Pax shifted in the uncomfortable shuttle seat. He felt smothered inside the body armor of a regular foot soldier, but ge knew he couldn't drop down in his tuxedo. He rubbed his eyes. Atleast it wasn't a P-Suit. "T-Minus Four," the Captain's voice flooded over the intercom. "Battle stations!" Only four minutes away from conflict. Pax had been on missions before, but none of this caliber. He'd get promoted from this for sure, if he pulled it off. He sat, waiting. Around him were hand-picked commandos, experts at urban warfare and espionage, making them Pax's perfect soldiers for this. This would definitely go well, he could feel it. "All hands! Prepare for re-entry to real space! Load torpedo tubes A-1 through A-4!" Eters and his command voice. Pax wondered how he kept calm that well, about to enter a battle that was lopsided against him. Then again, Eters was the best captain in the business. He had more recorded kills than most fighter pilots did. He'd be fine. "Re-entry! Launch the shuttle!" a technician comm'ed in from outside. A sudden jerking in his seat and they were in realspace. The bay doors opened, and the pilot of the shuttle accelerated out, along with their two-man fighter escort. They were heading straight down to the planet, hoping the surprise of sudden attack and Eters's distracting ability would give them time to get on the planet. Pax sure as hell hoped so. ••••••••••••••• Jason turned on the flashlight, moving into the tunnel. "God, it's cramped," he said, crouching as he entered, Valentine behind him. "Can't believe that guy figured we were Russians. How will we explain that?" she asked. Jason tried to shrug, but couldn't in the close quarters. "Pin the blame on Russians. Or thieves. Come on, Val. We can't take the fall for that, we've got to get to command. And what if these people aren't even Americans?" She went silent and he pushed forward. Within a half-hour of walking, the tunnel emptied out into large, empty room. Valentine looked around. "Where is everyone?" He shrugged, and suddenly there was a scraping sound behind them. Jason spun, only to watch as doors slid shut, blocking the tunnel. One of the 'walls' of the room, on the far side, crashed open, and soldiers poured out. With at least seven APS guns pointed at them, Jason slowly dropped his pistol, and motioned for his sister to do the same. A man stepped forward, a tattoo of a bear's paw etched over most of his face. "Helmets off now, or we'll shoot them off. Now!" For once, the hiss and snap wasn't a comfort for Jason, as it dropped to the floor. Bearclaw, as Jason decided to refer to him as, nodded. "Good. The rest of the suit can come later. Don't even think about trying to escape. Follow me." They had no choice. With APS guns pointed at their faces, the two soldiers followed Bearclaw. "We knew you were coming," he said. They were in a lab, getting de-suited. Jason could only hope they didn't find the data file in his helmet. "How so? And if you did, why the hostile greeting? We're Americans," Jason said. Bearclaw laughed. "Yeah, sure. So why did you gun down the safe-house keeper? Oh, don't look so surprised. It's called CAMERAS. We were waiting for you." Jason was stunned for a moment. "He... He drew on us first!" Another raspy laugh, as Bearclaw spoke again, "Your P-Suit could have been shot in the same place by his gun a hundred times, and only have a scratch." "He shot at our heads, and we didn't have helmets," Valentine protested. Bearclaw shrugged as the last of the armor came off, leaving the two siblings in only skintight cover to prevent scraping yourself inside the armor. "Get them some clothes," Bearclaw said over his shoulder. "Either way, you didn't have to gun him down at the end, soldier. You're not going to join us, no matter what you say. Get ready for the jail." Despite their pleas, nobody else even responded to them, and after an hour of being manhandled a little, they found themselves in stained, non-fitting clothes, in a cell with a two-story bunk. The two just sat on the bottom bunk, thinking to themselves. Both siblings were surprised when a Russian-accent wafted down from the top bunk. "How about we all escape, no?"
Internet outages and accidentally losing my iPod have set me back juuuust a little. I'll post as soon as I can.
Well, about time, right? Hopefully I can pick my writing speed up, and thanks for being so patient with me! Here you go! _______________ Captain Eters shifted around in his chair. "Good, that spook is away and safe, as far as we can get him. I want us moving up to attack speed, and warm up the railguns. Scramble the fighter squadrons, too." The ship picked up speed, accelerating towards the four enemy ships. They were all smaller and older, but there was four, and Eters didn't have infinite ammo. "Firing solution! I want A-1 through A-4 dumped on the lead ship. Load the rest of the A tubes. How long until my railguns are charged?" A young lieutenant looked up. "Forty-seven percent, sir!" Eters nodded, looking out the window. Four streaks of fire lanced out from his ship, and towards the leading enemy. Black torpedoes were almost nearly impossible to see. A blossoming explosion through space occurred for a moment as the air was ignited, and then snuffed out by vacuum, the first ship ripped apart by the heavy torpedoes. From the other three ships, their own flashes. "Evasive maneuver! Blow emergency engine one! Call for all hands to strap in!" A klaxon sounded, and Eters buckled in to his seat. With a jerking motion, the ship was flung forward. "Railguns charged! Tubes loaded! Sir, we have a firing solution!" Eters looked over the enemy formation. "Two torpedoes for each ship, railgun shot for each one as well! Turn off artificial gravity, redirect the power to recharging the guns!" With a rocking, the ship opened fire. Explosions blossomed over the enemy ships, and Eters smiled. Victory. That was, until a ten-ship fleet Jumped into the system. ••••••••••••••• Jason and Valentine looked up, "Oh? And how would we do that?" he asked. With a slide, a thin blonde woman was on the ground level. "Simple. Call guard, say you kill me, I act dead. He come in, we bust head, get out. Simple." Jason thought about it. "Worth a shot, I bet." The Russian nodded. "Good. You call me Anaiya. Now..." She got up and cut her hand on a jagged part of the bedframe, and dripped blood over her face and hands. Letting out a bloodcurdling scream, Jason realized she meant to do it now. She flopped into the corner and Jason obligingly acted as if he was in the process of beating her. The guard rushed in, gun drawn. In a scrabble of movement, he went down, and Anaiya came up with the gun. She seemed to e thinking, and Jason didn't like it. "Shooting us will rouse the whole base. You can try and kill us later." She thought a bit more, then exited the cell. "Let's go."
Well, about time I posted. Enjoy and such. ___________________________ "Brace!" screamed the transport pilot into the headset on Pax's ears. He quickly grabbed hold of the metal rod overhead, as the ship rocked. He heard the pilot curse incoherently into her headset. "Knife Two-Six and Two-Seven, get them off of us!" yelled Pax into the command mic. The transport ship rocked again as more fire slammed into it. The two fighters peeled off of the transport and the crashing and rattling stopped for a moment. Pax sighed. "Pilot, how long until we touch down?" he asked. There was a few moments before the voice called back. "Close to ten minutes. We're punching through the atmosphere in two." Pax nodded. As they entered the planetary gravity, the ship groaned and rattled like something possessed, and then suddenly, they were clear. "A minute to--" and then a huge shaking. The pilot's voice was cut off with a scream, and Pax got the feeling of blood rushing to his head. He checked the command frequency, and realized the pilot's bioscanner was not even there. He couldn't pick up a reading. That's when Pax figured they were in trouble. "Brace for a hard landing!" he yelled over the ship's speakers. He hit the button on his seat for the safety gel to deploy. The gel was basically a light substance that was meant to protect soldiers in hard touch downs. It wasn't meant for crashes. Oh well. Pax was encased by the gel, as each other CIA soldier around him was doing, while the ship hurtled towards the ground. ••••••••••••••• Jason slowly crept out, followed by his sister and the Russian. He started walking towards the area that their armor was taken away at. Anaiya hissed out a sentence. "That goes to the heart of the base! Wrong way!" but Jason kept walking towards it. A guard suddenly rounded a corner and was beaten to a pulp by the siblings. Jason picked up the gun. "We have something we need to get, first," he said quietly. The Russian woman sighed, but nodded. Jason kept walking. Only a few more guards were encountered, but they were beaten stealthily. Obviously these were just the rebels, not the agents that incited them. Valentine had her own gun, and the three had a few clips a piece. After only twenty minutes of walking slowly, Jason found the tech room. He looked at his sister and tried the handle. Locked. The siblings stood side by side in front of the door and kicked in unison. The door splintered off its hinges with a crash, revealing a cowering scientist. They knocked him out and found the suits. Having done this many times, they quickly got suited up. Jason even checked where the chip was hidden. It was still there. "Nice. Let's get out of here," he said with a grin. This was almost too easy. He regretted the thought only a moment later, when they rounded the corner into a squad toting an APS gun, and the other three heavy rifles. "Back!" yelled Jason, drawing his pistol. They ran around the corner, but a burning pain slashed across his leg. He looked down to see the suit adjusting to cover the gaping wound. He took another step and gasped. That hurt. He hit the tranq button in his helmet, and an anesthetic was injected into the wound, a more advanced version of the age-old morphine. The soldiers rounded the corner into the three blasting away with the pistols. Quickly looting the corpses, Jason picked up an assault rifle. Russian make, but usable. Anaiya slipped out of her clothes and into a soldier's bodysuit, not seeming to care about the blood and the holes in it. "Well, they know we're here now," said Valentine, followed up by an annoying klaxon, flooding the base. Jason tested his leg. It'd be okay for the moment. He sprinted forward, running for where he remembered the tunnel. Valentine was only a few seconds behind, since she paused to pick up the Anaiya, who couldn't sprint all-out faster than a P-Suit's jog. Their speed proved to be their ally. Without a single more conflict, the three found themselves in the home of Phantom. "Nice to meet you, Anaiya," said Jason as he and Valentine turned to go. A round being cycled into the chamber of a gun stopped them. Jason turned to be looking down the barrel of the APS gun from the dead squad. "Cone on, we helped each other, so--" and Jason lashed forward, speed augmented by the suit. He slapped the gun from her hands and through a wall. Anaiya seemed extremely surprised by this, and barely reacted in time to dodge the punch aimed at her head. Despite being good, she was no match for the two armored siblings. Knocked unconscious, they dragged her out and dumped her in a separate house. No need to let her get captured again. With that, Jason sighed. They still were in the ghettoes of Dextry V.