-PART FOUR: INTO THE CITY OF THE DAMNED-
"Come on, Harper, can you do it or not?" Jack asked, staring intently into the glass case mounted on the wall before him.
"Yeah, I can do it if you shut up for two minutes," Harper muttered in reply as he worked the console to Jack's left. "You really want it that badly?"
"Yes," Jack replied immediately.
"It'd be easier if you let me just go find the security keycard or something."
"We don't have a lot of time and you've already invested half an hour into this. Look, if you can't do it then just-"
"I can do it!"
He still hadn't taken his eyes from the thing resting in the glass case. He'd noticed it when passing the local security chief's office while on his way back from the bathroom. Whoever this office belonged to was probably ripped in half somewhere, like most of Haydenfield's staff, and he didn't have time to go find the guy's PDA or keycard or his hand if that's what was needed. He'd gone and grabbed the first tech he could find after trying and failing to break the lockout on the hardened case, and that was Harper.
The man was in better condition after getting torn up by the battle to shut down the Firewall, but he was clearly down for the count in terms of fighting for the time being.
Jack heard a door open behind him and glanced back briefly over his shoulder. Jennifer walked in, an amused look on her face. "Still at it?"
"Almost there," Harper muttered.
"Any way I can convince you to give that to me?" Jennifer asked, walking over to Jack, glancing into the case, then looking at him intensely. "Anything I can do? Kyra might not be around anymore but I've seen some of the looks you've been getting from the other ladies..."
"I...uh..." Jack glanced over at Harper, who was still staring intently at the screen, though now it seemed with more forced concentration, deliberately not looking up. He looked back at the weapon inside the case. "If there was more time before we headed back into the city, that would work. But there isn't. Not even for a fast, uh, encounter. So no, unfortunately. Sorry, babe."
She sighed. "You owe me."
"Fair deal," he said.
"I got it!" Harper declared.
At the same moment, the case chimed and then popped open. Jack exhaled sharply as he reached in and then carefully extracted the weapon held within.
It was a DX-50 'Juggernaut' Double-Barreled Shotgun.
It was raw power. Not on the same level as, say, a plasma rifle, but it was definitely power you could hold in two hands. And it was clear that the previous own had taken good care of it. The double-barrel shone under the lights of the security office, black and chrome and beautiful. Jack cracked it open, fed two shells into the barrels, and snapped it shut.
"God, that's satisfying," he muttered, hefting it and looking down the sights.
"Lucky," Jennifer replied.
"Very," he agreed, then turned away from her. "Double-check the holster, will you?"
"Now you're just rubbing my face in it," she muttered, but she checked the holster he'd found and had Harper attach to the back of his armor. "Looks good. Put the gun in it." He slipped the shotgun into the back holster so that the handle was over his shoulder. "Yeah, looks good."
"Thanks." He practiced quick-drawing it a few times, then nodded to himself and put it back. He'd already salvaged all the shells he could find in the office. "Thanks, Harper."
"Yeah, anytime," Harper muttered, leaning back in the chair.
"You doing okay?" Jennifer asked.
"I'm in pain but what else is new? I'll be fine. Anderson said he's going to have me put on tech detail here, light duty. Or as light as it gets nowadays. But like I said, I'll be good. You two go save the world."
"It'll be easier now," Jack relied, resisting the urge to grab the shotgun again as they walked out of the security office and began heading for the nearest exit.
It had been several hours since Anderson had found them in that storage room and given them a bit of a status update on the situation at large after they'd taken down the Firewall. Jack and Jennifer had made good on their intents to each other, found a private shower area, (or as private as they could manage given the circumstances), and spent some time decompressing from the experience. Because they knew it wasn't over.
In fact, they knew it was far from over.
After the shower and fun and getting patched up, they'd found fresh uniforms and, with a bit of effort, had actually managed to track down a pair of shiny, brand new suits of blue Combat Armor. Jack felt, well, not exactly invincible in it, but a damn sight happier. And seeing Jennifer wearing that same armor helped a lot.
They had worked their way towards a rally point with Anderson and what was left of November Squadron after that, eventually arriving near the exterior, where Anderson had told them to take another break while he figured out what the hell they were doing.
Hopefully by now, he'd figured out what the hell they were doing.
Despite everything, Jack was eager to get back into the game. He was tired, but he could keep going for awhile yet, he knew that. And now that he had this armor and this shotgun, he was prepared to plow through Hayden.
He and Jennifer navigated the wrecked, flickering, bloody corridors of Haydenfield, passing Marines, technicians, medics, civilians, and a ton of others as they worked to bring the place back to life. Since getting the main security network grid back online and getting a massive infusion of fighting forces, the Marines here had done a terrific job of retaking the place and actually holding it. It would be awhile before they actually had it secure, but that was no longer Jack's concern. He was on to bigger and better things.
Well, bigger things, at least.
As they came to the lobby ring that circled the entire perimeter of the massive installation, they crossed it, boots squelching in blood that had yet to be mopped up, and stepped through the exit. Back into the outdoors. With the Firewall gone, the sky no longer looked red. Instead, it looked smoky and hazy. And...
"That's creepy," Jennifer muttered.
"Very," Jack replied as they paused and stared at the city of Hayden in the distance.
A massive pillar of pulsing bloody red light was shooting into the sky from near the center of the city. Smoke and clouds circled slowly around it.
The portal to Hell they were going to have to deal with.
Jack activated his radio. "Lieutenant Anderson, this is Ward, do you have anything for us? Over."
"Ward, I was just about to call you. Yes, we have a plan. Track me down in Tent Thirteen Echo," Anderson replied.
"Understood."
As Jack began looking around, he heard Anderson give out a general call over the team's communal frequency about their rally point. The immediate area beyond the exterior wall of Haydenfield was an absolute mess of activity. Hundreds of makeshift structures, what were still referred to as Tents, had been hastily erected in rough rows along the concrete strip just outside Haydenfield, meant to serve as a place for people to come, go, and wait. The rows and collections of Tents extended far beyond it, broken up by courtyards and larger structures, vehicles, small mountains of silver crates, and a thousand other random things that made up the makeshift refugee camp/control zone. All of this was being occupied by thousands upon thousands of Marines and civilians, doing whatever it took to survive.
In the distance, Jack heard a constant, unending cacophony of explosions and gunfire. As much as they still had to clear out the demonic presence from Haydenfield, they also had to stop the demons from getting in as well. From what he'd heard over the radio chatter, hundreds of thousands of troopers were inbound, as well as millions of refugees.
He and Jennifer moved among the rows of Tents and quickly located the one they were looking for. It was a basic prefab structure, a thing meant to be erected quickly and efficiently by a half dozen Marines in a half-hour. It was largely weatherproof, waterproof, and came with its own wiring and plumbing, sandwiched into the inch-thick, interconnecting, reinforced plates that made up the walls of the structures.
This one was bigger than most of the others and guarded by a pair of stone-faced Lance Corporals who quickly checked their identity and then let them in.
Jack and Jennifer walked inside, the door sealing behind them, and found a single, large room within. Anderson was already there, standing at the head of a large table that held a holographic projector. The rest of the tabletop was scattered with bullets, guns, knives, explosives, and spare parts. Several other members of November Squad were already there. He spied Hollenshead and Abrash, Cortez and Rhodes and Diaz.
"Look who made it back, thought you'd wandered off," Hollenshead said, grinning around a fat cigar he was smoking.
"I do that, but I always find my way back," Jack replied. "Looks like you're still too angry die, huh?"
"Goddamn motherfucking straight," he grunted, then blew a smoke ring. "You ready to get off light duty and get some real work done?"
"Always," Jack replied.
The door opened again and Jack turned to see Wells and two other Marines that he vaguely recognized from the initial meeting that morning come in.
"This is everyone," Anderson said after looking around. He began typing at the projector.
Jack did a quick headcount of the team, going off of memory. Nichols and Bidwell had been killed in action, and Harper had just said he'd been reassigned...
"Watson?" he asked, noticing he wasn't present. Not that he was all that eager to have Watson around. The guy had been a pain to deal with.
"He's out," Anderson replied simply.
"Cool."
"Damn straight, that little prick was going to get his head knocked off if he kept it up," Hollenshead muttered.
"All right, focus up, people!" Anderson called as the overhead lights dimmed and the project came to life. Jack immediately recognized a top-down view of Hayden. He saw the massive sprawl of buildings, saw the huge hexagonal structure that represented Haydenfield next to it. "We have the next step of our plan. At the moment, Hayden and Haydenfield are ground zero on this continent for evacuation efforts, but we need to retake control of the city for that to work. We've got a shitload of backup coming in and more landing all the time, but the bottom line is, if we don't suture this cut, we're going to bleed out."
He punched a button and a large red dot pulsed in the center of the map.
"That's the portal. At present, we have no known forces within two miles of it. The demonic infestation is too heavy. Anything that flies is out of the question within city limits. But all of this is secondary to our own objective: we are going to seal that portal...hopefully. Marine Command managed to get their hands on some experimental UAC technology and notes. They've thrown together four bombs that might close the portal."
"Might?" Hollenshead muttered.
"We're the test subjects. The plan is to set up four squads, two Armored Personnel Carriers apiece, lots of gear and ammo. They will travel along four routes, starting at Haydenfield," Anderson said, tapping something into the keyboard once again. Four lines of blue appeared, starting at Haydenfield and then spreading out, entering the city, and making their way ultimately to the red dot. "Each squad will be carrying one of these bombs. One APC will carry the bomb, the other is a redundancy. But worst case scenario, if it comes down to it, the bomb is mobile. It can be carried in a backpack. That's last resort, though."
Jack raised his hand suddenly.
"Ward? Speak," Anderson said, and everyone looked at him.
"Has a bombardment from orbit been considered?"
"Yes," Anderson replied. "That's a good idea, but unfortunately the interference goes all the way up that high. We can't even reliably get satellites over the area. A strategic strike by a guided missile was also considered, and might possibly work, except that there are simply too many of the flying bastards in the way. These bombs were very difficult to make. We were lucky to get four. They're working on more right now, but...no, unfortunately, this is the best way right now."
Jack nodded. "Understood."
"Each of these squads will be meant to be quick and mobile, and a bit stripped-down. At the moment...Command isn't even sure this is going to work. It's a Hail Mary pass, as far as they're concerned, so they don't want to commit as many resources to it. That, combined with the fact that all the troops we have and are getting are committed to keeping Haydenfield and retaking Hayden, means we're not going to have a lot of people to work with. I've already divided up each of the squads that I've managed to round up. The squad call-signs are War, Famine, Plague, and Death. I'm leading War. Hollenshead, you're leading Plague. Taylor, you get Famine. And Ward...you're going to lead Death. We will be having secondary objectives, all of us, but these objectives will be to your own squad leader's discretion."
He hesitated, sighed, looked around. "We'll have to determine in the field if we should complete these objectives or not. What I'll say is this: if it got sent to you, it's very important, and worth doing. But the primary mission does have to come first. So use your best judgment. Now, we'll have access to a map of the city but, as we've seen in Haydenfield, the demons are corrupting the environment. To make matters worse, the place is a warzone, so we have no idea what it will look like on the ground beyond 'fucked'. So be ready to improvise. All this information is going to be uploaded to your personal databases shortly. For now...suit up, gear up, get ready to go back into the fight and get the job done. If we're really, really lucky...maybe we'll get a break after this."
"Doubt it," Abrash muttered.
"All right, Marines. Armory is the next tent over, get to it!"
"Yes, Lieutenant!" they all snapped, and began exiting the tent.
Jack and Jennifer held back, walking over to Anderson, who lingered by the head of the table.
"I'm sorry to have to split you two up again," he said, "but given the circumstances..."
"No, I get it," Jack replied, and Jennifer nodded.
"Appreciate the show of faith, honestly," she said.
"You two have more than proven yourselves. God, honestly I just hope Hollenshead and I are up to the task."
"We'll get it done, one way or the other," Jack replied. "I wanted to ask you if you'd heard anything about Staff Sergeant Morgan."
Anderson sighed and shook his head. "No, unfortunately I haven't. I tried inquiring about it, but with everything that's going on, no one knows anything. Sorry."
"It's all right, I knew it was a long shot anyway. She's probably fine."
None of them said anything after that for a few seconds. Even Jack knew that there was probably a decent chance she was already dead.
"Well," Anderson said, clearing his throat, "communications are completely unreliable in the city, so I wouldn't rely on them for us to be able to talk to each other."
Jack took his meaning as he looked at them. So this might be the last time you two see each other.
"Right," Jack replied.
"I'll leave you the tent. Don't linger. We roll soon."
"Thank you, Lieutenant," they both replied.
"Yep."
He left and the door sealed shut behind him. It was abruptly very quiet in the tent. Jack could only hear the faintest sounds of the activity happening all around them. He stared at Jennifer and she stared back at him. Reaching up, they both disengaged their helmets and set them aside, still staring intently at each other.
"I get the feeling we're going to be doing this a lot," she said.
"Honestly, we'll be lucky if we get to do this a lot," Jack replied.
"Yeah."
"I love you," he said, then paused. "I don't know what else to say beyond that."
"I love you too, Jack. It's enough." They kissed, a bit difficult in the armor, but not impossible. As they stepped back from each other, she had a small smile on her face. "What was the first thing that popped into your head when you saw me? The very first time?"
Jack thought about it, very briefly considered lying and saying something romantic, and then went with the truth instead. "I thought 'damn, she looks good in her uniform', why?"
She laughed. "Just curious."
"And you?"
"I thought...well, honestly, 'I want him. I want to make him mine'."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I saw you and just...I don't know. Right away, something was there. I thought you were going to be tough to crack."
He laughed. "Damn were you way off-base. I'm so easy."
"Well I think we bonded under unusual circumstances."
"I'd have still been easy. You're wicked hot, and I've got a thing for brunettes."
She snorted. "And redheads?"
"I mean who doesn't?"
"Fair point." She sighed. "Come on, let's go back to work. I'm sure we've got a lot of demons dying to meet us."
"Yep," he agreed, and they put their helmets back on and walked out of the building.
Back outside, an artificial dimness had fallen over the area. Smoke was beginning to cover the whole sky. Hayden burned in some large sections. He and Jennifer walked across into another large Tent, this one a bit more open, given the sheer amount of people who needed to come and go from it. Inside, the place was packed. With guns and Marines. Jack still had his pistol, which he made sure to top off with ammo, and now his double-barrel, which he made sure to grab a lot of ammo for as well. After a moment's consideration, he snagged an assault rifle and ammo for it, a StimPack, and four frag grenades.
After a bit more consideration, he figured that was as much as he could reasonably bring, (though he would've made room for a plasma rifle or a rocket launcher if there had been any available), and headed back outside.
"Good luck," he said to Jennifer as she walked out as well.
"You too," she replied.
He wanted to say more, but his HUD pinged and a packet of data downloaded.
The mission.
They stood there for a moment, opening and reading it over, and then said 'see you later', and left it at that as Jennifer headed off. One of the pieces of intel provided was a map of the immediate area, showing him how to get to his tiny convoy. He quickly followed the map, deciding to get the convoy rolling first, then study the information. He worked his way through the chaotic hive of activity the encampment was, narrowly avoiding bumping into a dozen other Marines on the way as they rushed from one task to another.
A few moments later, he came to the edge of the encampment, close to a quarter-mile away from the edge of Haydenfield.
Man, they'd really been busy.
The actual perimeter on this side was a series of makeshift bunkers and hastily erected barriers and towers. There were a lot of chainguns and rocket launchers mounted along that barrier. For the moment, this immediate section seemed to be relatively quiet.
Jack realized that he recognized everyone who had been assigned to him. They were all members of November Squadron.
He counted seven in total: Abrash, Diaz, Cortez, Rhodes, Wells, and the two others he hadn't worked with yet, a pair of Privates named Holtz and Spencer. They all looked battle-ready, more or less. At the very least they looked prepared to charge yet again into the maw of hell. They were all armed, and they all had shiny new blue suits of Combat Armor. That was good, at least. They had all gathered among a pair of APCs, checking over their weapons and talking to each other in a loose configuration.
Jack studied the pair of vehicles. They were good-sized, black metal with chrome trim and shaded windows. They looked a little like giant armored black beetles. Each had a chaingun mounted on the top.
"Form up, Death Squad!" Jack called.
The chatter immediately fell away and the seven Marines fell into a line. Jack looked over them. He'd been in command before, and he hadn't necessarily been looking forward to doing it yet again. But if there was ever a time when he was genuinely needed by his fellow humans, it was right now. So he'd take the helm, regardless of how he felt about it.
"We're pressed for time, so I'll keep this short. Are you all ready to march back into the jaws of hell and knock some teeth out?"
"Yes, Sergeant!" they all replied as one.
"Excellent! Holtz, Spencer, you two good at driving?"
"Yes, Sergeant," they both replied.
"Great. Now who's the better driver?"
They looked at each other, then Spencer stepped forward. "I am, Sergeant."
He studied the man. He was young, but he didn't seem overconfident, nervous, or cocky. He seemed...sure.
"How long you been in, Private?"
"A year, Sergeant," he replied.
Jack saw a couple of cuts and bruises on an otherwise young, tanned face. He glanced at the other guy, Holtz. He also looked young, but he seemed a bit jumpier. Not like he'd rabbit on them, but like maybe he'd seen a bit too much recently. Though he trusted Anderson enough not to put someone who'd crack on his team, not with something this important.
Then again, that could be hard to predict.
But he wanted everyone else ready to fight.
"All right, Spencer, you're my driver. We're escorting the bomb. Holtz, you drive the other APC," Jack said. He looked at Abrash. "Which one holds the bomb?"
"Left one," Abrash replied.
"Okay." Jack pointed to the APC on the left. "This one's code-name is Grim," he pointed to the right one, "this one's code-name is Reaper. Genius, I know. Grim holds bomb, remember that. That's our primary goal. Abrash and Wells, get on Reaper with Holtz. You lead the way. Everyone else, with me on Grim. Drivers, check your vehicles! Make sure we're good to go, everyone else, get onboard and study up on the intel!"
Everyone began boarding the APCs.
It was time to head into Hayden.
Into the city of the dead, the dying, and the damned.