Ancient Forces (2018 Reboot)

Prologue

The twelve men moved down the long, brightly lit corridor with demeanor and resolve of an unforeseen situation. Five men stood up front in rows of two, as the hallway was very narrow. Six men stood in the back in the same formation. All eleven of the men held standard issue rifles and wore their standard issue uniforms, black velcro vests and riot helmets with thick padded pants. No body part was exposed, not even their faces. Secrecy was of utmost importance for this division of the government. In the middle of the men was a shorter individual who wore flashy general garments and had several badges and honor awards on his shoulder breast. He was older, perhaps sixty or seventy from a quick look.
    His hair, or what was left of it, was all grey and white, leaving an exposed area of his head which glowed in the lights as they passed them. He had rolls on his forehead, which creviced down into his furrowed eyebrows. He was most displeased with the current outcome of things. His eyes were a dark green, and his nose was rather small in the center portion of his face. His mouth was curled in a grimace. He was most displeased with his being here. He had broader shoulder span, but shorter arms that only reached to his waist, which wasn't that far down. His chest was rather skinny, and it made up only about forty percent of his body height. His legs were short too, averaging him to around five foot seven, or maybe eight if he stood up straight.
    Scientists in several white coats and lab suits stood on either side the hall as the general and his entourage progressed down the hall. Then, as soon as he was out of the way, they would continue running down the opposite direction towards the exit. The whole facility except main staff and security had been warned to evacuate. This whole mess was one that the general had feared would one day come. Still, it would have been better if it hadn't been at one in the morning on a Friday night. That was just an insult to the general's time off.
    The group finally reached the end of the hall, both rows of guards seperating for their general to move in. He opened the large, airlock tight door and stepped in, instantly being flooded by the sounds and views of panicking and frantically working control center personnel. As they all realized the general had now arrived they stopped and stared at their superior. He stepped up on the balcony above it all.
    The room was currently in a dark red hue with bright display screens all along the massive fifty foot forward wall. The floor was full of desks, computers, personnel, and security guards. The entrance door came out onto a balcony that overlooked the entire room and had two staircases leading down into the lower floor on either side of it. The general looked up to the main display screen which showed a live feed of a large containment room.
    The containment room was a large circular room around thirty feet in total. In the middle of the room was a large pod looking device with massive tubes and wires attached from it to the ceiling. The tubes and wires led to several reading stations which took in data. One particular reading list was of Mythidactal energy. The data was off the charts. As for the pod itself, it was rumbling and shaking slightly, and it had begun to glow a low metallic color. A strange gas type substance leaked from the bottom of the pod, slowly filling the room. The general looked back to the personnel below.
"What's the situation gentlemen?" he demanded as he began stepping down the staircase.
Four men came up to him, the first one being a man in full lab clothes and protective attire, "Sir this thing has been leaking Mythidactal energy since ten last night but it wasn't until it began acting up that we became alarmed."
The second man, wearing a suit and tie with the looks of a very financial oriented man spoke up, "We ordered a full evacuation and have been observing its movements since then, but only now..."
"Only now did we notice this," the third man spoke up, wearing casual clothes with a shirt that read, 'Aliens took my friends.'
    The general followed the four men as they led him to a display monitor that showed an xray into the pod. Within the pod was a figure, a tall, thin body that jerked and thrashed around within its small confinements. The general raised an eyebrow as he saw and began to understand what this meant. The thing hidden within that pod, the very thing he'd been tasked with getting out for the past two years, was taking the initiative. For good or for worse it was up now. There was nothing stopping it from busting out of that pod, but the existence of this, thing, was not to be leaked beyond the facility. It was a Mythic. It had to be studied, and or destroyed if at all possible.
"Weaknesses?" the general asked his group of advisors.
"One," the fourth member jumped in, obviously the head of security with his armor and weapon, "Here."
    The Head of Security pointed to the x ray screen and circled out a small hole in the pod.
"What about it?" the general asked.
"Well we already know this thing doesn't react well to bullets, so if we were to insert a deadly gas or liquid into the pod and suffocate it, we might have a chance of killing it or moving it into another more suited space for research, if that is indeed what we still want."
    The general contemplated the option for a moment. No one else spoke up, and he was pressed for time. He nodded and gave the command. The Head of Security pulled out a short range communicator and barked orders into it, setting up for the operation. The whole control center watched as the doors to the circular room were opened, and several scientists and guards, all wearing top of the line gas filtration masks, stepped in. The scientists, four in total, carried a large tank of green gases, with a small insertion tube just big enough to fit the hole. Six guards, all with guns trained on the pod, moved along the edge of the wall and formed a barrier around it, just in case.
    The scientists wasted no time. They opened up the tube and inserted it in, then checked the toxicity of the gas. They raised the level to Threat Level Gamma, the weakest level of toxin. With a few presses of release valves the gase began to enter the pod and fill the open space. The general and his group watched the x ray as the figure inside began to move and struggle even more. It beat its fists against the door, it kicked, it tried shifting on its side. The angle at which the x ray was at was from the left side, so the build of the thing inside was unknown. However, from the punches and damage it was dealing to the pod from the inside the general presumed it was very strong. That made him even more nervous.
"Go to Threat Level Beta," the Security Chief commanded.
    The scientists nodded and adjusted the valve to the next level. They paused the gas outtake, then began the process again with a different tube. The general and advisors watched as the thing threw a fist up, cracking the pod from within. It wasn't getting sleepier or weaker, it was getting more aggressive. The thought entered the general's mind that this could perhaps be a gas related Mythic. If that was the case, they'd have to resort to other methods of transportation or elimination. None of that was cheap, or easily accessible at the current moment.
"Threat Level Delta," the Chief commanded.
    Again the process paused, they adjusted the danger level, and then it continued. Finally the general began to relax as the thing within began to calm. It threw weaker punches, it wasn't moving as much. Everyone let out an audible sigh of relief as the thing came to a full stop. The Chief made more orders, and soon the scientists were out of the room. The guards however remained waiting for transport teams. As far as the bio records were concerned this thing was still alive.
"Well then gentlemen. I believe my work here is done," the general said as he turned and began walking back up to the balcony.
"Wait! It's back!" a worker shouted from within the crowd below.
    Just as the general returned his attention to the display screen above the pod within the room exploded, sending a vibrant red blast into the eyes of everyone watching. Gunshots rang out as everyone looked back to the now smoke filled screen. Sparks and flashes allowed shadows to be seen within the smoke. Guards shot in every direction, screams filling the soundwaves of the live feed. A tall, nearly stick built individual seemed to teleport between each flash, attacking each guard and taking them down in an instant. As the smoke cleared the general's eyes widened. The horror of his reality lied now in front of his pupils.
    All six guards lay dead on the floor, necks snapped and in odd directions. Standing in the middle of their bodies was the mysterious individual, not even an individual in the first place. A robot. The legs and arms were so skinny it looked as though one solid thwack would snap them in half. The exposed wiring and weak metallic body made the general question just how powerful this Mythic truly was. The body was of basic construct, with several wires and exo skeletal parts holding the chest together, only half covered by a thin sheet of metal. The neck was all exposed wiring, leading up to the head. It was a large head, all rectangular. The front was faced away from the camera as the robot observed its work on the floor around it.
    Once it was satisfied it turned back to face the camera. It had one large glassy eye that seemed to stare right into one's soul. The blood red glow behind such glassy eye didn't make the sight any less horrifying. The robot let out a low, mechanical, almost gurgly chuckle. The general hadn't realized he was holding his breath until he nearly passed out. The robot looked back to the wall of the room and stepped up to it.
"Next time you see me," the robot rasped out, almost unreadable from the static in its own voice, "I will have killed the last of this world's hope for survival."
    With that the robot reared a fist back and punched a hole straight through the nearly three foot thick concrete. It pulled its other fist back and slammed it into another portion of the wall, then began pulling it in from the outside. The wall cracked and broke in, leaving a large hole in the containment room. Everyone stood in total shock, total disbelief at what they were witnessing. The robot tossed the wall chunk aside, then jumped out of the hole and into the open forest beyond. The general choked up as he stared at the dead bodies of some of the most trained guards the government had to offer. Casted aside like they were nothing. The wall, three feet of solid concrete, moved like a pebble. This was no ordinary Mythic.
"S-sir," the Science Advisor spoke up wearily, "w-what do we d-do?"
    The general stole himself and his fears and faced the advisor. He swallowed hard and stood up as tall as possible. He avoided contact with the main view screen.
"Alert all facilities within a three hundred mile radius. Put all in field teams on alert. Warn all government officials of what just happened. We're entering Threat Level Alpha."