Mission report from CA-4 Team leader Vod Pacheco

Mission Date:4/25/2161 to 5/14/2161

Team members: Keshawn, Tim, Fred, Vod

“Investigate the Infected.”

Or

“That thing is straight out of a Dr Seuss Nightmare”

Crimson King MASIV Bio Containment Vechile

Commander Poole called in what was available of CA-4, Keshawn, Tim, Fred and Myself for a briefing. He informed us that there was sporadic word from a town up in northern California about some type of biological plague or outbreak.

Apparently Recon CA-17 recently woke up in northern California about 1 week ago and was  contacted by our command group. They agreed to travel down towards our area of operation and join the combined task force. They reported entering in the town of silver ridge on highway 120 near Yosemite when they reported an outbreak of some sort of highly  infectious virus in the general population. They reported stopping to try and help the local doctor with the virus. The next day then started ranting about a bioplague of some type and then went off the air. Poole wants us to helo up into the area and see what happened to the team. Our group of 4 was being joined by a members of the science and medical team (Dr. Harvey Marson of CA-1, and Kelly Samson of CA-5)  to assist and treat anyone who needed help.

We geared up and headed for the UH-60 pads with our spiffy biohazard suits in hand. Over the next few hours we chatted with Kelly, and were fully briefed on the use of our suits. The pilots noted that the weather was turning bad, but he figured we could definitely get set down, but recovery might be a problem. It was pretty dang warm and humid and we knew we couldn’t walk far in our biosuits without dropping from exhaustion, so I elected to set down in a clearing by the town hall, an area with enough space to land the helo with a clear fire zone around. The helo touched down and we offloaded in full gear and suits, and then took off to circle nearby while we confirmed security of the area.

As it looked like a thunderstorm was about to hit, and we moved out towards the city hall building. Keshawn and I noted the fresh tire tracks and copious recent MG and 20mm shells and damage to nearby buildings. No bodies, but the recon group must have fought a running battle. We followed the tracks around the side of the building and found a Command-Scout vehicle had crashed into a secondary building behind city hall. The hatches were secured, and we saw no trace of the MP personnel.

About that time Tim noted someone coming up the street toward him. This was the first person we had run into and he called out to the man. He didn’t respond to any attempts at communication, but kept walking towards Tim. We noted he wasn’t moving “right” sorta staggering around.  As he got close, suddenly he jerked his head up, yelled at Tim, and lunged at him. Without hesitation, Tim cold cocked him with the Atchison knocking him down to the ground. We pulled out some zip ties, and bound up the crazy guy. The rain was really starting to come down now, so we pulled back into the City hall building for shelter with the bound local. And none too soon.

Keshawn, and I entered the building with our Science team personal, with Fred and Tim pulling up the rear. This was both good and bad. The good, we were out of the rain. More good. Apparently more of those mindless people were starting to run around outside. The Bad…. Well the building had infected people in it. And they moved FAST. We barely entered the room, when 4 or 5 people started rushing us. Harvey,  couldn’t handle it, and started burning thru 9mm rounds from his mac-10 almost hitting Tim in the process. One of the Infected people took a swing at me with a fire axe, but missed. I put him down with a burst of rifle fire. Everyone started firing at that point, at anything which moved. Behind me I could hear Fred burning thru belts of ammo at something outside. Keshawn was using measured bursts of Assault rifle, and Tim with that horrible Atchison just mowed down anything in front of him. By the time the smoke cleared, we noted that Keshawn  had actually been bitten by one of them in the arm, straight thru the resistoweave and Tim had his face sprayed by blood(he had removed the bio helmet earlier to see better) from close ranged multiple shotgun impacts on infected.

We shut and barred the door, and also found that the lights in the building worked. The people(infected) seemed to shun away from the light, so we turned on all the lights we could find in the building. Kelly, Harvey and Tim set up an analysis section in a secured room, and we tried to radio the helicopter but apparently the bad weather forced it to return to base, but it would be back tomorrow to retrieve us.

From blood samples on the bound infected, it was found that the people we had encountered were infected with some type of DNA changing virus. It wasn’t thought to be airborne, but was transmitted thru saliva or blood. We had a few vials of universal antidote, so one was given to Keshawn and Tim, but we kept watch on them just in case. The Kelly said that the infected people basically ran very high temperatures, body systems, and metabolism  consuming huge amounts of energy from their body. They must be constantly savagely hungry. They estimated a 4-6 hr incubation period, and eventually the an infected person would start to go feral with hunger. If they couldn’t consume enough food, the bodys systems would feed on itself, eventually digesting all the muscle and burning itself out. This plague runs very hot and fast, and thus should not be too much of a concern as widespread epidemic problem.

We used the radio, and found that the Recon group was split into 2 parts, but not happy parts. Apparently 2 of the team members were held up in a church in the south side of town with a bunch of kids, while the other 2 members were in CA-17’s other vehicle, a Commando Scout (20mm) near the north end of town. The team commander was nowhere to be found, and both groups believed that he was dead. The MP sure did screw up this team, as no one trusted each other, and both groups wanted us for the few vials of universal antidote and was only thinking of themselves. The Scout group sounded very hostile, effectively demanding that we turn over our supplies of antidote to him. I figured they might have been infected and in the early stages of hostility, or just dicks. While Samantha, and the church group sounded more “sane” and had all those kids to protect with dwindling supplies.

In the church, they said one of their members had been bitten, and was showing signs of sickness. Kelly estimated that if we could reach him in time, the universal antidote could save him.  Looking out, we could see that the infected people visible were very slow and staying in the shadows. With the remaining time until sunset, I figured we could make a run for the church.

We picked up our gear, ditching the biosuits since many of them had rips, and the virus wasn’t airborne. We just needed to keep them away. Tim and Keshawn were running temperatures, but Kelly said that they seemed to be effectively fighting the virus. Just the same, we gave them some extra ration bars to chew on while we walked. We opened the door and started moving quickly down the streets towards the church, able to avoid any conflict for a while.

We were about 200 yards from the church, when apparently hunger overrode the dimming light and the infected started coming out of various buildings and moving faster. I tried baiting them away from us by chucking a couple food rations, but it had no effect. Interestingly none of them seemed to be interested in Keshawn or Tim, like they could sense he had some low level infection going from his bite. With just a couple hundred yards to go, we started firing at the infected as they approached us. More and more were showing up, so I popped a flare, figuring the light would make them turn away. It did make them back off but also it attracted the attention of the Commando Scout group. Rodriguez called us over the MP radios and said to hold position and NOT go to the church. They would come and “get” us. As the infected started getting closer, we opened fire and knocked some down. Harvey was freaked out and broke into a full out run for the church. So I gave the order to doubletime it, and make a run for the church. I caught Harvey by the shoulder and basically guided his chicken shit body towards the church doors. We were almost there when the Scout showed up down the street behind us, and started  to fire bursts of 20mm and MG rounds into the infected and our general area. The whole team made it into the church low on ammo, as a woman in Morrow Project uniform stepped out of the church holding out an Armburst. We could hear over the radio that Cathy was warning off Rodriguez in the commando scout. They backed off… we backed into the building and closed the door.

Introductions were made all around and we found ourselves with about a dozen 5-12 yr olds, the priest, and Cathy Henderson (the medic) of  Recon CA-17. They had George Harrison (the driver), the 2^nd member tied up in the basement, so Tim and the biotech went to see what they could do. We used another dose of the universal antidote on him, and they thought he had about a 50-50 chance of recovery.

Cathy explained that She, George, and Bishop(team leader) were in the Command Commando Scout, while Rodriguez and Steve were in the teams other Commando Scout(20mm). Apparently the team came into town as evening fell, and Bishop got out to introduce himself to the people, as a good Recon Team leader should. He was grabbed and dragged into a building before anyone could do anything. His screams abruptly stopped and it was all Rodriguez and Cathy could do on the vehicle weapons to keep the infected away, as they made a run for it. As they careened around the city hall building, steve made a quick left turn down an alley. George tried to follow but skidded out on a squished infected person, and the scout imbedded itself into the building where we found it. The infected people kept after Steve’s vehicle (attracted to movement?) which gave Cathy and George the chance to sneak out. They got some type of radio message from people held up in the church and decided to make their way there as a defendable building. Loading up with all the food and Ammo they could carry they fought a running battle to the Church. Apparently an infected person bit George in the process, but they made it. That was yesterday. Cathy was using anything she could find in her medkit to help George, and it slowed the infection enough so that our universal antidote would give him a 50-50 chance by Kelly’s estimate.

The Priest explained that this has been a normal town, in a nice area up until a couple of days ago. Apparently a group of people went to the military base just east of town to see if they could scavenge anything useful after a recent earthquake. They thought maybe the quake shook something loose that they could put to good use. Apparently some room that had been sealed up until now actually broke open from the quake.  They didn’t find any useful equipment, but the room had some barrels of liquid in them that had broken open. Soon after they returned, the group fell sick, and nothing the town “doc” could do would help. That was 3 days ago, and the town just went crazy. Kids are apparently not effected by the virus for some strange reason, and so the priest rounded them up and hunkered down to try to survive.

We ran our backpack radio up to the top of the church for good reception and tried to radio CA-2 to report our situation. Instead of getting our command group, we managed to contact the Crimson King by way of my PDA link to the radio.  The Crimson King, the Bio-specialist AI was on our line asking if we needed help. He was apparently monitoring our radio frequencies as a favor to the other AI, MORGANA and seemed very VERY interested in the bio plague in the town.

At this point, I am pretty sure I made a poor command decision. Crimson King offered to send some “help”. As we were surrounded, in a town of infected people, with dwindling supplies. I said Yes, send some help. It replied that help would arrive about 4am in the morning. We had about 8 hours to hold out. On the one hand…as you will see later in my report… we did get “help”. On the other hand, as you will see later in my report  I did learn that the Crimson King is insane.

We took shifts to get some sleep, but about midnight we got a radio broadcast from close buy. Bishop was Alive! He said he fought his way free from the infected, and wasn’t showing any type of symptoms, but he was wounded and needed help ASAP. Cathy confirmed it was Bishop, and so we figured we could make a run for the Diner he was holed up in and get him back to the church before Crimson King’s help arrived. Geared to move fast, carrying just the basics and ammo, the four of us moved out to get Bishop.

We kept to the alleyways, and stealthily moved thru the streets towards the Diner. Twice we saw an infected, and I dropped them with a suppressed shot from the M21. We were almost to the diner when we just flat out ran into 2 infected people. The fire fight was quick, and I got hit in the foot with a fireaxe… dang it.. when do I get steel toed boots!… but any infected in the area was sure on their way towards us now. There was an open field, some type of park or soccer field in front of the Diner, so we started our way across it. We could hear Bishop on the radio, saying he heard the firing, and wanted to make sure we were OK and still on our way. We started to run and made it into the Diner. We could see Bishop prone behind the counter but something was wrong… Bishop kept talking over the radio, but he wasn’t moving. Then he was asking… “aren’t you going to check my body?”   in the immortal words of Scooby doo…. Rhu-Roh. Everybody spun to face the windows and we could see a line of infected people out there…. Standing …. Staring at us. I called out to Bishop on the radio “what are you doing.. where are you”. “Im right here… looking at you with my friends… stay right where you are and ill come to see you. You should feel the power, its GLORIOUS. Im so strong, and fast, and everying is so clear to me. I can save the world. Join me and we can do GREAT things”.

I replied…. “Um, No.”

Bishop then said… “well, we will just have to do this the hard way, you will see clearly soon enough” And with that, The Infected people started bounding towards us FAST across the parking lot in front. Bishop must be controlling them somehow. I fired off a Flare round which seemed to stun them for a few seconds, but then they kept coming at us. Everyone raised their weapons and started firing at the onrushing tide of sickened humanity. Tim was burning thru his drums of ammo, Keshawn with his measured bursts taking down body after body. Fred was again long bursting MG rounds downrange, piling up their bodies. I let loose a 40mm Flechette round, taking down 10 or more at once. We could hear banging on the back door as they were trying to get in, but it seemed secure for now. We kept burning thru ammo, thinning out the infected enemy. It was about then that we spotted who must have been Bishop standing on the field, with a Tube in his hands. Hmmm not a tube.. an Armburst, going up to his shoulders… aiming at the Diner.     “GET OUT OUT OUT OUT!” We all dived out the windows, and hit the dirt, as the Armburst went into the Diner and blew out any remaining glass. Oh and it vaporized the infected trying to get into the back door too.

Then a bright spotlight was shining across the field in front of the Diner. 20mm and 7.62 rounds started spraying all over the enemy lines from the side, and the infected went down like 10 pins on League bowling night. In a matter of seconds our combined firepower cleared the field, and Bishop was nowhere to be found. Apparently Rodriguez and Steve saw our flare, heard the firefight and came to get us. After a few tense moments we made piece and explained that George was getting better and we should all get back to the church, safely in numbers and firepower. Using the vehicle, we were able to hold to handholds and buzz on down to the church and regroup.

With the Commando Scout guarding the front door, we broke out the reserve ammo from the vehicle, reloading magazines, and supplies. It was about then that Crimson King’s “help” arrived. Over our radio link and outside from some loudspeakers we suddenly heard

“We are here to help you citizen. Stand and be scanned. We need to take samples to ensure that you are uninfected. Contamination Quarantine is in effect, stand by to be decontaminated.”

I climbed up to the top of the church spire and took a look around. I could see some type of vehicles moving towards town, and into the outskirts. Hmm.. that didn’t sounds so bad. I picked up my PDA and contacted Crimson King, apparently thru a local link on the vehicles. “Crimson King here my MASIVs have arrived to help and has determined that quarantine conditions are in effect. We will need to be identified and sampled in order to ensure that we are uninfected.” Ok, we can do that… then I heard over the background of the link one of the local machines “Stop! Present yourself for sampling..” and then a inhuman Buzzing sound like a giant sawblade started up…. This buzzing was drowned out by the HUMAN screaming that followed. Then in a Gleeful voice Crimson King could be heard to say “Congratulations citizen, you are not infected.. move along… come on.. move along… hmm I must review my sampling techniques at a future date to ensure the patient can move afterward. Note taken.” EEK! I decided right then I do not want to be sampled. Then we could hear over loudspeakers in an equally Joyous sounding voice, “Infection identified, stand by for decontamination”… and WHOOSH a great geyser of  fire could be seen on the other side of town… “Decontamination of subject has been successful! Thank you for your coorperation, scanning for further infection…..”  EEK.. I don’t want to be decontaminated either.

We could see many of these vehicles moving thru the outskirts of town, with the sound of an errily psyco voice over loudspeakers, buzzsaws, screams and flamethowers. This is “help”?? Ok.. Bad command decision.

Outside we could hear Steve yell out.. what the hell is that!? And down the street one of Crimson King’s Mobile Active Sterilization Infection Vehicles (MASIV) was coming around a corner and spotted the Commando Scout. This was our first good look at these things, and they looked like they came out of a Doctor Seuss nightmare. On big solid tired, the armored vehicle mounted an articulated arm connected to a turret with a 4 foot buzz saw blade. On the top of the turret is a nozzle which can only be the flamethrower device. With what could almost be called a giggle the MASIV’s loudspeakers said “ Hold still for sampling this won’t hurt me a bit….” As the saw blade spun up to speed.   Im pretty sure the MASIV was saying it won’t hurt itself by sampling us..  Rodriguez spun the turret and let loose with a long burst from the 20mm against the MASIV’s turret. The MASIV spun and started barreling down on it with the saw blade out. A 2^nd burst from the 20mm missed and then with a crazy tearing sound the MASIV drove past the Commando Scout, and saw blade sliced clean thru the driver’s area and Steve. By that time we had rushed down the church and into the front area. I took aim with my 40mm and put an HEDP into the MASIV, stopping it cold. But it was too late for Steve.

It was getting early and over our radio we could hear Bishop again. Great that crazy was still alive too. We figured he must have been using the Command Commando Scout radio to talk to our Helo which was back inbound, but an hour or so away. We couldn’t communicate with the Helo yet with our backpack version, but the command vehicles’ extended range radio let him. He was telling our helo that CA-4 was infected and that he needed an immediate dustoff and extraction for himself and the few people with him. Great, now we need to go stop this before he uses the helo to get back to base, infect the people there and take over the world! We determined that the commando scout (20mm) was still mobile cleaned it out as best as we could. Fred held his breath and took control with Kehawn at the gunner’s chair, and Tim and myself as forward scouts. We figured we would try to sneak back to the town square to intercept the helo and get Bishop. Now, if we could just avoid any MASIV’s or Infected, it would be perfect. (good luck!) Kelly, Harvey, Cathy, George, the priest, and Rodriguez would sneak thru the south part of town, and take the kids outside the quarantine cordon where we could meet up with them later. Tim and I scouted ahead and for the first few streets we made good time. Then I spotted a MASIVE a couple hundred yards away, so we doubled back and went around. Two more encounters with a couple of infected, which ended with silenced M21 rounds, and we were approaching the town Square. We could still hear Bishop on the radio, encouraging the Helo to hurry and pick him up. I used our radio to try to warn the Helo off and get confirmation that CA-4 was clean and CA-17’s commander was infected. This was partially successful, until my radio was jammed by Bishop’s more capable vehicle radio. We had to take it out. Then I was very thankful for my improved body armor. Bishop must have been looking for us cause I took a shot in my chest, and was knocked on my ass. Tim dragged me behind the Scout, and out of the line of fire. As a couple more shots came toward us. About then Infected started coming out of the buildings. Keshawn started hosing them down with 20mm rounds and coax MG fire, while Fred hit the gas to get around the town hall to where we had seen the Command vehicle was stuck in the building. Keshawn must have had some idea of where Bishop was, cause he totally hosed down a couple of rooms in a building across the quad.

With the vehicle fire as cover, Tim and I started off running across the square and about that time we heard behind us “Oh citizens…. Please stop to be sampled….. “ BUUZZZZZZZZZ. Oh crap 2 MASIVs were coming up on this area too. Fire and move fire and move, as we followed the commando scout. The MASIVs stopped and stared a great fire on a couple of buildings not more than 100 feet away as infected were pouring out the doorways. The scout made it around the corner and DANG IT… the command vehicle was not there.. we could see it had been dragged out of the building a ways away. With a screech, the Commando Scout shuddered to a hault, the damage from the previous saw blade and abuse of driving too much. Keshawn and Fred got out and started looking for the command vehicle’s location. Tim left me and jumped up onto a building for a clear line of fire. The Helo was circling the area and seemed to be coming down in a nearby field, as we could see what must have been Bishop, and 3 other “people” carrying a kid running out an popping smoke. At that point Tim spotted where the command vehicle had been dragged to and emptied a full drum of shotgun shells at it… He managed to mangle the Antenna, and suddenly the jamming stopped.  I quickly called out on my Radio “CA-11 Helo, this is CA-4 commander Vod Pacheco, authorization code (edit out) Do not pick up CA-17 commander Bishop. He is biohazard infected and extremely dangerous.!”  Bishop tried to override me, but ended up getting really pissed off as the helo pulled up and out of reach. They circled around and then let loose at the 2 nearby MASIV’s with their minigun. All those rounds must have damaged their wheels or something as the MASIV’s stopped moving but kept right on burning anything in range. Luckily we were not in range. About then Keshawn took careful aim at the frustrated Bishop, and blew his head clear off with a well placed shot from the M21 rifle. It was like flicking a lightswitch. All the infected suddenly looked dazed and confused. Any type of coordination stopped and they started attacking each other as well. The Plague must have been going into final stages for many of them, as anything that moved was considered food and they ripped each other apart. Any of them foolish to come our way were put down quickly as the sunlight was making them even less coordinated and clumsy. The helo returned, and ferried us over to where the group from the church was held up. CA-11’s 2^nd helo arrived and we loaded up and flew back to base, the entire town seemed ablaze as the MASIV’s completed their sterilization of the area.

We spent the next 2 weeks in isolation, to ensure we weren’t infected, as we nursed our wounds and used the time to do some needed construction on our housing. The Water system is up and running and we even managed to get a solar water heater working on the roof for limited warm showers. The place is getting busy and more and more people are indoctrinated into our group. We have started some regular classes in a few buildings nearby and people are interested in what we have to teach. We try to insert ideas of democracy and freedom and what America was into the various courses of farming, engineering, and mechanics that people are learning to make better lives for themselves. Who knows.. maybe we have the beginnings of a higher level school.

Keshawn’s girlfriend is now about 5 months pregnant and spending more time around our area. That boy needs to make an honest girl out of her soon. Vivianna still spends lots of time around here.. and in my free time I try to go down to her ranch to help out. I’ve managed to get a couple of their old water pumps working again, and even got John Baker from the CA-10 over to the ranch to help with one of their tractors which had broken down. Apparently Vivianna’s got a cousin on the ranch who saw John at the roundup and wanted to be introduced. Vivianna sure was appreciative of my efforts, and Big Jake welcomed him to the ranch like one of the family. Definite possibilities.

Word on the street is that Poole wants us to take a look at the deepwater port in Ventura area. Maybe we will make it a trading run as well.