Work Text:
Chapter 40- Debrief
Part 1- Debrief
Alex slowly stumbled his way into the briefing room, stretching his arms out behind his back and letting out a loud long yawn as he did. Bip followed on behind him, a fed-up expression sunken deep into his face. They reached the large circular table in the middle of the room. Alex pulled out one of the chairs next to where Liz was sitting, filling the room with a loud screeching sound as the legs dragged against the floor. He lazily slumped down in the chair.
“Nice of you to finally join us,” General Barker growled
At the front of the table sat General Barker with captain young standing ready behind him. Opposite Alex and Liz sat Calem and Edgar.
“Right now that we’re all here, let's begin,” said Captain young, turning his head to look at Liz. “What were your findings in Checkpoint one A.”
Liz turned her head to return captain young’s gaze.
“Well when we got there the entire place was completely overrun and everyone inside was long dead. It looked like there had been quite a lot of fighting there. The fence facing the city had been completely knocked over on one side and there was a large hole in the other fence which I guess is how they were all getting through,” Liz explained.
“We patched up the fence and eliminated the creatures inside,” Alex chimed in.
“Right, sounds pretty much exactly like what we were expecting, good job,” General Barker said as he turned his head to look at the other pair. “what about you tw…”
“Actually, that’s not it,” Liz said, interrupting The General.
General barker turned back to face Alex and Liz.
“Well then please enlighten us,” General barker said, clearly not too pleased being interrupted.
“While we were trying to put the fence back up, there was someone in the city trying to shoot us,” explained Alex.
Captain Young leaned in closer to the group, his mouth widening slightly in shock.
“Shooting you? You mean someone is still alive in the city… How is that even possible.”
“It would seem like it. Though, lucky for us his aim was a little off,” Liz chuckled.
“Hmmmm, This is definitely concerning, we should send a recon team into the city aspa,” General Barker muttered to himself
“Actually, we have some information that might enlighten things a little more,” Calem chimed in.
Calem lent to one side and reached his hand deep into his pocket. He wiggled his hand around for a moment before pulling out a small square plastic case with a DVD inside. He slid the DVD case across the table to the General.
“When we got there everyone inside the camp was dead… well technically dead I guess. The fence was completely intact though,” continued Calem.
“if the fence wasn’t broken how did everyone die?” Captain young questioned to himself.
General Barker reached out to grab the case.
“We found that in Marleths lab… that should answer all your questions.”
General Barker looked intently over the case before passing it behind him to Captain Young. Captain young grabbed the case from him and pulled it open with a click. He pulled the DVD out of the case as he walked over to the Tv and slotted the DVD into it. He pressed a button on the side of the Tv causing it to suddenly flash to life filling the room with light. A small loading symbol spun around in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.
¬Part 2- Data Log Entry Twenty Three
Suddenly an image of a man in a white lab coat appeared leaning over the camera. The man stood back from the camera revealing the face of an elderly with few tufts of grey hair coming from his otherwise balled head. He healed his glasses in one hand as he rubs the lenses clean with a rag.
“Datalog, entry number twenty-three,” the man said as he raised his glasses to his eye to make sure they were clean. He placed the glasses onto his head. “I am Marloth, for the last few weeks I have been working for the government in order to help them figure out the secret behind necromancy. For the longest time, I thought it was an impossible task, however, last night I had something of a breakthrough."
Marleth jumped slightly as gunfire and yelling began to fill the air from outside.
“Argh… and let me tell you it was made all the harder with all the noise going on all the time!” Marleth yelled towards the door in the back corner of the room. he let out a long breath as he regained his composure. He turned and walked into the back corner of the room off the screen. “Now my breakthrough came… thanks to my little friend here.”
Marleth came walking back into the view of the camera, dragging a wheeled table with a white blanket covering it as he did. Underneath the sheet on the table was a large lump the seemed to shift around and was letting out a low pitched growl. Marleth grabbed the cover and pulled it off with a degree of showmanship revealing one of the decaying creatures strapped down tight. As the creature noticed Marleth, its growling became louder as it in vainly tried to get at him.
“The commanding officer here finally sore reason and let me have a live subject… isn't he wonderful. I looked him over, scanning for any sort of strange magical residue and well… no luck. I did notice something strange, however.”
Marleth reached out and pushed the creature's head out of the way as it tried to bite him. He pulled the creature's hair away from its neck to reveal a strange tattoo of a skull in a triangle made out of daggers.
“I noticed this symbol here and decided to focus my detection on it, and just as I was about to give up I found it, the faintest trace of magical residue. I studied it closely, trying to reverse engineer it and well…”
Marleth walked back to stand in front of the camera.
“You are looking at the first person ever recorded to discover the secret behind necromancy.” Said Marleth, a proud smile stretching across his lips.
“We need more ammo,” came a loud shout from outside.
Marleths smile faded as he closed his eyes and let out a long irritated breath. He regained his composure, reopening his eyes to look directly into the camera.
“Now my theory is that the tattoo acts as a booster. Whatever magic was used most likely couldn’t cover the entire city so the first to be infected were given these marks to, widening the reach of the spell by around three kilometers. Anyway, I traveled up the watchtower and scanned the city for a similar magical residue, and after a little bit of searching noticed the extremely faint residue of a similar spell emanating from the ora headquarters, some office building deep in the city.”
Alex and Liz turned to look at each other with a knowing stare.
A loud explosion sound came from just outside the door in the video, causing Marleth to jump out of his skin. As the sound died down Marleth clenched his fist tightly as his face scrunched up in anger.
“Honestly!” Marleth yelled as he stomped his way over to the door in the back corner. “How the hell do you lot expect me to work under these conditions!”
Without warning the door came flying off its hinges, slamming against the far wall. Marleth looked on in shock as a man dressed in all black carrying a small silenced pistol walked into the room. The man turned his head to look at Marleth.
“W… who the hell are you!” Marleth demanded.
Without a moment's hesitation, the man raised his gun to Marleth. He pulled the trigger sending a bullet flying into Marleths chest, knocking him down to the ground out of the view of the camera. Marleth groaned and breathed heavily as the man approached him, aimed his gun down and shot him again silencing him once and for all. The man stood in the silence looking around the room for a moment before turning around and walking back out of the room.
Part 3- The Next Mission
Captain Young turned his head to look over at Liz and Alex.
“I think we’ve found your assailant,”
General barker scratched his chin as he thought on the video. He turned around in his chair to once again face the group
“The Ora headquarters sounds like that’s where whoever is responsible for this whole mess is camped up,” General Barker said as he pulled himself out of his chair. “ You’ve all proven yourselves so far, but for your next mission we’ll be taking the training wheels off. You’ll all be being sent into the heart of the city to secure that tower and put an end to this once and for all.”
The general began to walk towards the exit followed behind by Captain young.
“You’re all dismissed, you’ll need your rest,” The General said.
The group began to stand up behind him as he exited the room.
“You’ll need it for what’s coming next.”