The pilot shifted the camera again.
A second infected circled above the industrial blocks.
Its upper limbs had changed into wide, uneven wings. The body hung beneath them at an awkward angle, legs drawn close while the wings continued beating against the air.
It was larger than an ordinary infected, though still far smaller than Raptor One.
The pilot’s expression changed.
"Now that one is actually flying."
The creature banked toward the aircraft.
Its movements were unstable but deliberate. Each wingbeat carried it higher, and its head remained pointed toward Raptor One.
The Radar measured the closing distance.
The pilot increased altitude slightly.
The flying infected followed.
"Persistent bogey too."
He adjusted course. The creature turned with him, though its speed remained nowhere close to the fighter.
The pilot could have destroyed it before it came within a kilometer.
His hand remained away from the weapon controls.
"Reconnaissance only," he reminded himself. "Commander said no unnecessary attacks."
The flying infected continued climbing. Its wings beat harder.
The distance stopped closing. Then slowly increased.
The pilot watched it struggle beneath him.
"You tried."
Raptor One accelerated enough to leave the creature behind.
The red marker remained on the edge of the Radar for several seconds before disappearing.
"Confirmed airborne infected mutation," he recorded. "Powered flight capability. Limited speed and altitude compared to Raptor One. Possible threat to helicopters and low-flying transports."
He paused.
"Falcon One is going to love that."
The fighter turned eastward.
Industrial structures became taller and more crowded.
Processing plants rose beside storage towers. Large pipe networks crossed between buildings, while elevated roadways connected sections that had once operated as a single industrial chain.
The Radar detected more infected.
Several groups moved around the outer streets.
Others remained inside the buildings.
The pilot marked blocked roads, damaged bridges, and sections where the Hive’s roots had crossed into adjoining facilities.
The farther Raptor One proceeded, the thicker the air became.
At first, it looked like ordinary haze. A pale layer hung between the industrial towers and the distant skyline, too low for cloud cover and too uneven for fog.
The pilot checked the weather display.
No matching atmospheric condition appeared.
"City got dusty all of a sudden."
The skyline of central Grefort rose ahead. High-rise buildings crowded the horizon, their upper sections partly hidden by the pale layer. Some leaned against neighboring structures. Others had collapsed across entire streets.
The pilot reduced speed.
"Approaching central district boundary."
The Radar swept forward.
Too many red contacts appeared to count individually. They crowded the display across the nearest blocks, with more still appearing deeper inside the district.
As Raptor One approached, the Radar return became grainy.
Building outlines appeared, then broke apart. Several contacts flickered across the display before disappearing. Others appeared twice in slightly different positions.
The pilot frowned.
"That’s not high-rise clutter."
He changed altitude.
The interference remained.
Another sweep passed over the central districts. Sections of the map shifted out of alignment. Contacts lagged behind their recorded positions, while parts of the terrain disappeared beneath static.
A warning appeared.
------
[ Radar interference detected. ]
[ Airborne particulate contamination present. ]
------
The pilot looked through the canopy.
The pale haze extended farther than he had first realized.
Tiny particles drifted through the sunlight above the central streets. They were too numerous to count and spread across the air like suspended ash.
Raptor One’s filters adjusted automatically.
The Radar flickered again.
The pilot’s humor disappeared.
"Looks like spores."
Another wave of static crossed the display.
For the first time since leaving the Airfield, Raptor One slowed instead of moving forward.
The contaminated air covered most of the approach into central Grefort, and the Radar could no longer provide a reliable picture beyond it.
The pilot watched the interference for several seconds.
"Let’s see how bad you really are."
Raptor One turned along the edge of the central districts.
Raptor One turned along the edge of the central districts. The pilot compared the Radar returns against the optical feed.
"Delayed contacts. Duplicates. Missing terrain."
He adjusted the filtering systems.
The static weakened for a moment.
Several building outlines returned, followed by thousands of red markers spread through the blocks ahead.
Then the display distorted again.
"Come on."
He increased altitude.
The particles thinned slightly above the skyline, though the Radar remained unreliable whenever it passed through the contaminated air below. The aircraft could still identify large structures and broad concentrations, but smaller contacts became unreliable.
Raptor One continued along the boundary.
The pilot directed the optical camera toward the closest avenue.
Abandoned vehicles covered the road below. Hive growth climbed the lower floors of several buildings and crossed between them through enclosed walkways. Other roots disappeared into subway entrances and drainage openings.
Infected crowded the streets beneath the haze.
Some wandered without direction.
Others moved in long streams toward the deeper districts.
The pilot followed one of those streams until the camera lost it between the towers.
"Organized movement," he recorded. "Direction appears central. Unable to determine destination."
A larger Radar return flickered farther inside.
The contact appeared for less than a second before vanishing.
The pilot straightened.
"Got something."
He turned the optical camera toward the marked location.
High-rise buildings blocked most of the view. The pale haze thickened between them, hiding the streets and lower floors.
Nothing moved above the rooftops.
Raptor One’s Radar swept again.
The return appeared several hundred meters from its previous position.
"Large contact inside central Grefort. Classification unreliable."
Another sweep followed.
Nothing.
The Radar returned only static, duplicated contacts, and incomplete building outlines.
A closer pass might have provided another reading, but Hans had ordered him not to enter the central districts or make a second attempt if the view was obstructed.
"Signal’s too unreliable. No second attempt."
He maintained altitude and continued east along the boundary.
"Possible large mutation detected. No visual confirmation. Location marked with low confidence."
Another sweep followed but nothing responded.
He waited.
The Radar returned only static, duplicated markers, and incomplete building outlines.
The pilot considered moving closer. His hand shifted toward the controls, then stopped.
"Signal’s too jittery for a second attempt. No need to risk it, Raptor One."
The Commander’s order had been clear. He maintained altitude and continued east along the central boundary.
"Possible large mutation detected. No visual confirmation. Location marked with low confidence."
The pilot looked once more toward the haze.
The low-confidence marker remained on the mission map.
He continued east.
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