Prelude
July 7th 2003 23:32, A small, densely forested jungle island of the coast of Asia.
Marshall Colonel Jack Kiely let a sigh; it was going to be another long week. He looked around the "Scorpion" chopper; the décor was the same as every other transport he had been on; camouflaged, spartan, and utilitarian. At the front of the snub nosed helicopter were the pilot and the navigator; the former, a plain looking Caucasian man wearing gray combat-style fatigues with a holstered revolver in a shoulder strap, gazing intently at the torrential rain pour out the triple reinforced bullet and shatter proof glass "windshield" that covered most of the front, the latter, a native of Thailand with sharp intense features dressed the same as the pilot minus the revolver, calculating course corrections on a worn somewhat dated looking computer because of the unexpected highly dangerous winds and precipitations. As the Scorpions were larger than most choppers, the flight area took up only a small part of the vessel. Kiely was sitting in the second largest area, twelve rough metal seats and restraints took up a twenty foot long 9 foot wide "corridor", fifteen seats including Jack's were occupied; by members of his Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasures Service sponsored Fire Team, as they were just sponsored by UBCS as opposed to working under it and for it, the uniform dress and logos dotting the uniforms and the chopper were strictly Fire Team instead of the, in Kiely's opinion, ugly Umbrella Corporate Seal; Jack looked at his Fire Team members, both brand new to the squad and seasoned veterans, they wore a multi-layered complex "uniform", the same as every Fire Team, the basic layer was comprised of a pair of heavy metal and double strength leather high legged combat boots, light-weight "snow camo" fatigue pants, and varying on the person either a heavy cotton "snow camo" hooded psuedo- sweatshirt or a heavy cotton snow camo t-shirt with elongated but still short sleeves; over that was a full torso state-of-the-art, double reinforced, light-weight (light-weight but still heavy duty) metal body armor, a kind of ash dirty gray color, ending just above the elbows; The "crowned jewel" of the uniform was the helmet, almost an exact replica of those used by the now defunct and non-operational UBCS unit Delta Team, it had a hog-like breath filter ("high tech gas mask") at the bottom, bulbous glass eye pieces at the face where battle data and info was displayed right on the eye piece using a psuedo-holographic display system, this too was a dark ash dirty gray. Kiely looked at the time display on his wrist unit, still about two and a half hours left until their optimum ETA, everyone was fully suited up in combat fashion, they were completely equipped so he didn't need to order anyone to suit up. To pass the time he continued to look around the rest of the Scorpion; the second to last compartment was a small space with the communications and telemetry equipment built into the sides, most prominent was the brand new Satellite Comm System, and the back-up 10-year-old transistor radio. As the chopper was a straight vessel, the narrow walking space went through the Comm Area and into the largest area of the Scorpion Gunboat, the armory, it was the only part of the helicopter that was closed off and had a door, a huge room a little over 1/3 of the total size of the gunboat, the armory was divided into five sections, three of them being just big gun and ammo racks for different types of weapons, a rack of about sixteen Winchester Model 1300 Pump Action Black Shadows shotguns modified to hold twenty shells at once with ammo, and a rack of Colt Model .22 hand guns, and a rack of scary looking modified Sub Machine Guns; the second to last section of the large cabin was a rack of blade weapons, mostly hunting and combat knives, and a few modern military psuedo-swords; Taking up the back wall was a work table and a ridiculously large amount of munitions supplies and materials, on the table was a weathered paperback very large manual labeled Fire Team Guide to Making Bullets and other Ammunition.
24:02 Frustrated that they still had an ETA of two hours 'til they reached the Landing Zone, Jack looked at a few of the members of his Fire Team, of the fourteen besides him, thirteen had the rank of Marshall, and one had the rank of Marshall Officer
July 8th 2003 02:05 They were approaching Umbrella Military Testing and Training Facility 14-B on Ghenn Island off the coast of Southern Asia, or as Jack had heard it referred to as "The Boot Camp From Hell". It was a joint-training op between elite parts of the U.S. Marine Corp and the UBCS. He saw the island through his side window; about 90% of the island was hot, dank, dark, jungle, that was where the UBSC recruits got some of their most grueling training, they were getting a lot of bio-signatures coming from the jungles but no visuals, must be training time. There was a good sized compound almost in the middle of the island; squat, militaristic, concrete bunkers made up most of this facility surrounded by a mix of barbed wire, electrified fence, and concrete walls. A long airfield littered with 4-6 small fighter planes, 4 cargo planes, and two apache choppers lay adjacent to the compound, connected by a walled asphalt road. A tall control tower stood over the airfield and compound, on top of which were near a dozen satellite dishes and radar antennae. A large dock was on the east side of the island, 2 large trawlers and about a dozen small gunships were moored, though these took up not even half of the available dock space, six dock workers in civvies were busy on the piers, while 4 UBCS Security men could be seen patrolling on foot. Fortunately the Scorpion was flying too low to be detected by radar.
Kiely took out his SatComm and established a link with Fire Team/UBSC Liaison Command "This is Fire Team Zulu, we are approaching LZ, ETA ten minutes. We are preparing to jam their communications and radar. Over." "This is Liaison Command, we read you. Commence comm. black out, proceed with destruction of aircraft. Remember, leave the dock undamaged. Over." "Acknowledged Command. Confirm 13:00 arrival of Fire Teams. Over." "Confirmed. 13:00 arrival of three Falcon Troop Transport Choppers and 60 Marshalls. Over and out." "Roger that. Commencing Operation Disability. Over and out"
Jack addressed his Fire Team, "Alright! Prepare to deploy, I want each Marshall to have a walkie-talkie, combat knife, SMG, .22, and a Winchester. Carry plenty of ammo boys and girls! Remember, Umbrella don't pay us if we don't do the job!" The body armor-clad Fire Team Marshalls prepared to unload as the Scorpion loaded 10 missiles and readied guns. Jack switched on the sensor and radar jammer as the Gunboat started over Ghenn Compound. The assault had begun. Little did the compound personnel know that their nightmare had begun much earlier.
Chapter. 1: The Initial Assault
July 8th 2003 02:25 The 3 officers up in the Tower yelled out as a high-pitched static abruptly replaced all communications, and all satellite data screens turned snowy. One of the men looked up at the top out the window. "Holy crap! The dishes have stopped moving!" Two of them worked frantically at the control boards, but were unable to get anything other than local feeds, the one who didn't froze in his place. A huge helicopter with a logo on the side of a fiery broadsword had descended from the cloud cover it's missile ports were open and it was heading straight for the airfield! The three watched in frozen horror as the chopper blew up all their aircraft right where they sat! Then, the gunboat turned and fired at the hanger, killing all 12 of the personnel inside. "That's it fellas!" said the officer in charge, "I just lost all contact with everyone, mainland, even the rest of the compound. I can't even get a signal to trigger the locks to let us out! As for the scanning equipment, except for the radar and other high stuff, we still got bio-readings.Wait a minute." the bio-scanner flickered, the thermal image of the Main Compound changed dramatically as though before they were seeing a false image, instead of the earlier image of the compound filled mostly with warm, living, human beings, they saw a small number of living people, with strange black bodies all over the screen, concentrated in the facility buildings; a good number of life-signs were still visible in the jungles to the north and west. Horrified, the officer in charge distributed light pistols to the others "Black Bodies! Black Bodies! Everywhere! Is this a false positive or do we have about 3 Blacks heading down this corridor to.us." At that moment, the bio-scanners' screens flickered and then went dead. The officers jerked in terror, a beating started on the lightweight door to the control room. Suddenly the door burst inward, 3-4 hulking zombies charged through the doorway and towards the men. The officers got off a few shaky widely off shots one of them screamed "Go for the head! Go for the head! Oh damn, they aren't supposed to be this fast".
05:00 The mess hall of the main bunker had become the setting for the last stand of the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasures Service Personnel in that part of the compound. A handful of Marines and about 30 UBCS Soldiers remained in the main cafeteria, one of the Command Staff had managed to initiate a partial lock-down, a third of the windows that looked out to the hallways had been sealed shut with steel shutters, the rest boarded up with the durable tables from the eating areas. The wide swinging entry doors had no way of being locked without a total lock-down, and were barricaded with overturned tables, boxes, and crates. Two Marines and 10 Servicemen sat with their backs up against the barricade, sporadically firing at a shadowed mass of creatures through the small windows at the top of the doors. Both Marines fell dead as outstretched claws and hands shoved their way through the window, leaving the blue uniformed Servicemen alone at the entrance. Fifteen UBCS Servicemen stood and sat around the room. A green uniformed Command officer and 4 other officers sat at a small round table in the middle of the room, appearing to be discussing possible tactics, their faces grim. All the blue uniformed Servicemen carried large Sub Machine Guns, and the remaining 3 Marines carried automatic rifles.
Chapter 2: Into the Breach
06:00 Marshall Colonel Kiely stood near the locked-down back entrance to the main bunker, 13 Marshalls filed in behind him in a line formation, their weapons readied. There were no Mutates in the exterior of the compound. One Marshall rushed over to the door and started overriding the door's lock- down. Kiely addressed the others "Alright we've had it easy! Just a couple Rogue Security Guards, once we penetrate the facility it's gonna be hot, it's gonna be dirty, and it's gonna be deadly! We stand right outside backdoor of Bunker A." The Marshall completed the override. "Ok! Objective A: locate and retrieve any NON-Rogue personnel and take out any Rogues, and believe me there'll be a lot of Rogues, especially among the Marines, if our intelligence can be trusted. Objective B: Secure the computer/data mainframe and adjacent control room in Bunker A. Objective C: Use the mainframe to initiate Lock- Down Phase Beta, permanently trapping any and all Mutates in their respective bunkers. Objective D: Return to the LZ with said personnel by 13:00, and await reinforcements. After that I'll reveal the other objectives. All right! We got T Minus 7 hours to complete these parameters! Move out!" In extremely delayed and staggered groups of three the Fire Team Marshalls moved in through the unlocked hanger-style door. Once the last group was through the door slammed shut, re-locking.
06:15 A pair of four Servicemen armed with SMG moved casually through the long, vacant corridor, all men all 25-28 and all American, they weren't worried about the zombies; they swaggered with a decidedly apathetic sway. Abruptly, an office door swung open, and a Serviceman wearing a black uniform and black Delta helmet ran out of the room, firing a lueger he hit one of them in the neck, killing him instantly. The other three laid down copious fire at the apparent Serviceman, he dodged the bullets and sprinted down a side hall. The Servicemen were about to give chase, when they heard boots pounding on the floor coming towards them. Two groups of three Marshalls led by Colonel Kiely burst on to the scene. The Servicemen were so shocked they just stood there. The remaining Marshall groups thundered in and stopped in formation. Kiely strode up to the Servicemen; he removed his helmet, revealing a highly toned pale face, with shocking red hair. "Report!" The Servicemen snapped at him angrily. "Who are the hell are you? You're not compound personnel!" "I'm the man who's getting you out of this mess kiddies! You can call me Colonel Jack, branch of service: ...well.let's leave that for later, shall we? Now let's move we don't got a lot of time to stand around chattin!" The three fell into the very back group, Kiely split the Fire Team, He and the first two groups went off after the Rogue Serviceman, the rest headed towards the general direction of the sleeping quarters and mess hall. The Servicemen tried to ask about the strange assailant in black, but were given a curt "The Colonel will explain whatever he needs to, whenever he needs to, not before."
Chapter 3: One Final Stand, One Last Fall
07:10-07:35 Behind them was a mass of running corpses; unable to catch up to the 7 Marshalls who set a grueling pace, the 3 Servicemen were barely able to keep up. Ahead of them, just in sight, was a huge crowd of zombies, crowding and attempting to enter the mess hall, totally ignoring the locked- down single side door. The men set course for that door. Flipping a small switch on his helmet, the lead Marshall Officer's voice, amplified, boomed across the hallway. "This is a co-UBSC task force, we are here to reinforce you, and you must unseal the side door. We will takeout the mutates frontally assaulting you as soon as the one door is opened." Unable to reply, the Servicemen in the mess hall complied, the blinded steel retracted from the light metal door. Upon seeing this, each Marshall took quick aim with their handguns, each firing one shot; seven mutates went down instantly with clean shots to the head; the three Servicemen fired wildly into the mob, never sure if they made any kills. The Marshalls reformed into staggered straight lines, repeating timed shots again, and again, within the space of two minutes all the "zombies" were down, permanently. Now in a single file line, the Marshalls stomped into the mess hall. One particularly slow Serviceman lagged behind, and was caught up to by one particularly quick mutate. The mutate was lunging for the man, when quick as lightning, combat knife in hand, one Marshall pushed the man out of the way and thrust with the large blade. The knife deeply grazed the face of the zombie, but did not stop it, the mutate raked Marshall Officer Joseph Valentino's chest with it's claw- like hands. However, it's hands scraped harmlessly against Valentino's body- armor; with quite a bit of enthusiasm, Valentino thrust once again with his knife, this time it hit home, landing deeply in the rotting forehead of the no longer moving creature. He quickly withdrew through the side door, shouting for it to be locked down.
07:35-08-20 The Marshalls fell into the mess hall, almost instantaneously falling a rank and file formation with 5 Marshalls wielding their .22 Colts, 2 with their heavy shotguns; all aimed at barricaded main doors. The Serviceman in the hall stood staring, open-mouthed, not sure whether to be more surprised at these unknown soldiers' arrival, or the disturbingly quick and efficient way they dispatched over 3 dozen creatures. Marshall Officer Valentino sped into the hall just as the door sealed shut. Judging by the stripes, Valentino stop and stood before who he guessed was in charge; the officer was a short man in his mid-30's, wearing olive drab and standing over the center card table. Valentino removed his helmet, revealing a tan and blonde man of indeterminate age, with fierce blue eyes. "Officer Marshall Joseph Valentino, Second-in-Command, Fire Team Zulu. May I ask whom I am addressing?" The officer relaxed visibly at hearing "Fire Team", while all the other servicemen seemed to be all the more confused. "I am Lieutenant Mark Standes, Umbrella Bio-weapon Countermeasure Service. I've heard of the Fire Teams, mercs, right?" Valentino nodded, and began to lie. "We were dispatched when Umbrella lost contact with this facility, we feared some kind of Arklay-style incident, and apparently we were right." Now he could start telling at least half- truths. "Our orders are to stay here and help you fend off mutates. My Colonel will be arriving shortly with 6 more Marshalls. He is currently searching Bunker A for more survivors to bring back here, as well as heading for the computer/data mainframe and control room, to salvage any records; as well as initiate full lock-down." "So this place is being abandoned?" Valentino pretended to regret this. "Yes, if the Colonel does not arrive here by 12:00, we are to withdraw ourselves to the airfield, and await evac. If evac does not arrive by 13:30, we have orders to attempt to make it to the dock and secure a boat." Standes seemed slightly reassured by the mention of reinforcements. "Alright, anything else I should know?" How about the fact that Umbrella is the reason this situation occurred, and that more than half the men from Marine Bunker B and Servicemen Bunkers C and E have turned against you, thought Valentino. What he said was. "I do not believe so at this time" One of the Marshalls, a technician as denoted by the stenciled wrench on his shoulder armor, had a small handheld, similar to a palm pilot, wired to the small computer station by the side door; he looked up, and called the Officer Marshall over; Valentino was followed by Standes. "Sir, I'm detecting a remote hard-wire tap into the lock-down subroutines, I believe someone is trying to override the lock-down of an area somewhere near us." Rogues, thought Valentino angrily. A harsh set of beeps was emitted by the handheld. "Officer Marshall! I have the tap located! It's a security station in the Air Tower! Hang on, I'm getting more information.seems they are trying to unseal.this side door." Everything that happened next seemed to occur at super-speeds. The sealed door started shake, and mutate moans could be heard from the other side. Valentino screamed for the Marshalls to retake positions around the side door; he also shouted for a makeshift barricade and for all 19 Servicemen to brace themselves, and aim for the head. No sooner had he called for the barricades then the door unsealed and a hulking mob of zombies burst through. About 9 fell the moment they came through the door, 3 unusually fast mutates burst their past the line of close-by Marshalls, strangely ignoring the Marshalls, they made it to the first small group of panicked servicemen and killed 4 with their "claws" before they were brought down. The rest of the mob went down easily, even if they didn't do so quickly, and it took another 4 Servicemen casualties. The second the last one fell, 4 Marshalls bounded over, cleared the door way of bodies, slammed the door shut, and pushed two of the heaviest stainless steel tables they could find against it. The technician called Valentino back over. "I've managed to separate this mess hall's subroutines from the main conduit, so there'll be no more overrides from anywhere. Also, I can now access the bunker's P.A. system, just in case. However, the subroutine that would allow us to fully lock-down this mess hall is still damaged, and I can't repair it." Valentino nodded, and walked away. He hoped the Colonel would arrive soon; the override had unnerved him more than he cared to admit, even to himself.
08:22 The end came as a surprise to the Servicemen, who knew nothing about the Rogues, or even that they existed. Valentino heard the sound of metal dropping to the floor right outside the main doors. He knew that particular sound. He knew it all too well. He screamed for everyone to "hit the deck!". But the Servicemen closest to the door reacted too slowly. The grenade went off right as they turned to run, still unaware why they were in fact running, the front half of the mess hall disappeared in fire, flaming shrapnel spewed in the vicinity. 6 Servicemen disappeared instantly with the wall. Fire Alarms blared, and an automated computerized voice came over the speaker in the mess hall. "Warning! Warning! System subroutine integrity lost in Mess Hall, automated defense system no longer able to function in that area, loss of vicinity lock-down imminent." It didn't matter, lock-down no longer mattered when you had a gaping, fiery hole in your walls. Officer Marshall Valentino knew who it was who had detonated that grenade, and who would be coming through that hole in just a few moments. Though incomprehensible to the Servicemen, the Marshalls reacted instantly when they heard Valentino bark "Condition 12!" Instantly the Marshalls dropped to the ground. Gathering the tables as quickly as they could, they made barriers, and kneeled down behind them. Each Marshall pointed his wrist at a spot directly in front of him or her, about halfway up the overturned tables. Touching a button on a wrist panel, a small cutting torch emanated from each Marshall's wrist. Each Marshall soon had small circular hole right beside them. Taking out their up-'til- now unused SMG's, each Marshall fitted the muzzle of their weapon through the hole. All this occurred within the space of a minute or two; the 5 remaining Servicemen, seeing the decidedly more elite Marshalls taking cover confusedly hid behind a table of their own. "Switch to fiber optics.now!" Ordered Valentino. He himself was standing straight up behind the closest table to what used to be the main doors, with a shotgun in his hand, and second shotgun hang loosely strapped to his waist, and his combat knife attached blade front to his wrist. Every crouching Marshall drew a small cable from his helmet, pointed the end towards the hole in the wall, the displays in their helmets switching from normal to whatever the end of the cable displayed. All hell broke loose, again. Anywhere from a dozen to 3 dozen marines spilled into the room.
The six Marshalls stood at attention, three on either side of the hallway. At the end of the hall Kiely stood, typing furiously on a small terminal keyboard beside the most heavily reinforced steel door he had ever seen, the words "Mainframe" stenciled on it, attempting to release the lock. The communicator in his helmet chirped loudly. "Colonel Kiely this is Liaison Command, respond. Over." "This is Kiely; Colonel, Fire Team Zulu, please state your authentication code. Over" "This Command Alpha Zero Zero One. We have new orders over." "I read you, please explain. Over" "The 13:00 arrival of three Falcons and 60 Marshalls in 3 Fire Teams has been canceled. Expect a 13:50 arrival of a Level Three Supplemental Force, details about that type of force are on your blue data card, find a card accessible terminal and access it. Password is DELTA. No need to acknowledge. Over and Out" Kiely sighed; he should have expected them to change something he'd gotten a little lazy this time. He removed a blue magnetic card from his armor, and popped it into the terminal right in front of him. There was a menu containing the names of files. Knowing better than to access anything other than what he was ordered to. A document of blocky type sprawled across the screen. Supplemental Forces, Level Three Being a force type used in tactical situations where numerous heavy firefights are anticipated. Containing anywhere from 50-150 Assault Marshalls. It did not make sense, Kiely knew his men could handle the rogues, he simply needed the Marshalls who had been set to arrive at 13:00 to help clear up any mutate problems during extraction. Suddenly, a transmission cut through his musings. "Colonel Kiely? This is Pilot Johnston. We've received a communiqué from Liaison Command, marked urgent." "Go ahead" "They say that the Thai government registered some unusual activity on Ghenn Island, and ordered the military to investigate. A couple minutes ago our sensors here in the Scorpion registered two ex-soviet Mig's taking off from southern Thailand, they did a flyover of the island. Nothing really presented itself, as all personnel and mutates are still in the bunkers; but, judging from the audio chatter we were pirate, they definitely noticed the devastated airfield. Other chatter confirms that of ten minutes ago, 2 amphibious transports were dispatched, full of at least 70 Thai soldiers, heading for the dock here on Ghenn. Their ETA is approximately one hour. Command told me to relay to you that in addition to the Level Three Force, they are dispatching six gunships, Pelican supply-ship with defense guns, and a total of 90 Assault Marshalls, ETA from Cambodia, 30 minutes. This next order I was told to tell you came from General Marshall Jenowitz; you are to assemble all your Marshalls, and meet the reinforcements on the airfield. I have to sign off now; we're getting some strange interference." Kiely winced involuntarily; Thailand was the one Southeast Asian country that Umbrella hadn't been able to bribe to signing a Non-Interference treaty concerning Ghenn Island. Things had just gone very, very wrong.
11:05 Kiely was preparing to head to the mess hall, when suddenly a badly bloodied and heaving Valentino rushed upon the scene. He was missing good chunks of his armor, and his helmet was gone, blood flowed freely from wounds in his stomach and chest. He cried out even as he collapsed at the feet of Kiely. "Rogues, dozens of them! They blew out the front wall of the mess hall, overran us. All my men are dead! All the Servicemen are dead! Oh god! They were the last survivors in this bunker!" He stopped shouting, and ceased moving. A medic rushed forward and confirmed that he was still alive and breathing, but just barely. Kiely asked Valentino if the Rogues knew their position here, Valentino managed a hushed and strained no, before he lost consciousness completely. Kiely spoke quickly, ordering two of the Marshalls to stay and guard Valentino until he could arrange for a med-evac team to retrieve him. Cautioning them to be totally vigilant, he and the other four Marshalls rushed off in the direction of the exit, and the airfield.
The Pelican arrived first, carrying 10 .50 machine guns, and
July 7th 2003 23:32, A small, densely forested jungle island of the coast of Asia.
Marshall Colonel Jack Kiely let a sigh; it was going to be another long week. He looked around the "Scorpion" chopper; the décor was the same as every other transport he had been on; camouflaged, spartan, and utilitarian. At the front of the snub nosed helicopter were the pilot and the navigator; the former, a plain looking Caucasian man wearing gray combat-style fatigues with a holstered revolver in a shoulder strap, gazing intently at the torrential rain pour out the triple reinforced bullet and shatter proof glass "windshield" that covered most of the front, the latter, a native of Thailand with sharp intense features dressed the same as the pilot minus the revolver, calculating course corrections on a worn somewhat dated looking computer because of the unexpected highly dangerous winds and precipitations. As the Scorpions were larger than most choppers, the flight area took up only a small part of the vessel. Kiely was sitting in the second largest area, twelve rough metal seats and restraints took up a twenty foot long 9 foot wide "corridor", fifteen seats including Jack's were occupied; by members of his Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasures Service sponsored Fire Team, as they were just sponsored by UBCS as opposed to working under it and for it, the uniform dress and logos dotting the uniforms and the chopper were strictly Fire Team instead of the, in Kiely's opinion, ugly Umbrella Corporate Seal; Jack looked at his Fire Team members, both brand new to the squad and seasoned veterans, they wore a multi-layered complex "uniform", the same as every Fire Team, the basic layer was comprised of a pair of heavy metal and double strength leather high legged combat boots, light-weight "snow camo" fatigue pants, and varying on the person either a heavy cotton "snow camo" hooded psuedo- sweatshirt or a heavy cotton snow camo t-shirt with elongated but still short sleeves; over that was a full torso state-of-the-art, double reinforced, light-weight (light-weight but still heavy duty) metal body armor, a kind of ash dirty gray color, ending just above the elbows; The "crowned jewel" of the uniform was the helmet, almost an exact replica of those used by the now defunct and non-operational UBCS unit Delta Team, it had a hog-like breath filter ("high tech gas mask") at the bottom, bulbous glass eye pieces at the face where battle data and info was displayed right on the eye piece using a psuedo-holographic display system, this too was a dark ash dirty gray. Kiely looked at the time display on his wrist unit, still about two and a half hours left until their optimum ETA, everyone was fully suited up in combat fashion, they were completely equipped so he didn't need to order anyone to suit up. To pass the time he continued to look around the rest of the Scorpion; the second to last compartment was a small space with the communications and telemetry equipment built into the sides, most prominent was the brand new Satellite Comm System, and the back-up 10-year-old transistor radio. As the chopper was a straight vessel, the narrow walking space went through the Comm Area and into the largest area of the Scorpion Gunboat, the armory, it was the only part of the helicopter that was closed off and had a door, a huge room a little over 1/3 of the total size of the gunboat, the armory was divided into five sections, three of them being just big gun and ammo racks for different types of weapons, a rack of about sixteen Winchester Model 1300 Pump Action Black Shadows shotguns modified to hold twenty shells at once with ammo, and a rack of Colt Model .22 hand guns, and a rack of scary looking modified Sub Machine Guns; the second to last section of the large cabin was a rack of blade weapons, mostly hunting and combat knives, and a few modern military psuedo-swords; Taking up the back wall was a work table and a ridiculously large amount of munitions supplies and materials, on the table was a weathered paperback very large manual labeled Fire Team Guide to Making Bullets and other Ammunition.
24:02 Frustrated that they still had an ETA of two hours 'til they reached the Landing Zone, Jack looked at a few of the members of his Fire Team, of the fourteen besides him, thirteen had the rank of Marshall, and one had the rank of Marshall Officer
July 8th 2003 02:05 They were approaching Umbrella Military Testing and Training Facility 14-B on Ghenn Island off the coast of Southern Asia, or as Jack had heard it referred to as "The Boot Camp From Hell". It was a joint-training op between elite parts of the U.S. Marine Corp and the UBCS. He saw the island through his side window; about 90% of the island was hot, dank, dark, jungle, that was where the UBSC recruits got some of their most grueling training, they were getting a lot of bio-signatures coming from the jungles but no visuals, must be training time. There was a good sized compound almost in the middle of the island; squat, militaristic, concrete bunkers made up most of this facility surrounded by a mix of barbed wire, electrified fence, and concrete walls. A long airfield littered with 4-6 small fighter planes, 4 cargo planes, and two apache choppers lay adjacent to the compound, connected by a walled asphalt road. A tall control tower stood over the airfield and compound, on top of which were near a dozen satellite dishes and radar antennae. A large dock was on the east side of the island, 2 large trawlers and about a dozen small gunships were moored, though these took up not even half of the available dock space, six dock workers in civvies were busy on the piers, while 4 UBCS Security men could be seen patrolling on foot. Fortunately the Scorpion was flying too low to be detected by radar.
Kiely took out his SatComm and established a link with Fire Team/UBSC Liaison Command "This is Fire Team Zulu, we are approaching LZ, ETA ten minutes. We are preparing to jam their communications and radar. Over." "This is Liaison Command, we read you. Commence comm. black out, proceed with destruction of aircraft. Remember, leave the dock undamaged. Over." "Acknowledged Command. Confirm 13:00 arrival of Fire Teams. Over." "Confirmed. 13:00 arrival of three Falcon Troop Transport Choppers and 60 Marshalls. Over and out." "Roger that. Commencing Operation Disability. Over and out"
Jack addressed his Fire Team, "Alright! Prepare to deploy, I want each Marshall to have a walkie-talkie, combat knife, SMG, .22, and a Winchester. Carry plenty of ammo boys and girls! Remember, Umbrella don't pay us if we don't do the job!" The body armor-clad Fire Team Marshalls prepared to unload as the Scorpion loaded 10 missiles and readied guns. Jack switched on the sensor and radar jammer as the Gunboat started over Ghenn Compound. The assault had begun. Little did the compound personnel know that their nightmare had begun much earlier.
Chapter. 1: The Initial Assault
July 8th 2003 02:25 The 3 officers up in the Tower yelled out as a high-pitched static abruptly replaced all communications, and all satellite data screens turned snowy. One of the men looked up at the top out the window. "Holy crap! The dishes have stopped moving!" Two of them worked frantically at the control boards, but were unable to get anything other than local feeds, the one who didn't froze in his place. A huge helicopter with a logo on the side of a fiery broadsword had descended from the cloud cover it's missile ports were open and it was heading straight for the airfield! The three watched in frozen horror as the chopper blew up all their aircraft right where they sat! Then, the gunboat turned and fired at the hanger, killing all 12 of the personnel inside. "That's it fellas!" said the officer in charge, "I just lost all contact with everyone, mainland, even the rest of the compound. I can't even get a signal to trigger the locks to let us out! As for the scanning equipment, except for the radar and other high stuff, we still got bio-readings.Wait a minute." the bio-scanner flickered, the thermal image of the Main Compound changed dramatically as though before they were seeing a false image, instead of the earlier image of the compound filled mostly with warm, living, human beings, they saw a small number of living people, with strange black bodies all over the screen, concentrated in the facility buildings; a good number of life-signs were still visible in the jungles to the north and west. Horrified, the officer in charge distributed light pistols to the others "Black Bodies! Black Bodies! Everywhere! Is this a false positive or do we have about 3 Blacks heading down this corridor to.us." At that moment, the bio-scanners' screens flickered and then went dead. The officers jerked in terror, a beating started on the lightweight door to the control room. Suddenly the door burst inward, 3-4 hulking zombies charged through the doorway and towards the men. The officers got off a few shaky widely off shots one of them screamed "Go for the head! Go for the head! Oh damn, they aren't supposed to be this fast".
05:00 The mess hall of the main bunker had become the setting for the last stand of the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasures Service Personnel in that part of the compound. A handful of Marines and about 30 UBCS Soldiers remained in the main cafeteria, one of the Command Staff had managed to initiate a partial lock-down, a third of the windows that looked out to the hallways had been sealed shut with steel shutters, the rest boarded up with the durable tables from the eating areas. The wide swinging entry doors had no way of being locked without a total lock-down, and were barricaded with overturned tables, boxes, and crates. Two Marines and 10 Servicemen sat with their backs up against the barricade, sporadically firing at a shadowed mass of creatures through the small windows at the top of the doors. Both Marines fell dead as outstretched claws and hands shoved their way through the window, leaving the blue uniformed Servicemen alone at the entrance. Fifteen UBCS Servicemen stood and sat around the room. A green uniformed Command officer and 4 other officers sat at a small round table in the middle of the room, appearing to be discussing possible tactics, their faces grim. All the blue uniformed Servicemen carried large Sub Machine Guns, and the remaining 3 Marines carried automatic rifles.
Chapter 2: Into the Breach
06:00 Marshall Colonel Kiely stood near the locked-down back entrance to the main bunker, 13 Marshalls filed in behind him in a line formation, their weapons readied. There were no Mutates in the exterior of the compound. One Marshall rushed over to the door and started overriding the door's lock- down. Kiely addressed the others "Alright we've had it easy! Just a couple Rogue Security Guards, once we penetrate the facility it's gonna be hot, it's gonna be dirty, and it's gonna be deadly! We stand right outside backdoor of Bunker A." The Marshall completed the override. "Ok! Objective A: locate and retrieve any NON-Rogue personnel and take out any Rogues, and believe me there'll be a lot of Rogues, especially among the Marines, if our intelligence can be trusted. Objective B: Secure the computer/data mainframe and adjacent control room in Bunker A. Objective C: Use the mainframe to initiate Lock- Down Phase Beta, permanently trapping any and all Mutates in their respective bunkers. Objective D: Return to the LZ with said personnel by 13:00, and await reinforcements. After that I'll reveal the other objectives. All right! We got T Minus 7 hours to complete these parameters! Move out!" In extremely delayed and staggered groups of three the Fire Team Marshalls moved in through the unlocked hanger-style door. Once the last group was through the door slammed shut, re-locking.
06:15 A pair of four Servicemen armed with SMG moved casually through the long, vacant corridor, all men all 25-28 and all American, they weren't worried about the zombies; they swaggered with a decidedly apathetic sway. Abruptly, an office door swung open, and a Serviceman wearing a black uniform and black Delta helmet ran out of the room, firing a lueger he hit one of them in the neck, killing him instantly. The other three laid down copious fire at the apparent Serviceman, he dodged the bullets and sprinted down a side hall. The Servicemen were about to give chase, when they heard boots pounding on the floor coming towards them. Two groups of three Marshalls led by Colonel Kiely burst on to the scene. The Servicemen were so shocked they just stood there. The remaining Marshall groups thundered in and stopped in formation. Kiely strode up to the Servicemen; he removed his helmet, revealing a highly toned pale face, with shocking red hair. "Report!" The Servicemen snapped at him angrily. "Who are the hell are you? You're not compound personnel!" "I'm the man who's getting you out of this mess kiddies! You can call me Colonel Jack, branch of service: ...well.let's leave that for later, shall we? Now let's move we don't got a lot of time to stand around chattin!" The three fell into the very back group, Kiely split the Fire Team, He and the first two groups went off after the Rogue Serviceman, the rest headed towards the general direction of the sleeping quarters and mess hall. The Servicemen tried to ask about the strange assailant in black, but were given a curt "The Colonel will explain whatever he needs to, whenever he needs to, not before."
Chapter 3: One Final Stand, One Last Fall
07:10-07:35 Behind them was a mass of running corpses; unable to catch up to the 7 Marshalls who set a grueling pace, the 3 Servicemen were barely able to keep up. Ahead of them, just in sight, was a huge crowd of zombies, crowding and attempting to enter the mess hall, totally ignoring the locked- down single side door. The men set course for that door. Flipping a small switch on his helmet, the lead Marshall Officer's voice, amplified, boomed across the hallway. "This is a co-UBSC task force, we are here to reinforce you, and you must unseal the side door. We will takeout the mutates frontally assaulting you as soon as the one door is opened." Unable to reply, the Servicemen in the mess hall complied, the blinded steel retracted from the light metal door. Upon seeing this, each Marshall took quick aim with their handguns, each firing one shot; seven mutates went down instantly with clean shots to the head; the three Servicemen fired wildly into the mob, never sure if they made any kills. The Marshalls reformed into staggered straight lines, repeating timed shots again, and again, within the space of two minutes all the "zombies" were down, permanently. Now in a single file line, the Marshalls stomped into the mess hall. One particularly slow Serviceman lagged behind, and was caught up to by one particularly quick mutate. The mutate was lunging for the man, when quick as lightning, combat knife in hand, one Marshall pushed the man out of the way and thrust with the large blade. The knife deeply grazed the face of the zombie, but did not stop it, the mutate raked Marshall Officer Joseph Valentino's chest with it's claw- like hands. However, it's hands scraped harmlessly against Valentino's body- armor; with quite a bit of enthusiasm, Valentino thrust once again with his knife, this time it hit home, landing deeply in the rotting forehead of the no longer moving creature. He quickly withdrew through the side door, shouting for it to be locked down.
07:35-08-20 The Marshalls fell into the mess hall, almost instantaneously falling a rank and file formation with 5 Marshalls wielding their .22 Colts, 2 with their heavy shotguns; all aimed at barricaded main doors. The Serviceman in the hall stood staring, open-mouthed, not sure whether to be more surprised at these unknown soldiers' arrival, or the disturbingly quick and efficient way they dispatched over 3 dozen creatures. Marshall Officer Valentino sped into the hall just as the door sealed shut. Judging by the stripes, Valentino stop and stood before who he guessed was in charge; the officer was a short man in his mid-30's, wearing olive drab and standing over the center card table. Valentino removed his helmet, revealing a tan and blonde man of indeterminate age, with fierce blue eyes. "Officer Marshall Joseph Valentino, Second-in-Command, Fire Team Zulu. May I ask whom I am addressing?" The officer relaxed visibly at hearing "Fire Team", while all the other servicemen seemed to be all the more confused. "I am Lieutenant Mark Standes, Umbrella Bio-weapon Countermeasure Service. I've heard of the Fire Teams, mercs, right?" Valentino nodded, and began to lie. "We were dispatched when Umbrella lost contact with this facility, we feared some kind of Arklay-style incident, and apparently we were right." Now he could start telling at least half- truths. "Our orders are to stay here and help you fend off mutates. My Colonel will be arriving shortly with 6 more Marshalls. He is currently searching Bunker A for more survivors to bring back here, as well as heading for the computer/data mainframe and control room, to salvage any records; as well as initiate full lock-down." "So this place is being abandoned?" Valentino pretended to regret this. "Yes, if the Colonel does not arrive here by 12:00, we are to withdraw ourselves to the airfield, and await evac. If evac does not arrive by 13:30, we have orders to attempt to make it to the dock and secure a boat." Standes seemed slightly reassured by the mention of reinforcements. "Alright, anything else I should know?" How about the fact that Umbrella is the reason this situation occurred, and that more than half the men from Marine Bunker B and Servicemen Bunkers C and E have turned against you, thought Valentino. What he said was. "I do not believe so at this time" One of the Marshalls, a technician as denoted by the stenciled wrench on his shoulder armor, had a small handheld, similar to a palm pilot, wired to the small computer station by the side door; he looked up, and called the Officer Marshall over; Valentino was followed by Standes. "Sir, I'm detecting a remote hard-wire tap into the lock-down subroutines, I believe someone is trying to override the lock-down of an area somewhere near us." Rogues, thought Valentino angrily. A harsh set of beeps was emitted by the handheld. "Officer Marshall! I have the tap located! It's a security station in the Air Tower! Hang on, I'm getting more information.seems they are trying to unseal.this side door." Everything that happened next seemed to occur at super-speeds. The sealed door started shake, and mutate moans could be heard from the other side. Valentino screamed for the Marshalls to retake positions around the side door; he also shouted for a makeshift barricade and for all 19 Servicemen to brace themselves, and aim for the head. No sooner had he called for the barricades then the door unsealed and a hulking mob of zombies burst through. About 9 fell the moment they came through the door, 3 unusually fast mutates burst their past the line of close-by Marshalls, strangely ignoring the Marshalls, they made it to the first small group of panicked servicemen and killed 4 with their "claws" before they were brought down. The rest of the mob went down easily, even if they didn't do so quickly, and it took another 4 Servicemen casualties. The second the last one fell, 4 Marshalls bounded over, cleared the door way of bodies, slammed the door shut, and pushed two of the heaviest stainless steel tables they could find against it. The technician called Valentino back over. "I've managed to separate this mess hall's subroutines from the main conduit, so there'll be no more overrides from anywhere. Also, I can now access the bunker's P.A. system, just in case. However, the subroutine that would allow us to fully lock-down this mess hall is still damaged, and I can't repair it." Valentino nodded, and walked away. He hoped the Colonel would arrive soon; the override had unnerved him more than he cared to admit, even to himself.
08:22 The end came as a surprise to the Servicemen, who knew nothing about the Rogues, or even that they existed. Valentino heard the sound of metal dropping to the floor right outside the main doors. He knew that particular sound. He knew it all too well. He screamed for everyone to "hit the deck!". But the Servicemen closest to the door reacted too slowly. The grenade went off right as they turned to run, still unaware why they were in fact running, the front half of the mess hall disappeared in fire, flaming shrapnel spewed in the vicinity. 6 Servicemen disappeared instantly with the wall. Fire Alarms blared, and an automated computerized voice came over the speaker in the mess hall. "Warning! Warning! System subroutine integrity lost in Mess Hall, automated defense system no longer able to function in that area, loss of vicinity lock-down imminent." It didn't matter, lock-down no longer mattered when you had a gaping, fiery hole in your walls. Officer Marshall Valentino knew who it was who had detonated that grenade, and who would be coming through that hole in just a few moments. Though incomprehensible to the Servicemen, the Marshalls reacted instantly when they heard Valentino bark "Condition 12!" Instantly the Marshalls dropped to the ground. Gathering the tables as quickly as they could, they made barriers, and kneeled down behind them. Each Marshall pointed his wrist at a spot directly in front of him or her, about halfway up the overturned tables. Touching a button on a wrist panel, a small cutting torch emanated from each Marshall's wrist. Each Marshall soon had small circular hole right beside them. Taking out their up-'til- now unused SMG's, each Marshall fitted the muzzle of their weapon through the hole. All this occurred within the space of a minute or two; the 5 remaining Servicemen, seeing the decidedly more elite Marshalls taking cover confusedly hid behind a table of their own. "Switch to fiber optics.now!" Ordered Valentino. He himself was standing straight up behind the closest table to what used to be the main doors, with a shotgun in his hand, and second shotgun hang loosely strapped to his waist, and his combat knife attached blade front to his wrist. Every crouching Marshall drew a small cable from his helmet, pointed the end towards the hole in the wall, the displays in their helmets switching from normal to whatever the end of the cable displayed. All hell broke loose, again. Anywhere from a dozen to 3 dozen marines spilled into the room.
The six Marshalls stood at attention, three on either side of the hallway. At the end of the hall Kiely stood, typing furiously on a small terminal keyboard beside the most heavily reinforced steel door he had ever seen, the words "Mainframe" stenciled on it, attempting to release the lock. The communicator in his helmet chirped loudly. "Colonel Kiely this is Liaison Command, respond. Over." "This is Kiely; Colonel, Fire Team Zulu, please state your authentication code. Over" "This Command Alpha Zero Zero One. We have new orders over." "I read you, please explain. Over" "The 13:00 arrival of three Falcons and 60 Marshalls in 3 Fire Teams has been canceled. Expect a 13:50 arrival of a Level Three Supplemental Force, details about that type of force are on your blue data card, find a card accessible terminal and access it. Password is DELTA. No need to acknowledge. Over and Out" Kiely sighed; he should have expected them to change something he'd gotten a little lazy this time. He removed a blue magnetic card from his armor, and popped it into the terminal right in front of him. There was a menu containing the names of files. Knowing better than to access anything other than what he was ordered to. A document of blocky type sprawled across the screen. Supplemental Forces, Level Three Being a force type used in tactical situations where numerous heavy firefights are anticipated. Containing anywhere from 50-150 Assault Marshalls. It did not make sense, Kiely knew his men could handle the rogues, he simply needed the Marshalls who had been set to arrive at 13:00 to help clear up any mutate problems during extraction. Suddenly, a transmission cut through his musings. "Colonel Kiely? This is Pilot Johnston. We've received a communiqué from Liaison Command, marked urgent." "Go ahead" "They say that the Thai government registered some unusual activity on Ghenn Island, and ordered the military to investigate. A couple minutes ago our sensors here in the Scorpion registered two ex-soviet Mig's taking off from southern Thailand, they did a flyover of the island. Nothing really presented itself, as all personnel and mutates are still in the bunkers; but, judging from the audio chatter we were pirate, they definitely noticed the devastated airfield. Other chatter confirms that of ten minutes ago, 2 amphibious transports were dispatched, full of at least 70 Thai soldiers, heading for the dock here on Ghenn. Their ETA is approximately one hour. Command told me to relay to you that in addition to the Level Three Force, they are dispatching six gunships, Pelican supply-ship with defense guns, and a total of 90 Assault Marshalls, ETA from Cambodia, 30 minutes. This next order I was told to tell you came from General Marshall Jenowitz; you are to assemble all your Marshalls, and meet the reinforcements on the airfield. I have to sign off now; we're getting some strange interference." Kiely winced involuntarily; Thailand was the one Southeast Asian country that Umbrella hadn't been able to bribe to signing a Non-Interference treaty concerning Ghenn Island. Things had just gone very, very wrong.
11:05 Kiely was preparing to head to the mess hall, when suddenly a badly bloodied and heaving Valentino rushed upon the scene. He was missing good chunks of his armor, and his helmet was gone, blood flowed freely from wounds in his stomach and chest. He cried out even as he collapsed at the feet of Kiely. "Rogues, dozens of them! They blew out the front wall of the mess hall, overran us. All my men are dead! All the Servicemen are dead! Oh god! They were the last survivors in this bunker!" He stopped shouting, and ceased moving. A medic rushed forward and confirmed that he was still alive and breathing, but just barely. Kiely asked Valentino if the Rogues knew their position here, Valentino managed a hushed and strained no, before he lost consciousness completely. Kiely spoke quickly, ordering two of the Marshalls to stay and guard Valentino until he could arrange for a med-evac team to retrieve him. Cautioning them to be totally vigilant, he and the other four Marshalls rushed off in the direction of the exit, and the airfield.
The Pelican arrived first, carrying 10 .50 machine guns, and