Apocalypse Trade Monopoly
Chapter 136: - Perimeter Breach

Chapter 136: - Perimeter Breach

The outer walls of the location loomed ahead—thick with reinforced plating, optical dampeners, and mounted guns twitching as they auto-tracked incoming thermal profiles.

Ava’s system pulsed.

[LOCATION LOCKED: WEST CRYO FACILITY – ENTRY VECTOR: 0.2°]

[DANGER ZONE: ACTIVE. PERSONNEL COUNT: 47. VEHICLE COUNT: 5 (TANK-CLASS)]

[SYNC LINK: LUCAS BAI – STABLE]

She adjusted her glove tighter against the interface cradle and kept walking.

Lucas didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to.

He radiated confidence like it was armor—steady and sharp-edged, eyes already sweeping the wall for weak points.

The outer gate hissed open.

A soldier unit stepped forward. Uniformed, clean, rifles half-raised in that way meant to imply readiness but not engagement.

Lucas slowed just enough to look polite.

Ava didn’t.

[THREAT LEVEL: MODERATE – OFFICER RANK: LIEUTENANT. SHIELD ACTIVE. RIFLE SIGHTED: LOW-ENERGY GRIDLOCK TYPE]

The Lieutenant cleared his throat. "Lucas Bai. You’re entering a restricted zone. Explain your purpose."

Lucas responded by stepping forward and dropping a black case at his feet.

It clicked open.

Four drones rose, humming faintly as they deployed into a loose, silent orbit above Lucas’s shoulders.

Ava’s system pinged them automatically.

[BAI-DESIGNATION: GHOST SWARM – CLASS: COVERT COMBAT/RECON]

[ARMED STATUS: CONFIRMED – HOVER LOCK: STABLE]

"I’m here for what belongs to me," Lucas said simply.

The Lieutenant stiffened. "Are you threatening—"

But he was cut off by the low rumble of tank engines activating.

Ava’s bracer spiked.

[VEHICLE SHIFT DETECTED – UNIT TYPE: ARMORED CANNON – POSITIONAL LOCK ACQUIRED]

[ACTIVATION: AUTHORIZED FIRE STATUS IMMINENT]

She didn’t wait for a cue.

She flicked her wrist forward, opening the side panel of her pack, and triggered deployment.

The emitters snapped into place.

[SYSTEM INITIATING: LIGHT FANG GRID][TARGET LOCK: ACTIVE – LATTICE ENGRAVING IN PROGRESS]

Thin, near-invisible lasers cut across the tanks—tracing precise lines across their armor in complex loops.

The pattern was a warning. One misfire and the internal systems would melt in a chain reaction.

Ava didn’t speak.

She didn’t need to.

[DANGER SUPPRESSED – SYSTEMS HOLDING]

Then the ground shook.

Not from tanks.

From claws.

[VIBRATION SIGNATURE IDENTIFIED – TYPE: SHIFTER CLASS]

[COUNT: 6 – RANK: MID-VOLATILE – DISTANCE: 120M CLOSING FAST]

Ava’s gaze didn’t shift.

"They’re sending in the dogs," she said.

Lucas grinned. "Good. I needed a warmup."

[LUCAS STATUS: CHARGING VIOLET DAGGER]

[AMMO SYNC: OFFENSIVE MODE ENABLED]

The first shifter lunged.

Lucas dodged like it was choreography, ducked low, and brought the dagger up in a blur.

[IMPACT – TARGET SEVERED: SPINAL COLUMN – NEUTRALIZED]

A second shifter leapt from the roof—Lucas spun, caught it mid-air, and slammed it into the pavement before snapping the blade into its throat.

[NEUTRALIZED – BLEED LEVEL: HIGH]

The others hesitated.

Wrong move.

Lucas surged forward.

One fell from a neck-break. Another tried to flank—got a drone to the skull.

[SWARM DRONE: DIRECT KILL – SIGNAL STABLE – TARGET 5 DOWN]

The sixth tried to use one of the soldiers as cover.

Ava’s system auto-tracked it.

[CIVILIAN PROTECTED – LETHAL ARC CLEARED – THROW LINE CALCULATED]

Lucas didn’t hesitate. Threw the blade.

[DIRECT HIT – OCULAR ENTRY – NEURAL DESTABILIZATION CONFIRMED]

Silence dropped like a guillotine.

Only the hum of the still-hovering drones filled the space.

The Lieutenant’s voice shook. "Stand down. We—we didn’t authorize lethal—"

Ava raised her bracer.

The alpha access flickered into the air.

[CODE VERIFIED: ALPHA OVERRIDE — AUTHORIZED COMPANIONSHIP CONFIRMED — BAI HEIR: PRESENT]

The heavy gate unlocked.

Lucas didn’t wait.

He stepped through.

Ava followed.

[STATUS UPDATE: ENTRY SUCCESSFUL][NEXT PHASE: INTERIOR BREACH – INITIATE IN 90 SECONDS]

They didn’t talk as they crossed the threshold into the compound.

The first shot came from the tower—a silent, silvery arc from a rail cannon mounted beneath the upper platform.

Lucas caught the motion before the sound.

"Down!"

Ava dropped. Lucas rolled.

The blast hit the wall behind them, shattering concrete like it was sugar-glass.

[INCOMING ARTILLERY DETECTED – TYPE: COMPRESSION RAIL][RESPONSE: COUNTERMEASURES ENGAGED]

Ava’s system flared bright. Her drones surged into motion.

Bridgewalker One skittered sideways up the nearest column, legs whirring in perfect sync. Its onboard fusion pulse clicked into charge mode as it scaled the side of the wall like a spider made of war.

"Back me," Ava shouted, eyes flashing with overlays as she tagged heat signatures around the tanks. "I need thirty seconds!"

Lucas didn’t respond.

He was already moving.

The tanks started rolling—real movement now. No more warnings. Turrets rotated, targeting brackets forming as their AI struggled to predict a threat they didn’t understand.

[TANK ARMOR CLASS: A-TIER | REACTIVITY RANK: MODERATE][SUNDIAL READY – TARGETING ASSIST ENGAGED]

Lucas yanked Sundial from his side harness and aimed for the lead vehicle’s power relay.

He fired.

The beam burst in an elegant arc—cutting through a junction plate like it was foil.

The tank convulsed—engine screaming—then imploded into itself as the circuit reversed.

[CONFIRMED: TANK ONE DESTROYED]

But the real problem came from the south.

They weren’t shifters anymore.

Not the half-turned hybrids Ava remembered from outside the bunkers.

These were full-shifted.

All the way through.

Nine feet tall. Four-legged. Sleek-black fur soaked in mutation sheen. Long-limbed, long-muzzled, nothing left of the humans they’d once been except hate.

"Lucas," she warned. "You’re going to have company."

He grinned without turning. "Good."

The first beast howled and lunged—massive, fast, more wolf than man.

Lucas dodged low, came up in a flash of silver, and jammed Violet Dagger straight through the monster’s sternum.

[NEUTRALIZED – INTERNAL COLLAPSE COMPLETE]

A second creature skidded past Ava—too fast for her to tag manually—but the system didn’t miss.

[TRACER LOCKED – LAZER FANG MODULE DEPLOYED]

Twin beams sliced across its knees.

It stumbled.

Lucas turned and cleaved its throat in one clean arc.

Then another landed on him—claws raking down his shoulder, teeth snapping.

Ava saw the blood—thick and sudden.

Lucas didn’t flinch.

He jammed a drone emitter into the thing’s ribs and activated the self-destruct.

[DRONE DETONATION: LOCALIZED – TARGET CONTAINED – SHIELD INTACT]

The shifter’s chest blew out in three directions.

Lucas staggered but stayed up.

Three more came at once.

Ava sent Bridgewalker on a wall sprint, leaping off its final foothold to land behind the central tank and drill directly into its heat core.

The result was fire.

Massive. Beautiful.

Two more tanks reversed. One fired.

The shell missed Ava by a foot.

She hit the ground, rolled, came up behind a barricade.

Her voice was steady through the bracer: "You still alive?"

Lucas shouted over the noise. "Better question—how many left?"

The last four shifters formed a line.

Coordinated.

Smart.

Lucas’s smile widened.

"You want to take them together?"

Ava checked her weapon loadout.

Laughed.

"Try and keep up."

Ava sprinted into the wreckage—coat snapping, fingers already mid-command.

[SYSTEM MODE: COMBAT SYNC ENGAGED][DRONE: BRIDGEWALKER ONLINE – COLLISION RANGE: 12M][PARTNER SYNC: LUCAS BAI – RESPONSE TIME: 0.3s – COMBAT FLOW: ACTIVE]

The four remaining shifters moved as a unit—heavily mutated, fangs glinting, eyes void-black and boiling with feral sync. They weren’t just enraged—they were wired. Amped on something that burned out thought and left behind only bloodlust and precision.

One lunged straight for Lucas.

The ground cracked under its weight.

Lucas didn’t move at first—then pivoted, slid low under the first strike, and rammed Violet Dagger straight through the beast’s underjaw.

[CRITICAL STRIKE – NEURAL CORE DISRUPTED – NEUTRALIZED]

It collapsed mid-leap, crashing to the side with a wet crunch.

A second flanked Ava.

Too fast.

It was almost on her when she spun and fired an arc flash straight into its ribcage—a discharge unit hidden inside her sleeve.

The shifter shrieked, twitching midair—and Bridgewalker launched like a cannonball.

The drone hit the back of its skull, legs embedding like hooks.

Then detonated.

[TARGET DESTROYED – STRUCTURE DESTABILIZED – REMAINS: UNUSABLE]

Lucas shouted something.

Ava didn’t hear.

Too loud.

One of the tanks—still functioning—had turned, its turret swinging toward them again, frame groaning under partial damage. Smoke poured from its vents. The gun locked on Ava.

Lucas moved like a storm.

He grabbed one of the dead shifters’ claws still attached to its body—jammed it into the turret’s stabilizer—and launched off the tank’s side in a wall-run motion.

He landed on top.

A quick flick of Sundial—

[DISCHARGE ACTIVATED – POWER CORE SHOCK]

The tank’s internal systems collapsed in a bloom of electric fury.

The blast threw him backward.

Ava caught his shoulder as he skidded back to ground, bleeding and laughing.

"You’re insane."

Lucas grinned, spit blood, wiped his mouth. "I’m efficient."

A shadow fell across both of them.

The third shifter—bigger than the rest. Massive.

It didn’t leap.

It charged.

The impact cracked asphalt like glass.

Ava barely jumped clear. Lucas didn’t even try.

He ducked under the first claw, rolled—

And Ava, from ten feet out, threw something small.

Lucas caught it mid-spin.

Sovereign: Micro Uplink Detonator

"Now?" he asked, mid-dodge.

"Now," she snapped.

He jammed it onto the shifter’s back and vaulted over its shoulder.

[UPLINK SYNCED – DETONATION IN 3... 2... 1...]

The shifter twisted to chase him—

Then exploded in a perfect, high-frequency pulse that melted its spine out through its chest.

Everything went quiet.

The final shifter stood alone.

Chest heaving.

It looked between them. Growled. Backed up half a step.

Lucas pointed the dagger.

"No."

The shifter leapt—its last mistake.

He sidestepped.

Sliced its throat wide open.

It hit the ground, twitching once before it went still.

Ava exhaled slowly.

Lucas wiped his blade against the nearest wall.

All that was left was steam.

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