FSN Secure Operations Division
Mission Briefing Log 072-A
Classification Level: Shadow Clearance
Location: Mt. Ebott Containment Zone
Objective: Missing Persons – Black-Level Response
0620 Hours — Mt. Ebott Forest Perimeter
The sun pierced through thick pine canopy as Lieutenant Elias Rennik stepped from the dropship ramp, boots crunching into damp moss. Mt. Ebott rose before him like a stone sentinel, wrapped in green, unscarred by war or decay. Birds chirped. A breeze stirred the undergrowth. To any outsider, it was just another mountain in the Federation's territory.
But they weren't here for the view.
The fissure in the earth lay thirty meters ahead — a jagged scar nestled in a shallow ravine. It hadn't been there two weeks ago.
Rennik scanned it with his visor. "Zeta-1 to Central Command. We've reached Entry Point Alpha. Terrain is stable, no seismic shifts. Residual heat signatures—weak and cooling."
Static fuzzed in his ear, then cleared. "…Copy, Zeta-One. Proceed with caution. Monitor transmission fidelity. Underground relay degradation expected."
He nodded, already walking. Behind him, four soldiers descended in perfect sync — Zeta-9 Squad. Elite recon. Heavy exoarmored, each one a walking fortress.
Chisel, the team's demolitions expert, rolled his shoulders, twin laser swords glinting from their forearm mounts.
Echo, tech officer, swept his handheld sensor across the soil.
Brick, squad gunner, hefted a modified heavy laser rifle.
Runt, the youngest, moved quietly but alert.
Rennik looked to them, voice calm. "This isn't a breach-and-clear. Keep your heads. This hole is where five kids disappeared. Let's bring them home."
0657 Hours — Descent Shaft
The fissure dropped straight down — unnaturally perfect. Not collapsed. Not dug. Melted.
"Looks like a plasma lance cut through the bedrock," Echo muttered, peering into the darkness.
"No tool makes cuts this clean," Chisel replied.
"Not a human one," Rennik said, then stepped off the edge.
His boots flared for half a second as the exosuit's internal jets slowed his descent. One by one, the others followed. Fifty meters down, they landed in the first chamber: stone walls, old moss-covered bricks, faint carvings in an unknown script.
The floor was old. Worn. Not destroyed — just forgotten.
"Zeta-9 on the ground," Rennik said into comms. "Initial chamber intact. Beginning sweep."
"Copy… Zeta… maintain uplink… interference… expec—"
The transmission flickered to static.
Echo checked his interface. "Comms holding at 87%. Nothing to worry about yet."
They advanced. Every wall they passed pulsed faintly — blue veins of dormant circuitry weaving through the stone like blood vessels in a corpse.
0712 Hours — Subsurface Atrium
The corridor opened into a vast, ruined atrium. Vines hung from high arches. Water trickled along cracked tiles. It looked like the remains of a cathedral and a bunker fused into one.
Then came the scraping.
Chisel froze. "Rear contact."
Weapons raised.
Something moved in the shadow of a crumbled pillar — tall, hunched, slow. A massive form stepped into view, obscured by torn robes and patches of matted fur. Her eyes were sunken and glowed faint red. Dried blood clung to her hands and stained the ragged cloth around her.
She looked almost human once.
Now she was a beast.
Runt flinched. "Is that—"
She charged before he finished.
With a roar that shook dust from the ceiling, she closed the distance in two seconds. One clawed hand struck Brick's shoulder — the heavy exosuit barely staggered, plating dented but unbroken.
Brick retaliated instantly, firing three laser bursts into her torso. The bolts landed — sparks, smoke, and a snarl of pain — but she didn't fall.
Chisel slashed with one of his mounted laser blades. The weapon cut shallow, scorching flesh — she hissed and leapt back.
"Zeta-1! She's fast—too fast!" Runt shouted, raising his rifle.
"She's not trying to kill," Rennik realized aloud. "She's testing us."
Then she raised a clawed hand — a sphere of flame burst to life in her palm.
"Move!" Rennik shouted.
The fireball hit the far wall, exploding in a bloom of orange light and shockwave force. The squad scattered as dust and debris rained down.
When the dust cleared, she was gone — vanishing into a side corridor, footsteps echoing.
"She could've finished the job," Echo said. "But she ran."
"She's buying time," Rennik muttered. "And she didn't come from nowhere. She lives down here."
0729 Hours — Comms Down to 65%
Central's voice came through with distortion now.
"Zeta… confirm… contact with unknown… is it sapient?"
"She's not talking," Rennik answered. "But she knew we were human. That… thing used fire magic. Intentional attack, but not lethal."
Static.
"…Copy… proceed… next sector… extreme caution advised…"
0735 Hours — Field Status Update
The squad regrouped in a corridor painted with faded symbols. A door stood partially open — scorched at the hinges. Beyond it: crumbling bricks, dust-choked furniture, rusted pipes still humming weakly.
"We're not in a cave," Chisel said. "This is infrastructure. A facility."
Runt stared at the warped walls. "It's like someone built a city underground. Then forgot it ever existed."
Echo nodded. "If this is tied to the kids' disappearance, it goes deeper than any of us were told."
Rennik looked back down the tunnel where the beast had fled.
"Then we keep going."
Mission Addendum
Following a global conflict known as the Sovereign Collapse (2073–2081), which devastated most of North America, the Federation of Sovereign Nations (FSN) was formed. Unifying the former United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean territories, the FSN created the Secure Operations Division to prevent recurrence of destabilizing threats.
While most black-level responses involve weapons of mass destruction, rogue AI, or technoplague outbreaks, this mission represents an anomaly — a ground-level operation assigned due to five unexplained child disappearances within a 2 km radius of Mt. Ebott. No seismic activity was recorded. No wildlife anomalies. No local folklore… except a mountain that "swallows" those who climb it.
Now, FSN forces have discovered something older than the Federation. A silent place buried in rust and ash.
And something — or someone — is waiting in the dark.