Chapter Text
The Nemesis unit was having a bad day.
Granted, it had not had many days. Most of its growth, modification and programming had occurred while it was unconscious. It had only relatively recently been brought to awareness for trials. It had passed all of them with flying colors, even the one that centered on the protection and escort of a high value target. The majority, however, had been seek and destroy missions. Nemesis enjoyed the seek and destroy missions. It always felt satisfaction at ripping apart something smaller than itself. It was sure that destruction was its highest calling.
Which was why the latest set of orders had been... difficult.
'Take care of the remaining S.T.A.R.S. officers and any other witnesses, with special attention to anyone seen speaking to the S.T.A.R.S. members. None of them can be allowed to escape you. These orders will last until the Raccoon City incident has been resolved.'
This was its first field mission and it was being sent to bodyguard people? How unexpected.
The drugs had taken hold not long after the final orders were registered as received and Nemesis slipped back into the cold stillness of a coma.
It came back to awareness as the deployment pod was released from air transport. The restraints and lid were easily tossed aside with a flex of its muscles, and Nemesis roared as it stepped out into the chaos of Raccoon City.
Initial observations were promising. The night was filled with screams, gunfire, smoke and sirens. All promised lots of opportunity for violence. It had the two profiles of its primary targets pulled to its HUD and Vickers, Brad was pleasantly nearby. Only a block away, in fact. Nemesis set off through the streets with something that could almost be called happiness.
Along the way, it encountered numerous low profile targets, hereby designated Raccoon City civilians. Most were capable of removing themselves from the observable situation and did so with uncommon speed upon seeing it. Nemesis was not sure what to make of that, as its previous experience with a high value asset had seen the male human sticking reasonably close to it. Perhaps it was the environmental factors that were causing new deviations? The few Raccoon City civilians it had to save from T-virus vectors along the way to Vickers, Brad all initially stayed close to it after it destroyed the attacker, then immediately vacated the area after looking up at it. Perhaps there was a nearby evacuation point that had not been added to its map?
Things began to take a downturn upon making visual contact with Vickers, Brad. The target took one look at Nemesis and began running away. Curious, but not a deterrent. Nemesis had outrun much faster things than Vickers, Brad.
"Staaaarrrrrrz!" Nemesis roared out as it began pursuit. If Vickers, Brad had not been briefed on Nemesis' current objective, then perhaps he assumed Nemesis was another hostile T-virus vector. Communication that Vickers, Brad was Nemesis' target for protective detail was potentially necessary.
Instead of returning to the one calling his unit's name, Vickers, Brad only seemed to run faster. Curious. Had it mispronounced the organization name? The Umbrella doctors had done their best, but Nemesis was still lacking lips and that did make verbal cues difficult.
Nemesis picked up speed and tried again. "STAAAARRRRZ!"
Vickers, Brad looked over his shoulder at the eight-foot tall pile of biohazard stickers and murder that was charging him like a linebacker twenty yards from the goal posts, and screamed. He jumped over a crashed car and stumbled on the landing, falling to his knees on the asphalt of the road.
Alarm! The target had potentially suffered injury. Nemesis leapt over the immobile vehicle, landed in front of its target, turned, reached down for Vickers, Brad and was immediately knocked off its feet by a speeding pickup truck. Trapped on top of the hood and staring through the windshield at a screaming Raccoon City civilian, Nemesis attempted to get a foot on the bumper to climb onto the hood and jump off safely.
Instead, the truck driver slammed on the brakes and sent the Nemesis unit flying further down the road, over a rail and down into a rather deep drainage canal. The late summer evening meant the canal was bone dry and Nemesis hit the concrete at extreme speeds, rolling over and over until it slammed to a stop at a curve in the canal. For a moment, it stayed there and contemplated this new pain. It had been through many combat scenarios previously, but it had never been hit with a speeding truck and hurled into a canal before. It did not like the experience.
Picking itself up, the Nemesis unit began walking back up the canal to where it had been thrown from the road. When it jumped up to street level, it noted that Vickers, Brad was gone. Logic suggested that he may have removed himself to the nearby apartment of Valentine, Jill. The last surveillance report, timestamped two hours before Nemesis' own deployment, suggested that Valentine, Jill was sleeping in her residence. In all likelihood, she was still there.
Switching headings, Nemesis began traveling through the streets to Valentine, Jill's apartment. It was only a few blocks away and Nemesis could move quickly when it wanted to. It arrived at the building within minutes, and gauged the distance between the ground and the level that the target's apartment was to be found. It was too high up for a single leap and the health and safety mandated fire escape was not manufactured with its weight in mind. Additionally, breaking through the walls had the potential to injure Raccoon City civilians. It would go inside, take the elevator and proceed through the door of Valentine, Jill's apartment.
The main entry to the apartment building was electronically locked and access seemed to be restricted to residents and staff. Nemesis was neither, but it did have the necessary strength to simply remove the doors. An alarm began sounding as it entered the lobby. Nemesis ignored it and headed for the elevator. It was unoccupied save for Nemesis, but still groaned distressingly as it began to reel the compartment up to the third floor.
Things were quieter when it left the elevator. One of the doors was open on the left, perhaps indicating a hurried departure, but the others remained locked and unmarked. Presumably, the residents would be fine staying where they were.
Nemesis stopped in front of Valentine, Jill's door and braced a hand to shove inwards. It stopped when it heard a voice within the apartment. Was Valentine, Jill with someone else? And where was Valentine, Jill if not in her bed? It had to ensure that she was not about to be flattened by the door.
"All right. Let me grab my gun and I'll meet you by the theater."
The target was about to move. It had arrived just in time.
Nemesis waited patiently as Valentine, Jill made soft stepping sounds all around her apartment. It could afford to wait, especially if the target was arming herself. Anything that increased the target's ability to survive must be completed.
Finally, the footsteps arrived at the front of the door. Nemesis realized at the last second that it was blocking the doorway and stepped to the right. Visual contact was made with Valentine, Jill as she exited her apartment. However, the phenomena occurred again. Instead of joining the Nemesis unit, the target saw it out of the corner of her eye, turned to look at it and then took off running before she even finished pulling the door of her apartment shut behind her.
"Jesus, shit, motherfucker!" Valentine, Jill screamed as she ran. Nemesis had enough experience with humans to know that these were words not typically associated with relief or security.
Nemesis began pursuit. It really was beginning to seem like its targets had no idea it was meant to escort them. It briefly toyed with the idea that it had been meant to retrieve the targets for Umbrella Incorporated, but discarded the notion quickly. It had been told to retrieve on those occasions. This set of orders had said, very clearly, 'take care.' That meant sustained support until the operation was finished. No, it was much more likely that the targets were simply uninformed.
Well, it was not like it needed their permission to protect them.
The doorway that the target ran through was blocked behind her with something heavy. Nemesis could have broken through anyway, but it was trying not to destroy the building. Instead, it turned to the nearby stairwell and began descending. Valentine, Jill was likely heading for the nearest emergency exit. Its logic was rewarded when Valentine, Jill ran into it from the entry to the second floor. Sadly, she was very quick on the draw and ducked under its hand. She came up firing and Nemesis stepped back from the impact of bullets against its face.
She was fast and a good shot. Nemesis would remember that.
The target jumped down the stairs and rounded the dividing wall between each set of steps. Nemesis heard another heavy thump as she landed on the ground floor, then the sound of a door being slammed open as she moved out into the hallway. Nemesis jumped after her, moving as fast as it could in the confined space around the dividing wall. The door to the hall came off its hinges as Nemesis misjudged the second leap and crashed against it.
Nemesis saw Valentine, Jill duck out of the emergency exit door just before some of the second floor caved in. The building was apparently on fire and the alarm system was either broken or without power. Beginning to feel something like irritation, Nemesis turned to find another exit and pulled the fire alarm on the way out. The noise would attract T-virus vectors, but the smoke and flame would be equally deadly unless the remaining residents left.
The next emergency exit was at the other side of the hallway, almost back at the front entrance it had originally arrived through. Beyond the door, Nemesis turned left and began running along the presumed route of its targets. Valentine, Jill had mentioned a theater. One was located the next street over.
It was the same theater its casket had landed in front of. The street route to the right was unusable. They had almost certainly gone left.
"Brad, here they come!"
They had gone left!
Except when Nemesis rounded the pile of debris partially blocking the street, it saw with horror that a T-virus vector had its teeth in the flesh of Vickers, Brad. No!
That was an objective!
Roaring with rage and panic, Nemesis charged. The vectors fell before him, no resistance offered. Just as the door of the Bar Jack shut, Nemesis smashed a T-virus vector's skull against it. The pulped brain, skull and skin made the simmering wrath in Nemesis' mind ease up, but only slightly. Failure, failure, failure! It could not fail!
There were more vectors all around. They could not be allowed to pursue the targets. Nemesis went to work in an orgy of violence, showering the street with coagulated blood and rotting flesh. In less than a minute, all hostiles had been eliminated.
Growling heavily, Nemesis stomped over to the door of the Bar Jack and wrenched it open. Vickers, Brad was sitting back against the bar, one hand wrapped around the bite mark on his bicep. At a glance, the cephalic vein had been crushed open. Infection would take root rapidly. If blood loss did not kill him, Vickers, Brad would still be dead by infection within forty eight hours.
Still, there was some hope. There were multiple NEST facilities within the metropolis and some were the site of vaccine and cure research. Nemesis would simply have to relocate Vickers, Brad to one such site and order the Umbrella personnel therein to treat him.
All of this flashed through the Nemesis unit's brain as it crossed the threshold of the doorway into the bar. When its foot connected with the floorboards, the target looked up at the looming giant that was reaching down for him. Vickers, Brad drew a sidearm, aimed it at Nemesis and fired.
"Get back, get back damn it!" Vickers, Brad shouted. Nemesis ignored it. It was made to withstand much higher firepower than a 9mm handgun.
Vickers, Brad seemed to realize that too. He stopped firing his gun as Nemesis reached under his shoulders to haul him up.
Instead, the target did the unthinkable.
"You can't have me!" Vickers, Brad screamed and then turned his weapon on himself.
Nemesis was stunned. The target had self-terminated. The target was not supposed to self-terminate. Nemesis was supposed to take care of the target, to keep him from all forms of termination.
It had utterly failed.
There was no chance of a cure now, no way to bring success out of a disaster. Vickers, Brad was dead and it had failed an objective.
It did not know what to do.
Did it take the body? Would Umbrella want that? The orders had not mentioned corpse retrieval, but what else could it do?
...No.
No, it still had the other target.
Valentine, Jill must be taken care of.
The body of Vickers, Brad was without value.
It was time to leave.
Nemesis left the bar behind. Above, there was a helicopter. It shone a light down at someone, possibly the target, and yelled for them to reach the rooftop of the nearby parking garage. The odds of this being Valentine, Jill were high. Nemesis ascended the roof of the bar and began moving towards the parking lot. Structural damage and low-priority targets be damned, nothing was keeping Nemesis from that rooftop.
Nemesis deployed its tentacles. It did not like doing that, the air was always too cold and dry compared to its insides, but they made for functional grappling hooks. Nemesis could and did use them to ascend the side of the parking garage, gripping the railings of each level and hauling itself up. It reached the rooftop almost at the same time as the helicopter. Valentine, Jill was indeed who the helicopter had been attempting to evacuate. Nemesis felt the searing press of its orders, 'None of them can be allowed to escape you' burning into its brain.
This was what the orders had meant! Someone was attempting to remove the target from reach!
Nemesis seized the nearest object, a heavy metal trash can, and hurled it with pinpoint accuracy at the rotary assembly of the helicopter. An explosion of sparks ensured, along with an actual explosion. Nemesis was not sure about the mechanics of that, but it would take it. Valentine, Jill was up and moving. In hindsight, perhaps bringing down a moving vehicle in her vicinity had been a bad decision.
Valentine, Jill saw it striding towards her from the darkness and ran for a nearby parked car. After hauling out the corpse from the driver's seat, she attempted to start it. Nemesis was not worried. The ramp down to the next level was blocked by crashed cars, something the target clearly had not taken note of. It could collect the target and begin -
That was as far as Nemesis got with its thoughts, because Valentine, Jill had successfully started the vehicle and she was not traveling towards the ramp.
The earlier experience with the pickup truck fresh within its mind, Nemesis attempted to brace itself and catch the car. It failed miserable and landed on the hood. There was a bright side, however. Valentine, Jill was right there. Ignoring the pain, Nemesis smashed through the windshield and took hold of Valentine, Jill's neck. She was not buckled in with the safety restraint. All it had to do was gently pull her out of the car and it could begin the extraction wait, was she still pressing down on the accelerator?
Yes.
Yes, she was.
Nemesis was pushed through the safety railing of a parking garage roof well over fifty feet off the ground and the target fell with it. The vehicle landed on top of Nemesis first, then fell over and skidded to a stop several feet away.
Nemesis got to its feet as quickly as it could. Ignoring the pain, the missing skin, the shattered bones and muscle, the fact that it was on fire. The target had to be removed from the vehicle and her health assessed. She was already crawling along the road, moving much less quickly than before. She was almost certainly injured. It would need to find her medical attention and a safe location to recuperate.
"Hey, fuckface!"
The words were enough warning for Nemesis to turn its head slightly, just enough to see the oncoming rocket in time to grab it with a tentacle. The explosive device was thrown away from the target and Nemesis, just in time for the second rocket to hit dead center.
The kinetic and thermal damage was too much. Nemesis fell to its knees and the emergency regeneration protocol began to kick in. It would recover quickly, but a few minutes time were still needed.
The last thing the Nemesis unit saw before it lost consciousness was the target being carried away from it by the one who had shot the rockets. The last thing it heard was, "Name's Carlos and I'm saving you! C'mon, let's get you someplace safe."
Nemesis was having a bad day.
It could never remember having felt such all encompassing rage before.
It hated the sneaking rat who had downed it and then made away with the target, as if they were the ones task ed with saving her.
It hated Vickers, Brad for causing its first ever objective failure.
It hated Valentine, Jill for being a designated asset that it was somehow supposed to protect as she shot it, ran away from it and drove cars off of rooftops to try to kill it.
It was going to take a little nap and then?
Then Valentine, Jill was going to be saved whether she liked it or not.