IC - Bug City Blues

[arcanus]

An In Character Area for Characters still involved with the Chicago Containment Zone.

[arcanus]

The Gagglepus regarded the Salamander with a sense of dismissive contempt, 'Earthly spirit' sounded within the alien matter of what formed its cerebral makeup.

The salamander in earthly thaumaturgical terms was emmensely powerful, however such things were of little consequence to the Gagglepus.

Composed of what appeared to be razor wire, with the consistency of a ball of wool, randomly shapes would appear in its roughly spherical form that gave the impression of eyes and mouths, its whole form had a fuzzy quality it it, as if reality were unhappy.

The Gagglepus was bemused, a sensation it were unsure of, the little creature had gifted it karmic power for no apparent reason, he had a strange quality to him, slightly 'tinny'.

The other slightly taller creature, with the annoying thunderous collection of ticking things on its arm, there was a curious smell to his aura, one that indicated that he prefered to spend his time within the mirror world, again strange for 'Flesh and Blood'.

Dismissing the Salamander as irrelevant the Gagglepus's form streched reforming into a spear like formation, it then rocketed up through the etheric medium of the pyramid, the Chicago Aztechnology pyramids entire ward momentarily disrupted with its passing.

Soaring into the sky, the Gagglepus then homed in on its target.

It breached the Hive, seeming to expand, filiments of spiritual wire reached out claiming Flesh and True Forms without pause, devouring them hungrily, ravenously.
The ward around the royal chamber made from redundant or damaged True Form forces, presented little resistance, the fact was not that the Gagglepus's power was greater but different.

Its form expanding like a flower, enveloping the barrier, cutting, penetrating it until its form couldn't remain.

The Queen screamed as the spirit wire of the Gagglepus streamed through the fractures.

[arcanus]

Tyrone Beggs better known as 'No Entry', ducked around the ferrocrete post to avoid the latest hail of gunfire.

Two floors below him upon the 4th floor, 'U-Turn' and 'Soloman' returned fire on the intruders, the Blue Boys were paying them back for repelling their initial assault some three days previously.

Their leader the Troll known as 'Jim Granite' had forbade them to enter the Chi-Town Aztech Pyramid, instead his instructions had been to look after and lead the remainder of the 'Signs' Gang.

However their encampment across the plaza from the Pyramid had soon drawn predatory attention, most had refused to deal with the mixed human/goblin gang but the Blue Boys were ex cops and sec boys, armed to the teeth and by all accounts racist to the core.

High calibre munitions ripped into the walls, the 'Signs' were now pinned, their ammo low, their numbers wounded and now without the magical healing of their leaders.

A different calibre weapon whined, and the assault rifles momentarily abated, then resumed but having acquired a different target.
The while pitched up again, shouts of anguish and rage broke out through the lower floors, broken by 'Soloman's roar.

'No Entry' ducked his head around his protection, and then made his way in his best military fashion down the stairs, discharging his shotgun at point blank he dispatched the first Blue Boy he encountered.

Another snapped in a bodily sense as a bloodied Soloman burst from an adjacent room, looking at the human bodies upon the stained floor 'No Entry' wondered how the tide of battle had turned.

Then he saw the mechanoid.

"Bane" he breathed, a slightly frustrated hiss.

"No" replied the blank oval gun metal face
"HAL"

[Curren]

Can anyone hear me? Over.
Hello?..... Damn it, ok here goes.
This is Malthalamus Curren calling from Century tower in the docklands district, I have been relocating every day and so far haven't met with any opposition be it bug or humanoid for over a week now. I'm desperately low on food now and I also bingo on ammo too.
Things couldn't get much worse. I managed to find this short wave radio with a bit of juice left in it, but I don't think it will last very long now.

The city has become pretty quiet now, quiet as the grave. Although a the occasional gunshot still rings out to tell me that I'm not alone. The stench of the dead hangs heavy here too, I think its only a matter of time before disease spreads to finish us off.

I'm going to have to risk a shopping mall soon. I must be facking hungry to risk that, heh heh.

I will attempt to radio out as often as I can to give anyone who actually gives a shit the lowdown on whats happening here.

Can anyone hear me? Hello?
&"^^&££*£("&!^"* MESSAGE TERMINTED AT SOURCE

Arcanus Wrote:

"Soldier I'm not in the habit of repeating myself, all transmissions are to be jammed at ground level" stated the Watch Leutenant.

"Yes sir, it was an old band frequency, pre-digital" replied the Comms Tech

"Then ensure that all frequencies are jammed, I don't want to here another 'Robert Neville' impression"

"Who Sir"

"Never mind" replied the Leutenant

'Ah Fack It!' Curren tossed the short wave radio away in frustration and started to pace nervously around the control room of the Century Tower. Pausing, he looked out of the large window which commanded a huge view of the city.

'The Big Smoke' Chicago was even more deserving of its nickname than ever now, what with the fires that had started due to downed power lines and the chaos of the past few weeks. The city had laid under a pall of choking black smoke which was only now starting to dissipate. The city now reminded him of the fabled elephants graveyard, where the bones of the great creatures were laid in almost symmetry. But here compared to the ivory bones were the charred wood and concrete bones of a city in its final death throes.

Due to the fire Curren had been forced out of the fish market warehouse on the dockside which he had been using for a hideout. The spirit who had assisted him in returning to his body had been timely, because if his unconscious form had been exposed to the smoke any longer he would have died. The irony of his predicament was not lost, he had been done up like a kipper and smoked like one also. Luckily, almost overcome by the smoke he managed to access the tower and was left to pray that the fire wouldn't spread there. Fortunately it hadn't, but as a result the smoke had hemmed him in the tower for a week.

Now hunger and thirst were forcing him to leave this sanctuary, the water mains didn't work here and the small supply of water he managed to find had now dried up. His food supply was almost non-existant now too, and living off the contents of bins and stinking refrigerators had been no picnic either.

He hadn't been joking on the radio, the prospect of visiting a shopping mall was now definitely on the cards. And the danger that it would cause could be terminal.

Curren found a pair of binoculars on one ot the control panels that once regulated the marina traffic in better times, and peered through them.
'Harrods or Safeway?' He giggled hysterically. He checked himself at this outburst and rubbed a dirty hand through his greasy hair.
'Insanity won't help a jot mate, wind it in' he said to himself as he regained his composure.

'There’s a mall over there, southwest of what used to be Christchurch Brooklyn. Now if I'm correct' he placed the binoculars down and walked over to a large map of Chicago that was on the large central table of the control room. 'Its about 3 miles from here.' tapping the location thoughtfully.

'This talking to myself is a good thing, I don't want to find a football and call it Wilson as thats just barmy!' he quashed another giggling fit before it could start.

He went back to the panoramic view of death and destruction and took up the binoculars again and stood like a statue.

'Is there anybody out there?' he whispered.

[Curren]

Curren grabbed his rucksack which he had found in one of the offices, and stuffed the binoculars and the short wave radio into it.
He threw it over his shoulder and lifted his greatcoat which he had also aquired and checked his sidearm, an Ares Predator Mark I with only two rounds left in it.

Using magic in Chicago was a dangerous venture now as it acted almost like a beacon for the bugs to home in on, he had been forced to un-anchor his mist form ability to prevent him from using it inadvertently under duress.

At least his swords were reliable belted in their scabbards, they cast a dull sheen from the last rays of the sun that had managed to peek through the fading smoke of the City. It was getting dark now, and according to his watches it was five o'clock in the afternoon. definitely time to get moving.
Hopefully he would get lucky and find some food and water soon.

'Ok, I'll try a small shop first. And then we'll look at the supermarket. You never know I might hit the jackpot!' he muttered as he started walking down the stairs. He had been very surprised to find no corpses or signs of life in the Tower and he hoped that they had all escaped from a sticky end.

But the smell of smoke, decay and death had pervaded up the stairwell from the outside and Curren steeled himself for more horrors to come.

'Hopefully the darkness will help cover my tracks' he said aloud as he reached the foyer and stood facing the exit.

'Now for It!' He exclaimed as he drew his pistol and opened the door....

[arcanus]

Major General Carl Henderson took in the various trid displays showing tactical views of the CZ as a whole and then isolating the area of 71st Street near I90, just south of Catherine's territory.

At its utmost altitude of 5000 meters the UCASS Avian, stood poised to directly act against the latest growing threat below.

A hybrid the Avian combined elements of a lighter-than-air craft with those of an airplane. Holding 30 million cubic feet of helium, which negated about 60 percent of its weight. When the Avian achieved cruising speed, its aerodynamic shape, as well as canards (forward fins) and empennages (aft, or rear fins), provide the remaining lift. At 100 meters high, 150 meters wide and 400 meters long, the Avian was as long as 4 football fields. Its capacity was up to 800 tons of cargo over a range of 10'000 miles. Its top speed of 300 mph, it could cross the UCAS in about 9 hours. The Avian was vertically propelled by ten vectorthrust engines and Dynamic Buoyancy Management, and giant aft propellers for forward propulsion.
It carried enough ordnance to rival a small naval frigate, as well was two LAVs, 4 Attack choppers and hundreds of drones.

Henderson looked at the expanding mass of activity, since his replacing Brigadier General Thomas Reed, he had staged 3 major assaults into the CZ largely to destabilise and reduce the logistics of the Zones Warlords.

Now the other threat had once again raised its Chitinous head, the first time in 12 months for this scale of activity.

"Flesh Form numbers now exceeding 50+ and growing sir" reported the Leutenant in charge of sensors.
The CZs Knight Errant Co 'Colonel James Fulton' was already mentally communicating with Detroit via his cyber-comm unit.

"Drop the Z-net" ordered Henderson "Open fire!"

The Battle Group Riggers lowered the several hundred combat and ariel artillery battle drones that formed the killing net preventing air travel to and from the Zone, to low altitude.
The larger drones imediately unleashed a barriage of hardened gel rounds loaded with insecticides, Ares Firelance Lasers and conventional munitions to destroy the Flesh forms.

"Sir the barriage is not reducing the swarm fast enough"

Henderson paused, another hard decision, well it was that or a breakout.
"Hit them with the HITS (high-impulse thermobaric weapons) and request that Thunder Runner follow up with lightning strikes"

Six guided bombs launched from the Avian's payload, three striking 71st, the block shuddering under the Fuel-air detonation.

"Sir, the shaman report that Thunder Runner is encountering resistance from the City Father"

"For fuck sake, I wish that thing would decide which side it's on" retorted Henderson

"Detonation has destroyed all identified flesh forms, astral scouts have indicated that spirit forms are either disrupted or retreating, sir 3 of the HITS have detonated in other areas, structural and civilian losses will be substantial"

Henderson exchanged a knowing look with Fulton and then silently walked towards his Ready Room.

[arcanus]

"So where's Granite" growled the 300lb mass of troll called Soloman, Winter looked unimpressed and it occured to U-Turn that the samurai could probably kill all of the goblins in the room.

Winters red cybereyes glowed, seeming to lock upon the troll.
"I got seperated from the group on the 23rd Floor, the shit was really hitting the fan, machineguns, drones, aztech soldiers, monsters with no skin"
Winters hard, gaunt face tightened.

"Leave im Sol, Winters on our side"

"Yeah sorry" replied the troll, moving away from the now silent Winter.
Those horns had always put the shits up U-Turn.

[Curren]

The staccato thump of his dashing feet over the wooden boards of the old jetties played on his nerves. The rising paranoia and fear that the noise would carry to unfriendly ears was getting to him in a big way, but the thought of slowly inching his way in silence held its own terrors too.

His catch 22 situation was made decidedly worse by the sound of the pontoons squeaking and moaning with the movement of the upcoming tide, or was that in fact a flesh form attracted to the scent of his fear and coming for him?

'Keep going, don't look back' he gasped to himself quietly, repeatedly, almost in a litany which kept in time with his beating heart and feet as the shadows of dusk seemed to rise up and grab him. Starved and thirsty he couldn't keep this pace up for much longer, he had to find somewhere to hide, to keep the shadows at bay.

Tasting blood in his mouth, he wiped his hand across his face and realised that his nose had started bleeding again.

Curren panted his Litany 'Keep going, don't look back. Keep going don't look back'

[arcanus]

The smell although faint was still potent, and drew them, eager, hungry.

They cut through the skies of astral CZ lords of their domain, long spirit forms both angled downwards head for the shores of the lake.

[arcanus]

"JESUS H CHRIST" roared U-Turn as the east wall of the apartment block, shook itself loose.

The sky was truly falling, the UCAS Military were bombing the CZ, it had started with a distant barriage which was then followed by a series of huge explosions, this was then in turn followed by several other explosions one of which was only a few blocks away.

"Maybe they decided this is it, just pound the zone into rubble" shouted Soloman "Fuckin pinkies"

Then silence descended over the Zone.