The Red Queen's logic core assessed the situation within nanoseconds.
Physical intruders: zero.
Environmental sensors showed abnormal energy readings that could not be classified.
The audio system detected unauthorized sonic patterns with highly potent psychological suggestion effects.
Conclusion: under attack by an unknown form.
Response plan: initiate the "Purification Protocol."
First round of interception: physical isolation.
Heavy alloy blast doors dropped over every passage leading to the core area, while the ventilation system pumped in high-pressure neurotoxin gas.
The Red Queen's holographic image appeared on every screen still functioning: a little girl in a red dress, broadcasting in a childlike voice so calm it was cruel:
"Unauthorized intrusion detected. The facility will be sealed."
"All personnel, proceed immediately to the nearest decontamination station. I repeat, this is not a drill."
However, Mary Shaw's mist ignored physical barriers, seeping through the gaps in the blast doors as though passing through a sieve.
The instant the poison gas touched the mist, Annabelle broke down its chemical bonds.
Second round of interception: biological weapons activated.
The Red Queen initiated the final defense plan.
The culture tanks unlocked, and emergency awakening procedures were injected.
Three Licker prototypes and twelve initially infected Zombies were released from sealed chambers. Following their implanted commands, they lunged toward the densest regions of mist.
This was logic at its end: using incomprehensible biological weapons to fight an incomprehensible non-biological intrusion.
The Lickers rushed into the mist and were immediately entangled by countless puppets. Their howls were countered by Mary Shaw's rules; the more they roared, the more the muscle tissue deep in their throats grotesquely tore itself apart.
The Zombies, meanwhile, collapsed in droves beneath Annabelle's silent gaze. The active virus inside them, along with their bodies, crumbled away like weathered sand sculptures.
Error warnings began appearing in the