Wars Of The Future & Beyond

Started November 2, 2004

Disclaimer: Some of the original characters on the story belong to Electronic Arts no intentional infringements of copyright are intended through their use. Some of the events and characters in the game are edited for dramatic purposes. Any resemblance to any character in the story, living or dead is purely coincidental.

The author speaks:

Sorry for the belated publication of this chapter, lots of files were mixed up in the process of typing the chapters, until I finished toiling to set things right. Most chapters have to be re-planned though, but I will hasten to finish this up, since I have another novel to write.

All I can say is, expect darker twists in the later chapters, I suppose, it might be a probability that everything is mixed up while I was thinking of the twists, what can I say, though.

Chapter 3 – Part I: Marooned Skies

"This is Hero One, over."

"Recon Charlie-Two here, we've got some Scorpions for you to blow over here, coordinates 3, 7, over."

Warrant Officer Lewis looked over his NVGs and saw the skyline of Somalia which had the green glow which represented the disturbed sand, giving the rebel-ridden city a ghastly appearance, his co-pilot was looking back, making sure the Rangers at the cargo hold were safe.

"Negative, we're full with customers here, get those Little Birds to get them, we got our job to do, over."

"Roger that, Hero One, over and out."

The Ranger captain signaled to Lewis that they will soon be reaching their target destination, in hopes that it would not be the tragic reoccurrence of Operation Gothic Serpent.

"Poor Mike Durant..." mumbled Stan, the copilot over the monotonous lashing of the rotor blades against the cold and napalm-filled night air.

Stan heard his rally beacon beep and yelled to the action-ready Rangers, who were loading their arms and fastening their Kevlar armor. "Ladder ropes down!" cried Lewis and as though by magic (It was actually Stan, who activated it), some did fall upon a derelict-looking building, which seemed sturdy enough to survive a few more tank and artillery shells.

The Rangers rappelled upon the building like they did in their drills a few weeks before. But something whizzed past the windscreen of the Chinook, lashing a burnt trail of smoke. "Stan! Get ready to move out of there ASAP! We've strayed into a "beehive" of RPG Troopers!" The Rangers hastened their rappel down the Chinook, hoping that their pilots would not get hit by an RPG round.

The Rangers who safely reached the building tugged the rope, so Lewis started to roll out of the place before he would be hit by another well-placed RPG round.

The Chinook ascended into the sky, tearing particles of dust everywhere in a bid to prevent the RPG gunners to have the clarity to down it. Stan heard RPD (An obsolete machinegun) rounds ricocheting off the steel-plated hull, worried that they might find their spot at the fuel tanks.

Lewis gritted his teeth as he tried to raise the altitude of the bird amongst the rattle of AKMS bullets against the dent body of the Chinook.

"This is Hero One, we're pinned badly! Requesting ground support for successful takeoff over."

"This is Ghost Charlie Five, our snipers are already taking the racketeers down, hold your positions till we give the signal, over."

"Reece Jay here, we've deployed and try evading missiles as long as possible, we'll provide cover fire when Ghost Charlie Five gives the green light, over."

"This is Hero One, affirmative, over."

Stan started to operate his gattling canon at the buildings where rockets were coming from. Lewis fired the spare Hellfire missiles that were meant for the comaches, ripping whole buildings apart and sending the ill-fated RPG troopers sky-bound before meeting their deaths upon ground impact.

This time, there was another rocket attempt on the helicopter, but was unusually louder than its counterparts which missed the hull... Bright and dazzling sparks flew in all directions from the back and the whole halo was soon filled with petroleum smoke. Lewis felt a terrible surge of immense pain sear up this right shin, only for Stan to find out that the cockpit had sent out heated sparks from the circuit boards. He did a quick check on the helicopter damage, which had too little time to spare for... Both the tail boom and fuel tanks were hit, the Chinook started going in dizzying whirls towards the ground.

Seeing that holding the Chinook up would result in guaranteed death, Lewis nodded towards Stan, who grabbed the receiver on the Chinook for the last time.

"This is Hero One, we're going down! I repeat! We're going down!"

Stan and Lewis grabbed their MP-23s before ejecting out of the downed bird. Soon, they detached themselves from the booster seats before releasing their parachutes. Lewis now realized the wonders of the newly-introduced booster ejection seats... They could do nothing but float in mid-air as they watch the Chinook, which they had been riding with for months, make its impact on the ground and blow up into smithereens. They breathed no word as faint and ghostly reports of guns were heard in the distance.

They managed to redirect their parachutes to the building where they had dropped the Rangers off earlier. The captain passed them a first-aid kit as he muttered under his breath that the radio is with one of his sergeants.

Shadowy faces of the desert-camouflaged Rangers turned towards Stan and Lewis as they made their way towards a cackling communications radio, upon seeing the battle-worn pilots, the sergeant passed the radio and two MREs to them as he made his exit. Lewis could not stop smiling for it was awkward to eat when your comrades beside you were desperately firing CAR21/X-115s and M18A07s to rid the vicinity of angered Somalis who were intent to kill them all.

"This is Alpha Base, we've lost radar contact with Hero One, are the pilots in your visuals, over."

Munching over some dried apricots, Stan clicked the receiver of the radio.

"This "was" Hero One, we've made contact with Reece Jay, and we're fine over."

Lewis slumped against the wall as he places some morphine over his leg, rendered injured from the missile attacks. Pain left him as though they had been overwhelmed by the morphine.

"This is Alpha base, good to hear that. Request SAR team for you? Over."

"This "is" Reece Jay, not exactly, since we've been found, we don't need more pilots to join us in this plight..."

"This is Super Six-Ten, Armor Zero-Five is making their way here, requesting all infantry units in the vicinity to pave a way for the armored unit."

There was a brief moment of spine-tickling silence, and soon, the radio started to have more different static voices online.

"Ghost Charlie Five here, we're moving to co-ordinates 4-2 to pick the stinger sites off, over and out."

"Ghost Zannel Ten here, we are sniping the rebels at 4-4, do not pick off the wrong people, out."

"Reece Hastings here, we've spotted enemy infantry compounds at 3-1, requesting artillery support at our location ASAP"

As Stan was downing a bottle of hot sauce, artillery shells screamed over the building, and exploded at what seemed to be a GLA barracks. Stan could not stop himself from choking over the spicy drink, which gagged Lewis and the Sergeant with short-lived bursts of laughter.

"This is Super Six Eleven, we got a Black Hawk down in the city, I repeat, we've got a Black Hawk down in the city, Super Six Ten is down, and signs of life are yet to be determined, requesting immediate ground SAR support at 3-7.

Now that was something not to be laughed at. Seeing that his platoon was at 3-5, the captain, John Irving rushed into the room and grabbed the receiver.

"This is Reece Jay reporting, we're conducting a SAR operation now, please repeat the co-ordinates of the crash, over."

As he was making the transmission, the Rangers and Missile Defenders were already ungarrisoning the building, only a few wounded Rangers and a Field Medic were to be left behind under the protection of a machinegun platoon which had recently joined them from the skeletal remains of a few engaged Humvees before the heat of the battle.

Stan knew he was about to go, since he was the uninjured one amongst the two pilots of Hero One, who might be useful in disengaging some helicopter equipment useful for the battle in the long run.

Lewis sat there with a sodden face, unhappy about being a casualty, but later felt better after given the task of guarding the casualties himself, who have more severe injuries than he did. And it was how he met his new M-78 sub machinegun.

The SAR team now consists of John, Stan, some Rangers, a handful of missile defenders, not forgetting a Field Medic. The team crouched behind the rubble of what seemed to be a mall. John scanned the surroundings with his binoculars behind the rusted hides of what remained of a flatbed truck. The rest of the team crouched with rifles, ready to inject bullets into any unfortunate body that its owner would go in their path. It was difficult to concentrate finding the crash site while gunfire was erupting everywhere, accompanied with the constant and repetitive droning engines of helicopter engines here and there. It did take quite some skill to see through streams of jet-black smoke... A stream of smoke?

John signaled to the team that the site was found at 6'o clock. Before everyone moved on, they each said a little prayer that neither the occupants of the downed UH-65S Black Hawk, nor anyone in the team, would be sent back home in body bags. Stan thought he just saw the Field Medic clutch a U.S. Army bible before setting off into the SAR operation...

Everyone started to maneuver towards the crashed remnants of Super Six Ten, before the GLA does...