RTS System in the Apocalypse: New World

Echo One and Echo Two continued firing from the payment barriers.

The Tank dragged itself higher along the ramp while the infected behind it pressed against its ruined legs. Some attempted to force their way around the sides. Others climbed across its back and shoulders until the Scouts brought them down.

Dmitri watched the distance close.

”Echo Two, withdraw.”

Adrian moved.

His team left the payment barriers in pairs. Two Scouts maintained their fire while the others crossed the first parking lane with the Attack Dogs kept between them. Once the forward pair reached the waiting positions behind Echo Three and Echo Four, they turned and covered the remaining half of the team.

Echo One held the ramp alone. The Tank reached the top.

Its intact hand caught one of the payment barriers and pulled. The metal arm bent toward the floor before tearing free from its mount. The Tank dragged itself beyond the broken post, leaving enough space for the infected behind it to enter the first level.

Several Runners pushed through at once.

Echo One-Two killed the first near the western wall. Two rounds struck the second across the head as it climbed over the Tank’s damaged shoulder.

The third reached the open lane.

Dmitri fired once.

The Runner dropped before its feet touched the floor.

”Echo Two set,” Adrian reported.

Echo Three and Echo Four adjusted their aim from the first fallback line. Both teams had already divided the parking rows between them, using the concrete pillars and abandoned vehicles to control the spaces leading toward the western ramp.

Specter Squad remained behind the center.

Chancel watched the movement spread around the Tank.

”Front widening.”

Dmitri saw it.

The first ordinary infected had cleared the ramp. More followed behind them, while the Tank used its remaining arm to pull itself farther into the level.

”Echo One, withdraw.”

The two Scouts farthest from the ramp moved first.

Rex followed between them. The second Attack Dog remained with Dmitri and the final Scout while they covered the retreat.

Their suppressed bursts crossed the growing front.

An infected fell beside the broken payment post. Another reached the concrete divider before several rounds entered its head and upper chest.

”Echo One-Two in position.”

Dmitri fired another short burst before moving.

The final Scout followed beside him. Both crossed the parking lane while Echo Two covered them from farther back.

A Runner climbed onto the roof of a sedan and jumped toward the withdrawing pair.

Chancel fired from behind the fallback line.

The .338 round struck the Runner through the chest and carried it backward across the vehicle. Its body disappeared between the cars.

Dmitri crossed behind Echo Three.

”Echo One clear.”

The first fallback line opened fire.

Echo Three took the western lanes. Echo Four covered the center and the spaces between the vehicles. Echo One and Echo Two continued moving toward the second position while their replacements held the infected advancing from the ramp.

Specter raised his rifle.

The Tank pulled itself fully onto the first level.

Specter fired.

The round entered beneath its jaw, the same angle Chancel had used on the ramp. The Tank’s head snapped back before it caught itself on the concrete divider.

”Echo Three and Four, prepare to fall back on my mark.”

Dmitri kept his rifle on the western wall. Behind him, Echo One and Echo Two crossed into the second position, a row of overturned shopping carts beside the next concrete divider.

”Echo One and Two set.”

”Echo Three, Four, withdraw.”

The two teams broke from the fallback line together, moving in the same staggered pattern Echo One had used minutes before.

Specter Squad shifted with them, all four DASF units forming a loose wall between the retreating Scouts and the widening front.

The Tank dragged itself past the broken payment barrier.

More infected poured in behind it, no longer held back by the ramp’s width. They spread along both walls, climbing over parked cars and each other in equal measure.

A Screamer’s cry rose somewhere near the back of the mass and was answered by a dozen others further down.

”Multiple screamers,” Chancel reported. ”They’re calling more in.”

”Noted,” Specter said. ”Keep moving.”

Echo Five held the route to the western ramp, two Scouts positioned on either side of the exit with their Attack Dogs flat against the concrete. As the retreating teams reached them, Echo Five split to let the others pass before falling in at the rear.

Sabine already held the ramp’s mouth above, her soldiers spread along both sides of the exit behind cover pulled from the lot itself, overturned kiosks and a delivery van backed sideways across half the opening.

Bastion Six and War Elephant sat well back from the ramp, angled toward it but kept clear of the opening itself, close enough to cover the exit without putting a 30mm autocannon or a 120mm main gun directly over a structure none of them had any interest in bringing down on top of the people still inside it.

Dmitri didn’t need to ask what was waiting for them. The Radar map had shown enough.

”Fairy, this is Echo One. Recon Teams and Specter Squad clearing the western ramp now.”

”Copy, Echo One. Sabine has the mouth. Move through and let her close it behind you.”

Abandoned vehicles and debris narrowed the usable section of the ramp as it climbed. Echo One went first, followed by Echo Two and the remaining teams.

Specter Squad remained at the rear while the Scouts climbed toward daylight.

The Tank had reached the center of the first level. The mass behind it continued spreading through the parking lanes.

Runners broke ahead of the ordinary infected now, using the Tank’s bulk as cover from anything still firing down the lanes.

Specter backed up the ramp without turning from it.

”Chancel, watch the flank.”

”Clear so far, but won’t be for long.”

Daylight showed at the top before Dmitri reached it, grey and flat through the ramp’s exit. He crossed into the open lot and moved past Sabine’s line, the soldiers already shifting their aim past him toward the dark below.

”Echo One clear.”

Echo Two followed, then Three and Four, each team peeling past the delivery van and the flanking positions.

Specter Squad emerged last, moving faster now that the ramp had widened enough to run.

”Specter clear. All Recon Teams accounted for.”

”Copy,” Matilda said. ”Sabine, hold the mouth. Bastion Six, War Elephant, stand by to engage anything that clears the ramp.”

Sabine’s soldiers opened fire the moment the last of the DASF passed their line, rifles angled down into the exit.

The first Runners to reach daylight dropped inside the ramp itself, their bodies collecting against the walls and slowing the rest of the infected behind them.

Bastion Six and War Elephant held their position, guns tracking the exit but silent, waiting for the opportune target to strike.

Dmitri watched from behind the delivery van.

Below them, the gunfire continued, steady and unhurried.