Disclaimer: I do not own Killzone. Killzone is the intellectual property of Guerrilla Games and SCE.
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Planet Vekta
Vekta City, Capital Square
June 3, 2360
0900 Hours
Theo sat on a bench in his civilian garb overlooking Capital Square as it was swarming with RRF, ISA, and UCN. After all that has happened over the past two weeks the entire capital was in a panic, the daily bombings in the capital from the Steel Legion didn't help. It reminded Theo of when he first arrived on this planet. The Helghast were still kicking the ISA's ass. Even after that Templar guy stopped the large hig force under this city those red eyed bastards were still active. The UCN fixed the problem. First was to cleanse the military of all the scum. That entitled purging the military of all half breeds, even the famous Hakha. Then there was the very unreliable high command that by this point was almost all dead. A few more bullets and the job was done.
Then you had to clean out the slums some, that's where he came in. Theo searched for anyone with a suspected connection to terrorist and they would have a meeting with internal security. This usually entailed a few dozen spent shells, a few Molotovs here, a dozen or so fractured bones over there and a couple fresh cadavers to the side of the road. In the early days it was simply open season. Then the government started to get all pissy. Theo's men had started to wean off of killing everyone. After a couple of half higs broke into the ISA Administrative building and blew themselves up, taking out a few senators with them. That's when the UCN initiated martial law. They silenced the former leaders of Vekta permanently and the masses became less reluctant to talk back. They soon loved the UCN for providing aid, security, and new weapons.
Theo sighed as he remembered the good times. He looked up in time to see hopeless RRFs running on some dumbass errand to this small shack next to one of the hundreds of government offices. 'The only good thing that came out of them was that Templar and he went off and died.' He looked at them more closely. 'Damn they look like a bunch of useless bitches. Fuck, I think that one has a pair of tits.' He shook his head as he made his way towards the lab. One of the technicians said they might have figured out what the bastards that attacked HQ were after.
As he walked along the marble buildings there was a screeching noise echoing down the streets. 'Why is there some dumbass blowing a fucking whistle?' Theo instinctively ducked down at the sound of a gun going off. He raised his head to see what the hell was going on. Out of seemingly nowhere insurgents wearing red goggles were pouring from buildings. 'Well shit…' He pulled out an M4 and aimed at a squad coming from the building he saw RRFs run into a second ago. He pulled the trigger and the large revolver bucked in his hand. Theo saw a female insurgent in a hoodie flinch as the bullet cracked past her head. 'Well at least I was right about the tits.' Theo looked closer at the running figure. 'Well fuck me, that's the bitch from the hospital. I guess that composite sketch did come in handy.' Theo turned at the sound of footsteps and aimed at a man down the street running with a Molotov. He fired; the round puncturing the man's leg. A large chunk of flesh flew from the wound as the man toppled face first to the ground. The Molotov he had shattered on contact with the street. The insurgent was instantly enveloped in flame. Turning from the cooking meat Theo saw the squad from earlier run into an alley. The hunt has begun.
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Zoey followed Zorta through an alley on their way towards a gate. Snake followed her, probably watching her ass… again. Behind him was one of the death squad bastards that shot at her.
"Zorta, what's the plan exactly? You never really told me why we are not joining my buddies right now." He sighed as he ran down the almost deserted alley.
"We have to clear out the entrance to the underground tunnels that were blasted a while back. That would allow our forces to escape in case it gets too hot and allow some of our heavier ground based troops to enter. We are also to meet up with Skorzeny there. We are then to escort him through the capital to the front. Understood?"
"Okeydokey!" Zoey had to readjust her goggles. They were a pain to wear. Unlike legit Helghast goggles these were just plain old red goggles with no special tech or anything. They also didn't go well with cigarettes, much to her disappointment. The only thing they will do is try to tell other friendlies who not to shoot. Well, they also made everything a cool red hue.
Out of nowhere a round cracks past her head. 'Shit!' For a seemingly old man the UCN security troop could run fast. Zoey stopped and raised both of her pistols and took potshots at the trailing man. He didn't even flinch. Facing forwards Zoey could see Snake placing a satchel charge on the side of one of the buildings. With a smile she ran past the waiting explosives and dove behind a convenient dumpster. She looked up to see Snake flip the switch on the device. With a thunderous explosion the entire side of the building crumbled, creating a towering wall between them and their follower. Zoey looked over to Snake who was busy brushing dust out of his horrendous hair. She gave him a smile, his gaze not quite going up to eye level. 'One of these days…'
They started to move to their objective. On the way they ran into only a dozen RRFs that were trying to ambush them. However the RRFs suckish abilities were easily overcome by a Helghast foot soldier, a pervish stealth operator and a sympathetic Vektan teen with a bad smoking habit. A couple headshots and snapped necks later and the group were at the destination. The entrance to the sewer system was rather unimpressive. It looked like a guard's shack that had a basement. In this basement was a large metal door that was wielded shut.
"So" Zoey asked, "What is our plan for opening this." With a sigh Zorta walked up to the door.
"You just go upstairs and make sure that the UCN doesn't walk in on us. Well holler when we are through and need you to clear out some rubble blocking the entrance." From a small sack on his back he pulled out what looked like a paint sprayer. He then inserted a vial of petrusite into the back of the device. As Zoey sulkily walked up the stairs a blue light permeated from down the stairs. In the shack Zoey was completely bored. She tinkered with her twin pistols and shotgun. No enemy soldiers were nearby the only noises was the gunfire from further in the capital. The only thing that broke up the monotony of war was when the guerrillas arrived in force. Their drop ships were impressive but they didn't last for more than a few minutes, the AA was way too heavy to have any air support.
The radio next in the guard house started to bark to life causing Zoey to nearly fall of a chair she was resting on. "Overlord to all ground forces, clear sector A-1 for pay load drop off. Following reinforcements will be arriving shortly. "The message kept on repeating well Zoey tried to figure out what the hell it meant. Eventually she stuck her head down the stair well.
"Hey Zorta! There is something you might want to hear!" She saw him give Snake the arc torch thing and run up the stairs.
"What do you want?" She simply pointed to the radio mounted on the wall. The Helghast soldier started to write down what it was saying. He then pulled out a map from one of his pockets and spread it out on the wall.
"What do you make of it, sir?" The soldier continued to puzzle over it well Zoey waited for a reply.
"I am not sure? These are not ISA or RRF call signs or code at all. I am thinking it must be some UCN thing." He still looked at the map. He twisted it around, trying to make any sense of it. "All I can tell is that we are going to be getting some company soon."
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The capital of Vekta must be a rather nice place. Welkans marveled at all the vast marble structures in between his time of shooting anything that moved. Most of the civvies were strewn on the side of the road. The RRF was well on their way to join them. Speaking of the devil Welkans fired a three round burst into the torso of a charging RRF. The soldier fell to his left as the rounds ripped part of his torso away. The soldier twitched on the ground as he coughed up copious amounts of blood. A quick stomp finished the job.
Welkans looked up from his fresh kill and additional point. The main administrative building was in sights behind a thick veil of smoke and dust. Inside was the entire government of Vekta. All that separated the guerrillas from an extremely delayed victory was a thousand yards of razor wire, machine gun nest, mortars, and hundreds of RRFs, ISA marines, and UCN soldiers. It was only a matter of time until enemy armor arrives. Now that the RRF were mainly gone all that were left were trained marines that could actually kill you.
Welkans' squad slide behind the charred remains of a mid-size luxury sedan. He motioned the rest of his platoon to move forward. The previous leader of the platoon caught a sniper's bullet to the head. Welkans radioed to his CO. "Colonel Embry, this is the Fox Company, 3rd Platoon. We are hitting heavy resistance on way to Administrative Building. Requesting permission to find alternate course to Admin."
"That's a negative. Push on through. Understood?"
"Yes, sir. 3rd Platoon out." He looked up from cover. An onslaught of bullet forced him to duck. Pushing on he motioned for a pair to move to forward to cover.
"Cover!" The platoon and others in the task force rose from cover and opened fire as Alpha and another soldier ran forward. The enemy fire didn't let up at the slightest the onslaught of Helghast weapons. Alpha's legs were blown off but he was able crawled behind cover before the ISA could finish him off. His partner had their arms cleaved off and fell onto his knees. As he screamed in pain, enemy fire quickly tore off more and more chunks of flesh until the screaming stopped. Welkans looked up from the dead soldier in time to see Alpha hit by an enemy anti-tank round.
'Shit! This isn't going to work.' He pulled out a map and tried to find the best way around to the target. It was surrounded on all sides by over five hundred yards of an open killzone that had been once a park. However an air strike had exposed a sewage pipe that leads directly to the rear of the building. It should be enough to get his men in there to eliminate the defenses. 'Fuck orders!' He looked around for an escape from this killzone. He spied a burnt out bakery across the street. He could see bits of a street or alley through the burnt slats.
"3rd Platoon, on me!" He sprinted from cover, tracer rounds following him. The bullets sparked against asphalt, never quite catching him. The surviving members of his platoon followed suit. He kicked through the charred wooden wall and slowly crept outside. He found himself in an alley. In the street he just left the iconic sound of Exos came to life.
"Lizard, grab another sniper and a spotter and get up on top of that fire escape across the alley and cover our rear. The rest is on me." With a tip of his hat Lizard ran towards a nearby fire escape, tapping the shoulder of a woman with a StA-52 SLAR and a man with a scope soldier on the way. The soldiers followed suit. Seeing them run Welkans motioned with his hand and his platoon was off.
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Theo smiled as he pumped a few rounds into the chest of some insurgent causing to fall to the ground still alive. It was a pleasure to kill the people that had been making his life hell for the last few years. He walked over to the terrorist as they reached for the switch to his explosive vest that laid a foot away from his twisted body.
"I am afraid I can't let you do that." He slammed his boot down on the man's arm. He erupted in a scream, blood flying from his mouth. Theo rose up his M4 to the man's head. Before he pulled the trigger though he made sure to twist around his boot till the terrorist's arm was shattered to hell. "Goodbye now." The terrorist's screams was ended with the sharp report of his revolver. He spat on the corpse and looked up. After he had lost the bomber bitch he went back to get his armor, guns and squad.
"Wilson, Marcus, move up the left side of the street. Hutch, follow me up the right. Cho, roll on up the center." The ISA soldier sighed and did what he was ordered. The UCN men chuckled at his reaction. The measly ISA soldier made nice bait for any Helghast that were around.
"Commander, sir," Cho spoke up, "What are we doing?"
"The reports are coming in now that a group of higs broke off of the main attachment around here. So when they get bogged down with fire we come in from the rear and hit them." The group continued to run down the street as the private soaked in the information. Hutch went out of his way to kick one of the many Helghast corpses that littered the streets. 'To think that after all this time of fighting as guerrillas they forgot how to be proper shock troopers. The mighty Third Shock Army of Helghan can't even take a single building by force. Pa-fucking-thetic.' He broke from his thoughts in time to see a burnt out shell of a restaurant or something that was sandwiched between two brick buildings.
"In here boys." The five men filed into the building. As Hutch was about to walk out the shattered back Theo grabbed his shoulder. He whispered, "Wait a second." Theo slowly bent over and picked up a small pastry that's way over cooked. He gently tossed it into the adjacent street. It was instantly vaporized by a bullet. "We need find another way onto that street."
Theo looked around his surroundings. The best path he could think of would be to break through the wall to the office next door and then move on to the roof with a rocket and blow the sniper(s) of the face of the planet. The only problem would be how to get the rocket's wielder in position without them being cut in half by a fifty cal. slug to the chest. Bait would work but who would volunteer for something that will most likely end up getting you killed. His eyes fell on to the ISA private. 'Solution found…'
"Hutch, make us a door to the adjacent building through the wall."
"Yes, sir" The UCN soldier walked over to the charred wall and grabbed a nearby metal chair. He then began to go to town on the wall. The burnt building was easy to get through. The brick building next door proved much more formidable. Hutch kept on swinging the chair, it slowly deforming from the repeated hits. Slowly but surely he was chipping away the wall. Meanwhile the others were finding out how much the Helghast were winning by. Cho was busy using his radio and a map to see how the battle was playing out. From what he figured the Helghast's three taskforces were well on their way to breaking through the ISA and UCN defense. The two largest taskforces had taken their targets. The only area not taken was the heavily defended Administration Building. However a recent flood of more heavily armored insurgents and guerrillas from seemingly nowhere (Cho suspected they found another way in through the sewers) could upset this last point of defense. The resident military bases have already been taken by those fucks so there was no hope of reinforcements.
Finally there with one last swing the chair bashed through the wall, brick, ash and dust falling into the pristine government office. With a few kicks the hole was large enough to walk through.
"Hutch, stay here and guard our rear. Wallace and Marcus head to the roof with the rockets. Cho you are on me." The other soldiers complied and began to move to their positions. Just as he began to move towards the back he turned to Wallace and Marcus. "Wait for the signal before going into the open and hitting the bastards."
They both nodded before continuing to run up the stairs. With a little navigating Theo and his Vektan driver finally came to the back entrance. The door only had a handle on the inside and a small window for looking out. 'Perfect' "Cho, get ready for the diversion"
"How do I do that, sir?" Theo smiled at the private as he opened up the door. The red lasers of the Helghast snipers' rifles were visible as they scanned the alleyway.
"Like this private." Theo kicked the Vektan directly into the alley. The soldier fell down on the ground. He shook his head as he tried to grasp the situation. The lasers of the rifles quickly settled down on the target.
"What the fuck!" The private quickly sprung up and ran to the door. Theo had already closed it. Cho started to pound on the door. "Open the fucking door now!"
Theo simply laughed at him through the small window. Well Cho continued to plead for mercy Theo decided to shout, "Earth is now in your debt you piece of-" Before he could finish his courteous thanks the small window suddenly turned the all too familiar crimson. The sound of two rifles quickly filtered through the door. Chasing after the sound like a rabid dog was the wonderful sound of an AP missile hitting its target. Theo opened the door and strolled out with a bounce in his aging step. He sniffed the acidic smell of cordite mixed with blood, ozone and explosives. With a pleasant exhalation Theo got on his radio and ordered the rest of his squad to meet him. It took them a minute but they finally arrived.
He pointed towards the target of the Helghast Taskforce. "Get ready to clean up a large mess, men. HMS Overlord should be here shortly and we will be able to put these red eyed cunts in their fucking place." As if to punctuate his statement yellow streaks fell from the sky, all hitting where the admin building was.
"About time. Let's get this show on the fucking road." The quartet began to run towards the heart of the battle, a cowboy hat wistfully falling to the ground. "Oh, after we finish our cleanup we can find that bombing bitch and give her a proper greeting."
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Welkans spied the ISA's center of resistance through his binoculars from atop an overturned semi. The soldiers under his command were behind the crashed semi-truck at the very edge of the killing fields surrounding the building. The expansive four story structure didn't look that impressive from the rear. Most of the enemy defenses, along with the now destroyed marble façade, were at the front where the one of the three main taskforces of the Helghast assault was attacking. A series of flashes and an occasional stream of tracers revealed where the enemy mortar and AA position was located. For just a couple tubes the mortars were playing hell on the Helghast.
Welkans set down the binoculars and looked up to the sky. About a dozen things crashed next to the mortars. The whole ordeal was over in the course of a minute. After which nothing else fell. From his position he couldn't see anything but a screen of smoke from the area and a constant stream of soldiers moving between them and the building.
Welkans turned back to the soldiers behind him. "Oye! Wolf, get you and your spotter up on top of that fire escape and see if you can get a good angle on the troops moving towards the crash site." At his orders a sniper with blonde hair peeking out from her helmet and her spotter started to climb up the fire escape. She was on the second floor, her spotter on the third. Once on top she rested the barrel of her rifle on the railing. She then peered through her scope. Welkans returned to his binoculars.
"What do you see Wolf?" He waited for her response, his eyes slowly drifting towards the fighting on the other side of the building. A yell from above refocused him.
"The things that crashed are some kind of pods. I am thinking they are UCN. The soldiers appear to be carrying large crates from them to the Admin." 'So the UCN did have a supply drop. That would mean that there had to be a UCN battleship somewhere near here… Shit'
"Can you make out what is in the boxes?"
"That's a negative, sir. All I can tell you are that they are pretty fucking big." 'What to do, what to do…' Welkans could only imagine what was in the boxes. If he fired now he could hope a box broke open and could slow down their transport. But that could draw the attention of a mortar or even a platoon of ISA to his area which would be the last thing he needed right now.
"Wolf… fire at will."
"With pleasure, sir." The sniper slightly readjusted her rifle. Her spotter gave here the range and the current air speed and temperature. She let out a long breath. A shot rang out from the street. Through his specs Welkans saw a cloud of blood form from behind the chest of a soldier. He slowly fell over as blood gushed from his torso.
The soldiers around him just stared for a while before taking some form of cover from an unknown enemy. With a smile Wolf proceeded to take another shot at the enemy. Another soldier meets his untimely end. Realizing what the threat is, the enemy started to fire everywhere. Most shots were not even in the right direction. A few came disturbingly close to hitting their mark.
At this point Welkans decided to join his men behind the safety of the semi. He then hollered up to the sniper for an update.
"It would appear that the crates hold some bloody big guns and some new armor or weapons platform. I can't really tell from here." Her rifle barked again as a soldier's head downrange disappeared in a shower of crimson. The semi rattled as more bullets collided with its belly.
"Let up on the fire Wolf, they are closing in on our position." A bullet hitting the fire escape stressed his point.
"Ceasing fire." Welkans got back on top of the semi and looked out onto the large killzone between him and the target. Soldiers were still shooting. However more were busy picking up whatever was in the crates.
"Hey Wolf, can you get a better look at the contents of the crate." The sniper readjusted her scope.
"Sorry sir, my scope has a limited zoom." She looked up a flight of stairs. "Oye, can you get a good look?" Her spotter played with his small telescopic scope. The incoming fire had finally decided to stop.
"Can't make out much detail but from the way they are holding it looks like a shoulder mounted weapon. Four feet in length, nearly a foot tall, sixish inches wide, and with really big ass rounds. The firing system looks really bizarre."
"What do you mean soldier?"
"There is a large gap right where the barrel should be. Dunno what to make of it." The spotter clicked the dial on his scope a few degrees. "Shit sir, one of them is aiming it straight at us!" The spotter looked up from his scope and looked down at Welkans for instructions.
"Stay still Private, I wasn't to see how that thing shoots. Just feed me info." With reluctance the spotter went back to his spot and looked down his sight. His hands were shaking as he adjusted the dial once more.
"It is really aiming at me. It seems like there are little sparks of electricity are bridging the gap. Umm… it is just getting sparkier sir. Can I move yet sir?"
"No, we need him to fire. Wolf, be ready to take the target out after it discharges a round." The sniper nodded as she returned to her sights.
The spotter was really shaking as he looked down at the impending target. Measly he continued to give updates. "Th-the arcing is going everywhere n-n-now. Uhhh… he looks like he letting up on the trigger and HOLY SHI-"
Before the spotter could finish a projectile instantly exploded from the gun. The projectile covered the hundreds of yards instantly, leaving a purple trail of plasma. It slammed into the fire escape the spotter was on, eradicating it instantly and tearing an enormous chunk of the building with it. Welkans' and his soldier were showered with bricks and metal. Wolf was buried under a massive pile of rubble. Welkans could still see her through the metal grating. Blood dripped from her respirator.
'Well fuck' He glanced out to see if the bastard with the big gun was preparing another shot. From the looks of it that was a no. There were no more ISA scrambling between the drop things and the main building for that matter. 'Must have everything moved.' He asked the resident engineer if he had any idea what the hell it was.
"My best guess is that it is some sorta railgun or something along those lines sir. That would explain the weird barrel, electricity and why the huge round could travel so far instantly and the trailing plasma."
Welkans head was cocked to the side and under his mask he had a completely dumbfounded look. "Uhh… okay?"
The soldier sighed. "An electromagnet propels a piece of metal at a dozen or so times the speed of sound. That gives the large round an immense amount of kinetic energy."
"Okay private, I'll be sure to send a memo to the Colonel. However-" Welkans peered back around the semi, "-we need to get moving" He turned back to his new platoon.
"Here's the plan. Once we run up the trench we break off so we can eliminate the defenses and allow our men to move forward. Alpha and Baker squads will clear out the mortar and AA nest. With that out of the way we can get air support in here. Charlie and Delta will sweep the front defenses. I want Shark and her shadow guards to scale up to the roof and take out the machine gun nest. Once cleared secure an entrance and wait for further commands. We should be getting some heavy units to help clear out the interior. Understood?"
The alley chorused in response, "Yes sir!"
"Alright, Go, Go, Go!" Welkans lead as they ran across the street and onto the park. Bent over as far as possible the ISA hadn't noticed them yet. Welkans dove into the opening of the trench. He rolled when he landed in the septic fluids filling up the busted sewer line. Ignoring the raw sewage soaking into his clothes he continued to run towards the Admin Building. Tracer rounds started to appear over the trenches top. Explosions from mortars quickly came along to accompany them. As dirt rained down on them Welkans motioned for Alpha and Bravo to climb up and take them out. From down in the trench he couldn't tell how they were doing but a limb that landed in his path didn't give him a very good feeling.
The trench was coming to an end. Without the slightest thought he leaped up to the rim trench and ran towards the government building. Between the guerrillas and the rear of the building were twenty RRFs behind sandbag fortification. As he charged towards the building Welkans zoned in on an unsuspecting RRF who just saw them. As a cigarette dropped from his mouth Welkans brought up his rifle and opened up on him. The first burst missed. The soldier started to swing his M82 towards Welkans. Welkans' next burst was corrected. Two rounds punctured the man's torso, causing him to stagger back as a crimson cloud from behind him. He somehow stayed up and raised his rifle towards Welkans again. By this time the guerrilla had closed the distance to the RRF and the under slung shotgun went off. The soldiers arm was nearly severed by the spray of pellets. Welkans quickly cocked it and fired again and again and again. The RRF's chest and face was reduced to a red pulp. Welkans grinned under the mask, 'Point' The Helghast soldier then vaulted over the sandbags and continued to fire on anything that moved.
Behind him his men followed suit. The ISA forces mustn't have expected the assault from the rear. The platoon soon reached the rear wall of the building and split off. Shark and her men were busy climbing up some rather convenient fire escapes onto the roof. 'Have to love Fire Safety Codes.' The two remaining squads broke off in separated directions around the building in attempt to create a crossfire. Welkans only had Specter and an insurgent the platoon had picked up on the way left in their squad.
As Welkans snuck along the side of the building the Vektans up front weren't paying any attention. 'Good, they mustn't have heard our fire.' Welkans motioned for his squad to hold up as he moved towards the edge of the building. He slowly crept, careful not to kick any rubble that populated the buildings flanks. When he was five feet away from the edge he heard a heavy thud behind him. He quickly turned and trained his rifle on the noise. At his feet was the mingled corpse of a UCN soldier with his throat slit. Welkans looked Specter. She motioned him to look up. Tilting his head back Welkans saw Shark waving down to him. Welkans gave her a thumbs up before returning to the target.
Welkans peered around the corner towards his target. In front of him lied forty ISA and UCN soldiers entrenched in a series of fox hole. Accompanying them was three pillboxes armed with machine guns and two Exos further downrange. The smoking wreckage of four more dotted the park separating him from the bulk of the Helghast force. Welkans waved his squad up. He then got on the radio and contacted the other groups.
"What is the situation?" He waited a little bit before Sharks voice crackled on.
"Targets neutralized, no casualties."
"What armaments did you find up there?" He heard Shark him as she took inventory.
"We have four turrets, a dozen or so anti-tank rockets and a nice arsenal of explosives. What are your orders, sir?"
"Have your men man the turrets and fire on when the mortars come down. I want you to take the rockets and try to take out those Exos."
"What about the explosive?"
"Just toss three satchel charges down here."
"Understood, sir." Welkans could hear her voice as she ordered the other men around. The satchel charges came falling soon after. Specter and the insurgent quickly slung them on their backs. Welkans then ordered the remains of Alpha and Baker squads to man the mortars and open fire on the ISA defenses. The high pitch shrieks of incoming mortars pierced the air. Four of them hit, only taking out a few of the entrenched soldier. On that note the guns up top opened up. They proved immensely more efficient than the mortars. The ISA were unsure what was happening. A few turned around and tried to fire on the emplacements, most stayed crouched in their foxholes. Using the confusion Welkans' squad started to move towards the pillboxes.
The Exos began to notice the firefight behind them. One of them broke off and began to approach the fight. A trail of smoke chased after the approaching Exo. The Exo tried to jump out of the way but the missile slammed into its leg. The limb was blown off, oil and hydraulic fluid guzzling from the wound. When the behemoth landed the other leg snapped from the extra weight. The Exo was left legless in a growing pool of oil. Another missile streaked towards it, setting the listless machine on fire.
By the time Shark finished it off the guerrilla taskforce started to surge forward. The pillboxes were still pinning them down. Three simultaneous explosions took that factor out of the equation rather quickly though. The remaining Exo did manage to hold back the attacking mass of guerrillas until a squad of the Silent Brotherhood struck from the left. The machine was reduced to a flaming pile of rubble in a matter of seconds. As the mass of the Helghast force surged towards them the entrenched ISA entered into a fight or flight mode. The machine guns on the top stopped firing for some reason and the ISA grew the nerve to rise up and try to hold back the charging force. Welkans' two squads then had a field day as thirty or so heads popped up from their holes like giant cadaver beetles. Welkans' men opened fire at the freshly exposed enemy who conveniently forgot about them.
Crouched, Welkans quickly trained his rifle on the nearest target and let out a quick burst. The unhelmeted soldier's skull was obliterated instantly, his brain matter spraying onto the back of one of his comrades. The man turned around and was greeted by two rounds to the forehead, taking off the top of his head. Welkans then rose up and ran to the nearest cover. He rose up from behind the pile of sandbags and unleashed his shotgun on a nearby UCN death squad member. At the short range the pellets were able to penetrate the soldier's enveloping helmet. Blood gushed from the half dozen small holes. To the side Welkans saw the insurgent go to town with his Molotovs, tossing them into every available foxhole. His section of the field was slowly turning into a series of barbeque pits. The screams of the soldiers penetrated the near constant gunfire. The few that tried to climb out were quickly shot by either the two squads or the approaching Helghast force.
Soon the defenses were completely wiped out and the air was silent except for a few explosions where the arriving guerrillas decided to toss a grenade into the foxhole of wounded soldiers. Welkans quickly tried to find the group's CO but to his frustration she had stepped on a landmine during the charge. Seeing that he was the only one with a grasp of the situation Welkans took charge. The force at his fingertips was close to a hundred strong; probably strong enough to clear the large multi-floored building. He quickly ordered the taskforce to split up into platoons and assigned them all to an entrance his men had already secured. Outside the front entrance Welkans whistled. At the signal the force broke into the building. Welkans and Specter along with a single platoon refrained from joining the fray to insure that there wasn't going to be any ISA forces trying to sneak up on them from the rear. He took this time to contact Shark and see why the turrets had stopped firing.
Welkans tried to talk over the sound of gun fire from inside. "Shark what is your status?"
After a few seconds her voice, heavy with breathing, came over the radio. "A Shadow Marshal had snuck up onto the roof and took out my men. I barely noticed her in time. I am currently somewhere on the third floor hunting that red haired bitch."
"Understood, do you need reinforcements?"
"Nope, I have this under control, sir. Shark out." As she signed off a second floor window exploded and showered Welkans with glass. His radio chirped. It was a noncom asking for reinforcements for breaching the main chamber. Welkans motioned for the platoon to join him.
He carefully walked through the hallway towards the main atrium where the remaining administrative body should be. The hallway was littered with the remains of many ISA and government workers. When he reached the massive doors to the multiple story room Welkans encountered the remains of the force assigned to him. They were busy mounting a large amount of explosives to the door. Some Silent Brotherhood members were loading up another clip of ammo into the large cannons. Suddenly his radio crackled to life.
"Hey Sarge," It was Shark, "I am in the air ducts above the main chamber. I have to warn you. I am hearing a fuckload of men down there. You could be walking into a fight you can't win."
"I will put it under advisement."
"But sir! It could be a massacre!"
"I know but we need to take this building. From what I hear Skorzeny and his taskforce has already taken the UCN and RRF base in the Capital Square and the other taskforce has taken out the ISA HQ. With this out of the way there will be no head for the ISA soldiers on Vekta except for Ravenholm."
"Okay sir, I am going to find a way down to the ground level and will try to slit some throat, that bitch got away from me, but I think she is somewhere down there."
Welkans shut off his radio. The preparations for blasting the door were set. All of the soldier were out of the way and ready to kick ass. Welkans took a deep breath seconds before he heard a high pitch beep. Answering the noise a couple pounds of explosive went off. The massive doors splintered, collapsing inwards. With a yell the Helghast force streamed into the atrium, their weapons firing at whatever they could make out of the dust that blocked their view. Welkans rushed in and slide behind a bench. From above there was a high pitch screech followed by an enormous blast. To his side a whole squad was wiped out. More and more massive blast from UCN rail guns poured in from a second floor balcony. The taskforce was slowly being decimated. The dust was clearing at last and Welkans could see his enemy. Along the balcony was a dozen of UCN soldiers armed with the rail guns. Beneath them was dozens of ISA soldier armed to the teeth.
"Move up the rows and spread out. 4th and 5th platoon, move for the stairs. 1st and 2nd lay down suppressing fire. 3rd, run to the rear and find the targets. Eliminate with extreme prejudice!" Like clockwork the soldiers did as they were told. The UCN soldier above continued to decimate the taskforce, however the long charging time played into the guerrillas favor. Welkans lead 4th platoon towards the balcony. As he kicked open the door to the stairwell he was greeted with the sight of a Shadow Marshal right front of him leaning over the limp body of Shark, a bloody knife still in hand of the Shadow Marshal. The red headed Shadow Marshal quickly turned and tried to aim her silenced pistol at him. Welkans brought up his rifle and fired first, the under slung shotgun ripping open her ribcage and exposing her chest cavity. The Shadow Marshal was thrown against the nearby wall. Welkans was drenched in her flesh and blood. Still standing over his downed comrade Welkans motioned for the platoon to move on as he checked his squad mate. He put his hand up to her neck to try to find her pulse only to be greeted by a large incision that went all the way to her spine. Welkans retracted his hand instantly and slowly stood up. He turned to the slumping corpse of the woman who had slain one of his close friends. He started to kick the body, increasing in pace and letting out a cry with each bloody impact. As he cried out Specter ran into the room and started to tell Welkans something. She stopped dead at the sight in the room.
"What do you want!" Specter continued to look at the body of her comrade.
"…We have three mechs in the chamber, sir. They are some new model; eight foot tall and heavily armed. They are tearing up 1st and 2nd platoon, sir."
"Do we have any anti-tank weapons?"
"No sir, the Silent Brotherhood squad was taken out by the first barge of fire."
"What is the status of 3rd?"
"They have found no sign of any administrative officials. The only people here are receptionist, low level employees and a few dead lobbyists. I-it is like they knew this would happen... What are your orders, sir?" Welkans walked back and forth as he contemplated the situation.
"Fuck!" Welkans slammed his fist against the wall. Everything was falling apart. "Order all men to fall back to the emergency relief area and set off all of the charges on the roof. I want this fucking place to burn."
"Yes, sir." Specter got on the radio and told everyone to fall back through the main entrance. Welkans loaded up his shotgun and ran back into the main atrium. He then saw the mechs she had spoken of. They were rounded, unlike the boxy Exo, and more closely resembled men with long arms. At the end of each arm was a minigun with an additional chaingun on each shoulder. One of them stood five yards in front of Welkans, its back facing him. In a fit of rage Welkans walked towards it, firing his entire clip into its back. All of his rounds simply sparked off of it. The mech didn't even pay attention to him, it continued to fire on fleeing Helghast.
"Why don't you motherfuckers pay attention?"
He then fired the shotgun at whatever looked important. Round after round he pumped the gun. The mech started to turn around. Welkans was at punching distance when he fired the last shot in his chamber at its leg. Something popped as fluid sprayed on Welkans' feet. The mech started to list to the side as it trained its guns at Welkans. Out of options Welkans went ahead and swung his rifle at the machines head. He must have messed with its targeting sensors as the mech was unable to hit him with any of its four weapons. The machine tried to swing its arms at him but Welkans was able to duck and slide between its legs.
Welkans then pulled out his knife and impaled it into a seam on the machine's back that his fire had loosened. He twisted it and pried open a panel some. Welkans grabbed a grenade and placed inside the exposed panel. He quickly slammed it shut and ducked behind a knocked over podium. The blast blew out the panel. The machine was still surprisingly intact from the blast, however it slowly fell forward. Still under fire Welkans ran forward and looked into the hole his grenade blew open. It had only caused small fractures in the thick metal plates but blood slowly spread from the fissures.
"At least you fucking die." Out of ammo Welkans picked up a civilian twelve gauge from the corpse of another guerrilla, their upper torso missing from railgun fire. He then ran towards the exit. The guerrilla force was able to take out the railguns but the mechs were too much. The two remaining machines continued to rain fire on the few remaining Helghast. Welkans had one jump in front of him and start to open fire. He quickly did a slide, going below the surge of lead. Well sliding he fire two rounds at its face. Both blasts of pellets were harmless but did cause it to be disorientated. He quickly got up and ran to the door. He swung his momentum down the hallway only to be greeted by two more mechs and the remains of his task force.
"Fuck!" Welkans dove from the hallway into an open door. The mechs didn't try to follow him; instead they focused on eliminating all the retreating guerrillas. He tried to stand up but his legs didn't want to comply. The sergeant sat up and saw why; he had two fresh holes in his leg, blood welling up from the neat little holes. He started to ease his way back from the door and leaned himself against a filing cabinet. Tracers were visible as they streaked past his small view of the carnage, the occasional soldier falling down, blood gushing from their wounds. Out of disgust and shame he reached out with his shotgun and closed the door.
Welkans got on the radio and turned it to all frequencies. "This is Sergeant Welkans to all Helghast forces. The Administrative Building is lost. I repeat the building is lost. Most of the taskforce is lost with it. Do not try to approach the building, the UCN has new weapons systems and will overpower any rescue party. The building will be torched. Sergeant Welkans out." He reached into his pack and grabbed a piece of linen, tying it around his wounds. Welkans then changed the frequency on his radio to his squad's. "Hey Specter, you still alive?"
There was static before her voice came through, it was wrought with fear. "Yes, sir. I am in the mortar pits with the remains of the taskforce, about twenty people. God this has been one hell of a cock up."
"Good girl, glad you made it. What is the status on the charges?" Specter didn't answer him for a few seconds. Welkans started to shiver; it was becoming really cool in here.
"We lost the charges, sir. A squad of UCN fought their way up onto the roof and took out the team before they could arm them."
"Okay… Try to move towards Skorzeny's men and rally any of our remaining forces. The armada should be here soon and Skorzeny will probably be the only one in the city who knows what they plan to do. Understood?"
"Yes, sir. What about you?"
"I think I will stay put here. They might not notice me in here and I can get out later. Besides I am really, really tired and could go for a nap about now." Welkans readjusted his uniform; the sewage smell was slowly fading.
"It's been a pleasure, sir. Specter out." Welkans took this time to take off his helmet. With it went his radio. He instantly felt relief from the searing heat that it captured. Next he took off his goggles. Out went his HUD. The world seemed much darker yet happier at the same time, more vibrant colors. He kept his respirator on, it helped block the smell of blood and decay.
For the first time Welkans looked around his surroundings. The room must have been a senator's office. It was lavishly decorated with as much expensive crap as possible. On the desk Welkans noticed a man slumped over, his arm off to the side of the desk, .357 in hand. 'I guess not all of them fuckers got away.' Turning away from his companion Welkans noticed a window above the cabinet he was leaning against. The Helghast NCO tried to ease his way back so he can get a good look. With effort and much pain he moved back and decided the door would be a good place to rest. Leaning on the door Welkans looked through the window, the last rays of light causing the pool of blood, his blood he reminded himself, to glisten. The window provided an almost breath taking view of the sky. The sun had just set and the sky was painted with a few streaks of color against the endless abyss. Behind the color Welkans saw something that made him smile. Twinkling in the twilight was the planet Helghan in all of its glory. Swarming around it was hundreds of white dots, all slowly moving across the sky and growing in size. Welkans eyes slowly shut.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Theo walked through the broken defenses of the Administrative building towards the front door. He was absolutely disgusted by the smell coming from some of the charred foxholes. Ignoring the stench he pressed on past the foxholes turned graves and the shattered remains of pillboxes. Once through the doors though he meet a better sight. All the way down the hundred yards of hall were the bodies of countless higs. Still patrolling down it was one of the mechs. The new delivery was a godsend. Theo continued on his march to a CO who was busy in the main atrium. Theo was sure to step over the mess that the new mechs left. The jellified red-eyes were not good for his shoes. Theo came upon the CO. The current leader of UCN forces in Vekta City was busy shouting at his men. They were scavenging through the remains of the atrium for anything that UCN could reuse, the railguns and mech being top priority.
"Sir!" Welkans snapped to attention. The CO followed suit.
"At ease." Theo dropped his salute. "What do you want McClellan?"
"What is the situation here, sir?" The CO smiled.
"We decimated those red-eyed bitches. I mean look at this bea-fucking-utiful sight." He waved his hand at all of the splattered carnage covering the large room. "God damn the new toys are fun. I mean I haven't seen them first hand but the aftermath speaks for itself."
"Couldn't agree more, sir. So what are we calling these babies?"
"The railgun is the M62 Phyrrus Fuckers, launches a two foot rod of tungsten at Mach 14, all powered by smuggled petrusite. And these sons of bitches," His motioned to one of the mechs walking out of the atrium, a heavy coating of gore covering it. "These are the Mechanized Assault and Reconnaissance Suit or MARS. Over a foot ceramic and titanium armor protecting an operator armed with four interchangeable weapons platforms. This bitch packs a fuck load of punch."
"Good to here, sir. Now is it possible for me to give one of these babies a spin so I chase after a pack of terrorist?"
"That's a negative. As much as I love ya there are orders out right now to restrict the use of them. We already lost one of them and we only had five to begin with. Hell Overlord only has fifty total."
"Understood, sir. Now do I have permission to hunt down some terrorist fucks?"
"Do what you do best Theo."
"Yes, sir." Theo walked from the atrium, almost slipping on hig juice. His squad was waiting outside door for him.
"What are the orders, sir? Do we have to mop up all these bastards?" Hutch was leaning against a senator's door. Theo grabbed onto his shoulders pushing him against the door.
"We are hunting bomber cunt boys." The men cheered out in joy. Suddenly the door broke open.
"Fuck!" Hutch was sprawled out over the body of some helmetless hig. He quickly got up and prodded his M82 into the Helghast's head.
"Hey red-eye! You alive?" The man started to stir. The black void of his eyes opened, pure hate beaming from the abyss towards the UCN security force. He started to reach for a nearby shotgun. "No, no, we can't have you doing that here." The man reached for his knife, having considerable problems unstrapping it. Hutch shot the arm as he made a weak slash at him, rendering the man's right arm useless. The man didn't even scream out, the hatred in his eyes only intensifying.
"Hey Hutch, what's his rank? Try not to kill him if he is a major or something important." The hig turned his head slowly and backed up towards the desk of some senator, the owner still occupying it. The moving arms gave Hutch a good look at his rank.
"Sergeant, sir. So can I play with him?" The hig's leg left a nice streak of fresh crimson, adding to the darker pools already on the marble floors.
"Have at it." Hutch bent over to his eye level, taking off his helmet.
"Where do you think you are going you little bitch? Think you can run away from us?" Hutch's squad mates put down their weapons and helmets and entered the room. They leaned back against the wall so they could enjoy the sight.
The hig slowly turned his head around, looking Hutch straight in the eye. The bleeding man started to laugh. "What is so funny you fucking bitch?" Hutch's head was instantly turned to a spray of red, turning a plaque behind him crimson.
"Shit!" The hig turned to Marcus, putting one round in the chest and then one below his right eye, now painting the tapestry. Wilson tried to pick up his rifle but a round to the neck nearly severed his head, the gooey yellow strand that is his spinal cord the only thing holding keeping his head from hitting the floor as he slid down the wall. The hig turned the .357 to Theo. Click! Theo snorted and casually bent over to pick up his rifle. He walked over to the hig, the gun lay to his left side, smoke still leaking from the barrel. The hig didn't change his looks at all. There was no fear in his eye, only hatred. Theo looked deeper into the pitch black abyss. Somewhere deep beneath all the hatred was sorrow. Theo raised his rifle and wiped the black abyss from the planet with the exercise of three muscles.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Zoey was disgusted by Zorta's lack of respect for Skorzeny. "Why the fuck are we retreating? We have the ISA by the fucking short hairs!" He had been complaining about Skorzeny's orders to retreat since they left the UCN's CO's bar.
"Have some fucking respect!" Zoey had to resist slapping the man insulting the man who was basically her adopter father. "And this is starting to become way over just fucking annoying!" Skorzeny just chuckled at the exchange.
"Zoey, dear, calm down, Mister Zorta has his rights. I mean he is a real Helghast unlike us lowly Vektans. To address your concerns Zorta, we are falling back and abandoning the whole city because, one, we have run into new advanced weapons and we don't want to get ourselves into a fight we can't win and, two, the invading taskforce has ran into some of its own issues and decided that it would be easier to simply wipe the city off the map rather than dropping off soldiers there."
"But why! We could take out of these bastards!"
"Isn't that the attitude that got you guys into a fix in the first place? ... And the second time. Why else would you be using us Legion to help you? Well beside the fact we are the direct descendants of the original Helghast founders." Zorta stopped talking and beamed pure hatred at the insurgent leader. Under his breath Skorzeny sighed and muttered. "Sometimes I regret letting my sis go with you guys but you have to do anything for the cause." Snake simply shook his head and continued smoking.
Leaving the infuriating argument, Zoey continued to watch from outside the guard house as massive amount of Helghast forces and insurgent streamed into the small building. So far the amount of ISA pursuing has been minimal and luckily there have been no sight of the new UCN weapons. From what the disgraced remnants of the failed taskforce have said they are unkillable machines without mercy or weakness despite the fact that their newest leader is saying her former sergeant was able to kill one. Maybe that is why the taskforce has offered to stay at the building and provide rear security with Zoey's little party of fun. They might be trying to prove that they are not useless. The apparent leader of the small group was a woman with long raven hair that leaked from her helmet and had leather armor who was looking over the herd of soldiers that was quickly thinning. Zoey started to walk over towards her.
BOOM! The tail end of the herd suddenly exploded in flame. "Fuck!" Zoey dropped down and trained her pistols on the mini mushroom cloud. As the few surviving Helghast caught in the blast started to rise up, a stream of ISA soldiers spilled into the alley from a street twenty-five yards to the north. Zoey and the rest of the soldiers opened fire. The ISA started to drop but continued to move forwards.
"Everyone fall back double time! Zoey help me cover the retreat." Skorzeny tried to create order. Most of the remaining herd was in the building and the shattered remains of the taskforce were ordered to follow suit. Only their leader stuck behind with Zoey and her adopted squad and father. "Zorta, Snake, move to the east side and lay down fire. You-" he pointed to the last of the taskforce, "move inside the building and make sure that everyone gets out. Zoey follow me." The group moves into action. Zoey vaulted over a dumpster as she followed Skorzeny to the west side. Zoey momentarily crouched behind it, putting down all her mags for her pistols before rising and opening fire. With one pistol she pumped two rounds into a man's chest, his armor saving him but still knocking him down. Its twin was able to hit one in the head, a red mist hung behind his head as he fell forwards. She then turned back to the first man and emptied her clips into his body, blood spurting from a few of the wounds. She started to drop, simultaneously releasing her empty mags. Well Zoey reloaded Skorzeny rose up with a civilian semi-automatic shotgun and unloaded into the crowed. The spent cartilages rained down onto Zoey. Skorzeny switched places with Zoey.
Zoey returned to her the cycle when a loud rumble came from the north. She clipped an ISA in the arm as an ISA AAPC rolled into the alley. Its turret swung towards Snake and Zorta's position as a group of UCN death squad members escaped from the rear hatch. The ISA fell to positions behind the vehicle as the UCN forces moved to its front. Zoey rose up and tried to take out the new enemy. Her pistol rounds simply bounced off of their heavy armor. "Fuck! Skorzeny, what's your plan?"
The scarred redhead smiled as he finished reloading his shotgun. "Just cover me."
"Wha-" Before she could ask Skorzeny lept from behind cover and ran head on towards the AAPC and the entire attacking force. "Fuck! Cover!" Zoey rose up and fired at everything hoping it would cause the enemy to duck long enough so that her leader didn't die. Her yell dragged Zorta and Snake from cover. The turret had left them and was swinging towards Skorzeny. Just as the stream of lead was about to cut him in half a missile streaked from inside the guardhouse, it knocked out the soldier manning the turret along with knocking over some of the UCN. Skorzeny jumped on top of the still smoking AAPC. He raised his shotgun at an unsuspecting ISA soldier going up the porthole to replace his smoked comrade. Skorzeny fired, the burst of pellets splattering the man's head on the charred remains of his friend. As the headless body fell back inside the vehicle Skorzeny followed it up with a shower of lead. The pellets were audible as they ricocheted around the cabin, ripping apart anyone inside. Under a growing amount of enemy fire Skorzeny threw his overcoat down the hatch. He quickly leapt of the vehicle and ran directly towards the dumpster, bullets trying their fucking best to take him out. He dove over the dumpster and rolled in the safety of cover.
"Welcome back, sir." Skorzeny leaned against the dumpster and smiled. He lifted up the button to his explosive vest. With a flick of the switch the AAPC lit up, a small blast filtering through the turret hatch but the majority of the blast channeled out the open rear hatch. The twenty-five pounds of plastic explosive turned the vehicle into the barrel and everything in the cabin into the ammo of a giant shotgun. The blast took out a majority of ISA in cover behind it. All that was left was eight UCN soldiers.
The taskforce leader hollered out of the shack. "Oye, hurry up. We are clear in here!" Skorzeny spun his hand in the air, signaling the remaining Zoey and company to fall back. The UCN made it very difficult. Most were armed with light machine guns and unrelentingly sprayed them with fire. One charged Zoey's position as Skorzeny ran for the building. The retreating leader caused the UCN to shift his focus. He stopped his assault on Zoey and fired on the officer, two rounds hitting his in the leg.
"No you don't you fucker!" Seeing the injury Zoey leapt from cover with her sawed-off shotgun. The soldier barely noticed as she ran and pressed the end of both barrel to the all-encompassing helmet. She fired both barrels at once. It blew a small hole in one side of the helmet. The encased helmet had caused force to turn his entire head into a slushy of blood and gore. It violently poured out onto her weapon and body. "Ah! Fucking disgusting!" Zoey spat out a mouth full of the bad tasting fluid Zoey turned and ran to the shack, seeing that Skorzeny had made it inside. Snake started to run with Zorta. A burst of rounds hit him in the chest. He fell. Zorta started to lift him up under a hail of fire. Snake was spitting out blood as Zorta tried to carry him the final ten yards. Just as he made it to the door two more bullets hit Snake in the chest. Snake vomited blood before slumping over in Zorta's arms, crimson droplets dripping from his mouth. His cigarette fell from his mouth and landed in the pool of crimson, sizzling on contact before slowly fizzing out.
"Fuck!" Zorta carefully put down the body. Skorzeny was leaning against a makeshift crutch. The taskforce leader was looking at his injuries, a discarded missile launcher at her feet. The wounds looked mildly serious but nothing he hasn't lived through before.
"Time to fall back. So who wants to be the one tocover our retreat for about five minutes? That will give us enough time for a decent head start." Zorta and Zoey raised their hands at once. "Well… Rock paper, scissors?" Zoey and Zorta shrugged. They got into position and started.
"Rock, paper, scissors, sho-" Before they could finish Zoey hit Zorta over the head with her shotgun, knocking him out cold. Skorzeny shrugged as he started to go down the steps. The taskforce leader dragged Zorta after him. "Until next time, sir!" Zoey took a bow at the retreating soldiers. Turning from her route of safety, Zoey checked to see if her weapon was loaded before looking out the door. The seven remaining UCN soldiers were slowly approaching the building. 'If only I had one of their suits. I'd just walk up to them and BOOM!' Zoey leaned into the open doorway and unleashed her shotgun on the nearest soldier. The rounds hit him in the unprotected legs, ripping out a massive chunk of flesh. He fell to his side and quickly bled out. Zoey returned behind cover and broke the break of her shotgun, two smoking rounds shot past her face. Enemy rounds plastered the building, the occasional bullet piercing the wall. She tried to push in two new cartilages. Her shaking hands made it very difficult. She snapped the barrel shut and sat down next to the door way to the stairs. Her shotgun in hand, Zoey prepared to face the enemy again. She looked down to make sure her pistols were still in their holster and loaded. 'I need to give them more time.' She could hear the soldier lining up along the doorway ready to breach. She sighed, the shotgun trembling. 'Just another minute.'
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
As the senior officer, Theo stood outside the small building as five UCN soldiers breached the doorway. For just five or so higs guarding the place they sure did a number on them. They took out twenty ISA soldiers, four UCN Security members and an AAPC. However their time was running out. At least one was down and their resistance to the assaulting force had dropped rapidly. 'Lasted longer than I expected.'
From inside the building two low booms filtered out, followed by a low bloody scream. 'Minus one UCN.' There was a sudden roar of M82 fire in the building along with random orders. They died down, followed by a series of sharp cracks. He figured it to be from a pistol. 'Well the bomber bitch is still alive.' The cycle of M82 fire and pistol shots continued. Theo took this time to look up in the night sky. Something up there looked very, very, wrong.
Up in the sky was hundreds of small lights slowly moving around. They seemed to be surrounding a much brighter light. "Now what the fuck can that be?" Suddenly some of the smaller lights flashed and disappeared from sight. In exchange green lights appeared around the brighter light. The abnormal activity continued until about two dozen little lights disappeared and the bigger one was completely engulfed in green. As the green shroud faded nothing was left. It dawned on Theo.
"Fuck! Please tell me that wasn't Overlord." The empty space around him didn't answer except for the occasional gunshot. Theo continued to watch as the swarm of smaller dots grew in size slowly and seemed to move almost directly overhead. As small lights escaped from the larger ones Theo was thrown to the ground.
Facedown he could hear small chunks of metal and brick rain down on his armor. Theo slowly got up. Looking forward he saw what had happened. In front of him the guard house was decimated. Most of the north-east corner was missing and the roof was sagging in the middle. He rose completely up, brushing off dust and debris. His gloved hand brushed into something solid. Looking down he saw a razorblade stuck almost an inch in the shoulder piece of his armor. A chuckle formed deep in his throat. It soon morphed into a full on laugh.
"She actually did it! I can't fucking believe it!" Theo went ahead and took off his helmet and walked into the shattered shack. Inside the bodies of UCN soldier lay scattered. The blast itself had probably killed them and in most cases tore off a limb. One was laying there, his arms reduced to a bony stump and the legs just sinew. If the blast didn't do the job her hundreds of razorblades finished it. A soldier whose name was evidently Marco was sprawled out on his side. Four small slits were cut into the face of his helmet, little streams of crimson slowly flowing into the open. Walking his way past the carnage, Theo located a stairway down. It appeared to be where the blast originated from. He carefully went down the concrete steps. They were scarcely affected by the blast. Halfway down he found bloodied bones and tendons, blown fleshless and smashed into a very small crimson bundle. Theo bent down to inspect it. The bloody mass had little bits of cloth fiber and a few long strands of hair mixed in. He began to poke it with a large splinter of wood. He quickly found a couple dozen razors dug deep into some of the bones, most of which he identified being from the torso.
"Goodbye Miss Bomber." Theo got up from the bloody mess and walked down the rest of the stairs. Greeting him at the bottom was a large blast door that had been cut open. Theo slowly walked inside. It was dark, hot, humid, and had the most horrible stench known to man or any of his repulsive sub-species. He flipped on the light of his M82 and slowly walked inside. His was walking in an inch of what he really hoped was water. The sound of his splashing echoed down the tunnel. Theo started to miss his helmet right now. His solo stream of illumination bounced of the water's surface, a rippled reflection lighting up the ceiling.
As Theo walked further into the labyrinth, there was a splash behind him. He swung his rifle and fired. Four giant splashes erupted from the water. The gun's report was amazingly loud in the tunnel, his ears screamed in pain. As the ringing subsided, the shots still echoed. He slowly walked to the spot he shot, ready to fire again. Floating on top of the water was the mingled corpse of a big-ass rodent. "Sorry little buddy, I meant to shoot a larger varmin-" Theo's world turned black.
*Some time a little later*
Theo slowly opened his eyes. He was staring at an aging concrete wall covered in dark stains. Then the pain hit him. His head erupted in a pulsating from a spot on its back. He tried to rub the aching spot but his arms wouldn't move. He looked down to see that he was tied up in a metal chair. To the left of his feet was a bucket of water. He looked around. Stuck in his arm was an IV that led up to a bag of fluids. The room was very small and the walls covered in splattered dark stains.
"What the fuck is happening!" The UCN investigator pulled at his bindings. The ropes strained but held. "Let me out you fucking bastards!" Theo was starting to hyperventilate. Just as the man was about to go into a panic a door behind him screeched open. He could hear light footsteps slowly approaching him as the door slammed shut. "Who the fuck are you!" There was silence, the steps seemed to end right behind him. "Tell me damn it!"
A calm, feminine voice answered. "Do you know where you are Mister McClellan?"
"Who the fuck are you?" The voice calmly continued.
"You happen to be secured in one of the millions of rooms located beneath on of the hundreds of cities on Vekta."
"I don't care you fucking cunt! Just tell me who you are!" The women grabbed onto his shoulders. He could feel her armored breast push onto the back of his head as she leaned forward. Above he saw a woman with long raven hair, its locks hanging down on Theo's sweating face. The bitch's mouth was obscured with a mask cover in a skeletal smile. What struck him the most was her eyes. They were a deep crimson that seemingly swirled towards the dark hollow abyss that all the Helghast had.
"Let me go you fucking Helghast cunt!"
Unflustered by his remarks she pulled down her mask. Theo then stared at a sinister smile that was covered in scars from every sort of weapon imaginable.
"You will never escape from here Mister McClellan. You will never be found. As far as your CO knows you were killed in a large blast." She started to walk in front of the bound man. "You will simply rot down here for days before you finally die."
The realities of the issue at hand started to settle in. He was going to be here for about five days with the IV before his body started to systematically shut down. The eyes continued to pierce into him. He had to look from the head and began to look at her uniform. On her arm he saw something that looked familiar. It was the same insignia as the one he saw on the arm sergeant that killed his squad. He found way out of a slow death. 'It is worth a shot at least.'
The Helghast woman started to walk of the room. Theo calmly spoke. "Hey lady, I want to tell you something." Her footsteps stopped behind him. They quickly came closer and she strolled in front of him.
"What do you want?" Theo grinned, it might have taken her of balance but her face didn't show it.
"I executed your sergeant, a Welkans I believe. Found him cowering in a pile of his own waste. I shot him after he begged me for hours to do so. You should have seen all of the tears. It was a pretty pathetic sight."
The woman surprisingly held her complexion. For a moment Theo thought he might not have guessed wrong.
"Well Mister McClellan that might have just changed your situation." The voice was still calm but had a hint of repressed ire. Theo waited for her to pull out a pistol and shoot him. It didn't happen. "I really didn't intend on treating you this poorly, sir but I do have certain obligations." Instead of reaching for a gun she pulled out a small metal case. Pulling down her mask at the same time, she set it down on a metal table near the rack that held his IV. She flipped open two latches and slowly opened up the case. A large amount of blue light emitted from the open case. Its lid blocked Theo's sight of what it was. She picked up something and lifted it up in the air, a portion of the light following. In her hand was a syringe full of luminescent blue fluid.
"Petrusite is such a beautiful material isn't it? I am pretty lucky that Skorzeny gave me some before I went to hunt you down." She set down the syringe and walked over to Theo. She bent down at his feet. She lifted them up slightly and slid the bucket underneath. She then lowered the feet into the tub of water. She stood up and returned to the table. Before picking up the needle she hooked up a secondary IV full of fluid.
"We don't want you to die too soon do we?" She then picked up the needle and pointed it in the air. She gently tapped it like a nurse and squirted a small droplet. The small drop fell to the floor and caused a large flash of electricity. A grin spread across her face. She started to stick the needle into his arm, the sharp point slowly inserting itself into the body with no issue. She did not push in the plunger yet. Instead she started to talk peacefully.
"Petrusite in the bloodstream has a most interesting effect, Mister McClellan. Once circulating it will stimulate every single nerve in the human body, creating pain throughout the body in, perhaps, the single most excruciating thing that could happen to a person. The pain will never dull, every second of the rest of your life will seem like the worst pain you have ever felt. It will never stop. You will never blackout. It will not kill you. Interesting I know. The internal shock seems to leave vital process like breathing, circulation, and brain function alone well paralyzing everything else. So the pain will continue till your little heart gives out and your brain dies. Which with all the wonderful fluid I have supplying you, should be close to a full week." She slowly pushed in the plunger. Theo's veins started to glow as a horrendous pain slowly spread through his arm. She then closed up the case and walked out of the room.
"It has been a pleasure Mister McClellan. I hope you enjoy your last few days." The door slowly slammed shut, a lock clicking after words. He screamed till his throat started to bleed.
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A/N: Hey! The chapter is finally done! Sorry if it seemed slightly long and all but I wanted to get this done and out of the away so I can return to the original characters and proper fighting. I am also sorry about the huge delay with this. I wrote the first bits of it right after the first chapter but then I [insert excuse] I didn't really start up on this until the last week here. Let me tell you, writing it was a total bitch but rather enjoyable. So would you kindly enjoy and review this giant mass of text (it is roughly 12.5 thousand long not counting notes and twenty-three pages long.)
As for the future chapters, expect it to manly revolve around the original with only the occasional trip to Stahl or one of the other planets. I have also decided not to include any more perspectives from the UCN or ISA. When it will come out I have no fucking clue. I wanted to actually plan out what would happen as I have discovered that if you don't it can become difficult. I also wanted to pursue other stories. Mainly an inFamous 2 story I have been planning along with a crossover I am trying to polish up right now.
Anyways please review and look out for my future crap.
Sir Robert the VI, Ph.D.