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The Greenville Underground has waged war against the Biomass since it's first appearance six months after the the ending of the Final World War. Despite the Firefighters being some of the best soldiers the world has ever seen, skilled Tankers and purpose built "Firetrucks", their attempts at securing the resources contained in the Texas Emergency Provision Stockpile have failed.

Arien Kyvart

November 2nd, 2024

4:40AM-Greenville Central Station

Greenville Metro Lines, Texas

Man, did I get fucked up this go around. Like many things since starting this little adventure of mine, being surprised I was waking up was a truly disturbing thing to experience. Unlike the other times I had woken up after what should have been a lethal injury, it didn't take me but two seconds to come back to the land of the living. My chest had been stitched closed, and I had a bunch of wires and hoses connected to a whole damn shitload of needles that had turned me into a proverbial pin cushion. I sat up, or tired to, disturbing the giant fuck off needle in my side, making me realize that at some point a lung had collapsed. Great. The hospital, infirmary, wherever it was that I was laid up, was quiet, almost deathly so. I could only hear a few whispers of patients that seemed a lot more hurt that I was, alongside the chirping and beeping of medical equipment. There was only one other animal I could see in the dimly lit infirmary that was awake, playing on an old smart phone. A young looking bald eagle, he looked like the Biomass had grabbed him at one point, as he had skin lesions and missing feathers that looked like Biomatter. He glanced at me momentarily, back to his phone, and then did a double take. Realizing I was awake, he put his phone down.

"Holy fuck...you're awake", he seemed surprised.

"You sound surprised", I grunted, starting to pull the needles and IV's out.

"You're the dragon...you came from outside of Greenville...right?", he asked.

"Sure did", I replied, "all the way from Maine."

The eagle seemed surprised, "man...the whole Metro is talking about you. Way I heard it, even the gangs in the tunnels have come into the stations to see what's up."

"Sorry for crashing the party", I said, "Where exactly am I?"

"Greenville Metro Central Station", the Eagle said, "that crazy dragoness of yours has already met my Dad. He's mayor around here. She's got a bigger pair on her than I do. You may want to address that."

I raised an eye, "what makes you say that?"

"She's going out to climb the tower", the Eagle said, "big old news tower near to the Metro entrance. Two hundred stories. Said she was trying to call your plane."

"She went out in that radiation!?", I swallowed, "by herself!? Did anyone go with her!?"

The eagle shook his head, "I dunno."

I felt a tear run down my face. It was time to fucking panic.

"No....no, no, no. No, we've come to far for this. To far to die in this fucking city. I gotta go get her."

I took hold of the needle in my side and started trying to pull it out. I couldn't help but scream, alerting the nurses and doctor, as well as waking everyone else up.

"Bro what the fuck!", the doctor shouted as he rushed over with like six nurses to pin me down and shove the needle back in, "you have a fucking collapsed lung!"

"Make it not collapsed!", I barked, "some fuckhead let my mate wander out into your godforsaken city by herself!"

"You need to calm down!", the doctor ordered, "if you don't I will make you!"

"Get your hands off me now", I demanded, "unless you wanna get bit!"

"I promise you don't wanna do that", the doctor hissed, "I'll put you to sleep where you lay!"

"Enough", a gruff sounding male said walking into the room, putting out a cigarette on his mechanical hand. I could swear I knew him from somewhere. He was one scarred up looking wolf, like he had lost a fight with something that had beaten him halfway to death and then set him on fire. He wore some kind of rubberized suit with a Geiger counter and some other equipment on what didn't quite look like a plate carrier underneath his long, brown leather trench coat and had a M1 Garand in a drag bag slung over his shoulder. He had several bandoleers of ammunition slung across his chest over an ALICE rig that was carrying a combat load already and a single leather glove clipped to his belt. The scabbard his Garand was in had a bunch of what looked like home brewed stick grenades tied to it and a barbed wire wrapped baseball bat in a pocket, secured to one side. A second glove covered his other hand, so I wasn't sure if that one might be mechanical as well. He only had short fur growing over the scars that tore through his skin, was missing an eye, and his ears were clearly synthetic, and had fake fur on them. It didn't seem to bother him, "put it back in your pants and zip up boys. This little pissing match isn't gonna get anyone anywhere. The guy has every right to want to go after his girl."

The wolf looked at me, "I wouldn't be going far with a collapsed lung, but then again, I'm not you."

"Do you call the shots around here?", I asked.

The wolf shrugged, "that would be Mayor Tom, but Animals listen when I talk, if that's what you're asking."

"Then tell these guys to back off, otherwise I'm gonna start biting limbs off."

The wolf motioned for his Animals to back off, "your mate left 30 minutes ago. We wouldn't think it was an issue, if it wasn't for the fact we have Black Rain fixing to blow in. Good thing you woke up when you did, since you've got the damaged lung, guess who gets to go get her?"

'What the hell is Black Rain?", I asked.

The wolf grinned, "a Greenville special. Acidic rain that can turn an aluminum can into paste in about five minutes. Your girl's radiation suit might be tough, but if the Black Rain catches her out, she'll be mush before she can get back. Your best hope is to take a Fire Truck out to the old Radio Tower and bring her back, then, you may want to go get your Tundra from the MRC before something bad happens to it."

"I'd be better off on foot. An old fire engine is going to draw way to much attention."

The wolf chuckled darkly, "buddy, wait till you see a Greenville Fire Department Engine. I think you'll be impressed. Come, come friend, let's not leave the crazy Canadian out in the cold."

Two of the nurses helped me out of the bed, slowly removing the needle from my side and bandaging the hole. I could still breathe on my own, so I guessed that was a good sign. The nurses then lead me from the hospital room, down a set of hallway's to what looked like an armory of sorts. The wolf wrapped on the door, some critter behind it opened a slide.

"Luke? What do you want?"

"A two extra large radiation suit for my dragon friend here", the wolf said, "We gotta go save his mate."

"Come in, but only the two of you", the critter said, "I can't have anyone not licensed to carry a weapon in the armory."

The animal behind the door unlocked it. The wolf unlocked the door and the wolf ushered me in. The Armory animal, a brown rat, locked the door.

"Morgan, I fucking told you it was him", the wolf smiled, "Arien, long time no see. Did you get my texts?"

I looked at the wolf for a moment, then, it hit me.

I sighed, a smile easing it's way onto my face. Seeing him of all animals here, it was like a huge weight off my shoulders, "I thought I recognized that voice. Like the sound of car tires over broken glass. What the hell are you of all Animal's doing here?"

Luke pulled me into a hug, "was down here visiting family when the bombs fell. Air down here is pure enough I don't need the helmet of my burn gear. For everything else, Alice takes good care of me."

"Never thought I'd see you again. Nice to have someone I know in this neck of the woods."

"You ain't lying. Let's gear up and get evil, Eirren needs help. The others should be waiting for us as at the truck already."

The armory Rat unlocked a large mesh cage, handing me a duffle bag with the radiation suit inside. It looked like a standard suit, with a few key differences. The outside of the suit was clearly wrapped in some flame resistant fabric and had connections for an air line built into it. There were locking collars around the wrists and ankles for the boots and gloves respectively, and the suit had the helmet built into it. A normal radiation suit on the outside, sure, but the respirator had been clearly modified and the suit had pretty obviously been repacked with a bunch of extra lead. The exterior of the suit was furnished with an additional layer, a sort of rubber poncho that was secured at the gloves, which Luke explained was unique to Truck Number 31. Apparently, Number 31, also known as The Rain Guard, only went on rescue missions for Animals lost in the city under the threat of Black Rain. And, since it had been months since they'd seen action, they were taking us out. According to Luke, Truck 31, and those that crewed her, were in a league all their own. The Rain Guard was crewed by Luke, their newest member. A British dragon by the name of Ingram, a German Scorpion named George a Mexican Gilia Monster named Roberto, supposedly the most decorated Firefighter in the metro and a female rat who usually drove the truck, in the hospital with a new born. According to Luke, Ingram was born in 1136, and had been a citizen of the Holy Roman Empire. He had joined the military when he was 14 years old. Luke claimed there wasn't a war that had been fought on Earth that he hadn't fought in. I had met a couple of dragons like that, and I sometimes wondered where I'd be in a thousand years. Telling my descendants about the Great Nuclear War that brought civilization as I knew it to the end, and my trek across a post apocalyptic United States of America, once the greatest country in the world. Who knew what the world would look like then?

Remember earlier when I mentioned that Luke had been on the receiving end of some seriously horrific burns? And that Faraday Medical had gotten involved? Well, this was the first time I had seen him since the accident.

As many terrible things as I had done, and with some of the ways that I had hurt and killed other animals since the war started....I don't wish fire on anyone.

You just don't understand what that can do to someone.

I hadn't seen what he looked like since he got burned. He used to be in pretty good shape with a really thick, pure white coat, now...he just looked like scarred meat wrapped around a skeleton. He had taken off his burn gear to change his undergarments I guess, and I got to see he was riddled with hideous, jagged and raised scars that just tore all up and down his body. It almost looked like, at least to me, that someone had beaten him with a whip, and the wounds had only recently closed up. His mechanical hand, in some sick and twisted way, looked like his good one, as soon as his glove came off, his fingers rolled inward like a the legs of a dead spider. He had to roll them out and put another glove back on, after which he seemed to check to see that they still worked. He changed what seemed like a seal on his chest for a rather deep hole, almost seemed like he had been stabbed recently, after which he changed back into some really thick spandex, put his burn gear back on, then his trench coat over it. He put on a spandex balaclava, then a Nomex one, over which he set his signature piece of apparel. A slim cut helmet that was modeled like a modern combat helmet with a mandible on it. This helmet, however, was all one piece, and locked into the top layer of his burn gear, providing an air tight seal to keep in the purified air that he needed to breath because of his smoke and fire damaged lungs. He sealed it with a hiss and then picked up his drag-bag, throwing it back over his shoulder.

As we were getting ready to head out, Luke tapped my shoulder.

"Yeah bro?", I asked.

"You can't go into Greenville without a weapon", He said, "the other's carry the AR-500, and obviously I carry my Garand, but your SIG P226 won't be enough to defend against the Biomass that infest the surface. So...take this."

Luke reached into his locker and pulled out a well worn, but well taken car of Mauser Gewher 98/05. A very rare variant of the German WW1 service rifle, fitted with a bedded action, heavier barrel, a more robust set of day/night sights and a long eye relief scope mounted on a side rail that reminded me of a Russian style PU scope. This particular rifle also had the trench mag and original WW1 flashlight the rifle would have been issued with occupying the Bayonet lug. Prewar, that could have been a fifty thousand dollar rifle, especially with the bayonet lug flashlight intact.

"Where the hell did you find this thing?", I asked taking the rifle from him, "this thing's a wall hanger."

"Grandpa was shooting this rifle up till he passed away about three months ago", Luke said, "he said great grandpa brought it back from France. Ain't of much use to me since I have my Garand, but I know you have a soft spot for old Mausers, figured you might like it."

"That's an understatement", I grinned, "thanks Luke..."

"Grandpa left behind a shit load of 7.92 Mauser as well", Luke said, pointing to a box in the corner of the armory, "packed up in old bandoleers, help yourself."

I set upon that box like a rabid animal. Loading up with six bandoleers of 60 rounds each, plus the 20 I could fit inside the trench mag. The stripper clips went into the rifle with none of the difficulty I had come to expect from the old Mauser I used to own. Of course, this one seemed a lot more used than mine had ever been. Once I was loaded up on ammunition, the armory Rat handed me back my pistol, which the guys who rescued us had recovered from the tunnels, wished us good luck and sent us on our way.

As Luke lead me down the hallway towards the motor pool, I couldn't hold my tongue no longer.

"Luke, a question if I may?", I asked.

"What's up dude?", he asked.

"How did you do it?", I asked.

"What?", he inquired, "not sure I followed."

I paused a moment, "the fire. I've always wondered how you got through it."

He shrugged, "I dunno...the scariest part was when I stopped feeling anything...then watching the fingers on my hands fall off as I tried to break the glass."

Luke flashed his mechanical hand, then sighed, "Do you still have those pictures Anne sent you?"

I nodded, "somewhere."

"Arien...do you really have a plane?", Luke asked, "or...did you just happen to wander in by chance?"

"Heh...dude, I wish I could say I was here on accident. I'm not. Yeah, we really do have a Russian Gunship. Anthony and his crew are great Animals. Flew us here to help get another team mate's cybernetics fixed, and stayed around even after their end of the deal was done. We owe them a debt we can't repay, but I wish I could say that it was smooth sailing. Between our Modified catching that EMP, a band of crazy mercs in Houston boiling Animals alive, radiation storm fixing to cook Houston and the solution to all of this seeming more out of reach than ever, it's hard to stay positive sometimes."

We stopped at a door, Luke turned to face me.

"Arien, can I ask a favor?"

"Always."

He took a deep breath, "Anne...she was pregnant when I left to come see my grandpa. Grandpa didn't survive the war, and I'm home sick like you can't possibly understand. Do you think, when this is all over, you could fly me home?"

I punched his shoulder gently, "Brother, trust me, I get it. I'm in the same boat. I'm sure Anthony would be happy to fly you home. All you'd have to do is ask. He's done so much for me already, I don't have the right to ask him for anything."

Luke lead me through another set of hallways and up a flight of stairs. Eventually, we came to a door that was guarded by an animal with some kind of semi auto shotgun. The door had a sign on it that read "Warning. Surface Warehouse. Firetruck Bay 4. High Radiation Level beyond. Enter at your own risk." Luke showed his ID to the guard and then the guard opened it. The small Geiger on the left arm of my suit spiked a few rads. Not enough to bother me, but without the suit, I doubted Luke would last long.

Truck 31 was the very last truck in the line up. A jet black fire engine with a large "#31" painted on it. To me, given the truck's size, I'd have thought it was a modified ladder truck, but seemed like it had been built this way at the factory. The truck was covered in white lights, and the sirens and emergency lights also seemed to have been left in place. Metal grating was over all the windows, and there was a large, angled battering ram welded to the front of the engine. It was slammed almost to the ground on its suspension, perhaps as low as such a large vehicle could get. There was a Hazmat symbol on the side that read "The Rain Guard, No Animal Left Outside". One thing I didn't fail to notice were the three, thick cords plugged into the back of the engine.

"Is that thing electric?", I asked.

Luke nodded, "Yep. One of six prototypes that the Greenville FD were testing when the nukes came. It's much quieter and faster on the uptake than the other trucks, useful when you're trying to pluck someone out from underneath a Biomass. Tom decided to give it to Rain Guard because we knew best how to exploit its advantages as an electric vehicle, as well as minimize its downsides. Number 31 has gotten us through some hell in the last two years."

"What kind of range does it get?", I asked.

"On a full charge with a full load out, we can get 375 miles or 24 hours of non movement operation during a rain storm", one of the dragons dressed in a similar suit to mine said.

"Must have a big battery", I shrugged.

"That she does", the dragon agreed, "that collapsed lung going to keep you from hitting targets?"

"Not in this life time", I shrugged.

The dragon tossed me a FOB.

"Cool. Our driver is laid up so you get to take the wheel."

"Y'all just gonna trust me with your high speed electric firetruck?", I asked, "seems kinda foolish, y'all don't know me."

"Luke vouched for you Continuar", the Gilia monster on the top of the truck, wearing a much heavier suit than the rest of us said, he was manning what looked like some sort of heavy flamethrower, "Luke has some weight when he speaks, so if he trusts you, we do too."

The dragon that had tossed me the fob rapped on the back driver's side door, "enough chatter wankers, we got someone about to get rained on, let's stop pissing about and ride the lightning. George, how's the Minigun!?"

Heavy boot steps betrayed the gigantic, just absurdly huge black scorpion wearing more armor than I had ever seen a critter wear as he came around from the back of the truck. He wore a huge ass backpack with a belt of ammunition feeding into what looked like a three gun comp Minigun with large white lettering that read "Mausers Chainsaw." His stinger looked like he had sharpened it, as it was sticking out of the tail end of his armor like a hypodermic needle.

"Geladen", The scorpion grunted, "ready to feast on the decaying rot of the hellspawn we have created."

"Bloody fantastic", the dragon said hopping into the truck behind the scorpion.

"I ride shotgun Arien", Luke said, walking backwards around the front of the truck, "I navigate for the crew. I'll get us there, then we just have to recover Eirren."

"Aight", I said, throwing open the door and climbing into the truck.

I had never been in something this complex before. There were more gauges, buttons and switches on the dash of this thing than I had ever seen in a vehicle. Gauges that were labeled with pressure for every tire, torque output, the speedometer which maxed at 150 miles an hour, the RPM gauge which went to 13,000 RPM with some small lettering that said "Zero Emission". In a long strip of dials over the steering wheel in the headboard there was a fuel gauge for the flame thrower, radiation reading gauges from Milirads to Terrarads, temperature and gauges for outside and inside air quality. In the middle of the center dash, underneath the two large air conditioning vents were the controls for the air purification system, and all the read outs to match. There was a large touch screen on Luke's side in the dash and a smaller one directly in my line of sight behind the steering wheel. Speaking of steering wheel, it was a rather large five spoke with a large, gold "#31", emblem in the middle. There were airplane style switches directly to the side of the gear shift which read "Lights, Siren, headlights, front light bar, driver side light bar, passenger light bar, rear light bar", and the one directly next to all those that was green that read "start."

"Ingram, are we go for start up?"

"We sure are", the old dragon that had tossed me the fob, "time to ride the lightning kid."

I pushed the cover up and flipped the switch. The gauges on the truck all flew to their max reading, back to zero and then settled into whatever it was they were reading. The air conditioner came on and the interior lights went out as the gauges lit up. Luke rolled down his window, and shouted to the guy that had come over to him.

"Truck 31 on mission! Open the gate!"

"Rodger that!", the animal shouted, "RAIN GUARD ON MISSION!"

Luke rolled up his window and turned to me.

"When you put the truck in drive, doors will lock and the air purifier turns on. We'll be isolated from the rest of the world until you put it in park again. It'll just be you, eight thousand pounds of torque and the road."

Luke put a head set on, so did everyone else in the truck, so I figured it would be wise to follow suit. As the gate came open, a male came over the radio.

"Truck 31, Thomas here, I shouldn't have to tell you gentlemen how important this rescue is. If that dragoness hasn't contacted that plane, do everything in your power to get her to the top of that tower. Factions in the tunnels are laying down their weapons over the chance of being able to secure the supplies in the EPS. Every male, female and child is gonna be watching this with held breath. Ride the lighting gentlemen, make us all proud!"

"Understood sir!", Lucas grinned at me, "we won't let you down! Not now, not ever!"

"I'd expect nothing less from you Lucas. Gentlemen, Tom out."

I put the truck in drive when the guy operating the overhead door gave me a thumbs up, the doors clicked locked audibly, and there was a sound like escaping air.

"We're cut off", Luke said into the radio as I eased off the brake, starting the monster of a vehicle forward under the strongest shove of instant torque I'd ever felt in my life, "Hit the lights and siren, it helps keep the Biomass away."

I hit the switch for the lights, the area around us started flashing blue, purple and white, followed by the siren. Good god, did that sound in the howling wind of Greenville make my scales crawl and my heart race. It was a high pitched, Police and Ambulance siren hybrid, one of the loudest things I'd heard in my life. Even through the headphones it was loud.

"Roads in most of the city are blocked with old cars and munitions buried under the ash", Luke said, "normally this would be a three minute ride, but we need to head out and loop around, got a 15 minute drive on our hands. I'll tell you when to gun it and when to slow down. I'll call the turns twenty seconds before we hit them. Roberto! How you up there!?"

"Ain't got no targets Corporal!", Roberto said.

"We'll be having some in a minute", Luke said, "Arien, first turn, right in 400 feet."

I slowed the truck down, following the route that Luke was plotting for me on the computer. As soon as I turned the first corner, a rather large Biomass Example was standing right in the middle of the road.

"Don't stop keep going", Luke said, "Gun it!"

The tach jumped upwards as the electric motors on the axles shoved the truck forward with a force that made me jump in my seat, just a little bit. The Biomass Example fell apart when the truck collided with it, most of it going towards Luke's side and splattering the windshield. Thankfully, the wipers were in the same place as they were on my Tundra. 0-60 in about 3 seconds. For something like this? It was an incredible feeling.

"What a truck you've got here Luke!", I laughed into the headset, "Can't believe this thing survived the bombs!"

The Scorpion in the back laughed, "Yep, that's number thirty one for you. She surprises everyone with all the torque."

The siren blared and the lights washed the darkness out of the streets as I gunned the truck down the long street. Luke seemed to be right, the Biomass, in large part, were avoiding the truck. The few examples that seemed brave enough to approach were large, lumbering and disfigured monsters waving around thick pieces of wood or metal poles. It didn't seem to matter, they all met their end on the splitter welded to the front of the truck. Halfway down the street, a bolt of lightning went through the sky, followed by a loud clasp of thunder, so loud it was heard over the wail of the siren.

"We gotta hurry", Luke said checking something on his screen, "Black rain inbound! Left turn in 500 feet."

I slowed the truck down, turning through the corner at the near end of the street which was blocked off by a military barricade of some sort.

"In a hundred feet, turn right but go slow! We have to go through a building with some serious structural damage, and if you make contact it might collapse! Roberto! Keep your head down."

"Rodger that!", Roberto said.

"Understood!"

I slowed the truck down to a crawl for the next turn. The opening in the large sky scraper was sketchy as all hell, but, if it was the only way to get to Eirren, then through it we went. The light illuminated everything in the building, including a single Biomass example in the corner directly head. He looked eerily similar to James and Prysm, and seemed agitated that we had picked this exact moment to come through as we appeared to have woken him from his sleep. He had a small fire going in a barrel next to some office furniture he had turned into a bed. He was sitting up, covered in a blanket, watching us inch through the building.

'What's up with that one?", I asked pointing.

"Oh, that's Frank", Luke chuckled, "looks like we woke him up."

"We woke up old Frank?", the Scorpion asked.

"Seems like", Ingram said, "honk the horn kid!"

I honked the horn, of course, another rather loud feature of this vehicle, the blast of air kicked up all the dust and dirt around the truck. The show of force made the biomass cover his ears, and then promptly flip me the bird.

Luke laughed, clapping his hands together as we pulled out of the building, "Ingram! Frank's gonna turn you into Tom again!"

"Do I look like I give a fuck?", Ingram scoffed, "I just like fuckin' with that wanker because he can't pull his pranks on me any more."

"Who the hell is Frank?", I asked making the turn Luke had plotted for me.

"Rain Guard", Ingram said, "he got grabbed the Biomass a couple of months ago, but Frank is a stubborn old bastard and took over the minds of the other critters in the mass. Now, he lives up on the surface, mapping out clear routes for the Firetrucks and scavengers."

"So what...he just lives in that building?', I asked.

"He has hides all over the city", Luke said, "he's turned up in some strange places."

I gunned the truck down the straight away, skidding to a stop about a mile later and then winding the truck through a series of turns before we were back on the road leading to the news tower. Within a thousand feet of the tower, a car was launched in the path of the fire truck, and about a dozen large examples came rushing out of the near by building's waving all sorts of melee weapons.

"Ambush!", Luke shouted, "Roberto! Smoke 'em!"

The Gilia monster cut loose with the top mounted flamethrower, dousing the examples closing in with flaming, jellied gasoline that wasn't easily shaken. Roberto started singing as the others readied their weapons.

"Don't you wish your flamethrower was hot like mine!", he laughed.

"Looks like we hoof it from here", George said, manually unlocking his door and pushing it open, "Lass uns Schaden anrichten!"

We piled out of the truck, siren still blaring as we engaged the Biomass. It had been a long time since I fired a Gewher 98, and the recoil was softer than I was used to 7.92x57 being. Three of the examples in the crowd were close enough together, it was trivial to send eight rounds down range and get hits on all three. 7.92x57 Mauser really seemed to not like the biomass too much, and perhaps it was even more effective than Sekeve's big 12.7x55. In a stark departure from the lack of effectiveness of my tried and true 5.56x45, the Gewher dropped the Examples surprisingly quick. Even though I was firing a bolt action rifle, the 20 rounds of ammunition on tap went surprisingly quick, prompting me to open the action and shove four clips into the magazine and close the action. I moved forward with Luke to my right and Ingram to my left, keeping my sights on target as George moved out front, arm out stretched with revlover in hand.

"Hola lobo", Roberto said over the radio, "Luke, rest of us will stay behind and guard the truck. Hurry up, Black rain will be here any minute."

We pushed our way through the Biomass, Luke, Ingram and myself doing the bulk of the fighting while George stuck to his secondary weapon, a .44 caliber revlover of some kind, taking more precise shots at the smaller examples in order to save ammunition in his Minigun. After all, he only had 7500 rounds of 8mm Mauser, enough for a single sustained minute of fire. I felt the bolt stop against the follower as I tried to shove it forward after firing my last shot. I took cover near a burned out car, using it as cover as Luke came up beside me and fired four shots before ducking down and pulling out a stick grenade of some kind.

"Grenade out!", he shouted, using his mechanical arm to absolutely yeet the grenade a good 50 yards at a rather large approaching example. It went off, taking a decently large chunk of meat off the example.

"What a fucking yeet bro!", I laughed.

"God of yeet I am", He chuckled crouching down, rocking the clip out of his Garand, letting the remaining two rounds go off into the street and shoving a fresh clip in, giving himself Garand thumb in the process. Of course, his hand was mechanical, so it didn't really matter.

"Garand thumb", I laughed at him.

"My hand is mechanical", he shrugged, "I can grab hotdogs out of boiling water."

I stood up from behind the car, aiming at the chest of a mostly intact biomass that had gotten close and was rearing back to throw a cinder block at me, dropping it into the dirt with a single shot as I came around the front of the car, rifle still in my shoulder. There were six examples that were taking cover near the front of the radio station that seemed to be rethinking the whole ambush thing entirely, or they were until several more arrived, two of them had firearms. The third, and largest, one that had shown up was a massive, disgusting looking thing, like a bunch of different animals that had stayed mostly intact, had been stretched out beyond what they should be capable of and then merged together. Vestigial body parts flailed and hung off of it like hair and, while the creature had no primary head, it did have a gash in it's torso that was lined with teeth with a long tongue hanging worthlessly out of said gash. It was drooling like a rabid dog that hadn't eaten in a few months. Upon arriving on scene, it promptly recovered the largest boulder of rebar laden concrete it could pick up and hurled it through the air right at us.

"Incoming! Incoming!', Ingram roared, grabbing me by the collar and yanking me out of the path of the boulder before I had a chance to react. Luke took three steps back, the boulder landing on the car in front of him. He adjusted something on his kit, and I noticed he already had another one of those makeshift looking stick grenades in his hand. He pulled the pin from the top and reared back.

"Hier kommt die Bombe Hellspawn!", George yelled.

"Grenade out!', he shouted a second time, lobbing the thing right into where the six examples were camping. The large one that had shown up grabbed one of its comrades and threw it onto the grenade before ducking inside. It was a larger example itself, and the sacrificial lamb was unable to roll off Luke's grenade before it went off. The Example was punted a good three or four feet in the air, a shower of blood and organs hailing out of the open cavity the grenade had created. Luke darted around the corner of the rebar boulder, firing the remaining rounds in the clip of his Garand and sliding into cover behind an F150.

"Anyone else feel like they're fighting to keep us away from the tower?", Luke asked, shoving a new clip into his Garand.

"They definitely are!', Ingram said, "they must know the girl's at the top of the tower! Not good!"

"Yeah no shit!"

The two Biomass who had rifles had now turned their attention on us. They were alternating fire in an attempt to keep us pinned, but George had other ideas. He calmly emptied his revolvers cylinder, reloaded and then holstered it.

"I'll take care of this", he grunted. He placed both hands on his Minigun, flipped a few switches on the back and then stood up. He walked out into the opening between us and the two examples, who instantly targeted him. One shot after another, every single shot hit him in the chest or upper neck. Due to the guy's stupidly massive body and heavy armor, he barely flinched from the impacts. He came to a stop in the middle of the street and glanced around. A couple more examples had sprung up from the surrounding area. Some of them threw rocks and bricks, others charged him waving pipes with various things attached. George grunted again, raised his minigun, and tore into the examples with a fury we couldn't even get out of James and Prysm. George only fired a three second burst, and by the time those barrels stopped rotating, all that was left of the Biomass was...well...biomass. Just red and brown paste with little bits of shattered bones mixed in. Smoke poured from the barrels and motor assembly of the minigun. Freshly oiled no doubt. George laughed a very German sounding laugh and beat his chest, as if he were eager to find the next example to kill, he began to move in towards the building adjacent to the radio tower.

"Everyone rally on George", Ingram called, "Roberto! Bring the truck around to the entrance and standby!"

"Yes sir!", Roberto shouted over a clasp of thunder overhead.

"Ich brauche mein Geld wert. 8 mm Mauser ist so teuer, ich bin sicher, Sie verstehen", George bellowed as he entered the building, being jumped by a biomass that was lurking around the corner with a pipe. He stabbed it through the chest with his tail, which pulsed underneath his armor. The angry red and brown of the biomass turned white as it slumped over, quivering as it began to bleed from every pore, of which it had many. He let his minigun fall to the side and pulled his revlover back out, looking around the room for a moment before he pointed to the stairwell, which had the door taken off the hinges. Three examples came running out of the door, waving old two by fours wrapped in chains. George shot one immediately, while Luke and I got the other two.

"Big ol bastard went through there", he said, "we'll just follow it right up the staircase."

And so we did. Turns out, 105 flights of stairs isn't much when your mate's life is on the line. As soon as we reached the top of the staircase, George went out first, ducking under the doorway to exit. The rest of us funneled out behind him. I could see Eirren had been ripped out of her suit and thrown into the corner of the roof top, crumpled like a piece of aluminum foil. Her scales were already starting to blister from the radiation. My heart about stopped in my chest. If it wasn't for the 10 foot tall collection of rotten cancer in front of me, I would have gone for it.

"I thought Tom was ugly", George chuckled darkly, "did you really think we were just going to let you chew on our Canadian the way you chew on everything? I think the fuck not. Come on, come try and chew on me big boy! Give me something to shoot at!"

The creature lunged, and George's response was a five second burst from the minigun, which removed the only visible threat on the roof top.

"And that's how that goes. Let's get this fine lady off this roof before she kills over."

Luke pulled an expandable stretcher of sorts out of Ingram's big duffle bag and put it together very quickly. It was hard to keep hold of myself as he and I rolled Eirren, who was now mumbling incoherently and blistering rapidly, onto the stretcher.

"Hey", George said to Eirren, "stay alive for your boy, ya hear?"

"Arien...have to tell", Eirren slurred, as if she was drunk.

"We gotta get her off this roof!", I panicked as Ingram and Luke picked up the stretcher as Ingram scooped up her equipment.

"That we do", George agreed, leading the way back downstairs. From the roof to the truck was a span of time I did not track, nor did I care to. My heart was thumping in my chest, everything in my body was screaming at me to get her as far away from this place as possible. When we finally loaded her into the back of the truck, the two other members of the rain guard set to work instantly. I sat on the bench next to her as Luke slammed the rear door shut. As he ran around the side of the truck to the passenger seat, he yelled to Roberto.

"Get us outta here Robert! Black Rain is here."

The rain started coming down like hail as Roberto put the truck in drive, siren wailing as he backed out of where he had parked the truck. Thunder and purple lightning filled the air as the medical team inserted an IV into her arm. Almost as soon as the medication started flowing, she groaned, then weakly reached up and tried to wipe her face.

"Uggghhh", she groaned, "fuck...what just happened to me?"

I felt tears run down my cheeks, "you did something fucking dumb."

"Yeah...", Eirren sighed, then she smiled weakly and flipped me off, "you're one to talk, motherfucker."

She turned to look at me, then reached out with her hand, I took it and held it tight, "You're okay."

"Well, I have a collapsed lung", I told her, "it only hurts when I breathe."

"I guess we're both stupid", she said, "I called Truck, told him to give us six hours...if he listened, he'll be here in eight. If not...six."

"Luke!", I called to my friend.

"Yeah!?", he asked, "I hear that voice what's going on back there?"

I left Eirren's side for a moment, "change of plans dude, my gun ship could be here in as few as six hours."

Luke gritted his teeth, the hair on the back of his neck stood on end, "we...we can't plan an assault on the EPS in six hours! Half of our tankers are on leave! Firefighters are deployed."

"Not to mention that half of our Firetrucks aren't roadworthy!!", Roberto added as he turned a corner.

"How much time do you need?", I asked.

Luke and Roberto exchanged glances.

"A month!", Roberto said, "at least!"

"We don't have a month", I said, "unless you have a place for a cargo platform gunship to land in this immediate area. We have eight hours tops, probably less!"

Luke shook his head, "We can't round up enough forces in time...we need a day at least."

"I dunno if we have that long."

I turned around, Eirren was sitting on the side of the bed looking at me, covered in a blanket now.

"What do you mean?", I asked.

Eirren continued, "Anthony said the storm was coming sooner than they thought. Just....he didn't say when."

"That could mean anything", Luke said.

"I know", Eirren sighed, a tear ran down her cheek, "I'm sorry..I'm sorry...I had to do something...I couldn't give up..We were so close..."

I looked her in the eye, taking her head in my hands, "We've come this far, we'll figure something out! Luke, can you drop Eirren off at the Metro and then bus me to the MRC? I need to get my Tundra and get out of the city so I can hail my Gunship."

"How long can you get us?", Luke asked.

"I dunno, I need to see what the situation in Houston is. Last we checked, the storm was blowing through in a week. Dunno how much the tables have adjusted."

Luke flashed a thumbs up.

I went back and sat down next to Eirren as the medics finished putting away some supplies.

"How am I lookin' boys?", She asked.

"Took a giant, fuck off dose of Radiation", one of them grunted, "or you should have. Whatever chemicals were in that fancy suit you were wearing kept it from doing any serious damage. Worst that'll happen is those blisters will linger for a few days. How's do you feel? George said you looked paralyzed when they recovered you."

"Feeling's coming back....slowly. I doubt I'll be hoofing a weapon anytime soon."

"Once we get you back to base we can get you on a course of a stronger system flush, should help flush out the rest of the radiation and drugs from your system. Until then, the LT and I will give you a minute."

The two medics went into the main cab and closed a door behind them leaving Eirren and I alone. I put my arm around her and pulled her close to me. She rested her head on my shoulder.

"We're so close Arien...", she said quietly, "and yet....still so far."

I sighed, "Yeah....I wonder if it'll be worth it?"

"I hope so", Eirren said, "seeing the Animals in Greenville, the Docks...makes me think anything is possible."

"Rabids, bandits, Demons, biomass, Russian gunships and...hell, a whole city surviving under enough radiation to make Lucifer hide under a lead blanket. It's been a hell of a three months", I whispered.

Eirren reached out from underneath the blanket, putting her arm around me.

"And a mate you met at three in the morning, who is not only hot, but can shoot too."

I smiled, "Yeah, yeah."

"You think....you think we can actually pull this off?", she asked, "this city is infested with the biomass unlike anything I've ever seen. So many of them are fragments of the animals they used to be...just trying to survive in the ruins of their homes."

"What about Tom and his Animals?", I asked, "Or Evans?"

She exhaled slowly, "I just feel like we may have bitten off more than we can chew here. We could have just moved on, found a way out of Houston on our own."

"Yeah...they say hindsight is 20/20", I agreed, "we're in it to win it now. Too many Animals' lives are riding on this. We have to come through."

"Responsibility sucks", Eirren sighed, "what I wouldn't give to be on a nice beach somewhere. Sipping something way stronger than I can handle...watching you playing with our son or daughter in the sand. To see Zack healed, Nat and Ben freed from Medusa."

"Alex's mind repaired. Do you think James would get rid of Prysm?"

"Would you?", Eirren asked.

I shook my head, "after what he did for Zack? Absolutely not. He's Family."

"You know...what do you think cubs between Zack and Alex would look like? Speaking of? Between us? Or even James and Shannon?"

I chuckled, "between James and Shannon? Shit, with cubs between them, we might have another world war on our hands, especially if they pick up anything like Prysm in the process."

"You know hon", she said quietly as the truck slowed down, headed around a corner and then picked up speed again, "it occurs to me that we owe Anthony and his crew a huge debt. He and his team have thrown their necks on the chopping block and risked their lives and their plane on three separate occasions for a group of trashy wastelanders...We have to pay him back...somehow."

"Maybe...when this is all over...we can figure all that out", I suggested, "home...kids, and seeing what Anthony wants in return for his services."

Eirren and I sat in complete silence until we arrived back at the Metro. Roberto killed the lights and shifted the truck into reverse, backing into the garage. A team of doctors opened the back door as the medics rejoined us.

"Did you call the jet?", a bald eagle in a suit asked urgently, the voice was the same one that had been on the radio before we left. It was if they were holding their breath waiting for the answer.

Eirren nodded, "Yes. They're on the way."

The group started to cheer as the medics escorted her out of the truck, shutting the doors behind them. Luke shouted over the chaos.

"TRUCK 31 ON MISSION!"

"RAIN GUARD GOING OUT!"

The gate opened again as I came up front, sitting in the chair directly behind the center console, strapping myself in.

"How far is it to the MRC?", I asked.

"A good five miles or so", Luke shrugged, "mostly a straight drive from here though so shouldn't take terribly long. Hopefully the rain will let up by then."

"If it doesn't?", I asked.

'Your suit is good enough protection", Luke said, "Rain Guard armor is designed for the Black Rain."

"Hopefully my truck is still there", I sighed.

"No reason why it shouldn't be. Black rain likes to hurt Animals, not so much vehicles. You want us to come without out of the city?"

"Nah. I can handle it. Just gimme a map so I can find my way back to base from the MRC."

Luke handed me a rolled up piece of paper, "here, has all the clear routes in the city marked in black. Courtesy of Frank."

"Thanks bro."

The rest of the ride back to the MRC was done in silence as the rain pounded on the roof of the truck. George had fallen asleep in the seat next to me, and Ingram was reading a book. Five or ten minutes after departing the Metro, Roberto pulled the firetruck into the parking lot of the MRC. My Tundra could be seen backed into it's parking space from where we were. Sitting quietly in the rain, waiting for me to come collect it.

"There", I pointed, "blue Tundra at the other end of the parking lot."

"Dude, that's a nice truck", Roberto commented as he drove up to my parking space and popped the air brake. A cloud of radioactive mud and water splashed out from underneath the rig as I unlatched my harness.

"Yup, almost 20 years old, and recently someone gave her a giant twin turbo diesel with more power than it has any business having, and I'm fixing to let everyone of those 900 horses run free."

"Good luck brother", Luke said, "hey, Arien?"

I grabbed my rifle, "yeah?"

"You don't have to do this alone", Luke said.

"Yeah. I do. I got my team into this mess, need to get 'em out of it."

Luke did not answer me. Roberto put the truck in park, unlocking the doors. I hit the fob, the headlights flashing as the truck unlocked. I darted from the firetruck to the Tundra, throwing my rifle into the backseat and sitting in the driver's seat as fast I could. I flashed Luke a thumbs up. He returned it. He gave Roberto a tap and the firetruck pulled out of the parking lot, disappearing into the storm.

I took a look at the map. It would be trivial to just return to the rally point we had used prior to coming into the city, it would almost be a straight line aside from two turns we had to take when getting off the interstate. With this Black Rain, however, there was no telling what was between me and that point. I could see plenty of routes marked in yellow all over the city. According to map key that met "passable by vehicle with obstacles in roadway. Routes marked with yellow signs." This could get fairly interesting.

I sat there for a moment before I stuck the key into the ignition. I pushed in the clutch, made sure the transmission was in neutral and turned the key. The slumbering diesel protested only for a second before turning over, spitting a cloud of blue smoke from the exhaust, settling into a 450 rpm idle after a few seconds. With a firm grip on the steering wheel with my right hand, I reached down to the control panel mounted right above my knee. There were three switches, from left to right "Eco, 'Sport, "Race." I flipped the race switch, and much like in the Excursion, the green Eco leaf was replaced by a red gear. Now, I had heard many loud sports cars over my life, and even more obnoxiously modified trucks that would try and roll coal on you if you weren't paying attention. As soon as that button went click, there was a noticeable lurch when my Tundra sat the fuck down, and man did I mean she sat down, a good 4 inches, on the suspension. Valves somewhere opened up, bypassing the entire exhaust system allowing me to hear that 7.0 twin turbocharged V8 sing a song with a melody and note that would put the biggest coal rollers in the corner. Now, it was time to see if all that bark had bite behind it.

"You surprised me with 5.7 liters when I drove you off the lot", I tightened my grip on the wheel, put the truck in first and let it idle out towards the road, where I instinctively looked both ways, "let's see what you do with seven liters and a set of twin turbos."

I turned into the street, and with a thump in my chest, pushed the gas to the floor.

My god, it was like waking up a demon. Listening to seven liters of twin turbo diesel banging off a five thousand RPM rev limiter sent a surge of adrenaline straight into my heart as I forced the clutch to the floor, shifted to second gear and the truck lurched savagely on the suspension. Hearing the clock tick in the back of my head, I sailed down the long straight, the first of two turns was three miles from the MRC parking lot, and already I was beginning to see Biomass appearing on the sides of the roads, coming out from their dens to attack me. Some of them were throwing things at the Tundra, but nothing very threatening. Yet. Closing the distance to the first turn was done quickly, upon reaching it, I realized that a rather large Biomass the size of a larger truck was occupying the intersection, and worst of all, was blocking my turn. Given how fast I was approaching, and how it was moving, I estimated I had a two to three second window before that massive creature grabbed a hold of my truck and didn't let go.

I had one chance to get through that corner without being grabbed, and I knew exactly how I was going to do it. I pushed the truck as hard as I could, shifting to fifth gear as I hit 124 miles an hour, speed limited to 150 in race mode. With less than a hundred feet to the entrance, I popped the clutch and pulled the E-brake. I spun the steering wheel, spinning the truck 180 degrees the wrong way. Clutch depressed, I let the Tundra ride it's momentum backwards, past the big biomass that had already tried to reach for me, the slick road way made it all the easier. Sure, I wasn't on drift tires persay, but hell, seemed like they would more than work for just that sort of use. As soon as I cleared the mass, I rev matched for fifth, let the clutch fly back and hammered it. The Tundra fought for grip for a second or two before, banging off the rev limiter and spitting diesel ash out of the exhaust before the tires caught the pavement, launching me back towards the mass, and my corner. I pulled the E-Brake again, sliding through the intersection in a wide angle, barely missing clipping the side of the building after clearing the road way with both passenger side tires on the sidewalk. I couldn't fathom how I didn't smash the Tundra into the side of the building, it was a truly wonderful feeling. I hadn't forgotten how to drive like I meant it. Listening to that seven liter up front bang off that 5000 RPM redline, combined with the turbo unable to decide if it should keep the waist gate open or not, created this wonderful mixture of adrenaline and fear. With flashes of New York in my head I raced my Tundra through the chemical soaked streets of Greenville with Biomass closing in from all directions. Throwing things at the windshield as I quickly approached turn two of three, several minutes after turn one. There would be no getting through this corner, biomass had strung up cars in the intersection, and there was no way I could smash the truck through it without taking serious damage.

I could go left though.

I let off the gas, slowly beginning to apply the brake, as soon as the two examples with pipes tried to close in, I pulled the drift stick, turning the steering wheel to spin the truck 270 degrees, staying on the gas, pointing the front end right at clear road. As soon as I let go of the stick, the Tundra launched through the corner, the examples behind me beginning to give. All the intersections were blanked off, either with old cars or military barricades, and I was beginning to run out of road. As I approached what looked like a dead end, I noticed a sign directing towards an on ramp I could take to get to the tollway. Hated them prewar, would be my saving grace here. Six biomass examples were in the intersection, and I could see one of them had a Molotov Cocktail in his hand that was lit. Not good. I stayed on the gas as I approached the intersection, keeping my eyes on the one with the bottle of flaming gasoline. Just before he reared back to throw it as I crossed the intersection line, I saw my opening. I popped the clutch, downshifting to third gear and pulled the E-Brake, the Tundra flipped 90 degrees, right into the exit. I held the drift all the way through the exit as the Biomass tried to chase me. As soon as I was clear, I pulled the stick a second time, granting me a truck pointed right at open road in the correct direction. According to the sign, State 34 would take me to Quinlan. Good, same way I came in. I shifted to fourth gear, the tries fighting for grip for a split second before they bit the road again, launching me down the highway. As I raced down the road, I realized that I still hadn't shaken enemy contact.

Another one of those house sized fuckers like the one we had seen in Houston was on the highway with me, and it was looking right at the Tundra's head lights!

"FUCKKK!", I shouted as I slammed on the brakes, bringing the Tundra to damn near a screeching halt, pulling the drift stick to spin the truck back around to go back the other way.

That was when I realized that I had been surrounded. They had fed me into a trap and I was gonna have to either get might creative with my driving, or take my chances on raw dirt. Suddenly, the ground started to shake, but not from the approaching masses. I let the Tundra skid to a stop, glancing out the window as I heard an absolutely massive aircraft on the approach. The biomass also ceased their approach, shifting their gazes to the sky. Soon, a familiar, dirt brown aircraft with a red star on the tail descended from the heavens with fangs out, beginning to circle the AO within 500 yards of me. The rumbling of their four turbofans made the road tremble. My radio chirped. Zack was on the other end.

"Rhino 2-3 on station. Death from above!", He laughed, "fuck, I always wanted to say that!"

"Haha! You fuckers are early!", I rolled out of the Tundra, slapping my strobe onto the roof of my truck, "Rhino 2-3! Condor 1-8! I'm surrounded by no fewer than a dozen hostile Biomass! Confirm your visual on my vehicle! Painting my location with an IR strobe now! Danger close authorized! Just get me out of this!"

I grabbed my IR laser out of the center console and started waving it around in the air.

"TV, Rhino King, Condor 1-8 pokrasheny IK-lazerom, podtverdite vizualizatsiyu nazemnykh sil soyuznikov."

"Rodzher, vizual'noye podtverzhdeniye soyuznykh voysk."

"TV, vy zachishcheny ot vsekh vrazhdebnykh tseley v AO, davayte raschistim put' dlya Ariyen."

"Rodzher. Vovlecheniye."

("TV, Rhino King, Condor 1-8 is painting position with IR laser, confirm visual on allied ground forces.")

("Roger, visual confirmed on allied forces.")

("TV, you are cleared hot for all hostile targets in the AO, let's clear a path for Arien.")

("Roger. Engaging.")

Rhino's gunner cut loose with the 30mm chain gun. It was something else to see those coke can sized chunks of solid steel with tungsten cores strike the soft targets they had been aimed at. The road exploded with blood, gore, and splinters of bone that stuck in anything soft that they collided with. The way was clear.

"Condor 1-8, Rhino King, your way is clear. Continue down Highway 34 and take the exit onto FM 1510 West Jack Finny Boulevard and follow that to Majors air port. We'll drop off Condor Ground and fly close air while you secure the air port for landing. From there we'll call for reinforcements to help secure the EPS."

"Rodger that Rhino King! Condor 1-8 is Oscar mike."

I put the Tundra back in gear, racing down the highway, quickly coming to the intersection across the street from the Bucc-ees we'd stopped at before entering the city, a stones throw from the MRC. Only four miles from the MRC, the radiation and black rain had both subsided, though the sky was still rather menacing. I channeled my inner Ken Block only a little bit as I pushed the clutch in, pulling the drift stick to spin my Tundra a hundred and eighty degrees, riding the momentum through the intersection, letting off the clutch and applying the gas to accelerate back towards the corner.

"Damn bro where'd you learn to drive like that!?", Zack asked as Rhino buzzed over head, getting within 20 feet of the ground. The back blast from the plane's engines making my vehicle shake as the cargo door came down. Anthony's Tundra and the Sequoia were both facing the front of the plane, white lights on. A red light in the bay turned green, both the Sequoia and Anthony's Tundra slid backwards, kissing the ground like they had a fear of heights.

"Gymkhana!", I yelled into the radio as Rhino pulled away.

We covered the remaining distance to the airport with help from Rhino flying close air. Upon arrival, I smashed my Tundra through the chain link gate, pulling the drift stick as we reached the end of the parking lot, sliding off the official pavement onto the concrete of the airport grounds, Anthony and Zack were in hot pursuit. As soon as we came around to the run way, we raced out to the middle. From our position, we could see Rhino circling over head. The Biomass were already coming out of the buildings in swarms. And boy...there were a lot of them.

"Here!', Anthony called, "we get out here!'

"Man, am I gonna fucking enjoy this!", Alex giggled into the radio as everyone piled out of the vehicles and took up positions. They were all wearing the same uniform. Black multicam bottoms, grey tops, tan plate carriers and armed with the weapons they had all carried when I met them. Truck and his team were the outliers, dressed in their issued Russian military uniforms, carrying what looked like AK-15's, the 7.62x39 variant of the AK-12. Regardless of the two factions present, everyone had the same symbol on their shoulder, the same one Evan had shown me at the docks, "Listen up Shadow Company! What rule do we live by!?"

"WHERE THERE IS DARKNESS, THERE IS SHADOW COMPANY! WE OWN THE NIGHT SO DAY SHINES BRIGHT FOR THE FREE!", my friends all yelled into the radio as the biomass came shambling out of every building around us.

"Arien!", James said running up to me, dumping a duffle bag at my feet, "your gear!"

"Thanks bro!", I said.

"Yup!", he grinned, running out in front of the vehicles, he stood there as the biomass approached.

I changed out of the radiation suit Luke had given me, wrapping it up in the duffle bag as I changed into my new Shadow Company uniform and kit. Someone had built the new plate carrier out the same way I had my old one set up, everything was in the same place. In the bottom of the duffle, my W1200.

"Hello beautiful!", I grinned taking it out of the bag, throwing the two included bandoleers of buckshot over my shoulders. I hit the bolt release and pulled back on the pump, she was full, one in the chamber.

"Let's rock!', I shouted.

"Arien's good to go!', Truck yelled, "James! Prysm! Kick us off fellas!"

"Let's go to work Prysm!"

"Yes! Yes much fun!"

James' Biomass covered him and into the fray he went. I raised my shotgun to my shoulder.

"Shadow Company! Weapons free!", I yelled to my team.

"Zemlya nosoroga! Oruzhiye besplatno!"

(Rhino ground! Weapons free!)

Gunfire rang out from all directions, careful to avoid James and Prysm as they shredded their way through their fellow, lesser minded examples. The Examples closed on our positions quickly, had I been in this situation alone, I would have accepted my death already. However, knowing the animals at my back, I felt like I was perhaps cheating as I ran my shotgun for everything it was worth, only wishing that I could be running one of those tricked out Kalashnikov USA KS12Ts like Anthony was, or perhaps a full auto M4 like Nat and Ben. In the middle of the fray, Ben stepped up beside me as I put my Winchester's sights on a rather large mass.

"Firing M203!", he shouted.

The grenade landed a good 50 yards away, taking out more than a few examples when it went off. I could feel the pressure wave in my chest as the survivors stopped to gobble up the matter and add it to themselves.

"Loading!", Benjamin shouted opening his M203 and letting the spent shell fall to the ground.

While the chaos was beginning to unfold on the ground, Rhino started circling around the air field in a wide arc, their plane angled stiffly, favoring the left side where it's teeth were. Anthony's pilot came over the radio, speaking English, oddly enough.

"Rhino 2-3 on station. My American friends, give us something to shoot at."

"Alexi, you are weapons free!", Anthony said, with an odd mix of deep south Texan and Russian accents. Strange. "You are danger close approved but watch your fire, would hate to be separated after we just got the team back together."

"DA. We promise not to shoot you in ass. Use lasers to mark targets for plane."

Benjamin, still beside me, flipped on his PEQ-15 and pointed it at a huge mass that was lumbering out of a hangar near by, gobbling up everything in it's path.

"Rhino 2-3! Target Marked!", Benjamin said.

"Rodzher. Vovlecheniye."

Rhino's gunner cut loose with the forty mike mike, three shots, fired from 1000 feet. First impact blew a car sized crater into the top of the mass, second shot blew it out from both ends. The third shot hit the solid concrete of the runway and dealt no further damage as the mass slumped over and went still.

"Condor ground. Target dead. Advise, no fewer than fifty examples inbound."

"Stand by for work Rhino!", Alex said.

"DA! Ready when you are!"

Rhino made no fewer than seven passes around the air field as we made as much noise as possible in an attempt to lure out every example that we could. For a good forty minutes to an hour after we arrived at the air field, we did nothing but kill Biomass. By the time everything was said and done, we had bunt a good chunk of ammunition, and the runway was filled with rotten dead shit. Everyone's weapons were smoking, or in the case of Alex's MG34, the muzzle brake was on fire due to ignited carbon, smoke poured from the action of her weapon more so than anyone else. Even Anthony's 12 gauge was glowing in the gas tube.

"When I left Maine three months ago", I said aloud, "I didn't expect to be down in an irradiated shit hole battling the embodiment of cancer with a shotgun, the Russian air force and a gun ship."

"Funny how shit works huh?", Anthony asked hitting his radio, "Nosorog 2-3, korol' nosorogov, my chisty na vzletno-posadochnoy polose, vy idete na posadku"

"Rodzher, Korol' nosorogov, my nachinayem spusk, bud'te nagotove."

As Rhino circled around the air strip to come in for a landing, I walked up to Truck and tapped his shoulder.

"Anthony."

"Yup?", he asked pulling his goggles down.

"Thank you...for everything."

"Hey bro, we gotta look out for each other. I couldn't very well leave ya'll hanging."

"You mentioned reinforcements?", I asked, "are there more Russians in the state?"

He shrugged, "no. But there are two other Rhino Gunships in the North America as of right now. Rhino 2-2, another Antonov 150 which is up in Canada, and Rhino 2-1, the sole surviving Antonov AN-225 Miyra. I'm not sure where they're at right now but I suspect that they might be somewhere near Carson City Nevada. If they're where they're supposed to be, we could have them all here within three hours."

"Three hours for three gun ships", I grinned, "I like those odds."

"We'll have to see if the old geezers will volunteer their planes", Anthony said, "For me, I think they will."

"Why is that?", I asked.

"No reason", Anthony grinned.

As Rhino closed in for a landing, we cleared the trucks off the runway. Rhino touched pavement at the very end of the landing strip and taxied almost the entire length of the runway before turning off into a sort of parking area for the planes to lower its rear ramp. We drove the vehicles up to the base of the plane and parked as Rhino began winding down its engines. Alexi came out to greet us.

"My friend", he said offering me his hand, "you are crazier than Russian who tries to ride black bear in woods."

"I'll that that as a compliment", I smiled accepting the handshake, "Thanks for the close air."

"Come on plane", Alexi offered, "get rest while you can."

I stepped into the plane, followed by Truck, who ushered me up to the command area. He offered me a seat near the TV operator, a younger looking Siberian Tiger, who happened to be Albino, as in, she was pure white. She didn't even take off her headphones when I sat down. Truck sat down in a station with a note book secured to a rack and picked up the radio, lowering his Balaclava.

"Nosorog 2-2, Nosorog 2-3, Nosorog 2-1 zdes'. Redko slyshu ot tebya v etot chas, moy amerikanskiy brat. Znaya tebya, tot fakt, chto ty v takoy chas, sovsem ne khorosh."

"Nosorog 2-1, Nosorog 2-3, eto Nosorog 2-2. V chem problema, tovarishch? Ty kazhesh'sya obespokoyennym."

"Gospoda, situatsiya skladyvayetsya tak. Moya nazemnaya komanda i ya pytayemsya vernut' pripasy iz pravitel'stvennogo ob"yekta shtata Tekhas v Grinville. Eti zapasy prednaznacheny dlya dvukh koloniy vyzhivshikh posle voyny, naschityvayushchikh pochti 51 tysyachu zhivotnykh. Iz-za radiatsii v etom rayone dostup k ob"yektu s zemli ogranichen. Mestnyye sily pomogut s etim, no kolichestvo imeyushchikhsya pripasov trebuyet, chtoby ya posadil svoy samolet dlya zagruzki. YA zaprashivayu dopolnitel'nuyu podderzhku s vozdukha v moyem mestopolozhenii, chtoby osushchestvit' eto."

"Blin, pyat'desyat odna tysyacha mirnykh zhiteley? My budem tam cherez tri chasa. Sidi spokoyno, tovarishch, nosorog 2-1 priblizhayetsya."

"My budem tam, Entoni. Pribytiye "Nosoroga 2-2", raschetnoye vremya pribytiya cherez chas i tridtsat' minut. Vy zakrepili vzletno-posadochnuyu polosu?"

"Utverditel'nyy."

"Ponyal, Rino 2-1 vyletel."

"Rhino 2-2 kopii vse, vyshli."

["Rhino 2-1, Rhino 2-2, this is Rhino 2-3 in the blind, I have emergency traffic, is my broadcast heard?

Rhino 2-2, Rhino 2-3, Rhino 2-1 here. Rare to hear from you at this hour my American brother. Knowing you, the fact that you're up at this hour is anything but good.

Rhino 2-1, Rhino 2-3 this is Rhino 2-2. What seems to be the problem comrade? You sound troubled.

Gentlemen, the situation is unfolding as such. My ground team and I are attempting to recover supplies from a Texas state government facility in Greenville. These supplies are for two colonies of war survivors, numbering almost 51 thousand animals. Due to the radiation in the area, the facility has limited access from the ground. Local forces will assist with this, but the quantity of supplies present requires me to land my plane to load. I'm requesting additional air support to my location to pull this off.

Damn, fifty one thousand civilians? We'll be there in three hours. Sit tight comrade, Rhino 2-1 inbound.

We'll be there Anthony. Rhino 2-2 inbound, ETA in one hour and thirty minutes. Have you secured a landing strip?

Affirmative.

Rodger that, Rhino 2-1 out.

Rhino 2-2 copies all, out.]

Truck hung up the radio.

"Three hours, give or take", he said leaning back in his seat.

"Okay", I breathed a deep breath, "how long until the storm hits? Eirren mentioned our time table had shortened."

"Three days. Tops. Probably less", Truck sighed.

"Okay...we'll have to make it work. I'm gonna head back to the metro station to inform the locals of what's going on."

"What kind of forces do they have?"

"Tanks, electric firetrucks built to hunt the biomass, specially trained soldiers known as firefighters", I shrugged.

"Well, I guess we'll see where this goes then", Truck said, "Tanks implies more than one. Wonder what's keeping them from pushing to the EPS if they have armor?"

"I'll look into it", I said standing, "Okay, let's see what I can put together."

-18 Hours Later-

"Poacher 1-1, Poacher 2-1, radio check."

"Poacher 1-1 reporting, radio good."

"Poacher 2-1 reporting, radio good."

"Acknowledged. Trucks 15, 16, 24 and 31, confirm active comms."

"Truck 15 reporting. Radio good."

"Truck 16 reporting. Radio good."

"Truck 24 reporting. Radio good."

"Truck 31", Luke said, "Radio good."

"Ground teams", Tom said in reply, "radio check confirmed. Rhino teams, Eagle one. All I could manage to gather on such short notice are Poachers one and two, along with Trucks 15, 16, 24, and 31. None of my other tanks or firetrucks are currently road worthy. Poacher team consists of two M1F2 Abrams Heavy main battle tanks, Trucks 15, 24, and 31 will provide infantry and WMD support against large biomass examples upon arrival at objective zones. Firefighter teams take orders from Roberto Garcia and Lucas Nelson. These are my best soldiers so take care of them. Recovery options currently consist of two 18 wheelers that are rolling out from our remote motor pool as we speak. These rigs are unarmed and vulnerable, so they're having to take a special route through the city. You only have 35 minutes to reach and clear the EPS so secure that warehouse before the rigs arrive. Gimme a sit rep on that air support."

"Rodger that Eagle one, Rhino 2-1 and Rhino 2-2 are inbound in T-minus 7 minutes", Truck said as he checked the magazine on his AK12, "Rhino 2-3 will provide close air support while Rhino Ground and Shadow Company will link up with Poacher 1-1 and egress to objective area. Be advised, Rhino 2-3 is cleared danger close. Your soldiers can use their AN/PEQ 15's to mark targets for my TV. Rhino 6-8, advise your copy."

"Rodger that Rhino king", a female said in a thick Russian accent, "boys, watch for laser painting target. We do not need to shoot the Americans or the boss in ass."

A round of Russians laughing heartily at the comment filled the coms.

Truck tapped my shoulder as I finished checking my gear, "hey... you game? Your buddy said your lung was fucked up."

"Right lung's collapsed", I shrugged, "fought through worse in the arctic."

"Can you breathe okay?", he asked.

"Well enough to move", I assured.

"And Eirren?", he asked.

"We've been through worse truck", I shrugged again, "if she want's to fight, not like I can stop her. Got a hole in my chest as big around as my damn thumb. She slaps me and I'm down."

Truck laughed, "Yup. Ready to rock and roll?"

"Not getting any younger", I grinned, "let's get evil."

Truck jogged out of the back of the plane, heading to his vehicle as the rest of his team loaded up. I called all my friends over.

"Huddle up guys!"

Everyone stood in the circle. Eirren, who, much like myself, was somehow still on her feet, Nat, Zack, James, Ben, Shannon and Alex.

"I'm not one for inspirational speeches, but, here it goes. Ya'll are some of the hardest animals in the wastelands, after everything this trip has put us through. Everyone here is worth a hundred biomass examples, and if we simply do the job that we're trained to do, we'll win this fight. One last hurdle, one more enemy and then we're home free! We've come this far, let's make it to the finish line!"

"Here here!", Alex agreed with a smile on her face.

"SHADOW COMPANY! WHAT RULE DO WE LIVE BY!?", I exclaimed.

"WHERE THERE IS DARKNESS, THERE IS SHADOW COMPANY! WE OWN THE NIGHT SO DAY SHINES BRIGHT FOR THE FREE!"

"Rhino King, Shadow 1-8, we're on the move."

"Rodger that Shadow 1-8", Rhino King copies."

"Rhino King, Rhino 1-8, are we cleared for lift off?"

"Affirmative Alexi, see you up stairs tovarishch!"

Rhino's engine spun up quickly, launching the plane down the runway as I turned the key of my Tundra. Truck came over the radio.

"Lead the way Arien, let's work for a living!"

"Here here!", I said putting the truck in first, "keep up guys!"

"Eagle one Rhino King", truck said over the radio as we raced off the runway, back onto the highway towards the EPS, "Rhino 2-3 is airborne, Rhino and Shadow ground teams are Oscar Mike."

"Rodger that!", Tom said, "boys! Let's ride the lightning!"

"Poacher 1-2 on mission!"

"Poacher 2-2 on mission!"

"Truck 15 on mission!"

"Truck 16 on mission!"

"Truck 24 on mission!"

"Truck 31 on mission!"

The team and I raced back through Greenville. Now that the way was clear, it was easy going. Five minutes from the rally point, Alexi came over the radio as Rhino established a holding pattern above us, descending below the clouds with a second, dirty brown plane to our right. To our left, a third impressively large freighter with some nasty teeth poking out of one side began to be visible against Greenville's dark grey skies.

"Rhino 2-1 on station. Let's kill 'em all this time."

"Rhino 2-2 on station. Suns out, guns out!"

"Rhino 2-3 on station, death from above!", Alexi said over the coms.

"Happy to see you my fellow Rhinos!", Truck seemed genuinely happy to see his Comrades in the sky, "T-Minus 15 minutes to objective, establish holding patterns and await targets, they'll be plenty!"

"Good", the pilot of Rhino 2-1 said, "we were starved for action."

"Aren't we all comrade?", someone from 2-2 laughed.

We caught up with the rest of the convoy fairly quickly, and actually heard the sirens on the Firetrucks long before we saw them. We met at one of the intersections that we had passed through on the way towards the radio tower, finding that one of the tanks were out front, also outfitted with police light bars and sirens.

"Poacher Teams, Shadow 1-8, coming up on your right, do not engage."

"Rodger that 1-8", a female said, "visual on your vehicle confirmed, happy you decided to join us."

"I wouldn't miss this for the fuckin' world Poacher!", I said, pulling away from the intersection behind Luke's truck.

"Happy to have you crazy Russians along for the ride", Poacher said, "Let's cause some carnage."

"Suka!", Alexi laughed heartily, " Do not mistake Russian made in America for Russian made in Russia. Very different product."

Rounds of laughter and jokes wouldn't betray the cloth that these animals had all been cut from. Stabs at each other's nationality, previous lives and current combat roles wouldn't betray how high the stakes here were. If this mission failed, tens of thousands of animals would die. As we closed in on the EPS, it became clear that a hard black rain storm was on the way, as the sky began to darken considerably. Five minutes from the EPS, the pilot of Rhino 2-1 lit up the coms.

"All units, all units, this is Rhino 2-1. Rhino 2-2, break off of main convoy to shuttle recovery vehicles to EPS. Rhino 2-1 will fly ahead of convoy to soften up AO for arrival of friendly ground forces. Rhino 2-3, you stay with convoy and continue to provide danger close air support as authorized. Rhino 2-2, you are only authorized for 25mm cannons in vicinity of recovery vehicles. Employ LTM and 40mm only as authorized by friendly forces."

"Rodger that. Rhino 2-2 breaking off."

"Rhino 2-1 breaking off", the pilot of the larger plane stated, closing off the coms as his plane shot forward, climbing upwards and out of sight. Rhino 2-2 broke off the rest of the group, heading towards the wherever it was the other trucks were.

"EPS is two minutes out. Rhino 2-1, Poacher 1-1, how much work can you do in two minutes?"

"If not for supplies in warehouse, turn entire EPS into scrap metal. Lots of signature on thermal scope. How much work do you want to do?"

"Less the better", Poacher said.

"Roger."

We actually felt the ground start shaking as Rhino 2-1 went to work. Turns out, the EPS was located in a pretty undercover location, a large, unassuming warehouse type building across the street from a business park. Upon arrival, Rhino 2-1 was busy pounding the shit out of the surrounding area, and boy were there some big ass examples. Several larger than the one Alex had killed at Tucker Memorial. Boy o boy, were the radiation levels here truly fear inducing. It became clear upon arrival that we weren't going to be able to land any of the Gunships out here, so we'd have to take our pallets back to the landing strip outside of town. Every counter on my truck was going nuts, I was honestly scared to leave as we started slowing down in front of the warehouse.

"Rhino 2-3, Rhino King", Anthony said as the convoy rolled to a stop. Poacher teams engaged with their tanks from a distance in support of Rhino, while the firetrucks turned their top mounted flame throwers towards the ware house doors, "no activity in the immediate vicinity of the warehouse, ground teams would like to keep it that way, anything that gets past Rhino 2-1, you either turn it back, or turn it to ash. Rhino 2-3, advise, this is a landing denied area, I say again, this is a landing denied area."

'Rodger that", Alexi said, "Bog mne svidetel'... dolzhno byt', ikh priblizhayetsya dva milliona. Poacher 2-1, I could use a ground contact."

"Rodger that, Poacher 1-1, Poacher 2-1 is re-tasking for ground support and proper target ID for Rhino 2-3, how copy?"

"Poacher 1-1 copies your all. Don't feel as if you have to push too hard."

"Copy."

"Trucks 15 and 16", Luke said hitting his radio, "31 2-5, I want the biggest fire you boys can start burning around this area. Make it big, make it hot, nothing alive gets through. Your orders are congruent with Rhino 2-3, turn the examples back or turn them to ash. We're all going home tonight."

"Truck 15, orders understood."

"Truck 16, orders understood."

The two firetrucks peeled off the group with Poacher, leaving us with one tank, two firetrucks, and roughly 20 foot mobiles. We stood off to the side of the large overhead door, sealed and locked.

"Closest we've ever gotten to the supplies. Usually this is where we get swarmed", Luke said, giving a gesture to step back. "Get clear! Poacher 1-1! I need you to give the EPS a little knock!"

"Rodger that 31 2-5! We're just opening up the front door."

Poacher shifted her tank into reverse, backing into the bay door and catching a bunch of it on her turret when she pulled away, ripping a large hole in the bay. We we funneled in and bathed the inside of the warehouse in a large amount of white light. The inside was full of both, pallets of supplies, and Biomass examples.

"WEAPONS FREE!", Luke shouted.

George lead the charge inside, Minigun at full speed as the rest of us came in behind him, mopping up everything he missed with ease. Within a good thirty seconds to a minute, all activity in the warehouse ceased.

"Clear!?", Luke asked.

"For now", George said, letting his minigun fall to the side, "What a honeypot!"

Luke rubbed his hands together as we started to browse the supplies. Pallets of radiation protected food, medical supplies, weapons, ammunition, fuel. Anything you could use to run a colony for an extended period of time, it was all here. Including what we would need to protect Dock 41.

"Man... now all those animals who died trying to break in here are vindicated. Yup...it was worth it."

"I'll let you do the honors brother", George said.

"Eagle one", Luke said. I could only imagine the grin that must have been on his face, "Unit 31 2-5."

"Unit 31 2-5, whole metro's listening. Tell me some good news."

Luke paused for a moment, "Mission successful. EPS secured."

The cheering on the radio and the "USA, USA, USA" in the background told the entire story.

"Fucking glorious to hear you say that Lucas!", Tom's voice broke, "congratulations to you and your crew! Well done Firefighters! Well done Shadow Company! Well done Rhino Crew!"

"Well done Shadow Company", Alex sighed, her voice cracked.

"Feel good to hear praise again?", Eirren asked.

"Sister...you have no idea", Alex said.

Roberto walked up to me, "Rigs'll be here in five. We'll load up, and then you can pack your plane with as much as you like. It'll take a few trips of loaded trucks for us to move all this. There's plenty for everyone."

He offered a hand, "The city of Greenville thanks you Shadow Company. From the bottom of my heart, and on behalf of every firefighter and civilian in Greenville. Thank you."

I accepted, "I'm happy we helped."

'Rigs are here boss", a young sounding Firefighter said from the door way.

"Cool. Tell 'em to back into the bays, we'll get on these fork lifts and...."

The radio traffic all came in at once. Right about the time the screaming started.

"Strelok! Naprav' etot LTM v tsel'! Tot bol'shoy! Gruzovaya mashina! Na podkhode yest' absolyutno MASSIVNYY primer! Ne znayu, smozhem li my ostanovit' yego do togo, kak on doberetsya do tebya! Raschetnoye vremya pribytiya cherez 30 sekund!"

"Rhino King, Rhino 2-1, yest' chertov gigantskiy primer, priblizhayushchiysya k vashey pozitsii. Bozhe moy... dolzhno byt' kvadratnyy kilometr v shirinu..."

"Commander Lucas! Truck 15! There's a gigantic biomass example pushing through the firewall! We can't stop it and neither can the gunships! Poacher 2-1 is down! Repeat! Example has neutralized Poacher 2-1!"

"Commander Lucas!", the other truck called at almost the same time, "Tuck 16! Poacher 2-1 has been neutralized! I repeat! Poacher 2-1 has been eliminated! It's a fuckin' huge example! Cat G! Cat G!"

Everyone in the warehouse ran to the door way, just in time to see both firetrucks backing up, then spin around in reverse. Tendrils, the size of buildings, started slapping down everything in their way as the enormous collection of cancer, dead animals and plant matter spilled over the buildings towards us. One of them struck the rear of truck 15, sending it into a tail spin, but thankfully, it's driver saved it. This was a truly frightening monster, and it almost made me shit myself when I saw it coming. The example was...literally taller than the four story warehouse right beside me, it must have been half a mile wide... It screamed and shrieked in a chalcedony of so, so many voices. Hundreds of thousands at least...perhaps a million or more. It's screams of profanity were so disturbing it made my blood run cold. How could a living thing be loud enough to drown out the noise of two gunships currently unloading their inventory into it?

"Rhino 2-2", Truck called into the radio, "Rhino 2-2! I need you here to support Rhino 2-1 and 2-3! A seriously scary example just showed up! Motherfucker's gotta be half a mile wide! We need your air support! NOW!!"

"Rhino 2-2 copies all, breaking away from recovery convoy now! ETA in one minute!"

"We don't have a minute!', Truck said, "we'll all be dead by then!"

"Fuck it!", Luke shouted, "everyone! Unload into that example! Everything you've got!"

The bombardment from small arms, the remaining tank and even the two overhead gunships didn't seem to be enough, even upon Rhino 2-2's arrival, the odds seemed like they may not shift in our favor.

"U31-25! Weapons ineffective!", Poacher 2-1 shrieked over the radio, "weapons ineffective!"

"It's too dense!", Alexi said, "Rhino King! We can not! I say again we CAN NOT stop this threat! Conventional weapons ineffective! We can delay but can not destroy!"

"Rhino assets! Code Black! Code Black! Counter measures authorized! Repeat! Counter measures authorized!"

"Negative on counter measures Rhino King! That's too close to friendlies!"

"Not a suggestion 2-1! Objective too important to lose! Code Black! I repeat Code black! Fire for effect!"

There was an obvious sigh on the part of Rhino's pilot, "Rodger that comrade...initiating code black counter measures."

Truck waved us all inside, "EVERYONE TO COVER!! WHITE PHOSPHORS INBOUND! I SAY AGAIN! WHITE POSPHUORS INBOUND!"

Poacher backed her tank into the warehouse, the firetrucks also retreated to a safe distance as the gunships all circled around and flew in trio formation to the target.

"Korol' nosorogov, razvernut belyy fosfor."

The impact of the WP bombs became evident when the general dimness of the the afternoon was replaced with what you might expect on a cloudless, hot summer day. The wailing of the large example as it anguished under the fury of the white phosphors wasn't like any sound I had ever heard before, nor was it like anything I had imagined. Some of the younger Firefighters covered their ears, most of us, myself included, kind of slunk down, trying to make ourselves smaller, like we didn't want it to see us. Hell, even that big scorpion with the minigun seemed frightened by it. Luke just about tried to hide underneath a table, whimpering like a puppy. Not so much from the sound, as much as it was him being absolutely scared shitless of being burned again. The only one who wasn't currently hiding from the chaos outside was Alex, fuck, she was at the door watching.

"Shit...", she backed up, "Rhino's making another pass!"

Even she retreated inside as the gunships flew overhead again, dropping another round of incendiaries on the large example. One impact. Two...three. We could smell the burning flesh, metal and rock through our gas masks. The air was filled with so many fragments of white phosphors that it was falling like a hellish rain at this point. Whatever the roof of the EPS was made of was keeping it off our heads, for now.

The screaming.

Mary, mother of god the screaming...The sounds...the crying. The profanities. The cursing.

My heart thumped in my chest like a hammer. My lungs were holding no air. My blood was cold. My skin tight, scales crawling. My soul hid.

Pass number three, three more impacts. One after another in a perfect rhythm with one second between each impact, like a master composer was at the helm. I began to lose my grip on my self control. Body began to tremble, I started to sweat cold inside my radiation suit, hands started to shake, translating to my shotgun. Some of the others in the warehouse were even worse. Even George, Ingram and Roberto seemed to be struck cold with fear. By now, even Poacher had shut off her tank, perhaps in hopes that the flaming giant outside wouldn't know we were here.

Rhino crew came around for a fourth pass. Alexi must have had his coms open, or hit the button by mistake.

"Iisus, Mariya i Iosif, dayte moyemu oruzhiyu silu, chtoby pokonchit' s etim demonicheskim sushchestvom!"

"St. Joseph, terror of demons...pray for us", Anthony mumbled as he hid under a table, holding Tessa like a teddy bear. Skeve was close by, Luka clung to him like a spider to a wall, sobbing into his scarf. She was mumbling something in Russian, and he was evidently trying to calm her.

The Rhino crews made pass after pass, yet, the Biomass screamed ever louder. Even the fury of White Phosphorus, a weapon so dangerous that nuclear bombs had taken it's place, seemed insufficient to conquer this threat. An unknown length of time passed, and finally, the fatal bomb was dropped. The shrieking of the biomass quieted, then died completely. Alexi came over the radio.

"All ground forces... We fucking got it! Kill is fucking confirmed. Biomass Example has been neutralized, I say again, biomass example has been neutralized."

"Fucking yess!", one of the girls laughed exhaustively.

"Way to go Rhino!", Skeve cheered.

It was like weights just rolled off the shoulders of every animal in that warehouse. Now, it was our turn to cheer, and cheer we did!

"Rhino crew! Rhino Crew! Rhino Crew", the firefighters cheered.

"Fuckin' glorious flyin' Alexi!", Truck fell on his back, holding his mate tightly, "that was textbook! Well fucking done my brother!"

"Hahah!", Alexi laughed, "no one flies like Russians made in Russia with Russian plane!"

"Vy dolzhny byt' ostorozhny, govorya eto v prisutstvii amerikantsa Aleksi. V kontse kontsov, tebe pridetsya delit' s nim samolet", the pilot of Rhino 2-1 snorted, "Well my American allies, Rhino 2-1 is Oscar mike. Thanks for the action Truck."

"Much obliged Rhino 2-1, we can take it from here!"

'Where you going Rhino!", Luke asked.

"Aye mates!", Ingram asked, "we could use firepower like that!"

"We still have much work here in America comrade", 2-1's pilot, "good luck soldiers!"

The other two Rhino Planes egressed back to their objectives, while 2-3 stayed on over watch. We loaded up the Semi's quickly with everything they could carry, after which they promptly departed. The firefighters were loading up, and it was noticed when Luke stayed behind.

"Luke", Ingram said, "Brother let's go."

"Can't Ingram", Luke said, "this is my chance to get home to the mate...to the kid I've never met."

Ingram nodded, the offered his hand, "I understand. So long friend. Good luck."

Luke took it, "farewell."

Ingram ran back to the truck and hoped in. It was just us now.

"Shadow Company rally up!", I said, "Rhino 2-3, Shadow 1-8, Shadow forces are on the move."

"Rodger that Shadow 1-8", Alexi said as we started our vehicles, "Rhino 2-3 in support. Let's get you guys home!"