Prologue Chapter One - First Force

Year : 2030

Location : Western Nevada

Time : Unknown

Mission : Recon the outskirts of the desert, and report the LZ to the Headquarters

"I still wonder what the hell we're doing here..." A tired voice said from the back of the Russian made Sprut-SD, whose tracks were rolling tirelessly through western parts of the Nevada desert, raising sand and dirt behind it.

- "Hey, cut some slack to the commanders will 'ya? They said this was just a simple reconnaissance mission, no shooting, no engaging, no detection." A confident, irritated voice responded, which began sounding a little grumpier than it usually was.

- "But I still don't get it. They sent us in the middle of The United States! It's a death sentence! If Americans find us sneaking inside their territory, we are dead men!" This time the tired voice became somewhat worried, even scared.

- "Both of you, shut up! Robin, keep driving this thing and stop fucking bumping into every fucking rock you see, okay?" An angry tone responded and soon continued "And you, Vedran, switch spots with me and get on the CITV station, I'll take your place, so I can concentrate on getting our asses out of here."

Jesse, our tank commander, wasn't usually this serious, probably the thing that they are totally exposed to American attacks was getting to his head. Not even he could get so claustrophobic. He had his head buried into the map whole day. Probably trying to figure out in which part of the desert we were actually at. Sure, there were more dangerous situations than this, but seeing him upset would add a whole new atmosphere in the vehicle.

This time it wasn't tension, or the feeling of being blow to bits by rocket launchers... It was fear.

The silence continued, as all three crew members did their job accordingly, without any questions asked. Sound of the roaring tank echoed through empty sandy dunes of western Nevada. Nothing but sheer dryness and heat that was exhausting now already tired tankees. It was more than 50 celsius outside, not mentioning that the steel armor platings on outside of the tank were so hot you could fry an egg within minutes. Both Jesse and Vedran can thank Robin for installing an air conditioner before the mission. If it wasn't for him they would be boiled alive inside the armored beast.

As for the occupants inside the vehicle, none of them let out a single sound. Vedran, the Sprut-SD gunner and a reconnaissance observer, was sitting back looking through the monitor of the CITV station, completing a fifth scan of the horizon. He was the gunner because of his sharp eye and a skill to lay pin-point shots on the target. Before he got transferred to the armored section of the army, he was a mechanic and an anti-tank specialist. He gained those skills while dealing with insurgents in the Middle East. He was often called a "cold handed killer".

Robin was a whole different story. Had a record of a combat medic, anoninomusly working with Vedran's anti-tank squad who got pinned down in an ambush. Vedran owns him alot for pulling that bullet out of his leg. But, right now Robin was driving the tank through the harsch terrain that was in front of them.

Jesse served as a sniper team leader back in the days. He kept his mouth shut about the missions, even though they weren't as quite as important as this one.

Fortunately every single one of them knew each other before they even met in real life. They were professional gaming buddies when they were 18, with a exeption that Robin was 2 years younger than both of them, that being that Vedran was oldest and Robin being the youngest.

Their gaming consisted about strategy games and first person shooters, but this time it all changed. This was no longer made up, this war was real.

Well, that was 15 years ago. The present is now, trying to get out of this mess.

Vedran was about to turn off the monitor, but a light silhouette cought his eye in the bottom left corner of the screen.

"Guys, I found something!" He yelled and jumped in surprise as he turned the CITV station towards now clearly visible silhouettes.

Commander and the driver were dumbfound. Why would anything be in a middle of a desert?

- "What is it?" Jesse asked eagerly, trying to get as much information out of him as possible.

-"I can't tell, but it seems like a infrastructure of a base... Should we go and check it out?" He told them, still surprised by the discovery.

- "What do you say Robin, you up for it?" Jesse asked the driver who was still looking through viewport.

- "Yeah, sure, as long as we get to stop a bit. My ass hurts even from this cloth chair." He grunted in pain as he shifted his position on the chair.

- "Perfect. Vedran, tell Robin where to go while I contact the headquarters." Commander said in a rush. He pulled out a radio from the inventory box, and was now configuring the right frequency.

- "Alright..." Vedran sighed "Take a 100 degree turn towards South-East, then keeping going forward." He said while his head was still buried in the monitor screen.

- "Roger!" Robin responded with a cheerfull voice, while the tank made a hard left turn, drifting in the process and throwing all three crew members aside.

- "Show off." Gunner chuckled, while the driver only responded with a slight grin.

It would be a long ride, and neither one of them couldn't stand being bored to submission again. All of them made an agreement to listen to some music.

Vedran reached for the music player inside the tank, but didnt know which song to play, instead, he hit shuffle.

A familiar tone and rythm came up, it took him around 5 seconds to remember and register the songs name.

It was Here We Fuckin' Go by Showtek. 'Exellent' He though. Hardstyle was his favourite genre of music, but he also prefered rock, metal ,techno etc...

The commander radioed the Headquarters and in the process telling Vedran to turn the music down. After the music was down, he continued with his real intentions.

- "This is Zulu Lightning calling Bulldog, over." Jesse said into the radio. Hoping the get a response.

- "This is Bulldog. We hear you loud and clear Zulu Lightning. Proceed, over." A static now turned into a clear, memorable voice of their superiors.

- "We picked up a slight contact South-East of our current position. Permission to go and investigate, over." Commander said in a requestive tone.

The expectations were rising as the silence continued. They didn't find anything since they got paradropped out of a C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, and were pretty confident that the Headquarters needed to agree on checking out the base. NNA had hackers of their own, and hacked the planes ID so they could easily get across the US border.

A extremely slight static appeared, continuing to go louder until a voice said :

- "Permission granted, take care, over and out." After the voice faded out, Jesse continued :

- "Roger, over and out." After the conversation tank commander took a deep breath and let out a long, worrying sigh. "We're on our own... For now."