Entry point secured.
Local environment: stable. Radiation level: elevated. Temporal static: increasing.
Kael moved through the outer corridor of Vostok Station, boots crunching over thin layers of frost.
The facility was intact — eerily so. No decay. No breach. Just silence, held in tension.
He activated the scanner embedded in his forearm.
One faint heat signature. Approx. 180 meters below. Unconfirmed.
Not human. Not yet ruled out.
---
He reached the first junction: Research Bay 3.
The door resisted. Manual override engaged.
Inside, rows of cryotanks lined the walls. All offline.
Except one — still powered, its vitals flickering.
Inside: no body. Only a residue.
A smear across the inner glass. White, crystalline.
Same pattern from the League's debriefing logs on Operation White Blood.
Subject exposure: incomplete. Outcome: unknown.
---
Kael turned, weapon drawn.
Movement.
Just a flicker — hallway left, past the secondary lab.
Scanner offline. Static spike.
He followed.
Pace steady. Muzzle up. No flashlight — his sight was augmented.
Door half-open. Room unmarked.
Inside: broken consoles, shattered data cores... and a message scratched into the wall:
> "We were wrong. The fragment isn't stable."
Below it, a name: Dr. Lenova Sahrin
Status: deceased, per League records — 86 years ago.
---
A low hum vibrated through the floor.
Then, the lights flickered.
Not a system glitch.
Something was awake.
Kael tightened his grip.
There was more here than a fragment.
And the mission parameters were no longer sufficient.