Completely unfamiliar with this creature, Alexandra was even more on edge when the lights were turned off and they continued in near darkness. But even with the flashlight, they could not cover their entire bodies with the light. Perhaps the creature could attack whatever was not illuminated. The agent did not know. She could only develop theories she hoped she never had to test.

Thankfully, they managed to find a good haul. They had flares, lamps, flashlights, and even a flare gun to fight back with. If the creature did not come into the light, maybe the light was dangerous for the monster. One could hope that was the case, giving a means for the slaves to fight back.

As they started making the long trek back to the stairs, both of them froze when they heard the creature coming closer. With something growling and stalking in the shadows, running did not seem like a very good option. But, the other woman had not turned on her flashlight and neither did Alexandra. The agent's heart was pounding inside her chest but she knew running or turning on a light would only attract the creature to attack. No, if the survivor had enough willpower, she would wait until that thing was as close as possible before lighting her flare, hoping to catch the creature in the process.

If she is successful and gets a visual on the monster, she would use the flare gun to see how it lights being hit with a direct blast of illumination.

Survivor froze as did Alex. It was in the stairwell though to get back to the roof was probably outside of their being. It detected them, that steady growl that she had been confused about. Was it a warning … no, it was getting closer almost as if it were curious of them and not warning them off, her mind fought to grasp the situation, her fingers gripping the flashlight as each second drew her closer in turning it on fearful that the thing was going to pounce …

An orange-red light swept through the stairwell as Alex struck up her flare, a howl proceeding that as a creature about the size of a tiger was seen for an instant as it leaped back, surprised or maybe hurt by the sudden flare of light.

Alex had encountered one of these before though this one was smaller, a child maybe? There was no time to dwell upon that as she used the flare gun while it was leaping back towards the shadows when she scored a direct hit on it dissolving it into nothingness as it broke apart as that flare hit it.

With haste they had managed to make it into the first room they had entered finding two of the four slaves there. Tougher was collecting the other two as the women revealed that the thing was not distracted by them at all but kept chasing the two others, all three lost as they dipped out of sight at the stair well at the end of the corridor though the creature barreled down the door there indicating it had some substance or telekinetic ability, the latter more likely since the one she killed left behind no traces.

Survivor passed out flashlights and flares to the two others.

“There dead, we have to get out of here. We can't keep it at bay with a few flares.”

“But where do we go? What can we do, we can't even see it!”

“Tits killed one of them, maybe there's just one,” Survivor shrugged. “We're moving to the basement though -” It seemed that Survivor had been writing off the other two women as dead at this stage as she was preparing to head out leaving it up to the agent as to decide between getting back to the room with the generator or attempting to go after the others.

The flare revealed the monster while the flare from the gun itself forced the thing to disappate entirely. Did she actually kill it? There was no more growling or movement, allowing the two to keep going. They found two others but there was no sign of the last group. Their plan involved hiding in lit areas between runs. If the shadow creature did not switch targets, perhaps they are still hiding in that room?

"Get everyone into the generator room and get set up," Alexandra ordered, "I will see where the other two are. If they stayed in a lit area, they could just be trapped, not dead." With lit flare in hand, she would head in the direction the girls went when they split up originally. She would listen for anymore growling. If there was only one creature in the building, she should be able to move freely and find them hopefully. Then they could all go back together and fix the generator.

Survivor nods and leads the other two girls away. Alex continues on down the corridor to the other stairwell. It is quite as she gets there though before the leveled door she sees that the corridor twists and she can see dried splotches of some liquid and more of the red bugs, dead but strewn about.

There must have been near a dozen cat-sized bugs, workers perhaps.

In the stairwell she can see fresh blood splattered about and can hear something in the stairwell a floor below it seemed. Sounding like a dog gnawing on a bone, whatever was down there probably missed the beam of light from the flashlight with the way the stairs switched back on themselves so she would have to go down half a flight to the landing to get a glimpse of the thing. Maybe it had it's back turned too.

Cutting off her light source and creeping down to the landing she could hear more sounds of the creature eating as well as shadowy movements on the landing below. It was tough to see though the creature was not moving from the the spot it was in, head and claw movements perhaps as it ate. The door leading into the fourth floor as still intact so it probably didn't see the need of battering it down, the question was did it kill both women or just one, it had to be eating one of them. She would need light to confirm this though and it was up to her as to what to do. Did she double back and use the other stairwell? Try to kill this one and take a better look around?

Hearing the crunching of bone, Alexandra had to assume the worst. She turned off her flashlight and continued down the stairs towards the sound of something clawing and eating. The number of workers she passed getting here made her think that the owner sent bugs here to keep the creatures fed on purpose.

Even if both slaves were dead, getting rid of another of these beasts would only make the rest of their night safer. With another flare ready, she would use that once she got as close as possible. That would hopefully stun or force the creature to move in which Alexandra would respond with a quick shot of her flare gun. One flare close enough to dispel all of the creature's shadow seemed to be enough to kill them. It was rather basic but there was no way she would have enough flares to clear out the entire city.

The smaller ones were easier to deal with and had little resistance to the light, particular sudden bright ones such as the flare. She got the jump on this one and took it out with ease. Her eyes settling upon a mangled body …

Only one o the two women had been here, perhaps the other had managed to get away … she soon had her answer as she found the other in a room, a lit lab it had seemed. There were plenty of dead bugs in here though as best as she could tell none had been damaged. The only thing she could think of was that the bugs were trapped in here or had been smart enough to work out that the shadows were unable to come in here.

But there were things here to the likes that the agent had not seen before. Filing cabinets, lap tops even though they were all off and probably had passwords assigned to them.

There were a few vats here with a clear yellow liquid that contained some sort of cub in them, a panther of some sort. They all varied in size and some, the larger ones, seemed far more transparent then others.

“It's some sort of lab … though it wasn't safe to be out there. It was too close to risk and while the lights are dim here it's brighter than the corridors. Those vats seem to be getting a lot of power from somewhere.

“There's some sort of animal in each but who's running it if they've got live animals here. And these bugs, I can figure out their purpose either.”

Whether or not she grabbed any of the stuff or not back tracking to the stairwell let the two get into the basement easily enough though at the other end of the basement. Plenty of more bugs later she joins Survivor and the two other girls though no one said a thing about the missing slave. Suspecting what happened without the need for an explanation.

“What now?”

“Tits fixes the generator and we wait out the night here, there might be more of them.”

“Do we have to shut down the generator to fix it though? How long will that take?”

One dead, at least they were doing better than previous groups. But, that did not compare to failing to keep everyone safe. There was no changing it now though. It seems the one living slave had found a strange lab where more of these creatures were being created. She had half a mind to just start breaking the vats in hopes of cutting down their numbers further. Alexandra wanted to learn more but that would have to wait until they got back and the generator is up and running.

Her eyes narrowed at the Survivor who continued to call her by some lewd nickname. "My name is Alexandra," she replied, "And yes, I have to shut it down in order to work on it. We have enough flares, lamps, and flashlights to keep this room lit while I work. Just do not make too much noise and we should be fine. When you are ready, I will cut the power and get started. I need one volunteer to hold a lightsource for me so I can see what I am working on."

Alexandra salvaged the destroyed primary generator for parts to use on the backup before cutting off the power. Then, she got to work on replacing and altering parts using the arc welder. The task was simple but it would take some time. But with the two nearby creatures dead, they should have at least some peace for now. Once the repairs were finished, she would turn it on and see how her work turned out.

“Alexander, right.” Survivor added. The women were worried about the lack of lights, there were some bickering but in the end it was settled, they could not do without the generator and Survivor had no skills in repairing it.

The other agent held the light source for her while the others remained quiet and alert. There were three of the creatures in the building, two smaller and one larger, stuck in here until it grew dark though it was a big hospital the creatures got use to their prey coming in by the same access and hence they running into two of them, the third asleep and remained so. As a result they were able to fix the generator and generate light throughout most of the hospital, the light waking up the other painfully as it was singed a bit until forced into more shadows. Had it been one of the smaller, unstable ones it would have been destroyed out right though it took a bit more than a little light to do it in.

with the safety of the light they should be good until morning regardless of where they were. It was safer to move around too as dimly lit, shaded areas were easy to avoid and they were able to back track to that lab.

With power they could pluck the computers in now too and mess around with those vats, which Alex would recognize where more of these things in different stages, that yellow liquid either protecting them from the light or they had not fully transformed yet …

The notes in the filing cabinets were written in a strange dialect for the most part though others were in Galactic Common as it appeared that someone had been doing a little work on translating them …




“... the hounds are regulated to a frequency part way between our world and the Shadow, we have only a glimpse of that place though beyond it is the realm that those horrors exist in, the very same monstrosities that the Ashen used as a template for their experiments with the Ashlyn.

“We do not know why they come though it is speculated that they come when Ashen tech is activated, perhaps their desire to annihilate their former masters is that strong. They do not appear to save others of their kind though. We have one of their Queens in the basement though the Ashlyn do not arrive unless we power up that tech. Barrett has instructed us not to fire up the tech though it appears that tech copied is not subject to this attraction. Our Enhancer based off the Ashen design has not attracted their attention and we do not know why or how the Ashlyn are drawn here.

“Studies have been made with the Queen though her intelligence seems to have diminished with the loss of more and more of the captured specimens though in time I doubt she will possess much, if any sentience.

“We were based on the moon given the attacks from the Ashlyn that we knew about though our work has been divided now into two parts. The work on the hounds and our tests with the Enhancer. Routinely we have been watching the groups that have been sent her in our studies though are they the keys we seek?”

There were little files that she could bring up on the computers though, mostly number crunching or comparisons between the Ashen Enhancer and the backwards engineered one. Though from what she gathered they were being observed. Was the replica city made to be a testing ground? Why had this stuff not been secured? Did they think the slaves were going to die or not care about this stuff? Why here and not else where? Did they have a means of getting back here safely?

There were no notes of this Enhancer though it had been mentioned a few times. Either by chance or due to having plenty of time to kill she did find blueprints of the hospital on one of the lap tops that showed a sub basement that seemed to be accessible by a single elevator though. On it she could see all the supply rooms marked as well as labs and even a pharmacy of sorts though this place wasn't like a real hospital it may have had need for basic medicines if a team of organics where here.

But the question arose as to what to do about the information she acquired. Was it safer to just wait until morning … what was the other agent doing here … there were so many questions and not enough answers though the agent did not seem to recognize her or perhaps she deliberately refrained from making that sort of connection.

There was no way she could carry these notes with her when the ship returned in the morning. She was not sure what to think of most of the data and some of it was a bit confusing. She did not know what Queen the notes were referring to. Was she an Ashlyn or one of those shadow things? Either way, she may have to investigate. Would Ortix really keep the Ashlyn here in this city though? Thankfully with the power on, Alexandra could safely explore the hospital.

Before that though, the agent would see about dealing with the vats here. There was no reason to keep these shadow creatures here. As much as she would like to avoid killing another alien, keeping them alive meant more slaves getting killed in the future in this sick game. Alexandra would try to set the vats to let light in and put the creatures out of their misery. Once they were dealt with, the agent would take a lamp and some flares and head into the basement. Perhaps she could find more data down there.

With the lights back on there was a bit of a protest about Alex going off to explore on her own. It was dangerous, they didn't know what was out there …

“Fine. I'll go with her. The rest of you can wait it out here. We got the lights now so the shadow things aren't a threat and the only bugs I've seen are dead ones.” It was the other agent that had gone with her though not a thing was said about her being an agent, not unless Alex was willing to bring it up as she didn't seem to focus on that.

There was probably no rescue plan in the works, another agent that was captured in the field which seemed far too common these days or perhaps there was something but she did not wish to risk being overheard by bringing any of that up.

The vats were labeled in Galactic Common and though it did take some trial and error the two were able to figure out how to dilute the influx of some of the chemicals letting light in to kill the specimens. Though Agent delayed them here a tad longer. They had all night after all and ten minutes wasn't going to kill them, especially when she did find something else that had been overlook the first time through.

“You seemed interested in all the files and computer junk before. Don't know how much you can read but you can port files over to here until you can run them through a decryption key.” Most of the computers did have Galactic Common for keys unlike the ones she encountered on the Adda vessel. Given a flash drive she could move some or all the documents, some were readable, some weren't and some partially translated. The hard files were much the same though far tougher to take.

If she took some of the files didn't cost them too much time and stashing something as small as a flash drive was easier on the tool belt for now though something more permanent would have to be found by morning as she doubted that the slaves would keep more than their skimpy clothes.

The elevator she found had a slight problem. One needed a key card to access the lowest level as it would go no further than the basement though taking apart the panel and using some of the tools she acquired would bypass this the security measures were top notch and she was at it for some time, making progress, being shut down and having to start over again. Three quarters of an hour passed before they were able to access the lower levels though and that elevator panel was a jumble of wires.

They probably didn't have to worry about the elevator being used while they were here though. Ortix and the team of scientists probably coordinated.

The lower most level was probably on it's own power supply too and the elevator descended for a bit before opening up to white sterile halls. There was no one present so far though there was plenty of light here. Just three doors though the one at the end of the corridor seemed to be as thick as a blast door and was sealed with a keypad lock. The first two, while metal, had not been as thick.

“Which one, Alex?” Agent whispered to her.

The agent followed her while the other three women stayed in the room with the generator. The entire building was lit up so there should be no more shadow creatures. Even if there were, the creatures would be stuck hiding in some shadow somewhere until the lights turned off. Alexandra dealt with the vats which will hopefully mean less of those things for future unlucky slaves.

The agent offered to help by giving Alexandra a small flash drive. It would still be difficult to hide something on her person but it was at least small enough that such a feat was now possible. Perhaps she could tie it into her hair or something. Worst case, she could stick it somewhere a bit less pleasant. Alexandra did not know how much this agent knew about her. The russian woman had already shown off a great deal of science and engineering experience that far exceeded some simple human slave. But the other woman mentioned nothing. Perhaps she thought Alexandra was an agent and was trying to help with her mission. It was difficult to say. She did not know if this agent had been captured as well or was in deep cover.

After much hacking and bypassing, they arrived in the lower levels of the hospital. The sealed door ahead would be impossible to get through without a code or a means of cracking the system. "It is not like there is much choice," Alexandra answered as she approached one of the first doors that did not have a keypad. She would try the door. If she could not get it open, she would try the other.

“I suppose you're right about that,” Agent moved to the side of the door. She longed for a gun but had been prepared to get in close to whatever was there. With the way this floor was lit up though they would not have to worry about shadow beasts.

There was a door at each point of the compass. The Western door was the one that they were coming through and the Northern one probably lead into the next room down the line. East lead into a large room with bunks for a dozen or so people, entertainment in the form of televisions and while they may pick up the satellite feeds of the planet though there were a number of movies that were available here.

A bathroom complete with showers had been adjacent to this one though there were foot lookers in which were clothes for shorter creatures. It was almost set up like some sort of military boot camp.

“Look at this,” Agent tossed an ID badge to Alex that she found between two of the bunks while they looked around here, It had a picture of an Enead on it, an armadillo-like biped alien that was a dark shade of purple, hardly the military type, a little over a meter in height they were more akin to egg heads then warriors. The ID had a magnetic strip on the back and doubled as a key card though how long was this going to be missed before someone came looking?

“I wish there was a weapon around the this is some sort of barracks for Enead so I doubt there is one. Four options as I see it. We check out that Southern door off the main room, try using that key card, search the other room or we set an ambush for this guy if he comes back though we have no idea when their shift started or how long before it's pointed out his ID is missing … it could be clipped to clothes …

“I'm assuming if he hasn't noticed he may be with others that accessed that locked room and he had no need for it so going by that even if he knows it's missing he might not have an immediate need for it and thinks it's as good as safe where ever it is.”

The russian agent looked over the ID. Eneads? Why were they here? This area also seems used. It made no sense. The other woman suggested waiting to find out if they could ambush someone. Ambush who and with what weapons? "With what exactly?" Alexandra asked, "Lets just see what's behind the door and just go. If whatever lives here comes back, they will most likely outnumber us. There is also our master's men who will return in the morning..."

With that simple explanation, Alexandra uses the card to open the door. Hopefully she could find some information and just get out of here.

“I'm alright hand to hand, if it's only one or two people we could pull it off but you're right, we don't have any weapons.”

Making their way out of the room to the main one that had the choices they could here some clicking from the South now … movement there now … punctuated by clicks and gears indicating some sort of machinery that had been activated. Ignoring it for the moment they had gone to the door with the key pad opening it up there was a door to the North, sealed in a similar fashion with a key card from beyond which could be heard creatures, perhaps the Eneads at they spoke a strange dialect. There was a door on the Eastern wall though, a key pad opening that one as well though in here were plenty of computers along the walls, the center of the room contained a vat with a huge, horse sized insect withing clear gel that looked like an Ashlyn. It was alive too as it turned to the sound of the door opening but did nothing or perhaps could do nothing as it just looked out at the pair. This had to be the Queen that was refereed too in the notes she had uncovered in the hospital …

There had been the door across from them and the second room that they did not hear any noise from. There was a fire extinguisher here too and the computers looked to be in Galactic Common rather then personal devices that might have been in the language native to the Enead.

“What is that thing?” Agent whispered as her eyes stared at the enormous bug ...

There was still no explanation of why they would drop slaves off in a building that is connected to a still in use lab. Why send potential threats to places with sensitive information and technology? The sound of movement and machinery concerned Alexandra but they had already come this far. Finding an Ashlyn may get her the information Goro needed. The busty agent approached the computers and tried to find out more about the insect like creature trapped inside the vat.