Chapter 1: Recon and Landing
SSN 7000 Dallas II
5 May 2280
20 Miles Off The Atlantic Coast
"Officer on deck!"
Captain Frederick Lizneski walked into the control room as everyone stood at attention.
He took his place in the captains chair, "At ease gentlemen."
The various crewmen went back to their positions, checking over their equipment and looking for anything that might pose a threat to them and their boat.
"XO, what do we got?"
The XO, or Executive Officer, Commander Mayes, was the second in command.
"Sir we're currently holding position 300 meters down and about twenty miles off the coast of the Atlantic Seaboard."
"Time?"
Mayes checked his watch, "2055 sir, should we surface now?"
They needed to surface so they could receive messages from their battle group currently holding position another 80 miles behind them. The Dallas II was the group's forward recon unit. Built in 2065 by General Atomics she was an Anchorage class fast attack submarine which, like much of the crucial military hardware just before the Great War, was part of Operation Sandman.
"Sir?"
Lizneski shook his head to clear his thoughts, "Make it so Commander."
"Aye sir! All hands periscope depth!"
"Periscope depth aye sir!" The diving officer rang out.
The ballast tanks pumped water out allowing the submarine to rise through the ocean, then pumped water back in to the tanks to stop the ascent just before the sail broke the water.
"Up scope!" Captain Lizneski yelled.
"Up scope aye sir!"
Technically the Dallas II didn't have a periscope like traditional submarines used to. Instead it had what was called a photonics mast. Instead of using a direct line of sight method like periscopes did, it instead had what was basically a series of cameras that was capable of filming high-definition, low light, and thermographic images and sending them to a series of monitors to the Dallas II's control room.
Lizneski was staring at these displays now.
"Well, coast looks clear," he looked at his Defensive Operations Officer, "what do we have in the way of anti air?"
The DOO scanned his monitors, occasionally tapping one to get a new reading, "Looks good sir, we're green across the board."
Lizneski looked to his Communications Officer, "Lieutenant raise the EHF mast and lets get the word out to our boys and tell them to go ahead and launch."
EHF stood for Extremely High Frequency, which allowed the Dallas II to communicate via satellite.
"EHF mast is up sir, we're transmitting to the battle group."
"Very well Lieutenant, tell them that they have a green light to launch."
"Aye, aye sir!"
And the message was sent.
USS Victory
Victory Battle Group
80 Miles Behind SSN 7000 Dallas II
The USS Victory and her large collection of support vessels floated quietly waiting for word from the Dallas II. The Victory was a small aircraft carrier designed primarily for low level infiltration missions / special forces craft recovery.
On the deck of the carrier were multiple light reconnaissance/ transport helicopters, their rotors spinning quietly, waiting for the word to come back to lift off. The SH-94 Night Raider was a stealth helicopter designed by General Atomic and manufactured by Chryslus. These Night Raiders were far from the originals however, as they weren't built until sometime after the Great War, as a part of Operation Sandman.
None of this really mattered to Corporal Johnathan White however, who was aboard a Night Raider waiting to be taken to wherever the fuck they were sending him. White was apart of the 75th Ranger Regiment, 1st Battalion. He was picked by USASOC to go on a long term recon mission, which suited him just fine. He was sick of "The Dungeon", the nick name of the facility that the remnants of the U.S. Military, and Government had retreated to just before the Great War.
Suddenly the Victory's loudspeaker sounded across the ship, "Attention on deck! Attention on deck! All units cleared to launch, I say again, you are cleared to launch!"
As one the rotors spun up to full speed, and Raiders began lifting off the deck of the Victory. White felt his stomach lurch at his Raider lifted off. He looked out of the side door of the chopper and watched the crews and lights on the deck of the Victory shrink and finally fade into the inky darkness of the ocean as the Raider sped towards the mainland. White turned away from door and turned his attention to a small touch screen pad in front of him.
Shortly after waking up from his "deep freeze", he was briefed that military scientific weapons R&D teams weren't cryogenically suspended like most of the personnel at the start of Operation Sandman. They had lived out the rest of their days developing new tech in preparation for whatever dangers might await the US when it finally awoke from its long slumber. Apparently 200 years was enough time to come out with tech that far exceeded that he was originally issued.
White tapped the screen of his IAN (Information Assisted Network) pad. He pulled up his mission objectives and went over them for want seemed like the millionth time. In theory they seemed simple enough. Land outside a small settlement about 30 miles away from Vegas and recon the area to see the state of things. The only snag was that it was going to be that it lasted for two years, the reasoning from the higher ups was that it would be easier to reassume control from the locals if they thoroughly knew how things worked on the ground now.
White sighed, Oh well, he thought, putting the IAN in one of the many pouches on his vest that was sitting at his feet, I kept bitching about wanting some leave and I got it.
"Drop off in ten mikes." The pilot said over his headset.
White acknowledged the statement, ten minutes til showtime.
White looked out the door again. It was pitch black on the ground. None of the lights on the Raider were on, White assumed the pilot was either navigating manually, assisted by night vision goggles, or he was lazy and just used the Raiders autopilot.
"We're hittin the dirt in five, get ready!"
White strapped on his helmet, checked his rifle and gear, and waited. The rifle was a newer version of an old modified SCAR multi platform weapon, able to switch from assault rifle, to sniper rifle with a few quick changes. A lot of the other soldiers in this mission stuck to newer high tech weapons and gear, but White stuck to a tried and true mentality when it came to self defense and recon work.
"Beginning decent, we have 20 seconds til go time, 40 to dust off!"
White checked his rifle again, made sure it was loaded, round in the chamber, safety on, and his Powered Combat Vest, or P.C.V.*, which was also at his feet. He would put that on when he put boots on the ground. The nose of the helicopter's nose flared up as it came to a hover a few feet off the ground. Dirt and dust began to kick up from the pressure of the rotors.
"This is your stop White, see you in two years!" The pilot yelled to him.
"Missin you already!" White yelled back, grabbed his gear and hopped onto the ground, the helicopter immediately gained altitude and made for the carrier group. With that, for better or for worse, the Army was on US soil for the first time since the Great War.
White tried to get a glimpse of his surroundings, but with no moon it was next to impossible. He fished a pair of what looked like safety glasses from his vest and slipped them on. He tapped the side the side of the frame and his world lit up with the green hue of night vision. He scanned his surroundings, making sure there were no hostiles in sight. There weren't. He took this time to don his vest. He unslung his pack and set it on the ground. He then took a deep breath, and slid the vest on, then waited as the suit verified his neural interface that was implanted in his brain. A small pad on the front of the vest suddenly glowed green. With that, White tapped a button on the pad, white hot pain suddenly shot down his back as dozens of small needles pierced his skin, even smalled needles wrapping around his vertebrae.
Nanites entered his nervous system and bloodstream simultaneously, sending signals from the suites biometric scanners to his brain and displayed these scans directly onto his glasses. The needles also drew power from human bioelectricity. This allowed the suit to be powered in areas where solar power wasn't an option.
The P.V.C was the pinnacle of all of the research compiled by teams during Operation Sandman. It allowed White to survive multiple small arms impacts, explosions, and also offered protection against chemical, radiological, and nuclear elements. It also enhanced White's reflexes, strength, and reaction times. It was nothing short of a guardian angel in his eyes.
"Thank you tech geeks." he breathed sarcastically as the pain subsided, and pulled the IAN out of his vest, he tapped the screen and waited as the GPS pulled up a map of the area. The map appeared on the screen, he glanced at the top of the screen to see how current the imagery was. The date confirmed that it was only a week old.
The Air Force had launched a few reconnaissance satellites a few years earlier, so that when the time came, they could launch missions such as this one. The first couple of satellites were lost shortly after entry into the earth's orbit. Older satellites' orbits were decaying and came crashing into the newer ones. Sending years of R&D literally up in flames.
Looking at his map, White was glad they had finally their trajectories right. He noticed that his destination was a ten mile hike from a small settlement. It didn't look like much, but day time imaging shown that there were people living there. If he started now he would arrive at sunrise. With that he started his hike.
A/N: Sorry for the long post time and short chapter. My power cord decided to end its life so I didn't have a laptop for a while. I hope to get another chapter out within the next day or two. Anyway please review! I need to know what I'm doing wrong! Thanks guys n gals!
*Ah yes the P.V.C! For those of you familiar with Half-Life OpFor, you know what a beauty this thing is. I've always liked the concept of the vest and decided to integrate it into my Fallout fic. I didn't think it was necessary to dub this a crossover seeing as that that's the only thing I'm using from the Half Life universe. For those of you who aren't familiar with it I hoped I did a good enough job of explaining it, however I took a few liberties with its operations from my favorite Half Life fic entiled Shepard's Epic. It's a good read for those of you who enjoy a Half Life story!