Symbiosis: At World's End

Site Theta

Wendell was parked behind a lab desk, working through her research as well as the research already on Site on tracking symbiotes through satellite tracking. She had been looking at the satellite images of a wide area around Site Alpha, trying to locate Merrick, the hooded symbiote and her escaped prototypes, but she hadn't yielded any results yet.

"Dr. Wendell, Dr. Evans had called for you. He says it's urgent."

Wendell stood up and stretched before making her way down to Evans's lab. She pushed the door open and saw Evans staring at a large computer screen. Evans was the lead science officer of Site Beta. He also was responsible for monitoring communications between the other Sites and Site Beta. He had a strange look on his face.

"I was doing a mandatory comms check when I came across this."

He motioned to a screen, which displayed the Beta symbol at the center of the screen, with several other symbols indicating the other Sites surrounding it. There were yellow, pulsing lines connecting the outlying symbols to the Beta symbol. Evans motioned to a symbol on the screen. Wendell took a closer look and saw that it was the Theta symbol.

"What's so special about the Theta symbol?"

Evans shook his head and sat down on his desk chair.

"Site Theta was one of the earliest Sites that were constructed around the same time as the city. It was built in the mountains and designed with symbiote capture, containment and study as its highest priority."

Wendell cocked her head.

"Why wasn't I assigned there? Seems to me that would have been the first place the council would ship me off to."

Evans sighed.

"I'll bet they would have been very eager to send you there if they had the chance. One of their experiments caused the symbiotes to escape their confinement tubes. They broke the rest of the test subjects out and killed or assimilated everyone in the base. The base went offline after that and no one's ever gone to investigate since then. The common conclusion is that the place is still inhabited by symbiotes, but now the power has come back on. It happened a few hours ago, according to the computer."

Wendell had to agree that it was indeed strange.

"That is concerning, but why did you call me about it?"

Evans brought up an image on his computer. It was an image a stealth drone had taken. It was an image of Merrick, the hooded symbiote, AS-02 and 03, all in the mountains.

"Are you saying that they found Site Theta and turned on the power?"

Evans shrugged.

"All signs point to it. Oh, and your first monster was seen a few miles behind them. Best guess is that it's stalking them."

Wendell nodded.

"The leader of the Medusa team, or I guess it's just Medusa now, made two attempts on Merrick's life, with and without the symbiote. It makes sense she would still be after him."

Evans shrugged.

"You know those beasts better than me. The council will want to know if you have a plan."

Wendell shook her head.

"If we tell the council, they'll just send a strike force in after them. They won't stand a chance. Plus, I doubt Merrick will be inclined to let them out in one piece this time."

Evans crossed his arms.

"You've been referring to that black one by name a lot. Are you sure you don't have impaired judgement on the matter?"