iceuhk Profile

The feeling never got any more common place for him. The only way that it could be described as if you were to try to walk through a wall of jello. His movements and range of motion were severely limited, similar to the abilities of someone attempting to walk under water. After a few seconds of resistance he finally punched his way through the Vanu Sovereignty’s base shielding. It had the ability to prevent vehicles from penetrating, but individual forces only had a minor inconvenience of sloshing through for a few seconds.  If this were a battle situation he would have been shot down quickly. Luckily for him it didn’t seem that anyone was aware of his presence.           He checked in his HUD display built into his visor. 3:00 flashed in the corner.  He was a proud member of the New Conglomerates Infiltrators group known as the Specters.  Specters were known for their ability to move behind enemy lines quickly and quietly. To those that didn’t know any better, it was no different than battling with ghosts. He hit his mark of being through the front gate at 3:00 A.M. as per his orders to do some advanced recon on a vanu controlled tech lab. His armor flickered for a moment, the stress of trudging through the shield overworked the delicate cloaking sensors of his suit. With not warning  the sound of electronic whirring approached his ears from multiple angles. He focused his attention to his right  to find the source of the sound.           The sound he heard was of a nearby unmanned turret pointed in his general direction.  He froze and His armor had stabilized and and once again he was fully invisible. The turret continued to scour the area in front of it making horizontal passes back and forth in front of the invisible soldier.  Eventually it gave up and retracted back into its “ shell”. He let out  a nearly silent sigh of relief and  pressed forward into the base.  ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________   An even louder sigh escaped from the lips of the Vanu assault trooper. The sound of his moan was nearly enough to cover the sound of the pattering liquids splashing against the grass in front of him. .  “ 9 years…. 9 years ive been all over this planet, and dozens of bases and not one damn bathroom has been built. What do they think we are, a bunch of dogs that just piss out in the yard? Just once, in the middle of the night when I need to take a piss, I don’t have to walk all the way  out here just to do so. He continued to mumble into himself, when just in ears reach he heard the sound of an electronic whirring.           He immediately hushed his breath, and cut himself off mid stream.  He clasped his gun firmly in his hands and sat in silence.  He continued to listen out for the individual audio cues of the auto turret.  They have been known to fire on some of the random critters of auraxia.  It was quite common for the soldiers to wake up to a tiny furless creature riddled with bullet holes.   They didn’t really have a name for the little mole-rat looking  oddity.  Some just tended to call it “breakfast.” A few more seconds went by and he could hear the sound of the turret retracting .  He let out another breath, a long exhale of relief.  He pressed his finger tip to the side of his helmet and cleared his throat. “ Ahem… Collins to base.  Its probably nothing but I heard the turret pick up something on its sensors, probably another one of those damn little rodents again.  A distorted voiced picked up in return,“ Understood, were sounding out the nearest tech, rendezvous and Report your findings. ETA 3 minutes.”   He removed his finger from the head piece before replying with a scoff.  “pshh figures… im on my own” He once again shouldered his arms and flicked on his helmet light and proceeded towards the direction of the turret.           It was still quite early for him, and he regretted getting up to go answer natures call.  His mind started to wander, and relax little by little, as he slowly convinced himself there was nothing the matter.  The tech would be here any  second.  The tech would look at the video log of the turret, see it was one of those damn rat things and they both could go back to sle---    __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ He sat completely motionless. He had no warning that there would be someone out in the base this late at night.  Patrols were stationed along the outer rims of the base on the east and west side, according to satellite footage.  He was prepared for the turrets,, but he knew the presence of a vanu soldier could make an already delicate mission, even more of a problem.    “ Come on you barney, keep walking.” His internal monologue immediately resorting to a slang term for a vanu soldier. Their purple color resembling that of a fictional child hood dinosaur.  He didn’t exactly have much respect for the vanu, or the terran republic for that matter.           As the soldier unknowingly  walked  within feet of the cloaked specter. The specter studied his targets footsteps and learned his timing and began to creep up behind. Each step coordinated to sync with his targets. After a few seconds he stood directly behind him, and thrust his right arm out and slipped  the nook of his elbow around the front of the vanu soldiers throat. He flexed his arm inward, and wrapped his left arm around the front of the vanu’s forehead.           The only drawback to any stealth suits capability is that certain actions would cause the cloaking device to break momentarily.   The auto turrets sensors now picked up the uncloaked the specter and immediately rose to line up the shot.  Auto turrets are designed with a friend or foe function, however it wasn’t a perfect system.  The specter placed himself directly behind the vanu soldier, still struggling for breath. The turret pointed at  both of their directions and immediately began to fire.  Bullets riddled the vanu soldier , shielding the specter.           The vanu was dead, but he still needed to hide quickly. He continued holding the body and dragged it around the corner out of the line of sight of the turret. After a second of rest, the armor flickered and became cloaked once more. His next objective was how to deactivate the auto turret. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------           “Hey Collins! Im here to protect you from the big scary monster.” He sat in silence for a moment. “ Collins… hey… where you at?”  He sighed.  “ Damnit Collins,  went back to the barracks and leave me with this.” He pulled  out a tiny remote like device and pushed  a small button that deactivated it temporarily.  He removed a data pad from his pouch and run a link between it and the turret and typed and pressed a few command keys to access the audio and video file logs of the turret.           “ The hell is that flicker ? “ He couldn’t be sure it wasn’t some kind of static from the camera, so he kept watching.  The final log started with the image of Lieutenant Collins being grappled from behind.  Then watched as the bullets entered his comrade and what appeared to someone dragging him away.  “ Shit  shit shit “  He lifted up a finger to the side of his helmet . “ Weve got---“  __________________________________________________________________________________________________________  Inch by inch the specter closed in on his next target.  His hands gripped both sides of the enemies head and thrust it into the side of the turret. A tiny spray of blood splashed across the side of the turret as the sharp edges of the turret penetrated the side of his skull.  The specter then slammed the vanu tech’s head back to the ground.  He freed his right hand and pulled out his blade.  He tightened his grip on the handled and sent the blade tip through the center of the tech’s throat.  His left hand covered his mouth preventing his screams to reach the ears of his comrades. A few seconds of fruitless struggle and things became quiet once more. He raised his commander through comms.  “ Commander,  We’ve been compromised. I give it about 30 seconds before the Barney’s know whats going on.”   A moment  of silence came through followed by a partially static riddled  “ Damnit.. alright.. all units south of delta,  advance immediately”  Another voice came through.  “ Sir, what about the shields?”  “ You get your men to the front gate,  Well take care of the rest, got it?”  “Yes sir”   “Collins? Were waiting on a SitRep, do you have anything?  Collins, Collins?.   Damnit . Bailey? Did you pull anything from the turrets  video loop?”   For several seconds, there was nothing but silence returning his way.  “ Bailey? Bailey?.... shit!”   The vanu base operator turned to the console on his right, pulled back the glass case and  flipped the toggle activating the alarm.           “ All forces , enemy intruder inside the base. Likely cloaked.  All forces  engage threat immediately.”   The operator hailed his commander through the system comm..  “ Sir, we believe we may be under attack, unknown size, weve lost two men already, we need a satellite screening.”  The commander replied “ Screening.. eta .. 10 seconds”    The operator remained dead silent as he waited to hear the tally.            “Satellite imaging reveals a what looks like 2 platoon size forces building up directly of your position.  Mostly infantry,  half a dozen maxx units  and a few light armor vehicles.  Get your men ready, but don’t push past the  gate!” “ Understood sir, “  He turned to his command console and began to relay orders.  “ All forces, enemy intruders in numbers of platoon size and more, and light armor vehicles.  All forces set up in the outer turrets, prepare  with anti-infantry weaponry.   No one clear the gate, hold at current position.”  ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________   “ Allright guys, lets move.  Light armor up front, everyone group behind that, use that for cover. Everyone were gonna push right up the front gate.”  A soldier from the back cried out “ But well be sitting ducks “ “ Don’t worry our man inside  will have the shields down.”  “ Sir, what about the turrets?”  “ Well that’s what the vehicles are for, just stay near them, now GO” The first platoon, comprised of a few maxx’s and light armor vehicles  and several dozen infantry  lead the way while   another two dozen infantry waited just behind them , forming the second wave.  Out of nowhere a bright intense light marked the ground. Many a heads pointed upwards beyond the height of the trees as it appeared a giant beam was about to settle down.  “Orbital strike!!”  Several voices cried out at varying times.  “ RUN.. SCATTER”  Shortly after the beam shined brighter and more intense. Many soldiers sat awe struck and many more attempted to run but fumbled on their own feet. After a few seconds, the beam hit its max intensity and spread throughout the center of the 2nd wave of forces. The giant wave of heat and electricity penetrated the forces in a matter of milliseconds turning the second platoon of soldiers to dust, along with the trees that were once attempting to shield them. Only a handful of infantry survived, those that survived hardly in the shape to run. “ All forward! O’leary you stay with 2nd platoon, dress them up the best you can and then move in with us.!”  The medic nodded and went to aid his fellow soldiers.  Meanwhile the first platoon went forward. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________   A storm of foot steps  echoed through the inner halls of the base. The inner base housing  a dozen and half men came rolling out the front doors and went to the top section, climbing  inside the turrets perched along the rims of the base.  As they  began to set up, a giant beam of light came down several hundred yards in front of them.  They let out a giant cheer to see their own orbital strike came down and took out a sizeable chunk of the invading force.  Their cheers were cut short as the new conglomerate forces pushed out the trees lead by the maxx units and vehicles.  The vanu  tower mounted turrets began to fire, bullets pinging off the armor, sending the bullets in different directions.  The N.C. units keeping their heads low and out of the way.     “ Keep your heads down and youll be FINE!” the field commander shouted  as he moved up with his troops. The plan was holding together so far and they were mostly through the onslaught of turret fire, just a few more yards and they would be able to use the wall as cover. Bullets pinged and wizzed past his head. A bullet caught a nearby private square in the center of his chest  and the soldier collapsed.  The field commander snatched up the body and dragged him up using his free hand to open up the back door of the vindicator.  The N.C.’s vindicator was a medium armored vehicle able to store several troops along with supplies.  The vanu’s satellite imaging could pick up the vehicle, but not troops inside..  Even with the orbital strike their numbers exceeded 30 infantry and a  3 maxx units.     The field commander hoisted the soldier up to the center of the vindicator and hopped aboard the vindicator.  He snatched the nanite gun from the inside of the vehicle and pointed it directly over the open wound.  A yellow beam emitted from the barrel of the tiny gun and  lapped over the bullet wound.  Suddenly the privates eyes jerked wide awake and he took a deep breath.  “ You’re not leaving this battle that easily , when we hit the wall, you get your ass up”   “Yes sir” the private managed to force out of his lungs before he looked over his  wounds, surprised to see it gone.   His fingers typed furiously on the keypad just  on the inside of the vanu front gate.  “ Almooost there.. almost there… annnnnnd got it” Almost instantly the purple glow of the front gate shielding parted.  “ Ok now the turrets”  He pulled up another hologram of the inner workings of the base, his fingers dancing across the keyboard.  He pulled out his hacking tool and pointed it towards the hologram.  A blue beam left the guns barrel and after 10 seconds the turrets began to stop firing and retract .  Vanu soldiers piled out from their turrets and began to make a hasty retreat inside . “ Commander, all clear. Turrets are down, shield is down and doors are open.   ________________________________________________________-   That’s it” Shields down! Shields down ! everyone in.  Head right towards the doors as soon you get through. Expect a fight, all the remaining vanu are inside defending their console.  Maxx units, you are first, activate shields, push through and scatter them. All other infantry units follow directly behind, use their shields as cover.”   On command the soldiers punched through.  Vanu forces returned fire with an array of rockets, several maxx units were destroyed, but the N.C. units had made their way through and began to open fire. The specter slipped in behind them and pushed his way in to the command console and pulled out his hacking device.   “ Keep holding them off, you’ve got 30 seconds before  I install the  virus”  The screams of both vanu and N.C. soldiers  was intermittent as the fighting continued.  Suddenly the lights dimmed momentarily.  “ Virus uploaded” Cheers erupted as it appeared the assault was successful. Scanning the area, revealed the N.C. had finished off the last remaining vanu soldier. __________________________________________________________- Alright everyone, we have to hold here, check the bodies for supplies. Medics check and see what you can do on the injured.  We should be getting support shortly.   “ Don’t celebrate so quickly. It looks like we’ve got company” said a voice through the commanders voice.  “ More barney’ s sir?”   No… Platoon size of terran republic forces, including several air and ground vehicles, and they are headed in your direction.” “E.T.A. on support?” “ 5 minutes,  including reaper, mosquito air craft and vanguard and lightning ground vehicles.” “E.T.A. on the Terrans?” “ 3 minutes” “Of course..” Alright , gather the injured, set up the turrets for anti-vehicle tactics and let them control it.  They may not be able to run, but they can still shoot.  Everyone.. hold on for 5 minutes… we’re not losing this base!”