Joshua stomped through the knee-high sludge of the flooded reclamation pipe, the heavy splashing footfalls of his Mk. IV Havoc suit echoing down the long deteriorated tunnel. Inside his suit of fully sealed powered armour he was bone dry however.
Joshua pulled up his comms link to the rest of his squad and asked “Position three clear. Feis, Juli, move up with me. We need to check all possible venues of egress from the disturbance zone.” He paused as he heard the sound of movement from the direction he had just come, it was Juli moving up to cover the tunnel mouth while he took point.
As her armoured form sloshed up to him he heard her gruff voice over the link “They pay us to catch bad guys, not swim in this dump. Remind me why we are wading through this shithole?”
Juli was new to the force, even newer than he himself. Joshua had joined the Shikago stratocity police force after a short stint in the local Planetary Defense Forces or PDF, his credentials allowing him a quick promotion to one of the force’s many Havoc squads. Just a little over a year ago he had been a raw recruit, barely versed in the workings of the powered armour suits of the tunnel trawlers. Now? Now he was a fully combat hardened member of the most elite law enforcement group on the planet. And one of the best equipped.
He found himself smiling, his good mood was entirely lost on his companions however as Feis appeared at the other end of the tube.
His best friend chuckled over the comms as he smacked a gauntleted hand into Joshua’s side plate. “Hey, what's the holdup Joshie boy?” Feis said over the closed comms link.
Joshua shook his helmeted head and said with a slight frown “Keep it serious on deployment Feis. And it's Joshua while on active duty please, sergeant if not that.”
Feis seemed to snort, but he couldn't be bothered enough to reprimand his friend again. He shook his head again as he signaled Juli to follow him. The other two members of his five man Havoc squad, Jack and Guiwerl, were on radio silence as they were flanking the hotspot from the other side. A link-scrambler would have alerted any potential criminals to their presence, it was usually just easier to go to local comms only. That meant direct line of sight laser-links.
It wasn't standard operating procedure, but he had made great use of the tactic while serving in the PDF and he saw no reason not to exploit the same tactic now. The run of the mill undercity scum and villainy might not be on the same level as revolutionaries or militant rioters, but they were still a force to be respected, right before he showed them the business end of his Malcolm smoothbore repeating ordinance launcher or Malcolm cannon as it was generally referred to. He hefted the Malcolm cannon in one power armored arm while he stepped carefully down the new section of drainage culvert.
It was quiet save for their own footsteps and the constant trickling of water from somewhere far above, the markets on the level above unable to be heard through the thick duracrete and plasteel supporting the culverts they were in. While not technically the undercity proper, this was as far into them as he had descended so far. As a member of Kondirak’s PDF he had mostly fought the guerrilla forces of the Hubolian rebels near the eastern jungle that bordered the Mastream Ocean.
His neck hairs prickled as he suddenly felt a sense of dread, as if something terrible was watching him. He turned quickly and thought he saw a shadow melt into the wall just behind Juli, but it must have been his imagination for as he blinked it was gone. Just the impression or an orange glow in his imagination.
He put it out of mind as he turned back to his objective at hand. A disturbance had been reported in the marketplace above, the perpetrators fleeing into these very tunnels as regular SPD forces arrived on the scene. He wasn't sure exactly the capabilities of the culprits, though they were reportedly armed and dangerous as they had fired on SPD officers before they fled. Thusly, he and his team had been called from a nearby deployment to take up pursuit while the cavalry arrived.
“Juli take point, carefully.” he warned the younger woman. She moved up, her footsteps audible as she sloshed away carefully through the murk. Feis moved up next to him and switched to point to point communications.
The private link fizzed a little as Feis asked “What do you think of her?”
Joshua just shook his head and replied “I think you like her, and that's fine. Just keep it professional Feis, you know that.” he then switched off the PtP link from his side and moved to follow.
As he was walking towards the armoured figure of Juli he noticed a warning blip appear on his heads-up display. The noise was slightly too low pitched to be audible to his human ears, but his suit picked it up just fine. It was a sharp pressure wave, almost as if there had been a small series of distant explosions, the vibrations transferring through the duracrete of the walls around them. If that had been the case then the actual sounds of the blasts should be…
He never finished his thought as a tremendous wall of force slammed into him from behind followed by a loud blast that would have ruptured his eardrums had he not been wearing Havoc armour. Still the force managed to slam him helmet first onto the bottom of the pipe, foul slime obscured his vision and he flailed for a few seconds as he tried to regain his footing.
“We are under attack!” Feis yelled a little belatedly. But Joshua wasn't in the mood to mention it, instead he used the wash function to blast compressed air from tiny nozzles embedded near the sensors of his armour. With the worst of the offending slime cleared he stumbled down the hall towards Juli, his weapon held high and at the ready. Those blasts had not been nearby or they would have been turned into jello, but that wasn't much of a comfort to him at the moment.
Joshua hefted his gun. He had been expecting soft targets and so his entire first eight round drum was loaded with triple-ought buckshot. The large lead pellets were more than capable of killing most member species of the Union. Except for Jeseo and Xeiro’filk, but the chances of meeting either of those two incredibly rare species was unlikely so he didn’t stress about it. No, the worst-case scenario would be if the bad guys were wearing heavy armour, but heavy armour was expensive and rare, powered plate like his even more so.
He could hear the heavy thudding footfalls of Fies behind him as he made it to the end of the tunnel where he had last seen Juli. She was just around the corner of the culvert, hunched and scanning the area. She jerked as he thudded around the corner, her ten-gauge Sweeps Slammer aimed directly at his head.
He immediately threw up his hands, not wanting to catch a facefull of lead if he could at all help it. “Whoa there, it’s friendlies. Please lower your shotgun Juli.”
She slowly lowered her gun, her posture like that of a startled greling. She relaxed slightly as she saw Fies enter the low corridor behind him, the other man’s suit making slow ripples in the murky water.
“Oh good. I was worried when I saw you two get knocked down.” Juli said a bit breathlessly, the concern in her voice likely more for Fies than himself. He didn't comment on it however, as long as they kept their cool.
Joshua motioned down the tunnel and said “As much as I would like to jump on the feelings express, we don't have time for it at the moment. We need to move, we have obviously attracted some manner of attention.” The other two said nothing as they followed him further down the flooded tunnel.
At the end of a short hall the floor sloped up and out of the water. Greasy, sludge covered steps allowed them access to higher ground on the side of the tunnel, the middle still flooded by the brackish greywater.
Another few steps and his proximity sensor started to ping him, movement detected up ahead. He hefted his launcher and checked its action. The action cycled and the drum rotated freely, the weapon wasn't as fragile as those laser weapons that some other officers seemed to prefer. It might not be as effective at range, but it would take more than a little gunk to stop it from functioning.
“Movement ahead, hold position.” He ordered.
He planted his feet wide and tried to get into as much cover as was possible. It wouldn't do to just stand out in the open like an idiot. That was what the cops in the holovids did, badasses who solved all their problems with a gun, the stub of a chewed cigar hanging from their gritted teeth.
He smiled as he thought of his childhood, his father had been a police officer in the Havoc corps as well. He had often smiled at the over-the-top action in the holovids, always saying something like ‘If I tried that one last night I would never have made it home for dinner, what a bunch of ranxshit.’ Then his father would ruffle his hair and sit with him to finish the show.
His smile turned to a snarl as a pair of figures appeared further down the tunnel, their presence announced by the bright flashes of automatic fire as they let loose with automatic weapons. The rounds from their firearms dug small craters into his armour where they hit, they must have been firing armour piercing rounds.
Not a lot of good it did them as both he and Juli opened fire on the two gunmen. The first took a full blast from his Macolm cannon, the lead buckshot tearing craters into the man’s torso like himplet-bits dropped in hot grease. As the first was smashed from his feet, the other outlaw seemed to suffer a sudden loss of control as their head was turned to pink mist, the ten-gauge slug that Juli had fired continuing on and smashing a crater out of the duracrete wall behind the slumped corpse.
“Yea! That's what I’m talking about!” Juli said aggressively over the comms.
Joshua just shook his head slightly as he started forwards. He ran a quick diagnostic, the internal HUD of his armour allowing for both verbal and eyetrack control. All systems returned green, though he did get a warning that his suit’s integrity had been compromised. The outer coating no longer a smooth black and blue as it was pockmarked with bright silver divots from the hostile fire he had received.
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Feis spoke up as they slowly moved up to the two bodies “What are we dealing with here Joshua?” It was a measure of the man’s concern that he made no attempt to joke or otherwise make light of the situation. Usually when Feis was unstressed he would drop a joke in any situation, but not now.
Joshua reached the two bodies and rolled over the headless corpse as the other was little more than scraps of ground meat held together by silver tendons. The body rolled over easily, its scaled blue-grey skin and bright purple blood marking it as the remains of a slaaveth.
He crouched, playing his helmet lights over the body. He was looking for identifying marks. After a moment he pointed and said “Look here, these ritual cuts along the outside of the forearm. And this symbol here.” He said pointing to a small, crossed knife and vinarfel skull. “They are Luck damned Slashers.” He said with a curse, wanting to spit in his fury. The Slashers had been directly responsible for the death of his father, and his main motivation for joining the Havoc corps.
Feis swore as well. “Fuck, I’m sorry Joshua. Where there are two though…” he said in a meaningful tone.
“Yeah, there are more. Fuck it, going active comms, they already know where we are.” Joshua said as he stood and activated his main comms link. In a second his HUD flashed with additional information as it linked back to the network.
“Shit!” Juli swore loudly over the link as they were reconnected to the city at large.
The reason for her expletive became apparent as the connection showed a solid red for Jack. Guiwerl’s status read as a greyout, meaning the armour wasn't online, or had been destroyed too fast to relay a distress signal to the net.
“Jack and Guiwerl are down.” He said and then peeked around the corner the Slashers had crawled from. It was a long and dark stairwell that seemed to lead further down into the depths of the undercity.
Feis said “Should we call for backup?” The man’s voice a little shaken. It was clear that the situation had him a little spooked, it was odd Joshua thought. Generally his friend was the first to charge into danger, the most likely to pull off some hairbrained stunt to save the day. But at the moment he seemed positively petrified.
Joshua turned to look at Feis, the man was standing near where they had been while he and Juli had killed the Slahser’s. Motioning for him to move up he said “Yes, but that doesn't mean we can’t still do our jobs. There are rats in need of killing down there, and I intend to do some exterminating.”
Without another word Joshua turned and stalked down the stairs, his helmet just missing the ceiling of the tunnel. As he reached the bottom he checked his surroundings. It seemed to be a storage room of some sort, grey brick walls and a duracrete floor greeted him. All around the large room were boxes, wooden and metal alike. He paused for a moment as his suit’s sensors pinged a warning. Something in the boxes was combustible, the fumes filling the air of the basement with acrid fumes.
He stomped over to one of the boxes and wrenched the lid off with a single heave of the servo bundles in his armour’s arms. He cocked his head, the box was full of industrial solvent. Not the diluted stuff one might find in any Nutri-Mart, no this was high grade and strong enough to dissolve most organic substances without a trace. What on Kondirak was this stuff doing in a random underground storage room?
As if to interrupt his thoughts he heard Juli yell “Sergeant contact!”
Almost immediately the room filled with enemy fire. He raised his launcher towards the fire but couldn't see a source. Bullets ricochet from his armour as he took cover behind one of the crates, it wasn't ideal but what choice did he have. He looked around for Juli and Feis but couldn't see either of them. His HUD was not displaying their location’s either, the room offering some sort of interference. It was then that he saw a few shiny tendrils of material waft by, the air currents in the room causing the small ribbons to dance like fish.
A fucking blackout grenade, no wonder his comms were down and he couldn't access the net. The perps had filled the room with ionized electromagnetically reflectant chaff. He hefted his launcher as the fire died down, the sound of solvent dripping to the floor mixing with the hissing and bubbling of dissolving materials.
Peaking cautiously out from around his cover he snarled, he could see movement, one of the bastards was creeping in his direction with a large automatic weapon. He took note of the gun, an AKSF-77. A nasty weapon, fully automatic and firing a bullet large enough to compensate for any feelings of inadequacy. They were likely firing armour piercing ammunition as well, they seemed to be more professional than the average B-grade criminals he normally dealt with. What’s more the crook seemed to be wearing castle armour, the heavy plates covering his chest, upper legs and throat. Not a lot of good that would do him though.
Joshua quickly unloaded his Malcolm cannon, slipping the dark red heavy buckshot shells back into one of his external ammo pouches while simultaneously taking dark green colored shells from a different pouch. They were depleted uraniosmium flechettes, each dart more than capable of piercing several inches of solid steel when propelled from his weapon. But he wasn't firing a single dart, rather dozens in a closely packed swarm moving over five hundred meters per second.
He spun out of cover with a yell and pulled the trigger twice, the first cloud of superdense flechettes narrowly missed the man, a few stragglers tugging at their side or deflecting from the man’s upper leg plate. The man had only an instant to shift his gaze towards Joshua before the second round of flechettes reached him, the tiny darts ripping straight through his chest plate with minimal resistance. A single one of the darts would likely not have impaired the man very much, but he was thrown back in a burst of red mist as almost two dozen of the supersonic needles zipped through him.
Joshua was back into cover before the body even hit the ground, he quickly loaded another two rounds of armour piercing before glancing out the other side of the crate he was sheltering behind. Seeing the coast was clear he darted from cover only to be almost immediately fired upon from his other side.
“Luck damn it!” he swore as he dove into the cover of another nearby pallet. He gasped as a sharp pain bloomed up his side and he sat back against the side of the crate. Accessing his suit’s medical diagnostic function he ran a scan and swore again as it gave him the bad news. His armour had been compromised on the lower right side, the round piercing his underlayer and entering his side. It looked like it had missed his vitals for the most part, but it still hurt.
Standing painfully to his feet he activated the local anesthetic function of his suit. A quiet hiss and sharp prick was felt, making him wince slightly. A second later the fire in his lower side began to abate as the painkiller started to kick in, he could feel the slight stickiness of blood as it ran freely from the wound, but there was nothing he could do about it at the moment. Instead he slipped to another crate, doing his best to stay low and undetected.
His movement must have caught the enemy off guard as another gunman walked around the corner right in front of him, surprise and a little fear lighting up the man's face an instant before his head was removed from his shoulders by Joshua’s gun. The blue blood of the dead nerivith splattered against the crate behind him, mixing with the solvent with an angry hiss as the new leaks began to dissolve the remains.
Joshua smiled evilly under his helmet, another one down, he could do this all day. He heard an angry yell and jerked back as a helmeted criminal leaned out from a heavy metal box not more than ten meters in front of him. A series of sharp impacts cracked against his armour, his vision going blank as his HUD died. He aimed at the box and fired off a trio of shots before being rewarded by a screech of pain. The helmeted figure stumbled into the open before a fourth shot smashed them to the floor, for good.
He started to cough as smoke began to fill his helmet before wrenching it off. Not a second too soon as it sparked violently and then burst into flames, one of the hits must have ruptured its promethium powercell. He was lucky it had not detonated immediately, the cells were not exactly known for their durability after all. Instead the small devices were venerated for their incredible ability to store massive electrical charges in a small space.
He breathed deep and then coughed again. The air in the room was foul, a combination of sewers and heavy chemical smells made his eyes water and his throat sting. It was better than having his head turned into charcoal though and he blinked to clear his eyes. It was bad but bearable, he stalked through the dim room, the spaces between the haphazard rows of crates like some great maze designed to ensnare him.
He swore under his breath again as he realized he had gotten turned around in the firefight. He had absolutely no idea where the exit was. That wasn't his priority now though, first he needed to find Juli and Feis, hopefully the three of them would be able to get out of the room in one piece.
“Fuck. Why didn't I just wait for backup.” He hissed under his breath while trying not to cough from the fumes in the air.
A thump came from up ahead of him along with the sound of hushed voices. He crouched, his gun raised and ready to fire. Visibility was poor, the dim haze was further muddied by the tiny glints of the blackout grenade’s particles still suspended in the choking air of the chamber.
As he peaked around the corner he saw a trio of figures in castle armour, two slaaveth and another nerivith. The main object of his attention was what they were clustered around.
There in the middle of the group, lying spread eagle upon the damp duracrete floor, was a figure in the dark blue and black powered armour of his Havoc squad. He couldn't immediately tell who it was, but it didn't matter. Here was a fallen comrade, he could see the dark stains of blood leaking from their suit.
Swallowing the pain in his side and ignoring the burning in his eyes he stood in the open and shouted “Here I am you bastards!”
Two of them tried to turn and raise their weapons while the third, a nerivith, sprang for the cover of a nearby crate. Walking inexorably forwards he fired upon the two, their bodies jerked and spasmed as the superdense darts sliced through metal, cloth and flesh alike. They fell to the ground as his drum clicked empty. He let go of the launcher, the elastic strap attached to it keeping it from hitting the ground.
In a single practiced movement Joshua drew his lethal secondary, an antiquated EMP45 electromagnetic pistol that had once been his fathers. He moved towards the bodies slowly, cautious as he could be without the advanced sensors of his helmet. As he neared the body he glanced at it. It was Juli.
He gave a small sound of discontent, it was all he could do at the moment, danger was all around and he himself was not out of it yet.
As he reached the corner he took a deep breath and then executed a combat roll, slamming his armoured knee into the ground to halt himself while bringing his gun up. He looked around, but saw nothing. The nerivith must have run away, he stood slowly, his knee joint protesting slightly inside his armour at the abuse, but he ignored it. It didn't hurt any more than his numbed side did and so he could ignore it.
He started forwards and poked around the next corner, but it was clear as well. He was just about to move on when he heard the slightest of sounds behind him. He started to turn and stumbled as a thunderous sound seemed to pass through his whole body. Joshua fell to his knees as his legs gave out, his powered armour attempting to mimic his movements. His gun fell from numb fingers with a clatter.
“Holy hel, you sure are a tough bastard aren't you pretty boy? Still alive huh?” a sneering voice wormed its way into his mind through the haze of pain that seemed to envelop his brain like a thick fog.
He looked up slowly through eyes glazed in pain and shock. A figure was slowly walking towards him, a figure carrying a very large gun.
“What… Who?” was all Joshua managed to croak before the man silenced him.
“Ah nah nah nah… You don't get to ask the questions here humie. I knew your stupid ass would take the bait when you saw your little friend here dead. All I had to do was get behind you and then boom.” The man fired off another shot from his weapon, this time off into the room, the round ricocheting from the ceiling somewhere else in the room.
Joshua flinched slightly and then coughed in pain, a line of blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. He tried to move, but found his limbs wouldn't respond. In fact he couldn't feel them at all, panic started to overtake his fading mind but he forced it down. He would be damned to the deep dark if he was going to die crying like a bitch. No, he was going to make it out of here and…
“Aughk!” Joshua gurgled as he was punched in the head, causing him to slump unto his back.
His vision was now of the cracked duracrete ceiling of the room, but after another moment the horned head of the nerivith man’s face peeked into view. The man smiled, revealing his blunt crushing teeth, he seemed to lean down before saying “Wow, this is a nice piece. Where did a lowlife piece of shit bluecoat like you get such a nice gun? Probably a family heirloom eh? You cop types get real sentimental after all.” Joshua tried to say something, to spit in the man’s face, but he couldn't breathe, an incredible pressure was building in his chest. Choking him from the inside. He probably had a collapsed lung, likely full of blood, he would be dead in minutes without medical attention.
The nerivith man jerked, turning his horned head to the side. After a moment he looked down at Joshua again and smiled before saying “Gotta go bluecoat. Thanks for the new piece, I'll think of you when I'm killing more of your buddies. Have fun dying now.” He gave Joshua a savage kick to the face, one of his eyes going dark. The man then disappeared from Joshua’s rapidly darkening vision.
Joshua tried to breathe, he tried to cough, to scream, anything. But to no avail, the pressure in his chest seemed to grow till the white hot pain filled every corner of his mind. Part of him was aware of new sounds, the clank of metal on metal and the thump of armoured boots. But it didn't matter anymore. All he could think about was the pain, his vision turning gray with agony.
As his vision finally turned black and the yawning pit of oblivion beckoned he thought he heard a voice in his mind. A single burning orange eye confronting his fading consciousness, it beckoned to him and he reached out to it. Darkness coiled around his mind like a loving embrace and he stepped off the edge into eternity.