Zero to Peak: Ascension Online

A dense stretch of forest demarcated the Northern Business District from the north-west side of the residential district. The business district itself had been surveilled and determined to be devoid of any human presence and alien presence. As Ivan drove the MRAP through the deserted, skeletal ruins, a profound sense of apprehension settled over him. He gripped the drive wheel tighter, questioning whether he would make it across this desolate no man's land safely.

Driving at a steady pace of one hundred kilometres per hour, he soon crossed the boundary and entered the forest zone that lay between the two districts. Unsurprisingly, the forest had also suffered from the attack, but the damage was not as absolute as it had been in the business district.

Here and there, great patches of the forest bore the scars of the assault. In some areas, tall trees had been cleaved into unequal halves, their splintered trunks pointing to the sky like broken fingers. In other patches, the vegetation had been burned to a crisp, leaving behind a black, ashen wasteland that smelled of charcoal and ruin. Despite the destruction, there were still navigable paths, old service roads fixed within the forest. The combination of these established routes and the new clearings created by the damaged patches offered him a variety of paths to take.

A map guidance system was displayed on the vehicle's dashboard, aiding Ivan in his navigation. He kept glancing at the glowing map on the screen, making sure that he was still on the correct heading. He had deliberately taken an off-route track, a deviation from the most direct path, hoping to shake off anyone that might be following him.

He had drawn the inspiration for the manoeuvre from a spy thriller he had watched years ago, recalling a scene where the protagonist used the terrain to lose a tail. A wry smile touched his lips; it was a strange time to be thinking of old films. He was glad for the artificial intelligence system integrated into the vehicle. The MRAP was a complex piece of military hardware, and he had no idea how to operate most of the advanced tools and weapon systems it was equipped with.

The heavy vehicle finally rode out of the forest and into an apocalyptic scene that was once a residential district. This side was the suburbs, a sprawling area of what used to be family homes and quiet streets. The main city part of the district was located further south. This division was a conscious choice by its inhabitants; people felt safer living further south, away from the northern border that was perilously close to the Unds' region.

The suburbs were unrecognisable. The streets were fractured and destroyed, and the buildings were a grim combination of hollow, blackened husks and crumbled blocks of concrete. Corpses, both human and alien, littered the ground in grotesque tableaus of their final moments. A nausea-inducing stench of iron and decay hung heavy and cloying in the air.

Ivan took in the scene, his knuckles white as he clenched the drive wheel. In the southern horizon, he could see the colossal silhouette of a massive alien battleship. Occasional flashes of light from its weapon ports illuminated its hull, revealing its colour to be a deep, menacing red. He pushed the vehicle forward, driving towards the active battle zone. It seemed the aliens had shifted their main efforts to the southern side of the residential district.

Ivan was approaching one of the two river distributaries that cut across Zone Alpha's residential district when he saw her. A woman, her face a mask of terror, was running desperately and blindly across the path of his moving vehicle. He slammed on the brakes, the MRAP screeching to a halt just metres from her. He immediately alighted from the vehicle.

He chased the woman down and gently stopped her. He guessed her to be in her late thirties, her features worn down by stress and what must have been an ageing terror. He asked her a few questions, trying to get a picture of the current situation. She revealed that the aliens had attacked the northern side of the district first. The region's official military had responded quickly as their main base in Zone Alpha was nearby, and they had invested all their resources into defending both the northern border to Section 3 and the residential district.

She explained that the military was no match for the invaders, but they had managed to form a stronghold in the southern section. This information, she said, had come from a distressed phone call from one of her contacts on that side of the region before the line went dead.

Ivan had to gently force the shaken woman into his vehicle for her own safety. He then drove around the northern side of the district for about seventy minutes, methodically rounding up any other survivors. He only found ten. Apart from the woman he had rescued earlier, the other nine were emotionally in shambles. Among them was a seventeen-year-old boy who had lost his entire family of four: his parents and two younger siblings. The other eight were young parents who had lost their partners and their child or children in the chaos.

The grievous, silent atmosphere in the vehicle weighed heavily on Ivan's mind, a tangible pressure of loss and despair. There was nothing he could do to reverse the damage that had been done. Once he had gathered the ten survivors, Saint Angouleme appeared as if from nowhere. Without a word, the saint transported the broken survivors to the safety of a sanctuary.

Now alone again, Ivan advanced towards the southern region of the residential district. He soon reached the bank of the river distributary named River Gone. The bridge that had once linked the opposite banks was dismantled, its components scattered like discarded toys along the riverbanks and sunken to the bottom of the murky water.

"Assistant, does this vehicle have a water navigation mode?" Ivan asked out loud, speaking to the empty cabin.

"The vehicle is an amphibious machine. Do you want to initiate the water navigation mode?" an automated female voice replied instantly from the dashboard speakers.

"Yes."

A series of low thrumming sounds, accompanied by the distinct noise of machine parts shifting away and clicking together, filled the cabin. The vehicle's suspension briefly rose before abruptly lowering below its original height. Metal plates enveloped the undercarriage, forming a sleek, V-shaped bottom.

Ivan accelerated into the water. The MRAP entered with a great splash and sailed smoothly to the opposite side of the river. Once on dry land, the bottom of the vehicle reverted to its original form with another series of mechanical sounds.

He drove for about five kilometres before he could clearly see the ongoing battle, still some distance away. A humongous battleship hung in the sky, raining down gargantuan plasma rounds on a massive, shimmering dome shield on the ground below.

Around the shield, fierce battles were raging between two factions: the official military force of Section 1 and the alien invaders. The sky was not excluded from the conflict; fighter jets flew desperate sorties around the massive alien ship, attempting to bring down the behemoth. Unfortunately, the jets' weapons seemed to be no match for its armoured hull.

Turrets would occasionally spring out from various points on the massive ship's surface to target the nuisance jets, swatting some of them from the sky with contemptuous ease.

Ivan was awed by the sheer scale of the domineering massacre in the distance. His courage, which had been steadfast until now, took a significant hit from merely gazing upon the losing battle.

He wondered aloud, "Where are all the powerful soldiers of Section 1?"

He remembered the sun mage, but he was not sure if such a powerful individual was affiliated with the government. Ivan understood that the dome shield was protecting civilians, a last-ditch effort to save them from the ruthless force of the aliens. His understanding of the map and the area where the dome was set up helped Ivan deduce that the people were trying to flee to the safety of Section 2. Unfortunately, the aliens had surrounded them en route.

Ivan looked down at his hands on the drive wheel, then at the complex controls of the MRAP. He wondered what he, one man with his powers and this vehicle, could possibly do to change the outcome of this hopeless fight.