The Gem Squad

by Mein Kapatin

Neil was the newest member of Delta Squad, who was trusted with the task of getting into a Russian and Chinese controlled facility and to put an end to whatever they were doing... Now they are floating in a cold, airless void hoping not to die. Hopefully they will be able to get the message back to command and explain why they shouldn't nuke the desert- it's end of the world.

1. Chapter 1- A reasonable sense of doom

A/N- For those of you unfortunate enough to read the first iteration of this story, I am very sorry... Oops..

I have re-written the entire first chapter to be more enjoyable, readable (although I may still need to do some minor grammatical/spelling checks, if you see any, let me know and I'll sort them out) and to have a sense of continuity.

The gist of it is, I made it again but properly this time... If you made the mistake of reading it first, sorry, here, have a better version of the chapter with a conclusion that kinda actually works...

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Chapter 1- A not Fully Unwarranted Sense of Doom

Washington State- Local Time- 16:00 Hours- 14 Hours before the Mission

Neil was the newest squad member, replacing the last support guy for the 4 man squad; aptly named Delta Squad, when in combat. But for now they were just 3 regular visitors and 1 new guy, sat at a quiet bar enjoying some cool refreshments under the warmth of the summer sun.

The 4 man squad consisted of an almost veteran- Sargent Franklin Connors- the team medic. He was aged 42 years and had black, military cut hair and, while was the only gentleman of a coloured persuasion in the squad, he was also the only gentleman. With the rank of squad sergeant and leader of the small team his job was to bring his soldiers home safely.

Next was the squad engineer, a vehicle specialist- Private First class Kyle Greene. He was a shrewd and crude man, preferring to stay in his garage in his time away from the field and preferring to stay in a tank when in the field. He was the sort of man to either trust you so much he would hand you his still burning blowtorch while he worked changing oil out or he would trust you with a frag grenade without the pin. The man was aged 27 years, white, short brown hair that was slightly longer than the military would have permitted if he didn't chase off the officer with a blow torch every time they tried to tell him otherwise. Attempts to discipline him have gone much the same way.

Now the squad recon officer and second in command- Specialist Sam Davis. Another white man, although his mother was Chinese, he was 31 years old and had black hair, more hair than Kyle but he kept it hidden beneath a rag balaclava and fishing hat when on duty. He preferred to keep things simple and he enjoyed simple things, like reducing a hostile's upper torso into pulp with the single pull of the trigger. He had history and would have been a rank ahead of the squad leader if it wasn't for the one time he killed an enemy combatant with a hand-deployed SUAV fixed-wing recon drone; which only resulted in him being reprimanded, though he was permitted to stay on as the squad recon. He did prefer the SUAV over his newly designated MAV- a more stable helicopter equivalent to old throw-plane style drone, but that was no longer his choice to make. Needless to say, he is a polar opposite of the squad engineer and as such, they never really agreed. Of course with time they grew to trust each other more so but still just couldn't find common ground.

And finally the newbie - Private Neil Vickers. Neil was completely new, fresh out of the training camp and yet to fight in combat or even go out into the field- Again, a white man with military cut, although now only just starting to grow again, brown hair and was aged 22 years. His role in the team was to provide support, and the reason he found himself here and not in any other platoon or squad was because that was what he did best. In this squad people didn't get trained for it so much as grew into their position, provided they lived long enough. He knew he would be getting to know the men around him very well over the coming months and he was glad for this, to have people he could call good friends, possibly even brothers. Despite this none of them knew what hell they were about to find themselves in.

13:24 Hours before the mission

"And then, Sam here is just clawing at the walls as our helicopter goes down, screeching like a wild cat-"Said Kyle, laughing and spilling half his drink over the table. Franklin could be seen with a smile stretched across his face from the bar; he knew this story all too well.

Sam interrupted Kyle in a feeble attempt to change the direction and take control.

"well it's not like you were any better when you were stupid enough to drive us right over an AT mine and had to get out for repairs… I remember you didn't want to get out so badly you kept on trying to get us to do your job!"

Sam almost felt triumphant as Kyle was stopped from his story. "At least when I got out I didn't piss myself."

To that Franklin stood in the background and called out "OH Burrrn!"

Sam tried to defend himself "It had been 14 hours since I had been to the bathroom and you all know I get claustrophobic in helicopters when the doors are shut."

"Then I guess you shoulda' used the bathroom before we took off." Kyle retorted.

"I had been awake non-stop for 30 hours and I needed sleep, I take one chance for a break and instead of giving me the chance to nap and when I get up it's not 'Oh, by the way I just wanted to say thanks for making sure we could sleep in this war zone under your wise and safe gaze, you're a real credit to the team!' instead it's 'Damn, you look like shit… Get in the chopper…"

Sam mimicked him with 'little voices' when quoting his squad mates.

After this the two of them looked each other in the eyes, staring intently. For a moment Neil thought they were going to flip the table and have a fight before they both started laughing.

It was at this moment that their whole ordeal had begun. Franklin walked up to the table, holding drinks in his hands before setting them on the table.

The drinks where non-alcoholic.

"You know guys, I was just on the phone to the CO and he said some very interesting things."

Neil didn't know what this meant. For all he knew anything could have happened from 'we are having a celebration party' to 'World War 3 just started' so Neil just sat in his chair and waited for Franklin to drop the dramatic pause.

"…And it turns out, we are setting off for the Saharan desert in 3 hours… So drink up, and call your loved ones, because things are about to get mighty sticky…"

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Washington State- McChord Air Force Base- 10:21 Hours before the Mission

Neil took a taxi, having dropped by his apartment to say his goodbyes. He couldn't tell his family or friends what he was about to do or where he was deploying. He was under strict orders to keep any and all details discreet under penalty of loosing this job and any other job he would ever apply for. He pulled up to the front guard post at the front of the air base and reported to the guardsman, who took his ID and directed him to Captain Perrick.

Captain Perrick had a long history with the squad and it was his influence that grave the squad a replacement so soon after losing their previous support squaddie. He trusted them, despite their attitude to certain situations being somewhat carefree and their frequent disregard for military protocol.

His reason was because they never failed to get results.

Of course all previous ops had been done with their, now retired support squaddie and now they had a heap of fresh meat in his place. This was quite the initiation for Neil. The only expectation he had going into this was to expect the unexpected.

"Private Neil Vickers, Delta squad, reporting in." He said with a salute, now changed into military fatigues.

"At ease" Said Captain Perrick "You are to join your squad mates in bunker 7 and wait there for further instructions.

"Sir, yes sir."

"Dismissed."

Looking around at the Air Force base, he saw large convoys of vehicles moving around, some people had grave looks on their faces and others seemed to be content with their current situation; being standing around and talking about the rumours they heard, although things where starting to look increasingly grave as he neared Bunker 7, the noise of vehicular action and jet turbines seemed to drift away into the distance. Stepping up to the two privates standing guard at the door, Neil gave a salute and they saluted back, one opening the door for him to step through.

There were stairs going downward into the earth went down for about 3 stories before it opened into what was essentially a standard barracks, about half the number of beds and the rest taken up by rations, water, bathroom facilities and other random assortments of equipment and hardware, including communications, weapons and uniforms.

Inside the rest of the squad was already present, throwing what Niel presumed to be Sam's hat between the two others, playing 'piggie in the middle' with him.

At Neil's entrance, the two stopped, half expecting a commanding officer to step through. Sam took his chance to snatch back his hat and finish putting on his desert gear.

Neil spoke first "Hey guys, what's going on? Any ideas or are they keeping us in the dark?"

Franklin replied for the squad "I don't think any of us are gonna be finding out what's happening until we are already in the thick of it, so as I see it, it would be best to just get ready. Your new uniform is on your pile."

His 'pile' had a variety of things to marvel at, for one there was a uniform that consisted of a standard military under layer and a large flak jacket that also had pockets, already stuffed with spare ammunition, his over shirt had longer sleeves that had a few pull buttons, allowing the sleeves to be pulled right back. He also had some camouflaged gloves with rubber gripping on the palm sides. There were also camouflaged cargo pants with many more pockets, this time filled with tools, wire cutters, pliers, various lengths of string and other things he didn't know he'd ever find a use for. He left it all where it was, more worried he might somehow need an odd bit of string. "That was Jimmy's old gear." Kyle said to him. Jimmy, the old squaddie. They didn't want to waste his gear, or maybe they were worried what good luck he had would run off without his odd bits and pieces. He began to don the gear in the way he figured would be most comfortable. He finished with his boots, standard desert grade- designed to help displace sand without giving him giant feet and to keep sand out, while letting air in to help cool his feet.

Having put on all of the gear, he made his way to the next heap where two guns and a collection of other objects awaited him.

The main piece was a U-100 MK5- a light machine gun, magazine fed that came with a strange assortment of components, a bi-pod was expected but the additions of a suppressor and a short range red-dot sight with a magnification lens that could be flicked into position in front of the red-dot was something different, like the higher-ups where expecting him to be in a stealthy, long and short range environment. Normally he'd heard the gear was up to the soldiers but without any experience, he was thankful for whatever guidance he would get.

Next was a standard issue M9 pistol, the device had a small glowing ring around the main sights and also had a small laser sight/flash light combo module hanging off the end, a suppressor extending off the end of the barrel. This seemed a little much for starters but he thought it was probably about as good as things were going to get- everything else looked much heavier.

Next up, he had a couple of hand grenades, which he put into one of his few empty pockets. Now there was a small pocket sized tablet with a rugged build and what looked like a foldable mortar tube with a small camera attached to it. This was going to be difficult, he put his M9 into its holster on his right hip and slung the machine gun over his shoulder on its strap. Then he had to put the mortar on its strap, on his other shoulder. Finally, the last two objects, at least they didn't look that heavy.

He saw a few small blocks of C4 explosive and a detonator and finally, a helmet and headset. The helmet was a large piece, with many straps and parts to it, including a set of shatter resistant goggles that were also connected to his headset radio, which he wore underneath it all. Upon putting the goggles on, he noticed that they presented small blue chevrons above his squad mate's headsets and as he moved his head, they also moved in real time. There was also a small map in the bottom right corner of his vision. This was awfully high tech for his first mission. He didn't know whether to feel glad he was being prepared or worried for what they were preparing him for.

Despite the problem arising from his mighty haul of war-goodies, he knew the real challenge was going to be getting it all up the stairs into the open. If he couldn't make it up the stairs with his gear, how would he prove he could haul himself around when the bullets started flying? This was as much a test for him as it was for his superiors, always watching - he was sure.

The others were now fully equipped with the Kyle, the team engineer holding a Remington 870 MCS pump-action shotgun, which he held closely- it had many scratches and scars across its body which lead Neil to believe that he had taken that gun to many more places that he would have thought. Or he didn't take very good care of it, though the way he held it told a different story. Kyle wore a similar get up, although less ammunition in his pouches, more things like wire cutters, a screw driver and even a portable blow torch. Was it often that he needed that?

His helmet was one of the most defining differences in their uniforms, his having far less ballistic protection, being only a camo baseball cap and a set of military radio headphones. He wore sunglasses that where a similar size to Neil's goggles although they lacked any of the yellow tinting. He also had a single grenade and held a Compact 45. Handgun on his hip, with only a suppressor and flash light attached to it. The biggest piece that made Neil almost feel just as bad for him as he felt was the large SMAW rocket launcher slung over his back. The greatest guilt came from the knowledge of how dense and heavy the explosives where.

The recon, Sam had a JNG-90 sniper rifle with a bi-pod much like his own, although Sam also had a range finder and a variable zoomed 7X to 14X scope and a long suppressor protruded from the end of the barrel. The gun looked mean and that was probably why he liked it, thinking about the sound it made, likely a heavy and loud cracking sound could be heard from miles around every time it fired. Sam also had a large device named a PLD, which was a range finder, laser designator and set of thermal binoculars all in one. That could be used to guide a missile from high in the atmosphere or from far out at sea...

He also held to his back, a remote controlled MAV drone, a small helicopter style of device that, while was mostly meant for spotting targets, was also capable of firing small electronic darts that could short out electrical equipment. His main distinction in uniform being that he had a rag-scarf that covered his face and his fishing hat, which left all but his eyes covered. On his hip lay a 44. Magnum with a 3.4X scope and a longer barrel than was standard, it's chrome colour scheme was but rather a dulled grey; the gun had clearly seen its fair share of use. What was a recon officer doing with such heavy reliance on his sidearm?

Lastly Franklin was stood, appearing to be the most officially dressed of the group, his gear had a fair mix of ammunition, bandages and a pair of chrome scissors that glistened brightly in contrast to the rest of his uniform, being largely in black and grey colours, with dusty tones that helped to blend it into the sandy colour scheme of the mission.

Franklin held a SCAR-H heavy assault rifle, an M26 under-barrel shotgun hanged under his gun. The sights on it where similar to Neil's in that it was a short range holographic scope but it had a magnifier placed in front of it. It also had a suppressor. He had a smaller revolver than Sam, his one being all black with a shorter barrel. It had no discernible attachments on it to make it seem particularly modified beyond a laser/light combo under the barrel. On his back, he carried a first aid pack, complete with a small defibrillator. Though he was unsure as to why defibrillating someone's heart would do anything to bullet holes. He looked to be carrying the least of the squad and it fell to him to carry much of the group rations and spare water. Some light sleeping gear was also included, though really it was just a light tarpaulin.

His helmet was not quite as large as Neil's but it did have black goggles that Neil felt himself staring into, feeling almost like the abyss would stare a hole into him if he turned away, which Franklin was doing. He made a smile and tilted his head to get his attention and snap him back to reality.

"Gentlemen, it's good to see you all here today." Said Captain Perrick, stepping into the bunker.

"Not that any of us had a choice." Kyle said, seeming to joke but there wasn't much laughter. He seemed to get the message and his back straightened a little.

"We have a very peculiar situation down in the Sahara desert, you 4 and you 4 alone are tasked with taking care of it, you will take a transport jet to our outpost there immediately before briefing on the specifics of your mission, in flight."

Franklin spoke for the squad in an official tone before Kyle could derail anything. "Yes sir."

And that was all that was needed to be said. Now it was a matter of getting the equipment up the 3 storey stair case and hoping that they could make it to the transport.

Unfortunately, though the Captain gestured for them to follow, he took his time with the steps and made slow progress, forcing them to take time with each step, savouring the pain in their knees as they went one step closer to a cosy 10 hour flight.

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Above the Saharan Desert- 11:00 local time

-00:00 until the mission-

Captain Perrick spoke to the squad on a screen present in the cargo hold of the transport craft. The 4 of them where the only soldiers equipped for combat on the entire craft, no other soldiers could be seen beyond a few maintenance crew checking that the tanks and Jeeps where still securely fastened to the deck against the wiles of mid-atlantic turbulence.

"Gentlemen, you are all going to be very busy over the next week. Your primary objective is to investigate potential Russian and Chinese activity in the area below you, we expect they are working together to develop a new super weapon and we believe they are testing this weapon in the desert, as shown by these satellite images taken just 2 days ago."

Then the screen changed and a series of satellite photos of a large compound appeared in his place, Perrick continued to talk. "Here we see a very large amount of construction activity and while we would just assume that it was something different, it's that secrecy that makes us suspicious. They have applied thermal camouflage, making their activities considerably harder to detect at night. Now we can't even see the compound by satellite at all. We suspect their installation was made subterranean. No one goes this far out into the middle of nowhere for fun and games."

"So what do you want us to do exactly? Attack them? Take a few holiday photos? Sneak in?" Said Kyle, growing tired from prolonged time wasting away in his seat. While he appreciated being in an air-conditioned transport vehicle, it was just a little too loud to let him actually rest and he felt sleep deprived.

"What we want you to do is to get in. Simple as that, I don't care how loud or quietly you have to be when you do it, just get it done. This is a free-fire zone, it belongs to no one and it doesn't matter what it takes, just get in, find something incriminating and record it. Should you find yourselves captured by the enemy, you are not to reveal your ties with the US military, this operation doesn't exist. If either country starts asking about you and we find you failed... There will be no helping the damned."

"You have 7 days to complete your objective, when you are done with the facility, you will travel directly east from the enemy compound and after 3 days drive, you will make radio contact with the British outpost named Bluestone 42 and they will refer you to me. Should you fail to make radio contact by the specified time, we will be forced to assume the worst and wipe the facility off the face of the desert. Any questions?"

Franklin looked to his team. Kyle and Sam saw that this was a sketchy, off-the-books kind of mission and they knew this was their field, their area of expertise. Pulling off the impossible. Neil was less roguishly confident than the other two and hoped that he would be able to draw enough courage from his squad mates.

"No sir."

"Then best of luck to you."

With that the screen cut to black and the transmission was over. A technician from the cockpit came down to the squad and handed Franklin a piece of paper. The paper note read-

So sorry we couldn't give you a map or GPS, can't afford to let the enemy know this is a US operation, the flags have been removed from your uniforms and the vehicles present here for a reason

At least you can have a compass

If you just get into the four man Jeep at the end of the ramp, it's already got a parachute attached and I can just open the ramp and let you go.

When you land, travel with a bearing of 190 O and continue until you reach a large dustbowl- then move toward the north end of the dustbowl and there will be a cave with the following supplies:

Food
Water
Fuel
Ammunition

Travel directly south to find the RUS/CHI site.

From there travel directly East and on the third day of driving, use the on board radio to find Bluestone 42, show them the recordings and get home safe.

Good luck

This information was quickly digested before being handed to Sam, the man on navigation in the front passenger seat.

The vehicle rolled out of the end of the plane and began to fall, the parachute opened and pulled the vehicle out of a nose dive before gently allowing them to fall at an almost comforting rate. From this height the dustbowl in the note could be clearly seen in the distance, although it was a very large area, there was no sign of the Russian/Chinese facility all the way to the horizon.

Driving in the sun and sand was enjoyable for the first few minutes but it quickly grew into a boring and sweaty ordeal. The cave den was a godsend, providing a nice supply of shade and water. Filling up their camelbacks with fresh water and having one last MRE before they began their 4 man assault. They waited until nightfall. Yes they would be more visible on thermal but they would be far less visible on long range and it was long range that they could not account for, being as their sniper could not see a small scope glint in the far distance while in a moving vehicle bumping around in the desert through the heat haze.

Nightfall came and they set about their work. When they got to the coordinates, they began to deviate, opting not to charge down the enemy's front door. Sam picked out that there was no light from the supposed compound reaching up into the sky. Or rather there did not appear to be any compound at all, just an old, weathered petrol station, no lights shone out into the sand, there wasn't even glass in the windows. Or a road.

Pulling up while staying suspicious, they collectively got out of the Jeep and cautiously, made their way into the store part of the stop to find no isles, no desks nothing but a heavy steel hatch and spiral stairwell beneath. They made their way carefully down it and found that there was much more to this place than they were led to believe. A long corridor with lights at the far end illuminating a massive metal blast door.

They felt like there where eyes in the darkness, cameras had to be somewhere, this wasn't exactly a shed in the desert, this was a big deal. Secretive multinational military coordination rarely left the keys under the mat.

Just as Kyle went to open the great door, Sam having a minor anxiety attack in the confined space began to breathe rapidly and shallowly. He was the first to pass out. Then Neil felt unsteady, his head was spinning and Franklin made the connection; they were being gassed. Before Franklin knew it he grew light headed and everything became heavy and tiring. He tried to turn to Kyle but he was already out cold, slumped against the door, which now swung open to many foreign weapons trained on their bodies. The last things that Neil could hear was heavy breathing through filtered masks and the cocking of assault rifles before he finally fell to the demand for rest. Franklin would have tried to hold his gun to the foreign troops but could not manage it, he was quickly bashed across the face with the butt of an enemy rifle and he too fell to the floor.

Neil was the first to wake, he found that his equipment was taken from him, making him feel almost weightless, with the exception that he still had his flak jacket and was bound to a metal chair and the drugs had not yet totally worn off. He was in a darkened room, to his left was Kyle and to his right where Franklin and Sam, all still out cold. The only source of light in the room was an annoyingly bright light bulb that hung over his head. Despite the unknown amount of time that he was out for, he felt like he had run a half marathon, his time unconscious was not time resting and he felt thirsty.

The sound of metal grinding against concrete was heard and Neil could hear footsteps moving to the middle of the room, just out of view of the light, only barely showing his black boots in the darkness.

Nothing was said to start with, then boots began to pace around in the darkness and when he reached the left of Neil's view, he spoke with a thick and deep Russian accent. "So, my young American soldier. Do you fear death? You would be right to, you have a potentially long and prosperous life ahead of you, so young. Should you make it out of here alive. If you would be so kind as to tell me what it was you where doing down here and I will let you out to run for the dunes and you might just make it out alive."

"Yo no comprende amigo, hablar espanol, no ingles." Said Neil. He kept up the act that he really didn't know much, which was essentially true. Beyond a vague understanding of his own equipment and a loose hold on the Spanish language so this was not a great departure from the truth but he feared his accent could betray him, along with his lack of even a light tan. At least the interrogator seemed to smile a little, the sound of his teeth exposing creaked through the still air.

"What are your objectives boy? Speak now and I will let you go out into the desert, if you don't then I will have to make an example of you." He said, pulling a knife from his hip and holding it to Neil's neck. He was close enough that Neil could see his face, paler than anyone he knew and his hair was trimmed to military perfection. His nose seemed a little flattened, but he cheeks held a smile and his eyes radiated a sick fantasy running through his mind as Neil repeated the same words as he did before. Next he knew, a second man barged into the room. The second man stayed in the shadows and spoke rapidly in Chinese between deep breaths of air to the interrogator.

He saw the change of tone had got to the interrogator, who after a second more staring intently at Niel, broke away and joined the shadows once more, seemingly to argue with the latest intruder.

The scientist suddenly stopped talking and an eerie wave of silence passed over them. The Russian made a sound like his knife going back into its sheath and called to the hallway. At this moment, Kyle awoke and Franklin was stirring. Sam was still fast asleep and was nearly snoring when he was slapped across the face a few times by the scientist to wake him up. Then 8 fully armed soldiers walked in and undid their bonds, one to tie and one to hold a gun to the ready for each prisoner. They then quickly applied handcuffs to the American squad and walked them out into the hall. The scientist motioned for them to follow and not knowing what to do, they just did as they were told. How could it get any worse?

The corridor twisted and turned beneath the desert until it opened up into a large underground area much like an aircraft carrier's underdeck. There were hundreds of soldiers and technicians, engineers and builders working on colossal structures, one of them being a large moving crane that caught Neil's eye. It was moving their Jeep. The crane operator was called to by the same scientist that had seemingly saved him from execution mere moments ago. The crane then moved toward the walkway they were on and stopped just next to it.

The platform was more than big enough for the Jeep, although it was a bit of a squeeze for the 8 guards, 4 marines, the scientist and the interrogator as well as the Jeep all crammed on its concrete surface.

The scientist held his hands to his mouth in a cone shape and shouted to the crane operator in Chinese and he nodded in confirmation. The crane began to move downwards, deeper into the facility before it connected to a platform rail on the wall of a tunnel they began to descend down.

Before long, another, chamber, much like the last one although smaller was present and the platform was now moving along the rails, clearly visible and directed to take them diagonally downwards for about 20 meters before levelling out into a horizontal movement even deeper under the open air construction area. This continued and eventually they reached the end of the long track. The scientist disembarked the platform, having now stopped at the end of the room before a massive door.

He swiped a key card and spoke a voice confirmation before the door began to open. It revealed a large chamber that had what appeared be a control room of sorts along the ceiling with large windows along all it's exposed surfaces. About 20 feet wide was a massive mechanical octagon like structure. It had massive cables and tubes connected to it and the whole room felt cold, their breaths collectively condensing in front of them and their feet growing numb from the socks they'd been wearing since they disembarked from their flight. Neil was wondering if this was a normal mission for the others. The stories they had told him so far seemed rather tame compared with this, but he considered that maybe they just weren't allowed to talk about these missions except once in debriefing.

The scientist walked along a different path with the guards and interrogator and moved off of the platform, the squad was about to start getting off as well but they were denied. The platform continued in motion into the chamber while the people that brought them here took an elevator up to the control room and the grand door sealed shut behind them.

When the door sealed shut, their handcuffs beeped and unlocked; giving them their first piece of freedom since being captured.

They were left in the chamber with their Jeep and Sam was the first to see that their gear had been left with the Jeep. At first Kyle thought this was some grave mistake on the Facility's part but they did not appear worried in the control room when Sam took his rifle and (after checking to see that it was loaded) scoped in on the control room scientists.

They armed themselves ready for whatever was coming for them, putting on their headphones and helmets as well as slinging equipment over their backs. Neil was new, but it was clear that this was not them getting safely away, this was not mercy. This was an experiment.

Standing by the Jeep before they could get in and start the engine, a loudspeaker could be heard coming on and the voice of the scientist from earlier came on, speaking in broken English. "Um, Hello American soldiers. Please know I mean not harm to you. This will not take very long much."

The same voice then started speaking in Mandarin, much faster and more confidently than in English but this time it was almost procedural. Sam had some very sparse knowledge of Mandarin but he could pick out a few words like "First", "Dangerous" and "Rapid decompression". Neil didn't think to question why his vocabulary was limited to these choice words. He felt the need to clear his sinuses like he would when he parents suggested he should before his first time scuba diving.

Then the colossal ring began to make noises that reverberated throughout the chamber with increasing volume and frequency. The ring began to light up at the corners of the octagonal shape as it began to almost deafen the soldiers. Screaming at them as they fought and fidgeted to put combat earplugs in before it got much worse.

Looking at the state of his soldiers, Franklin realised his squad looked just as they did when they were caught in a massive earthquake in the Middle East; helmets off, uniforms bedraggled and pained expressions on their faces. A few memories from the operation gone-wrong flowed through Franklin's head and he knew, if he could survive that, he had to survive whatever the Facility had to give him. He was out of his depth then and he is out of his depth now, but he'd find his ground. He always did.

A heavy gust of air broke into the room, despite the rising volume the frequency had risen above their range of hearing, they now had splitting headaches. Suddenly there was an absence weight, or rather gravity as everything in the room began to loose its weight, including the soldiers; who all clung desperately to the Jeep as it too began to lift off of the ground and into the air.

The colossal ring began to sling massive electrical arcs across its space and before long, the space in the ring was filling with something, or rather filling with space. There was a starry void in the place of the dull grey back wall and while this would be enough to make anyone start to panic, it really made to panic Kyle the most as he struggled to keep his MRE down in his stomach and the feeling of freefall took root. Neil began to hyperventilate with what air remained around him. He knew there wouldn't be much point in holding a breath, the pressure change would cause his lungs to expand and maybe burst but he hadn't time to tell anyone that.

Before the they reached the void, a distant column of light could be seen to forge out deep in the void, Neil thought this could have been the fabled 'light at the end of the tunnel' you supposedly see when you are dying and in all fairness to him that this could well have been happening as the temperature continued to drop and the grew air increasingly scarce, he had to remind himself that he wasn't yet dead. Or he hoped.

Then the noise of air left them completely as the sound of rushing winds faded. They passed into and through the ring, looking back the squad saw the chamber that had left behind them before the lightning portal around their vehicle snapped shut and the world they knew was gone. They were in a starry void with a distant column of light that seemed to almost flow in one direction. They all knew that it was a long shot but it was their best bet.

The soldiers could feel their temperatures falling, there was air, but not enough to stay conscious for long, sounds of metal clanking took on a tone quiet and dull. The Jeep already had some motion from the vacuum earlier but they weren't going to get to the pillar of light and stay awake at this rate, and that was not including the idea that the pillar would last that long, but at this point they were not thinking that far ahead. They just needed to get there, get somewhere.

But they were weightless. They already wore their equipment and pushed off of the Jeep, rocking it away as they flew towards the column. Sam, Franklin and Kyle were beginning to black out but Neil still had some oxygen in his blood, he huddled them together in an attempt to keep some heat between them before they could reach the steam of light. Hoping the shivering would cease their rapid oxygen loss. That they wouldn't miss. That they wouldn't die here.

','.','.','.'''.,''.','.''.','.',',.,.,.'.,'.'.,'.,'.','.,'.','.,'

The Kindergarten - 14:54 Local Time

Neil could breathe. The air was cold and bitter but it was still air, rich with nurturing oxygen that cleared the pain in his burning muscles and pulsing head.

Neil was on the floor of what appeared to be a large crystalline platform which protruded from the scorched earth around him. It was dark and Neil could barely see, but removing his goggles did little to improve his vision as the whole area just appeared to be viciously dark. When he got up to look around he saw that he was in a massive ravine of sorts, epic cliffs towered around him and while the eerie grey colours and ominous fog clouds rolled around, these were not what put Neil on edge. Rather the massive drill-ended device that resembled a bacteriophage virus hanging off of the cliff above him, painted in all black with the exception of a large transparent pale red crystal shape on the 'head' end.

Neil got up and saw that these colossal structures where everywhere, scattered along the walls of the ravine, some were broken and others looked relatively functional, for whatever it is they did. There where also hundreds, possibly even thousands of holes in the sides of the cliffs, shaped like cartoon cutouts of strongmen, this would have been all the motivation that he needed to start moving in any other direction if it hadn't been for the voices he could now hear at the base of his own outcrop. He noticed that his ears had stopped ringing and he went to pull out his earplugs so he could hear what the voices below where.

They sounded like... Kids! American accents... This was a very strange experience, get held by Russian and Chinese soldiers, go into a starry void, find yourself in a large and dark ravine. His sargent was still out cold, as where the rest of the squad. He wasn't going to go on any longer without any answers, he needed to find out what was going on; if he did a good enough job, this could be the kind of mindset that could get him promoted. Or maybe he should stay put and watch his squad, make sure none of them had.. Internal bleeding? But Niel wasn't a medic. He could point at a bullet wound and that was the extent of his medical knowledge. He had to make sure they would at least be safe.

He moved his team off of the large crystal platform and hid them behind some large rocks, still up on the platform above the voices. Looking over the edge he saw a young boy, about 12 years old, wearing a pink shirt and jeans and... A yellow-green thing?

The boy was holding the green thing's hand and walking it around and away from the base of the cliff he stood atop. Getting a better angle on the green thing, he saw it was a girl, roughly the same size as the boy, although she appeared to have a mass of blond hair in the shape of a large pyramid. She wore green and even had green skin, which was mildly disturbing to Neil.

I know kids do some weird things... Maybe it's a kid playing dress-up or something? But why would she dress up and go to a ravine? How did these kids get here? What even is here?

There where many questions that pained Neil right now and he was sure there would be answers somewhere, he just had to go and get them.

Neil waited until they were out of earshot, he dropped his mortar tube and took Sam's PLD device before sliding down the cliff until he was on level ground with the kids, who had now moved around a corner and where likely moving further away, Neil had to catch up.

Staying low near the corners, trying to keep quiet, he pulled up the PLD to get a view on any thermal traces from the kids, unless they where wearing boots with thermal insulation, there should be some thermal residue from their footsteps. Sure enough there where small glowing foot steps leading around a corner, where Neil heard the voices. Maybe the green-girl was barefoot because her footsteps were hot enough to show up from a long way out. Much further than the boy's.

"This place just gets worse every time I come here." Said who Neil thought was the young boy, now visibly wearing pink flip-flops.

"I know, its been so poorly managed, it must have been in much better shape when you first emerged." Said the green woman, she had a very nasal tone to her voice and sounded older than her size had lead Neil to believe.

"Emerged?" Said the young boy.

"Yeah, you're some kind of quartz right? You must've been made here." This was getting a little weird for Neil, he focused in on the two from a distance and saw that the green woman had a green gemstone stuck to her forehead.

"Uhh, I came from my Mom and Dad."

"Are those some kind of rocks? Or another planet?" Said the green woman. She seemed to lack any understanding in human reproduction and while this would have caused Neil to believe that the Earth had been invaded by aliens of some description, he reminded himself that this may not even be Earth, he had no idea where he was or even if the boy before him was a human himself.

"Nope, my dad's from Earth but my Mom's a Gem." He replied, pulling up his shirt to reveal a fist-sized pink gemstone in his navel. Neil was now even more confused, he needed more information. Basic information.

It seemed that there was an Earth and something must've happened in his absence.

Did aliens invade and make peace while he had been out in the void? Or maybe he was in another dimension where aliens had already invaded, in which case, what is the case for world order? Are humans a slave species now?

Neil wanted to push the ideas out of his head for now and try to just gather objective information.

The green woman looked at the boy's gemstone and spoke with a pinch of curiosity and a fistful of confusion. "You're some sort of hybrid? How is that even possible?"

"The answer to that is a story I like to call The Ballad of Rose and Greg-"

The clearly clueless green woman held her hand up to him and cut him off before he could continue. "I don't care, let's just continue to the control room."

With this they began to walk away, still holding hands. "Are you sure this is safe? Last time I was here there where a bunch of fusion monsters."

They walked out into a clearing where a large, perfectly square shaft was present in the ground.

Still holding hands, Neil saw them go to the hole and slide downward into the abyss.

"Yes-" Said the green woman "I was checking their progress."

"What's the deal with those things?"

Great, so if this place wasn't weird enough anyway, the kids are talking about something I don't think I would want to meet alone... This is just perfect. If it wasn't for the distance back to the squad I would turn back but I guess I have gone too far to turn back now. Better to get enough information and know what to do.

"When it became clear that Earth would no longer be a viable colony, Homeworld decided to use it for something else."

Their voices where disappearing down the shaft but he could still hear them from the top of it.

"A series of experiments, a Gem geo-weapon."

"Oh, did you help?" Interrupted the young boy.

"Negative, I wasn't lucky enough to be around for that, but I read-over a few hundred years of reports!"

The sounds of their foot steps were growing faint but then they stopped.

"We are going to have to restore power to this room soo... Could I have my hand back now?" Said the the woman.

"Okay, but stay where I can see you."

A moment later, some struggling and grunting was heard. Then it abruptly stopped. "It's over, I can't show you anything, let's go back." the green-one sounded defeated and a little melodramatic.

Neil was about to get up and look for cover when the boy spoke next. "Mind if I try?"

"Go ahead, knock yourself out."

A second later a metallic clanging sound was heard and it seemed that all was well for the time being, they continued to work away at the bottom of the shaft.

"There you go!" Went the voice of the young boy.

"Okay, give me a moment." She started grumbling, almost silent against the chilling breeze of the outside but still just barely audible before she spoke again.

"There, it's not perfect but it'll do for now." A few seconds later the same voice was heard again, this time just exhaling in annoyance.

"What's up Dot?" Said the boy again.

Finally, a name... Probably not a real name but it's a start. Better than "green thing".

"I can't reach the-" She was caught out but then the voice of the boy came over again. "It's okay to ask for help you know."

"I had it under control."

A sound of mechanical and electrical activity was sounded from the tunnel and the back wall of the shaft lit up in a pale green glow.

"There are the first few attempts at artificial fusion."

"That's alotta' Gem shards."

"We where just growing them at this very site, but they where just prototypes for the final product, a singular giant artificial fusion. Comprised of millions of Gem shards: The Cluster."

To say the boy sounded slightly afraid would be an understatement. "So you're saying there's a giant fusion monster the size of the Earth beneath us right now?"

Neil felt a strange sensation as he hugged the ground beneath him, leaning in closer to get a better understanding of what exactly was going on.

"Oh no, when it forms it'l be much bigger than the Earth. Right now, it lies dormant, incubating in the Earth's core but when it emerges and takes it's physical form, it will destroy the planet. The prototypes are already emerging, the cluster is next. If we can't get off this planet, we have got to stop the cluster. I thought it would be impossible, but now we have a chance."

"What is it?" Said the young boy.

"It's you Steven!"

Another name, well that's great for when I start introducing myself- if I start introducing myself but this sounds like some pretty dangerous shit... I need to tell the others.

This wasn't particularly bad timing on Neil's part, as the small woman apparently named 'Dot' was making her way up the shaft. Neil ran quietly for a hiding place, opting to hide away in one of the cutouts from the direction they all came from. Clambering over the lip, she got up and started walking toward and then past Neil, much to his relief.

"Now that you're up to date, we can get to work." Said Dot

"Uhh, how am I supposed to help?" replied Steven.

"Well, you have all the knowledge regarding Earth and it's erratic behaviour, put that together with my expansive knowledge of the cluster and we might just be able to stop it."

"No Peridot-" Steven got up from the edge, causing 'Peridot' to turn and begin walking back. "-I don't think you get it." Continued Steven. "Just because I know how clouds work, it doesn't mean I know how to stop a giant mutant in the centre of the Earth. Besides, the only reason I know anything about clouds is because my Dad told me."

Peridot stopped and replied, a tone of worry in her voice. "What are you talking about?"

"I used to be afraid of thunderstorms, then dad explained how rain and all that stuff works, then I wasn't scared of rain any more."

"Well I am sure you have other knowledge on how this planet works."

Steven sounded uneasy, like he wasn't too sure about the responsibility being piled onto him without his consent. "Sure, but none of it's gonna help us. If we wanna' stop this cluster thing, we'll need help from the Crystal Gems."

Peridot seemed to disagree. "I said I don't need them!" She said, on the verge of shouting. "Let's just warp me back to the bathroom or whatever you call it and we'll take care of this. If it looks really bad, then we could just ask this 'dad' for help. Right?"

At this moment, a loud, ear piercing screech could be heard echoing far but coming from closeby.

"What was that?" Said Peridot. Fear drenching her words.

"Gem mutants!" Said Steven, pointing to the cliff where Neil's squad lay.

Neil looked up and saw something that made him wretch, they looked like Frankenstein's monsters, in that they where loosely tied together. They looked like the outcome of a drunken, mad scientist that had full reign over the local amputation clinic.

A creature made mostly of arms and legs, spewing from it's central form crawled and clawed it's way down the cliff and started for the two before Neil. The only blank space on it's ghastly body that wasn't occupied with additional limbs was quickly revealed to be the mouth of the monster, with rows upon rows of teeth. Neil had to do something, he didn't know what bullets would do or what the people before him would do in response but he couldn't sit idly by while, what he supposed was a couple of kids (or at the least, a kid and an alien) get mauled by these abominations from his worst nightmares.

He called to the two, as they stood there frozen in shock. "Hey! Kids! Over here!" He got up and waved to them, grabbing their attention from the almost slimy reach of the horrors before them.

..,,,..,,.'''','.''.,'.'','.'','.','.','''.','.''''.,''.','.',.'',.'',.'''','.''''',.,...

Steven turned to see a strangely dressed human and was, at first just confused. He stood for a second thinking about why a human of all things was standing around in the kindergarten of all places. Then he remembered what was happening around him. Steven summoned his bubble to protect him and Peridot, who stood, still frozen. He shook her.

"We got to get out of here! C'mon!"Steven began to roll the bubble in the direction of of the man, who held up and pointed a large, black metal device to the mutant behind them. As they passed him, he pulled on the machine and an ear cracking storm of fire poured from the end of the machine, streaks of light burned and pained on the mutants, it was clearly hurting them a great deal. He switched from target to target and while smaller forms 'poofed' quite easily, the machine lacked sufficient stopping power to get to the larger mutants, which seemed to just shrug off the rain of hell that spewed from the machine. Steven dropped the bubble, the loud noises from the machine reverberating in it and giving him and Peridot headaches.

It almost looked like it was going to work until it stopped. He fumbled for something from his jacket and dropped it on the ground. He just dropped the whole machine and pulled a smaller, though similarly designed one from his hip and started to do the same with it. It had even less of an impact on the mutants and in a matter of a few seconds, it too stopped working.

"What. The. Fuck." He spoke with a grain of anger and frustration, as the largest creatures continued to claw toward him. He grabbed a small clay brick from his bag and put it on the cliff wall before getting Steven and Peridot to move away, he pulled a pin and started running to join us, the gem mutants not far behind.

He held a small device that looked a lot like a hand-held radio without a speaker or microphone. When the Gem mutants neared the brick, he stood in the open holding nothing but the small, yellow device in his hand. "Cover your ears, kids." He slammed his hand down on the device and the brick exploded in a massive ball of fire that shook the foundations of the cliff. Soon after, the gem mutants tried to reform their missing limbs before the whole cliff face came down and crushed their physical forms. They were all 'poofed' and forced into their gemstones.

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Neil remembered his training in the use of C4 explosive, he was told never to use it for direct harm to organic material. It wasn't like his instructor cared for any creature's welfare, he just didn't want to have to put any squirrels out of their misery, which he would also have to clean up from the testing range. He mainly cared for the revolting stench of burning flesh, which would fill your nostrils from miles away and make any hardened soldier have second thoughts on what their choice of career was.

But there wasn't any stench like he had been warned. There was dust of course, massive clouds of dust rolled toward him, which he thought would make him look totally bad ass to the kids behind him. When Steven dropped his bubble, having brought it up by reflex from the explosion, he was met with a stranger that kneeled to his level and took his goggles off, revealing his deep green eyes and his full facial expression, which was a smile, giving him a sense of comfort and security. "So, Steven and... Peridot... I am Neil."

"Hi Neil." Replied Steven, still a little bit shaken by the explosion but calmed by the lack of further screaching or roaring.

"I have a lot of questions for you two but for now, I would like to know if you two have-"

"STEVEN!" Screeched a female voice that cut through the air so fast and hard, it could've stopped Neil's words from escaping from his mouth even if he hadn't stopped talking.

Author's Note

There we go, I fixed it! (Again, updated twice!)

This chapter is set during the episode: When it Rains. One of my personal favourites so far.

The real question I wanted to ask was what would happen if the four mad marines from the insanity that is Battlefield multiplayer had their own personalities and characters? Then I looked to Battle Field Friends for a semi-rip-off but I tried to be mostly original... Promise...

*Pleads for forgiveness*

Anyway, this story is largely going to follow Delta Squad and the Crystal gems as they try to save the SU Earth from the cluster and find a way back to the Facility before the US nukes the entire thing and starts world war 3... Or worse... But we'll see if they can do it first! I still don't know who the main bad guys are or how I want this to end... Or maybe I am just covering for my terrible plot making skills!

*Evil laughter*