Chapter 14: Chapter 8.5 OPTIONAL

 

 

“Status on New York since the last twenty-four hours?” “New York is now designated a white zone. Westpoint Academy has failed to respond to any of our hails. From the satellite images taken, High Command has concluded that Colonel Dune and the cadets protecting the civilians failed to evacuate. However, they did buy time for the Eighty-Eighth to link up with pipeline November.”  “Jesus Christ, alright, status on evacuation pipeline November from the north to the Rockies?” “The one-hundred-and third, Two-twelfth, and Delta team Granite have all been listed KIA. Only the Eighty-Eighth Ranger battalion and Seventy-Seventh motor pool remain combat effective with strangler survivors from other units. Air assets have all been mostly neutralized with the exception of a small detachment of Marines using MK-two Little-Birds to act as bait. The analysis estimates the evacuation line will fall into category red within the next two hours unless further support can be mustered. “   “Estimates on civilian casualties if we close this pipeline?”  “Roughly fifteen thousand sir.” “Fuck, do we have any units operating in the area we can pull for guard duty?”  “None of our own, luckily, there are remnants of the Canadian army with civilians that have been attempting to make contact a few miles from the pipeline. Canadian Registry has them listed as the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment, it appears to be a light infantry group with a mix of armored and unarmored vehicles. They wish to join the pipeline sir.”  “I won’t say no to more guns. Rogers, get them on the comm and have them buy us more time.” “As you will sir.” -General Victor Vasquez, “General Victory”  discussing civilian evacuations with planners during the onset of the collapse.

  

 

 

Chapter 8.5 OPTIONAL

 

POV SHIFT ANGELICA\\

For as long as Angelica could remember, she was a fighter with a fondness for tinkering. As a little girl growing up, Mike often read stories about the stalwart defenders of humanity. Defenders, like himself, his father, his father’s father, and her Awakened uncle Roe whom she had never met. Multiple generations of Crosbys had served, and Angelica grew up with the sense that it was her responsibility to do so as well.

 

Mike often spoke of their uncle with pride, usually beaming with energy as he regaled the children with Roe’s exploits and accomplishments. Describing accolades earned and battles survived that their uncle had taken part in. He was a member of the Rangers, the spearhead of humanity's counterattack. The bulwark against the outside world that threatened all of humankind the absolute definition of a heros. Could there be any nobler occupation?

 

Eventually, the kids would come to learn that their uncle had fallen in battle, long before they were ever born, but did this take away from his exploits and achievements? No, of course not. While this news saddened and upset her siblings, for Angelica, this only served to embolden her resolve. 

 

Angelica trained, exercised, and studied day and night so that WHEN she did awaken, she’d have the best chance and appeal to get ahead of the others of her generation. Even going so far as to research habits and trends of humans before they awakened to try and emulate those that were successful. 

 

It was always WHEN, never IF, for Angelica, never in her mind did she harbor doubts that she wouldn't awaken nor did she entertain thoughts that she’d be just a regular human.

 

So when James Awakened, Angelica had deluded herself into thinking that, if a cowardly pacifist like James could Awaken, why wouldn’t she? After all, she was smarter, faster, stronger, and ready to fight and die for humanity. She wholeheartedly believed that last part. It was her duty, just like it was her Uncle Roe’s.

 

She would be the Crosby that elevated the family name to one that would be synonymous with the word hero. 

So when the day came for her Awaken test and the results turned up negative, Angelica was wholeheartedly unprepared. Her entire world crumbled apart. Her hopes and dreams of making the Crosby’s name infamous, died before they could ever learn to stand.

 

Angelica was so distraught at the revelation that she began lashing out in response. Not only at James for being an Awaken and choosing not to use his powers to fight against the Horrors, but also at Jack, Seth, and even her father. Often for petty reasons at best.

At the time, Angelica felt as if they didn’t understand, that everyone around her was so mired by the false sense of security of the underground walls that they had grown complacent to the real fight, the REAL war that was happening just beyond the safety of the city.  

 

But it wasn’t too late for her, no, she could still contribute, she could still be a hero. She tested high in almost every category, even going so far as to score a perfect one-hundred in the mechanical portion of her test. Every job wanted her, and she was all but guaranteed a spot with the Assault Corps. Not as an Awaken but as one of the non-awaken soldiers that fought and supported the Ranger strike forces. 

On the day she finally recovered from her shock, Angelica immediately went to enlist, with Mike pleading with her not to. He began telling her about the aches he had from his arm despite it being prosthetic, how he narrowly avoided death only by the sacrifices of others, and even spilling the truth about his brother’s death in the process.

 

Revealing to the entire household that their Uncle Roe hadn’t met some glorious end staring down the enemies of humanity, but rather, had died by his own hands. Blowing his own brains out as he could no longer deal with the eldritch terrors that surrounded the last city and the stress of combat.  

Angelica and Mike argued for days, with the woman accusing Mike of being a liar and Mike even going as far as to physically drag and lock the hysteric woman inside her room. An action that shocked all witnesses involved. Eventually, she got out, smashing through the door and kicking through the makeshift barricade that had been erected in front of her room.

 

It wasn’t until Mike got down on all fours in broad “daylight” outside their home on the front lawn and begged her, tears streaming down his face not to enlist, that they were finally able to compromise. 

 

Despite what she felt as a betrayal, she loved her father, and seeing the grown man break down and cry broke her heart. But she continued on, by the time she reached the recruitment office, she had had a lot of time to think with the image of Mike’s sobbing face appearing in her mind every so often. The guilt seemed to compound her consciousness until finally, she changed her mind. 

She would enlist as an engineer. If she couldn’t fight then she would develop weaponry that would give humanity the edge to fight back. Or at the very least work on something that would better the lives of humans everywhere. Angelica would still enlist but instead of an “Assault corps support specialist rifleman” she would join as a “reservist mechanic technician specialist” where her recruiter assured her she’d be working on developments to save human lives. 

Which of course turned out to be a bold fat lie. 

Instead of working towards pioneering technological developments, Angelica spent most of her time in the military stuck inside a repair bay where she felt her talents were mostly wasted. 

 

Although she made Sergeant within the year and had made many friends, it wasn’t at all what she was promised. The work was important, she knew that, but it was all just very…. unsatisfying.

A spark of hope erupted in the deep recesses of Angelica’s cynicism when she received her transfer papers, however, it was quickly tapered by the method of introduction chosen by the Crazed Chief Engineering Officer. 

 

Thankfully, Angelica’s passion was quickly rekindled by the ball of stress, passion, and intellect that was Science Officer Julie Heartford, her tour guide of the Academy and now fellow colleague. Angelica was so used to officers and NCOs that were so beaten down by the system that their cynicism had eventually infected her as well. 

She had never met someone with so much passion. At first, Angelica was annoyed with her pessimistic downer attitude, but as time went by the woman quickly began to become more and more energetic and less lethargic as she described the daily struggles and successes of her job. Unlike the constant briefings and random site inspections, Angelica quickly found herself enamored watching the woman speak. 

 

There was something about her passion that sparked something in Angelica she had never felt before. By the time the tour had ended and she was allowed to go home, Angelica was all but smitten. This didn't distract her from her job, however. 

With her “new” Intellipad, Angelica was able to take notes on all of the facilities and departments, with the touring mode also helping to spell out the functions of each stop point. 

 

Much to her surprise, the C.O.R.E division was only a small part of the Academy named Ephyra with the rest of it being dedicated to classrooms, dorms, and a number of facilities ranging from shooting ranges to full hard light simulation arenas.   

 

The cost and construction time were enormous, with dozens to hundreds of engineers, builders, and science officers moving to and fro as they scrambled to meet a deadline. 

During the tour, Angelica was briefed that the first day would consist mostly of a quick rundown of the major facilities. Due mostly in part to her unique experience with the chief engineering officer. It forced the timetable for her onboarding to be cut significantly.  What she did manage to see, however, instilled her with a sense of wonder and amazement, especially the containment area where they kept captured Horrors. 

 

She wasn’t able to observe the creatures long enough to get an accurate description of any of them, but from the heavily armed men and women with the SCR patches on their shoulders and intellipads in their hands, she could tell that not only were they highly intelligent but also trained to deal with any potential breach. Each person in this section, both a scientist and a soldier.

 

Out of all the facilities, she toured through, there was the only one that really caught her attention. Obviously, it was the massive engineering bay, that seemed to span for nearly a mile long, with dozens of mechs, autonomous machines, and a myriad of seemingly random machinery laying strewn about. 

 

Various projects were in various states of completion, with mechanical appendages hanging from the ceiling that moved around rapidly assembling equipment and machinery on conveyor belts or platforms, where they were then picked up by AMs and transported off into various corridors.

 

Most eye-catching of all was the large pit arena where several large mechanical machines were engaged in combat with a huge rock-like creature. 

 

There was a blue-haired man floating above the fight with a smirk, seeming to be the one controlling the golem. Angelica’s jaw nearly dropped when one of the mechs moved to close the distance and readied a stance, preparing to swing its oversized sword at the golem. But the golem was quick, quicker than it should be considering its size, and easily exploited the opening created by the mech in the midst of raising its arm for an overhead swing. 

 

The crowd cheered as the machine was uppercutted into the air by the golem. But, before the construct could land on the ground, it was grabbed by its still hovering legs and swung as an improvised club to smash another machine into the ground, kicking up dust from the collision. Suddenly the golem pivoted, taking the remains of the machine and flinging it directly into a mech attempting to ambush the golem from behind, sending both mechanical constructs crashing to the ground in a display of sparks and shrapnel. 

 

When the machines failed to rise, an air horn soon blew, indicating that the battle was over. Soon, several doors opened with technicians and scientists spewing out to inspect the machines and collect data.

 

The blue-haired man clapped his hands while letting out a boisterous laugh, jeering at a group of engineers below who let out a series of groans as they collectively fished out their wallets.

 

Despite their poor performance against the golem, the mechs were impressive. Angelica had never seen anything like them before and immediately took off to watch the spectacle.

 

Julie happily followed behind, explaining that they were prototyping a new line of anti-Horror machines, conducting testing on their performance against Horrors, but because they weren’t allowed to just release dangerous monsters as they wanted, “yet”, they used the next best thing.

 

A puppeteer Awakened, one who just happened to also be one of the academy’s teachers.

 

Unfortunately, she and her enabler were both taken away by their pair of escorts before they could hop the railing and inspect the machines, both being firmly reminded that they were on a strict timetable. 

 

Angelica ended up with a lot of unanswered questions at the end of the day, but they would have to go unanswered, at least until the next day. At the end of the tour, she was directed through a series of trams and elevators before being brought up to the main foyer of the academy. She was then supposed to be handed off to a guard who would escort her off the premises.

 

However, Julie dismissed the guard and elected to walk her out. The two continued to talk the entire time about various engineering practices and tools, as well as the disparity between the C.O.R.E division and the typical guardsmen repair bays. 

 

Contrary to the methods chosen to bring her here, the academy wasn’t located in any super secret underground area but was actually built into a wall with the stately ornate pillars of its entranceway obscured by a parameter of metal panels and cloth. On the other side of it was a bustling metropolis, indicating that they were somewhere on the middle floors.  By the time the duo had bid farewell to each other and Angelica started her way towards the tram station, she was still giddy with excitement.

 

Coincidently her father just so happened to be returning home from work and picked her up on the way. Everything seemed to be turning around for Angelica, she was in such a good mood that even Jame’s terrible cooking and Jack’s lazy demeanor couldn’t ruin it.  

After finally pinning down Jessica and coercing her to give up the bottle of wine, Angelica sat across from Mike at the dinner table, fiddling with her new rank insignias. On top of getting reassigned, she had also been promoted, making the leap to an officer. The highest rank anyone in her family had ever been was a Master Sergeant, with Mike only being a staff sergeant before he retired. She was excited to ambush the family with her promotion.

 

Granted, she skipped a few steps but she felt that her talents were being appreciated for what they were.  

 

“He better not have forgotten about us and started playing video games up there again,” Mike grumbled before taking his eyes off his book and yelling.

 

“I'M GONNA SHUT OFF THE ROUTER!” 

 

A rabid scramble of footsteps could be heard from above before her two brothers emerged into the dining room.

 

“I’m here! I’m here! It hasn’t even been an hour yet Mike jeez.” Jack replied with an attitude.

 

Check that, maybe something could ruin her mood after all, she thought as she listened to the manchild complain with a frown.

 

“Just making sure kiddo,” Mike said, putting his book down and flashing a smile that caused Angelica to feel a tinge of anger at Jack’s attitude. When he took a seat at the table with an exasperated sigh Angelica felt she couldn’t hold it any longer. But a knowing look and nod from Mike temporarily quenched her anger.

 

“Ugh.” Angelica let out while downing the rest of the wine she had, causing Jack to look at her for a moment. 

 

“Don’t look at me as a loser,” Angelica reflexively blurted out, making Jack frown. It could have been the wine talking, but she really wanted to punch him. Surprisingly Jack didn’t look away, instead, he stared at her almost as if he was issuing a challenge.  

“What? Got something to say?!” Angelica spat, when he didn’t say anything in response and only kept staring, did Angelica lean over and attempt to grab Jack by the scruff of his shirt. In contrast to her expectations, he swatted her hand away and shoved her back. 

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For some reason looking at Jack never failed to piss her off. He was lazy, rude, wimpy, and ungrateful for their family's hospitality. He spent most of his days being a disgusting loser and never bothered spending time with them. A leech, and a shut-in.. And now that he wasn’t backing down like he usually did, and even going so far as to push her, snapped something in Angelica.

 

 

“Whoa! Whoa! let's chill out here!” James interjected, physically intercepting the woman as she leaped around the table to grab 0Jack.

 

“Let me go, James! Let me teach that disrespectful little shit a lesson!” Angelica yelled, trying to escape the man’s embrace. When she tried to throw a wild swing, shackles of light suddenly materialized out of thin air and held her in place. James’s eyes glowed, binding her with his powers and keeping her restricted. For a moment, Angelica felt very envious of James, but this quickly turned into more anger as she was suddenly reminded of something she had been denied.

 

“See this shit?! She’s always starting stuff with me! What did I do to deserve getting bullied?!” Jack exclaimed, backing away from the table and pointing at Angelica.

 

“ENOUGH!!” 

 

Mike roared, slamming his book down on the table with a loud thud. He occasionally yelled to get their attention but seldom had he ever screamed at his kids, his unexpected outburst causing the entire household to come to a standstill.

 

“Enough… why is it so hard for you all to get along?” Mike huffed, shaking his head with a saddened expression. 

 

“I ask you all, for one thing.” Mike continued, holding up a finger with his prosthetic hand. “One. Fucking. Thing. And that’s to spend time as a fami-”

 

“He isn't my br-” Angelica started.

 

“SHUT UP!” Mike snapped, shaping his hand at an angle and pointing all his fingers toward Angelica. She immediately recognized the gesture, the signature knife-hand. Everyone in the military knew it was a bad sign when the knife hand broke out. Angelica immediately stopped talking, and quickly lowered her gaze. 

 

“And that's to spend time as a family. Not fight. Not bicker, you might not like it but Jack is your brother Angelica, and you will treat him with the respect you would give to any of your siblings!” Mike continued. Oh, he was furious, Mike seldom used her full name unless she was in big trouble. Jack smirked as she was being chewed out, but this quickly drew Mike’s ire.

 

“And you! I love you boy, but I swear to Saint Citri herself if you don’t shape up, and quit with your fucking attitude I will pack all your shit and put it to the curb son!” Mike barked, directing his knife hand at the wide-eyed manchild. 

 

“Now, we are going to sit here, make up, and enjoy the meal that Seth and Jessica have prepared for us.” 

 

“But-” Angelica and Jack began in unison.

 

“And. Enjoy. The. Meal.” Mike hissed, putting a stop to their complaints. He then signaled to James to let Angelica go, and he complied, apologizing to her. Angelica shrugged it off with a rough “whatever” before taking a seat at the table.  

 

“Now apologize to each other,” Mike ordered. 

 

“But I didn’t eve-” Jack tried to reply, but a glare from Mike cut him off. 

 

“-I’m sorry,” Jack said, it was unconvincing but he complied, 

 

“Say it like you mean it!” Mike barked, causing Jack to flinch and Angelica to smile at his suffering.

 

“I’m... sorry,” Jack said, this time with more feeling.

 

“Good,” Mike replied.”Now your turn,” He said, fixing his glare at Angelica. Ugh, she didn’t want to, but she knew she was the one at fault for starting it, even if she felt justified.

 

“I’m. Sorry.” Angelica reluctantly forced out.

 

“Good, you don’t have to love each other, hell, you don’t have to like each other. But you will get along as long as you're under my roof. If you're gonna act like children I’ll treat you like one,” 

 

The group sat in relative silence for a couple of minutes before James cleared his throat and tried to break the tension “So… Anything new since last week?”

 

No one responded, and Angelica wasn’t in the mood to share her triumphs. The spat between Jack and Angelica seemeding to sour the mood for everyone.

 

Luckily they were saved by the dinner bell being rang.

 

“Dinners ready!” a woman’s voice called out from the Kitchen. Just in time too, as Angelica and Jack had entered into a silent staring contest with neither backing down. 

 

“Thank god,” Angelica could hear James whisper. 

 

Soon, Seth wheeled into the living room carrying a pot of steaming hot stew. The aroma flooded the room, quickly collecting a series of stomach growls from the occupants of the space.  As he placed the pot on the table, Jessica soon appeared with a tray of buttered bread and helped to lay the table.

 

“Hey!” 

 

“It’s still hot,” Jessica warned, smacking Jack’s hand away from the cluster of bread rolls. 

 

“So, another week, another family gathering. Another day of me cooking.” Seth grumbled, taking his spot at the table. After a few minutes went by the table began to come alive with the shuffling of several folks scrambling to devour the food. At one point Seth offered to teach everyone how to cook, but it was unanimously rejected.

“Mmh I’ve got classes to teach,”

 

“Lots of cases piling up,”

 

“Mr. Wong needs me to do overtime” 

 

“Just got promoted so lots of new duties,”

 

An immediate series of excuses quickly responded, causing Seth to let out a frustrated sigh and rub his temples.  

 

“Of course, I don’t know why I expected any-wait you got promoted?” Seth asked mid-sentence, turning towards Angelica. She had blurted it out to avoid tenuous work but now that it was out there and all eyes were looking at her, Angelica smiled.

 

“Read 'em and weep!” Angelica declared, standing up and slamming the two golden pins onto the table. “You're looking at Second Lieutenant Angelica Crosby, the first Crosby to be made an officer!”

 

Angelica couldn’t help but be a little prideful, with warm food and wine in her belly, and the aroma of the stew making her feel giddy, her spirits were up despite the earlier altercation with Jack.  

 

Everyone congratulated her, even Jack managed to muster up a good job, the only one that didn’t however was her father. The others seemed to notice it as well, with everyone turning to look at him. Mike had folded his hands, sitting upright as he tried to conceal a worried expression but failed.

 

“Why?” Mike asked, narrowing his eyes.. 

 

“Why what dad?” Angelica replied.

 

“The sudden promotion kiddo. You don’t get that kind of a leap from non-com to Com without doing something reckless or going through a lot of training. And you haven’t told me anything about any officer courses. So why?” Mike iterated with a frown. 

 

“Don’t worry, it’s perfectly safe..ish,” Angelica assured, putting her hand out to interrupt Mike’s forming response. “I got transferred to a research and development division. I can’t go into specifics because it’s all classified, but the brass has assigned me to someplace I think I’m going to really enjoy.”

 

Mike furrowed his eyebrows, staring long and hard at his daughter before letting out a pint-up sigh of air and laughing. The tension in his shoulders drooped as he stood up and beelined his way to Angelica, embracing her in a bear hug.

 

“Thank the Saint kiddo, had me worried for a moment there! Congrats!” Mike said beaming with pride. 

The rest of the night carried on with little to no incident in between with lots of booze being drunk. The family played a few rounds of Street Brawlers and watched a series of pre-collapsed era movies before Seth and Jessica excused themselves to leave. Since Mike’s downstairs bathroom didn’t have the space for Seth’s wheelchair, Seth opted to head home, bringing his girlfriend with him. James soon excused himself after the pair had left, heading up the stairs to his room, but only after asking Mike to do a presentation about Peacekeeper work at his school.

Mike ecstatically agreed, offering a beer to his son who took it and left, leaving Mike, Angelica, and Jack alone with each other in the living room. 

 

The pair sat around keeping Mike company, even though both wanted to do other things, their father kept drunkenly begging them to stay and spend time with him. Telling the duo a number of dad jokes and bad puns until finally, he passed out. Leaving the duo alone.

Angelica draped a blanket over Mike and turned off the TV. As she started collecting plates she turned towards Jack who seemed to be slumped over in deep thought. 

 

“So you gonna help?” Angelica asked,

 

“Yea, sorry. Just thinking about something.” Jack monotonously replied back ,waving the woman off.

 

“Like now or next week?” Angelica snapped back, causing Jack to shake his head in frustration before looking at Angelica. 

 

“Look, I’m dealing with a lot of stuff ok, just let me think. Alright!” Jack yelled, causing Angelica to take a step back in surprise. 

 

“Excuse you?”  Angelica retorted wide-eyed, unsure of what had just happened.

 

“Look-”

 

“tAco cHips bEans n diiiip.” Mike murmured, stirring at the sound of the pair about to argue.

 

“Better not wake him up,” Angelica hissed, pointing a finger at Jack. 

“Sorry, just… leave everything ok, fuck I’ll take care of it,” Jack whispered, getting up to grab the plates of discarded sweets and crumbs. 

 

Well, that’s odd. Angelica thought, not once did Jack ever volunteer for anything, much less move unless being told so. Something was clearly up, she debated asking him what was wrong, but held her tongue. He was probably just nervous about his Awakening exam, after all, she could vividly recall the anxiety she felt the night prior. Pursing her lips she backed off, giving him some space.

 

She had her own things to worry about, and 

 

OOPS forgot to add this

 

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