Classification: Public Domain665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHCTszTCv9u
Event: Pax Initiative Conference
Speaker: Colonel Steiner, Expansion Spec-ops
Subject: Expansion under the Signal
We are facing the greatest threat to our species since the human met the tiger. We estimate that five million million survivors could be the highest number possible, all the way down to two million. Over eight-hundred thousand are situated within Hesperus. We know of five shelters with a combined population of thirteen thousand. We have an embryo bank of twenty million, and the ability to perform extensive genetic adaptations on all of them.
These are our pawns. In addition to Hesperus, the late American government constructed four underground cities. Combined they can support close to seventy million inhabitants. Located in the former countries of Russia, India, Australia, and Germany. Places to expand into when the time comes.
These are our rooks. The Pax Initiative designed and built seventy Hummingbird drop ships and twenty Condor transports. The Hummingbirds allow us to reach any point on the planet with combat teams or specialists with a speed unmatched by any other available transportation. The Condors can carry over one-hundred and ninety thousand tons, albeit at a much slower pace. These crafts provide us with transport to anywhere without any hindrance.
These are our knights. Against us is apocalypse, allied with natural selection, aided by adaptation. All of our efforts are hampered by the fact that no human can survive longer than ten hours under the influence of the signal. Even then, it is with the aid of Faraday cages that can only be transported inside large vehicles. Without cages, a man has about three hours of sanity. In addition, Over fifteen billion humans were on earth when the signal hit. All of these reduced to ferals, animals. Specimens that we managed to capture responded to any stimuli beyond an animal's capacity. Humans rarely use more than thirty-percent of their muscle mass; ferals average around seventy-percent. To add to the problems, we observed that packs have formed, complete with alphas, scouts, reproducing females, and outcasts. We cannot hope that they will eventually starve, they are already finding a niche in the newly formed urban ecosystems. To successfully survive, we must find a way to beat the aforementioned obstacles. If we can't find a way, I will be the first one over the cliff.
While the shelter was evacuated, Red Pack barricaded the first floor and prepared for the return of the ferals. They ensured that the only point of entry was the front door, and all were positioned to make the door the focal point of the killing field. Marcus squatted behind a large conference table turned on its side. Scipio and Octavia also crouched with him. While they waited, they talked about the people in the shelter. Marcus swore that he had seen a girl younger than him briefly. She had ears, and her joints sported no mechanical parts. Marcus found it oddly attractive, and had never seen anybody with hair past their shoulders. Scipio had seen her too, and teased him about it.
Octavia asked, "hey Marc, you like that human girl huh? I bet she wouldn't take to a packer."665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqBuA7ZkcYj
Scipio broke in, "Why not? We got looks, and I bet any boys in there can't squat five hundred. Hell, probably nobody could in there."665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQfFDxd10lK
"Yeah, and thats only cause you eat so much, its a wonder you fit in your rattle"
It was true that if anyone was going to get fat, it would be Scipio, he ate like a horse. Juno walked by passing out MREs from the shelter. Often called moderately edibles by the pack, the three made faces and drew their poison. Chicken noodle ended up with Scipio, Octavia drew a breakfast skillet, and Marcus got apricots in juice. Scipio gave him an odd look as Marcus slurped down the fruit.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFSwWHQoWNK
"Scipio, stop staring at Marcus, you got your own meal."
"I don't want it, but I got a feeling about the apricots."665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZpr1znKILe
"Like? He going to get the trots or something?"
They were interrupted by two screams. One, they barely heard, like a leaf floating down from a branch. The other came from hundreds of throats, as ferals suddenly materialized out of the rainstorm, galloping for the building. Marcus barely had time to grab his rifle when the forerunners of the horde jumped the barricade in the front door. The animals died under fire from three different directions, muscles tore and bones splintered as the ferals spun down to the floor, bodies shredded by steel-jacketed rounds. however,there were more ferals in the building every second, overwhelming the closest barricades, reducing their defenders to knife fighting. Marcus held his rifle at head level and unloaded into the crowd, wishing they had more ammo for the chainguns. 665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU9PgkkOAAg
He soon realized, after dropping several that had made it near his table, that they couldn't survive the current situation. already he had drained six clips and only ten to go. Galba screamed, and Livia shouted that the ferals were trying to pull her apart. Brutus broke through the mayhem with one word: boomer. A boomer is the term Red Pack used for the lethal sonic grenades they carried. If Pandora had triggered one of the grenades, out would fly over two-hundred screaming decibels of auditory death. Their helmets and armor protected against the blast, but the ferals, glass windows, plants, and all fragile objects within a two block radius shattered. Glass rained down from skyscrapers, creating the sound of a crystal waterfall. The effects on the horde were not nearly so beautiful, eardrums, lungs, eyes, and capillaries all ruptured. As Marcus watched the dead fall and the dust float, Brutus ran over to Galba and examined him for injuries. Once the speakers in their helmets resumed use, the roar of thrusters overhead told them that the Condors had arrived.
Control suddenly spoke, startling after the silence. As they regrouped and exited the building, he outlined their next steps.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7AknMd6ZeJ
"Congratulations Red Pack, the shelter has been successfully evacuated. We are dropping a resupply crate on the street outside of your position. A location beacon had been placed on the seed vault. The Condors brought atvs to expedite the trip. Load up, and proceed to the next location."
The street looked as if a sky blown of glass had shattered. Shards covered the asphalt, markings, and weeds that made up the scene. All of the buildings around them were stripped of windows, displaying their contents inside. Red flowed through the crystals, leaking from the formerly hostile ferals. Above them, visible through the falling rain, the massive cargo planes larger than dirigibles, floated away from the shelter, hoping to make it back to port before their cargo turns bad. One, dropped three crates from its hold. They smashed to earth, only to be cracked open by the Genesis. Ammo, food, and the promised atvs were carried or driven out onto the street.
Most doubled up on the vehicles, while three carried surplus supplies. Marcus rode on the back of Livia's atv, switching his rifle for his handgun. Once everyone was situated, they took off down the street, heading to the point marked on their visors.
The atmosphere of the haunted city chilled Marcus as he took in the sights. Cars, rusting and empty, clogged the streets, left-over moltings of some industrial insect. Skeletons, doubtless victims of the violent ferals, lay were they were discarded. Rats, and other bottom-feeders scuttled in and out of building and drains, searching for food. Everywhere there were signs of violence, from the smashed and charred buildings to the ruined signs of civilization. Graffiti scrawled all over the faces of the city shouted names, tags, despair, rebellion, ruin, war, famine, and death. Much of the last one etched out in old blood, splattered from struggles against an invisible enemy.
Within the trappings of the apocalypse, Marcus soon began picking out ferals, running along side streets, leaping from buildings to buildings with superhuman ease. With a shock of fear, he realized they were keeping up with the vehicles, and some were even running ahead of them. He and Red Pack could be driving into an ambush.
"Marcus to Pack, hostiles are keeping pace with group, what are we going to do?"
The soldiers began to scan the area as they weaved through the urban trails, spotting their pursuers. As they turned off onto a raised stretch of road proclaimed by a sign to be a freeway; Brutus ordered for them to ignore the animals unless forced to engage. The freeway led them to be level with the roofs of many of the buildings. Still their pursuers kept their distance, watching and possibly waiting for something. Soon a river came into view, and the freeway turned into a bridge, crossing the seaward waters. A dark mass seemed to cover the end of the bridge in the distance. As they crossed the mile-long bridge, different packers guessed what it could be.
Before they had crossed a quarter of the arch, Augustus yelled that the ferals were blocking the road behind them. Marcus twisted to look back, and saw a howling mob of the animals speeding down the freeway, too many to count. Brutus told them to speed up, and that if the ferals were close enough, to toss back grenades. Red Pack goosed their rides, accelerating away from the mass behind them. The end of the bridge ahead of them started to take on the appearance of movement. Suddenly they all say it. Hundreds more of the ferals were coming from the other end, leaving them trapped on a bridge above water. One thing they had never been taught, was swimming.
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