Alternate Reality
Chapter 3: Hold your breath!
Location: Reach system/ 5:49 GST
Year: 3073/2553
Specter brushed lint off his green cotton shirt, he was sitting in a comfortable armchair in the crew's lounge of his Talon dropship. The truth is, the alien ship had left, and they were waiting for their jumpship to be powered up for its jump for which it was 90% charged. There was a whoosh of air as the automatic doors parted and the click of shoes as someone came in.
It was Charles, he was wearing a sling and his chest was wrapped up, he also had a large pepperoni stick in his mouth. When John noticed it, he chuckled.
"Trying to quite smoking again?" He scoffed.
"It's not healthy, besides, those vitamin cigaretts are trash." He puased, "Only a quack would reccomend them."
"Of course they are!" Specter proclaimed. "But, why the pepperoni? I just used peppermint sticks and I quit just fine." Specter (John) sighed.
"But how are you going to quit your addiction to peppermint?" Charles countered as he saw Specter pull a peppermint stick from an old cigar box on the side table.
"Caffine." He smirked as he stuck it in his mouth. "I'll just drink coffee till I forget about the peppermint."
"Too late for that." Charles sat down on the nearby couch. "You've always been addicted to coffee, besides, it's just one more reason to have the peppermint to stir in the coffee."
"I guess you're..." Specter was cut off as the comm. talked over him.
"Jump in 5." The voice announced.
Specter pulled the peppermint stick from his mouth leaned back his head. "Oh joy." His voice was tinged with ironic, satirical lightness.
In an instant, the ship lurched, and Specter felt as if the whole universe was open to him. Every philosophical door was wide open, and he felt as though all the knowledge he ever wanted was in his grasp. In that split second he was at peace.
But the next instant, every possible door was slammed in his face, and he emerged into the boring reality that was no longer fulfilling and left him more than a little dissapointed.
"Ah man..." Charles complained. "How long do you think we can make it last?"
"I don't know. But we should get those scientists to make that flight take a month, not a second." Specter concluded.
He walked over to the window and loocked out at the world that lay below them. "Hnn. It seems that the coordinates that alien gave us led us somewhere."
"Yeah, looks like his ship is right over there." Charles pointed.
"Wow." Specter smiled. "Their shields didn't protect them from the particle cannon very well huh?"
As they neared the ship, Charles noticed the scorch marks and holes that pockmarked the ship's bulbous nose and grinned. "Too bad we never got close enough for us to open the hanger and use our mech's guns..." He licked his lips. "Heavy guass rifle."
Specter puched him in his good arm. "That gun is mine."
"What? We have more than one." Charles retorted.
"Yeah well I own them all, so, they're my replacements." Specter scoffed.
The comm. opened up again and the captain's voice came through. "Commander John Anderson meet me at the bridge."
John sighed. "Duty calls."
The doors of the bridge parted with a hiss. Specter stepped to where the captain could see him and saluted.
The captain ignored the salute and started to talk right away. "We recieved a transmission from the planet. It is a human colony that has been overrun. But, what is interesting is the "Covenant's" interest in some object planetside. All satelites have been bombed, and they have begun to dig. But the question is, for what?"
Specter nodded.
"I need you to go down there, medium assets, and raid their command center. Then move on to the dig site and find out what they are doing. Understand?"
"Yes." Specter nodded again and turned tail, but stopped in his tracks. "How many men?"
"Demi-lance, commander. Leave Beowulf behind and one other to watch over, take the other five with you."
Specter stopped his pacing, his five lance members were lined up in front of the hanger, he and the captain had always had an odd relationship as they somehow managed to command each other... everyone but them found it odd.
"We are hotdropping into a valley two kilometers from their position. Then we will move on to their command center, primary objective: destroy the defenders and vehicle hangers. Then demolish every building that looks important. Castle will provide tactical information while we are on the ground." He stopped in front of Scrapper and waved them off.
Specter settled in the cockpit of his walking tank and strapped in, then lowered his neuro-helmet and punched the power button on his computer.
"Name, password, and identification code." The computer's voice demanded.
"Commander John Kurt Anderson, Passcode Firebird, Delta 352897." He sighed as the computer unlocked.
The computer's voice came on again as the rumble of the engine came to life. "Reactors: Online. Weapons: Online. Sensors: Online. All systems nominal."
Specter sighed and leaned back in his chair. The ship decended into the atmosphere, the shaking of the ship intensified, and the hangar doors parted slowly with a groan.
His Bushwhacker, a chicken legged, or backwards knee-jointed, angled nosed mech, stalked towards the doors. Its arms stuck out at a 90 degree angle and then down at another 90 degrees to hold a missle rack on the left. And on the right arm, a large gun, with a fat barrel. The left torso had a missile rach that stuck out like a tumor and glinted with fresh missile heads.
The nose held several smaller gun barrels, and all in all, his wepons were listed: One Exstended Range Large laser, One gauss rifle, and two sets of grade fifteen Long range missiles, the fifteen meant that it fired fifteen at once. And with two sets, he could fire thirty missiles at once.
Specter twisted his mech's torso to get a glimpse of his lance. They were all in mechs that ranged, in weight, from 45-55 tons. Two were in bushwhackers like himself, and another two were in a more hightech machine called the ShadowCat. The ShadowCat had an angled, squat head with a forward cockpit and two missile racks built into the sides. Two arms stuck straight out from them, the left arm was slightely bigger and Specter knew what they had housed inside.
Hannibal and Bullseye both housed the LBX 20, a giant close range fighter's favorite. It was basically a shotgun, with the power to shred most vehicles into scrap from one round. Or when fighting a mech of the same weight, (medium) two rounds in the center torso for the fusion reactor to go critical.
They each had one LBX 20, and a large laser.
Falcon was in a taller mech, chicken legged and hawk-nosed, the Stormcrow boasted long rang missiles and large pulse lasers, the only problem was the heat generated by them, the more commonly called Ryoken II was known to overheat and shut down.
The two other bushwhackers werre piloted by Gator and Scrapper.
Specter nodded with satisfaction. They all had huge drop packs strapped onto their mechs for the hot descent. " Drop now!" He ordered as he walked his mech out of the ship and ignited the boosters. His mech fell at a steady rate until the green valley's soft dirt met the claws of his mech's feet.
There was a groan as the boosters fell from the mech and as he upped the throttled and began to run at a steady pace of 70 km/p/h.
The others were right behind him as he followed the nav. indicator his computer had given. "Okay team." He announced. "Go to passive sensors and move quietly, we want surprise on our side. Castle will be providing new data as we go."
"I'm here commander." Castle's voice came over the line."I'm detecting several large tanks in the area, several clicks to the north. Watch your step out there, the plasma weapons they have could burn your armor in seconds." She added with concern.
"Don't worry Castle, we've got it covered." specter replied. "You all ready op?"
His team all sounded off as they pushed their speed up and went to 80.
"Sir." Castle inturrepted the silence they had had for several minutes. "They have barricades set up around the base, and several air vehicles in one of the hangars. I'll mark it, but take it out first. I have also counted about ten heavy tanks in the area, along with light armor that is unmanned as yet. I reccomend locking missiles on the tanks and then firing on the hangers."
"Let me handle the tactical maneuvers Castle, You watch for reinforcements." Specter replied annoyed.
They stopped right behind a ridge that separated them from the base and specter dealt out the orders. They were going to split up, the missiles were going to be the first to fire, while the Shadowcats would storm the hangar, the other four mechs would destroy the tanks.
Hannibal and Bullseye hit the jump-jets of their mechs and jumped over the ridge before going to full speed and opening up with their lasers before they were close enough for the full punch of their cannons.
Specter saw fire engulf the building as its integrity was crompomised from the power of the LBX. He focused his attention on locking his missiles onto the first tank he saw. He got the ping from his computer, he was locked. He pulled the trigger and felt his mech rock back as the missiles left their housings. They arched across the expanse and engulfed the wraith in fire. Once the smoke cleared, only a wreckage of twisted blue and purple metal remained, that and a blue flame.
Out of the corner of his eye, Specter saw a blue ball of plasma smash the nose of Falcon's Stormcrow. He smiled as she retaliated with an alpha strike, SRMs and lasers shredded the aliens tank as if it were made of cardboard, Falcon planted a foot on the wreckage and climbed up to stare down a Specter light tank that was peppering her with plasma bolts.
The two Shadowcats came running back, pock-marked and steaming, one had a large tear in the right torso from which coolant leaked. Specter used the arms of his mech to motion for them to fall in behind him. But they were already busy running from something else. Out of the smoke appeared what looked like a purple crab-like mech, only this one had alien infantry swarming all over it.
At once, his computer tagged its IFF as red and he aimed the crosshairs over the large glowing mouth and fired his gauss rifle. He was slitely thrown off alance as the slug was spat from his gun. The depleted uranium shell tore into the metal guards that covered the mouth and into a compartment behind it.
But the machine was not stalled. From the mouth it spat a giant beam of plasma and struck Gator's Bushwhacker in the chest, melting the armor and tearing ino the reactor's shielding.
Gator panicked. "Ejecting!" He shrieked as the internal heat of his mech nearly broiled him.
The cockpit flashed open and he flew out in his chair.
Specter now knew what sort of firepower that thing had, and he quickely thought of a plan. "Hannibal, Bullseye!" He ordered and the Shadowcats dodged over to him.
"Use your cannons to tear the legs, get in close and try to make it immovable." He followed his own idea and fired at the knee joint with his laser and his now reloaded gauss rifle while he locked his missiles onto the tank's main gun. The other lance members got the idea and fired their weapons at the legs.
But Falcon, being a clanner, licked to fight her way. She fired the jets on her Stormcrow and landed on top of the beast and pounded the top with her feet, all the while firing at the turret that graced the top. As Specter and the others tore off one leg, Falcon breached the roof and fired all of her weapons threw the hole one after the other.
After about ten seconds, the enemy mech/tank began to glow blue, as if it were about to go critical. Falcon pounded her way off the roof and jetted away from the iminent explosion, everyone else scattered as well.
The captain sat in his command chair, watching their probe's view of the ongoing mission.
"Shipmaster, that is one piece of machinery." He stated admiringly. "Do they sell minatures?"
As he watched from space, the whole area flashed bright blue, firery blue.
"Are they dead?" He demanded at the comm.
"Probably not, captain." The shipmaster replied.
The comm. crackled as the humancaptain's voice came over the line. "You don't sound as disgusted with me as you used to." He puased, "I'll trust your judgement."
""Good." Xalconee clicked his mandibles in thought, before adding. "I know what's burning inside your mouth. You humans were always too curious for your own good. The reason I am not so against your presence is because I have spoken to my leader and he has allied himself to your race."
"Oh..." The captain was quiet.
"Whoa!" Bullseye cheered. "That was awesome!"
"Falcon, nice kill." Scrapper laughed.
"I've never seen anything like that before." Castle commended. "I guess not all clanners should be wiped out."
"Hey!" Falcon retorted, though everyone knew she was wearing a smile they would never see.
"Specter, there are still some enemies, one tank is trying to run, and there appears to be a few carrier vehicles, APCs perhaps." Castle informed with a more business-like tone.
"We're on it." Specter cheered. "Just get Tac-ops and salvage down here. And find Gator, he's probably unconcious somewhere." He replied as he turned toward the new nav marker and pounded toward it.
Thank you all for reading. Your reviews have all been helpful. I was hoping to have this update yesterday, but I spent it all doing homework. So... I hope you liked it.
-Tremble Wolf