Nocte
12-05-2010, 06:07 PM
November 18th, 2102 1200
Hybrid Orbit, USS America
Coalition of Federal Militaries (COFM)
All of the senate of the COFM were currently present in one room over two hundred senators and each and everyone were appointed by each of the 200 and growing human colonies. One of the senators was the Supreme ruler over everyone and that was the highest ranking military officer in all of the COFM. Supreme Commander Hawkins at the young age of thirty-five he has brought the entire COFM into full organization. He had even begun forming strong alliances with the outer colonies that were more prone to political corruption. The discussion at hand today was the formation of a new group of outer colony of political and military leaders.
“As you all know why we are here, to discuss that new formation of the alliances between the outer colonies that are going against everything that we have established. They are currently just an Insurgent group that has been ambushing all of our political ambassadors and their small group of ships. This needs to be extinguished before it becomes a bigger problem, but with out us knowing who the leaders are we can’t stomp the fire out. So I have called you all here to give an executive order, to use all of your resources to undermine and discover the identities of ghosts who lead this Insurgency.” Supreme Commander Hawkins said.
A senator spoke up, “We need to just send in a fleet to the outer colonies and regulate everything. It worked fine in the inner and middle colonies.”
“Yes, but we had support. The outer colonies hold almost no support towards us. So we need to show them that we are here for their good.” Supreme Command Hawkins said.
“What about giving them, their own government systems? Then just keeping a peaceful medium between them and us?” Another senator asked.
“Thats what the ambassadors were for, and they were all killed or taken hostage. So they don’t want peace that want to rule our galaxy. The worse thing that could happen is them winning the support of the Brotherhood. They may be deemed as just a human-rights political group, but I can see them becoming corrupt and then forming up a militia large to do something. Win the hearts of the people, and we can easily destroy this Insurgency.” As Supreme Commander Hawkins spoke in another Solar System over, “This is Romeo Six Two, we are detecting over twenty unknown heat signatures on radar. Please confirm.”
“Copy that, we see twenty unknown cruisers. Hold we will try and make contact.” Captain Dubkova said with his harsh Russian accent.
“This, is Captain Dubkova of the USS Nightfire. Respond to this message or we will fire on you!” Captain Dubkova said looking at the fleet of ships his was staring at from his bridge. He had never seen ships with the Insignia they had on them. “Charge the Gauss Cannons, and send the crew into red alert. I don’t like the look of this.” He said as he lit a cigar and sucked the smoke from it. With one breath out he sat down in his chair. His entire bridge crew was at work furiously typing in commands while staring into their consoles.
“Sir, they sent the message back to us.” An Ensign said looking up at her Captain.
“Prepare to fire on my mark, these bastards aren’t here for peace.” Captain Dubkova said and brought up his own console and typed in codes. The cruisers that were pointing at them, weren’t on any COFM navy dossiers.
“Sir, the rest of the fleet is ready and awaiting orders. Gauss Cannons are fully charged. Just say the word.” Another Ensign said.
“On my mark, one......two......three.. ....mark.” The words left his lips and the Gauss Cannons released their rounds and streamed through space. They watched at they nailed their targets. The ships took the damage, and now it was time to retaliate. The deemed hostile fleet of ships in front of Captain Dubkova’s fleet returned fire. They took the hits and now the real battle began. Captain Dubkova always pictured the beginning of a naval battle as one of the battles between infantry in the beginning era of the handheld gun. The soldiers would line up and then take turns firing. The idea was pretty stupid it just meant more men dead. The ships would line up and fire a salvo of rounds each before maneuvering and try to flank. Captain Dubkova’s fleet knew how to handle such a threat easily. Four ships flanked left while six flanked right and the rest pushed the middle.
“Charge up for another salvo, and aim for their guns. As for my ship charge our Rail Gun. We aren’t gonna play around anymore.” Captain Dubkova said. A Rail Gun was one of the most powerful weapons in the hands of the COFM. It could rip an A-Class Battle Cruiser right in half.
“Copy that Rail Gun is charging currently at 40%.” An Ensign said.
“Sir, this is Nova Squadron. We are ready to engage the enemy.” The voice of a young pilot said.
“Nova you are cleared for take off, hit em hard comrades.” Captain Dubkova said. He typed in a few more codes and began logging the fleet infront of him.
“Sir, Rail Gun is fully charged whats your target?” The Ensign who reported to him about the Rail Gun before said.
Captain Dubkova stared at the fleet for a few minutes, “Paint the center cruiser. Aim directly at the nose of the ship.”
“Copy that firing in 3.....2.....1.....mark.” The USS Nightmare had a slight power fluctuation as the massive round from the Rail Gun was fired. The round connected with the nose of the cruiser and it cut a clean hole through it. Gauss rounds smashed into the cruisers around the center one and they watched as explosions covered the hull of ship. Another salvo of Gauss rounds came from the enemy fleet and they drilled into the thick hulls of Captain Dubkova’s ships.
“I want a damage report now!” Captain Dubkova barked as his own ship shook.
“Sir, we have taken minimal damage, but the Battle Ship “Andes” was hit in the bridge and all coms with the “Andes” are down. All all ships have taken minimal damage too. What are your order sir?”
“I want all ships to concentrate fire on the remaining center three ships.” He said as he watched Nova Squadron engage on of the cruisers. They laid out bombing run after bombing run on the hull of the ship. It wasn’t long before the entire enemy fleet had their flak guns out, and we gunning to shoot down Nova Squadron.
“This is Nova things are getting hot for us, if you could target some of those flak guns we will be able to hit the rest.” Nova’s Squadron leader said.
“Copy that Nova, aim at those flak guns we need Nova to bomb those cruisers.” Captain Dubkova said and then stood up and sucked again on his cigar that he had almost forgot was burning in his mouth. He let out the plume of smoke and stared at the chaos unfolding infront of him.
“This is the Stealth Cruiser Texas. We are receiving huge amounts of com chatter from the enemy fleet. It’s on an encrypted channel, though we are attempting to hack it. If it is successful we will patch it through to you.” Lieutenant Commander Belkin said.
“Copy that Belkin, patch it through.” Captain Dubkova said and pulled up another dossier of known rebel fleets. This one was by far the most powerful he had ever seen. He liked the challenge though.
“His entire screen turned to strange strands of code. He watched as slowly they became uncoded fleet orders. Then came the real interesting stuff. Dubkova found out who the Commanding Officer of the fleet was. Captain Theodore Rukin, who just happened to be an officer under Dubkova when he disappeared on a mission to the outer colonies.
As Dubkova read from the battle infront of him he saw a blinding light.
“Who the hell just fired another rail gun round?!” Dubkova demanded.
“Sir, that wasn’t us.” An Ensign said looking back with fear in his eyes.
“Sir, Battle Cruiser “Reaper” has just been destroyed.” A different Ensign said.
“All ships focus on the Cruiser that has that Rail Gun.” As Dubkova said this two more Rail Gun rounds hit ships.
“Sir, Cruisers “Nightwish” and “Ghost” have been destroyed. Awaiting orders.”
“I want a Rail Gun round in one of those enemy Cruisers now!” Dubkova said as his cigar dropped from mouth and he smashed his fist into the screen infront of him. He stood up enraged. No one had ever beaten his fleet.
“Rail Gun is charged, sir.”
“Fire!” Captain Dubkova barked and watched as another enemy Cruiser had a hole cut through it like butter. “Focus all Gauss Cannons on the second and third enemy Cruisers with Rail Guns.” A salvo of Gauss rounds streaked across space and smashed into the two cruisers. They returned fire, and the USS Nightfire took some massive blows as the rounds hit in previous impact points.
“Sir, we have multiple hull breaches. We are evacing those sectors and then looking them down.”
As this happened a message had been received. Dubkova opened it.
“Ahhh it is so good to see you again old friend, only this time I’m the one in control. I have to say you do still have your touch or tactical genius. What you do lack however is the guns in this fight. Everyone of my ships are equipped with a Rail Gun. So I have to say good-bye old friend. Your defeat will mark the beginning of a new rule within this galaxy.” Rukin said.
“Lieutenant Commander Belkin I am ordering you to retreat right now. Cloak and turn your engines off. That is an immediate order!” Captain Dubkova barked as he lit up another cigar. “What Cruiser did that message originate from?”
“Sir, the message originated from the left center cruiser. The Rail Gun is charging, sir.” Another Ensign said with remorse in his voice.
“Comrades this is Captian Dubkova it has been an honor serving with you.” He said releasing a plume of smoke and then opening up another message.
“Sir, Rail Gun is 75% charged and we are reading massive energy spikes from their Cruisers.”
“I want that Rail Gun round to go right through that Cruiser’s bridge. That bastard won’t escape again.”
Dubkova opened a message that he would send back to Rukin.
“I’ll see you in hell you back stabbing bastard.” He said and let out a smirk before sending it.
“Sir, Rail Gun is at 100%.”
“Kill him.” Were the last two words everyone heard on the USS Nightfire’s bridge. The USS Nightfire’s Rail Gun went off as Dubkova’s fleet was obliterated by Rail Gun rounds. The Rail Gun round from the USS Nightfire however went off and punched a clean hole right through it’s target.
_________________________ _________________________ _________________________ ___
“This is Lieutenant Command Belkin, this is an emergency transmission to go directly to the Senate. Captain Dubkova’s fleet has been destroyed by, an unknown Human military force. I will be arriving within the Solar System within a few days to go over things with COFM leaders. All I can really say is that we are at war now.” Lieutenant Commander Belkin said as he stared at the recording of his fleet being ripped to shreds. He knew as well as anyone else that there were still soldiers stuck in those cruisers, but he couldn’t do a thing for them. He also knew that a new war was at hand and it needed to be stopped before it could escalate.
August 2nd, 2112 0600
Mars Arch-Angel Barracks
Arch-Angel Battalion
Lt. Shark, Sgt. Mers, Cpl. Serge, and Pvt. Leon all stood at the end of their bunks and at attention Maj. Winslow walked up and down each aisle inspecting his battalion's barracks. Arch-Angel Battalion consisted of five squads. Nightmare, Reaper, Fear, Ghost and Hellfire. Arch-Angel was an underground military branch. The media and even the certain military Generals didn't know Arch-Angel existed. As Maj. Winslow finished his inspection he snapped, "Nightmare front and center!"
Nightmare listened like an instinct and formed a straight line in front of Maj. Winslow. Each soldier being exactly 18 years old and each built differently. Lt. Shark was the squads medic and rifleman unit. Sgt. Mers was the squads sniper and recon specialist. Cpl. Serge was the squads support unit. Pvt. Leon was the squads CQC and demo specialist. Nightmare was the best in Arch-Angel. They were all trained exactly the same as the rest of Arch-Angel, but they have beaten all other squads in any training exercise. They worked to earn the title of the best. Nightmare was a brotherhood, no one would be left behind and nothing would break their will when they fight together. Arch-Angel as a group was a family, Maj. Winslow being the father. HighCom wanted to enhance Arch-Angel with steroids and other enhancing drugs, Winslow declined and said he would train them to be even better then soldiers who had drug enhancements. He did.
"I have received orders from HighCom. Stealth detecting satellites have picked up Insurgent stealth ships have been landing in the Asteroid belt. Upon further scans they have discovered an Insurgent base buried in an Asteroid with it's outer shell being think lead deposits. They want us to go in and crush the entire base from within. Nightmare your going to be the spearhead of the assault. I have requested to Navy to give up two tactical nuclear det charges. Nightmare you will be clearing and path for Ghost and Fear. They will be transporting the the 2 charges. As for Reaper and Hellfire you guys will go in nice and silently and tap into the Insurgents data-pool and launch a virus that will allow us to tap into anything they have in their network." Winslow handed each squad leader a tiny chip. The chips held the same virus. "Four A-Class Dreadnought Assault Cruisers will be your support, HighCom fears that the Insurgent fleet will arrive to support this station." Maj. Winslow said looking down each aisle of his soldiers. "Is that clear!"
"Yes, father!" Rang in the barracks.
"Good," Maj. Winslow turned around smiling. It always got to him when his soldiers called him father or dad. He had never felt like their father, because he had taken them away from their families and each had known that from the start of their training. They cried, but they go through it. They soon learned the reasoning behind them being taken from their happy lives and that was to keep their families safe from harm. Now here they stand receiving their first mission.
August 2nd, 2112 0700
Hybrid, Unknown Sector of Space
1st Recon Platoon
Echo Company
Fire-Team Kilo
"This is drop ship squadron Oscar, we are nearing LZ. ETA five minutes. Echo Company your going to be touching down first, followed up by Foxtrot. Secure a perimeter and wait for orders. Alpha and Bravo Companies will be coming down with supplies to set up base camp. Remember to keep all gear on, we don't want anyone freezing to death out there." Capt. Michaels said over the Battalion wide com channel.
Hybrid was a heavily wooded planet. Half of the planet was tropical while the other half were winter temperatures and precipitation. Echo Company was currently going straight into a blizzard, command wanted RecMarines on the ground as quickly as possible. Each soldier was equipped with a suit that kept all body heat in. If the temperatures outside the suit got to cold then a thermal generator would kick in and supply even more heat to the soldier. Each of them had an Mk6 standard issue assault rifle along with the standard issue C-98 eight cylinder magnum.
The drop ship's thrusters changed and the cabin lurched because of it. The men inside stayed a foot as it slowly went down to land in the dense snowy surface. The back hatch dropped open and out they went.
"Stay in a five meter spread, and thermal visors up. Were heading to checkpoint Kilo, once their we will hold up until reassigned orders." Sgt. Arson said taking point and moving forward his weapon sweeping from left to right and up and down. Fire-Team Kilo soon left the open field they landed in and entered the pine woods. The snow died down because of the trees, but it was still nearly impossible to see without the thermal visor settings.
"This is Lt. Davis, are all Echo Company Fire-Teams on ground and inbound to checkpoints?" Sgt. Arson looked down to the device on his right wrist and typed in F-T Kilo inbound to CkPt Kilo.
"Copy that good luck Echo." Lt. Davis said.
Arson was quick to pick up point again and lead his men onwards. He stopped at a tree and balled up his fist and from the fist brought his hand flat and lowered it to his waist. Everyone reacted and went prone. Soon Kilo saw what had made their leader decide for them to get down. A massive creature was walking forward infront of them, and he didn't want to engage any wildlife right now. Number One rule of RecMarines, never waste ammo on a non-hostile target.
Once the creature past Kilo was back up again moving through the trees and each soldier watched as their Nav Markers got lower and lower in distance count until they were five meters from the Checkpoint Kilo. They pressed onwards and once the counter reached zero they all stopped and looked at Arson.
"Set up in a circle, use the trees as cover. If you see any wildlife report it and which direction it is heading." Sgt. Arson said point to four different trees. Kilo got into position, they had eyes on all directions.
Pfc. Louis on the east flank saw a almost human looking being move into his line of view between two trees. The being stopped and Louis watched as its head turned from being faced away from Louis to directly looking at him. Louis turned his thermal visor off and saw only the white wall of snow infront of him. He switched his visor back and the creature was gone.
"Umm I just saw a creature that looked human stop turn its head completely around and look at me." Louis reported in.
"Don't worry about it, most wildlife is harmless on this planet, especially in this weather." Sgt. Arson replied.
"Alright Echo. We are launching the thermal scanner nodes down to all Checkpoints. Be prepared to set them up."Capt. Michaels said.
"Get clear!" Sgt. Arson said and jumped behind a snow drift. The rest of Kilo just pressed themselves against trees. The node dropped and was driven into the icy flat that was under the fresh layer of snow. Once the node was down Pvt. O'Neal was on the job to activate it. He first unlocked the for cover shell for the programing area. Once he did he began typing in codes and flipping switches. Soon the scanner began to turn on and emit a huge heat source that melted the ice it was in, along with the snow. Finally once it was completely operational Kilo was able to fall back to Rally Point Zulu.
"This is Gamma team we have been seeing a lot of wildlife, they seem to be getting close and closer each time." Gamma's squad leader said. "Oh shit….. We got enemy contacts! We need hel…………" The com was cut short.
"Kilo on your way back head over to Gamma's last known location. They have even been taken off our life support readings." Lt. Davis said.
"Roger that." Sgt. Arson said and with his right index finger he twirled it up in the air meaning they have to form up. Kilo formed up infront of the node. "Gamma has gone missing, and they want us to investigate their last known location. Keep your weapons up and be ready for anything, now we know we have hostiles on this rock." Arson reported to his men and then took point and Kilo began to move.
Their movement was hampered by the storm and the foliage of the wooded area they were in. It took them a good 45 minute hike to get to Gamma's last known location and when they did they found that nothing was left to even signify that a human presence was even their except for the node that was lodged into the ground.
“This Arson we don’t see any sign of Gamma. No blood nothing all thats here is the node, confirm.” Sgt. Arson said.
“Confirmed we have nothing on their vitals. Were going to be sending recon drones out to try and detect any low thermal readings. Just make sure the node is up and running and return back to camp. We have supplies and are setting up now.” Lt. Davis said.
“Were heading back they’re going to send out drones to try and find Gamma. Lets get moving!” Sgt. Arson barked into the squad com and Kilo was on the move again.
Atleast Gamma had gotten the node online before disappearing, but its weird, no blood no shells. Nothing whatever got them came in quickly or silently. He pushed the thoughts out of his mind as they trudged through the thick foliage and dense constant snowfall. It took them a 60 minute hike to get back to base camp. They found that heavy steel plated walls had already set up. They entered through one of the gate. Inside everything was more visible, because the high winds weren’t adding to the blinding white snow. Which still feel very steadily. ATV’s were rigged as snow blowers and blew the snow against the walls. This would allow the walls to become more of a solid barrier.
Kilo walked into the main combat tent. Heaters lined the inside of the room and blew the cold air out. Arson slid his helmet off his head and held it at his side, Kilo followed as they stood before Capt. Michaels and Lt. Davis. Echo as one snapped a salut which Capt. Michaels returned and then turned to put his hands on the holo-map infront of him. He pointed to Gamma’s last location.
“We picked up one last bit of information on Gamma. In their last report in we detected a faint screeching noise, which we think was dampened by the snow. That leads us to believe that the thing or things that attacked Gamma were a native species.” Capt. Michaels said.
“Sir, with all due respect I don’t think Gamma would classify a native species a hostile contact. They had to experience some form of weapon fire.” Pvt. O’Neal said.
“Yes, Private but no weapon fire was heard.”
“Sir, I agree with O’Neal when we posted up and waited for our node to come down I spotted a creature looking directly at me through the snowfall. When I turned my visor to normal all I could see was white. I think something is on this planet. We just haven’t come face to face with it yet.” Pfc. Louis said. Just as Louis said this two soldier came into the tent.
“Sir, Lt. Col. Jefferson has givin us a total field report. All 1st Recon Marines Base’s have been set up and all thermal scanning nodes have been set up and we have a full view of this side of the planet. We have picked up huge thermal readings all around. We think they are native species in packs.” One of the soldiers said. Capt. Michaels looked down and scrolled out. The entire globe was up now, huge pockets of thermal readings littered the planet. Marked Marine Base’s were in green. A huge pocket was right next to their base and even closer to Gamma’s node position.
“Patch me into the Lt.Col. right now!” Capt. Michaels barked putting on a headset. It took a few seconds before he heard the Lt.Col.’s voice.
“Michaels what do you need?” Lt.Col. Jefferson asked.
“Those natives if they are natives aren’t friendlies. A group of my boys have gone missing and another has reported strange activity from creatures. We need to to put all base’s on Code Blue.” Capt. Michaels said looking up and at each of the soldiers in Echo.
“We can’t do that we don’t have a solid report on these creatures being hostiles. As off now it’s a no go, I’m sorry Michaels.” Just as Jefferson finished.
“Sir, we have a problem. We have picked up multiple contacts they appeared out of nowhere. The thermal mass has also moved too. Sir, I what are your.....” Boom! An explosion shook the tent knocking some of the heaters over. Kilo without thinking slammed their helmets back on their heads and checked the magazines in their assault rifles. Another explosion shook the tent. This time the power went off.
“This is Capt. Michaels. Echo base is under attack. Repeat we are under attack. Send reinforcements ground-side ASAP!” Capt. Michaels barked. Gunfire flared outside and Kilo was quick to head outside of the tent. The snowfall had died down to a bare minimum. Everything was clear, marines lined the walls and fired. They saw what was causing the explosions huge red balls we appearing from over the walls and crashing inside of the walls. Marine bodies were scattered all around along with tents that were hit and are now burning molten craters of ash.
“This is drop ship squadron Yankee we are inbound to Echo Base for immediate evac.” A pilot said over the entire company wide com channel.
“This is Capt. Michaels I copy Echo will be at your LZ.” Capt. Michaels said.
“We aren’t able to pick up at the base as of now, those red mortars have already shot down other drop ships. So we need you to clear them out if possible or move to a new location.” The pilot said.
“Damn it. Copy that.” Michaels cut the com. “Kilo the rest of us can hold up here. I need you to try and take down what ever the hell it takes to stop those mortars from firing!”
“On it, sir!” Sgt. Arson said. “Saddle it up boys we have to go kick some ass. We need to find some explosives.”
“On it.” O’Neal said as he began searching for explosives. As they stood around another mortar nailed the base and sent marines flying. O’Neal shoved over a huge crate and under it was a TacNuke launcher. It had two charges in it.
“I got a TacNuke launcher, two charges left in it though.” O’Neal reported back as he slung it over his back and looked around for more charges for it. He pulled out his pistol and shot the latch locks off of the crate he had just shoved over. Another mortar came flying in a hit the commend tent. Kilo, Lt. Davis, and Capt. Michaels all were taken off their feet from the shockwave. O’Neal gripped the crate as the shockwave got to him and he recovered lifting the crate’s lid and checking inside to find exactly what he was looking for. A belt of TacNuke charges he snatched them up and clipped it around his waist.
“Let’s roll,” O’Neal said as he got back to his squad who were just getting up from the shockwave. Kilo reacted quickly and jumped up ready for combat. Rifles were checked over and they headed towards the gates of the base. Which were opened just enough for Kilo to squeeze out. What they saw before them was unlike anything they have seen before. Hordes of creatures were holding weird rifles that fired what looked to be energy bolts. Kilo quickly open fired on the group of the creatures right infront of them. Their bullets cut the creatures down in a spray of green blood. A hole was in the creatures offensive line now and Kilo took their entrance fast. They sprint towards the tree line and as they got back inside the forest quickly reloaded and swept their rifles across their view, a few creatures were coming at them and Kilo opened up once again. They moved forward and stopped to examine their new found enemies. The creatures had armor plates on it’s chest and bent thighs. The creature had a very wide chest cavity and thin mid-section. It’s head had what looked like a headset and visor on it. The face was ugly with small red eyes and huge fangs and a horrible over-bite.
“Damn these things are ugly.” Sgt. Arson said kicking it in the side to make sure it was dead. They had enough cover now to move without engaging any of the creatures directly. The trees were like walls all around them and the snowfall had picked up again to give a faint white hue in the air. Their armor plates were frosted with it so they had a near perfect camouflage.
“Alright on me.” Arson said and Kilo got in a circle around their on one knee. “
“With or ships in space they have pinpointed the mortars they seem to have three zones that are launching those mortars we should be able to cut em quickly with the cover of these trees. The thermal scanners are showing that the thermal mass that was their before isn’t as big as it was. So we are thinning them out, but the rate at which we are losing marines is very fast. We need to do this quickly so we can pull out. No mistakes.” Sgt. Arson said as he reloaded his rifle and looked around to make sure the area was clear to move. Once he thought so they took off heading towards their first target, moving quickly over fallen trees and under low hanging branches with the light snow fall once again blanketing everything. It wasn’t long before they got to a cliff that looked over the thing causing the mortars. It was a huge snub nosed artillery battery. It had a massive barrel and they watched as it fired a mortar off. It had three receptors that soaked up the massive energy it released. Red lightening was soaked up by the receptors after the mortar was launched.
“Kill it.” Arson said after examining the battery.
“Gladly.” O’Neal said raising the launcher, taking aim and firing a charge. Kilo watched as it shot out of the tube and fell directly into the barrel of the battery a few seconds later they were behind trees and the battery was blown to nothing as a small mushroom could formed and the shockwave was buffered by the cliff they were on. They got out of cover and checked to make sure that the target had been destroyed and all they saw was a crater and some scrap metal.
“One down two to go,” Pfc. Louis said. Kilo had to go to the east now to get to the other target. They changed directions and kept on moving. As they were moving they broke into a clearing and in the clearing was what looking like an entire army of the creatures. Kilo dove into the snow as quickly as they could.
“Shit. We won’t be able to get around this in time to save Echo Base.” Sgt. Arson said. As he looked around, the creatures had what looked like a tank along with a massive infantry regiment. The army could easily crush the base that had only a couple hundred marines left.
“O’Neal how many charges do you have?” Arson asked looking back at him.
“About 5 more, sir.” O’Neal replied looking back up towards Arson who looked back at the army.
“Good, I want you to launch 2 of them at this army. We can’t let them get to the base.” Arson said.
“But how will we get across a radiation zone? We won’t survive, and we don’t have enough time to detour around it. Sir, were going to have to go through it....” Pfc. Louis said.
“He is right, we don’t have the time to engage it looks like this army is going to move anytime soon anyways.” O’Neal said looking up and scanning the army. They had structures set up and the creature roamed around in squads. As a pure moment of luck the snow started picking up again. Soon enough it was a white out again and Kilo switched to thermal vision. O’Neal took this time to slide two more rounds into his pistol closed the cylinder and holstered it.
“Alright we have somewhat of an advantage now. Let’s get moving, but stay on my ass. I don’t want to compromise this.” Arson said standing up and leveling his rifle forward. He could see the entire base, it was a huge stain of red, orange, yellow, and sometimes green on his visor. Anything else was blue. Kilo sprinted forward and stacked up on the wall of one of the structures making sure the area was clear they headed into an alleyway between two structures. They swept their rifles left and right and as they got to the end stacked up again, Arson peered around the corner and shot back behind as a squad went past them. Arson peered out again and then looked back at the squad the area was clear. Just as they did another squad turned the corner and Kilo was only half of the way to the next structure. The squad open fired and a bolt of energy caught Louis in the leg. He dove into the next alley way that the rest of Kilo got into.
“Fuck! I’m hit.” He said grabbing his leg. Which seared in pain. When he looked down he saw that his boot and pants had melted to his skin which was burnt to a crisp. The only thing stopping him from feeling the pain was the sub-zero temperature. He reached into a belt compartment and pulled out combat wrap. As he did this Arson and O’Neal crouched down and waited for the creatures to round the corner. When they did they opened up with a quick salvo and sweeping from left to right. The creatures were cut down, but now the entire army knew that they were there. A siren went off, and Kilo was quick to begin sprinting, but Louis was left limping behind. As they broke out of the army’s camp and into the clearing before the tree line. Energy bolts began coming towards them. Arson took one to the back and Louis got hit in the arm as he fell another one to the back. O’Neal looked back at his now dead brothers and turned to unload his clip but was hit in the shoulder with a bolt. He hit the ground and went for his magnum. The creatures were running towards him. He aimed and fired, he watched as the huge round connected with one of the creatures and it’s chest cavity was ripped in half. The others didn’t hesitate to return fire. O’Neal took hundreds of the energy bolts at one time.
“Capt. Kilo teams vitals just went dark.” Lt. Davis said.
Capt. Michaels looked down, “This is Capt. Michaels Echo Company CO, we cannot destroy the rest of the mortar batteries. Requesting emergency extraction. We are running a code Purple. We are about to be over-run. Over.”
“Capt. Michaels this is Drop Ship Squadron Yankee we are on an extraction mission currently, we need to refuel and can come back down to get you, ETA thirty minutes. Over.”
“Damn..... Copy that Yankee.” Capt. Michaels said. He looked down at the ground and then looked up just to see a mortar hit the north wall and put a hole in it. Marines flew off of the wall and hit the ground hard. Another one hit the wall and this time the wall crashed down. Michaels watched as marines scrambled for cover, and those who couldn’t get to it in time were gunned down. He watched his marines die right before his eyes.
“Sir! We have to get to cover!” Lt. Davis said, but Michaels was in shock at the scene before him. Never has his marines lost a fight like this. A mortar land almost directly next to him and he was shot to the left. He landed with a thud as his head smacked the ground and everything went dark.
“Sir!........Sir! Come on get up, sir.” Lt. Davis said shaking Capt. Michaels. Michaels came to and was looking around everything was blurry and dazed he had a crack in his visor and readings were messed up. His life support readings were red and he could taste blood in his mouth. He looked up at Davis and watched as he took a burst of energy bolts to the chest and was knocked backwards. His eyes followed the man and were brought back up as a creature loomed over him, he couldn’t make out what it looked like. The creature put it’s weapon to Michael’s visor and fired.
August 2nd, 2112 1300
A-Class Dreadnought "Super Nova"
Nightmare Squad, Arch-Angel Battalion
Nightmare was in a circle down on one knee in full gear, save their helmets. Lt. Shark was the only one standing. Everyone was conversing, except Shark.
"Listen up boys, Dad isn't going to be on the horn for this one. This time it's us, and the guys feeding us the information we need. This time it's just us, and this time its real. Dad has trained us, he has given us all he can to make us the best and we are the best. We will do our job and let our brothers do theirs. So let's get out there and kick some Insurgent ass!" Lt. Shark growled. Nightmare all stood up and slid their helmets on. Weapons clicked as magazines were slid into their receivers. Sgt. Mers clicked open a case and pulled out a longer barrel attachment for his Mk6 unscrewing the one on his standard Mk6 assault rifle. He screwed the barrel on and then pulled a pin from the stock so the rifle broke in half at a hinge. He pulled the charging handle out and replaced it with the new charging handle in its place. Finally he added a clip filled with hollow point rounds. He slid the bolt into place and jumped onto the Falcon drop ship. As the back hatch closed he locked a visor scope on his rifle. The visor scope linked to his visor so he could sight in from where ever the weapon is pointed.
"The Dreadnoughts are going to blow holes into the asteroid and were going to land inside the station. Once inside you will clear a path for Ghost and Fear. Good luck Nightmare. Show these bastards how we do things." Maj. Winslow said. Nightmare froze from the voice and after hearing their fathers voice encouraging them to kill the Insurgents fires were lit in their souls. Each man stood on heels now as the awaited to be dropped off inside the station.
"Hold on to something." The pilot said as Sgt. Mers typed a code in to open the back hatch of the drop ship. The cabin pressurized and the back hatch opened up. Nightmare watched at two AMC rounds were blasted for Dreadnought Sparta's main cannon. They each grabbed onto a strap and the entire Falcon shook as the rounds zipped past the drop ship. A loud bang rang and they all grabbed their rifles.
"ETA one minute, prepare for a quick drop." Their pilot said. They saw asteroids surround them, twisted metal and bodies along with equipment and things that were in the station before it was hit. Their view changed from space being inside of the station. Bulkhead doors were sealing off all of the sections of the station that were ripped apart. It wasn't a long trip to get to the inside of the station. They jumped out into station stacked up on the nearest bulkhead door.
"Serge get the door." Shark said. Cpl. Serge grabbed an explosive charge from his gear and planted it on the door. He got into formation and blew it. The door was launched into the room and they quickly moved into the corridor before the emergency doors closed. Nightmare scanned the dark corridor.
"Go thermal." The command was quick and everyone followed. Visors switched from normal to thermal. Everything was cold on the station. The wall panels were cold, meaning the blast had shut down the power for this section of the station.
"Keep your eyes open for a working terminal. We need to get the blue prints for this station. Move out." Shark said and took point down the corridor. Everything was silent. They kept nice and snug against the wall, rifles were level and they scanned and listen to every sound that the station made. Soon enough lights appeared ahead from the intersecting corridor.
"I got this," Pvt. Leon said hand his rifle over to Serge. He crept forward and then heading into a sprint. His perfect timing surprised one of the soldiers as the squad pasted the corridor Nightmare was down. Two soldier looked over and scanned. Leon was quick and tackled one of them full power and speed. As he tackled the man, Leon drew his combat knife and drove it into the man's chest cavity.
"What the hell!" The other soldier barked and lifted his rifle. Leon jumped up, pushing the rifle upwards as the hail of bullets sprayed out and harmlessly connected to the ceiling. Leon kicked the soldier in the ribs and then smashed the butt of the rifle into the man's face. He crashed backwards into the wall and slumped. Blood was oozing from his mouth, nose, and the gash the butt of the rifle had made. Leon knew his kick also shattered the man's right ribs. If he wasn't dead he would be soon. The third and four member of the squad were staring down their rifle sights at Leon. He froze realizing he was beat. He closed his eyes and when the hail of bullets didn't come he looked up to see Sgt. Mers twirling his knife between his fingers and two dead bodies at his feet.
"Thanks," Leon said smirking. The rest of Nightmare appeared and they continued down the corridors. They wiped a total of five Insurgent fire-teams before getting to another sealed bulkhead door.
"Blow it, we need to hurry up the station should be fully combat ready soon." Lt. Shark said and got pressed against the wall next to the door his rifle pointing down. Cpl. Serge planted another det charge and stepped back blowing through the thick steal doors. Nightmare went in and another fire-team was waiting. As the Insurgents covered their faces from the blast Nightmare took their chance to put two rounds in each soldier. Once the smoke cleared four men were on the ground and Nightmare was already in the next corridor. Emergency lights were on, so the Shark figured the back up power was on for this section of the station.
"A terminal should be online some where." Shark said pointing down a corridor. The squad moved down and as they turned another corner a terminal was right their. Shark was quick to hack the system, and find the blue prints for the station. He located the Executive commands and locked down every door except for all of the bulkhead doors they took to get where they are.
"This is Shark, Ghost and Fear you are clear for insertion. I set the directed path to get to our current position. I've locked down all the doors so nothing can ambush you." Lt. Shark said.
"We copy that, were inbound to the station. We should be to you guys in twenty minutes." Lt. Young replied back. Shark also looked deeper into the data files he had access to. He opened a file.
//: Open
/: File Location: Section X
Transmission Start.
Created by: Admiral Moomaw
Recorded time: November 3rd, 2110
In the coordinates we received from the strangely encrypted transmission, we have discovered a plant. The atmosphere is a purple bluish haze. Scans show that something inhabits the planet. We scanned planet side and found cities, huge cities that cover the entire planet.
November 5th, 2110
I will log this transmission and send it on an encrypted channel.
We sent a drop ship planet side. The second the drop ship landed the creatures on the planet attacked the Marines inside.
Alien species is HOSTILE!
November 6th, 2110
This is my last transmission, I am looking at a fleet bigger then anything I have ever se……….
Transmission End.
///: Transmission end was due to a massive heat and radiation spike. Know known reports or signals have came from Admiral Moomaw since.
//: File Location: Section X
/: Close
Shark download the file to his suit's data reservoir. He went through other files he had limited access to and found another file that seemed to relate to the same alien species.
//: Open
/: File Location: Section X
News file start.
Earlier today reports have come from around the globe of lights during the night. Pulsating lights that illuminate the night sky.
We are here now, to tell you that we are under siege. Satellites have discovered a large fleet that surrounds us…. God help us all.
Nothing was received via an encrypted channel after the last update.
News file end.
//: File Location: Unknown
/: Close
Shark once again put the file in his data reservoir and moved from the terminal.
"Shark we got company,'' Sgt. Mers said looking down the next corridor. Fire-teams were sprinting towards Nightmare. All of Nightmare crouched and leveled their rifles. The second the fire-teams turned the corners bullets soaked them. Blood covered the wall behind them as rounds ripped through their flesh. Each member reloaded.
"Hold here until Ghost and Fear arrive," Shark said looking to the right of him and saw the word Armory on the floor pointing into a room. "Stock up on weapons and ammo." He said opening the door. Everyone went into the Armory. Racks of weapons covered the walls. Leon locked his assault rifle on his back and grabbed a C-10 Shotgun. He loaded shells into it and opened a box and grabbed a shell belt putting each individual shell into a slot. Serge grabbed the only K-21s2 Automatic Support Weapon. He also grabbed three belts of ammo for it. Mers grabbed the Nk34 SMG and ammo. Shark found three bullet shields and threw one to Leon and Serge. Each of them strapped them to their left forearms.
Each of them were ready and they were quick to leave and head back to the room with the terminal. Ghost and Fear rounded the corner as they returned back to the room.
"Good to see you guys. We were engaged by a few squads on the way, but the darkness threw them off and made em easy kills." Lt. Kenzel said. Unlike any other time the squads would meet up this time they didn't have time to exchange greetings and handshakes. They just pressed on Nightmare on point Shark, Leon, and Serge on point shields forward, with a nice and tight formation. They were coming up on the maintenance shafts that would lead them directing to the stations core. As Nightmare turned a corner down to the corridor that the maintenance hatch was in and two Insurgent fire-teams were waiting and quickly opened up. The shields took the first few salvos and Mers returned fire. Serge, Leon, and Shark hunkered down. Ghost and Fear dropped back behind the corner they came from. Mers crouched as another salvo opened up. He looked to his belt and grabbed a frag grenade and pulled the pin.
"Frag!" He barked as he tossed it over his three brothers in front of him. Boom! He looked up and swept his rifle from left to right. "Clear!" He said. Ghost and Fear rounded the corner and Nightmare stood up.
"The maintenance shaft is right there," Lt. Shark pointed to a small hatch that was lined in red. He typed in two sets of codes and it opened. "Follow the main shaft which should be a red strip on the floor. It should lead you to the core, if it doesn't hold tight and I will look for an alternate route." He said and pushed the hatch it and it slide upwards. Both squads went in and Shark re-sealed the hatch.
"Their down here!" Echoed down the corridor and all of them turned. Serge, Shark, and Leon got into position with Mers covered behind them. The Insurgents rounded the corner and open fired. Rounds pinged off of the shields, Mers waited for a turn to return fire. Once he had his turn he stood up and emptied his clip with each round hitting flesh. He ducked down and mechanically reloaded. The second the clip began to slide out he had his hand on the fresh clip on his belt and when the clip left the receiver another one replaced the spent one. He kept down though, because the insurgents began to fire back. Again he waited until he was clear to return fire. Once he had his chance he stood up and fired. This time a few Insurgents were waiting too and fired when he stood up. Mers popped off a few shots and as he ducked back down get hit in the shoulder plate. His adrenaline flared. He stood up and fired his bullets ripped the Insurgents in front of him apart. His clip ran dry and he dropped his rifle pulling his combat knife out, jumping over his squad-mates and charging forward. He opened up his arms and tackled the two remaining soldiers. He drove his knife into one of them, and the other kicked him in the side. His armor plate took most of the blow, but he still felt the hit. He focused on the man that kicked him, grabbed his foot and snapped it backwards. The man let out a scream and Mers got up and pulled out his pistol and put one right in the man's forehead.
"Damn, Mers remind me to never shoot at you." Cpl. Serge said slapping Mers on the back and handing him his rifle back, which he quickly reloaded. He looked down and ripped his knife out of the man's chest and put it back in its sheath.
"Leon and Serge you two secure that end of the corridor me and Mers have this end." Lt. Shark said pointing to each end. "We need to lock this area down until Ghost and Fear return." Each of them followed orders, Leon crouched against the wall and Serge stood up right behind him. Both Mers and Shark stood up snug against opposite walls. Shark had his rifle out, while Mers switched out his rifle for his SMG. Serge, Shark and Leon all removed their shields, but put kept them close by.
"Holy shit! This thing is running on an Anti-Matter core! Blowing this thing up would take out a huge section of the Asteroid Belt." Lt. Young said. "The only way to blow this thing is to deplete all of the Anti-Matter from the core itself. Hold on…….. There seems to be drainage containers for the Anti-Matter. If we could access them, then I could send the Anti-Matter to one of the Dreadnoughts and if the fleet does come we could use them to wipe the fleet out."
"Try and hack the system, in the mean time Fear plant one of your charges on one of the drainage containers. Just on the outside, don't do anything to the inside components. If the Anti-Matter becomes unstable in the process of its transfer we won't exist anymore." Lt. Shark replied.
"Copy, that. We shouldn't be much longer." Lt. Young said.
As Shark got off the horn, he pulled up the stations blue prints on his HUD (Heads Up Display). He was looking for the power wires to the corridor they were in, once he located them he walked over to where they should be and opened up. The bullets shredded the steel plating and after about five seconds everything went dark.
"Switch to thermal. The darker the better," he laughed. Everyone switched to thermals, the panels on the walls glowed a cool blue. For different visor settings each soldier in a squad had a color strobe for them. Shark had blue, Mers had purple, Serge had red and Leon had teal.
Mers open a closed battalion channel to Reaper and Hellfire, "This is N002, I am requesting confirmation from R001. We need to add to the list of things you need to obtain from the IDC (Insurgent Data-Core)."
"This is R001, I read you loud and clear please send your request. Via encrypted silent com." R001 replied.
Mers opened a silent com and added an encrypted coding with it, "Listen Ghost and Fear have discovered that the central power core of this thing is Anti-Matter so I suggest looking for files on how they brought such a huge source of energy this close without us knowing and also without us being able to see it while it is housed here." Sgt. Mers said.
"Shark we have found the codes to the drainage containers and are currently planting charges on them. We should be wrapping up shortly." Lt. Young reported in to Shark.
"Copy that, we are holding position right outside of the hatch you used to get in." Shark replied and once again looked behind him to make sure Serge and Leon were alright.
"Copy that N002. Tapping into the files right now." R001 reported back to Mers. R001 sent him a live feed of the reports and files he was uploading to the squads data reservoir. Classified files of how the ASC (Allied Space Command) HighCom members covered the Insurgent base up saying it was nothing more then a radioactive asteroid. One file was singled out by R001and Mers read it eyes wide.
//: Open
/: File Location: Classified
Priority: Omega
Subject: ASC New Soldier Program
We have received information on the ASC's new underground soldier program. The program is run by an off the chart officer and is going to train children from the age of 8 till the age of 18 to be soldiers. This program could decide the war. Advise beginning a program for Insurgent super soldiers.
//: End
He closed the file and looked up and down the corridor. Everything was the same. He knew that if the Insurgents did have a Super Soldier program in the works that means Arch-Angel might actually get a challenge. He smirked at the thought, although Arch-Angel was deemed and recorded on classified files. They really aren't super soldiers they are just trained to the the T to be be killing machines. They have undergone training that would kill the normal marine. Winslow would even allow them to take drugs to enhance their strength, reflexes, and agility. Yet Arch-Angel was still unstoppable and would be. As long as they didn't get caught in the air. That is the one weakness in any infantry fighting team. Being dropped down or brought to their target by a drop ship.
"We're heading back to your position we have the charges planted, when we get off the station we will activate the draining protocols. We also sent out a distress beacon and our fly boys outside have been warned. I intend to use the Anti-Matter and wipe whatever they send." Lt. Young said.
"What about Reaper and Hellfire?" Lt. Shark asked.
"I am having Lt. Kenzel sending them a message to bail. They should have all the data we need." The maintenance hatch popped open and slid up. Out from it came Ghost and Fear.
"This way," Serge said taking point. He had his K-12s2 at his waist as he moved and it's belt of bullets hung over his shoulder. He turned the corner and kept moving.
The more Sgt. Mers thought about the lack of soldiers to confront him the more he realized that they were on a stealth Insurgent station that doesn't even have any defense grids. On top of that this entire section of the station was nailed by naval bombardment. They continued past the terminal Shark had used and into the pitch black corridors that they came through to get to where they were. They quickly got through that dark corridors and got to a sealed bulkhead that lead to space.
Leon looked around for the bulkhead opposite to the one they had to go through. He need to somehow shut it. He looked to the left and saw a steel rod with a hook on it and then looked back at the bulkhead. The bottom on the door had a small hole and he quickly grabbed the steel rod and put the hook in the hole and pulled down. He heard the mechanisms of the door going against him, but they needed the door to be down and looked. Serge came from behind and grabbed holed too. With grunts and strain the two soldiers pulled the door down far enough for the mechanics to give way. The door closed and with a lock it was sealed.
"Grab holed of something," Cpl. Lock said and planted a charge on the door. Everyone was quick to grab the railing on the walls. Click. Boom! A hole was in the bulkhead door and out went all of the air. The force of the pull from the vacuum was intense. Each soldier bared their teeth as they kept their death grips on the railings. Finally once all of the air was out of the room they could move around.
"This is Nightmare, Ghost and Fear calling for an immediate pick-up. Have you picked up Reaper and Hellfire yet?" Lt. Shark asked.
"Yes, both Reaper and Hellfire are in a drop ship inbound for the dreadnought "Sparta". We have a drop ship inbound to your position hold tight boys." A voice said into the coms. The drop ship came into view and slowed and the back hatch slowly opened up, each soldier jumped in. Through the zero-gee space they were able to jump a great distance and land inside of the cabin.
"This is Nightmare all are aboard, your clear to take off." Lt. Shark said to the pilot.
"Copy that." The pilot replied and they thrusted away soon the base looked a lot smaller.
"This is Dreadnought "Ares" we are receiving a flood of Insurgent commands, looks like they are bringing in the calvary on this one."
"Captain listen if you can locate the vector that they will be arriving we can wipe them out before they even have a chance to fight." Lt. Young said.
"Copy that Lieutenant, but how to propose we do that?"
"Well Captain the core to the station was Anti-Matter power core, we drained the Anti-Matter into their respective drainage containers and they are currently waiting for coordinates on where to launch. You give me those coordinates and the fleet will crushed." Lt. Young replied. '
"That is one hellava plan, son." The com went silent."The coordinates for the fleets entrance are vector gamma, 2.334, 4.546. Vector gamma, 8.342, 4.897." The Captain said.
"Roger that, now just kick back and watch the show." Lt. Young said as he typed the coordinates into the data pad on his wrist. The words coordinates locked appeared on the screen and he typed launch. They watched from the cabin as huge launch bays opened up out shot four massive containers. They were thrusting and began to halt just as the fleet appeared, at least twenty-five battle cruisers were infront of their faces. From the drop ship, Lt. Shark couldn't see the tiny looking containers now destroying the entire fleet.
"Wait for it, let the containers get inside of the fleet." Just as he said that he watched two ships leave the hanger of one of the cruisers. "Shit….. wait for it……" The ships inched closer. "Now!" Cpl. Wattson clicked the detention button and the sound cracked through the empty space. The nukes went off, but the second they did they were swallowed by the absolute darkness that the Anti-Matter produced. As all four of the containers were succumb to the gapping hole that was nothingness Lt. Shark had realized how deadly the weapon they just unleashed was. The entire fleet was swallowed, nothing would be left. The hole began to shrink as their was no more defiant to cancel out with itself. When the pure black hole depleted nothing remained except a haze of purple and azure. Nothing no twisted metal no wreckage, nothing. All three teams stared in awe at what was once one of the most powerful fleets in all of the Insurgent forces.
"Good….good work boys." Maj. Winslow's voice washed caroused all of Arch-Angel's coms killing the silence. As he ended the sound of AMC's cut through space and they all watched as the station was shredded to nothing but twisted metal and dust.
Hybrid Orbit, USS America
Coalition of Federal Militaries (COFM)
All of the senate of the COFM were currently present in one room over two hundred senators and each and everyone were appointed by each of the 200 and growing human colonies. One of the senators was the Supreme ruler over everyone and that was the highest ranking military officer in all of the COFM. Supreme Commander Hawkins at the young age of thirty-five he has brought the entire COFM into full organization. He had even begun forming strong alliances with the outer colonies that were more prone to political corruption. The discussion at hand today was the formation of a new group of outer colony of political and military leaders.
“As you all know why we are here, to discuss that new formation of the alliances between the outer colonies that are going against everything that we have established. They are currently just an Insurgent group that has been ambushing all of our political ambassadors and their small group of ships. This needs to be extinguished before it becomes a bigger problem, but with out us knowing who the leaders are we can’t stomp the fire out. So I have called you all here to give an executive order, to use all of your resources to undermine and discover the identities of ghosts who lead this Insurgency.” Supreme Commander Hawkins said.
A senator spoke up, “We need to just send in a fleet to the outer colonies and regulate everything. It worked fine in the inner and middle colonies.”
“Yes, but we had support. The outer colonies hold almost no support towards us. So we need to show them that we are here for their good.” Supreme Command Hawkins said.
“What about giving them, their own government systems? Then just keeping a peaceful medium between them and us?” Another senator asked.
“Thats what the ambassadors were for, and they were all killed or taken hostage. So they don’t want peace that want to rule our galaxy. The worse thing that could happen is them winning the support of the Brotherhood. They may be deemed as just a human-rights political group, but I can see them becoming corrupt and then forming up a militia large to do something. Win the hearts of the people, and we can easily destroy this Insurgency.” As Supreme Commander Hawkins spoke in another Solar System over, “This is Romeo Six Two, we are detecting over twenty unknown heat signatures on radar. Please confirm.”
“Copy that, we see twenty unknown cruisers. Hold we will try and make contact.” Captain Dubkova said with his harsh Russian accent.
“This, is Captain Dubkova of the USS Nightfire. Respond to this message or we will fire on you!” Captain Dubkova said looking at the fleet of ships his was staring at from his bridge. He had never seen ships with the Insignia they had on them. “Charge the Gauss Cannons, and send the crew into red alert. I don’t like the look of this.” He said as he lit a cigar and sucked the smoke from it. With one breath out he sat down in his chair. His entire bridge crew was at work furiously typing in commands while staring into their consoles.
“Sir, they sent the message back to us.” An Ensign said looking up at her Captain.
“Prepare to fire on my mark, these bastards aren’t here for peace.” Captain Dubkova said and brought up his own console and typed in codes. The cruisers that were pointing at them, weren’t on any COFM navy dossiers.
“Sir, the rest of the fleet is ready and awaiting orders. Gauss Cannons are fully charged. Just say the word.” Another Ensign said.
“On my mark, one......two......three.. ....mark.” The words left his lips and the Gauss Cannons released their rounds and streamed through space. They watched at they nailed their targets. The ships took the damage, and now it was time to retaliate. The deemed hostile fleet of ships in front of Captain Dubkova’s fleet returned fire. They took the hits and now the real battle began. Captain Dubkova always pictured the beginning of a naval battle as one of the battles between infantry in the beginning era of the handheld gun. The soldiers would line up and then take turns firing. The idea was pretty stupid it just meant more men dead. The ships would line up and fire a salvo of rounds each before maneuvering and try to flank. Captain Dubkova’s fleet knew how to handle such a threat easily. Four ships flanked left while six flanked right and the rest pushed the middle.
“Charge up for another salvo, and aim for their guns. As for my ship charge our Rail Gun. We aren’t gonna play around anymore.” Captain Dubkova said. A Rail Gun was one of the most powerful weapons in the hands of the COFM. It could rip an A-Class Battle Cruiser right in half.
“Copy that Rail Gun is charging currently at 40%.” An Ensign said.
“Sir, this is Nova Squadron. We are ready to engage the enemy.” The voice of a young pilot said.
“Nova you are cleared for take off, hit em hard comrades.” Captain Dubkova said. He typed in a few more codes and began logging the fleet infront of him.
“Sir, Rail Gun is fully charged whats your target?” The Ensign who reported to him about the Rail Gun before said.
Captain Dubkova stared at the fleet for a few minutes, “Paint the center cruiser. Aim directly at the nose of the ship.”
“Copy that firing in 3.....2.....1.....mark.” The USS Nightmare had a slight power fluctuation as the massive round from the Rail Gun was fired. The round connected with the nose of the cruiser and it cut a clean hole through it. Gauss rounds smashed into the cruisers around the center one and they watched as explosions covered the hull of ship. Another salvo of Gauss rounds came from the enemy fleet and they drilled into the thick hulls of Captain Dubkova’s ships.
“I want a damage report now!” Captain Dubkova barked as his own ship shook.
“Sir, we have taken minimal damage, but the Battle Ship “Andes” was hit in the bridge and all coms with the “Andes” are down. All all ships have taken minimal damage too. What are your order sir?”
“I want all ships to concentrate fire on the remaining center three ships.” He said as he watched Nova Squadron engage on of the cruisers. They laid out bombing run after bombing run on the hull of the ship. It wasn’t long before the entire enemy fleet had their flak guns out, and we gunning to shoot down Nova Squadron.
“This is Nova things are getting hot for us, if you could target some of those flak guns we will be able to hit the rest.” Nova’s Squadron leader said.
“Copy that Nova, aim at those flak guns we need Nova to bomb those cruisers.” Captain Dubkova said and then stood up and sucked again on his cigar that he had almost forgot was burning in his mouth. He let out the plume of smoke and stared at the chaos unfolding infront of him.
“This is the Stealth Cruiser Texas. We are receiving huge amounts of com chatter from the enemy fleet. It’s on an encrypted channel, though we are attempting to hack it. If it is successful we will patch it through to you.” Lieutenant Commander Belkin said.
“Copy that Belkin, patch it through.” Captain Dubkova said and pulled up another dossier of known rebel fleets. This one was by far the most powerful he had ever seen. He liked the challenge though.
“His entire screen turned to strange strands of code. He watched as slowly they became uncoded fleet orders. Then came the real interesting stuff. Dubkova found out who the Commanding Officer of the fleet was. Captain Theodore Rukin, who just happened to be an officer under Dubkova when he disappeared on a mission to the outer colonies.
As Dubkova read from the battle infront of him he saw a blinding light.
“Who the hell just fired another rail gun round?!” Dubkova demanded.
“Sir, that wasn’t us.” An Ensign said looking back with fear in his eyes.
“Sir, Battle Cruiser “Reaper” has just been destroyed.” A different Ensign said.
“All ships focus on the Cruiser that has that Rail Gun.” As Dubkova said this two more Rail Gun rounds hit ships.
“Sir, Cruisers “Nightwish” and “Ghost” have been destroyed. Awaiting orders.”
“I want a Rail Gun round in one of those enemy Cruisers now!” Dubkova said as his cigar dropped from mouth and he smashed his fist into the screen infront of him. He stood up enraged. No one had ever beaten his fleet.
“Rail Gun is charged, sir.”
“Fire!” Captain Dubkova barked and watched as another enemy Cruiser had a hole cut through it like butter. “Focus all Gauss Cannons on the second and third enemy Cruisers with Rail Guns.” A salvo of Gauss rounds streaked across space and smashed into the two cruisers. They returned fire, and the USS Nightfire took some massive blows as the rounds hit in previous impact points.
“Sir, we have multiple hull breaches. We are evacing those sectors and then looking them down.”
As this happened a message had been received. Dubkova opened it.
“Ahhh it is so good to see you again old friend, only this time I’m the one in control. I have to say you do still have your touch or tactical genius. What you do lack however is the guns in this fight. Everyone of my ships are equipped with a Rail Gun. So I have to say good-bye old friend. Your defeat will mark the beginning of a new rule within this galaxy.” Rukin said.
“Lieutenant Commander Belkin I am ordering you to retreat right now. Cloak and turn your engines off. That is an immediate order!” Captain Dubkova barked as he lit up another cigar. “What Cruiser did that message originate from?”
“Sir, the message originated from the left center cruiser. The Rail Gun is charging, sir.” Another Ensign said with remorse in his voice.
“Comrades this is Captian Dubkova it has been an honor serving with you.” He said releasing a plume of smoke and then opening up another message.
“Sir, Rail Gun is 75% charged and we are reading massive energy spikes from their Cruisers.”
“I want that Rail Gun round to go right through that Cruiser’s bridge. That bastard won’t escape again.”
Dubkova opened a message that he would send back to Rukin.
“I’ll see you in hell you back stabbing bastard.” He said and let out a smirk before sending it.
“Sir, Rail Gun is at 100%.”
“Kill him.” Were the last two words everyone heard on the USS Nightfire’s bridge. The USS Nightfire’s Rail Gun went off as Dubkova’s fleet was obliterated by Rail Gun rounds. The Rail Gun round from the USS Nightfire however went off and punched a clean hole right through it’s target.
_________________________ _________________________ _________________________ ___
“This is Lieutenant Command Belkin, this is an emergency transmission to go directly to the Senate. Captain Dubkova’s fleet has been destroyed by, an unknown Human military force. I will be arriving within the Solar System within a few days to go over things with COFM leaders. All I can really say is that we are at war now.” Lieutenant Commander Belkin said as he stared at the recording of his fleet being ripped to shreds. He knew as well as anyone else that there were still soldiers stuck in those cruisers, but he couldn’t do a thing for them. He also knew that a new war was at hand and it needed to be stopped before it could escalate.
August 2nd, 2112 0600
Mars Arch-Angel Barracks
Arch-Angel Battalion
Lt. Shark, Sgt. Mers, Cpl. Serge, and Pvt. Leon all stood at the end of their bunks and at attention Maj. Winslow walked up and down each aisle inspecting his battalion's barracks. Arch-Angel Battalion consisted of five squads. Nightmare, Reaper, Fear, Ghost and Hellfire. Arch-Angel was an underground military branch. The media and even the certain military Generals didn't know Arch-Angel existed. As Maj. Winslow finished his inspection he snapped, "Nightmare front and center!"
Nightmare listened like an instinct and formed a straight line in front of Maj. Winslow. Each soldier being exactly 18 years old and each built differently. Lt. Shark was the squads medic and rifleman unit. Sgt. Mers was the squads sniper and recon specialist. Cpl. Serge was the squads support unit. Pvt. Leon was the squads CQC and demo specialist. Nightmare was the best in Arch-Angel. They were all trained exactly the same as the rest of Arch-Angel, but they have beaten all other squads in any training exercise. They worked to earn the title of the best. Nightmare was a brotherhood, no one would be left behind and nothing would break their will when they fight together. Arch-Angel as a group was a family, Maj. Winslow being the father. HighCom wanted to enhance Arch-Angel with steroids and other enhancing drugs, Winslow declined and said he would train them to be even better then soldiers who had drug enhancements. He did.
"I have received orders from HighCom. Stealth detecting satellites have picked up Insurgent stealth ships have been landing in the Asteroid belt. Upon further scans they have discovered an Insurgent base buried in an Asteroid with it's outer shell being think lead deposits. They want us to go in and crush the entire base from within. Nightmare your going to be the spearhead of the assault. I have requested to Navy to give up two tactical nuclear det charges. Nightmare you will be clearing and path for Ghost and Fear. They will be transporting the the 2 charges. As for Reaper and Hellfire you guys will go in nice and silently and tap into the Insurgents data-pool and launch a virus that will allow us to tap into anything they have in their network." Winslow handed each squad leader a tiny chip. The chips held the same virus. "Four A-Class Dreadnought Assault Cruisers will be your support, HighCom fears that the Insurgent fleet will arrive to support this station." Maj. Winslow said looking down each aisle of his soldiers. "Is that clear!"
"Yes, father!" Rang in the barracks.
"Good," Maj. Winslow turned around smiling. It always got to him when his soldiers called him father or dad. He had never felt like their father, because he had taken them away from their families and each had known that from the start of their training. They cried, but they go through it. They soon learned the reasoning behind them being taken from their happy lives and that was to keep their families safe from harm. Now here they stand receiving their first mission.
August 2nd, 2112 0700
Hybrid, Unknown Sector of Space
1st Recon Platoon
Echo Company
Fire-Team Kilo
"This is drop ship squadron Oscar, we are nearing LZ. ETA five minutes. Echo Company your going to be touching down first, followed up by Foxtrot. Secure a perimeter and wait for orders. Alpha and Bravo Companies will be coming down with supplies to set up base camp. Remember to keep all gear on, we don't want anyone freezing to death out there." Capt. Michaels said over the Battalion wide com channel.
Hybrid was a heavily wooded planet. Half of the planet was tropical while the other half were winter temperatures and precipitation. Echo Company was currently going straight into a blizzard, command wanted RecMarines on the ground as quickly as possible. Each soldier was equipped with a suit that kept all body heat in. If the temperatures outside the suit got to cold then a thermal generator would kick in and supply even more heat to the soldier. Each of them had an Mk6 standard issue assault rifle along with the standard issue C-98 eight cylinder magnum.
The drop ship's thrusters changed and the cabin lurched because of it. The men inside stayed a foot as it slowly went down to land in the dense snowy surface. The back hatch dropped open and out they went.
"Stay in a five meter spread, and thermal visors up. Were heading to checkpoint Kilo, once their we will hold up until reassigned orders." Sgt. Arson said taking point and moving forward his weapon sweeping from left to right and up and down. Fire-Team Kilo soon left the open field they landed in and entered the pine woods. The snow died down because of the trees, but it was still nearly impossible to see without the thermal visor settings.
"This is Lt. Davis, are all Echo Company Fire-Teams on ground and inbound to checkpoints?" Sgt. Arson looked down to the device on his right wrist and typed in F-T Kilo inbound to CkPt Kilo.
"Copy that good luck Echo." Lt. Davis said.
Arson was quick to pick up point again and lead his men onwards. He stopped at a tree and balled up his fist and from the fist brought his hand flat and lowered it to his waist. Everyone reacted and went prone. Soon Kilo saw what had made their leader decide for them to get down. A massive creature was walking forward infront of them, and he didn't want to engage any wildlife right now. Number One rule of RecMarines, never waste ammo on a non-hostile target.
Once the creature past Kilo was back up again moving through the trees and each soldier watched as their Nav Markers got lower and lower in distance count until they were five meters from the Checkpoint Kilo. They pressed onwards and once the counter reached zero they all stopped and looked at Arson.
"Set up in a circle, use the trees as cover. If you see any wildlife report it and which direction it is heading." Sgt. Arson said point to four different trees. Kilo got into position, they had eyes on all directions.
Pfc. Louis on the east flank saw a almost human looking being move into his line of view between two trees. The being stopped and Louis watched as its head turned from being faced away from Louis to directly looking at him. Louis turned his thermal visor off and saw only the white wall of snow infront of him. He switched his visor back and the creature was gone.
"Umm I just saw a creature that looked human stop turn its head completely around and look at me." Louis reported in.
"Don't worry about it, most wildlife is harmless on this planet, especially in this weather." Sgt. Arson replied.
"Alright Echo. We are launching the thermal scanner nodes down to all Checkpoints. Be prepared to set them up."Capt. Michaels said.
"Get clear!" Sgt. Arson said and jumped behind a snow drift. The rest of Kilo just pressed themselves against trees. The node dropped and was driven into the icy flat that was under the fresh layer of snow. Once the node was down Pvt. O'Neal was on the job to activate it. He first unlocked the for cover shell for the programing area. Once he did he began typing in codes and flipping switches. Soon the scanner began to turn on and emit a huge heat source that melted the ice it was in, along with the snow. Finally once it was completely operational Kilo was able to fall back to Rally Point Zulu.
"This is Gamma team we have been seeing a lot of wildlife, they seem to be getting close and closer each time." Gamma's squad leader said. "Oh shit….. We got enemy contacts! We need hel…………" The com was cut short.
"Kilo on your way back head over to Gamma's last known location. They have even been taken off our life support readings." Lt. Davis said.
"Roger that." Sgt. Arson said and with his right index finger he twirled it up in the air meaning they have to form up. Kilo formed up infront of the node. "Gamma has gone missing, and they want us to investigate their last known location. Keep your weapons up and be ready for anything, now we know we have hostiles on this rock." Arson reported to his men and then took point and Kilo began to move.
Their movement was hampered by the storm and the foliage of the wooded area they were in. It took them a good 45 minute hike to get to Gamma's last known location and when they did they found that nothing was left to even signify that a human presence was even their except for the node that was lodged into the ground.
“This Arson we don’t see any sign of Gamma. No blood nothing all thats here is the node, confirm.” Sgt. Arson said.
“Confirmed we have nothing on their vitals. Were going to be sending recon drones out to try and detect any low thermal readings. Just make sure the node is up and running and return back to camp. We have supplies and are setting up now.” Lt. Davis said.
“Were heading back they’re going to send out drones to try and find Gamma. Lets get moving!” Sgt. Arson barked into the squad com and Kilo was on the move again.
Atleast Gamma had gotten the node online before disappearing, but its weird, no blood no shells. Nothing whatever got them came in quickly or silently. He pushed the thoughts out of his mind as they trudged through the thick foliage and dense constant snowfall. It took them a 60 minute hike to get back to base camp. They found that heavy steel plated walls had already set up. They entered through one of the gate. Inside everything was more visible, because the high winds weren’t adding to the blinding white snow. Which still feel very steadily. ATV’s were rigged as snow blowers and blew the snow against the walls. This would allow the walls to become more of a solid barrier.
Kilo walked into the main combat tent. Heaters lined the inside of the room and blew the cold air out. Arson slid his helmet off his head and held it at his side, Kilo followed as they stood before Capt. Michaels and Lt. Davis. Echo as one snapped a salut which Capt. Michaels returned and then turned to put his hands on the holo-map infront of him. He pointed to Gamma’s last location.
“We picked up one last bit of information on Gamma. In their last report in we detected a faint screeching noise, which we think was dampened by the snow. That leads us to believe that the thing or things that attacked Gamma were a native species.” Capt. Michaels said.
“Sir, with all due respect I don’t think Gamma would classify a native species a hostile contact. They had to experience some form of weapon fire.” Pvt. O’Neal said.
“Yes, Private but no weapon fire was heard.”
“Sir, I agree with O’Neal when we posted up and waited for our node to come down I spotted a creature looking directly at me through the snowfall. When I turned my visor to normal all I could see was white. I think something is on this planet. We just haven’t come face to face with it yet.” Pfc. Louis said. Just as Louis said this two soldier came into the tent.
“Sir, Lt. Col. Jefferson has givin us a total field report. All 1st Recon Marines Base’s have been set up and all thermal scanning nodes have been set up and we have a full view of this side of the planet. We have picked up huge thermal readings all around. We think they are native species in packs.” One of the soldiers said. Capt. Michaels looked down and scrolled out. The entire globe was up now, huge pockets of thermal readings littered the planet. Marked Marine Base’s were in green. A huge pocket was right next to their base and even closer to Gamma’s node position.
“Patch me into the Lt.Col. right now!” Capt. Michaels barked putting on a headset. It took a few seconds before he heard the Lt.Col.’s voice.
“Michaels what do you need?” Lt.Col. Jefferson asked.
“Those natives if they are natives aren’t friendlies. A group of my boys have gone missing and another has reported strange activity from creatures. We need to to put all base’s on Code Blue.” Capt. Michaels said looking up and at each of the soldiers in Echo.
“We can’t do that we don’t have a solid report on these creatures being hostiles. As off now it’s a no go, I’m sorry Michaels.” Just as Jefferson finished.
“Sir, we have a problem. We have picked up multiple contacts they appeared out of nowhere. The thermal mass has also moved too. Sir, I what are your.....” Boom! An explosion shook the tent knocking some of the heaters over. Kilo without thinking slammed their helmets back on their heads and checked the magazines in their assault rifles. Another explosion shook the tent. This time the power went off.
“This is Capt. Michaels. Echo base is under attack. Repeat we are under attack. Send reinforcements ground-side ASAP!” Capt. Michaels barked. Gunfire flared outside and Kilo was quick to head outside of the tent. The snowfall had died down to a bare minimum. Everything was clear, marines lined the walls and fired. They saw what was causing the explosions huge red balls we appearing from over the walls and crashing inside of the walls. Marine bodies were scattered all around along with tents that were hit and are now burning molten craters of ash.
“This is drop ship squadron Yankee we are inbound to Echo Base for immediate evac.” A pilot said over the entire company wide com channel.
“This is Capt. Michaels I copy Echo will be at your LZ.” Capt. Michaels said.
“We aren’t able to pick up at the base as of now, those red mortars have already shot down other drop ships. So we need you to clear them out if possible or move to a new location.” The pilot said.
“Damn it. Copy that.” Michaels cut the com. “Kilo the rest of us can hold up here. I need you to try and take down what ever the hell it takes to stop those mortars from firing!”
“On it, sir!” Sgt. Arson said. “Saddle it up boys we have to go kick some ass. We need to find some explosives.”
“On it.” O’Neal said as he began searching for explosives. As they stood around another mortar nailed the base and sent marines flying. O’Neal shoved over a huge crate and under it was a TacNuke launcher. It had two charges in it.
“I got a TacNuke launcher, two charges left in it though.” O’Neal reported back as he slung it over his back and looked around for more charges for it. He pulled out his pistol and shot the latch locks off of the crate he had just shoved over. Another mortar came flying in a hit the commend tent. Kilo, Lt. Davis, and Capt. Michaels all were taken off their feet from the shockwave. O’Neal gripped the crate as the shockwave got to him and he recovered lifting the crate’s lid and checking inside to find exactly what he was looking for. A belt of TacNuke charges he snatched them up and clipped it around his waist.
“Let’s roll,” O’Neal said as he got back to his squad who were just getting up from the shockwave. Kilo reacted quickly and jumped up ready for combat. Rifles were checked over and they headed towards the gates of the base. Which were opened just enough for Kilo to squeeze out. What they saw before them was unlike anything they have seen before. Hordes of creatures were holding weird rifles that fired what looked to be energy bolts. Kilo quickly open fired on the group of the creatures right infront of them. Their bullets cut the creatures down in a spray of green blood. A hole was in the creatures offensive line now and Kilo took their entrance fast. They sprint towards the tree line and as they got back inside the forest quickly reloaded and swept their rifles across their view, a few creatures were coming at them and Kilo opened up once again. They moved forward and stopped to examine their new found enemies. The creatures had armor plates on it’s chest and bent thighs. The creature had a very wide chest cavity and thin mid-section. It’s head had what looked like a headset and visor on it. The face was ugly with small red eyes and huge fangs and a horrible over-bite.
“Damn these things are ugly.” Sgt. Arson said kicking it in the side to make sure it was dead. They had enough cover now to move without engaging any of the creatures directly. The trees were like walls all around them and the snowfall had picked up again to give a faint white hue in the air. Their armor plates were frosted with it so they had a near perfect camouflage.
“Alright on me.” Arson said and Kilo got in a circle around their on one knee. “
“With or ships in space they have pinpointed the mortars they seem to have three zones that are launching those mortars we should be able to cut em quickly with the cover of these trees. The thermal scanners are showing that the thermal mass that was their before isn’t as big as it was. So we are thinning them out, but the rate at which we are losing marines is very fast. We need to do this quickly so we can pull out. No mistakes.” Sgt. Arson said as he reloaded his rifle and looked around to make sure the area was clear to move. Once he thought so they took off heading towards their first target, moving quickly over fallen trees and under low hanging branches with the light snow fall once again blanketing everything. It wasn’t long before they got to a cliff that looked over the thing causing the mortars. It was a huge snub nosed artillery battery. It had a massive barrel and they watched as it fired a mortar off. It had three receptors that soaked up the massive energy it released. Red lightening was soaked up by the receptors after the mortar was launched.
“Kill it.” Arson said after examining the battery.
“Gladly.” O’Neal said raising the launcher, taking aim and firing a charge. Kilo watched as it shot out of the tube and fell directly into the barrel of the battery a few seconds later they were behind trees and the battery was blown to nothing as a small mushroom could formed and the shockwave was buffered by the cliff they were on. They got out of cover and checked to make sure that the target had been destroyed and all they saw was a crater and some scrap metal.
“One down two to go,” Pfc. Louis said. Kilo had to go to the east now to get to the other target. They changed directions and kept on moving. As they were moving they broke into a clearing and in the clearing was what looking like an entire army of the creatures. Kilo dove into the snow as quickly as they could.
“Shit. We won’t be able to get around this in time to save Echo Base.” Sgt. Arson said. As he looked around, the creatures had what looked like a tank along with a massive infantry regiment. The army could easily crush the base that had only a couple hundred marines left.
“O’Neal how many charges do you have?” Arson asked looking back at him.
“About 5 more, sir.” O’Neal replied looking back up towards Arson who looked back at the army.
“Good, I want you to launch 2 of them at this army. We can’t let them get to the base.” Arson said.
“But how will we get across a radiation zone? We won’t survive, and we don’t have enough time to detour around it. Sir, were going to have to go through it....” Pfc. Louis said.
“He is right, we don’t have the time to engage it looks like this army is going to move anytime soon anyways.” O’Neal said looking up and scanning the army. They had structures set up and the creature roamed around in squads. As a pure moment of luck the snow started picking up again. Soon enough it was a white out again and Kilo switched to thermal vision. O’Neal took this time to slide two more rounds into his pistol closed the cylinder and holstered it.
“Alright we have somewhat of an advantage now. Let’s get moving, but stay on my ass. I don’t want to compromise this.” Arson said standing up and leveling his rifle forward. He could see the entire base, it was a huge stain of red, orange, yellow, and sometimes green on his visor. Anything else was blue. Kilo sprinted forward and stacked up on the wall of one of the structures making sure the area was clear they headed into an alleyway between two structures. They swept their rifles left and right and as they got to the end stacked up again, Arson peered around the corner and shot back behind as a squad went past them. Arson peered out again and then looked back at the squad the area was clear. Just as they did another squad turned the corner and Kilo was only half of the way to the next structure. The squad open fired and a bolt of energy caught Louis in the leg. He dove into the next alley way that the rest of Kilo got into.
“Fuck! I’m hit.” He said grabbing his leg. Which seared in pain. When he looked down he saw that his boot and pants had melted to his skin which was burnt to a crisp. The only thing stopping him from feeling the pain was the sub-zero temperature. He reached into a belt compartment and pulled out combat wrap. As he did this Arson and O’Neal crouched down and waited for the creatures to round the corner. When they did they opened up with a quick salvo and sweeping from left to right. The creatures were cut down, but now the entire army knew that they were there. A siren went off, and Kilo was quick to begin sprinting, but Louis was left limping behind. As they broke out of the army’s camp and into the clearing before the tree line. Energy bolts began coming towards them. Arson took one to the back and Louis got hit in the arm as he fell another one to the back. O’Neal looked back at his now dead brothers and turned to unload his clip but was hit in the shoulder with a bolt. He hit the ground and went for his magnum. The creatures were running towards him. He aimed and fired, he watched as the huge round connected with one of the creatures and it’s chest cavity was ripped in half. The others didn’t hesitate to return fire. O’Neal took hundreds of the energy bolts at one time.
“Capt. Kilo teams vitals just went dark.” Lt. Davis said.
Capt. Michaels looked down, “This is Capt. Michaels Echo Company CO, we cannot destroy the rest of the mortar batteries. Requesting emergency extraction. We are running a code Purple. We are about to be over-run. Over.”
“Capt. Michaels this is Drop Ship Squadron Yankee we are on an extraction mission currently, we need to refuel and can come back down to get you, ETA thirty minutes. Over.”
“Damn..... Copy that Yankee.” Capt. Michaels said. He looked down at the ground and then looked up just to see a mortar hit the north wall and put a hole in it. Marines flew off of the wall and hit the ground hard. Another one hit the wall and this time the wall crashed down. Michaels watched as marines scrambled for cover, and those who couldn’t get to it in time were gunned down. He watched his marines die right before his eyes.
“Sir! We have to get to cover!” Lt. Davis said, but Michaels was in shock at the scene before him. Never has his marines lost a fight like this. A mortar land almost directly next to him and he was shot to the left. He landed with a thud as his head smacked the ground and everything went dark.
“Sir!........Sir! Come on get up, sir.” Lt. Davis said shaking Capt. Michaels. Michaels came to and was looking around everything was blurry and dazed he had a crack in his visor and readings were messed up. His life support readings were red and he could taste blood in his mouth. He looked up at Davis and watched as he took a burst of energy bolts to the chest and was knocked backwards. His eyes followed the man and were brought back up as a creature loomed over him, he couldn’t make out what it looked like. The creature put it’s weapon to Michael’s visor and fired.
August 2nd, 2112 1300
A-Class Dreadnought "Super Nova"
Nightmare Squad, Arch-Angel Battalion
Nightmare was in a circle down on one knee in full gear, save their helmets. Lt. Shark was the only one standing. Everyone was conversing, except Shark.
"Listen up boys, Dad isn't going to be on the horn for this one. This time it's us, and the guys feeding us the information we need. This time it's just us, and this time its real. Dad has trained us, he has given us all he can to make us the best and we are the best. We will do our job and let our brothers do theirs. So let's get out there and kick some Insurgent ass!" Lt. Shark growled. Nightmare all stood up and slid their helmets on. Weapons clicked as magazines were slid into their receivers. Sgt. Mers clicked open a case and pulled out a longer barrel attachment for his Mk6 unscrewing the one on his standard Mk6 assault rifle. He screwed the barrel on and then pulled a pin from the stock so the rifle broke in half at a hinge. He pulled the charging handle out and replaced it with the new charging handle in its place. Finally he added a clip filled with hollow point rounds. He slid the bolt into place and jumped onto the Falcon drop ship. As the back hatch closed he locked a visor scope on his rifle. The visor scope linked to his visor so he could sight in from where ever the weapon is pointed.
"The Dreadnoughts are going to blow holes into the asteroid and were going to land inside the station. Once inside you will clear a path for Ghost and Fear. Good luck Nightmare. Show these bastards how we do things." Maj. Winslow said. Nightmare froze from the voice and after hearing their fathers voice encouraging them to kill the Insurgents fires were lit in their souls. Each man stood on heels now as the awaited to be dropped off inside the station.
"Hold on to something." The pilot said as Sgt. Mers typed a code in to open the back hatch of the drop ship. The cabin pressurized and the back hatch opened up. Nightmare watched at two AMC rounds were blasted for Dreadnought Sparta's main cannon. They each grabbed onto a strap and the entire Falcon shook as the rounds zipped past the drop ship. A loud bang rang and they all grabbed their rifles.
"ETA one minute, prepare for a quick drop." Their pilot said. They saw asteroids surround them, twisted metal and bodies along with equipment and things that were in the station before it was hit. Their view changed from space being inside of the station. Bulkhead doors were sealing off all of the sections of the station that were ripped apart. It wasn't a long trip to get to the inside of the station. They jumped out into station stacked up on the nearest bulkhead door.
"Serge get the door." Shark said. Cpl. Serge grabbed an explosive charge from his gear and planted it on the door. He got into formation and blew it. The door was launched into the room and they quickly moved into the corridor before the emergency doors closed. Nightmare scanned the dark corridor.
"Go thermal." The command was quick and everyone followed. Visors switched from normal to thermal. Everything was cold on the station. The wall panels were cold, meaning the blast had shut down the power for this section of the station.
"Keep your eyes open for a working terminal. We need to get the blue prints for this station. Move out." Shark said and took point down the corridor. Everything was silent. They kept nice and snug against the wall, rifles were level and they scanned and listen to every sound that the station made. Soon enough lights appeared ahead from the intersecting corridor.
"I got this," Pvt. Leon said hand his rifle over to Serge. He crept forward and then heading into a sprint. His perfect timing surprised one of the soldiers as the squad pasted the corridor Nightmare was down. Two soldier looked over and scanned. Leon was quick and tackled one of them full power and speed. As he tackled the man, Leon drew his combat knife and drove it into the man's chest cavity.
"What the hell!" The other soldier barked and lifted his rifle. Leon jumped up, pushing the rifle upwards as the hail of bullets sprayed out and harmlessly connected to the ceiling. Leon kicked the soldier in the ribs and then smashed the butt of the rifle into the man's face. He crashed backwards into the wall and slumped. Blood was oozing from his mouth, nose, and the gash the butt of the rifle had made. Leon knew his kick also shattered the man's right ribs. If he wasn't dead he would be soon. The third and four member of the squad were staring down their rifle sights at Leon. He froze realizing he was beat. He closed his eyes and when the hail of bullets didn't come he looked up to see Sgt. Mers twirling his knife between his fingers and two dead bodies at his feet.
"Thanks," Leon said smirking. The rest of Nightmare appeared and they continued down the corridors. They wiped a total of five Insurgent fire-teams before getting to another sealed bulkhead door.
"Blow it, we need to hurry up the station should be fully combat ready soon." Lt. Shark said and got pressed against the wall next to the door his rifle pointing down. Cpl. Serge planted another det charge and stepped back blowing through the thick steal doors. Nightmare went in and another fire-team was waiting. As the Insurgents covered their faces from the blast Nightmare took their chance to put two rounds in each soldier. Once the smoke cleared four men were on the ground and Nightmare was already in the next corridor. Emergency lights were on, so the Shark figured the back up power was on for this section of the station.
"A terminal should be online some where." Shark said pointing down a corridor. The squad moved down and as they turned another corner a terminal was right their. Shark was quick to hack the system, and find the blue prints for the station. He located the Executive commands and locked down every door except for all of the bulkhead doors they took to get where they are.
"This is Shark, Ghost and Fear you are clear for insertion. I set the directed path to get to our current position. I've locked down all the doors so nothing can ambush you." Lt. Shark said.
"We copy that, were inbound to the station. We should be to you guys in twenty minutes." Lt. Young replied back. Shark also looked deeper into the data files he had access to. He opened a file.
//: Open
/: File Location: Section X
Transmission Start.
Created by: Admiral Moomaw
Recorded time: November 3rd, 2110
In the coordinates we received from the strangely encrypted transmission, we have discovered a plant. The atmosphere is a purple bluish haze. Scans show that something inhabits the planet. We scanned planet side and found cities, huge cities that cover the entire planet.
November 5th, 2110
I will log this transmission and send it on an encrypted channel.
We sent a drop ship planet side. The second the drop ship landed the creatures on the planet attacked the Marines inside.
Alien species is HOSTILE!
November 6th, 2110
This is my last transmission, I am looking at a fleet bigger then anything I have ever se……….
Transmission End.
///: Transmission end was due to a massive heat and radiation spike. Know known reports or signals have came from Admiral Moomaw since.
//: File Location: Section X
/: Close
Shark download the file to his suit's data reservoir. He went through other files he had limited access to and found another file that seemed to relate to the same alien species.
//: Open
/: File Location: Section X
News file start.
Earlier today reports have come from around the globe of lights during the night. Pulsating lights that illuminate the night sky.
We are here now, to tell you that we are under siege. Satellites have discovered a large fleet that surrounds us…. God help us all.
Nothing was received via an encrypted channel after the last update.
News file end.
//: File Location: Unknown
/: Close
Shark once again put the file in his data reservoir and moved from the terminal.
"Shark we got company,'' Sgt. Mers said looking down the next corridor. Fire-teams were sprinting towards Nightmare. All of Nightmare crouched and leveled their rifles. The second the fire-teams turned the corners bullets soaked them. Blood covered the wall behind them as rounds ripped through their flesh. Each member reloaded.
"Hold here until Ghost and Fear arrive," Shark said looking to the right of him and saw the word Armory on the floor pointing into a room. "Stock up on weapons and ammo." He said opening the door. Everyone went into the Armory. Racks of weapons covered the walls. Leon locked his assault rifle on his back and grabbed a C-10 Shotgun. He loaded shells into it and opened a box and grabbed a shell belt putting each individual shell into a slot. Serge grabbed the only K-21s2 Automatic Support Weapon. He also grabbed three belts of ammo for it. Mers grabbed the Nk34 SMG and ammo. Shark found three bullet shields and threw one to Leon and Serge. Each of them strapped them to their left forearms.
Each of them were ready and they were quick to leave and head back to the room with the terminal. Ghost and Fear rounded the corner as they returned back to the room.
"Good to see you guys. We were engaged by a few squads on the way, but the darkness threw them off and made em easy kills." Lt. Kenzel said. Unlike any other time the squads would meet up this time they didn't have time to exchange greetings and handshakes. They just pressed on Nightmare on point Shark, Leon, and Serge on point shields forward, with a nice and tight formation. They were coming up on the maintenance shafts that would lead them directing to the stations core. As Nightmare turned a corner down to the corridor that the maintenance hatch was in and two Insurgent fire-teams were waiting and quickly opened up. The shields took the first few salvos and Mers returned fire. Serge, Leon, and Shark hunkered down. Ghost and Fear dropped back behind the corner they came from. Mers crouched as another salvo opened up. He looked to his belt and grabbed a frag grenade and pulled the pin.
"Frag!" He barked as he tossed it over his three brothers in front of him. Boom! He looked up and swept his rifle from left to right. "Clear!" He said. Ghost and Fear rounded the corner and Nightmare stood up.
"The maintenance shaft is right there," Lt. Shark pointed to a small hatch that was lined in red. He typed in two sets of codes and it opened. "Follow the main shaft which should be a red strip on the floor. It should lead you to the core, if it doesn't hold tight and I will look for an alternate route." He said and pushed the hatch it and it slide upwards. Both squads went in and Shark re-sealed the hatch.
"Their down here!" Echoed down the corridor and all of them turned. Serge, Shark, and Leon got into position with Mers covered behind them. The Insurgents rounded the corner and open fired. Rounds pinged off of the shields, Mers waited for a turn to return fire. Once he had his turn he stood up and emptied his clip with each round hitting flesh. He ducked down and mechanically reloaded. The second the clip began to slide out he had his hand on the fresh clip on his belt and when the clip left the receiver another one replaced the spent one. He kept down though, because the insurgents began to fire back. Again he waited until he was clear to return fire. Once he had his chance he stood up and fired. This time a few Insurgents were waiting too and fired when he stood up. Mers popped off a few shots and as he ducked back down get hit in the shoulder plate. His adrenaline flared. He stood up and fired his bullets ripped the Insurgents in front of him apart. His clip ran dry and he dropped his rifle pulling his combat knife out, jumping over his squad-mates and charging forward. He opened up his arms and tackled the two remaining soldiers. He drove his knife into one of them, and the other kicked him in the side. His armor plate took most of the blow, but he still felt the hit. He focused on the man that kicked him, grabbed his foot and snapped it backwards. The man let out a scream and Mers got up and pulled out his pistol and put one right in the man's forehead.
"Damn, Mers remind me to never shoot at you." Cpl. Serge said slapping Mers on the back and handing him his rifle back, which he quickly reloaded. He looked down and ripped his knife out of the man's chest and put it back in its sheath.
"Leon and Serge you two secure that end of the corridor me and Mers have this end." Lt. Shark said pointing to each end. "We need to lock this area down until Ghost and Fear return." Each of them followed orders, Leon crouched against the wall and Serge stood up right behind him. Both Mers and Shark stood up snug against opposite walls. Shark had his rifle out, while Mers switched out his rifle for his SMG. Serge, Shark and Leon all removed their shields, but put kept them close by.
"Holy shit! This thing is running on an Anti-Matter core! Blowing this thing up would take out a huge section of the Asteroid Belt." Lt. Young said. "The only way to blow this thing is to deplete all of the Anti-Matter from the core itself. Hold on…….. There seems to be drainage containers for the Anti-Matter. If we could access them, then I could send the Anti-Matter to one of the Dreadnoughts and if the fleet does come we could use them to wipe the fleet out."
"Try and hack the system, in the mean time Fear plant one of your charges on one of the drainage containers. Just on the outside, don't do anything to the inside components. If the Anti-Matter becomes unstable in the process of its transfer we won't exist anymore." Lt. Shark replied.
"Copy, that. We shouldn't be much longer." Lt. Young said.
As Shark got off the horn, he pulled up the stations blue prints on his HUD (Heads Up Display). He was looking for the power wires to the corridor they were in, once he located them he walked over to where they should be and opened up. The bullets shredded the steel plating and after about five seconds everything went dark.
"Switch to thermal. The darker the better," he laughed. Everyone switched to thermals, the panels on the walls glowed a cool blue. For different visor settings each soldier in a squad had a color strobe for them. Shark had blue, Mers had purple, Serge had red and Leon had teal.
Mers open a closed battalion channel to Reaper and Hellfire, "This is N002, I am requesting confirmation from R001. We need to add to the list of things you need to obtain from the IDC (Insurgent Data-Core)."
"This is R001, I read you loud and clear please send your request. Via encrypted silent com." R001 replied.
Mers opened a silent com and added an encrypted coding with it, "Listen Ghost and Fear have discovered that the central power core of this thing is Anti-Matter so I suggest looking for files on how they brought such a huge source of energy this close without us knowing and also without us being able to see it while it is housed here." Sgt. Mers said.
"Shark we have found the codes to the drainage containers and are currently planting charges on them. We should be wrapping up shortly." Lt. Young reported in to Shark.
"Copy that, we are holding position right outside of the hatch you used to get in." Shark replied and once again looked behind him to make sure Serge and Leon were alright.
"Copy that N002. Tapping into the files right now." R001 reported back to Mers. R001 sent him a live feed of the reports and files he was uploading to the squads data reservoir. Classified files of how the ASC (Allied Space Command) HighCom members covered the Insurgent base up saying it was nothing more then a radioactive asteroid. One file was singled out by R001and Mers read it eyes wide.
//: Open
/: File Location: Classified
Priority: Omega
Subject: ASC New Soldier Program
We have received information on the ASC's new underground soldier program. The program is run by an off the chart officer and is going to train children from the age of 8 till the age of 18 to be soldiers. This program could decide the war. Advise beginning a program for Insurgent super soldiers.
//: End
He closed the file and looked up and down the corridor. Everything was the same. He knew that if the Insurgents did have a Super Soldier program in the works that means Arch-Angel might actually get a challenge. He smirked at the thought, although Arch-Angel was deemed and recorded on classified files. They really aren't super soldiers they are just trained to the the T to be be killing machines. They have undergone training that would kill the normal marine. Winslow would even allow them to take drugs to enhance their strength, reflexes, and agility. Yet Arch-Angel was still unstoppable and would be. As long as they didn't get caught in the air. That is the one weakness in any infantry fighting team. Being dropped down or brought to their target by a drop ship.
"We're heading back to your position we have the charges planted, when we get off the station we will activate the draining protocols. We also sent out a distress beacon and our fly boys outside have been warned. I intend to use the Anti-Matter and wipe whatever they send." Lt. Young said.
"What about Reaper and Hellfire?" Lt. Shark asked.
"I am having Lt. Kenzel sending them a message to bail. They should have all the data we need." The maintenance hatch popped open and slid up. Out from it came Ghost and Fear.
"This way," Serge said taking point. He had his K-12s2 at his waist as he moved and it's belt of bullets hung over his shoulder. He turned the corner and kept moving.
The more Sgt. Mers thought about the lack of soldiers to confront him the more he realized that they were on a stealth Insurgent station that doesn't even have any defense grids. On top of that this entire section of the station was nailed by naval bombardment. They continued past the terminal Shark had used and into the pitch black corridors that they came through to get to where they were. They quickly got through that dark corridors and got to a sealed bulkhead that lead to space.
Leon looked around for the bulkhead opposite to the one they had to go through. He need to somehow shut it. He looked to the left and saw a steel rod with a hook on it and then looked back at the bulkhead. The bottom on the door had a small hole and he quickly grabbed the steel rod and put the hook in the hole and pulled down. He heard the mechanisms of the door going against him, but they needed the door to be down and looked. Serge came from behind and grabbed holed too. With grunts and strain the two soldiers pulled the door down far enough for the mechanics to give way. The door closed and with a lock it was sealed.
"Grab holed of something," Cpl. Lock said and planted a charge on the door. Everyone was quick to grab the railing on the walls. Click. Boom! A hole was in the bulkhead door and out went all of the air. The force of the pull from the vacuum was intense. Each soldier bared their teeth as they kept their death grips on the railings. Finally once all of the air was out of the room they could move around.
"This is Nightmare, Ghost and Fear calling for an immediate pick-up. Have you picked up Reaper and Hellfire yet?" Lt. Shark asked.
"Yes, both Reaper and Hellfire are in a drop ship inbound for the dreadnought "Sparta". We have a drop ship inbound to your position hold tight boys." A voice said into the coms. The drop ship came into view and slowed and the back hatch slowly opened up, each soldier jumped in. Through the zero-gee space they were able to jump a great distance and land inside of the cabin.
"This is Nightmare all are aboard, your clear to take off." Lt. Shark said to the pilot.
"Copy that." The pilot replied and they thrusted away soon the base looked a lot smaller.
"This is Dreadnought "Ares" we are receiving a flood of Insurgent commands, looks like they are bringing in the calvary on this one."
"Captain listen if you can locate the vector that they will be arriving we can wipe them out before they even have a chance to fight." Lt. Young said.
"Copy that Lieutenant, but how to propose we do that?"
"Well Captain the core to the station was Anti-Matter power core, we drained the Anti-Matter into their respective drainage containers and they are currently waiting for coordinates on where to launch. You give me those coordinates and the fleet will crushed." Lt. Young replied. '
"That is one hellava plan, son." The com went silent."The coordinates for the fleets entrance are vector gamma, 2.334, 4.546. Vector gamma, 8.342, 4.897." The Captain said.
"Roger that, now just kick back and watch the show." Lt. Young said as he typed the coordinates into the data pad on his wrist. The words coordinates locked appeared on the screen and he typed launch. They watched from the cabin as huge launch bays opened up out shot four massive containers. They were thrusting and began to halt just as the fleet appeared, at least twenty-five battle cruisers were infront of their faces. From the drop ship, Lt. Shark couldn't see the tiny looking containers now destroying the entire fleet.
"Wait for it, let the containers get inside of the fleet." Just as he said that he watched two ships leave the hanger of one of the cruisers. "Shit….. wait for it……" The ships inched closer. "Now!" Cpl. Wattson clicked the detention button and the sound cracked through the empty space. The nukes went off, but the second they did they were swallowed by the absolute darkness that the Anti-Matter produced. As all four of the containers were succumb to the gapping hole that was nothingness Lt. Shark had realized how deadly the weapon they just unleashed was. The entire fleet was swallowed, nothing would be left. The hole began to shrink as their was no more defiant to cancel out with itself. When the pure black hole depleted nothing remained except a haze of purple and azure. Nothing no twisted metal no wreckage, nothing. All three teams stared in awe at what was once one of the most powerful fleets in all of the Insurgent forces.
"Good….good work boys." Maj. Winslow's voice washed caroused all of Arch-Angel's coms killing the silence. As he ended the sound of AMC's cut through space and they all watched as the station was shredded to nothing but twisted metal and dust.