Post by Commodore Kimono on Jan 30, 2024 0:59:54 GMT -5
Mission ~ The Beginning of the End
Mission #1: Kimono's struggle against the hoards of the undead
TWC: 2,819
Power Level: 10,000 (at the time)
TWC: 2,819
Power Level: 10,000 (at the time)
It had only been a couple weeks after her training since Kim was assigned her first proper mission. Fresh from the Enhanced Human Training programs and being tasked with her introductory mission straight from the top.
As she stood at the base of the stairs to her target in East City, Kim thumbed through the papers left behind for her by her Captain. The thin black markings denoting classification showed her exactly how important of a mission this was for the amateur. Large, stamped lettering at the top of the paper, slightly ajar in the corner, stated the words she did not like seeing on any mission regardless of her ‘power’.
RESTRICTED: CLASSIFIED FOR O-7 EXCLUS
She had just begun her job training as a specialized covert operative for the government under Secretary Camisa yet the task she was given was one of someone of a way higher pay grade than her. She was just a Lieutenant Commander, fresh from the Earth Marine Corps. She never made it to even be a flag officer before being thrown into something like this.
“Ugh…” She’d groan as she sat on the bottom step, her eyes looking for whatever words weren’t obscured by black ink. Something about a machine, vials of liquid to capture, highly dangerous. She couldn’t read half of the material and was left with more questions than answers. All she knew was that this was a ‘business casual’ mission. No uniforms, no exposed weaponry, nothing that could trace the mission back to the military if she failed her task. “If they’re going to send me to steal something, the least they could do is tell me what exactly it is I’m stealing.” She’d complain one final time, placing her papers in the small chibi-themed backpack she had left on the stair, reaching into the bag and retrieving a holster containing a small compact handgun. She’d quickly hide the backpack among the bushes outside of the mansion residence before tucking the handgun into the internal battle belt underneath her tennis skirt, covering it once more with the dress-style blazer. One step after another would leave the backpack behind as she made her way up the stairs towards the front door of the awkwardly placed chateau.
Knock, knock, creeeeeeeeeeeek
The soldier was surprised when, as her knuckles hit the wooden door for the final time, the door slid open without resistance. She quickly stiffened up, looking around the corners of the door to see if anyone was around to have opened the door or left it unlocked. No one was around in the foyer of the large entrance. The inside was cold and dark, the only lights being candles in rows along the walls on both sides. Along the inside of the hall laid many disheveled tables and chairs, thin layers of dried blood spread across the furniture with rotting food and beverages on the few remaining surfaces not thrown to the ground. Kim stepped cautiously inside, her focus on the blood staining the wood of the chair closest to her. Thin scraps of flesh hung to the material, ripped from whatever poor person was unlucky enough to be the victim of whatever attack led to this. Kimono drew her knife from her boot and scraped some of the blood into an evidence bag, pocketing the genetic material and continuing across the entrance into the main hall in front of her.
As she crossed the threshold of the main door from the entrance room into the main hall, she could see what was like a scene from a horror film. Above her head stood an imposing chandelier, hanging from it loose was limbs of various animals, including Earthling. Before her on the ground lay destroyed computers and machinery of some kind, their appearance somewhat similar to the description of the machinery she was to find and acquire.
“Well… I hope they’ve got some more somewhere or else that’s one item off of my checklist” She’d remark to herself as she inspected the metal. More blood and viscera laid with the computer parts as if they had been used to inflict damage to someone or something. The damage was consistent with blunt force trauma, the dents in the frame and sheet coverings were shaped like arms and heads. “Whoever broke these did so using it as a weapon… They were fighting back against something.” Kim would continue, just now barely hearing the shuffling sound coming from behind her.
She would turn quick, her footing off and nearly falling back as she drew her firearm and aimed the pistol at the potential enemy. It was a man. Roughly six feet tall, face drained of most of its color. He looked miserably sick to Kim. “Stop, one more step and I’ll be forced to shoot.” She’d order the man as the hunched, shambling individual continued to walk towards her. He was slow, each step not as methodical as one would expect from someone so injured. The streaks of blood on his clothes and face obvious and his eyes begged with the feeling of hunger. Kim began to freak out even more as she noticed her inability to feel anything coming from the man. No spiritual level came from his body, no intent or malice or fear. He just… was like a void to her. She was similar, she could willingly stop people from feeling her magic and ki, but this was different. Even she would have difficulty doing so if she was so injured. This man was just… not there. He wasn’t alive. He was something else. “I SAID STOP” she could only yell out of anger and fear as he got closer and closer. Her hand shook and her grip wavered on the handgun. Just as the man got close enough, his body lunged at Kim violently, taking her by the arm and attempting to bite down on her flesh. In the struggle, she couldn’t keep ahold of her gun, dropping the device to the ground as they fought.
Kim would recoil and push him back, the man gripping down on her and trying to force himself closer snapping with his jaws in the air in front of her. She threw the man off to the side and into a grandfather clock. The body slumped against the wood of the clock, snapping the wood to splinters but to no effect to the man. Kim fell to the ground looking for her pistol. As she would find the handgun, she would twist around onto her back as the man was now back up, shambling towards her. Fear would overtake the soldier as she would fire three rounds into the body. Two hit the man in the chest with no effect whatsoever, before the third shot to his head would drop the corpse on top of her, blood spilling out of his wounds onto the floor and Kim’s shirt. She forced the body off of her, wiping the excess blood off of her and onto the floor, staining her palms as she freaked out. This was nothing like what she’d seen before. She was used to fighting insurgents. Conflict zones had other soldiers, terrorists, enemies that fought with weapons. She never had to kill someone who was trying to bite her. This didn't feel like a fight, she didn't feel like she had just taken out a combatant. This felt like putting down a rabid animal.
“W-what the fuck was that” She’d struggle out to herself as she peered at the monster that laid face down beside her. The three bullet holes showing grievous exit wounds. The first two should have killed any regular human, but he didn’t die until his head was damaged. “Just what the fuck is going on here? What the hell am I looking for?” She’d speak to herself, getting back up to her feet and rushing toward the nearest room. Inside was no better than the main hall. It’s walls torn and damaged, corpses along the floor and limp against the countertops that held lab equipment. Just as quickly as Kim stepped through the door into the side lab the bodies inside started to rise from their rest and turn towards her. Low groans and growls left their mouths as they reached for her, some more capable of rising to fight than others. Kim raised her firearm and began firing, her rounds hitting center mass mostly at the bodies as they clambered up to a standing position. One woman in a lab coat was hit once in her chest and another in her shoulder knocking her onto her back, but still moving. Another man in a security uniform was hit with no effect in his stomach and chest but dropped immediately after the final snapshot to his cranium. As Kim noticed this, piecing it together with the last zombie she was surprised by the click of her slide locking back. “Fuck, out of am-” She’d mutter as one of the undead got close enough to swipe at her, knocking her back and tearing the sleeve of her blazer exposing the white dress shirt underneath and its light bloodstains. She would kick the shambling body back into the room and slam the door shut.
Dropping her magazine onto the floor and reloading her handgun, she would drop the slide on a live round and fire three times at head level into the plaster and wood of the door to the lab room. She could head two slumps of bodies on the floor. Kicking in the door, she’d immediately aim at the final corpse still sitting upright against the wall, putting a round through them as well ending the zombies in the room. The smell of iron was heavy as she pushed into the laboratory. The vials that she assumed was what she was looking for seemed to be mostly destroyed, the chemicals spilled into the sinks and on the floors and counters. If this was what caused this event, she wasn’t even sure she trusted the government with this kind of monstrosity. It was a complete mess in here. Just as soon as she would get her bearings she could hear the noises through the walls of the entire facility. Moans, shrieks, and tumbling sounds of shuffling feet. Looking for anything she could, Kimono would look back at the security officer she had shot. Looking over his body she would quickly spot the shotgun slung over his back and the speedloaders on his vest. She’d cut the sling from the body with her knife, racking the bolt of the semi-automatic firearm to load a new round of buckshot. She was ready for whatever came at her.
![](https://i.imgur.com/9AgdRpL.jpg)
Kim made her way out and back into the main hall, looking up the large staircase at the end of the hall and the set of banisters on either side high above. Corpses walking would get to the wire banisters and reach down towards her while others continued to walk towards the staircase to get to her. She would shoulder the shotgun, raising it towards the upstairs zombies and open fire on the creatures as they struggled against the metal bars blocking their way. The buckshot worked its magic, the spread of a single shell hitting multiple undead and putting them down far faster. As she made her way up the stairs, firing into the few struggling bodies that had made their way down to her. She could see the bulkhead of a laboratory door, the crushed metal of its frame unconcerning to the woman as she ran full sprint towards the door. As she’d get to it, she’d enhance her foot with her Ki and kick in the heavy steel door. Inside was a bloodbath, corpses and bullet holes lining the ceiling and walls. A mixture of scientist and security bodies littered the floor and tables while the multitudes of various machinery on the counters and a few tables were undisturbed. Kimono took light, soft steps into the room with the shotgun at her hip, the bodies unmoving for now. She could see a centrifuge holding thin vials of various colored chemicals and some containing blood. As she slowly reached for the vials in the centrifuge, she heard the stifling creak of the tile as the bodies began to move more and more.
She’d quickly grab handfuls of the vials and placed them into the pocket of her jacket, turning around only to feel the cold fingers of one of the zombies wrapping around her ankle. She aimed down with the shotgun, blasting the arm of the deceased being and booking it for the open door. She barely made it without being grabbed, turning back and unloading on the creatures inside with the remaining ammo she had in her possession. By the time her shotgun locked back on an empty chamber with no remaining speed loaders, she would grip the barrel with her hand to swing the stock like a club into the skull of the remaining undead. Dropping the firearm to the ground and looking at the burns on her palms, Kim knew it was time to get a sample of the equipment and leave.
Taking a quick inventory of the machinery and lab equipment in the room, she determined the most important items to grab were the papers on the production and origin of the virus spread across the various cork boards and tables in the development room, as well as a small metal briefcase containing a computer with a lot of technical information, she couldn’t make heads or tails of. Gathering these items on her person and drawing her handgun one final time, Kim ran as hard as she could from the room and into the main hall as more bodies shuffled out of the different rooms surrounding her. She could only fire the occasional shot into one who got too close to conserve the last magazine she had. By the time she pushed through the crowd of zombies back to the main door of the mansion, Kimono aimed her pistol up into the air at the chandelier. One well-placed round dropped the massive glass piece of furniture onto the hoard as they followed behind the soldier, the electricity sparking from the exposed wires beginning a fire that spread through the ranks of the dead and into the house itself. Kim could only close the door and seal it shut by kicking off the door handles, sprinting down the stairs to retrieve her mission bag and exfil while she still had the chance.
Kimono would reach into her backpack and place her earpiece back into her ear while she watched as the mansion turned into a massive house fire. The sounds of the crashing rooms and crushing weight on the wood masking the groans of the few undead inside being destroyed by the scorching heat. She'd hit the call button on her earpiece to notify command of her actions, the phone being picked up and transferred.
"So... Mission complete I guess, but we've got a serious problem." She would state sheepishly, fully expecting to be scolded by her superiors due to her apparent failure to do the mission properly.
"Let me guess Lieutenant Commander, the target zone was compromised already by the time you got there."
"Y-yes actually. How did you know?"
"We've been monitoring your actions from a drone to make sure you could be trusted. It wasn't expected for them to be dumb enough to accidentally cause an outbreak, but at least it's dealt with." Her Captain would state over the intercom as Kim looked up, seeing the military drone high in the sky slowly circling the area. "It was smart to start the fire. We can have plausible deniability and claim they all died due to the 'accident' they caused. We are sending a collection team to get the assets from you and give you a ride back to the command center. Make sure to check yourself over for any wounds. We can't verify what kind of vector this virus runs off of so we can't guarantee you aren't infected if you were injured during your assault on the compound."
Hearing this made Kim freak out slightly, looking at where she had been clawed at and hit but seeing no apparent bite marks or slashes. She was lucky... this won't always happen. She noted in her head to be more careful of taking wounds in the future. "Get some rest now kid. You probably need it after all of that."
"Y-yeah. Thank you, Captain."