Author: Bobby Cox smeghead_76@dodo.com.au
Disclaimer: Some of the characters are mine. Some aren't. The 'verse in which this is set, however, belongs to Peter F. Hamilton (the 'Night's Dawn' trilogy 'verse). There may or may not be characters and situations belonging to ME productions and the team that writes Buffy. I'm just covering my arse there. No money will be made from this, but if someone *thinks* it's good enough to make money, I'd be flattered :)
Summary: This is a parallel story to 'In Their Shadow' by rei_ite (and later on, myself), and provides back-story for Xander's activities on Earth. Basically, vampires and the Light Bringer sect - a Satanic cult (no, really!) - are starting to bump heads with each other in the Downtown section of the Los Angeles arcology. Normally, the authorities wouldn't pay too much attention to something like this.
However, when the fighting spills over to the Uptown sections...
AN: The follwing text formats will be used for datavises and affinity:
Affinity will be represented as such: AffinityDatavises will be represented as such:{Datavise}
-Last datavise of Sergeant Tobias Fletcher, LAPD
Vampire Nest
Sunnydale Dome, Los Angeles arcology
2nd June, 2614
The first shots of what would later be called the Vampire War were several light armour-piercing rockets fired at the walls of the vampire nest. The electron explosive warheads ripped one wall apart, sending debris and shrapnel ripping through the rooms beyond.
Several vampires were decapitated, and more were so badly ripped up that they were taken out of the immediate fight in order to heal their bodies. For every vampire taken out of the fight, however, there were three others ready and now even more pissed off.
Before the echoes of the multiple explosions had died away, a wave of Light Bringer cultists surged from their positions and charged, trusting in the protection of God's Brother and their combat suits, with light exoskeletons laid over with thermal dissipation circuits.
Picking themselves up and shaking off the effects of the explosions, those vampires that remained combat-capable took up positions in the rubble and at the few surviving windows and opened fire. They quickly learned that it required sustained fire from more than one vampire to saturate the cultists' thermal dissipation circuits. This sustained fire took its toll on the charging cultists, and none of the first wave survived to reach the vampires' positions.
It did not go all the vampires' way, however. Several more had been eliminated by the cultists' own sustained fire.
And another wave was now beginning its attack.
****
Jonsson swore and pulled his head back as TIP and maser fire hit the wall around the blown-out window he was using as a firing point. The sect members had pressed their attack home with great vigour. This would be the fifth wave, and the last two had reached his defensive positions. Fortunately, casualties had been reasonably light each time, but they were starting to mount.
More worrying that his mounting casualties, however, was the fact that AT teams were now surely on their way. Hopefully, they would turn their firepower on the cultists, giving him and his minions a window of opportunity to break contact and escape.
Of course, there was the chance that the police would turn their weapons on both sides indiscriminately. Jonnson pondered this, unconsciously licking the blood from his hands - which was from the cultist whose head he had ripped off with his bare hands - and waiting for the fire directed at his position to end.
Just before the firing stopped and he popped back up to resume firing himself, he decided to pay it by ear and see what happened.
****
Los Angeles Police Department Precinct Headquarters
Sunnydale Dome, Los Angeles Arcology
2nd June, 2614
Almost shift end, Amanda thought to herself. And I can find out what the 'interesting thing' that happened on tonight's patrol was.
Just then, a shrill datavised warning from the station's AI interrupted her pleasant thoughts. Her eyes widened as the meaning of the warning became apparent.
"CAPTAIN!"
"What is it, Matthews?" Henderson asked, hurrying over. He knew that when she sounded like that, it was urgent.
"Reports of heavy weapons fire in the Downtown districts... there's a small war going on down there!"
"Show me, Matthews," Henderson ordered. Amanda nodded, and brought up one of the station's high-res display screens. It flickered into life, showing the feed from a surveillance mechanoid.
There were some shocked gasps as the screen focused, showing...
A building, with its lower floors severely damaged by rocket fire...
The wide streets around that building, with black-clad bodies strewn all around, their postures indicating that their deaths had been violent...
Traceries of targeting lasers flickering back and forth between buildings separated by that wide road, punctuated by small explosions...
More black-clad figures hurling themselves at the building that was under siege...
In short, a major firefight.
"Woah, chief. That is pretty grim."
Both Henderson and Amanda turned to see the station's second-in-command, Lieutenant Geoffrey Robertson, staring at the screen with an expression of intense concentration.
Henderson nodded. "Are the AT teams on their way, Geoff?" he asked.
"Sure are. Four teams, ETA five minutes. Four more teams, ETA ten minutes. In half an hour, we'll have most of this dome's and the surrounding domes' AT teams either on site or en route."
Henderson nodded and said, "Good work." And it was good work, co-ordinating the movements of dozens of heavily armed police officers and assault mechanoids, which was never easy at the best of times.
The pressure of a live situation made it even harder. But he'd done well.
Robertson seemed to remember something. "Damn," he muttered. "I lost the pool."
Henderson looked at him sharply. "Pool?" he asked. "As in 'betting pool'? You mean to tell me that officers under my command have been betting that this would happen?"
Robertson shrugged. "Once the Light Bringer sects started coming under attack, it seemed inevitable. I had fifty G-dollars on tomorrow night. How about you, Matthews?"
Amanda shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Err... twenty on tonight, sir..." she admitted.
Henderson glared at both of them for a moment, before suddenly grinning sheepishly. "I had a hundred on the day after tomorrow," he admitted.
"No wonder you're peeved, chief," Robertson said with a smirk. "That's a fair bit of money to lose. Hey Matthews," he added to Amanda. "What's the pool worth? Don't try denying that you know. You're the chief computer jockey - and the bets were stored in the station's AI."
"Close to three thousand G-dollars," Amanda admitted.
Robertson whistled in awe. "That's a tidy little earner, even split two or three ways," he said.
"Can we get back to business here?" Henderson asked, slightly annoyed.
"Well chief, since the AT teams are on their way, there's not a lot we can do," Robertson pointed out.
"What do you suggest, then?"
"That we sit back and watch the show."
****
Vampire nest
Sunnydale dome, Los Angeles arcology
2nd June, 2614
The first four AT teams on the scene arrived from all four sides with uncanny precision, guided by the near-AI-level computer system in the command post, which was setting up a block away. Regular patrol units set up roadblocks, diverting normal traffic away from the scene of the firefight.
Once the preliminaries were out of the way, the AT teams deployed their assault mechanoids, and gave their one and only warning.
"THIS IS THE LOS ANGELES POLICE. PLACE YOUR WEAPONS ON THE GROUND AND COME OUT WITH YOUR NEURAL NANONICS OPEN, ANY BLOCKS DEACTIVATED AND YOUR HANDS WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM. THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING."
No-one seemed to pay any attention to the warning, though, if the continuing sounds of fighting were any indication.
The tactical commander waited for sixty seconds before giving the 'go' order. With an almost eerie synchronisation, eighty heavily armed Assault Tactical police, backed up by the same number of assault mechanoids, swung into action...
And came under immediate and heavy fire from the Light Bringer cultists, who had decided to take as many of the police with them as possible.
****
Inside the nest, Jonsson regarded the arrival of the AT teams with relief. Not something I expected to feel regarding the arrival of law enforcement authorities. But it will give me and my followers a chance to escape.
He regarded his minions, whose numbers had been severely reduced by the brief yet intense battle. Barely a quarter of those who had started the battle remained, and of those, quite a few had been near-crippled by battle injuries.
Coming to a decision, he addressed his surviving followers. "Now is our chance to make good our escape. We only have this one opportunity to depart, and we must take it, in order to safeguard our future work.
"This may seem like a defeat, and in many ways, it is. But remember this; once the Summoning is completed, we shall be in a perfect position to take our revenge.
"We cannot use the same tunnel used earlier, since it poses to great a risk of our being followed to our new base of operations." Jonsson paused and held up a processor block before continuing. "The explosive charges in the tunnel have been armed and will detonate when the hatch is opened.
"That leaves only one way out: through our enemies. Divided, fighting amongst themselves, they will prove no match for us. However," he paused again and swept a burning gaze over his minions, "there will be no stopping once we launch our breakout. Kill quickly, break through their lines, and make your way to the agreed rendezvous.
"The call is - HAVOC, NO MERCY!"
"HAVOC - NO MERCY!"
The assembled vampires surged from the room, the youngest and keenest in the lead. Jonsson let them, knowing that the older and more cunning vampires would be behind them, ready to take advantage of any confusion created by the youngsters.
****
Los Angeles Police Department Precinct Headquarters
Sunnydale Dome, Los Angeles Arcology
2nd June, 2614
The assembled police officers watched as the vampires made their breakout.
The detail of the image they were watching was good enough to show the ridged foreheads, the glowing yellow eyes, and the fangs.
"Well, I guess that answers the question of what they are," Robertson muttered as the vampires ripped through the cultist ranks like a fission blade through ice. Necks were snapped, organs ripped out, and heads and limbs were ripped off, testifying to the savagery of the attack.
A few vampires were eliminated, but for every vampire turned to dust, seven cultists died brutal - but quick - deaths.
None of the watching officers were sick, a testament to the efficacy of nausea-suppression programs hastily shunted into primary mode, but more than one face bore a queasy look.
Then the vampires hit the AT line.
There were several hasty gulps as the same brutality repeated itself. Amanda would later swear that she saw one of the leading vampires rip an arm from an AT officer and use it as a bludgeon to club the maimed officer to death, before turning on the victim's fellow officers. Gives a whole new meaning to the ancient phrase 'to rip off someone's arm and beat them to death with the soggy end', she thought dazedly, bringing a tranquilliser program on-line to combat the sudden rush of nausea that thought brought on.
That particular vampire was eventually eliminated, but not before brutally savaging two more officers with the severed limb and ramming the sharp-edged fractured bone of the severed end into the face of a third officer so hard that it protruded like an extra-large nose.
Being better equipped and better prepared, the AT teams scored a better casualty rate, but the number of dead was still in the vampires' favour at a rate of three to one.
Having successfully broken through the police lines, the surviving vampires scattered, moving in too many directions at once to be tracked by the available officers on-site - those that weren't too busy tending to their own casualties, at least - and moving too quickly for the arriving AT teams to pick up their trails.
"Well, that was... disturbing," Henderson said weakly, drawing nods from all who had heard him. "Matthews, start making arrangements with local hospitals to arrange for transport and treatment of the wounded." He turned and headed for his office. "I've got a report to write."