RTS System in the Apocalypse: New World

The task force left the northern Ironford FOB shortly after sunrise the next morning.

Anton and Sabine had already begun moving their companies toward their respective operational areas, leaving the northern vehicle lanes considerably less crowded than they had been during the previous few days.

Hans did not need either formation for the Nuclear Power Station. Matilda had kept the task force compact.

Two Guardian APCs formed the infantry element, supported by two Vanguards and the Armored Command Truck. Each APC carried one veteran standard squad together with a DASF squad and an Engineer, while a male Medic pair rode with the second vehicle.

Matilda occupied the first APC with Bar, Saint, and Vesper.

Hans had not seen the four of them deployed together in a long time. Matilda spent most large operations directing the wider force, while the other three DASFs moved between smaller assignments whenever their abilities were needed.

Kross, or Bar as everyone continued calling him, checked his rifle beside the rear ramp. Saint occupied the opposite side with enough space around him that the other passengers had apparently learned not to argue with his size, while Vesper sat closer to Matilda.

The second APC carried Specter Squad.

Specter, Chancel, Warden, and Harrow already had considerably more recent field experience after Ironford, though even they had spent most of their time being committed against specific targets instead of remaining in the firing lines for hours.

That difference showed in their promotion progress.

Hans’s cheaper infantry accumulated kills almost continuously whenever an operation turned into a large engagement.

The DASFs cost far more and required correspondingly more before their next stars appeared, yet Hans kept using them for the sort of work where twenty kills could already mean that something had gone seriously wrong.

The Nuclear Power Station gave him an excuse to change that without throwing them into a battle purely for the sake of progression.

If there was fighting along the northern approach, Matilda’s and Specter’s squads would take the main entry work.

The veteran squads existed to hold the staging area, cover the Engineers, and keep the withdrawal route secure if the plant’s security system proved considerably worse than what Echo One encountered weeks earlier.

Callum remained inside the Armored Command Truck with Hans.

The convoy left Ironford through the northern road and followed the route already surveyed during the earlier reconnaissance. Most of the industrial buildings gradually disappeared behind them, replaced by utility compounds, damaged transmission lines, pumping facilities, and stretches of open ground surrounding the river.

The cooling towers appeared well before the outer wall. They still looked almost the same as the Raptor footage.

Hans could see no smoke rising above the station and nothing indicating that the reactors had suffered a visible breach. Sections of the external transmission network remained damaged, but the major plant structures were still standing behind the perimeter.

Keeping them that way was the entire point of this operation.

Aircraft remained available farther south, although Flight Operations kept every route outside the Nuclear Power Station’s restricted airspace. Raptor One had already proven that the facility could track an aircraft and bring defensive systems onto it; Hans had no interest in finding out what weapons those systems carried simply because he now possessed more Raptors to lose.

The ground route was different. Echo One had already survived it once.

Matilda selected the same general approach for that reason.

The convoy slowed several kilometers from the station while Hans opened the synchronized Radar map. The northern FOB’s Physical Radar Facility covered the entire Nuclear Power Station and the surrounding approaches, giving the task force the same fixed picture they had been using since leaving Ironford.

Neutral markers appeared throughout the surrounding area, though their number remained unusually low compared to the industrial districts they had just left.

Most were scattered far enough from the plant that the task force could ignore them for now.

Inside the Nuclear Power Station itself, concentrations remained. Hans enlarged the northern side.

"The area is still occupied."

Matilda checked the same area on her own synchronized map.

"Neither large nor small."

The markers were too deep inside the facility for his Radar to tell him who they belonged to.

The old Raptor reconnaissance had shown two neutral clusters there; whether the same people remained alive after all this time was another question.

Hans closed the wider view.

"Continue."

Matilda passed the movement order.

The convoy continued north, but it did not approach the Nuclear Power Station itself.

They stopped near the same empty bridge Echo One had crossed during its earlier withdrawal. The plant remained farther along the river, distant enough that none of the vehicles had to enter the outer approach where the first automated machine appeared.

The two Vanguards left the road and took positions overlooking the bridge and the surrounding utility routes. Both Guardian APCs remained behind them with their rear compartments closed, ready to move if Matilda called for extraction.

The veteran squads dismounted around the staging area instead of following the DASFs forward, while the Engineers and Medic pair remained with Hans near the Armored Command Truck.

There was no reason to bring more people into the security system’s reach before they understood whether it considered the DASFs a threat.

Matilda stepped down from the first APC.

Bar followed, then Saint and Vesper.

Specter Squad emerged from the second vehicle shortly afterward. Specter checked the route ahead while Chancel, Warden, and Harrow finished preparing their equipment.

Eight DASFs.

Hans had chosen them for one reason before considering anything else about their weapons or physical abilities.

They were immune to infection from the beginning.

Echo One’s encounter had already shown that the Nuclear Power Station’s screening system could distinguish something between humans and the Attack Dogs. The four Scouts were marked contaminated despite Hans’s own Medics finding nothing wrong with them afterward, while the dogs passed the same scan without being attacked.

Attack Dogs were naturally immune. The DASFs were too.

Whether the machine cared about that distinction was what they were here to find out.

Matilda checked the bridge ahead, then looked back toward Hans.

"Proceed?"

Hans nodded.

"Proceed."

Matilda took her squad across first, with Specter Squad following behind them. Their first objective was not to enter the station or disable anything.

They only had to reach the same security boundary Echo One crossed before, allow the screening procedure, and wait for the response.

If the answer was different, they would learn something.

If it was not, both squads could break contact far faster than the Scouts had managed during the original encounter, and they carried enough firepower to deal with the first machine without requiring the Vanguards to start firing toward a nuclear facility.

Hans remained beside the Armored Command Truck as the eight figures moved away from the bridge.

They covered the open ground quickly without running at their full speed. The old utility buildings gradually surrounded them as they followed Echo One’s recorded route beside the river channel.

The distance widened.

Their markers remained ahead while the support force stayed around the bridge.

Matilda slowed when the first remains appeared beside the channel.

Most of the bodies Echo One documented weeks earlier had deteriorated further. Nobody approached them. The two squads continued along the concrete route until the outer wall of the Nuclear Power Station became visible through the utility structures ahead.

Specter moved several meters away from Matilda’s group.

"Previous contact area ahead."

"I see it."

The recessed vehicle portal remained closed.

Bullet marks from Echo One’s retreat still covered parts of the surrounding concrete, although weather had faded some of the darker stains along the road.

The DASFs kept moving. Vesper noticed the camera.

"Tracking."

A housing mounted along the wall rotated toward them.

Matilda did not stop.

The lens followed all eight operators as they entered the final section of the approach, moving from one figure to another before settling on the lead group.

Another camera turned farther along the wall.

Specter Squad spread slightly behind Matilda’s team. A mechanical lock disengaged somewhere inside the recessed portal.

Matilda and the others stopped.

Darkness appeared beneath the rising section of the gate. The machine stepped through the opening.

It was almost identical to the one described by Echo One. Four mechanical legs carried a low armored body across the uneven concrete, with several lenses moving independently along the front and a compact weapon assembly mounted above them.

It stopped several meters outside the portal.

"Unauthorized personnel detected."

Matilda raised one hand before either squad moved any farther. The machine’s lenses shifted across all eight operators.

"Initiating biological screening. Remain stationary."

"Hold."

A thin red light passed across Matilda first. It moved from her head to her boots, lingered briefly across the equipment attached to her armor, then continued toward Bar.

The weapon assembly moved with it.

It did not aim directly at either of them, although the barrel followed every change in position closely enough that Matilda noticed.

Bar remained still.

Saint came next, followed by Vesper.

The scanner took slightly longer with them than it had with the Scouts in Echo One’s recording. Several smaller lenses adjusted while the red light crossed their bodies, briefly returning to Saint before continuing toward the second squad.

Specter received the same treatment.

Chancel.

Warden.

Harrow.

Nobody spoke while the machine completed the final pass.

Several lights across its frontal plating changed.

"Biological screening complete."

A pause followed.

"No active viral contamination detected."

Matilda heard Specter over the squad channel.

"That answers one question."

"Only one. We still have a few more."

The machine remained in front of them. Its weapon did not lower.

Another lens unfolded from the side of its armored body and passed across Matilda again, this time moving much faster between her equipment and the rifle in her hands.

"Secondary security assessment initiated."

Bar glanced toward Matilda without moving his head much.

"Damn right. This won’t be easy."

"Remain still."

The machine inspected the rest of them again. It paid noticeably more attention to their weapons this time.

The sensor passed over grenade launchers, ammunition, blades, armor, and the heavier equipment distributed between both squads. When it reached Saint, several lenses adjusted at once before moving toward Vesper.

Something inside the machine clicked.

Matilda could not tell whether that was good or bad.

"Armed personnel detected."

Another pause.

"Threat potential exceeds standard civilian parameters."

Specter remained several meters behind her.

"Still hasn’t shot us."

"Don’t encourage it."

The machine continued processing.

Its lenses moved across Matilda once more, although nothing about the scan resembled the earlier biological check anymore. The sensor lingered around her for several seconds before shifting toward Specter and doing the same.

A different light appeared along the machine’s front.

"Unclassified personnel characteristics detected."

Matilda’s eyes narrowed slightly.

The machine offered nothing else about that statement. Instead, another sequence began somewhere inside it.

"Attempting personnel verification."

The eight DASFs waited.

"Searching local personnel database."

Several seconds passed. The cameras mounted along the outer wall remained pointed toward them. The machine processed Matilda first.

"Identity not found."

Bar followed.

"Identity not found."

The result repeated through Saint and Vesper before moving to Specter Squad.

None of them matched.

"Personnel verification complete."

"Eight unidentified subjects."

"No active viral contamination detected."

"Local authorization records unavailable."

The weapon assembly remained raised, though it still had not selected a firing position.

Matilda finally spoke.

"We’re here to establish contact with whoever is operating this facility."

The machine turned one lens toward her.

"State organizational affiliation."

Matilda considered the wording.

"Independent military force operating within Grefort."

"Affiliation not recognized."

"That doesn’t surprise me."

The machine ignored the comment.

"State purpose of entry."

"Contact surviving personnel. Confirm facility status."

Several seconds passed.

Matilda could hear a faint mechanical movement somewhere beyond the open portal. Whether another machine waited inside or the sound belonged to the gate itself, she could not determine from where she stood.

The unit in front of them finally responded.

"Request acknowledged."

"Entry authorization denied."

"Facility remains under restricted emergency security protocol."

"Unregistered armed personnel are not permitted beyond the controlled perimeter."

Matilda looked toward the partially opened portal.

"Can somebody inside authorize us?"

"Personnel authorization request unavailable."

"Is anyone inside capable of speaking with us?"

The machine paused longer this time.

"Query cannot be fulfilled."

Specter spoke quietly over the squad channel.

"We got farther than Echo One."

Matilda agreed.

They had confirmed what Hans suspected. Whatever the station detected from ordinary System soldiers, it did not find the same thing in the DASFs. The machine still disliked practically everything else about them, but at least nobody was being classified as infected or being shot at up close.

Getting through the gate was another matter.

Matilda tried once more.

"We have no intention of damaging the facility. We only want contact."

"Intent cannot substitute for authorization."

"Fair enough."

The lenses shifted across both squads.

"Advisory issued."

"All unidentified personnel must withdraw from the controlled perimeter."

"Proceed to the outer approach and remain outside restricted station territory."

"Continued unauthorized presence may initiate security escort procedures."

Bar glanced toward the machine.

"Security escort?"

"I wouldn’t ask."

Matilda did not particularly want to discover whether that meant another machine politely walking them back toward the river or several armed units arriving to make the decision for them.

They had achieved the first objective already.

Pushing farther after the system explicitly refused them entry would only turn a successful test into an unnecessary confrontation.

Matilda raised one hand.

"Specter, prepare to withdraw."

"Received."

The machine watched them.

"Comply with withdrawal advisory."

Just as Matilda took one step backward, a nearby loudspeaker crackled. Static burst from somewhere along the outer wall, loud enough that all eight operators stopped.

The automated unit turned several lenses toward the sound. A woman’s voice came through the speaker.

"Wait."

The machine remained motionless.

"Belay that protocol. Let me talk to these people first."

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