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Topic: Monsters exist! Manhattan at war!
In: Boards ► News ► Recent
►Bagrat (Veteran Member) (Police Officer)
Replied On 11th October, 2008:
Right, so the dust has settled over the events of the last 24 hours, and that means that I was able to get some intel on what the hell ISIS did and how they pulled off their latest miracle.
Officially known as Operation: Revolving Door, the master plan of ISIS's leadership was thus:
First, put up enough of a fight to make it clear to Greene that ISIS was the greatest threat to her and her horde. Then, over the course of several days, use a fighting retreat strategy, while using every new trump card that Greene revealed as a "justification" of ISIS's retreats.
The goal of that was to make it clear to Greene that ISIS was a massive threat, but one that could be won against. Pulling her into a false sense of superiority, essentially.
Then, once Greene truly brought out the big guns, made her think that ISIS was on the brink of defeat.
The goal of that was to push her to throw everything she had into one last battle for the control of Manhattan.
Which Greene fell for, completely and utterly believing that ISIS was, in fact, about to be overwhelmed.
So she sent absolutely everything she had in one last push… and that's when the trap closed on her and her hordes.
ISIS's leader, backed up with the Hunter division of ISIS, finally took to the field, and showed off in front of the entire world why ISIS is to be feared and respected in equal measures.
For those of you who somehow missed it, here's the recording from Lois Carol's cameraman of the leader of ISIS fighting the hordes of Manhattan:
[Link]
Needless to say, it's fucking insane, and everybody is losing their damn minds over the footage.
It wasn't a battle, it was a one-sided slaughter. One man against thousands of horrific monsters, and in the end, the man didn't even have a scratch to show for it.
(The internet checked the footage thoroughly, just to confirm it.)
And it isn't just him.
We've got footage of the hills of corpses left behind by one of the Summer Rose Huntresses (and yes, they are twins with the exact same names. Blame the parents, I guess. The only differences as far as I was able to find between the two is that one has pale blue eyes, and the other having silver eyes of all things.) and it's fucking awe-inspiring as it is disturbing to see literal hills of corpses.
And apparently, they have like, half a dozen Hunters in total.
The majority of them were apparently deployed at the original outposts of ISIS at the beginning of the outbreak, which meant that each of them were effectively alone, surrounded, and incredibly outnumbered for hours as they halted all of Greene's reinforcements to the frontline in their tracks on their lonesome while the rest of ISIS worked on retaking lost ground.
And yet, despite that, not one of them broke or died.
Instead, they left literal hills of corpses where they fought, and apparently not one of them has been injured during the fighting.
It's insane. Utterly, mind-blowingly insane.
And yet these people pulled it off.
Here's the footage of those hills of corpses, beware it's gruesome stuff: [Link]
Apparently, each of them were trained by ISIS's leader, which… well, would certainly explain many things, but still, holy shit…
Either way, the end result is unquestionable: the north of Manhattan was fully retaken, ISIS retook their original positions and then some, and Greene's hordes were butchered like cattle in a slaughterhouse.
And no, it's not just the north that fought back. The south did as well, since apparently ISIS did warn the soldiers down there, including the black-clad ones, of what was coming.
Mind you, they apparently waited until the metaphorical last minute to do so, but still.
As a result, when ISIS launched their attack, so did the troops down south.
Naturally, we don't have as much information, but we do know a few things.
First, they too took back their original positions.
Second, those black-clad soldiers (and we really need to find their actual name at some point) have superhuman soldiers on their own. Again, not much is known, but enough of them were seen fighting that we know they are roughly capable of fighting a Leader Hunter in CQC with ease.
Not as insane as the Hunter Division of ISIS, not by far, but at the same time they apparently have a lot more of those supersoldiers running around, so that helps.
We do know that casualties down south were pretty high, though the fact that victory was achieved hopefully means that they weren't too bad.
Naturally, casualties up north are light. Mostly because the recordings show quite clearly that Greene's hordes were focusing absolutely everything they could send on ISIS's leader.
Of course, that same footage shows quite clearly how spectacularly bad an idea that was, since in the end it only helped him slaughter all the monsters of Greene's hordes faster…
So yeah. ISIS deliberately baited Greene into overextending herself, and then crushed her hordes under the weight of its Hunter division, its leader's utterly insane strength and of course that of every ISIS and US Marines fighting by their side.
Oh, and that's not all. Of course not, that would just be proof of hyper competence on ISIS' part, and that's just not enough by their standards.
Thanks to Greentide's friend, I was able to learn that the entirety of Operation Revolving Door, the entirety of one of the greatest masterstrokes of strategy in human military history, was actually a diversion.
Yes, you read that right. One giant, city-sized distraction, in order to allow someone to go and try to infiltrate Greene's Core Hive and try and kill her.
Now, that's the only bad news of the day: the assassination attempt failed. Some kind of Super-Hunter intervened, giving Greene enough time to escape.
Still, the end result of the day is this:
Both the north and south of Manhattan are effectively under human control. Every single one of Greene's Hives above ground, including her Core Hive, lies broken as burnt-out wrecks.
Greene's hordes have been butchered, both the ones above ground and the underground ones she sent above ground as reinforcements.
Greene herself fled underground, into the tunnels lying beneath Manhattan. She's effectively trapped like a rat down there at this point.
Without her hives, her hordes broken, and with the civilian population of Manhattan safe from her for now, she has little biomass left to create more monsters to defend herself with.
In short? In a day, ISIS turned what should have been a crushing defeat into a heroic victory.
Instead of Greene's hordes having full control of Manhattan, she's now lost all of her territory above ground, and only has the underground parts of the island under her control.
It's… God, I don't even know where to start with this. Everyone was freaking out a day ago that the war of Manhattan might very well become the war of New York, and from there the War for Earth.
Instead, Greene is left cowering underground while the forces of humanity gather their strength for one last push against her.
I don't know about you all, but I know who I'm going to drink in the names of those heroes tonight…
► BlueHelix (Raccoon City Survivor)
Replied on 11th October, 2008:
I told you all that ISIS were fucking badasses, and that their leader was an absolute madlad.
Well, here's the proof. For the entire world to see.
Now everyone will finally be able to recognize how fucking amazing ISIS are.
Now if you'll all excuse me, I'm going to watch the footage of ISIS's leader slaughter of those damn monsters again, while feeling smug about myself.
► Melodious (Occult Enthusiast)
Replied on 11th October, 2008:
Okay yeah, I just…
I have no words to say, here.
Except that the world made me eat my previous words about the importance of ISIS's leader big time.
So… Say, when do you want that chocolate cake, Strange_Eons?
Because yeah, I really do owe you the one I promised you, after this…
Strange_Eons (Veteran Member) (Confirmed Cosmic God) (Confirmed Prankster God) (The Guy In The Know) (Confirmed Lovecraftian Abomination) (Confirmed Master Chef)
Posted on 11th October, 2008:
Melodious, you can make it whenever you want, after all I've got all of time (and beyond) to eat it…
Of course, if anyone else wants to thank me, I am also willing to take any and all strawberry cakes you all can bake me…
►SchoolhouseRock
Replied On 11th October, 2008:
Strange_Eons You know what, if the only thing that our local, friendly neighboring eldritch god wants is our chocolate and strawberry cakes in exchange for saving the world, I'll damn well buy you as many of the damn things as you can eat, because it'll be the greatest deal in all of human history…
More seriously, I just… Fucking hell. Talk about turning a situation on its head.
I don't know what to say. At the end of the 9th we were freaking out at the potential end of the world, we're at the 11th and now we are almost seemingly done with this hell on Earth…
I'm just going to go grab a beer and watch the news, because at this point it feels like I'm dreaming and I'll wake up learning that things are still fucked…
I don't think I ever prayed harder that I wasn't dreaming, right now.
► Magic Arrow (Verified Former Zombie Movie Enjoyer)
Replied on 11th October, 2008:
Right, so… I mean, what the hell… monsters are a thing, supersoldiers are a thing, and now we've got superheroes or some shit running around…
All hail ISIS, I guess, since they might have just saved the entire world.
I'm sorry, I'm kinda still in shock right now…
►Lurker9001
Replied On 11th October, 2008:
So apparently, we won't need to colonize space out of desperation anymore! That's great!
I mean, I'm still all for space exploration, but it's very nice that it won't be because Earth ended up overrun by monsters.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get very, very drunk. Fingers crossed that by the time I wake up with a hangover Manhattan will have been fully pacified!
►disgae96
Replied On 6th October, 2008:
Lurker9001 Trust me buddy, you aren't the only one who is going to get very drunk after today.
Either out of celebration, or out of "The world isn't going to end!" feeling.
Already, there are many celebrations spontaneously erupting across the country now that everyone knows we won't become zombie food…
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Strange_Eons (Veteran Member) (Confirmed Cosmic God) (Confirmed Prankster God) (The Guy In The Know) (Confirmed Lovecraftian Abomination) (Confirmed Master Chef)
Posted on 11th October, 2008:
Right, so now that the Surface War is essentially over, now comes the War Below!
And the only thing I have to say about it is that those of you who fear spiders… Well, maybe don't click on the link below?
Trust me, you'll thank me for not looking at it.
[Link]
► Magic Arrow (Verified Former Zombie Movie Enjoyer)
Replied on 11th October, 2008:
"Foolishly click on link.*
Oh god, why?!
► Melodious (Occult Enthusiast)
Replied on 11th October, 2008:
Ooooooooh shit…
Yeah, there goes my sleep for the next month… or year… or decade.
I mean, they were bad enough above ground, but this is just…
Also, that Summer twin who killed that gigantic thing? Give her a medal. ALL the fucking medals.
I don't care if you have to make them out of solid gold, just give her everything!
►Lurker9001
Replied On 11th October, 2008:
I take back everything I said, fuck the Earth, space is the only answer! I don't want to live in the same world where shit like this gigantic spider is possible!
I'll never see spiders in general the same way again…
*Shudder.*
►disgae96
Replied On 11th October, 2008:
Well, I have more reasons to drink now.
I swear, I'll become an alcoholic, at this rate…
►buryitnow
Replied On 11th October, 2008:
One day, I'll know better than to click on links that OP specifically warns us about.
That day is not today, and I regret everything.
Now where's that brain bleach again…
► Bees
Replied on 10th October, 2008:
Once again, repeat after me: SPACE! The final frontier!
No zombies, no monsters, and absolutely, unquestionably no gigantic spiders wanting to eat us all!
Fuck the Earth, embrace the cosmos!
► Melodious (Occult Enthusiast)
Replied on 11th October, 2008:
Bees Well we've got an Outer God with us, so who knows what else lives out there…
Hey, Strange_Eons, are there spiders out there?
Strange_Eons (Veteran Member) (Confirmed Cosmic God) (Confirmed Prankster God) (The Guy In The Know) (Confirmed Lovecraftian Abomination) (Confirmed Master Chef)
Posted on 11th October, 2008:
Melodious Now, in my defense, this was all my wife's idea…
At least they sing incredibly well!
That's got to count for something, right?
►disgae96
Replied On 11th October, 2008:
Strange_Eons I don't think there's enough alcohol in the world for this…
Hey, buryitnow, pass that brain bleach, will you?
►SchoolhouseRock
Replied On 11th October, 2008:
Dammit Strange_Eons, you were supposed to be the chosen one! You were meant to destroy the monsters out of humanity's nightmares, not make them!
-
Alex Mercer had been having a pretty good day so far.
He had been able to wreck Blackwatch's attempts at spreading the Bloodtox poison across the city above, he had been able to kill a lot of Blackwatch soldiers, and then he had been able to infiltrate the Blackwatch HQ without issues.
It had been a bit disappointing to learn that Blackwatch's leadership was currently in a meeting at the nearby aircraft carrier, but oh well, he'll have more chances to kill them all eventually.
Still, he'd been able to get some good data on Blackwatch's secrets, kill a few more high-ranking officers, and in general he had been having a great time in Blackwatch's HQ.
He had even, on a suggestion from Aeon, gone and painted the reserve of uniforms of Blackwatch soldiers a bright pink!
The sheer chaos unleashed by Blackwatch's soldiers when they'd discovered his little "prank" had been immensely amusing, and watching them all lose their minds over the fact that the only uniforms with regular colors they still had were the ones they were using right now had been incredibly hilarious.
The best part was that no one had any idea who was the cause, and no one suspected foul play because really, who would bother pranking them?
So the blaming game had been unleashed in full, and in less than 20 minutes, everyone in charge was more or less busy screaming at each other and trying to pin the blame on anyone not themselves.
Needless to say, Alex had been equally amused and inspired by the discovery of how a seemingly simple prank could cause so much chaos.
Oh, to be sure Alex had gleefully used his ability to shapeshift to create even more chaos, but still, it took every bit of self-control he possessed to not burst out laughing when he could overhear the incredibly loud shouting match going on between the Blackwatch officers left behind while their leaders were busy on the aircraft carrier, and thus out of contact for a time.
And then the universe, spiteful bitch that she was, proceeded to make all his hard work moot.
He had barely enough time to recognize that something was coming from underneath the base, something incredibly big…
And then he, like many others, were left screaming in shock when an absolutely humongous worm burst out of the ground in the middle of Blackwatch HQ.
Oh, sure, he could appreciate the sheer, immense chaos and destruction this would bring to Blackwatch, but damn it he was the one supposed to break them, not a… a giant worm of all things!
So yeah. Alex Mercer was not amused at the giant worm destroying all his hard work and making a fool of himself, in the end.
It would have been hilarious to see Blackwatch's soldiers forced to fight in bright pink uniforms, and now that would not happen!
It was enraging!
So, with all that being said, Alex decided that yeah, that worm was going to die, and die by his hand.
Besides, he couldn't imagine that anyone would really want that thing free to crush any and all resistance from humanity down south.
Dana certainly wouldn't.
Thus Alex, instead of screaming in terror and crashing on the ground into a puddle of gore like every Blackwatch soldier around him, turned his right arm into a whip, took hold of the body of the worm, and use his new grip to cling to it.
And then he used one of his skills, allowing him to create deadly spikes of Blacklight flesh which would come bursting out of the ground, to instead send those spikes into the body of the worm.
And to spread more and more within it, using the worm's own biomass as material for that.
As expected, the worm screeched in agony and rage, trying very hard to dislodge him, but of course Alex was essentially elbow deep in its body.
At one point it tried to throw itself to the ground to attempt to squash him, but using his spikes Alex was able to jerk the worm's body upwards instead.
Thus, for a few minutes Alex simply clung to the gigantic monster, letting his spikes burrow more and more across the worm's body, noticing that the worm also served as a troop transport of some kind if the many infected lifeforms within were anything to go by, and Alex gleefully spread more of his spikes through each and every monsters until-
The worm froze, before finally crashing to the ground, dead.
Alex clung to the worm the whole way down, but he was able to ensure the side of the monster he was on was above ground, so he had no fear of being crushed.
Then, once he was sure the monster was dead, and that all the ones within it were dead as well, he stood up, consuming as much biomass as he could along the way.
Who knows, it might come in handy later, and these things might as well be all-you-can-eat buffets as far as he was concerned.
Glancing around, he paused, seeing the forms of several more across the island.
Right, that was a problem.
Time to get to work, then…
Blackwatch probably weren't going to be much of a threat for a little while as they dealt with the consequences of their HQ… Well, no longer existing.
Alex sighed sadly.
If only the worm's attack had happened a day or two later, he could have seen an army of Blackwatch soldiers all dressed in the brightest pink color possible.
Damn you, Greene!
-
Sergeant Ryan looked up at the towering form of the humongous worm which had just bursted out of the ground under Blackwatch HQ with dread.
That feeling was not helped by the shouts across the comms about the dozen or so others of its kind which had appeared all over Manhattan.
"What the hell?!"
"Sir, what do we do?!"
"That thing is huge!"
"How the hell are we supposed to kill one of those things, much less a dozen?!"
Sergeant Ryan grimaced at the shouts over the radio, all of them pretty damn panicked.
Not that he didn't understand. The damn thing could give skyscrapers a run for their money in terms of height, was visibly armored to hell and back, and had rows upon rows of teeth…
Dark brown in color, the worms stood tall and proud for a moment, as if proudly announcing to the world that they, and they alone, were the true masters of the Earth.
Ryan suspected that they could just crash on a street and it would be enough to squash everyone across that entire street instantly.
Lasers would do nothing against those things, plasma might annoy them a bit, and missiles…
Well. They were going to need a lot of those.
Maybe, just maybe, super-heavy tanks could deal with the damn things, but he wasn't going to hold his breath on that one.
Sergeant Ryan opened his mouth, to give an order, though what order even he didn't really know, when suddenly the world turned red.
Sergeant Ryan stumbled back, blinking rapidly, while in the distance a dull but extremely loud sound of something massive crashing on the ground echoed across the city.
"What the hell was that?!" he shouted.
"Fucking hell! ISIS has a damn massive plasma cannon in their HQ! The damn thing just took the head off of one of those things in one shot!"
Sergeant Ryan froze, the comms falling silent as everyone tried to understand what was just said, before cheers and laughs were heard over the comms.
"One down, a dozen left to go!"
"ISIS to the rescue, as always!"
"Fuck yeah!"
"Take that, you monstrous bastards!"
Sergeant Ryan shook his head, though he couldn't help but smirk.
Of fucking course those madlads at ISIS put a giant plasma cannon inside their HQ. He couldn't even say he was surprised, in hindsight.
"Sir! Look! It's the worm that destroyed Blackwatch's HQ!"
Ryan followed the words of his corporal, and froze at the sight before him.
"SSSSSKKKKKKKKKKKKKRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Ryan flinched at the scream of agony of the monster, but couldn't help but watch in shock as some kind of humanoid being clung to the worm's body, the man (?) having both his arms somehow plunged into the worm's body, and massive tentacles were erupting all over the worm's body, spreading out from where the man was clung unto the worm.
In stunned shock, he and every soldiers watched for several minutes as the worm trashed, squealed, and shuddered violently in the air while more and more tentacles spread across the worm's body-
"SSSSSSKKKKKKKRRRRREEEEeeeeeeee…"
-and then suddenly went unnaturally still, before slowly collapsing into Battery Park, where Blackwatch had put their HQ.
The man somehow seemed unbothered by the massive worm he was clinging to collapsing on the ground, riding the monster until it touched down and the corpse stopped moving, before calmly getting up, looking down at his work, and then turning away and jumping out of the monster's body and quickly disappearing into the chaos that was currently engulfing Battery Park.
"What the hell was that, Sergeant?" whispered his corporal.
"No fucking clue." Ryan replied, staring wide eyed at the immense corpse flattening part of Battery Park. "But I really, really pray it's friendly."
The corporal shuddered.
"Your words to God's ears, sir. Otherwise I fear we'll all meet our Creator sooner rather than later."
Ryan said nothing, but he thoroughly agreed.
Anyone who could just… kill one of those giant worms in a few minutes was not someone he or his guys were ready to fight.
Not now, not ever.
"Hmm, sir?"
"What is it?"
"That whole thing happened in Battery Park… in clear view of the people of New York… including all the journalists over there…"
Sergeant Ryan paused.
Swallowed thickly.
Exhaled.
"And their cameramen." he finished, voice flat.
"Yes, sir."
"Ah."
He licked his dry lips.
"So the entire world just saw an infected individual kill a humongous worm by himself… With ease… in less than 10 minutes… before the man simply disappeared from everyone's view by mingling with the civilians?"
"Yes, sir."
"... Well shit."
-
I checked one last time the jetpack, making sure everything was good and ready, before giving a nod to the ISIS soldier who brought it to me.
We didn't have many of those yet sadly, they were a pretty new invention, but R&D back at Insight Corp. was eager to try and unlock the secrets of anti-gravity tech, and figuring out how to create a jetpack with some Gravity Dust, amongst other stuff, was a good first step towards that goal.
It would make sending stuff into space so much easier if we had anti-gravity tech after all, and of course who didn't want flying cars?!
Just you wait! I'll make pod-racing a thing yet!
George Lucas, you'll live long enough to see actual pod-racing on a desert planet, I swear it!
The soldier nodded and then saluted back.
"Good hunting, Boss!"
"I will! Good luck to you, too!"
With a quick salute back, and began running forward.
My objective was obvious, one of the worms that was sadly hidden behind buildings, making targeting it with the plasma cannon back at base impossible.
Someone needed to deal with those things, and while I would have liked to be present for the battle at the HQ, well needs must and all of that.
Besides, they had Colonel Geary, they'd be fine.
Passing by wrecked cars, defending soldiers, and a rather impressive number of craters, I took in the sight of the giant worm before me.
It was big, tough, and incredibly dangerous.
Now, if I hadn't been restraining myself to being superhuman only, with no supernatural skills, it would be pretty simple to just cut the damn thing in two and call it a day.
But no, I couldn't do that here, so an alternative plan was required.
The satchel I had over one shoulder was meant to be my solution.
My eyes glowed, using a bit of my connection to my true self to access psychic powers, and with it, I mentally bitch-slapped the worm.
Naturally, the monster, who had been disgorging wave after wave of monsters from within its body, suddenly jerked and turned to look at me.
I smiled, came to a halt and extended my right hand towards him… before making the taunting gesture "come at me!" at it with my fingers.
The worm stared at me… and then lunged.
Now, it needed to be said, the damn thing was big. Really big, big enough to give Amygdala a run for her money.
It was also very fast. Despite its size, it was by no means slow, the opposite really.
So when that gigantic worm lunged at me, mouth opened wide to reveal rows upon rows of deadly sharp teeth leading to a dark throat promising only oblivion, he was no doubt expecting to gobble me whole.
Had I been a regular ISIS soldier, it most likely would have succeeded. A Hunter of the Dream? Potentially. It really was fast.
Unfortunately for it, it wasn't facing any of those.
It was facing me.
I activated my jetpack instantly, took my sword in one hand and held the satchel tightly in the other, and flew high enough that, instead of going inside its mouth, I managed to get just above its body.
Then I turned mid-air, slammed my sword into its body almost to the hilt, and let myself be dragged by it onwards.
It was a good thing my sword wasn't exactly normal, reinforced with Yharnamite Blood Stones as it was, and that I was no normal human, or both my sword and bones would have been broken trying to do that.
Instead, the worm, noticing its unwanted passenger, went into the ground and tried to get me crushed between its body and the earth.
It failed of course, the earth turning like liquid around my body thanks to my magic, and instead spikes of stones sharp enough to pierce its skin poked at it, forcing it to once more go above ground with a shriek. Underground and unseen by all, I had no need to worry about holding back… Well, too much.
Wasting no time, I put my plan into action.
Activating the jetpack, I flew above the monster's head, twisted mid air to look back down at it…
And threw the satchel down into his open maw with my right hand.
Then I quickly took my plasma pistol with my now freed hand, aimed at the satchel… and fired once it was inside its mouth, underneath where I knew the monster's brain was.
*KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!*
The Dust within the satchel promptly exploded in a rather spectacular fashion, and I calmly flew back down while the now headless body of the worm crashed on the ground. Unnoticeably, I used magic to take control of the flames created by the Dust to burn out every remaining B.O.W. still within the giant worm.
Touching down, I glanced around, watching with amusement the way that most ISIS soldiers tried very hard not to be seen visibly gawking at me and the dead worm, while the Marines made no efforts to hide the fact that they absolutely were gawking like idiots at the sight before them.
"You know, maybe you should focus on the still charging hordes of monsters?" I pointed my sword towards the remaining monsters that had come from the worm before I could get to it.
The ISIS soldiers stiffened and immediately focused back on the battlefield.
The Marines kept gawking.
I rolled my eyes.
Bah! Back in Yharnam, killing a giant worm like this would have earned me Gerhman praising the deed… for all of ten seconds.
Then he'd warn me about hubris and getting cocky and how many hunters died like fools and then harrumph at kids these days.
Honestly, that thing didn't even have any kind of energy attacks! Pfff.
This Earth really had it easy.
If I could kill this thing with just a sword, a gun, a satchel of Dust and a jetpack, I was pretty sure any half-decent Hunter of Remnant could do the same.
Maybe with a bit more difficulty, but even then I wasn't sure, since they've had semblances to help as well…
Meh. Point was, this really wasn't that impressive.
Hell, I could tell Alex had killed his own worm already!
"Right, I'll leave you guys to it, I have other worms to take care of."
I turned away, though not before glancing with a thoughtful frown at the hordes of monsters charging at everyone here.
One thing that ISIS had noticed was the fact that the hordes of monsters within the worms were… rather strangely organized.
Some had far too many Walkers and little else, others had barely any and focused on heavier infected, etc.
The current theory was that Greene had not planned to use the worms so soon, or at least with her position so fragile, which meant many of the forces supposed to be within the worms were actually deployed in the underground of Manhattan in order to try and fight off Humanity's armies all converging down on her.
The result was that what should have been around a dozen extremely deadly strike forces unleashed all over the place were actually a dozen very different groups of differing threat levels.
It made things far easier on us, since all we needed was to determine the unique force composition of any given horde and respond accordingly.
Anti-heavy groups could focus on hordes full of them but possessing few Walkers and Hunters, and the opposite was true for those hordes with a vast majority of Walkers and Hunters but none or few Goliaths, Juggernauts, etc.
In short, Greene was running out of troops, and it was clearly showing.
Which, needless to say, was good news for humanity.
Very good news…
-
"Sir! Another dead worm in East Harlem!"
"Good." replied Colonel Geary, his eyes tracking the different hotspots of B.O.W. activities across Manhattan. "We're slowly but surely killing the damn things off. With the Boss making sure they can't flee underground, it's only a matter of time."
Between the cannon they had at HQ, the Boss going hunting with Alex Mercer, and all the tanks, planes, helicopters and whatnot, the worms really weren't lasting long.
They never were meant to fight in battles like this, they were glorified troop transports after all.
Sure, big, scary ones, but that just made them easier to hit with missiles.
And as always, throw enough explosives at a problem, and it'll become a problem solved.
No, they were more of a pain in the ass when they died, ironically enough. There were several streets now completely blocked by their corpses filling them up…
And of course, there were the rampaging hordes of B.O.W's which came out of the damned things.
The good news? Those hordes had no way to replenish their numbers. There were no civilians, only soldiers, and those hordes simply didn't have the freedom to create hives anywhere.
Combined that with the rather chaotic way those hordes were filled with various B.O.W's, and fighting them off was certainly possible.
The problems were that there were 12 hordes, and the US Forces down south, Marines and Blackwatch both, were currently having great difficulty getting anything done because Blackwatch's HQ blew up.
Their coordination was shot to hell, the comms lines were not working properly, logistics were non-existent, and in general the south of Manhattan was just… chaos.
Pure Chaos.
At this point, Geary had been forced to send a few squads of ISIS soldiers down south with accompanying Marines, because otherwise, the south was not going to get under control for a while.
Unfortunately, he couldn't send too many soldiers, either. Most of his troops were busy dealing with the War Below, and those topside were busy fighting the hordes up north.
All in all, the conclusion was that this was the last death throes of an enemy that refuses to give up.
It was also annoyingly good at thrashing around.
"Sir! One of the hordes is charging straight at St. Patrick's Cathedral! And we've got reports that the soldiers in the area down below are fighting against a breakout from thousands of B.O.W's!"
"A pincer attack, from above and below ground." Geary mused grimly. "Probably to then try to go straight at the nearby bridge… The defenses there should be able to hold, but still…"
*Ka-boom!*
Colonel Geary raised an eyebrow at the sound of the explosion.
"They are still trying to take our HQ? Dumb little bastards."
He shook his head.
"Right, tell Inferno Squad to go support the boys at the Cathedral."
"Oh boy…" came the muttering of the man at the radio.
"And please tell them to not burn down the place!"
-
"Hey, Sarge!"
"What?"
"We're being sent to St. Patrick's Cathedral! Apparently a whole lot of critters need burning over there!"
"Well then!"
Sarge finished burning the last of the charging horde of Walkers, his squadmates doing the same by his side, before they all took off their helmets, inhaled deeply, and then sighed in satisfaction simultaneously.
"Aaaah… There's nothing better than the smell of burning B.O.W's to make a day better! Isn't that right, Inferno Squad?"
""""Preach it, brother!"""" came the cheerful cry from his squad.
"I damn well will! Never forget our motto: If it's good enough to kill, it's good enough to kill it with fire! So let's go burn more monsters! On the double men, I want to cook my steak on a hill of burning B.O.W's corpses tonight, you hear me?!"
"SIR, YES SIR!"
-
"Where's our damn reinforcements?!"
"They're coming ma'am, they just encountered three dozen Goliaths along the way!"
"Yeah, well-"
Captain Ashley Green paused, kicking a lunging Hunter off the Cathedral.
She leaned down the window it came from, shot her plasma rifle a few times, then leaned back a second before a spit of acid hit her helmet, but was deflected by her energy shield, causing it to hit the cathedral's stone wall instead, which promptly began hissing worryingly.
She glanced at the melting stone, then grunted.
"- tell them to not waste time! We're being attacked from both below and topside, and-" *Ka-boom!* "- I have no desire to turn into B.O.W. food! I'm too pretty for that!"
One of the nearby ISIS soldiers, originally from an ISIS base in Italy, glanced at her with confusion over a little fact he recently learned from another soldier.
He still kept shooting out of his window, though. It wasn't like he needed to aim to hit something considering the number of enemies swarming their position, anyway.
"Why the hell did you become both an ISIS soldier and a model in your free time, anyway, ma'am?!"
"Because I'm good enough to kick ass and look good doing it, and I want the entire world to know it!"
"That's…"
"... I mean, she's not wrong Bailey!" came a shout from a soldier a bit further away from the makeshift command post that surrounded the captain.
"Corporal Wedge! Keep shooting at the B.O.W's instead of kissing my ass!"
"It's a very nice ass, Ma'am!"
"And if you want to be able to keep staring and fantasizing over it, you better make sure it doesn't get eaten by a B.O.W!"
"Ma'am, yes ma'am!"
There was a moment of relative silence, where everybody was too busy shooting to speak up.
And then Corporal Wedge spoke up again.
"Captain Green! If we save your ass, will you let me buy you a drink after this is all over?"
"Are you really flirting while we're surrounded by monsters?!" shouted a nearby US Marine, sounding incredulous.
"No better time for it!" cheerfully replied the corporal.
The Captain grunted while blowing off the head of a Leader Hunter.
"Are you that eager to get a shot at my ass, Corporal?"
"It's a very nice ass, Ma'am!"
"... I mean, he's not wrong, Captain!" came a cheerful shout from the same soldier as before.
The captain grunted as she spartan-kicked yet another Hunter out of the window.
"Fuck it, if we survive this you'll buy me that drink, Corporal! You're unquestionably a massive improvement over all my current-" she grunted as she fell to the ground to avoid a very well aimed shot of acid "-suitors who can't take a fucking hint I'm not interested!" she finished with a growl.
"Yeah! FOR THE BEST ASS IN THE WORLD! Die!"
"... Did he seriously-"
"It's actually not the weirdest battle cry I ever heard!" cheerfully declared one of the ISIS soldiers.
"I don't even dare to ask." replied the Marine who was shaking his head incredulously.
*WWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH!*
Captain Green leaned back as a good chunk of the street below suddenly was filled with fire.
Fire everywhere.
"Yeah! Burn my pretties, burn!"
"... Was that-"
"Our reinforcements have arrived, ma'am!" cheerfully replied the soldier at the radio.
Captain Green leaned out of the window, staring at the squad currently looking down at the burning street with complete glee in their body language.
"You forgot to mention they were sending Inferno Squad, soldier." she deadpanned.
She shook her head.
"Right, someone get me a status from the defenses below, because things up top-"
*WWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH!*
"-are no longer our concern." she finished dryly, while the dying screams of B.O.W's echoed in the air along with the sounds of fire flooding the street.
And, underneath all of that, she could almost swear that she heard maddened cackling…
-
12th October, 2008.
"Water?"
"Yes, thank you."
Lois Carol gratefully took the offered bottle, greedily drinking before gasping for breath, thirst quenched, before she gave the bottle back.
"How are things up top?" she asked. Considering what happened the day before, she couldn't help but wonder, though thankfully the news had been mostly positive after the initial shock had passed.
A part of her was annoyed that she had missed something as big as a dozen giant worms popping up out of the ground of Manhattan.
The rest of her had been glad to not get involved in that insanity.
Needless to say, a few more hours of dealing with the War Below had quickly changed her mind once again to wanting to be above ground, instead.
There was nothing quite like being confined underground and surrounded by thousands of monsters to make you long for the freedom of open air.
"Better now." Sergeant Brad replied. "Blackwatch has managed to get control of their soldiers back, and it appears that they are throwing everything they have at eliminating all remaining B.O.W's up top. Of course, that is easier said than done, and don't even get me started on the apparent losses they took in the War Below while things topside went to hell. Many of their squads got ambushed and just outright crushed by sheer numbers, and with communications and organization shot to hell it was something of a slaughter. The losses they are taking… Well. It's a good thing that this is Blackwatch we're talking about, because any other army would be already retreating by now. As it is, ISIS is forced to pick up the slack across the south of the island, and everything above 23rd Street is now officially ours to control, above and below ground."
Lois considered that for a moment.
"That's, what, close to 3/4ths of the island now under ISIS control? Damn. They can't be happy about that."
"No choice. They simply don't have the manpower to properly control things at this point. And nothing shows that off better than what's going on right now between our leaders."
Lois blinked, and leaned forward. "What do you mean?"
"Blackwatch's general contacted the Boss." Sergeant Brad replied, and Lois blinked in shock, Brad smirking in response to her visible surprise. "You've been briefed about Bloodtox?"
"Yes." she confirmed.
"Well, General Randall wants to flush out Greene once and for all. As a result, he contacted the Boss for a temporary alliance. He wants ISIS's help in setting up pumps full of Bloodtox across Manhattan, in order to force Greene to either come out topside or die from Bloodtox down there. So in a few hours, all hell is going to break loose again, as Greene will have no choice left but to throw everything she has left at us, or risk dying to Bloodtox."
Lois took a deep breath.
"So, what does that mean? That by tomorrow at the latest, Greene will be dead?"
"Well, hopefully. Or she may win against all odds. You can never be too sure in cases like this."
"Well, I know what outcome I'm hoping for."
She sighed, glancing around at the ISIS soldiers relaxing around the room they were in.
They've made progress in dealing with a number of underground hives, and slowly but surely were squeezing Greene's forces and boxing them in, but there were… a lot of hives to deal with.
And with ambushes, hit and run attacks and more almost constantly hitting them, it was a very exhausting war they were all fighting.
Lois tried very hard to not think of the number of near-death moments she went through down here, because there had been far too many of those.
The worse one had been when a giant spider had broken out of the ceiling and dropped on top of her, hissing hungrily and a second away from biting her with its fangs dripping with poison.
If Corporal Winter had shot even a second later…
Well. There were very good reasons why she tried not to think about the past… and possible what-ifs.
That way lay enough nightmares to last her a lifetime.
At least she never got dragged off by a spider. It was a tactic they had tried every so often, spitting webbing and then dragging off the poor bastard hit off in the distance and beyond help.
It had almost worked a couple of times… Thankfully ISIS soldiers were good enough to fight while outnumbered by extreme odds for at least a few minutes, time enough for reinforcements to come rushing in.
Not that they hadn't tried to capture her like this, same with her cameraman.
Thankfully, all attempts had failed.
A fact that she was very grateful for, because she had seen far too many corpses of people dragged off by spiders to not know what fate would await her then.
The lucky ones died quickly.
The others… did not.
She took a deep breath.
"Right. What's the next objective?"
"There's a hive we're headed towards that needs cleansing. We should hit it in 15 to 20 minutes."
"More spiders? Or is it worms this time?"
"Ant colony."
She blinked.
"Right, of course. Why the fuck not?"
She sighed.
"Humanity will never again look at insects the same way after this…"
"Well, look on the bright side!"
"There's a bright side?"
"We're not in Australia!"
Lois blanched.
"Oh God have mercy, I'll never get that out of my mind, now…"
Brad laughed.
"See? It can always get worse! Now come on, we really need to get moving, everyone had enough of a break-"
*CCCCCCRRRRRRAAAAAASSSSSHHHHHH!*
Naturally, that was the moment the walls of the room the group had chosen to take a break in promptly exploded inwards, and ants the size of cars promptly started charging in.
Things kinda went a bit crazy after that.
-
Sergeant Ryan carefully walked forward, the rest of his squad just as careful as him.
There were 20 Marines in total all carefully walking up a tunnel, all of them so tense a fly buzzing would send them off firing at it for a good long minute.
With the losses taken in the south following the destruction of Blackwatch's HQ, he and a large number of Marines were sent down the undergrounds of the city to do what the first wave of soldiers failed to do.
Their mission, obviously, was to cleanse as much of the undergrounds of southern Manhattan as they could.
In theory, sending all the Marines underground should have been enough to get the job done, if with some casualties.
In practice… Well.
Sergeant Ryan's group had 35 soldiers when they first were sent on this push.
They were now 20.
Most of the dead would never get the chance at a burial, considering the state of their body… when there was a body to be found.
This, for reference, was a pretty standard assault mission. They weren't attacking a hive, weren't attacking an enemy strongpoint, they were just pushing the line forward.
And they had already lost almost half their forces.
Thankfully, they were going to reach the point they were meant to stop at in a few minutes.
Naturally, that made them all the more tense.
They were all waiting for the other shoe to drop-
*CCCCCRRRRRAAAAAASSSSHHHH!*
"Aaaaaahhhhh-" *Crunch*
"Shit! BRIAN!"
"Open fire! Open fire!"
"We're firing! We're firing!"
Ryan shot at a worm that broke out of the ceiling to lunge at one of his squadmates, though he knew that they had already lost yet another Marine.
"Behind us!"
Ryan turned, finger pressing the trigger of his Shotlas as he exploded yet another worm which came out of the ground, steaming gore splattering all over the ground.
"Aaaaaaarrrggghhhh!"
"Check your corners dammit!"
Ryan glanced behind him, grimacing at the sight of another soldier screaming in agony as his right arm suddenly ended up in a stump from where a worm ate the rest of the limb.
"Louis! Jack! Keep an eye on the ceiling!" Ryan shouted, noticing they were both busy staring at the screaming man rather than making sure nothing else came out from above.
"Yes, sir-"
Ryan's eyes went wide when a worm burst out of the ceiling above Louis, and he tried to bring his Shotlas to bear as fast as he could.
He saw the worm go over the head of Louis a second before Ryan pressed the trigger…
And the corpse of the worm and the now headless Louis fell on the ground. "Dammit." he growled, having obviously been a second too slow to stop the worm from decapitating Louis.
A few other soldiers gunned down a few other worms, before the tunnel fell silent.
"Sound off." grimly said Ryan.
The names came out, and Ryan grimaced.
They had lost yet more soldiers, and one of those still alive now lacked his right arm.
Shit, what a mess… he thought darkly.
All of them were US Marines, all of them well-trained and equipped… and all of that meant jack shit in the depths of Manhattan, where freaks of nature could come out of anywhere at any time.
Sure, the Shotlases they had could kill most worms in one shot, but you had to actually be alive long enough to shoot to matter.
Needless to say, that was easier said than done.
"Sir, do we retreat?" came the hesitant voice of Jack.
"Retreat? Absolutely not! For two reasons."
"What are they, sir?"
"First, we're not the only ones pushing forward. If we retreat, we expose a lot of our fellow Marines' flanks, and a lot of good men will die because of us. You want to be the cause of that, Marine?"
The soldier grimaced.
"Yes, sir, onward it is. And the second reason?"
"Secondly, the nearest safe zone is the one we came from. Which means we'll have to walk all the way back from where we came. You think we can survive a return trip if we're attacked as often as we were going in?"
"... Shit. Alright, straight into hell it is…"
"I'd take Hell over Manhattan right about now…" grumbled another soldier.
"Well, we might as well be here already, frankly…"
"Cut the chatter." Ryan ordered coldly. "And get moving. The sooner we hit the end point of this tunnel, the better."
"Aye, Aye sir!"
They kept moving.
Naturally, they didn't walk for five minutes before the next attack came.
-
Breaking News! Massive worms were seen breaking out of the ground in Manhattan! The battle for the city rages for the entire world to see once more as entire streets are left wrecked by the passage of these giant monsters-
ISIS HQ confirmed to have been secretly hiding a massive plasma cannon, one capable of killing one of the giant worms now assaulting Manhattan with one shot! Video recordings show off the sheer power of the weapon, as for a moment the sky of Manhattan burned a bright red as the fury of the defenders of humanity was unleashed in full-
Shocking videos are showing the existence of an individual previously unknown, a man seemingly capable of using the power of the infection to mutate his body into a living weapon capable of slaying one of the giant worms causing chaos in Manhattan! The shocking videos shows how in but a few minutes this man was able to kill one such worm, before then somehow disappearing in the chaos unleashed upon the destruction of the military base down south at Battery Park-
More videos recording show off the leader of ISIS, Aeon Muradasilova, successfully slaying several of the giant worms which came out of the ground of Manhattan a few hours ago, the quickly becoming famous warrior slaying these monsters of legend with shocking ease, leaving the entire world to stare in awe at feats of martial prowess previously thought impossible-
The recordings of Lois Carol continues to stun the world, as visions of horrors previously thought unthinkable are provided in thorough detail for all to see, and mankind is left shocked at the images of the brave warriors of humanity clashing across the underground portions of Manhattan in great battles of man against terrifying swarms of mutated beasts, where heroes rise and monsters are slain by the thousands, only to have their place taken by seemingly endless hordes of additional horrors-
Recent revelations show that the unknown infected man is actually Doctor Alexander Mercer, a former high-ranking employee of Gentek, age 29, who was working on a classified project for the corporation before the outbreak began. Information given to us by ISIS shows that Dr. Mercer was actually infected with a different strain of the virus compared to what had turned Manhattan into a battlefield, one which allowed him to remain sane and unlock extremely powerful mutagenic abilities, which he put to use in fighting back against the rapidly spreading Redlight outbreak. We have also been informed that Dr. Mercer was sent during Operation Revolving Door to try and assassinate Elizabeth Greene, though sadly she was able to escape when a previously unknown infected lifeform codenamed "The Supreme Hunter" was used against him to allow Greene time to flee. While Dr. Mercer was able to win the fight against this new life form, Greene had by then successfully hidden herself into the depths of Manhattan. A number of videos showing Dr. Mercer fight against the infected hordes of Greene had been made public by ISIS, and-
-
"Get moving you sad sacks of lard! We all need to get to Times Square ASAP, so don't you dare hold the op back because you couldn't be bothered to get moving properly! Is that understood, Marines?!"
"Sir, yes sir!"
"Then double time it! Today is the day we finally get that bitch Greene, and like Hell I'm going to get late for that!"
"Sir, yes sir!"
Sergeant Major Avery Johnson grunted approvingly, running forward with his men towards Time Square.
It took several hours, numerous missiles, countless guns and more, but eventually all 12 worms were killed.
But that wasn't why they were all running like hell.
No, the problem was that the leader of Blackwatch finally took the lasgun out of his ass and decided to work with ISIS to get results.
So now his group had been ordered to provide support to ISIS and Blackwatch soldiers at Times Square while they worked on setting the machinery required to flood the undergrounds of Manhattan with Bloodtox.
Which sounds all nice and well, until one considered that the hordes of monsters that made it up top apparently learned of what was going on, and now Times Square was turning into the next great battlefield of the day.
And because some motherfucking Goliaths just so happened to cross the path of his unit, they were now behind schedule to reinforce the line over there.
Which was, needless to say, utterly unacceptable.
"Sir! The remaining hordes of monsters are making a push near our positions "
"Then what are we waiting for?! Onwards Marines, for God and country! Oorah!"
"OORAH!"
Johnson turned the next corner while running at full speed-
And then his eyes widened as he took in the sight before him, a number of his soldiers cursing instinctively at the sheer scene of destruction before them.
It was a scene of utter chaos, though not completely disorderly, thankfully.
Tanks were blowing up Goliaths and Juggernauts as fast as they could, helicopters were firing non-stop into swarms of charging Walkers and Hunters, lines of soldiers grimly held their positions and kept firing so fast that the air was seemingly a constant, burning red while hundreds, if not thousands of horrifying creatures charged at them, and Johnson could see the sight of the leader of ISIS on one side of the battlefield in the air, jetpack on his back, holding an entire major street by himself, while on the opposite end, a man who had to be Alex Mercer held the line against another street's worth of charging monsters, his arms unnaturally long as they were used like deadly whips to slaughters dozens of monsters at every swing.
"Mother of God!" exclaimed one of his soldiers, and Johnson scowled and focused. Now was not the time to gawk like a civilian, they had a job to do!
His eyes found the oh-so important Bloodtox dispersal machinery at the center of this chaos, protected by echelons of grim-faced Blackwatch, ISIS, and Marines, and Johnson pointed at the things.
"Right, this is our objective! Not a single damn fly gets to come close to those things, got it Marines?! Not a single fly! For all we know it could be infected!"
"Sir, yes sir!"
"Then let's get moving! We'll flank those charging bastards and make them eat lasers, courtesy of Uncle Sam! Onwards, Marines! Oorah!"
"OORAH!"
They charged, crashing like a wave on the side of one of the charging hordes of monsters, Johnson loudly cursing those motherfucking rejects of nature in between shouting orders to keep the pressure on the charging horde of freaks trying their damndest to stop the dispersal of Bloodtox against Greene.
Amidst the seemingly endless explosions, lasgun, and plasma shots, as the screams of the legion of the Damned filled his ears, as his radio kept him appraised on how long they still had to hold the line while more and more freakish abomination of nature kept trying to gut him and his men, Sergeant Major Avery Johnson smirked widely.
Never a dull day in the Marines! They said at recruitment.
See the world! They said, Serve your country! They said, Be a hero! They said!
Well, they were fucking right, Johnson says!
I love my job, he thought with glee while burning to ash the head of yet another Hunter.
Now, if only he'd get a shot at that bitch Greene, or at least got to see her be splattered all over the place, then this day would be perfect!
A.N: Alright! Here is the next chapter in which we continue the events of Prototype.
We start with a bit more PHO-like stuff, with more coming in the next chapter.
Then we have Alex Mercer, discovering the joys of the ancient art of pranking. Blame Aeon for that, since he's trying to teach a few things to Alex. For one, he wants him to learn how to think outside the box to achieve his goals, while also reminding him that his powers can be used for more than just causing death and destruction. He also wants to remind Alex that he is more than just a weapon, and that it is alright to sometimes show off his humanity… Even if it is by taking hilarious revenge on those who wronged him.
Too bad that Greene had to ruin his fun, the idea of all Blackwatch soldiers in Manhattan forced to go around with bright pink armor would have been hilarious.
Also, some more Aeon/ISIS/Alex being badasses, as always.
And for those of you curious, Captain Green could be seen as a Miranda Lawson expy.
Then we have a bit more about the War Below, and finally the start of the final battle against Greene.
And yes, Alex Mercer is officially out in the open. That's not going to make Blackwatch twitchy or anything…
Still, with all that being said, I hope you all enjoyed this update! Next time, more PHO reacting to things, and of course the final showdown with Greene!