Samuel was positive that the cor-sec leadership was either not informed or didn’t care, as they had ordered their seventy five trooper unit to drop right into the center of hostile territory from nearly fifty meters.
Samuel could see a small pile of cor-sec trooper corpses, perhaps as many as two dozen, at the base of the chutes, which were slick with gore.
From what he could see it looked as if the Reekers had heard the drill, which was no surprise, and had mustered around the chutes. When they deployed and the troopers began sliding down, en masse, it must have been one hell of a shooting gallery. The mounds of spent brass scattered across the ground under the entry point and around the bodies told the story of a massive firefight as the rest of the cor-sec troopers spread out into Reekertown.
It was difficult with all of the smoke and noise for Samuel to make any attempt at counting, but he did see that cor-sec’s assault had left its mark on the enemy. Bullet holes peppered all of the ramshackle buildings around the entry point and Samuel could see more than a few ganger corpses draped across the railings, hanging from nets, or laying broken upon the same ground floor as the cor-sec casualties.
Spencer continued to lay down fire as Samuel scanned the scene. Once the marine’s magazine clicked empty he caught Samuel’s eye as he reloaded.
“I’m on you, Prybar,” Spencer racked the slide of his combat rifle to chamber the first round. “Pick your battle.”
“Cor-sec obviously got hammered when they dropped in. Considering their equipment and training, they’re probably at seventy percent casualties at this point,” Samuel said in disgust, “C’mon.” He began sprinting down the gangplank towards a series of zip lines, most of which were cocked and ready, “Let’s do what we can to keep the rest of them out of body bags.”
The two marines reached the zip lines and in addition the hooks on the handlebars they also clipped on their own carabiners. Each of the marines had a small spool of high tension wire on their hip belts that fed to the bottom of the clips, as a failsafe in case the hooks gave out under their weight.
Nearly three stories down were several safety nets, but neither of the marines had any interest in finding out if the nets would break their fall before hitting the fetid, oily looking water below.
Samuel wrapped one hand around the bars and flexed his arm to limber it up for what came next as he observed their future landing zone.
Presently, there were only a handful of corpses, presumably Reekers, from the look of them. The Reekers, or most of them that Samuel could see clearly in the semi-darkness of the settlement, were bald. Male and female alike had shaved pates and wore heavy raincoats, along with gloves, boots, and crude handmade re-breathers.
The Reaper helmet display showed low-level toxins in the air and water, both organic and inorganic in nature, which explained the Reeker ‘uniforms’. The heavy jackets protected them from the continuous precipitation falling from above, most of it a combination of condensation from the handful of heated tunnels and the organic life in the gigantic chamber. However, some of the light rain was actually dripping from various micro-abrasions in the pipes and containers, all of which fell from above onto the settlement.
Perhaps the shaved heads were some manner of hygiene management in the dank environment, or it was possible that it was simply their hair falling out as a result of some substance in the area. The re-breathers no doubt aided the Reekers in daily existence since the stench would be overwhelming were one to remove their mask or helmet.
The marine could see that there was no obvious weapon type amongst the Reekers he could make out, much like the Haggard Sons; they fought with anything they could get their hands on. Such was life and war in downspire.
George Tuck was cutting loose with his flamer and already a huge swathe of the outer settlement, one story above them, was a smoking blaze. Samuel could see Boss Lucinda fighting her way through a series of shanties, barely stopping in her push towards the Basin hatch.
Samuel nodded at Spender and lifted his legs as he used his hand to throw the release on his zip line. As Samuel sailed across the open air space between the launch pad and the landing zone he could see that he was passing over a great interior lake of sewage three stories down. The settlement was built around it, with some buildings and platforms jutting out over the lake. A crisscross of zip lines and single file rope bridges also connected the circular settlement.
Most of the Reekers were too busy engaging the other marines or the remaining cor-sec troopers to spare him any attention, though as Samuel flew through the air he could feel and hear errant rounds whizzing past him.
Both Samuel and Spencer were holding onto the bars with one hand while they used the other to hold their combat rifles up so that they could fire from the hip as they approached the landing zone. While he had seen no sentries posted at the zone when he and Spencer first reached the launch pad, Samuel could see now that a lone Reeker had taken up position and was attempting to shoot them down.
The two marines bracketed the Reeker with semi-automatic fire and pushed him out into the open, where more rounds of continuous fire riddled him with holes as he flopped to the ground. Spencer held his rifle at the ready and continued to fire at another Reeker who appeared from a makeshift doorway while Samuel de-coupled himself from the line. The Reeker caught a round in the throat and fell back through the doorway choking.
Spencer only had two rounds left in his magazine, but he dared not lower his weapon until Samuel had de-coupled him and then re-loaded his own rifle. Once Samuel was locked and loaded, he stepped forward and covered the area while Spencer slapped in a fresh magazine. In a matter of seconds Spencer was ready and Samuel took the lead.
As the two marines plunged deeper into the more sturdy sections of the city they could tell that there was a raucous firefight going on ahead of them. The sporadic pot shot weapon signatures that filled the outer edges of the city, nearest the water, faded into background noise as the marines followed a trail of carnage towards the thunder of a more concentrated conflict.
The marines came to a gangplank dead end and were forced to go into the shanty buildings. Once they had passed through several buildings without having to force a door or break a lock they began to see that the Reekers lived a somewhat communal lifestyle. Samuel moved through what appeared to be a bedroom, though it was a wreck. Bullet holes had chewed up most of the room, and near the back of the room was the body of a cor-sec trooper.
Samuel was about to pull aside a ragged canvas drape when he was stopped short by the sound of voices in the shack beyond. The marines shared a glance and Spencer took up position on the other side of Samuel. Sliding his boarding knife free, Spencer used it to gently part a section of the canvas enough to partially see inside the room. He looked at Samuel and displayed three fingers for three shooters and then pointed at his knife, eliciting a nod from Samuel.
The Reapers slung their rifles and prepared their blades, then held their position until the sound of the Reekers guns going empty gave them their cue. Samuel flung aside the canvas to make room for Spencer, who rushed into the room, charging straight at the three Reekers inside.