Re: Dystopia - CHAPTER 5
Residential Ward, 1 mile from Downtown
Underbase 66...
Nothing moved in the once bustling suburb of Underbase 66. Cars were still parked in their driveways, swings moved in the wind, and doors of some houses were open, the stench of death and fire freely moving into the houses. The eerie stillness was punctuated by the lack of natural noise.
No birds.
No insects.
No dogs.
The silence was cut by warning klaxons, four lights turning at an intersection. The pavement split, sliding open as the load lift rose slowly. The Marines and the Chimeras were aboard, accompanied by three M-19A1 Minuteman missile launch platforms and two HEMTT supply trucks. On the flatbeds were Tomahawk missile canisters.
"Spread out! Establish your fields of fire!" Captain Johnston shouted to his Marines as they ran to put distance between themselves and the Minutemen. They broke into cars and pulled them into the streets, overturning them and creating barricades. "Come on, ten minutes until the shamblers arrive!" The Chimera Battalion captain, Wombat, had estimated that it would take the whole of the zombie horde at least ten minutes to make their way from downtown to the load lift.
They had to hear the klaxons.
And they did. The shamblers slowly started their advance toward the launch site as the first salvo of Necrostigmata loaded Tomahawks rose into the sky. At the launch site the Chimeras worked frantically to erect launch canisters onto the launch arms, connecting deluge cables and LCU cables to the canisters. One ran over to the makeshift barricade. On her helmet was engraved the letter 'W.'
"Captain Johnston, we just got word from the lab. They're on the way." Wombat shouted at the Marine captain.
"You hear that boys? We've got company, inbound!"
"BLOCK PARTY!!!" Vasquez shouted, charging his M-240G.
"Moreno, what do you see?" Johnston shouted to the sniper. climbed into an SUV and shoved his fifty cal bullpup out the window.
"Shamblers comin' up!" he shouted back.
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"VENGASE TODOS! VENGASE A MORIR!!!" Ortiz snarled, looking down the EoTech holographic weapons sight of his machine gun.
"Moreno, let them know we're here." Johnston said calmly as a couple of Chimeras joined them, P-90s at the ready. Moreno adjusted his scope, taking aim at a zombie that used to be a Minigunner. It still carried it's AGR-16A4 Bullpup, right hand deathgripped onto the pistol grip of the assault rifle. Moreno crossed himself then centered the reticle of his Leupold scope. The remaining windows of the SUV shattered as the fifty cal barked out. Moreno saw a line of zombies fall, their heads caved in by the full metal jacket.
The zombies replied by bringing their own weapons to bear, firing wildly as they staggered forward. Bullets pinged off the barricade the Marines had erected, Moreno's Bullpup fifty cal barking out again. His was the only weapon that could reach out and touch the shamblers for the time being. That changed as the zombies closed to eight hundred meters. The M-240 machine guns came to life, steel cored M-59 ball and M-62 tracers reaching out and piercing the zombies, chewing their ranks apart.
The Minutemen released another salvo of chemical missiles, another warning klaxon ringing out.
"Maldito sea! Where are they comin' from?!" Ortega snarled out as he rolled behind one of the overturned cars to reload his machine gun. A bullet pinged off one of the cars and buried itself into one of the Marines, the soldier dropping like a sack of bricks and screaming. One of the Chimeras let her weapon hang from its sling and went over to the Marine, pulling her medkit from her side.
"Hold still, hold still! I can fix this!" she shouted, tearing the Marine's MOPP suit in order to isolate the wound. The Marine was bleeding from his neck. Johnston stood over them, firing a few rounds from his TC-19 before crouching over.
"Anything I can do?" he shouted over the gunfire.
"Hold him down. It's buried in his neck and if I can't stop the bleeding then he's going to die up here." the Chimera shouted back.
"Got it." Johnston replied, holding the Marine down. "Do what you have to, uhh..."
"Peregrine, sir. For the record all of us are named after animals." Peregrine replied as she administered morphine before she started digging the bullet out of the Marine.
"Sir, they're closing!" Moreno shouted to Johnston as another Marine went down. Peregrine finished patching her first patient up before sending one of the other Chimeras to drag him away from the line of fire as two more Chimeras fell out of the launch teams to assist on the gun line. Johnston keyed his throat mic.
"Colonel, I hope to God you've got some sort of trump card up your sleeve because we're here holding a Dead Man's Hand!" he shouted into his radio.
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Command & Control
Underbase 66...
"Don't worry, sweetie. I've got reinforcements on the way." Archetype replied, watching the satellite screens of the gun battle as it unfolded topside. S/he reached over and tapped on one of the consoles, several submenus appearing. "Well, what have we here..." A subscreen appeared on the main screen showing a flight of CH-47D Chinooks and MH-47G 'Guns-a-go-gos' at least ten miles away. Archetype smiled and keyed the radio.
"Captain, what would you say if I told you I could get you air support?"
"I would say 'I love you' and I'd fuck your brains out. However since I don't have a death wish I have to ask, how?" Johnston replied, bringing a smile to the geneticist's face.
"There's a flight of Chinooks ten miles away. I see a KC-10 breaking away from them right now meaning they should have enough fuel to perform the task we wish of them." s/he replied to Johnston. Archetype could see Peregrine running here and there, tending to the mounting wounded and dying, more Chimeras rushing to assist the Marines as the fallen were dragged off.
"Get them over here. We're getting our asses kicked." Johnston shouted in reply.
"Will do, Captain." Archetype replied with a smile. S/he changed the frequency on the radio and hailed the helos.
"This is CW01 Wulf, who is this?" the flight lead demanded.
"This is Colonel Archetype requesting your gunships. I've got a team of Marines covering Minuteman missile launchers and they're on the verge of being overrun by zombies." Archetype started. "I need to know if you can provide air support for these men." Archetype listened to Wulf bicker with his wingmen over the nature of the operation and the cargo of the other helos.
"Colonel, tell those Marines to mark their positionsfor us. We're bringing rocket pods to the party." Wulf replied. Archetype looked at the main screen and watched the Combat Chinooks breaking away from the tandem rotor birds they were escorting.
"I copy that, Wulf. Thank you." s/he said to the helo pilot. Changing frequency again Archetype hailed Johnston's Marines. "Captain, I hope you have something more comfortable than fatigues because I just got you that air support."
"Thanks. I'm down to half strength now, even with your Chimeras helping. If you've got any more troops to commit please send them up here!" Johnston shouted back. Archetype tapped a few more commands into hir console. An impish grin crossed hir face.
"I'm sending you another squad of Chimeras and some Ego-Rangers. It's not much but once the next batch of Ego-Rangers is ready I'll send them up too."
"You wouldn't happen to have any tanks down there, would you?"
"Sorry, all out..." Archetype replied. S/he opened more subscreens on hir console. Several Chimeras were grabbing P-90s and heading for access tunnels while Ego-Rangers were being thawed out and loaded up for the operation at hand. Archetype picked up the direct line for Scrap Iron City.
"This is Colonel Archetype here at '66. The plagues are on their way."
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(OOC)
-Johnstons Marines engage zombies as the Chimeras launch chemical Tomahawks at specific targets. Archetype gets them air support and commits hir personal troops to the battle.
(/OOC)
Chemical missiles inbound for Underbase 21, Underbase 17, and Scrap Iron City.