The Curtain Rose on "Darkness"

The air inside the underground base seemed to have frozen.

Alarms sounded one after another. Harsh red lights flashed across the soldiers' terrified faces.

The narrow corridors reeked of gunpowder and burnt plastic, mingled with the smell of blood. Every breath felt as though it scorched their lungs.

The EDF soldiers' earpieces filled with static. Command's voice came through in broken gasps, then vanished altogether.

Communications had been cut. The local network was jammed. They were on their own.

Worse, the enemy was not only outside. Traitors hidden among them began to reveal themselves. Gunshots from behind and sudden attacks shattered their trust in one another.

"Damn it! They're among us!"

The corporal's shout was hoarse beneath the roar of an explosion. He had just hauled a comrade to his feet when the man turned his rifle on him and pulled the trigger.

Blood sprayed through the flickering firelight. The corporal convulsed and fell.

The fear of betrayal at a moment like this was deadlier than a frontal assault.

Soldiers glanced around the corridor, suspicion and panic in their eyes.

Some stared at their comrades' trigger fingers. Others kept backing away, ready to fire on the nearest soldier at any moment.

Boom!

A violent explosion came from the entrance. Flames and a shock wave tore a huge hole in the alloy door, sending fragments flying.

Rows of armed cultists surged through behind it like a tide.

They wore heavy Power Armor covered in pitch-black symbolic runes. Even through their helmets, the madness in their eyes was easy to imagine.

Streams of light from their Pulse Rifles turned the narrow corridor into purgatory.

Gunfire erupted. Flames, bullets, and sprays of blood wove a vision of hell.

The EDF soldiers fought desperately, but their resistance was painfully fragile.

Their fire was quickly