Rising From the Ashes (MT, Open, IC)

[Virdalonja]

A band of Stalkers had crept into the daylight to greet Colonel Castor and the rest of the Virdalonjan party, a strange, armoured and tracked vehicle sat quietly in the street, painted black and adorned with the Brotherhoods own sigil, this 'half track' was the Brotherhoods key to moving on the surface, it was too large and too heavy for a demon to swoop and it could easily crawl through the swampier regions of Heldur's surface, this was the kind of vehicle they employed when they had an important mission to conduct. The Brotherhood had decided that the easiest route to their capital would be over land, they had no doubt that they could make it there with their new allies, assuming they stayed out of the marshland, or the old botanical gardens.
Those were some of the few places where they'd find mutants big enough to threaten their lumbering ground vehicle, even with the machine guns turrets mounted on the back.

---------- Drowned Station ----------

Colonel Castor had to clamp his mouth shut. The half-track being presented to them was old. Archaic even. Castor had seen similar vehicles in museums back home. back home he mused

He glanced around at his men to check their reactions, then realised what a pointless act it had been. Götze and Dart were stood next to him stonefaced, while the men behind wore their full face rebreather masks. They could be sticking out their tongues for all he knew and be none the wiser.

"Götze get a message back to base, we will be travelling overground to the target. We will keep them appraised. With any luck and with the blessings of the Emperor, we will be back soon"

Castor took note of the clearly expectant looks being directed towards him by the Helduri, wanting a reaction to the grand unveiling of their vehicle. He turned to Dart with a pleasantly surprised expression.

"What a wonderful and sturdy machine! A vehicle fit to carry and protect us all as we travel to your Capital and an honour they you show it to us. We are keen to proceed, shall we?"

Dart turned to translate.

----------Topol, Helduri Coast----------

'Governor' Gaunt stood to one side as a group of medical orderlies hurried past with a trolley laden with supplies. Ah, he thought, a patrol must have returned. And from the number of trolled, only one casualty. That's good.

There was a heavy hissing sound as the air locked doorway at the end of the corridor admitted the orderlies. Gaunt continued to walk forward towards his office. Along the seemingly unending white rectangular corridor. Every corridor in this hellish base looked like this. Brought in on ships the pre constructed base buildings were fixed together on arrival. They were functional, but monotonous and depressing at the same time. It was either step outside into the searing heat of the charred identical wasteland, look south at the black sludgy water stretching into the distance or step inside to the whitewashed walls and unnatural cool of the air conditioning.

He finally arrived at the door to his office. Someone had stuck a note over the word 'Captain' that read 'Governor' in homage to the thankless and repetitive task he had been set by Castor. That bastard. He was off with Götze contacting the locals and Gaunt was back here in charge of babysitting the scientists and researchers who were now arriving in larger numbers. He was told the Romeo Centre was fully constructed, to the same level as Topol was, but there were only so many troops and Mastiffs to transport these new arrivals. What they did have were spread thin already. Barely a day went by without losing someone. They had even lost a Mastiff the other day. The great transport had lucked off of the path and sank into the mud if the swamplands. It was still there Gaunt was told, but they lacked the means of digging it out.

Besides, people didn't want to stay near the swamplands any more. Not after the sighting of the, what did the men call it? the Behemoth. A great towering moaner that had lurched up out of one of the pools of water and stomped its way further into the swamp. People hurried through the swamplands as quickly as possible now.

Gaunt sank down in his chair, clicked his pen and surveyed the pile of paper that had been deposited there in the early morning by Lieutenant Augus, the senior communications officer in Heldur. Gaunt reached out and took the top sheaf, a note was stuck to it. thought you'd like this one was scrawled in Augus' spidery hand.

Gaunt frowned and read the letter. His heart nearly stopped. It mentioned a necessary expansion of operations. Gaunt skim read the letter, looking for that crucial line. He hurried past objectives, reviews and the approved request for further troops. That caught his eye, it was excellent news. Then he saw it. A dedicated official will be posted to Heldur, Topol is particular, to take over the administration side of the operation which was handled excellently by Captain Gaunt... He didn't care about the rest, for a while at least. He jumped up and whooped loudly. Thank the Emperor! He was free!

Sergeant Althon looked curiously at Gaunt's office door, hearing the sounds of jubilation from within. He turned to his companion.

"What has him so excited?"

The trooper beside him shrugged

"A fresh delivery of paperclips?" He responded drily

[Heldur]

The Surface

'I've seen Demons bite through body armour before, it usually stops them taking the arm off completely, especially if its anywhere near as heavy as yours is. But your gear is made from some pretty tough stuff to stop a bite like that from even reaching your skin.' Yalin grinned, 'consider yourself the first out-lander to survive a Demon attack!'



'I actually find a sense of wonderment in it. It's like finding out this dreary landscape wasn't always like this, which to me, and anyone else who isn't ancient is a pretty strange concept. The world as I know it is tunnels and well, you know what the surface is like by now as well as any Stalker. Maybe you don't know all the tricks the Stalkers use to stay alive, but you definitely know what its like to be up here.' Yalin paused for a moment, 'perhaps one day I'll travel to another country to see what life should be like. Although perhaps foreigners will think of me as some kind of savage. Your technology seems to run entirely on electricity to some degree. Ours is still... mechanical, or analog I guess you could say.'
'Have there been many nuclear strikes since the bombs fell here?' Yalin asked, 'I honestly can't say I'm surprised people have banned them overseas. But I guess when it came to dropping the bombs here, they wanted to really test what it would do to a country. They were pretty new from what I'd heard. There was the bombs dropped on Japan... and then we were the next to feel nuclear fire.



Tunnel to Dóchas

The powered railcars arrived and everyone climbed aboard before Yalin and Marcus could continue their conversation. The vehicle's were quite swift when they were unburdoned and the tracks were not only well lit, but also well traveled. Usually the weirdest thing to happen here was for someone to get a case of regular, boring, motion sickness.

'When it comes to the phenomena the doctors often encounter, I don't think it's safe to say that anyone is an expert. However they are experts at calming people who have acted strangely and ensuring you're good enough to stand on your feet again without help. They seem to be good at dealing with anything from panic attacks to gibbering wrecks. Although the amount they could teach him might be minimal at best.' Yalin shrugged as the railcar sped onwards, 'it's still a safe bet. I'll send Jind over to make sure they clear enough space to get you and your guys treated, and to find somewhere safe to stash your gear. You shouldn't be in there too long. Most of you look fine, but I'll start briefing Arlan myself while you're there if you want. You can add your side of the story once you join us.'




Councordian Landing Site


As the sun began to rise over the charred landscape of Heldur, all manner of strange, mutated and unnatural creatures began to move around, nocturnal creatures flitted back into the shadows and those who roamed during the day came out of their hiding places to greet the sun.
Strange birds took to the air and cawed loudly all around, surprised by the sudden arrivals in their midst.

The Councordians were a strange sight to the native beasts, they weren't used to humans coming out so far in such great numbers. They'd seen the odd group of Virdalonjans come close to their territory, but never did they come inside.
As the Councordians began to spread out, various surface creatures began to stalk their movements, although nothing dared come close just yet. They knew humans could be dangerous, especially when in a pack. But the main thing which kept the creatures in the shadows was what dwelled in the clouds above. The creatures would occasionally glance upwards at the thick cloud cover in fear.
In the distance the sound of a large creature flying through the air echoed across the wasteland, the sound was echoed by three more creatures of its kind although none were visible to the new arrivals.
The Councordian signal specialist finally got a lock on the transmission, they had a general direction to travel in, and they had the choice between the edges of the botanical garden, or an old, crumbling industrial sector to traverse the landscape through. Neither path seemed particularly worse than the other... for now.


Drowned Station

The Officer among the Brotherhood Rangers listened intently as Dart translated the Colonel's message. The man grinned and rattled off a more than joyful reply before motioning for the Virdalonjans to mount up alongside his own men.
Some of them clearly weren't coming with them, there wasn't enough room inside the lumbering Half-track, but it was more than easy for the extra men to simply return to Drowned Station.

Dart translated the Officer's reply, 'he picked up on your sarcasm. He said: They might be old, but the engines are sturdy enough to keep turning with even the smallest amount of maintenance. Their fuel economy is shit, but there's not a lot that can stop this thing from trundling onwards to victory.'

As they were mounting up, a young Brotherhood soldier came sprinting up out of Drowned Station flailing his arms and shouting incoherently through his gas mask.
The local officer called a halt and ordered the man to report to him directly. They exchanged words quickly before the Officer grabbed the man and almost threw him back towards the shouting, he immediately ordered the excess men in the unit to follow the young soldier back below. The men nodded and readied their weapons as they headed off at a run.

Castor could hear the faintest echo of gunfire coming up from below as the Officer turned to explain to Dart.

'He says the Communist dogs just launched a raid on the two hundred and fifty meter barricade.' Dart explained to Castor, 'apparently it's a pretty big attack too from the way the officer explained it. Although he seems unconcerned, he'd ask for our help but he knows we need to get to Reich Station immediately.'

The Officer waited for Castors reaction before closing the door on the Half-track and radioing the driver to get the vehicle moving.
The Engines thrummed into life noisily, and the vehicle lurched a little when it began to move, but considering the rough terrain the ride was mostly pretty smooth as the vehicle ploughed through the muck and mutants on the surface with relative ease.

[Virdalonja]

--------Drowned Station----------

Castor nodded as Dart finished his translation and turned to Götze.

"Captain, as a matter of formality I would like you to stay here at Drowned Station as my representative while I travel to Reich Station. Assist the locals as you see fir or they request. Pick 2 men of your choice to stay with you, but not Dart. I need him for obvious reasons" he motioned to Dart to begin explaining to the Brotherhood Officer his intentions.

Götze saluted and gestured to two of his troops, who moved to stand behind him at attention.

"Emperor be with you sir" Götze called as Castor and the others mounted up on the Half-track

"And you, Captain" came Castors reply as the door to the Half-track sealed shut.

As the Half-track rumbled away Götze turned to his two men.

"Any of you speak Lemonian?" He asked

"No sir" came the reply

Götze turned to the group of Stalkers who had been left behind. He saluted and thought hard. He didn't speak Lemonian either.

"Pri-vy-et?" He began. It was more of a question than a greeting. He had no idea if he was correct. He smiled awkwardly at the Stalkers.

[Councordia]

Councordian Landing Site


As the sun began to rise over the charred landscape of Heldur, all manner of strange, mutated and unnatural creatures began to move around, nocturnal creatures flitted back into the shadows and those who roamed during the day came out of their hiding places to greet the sun.
Strange birds took to the air and cawed loudly all around, surprised by the sudden arrivals in their midst.

The Councordians were a strange sight to the native beasts, they weren't used to humans coming out so far in such great numbers. They'd seen the odd group of Virdalonjans come close to their territory, but never did they come inside.
As the Councordians began to spread out, various surface creatures began to stalk their movements, although nothing dared come close just yet. They knew humans could be dangerous, especially when in a pack. But the main thing which kept the creatures in the shadows was what dwelled in the clouds above. The creatures would occasionally glance upwards at the thick cloud cover in fear.
In the distance the sound of a large creature flying through the air echoed across the wasteland, the sound was echoed by three more creatures of its kind although none were visible to the new arrivals.
The Councordian signal specialist finally got a lock on the transmission, they had a general direction to travel in, and they had the choice between the edges of the botanical garden, or an old, crumbling industrial sector to traverse the landscape through. Neither path seemed particularly worse than the other... for now.

Martin blinked through thermal readouts from the perimeter. Things....were moving. He had heard ghost stories about radzones like Heldur. Still, the Adlers' main cannons, computer controlled and able to cover a wide field of fire, should be able to add some oomph to the Mountaineer fire teams that were guarding the perimeter.

"Domine." Hans Jagardssen, his second in command and a member of the ultra-elite Wolfpack, retainers who had served the royal family since the Dark Ages, stepped forward and saluted. "Our ground transport is squared away and ready."

Martin nodded and signalled over the close-band radio. The Mountaineers began to slowly shring the perimeter, replacing fireteams with sensor webs and light auto-turrets. The pilots would stay behind and ensure that the Adlers stayed ready for flight and that the LZ remained secure. Based on what they were seeing...the auto-turrets would need constant replenishment.

Martin settled into the passenger seat of the lead Kriegshund PC-3. The vehicle was far from an APC, but given the weight parameters of the Adlers, Martin was lucky to have them. Eight men per vehicle, an additional gunner on the collapsible turret.

Never in a tank battle. But for Nukeland here? He shrugged.

The two trucks pulled out of the LZ, additional personnel closing the perimeter behind them. The convoy trudged along through an industrial district, drawing closer to the signal that had brought them to this place.

[West Aurelia]

The Surface

'I actually find a sense of wonderment in it. It's like finding out this dreary landscape wasn't always like this, which to me, and anyone else who isn't ancient is a pretty strange concept. The world as I know it is tunnels and well, you know what the surface is like by now as well as any Stalker. Maybe you don't know all the tricks the Stalkers use to stay alive, but you definitely know what its like to be up here.' Yalin paused for a moment, 'perhaps one day I'll travel to another country to see what life should be like. Although perhaps foreigners will think of me as some kind of savage. Your technology seems to run entirely on electricity to some degree. Ours is still... mechanical, or analog I guess you could say.'

"Well, I think I still have a lot to see if I really want to know what it's like up here, and it'll take even longer to learn how to survive on the surface," Marcus replied. "I don't think anyone will think of you as a savage. I certainly don't. You're set back technologically and knowledge-wise, sure, but that doesn't make you a savage. The Helduri people are far more civilized than many indigenous tribes around the world - not to say that they are savages either. Think about it - you guys managed to upgrade a German tank!"

'Have there been many nuclear strikes since the bombs fell here?' Yalin asked, 'I honestly can't say I'm surprised people have banned them overseas. But I guess when it came to dropping the bombs here, they wanted to really test what it would do to a country. They were pretty new from what I'd heard. There was the bombs dropped on Japan... and then we were the next to feel nuclear fire.

"None, actually," Marcus replied. "The world learned its lesson - never again. And we can all be grateful for that. If we want to honor the memories of those who perished, we need to rebuild Heldur and restore it to what it was before."

Tunnel to Dóchas

The Department men climbed into the railcars for the journey back to Dóchas. Their bulky gear made it a tight squeeze, but they made it work. Marcus got into the first car with Yalin, and made sure Kevin was with him. He hoped to God that nothing would go wrong this time, but he wanted to keep an eye on him in case something did. With everyone onboard, the railcars set off, and they were on their way to Dóchas.

'When it comes to the phenomena the doctors often encounter, I don't think it's safe to say that anyone is an expert. However they are experts at calming people who have acted strangely and ensuring you're good enough to stand on your feet again without help. They seem to be good at dealing with anything from panic attacks to gibbering wrecks. Although the amount they could teach him might be minimal at best.' Yalin shrugged as the railcar sped onwards, 'it's still a safe bet. I'll send Jind over to make sure they clear enough space to get you and your guys treated, and to find somewhere safe to stash your gear. You shouldn't be in there too long. Most of you look fine, but I'll start briefing Arlan myself while you're there if you want. You can add your side of the story once you join us.'

"Ah, well, at least it'll be better than nothing," Marcus replied. He didn't really expect Marcus to learn a lot from the Helduri doctors, but a few tips and tricks could potentially be lifesaving.

Kevin spoke up. "Do you think they'll be able to take care of whatever happened to me?" he asked. "From what I've heard, I was a gibbering wreck, and I definitely had a panic attack the first time."

[Heldur]

The Surface- above Drowned Station

The Brotherhood officer nodded in assent and gave the three men who stayed behind a polite nod and a polite salute as a mark of respect.
The journey to Reich seemed much longer than it must have been however, there was an almost awkward silence hanging inside the Half-track as it trundled across the Helduri landscape. The Brotherhood Officer stood, holding onto an overhead bar for support almost casually, he said little and what few men he had with him were generally very quiet. They occasionally muttered between themselves or checked their weapons.
Among the few words that Castor could pick up were 'Drowned' and 'Communist'. The Brotherhood was clearly prepared to fight, especially their hated enemies in the CSH, but the attack clearly had them talking. Drowned had previously never been a target for the CSH war machine, it was too insignificant a target for them, for how well fortified the Brotherhood kept all of its borders. The CSH, unlike their Brotherhood foes was not engaged in a state of total war, which meant they could only focus on major targets, supposedly.


The lead Stalker gave a light shrug and a thumbs up. Close enough. He waved for the Virdalonjans to follow them back down into Drowned.
They raced down through Drowned's tiled corridors, civillians and merchants scrambled to clear the way as the Brotherhood men cried out some kind of battle cant. One young woman was not fast enough to get out of the way of the Stalkers and found herself quite rudely shoved to the side as they carried on at full tilt towards the echoing sounds of fighting.
'Schranke! Schranke!' One of the Stalkers shouted and pointed down a side corridor. They avoided the main thoroughfairs and hallways, prefering not to charge across the occasionally rickety walkways above the flooded halls. The side corridors were cramped but empty, whatever Brotherhood guards they posted to keep watch over their offices and administrative centres had redeployed to the barricades.

They based a makeshift damn with a gantry for guards to patrol not long before they entered the tunnel where the sounds of fighting were coming from. The dam prevented the whole tunnel from flooding, while the Brotherhood wasn't opposed to using a flood to stop the Communists, but flooding the tunnel also meant they couldn't set up a good cordon to hold the Communists back, and the tunnels never flooded enough to prevent anyone with a raft, or even just a good swimming stroke from passing through them. Perhaps it would be used as a last line of defense, but there was no sign of that as they passed it.

The Frontline was around a corner, a heavilly fortified and raised barricade had been erected with a gun turret at either end, men clamored over the walls and milled around waiting to take their place at the firing step. Every now and then one would fall, injured or sometimes even dead as a Communist bullet struck them.

A gantry with some cover led off to the flank to another similar barricade on another track line. However the track which led from that one had long since collapsed into an immovable heap, meaning this barricade didn't simply lengthen the first, it pushed outwards away from the station, giving the defenders a fortified position to flank their opponents.

One of the Stalkers waved for the Virdalonjans to follow them as they rushed onto the gantry.
Bullets flew all around, everything was utter chaos. In the rush to get out of the relative open of the gantry and back into cover it was near impossible to see a thing. But for any of the Virdalonjan soldiers who looked, they were met with a grisly sight. Communist soldiers, far more numerous albeit a little less well equipped than the Brotherhood's men were charging through the open yelling some kind of incoherent war cry.
They ran through the Brotherhood soldiers fire, zig zagging their way through ruined husks of a trio of armoured war machines which seemed to be nothing more than cover on rail wheels, they'd come off the rails and skidded or flipped onto their sides to provide the best cover possible for the soldiers charging up behind them. Some had taken up position on these armoured railcars to fire back as their comrades charged the barricade and attempted to scale it.

As they closed in the Brotherhood defenders began to fix bayonets, the barricade may have been raised, but it was definitely not high enough for the Communists to need special equipment to scale it.
A pair of Communist snipers had taken up position on a gantry near the shadowy entrance into this killzone, their gear was dark and they took cover expertly. Their weapons were large, bulky things which made almost no sound as they fired, or at least not enough noise to be heard over the clamour of battle. But their shots were just as deadly as any regular bullet. Götze passed a Brotherhood soldier who's face had been partially caved in by a large ball bearing. It seemed the snipers were using pneumatic weapons of some kind.

The second barricade was much less populated, the snipers, and return fire had caused a few casualties here, although their main attention was focused on the main barricade. However it seemed that quite a few of the reinforcements to this barricade hadn't made it across the gantry, where they had been relative sitting ducks.
One of the Stalkers climbed up onto the barricade and took his turn firing into the Communist horde.
The other Stalkers took up a waiting position, one offered Götze and his men a cigarette of some kind as they waited.


Surface- Near the Councordian Landing Site

The Councordian Kriegshund's left the LZ without incident, the crumbling industrial sectors streets were littered with debris, burned out cars, rubble from nearby buildings, there was plenty of mud and muck as well, but the ground was relatively dry, more than stable terrain for a heavy duty combat vehicle.
A great, winged creature roared a challenge at the Kriegshunds as they passed by its domain but it made no effort to pursue them, although every creature the Councordians had spied following them darted into the shadows at the creatures roar. Clearly that beast was among the apex predators of the landscape.
They rounded a bend and trundled down a street that looked like many of those which had gone before it. There was a great big office building and a very faded signpost where they could stop to get some kind of a lay of the land here. The people who lived or at least used this sector were long gone, but maybe one of the locations on the signpost would be a likely source of the transmission. Although it wasn't certain. They had a relatively good idea of where the transmission was coming from and the signal was getting stronger and stronger as they continued.


The Surface

Yalin nodded, 'there are plenty of specifics, but you certainly have a gist of what it's like. I don't think there are many people out there I'd call experts of the Surface. My father, for one although he doesn't come up here much any more. He had a friend who's apparently still alive who wandered all over, including up here. I can't remember his name, but I remember him visiting us when I was little.' She paused to ponder the events of her childhood, 'it's strange growing up in an Order Stronghold. And he was probably one of the few people who treated me as a child and not a recruit at all times. He's apparently a Shaman of some repute... Although I've never really bought into their philosophies very much.'
She smiled at the compliment, 'we've tried our best as a society. Although you haven't seen the worse parts of the Metro. I'd say some areas barely classify as savage. We may have been able to hold on far better than many could in our situation. But I fear the wider community will disregard us to some degree. We're broken, shards of a whole. And not only that but our society was quite fond of Nazi Germany back in the day as you may have noticed.' She indicated the book Marcus still had from the library, containing the list of names of all the Nazis who had taken refuge in Heldur after the fall of Berlin in 1945.

'Really? I had no idea that we were the last. I suppose if humanity was going to stop using them... they may as well send them off with a bang.' Jind called from the other side of the Half-track, earning a groan from the others in the troop bay. More than one elbow connected with him in an effort to stop him from telling another, terrible joke. Although his grin failed to disappear despite his comrades attempt to shut him up.

'How do you think we would even go about rebuilding this?' Yalin asked curiously. 'Seems like a nightmare to try and plan something like that.'


Tunnel to Dóchas


'They might be able to help. I think you may need something else however. I'm not saying turn to prayer, but maybe there's something those of us who follow the Shamanic beliefs can do to help you out. Usually those of the Order who become too susceptible to the phenomena on the surface usually get reassigned to the Dóchas Army. Or should I say Dóchas Special Tasks Force. I know it doesn't quite make sense to say the whole Dóchas Army is a Special Forces unit, but they are trained to a very high standard, and the welcome addition of an Order soldier is definitely a boon to them. Their army is a little smaller than you might expect, their training is tough, and most people end up being reassigned within their society.' Yalin smiled, 'I think you've handled things quite well though Kevin, I've seen worse quite a few times. The gas mask incident was worrying though, but I've seen, and heard of people doing things which killed them outright. One guy who was working with one of my recruits killed himself by turning his neck around so fast it snapped. I didn't believe it at first but the recruit actually dragged the guy's body through the tunnel while crying to himself. No one's been down there since too by the way.'



Dóchas

The railcars were parked in a small motor bay and lifted by a small crane off of the tracks for a quick maintenance check. Machines like them were very old, and the technicians were quick to check how the machines had coped with the bulk of the Aurelian's heavy armour.
Yalin went to meet with the Dóchas council and the Order's men began to disperse into Dóchas, quite a few headed to a bar, while a few seemed more eager to see friends and loved ones instead.

Jind remained behind, still holding onto that dumb grin that had appeared on his face after he had told that horrific joke.
'I guess I've just been volunteered to take you guys to the hospital.' He declared with a grin, 'so tourists, care to follow me. Also don't believe any of the children around here who claim to be orphans or some other kind of urchin. They know there's plenty in other stations and try to get away with playing the compassion card to strangers.' He waved a pair of young boys off, 'go on, you two should be in school. Don't look at me like that, I know when school starts. I grew up here!' The boys looked dejected and tried to come up with some excuses but Jind was relentless in driving them off as he led the Aurelians on, 'kids.' He said with a shrug.

The hospital was actually a converted tunnel running between two of the stations that made up Dóchas itself, there were a few and this was a relatively minor one length wise, but with its multiple side rooms it was perfect for a hospital. Dividing walls made of wooden planks, and more often sheet metal had been installed to offer the wards some degree of privacy, as well as rudimentary doors. The beds were clean, and everything here was definitely sterile. There was fresh water, the smell of antiseptic was heavy in the air, mixed with a little bit of alcohol as well. Clearly it was used as a bit of a substitute as a minor antiseptic and pain killer here for more minor cases. Despite their minor pharmaceutical production capabilities the Dóchas doctors were clearly in favour of not wasting the better medicines on people who would be fine without it.
Although from what the Aurelians could tell, the care provided here was far from callous. Nurses and orderlies were quick to respond to patients and doctors patrolled the wards to ensure their charges were in good health.
Some of the people in the beds were clearly not even native to Dóchas. Wearing the sun shades provided to non Dóchas dwellers to help them deal with the much more pervasive, and powerful lighting systems all throughout Dóchas.

Jind walked them up to a small administrative area, displayed his Order dogtags and explained to the receptionist that they needed a secure place to store the Aurelians gear (although he didn't mention they were foreigners to the lady, from the way he told it, Marcus and his team may as well have been his comrades in the Order). The receptionist nodded and began to call in some doctors and support staff to help organise it.

Jind turned to the Aurelians, 'okay, so I've got you a ward and doctor each, and I'll babysit your gear in a storeroom. The big bulky armour I mean. You'll need to take those off, your uniforms you can leave on, unless the doctor tells you otherwise. You're in good hands my friends.'

[Councordia]

Surface- Near the Councordian Landing Site

The Councordian Kriegshund's left the LZ without incident, the crumbling industrial sectors streets were littered with debris, burned out cars, rubble from nearby buildings, there was plenty of mud and muck as well, but the ground was relatively dry, more than stable terrain for a heavy duty combat vehicle.
A great, winged creature roared a challenge at the Kriegshunds as they passed by its domain but it made no effort to pursue them, although every creature the Councordians had spied following them darted into the shadows at the creatures roar. Clearly that beast was among the apex predators of the landscape.
They rounded a bend and trundled down a street that looked like many of those which had gone before it. There was a great big office building and a very faded signpost where they could stop to get some kind of a lay of the land here. The people who lived or at least used this sector were long gone, but maybe one of the locations on the signpost would be a likely source of the transmission. Although it wasn't certain. They had a relatively good idea of where the transmission was coming from and the signal was getting stronger and stronger as they continued.

Councordian Convoy, approaching signal source

The twisted devastation of this place was like nothing the Councordians had seen, in dream or nightmare. The men crossed themselves and recited the Our Father at the sight of the beast, grateful that it did not trouble itself to attack them. The Kriegshunds were sturdy and well armed....but against that hellish apparition?

Martin sighed with relief as they passed its nest unmolested.

The convoy paused briefly at the signpost as the navigator dismounted and compared the barely-legible names on the signs to landmarks on the few, outdated maps they had. He remounted and nodded at the driver. The trucks turned right, flexfuel engines straining over the debris-filled roads.

"Domine." The signalist's voice was tinny in Martin's earpiece. "We seem to be just about at the source."

[Virdalonja]

----------Drowned Station----------

Götze relaxed as it seemed the Stalkers had understood him and followed them inside, his men falling in to step behind him.

As the group entered Drowned Station once again the Stalkers rapidly picked up the pace, civilians racing to get out of their way. Götze briefly turned to his men.

"Well I guess we're off to fight!" He called "let's get off then lads!"

His men, Privates Ard and Selt, unslung their weapons and barrelled on after Götze who was in turn following the Stalkers.

They charged off the main thoroughfare and through the narrower aide tunnels. Götze noticed that all previously posted gushed moved on, civilians were left alone in the station. He whistled to himself as they ran, whatever was hitting the station must be serious if everyone had been called to the front.

The sounds of fighting grew more audible and clearer, Götze was able to pick out shouted commands, which he could not understand, and hear the bangs and pops of the defenders weapons.

They stumbled over a rickety gangplank and upon leaving the tunnel were in a much wider concourse that was a hive of activity. The entire stations force seemed to be concentrated right here, it was shocking to see so many people after such isolation in the tunnels.

Götze looked around appreciating the defensive capabilities of the wall and fire step, a good to defend location with enfolding fire from the flanks. It was perfect. Even more impressive to him were the heavy weapons platforms at either end. These people knew how to fight. A command was relayed down the line of troops and they began to attach bayonets, many seeming to be knives with altered handles to their weapons. Götze turned.

"Straight silver!" He ordered to his men and drew his bayonet. Ard and Selt did the same. Their three well maintained and long slender bayonets gleamed bright silver in the dull light. There were slight clunks as the bayonets were slotted into their rungs on the right side of their rifles barrels.

Götze became aware that a soldier was offering his party some cigarettes. Götze did not smoke but found himself accepting anyway. As he moved to put the butt of the cigarette he stopped and put it into his pocket. He turned to his men.

"Put that out Ard! Masks on!" He unfastened his rebreather mask from his webbing and put it on, locking it in place on his helmet. "These weapons in use here seem to be old and low quality. They may, may, not have the stopping power to penetrate these on a first shot" he rapped his knuckles on the front of the metal mask.

A Brotherhood soldier on the fire step fell back, his chest blossoming with blood. Götze grabbed a Brotherhood soldier who moved to replace him and shook his head. His metal encased and masked head moving as one.

"I'm up" he declared, clicking off the G36A2's safety and took his position on the fire step. Before his was a mass of enemy soldiers firing crude weapons and trying to reach and scale the wall, but the withering fire from the defenders was keeping them back and inflicting heavy losses. These men seemed like actual soldiers he thought, and we are fighting a mob. He picked out a hammer and sickle banner in the Enemy lines. Ah, he finally understood. Communists never did seem to operate with elite soldiers preparing massed charges to overwhelm their opponents. A common trope, but totally true he mused.

He raised his weapon and, with a cry of For the Emperor!, began to fire in accurate and deadly short bursts. The chattering of his weapos clearly audible from the bangs of his allies armaments.

[West Aurelia]

The Surface

She smiled at the compliment, 'we've tried our best as a society. Although you haven't seen the worse parts of the Metro. I'd say some areas barely classify as savage. We may have been able to hold on far better than many could in our situation. But I fear the wider community will disregard us to some degree. We're broken, shards of a whole. And not only that but our society was quite fond of Nazi Germany back in the day as you may have noticed.' She indicated the book Marcus still had from the library, containing the list of names of all the Nazis who had taken refuge in Heldur after the fall of Berlin in 1945.

"Fair enough, I guess you know more about the Metro than I do," Marcus said. All of the stations he'd been to so far were either independent or Commonwealth, in addition to Dóchas, so he hadn't encountered anyone from the CSH or the Brotherhood yet. From what he'd heard, they could easily be considered "savage" by outsiders, especially the Brotherhood. "I doubt anyone would make a big deal of Heldur's World War II alliance with the Nazis - rebuilding Heldur would be a far more pressing priority."

'Really? I had no idea that we were the last. I suppose if humanity was going to stop using them... they may as well send them off with a bang.'

Marcus chuckled at Jind's joke. He supposed that if Jind - a Helduri - could make an insensitive joke, then he could laugh at it. The Helduris he'd met so far didn't seem to make a big deal out of the Soviet bombing, perhaps because most of them weren't around when it happened.

'How do you think we would even go about rebuilding this?' Yalin asked curiously. 'Seems like a nightmare to try and plan something like that.'

"I guess it will be, which is why I'm glad I won't be planning it," Marcus chuckled. "A functioning government, roads, housing, energy, hospitals, schools, an actual economy - all of this will have to be put in place in order to rebuild Heldur. The international community would have to foot the bill, and I hope the brightest minds out there will be able to complete this task."

Tunnel to Dóchas

'They might be able to help. I think you may need something else however. I'm not saying turn to prayer, but maybe there's something those of us who follow the Shamanic beliefs can do to help you out. Usually those of the Order who become too susceptible to the phenomena on the surface usually get reassigned to the Dóchas Army. Or should I say Dóchas Special Tasks Force. I know it doesn't quite make sense to say the whole Dóchas Army is a Special Forces unit, but they are trained to a very high standard, and the welcome addition of an Order soldier is definitely a boon to them. Their army is a little smaller than you might expect, their training is tough, and most people end up being reassigned within their society.'

"I've heard of the Shamans," Marcus replied. "Depending on who I was talking to, they're either wackos or they have actual powers. What can the ones at Dóchas do for us?"

Yalin smiled, 'I think you've handled things quite well though Kevin, I've seen worse quite a few times. The gas mask incident was worrying though, but I've seen, and heard of people doing things which killed them outright. One guy who was working with one of my recruits killed himself by turning his neck around so fast it snapped. I didn't believe it at first but the recruit actually dragged the guy's body through the tunnel while crying to himself. No one's been down there since too by the way.'

Kevin wasn't really relieved. While Yalin had grown up on Heldur, with all its associated horrors, Kevin was an outsider, and after going through something like that, he was understandably terrified. Despite his mental toughness as a special forces operator, he was near his breaking point. "Well, I'm glad that by Heldur's standards I'm doing alright. I just hope that it'll stay this way."

Dóchas

The railcars arrived back in the bustling "city" of Dóchas - thankfully, without incident this time. As a small crane lifted the railcars off the tracks for a maintenance check, Yalin headed off to meat with the higher ups in Dóchas' governance while her men dispersed in all directions. Jind stayed back, and he was still grinning from ear to ear after telling his bad joke back on the surface.

'I guess I've just been volunteered to take you guys to the hospital.' He declared with a grin, 'so tourists, care to follow me. Also don't believe any of the children around here who claim to be orphans or some other kind of urchin. They know there's plenty in other stations and try to get away with playing the compassion card to strangers.' He waved a pair of young boys off, 'go on, you two should be in school. Don't look at me like that, I know when school starts. I grew up here!' The boys looked dejected and tried to come up with some excuses but Jind was relentless in driving them off as he led the Aurelians on, 'kids.' He said with a shrug.

Marcus laughed as the boys walked off to school. Despite the obvious differences between Heldur and the rest of the world, the boys acted just like any other kid, and Jind acted just like any other adult would if they were in the same situation. Human nature transcended borders.

Jind led them a tunnel between two of the stations which constituted the city which had been converted into a hospital. It was clean - by Helduri standards, at least. It reminded Marcus of a military field hospital - not as clean as you'd want it to be, but clean enough based on the circumstances. There were rows of beds, separated by wood, metal, and other assorted items for privacy. Doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff scurried around to cater to patients' needs and assist one another. Several non-Dóchas residents were present - clearly identifiable as they were wearing sun shades to protect their eyes from the unfamiliarly bright lights. Marcus wondered weather they suffered injuries or contracted illnesses while they happened to be in Dóchas or if they had travelled to the city in order to access the higher quality medical care that it offered.

Jind approached a receptionist and displayed his Order dog tags. He explained to her that a secure area was needed to store the West Aurelians' gear, although he refrained from mentioning the fact that they were not Helduris - perhaps for security reasons, perhaps so that they would not draw attention, or perhaps he simply didn't want to explain it. Marcus found this odd, as they were clearly not from Heldur - they were of a different ethnicity, they were much healthier and fitter than an Helduri they had seen, and they spoke a different language among themselves. Whatever the reason, the receptionist quickly called in support staff to get the job done.

Jind turned to the Aurelians, 'okay, so I've got you a ward and doctor each, and I'll babysit your gear in a storeroom. The big bulky armour I mean. You'll need to take those off, your uniforms you can leave on, unless the doctor tells you otherwise. You're in good hands my friends.'

The Department men followed Jind to the storeroom in question, where they removed their gear and stored it away. The process took awhile, as the exoskeletons and armor had to be carefully stored in order to prevent damage. The men stretched their muscles as they adjusted to the feeling of not having a powered exoskeleton to enhance movement around their bodies. Marcus thanked Jind for his help and led his men back to the hospital, where they were met by their individual doctors - incredible, considering the strain on human resources individualized doctors could cause in a place like Heldur. Marcus hoped they were in good hands.

[Heldur]

Councordian Convoy, Ruins of North Varhall


The Councordian convoy rounded a corner and found themselves looking at what might have once been a street filled with embassies to foreign countries.
Burned out and crumbling remains of cars littered the street, some of which must have been worth a fortune in their day. Everything here was quiet save for the signal, which had grown powerful enough to come across perfectly clear, as if the man who had spoken the message was right outside.

Hello, is anyone out there that can hear me?
My name is Colban of the Able Station Guard
There A=are survivors inside the Varhal Metro system in Heldur, thousands of survivors.
I repeat, there are survivors inside the Varhal Metro Systems, if you can hear me, please. Please respond!

As the convoy began to trundle down the street, they began to notice bodies, dozens of them lying on the street. Mutants mostly, there was a soldier who's uniform indicated he had once come from Toishima, before he had been mauled and gnawed on by the native fauna. The creatures had been blasted apart by heavy, modern firearms, probably vehicle mounted.
The Councordians were not the first to have reached the signal source.

As they continued further on, occasionally stopping to check a promising looking building, a wave of sleepiness washed over the whole convoy, it lasted for only a moment, but in that moment they all saw a vision.
A vision of Heldur before the bombs fell. A vision of an unseasonably warm autumn afternoon. The sound of people talking, cars driving in the distance, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones wafted down from an open Embassy window and the smell of coffee drifted from a nearby cafe, nestled between two imposing embassies.
The vision disappeared almost immediately, but when the Councordian's blinked, and looked at each other, they could tell they had all seen the same thing.


They approached a boarded up and fortified embassy, the door had been removed and recently replaced with a heavy, steel one, the windows had been filled in as well, although the walls were dirty and decrepit, the building had, in recent days seen some repair.

The door burst open as the convoy arrived and a man covered in head to toe in heavy, plated armour and wearing an old, bulky gas mask stepped out into the light. He shielded his eyes from the sun with one hand, which clutched a bulky, makeshift automatic firearm. He waved for the convoy to stop with his empty hand. Desperately motioning for them to disembark and get inside the embassy.


Drowned Station

A whistle blew deep in the tunnel from where the CSH had come from and a great roaring battle cry followed it as another wave emerged from the tunnel guns blazing. Their opening barrage did little than to force the defenders to take cover for a moment, but that was enough to get them halfway across the concourse. The Brotherhood soldiers fired back with brutal efficiency, what they lacked in numbers they made up for in experience. However the CSH soldiers who had managed to take cover were continuing to be a nuisance in the Brotherhoods plan. The snipers continued to take out a soldier every now and then, and the entrenched CSH soldiers returned fire heavily, there was little for the defenders to do about them if they wanted to stop the rest of their comrades from reaching the wall.
It was chaotic, but Götze's added fire power helped turn the tide on this wave. He managed to gun down a couple of entrenched CSH soldiers as well, giving the rest of the defenders some breathing room.

For a moment, the two CSH snipers disappeared, possibly out of ammunition, and things began to calm down. With no support, the entrenched CSH units stopped firing, and the defenders did likewise with no targets to aim for there was no point. A few of the Brotherhood soldiers taunted the now stranded attackers. It seemed they had won.

Then the whistle blew again and chaos returned.
It was hellish and there were more men again in this wave, halfway through the assault, the snipers returned and began to focus on the defenders trying to batter and stab the CSH soldiers attempting to scale the barricade. Occasionally they hit there own men, but with their supporting fire, the CSH was able to begin to scale the walls and gain the tinniest of footholds.
It was in this moment, halfway through the wave that the whistle blew again. When this wave emerges, Götze immediately noticies something different about it. The center of the unit is made up of well equipped, heavilly armoured soldiers, using the conscripts in front of them as unknowing meat shields.
They take up a firing position as the conscripts bellow and scream into the barricade, joining their companions in scaling the walls, bayonets glinting in the emergency lighting of the concourse.

The elite soldiers focus their fire on the second barricade, sending Götze and many of the other men manning it into cover. Their guns were a far cry from the conscripts, properly maintained and well made, even if by local gunsmiths. The man next to Götze was too slow and a high powered rifle took his head clean off. He slumped to the ground and was replaced by Ard.

One of the Stalkers they had arrived with was shouting something at the men waiting for their turn on the firing step, nervous glances were thrown around before the Stalker was handed a semi auto marksmans rifle. He climbed down from the firing step and walked to the far side of the concourse, trying to take a position to help clear the other barricade without exposing himself to the attackers. From his little corner he began to try in vain to clear the attackers off the barricade, who were engaging the defenders in a brutal, swirling melee.

Things were getting bad, but the emergence of the elite unit seemed to be the last of what the CSH had in store for the Brotherhood. No more whistle blasts sounded in the tunnels, and considering how many men they had sent, there couldn't be many more if there were any reserves. It surprised Götze that they had sent this many men to begin with.


The Surface

'The Order is well travelled, I think we're the closest thing to experts when it comes to the Metro and its inhabitants. Most Stations have some form of border control, a lot of them use these realy basic passports or identity cards, our uniform and dogtags get us through pretty much any cordon you can think of. We can even enter Crossroad station, it's a part of the CSH that connects with multiple lines, the last major war down here was fought over that station, in the end the CSH was allowed to control it if the allowed outsiders to pass through. It's far from simple to get through, but they accept our presence well enough.' She paused to consider Marcus's statement, 'I honestly hope they do. The last thing we need is people becoming worried about our past connections.'

'If they appreciate a challenge then I have no doubt they will. Unfortunately I think my Order is going to be very busy when it comes to rebuilding. At the very least we'll be helping to provide security, at most we'll be establishing order throughout the Metro, quite possibly at gunpoint when it comes to certain groups. I hate to admit it, but I can think of a couple of stations that we'll have to clear out completely to help rebuild, their inhabitants are wild and savage and I don't think there's any hope for them honestly.'


Tunnel to Dóchas

There aren't any true Shaman living in Dóchas, there's usually a few passing through though. As a whole, Dóchas doesn't quite approve of their whole supperstition regarding Metro phenomena, but their faith has become popular down in the tunnels, so they're often treated as itinerant priests. Those who believe in Dóchas probably can't do anything the Shaman claim to be capable of, but they know how and where to find the one's that can. Just don't ask them about their beliefs and you won't have to sit through hours worth of ramblings.' Yalin shrugged, 'at least they accept that there usually is a rational explanation in Dóchas as well. Some people believe that science is a dying beast in the Metro and we should embrace the Shamanic way entirely. They, thankfully are in the minority.'

Yalin put an armoured glove on Kevin's shoulder, 'I'm sure you'll be fine. As I said, I've seen worse, and some people think that people build up a little immunity to it over time if it affects them. I'm not sure if that's true, but you've managed to survive it so far, so I don't think it'll get you killed.'


Dóchas

The Department men were each led by a member of the hospital staff to a ward of their own.
In each Ward, a nurse waited for them, and some had Doctors waiting for the full body examination. The nurses were quick to mention to the Department soldiers that the doctors would be in to see them shortly once they had seen to some other patients.
The medical care was actually as good as anyone could expect from a military hospital, they lacked modern medical equipment, but what they had was sterile, well kept and held in hands that knew what they were doing.
Each soldier was asked to step into a decontamination shower quickly before everything could begin, both their clothes and their bodies were cleaned to ensure they were clear of radiation and then the Doctors set about giving them a quick examination, asking them a few questions about how they were doing both physically and mentally and checking any minor injuries they may have.
In the end they were released, one by one, once their doctors were sure they were in good condition.
Of course each doctor was impressed by their physical well being, none of them had seen anyone in as good a condition as them in their entire careers.
Kevin was handed a small totem that looked like an Eagle by a nurse as he left. 'It's a Shamanic totem, it may bring you peace when in places where things ignore the laws of reality.' she explained, 'I hope it keeps you safe.'

Jind was right where they left him, looking over their things. Marcus was the first back from his check up and he found him trying to explain who the Department men were to the Receptionist and a senior looking Doctor. The two had clearly been pressing him hard for details and he looked like he was running out of answers pretty quickly, to the point where when he spotted Marcus he almost looked at him pleadingly to save him from this sudden inquisition.

[Councordia]

Councordian Convoy, Ruins of North Varhall


The Councordian convoy rounded a corner and found themselves looking at what might have once been a street filled with embassies to foreign countries.
Burned out and crumbling remains of cars littered the street, some of which must have been worth a fortune in their day. Everything here was quiet save for the signal, which had grown powerful enough to come across perfectly clear, as if the man who had spoken the message was right outside.

Hello, is anyone out there that can hear me?
My name is Colban of the Able Station Guard
There A=are survivors inside the Varhal Metro system in Heldur, thousands of survivors.
I repeat, there are survivors inside the Varhal Metro Systems, if you can hear me, please. Please respond!


As the convoy began to trundle down the street, they began to notice bodies, dozens of them lying on the street. Mutants mostly, there was a soldier who's uniform indicated he had once come from Toishima, before he had been mauled and gnawed on by the native fauna. The creatures had been blasted apart by heavy, modern firearms, probably vehicle mounted.
The Councordians were not the first to have reached the signal source.

As they continued further on, occasionally stopping to check a promising looking building, a wave of sleepiness washed over the whole convoy, it lasted for only a moment, but in that moment they all saw a vision.
A vision of Heldur before the bombs fell. A vision of an unseasonably warm autumn afternoon. The sound of people talking, cars driving in the distance, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones wafted down from an open Embassy window and the smell of coffee drifted from a nearby cafe, nestled between two imposing embassies.
The vision disappeared almost immediately, but when the Councordian's blinked, and looked at each other, they could tell they had all seen the same thing.


They approached a boarded up and fortified embassy, the door had been removed and recently replaced with a heavy, steel one, the windows had been filled in as well, although the walls were dirty and decrepit, the building had, in recent days seen some repair.

The door burst open as the convoy arrived and a man covered in head to toe in heavy, plated armour and wearing an old, bulky gas mask stepped out into the light. He shielded his eyes from the sun with one hand, which clutched a bulky, makeshift automatic firearm. He waved for the convoy to stop with his empty hand. Desperately motioning for them to disembark and get inside the embassy.

Martin could feel the tension rising as they approached the embassy, keeping radio silence, the signal getting louder and clearer in his headset. By now he had memorized it, could play it over and over in his head.

"Confirm, armed and armored individual, appears friendly." The turret gunner's voice was tense. "Appears concerned."

"Keep your eyes peeled for threats." Martin was surprised at the calmness in his own voice. It belied the feeling in his gut. Something was deeply wrong with this place, more than just radiation.
Something dark.
"I want standard building entry following his directions, Hans will take point, I will lead the right flank. Park the Kriegshunds in armored redoubt to protect the door, turret gunners and drivers will maintain that perimeter...retreat azimuth is into the Embassy."

The trucks rumbled to a halt just outside the door, pulling forward so their more heavily armored rear panels faced out from the embassy door, forming a 'v' shape...an instant redoubt just before the heavy steel doors. Mountaineers swarmed out the inner doors, rifles low and to the ready, following the odd figure who waved them on and then ducked inside.

Martin made sure his men were safely into the doors before he turned to the man, who had lingered just past the threshold, urgently waving them in. "I am Martin Sautter, of the Kingdom of Councordia. We received your signal and are here to ascertain what aid we can offer."

[West Aurelia]

The Surface

'If they appreciate a challenge then I have no doubt they will. Unfortunately I think my Order is going to be very busy when it comes to rebuilding. At the very least we'll be helping to provide security, at most we'll be establishing order throughout the Metro, quite possibly at gunpoint when it comes to certain groups. I hate to admit it, but I can think of a couple of stations that we'll have to clear out completely to help rebuild, their inhabitants are wild and savage and I don't think there's any hope for them honestly.'

"I'd hate to do it, but if we need to clear stations out, then it should be done as a last resort. We should at least try to talk to them first," Marcus replied. "Which stations do you have in mind? Are they mainly from the Brotherhood or the CSH?"

Tunnel to Dóchas

Yalin put an armoured glove on Kevin's shoulder, 'I'm sure you'll be fine. As I said, I've seen worse, and some people think that people build up a little immunity to it over time if it affects them. I'm not sure if that's true, but you've managed to survive it so far, so I don't think it'll get you killed.'

This comforted the soldier slightly. "If there's a chance I could build up an immunity to whatever is affecting me, I guess that's better than nothing," he remarked.

Dóchas

Each of the West Aurelians were taken to a private medical ward, where nurses and doctors were waiting. They certainly knew what they were doing. Each of the men were made to take a decontamination shower to remove any traces of radiation, and their clothes were also inspected. Once they were out, the doctors began full body examinations, checking for any injuries and also making sure that they were in sound mental states. The doctors were clearly and understandably surprised at their level of health and fitness, as it surpassed anything that was to be expected of a local Helduri. Fortunately for the men, none of them had any outstanding conditions, including both Marcus and Kevin. They were released by the doctors.

Just as he was about to leave, a nurse handed Kevin a small totem which resembled an eagle.

'It's a Shamanic totem, it may bring you peace when in places where things ignore the laws of reality.' she explained, 'I hope it keeps you safe.'

He was touched by the gesture, even though he was skeptical about its abilities. Then again, this was Heldur, and as proved time and time again, anything could happen. Thanking the nurse, he carefully placed the totem in one of his tactical pouches, and hoped that by some miracle it would help him get out of Heldur alive.

Marcus returned to the storage area where they had left their equipment, where he found Jind trying to explain who the West Aurelians were to the receptionist from earlier and a senior-looking doctor. He was clearly running out of things to say, and as he spotted Marcus approaching, he turned and gave a pleading look for help. Marcus was unsure about what to do in this situation. He pulled Jind over and whispered in his ear, "Is there any reason our identity has to remain confidential?"

[Virdalonja]

A whistle blew deep in the tunnel from where the CSH had come from and a great roaring battle cry followed it as another wave emerged from the tunnel guns blazing. Their opening barrage did little than to force the defenders to take cover for a moment, but that was enough to get them halfway across the concourse. The Brotherhood soldiers fired back with brutal efficiency, what they lacked in numbers they made up for in experience. However the CSH soldiers who had managed to take cover were continuing to be a nuisance in the Brotherhoods plan. The snipers continued to take out a soldier every now and then, and the entrenched CSH soldiers returned fire heavily, there was little for the defenders to do about them if they wanted to stop the rest of their comrades from reaching the wall.
It was chaotic, but Götze's added fire power helped turn the tide on this wave. He managed to gun down a couple of entrenched CSH soldiers as well, giving the rest of the defenders some breathing room.

For a moment, the two CSH snipers disappeared, possibly out of ammunition, and things began to calm down. With no support, the entrenched CSH units stopped firing, and the defenders did likewise with no targets to aim for there was no point. A few of the Brotherhood soldiers taunted the now stranded attackers. It seemed they had won.

Then the whistle blew again and chaos returned.
It was hellish and there were more men again in this wave, halfway through the assault, the snipers returned and began to focus on the defenders trying to batter and stab the CSH soldiers attempting to scale the barricade. Occasionally they hit there own men, but with their supporting fire, the CSH was able to begin to scale the walls and gain the tinniest of footholds.
It was in this moment, halfway through the wave that the whistle blew again. When this wave emerges, Götze immediately noticies something different about it. The center of the unit is made up of well equipped, heavilly armoured soldiers, using the conscripts in front of them as unknowing meat shields.
They take up a firing position as the conscripts bellow and scream into the barricade, joining their companions in scaling the walls, bayonets glinting in the emergency lighting of the concourse.

The elite soldiers focus their fire on the second barricade, sending Götze and many of the other men manning it into cover. Their guns were a far cry from the conscripts, properly maintained and well made, even if by local gunsmiths. The man next to Götze was too slow and a high powered rifle took his head clean off. He slumped to the ground and was replaced by Ard.

One of the Stalkers they had arrived with was shouting something at the men waiting for their turn on the firing step, nervous glances were thrown around before the Stalker was handed a semi auto marksmans rifle. He climbed down from the firing step and walked to the far side of the concourse, trying to take a position to help clear the other barricade without exposing himself to the attackers. From his little corner he began to try in vain to clear the attackers off the barricade, who were engaging the defenders in a brutal, swirling melee.

Things were getting bad, but the emergence of the elite unit seemed to be the last of what the CSH had in store for the Brotherhood. No more whistle blasts sounded in the tunnels, and considering how many men they had sent, there couldn't be many more if there were any reserves. It surprised Götze that they had sent this many men to begin with.

----------Drowned Station----------

Götze ducked as a fresh wave of fire erupted from the sudden charge of communist fighters. The fire came in a sporadic hail as they struggled to charge and climb over the bodies of their comrades. He cast a cursory glance over to the Stalkers on his right who were in melee against the attackers; they looked like they would hold- hopefully.

The man immediately to Götze's left head exploded in a spray of gore as it was taken almost clean off. This was a weapon with stopping power far greater than the weapons previously employed in the battle by the attackers. Götze risked a glance over the barricade and saw the elite troops pushing forwards, shoving their lighter armed comrades forward to soak the enemies fire.

Götze pushed the twitching Stalkers body off of the parapet and motioned to his men to join him, shouting would have been lost due to the cacophony of noise confined within the tunnel. Once they had reached him he leant in to Ard and pointed over the barricade towards the elite troops.

"See them!? Good" he shouted into his ear "Bring them down. Use everything!"

His men nodded their affirmation and leant against the firestep laying down a torrent of fire perpetuated by the throwing of their last 2 grenades. Götze checked his ammunition. 1 clip left. He grimaced and took his position. Either these elite troops went down fast or it was down to his sidearm, and following that what then?

[Heldur]

Listening Post Able

The armoured figure beckoned the Mountaineers and Martin inside, he closed the door and quickly moved some heavy bars in place to hold the door closed.
'Don't want the neighbours getting inside.' The man explained before taking his gas mask off. 'In here the air's clean enough to breathe, although it's not exactly aromatic so no one will be offended if you leave your masks on. Follow me to the meeting room, we'll explain things there.'

The man led them through a number of corridors and up a flight of stairs, up here the air was less rank smelling and there were far more people bustling back and forth. The top of the stairs was guarded by a small guard post equipped with a small, but clearly working flamethrower. It was a short walk from the stairs into an old conference room. An series of curved mahogony tables made a large circle in the center of the room and within this stood a rectangular table made out of reforged scrap metal. This table was covered in maps, some global, some national. A big map of Varhal itself had been hung up on the far wall. On the wall to the entrance's left a trio of flags had been hung from the ceiling. Men and women dressed in similar, armoured hazmat gear buzzed around the room doing all manner of jobs. All of them were armed, although only a few looked like actual soldiers.

'Captain!' The man who had waved Martin and his team inside shouted over the bustling 'meeting room'.

A heavy set man turned his gaze away from the map of Varhal, at the sight of Martin and his team he waved his companions away and stepped over towards Martin, he held out his hand, 'Captain Roves, Able Station Stalkers, and now apparently Embassador to the surface for the fine remnants of this nation.'
After introductions were out of the way he guided Martin over to a nearby desk.
'Any aid you can offer would be thoroughly appreciated friend.' Roves grinned, 'And if you have any questions I'd be more than happy to fill you in. For starters, we've spent the past few decades living underground. Inside bunkers or the fortified Metro system. Over the years though, travel's become harder and each Metro Station has turned into a separate state of its own to some degree. We have a few factions and alliances down here, they're marked on this map, although their territory is underground, not on the surface as you might imagine. Want me to go into any detail on anything you see here?'



The Surface

'If possible I'd rather talk, but that's not an option with quite a few fringe stations. We cleared one not too long ago, a few years back when I'd just graduated from the Cadets. It was filled with nothing but deranged, savage madmen and cannibals. No one's been back there to check what became of that station, but their neighbours were happy that the denizens of that station had stopped raiding them.' Yalin shrugged, 'as much as I'd like to see the CSH and Brotherhood taken out, which may even be inevitable, savage stations will need to be handled first. It's territory the other stations in our little alliance can grow into. Possibly even as just a big pig and mushroom farm. All the dreams aside, there's a lot of Order that needs to be brought to the outer rings of the Metro.'


Dóchas

'Well,' Jind muttered in reply, 'I thought it'd be hard to explain who you are and why you're here. These two pushed me until I said you weren't from Varhal and now they're just bombarding me with questions. I'd rather not have a scene here. The Outlander presence hasn't been officially confirmed just yet, it's on a need to know basis until it won't interfere with us using Dóchas as a base of operations. I know you guys aren't really conspicuous but trust me, if we openly admit it we'd have the whole place in an uproar.'

He looked over his shoulder momentarily, the Doctor and Nurse were still glaring at him, 'In some outer station that would be fine, but there are over two thousand people here, too many to fit into any one station, although they'd try it to get a glimpse of you guys. Plus I'm not important enough to make decisions with consequences this big. Maybe we can ask these two to swear to secrecy for the time being? That'll make it easier to get back to the meeting room so we can go off and be big heroes again.'


Drowned Station

The grenades and increased barrage took their toll on the elite Communist infantry. Half a dozen of them were killed or wounded by now, and a few of them were making an effort to start pulling back to safety. Dragging their wounded comrades out of the killzone, or getting frightened, out of ammo conscripts to do it for them.
They responded with a hail of fire of their own, forcing the men guarding second barricade, Götze and his men included to take cover. A few Brotherhood men were taken down by this return fire once more and the last of their reinforcements tentatively took their place on the firing step.

Not long after their bloody duel with the Elite troops began however, a great cheer rose up from the main barricade as the last Conscripts were either killed or driven off the wall. The armoured Brotherhood soldiers manning the defenses took up their heavy defensive weapons again. The air was filled once more by the mounted machine guns firing lead all over the Communists improvised cover. The ragged defenders on the rest of the barricade didn't follow suit, instead they began to clear bodies and bring forward more ammunition for the gunners. All of the Brotherhood men over on that side were visibly tired, yet they carried on fighting tenaciously.

The Elite Communists began to retreat in earnest, firing back as they flitted from cover to cover. By the time they were well and truly gone, the destruction wrought by the two sides had become blatantly obvious to Götze. From his slightly elevated position he could see the dozens upon dozens of bodies of Communist and Brotherhood alike. The Brotherhood's better equipped fighters had won the day, but their casualties would be difficult to replace in the long run.
Throughout his time in Drowned Station, Götze had seen only a bare handful of women and only a single child. If things continued like this, the Brotherhood might crumble sooner rather than later.

But for the moment they were victorious, and the cheers of the defenders echoed throughout the concourse.
Somewhere behind the guard post someone cracked open a cask of some form of alcohol and the men started handing around metal mugs filled with a clear liquid.

When Götze and his men took of their masks, the smell of gunpowder was thick in the air. While quite a few of the Brotherhoods men were making their way over to the cask of alcohol for a drink, many more were scavenging the dead, from both sides for bullets, weapons and scraps of armour, both broken and pristine. It looked like they didn't plan on letting anything go to waste.

For the moment, Götze seemed to have been forgotten, although whenever a Brotherhood soldier did glance at him, he earned a nod of respect. While the locals might not quite know what to do with him, they certainly wouldn't forget how he had helped them.

[Councordia]

Martin had removed his helmet. A young face with cold gray eyes surveyed the map. He shook his head, bewildered that so many could survive in this blasted wasteland.

"We came here to give aid to whatever survivors there were. My father the King has sent a naval task force. Battleships and medical cargo. We were here to locate the survivors and best distribute those resources before they arrive." He gestured to the map. "Clearly, there are far more survivors than we expected."
He looked back at the captain. "What are the major factions here in Heldur, and what are their agendas? And which one do you come from?"

[West Aurelia]

Sorry for the late and short reply, but I had some work I had to get through.

Dóchas

'Well,' Jind muttered in reply, 'I thought it'd be hard to explain who you are and why you're here. These two pushed me until I said you weren't from Varhal and now they're just bombarding me with questions. I'd rather not have a scene here. The Outlander presence hasn't been officially confirmed just yet, it's on a need to know basis until it won't interfere with us using Dóchas as a base of operations. I know you guys aren't really conspicuous but trust me, if we openly admit it we'd have the whole place in an uproar.'

"Right, I was not made aware of that," Marcus replied. While he understood the need for secrecy, the West Aurelians had already been seen by a whole host of Helduris across a range of stations, and it was obvious that they were not locals. Surely people already knew...

He looked over his shoulder momentarily, the Doctor and Nurse were still glaring at him, 'In some outer station that would be fine, but there are over two thousand people here, too many to fit into any one station, although they'd try it to get a glimpse of you guys. Plus I'm not important enough to make decisions with consequences this big. Maybe we can ask these two to swear to secrecy for the time being? That'll make it easier to get back to the meeting room so we can go off and be big heroes again.'

"I'm not exactly familiar with the protocol here either," Marcus whispered. "However important you are, in terms of calls like this, you have more say than I do. Although I doubt it matters if you tell them - it's only a matter of time before word gets out - if it hasn't already - and I'm sure the rumor mill is spinning like it never has before. In the end it's your call."

Marcus glanced up at the doctor and the receptionist before an idea popped into his mind. "Say, does physician-patient confidentiality exist in Heldur?" he asked hopefully. Although the man wasn't actually his doctor and the receptionist wasn't a doctor at all, it was all he could come up with at the moment.

[Virdalonja]

----------Drowned Station----------

Götze slumped against the perimeter wall of the defences and took a long and deep breath in. It was not so much physical exhaustion that had hit him, but the lull and crash you felt post-battle. He immediately regretted the deep breath as he sucked in the strong aromas of blood and gunpowder. He looked up at his men who were removing their masks.

"You guys alright?"

His men gave him silent nods as they fumbled with their equipment. They evidently felt the same way as he did about this. This was not the sort of battle he was used to. He had served against other nations, soldiers wearing a uniform and anothers flag. He had fought insurgents too, distinguished by their own motives and actions. This battle something different. He did not really know who he was fighting or who he was fighting against, except that they were communists. At the time they were trying to kill him, and that was reason enough to fight them.

He sighed at the futility of the combat too. The notion that hundreds were dying fighting over subway stations below a nuclear wasteland commanded its own area of black humour. Despite himself, he laughed.

(will have a post about Topol soon)

[Heldur]

Listening Post Able

'I've heard that more than once.' Roves grinned, 'our forebears built to last, and we're just lucky that in response to Soviet aircraft entering our airspace, as many people as possible fled down to the Metro to use it as a bomb shelter. As for the main factions,' Roves began to point out the factions and their territory on the map, 'first off there's the CSH, Communist Stations of Heldur, they own the whole North end of the Metro up until this part here, that's a DMZ between the CSH and the City State of Dóchas. More on them later. The CSH and its views are kind of what you'd expect from a group dedicated to Communism. Everything's owned by the state, run by the people and sometimes people who aren't as zealous about their ongoing 'revolution' disappear. At least that's what I've heard from people who've had to leave their stations, on the other hand they're well known for setting up electricity and providing food and basic medical care to all of their stations.'
Roves's finger moved over to a patch of the map which had been coloured in charcoal, unlike the CSH it didn't cover entire an entire line of the Metro, instead it ran across a number of junctions, and seemed to have expanded outwards from there. 'This is the area controlled by the Brotherhood, short version, loud obnoxious and dangerous, very nationalistic and not too fond of outsiders, Fascists in other words. They're fond of announcing how brutal they are to the outside and are almost always skirmishing with the CSH, sometimes it gets a little more heated, but at least they direct their anger away from decent folk. The last Two factions are gradually becoming one, the Commonwealth and Dóchas itself. The Commonwealth is an Oligarchy that thrives off of trade, Dóchas is more of a meritocracy that clings to old world knowledge, rather well I might add.'

'Personally however, me and my team belong to an independent Metro Station named Able, we're friends of the Commonwealths and we've worked to help ferry people to Dóchas that arrive from outside the country. I actually made first contact with a bunch calling themselves West Aurelians not too long ago. And Colban over there is our mechanical genius who got this place up and running in the first place. So, what do you think of our wonderful country so far?'




Dóchas

'It's a quickly spreading rumour, but we've tried to keep it somewhat quiet, for instance few people outside this particular disctrict of Dóchas probably haven't heard more than whispers so far. Don't worry about the continued secrecy however, once the rest of your forces arrive, the local officials will make the announcement Metro Wide, or at least send it as far out as they can. The Commonwealth, to my knowledge is in on that particular plan as well, and they've already begun setting up a communications wire to allow Dóchas and the Commonwealth Capital of Hanza to communicate much more quickly. We're not backing out on any of our promises to my knowledge. With all the help you and yours have offered I think it'd be anything but monstrous to back down from any of our agreements.'

The Doctor wringed his hands when Marcus asked him, 'well I suppose it does. If you can't trust your doctor, who can you trust?' He glanced at the receptionist, 'the same usually cannot be said for receptionists. Would you care to leave the room miss?'

'I think I'll wait right here,' The receptionist crossed her arms, 'their presence has disrupted quite a bit, and while I'm usually happy to play host to Stalkers and the Order, none of these men look like they're from the Stalker Guild or the local Order Chapter. Just count yourself lucky that no one with any serious conditions were pushed back in their appointments to see to your men sir.'

Drowned Station

A Brotherhood soldier, clad in a heavy suit of plated metal protective gear walked over to Götze, slumped against the wall next to him and offered him a drink from his canteen. The man had broad shoulders, which looked enormous under his heavy suit of armour, and the build of someone who spent most of their time carrying heavy loads. He'd been one of the gunners on the wall in the battle and his armour was scarred all over from bullets ricocheting off it, or in a few cases becoming buried in the armour itself, narrowly stopping before penetrating into the man beneath it all.

[West Aurelia]

Dóchas

Marcus took everything in and nodded. In all honesty, it wouldn't hurt anyone to let these two who they were, especially if they could keep their mouths shut until the news was broken officially. Employing the firm, strict tone he used when disciplining a subordinate, he made it explicitly clear that they were not to speak a word of what he was about to tell them before beginning.

"My men and I are from the nation of West Aurelia. Ten of us were deployed to Heldur upon the discovery of a signal sent from Varhall's old embassy district, which was a sign that there was still human life here despite the Soviet bombing. The signal had been sent by men from the independent Able Station, and soon we were able to determine that the closest thing Heldur has to a functioning government is Dóchas."

"So on to Dóchas we went," he continued, "where we met with some of the station's leaders. Two of my men were lost to Demons, one on the way to Heldur" - Marcus didn't bother saying how exactly they had deployed, as he doubted he could explain what a parachute was or how one worked - "and one on the way to Dóchas. After the meeting, the eight of us who made it here were sent on a mission with Stalkers, the Order, and the Commonwealth, and we've just returned. And here we are now." Marcus refrained from explaining what the mission was, as he was unsure if he was allowed to disclose that. To finish, he again reminded the two to keep their mouths shut.

He glanced over at Jind, hoping that he hadn't disclosed anything he shouldn't have.

[Councordia]

Listening Post Able

'I've heard that more than once.' Roves grinned, 'our forebears built to last, and we're just lucky that in response to Soviet aircraft entering our airspace, as many people as possible fled down to the Metro to use it as a bomb shelter. As for the main factions,' Roves began to point out the factions and their territory on the map, 'first off there's the CSH, Communist Stations of Heldur, they own the whole North end of the Metro up until this part here, that's a DMZ between the CSH and the City State of Dóchas. More on them later. The CSH and its views are kind of what you'd expect from a group dedicated to Communism. Everything's owned by the state, run by the people and sometimes people who aren't as zealous about their ongoing 'revolution' disappear. At least that's what I've heard from people who've had to leave their stations, on the other hand they're well known for setting up electricity and providing food and basic medical care to all of their stations.'
Roves's finger moved over to a patch of the map which had been coloured in charcoal, unlike the CSH it didn't cover entire an entire line of the Metro, instead it ran across a number of junctions, and seemed to have expanded outwards from there. 'This is the area controlled by the Brotherhood, short version, loud obnoxious and dangerous, very nationalistic and not too fond of outsiders, Fascists in other words. They're fond of announcing how brutal they are to the outside and are almost always skirmishing with the CSH, sometimes it gets a little more heated, but at least they direct their anger away from decent folk. The last Two factions are gradually becoming one, the Commonwealth and Dóchas itself. The Commonwealth is an Oligarchy that thrives off of trade, Dóchas is more of a meritocracy that clings to old world knowledge, rather well I might add.'

'Personally however, me and my team belong to an independent Metro Station named Able, we're friends of the Commonwealths and we've worked to help ferry people to Dóchas that arrive from outside the country. I actually made first contact with a bunch calling themselves West Aurelians not too long ago. And Colban over there is our mechanical genius who got this place up and running in the first place. So, what do you think of our wonderful country so far?'

Martin looked Roves straight in the eyes. "I have nothing but admiration for the people who survive here. You are all warriors." His gaze took in the room, the Stalkers and their makeshift armor. "Your ability to improvise and adapt to this crazy place is impressive."

Suddenly, the Councordian's com's lit up with activity. "Confirm assault on vehicles by multiple unidentified creatures.."

[Virdalonja]

----------Topol, Helduri Coast----------

Colonel Gaunt snapped his heels together and thrust out his chest. He straightened his cap and smoothed out his dress uniform, which had been neatly cleaned and pressed. Well, as far as Heldur could allow something to be cleaned.

"Soldiers! Present arms!"

The men assembled in 2 ranks 1 man deep stretching in parallel to each other towards the now landed troop transport. The hatch of the transport began to open and "Long live the Emperor", Virdalonja's National Anthem, began to blast out from the speakers from around the base. The hatch crunched down onto the dirt at the coastline.

Two soldiers in pristine uniforms, evidently untouched by the experience of living in Heldur, marched down the ramp, took up positions either side and saluted. The man who was to take over the running of the base descended the ramp. He was a rather short man with slicked back blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. His shone to glistening black boots rang clearly on the ramp and the pathway leading up to Gaunt.

"Oh Colonel" he said when he reached Gaunt "you shouldn't have" he ran his hand through his hair and looked around him. At the base and at the visible landscape. He turned to face Gaunt again. "What an absolute shit-hole this is"

Gaunt, and several nearby soldiers and officials, burst into raucous laughter.

[Heldur]

Dóchas

Both the Doctor and receptionist stood there, their mouths agape as Marcus told their tale, it was almost comical. Once the story was over it was easy enough to make them promise to keep it as quiet as possible. The doctor stayed behind to shake Marcus's hand profusely and offer his thanks to all Aurelians for their help.

Once all that was over, Jind nodded his thanks and led Marcus back to where everyone else was waiting for them, all geared up and ready to go.
'So who's coming to the meeting?' Jind asked once they were all together, 'there's no telling when we'll deploy next so this may be your last chance to get some R and R, see the sights, that sort of thing.' He chuckled to himself, 'anyway, anyone who's still keen on seeing the politicians, follow me, the rest, dismissed I suppose.'


The journey to the council offices was much shorter this time, there were no security checks, aside from a safe place for the Aurelians to put their weapons if they wished. Inside they found a veritable army of aids clamouring to shift maps and sheets of paper detailing strategic information while a few politicians conducted the clamour.

Yalin stood next to her father, still wearing her heavy surface gear, her father wore his Order dress uniform and stood with his hands clasped behind his back. He gave Marcus a nod as he approached.
Somal stood at the head of the table, flanked by a pair of greying military officials. He waved both Marcus and the Order men over.

'Believe it or not, but it's been about two decades since we ever had to mobilise this many men.' He paused to introduce the men either side of him.
'This is Brigadier Ryze of the Dóchas army, our highest ranking officer, since it's always been a small, professional force, and his second in command Colonel Leofric.' The two men nodded in greeting.
'Ryze, perhaps you should handle this part from now on, it's your job to oversee these operations.'

Ryze stepped forward, he had a peppery beard and an ugly facial scar that probably came from a mutants claw. 'We've begun a general mobilisation of our forces, if what Yalin reports is true, we'll need every man and every bullet we can muster to ensure your men arrive in the Metro safely, and somewhere friendly. I've already begun designating some abandoned stations your marines can occupy as secondary staging bases, finding room for everyone down here may become an issue otherwise.' He paused to indicate a line painted in dark green on the map. 'This is the path you'll be taking to reach the airfield, I'm sending a platoon of my men, and the Order and Commonwealth are doing the same, for this trip you'll have overland vehicles to get you in and out. It's safer that way and I've had the time to get them fueled and checked for any mechanical issues, you can never be too careful. Once you're there, and you've set up a foothold I was contemplating moving an entire company of our Stalker Corps there to help get everything into an operable condition, with the supplies inside you should have no trouble setting up any defenses above and below ground.'

'However,' Leofric jumped in, 'when we make this move, we are certain others will follow our scent, I'd almost like to say the Brotherhood would follow us, but in all reality I think they're too busy squirriling away their womenfolk in that Second Section Bunker they found. It's the damn Communists we have to worry about, there's a lot more of them, and they're closer than we are. If they catch wind of what direction we're heading in, you can bet there'll be a whole company, if not more bearing down on you, so we will need to hear from you as fast as possible to send the cavalry.'

'The main issue is getting the Stalkers there however, in all likelihood we'll have to deploy them before you leave, travelling on foot means they'll be slower, but a whole company will be far to much for anything on the surface to handle. Especially since they'll be staying clear of the swamps and the old gardens.' Ryze continued, 'Is there any chance you'll be able to get some marines to the airfield once it's secured to help guard it? I fully expect the Communists to assault both the airfield and here through the tunnels if they feel the need to. We can hold them down here, but outfitting enough men to reach you through their lines will be difficult.'



Listening Post Able

'More necessary than impressive. I suppose mankinds ability to adapt is it's most impressive feature in some cases.' Roves replied with a slight smile.

Once the radio message came through, Rove's jaw tightened, 'need some help out there?' He asked grabbing a nearby rifle, a number of other Stalkers were suddenly drawing weapons of all kinds, they were clearly ready to go at a moments notice.



Reich Station, The Brotherhood MZ

The Brotherhood transports came to a rumbling stop, the command went out and the Brotherhood men still inside stood up and prepared to exit the transports, weapons at the ready.
The officer, Reuman stood up and motioned for Castor and his men to follow suit. The door swung open and the Brotherhood men quickly leaped out and secured the area before signalling for Reuman and Castor to follow.

'Welcome to Reich station,' Reuman called over to Dart and Castor, 'the beating heart of our Brotherhood. You'll find no better center of Helduri culture and power in this land. While the land above is ravaged and raw, we have endured below. Follow me my friends.'

He led them to an enormous set of pneumatic gates and he imput a code into the outer wall, a great latch shifted inside the doors and a grinding click resounded as the gate unlocked, and subsequently began to open outwards.
Inside, a roar of sound came up to meet them, and a wave of warmth washed over them as they entered.
There were people everywhere, banners of the old Helduri flag stood proudly beside the Brotherhoods. Soldiers patrolled the gantry above nonchalantly while citizens milled and worked all around, in stalls, workshops, farm stalls and a number of handcrafted armouries.
Another officer, dressed in black stepped up to greet them, requested Reuman's papers and gave Castor a cursory glance. After a bout of salutes they were allowed inside and the great pneumatic gate closed behind them.

'So, what do you think of a real station then?' Reuman asked Dart, and by extension Castor, 'much better than some small, buffer zone that's slowly drowning in filth I'll bet.'

[West Aurelia]

Dóchas

Michael followed Marcus into the meeting with the Dóchas leadership, leaving their gear in safe room. The other men were dismissed and ordered to get some much-needed rest. There was no telling when they would next be deployed, and every minute of some shut-eye counted.

Inside the meeting room stood an array of military and political officials and their staff, including Yalin and Somal. Yalin's father was also present, and Marcus returned his nod. Somal waved Marcus, Michael, and the Order men over.

'Believe it or not, but it's been about two decades since we ever had to mobilise this many men.' He paused to introduce the men either side of him.
'This is Brigadier Ryze of the Dóchas army, our highest ranking officer, since it's always been a small, professional force, and his second in command Colonel Leofric.' The two men nodded in greeting.

"Nice to meet you," Marcus replied, returning the greeting.

'Ryze, perhaps you should handle this part from now on, it's your job to oversee these operations.'

Ryze stepped forward, he had a peppery beard and an ugly facial scar that probably came from a mutants claw. 'We've begun a general mobilisation of our forces, if what Yalin reports is true, we'll need every man and every bullet we can muster to ensure your men arrive in the Metro safely, and somewhere friendly. I've already begun designating some abandoned stations your marines can occupy as secondary staging bases, finding room for everyone down here may become an issue otherwise.'

"The marine expeditionary unit that has been deployed has a total strength of 2,300 men; however only 1,100 of these men are part of the ground combat element," Marcus said. "The rest make up aviation, logistics, and command elements. Not all of these men - particularly those in the aviation combat element - will be deployed on the ground in Heldur. I estimate that at most 1,500 men will need to be housed, although I suggest extra room is provided in case of unforeseen circumstances. Is this possible?"

He paused to indicate a line painted in dark green on the map. 'This is the path you'll be taking to reach the airfield, I'm sending a platoon of my men, and the Order and Commonwealth are doing the same, for this trip you'll have overland vehicles to get you in and out. It's safer that way and I've had the time to get them fueled and checked for any mechanical issues, you can never be too careful. Once you're there, and you've set up a foothold I was contemplating moving an entire company of our Stalker Corps there to help get everything into an operable condition, with the supplies inside you should have no trouble setting up any defenses above and below ground.'

'However,' Leofric jumped in, 'when we make this move, we are certain others will follow our scent, I'd almost like to say the Brotherhood would follow us, but in all reality I think they're too busy squirriling away their womenfolk in that Second Section Bunker they found. It's the damn Communists we have to worry about, there's a lot more of them, and they're closer than we are. If they catch wind of what direction we're heading in, you can bet there'll be a whole company, if not more bearing down on you, so we will need to hear from you as fast as possible to send the cavalry.'

'The main issue is getting the Stalkers there however, in all likelihood we'll have to deploy them before you leave, travelling on foot means they'll be slower, but a whole company will be far to much for anything on the surface to handle. Especially since they'll be staying clear of the swamps and the old gardens.' Ryze continued, 'Is there any chance you'll be able to get some marines to the airfield once it's secured to help guard it? I fully expect the Communists to assault both the airfield and here through the tunnels if they feel the need to. We can hold them down here, but outfitting enough men to reach you through their lines will be difficult.'

Marcus took all this information in before replying. "I have confidence that our marines are capable of pulling off the task. You say the CSH will likely deploy a company of men. How many men is that in Helduri terms?" Marcus asked. He wanted to make sure that he knew exactly what Leofric was talking about. "Do you have any particular size in mind for the marine force? Will they be guarding the airfield alongside Helduri troops or by themselves?"

"Also, if the airfield is in a decent condition - which at this point I'm unable to determine - it is possible that marine air assets could land there. A few strike fighters or helicopter gunships would make it near impossible for any local ground force to successfully capture the airfield. Of course, this is up to the marine air crews, as I have no idea whether they can operate out of such an environment. Regardless, air support would be provided from our carrier and amphibious assault ships if required."

The tunnel fighting also concerned him. Urban warfare was by far the bloodiest form of conventional warfare - and that mainly referred to deadly street fighting. Fighting in the tunnels would make the situation far worse and could result in high casualties. He relayed his concerns to the Helduris and asked if there was any way to improve the situation. What's more, marine and naval air power and ground vehicles would be useless beneath the surface. "If at all possible, we should try to push enemy forces onto the surface or prevent them from entering the tunnels in the first place. This will allow marine and naval air assets to decimate their forces."

[Councordia]

Listening Post Able

'More necessary than impressive. I suppose mankinds ability to adapt is it's most impressive feature in some cases.' Roves replied with a slight smile.

Once the radio message came through, Rove's jaw tightened, 'need some help out there?' He asked grabbing a nearby rifle, a number of other Stalkers were suddenly drawing weapons of all kinds, they were clearly ready to go at a moments notice.

Martin's jaw tightened as he held up a hand for them to pause. "Hold on...more information coming in. Looks like an assault on the convoy here and some sort of aerial monstrosity attacking the Adlers at the landing field. So...." He paused a moment, only a moment. "Yes. We could use all the firepower we need on this end." He glanced at Rove. "And your expertise. We don't know where to hit these things."

The Captain and the Prince nodded at each other just before Martin put the combat helm back on, his HUD lighting up with trajectories and displays as he ran for the doors, Mountaineers and Stalkers alike swarming to positions. He paused at the doors, racked the slide on his Legio rifle, and glanced over at Rove. They could hear the sound of unearthly screeching and heavy gunfire. He nodded again at the captain and the doors swung open....

[Virdalonja]

----------Reich Station, The Brotherhood MZ----------

As the pneumatic gates hissed and began to open Castor looked on in earnest. Compared to Drowned Station, this place was a technological powerhouse. He could see why The Brotherhood had chosen this station as their capital. Once the doors were fully open the full majesty of the capital of The Brotherhood was revealed. Below and around fluttering flags droves of civilians went about their usual days while soldiers performed the role of police. The station seemed to function very much the same as a normal city, it was hard to believe that this was a train station below a nuclear wasteland. The Brotherhood Officer with them turned and said something to Dart who relayed to Castor.

"So, what do you think of a real station then? Much better than some small, buffer zone that's slowly drowning in filth I'll bet"

Castor looked around at the station and the hubbub visible around him. The surprise made his word momentarily catch and he coughed to clear his throat as he turned to face Reuman, beaming.

"My word sir, this station is a true testament to the strength and the endurance of the people of Heldur. The fact that such society and structure has been maintained despite the chaos of the surface and fractured political system here. Having only seen the wasteland, ruins and Drowned Station thus far I was beginning to worry about the Helduri people and the assistance that we will provide. This however has alleviated any fears and concerns I may have had and has reassured me that The Brotherhood and the Empire will work together excellently"

Castor paused for Dart to catch up on his translation.

"Now that we are here, we must press on! I am eager to meet with the leadership here and further our collaboration"