Hey guys welcome back.
Sorry for being out for a little bit, but some stuff has happened.
Anyway guys, here's the next chapter, and I hope all of you would enjoy :)
You can say Jack is in deep as crud. Not only is he facing an insane guy with an army of drug addicted psychopaths, he's facing an insane guy with an army of drug addicted psychopaths, and also somehow acquired a nuclear capability.
In the early 2030's every country with a nuclear capability decided to upgrade their launch platforms. The first were the russians, they created ICBM silos that can last for 2000+ years, and the second were the americans, they developed drone submarines; the drone submarines are smaller than the ordinary conventional submarines, but since it was unmanned the submarines had more space for weaponry. And it had nuclear-fusion reactor that could keep the submarine underwater for a long a time. After that other countries followed in buffing up their nuclear capabilities; china had the bright idea of creating orbital (satellite) nuclear missile launch platforms.
Basically Jack is screwed, including thousands or even millions of innocent lives across the new world.
Jack knows that the override codes are in washington DC at the president's bunker, after that he has to get to another bunker but this time under the pentagon. The control panel is there, he has to enter in the first line of code, pray that the signal relay is still operational - it most likely won't be- , and hack the satellite, after that he has to connect every launch platform and enter the second line of code. Seems easy enough, well...wrong. After a few minutes of digging through the files he found out that there was a seventy two hour countdown.
Jack quickly ran home to grab the stuff he needed, as he was leaving he noticed that Aloy followed him, and was hiding behind a bush. He confronted her, and Aloy said that she wanted to come, Jack did his best to try, and convince Aloy to stay, but he was unsuccessful.
"I know a site nearby where we can get some striders to go wherever this city is," Aloy suggested.
They could get a strider to speed up their journey, but they would get there under thirty-six hours only if their lucky, and Jack never liked relying on luck. The changed landscape, and herds of machines is gonna slow them down. And by the time they get there, the nukes would've dropped already.
"No, it still would take too long for us to get there," Jack said.
"What do we do then?"
Jack thought for a second. He projected a holo-map through his focus, and picked where they needed to go first.
"Here, I found a place where we can hitch a ride, that's where we go first," Jack said.
"Where?"
"You'll find out soon enough, now let's go," Jack said, and they were on their way.
They headed east towards denver, then southeast of the ruins. They arrived at a fence, and beyond that was a huge open space. Jack cut a hole on the fence, and they went through.
"Before, this place was known as Buckley air force base, this was a hub for storing and maintaining military technology of the old ones," Jack said.
They headed over to a hardened aircraft shelter, and stopped at the door. Jack brought down the door control panel, and hacked it. The door opened, and revealed a sight untouched for nearly a millenia.
"What is that?" Aloy asked.
"That is a VTOL. Its one of the more 'nice' creations of mankind. It's used to transport people, cargo, and in some occasions drop bombs," Jack said.
"What's it with you people, and turning nice things into weapons?"
"I don't know, never understood why myself," Jack replied.
When Jack took a minute to examine the aircraft he was surprised to find that it was in good working order, a bit dusty, but working. The VTOL sported two tilt-thruster gas turbine engines attached to the end of each wing, it also has a top speed of a subsonic 900 km/h. It also has two 30mm cannons in the front, a remote controlled turret with dual 20mm cannons at the back, and a max payload of 20,000 lbs.
Jack found a bunch of missiles, and a 5000 lbs bomb in the shelter nextdoor, but didn't take it since he didn't need it. The VTOL's fuel tank was still half full; Jack found some fuel barrels, and filled up the aircraft, he also fully loaded the guns on board with the ammo he found. With some help from Aloy they pushed the aircraft out of the shelter, they then entered it and put their stuff down and took their seats in the cockpit.
"Put this on your head," Jack said, he gave Aloy the headset. Aloy complied and put it on.
Jack was the captain and Aloy was the co-pilot (even though she doesn't anything about flying.)
It took some time for Jack to start up the aircraft, but he eventually managed to bring it back to life. Jack taxied the VTOl to the runway, and stopped. He secured his seatbelt, and Aloy's seatbelt. He did a quick preflight check before being satisfied.
"Have you ever flown before?" Jack asked Aloy.
"Uh, I tried to ride a stormbird I hijacked before, fell off as soon as I left the ground," Aloy replied.
Jack shrugged.
"Eh, good enough, hold on this is gonna be a bit bumpy," Jack said. He increased the throttle to full, and the aircraft sped across the runway. Once they were fast enough Jack pulled the control stick and the aircraft rose from the ground.
The aircraft climbed, and as it did Aloy looked down to land below.
"Whoa," She said as she gazed at the amazing sight.
"I know that feeling, had the same look on your face during the first time I flied," Jack said.
The aircraft reached its cruising altitude, and Jack set it to autopilot, and the VTOL slowed down.
"Alright at this speed we should be able to get to washington in a few hours, and Aloy, i'm gonna take a nap so I need you to do me a favor," Jack said.
"Okay what is it?" She asked.
"Alright first off don't touch any of the buttons, and second see that small screen with the green light and the blue line circling it, that's called radar, if anything comes close to us it will appear as a green dot, I want you to watch it, and tell me if anything pops up," Jack said.
"Okay, can do," Aloy replied.
Through his time with HADES Sylens was able to access an old military spy satellite that's still orbiting the earth. He used it to do surveillance on Jack and Aloy.
His satellite detected Jack and Aloy in a old VTOL heading for washington. They were already in the air so a ground based attack wasn't gonna do anything. But there was one thing.
He went outside, and caught up to his officer.
"So, how's our subject?" He asked.
"It's doing great o' great one, the effects of the corruption is going deep into its mainframe," The officer replied.
They arrived at a large space, and saw a corrupted stormbird with men trying to hold them down.
"How is the reviving of the corruption going?" Sylens asked.
"Its going great, production has doubled, we may have an army of corrupted in a few weeks," The officer said.
"Very good, when are we gonna test it?"
"Its ready to be tested, we were waiting on your command."
"Okay."
Sylens and the officer arrived at a larger open space with a lot more corrupted stormbirds being held down also.
It has been an hour since they took off. Jack was dead asleep while Aloy just stared at the horizon in front of her, and thought. As she did a single green dot appeared on the radar screen followed by a beep. Aloy leaned in to take a closer look. The radar signal hit the green dot again and it split into two. The object appeared to be coming from behind them, and each time it the signal hit them they would get closer and closer, and even double in numbers.
Aloy grabbed Jack's shoulder, and began shaking him.
"Jack Jack wake up!" Aloy said.
"I'm up, i'm up, what's happening?" He asked.
"Aloy pointed at the radar screen.
"Look."
He saw multiple unknown objects approaching the VTOL. He peeked out the windshield, but couldn't see anything; the windshield didn't show the angle he wanted to look to, and they were in the clouds.
Jack continued to look then something flew past over them only missing them by an inch.
"Woah!" Jack pulled back from the sudden surprise.
"What was that?" Aloy asked.
"I don't know, it was moving too fast," Jack replied.
He tried the infrared sight, but it also no use, the clouds were too thick.
A few seconds later they got out off the clouds and into open sky. What Jack and Aloy saw next took them back.
They saw that they were surrounded by hundreds of stormbirds and glinthawks.
"Are they supposed to fly in formation like that?" Jack asked.
"Glinthawks yeah they do, but not stormbirds," Aloy replied.
"I don't think those are just any stormbird or glinthawk, I think their corrupted," Jack said.
The stormbirds and glinthawks began bomb rushing the aircraft, but Jack noticed this, and performed evasive maneuvers.
"Performing evasive maneuvers, switching to manual control, make sure your seatbelt is really tight Aloy," Jack said.
Aloy began tightening her seatbelt, then holding on for dear life.
"What are you gonna do?" Aloy asked.
"Something you're not gonna like," Jack said.
He pushed the control stick down, and the VTOL began to dive. The two took some G-force when they dived at a speed of 300 knots, but they were alright. Jack leveled out the VTOL when they were at an altitude of only 1000 feet above ground. Some of the glinthawks and stormbirds pursuing them crashed into the ground, but many of them was still in pursuit. They were trying to crash into the VTOL to kill Jack and Aloy.
Jack needed to get away, he saw a canyon that's pretty narrow, so Jack flew into it to try and lose some of the company there. It worked a little bit, because of the fact that the glinthawks were in a cluster, and they started to collide with each other or crash into the canyon walls, but it still wasn't enough. The stormbirds began shooting their lightning attacks at the VTOL. They were hit, but not bad. It was too close for comfort.
"Aloy flip that switch," Jack said.
She complied and flipped the switch. A visor came down from her headset.
"It's alright, you're now in control of the turret, see that joystick to your right," Jack pointed to her right. Aloy took the joystick.
"I got it," She replied.
"Okay when you move that around it will also move the turret so you can turn the guns to the target, okay on your visor is a reticle, do you see it?"
"Yeah."
"Keep the targets on the centre part of that reticle, now to shoot pull the trigger on the joystick, to reload press the red button on top of the joystick, to move turret move the joystick," Jack said.
"What?"
"Point and click," Jack vaguely said as he continued to navigate through the canyon.
Aloy took a minute to recall the steps before opening fire. The 20mm shells were very very effective, they just tore through the swarm of corrupted machines. But that also wasn't enough. The ancient 20mm cannon and turret started to malfunction, once every few minutes it would jam. So Jack had to make use of all the weapons on board, he did maneuvers so machines would fly to their front, and Jack would use the two 30mm cannons at the front of the aircraft to destroy them.
Jack began to realize that the VTOL only carried so much fuel, and ammo, eventually he was gonna run out. He only planned to fly straight to washington, he forgot to think about the other possibilities while he's enroute. And there was only so much supplies at the abandoned base. He saw the end of the canyon, there was a rock formation with a narrow gap in between the two mountains. Jack increased the throttle to full power and began to fly straight to the formation.
"Jack," Aloy said, "not that way."
"I know what i'm doing, you just gotta trust me," Jack said as he continued to get closer.
"Jack." Aloy said louder.
"I know what i'm doing."
"Jack!"
"Just trust me!"
They got closer and closer, and the anti-collision system rang up, and alerted Jack to go the other way, it beeped, and as they got closer the beeping got faster and faster.
Jack remained calm, but Aloy was breathing heavily.
"JACK!" She yelled at him.
He didn't respond.
The anti-collision system displayed how far they are from the end of the canyon.
100 meters…
70 meters...
50 meters…
40 meters…
30 meters…
20 meters…
10 meters…
Time slowed down, Aloy closed her eyes, and awaited her faith. Until…
Jack tilted the VTOL to its side, and knife edged the narrow gap. They lost some paint, but they were still in one piece. The pursuing swarm of corrupted machines tried to stop, but failed to, and crashed into the end of the canyon.
"You can open your eyes now Aloy," Jack said.
Aloy slowly opened her eyes, and looked around, then began examining herself. She was still in one piece without any wounds or scars.
"I-I'm alive!" She said, followed by a repeated chuckles of relief.
"See, you can trust me, I won't get you killed," Jack said.
Aloy smiled at that remark, it was good to know.
They weren't out of danger though, the radar showed one more machine following them. It was another stormbird. It charged its lightning attack, and fired at them. It hit the right wing, and damaged it, but they could still fly.
"Aloy shoot at it!" Jack said.
"I can't, i'm out!" She said.
The stormbird charged its attack again, but before it could fire at the VTOL, the sky erupted with flak fire. The flak hit the stormbird, and it went down.
Then something completely unexpected happened, they were receiving a radio transmission. Jack decided to answer it. The signal was weak, but it was understandable.
Unknown flying vehicle, land on the black smoke or be fired upon…
A plume of black smoke appeared at the ground.
Jack decided to comply at the transmission, and landed at the black smoke. The two got out of their seats, and grabbed their gear. Jack gave a countdown, and lowered the ramp. The two went outside with weapons up, and scanned the area. The source of the black smoke was a burning bonfire. Before Jack could say clear, armed men popped out of the bushes. Jack and Aloy stood at a position where they could easily retreat back inside while keeping their weapons up.
The men appeared to be dressed in wasteland outfits while some held bows and arrows and while some of them were holding guns, but the guns the men had were ancient compared to his rifle. They had weapons dating back to probably the early 1900's. They had guns like the M1 garand rifle, M1903 rifle, double barrel shotgun, an M3 grease gun, sten gun, trench gun, and one guy even had a long rifle. But even though their weapons looked like they were from the stone age, Jack still won't underestimate his opponent and they outnumber him, and Aloy. He's also seen a documentary of what the trench gun can do before, and it can do things that Jack didn't like.
After an awkward moment of silence, the men started to speak.
"What's your business here?" The man who appeared to be the leader with the grease gun said.
"Nothing, we're just passing, but were caught in trouble along the way," Jack replied. "Do mind putting your weapon down?"
The men were uneasy at the remark. "How would we know we can trust you?"
"Alright this is what we're gonna do, on the count of three we all put our weapons down," Jack suggested.
The men agreed along with Aloy.
"Okay on three, one...two...three," Jack put his weapon down, and the men, and Aloy followed. They all slung their weapons onto their backs, and approached each other.
"Whew, we coulda shot you back there boy," The eldest man said.
"Same here," Jack replied.
"What's your name son?" The man said.
"The names Jack, the girl over there is Aloy, how about you?"
"I'm Erin, nice to meet ya," He said, and they both shook hands. Erin turned to his men. "Well don't ya'll just stand there, introduce yourselves!"
"I'm Lance," the man with the M1903 said.
"I'm Dagger," the man with the garand said.
"I'm Striker," the man with the sten said.
"I'm Aron," The guy with the double barrel shotgun said.
"I'm Dent," The guy with the trench gun said.
"I'm Jeff," The guy with the long rifle said.
"I'm Armon," The guy with the bow said.
"And I'm Argon," The other guy with the bow said.
"Nice to meet all you," Aloy said.
"Come follow us," Erin said, and made a 'follow me' gesture with his right arm.
Jack and Aloy followed them to a fairly large village filled with people.
"So what's your heritage here?" Jack asked Erin.
"Oh yeah I forgot, we are the flaksmen tribe, we originally came from the oseram further west," Erin said.
"The oseram?" Aloy asked curiously.
"Yeah; about I forgot how long ago it was, but there was a detachment of a small group of oseram men and women, they headed east until they found this place, and decided to settle down here."
"Why did they detach from the main tribe?" Jack asked.
"None of us really knows, it was so long ago," Erin replied.
They continued to walk around the village, until they were at the outskirts again.
"What was that flak from earlier?" Jack asked.
"That," Erin pointed to a dug out position with an object under the camo netting. Erin signaled a bunch of men, and they pulled off the camo netting revealing a 40mm flak gun.
"Woah," Jack said out of amazement, "how did you even get that thing?"
"Some years back we had some stormbird and glinthawk problems and all we had were a bunch of bows and arrows that didn't really help at all, then one time me, and a bunch of other guys were searching the ruins of a city of the old ones when we fell into a hole, the hole led to a huge open area called 'the war museum', in there we found that gun, and two more of it, we also found the weapons we have now. We tore the big gun apart and put it back together again at the village, we also got it to work and found ammo for it, and that's how our stormbird and glinthawk problem was fixed," Erin explained.
As they continued walking Jack spotted some bigger guns, they were two really old 155mm artillery guns.
"What about those?" Jack pointed to the big guns, "What about those guns?"
"Oh, we found those down in that hole too, but we could never get them to work; we tried everything to repair it, but it didn't wanna happen, so we just left those two there until we decide to either scrap it for parts or find a way to fix it," Erin said.
They later returned to the village and gathered around a campfire.
"How did you connect to us with a radio signal?" Jack asked.
"Oh," He pointed to a wooden tower at the village center, " we have a shortwave radio up there, it was also part of the things we found down that hole, it took some time to repair, we eventually got it, but it still wasn't at the best shape."
"Okay," That explained the weak radio transmission.
"So, now it's my turn to ask questions, what's really your business around here?"
"Well as I told you, we were just passing by, but we got into a little bit of heat," that was an understatement, Aloy noticed, and gave a fake cough, Jack glared at her and continued to talk, "anyway we are really headed to the ruins you southeast from here."
"Why though?We've completely searched that place there's nothing else to find," Erin said.
"But there's still something somewhere there, and we need to get to it," Jack said.
"Well, okay then, the two of you don't seem to be a threat to my tribe so I wish the two of you goodluck," Erin said.
"Thanks, we're gonna need that."
The sun already started to set and it started to get dark.
"It's a bad idea to go into the ruins at night, there are things that hide in the ruins at day, and come out at night," Erin said.
"I guess we're staying here for the night then," Jack said.
"Alright then, there's an empty house back there, c'mon i'll show the both of you."
They followed Erin to a small wooden shack, inside was really small since there was only one bed.
"I'll leave this part to the two of you," Erin said and left.
There was a moment of awkward silence.
"Umm, you can sleep on the bed, I can sleep on the floor," Jack offered.
"No, you don't have too," Aloy said.
"What?" Jack had a confused look.
"I mean we can share the same bed," Aloy said.
"Huh?" Jack was really confused and really uncomfortable, did Aloy really just offer that they sleep with each other. Maybe it wasn't weird here in the future for you to sleep with someone else. Even in the other way.
"Okay then…" Jack replied, and just complied with it.
They put their stuff down, and Jack removed his shoes while Aloy removed her hunting outfit. Jack did his best to look away, but couldn't, there was a strange force that overpowered him, and kept his eyes anchored to Aloy as she slipped on her night outfit. Maybe it was the fact that she was just really really really hot, and Jack cannot deny that no matter how much he tries.
Aloy slipped on her shirt, and looked over to her left (fortunately for Jack he was able to escape the trance and look away), and saw Jack removing his jacket before moving onto his light armored vest revealing a plain white shirt. Now it was Aloy's turn to be locked in. His muscles were huge, probably big enough to give Jack the strength to uproot a tree with his bare hands, which made Aloy wonder if he was also even a human being. Jack now looked to his right again, and Aloy quickly turned away her head, she couldn't help blush then smile. Jack also let out a small grin.
They finished up, and laid on the bed. There was also one blanket, but it was big enough to fit the both of them, but the cold was still able to pierce through. Jack thought it would feel a little less awkward if he'd sleep facing away from Aloy, and just pretend that he was alone on the bed. It actually worked, he felt less awkward, but then this happened…
"Jack," Aloy said softly.
"Yeah?"
"Can you like hold me, it's really cold," Aloy said.
That would've been way too awkward for Jack to comply, but he couldn't blame her, he can feel how cold it was, even with the blanket, and it was enough to make him shiver a little bit. He could also hear Aloy's accelerated rate of breathing from the intense cold.
"Alright," Jack said, and rolled over and put his arm over her.
She was shivering really hard, and Jack could feel it. They got close, and added their body heat, Aloy's shivering and breathing slowly was lowered until she stopped shivering, and breath normally again. A minute later Aloy finally fell asleep.
Jack can't help but admit that he was actually enjoying this. Aloy's body was just so...He can't even describe it. Her hair was soft, and it smelled nice, despite the fact showers are almost non-existent in the future. Jack continued until he also drifted to sleep.
I hope that touch wasn't too weird, I'm still new to this anyway. And those 40mm flak guns and the two broken 155mm artillery guns will play a critical role in the future.(The 40 mm's are bofors single mounted guns, and the 155mm's are M114 howitzers). I mean I would give them the 240mm Howitzer M1 or the oto melara 76mm full-auto naval artillery guns or even better: the US Navy's 155mm electromagnetic railgun system, but I can't do that, or can I…
But anyway guys I hope you enjoyed this, and I'll see you all in the next one :)