x [authors note. Hi! So hopefully this shows up as chapter two. This is my first story that I really have written with intent of completing and I realize that it's going to be rough. Also im having a bit of trouble getting used to fanfictions edit and update software so the doubling of chapter one is kinda stuck till i get it figured out. Also also i may need to move this story at some point to a crossover fic but idk what kind of crossover it'll be as the Waystop is a place of my own creation *literally as it partly exists as an oversized toy city* but possibly gi joe x star wars as those are my main two types of action figures. Which is what this story is based on. The action figures in my collection. And the stories to come will be as well. Hopefully that answers any questions that may arise and away we go]
The dusted planetoid, a place outside space, outside time.
A desert stretched from horizon to horizon, dotted with crags and mesas and lined with canyons, things burrowed or flew, nothing wanting to stay on the burning sands for long, dunes were built slowly in the light winds and dismantled quickly when they changed. This is a place where not much changes from day to day usually, however there is one thing that happens more here than most places, and that's when things from realspace tend to, Show Up.
The light wasn't much to notice at first a bare flicker of red among a mirage, hard to see in the bright sunlight but it grew, slowly at first then faster, a crimson disc standing ten feet or so at its zenith. The first thing to appear from it was a round blue object of glass and metal, flaming glass and metal, some scavengers of these sands might have recognized it as a Cobra Trouble Bubble as it bounced out of the disc and rolled down a dune. The second object to appear was a smokescreen class humvee, passengers and all, it dripped st elmo's fire from every surface, fat azure sparks landing upon the sand creating little spikes of black glass, its engine whirring troublingly before catching again as the fire faded, rapidly accelerating away from the disc.
This is when the third and final object appeared, spat out at high speeds, the front end of another smokescreen humvee, cleanly severed at the wall dividing the front seats from the troop bed, its engine was running as well until it bounced of the edge of one sand dune and slammed nose first into another. The glowing disc now without any mass keeping it active shimmered and collapsed in on itself.
Lady Jaye was driving blind when the engine caught again, the red light of whatever that was had acted as a flash bomb leaving spots across her vison, and from the groans in the back seat it had blinded everyone else as well, the harsh yellow white of wherever the hell they where didn't help much for eyes grown used to the dappled shadows of a tropical jungle, but she managed to guide them into the shadow of a nearby crag of rock, the reletive darkness soothing her tourtured eyes, rubbing them gently and taking stock of her own bumps and bruises, before keying her comms "alright boys, sing out whos alive?" Duke, Stalker, and Sidetrack called back with varying levels of enthusiasm and pain, "alive'' ''here ma'am" ''a'yaup"
"Cool, injuries?"
"No injuries back here ma'am" Stalker replied
"Im fine Jaye" muttured Duke
A staticy voice came over the line "...uh not sure where y'all are but me and Snake eyes are here in half a humvee" a pause then the line cleared up some "Snakes got a broken arm and our med pouch was in the back, so some help might be nice"
Jaye and Duke's eyes met, his confused, hers concerned. He mouthed silently, half a humvee? she responded in kind, Flint? He shook his head. They'd figure it out when they were all together.
Duke pushed his earpiece in better " 'Block that you?"
Roadblock growled back "yeah Duke it's me, now can you come get us? And maybe tell us
where in the world we are man?"
Jaye looked around as the man had a point, sand to the left, a rock to the right and dunes as far as the eye can see, some purple and blue plants caught her eye near the base of the rock looking like a mutant cross between broccoli and a ball cactus. Pointing at it she said
"Well besides that thing I'd say something like the eastern edge of the sahara or maybe part of nevada not enough sagebrush for either I'd think though.." shaking her head she started turning the smokescreen around to follow their own tracks back around to where they started, hoping to find Roadblock and Snake-eyes from there
Stalker checked the Satcom device then smacked it "humph this damn thing says it detects a satellite somewhere in orbit but its too far away to connect, which is just goddamned weird!"
"How is that weird Staff? Would figure a place like this would get lousy coverage"
Stalker sighed "that would be sensible if it was a regular sat phone but with our set up we can bounce signals off any satellite, civ, milspec, or cobra tech! At any time, supposedly with continuous orbits! But this is reading like there are only one or two satellites in orbit at all! It's just plain damned weird"
Lady Jaye didn't answer, preferring to digest this information while focusing on climbing up a dune to a small flat where a semicircle of wavy blackened glass sat at the end of their previous tracks.
Duke looked at the remnants of their passage, running his fingers through his hair "guys this just gets weirder and weirder" thinking quickly and looking around "alight, this spot here is a good staging point, Stalker, Sidetrack, let's pop out and look around see if you spot any tracks or sign, Jaye" meeting her eyes again he nodded at her "keep this rig going, refuel, and look it over while we search for 'Block if things go south we'll need to bail in a hurry"
She gave a sketchy salute while popping her door "aye aye top go find your buddy we'll need him if we need to keep this claptrap running long term, because i'm beginning to get a bad feeling about where we are'' she climbed out closing the door and leaving him alone
Duke absorbed that for a moment before muttering to himself "you, are not the only one" getting out of the humvee himself he checked his rifle over, swapping the mag out for a fresh reminding himself to order a gear count as soon as they were all together again. Tapping his ear piece
"Stalker sidetrack where'd you get to?"
"Stalker here top, i'm at the humvees 5 o'clock, found a track going down dont think its Roadblocks though, Sidetrack is making a circuit of the flat"
"Roger, meet you there"
Duke jogged around their rig and up to Stalker, looking down the edge of a sand drift, he saw the remnants of the trouble bubble smoldering quietly, the fire having been smothered by the sand.
Dime sized holes were stitched across its surface and one lascannon was shattered lengthwise but the rest was only slightly damaged
"Looks like we found that last bubble that 'Block hit, Lonzo. Wonder why it came through with us?"
"Dunno Conrad, still don't really know how that M.A.S.S. thing works, or if that's how we even got here. We may want to get some salvage off that thing if we can't figure out where we are soon though"
"Yeah good point, one thing at a time though, let's find our guys, get a count of our supplies, and figure out where we've been dumped, any more luck tagging that sat?"
"No, the link says its still a few hours out before we've got any signal"
"Alright" keying the comm again "Sidetrack you got anything?"
"Naw Top only tracks i've seen are ours and that bubbles dere's some disturbances on adjacent dunes but not a ting that would indicate human passage''
"Shit alright, 'Block we're at the point we arrived here from, and we've got no sign of your passage. So you wouldn't happen to be able to pop smoke or shoot a flare or something? Might give us a fix on your location"
"Umm yeah sorta gimme a sec"
The chugging gunfire of a ma deuce echoed from their left, bright tracers arcing up and out into the desert. "That good enough?"
"Uh yeah buddy that's good" noticing sidetrack jogging towards the gunfires origin "sean is on his way, rest of us will just be a few mikes behind" waving his hand over his head then jogging to the humvee. "load up! Roll out!"
Jaye finished topping off the tank and started the humvee off after Sidetrack eyes searching back and forth, the wind had started to pick up, slowly filling in sidetracks footprints, before long they crested a rise, finding Sidetrack and Roadblock waved them in to remnants of the other humvee after a brief greeting and a bit of digging out of the wreckage's front end, they hooked the tow cables together and backed their way up to the flat again, after a brief conference they unhooked the tow cables and using both dragged the trouble bubble up butting it up against the halved Smokescreen creating a rudimentary windbreak, parking the intact Smokescreen across the way they spread a tarp over the top of both, driving pitons into the rock to hold it in place, setting camp as the sun started to dip towards the horizon. After counting up their supplies and splinting Snakes arm they settled in to cook some MRE dinners.
Duke finished off his 'chicken alfredo' , wiped his mouth and looked over at Stalker "alright lonzo any readings on the satcom?"
Stalker put his own dish aside "just a few more minutes, starting to get packets of data loading now"
Duke nods "Block our final gear count?"
Roadblock reached over and picked up a notepad "well buddy we got two m1911's, one m9, and one desert eagle handguns, two mp7's one m3, and one mp5 for subguns, a sa80, a scar17, and a m-16 for rifles and a martech 40mm grenade launcher and my lovely lady here for heavy guns" patting his ma deuce "for ammo 80 rounds of 9mm, 20 rounds of .45, 160 rounds of 5.7mm, 994 rounds of 5.56, 60 rounds of 7.62, 2 belts of 100 rounds of .50 cal bmg and 10 rounds of .50 pistol. Plus 6 flares, 8 cobra missiles, 3 40mm grenades 7 of Jayes javelins, and whatever ninja shit snakes got hidden away, 3 days worth of food, 10 gallons of water, exactly one med box and some various sundries" he tossed the pad away "so we ain't exactly fucked lady and gentlemen but uh we might be soon."
"Fair enough, we'll hafta strip the wrecked vehicles for anything useful in the morning, and head out hopefully ther….."
"Duke!" Stalker interrupted ''the data just came through! I've got the map and…..holee shit….i think we are in trouble"