[Lake Meadows Park @ 1920 hours, Chicago, May 2076]
Mission Time (after insertion): +00:03
With the Humvee on the ground the team begins the slow but steady trek towards their first rendezvous while the drones scout ahead; the urban terrain feels comfortably familiar, but there's a distinct tinge of fear and death in the air.
The video feeds from the two Fly-Spy drones flanking the Humvee come in solid thanks to Wires' significant noise reduction techniques; the immediate area surrounding East 31st Street is eerily quiet, with very little movement to be seen. As the Humvee quietly snakes it's way around the burned out shells of old vehicles, the occasional rat can be seen running away to hide in the decaying buildings lining the road.
[POV: Viper-1 and 2]
As you watch the feeds from Fly-Spy 3 through 5 making their way towards the target buildings as the crow flies, you take a quick look around yourselves; the team seems quietly confident, sitting in their seats at the ready, their posture tense but focused. From your birds-eye view of the route towards your recon objective, you spot several dilapidated buildings that look like they're occupied by squatters, but only a few of them are close enough to your current route to pose potential threats. The civilians you see are all carrying some form of weapon, however, though the level of detail from the drone feeds and the fog covering the ground makes it difficult to determine more details. As the Humvee passes Dunbar Park the drones acquire a lock on the targeted buildings, and the Pilot programs immediately report ready to infiltrate their objective.
[POV: Viper-3]
Piloting the Humvee at this speed is childs-play; you could do this in your sleep. Still, you take not of the large amounts of trash and debris that litters the roads, and make a mental note that if you ever need to haul ass this will get tricky fast. Several roadblocks have been set up and later on demolished or moved, some out of makeshift barricades created from rubble, other from cars that have been moved into the way. The feeds from Fly-Spy 1 and 2 shows the roads ahead are fairly clear, and you've managed to find several alternate roads should something happen.
[POV: Viper-4 and 6]
Having manned your respective guns you keep a close eye on the surrounding areas. The drone feeds confirm that there is little movement to be seen apart from the occasional rat, but every now and again you see movement out of the corner of your eye that's far too big to be a rat. Whenever you turn to get a closer look, however, there's nothing to be seen. A sinking feeling settles in your guts that you're being watched by something, but you've no idea who or what it could be. Nothing is showing up on the drone feeds, and whatever it is it hasn't made any aggressive moves yet.
[POV: Viper-5]
From the front seat of the Humvee you have a perfect vantage point of the road ahead and to either side. With your keen eyes and expert knowledge of the CZ, you spot a few devil rats sneering at the vehicle before scurrying away. When something moves in your peripheral vision, you keep your cool and observe it without turning your head to look at it. The shape of the creature is almost cloaked in the shadows between buildings making it very difficult to spot, and it's surface coating seems to change before your very eyes. You've encountered hellhounds before, but this is something else, something more sinister perhaps; as the Humvee passes a large overturned bus you lose sight of the creature, and when you next look in the direction of where you saw it there is nothing to be seen.
