The Laughing Plague - A "Crossed" TL

The Prime Minister thought that today couldn't get any worse. She had been wrong , of course. Today had been getting worse since she had opened her eyes.

Only two days had passed since all this started, yet it felt like a year. Constant meetings with cabinet officials (what few remained after the London debacle) and senior officers from the forces and intelligence agencies. Every new bit of information was worse than the last.

The Chief of the General staff had been on video call and had the unfortunate duty of informing the PM that Southampton and Portsmouth were next in the firing line.

"General, I don't pretend to be a military strategist, but what in the name of fuck do you mean that Southampton is "indefensible". Could you elaborate on that? Because from where I'm sitting that sounds like you're telling me that two more cities are about to become slaughterhouses." Patel raged in her leather swivel chair. She wanted to launch the laptop at something, preferably the general had he been there in person.

"Ma'am, we deployed the Royal Dragoon Guards out of Warminster to defend the approaches to the south. They established defensive positions on the M3 outside Winchester with the objective of keeping this thing from moving any further south."

"Let's go to the Winchester and have a nice cold pint and wait for all this to blow over." The Prime Minister said with a laugh bordering on maniacal. She had not slept more than 1 hour in the past two days. The general either didn't get the reference or didn't care, and continued on with his briefing.

"As I was saying, the idea was to hold Winchester and keep the south safe. Winchester did not hold. From what the Royal Dragoons CO informed me, his men held until the end. We lost contact with them after they reported a large-scale assault on their positions. At this point I'm sorry to say but the Royal Dragoon Guards have been lost."

"Christ , you're saying we have had an entire regiment of the British Army killed in Hampshire?" Patel asked in utter horror.

"No. Not killed. Worse. The Royal Dragoon Guards is for all intents and purposes a hostile force. At this time we have confirmation from RAF recce that Royal Dragoons Scimitars - light tanks that is - are moving southwards against Southampton. We have the 5th Battalion, the Rifles defending the approaches to the city. They're equipped with Warrior IFVs. I'm afraid to say that we are about to witness British Army armoured vehicles engage one another in combat within 15 minutes." The general sighed and shook his head. "5 Rifles will fight to the last bullet to give Southampton time to evacuate. The Navy has several ships in the port ready to assist along with civilian ferries. The plan is to move them to temporary camps in Cornwall for the time being."

"Why can't we take the bastard's out ? We have an air force for a reason don't we ?" Patel practically screamed.

"Our colleagues in the RAF have been rather busy trying to keep a million or so perverted lunatics from London trying to breach the M11 defences and get into Cambridge. There are mangled corpses piled quite literally six or seven bodies high at some points along the line. We simply don't have the manpower or equipment to defend everywhere at once."

"And Portsmouth?" Asked the PM.

"Not under as imminent a threat as Southampton, but it'll soon be cut off. We're working with the Portsmouth City Council and the Department of Transport to commandeer every bus, train, plane and boat we can get our hands on. At a push, we can evacuate all quarter of a million people over 36 hours. It'll be a Herculean effort and will require government acquisition of civilian vehicles for the job but it's doable. Hopefully."

"You have my permission to do whatever is necessary. Thank you, general. I'm going to get some fresh air and clear my head." The PM said as she ended the call.

"You might want to see this ma'am." A young aid came into the office and put the TV on.

Whatever bloody now she thought despairingly.


"....coming to you live from the M3 motorway in the north of Southampton. Absolutely unbelievable scenes that we're witnessing right now." A middle aged female reporter said , her voice shaking with adrenaline. She stood on a motorway overpass as the camera zoomed down the road. Coming down the road from the north were perhaps a dozen small tanks followed by army lorries and a motley collection of civilian cars and vans. Many of these vehicles were decorated with all manner of viscera. Some had still living humans nailed to their bonnets or being dragged behind them. The whooping and laughing was clear for all to hear. So was the increasing tempo of gunfire. The camera turned around to catch footage of military vehicles coming from the opposite direction - these ones were not covered in blood and gore.

The Scimitars and Warrior's opened fire on each leading to a hellish cacophony that caused the reporter to cover her ears. Infantry poured out the back of the warriors to engage their crossed counterparts. Some were soldiers, some were civilians. All were insane. Many gleefully threw themselves into gunfire for fun. The uninfected troops had the advantage of not being completely devoid of survival instinct, and had the sense to take cover. The sound of a helicopter up above likely brought some relief to the BBC news crew on the bridge until they realised the hellfire missiles of the Apache gunship were being fired against the non crossed troops. Warrior IFVs exploded whilst their opposing Scimitars moved forward at pace, crushing soldiers and mowing down others. The Army was retreating in disarray.

"My god they have choppers!" The reporter said in horror. "We have to get the fu…" her head exploded in a fountain of gore that drenched the camera as the chattering chaingun on the Apache sent several rounds into the woman. Those watching BBC news live that morning would have seen the remains of an eyeball sliding down the camera lense just before the producer's cut back to the studio where a shaken anchor apologised for the footage that viewers had witnessed.

"God help us." The Prime Minister wept as she threw the remote at the TV.

……..

Southampton and Portsmouth had a combined population of around half a million people, and were just a 30 minute drive by car along the M27 from each other. The fall of Southampton would open up Portsmouth to imminent attack.

When 5. Rifles were overrun near Eastleigh , what troops survived pulled back to regroup at nearby Southampton Airport to protect the evacuation operation ongoing at that location. Hampshire police public order units had set up positions on the main roads into the city centre , with a heavy emphasis of holding onto Basset Avenue. Initial assaults by "regular" civilian crossed were repelled thanks to the police now wearing gas masks and gloves to keep infected fluids at bay. Their shields and batons proved invaluable during those initial engagements and the forces only suffered light casualties during the first wave. This bought time for people to be evacuated by train from Swaythling and St Denes train stations, which was just as well as the roads were utterly gridlocked by this point and evacuation by road was impossible.

The heavy exchanges of gunfire between Crossed and non Crossed soldiers at Southampton Airport were clearly audible in the city centre . The city was in a state of panic. There was some hope upon realising the gunfire was dying down. Had the army won?

Videos uploaded to Facebook and YouTube quickly went viral as footage of Southampton Airport was shared far and wide. The army had far from won. Staff were thrown into aircraft engines whilst evacuees were butchered in the terminal. Ten thousand people were mutilated to death in a matter of minutes. Stampedes began as frightened resident's realised what was coming. People hurried to board trains and buses, crushing others underfoot leading to countless deaths.

Hampshire Constabulary public order units - despite their valiant resistance so far - could offer no serious challenge to the crossed armed forces rapidly advancing on them from the now overrun airport. They abandoned their positions and tried to flee along with the rest of the population. There were still some 150,000 people trapped in the city when the crossed came baying in, hooting and hollering. It was hell on earth. It was said that the screams from Southampton could be heard all the way from Portsmouth.

The point about Chemical weapons is the right one, France have untill 1990s (the last reserve was destroyed in 1995) a major capacity in terms of chemical weapons (roughly estimated to be around 40-50 per cent of Soviet chemical weapons arsenal), it was speculated that France have still nowadays the capacity to produce such weapons but I am unsure if in such short delays it will be enough.

Regarding nuclear weapons, that's obviously a last chance option but definitively lost at the time London fell under Crossed control.
At this point, everyone is perfectly aware that crossed are going to cross (no pun) the Channel.

Évreux-Fauville Air Base

The two Dassault Rafale F3Rs take off in an instant from the runway before heading towards the Channel Islands with the aim of carrying out yet another air patrol mission.

Captain Theo "Slingshot" had not flinched when the mechanics had finished installing the two Meteor missiles under the wings of his aircraft, with a range of 150 km, these missiles would give him a wide safety distance in case an aircraft would violate the Channel's no-fly space.
Further north, the F-16 BMs of the Belgian air component patrolled off the Scheldt, carrying out the same mission.

Accelerating at full speed towards his objective, the Captain did not glance at the columns of refugees rushing out of the coastal regions: at Brifieng, the base commander had confirmed that this massive evacuation was disorderly, considerably hampering the rise of reinforcements and armored units, therefore, if the enemy (the captain still had a little trouble associating the infected with enemies) approached, it would be necessary to evacuate ASAP.

"Marengo to Rasoir 1: do you copy? Bogey 1 at 1-7-8 for 2-2-5, FLI150, 288km/h, RAF Eurofighter, no radio contact at this time. Rout for interception "
"Rasoir 1: Roger"
with a brief break to the left, captain Théo is followed by his wingman.
The Damocles designation pod quickly hooked up to the Bogey, effectively revealing a Eurofighter Typhoon from RAF 41 Squadron, a more disturbing detail: the aircraft's canopy seemed damaged.
At that moment, Captain Theo knew something was wrong with this Eurofigthter, "Razor 21 to Marengo, the Bogey is indeed a Eurofighter from RAF 41 Squadron, it seems damaged. Eye contact in 2 minutes."
"Marengo to Rasoir 21: Kill the Bogey. I repeat Kill the Bogey"
"Roger"

Captain Theo was about to fire a MICA IR when his tracking radar activated; "That motherfucker is hooking us missile" yelled his navigator. indeed the Typhoon had indistently launched a salvo of AIM9 in the direction of the French aircraft.Captain Theo dropped countermeasures before taking a break, hoping that the English missiles would narrowly avoid him, which fortunately happened. On the other hand, the orange ball which developed and then disappeared in place of its wingman left no doubt.

"This bastard came down Rasoir 22, he's getting closer", without even changing course, the Eurofigter was approaching directly on the Rafale !, Captain Theo could undoubtedly discern the traces of blood and viscera lying along the fuselage . Stifling a curse, the pilot launched his MICA IR missile which went straight at the Typhoon turning it into heat and dust.


Today he shot down an RAF aircraft after it destroyed a French Air Force aircraft.
Similarly, further north, Belgian and Dutch aircraft had to shoot down civilian and military aircraft which converged from infected areas towards Europe.
It goes without saying that despite the fierce defense of the Europeans, several aircraft managed to fly over the land before being shot down.

Western Europe, first day.

What would later be called Bloody May or the Spring of Death therefore ironically began around May 10, 2020 (anniversary date of the German invasion).

The first wave consisted of a raid carried out by "infected possessing a high degree of organization and intelligence": former civilian or military pilots infected with the "virus" projected their aircraft on French, Belgian and Dutch.

A large-scale air combat eventually allowed the European air forces to regain control and destroy the attackers despite significant losses: however, at 4 a.m., a Beechcraft Bonanza managed to escape aerial surveillance for a few minutes, the Europeans being too busy in the north and south. Slipping over the sea, it managed to fly over Ostend, dumping its deadly cargo there...


A few hours later, as the first catastrophic reports arrived from Belgium, the French government made one of the most difficult decisions in history. This decision, Operation "Balance" will remain for some British people as an inverted "Mers El Kébir", for others it was a hard but necessary decision.

Be that as it may, 5 Rafale F3R took off urgently from the bases of Évreux in the direction of the military airfields of Cornigsby and Brize Nordon but also of civilian targets such as the runways of London Gatwick and Rochester. each equipped with Paweway II GBUs and Matra Durandal anti-runway bombs, the aircraft will carry out a veritable act of war, thus destroying vital installations in the United Kingdom but also taking the lives of thousands of civilians and soldiers awaiting evacuation at Brize Norton.


Ostend, Belgium:
Police Constable Thomas E had never been able to explain it but he had always been able to sense when something was wrong, his "cop instinct" had never failed him all these years, Ostend was not in such a calm place: thefts and drug trafficking were his daily life, but with this new virus which was driving people crazy, riots and looting had quickly replaced heroin trafficking.
And today he found himself patrolling deserted streets in his car with his partner Anna B, a young recruit straight out of police school, obviously the latter was far too nervous to think: insomnia and stress was everyday cops, right? but rapist cannibals weren't seen every day.

"Patrol 15, are you okay?" "All is well, there is not a cat in the streets".
Yet there was indeed electricity in the air as if something was brewing, something bad: at first Thomas had mistaken the bright spots approaching for one of the air force F-16s coming in from his patrol but the sound of the propeller motor was definitely strange...maybe a coast guard plane? unless it's french?

a shadow passes in his eyes as the plane flew over them? a shadow? Several bodies were dropping something from that plane!

Thomas realized too late (would he have had time to escape anyway?) what was happening, as the disjointed bodies of  the cross rashed infected fell into the buildings and onto the road, narrowly missing his vehicle...the wind carried to the policeman's ears the sinister and unrestrained laughter of his worst nightmare.

While he was backing up desperately and his colleague was screaming on the radio that the infected were falling from the sky, a disarticulated body crashed into the car, partially crushing the roof of the vehicle...Thomas tasted blood in his mouth but it didn't matter, on the contrary it was one of the funniest things he had ever felt as he gouged out his colleague's eyes with a sneer...