Battlezone II: Lost Legacy by Admiral Kelley
Part 3
Please observe that I don't own anything that originated from the Activision game Battlezone II and anything else is completely mine and is subject to my own unique brand of copyright law. Those who try to rip off my story or steal any of my ideas without at least mentioning where you got them in your story monologue will result in me sending a crack team of highly paid lawyers addicted to human flesh to come rip you apart piece by piece. Now with the legal crap out of the way I encourage you to sitback, relax, and enjoy reading Battlezone II: Lost legacy pt3 by Admiral Kelley and you are still encouraged to send me honest reviews or creative lies depending upon the content of your opinion so I can make part four better.
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Many thanks to those souls brave enough to e-mail me some helpful ideas as well as those of you who put your reputation on the line by endorsing my story with a signed review. Your opinions have all been considered and those that were feasible were integrated into the tale.
A note to Kaeli: Thank you for volunteering to become a soldier in the ISDF army. Your in this part but for the moment you don't get too much "fic time". I have plans for you in the later installments ::evil laugh::. Hope you enjoy what I've written.
There they were. The enemy convoy Intel had been tracking for a week coming over the hill slowly alert for any enemy activity. The escorts consisted of a few Sentry fighters and a single platoon of Warriors all with scanners on full not that it would do any good. The commander of this convoy had all of his escorts out ahead of the transports as they entered the canyon ahead of them.....rookie. The unseen figure who had watched them arrive pulled his eyes away from his binoculars and used a special flashlight to signal another hidden ally behind a cluster of rocks in a Sabre along the rim of the canyon. He then resumed his observation and waited. Just as the escorts fully entered the canyon a huge earthquake shook the ground so violently one of the canyon walls dislodged itself and came tumbling down between the transports and their escorting craft. Seconds later another blast shook the ground and the rock pile the far off Sabre had been using for cover slid down the wall and added to the mess. In less than a minute the convoys defenses had effectively been cut off from the transports leaving them vulnerable. This is just what the hidden attackers had been waiting for.
"Do it Wraiths!" said a voice over the radio and on cue four objects that had been rocks suddenly flashed and were reveled to be Sabres. The eight transports of the convoy halted in momentary confusion, which turned out to be their last mistake. Eight snipers then made their presence known by blasting away the transports pilots leaving smoking holes in the canopy and smoking corpses in the cockpit. The eight figures jumped from the ridges and flew down on makeshift parachutes each landing in front of a different transport. One of those figures was Tim Robertson.
Robertson threw open the door to the transport in front of him and push out the corpse before getting in. Once done he made a quick check to see if he had shot something important and after coming up clean waited for the commanders order to move out. Looking around Robertson saw that he had been the first one finished and sat back for a quick breather while the rest of his squad mates prepared to depart for the extraction point with a wealth of intelligence information in the form of weapons and ammunition in the cargo beds of these transports. This was one of the rare instances where they could take their time since the escorts were trapped behind that rockslide in the canyon. That same rockslide also prevented the base at the end of the canyon from sending reinforcements to greet them. According to Intel this convoy had been poorly guarded and ripe for the plucking with nary a Scion for kilometers around to bother them. Robertson was pulled back to the present by his commanders gruff voice.
"Wraiths lets move it to extraction!"
"I'm all for that, this place has me skin crawlin." came another voice that had to be Jack O'Riley in one of the other transports, and with that all twelve pilots turned away and flew for the extraction point.
The Wraiths had been backtracking the convoys path for five minutes when they came upon a small hill. Thinking nothing of it they flew up and over it..... and right into the convoys supposedly non-existent rear guard composed of a very large number of Titans and Warriors. Before the Wraiths could react the Titans fired off their Arc cannons and melted a quarter of the squadron.
"Wraiths fall back to secondary E.P.!" shouted the commander in his Sabre. Just as they were turning the Titans second volley found their mark vaporizing both the CO and XO as the others ran.
It was pure hell for Robertson who had to flee in a bulky slow transport thats only good point right now was it was faster than the Titans and would soon get him out of range. Then the radar screen in the cockpit beeped informing him that there were new units within sensor range. Since the transport was a Scion craft his squadron was in red while the other Scions were displayed as green and right now half the screen was blotted out with solid green advancing towards him. Throwing a glance at the rear view camera he saw the enemy come over the hill behind him like rushing water but there was something wrong with them.
Peering closer one would see that they were not Scion craft but horrible multi legged monsters with snapping jaws and blood red eyes running after him with their intent clearly stated by the rapid quivering of sharp jaws as they approached him with mad hunger in their eyes. Robertson dodged his ship left and right as fast as it would go but the monsters behind him just sped up until one of them had pulled even with him. In a swift movement one of its tentacles whipped out and into the cockpit yanking him through the canopy. Robertson felt himself being thrown in the air and just as suddenly he started to fall. Gazing down he could see the creature waiting for him with open jaws. Robertson slapped his thigh in an attempt to activate his jetpack but to no avail. He plunged downwards until he landed within the things mouth and its jaws snapped shut sealing him in darkness.
Slayer's eyes snapped open and for a brief moment franticly searched for a way out of the things mouth until he realized where he was. Slayer glanced around to see that he was still within the Equinox's cargo bay and all the other Wraiths were catching some much needed shuteye. Underneath him he could feel the rumble of the Equinox's massive engines through the deckplates and he once again leaned back against his Thunderbolt to relax. The nightmare he had was in fact one of Wraith squadrons first missions ever when it was commissioned under the leadership of Commander Martin Freeman and his XO Lieutenant Charlie White. Except for the monsters his dream was a pretty accurate depiction of what had happened. They were sent to capture the convoy for intelligence purposes and their escape route was thought to be clear but unfortunately the convoy had picked up a rear guard along the way composed of a mess of Titans and Warriors that obliterated a good chunk of the squadron on the first engagement.
The Wraiths had turned tail and ran for it which prompted more losses, in the end all the Sabres were lost and Slayer was the only one who managed to get a transport to the extraction point. All the other surviving Wraiths, Paddy, Pyro, Angel, Phoenix, and Steel had to dump their transports then jetpack it to the dropships.
Slayer then suddenly wondered exactly what time it was. Using the Thunderbolt for support he hoisted himself up and gave his helmet a soft tap activating his faceplate HUD which displayed his own body condition as well as the option to examine the other Wraiths conditions though he rarely had to use it. Slayer chuckled to himself at the thought of the millions of dollars that went into designing and manufacturing computerized suits capable of relaying to soldiers all kinds of info only to have the soldiers use it for telling time and rarely anything else. After his suit conferred with the Equinox's computer the current time was prominently displayed and now the internal computer would keep track of it until such time as he shut the HUD down. It was currently 0100 which ment he'd been asleep for almost four hours. That ment the Equinox should be within sight of Cloud-9 and prepping to land. Slayer's guess was confirmed when moments later the ship made a hard turn to port sending the unprepared Slayer to greet the floor and rousing the other Wraiths out of their sleep. First up were Steel and Pyro both of whom had escaped without serious injury followed shortly by Phoenix who only suffered from some fractured ribs.
Angel and Paddy, however, had no such luck during the mission. Paddy who had broken his right leg crawled over to Phoenix's Thunderbolt and hoisted himself to a leaning position. He reached down and carefully tapped his broken leg to be sure his suits temporary cast was holding up. After he was sure the cast was in perfect condition he picked up his make shift crutches courtesy of Pyro who still felt kinda bad for landing on him and hobbled over to Slayer's fighter where the other Wraiths were gathering. Angel unfortunately had been the victim of multiple broken ribs, a sprained ankle, and if her suits bio-sensor wasn't faulty some internal bleeding. Since she couldn't move under her own power due feeling like shit Steel hoisted her up and carried her which could have been painful if Angels suit hadn't released some pain-killers into her bloodstream beforehand.
Slayer had just gotten up and regained his footing on the now angled floor when the ship made another abrupt turn and leveled off. This time Slayer managed to grab hold of his Thunderbolt and kept from having a reunion with the floor. The others adapted the same way except for Steel who was unbalanced with Angel on his shoulders and nearly fell before Pyro caught him by his suit and kept him up. The rumbling of the deckplates eventually grew softer as the ship dropped down to the landing pad below. There was the usual final flare of engine power which ment the pilot was thinking of her living cargo for once and then the muted thump as the cargo bay contacted the ground and the ship quivered slightly making herself comfortable. Since the Wraiths still had their life support suits on and the bay had not been filled with human friendly atmosphere the pilot skipped the usual depressurization procedure and flipped the switch to open the doors. The doors swung open revealing to them a Cloud-9 that was not familiar.
The whole base look like, and definately had been, a battlezone. Strewn all about were the incinerated hulls of countless ships some of them burned beyond recognition. Throughout the base Scion and ISDF scavengers rolled along collecting the bio-metal scrap and clearing traffic arteries clogged by useless hulks. Human and Scion personnel were running everywhere leading Healers and Service trucks to repair the damage done to the buildings.
Slayer looked about to find somebody in authority to tell give them directions when a patrol of Attilas marched past causing the ground to shake in their presence. All of them had deep craters and scorch marks everywhere with bits of armor looking like it had been chewed on. Following in their wake was a running soldier who seemed to be moving eraticly around the base. Slayer thought it best to question somebody else but apparently Paddy didn't for he took action by calmly walking out and trying to flag the man down with no success. Paddy then stood closely to the side of the soldiers path and when the man ran by again Paddy shifted his weight to his left foot and stuck out a crutch sending the frantic runner to the ground.
Upon impacting the private curled into the fetal position and refused to move, only curling up as tight as he could.
"Were in a bit of a situation lad do you think you could give us a hand?" asked Paddy while prodding him with his crutch. The private refused to answer and only curled up tighter if that was possible. Annoyed Paddy rolled the man until he was on his back and could see his face. The private opened his eyes and upon seeing Paddy let out a scream. Thankfully the man hadn't broadcast his outburst but the look on his face convinced Paddy to let go sending the private back to his quivering fetal position. By this time the other Wraiths had joined him.
"Maybe we should try someone else Paddy." Offered Phoenix.
"Yea he seems pretty out of it." commented Angel from her perspective on Steels back.
"Donna worry I have a solution for this." Paddy reached into one of his outside pockets and pulled out a flask with a Red Cross on it proclaiming that the contents were supposedly medicinal. Paddy then turned the Private over again and waited for him to scream. When he did Paddy rammed the flask into a special connector on the faceplate, which allowed the user to drink from an outside container. The private's surprise was evident when his eyes seemed to bug out of their sockets. The man only held his shocked face for a few moments before the stuff kicked in seeming to calm him down greatly. After about two more seconds Paddy removed the flask and returned it to a pocket.
"Now then private," asked Paddy putting emphasis on the mans lower rank, "perhaps you could tell us what happened here and give us a few directions?" Paddy inquired.
"You mean you *hic* don't *hic* know?" he responded. Paddy motioned to his broken leg with a crutch and told him.
"We've been otherwise occupied lad, now what happened?" the man looked up at Paddy and seemingly tried very hard to remember the events of the last few hours momentarily before the light bulb went off.
"We were attacked *hic* by unknowns piloting stolen vehicles, a large group of them *hic* broke through the northern defenses and attacked here. I was *hic* on patrol duty when they came, I'm the *hic* only man left in my platoon....." the private would have gone on further if Slayer hadn't chosen then to intervene.
"Private we're in need of a medical facility could you point us in the right direction?" asked Slayer. The private looked like he was about to respond when his eyes suddenly glazed over, closed, and he fell asleep. Slayer attempted to verbally wake him but all he could get out of the man was a snore.
"Paddy what the hell was in that flask?" Slayer asked while trying to prod the man awake.
"Oh just a wee concoction me mother used to use on me when I was a rowdy young lad," Paddy responded then scratched his helmet, "mayhaps I over did the dosage a wee bit."
"Is there any way to wake him?" asked Slayer.
"Sir with the amount the lad guzzled leprechauns could be dancin in his jockeys and he'd keep on sleeping. I'd say a minimum of five hours before he wakes." Paddy responded a little embarrassed.
"Great how do we find the med. bay now?" Phoenix asked while clutching her cracked ribs. Slayer said something to Paddy over a private line and the two searched the soldier until Paddy found what they were looking for. He held up a data pad for the Wraiths to see.
"Well it seems the private here was kind enough to lend us a map lass, " Paddy looked over to Slayer who was in the process of dragging the unconscious man to a side building so he wouldn't be run over by patrols, "got our map commander, are we fixed for transportation?"
Slayer sat the private against the wall of a relay bunker and then looked up to Paddy. In response to his question Slayer pressed a button on his belt and behind the Wraiths the two remaining Thunderbolts slowly pulled out of the Equinox then stopped right behind them. The sound of the Thunderbolts engines didn't carry through the thin atmosphere of Core so Slayer pointed behind them to the waiting ships and gave instructions.
"Steel and I will pilot those Thunderbolts while the rest of you sit and ride." Slayer then climbed into his ship and made ready to depart when the first comment came as the others climbed on.
"Slayer are you crazy, didn't you see what Steel did to the last Thunderbolt?" that joking objection sounded like Pyro and it wasn't long before Steel looked over to him and put his hands on his hips which wasn't easy with Angel on his shoulders.
" At least *I* got my ship to the extraction point. I remember you having to walk and just for that you carry Angel to the med. bay"
"Yippee!" came the unexcited reply from Angel.
"Point taken giver here" Steel did just that handing her off and climbing into the ship while closing the canopy. The Wraiths then jumped onto the noses of the Thunderbolts with Angel and Pyro on Steels ship and Phoenix and Paddy on Slayers. Slayer took the lead since he had the actual map driving them past old hulls and bio metal mining stations until he came upon an entrance to Cloud-9's extensive tunnel system.
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It turned out the tunnels weren't in any better shape than the rest of the base with cave ins and wreckage everywhere. Eventually they came to a stop in front of another cave in and with a door to their right. Slayer signaled the Wraiths and they all jumped out and moved to the door except for Steel and Slayer who reached into their cockpits to pull out a total of five black boxes before joining everyone else at the door.
Before Slayer reached for the pad to enter the med. bay he pressed another button on his belt that sent the ships on autopilot to the nearest service bay some distance from where they now stood. Pyro watched them leave and started to chuckle to himself.
"Commander Williams is gonna throw a hissy fit when he sees what we did to his ships." said Pyro referring to Gold Squadrons commander who's temper tantrums sometimes rivaled that of General Alistars especially when his ships were "borrowed" and then only a few returned.
"More likely he'll try to have us drawn and quartered." replied Paddy from his side. "Is anybody home Slayer?" Paddy asked.
"Lets find out" answered Slayer as he walked up and punched in a code on the numeric pad to the door then waited while the computer summoned medical personnel. Seconds later the cool crisp voice of a woman answered.
"This is Dr. Emrid please identify" Slayer pushed a button on the panel to respond.
"Commander Tim Robertson with Wraith squadron requesting medical services."
"Oh it's you Slayer, go ahead and step inside." The Wraiths looked to the side where the door opened into the decontamination chamber. They stepped inside and the doors sealed. Those that could went over to the wall and did the usual spread eagle while the chemicals were sprayed. Paddy stood on his good leg and made out as best he could while Angel just sat up against wall not bothering to exert herself. They closed their eyes when the chemicals stopped and the flash came to dry them off. Environmental pumps came online and in five minutes explosive decompression was no longer a concern. Paddy removed his helmet while the other Wraiths did the same and helped Angel with hers. Slayer walked up to the exit door and typed in another code that opened it revealing the pristine white medical bay which seemed to be half full at the moment with hysterical soldiers like the one they had met outside.
As soon as the doors opened nurses rushed in to hurry away Angel and Paddy who had the worst injuries. The others were pushed to a communal shower where they disrobed and put up the equipment they brought with them and fed their battle suits to a machine that would repair any damage done during deployment while the Wraiths got cleaned up and checked out. After they finished washing up the squadron was issued disposable hospital robes to be used until their clothes came back from the machine. The nurses sat them down on med. beds and summoned the doctors to come and fix them up before rushing off to prepare another batch of pilots and soldiers that arrived.
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The Wraiths had been lucky to escape the trap set for them with only the injuries they had. All of them ended up with cracked ribs of different severity. In addition Paddy had bent his leg pretty bad and had to submerge it for an extended time in a nutrient bath to heal it. Though the treatment was supposed to cure him completely his leg was still tender and he was ordered to go easy on it for a few days. Angel had in fact been suffering from internal bleeding and a great deal of broken bones that required her to stay for extended treatment. Slayer remembered when Dr. Emrid gave them the news.
"Srgt. Simmons will have to spend twenty four hours in the hibernation regenerator other than that I hereby pronounce the rest of you cured and free to go." the Wraiths all shuddered slightly at the mention of the "hibernation regenerator" or Jell-O mold as it was known in layman's terms. Though the machine could perform medical miracles it was still an unpleasant feeling to be floating stark naked in a tube filled with cold wiggly goo and only a tube stuck down your throat for air. After the patients had been revived it left them with the feeling of millions of bugs crawling around under their skin for hours. It was a feeling that all the Wraiths had unfortunately aquatinted themselves with before and one that they tried to avoid at all costs. After they had been given back their suits and had dressed the Wraiths minus one walked out of the med. bay sliding their pulse riffles back into their holsters while clutching their helmets in one hand and black boxes in the other. With Slayer and his map in the lead they walked down the endless halls intent on finding their barracks.
All around them they could see signs of a struggle in the corridors with some of the light fixtures blown out from power surges and weapon scorches everywhere resulting from a heated firefight. There was the occasional bloodstain marking where bodies had fallen and then were removed and judging by the smell both Human and Scions had been burned up in here. It didn't take too long to find their barracks since the halls were strangely uncrowded and Phoenix had the foresight to hang up the squadron crest on the entrance door when they first arrived. Inside they expected to find the children sleeping or still settling in after a hard day of fighting instead what they found was a darkened room devoid of all signs of inhabitants. After staring in shock for a few moments the Wraiths put their gear on one of the cots then went in and searched for any of the newbies or any sign of their gear. Finding none they all scratched their heads in confusion. Pyro was the first to speak out.
"Where the hell did everybody go?" and then as if on cue a shape detached itself from the wall and seemed to walk in their direction. Slayer's hand was halfway to his holstered riffle before he realized who it was but the rest of the Wraiths had no such knowledge and drew their weapons to shoot. Before they could blast the Padisha into tiny bits Slayer leaped out to the shape and pulled it to the ground using his body to cover Burns.
"Don't shoot!" Slayer shouted from atop Burns directly back at the Wraiths. The others blinked in surprise but then reluctantly reholstered their weapons. Slayer stood and helped the Padisha who had long since decloaked to his feet.. "Damnit Burns thats a good way to get yourself whacked!" Slayer scolded.
"Sorry but I could not resist seeing the looks on your faces." chuckled Burns. He then noticed that the troops were standing there with dumbfounded looks on their faces and quickly relieved Slayer of the responsibility of having to explain. "How rude of myself," he said turning to the Wraiths assembled before him, "I am Padisha Burns of the Scion collective." Burns held out a hand in greeting and the other Wraiths warily took it one by one.
"Pleased to make your acquaintance Burns, sorry about almost filling you with holes a second ago." offered Pyro as he shook
"Please don't be I keep forgetting the reaction that trick brings from the elite personnel." Burns admitted a little ashamedly.
"Just answer me two things Burns," interrupted Slayer, "1). What the hell are you doing here and 2). Where's the rest of my squadron?"
Burns looked past the Wraiths and motioned with his hand to a shadowy corner of the barracks room. "That's what I asked him but he wanted to wait till you were here."
A collective "Who" resounded through the Wraiths as they looked to the corner. Then from out of the shadows a figure emerged and stepped into the light revealing itself to be General Alistar.
"Good to see you're all alive and kicking." offered Alistar.
"Same here sir." responded Slayer walking up to Alistar and shaking hands his questions momentarily forgotten. Alistar motioned for the Wraiths to sit down on the cots. They complied and looked upon Alistar expectantly.
"Now to answer your questions Slayer the Padisha and I are here because we have new operational orders for you that I cant trust to send over the com. lines. But before I get to that your probobly interested as to why half your squadron is missing."
"Quite so." answered Slayer while crossing his arms.
"I'm afraid that due to manpower shortages caused from the recent attack we've had to reassign your troops to fill in the gaps and it doesn't look like you'll be getting them back any time soon. For now you'll have to stay a six-member squadron until we can get new recruits to fill in the holes. I might be able to get you a support group to help reinforce you but chances a pretty slim." Alistar finished.
Slayer wasn't too surprised since enlistment had been at an all time low during the Scion war and many people were lost but he was extremely unhappy that his reinforcements were being reassigned. It had been hard enough to pry away new recruits from the AAN for a Spec Ops squadron, a squadron which they had a history of disliking, but to actually get them some ships to fly had taken nothing short of divine intervention. Slayer knew there was no point in arguing and quietly sat back feverently hoping that maybe there would be some good news in this briefing to counter the bad. Alistar eyed him for a second to make sure didn't have anything to say and then continued.
"Now the reason for all the secrecy is that I'm going to put you on to full time duty as soon as you've recovered which means your officially going back to non-existent status effective immediately." Alistar handed Slayer a pad with some official mumbo jumbo on it that essentially said his squadron was now a black ops unit that answered only to the ISDF.
"Sir were only rendered a black unit under wartime conditions. If I may ask sir who did we declare war on?" inquired Slayer looking down at the document to see if the words had changed since the last time he had seen them at the start of the first Scion war.
"We were hoping you could tell us. I'm sure you noticed all those old skeletons outside."
"Yes sir we did." replied Slayer.
"Well you'll be semi-happy to know that most of those hulks weren't piloted by our men. We confirmed that all are stolen units though to this point we don't know who or what is responsible. Thats where you come in." Alistar motioned to the black boxes piled on the cots, "judging by the conditions you were in when you arrived I'm sure you've gathered some interesting intelligence data."
"Oh that we have sir." offered Paddy.
"Right then," said Alistar while turning to leave, "I'll expect a full report in two hours. Take that time to decipher what you got and then meet me in room 234a for the AAR meeting until then I bid you all good luck and goodbye," Alistar turned to Burns who had taken to examining the ceiling during Alistars briefing, "Come along Padisha I have a few more stops for us to make." Burns complied and soon the two had exited the room headed off to handle more errands they couldn't trust to the comm lines.
Slayer looked at his timer in the HUD and then motioned for the other Wraiths to gather around for their assignments. "Okay here's how we'll do it. Phoenix and I will examine the photographs taken and see if we can figure out how Centurion-4 was attacked. Pyro I need you to take your samples down to forensics and get some lab results," Slayer looked over to Steel and Paddy who would end up with the worst jobs of all, "Paddy and Steel will sift through all the sensor data and see if you can get anything useful out of it. You have your assignments get'em done and meet up with everyone in room 234a in one hour fifty nine minutes." Slayer concluded.
The Wraiths complied and moments later they had dug out their maps from their personal gear left behind in the barracks and moved out to find some answers to questions too deadly to ignore.
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"You have failed me." The voice declared from across the room. Dimity could only prepare himself for the onslaught that was sure to come. Moments later it did in the form of a blade whooshing through the air and penetrating through his midsection slicing him in half. The pain was incredible but Dimitry knew the High Master was being slightly merciful to him seeing as he had served so well in the past. In truth he felt a sort of guilt for receiving such mercy since he had been present for the punishment of his former commander when he too displeased the High Master and saw just what he thought of failure. An immense pain more intense than anything he had experienced replaced the hurt from his halfing and filled his entire being to the core. Dimitry felt no anger at being punished; he had failed the High Master and deserved everything that was coming to him.
The horrible sensation seemed to continue on for endless cycles before it gradually subsided and Dimitry was left quivering on the floor without legs to move him only able to use his arms so he could face the High Master and receive the rest of his rightful punishment. But surprisingly no more pain came forth and Dimitry was left for a few nervous moments wondering if he were already dead. The moment was broken when from out of the darkness a figure floated into a pillar of light, the only light source currently in the room, and stood there its face still hidden in shadows but definately looking at him seeming to be deciding his fate. After a few seconds the High Master turned his back to him and spoke in a low dangerous tone reserved only for those who had wronged him.
"Consider this a warning Dimitry. Don't fail me again." Declared the High Master. Seconds later a small horde of Drones came into the chamber to take what was left of Dimitry to the healer where he would be repaired and returned to duty. As the final pieces of Field Commander Dimitry were carried away the doors shut behind the exiting Drones leaving the High Master to his own thoughts.
Had he been capable of it the High Master might of felt a twinge of guilt for punishing Dimitry. After all he had preformed brilliantly in attempting to wipe out the Human and Scion scum that infested this world that was rightfully his. But he had failed to eliminate the ISDF command center as ordered when he foolishly attempted to destroy the entire spaceport with a multi-pronged attack on all sides instead of a concentrated rush. Though he did manage to inflict some heavy casualties the vermin would reinforce with outside troops just as the High Master had hoped but it would still be organized and much faster with the their HQ intact. In truth the High Master never expected Dimitry to succeed in his task of destroying the command center seeing as how he was always a bit impulsive but all of his other capable Field Commanders were busy at the moment with something more important.
Dimitry's punishment was largely for the failure to destroy the scouts that had come to investigate the pacified ISDF outpost. Their escape ment his plans would have to be rushed along before the intelligence they had gathered revealed whom they were fighting against. If they knew who their enemy really was they would no doubt bring in everything in their collective arsenals to drive him away again. Time now was of the essence; he would have to tell his Field Commanders to step up production in preparation for the purge.
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At the appointed time in room 234a the Wraiths gathered for the AAR (after action review) meeting. The sizeable load of data and physical evidence they had returned with was now reduced after two hours of work into small compact data disks to be used during their presentation. Inside they took their seats at the rectangular table and waited for Padisha Burns and General Alistar to arrive. A minute later one of the doors opened and Burns walked in and took a seat at the end of the table. Beyond the door Alistar was in the process if dressing down a lieutenant for not having some sensor repaired due to laziness or something else along that line. After a few prolonged seconds of shouting fast running steps could be heard moving down the corridor outside moving away from the meeting room. Alistar came in and took his seat next to Burns after the steps had faded away. This was Slayers cue to start the presentation.
Slayer depressed a button on the tabletop and the lights dimmed. In the center of the table a panel slid away and a projector was raised pointing at the wall. Slayer got up and inserted his data disk into a side slot. The projector hummed for a brief moment while it absorbed the data then cast a picture on the darkened wall. The image projected was essentially a terrain map of detailing their operation with symbols to mark where something had happened. He took about five minutes to explain the basic out line of events from the insertion right up to the extraction in the middle of a freefall.
At the end of his speech Slayer turned the presentation over to Phoenix who inserted her disk and proceeded to go over the visual data garnered from their inspection of Centurion-4.
"I took the images you see here and ran them through the weapons database to see if there were any way to identify the weapon used and came up with a few surprising results."
"Such as?" inquired Alistar.
"The weapon marks on the buildings are remarkably similar to the ones left behind by Scion lightning weaponry but not identical. In fact the damage shows remarkable similarity to a weapon called the Bolt Buddy used near the end of the Scrap Wars in the 60's." At the mention of that weapon Alistar and Burns seemed to wince with remembered dread at what those cannons had been capable of. After all both of them had been at one time commanders of a squadron and had the bad luck of facing them in the field. Phoenix allowed a few seconds to pass before moving on.
"Further more I have located evidence of other Scrap War weaponry on numerous buildings throughout the complex," she pushed a button on her hand held remote changing it to a view of three different structures, "this damage here for instance appears to have been caused by a fusion beam more commonly known as a Solar Flare," she pointed to another picture of a wall that must have looked like Swiss cheese before it was hastily patched up, "and here we can see evidence of damage done by primitive AT and SP stabbers" Phoenix would have gone on if Burns hadn't interrupted then.
"Are you saying that all the weapons used against Centurion-4 were are from the Scrap War?"
"I can safely say that the vast majority of them are sir. There are some others present as well that we haven't been able to identify but it is now a fact that no modern weapons were employed against Centurion-4."
"Shows us a picture of the unidentified weapon marks." Ordered Alistar. Phoenix complied and the picture was changed to one showing a wall with three easily visible gashes.
"Those look like claw marks." commented Burns.
"Yes thats what I think are but as to what made them I don't have a clue," Phoenix answered and then reached to remove her disk from the projector, "If theres no other questions I believe my part of the presentation is over," Phoenix took one last look to make sure there were actually no more questions then removed her disk from the projector and took her seat.
Next up was Pyro to explain the forensic evidence found at the scene. He inserted his disk and used an old targeting laser now converted to a temporary laser pen to outline what he had found.
"It appears as though the enemy took control of the environmental systems and somehow and flooded the base with Core's atmosphere. Based upon the remains of the bodies it effectively killed off all the personnel who weren't wearing pressure suits. Those who did survive regrouped in the mess hall and tried to make a last stand. From the evidence left behind whatever weapon they used on them was fired twice. Once to kill the survivors and once again to burn the corpses that remained after their attack." He finished his report and waited for the questions to come.
"Can you identify the weapons used?" asked Alistar.
"Not with any certainty sir," replied Pyro who pressed a button on the remote device for the projector to bring up another picture, "as you can see from the condition of the flesh the marks resemble Scion lighting weaponry and the old Blot Buddy from the Scrap Wars. However the marks differ too much from existing records for me to think that the weapon was either. My conclusion is that this is a variation of the Arc cannon employed by Scion Titans but on a small scale." Pyro stood and waited to see if there were any more questions. Surprisingly there weren't and he was allowed to sit. That left Paddy and Steel whit the sensor data collected from Centurion-4s Ops center.
The duo made their way up to the projector and inserted their disks. Paddy and Steel then took up positions on either side of the screen for presentation purposes. Alistar nodded to them to start. Steel spoke up first.
"Ja Herr General" at hearing this Slayer's interest suddenly peaked a little higher. One of Steels character traits was that his German accent got slightly thicker when he was nervous. He and Paddy must have uncovered something interesting. "We managed to recover little of the data left behind in the Ops center. Apparently someone scorched the data coils so we were unable to uncover any video or audio data but the radar logs were mostly intact." Steel pressed a button and the projector ran a sped up clip of the radar logs over the last few hours. At first the only thing displayed were the symbols representing the various buildings then the symbols started to change color indicating they were under attack but the radar failed to pick up any other ships in the area save for the base defenders which maneuvered about wildly. Eventually the outer defenses all turned black and the radar cut off replaced by static. The clip ended and Paddy stepped forward to explain what everyone had seen.
"Now what you saw was the first ten minutes of the attack against Centurion-4. After the attackers penetrated the front defenses we lose all data. The rest of the files are corrupt beyond recovery, which can be attributed to the data scorching. What we canna put aside however is that the radar and failed to pick up any attacking craft. This implies that the craft had a cloaking device of some sort." Alistar then interrupted with a question.
"Is there any record of the vehicles that attacked."
Paddy shifted his weight slightly, which for those who knew him ment he was reluctant to answer the question. Steel saved him the trouble. "There was one picture that survived the scorching Herr General," Steel said in an even heavier accent, "it apparently was taken by a helmet cam. The picture itself is a little blurry and only shows a small section of the attacking ship but one detail stands out." Steel pushed a button on the remote and projected the image onto the wall.
The room was silent for a moment when the picture was displayed. The Wraiths simply stared in mute shock. Burn's jaw dropped. Alistar remained expressionless but his face had gone pale. The background was a blurry gray section of the hull taken as the ship flew by at what had to be an alarmingly fast pace. But displayed prominently on the center was symbol not painted on any known craft for over forty years. The demonic silhouette, the blood red eyes and the red star all resembled an identification marking for a squadron thought to have been eliminated. But there it was right there in front of them and the reappearance of that marking could possibly mean only two things. That somebody was playing a sick joke.
Or that the Furies were back.
***********
Slayer walked down the corridor in silence. Like a man about to be executed he made his way to the base canteen. Right now he could use a stiff drink. Before he went inside he checked himself in his helmet faceplate. After seeing what the enemy could do to a bases air supply he wasn't about to go anywhere without his suit. Slayer put on a fake smile so as to disguise his unhappy demeanor and walked in.
The canteen was not its usual self; Slayer realized that at once. For one thing there weren't any drinking contests going on between the Scion and Human personnel. For another thing the room was only a dull roar of noise as opposed to the blasts of sound that could easily be felt outside. There were also fewer patrons then the norm and none of them were unconscious on the floor. Slayer made his way to the bar table and ordered up a drink. One of the perks the ISDF offered was rationed but free liquor. Slayer took his drink and walked into the center of the room but an all too familiar voice stopped him.
"Slayer what the hell are you doing here? Hasn't the AAN canned your ass yet?" Slayer stopped and slowly turned around to greet the only person who could possibly have said it. There off in one of the corner booths sat Sahra "Kaeli" O'Harra commander of Hellfire squadron with a drink in one hand and a data pad in the other. For the first time since the AAR meeting Slayer allowed himself a smile that was not forced. He walked over to the booth and greeted her with a hug.
"Kaeli how the hell are you? Haven't heard from you since Polar Glory."
"I'm fine as could be expected I guess. Fortunate that I ran into you." Kaeli said as she and Slayer took a seat.
"Why is that?" Slayer inquired.
"Take a look" Kaeli handed Slayer the data pad she had been reading over earlier. Slayer gave it a brief glance and then glanced at it again. Quickly he skimmed the top to find out where the orders had originated.
"General Alistar," Slayer mused, "the old mans been busy I see." Slayer just couldn't believe his luck. The support squadron Alistar promised he would try to get was going to be Hellfire squadron. Though they were a front line unit Hellfire had always been a competent lot. They would have to adapt to black ops pretty quickly but it really wasn't that big of an adjustment and Slayer had worked with them before. Hellfire would do just fine for his purposes. Slayer looked up from the pad and offered Kaeli a handshake.
"Welcome to the world that doesn't exist Kaeli." The CO of the Hellfire's shook Slayers hand and resumed consuming her beverage. When she finished Kaeli gave Slayer an inquisitive stare.
"Now that we're officially on the same level perhaps you can tell me where you were during the recent battle." Slayer pondered over how he should answer that one. General Alistar had ordered the Wraiths to secrecy about what they had found at Centurion-4 and technically Kaeli wasn't on his level yet. There would be at least an hours worth of tricky paper shuffling before the Hellfires could be considered a black ops unit. Slayer decided that for the moment a creative lie would suffice.
"We were right here in the base providing internal security. Our ships have yet to arrive you know an-"
"Oh come on Slayer do you really expect me to believe that? I know for a fact that if you Wraiths were within fifty klicks of the base you'd be the first ones out ships or not blowing the shit out of everything in sight." Slayer shrank back a little. He obviously could not lie to this woman. She simply knew him and his squadron too well. Best to get her up to speed now before her natural curiosity took over completely.
"Alright since you'll be working with us anyway I guess you need to be brought up to full awareness but not here. I'd rather not let what we've been up to spread around," Slayer motioned towards the door, "lets us find a more secluded place to talk shop." Kaeli nodded her head.
"Fine with me. Follow my lead Slayer I already have a spot picked out for just such a purpose." Kaeli stood up and walked towards the exit red tightly braided pony tail swishing behind her. Slayer downed the remains of his drink and followed after her. Slayer shook his head as he jogged to catch up. She just knew him too damn well.
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End part 3..........
The ISDF WANTS
YOU!
Serve your planet and become a member of elite.
We are in desperate need for members of Hellfire Squadron. If you are interested you can leave a description of how you act and look and what you'd like to be in the story in the reviews or you could e-mail your local recruiter Admiral Kelley (his address is in his author profile)with the required information
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Hot damn another installment is finished! So now you know who the enemy is but what are they capable of and why are they hell bent on slaughtering the good guys? These questions and more will be answered in part4 of BATTLEZONE II: LOST LEGACY by Admiral Kelley.
Hope you all liked this part especially you Kaeli my one and only volunteer. All of you feel free to leave an honest review or creative lie hell you can even e-mail me with suggestions if you want though I know its not likely to happen.
Part 3
Please observe that I don't own anything that originated from the Activision game Battlezone II and anything else is completely mine and is subject to my own unique brand of copyright law. Those who try to rip off my story or steal any of my ideas without at least mentioning where you got them in your story monologue will result in me sending a crack team of highly paid lawyers addicted to human flesh to come rip you apart piece by piece. Now with the legal crap out of the way I encourage you to sitback, relax, and enjoy reading Battlezone II: Lost legacy pt3 by Admiral Kelley and you are still encouraged to send me honest reviews or creative lies depending upon the content of your opinion so I can make part four better.
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Many thanks to those souls brave enough to e-mail me some helpful ideas as well as those of you who put your reputation on the line by endorsing my story with a signed review. Your opinions have all been considered and those that were feasible were integrated into the tale.
A note to Kaeli: Thank you for volunteering to become a soldier in the ISDF army. Your in this part but for the moment you don't get too much "fic time". I have plans for you in the later installments ::evil laugh::. Hope you enjoy what I've written.
There they were. The enemy convoy Intel had been tracking for a week coming over the hill slowly alert for any enemy activity. The escorts consisted of a few Sentry fighters and a single platoon of Warriors all with scanners on full not that it would do any good. The commander of this convoy had all of his escorts out ahead of the transports as they entered the canyon ahead of them.....rookie. The unseen figure who had watched them arrive pulled his eyes away from his binoculars and used a special flashlight to signal another hidden ally behind a cluster of rocks in a Sabre along the rim of the canyon. He then resumed his observation and waited. Just as the escorts fully entered the canyon a huge earthquake shook the ground so violently one of the canyon walls dislodged itself and came tumbling down between the transports and their escorting craft. Seconds later another blast shook the ground and the rock pile the far off Sabre had been using for cover slid down the wall and added to the mess. In less than a minute the convoys defenses had effectively been cut off from the transports leaving them vulnerable. This is just what the hidden attackers had been waiting for.
"Do it Wraiths!" said a voice over the radio and on cue four objects that had been rocks suddenly flashed and were reveled to be Sabres. The eight transports of the convoy halted in momentary confusion, which turned out to be their last mistake. Eight snipers then made their presence known by blasting away the transports pilots leaving smoking holes in the canopy and smoking corpses in the cockpit. The eight figures jumped from the ridges and flew down on makeshift parachutes each landing in front of a different transport. One of those figures was Tim Robertson.
Robertson threw open the door to the transport in front of him and push out the corpse before getting in. Once done he made a quick check to see if he had shot something important and after coming up clean waited for the commanders order to move out. Looking around Robertson saw that he had been the first one finished and sat back for a quick breather while the rest of his squad mates prepared to depart for the extraction point with a wealth of intelligence information in the form of weapons and ammunition in the cargo beds of these transports. This was one of the rare instances where they could take their time since the escorts were trapped behind that rockslide in the canyon. That same rockslide also prevented the base at the end of the canyon from sending reinforcements to greet them. According to Intel this convoy had been poorly guarded and ripe for the plucking with nary a Scion for kilometers around to bother them. Robertson was pulled back to the present by his commanders gruff voice.
"Wraiths lets move it to extraction!"
"I'm all for that, this place has me skin crawlin." came another voice that had to be Jack O'Riley in one of the other transports, and with that all twelve pilots turned away and flew for the extraction point.
The Wraiths had been backtracking the convoys path for five minutes when they came upon a small hill. Thinking nothing of it they flew up and over it..... and right into the convoys supposedly non-existent rear guard composed of a very large number of Titans and Warriors. Before the Wraiths could react the Titans fired off their Arc cannons and melted a quarter of the squadron.
"Wraiths fall back to secondary E.P.!" shouted the commander in his Sabre. Just as they were turning the Titans second volley found their mark vaporizing both the CO and XO as the others ran.
It was pure hell for Robertson who had to flee in a bulky slow transport thats only good point right now was it was faster than the Titans and would soon get him out of range. Then the radar screen in the cockpit beeped informing him that there were new units within sensor range. Since the transport was a Scion craft his squadron was in red while the other Scions were displayed as green and right now half the screen was blotted out with solid green advancing towards him. Throwing a glance at the rear view camera he saw the enemy come over the hill behind him like rushing water but there was something wrong with them.
Peering closer one would see that they were not Scion craft but horrible multi legged monsters with snapping jaws and blood red eyes running after him with their intent clearly stated by the rapid quivering of sharp jaws as they approached him with mad hunger in their eyes. Robertson dodged his ship left and right as fast as it would go but the monsters behind him just sped up until one of them had pulled even with him. In a swift movement one of its tentacles whipped out and into the cockpit yanking him through the canopy. Robertson felt himself being thrown in the air and just as suddenly he started to fall. Gazing down he could see the creature waiting for him with open jaws. Robertson slapped his thigh in an attempt to activate his jetpack but to no avail. He plunged downwards until he landed within the things mouth and its jaws snapped shut sealing him in darkness.
Slayer's eyes snapped open and for a brief moment franticly searched for a way out of the things mouth until he realized where he was. Slayer glanced around to see that he was still within the Equinox's cargo bay and all the other Wraiths were catching some much needed shuteye. Underneath him he could feel the rumble of the Equinox's massive engines through the deckplates and he once again leaned back against his Thunderbolt to relax. The nightmare he had was in fact one of Wraith squadrons first missions ever when it was commissioned under the leadership of Commander Martin Freeman and his XO Lieutenant Charlie White. Except for the monsters his dream was a pretty accurate depiction of what had happened. They were sent to capture the convoy for intelligence purposes and their escape route was thought to be clear but unfortunately the convoy had picked up a rear guard along the way composed of a mess of Titans and Warriors that obliterated a good chunk of the squadron on the first engagement.
The Wraiths had turned tail and ran for it which prompted more losses, in the end all the Sabres were lost and Slayer was the only one who managed to get a transport to the extraction point. All the other surviving Wraiths, Paddy, Pyro, Angel, Phoenix, and Steel had to dump their transports then jetpack it to the dropships.
Slayer then suddenly wondered exactly what time it was. Using the Thunderbolt for support he hoisted himself up and gave his helmet a soft tap activating his faceplate HUD which displayed his own body condition as well as the option to examine the other Wraiths conditions though he rarely had to use it. Slayer chuckled to himself at the thought of the millions of dollars that went into designing and manufacturing computerized suits capable of relaying to soldiers all kinds of info only to have the soldiers use it for telling time and rarely anything else. After his suit conferred with the Equinox's computer the current time was prominently displayed and now the internal computer would keep track of it until such time as he shut the HUD down. It was currently 0100 which ment he'd been asleep for almost four hours. That ment the Equinox should be within sight of Cloud-9 and prepping to land. Slayer's guess was confirmed when moments later the ship made a hard turn to port sending the unprepared Slayer to greet the floor and rousing the other Wraiths out of their sleep. First up were Steel and Pyro both of whom had escaped without serious injury followed shortly by Phoenix who only suffered from some fractured ribs.
Angel and Paddy, however, had no such luck during the mission. Paddy who had broken his right leg crawled over to Phoenix's Thunderbolt and hoisted himself to a leaning position. He reached down and carefully tapped his broken leg to be sure his suits temporary cast was holding up. After he was sure the cast was in perfect condition he picked up his make shift crutches courtesy of Pyro who still felt kinda bad for landing on him and hobbled over to Slayer's fighter where the other Wraiths were gathering. Angel unfortunately had been the victim of multiple broken ribs, a sprained ankle, and if her suits bio-sensor wasn't faulty some internal bleeding. Since she couldn't move under her own power due feeling like shit Steel hoisted her up and carried her which could have been painful if Angels suit hadn't released some pain-killers into her bloodstream beforehand.
Slayer had just gotten up and regained his footing on the now angled floor when the ship made another abrupt turn and leveled off. This time Slayer managed to grab hold of his Thunderbolt and kept from having a reunion with the floor. The others adapted the same way except for Steel who was unbalanced with Angel on his shoulders and nearly fell before Pyro caught him by his suit and kept him up. The rumbling of the deckplates eventually grew softer as the ship dropped down to the landing pad below. There was the usual final flare of engine power which ment the pilot was thinking of her living cargo for once and then the muted thump as the cargo bay contacted the ground and the ship quivered slightly making herself comfortable. Since the Wraiths still had their life support suits on and the bay had not been filled with human friendly atmosphere the pilot skipped the usual depressurization procedure and flipped the switch to open the doors. The doors swung open revealing to them a Cloud-9 that was not familiar.
The whole base look like, and definately had been, a battlezone. Strewn all about were the incinerated hulls of countless ships some of them burned beyond recognition. Throughout the base Scion and ISDF scavengers rolled along collecting the bio-metal scrap and clearing traffic arteries clogged by useless hulks. Human and Scion personnel were running everywhere leading Healers and Service trucks to repair the damage done to the buildings.
Slayer looked about to find somebody in authority to tell give them directions when a patrol of Attilas marched past causing the ground to shake in their presence. All of them had deep craters and scorch marks everywhere with bits of armor looking like it had been chewed on. Following in their wake was a running soldier who seemed to be moving eraticly around the base. Slayer thought it best to question somebody else but apparently Paddy didn't for he took action by calmly walking out and trying to flag the man down with no success. Paddy then stood closely to the side of the soldiers path and when the man ran by again Paddy shifted his weight to his left foot and stuck out a crutch sending the frantic runner to the ground.
Upon impacting the private curled into the fetal position and refused to move, only curling up as tight as he could.
"Were in a bit of a situation lad do you think you could give us a hand?" asked Paddy while prodding him with his crutch. The private refused to answer and only curled up tighter if that was possible. Annoyed Paddy rolled the man until he was on his back and could see his face. The private opened his eyes and upon seeing Paddy let out a scream. Thankfully the man hadn't broadcast his outburst but the look on his face convinced Paddy to let go sending the private back to his quivering fetal position. By this time the other Wraiths had joined him.
"Maybe we should try someone else Paddy." Offered Phoenix.
"Yea he seems pretty out of it." commented Angel from her perspective on Steels back.
"Donna worry I have a solution for this." Paddy reached into one of his outside pockets and pulled out a flask with a Red Cross on it proclaiming that the contents were supposedly medicinal. Paddy then turned the Private over again and waited for him to scream. When he did Paddy rammed the flask into a special connector on the faceplate, which allowed the user to drink from an outside container. The private's surprise was evident when his eyes seemed to bug out of their sockets. The man only held his shocked face for a few moments before the stuff kicked in seeming to calm him down greatly. After about two more seconds Paddy removed the flask and returned it to a pocket.
"Now then private," asked Paddy putting emphasis on the mans lower rank, "perhaps you could tell us what happened here and give us a few directions?" Paddy inquired.
"You mean you *hic* don't *hic* know?" he responded. Paddy motioned to his broken leg with a crutch and told him.
"We've been otherwise occupied lad, now what happened?" the man looked up at Paddy and seemingly tried very hard to remember the events of the last few hours momentarily before the light bulb went off.
"We were attacked *hic* by unknowns piloting stolen vehicles, a large group of them *hic* broke through the northern defenses and attacked here. I was *hic* on patrol duty when they came, I'm the *hic* only man left in my platoon....." the private would have gone on further if Slayer hadn't chosen then to intervene.
"Private we're in need of a medical facility could you point us in the right direction?" asked Slayer. The private looked like he was about to respond when his eyes suddenly glazed over, closed, and he fell asleep. Slayer attempted to verbally wake him but all he could get out of the man was a snore.
"Paddy what the hell was in that flask?" Slayer asked while trying to prod the man awake.
"Oh just a wee concoction me mother used to use on me when I was a rowdy young lad," Paddy responded then scratched his helmet, "mayhaps I over did the dosage a wee bit."
"Is there any way to wake him?" asked Slayer.
"Sir with the amount the lad guzzled leprechauns could be dancin in his jockeys and he'd keep on sleeping. I'd say a minimum of five hours before he wakes." Paddy responded a little embarrassed.
"Great how do we find the med. bay now?" Phoenix asked while clutching her cracked ribs. Slayer said something to Paddy over a private line and the two searched the soldier until Paddy found what they were looking for. He held up a data pad for the Wraiths to see.
"Well it seems the private here was kind enough to lend us a map lass, " Paddy looked over to Slayer who was in the process of dragging the unconscious man to a side building so he wouldn't be run over by patrols, "got our map commander, are we fixed for transportation?"
Slayer sat the private against the wall of a relay bunker and then looked up to Paddy. In response to his question Slayer pressed a button on his belt and behind the Wraiths the two remaining Thunderbolts slowly pulled out of the Equinox then stopped right behind them. The sound of the Thunderbolts engines didn't carry through the thin atmosphere of Core so Slayer pointed behind them to the waiting ships and gave instructions.
"Steel and I will pilot those Thunderbolts while the rest of you sit and ride." Slayer then climbed into his ship and made ready to depart when the first comment came as the others climbed on.
"Slayer are you crazy, didn't you see what Steel did to the last Thunderbolt?" that joking objection sounded like Pyro and it wasn't long before Steel looked over to him and put his hands on his hips which wasn't easy with Angel on his shoulders.
" At least *I* got my ship to the extraction point. I remember you having to walk and just for that you carry Angel to the med. bay"
"Yippee!" came the unexcited reply from Angel.
"Point taken giver here" Steel did just that handing her off and climbing into the ship while closing the canopy. The Wraiths then jumped onto the noses of the Thunderbolts with Angel and Pyro on Steels ship and Phoenix and Paddy on Slayers. Slayer took the lead since he had the actual map driving them past old hulls and bio metal mining stations until he came upon an entrance to Cloud-9's extensive tunnel system.
*******
It turned out the tunnels weren't in any better shape than the rest of the base with cave ins and wreckage everywhere. Eventually they came to a stop in front of another cave in and with a door to their right. Slayer signaled the Wraiths and they all jumped out and moved to the door except for Steel and Slayer who reached into their cockpits to pull out a total of five black boxes before joining everyone else at the door.
Before Slayer reached for the pad to enter the med. bay he pressed another button on his belt that sent the ships on autopilot to the nearest service bay some distance from where they now stood. Pyro watched them leave and started to chuckle to himself.
"Commander Williams is gonna throw a hissy fit when he sees what we did to his ships." said Pyro referring to Gold Squadrons commander who's temper tantrums sometimes rivaled that of General Alistars especially when his ships were "borrowed" and then only a few returned.
"More likely he'll try to have us drawn and quartered." replied Paddy from his side. "Is anybody home Slayer?" Paddy asked.
"Lets find out" answered Slayer as he walked up and punched in a code on the numeric pad to the door then waited while the computer summoned medical personnel. Seconds later the cool crisp voice of a woman answered.
"This is Dr. Emrid please identify" Slayer pushed a button on the panel to respond.
"Commander Tim Robertson with Wraith squadron requesting medical services."
"Oh it's you Slayer, go ahead and step inside." The Wraiths looked to the side where the door opened into the decontamination chamber. They stepped inside and the doors sealed. Those that could went over to the wall and did the usual spread eagle while the chemicals were sprayed. Paddy stood on his good leg and made out as best he could while Angel just sat up against wall not bothering to exert herself. They closed their eyes when the chemicals stopped and the flash came to dry them off. Environmental pumps came online and in five minutes explosive decompression was no longer a concern. Paddy removed his helmet while the other Wraiths did the same and helped Angel with hers. Slayer walked up to the exit door and typed in another code that opened it revealing the pristine white medical bay which seemed to be half full at the moment with hysterical soldiers like the one they had met outside.
As soon as the doors opened nurses rushed in to hurry away Angel and Paddy who had the worst injuries. The others were pushed to a communal shower where they disrobed and put up the equipment they brought with them and fed their battle suits to a machine that would repair any damage done during deployment while the Wraiths got cleaned up and checked out. After they finished washing up the squadron was issued disposable hospital robes to be used until their clothes came back from the machine. The nurses sat them down on med. beds and summoned the doctors to come and fix them up before rushing off to prepare another batch of pilots and soldiers that arrived.
**********
The Wraiths had been lucky to escape the trap set for them with only the injuries they had. All of them ended up with cracked ribs of different severity. In addition Paddy had bent his leg pretty bad and had to submerge it for an extended time in a nutrient bath to heal it. Though the treatment was supposed to cure him completely his leg was still tender and he was ordered to go easy on it for a few days. Angel had in fact been suffering from internal bleeding and a great deal of broken bones that required her to stay for extended treatment. Slayer remembered when Dr. Emrid gave them the news.
"Srgt. Simmons will have to spend twenty four hours in the hibernation regenerator other than that I hereby pronounce the rest of you cured and free to go." the Wraiths all shuddered slightly at the mention of the "hibernation regenerator" or Jell-O mold as it was known in layman's terms. Though the machine could perform medical miracles it was still an unpleasant feeling to be floating stark naked in a tube filled with cold wiggly goo and only a tube stuck down your throat for air. After the patients had been revived it left them with the feeling of millions of bugs crawling around under their skin for hours. It was a feeling that all the Wraiths had unfortunately aquatinted themselves with before and one that they tried to avoid at all costs. After they had been given back their suits and had dressed the Wraiths minus one walked out of the med. bay sliding their pulse riffles back into their holsters while clutching their helmets in one hand and black boxes in the other. With Slayer and his map in the lead they walked down the endless halls intent on finding their barracks.
All around them they could see signs of a struggle in the corridors with some of the light fixtures blown out from power surges and weapon scorches everywhere resulting from a heated firefight. There was the occasional bloodstain marking where bodies had fallen and then were removed and judging by the smell both Human and Scions had been burned up in here. It didn't take too long to find their barracks since the halls were strangely uncrowded and Phoenix had the foresight to hang up the squadron crest on the entrance door when they first arrived. Inside they expected to find the children sleeping or still settling in after a hard day of fighting instead what they found was a darkened room devoid of all signs of inhabitants. After staring in shock for a few moments the Wraiths put their gear on one of the cots then went in and searched for any of the newbies or any sign of their gear. Finding none they all scratched their heads in confusion. Pyro was the first to speak out.
"Where the hell did everybody go?" and then as if on cue a shape detached itself from the wall and seemed to walk in their direction. Slayer's hand was halfway to his holstered riffle before he realized who it was but the rest of the Wraiths had no such knowledge and drew their weapons to shoot. Before they could blast the Padisha into tiny bits Slayer leaped out to the shape and pulled it to the ground using his body to cover Burns.
"Don't shoot!" Slayer shouted from atop Burns directly back at the Wraiths. The others blinked in surprise but then reluctantly reholstered their weapons. Slayer stood and helped the Padisha who had long since decloaked to his feet.. "Damnit Burns thats a good way to get yourself whacked!" Slayer scolded.
"Sorry but I could not resist seeing the looks on your faces." chuckled Burns. He then noticed that the troops were standing there with dumbfounded looks on their faces and quickly relieved Slayer of the responsibility of having to explain. "How rude of myself," he said turning to the Wraiths assembled before him, "I am Padisha Burns of the Scion collective." Burns held out a hand in greeting and the other Wraiths warily took it one by one.
"Pleased to make your acquaintance Burns, sorry about almost filling you with holes a second ago." offered Pyro as he shook
"Please don't be I keep forgetting the reaction that trick brings from the elite personnel." Burns admitted a little ashamedly.
"Just answer me two things Burns," interrupted Slayer, "1). What the hell are you doing here and 2). Where's the rest of my squadron?"
Burns looked past the Wraiths and motioned with his hand to a shadowy corner of the barracks room. "That's what I asked him but he wanted to wait till you were here."
A collective "Who" resounded through the Wraiths as they looked to the corner. Then from out of the shadows a figure emerged and stepped into the light revealing itself to be General Alistar.
"Good to see you're all alive and kicking." offered Alistar.
"Same here sir." responded Slayer walking up to Alistar and shaking hands his questions momentarily forgotten. Alistar motioned for the Wraiths to sit down on the cots. They complied and looked upon Alistar expectantly.
"Now to answer your questions Slayer the Padisha and I are here because we have new operational orders for you that I cant trust to send over the com. lines. But before I get to that your probobly interested as to why half your squadron is missing."
"Quite so." answered Slayer while crossing his arms.
"I'm afraid that due to manpower shortages caused from the recent attack we've had to reassign your troops to fill in the gaps and it doesn't look like you'll be getting them back any time soon. For now you'll have to stay a six-member squadron until we can get new recruits to fill in the holes. I might be able to get you a support group to help reinforce you but chances a pretty slim." Alistar finished.
Slayer wasn't too surprised since enlistment had been at an all time low during the Scion war and many people were lost but he was extremely unhappy that his reinforcements were being reassigned. It had been hard enough to pry away new recruits from the AAN for a Spec Ops squadron, a squadron which they had a history of disliking, but to actually get them some ships to fly had taken nothing short of divine intervention. Slayer knew there was no point in arguing and quietly sat back feverently hoping that maybe there would be some good news in this briefing to counter the bad. Alistar eyed him for a second to make sure didn't have anything to say and then continued.
"Now the reason for all the secrecy is that I'm going to put you on to full time duty as soon as you've recovered which means your officially going back to non-existent status effective immediately." Alistar handed Slayer a pad with some official mumbo jumbo on it that essentially said his squadron was now a black ops unit that answered only to the ISDF.
"Sir were only rendered a black unit under wartime conditions. If I may ask sir who did we declare war on?" inquired Slayer looking down at the document to see if the words had changed since the last time he had seen them at the start of the first Scion war.
"We were hoping you could tell us. I'm sure you noticed all those old skeletons outside."
"Yes sir we did." replied Slayer.
"Well you'll be semi-happy to know that most of those hulks weren't piloted by our men. We confirmed that all are stolen units though to this point we don't know who or what is responsible. Thats where you come in." Alistar motioned to the black boxes piled on the cots, "judging by the conditions you were in when you arrived I'm sure you've gathered some interesting intelligence data."
"Oh that we have sir." offered Paddy.
"Right then," said Alistar while turning to leave, "I'll expect a full report in two hours. Take that time to decipher what you got and then meet me in room 234a for the AAR meeting until then I bid you all good luck and goodbye," Alistar turned to Burns who had taken to examining the ceiling during Alistars briefing, "Come along Padisha I have a few more stops for us to make." Burns complied and soon the two had exited the room headed off to handle more errands they couldn't trust to the comm lines.
Slayer looked at his timer in the HUD and then motioned for the other Wraiths to gather around for their assignments. "Okay here's how we'll do it. Phoenix and I will examine the photographs taken and see if we can figure out how Centurion-4 was attacked. Pyro I need you to take your samples down to forensics and get some lab results," Slayer looked over to Steel and Paddy who would end up with the worst jobs of all, "Paddy and Steel will sift through all the sensor data and see if you can get anything useful out of it. You have your assignments get'em done and meet up with everyone in room 234a in one hour fifty nine minutes." Slayer concluded.
The Wraiths complied and moments later they had dug out their maps from their personal gear left behind in the barracks and moved out to find some answers to questions too deadly to ignore.
**********
"You have failed me." The voice declared from across the room. Dimity could only prepare himself for the onslaught that was sure to come. Moments later it did in the form of a blade whooshing through the air and penetrating through his midsection slicing him in half. The pain was incredible but Dimitry knew the High Master was being slightly merciful to him seeing as he had served so well in the past. In truth he felt a sort of guilt for receiving such mercy since he had been present for the punishment of his former commander when he too displeased the High Master and saw just what he thought of failure. An immense pain more intense than anything he had experienced replaced the hurt from his halfing and filled his entire being to the core. Dimitry felt no anger at being punished; he had failed the High Master and deserved everything that was coming to him.
The horrible sensation seemed to continue on for endless cycles before it gradually subsided and Dimitry was left quivering on the floor without legs to move him only able to use his arms so he could face the High Master and receive the rest of his rightful punishment. But surprisingly no more pain came forth and Dimitry was left for a few nervous moments wondering if he were already dead. The moment was broken when from out of the darkness a figure floated into a pillar of light, the only light source currently in the room, and stood there its face still hidden in shadows but definately looking at him seeming to be deciding his fate. After a few seconds the High Master turned his back to him and spoke in a low dangerous tone reserved only for those who had wronged him.
"Consider this a warning Dimitry. Don't fail me again." Declared the High Master. Seconds later a small horde of Drones came into the chamber to take what was left of Dimitry to the healer where he would be repaired and returned to duty. As the final pieces of Field Commander Dimitry were carried away the doors shut behind the exiting Drones leaving the High Master to his own thoughts.
Had he been capable of it the High Master might of felt a twinge of guilt for punishing Dimitry. After all he had preformed brilliantly in attempting to wipe out the Human and Scion scum that infested this world that was rightfully his. But he had failed to eliminate the ISDF command center as ordered when he foolishly attempted to destroy the entire spaceport with a multi-pronged attack on all sides instead of a concentrated rush. Though he did manage to inflict some heavy casualties the vermin would reinforce with outside troops just as the High Master had hoped but it would still be organized and much faster with the their HQ intact. In truth the High Master never expected Dimitry to succeed in his task of destroying the command center seeing as how he was always a bit impulsive but all of his other capable Field Commanders were busy at the moment with something more important.
Dimitry's punishment was largely for the failure to destroy the scouts that had come to investigate the pacified ISDF outpost. Their escape ment his plans would have to be rushed along before the intelligence they had gathered revealed whom they were fighting against. If they knew who their enemy really was they would no doubt bring in everything in their collective arsenals to drive him away again. Time now was of the essence; he would have to tell his Field Commanders to step up production in preparation for the purge.
**********
At the appointed time in room 234a the Wraiths gathered for the AAR (after action review) meeting. The sizeable load of data and physical evidence they had returned with was now reduced after two hours of work into small compact data disks to be used during their presentation. Inside they took their seats at the rectangular table and waited for Padisha Burns and General Alistar to arrive. A minute later one of the doors opened and Burns walked in and took a seat at the end of the table. Beyond the door Alistar was in the process if dressing down a lieutenant for not having some sensor repaired due to laziness or something else along that line. After a few prolonged seconds of shouting fast running steps could be heard moving down the corridor outside moving away from the meeting room. Alistar came in and took his seat next to Burns after the steps had faded away. This was Slayers cue to start the presentation.
Slayer depressed a button on the tabletop and the lights dimmed. In the center of the table a panel slid away and a projector was raised pointing at the wall. Slayer got up and inserted his data disk into a side slot. The projector hummed for a brief moment while it absorbed the data then cast a picture on the darkened wall. The image projected was essentially a terrain map of detailing their operation with symbols to mark where something had happened. He took about five minutes to explain the basic out line of events from the insertion right up to the extraction in the middle of a freefall.
At the end of his speech Slayer turned the presentation over to Phoenix who inserted her disk and proceeded to go over the visual data garnered from their inspection of Centurion-4.
"I took the images you see here and ran them through the weapons database to see if there were any way to identify the weapon used and came up with a few surprising results."
"Such as?" inquired Alistar.
"The weapon marks on the buildings are remarkably similar to the ones left behind by Scion lightning weaponry but not identical. In fact the damage shows remarkable similarity to a weapon called the Bolt Buddy used near the end of the Scrap Wars in the 60's." At the mention of that weapon Alistar and Burns seemed to wince with remembered dread at what those cannons had been capable of. After all both of them had been at one time commanders of a squadron and had the bad luck of facing them in the field. Phoenix allowed a few seconds to pass before moving on.
"Further more I have located evidence of other Scrap War weaponry on numerous buildings throughout the complex," she pushed a button on her hand held remote changing it to a view of three different structures, "this damage here for instance appears to have been caused by a fusion beam more commonly known as a Solar Flare," she pointed to another picture of a wall that must have looked like Swiss cheese before it was hastily patched up, "and here we can see evidence of damage done by primitive AT and SP stabbers" Phoenix would have gone on if Burns hadn't interrupted then.
"Are you saying that all the weapons used against Centurion-4 were are from the Scrap War?"
"I can safely say that the vast majority of them are sir. There are some others present as well that we haven't been able to identify but it is now a fact that no modern weapons were employed against Centurion-4."
"Shows us a picture of the unidentified weapon marks." Ordered Alistar. Phoenix complied and the picture was changed to one showing a wall with three easily visible gashes.
"Those look like claw marks." commented Burns.
"Yes thats what I think are but as to what made them I don't have a clue," Phoenix answered and then reached to remove her disk from the projector, "If theres no other questions I believe my part of the presentation is over," Phoenix took one last look to make sure there were actually no more questions then removed her disk from the projector and took her seat.
Next up was Pyro to explain the forensic evidence found at the scene. He inserted his disk and used an old targeting laser now converted to a temporary laser pen to outline what he had found.
"It appears as though the enemy took control of the environmental systems and somehow and flooded the base with Core's atmosphere. Based upon the remains of the bodies it effectively killed off all the personnel who weren't wearing pressure suits. Those who did survive regrouped in the mess hall and tried to make a last stand. From the evidence left behind whatever weapon they used on them was fired twice. Once to kill the survivors and once again to burn the corpses that remained after their attack." He finished his report and waited for the questions to come.
"Can you identify the weapons used?" asked Alistar.
"Not with any certainty sir," replied Pyro who pressed a button on the remote device for the projector to bring up another picture, "as you can see from the condition of the flesh the marks resemble Scion lighting weaponry and the old Blot Buddy from the Scrap Wars. However the marks differ too much from existing records for me to think that the weapon was either. My conclusion is that this is a variation of the Arc cannon employed by Scion Titans but on a small scale." Pyro stood and waited to see if there were any more questions. Surprisingly there weren't and he was allowed to sit. That left Paddy and Steel whit the sensor data collected from Centurion-4s Ops center.
The duo made their way up to the projector and inserted their disks. Paddy and Steel then took up positions on either side of the screen for presentation purposes. Alistar nodded to them to start. Steel spoke up first.
"Ja Herr General" at hearing this Slayer's interest suddenly peaked a little higher. One of Steels character traits was that his German accent got slightly thicker when he was nervous. He and Paddy must have uncovered something interesting. "We managed to recover little of the data left behind in the Ops center. Apparently someone scorched the data coils so we were unable to uncover any video or audio data but the radar logs were mostly intact." Steel pressed a button and the projector ran a sped up clip of the radar logs over the last few hours. At first the only thing displayed were the symbols representing the various buildings then the symbols started to change color indicating they were under attack but the radar failed to pick up any other ships in the area save for the base defenders which maneuvered about wildly. Eventually the outer defenses all turned black and the radar cut off replaced by static. The clip ended and Paddy stepped forward to explain what everyone had seen.
"Now what you saw was the first ten minutes of the attack against Centurion-4. After the attackers penetrated the front defenses we lose all data. The rest of the files are corrupt beyond recovery, which can be attributed to the data scorching. What we canna put aside however is that the radar and failed to pick up any attacking craft. This implies that the craft had a cloaking device of some sort." Alistar then interrupted with a question.
"Is there any record of the vehicles that attacked."
Paddy shifted his weight slightly, which for those who knew him ment he was reluctant to answer the question. Steel saved him the trouble. "There was one picture that survived the scorching Herr General," Steel said in an even heavier accent, "it apparently was taken by a helmet cam. The picture itself is a little blurry and only shows a small section of the attacking ship but one detail stands out." Steel pushed a button on the remote and projected the image onto the wall.
The room was silent for a moment when the picture was displayed. The Wraiths simply stared in mute shock. Burn's jaw dropped. Alistar remained expressionless but his face had gone pale. The background was a blurry gray section of the hull taken as the ship flew by at what had to be an alarmingly fast pace. But displayed prominently on the center was symbol not painted on any known craft for over forty years. The demonic silhouette, the blood red eyes and the red star all resembled an identification marking for a squadron thought to have been eliminated. But there it was right there in front of them and the reappearance of that marking could possibly mean only two things. That somebody was playing a sick joke.
Or that the Furies were back.
***********
Slayer walked down the corridor in silence. Like a man about to be executed he made his way to the base canteen. Right now he could use a stiff drink. Before he went inside he checked himself in his helmet faceplate. After seeing what the enemy could do to a bases air supply he wasn't about to go anywhere without his suit. Slayer put on a fake smile so as to disguise his unhappy demeanor and walked in.
The canteen was not its usual self; Slayer realized that at once. For one thing there weren't any drinking contests going on between the Scion and Human personnel. For another thing the room was only a dull roar of noise as opposed to the blasts of sound that could easily be felt outside. There were also fewer patrons then the norm and none of them were unconscious on the floor. Slayer made his way to the bar table and ordered up a drink. One of the perks the ISDF offered was rationed but free liquor. Slayer took his drink and walked into the center of the room but an all too familiar voice stopped him.
"Slayer what the hell are you doing here? Hasn't the AAN canned your ass yet?" Slayer stopped and slowly turned around to greet the only person who could possibly have said it. There off in one of the corner booths sat Sahra "Kaeli" O'Harra commander of Hellfire squadron with a drink in one hand and a data pad in the other. For the first time since the AAR meeting Slayer allowed himself a smile that was not forced. He walked over to the booth and greeted her with a hug.
"Kaeli how the hell are you? Haven't heard from you since Polar Glory."
"I'm fine as could be expected I guess. Fortunate that I ran into you." Kaeli said as she and Slayer took a seat.
"Why is that?" Slayer inquired.
"Take a look" Kaeli handed Slayer the data pad she had been reading over earlier. Slayer gave it a brief glance and then glanced at it again. Quickly he skimmed the top to find out where the orders had originated.
"General Alistar," Slayer mused, "the old mans been busy I see." Slayer just couldn't believe his luck. The support squadron Alistar promised he would try to get was going to be Hellfire squadron. Though they were a front line unit Hellfire had always been a competent lot. They would have to adapt to black ops pretty quickly but it really wasn't that big of an adjustment and Slayer had worked with them before. Hellfire would do just fine for his purposes. Slayer looked up from the pad and offered Kaeli a handshake.
"Welcome to the world that doesn't exist Kaeli." The CO of the Hellfire's shook Slayers hand and resumed consuming her beverage. When she finished Kaeli gave Slayer an inquisitive stare.
"Now that we're officially on the same level perhaps you can tell me where you were during the recent battle." Slayer pondered over how he should answer that one. General Alistar had ordered the Wraiths to secrecy about what they had found at Centurion-4 and technically Kaeli wasn't on his level yet. There would be at least an hours worth of tricky paper shuffling before the Hellfires could be considered a black ops unit. Slayer decided that for the moment a creative lie would suffice.
"We were right here in the base providing internal security. Our ships have yet to arrive you know an-"
"Oh come on Slayer do you really expect me to believe that? I know for a fact that if you Wraiths were within fifty klicks of the base you'd be the first ones out ships or not blowing the shit out of everything in sight." Slayer shrank back a little. He obviously could not lie to this woman. She simply knew him and his squadron too well. Best to get her up to speed now before her natural curiosity took over completely.
"Alright since you'll be working with us anyway I guess you need to be brought up to full awareness but not here. I'd rather not let what we've been up to spread around," Slayer motioned towards the door, "lets us find a more secluded place to talk shop." Kaeli nodded her head.
"Fine with me. Follow my lead Slayer I already have a spot picked out for just such a purpose." Kaeli stood up and walked towards the exit red tightly braided pony tail swishing behind her. Slayer downed the remains of his drink and followed after her. Slayer shook his head as he jogged to catch up. She just knew him too damn well.
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End part 3..........
The ISDF WANTS
YOU!
Serve your planet and become a member of elite.
We are in desperate need for members of Hellfire Squadron. If you are interested you can leave a description of how you act and look and what you'd like to be in the story in the reviews or you could e-mail your local recruiter Admiral Kelley (his address is in his author profile)with the required information
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Hot damn another installment is finished! So now you know who the enemy is but what are they capable of and why are they hell bent on slaughtering the good guys? These questions and more will be answered in part4 of BATTLEZONE II: LOST LEGACY by Admiral Kelley.
Hope you all liked this part especially you Kaeli my one and only volunteer. All of you feel free to leave an honest review or creative lie hell you can even e-mail me with suggestions if you want though I know its not likely to happen.