Every now and then he hears a scream for help. It uses all his self-control to stop himself responding and takes his full focus to continually mentally project the ice he feels around his heart. It is only Screamers, after all.
Please just be Screamers.
Sindaris has since learned that they are not contaminants placing clever traps but a mere offshoot mutation not so different from himself. It seems that these particular offshoots of infection don’t react very well at all. They are infected in any of the usual manners but their bodies react so strongly to the virus that it kills them before it can develop the parasite correctly. Though after death the virus still brings them back, but as a primal ruin of a sentient being. They seem only capable of hysterically screeching the last thing they said when they were still alive. Some Screamers just run in circles, most called for help since infection is usually caused by some kind of attack. Or they act out whatever action was their last.
A Screamer is running back and forth in front of Sindaris now with dead white eyes staring into nothing but the phantasmal hallucination brought on by the last tethers of electrical current in its mind. All it keeps saying over and over again is: ‘What’s that?’ over and over. Frantically. The look on its face is distorted by the full weight of fear.
The contaminants do not set traps, they just wait nearby to the Screamers knowing that someone will come to check out the noise sooner or later. An ambush of convenience, nothing more.
Sindaris can feel thousands of minds a little further up the corridor, all waiting for something. The entity. It is here, or at least it’s going to be. Whatever it is. If Sindaris can kill it, the military forces might have a chance against this horrific plague.
Contaminants are slowly streaming up the dark passages to fill some kind of reservoir. The sheer volume of contaminants in this one space is astounding. He dips his head and follows behind a few of them, making sure to keep the feeling of hunger strong in his mind.
Rennin is daydreaming about the past as Dead Star sails through the darkening sky en route to the Suvaco’s location.
Logan, Childes and Gilles aren’t the only soldiers that Rennin has killed that were considered to be on his side. Years ago there were a few others. Rennin joined the CryoZaiyon War for revenge. As far as he was concerned at that time, he was on his own side. Anyone facing off against the Gorai Aurelia was good enough to throw his lot in with.
In Rennin’s opinion, some people just shouldn’t be alive. Across the battlefields he’d stumbled across several of his own men whom decided that they weren’t going to abide by certain rules regarding captured opposition forces. Not that Rennin cared much for them. Though when some of them victimised civilians that became a very different story.
Rennin can’t stand pack mentality. He still has a difficult time coming to terms with the amount of civilians that died. The ratio of civilian deaths versus military losses was staggering and that fuelled the rage that burned inside him when his own troops mistreated the people they’re supposed to be fighting for. It is horrible what some people become when there’s no one around to enforce the rules.
Monkeys with guns.
Rennin did not stand by idly at such times. Sometimes a simple battering would let them know that just because there seems to be nothing to stop them, it doesn’t mean they can do whatever they want.
Others just needed to die.
The first death Rennin was responsible for was via purposeful negligence when he failed to supply adequate sniper cover for a particular soldier. In the military, the mission takes precedence over all. For Rennin it’s the principle, not the mission. He didn’t leave him to die outright, he just missed a few shots he’d normally have nailed every time.
Because of the poor sniper cover the soldier was hit by flechettes in the abdomen. From Rennin’s vantage point his death was messy. It also looked agonising. Good.
He’s brought back to the present when the COM in Dead Star beeps indicating they are directly over the landing zone. Rennin takes Dead Star to the ground.
Del is straight out of the gunship with his rifle in hand. The android’s teeth are extended and gritted together. Caufmann is instantly out after his creation and the others follow behind. Rennin remains behind to pilot the craft. Carmine stays with him, manning the gun.
Del is running towards the Suvaco feeling a desperate need to kill this invading android. Something inside his mind is being invaded by the intruders’ system. The signal has been gradually strengthening as Dead Star approached the Suvaco’s position. His attempts to tell Caufmann were dismissed, and his attempts to tell Rennin at the stadium were even more unsuccessful; the former watchman didn’t seem to possess a system capable of receiving Del’s text.
The signal is trying to force him into obeying a series of cunningly deceptive commands designed to alter his ‘protect’ and ‘destroy’ protocols. Effectively someone is trying to remotely rewrite his mind. Del, doing his own calculations, believes that the signal is at peak strength as long as most of the units are active, as if their very bodies amplify the transmission. Although Del is confidently ignoring the rewrites he has arrived at only one viable solution to keep his mind his own: kill them all. Any Suvaco unit not disassembled is now Del’s enemy.
The blind android reaches an intersection. Del’s sensors are telling him the Suvaco unit is just around the corner so he turns left at full sprint grunting, feeling his lungs opening up for the first time taking in huge breaths of air to power his frame.
Drej and Antares are trying to keep up, but Del’s speed eclipses even their efforts. He bursts around the corner, sending a powerful sonar pulse outwards. The shape of the Suvaco emerges. Del instantly recognises that it’s fully armoured and aware of his presence.
The Suvaco structure is similar to Del but its frame is more heavyset and a helmet with shining red eyes conceals its head. A rocket sails towards him but Del, moving so quickly, seems to flicker to the side, allowing the shot to pass and blow up behind him.
Del’s composure isn’t even dented. He chambers a round in his bolt-action rifle, charges the photon round and takes aim. Another rocket leaves the Suvaco’s weapon but Del remains still long enough to take his shot. Drej and Antares just make it around the corner to be greeted with an incredibly loud thunderclap and a dust cloud in the face due to the backlash of Del’s Sunbreaker.
The beam hits the Suvaco in the chest with an impact so severe it is thrown it off its feet, crashing to the ground. Del almost casually steps aside letting the next rocket zip past, reloading his rifle in one smooth motion.
Unhindered by the dust cloud he fires again while the Suvaco attempts to regain its feet. The thunderclap sends another burst of dust as the shot hits its right knee, sending its body into a somersault. Del drops the rifle and is over at the wounded hulk in an instant.
Caufmann can’t believe what he’s seeing; a week ago he could barely function and now he’s in battle. He urges Del to exercise caution but the doctor doesn’t understand the mental disease that’s trying to invade his mind, and the urgency required to end it.
Del lets out a roar and slams his foot onto the Suvaco’s head, deforming the helmet inwards. The creature scrambles to a crouch and manages to shove Del away momentarily as it tries to rise. Purplish blood runs out of the base of his helmet, leaking from the partially crushed face underneath.
Del presses his advantage, kicking from the hip to crumple the helmet even further, sending the Suvaco falling onto its back. Del wastes no time. He reaches down and grips the android by the neck. Despite his smaller stature, Del lifts the creature with ease until it’s at eye level. Though Del has no eyes he makes sure this thing gets a good long look at him. Then, with a flick of his wrists, Del severs the spinal column by breaking the Suvaco’s neck at right angles before dropping the corpse.