Next Generation Rising
by Alex Young
Timeline:
1961
January 21
The CIA secretly proposes to a newly inaugurated John F. Kennedy about a specially designed "non-nuclear" option to counteract Soviet aggressions. This would later come to be known as operation: Prophecy.
April 17
The Bay of Pigs invasion was utilized strictly as proof of concept for operation Prophecy.
1962
October 28
The Cuban missile crisis comes to an unexpected, yet unsurprising end, thus averting the first tragedy that would have cut operation: Prophecy's gestation period short.
1963
November 22
John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, who was paid to do so by the CIA in order to protect Operation: Prophecy's secret, to which he discreetly agreed a few days prior. This established the first rule of the Next Generation Task Force, being discretion over secrecy.
1964
August 10
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was used as a means with which to test, and eventually launch a prototypical version of what would later become the Next Generation Task Force, incomplete as it was. This was because Lyndon B. Johnson was a rather fervent supporter of operation: Prophecy.
1972
June 17
The Watergate scandal was used as a diversion/coverup to keep attention away from the Next Generation Task Force's development.
1974
August 9
Richard M. Nixon resigned following the Watergate scandal, to which Gerald R. Ford had requested a pardon. This was to further divert the mainstream media's attention as the Next Generation Task Force was near its launch date.
1975
September 11
The Next Generation Task Force was declared ready for service after a near 15 year gestation period. It was founded on the doctrine of the same name, designed specifically to counteract and directly combat any Soviet aggression.
1976
February 4
Edgar Leonidas Roosevelt, an adopted son of Franklin D. Roosevelt, was appointed as the commanding officer of the Next Generation Task Force, with Randolph Morgan Hoover appointed as the vice commanding officer a month and a half later.
1980
March 16
The Next Generation Task Force's rapid response capabilities were put to the test in the Iranian hostage crisis. An Iranian-American agent, codename: Bushmaster, had secretly inserted an ultra slow acting poison into Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's bloodstream in his sleep.
August 19
The Next Generation Task Force had begun supplying Soviet made arms to the Mujahadeen rebels in Afghanistan under the recommendation of one Osama Bin Laden, who turned out to be a KGB agent tasked with the infiltration of the Next Generation Task Force. At the same time, a college graduate, later known as codename: Piranha, is enlisted for military service.
1984
May 21
Piranha was hand chosen among the greenhorns to undergo an experimental new process that would radically alter his genetic makeup, thereby making him the world's very first super soldier. Another, codename: Mako Shark, joins Piranha weeks later, making him only the world's second super soldier. Mako Shark so happens to be Piranha's best friend, by the way.
July 7
A prototype of the Typhoon riding assault walker platform is rolled out by the NGTF, with the U.S. Government holding a contest with the rights to build it, as well as $500,000,000 as the grand prize.
1985
January 3
An enigmatic individual wearing a yautja mask, a hood, and leather gloves named Zetto joins the ranks of the NGTF in the wake of the Hinamizawa incident.
1986
February 12
A young man named Battler founds the heirs of Beatrice, a non-profit organization designed to invest in the NGTF. This organization is based in Japan, thus making it the first non-American investment group to do so.
1987
January 23
Piranha's training as a super soldier intensifies significantly in preparation for the forthcoming ouster of Bin Laden.
July 10
A rather young Oka Nishizawa finds herself looking to partake in the NGTF, in order to further hone her martial arts skills. Shigemura and Nagatone follow suit months later.
October 16
The very first production Typhoon is rolled off of a specially designed assembly line. Soun Tendo and Genma Saotome join the NGTF as well, hoping to learn some new tricks to teach Ranma further down the line.
October 18
A compilation of NGTF .50 caliber sniper bullets is released, e.g. the peacock smart fragmentation bullets, the chupacabra armor piercing grenade, the jersey devil incendiary grenade, the beacon ultrasonic S.O.S. emitter, the hornet lethal discharge device, the beelzebub micro nuke, the griffon precision kill bullet, and the mosquito micro jet needle.
1988
January 4
The Hog's Head hover tank destroyer is launched featuring 4 hover turbines, a fixed 30mm gun, and dual rotary airframe missile turrets on the sides.
Groundhog day
The Terrapin quadrupedal submersible APC is announced building upon the initial success of the Typhoon, a hexapedal IFV variant, known as the Loggerhead is announced days later.
April 8
Piranha, Mako Shark, Barracuda, Lion Fish, along with super soldiers 5-24 are going through the final exam, and thus the legend begins.
Prologue:
The super soldier training facility in Arizona, 8:00 am. Final exam day, 1988
Piranha was warming up for practice as the variable shooting gallery. He picked up his prototype bolt action .50 caliber sniper rifle, and with his background in kendo, swung the weapon horizontally pulling back the bolt for every shot. Every single target was hit dead on as Piranha rose up awaiting further instructions.
As soon as his proctor gave the okay, his final exam would begin. The first phase involved shooting down as many targets as possible within a set time span; at least a minute or two. With all the targets destroyed within one minute and fifty nine seconds, Piranha advanced to the next stage of his final exam.
The next stage was to run down the sniper range, and shoot the moving targets with his magnum revolver. That, along with his electric short sword, and close quarters martial arts. Every target was hit flawlessly, just like the first stage. The third stage consisted of a sheer vertical wall, with an ever shifting climbing surface for unpredictability.
Piranha leapt and bounded over the various protruding, and depressing climbing platforms. He stabbed several fake enemies with his tactical knife, tossing them over shortly afterward. He even switched from wall to wall as laser gates fenced him in in places. The gates themselves switched on and off at random, if not erratic patterns, thereby forcing him to time his advances perfectly.
A multitude of spider like drones crawled up the walls. He shot many of them down in their one central eyes one by one with his bolt action sniper rifle. Then, the poles started jutting out as though to test his acrobatic skills. He began to swing on the first pole left to right, launching himself onto a higher up pole all the way up to the final platform, which transported him from the individual skill phase, to the teamwork phase.
In this case, Piranha had been preassigned to work with Mako Shark, an African American heavy assault soldier and demolitions expert, Barracuda, an Asian electronic warfare specialist and combat engineer, and Lion Fish, a Hispanic combat medic, all male, and all ready to rock!
The first stage of the teamwork phase and the final stage of the final exam involved navigating a large and complex, three dimensional, labyrinthine network of passages, stairwells, ladders, dead ends, cover spots, catwalks, supply storage zones and buildings, and objective zones and buildings. Piranha led his team into the maze, and split off to cover more ground quickly.
Piranha found himself a lookout point from a tower upon having stabbed some robotic guards in the napes. As Barracuda approached the terminal to hack into the door, Piranha shot down three enemies with one peacock bullet as it fragmented into three pairs of two frag rods. Mako Shark laid down his position and unleashed a barrage of .308 caliber bullets from his five barrel Gatling gun off of an AC-47 Puff the Magic Dragon.
The bullet themselves streaked towards the enemy swarm, ripping it apart as they contact. The tower that Piranha was standing on began to collapse before he jumped and landed safely in the near middle section of the labyrinth. The main objective was of course, to disable the big, four legged guardian, and make safely out through the other side of the horizontal labyrinth.
The four man team constantly shifted about, disabling terminals, opening doors, blowing them up to cut off the incoming swarm behind them. Several airborne drones took to the air, and took dead aim at our squad. Of course, Piranha used his peacock bullets to down six of them at a time.
He also used his jersey devil incendiary grenades to light the swarm on fire, and chupacabra armor piercing grenades for the more well shielded enemies. He also fired several beelzebub micro nukes at the guardian, which was dropped dead after having its four limbs decoupled by Barracuda in his hacking of the assigned terminals.
With all that done and out of the way, the rest of the team regrouped at the exit and made it safely out of there. There was also a bonus stage that was not required to be taken, but can be taken for teams to get there particularly quickly during the final stage. The bonus stage involved killing as many enemies within the enclosed area as possible within the time limit, in this case, ten minutes.
The terminals that crop up can be hacked into for any bonus weapons, automated defenses, score multipliers, bonus points, time bonuses, weapons disabling systems, and swarm subversion just to name a few. The bonus stage would begin as soon as all the teams made it through the final stage.
However, when it comes to the participation, only the fastest teams can go, and team #1 certainly got there fast enough to qualify. Upon entry into the enclosed room, the swarm found themselves ripped apart, blown up, weapons disabled, frozen, subverted, and shot dead within a time span of twenty minutes.
However, among the swarm, was a mid boss type robot known as the nemesis. The swarm could only retreat if the nemesis was defeated within five minutes, also being immune to all anti-swarm power ups. Once the nemesis was killed within four minutes and thirty seconds, the swarm retreated, and combined into one final boss monobot known as the eradicator.
The team needs to defeat the eradicator super weapon if they are to pass the bonus stage. The enclosed room opened up in various places as six nemeses positioned themselves around the eradicator's six terminals. Piranha sniped the nemeses one by one while Barracuda hacked into their respective terminals.
Lion Fish provided medical assistance to Mako Shark with his Gatling gun and rocket launchers as they advanced on Barracuda's position. Once all the terminals were disabled, the swarm retreated once more as Mako shark aimed his guns at the eradicator's one, red eye. Once Mako Shark destroyed the eye, Piranha moved in and finished the Eradicator off at the reactor chamber with a beelzebub micro nuke.
The eradicator was destroyed, thereby ending the bonus stage, and completing the final exam for team #1. Surprise surprise, teams #2 through #6 have all made it so quickly that they all got to go through the bonus stage of the final exam, completing it on top of that. Never would such a feat be repeated from any subsequent batches of super soldiers again, not like this.
This would be because the exam proctors would raise the grading standards even higher for the next final exam. This was after having been prompted by the astounding results of the first 24 man batch. The end result as of now was that all 24 super soldiers and their teams have passed the final exam with flying colors, and were therefore combat ready.