Stormfall - Chapter 4

I wasn’t the only one to take advantage of the break. The others scattered around with silent discipline. They settled into cover like they didn’t know the meaning of rest, and gnawed at ration bricks. Nobody talked much. The few that did kept it low and near silent.

“How big were the rats?” I shuffled slightly ahead of the group with my rifle held low once ten minutes passed. 

“Nothing on the ones in Bloodharbor,” My faithful hound answered with his deep, gravely voice.

”The ones that ate kids' whole?” Sewer rats back home were just built differently. Extermination squads down through the tunnels weren’t sent out for no reason. 

“I think they were just small kids.” Black Dog’s tail whipped around and gently traced my wrist. A warm spark surged along his fur and dissipated on my arm guard. “You won’t catch a cold, right?”

”I’d need to be quite a bit chillier.” I ruffled his ears and nodded to Sergeant Velos. “I’ll take point?”

”If you insist.” Velos shifted slightly uncomfortably. His visor dipped away like he didn’t quite want to make eye contact. He’d probably learned it was for the best he didn’t argue with a stray superior a long time ago.

He didn’t add ma’am this time around. That was fine. I didn’t need the lip service. “I do.”

Going ahead wasn’t just being willful either. Between Black Dog and I, I was probably the best person to swing the tight corners down here. That, and I’d be far enough from the squad to let them do their thing while I did mine.

“You sure about this?” Black Dog walked in front of me and blocked the way. The white fire spreading through his fur churned to life and turned much more brilliant like my own personal spotlight.

”C’mon, I told them you were house trained. Don’t make me a liar.” I jerked my hand away from a playful snap and grabbed hold of my rifle once more. “Let’s go.”

”Fine.” Black Dog growled softly and led the way deeper into the subway. The path forward narrowed drastically as we left the shopping center behind and slipped down a set of dank stairs. The air thickened against my skin with a cool humidity.

I stepped off the final stair and carefully flicked my light across the subway platform at the bottom. Black Dog flared brighter and heat flowed off of him to push back the slight chill of the place. It also pushed the squad even further away from us.

The place was covered in scrap that looked like it had been massed from all over the city. Moss crawled along the roof of the place, and water marks along the walls suggested this place had been submerged quite recently. That was… worrying. Especially with how the ‘water’ had treated me so far. 

“I only walked around here a bit before coming back up.” Black Dog dipped his head toward the yawning mouth of the subway tunnel. “I hear water down that way, though.”

Something skittered through the darkness. One of the soldiers behind me flicked to it with their flashlight—

Bang!

I dropped low and reflexively flicked back toward the source of the shot. I barely managed to remember not to shoot my own guys. My eyes flicked toward the source of the impact. “Pyre, man. It was just a rat.”

“Sorry, ma’am… it cast a big shadow.” The soldier at least had the common decency to look embarrassed.

”So does your mom. You shoot her too?” I bit my tongue. Probably shouldn’t have said that. Too late to reel the thought back in now.

”Ahem.” Sergeant Velos stepped forward and flicked his rifle toward one of the tunnels. “Shall we keep going?”

“Probably.” I sighed and moved forward once more. I kicked a can that skipped across the platform to the edge and then plopped down to the rails. A wet splash echoed back. “Which way are we headed?”

”West,” Fleff’s rough voice answered. “It routes back south shortly.”

Great. The further south we got, the better. Chances were low we’d catch up or find my Warden at this rate, but we’d still be able to accomplish the squad’s goal of finding the source of the interference. Hopefully, at least.

I walked up to the edge of the platform and flicked my light down into the darkness. Thankfully, the path wasn’t entirely flooded. There were just spots where the place had eroded with pools of rancid looking water. The can before had fallen into one of said pools.

I dropped onto the subway tracks. My boot clanked against the metal and sent a low, echoing tone up and down the path. Black Dog dropped down near silently behind me. “Everything this side of the city knows we’re here now.”

”I don’t need your sass.” The gunshot sure as shit gave us away better than a light tap against the rail. I jerked my rifle forward. “Now get in front of me like a good lantern.”

He growled deeply. It was a sound that rumbled down the path and made several PMC’s behind us flinch. ”I’ll bite you.”

“I bite back.” I grinned widely, showing off my teeth. Not that it mattered with my helmet on, but it was the thought that counted.

He stared at me for a long moment and then huffed snootily. The expression faded into one that was slightly hesitant. “Brings back bad memories. What did I tell you about biting?”

My grin dropped off my face. Memories… yeah, yeah it did. “I can’t help it if biting is effective.”

”Let’s just keep going.” 

I nodded sharply and shuffled forward. The path continued for a while, showing all sorts of signs of wear and tear. It looked like the subways were a chronic flood zone. Ancient water marks lined the walls, and debris filled the place like it’d been washed out repeatedly.

The squad spread out behind me a little too wide compared to their earlier formation. I didn’t blame them. Between Black Dog and I, we set off every warning a grunt looked for when trying to stay alive. It wasn’t fear exactly. Not quite respect either, though. Something in the middle of the two.

Eventually, just like Fleff said, we came across a junction where the path routed south. Unfortunately, it was sealed off by a rusty metal scrap fence. A door blocked the way forward, and even before that, a shape shambled through the darkness.

It was an old maintenance crawler. Six legs, glowing red sensors, and a worn down shell cracked with sludge. It scraped the wall as if it could clean off the filth that’d built up. Its legs had been replaced with sharp spikes though, so it was useless.

It didn’t detect us immediately. As soon as it did, though, the lights along its disk shaped body flared. A metallic clattering came from inside its chassis, and the thing lunged at me with its claws outstretched.

“Contact!” It clipped my leg with one of its jagged limbs. Sparks flashed from the nanites under my skin. It bit in, but was stopped by the low-grade dermal reinforcement nanites before it could get too far.

I stumbled backward and dodged a chasing lunge. My rifle snapped up a beat later and kicked hard into my shoulder as I lit the bastard up. Rounds punched through its half-rusted plating like butter. It dropped into a twitching mess.

The gunshots must’ve acted like some kind of beacon. The scrap-gate ahead shuddered, and then groaned open. From the darkness beyond, dozens of red lights gleamed like wicked eyes. A wave of new crawlers burst out of the darkness in a skittering tide.

”Form up!” Velos barked out.

The squad fell in tight, clean, and professional behind me. I only saw two hesitate, and that hesitation had more to do with them distracted doing other things. One of the crawlers leaped past me toward Fleff—

“Down!” I shouted and snapped a kick toward the flying machine. The thing was thrown off track and slammed into the tunnel wall in a spray of dust and debris. Several shots followed it a moment later and turned the thing into a scrap heap. 

Black Dog caught one of the crawlers just before it could sneak in an attack on my back. White fire surged from his maw and he clamped down onto one of the legs. With a fierce jerk of his head, the leg was torn off and flung into the wall as a half slagged mess. One more bite grabbed something important and ripped it out of the crawler.

“Velmir!” Sergeant Velos gunned down another clanking crawler just before it could tear apart another squad member.

”On it!” The grenadier pulled a grenade. The pin clicked out, and the grenade bounced across the ground once, twice—

Boom!

A fireball erupted in the middle of the crawler tide. Scrap and sludge scattered and exploded out from the impact. Shrapnel tore the majority of the bots into parts, and those that remained were quickly brought down by focused fire.

One of them was launched toward Velmir by the explosion. It crashed into the man and tried to stab through his boot. He kicked it hard, and another squad member double tapped it cleanly. 

Another kept crawling toward us with grinding servos and a single minded focus on destruction. I stomped forward and crushed its exposed core underfoot. The bot gave one last pitiful attempt to crawl before stilling forevermore.

Silence settled across the tunnel once more. We waited, each of us aiming toward the breech with lights dancing. Nothing. Just the hiss of respirators and a wet, oily smell like rotting flesh and coolant.

”Clear,” Velos called at last.

I punched the mag release on my rifle and slapped another up into it. “You sure?” 

He shot me an annoyed look and kicked one of the bots. “Repurposed crawlers. They haven’t seen maintenance in a while. I doubt whatever made them is still around.”

”Still… we should move up slow.” I motioned to Black Dog and stalked up past the scrapped crawlers to get a look beyond the gate. 

My light flashed across a tattered scavenger camp. It looked like a war had torn through the place. Mechanisms, trash, and all sorts of stuff lay scattered around. Half of it looked tossed around by flooding.

That wasn’t the worst of it, though. That honor belonged to the corpses. Dozens of scavengers lay scattered around. Most of them were half rotten, and several of them had bloated flesh slopping off the bone from sitting in water.

They didn’t look entirely human, either. Weird growths, mutant limbs, and radiation burns covered the dead scavengers. Coral like spines mixed with scaly radiation burns peeked out through the gaps of their clothes. Weapons still sat in holsters.

My stomach turned over. I’d seen plenty of dead. I made most of them myself. Seeing these guys half rotted and warped with contamination and mutations was on an entirely different level of grotesque, though. Hell, half their faces were warped like their jaw decided to stop being a jaw.

“What do you think happened to them?” One of the PMC’s nodded her head to the dead scavs.

“A bioweapon.” Velos sounded entirely unsure of his own answer. It very well could’ve been one, though. Maybe that black rain was just a diluted version of whatever mutated these guys.

”Smells sour… and almost like—?” Black Dog sneezed a spray of sparks and backed away. “I don’t like this, Joy.”

“You’re not the only one.” I stepped away from the dead and looked around the rest of the camp. “How long?”

Morose leaned over a corpse of one of the scavengers. She poked at it lightly with the barrel of her rifle. The flesh sank and slopped off the bone. “Couple weeks to a couple months.”

”That’s not very precise.” It was before we dropped on the planet though. Wasn’t linked to Stormfall, and they didn’t look like they died in combat. Instead, it looked like they kinda just rolled over. Velos’s bioweapon idea sounded quite plausible. 

She just shot me an annoyed look and stood back up. “It’s the best you’re going to get. It’s cold and damp down here.”

”Let’s just keep moving. Whatever happened here happened a long time ago.” Velos motioned to the gate leading back toward the south part. Two of the riflemen moved ahead of him and cracked open the heavy metal gate. The rusted hinges of the door screamed like they didn’t want to let us go.

I checked my rifle again out of habit. Black Dog quietly padded ahead of me and once more pushed back the darkness. White flames flickered off of him like my very own spooky lantern.

The tunnel beyond sloped up barely. The walls changed too. The water marks on the walls dropped lower and more old transit signs filled the path. The path itself opened up into a subway platform shortly after that.

The platform here looked much the same as the other one, though less like a flood zone. Stairs on the far side led up to the surface. Fleff checked the map. “There’s two more junctions ahead. This one leads to… Muse Street.”

Sergeant Velos skillfully passed the decision to me. ”Up to you, ma’am.”

Hopefully, the rain had stopped by now. If not, we could just continue moving after checking our proximity to the interference. It wasn’t worth risking whatever was in the clouds on this planet. Not if that black shit was responsible for whatever warped the scavs back there.

”Let’s go see what awaits us.” I stepped forward toward the stairs. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be more rats.