"Sir, you can't be serious!" Augusta said vehemently, her auburn hair splaying on her shoulders.
She was tall woman, with a robust build and a prominent chest. Her body was athletic. She was Captain of her own Squad team and was a disciplined and usually calm person, but after hearing what she thought she heard, she couldn't be quiet.
"I'm very serious, Captain Augusta." Richard Guntra said, his eyes gazed at everyone in the meeting hall, all the captains of every squad was here.
The meeting hall was large, with built-in wooden chairs, a podium, florescent lights across the ceiling and a projector set which currently showed a image of a human body.
The body was of a woman, who had probably been pretty when she was alive but not anymore. In the image, she lay on an ground . A large wound was on her side, with her entrails and innards viewable for the world. Her face was layed back at unnatural angle, and her eyes had the 'gaze of the dead'. That unique look that only a corpse that died in horror could have. It was clear that her neck was broken and so was her right leg.
This wasn't the first time any captain had seen a mangled body with bloody horrific injuries. Some had actually been responsible for a few mangled bodies themselves, sacrificing hired help in missions to fulfill ambushes and such.
The reason the body on the screen held captivation was because of the wound on its side. Unlike a typical hole or the brutal savage ripped apart state from a zombie attack, there was only a sign of a single impact of physical trauma, a single injury.
It was a bite mark.
The injury was a bite, with clear teeth marks, that took nearly half the woman's stomach away and left a gaping hole in her.
From the size of the teeth marks, whatever had bitten her, was huge.
But such a creatures existence didn't make any sense. Where would it have come from and what was it?
These were the questions the captains had swirling in their minds, before General Richard, Head of Squad units and citadel security teams, told them their orders from the Council Chairman.
They were going to hunt the creature, whatever mutation it was, and bring it back.
All of Deadpool HQ squads would do it.
Which was just insane!
"Uhmmmm...sir?" A thin young woman raised her hand and Richard nodded for her to speak.
"Yes, Susanne?"
"I-uhmm... Well, I just wanted to ask if there is going to be a plan or different plans. I mean if we're doing this-"
"Are working separate or as a single entity?" Captain Rick said with impatience," Is this a separate, independent assault of each squad or will we all be a single team? If so-"
"I don't remember giving you permission to speak Captain Rick. Remember décorum." Richard said coldly but still answered the question," You will be doing this as individual squads. We want to know what is out there, before we start hunting it down. If the need is necessary...then the squads become a single unit."
I don't trust most of you not kill each other out there, Richard thought, better you're apart from each other. Then I save myself paperwork.
Alot of captains frowned slightly at what Richard said. The squads were not friends and rivalry between them was not of the friendly type. A few squads had members who killed each other beyond the walls.
Working together would be like forcing a donkey to have a baby with a cat.
Totally impractical and utterly inconceivable.
Which Richard knew.
"Is there to be a boon? Like...a raise or reward?" A gritty man with a brown beard said, he had greedy eyes.
"Yes, Captain Kain, there is a reward of...a years pay in advance if you bring it back alive. Half a years, if it's exterminated. And nothing if you die. How's that?" Richard asked and the captains looked at each other, like lions, wolves and beasts sizing each other up.
"I need not say this, but this is important people. More than the reward, this could be another type of mutant. We have to know what is out there...before it comes looking for us." Richard said softly.
A few captains furrowed their brows at the word 'mutant'.
Was it really a mutant they were after?
"I have one more question." Augusta, the first woman said with deep brown eyes," Does this have anything to do with.. the Sky terror?"
Sky terror, hell shower, the call of demons and what not. It had been given many names.
But it always brought the same reaction when mentioned outloud.
Everyone tensed, remembering, in their own eyes, all horrors they'd heard in the wind and glimpsed in the sky on that fateful day.
A sky unlike any other.
"The sky had been so horrific, it could turn men to stone. Turn warriors to babes and send women screaming. Oh, such is the folly of fear." Captain Kain said with a smirk, "I don't really care about that. A boons a boon."
Everyone looked at each other and nodded their heads. Forget the horror of the heavens that happened, forget that they were about to face a mutant or whatever was out there.
Right now, all of them needed the extra cash, since their wages have been steadily cut. They had asked for a reason, and were told that Credit unions were going through a developmental stage throughout the city.
They weren't sure what that meant but they weren't ones to push too hard. Yes, they were captains. And some of them, if not most of them, were selfish and greedy. But, this was the apocalypse. Selfishness was a norm, whether you were rich or poor, citizen or survivor.
So, if this expedition would bring cash, they only had one thing to say.
"When do we start?" Augusta asked and the projector shut off as Richard looked at all of them.
"In two weeks. Enough time to prep yourselves and your teams...and your loved ones Incase you die." Richard said gravely.