Taking a step back, the frightened captain tapped his earpiece. No sound. The mechanics must have been crushed with the slam, or the cord cut from the silence. It didn't matter now, if he attempted to contact the base, his inhale would be anything heard from the other end.

"What are you,..." he tried to catch glance of mystical being, only being able to identify the hilts of what appeared to be two equally lengthed daikatanas.

"Follow. If you make a single noise, I will yell out to the mutants, and leave you here." Not believing the crazy turn this mission took, Marcus had no other choice but to comply.

They both left the remains of the squadron behind, and made haste of the exit.

(From this point on, the story returns to The Silver Vale Apartments)

One of the radios went off, "Storm Eagle this is KingTwo, what is your situation, over." The grasp of the demon's gauntlet eased enough so that Marcus could breathe, his gaze never broke focus though.

"Storm Eagle this is KingTwo, what is your situation, over!" The Empyreal tilted his head to the side as saliva of panic coughed up on the side of Marcus's face, "Please," he struggled, the lack of breath turning his speech into a whimpering whisper, "Let me go... I will... tell no one." "Storm Eagle this is KingTwo, god damnit its been fifthteen minutes, where the hell are you, over!"

A rumble in static ushered faint bass of dreadful speech, "You will not speak. You will obey." were the only parameters offered now to Marcus, who was yanked up to a standing position and released. Rich ruby stare still fixed on him.

Prepared for the worst, the boots of the soldier had crossed over every lifeless member of his once squadron. His eyes showed mania, willing to devour anything that moved across that entrance; rat, mutant, or demon.

From the shadows of his six, stepped two onyx heeled greaves, with four pinging fangs that downed a breath behind his neck, shivering his spine. Being as quick as possible, Marcus turned about to find himself grasped, tossed, and disarmed with a broken elbow.

A heavy gait of onyx gauntlet slammed down against his neck, choking the jugular as the rest of his helpless bodice flopped about on the ground. The rifles eventually landed on the rocky sediment, one of them firing off what was in its chamber before calming. Two volcanic ocules spun in revolution as they gazed down at him in struggle.

Heavy breathing did not ease the sweat drops at the sides of his face. A reloading Marcus glanced down at the corpse. The lifeless eyes of a once comrade were fixed upon the ceiling of the tunnel, his throat slashed open. Too clean to be caused by a claw or talon.

"Stop fucking with me!" yelled out the weary soldier, hoping that the shadow would show itself and end his misery, or give his insanity a fighting chance of escape.

The male took cautious steps towards the entrance, full clips in both held rifles. It was either fight whatever it was that was out there waiting for him, or wait for the mutant creatures to come and make a feast of his bones.

When the sparks ended, he realized there was nothing there at the entryway. No shadow. He crouched and waited, figuring just slightly that it might have been the radiation screwing with his mind through a tear in his suit. If only his fortune were that friendly.

There was a moment of silence. No growls from deep in the caverns, and no dark shadow waiting menacingly at tunnel's entrance. Yet he knew very well, that he was in a sandwich between the two.

Slowly, Marcus motioned over towards the cadaver of one of his dead comrades and retrieved some ammunition, stuffing it in one of his webbing vest's pockets, and then picking up the other rifle; checking it for load output.

A scream followed the howling shroud of slicing metal and rustling darkness. Gradually, the firing came to a stop, just before Marcus arrived at the entrance to catch eye of his entire team dismembered just along the lighting of the tunnel's entryway.

Not letting panic take the best of his mission and survival, he connected the end of his barrel without hesitation to the fluttering shadow that obscured a painting of death in the distance.

Fulminant optics narrowed in lock right back at his own unbelieving eyes, "Identify yourself! Who are you!". Without a single gesture or movement or sound within the following two seconds, Marcus released the rest of the clip of the rifle down the tunnel's construct.

While running in flee, the identified Marcus knelt near the end-tunnel where the entrance was inevitable. Retrieving his rifle, his iron sights aimed down the pathway of the tunnel, gladly ready to penetrate the skulls of mutants were they to do anything as simple as growl again, "Secure the entrance!" he commanded to the distancing squadron.

Two were dead, but the prospects evidence was achieved, Lithium-X mineral deposits identified within Yeth's Broken Gorge. The remainder of the sortie, to return to the outpost and report everything to mobilize a higher force of troops to conquer the Gorge.

The sounds of dashing footsteps were eventually swallowed by sudden opening of fire from the guns. The other members of the squadron were just near the entrance when they began to spray at it maniacally.

"Sit rep! Sit rep!" called back Marcus to his team. No one responded. He began to slowly take steps backward, giving the tunnel's end one last glance, ensuring that no wave of mutants were charging from the shadows.

Five more of the radiated creatures swarmed into the vicinity, meeting a tossed and tumbled end at the barrels of IndigoSky's continuous firepower.

Gathering and running down the tunnel from where they infiltrated the nest, the squadron executed their escape. A good two or three mutants deep in frenzied pursuit.

The captain, formerly referred to as 'Marcus', swung the strap of his rifle to his back while running and snapped the rings off the tops of two grenades. Ones that exploded with great timing under the feet of approaching mutants.

"Shit, shit shit!" called the captain, "He's calling for god damn reinforcements. Pull back god damnit, lets get the fuck outta here! Go, go, go!"

"Wait.. I almost.. just.. I got it! I got it!" stood the anxious scientist within the midst of all this chaos, only to meet his screaming smile's teeth buried into the back of his neck by the ramming charge of the giant juggernaut mutant.

The others were already drilling the volley of bullets into the back of the creature, and it served to have some rather decent effectiveness. The creature stumbled to the side, landing on top of the set equipment.

"Reload. Reload. Marcus, I'm low." crouched one of the females, "Covering fire!" yelled the other.

By the time the soldier had a chance to snap his head back to see who said that, the demon had already dissipated into the nothingness. That didn't cease the large beast from tackling that soldier and crushing him straight between the wall of the tunnel, and the protruding rock that was his gigantic arm.

By this time, three individual clips had already been pierced into it, and it was still, unmistakeably at a large. A thunderous roar that echoed from the bat screeches of incoming mutants, rumbled the throat of the monster as he regained his stance for another charge; the innards of the soldier sliding gently off the granite bone.

The soldier next to Domitrix stumbled back on his rear, his adrenaline and shock being too much to worry about the demon being there or not at the time being.

A firm onyx gauntlet reached down and yanked the male up by the collar to a standing position. "Hurry up and die", whispered the spectating Empyreal.

Shortly thereafter, a larger mutant pushed through the opposite tunnel. One of his arms were completely enshrouded in what seemed as a black granite bone texture of sorts. The head of the creature favored the same material.

The obsidian shadow arrived diagonally behind one of the soldiers as a wave of mutants poured into the opening. Everyone opened fire. The analytic bloodkissed optics glanced down at the soldier firing his rifle.

One eye squinted, the other down the sights. His trigger gave off bursts of controlled fire. Supporting hand shook with recoil, holding the rail grip at the front of the rifle. The male was still oblivious of the demonic presence standing just above him.

Domitrix watched his would-be effective methods intensely. The creatures were rioting with an unfaltering advance. Shamefully, however, the bullets were far more powerful than their exposed bodies, up until a huge thud hit the side wall, shuffling everything.

In all sudden spontaneity, a few dripping growls were heard from a somewhat parallel path to that of his own. The soldiers immediately banked right to face it, unknowingly missing the peering maw of curious demon, with a fair tress of sierra swinging from his robe's hood.

"Center two, count three, left flank. Moving to intercept." the two women flew past the cautious males at the end of the tunnel. They headed to the growling.

The momentum was set as pieces upon a chess board. The noise and focus muffled the godly velocity of the demon's own in approach. One of the scientists drew his handgun, the other continued the process.

Sound added to scent. Another camp was set up, this one only serving as a secured perimeter of operations.

Two male soldiers guarded the tunnel of which the demon was following them on. He could not close any further distance. Discreet ripples of green neon signified that they had switched to night vision.

The other five were nowhere to be felt, but the scientists dropped to the ground at the head of this 'T' shaped pathway and began driving a few odd poles into the rock. They proceeded their steps by scanning something with those hand held grids.

Motionless and diligent, the ever adept Empyreal remained at the stomach of a curve in the rocky tunnels. Enough so that the bleeding gleam of his firebricks did not give away his position.

Carefully etching his way to the hidden sides of the entrance, the shadow of death peered inside. This entrance served to be different from the others; virgin. No trails of mine trolleys; no structuring, no lighting.

Trails of mutant remains were identified, just next to that of soldiers' footprints and equipment drags. Domitrix easily made his way deeper into the catacombs of what seemed to be a nest of sorts.

The scent of unwelcome inhabitants drew him to follow the right paths within the certain forks that this cavern offered. The smell of sweat and lead plumes ravaged the tunnels. That perhaps, was the reason as to why they were instructed to only remain thirty minutes here.

Mayhap soon, too, would the mutants recognize the Empyreal, and his estelle of morbid indifference.

When the solder of the rear was no longer visible in plain sight, rich rubies of solitude came to a stand, balancing atop the deathly praise of onyx heeled greaves.

A soft sigh exhaled a crystal mist from the maw of the demon, into the atmosphere. Obsidian hood's trim, swimming as would the waves of an ocean, along the visage of stoic individual.

A deeply timed blink to grasp a feel of the vicinity with external energies dropped his person from ravine's top, down to its base. The soldiers had moved inward further. None stayed behind to secure the exit. Odd thought.

Nothing of flying freedom stalked the demon. For the moment being, he was everything but prey. The obsidian of his rustling robes fell identically close to tarnished remnants of cloth and what not, caught on a pole. His movements resembled that of crumbled paper in his flight from one spot to another, leaping across the ravine while simultaneously ensuring that the shadow cast from his being remained behind the trail of the convoy.

Alas, there was an opening in the narrow canyon that appeared to deepen. It wasn't a man-made entrance, but it appeared as to where the squad was seeking to head into.

With no mutants in sight, and the air around him as dry as sands, the Empyreal chose to squat near the edge; waiting for the soldiers to go in, and follow their trail after about two minutes of a head start.

The Empyreal watched as the captain, who was standing next to the speaking scientists, wave his index finger in a circular motion into the air. The other members sorted and grouped as the scientists packed up the receptor and restored it in his satchel.

Within a single file line, the squad immediately began walking hastily deepened into the Gorge. Taking advantage of the ravine shaped area, the quickness of the demon moved towards one of the upper stretched walls, stalking the convoy from a bird's eye view.

Against his better understanding, the obsidian soldier could not read any of the grids from the distance, but his hearing was impeccable. One of the scientists kneeled at the exposed corner and placed a tiny box on the ground.

He then stretched a pointy pole that extended vertically upwards. Pressing a button on the side of the box triggered an expansion of a dish from the pole. It seemed somewhat of a receptor.

The soldiers armed with rifles took their positions around the camp, while the scientist pressed an index digit into what appeared to be a headset. A speaker was seen on the side of the box, next to the button.

"KingTwo, this is Storm Eagle, over." "Come in Storm Eagle, this is KingTwo." "KingTwo, entire squad has arrived at destination coordinates. We are proceeding to conduct the investigation as instructed, over." "Ten four StormEagle, you are all weapons free, proceed with the objective. Winds are at twenty knots. Continous waveform of one hundred twenty eight hertz. You have thirty minutes, over." "Solid copy KingTwo, Storm Eagle out."

The convoy followed by the Empyreal had finally arrived. The location was far from any outpost, and small hills of sand began to replace broken street corners and buildings.

Switching to their second formation, the squadron exerted their cautions even more now. An observant Domitrix, close behind.

Withdrawing the odd screen grids from their satchels, the scientists began scanning again. A few more dots appeared, apart from the earlier ones a few miles back.

The convoy came to a stop, and set up a small permiter beneath the hanging cliff of a rotting building just off a sand hill. It wasn't the safest of areas, but it would serve as a temporary location of report.