RTS System in the Apocalypse: New World

The acid was already in front of his face.

Am I going to die?!

”Woof!”

Something slammed into Adrian’s waist. His vision spun.

The green acid missed his face by less than an inch and splashed against the wall behind him.

The concrete hissed, smoke burst upward. It filled the stairwell with a sharp, burning stink.

Adrian hit the floor shoulder-first. Again.

”Fuck!”

Vex landed on top of him, claws scraping against his vest before the dog rolled back to its feet.

The spitter clicked from above, its throat already swelling for another shot.

Adrian’s hand moved before his thoughts recovered. His SMG rose.

Just as he was about to pull the trigger—

A heavier burst roared from above. Large 30mm rounds smashed into the Spitter’s head, splattering it before Adrian’s bullets could reach.

Green fluid sprayed across the stairwell wall.

Adrian was taken aback.

”Friendly fire, my ass,” he muttered.

A voice shouted from above. ”Echo Two, move up!”

The stairwell flashed again as several combat blades slashed through the infected crowding near the entrance.

Meanwhile, the gunfire from the APC earlier seemed to have diverted its focus, wreaking havoc elsewhere. It chewed through a larger crowd, keeping the pressure from collapsing back onto the building.

Adrian forced himself up.

”Echo Two, what are you waiting for? Move!”

Echo Two-One and Echo Two-Two climbed first, firing past the DASF whenever an opening appeared. Two-Three grabbed the second Attack Dog by the harness and pulled it away from a corpse that had not stopped moving.

”Vex!”

The dog barked and bounded after Adrian.

Behind them, the basement shook again. The hive screamed from below, weaker than before but still alive enough to make Adrian’s teeth ache.

”Don’t listen to it!” Adrian shouted. ”Up, up!”

The outside was a mess of corpses. Mangled bodies littered the street, and dark blood painted the pavement.

Three Guardian APCs lined up, their autocannons aimed at wherever the closest infected was.

”Eagle One, we need sniper support!”

Shouted a DASF unit as it slashed an infected into two. ”Multiple special infected surrounding us. Clear them out!”

The answer came immediately.

”Eagle One copies. Marking targets.”

A second later, several red markers on Adrian’s Radar blinked with thin white rings.

The first shot thundered from somewhere high.

An infected crawling along the side of a ruined apartment lost half its head and dropped into the street.

The second shot followed, and a third.

Each one struck where Adrian had not even seen yet.

A long-limbed crawler folded on a rooftop edge. A runner hiding behind a broken delivery truck snapped backward. Another Spitter opened its mouth, only for the round to punch through its throat before the projectile could leave.

”Music to my ears!”

”Move!” the DASF closest to him shouted.

”Right, right!”

Adrian grabbed Vex by the harness and pulled the dog away from the doorway. In a large firefight like this, Attack Dogs could barely contribute to the cause.

Echo Two regrouped beside the nearest Guardian APC, their bodies dirty, wet, and covered in black splatter.

Two Army Soldiers covered their retreat. As Echo Two settled inside, the Army Soldiers boarded as well.

The APC’s autocannon turned again. The street shook under its burst.

Behind them, the walls of the old hardware store groaned. The ground beneath the building pulsed twice.

The hive was not dead.

Its shriek felt louder than before. Adrian could still hear it even when inside the Guardian APC.

”That thing’s getting louder,” he spoke to the driver. ”Are we not getting out of here yet?”

”No,” the APC’s driver replied. ”Commander’s orders. We’re holding the lane.”

”I don’t think it will be any time soon!” Adrian laughed. Holding the lane? For whom?

This new hive was rather enduring, unwilling to die without a fight. His eyes scrambled back to the Radar map, realizing that the DASFs seemed to have strayed farther away from them, and closer to the hive’s core.

”What about the DASFs?”

”Deployed until this thing lasts. Closing the ramp now!”

The hydraulic ramp hissed. Adrian watched as the outside world narrowed in his eyes.

”Any reinforcements?”

”Bastion Four and Five will come around. No need to worry.”

”Now you’re flagging it,” Adrian teased.

Right at that moment, the earth jumped. The Guardian APC lurched sideways.

Adrian slammed against the inner wall, shoulder aching for the third time in less than ten minutes.

”You call this died down?”

Outside, someone shouted. The road beneath the old hardware store cracked open.

Though it did not collapse, a long fracture tore across the pavement. It split through the corpse-covered street and crawled toward the nearest APC like a black line.

The driver’s radio buzzed.

”Bastion Two, we’re moving, now! Follow the line!”

”Bastion Two copies!”

The APC lurched forward.

Adrian grabbed the side handle before his head could slam into the wall again.

”Moving where?” he shouted. ”I thought we’re waiting!”

”We’re not waiting,” the driver answered. ”We’re holding the lane.”

Adrian froze for half a second. Then, he realized why the DASFs were approaching the hive marker he had set earlier.

Is the Commander going to destroy that hive once and for all?!

The Radar map answered before the driver could.

Several blue markers broke away from the DASF line near the hardware store. They did not retreat toward the APCs. They moved toward the cracked road instead, cutting through the infected rushing from the side streets.

At the center of those markers, one golden mark carried the Commander’s signal.

Adrian’s mouth opened. ”No way, I’m a genius to have guessed that out?!”

Echo Two-One looked at him. ”What?”

”The Commander is here.”

The APC’s autocannon fired again, shredding a cluster of infected trying to flood the street from the right.

Snipers gave cover fire, eliminating any threat that could stop the advance of the APCs.

Adrian stared at the map.

The Commander’s marker did not slow down.

DASF units moved around him like knives carving open a path. The Hellhammers struck farther behind the building, shaking the underground junction repeatedly, keeping the hive’s body too busy to close around its core.

Adrian suddenly understood.

The artillery was not meant to kill the hive by itself. It was holding the thing open.

The APCs were not only here to extract Echo Two. They were to also block and clear the incoming swarm.

And the DASF were not only clearing the entrance.

They were escorting the Commander in.

Adrian leaned back against the wall, black water dripping from his sleeve.

”Hah.”

Two-Three looked at him. ”What now?”

”How do you feel about being used as a bait?” Adrian smirked.

”Anything for the Commander,” Two-Three answered.

Adrian scanned the rest of Echo Two as well. They all nodded. The two Attack Dogs also barked, seemingly approving such notion.

He smiled, then chuckled.

”No, that’s the wrong word. We were... the can opener.”