Quake: Operation Counter Strike
The weathered military transport chopper, circled around a couple times before it touched down on the landing pad.
I stood in the opened bulkhead door, eyes narrowed to avoid sand dust in my eyes. The time was 0530 hours and the year was 2414. The last ninety minutes had been hectic. They had woken me up at 4 am with a dubious phone call and asked me to report for duty. I had obliged halfway asleep and half and hour later, I was at the barracks were my C.O. had dragged me to a ready transport helicopter.
Now it touched down at a remote facility of sorts way out in the desert. I didn't know much of this base sans that it was supposedly built in a place where there had once been a bustling city before the apocalypse in the 22nd century. The apocalypse had turned a lot of US soil into wasteland and the once mighty country of the USA wound up fighting for survival along with everyone else.
Today, the world was governed by a central Earth Government that consisted of a major council known as the Federal Coalition of Man, but it still happened that factions broke out of the FCM and waged war against the interests of the Coalition.
As the rotors slowed down, I leapt off the chopper. A young, slightly nervous marine approached me.
"Sorry Captain Sir, but I need to see your file before I can let you in."
Scowling mildly and without a word, I handed the marine my personal Field Assistant – a small electronic notebook device that also contained my personal data. The marine looked it over carefully, seemingly afraid to make mistakes. He was evidently pretty green and lacked experience. Finally he handed it back to me.
"Looks all right Sir, now if you would please follow me."
He turned and began walking and I followed him calmly.
On each side of the bulkhead door stood a pair of tough looking marines, who eyed me suspiciously at first, but then it was as if they realized something about my purpose here and took their minds off of me again, searching for somebody else to turn their suspicious eyes on no doubt.
They were both armed with deadly Perforator flechette guns, so it was clear to me that this installation held a very important military secret.
The young marine led me through a couple of doors and took me for an extended elevator ride until we finally arrived at a heavily guarded place. I assumed it was the Command H.Q. of the military presence on this base.
"Please step inside Sir, General Blake is eager to speak with you."
I stepped forward and the door slid open to reveal a conference room that was now occupied by three gentlemen in battle outfit.
"Welcome to Facility Foxtrot-zero-niner, Ranger!"
The General was a weather-beaten fellow with close-shaven, grayish hair and a short moustache. I had served under him a lot of times before. He himself was a veteran of many campaigns.
"Thanks Sir," I responded, glad to see a well-known face again. I was about to ask him what the drill was, when the General introduced me to the two other men.
"This is Lieutenant Colonel Manning, who's the actual Post Commander of this outfit," Blake told me, gesturing to a stately looking officer who looked like the polite kind of gentleman with his well-shaven, clean face.
"...and this is Colonel Bradshaw, who will be your superior in this operation."
I looked at the Colonel. He was a stern-looking officer, wrinkle-faced and stiff. He looked like he had a stick up his ass and there was a slight hint of vanity in his eyes. My first time impression of this guy was not a good one.
I saluted both gentlemen and put my butt to the seat offered to me.
"We've got ourselves a nasty situation here Ranger," Blake began.
"It's about this Slipgate Device, you see..."
Colonel Bradshaw cut in.
"Our research team is close to perfecting a revolutionary new technology nicknamed 'Slipgates'. Once we perfect these, we'll be able to transport people and cargo from one place to another instantly – I'm sure you can imagine what a tactical advantage that will give us!"
I whistled.
"Unfortunately, someone has beaten us to it already," Blake resumed.
Colonel Bradshaw briefly scowled at the General, but collected himself. Manning picked up the thread.
"Someone has gotten their hands on one of our slipgates through means unknown to us and is somehow able to use it to insert death squads inside our bases to kill, steal and kidnap. We don't know how they go about doing it, but we've had a number of locations of this base hit by this enemy. The pattern is always the same: The place houses a Slipgate. We lose contact with the area and by the time reinforcements arrive, all science personnel lie dead, the security guard detail assigned to that area gone without a trace and a great amount of equipment has vanished along with the slipgate housed in that area. So far, we've lost five out of ten slipgates."
"The Hell of it is we have no idea where the bastard's from. The eggheads have scrutinized the signal patterns recorded by the slipgate computers and found out that we're dealing with an enemy they think is not from Earth, but another dimension. We're preparing a massive counter offensive and you're in charge! This is operation Counter Strike and your orders are to find this... enemy and stop him...or it!"
Blake looked at me gravely as he spoke.
"You're our best man. The soldier best qualified for the job based on the info the eggheads have found about this...other dimension."
Lieutenant Colonel Manning rose from his seat.
"Your men have been hand picked among the finest veteran troops and I am informed that you have fought alongside several of them before. They will follow you unquestioningly. They are currently gearing up and preparing for battle in their barracks."
"We're only waiting for additional weapons and supplies...and of course for you to get your bearings," Bradshaw added coldly. "I suggest you better get acquainted with this facility and start planning your means of advance. I'll have Sergeant Smithers show you to the Facility System Surveillance Room where you can get a detailed view of the base layout."
"Colonel, are you sure that's necessary?" Manning cut in. "All we need is to get our men to the other side and..."
"To efficiently direct a military advance, it is important to keep your back covered and keep an eye on supply lines," Bradshaw interrupted coldly. The two officers eyed each other with ice in their eyes.
General Blake cut in.
"You will need to launch this attack soon, Captain, or the enemy, whom we have codenamed "Quake", will become suspicious and prepare himself. For now, I suggest you do as Bradshaw says – he's an experienced strategist and knows what he's talking about. Dismissed."
And so I left, both confused and determined. Somehow, I wished I had been given more details on what exactly these slipgates did and how they worked. Why they had given the enemy this strange out-of-the-blue codename was beyond me, but for now, I didn't consider it all too important.
Outside, Sergeant Smithers was waiting for me. He was a jovial character, a bit of a joker even, but one glance told me he knew how to take care of himself. The scar on his face gave him a slight disfigured, permanent grin, which somehow fitted his character remarkably.
"So you got the lowdown, eh Sir?"
I nodded, already thinking about the upcoming strike. I was both apprehensive and eager to engage in combat again, but I was unsure about what I was going to face.
"Here Sir," Smithers said, brandishing a basic combat shotgun in my direction.
"It's best to stay armed at all times around here, because you never know what might happen."
I took the weapon and let out a muffled "thanks".
The shotgun was a standard issue assault piece. Ever since civilization returned to Earth, it had been the standard armament for infantry troops. It was cheap to produce and fairly effective. Reliant bullet weapons were harder to produce these days, where military equipment was made from salvaged and recycled materials, so military forces had gone an alternate route with military arms, slapping together the crude, but adequate flechette guns – machineguns that fired nail projectiles, technically termed 'flechettes', that would splinter on impact and cause massive damage to armor. But because of slow projectile speeds, those were only decent at close quarters and the military outfitted its soldiers with shotguns as their all-purpose weapons instead.
The current type of shotguns had a remarkable range, were automatic and kept the pelting narrow, making it decently useful for ranged takedowns. However, it was not very effective against armor.
-
The System Surveillance Room was a darkened room with consoles all over. There was a scientist inside the room, busy checking the equipment but he turned to greet us when we arrived.
He pointed to a big screen that displayed a map of the entire facility.
"Ok," he began after a brief introduction. "The glowing yellow spots you see are the location marks for each of the slipgates – as you can see, they're kept rather close to one another. This is because the slipgates are still underdeveloped and unable to transport things very far at present."
"And yet these things can reach into another dimension I hear?" I responded thoughtfully.
"Yes..." the scientist began, looking for words.
"It's difficult to explain exactly how it is, but the other dimension is both far away and... right here."
"How did you figure out that the other dimension was in fact another dimension?" I asked curiously.
No response.
"Sir?" I asked irritably.
The scientist just stared at the screen.
"Mother of God..." he whispered.