I thought up of a little story concerning the new Avatar that's being designed. I figured some short stories involving certain aspects of the factions could add a little flair to the mod. I hope you enjoy it. If not, oh well. I liked it.
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Date: August 17, 2042
Location: Blue Zone A-3
Time: 0900 Hours
"I am Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Williamson, state your name and rank for the records please." Williamson said.
"Private Roger Brooks sir." Brooks said as he looked at the LC that entered the room.
"Interesting report son." Williamson said as he read through a folder in his hands. "It says here that you have information about a new NOD weapon."
"That's correct sir." Brooks said as he nodded.
"Care to tell me, in your own words, what happened that morning?" Williamson asked.
"It's all in the report sir." Brooks replied.
"Humor me son." Williamson said as he placed a picture in front of the private.
Brooks grimaced when he saw the photo in front of him. The photo wasn't that clear. There was a faint outline of some sort of humanoid machine.
"I'm not sure if what I saw was real or not." Brooks said. "It was like a ghost."
"Tell me everything you know." Williamson said as he leaned forwards.
"Well, it happened last week." Brooks started.
Date: August 11, 2042
Location: Red Zone D-7
Time: 0500 Hours.
"When are we going to get this operation underway captain?" Brooks asked
"As soon as we get the signal private." The captain said as he looked downrange with his binoculars.
"Sir, we've got a reading of an ion storm approaching from the east." Another private said.
"How long till it reaches us Richards?" The captain asked as he looked towards the private.
"One hour, maybe less." Richards said as he placed his headphones down. "I'm having a hard time reaching the base on the horn."
"Keep trying." The captain said. "If things go belly up, we'll need to call in support."
"Right," Richards said as he started to mess with the setup he had.
"Right, there's the signal." The captain said as ping went off on the radar. "If things get back, I want you all to head back here to the RIG, do you get me?"
"We get you sir!" shouted the assembled troops.
"Everyone, into positions!" The captain yelled, causing the group to fan out to their roles.
The group that had assembled to take on the small NOD outpost that had been spotted two weeks ago wasn't that large. Three Titans Tanks, an APC, two rocket squads, and three infantry squads. The captain took lead in his Titan. The group left the RIG at a slow pace. The three infantry squads hitched a ride on the Titans while the two rocket squads hunkered down in each APC. It took the group ten minutes at full speed to reach their destination. Once reached, the group slowed down to a crawl to sneak up on the enemy base.
"I don't think they've seen us just yet." One man from the infantry said.
"Cut the chatter Carmine." Brooks said nervously. It had only been his third time in a battle. He wanted to make sure he didn't mess up and wind up going home in a body bag. Or worse, a shoe box.
"We do this by the book, no heroics." The captain said over the com.
Not two minutes later the group came under heavy laser fire.
"Fan out!" Brooks yelled as he took cover behind the tank.
Brooks couldn't hear anything else that was going on. The firing coming from the Titans caused his hearing to go out. All he could hear was a slight ringing and a small voice in his head yelling at him for forgetting not to stand behind a Titan while it's firing. A few missiles flew passed the tanks. One missile impacted on an APC. It was a direct hit, spewing wreckage everywhere. Brooks turned away from the mess, he would mourn for their losses later. Right now he had a mission to do.
Brooks looked to his right and saw all the infantry squads bunched up behind a small outcropping of rocks. He edged out from behind the tank he was using for cover. He quickly returned to his position when a stray laser buzzed passed him. He nearly gagged when he smelled the ozone left behind from the laser. His face felt hot as the residual heat from the laser splashed over him. He made a mad dash towards the others in the infantry squads when there was a lull in laser fire.
"Finally joining the party, eh Brooks?" Carmine asked him as he joined them. He was nearly drowned out by the constant firing from their rifles.
"I wouldn't want you all to have all the fun." Brooks said, his hearing had long since returned.
Brooks looked over the rock he was behind and steadied his rifle. He looked down the iron sights and started to fire towards the NOD outpost. It didn't look like NOD was putting up that much of a fight. There were two Laser Turrets and a Sector Recon Bike. There wasn't even a Scorpion Tank defending it. Once the two Laser Turrets were destroyed the bike stopped firing. It quickly turned around and started to retreat.
"I wonder why they're retreating?" Brooks asked. "I've never seen them do that before."
"Ion storm approaching." The captain said. "Looks like Intel dropped the ball on this one, the storm is five minutes out."
"That's a little fast for an ion storm, isn't it?" Brooks asked. He received shrugs as an answer.
The fast approaching ion storm caused a mini dust storm to settle over the NOD outpost. Brooks ran over to the lead Titan Tank to find out what the hold up was. They should be taking the base. If not that, then at least retreating back to the RIG to pack up and return later. A RIG wouldn't last five minutes in an ion storm. The captain stood up from the top hatch of his tank. He was about to yell at Brooks for breaking formation when the ground shook for a second.
"What in Sam hell was that?" The captain asked, looking around. He received no response.
"There it is again." Brooks said as the ground shook once more.
Everyone was looking around for the source of the shaking. A few of the privates suggested that it could be impacts from the ion storm that was nearly overhead. Brooks looked towards the base when he saw something out of the corner of his eye.
"Captain!" Brooks yelled as he pointed towards the NOD outpost.
"What is that thing?" The captain cried as a large humanoid machine walked out of the dust cloud.
The infantry squads started to fire out of it in fear. The large robot turned towards the group and fired a sweeping laser from it's head, frying the people in an instant. The screams and smell would forever be imprinted in Brooks' mind as he turned towards the colossus.
"Fire at will!" The captain yelled as he ducked back down into his tank.
The remaining rocket squad that had been using the APC as cover started to fire at the colossus. The Titan Tanks also opened fire. The shells and rockets impacted on it's armor plating with no damage that could be seen as the colossus turned towards the nuisance. The colossus raised it's left arm towards the tanks and fired a small sphere of electrical energy at the tanks, shutting them down immediately in the resulting EMP blast. It then turned towards the APC. It raised it's right arm, firing a purple blast towards it. Brooks would swear to his final breath that he heard the very air roar with life around the sickening bolt of purple energy. The APC and the rocket squad were instantly vaporized.
"We need immediate air support, danger close!" The captain yelled into a radio.
"Read you loud and clear Rover 1, sending out the eagles." A voice said on the other end of the radio.
The Colossus raised it's right arm once again, this time pointing towards one of the tanks. The same sickening purple pulse of energy turned the Titan tank into a hunk of molten slag. Brooks then heard the distant roar of Firehawks. Apparently, so did the colossus. Some sort of secondary armor plating emerged over the colossus as the Firehawks came into sight. The three lead Firehawks carpet bombed the colossus, causing it to stagger slightly. The last one dropped a MOAB right on top of it. The base was leveled in the explosion. Brooks took cover behind the nearest Titan tank. They took the brunt of the force from the bomb, one being destroyed in the blast.
"Command, we lost one Titan in that bombing run." The captain said over the radio, assuming the battle was over.
"Roger that Rover 1, regrettable losses." The man on the other end said morosely.
"Sir, it's not dead!" Brooks yelled at the captain through the radio.
The colossus' outer plating was cracked and on fire, but it was still very much there. A small drone was ejected from the back of the colossus. The drone put out the fires with an extinguisher before it started to use a welding torch to fix the damage done to the secondary plating. The colossus then raised it's right arm towards the last Titan Tank. Brooks dropped his gun and ran for cover.
"Get us out of..." The captain yelled, his last words getting cut of when the blast from the colossus turned his tank into a pile of slag.
The colossus started to scan the area. It's sensors quickly found Brooks, whom was standing, staring at the colossus. The colossus powered up it's central laser to finish him off. Brooks closed his eyes as he knew the end was upon him. Yet opened them when he heard to colossus power down it's central laser. The colossus looked at him for nearly an entire minute before it turned and walked back into the dust cloud. The ion storm was now completely overhead. A bolt of ion lightning struck where the colossus walked through the dust cloud, dissipating it instantly. Brooks was shocked to see that there was no sign of the monstrous machine.
Brooks surveyed the battle scene. Everyone was dead. He couldn't even bring back their bodies. He cursed angrily at being left alive. He was sure that he was going to die right then and there, but someone had other plans for him apparently. He threw his helmet down, turned, and ran back to the RIG. Once he arrived, he activated the packing sub routine, causing the RIG to pack up. He then drove it back to the nearest base.
Date: August, 17 2042
Location: Blue Zone A-3
Time: 1123 Hours
"That's everything sir." Brooks said with a dry mouth.
"So they finally did it eh?" Williamson muttered to himself.
"I'm sorry, did what sir?" Brooks asked.
"That's classified son." Williamson said. "It's best if you forget everything you saw today."
"I don't think I can do that sir." Brooks said.
"Well son, you're just going to have to try." Williamson said.
Williamson then stood out of his chair and walked out of the room. He then walked into a room adjacent to the room he was just in. He quickly ordered all of those in the room to leave. The people nervously left the room, most trying to avoid Williamson's gaze. The guard stopped just outside and stood guard of the room. Williamson quickly picked up a headset and keyed in a few commands on the computer.
"This had better be a secure line Williamson." A voice said over the receiver.
"Of course General Graves." Williamson said.
"What did you get?" Graves asked.
"They've done it sir." Williamson said. "They finally finished the Avatar project that our spies received Intel on."
"God help us all." Graves said.
"God can't help us." Williamson said. "But our boys down in R&D can. They've been working on modifying some of our tanks with rail cannon technology."
"Do you think that will work?" Graves asked.
"It has to work." Williamson said before disconnecting the line. "Or this will be the shortest war in history. With us coming out as the losers."
