(S) Fallout: Through cover of darkness.

New York, 2016, 1940hrs;
“Sir, look up there!” pointed a soldier.

The sky had lighted up in a conflagrant blast of blood-red flares and in that moment, a calm lull fell over the entire junction. As if by unanimous vote, all the combatants stopped firing, the last few bullet shells clattering to the ground. US and USSR soldiers alike, stood mesmerized as the show of fireworks was the last thing they expected to see in this drawn-out siege of almost 2 hours. All heads were strained as far as their bulky armour allowed them to, as they stared into the night sky, weapons lowered. Dead silence filled the night air. Finally, the last few blood-red flares faded away and as if shaken from a dream, the captivated soldiers broke from their repose and resumed the assault.

“It’s a flare from Beta Dome! Looks like we got to share the kills now.” hollered the Sergeant. “Thank god we’re not going to die.” He murmured.

From the shadows emerged four soldiers, they looked tired, yet still held themselves up in a professional manner. The Sergeant and his own squad stared in disbelief at their apparent back-up. Some even dropped their weapons and began hammering at the ground.

“If that’s all we got, then we’re..”

“Four only eh? Well I guess that means more kills for us boys! Welcome aboard Beta Squad!” Cut in the Sergeant, regaining his equanimity.

“Pleased to serve you, just know that the next time we meet, the drinks are on you.” Jabbed the lead soldier, hoping to lighten the tension in the air, which was so tangible that even a knife could not cut through.

“ Lance Corp. Jinx at your service, my boys had a run in with some USSR scum earlier on. We’re down to four men. What’s the heads up on your situation?” inquired Jinx.

“Sergeant Maxell. We were moving along First Impact from Gamma to Beta when they ambushed us in the open, I had to find a good defensible spot so here we are. Don’t bother with the light tanks, they were disabled by EMP nades shortly after we set up position here. The cargo is safe in the Mobile Vehicle. With your four men, we’re now up to 13 soldiers. Any chance of more reinforcements?”

“That’s a negative till day break. Current reserves are engaged in the countryside and will not be back for a while. I guess we better get started then.”

Jinx broke off and together with his men, calmly took up positions overlooking the remaining three junctions. Everyone else followed suit.

Apparently, the USSR forces had pulled back to regroup, and for the next few hours, the makeshift barricade waited in uneasy silence.


New York, 2016, 2300hrs;
The sound of muffled footsteps permeated through the dead silence, which hung like a heavy fog over the surrounding city.

Shadows flirted from alley to alley on each street.

The enemy was taking up positions yet again. The US soldiers, full of renewed vigour from their short rest, retook their positions, awaiting a clear shot. There was no clear definition of how the gunfight restarted. It just, happened. In a matter of seconds, the soldiers were unloading clip after clip, pausing only to reload and kick away the mound of bullet shells that were piling at their feet. A soldier was detailed to restocking the ammunitions for the rest. He ducked low, running alongside the tanks, clutching an ammunitions box to his chest, careful not to drop it. If he was shot, he had a better chance of survival than if it were to be the ammo chest that was the target. He would place several clips beside each soldier as they fired off rounds mercilessly into the indistinct void.

Jinx was having a good time trying to stem the seemingly never-ending flood of USSR soldiers down his lane.

“That’s seven on my list, what about you?” he chortled, maintaining a vice-like grip on the handle and barrel of his rifle.

“Damn you’re fast, I’m on my fifth...oh make that sixth!” shouted Maxell in reply, as he shot another soldier squarely in the chest.

Click. The trigger sounded hollow against the empty rifle. Jinx pushed back from crouching to lean against the side of the tank, unlocking and dropping his empty clip. He reached to reload yet another magazine from the pile beside him. Cocking the hammer into the barrel, he swept back up on one knee to resume firing at the advancing USSR soldiers. All this in one motion.

After two hours of continuous shooting, the USSR soldiers pulled back with heavy casualties on their side, the cries of retreat echoing after the fading silhouettes. Jinx and Maxell suffered no deaths.

“I’d say we took about 25 of them down, looks like we’re gonna make it after all.” Voiced Jinx, his assessment of the situation spoke for them all. Already the shoulders of several soldiers were starting to lift in the hope of victory.


New York, 2016, 0100hrs;
A thick fog had settled over the city, blanketing everything in muffled silence.

The US soldiers gripped their rifles uneasily. The sudden cease in aggression was disconcerting at the least. Yet they all hoped for day break, for Jinx had received a transmission from Beta Dome’s comms. team that 3rd and 4th squad had routed the enemy on their side and were on the way to back-up the convoy.

A lone soldier was making a trek across one end of the cross-junction to the other, heading towards Maxell, when suddenly 3 shafts of red light pierced through the fog to convene on him.

“Get down!” yelled Maxell, but it was too late.

The soldier dint even know what hit him. Three gaping holes through his chest confirmed his demise, with his blood sizzling in the radio-active air.

Snipers.

“Damnit! We’re sitting ducks out here, we can’t leave the convoy for fear of ambush yet if we stay, we’re dead either way!” barked a soldier.

“Alright everybody hug the tanks, I don’t want anyone to move until I tell you to, move out!”

“What’re we gonna do Maxell?”

“Its Sergeant, and if I dint need your men so much right now, I’d punch you.” Growled Maxell.

“Right, so what’s the plan...sir?”

Deep down, Jinx dint have to ask, the inner-workings of his brain had already formulated a plan, he just needed the approval of a higher ranker.

“What?!” exploded Maxell. “We fought so long to protect this thing, and you say you want to use it?!”

“We don’t have a freaking choice damnit! So listen to the bigwigs, and if we die protecting this Gene-Mod, who’s going to retrieve it? Our people? Damned as hell won’t be!”whispered Jinx, through clenched teeth.”Think of the implications then, if the USSR mass-produces this Gene-Mod, it’s gonna be the end of us!”

Maxell tensed, his veins standing taut against the skin on his neck, and then relaxed. The fight seemed to have gone out of him and he reluctantly acquiesced.

“But if you fail, you’re going to do the explaining you hear me?”

“If I fail, we won’t need to explain anything to anyone now will we?” replied Jinx, grinning.

With that said, he got up from crouching and slinked towards the Mobile First Aid Vehicle.

The Gene-Mod was inside.

It was immaculately white within the lit vehicle and he immediately spotted the casing that housed the Gene-Mod. Slowly, he slipped the straps that held the casing in place, undoing the catch that locked the container. The lid slid upwards slowly, as the hydraulic pistons pushed the lid perpendicular to the hinges.

He reached in and pulled out a vial of blue liquid, its texture reminding him somewhat of a lava-lamp. Vapours of nitrogen wafted from the opening, condensing on his goggles. He wiped it away and proceeded to attach the vial to a syringe.

“Do I want to go through with this?” he thought, and immediately plunged the needle into his arm, through his suit. The hiss of the syringe as the plunger slid downwards resonated out into the open, as if a sigh for all the deaths incurred through the war.

Pain.

He dropped to his knees as an unbearable sensation to tear himself away from his body shot throughout his veins. This was shortly replaced by a sense of ecstasy and then immense shivering one would expect from drug addicts suffering from withdrawal. His body was fighting against the Gene-Mod. It dint last long.

He was changed.

After he had recovered enough to get up, he tentatively removed his left glove.

The hair on his knuckles singed and a little skin off the back of his wrist began to peel. Apart from that, he was fine.

Slowly, he removed the rest of the bulky armour that served more of radiation protection rather than for any other form of damage.

“I’d say that would be about 8kg shed.” He murmured.

Lighter and more dexterous, he leapt from the vehicle, curling into a rolling crouch as he remembered the predicament his men were in at the last second.

The emotions their faces were hard to discern, due to their masks, but their body posture told of a plethora of emotions. Some soldiers were glad he was going to do something that might help them survive. Others were resigned as they felt that they had battled for nothing to protect something that was going to become history very soon.

He gave a quick nod to Maxell and slinked out into the shadows. He was definitely not going to die there.

“Try to catch me now.” He growled.


New York, 2016, 0330hrs;
Freed from his heavy armour, Jinx scaled the roof heights with unprecedented agility and stealth not seen since the post-fallout days. The fog did much to cover his approach as well. He was only armed with a commando’s knife. He could not afford to give away his position through unnecessary gunfire.

Beams of laser light cut through the night sky like sweeping scythes, as the snipers searched for their well-hidden targets. The tanks were mighty handy indeed.

On silent feet, he ran from roof to adjacent roof, building up his momentum so that he could traverse the final stretch of open air which separated him from the next roof metres away. He landed on the distant roof, rolling on impact and recovering on one knee. Eyes darting about, he located the first sniper, in a similar position at the edge of the roof. Wasting no time, he darted quickly around back, reaching forward; he brought the pommel of his commando knife down upon the unsuspecting sniper. He caught the unconscious soldier and the sniper rifle before both tumbled to the ground below.

Jinx never fancied gory deaths by blade and thus kept his melee fights to a minimum. Instead, he tore off the visor of the USSR soldier, leaving him to the elements. That was something that he dint mind one bit.

Straddling the sniper rifle, he switched off the laser and started tracking the remaining snipers through their red beams. Lying prone on the rooftop, he wondered if he was suffering from déjà vu.

“There you are.” He whispered.

His finger pulled the trigger. The gunfire! He had forgotten! Yet, to his surprise, the weapon emitted a low thud and that was that. He peered over at the edge of the rifle barrel and heaved a sigh of relief.

Thank god for the silencer attached.

Making quick work of the remaining sniper, he searched the neighbouring corpse for a transmission device.

Found it.

Unsure of the call-sign of the snipers, he tentatively radioed in.

“Sniper-1 over, targets immobilized, however, expect light resistance, some are too bunkered down to get a shot at.”

“Roger that, we are moving in now to take positions. Cover our approach, over.”

“Roger that, over and out.”

As the USSR soldiers emerged from hiding, he tracked them to their respective positions and shot them down one by one. It was too easy and Jinx almost felt bad doing it.

When he was certain he had killed every last one of them, Jinx recovered from prone, stretching his muscles and headed back towards the convoy.


New York, 2016, 0445hrs;
Jinx hurried back into the convoy, shouting out to inform of his approach.

“It’s done Maxell sir.”

“God damn, you actually did it! Blessed be us!” yelled the Sergeant in mirthful glee.

“3rd and 4th will be arriving anytime now, I suggest u put your anti-radiation armour back on, the situation is complicated as it is already. And I expect the rest of you soldiers to have no comments on tonight’s incident. Dismissed.”


New York, 2016, 0525hrs;
The rising sun began its slow ascent to the axis of the sky, its fiery rays penertrated through the fog, lifting the sombre gloom. From the east marched a platoon of soldiers, followed by a heavy tank and two lighter ones. From the west rolled two trucks of infantry APCs. Reinforcements couldn’t have arrived any sooner.

The dawning light was reflected by the shards of glass that littered the city streets, revealing the mass of dead USSR soldiers around the convoy, as well as the dead snipers on the rooftops.

Jinx and Maxell looked at each other and grimaced. There was going to be a lot of explaining to do.

They’d better get started on their cover story.