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The pre-morning haze was cut by beams of light as the 17th excavation squad approached the impact zone. The nuclear blast had detonated off the the ground, and sections of the surrounding debris had been flattened smooth by the impact. Geiger counters ticked away on the outside of the radiation suits they wore. The cloud of dust and particles hadn't dissipated yet, the area around the impact still covered with an unnerving yellowish haze.
Sergeant Jean Havoc slid down an incline that had likely once been a set of stairs. He really shouldn't have bothered learning the map of this sector in retrospect. This close to the point of impact the nuclear blast had so transformed the landscape that there were really no landmarks left. Spotting a noticeably intact chunk of rubble, he motioned two of the men over. Together, the three of them levered it away kicking up a cloud of dust and haze. A dark opening loomed out from behind it. The basement's roof had largely been vaporized in the blast, but some of the walls were still intact enough that they'd formed a sort of makeshift cave with a ceiling of collapsed rubble. The closest thing to a shelter that could have survived this close to the impact point. Havoc stepped down into the space cautiously, his flashlight swept through the darkened space illuminating crates and walls coated with dust and debris. A storage area perhaps?
The excavation squad moved into the space carefully, wary of an ambush. Sergeant Havoc took a position at the corner of the next doorway, painfully aware that his ticking Geiger counter would make his presence painfully obvious to anyone in the next room. He tipped his head around the corner, risking a glance. His eyes widened at the sight.
"Right, spread out and make sure there aren't any more of them hiding in some crevice down here. Fuery, Kenning, Pollik, you're with me."
There was a variety of assents as the excavation squad moved through the area. Havoc stepped into the room; the shrine most likely, given the look of things. The hunk of metal had been placed there with a clear reverence, a raised position in the center of the far wall. There were small raptor-like zoid corpses arrayed around the room facing it. It would have taken them quite some time for the things to drag such a big chunk of metal down here. The idiots had probably gotten too much radiation from the thing on the way down.
"This is what we're looking for, right Fuery?" Havoc asked as he surveyed the scene, reaching for a smoke then cursing the radiation suit.
Private Fuery looked up from inspecting one of the zoid bodies. He showed Havoc a screen from his scanning device, which the latter looked at blankly.
"Probably. It doesn't match any of the alloys we typically use for construction, and it's dumping radiation into the room, way more than it should this far from the impact."
"That's good enough for me! I'll radio it in to the boss." Havoc reached down to the mobile comms unit Fuery was wearing on his back and held the speaker up to his suit a bit awkwardly. If nuclear weapons were going to be a common thing, they'd need to improve their gear for handling this cleanup process.
"Hey there, Lieutenant Colonel." Havoc pronounced the last two words with a bit of extra embellishment, "It's your lucky day. Looks like we managed to find a decent chunk of it."
---
"Right, that'll have to be good enough then." Lieutenant Colonel Mustang nodded, holding the phone to one ear as he sat in his office, "Bring it back, and make sure we keep it contained! The last thing we need right now are people inside the barrier catching radiation sickness!"
He hung up the phone and slouched forward with a sigh, arms outstretched as he thumped his head against the wooden desk with a dull thud.
"That's hardly becoming for a newly promoted officer, sir." Hawkeye stated matter-of-factly as she entered the room with yet another stack of reports "If you need rest you should requisition one of the bunks." Mustang glowered at her from his position at the desk.
"I'll be fine. Besides, there's nothing special about this outcome. I was on the verge of promotion before this mess started and the battle opened several spots. I could probably have gone straight to colonel if I had been paying closer attention to the politics. This is practically a slight if you think about it."
Hawkeye gave him an unimpressed look and dropped several large documents on his desk, making him jerk back upright to protect his hands. Though the Doomsday mech had seemingly retreated, the pockets of destructive chaos they were now terming 'the Unmaking' had not abated. Indeed three times through the night the arbiter's scream had swept through Cevanti, a chilling reminder that Markov had won the battle, not the war. Mustang grabbed the top report, a list of personnel transfers from the post-battle restructuring of the regiments. Losses had been high, but as uneasy as it left him, counting the dead wasn't something had time for right now.
"Anything of particular importance?" He asked Hawkeye as he sorted through the packets.
"We've estimated that about half the city is now in orbit above Markov, including several Cytokine executives. About fifteen percent of those evacuees have since set course for the ARC or other planets. The Pilot's Union is pushing for a victory parade, but Thelonius Rex is vocally decrying such a measure, from orbit of course."
"Of course." Mustang echoed dryly.
"On the topic of the Guild, one of Palaxia's attendants dropped off a transcript of that journal this morning."
Mustang raised an eyebrow, glancing at the hefty envelope that Hawkeye was holding. The wax-sealed emblem of a golden dragon was freshly visible on it.
"Her team works fast! Get Falman to compare it to the copy we made beforehand. If Palaxia is keeping anything secret about this mess I want to know."
"Sir." She nodded, turning to leave.
"Lieutenant," Mustang spoke up, halting her exit, "Make sure we keep that task discrete for now. I put a bit of a spotlight on us with that little stunt, so we want to make sure nobody has a reason to find us suspicious."
Hawkeye nodded then gave Mustang a knowing look.
"Frankly sir, compared to some of the... allies that Markov has acquired within the last couple of hours, I think we'd have to try quite hard to be considered the most problematic elements right now."
"...Right" Mustang ran a hand over his face, glancing towards the former communication unit that Ohm Zui had given him yesterday. It had run out of power sometime during the night, and even some of the physical mechanisms had come apart. Yet with it he had been able to gain access to information rivaling that which had been available on the official channels. The Crystal Ball Array...
"Lieutenant!" Mustang called again, this time stopping Hawkeye as she had almost left the room. She turned back with a look of expectation.
"Yes, Sir?"
"Get me the whereabouts of as many of the newcomers as you can find. We might be able to make use of some of them, and we should keep track on their movements regardless. Markov isn't safe yet, so there's little time to be slacking off."
"Understood, I'll see what I can find."
Sergeant Jean Havoc slid down an incline that had likely once been a set of stairs. He really shouldn't have bothered learning the map of this sector in retrospect. This close to the point of impact the nuclear blast had so transformed the landscape that there were really no landmarks left. Spotting a noticeably intact chunk of rubble, he motioned two of the men over. Together, the three of them levered it away kicking up a cloud of dust and haze. A dark opening loomed out from behind it. The basement's roof had largely been vaporized in the blast, but some of the walls were still intact enough that they'd formed a sort of makeshift cave with a ceiling of collapsed rubble. The closest thing to a shelter that could have survived this close to the impact point. Havoc stepped down into the space cautiously, his flashlight swept through the darkened space illuminating crates and walls coated with dust and debris. A storage area perhaps?
The excavation squad moved into the space carefully, wary of an ambush. Sergeant Havoc took a position at the corner of the next doorway, painfully aware that his ticking Geiger counter would make his presence painfully obvious to anyone in the next room. He tipped his head around the corner, risking a glance. His eyes widened at the sight.
"Right, spread out and make sure there aren't any more of them hiding in some crevice down here. Fuery, Kenning, Pollik, you're with me."
There was a variety of assents as the excavation squad moved through the area. Havoc stepped into the room; the shrine most likely, given the look of things. The hunk of metal had been placed there with a clear reverence, a raised position in the center of the far wall. There were small raptor-like zoid corpses arrayed around the room facing it. It would have taken them quite some time for the things to drag such a big chunk of metal down here. The idiots had probably gotten too much radiation from the thing on the way down.
"This is what we're looking for, right Fuery?" Havoc asked as he surveyed the scene, reaching for a smoke then cursing the radiation suit.
Private Fuery looked up from inspecting one of the zoid bodies. He showed Havoc a screen from his scanning device, which the latter looked at blankly.
"Probably. It doesn't match any of the alloys we typically use for construction, and it's dumping radiation into the room, way more than it should this far from the impact."
"That's good enough for me! I'll radio it in to the boss." Havoc reached down to the mobile comms unit Fuery was wearing on his back and held the speaker up to his suit a bit awkwardly. If nuclear weapons were going to be a common thing, they'd need to improve their gear for handling this cleanup process.
"Hey there, Lieutenant Colonel." Havoc pronounced the last two words with a bit of extra embellishment, "It's your lucky day. Looks like we managed to find a decent chunk of it."
---
"Right, that'll have to be good enough then." Lieutenant Colonel Mustang nodded, holding the phone to one ear as he sat in his office, "Bring it back, and make sure we keep it contained! The last thing we need right now are people inside the barrier catching radiation sickness!"
He hung up the phone and slouched forward with a sigh, arms outstretched as he thumped his head against the wooden desk with a dull thud.
"That's hardly becoming for a newly promoted officer, sir." Hawkeye stated matter-of-factly as she entered the room with yet another stack of reports "If you need rest you should requisition one of the bunks." Mustang glowered at her from his position at the desk.
"I'll be fine. Besides, there's nothing special about this outcome. I was on the verge of promotion before this mess started and the battle opened several spots. I could probably have gone straight to colonel if I had been paying closer attention to the politics. This is practically a slight if you think about it."
Hawkeye gave him an unimpressed look and dropped several large documents on his desk, making him jerk back upright to protect his hands. Though the Doomsday mech had seemingly retreated, the pockets of destructive chaos they were now terming 'the Unmaking' had not abated. Indeed three times through the night the arbiter's scream had swept through Cevanti, a chilling reminder that Markov had won the battle, not the war. Mustang grabbed the top report, a list of personnel transfers from the post-battle restructuring of the regiments. Losses had been high, but as uneasy as it left him, counting the dead wasn't something had time for right now.
"Anything of particular importance?" He asked Hawkeye as he sorted through the packets.
"We've estimated that about half the city is now in orbit above Markov, including several Cytokine executives. About fifteen percent of those evacuees have since set course for the ARC or other planets. The Pilot's Union is pushing for a victory parade, but Thelonius Rex is vocally decrying such a measure, from orbit of course."
"Of course." Mustang echoed dryly.
"On the topic of the Guild, one of Palaxia's attendants dropped off a transcript of that journal this morning."
Mustang raised an eyebrow, glancing at the hefty envelope that Hawkeye was holding. The wax-sealed emblem of a golden dragon was freshly visible on it.
"Her team works fast! Get Falman to compare it to the copy we made beforehand. If Palaxia is keeping anything secret about this mess I want to know."
"Sir." She nodded, turning to leave.
"Lieutenant," Mustang spoke up, halting her exit, "Make sure we keep that task discrete for now. I put a bit of a spotlight on us with that little stunt, so we want to make sure nobody has a reason to find us suspicious."
Hawkeye nodded then gave Mustang a knowing look.
"Frankly sir, compared to some of the... allies that Markov has acquired within the last couple of hours, I think we'd have to try quite hard to be considered the most problematic elements right now."
"...Right" Mustang ran a hand over his face, glancing towards the former communication unit that Ohm Zui had given him yesterday. It had run out of power sometime during the night, and even some of the physical mechanisms had come apart. Yet with it he had been able to gain access to information rivaling that which had been available on the official channels. The Crystal Ball Array...
"Lieutenant!" Mustang called again, this time stopping Hawkeye as she had almost left the room. She turned back with a look of expectation.
"Yes, Sir?"
"Get me the whereabouts of as many of the newcomers as you can find. We might be able to make use of some of them, and we should keep track on their movements regardless. Markov isn't safe yet, so there's little time to be slacking off."
"Understood, I'll see what I can find."