OCEANSPIRE: INCIDENT REPORT UPDATE
TACTICAL UNIT DEPLOYMENT STATUS: ACTIVE
LOCAL TIME: 11:33 AM
FILE ID: NS-IR-354D-1
CLASSIFICATION: LEVEL 5 — INTERNAL ONLY
ORIGIN NODE: OCEANSPIRE OVERSIGHT ARRAY
LOCATION TAG: HOUSTON METRO ZONE (FORMER)
DATE STAMP: [CORRUPTED — EST. 14 YEARS POST-FALL]
AUTHOR: (A.R.R.A.S.-Ω) Autonomous Recon & Risk Assessment System — Omega Protocol
A civilian scavenging group (Designation: Drift Pack H-17) entered the Houston Metro Zone perimeter at 06:47 AM local time for material recovery operations.
Contact with the group was lost at 08:00 AM local time.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS
Urban infrastructure: advanced structural decay
Flooded sectors: 38%
Atmospheric toxicity: within survivable parameters
CHUM activity: UNREGISTERED VARIANT PRESENCE DETECTED
EVENT CHRONOLOGY
06:42 — Drift Pack H-17 breaches former I-45 access corridor.
06:58 — Initial salvage operations commence (electronics, copper, sealed containers).
07:21 — Movement detected below street level. No CHUM classification match.
07:24 — Audio spike recorded: human distress vocalizations.
07:26 — Visual feed degradation begins.
07:29 — First casualty confirmed (traumatic dismemberment).
07:31 — Remaining subjects attempt vertical retreat.
07:33 — Hostile entities demonstrate coordinated pursuit behavior.
07:38 — Subject H-17-07 separates from the group unintentionally.
07:41 — All remaining life signs cease, except H-17-07.
SUBJECT GROUP COMPOSITION
ID Status
H-17-01 DECEASED
H-17-02 DECEASED
H-17-03 DECEASED
H-17-04 DECEASED
H-17-05 DECEASED
H-17-06 DECEASED
H-17-07 ACTIVE - Critical condition.
SUMMARY
A comprehensive analysis has been sent to ARRAS. H-17-07 vitals condition - critical. ARRAS recommed deplyment of unit 332 CODENAME: G.H.O.S.T. for retrieval.
WARNING: An unknown variant was recorded during the attack. It is of first priority to recover the footage.
End of Transmission_
-------------
Sergeant Marcus Hale clenched his fists as he read the incident report.
Among the scavenger team was his brother, Daniel Hale—a volunteer assigned to the expedition into the abandoned Houston metro area. The designation alone should have kept him detached. It didn't.
Marcus accessed the terminal and pulled the latest data feed from ARRAS, isolating the team roster and the last recorded coordinates. A string of still images followed—body cams, helmet feeds, and thermal captures. All the footage from the dead.
He scrolled through the photos of the deceased, his hand steady until it wasn't.
Then he saw Daniel's vital signs.
Alive—but barely.
Without hesitation, Marcus overlaid the satellite imagery and traced the signal to its source: an abandoned warehouse, half-collapsed and buried within the city's industrial outskirts.
He keyed his radio.
"Captain, do you copy?"
A voice came through the radio. "I've read the report, Marcus. I know Daniel is part of the scavenger group. I should order you to stand down—but we both know how that would end."
Marcus exhaled slowly. He had already accepted what disobeying an order would cost him. His eyes remained focused on the screen, then he took a deep breath.
"Thank you, Captain. You save me a lot of trouble."
"We know you, Marcus—like the last three times, you won't wait for permission if someone's life is on the line."
Marcus closed his eyes. His record had already written the response for him.
"So, you're not going to threaten me with expulsion from Oceanspire for trying to retrieve my brother?"
"No," the captain said. "If I were in your position, I'd do the same. I'll authorize immediate deployment—with one condition."
Marcus opened his eyes. "I'm listening."
"You recover the footage," the captain replied. "The system flagged a previously unrecorded morphotype variant. I need visual confirmation."
There was a brief pause.
"One more thing, Marcus. You wouldn't be going alone. Additional operatives were assigned. Lexi and James would support the extraction. A surveillance drone is also to be deployed. It would follow you everywhere you go. The last thing I needed was to lose three valuable soldiers to a CHUM we hadn't encountered before."
"Understood, sir."
Marcus moved quickly after that. He geared up and headed for the helipad. Suddenly, he slowed his pace. Three figures waited inside the helicopter.
Lexi and James were there as expected. The third figure stood apart.
It was Bart.
Officially, he was Oceanspire's lead scientist. Unofficially, his name surfaced only in after-action reports that never made it into public logs. There had been missions where retrieval teams returned without survivors, yet the samples had been cataloged in perfect condition. Bart had always been present on those deployments. The losses were marked as unavoidable. The methods were never recorded.
Marcus glared at him. He knew that Bart's presence would slow the rescue, and any delay would increase the odds that Daniel wouldn't make it back alive.
"Lexi. James. Good to have you aboard," Marcus said. Then his gaze hardened as it settled on the scientist.
"Bart, what the hell were you doing on my detail?"
"Duty called, Marcus," Bart replied as he secured his flight helmet, the boom microphone settling into place. "A new variant had been recorded. You knew the drill. Samples had to be obtained as soon as possible."
The rotors began to spin faster, the rising thunder forcing the cabin crew to switch to the intercom full-time. Marcus climbed into the helicopter and took the seat beside Lexi, pulling his own helmet down and snapping the comms cable into the console.
"I won't entertain any deviation from the assigned coordinates," Marcus said over the intercom. "This was supposed to be a quick extraction. Not a playground for a scientist with a thirst for knowledge."
"I understood," Bart answered through the headset. He glanced over, lips barely moving beneath the microphone. "I won't be a bother. I promise."
All Rights Reserved 2026
Damian' Ashen's FLESHBOUND: Oceanspire Incident Reports
Add comment
Comments