Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title) Day 12 of 30

 

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title)

Day 12 of 30

11/30/2020

[Flashback]

Twisting, rending metal all around. Hiss of good air outbound, replaced with influx of deadly chemicals and waste products. Sounds of dying echoed with the stutter of futile small arms fire. The Driver Panels all screamed the story, the Track was dead and all inside were dying in one way or another.

All major systems off line. Movement, detection, internal life support, power, all about to fail. Smack the panel with heel of hand, see if it will jog it back into operation. Nothing working right. Camera relays showing ranks of serrated, rotating circular mouths ripping into the metal skin of the vehicle.

All Guns falling silent. Only movement now is the rocking of the frame under the repeated assaults of native monsters. The Deploy Panel shows no life signs. Obviously wrong, the driver is trapped in his space, unable to affect what is happening.

The power goes out, air circulation ceases, the outside cold starts to seep in past the thick armor and heavy reinforced glass. Nothing but pending death outside or inside.

Through the glass, can see the thing moving away. Somehow, it missed killing everyone, at least by one. So that is something at least.

Give it a while longer, wait for it to head out, then see what there is to salvage. Don the spare suit kept for emergencies. Give it an hour later, route battery power to the doors and they open up. The whole place is open to the local atmosphere.

Everyone is dead back there. There was little hope that anyone survived. None did. Pull up a spare Suit, load it with everything possible in Meds, Stims, Weapons, and Power Cells. Looks like almost enough to make it back to The City. Will have to push hard to make it work. Most things will not even notice something this small as long as they are not shot at first.

 

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title) Day 11 of 30

 Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title)

Day 11 of 30

11/29/2020

 

Close my eyes again, trust the Kid won’t get us killed before he can wake me and drift off.

I slip into dreams, I know I am sleeping and dreaming and cannot stop what is happening at all.

I see the Track falling into an endless canyon with monsters bouncing us back and forth with their claws and fangs and grabbed with endless amounts of teeth filled with screaming suits of disemboweled uses us all for chew toys like some oversized pets of screaming gods of bowels and gases drowning out all of the torment with the putrid sky leaking vile toxins and poisons filling each set of lungs with blisters and suppurating lesions with eyeballs exploding outward from internal pressures as the track falls into an abyss of black fangs and endless pulsating throats with rending, grinding stomachs

Feel his hand on my shoulder shaking me

“Sir, wake up, you are screaming, wake up sir.”

“How long was I asleep?”

“Almost two hours sir.”

Will have to do. More than I figured I would be getting. Time for him to head back for some rest also.

“Ok kid, did good so far. Head back and relax for a few hours. Eat and sleep if you can. When you wake up, come back up here. Got more training to do. You have a good feel for Driving so far so want you back up here with me.”

He smiles and I cycle the doors and he then disappears into the rest of the track.

Read over all the displays, review the inventory and status. No damage to any Suits, weapons are all loaded in case, there is plenty of expendables in the stocks. So far, so good, other than the other two Drivers down hard. Looks like we have a strong option for another Driver overall. Will share that with the other Drivers when we return.

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title) Day 10 of 30 11/28/2020

 Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title)

Day 10 of 30

11/28/2020

As the monster turns away from the Track, “Check Fire again, heading outbound, no need to maybe piss it off. Check for damage, recall Deployed Suits.”

 

Reach down and slow the Track as much as possible to let the Suits catch up. They should be able to sprint and make it.

 

Look over the inventory, down a little, not as bad as maybe it might have been. Overall been a quiet patrol, this is the most amount of combat the whole time.

 

Look at the kid, he seems calm enough in the aftermath.

“Check the cameras, see if the suits have caught up yet, we are at the slowest speed we can be.”

 

It takes the deployed a little while, but they all remount and once they are secured, confirmed by the kid on the Deploy Panel, increase the speed back to where it was before the sighting and engagement.

 

“Good work kid, nice use of the distractors and other Auxiliaries.”

 

“Thank you, sir.”

 

Guess no need to open up the hull, need them till we get back. Back to checking the route ahead based on maps and radar for any obstacles. Looks pretty clear for a while.

 

“Kid, going to close my eyes, trying to rest a little bit. Can you watch for a while more?”

 

I see him move his head in the affirmative direction. Lean the chair back and close my eyes to the humming of the machinery.

 

I feel a shaking in the chair, eyes open up and can tell that it has been a while that I was asleep. The sun has changed position and checking it has been a good three hours that I slept. Look over and the kid has the Driver Panel out on his side, looks like he has been exploring the various functions. Might have a new Driver on our hands here after some formal training back in The City. Can hardly wait to get back. Only a while longer and then I can sleep as much as I need to.

 

“Kid you in charge, going to go eat something and clean up a bit. That ok?”

 

He motions affirmative and glances at the displays before opening up the hatch.

I hear and feel it close behind me and suddenly I am worried. What if he does not let me back into the Driver Section? What if he takes over, kills us all and just drive back to The City all on his own? There is no way to stop that from back in the main section. I go grab an emergency air pack and carry it with me to the cleaning station. It sit right next to me the entire time I am in there. I grab a couple of rations and take them back up front with me.

 

The door opens when I approach and I step through back into my part of the Track. He didn’t kill me, he didn’t kill us, we are all still alive. Will limit my time out of here as much as I can, will limit it, will limit it.

 

Need more sleep, I think.

 

 

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title) Day 9 of 30

 

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title)

Day 9 of 30

11/26/2020

“Target moving outbound. Check all fire. Watch for others.”

 

“You can power down the Aux Panel now. It will slip down under the Drive Panel till next time.”

 

Still have us at half speed, will give it a few more minutes then throttle back to quarter speed to continue heading to The City.

 

“Keep watch though. Just in case it wanders back for another try.”

 

I turn back to the Main Drive Panel. Checking ammo stocks and other diagnostics. Glance at the Ready Panel and still Green across the board. Will leave them that way for a little while longer. Sometimes the big ones will come back even if you had hit them pretty hard.

 

A few minutes later, “Sir, what is this on the Radar?”

 

I lean over and check it out. Something really big is heading our way. Not from the same direction the other one headed to. This is a different thing entirely.

 

“Second target, heading in our direction, man all Guns, man all guns. All Suits prep for close combat.”

 

I point at the panel, “This is larger than the last one. Looks a little slower, still a little ways out. We have maybe 5 minutes before in contact range.”

 

He pulls the Aux Panel back out and readies it.

 

I turn away from the target, hoping again it will miss us or decide to attack something else. It had been a quiet patrol so far. Only a few things sighted and fired on. Driver 1 getting injured was a fluke happening and now with Drive 3 down with issues, this all has to come about.

 

After a little while the Cameras pick it up. We are screwed. Looks like it will get us and it is massive. Might be about the largest creature I have ever seen out here. About 200 meters in length, with a huge body, long tail and massive head full of serrated ridged teeth. Has like ten legs holding it aloft and moving it easily through the heavy terrain.

 

“Target is on the left side, prep both Main Guns and all Side Guns. This one is about twice the size of the prior one. Stand by with all Guns.”

 

“Kid, Drivers have control of the missiles the Track has. They are located on the Panel under the Main Driver Side where I am.”

 

I check the Camera feeds, the mouth opens and roars, cannot hear it or feel the vibration here inside our armor, but everything around us must have felt it at least. It has sighted us and definitely changed direction to cut us off.

 

Suddenly the lights dim, and the recoil from the two Main Guns is felt inside. It is just about in range of the Side Guns and then I see the screens go blank with the flare of energy and projectiles. The kid kicks off the IR Distractors and pops Chaff and Smoke at the same time. The Mains fire again and again with constant action on the Sides. All of them are impacting on the thing, but it does not slow down. Not sure if the Mains are even penetrating the thick armored hide on the head.

 

“Beware Missle Preps, beware.”

 

“Suits deploy once missiles away.”

 

I lock on the neck area and launch a dozen streaks of high energy penetrator rounds from the forward turret. Soon as they streak away the Deploy Board sounds off that all Suits are deployed and they start to fan out and lay more fire into the oncoming monstrosity.

 

It is finally close enough, towering over the Track and all Guns are firing as fast as they can. I launch another dozen missiles into the same spot. That seemed to sting, it roared and lurched a little bit. I can see the suits lumbering around and firing their lasers into the legs trying to disable it.

 

A couple good hits from the Main Guns catches its attention and it leans down and clamps its huge maw on the middle of the track. The PDW and PDGs all fire off at the same time scratching off some of the layers of protective hide armor. The main guns fire point blank into the head while the Side Guns closest rake the underside of it.

 

The kid launches Flares and IR Distractors right into its face as well and it starts to increase the bite. I hear the metal creak and moan with the crushing force. The lights dim as the Mains fire again and again. All weapons are still Green, too close for more missiles while it is still trying to eat us. The Point Defense weapons are firing on continuous with it being so close and all the other Guns are landing rounds and energy into the beast.

 

Finally, some of the shots are affecting it. It seems to shake its head making the whole vehicle shake and shudder. I engage the spikes to grip better and keep us moving as much as we can. Tearing and shrieking sounds come from metal being tortured by the giant fangs of the thing grabbing us.

 

I see ichor spraying out finally from multiple high velocity rounds impacting over and over in the same areas. There are gaps in the armor and now the Shock Cannons and Plasma Lightning Guns are penetrating into the slightly softer interior.

 

It leans back and shrieks, the soundwave rocking us and drowning out the engine and weapons sounds. More fire lashes into it and it rears back and this allows us to drive out from under the head and maw. Now the Tail Gunners can get into the firing more than the Side Guns while the Mains continue. I launch a dozen more missiles and it seems to have gotten the hint.

 

Suddenly with another roar it stopped following us and then a few more Main Guns hits in the head convinced it that we were more work than worth.

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title) Day 8 of 30

 

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title)

Day 8 of 30

11/25/2020

“All status is Green now.”

Look over, he has the Aux panel lit up. Chaff, Flares, IR Distractors, Strobes, and ChemClaymores all at his disposal. Not what he is used to, but I presume he will be steady.

“Main Guns, target is about one minute out. Do not engage unless point blank. This is a large one out there. Side Guns prep to engage.”

Pick it up with the main Gun Cameras. Big one, like I thought hundred some meters long, segmented body, huge head full of teeth as long as a body, and armor plated. Has a good dozen legs holding it about the height of the track off the ground as it moves towards us.

Still hoping it will pass us by, see something else it is interested in more than us.

It turns slightly, head swinging side to side, then straight on intercept course.

“Main Guns acquire and engage.”

Heavy thumps rock the track as both Main Guns fire. The railguns dim the interior lights as they draw the majority of the electric load to recharge and fire again. Takes a few seconds before discharges. I point to the Main Gun cameras for the kid to see the rounds impact.

The Side Guns kick off. I watch lighting arc out as the plasma projectors pump energy into the target. We can see the armor plating starting to get hot and begin to start running. Not going to make much of a difference. Really up to the Main Guns to do the damage. Both sit on the top of the track, able to target all around or at aerial targets.

It seems to be discouraged by the damage heading its way. Must not be that hungry, otherwise likely would just charge right in.

I see two direct hits on the face of it. Both rounds punch into the skull and it shakes it head like it felt it. These things here do not have nerve endings, so they have no sense of pain. Instead you have to do enough damage to discourage, or hit a vital spot and cause fatal wounds. This one must have felt something because it is turning around and heading out now.

All the weapons cease firing once it shows its tail area. Just in case it changes its mind due to some stray shot.

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title) Day 7 of 30

 Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title)

Day 7 of 30

04/24/2020

“Target taken out, check fire, look alive for secondaries.”

“Hey kid, keep an eye out. Just in case something comes to snack on that thing and it looks at us sideways.”

As a Tail Gunner he gets it. If we get chased it is his job to hold it off. If something gets to us, he could be the first to go.

I rev up the engines and increase speed to half. Going about 32 klicks an hour, as fast as I want to risk it right now. Looks like we might get clear when the kid taps my arm and points to the long range radar. Something big heading our way from the side.

“All Guns Man, all Guns Man.”

Announce and turn us away from the closing monster. Big one, about a hundred meters long I estimate. Close rate means we have maybe three or four minutes before engagement.

“Look over there kid’ I point to a separate side display, “shows status of all Guns. Green is manned, Yellow is manned but not ready, Red means unmanned or disabled. Dead Gunner or Gun or some other mechanical.”

Pause, wait for him to respond back.

“Looks like Main Gun 1 and 2 are Green, all side Guns are Green, both Tail Guns are also Green. All ready to go.”

“Good, we got a few minutes to go. Might have to shoot, might not. There is an aux panel a second Driver can man. It is there below the main drive panel. Pull it out and check it out.”

Back to checking the close rate, it slowed down for some reason, we may get out without a fight.

“Check the Deploy Panel one more time, are the Suits ready.”

“Looks like 5 suits are Green, 3 are Yellow, 2 Red.”

“Likely the Red and Yellow are in the suits, just not fully ready. Keep an eye while you look over the Auxes.”

Trial by fire, semi by fire for this one.

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title) Day 6 of 30

 

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title)

Day 6 of 30

04/23/2020

 

Suddenly my chair is shaking, “Wake up, wake up, something is happening.”

Sounds a little excitable, or just nervous.

Rub the eyes, check the screens. Cameras are clear, something is moving on the sonar and there are hints on the radar.

“What, looks pretty clear.”

“I saw something on the Main Gun camera, then it disappeared, for just a second.”

Will slew some more lenses that way. See what it was. Might have been some wind devils or the like.

Takes a minute or so, then get it. Looks like a snake, Estimate about twice our length, maybe about 250 meteres or so, about a 40 centimeters of armor over the whole thing, little faster than we are, and sloughing off the environment like it was born here, which is was. Not a big threat, if it is alone.

“Just a snake, little one, no big deal. Good eyes though. Good eyes.”

Scan about some more.

“Go get me something to eat and drink, don’t care what it is.”

Might have a future someday as a Driver. Will have to have him tested when we return. They can always retool his implants.

Watching the snake, looks like it slithered away somewhere. Might have the nest close by. Hope not too close. Those things are pack animals when it comes to hunting.

Kid comes back, got hot stuff, that is different. Will be good for a while yet. Time to show him a few more systems.

Brappppppp

PDGs going off, check it and something had got close to us. New thing, all round body about a dozen meters big, thick epidemalarmor, rotating fangs in a wide maw right at us.

“Side Gunners, starboard, take it down, single target.”

I feel the chudder of the side guns, see the impacts, watch the ammo feed record the rounds being expended.

The slaved gun cameras record the impacts and the destruction of the thing. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, if it brings other, larger things.

 

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title) Day 5 of 30

 

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title)

Day 5 of 30

Posted 04/22/2020

 

“So, any questions to start with?”

“No, can I just watch for a while?”

Grunt. Back to the task of making sure nothing eats us or unexpected obstacles to go through or around. That is the major part of driving. Staying awake is a massive part of it also. If this child can keep two eyes open long enough to get a nap or two, will be worth the effort to show him anything at all.

“Look around, ask before you touch, and see what you can figure out.”

Back to monitoring the train and tracks, along with internal diagnostics on the stoves, internal air circulation, monitored sleep patterns and even continuous inventory of the rations and ammunitions. All a constant running status of the entire track and all its systems. Which is really what we Drivers do. Watch the Gunners use up the supplies we sign for, sitting around most of the time sleeping or getting off to each other’s sad comments, while we are in charge of ensuring we never stop moving outside of The City. Not moving is Not Alive. Not Alive is detrimental to the concept of getting too old to be sent and finally be able to find someone to settle down with in the space provided once too old to head out again.

Back to task at hand. Only like ten more days till we can pull into The Garage and this thing can shut down. Until then it will not, cannot stop moving. I cannot stop taking care of it. Now if only the others would just all lie down and do nothing for the rest of the mission, or just plug into their weapon mounts and stay there till needed, would be appreciated.

Check, all security hatches are secure. Could open, vent the air out, let the toxic in, take care of the headaches, then just drive on. Too much paperwork to fill out to explain so much ammo left, so few monsters taken out, more hassle than worth.

“You doing ok there watching the screens, got an idea what you are looking at?” See if Tail Gunner is still with it or not.

“Yes, little more stuff, but making some sense. That rock outside, see on the radar and the gun cameras, see with my eyes. Makes sense.”

“Ok, going to close mine for a few moments. Wake me if anything changes or is large outside.”

Recline the seat, close the eyes.

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title) Day 4 of 30

 Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title)

Day 4 of 30

 

Quiet until half way into what would be the next shift of driving. Kept myself going with stims and cafjuice. The Main Gunner came up a few times, seeing on progress. Will take a good ten full sleep cycles to make it back. Not going to be able to stay awake that long. No way to stop the track until we return to The City, coded that way. So will have to nap at some point, have one of them up here against protocol to assist. Might need to look into that spare Tail Gunner, see if it might be up to the task. Could just dump them all, make it back on my own.

Open up the interior comms, “Master Gunner, please come to the drive compartment.”

It takes a little while, then the hatch opens up and someone else comes in. Some other gunner, don’t know any names, comes up.

Young looking kid, male pretty sure, the weapon attachment points prevalent on forearms with ports on his neck.

“Hi, I’m Trale Fiftyseven. I was told that you might need someone to help out:”

Definietly male, totally too young for this. Likely why he is only a Tail Gunner.

“Sit down. Watch that screen there.” Point to the radar

“Radar, maser, feeds from the Main, Side, and Tail Guns along with radio detection and passive detectors. Tell me if you see anything that looks like it is too big to go over, or is moving towards us.”

Simple enough. Anyone should be able to do that much. Slow the speed down to the lowest allowed by the governors and step over behind him.

“So the top overlay is the radar. The sub overlays display the other data corelated to the main radar. The camera feeds are separate and integrated. Shows what is ahead, sides, above and behind. Back there in the Tail I presume you have a similar display slaved to the weapons.”

“Yes Sir, The Shock Cannons are tied into my limbs and the PDW pods to the ports and eyeblink controlled. Been modded to have full autonomous control of my eyes, throat, breathing, heartbeat. So I can speed them all up or stop them as need be. Main Gunners are too old to handle the Side and Tail stresses. That is when they go to the Main Guns and Aux Deployers.”

Never knew about that. Always thought they just grabbed and randomly just plugged away at anything.

 

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title) Day 3 of 30

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title)

Day 3 of 30

 

Review a third time, all looks about quo. Look over the travellog, on track with the planning. Still about 20 full days away from return. Had to detour around some herds, went over an emergent boulder field, and used full spike mode a dozen times. About usual in comparison. All radars, masers, cameras all read clear except for the usual rain and windblown debris.

Shift passes fine, about two thirds done and the hatch opens up. It is the detachment chief. Never heard a name. Sits in the co-driver chair.

“The other driver, the one just off shift. Had to restrain him. Went end, took out a tailgunner, wounded a few other gunners. Tranqed and strapped into the medsection.”

This leaves me alone qual to drive this monstrosity.

“Unhooked a tailgunner, young. Might be able to pick up something, help out.”

“Won’t work. Not wired that way, no training, no reflexes. Just stay up a bit longer than usual. How is Driver One doing?”

“The machines estimate another ten full days before he might be up. Injuries too severe to even wake him yet.”

Time enough to blow the hatches, kill them all, dump them out the chutes and just take my time driving back to The City. Would be easy enough to do. None would fault me at this point. Will still be able to fill it up after I get back.

“Fine, will see how long I last, then will have to stop. This changes the timeframe, heading back early.”

“Fine, fine. We are all ready to be done anyways. Been rough enough already. Lost what a third the complement so far. Not the smooth run it was supposed to be. Do what has to be done.”

He leaves my space, still thinking about the easy course. Will just locate the shortest route. Takes an hour or so, will be past a few active volcanoes, acid lakes, couple known stomping grounds. Likely will make it.

“Primary Gunner, check all weapon stocks. Likely will see some action pretty soon. Changing course back to The City.”

Turn off the comms.

 

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title) Day 2 of 30

 

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title)

Day 2 of 30

 

“Stop shaking me, I’m up.”

The form goes on to the next bunk, shakes that one, then on to the rest.

Least I slept this time. Often just nightmares and re-living of the prior stint driving.

Just toss some water on the face, my turn to wash is not for a week more, and grab something to chew on as I pass up to the front. The steady thrum and throb of the engines, wheel spikes pulling us along, mixed with the hurricane force winds coming off the distant coast all makes for a comfortable and numbing background noise.

Undog the hatch, spin the wheel, enter the driver compartment. Next to the weapons pods, safest place on the whole damn vessel. The armor is the second thickest, shields will drop auto if something is approaching at any real rate of speed, along with being self-contained and able to detach from the rest of it all. Sometimes think about pulling the plug on the others. Hit the emergency bolts, hear the seals drop and feel the rest of the train drop off the back end, unable to move without me there.

Think about it sometimes, think about it.

Just cannot remember any of the other names. None of them matter to me. Been out here too long, too long, too long to keep any of it straight. Pop into the secondary chair, will slide over once alone in here. Check the displays, huge hunk of radioactive ice is ahead, rocks all around, still steady crawling over it all.

“Got it, see you in six.”

He gets up, look over, some wild eyes going on there. Might be up here lot longer than I think, if he cracked, means two of us three are down and the only one left is me.

“Go eat, sleep, now.”

He staggers out, barely gets the hatch sealed. I double check. No reason for me to die if he blows some hatch in his madness. Great, might lose another one. Great.

Day 1/30 #30 Day Of Writing Challenge Title:

There is a new writing challenge on Twitter that has come about.

A great friend of mine, Brent Millis  is taking on a 30 days, minimum 300 words writing challenge, instead of NaNoWriMo (which I am participating in).

Of course I have to dive in as well. Not like I do not have enough else to do correct.

So this is the starting point for my participation in this challenge.

Main portions posted here, linked from Twitter. Once I relaunch my Patreon I will port all of this over there as a free post, the same as Brent has done with his Patreon. 

Known Participants include (All Twitter Handles)

@JunkConnection @SonofSappho @sarahmvermette @wanderumination

 

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title)

Day 1 of 30

Droning vibrations permeated the ground vehicle. Outside was a wash of moldy greens and bile blacks, with the incessant rain seeking entry. The ground was plain old rock, slick with mildew and oil that pools up in cracks and runs in streams and rivulets where possible.

 

Thunder cracks and shakes the interior, dimming lights, and making for tense moments at times. The lightning reflects off the interior control console. Glare and flash blindness is a part of the territory.

 

The rotation driver opens the hatchway into the steering compartment. Plops down in the gunner seat and just stares out the main window. “Lovely weather ehh.” Smartass. “No worse than the last month out here.”

Grunts and he looks at the various screens. Gun cameras, tracking radars, surveillance masers with video backups.

 

“Nothing new, least we are over the half way mark.”

 

Hops into the second driver seat, “Got it.”

Get up, stretch, take a moment to double check the screens, “Later.”

 

Close the hatch behind me. If something does penetrate the glass, should be stopped with the heavy steel frame and airtight proofing. If and should being the main thoughts.

 

The dozen some others of us on board are siting in the main common space. All either ignore me or just grunt. Fine, too long stuck in here. At least in The City you have enough room to be alone, with all the dead space not being used inside it. Here just cooped up, no room at all. Claustrophobia has been bred out of our species, still difficult to be this close, this long, to this many others.

 

I make it to the cooking space, grab a half-eaten ration, finish it off. Inconsequential as to who started it. Not going to waste it. Find a spot to crash. Back up in six hours to drive again. Only three drivers, and one of us, don’t care what their name is, is sick with something or another. Back in isolation, sweating it out in blissful alone time, just steel walls and recirculating air for company. Sounds good about now. Hate them, hate them all, with their opinions and inability to be alone for days at a time.

 

Stuck in this recon. Stuck.

 

 

 

Starting Inspiration is some Pintrest posts from this site

https://worldof3a.tumblr.com