Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

Chapter 225: Hunting Ghosts

Just as Bartholomew had expected, Zane was quick to organize his party to launch an assault on the town of Incline Village. If Tahoe city was located in the southern portion of the lake, then Incline Village was the most populate area in the northern territory of the lake.

It was a small town, mostly composed of vacation homes for the wealthy prior to the outbreak of the apocalypse.

But it was a significant outpost for the Undead, and it would eventually, if seized by the living, serve as a gateway to the Reno/Sparks Area where Bartholomew's domain lied.

With this in mind, Zane quickly formulated a plan of attack, first sending his scouts out to the area to survey the strength of the opposition. Whereupon returning to Gravestone, they reported exactly what they had seen.

Though these scouts did not test the individual strength of the Horde King in charge of the area, they did report back to Zane about the strength of its horde. Less than 10,000 undead composed of the enemy forces. Among them were primarily Tier I and II Undead, with a few Tier III undead mixed in.

There had been no sign of stalkers, or any higher level of undead. And because of this, Zane suspected that the Horde King in charge of Incline Village was not nearly as powerful as Gwen had been when he made an attempt at her life.

The battle plan was simple. Zane's horde of 2,000 Tier III Undead would surround the town and encircle the undead population. While Zane and his party would seek out the Horde King in charge.

Judging by the relatively small size of the most populated areas within Incline Village, this was something Zane could instantaneously accomplish, effectively launching a surprise attack on the local Horde King.

With his plan set into motion, and the preparations having already been made for his attack. Zane just needed to initiate the operation, and he would be able to claim another Tier I Blood Crytal for the women at his party.

---

While Zane and his party were preparing to launch another devastating attack on the nearby Horde Kings, there were forces in the background that had been making their own moves.

After withdrawing back to the bunker, following the devastating losses to the Banshees beneath Elenor's command. The Remnant had begun identifying what had wiped out their marines, and how to effectively combat that.

With their borderline religious refusal to become corrupted by blood crystals, and their awakened slaves having already been worked to death.

The Remnant could only rely on their scientists to prepare some advanced form of technology that was capable of combating the spectral undead, which at the moment was their biggest weakness.

Deep beneath the surface of the Earth, in the territory that had once been known as the State of Oregon, lies a remnant bunker. This was the bunker whose scouts had been sent to Gravestone in search of a certain file which remained hidden within the Gravestone bunker, a file which once belonged to the former Governor of Nevada.

And it was this Bunker which was tasked with dealing with the likes of Elysium, and Gravestone. Both of which had been identified as high-profile targets.

From the Remnant's perspective, the entirety of what had formerly been the United States was their property, and any organization, any settlement, any faction which denied this "reality" was nothing more than a congregation of outlaws. Of which was subject to termination should they oppose the Remnant rule.

It was because of this, that the Remnant bunker in Oregon was tasked with handling the two most powerful outlaw settlements west of the Rockies.

Hence why the Director of the Bunker, a man who had once been a Congressman in the United States Federal Government, representing the people of Oregon, had a stern expression on his weathered face.

Orders had come from back east, from the President himself, to deal with the matter regarding Elysium and Gravestone. What had previously been a secondary task was now considered a priority mission.

There was just one problem with this. The Director simply could not send his forces southeast to deal with these outlaws. Because every time he sent a team out of the bunker, they would die horrific deaths.

Several companies' worth of marines now lie dead in the wasteland within a 25 kilometer radius of the bunker. The Prometheus Mk I Power Armor, which had allowed the marines who wore them to so effectively counter the undead, had become caskets, caskets which adorned the landscape of the Oregon woodlands.

Without a countermeasure to the spectral undead, which had been reported up the chain of command as being a classification of undead which was currently invulnerable to the Remnant's current cache of weaponry, the Marines could not escape their predicament, let alone project force in the states south of Oregon.

Hence why the director was in a particularly foul mood. Which was noticed by the secretary on the intercom, who interrupted the man's drinking session.

"Director, I apologize for interrupting your busy schedule, but there is news from one of the research projects. They appear to have made a breakthrough in electromagnetic weaponry. They are requesting your presence in the lab. How shall I respond?"

At first, the director thought that his scientists were wasting his time.

But he ultimately decided to get up off his ass and visit the lab, at the very least he could chew the scientists out for failing to come up with a solution to the spectral undead problem, despite being given several months, and a near an infinite supply of methamphetamines to get the job done.

Thus, the director responded to his secretary in a gruff and stern tone. One which signified the poor mood he was in.

"Tell them to keep their pants on. I'll be there in a goddamn minute!"

Naturally, the secretary conveyed the message to the research team in a less crude manner. As for the director, he reached into his coat and grabbed a flask full of Kentucky bourbon, which he drank its entire contents in one go as if he was chugging water, before tossing it aside.

After which he walked off towards the part of the massive bunker complex which held every scientific lab imaginable.

---

Upon arriving in the research section of the Remnant's bunker complex, the Director had every intention of chewing out the asses of the scientists who had still failed to produce a weapon capable of delivering his soldiers from the current predicament they were in.

But before he could to do so, the bright eyed, chipper, and chemically induced energetic fellow who was in charge of the research team was quick to announce his recent breakthrough, in an unusually speedy voice.

"Director, it is good to see you. Really good, in fact! Boy, do I have news for you! Do you want to hear the good news? I'm sure you do, right? That's why you came all this way to see –"

Before the man could finish his statement, which was no doubt spoken in such a manner thanks to the methamphetamines he and his research team abused, the director raised his hand and narrowed his eyes before speaking in a sharp and harsh tone.

"Just get to the fucking point already!"

This calm the hopped up scientist down enough for him to do exactly as told.

"Alright, to put it simply, we may have found a solution to your little ghost problem…"

This naturally caused the director to raise a brow. Needless to say, his curiosity was thoroughly piqued by this statement, and thus he asked the scientist to further elaborate.

"I'm listening…."

With this, the scientist once more entered a manic state as he began listing off some basic knowledge that may escape an unlearned man like the director, but made it sound like he had accomplished something rather significant.

"Well, as you may already be aware, the spectral undead can be picked up electromagnetic frequencies.

Hell, we have actually been able to listen in to what they are saying for a while now. So I had the genius idea of using those same very electromagnetic frequencies to repel them. Sort of like an invisible shield, right?

With these devices, placed strategically around the bunker, and any conquered territory we may gain in battle. We can effectively disperse any spectral undead who come within contact with them. Though this won't kill them, it will make them incapable of entering our territory.

As for our expeditionary forces, we can embed this frequency within their power armor, to be played in the event that they come into contact with the spectral undead. It will effectively force them to flee the area.

Like I said, it is untested, and until we can send some soldiers out into the field to properly prototype the device, this is purely in the realm of theory. So what do you say, director? Shall we send some good ol boys to fight some ghosts?"

The foul mood the director had been in was immediately lifted when he heard this.

If this device truly worked, it would be efficient enough for the time being to deal with the spectral undead, and would allow them to continue with their mission of reclaiming the nearby regions for the United States Government.

Thus, the elderly director's lips curled into a sneer as he nodded his head, giving the order to send a few poor souls out to act as guinea pigs for this new prototype device.

"Sounds good to me. I'll give you everything you need to make sure this new weapon of yours is a success!"