Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.-Chapter 722: Vacant city.

Vehicles started moving, taking people back into the fortress. A cleanup crew in exo suits stepped out, to start clearing the riverbanks and laying out traps, in case more of those fish things returned.

Vicente stepped up beside Hades before he could leave. "Mr. Quinn, we need to talk about Tracy. Her ’tours’ are going to get more people killed. She needs a leash. I understand the need for business to pay taxes that fund all this tech, but not all money should be accepted. What she is doing is reckless endangerment and her entitled ass needs to be locked away in prison."

Hades stopped and looked toward the horizon and he nodded. Like Vicente, he also thought Tracey’s tours were a nuisance. Previously, it was because she took a group to the pet house to gawk at White and force him to take pictures with tourists.

She had apologized for this and they let her be. But this...it was just stupid. "She had no right to be here, and it is time for her to close that damn company or give standard junior school kind of tours within the walls."

"Sir, stopping Tracey is like stopping a hurricane. And she always claims she has a permit when we try to stop her from crossing any gate as she wishes." Craydon said. "Hadrian told us to let her be, last month, when she took a group to Silverdale. Since then, as long as the paperwork is right, the guards don’t bother."

Hades shook his head. "This river is outside the bubble; we share it with iron wood city. I have made it clear already that nobody should be out here unless they are part of the security teams. I can’t believe this crap happened. My wife is going to explode."

"Sir," Hunter interjected, "looking at the topography of these lands, it is possible the mutated fish migrated from Iron Wood City and jumped into the river."

Hades nodded slowly. "I really need to see what’s happening in that place. We are only as safe as the territories surrounding us." He patted Vicente on the back. "Send Victoria to work in the permits office, she is great at saying no to others. All of Tracey’s businesses will be overseen by her from now on."

The Quinns had been watching his wife, waiting for her to mess up. But Victoria had calmed down, surprisingly. She was loving life in the fortress, all that was missing was a good job.

Hades flew back to the Command Center, his mind racing. Once there, he didn’t wait. He ordered the pilots to launch the newly repaired drones_ the ones with the high-end cameras and animal-speech translators.

The drones buzzed over Iron Wood City, and the feed that came back onto the giant monitors made everyone in the room gasp. The last time their drones spied on the place, it was buzzing with activity and the people there were managing their lives just like the people in other territories. However now it was in ruins, the buildings were destroyed, and it had become a slaughterhouse.

The streets were littered with bodies_ thousands of them. But it wasn’t the dead that made the soldiers’ blood run cold; it was the Watchers. The giant birds were everywhere, it seemed like they had taken over the territory. On the screens, two Watchers were seen laughing, literally playing a game of "toss" with a human head as if it were a ball. Others were killing the few humans that were still trying to hide or run for their lives.

"Oh no!"

Murmurs of fear rose in the room. The peace and confidence they had in the safety of their walls was lowered.

"This is confidential, not one word gets out." Hades barked.

"I feel terrible that we could not protect them." Lisha said, she kissed Bob at the top of the head.

Hades sighed, "It was in our plans to ask them to become part of us but.... we are too late. Turn on the audio," he commanded, his voice a low growl.

The animal translators on the drones kicked in, turning the chirps and squawks into simple English.

"We made a deal with those mutated fish, they agreed to take the elixir," one Watcher chirped, flapping its iridescent wings. "It makes them grow stronger. Makes them invisible to their defenses. They will never see them coming!"

Another Watcher let out a high-pitched, screeching laugh. "Ha-ha! In the night, the base will be quiet. Everyone sleeping. Then the fish crawl into that place. It will be a bloodbath. I want to keep that talking parrot as a pet. It has been the one that has been feeding them with information."

"So, it was the watchers that did this?" Lisha asked, mostly herself.

Suddenly, a small watcher_ this one looking frantic and singed_ flew into the group. "Commander Pickery, the river! It’s on fire! They are killing the fish! All of them!"

Pink screeched.

A large stripped Watcher, clearly the leader, shrieked in rage. "Why did they act so early?! They were supposed to wait now they ruined all the fun! They were supposed to attack when the base was sleeping! Those no brain creatures, why did they get hungry too fast?"

Hades let out a derisive, dark laugh. He turned to the drone operator. "They like games? Let’s create one for them. Drop the dust bombs. Now."

The drones hovered over the cluster of Watchers and released several canisters that exploded into an itchy powder.

On the screen, the effect was instant. The Watchers began to scream.

"My eyes! It itches! Oh, it burns!"

"Get it off! Get it off me!"

"Where did it come from?"

The creatures began to scratch themselves frantically, pulling out their own feathers in a crazed attempt to stop the itching. Within minutes, the watchers looked like half-plucked chickens, crying and rolling on the ground in misery. They flew into the clouds as soon as they could see.

The room in the Command Center was silent as they watched the enemy fall apart temporarily. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"Well," Carson said, breaking the silence with a shrug. He was leaning against the back wall, looking bored. "The good thing that comes out of all this is that now we can take over Iron Wood City without any resistance."

The entire room turned to look at Carson. They stared at him like he was a complete psychopath. People had died today, a city was full of corpses, and he was talking about how easy it was going to be to take their land.

Carson looked around at the judgmental faces and shrugged again. "What? I’m just being a realist. We need the space. We are only as safe as our neighbors. We can’t have the watchers playing skull soccer next door otherwise. it will be our skulls next time. Why are you all looking at me like that?"

Lisha sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Carson, have you thought about getting a psych evaluation?"

He scoffed and retorted "I will get one if you do the same for common sense. We should prepare for an assault on the city. Then we enclose it and the river in a bubble before more mutants are dropped in there. The sooner, the better."