Into the Abyss

[arvg]

Jogging up the stairs of the derelict building wasn't easy, the floor boards were sturdy, but the concrete was cracked in places, threatening to crumble and take the whole staircase with it. Not something Allie particularly wanted. However Cruz had asked him to go up, and up he went.

He'd thrown on his camouflage poncho, the nanite pattern shifting to match the surrounding area. It wasn't a perfect match, just a blending of the colours making it harder for him to be spotted, a chameleon effect. At least it meant he wouldn't be shot out of turn.

The Volkhan had attempted to pacify JiangXi's 'survivors' with a short lived military campaign. It had been an unmitigated disaster, the small death squads had been slaughtered by the indigenous wildlife and mute, meaning that their equipment had fallen into the hands of the raiders and bandits. Instead of pacifying them, the Volkhan had armed them instead.

JiangXi's inhabitants fell into one of three distinct categories:

Scavengers, survivors who were trying to eke out a living on the shattered world outside of the New Hong Kong, L'Acadie, and Santiago enclaves. Scattered farms, poorly equipped, they were probably the least dangerous of the survivors. More territorial and retaining most of their higher mental functions, given time cancer would kill them off.

Raiders, those survivors who were more aggressive, nomadic types. They'd formed into tribal packs, using whatever equipment they could salvage to move about the planet like locusts. Violent, usually heavilly armed with whatever they could find, they were cunning and smart. Rumours placed a large motocycle gang on the outskirts of New HangZhou on the Middle continent that numbered into the thousands. But up there, on the Northern Continent, there was little organization to that magnitude.

Lastly were the Mutes, driven insane by the effects of the radiation eating away at their brains, they were little more than drooling animals. Forming roving packs, the Mutes were by far the most dangerous. Doctor XiaoBei's research team had performed several autopsies on the bodies of the Mutes, to determine the effects of the unique Phantom radiation on the human physiology. And had concluded that the brain damage had a nasty side effect of severing the pain receptors. Leaving a wild, bestial humanoid, that felt no pain what-so-ever. They were rotting away on the outside and inside, little more than walking zombies, though they were still very much alive, the only sure way to keep one down was to blow it's head off.

And that was exactly what Alessandro was going to do. He patted his Rifle as he broke out onto the roof of the building.

"Two to One, you read me down there Cruz-er?" He called into the TAC-link.

"One to Two, sure do, s'up?" Cruz called back.

Allie took a knee, lifting the rifle to his shoulder, and leaning into the ACOG scope, sweeping down over the street below. Nothing moved, beyond two year old washing, still on the line, mere rags now, stirring in the breeze.

"Nuttin'," Allie replied.

His radio crackled with static, a long burst, as across the city near the complex, anti-aircraft weaponry burst to life.

"Oh... dude..." Allie murmured, looking up into the sky to where the uncloaked Storm was attempting a landing. "They're dead..." he said in shock.

The weapons fire tore the Storm in half, sending debris to the ground below as it shuddered and convulsed in the air, detonations erupting along its length. Moments later it became a fireball, plummeting towards the ground.

The Storm slammed into the ground, blowing its way through several smaller buildings off to the North, the secondary explosions blowing its Hfuel tanks skywards, as the ship died.

Sweeping the horizon, Allie watched the jeep spinning end over end, crashing behind a collection of buildings.

Shaking his head, he lowered the rifle.

"One from Two," Allie called. "It's no good, they're dead, dude. Should we move on, or try to see if there are survivors?"

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