I do not own Condemned 2: Bloodshot or Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni. Condemned is owned by Monolith, Sega, and WB Games. Higurashi is owned by 07th Expansion. I am not making any profit from this fanfic.
Author's Note: I have slightly changed some small details of the level so, in my opinion, it makes a bit more sense as well as some changes just to keep things interesting. Also, the SWAT team leader at the beginning of the chapter is not the same person as Dorland.
Chapter 10: The Oro Invictus
Keiichi and Rena stood silently against a wall of metal that appeared to have once been a bulkhead in one of the many old ships in varying states of dismantlement that littered the scrap yard and ship breaking facility at the Peninsula. Their hands were bound in handcuffs, under the guard of the SWAT team leader, and another officer. Two more officers stood guard over a shipping container that apparently held Ethan Thomas inside.
The voice of radio reporter Tony Rhodes of City News spoke through a radio on a table nearby. "They have me strapped to some sort of metal table", Rhodes said, "They're saying I might have some of it…".
Suddenly, Rhodes' voice got more panicked as he said "What…. Where? They're going to cut me open! AHHHGH!"
The recording ended, and the radio program cut to news anchor Sarah Brenton. "Live with Tony Rhodes" will no longer be heard at this time", Brenton announced, "This program has been suspended indefinitely due to his recent death. A reward is being offered for locating his body."
From the sound of the news report, Rhodes had been brutally murdered after an attempt to infiltrate the Oro compound. Keiichi began to wonder whether there was any point in surrendering to the Oro-controlled SCU. It seemed likely that as soon as they got Ethan out of the container, they'd line them up against a wall and shoot them… or worse. Rena, however, had not given up hope. She had a plan to escape, she just needed something to distract the SWAT officers.
Seconds later, Rena got what she wished for, in the form of loud bang, like an explosion, coming from the container in which Ethan was imprisoned. The doors of the container were knocked off their hinges and sent flying into the faces of the two SCU agents guarding the container, killing them instantly.
At that moment, the SWAT officers guarding Keiichi and Rena both turned their backs on them. Rena knelt down and, showing surprising flexibility, slid the handcuffs under her feet. Her hands were still cuffed, but now they were in front of her again.
Rena crept up on the SWAT leader, who was still facing the container, and pulled his Desert Eagle out of his holster. The weapon was considerably larger than most handguns, so, taking the lesson she learned from the shotgun back in the commuter tracks to heart, Rena gripped the handle firmly with both hands and placed the weapon the back of the SWAT leader's head, before she squeezed the trigger.
The .50 AE round blew away most of the SCU team leader's head as the gun recoiled back, Rena only barely maintain control. Rena, however, ignored the force of the impact and fired a second shot at the last SWAT officer, who turned to fire his MP7 submachine gun at Rena, but was caught in the chest by the second shot, the large-caliber round blowing through his body armor and killing him instantly.
"Nice one, Rena", Keiichi said, "Now help me out of these cuffs".
Rena walked over to Keiichi, apparently intending to blow the cuffs off with the large handgun, but Ethan walked out of the container and said, "Wait, it'll be safer if you use these."
Rena turned to look at Ethan, who was holding up a set of keys. Ethan walked over and unlocked Rena's cuffs, before removing Keiichi's handcuffs.
"Thanks", that both said, before Keiichi asked, "That blast that took out the container doors, was that the same thing that happened on the barge, and with Farrell back in that school?"
"I think so", Ethan responded, "It obviously has something to do with my vocal chords, like the Magic Man said…. But it seems different, almost as though if I do this…" Ethan turned away from Keiichi and Rena, and at that moment, a sonic blast shot out of Ethan's mouth, denting the metal walls of the container.
"I still think it's a good idea to grab a weapon, these guys have some serious firepower: MP7 submachine guns, M4 carbines, Benelli M3 assault shotguns…", Ethan said as he picked up an M4 carbine. Keiichi followed suit, grabbing an MP7, as Rena grabbed a combat shotgun.
"Wait a second", Keiichi said, "Is that a grenade launcher attached to your rifle?"
"Yeah", Ethan replied, "They used to use standalone launchers, but recently, SCU purchase a few of these M203s, which as you can see, can be attached under a rifle. SCU agents use them mostly for launching tear gas and other non-lethal projectiles… but these", Ethan continued, holding up an orange tipped grenade round, "Are high explosive-dual purpose grenade rounds, which are illegal, they should only be in service with the military."
"Looks to me like Dorland's Oro friends gave him some new toys", Keiichi commented.
As Keiichi finished speaking, heard hurried footsteps coming from around the corner of another old bulkhead.
"Someone's coming", Keiichi said, "Probably more of them".
Keiichi was right. Two SWAT officers burst in to the room, weapons raised. Keiichi fired a three round burst from his MP7, the weapon's armor-piercing rounds easily shooting through the body armor covering the man's chest. The second SWAT officer prepared to fire his M4 at Ethan, but was cut down by the former agent's own M4.
As the second Oro-controlled SCU officer fell to the ground, Ethan peeked around the edge of the bulkhead. Around the corner was yet another "corridor" created by rows of assorted dismantled ship parts.
Suddenly, Ethan ducked in as a burst of about seven rounds flew past his head. In a porthole on the side of a disused ship's hull, at about the level of a two-story house, was a belt-fed machine gun placed to fire down into the corridor, yet another military grade weapon no doubt provided to Dorland courtesy of the Oro.
"What was that?", Rena asked.
"Looks like another belt-fed machine gun, like the one in the truck back that you took out at the lodge. Stay where you are, I'll handle this."
Ethan peeked around the corner once again, M4 carbine raised, and squeezed the trigger on the underbarrel M203 grenade launcher. A 40mm grenade round flew out of the launcher, detonating in the room where the machine gun was placed. The gunner was killed in a flash of fire and smoke.
As the dust from the explosion settled, Ethan led Keiichi and Rena around the corner, past the remains of the machine gun nest. A bulkhead blocked any further advancement through the maze of the scrap metal, the only route through looked seemed to be a hole in the side of the partially dismantled ship.
Ethan looked into the hole, before saying, "It only looks like a drop of a few feet, I'll go first".
Ethan climbed down the hole and motioned for the other two to follow him. As usual, Keiichi climbed down next, pausing to help Rena down. The hold of the cargo ship was dark, so all three of them turned on their flashlights.
The room was pretty much bare except for a machine unlike anything Keiichi and Rena had ever seen. It looked like a metal spire about eight feet tall, with countless wires coming out of it and leading out in different directions. The machine made a familiar high-pitched noise.
"It sounds like one of those sonic emitters", Keiichi said.
"Already on it", Rena said, firing three shotgun shells into the weapon from her Benelli M3. The machine, however, remained intact.
"Shit", Keiichi said, "It's bulletproof".
"I think I have a solution to that", Ethan said, turning to a control panel hanging up against the wall, "Take a look at this panel".
The panel had a slider on it, with a warning that read, "Warning: Increasing power beyond maximum safe level may result in catastrophic failure"
"Well", Rena said, "Here goes". Rena pulled the slider up as far as it would go. A red light started flashing on the control panel as sparks started to fly from the device. The machine overloaded after a couple seconds, resulting in a small explosion that destroyed the machine.
As the device exploded, three "crawlers" lunged at Rena with pieces of scrap metal. Rena gunned down all three of them with her shotgun before Ethan, Keiichi, and Rena moved on to a corridor that ended in a ladder.
"Well", Ethan said, "I'd say that confirms the theory that the Oro are responsible for those scrawny crawling guys".
Ethan slung his carbine over his shoulder and ascended the ladder first, followed by Keiichi, and finally Rena. As Ethan neared the top of the ladder, he saw two SWAT officers running past a hole in the discard ship's hull.
Ethan unleashed the power of his mutated vocal chords, emitting a sonic blast that literally caused the two officers' heads to explode. Ethan then got up from the ladder and raised his M4 carbine as Keiichi got back onto the ground.
Once all three of them were off the ladder, they walked out of the hole in the ship's hull and found themselves in another maze of scrap metal. Another "crawler" walked out from the shadows, but Keiichi dispatched it with a burst from his MP7, before he turned to an object attached to the ship's hull: a non-functioning sonic emitter.
"Take a look at this", Keiichi said, "This emitter isn't working".
"I think that machine we destroyed is some kind of control node for multiple emitters", Ethan responded, "Destroy any others you find".
As Ethan spoke, a 40mm grenade flew over his head, exploding in the hole in the hull, sealing it with debris. The Oro-SCU agent that fired the weapon raised his M4 and took aim at Ethan, but was picked off by a three-round burst from Ethan's carbine.
With the immediate threat taken care of, Ethan climbed over a steel girder into a sort of metal room without a roof, walking past the body of the agent with the grenade launcher.
A second SCU agent, this one carrying a semi-automatic shotgun burst in, only to be caught full in the face by a blast from Rena's own shotgun.
Rena used the break in the action to reload her weapon, but was interrupted when a "crawler" up from behind and pushed her to the ground, raising a metal pipe, ready to strike.
Keiichi turned as he heard the sounds of Rena's struggle with the "crawler", firing a single shot from his MP7 into the "crawler's" head. Rena pushed the body of her attacker off of her and took Keiichi's hand as he helped her up, breathing heavily as she said "Thanks".
"Your welcome", Keiichi said, "Watch my back, I'm going to reload".
Ethan also took the opportunity to reload his weapon before moving on.
Around the next corner, A pair of SCU agents had set up a defensive position behind a barrier made from a couple of steel girders. Behind them was a generator that appeared to control another emitter node.
Ethan fired the M203 grenade launcher mounted under his M4, taking out the two SWAT officers in a ball of fire created when the grenade hit the generator's gas supply. The Oro device fell silent as its power supply was destroyed. Meanwhile, Rena dealt with two more "crawlers" that tried to sneak up on Ethan from behind.
A third SCU agent ran out from a hole in the side of another ship's hull, only to be surprised by Keiichi and cut down with a burst of MP7 fire.
Ethan, Keiichi, and Rena entered the hole, entering into a corridor with a wire coming out from the now destroyed emitter control node running on the floor, on top of a thick layer or trash and flakes of rusted metal and chipped paint.
Rounding a corner, the three of them saw a "crawler" kneeling on the floor, unaware of their presence. Ethan launched a preemptive attack with his M4, taking it down with a single three-round burst, but alerting two other "crawlers", which came running down the corridor, pieces metal pipe in hand. Two blasts from Rena's shotgun made short work of them.
As Rena dispatched the two "crawlers" coming in from the front, Keiichi heard the sound of movement behind him and turned on the spot. A burst from his MP7 took down two more "crawlers".
"Watch your back", Ethan said, "Those crawling guys could be anywhere", Ethan said as he led the way forward.
Seconds later, Ethan yelled "SHIT" as the floor collapsed beneath him. Keiichi and Rena were also caught in the collapse, and all three of them fell about ten feet.
"Is everyone alright?", Keiichi asked.
"Yeah", Ethan said.
"I'm fine", Rena responded.
"Good", Keiichi said, "I'm OK over here".
The three of them looked around at their surroundings. "It looks like were in an old wooden ship's hull", Ethan said, "It looks like that hole over there is only way out."
Ethan led Keiichi and Rena to a hole in the hull of the ship. Ethan climbed through the hole and down wooden supports. As he climbed down, the bow support collapsed, knocking Keiichi and Rena off their feet.
"Mr. Thomas!", Keiichi yelled in a panic.
"I'm fine", Ethan replied, "You should be able to just crawl through the hole now"
The former FBI agent was right. The hole now entered onto the floor of an old dry dock. Ethan stood near the wall, away from the hull, which now stood on only one support. Keiichi and Rena joined him as quickly as possible.
"What's that?", Rena asked, pointing into the corner of the room, "I hear something moving over there"
All three of them turned their flashlights to the corner of the dry dock. About twelve "crawlers" crawled across the floor at unusually high speeds, considering the state of their bodies.
Keiichi fired a burst from his MP7, taking down a couple of the crawlers, before Ethan stepped forward and open his mouth, as though shouting, but no words came out. Instead, a sonic blast blew away the stern support holding the old wooden ship's hull in place. The rear end of the hull crashed to the floor, crushing most of the "crawlers", as well as a large man armed with a metal pipe, obviously also under the influence of the Oro.
"Nice", Keiichi commented.
"Thanks", Ethan replied tersely, "Now lets find a way out of this place, and keep your eyes open for more "crawlers".
Keiichi and Rena followed Ethan around the ruins of the ship's hull, obstructed only momentarily by a couple of surviving "crawlers". Rena dispatched these with her shotgun. The three of them reached a ladder which lead back to the surface, into the maze of metal girders and ship bulkheads.
Immediately in front of them was a door leading into another ship's hull, in front of which lay the body of an SCU agent, which was surrounded by two "crawlers", which appeared to be eating it. Ethan fired two well-aimed shots from his M4 and eliminated the "crawlers".
"I knew they were malnourished, but I had no idea they were resorting to cannibalism", Keiichi commented as he stepped over the bodies.
"It's some fucked up…. SHIT!, Get inside", Ethan said as he pushed Keiichi and Rena inside the remains of the ship as the sound of a helicopter could be heard, along with that of machine gun fire."
"Is everyone all right?", Ethan asked.
"We're fine", Keiichi and Rena both replied.
"Good", Ethan said, "Let's get through this ship's hull", if the chopper comes back, I'll deal with it." As he spoke, Ethan made sure there was a fresh grenade in the M203 mounted below his rifle.
Suddenly, a door on the other side of the room burst open, revealing two SWAT officers. Rena raised her shotgun and aimed in the general direction of the door, firing three times, until both SCU agents fell to the floor.
Ethan then took point as they entered the rust-lined hallway the officers came from. Around the corner, they exited the ship's hull through a large hole that had been cut in a bulkhead with some sort of blowtorch.
Gunshots flew over their heads as Ethan pushed Keiichi and Rena down for a second time, this time behind a stack of steel girders.
"I need you guys to provide cover while I take out the guys out there", Ethan said, "Just blind fire over the top of the barricade for a couple seconds".
Keiichi raised his MP7 over the stack of girders and held down the trigger without exposing his head to enemy fire, as Rena did the same with her shotguns. Ethan got up and fired a three round burst at a sniper in a ship's superstructure opposite them, before eliminating an SCU agent in a similar manner.
Suddenly, the sound of helicopter rotors could be heard once more. A military surplus Black Hawk helicopter sporting a blue paint job and the words "FBI-SCU" flew in.
The helicopter mounted a nose-mounted machine gun, yet more military hardware courtesy of Dorland's Oro friends, no doubt. Ethan raised the M203 sight just a bit above the helicopter and pulled the trigger.
The 40mm grenade impacted the helicopter and detonated, blowing off the top rotors. The helicopter fell from the sky and crashed into a pile of scrap metal. Amazingly, both the pilot and co-pilot survived.
At this point, both Keiichi and Rena had looked the girder pile to see what was happening. The doors of the destroyed helicopter burst open, revealing a familiar man in an SCU uniform: Dorland, as well as man dressed all in black except for a metal mask and chest plate: An Oro member.
The Oro member fired a sonic blast, that, while not as strong as Ethan's, still dented a girder they were using as cover. Deciding he did not want to find out exactly how effect the Oro's blasts were on human target, Ethan fired a three round burst from his M4 at the Oro member, placing two rounds in the chest and one in the head. As his companion fell, Dorland ran into the next ship's hull.
"Dorland is running, probably heading for the Oro compound, we're going after him", Ethan said as he ran after Dorland, closely followed by Keiichi and Rena.
The three of them ran into a corridor in a partially broken ship, which led to a hole in the floor with a ladder in it. Ethan went first. When the former agent reached the bottom of the hole, he said, "Looks clear to me, come on down."
The room Keiichi and Rena descended into was a short, dark corridor that led into a room centered around a wood and metal platform surrounded by railings on all side. The platform was connected to a cable, which lead to a mechanical lifting mechanism high above them.
"It looks like some sort of elevator", Rena said as she walked onto the platform, along with Keiichi and Ethan, "This switch looks like it might start the elevator."
Keiichi and Rena hesitated for a second, looking at the switch, making sure it wasn't a trap. Having known Satoko Houjou this was not an unfamiliar routine. Satoko frequently played pranks her friends by setting traps on doorways and the like, and, when Keiichi, Rena, Satoko, and their other friends went up against the "Tokyo Conspiracy that was responsible for the Watanagashi murders, Satoko proved she could construct more dangerous creations, some of which wouldn't look out of place in the Vietnam War.
This lever, however, appeared safe, so Keiichi grabbed it and flipped the switch. With a rumbling sound and a squeaking of cables and metal wheels, the motor of the lifting mechanism started. The elevator lurched upward.
After ascending about 50 feet, the elevator ground to a halt. "Shit!", Ethan yelled angrily. Ethan's shout was interrupted by a high-pitched scream from Rena. A "crawler" had climbed up the shaft somehow and tackled Rena to the ground. The "crawler" raised a metal pipe in preparation to strike.
"Get off her!", Keiichi yelled, striking the "crawler" with his MP7, knocking it backwards, off Rena. Keiichi brought the barrel of the MP7 around and shot the "crawler" at point blank range, literally blowing half its head off.
As Keiichi helped Rena to her feet, he heard the sound of the butt of a rifle striking something. He turned around in time to see Ethan knock a second "crawler" off the elevator, now doubt falling to its death.
The elevator began moving again, but this time the sounds of the elevator were joined by the sound of something climbing on the cables. Rena looked up, and sure enough, more "crawlers" were climbing down the cables.
Rena fired three blasts from her shotgun, taking down both crawlers. The elevator kept moving about a hundred and fifty more feet, the occupants occasionally shooting a "crawler " or kicking it off the elevator. Finally, it stopped at the top level, which judging from the porthole to one side, was in the superstructure of an abandoned ship.
Footsteps clanged on the metal floor of hallway in front of them. The flashlights under their weapons revealed them to be a man with metal implants armed with a fire axe. Keiichi easily dispatched him with a burst to the chest.
"Everyone, check your ammo", Ethan said.
"7 shotguns shells, two clips for the pistol", Rena said.
"2 mags for the MP7, plus a handgun with one magazine", Keiichi said
"2 mags for my M4, no ammo left for the launcher", Ethan replied, "Plus, I have that little trick I learned. Anyway, conserve your ammunition, you two".
Ethan led Keiichi and Rena down the metal-walled hallway leading away from the elevator, M4 carbine raised. At the end of the hallway was a metal door with round porthole in it, the type of thing you'd expect to find on a ship. Ethan turned the wheel that opened the door. The door opened with a squeaking noise and the sound of metal scraping on metal.
Keiichi cautiously peeked through the door, MP7 at the ready. Immediately beyond the door was a blind corner, which Keiichi peeked around quickly.
"Looks clear", Keiichi said, thinking to himself that after only one night of doing this, he already sounded like some kind of SWAT officer.
Ethan reassumed the lead and walked up to the next corner. Around the corner, another short, metal walled hallway, this one with wires running on the floor, lead about ten feet to a small side room with an open door. Voices were emanating from the room.
"They're having a negative effect on us too", a male voice said from within the side room, "Some of our members are reporting birth defects resulting from the sonic emitters".
"Yeah", the other man in the room said, "Born without arms or limbs, enhanced hearing, and the natural ability to produce sonic emissions. It's a bit cruel, but they make excellent watch dogs."
"What was that about", Rena asked.
"Not a fucking clue, but I think we're gonna find out in a moment", Ethan responded.
One of the men in the room walked out. He was wearing all black, and wore a metal mask on his face. Wordlessly, he turned to the three of them and fired a sonic blast, which missed a knock a pipe loosed on the wall. Ethan returned fire with a well-aimed headshot from his M4.
The second Oro member ran out, yelling "Intruders!", before he created a longer lasting, wider area sonic emission that caused excruciating pain to all three of them. Rena fought the pain and fired a blast from her Benelli from the hip. At these ranges, she could not miss, and caught the Oro member with a blast to the chest.
After the encounter with the two Oro members, Ethan took the lead again, walking onward to a T-junction.
"Left or right?", Keiichi asked.
"We'll try left first.", Ethan said.
Plainly, Ethan had chosen wrong, the hallway turned a corner and ended in a dead end with what looked like an armless corpse hanging from the ceiling.
"It looks like this is some kind of maze. I'm gonna take a look at that body", Ethan said.
As Ethan took a step towards the hanging "body", it came to life and emitted a sonic blast from its mouth. Ethan was knocked backwards by the blast as his M4 carbine fell out of his hands, landing on the floor. Ethan fell backwards onto Keiichi, knocking the weapon out of his hands as well.
Rena responded the threat immediately, firing a blast from her shotgun, putting several shot in the chest of the mysterious hanging enemy. As Rena held out her hand for Keiichi, which he took, thanking her, Ethan got back on his feet and grabbed his weapon, before walking over to the remains of the hanging enemy.
Keiichi re-armed himself and walked over to join the former agent, followed by Rena.
"It looks like this… thing's arms weren't severed, they appear to have never been there in the first place", Ethan said, "It also appear to have no eyes."
"So this is what those Oro members were talking about", Keiichi added.
"Seems so", Ethan said, "Its sure is some fucked up shit. Almost seems like were doing the poor bastards a favor by taking them out".
It seemed cruel, but as Keiichi and Rena thought about it, these… things… must have lead a horrible life… eyeless and armless, trapped in some dark hallway.
"We won't be doing any good waiting", Rena said, determinedly, " The sooner we get moving, the sooner we put a stop to this".
"Keep your eyes open", Ethan said as they walked past the T-junction again, going right this time, "If you see any more of those things, take 'em out."
Ethan, Keiichi and Rena continued down the hallway to the right, Ethan turned the corner and fired a burst with his M4A1 carbine. Another one of those hanging things fell to the floor, dead.
Around the next corner, Keiichi took point, shooting another hanging enemy with his MP7. Beyond the remains of the mutated victim of the Oro, was a wooden door. The door was immediately and catastrophically blasted down as three Oro burst in.
Keiichi was knocked backward by the sonic blast that took out the door, but was otherwise unharmed. Keiichi squeezed the trigger on his MP7 and fired a two round burst. One shot grazed and wounded one of the Oro, but the other missed.
One of the Oro prepared to fire another sonic blast, but before he could act, all three Oro were cut down by a burst of fire from Ethan's M4 and Rena's Benelli. The burst of fire that used up the last of Rena's magazine, and he had no ammo left in reserve, so she drew the Desert Eagle pistol she had captured from the SCU SWAT commander.
Beyond the next door, the three of them entered a chamber of horrors. Inside were several gurneys with dead bodies lying on them. All of them seemed to have been cut open. Next to the gurneys lay tables with trays of surgical equipment, all stained with blood.
"It looks like they were dissecting people in here", Ethan said, "Opening the sternum and neck area. I think they were looking for abnormalities in the vocal chords like..."
"Yours?", Keiichi finished the sentence.
"Yeah", Ethan said.
"Hey, take a look at this body", Rena said, pointing out of one of the gurneys, is that the news guy we heard murdered on the radio. "
"Rosa", Ethan said into his cell phone.
"Ethan, where are you!", Rosa asked.
"In the Oro compound", Ethan said, "Can you assist me in identifying a body?"
"I figured you would go on alone. I'll try and help, only have my field kit", Rosa said, referring to a device similar to Ethan's.
Ethan transferred a photo of the face of the body and a scan of the victim's index finger print."
"His print is not in any records, never being a government employee, but from the picture I would say you have found Tony Rhodes", Rosa said.
Ethan thanked Rosa for the help and hung up, before the three of them went on to the next room. They entered onto a balcony over what would look like the foyer of a mansion, but it was way too dark and dimly lit. Not to mention, two large machines similar to the ones they found in the scrap yard below were placed below them.
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out and a bullet whizzed past Keiichi's head. Keiichi turned to his right and fired his MP7 in a short burst, taking down an Oro member armed with an M4 carbine.
Two more armed Oro burst in on the lower floor, guns raised. Ethan picked off both of them with well-aimed headshots, before moving over to the body of the Oro member Keiichi shot and grabbing a couple magazines of M4 ammo.
"Be careful, it looks like they've been arming themselves", Ethan said as they walked over to the central "grand staircase down to the control panel for the two Oro machines. The control panel was identical to the one they saw earlier, with a slider for increasing the power output.
Ethan slid the slider up to red section labeled as ""Warning: Increasing power beyond maximum safe level may result in catastrophic failure". After a few seconds, a small explosion engulfed both machines.
Seconds later, Ethan let out muffled yell as a "crawler" jumped on his shoulders and tried to punch him in the face. Ethan fired a sonic blast that blew away the Oro "crawler", vaporizing its head and staining Ethan's clothing with blood.
The destruction of the Oro device seemed to have triggered an attack by the "crawlers". Fortunately, "crawlers" were easily dealt with. Keiichi cut down three of them with his MP7, while Rena disposed of two more with her Desert Eagle, the recoil from the first shot lifting her arm high into the air that Rena only just had time to finish of the second, whose head was blown off at point blank range, leaving Rena's clothes looking just as blood-stained as Ethan's.
Ethan, Keiichi and Rena continued on, through the door beyond the destroyed Oro machines. The doorway led into a small room with a ladder leading down a hole in the floor. Ethan went down first. As Ethan reached the bottom, he raised his M4 carbine and fired a three-round burst.
"Mr. Thomas, What's going on down there?", Keiichi asked, "Are you hurt".
"I'm fine, just took out another one of those armless freaks", Ethan responded, "Its safe to come down".
The corridor Keiichi and Rena descended into was similar to the maze of corridors they had walked through earlier. The corridor was dimly lit, with metal walls and pipes running along the ceiling. Up ahead, there were to corridors branching off the main corridor. Ethan led them along the first corridor, which led to another corner.
As Ethan turned the corner, a sonic blast knocked Ethan over and knocked several pipes off the walls. The pipes seemed to be non-functional, nothing leaked out as they fell to floor. Rena turned the corner and blasted one of the limbless hanging Oro with her Benelli M3, before Keiichi fired his MP7 at the silhouette of another armless figure handing from the ceiling further down the hall, killing the deformed hanging creature that, were it not for the Oro, should have become a human being.
As Keiichi and Rena eliminated the two hanging Oro mutants, Ethan got up on his feet.
"Are you OK?", Rena asked.
"Fine, like those pipes took the brunt of the blast", Ethan replied, pointing out the sections of metal pipe strewn about the floor.
The three of them turned another corner, and dispatched another hanging Oro and a "crawler" that tried to ambush them from the shadows. After easily dealing with the token resistance the mutated cannon fodder offered. Ethan led them down the first of three corridors leading off from the main hallway.
The corridor contained another hanging Oro, which Ethan dispatched with his M4. Beyond the "hanger", was another ladder leading down the lower floor. Ethan climbed down first, followed by Keiichi and Rena.
The ladder led down onto a catwalk that led across a gap that was at least as deep as the height of a three-story building. In the center of the gap was a large, circular platform, with a large piece of Oro machinery in the center. Above that was a smaller, glassed-in platform with a computer terminal in the center.
The walls surrounding the room were covered in hundreds, perhaps even thousands of monitors, though none of them were currently on. Two Oro members ran into the room from a catwalk coming in from the other side. One of the Oro members fired off a burst from an assault rifle at the same as the other fired off a sonic blast. The sonic blast and the bullets both missed, though one of the round grazed Keiichi's arm.
Keiichi responded with a 3-round burst from his MP7, hitting the one of the Oro members in the chest and killing him as Ethan picked off the other with a single well-aimed carbine shot.
Suddenly, a light flashed on in front of the computer terminal, revealing agent Dorland at the controls. At the same time, all of the monitors turned one, revealing surveillance feeds from locations around the city: The intersection of Stafford Street and Sixth Avenue, Fifth and Johnson Road, Sixth and Preston, Third and Broad Street, The City Museum, City Hall, and countless other locations.
"The city is under constant surveillance", Dorland said, "And soon, our systems will be in full operation, further propagating our sonic abilities. There's no escaping us, Mr. Thomas."
"You don't have the fucking right", Ethan said, "Influencing peoples lives like this". As he spoke, Ethan raised his M4 carbine and punctuated his sentence by firing a several rounds Dorland, but the glass in front of Dorland did not give way when hit by the round, cracking, but not breaking.
"Damn!", Ethan said, "Its bulletproof".
"And Mr. and Mrs. Maebara", Dorland said, ignoring the fact that Ethan just shot at him, "I have some things you might be interested to know. Things about Hinamizawa."
Keiichi and Rena stared as the image on all the monitors changed from surveillance feeds of the city, to similar feeds of the village of Hinamizawa. According to the dates on the cameras, these were real time feeds of the Furude Shrine, the Sonozaki estate, the Hinamizawa School, and numerous other locations in the village. There were even images of street corners where Keiichi and Rena's old houses could be seen.
"We became interested Lyssavirus Hinamizawensis, better known as the Hinamizawa Syndrome in the late 1970s, after hearing stories about its effects on the villagers. We were very interested to see how the syndrome would interact with our sonic emissions.", Dorland explained, "So, we had the dam construction project called off, A group of Oro members within the Japanese government, you might know them as the "Tokyo Conspiracy", covertly placed sonic emitters in the village. From 1979 to 1982, we activated the emitters for one day on the night of the Watanagashi Festival. As you know, the tests were an outstanding success, leading two murders every year. So, in 1983, we decided to take the test full scale, activate the emitters for an extended period of time, let the village descend into chaos, and then wipe out the survivors with poison gas, eliminating any witness, and pass the whole thing off as volcanic gas leak. Of course, you and your friends exposing our plans were an… unexpected setback. But know this, our research on the Hinamizawa virus continues in secret."
"USODA!", Japanese for "LIAR!", Rena yelled.
"You don't believe me?", Dorland asked.
Keiichi did not know if Dorland understood Japanese, or simply guessed the meaning of Rena's words, but he figured the latter was more likely.
"Well, I happen to know an old friend of yours who would be able to convince you!", Dorland continued. As he finished punching in some commands on the keyboard, he left the room on a catwalk leading away from the platform.
The images on the monitors on the wall changed again, showing a woman in her late 50s, perhaps even early 60s, wearing a lab coat, who appeared to be in a laboratory, though unlike the other camera feeds, it did not show the location, only the date, which again showed the image was live. Keiichi and Rena both immediately recognized the face of the woman in the image.
"Hello Maebara-san and Ryuguu… I mean Maebara-san", the woman said
"Takano!", Rena exclaimed
"You can't be… Miyo Takano was convicted of the murders of the six Watanagashi victims, and the conspiracy to murder the entire village of Hinamizawa.", Keiichi said, "I heard she escaped the death penalty by reason of insanity, you should be… I mean Takano is currently in a mental institution!"
"That is where you are wrong" Maebara-san, "I am working with the Oro on the Hinamizawa virus, we should have the new strain ready by the end of the year. Perhaps we should test it out on Hinamizawa, I believe you friends Sonozaki san, Furude-san, and Houjou san are still living in the village".
"So", Keiichi said, suddenly getting an idea of how to prove once and for all that this woman couldn't be the real Takano, "If you are really Miyo Takano, you should know what two things were Satoko Houjou unable to distinguish between, and why?"
There was no way anyone who did not actually know Satoko Houjou could know this.
"Satoko could not tell the difference between broccoli and cauliflower. This was because she was colorblind. Unusual for colorblindness to occur in girls, but it does happen", Takano smiled as she spoke.
Keiichi and Rena stared at the woman in the screen, she WAS Takano.
Finally, Ethan spoke up, "Come on", he said, "Lets get going after Dorland, this bitch will get what's coming to her soon enough!"
Keiichi and Rena followed, realizing there was no point in being taunted by Takano any longer.
As Ethan, Keiichi, and Rena left, Takano said, laughing, "I guess I'll see you then, I hope you can bring your friend with you, I look forward to meeting him!".
Ethan crossed a catwalk below the one Dorland crossed on, heading in the same direction, into a sort of control room over looking a room full of humming machinery. The former agent walked over to a control panel.
"STOP, STEP AWAY!", Dorland yelled over the intercom.
Ethan ignored him and pulled a sliding lever beyond a point labeled "DANGER: Increasing power levels beyond this point may result in catastrophic failure."
Suddenly, a series of explosions rocked the ship's hull that was the Oro compound, destroying the machinery that powered the emitters throughout the city. Secondary explosions cascaded out, along the wires, causing debris to fall from the roof.
"Run!", Ethan said, as the three of them sprinted onto the catwalk, back across to the platform in the "surveillance room". From the catwalk above Dorland ran into the room and fired a sonic blast.
The blast missed, but it caused something in the center of the platform to explode, not harming Ethan, Keiichi, or Rena, but blowing the guns out of their hands, off the platform.
Ethan received a call on his speakerphone from Rosa at that moment: "What did you do! Forget Dorland and get out of there!"
"He's unfinished business!", Ethan replied.
"OK", Rosa said, "I've got help arriving soon."
As Ethan finished talking to Rosa, a pair of Oro "crawlers" rounded on Ethan.
Keiichi grabbed a metal pipe from the debris that now covered the platform, as Rena grabbed hold of a steel bar of some description.
"We'll take care of these guys", Keiichi said, "Concentrate on Dorland!".
Keiichi blocked a strike from one of the "crawlers", which attacked him with a piece of rebar and struck it over the head with his pipe, knocking it to floor.
The second "crawler" tackled Keiichi to the ground and tried to thrust a sharp piece of scrap metal into his throat. Rena ran to his side and kicked the "crawler" hard to the side, knocking it off a platform to its death.
As Keiichi and Rena dealt with the crawlers, Ethan used his sonic emission abilities to blast the metal implants of Dorland's face, silencing his sonic emissions. Ethan ran at Dorland and punched him in the face first once, then twice, knocking him backwards.
Dorland drew a handgun from his side and tried to aim it at Ethan but, he was too late. Ethan fired a second sonic blast, knocking him over, apparently dead.
It turned out, however, Dorland was not dead. "You're a fool", Dorland said.
"Shut up!, Ethan responded, "What are the Oro's motives?"
"To create hostility, the unwavering desire to fight", Dorland responded, "To unknowingly become out protectors?"
"Protect us from what?", Ethan asked as held his hand to Dorland's throat
"You don't know, do you?", he asked, as Dorland seemed to fall into unconsciousness, "Christ, you're the fool, a puppet like everyone else!"
As Ethan tried to get answers out of Dorland, he didn't notice that Keiichi and Rena were already climbing up a rope ladder dangling from a helicopter.
"Now Ethan, grab the ladder now!", Rosa said.
Ethan ran across the platform, jumped, and grabbed onto the ladder. As he tried to climb up the ladder, he lost his grip as he felt a weight pulling him down. Keiichi tried to grab his hand, but he couldn't reach.
Ethan only barely managed to grab the last rung of the ladder. Looking down, Ethan saw Dorland hanging onto his foot.
"Get the fuck off me!", Ethan shouted, stepping on Dorland's face, causing him to lose his grip and fall hundreds of feet to the bottom of the ship's hull that was the Oro compound.
"Enjoy the scenic route, asshole!", Ethan said, as he climbed up the ladder through a hole in the Oro compound roof and into the helicopter. As soon as Ethan got in, the helicopter took off. Behind them, the middle of the Oro compound exploded in a flash of fire. The structure of the old ships hull the compound was built from was critically compromised, and the structure collapse into a cloud of dust and smoke, clearing to reveal a massive heap of debris.
"Cutting it a little close, wouldn't you say?", Rosa said as Ethan sat in the row of seats in the back of the helicopter, opposite Keiichi who had his arm around Rena, who was already asleep, her head on his shoulder.
"Anyway, the you-know-what has really hit the fan", Rosa said, "You've uncovered something big, and I suspect over the next few weeks more will be weeded out. Good thing too, some really influential people belong to the Oro."
"Hey buddy", Le Rue, who was sitting in the pilot's seat of the helicopter, "Soon as they fix that leg up, what do you say you and I go for a drink."
"I don't think so, LeRue", Ethan replied.
"Hey man, call be Pierce", LeRue replied, "My friends call me Pierce".
"What I need", Ethan said as he lay back in the seat, "Is some sleep"
3 Hours Later:
Keiichi and Rena sat on the bed of a hotel room. One the TV, the U.S. president was giving an interview.
"Mr. President, what about the increase in violence, it appears to be a national problem?", a reporter on the TV asked.
"We're looking into the issue. We are also supporting all local agencies in their efforts to…", the president responded, but was cut off by a White House staffer.
"Oh, excuse me for a moment", the president said as the staffer handed him a memo which consisted of a single piece of paper. The president read the paper and immediately clutched his heart and collapsed. Two Secret Service agents carried the president out of the room as quickly as possible, while a third picked up the memo before any of the cameras could get a look at it.
"What the…", Keiichi said in surprise.
"It looks like he collapsed as soon as he got that memo", Rena said.
"I have a feeling its something to do with the Oro.", Keiichi said.
"Then the president is…. a member?", Rena said in disbelief.
"It seems that way.", Keiichi said, "I wouldn't be surprised it had something to do with what Mr. Thomas… and what we did… last night."
Keiichi didn't know it, but he was right, the memo had just five words: "The remedy is among us!"
"But that's not my biggest concern", Keiichi said, "Remember what Takano said on that video phone thing in the Oro compound? We need to find a way to Japan, get to Hinamizawa before something terrible happens."
Authors Notes:
I chose the FN P90 in chapter six and the MP7 in this chapter because these weapons fire "micro-rifle" rounds, unlike the pistol caliber ammunition fired by most submachine guns, such as the widely-used MP5. The "micro-rifle" rounds of the P90 and the MP7 would be much more likely to pierce the body armor of the SCU SWAT units that Ethan, Keiichi, and Rena were up against in those chapters.
As for the belt-fed machine guns, I inserted them to add a further difference from the original Condemned levels. The M203 grenade launcher attached to Ethan's rifle was added to provide an alternate means of destroying Dorland's helicopter. The statement Ethan makes about SWAT units using grenade launchers to fire tear gas rounds is true, though, to my knowledge, the M203 is not in real life SWAT usage, only with the military (Police units tend to use standalone launchers that are not attached to their rifles). However, the SCU is a fictional organization, and, as I explained with the explosive grenade rounds, were given military-grade hardware by Oro contacts within the military.
In the previous chapter, you may have noticed that I had removed the "Oro crossbow" found in the junk barge. That is because I thought the crossbow as a weapon that was inserted into the level with the intent that it would play a larger role later as an Oro weapon, but was later forgotten and just "left" in the level as a means to destroy the armored enemies. I replaced it with the M1911 so as to make a reference both to the first Condemned and Takano's weapon of choice in Higurashi.
As far as the Oro themselves are concerned, they now have two sonic attacks, a longer-duration sonic emission that causes damage more slowly, as seen in the Condemned games, and a shorter, more powerful blast, similar to Ethan's sonic attack, though not as powerful. I added the Oro members that carried firearms because, if you save a firearm from the fight with the SWAT team, you will notice that the Oro are very vulnerable to gunfire, their sonic emissions lacking the range to counter firearms. I assumed the Oro of all people would know this, and armed some of the Oro members with weapons similar to those of the SCU SWAT teams.
As per the scientific name of the Hinamizawa virus, Lyssavirus Hinamizawensis, this is a reference to the speculation that the Hinamizawa virus is related to the rabies virus. The rabies virus is also of the genus Lyssavirus.
As far as the supernatural elements of Higurashi are concerned, most of them are explained as a combination of the effects of the Hinamizawa syndrome and Oro experiments with sonic emitters. The events of Umineko and any hints of supernatural manipulation of Hinamizawa on the part of Bernkastel and Lamdadelta are not part of this universe (Though Ethan would probably react to them in much the same way as the Oro: "You don't have the fucking right!" Whether he'd be able to stop them depends on whether or not they are immune to sonic blasts!), both because I came up with the idea for this crossover a while ago, before I saw Umineko, and to make it better fit with the Condemned universe (and I prefer the "mostly non-fantasy" interpretations of Higurashi). As for the events of Umineko, they are delusions from an Oro sonic emitter test on Rokkenjima island, leading to the Ushiromiya family having delusions of demons and witchcraft and killing each other. The only "fantasy" elements left ambiguous Hanyuu and the "universe skipping" between each arc. I will leave that up to the readers' personal view whether the "memories " of previous universes are "real" or just the imagination of Keiichi and Rena, and whether Hanyuu is a actually a spirit of a past Watanagashi victim, or whether she is a simply a friendlier version of Ethan's "Alcohol Demon".