RTS System in the Apocalypse: New World

The next infected reached daylight in scattered numbers, several already missing limbs.

Two dropped before clearing the exit, their bodies sliding back down the slope and adding to the pile. A third made it three meters into the open lot before a burst caught it across the shoulders.

”Exit holding,” Sabine reported.

Bastion Six and War Elephant remained still, their guns tracking the opening.

More ordinary infected followed, climbing over the Runners’ bodies rather than moving around them. Sabine’s soldiers thinned the group at the mouth of the ramp with a steady series of short bursts.

The pile grew.

Fewer infected reached open ground with each minute. Then the ramp went quiet.

”Contact’s thinning,” Sabine said. ”Hold fire!”

The wall of bodies shifted.

Something forced its way through from beneath, scattering corpses aside as it climbed the last stretch of the ramp. The delivery van’s mirror caught the shape before Dmitri turned to see it directly.

The Tank.

It forced its upper body through the dead gathered inside the ramp.

One arm swept across the slope, throwing bodies against the walls and clearing enough space for its shoulders to pass. The other caught the edge of the exit and pulled.

Its ruined legs followed behind it.

The infected dragged itself into daylight, leaving blood across the concrete and the bodies beneath its torso. Rifle rounds struck the exposed shoulder and side of its head, but the creature continued pulling until most of its body had cleared the ramp.

”Tank visible,” Sabine reported.

War Elephant’s turret moved.

The commander answered almost immediately.

”War Elephant has it!”

”Hold,” Sabine ordered. ”Let it clear the structure.”

The Tank reached the open lot.

Its intact hand pressed against the pavement, raising the upper half of its body while the damaged legs remained behind it. The chest expanded as it looked across Sabine’s firing line.

Then it screamed.

The sound crossed the loading yard.

Several soldiers felt the pressure against their armor, though none left their positions. The rifles continued firing around the Tank, killing the ordinary infected attempting to follow it into the open.

Bastion Six shifted its autocannon toward the ramp.

”Bastion Six, suppress the exit.”

”Engaging.”

The autocannon fired.

Its first burst crossed above the Tank’s lowered back and struck the infected crowding behind it. Bodies broke apart inside the ramp, while those farther below continued forcing themselves over what remained.

War Elephant moved several meters along the service road.

The adjustment placed its main gun across the Tank’s exposed side instead of directly toward the underground entrance.

Its turret corrected.

”APFSDS loaded,” the gunner reported.

The Tank turned toward the Vanguard.

Its remaining hand dug into the concrete.

Muscle tightened across the damaged shoulders as the creature began dragging itself away from the ramp, attempting to face the larger threat before the cannon settled.

War Elephant’s commander laughed.

”Too late.”

Sabine checked the firing line.

The Tank had cleared the entrance. No soldiers stood beyond it, and the cannon’s angle carried across the lot rather than through the underground structure.

”War Elephant. Fire.”

”With our patient pleasure!”

The main gun discharged.

The blast passed through the loading yard and struck the nearby vehicles like a wall of pressure.

The shell entered through the Tank’s exposed shoulder and crossed the upper torso. Bone, muscle, and dark blood burst from the opposite side before the remaining force struck the pavement beyond it.

The Tank’s arm collapsed.

Its upper body struck the ground.

For several seconds, the head continued moving against the concrete.

War Elephant’s coaxial machine gun fired.

The burst crossed the side of the skull and neck until nothing remained capable of lifting either.

The Tank stopped.

”Target eliminated,” the gunner reported.

War Elephant’s commander chuckled over the radio.

”That’s good to hear, boys. Big Rhino does not have to get every ugly one.”

The infected behind the Tank continued forward.

Several climbed across its ruined legs before reaching the open lot. Others attempted to pass beneath the collapsed torso, forcing their shoulders through the space between the corpse and the pavement.

Bastion Six kept its autocannon on the ramp.

Another burst struck the center of the group.

The first infected disappeared beneath the rounds. Those behind them collapsed against the Tank’s body, adding more weight around the entrance.

”Bastion Six, lower your fire,” Sabine ordered. ”Keep the rounds inside the lane.”

”Correcting.”

The autocannon shifted several degrees.

Its next burst passed through the opening beside the Tank and entered the packed infected farther down the slope. Concrete broke from the floor, though the rounds remained away from the supporting walls.

War Elephant’s commander laughed again.

”War Elephant will handle the leftovers!”

The coaxial machine gun opened fire.

Its rounds crossed the western edge of the ramp, cutting through the infected attempting to climb around the Tank’s shoulder. The commander’s heavy machine gun followed from above the turret, taking the opposite side.

Sabine divided the rest.

”First squad, western wall. Second squad, center. Third squad, anything that clears the corpse.”

The soldiers adjusted without leaving cover.

From there, the remaining infected died inside the ramp.

Bastion Six broke apart the larger groups whenever they gathered behind the Tank’s corpse, while War Elephant’s machine guns covered the openings along both walls. Sabine’s squads handled anything that survived long enough to reach the loading yard.

The resistance weakened quickly.

A few Runners still attempted to climb across the bodies. None reached the firing line.

Several minutes later, the ramp fell silent again.

Sabine kept the soldiers in place while Specter Squad approached the entrance. Chancel checked the levels below before confirming that the nearest concentrations had stopped advancing.

The Tank and the bodies surrounding it were cleared from the exit.

Once the route reopened, the Recon Teams descended again.

They returned to the same sectors used during the first operation, though most of the infected drawn toward the Tank’s screams had already died along the western ramp or outside it.

What remained was scattered throughout the lower parking levels.

The Recon Teams cleared each section without repeating the earlier withdrawal.

The difference was preparation. Every ramp and stairwell behind them had already been marked, while the bodies blocking the western exit had been removed before the descent resumed. One Recon Team advanced through each parking row. Another remained at the previous junction with both Attack Dogs watching the vehicles and closed utility rooms around them. Specter Squad moved between both positions whenever a heavier marker appeared.

Whenever the Scouts found another cluster, they stopped outside its path and let the infected enter the open lanes. Suppressed fire brought down the first ranks. The DASFs handled anything that survived the preliminary attacks, or those that the Scout Teams couldn’t handle with their suprpessive fire alone.

No section was entered until the one behind it had been cleared and checked again.

Several more hybrid Stalkers appeared among the ordinary infected, confirming that those encountered on the first level had not been isolated mutations.

Specter Squad handled a Brute near one of the utility sections. The .338 rifles broke its legs and shoulders before the DASF units closed the remaining distance with their blades.

Nothing else matched the Tank.

The lower parking areas took several hours to clear.

Each section was checked twice before the teams moved deeper. Enclosed rooms were opened, vehicles searched, and every connection leading back toward the commercial center was marked for the Engineers.

By the time the Recon Teams returned to the surface again, no hostile marker remained beneath the structure.

Darkness had already enveloped Grefort City, but the commercial center remained livelier than the surrounding districts.

Dmitri removed his night-vision mount as he stepped into the loading yard.

”Underground levels clear.”

Matilda acknowledged through the channel.

”Good. Recovery teams may proceed.”

Behind him, the commercial center had finally become theirs.