The Secrets of Dr.
Thrax's life
Started: Tuesday, February 03, 2004
2nd
edition revised and edited August 13, 2004
Prologue: A discovery
"Charlie Thirteen to H.Q., this is Charlie Thirteen, do you read me? Over. "
"H.Q. to Charlie Thirteen, Affirmative, any updates? Over. "
"Charlie Thirteen to H.Q., Affirmative, we have found a base, seems that the GLA are packing up to leave soon, they must have heard us coming. Over. "
"Charlie Thirteen, keep track of where they're going, keep us updated. Over."
"Roger that, permission to fall back, to Temp Base 14? Over."
"Negative, you are to hold your ground till Alpha Amour arrives. Over."
"Roger that. Over and out."
Mike Rogers put down the receiver back to the radio and slumped back to the driver seat of one of the fifteen Humvees amidst sweaty Rangers armed with machine guns and flash bang grenades and some Missile Defender. A Missile Defender sitting on one of the crammed Humvee's seat and asked, "So, we're going to stay put, sir?"
The 2nd Lieutenant looked out of the windows and sighed. No action yet, only the frantic GLA hurrying to deconstruct the base. By the time the Alpha Amour division arrives, the base would be totally be gone by then and their discovery would be fruitless.
Rogers thought what would happen to him next, while listening to the merry howl of the wind and watching the mere grains of sand being trashed around by the wind again and again. Somehow, the wind reminded Rogers of Colonel Derrick Winters. Treating him like a fly, ordering him about. If the GLA was gone, would he take the blame? Or even worse, accused of not doing anything to stop the escape. Not so long after, Rogers fell into a deep slumber, discarding the world of war behind him to land in the shores of dreamland.
Not so long after, Rogers heard someone shouting, he opened his eyes and frantically searched for the source of the noise. It was the Missile Defender shouting at him, and not only that, he had heard exchanges of fire, rockets flying in different directions like cattle gone astray. Chaos was the word Rogers used to describe the racket, but he was still, able to hear his Missile Defender shouting to him.
"Sir! Sir! The GLA are now whacking us, what should we do?!"
This time, Rogers sat on the seat dazed, and just stared at a medic kit with mouth agape.
No, sooner he had slept, the second he was aroused, they were being assaulted.
"Sir! We have to do something or we're dead!"
"Sir! We got to radio the air base for air backup!"
"Sir! Charlie Five's down, we've lost seven men! We have to do something!"
"Hurry up, Sir! We don't have all day!"
Four men were looking
at Rogers, one of them, a radioman, was holding a receiver in front
of Rogers, another was a medic, who cared for the survival of Charlie
Division's men, was already grieved that they had lost five good men.
Lastly, was a Ranger who was clearly speaking his thoughts. Not
forgetting the Missile Defender who woke him up.
Alas, the stress
of being in charge of a Division is displayed to Mike Rogers. Rogers
hesitated for a while and got himself back.
"Alright, Bruce, you lead Charlie One to Four, including Six cover the west section of the base, Joel, take Seven to Ten and cover the North-East, I'll lead the rest to take out the rebels at the South point. Doc, go and heal as much guys as you can with the other medics. Here, take some morphine."
As the two Master Sergeants went out of the vehicle, Rogers handed the medic kit bulging with morphine to the medic. The Missile Defender continued to fire missiles in quick succession with thanks with the laser sights. Rogers grabbed the receiver of his radioman and shouted, "Charlie Thirteen to Air H.Q.! Do you read me?!"
In a second, a response of hope came.
"Gotcha, what's the matter?"
Rogers was infuriated.
"CAN'T YOU SEE
WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE! WE NEED HELP A.S.A. DAMN P! NORTH OF
TIKIRIT, COME FAST OR WE'RE DEAD! NO NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE EXACT
SPOT!"
Rogers slammed the radio and utilized his
walkie-talkie, "Charlie Ten to Fifteen, follow my Humvee!
Rogers stepped on the gas, almost causing the contents, including the men to tumble.
Rogers pushed a button, a Drone emerged from its hatch, it had black wings of a stealth plane, and it's wingspan as long as a shotgun. It was a Hellfire drone; sadly it does not repair the Humvee, like most of the Humvees did.
No longer than a minute, the Humvees under Rogers' lead came to an entrance. There were Tunnel Networks and Stinger Sites, but little did Rogers expect, that the Tunnel
Networks sprayed,
instead of the mere machine guns, blue jets of a liquid matter,
Rogers had no doubt what it was Anthrax Gamma, perfected through the
twisted, warped mind of Dr. Thrax. Meet the brother of the Tunnel
Network - Toxin Network.
In an instant, three men, the mounted
machine-gunner, the radioman, and the Missile Defender died. Their
bodies were covered with the blue streaks of toxins. Rogers and
another two Rangers on board the Humvee, alighted the infected
vehicle before it overflowed with the Anthrax Gamma toxin. One of the
Rangers coughed violently, he was hit by the toxin spray. Rogers and
the surviving Ranger immediately boarded Charlie Twelve. To add to
the difficulty of overpowering the base's defenses, Five toxin
Tractors came to wipe more people out, Men immediately alighted,
screaming in pain and torment, and took no longer than seventeen
seconds to have their lives extinguished.
Rogers thought that the
135th "Charlie" Recon Company would be extinct, the pilots
of the King Raptors and the crew of the Armor Division thought
otherwise. In the time of despair, silver eagles screamed their way
into the base, disabling the missiles from both the RPG Troopers and
the crew from the Stinger Sites. They launched their sleek and smooth
missiles which descended upon the base like rain, consuming lives
beneath it.
From the crimson-stained horizon, Paladins, Crusaders,
Tomahawk Launchers, and definitely, more Humvees packed with
infantry. Rogers looked at the planes with awe and amazement, and
gave his best smile, despite donning torn uniforms and carrying a
jammed machine-gun. Slowly and steadily, the remnants of the
previously barricaded base were wiped out.
The men of the Recon
Company cheered and hooted as the King Raptors flew away from the
desolated base. The pilots gave thumbs up to the cheering soldiers on
the ground.
Out of nowhere, Rogers saw a certain area of land blow
up. The land shifted, everyone held on for dear life, the shaking
stopped, and everyone was fine except for a toppled Tomahawk Launcher
which worried everyone for quite some while, causing unnecessary
panic and chaos. During the commotion, Rogers went inside the base,
with burnt out skeletons of enemy vehicles towards a discarded tent
where a blown up TV set with some odd- looking scraps of metal which
he had no idea what was. He kneeled on the ground with one foot, and
picked up a book which had a cardboard cover and which was neatly
tied with a yellow satin rope, he untied the knot and read.
Having a good knowledge
of Arabic made Rogers a translator in the U.S. Army, often asked to
question prisoners, citizens and many more people of different
professions for information. Somehow, it also let Rogers make sense
of what was written on the cover.
On the book cover, it wrote in
large words, clearly with a fountain pen, in the Arabic tongue:
This
is the property of Dr. Thrax, if you see this book, do not touch it
or even think of it, and tell me that you have seen it so that I can
take it back. If, and ever if, I see you holding this book, you will,
I guarantee, will die before the sword of mine!
Rogers smiled
, he had found a book of great importance to Dr. Thrax himself. He
mumbled under his breath, "And yet I lived, reading this book of
Dr. Thrax."
And so, Rogers untied the knot and flipped open
the greasy pages of the book of strange origins and started to read
the contents which meant a lot to Dr. Thrax. Rogers was badly
surprised what held was in store within the written pages of the
book...