Relic Fenix's Story

Enroute to Drop Zone, (Co-written with Mac the Impaler and macheteshark)
Manhattan Island,
0935, Day One


The outside thrusters of the Blackjack roared violently it seemed as the groups made their way across the sky to their destination. Ira Penderghast, commander of Bravo Team - HeavyRain, sat silently across the cabin from her group. In all honesty, she was nervous today. CyberTech had been researching the damned virus that had caused the outbreak; they had been the only ones who she publicly knew of who had been doing so too... Now one of their primary facilities had gone offline. Ira was nervous because whatever or whoever sent the Manhattan facility offline were obviously something to not be taken lightly. Ira took a deep breath and placed her hand on a small button on the side of her head and with a small click, a 3D image of general Manhattan popped up on her visor. With the supercarrier, the CTCC "Angel", able to be clearly observed floating within the bay's waters, each of them knew that their destination was close.

"Alright, boys and girls. this mission is the first time we're actually sending out the entire squad at once. God-Slayer Team was enroute to set up a defensive perimeter around the facility's entrance when their transport went down. Unfortunately, they lost both team commander and medical support when they went down. Good news is that they were able to find a small group of uninfected survivors hiding among the ruins. We're sending both fire teams to provide support and aid in the evacuation of these survivors. When the survivors are secured, new objectives will be sent."

Lynch sat silently, chewing on what remained of his cigar and staring intently at the floor, as if he was trying to count all the gaps in the grating. In actuality he was studying the most recent satellite images of Manhattan, as well as all of the remaining live cctv feeds ALICE could hook him up with, on the HUD of his helmet. Not that he knew anything about satellites or live feeds, just that if he asked for something, like a current layout of the city and some idea of what was happening there right now, CyberTech usually found a way to provide it. This kind of operation was his bread and butter, stuff that he'd been doing for years, even before he came to CyberTech. Move into a hostile area and extract the important objective at any and all cost, it was a pretty simple job really, just sometimes the cost was higher than expected.

He looked over at his team sitting across from him, four people who he'd come to trust, Scorpion Team. They struck hard, they struck fast and they tore their enemies apart. He had been through some serious shit with some serious people before and come out mostly unscathed, but this was a new kind of hell. They faced an enemy that had no fear, no morals and overwhelming numbers. It was going to be one crazy, fucked-up roller coaster of blood, death and blowing stuff up. Sometimes, Lynch loved his job.

Ira turned to her squad members and sized them up and down. HeavyRain was definitely a surly and burly bunch. She smiled; "excellent" she muttered to herself. She clenched her fists tightly; in truth Ira was itching for a fight. Suddenly a voice filled her ear through the intercom in her helmet; Devin Lira, or Eagle as she was more widely known, was systematically breaking down Scorpion and HeavyRain's objectives. Ira glanced around quickly to make sure the rest of them were listening too. She nodded along as Eagle relayed their mission, Ira bracing herself for what sounded like a gearing up of an almost impossible mission. Charlie squad had been sent in earlier to clear a pathway as much as possible and disperse any would-be rogue survivors from interfering too much. "Their commander and medic are dead?" Ira muttered again, though the engine was too loud for her words to have any resonance in the cabin.

Ira gritted her teeth at HQ's orders of regrouping with God-Slayer, as heartless as it sounded, Ira was under the impression that on this mission if you fell down, it was your responsibility to pick yourself up. Plus Ira had heard stories of Manhattan since the facility went down... Just rumors, but nonetheless they didn't make it sound like Disneyland or a walk in the park. On top of that, reports of infected changing just added to Ira's reserve. She looked up for a moment while HQ kept talking, eyeing off her squad again, a sense of calm washing over her again. There was a reason they were called HeavyRain; they were known for coming down hard and fast without warning. She smirked again, glad her team was associated with such a strong code name. She breathed deeply and looked down the row where Scorpion Team had seated, that was their name, intriguing where Ira could only guess that when they struck their target, the aftermath was either like a poison had just taken hold and crippled their foe, or they struck with precision and power... Either way Ira saw them as friendly competition amongst the company and she didn't really care for them.

Eagle issued out her orders as she uploaded the location of the survivors to ALICE, safely situated behind a set of monitors, each screen designated for the well-being of each operative, as well as relaying whatever visual and audio the operatives are observing. She served as their eyes, sending information regarding environmental factors to each operative.

~~~

The chill, breezy air for this particular morning was anything but brisk, with the weather bringing in a decent wave of infection and and the smell of death to a certainly unlucky group of survivors. Wolf had finished his current perimeter run, keeping a watchful eye on the building, as well as its surroundings, where a handful of survivors had boarded up and called home... for the time being. A few hours before, he had witnessed a violent attack on a CyberTech Blackjack, where a flock of infected crows had managed to force the VTOL - an interesting yet terrifying act of coordination among infected - to crash into the ruins below, which had not only claimed the lives of the two pilots, but had also mortally wounded two operatives from the Special Activities Division, specifically the team commander and medical officer of team God-Slayer of SAD's Delta Squad.

Before the emergency landing would attract more infected, Wolf had directed the survivors of the fire team towards one of the seemingly derelict buildings, which held a small group of survivors, roughly a dozen in number, that Wolf had been protectively watching over for the last couple of days. Before he had left for his occasional perimeter run, he had made the suggestion of using their "Valkyrie" APC as a blockade, as it was damaged when their transport was attacked.

Wolf had kept some distance between the group and himself, with the sense that if he made himself a target, any infected in the vicinity would have a field day tracking him rather than the survivors who were holed up with some protection. A few days earlier, the four-man security team for the local research facility was ambushed by Infected, wiping out the three others with him being the only one able to escape. His team was one of four, and it had seemed to him that the other teams had been introduced to a similar fate, though uncertain.

From the top of his perch, a rooftop of a nearby building, Wolf had absorbed the wonderful view of Manhattan. The ruined landscape, the orange-red morning fog, the sight of three incoming objects in the sky that were seemingly far off from their location. His HUD had zoomed into the three objects, revealing them to be a trio of incoming Blackjacks - reinforcements and an evacuation pick-up for the survivors. Within a few seconds, he had reached for his flare gun, aimed upwards into the sky, and fired off a single flare to catch the attention of the pilots. Dialing to the survivor group's frequency, he reported in what he had just recently observed.

"This is Wolf. Three Blackjack transports are on their way. Get ready for a goodbye party from the local infected."

"Eagle, see the top of the museum about half a click from our position? The roof looks stable enough according to my map breakdown, and the infection zone of the four of five block surrounding seems minimal.. right? I know it's not the closest drop off, but according to your live stream info of the infection zones of Manhattan, we're not gonna like setting foot down too close to God-Slayer.. We'll only be about ten blocks away?"

The comm-link from Assassin had opened up, requesting Lira to organize a separate drop from the rest of the squad, most likely wanting a two-pronged approach to the designated zone. She scanned the immediate area within the squad's current location, confirming Assassin's readouts.

"Assassin, confirmed. Give me a few seconds... done. Your transport has received new coordinates for your team's drop. They'll swing back around to drop you off any minute." Opening up the communications channel to the pilots, she continued. "Won't you, Blackjack One?"

"Will do, ma'am. Received coordinates for HeavyRain's drop and proceeding - Woah, Eagle, we've just picked up some birds coming our way. Diverting flight paths."

Lira had noticed the flock of birds on her sensors, but she wasn't able to pick out if they were infected or not. Switching her attention to the vitals of Scorpion Team, she could guess that they were readying themselves, and she connected herself to Lynch, including Murphy as well. "Delta Alpha and Jackhammer, this is Eagle and there are some mission changes. Jackhammer has been reassigned, and is ordered to return to the ship. Your replacement in on Blackjack Two, and will be assigned to your team as soon as you touch down. You also have a flock of birds coming to you, unsure to determine if infected at this time. HeavyRain has also requested a drop onto a nearby building, and has been approved."

~~~

From the safety of the building tops, Wolf watched as the awkward murder of crows approached the VTOL convoy, and he received a troublesome feeling from it. With one blackjack lower than the other two, he assumed that it was going to touching ground soon, but all hell broke loose within a matter of minutes.

The sudden attack on the lowered transport from the crows had revealed them to be infected, the birds hurling themselves by the numbers against the aircraft's side, with the other two immediately breaking off to provide some sort of distraction. He connected himself to the survivors' frequency once more, alerting them of the sudden event.

"This is Wolf, if you are hearing this, respond. The transports are under attack, and I'm going to provide assistance. Again, the transports are under attack."

Disconnecting himself, yet keeping the line open in the case that the survivors indeed heard the news, Wolf dashed past the side of the building, plunging downwards to the deserted grounds below. He was far enough to land onto a nearby roof, orchestrating a well placed combat roll to maintain his velocity as he traversed the ruined landscape towards the Blackjacks.

♫

With each step he took, he was that much closer to providing ground support, despite that the largest weapon that he had on him was a PDR. Ducking, jumping, and weaving around the rooftop obstacles that stood between him and the Blackjacks, he had continued moving forward at a constant rate, readying himself for an incoming fight all the while.

~~~

"Blackjack One, what the fuck is going out there?!" Lira called out over the comm channels as she watched the birds suddenly hurl themselves into the transport's side, with the other two aircraft attempting to provide support to the sieged Blackjack.

"Delta Alpha, Assassin, sitrep."

While impressed by the intellect that these infected creatures possessed, Lira was equally troubled at the chance of having another transport being grounded by birds. "Blackjack One, this is Eagle. Get to the museum drop zone now. The other two Blackjacks will provide support."

~~~

Wolf had reached a building not far from the VTOL when it turned towards a museum a couple blocks away, conducting an emergency landing. As the other two Blackjacks provided some support, he pointed his flare gun, now loaded with a new cartridge, at the flock of birds and fired. The flare had initially missed, instead hitting and bouncing off of one of the side windows, catching a bird on fire in the process, and within seconds, the other birds had started to swarm into the ignited bird, as if attracted like moths to a flame.

"We should sit back for now and wait on orders."

Sam personally abhorred sitting around and doing nothing, but due to their situation, that seemed the best course of action at the moment. There really was no need to head out and play Cowboys and Indians with the monstrosities plaguing Manhattan. Not any real need at the moment anyway.

On the outside, Sam appeared as calm as anyone could ever be despite their situation, but inside, he was itching to get moving again. Regardless of the people barricaded inside the building with them. Glancing through one of the windows, he saw the mass of birds flying through the air in a cluster as they headed toward the general position he saw the incoming Blackjacks approaching from a bit ago. '...damn birds...' he thought as they flew on. He had never been a fan of birds, even before the incident that occurred today.

A thought sprang to mind just then. 'Not again...' The birds were most likely heading for another encounter on the Blackjacks like they had with their own VTOL. "Dammit..." He said suddenly. Trying to contain his enthusiasm at actually having a reason to leave the pathetic hideout.

"This is Wolf, if you are hearing this, respond. The transports are under attack, and I'm going to provide assistance. Again, the transports are under attack."

The sudden chime over his comm brought a smile to his face as Sam looked back to his other two companions. "I guess we're getting that party after all aren't we?" Bringing up the recorded information from his earlier sweep of the area, he compiled it on his screen and charted a route toward the incoming Blackjacks and their flying assailants. "You heard the man, let's get this done already." Transferring the compiled route map to each of their HUD's, Sam let out a small laugh. "Let's hope their pilots are a bit more capable than ours were..."

Sam connected to Wolf's comm link as he pushed his way out of their current shelter. "Wolf, this is Reaper. Copy transmission, God-Slayer is en-route."

“God-Slayer is en-route.”

Gills looked up at the sky, eyes trained on the dark flock of birds. Just watching them gave her a headache. Generally, she hated small flying things, but now that they were surrounding larger, more important things that were full of people, she hated them more. The birds would be extremely difficult to blow up without creating a new kind of fireworks She got the feeling the other teams would not appreciate going up in flames. Or maybe they would. It was kind of hit-or-miss with them.

She chuckled darkly, imagining the smell of roasted crow-zombies and most of Scorpion's reactions to being on fire, as she followed her teammates and the directions on her HUD towards Wolf’s position, the small blinking dots representing the infected birds growing closer with each step.

She stopped laughing, though, when she saw exactly what was going on. The bird’s assault seemed to following the same pattern as the one on their vehicle earlier that day. She suddenly very much agreed with what Sam had said. Hopefully there pilots proved more competent than God-Slayer’s had. “Madre de puta Dios. Que pena.”

She knew that there would be none of the ‘waiting for orders from Cyberech’ that everyone seemed so fond of. Instead, she knew that there would be some serious, feathery-ass kicking to do. “Alrighty boys,”she couldn’t help but smile, “This is our kind of party.”
“Wolf,” she continued, “You should have invited us sooner.”