Chapter 23: Air Superiority.
"I have twelve in the street to the right and two hundred in the street to the left" T'Kell called to the rest of the team in their cover positions, she was using her adaptive camo to her advantage and scouting ahead for them.
Spike had tied her comms into the Spirits network now so she could speak to them, so even though she was a hundred yard ahead of them they heard her like she was right next to them, they were using a local transmission mode that only sent the signal over a two hundred yard distance so they didn't tie up the main radio net, another one of Spike's additions to their comms tech.
"Roger that, moving up, we're going right anyway according to the map, the main hub seems to be located in an industrial area not far from here, its all warehouses and factories, so hopefully it shouldn't be too crowded," Tank said.
"Hope is all we do have down here," Moodstone said as they all began to move forwards in a staggered line with Tank at the rear swinging that massive gun of his back and forth in a large arc, Moodstone had seen that gun on full cycle only a couple of times, usually the threat of the damn thing did the job, but the sheer level of devastation the thing could produce was utterly awe inspiring.
But as strong as he was it still slowed him down as it was rather heavy, even though he'd cut down the weight on the thing using very light weight metals and parts, but it still weighed a ton, Moodstone had once tried to move the thing off his work bench in the armory when she was feeling kinda, ahem, amorous, yeah it didn't quite go to plan, she'd planed on doing a sultry climb onto his bench and waving her tail in his face and asking him if there was something else he'd care to work on.
Yeah, it hadn't gone to plan, she got hold of the damn thing before pulling it off the counter only for it to fall on her and pin her to the floor, he'd noticed her wheezing and squeaking on the floor and had showed off his spectacular strength by picking up the gun in one hand and her in the other, he'd put the gun down on one table and her on the work bench, "If ye'd wanted a place to sit, me wee lounge lizard, ye just had to ask," he'd said, she'd showed off what strength she had by pulling him off his feet and onto the work bench, apparently Tank had been calibrating Reaper's PIMP gun because he'd walked in moments later, took one look at them on the bench before promptly doing an about face and marching off yelling about door locks.
The group turned right, down the nearly abandoned street and began moving, there were twelve of them wandering around, as the group moved towards them they began to pay attention, what they didn't see was T'Kell moving ahead of them until they began to fall down, minus their heads or with rather large holes punched through them, and the ones that T'Kell didn't get Moodstone did, with a series of well placed and carefully aimed shots.
"It is clear, we should push up," T'Kell, said before Spike stopped in the middle of the road holding up a hand, instantly they all froze and began swinging their weapons through firing arcs, trying to see what he'd picked up on.
"Anyone else hear that?" he said in a low voice, and they all listened hard.
"I don't...wait...yeah, what is that?" Moodstone asked, hearing something on the edge of hearing, they all tried listening hard, T'Kell moved in a circle, trying to get a fix on a direction among the echoing streets.
"This way! It's coming from over here!" she said, indicating an alleyway off the street, the group formed up on her and began to move, the alley tightened up their formation to a single file with T'Kell in the lead on point, followed by Spike, then Moodstone and Tank walking backwards in the rear, stupidly, they all fell foul of that one flaw that all species seem to have, no one ever seems to look up.
The threat didn't announce itself with a groan or even a blood curdling wail, just a whistling noise as it fell out of the sky, right onto Spike, slamming him hard into the ground, "Holy shit!" he yelled as he wrestled with the undead female Yautja that now had two broken legs thanks to the fall from the tenth story window straight down onto Spike, if it hadn't been for his incredibly strong armor he'd have been dead for sure, but, as it was, he was now pinned and defenceless as his gun had been knocked from his hands by the impact.
The undead Yautja flared her gross and torn mandibles, letting out an almighty roar, Spike got a good look at her and, oh boy, was she ugly, death had seriously not been kind to this woman, her skin, which had once been yellow and green with hints of gold, was now mottled and blue, covered in pulsing black veins, but given that these creatures didn't have a heartbeat he didn't know why they were pulsing.
Her eyes were milky white and cold, making it impossible to tell what colour they'd been before, huge chunks of flesh hung limply from her mandibles and from her neck where she'd been bitten and something had torn dirty great chunks out of her, she roared again and lunged forwards, clamping her mandibles over his face plate.
From inside his helmet Spike had a terrifying view of her inner mouth and her jagged teeth as she snapped at his face, trying to take a bite out of him, they screeched and scraped along the toughened glass, Spike writhed, trying in vain to break free or to reach his combat blade against his spine, but her weight had him utterly pinned down, then, with an almighty roar, the female was hoisted off him and thrown into the wall of the alleyway head first, her skull making a solid thwok as it hit concrete.
"Get your stinking undead hands off my male!" T'Kell roared, without her weapons, she grabbed the female by the scruff of the neck and repeatedly smashed her skull against the concrete, causing dark brown undead Yautja blood to leak out and coat her face as it was repeatedly smashed against the wall over and over until her skull gave, but T'Kell wasn't done, with an almighty roar that shook the very air of the alleyway, she gripped the Yauta's head and, showing off her truly frightening strength, which Spike had had a taste of himself, she tore her head and spine right out of her body and roared in her undead face.
Flipping the skull over in her hand to hold it by the end of her spine, she used the skull like a mace and smashed the now very dead body away from her before pitching the skull down the alleyway where it vanished from sight, "You are not worthy of a trophy, you pauk," she snarled, before spinning on the spot and running to Spike's side as he struggled to get up, "Are you ok, my Spike? Did she hurt you? Do I need to tend your wounds?" T'Kell asked in rapid fire, her worry obvious in her voice, Spike's heart swelled in his chest, never once in his life had he had anyone show him care like this.
"So this is what Yautja love is, huh?" he said softly to himself, but thanks to the aural amplification her hunting mask afforded her she heard him, and she nodded, steadying him on his feet as she got him up.
"You'd best believe it, my male, I swore I would protect you and I take my oaths to my grave," she said, turning him around a couple of times so she could check to see if he was injured and hiding it from her.
He patted her large hands and gently pried them off his armor, "I'm good, T'Kell, just got the wind knocked out of me and I think she scratched my visor, but this stuff is pretty tough, you know I've had a few dreams where pretty huntresses drop out of the sky before trying to carry me off, that wasn't what I had in mind," he said, deflecting his still dissipating fear, he knew that the Queen bee would be able to see his vitals, and they must be off the chart by now.
T'Kell snarled and huffed, "I am only huntress who may carry you away now," she said snottily, and Spike couldn't help but laugh at her jealously at the imaginary huntresses trying to steal him away from her, he reached up and patted her on the massive shoulder.
"Yes, you are, T'Kell, yes you are," he said, smiling at her through the glass of his visor, she leaned forwards and bumped her mask against his visor with a solid but gentle thwok and he actually heard her purr under mask.
"Holy shit, it actually happened, it actually fucking happened! Spike got himself a wee lassie! Shit! Everyone! Quickly! Look for a guy riding a fucking white horse! The wee bastard has to be around here somewhere!" Tank exclaimed, pretending to look around in a panic, Moodstone punched him in the shoulder, making him roar in laughter.
T'Kell stood up straight and her plasma casters cycled up and she began looking around herself, "White horse? What white horse? I see no one," she said, and Moodstone laughed at this and T'Kell snapped towards her, her dreads fanning out, she obviously didn't like being laughed at or being the butt of a joke.
"He's being a tailhole, he referring to an ancient Earth text which refers to four horsemen that signal the coming of the end times, there are supposed to be signs that signal their coming and he making a joke about Spike getting a girlfriend as one of them as no one expected to ever happen, no offence, Spike," Moodstone said.
T'Kell huffed haughtily, "I am not his girlfriend..." she began.
"Oh, thank the gods, then we're safe," Tank said, grinning at her, she growled at him menacingly.
"...I am his life mate" she finished.
"Oh god, we're doomed," Tank said, and T'Kell growled at him.
"He is your male, so I will ask first, may I punch him till he is unconscious?" T'Kell asked, looking at Moodstone, who laughed.
"Tempting offer, but then I'd have to kill you and skin you, my male, my rules," Moodstone said, and T'Kell huffed again.
"This love thing is odd, how do you cope with him? Does he not infuriate you," T'Kell asked, Moodstone gestured for her to come closer and whispered in her ear and T'Kell's head popped upright.
"I will remember this thing!" she said, enthusaticaly looking at Spike, who looked kinda embarassed, ok very embarassed and mortified.
"Ummm, Moodstone, your comms are on," he said, and she smiled.
"Oh, I know," she said, before Tank's witty reply to her slur was cut out by a wet crunch to their left, and they turned to find another undead, this time a human had fallen from another window above them.
"Err, it appears to be raining men, time to leave!" Moodstone said.
"Hallelujah," Tank called, and the group quickly formed up after Spike retrieved his gun and they headed off in the direction of the sound, which was still coming on the wind in the distance.
After the alleyway the terrain opened out into a large area filled with shops, it looked like a large open air mall of some kind, shops offering everything from new cars to to the very best Yautja pedicures, there was even a shop that offered all over scale waxing and coat brushing, but for such an open large area it was surprisingly empty, didn't take the team long to find out why.
The area was mostly made up of large open cobbled areas for pedestrians filled with palm trees and plants and places to sit and eat or just admire the architecture and statues that were littered about, but there were one or two small roads for deliveries, it was in the centre of one of these roads that a large crowd of undead were assembled, at the centre of the mass appeared to be a white articulated hover truck, but it wasn't the truck that the crowd were interested in, more what was on top of it.
There appeared to be a small team of people on top of the truck, from where they stood they could see three standing and one laid down, "Civvies at three o clock," Tank said, pointing towards the truck, as the group spotted them the three who were standing began waving their arms about yelling for help.
"Alright, time to work, people, we need to get that group of undead away from the civvies, Tank, T'Kell, and myself will draw them off and see what damage we can do, Spike, once you have a clear shot get onto that track and see what you can do to help," Moodstone said, her voice taking on an authoritive tone.
"Roger that," both Tank and Spike said at once, T'Kell nodded in agreement.
"Got a plan?" Spike asked, Moodstone nodded then turned to Tank.
"Time to spin up that gun of yours, my love," she said, and he grinned under his helmet.
"You always say the sweetest things, sugar tail," he said, hefting his huge gun.
"Spread out and get a firing line, remember to aim for their heads, if not, get as many on the ground and we'll finish them off later!" Moodstone called, running off to the left, T'Kell took her cue and, cycling up her dual plasma casters, she went right, Tank turned and hefted the plasma minigun which, as he clicked a button on the grip, began to spin up, making two sets of whines as one set of barrels began to spin clockwise and the larger inner set began to cycle counter clockwise.
"Lets dance, ya dead fuckers!" Tank yelled a split second before his gun unleashed a fury few seldom saw and fewer still survived, the outer ring of barrels spat bright blue projectiles so fast it looked like an electic blue line being drawn from the gun into the crowd of undead, there were eight barrels on the outer ring all set for the same calibre as the assault rifles, roughly 7.62 mm the inner barrels, however, there were only four of them, and with good reason, as these bad boys spat projectiles roughly 20mm in size, when they hit they tended to blow targets in half, they were primarily used for light armored vehicles, or taking down fighters, but they worked rather well against the undead.
Tank's minigun carved out a wedge of the undead, taking limbs off left and right and burning sizzling holes through everything they touched, "Yaaaaaa! Come on, ya fuckers! Whatcha got!?" Tank bellowed as his guns made an unholy noise that sounded like someone fitted chain saws to a dragon, he knew that head shots would be difficult to pull off with this gun as it could only be fired from the hip, so he aimed at the ground, trying to take off legs and feet, the 20mm did this very nicely, cutting legs off at the hip before carrying on to take three or four more beyond them.
The crowd contained a couple of thousand undead at least, there had been quite a few behind the truck they hadn't seen that made an entrance at the sound from Tank's weapon, both Moodstone and T'Kell we're doing their part but being more choosy over their targets which thanks to Tank acting like a human weed whacker and taking down the horde like a combine running through a field of undead wheat.
Tank did his part and the horde focused solely on him, he began to walk backwards away from them, shredding as many as he could, Spike decided this was the time to move, hugging the glass of the walls, he moved, keeping his weapon up and in the shoulder, he circled around the moving horde, dispatching any who paid any attention to him, his weapon was quiet before the ambient noise of Tank's gun doing it's dragon juggling chainsaw impression, now it was utterly silent, so he was able to slip behind the distracted horde and approach the truck, using the cab, he climbed up onto the bonnet, not being very graceful about it, the three people on the roof of the trailer were doing jumping jacks and waving their arms, kinda hard to tell their species from down here, but he was pretty sure they were human.
As he climbed up over the windscreen of the truck the group finally noticed him and the gun he had trained on them, "Easy now, no sudden moves, keep those hands where I can see them and we won't have a problem and, while we're on the subject, fingers away from triggers, if you please," Spike said softly.
The figures were all dressed in what appeared to be some form of make shift armor made from heavy lather and what appeared to be sports pads, including what appeared to stuffed designed to allow humans to compete in Yautja wrestling.
"Please! You have to help us! My husband is hurt! Please help us!" the closest figure to him said in a desperate sounding voice, it sounded feminine but was hard to tell behind the what looked to be a hocky mask that covered their face and the hood of their leather highway man's coat did the rest.
The figure gestured to the grounded figure who'd had his mask and hood removed and Spike instantly saw a Felenis male with yellow fur with black spots, his face was screwed up in pain and he appeared to be holding his leg, Spike moved closer, keeping his gun trained on the armed civilians, though only two of them had firearms, and they appeared to be ballistic types, though incredibly old ballistic types, as he saw an MP7 and what appeared to be a Tommy gun.
The others appeared to have melee weapons, one a baseball bat filled with nails and the other a rather long and wicked looking sword that reminded him of the Japanese Katana that Reaper had given T'Shara for her birthday one year.
"Is he bit?" Spike asked flatly, looking at the bloody bandage wrapped around his leg, the figure in the white hocky mask shook it's head.
"No, it's a break, he fell after I got grabbed by one of those things in the shop where we were raiding for food to take back to our camp," the figure said, lifting their mask to reveal the face of a young human male in his mid twenties with snow white colored skin and bright red hair kinda like Tank's, "Please you have to help him! I-I-I can't lose him, please!" the young man said, falling to his knees to cradle the male Felenis's head in his hands.
Spike was by no means a doctor, but he, like every Spirit, had extensive field surgery and medical training, he slung his weapon and decided to help if he could, it was why they were there after all, he knelt down next to the fallen Felenis and opened the fieldmedical kit from his pack, "Alright, I'm going to take a look at what we got here, I'm going to remove the bandage, this is going to hurt, I'm sorry, once I see what I'm dealing with I'll give you something for the pain," he said.
"Why not give it to him first?" the young man asked, looking at him, Spike shook his head.
"Because I'm going to check his wound first, if this is a bite then there's nothing I can do," Spike said, and the man looked distraught, and that made Spike a little suspicious.
"I already told you, he's not bit!" the man said in a fear filled voice.
Spike shook his head, "Sorry if I can't take you at your word, people will say anything to protect someone they love, It's not a flaw, just instinct, but a bite puts everyone at risk, and there's no cure, one bite and then you get that," he said, gesturing to the remainder of the horde that was now pretty much all on the ground under the weight of fire that Tank was putting down on them.
Spike knelt down and very gently unwrapped the bloody makeshift bandage from the male Felenis's shin, instantly he could see that it wasn't a bite and was just like the man had said, it was a compound fracture, and a rather nasty one, the jagged spike of pearl white bone was sticking up through his shin, "Alright, good, now I can see it's not a bite we'll get this shit fixed up in no time, just leave it to Doctor Spike, first, let's give you a shot of the good stuff, don't you worry, when you wake up you'll be sore as fuck but with all your bone inside your body, where it's meant to be," he said, trying to speak softly to the pain filled Felenis who just looked at him with huge golden eyes.
Spike pulled a hypo from his kit and pressed it against the male's neck and, with a click and a hiss, it injected him with a very strong pain killer that went directly to his brain, making his pupils open into huge black moons in his eyes that made nearly all the gold vanish, then, with that, he closed his eyes and passed out.
"You killed him!" the human man screamed, reaching for his weapon, but Spike was faster, jamming his combat knife against the man's throat when he saw the other twitch, they all froze in place.
"Not dead, sleeping, I gave him a high dose of Fexamine, it will speed up the healing process and kill his pain, side effect knocks him the fuck out, now, unless you want his skin to heal around his bone sticking out of his leg you need to trust me, if I was going to kill him, I'd have just put a bullet into his brain," Spike said calmly.
The man relaxed and nodded, obviously feeling the blade against his throat, 'I-I-I'm sorry, p-p-please, I'm just scared, please, he's all I have, I can't lose him," the man said in a stammering voice.
"I get it, seriously, I do, but you need to let me work, ok? I'm not going to hurt him, if I was I'd have already done it," Spike said, and he let the man go, slipping his knife back into the sheath against his spine and kneeling back next to the stricken Felenis.
"Ok, I'm going to work on his leg, he's out cold so he won't feel a thing, but you can hold his paw, ok?" Spike said softly, looking at the striken and scared young human, the man nodded gratefully and knelt down next to his husband, taking his limp paw into his hands and holding it tightly, they were both wearing gloves so it hid it but he held on tightly.
Spike took a real deep breath as he looked down at the broken leg, he seriously wished Ice was here right now, he'd never set a bone before but he'd practiced on the virtual simulators and had got a passing score and, like all Spirit training, they practiced until they could do it blindfolded and in zero G, so, with another deep breath to calm his nerves, he took hold of the man's foot and pulled it to pull the bone back into the leg.
The bone made a wet pop, followed by a sickening click noise as the two jagged ends met up again, next thing he did was wrap the wound site in a coagulant coated, self-adjusting pressure bandage, this stopped bleeding by coagulating blood and holding pressure on the wound, once the bleeding stopped it slowly released the grip until it was comfortable.
The next thing he pulled out was a nano splint, this thing was a modern medical miracle, it was two rings that snapped into place around any limb and then generated a low voltage force field around the limb, forcing it straight, the beauty of this was it was tiny and could fit around any limb, regardless of size, and could be easily carried in a small med kit like the one Spike had.
Once he placed it on the male's leg it powered up and generated a glowing green field that straightened his leg out, "Ok, all good, that should hold him for now until we can properly cast it," Spike said, looking at his handy work and nodding.
"H-He's going to be ok?" the male said, and Spike nodded.
"He's going to be just fine, we just need to get him somewhere safe, do you guys have a place?" Spike asked, deciding to pump the guy for usable intel, the man nodded and looked utterly relieved, he leaned and hugged his husband tightly.
"Oh, thank god for you, thank god, you saved my Chem, thank you thank you so so much," he said, his voice choked with tears.
"You're most welcome, so, you guys have anywhere safe to go?" Spike asked again, suddenly a boom echoed from their right and they all spun to see T'Kell standing up and they all stood, staring at the 8ft tall huntress as she stood up with her plasma casters still spinning on her shoulders with the green lasers shining a triple dot mark where she looked, funny how he hadn't even noticed that she used a different color to most Yautja until right now, she looked every bit the fearsome warrior that she was, "Whoa, easy guys, she's with me," Spike said at the twitchy civvies.
"She's wth you?" the young human holding Chem said, and Spike nodded.
"This is T'Kell of the Yautja Halkrath special forces, she's here to help, I'm Spike of the Spirits, the small one down there capping fallen undead is Moodstone and the guy with the really big gun who's basically a human combine harvester for the undead is Tank," Spike said.
"Special forces? A-A-Are you here to help us?" one of the others stood on the truck asked, looking at him, although it was hard to tell, this one sounded female, though, so did the guy at first.
"That's the plan, yes, we're to find out what happened here and to rescue any survivors so that means you guys and any others you got with you," Spike said.
"Hey, were you guys in those pods we saw come down a couple of days ago?" the final member of the human crew asked, his voice was unmistakably male, it was deeper than Spike's, and his was pretty deep.
"Yeah, that was us, or at least the Spirits anyway, T'Kell here was already down here, all the anti air meant that was the only way we could get down here," Spike said.
The final male who was dressed in a black shotgun coat and the same mish mash of armor that the others wore, including mask, pushed the third one, "I told you it was a rescue team Amy! Would you fucking listen? Noooooo," he said, sounding smug.
The woman named Amy rubbed her arm where he had pushed her, "Alright, Mark, you were right, what do you want, a fucking medal?" she asked, he snorted and crossed his arms over his chest.
"I'd take a fucking sandwich at this point," he said, and Amy laughed.
"You and me both," she said, both Spike and T'Kell just glanced at one another.
"Honestly I'm just glad you're not the West Side boys at this point," Mark said, and Spike glanced at him curiously.
"West Side boys?" he asked.
Mark sighed and then growled, his hatred obvious as he sounded like he was chewing a mouthful of gravel as he spoke, "A bunch of shit sucking degenerates, and that's me being polite, they weren't much more than a nuisance before this, the police kept them to their little area and away from most people, but now with all this shit? It's like they found their element, to them it's just an excuse to snatch up everything they want, and that includes people, then kill anyone that stands in their way, they're worse than fucking animals, man, they hit our compound like twice, trying to take our shit, its hard enough to survive this shit without them to fight as well," Mark said with bitterness in his voice.
Spike and T'Kell looked at one another, a hostile element was not something they needed right now, Spike thumbed his comms, "Spike to Queen Bee, have intel regarding possible hostile faction on ground, please advise all Spirits and attempt location, over," he said.
"Roger that, Spike, I'll see what I can find out from up here, you watch your six down there, the last thing we need is for you guys to get locked into a drawn out conflict with some wanna be gangbangers, only engage if need be, over and out," she replied.
"Message received and understood, Spike out," he said, closing the comms.
"Ok, guys, we're going to help you get your friend back to your base and we'll see what we can do from there, we can't lift anyone out until we get the air defences down, so we got some work to do," Spike said.
"My name is Terrance, but everyone calls me Terry, and this is the love of my life, Chem, we were all out looking for supplies to keep our group from starving to death, there's about forty of us hold up in a warehouse not far from here," the young man holding Chem said, pointing to a set of shopping carts loaded with supplies obviously lifted for the shops here.
"Ok, you guys lead the way and we'll follow you," Spike said.
"Hold up, how do we know we can trust you?" Adam asked, looking at Spike.
"Ummm, I'd say the fact we just royally pulled your asses out of a very big fire and saved your man's life here, I'd say thats reason enough," Spike said, trying to keep his tone calm, he knew dealing with civilians could be torturous at times as they didn't have military instilled discipline and training, they could be unpredictable at best and damn right suicidal at worst.
"Adam, shut the fuck up, these guys just saved our lives, they didn't have to but they just took out a horde that size on their own, I think we fucking ow them big time," Amy said, smacking him upside the head.
"Hey! What the fuck!? I'm just saying is all!" he said sulkily.
"If we wanted your stuff we would simply have left you or killed you and took it," T'Kell said in a flat and very matter of fact voice, that seemed to get Adam's attention, arguing with an 8ft huntress is never high on the smart scale, it is high on the becoming a shoulder trophy scale though.
"Ummm, I hate to ask for more help but is there any way you can help us carry my Chem back?" Terry asked very politely, now him, Spike liked, and before he could answer him T'Kell had leant down and scooped him up into her huge arms like he weighed nothing.
"I will assist you, respectful ooman," she said, and, with that, she turned and jumped down from the vehicle roof to the ground without shaking her cargo barely at all, Spike could feel the stunned looks from the others.
"Life tip here guys, don't piss her off, she punches really really hard," Spike said, and, with that, he climbed down to group up with Tank and Moodstone who were now waiting below the vehicle.
"Four civilians, one wounded, broken leg, but I've treated it, three, ok, they have a compound close to here, they're going to take us there, apparently they have about forty, that's four zero survivors with them and we have received actionable intel regarding a hostile group of armed civilians operating in the area, gang bangers," Spike said, giving his intel report to the others, both Tank and Moodstone both nodded, taking it on board.
"We're definitely going to need to stop soon now anyway I just burned through a ton of ammo with these fuckers, one mag is pretty much dry, so I'll need to swap out soon," Tank said.
"How much you got left?" Spike asked.
"Two full clips and my side arm," Tank said, doing a quick check on his counter, Spike nodded and turned to see the civilians collecting their shopping carts from where they'd abandoned them when they'd been ambushed by the horde, the carts were heavily loaded down with all sorts of groceries to feed the forty people, all sorts of cans and bottles as well, they looked like the world's best stocked hobos.
The team formed up along with the civvies keeping T'Kell in the centre of a loose diamond shape as they moved again, The one called Adam moved ahead of them and lead them to an industrial estate not far away, straight away, Spike could tell which of the warehouses he was leading them too, it was a huge silver building surrounded by a huge metal fence that was topped with razor wire and it looked like panels of wood and metal had been secured to it to prevent anyone seeing inside, plus, he could see people in the high windows of the large rectangular building.
Adam ran on ahead and banged on the gates, yelling for the people inside to open up, the gate screeched as it was pulled back on its rails and slid to one side, behind it were two police officers dressed in their blue body armor splashed with New Britania PD logos and Police written on the back, one was a human male the other appeared to be a Felenis female, both were armed with plasma sub machine guns and hip worn pistols.
Spike saw them eyeing them nervously so he decided to make introductions quickly, "Corporal Spike, Spirit team six, that's corporal Tank, Corpral Moodstone, that's T'Sall of the Yautja Halkrath Core, we're here to help," he said, offering a hand to the nearest cop to him, which just happened to be the Felenis female.
"Officer Bluepaw, Spirits? is that like special forces or something, because if it is, boy could we seriously use your help right about now," she said, taking and shaking his hand.
The Spirits were a covert operations team, usually they didn't liaise with local law enforcement when they operated in their areas or jurisdictions as there were way too many leaks in the police forces of the universe, 99% of cops were honest heroes who put their lives on the line every day to protect people just like the Spirits themselves did, but it only took the 1% to really fuck shit up.
The other officer came over as well, "Sergeant Longstaff, did you say you were Spirits? Never heard of you, heard of the Halkrath, though, they're like Yautja special forces right...wait...is that Chem she's carrying!?" the other officer said, shaking Spike's before noticing that T'Sall was carrying Chem in her arms.
"He broke his leg, these guys utterly saved our asses out there, if it wasn't for them we'd be zombie chow for sure, but these guys literally took out a horde of gotta be like a thousand maybe even two on their fucking own, that guy there just fucking mowed em down like he was cutting down fucking weeds, man it was fucking beautiful, then this guy just pops up out of nowhere like a fucking ghost, fixes Chem's leg right up like a boss and boom they utterly saved us," Amy said, using a lot of exuberant hand gestures as she indicated the team.
"Are you guys the rescue team?" Officer Bluepaw asked hopefully, swishing her rather long tail, Spike nodded.
"That would be us, we were sent to investigate what was happening here and to rescue any survivors, we were just heading over trying to get to the central command hub to try and shut down the air defences so we can airlift any survivors off world as right now the whole sky is a no go zone because anything bigger than a gnat is getting its ass shot off," Spike said.
Officer Bluepaw's face literally lit up like someone told her she'd won the lottery, "Oh, thank the great cat! I thought we were fucking living on borrowed time, this shit just hit so incredibly quickly, before we could even think about response it was everywhere, and there wasn't anything we could do, it was like one minute we were just going about our lives upholding the law, the next minute we're getting all these panic calls all at once, the next were fighting for our lives and the streets were being swarmed, there was nothing we could do, it was all we could do to stay alive, so six of us just kinda banded together from the SWAT team and we just grabbed as many civilians as we could and kinda shoe horned them into the first place we could think of, my brother works here making electronics, but there was only him and two others here when we got here, everyone else we kinda picked up on runs to get food, ect," she said.
Spike could actually feel the relief radiating from her that people more senior than her were on scene and better equiped to handle it, Spike placed his hand on her shoulder, "Good job, you guys did a good job, so many would have just run for it or hunkered down in fear, but you didn't, so well done, good on you, you did that badge proud," he said, and he actually saw tears well up in her eyes, a mixture of relief and happiness hit her that maybe, just maybe, she was going to live through this.
"Alright, let's get him inside and get him bedded down, we'll get the doc to have a good look at him, get the food squared away and then we can have a talk, I believe I know exactly where you need to go, and its a fair distance from here, I think I know where you were going to but it won't work," Officer Longstaff said, looking both apologetic.
"Oh? Why? What's wrong, laddie?" Tank asked.
"The control hub your heading for is trashed, it was one of the first places we went, hoping we could hook up with the military, but by the time we arrived it was totaled, looks like some kinda major firefight broke out inside, so both full of undead and all the computers inside were shot to shit, there's only one more that can access the entire anti-air network and it's in the West Side boys territory," Sargent Longstaff said.
"Oh, goody, we get to play with wanna be gang bangers, eh, laddie? Tank said, glancing at Spike as they all began to walk into the building after the officers closed the gates and secured them behind them, as they opened the factory doors T'Sall came alongside, carrying her human cargo.
"What is gang banger?" she asked.
"Criminals, stupid selfish pauks who like hurting people because they can," he said, and he heard her snarl under her mask.
"Then we will show them swift justice has claws!" she said, and Spike nodded.
"Sounds good to me, gorgeous" he said, grinning under his helmet and she tilted her head curiously.
"What is gorgeous? Have never heard this word before," she asked, and he laughed as he saw her puff up a bit.
"It's a human word, means very very beautiful," he said with a smile, he saw her deflate and her surprise was evident even though he couldn't see her face.
"He's not yanking yer dreads, big girl, it really does mean that, he's telling ya ya really beautiful," Tank said, grinning, and now a whole new level of pride seemed to enter T'Sall's stride as they all entered the factory main floor and straight into what appeared to be a refugee tent city.
"Oh, wow, check it out," Moodstone said, looking around as faces of all species began popping out to take a look at the new comers.
"Spike to Queen Bee, have located a survivor camp, approx forty plus civilians confirmed, mark my current location for pick up once the air defences are down, but that, umm, might take a while, we may have to deal with the hostile faction first as, due to intel received, the control Hub in this area has been destroyed, so we're going to need to cross the city to reach the other, will try to secure transport if we can, over," he said.
"Roger that, Spike, I see the feed, once you know the location send me the coordinates and I'll see if any of the others are in the area," She replied.
"Roger that, thanks, Spike out," he said, and, with that, he turned around and saw a crowd had gathered around them, "Err, hi," he said, giving them a pathetic wave, oh, this was going to be fun.