First Contact
Streams are flooded with comments.
News flashes across the streams.
Here in this area, everything is blocked off. The tracks leading to other lines are all sealed. There doesn't seem to be much of a way out at all.
That's enough for now.
Even though there are countless places on Earth that no human hand has touched, humanity has chosen density over exploration.
Over time, this trend has only intensified. With nowhere left to go on the finite land, we started ripping open the sky and digging into the ground. What looked like perfectly normal terrain above actually housed vast subway networks and underground malls carrying millions.
Bryant Park.
This spot I stepped foot in was no different—its depths were filled with subway stations connected by spiderweb-like tunnels.
…
What now?
Hold on for a second.
I took a moment to gather my thoughts, as I had done so many times before.
To succeed, I had to break the objective into the smallest possible pieces. First, list the big picture, then examine the conditions we face.
The enemy was five strong.
From what I had scouted, assuming standard small-unit tactics, the squad leader and machine-gunner would be the core, with the other three being riflemen.
One of the riflemen might double as a designated marksman, but during the engagement I had no one carrying a DMR or sniper rifle.
The station had three levels total.
The first was ground level. The second underground was a gate flanked by platforms with stairs on both sides. The third was the boarding platform, where stores and various facilities intertwined in a messy web. For practical purposes, it was two large, indistinct layers stacked together.
Accounting for typical squad movement, even in complex terrain, it was standard practice to operate in twos. Yet five people clumped together would be wasteful, so they would naturally split into pairs and a trio, maximizing odds.
…It reminded me of something that happened near a cement factory in Hartford back in the day. Deja vu, maybe.
Handcuffs or restraints? There shouldn't be any. Grenades?
Three left.
Mags?
Five haven't been fired. About three have been half-empty.
Can't reload right now, so switch to fresh ones. Keep the selector on full auto.
Given the cover available—barricades, pillars, platforms—any fight would be limited to about twenty meters at most.
From memory, the nanomachine processing was limited, so even with current gear, close-range fire should deliver heavy damage beyond what the enemy could handle.
I ran a quick equipment check.
If device functions hadn't been restricted, I could have planted remote-activated seaker mines everywhere. Too bad. Couldn't count on what wasn't there.
I started the briefing as concisely as possible.
"You should have the underground layout memorized by now."
"I remembered some of it, but..."
"We don't need the whole thing. I'll only cover the parts where fighting is likely. This station has a pretty unique layout."
Two entrances, one on each side of the road, both descending in straight lines before abruptly turning into a sharp corner, so that once inside, people coming down from opposite sides faced each other. After that, the path merged into one corridor leading to the gate.
The entrance to the third underground level, the boarding platform, followed the same design—immediate face-to-face confrontation the moment you descended.
Assuming they faced each other, the distance between them was roughly twenty-five meters.
The only difference was on the third level: right next to the facing point, a narrow downward ramp led straight to the platform.
And...
"As long as the enemies don't fully descend to the third level, we won't be seen. We'll hide right at the entrance to the path that curves sharply to our right."
Two ramps in total, each branching to separate up and down platforms.
The corridor itself was anything but open. In fact, it was the opposite. So if we were hidden, anyone entering from the far side would be blocked by walls and couldn't spot us easily.
Pieces of the puzzle clicked into place one by one in my mind.
"And?"
"The moment they enter the cornered entrance, their line of sight will hit us... we'll call that temporary point Alpha."
"Got it."
"Based on when they reach Alpha, the distance from our ambush spot to them will be no more than four meters at best."
"So, just open fire on everyone who walks into Alpha?"
"Not quite."
Gauging their gear and armor, rushing in close might get us ganged up on and wiped instead.
After taking out two for sure, the remaining three had to be trapped in this underground. Or at least immobilized somewhere.
"When they reach Alpha, I'll throw a grenade from the opposite entrance while they charge straight in."
"Huh...?"
"Then the one or two working with them will shoot at me. Or just before."
"Yeah."
"So when I charge, throw the remaining grenades right there and get back up the stairs as fast as possible."
"Whoa, this is..."
A brief silence fell.
Our eyes met. The look in hers was... close to the kind of wild stare you would expect from a crazy person.
But the cat-eared user who called herself Harmony asked me directly instead of voicing her own crazy thought.
"...So how exactly are you going to survive, Eugene?"
"Because they're excellent meat shields."
That meant using the enemies as literal human shields.
So...
"...Eugene."
"Yes?"
"This might sound rude, but what exactly have you been through?"
Ah, right.
Someone who'd seen... a lot of things.
More precisely, someone who repeated the same actions even in games as before.
I pulled a multi-tool from my pocket. After fiddling with it the way my body remembered, I pressed a few buttons. A small EMP generator hummed and fired its pulse.
It was obvious from the way she stared that she understood what it meant.
EMP attack detected. Device functions limited and communication bandwidth reduced.
Nearby communications and teammate comms only are now possible.
ICARUS combat support assistant equipment CSAG inoperable.
"What is that?"
"The localized EMP generator I got when I created the character."
I tucked it into a corner of the wall, out of sight from the enemies, then turned off the UI completely as it began to glitch.
"Whichever way this goes—one side or the other—we'll be the one trapped here alive."
EMP attack detected.
"EMP? What are they even carrying?"
"EMP grenades, I bet."
"That doesn't make sense. Status effect won't wear off. If it was a grenade, it would have detonated already."
EMP.
Also known as electromagnetic pulse, it had been the top culprit for tanking user frustration and blood pressure ever since it first appeared in the game.
From depleted mag counts and map markers to complete locking of combat support equipment—everything that used to drop in upper content.
That was exactly why something this rare was showing up here, right now.
"It won't go away? This is broken. The squad location isn't even on the map."
"Didn't one of those two have an EMP generator earlier?"
"The reason we entered the Uncontrolled Area today was because they brought in a jammer. It could be related. Time to focus."
But the noisy comms quieted down again when the squad leader's voice came through the nearby voice channel.
Five men in gear with a revolver patch crossed on their shoulders moved in perfect sync, splitting into pairs and a trio, then entering the subway station through the two entrances.
Task Force Despero-019.
The Dark Zone allowed us to form a small unit called Task Force with five members, then add fitting English letters and numbers to create our own identity.
These were one of the teams slowly gaining recognition through activities on Yourspace, the world's largest video-sharing platform.
"See anything?"
"No. Close-range scan won't work. This sucks."
"Take out those two and look for any jammers around. Anyone have a complaint?"
"None."
After reuniting with the five at the entrance, we passed through the deactivated gate and faced the split entrances again.
Whichever way we went, there was no major issue.
We stopped in place, scanned the surroundings, and waited for the signal.
"We'll split the same way we came in and descend. Left side with the two riflemen and the machine-gunner. I'll take the machine-gunner and the squad leader to the opposite entrance and enter slowly."
"Five of us pushing in together would be better, right?"
"The path is too narrow for five people to have clear firing angles. Risk of friendly fire or being massacred."
"There are only two enemies anyway... whatever, got it."
Not professional, but the five moved with practiced grace, splitting to both sides and signaling each other.
With a sharp click, the selectors flipped to full auto. Their bodies, under the influence of action correction, locked into firm aiming stances as they started down the stairs.
"To prevent friendly fire, the machine-gunner and I will descend first from this side. You enter from the opposite side at the same timing."
"Confirmed."
Footsteps and boots scraped together. The friction and the rustle of fabric brushing my collar filled the air.
In the oppressive silence where only breaths and heartbeats could be heard, the machine-gunner led the way, his Mk.48 LWMG slung across his back, stepping onto the gently curving stairwell.
Unlike the second underground level, which still had some light, the third was almost completely dark.
With every step down, my vision narrowed further.
…
Maintaining high readiness to respond instantly and avoid friendly fire, I followed the machine-gunner at a one-meter distance.
Terrain that I hadn't scouted before began to reveal itself.
'...Is there a path that turns right over here too?'
But now wasn't the time to worry about that.
The path split into two branches. According to my practiced plan, the machine-gunner would be aiming at the right turn, so I would simply watch straight ahead.
Not being able to see my back was a little annoying, but I could just check more often if needed.
Theoretically, this was a near-flawless entry.
Except...
I didn't know who I was up against.
-[damage] HP
Crack!
"Kehk!"
Boom!
A heavy sound I had never heard in the Dark Zone echoed through the dark underground third level.
My narrowed vision, still trying to watch the partially broken holographic site because of the EMP, suddenly expanded. Only then did the squad leader realize what had happened.
All I saw was something massive launching straight from the right path and smashing into the machine-gunner without mercy.
-[damage] HP
Meanwhile, grenades exploded at the stair entrance where the other three should have arrived, sending a blinding flash in an instant.
Chaos piled on chaos—aim points shaking, thoughts forcibly scattered.
But the squad leader, honed by years of Dark Zone play, heard the sound of something heavy rolling toward his feet in the middle of it all.
'…!'
Looking down, three Russian fragmentation grenades lay on the ground, pins and safety clips removed.
Before I could even process it, something that looked like the machine-gunner flew straight toward me, filling my entire field of vision.
Thud.
Heavy pressure washed over my body, loosening my control.
When my vision went black, the only thing I could vaguely sense was someone—some unknown person—darting past me and racing up the stairs.
And.
Thud!
"Excuse me for a moment."
Regaining my senses, I realized that the machine-gunner and I were kneeling side by side, facing a grenade with someone we couldn't even see behind us.
The monstrous grip on my neck, the unstoppable downward pull.
The owner of the force that would bend my spine in half gripped the back of both my neck and the squad leader's with his left and right hands, perfectly overlapping us—using our bodies as a human shield.
This all happened in the four seconds before the normal fragmentation grenade would have detonated.
I had no idea what was going on, but I couldn't say another word.
"No, what the hell is—"
A flash. Both of us were kicked out onto the gray screen announcing death.
With a meaningless warning that our gear had been lost because we were killed by a party member from a hardcore group.