- Agustus
- |
- Exalted Legendary Member
Some can come away from reading "War and Peace" thinking it a simple adventure story, while others can read the ingredients on a gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe.
PROLOGUE: Angels of death
Lt. Jason Miller was finishing up his report. All around him Marines, and other ODST thrashed around in the swirling snow storm. There objective, to search the half standing structures for survivors or leads to what might have occurred here.
It seemed like a lifetime ago he laughed and played in a field not far from here. The sun shining in his face as he ran through the tall grasses that stretched for miles. The only refuge from the intense heat was the seldom breeze, or the occasional cloud. That was a lifetime, and a world away.
Now before him, the intense snow stung his skin through the thin areas of his insulated armor. The wind whip-lashed in his face, causing him to squint in the already poor visual conditions. The ground was cloaked in ash and snow and debris.
"Sir!", spoke his Sergeant, shocking Jason back to reality. "Pelican inbound to escort you to the Heracles, Captain wants to be briefed on ground operations."
He only nodded, nobody was in the mood for military regulations today. The temperature was dipping into the negatives, and the place stunk of pain, fear, and death. It was an odd feeling, he had never felt before. It didn't feel like innies, it didn't smell like it. It didn't feel right at all.
He felt his skin crawl, and it wasn't because of the cold.
His Pelican emerged from the storm clouds above, where growing electrical interference was causing lightning to streak across the sky. Before boarding, he turned around and surveyed the landscape once more. A once peaceful town was now a shell of what it once was. The ruined walls of major buildings was all that remained as evidence that there where people here. Farmers, workers, families...
Now all gone in a blink of an eye. An entire damn planet. His mission was to find out how.
He sat in the co-pilot seat, and the Pelican began ascending into the heavens.
"What have you got for me?" Jacob yelled through the noise of the engines and wind. "Patching you through to intel from the Vostok now sir, connections staticy though." The pilot replied curtly. His monitor sprung to life, showing a familiar face. "Well hello beautiful", he said.
"Charming" Spoke junior intel officer Kriste. "Where getting reports from other sections. There... well, Strange."
"Define strange"
"Well the entire planet is experiencing extremely abnormal weather conditions and electrical interference, as you probably noticed. Your section is the only one that looks relatively intact. Most of our other recon teams are reporting entire cities missing, and a strange find."
"Keep going" replied Jason.
"Well, underneath some of the snow is a hardened substance that there saying looks like glass."
"Glass?" he said.
"Glass", she confirmed. "Where receiving some samples now for identification."
Jason simply nodded slightly. What the hell was going on?
"Jason?" Kristie spoke softly. "You ok?, I mean its ok if you need to tell the Captain you can't-"
"Im fine" Jason spoke swiftly, his words cracking like a wip. He didn't mean for it to come out that way. "This is just another mission" he lied. It was anything but for several reasons.
Kristie paused for a second, as if thinking of what to say. Finally she whispered "I love you". Before he could reply there was a large shock of lightning, the cockpit was briefly illuminated, and the signal was lost.
"Sorry sir" spoke the pilot. "But we'll be at the Heracles in just a few minutes. This electrical storm is messing with my instruments."
Jason just stared at the screen, the words "me too" where still ready to spring forth from his lips. Yet he had no idea he would regret this moment for the rest of his life.
Suddenly they broke through the last of the clouds, and begun exiting the atmosphere. They zoomed by the Arabia, engaged in land operations.
Senior intel officer McCay on the Arabia hardly had time to yell "BRACE YOURSELVES" when four bogies emerged from nowhere off his screen and impacted the ship. He didn't feel a thing. And neither did most of the crew. Most.
Jason saw the rest of battle group 4. The Heracles, the command vessel. The Arabia behind them, holding most of the supplies and men for the mission. And the Vostok, which became the head intel. vessel due to its slightly newer, updated sensors. All was peaceful against the starry sky. The 2 ships up ahead where the size of golf balls. and growing larger. While the Arabia dissapeared from view behind them. Thats when all hell broke lose. Behind him was a flash of blue light, and the Arabia was cracked clean in half, slowly free-falling towards the planet.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Jason yelled.
"HELL IF I KNOW BUT WHERE GETTING OUT OF HERE" came the reply.
The Heracles now loomed just in front of them, and the pilot began circling to the hanger.
"Incoming emergency transmition from the surface sir" spoke the pilot.
"Patch it through."
The message was hardly discernible.
"This is - of the UNS- REQUESTING IMMEDIATE EVAC- dead- Over- THERE EVERYWHERE- Immediate E-."
"Land this damn thing already" Jason yelled as they pulled into the hanger.
He did't wait. 10 seconds later he jumped out of the Pelicans opening hatch, 15ft from the ground. Crew members where scattered chaotically as LongSword fighters began scrambling.
Kriste was immersed in her terminals, locating the source of the strange projectiles the ripped the Arabia apart mere seconds ago. They seemed to be some kind of missiles as they constantly adjusted there trajectory, which meant the analysis of it wouldn't lead them to the origin, and that was the problem. Its liked they appeared out of nowhere.
I've never seen anything like it, Kristie thought, and neither had any one else on board. She was running every kind of scan she could, then found something.
The missiles left a faint trail of radiation, gases, and electromagnetic interference. And it was disappearing fast. She ran the calculations in her head, it was faster than typing in the 3 keys necessary to pull up a visual representation. She got the coordinates, and scanned the region, alerting the other Officers and captain. A second later, she realized that was quite unnecessary. Because 2 more missiles suddenly escaped the confines of the cloud covered planet below.
From the bridge of the Heracles, it was almost a majestic scene. 2 blue white missiles raced from the planets atmosphere, directly at the Vostok, but they where ready for it. Captain Veredi could only watch in silence as the Vostok initiated dodging maneuvers. It spun towards the incoming projectiles at an angle, firing thrusters on its starboard side at the last instant. The brilliant points of blue white light flashed by, the invisible gases and radiation left behind made the starlight near it shimmer like heat waves.
Veredi released his held breath, he thought it was over. The 2 missiles steered to the right, and turned 180 degrees completely, still having the Vostok in its sights. They attempted to dodge the missiles once more, but this time they weren't so lucky. It was swift and brutal, the javelin like projectiles both hit the ships engines.
The explosion smashed the engines into pieces, which in a microsecond where flashed vaporized and reduced to its component atoms and molecules, along with a part of the ship. The excess heat rippled through the super structure of the frigate, threatening to rip it apart as it did the Arabia. The titanium and steel metal flexed and groaned, threatening to give way. After a few tense seconds to those on boards, it stopped. The ship held... for now. The super dense depleted uranium and other dense metals that made up sections of the engines had absorbed much of the blast, saving the rest of the ship.
[Edited on 01.08.2010 6:44 PM PST]