A/N I'm back everyone. Sorry for the long wait but I was working on another story of mine that required my full attention. I've gotten most of the chapters for that one done so all I have to do is upload them, which frees me to once again continue this story. Recently I just got into the online simulation game Nationstates and have four of my own nations, the The Federation of USEA Federation (messed up on the name, dammit), the Principality of Vriksha, the Rogue Nation of the Babel Syndicate, and the Federation of Belkan Republics. Oh it is so fun, and so far the best nation is the USEA Federation, how ironic.
Chapter 11 - Sword of Annihilation
Then nothingness was not, nor existence. There was no air then, nor heavens beyond it. Who covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping? Was there then cosmic water, in depths unfathomed?
- May 23rd, 1995 1325 hrs -
"We discovered that the unidentified laser weapon is a long range offensive weapon codenamed "Excalibur". We believe it to be a Belkan antiaircraft defense chemical laser weapon developed as a missile defense system. According to our information, the strike zone is heavily guarded by jamming facilities and multiple antiaircraft artillery units."
"Your objective is to destroy Excalibur. But to do that, you must first neutralize the jamming facilities and the anti-aircraft artillery. Considering the importance of your target to the enemy, I'm afraid there's no way to avoid casualties from enemy resistance. In light of this, we have called in reinforcements for this missions. Work together with them to achieve the mission objective."
- Tauberg, Nord Belka -
- 028'30'19"N 231'16'56"E -
- May 23rd, 1995 1400 hrs -
"So you're our back up. Thanks for the help." said Cipher as their allied reinforcements, an Osean mercenary squadron known as Crow Team, a flight of four F-16C Fighting Falcons, joined them with an Osean KC-10 Extender.
They'll be needing it once they finish up and need to get back home.
"This is Crow Team's number 3. Name's PJ. I'll support you anyway I can Galm Team."
"Crow 1 to Crow 3. When are you planning to buy those flowers?"
"Wait around too long and another guy's gonna come along and steal her away from you, y'know."
"This is no time to talk about my personal life!" growled PJ at Crow 1 and 2, the two older pilots snickering at their banter.
"Leave the man along. He's waiting for the right moment." said Cipher to save PJ from the teasing and to get them back to focusing on the mission.
They were within range of a massive chemical laser that could kill them instantly, after all.
They flew for barely a few seconds before a red cone originating from up ahead on their radar enveloped their formation, and instantly Cipher's survival instincts kicked it screaming 'Get the HELL outta there'.
"Break!" he yelled as he swerved away from the KC-10 Extender, the others reacting to his order a second later.
The deadly blue laser from Excalibur shot out to meet them and swept through the air, the pilots of the tanker aircraft not even able to scream as the beam vaporized them and the plane into dust,pure nothingness. Cipher watched the plane disintegrated and that's when he realized that what they're were fighting something beyond current science, something from those cheesy sci-fi films he used to watch when he was younger. Only this was very much real.
"The tanker's been destroyed! You're in dangerous airspace, all planes break!" warned Eagle Eye as they split up to engage and destroy the four jamming sites stationed near Excalibur.
CIpher started flying towards the far left, Larry to the next one directly to the right of the first, Crow 1 and 2 flying fast towards the third jamming site in the line, and PJ speeding for the final. They were all hoping that laser wouldn't catch them in the process.
"Enemy aircraft approaching. Increase ECM output to level 3." ordered a Belkan soldier stationed at one of the jamming sites.
"Destroy all jamming facilities within the perimeter. Strip Excalibur of its defences."
When Cipher finished counting to twelve seconds since the first attack, the red danger zone, he called it, popped up on radar right over him, a swear word escaping his lips as he sped out of it just in time as the laser fired and barely missed him.
He neared the first jamming site and attempted to lock onto it, but he soon discovered the electronic counter-measure waves it was broadcasting had effectively stripped away the possibility of a lock on, meaning only one thing.
"The jammers have disabled our missile's lock-on function! We're gonna have to dummy fire them!" he announced when AA rounds started to streak past the canopy.
He lined up the shot while the AA guns protecting the first jammer continued to hammer away at him,. He fired two missiles and pulled away sharply, the Sidewinders hitting their mark right on the jammer and annihilating the facility, returning his lock-on function to him.
"Jamming Facility 1 destroyed!" he proclaimed after taking care of the jammer's defenses below him.
He looked up from his radar and cringed when he saw in the distance Excalibur's laser cutting through the air like a knife over the fourth jamming site, no doubt trying to catch PJ in its deadly arc and take care of one stubborn pest.
"Pixy to Crow 3. If you get shot down, crash where I can't see." said Larry darkly after the laser finished it's assault on the Osean pilot, allowing him to finish off his jamming site with a UGB.
"Roger, leave it to me." he replied back somewhat cheerfully.
Cipher glanced at Larry's plane in worry after assisting him in destroying the third jamming facility. Something was off about him. He could see it in his posture and attitude ever since he returned back from wherever he went to a couple of days back. He slouched more, drug his feet around, had this aloof and distant look on his face. He just didn't know what had happened to his buddy.
"Electrical charge has surpassed maximum value. Target confirmed. Laser emission distance has been calculated."
"Here's comes an attack!" warned Eagle Eye as the laser fired again, this time at Crow 1 and 3.
"Damn Belkans and their damn laser tech! What is this, friggin' Star Wars?!" cursed Crow 1 in frustration as they narrowly avoided the deadly beam, the small frames of their Falcons assisting them in their plight.
Cipher waited for the beam to fade out of existence then flew in past the two Oseans, dummy firing two missiles at the last Jammer and smirking as the small, octangular building went up in flames. They regrouped fairly quickly and turned towards the source of the laser itself, the sword of Arthurian legend.
"This is Crow 2. Don't hold back, blow up everything in sight."
"All jamming facilities have been destroyed. The main facility is all we have left."
"Roger!" said Cipher as he dove down towards the ground and sped towards Excalibur, Larry and the pilots of Crow Team following close behind.
"All planes, attack Excalibur! Go for its power facilities and the cannon itself!" ordered Eagle Eye as he updated their radars and HUDs with the target information for the main facility, several high-priority marks popping up around the laser tower.
Quickly Cipher ordered Crow Team to attack the secondary power facilities positioned on either side of Excalibur in two large clears while he and Larry would attack the main four facilities built close to the tower itself. Not even a minute passed by before Larry spotted several railway artillery units appear on railroad tracks built in a ring around the tower complex. He cursed when they fired concentrated beams of red energy at him when he tried to attack one of the power facilities.
"Cipher, they've got railway laser artillery. Be careful!"
"Roger. I nearly got hit just now. I'll take care of the artillery while you take out the stations." he replied.
"Got it."
Cipher doubled back and fired a single missile at the artillery closest to him, the Belkans operating it not even having a chance to escape when the platform they stood on was engulfed in flames.
"Take out those pesky flies!" ordered the Belkan officer in charge of running Excalibur as the laser tower powered up and fired another beam at Crow Team after they destroyed the first secondary power complex.
"Shit, they still have enough power to fire that thing?!" growled Crow 1 as they avoided the attack, albeit just barely.
"All railway artillery confirmed down." informed Eagle Eye when Cipher destroyed the last one, regrouping with Larry soon after to attack the main power facilities.
They converged on one of the large buildings and each fired a missile, the metal complex going up in a huge ball of fire soon after that dealt a crippling blow to Excalibur when it's crew attempted to charge the laser up for another attack.
"Power levels dropping! We've lost one of our power facilities!"
"All right! Let's take out the king's sword now!" said PJ after he and Crow Team destroyed the last of the secondary power facilities, further incapacitating the laser tower.
"Lines A through C are down!"
"Reroute power through Lines D through F!" ordered a Belkan inside the tower's control room calmy to try and regain control of the situation.
Cipher sped around the facility and destroyed a power facility at the same time Larry did as well, eliminating the possibility of the laser firing any time soon. PJ and Crow Team watched in awe as the two ace pilots took out the final power facility, rendering Excalibur inoperable for the time being.
"Main power facilities down!"
"Draw power from reserve Use it all! I don't care if it burns up from feedback!"
"Excalibur is still charging! They must have back-up units stored underneath the tower itself!" informed Eagle Eye as Cipher and Larry rose up from the ground to observe the laser tower from above.
"What do we do AWACS?" questioned Cipher before a new target popped up on his HUD. It was the randome atop the tower itself, the piece of machinery that fired the laser.
"We can do this! No, we will do this!" said Crow 2 as they charged at the randome first, Larry chuckling a little before he and Cipher followed after them.
"Yo Buddy, you've got everyone fired up and believing in miracles."
"All in a day's work as a badass." replied Cipher as they attacked the randome with their remaining missiles, several explosions coming to life at the top of the tower and rattling the mechanical beast to its core.
"We have enough power to get one more shot off, sir."
"Fire."
"Excalibur is still operational. Look out!" warned Eagle Eye just in time, Cipher ducking out of the way before the deadly blue laser shot out from the damaged randome and barely missed him, only singing his Eagle's left wing tip..
"Holy shit, talk about close one…" he thought before he fired another pair of missiles at the tower's randome and finally destroyed it, rendering the laser tower defenseless.
"It's time to destroy Excalibur once and for all! I know you can do it Cipher!"
He smirked as the final target, the center of the tower itself, appeared and he immediately went for it, using every last bit of his payload left to hammer away at the metal supports. Heavy groans of stress echoed out from the metal as the tower received hit after hit, its structure slowly bending to the right as the metal weakened further.
"We've lost. Excalibur's done for." said a Belkan in the control tower before Cipher's last missile struck the tower, igniting a stream of fire that shot up its face and finished it off, the pilots cheering as they saw it lean farther and farther towards the ground before finally splitting apart.
It's top half careened down and hit the earth hard, a plume of dirt and fire encompassing the broken sword as it finally came to rest and marked the end of the threat it posed to Allied air forces.
"Confirmed elimination of target. We can even see it from here. Good job." said Eagle Eye as the pilots regrouped for the return trip home with the arrival of a second KC-10.
"Right on! Now that's what I call teamwork!" said PJ.
"All planes, job well done!" congratulated Eagle Eye before he noticed PJ make some drastic aerial maneuvers. "PJ, don't too excited and crash, buddy!"
"Yee-haw!"
- Valais Air Force Base -
- 1505 hrs -
As they approached their home base, the leader of Crow Team went ballistic when the control tower contacted them to land. "The sword has been pulled from the stone. It was Ustio's flight lead who did it!" exclaimed Crow 1 ecstatically as he began landing preparations.
Almost instantly the base went into an uproar and various people from around the base gathered on the runway when Cipher and Larry started to come in for the approach.
"Cipher, you hear that warm welcome? It's the sweet sound of victory. Not bad for a couple of misfits, huh?" asked Larry with a smile smile.
"Heh, yeah." he replied as he touched down on the runway to the cheers of the base's occupants.
- Although we didn't discover any nuclear facilities, Excalibur is no longer a threat. This can be considered a substantial victory for our side.
"Wow, that's so cool!" said Jasper in awe when Cipher finished that part of his story.
He was about to take a break for the day before an idea popped into his mind and he grinned, his son looking at him with confusion written all over his face.
"Uh, Dad?"
"Come on Jasp, we're going on a field trip." he said as he got up from his chair and walked towards the door with some pep in his step.
"To where?" he asked as Cipher grabbed his car keys and opened the door, leading Jasper outside to the car.
"Well to Tauberg of course." he replied, his son only taking a second to recognize the name.
A big grin spread across his face as he very nearly threw himself into the back seat of Cipher's Camaro and fastened his seatbelt, Cipher climbing into the driver's seat and inserting the keys into the ignition. In a flash they were off, leaving the Anfang city limits a mere couple of minutes later. They drove through the Belkan countryside and it only took them around an hour before they entered Tauberg and took a country road towards a collection of hills covered with a slight blanket of fog. It only took a minute before Jasper's eyes grew wide in awe as they crested a hill and came to a stop to observe the resting place of the Excalibur Chemical Laser Tower, the massive metal sword still sitting in the exact same position it has been ever since Cipher destroyed it in 1995.
"You wanna get closer?" asked Cipher with a glance back at him, Jasper's furious nodding telling him all he needed to know.
He drove down the hill and approached the edge of the interior complex, passing by several large solar panels surrounding the actual tower itself before he stopped and put the car into park and shutting it off. He opened the door and got out while Jasper opened his and ran out to gaze up at the massive structure, now covered in vegetation and rust in multiple areas.
"Ah, the history…" said Cipher as he took in a deep breath of the fresh air surrounding the terrain and placed his hands on his hips.
"This is so freaking cool." said Jasper, Cipher running a hand through his hair with a chuckle.
"Yeah, it is."
- Unknown Location -
- April 7th, 2016 2300 hrs-
"Are the trials proceeding smoothly?"
"Yes sir, she's performing at max capacity and is exceeding all of our expectations. With the information we'll get from the Gandr, she'll be ready by 2020."
"Good." replied a man with curly black hair and a slightly thin stature as he placed his hands in his white lab coat.
"Sir, he's here."
"I'll be there shortly Gamar." replied the man as he turned briskly around and walked towards an office with its interiors masked behind opaque windows.
He opened the door and walked inside, being greeted by two men in black suits and red ties. Their eyes were hidden behind black glasses that gave them the look of two henchman from a very wealthy man...or government agents.
"Greetings gentlemen. Did Gamar explain to you of what we're doing here?" asked the man as he took a seat behind his desk while the other two individuals remained standing.
"Yes. We thank you for that. I expect everything is going as planned?"
"Of course. The Gandr has almost completed its trials and we're preparing to build the full production model. It'll be operational by 2020." replied the man, the suited man who asked nodding once before his colleague spoke up.
"Than you must know why we're here then?"
"Indeed. It'll be done."
"Good."
He approached the desk and held out a hand to signify the initiation of the deal, the man in the lab coat standing up and shaking it with a smile on his face. On the back of the suited man's hand was a tattoo, a marker of the organization he worked for. It was a simple Red ring with what appeared to be a black segmented tower resting within it. In the center of the tower was a skull, white as can be.
"The syndicate thanks you for your cooperation."
A/N
Ahh...foreshadowing at it's finest. Here's some more for you.
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