Stage 1

Kyzil Plateau

Glen glanced down at his issued gun. Sure, it was top-of-the-line, armor piercing bullets, auto-reload, but it still just felt…comical. Like it wasn't meant to be. He wished he could shoot off a few rounds just to make it feel more like a gun and less like some cartoon prop, but that would be a really stupid thing to do. Especially since he was flying in a silent chopper to his first spy rendezvous point, a simple plateau in the middle of a desert.

Miles away, Glen could hear the sounds of armies clashing with one another: the shots, the cries of pain. It was enough to terrify any man, but Glen sucked it up. He was past that now, and what he was headed to do would help cease the horrible bloodshed in a matter of minutes.

He turned to look out the window: there was the point. He stood up and grabbed a hold of the bar hanging from the ceiling of the chopper. As soon as they landed, Glen stepped out, and the chopper just as easily took off again, making little sound.

Glen kneeled down, keeping low, and scanned his surroundings. He couldn't see anyone else: maybe this was not the right spot for the rendezvous? Glen looked out on the area; the sun was just about to set, and it made a brilliant cast all across the sky. "You should relax," said a voice behind him. Glen turned around and found his first correspondent: Ratchet. "They're not up here; all the fighting's down in the caverns."

Glen stood up. "All right, then," he said. "Is Clank around?"

"Back here." Ratchet turned around, and Glen found Clank strapped to his back. "I'll be sticking back here; I'm on weapons detail."

"Fair enough," Glen said, "let's go." He followed Ratchet to a spot in the plateau, and Ratchet uncovered it; a large board was covering up an emergency exit staircase. Ratchet stepped down, and Glen followed.

As they went down a few flights, the sunlight grew further away; when it was just about gone, Ratchet stopped at a door. "In here," he said.

"How many?" Glen asked casually, drawing his gun.

"Good question," Ratchet replied, drawing a much larger gun of his own.

"Well, let's find out. Get ready." Ratchet stepped behind a support girder as Glen kicked the door open. He let off several shots at the various Thugz-4-Less™ mercenaries that had occupied the area. The armor-piercing bullets did their job quite well, leaving them flat on the ground. Of course, Glen had expected others to hear the bullets, and another wave of them came quickly. Like before, he took a few shots at them, felling them all. Glen seized the opportunity and decided to move out of the stairway into the corridor. He stopped at a corner, leaning up against its wall. He suddenly rounded the corner and blasted through a wall of enemies.

Coming to another door, Glen had Ratchet blast it open. On the other side was a large control room, evidently the plot of attack for this area. Glen fired off a few rounds then moved in on one side while Ratchet took care of the other. They had to move fast: others could come in quickly.

Then, Glen saw something one of the guards had dropped: not ammo for some other weapon he could use, but something else…a laser gun! Glen picked it up and went into the next hallway as Ratchet prepared to demolish the control room.

As guards began to swarm in, Glen fired off the laser. It was a fun weapon to him: he could always tell where he was pointing, it never paused in between shots, and it didn't give any resistance! It was a fun weapon for him to use, but then it jammed. He tried firing it off again a few times, but to no avail. Frustrated, he threw the gun away and took his issued handgun out again.

Glen continued shooting his way through this hallway until he came to a large door: this one, apparently, led to the outside. Clank blew the door open and Glen stepped out.

The sun had just set, and the sky was lit up in a brilliant, dark orange sheen. Glen didn't have time to notice, though: he had to take out more mercenaries outside. He continued firing off rounds of ammo at the enemy forces until there were no more. He turned around, and saw Ratchet facing problems of his own: he was fighting off a hovering spaceship. Glen began firing, but that apparently only enraged the ship's pilot. He fired off several missiles at them, but Glen managed to duck them. Instead, the missiles went flying into the sandbank behind them, causing a large explosion of sand and rock and generally causing everyone to go flying. The ship stood its ground, but Glen and Ratchet fell over. They crawled along the ground slowly, eyes closed, until the dust cleared. Upon that feeling, Glen opened his eyes…and found he was staring right into the barrel of the ship's main gun. He rolled out of its path, and not a moment too soon, because it began firing rapidly. Glen ran back and shot at it some more. The gun was disabled, but it was still a threat. It drew its missiles out…and then Glen saw a vehicle they could commandeer, so they ran for it. The missiles took off again. Glen dove down to the ground, and the missiles passed just inches above him. He got up and kept running to the vehicle. He climbed in, turned the key in the ignition, locked the pedal to the metal, and they took off through the desert. Glen drew a gun and fired off at the ship, which was following not far behind. The ship shot off another round off missiles, but Clank (who had climbed off Ratchet's back and begun driving) managed to steer around them.

Clank decided to try to lose the ship, so he started making odd turns. He looped around the plateau, he did a complete U-turn around a dune, and he even began spinning out so as to kick up sand into the air. Nothing seemed to be working, though. After Clank finished these driving maneuvers, Glen tried again to take out the ship.

He kept shooting at it, making shots at the main jets, the guns, and the cockpit, but it didn't seem to be making an impact; the ship just kept coming. Suddenly, Glen got an idea. He waited for the ship to draw its missiles again. When they did, Glen made an aim at the missiles while still in their holders. He made a few shots at the heads of the missiles, and…success! The missile blew up, then so did the other missiles, then so did the ship itself. Glen settled back into his seat and breathed a small sigh of relief that the ship was down and the plateau area had been secured.

"So, where's the next meeting point?" Glen asked Clank.

"There's a walled city not far from here," Clank explained. "The next spy will be meeting you there. He'll give you the details."

"Right, then." Glen sat back and watched the desert move as they drove through it.

Soon, the walled city came into view. Closer, and closer, then Clank stopped the vehicle. Glen got off, looked to them, and nodded to politely. "The area's yours from here to clear out," he said.

"Don't worry," said Ratchet. "It'll be fine now. Thanks to you, their main communication means have been knocked out. There shouldn't be a problem with the rest."

Glen nodded, turned around, and approached the walled city as the two he fought with drove away.

- - - - - - - - - - -

...and that's it for the first leg of Glen's shooting spree. Chapter 2, I'm debating as to whether I should put it up. Or even whether it was right to put thischapterup at all. Hell, maybe I'll create a separate chapter for plot holes and such, if my writing's that bad. Heh heh...

Anyway, yes. Hope you'll be so kind as to say a word or two about it.