RTS System in the Apocalypse: New World

The map looked worse than the numbers did.

Hans rested both hands against the edge of the table as the latest operational layer filled the screen in front of him.

Most of Grefort no longer resembled the map he remembered from several months earlier.

Blue routes crossed Westgate and Ironford before separating through the inner districts. Checkpoints and construction zones followed behind them, while the areas already released to recovery had spread far enough that several older FOB markers were difficult to distinguish from the larger network surrounding them.

The Core remained different.

A wide mass of red occupied the center.

Hans enlarged the northern section.

Cinderrow sat between Ironford and the Core, most of its northern roads already blue or cleared enough that recovery and construction units could move through them. First Mobile Company had advanced farther south during the week before Anton stopped the formation several kilometers short of the contaminated inner area.

Hans opened Anton’s latest report.

The company had not attempted to close the remaining distance.

Raptor One had already recorded what happened to its local Radar when it entered the pale particulate layer months earlier. Anton had no reason to discover whether the ground was any friendlier by driving several hundred soldiers into it.

Instead, First Company established its forward positions roughly four kilometers from the nearest persistent haze and continued clearing anything moving outward from the Core. A second company rotated behind it while the Engineers expanded the secured ground afterward.

Hans shifted the map slightly.

One of the newer PCVs now sat inside southern Cinderrow. A Physical Radar Facility had been deployed within its construction area two days earlier, giving the northern front a fixed view much deeper into central Grefort than the Raptors managed during their first reconnaissance.

That was where the report became strange.

Hans enlarged the Radar layer.

Red filled entire blocks, covering buildings, roads, parking structures, and shallow underground spaces until the System stopped presenting useful individual markers in several sections and condensed them into density overlays instead.

The concentration increased toward the center for several kilometers.

Then it fell.

Hans’s finger stopped against the screen.

The reduction was not gradual. One section remained packed heavily enough that the Radar rendered most of it as a continuous biological concentration, yet farther inward, the density suddenly thinned around an irregular area near the center of the Core.

Hans changed the Radar sweep.

The shape remained.

Another sweep showed the same thing.

The surrounding Core held more infected than several districts combined. That much matched what he remembered. Grefort’s Core had always packed people as if they were sardines, and the apocalypse only made the result worse.

The sparse area did not fit.

Hans reached for Anton’s attached report.

Most of it covered the same information already shown on the map: First Company’s southernmost positions, usable roads, the nearest persistent haze, and the outer Core’s contact density.

Anton had also attached several movement records from the Physical Radar.

Hans opened the first.

A large concentration moved north through one of the inner avenues, spreading through several adjoining streets before eventually breaking apart near the areas already watched by First Company.

Nothing unusual there.

The second recording was different.

Several thousand contacts moved west across the Core over nearly forty minutes. Instead of continuing straight through the inner streets, the group bent around the lower edge of the sparse region before continuing farther west.

Hans replayed it.

Another recording showed the same thing from a different direction.

The infected approached the inner area, shifted away from it, and continued through the denser streets surrounding the gap.

His eyes narrowed.

Collapsed structures, blocked roads, damaged underground routes, and enough wreckage to redirect movement were everywhere inside Grefort. One recording would not prove much.

Anton apparently thought the same.

A short note sat beneath the recordings.

------

Movement anomaly observed across repeated Radar tracks.

No advance authorized into contaminated inner sector.

Maintain four-kilometer stand-off until additional observation confirms cause.

------

Anton had seen something strange and decided not to poke it.

Exactly what Hans would have preferred.

He returned to the Radar map. The biological mass continued shifting around the Core, but the sparse section remained almost unchanged.

That was harder to explain with blocked roads.

Hans opened the next attachment.

This one came from Engineering.

The proposed construction layer appeared over Cinderrow.

PCV positions formed along the secured northern approach, their construction zones overlapping through most of the forward area. Walls, Garrison Posts, Pillboxes, Watch Towers, artillery positions, repair areas, and another medical point had already been marked behind First Company’s current line.

More proposed PCV sites continued east and west.

Hans followed them around the Core.

The pattern was obvious before he reached the end.

They were not planning another FOB.

They were planning a perimeter.

"Are we turtling the hell out of the Core now?"

With more than fifty million infected packed into the center, Hans could hardly argue against it.

Trying to meet that many infected head-on was ridiculous.

Turtling his way inward gave him considerably better odds than winning the lottery twice.

Hans dragged the construction layer east.

Another chain of PCV positions followed the approaches from Aldermere, though most remained several kilometers behind the Core’s heavier concentrations. The western side carried a similar line through Kingswell, while the southern markings remained thinner until Rushfield could be cleared far enough for Engineering to work without tying down another company.

The northern side was simply farther ahead. Cinderrow already had First Company, a rotating formation behind it, fixed Radar coverage, and a secured route all the way back toward Ironford.

Engineering divided the proposed perimeter into sectors rather than wasting resources on one uninterrupted wall.

Existing buildings, elevated roads, concrete barriers, and surviving structures could close much of the terrain on their own. Walls and defensive buildings would handle the exposed approaches, while the PCVs extended construction coverage wherever the line needed to move.

Hans checked the projected requirement.

Forty-two additional PCVs.

That explained the second Engineering folder.

The planned network would eventually cover nearly every usable approach around the Core, with enough overlapping construction areas that one lost position would not isolate everything beyond it.

Hans flipped farther.

Hellhammer positions were already marked several kilometers behind the northern line.

Matilda kept the artillery divided into larger operational groups rather than concentrating all one hundred twenty-eight around the same front. The north currently held the largest share, followed by the east where Sabine’s formations continued pushing inward, while the remainder stayed available for reinforcement elsewhere.

Most of the guns would never need to see the Core directly.

Twenty-five kilometers of range made that unnecessary.

The defensive positions followed the same logic. Exposed streets received Walls and Pillboxes, larger intersections gained Garrison Posts, and the support areas behind them carried Watch Towers, medical facilities, repair vehicles, and anti-air coverage around the larger construction clusters.

Hans looked over the northern sector again.

It did not resemble a normal advance anymore.

It looked like somebody was slowly building a base around a city.

Well... technically, that is what we’re doing.

He reached the final recommendation.

------

[ Core Containment Expansion ]

Primary Objective:

Establish fortified positions around all viable approaches to the Grefort Core.

Current Priority:

Northern and Eastern Sectors.

Advance Conditions:

Do not reduce stand-off distance until biological density, particulate concentration, and movement anomalies are sufficiently mapped.

Construction Requirement:

Additional PCVs, defensive structures, repair support, medical support, and permanent security personnel.

Recommended Long-Term Direction:

Close the outer perimeter before beginning controlled inward expansion.

------

Controlled inward expansion. Hans found himself agreeing without hesitation.

Clearing the Core the same way they cleared Highcross or Ironford would take forever. More than fifty million infected did not need coordination to become a problem; the sheer number of bodies was enough.

Hans zoomed out until the whole Core returned to view.

The proposed construction sectors formed an incomplete ring around the red mass. The northern positions were already beginning to overlap, the east was catching up, and the west had enough secure roads to support the next set of PCVs.

The south remained the weakest side. Hans tapped the southern approach.

That one needs another company.

He marked the sector for review.

The four companies still forming suddenly looked much less excessive than they had earlier. One could reinforce the southern approach once Rushfield opened farther inward, another could rotate into Cinderrow, while the remaining two gave Matilda enough freedom to shift formations without leaving another front thin.

Hans stopped.

That still left Saicine—the place where he would place his Shipyard and construction of his first naval units.

Leaving that alone would bottleneck him to Rank 3 for almost forever.

He looked toward the northern edge of the regional map.

The Core needed to be surrounded, but Saicine needed to be reached.

That was no longer a problem. He now had enough army to do both.

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