New Dawn

Dre was in the arms of Lin and Ark, limp as a noodle. At least he wasn't dead weight, which meant down the line somebody would be able to escape from New Dawn. Lin knew it wouldn't be him. Besides his intuition of being violently massacred, he no longer had the will to run.

The routine was tedious and didn't seem to benefit anyone. Maybe one of those Brits would take his place this time and know what he was talking about in the tank. It's been said that experience is the greatest teacher, hopefully their lesson won't come at an unaffordable price. Lin would be content doing what he could to make sure at least the Sanctuary survivors would get out of this dismal doomsday.

He watched V's shape wiggle out of the room, and had no thoughts about it. Well, almost none. Now he knew his time was almost up. He smirked to himself as he thought of how Dre would save the rest of the survivors. The wonderkid will find a way. He always does.

Ark watched as V retrieved the pistols he'd indicated and wondered how long it would take for the guards he'd knocked unconscious to come to. Hopefully they would be able to defend themselves if need be and wouldn't be easy prey.

They moved down the stairwell and stopped at the Emergency ward where Ark took Dre while V set to work gathering equipment when she was done they headed outside to witness the scene of chaos. They hadn't even arrived yet and the place was a hive of activity.

Fosters units were moving off and people were still evacuating the hospital to move deeper into the inner circle for safety he questioned whether there was a point but who was he to deny those that couldn't help the cause their hope. There were however others that he could have words with. The hospital security staff that had been warned off them had left the hospital to discover just how stupid some people could be in a situation like this. One man had assaulted one of the security in order to try to get his weapon and had been met with retaliation. Did he honestly expect that the rest of them would stand by?

Across the road a few shop windows had been smashed and people were looting them. He passed Dre's weight over to Lin before crossing the road and unholstering his pistol again. "Get in the tank I'll be there in a second." Ark fired the pistol off in the air and the gunfire was enough to freeze the activity around them whether it was criminal, security or just self preservation and escape. All eyes turned to him some obviously expecting to see someone on the receiving end or it been a signal they had arrived. Despite neither of these been the case he still commanded attention for a second. He lowered the pistol so it came to bare on a man carrying a TV. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING!" the man bent over placing the TV on the ground hoping it would placate him. A few more looters began to flee before he moved his pistol around to point over them for a second freezing them.

"In a few minutes maybe a few hours if we're lucky They will be here. Possessions you have brought, stolen or acquired in any other means will become meaningless. Everything you know is on the verge of been destroyed and everyone you know stands to lose their life AND YOUR BLOODY LOOTING!" He saw their faces change as they processed what he was saying and began to comprehend just why the anarchy had developed and no one had come to stop them from their crimes. "If you own a weapon go get it. If you know how to wield one go to the armoury and request one and if you’re of no use go hide in the inner circle." The man who had placed the TV down nodded uneasily before Ark broke eye contact and ran back to the tank. Ok that would be his last speech rallying people to the cause hopefully.

The security team had released the man that had assaulted them and he seemed to have taken heed of him and be running to the armoury. Hopefully these people would be more use with a weapon than they were a danger. To be honest most of them would die anyway regardless of who the death dealer was.

Ark entered the tank and began to power it up when he spotted another familiar face. An armed man walking to the battle opposed to away from it. The journalist. He moved to the back and leant out of the vehicle once more. "Joshua! Need a lift?" he turned back into the tank and pointed at one of the seats V had placed Dre on. "That seat has a weapon cache in it. Code 480. Few rifles you can use."

V was horrified at the looting.

"Haven't your civilians been trained for this?" She asked Ark as she helped Dre get seated and Ark told them about the rifles.

Dre's face was white but she noticed he had begun moving more determinedly, bearing more of his own weight as they had walked quickly to the tank. Still, he looked frustrated.

"Let's move you over here for a sec," V continued to Dre. As she did Lin opened the seat to find the weapons cache and V was relieved to see rifles she was more familiar with. Pistols weren't something she felt she could shoot well.

"Come to Daddy," Lin said in excitement after finally seeing a rifle again.

Those damn Brits were playing with the arsenal of pistols they issued their men. Somehow, Lin's AK was gone when he woke up from his sedation, to no one's surprise. He pulled a rifle and kissed it as if it were a baby.

He was glad to see Dre starting to liven up a bit. The ghost look didn't do the wonderkid justice. He looked at the rest of the tank, it was more advanced than what he was rescued in.

"Hoggin' all the good sh*t, huh? I thought we were better than that."

Josh wasn't too far away. Lin didn't know if that was a bad or good thing. It was time to man up, and Lin wanted to believe that Josh found his inner bad-ass by now. Time will tell. He was bumped by a looter running about. Lin gun-butted the idiot and kicked him in the ribs.

"Yep... I'm baaaack," he said with a smirk.

"Sure there's training but it's just like a fire drill no one takes it seriously. It's never been a real threat to the people that’s why sanctuary was such a shock to the system. Civilians can't perceive their world burning around them. Hell I've defended the wall countless times and never imagined a situation where out defences would just become meaningless. The people are trained, but when it comes to the application it never goes as plan. When They turn up they'll change.... whether they prove any more use is another matter."

He'd sold New Dawn as a new paradise to them. Tried to let them see that they were prepared but it was clear from V's response Sanctuary had responded far better to the situation than their civilian population. Hell half their survivors didn't even have military backgrounds. He was staring at a news reporter wielding some kind of different rail gun. Hopefully New Dawn could rise like they had. If they were already failing before They arrived that wasn't a good start or a good sign.

They broke into the weapon cache and appeared satisfied with what they had. God dam why hadn't he outfitted the thing with spare rocket launchers like he had indicated in his report after the incident with the treader. It was unlike him to be prepared. Still he could only fill the tank with so much of an arsenal some had said the rifles were unnecessary but he'd only retorted with the fact that if there was nothing else been stored under the seats why couldn't he be prepared. No one had been able to field a better argument against that and it seemed to be paying off right now.

"Joshua! Need a lift?" One of the soldiers that had saved them from the frozen wasteland these people called their country.

“Sure, why not.” He was getting tired anyway. He wondered how Bruce had done it, carry the giant weapon around. Not that it mattered. Die tired. Death was sure anyway. And seeing the size of that armored vehicle, the soldier man still had to realize that. He clambered into the tank just in time to see Lin hugging a rifle.

He grinned at the man as he clambered in. “Hey Lin, having a good Doomsday?” He hadn’t seen Dre and V sitting opposite to Lin, and for a moment he froze. They weren’t supposed to hear that.

"Okay but looting? The They are not a game!"

V was so angry she should have been in tears. Instead, dry-eyed, she made sure that the rifle was loaded and stowed more ammunition about her person. Lin was treating the rifle like a long-lost relative and just then another voice caught her attention.

“Hey Lin, having a good Doomsday?”

V almost dropped the rifle.

"Joshie?" She used the childhood name without thinking.

He looked nearly as thin as the last time she'd seen him only now his eyes were haunted and he wore a slightly insane looking grin. He was lugging Bruce's rail gun.

Joshua grinned at V. Joshie. No one had called him that in a long, long time. It was the name of his childhood, of Sanctuary. How fitting for her to call him by that name now. “Hey V. Don’t worry, I won’t tattle on you.” What was he saying? There was no one to tattle to. His eyes jumped around inside of the armored vehicle, looking anywhere except at the other people.

“So, are we gathering the gang,” to die, “to get out of here?”

Ark didn't know what to say back to V. She was right of course and he agreed but shout as he may at the citizens he couldn't control them. He was in the military it was his responsibility to protect them not to control them. They were about to fight for New Dawn's independence. New Dawn's greatest value yet despite that it could well be its downfall because it couldn't call its citizens to arms and command the way they acted in the crisis.

Joshua boarded the tritop and Ark already had the ramp raising. This time it wasn't the same fast pace to the gate like it had been from it was more of a crawl as citizens took to the pavements parting for them to make their way. Too many people seemed drawn into their own despair.

"We're taking the fight to Them. There is no out. You know. It doesn't matter where you go. They'll come and they'll destroy it. We make our stand and hopefully we make it count." In front the gate loomed, no longer did it offer the same sense of security. He hoped there were people working on getting it closed rather than throwing everything they had at covering the gate. Sure they could put up a defence but if they could get their natural defences up that they had always relied on it would be so much better.

V smiled but looked sharply at her friend as she listened to Ark. He was right, there was no out this time, at least not that she knew of.

"Ark, I'm guessing your security grids and gates would all have backup systems. What do you think caused a failure this catastrophic?"

When she said 'catastrophic' she thought she saw Josh flinch. He had never been one for machismo but the way his eyes darted around, avoiding meeting anyone else's, was something very unlike him.

"Looks like at least part of the gang," V answered him. "And we'll get through it, right?" She reached out and touched the back of his hand, "Josh...we'll get through it."

"The system doesn't fail. That simple. There's back ups, fail safes. The grid shouldn't go offline. I'm a soldier I don't know the technicalities but I'm pretty sure that the power for it can't be taken out easily and if so that would leave the gates firmly locked not open." He'd never taken a true interest in the grid he spent most of the time out of it or defending it as long as it did the job he was happy. He was a soldier not a scientist or builder after all.

"To open the gates and disable the defence systems that would have to be deliberate and to do that you would either need a large offensive team placed within the city to launch an assault take out the guards breach the defensive systems and doors and then have the knowledge or command enough fear to get the techs to disable the system. I think we'd be aware if something that large had happened. It's not easy to coordinate something like that. That would leave either a conspiracy from the technicians but once again their jobs are highly vetted and would require complete cooperation or removal of those who didn't without the guards reacting to it so that leaves the final option that someone high up gained access without arousing suspicion. I don't know how it would work but if the guards were comfortable enough to trust them they could utilise the very defence systems to seperate themselves from any reprucussions then it would simply be a task of scaring the techs into leaving New Dawn vulnerable I'd like to think they wouldn't but when your lifes on the line reasoning in the long term can go out of the window."

"Hopefully there will be more information at the gate on the situation. If need be we can redirect and try to act on getting inside but I'm sure there's already a team been assembled for that a long with a network of programmers and hackers searching for backdoors that don't exist. The irony is that the protection on the system could prove to be the final nail in it's coffin."

V's heart lurched even though she would have been surprised at any other answer. Treason was an ugly word but the other word that nabbed her attention was 'techs'.

Jack!

Jack wouldn't give in and do this, would he? He'd been a valiant fighter in every tight spot in Sanctuary...almost foolhardy, even, in putting himself between others and danger while he was carrying the disk. If Jack had been on duty then Jack was probably dead or a prisoner. Or maybe he hadn't been on duty.

Her mind whirled in circles. It was just possible that they could do more good heading back to the command center for the grid. But, as Ark said, it was likely that a team had already been sent to do that.

She chewed her lip, frustrated, and leaned her head back against the inner skin of the tank. Ark was probably right in taking them to the gates. All the help that could be mustered there would be needed. Still, she had the impulse to go find Jack, see if he could fix the grid.

Instead, she checked the bag that she wore slung around her body, making sure she was familiar with where all the medical supplies lay inside.

Jack had almost fallen asleep again standing up in the warm shower. The warmth was something of a dumb idea, but it felt sooooo good. He scrubbed his hair hurriedly, cleaning the hours of grease from it, and then relaxed under the warm tide, letting it fall slowly over him.

He was jolted from his half-conscious state by a gunshot. His eyes narrowed. A gunshot? He listened, and heard another. Coming aware again, he twisted the shower knob, and the warm comfortable flow turned icy. He sucked in a breath, jolted suddenly into full wakefulness.

He toweled off, dressed in a fresh change of clothes, and belted on his pistols, which were now cleaned and loaded. He stepped to the small living area and flipped on the TV. News reports. Soldiers moving. The grid was down and the gates lay open. He swore bitterly, leaving the flickering screen on as he dashed out of his suite and around the few corridors.

The main server room was just around the corner. Jack peeked around, looking at the door. Two armed guards flanking it. The sound of raised voices, the occasional shot, and general clamour within. Jack withdrew. These were humans, here. Not Them. What the hell was going on?

Whatever it was, Jack wasn't about to play Rambo this time. He'd need help. He moved to the elevators and stepped in, heading down to ground floor. Several groups of soldiers were moving about the streets. Maybe one was willing to give him a hand.

But more than that, he hoped he would find V and the others.

He stepped out into streets that wreaked of panic. Civilians rushing about, the military attempting to restore some order. Jack maneuvered down several side streets and through alleys. He came out of one, and almost immediately drew back in. A large tank was barrelling down the street. He peeked out again, watching the behemoth pass.

Jess listened to the messenger telling them that They were coming. The news was not a surprise. Where the Magnus Disk went, They followed. She did not know why the little circular piece of plastic was so important. It just was. The soldiers around her rose to their feet and headed towards the door and Jess realized that she had been staring into space. She remembered Zefie’s voice but the words were lost to her memory. She shrugged. There were few things Zefie could have told the Knights to do, and since the Knights were not hiding, she assumed that they were going to fight.

Her co commander looked at her, her thin hands gripping her rifle.

Don't think. On the Wall, those who had frozen had been amongst the first to be torn to pieces. Jess looked away, turned and followed the New Dawn Knights as they hurried through the door. Other squads were emerging from other rooms and joining the rush, several hurriedly pulling on their Odin armour as they moved. The buildings in the Outer Circle were closely packed together and they passed through a large dome and several twisting corridors before they reached an exit which led onto the main street.

She spotted several people running towards the Inner Circle, against the crowds of soldiers. One of the fleeing people even wore a Knight uniform, his eyes wide and shining. Jess frowned. How strange. The Red Zone was in the other direction. Was he lost? She shrugged. Maybe he was going to alert someone.

The Knights stayed in their groups, jogging towards the Red Zone. Jess shouldered the Hammerhead and followed the masses.

People had began to part now allowing the tank to gain a bit of momentum as numbers of civilians thinned out as they got closer to the gate. He wondered just what exactly the news reports were making the situation out as. Judging by the hysteria it was the traditional media approach only the emphasis on danger they placed was probably actually accurate.

Someone within the tank yelled something at him pointing outside of the tank. He looked across to see Jack waiting for the tank to pass by obviously unaware of the cargo it carried. They were almost there now. The back was lowered enough to not drag on the ground but to allow him passage if he wished. More soldiers were appearing now kitted out and ready to defend the gate. It was impressive he hadn't seen a sight like this for a good month since they last had a practice run. People's faces were certainly different this time round no longer laughter and jokes, stern faces and panic.

"Anyone got any idea how we can slow their approach through the open gate? Best I have so far is parking a few tanks up and towing some cars up to make some shoddy firing baricade. Can't imagine it would stand that long but it offers something i guess?"

As they drove in the transports the squads could hear the hysteria on the outside, crowd masses ran through the streets towards the inner circle. This was really bad, it was really happening, the thing is, he couldn't believe it was happening. It was happening though and a lot of good people were going to die that day.

Orders were shouted over comlinks and the transports picked up speed towards the gates. When they arrived the transports came to a screeching halt, the drop bay lowered and the soldiers poured through them, Tim taking the lead. He saw hundreds of other soldiers and tanks at the main gate, ready and waiting for the first wave of They.

"Lieutenant!" Tim turned quickly to see a commander approaching, "get your men to the wall on the double, They are approaching at a rapid pace!"

"Yes sir!" He snapped a salute and turned, "squads let's move!"

The soldiers ran towards the wall, every running step sending shockwaves up his spine, his odin armor taking most of the shocks off, but his ribs were the real concern. They hadn't even taken much time to heal and already he was back in action, defending the gates from a full onslaught of those inhuman nightmares. This would be a terrible day for ND, and for all humankind.

The tank rolled on by, and Jack considered. The tank was probably going to meet up with others; which would be near where a good pack of soldiers would be assembling. Plus, it'd be faster than walking. As the behemoth rolled past, Jack hopped deftly onto the rungs on the side, and proceeded to hitch his ride.

All the while, he kept his eyes open for signs of his companions. He hoped they were faring well.

Tim and his squad were at the barriers, all ready and waiting, some had fear, others anticipation, others with twisted expressions, probably of revenge. Tim's smile though was of the carnage to come, when he and the troops of ND would valiantly strike down the invaders. Or so he thought, he thought he heard screeching sounds, it turned out he was right. Large explosions rocked the ground, sending chunks of flesh, concrete and metal flying in the air.

Tim was flown back onto the dirt, pain gripping at his side where his broken ribs were. He looked up, soldiers were screaming, alien aircraft flew overhead, more explosions could be heard. He grunted to sit up, some of his squad members had come over to help their leader, Tim grunted as they sat him up.

"Are you alright sir?"

"I'm fine," he groaned at the pain, "status report."

"Squad 8, only 1 injury."

"Squad 2, 2 causualties, 1 injury," the squad seargeant looked over his shoulder, "10 took the hardest hit, 5 causualties, 1 injured."

"We still able to fight?"

"Hoo ah!"

"Good, lets get back at those sunofabitches for the hellholes they made here."

Ark didn't even have a chance to react to Dre's words as the scene in front of him was consumed by flames and debri hrutled through the air some smashing into the tank. His foot came off the accelerator as he threw himself on the floor as what used to be some kind of support strut for the wall tore through the windscreen embedding itself into the chair he'd been sitting in seconds ago and almost tearing that from the tank thanks to the explosive force that propelled it in.

The flames failed to subside and as he followed the raising smoke he saw the scryers patrolling the skies. That had been the best New Dawn had to other and they'd just taken out probably half the men tasked with preventing the invasion. They had only been here for seconds and already the face of New Dawn was transformed and its population count dwindling.

"Everyone still breathing?" from out the back of the vehicle he could see fighters taking to the air in defence. It was a bit to late for that though wasn't it. They'd delivered the worst of their payload with brutal efficiency and even taking these things down would cater to their aims. They would be dog fighting over New Dawn itself. Anything they took out would become a burning inferno of metal hurtling into the citizens and buildings of New Dawn even their deaths would inflict suffering.

Jack was quite enjoying the ride when he was suddenly scared half to death by an enourmous explosion rocking the ground and rending the air. He clung to the rungs on the side as debris flew outward from the epicenter of the blast. Luckily the tank was inclined slightly, so it gave Jack a bit of cover from the high-velocity shrapnel.

He heard the armored glass of the windshield shatter as something shot through it, snapping like a pane of ice. The tank lurched to a stop suddenly and Jack swore. Scryers flew past overhead, and Jack cursed again. So much for getting on those gates. Looked like they were way past the 'too late' stage. Forgetting the computer room, he crawled along the side of the tank to its front and slipped in through the window. Sure enough, a huge piece of metal had lodged itself into the pilot's chair and almost taken it off it's support.

A form in Odin armor lay on the floor, slowly getting up. Jack moved to help him.

"Y'okay?" He asked. When he saw the man's face, it looked familiar. It took him a few seconds to place it.

"Hey, you're that dude who drove my rescue tank..." He was distracted by another small figure getting to her feet near the back. One he recognized immediately. Forgetting about Ark, he took a few steps closer to her.

"Varenna?"

For a moment V had thought they'd all had it. It depended just what had come through the windshield. Thankfully it was only shrapnel though it was a darned good thing that Ark was a fast mover.

As V scrambled to her feet a man slipped through the blown-out windscreen, landing on his feet and looking horrified at the driver's seat. Then he was helping Ark up and all she could do was stare at him.

It was Jack. She would have recognized him in a crowd of hundreds and hadn't thought to see him out here.

Varenna?

"Jack!" The gladness in her voice matched the rush of relief at seeing him again. Then the current situation intruded again, "Dre said we shouldn't head for the gates."

The way she called his name made all the destruction and graveness cease for a moment. Alas, it came back down on them again in all it's rude reality. It didn't stop Jack from crossing the last few steps to her and taking her up in a heartfelt embrace.

"Dre said we shouldn't head for the gates."

Jack nodded as he released her.

"He wasn't kidding." Jack looked Varenna up and down, looking for any signs of injury. He put a hand to V's face.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get in touch with you. They had me chained to a desk over at command. Just my luck I want to take a shower as a bigwig showed, starting shooting the place up and had the hackers open up the gates." Jack shook his head.

"No clue who it was. All I got was a guarded door and came out to get help." His eyes turned and swept the tank.

"Who's here? Is anyone hurt?"

Tim heard the gunfire already, he got up as best he could and looked about, small dim objects in the distance being shot at, but coming at incredible speeds. There were a number of They troops, but this one was unique.

"Kobolds," he said quietly.

He faced off against these things and out here in the open he knew the NDDF wouldn't stand a chance against the agile creatures, especially this many of them.

"Squads we need to get in a building, grab the wounded and round up."

The squads shouted, "yes sir!"

The squads slung over their weapons and grabbed the 3 wounded squad members, a few others took defensive positions around the carriers and wounded. When they got close to what looked like a domed apartment building he noticed something. There was a tank, the armored windshield smashed in. He saw someone crawl out of it, with a rifle. There was a survivor in that tank.

"Men get in that building, Rico, Dante with me."

The two squad members followed their lt. over to the tank and towards the man. Tim thought he saw this man, was it that crazy guy from the rescue who blew up the threader? When he was in ear's reach of him he called out,

"You there, are you the only survivor?! We're here to help!"