RTS System in the Apocalypse: New World

Raptor Seven and Raptor Eight left Grefort behind shortly after sunrise the following morning.

The route carried them north across farmland, scattered industrial estates, and smaller communities connected by the coastal highway.

The fighters kept enough separation to avoid interfering with each other’s cameras, though Raptor Eight remained within visual range behind the lead aircraft.

They passed several towns along the coastal highway. The first had emptied almost completely. Cars remained outside houses and stores, while only a few scattered red markers appeared inside Raptor Seven’s local Radar.

Whether the rest had escaped or been consumed by the infected remained uncertain from the air.

Another settlement farther north was still occupied. Neutral markers filled the buildings and fields behind its barricades, while only a few red contacts moved outside the perimeter.

Trucks and farm equipment blocked its three entrance roads. Smoke rose from cooking fires inside the perimeter, while people moved between houses and cultivated fields behind the barricades.

Raptor Eight examined it during a single pass.

"Human activity. No large infected groups nearby."

"Record the location," Raptor Seven answered. "We continue north."

The settlement disappeared behind them.

Land farther ahead became uneven. Low ridges approached the coastline, forcing the highway through cuts in the rock before it descended again toward broad fields and fishing communities.

The sea appeared beyond the final ridge.

Sunlight stretched across the water, interrupted by cargo vessels and smaller boats that had drifted away from their original anchorages.

Several ships remained close to shore. Others rested at unfamiliar angles against sandbars or exposed rocks.

Saicine occupied the coast ahead.

The city curved around a wide bay. A pair of breakwaters protected the central harbor, leaving two entrances between concrete walls that extended into the sea.

The western side contained the cargo port.

Red markers began entering Raptor Seven’s local Radar as the cargo port entered range. Some remained inside warehouses and waterfront buildings, while others moved through the streets behind the berths.

Raptor Eight’s display filled separately as it crossed toward the fishing harbor.

Container yards, loading cranes, warehouses, and storage tanks covered most of the waterfront. Several ships remained beside the berths, though one had struck the pier and pushed part of its bow onto the concrete.

Ship-repair slips occupied the center of the harbor.

Two vessels sat inside partially flooded drydocks. Another stood under a framework of maintenance cranes, surrounded by scaffolding that had begun collapsing into the water.

The eastern side held the fishing port and older commercial district.

Rows of smaller boats filled the inner harbor. Fish markets, processing buildings, and narrow warehouses stood immediately behind the seawall.

Residential neighborhoods climbed the ridges north of the bay.

Saicine was smaller than Grefort, though it had been built more tightly. The city center occupied only several kilometers around the waterfront before the streets narrowed and rose toward the inland communities.

Raptor Eight moved toward the eastern side.

"City is still standing."

"Most cities are," Raptor Seven replied. "It is what lives inside them that causes trouble."

"That was almost optimistic, Raptor Seven."

"Record the port."

The pair separated.

Raptor Seven followed the cargo berths while Raptor Eight crossed above the fishing harbor.

Infected filled parts of the lower city.

Several thousand occupied the commercial streets behind the waterfront. More wandered between the container yards and warehouses, though their distribution remained uneven.

Entire sections of the cargo port appeared empty, while intersections closer to the city center had become packed with bodies.

The higher neighborhoods were different.

Barricades covered two roads leading toward the northern ridge. Buses, construction vehicles, and concrete dividers had been arranged across the slopes.

Neutral markers appeared behind the barricades on Raptor Eight’s local Radar. Its cameras shifted toward the northern ridge.

"Possible survivor positions on the northern ridge."

"How many?"

"Unable to confirm. Several rooftops occupied. Smoke from at least twelve buildings."

"Mark the entire section."

Raptor Eight recorded the barricades, approach roads, and nearby infected concentrations before returning its attention to the harbor.

A red marker moved below the surface of the eastern harbor, lower than every contact along the waterfront.

Something disrupted the water beside the fish market. The movement did not resemble a boat.

A broad shape passed under the abandoned vessels, pushing several of them apart. One fishing boat rolled against its mooring lines before the contact disappeared along the seawall.

"Raptor Seven, movement inside the eastern harbor."

"Vessel?"

"Negative."

The water struck the seawall.

A creature pulled itself over the concrete.

Its body was wider than a delivery truck. A flattened shell covered most of its back, while six jointed limbs pushed against the wall and lifted it onto the harbor road.

The rear of its body narrowed into a muscular tail that struck the water before following it onto land.

Several pale growths protruded through the shell. They were irregular and partly translucent, clustered around wounds where the carapace had split.

The creature stopped on the road. Infected nearby turned toward it.

The first group rushed from the fish market entrance. Several reached the creature before its forward limbs opened.

One limb closed around an infected and crushed its torso.

The other swept across the road, throwing four more against the market wall.

"Raptor Seven, confirm recording."

"I see it."

More infected poured into the street.

They climbed over the creature’s shell and attacked the softer joints at the base of its limbs. The animal twisted, striking buildings and parked vehicles as it attempted to remove them.

A second shape climbed over the seawall farther east.

Then a third.

The newcomers were smaller, though each remained larger than a civilian car. They moved through the infected without remaining together. One seized bodies with its front limbs and forced them under the plates surrounding its mouth.

The infected attacked them in return.

"There are more inside the harbor," Raptor Eight reported.

Raptor Seven crossed above the central port and turned its cameras toward the eastern water.

Dark shapes moved beneath the anchored boats.

Some remained close to the surface. Others appeared only through wakes spreading toward the seawall.

None followed a single formation.

"Those are separate creatures," Raptor Seven said.

"I counted nine. That does not include those behind or under the boats."

The first creature reached the intersection behind the fish market.

It no longer moved toward the water.

Several dozen infected surrounded it, tearing at the joints beneath the shell. One of its rear limbs had already stopped supporting its weight.

The creature lowered itself.

Its tail struck the street.

Bodies, pieces of pavement, and part of a parked vehicle scattered across the intersection. The impact cleared enough space for it to continue forward.

It moved deeper into Saicine.

Raptor Eight climbed and widened its camera view.

A line of infected approached from the commercial center. The creature turned toward them instead of returning to the harbor.

"It is following the concentration."

"Or feeding on it."

"Those may be the same thing. Do you think the Commander will like this?"

"He wanted to know what remained of the city and its coast."

"The navy will not like the answer for this one."

"Heh. They can savor their fish food when the time comes for them."

"I doubt I’d call it savoring, Raptor Seven."

Raptor Seven continued along the cargo port.

The water near the damaged freighter shifted. At first, the vessel appeared to move with the tide. Then its stern began turning toward the pier.

The mooring lines tightened. One snapped and struck the surface.

An unknown object passed beneath the ship.

The freighter rose slightly before dropping back into the water. Waves crossed the harbor and struck both sides of the cargo basin.

Raptor Seven changed course without descending.

"Raptor Eight, large movement near the western berth."

"I see the displacement."

The shape remained below the surface.

Its wake extended beyond the length of the freighter.

A section of dark tissue broke through the water near the ship’s stern. It disappeared again before either aircraft obtained a complete image.

The damaged freighter moved another meter toward the pier.

Raptor Eight stopped joking.

"That one is substantially larger."

"No classification."

"Wasn’t offering one."

Raptor Seven recorded the berth, the displaced ship, and the water surrounding it.

Neither fighter carried a weapon suited to a submerged target. Their local Radars could hold the shallower markers while the creatures remained near the surface, but neither aircraft could determine what occupied the deeper harbor.

The reconnaissance order remained unchanged. They would not attack an unidentified creature that had shown no ability to reach them.

Raptor Seven returned toward the eastern harbor.

More red markers moved beneath the anchored boats. Some remained close to the surface, while others passed deeper through the harbor.

One of the smaller creatures had been overwhelmed.

Its shell remained wedged against a storefront while infected tore at the exposed tissue beneath it. A second creature attacked the same group moments later, crushing both the infected and the wounded animal in its path.

"They are attacking each other too," Raptor Eight said.

"Everything down there is biomass for them."

The northern barricades remained occupied.

People moved along the rooftops behind them. Several watched the lower city, while others appeared to be reinforcing the roadblocks leading down from the ridge.

Muzzle flashes appeared near one approach.

The survivors were firing toward infected climbing the slope.

Nothing indicated that they had noticed the larger movement spreading from the harbor.

Raptor Eight marked the position again.

"Fuel window approaching."

"We have enough footage. One final pass along the outer harbor."

The pair turned toward the breakwater.

The open sea beyond it appeared calm from a distance. Closer inspection showed several wakes moving parallel to the coast.

One approached the harbor entrance.

Another continued south.

Raptor Seven followed the southern wake with its cameras until it passed beyond the breakwater. The shape beneath it never surfaced.

Its direction placed it along the coast toward the waterways north of Grefort.

"Raptor Eight, record the southern contact."

"Recording."

"It is leaving Saicine."

"And it is not heading into deeper water."

Both aircraft turned south.

Behind them, smaller creatures continued climbing from the harbor while the infected converged on the same streets.

The survivor-held neighborhoods remained on the northern ridge, separated from the waterfront by roadblocks and several kilometers of contested city.

Two threats now occupied Saicine.

The infected fought anything that climbed from the sea, while the creatures that survived continued inland.

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