(Rough Draft)
Chapter Two
The First Lieutenant in his green
battle-suit marched them out of the drop-ship into the bright
daylight of the planet Sync. The Corporal with the red sash on his
suit pointed them to the left. “Be on guard at all times, we know
the enemy is around here someplace,” The voice of the Corporal came
over the radio.
Two of the others went prone while two
more dropped to a knee and scanned the horizon with their sensors and
battle rifles. Tom Grier scanned the area with his own sensors and
didn't “see” anything, but that did not mean that nothing was out
there. There was always the chance that the enemy could fool their
sensors, the Marines had been developing something similar.
Fifty Marines in four platoons. The
Captain and the four Lieutenants were discussing the situation on
their own com channel. The village was just visible in the distance
but sensor feeds indicated that it must be abandoned. Still, they
would be very careful in how they approached the target.
The four pods on the bottom sides of
the drop-ship opened and the four-legged robots were now approaching
the platoons. These were known as Vikes, they would be able to carry
supplies to a soldier, pull a wounded soldier to safety, attack some
enemies on their own and act as scouts in certain cases. They have
proven extremely valuable in many combat situations, the Marines
affectionately called them “Viking Kitties”.
The First Lieutenant must have given
Vike Four a command because it took off at a run toward the village.
The video feed from the robot was available to all of the Marines,
they would need to know what they were up against.
The First Lieutenant waved them to
follow and they set out toward the village in single file, following
the robot that was a hundred meters ahead of them. Tom liked moving
fast, the platoon was able to keep up with the robot while
maintaining an element of stealth. They were in a low-area, a dry
creek-bed with high grasses at the top of the sides.
“Halt.”
They all kneeled, but they watched and
held their battle rifles ready. Tom checked the feed from the Vike.
It was inside the village, it had just nosed open the door of a
confectionery shop. It's sensors penetrating the entire building
finding no heat or electromagnetic signs of humans. It moved inside
and peeked through the back door, into the storeroom of the shop.
A flashing light blinded the Vike's
visual sensors but other sensors clearly showed there were at least
four people in the storeroom. All of them were standing and holding
obects that were being used against the Vike. The Vike must have been
given new orders because it started to approach the humans, who
understandably moved back towards a wall.
“Follow me!” The Lieutenant told
them and used the suit power to jump out of the creek-bed and run
toward the village at a fast pace. The Marines followed right behind
him. They surrounded the confectionery shop. Tom didn't see how the
humans inside the shop could do anything but surrender and be
interrogated.
One of the humans aimed a device at the
Vike and everything went black, there was no longer any sensor feed.
It was like going partially blind all of a sudden. It was some sort
of localized EMP weapon, which were supposed to be banned on Sync.
The authorities were going to have to investigate their supply chain
to see how the rebels got possession of one of those.
“Dack!” Cursed the Lieutenant.
“Jacobs, Martin get in the front door. Terry, Moran and Douglas get
in position and ready to blow down the back door.”
Tom's sensors told him that two other
platoons were in the village at other locations while the other was
at a farm just outside it. Once the Marines entered the storeroom,
Fourth Platoon would be able to claim those four humans as prisoners.
“Move in!” The Lieutenant ordered.
Jacobs and Martin kicked in the door to the storage room from the
shop while Terry, Moran and Douglas fired at the handle and lock from
the outside and kicked it in as well. Their sensors and gun cameras
showed the others what they saw as they entered.
A man and three children were inside.
The youngest girl was holding the EMP device, still aiming it at the
Vike. Martin aimed the barrels of his gun at the youngest girl, the
gun's light flashing in her face and he screamed, “Drop the device!
Now!”
The man had been standing with his arms
raised in surrender. “You can put it down now, honey,” he told
her gently. She smiled at the man and dropped the device. There was a
blinding flash and Tom saw the others around him crumpling to the
ground before everything went totally black.
Tom couldn't move. He could barely see
anything through the helmet visor. He was facing the ground, the suit
was too heavy to move without the electronics. He had no idea what
had just happened, but it was something bad.
The confidence and the bravery seeped
out of him and he was beginning to panic at the thought of running
out of breathable air. Tom's enhancements were blind, it was like
being dismembered. This was no regular EMP weapon, the suits were
hardened from that, this was something different. Tom Grier heard
voices from outside the helmet. It could it be reinforcements from
the other platoons, he surmised, then he heard the loud firing of
QBR-44.
He had no idea what was happening out
there. There was some fighting, the rebels would have had to be
insane to stick around. Every so often he heard the regular
eight-round burst take place, but he heard nothing that sounded like
return fire. Maybe the Captain was executing rebel prisoners.
Tom heard someone next to his suit
shout, it was muffled so he could not tell what was being said. He
tried to concentrate on whatever was happening. Suddenly a bright,
blinding light invaded him through the enhancements and the sensors.
He could see the shadowed shape of a head through the piercing light.
“Listen to me! Listen to me!” A
girls voice shouted through the static. “You have to help us! You
can't allow them to do this! You aren't some machine! You have to see
what's really happening, you have to help us!”
Tom Grier was getting light-headed. He
did not understand what was happening. The voice he heard hadn't been
from the First Lieutenant or the Captain. He was going to suffocate
in the suit, there was a release somewhere. Think! It was getting
harder to think, thoughts were becoming fog. Tom wanted to sleep,
instead. Sleeping was a better idea, it was easy.
Suddenly his finger had found the
switch. “I should pull that. I guess,” He thought as he was
drifting, “I was going to do that anyway, I think.”
His faceplate split open and cool,
clean air assaulted his deprived lungs. Tom tried to breath, gasping,
then managed to start taking in small breaths and then more normal
ones. The bright light was starting to come into focus. It was the
sky, and clouds and then a face.
“Are you alive?”
The girl asked. Tom could only blink. She had dark hair and freckles
and a broad smile appeared on it. “I guess that's a yes.”
Her
voice was loud enough to be heard over the static. No, that was
wrong. It was some sort of engine noise, and Tom could now feel the
sense of movement. Everyone in a while he could see things flash
passed above. They were definitely moving.
“Where
are we going?” Tom
managed to ask, though his dry throat and mouth made this painful.
She
appeared above him again. “I'm not telling. It's a secret,” she
said before disappearing from his vantage. Then she reappeared and
smiled again, “My name is Sandy, by the way!”
“Tom.”
He said without hesitation. He quickly wondered if he should have
even said that much. The Captain might be upset that he had even
talked to rebels. For he now understood that these must be rebels.
“How did you immobilize the suits?”
The
shadow of her head reappeared. “It's better if you don't know. I'm
going to make you sleep until we arrive, Tom.”
“What?”
He asked but she sprayed something into the open helmet and the world
dissolved again. Tom Grier felt no passage of time, here and there he
would be able to see the sky, the clouds, trees passing over him and
occasionally the freckled-face girl. Once her face was close enough
to block the sun and he got a fleeting but good look at her.
Tom
thought she looked like a child. The Free Republic would shoot her
down if they saw what was happening. Sandy was a rebel, admittedly,
but a spanking seemed a more appropriate punishment at the Tom. “I
think I'm probably delirious,” He thought to himself, he laughed.
Her concerned face peeked into the helmet again but said nothing.
Someone
threw cold water in his face. Tom gasped and opened his eyes. He was
in a small room, chained to a chair, without his suit. There was a musty, dirty odor to
the place. After a moment he became aware of the presence of two
people.
“Hello,
Marine.” The man from the Storeroom said, “How does it feel to be
back in the real world?”
Truthfully,
he had a pounding headache. The lack of sensor input felt like raw
nerves being messed with. Tom's enhancements were barely able to
discern anything within the room, much less through the walls.
“Like
crap.” Tom answered.
The
man smiled. “It'll wear off. Soon enough, you might even feel human
again.”
“What?”
Tom was still groggy but the statement had been confusing.
Sandy
came close to Tom and put a hand on his left temple. “Those
implants have to come out, Tom.”
------------------- Chapter Three
Nel is seventeen and has some normal teenage problems, angst over her super-powers, worries over a super-powered world war and that "arch enemy" stalker she might have to fight to the death!
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