It didn't take us that long to formulate a plan of how to get into the dome undetected. Due to the cloud cover in the sky, the only lights around for hundreds of miles were the ones from the dome itself and even then they didn't influence more than 50 yards from the actual structure. The idea was this. We could fly up to about 500 feet from the dome and then free fall down when we were right on top of it. Assuming the roof wasn't guarded, we could very easily slip inside, though working our way through undetected was a different matter. There wasn't anyway to know what hallways were guarded, when and where all the nooks and crannies someone could be hiding were. Risky, yes. Necessary? Also yes, so we didn't really have a choice.

We left the encampment around 8PM. Under the cover of the dark, we flew up about 500 feet and then covered the near mile to the dome as quietly and quickly as we could. When we were over the roof, we dropped down onto a still hot metal walk way that wrapped around generator buildings and AC parts. Over the hum of all the mechanics and diesel engines, I could hear what sounded like three or four guards coming this way and from the sounds I was getting, they were less than 50 feet away.

"Guards coming", I said stepping into an alcove between two cooling towers, "find cover."

Mako and Arnett took cover behind the tower with me while Jayden was with Nina across from us. The foot steps walked a few paces before turning and coming down the walkway where we just were. About a half a minute before I actually saw more of the same guards that I'd seen watching the truck earlier today, an absolutely disgusting smell smacked me over the head, a stench that reeked with all the force of an open mass grave. The smell was so bad that I actually threw up in my mouth and Arnett looked like she might pass out with the way she turned white. This was about the time that the four guards passed us. They were talking about quite normal things, such as the state of the American Government, what they were going to do when they got their next few weeks of vacation time and so on. What bothered me somewhat was that that they all seemed to just, flat not know they smelled like decaying bodies. Maybe they'd been in the field for so long they were used to it?

"God those fuckers stink!", I whispered to myself as we regrouped and I washed my mouth out, "let's keep moving, they had to have come up here from somewhere. I'll take point, Nina you bring up the rear, Jayden in the middle and Arnett and Mako protecting him."

We assumed formation and then I simply followed the stink trail that those guards had left behind to a ladder system that looked like a fire escape. At the bottom of the escape were two guards where were busy on their phones.

"Two tangos at the bottom of the stair case", I said pulling out my combat knife and flaring my wings, "Nina, follow my lead."

I jumped over the edge, using my wings to slow my descent enough that I wouldn't brake anything when I hit. I slammed into my target, knocking him into the ground face first and sending his M4 flying. Before he could try to flip over and counter, I drove my knife into his neck and severed his spinal chord. Nina had been a bit slower getting to her target and the other person had seen me and raised her M4. I went for my desert eagle just as Nina crashed into the woman and buried her knife in the back of her neck. We hid the bodies as quickly as we could because we couldn't stand the stink.

"Why do all these people smell like rotting bodies?", I asked as the little kids joined us.

"Think maybe it has something to do with what we fought back at camp?", Arnett asked.

"Doubtful", Mako said as we began to follow the edges of the building, following the guards stink trail to a back door with two more guards. I raised my S20 and let off two shots, dropping both of them where they stood. I also put a third round into the small light bulb above the door and then we slunk up to it, Nina and I on each side of the door with a few of the others behind us.

"Heads down, safeties on", I told my team, "this mission is over if they spot us, keep quiet and slow, follow me."

I opened the door and we slowly slunk inside, encountering only a bare metal wall lined with wires and piping that was leaking steam. The same morbid stink that was on the guards outside and the thing we fought at camp was present and accounted for inside, leading me to start to wonder just what the fuck was going on.

"Arrggh!", I snarled, 'gas masks on!"

I pulled my mask out of my pouch and slid it over my head. Once I had it adjusted, I looked back, finding the others were ready to go. We started down the hallway, weapons drawn, looking for any kind of room that stored files, computers or any kind of lab equipment, anything to me what the fuck was going on inside this building. Above and below us, I could hear talking and the sounds of what appeared to be simple building mechanics as well as lab equipment, the building seemed busy.

"This place sounds busy as hell", Nina said.

I gave the order to halt, "Mako, call Morningstar and see if that C260 is in the area still, we might need some heavy fire power."

Mako nodded and took out his large field phone, dialed a number and then looked up at me.

"No signal", he said.

"Let's back track to the door", I said standing up.

We rose and walked back to the door, Mako in the middle, Nina and Jayden in the back with Arnett and I up front.

"Morningstar", Mako called, "this is Shadow 2-2. do you read?"

"I got ya loud and clear Mako", he said, "what you need son?"

"Were on a stealth mission inside the Black River complex, is the C-260 that brought us in still in the AO? We need firepower."

"That's a negative", Morningstar said, "the 260 is assisting Mercury and the others in Russia, however, Tomahawk and Vulture 2-2 are in the area, I'll patch you through to them."

There was a pause.

"Hey kid", a man said, "you got Vulture 2-2, what ya need?"

"We need possible oversight and evacuation", Mako said.

"Rodger that", the man said, "Tomahawk and I are inbound from the South East, bringing her Warthog and my Scorpion Mark Five Attack Helicopter, ETA in 20 minutes."

"That should be all the time we need", I said as Mako hung up. We moved down the length of the hallway, eventually coming to a door with a sign that read, "stairwell access". I cautiously pulled it open, revealing a stair well that only went up, looking like it was about 15 floors. One, by one, we climbed the stairs, most of the floors weren't anything that would be worth wasting our time on, as many of them were areas that any army base has, garage, armory, rec areas, barracks, latrines, co's office, cafeteria. But on floor 8, things became much, much more interesting. The sign on the door of floor eight read, "Gene Mixing Research, authorized personal only."

"Stack up", I said motioning to the door.

"Stacking", Nina said as we got up against the door, "orders?"

"Open and clear", I said.

Nina opened the door and we funneled in, finding a room empty of people, but not of some very, very scary things. In the back of the room were two giant glass boxes filled some blue tinted liquid and inside the liquid were two more of those creatures that we had fought at camp. There were also small, lab testing type areas set up in the middle of the room and along the sides that each tested a different animal. To my right was full of black widow spiders, in the middle of the room were black rats and on the left were iguanas. There were also a huge chemistry set type apparatus set up near the two glass containers that held the creatures was a computer.

"Mako", I said motioning to it, "work your magic."

Mako got to work on the computer without question while I walked up to the glass boxes. The creatures inside them seemed to be rather comfortable, despite the clear injuries they had, one of them had his ribs showing, the other one had third degree burns spread over her body. Brother and sister maybe? They were both about 5 feet at the top of their heads, no where near the size of the one I'd fought at camp. They were lacking the amor that their buddy had and they had no spikes of any kind, a sort of crest like what we had and visible ears with bar codes tattooed in them.

"They seem", Nina said approaching it cautiously, "content?"

"I guess", I said, "these bastards are toying with things they can't begin to comprehend look at these abominations. Multiple life forms were never met to condense into one thing."

"Ace", Nina said, "by that logic, were abominations."

"Nina", I said turning to face her, "there is a difference between us and...what ever these things are, we were not created in a lab like these. We were born from mothers, these were not. It makes them abominations."

"You sure sing a different tune in Fallout 4", Nina said in a disagreeing tone.

"This ain't fallout 4 now is it?", I asked.

"No", Nina sighed.

"Thought so", I said, "get a charge on those tanks. Mako, how's it coming on that computer?"

"Not very well", he said, "this is some of the most advanced encryption I've ever seen, and I've seen some advanced encryption in my time."

"Your seven", I said, "you've seen advanced encryption?"

"Ace", Mako said, "my IQ is 300, my age isn't really important is it?"

I shook my head and walked over to the computer, "if we can't hack it we take the hard drive, get to work."

"Got it", Mako said pulling out a computer kit that had some...interesting, but unfortunately for you, classified contents.

"Hey Ace", Nina said.

I turned around, seeing that there wasn't a charge on the tanks yet.

"What?", I asked, "and why isn't there a charge on those tanks?"

"I had a thought", Nina said as I approached her, noticing the male creature was now awake, starring at Nina with his lifeless black eyes, "do you remember what Morningstar said were the three main ingredients in the gene cocktail the professor had to work on?"

"Yeah", I said, "spider, rat and lizard, what's the point?"

"Well I think were looking at what became of his research", Nina said, "I thought, well, the other one died, maybe we should drag these two back to area 29."

Yeah fucking right! Was she crazy!?

"Nina", I said, "I love you, but that idea is batshit crazy! What could we possibly gain by dragging these abominations back to Area 29!? What makes you think they just won't eat us!?"

"Ace does have a point", Jayden said, "that one at camp tried to maul him, what's stopping two of them form making us into a bloody meat salad?"

"We could cut them apart", Nina said, "learn what makes them tick, learn how to kill them."

"We know what kills them!", Arnett objected, "we burn them to a crisp! It's a bad idea Nina!"

Nina sighed and put the charges on the tank as I turned back to Mako, "got those files?"

"I pulled two hard drives and four D-Ram chips", He said, "we should finish our sweep of the building as soon as possible and then call in Tomahawk and Vulture for extraction."

"Let's go then", I said, "we got one floor left."

We exited the room for the stairwell. We climbed the remaining flight of stairs and came into a room that was simply full of what almost looked like cryogenic chambers, those freezers where you store dead bodies. What was eerie about the room was all of the ultra violet light that nearly blinded me when I walked in. Nina and the others dragged me out and Arnett instantly started giving me first aid. UV light was invisible to me when I was human, but now that I was a dragon, UV light, at least to my eyes, was the same as getting hit by a death laser. Carlos drilled into us in training that while flashbangs were somewhat ineffective, a laser shined in our eyes carried very stiff consequences and could even kill us with prolonged exposure by hemorrhaging the blood vessels in our heads. The Venom Doctors had developed special eye drops that could counter limited exposure, but the only counter against heavy exposure was surgery.

"You okay Ace?", Arnett asked.

"Yeah", I said blinking a few times, "I'm fine. Glasses on."

I reached into my pocket, pulled out my UV Shielded glasses and put them on before stepping back into the room, inspecting all the cyro tubes, finding, to my horror, they were all full of dead bodies that were covered in all kinds of metal pieces, very similar to what the guards outside were wearing.

"What the fuck?", Nina asked, "these look like the guards outside."

"My thoughts exactly", I said glancing around, spotting a computer in the corner, "Mako, get the drives out of that PC."

Mako set on the PC as I opened my coms, "Vulture 2-2", I said, "this is Shadow 2-2, where are ya at?"

"Entering your airspace now", Tomahawk said, "we brought a Chinook with us for your EVAC, get to the roof and pop a flare to mark your drop."

"Rodger that", I said, "be advised Tomahawk, once we pull away from the base, I want you to smear this building, wipe it off the face of the Earth."

"Rodger that Shadow 2-2", Tomahawk said.

"I got the drives", Mako said, "let's get the hell outta here."

I nodded. We cleared out of the room, finding. Can you guess? Those same two creatures from one door down waiting for us in the stairwell. The female was leaning against the male because of her leg and the male looked like he was wearing himself out just from standing upright. And now that they were out of the liquid, I could tell for certain that they were brother and sister from their scents, came out of the same batch by my guess. Mako and I instantly raised our AR's, but not only did the two creatures recoil out of what seemed to be fear, but Nina jumped in front of us.

"Wow hold up Ace", She said.

"Get out of our way!", I ordered.

"You shoot them you shoot me too", Nina said.

Mako lowered his weapon slightly, but I kept my rifle's red dot smack on the male's exposed heart, which was beating rather quickly, most certainly from fear.

"There...scared of us", Nina said looking at them.

"Good", I said, "it makes them easier to kill now get the fuck out the way of my firearm!"

"Not till you hear me out!", Nina snarled, "put that thing down and fucking listen to me!"

Words fail me in describing how angry she made me with her actions. Ever fiber of my being was yearing to put these disgusting creatures down. Nina must have been certain that we would gain something huge from sparing them if she was willing to eat bullets and from me of all people. So, wincing in defeat, I lowered my weapon.

"Whatever your going to do better convince me", I said, "other wise I'm putting a bullet in his heart and bathing her in liquid nitrogen."

"Fair enough", Nina said turning around and looking the male in the eyes, "can you understand me?", she asked.

What happened next made my heart stop. The creature nodded and replied in a raspy, underused, broken sounding voice, "yes."

"I didn't know they talked", Mako leaned in, whispering in my ear.

"Neither did I", I said back.

"Can we trust you not to harm us?", Nina asked him.

The male creature nodded in reply.

"Do you want to come with us?", she asked, "we have a doctor who can help you and your sister."

They looked at each other, then both nodded to us and Nina turned back to me, looking just as surprised as I was.

"I didn't know they could speak", Nina said.

"Neither did I", I answered, "okay, we'll bring them with us, but one false move and they die."

"Fair enough", Nina said, "Arnett, get his chest covered, that's an infection waiting to happen."

Arnett nodded and bandaged up the male's chest before splinting the female's leg. Jayden and I had to help them to the roof and Nina popped the flare. Soon the flashing lights of the stealth modified Chinook could be seen in the distance and a few minutes later, we were on board, heading away from the facility.

"Tomahawk 2-2", I said, "you are weapons free for the dome facility."

"Rodger that", Hawk replied, 'coming in for a strafing run."

Hawk's War Plane was soon joined by a beefy looking attack helicopter and the two of them took no time in leveling the dome.

"Good riddance", I said as I sat down.

'Where too now Ace?", The pilot asked.

"Take us back to 29", I said,