glance, there was nothing unusual there. However, the small light in the top-left corner of the feed glowed yellow, signaling that the turret was in high-alert mode.
These turrets were sophisticated enough not to react to trivial movements. A drifting scrap of litter or the sway of leaves in the wind wouldn’t so much as twitch their targeting systems. They only targeted living beings that might pose a threat to the base.
“What the hell?” she muttered, staring at the screen but seeing nothing suspicious.
Following the direction of her gaze, Marcus glanced at the screen as well. Unlike her, he didn’t seem worried.
“Must be some mutant,” he guessed. “Probably ran past, triggering the turret.”
Still studying the screen, Samantha asked, “But where is it now?”
“Must’ve run off,” Marcus replied with a shrug.
“Why didn’t the turret track it then?”
“Maybe it was a wraith,” he suggested. “Once the turret locked on, it might’ve gone invisible, and the turret just kept pointing at the spot it saw it last. Relax, Sam. You’re reading too much into it. Nothing’s getting through our defenses.”
Samantha was about to point out that most of the time, their turrets could usually detect wraiths even in stealth, picking up on the faint air ripples their movement caused.
However, before she could speak, the turret’s indicator light shifted from yellow, alert, to green, all-clear. Its barrel turned away from the specific spot beside the wall and back toward the general area outside the base, resuming its standard idle mode and passively monitoring the perimeter.
“See?” Marcus said. “Told you there was nothing to worry about.”
Samantha relaxed. Turning her gaze to her second-in-command, she asked, “What about Kruz and his team? They’re back already, aren’t they? Did they discover anything?”
Marcus shook his head. “Nothing. The Los Demonios main base is nothing more than rubble. Entire floors caved in on themselves, reducing every last piece of equipment to dust.”
Samantha’s jaw tightened, and she spat the word through clenched teeth. “Dammit.”
“The explosion that Jake triggered must’ve been incredibly powerful,” Marcus went on. “There’s no point in sending our team there again. It would just be a waste of time. They’ll be much more useful here with us.”
Samantha gave a distracted nod, her gaze distant, offering no reply. Marcus hesitated for a moment before speaking. “Look, I know what’s on your mind. I know why you want us to develop as fast as we can. But…” He halted, gathering his words. “The morphus is way out of our league. He’s just too powerful. I suggest we forget about him. He doesn’t bother us, so why tempt fate? Let’s just leave him be, eh?”
“Dismissed,” Catalina said suddenly, her tone sharp.
“Cat, I think…” Marcus began, but she cut him off.
“Dismissed,” she repeated, her tone cold and sharp. “Return to your duties, Marcus.”
For a moment, he simply watched her in silence. Then he shook his head, turned away, and stepped out of the control security room.
Moments later, he emerged from HQ and stepped into the open. He took a single step forward before halting to take in the hustle and bustle before him. As usual, the base was alive with activity, team members tending to various machines and monitoring the manufacturing process. It was satisfying to see the base develop, growing stronger with each passing day.
He frowned as his thoughts shifted to his conversation with Samantha. At first, he had disliked the morphus, just like Samantha. But things had changed. Once they had secured their base and begun to develop it, his perspective shifted. He no longer regarded Jake as a potential enemy.
He had to admit it was the morphus who had gotten them out of their predicament. Without Jake’s assistance, they would never have been able to fight their way through the mines guarded by mech-clad bandits and escape their captivity. It was thanks to the morphus that they had finally gained their freedom.
Now, the morphus existed on his own, and they had absolutely no reason to make a move against him. Marcus simply wanted to keep building and developing their base. Going to war with the morphus would destroy everything they had worked so hard to achieve. Just like him, most of their people understood this.
But Catalina didn’t. She was obsessed. Her hatred toward the morphus clouded her judgment. In Marcus’ opinion, she was no longer fit to lead their group. He would have relieved her of her position, knowing that most of their people would have supported him. Unfortunately, several remained completely loyal to her, and starting a civil war within the base was the last thing he wanted.
He needed either to make Catalina change her mind about her intentions toward the morphus, which seemed impossible, or find a way to remove her from power without sparking conflict among their people. It was a dilemma he had yet to solve.
When Marcus left the security control room, Samantha remained where she was, staring at the door through which he had just stepped out, lost in her dark musings. She knew all too well that Marcus had grown distant from her. He had once been her most loyal soldier, but that was in the past. Well, not entirely. He was still on her side, of course, but he no longer supported her personal vendetta against the morphus.
Suddenly, she was wrenched out of her musings as she realized something. The door was open and had been open for far too long. It should have slid shut shortly after Marcus stepped through it, yet it remained open for some reason. Normally, that only happened when someone stood in the doorway, or at least close to it. But now, there was no one near the door at all!
Before she could stand up to investigate, the door finally hissed shut. However, just as she began to relax, she noticed movement above her. She snapped her head back to look up… and what she saw made her stomach tighten.
A pitch-black mutant was clinging to the ceiling like an enormous bug! She didn’t immediately recognize it as the morphus, though. The last time she had seen him was at the Los Demonios main base, where he had moved upright on two legs, still bearing a general resemblance to a human.
Now, however, seeing him from this angle, clinging to the ceiling, he no longer looked human at all. He resembled a massive, terrifying insect. Even his anatomy appeared altered, seemingly adapted to make it easier for him to crawl across vertical surfaces.
Terrified out of her mind, Samantha jumped to her feet, her legs trembling beneath her. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. The instant she was on her feet, the morphus sprouted numerous long tentacles from his body that immediately shot toward her.
Instantly, they wrapped tightly around her, pinning her arms firmly to her sides. Two of them curled around her throat, so instead of a scream, only a barely audible hiss escaped her lips.
As these two tentacles constricted with increasing pressure, she felt the air being squeezed from her lungs, making it impossible to breathe. Her vision began to blur, the edges darkening. The world before her eyes quickly faded away.
Within a few agonizing seconds, the darkness enveloped her completely. She lost consciousness, and her body went limp in the embrace of the tentacles.