Chapter 5
Stalkers
The rain falls down onto Macalania City and the APC in a steady stream; the dense dark gray clouds above do not look like they intend to give up their downpour anytime soon, and lightning bolts flash here and there. Most of them fork out in the distance but a couple of the bolts connect with some of the higher rising buildings of the new city.
The APC heads up a makeshift street with two uninteresting looking buildings either side of it, the machine growls to a halt about twenty meters outside the building to its right- a two story building resembling a small apartment block, where the workers of the city reside.
The hospital is to the east of the block effectively on the opposite side of the wide street, the area is completely deserted and the only sign that people ever worked here are the digging equipment, vehicles and numerous other pieces of equipment that litter the area.
Baird, having turned off the engine of the APC is now standing in front of all the marines, addressing them as they grab their weapons and equipment.
"Alright guys now listen up. New additions to the team or not, we play this by the book. Now I've decided that in order for these guys to learn how we operate and to put the rest of you at ease a little, they will stay here and observe you on the monitors here with me until you have cleared the building, at which point we will join you. Now as for the building itself this one contains living quarters on the first floor. The ground floor has offices, storage facilities, med labs for treating minor injuries and a few more living quarters. One of the offices contains a room with a computer map of the entire complex which is where we will meet once you have cleared the area. Squad A will take the first floor, there are stairs on the inside left of the entrance to the building, take them and sweep the area. Squad B you will take the ground floor, again, sweep and meet in the computer room. Got it?
"Sir!" responds everyone unanimously.
Baird turns to Frost "Frosty you know what to do, get onto the APC and take a good look at the area to check for our targets, if you see them, feel free to open fire and we will assist. If the coast is clear then we will all move once we get the all clear from you."
Frosty nods and gets out his sniper rifle, he kneels in front of the side door at the APC his rifle ready. Campbell opens up the door and Frosty scouts what he can see immediately ahead of him. He sees nothing, no shimmering air, just rain, which itself had started to slow down to a light drizzle.
He steps cautiously out, and every one of his senses go into sniper mode, his hearing drawing his attention to anything suspicious, his eyes scan the area like a hawk searching for its quarry. He slowly moves from in front of the side door round to the back of the APC.
The other marines inside ready their weapons in anticipation, knowing they are now both the hunters and the hunted. Vasquez has moved to where Frost was standing in front of the door, her Smartgun points to the outside, ready to open fire on anything her targeting computer picks up.
Frost clambers up the ladder at the rear end of the APC and stands in the center of the roof. He holds his rifle scope to his right eye and performs a careful three-sixty sweep of the area, checking roof tops and the ground alike. His keen eyes find nothing and he lowers his gun slightly and gives a sharp knock on the roof of the APC signaling the all clear.
Frost continues to scout the area through his scope, hoping to pick out random movements in the air. Unknown to Frost, his eyes failed to pick up a slight blur in the air on the building behind him when he made his sweep. The ghostlike presence remains virtually motionless, watching the vehicle and Frost.
Through the eyes of the watcher, Frost's entire body glows almost like a rainbow; his head glows white and red, his body is red and orange, and his limbs shine yellow and green. He stands out like a sore thumb from his surroundings which are mostly blue with small 'shadows' giving the stalker some definition of the shape and size of the marine's surroundings.
An odd, faint thumping noise constantly sounds in its ears, the noise can be heard along with a strange deep humming that fades away then gets louder in regular cycles. The creature makes a strange growl or purring noise followed by peculiar clicking sounds, like teeth chattering and continues watching.
Baird looks at the marines as they hear Frost's tapping. "You heard the man, Squad A move out. But make sure you watch your fire and check your targets remember there is a chance we will find civilians in here, smartgunners I want your weapons on four round bursts only, Vasquez you have point."
Beclem, Vasquez, Nadine, Campbell and Othello file quickly out of the APC and walk steadily towards the entrance of the building, their weapons and eyes sweeping their surroundings for signs of movement, the months of training being put to the ultimate test; looking for enemies that couldn't be seen.
The marine's movements are watched by another translucent form, but this time the creature's observations are above them and closer than the other one. All the troops' bodies glow with multiple colours, mostly of whites, reds, yellows, and greens. From the creatures perspective the noise of the troops footsteps are exaggerated and have an eerie electrical echo to them.
Beclem looks around himself very carefully; with his pulse rifle to his shoulder but fails to notice the small translucent anomaly on the roof of the building, dismissing it as the rain playing with him. Seeing through the eyes of their stalker it looks directly back at the ignorant Beclem from above and watches him. The group arrives at the entrance of the building and stop; a control panel to the left of the door looks broken.
Beclem looks over to Campbell "Campbell run a bypass."
"Yes sir."
Campbell gets out a small, odd looking device with numbers, small dials and a couple of electric leads dangling from the side. He walks up to the boxy controls and opens up a small panel and fiddles with a few wires, connects a few to his electronic device, it makes a few beeps and the door begins to open.
Back inside the APC Baird, Yuna, Rikku, Paine and Tidus watch the marine's movements through cameras that are connected to their helmets. Next to each video screen is another screen showing each soldier's pulse and brainwave patterns.
Beclem's voice sounds out in the APC "Looks like the power's still on here, though it looks like nobody's home."
"Roger that." Replies Baird. Through her camera Vasquez can be seen moving into the doorway first, followed by the rest of the squad who turn left to get to the staircase, then stand and wait.
"Okay second squad move in." orders Baird.
Lucil, Elma, Maddox, Stone and Biggs file out of the APC and proceed as the others had before them; once again the lucid form observes the marines, their bodies glowing colourfully in its vision.
Baird's voice sounds out in Beclem and Lucil's ear pieces "Activate motion trackers and proceed with the sweep of your respective areas."
"Roger." Reply the two sergeants.
Baird punches the roof of the APC a couple of times and Frost jumps off, steps inside and closes the door behind him.
The first group in the meantime has begun to proceed upstairs. Vasquez walks next to Beclem who is holding a motion tracker, which is making the familiar 'pip, pip, pip' noise indicating no movement; Campbell and Nadine stand behind the leaders whilst Othello brings up the rear, looking behind himself every now and again.
They reach the top of the stairs and are confronted with a long corridor; the lights cast slight shadows around the drab looking surroundings, with one or two of them flickering randomly. They proceed to move slowly down the eerily silent hall, Nadine and Campbell each duck into the rooms they pass to check for people they may have missed as they move.
"Anything?" murmurs Vasquez.
Beclem shakes his head slowly "No life signs yet, let's just keep moving."
They walk past and investigate each room, but there are no signs of life.
The second squad moves down the main corridor that was right in front of them when they first entered the building. Maddox takes point with Lucil next to him with the motion tracker, like Beclem's, her motion tracker makes no high pitches beeps either, Elma and Stone follow them and Biggs backs them up, checking behind the group frequently.
"Talk to me Lucil." Whispers Maddox
"Everything is clear no signs of life" she replies reassuringly.
Baird's voice sounds in Lucil and Beclem's ear pieces from the control room of the APC.
"How's it going in there you two?"
Lucile replies first, "We can't see any signs of life here, though there is evidence that something did happen. We have evidence of small arms fire, I've seen a few empty bullet casings lying around and bullet ricochet marks on the metal here and there."
"Beclem?" asks Baird.
"Yeah, we have similar stuff here too and then some. We've also seen small explosives damage- probably frag grenades. We're not seeing bodies though, which is kind of strange considering our perpetrator's modus operandi.
"Well keep looking."
"Roger."
A translucent figure; the one that had watched the marines from above the building that they had entered jumps off of the building and thuds to the floor then seemingly stands upright. It looks at the group who are now about 50 metres away from it, heading further down the hallway. It moves into the building but turns left and up the stairs, it's feet faintly thumping on the cold metal as it moves. It reaches the top of the stairs and takes a quick glance of the first squad who just turn round a corner and disappears from its sight.
Outside the block a second shimmering figure leaps down from the roof of the building and watches the second squad that is now even further away. It moves slowly towards them and this time it doesn't move to the left to take the stairs, it continues to move towards the squad, closing the gap until they stand only around twenty meters away from them, then it quickly and quietly ducks into a room on the right.
Upstairs, the second squad's motion tracker makes the high pitched 'beep, beep' noise for a few seconds making everyone freeze, but the noise abruptly stops.
Beclem speaks into his earpiece "Hey first squad we picked up a movement signal, was that you we just read? We are standing next to room 72. The signal was there for a few seconds then disappeared and it was too close to us on the motion tracker for us to not have seen it right in front of us, was it one of you guys?"
"Could have been me, I was trailing there for a few moments." Speaks up Biggs
"Damn it Biggs, don't leave us for a second you know what we're up against. We can't be distracted by friendly readings." Scolds Lucil
"Sorry ma'am."
"You got that Beclem?"
Beclem rolls his eyes, "Biggs you arse, I thought we were gonna be mincing something there for a second."
"Sorry to disappoint you sir. You can take pot shots at me when we get back to the shooting range sir."
Beclem snorts in amusement. He the others enter a large room that was more like an office than a place of residence. They gather around a hole in the ceiling, directly below which is a hole in the floor and another slightly smaller hole below that.
"Hey Baird, are you seeing this? It looks… melted, I can't tell what the hell did this, I don't think there was any mention of our 'friends' being able to do something like this. What do you think?"
"I don't know Beclem and frankly I'm not sure I want to find out what did that, maybe the targets have some sort of welding tool that wouldn't have been used in those earlier attacks. Continue your sweep."
The soldiers get up and move on past the hole; milliseconds before a quick shimmer of light runs across the hole below on the first floor and disappears. The two squads finish their sweeps only to find nothing.
"Sir this place looks dead. Whatever happened here has long been finished." says Lucil.
"I'll second that sir, all we can find is evidence if a fire fight and no bodies of any kind. We found a few blood stains here and there but they are only small ones, nothing to indicate that they were mutilated like those guards."
"Alright fall back to the computer room, we're coming in."
Squad A turns to head back the way they came, Vasquez and Othello, now bringing up the rear talk under their breath.
"They're coming in. I feel safer already." Says the large man sarcastically.
"Damn jerk offs." Scowls Vasquez
The figure who had followed squad B peeks around a corner and sees the squad heading back towards it about forty metres away. It moves out from the stairs and ducks quickly and silently into the first room on its left and remains hidden from the view of the doorway and remains utterly motionless.
Baird, Bishop, Frost, Yuna, Rikku, Paine and Tidus walk through the main door and turn left towards the stairs but go past them down a short corridor. Ten meters further down Baird turns into a room, followed by the others.
Beclem's squad move by the final room having been unable to detect the creature thanks to its motionless stance, Othello gives a quick peek into the room but sees nothing, the creature having hidden behind a corner in the room that could not be seen by anyone unless they went into the room.
Lucil's squad heads towards the main entrance ignoring the previously swept rooms. From within one of the rooms the second stalker watches from over the top of a desk giving a clear view of the open doorway.
The colourful forms of Lucil and Maddox walk by and the ghostly shape poking above the desk remains frozen on the spot until the two soldiers finish walking by. The other three marines trailing slightly leave a time gap for the watcher to slowly duck back down and listen for the other two to walk past. Elma and Stone walk by the door, quickly followed up by Biggs who pauses for a second and glances into the office.
"Hey Biggs, keep up." says Elma.
Biggs moves on from the door with a huff, catching up to the others. The amplified thumping of Biggs' steps in the creature's ear fades away slowly as he makes his way back to the group. It stands up and makes a quite purring sound and moves to the edge of the door and peaks round to watch the group move away and turn right, following in the footsteps of the others.
Yuna, Rikku, Paine, Tidus and the others mill about in the communications room, only to stop to turn their heads in the direction of the door as Lucil and her squad walk in.
The room has a number of communication consoles and various pieces of electronic equipment secured to the steel walls. Part of the room has a few rows of lockers, some of which are open and empty. Baird, Bishop and Frost lean over a central console about the size of a pool table and facing in an upwards direction, that gives off a white and blue glow.
The marines gather round it as soon as the new arrivals have all entered the room and closed the door behind them, only Beclem stays away from the group as he stands facing the door, Pulse rifle pointing in the air in one hand and motion tracker in the other hand aimed as accurately as he could guess in the general direction of the main entrance.
Baird speaks up, loudly enough to make sure that Beclem can keep up with the conversation "This is a map of the entire 'city' this building here with the small red dot is the one we are in right now," he points to the red dot "This one here, about 200 meters east of us is the hospital and med labs," he points to a building with a large white 'H' over it "There is some pretty interesting equipment in there I hear, medical and then some, Bishop would be in his element there. Now, see these two buildings here?" he points to two buildings further from their location than the hospital. "The left one here is the main power source for the city, its designers call it the 'Ultima reactor'. This building here, the one to the west of the reactor is the control center of the reactor; they are both situated five hundred meters north of this building."
Yuna looks at Baird "What's the deal with the Ultima reactor?"
"It is pretty much like it sounds. The core of the reactor is constantly generating Ultima spells, using incredibly sophisticated methods that virtually no one understands, the designers have been able to harness the energy released in an Ultima spell and convert it into electrical energy. Nooj, Gippal and Baralai wanted to create the most advanced City in the world here you see. But an advanced city needs an advanced power supply and it doesn't get much more advanced than this thing, it produces massive amounts of energy and with no detrimental emissions. So long as none of the core systems is ruptured or the coolant goes offline, then it is perfectly stable and provides a clean and eternally renewable energy source."
Rikku blinks a few times "Wait what happens if one of those things does happen?"
"Well if the problem is not fixed in time or the core is not shut down, Macalania will be a very quiet neighborhood for at least fifty years. The reactor will explode in one enormous Ultima spell that would certainly devastate the entire area of Macalania."
Rikku rolls her eyes in dismay "Oh is that all? Geez you don't need to sound so casual about it. 50 years? What the heck is it that would stop us from living here for that long?"
"After the main Ultima explosion the entire area will be… saturated if you like, with stagnant Ultima energy. This energy will remain here for the next fifty years or so and the only way that energy will dissipate is through the creation of many smaller Ultima spells, these will go on appearing over the district randomly for that period of time making it extremely dangerous for people to be here."
Rikku and the others stare at him bewildered.
"Snap out of it all of you, that's not going to happen ok?" says Baird, slightly irritated. "Hey Campbell use the computer to give us the status of the reactor and its vital components."
Campbell moves over to another console and starts tapping away at a few keys "Okay let's see here," He plays with a console for a few moments. "Here's the lowdown, the reactor is online and stable and no coolant issues can be detected, I can't see any problems, so we're safe from that at least."
"That's reassuring." Said Rikku, though she did not sound entirely convinced.
"Right we've swept this area, our next objective is to check out the hospital there may be survivors there or have some records as to what happened here. Not only that, but there is a computer there that has a scanning device that can read life signs, if there are any survivors in Macalania at all then that computer will find them."
The creature that had been following squad B stands at the top of the stairs and makes an odd clicking/ purring noise. With lightly thudding footsteps it moves down to the bottom of the stairs and heads to the exit of the complex. It is joined by the second ghostlike figure and they stand next to each other making clicking and growling noises.
Beclem's motion tracker starts beeping and two small white dots appear on the tracker's screen.
"Whoa! I have movement here, two signals, they've appeared out of nowhere and they're only 11 metres away, they were heading to the exit but they seem to have stopped going anywhere." The two white dots on the screen suddenly move across the screen and then disappear completely.
"It looks like they just moved out through the exit. This doesn't make sense, they must have been inside this building the whole time and yet we didn't see them. Their cloaking ability is incredible and they must have been standing perfectly still too because the trackers didn't detect anything until now." Beclem was visibly and audibly worried and for good reason.
"What shall we do sir? Shall we go out and fight?" asks Beclem.
"No it's probably a trap, they know we're here and they know we're here for them, if we move now they will probably be standing on the roof of the building looking straight down at the door ready to take a shot at anything that moves. I think we should stake this out, test their patients, if they don't have very much patients they will give up and come here to get us and we will have an advantage thanks to the doorway, which can act like a bottle neck."
"And when shall we leave? We can't stay here forever." Asks Lucil.
"I say we stay here for an hour, I don't think any bloodthirsty human would want to wait that long for us to get out of here, they would probably give up. In the meantime, lock up that door there by the comm. panel and keep the other tracker facing it. Maddox you will have point when we move and Vasquez you guard our six, those Smartguns can pick up anything that's moving, even something invisible. The rest of you stay between them and keep your eyes peeled, remember there are supposedly five of these things and we just saw two of them. Oh and one more thing you two; I want your guns on full automatic for this and shoot at anything that moves no matter what size it is, so long as its in front of you and not behind. As for the rest of us we are to stay between those two, do not drift in front of them, we don't want incidents of friendly fire."
"Yes sir," Says everyone in unison.
"Good, Vasquez and Beclem, for the next hour I want your attention fixed to that door ok?" The two marines nod affirmatively and turn towards the door.
Time seemed to slow down for everyone as they anxiously await the hour to be up. The four friends were surprised at how little everyone spoke, it was eerily quite. Most of the marines just sat down with their weapons, nodded intermittently towards each other, or gave no eye contact at all and just stared at the floor or the girls. The only consistent sound was the pip-pipping of the motion trackers, which registered no movement nearby.
"Good thing Vasquez and Maddox are the ones using the Smartguns and no one else, they can't start a fight that way… unless they turn on us… what if they do? What if those things don't make and appearance and they decided to break the ice and turn on Paine…not that she can't handle herself, but this is not the time or the place."
"You ok Yunie?" whispers Rikku, having noticed her looking distant and thoughtful.
"I was just thanking the fact that Maddox and Vasquez are distracted right now so they can't cause any trouble for us."
"Huh, I don't think Lucil, Elma, Beclem or Baird would allow anything to happen, you should quit worrying about those around us and be more concerned with those… things out there." She gives Yuna a small, comforting smile and looks around her at all the tense individuals in the room, each one anxious to get out of the room as soon as possible.
No one was entirely sure whether they wanted to be inside or outside. Inside they knew they were safe, but for how long? Their stalkers could come for them at any time; this made the atmosphere uncomfortably claustrophobic, like an itch that couldn't be scratched. Outside of course, they were unsafe, and in the open for attack. But if they were outside there would be an element of certainty; action was guaranteed, and no matter what the possibilities are of getting killed, to the marines, action was what they liked, it was what they were trained for, not waiting around.
The time trundled on by and soon Baird was checking his watch with increasing frequency, obviously getting as impatient as everyone else. Sensing a change in Baird's demeanor those marines who had put their weapons down began migrating back to where they had put them.
Baird took another glance at his watch then looked at all the marines "Ok grab your gear, it's time to roll"
There is a flurry of activity in the room as everyone grabs their weapons and move to where Beclem and Vasquez stand. Vasquez herself steps back to make way for Maddox, who points his Smartgun at the door. Beclem moves over to a small electronic panel next to the door and presses a couple of buttons, unlocking it. The door opens automatically, thanks to Beclem and Maddox's proximity to it. Maddox walks through the doorway and turns left, heading slowly towards the open exit with Beclem right next to him, motion tracker and rifle in hand with everyone else in tow.
They reach the exit but wait just inside allowing everyone to group together and get ready for the run to the APC. Beclem checks his motion tracker which shows no readings. He looks at Baird and nods for the 'go ahead'. Baird acknowledges and looks over at everyone, raising his arm into the air at the same time. He makes a small throwing motion with his arm and everyone jogs out of the exit without word.
Vasquez brings up the rear as instructed but is forced to move backwards to make sure their rears were covered by her gun. Lucil stands next to her, her motion tracker pointing in the direction of the building, suddenly the motion tracker starts beeping and two white dots appear on the screen.
"I've got two readings! They waited for us!" Shouts Lucil. Without giving any of them time to react, a loud metallic 'bang' echoes through the area and Biggs grabs his waist, yelling in pain.
"OW! Son of a Behemoth, it got me!"
Baird glances back at Biggs "Keep moving! Vasquez can you pick up the shooter?"
"No!" she calls out, looking around frantically.
Another shot rings out.
"Aaaaahhh!" hollers Tidus, who is already beginning to bleed from his arm. He falters in his running but manages to stay on his feet.
"TIDUS!" screams Yuna looking to her lover.
"I'll be okay, just keep going!" he replies, clutching his left arm.
Vasquez's Smartgun suddenly moves itself on its pivot, pointing to something on Vasquez's right against the wall of the complex and emits an audible bleeping noise, indicating it had found a target.
"Eat this you freak!" roars Vasquez pulling the trigger on the gun.
The deep booms of the smart gun ring out and the muzzle of the barrel flashes fiercely as it hoses out bullets. A couple of meters to the right of the door they had just come out of the bullets hit their translucent target causing splatters of fluorescent green liquid to hit the wall of the complex. An inhuman cry of anguish emanates from the injured creature and small crackles of blue electricity flash across its body. Vasquez looks at the creature as it begins to appear out of thin air and slump to the ground. In her haste she fails to get a prolonged look at her kill but notices the metal mask covering its face, concealing its identity.
"What the hell is that thing?" she shouts out as Maddox reaches the APC and opens it up allowing everyone to scramble inside.
She steals one last quick glance at it as she steps inside the vehicle and shuts the door, seeing a body lying on the floor covered in the fluorescent green substance, that she could only assume was its blood. Baird wastes no time in starting the APC up and accelerates the vehicle, covering the short distance to the hospital in seconds, he brings it to a halt outside the main entrance of the building. The marines dash out of the armored vehicle and into the complex locking the door to the building behind them.
The dying creature lays on the floor, looking up to the sky, struggling to breathe, its facial expressions impossible to see through the silvery mask it wears, the large 'eyes' of the mask were dark, with no light coming from inside. The part of the mask covering its mouth and nose is almost like a rectangular shaped pig snout, without nose holes and the top of the mask extends to cover the top of its head. Attached to its waist are several skulls, some of them not human but they looked like they were once dangerous creatures, with razor sharp teeth attached to their jaw bones.
Physiologically it is much bigger than a human at least two and a half metres tall and weighing about three hundred pounds. Long, inch thick, black dreadlocks hang from around the mask it wears and each dreadlock has two or three golden pieces of metal circling them, probably for decorative purposes. Its skin is a mottled pale yellow, four pairs of thick abdominal muscles are well defined under its skin, which has now been slightly minced by the Smartgun, and fluorescent green blood spatters its body.
Its forearms are wrapped in two metal devices, one has two jagged shiny blades sticking out of it and the other, whilst slightly bigger, doesn't look like it serves a purpose. Attached its right shoulder was some sort of small cannon like object that faced the same direction as the creatures head. The creature makes a coughing like noise and its chest and head shudder slightly, the shoulder cannon mimics the movements of the creatures head. The creature takes a few throaty breaths and makes a few clicking noises.
Seemingly from thin air, four more masked creatures appear around it with the same electrical flickering, standing over their fallen comrade and look on. The dying creature looks at his comrades and inhales a few more throaty breaths before finally succumbing to its injuries. The other creatures look at each other and then their fallen accomplice. One of them makes a deep growling sound and two of the creatures pick up the deceased and carry it elsewhere.
