Alberto shook as the mobile camera seems to gain weight on his shoulder.

The sight of his fellow humans, attacking other humans was sickening. It only became worse when he saw the injured rise. Rise when they should not have been able to move.

Alberto was no stranger to violence. Venezuela had its issues, hence why he had moved here. Where the US company had invested a great deal into the police. Into specialists to ensure security.

Alberto turned his head, and felt gratified. Even those specialists looked on with shock.

Virginia spoke into the mic, her voice remaining professional. She had snapped out of whatever spell had bewitched her when Luis Gonzalez had turned out to be an impostor.

She was still shaken. They had been a team for many years, and he understood her little tells. She wasn’t alright, but she would get the job done.

Which was enough. She prided herself on being a strong, and proud journalist. 

The Supreme Leader was something else. He remained calm despite the chaos, and began by taking in everything. Then he began to act, issues orders, and rounding up his people.

In the fifteen minutes since they had geared up, and left the building, the world had changed.

Aside from the late hour, and the various small files and broken vehicles, there was a sea of green and white. Hundreds of soldiers were now here, and more stopped by every ten minutes.

Alberto also heard more were coming in by road. The white armored soldiers were ensuring the suburbs and farming areas were secure.

Val Verde was a bit of a international joke. A military country that got bullied by the world. Neglected by the UN and its staunch allies. They were mice trying to growl like lions.

Alberto saw something different.

Soldiers all in power armor. They moved in squads, and the military vehicles were on patrol. There was a lot of heavy weapons.

Even now, he watched as one of their bird ships, a pelican? Drop off a dozen soldiers and they were carrying big crates. In the back a heavy jeep detached, landing with a thud. 

Three soldiers climbed on. Two in the front, and one taking place behind the mounted minigun. The engine hummed to life and they drove off towards the fires.

The remaining nine moved the bulky crates to the side, where dozens of other crates sat.

The soldiers set them down, and began tapping at some digital screen. Within a minute, parts of the crates opened up and drones buzzed up into the sky.

The downtown core was full of them. Floating, watching, recording.

They followed soldiers, or wandered around. They were the eyes of the military, and now they could see everything.

“You alright?” a man whispered towards him.

Alberto looked up to see Vice-Captain Enrico Marini looking at him. The man seemed dour, and the rather well known Captain Wesker was nowhere in sight.

“I am holding it together. Just do my job and stay alive, right?” Alberto whispered back as he adjusted the grip on his camera.

Vice-Captain Marini nodded as he took a step back. He chatted with one of his men. Alberto found it very reassuring they stood off to the side, weapons at the ready. Their eyes always lookout to for potential issues.

Unlike the faceless power armored soldiers of Val Verde, these were well known. They interacted with the people of this small city.

There was one thing he tried to ignore though. To the side was the most frightening thing he had ever seen.

People. Infected people. They sat in nets and then hung like fruit.

They still reached out, but yelled no words. They moaned or screamed. They were inhuman now.

“Ensure that there is enough guards here. There may be a cure. It is my wish to ensure that as many get that chance as possible,” the Supreme Leader spoke to a soldier in power armor. 

This soldier was different, with extra etchings on his breastplate. If one paid attention, gold dots lined the man's metal collar.

The other soldiers in white always obeyed. Those faceless soldiers carrying heavy weapons.

Alberto let out a breath.

They were pretty scary for a joke.

—

Doctor Ritsuko “Sue” Akagi stared at the massive feed of information. The AR glasses she wore gave her access to a virtual command center.

All around her, the command staff was currently going over drone footage. They would review footage and direct the soldiers on the ground.

Currently, a third of the city was now covered by Val Verde military.

Two thousand soldiers were already in the city. While the Jade Falcons were coming in by Pelicans, the Rabbit Legion was going in by XM211 trucks. 

The only interesting feed was a stand off with local police officers. That ended when six trucks unloaded a hundred soldiers.

Soldiers were disembarking by the dozens. Most likely they were being filmed live by the residents. 

The police dropped their guns, and shook when the captain handed back their weapons.

“Doctor, we have a problem,” Maya said as she highlighted a certain feed.

Sue immediately focused her attention. Maya was one of her oldest staff members. She had been with her for years. She wouldn’t say those worlds lightly.

It was a drone overlooking the downtown core. In a well lit alleyway, a lone infected was shaking. 

That was new.

The camera zoomed in, and several other drones began to circle this new phenomenon.

The skin began to split, leaking out blood. The blood flowed around the body and then began to congeal. It created a jello like effect as it wobbled with every shake.

Then, like a scab, its began to harden over. The human changed in shape and size. Though it increased a touch in size, it looked more like a insect then a human.

The new creature howled, and its yell echoed across the alley it had been reborn in. Bone white plates covered it, and red muscles bulged across the rest of its body.

The creature sniffed at the air, and then lunged into a brick building. The wall proved to be too soft and malleable as the creature found screaming humans.

Sue grimaced, but found herself also fascinated.

The new creature tore off limbs and drank blood as the male tried to block the creature. The female ran away screaming.

“Soldiers are en-route,” Maya commented as a half dozen patrol warthogs got routed in.

“Make sure that we are recording,” Sue commented as she tapped at her chin.

She enlarged the main feed as a 3d map of the city rotated around her waist. She zoomed in, watching as a dozen vehicles closed into the area.

—

Sergeant Avery Apone stared at the updated information. His helmet had a more complex HUD display. One of the things he got was orders from the the top.

Everyone did get the image though. His soldiers were gawking at what they were seeing. There was a lot of swearing as well.

This infected, termed Type-X, was currently eating a body as they rolled up. Those not using mounted guns were now in a line, ready to unleash hell.

The drones hovering nearby, but out of arm’s reach. Sending out data to command. Command then sent out a fuzzy image. The odd visual image and thermal glow mushed together. 

The image would step when they got visual contact with it.

The man tapped at his arm controller, hoping to clear the picture, but nothing changed.

A red plated humanoid creature. The only humane parts of it were the eyes and exposed skull grin. A grin that was bloody as it ate that wasn’t resurrecting as a zombie like thing.

The orders were also simple. Fight it one on one to get data. Ensure safety of the soldiers first.

“Hudson, you are up,” Apone growled out as he patted his left chest-plate. There, beneath his armored breastplate sat his treasure. His last Sweet William Cigar.

Damn, he needed to rethink his stance on chewing tobacco… then again where would he spit the juices?

“Why me sarge?” Hudson whined as his team pushed him forward.

“Cause I can see the twinkle in your eye, and a boot in your ass if you don’t.”

“Fuck. Why me?” Hudson grumbled as he made his way way towards the front door.

Behind him was the six warthogs, their heavy guns trained on the entrance.

“Don’t worry girl, you got power armor!” Vasquez shouted out and everyone hooted in approval.

“Fuck you!” Hudson yelled back as he made his way to the front of the cellphone store. 

It was once made of glass. Now it had gotten smashed in somehow.

The military man hefted his new M41A Pulse Rifle. Why didn’t he volunteer for heavy weapons again? This rifle was good, but it wasn’t as big as he would have liked it. 

Vasquez had that M56 Smart Gun. It fired bigger bullets. He needed bigger bullets.

The power armor felt too loose over his body. Couldn’t they have made the armor thicker? 

The man swallowed. His throat felt dry as he took a few steps in and readied his rifle. The M41A Pulse Rifle used metal needle-like rounds. The magnetically accelerated rounds were smaller, allowing for 95 round magazines.

Hudson took one step into the office. The sounds of glass crunching beneath his armored boots sounded loud in the small shop. A cell phone shop.

The creature stopped eating and looked up.

Hudson’s red eyes stared into the creatures more inhuman eyes.

It roared at the scent of fresh meat.

Hudson raised his rifle, and held down the trigger. The unique scratching sounds filled the air. The metal rounds accelerated to full speed. They slammed into the creature’s bone chest-plate.

95 rounds. 85 rounds. 75 rounds.

The creature stood up. Its skull like face was smooth, but the back of his head, its neck and muscles were all corded and exposed.

Hudson was a man of normal height and he had to look up. He angled his rifle higher.

65 rounds. 55 rounds. 45 rounds.

The creature didn’t run towards him, but it didn’t drag its feet either. Each step echoed in the small store.

35 rounds. 25 rounds. 15 rounds.

The heavy thump of its foot falls grew louder in his ears. The gunfire somehow became muffled and more faint.

10 rounds. 5 rounds. Empty. Empty. Empty.

Hudson’s training kicked in as his mind went blank.

His hand slid to the secondary trigger for his under barrel shotgun. The solid slug round exploded forward.

Boom!

The creature stalled. It stopped to look at its dented chest bone-plate. Then looked back up and growled.

Boom!

Hudson fired his second shot.

Boom!

The final round. 

The creature roared as it made it to melee range threw out a right hook.

—

Apone listened in to Hudson’s screams. He didn’t envy the man right now. It was a shit request, but the power armor would assure his safety.

Then Hudson flew out of the shop, and skidded across the concrete sidewalk. The man only slowed as he stopped by a friendly warthog.

The heavy thumps of footfall were loud.

Apone watched as the Type-X made its way out of the dark store and out into the streetlight lit streets. The six sets of headlights helped a lot.

The creature, Type-X, was tall. It looked like it had walked through a cactus field, or someone was lobbing porcupines at it.

Needles stuck out from his skull and chest-plate. Bone white covering fleshy, pulsating red.

Apone looked down on the moaning man below where he had been leaning against his command warthog. Hudson had a mean dent in his armor. The man most likely had cracked ribs at the least.

Apone looked up at the skull grinning monster. It was looking left to right. Confused on who to try to eat first.

Fuck the orders. Time to focus on their safety.

“All units, open fire!” 

M41As, M56, Warthog Minigun, Warthog Rocket Launcher, Warthog Large Energy Gun. They all hit the creature and it got blown back towards the store.

Due to their position, the Type-X didn’t fly back in, but smashed into the left over cracked glass windows. The creature smashed across that broken sheet of soft glass. 

The sounds of various gunfire drowned out the shattering glass. The Type-X hit the brick wall separating the store from its neighbor.

Then the Type-X got ground against the wall as more ordinance smashed into it.

Apone watched as another salvo got unleashed. Then another.

“All units, stand down,” the man ordered into his mic.

The ceasefire was immediate. The smoke began to clear, and Apone felt like a new man. 

The sight of the mangled corpse of the Type-X. It was like artwork, and he needed this framed.

The drones were watching, and Apone was happy to see the thermals dropping at a brisk pace.

It was only when the heat had decreased by more then half before he had Hicks and Frost go investigate. He sent in two other warthogs in case.

Apone wanted his cigar. That Sweet William taste was so satisfying.

Yet as he stared at the infected creature, his desire to take off his helmet had vanished.

He hoped HQ was sending in more vehicles. He didn’t feel safe without at least six heavy weapons behind him now. Preference was with twelve warthogs.

—

“Type-X4, eliminated,” Maya stated as she reviewed the drone footage. The dropping temperatures were a good indicator so far. These Type-Xs ran hot, and it was easy to measure temperature losses.

“Thank you,” Sue replied as she reviewed the data she had collected so far.

The Type-X were an anomaly. Unnatural but were they a symptom of the infection, or something else?

The four Type-Xs were similar in structure, but as unique as human individuality. Some had larger chest plates, other larger muscles. Type-X3 was thinner, and quicker, but didn’t last as long as the Type-X4.

Their locations were also random. Two were close, but the other two were at opposite ends of the downtown core.

She didn’t have enough information yet. She had given orders that the remains would get sealed into lead cases. Then brought over to the mansion grounds. 

From here, they would get transported into a sealed room within the mountains.

Machines would then take over and dissect flesh. The walls and ceilings had flamethrowers installed. Canisters of promethium were also lining the special room.

In case of emergencies, burn it to the ground.

Yet a thought nagged at her.

These Type-X were powerful. Their output surpassed the current Protect Gear, Type-42s.

What was Zartan hinting towards? 

This couldn't be it. Right?

————

Chapter 35: Type-X