Fifteen minutes before the tremor shook the NRE, chaos erupted on the ground floor outside the institute.
F01's rage had shattered the Granitz lab's reinforced wall, triggering a blaring alarm across the camp. The communication unit broadcast urgent orders, their voices sharp over the comms:
"Red Code: Lab breached!"
"Hostile heading to NRE!"
"All soldiers, arm immediately!"
The message looped twice, spurring soldiers to action. Troops scrambled to arm themselves, racing to fortify NRE's main gate while others formed a defensive line at the entrance.
In the comm room, Admiral Steven Sterben stood at the central console, his face grim. "Admiral Karl is at the NRE," he announced, his voice steady but urgent. "We must stop that thing. It cannot reach the brain of our nation."
He issued a sharp command: "Helicopters and drones, open fire!"
Two helicopters roared into position, unleashing a barrage of bullets that grazed F01's hide, barely scratching its surface. Ten drones followed, launching missiles that struck true but inflicted only superficial wounds. F01's body regenerated swiftly, its flesh knitting together with unnatural speed.
The creature leaped, snatching a drone midair and hurling it into a helicopter. The chopper spiraled, crashing in a fiery explosion. The second helicopter swooped, but F01 dodged with preternatural reflexes, vaulting onto its frame to smash the pilot's cockpit. Both helicopters fell, and the remaining drones were crushed one by one.
In the comm room, Steven and his team watched, stunned. "Unbelievable," a commodore muttered, his voice trembling. "It destroyed our drones and helicopters."
"What is that thing, Admiral?" another demanded.
Steven's eyes narrowed. "It was once a cadet. Now it's F01, revived by Freja Feta with new neural implants—memories of combat skills and animal instincts."
"What kind?" a junior officer pressed, wide-eyed.
"Gorilla strength, canine cunning, bat sensory, among others," Steven replied, his words chilling the room.
"You kept this from us?" a commodore shouted, anger flaring.
Steven cut off the shouting. "If you doubt me, ask Admiral Karl."
The name silenced further questions. All eyes turned to the monitor, where F01 charged toward the NRE, its speed rivaling a cheetah's, fueled by relentless stamina.
"It's too fast," a soldier whispered.
"What's its target?"
"NRE, sir!"
"Alert the NRE unit and Karl—now!" Steven barked. "Secure the institute. That thing cannot enter!"
"Why the NRE?" a voice asked, but no answer came.
Steven relayed his orders to his subordinates, his voice resolute. "And prepare the admiral's suit."
Chaos erupted on the ground floor outside the NRE as F01 overwhelmed the frontline, leaving two helicopters and a swarm of drones in ruins. Elite soldiers from the Reich's Granitz camp formed a desperate defensive line, their boots grinding into cracked pavement to brace against the berserker's advance. Tanks rumbled into position, their turrets swiveling, while infantrymen gripped an arsenal of bullet rifles, laser weapons, and Reich-forged vibrating swords—blades humming with resonance frequencies capable of slicing steel.
Drones buzzed, their sensors transmitting live footage to Admiral Karl and the comm room. The air crackled with static, alarms wailing in the distance, interwoven with soldiers' barked orders.
As F01 entered the firing range, a salvo of gunfire roared, muzzles flaring. Bullets struck its torso, but the creature's dense muscle fibers, tough, repelled them, ejecting the rounds. Laser rifles followed, their beams scorching the air, but they merely etched shallow, steaming craters into F01's hide, its skin dispersing the energy like a living shield.
A swordsman charged, his vibrating blade singing a high-pitched whine as it carved a gash across F01's arm. The wound was deep but fleeting—F01's complex muscle structure absorbed the resonance, dulling the blade's edge. With terrifying speed, F01's hand shot out, clamping the soldier's head in a crushing grip. A sickening crunch echoed as the skull collapsed, blood splattering the pavement. Soldiers recoiled, their shouts drowned out by the creature's guttural growl. The wound from the blade healed.
"What the hell is that?" Admiral Steven's voice trembled in the comm room, his eyes wide as if witnessing a sci-fi horror.
"Is it conscious?" a commodore asked, gripping the console.
"In theory," Steven replied, his tone grim.
Freja's neural override algorithm had transformed F01's skin into a sensory array, using light to project a 360-degree view in its mind—every soldier's movement, every muzzle flash, even the drones overhead, perfectly visible. A sniper's bullet grazed its shoulder.
A tank fired, its shell slamming into F01's chest with a thunderous blast. The impact staggered the creature, cracking the pavement beneath its weight and tearing a gaping wound. Yet, within seconds, the flesh knitted shut, regenerating with beyond-lizard speed. But the rapid healing had drained F01's energy, its movements slowing as hunger gnawed at its core.
"Grrrr~~~"
F01 pounced on a fallen soldier's corpse, claws shredding armor. Its jaws unhinged, tearing into flesh with a sickening crunch, bones splintering as gore smeared its lipless maw. Lit by flickering drone lights, the scene was a nightmare, soldiers frozen in horror as their comrade was devoured.
"Hold the line!" a sergeant bellowed, his voice breaking, but fear rippled through the ranks.
Multiple tanks fired in unison, shells screaming through the air. With the latency reduction algorithm, its overall conscious reaction was down to 20 ms, but the unconscious was far below. F01 dodged with uncanny reflexes, its corrupted nervous system—once a cadet's—anticipating trajectories. Two shells struck its torso, shredding muscle but missing the head. Blood sprayed, yet within moments, the wounds sealed, fueled by consumed flesh.
Another swordsman then charged in, but only to be pulverized by F01's fist, his scream silenced as his body was torn apart, feeding the creature's ravenous hunger.
With deliberate intent, F01 began to flex its biceps and triceps, its muscles swelling. Its torso hardened, and its arms swung back slowly…prepared to perform a full-swing, followed by clapping together with explosive force. The shockwave erupted, the air moved toward the NRE's building, a high-pressure pulse that shattered windows and shook the NRE's structure.
Soldiers along the shockwave's path were hurled against the concrete wall, their bodies crushed. Sergeants and captains at the frontline perished instantly, while the few remaining troops at the rear stood stunned as F01 moved toward the entrance.
"What the hell was that?" a voice shouted in the comm room, disbelief as the Reich's elite were decimated. The comm personnels turned to the admiral, asking for the next order.
"What's our next move, Admiral?"
"Give us orders!"
Admiral Steven remained frozen, his mind reeling. Though this was not the full Granitz's force, the loss to a single creature was unbelievable.
"What did you create, Freja?" he murmured, his voice thick with shock. Then with desperation he asked for Granitz's last resort.
"Where's Karl?" he roared, snapping back to reality, desperate for the admiral's status.