“Any change?”  Static hissed in her ear along with Winston’s voice.  Her HUD flashed a little broken video icon, but she could hear the calm concern in the enhanced primate’s tone.  This close to the pole, remote signals weakened considerably.  Her local network with the heli remained stable while the derelict Watchpoint station below remained dead for all intents and purpose.

“No.  No movement, no heat signature.  Onsite network registers, but doesn’t respond.”

“There wouldn’t be with any old Omnic robots or built-in defense systems.  We’re still reading wild power spikes from the satellite scans.”  Winston paused.  “We still don’t know why the emergency signal came on either.  No responses to communications attempts either.  It’s a long shot, Zarya, but there might be survivors.  These old stations were sometimes equipped with cryo coffins.”

Aleksandra ‘Zarya’ Zaryanova grunted into the mic and grabbed the clipline at the side of the door, attaching it to her armored suit.  She hit the LZ a second later in the heli’s downforce snow tornado, the line detaching itself, and she pulled her cannon loose.

“Удачи, капитан.”

“Your accent still needs work.”  Zarya started forward while the heli pulled back to a safe distance.
She didn’t waste time, the old plating rattling under her heavy footfalls.  Her map led her to an iced over hatch that was rusted and refused to answer commands.  It had an emergency release handle, so she grabbed it and forced it to obey her strength.  Beyond that was a ladder that dropped into pitch black darkness.

She climbed in, goggles switching to night vision automatically.  “I’m in.”

Her earpiece popped and hissed, Winston’s reply lost to the signal scattering.  Zarya frowned, but didn’t let it slow her down.  She hammered past old weather monitoring and manipulation equipment that was haphazardly powered.

Her suit sensors scanned her immediate area for any signs of movement or weapons charge, and she kept her gun at ready just in case the station wasn’t as empty as it seemed.  She entered the small main building and quickly found the command center.  Everything was covered in 25 years of dust and frost, a few lights on the many control and monitor equipment blinking weakly.  That power was still flowing at all was a miracle.  Near the rear wall, Zarya found several glass cryo coffins covered in frost.  Only one had blinking lights.

“Possible survivors.  Ready medical response.”  She moved up to the coffin, looking for the control panel.  She didn’t understand the chinese symbols, but one flashed insistently.  She pressed it, the coffin hissing and clicking.  It opened a few minutes later, revealing a heavy set asian woman inside who was starting to breath normally.  

“Are you awake?  Do you speak english?  Говорить по-русски?”

The woman groaned, turning her head stiffly.  She opened large brown eyes and blinked several times.  “你是谁?”

“Great.”  Zarya sighed.

The woman reached into the pocket of her old faux-fur parka and pulled out classic square-framed glasses.  She put them on and squinted up at Zarya’s massive form and equally massive looking gun that pulsed with something like contained particle.  She gasped at the armor and weapons, wondering what sort of situation she’d been awakened into.  From the looks of the rest of station’s main room, she guessed the cryo unit was barely running on emergency power.

Zarya’s suit chimed, alerting her to movement behind her.  She whirled around and lifted her cannon, its internal systems priming to discharge its particle ordinance.

An old robot loader stepped from the shadows, raising a rivet gun at them.

“Stay down!”  Zarya thumbed on her force field, pressing the survivor against her back.  She fired her cannon at the droid, striking it center mass.  The droid popped off two heated rivets before the shot melted its power source, blowing it to scrap.

“That was our construction bot.”  The woman groaned again, falling back when the sudden force field released her.  She straightened her glasses.  “I thought the peace talks had started?  That was supposed to end the crisis!”

“You do speak english?  Good.  The evac team is waiting for us.”  Zarya smiled.  “Stay close.  I will get you out of here.”

The woman slid out of the unit, turning to pick up some equipment from inside the coffin.  She hefted a strange looking gun attached to a tank on her back.  “Lead the way, 佳人.  I’m not helpless.”  She grabbed Zarya’s belt.  “My name is Mei, by the way.”

“Zarya.  Overwatch sent me.”

“My heroes.”