Chapter Ten - Return to Base
Days after Outbreak: 4
Days without incident: 0
Savage Mammal count: 799 952
Dead: 0
Survivors: 48
As they went to the office of Dr. Phillips, Nick gathered up himself and went through the door.
"Dr. Phillips, we have a development."
"What is it Officers?" Phillips said shakily
"We managed to secure a sample of the supposed Night Howler strain that is causing the outbreak."
"I'm sorry officers, but I can't help you." Phillips responded, "I simply do not have the instruments, equipment's and the workplace to do it. We need at least a World Mammal Health Organization or a Center for Disease Control facility to run our tests. And in addition to that, since the liquid can make you go savage, we also require a HazMat suit and a face mask that could save our pelts if an accident or reaction happens in our lab."
"Okay, but even with or without equipment's, can we trust you to keep these samples?" Nick questioned Phillips.
"Yeah, I can keep them but do not expect any progress unless we capture a facility with the correct equipment's, what we have here can only make a fraction of the require research, we are lacking even the most basic equipment's for genetic editing!" Phillips reminded them while letting out a nervous laughter.
"Yeah yeah, you don't do anything while it's with you. Got it." Judy said, and the duo turned tails and bid the doctor goodbye.
"Hey carrots, don't you think Phillips was a bit nervous in our conversation?" Nick Inquired.
"Yep, he was definitely acting suspicious in terms of him knowing the type of equipment to use while we are stuck with the question of 'Is really a Night Howler.' we need to do a background check on him once we RTB." Judy concurred while heading to the alley where the rest of their forces are located, as the laboratory was more of an obsolete nuclear fallout shelter.
"All right, everyone ready?" Nick asked the officers.
"Officers Euryl, Matt, Hatton, Jasmine, Dean, Keith. You will be leading the way in your Bradley APC, and since we are going to go out of support range again, I am requesting an Avenger from the base and we will move out as soon as it arrives, I don't want to move without air support of heavy ordinance." Bogo ordered while Finnick went to Nick.
"I can still drive my van right?" Finnick asked.
"Nope, you have to leave it, the ISA Agents will take care of it. Just park it at the alley and a camouflage will be painted over it. Sorry for the artwork in advance." Nick grinned, satisfied seeing the Fennec fox in shock.
"Hey L.T." Officer Dennis Holtzmann approached Nick. "Base says that the Avenger is near our location, call sign is Reaper 2-6"
"Do they only have one drone?" Nick asked, surprised by the repeated usage of the call sign.
"It's just a naming scheme sir, they only change it when the drone carrying that name gets shot down."
"Then be it." Nick said, after looking at his watch for a good few seconds, "Mount Up! Get ready to roll.'
"Okay guys I hope this one works." Officer Fuller said to no one in particular.
By the time the drone was approaching, the convoy started to head back to base with Reaper 2-6 maintaining aerial superiority in the surroundings, little did they know what was going to happen next.
A whistle of a high velocity rocket was heard and a terrifying explosion was seen as the vanguard APC blasted into smithereens with debris getting into every side of the street effectively blocking the convoy's path, killing all six officers riding inside a swift death as they was effectively erased as a threat.
Moments later, as the convoy started to find an alternate route, a second rocket struck the turret of an M1A2 Abrams tank, jamming the 120mm gun and disabling the main weapon system, although the tank's main gun is jammed, the tank can still move but at a limited speed, while the only offensive/defensive capabilities the tank retained were the smoke grenade launchers, the coaxial and the turret mounted .50 Cal HMG giving the crew a chance to fight back enemies.
Mere seconds later, another whistle was heard as a spectacular aerial explosion and a deafening sound resonated in the area, looking up, Judy saw that Avenger 2-6 was hit by the rocket, seeing the trail of the smoke, Gunnery Officer Gerard Vincent fired a five round burst from the 20mm Bushmaster Autocannon killing the enemy personnel occupying it.
"Fire a round on that same window!" Nick ordered his tank crew, as Judy moved the tank into range, Snarlov immediately pulled the trigger with his .50 Cal HMG hammering the enemy position, and at the same time Wolford and Fangmeyer loaded the main gun.
"Ready sir!" Wolford reported.
"Fire!"
And as soon as the shot went off, the whole building exploded as if it was scheduled for demolition, as it turns out, the building was most likely a supply depot judging from the explosion that occurred, as a round to a window cannot bring a whole building down.
"Great shot Wilde! You blocked our only way out!" Bogo sarcastically said.
"No, there is still one more way out." Nick said, pointing to an underground garage of a building.
Looking at a map, the building has access from the road that they are in, to the road that is on the other side of the building to make it accessible for its tenants.
"Are you kidding? That is suicide!" Officer Henry Lawrence remarked, "There could be an enemy force in there! And much worse, we could be falling for a trap!"
"Well let's show them that we are ready for whatever they will throw at us." Nick said as he gave the order to advance to the other side of the building.
"Better not kill yourself L.T." Officer Rachel Lynde said through her radio.
"I know I won't." Nick said in acknowledgement as his tank was the vanguard of the convoy, the convoy that went through a forsaken basement, the entrance has been silent and the infrared cameras on the vehicles were activated, as the convoy was moving through a dangerous area, thus visibility should be at the minimum to prevent drawing attention.
"Is the other exit still at the same floor?" Officer Norton Hasworth asked Chief Bogo.
"No. It's 2 floors up. The other street was elevated because it is a major arterial road." Chief Bogo said dismissively to the recruit.
"Savage this is Wilde, do you copy over?" Nick activated his radio, increasingly desperate by the second.
"What do you need Wilde?" A voice sounded over the crackling radio.
"We need a fast mover drone here in 10 minutes Savage!" Bogo yelled over the radio. "We are inside a building, the moment that I see sunlight, there better be drone waiting!" Bogo said, although the last part sounded more of a threat than an order.
As the convoy entered the building, it was immediately rattled by automatic fire from all directions. The vehicles in a disadvantage were the tanks as their huge 120 mm guns could not fire at the enemy as they are too big, meanwhile, the Bradley APC'S are at an advantage as their small 20 mm cannons made an easy time in shredding the enemy to pieces.
As the first floor was cleared, they set off for the second floor. The forces were covered in two as the plan was to use the entrance and exit ramps to surprise the enemy. Bogo was to take the left and Nick was to take the right ramp. Just as Nicks tank moved up the ramp, a huge crack was noticed and the tank stopped.
"Sir we need to go back! This building is not strong enough!" Johannes Dossier alerted Nick, but by the time this was heard, the tank that Nick was inside fell through 4 floors of the underground parking disabling the tank and forcing them to bail out and proceed on foot.
"Everyone okay?" Nick asked the team as he clears his way through the rubble surrounding the tank.
"Yes sir. A few scrapes and bruises ain't stopping us." Fangmeyer said optimistically as the rest of the crew gathered outside the disabled tank.
"Okay so here is the..." Nick started as a round went through the air and hits a concrete wall while everyone took cover behind the parked cars.
"We have to flank them! Judy, take Wolford and Snarlov and circle on the left. Use the cars for cover!" Nick ordered as the squad successfully executed their outflanking maneuver eliminating the enemy with little ammunition and using only the pistols they were required to carry.
"Get any guns and ammo you can find. We need to borrow these assholes' weapons." Snarlov said as he picked up a deadly RPK and strapped a deadly RPG - 7 on his back with spare rockets stuffed into his vest.
"We need to rendezvous on the surface with the team and call for air support. We only have two qualified pilots so I need the best aircraft we can use. We will use this stairwell, get ready we could be face to face with an army and we will be firing in point blank range with the enemy." Nick sad as they approached the starwell and readied to breach.
"Breach in Three. Two. One. Breach." They rushed Inside securing the area and proceeded on foot to the next flight of stairs. 'This is gonna be long day' Nick thought to himself.
Meanwhile at Chief Bogo's position...
"Winter, take Johnson, Skips, Hale and Smiler to the other APC and secure the stranded squad downstairs while we clear this floor. We'll meet you topside when it's done." Bogo relayed the order to them and left off to secure the remaining floor with his 2 tanks and one APC and with them was the tank that could only fire it's machine guns, putting them at a severe disadvantage when going up against armored targets.
"Officer Gleicowitz, advance." Bogo muttered to Francis as he inched towards the exit with almost zero resistance.
As soon as they went topside, all they have to do is wait for them to emerge from the forsaken basement.
"Okay, once we go to the second floor, we go to the other side of the parking area and use the other staircase to avoid detection, got it?" Nick was followed by nods as the group went to the other side quickly when they encountered an APC.
"Nick! It's us! Come on!" Skye shouted at them to catch their attention.
The ride up was rather silent as the remaining enemy forces retreated the building was deserted back to its old forsaken state and the call for extra air support came minutes before Nick went back up and continued to return to base and with a death toll of over six officers, this was the worst mission that occurred in the outbreak.
For now.
A/N: First of all, I sincerely apologize for the short chapter. I know that some of you were expecting something else after a week of no updates my birthday was on July 27 so I was a bit distracted. Again, I apologize. Second is that I am running out of encouragement for the story, so as a result, I am putting this on a 2 week hiatus to double check and overhaul the story as the chapters I planned do not seem to work out with the rest of the story. Meanwhile I am currently writing a pilot for another kind of story and it will be more of the investigative kind as compared to action so yeah, I think that's all for now.
Until Next Time!
Nicholas Phillips
