Arknights: Starsfall I

Chapter 45

"... you're going to need it"

Carmen Ramirez
December 17th, Earth Time, 2055
October 18th, Terra Time, 1097
Rhodes Island's Finest - Bar

"Oh shit... " Blaze muttered, wiping the alcohol off her mouth, her blue eyes staring up at the screen in a look of horrified surprise. Carmen and the Rangers stood shocked and silent, extreme national terror being evidence in their eyes. Blaze looked at the rangers, the Marine, and just lowered her head, "Damn.. I'm... sorry"

Dunn stopped his drinking and just stared for a while. Before turning to the bartender, "W-what's the strongest thing you got?" The bartender felt the pain in the man's voice, so he just got what looked like a Moonshine bottle and passed it to Dunn.

Carmen sat down on the floor and looked at her own hands, "Damn.. how the hell.."

Jonathan just whistled and looked down, "Fuck man... Prez is dead..."

Ace just sat down, and went over to Dunn, "That's... damn I don't know what to say, I've never experienced anything like this before..."

"The President, Jonah McCain Junior, has been isolated after a period in where he was in Southern New York, sometime after visiting Connecticut. He has confirmed to be infected with a life-threatening disease sometime after his return to Washington."

"Due to our inability to treat him, he has been evacuated to Maine for quarantining. There, we have been studying how exactly this disease was spreading and killing him.

"The Center for Disease Control and several Medical Agencies of the United States has confirmed that it is the same ailment that is currently putting 20-30 thousand American lives" that number caused Dunn to curse, Carmen to grumble, and Jonathan to start praying, "as well as bringing the illness to 3 whole BCTs of Marines and 5-6 battalions of United States National Guard."

"Jesus... the Military too? You folks are having one bad day..." Croissant muttered. Ace shook his head.

"I do not know how much is in a 'BCT', but I do know that 6 battalions is a lot of people to be infected." Blaze shushed her teacher, as the screen began to speak again.

"This is also the same disease that is affecting the Senators and Representatives of the States of;" at the pause, a map of the United States on a satellite map appeared. It began to show borders and rapidly zoomed on the Northeastern United States. "Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New York." The 3 states were highlighted, "The Eastern, Southern, and Western sides of each respective state are currently experiencing outbreaks of a mysterious black crystal that is considered the source of the ailment."

"The United States National Guard suspects that it has spread due to their poor demolition and removal tactics, stating that they have completely underestimated what exactly they were dealing with and are deeply apologetic that their poor handling of the containment situation is causing it to spread."

The operators weren't going to think much of it, but at the mention of a black crystal... plus the literal picture of the thing appearing. Every gear began to click in their head, especially in Skyfire who knew exactly what it was.

"Oh my god..." Skyfire muttered, "It's an Originum outbreak..."

"So it made it to you all...?" Exusiai muttered. Next to her, Carmen was letting out soft whines of disbelief.

"We..." Dunn began to mutter, eyes widening. Flashes of a memory, an emergency mission, came to the 3 Rangers in the room.

"We were there..." Carmen continued his thought, holding her head in disbelief. Any operators noticed the visibly distress and weird relief that each one seem to have, "We..."