"Sidewinder to Falcon. Come in."

Silence.

Sidewinder's brow furrowed.

"Sidewinder to Falcon. Do you copy?" He tried again. Still nothing.

A pit of worry formed in his gut as he tried to connect to his comms again, hoping for some sort of response.

Something was off with the entire operation, and if it weren't for their benefactor providing state-of-the-art proxy drones, he'd have already ordered the entire squad to abort and withdraw from the facility.

But they were effectively anonymous and immune to death, and the pay was far too high for him to refuse the mission.

Hellhound had broken off from the group in the thick of the fighting, and Falcon had rushed off to go support her. But Sidewinder hadn't heard back from either of the two.

Sidewinder just didn't like the fact that the operation seemed to have gone FUBAR almost from the start. It was supposed to be a quiet in-and-out operation. Instead, the building had gone into maximum alert when a Magical Girl had shown up out of nowhere guns blazing and proceeded to tear her way through the security.

Now, Alpha team was pinned down, and Charlie was missing. Sidewinder was Hellhound's second-in-command and had taken charge when the operation started to fall apart.

"Sidewinder to Alpha, come in. We're approaching the rendezvous point now. Confirm your position."

No response.

Sidewinder cursed, but his radio suddenly flared up again.

"Roger, Sidewinder. We are arriving at the first checkpoint. I'll confirm our status shortly. Bravo team, have you reached the objective?"

"We had a run-in with a Magictech Soldier. Hellhound disengaged and we lost Falcon. I can't get in contact with either. They might be KIA. The rest of us are on the move to support."

"Understood. Once we finish up, we'll be on our way to reinforce."

Sidewinder clenched his teeth and turned his head to the side, glancing around. All of them were piloting proxy drones from a safe distance away. It was a strange and eerie feeling, but the sense of security made the mission much easier to stomach.

He glanced over his shoulder to check on the other members of Bravo team, making sure everyone was keeping up. They were spread out across a hallway, their rifles drawn as they moved cautiously through the corridors.

"Flowing forward," Kestrel muttered, taking point their squad of four. Sidewinder followed suit, keeping pace as they pushed ahead with Weasel and Leopard pulling up his flanks.

There were no signs of life around, just endless hallways filled with offices. But that didn't mean there wasn't a threat lurking somewhere out of sight, waiting to ambush them.

It wasn't long before Sidewinder heard the faint sound of gunfire. It sounded distant, muted by walls and floors, but unmistakable nonetheless.

Sidewinder's heart began racing as adrenaline flooded his veins.

His eyes narrowed, scanning the area carefully as he searched for the source of the noise.

Suddenly, his comm crackled to life as a familiar voice came in.

"Sidewinder, do you copy?" Falcon asked through the static-filled channel.

"Falcon! What the fuck? Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I encountered some hostiles going after Hellhound, but I managed to evade them."

Sidewinder frowned, not sure how to interpret that. There was something wrong here, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"You were ambushed by the enemy?"

"Just a patrol, nothing to worry about. But I took a hit before disengaging. They had some kind of EMP device that fried my comms and I've had to move off the main floor plan. I'll regroup as soon as possible. Think Hellhound got hit by it too."

His voice did sound a little off. Like it was coming through a broken speaker. He had to have taken some serious damage.

Sidewinder considered his options.

On the one hand, if they waited too long, then the rest of their forces could become overwhelmed, and the Magical Girl and whoever was backing her might be able to finish their job and secure the place. They didn't have intel on which Magical Girl had chosen tonight of all nights to storm the Evergreen facility, so they didn't know who to expect.

But on the other hand, he couldn't afford to lose any more men. Not with so much on the line.

If they lost too many drones, they wouldn't have enough firepower to get out of here. Their mysterious benefactor was willing to pay well for their services, but he didn't know how much of a leash they were on. These drones weren't cheap by any stretch, and sure, they were expected to sacrifice a few as suicide bombers, but they hadn't even positioned the damned bombs yet. They hadn't been able to do their jobs.

And then there was Hellhound.

Sidewinder's brow furrowed as he thought of their squad leader. The woman was cold as ice, efficient and ruthless. She'd earned the callsign through her brutal tactics in battle and a complete lack of mercy or empathy for the enemy.

They were supposed to make sure that there weren't any survivors. They were supposed to blow the building to hell if anything went sideways. They were supposed to get the hell out and be done with this.

But things had gone wrong from the very start, and he was losing his grip on the operation.

Sidewinder bit back his annoyance.

"Philosopher, this is Sidewinder. Come in."

"Reading you, Sidewinder."

Philosopher's calm, gruff, and level voice was always a comfort. The man had a knack for remaining unflappable no matter how bad things got.

And right now, he needed someone to ground him.

"Hellhound and Falcon are MIA, and Charlie is unresponsive. Requesting orders and instructions. Over."

"Stand by soldier, I'll contact the bloody client."

"Roger. Sidewinder out."

Sidewinder let out a breath and checked his rifle. He had three mags of ammo left.

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Philosopher's response came back within seconds, confirming what Sidewinder had suspected.

"Orders confirmed. Proceed with Plan B."

"Copy. Out." Sidewinder gritted his teeth and opened a private line to Kestrel.

"Listen, Kestrel. You hear all that?"

"What's the plan??!"

"We're blowing the place sky high. We can't abort. And we're on our own. I'll cover for Hellhound, but we need to get our asses upstairs and set those bombs before the skirt and the security forces finish their little brawl."

"Roger that, Boss."

Kestrel turned his drone's head and gestured forward, and Sidewinder signaled for the others to move up behind him.

"We're approaching the rendezvous now. Keep sharp. If we're compromised, then there could be a lot of heat on us by now. I'm betting there's more of those security bots."

It was a small blessing the Magical Girl had occupied the attention of the Magitech Troopers.

Sidewinder glanced over at Kestrel and motioned for him to take the lead, following close behind. They moved quickly through the hallways until they arrived at a door leading to the stairwell. Sidewinder looked at Kestrel and signaled with his hand before he opened the door and entered the room.

Sidewinder's heart skipped a beat when he saw the scene before them. The walls and floor were stained with blood, and a five dead guards were sprawled on the floor, a single bullet hole in each of their chests. Two more had gone down to precise stabs and slashes in several vitals, their necks and the ground beneath soaked in blood.

Kestrel made his way into the room first and knelt next to a body. The guard had been stabbed multiple times, the last blow having pierced his heart.

"Shit."

Sidewinder looked down at his feet, checking to make sure he wasn't standing on anything suspicious, then knelt to inspect the remains of a chrome security bot. A single bullet to its tiny optic, disabling it. It was the size of a man, armored and shielded against most conventional attacks on four legs.

He'd heard stories about what the Komainu bots could do to the unwary. The machines were heavily armored and shielded against conventional firearms, but their primary armaments were magitech.

They were fast and agile, capable of taking down multiple targets at once, and could fire bursts of magical energy with enough power to punch holes straight through a man. They did have a few weak points though, but they weren't easy to exploit. It wasn't an easy feat by any means.

"Hellhound's handiwork," Sidewinder muttered under his breath as he stood back up. He glanced around, looking for any other signs of violence. "The security here must be even tougher than expected. It's a good thing we brought so much extra hardware. If this was a meat mission we'd be screwed."

Weasel grunted in the back. "Yeah. Glad I'm not camping in a damned ditch dodging mortars from cartel fucks in Jalisco this time around. Miss me with the old days."

Kestrel's eyes widened slightly.

"I can't believe that she would take on a whole squad and a sentinel on her own. It's crazy. But I'm glad it wasn't us."

"She'll be fine. Hellhound always is. She'll have to meet us at the next rendezvous."

Sidewinder looked at the stairs ahead of them and sighed. "Let's move out, people."

Weasel stepped into the stairwell, followed closely by Kestrel. They slowly climbed up to the next floor and paused, their weapons drawn.

Kestrel took point, moving forward carefully. His footsteps echoed through the empty hallways, reverberating off the concrete walls and steel floors. A few minutes later they reached the top of the stairway, where there was another door. Kestrel paused before opening it. He scanned the area for any signs of danger before stepping through the threshold.

It seemed safe enough...

The carpeted hallway stretched out before them, dimly lit by fluorescent lights overhead.

Kestrel motioned to Sidewinder, and he signaled for him to move ahead.

Sidewinder glanced down the hallway, his eyes adjusting to the light, then turned his attention to the other members of his team. "Okay guys. We're almost at our objective, let's keep moving. Stick together."

"Sure thing," Weasel said dryly, his voice low and gravelly as he moved out.

Kestrel followed suit, taking the lead once more.

They walked down the long, straight corridor, their footsteps echoing in the empty space around them.

Sidewinder glanced around nervously, scanning the darkness for any sign of life. The place looked deserted, but he knew better. There were probably a hundred more of these security guards patrolling this area.

To the complete and total surprise of their ECW specialist, all the cameras and sensors seemed to be malfunctioning, and a lot of the doors had been forced open too. Of course, it hadn't been too long before they'd learned about the Magical Girl tearing up the building, which would explain some of that, but this felt... odd.

Sidewinder was starting to get the impression that maybe they weren't quite alone, but there wasn't anything to support that theory yet.

Sidewinder paused for a moment, scanning the area ahead of him.

The air smelled stale, like something had died in here recently. It was probably just some poor night janitor who'd gotten caught up in this mess and was killed by a stray bullet.

He shrugged and continued forward.

A few seconds later he heard a faint scratching sound, like something scraping across metal, coming from somewhere nearby. It stopped after a few moments, only to resume again.

"What's that?" he whispered.

Kestrel looked at him and shrugged. "Probably nothing, boss."

Sidewinder shook his head. He didn't think so.

It wasn't long until they came upon another set of doors. They opened it up slowly, cautiously peeking through.

This one led to a wide-open space filled with large cubicles. The ceiling above them was covered in wires and pipes, giving the appearance of a labyrinth. A few pieces of equipment were strewn about, but most had been moved away or hidden out of sight.

The scraping noise was louder now, a metallic scraping that sent shivers down Sidewinder's spine.

Kestrel stopped abruptly and motioned for Sidewinder to stop. They listened carefully, straining their ears. It was quiet, eerily quiet.

They waited, their eyes scanning the room.

Suddenly, the sound ceased completely. Silence.

A cold shiver ran through Sidewinder's body.

"Sidewinder?" a familiar voice echoed over his private line, causing his heart to leap in his chest.

"Falcon!" Sidewinder said in a hushed voice. "Are you okay? Did you find Hellhound?"

"Unfortunately not. I couldn't catch up to her but I think she's up ahead. I've been moving cautiously."

"Where are you?"

Falcon didn't respond, and the silence dragged on for a moment.

Sidewinder frowned, wondering what had happened to his fellow soldier.

"Falcon?" He asked again, but the line remained quiet.

"Yeah. Just didn't want to spook the boys. I'm hunkered down in this office. Gonna stand up and show myself."

"Right. Well, we'll wait for you to join up with us then. Be careful."

Sidewinder turned to Kestrel, nodding at him to proceed. They slowly walked towards the source of the scraping sound. The room seemed deserted, except for the occasional flickering of fluorescent lights overhead.

A shadow darted between two desks. Sidewinder tensed up and stopped moving, signaling for Kestrel and the others to stop too. He slowly turned his head, looking around. He couldn't see anything.

He took a step closer, trying to get a better view of whatever had made that noise. He reached for his rifle.

"Your 5 o'clock, boss. Coming out now."

Falcon stepped out from behind a desk, his rifle raised.

Sidewinder relaxed. "Fucking hell, you scared the shit out of us."

Falcon laughed and shook his head.

"Yeah. Sorry about that." He walked over to Sidewinder.

Suddenly, Sidewinder noticed a faint glow coming from somewhere behind a row of cubicles, the soft sound of humming machinery, and a chirp.

He froze, listening carefully.

"What's wrong?" Kestrel asked.

Sidewinder raised his hand for silence. He listened again.

It was gone.

Sidewinder looked at the four other members of his team.

"Keep your eyes open," he whispered. "I heard something, and I think it's one of those sentinels. I've heard those things make a sound just like that in a vid from a buddy."

Sidewinder turned back to look at the room. Something was definitely wrong.

Falcon placed a metallic hand on his shoulder, as well as Kestrel's, and Sidewinder felt a strange tingling sensation that he attributed to adrenaline. His heart rate increased. He could feel it pounding in his ears. The hairs on his neck stood up straight. A chill ran down his spine.

Then as quickly as it came, the feeling vanished, and the sound was gone.

Sidewinder frowned. He looked around again, scanning every corner of the room. He couldn't find any trace of whatever had made that noise. There were no lights, no movement, no sign of anything else alive here.

Maybe it was just a malfunctioning machine or a dying battery pack.

He let out a long breath, relaxing.

He looked at the others and nodded.

"Let's move," he whispered. "I'm sure I just —"

Suddenly, his vision exploded in color.

It was a surreal experience. It wasn't anything like seeing colors with your eyes.

Instead of a simple spectrum of shades, each shade had its own unique flavor, texture, taste, and smell. Some were bitter, others sweet. Some smelled like roses, while others were pungent and unpleasant. The pain was as surreal as it was unbearable, a kaleidoscope of colors flashing and swirling before his eyes. And then his mind was ripped from his proxy drone.

The pain intensified, growing sharper, deeper. He could barely think coherently anymore.

But he had to warn his team. Something was wrong. So wrong. So very wrong. His body jerked violently and the pain intensified.

He tried to scream, but it was cut off as it felt like he was violently torn apart piece by piece, the agony indescribable as he was flung into a place where gravity meant nothing, where space was meaningless, and where time had no meaning. His mind raced wildly, desperately searching for some kind of anchor to hold onto, something solid and real. He needed something, anything to keep himself from being pulled apart.

But there was nothing.

And he screamed again, but only in his mind, his voice gone as his mind and body were shredded into nothingness. There was nothing but the void. And he fell, tumbling through endless blackness. His vision blurred and flickered.

It was an agonizing, terrifying experience. A death without dying.

And then darkness was all he knew.

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