Dan

  The sights and experiences with his boots on the ground weren’t any more thrilling that what he had witnessed during his helicopter ride. The dark skies along with the red tinge in between the cloud cover and the occasional crack of light that spilled through didn’t fill the streets with much natural light. Even if it did, it wouldn’t make the piles of bodies and burning vehicles any more pleasing to look at.

  Dan passed by the remains of a mother and her child. Both were in each other’s arms as their bodies were slumped against the front entrance of some shop. The bullet holes and punctures in their corpses along with the dried blood splatter on the glass windows and door painted a clear picture of their last moments.

  This place appeared as a literal hell in Dan’s eyes. He struggled to imagine what day to day life was like for that mother and her child. Somehow, New York looked like paradise compared to this hellscape of a city. At the very least Dan’s eyes wasn’t subjected to the blood red hue from the skies above.

  Another location popped into his mind as he took his eyes off off the dead mother and continued walking. Amethyst was where he was sent on his first mission together with Jane and the rest of his new team. He walked through the rain-soaked streets of that place and contended with rebels working together with Kodak agents.

  He glanced over his shoulder at Kate walking behind him and bitterly remembered an era when they were both on the same side before her betrayal.

  Dan looked down at his feet as well as the cracked and pothole-ridden pavement. He scrutinized the sidewalks and found no hint of greenery or plant life. Ada led from the front with a group of conscripts following behind her, aiming their guns in various directions. Dan walked past a wall and couldn’t help but do a double take at the horrific artwork painted beside him.

  The artwork was a hyper detailed drawing that dwarfed him in size. Above the ground on this wall was a depiction of Jesus Christ nailed to the cross. The blood spilling from his wrists and feet were excessive. The blood gushed freely from his flesh while his head was hung down, his forehead dripping its own rivulets of blood. It was a gross perversion of the crucifixion.

  On the next building over, another piece of graffiti caught his eye. A strange insignia on the wall depicted an eyeball in a narrow slit with a gold iris. Rippling violet energies spilled and surrounded the eye. He could swear that the gold in the eye was actually glowing in the dark.

  Dan began profusely sweating and instinctively backed away from the artwork. Something was seriously wrong about that particular painting. He reminded himself to trust his gut. He lived in a world where magic exists after all.

  “You felt it too, didn’t you?” Kate said.

  The traitor was the last person Dan thought he would agree with. But he nodded. “I don’t envy your position. Back where I came from, the worst I had to deal with were gangsters with looted guns and knives. You guys have to deal with fuckers who could wield magic as a weapon roaming your streets.”

  Kate didn’t reply to him. That was just fine by Dan. Instead she shifted the topic. “Mayeb this is the result of Kodak banning religion. You have fanatics that are forced to practice their beliefs in private and actively work to undermine the shard in power.”

  Dan gave a bitter huff. “Wow, is that some self awareness at last? You’re telling me you didn’t think about that before you crossed to the other side? I’m pretty sure anyone with a brain could think that maybe stripping people of their freedom to believe what the want would backfire. Good thing we’re here to help you clean up Kodak’s mess.”

  Kate shot him a glare and Dan ignored her. It’s not like she had any room to fire back. She chose to ally herself with these assholes.

  The team reached an intersection and somehow the scenery here was even more gruesome. Bodies were hung down from lamposts or pinned against walls with stakes. Many of the bodies were innocent people caught up in this mess along with a few Kodak agents here and there. The state of the bodies was no better than what Dan has already witnessed. Broken, snapped or simply ripped apart.

  Dan stopped in front of a pool of blood two steps ahead of him and looked up to see the red droplets raining down from the source. The two bisected halves of a Kodak agent were tied to a street lamp above him. From the agent’s contorted expression along with his eyes that lacked pupils, he died in pain and terror.

  His world seemingly slowed down as a flash of green in his peripheral vision caught his attention. One of the conscripts in front of him fell to his knees from a green-glowing hole in his back.

  “Shit, scatter!” Dan said.

  He sprinted, pouring all of his strength into his legs. He bolted towards the closest truck and dived behind the vehicle. He and Kate made it to cover unscathed. The same couldn’t be said for the conscripts. Without the enhancements of an agent, the concritps moves were panicked and sluggish. Dan watched hopelessly as five men and women keeled over from green bullet holes. Green tracers slashed the intersection as the conscripts broke formation and ran in various directions.

  Dan watched a conscript took a green tracer to the neck that nearly decaptiated him. His lifeless body slammed into the side of a minivan. It didn’t long for him to follow the path of the strange green vapor trailsup to the roof of a building at the other end of the intersection.

  Individuals in hooded robes fired their weapons onto the streets. He counted three of them.

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  “Those are Church agents,” Kate said.

  Dan witnessed another one of the strange green rounds cut through the front lamp of the truck. The initial impact was followed by the material being eaten away like someone had poured acid on the truck. The round had buried itself into the pavement past Dan and his ears picked up the bubbling sizzle of concrete behind him.

  “Their guns are bad news,” he said.

  Dan leaned out from the truck for a split second and fired a short burst at the group on the rooftop. His rounds found their mark as they shredded the torso of a robed agent. The enemy fell off the side of the building and face planted onto the sidewalk. He quickly popped back behind the truck as more green tracers slashed his previous the position.

  On one end of the intersection, Dan spotted the second team of Kodak agents approaching. Adam, Li and numerous others.

  The two Kodak agents taking cover behind a jeep across from Dan returned fire against the Church agents on the roof. One of them got nicked in the shoulder by a green tracer and sank down behind the vehicle.

  Even through the chaos, Dan’s hearing picked up their voices.

  “Fucking bullshit,” one said. “Why don’t those assholes get down on the street and fight us like men?”

  The question was nonsensical. Obviously, if their enemy had the highground advantage, they would never willingly give it up just to slug it out against a Kodak agent. The same Kodak agent who got hit in the shoulder stood back up and tried popping off more shots at the group of Church agents.

  Two green tracers smashed through his helmet and the Kodak agent toppled over.

  Dan shook his head at the sight. Not because he felt bad for a Kodak agent, but because no one was adapting to their enemy. The group on the rooftop began redirecting some of their attention to Adam’s group, firing down on them from the other end of the intersection.

  It was embarrassing. Somehow, a larger force such as theirs was paralyzed by a couple of Church agents.

  Dan peeked his head out from the truck and saw a potential blindspot he could take advantage of. The building had an upper terrace that some of the Church agents had migrated towards. If he could sneak underneath the building and keep himself out of sight, he could blindside the enemy agents, taking out the ones ont he terrace and have the rest of the Kodak force sweep up the few on the roof or force the Church agents to back off.

  “Kate, those fuckers are making us look bad,” he said. “We need to find a way to flank them. Otherwise we’re just wasting time exchanging lead. Keep them busy while I find a path to their blindspot.”

  The blond agent looked at him with confusion then determination. “Absolutely not. I can’t let you out of my sight. You’ll use this opportunity to escape.”

  “You fucking idiot! If we don’t deal with those Church assholes, no one gets to walk free.”

  As Dan and Kate argued, he heard a strange whoosh sound and looked over his shoulders. A ball of violet energy soared through the air and impacted the jeep where the other Kodak agent still hid behind.

  The ball melted through the hood of the vehicle and smashed into the back of the agent, burning through his armor and knocking him down. The agent exploded in a flash of glittering purple as his back was now a mess of melted armor and flesh.

  Dan watched the far end of the intersection and saw that Adam’s team wasn’t doing any better. The distant figures of more conscripts and Kodak agents were being hammered by the assault from the Church agents.

  He turned back to Kate. “You have any better ideas Kate? If you don’t want any more casualties then let me handle this.”

  She stared at him then clenched her teeth. “Fine. Go ahead and I’ll cover you.”

  Dan didn’t hesitate as he ran down the opposite side of the truck. He made it towards the end of the trailer. Before peeking around the end. He watched as the Chruch agents on the terrace and roof directed their shots at Adam’s group and at Kate at the opposite end of the truck.

  “Alright, let’s do this shit,” Dan whispered to himself.

  Without his berserk, he couldn’t further augment his speed as he broke cover and ran toward the building. He pushed himself to his limit and finally reached the building. He pressed his back against the wall while looking up at the bottom of the terrace. To his surprise, his ears picked up rapid footsteps and he saw his silver-clad teammate met him from the opposite direction.

  “So you had the same idea?” Dan asked.

  “Great minds think alike,” Li said. “Somebody had to put a stop to this disaster. No Alpha squad would have ever let a battle like this drag on for this long. It’s embarrassing.”

  “I second that. Now let’s deal with these fuckers.”

  Li nodded with his helmet. “Understood. You take one side of the terrace and I’ll take the other.”

  Dan aimed his CMA rifle upward and at the Church agent who didn’t suspect crosshairs lining up on his head. He squeezed the trigger and the a jet of blood shot out of the Church agent’s head. Another agent who stepped foreward on the roof spotted his dead comrade, but not fast enough to see Dan. He fired a follow up burst that shredded through the agent’s robes. The Church fanatic coughed up blood before he toppled over and fell off the roof. Dan stepped to the side and let the body hit the ground next to him.

  Li was equally ruthless as the sounds of gunfire slowly died down on the Church’s side. The return fire from the Kodak force intensified as the Church was picked apart.

  While the chaos still went on above his head, Dan spotted the strange rifle dropped by one of the Church agents and quickly dashed over and scooped it up.

  The gunfire gradually died down as the remaining Church agents dwindled. The exchange of lead finally halted and intersection became eerily quiet.

  Dan briefly performed a scan of his newly obtained rifle from his enemies.

  Name: Hand of Annihilation (HoA)

  Manufacturer: Prodical Arms (Church Subsidiary)

  12-round magazine

  8.2 x 58mm radioactive rods

  Effective against all armor. Can fill an anti-materiel role.

  Warning: Radiation and toxic damage against organic targets.

  No further description available.

  The rifle was noticeably heavier than either the ZK-77 or the CMA rifle. Dan placed his CMA rifle on his back and walked over to the body of the Church agent on the ground. He crouched down and gathered a few magazines of the radioactive rods used by the shard.

  More notifications popped up in his HUD that fully expanded into messages.

  Congratulations!

  You are now Tier 1 | Level 23.

  You have earned 5 stat points!

  Bonus experience rewarded for killing your first Church of Nanotology agent.

  Dan looked to his teammate and they both exchanged a thumbs up gesture. “So did you rank up too?”

  The stealth specialist nodded. “I did. I’m now level twenty-six.”

  Their victory was cut short when Dan felt a violent jolt from his collar. He collapsed to his knees are the current rippled throughout his body.

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