Authors note: So not much to say except that there's a lot of info here, but I promise that things will intense next chapter. It might take time since I just started college and college can take up time, but I promise you guys that I'll update the story as soon as I can. So right now, enjoy the new chapter.
Chapter 3: D.E.T.T.
The city of Astoria, Oregon is a remarkable place. It's a fairly small city with about 9,500 residents, close to the border of its neighbor state Washington, with its trademark Astoria-Megler Bridge connecting the two states across the river that splits them, which makes it the most notable item of interest in the city. But its rich history as the first permanent settlement along the Pacific coast is what makes it truly remarkable, making room for the foundations of future cities for the coast. The city today is a popular tourist attraction for out of state citizens to relax, but right now, it is a hot spot for an incoming asteroid. At least, that's what the inhabitants of the city believe.
Military forces have arrived to evacuate the peaceful city from a threat beyond our space. Though there are citizens that are suspicious of the sudden asteroid warning, military brushes off their assumptions to focus on their main priority, the evacuation and safety of its citizens, but even the army is curious of what exactly they're dealing with. Being sent in to a situation that they have no idea what exactly is wrong is something they're not used to, especially if their superiors have no idea either, and considering who's telling them what to do, they have raised serious concerns about the safety of everyone in the city, knowing for a fact that whatever is coming here is not an asteroid.
Of course they just ignore what their worries are if it doesn't impact them in any major way, the army are the ones going into this, not them. Sure, they sent in a few of their agents on the field to supervise them, but they already have enough supervisors from their own personal, some guys in fancy suits telling them what to do doesn't make them feel any better. All that the army knows is that bad things will happen and when it goes down, they'll be ready for it.
Along the highway at U.S. Route 30, leading out of the city towards Portland, a U.S. mobile command center is centered at a large field off the highway. The army has set up multiple tents around the area, all acting for different purposes for the military to use for whatever situation presented itself. On the highway road, citizens are seen being evacuated from the city in orderly fashion while army vehicles such as supply trucks, Humvees, and APC's are being sent into the city, but mainly around the city to secure a perimeter, by order of their superiors of course.
Army officials have argued with their superiors about that certain aspect, valuing their own purposes over the safety of the civilians, an issue that has always presented itself ever since the beginning of this operation. The response from their superiors has always been "The mission comes first, civilians are optional." Over and over the same response has been given to Astoria HQ, and never anything different, something that has always plagued the mind of Commanding General David Harrison.
Harrison has always been the kind of person that leaves no man behind, due to the fact that he has a no man left behind mentality when he was a young soldier. It was one thing to save soldiers from the front line from getting shot, but saving civilians was another different thing all together. Unlike soldiers, civilians aren't really trained for survival on battlefields, let alone their own homes for protection against god knows what. Armstrong felt a strong sympathy for civilians from again, his experiences as a soldier on the field, seeing civilians slaughtered for no good reason or for the benefit of others, if any, never sat well with him. As much as Harrison wanted to ignore the perimeter and go for civilians first, he couldn't just betray his superiors because one, it would mean he would be betraying his country due to their position and two, they would turn on him and end up taking control of everything and considering their reputation, he would never allow it.
The 50 year old commander just had to put up with their "cockamamie bullshit" as he put it, and just listen to them for everyone's sake. So right now, he was sending in light military forces in the city, soldiers and Humvees mostly, maybe a few APC. The heavier forces which were mostly vehicles that included tanks were setting up a perimeter around the city. As he was busy managing the evacuation, so were his soldiers in the city.
One particular group of soldiers is seen patrolling a city block close to the evacuation point, mostly to secure the area and check for anything suspicious. There were only three of them, the soldier in front was Sargent Johnson, or boss as his squad usually called him, the two soldiers behind him were Private Jenkins and Private Harper.
Johnson is a soldier's soldier, he did everything that a good soldier does best and more. Although he joined the military when he was 30 years old, he quickly rose through the ranks as Sargent for only being in the army for three years in the service since 2005. He had a physically fit form like most soldiers, though he was a little taller than most of them and for his age at 40 years, he could still kick ass, especially how stubborn he is when it comes to a fight.
Harper always loved talking, even though he has seen his fair share of combat for 5 years and is an exceptional soldier, he would always act like a wiseass, even with his Sargent. Harper would butt heads with Jenkins the most, whether it was about movies or life experiences and even the mission itself, they would argue about it. Jenkins is kind of a geek yet usually a level headed guy, even in combat which was extremely important to have, but ever since he first met Harper who's first words he said to him was, "You're name is Jenkins? Wow, your parents must have hated you." He could lose his nerve from time to time, yet he and Harper became best friends.
Right now, the three soldiers have been assigned for patrol and Harper and Jenkins were talking about how patrol was boring. Johnson just ignored the conversation, although he did agree with them about patrol.
"I just think that patrol fucking sucks. I mean why do we have to do this crap?" Said Harper.
"It's not like we have a choice, we're not the officers telling everyone what to do." Replied Jenkins.
Harper scoffed "The officers aren't telling us what to do, it's those damn suits telling them what to do to tell us what to do."
Jenkins looked at Harper perplexed "Suits? You mean that guy we were with that took the reporter's camera?"
"Yeah, that "guy". Said Harper with quotations. "These "guys" are the ones running the show, so I have this feeling that there's more to this than evacuation. Hell, I think there's a conspiracy."
Jenkins sighed "Oh Jesus. Here we go again with your conspiracies."
"Look there's no way this is just about evacuating civilians from a space rock, there's a conspiracy and I know it." Said Harper confidently.
Jenkins looked at Harper unconvinced "Everything we know has already been said at the briefing."
"That's what they want you to think." Said Harper quickly. "But the reality of it all is that these suits are here for their own twisted reasons, and we're going to be the victims."
"What do you mean by victims?" Asked Jenkins curiously.
Harper shook his head at Jenkins in disbelief "And I thought you were the geek of the squad. Before that asshole we were with took the civvies camera, I took a glimpse at a badge he had on him and it wasn't like any badge I saw before."
Now Johnson started to pay attention to what Harper was saying but didn't look back.
"What are you talking about?" Asked Jenkins.
"The badge was like some kind of gold shield that said "D.E.T.T." And I mean D-E-T-T not D-E-E-T. No bug spray shit or anything."
Johnson looked surprised when he heard what Harper said about that badge, but his squad mates didn't really see it since he still didn't turn around. He had heard the stories of D.E.T.T. before, though never personally met them before, and from what people have said about them, they aren't the nicest individuals. Only the highest ranking military officials knows what D.E.T.T. really does but anyone else below can only guess what they really do.
"Boss? What do you think about this mess?" Asked Harper.
Johnson turned to face them, retaining a calm demeanor.
"I'll be honest with you, I really don't know why suits are here to boss us around, but what I do know is that they don't have the best rep in the army and they actually might have something to hide." Responded Johnson.
"Ha! See that? Boss knows I'm right." Said Harper proudly while Jenkins rolled his eyes.
"But." Interrupted Johnson before Harper could gloat. "Whatever they're up to isn't important to some grunts out on patrol. As bad as they sound, they're just doing their job. And if it requires us to listen to them, then we just do what they say for now, and then we go back to do our business."
Johnson then faced back to the front to continue the patrol with Harper and Jenkins close behind.
"I'm still right." Harper said to Jenkins as they just changed the subject to something else.
Meanwhile, at the Astoria HQ, Harrison was checking on the status of the evacuation plans, so far they were going well, with about half the population out of the city, the other half should be getting out by the end of the day. Looking at his watch, it was 6 o clock and there was still no sign of this "asteroid" on their scanners. The door to the mobile HQ then opened to reveal a man in black, a D.E.T.T. agent. He walked towards Harrison, who was expecting a salute from the agent, but instead the agent walked past him to review the information recently gathered.
"Anything on the scanners yet commander?" Asked the agent sternly.
Harrison, although annoyed and felt disrespected at the agent's attitude, responded to the agent as politely as possible "Nothing yet agent. We still don't have this signal you told us about earlier."
The agent frowned "That is… disappointing. Your hardware must be outdated."
Harrison replied "I assure you that we are equipped with-
The agent interrupted "No wait, I forgot this is military hardware, not my agencies. Never mind."
Harrison couldn't stand the agent already. If it wasn't the slick back blond hairstyle that made him look like some pretty boy from the Hamptons, or the fact that every time he came in here to just to criticize everyone, it had to be his arrogance and lack of respect for the hard work the army had done here. All he wanted to do right now is knock out the agent's lights, but being part of D.E.T.T. was the only thing protecting him so he was off the hook, for now.
The agent faced Harrison "You need to rush the evacuation, people are already getting suspicious. I just had to confiscate a video camera from the media. On air. While forcing the rest of the reporters out of the city myself."
"We are doing everything we can to-
"Well do more. Because if people keep sticking around to see the sights, my people are taking over this operation. And you know very well what happens when we take over." The agent interrupted again, emphasizing his point.
Harrison strained to keep a calm demeanor, pulling it off just barely "Of course agent."
"Just call me Deacon. I'm not in the mood for your formal military crap, commander." Said Deacon as he rushed out of the HQ. "Keep me in touch when you actually find something."
"Of course Deacon." Said Harrison as he saluted Deacon exiting the HQ. "Asshole."
Unknown to the military however, the ork ship was barreling through the earth's atmosphere, heading straight towards Astoria at full speed. Gorgutz is at the armory of the ship, getting his war gear prepared for the incoming battle at hand. His "mek boyz" as they were called, had made some improvements to his weaponry after the last WAAAGH!
Gorgutz had asked the mek boyz, or asked as nice as an ork could with a gun to their face, to make his weapons "bigga and shootier!" than before. The mek boyz were definitely smarter than most of the orks on the ship, considering that they were the ones that made the ship into what it is now, so they were the perfect candidates to improve Gorgutz's arsenal. And they did just that.
Now, instead of a small, double barreled "shoota" he had before, they gave him a large, single barreled mega shoota that they promised it would make "lotz of holes" on anything, which he gladly tested out on a poor ork walking by. Needless to say, the mek boyz were right. They also gave him a mega claw, making the claw bigger and strong enough to make the toughest hulls feel like wet paper. The mek boyz also painted Gorgutz's armor with more red paint under the main belief that "Da red wunz go fasta!" which for the orkz case actually works.
No one knows how such a feat is possible, but if enough orks believe something can work, it works. It also worked for the ship since its why its painted red from the beginning. That, and the ship had to be orky enough for the orkz to use, so the mek boyz put spikes and metal skulls all over the ship, along with their clan symbol of the evil sunz, a red sun with a grimacing face, with yellow or orange flames, on the side of their ship. Their clan was always known for being fast, especially when going to battle. All of this is making the ork ship get to their destination faster than usual.
After Gorgutz equipped his new weapons, he headed back to the bridge while equipping the last of his gear on his back, a red banner with the evil sunz symbol, and two skull totems with the skulls of his former foes. But he made sure to save some room for his new pointy stick, which he kept in the armory right now, so he could take the skulls of his most worthy foes and put them on the pointy stick. Gorgutz went to the bridge of the ship, where he saw Skullsplitta waiting for his boss to arrive.
Skullsplitta turned to Gorgutz "Boss! We'z almost there!"
Gorgutz shoves Skullsplitta aside "I'z can see dat, ya git!" Gorgutz looks out the window to see a city in his view.
Skullsplitta gets up next to Gorgutz "We'z gonna land now, boss?"
Gorgutz grinned widely "Before we'z do dat, letz give em a warm welcome only orks can give right." Skullsplitta looked at his boss perplexed before Gorgutz slammed his new claw down for everyone's attention as Gorgutz shouted his orders.
"FIRE DA BIG GUNZ BOYZ!"