Author's Note: Welcome back, readers! To make up for my terribly long, two-week absence, I am returning on this very Friday with the eleventh chapter of Brothers in Armor! Once again, any feedback on the story is appreciated. Enjoy! I am Duuuuuuuuudeeeee, I got the dude-osity like nobody else.
Caleb woke up.
"Huh...? J-Jordan! The giant... Giant thing... It's still h-here!" He shouted down to his roommate on the lower bunk.
"Wha...? Caleb, It's two in the fucking morning. What the shit are you doing, up so early?"
"B-but... The giant th-thing... It almost murdered the entire base..."
"You must have been dreaming. Now go to sleep, before everyone gets the shit scared out of 'em."
"Fine." Caleb sighed, returning to sleep.
===10 HOURS LATER===
The base alarm rang, the emergency klaxons going off every ten feet of the base ceiling. Caleb woke up (again), and so did Jordan, slapping their helmets on and running to the central area, where Commander Lynch was on the podium to make an announcement.
"What's going on?" Caleb asked the marine next to him, who had a bowl of cereal in his hand, and a spoon in his other, happily eating away.
"No idea... Man, this cereal is good." He replied.
"Alright then..."
The Commander stood up and adjusted the microphone on his desk, a few loud screeches emanating from the device before laughing a little and picking it up, beginning to speak.
"Hello, resistance fighters." He said into the microphone, his voice (since he was African-American, he sounded like Morgan Freeman) filling the room. "I would like to say a few words about the terrible apocalypse that has filled Forge World for the past two weeks."
"We started off as soldiers meant to fight off the threat of the Covenant invaders, simple men equipped with high-tech weapons and gear. We fought for decades, losing planet after planet of human population and good people."
"When we finally eliminated the Covenant in 2693, we thought our problems were over. We figured that we were safe, and that we could return to our families. However, when we had a team stationed here, on the Halo Ring's covert haven of Forge World, we never thought about what could happen."
"During the third week of the base's existence, we lost contact and readings to and from our team."
"We thought the Covenant hellraisers had returned, so we sent a tank unit over to eliminate them. When the 94th Armored Division arrived, there was no sign of our men or the Covenant. We left the 94th armored division at the base to take over operations. After a few days, one of the men, Renoldson, found something that caught our interest: Green blood on the commands console. The team sent it to us, in hopes that we could identify it."
"However, we couldn't. We had our best scientists and most experienced fighters examine it, but nobody knew what it was. Not even the supercomputer could."
"We were both confused and horrified."
"However, we got to set up a few security cameras in the base. A few days later, we saw this." He picked up a remote and pressed a blue button while it was pointed at a large image projection screen. It showed footage of a soldier patrolling the halls of the base. Then, there was an odd groaning noise. The soldier stopped moving, and aimed his assault rifle at the nearest doorway. Out of the doorway came an oddly shaped, green humanoid creature with a disfigured face and large arm. The marine emtied his entire clip into the zombie, but it continued to run towards him. It caught him, and a very graphic scene followed.
"That is what we are facing today. Zombies. Massive amounts of them. Maybe millions. And they just keep coming. Over and over again. Each day, we face another horde of undead, while they easily kill many of our best soldiers. It's horrible. That's why I gathered you all here today. The surviving remainder of our science team has put together a weapon that could be used against the zombies, and possibly allow us to win this terrible war. Follow me outside." And with that, He got off the stage and headed outside, with everyone following him.
They were amazed at what they saw when they stepped outside.
It was a massive battle suit... No, it was ten massive battle suits. They had one arm with a gatling gun, and another with a rocket pod. Jordan estimated a ten-rocket capacity per ammo loadup.
"This, my good soldiers, is not just any battle suit. This, before you, is the BREAKDOWN-Class Combat Suit Model 0.1.8, equipped with a three hundred-bullet ammo capacity per ammo loadup on the gatling gun arm, and a ten-rocket ammo capacity per ammo loadup on the rocket pod arm."
"This suit is still in the prototype stage, so I need a volunteer to demonstrate the suit's capabilities."
A marine raised his hand.
"Yes, McKenny?"
"How do we know that the rocket arm isn't like, explosive or something? Or even that the suit won't blow up in general?"
"Good question. You see, The suit has built-in ventilation modules on the back and on both arms. This prevents overheating in the primary engine core and secondary engine modules in the arms."
Another raised her hand.
"Yes, Valencia?"
"What happens when we run out of ammo?"
"Oh, see, that's not a problem anymore. The suit takes compounds and gases from the air, solidifies them, and compresses them into said ammo. As you can see, this suit is indestructible and well-supplied. Once we are done with the prototype stage, we will give the suits to ten lucky candidates."
There were murmurs going through the crowd.
"Looks like we gotta enter the contest, bro." Caleb said.
Author's Note: Please don't hate me for thinking of a suit that's a custom design. I am Duuuuuuuuudeeeee, I got the dude-osity like nobody else. And I really Need a new catchphrase.
