RTS System in the Apocalypse: New World

The bombardment continued ahead of the company.

Each Hellhammer salvo struck farther into Ironford, collapsing roads, factory yards, and buildings above the underground concentrations. Smoke spread between the industrial blocks while South One and South Two advanced through the center, their Vanguards taking the wider roads as the Guardian APCs followed behind them.

Third and Fourth Platoons moved along the outer approaches. Fifth Platoon stayed around the Armored Command Truck and the recovery lane, keeping the artillery positions connected to the rest of the formation.

The ten Strikers continued working in five sections.

Two pairs stayed ahead of the company, destroying the surfaced concentrations trying to cross the next roads. The other sections watched the sides and the artillery approaches, using their cannons whenever smaller groups escaped the bombardment.

Hans followed the advance through his Virtual Radar.

The million-strong mass did not move as one body. The Hive divided it across Ironford, pushing some concentrations toward the company while keeping others inside factories, freight yards, and the underground network. Every destroyed breach forced the nearby markers to gather somewhere else.

Another psychic wave crossed the district.

The newer squads slowed for a moment, but their vehicles continued moving. Veteran soldiers kept their weapons trained on the surrounding structures while the Vanguards passed through the next intersection.

The infected changed with the wave.

Several concentrations broke away from the roads and entered the industrial blocks ahead of the company. Others climbed through the damaged buildings instead of continuing along the ground.

Hans watched their markers rise. At first, he thought they were entering upper floors. Then the first contacts cleared the rooftops.

”Striker Three. Airborne movement at eleven o’clock.”

Its camera turned toward a row of storage buildings near the center of the two-kilometer ring.

Several infected stood along the roof edges. Their upper limbs had widened into uneven wings, with dark membranes stretching between the arms and the sides of their bodies.

The first one jumped.

It dropped several floors before the membrane caught the air. Its body leveled, then began gliding toward the company.

Dozens followed from the same roof.

More appeared along nearby warehouses, loading towers, and factory stacks. Some leaped with their arms spread and descended in long, shallow paths. Others beat their wings after leaving the buildings and started climbing.

Hans’s Radar filled with markers above street level.

”They were keeping them inside the structures,” he said.

Matilda followed the contacts spreading across the display.

The gliding infected descended toward the ground formation. The true fliers climbed higher and turned toward the Strikers.

”One and Two continue the search. Three and Four stay on the breaches. Five and Six take the upper air. Strikers remain with the company.”

Anton saw the same movement approaching South One.

”Missile Infantry, overhead.”

The six launchers shifted from the streets.

Airburst fragmentation missiles replaced the ground-attack rounds while the soldiers divided the approaching gliders between them. South Two followed from the opposite side, with the Missile Infantry farther across the company taking their own sectors.

The first volley rose before the gliders reached the armor.

Two airburst missiles opened across South One’s approach, throwing fragments through the leading bodies and the gliders following behind them. Several lost their wings and dropped between the warehouses before reaching the Vanguards.

South Two’s launchers covered another approach seconds later.

The company kept moving.

Those that passed through the airburst zones met Guardian APC autocannons and Machine Gunners farther inside the formation.

The true fliers were different.

They continued climbing after leaving the rooftops, beating their altered wings until they reached the Strikers’ operating altitude.

Raptor Five and Raptor Six turned toward them.

”Five. Multiple climbers.”

”Six has the upper group.”

Their cannons opened during the first pass. One interceptor followed into the contacts still climbing, breaking the formation apart before both fighters returned to the higher ring.

Matilda watched the number of airborne markers continue increasing.

”Flight Operations, launch Raptor Seven and Raptor Eight for Ironford. Air-superiority assignment.”

”Flight Operations copies.”

Raptor Seven accelerated from the runway first. Eight followed shortly afterward. Flight Operations cleared their departure corridor and kept the pair separated from the six fighters already over Ironford.

Hans returned his attention to the inner district.

”Where are One and Two?”

Matilda checked their markers.

”Still inside the inner circuit.”

Raptor One was already several kilometers ahead of the company, continuing the inner search while the other aircraft handled the gliders.

Raptor Two followed through a separate route farther south, both fighters using the chaos created by the bombardment and airborne release to inspect the structures closer to the Hive.

”Raptor One to Command. One and Two continuing the inner search.”

”Don’t worry about us,” Raptor Two added. ”Worry about them.”

The fighter crossed above a freight terminal struck by the earlier Hellhammer salvos.

Several warehouses below were burning. Others had collapsed into the utility routes under them, leaving broken sections of road and exposed drainage channels throughout the compound.

Raptor One’s local Radar filled with biological contacts. Most shifted with the rest of Ironford. One concentration remained unusually fixed.

The concentration occupied several connected freight buildings near the center of the two-kilometer ring. Thousands of markers surrounded the compound, yet most of the movement passed around it. Groups entered through the surrounding streets, while few crossed the compound itself.

Raptor One shifted his camera.

”Two, take a look at the freight transfer complex. My eleven o’clock.”

”I have it.”

Raptor Two approached from the opposite side.

The complex covered several blocks, built around a large distribution warehouse, loading platforms, underground freight access, and an old pumping station farther behind it.

Damage from the bombardment exposed parts of the surrounding ground.

Dark tissue filled the cracks, much thicker than the growth wrapped around the earlier rupture structures.

It disappeared through broken concrete, climbed around foundation walls, and crossed between several buildings before vanishing again underground.

Raptor One banked wider.

”Now that looks expensive.”

Raptor Two’s camera moved across the eastern side of the complex. A section of warehouse wall had collapsed outward. Behind it, the interior was almost completely dark.

Something organic covered the columns inside.

”Same growth on my side,” Raptor Two reported. ”Multiple buildings connected.”

Another psychic wave crossed Ironford.

The reaction below was immediate. The airborne infected still gathering across the nearby rooftops launched almost together.

Surface concentrations turned away from the bombardment and began moving toward the advancing company.

Farther underground, Hans saw several marker groups change direction at the same time.

Raptor One kept the complex inside his circuit.

”Command, every major movement around this sector changed after that pulse.”

Hans enlarged the position on his Virtual Radar.

The biological picture was still too rough to identify one exact body inside the structures. He could see the concentration and its depth, nothing more.

But the location fit. The underground markers inside the two-kilometer ring repeatedly clustered beneath and around the same freight complex.

”Kimmy,” Hans called.

Kimmy raised her head inside Bastion One.

The Medics remained beside her.

”Yes?”

”Can you tell where that pressure is coming from?”

She waited. Another pulse passed through the district.

Kimmy flinched, though she stayed upright this time.

Her face turned toward the front of the company.

”Farther ahead... slightly to the right.”

Hans compared her direction with the marker transferred by Raptor One.

The freight complex sat almost directly along it.

Raptor Two crossed the southern side again.

His camera caught another section of exposed ground where the road had split apart. Thick biological growth ran through the opening and continued toward the central warehouse.

”Two. Same growth leading toward the center structure.”

Raptor One completed another circuit.

”Then I think we found the ugly bastard.”

Hans stared at the compound.

”That is a probable Hive site.”

Matilda shifted the operation forward.

”First Mobile Company, advance on the marked freight complex. Hellhammers, shift the bombardment ahead of the formation.”

The platoons answered.

Anton and Sabine pushed their armored fronts through the next roads while Third and Fourth Platoons tightened the outer sides. Fifth stayed with Command and the artillery route.

Raptors Three and Four continued striking the active breaches. Five and Six held the upper air, while Seven and Eight approached from the west. Raptors One and Two stayed over the freight complex.

The First Mobile Company turned toward the freight complex.