Chapter 250: To Silverpeak City - II

"We’ve got the first settlement ahead."

Brandon checked the BACV’s Radar picture.

Farther north, the second BACV was already deployed under guard, its coverage overlapping with the vehicle moving beside the forward formation.

The settlement was already well inside Brandon’s moving coverage. Its broad position and the larger concentrations around it appeared on the map, while Echo One’s drone feed supplied the details the Radar could not.

"Echo One Actual, confirm synchronization."

"All clear, southern command."

Brandon shifted channels.

"Bulldog One, Bulldog Two. You’re up."

"Bulldog One copies."

"Bulldog Two copies."

Two Guardian APCs separated from the forward formation and moved toward the settlement.

...

Echo One remained along the outskirts. Dmitri heard the APCs before he saw them.

The low roar of their engines carried along the road and reached the settlement soon afterward.

Someone behind the northern barricade shouted. Another answered farther inside, followed by several sharp whistles and the repeated clanging of metal against metal.

People quickly cleared the open road while others moved toward prepared positions. Several climbed onto rooftops and upper floors overlooking the northern approach. Others took cover behind the vehicle barricades, concrete blocks and sandbagged windows.

Most of them carried rifles.

The launcher teams Dmitri had seen earlier moved closer to the barricade, although neither of them raised their weapons yet.

Three people near the center of the barricade caught Dmitri’s attention. They could have moved behind the barricade with the others, but they stayed in the road.

"Looks like they’ve noticed us," one of Echo One’s Scouts said.

"No surprise."

Dmitri kept watching through the shared feed.

"They’re holding."

The first Guardian APC appeared around the bend several moments later.

People along the barricade shifted again. There was nothing like the Guardian APC anywhere inside the settlement, nor anything that resembles a military vehicle they had seen before.

The APC slowed well before reaching the settlement. Its autocannon remained pointed away from the people ahead, while the second Guardian followed several vehicle lengths behind.

Bulldog One moved toward the left side of the road and stopped at an angle to the barricade.

Bulldog Two remained farther back on the right, leaving enough separation that one vehicle would not block the other’s movement.

"They’re ready for us," Bulldog One reported.

"You’ve spooked them, Bulldog One," Bulldog Two joked.

Brandon cut them off.

"Do not fire unless they fire first. Make contact and keep it calm."

"Understood."

A few seconds passed.

"Bulldog One dismounting."

"Bulldog Two follows."

Their rear hatches opened.

The settlement defenders went quiet and waited for their approach.

Four soldiers stepped out from Bulldog One. At least, that was what the people behind the barricade probably assumed they were.

The DASFs looked different from the troops that followed.

Their equipment covered more of the body, built around adaptive combat suits rather than ordinary field uniforms. Each carried a heavy rifle that looked oversized even before the underslung weapon system became obvious.

They moved without raising their weapons toward the rooftops. Two took positions beside the Guardian while another watched the opposite side of the road. The fourth remained closer to the dismount point.

The Mechanized Squad dismounted from Bulldog Two.

Most wore recognizable military fatigues and carried conventional rifles. Two Machine Gunners came out with their heavier weapons, followed by the Missile Infantry and an Engineer carrying equipment that looked considerably less familiar to the civilians watching them.

They spread around the two vehicles without rushing the barricade. From behind the settlement defenses, several rifles slowly followed them.

"Holy shit." Someone muttered.

"Hold steady, men. They... they shouldn’t be firing at us, right?"

"Then lower it, you fool!"

"I... I don’t want to."

"Get him off the line before he does something stupid!"

A defender beside him grabbed the barrel and pushed it down.

One of the three people near the center of the barricade raised his voice.

"That’s far enough!"

The Golden Eagle soldiers stopped.

One of the Mechanized soldiers stepped forward while the rest stayed near the two Guardians. His rifle remained lowered.

"We’re not here to fight you."

The man behind the barricade looked over the soldiers and the armored vehicles behind them.

"What do you want?"

"We’re heading south to Silverpeak. We need passage through."

"Who are you with?"

"Golden Eagle. We came from Grefort. The city’s secure."

"Golden Eagle?"

"That’s right."

"Wait, did you just say Grefort just now?"

"You cleared folks cleared it?"

"Grefort’s open again. Saicine’s under control too."

The rifles along the barricade lowered a little. The three people at the center spoke among themselves for several seconds before the older man turned toward the settlement.

"All right! Open the center lane! Move the truck!"

Several defenders immediately left their positions.

"Get the truck out of the way!"

"Move those blocks!"

The tension eased, although several defenders kept their rifles ready while others climbed down from the rooftops to help open the road.

The three people at the center walked toward the soldiers.

One of them, an older man with graying hair, extended his hand.

"I’m one of the people running this place. Everyone calls me Old Nick."

The soldier took it.

"Old Nick. Thanks for opening the road."

Nick glanced north again.

"Grefort is really clear?"

"Yeah."

"Damn."

One of the other men laughed under his breath.

"So those rumbles weren’t thunder."

The soldier looked at him.

"You heard us?"

"A few days ago. Lots of explosions up north. Sometimes it went on for hours."

Nick shook his head. "We thought Grefort was eating itself alive."

"No, not anymore."

Nick paused for a moment before speaking again.

"If you’re going south, there are a few other settlements along the road. Most won’t give you trouble once they know where you’re coming from."

"Anything we should know about?"

"Nothing unusual until farther down."

Nick pointed south.

"There’s another city before Silverpeak, Horjus. Don’t drive straight into it."

"Infected?"

"A lot of them. Most of the city never got cleared."

The soldier nodded.

"Good to know."

"We’ve avoided it for months. We figured Horjus went the same way as everything else. Bunch of our folks still trade with a few of them that survived. Small trucks and motorcycles when the road is quiet."

"We’ll take a look when we get there."

Nick glanced toward the barricade, where several men were struggling to move one of the heavier concrete sections.

"It’ll take us a few minutes to clear everything."

The soldier looked back toward the Mechanized Squad.

"We’ll help."

Nick gave him a surprised look. "Won’t say no to that."

A few of the soldiers moved forward.

Within minutes, Golden Eagle troops and settlement defenders were clearing the same road together.

It took almost half an hour for the rest of the column to pass through.

The convoy kept coming long after the first Guardians cleared the barricade.

Guardian APCs rolled between the buildings in groups, followed by Vanguards and the many support vehicles behind them. People gathered beside the road once they were sure nobody was going to shoot. Others watched from windows and rooftops, pointing at vehicles they did not recognize.

The children were much less reserved.

A few crowded around the upper-floor windows whenever a Vanguard passed. One stretched both arms forward and made small "pew, pew" noises while another pretended to return fire from behind the wall.

The adults watched different parts of the column. Some followed the tanks, while others kept looking at the support vehicles moving behind them.

By the time the last vehicles disappeared south, word about Grefort had already spread through the settlement.

Old Nick and the other leaders gathered with several residents soon afterward. Some wanted to send people north immediately and see whether Grefort was really secure. Others were already talking about food, fuel, medicine and whatever else could be traded if the road stayed open.

For the first time in months, people were talking about traveling north instead of avoiding it.

...

Farther south, Brandon’s battle group encountered more settlements along the corridor.

They did not all react the same way.

Some resembled Old Nick’s settlement closely enough. Barricades blocked the roads, armed residents watched the approaches, and somebody eventually came forward to talk once the Guardians stopped.

A few were friendlier. They asked about Grefort almost immediately and wanted to know whether trade would be possible once regular travel resumed.

Others barely spoke at all. Their barricades opened just wide enough for the column to pass, then closed again behind it.

There were also places where nobody came out.

One settlement had been overrun long ago. Its barricades were broken inward, several buildings had burned, and infected still wandered between the houses.

Another had only a handful of survivors left.

Brandon’s battle group did not stop at every settlement and try to solve every problem along the road.

The locations were marked, immediate threats were dealt with when necessary, and the information went back through the command network for whoever followed behind.

The southern advance continued.