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We learned overnight that with the support of Ryu's B52 and Aegean's Y35 and extra ground support, that our ability to combat the Volatiles was drastically increased. Juggernauts, plus a Humvee delivered by the 35 and Steven's tank made us a force for the undead to reckon with. Early the next morning, I took Mike, Alcatraz and Rebecca, the woman with the Stryker rig, to close off the last hydrant. With support from the y35, the task was rather easy and on the way back, Alcatraz and Rebecca got to talking.

"How long have you had that Exo?", she asked.

"Five years", Alcatraz said, "the mounting points are surgically implanted, but the suit itself has quick releases so I can take it off, but I usually don't because when I do the computer in my brain that controls my synthetic body goes insane."

"I know the feeling", Rebecca said, "my face looks normal, but underneath my rig I'm a burn victim. My parents had the suit built custom for me so I could live somewhat of a normal life. I can go around without it okay, but I have to take things easy or risk ripping the burn's open, which can happen anyway."

"You at least got to keep what you were born with", Alcatraz said, "I'd give anything to have been able to keep my original body."

Rebecca looked at him like he was crazy, "say what?"

"What you see on the surface is all replacement", Alcatraz said, "all that's left of me is my brain, spine and an eye, rest is all fake, well still the original skeleton, but, might as well have been replaced. If it wasn't for my undamaged spine."

"Holy shit", Rebecca said in shock, "what happened to you."

"A gas main burst", Mike said, "we had a huge Earthquake at the lab where we lived at and gas line burst right next to him, total body 6th degree burn."

"Ouch", Rebecca said tugging on her collar.

"I actually didn't feel too much", Alcatraz said, "everything was numb."

She shook her head, "not a road I'd like to walk down."

"Not again at least", Alcatraz said as we returned to the church, I found Chy out front, starring towards the sky, she was obviously deep in thought.

"You okay?", I asked kissing her.

"Yeah I'm fine I just...I want this to be over", she said, "I wanna go home and forget any of this ever happened."

"It's no where close to over", I said, "not by a long shot. Have you talked to Aegean this morning?"

"Yeah", she said, "he's gonna bring a transport ship to Ryu's air force base to pick everyone up, but according to Ryu, the challenge is getting through the city, the gang members will never let us leave if they know we're going to Evac."

"Then we will fight them every inch of the way", Mike said stepping out of the church, "Skyline, these people are just about ready to leave, Ryu said he has a Chinook coming to pick us all up."

"You, Jacob and Tyler go with the civilian's to the Exfil sight", I said, "the rest of us will climb on Warpig and head back to the hotel. Ryu's boys will need our help to get all those people to the Exfil sight safely."

"I'll come too", Rebecca said as she and Alcatraz stepped out of the house, "I've been bored these past few months and need some action, last night wasn't enough."

I nodded, "Mike, your in charge, get these people out of here."

Mike nodded and went back into the church while the rest of us walked down to Steven's tank, he and his friends were just finishing up cleaning their breakfast mess.

"You guys ready to head back to the hotel?", I asked.

Steven nodded, "Warpig's ready to roll out, hop on."

Steven started the tank while the rest of us climbed aboard. The ride back to the hotel was initially difficult as we fought off several dozen gangsters who wanted to take the tank from us, but once we were actually out of the city, the ride was smooth and Steven was able to open up the engine. Ryu was down off his roof coordinating efforts to prepare a huge transport truck that was being stuffed with civilian's and supplies while a few tankers were readying their vehicles and a few MI-24 hinds were fueling up.

"Ryu", I said running up to him.

"Skyline", Ryu said, "you've come just in time, my men will require all the help they can get to Dr. Rends to the airport."

"Where is she?", I asked.

"On her way down", Ryu said, "she should be here..."

"SKYLINE!", Sarah shouted as she came running out of the hotel, a black briefcase in one hand and her M4 in the other, "I GOT IT!"

"Got what?", I asked.

"The Cure!", She said smiling as she joined us, 'I finally cracked it!"

"How!?", I asked.

"Lots and lots of all nighter's", she said, "and one, very angry volatile who is now singing my praises."

"Where is he", I asked.

"Getting the rest of his stuff ready", she said, "he's been moving quite slowly due to all the muscle deterioration, Allen's been helping him out."

"So he's okay I'm taking", I asked.

"He won't have use of his hand for a while", Sarah said, "but other than that he should make a full recovery."

"Cool", I said, "some good news for a change."

"Let's get out of this hell hole", Sarah said as she climbed aboard the heavy transport truck. It was a CZ-57 Avenger that had been heavily modified as far as the engine went, I could see the ROT's blower sticking up out from underneath the hood and the exhaust was blowing pitch black smoke. As I climbed on, Ryu stayed still.

"Ryu are you coming?", I asked.

"No", he said, "I must remain here, my men are prepping to move and I can assist the remaining survivors once we all pull together at the airfield, goodbye Skyline, I hope when you return home you can find away to eliminate this scourge, may our path's cross again some day."

"It's been a hell of a ride Ryu", I said giving him a salute, "good luck."

Ryu saluted me back as the lead tanks pulled away from the hotel. The massive armored truck stuffed full of people gave a lurch as the driver put it's notorious 3 speed magnetic shift automatic in gear and followed the tank out.

"The gangster's aren't gonna let us go without a fight Commander", Steven said over the radio, "they want the tank and have tried to take it from us several times already."

"Do they have anti armor weapons?", a guttural sounding man asked, he'd clearly seen some shit in his years.

"If they do, they haven't used them yet", Steven said.

"Then what the hell are we worried about?", a woman asked, 'way I see it, it's more tally marks I get to paint on Roadhog when this shit is over."

"So eager for a straight gunfight", a quiet sounding person said, he couldn't have been any older than nine I'd guess, "it's to easy to die facing your opponent straight up, this is why my weapon has a scope."

"Shut up Ghost", the woman said, "literally no one cares what you think."

"You should", the kid said, "you'll live longer."

"Kid I'm 50 years old and I'd mop your ass", the woman replied.

"A tank versus a 5.56 bolt action is an unwinable fight for the person with the bolt action", the kid said, "I'd avoid that confrontation all together."

"How about the both of you shut the fuck up and put this focus against the gangster's where it belongs?", I asked.

Neither of them answered.

"That's what I thought."

The ride to the airstrip, once we entered the city, was long and brutal. Gangster's were out in force and looking to confiscate everything we had and execute all of us for disobedience. There were 7.62 tracers flying one way, 5.56 tracer's flying another and pieces of broken buildings and dust raining down upon me as the tanks used buck and explosive grapeshot to expel the hiding gang members from their fortified buildings. It was the most combat that I'd seen in a very long time and everyone who could hold a gun was in the fight. Alcatraz's new friend Rebecca worked well with him as well, a Gravity Vortex Gun and a 20mm Long Range Rifle with explosive rounds can deal a lot of punishment to their targets in a very short amount of time.

Everything was moving too fast for me to keep track of. Bullets bouncing off the streets, zombies drawn by the gunfire and rubble raining down on the battle field. My gear was caked with dust and sweat and I was beginning to overheat. I summoned my Flash Freeze ability to try and cool off, which only worked for a while before I began to heat up again.

"Whats...what's happening to me?", I asked myself, "did I get bit and just don't realize it?"

I checked all over my body, trying to find something to indicate whether or not I'd been bit, but I found nothing, so I began to think that maybe I had just reached my limit, maybe my mind was playing tricks on me, or maybe something in my gene mods was going crazy, whatever the case may have been, all I knew is I was fucking hot, but since we were in the middle of the biggest gunfight of my life, I rolled up my sleeves, took off my gloves, said fuck it and kept on shooting. It wasn't for another hour and countless gunshots later that I realized that the flesh was creeping further and further up my mechanical arms that I figured out exactly what was going on.

"Healing factor", I said to myself as the skin totally covered the artificial appendages leaving me with two, somewhat normal looking hands and arms, "makes sense I guess, wonder if stress causes it to accelerate?"

Either way, it was time to get back in the fight. Sunset was upon us, the Volatiles would be out soon, the fight had worn all involved down to the bone. Everyone was shouting left and right on both sides, "gimme a mag!" or "last magazine!" And I was no different. I had run dry of the FAL hours ago and had been fighting with an M4A1 that I picked up out of an alley way. It'd likely been abused and mistreated as the paint on the receiver was gone and the grips were rough, but after cleaning a black gunk out of the barrel and receiver which I assumed to be old ass oil and dirt, she still ran like brand new. I'd been able to get plenty of fresh magazines from the gangster's and the transport vehicle's supply dump, though that was beginning to run dry.

"Supply's starting to run dry", Mike said putting another magazine into his M4, "I'm down to my last few magazines."

"I've got six left plus the half of one in my gun, the Automag and the High-Power", I said.

"The city line is only another 1000 feet before it opens up", the transport driver said popping smoke grenades around the vehicle, my guess is he was hoping to brake engagement just enough to bolt, but which did little to subvert the gangster's relentless approach, every single thug in the city was probably here.

"Someone get me a fucking 20mm!", one of the gangster's shouted, "we can't allow them to leave here with those supplies!"

"That ain't good", Rebecca said as she fired a black mass onto the roof of a building, which pretty much ripped the roof off and crushed the people on top of it into a thin paste no more than a few micrometer's thick, even down here I could feel the pull of the tiny black hole.

"Keep your eye's peeled!", I said reloading for the...fuck I'd stopped counting at reload fifty, "if you spot anyone with a large rifle take him down immediately!"

My words had barely slipped past my teeth when I saw someone wearing a juggernaut suit step out of the alley way with a Tactical High-Power in hand.

"Oh shit", I said pulling out my own and raising it to my shoulder, sending the round down range just as the Jug pulled the trigger on the APC's front left tire, completely ruining it. The APC was front wheel drive, so now it was stranded, which was bad. Very, very bad.

"FUCK ME IN THE ASS WITH A LIVE WIRE", the APC driver screamed over the radio, "we're never getting out of here now."

"Oh yes we are", I said getting on the radio to my brother, "Aegean, the APC has been disabled and we can't change the tire due to the high concentration of hostiles", a bullet hit the ground close to where I was standing, causing me to duck behind the APC, "I need some Air Superiority and I need it NOW!"

"Our Y35 just lifted off the runway", Aegean said, "ETA in 7 minutes!"

"We can't hold out for seven mother fucking minutes! We are not combat effective!", I barked, "I need air support NOW!"

"I think I can help with that", a female's voice said over the radio, "look to the South Prince Imese."

Looking straight ahead of me, I could see a massive, black wing with flashing white lights coming into view, it was Ryu's B52.

"We're too close for low yield atomic weapons", I said.

"I'm not your support", the woman said, "I mark targets for your support."

"Attention Prince Imese", a man said, "this is Commander Artemis Conrad of the OEC Falcon, we got a dozen Tomahawk missiles ready to drop on some heads, get the B52 to mark targets for us."

"OEC Falcon, stand by for fire mission", I said, "Mike!, I need to get up some place high, cover me!"

"Your covered!", Mike said, "do what you need to do!"

I broke off from the main group and retraced my steps back down the street to the tallest building around, an old hotel. Steven had peppered it with grapeshot, so I was sure it was clear, however, I refused to take the risk and kept my M4 at the ready as I scaled the stair case to the roof, where I found a gangster ammo cache, 5.56 and .308, in FAL magazine's no less. I resupplied my FAL as quickly as I could and stuffed M4 magazines wherever I could fit them on my rig and then ran to the edge of the building, opening the holographic overlay on my DNA chip. I used the color green to paint the convoy, blue to mark friendly people and red to mark the building's on both sides and orange to mark human targets.

"OEC Falcon", I said, "can you find my DNA chip signal?"

"One moment", the Commander said, "okay I see it, patching you through to the Hawk 1's targeting overlay."

"That's a whole lot of targets", the B52 pilot said a moment later, "boss this might be too close for Tomahawk's, recommend you use the 105's, wide arc firing only."

"Rodger that Hawk 1", the Commander said, "fire mission inbound, danger close."

I could hear the cannon's shooting out in the distance. When I looked in the direction of the sound, I saw the evening sun casting it's glow on a Dreadnought Battleship with it's 16 inch and 105mm gun batteries pointed right at us. Firepower I only wish I had in the lab. The 105mm barrage took the gangster's so completely off guard I was almost laughing at watching them scramble to escape. A mere two minutes after the impact of the first shell, the area had quieted down.

"Falcon this is Hawk 1, all hostile targets in the area have been neutralized."

"Rodger that Hawk 1", the commander of the battleship said, "thanks for the work Stalker."

"Your welcome!", I said as I used the fire escape to rejoin the convoy, where a maintenance team had already begun replacing the ruined tire.

"At 10 grand a piece", the commander said, "that's a pretty expensive flat."

It took the repair team about ten minutes to change the tire, and from that point it was another hour before we were able to make the runway. Ryu's airbase was very heavily fortified and nearly impermeable, as the pile of dead and burning Volatiles clearly signaled. The entrance to the base was guarded by Juggernauts and tanks similar to the way that the hotel was and roving Recon units and Striker APC's supplemented by Bradly fighting vehicles kept the massive complex secured.

The Bespinite Dreadnought was sitting on the runway cast a shadow over the flight control tower. It was being refueled and resupplied, it was a long trip back home. I could see Aegean coordinating efforts from the cargo ramp of the ship, he was dressed in a full combat load out with a Walther WA2000R slung over his shoulder, one of the rarer weapons available to the Snipers of Bespin's military, he saw me coming and waved me over.

I looked at Chy.

"Go see your brother", she said, "I'll be over in a minute."

I nodded and hopped off the transport, running over to Aegean.

"I'd hug you but you look like a shit sandwich without the bread", Aegean laughed.

I smiled, "yeah, I feel like shit too, the city was full of gang bangers and getting through it was the longest gunfight of my life."

Aegean smiled, "I don't doubt it. The entire confederacy is buzzing about the outbreak and what happened on Ios. Ryu told me over the radio last night about everything you've done. I'm proud of you little brother, Mom and Dad would be too."

I smiled, "I know. Can we go home now?"

Aegean smiled at me and turned around, "let's get loaded up! Next stop is Prouxsas City, Bespin!"