ARC 4 THE COFFINS
Chapter 10 - Retrieval
Facility K-27 was dying.
The underground complex groaned constantly now, like a wounded metal beast collapsing beneath its own weight. Emergency lights flickered through clouds of smoke while warning sirens echoed across the facility in distorted loops.
Somewhere deep below
Something enormous slammed against reinforced containment walls.
Again.
Again.
Again.
The sound vibrated through the floor beneath the surviving squads.
The Iron Wolves regrouped first.
Commander Darius Vane emerged from the smoke-covered corridors carrying Lucien Vale over one armored shoulder while Elias Rook walked beside him reloading his rifle. Kael Mordren followed close behind, katana stained black with mutant blood.
Orion Hex limped behind them in his damaged mech suit, one arm of the machine sparking violently.
“You know,” Orion muttered painfully, “I liked this place better before everything tried to eat us.”
“No you didn’t,” Kael answered.
“…Fair.”
Ahead of them, the remaining Grave Hounds secured the central retrieval chamber.
Cassian Dray stood near the center platform beside several terrified scientists while Rowan’s surviving clones guarded the perimeter with rifles raised.
The moment Darius entered
The room became tense.
Not because of the mutants.
Not because of the collapsing facility.
Because of what stood in the middle of the chamber.
Three enormous black steel coffins.
Each one covered in ancient locking mechanisms and strange metallic markings unlike anything produced by the Iron Reign.
The room felt colder near them.
Lucien slowly lifted his head weakly from Darius’ shoulder.
The moment he saw the coffins
His expression changed.
“…Those are wrong.”
Everyone looked at him.
Even Cassian.
“What do you mean wrong?” Elias asked carefully.
Lucien stared at the containers.
“They feel alive.”
Silence followed that.
One of the surviving scientists finally stepped forward nervously.
Dr. Helena Voss looked exhausted beyond human limits. Blood stained her lab coat while one hand shook uncontrollably around a datapad.
“You weren’t supposed to find them yet,” she whispered.
Darius immediately turned toward her.
“Start talking.”
Her eyes shifted toward the coffins.
“We didn’t create the outbreak.”
Nobody moved.
The scientist swallowed hard.
“We found something beneath the desert.”
Orion frowned.
“…That’s never a good sentence.”
Dr. Voss activated her datapad shakily.
A holographic projection appeared above the central table.
Ancient underground ruins.
Massive structures buried beneath mutant territory.
And inside them
Rows.
Thousands of black coffins.
The room went silent.
“The mutants weren’t attacking the facility to destroy us,” Dr. Voss said quietly.
Her voice trembled.
“They were trying to stop us from excavating the tomb.”
Kael slowly lowered his rifle.
“…Excuse me?”
Cassian’s expression darkened immediately.
“You’re telling me the Iron Reign dug into an ancient crypt beneath mutant territory?”
The scientist didn’t answer.
Because she didn’t need to.
The answer was obvious.
Darius stared coldly at the hologram.
“What’s inside them?”
Dr. Voss hesitated.
Then finally:
“We don’t fully know.”
Kael laughed once in disbelief.
“Oh fantastic. We unleashed apocalypse mystery boxes.”
Another massive impact shook the facility.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
Somewhere nearby
Something screamed.
Not mutant.
Not human.
Older.
Lucien visibly flinched.
Elias immediately noticed.
“Ghostlight?”
Lucien stared toward the coffins.
“…Something in there is awake.”
That changed the atmosphere instantly.
Even Steelborn shifted slightly now.
The coffins suddenly felt less like cargo
And more like predators pretending to sleep.
Cassian turned toward the scientists sharply.
“How many facilities were excavating these things?”
Nobody answered quickly enough.
That alone was enough.
Cassian’s jaw tightened.
“…How many?”
Dr. Voss whispered:
“Seven.”
The room exploded with overlapping voices.
“You opened SEVEN sites?!”
“Are you insane?”
“Who approved this?”
Darius remained silent through all of it.
Which somehow felt worse.
Finally he spoke.
“Mission changes.”
Everyone looked toward Iron Alpha.
Darius pointed directly at the coffins.
“We retrieve them.”
Several soldiers stared at him like he’d lost his mind.
Cassian stepped forward immediately.
“You cannot seriously intend to transport unknown entities through Iron Reign territory.”
Darius’ cybernetic eye glowed brighter.
“And leaving them here is better?”
Cassian answered instantly.
“Yes.”
Silence hit the chamber hard.
For a moment it looked like the two commanders might actually fight each other.
Both nearly seven-foot Steelborn monsters stood face-to-face beneath flickering emergency lights while alarms screamed around them.
Two warlords built differently.
Cassian commanded through calculation.
Darius through force.
And neither trusted the other completely.
“The facility is collapsing,” Cassian said coldly. “We destroy the coffins and leave.”
“We don’t have authorization for that,” Darius answered.
“We also didn’t have authorization to unleash hell underground.”
That landed hard.
Even Darius couldn’t argue immediately.
Lucien slowly looked toward the nearest coffin again.
Then suddenly
He froze.
His silver-blue eyes widened.
“…Something moved.”
Everyone raised weapons instantly.
One of the black coffins emitted a low metallic groan.
Not mechanical.
Breathing.
Slowly
One of the outer locking seals began turning by itself.
CLUNK.
Orion’s face paled instantly.
“Oh that’s BAD.”
The room erupted into motion.
“MOVE THE COFFINS!”
“Seal the chamber!”
“GET THE SCIENTISTS OUT!”
Heavy Metal units immediately attached magnetic transport rigs onto the black containers while Rowan’s clones formed defensive lines around the chamber entrances.
Another impact shook the facility violently.
The floor cracked.
Emergency power flickered lower.
Dex Mercer’s drones suddenly flashed warning symbols across the room.
“MOTION DETECTED.”
“How many?” Elias asked.
Dex stared at the readings.
“…A lot.”
The corridor outside exploded with screams.
Mutants.
Hundreds of them.
Not charging randomly this time.
Moving together.
Coordinated.
Like something was driving them toward the chamber.
Kael slowly drew his katana.
“They know about the coffins.”
Another seal on the nearest container unlocked.
CLUNK.
Lucien stepped backward instinctively.
His breathing became uneven.
Inside his head
Something whispered again.
Wake up.
His eyes widened.
No one else heard it.
Only him.
Darius noticed immediately.
“What is it?”
Lucien stared at the coffin.
“…It knows I’m here.”
Then the chamber doors detonated inward.
Mutants flooded the corridor screaming.
And behind them
Something much larger moved through the smoke.
Cassian immediately raised his shotgun.
“Retrieval team move now!”
Heavy transport rigs began dragging the coffins toward the extraction elevators while both squads opened fire into the advancing mutant wave.
Blue tracer fire lit the chamber like lightning.
The retrieval had begun.
And Facility K-27 was running out of time.
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