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...Military officials overseeing containment efforts clarified this afternoon that the private entity known as 'Zephyr Incorporated' is not a government contractor and are urging all members of the public near and within containment zones to stay clear of their security forces at any cost. It is also being advised that you ignore all statements or orders issued by the organization and its mercenaries until some form of validity can be determined by local authorities. In spite of there militaristic appearance their mercenary patrols can be easily distinguished from law enforcement and military by noting the grayscale camouflaged pattern of their uniforms, gear and vehicles. No police agencies or military units utilize such patterns, nor do they use any style of vehicle fielded by them. Once again, Military officials urge you to stay as far away from Zephyr personnel as possible...

...In addition, the F.B.I. has compiled a scathing evidence report that links Zephyr's lax security protocols and overall poor management to the sudden release of the mutagenic nanites. Whether the release was an accident or sabotage remains unknown, however one thing does remain clear; thanks to Zephyr's lackluster approach to science and technology, the world as we know it -- will never be the same...

...Firefighters from the Bronx 45th Engine Company are hailing a reptilian mutant as a hero this evening following a two alarm fire that broke out at an apartment complex in Belmont. The feathered raptor-like male, confirmed to be an off duty police officer and single father, rushed into the building immediately following the collapse of a portion of its roof. Utilizing his powerful body the raptor forcefully cleared away as much of the rubble as necessary to reach a trapped mother and son along with three firefighters, bravely suffering minor burns in the process. He then used the broad feathers of his tail to shield the woman as he carried her out of the building while she held tightly to her thankfully uninjured son. The trapped firefighters were able to follow the reptile through the dense smoke and to safety as well. Upon emerging from the building the raptor was greeted by a cheering crowd, and the woman was photographed soon after giving the surprisingly shy reptile a friendly peck on the cheek as he received first aid. The image has since gone viral...

...Sergeant First Class Tom Nevis of the California National Guard's 578th Brigade Engineer Battalion was arrested this evening after ordering men from his platoon to beat a subdued wyvern to the point of nearly killing it. Nevis claimed his actions were in retaliation for the death of a young corporal under his command and that he simply wanted to exact revenge. The assault took place less than an hour after his unit was ordered to conduct an otherwise successful search and destroy mission within the city limits of Fairhaven. Other soldiers involved in the incident have been confined to a forward operating base until it can be decided whether or not criminal charges will be filed against them, and a replacement for Nevis' position within the platoon has since been filled. Shortly after the attack the injured wyvern was airlifted by air force pararescuemen to a military field hospital in Oakland where it is currently being treated for multiple lacerations and impact trauma...

...In other news, federal relief officials have updated the death toll from this mornings nanite outbreak in Cadillac Michigan. The skirmish between the Michigan National Guard's 126th Calvary, Alpha Troop, and a sizable cluster of feral mutants has left sixty two dead with most victims being in a fully mutated state. The majority of the cluster has since been placed in a temporary containment paddock near Buckley where they currently await treatment. Captain Renshaw, the commander of A Troop said in a statement that he is confident all mutants captured will respond well to drug treatments and that further therapy will allow them to regain their sanity within the next few days, or sooner. No National Guardsmen were killed or infected in the outbreak, however one Wexford County Sheriff and two deputies remain missing...

...As if tensions in the Middle East couldn't get any higher, the Iranian military has begun what appears to be an aggressive and systematic campaign to eradicate its country's infected minority population. Over two thousand mutants and five thousand uninfected have been slaughtered so far in the fighting, setting off worldwide protest and drawing in another round of sanctions from the United States, Great Britain, and Russia. No comment has yet been received by that nation's president in spite of increased scrutiny from coalition military presence in the Gulf of Oman...

That evening... Edwards Air Force Base, Kern County California...

"...Uh, like I said, I was just Aston's husky before this mess began," Samorn explained in a shy yet candid tone as she sat comfortably in one of the base's more private briefing rooms with her paw hands crossed on the conference table before her. She wore the same shorts as before, personal dog tags, and a partly camouflaged athletic t-shirt. The office chair she sat in was meant more for function than style but thankfully the opening in the back allowed her sore tail to move freely; a much needed relief after having it cramped during the long drive from Oakland.

The classified briefing wasn't on any of the base personnel's official schedules, and as such it took her and Brice a few awkward minutes of wandering the halls to find the meeting room. Brice suffered a moment of digestive distress as well and Samorn teased him by suggesting it must have been brought on by the fast food he devoured the night before. He excused it, however, as a side effect of the immunity booster shots, exacerbated by being encased in extremely uncomfortable and hot MOPP gear for most of the day as he helped treat the wounded bird morphs who ironically turned out to be noninfectious to begin with not that anyone had the decency to tell him...

The room itself was simplistic, mirroring its basic furniture, and only capable of accommodating a handful of people. The walls were lined with blue soundproofing material and a collection of large monitors were mounted to the wall opposite the door that at the moment were stuck on a screen saver of the Air Force's symbol.

Lounging around the simple particle board table in the center of the room and listening intently to Samorn's story was a collection of well built men, clearly special forces operators, who not only appeared interested in hearing how the beautiful canine morph came to be but were patently transfixed by her enthralling feminine visage as well. Samorn entertained herself by taking shameless advantage of their attention by using occasional hand gestures and smiling alluringly. The mesmerized yet professional operators wore moderately casual clothing at the time, i.e. polo shirts, fatigue or canvas pants, button downs, athletic shirts etc, and were all volunteers from elite Tier 1 Special Mission Units, each agreeing to be a part of what would be the most important operation since the outbreak began four days earlier.

Two of the hard hitters were from the US Army's 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (a.k.a. Delta Force), two others from the Air Force's 24th Special Tactics Squadron, and the other two were from the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU or better known as SEAL Team Six). Leading the squad was Colonel Reese Young and the powerful tiger man Sergeant Abdullahi who was second in command. Seated next to Samorn as she spoke was her closest friend and 'secret' lover, navy corpsman Brice Da Silva.

"The one that infected me was this little collie fucker; about five foot six, kinda scrawny," she went on, her tail shifting slowly from side to side as she recounted her first brush with the 'plague' of the twenty first century, or at least that's how a newsman dubbed it. "I still find it hard to believe that he was as quick as he was. I couldn't dodge him, somehow, and he got a hold of my collar and dragged me into the woods behind our horse fence before my father could get a shot off at him. While that was happening Aston shot the others without a shred of hesitation, or even fear for that matter. The first to show up at the house were equine creatures- four of them if I remember right, and all were stallions of different breeds. One of them kicked down the front door like it wasn't even there, but Aston and I were able to sneak out the back without getting noticed. Aston told me to stay put before he went back inside to confront them. They had no chance and went down easy enough with single shots to the upper torso, but then these- some kind of silver, almost alien looking lizard things with no eyes came running right at us on all fours with their drooling jaws open. They were huge and fuckin' terrifying, let me tell ya, and I've got no idea how my father managed to kill 'em, but he did. I didn't see precisely what happened because it was at that point that I was taken by the collie man. Our quarter horse, Jasper, went missing at about that point as well, and who knows where the big old dummy went. Maybe Aston's uncle's house- at least, I remember him running there the last time he snuck out... I hope he's okay. I always loved the galoot... Anyway, I'm not sure if I don't want to, or if I simply can't remember exactly how things went down," Samorn continued with a slight shake of her head, her tone turning solemn for a moment, "but I remember the collie morph- raping me. Even though I only had my- simplistic husky mind at the time I wanted so badly to hate it. To hate him, but..." Samorn let out a sigh. "After he- you know- 'came' in me it felt like my whole body was engulfed in this hot, almost pleasurable energy as my cells rearranged into the form I possess now. As you've probably assumed, the nanites also sent my sex drive through the roof as they're designed to do. I heard the shot when my father killed my attacker a couple minutes after... And when I found Aston I... Well... I tried to force myself onto him." Some of the squad shifted and grimaced. "Gross, I know. I mean, I think of Aston as my father, and... It was disgusting, lets just leave it at that. - Anyway, he fought free of my grasp and pistol whipped me."

"Ouch!" one of the SEALs joked.

"Well, it knocked me out, so I didn't feel it until I came to a few minutes after," Samorn replied with a snicker. "Took a while for the headache to go away. Heh! - Anyway, after I woke I didn't know what to do. I was terrified, even of him, but he told me to relax and thankfully took me with him. He did understandably mention that he would shoot me if I tried anything again, and I can't say I blame him."

"Yea. I'd of said the same," uttered Colonel Young.

"No shit," added a Delta soldier.

Young shook his head and said, "Sorry, go on," gesturing.

"Thanks," Samorn resumed with a quick smile. "Before we started heading toward town we picked up what supplies we could carry from the house but sure enough the S.U.V. was ravaged by something so we decided to trek there on foot. It took us a good hour since we had to move carefully and as quietly as possible. Freaks were swarming the entire area, but with Aston's guidance we managed to sneak through the outcroppings and forest without detection. When we arrived the first thing we saw was the smoke over the rise and we could hear dozens of people screaming, a few tires squealing, and even periodic gunfire. By the time we found a safe place to observe the situation the sounds had transitioned into growls, roars, moans, bellows and-- I'm sure you get the idea."

Subtle grimaces and sneers popped up around the room once again but quickly faded.

"Hometown sounds like it got fucked," uttered one of the airmen. "No pun intended."

"Heh! Yea, you could say that," Samorn continued. "It was in absolute shambles. Completely unrecognizable. Windows smashed, fires everywhere, vehicles crashed into everything... A fuckin combat zone is what it reminded me of. It looked like everyone in the town was either sprawled out dead or mutated and fucking each other like their lives depended on it. Since downtown was- clearly a no go, and the residential areas were no better off Aston and I were forced to take shelter at the edge of town in an old motel room to avoid attracting the creatures' attention. Long story short, we spent the night there barricaded in until the marines showed up. On our way to the evac site we got chased by this German shepherd morph. He tried to rape me, but as you can guess by my lack of German shepherd genetics, Aston beat the shit out of him for me." Samorn let loose a short chuckle.

"Did your- father ever serve?" asked one of the SEALs.

"Uh, not exactly," Samorn replied. "Not with the military, at least. Why?"

Abe cut in, "Would his last name be Marks, by happenstance?"

"Uh, yea... How'd you know that?"

"Let me ask you this first. What all do you know about him?"

"Well, he has a history that he doesn't share with many people. I don't know many of the details myself, only what I remember overhearing from conversations between him and his uncle. Something about- being a security contractor or mercenary for a corporation working in Africa. I guess he ended up defying his employer's orders so he could protect a group of missionaries in a village, or something along those lines... Something horrible happened over there, and he never forgave himself for it... Anyway, that's all I know."

"Well, I'm sure all secrets will be revealed eventually, but until then, please continue."

"O-okay, um... Like I was saying, I absolutely hated to, but I had no choice but to leave without Aston when there wasn't enough room on the last Sea Hawk. The ride from there was fine but the departure was terrifying. Just as the thing took off something managed to knock a passing F-18 out of the sky and it passed right overhead of us as it burned to the ground... I know I'll never forget that." Samorn sighed, letting the incoming memories of the rest of that hellish day fade back into her subconscious on their own. "And that's-- pretty much it. The rest I assume is in your briefing packets."

The door was opened suddenly by a female high ranking airman in green and tan scale tiger strip fatigues. She stepped in and came to a stop, holding the door for someone.

"Atten-tion! Present- arms!" Young barked uniformly, knowing who the door must be held for.

Everyone around the table quickly followed suit, standing at attention and saluting, including Samorn, who did so without a flaw.

"As you were, gentlemen," said an aging man in a formal business suit as he strode in, the woman closing the door behind him. "And lady," he added, nodding to Samorn as he came to a stop at the empty end of the table before the monitors on the wall behind him. The group returned to their seats and gazed expectantly at the gray haired man of middle eastern descent. "Samorn, I want to extend my thanks to you once again for everything you've done over the past day and a half," he resumed. "You've shown more bravery and dedication than anyone would have expected from someone in your position."

"Don't mention it, Mr. Secretary," she replied. "I was just doing what came natural."

"I have no doubt. I know you still have a lot of questions, but in the meantime keep up the good work." He shot her a subtle but friendly smile and nodded before continuing. "And to the rest of you, I can't thank you enough for volunteering for this op. Our country owes you a debt of gratitude... Now, the following information is highly classified and is for your eyes and ears only. None of this is to be discussed with anyone other than yourselves under any circumstances. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir," replied the group.

The man removed a smart phone from his pocket and tapped away at it for a moment. On the monitors behind him several images of a high tech device strapped to the bed of a military armored truck came up. The machine itself was about the size and shape of a medium sized military shipping container, was painted sky blue and white and had a complex antenna apparatus protruding from the top. The rectangular device was labeled on all sides with the overly simplistic R.S.X. Corporation logo. "This," he briefly pointed, "is the Actaeon Contingency. Only two of these devices exist anywhere in the world; one that used to be in our possession and another that was in the hands of Zephyr Incorporated. The device, once detonated, sends out a termination signal to all nanotech particles within its effective range subsequently eliminating not only the virus itself but all life forms effected by it. In other words, it was supposed to prevent this sort of situation from happening in the first place, but Zephyr and their just short of mentally handicapped security forces failed to activate the signal and their device was somehow rendered inoperable. When NORTHCOM learned of this the 19th Special Forces Group was tasked with deploying the device shown here... Unfortunately, all members of the platoon were killed or declared L.T.I. shortly after they entered Fairhaven's high rise business district, and to make matters worse, the device's G.P.S. tracker somehow malfunctioned causing its whereabouts to become unknown... That was, until yesterday when members of Delta Force gathered some very- disconcerting- intel." He tapped at his phone once more, and the images behind him changed to show photographs taken from the windows of several high rise structures showing heavily armed soldiers in high tech, bluish gray and white uniforms, clearly not US military, loading the device onto a separate vehicle. Around the men were what appeared to be some sort of autonomous walking weapon systems of the same color as their gear; essentially two legged walking heavy machine guns with small chassis firing at every mutant within range. "These ass holes are from Welkin. A private free standing army loyal to whoever pays them enough. Trust me when I say that they are not a friend of ours, and God only knows how they managed to sneak into the city without us knowing about it. Theories suggest an orbital insertion, which may sound crazy, but I'd believe just about anything at this point. Anyhow, what we do know is they've stolen the Actaeon device, and it is believed they may attempt to activate it."

"Why exactly is that a bad thing?" Asked young. "If it'll wipe out the infection I see no reason why we shouldn't build and deploy a hundred of 'em."

"Colonel, as always, we appreciate your problem solving attitude, but you need to work on your listening skills. As I mentioned, the device doesn't only kill the nanites, it kills everything infected with them in the process... And the effective range of this particular device is, well, there isn't one. Once activated, the kill signal will utilize defense satellites and radio towers to reach every corner of the globe in less than twenty four hours. And If I'm reading recent W.H.O. reports correctly, they're aren't many uninfected people left on the planet. Just breathing unfiltered air is enough to infect you with trace amounts of airborne pathogens... What I'm getting at is, if the Actaeon Contingency is activated... Billions will die... It's on you to recover the device, and destroy it! Take the gun aimed at the head of every man woman and child on earth, and break it in half. That is your primary objective... Your secondary objectives are to eliminate Welkin forces at all available opportunities, hunt down and kill particularly dangerous mutants, and conduct CSAR when and wherever you can... Is that clear?"

"Yes, Sir!" the group replied.

"Good. That's music to my ears..." Tapping at his phone once again the secretary continued while gesturing at a map of Fairhaven brought up on the monitors. "You will insert via HALO jump from thirty thousand feet here, and you will glide into your drop zone located in the parking lot of an office plaza one half click west of the high rise district. F-35s will be on set to provide security for the MC-130 and we will have Apaches in a holding pattern around the commercial district to keep your D.Z. clear of potential hostiles. Once on the ground you will proceed to the last known location of our 19th spec-ops team, here, and report what you find. From there, you will work in conjunction with a Delta squad and small detachment of 2nd Rangers already on set to track down and eliminate the A.C.D. -- Questions?"

"Rules of engagement in relation to the infected?" asked a SEAL.

"You will defend yourselves if approached aggressively, otherwise do not engage. Once we have them ready you will be given immunizations to what's being dubbed 'casual infections.' In other words, most strains will have no effect on your system. However, there are plenty of strains we have yet to collect samples of, so keep your MOPP gear handy in case you have to make direct contact with anything- unusual... Next?"

"Sir, what is our escape and evasion plan?" asked Abe.

"In truth, there isn't one. Once you're in the city, you're there for the full stretch. You will be provided a list of safe zones where you can lay low should you have to, but be prepared to set up your own O.P. just about anywhere... Anything else?"

"Any idea who hired these- Welkin mercenaries?" asked a Delta soldier.

"Unfortunately, no. While they may at one time have been associated with them, Zephyr claims they do not outsource their security. Still we cannot be certain... If you can detain any Welkin personnel to interrogate, do it, but keep in mind, these guys are savages. They have and will go weapons hot at the first hint of trouble, and as you can see from these images they're packing weapons tech that's far more advanced than anything our R and D boys have ever seen. -- They're leader is a man known only as Vrag. He's an ex Croatian operator turned money hungry serial killer, and that's pretty much all we know about the man as of now... Um, while we're on that topic, something interesting to note is that Samorn's- father just happens to know the psychopath personally. Aston Marks is a former member of Welkin. He was trained and worked under Vrag during anti-poaching operations in central Africa. It is believed Mr. Marks abandoned Welkin after Vrag refused to send his men to help defend a nearby village from anti-government rebels."

"Forgive my interruption, Mr. Secretary, but how exactly does the government know all this about my father?" Samorn asked. "He never served in the military."

"But that doesn't mean he was never on our radar..." Defense Secretary Karim sighed. "Samorn... There is not a single operator or member of the intelligence community anywhere in the world who has not at least read something about your father and what he did."

The group, excluding Brice, around the dog woman nodded, two or three of them saying, "that's right," - "mhm," and so forth.

"I'm sorry," began Brice, "but what am I not understanding about Aston? What makes a former contractor like him so special?"

Secretary Karim tapped at his phone once again, and a list of statistics related to Aston's history came up on a single monitor. Samorn and Brice could only stare in awe at the information, their faces mustering little expression while the rest of the group paid little attention given that they already knew the gist.

"Holy shit..." uttered Brice with a subtle laugh.

"...Republican rebels," resumed Karim, "-- to this day, -- refer to him as 'Celui Qui a Tué le Diable,' or, 'He who Killed the Devil.' ... He remains a monster of legend to them, but to us he remains an inspiration... The bodies Aston buried and the lives he saved that day in the center of the dark continent proved to us all once again what a- pissed off man can accomplish when he's abandoned everything but his most primordial instincts... Instincts that Mr. Marks has spent years working to entomb within himself... I say this with strong earnestness, if you've ever crossed paths with that man and lived to talk about it, it's because he wanted you to live...

"If you have the time, and I'm sure you will find it, I want you to make a pit stop at Combat Outpost Fairhaven and pay Mr. Marks a little visit. Ask him whether or not his deadly intuition has- reawakened- in his time spent in that city gone straight to hell. If that's the case it wouldn't hurt to invite him along with you. After all, according to those few rebels that survived being exposed to his rage, he makes the devil himself seem like a kitten." Secretary Karim let lose a short laugh. "Anyway, it will take some time before we can marshal the proper resources to conduct this operation. Until then, head back to Oakland and enjoy a nights R and R. God knows you'll need it before the shit storm you're about to throw yourself into... Keep your phones on. Dismissed!"

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