[ATTENTION! THREAT LEVEL 3 DECLARED: TIGER]

  You can't confuse this sound with anything else. In 2015, it's feared more than air raid sirens. The simultaneous screech of hundreds of smartphones in the enclosed space of a subway.

  "Yokohama City. Blue Subway Line." The mechanical voice from the platform speakers broke into a wheeze. "A spike in Kaiju activity has been detected between Takashimacho and Yokohama stations. All passengers within a two-stop radius must evacuate the subway premises immediately! Evacuate!"

  A stampede broke out in the train car, but it was too late.

  The tunnel shuddered. It sounded as if a working drill the size of a house had been buried underground. The next second, the train, weighing hundreds of tons, flew off the rails.

  Metal shrieked, the car flipped over, striking sparks from the rails and turning the people inside into a bloody pulp.

  They burst in through the breaches. Kaiju. Creatures resembling giant armadillos, covered in bone plates as sharp as razors. They didn't just walk—they rolled, turning into living circular saws that sliced open the train's hull like foil.

  Hell reigned inside the car. The monsters slowly unrolled their armored bodies, stretching out clawed paws. One of them grabbed a woman trying to climb out through a broken window and, with a sickening crunch, dragged her back into the darkness of the tunnel. Slurping sounds and screams filled the space, mixing with the smell of burning and raw meat.

  [Live Broadcast. NHK Channel.]

  The studio anchor pales, adjusting her earpiece. Behind her, on a giant screen, is a map of Yokohama, with a red zone flashing in the port area.

  "We are interrupting our broadcast for an emergency bulletin. An attack in the subway has been confirmed. The threat level has been raised to Tiger. The Third Legion of the Exterminator Corps has already arrived at the scene. I repeat: the evacuation is ongoing, do not approach the subway entrances..."

  The camera cuts to shaky helicopter footage. Heavy armored vehicles bearing the Corps emblem can be seen converging on the black maws of the subway entrances.

  [Sector 4. Subway Tunnel]

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  The beams of powerful flashlights cut through the darkness. The clatter of heavy boots drowned out the slurping of the monsters.

  "First platoon, clear the right! Second, to the head of the train! Stick to the plan," a short order came over the radio.

  Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

  The tunnel was lit up by muzzle flashes. Bullets, designed specifically to pierce Kaiju scales, bit into the armored backs of the "armadillos" with a dull thud. The monsters shrieked, trying to curl into balls, but the soldiers of the Third Legion operated like a well-oiled machine.

  One of the creatures leapt, baring a maw full of small, needle-like teeth, but it was met with a point-blank volley. The monster's head exploded in black slime, and its heavy carcass crashed onto the rails, kicking up a cloud of concrete dust.

  [News. 6:20]

  "...The situation has been brought under control. Representatives of the Exterminator Corps report the complete elimination of all Kaiju specimens in the Blue Line tunnel. The threat has been neutralized. The Third Legion has once again proven its efficiency. The number of casualties is being clarified..."

  [Subway Tunnel. 10 minutes after clearing]

  The smoke from the gunfire slowly settled, mixing with the heavy scent of burnt meat and ozone. The soldiers of the Third Legion were in no hurry to celebrate. They stood among the wreckage of the train car, their heavy bio-suits gleaming dimly in the flashlight beams. The scaly plates on their armor were still twitching as if alive, "digesting" the excess energy after the battle.

  One of the soldiers, a tall guy with a sergeant's emblem on his shoulder, flipped up his helmet visor with a hiss. His face was pale, beaded with sweat.

  "Damn, what a mess," he exhaled, spitting onto the bloodied concrete. "The whole car is turned to mince."

  Another soldier walked up to him, checking the readouts on his wrist display. His suit emitted a low, barely audible growl, like the purr of a hungry beast.

  "We got lucky this time," the second one replied, nodding at the carcasses of the "armadillos." "Only two specimens. One is level one, the second barely qualifies for level two. Still small."

  "Small they may be, but they made a lot of noise," the sergeant wiped the blade of his cleaver on the carcass of the fallen Kaiju. The black slime of the monster slid reluctantly off the metal. "Because there were two of them in an enclosed space, headquarters rolled out a level three Tiger."

  "Yeah, we dodged a bullet," his partner grumbled. "But the suit is still 'itching.' It didn't get enough. These creatures are too weak to feed the bio-layer. I'll have to blow off steam at the training ground tomorrow, otherwise, the armor will start eating me."

  They indifferently stepped over a severed arm in a school blazer lying in their path. To them, this was collateral damage. A statistic that the news anchors would call "data being clarified."

  "Alright, let's wrap it up. The cleanup crew is already on their way," the sergeant snapped his visor shut. "In 2015, Kaiju have started crawling out of every crack."

  "Soon, even a tenth legion won't be enough for us if this keeps up."

  They moved toward the exit, their heavy footsteps echoing in the tunnel, drowning out the groans of the few who were still alive in the mangled train.