Stormfall - Chapter 3

Neon signs still flickered overhead in places. The advertisements brokenly looped to no one and drained what little of the power grid was still alive. They were few and far between. For the most part, the only light came from the storm up above and flickers of lightning.

We moved slowly through the ruins of what looked like it used to be a major street, following the path of a Titan. Major roads were usually resistant enough not to get pulverized by a Titan, but decades of weathering made this entire city one bad breath away from collapse. 

Velos took point with the kind of posture of a trained professional. The rest of us followed tightly. Or, at least, the rest of them. I never got the training these guys did. I just trailed after the group with my rifle up and held loosely in my hands. 

We crossed an old intersection choked with rusted wreckage and puddles of oily-water. Transports were kicked to the side by something big with their frames flattened like old cans.

”Joy.” Black dog padded beside me quietly. His long tail deceptively flicked around like the rest of him wasn’t radiating barely-contained brutality. He tilted his head to the side with his nose twitching.

“Caught a scent?” I dropped a hand from my rifle onto his shaggy black fur. It was surprisingly not soggy even with the rain. He kept a layer of white flame just beneath that burned the rain out.

”No… something’s off though.” His tail stilled and he nodded his head toward cracked pavement. “No plants.”

”Yeah, that tracks.” I’d been feeling something was off. Maybe they used salt in their roads here? This place had been largely abandoned for a long time though. Something should’ve popped up at some point. “Maybe—“

”Hold,” Velos called just as we got to the other side of the intersection road. His hand shot up into a fist, and the entire squad stopped behind him. 

“What is it?” I skirted around the group toward the leader. I didn’t miss how the squad’s eyes lingered on me and Black Dog a moment too long. They weren’t saying it, but that familiar wariness was almost comforting in a way.

“Does the rain… does it look weird to you?” Sergeant Velos held out a gloved hand to catch a few drops.

”Something smells off, Joy.” Black Dog murmured quietly from beside me. He raised his head up and looked around the place.

”One at a time.” I shook my head and focused on the rain. It looked norm—wait, no. It was slightly darker than it should’ve been. My light flashed across the darkening drops. They were slowly but steadily filling with something black. “Ash?”

”Radiation spike.” Another of the squad called out and held up a geiger counter. It ticked constantly. “Low, but rising.”

”Something atmospheric, Velmir?” Velos asked.

Velmir checked the counter once more and shook his head. “They didn’t brief us on radiation storms.”

“Nuclear ash mixed into the clouds?” Velos dropped his hand and looked back toward me with the unmistakable gaze of someone seeking their superior’s opinion. 

I looked around the area and crouched down next to a puddle. The surface of it rippled strangely. It, of course, bobbed with rain drops. It also churned weirdly like there was a strange film mixed into it, though.

”We should get to cover.” I watched another drop hit the water. The rain was much thicker and viscous than it had been. Something about it gave me a bad feeling. Instinct said to move. I was usually better off listening. “Just in case.”

”There was a subway a block back. Might be able to find a map of the city there.” One of the other PMC’s offered up. It wasn’t too bad of an option.

“Break for the subway, then.” I stood up and adjusted my helmet to ensure its seals were still strong. 

”Aye, ma’am.” Velos raised a hand and swirled it around. “You heard her!”

We ran. At first it was just a light hustle, but the rain turned darker and darker with each passing moment. An instinctual dread wormed at me, and my pace sped up. My tension must’ve bled into the rest of the group, because we all ended up sprinting before too long.

The rain changed. It wasn’t obvious at first. It still fell in heavy lines and drowned out our surroundings. The rain itself grew heavier and thicker, though. Every impact grew louder and louder until it was akin to hearing hail pound the streets.

A sharp, acidic tinge filled the air and oily fluid clung to my boots. It fell into the cut up sleeves and trailed down my arms. Where the dark fluid touched me, my skin prickled and burned around it. Whatever was in the water, my body was reacting to it negatively.

“Screw this.” I tried to cover up my arms to the best of my abilities. “Black Dog—fire up.”

”Got it.” The dog sprinting next to my side trailed sparks into the rain. The sparks bloomed over my head like an umbrella of white fire that railed glowing with embers and sparks. After a second, I started to feel that small flame in my chest grow weaker while upkeeping the flame.

The rain falling on me immediately stopped. It was already too late though. It’d already wormed its way through my sleeves and into the mesh underlayer. I gritted my teeth and pushed harder to ignore the increasingly irritating burns.

Although the fire was startling, none of the squad broke formation. Shocktroopers were seasoned veterans. They just pressed closer to get out of the rain. We sprinted down the stairs and hit a metal grate that’d half rusted and collapsed just enough for us to get through. One by one, we ducked into the darkness.

The second I entered the shelter, the blazing umbrella abruptly stopped. Velos took charge as soon as the fire went out. “Double up and form a perimeter!”

”Sir!” The squad split and moved around with professional ease. They didn’t go further down into the subway, though they started a sweep of the small shopping floor above the platform itself. 

I dropped onto the nearest bench with all the grace of a falling brick. The squad could sweep the space. Nobody would want me in formation unless something needed killing or set on fire, anyway.

Besides, I had bigger fish to fry. I loosened the straps and tore off my arm and chest armor in what was really starting to become an unsettling pattern. Right after that, I peeled off my tattered jumpsuit’s top. The upper part of it dropped around my waist, held up by my holster. 

“Morose!” Velos called out to one of the squad members upon seeing me struggling to wipe off the heavy black fluid.

“Hold still.” A woman moved over to me. She was stocky like the others, though the cross patch of a medic stood out sharply. She radiated the authority of someone who knew what she was doing. Even still, she hesitated slightly when she got close.

“Easier said than done.” I resisted the urge to scratch at the black fluid still burning at my skin and the old scars scattered across it. Resisting that urge was easy when compared to the overwhelming desire to shy away as she closed in. I’d learned the hard way not to argue with medics.

She dropped her bag onto the bench and dug through it rapidly. “What am I dealing with?”

“It’s on my skin.” I took a breath and forced myself to stare at the ceiling so I wouldn’t have to focus on her. “Feels like it's trying to burn through. Nothing too bad.”

“Don’t be cute,” Morose snapped at me and pulled out swabs and some kind of disinfectant. “Suit soaked?”

”Tore up in the drop.” I held still while she carefully wiped the stuff off of me. It clung like it didn’t want to leave my scarred skin. The chemical compound made my skin sting worse somehow. “Wasn’t expecting acid in the forecast.”

She put more force into her scrubbing and managed to peel off the syrup like fluid. Morose renewed her efforts across my arms, slowly revealing old scar tissue. She didn’t flinch or stare at it, so that earned her half a point in my book. “It doesn’t look like it burned through your skin, at least.”

”Small mercies.” It definitely felt like it, though. I pulled away from her slightly and rubbed at my cleaned off arm. The redness was already fading back to my usual ghastly shade. “Black Dog, go scout further in. Not too deep.”

”Woof!” His tail wagged softly, and the tip of it wrapped around over his head in a mock salute. Small sparks of white fire lit up along his ears and illuminated the path like spotlights.

Sergeant Velos skirted around the rapidly departing hound like he was about to step on a land mine. “Ma’am, are you sure unleashing that thing’s a good idea down here?”

“He’s house trained.” I shook my head and checked out my undershirt. Thankfully, it was just the arms of my flight suit that were torn up. I wouldn’t have to worry about finding a new shirt quite yet. “Mostly.”

”Right.” Velos’s face twisted with the uniquely relieved expression of a sergeant who’d stepped just out of line, and yet hadn’t been punished for it. “What are we dealing with?”

“Not sure.” The medic swung a rugged tablet around from where it hung on a sling and wiped off a few drops. “Some kind of skin irritant, at least.”

Probably wasn’t acid, though it certainly felt like it. If this place actually had acid rain, I’d expect more structures to collapse. I shook my head and checked on my internal psion levels. Best I could tell, I was down to sixty-eight ish percent after that stunt with the fire umbrella. The flame still faithfully churned in my chest around the circuit stone, though.

”Let’s hope that’s all it was.” Velos hit the medic with that disapproving stare that those in charge always seemed to nail. “Can’t you scan it, Morose?”

”What do you expect me to do? Pull a microscope out of my ass?” The medic shot him an annoyed look and made a shooing motion. “You’re running cold, but otherwise fine.”

“It’s normal.” I waved to my pale complexion and the few strands of white hair peeking out of my helmet. “Just the Frostline gift basket.”

“Ah, right.” She dropped her tablet back into its sling. “Your nanite levels are low too.”

“The drop wasn’t pretty.” I shrugged. “Don’t suppose you have extra Unna?”

“Not much.” The woman rooted through her bag and pulled out a vial of glowing blue liquid and a pistol-like device. A Templar PulseHypo according to the label. A slot popped up on the back, and she slotted the Unna into it. “Might sting.”

”I’d be worried if it didn’t.” She lined up the PulseHypo with my vein and pulled the trigger. The fluid shot through my skin into my vein. A slight burn came just after the injection, and the tiny wound auto sealed up. “Status.”

||Status: Stable

||Nanite Load Capacity: 110/141

||Active Nanites Strains:

• H7 Nanite Monitoring Tool(50) - 100%

• Templar Immuno Mask-3.14(15) — 88%

• Templar Clot Weave-14.01(15) — 90%

• Kairos Armory Low-Grade Dermal Reinforcement(30) - 78%

My nanite count steadily climbed until it settled. Unna, or Universal Nanite Repair Fluid as it was technically called, could reup the nanite count as long as there was still a progenitor to feed off of it. ”Thanks.”

“Mhmm.” Morose wiped off the PulseHypo’s nozzle and stashed it back into her bag. She distanced herself almost as quickly as she treated me. “Should be fine now.”

I looked down at my flight suit for a moment. It was still wet. If the liquid just got on the outside, it wouldn’t be a problem. Stormfall’s flight suits were designed with limited resistance to all sorts of environmental hazards. It’d soaked into the inside liner, though. I tied the sleeves loosely around my waist. “Don’t suppose you have an extra jacket too?”

”Supplies are already running low.” She shrugged. “Next time I’ll requisition one, though.”

“If I live long enough to see that,” I muttered and dragged my chest plate back on. The cold metal pressed into my undershirt, and the arm guards into exposed skin. It’d work for now, but I’d need to figure something out with how hostile the environment was proving to be. “What’s the plan, Velos?”

“Working on it.” He nodded to Fleff, who was approaching with a battered transit map held in his hands.

“Metro lines run south toward the location we need to scout,” Fleff reported. “If we’re where I think we are, we could cut underground.”

“Shorten our approach and give us cover to the rain.” Velos rubbed at the bottom of his helmet’s face mask. “Worth the risk?”

“I’d rather take my chances than marinate in that black stuff again.” I shrugged and looked up to Black Dog, who was approaching from the dark maw of the subway. “Hostiles?”

”Plenty of rats.” He nodded his head and silently communicated with me. “One of them hissed at me. I tried not to take it too personally.

I cracked a small ghost of a smile that vanished as soon as it appeared. “He says we’re clear. On the initial route down, at least.”

Velos nodded his head and moved over to Fleff to check the map. “Take a rest and clean up, ma’am. Move out in ten. Uh—If that’s okay with you?”

”Yup.” I sat back on the bench. A little rest didn’t sound too bad at all. Besides, the black rain might stop and we could keep moving above ground. When was I ever lucky, though?

— - —

AN: I really want to ask about pacing, but its a bit to early, isn’t it? How is it at keeping attention, though? The first 3-5 chapters are always the hardest part.