Tomas Lynch'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."

Ira took Harpy's thumbs up in stride, having heard tales of the woman's, eccentricity. But again, Ira wouldn't blame anyone in her team if search and rescue ranked shithouse in the entire scheme of things. After all, if people were alive this late in the game, then they were doing something right, and Ira didn't see the need in cramping their style... Particularly because they'd probably cramp her's worse. As Eagle reeled off their current info, and Ira split her attention between her earpiece and the 3D breakdown of Manhattan she suddenly noticed an opening for the lot of them to set foot on solid ground.

Ira pulled her hand to the side of her head again and clicked the button so she was on free-speech, "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?" Ira's specialty was recon and scouting and like her fellow team mate Roselin, their job was to find the pathway and determine the best way to do it. "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?"

Ira looked up to the opposing commander of Scorpion team, while still talking to HQ "You can just drop us off if you need." Ira looked from Lynch to her team. She breathed deep and cleared her throat, raising it so it resounded above the roaring engine of the aircraft, "Harpy, Thorn, Firebug and Rigs. Look sharp, stay tight." Ira checked her weapons quickly; she carried light, packed little, but it made her job ten times easier when all she carried was a crowd control gun and backup handgun in case. The rest of her arsenal lay within her fists and her team in itself.

Ira unbuckled her seat belt and stood up, stretching as she clung to a nearby poll for support. She moved past her group, then past Scorpion to look out across the fallen city as sunrise cast an almost despairing glow of reds and oranges over the city skyline. Ira looked across the roofs of the towers, a few dotted here and there with S.O.S messages. She shook her head, partly in silent mourning for the poor people who had died already - Ira wasn't heartless; she was more... immediate-area-focuses - but gritted her teeth, raised her head and looked out as much as she could from her angle, towards the direction they were headed.

"Hah!" Ira gloated sarcastically, "Seems the bloody birds still haven't left Manhattan... look at them... bunch of crows flocking in our direction, hope something didn't spook them.." She said with a smirk as if to stir the pot in the cabin.

He caught the warning blip almost as soon as it appeared, signalling that the ETA was less than 5 minutes, and moved to ready his gear. He grabbed his utility pack from beneath his seat and secured the contents to his suit. Three frag grenades on the left side of his chest, three conc-grenades on the right side, three orange smoke grenades on his right hip, his 10" knife on his left hip, a pair of bolt cutters on his back, five road flares strapped to his left upper-arm and a GPS strapped to his left fore-arm. He turned to grab his GFR-S4 from the weapon rack and saw the rest of his team had done same or were partway through doing so.

Lynch grabbed both his weapon and the pack full of ammo beneath it and laid them both on the raised bench next to him. He began securing the ammo mags to his armor while he had ALICE run a last minute diagnostic on his gun, just to make sure everything was working. When ALICE have him the green-light a moment later, he picked up his rifle and turned to his team, grabbing a mag and loading it into his gun as he did so.

"Lock and Load, Scorpion Team" he called, as he flicked his gun into burst-mode and pumped it once to load it.

"It's go time."

Derek Frost did a routine check on his gear, pulling the clip out of his Medic Gun and checking the Ammo counter against the number of rounds in the clip before sliding it back in with a click and doing the same with his sidearm.
Next he reached behind his back and flipped a switch on the MedTech pack, a beep inside of his helmet let him know it was connected to his ALICE system, and with a satisfactory nod, he switched it back off just as a warning blip went off in his helmet.
Derek took a deep breath and looked to his other teammates. The mysterious Switch, cool and silent as always, The big guy, Murphy, and his team leader, Lynch. Then of course there was Svenson, the dude he knew would cover his ass in any situation. this was his team, and it was his job to keep them patched up, and damn did his job get interesting at times.
He knew the drill, this wasn't their typical assignment, there would be survivors, which meant more injuries and afflictions to keep an eye on. He took a deep breath and thought about the mantra his Corpsman medic trainer taught him.
Remember, steady hands, and move slow. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

"'Ey, Frost, you psyched to save these poor bastards?" Roland said, breaking him out of his reverie. Derek imagined him grinning inside of the Pyramid-Head.
"Who knows... there could be some eye candy to be had." He said before giving the Medic a gentle slap on the shoulder.

“Don’t go and get all happy, Sven. A chic. They are probably covered in dirt, grim, and filth, smell like fish and probably going to piss themselves more than once during this. They are de’ pouille. Sorry no eye candy.” Switch piped up.

Doc chuckled.
Charming as always, Switch.
"I see you got your eyes on the prize as usual, Sven. Just don't catch a disease. There's only so much I can fix.", Derek responded to his friend.

"Lock and Load, Scorpion Team", Said Lynch, the Team leader, giving his usual command before hitting the LZ.
Time to shut up, he thought to himself as he clicked the safety off of his carbine.
It's go time, the Team Leader finished.

"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.

Bishop smirked a bit to himself before pinging his mic again. "Likewise, Völundr."

The rest of Scorpion squad piled out of the adjacent transport and formed up near the center of the roof. Jacks peeled off the main group and wordlessly made his way to Blackjack 2, jumping inside and closing the hatch behind him.

Must be important, Bishop thought to himself.

Scorpion team gathered around their squad leader, Scarecrow, for instructions. Like usual Bishop was to be the forward member in the formation, followed closely behind by Scarecrow, Völundr sandwiched in the middle along with their medic, Witch-Doctor, and the Squad's marksman, Switch, bringing up the rear and keeping the squad covered from an elevated vantage point. The rendezvous location was only a few kilometers away so Scorpion squad was ordered to book it over and collect God-Slayer before continuing on with the mission, which was to be discussed in more detail once all groups were secure. A nod from Scarecrow signaled Bishop to force open the roof's entrance. The dim interior was soon cross cut and laid over with wire frame targeting structures to better identify objects in their path. Clearing rooms quickly and efficiently, Bishop lead Scorpion team to the stairwell. Scarecrow took point and grasped the handle as Bishop stood directly behind clicking the M27 to full auto. The door was opened slowly to a point where Bishop could easily slide in. Taking to the right corner of the room he quickly scanned the immediate area, moving quickly into a crouched position at the peak of the stairs.

"Clear," Bishop reported.

As the rest of Scorpion piled in behind him Scarecrow gave him a pat on the shoulder giving him the all clear to move. They made their way down the twelve flights of stairs quickly, coming to a halt at the closed door leading into the main lobby. Bishop took position on the left side of the door as a red targeting reticule highlighted over an electronic pad wired to the door.

"All you, Völundr," he said, Völundr moving in on the right side of the door to examine the pad. Within seconds the door slid open slowly and Scorpion Squad made their way through the lobby in a wide spread, keeping close to the walls and crouching low below windows. They rounded a destroyed reception desk and came to the entrance area, glass doors that had been shattered long ago hanging loosely on rusted hinges that creaked with every gust of wind. Off in the distance amidst a sea of rusted and destroyed vehicles was the target location, the still smoldering wreckage of the Blackjack several meters away from it's entrance. Bishop waited for the all clear from Scarecrow before speeding through the entrance and taking cover behind a severely damaged red sedan. He quickly scanned the immediate area down the sights of his M27 before motioning the others to follow. On his motion detector Bishop noticed their Marksman, Switch, breaking off from the pack to get into position on one of the outlying structures. The rest of Scorpion formed up, each a car away from the other and once Switch was in position Scarecrow mic'd God-Slayer to tell them it was clear to proceed to our building.

Sven assumed the usual Scorpion formation, this time with Bishop up front. Roland was starting to feel better and better as the mission went on. However, he made sure to tell himself to be ready for anything. The infected didn't give a single fuck how anyone felt. Fortunately, Scorpion team wasn't big on giving fucks either. The systematically worked their way through the building from top to bottom, scanning the gloom in all directions, like the many eyes of an arachnid predator.They only paused briefly at a door which needed some coaxing from Roland.

"All you, Völundr," Bishop said after approaching the sealed door.

"Roger, Fist," Sven said and broke rank to make his way to the door. The power grid in the city had been long since dead, and the door would be a bitch-an'-a-half to force open. Sven knew exactly what to do, however. He grabbed a small pack off of his AEGIS, right at hand level on his left thigh, breaking off a pick-like device, with which he gave a swift, strong jab right at the edge of the console, opening the panel. "Yeeeaaah..." sighed Roland. "That's the spot." He then pulled out a retractable cable from the box and clamped each of the two prongs in specific locations on the circuit board. Sven then pressed a button on the pack. The circuit sparked slightly from the jump-start, and the door slid open. He then secured his tools, and fell back into formation.

The team continued to progress as before. Almost no chatter, not confrontations, and no issues. They finally made it outside. This is when Sven finally started to feel some anxiety. He gave a quick glance at his read out on his HUD to ensure Switch still had his back. Now that they were somewhat out in the open, he would feel more comfortable knowing she was there. She probably gave the least fucks out of all of them, and was a damn good shot. And since he helped her design those sexy rounds of hers, he knew she'd fuck any thing up that tried to get any kind of drop on them. And Fist and Scarecrow would take care of anything brave enough to approach them. They were the pincers, Switch the sting. God Slayer would soon be in good hands.

Derek was glad to know Fist would be joining them on the mission, and knew by default that Switch and Sven were glad too.
"Nice to have you a long for the ride, Bishop", he said as they hit the ground in standard formation. "It's ass-kicking time".
The team fell in order, Roland beside Derek, Scarecrow and Fist in the front, Murphy close in the back and Switch tailing from a tactical point. Witch-Doctor always felt safe when Switch had her eyes in the scope. Nothing would be getting too close to them.

As they moved through the building, Derek habitually kept an eye on his teams vitals, especially Switch's, which were linked to his HUD by Alice. Everything appeared normal, if anything, the crew just had a bit of excitement with a hint of nervousness, a slightly elevated pulse and breath rate, which was to be expected any time they went on an Op such as this. The only person who's vitals seemed eerily normal was Switch's, which was to be expected with one knowing her profession and the meaning behind her Callsign.

Satisfied with the teams vitals, Derek pushed his chin into the comm activator in his helmet, turning the team-communications on.
"Gonna check in with God-Slayer. I need to take a mental note of injuries and survivors so I can prep for triage if needed". With that he lifted his chin off the mic button with a click.

"Alice, patch me through to the surviving members of God-Slayer. Thanks".
Derek heard a beep confirming that connection was made with God-slayers communications.

"Hey gents, this is Witch-Doctor from Scorpion team, I'll be your resident ass-patcher for today. I need you guys to let me know how many civvies ya got, and what injuries are present on yourselves as well as the other survivors so I can take mental notes for Triage upon arrival."
Before the other team could respond, the green-translucent border surrounding Switch's vitals flash red once, indicating that her weapon was fired once.
Derek quickly commanded Alice to switch communication back to his own team, but to alert him when God-Slayers survivors responded.
"Switch, everything cool up there?", the medic asked asked.

Scorpion team continued on toward the objective. They kept closing distance to the museum just up ahead, keeping the area scanned for contacts, of which there were none. They made their usual swift progress and were at the building in about a minute. All while Switch covered them from above, and Witch-Doctor touched base with God-Slayer.

"Don't you worry about Switch, Doc," Roland grinned. "Anyway, how're things looking in there? What did they say?" Roland spoke as the team took their positions around the front door, Scarecrow on point. On his say, they entered into the museum. Next, to locate and secure the people within. "ALICE," Sven said. "Gives us an overlay with the building layout and the positions of Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie." A basic, opaque floor plan came up with green blips for each soldier. Five, five, and three. Sven sighed. Well, we'd better get them home.

As they made their way through the museum to Charlie team's position, Roland couldn't help but look about the place. He'd always been a History guy, and always wanted to visit New York to see this very museum. He'd never guess it would have been like this. Better this than nothing, I suppose. Sven continued on, making sure he didn't divert too much of his focus to the relics about him, and made sure to keep ready for any infected that might be lurking in the shadows.