Corporate Warfare Part Three - The Hammer Strikes

The Outeryard was bathed in the moon’s glow as Miyuki arrived. Even though the sun had set Chaudary’s men were still working on reinforcing the outer perimeter in preparation for the assault. The door of the Nighthawk slid open and Miyuki emerged atop the roof overlooking the work below. Heading down through the collapsed staircase, she arrived at Chaudary’s office by vaulting over piles of debris that were torn off during the missile strike. The two guards whom were usually standing guard by the door were absent and the door to the office was wide open. As Miyuki walked inside, Chaudary was sitting behind a stack of papers and looked up as he saw her coming in.

‘Ive arranged the meeting for later tonight, in about two hours, so get some shuteye while you can. There’s a chair outside. Once everyone’s here we’ll begin the meeting. ‘

‘Understood.’

Miyuki slumped on the chair as her eyelids began to snap shut before opening again revealing a world different to the one she had just left. The sky above was red in flame while the ground itself had been razed of life, becoming barren and lifeless. Spikes protruded out of the ground, with the corpses of the dead impaled on them. As Miyuki walked closer, some of the bodies began to sob while others cried out in pain.

‘Like what you see? These are the souls of those who dared to oppose this power. And now that you’re here I can finally pass the torch to you. ‘

A disembodied voice called out to her as she continued walking on the path laid out in front of her.

‘Follow the path. It’ll take you to where you need to go.’

‘Wait! Where am I?’

Miyuki desperately tried to convince the disembodied voice to give her the answers she needed. A bright light appeared in the sky above her in the shape of a head, leading her to a pedestal at the end of the path. As Miyuki continued walking, the bodies began to mimic scenes from her childhood.

‘This power has always been yours from the very beginning.’

The disembodied voice told Miyuki as she carried on walking. As the pedestal drew closer the bodies began to mimic scenes from her early teens.

‘I-I did it father! My first kill! You think Mother will be proud of me?’

‘If she was still here Miyuki, I think she would be. Now get changed and get ready for school’

Finally, Miyuki reached the end of the path and ascended up the stone steps towards the pedestal with a black piece of rock that lay on top of it.

‘Where am I?’

Miyuki demanded an answer from the disembodied voice.

‘Welcome to Atroxia.’

‘Atroxia?’

‘Yes. This is where the first Dark Assassin was born. Where The Guild first began. Where you will begin your tenure as the next inheritor of this power. ‘

‘How do I do that?’

‘Take the rock. Swallow it whole, digest it’s power.’

The rock radiated with strong energies as Miyuki picked it up and swallowed it whole. Almost immediately her body began to glow with a black energy as her vision distorted.

‘It’s taking hold. Good, this power is yours, take it and use it against our strongest enemies.’

Miyuki’s body felt as if it had been dropped into the fires of hell as she struggled to contain the flow of dark energy inside of her and lost consciousness.

‘Runt? Runt? Runt! Get up! The meeting is about to begin.’

When she came to, Chaudary was standing over her.’

‘Goddamnit Runt. The meeting is about to start cmon let’s go. Inside my office.’

As Miyuki walked in she spotted Jakub and the pack leader sitting on chairs. . Chaudary ordered Miyuki to stand guard in the corner as the meeting began.

‘Gentlemen. It’s good so see you both again.’

‘Chaudary don’t waste my time. What’s this about?’

‘Jakub, you never did have any patience. Just wait, I’ll explain everything to you.’

‘I agree with Jakub. The pack need me over there not here discussing politics.’

‘’Pack leader these politics could mean the difference between all of us getting wiped out or us surviving. Now let’s get to it. My agent over there infiltrated Cyntech-‘

‘What the hell? Cyntech? Chaudary you know we’ve been tryin to get in there for months now.’

‘Jakub. I will say this for the last time: stop interrupting me or I’ll kill you here and now. Understand?’

‘Sure Chaudary. Yeah. Carry on.’

‘Now, back to what I was saying: Cyntech plans to strike at us with everything they have. They’re using their cybernetics to brainwash civvies into fighting for them. It’s going to be all out war down here come the morning. They’re going to simultaneously attack both here and Devil’s Park wiping all of us out. ‘

‘Do we know the time of this attack?’

‘My agent uncovered that the scheduled time is 07:00 hours. So we’ve got less than 2 hours to get set up. Listen, I’m confident we can finally crush Cyntech and stop the assault but it’s going to need more than just us here in The Outeryard to make that happen. Half of my men died the last time Cyntech appeared at our doorstep.’

‘So what do you need from us?’

‘That’s very simple Jakub, I need your men. Or rather, half of your attack force. ‘

‘Done.’

‘As for you pack leader, I need your soldiers to conduct a thorough recon of the enemy. I want to know what kind of opposition we’re up against and how many soldiers they have. Can I count on you to get this done?’

‘Listen Chaudary. I’d love to help you. But the first thing I’m going to ask you is what’s in it for me? ‘

‘What do you need pack leader?’

‘I need our forces to combine and launch an invasion on the surface. With your troops we could do some real damage.’

‘That’s not happening anytime soon pack leader. Our men aren’t equipped to deal with an assault of that scale. Any other requests?’

‘Listen Chaudary think about what’s at stake here, we’ve been at war for decades over territory but now is the chance to get some of our own. We could –‘

A deafening noise came from outside, suddenly Chaudary’s radio began to scream at him.

‘SIR! They’re here! We have contact! ‘

‘Soldier? Who’s here? What’s going on down there?’

‘It’s a horde of people sir! Oh shit, Trevor! Cover the door! OPEN FIRE!!’

‘Soldier! Stand down you are NOT to open fire until I give the order!’

‘No time Sir! Trevor! Man the machine gun! Cut them down! Now!!’

Jakub got up out of his chair.

‘Anyone hear that howling noise?’

‘Just the fans Jakub. Sit down.’

‘But Chaudary it’s getting louder!’

‘I thought I told you to sit down. Just wait a few seconds I need to get this thing sorted out.’

‘KATYUSHA!!’

Several rockets slammed into the office ripping away concrete and metal. The left corner of the office was completely shattered, exposing what had been going on outside. A swarm of civilians from the Upper and Lower Quarters had come running down the expressway and bypassed the Paralya Gate. In a fit of blind fury some began attacking and killing each other as they fought to climb over the gate, their eyes glowing a menacing red.

‘Everyone alive? Runt you ok too?’

‘Pack leader and I are good Chaudary. What are we doing standing around here? We’re gonna get killed by another barrage.’

‘Agreed. Let’s go downstairs to my command centre. Take the elevator.’

Miyuki lifted the rubble off of her torso and ran to join Chaudary and the other gang leaders in the elevator, just before another volley of katyusha rockets slammed into the office causing it to collapse. The elevator screeched as the entire building shook violently and it eventually arrived at the 1st floor. As the door opened, soldiers were being ferried out into the battlefield through the

shutter door whilst some stayed inside and began monitoring the situation outside using monitors on a small desk in the middle of the room. The building began to shake violently again as more katyusha rockets slammed into the dome. The chattering of machine gun fire intensified as the swarm made their way past the Paralya Gate and began entering Devils Park and The Outeryard, killing everyone who got in their way. The dome’s roof gave way and came crashing down, debris raining on the floor above. Miyuki looked outside for a brief second witnessing the slaughter of the civilians and the soldiers who stayed behind to fight. Jakub turned around and faced Chaudary with a radio in his hand.

‘Chaudary! My men are on the way! You’ll have to sit tight for now.’

‘OK Jakub just make sure they bloody get here. Pack leader, I need that intel now!’

‘Already on it, I’ve diverted some of my men from the subway over here. I’ll report back once I get it!’

Chaudary turned to face Miyuki as he pointed to one of the monitors.

‘Runt. This is where we think the katyusha rockets are being launched from. You’ve got a special mission to neutralise these weapons before our main forces arrive. Take this, it’s an EMP grenade. Throwing it at the control console should in theory disable all the Katyusha rockets in the area. That’ll give Jakub’s men time to get set up. The control console should be located nearby. Understand?’

‘Yes Chaudary.’

‘Then get moving. Jakub, how long before your men arrive? ‘

’20 minutes at most. The katyusha rockets are hammering our HQ pretty hard too.’

‘All the more reason to take them out then. Runt, get going, we’ll provide cover fire from here. ‘

A radio on the desk began to crackle and one of the soldiers turned towards Chaudary.

‘Sir! Incoming transmission!’

‘Patch it through soldier’

‘Yes Sir.’

‘All call signs on this channel, the south wall is overrun, I repeat, the south wall is overrun! We cannot hold them back! I repeat, we cannot hold them back! This is Hotel 2-3 requesting immediate support by the south wall!’

‘Sir! We have another transmission!’

‘Go ahead and patch it through Sergeant.’

‘All units in the area, this is Whisky 2-5! We have a visual on Cyntech dropships approaching the the north wall! We are NOT equipped to deal with this! I say again, we are NOT equipped to deal with this! Send backup now!’

‘Chaudary, you think Cyntech arrived way too early?’

‘No Jakub. This is what they planned all along, send waves of cannon fodder at us to drain our resources then close in for the kill. Right now we look like a carcass in the desert sun just waiting to picked off by the swirling Cyntech vultures above. Damnit. We should’ve been better prepared.’

Chaudary turned to Miyuki with a calm look on his face.

‘Runt. Change of plan. Instead of going for the katyusha rockets you’re going to divert Cyntech’s attention. This should keep the pressure off my men and allow Jakub’s men to pass into The Outeryard without being shredded by the dropships. To do this, you’re going to hijack the closest ship and turn their weapons against them. Your grappling hook should come in handy for the task at hand. Now get out there and get to work.’

Miyuki have a nod of recognition and headed outside. All around her were the corpses of dead people and soldiers killed without a shred of compassion. Looking up into the sky, Miyuki noticed the fleet of ships had arrived, and Cyntech troops were rappelling downwards. Through the Paralya Gate, more and more civilians were rushing down in a fit of rage attacking anyone in sight. An entire squad of Chaudary’s men were wiped out in an instant as one of the ships spooled up its cannon and ripped them to shreds, it’s rounds tearing off chunks of flesh like wet tissue paper. One of the ships flew over the dome. As it’s tailgate opened, two executors began to halo jump out of the ship and onto the dome’s roof. Miyuki grappled upwards towards the landing zone of the two drones, letting go of the hook and throwing the EMP grenade in mid air, causing the drones to explode under the force of the EMP. Before the dropship’s tailgate could close, Miyuki grabbed onto it and pulled herself up and inside, stopping to catch her breath. She could hear voices coming from outside the cargo hold door.

‘What was that?’

‘Techs are saying it was some kind of EMP. We’ll be back up and running in a few minutes.’

‘Wait here, I’m going to check the cargo hold, make sure everything’s in working order.’

The door to the cargo hold opened and a Cyntech trooper walked in. Miyuki snuck behind him snd placed her hand over his mouth.

‘Do not move. Or I’ll kill you. Understand?’

The guard let out a whimper as his head nodded in agreement. , Miyuki withdrew his sidearm and walked out of the cargo hold using the trooper as a bullet shield, catching the trooper standing by the cargo hold door off guard. Before he could radio for help two bullets found their place inside his head. Moving forward into the passenger area, Miyuki unlocked the door, before spinning her hostage around and pulling a pin on one of the grenades in his belt and throwing him inside. The explosion caused Miyuki to lose balance and fall to the floor as the ship began to tilt to the right. After regaining her balance she moved into the passenger area. Blood and limbs littered the floor as Miyuki entered the cockpit. A bullet to the chest took care of the first pilot as her body slumped in her chair, while Miyuki pressed the barrel of the pistol into the skull of the other pilot.

‘W-What do you want?’

The pilot began to stammer as he felt the cold steel of the pistol press against his head

‘Get this ship airborne. Now.’

‘I-I can’t. ‘

‘Why?’

Miyuki was losing her patience with the pilot as she shot a warning bullet into the pilot’s coffee mug.

‘It’s because of the um it’s because of the EMP. I-I’m afraid until the techs get this ship running again we’re grounded.’

A flashing light on the pilots dashboard appeared. Miyuki pointed at the pistol at the light.

‘That light. What is it?’

‘It’s the um the radio signal! Yes, someone’s trying to contact me.’

‘Answer it.’

‘Err sure.’

‘Lima 2-0 this is Command. Be advised, techs have resolved the issue. Drop half your chalk here and take the other half to Devil’s Park. Lima 2-0 are you receiving this over? ‘

‘Err yes this is Lima 2-0. We hear you Command.’

‘Perfect Lima 2-0. Get this done fast, Alecto’s barking up my ass. She wants this thing to be wrapped up soon, over.’

Miyuki threw the dead pilot out of her seat and pressed on the control console to spool up the canon before turning to face the other pilot.

‘Here’s what’s going to happen now. We are going to take down every Cyntech ship in the fleet. I’m relying on you to get as close as possible so that I can target the ships. Do you understand?’

‘Y-Yes. I understand. ‘

‘Take us towards the Paralya Gate first. We’re activating those executors and air dropping them down there. ‘

From above, Miyuki witnessed the destruction below, as a horde of people tore the gate down and were now fully inside Paralya, whilst Cyntech troops rappelled into the warzone killing anyone in their way. Devil’s Park resembled a fiery hellscape as multiple columns of smoke billowed in all directions as the city was being razed of life. Along the expressway were more civilians marching towards Paralya as more Cyntech troops assisted by katyusha rockets smashed their way through The Outeryard’s flimsy defences.

‘C-Coming up to the gate now.’

‘Get those executors ready to drop.’

‘Opening cargo hatch now!’

A heavy metallic thud rang throughout the ship as each of the executors were ejected from the ship. Many landed on civilians, using their fragile bones and flesh as a landing zone. Soon, the civilians and the executors began to engage in combat, each trying to rip apart the other. The first five ships in the Cyntech fleet were gathered over The Outeryard. As Miyuki’s ship came into contact with them, she suddenly opened fire, aiming at the cockpit of the first ship, her cannon fire melting both pilots sending the ship into a collision with the second ship as both exploded together in explosive matrimony. The third and fourth ships began to take notice of this and opened fire on the stolen vessel, shattering the reinforced glass of the cockpit. A piece of glass wedged itself inside Miyuki’s right cheek as she returned fire disabling the third ship’s engine and sending it to the ground as the craft swallowed up anyone unfortunate enough to be under it. The cannon’s heavy fire began to rattle the cockpit as multiple rounds shredded the fourth ship’s armor and cockpit, sending it crashing to the ground in a ball of fire. Finally, as the fifth ship came into view, a trail of smoke ejected from it before Miyuki’s ship began to shake.

‘What happened?’

‘M-Main cannon offline! Switching to secondary ordnance!’

The controls on Miyuki’s dashboard changed to a simple targeting reticule.

‘Passing over control of 25mm flak gun!’

‘How do I shoot this thing?’

‘E-Easy! Just line up whatever you’re shooting at with the reticule! Hurry up he’s lining up another shot at us!’

The targeting reticule hovered over the fifth ship for a second before Miyuki unleashed the flak cannon, ripping the enemy ship in half as each powerful shot tore off pieces of armor and metal before the ship combusted.

‘Lima 2-0 this is Command! What the hell is going on over there! We have reports of friendly fire, can you confirm over? Lima 2-0 please respond!’

Miyuki leaned over and shot at the radio with the pistol.

‘Take us over Devil’s Park, the remnants of the fleet need to be crushed. ‘

As they flew towards Devil’s Park, The Sons were engaging in fierce fighting against the waves of Cyntech troopers deployed in the city. Homes and shops were being used as cover whilst the streets were red with blood from those who tried to fight back. A stack of dead civilians on fire littered every street corner, the pungent smell of burning flesh filling the air. Cyntech dropships continued to rain fire on the people still fighting to defend what was left of the city. Alpha Pack members began to shepherd people into the subway as the streets shook with each cannon shot tearing the corrugated metal houses to chunks of metal. Three more ships remained of the fleet, and each one was focussed on destroying as much of Devil’s Park as possible. Miyuki couldn’t help but think of what had happened to Hanan and Molenda who were on the edge of Devil’s Park, but she couldn’t worry about that now. The first ship crumbled as her flak cannon shells tore it apart, whilst the second was brought down after a brief dogfight. The final ship in the fleet destroyed one of the engines on Miyuki’s craft, causing it to violently jerk in the air. As the third ship readied another cannon shell, a rocket from below struck the cannon as it was firing, detonating the shell inside and caused the ship to come crashing down on what remained of the market square.

Miyuki raised a finger to her earpiece.

‘Chaudary. It’s done, the fleet is destroyed.’

‘Good work. Pack leader got us the intel I was after and Jakub’s men have just arrived. The executors are busy dealing with the civilians at the minute, so get back here. We’re gonna need everyone we can get. There’s a ton of corpses to bury too, far too many to count.’

‘Affirmative. I’m on the way to-‘

The pilot began to nudge Miyuki in the ribs.

‘I-I’m picking up something big on the radar, I think you should take a look.’

The sky began to roar in angry triumph as the expressway snapped in half, revealing a colossal golden cruiser. A bright blue beam emerged from its mechanical heart, reducing what was left of Devils Park to atoms. Miyuki’s eyes opened as the people left on the ground were instantly vaporised by the beam’s strike. The pilot began to quiver in fear as he looked at the destruction caused by the giant cruiser, its several engines powering the golden beast.

‘H-Holy mother of God…’

‘What is that thing?’

Miyuki asked him in terror

‘It’s the.. it’s the Megiddo, the pride of the Cyntech fleet commanded by Alecto herself. Oh God… we are all screwed!’

‘Pilot, get it together, it may have the firepower but remember that even a Goliath can fall. Get us closer to it. ‘

The Megiddo let out a shockwave. The lights on the pilots console began to flash red as the ship plummeted towards the ground

‘W-We’ve just lost power! We’re going down hard! Brace for impact! ‘

Miyuki blacked out as the ship crashed into the ground, the final sight in her eyes as all seemed lost.