Disclaimer: I do not own inFamous. It is the property of Sucker Punch and SCE
Note: If you have not finished inFamous' evil story or the game in general there are massive spoilers… just saying
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Private Michael Anton kept looking towards the growing clouds to the south. The black expanses were slowly growing in size, occasionally punctured by a flash of red lightning. His NCO started staring at him, so it was back to building up a sandbag fortification near the top of the Capitol Building.
"So James, think that is him?" The soldier next to him didn't answer at first. After he slammed down another sandbag, Michael's partner leaned on the mound they were slowly building up.
"Well, intel does place them arriving sometime this night, so it is likely." Michael piled another bag of sand down onto the growing wall. Taking a moment for a quick drink of water, he poured the rest of his bottle over his head. It wasn't like a patrol in Afghanistan where you only have so much water. You could simply walk about twenty feet and reap the benefits of having a public water supply. With a deep breath he went back to the ever so slowly growing fortification.
"So you think what they are saying is true?" Both men were now staring at the omnipresent wall of darkness slowly drifting towards them.
"What, that he shoots lightning bolts from his ass?" The reply forced Michael's eyes to roll.
"Har de har har, smart-ass, you know what I mean."
"How the hell am I supposed to know? The huge ass clouds are a pretty good argument for it though." James started to take off his helmet, his shaved head was sparkling with sweat from working in sweltering heat. Their NCO had returned to giving them a poised look. Any more inactivity and they would have to do an even more suck-ass job. But the hundred degrees of flesh searing heat was slightly more convincing.
"So Michael, how likely is it that we will make it out of this one alive?"
"You really know how to turn the mood depressing don't you? …Well, the thing did kill all of the men at Panama City and that force was twice of large and wasn't all fresh draftees who can't fight worth shit." 'What do you expect when you have an army trained by playing CoD?'
"You know, I heard this thing is different than the one who took out Panama City. I was told that was the reason it is coming back this way rather than continuing south or inland."
"I don't know about that but this is whole thing is FUBAR." James shook his head.
"Nah, just think about it. I mean it is ungodly hot out. We are not sure exactly who we are fighting or when they will hit us. The strongest and most advanced army in the world is in a fucking stalemate. Sounds like we are in the normal situation, things are still all fucked up."
"Okay you might have a point there." As the conversation continued a new member entered.
"What the fuck are you ladies talking about?" The pair jumped instantly. Behind them was a mass of terrorizing flesh that was their NCO.
"We are simply talking about how great of a lover James is here, Sergeant McSweeny. I mean all of the men downtown absolutely love him." The sergeant's expression didn't change. All NCOs must have had their humor surgically removed when they received their rank. That or they were simply government experiments hell bent on making a private's life a constant run.
"Why are you talking when you should be working?"
"Sarge, it is just too fucking hot out." The sergeant's face became a darker red. 'I really hope that is just the heat.'
"If you don't like your conditions you can simply walk up those stairs and speak with your congressman. Now if you two will stop dicking around and get to work, you might just get out of this here mess aliv-"
"Sergeant McSweeny, we need you to help our guest here." The rage fueled NCO turned from his prey to see a major on top of the steps to the front entrance. With were two men in suits. One was impossibly old man who walked with a cane. The other was a much younger man. He was skinny and had hair that reminded Michael of the generic action game hero. 'Nate Drake maybe?' He also had an air about him that tripped off the gaydar.
"Yes, sir!" The NCO ran up the steps to meet them and did the usual kiss ass. The major then hollered to the pair.
"You two, come up here and help these people out. They need you to help set up our contingency plan."
"Yes, sir!" The pair grabbed their equipment before running up the steps towards their capital. McSweeny was busy guiding the much older man inside. Still outside was the other suited man.
"Ah, evening gentlemen." He reached his hand out to the sweating soldiers. He gave a quaint handshake that, despite its awkwardness, had great amounts of strength behind it. From the closer inspection he looked like he did parkuor sometime back in the day.
"Me and my associate, who is busy inside at this moment, are here on behalf of Perfect Light PMC, a technology adviser and contractor for governments and other peoples and groups of interest. We have been hired to help you with your little problem that is a walking WMD."
"So… What do we do?" Dylan gave a chuckle that only lobbyist can make.
"You, my dear boy, are going help us set up a weapon that can take it out." From the side, three pairs of mercs wearing gasmasks arrived, carrying very large crates. The massive boxes crashed to earth simultaneously. Their landing caused a cataclysmic cloud of dust to engulf the entire entrance. Crowbars in hand, the mercenaries began to pry open the wooden sides. Beneath the wooden exterior was a mountain of white and chrome parts.
"Great, even more shitty work." Following the given instructions hidden inside one of the heaps, James and Michael helped the masked soldiers slowly erect the structure. As they toiled away, Dylan watched from his leaning position on one of the columns of the Capitol Building. Not a single bead of sweat was on his forehead despite his full dress attire in hundred plus degree weather with a seemingly five hundred percent humidity.
James and Michael stepped away from their finished contraption. They took a good look as the PMC people were busy doing diagnostic test on it with incredibly expensive looking electronics. The machine looked a lot like a sterile white satellite dish. At the rear was a large empty chamber in front of an attached seat with controls.
"Hey Michael, you know what that reminds me of?"
Michael started to cock his head. "Something that should get every single TV channel known to man?"
"I was thinking it looked more like one of those dish turrets from Empire Strikes Back."
His head turned the other way. "You know… You may have a point there." Suddenly Dylan the Creeper slammed his hands down on each of their shoulders.
"You are closer than you might think gents." As suddenly as he appeared the man disappeared. He was off crouching over a large steel box that could probably survive a strike from a RPG. The lanky man began the slow process of undoing the hundreds of locks and latches securing the cargo inside. Within the boxes inner bowels was a white sphere with two handles cut into it.
"This, gentlemen, is what my Perfect Light PMC calls the RFI. We have every reason to believe that it will be able to take out the Empire City threat." He picked it up and held it up in the sky. The sun was now partially blocked by the growing storm clouds.
"So how does it work?"
"Well," There was an overly dramatic pause as he held the orb up in the air. Its clean white finish blazed in the last remaining rays of light. "We simply insert it into the focuser that you've just built." With a hop in his step, he walked back towards the machine and inserted the globe inside of it. The machine instantly powered on. A bizarre aurora of blue light began to emit from the orb. For some reason Michael became very nauseous.
"We then apply more power and it fires a single beam that will disempower the enemy." Dylan the removed the sphere and carefully replaced it into it's metal case. The lecture continued as he walked around the two military men.
"You see the early prototype could do the job but it had the slight side effect of killing about a tenth of a percent of the population of the planet. With the latest addition, the beam focuser, we have the same effect but it will only affect what the beam hits. In this particular case it is going to be the Empire City threat." Michael and James simply nodded at his lecture. It went on for an hour as he continued to explain a whole bunch of crap they didn't understand or care about. Only the heat prevented them from sleeping. Hell, his mercs were nodding off from the story.
"Thanks for the lesson, Dylan. So, do you need us for anything else?" He shook his head.
"Sorry gentlemen, you can return to your emplacement." With some measure of glee the pair walked down the steps and returned to the sand bags. It was dark outside now. The clouds were directly above them. The cloud cover was almost pitch black except for a slight red hue permeating from the lighter areas. Michael looked down to his watch. They had almost an hour until the Empire Threat reached their location.
"Hey James, want to catch some Zs?" James looked around for their sergeant. He was still nowhere to be seen.
"I don't see why not." They both set down their belts laden with countless pouches of ammo and a couple empty water bottles next to the M4 carbine leaning against their fortification. Michael promptly grabbed a sand bag from their miniature wall and used it as a pillow, a very hard and uncomfortable pillow that smelled of foul earth. With a sigh, he rested his head against his pillow.
Above him search lights scanned they sky. From the reports the threat was ground based but after it decimated Louisiana there were reports that it acquired two additional aspects that were airborne. The circles from the beams were mesmerizing. This combined with the low rumble following the occasional red flash it was sort of relaxing. Michael slowly closed his eyes as the sound of distant sirens started, adding to the mix of ambient noise.
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Michael woke up after something hit him in the face. Unwilling to open his eyes, he didn't bother finding out what it was. It however, seemed to be want him to know. Soon another small thing pelted his face. It was followed by another and another. He tried to brush it away but it did nothing. Once it became very hot feeling he did force his eyes open. Looking up into the sky he could see that it was raining something. All around him lightening was smashing into the ground, their thunderous noise engulfing all other ambient noise. The searching beams exposed what was poking him, falling from the sky was a mixture of hail and embers. 'How the hell did I sleep through this shitstorm?'
At the apocalyptic sight he quickly sprung to his feet. He suited up as fast as possible. Well he was buckling his belt he started to kick James awake.
"Hey, wake up! The thing is really close now!" With a grumble the sleeping man awoke. When his eyes opened they turned to shock.
"What the fuck is happening?" He started to get up as Michael tossed on his helmet and picked up his M4.
"Welcome to the fucking apocalypse. Now grab your rifle and prepare to kill something."
While James started to load up Michael kneeled down behind his fortification and trained his rifle southwards. Across the memorial strewn mall he could see a rain of fire in the distance. Accompanying it was a blizzard of ice shards.
"This is fucked up man." Michael continued to watch as the center of the storm slowly got closer. There was now an occasional fiery blue flash.
"I know." He looked back at the Capitol Building. The falling embers and hail added a horrific value to the building. It reminded him of Frankenstein's castle or something. "Artillery should be starting up soon. Get ready for a bigger light show." On the cue a deep thundering noise penetrated from the north, overpowering the thunder that engulfed the Mall. Their 105mm and 155mm shells streaked across the sky. With a deep thud the southern part of the city began to explode in a mass of shrapnel and flaming white phosphorous. From a mile away the sight was very impressive. Not to mention that it did cause a miniature earthquake that cause a lose clip to slowly run away from them. Most of the draftees that had positions nearby started to cheer.
"Think that got it?" Michael simply shrugged as the artillery strike continued for an a few more minutes before stopping suddenly. As the glow of the burning city slowly died down nothing else happened. Behind, to the north, an enormous explosion rocked the city of D.C. to the bone. Looking behind them, Michael and James were greeted by multiple small mushroom clouds loaming over the former location of the artillery battery.
"It fucking blew up the ammo dumps." Michael tried to do some quick calculations to see how much explosives there was in a couple hundred artillery shells. As they did the major from earlier started to walk out from the entrance of the Capitol Building, Dylan walking with him. The major stopped as he looked down to the south, Dylan smirked at the sight.
Turning to see the scene, the pair was met with a massive fiery red explosion that engulfed the area to just outside the mall. Everyone there gaped at the scene. The major slowly walked down the steps towards the explosion. A runner came to him and told him something that was just out of earshot. From the looks of the majors's face said it wasn't good. As the runner ran back down the stairs James hollered to him. Meanwhile, Dylan walked over to his mercs and told them something. They quickly began setting up the device.
"Hey, buddy, what's the news?" The runner stopped near them and tried to figure if he should tell them.
"We just lost the rest of the 1st Army buddy." Somberly, the runner continued his run towards the front. The fiery storm was starting to pick up again. Michael tried to put the news in perspective. In a single blast all of Big Red One was reduced to ash.
He turned to James. "I am starting to think this is turning FUBAR."
James turned and stared at him blankly. "You think." He pulled back the mechanism on his carbine. "Let's see what the flyboys are able to do something." As the center of the storm entered the edge of the Mall there was a low rumble overhead that was different from thunder. The rumble soon grew to a blaring drone. "Just in time." James slapped Michael on the back. "We can still take this thing."
With a shrill whistle bombs fell from the bays of dozens of B-52s. Hundreds upon hundreds of five hundred pound bombs slammed into the far side of the Mall. The explosion was horrendous and continued for close to a minute. The blast had thrown everyone to the ground. Michael slowly rose up from the ground, his skull exploding in pain. Spitting out a bit of iron tasting blood, he looked back towards the target. The Lincoln Memorial was reduced to a pile of marble dust.
Another drone approached from the rear. Turning just in time, Michael saw dozens of helicopters fly over the top of the Congress building and veer towards the threat. The birds were a mixture of Apaches, Black Hawks, and Chinooks. The huge formation closed in on the target.
The Apaches that made up half the group launched all of the weapons. A constant stream of tracers from the front combined with the rapid firing rocket pods and large Hellfire missiles all went towards the location of the threat. Meanwhile the Blackhawks and Chinooks that made up the rest started to hover over the reflecting pool, their props causing the water to go from a mirror to chop. The soldiers from the 101st started to stream from the side of the hovering birds.
The Apaches' barrage slammed into the ground, kicking up a massive cloud of dust. The Apaches peeled off from their attack when the passed the shattered remains of the Lincoln Memorial. The attack helicopters started to circle back for a second strafing run. The sky rumbled. From above, bolts of red lightening surged from the sky, taking out all of the helicopters over the Mall. The craft crashed wildly, covering the entire Mall with explosions. The soldiers emplaced by them cowered as they were showered in a rain of flaming steel.
The men of the 101st began to open fire on the target. Michael was still too far away to get a good look, the tracers converging at a point just out of range. Most of the soldiers were navigating somewhere in the reflecting pool. Their rifles didn't seem to faze their target. From the west a lone figure started to walk towards them. Looking through his ACOG, Michael could tell she was female and a civilian. He nudged his partner who was more engrossed in the 101st conflict.
"Hey James, check out the chick." He swung his rifle towards her. "What do you think she is up to?"
The lone figure suddenly flew over twenty yards towards the reflecting pool. She then shot out an icy beam towards the soldiers. All of the 101st in the pool of water was entangled as the waist high water froze. Through the ACOG, Michael could see the soldiers slowly freeze into a solid form of ice; the freezing tendrils slowly crawled up their bodies.
"Fuck man, she must be one of the additional threats." The female then launched across a massive expanse and landed on the now frozen top of the reflecting pool. The 101st tried to move but the ice restrained them. Some of the soldiers defending the capitol stopped firing at the new threat. Nonchalantly she walked towards a nearby soldier. As bullets cracked past her head she coolly pulled out a modified sledge hammer. Twirling the weapon around for a moment she looked down on the soldier, he was starting to turn blue, the ice starting to reach his neck. As the ice slowly engulfed his head the women lifted her hammer. With a swing the women landed a blow straight to the head. The skull shattered, sending a spray of red shards skittering across surface of the icy pool. Putting the hammer back in a sling, the women looked around at the other frozen soldiers, a grin forming on her face.
A smile on her face disappeared as a red cloud formed behind her shoulder. Instinctively, she grabbed the wound and fell to her knees. She slowly rose from the ground, the ice beneath her was stained crimson. A mist of white formed around her. Out of the icy cloud countless icicles started to form. With a flick of her wrist a ring of icicles shotgunned across the pool. The deadly shards of ice pierced almost all of the remaining 101st. She began to walk towards the Capitol Building. The grin slowly returned as the reflecting pool turned crimson.
She started to fly across the battlefield. Her white trail paved the way for a crimson river. Everyone tried to hit her. An Abrams came close to succeeding. As the tank's turret readjusted, another figure walked up towards it. A redheaded woman started to climb on top of the tanks rear, the tank's crew too focused to notice. She crouched down, a small blue jet of plasma shooting from her hand. The flame slowly started to eat its way through the Abrams' impregnable armor.
Turning back towards the main threat Michael's stomach dropped even further. All across the scorched and snowy Mall, black pod stalk things started to jut up from the ground. Hundreds of them cover a massive expanse of land. Finally having a clear shot at something Michael opened fire at them. His M4 lightly recoiled as he squeezed of a large burst of .223 ammo. The rounds flew across the Mall and hit one of the pods. The black mass exploded with a green splatter.
He could hear James over the massive amount of gunfire, explosions, thunder, screams, yells, and other ungodly noises. "What the fuck are those?"
"I don't know. Just shoot the fuck out of everything!" He continued to pull the trigger, putting
away all the lessons about ammo conservation from boot camp. The entire mall became a giant light show, engulfed in yellow tracer trails, red lightening and fire, white ice, and blue plasma. Despite this the amount of pods seemed endless.
A godforsaken screech erupted from the battlefield. At once all the pods ruptured. Out of them burst thousands of huge insect things. "Holy shit!" The soldier quickly loaded another clip of ammo and pulled the trigger, spraying the mass of freaks running towards him. It seemed to barely dent the horde.
The creatures stormed the fortifications at the base of the staircase. The hundred soldiers stationed there fought for their life as the insects ripped them to bloody meat chunks. Michael watched in horror as they tore through the group, not wanting to risk shooting a friendly and being almost out of ammo. Beyond them the three freaks were slowly clearing out the remains of the 3rd Army's armored cavalry
The major ran down to a bastion of soldier to Michael's right. He motioned towards the men down below, their number continually thinning. A sergeant stepped towards the major, yelling. The major waited a few seconds and slapped the man in the face. He pulled out a pistol and shot the sergeant in the chest well he was on the ground. He then motioned back to the force down at the base of the stairs. With reluctance the soldiers trained their rifles on the orgy of violence. They opened fire. The scene below turned from a horror show to a complete abomination.
The general walked towards Michael and James, a craze in his eye. "Just kill every thing damnit!"
Michael looked bewildered at him. "No."
The major pulled out his pistol and pressed to Michael's forehead. "Do as you are told soldier."
Michael closed his eyes and waited for the end. His face was suddenly covered in hot fluids. He looked up to see the major, now with a gaping hole in his chest. The man slowly fell to the ground, a stream of blood slowly cascading down the steps. Michael looked up to see Sergeant McSweeny walk down the steps with an AA-12, a trail of smoke drifting from the barrel. The man yelled above the sound of violence and carnage. "Men, we have to hold this building for five more minutes! Check your ammo reserves." The dozens of soldiers atop the staircase did as they were ordered, most having little to no ammo left. The sergeant, with a look of a man possessed, pointed down to the carnage, only a few soldiers were left, fighting off the monsters with pistols and knives. "Gentlemen, mount bayonets!" Without thought, Michael and all the other men fastened their blades to the end of their assault rifles.
With a sadistic smile McSweeny gave a final order. "CHARGE!" On cue the remaining men
leap over their sandbag walls and ran down the steps to the violence below. Michael took a final jump into the mix of trenches and sandbags, landing on a bug. As its green innards decorated his boots, he swung the rifle around and took aim at a monster preparing to launch spines at him. He pulled the trigger, the last three bullets he had entered the beast's head. The creature ruptured as the tumbling bullets tore through its body.
He released the clip and ran down the trench to a struggling man. An insect was tearing out flesh from his neck, happy streams of blood shooting out with every fading heartbeat. Michael plunged his blade into the monster's spin. The animal bled, releasing a terrible screech as it let go of its victim. Michael pulled out his blade and stabbed it again, and again, and again. The thing finally died, nothing left but a torn green pulp.
Breathing heavily, he looked down to the man. He was clearly dead, a glazed stare into the sky forever stuck on his face. Before he could feel any remorse he was thrown face first into the ground. Tasting a mixture of dirt and blood Michael began to feel something tearing at his back. As the pain increased he could hear the happy cries of a monster as it ate its way into his spine.
"Fuck!"
When he was about to pass out the creature's cries of joy was replaced with a sickening splatter. Feeling its weight removed from his back Michael slowly stood up. Standing over him was Sergeant McSweeny.
"Happy Birthday Private." The Sergeant tossed him his loaded AA-12 and two fifty round drum magazines.
"But sarge, don't you need this?" The sergeant gave off a rare smile.
"I found something that fits my style slightly more." On cue he hefted a pack of three large aluminum tanks onto his back and picked up and attached nozzle. Michael watched in awe as the sergeant lit the end igniter for his flame thrower. "Prepare for a second wave of those creatures." The Sergeant stepped up to a firing platform and trained his weapon on an approaching wave of freaks. Michael promptly followed suit.
Michael quickly saw the enemy. Another massive wave of the crawling creatures was Zerg-rushing straight towards the small groups of defenders. Michael glanced towards the sound of a gun being cocked to see James set up in between him and the sergeant. In his hands was an assault rifle one of the mercs had been carrying around. The right side of his face was torn to bloody bits of raw meat.
"McSweeny, how much longer until those mercenaries get that cannon up and running?"
The sergeant adjusted the nozzle of his flamethrower. "Oh, about three minutes or so."
The swarm was getting closer, maybe a bit over one hundred yards. "Well, shit."
James begun to open fire on the creatures with his exotic assault rifle. Down range a couple of the beast exploded with a happy pop.
"My turn." The monsters were fifty yards away when Michael squeezed the trigger on his AA-12. Instantly a wall of twelve-gauge double ought lead shot flew towards the enemy. A leading creature was torn into little bits and pieces, painting his comrades in green. The private emptied the massive clip in seconds, spraying the crowd the best he could.
At twenty-five yards McSweeny unleashed his fire upon the swarms. The torrent of flames engulfed the bugs. They withered in pain as they slowly cooked. Some of the group popped like popcorn.
He let out a whoop at the sight and continued to unleash hell on the swarms of insects. Micheal emptied his drum and began to quickly cycle in his last mag. The creatures continued to run into the wall of fire like lemming. Micheal glanced quickly to his side towards James. The soldier was looking rough, his face was festering and his body was covered in his own blood. Adrenaline was probably the only thing keeping him alive at this moment.
Micheal quickly pulled the trigger and fired into to the flaming hell in front of him. The shotgun shuddered as he slowly strafed back and forth across the incoming wave. When his weapon stopped firing he dropped the weapon and began to take in his surroundings.
A few more soldiers had joined their line, but no one was shooting. There was nothing left to kill. The Mall was just a smoking pile of carnage. There were no signs of anyone alive, friend or foe.
Micheal glanced to McSweeny, "Sarge, is that it?"
The man unshouldered his pack of fuel and took a chance to look around. "Huh, I think that's it for now." He glanced up to the mercs at the machine. "Damn, didn't think we'd make it through that."
He started to walk up the steps towards the Capital Building. Halfway up he turned to the soldiers still lingering in the trench. "Follow me, lets check on the PMC and try and find some help."
The soldiers started to move but stopped. "Hey, come on!" He started to walk down the stairs but stopped suddenly. He looked down to see a hand bursting through his stomach. He opened his mouth to say something but only blood came out.
McSweeny stared in shock as the hand started to pull back, sparks and flames dancing around the intruding arm. He nearly missing the gruff voice behind him saying something.
Micheal only watched in horror as a man appeared out in a flurry of ash and fire before impaling the sergeant with his arm. The man muttered something before he pulled his arm back, McSweeny was suddenly turned into a volatile mix of fire and ash.
The man looked up from the embers as they drifted away and turned to the small collection of soldiers gawking at him. A smug smile grew on his face as he slowly descended the steps towards the small collection of soldiers.
As his arms came up from his sides, they suddenly exploded to life, dark red electricity sparking around one, flames swirling around the other.
"I must say, you guys put up quite the impressive show." The few soldiers started to back away slowly. Micheal glanced to his sides and saw there was only four other men left, not counting James who was bleeding out on the bottom step. 'Fuck.'
One of the men grunted before falling forward, a large shard of ice jutting from his lower back.
As he bled out a feminine voice came from behind, "I must agree, they put up quite the resistance."
Micheal and the men turned to see an Asian woman waling up from the rear, frost covering her hands and a hammer slung over her back. As she came to a stop over the man's corpse she ran her hand through her raven hair. "What do you think Sara?"
To the other side there was a whoosh followed by two different grunts. He turned to see a red-headed woman standing over the corpses of two soldiers, a large hole charred into the side of their skulls.
"Quite." She said in a surprisingly meek voice. Micheal just stared at her. She wore a simple white blouse and a tight pair of black pants and would've been mildly stunning in any other situation. She lifted her hand as a long blue flame shot from an out stretched finger like a blow-torch.
"Well, lets get this over with then." said the man on the steps seconds before he shot a bolt of red lightening through James' chest. The man gave one last convulsion before going limp. Micheal stared in shock, a pit forming in his stomach. Micheal and the other soldier stood back to back. As the trio closed in around them he began to feel ill. His knees started buckle as the figures in front of him went blurry.
Micheal dropped to his knees and started to puke out his guts. Looked up once more to see a bright blue beam hit the Beast in the chest. As the world started to fade black, there was a massive flash of red. The soldier finally collapsed to the ground.
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A/N: Hello there, hope you like the new story, I wrote a few months ago but never quite got around to publishing it.. There will be more but I have no idea when they will pop up.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it and please read and review.