REQUIEM - Low Life

5. A New Tune for Old Ears

NOVEMBER 2123

The transporter landed outside the camp, along with the others. The night was warm, and the stage was set. Memphis Boyd felt tense, but he swallowed the feeling. He knew what was at stake. They all knew. Machina was known as a refuge to the public. Its founding inspired other shelters across Atlas and the housing crisis in the Fringe died out. It was perfect, on paper. Behind the veil, Machina was a breeding ground of self-proclaimed insurgents named Vandals. They sought to invade the Fringe, Onyx, and – eventually – Capitol with the darkness that had destroyed the old city.

NFORCER's very first mission was to stop the Vandals before they had the chance. It wasn't a simple mission. They weren't just about to cripple a people; they were about to cripple a movement. Their mission was to destroy Machina's spirit.

"Make it hurt," Minerva had ordered.

They attacked loud, and fast. Boyd ran in with the second squad, his rifle set to automatic, and rained hell down on anyone in sight. There were no refugees that night, only Vandals. That's what they were told. He led his group into a corridor of private bedrooms. Virgil Apollo had slept with Hiroshi Saito that night and the sound of metal and gunfire woke them out of their sleep.

The NFORCERs outside kicked in every door and killed the people inside. One of those rooms was Aisha's. She hid behind the door as it violently swung open and caught the attacker's rifle. The NFORCER threw her against the wall, but she had managed to disarm them. They charged at her, and she hopped up, grabbed them around their neck and sent an energy pulse through their helmet. It was enough to put them down.

It was Boyd who barged into Hiro's quarters. Virgil stepped up to face him as he raised his gun. "Is it easier to kill someone when you can't see their face or when they can't see yours?" he asked, grabbing Boyd's attention for a split second, and allowing Hiro to attack him. Hiro locked his batons around his neck and forced him out of the room while Virgil took his hands and had him firing at his own people. They knocked Boyd down and Virgil unsheathed his sling before they went to work. They met Aisha in the corridor after barely surviving the wave of NFORCERs.

"What the hell is going on?" she asked.

"Are you okay?" Virgil asked her, tending to a cut she had gotten on her forehead. "We don't know what's going on either."

"They're everywhere," Hiro said standing by the window. "They've got a dozen transporters parked outside and I don't even know how many NFORCERs those things can carry." He turned to Virgil. "Do we fight?"

Virgil shook his head. "We can't win this. Evacuate everyone you can, call Eli and have him find a place for us to lay low. I'm gonna go find Fleet. Let's move!"

Aisha looked at the litter of bodies surrounding her after Hiro and Virgil left, Vandals and NFORCERs alike. She caught Boyd trying to get to his feet before knocking him out with a blast to the head.

Virgil fought his way through the army of NFORCERs, using his sling to disarm and incapacitate them. There were other Vandals who stood their ground and fought, but they were unprepared and overpowered. He signalled for them to leave the fight and evacuate Machina. It went eerily quiet when he reached of the communal sleeping areas. He was surrounded by a bloodbath. What made it worse was the fact that that area was for the shelter seekers. None of the people who died in that hall were fighters. It was unnecessary slaughter.

He started calling for Christopher Fleet. "Virgil!" Fleet called back. Virgil rushed over and found him on his knees in a corner. He was looking down on something. Someone. "Virgil, you need to do something," Fleet sobbed. "I don't know what to do, we need to do something."