Chapter 2: A Stronger Weapon.
Night turned into morning.
After resting for the night, the soldier woke up and readied his gear as he leaves the vehicle together with Riley. He limps outside the vehicle. The vehicle runs out of fuel as the indicator points to the E mark.
"This time you're helping me, Riley. This is an urban area. So there's food around here. We'd be luckier if we can find gas and materials as well," He says as Riley jumps in excitement like an excited puppy.
They walk across the sidewalk outside the alley.
The man limps to the nearest wall as he supports himself on the wall.
Riley shows an expression of concern as he looks at the soldier with a slightly pale skin color.
He pants a bit as they continue walking and searching through the nearby buildings.
They come across a small grocery store filled with torn-down advertisements, scattered rotten food, and other things. The man picks up the necessary food that is good enough to be considered edible. He picks up other packaged food, water, and other resources.
Searching at the backdoor on the Employees only door, they find more packaged food enough to hold for at least a month. He swiftly finds a shopping cart and pushes it along as he places the pack of food on it.
One by one, he picked each while the little spider robot picks up the small ones and drops on the cart.
They leave the grocery store as he pushes the cart while Riley rides on it with a happy expression on its screen.
"Riley, play my dad's favorite playlist,would you?"
A musical note is displayed on Riley's screen.
(Now Playing: Staying Alive-Bee Gees.)
It plays the song at a soft volume, loud enough to be audible but not loud to be heard from across the urban district.
'Who would blast this when there might be a rapture lurking around?' The lone soldier thought that in his mind.
'It's not like I would be surviving anymore after this, but at least give myself some time to enjoy the song before I die.' He thought once more as he continues limping.
Riley observes his owner as he sways slightly from the cart. His expression from under his eyebrows shows a slight hint of tiredness and fatigue.
The man ignores this as he continues to push the cart. They continued scavenging the surrounding buildings for more food and materials.
Around four hours later, the two of them have managed to gather plenty of supplies and also materials that they could use to fix the Humvee from the damage resulting from the attacks of the flying Raptures from last night's chase.
"Life goin' nowhere, somebody help me
Somebody help me, yeah... Life goin' nowhere, somebody help me, yeah
I'm stayin' alive..." The man lowly sing his favorite part of the song in a soft mumbling voice as Riley replay the very first song that it plays earlier.
Speaking of the little spider-like robot. Riley is currently sits on the man's shoulder, leaning its head beside his chin as it takes a nap, as the lone survivor pushes the shopping cart containing a bigger amount of food supplies, scraps, and two jerry cans filled with gas.
His head slightly feels a bit heavy, and he slows down as he sways along the cart.
He didn't bother the pain as they head back to their location. His vision is slightly blurred, as they go to the same street to the alley. He adjusts his vision again but he feels nauseous right after as his sweat drops.
They entered the Humvee as music blasted in the background. Since the vehicle inside is partially soundproof, it's not as loud as they close the door unless someone is really hearing something.
He casually pours the gas can into the vehicle as Riley bops its head up and down from the music.
As he entered the vehicle, he grabs the wrecked Rapture parts that he collected from the Raptures that he shot down last night and pulls out screwdrivers, hammers, and other tools.
He takes out the entire mechanical body, revealing more mechanical parts, and found ammunition in it, consisting of bullets of different calibers and sizes.
"For a threatening killing intelligent machine, you sure packed too much ammo," He thought as he searches for more things.
With the previous ammunition he packed before he found the Rapture, it does not kill even a single rapture until it is in a certain range. If he wasn't in the correct shooting range on that early supply run from last night, he wouldn't be able to kill even a single one of those Raptures and he would have likely died from a single stray machine, it would be laughable if that happens.
It's like living in a zombie apocalypse, where you survived through the toughest situations in a survivor's entire life only to end up dying from a single bite of one stray undead in a very unconventional way.
As he continues dismantling the wrecked Raptures parts, A dirty Dog tag fell off from his chest pocket which reveals his one and only Identity.
His Operator name.
Ghost.
Actually, the dog tag also has his real name, but his real name has been very badly obscure due to some scratches formed by several factors, which includes being grazed by a bullet.
Ghost picks up his dog tag after he finished dismantling the Raptures wrecked parts. He looks at it with slight curiosity, then placed it back in his chest pocket.
"Right. Time to fix up the Humvee." Ghost mumbles to himself as he took a blowtorch and some metal scraps before stepping out of the vehicle.
Outside, he inspects the damages that has been done to his Humvee during last night's wild chase.
"Damn, those killing machines really did a number on you, didn't they?" Ghost commented jokingly as he saw the holes which was caused by a hail of bullets fired by the flying Raptures who were chasing him last night.
"Good thing we have enough scraps to patch you up."
Ghost then starts to work on patching the holes on his Humvee. He expertly welded the metal scraps on to the perforated surface of his Humvee with the blowtorch.
Once all of the holes have been patched up, Ghost then heads back inside the vehicle. He puts away the blowtorch along with the other tools, and then turn to look at his robot companion.
"Okay, Riley. Up next, if we want to keep surviving against those robot monsters until we find a settlement, we're gonna need to upgrade and resupply ammunition." Ghost said to his robot companion.
"Beep?" Riley made a questioning soft beep as if it's asking him, why?
"Well, as you've already know, it's impossible bring down most of those killing machines down. Although, the rifle that I currently have is quite powerful, it's not strong enough to take down the new types, especially the boss class." Ghost reasons.
"We need a caliber big enough to penetrate their annoying shell. A weapon with a really strong firing power and bullets with high velocity, those are what we truly need to survive against the majority of those raptures. And honestly, I'm starting to get tired of often having to run away against the more powerful types of those killing machines when fighting back could be a much better option than fleeing."
Ghost grabs a map from one of his bag and unfold it. "If we want to find such weapon and ammunition, we need to go to a place that has stacks of ammunitions and weapons. With this caliber, we won't be able to find it in the run-off-the-mill type military stores. They should be far away... Like a military factory,"
"Beep beep?" The robot's head tilts in curiosity as it reveals a question mark on its screen.
"You think we are going to survive at this point if all we do is hide every time? If we want to deal a swarm, we need bigger weapons. Something more powerful than this assault rifle."
Taranty reveals a red exclamation mark and a question mark.
"It is very dangerous I agree. But I'm getting tired of surviving day and night hiding from these Raptures. Why don't we sneak up on them..."
Its screen revealed a skull image.
"What can we do? I hate staying outside. I hate hiding. Hell, I hate dying from these wounds,"
Rest...
The display screen reveals text on Taranty.
"W-well... I guess... BUT-"
Rest...
The display screen reveals a 'ZZZ' icon on the red text.
"Jeez, fine. I'll get some shut eye once we leave this city."
"Well, we can't stay here for long. Let's check the map," He places his foot on the pedal while he looks at his map.
After checking each possible locations on his map, he eventually found a location where they might be able to find the powerful weapon that they needed.
Around 30 miles away to the North from this city, apparently there's a military facility branch owned by the Atlas Industry.
It's quite far, but he should be able to get there by the evening if he goes now.
"Look at this, Riley. I think we can find what we're looking for in this location." Ghost said to Riley while pointing at the location on his map. "It's a military facility branch previously owned by the Atlas Industry. It's quite far, but we should be able to get there by evening if we go now."
Ghost then put his map down and turn on the engine.
"Beep Beep Beep?" Riley made some soft beeps in concern.
"Don't worry... I promise that I will get some sleep later. But for now, let's just get out of this city before anymore Raptures spotted us."
With that, Ghost move the gears into one and steps on the gas pedal as he drives the Humvee away from the Metro City.
(Later that evening)
Ghost and Riley approach a large facility from the distance up the road ahead.
He looks through the side window as his eyes widened in shock from the facility. Despite having been abandoned for a very long time. The building of the facility still looks as pristine as ever, and it also looks more futuristic than the one that he knows.
The ATLAS Corporation.
However, despite its futuristic and majestic form, when he looks at that facility ahead, it looked more like a hornet's nest swarmed by a large number of raptures getting geared up through the factory.
His skin felt like something is crawling on him while Riley made a "Woaaahhh" tone from its noise as it curiously watches the individuals having their parts replaced by something else of a larger caliber.
"Shit! I didn't know this facility has become a Rapture's nest." Ghost cursed as he lightly hit the steering wheel with his fist in mild annoyance.
"I guess we have no other choice but to find another military facility." Ghost grabs his map right after he parked the Humvee behind a bush. He unfold the map and begin searching for another possible location where they can find a higher caliber weapon.
Meanwhile, Riley is stunned at the view. He keeps watching as the Raptures continue their usual part replacement routine.
Its camera-like lens starts glowing and an idea has come up.
Riley looked at Ghost and a light bulb action has come up from its screen.
"You got something?" He asked.
It pulled the door's lever and heads out in a sneaky-like pose. Ghost followed his companion as well as he brought his rifle and the rest of his equipment.
The two sneakily pass by the main entrance of the facility as they continue heading to the side where the roads are blocked by iron fences.
They ran around the side as they go as far as possible from the sights of the raptures but near enough to reach behind the factory.
Ghost takes a wire cutter and cuts off the iron wires from the fence, letting the robot companion pass through the fence first then bent his head and entered as well.
Through the open parking spot, they rushed to the nearby backdoor leading to the military facilities.
Ghost turns the door knob and lightly push the door, only to find that it's locked.
He proceeds to grab a Lockpick to forcefully unlocked the door. After hearing a "CLICK!" sound, Ghost removes the Lockpick from the keyhole and then push open the door.
Upon entering the facility, he is met with a dark corner and a few open spaces.
If he were to sneak in, he has to hide under the conventional belts that move different parts and scrap materials of the factory.
For a factory such as this, no wonder raptures can resupply and upgrade themselves from this type of factory.
However, one single entity that dares spot him will be an instant death of his. This is his choice, just to get stronger. An ordinary rifle is weak. Standard calibers commonly used to take out threats are not enough. Not for the new types and Boss class Raptures at least. Unless there's another threat...
A group of raptures rolling on tracks casually scan around as they move to another corner. Both Ghost and Riley hid past them as they continued pushing bit by bit while not getting spotted.
"Alright, let's press on." He said in a whisper tone as both him and Riley make another move as they slowly went deeper and deeper into the factory.
Unknown to the lone soldier and the little robot, an unsuspecting camera is constantly watching the strange duo passing through the defense of the military facility.
"Hmph... Human? On the surface... With a Rapture as its friend...? No... Doesn't look some sort..." A female silhouette dressed in comfortable clothes wearing some sort of headset as she carefully watches the duo pass each Rapture like butter.
The man in soldier uniform continued to slide under open cracks, hide inside dark areas, and even stick himself inside a working machine just to get out of sight from the Raptures.
"Why... Is he in a factory? It's a death sentence for him..." She commented as was unable to understand the reason why the man willing to risk his life to enter the raptures' den.
As they reach one more end, he finds a doorway and enters the room. He is presented with a view of various weapons displayed on shelves lined up on the right and left sides of the room, ranging from Rifles, SMG, LMG, and Rocket launchers.
"What a fascinating sights. This must be the storage where they put all of the manufactured weapons." Ghost commented and Riley made a soft beep in agreement.
They took their times marveling and inspecting all of the weapons stored within the room. Although, most of them are quite interesting, however, there is one weapon that attracted Ghost's attention the most while they're inspecting the energy weapon section.
Displayed on a special shelf for hybrid type energy weapons, there is a futuristic rifle that has a design similar to the M14 EBR sniper rifle.
Ghost proceeds to read the description about the futuristic rifle, and it turns out, apparently the name of this rifle is EBR - 800. It is an energy rifle that has two different functions. As a hybrid weapon, the EBR - 800 functions as a semi-automatic sniper rifle capable of converting to a fully automatic assault rifle for mid-to-close range.
"Hmm... An energy weapon that functions both as Sniper rifle and Assault rifle? Now that's the kind of weapon that I always wanted!" Ghost commented as he grabs the rifle from its shelve so that he can inspect it much closer.
When he was still in the military, he was considered as one of the Sniper expert on his team, and he's also pretty good in using an assault rifle. Which is why having a weapon that can shift from Sniper mod to Assault mod is very advantageous for him. Not to mention that this Hybrid energy weapon also has very good specs.
However, the size of this rifle hybrid is half as big as the standard M14 EBR Sniper rifle that he's familiar with, and it's also a bit heavier than the 50 cal Sniper rifle.
If an ordinary human would carry this type of weapon, it's like carrying a bulky long stylish iron rod.
However, Ghost isn't an ordinary human since he's a professionally trained soldier who have worked his body out to its peak. So, this kind of weight is something that he can still handle just fine. Which why he decided to take this rifle with him.
There are still plenty of interesting weapons that he wanted to check, however, knowing that he can't stay here for long, so he decided to quickly grab a sidearm that attracted his attention the most.
It's a handgun with a really big barrel that resembles a suppressor. It's size is as big as the Desert Eagle, but its weight is a bit heavier than the standard Desert Eagle.
After selecting two weapons that would each serve as his main weapon and backup weapon, Ghost ended his search by retrieving some ammunition for his two new weapons, which included ballista bullets and solar battery clips, and also several types of grenade.
"Okay, Riley. I think we've got every thing we needed here. Let's get out of this place before we get spotted by any of the Raptures here." Ghost said as he unslung his newly obtained rifle and holster his new handgun.
"Beep!" Riley nods its head while making a soft beep in agreement.
The two of them then left the room and carefully make their way out of the facility by applying the same sneaking tactics just like when they first enter the facility.
They slip and hide their presence from every patrolling raptures, within dark corners and the gap of moving machines as they retrace their way to the backdoor exit.
As they reach one more end, he finds a strange-looking humanoid laying on the ground.
Its body parts are made of metal and it's laid motionless. The face is covered by certain metal parts but it looks humanoid nonetheless.
The motionless humanoid looks shorter than him, but his size is that of a six-foot man (1.83 meters), that survives in an apocalypse with limited resources. Because he assumes that he is alone, stocking a huge amount of food would be fine as long as he gets the energy to survive.
Its disfigured feminine body is covered in exposed metal parts. From the looks of it, they seem to be some sort of weapons meant for Raptures.
He tried to pick one up, however, it's incredibly heavy. Much heavier than his new rifle. With the amount of weight he is currently carrying, it would be impossible for him to be able to carry it with him all the way to the Humvee while avoiding the watchful eyes of the Raptures around him.
With that in mind, Ghost decided to leave the weapon and continue heading toward the factory's backdoor exit. However, when they were about to turn at the end of the hallway, Ghost and Riley are forced to backtrack as quickly as possible as a big number of raptures are heading their way.
"Shit! They're heading this way." Ghost cursed before turning around and went back the way they had come. But unfortunately, at the end of the opposite hallway there were also several Rapture approaching, and they were equipped with more dangerous weaponry than the group of Rapture coming from the opposite direction.
"Great! Now what do we do...?"
In his moment of urgency, he suddenly feels a slight vibration on the ground and a low-grinding sound from afar.
"Beep...?" Riley curiously watches its own leg shake from the shaking ground.
Ghost nodded to Riley as they swiftly hide behind the corner near the doorway as they hide under the dark light from the incoming hostile threats that are near their hallway.
A sliding metal door opens near the corner of the room as he hides under the nearby table.
Waiting for something to approach from that doorway, nothing happens.
Curiously enough he looks around his place before entering the strange sliding metal door.
The metal door closes itself as a small light path is trailed in a straight line leading to another doorway.
Strange...
The dark surroundings with the only light source coming from the light path give Ghost an off-putting feeling but continue to walk forward to the strange path.
His footsteps echo across the dark hallway as each leathery step bounces and reverberate across the walls.
Riley's beeping noise as well echoes across the walls with a curious tone.
As they reach the end of the hallway, the sliding door opens leading to...
"An exit?" Ghost utters quizzingly as he can see a familiar parking area in the distance.
He momentarily turned around while wondering what or who could it be that had opened that sliding door which leads directly to the exit.
There wasn't anyone else within the factory, except for him, Riley, and the local Raptures. But why does it feel like someone is secretly watching him while he's inside the factory?
Ghost shook his head, there's no point in dwelling in that thought. He needs to get out of this facility before any of the Raptures here accidentally spotted him infiltrating their breeding nest unwarranted.
He quickly gets out of the factory and quietly crosses the open parking area along with Riley as to not alarmed the patrolling raptures nearby.
Once they're at a safe distance, the two of them immediately broke into a full sprints as they ran as fast as they could to the location where they had hidden their getaway vehicle.
As the two entered the vehicle, he starts up the engine immediately and leaves the premises away from that nest of machines.
It was a miracle that none of the raptures spotted them when they infiltrated the factory. However, there's no way he's going to infiltrate another factory without a proper preparation.
One hundred percent will not go there unprepared... Ever!
"Riley, please remind me that if we are to search for weapons, not anywhere facilities that may be the breeding ground of killing machines,"
A thumbs-up image is displayed on Riley's face.
"Good. Now let see if we can find a place where we can sleep for the night safely."
With that said, Ghost drives the Humvee toward the nearest town that he could find in the map.
"Hmph... He finally left..."
Within a dark room that's filled with advanced machinery and sophisticated computers, the same unknown figure, who have been watching the two unusual duo this entire time, is currently watching the last footage of the unknown soldier and his robot companion leaving the factory's premise.
She then laid the back of her head on her chair before picking up her portable gaming console.
"Good thing I opened the door for them right on time. Otherwise, they're going to be in a real big trouble." She said in a flat and uncaring tone as she logins into her favorite video game.
Despite her uncaring attitude, she actually feels mildly curious about that man in skull mask. From the way he's dressed, and the skills that he displayed while infiltrating the factory undetected, he gives off the impression of having a military background. However, he's not like the other Commanders that she knows.
In the place where she lived, people were only given training to become commanders in their military institution. However, the man wearing the skull mask showed an ability possessed only by the Nikkes who were tasked with eradicating the Raptures on the surface.
That was why she felt somewhat curious and interested in finding out the identity of the man with the skull mask. Because people like him are quite rare to find in this era.
But that could be done later, right now there is a more important task she had to complete. Namely, defeating the person who dared to challenge her in a strategy game.
To be Continued.
A/N : Okay, that's it for the second chapter. The third one will come within a week or more. So, in this story I decided to give the Main character a new weapon, and it's one of my favorite weapon in Call of Duty Infinite Warfare. In the game, the EBR 800 is incredibly effective against the bots, so with that in mind that weapon should be effective against the Raptures as well right? In the next chapter, we will finally enters the plot of the Nikke's first chapter with a bit of twists here and there.
See you soon.