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Post by tamwyn on Feb 27, 2010 12:45:37 GMT -5
A couple of months before E-Day...
Joseph Nyvar reached up above his head for his helmet, hanging on a hook where it swayed slightly with the Raven's motion. Grasping it, he set it over his graying hair, securely fastening it on his head. System reports came on-line as he finished sealing it, detailing his armor condition and ammo gages. His snub pistol, Lancer Assault Rifle, Longshot Sniper Rifle, and two Bolo Grenades showed up green as he checked them.
He looked out through two blue eye-ports to his other comrades, who were setting up similar to him, checking their ammo and firearms. The newest addition to their team, Tyler Fais, dropped his Lancer on the deck, where it slid toward the open door of the chopper. Lunging for it, he caught it and sat back in his seat, resuming his check of equipment as if nothing happened. Nyvar liked that about the kid.
Ven Salora, a South Islander, nodded at him, indicating his readiness for the mission, already having checked and cleaned his weapon and armor, which gleamed in the dusky sun. He reached up for a handle and rode in quiet, a man of few words. An almost serene expression graced the man’s face as he looked out over the landscape, covered in shadows and the low light of dawn’s twin. His Gnasher Shotgun sat across his lap, stylized engravings running the length of the chassis.
The last member of his team, an old friend from Boot, Syval Marov, winked at the new recruit after seeing his blunder. He refused to wear a helmet, instead wearing heavy blue goggles over a brown dew rag, something that had gotten him in trouble a couple of times during the last few years of the Pendulum Wars. Positioning his Lancer between his legs, the bayonet dangerously close to stabbing his leg, he cleaned the custom pistol he'd made a few years back. Its hilt was made from the bone of a fallen enemy in one of the countless skirmishes he’d taken part in. Gruesome, Nyvar had always called it. Marov always shrugged and said it was a reminder. Never explained more than that.
Nyvar nodded, seeing everyone at least a bit ready for the long night ahead. They'd all been briefed on where they were about to explore; a small country on the border of Ephyra, called Nemaria. Specifically a village in the central part of the nation, which happened to be unimaginatively termed Nemaria Central.
A heat spike had shown up on the satellites, causing an alarm among the Admiralty. They wished to level the place with a nuke, but the Chairman had advised against it. Instead, they had sent his unit, a small four man team, to figure out what exactly caused the spike.
"Sir, we're nearing the LZ. Doesn't look like anyone's around, but I'd be careful. Some of the locals have been seeing strange things in the dark and mysterious holes in the ground that go away during the night." The pilot said from the cockpit, skillfully maneuvering the chopper to their destination. The Raven banked as it sighted the landing zone, blowing a few loose shrubs away as it drew near.
"Roger that, pilot. We'll be on guard." Nyvar said, looking to each of the others to make sure they understood him. The three others nodded at him, showing their understanding of the situation.
"We're here, Gears. Good luck and good hunting." The Raven jockey said, landing the chopper in the middle of a field on the outskirts of Nemaria Central. Dust blew up from the ground from the chopper's blades, the pilot making a few adjustments on his console inside the helicopter.
Hopping out, Echo Three, Nyvar’s team designation, created a perimeter to safeguard the precious Raven long enough for it to take off and disappear into the dark. The machines increased in value when the ability to make more was slowing down thanks to the opposing army’s sabotage. Pointing to each of the four compass points as a reminder to his team where to go, Nyvar braced his Lancer against his shoulder, aiming through the crude metal ring attached to the top of the assault rifle. His helmet’s HUD brought up a targeting reticule inside the ring, giving him distances and other readings as he shifted his attention across the landscape. He saw nothing.
“Clear north,” Marov said through their radio, all business.
“The way to the south is clear, as well,” Ven said, and Joseph could almost picture the man’s face smiling into the darkness.
“Uh, clear east, sir,” the rookie said, nervousness clear in his tone. This was the man’s first real deployment since he had been in Boot.
“Clear west,” Nyvar said, letting his rifle drop to his side and continued staring out across this small portion of Nemaria.
They grouped up after they could no longer hear or see the chopper, their Lancer Assault Rifles resting by their sides or slung over their shoulders. Nyvar figured it was time to get the mission going.
"Alright men, we're here. Marov, you're on point. Tyler, Ven, you're side-guard. I'll watch the rear. Let's move out." Nyvar said, motioning as he gave them their directions. Marov nodded and moved toward the city, the others following him while Joseph brought up the rear.
The next few hours on the journey to the city were uneventful, no ambushes or even wildlife to bother them. It was as if the whole land was holding its breath in expectation of something big happening. As they neared the city, they noticed much of it was dark; no lights on anywhere besides what appeared to be the center.
"I don't like it, ‘Seph. It’s too quiet; too dark." Marov whispered into the radio, looking out at the foreboding scene. "It looks like no one's home."
Tyler looked over at Marov, his left foot tapping the ground in a giveaway of his nervousness. He replied, "It's a small city, Sy. Maybe there's a curfew?"
"No, my friend," Ven said as he stared at the lightless city. "Small cities like this have no need for a curfew. Everyone knows everyone else, so there is no reason to limit their activity."
"Let's head for the center, Echo. Stay sharp, though. No telling what's goin’ on here." Nyvar said, pointing to the only lit portion of the city. They moved out, entering the city, checking in windows, seeing no one home; their houses untouched by any violence.
"Maybe they're having some kind of festival?" Tyler said, nerves creeping into his voice. No one answered; intent on their surroundings. The noob fingered his trigger guard nervously, keeping it closer to his body, ready to fire at a moment's notice.
"Calm down, rook. You're no good to use as high-strung as you are. Bloody useless in a firefight." Nyvar said after awhile, noticing Tyler's erratic movements. "Just think of the mess hall, all that food, the barracks waiting there for a good night's rest, and those wonderful military nurses."
"T-thanks, Sarge." He nodded, stuttering, "I can handle myself."
Something moved, a shadow crawling quickly across an alleyway. Tyler shook it off as his nerves. It moved again after they passed, crawling across the rooftops, trailing them. They continued to the heart of the city, oblivious to more and more shadows joining the lone one on the rooftops. A low howl caused them to pause, their weapons up at the mournful sound.
"I haven't heard anything since we've been here, Nyvar. I don't like this at a-."
"Look, on the rooftops!" the rookie said, cutting Marov off with a burst of gunfire. His gun flashed as bullets ran out of the barrel and straight into the shadow on top of the roof. It gurgled noisily before toppling over onto the ground, landing with a wet thud.
The other shadows moved off quickly, their mournful howls echoing across the night. Tyler reloaded, shaking and almost dropping his ammo. He slowly walked over to where the thing had fallen; nudging it with his boot to make sure it was dead.
"Sarge...you'd better come look at this. I don't know what this thing is." The rook said, fear evident in his voice.
The other three moved toward the corpse, Ven turning a flashlight on and shining toward the body. An intake of breath sounded from Marov as they saw it. The thing looked hunched over, with tiny arms ending in sharp nails, and strong back legs ending in clawed feet. A cloth of some kind draped over its curved back, its skin an unhealthy looking gray pallor anywhere the cloth did not cover. It’s small head looked glued on, bullet holes covering the face, making it unrecognizable aside from a few chipped, sharp teeth the size of a finger.
"What...is it some kind of...monkey?" Ven said, his eyes widening, an uncharacteristic expression on the Islander’s face.
"No," Marov said, crouching down near it and poking it with his Lancer’s bayonet. "No, this thing has some sort of clothing on. Monkeys aren't that intelligent; at least, not the bigger ones."
"Whatever it is, you scared the rest of the wretched things off. Let's go, Echo. We still need to see what's going on in the center." Nyvar said, patting Tyler on the back, partly to congratulate him for the kill and to calm the boy’s nerves.
"Same formations as before, let’s go." They nodded, glancing at the body before heading toward their positions. Marov walked ahead, followed by Tyler and Ven, with Nyvar once again in the back. He looked out through the blue screens of his eye-ports, flicking on his infrared, looking from rooftop to rooftop, checking for more of those monkey things.
They continued in silence, interrupted only by a howl every now and then, far off in the distance. A broad avenue appeared ahead of them, stretching the last bit to the city center, where lights showered shambling figures moving around. They kept to the sidewalk, slowly moving forward as they hid behind pillars and walls.
Nyvar spotted a pair of binoculars on the ground outside of a store with its glass window shattered. Crunching across the glass, he picked them up and handed them to Marov, brushing a few shards off of it.
"See what's going on over there, Sy. My helmet doesn’t magnify that far and we need to know what we're getting into." Nyvar motioned to the light bathed city square.
Marov nodded, putting the binoculars up to his eyes, fixing the zoom to see what was going on. After a few seconds, he brought them away from his eyes and looked into the other end, trying to find any faults in the device. Seeing none, he paled and put them back to his eyes, scanning the square again. With a gasp, he let them fall to his chest, the cord wrapped around the back of his neck.
"S-sarge. Nyvar...you won't believe it," Marov said, tears in his eyes. He continued on, stutteringly, "Bodies, sir...t-tons of b-bodies. The wh-whole city." He stopped and gasped again, shaking his head.
"Shit..." Ven said, bringing his gun up and facing it toward the bright center, a calm, but worried expression on his face. "This place is cursed, Sergeant. We need to leave this place, now.”
"Stow it, soldier. We've all seen bodies. We're on a mission to see what's going on around here. Any information we uncover might stop whatever happened here from happening to other places on Sera. Now let's all calm down and move forward." Nyvar said, his hands moving in a calm down guesture.
Tyler looked up at that moment, shouldering his gun and firing at a shade that had leaped onto the ground behind Joseph. Nyvar cursed and turned around, bringing his gun into position. Tons of shadows detached themselves from the walls and rooftops, howling a bloodcurdling screech as they threw themselves at the four Gears.
They opened fire, their spent casings littering the glass-covered sidewalk. The things died easily, but that wasn't their only problem.
"Sarge, behind us! Those things are coming toward us!" Ven said, looking back and firing at the incoming figures with his shotgun. They looked bigger than the things that were currently attacking them.
Incoming fire from the figures peppered the already broken store, causing the four to curse and roll toward cover. Ven and Tyler returned fire while Nylar and Marov covered their rear, shooting the last of the monkey things.
Finishing that, they opened fire on the shambling figures, blowing them off their feet. More were coming behind them, with even bigger ones behind them. They all opened fire at their position, the bigger ones turning a crank on what acted like a machine gun.
The rook panicked at this and tried to run away behind the rest of them. His breathing could be heard over the radio as he ran. A remaining shadow leaped off a nearby roof and landed on Tyler, knocking him down. He somehow managed to get his Lancer up and blew the thing away with a spray of bullets, but at the cost of his helmet being torn off.
"Tyler, stay where you are. God dammit, why'd you have to run." Nylar yelled into his mic, rushing from one cover to the next; pillars that had fallen into the street from nearby walls.
"Yes, sir. Sorry. I panicked. I'm uninjured, but I lost my helmet!" Tyler said, his breathing interrupting his speech as he hyperventilated.
The figures that were firing at them stopped and switched over to the fallen COG soldier, showering him with bullets. Grunts could be heard as they impacted his armor, but none got through as Tyler crawled to a small pile of bricks and collapsed in exhaustion.
Nyvar sprinted, hunched over in an effort to avoid bullets. A few panged against the street next to him, and one ricocheted into his Lancer, blowing a hole in the thing. Nyvar dove for the nearest cover, a rock that stood in the middle of a small plot of grass. Chips flew as they impacted the stone, and he tried to return fire, cursing as his rifle jammed. He looked over to Tyler, who had managed to sit up against the pile of bricks.
“Ty, you alright? Report, soldier,” Nyvar said, switching to his Longshot, his back against the stone.
"More of those things are incoming, Sergeant!" Ven said before Tyler could reply, as the things moving toward them split their attention between the two halves of the squad.
"Roger, let's get the hell out of here. I'll cover you. Marov, Ven, move back!" Marov kept firing, motioning to Ven to move. "That's an ORDER, Marov. Get the hell out of there.” Nyvar commanded, standing up and laying his sniper rifle on top of the rock to steady it. He sighted one of the things that were heading toward them, and aimed for what he thought was its head.
Tough looking, gray hide and a mouthful of teeth were all he saw before he pulled the trigger and turned the thing’s head to a cloud of red mist. The thing stood there for a second before falling to its knees and finally hitting the ground chest first. He dropped down, expelling the empty casing and shoving a new bullet into the rifle’s one shot slot.
Marov fired one last burst, following Ven as they hunched over similar to the way Joseph had earlier, moving from cover to cover.
As the two men passed him, Nyvar looked over to Tyler, who nodded his readiness. Joseph put up his Longshot and reached for his pistol, holding up three fingers. As he counted down to zero, Tyler ran and Nyvar reached his gun on the stone above him, firing blindly. He waited until the fire had died down and then ran for it, following his fleeing team, breath coming in short gasps, his sides burning. He looked behind him and saw a monstrous shape rise out of the ground behind the figures, a big head and gigantic tree trunk legs all he saw before he turned back ahead of him and ran even harder. He heard a roar and risked one last look behind him, watching in horror as missiles fired from the back of the monster.
"Echo, DOWN DOWN DOWN. GET DOWN!" Nyvar yelled, too late. His vision was obscured as the missiles impacted the ground everywhere around him, kicking up dust and pelting him with gravel. The blast threw him backward into a column, white chalk shaking free and raining down on him. Blood dripped from the side of his head into his helmet as he shook himself.
Tears made tracks as the pain forced a few out of him. He flung his helmet off and put a hand up to his ear.
“Echo? This is Nyvar, does anyone read?” A silhouette formed in the dust, causing Nyvar to rapidly bring up his pistol.
“Whoa, Sarge, it’s Marov,” the man said, closing the distance in between them. Marov grabbed one of his shoulders, and winced in pain. “I think I dislocated my shoulder. You alright?”
“I’ll live. Where’s Tyler and Ven?”
“We’re alive, sir,” Ven said, coughing and hacking sounding in the background no doubt from the rookie. “I suggest we move, my friend. Those things are bound to come investigating.”
“No shit. Marov, radio control and tell them our situation. Let’s get moving.” Nyvar looked over at Marov, who had his good arm up and a finger held against his ear, trying to raise Control.
"Control, this is Echo Three. We've found the fucking heat flare. It's some kind of hostile monster…thing. I recommend leveling the place, I repeat, level the place."
"This is Control, Echo Three. Request transmitted to Command. Stand by." A male voice rasped into Nyvar’s mic as it broadcasted to all their earpieces. A few moments passed as his team broke from cover and ran, their miscellaneous weapons hugged to their chest. "Request granted, Echo Three. Bombers are on route. A Raven has been sent to the rooftop of the News building a few klicks from your position. You have fifteen minutes before the place is leveled. The chopper will be there in ten.”
"Roger that Control. I'll signal with green smoke. Tell them to hurry; I don't know how long we can hold out against these things."
That said, they all broke into a run toward the News tower, Tyler nervously looking behind them as they ran across the avenue. Nyvar looked down at his watch as they entered the building’s front doors, glass showered across the street.
"We’re at the building, Control. How far away is the Raven?" Nyvar asked as they ran to the stairwell and started moving up.
"6 minutes, Sergeant Nyvar. Can your squad hold out till then?"
"Yeah. Copy, six minutes. We'll be waiting."
"Roger that, Control out."
They climbed to the roof of the building, bursting through the door. Nyvar threw down a green smoke flare, hunching over with his hands on his knees. His team looked around the darkness and waited, lobbing a few grenades down at the clustered mob at the bottom of the building. It was futile; they kept coming, lazily, as if they knew his team had nowhere to go.
Nyvar heard a sound and threw himself down, hoping the others did the same. Missiles impacted the building, blowing a chunk out of one of the corners. That end of the building started collapsing, Marov falling down and slipping toward the lip of the damaged section.
“Marov! Damn it, Ven, catch him!” Nyvar said to the Islander, who was the closest to the fallen Gear. The tan-skinned man rushed over, holding out his shotgun for Marov to grab onto. Marov reached for it, grabbing it just as the rest of the collapsed section fell into the street, his Lancer unhooking from his belt and following the debris.
Ven’s face was scrunched up in effort, muscles straining to hold onto the shotgun as Marov pulled himself up the shaft of the gun as far as he could. Tyler ran in and grabbed one of Marov’s armor plates and hauled the man up the rest of the way.
“Thanks Ven, Ty,” Marov said, looking down at the street, where the collapsed section had fallen on the missile launching creature, crushing it flat. “At least that thing got what it deserved.”
“Yeah, and that Raven better get here before we get a taste of what the rest deserve,” Nyvar said, slapping Ven’s back in thanks. As if in answer to his statement, the whumph-whumph-whumph of a chopper sounded out.
“Looks like you guys could use a lift,” the pilot said, cracking a smile through the glass of the cockpit at his clichéd joke.
“Not if you’re going to say shit like that, we don’t,” Marov said, laughing in relief as the chopper’s troop bay came close enough to the roof for them to jump aboard. Once they were seated, the Raven lifted away, the doors closing as the monsters at the bottom of the building opened fire on the chopper.
Five minutes later, the pilot’s voice came over the radio, glee written in his tone.
“Bombs away!” A shockwave rolled out and buffeted the chopper a bit, rattling the interior of the helicopter.
“Guess that’s the end of that, huh Sarge?” Tyler said, leaning his head back against the wall and closing his eyes.
“I hope so, rookie. I really, really hope so,” Nyvar said, doubt etched on his face as the chopper made its way back to Ephyra. |
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