Difference between revisions of "Atlantis"

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THE ATLANTIS STORY
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'''Book One: ''Atlantis Rising'''''
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BY: BRANDON KRUPCZAK AND WILL ANDERSON
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I've always dreamed about making a story...
 
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OK, not really, but I just got this inspiration one day, and I got some paper and started to write!
 
  
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It's been so much fun so far, especially because of the help from my friend Will Anderson. He's a master writer with a sometimes-too-big-and-annoying vocabulary, and my writing benefits so much from his helpful critiquing.
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''Written by Brandon Krupczak''
  
  
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The worst part about writing my story has been the revising. I never liked to revise, but obviously it is necessary. My original piece went from battle to battle with no stop, and had hardly any story behind it.
 
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I'm changing that by retyping it on the computer, adding some much-needed chapters of boring story.
 
  
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The best part has been the encouragement from almost everybody I know, and the wonderful feeling when someone actually complements your work. It's a new feeling for me, and I hope I can get a lot more of it.
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My story is basically about a 14 year old boy named Tom, on the extraordinary archipelago of Atlantis (If you'll notice, my Atlantis is actually three separate islands). Here he is faced with many challenging enemies, confusing puzzles, and the fact that all of the U.S.A. based men look to him for commands. He is the supreme commander, along with his friends Matt, Holly, and Scarlett. The four usually don't see much of each other, but when they are together, they are unstoppable.
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Each of the four have taken a liking to a special kind of psi ability. For instance, Tom prefers to use telekenesis over other psi powers. Matt utilizes pyro-kenesis (control of fire), and so does Scarlett. Holly chooses geo-kenesis over the others (control of earth). Their chosen preferences they have the best control over, but they can still use others, like hydro-kenesis (water), Aero-kenesis (air), electro-kenesis (electricity), and many others.
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| [[Atlantis Rising: Chapter 1]]||[[Atlantis Rising: Chapter 11]]
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| [[Atlantis Rising: Chapter 2]]||[[Atlantis Rising: Chapter 12]]                         
  
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If you would like to see pictures of some of the guns in the story, go to Google, and type in the name of a gun. Here's a link to the FN SCAR-H: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_SCAR
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| [[Atlantis Rising: Chapter 3]]||[[Atlantis Rising: Chapter 13]]
  
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I hope you all know your Dinosaurs! My story's got tons of them. From little chicken sized compsothagnuthus (compy) scavengers, to huge, heavy, and bulky Diplodicus herbivores, and everything in between.
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| [[Atlantis Rising: Chapter 4]]
  
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The problem with writing or typing, I have found, is that while it takes a good amount of time to type or write, mostly write, a paragraph or sentence, it takes almost no time to read it. Because of this, the reader has a different view of the time passing than you do. This flaw has presented itself to me many times, and it is so frustrating I just want to scream. But I continue on (lol) even so.
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Now, if someone could invent a way of putting words down by mere thought, then I would be all set, as would (I imagine) every other author who wants to earn at least two bucks off their work
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| [[Atlantis Rising: Chapter 5]]
  
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'''This page has been created as a source of information for my readers, and a chatting room for me and Will to converse about the plot, characters, etc. Please do not post any non-Atlantis related subjects on this page.'''
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| [[Atlantis Rising: Chapter 6]]
  
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This is the story so far, if anyone edits or changes this page besides me or Will, I will sue them.
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Here goes nothing:
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| [[Atlantis Rising: Chapter 7]]
  
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| [[Atlantis Rising: Chapter 8]]
  
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Chapter I
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The Power
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| [[Atlantis Rising: Chapter 9]]
  
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| [[Atlantis Rising: Chapter 10]]
  
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“Help! Help!!!” The shrill cry of  pain came from the American lines. It was one of the soldiers. Tom turned to the source of the distress and gasped. An enormous Velociraptor was hanging over the man. Without stopping to think, he brought around his rifle and fired.
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The rifle was nice, a newly developed SCAR assault rifle. Extremely light, accurate, durable, and reliable. Top notch. Tom wasn't surprised when the Raptor was thrown back onto his tail, only to fall to the ground a moment later, dead.
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“Uhhg, thanks.” The soldier gasped. “I think I broke my leg.”
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“Ok, just take it easy, and wait for the medical team.”
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The soldier dragged himself up, and a minute later, one of their robot vehicles came by. He hopped in the specially adapted ambulance, and they went screeching off to the next soldier.
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Meanwhile, Tom continued the battle. He emptied the entire clip on three of the Raptors. They fell, and Tom narrowly dodged an arrow. He stabbed a knife vaguely  in the direction of the native who had attacked him. He dropped another native with his bayonet, then smacked another with the butt of his gun.
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A Raptor came up, and Tom reloaded and fired hurriedly. It didn't go down, but was severely wounded, and another soldier finished him off. “Thanks,” Tom said, glancing at the man. They were all tired and breathing heavy from 3 straight hours of battle. The soldiers were highly trained, heavily armed, and just simply the best of the best.
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A giant Spinosaurus  was wreaking havoc in the front lines, and needed to be dealt with fast. Tom shouted into his microphone, “I need arial support! Bring in the Rain. Red smoke's your target.”
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“Roger, dispatching arial support. Clear the engagement area.” A calm and serene voice broke the panic and confusion of battle. “All forward units, withdraw! Clear the area for air strike!” He ordered, and he chucked a couple canisters of  red smoke as a target for the gunners. The Spinosaurus howled with rage as the acrid smell of the chemicals reached his sensitive nostrils. He stomped in a rampage, oblivious to all else, which was an added bonus.
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It was almost impossible not to watch, even though he was supposed to be kicking enemy butt. A few moments later, an air-to-ground missile zipped over the tree line, to then crash into the poor Dinosaur's narrow head in an explosion of flames, hot metal, and a newly developed poisonous gas which was supposed to put the Dino asleep if it came into contact with it's head. All it did was make it madder. No matter, the actual gunship was already appearing over the tropical giants of trees. It pummeled the creature's side in a hail of hot bullets and smaller, non-poison missiles. The Spino gave a low moan of pain and fury as the C-130 whipped by overhead. The C-130 was relentlessly pummeling it in a hail of machine gun fire. It circled 3 times before the Spino finally gave up. It collapsed in a cloud of dirt, blood was oozing from multiple wounds, it couldn't survive much longer. A ragged cheer emanated from the soldiers, while the Atlantians and Iraqis moaned with despair. It gave a final cry of pain as the soldiers added their own slightly smaller bullet wounds to its body, then slumped to the ground, dead. Tom sprinted forward, sliding out a plastic sampler and tube as he ran.
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Biological samples were invaluable, and a dead specimen was nearly as good as a live. He cut off a piece of it's skin, and then took a sample of muscle tissue from beneath. He capped the lid shut after storing them both carefully inside the tube.
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Cheering erupted from the crowd of men as they rushed forward in order to take cover against it's protective flank, as the skin on it's back and sides are so hard, it is bullet proof. The belly and head  are a different story. More of the soldiers began taking samples, and one was so intent on getting a good piece of organ, he cut away too much skin and gasped in surprise as a bullet spat out of it's body moments later, as some dumb Iraqi had been emptying clips and clips into the fallen Dino with naive hope of hitting something. The soldier continued on even though he had taken a nasty wound in his shoulder. Tom launched himself back into the frenzy of Raptors, eager for a smaller opponent to exploit.
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He was surprised at the level of skill he saw from the soldiers. They could stare into the gaping jaws and knife-like teeth of a Raptor, and still have the bravery to pump it full of lead without thinking.
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He saw one man was half in the mouth of a Raptor. He was about to come and assist as the Raptor fell to the ground. Them man had literally been shooting the crap out of the Raptor even as he was being eaten.
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He looked over at another man, and he looked  in astonishment as the poor guy took a swipe across the face from a Raptor, and, grimacing, continued to shoot the beast.
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His own men astonished him.
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Darting from cover to cover, rock to fragment of a tank, Tom was only able to take fleeting snapshots from his gun. But it was better than standing around in the middle of the battlefield waiting to get mown down by a machine gun like all the Atlantians and Iraqis.
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Something whipped across his face, creating a dull, excruciating pain. He was thrown to the ground, blood gushing from his nose. He looked up, and an Atlantian officer was sneering at him, mere inches away from his face. He seemed to be saying “it's over. You're dead.” But Tom knew something he didn't.
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The idiot was standing on a hot geyser.
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The place was riddled with them. And he happened to have his crotch placed directly over one. Tom felt the ground rumbling already.
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He was distracted by a string of words: “You ignorant fool. There is no way you can win, so why try? Our armies outmatch yours by sheer number alone 10 to one. Try and beat that, oh great one.” The Atlantian said with a smirk.
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“Yeah, your armies might be bigger. But not any smarter.” Tom hinted.
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Just then, the geyser exploded outward, taking the man full on. He screamed as he was tossed upward 20... 30... 40 feet in the air. As the man started to fall, Tom shouted; “And you definitely need some work on your geographical classification!”
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Tom got up and brushed himself off. The battle was almost over. Just another 3,000 guys to go.
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Then the horns sounded.
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The battlefield stilled as the Atlantians and Velociraptors bowed, and the soldiers looked up in fear. It had arrived.
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It being the most ferocious, bloodthirsty giant of a Tyrannosaurus Rex there ever was.
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“RRRRRROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!”
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The world came to again as all the soldiers turned and fled.
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“Retreat!” RETREAT!!!” Tom yelled unnecessarily.
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Everyone was sprinting full out to the base, and the rear was still being picked off by the Raptors and natives. Tom cried out as he was thrown to the ground, an incredible pain in his shoulder. He had been shot. Someone picked him up and threw him forward.
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Tom glanced over his un-injured shoulder and found himself at the near back of the horde. He ran forward, and  he barely made it to the gates before they shut.
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The men at the rear were still being picked off by the Raptors. To add to the confusion, the Atlantians were throwing javelins and shooting flaming arrows into the crowd, and the Iraqis were picking off the rear lines with AK-47s.
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The last of the men dove through the gate, just as their was less than a body's width of space between the two great slabs of reinforced concrete. Tom was able to breath again as the doors shut. Only three Raptors and an Atlantian had made it through, and the Atlantian had gotten stuck in the door, his foot still being squeezed into the concrete. The remaining soldiers made quick work of them.
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Tom could now hear the reassuring thud of the machine guns, the whistling howl of the mortars, and the sharp crack of the snipers. Battle was chaos. Inside the 12 foot thick, 50 ft high reinforced concrete walls, he felt safe.
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But it wasn't over. The Rex was still charging, and no one could stop it. Except maybe, him. But there was no way Tom could climb the steps up to the wall now. Then he felt it. An excited, bubbling energy as something inside him rebelled the inevitable failure.
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He was rising suddenly, and he looked down. He was 15 ft in the air. 20, 30ft, 40, now 50 feet! He was even higher than that stupid idiot that had gotten caught in the geyser.  He was at the top of the wall! He bent over and grabbed a stinger missile from a fallen soldier. But a single missile wasn't enough. He could still feel the energy, boiling, scorching, and unbearable. He had to release it, or die. It was that simple.
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He stood straight and raised the launcher, suddenly confident, injury forgotten. He knew what he had to do. He pulled the trigger, then threw it away. Focusing hard, he released the energy in one compact sapphire ball. It surrounded the missile, and together they drove into the Rex's skull.
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BOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!! The Earth shook tremendously. The Rex was terribly wounded. With a final cry of blood lust, it escaped into the jungle.
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A ragged cheer began on the ground, and became more steady as more and more joined the shout.
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Tom was not at all happy with what had happened. Reviewing the damage, he estimated they had lost half their army in the main fight, and during the retreat, the Raptors, natives, and Queen Rex had killed even more men. Tom just hoped there was another factor unknown to him at the moment which would make it somewhat less of a loss.....
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Hello people reading this! You may have accidentally stumbled upon a book that is under way currently. The book is basically about World War Three, in a world where there are eight continents. The eighth is Atlantis, which surfaces in December of 2012. Maybe the Mayan calendar wasn't counting down to this day, but counting up to the day when Atlantis would rise above the oceans once more, supposedly.
  
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Below is a random chapter from the book that I display here on the front page. The link above brings you to the page that the chapter is actually housed at. If you scroll down to the very bottom, you'll find my work in progress section, where I write the next section/chapter of the book. Because I start writing completely fresh chapters, the work in progress section might end in a fragment of thought, or there might not be anything displayed there.
  
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Chapter II
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Please also note that none of my writing here is completed and I go back numerous times to a piece to improve it. The chapter below will be changed multiple times and improved upon, so if you read it now you might wanna check back every now and again to see if I changed anything.
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Flashbacks
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Fear. That was all he could remember. One entity, more overwhelming than almost any other.
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He was a new recruit aboard the U.S. Aircraft Carrier Explorer.  And fear was all he could remember as the ship drove steadily onward through the relentless gale. It clung to him like a vampire, sucking his strength and willpower. His fear, was the unknown. The Explorer was bringing him to Atlantis. It was everywhere. Everyone knew about it. No one knew how deadly it was to become.
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'Atlantis has resurfaced!'...'Atlantis is back!'...'Atlantis'...'Atlantis'...'Atlantis'...
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Every scientist's lips were saying those words, but it was only a matter of time before anyone figured out the truth:
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Atlantis, yes, had resurfaced. Atlantis, was, yes, back. But, it also was inhabited. By men, among other things, but not modern men. Ancient men, Greek features. They shared this tiny island with Dinosaurs. Hundreds of explorations were made into the dense tropical rain forest. None were ever seen again.
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As soon as military espionage revealed the truth, everybody wanted to exploit the dinosaurs. People had been using biological enhancement for a while, and the idea of mixing human and T-Rex DNA together to create a superhuman was the least thought-out and most popular idea in the world. Everyone wanted to try it.
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But no one for-saw the incredible war which was to break out: World War III. Allies turned on one another. Enemies sought alliances. The entire political world was destroyed and reborn in a single night.
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The only two countries whose friendship remained intact was that of the U.S.A. and England. The two most powerful countries on the planet were joined together. They were  guaranteed victory until the Middle East joined up with the Atlantians.
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The Atlantians were given guns, modern luxuries (Electricity, indoor plumbing, video games, etc), and were bribed until they were hysteric with gold fever. In return, the Iraqis were given protection on Atlantis, support of the Atlantians, their unwavering servitude, and DNA samples of dinosaurs.
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The Atlantians especially savored the firearms, because before that, they were forced to arm their men with bows and arrows, javelins, spears, swords, knives, daggers, axes, clubs, and hammers, or else set a trap for a big dino using boulders, trip lines, etc. Now they could just blast away with a huge shotgun or rocket launcher.
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The Iraqis especially savored the last two parts of their side of the deal, as they now had mindless, uneducated puppets and laborers at their service, waiting to do their every will, and they could finally make the horrible dream come true, and mix dino and human DNA. They also found a way to make Dinosaur clones if they had a complete DNA strand. To them, this was like money-making opportunity galore. Atlantis was rich in gold ore and diamonds, not to mention the enormous oil and petroleum deposits.
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Their new laborers were sent to harvest all this. They created tons and tons of dino clones, and sold them at outrageously high prices. The other countries were forced to purchase them, because the natives and their dino mounts were hostile to any other nation. The U.S.A. and England didn't like this, and so declared war, and in July of 2010, invaded Atlantis.
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Many nations supported the U.S. and Britain, but didn't have the manpower or resources to do anything. They assisted as being private mercenaries, working for very high prices, but their minute amounts of men were usually very good at spying on other nations, and pretty good at stealing stuff too.
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And yet, the war raged on at full fury, and so here Tom was, fresh meat for the island to swallow up and not spit out.
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Chapter III
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Also, please note that any writing I do here is written to entertain, and therefore the story has to fit in with itself, so please excuse any religious or opinionated writing I have here and do not take it into offense. Please don't copy my work. It's not nice.
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A Breakthrough
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Tom! Tom! Wake up.”
 
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“Whaa?” Tom got groggily to his feet. “Whas goin on?”
 
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“We have made a huge breakthrough in the Biolabs!” Dr. Stephens was very excited, something very rarely seen, so Tom payed more attention than usual.
 
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“Breakthrough?”
 
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“Yes, Tom. We managed to take a sample of Raptor DNA from some saliva left over on one of the soldier's uniforms! We now have a 100% complete Raptor DNA strand!”
 
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“Point...?” Tom asked sleepily
 
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“My point is we can now safely mix Raptor and human DNA to create a superhuman! But perhaps even more beneficial, we can now clone Raptors! Now we too can have an army of dinosaurs. With our resources, we can develop a training program, so that not only will we have an army of dinosaurs, we can also make them smarter, faster, stronger, more cooperative with each other, the list goes on and on! The Biolabs have already turned out the first batch.”
 
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“But why did you wake me up?”
 
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“Because, we would like you to be the first to try out the DNA mix!”
 
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“Why me!?” Tom was suddenly alert.
 
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“Because, for one, as a field leader, your appearance would decrease the men's fear from at least one type of dinosaur.
 
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Two, you have the best immune system here, which will make you the most likely to survive if something goes wrong, and, will give us a chance to try out our new immune guider, which will help your immune system repel unfriendly objects, but not objects of a certain genetic makeup. Simply put, we give you a shot, you become less likely to die of sickness, and then you can still become a superhuman!
 
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And Three, your body will undergo changes, changes for the better, like becoming stronger and more muscular, becoming faster, your teeth will be sharper, your reflexes more highly tuned, better hearing and smell, etc.”
 
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“Doc, you know about the...power. Will it be effected? It saved my life twice.”
 
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“If it does, it will be for the better.”
 
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“I still don't know....”
 
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“Well, all of the changes are reversible...”
 
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“I'm in!”
 
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“Excellent! Follow me.” What Dr. Stephens hadn't mentioned was that they were only semi-reversible. They could change back your looks, but not your habits and powers. Tom walked to the elevator with Dr. Stephens, the biological expert, whom he had complete trust in. That was the only reason he was doing this. The elevator dinged when they hit the basement, and the doors opened. They stepped out, and walked to the security checkpoint.
 
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Tom gasped as he saw the soldier with the broken leg who he had saved.
 
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“You? This is getting scary.”
 
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“Yeah,” the man, Luke, said.
 
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“Luke, you've met Tom?” Dr. Stephens was confused.
 
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“Yeah, he saved me once before. But we don't have time to chat. I assume he accepted the treatment?”
 
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“Yes.”
 
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“Right this way then.” They followed Luke through another door on the opposite side of the room. As soon as he walked in, he heard applause. Someone gave him a shot in the arm of some pale green liquid. He was strapped to some flat slab of metal which was connected to some machine. The slab was retracted into it. A speaker came on.
 
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“Tom? Just relax. We're going to give you a sleeping gas so you won't feel any pain. Then the process will start, and by the end of today, we'll be done.” Tom was starting to have second thoughts. His gunshot wound hadn't yet been treated, but he didn't mention it to anybody. The only thing keeping him in this box was his trust in Dr. Stephens.
 
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A moment later, he was out cold, no dreams, thankfully, so he couldn't worry about any of it.
 
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The next thing he knew, he was awake. The speaker came on again.
 
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“Mr. Lane!” Tom hated the mention of his last name. “What is happening? You weren't supposed to have woken up yet!” Panic started to spread its icy wings inside him. In the distance, he could here muffled shouts. “Oh my god! How did it get out?” “We're all going to die!” “Noooooooooooo!”  Then silence. Static. He ran the words in his head again. “Oh my god! How did it get out?!! We're all going to die! Noooooooooooo!” What had happened? Then he heard a vicious snarl, and he knew.
 
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Dr. Stephens and the rest were dead. Somehow, the Raptors in the containment cells that had just been created, had already broken out. They had killed all of the people in the building.
 
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Tom was overwhelmed with loss. Dr. Stephens... Luke... All of the soldiers, almost all the people he knew, now gone from the world. And he wasn't dead because he was in this box. His mind thought of a coffin, and he got sick and threw up all over the inside of the machine.
 
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His mind now selected one task for him: BREAK FREE!!! He felt the power again, and suddenly the top of the box was blown off. The straps that were on him were now torn apart. He instantly jumped up and took stock of the situation. There were 5 Raptors in the room. Another three lay dead on the floor. One was laying over Dr. Stephens. Evidently, the Raptor had tried to tackle Dr. Stephens, and he had the quick thinking to stab a surgical knife in the beast. Next he gave himself a quick scan, looking down at his hands. His jaw dropped.
 
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His hands, once ordinary, now sprouted 3 long curved, serrated claws. His feet were the same. The middle finger or toe had the longest and largest claw.
 
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He ran his tung over his teeth. They were sharp to a point. The first Raptor noticed him. It snarled, and prepared to pounce on him. Tom was ready. As soon as the Raptor jumped, Tom rolled under it. His reaction was much faster than usual. The Raptor landed, and Tom whirled and sunk his claws deep down in its flesh. The Raptor cried out in agony. The other Raptors were all now looking at Tom hungrily. Tom yanked his claws out of the beast, kicking it in the process. He grabbed a knife and hurled it across the room at a Raptor. It landed in the back of its throat, and went down in a spastic jerk. Tom raked his claws down a Raptor's back, but it wasn't dead. He charged into the Security checkpoint, as he still didn't have a real weapon. Tom's back was still aching from the previous battle's punishment, but as he arrived, he saw two more Raptors waiting in this room, for a total of 5.
 
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The security checkpoint also housed the armory, which sported an impressive array of firearms and blades. Tom jumped up as a Raptor came charging, and dove off of its head onto the floor, and came to a rolling stop next to a gun rack. He cursed, as it was the handgun rack, and the next rack was 3 yards away. He plucked to P22's off the shelf anyways, and took aim at one of the Raptors. The bullets sent it yelping away, but it was still alive. The other Raptor was standing between Tom and the other guns. One hand rose to shoot at the ceiling, while Tom's other hand fired vaguely in the direction of  the Raptor. It fell in a flurry of bullets and concrete.
 
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The 3 Raptors from the Biolabs rushed in, making matters worse. Tom dove to the next rack, and sighed with relief as he brought around an MG43. It was more than a match to take down four Raptors, two of them badly injured. However, one of them was already too close, and so Tom stabbed at it with the bayonet attached to the heavy machine gun. It ducked and slashed open Tom's side, and he cried out in agony. The searing pain was almost more than he could take, but he forced himself to remain upright. He kicked it in the snout viciously, and it took a step back in surprise. He brought around the butt of the gun and smacked it silly, then proceeded to pump it full of lead. The other three met the same fate.
 
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Tom heard muffled growls from the other door that lead to the hallway, and he jumped over to the security desk and locked it. The other door was still unlocked, and he went back into the Biolabs, where Dr. Stephens was laying. He dragged him into the Security checkpoint, and layed him down gently next to Luke. He surveyed them both after bringing a first-aid kit. Not the cheap super-market kind, this was one of the kind that Paramedics and the like used, with a few add-ons. Add-ons including a shot of altered Vitamin E, which accelerated a man's healing rate by 300%. Dr. Stephens had a few broken ribs, a fractured ankle, and his left arm was broken. However, Luke had a broken collar bone, broken ribs, and was cut up everywhere. He was bleeding severely from a nasty gash on his head, and three  marks ran all the way from his upper thigh to below his knee. He had various smaller cuts all over his body, and his usually blond hair looked strawberry colored. Luke needed first attention.
 
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Tom cleaned and bound the gashes as best he could, then made a sling for his collarbone. Last, he bound up his ribs, after removing the serrated claw that was lodged between the eighth and ninth ribs. Tom then gave him the shot of Vitamin E, and also a shot of blood, as he had already checked the type. Now for Dr. Stephens.
 
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Tom bound up his chest, bandaged and splinted his ankle, and made a sling for his arm. He gently shook Dr. Stephens to wakefulness.
 
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“Whaa, Wha?” He came up, and then jumped back abruptly. “Oh, Tom, it's you!”
 
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“Yeah, and Luke's here too. He's not doing so well. Excuse me for a moment, I have to call for help. Watch Luke, and treat him in any way you can.” Tom left, and walked over to the Satellite phone. He called the nearest base, which was a Support Base. At least that's some luck, Tom thought to himself. The support bases were there as a post for sending support to the Research bases, support including men, guns, vehicles, supplies, and eventually, Dinosaurs. The phone crackled to life.
 
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“Hello, this is U.S.A. support base Alpha, state your problem.”
 
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“Hello! This is commander Thomas Lane of Research facility No. 1. I need a strike team immediately! Our base has been overwhelmed by Dinosaurs. We need help, we need it professional and we need it fast!”
 
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“Yes sir, they're on their way. Do you need a medical team as well?”
 
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Med team! Tom thought hysterically “Yes! And, as an additional favor, we need an Evac. I have two survivors down here with me, and their might be more as well. Over.”
 
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“Roger, your goodies are on the way. Hold tight.” Tom sighed with relief. Scarcely three seconds later, he heard a gunshot, and he whirled to see Dr. Stephens wielding a Webley Mk VI, a revolver of incredible power. He shifted his head a little more, and he saw that a Raptor had just taken a .44 inch bullet directly in the face. It dropped to the ground, a gaping hole in its head.
 
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Dr. Stephens was breathing heavily, and he grimaced at the site of the floor being rapidly covered with slick, dark red blood. He turned and laughed at Tom's amazed expression.
 
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“Don't think you're the only one around here who knows how to shoot a gun!” He smiled. Tom recovered quickly, glancing at Luke, who was beginning to stir.
 
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Soon enough, he roused completely, and gratefully took Tom's hand. Tom helped him into his chair behind the desk, and he brought out a glass of brandy from his secret stash. He gulped it down and filled it twice more, then he spoke.
 
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“My god, they came in here silent as death!” he exclaimed. He sipped his drink again. “Those stupid Atlantians! One of them chucked a pot of some evil smelling substance in here, and I suddenly was crying. I think it was a home made tear gas. Those... Those... Monsters! They came in here, and stabbed poor Reynold with a spear. Luckily, I was still cleaning my gun, and so had it in my hand. I brought it around and fired as fast as I could, and the man went down. I took out two more, but one of them had a club, and bashed me in the ribs. It hurt so much, god, I don't know what happened next. I passed out, but not before I heard something growl. It chilled the marrow in my bones it was so scary. The next thing I remember, I was waking up on the floor, and you were standing next to me.” He pointed at Tom, then froze and gasped.
 
−
“What? What is it?” Tom asked helplessly. Luke wordlessly pointed to a mirror. Tom gasped.
 
  
 +
Also check out my friend Jamie Knox's writing here:
  
−
Chapter IV
+
[[Reaper's First Drop]]
−
The Escape
+
  
−
Tom blinked, and rubbed his eyes, then checked again. It looked like someone had taken his base features, and made them more savage. He looked more like a pre-historic animal than he used to.
+
And here's a new, alternate account of the war, from the perspective of an elite soldier from an elite Black-Ops Spec-Ops division.
−
For one thing, he had received an enourmous growth spurt, growing two inches to 6 feet tall, yet he was only 14. His well-kempt brown hair had tangled itself into a knotted heap and his sunny sky blue eyes had become a dark, stormy blue that emanated power. Also, he had been tan as a result from all his physical work outdoors, but now he was bronze, as if he had been cooked well done. He was more muscular, and he now had teeth and claws, each as sharp as knives and viciously long and serrated. To his surprise, his claws were no longer on his hands. It hit him a few moments later that they were retractable, and sure enough, when he tried,they slid out with a snick. His feet were the same. All in all, Tom had a far more agressive, angry and determined look about him that was eerily alien. All he could say was “Wow...”
+
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He continued his momentary stupor for another second, then jumped into action.
+
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“Alright, Luke, you stay here. Dr. Stephens and I are going to search for more survivors. Are the security systems still running?”
+
−
“No, they've been shut down, but the cameras are still operational.”
+
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“Excellent. Now, do you know how to use the computer?” Luke laughed.
+
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“Ha, use it! I could find you a single letter in a code of over 50,000 characters without breaking a sweat!”
+
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“Great. We are going to need you to be lookout for us using the cameras, tell us which areas are infested, which are not, which you see possible survivors in, and stuff like that. Dr. Stephens, get suited up. We're going hunting.” They both grinned.
+
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Tom outfitted himself with a torso gun strap, which had 3 straps going across the front with handgun holsters, slots on the back for holstering various assault rifles, and side straps for holstering blades. He also put on a shin gun strap, for holstering a handgun. On the front torso straps, he had two Desert Eagles, two P22's, and two Glock 20's, some of the best handguns in the world. On the shin strap he holstered a Hush Puppy, a handgun with a special silencer. For the assault rifles, he had an assault rifle version of the SCAR, and a sniper version.
+
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“Why do you need a sniper rifle?” Luke asked.
+
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“Our mission starts on the roof. Dr. Stephens should bring one as well.” Tom also hooked on two katanas, and stuffed a backpack full of ammo.
+
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Dr. Stephens was far less heavily packed, but he had on a good combat backpack stuffed with ammo of all types, and had a sniper hanging loosely around his shoulder. He preferred his Webley Mk over other handguns, but his main rifle was an MP5K, a shortened version of an MP5.
+
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A knock at the door startled them all, and Tom heard a rough voice command “Open up!”.  Open up so we can shoot the living daylights out of you is more like it, Tom thought. He hurriedly screwed a silencer onto an Uzi.
+
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“Open this door or I'll blast it open!” a shout came. Tom gave Dr. Stephens a nod, and he pressed the unlock button. An Atlantian bursted in, and Dr. Stephens quickly closed and locked the door. Tom moved forward swiftly with a katana, but the Atlantian was expecting it, and he was armed with a spear, and the spear was decorated with feathers. Obviously, the man was an officer of some significance, as all the other spears were not decorated at all. Moving far quicker than Tom would previously have thought possible, he planted the weapon so that Tom's sword stuck into the wood, and then yanked it from Tom's grip. Then he twirled it, grabbing the blade, and once it was out, hurled the spear at Tom. Tom slid his claws out, and chopped the pathetic stick out of the air. The Atlantian, however, was now brandishing Tom's katana expertly. Tom just laughed. The man charged forward, acting as if he meant a simple thrust to the middle, but at the last second, changed direction and forced Tom back with a vicious uppercut that sliced Tom's cheek. The man let a smirk slide onto his face, but it quickly vanished as he returned his gaze to Tom.
+
−
Tom was angry. No one much liked Tom when he was angry with a person. Luckily for them, Tom rarely got angry, unless he or one of his friends had been injured severely. Now was one of those times, and Tom yelled furiously and jumped at the poor, oblivious Atlantian. Before the man could react, he had sunk his claws deep in the man's flesh. He refused to give up though, and valiantly tried to drive the sword into Tom's head. Tom caught it between his hands, and yanked it back, out of the man's grasp. Tom pulled out his other blade, and sliced the Atlantian across his face and torso. The man gasped back, as if he couldn't believe he was finally meeting his end. With a last rattling gasp, he flashed a knife out of nowhere, and chucked it at Luke. Tom blinked, and caught it with Telekenesis. The man's eyes bulged, then he lay still. Wiping off his blade, Tom took his silenced Uzi.
+
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“Let's go.” He said, and Dr. Stephens followed.
+
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Luke looked at the monitor, and told them that there were 2 mounted Raptors in the hallway.
+
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“Thanks for the warning.” Tom opened the door, gun extended. He sprayed half a clip into one pair, and they fell, hitting the floor like a sack of vegetables. Before the other one could figure out what happened, Dr. Stephens opened fire. The Atlantian yelled as he was thrown off by the force of the bullets, and hit the ground. He didn't rise. The Raptor squawked and fled through the opposite door.
+
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“Where's he going?!?” Tom yelled to Luke.
+
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“Uhh, umm, OK, OK, he went into the elevator landings.”
+
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“Come on!” Tom said, and Dr. Stephens hurriedly followed him. Tom hastily opened the door, and yelled in surprise when he saw an outstretched AK-47 pointing at his head. The Atlantian opened fire. He was scarcely 3 yards away, so every bullet should have found its mark. Not a single one penetrated either Tom's or Dr. Stephens's skin. An entire modified clip of 50 bullets hung menacingly in the air, an arms length away from Tom.
+
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A loud bang echoed through the room as Dr. Stephens fired his Webley Mk. He must have guessed what had happened, but Tom didn't figure it out for another few seconds.
+
−
          Obviously, his powers had once again saved his life.
+
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The man with the AK had been hit between the eyes. He fell to the ground, his face stone cold.
+
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“Thanks” Tom managed. “We should keep moving.”
+
−
They got into the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor. It took a while, because the building was designed like a fortress, and was built up and out, but they finally got to the top. This was mainly a storage area, and it was eerily silent. The room wasn't lit well, with a single naked bulb hanging on a thin cord that looked like it could snap at any moment. They found the stairs after a moment, and Tom bashed open the door. Unfortunately, the blast doors were locked.
+
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“Luke, you down there? We need you to open the blast doors.” Tom whispered into his microphone.
+
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“OK, which ones? Read me a number.”
+
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“Uhh, number... 13A”
+
−
“Got it.” Tom heard Luke typing rapidly on the keyboard for a moment, then the blast doors opened. Tom and Dr. Stephens hurried through. The hard plastic doors closed after them, but the blast doors remained open.
+
−
The blast doors were actually made up of an extremely durable plastic under-door, and then the heavy solid titanium sliding door after that. At the moment, they were still open, so that Tom and Dr. Stephens could get back through fast.
+
−
Tom stealthily crept up to the edge of the roof, which was protected overhead by a hard plastic dome. The concrete had narrow slits, or battlements, used to stick weapons through. This gave the place a castle-like appearance. Tom layed down on his stomach with his arms holding his sniper, or prone position. He proceeded to take aim at the party of Atlantians who had gathered by the main gate, acting guards. Dr. Stephens followed his example. Tom passed a silencer to him, and screwed on his own to the barrel of his sniper. They were about to open fire, when a Non-USA hovercraft flew over the gate. It set down in the courtyard just beyond the gate, and more Atlantians piled out of it. They were all armed with guns. The Atlantians sprinted up the wide path suitable for driving tanks on that led to the garages. What are they doing in their? Tom thought. He signaled to Dr. Stephens to hold fire, and gazed curiously down at the huddled men. A moment later he was answered as an APC burst out the doors. A couple tanks soon followed, then a few hovercraft, some motorcycles, speeders, armored Humvees, all manner of vehicles. Even the Heli-plane on top took off, and set down in the courtyard. The filthy nuggets were stealing their vehicles! Tom screwed on another attachment to his sniper, and told Dr. Stephens to continue to hold fire. Tom then took aim, and fired at the Heli-plane. Dr. Stephens saw no damage to the exterior, but perhaps Tom had fired a gas-canister bullet, time delayed? At any rate, he removed the attachment and screwed on yet another, and this time, when he opened fire, an enormous explosion rocked the grounds. Dr. Stephens opened fire as well, and his bullets found a mark every time.
+
−
Tom was mainly concerned with causing the men to panic, confusing and separating them with his well placed shots. The hovercraft took off after a few moments of panic, and the rest of the men were trying to either climb aboard the hovercraft and escape, take cover in the building complex, or otherwise escape in one of the remaining vehicles. Man after man piled into the Heli-plane and APCs, but they weren't able to go anywhere without the gates being open. Tom brought down the hovercraft with a single accurate shot at its engine, and told Luke to lock the gates. The Atlantians were trapped. To add to the confusion, several more hovercraft flew over the walls, all of them raising the USA flag. Lead poured from the many machine guns, casting the confused Atlantians further into dis-array. Their numbers dropped by the second, but just as the last of them were being mopped up, more came charging out the doors, yelling incoherently. The Atlantians managed to bring down one of the hovercrafts in a concerted effort, and the demoralized Americans rose higher in the air, out of the range of the guns. At first it looked like they were running away, but then Tom noticed a group of Americans sneaking behind the shouting Atlantians. Tom fired a few more shots after taking of the explosive attachment, trying to keep their eyes off the small group. His ploy worked, and the first of the Americans crept up behind one of them and stabbed him with a vicious looking knuckle knife. Another Atlantian was cudgeled by the cudgel at the end of the knife, and a third was bashed by the brass knuckle part of the multi-function knife. Still none of the Atlantians were aware of their presence, until one man stabbed an Atlantian, and he fell on another. The man turned and uttered a hoarse shout of surprise, and Tom dropped him dead. But the damage had already been done...
+
−
The rest of the group turned to meet this new threat, and the small group of 15 Americans was about to be overwhelmed by the 60-and-more-Atlantians. Suddenly, one more hovercraft roared over the walls, this one of English origin. And it wasn't armed with machine guns. It was armed with men who were toting flamethrowers, and rocket launchers had been crudely attached, each launcher carrying four shots. A few shots from these pummeled the ground, and the flamethrower men were descending a drop line. The Americans fought back with renewed vigor, and the 60+ Atlantians soon turned to 50, then 10 as the English men landed and wrought havoc with their flamethrowers. The rest of the Atlantians raised their hand in surrender, except for two, who tried to flee, but soon met their end under Tom's and Dr. Stephens's fiery bullets.
+
−
All looked well for a moment, but then Tom remembered the men in the APC, and glanced at the explosive attachment. Fresh out of ammo. Great.
+
−
“Stay here!” he shouted to Dr. Stephens “Do what damage you can from up here! I'm going to get lower.” With that, he unslung his sniper, took off his backpack and threw it over the edge. His body followed a moment later. He spread his arms and legs out wide, and went into a rapid free fall. The building was 30 stories high, and he experienced 25 of those at such a rapid clip that his eyes watered, and the moisture was whipped away behind him, strangely elongated from the speed of his travel. At the 4th story, he started to slow himself down with Telekenesis. It was only semi effective, but he slowed down to about 60 miles an hour. Unfortunately, that is still pretty fast.
+
−
Tom had only a second to panic, then he hit the roof of the garage, which was still 15 feet up. He bounced straight off, at least another three feet back up in the air, then fell the remaining 18 feet to the ground, where he landed on his back.
+
−
All he could think about was the pain. God, it was intense. All the breath was knocked out of him, and he figured he had broken a rib or two as well. The pain was so intense, it drove everything else away. Only his most basic actions, like breathing, still functioned. He layed there for a whole minute, meanwhile the APC was being controlled by stupid Atlantians! Who knows what they've done by now! At least I'm still alive. was his next thought. He layed there another 30 seconds, then forced himself unwillingly to his feet. He stumbled, but one of the Americans had noticed his spectacular jump, and came to help. Tom gratefully grasped at his arm for support.
+
−
“Whew, that was some jump!” The soldier whistled. “Anything broken?” he asked anxiously. Tom felt his ribs, his arms, neck, everything. Nothing damaged.
+
−
“No, I don't understand, that was a 40 story fall! But you have to warn the others, there are some Atlantians in that APC over there, and the tanks are also manned. We have to take them out!” The soldier gave no verbal answer, instead, he turned and ran off, jumped and clutched blindly at the English hovercraft, hauled himself over, roughly shoved the pilot aside, and fired three rockets at the APC and the nearby tanks, all in the span of about 45 seconds.
+
−
The great hunks of metal blew up like fireworks on the 4th of July. Another soldier came over, and Tom had by now recovered.
+
−
“Give that guy a raise.” he muttered, than ran and jacked an Iraqi out of a motorcycle. These weren't the sissy street mopeds you saw all around town, nor was it a cool, black and white gangster motorcycle. It was a dangerous military vehicle, armed with rockets, tire punchers, flamethrowers, and machine guns, with 'Experimental' stamped on both sides. He launched a couple more rockets at a Humvee, and it went up in flames. He made the 'Dough nut' turn, and fired the machine guns on a group of Atlantians. The ones who didn't die scattered, and Tom did a front wheelie, coming around 90 degrees and smacking another Atlantian in the head with the back wheel. He stopped, facing a Humvee. The man behind the wheel obviously wanted to play a little chicken.
+
−
+
−
To add to the effects, it started raining, and the man flared the engine. Tom kicked back the kickstand, twisted the throttle, and they were off, down a 100 ft stretch of asphalt. Tom gritted his teeth, getting ready for his secret move. He wasn't going to turn, nor was the other guy. And yet Tom wouldn't be run over. He had practiced this so many times, but it just came down to sheer timing. 90 ft to go, and Tom could already smell the other vehicle's fumes. Its engine had been damaged, and it was leaking gasoline. That was good. 80 ft to go. The windshield was slightly cracked in a spider web pattern, where someone had shot at him. 70 ft to go. He heard the revving of his engine, roaring down the pathway. 60 ft. 50. 40. 30. He could see the man, his gritted teeth, and unkempt, greasy black hair. His mind focused on one thing, the thing that he had to do to survive. 20 feet. 10. 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, with 4 feet to go, he kicked the motorcycle so that it was down on its side, but still moving, meanwhile he jumped up in the air, above the Humvee, a C4 stick in his hand. His motorcycle sped underneath the Humvee, and Tom landed on the roof, rolled off, and landed back on his motorcycle. He had shoved the C4 stick in through the cracked windshield, and that, coupled with the leaking gasoline, would end up with the driver's death. He drove a ways off, then skidded to a stop. The Humvee was still going. What had happened? Why hadn't the explosive gone off? Was it a dud?
+
−
BOOM!!! It did go off after all, and the Humvee was enveloped in an ever expanding wave of orangish-yellow flames. They licked off the metal of the Humvee with an almost caressing behavior. The man behind the wheel uttered a silent scream, then was no more. Tom panted for breath.
+
−
The rest of the Atlantians were being mopped up. Only about another 15 were holding out bravely, peaking out behind the burning tanks and opening up a round or two, then ducking back behind cover. They were giving the Americans a fair deal of opposition. Tom ran, and picked up his backpack. He snuck up behind them, and stabbed one with a katana. The English soldiers had taken out another three, and another met his end from Dr. Stephens's sniper. Tom slashed at another, but as he fell  another Atlantian stabbed over him. The blade didn't pierce his Kevlar, but he had already called over a few of his buddies to help. Tom evaded them with a back hand spring, bringing out two P22s in the process. He emptied both clips, and most of the men fell down to the ground with sickening thuds. Only about three were still alive, and Dr. Stephens picked off another, for a grand total of two left.
+
−
They fought to the bitter end, but these weren't ordinary foot soldiers. These were two officers, armed with spears and daggers. Tom laughed in their faces, bringing out his two Desert Eagles. To his surprise, the men moved with incredible speed, and knocked the guns out of Tom's hands, slicing them in the process. Tom gave a yelp of pain, and involuntarily stepped back. The Atlantians advanced menacingly, and Tom knew he was in trouble. No one could save him. The Americans were busy taking care of a few of the Iraqis who had come in with the Atlantians, the English soldiers were on the other side of the tanks, and so couldn't see him, or hear him. Even Dr. Stephens couldn't help, because a group of Atlantians had somehow managed to scale the 40 story building, even though it had virtually no handholds. Just him...
+
−
Yet he knew he could do it. Their was no other option. He hurled both his katanas at one man. The first one was deflected, the second drove into his torso. He was pinned to the wall, but he was still alive. The second one looked over at his partner with shock and grief written clearly all over his face. He was distracted, and in the momentary lapse of defense, Tom brought out his Glock 20s and emptied the two clips on them both. The results were predictable.
+
−
Dr. Stephens had taken care of the small group of Atlantians, and the Americans had driven out the remaining Iraqis. The Heli-plane had long since taken off, with some of the most precious cargo imaginable. It had been sent straight from New York, and had been carrying millions of dollars in cash, as well as a treasure load of Biological samples of various animals. These were more highly valued than gold, because with these came the ability to raise an army from scratch in less than a month. Tom was actually feeling kind of cocky. He had secretly put a tracer on the Heli-plane. Now, not only would they get the samples and money back, they would also know the location of their main enemy's main Head Quarters. He strutted out from behind the tanks, and only stopped when he saw Matt.
+
  
 +
[[Atlantis Rising: Perfect War]]
  
 +
And another little project of mine. Here, I'm writing about the video game ''Fallout 3''. The setting, premise, and some of the characters are not my creation, but basically I'm taking the game and writing my own addition.
  
 +
[[Fallout 3]]
  
 +
An additional project, using the concept and setting of the ''Fallout'' universe again. This is an idea I've wanted to explore: A Fallout game in the Carribean.
  
 +
[[Fallout: Caribbean]]
  
 +
And a Halo project, told from the perspective of a Marine Fireteam. Just regular soldiers, not Spartans or even ODSTs.
  
 +
[[Halo: Fireteam]]
  
  
 +
==Atlantis Teaser==
  
 +
''"Soldiers, you will be deployed via fast-rope. You will rappel down to the ground and await the indicator in your HUD before beginning. As soon as you see the signal, you may begin. Good luck, recruits. Up first: Echo Squad! Squad Leader, make sure your squad's gear checks out."''
  
 +
The DS gestured to Matt, and all of them went and gave one another triple buddy checks.
  
 +
"Ready when you are, Frost!" Holly yelled over their Team comm.
  
 +
"Roger that, Aura." Matt yelled back. Each of them had callsigns. His was Frost. Jamie's was Scorch. Scar was Flare. Malcolm was Spark. Holly was Aura. "Alright. Squad, move out! Go, go, go!" Matt barked.
  
 +
Scar attached her rappel harness to the line and jumped out the side, one hand on the rope above her, and the other below and slightly behind her butt, the "brake" hand that controlled how fast the line went. Malcolm followed, then Jamie, then Holly. Matt was the last one out, as befitting his status of Squad Leader.
  
 +
Scar landed, disengaged her harness, and let it drop to the forest floor. A crew would come later and get it.
  
 +
Soon the entire squad was on the ground, and Matt quickly led the squad under cover of the trees. As soon as the V-22 Osprey was out of sight, they doubled back and went after the bird. They kept the lines from the rappel - there was always a use for thirty feet of tough nylon.
  
 +
The countdown timer in Matt's HUD read D + 15:07 when Matt raised his fist, the sign to halt. With slow, exaggerated sign language, he indicated for the team to spread out and climb the trees. Jamie went with Matt in one tree. Scar went by herself, and Malcolm and Holly shared a third.
  
 +
"Frost, requesting permission to re-format to a sniper?" Scar whispered over the Teamcomm.
  
 +
"Roger that, Flare. Permission granted. Scorch, outfit yours with the AR. Aura, you're our grenadier. Get the XM320 on there." The XM320 was a single-shot 40mm grenade launcher that could be attached to their carbines. Matt put one on his. Malcolm preferred a straight-up assault rifle.
  
 +
Beside Matt, almost completely invisible in the heavy jungle shadow, Jamie lay prone along two branches, with his AR balanced on a third branch with a clear line-of-sight to the ground.
  
 +
Matt slid down from the tree. "Spark, get down here and help me create a barricade. We need to push any incoming squads into one firing lane. Scorch, Flare, give me a dot." In response, Malcolm slid from his tree, and both Scar and Jamie highlighted the firing lane that they had access to with red laser-dots. Matt took armfuls of brambles and thin, thorned vines and dumped them to the left and right of the lane, in between the trees, to create a natural-looking wall that would influence the squads to find an easier way through. Right through their lane of fire.
  
 +
Matt strung triplines further out into the jungle with the Nylon cables, attaching them to frag grenades.
  
 +
Matt's countdown ended. "Alright people, we can now shoot at and be shot. Let's wrap this up." Malcolm laid the last armful of brambles in place, and then they both scampered up into their separate trees. There were five other squads in this particular mission, all within a square mile. It wouldn't be long before they had some hits.
  
−
Chapter V
+
Five minutes passed, and no one came. The squad was getting impatient. "Spark," Matt whispered. "Be the rabbit. I need you to go along the lane and see if you can draw some fire, then sprint back here. We'll cover your approach. I'd do it myself but I'm not fast enough."
−
Training Day
+
  
−
“Matt! Hey Matt! Over here!” Tom shouted excitedly to his best friend since 1st Grade.  
+
"Roger that, lead." Malcolm said, grinning. "I've always been one for the suicidal frontal charge." He slid down his tree, landing in the brush below. Before he had even gone two minutes, the sound of gunfire erupted through the forest. "Frost, I've got multiple targets here. They've got me pinned, I could use some assistance!"
−
“Tom?” Matt turned and saw Tom. “Hey, how's it going?” He said, greeting Tom with a warm handshake. Matt was slightly surprised at the amount of blisters on Tom's hands, but he said nothing. “I didn't know you were here!” he continued in blissful forgetfulness.
+
−
“Well, I am!” Tom answered joyously. He frowned a moment later, and asked “What's that? That thing on your arm?” he asked curiously, pointing at a solid green triangle on Matt's arm.
+
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“It's the symbol that all Psi-soldiers wear.”
+
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“Psicological?”
+
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“I've been promoted to Sergeant Matthew Kenderson, Psicological division 7.” Matt said proudly. “That means I can actually use stuff like Telekenesis!”
+
−
“I know, I can control now it too!” Tom said. Matt looked skeptical. No wonder, because the last time Matt had seen Tom use Psi powers, a hole had been inadvertently blasted in a wall. Tom lifted the tank partway in the air, setting it down only after a startled Matt had involuntarily let slip: “Good God!”
+
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A soldier at Matt's elbow coughed meaningfully.
+
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“Right! We need to airlift you and any survivors out of here, and transfer you to Research Facility #2.” Matt jumped at the reminder.
+
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“OK, umm, problem.” Tom answered.
+
−
“What is it?” Matt groaned.
+
−
“There are probably more survivors, but we haven't found them yet.”
+
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“You heard the man! I want a sweep of the entire complex! Scan for any signs of life, friendly or otherwise. Sanders, Conners, take up take your squads and set up a defensive perimeter! Companies Alpha through November, take buildings D and E. Everybody else, buildings B and C. Tom and I will take building A. Dr. Stephens! Stay where you are, and be lookout and sniper for us, if you will. Luke, we could use those experimental robot guards I hear this place has been working on. Don't give me buts!” Matt exclaimed in answer to Luke's warning that he may not be able to get them working. “Just do it. Alright people, lets move!”
+
−
With that, the American soldiers sprang into action. Tom hurried off with Matt, able to move far easier now that he had disposed of most of his firearms. He had taken off the gun strap, and all he still carried with him was his SCAR assault rifle and a Hush Puppy.
+
−
It felt good to be back with his old friend, but that also meant that things were really serious. He, Matt, and two of their other friends, Scarlett Ottoman and Holly Dayne, were only brought together when the most serious of problems were at hand. This was fairly disturbing to anybody who knew that, as was the fact that Tom was the youngest of all of them at 14, Matt and Scarlett being 15, and Holly being 16, yet he was the best marksman, and his physical strength and endurance exceeded that of every land creature on the planet, including an elephant. Evidently, the expected loss of an entire Research Facility counted as a big problem.
+
−
“So, Tom, what's happened? You look... different.”
+
−
“Long story.”
+
−
“Tell me.” And so Tom proceeded to tell Matt all that had happened since the big battle with Queen Rex, including the fact that Queen Rex was almost entirely dead, why he now had Velociraptor DNA mixed with his, how it had effected him, the ensuing fight with all the Atlantians, Dinosaurs, and Iraqis, the tracer he put on the Heli-plane, his spectacular fall from the roof, his wonder of how he wasn't hurt, his duel with the two Atlantians, and then finally, meeting Matt.
+
−
“Some story.” Matt said as they entered the building.
+
−
“Yeah. But here we are.” Building A was all the men slept, ate, and lived out most of their lives, unless in a battle, doing a drill, or some other activity. It was comfortably fitted, decorated by nice sofas and recliners surrounding a large plasma screen TV. Usually, the air was pleasantly fragranced with the scent of fruit, but it now stank of sweat, blood, and rotting flesh, and the bowl of fruit and nuts that usually sat on the coffee table had a large bite mark in it. Worse, the sofas were all shredded up, and dead bodies were strewn all over the floor, some of them dead with guns still in hand, in a last, desperate attempt at survival. It was a gruesome sight. Tom began searching for survivors. He doubted any were here, but they had to look. Matt stood guard, in case a Raptor were to suddenly burst into the room.
+
−
“I've got a live one here!” Tom shouted. Matt handed him the First aid kit. Same as before.
+
−
The soldier's side had been slashed open, and he had a ragged gash across the top of his head. Tom quickly cleaned all of the wounds, bound them up, and checked for any more cuts. The soldier looked OK. Tom searched for a piece of paper, and put a big M on it, laying it across the man. Next, he took out a hypodermic syringe filled to the brim with Morphine. How much was enough? 4cc's? He injected the entire contents into the man. He hoped it wasn't too much.
+
−
The soldier was alive, but only just.
+
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“Luke, send a med team to this location.” Tom said.
+
−
“Roger that. Their on the way.” To Tom and Matt's surprise, a few moments later robots entered the room, and they all had a red cross on their chests, except for maybe ten of them. These ten were decorated in Jungle Camouflage, and were hauling XM8 assault rifles. “Say hello to the Assault Robots!” Luke's voice rang out.
+
−
“You got them working!” Matt said.
+
−
“Did you ever doubt me?” Luke laughed.
+
−
“I'll have to admit, I did.”
+
−
“Sorry to interrupt. We will take over this room. Continue on.” Stated a mechanical voice. Out of the thirty robots here, 8 of the Assault Bots stayed with the First Aid Bots, and 3 of the First Aid Bots came with Tom and Matt, plus the two Assault Bots, for a total party of seven. The next room was the kitchen, and here Raptor bodies littered the ground as well as human, many of them with kitchen knives sticking out. As they came around a counter, they were startled half to death by a soldier.
+
−
“Die you... Oh, it's you! I knew you'd come!” The soldier exclaimed, lowering his weapon.
+
−
“Are you alright?” Tom asked.
+
−
“Other than all my friends being dead, Raptors stalking the building, me having no gun (for he was holding a kitchen cleaver), and, uhh, oh yeah! An Atlantian is in the next room, probably on his way in now.” As he spoke, the door handle leading into the Mess Hall turned.
+
−
“Quick, everybody, duck and cover!” Matt hissed. Everybody dropped to the ground, making no noise at all. Tom carefully and quietly made his way to the edge of the counter, and peeked around to look who had come in. An Atlantian, another officer by the looks, and he was backed by two Iraqis with guns. Tom glanced over at Matt, who was giving the soldier a P90 SMG. That was a pretty good gun. He would have to pick one up in the next armory, which, if he remembered correctly, was in the  room adjacent to the Mess Hall. At any rate, he took out his Hush Puppy, and dropped one of the Iraqis. The other two were so confused, they stood dumbly for a minute, then the second Iraqi also fell to the ground. The Atlantian had the brains to take cover, but he had taken cover against the counter, right on the other side of Matt. Matt vaulted over the counter top. “Hi there!” He said cheerfully, then viciously kicked the Atlantian in his abdomen, slightly above his stomach, but below his ribcage, one of the weakest spots on the body.
+
−
The Atlantian fell to the ground wheezing, and Matt kicked him again to knock him out. “This guy could be pretty useful for questioning.” He explained. Matt handed the man to a med robot to carry back to the hovercrafts, then they proceeded onward. They waltzed into the armory to restock equipment, and for the soldier to get a gun. Tom almost yelled in surprise as he came nose-to-snout with a sleeping Raptor.
+
−
“Careful there,” Matt said, giving Tom a steady arm. “I'll take it out.”
+
−
“No, let me.” Tom replied.
+
−
“That's an evil smile” Matt commented. “Whatever, go ahead, your the boss.” Concentrating hard, Tom sent out a mental probe into the Raptor's head, searching for a certain part that all bodily commands passed through, including breathing, eating, moving, etc. A moment later, he found it, and disconnected it with a flick of his Telekenesis.  The Raptor slumped to the ground, drooling, and Tom gave a satisfied grin. “Nice one.” Matt said appreciatively.
+
−
They stocked up on ammo and weapons, and then continued on their way, Tom clutching two P90s; he had thrown away his SCAR, as there was not much use of it in a building. The next room was a dormitory, and Tom shuddered to think what might be in here. They opened the door.
+
−
Raptors were feeding, at least twenty of them. Dead carcasses lay everywhere, hanging over bunk beads, slumped across furniture, lying in dismembered heaps on the ground, everywhere. The floor was awash with ruby red blood. Matt rolled a canister marked with a skull and crossbones into the room, then slammed the door. A moment later, they heard strange gargling sounds, and what sounded like heavy objects falling from a top bunk bead. Tom opened the door to find twenty Raptors lying on the ground, eyes closed, tongues out, stained red teeth showing.  A couple of them had fallen from their perches at the top beads, and these had limbs and necks twisted at odd angles. Tom and Matt shuddered together.
+
−
“Let's get out of here. No one else living could be beyond here, otherwise the Raptors would have found them.” Matt said, visibly disturbed by the scene.
+
−
“Alright, but let's get Luke to run a sweep, just in case.” Tom disliked the idea of continuing on, but he disliked the idea of leaving anyone behind here even less.
+
−
“This is Luke, I hear ya. I'm running a sweep right now, but I don't see anybody... Wait! There's one more guy, trying to pretend he's dead. He's to your right and three rooms down. The second room down his filled with Raptors, oh, gross: they're eating... oh, just uh, tell me if you need anything else.” Luke closed the connection hurriedly, and Tom imagined he was rushing to the bathrooms.
+
−
“Alright, you heard the man, let's move!” Tom shouted. They charged down the hallway to their right, which was the restrooms and storage rooms, and slowed only when they reached the next door, leading to another, larger storage room. They crept through it, so as not to alert the Raptors in the next room.
+
−
“Anyone got anymore poison gas?” Tom asked.
+
−
“No, but i got this.” Matt said, holding up a mini helicopter thing and a remote control.
+
−
“What good is that?” Tom asked.
+
−
“Look.” Matt through it in the air, and started moving it around with his remote control. “If we can lure them into this room, we can setup an ambush for them, and take 'em out much easier than rushing in and shooting them.”
+
−
“Yeah, good plan.” Tom agreed. They moved around the racks of metal boxes so that they enclosed the door in a rectangle-shaped clearing, replacing gaps on the shelves with more boxes from other shelves, so that the Raptors couldn't get out except the way they had come in. Even this was to be covered , because a shoulder's width gap between a side rack and the wall enabled somebody  to push a last rack through, completely encasing the Raptors, where they could stick their guns through narrow cracks between the boxes. Full proof. Except that they didn't anticipate the incredible strength the Raptors wielded.
+
−
Matt lured them through the door. At least 15. Maybe more. As soon as the last one made his silent way into the trap, Tom pushed the last rack through the gap, and the Raptors were done for. At least they would have been, except that one broke into a savage rage when it learned it couldn't get out, and head-butted a rack, making it wobble, then again, and again. The other Raptors got the idea, and started head butting the same rack over and over. It would have been fine still, because even all of them charging, they wouldn't all hit at once, and the rack was pretty heavy. Problem: They were smarter than that. They could even count seemingly, as the lead Raptor, or Alpha Male, as Tom knew he was called, let out a strange gargling hiss, then the same kind of noise, but at a higher pitch, then a final sound even higher pitched then the one before, and they all charged. Fifteen Raptors hitting one 400 pound rack. Raptors win. The rack toppled over, narrowly missing Tom. The Raptors were about to rush out, and the collective soldiers, robots, and superhumans didn't stand a chance.
+
−
Tom couldn't believe that they were going to die, right here, right now, because of a gang of Raptor's intelligence, and a gang of humans' stupidity.
+
−
No. It wasn't going to end like this, not for Tom. He grasped hold of his power tightly, unlocking a door in his mind previously undiscovered, and released the power, driving it out the door with all his force. It erupted like a caged beast, hurtling to the startled Raptors at the speed of light. The power punched a gaping hole in every Raptor, right through it's heart.
+
−
+
−
Then it was over.
+
  
−
“Whoa, cool! Nice work, Tom.” Matt said appreciatively a moment later. Tom was dazed, and felt like he was going to fall unconscious at any moment.
+
Matt looked to Holly. She nodded, slid down, and circled around to the right to counter-flank the guys surrounding Malcolm. "Spark, help is on the way. How long can you hold?"
−
“Uhh,” he groaned. Matt reached over and offered him a steady hand.
+
−
“I haven't officially tried this, but my psi instructor said that in times of great need, you can transfer energy into other objects by channeling it through your arms. You think I should try?” he asked.
+
−
“S...s...sure...” Tom muttered shakily. It was about all he could muster. A moment later, he felt the queerest sensation, as if he were waking from a deep, deep sleep and falling asleep at the same time. To top this, he also had the uncomfortable feeling of being sucked out of thick mud, which feels a little like having your feet squished and stretched at once. After perhaps a minute of this, he could fully stand, and he felt much, much better. “Thanks.” He said to Matt.
+
−
“Anytime.” Matt replied, wiping some sweat off his forehead. Tom got up and stealthily crept through the next door, just in case more Raptors that hadn't been trapped were still in here. His caution payed off, but not until it was almost too late.
+
−
Tom looked around the room, closely followed by Matt, who had told the others to guard the door outside. Nothing living in sight, except the soldier. They walked over to him.
+
−
“Come on with us,” Tom told the man, who was still pretending to be dead. He didn't stir. “It's okay, we're friends.” Matt said encouragingly. The soldier cracked open his eyes partway, and at once leaped up into the air, shouting with joy.
+
−
“Oh, oh, my god, I was so scared! I thought you had left already when I heard the hovercrafts outside!”
+
−
“You're in luck, we're still here, and we're ready to go.” Matt answered.
+
−
“Shh!” Tom hissed.
+
−
“What is it?” Matt asked in a whisper.
+
−
“I dunno, I thought I heard something...” Tom whispered back after a moment. Just then, a Raptor that had been sleeping in a corner behind the door awoke with a dreadful snarl, sending waves of terror down everyone's spine. It started creeping closer, an inch at a time. And closer. And closer still. Just then, the sound of gunfire erupted outside the door, and the Raptor turned its head, momentarily distracted. Tom seized his chance.
+
−
Faster than a normal human, Tom sprinted up to the wall beside the pre-historic beast, and in a moment of unreal power and control, he jumped up ten feet in the air, higher than usual thanks to his DNA mix, planted his feet sideways on the wall, and sprang off, pulling out a katana as he went, all in one fluid motion. As he landed, he plunged it down into the Raptor's head, effectively ending its gruesome life.
+
−
Now back to the gunfire.
+
−
As it turned out, they were under attack. Not by men, not by Raptors. Three Utah Raptors.
+
−
Matt bounded out the door into the enclosed area of shelving that they had set up. He saw an enormous creature, about the size of a T-Rex, but its arms more powerful, its claws more deadly. In its wake, two of their eight assault robots lay crumpled in heaps of sparking metal and plastic. Next to them was a heavy rack which they had been trying to push in front of another rack for more protection. It seemed that they had done this more than once, for every side had two shelves in a row, as they had taken one from the back and put it in the weak area. Now, not even a Utah Raptor could break through the defense. But three of them could.
+
−
To buy more time before all of the shelves came toppling over when the Utah Raptors rammed them, Tom gathered up his energy, squatted down, and got ready for a 20 foot jump. A moment later, he was soaring through the air, and he felt so free, so powerfull, he wished he could remain up here forever. But gravity was not his best friend, and so Tom reached for a rafter in the ceiling just over his head. He caught onto it, and with a tremendous effort, pulled himself up using only his arms, over the top, and finally into a standing position on top. Two of the Utah Raptors were looking at Tom hungrily. The other was too busy ramming the shelves to see Tom.
+
−
Matt was pumping lead, lead, and more lead into the Utah's muzzle, but the beast, huge as it was, was not seriously hurt. Tom gathered up a wad of energy into a tight ball, releasing it at the last second before it exploded inside him. It hit the Utah closest to Tom with a devastating effect: A chunk of it's flesh was now gone, and it toppled to the ground awkwardly, bending its neck so far as to kill itself if it had not already been dead. The other two turned to look at a sagging Tom. His strength was failing him.
+
−
With one last effort, Tom leaped from the rafter onto the closest Utah Raptor. He clung to its back in a death hold, and started sucking energy out of it like a leech. The Utah gave a strange, gargling cry, “Agghilonaaaaaa....” then fell to the ground. Tom stood up calmly, feeling re-energized and powerfull. The last remaining Utah was looking at his fallen comrade in confusion. Matt took advantage of this, and he leaped over the shelves, rolling as he struck the ground, came up, and blasted a pyro-wave at the thing. It didn't stand a chance.
+
−
Crying out in agony, it sprinted down the corridor towards the door, or at least so Tom thought, until he heard something that sounded like breaking of re-inforced concrete.
+
−
Tom turned to Matt with an incredulous expression on his face. Matt shrugged.
+
−
Shaking his head, Tom sprinted down the corridor after it, anxious to see what damage it had done. He rounded a corner, and was surprised to see a gaping hole in the wall.
+
−
“That wall was 6 inches thick!” Tom shouted at Matt.
+
−
“It's pretty strong.” He answered calmly
+
−
“Nawww, really?!?” Tom said sarcastically. He started climbing over the wreckage, when he felt Matt's hand on his shoulder.
+
−
“It won't do any good.” He said. “It can run at about 60 mph. We clocked one back at Facility 2.” Tom reluctantly gave up the chase.
+
−
“Anyways, we gotta get back to the Hovercraft. The other are probably wondering where we are.” After navigating there way back through the wreckage of the Living Quarters and out into the courtyard, they found the rest of the men loading up the Hovercraft. They had found at least twenty grateful survivors between the buildings. Luke walked out from behind one of the Hovercraft, Dr. Stephens following close behind.
+
−
“Tom! What a marvelous job you've done. We'll be transporting you straight to Research Facility No. 2, along with all the survivors.” Dr. Stephens explained excitedly.
+
−
After a few minutes of explanations, they were in a Hovercraft, on their way back to Facility 2.
+
−
“If you need anything, just let me know,” One of the crew said to Tom.
+
−
“Thanks. I'll let you know if there's anything you can do,” Tom answered. Matt who was less stoic, asked for a beer.
+
−
“Dude, you know you have to be 21 to drink alcohol.” Tom said plaintively.
+
−
“Yeah, thats one of the nice things about being me. The government needs me so much, they wouldn't dare send me to jail. So for now, I don't really care.”
+
−
“Whatever, just keep that stuff away from me.” Tom replied. Tom was known for his dislike of alcohol products.
+
  
−
The ride to Facility 2 was a short, if uncomfortable trip, because the hovercraft was being continually forced to weave through the trees, so it was more like one big roller coaster than anything else. Regardless, Tom had time to snooze, as he hadn't really slept at all in the past 30 hours, before the battle. When he was in the Hospital bed, his sleep was disturbed by the flashbacks, which had lasted about 29 hours. After that, he had skirmished multiple times, gotten himself almost killed at least six times, and now, as he landed and got out of the hovercraft, he was mentally preparing himself for an onslaught of questioning.
+
"I've got good cover, I'm inside a shallow cave-thing in the ground. I can hold out a while."
−
Sure enough, a group of five neatly-dressed generals greeted them just inside the door. They glanced in startled disdain at Tom's and Matt's dirty, blood soaked uniforms, records of the battles they had just fought for the oblivious generals, as well as the rest of America.
+
 
−
One general, the leader of the leaders, cleared his throat after a moment.
+
"Roger that. Keep your head down, but keep the attention centered on you. And watch out, they'll try to advance. Watch your flanks."
−
“Ecchem. Yes, well... Good Evening boys. I see you have uhh... been fairly... active.” He said in a sneering tone of voice. The man was short, yet his ego made him tower over Tom. A  glowing power seemed to radiate off of him like white hot, blazing solar flares. His eyes were almost a separate part of him, glowing in their own way of mysterious anger and rage, and yet their was an eerie calmness to them as if they could take anything down without breaking a stride. There was waspy venom in his voice as if he considered himself superior over all else. Noreover, there was a dark quality that was so intimidating even Tom felt himself taken aback. Lastly, there was a secrecy to him that contained all of this within a sinister figure. “My name,” he continued, “Is Dr. Shang. I am the head of this facility, whatever I say goes. Am I clear?”
+
 
−
“Crystal clear sir!” Tom and Matt pledged simultaneously. Tom wondered at the man; it was as if he expected them to disobey an order just for the fun of it. Tom had learned early on that discipline was required of any soldier, especially him, for if an officer could not take orders, then who could? Never the less, doubt still lingered in the man's eyes. “Very well. You may go and wash up. I expect you both  in the debriefing room by 17:00 hours. Don't be late.”
+
"You got it, Frost." Malcolm said, and tossed a grenade out the opening of the cave. It exploded, and Malcolm heard someone groan. "Yeah, bring it!" He shouted.
−
Tom and Matt both saluted Dr. Shang, and only after he left did they begin the walk to their  adjoined rooms.  
+
 
−
“Gee, nice guy huh?” Matt commented.
+
Holly took up a firing position, sighted through her scope, and tagged a soldier in the back of his head. He dropped like a load of rocks, asleep by the time he hit the ground. Return fire peppered the rock she had been hiding behind, and two soldiers broke off to get her. But Holly wasn't there anymore.
−
“He's probably just had a rough day.” Tom said tiredly.
+
 
−
“Who around here hasn't, though?” Matt pointed out.
+
A soldier fell as rounds tore into his inner thigh. He dropped to the ground, not out yet but with a crippled leg. He hobbled behind a piece of cover as Holly filled the air with bullets around the second soldier. A grenade rolled to a stop next to her, and at this she turned and fled back the way she had come, then darted back, and got the attention of the two remaining soldiers pinning Malcolm.
−
After a long and luxurious steaming hot shower, Tom felt ready again to take on the world. He had about 15 minutes to kill before his debriefing with Dr. Shang and who knew what else. He met up with Matt in the hallway.  
+
 
−
“Hey Tom,” Matt said.
+
At the momentary distraction, Malcolm bolted out of the hole, sprinted from rock to tree, from tree to bush, from bush to ground, and drew the soldiers down through the firing lane, followed a second later by Holly. Jamie adjusted his grip on the AR as the two squadmates ran down the path. 30 seconds later, the first soldier popped into view. Jamie waited until the last soldier appeared, then nailed the one closest to any viable cover.
−
“Yeah?” Tom asked
+
 
−
“Who's in the room across from us?” Matt inquired.  
+
The steady thrum of the AR set Matt's head pounding, and he opened fire on the last one in the line. Then Scar fired, and a round slugged the first soldier in the chest.
−
“Dunno.”
+
 
−
“There's something about those rooms that seems... familiar. I can't think of what it is.”
+
Jamie's target fell from hits to the leg, side, and shoulder. He wasn't quite gone, but almost. Jamie finished him off with another quick, sustained burst.
−
“Lemme check it out.”
+
 
−
“How?”
+
Matt's soldier dropped to the ground, out for the count with five rounds in his chest and more in his left arm.
−
“RV”
+
 
−
“Remote Viewing? Wouldn't that be invasion of privacy?” Matt asked, troubled.
+
Scar's target took the heavy caliber bullet in the chest and sat down with the force, hard, landing on his butt and jarring his head. Before he could recover, Scar punched another round into his chest. He spun halfway around and ate dirt.
−
“Yeah, but oh well. Something does seem familiar about this area.”
+
 
−
“Do you know how to use RV?”
+
Four down. The last soldier turned to flee, but Holly popped out of the shadows and nailed him with a grenade from her XM320, which cast training rounds into a wide arc everywhere, painting the nearby forest a vivid crimson.
−
“No, but you do.” Tom hinted.
+
 
−
After a moment of arguing, Matt reluctantly pried through the door without physically touching it, entering a state of being which rendered his body clueless to his actions and the actions of those around him. For this reason alone, RV was not covered much in Matt's Psycho-kenesis classes, so he had a little difficulty attempting this maneuver.  
+
"Alright!" Jamie crowed.
−
After a moment of careful prodding, Matt let out an exclamation of surprise, and suddenly ran up to the door and jammed the doorbell at least half a dozen times. A disgruntled Holly Smith flung open the door to chase off whoever was calling her, and froze in mid action. She was followed a moment later by Scarlett Ottoman.  
+
 
−
“OMG!” Scarlett screeched, and rushed out the door into Matt's arms.  
+
Matt disengaged his spent clip and slapped a new one in. "Let's hope the other squads come running for the noise. One down, three to go, gentlemen."
−
Holly just stood there blankly, as if she couldn't believe that they were there.  
+
 
−
“Oh my god! I can't believe it's you guys!” Scarlett exclaimed.
+
 
−
“Yeah, neither can I,” Matt replied. They stood there in the hallway for a long, long time, just staring at one another.  
+
The next squad was slightly smarter. Instead of running pel-mel into the contested area, they sent one scout on ahead through the firing lane, and the rest hung back and encircled the target area. Too bad for them, Matt's squad had moved from the one killing field and into another close-by clearing, where they could easily spot the would-be flanking attack.
−
“Alright you four, come on, Dr. Shang wants you in the debriefing room in five minutes, but you were supposed to have come early.” Dr. Stephens's voice rang out behind them.  
+
 
−
“Just a minute!” Matt called. “So what one Earth are you guys doing here?” he continued.
+
"Open fire!" Matt yelled, and the two soldiers in sight twisted around, trying to find the source of the noise. One was slugged by a heavy cal. sniper shot, and the other fell to the combined fire from Jamie's AR and Matt's carbine.
−
“The same as you, I would guess.” Holly answered.
+
 
−
“Come on guys, we can catch up later.” Tom broke the happy party up, and they all started downstairs toward the debriefing room. They got there with two minutes to spare, but Dr. Shang was in a vehement mood, and so he scolded them for being late.
+
Holly and Malcolm, still on the ground, rose out of a cover of leaves and dead brush and moved around behind the three soldiers left that came running. Standing up, they nailed two with one salvo of fire.
−
“Did I not say, upon your entrance to this building, that you were to receive and carry out any orders that I gave you?” He asked menacingly.
+
 
−
“Yes sir!” The four said together, their eyes fixed slightly above Dr. Shang's head.
+
The last one hit the dirt and rolled under a log. Holly and Malcolm pursued.
−
“Then why, may I ask, are you all late?”  No one spoke after this comment. “I see...” he continued. “Oh well, for now, I have some questions for all of you.”
+
 
−
Dr. Shang launched into a stunning array of questions, from why Tom helped out Luke when he got knocked to the ground to how the Biological cloning technology worked. Many of these, no one could answer, and whenever this happened, his mood slipped yet more into the category of insanity. From his first glance of Dr. Shang, Tom had gathered that he didn't like this man. Now here was more proof, as if he needed it.
+
"Negative! Disengage!" Jamie yelled, and opened fire into the brush to their left.
−
“... and how, may I ask, did the Raptors get out of the holding pens?”
+
 
−
“I can answer that.” Tom volunteered. “We underestimated their intelligence. There have been numerous examples of it in the past couple hours.”
+
Holly hit dirt. Malcolm followed half a second later with three rounds stitched across his back. He wasn't out yet, but his entire suit was getting quickly more rigid.
−
“Like what?” Dr. Shang sneered.
+
 
−
“Well sir, for one thing, they can speak. They have a complex language system beyond anything we could ever have imagined. When we were searching for survivors in the Facility complex, we could here strange sounds coming from the Raptors. Hissing and clicking, extremely weird noises and growls.” As he relived the details of the carnage, the hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up. He hadn't realized it at the time, but he had been terrified. He also hadn't realized up until now how alien the creatures sounded. Something about the sounds unsheathed his primal instincts, like something too horrible for words. “And they can count.” he continued. “We  trapped a bunch of them in between a couple of metal storage racks. We didn't anticipate them escaping, but they only did so because they could count, and on a certain sound, they all rushed forward, hitting the racks at the same time, so that their combined force was more than that of the racks, and predictably, the racks toppled over. They must have done something similar with the holding pens.” 
+
He turned onto his back and fired in the general direction of where the shots had come from. Holly sidled around to him and took out a fake med-pack, wiping clean the Training Rounds and administering an electric shock through the armor. Malcolm's suit unstraightened a little, and Malcolm crawled back into better cover.
−
“I see...” Dr. Shang didn't believe him. It was obvious in his voice. “Well, at any rate, they escaped. But how on Earth can they have taken out an entire facility within the span of an hour or two?”
+
 
−
“It wasn't just them sir.” Matt answered. “After they escaped, they some how teamed up with a band of maybe 200 Iraqi troops, all heavily armed.”
+
Jamie was still firing bursts from his AR at the last squad. Matt held his fire; there was no clear target in view, and to give away his position would be stupid. Scar attached a flash suppressor to her rifle, and started shelling the squad's general position.
−
“And what were the Iraqis after?” Tom sensed where this was going, and instinctively he realized that Dr. Shang would be upset over the loss of the Heli-plane, regardless of whether or not he knew where the enemy base was.
+
 
−
“Sir, they were after our vehicles. When Dr. Stephens and I...”
+
"Watch flankers." Matt advised, seeing shadows moving behind her. Scar turned and nailed one soldier who had tried to flank her, and Matt caught another with a grenade.
−
“Save it!” Dr. Shang exclaimed. “I do not need to know of any acts of valor that Dr. Stephens has contributed to whatever happened at that facility. Just tell me what they were after and why!” Venom rang clear through his voice. Tom realized that Dr. Shang must have been a huge rival of Dr. Stephens.
+
 
−
“Yes sir,” Tom murmured. “As I was saying, they were after our vehicles. When I was on the roof, I saw most of the Iraqis in the courtyard. They were all moving towards the garages, and sure enough, five minutes later, they had commandeered just about every vehicle out of the place. How they got the things started up is beyond me.”
+
Matt slid to the ground as Jamie covered him, landed, and ran in a half-crouch to Holly. He saw a rifle barrel poke out of a bush, saw a blast coming their way, and tackled Holly to the ground. The burst nailed him in the calf and he rolled up into a crouch.
−
“What all did they take? 'Just about every vehicle' is not too specific.”
+
 
−
“They drove out with I would say about 40 of the 50 armored Humvees, every single one of the tanks, 20 of the 25 APCs, and all of the 100 Assault Recon Motorbikes. I managed to jack, I mean, take back one of them, but how much good one of a 100 will do I don't like to consider. As for air units, they took all of the Apaches and Cobras, which is about 30 of each. The Hueys they left alone, the Chinooks they took about 10 of the 20, from the airfield, I don't think they took anything besides one A-10 thunderbolt.”
+
Matt rolled off and came up firing. Jamie suppressed the soldier that had just shot at them while Matt took him out, Holly and Malcolm covering his flank.
−
“Lets see, what am I missing... Oh yes. I hear you had a Heli-Plane with masses and masses of currency and Biological samples in it? What has become of it?”
+
 
−
“Sir, there was nothing I could do but tag it with a tracer. They took off with it, and I suspect are just now unloading it.”
+
Then Scar took multiple sustained bursts from the last soldier from the other squad, and toppled from the tree. She was out cold. Fury ignited in Matt. Toppling her from the tree was not necessary, and she could have injured herself. He and Holly outflanked the soldier and drilled him to the ground with long automatic fire.
−
You let them ESCAPE!!!!!! Tom was mentally prepared for that. Instead, he got a:
+
 
−
“Yes. Very good job. I couldn't expect anything better.”
+
They split and threw themselves behind rocks, Matt reloading as he went. There were two left on the other team and three left on his; Malcolm had been drilled again in his helmet.
−
“Whaa...” Matt asked, startled.
+
 
−
“Gentlemen, I too understand the importance of the knowledge of the enemy's base. They did not promote me to General for nothing. You have done very well, or at least, on that respect. All I can ask for now is the device which is receiving the tracer signal.”
+
Jamie's AR barked again and again. With his suppressive fire, Matt darted from cover to cover and distracted the two soldiers long enough for Holly to creep around and take the first one out. The last soldier sprayed fire everywhere, panicking, and continued even as Matt, Jamie, and Holly's combined fire drilled him into the ground.
−
He waited expectantly as Tom mentally smacked his forehead.
+
 
−
“Sir, I left it in my other uniform when I was changing.” Again, Tom braced himself for yelling, but again he was disappointed.  
+
The DS broke through their comm. lines, "Cease fire. Echo team, you have won the mission. We will collect you shortly. Hold position."
−
“Only to be expected.” was the answer he got instead. “I can not expect flawlessness from men who have only just gotten back from fighting enough for a month in one day. I will give you a 10 minute break to find the device and bring it back here. Well, what are you waiting for, go get it!” He said in answer to the four's puzzled looks.  
+
 
−
A minute later, Tom was hurriedly searching his room and laundry for his uniform. Holly was helping him, but Scarlett and Matt were too busy talking to each other to really be of much use, though they were pretending to pick through Tom's room while they did so. Tom shook his head. Sometimes those two just got on his nerves, especially since they had told him and Holly that they were in love.
+
"Roger that." Matt responded. "Alright, lady and gentleman. We won!"
−
"Guys, thats great and all," Tom said exasperatedly. "But we only have another three minutes to find the thing. Can you please help?"
+
 
−
"Oh yeah, sorry guys." Matt answered with a startled jump.
+
The survivors of Echo Team gazed around at all the unconscious forms before them. They may as well have been dead. It was only now that Matt got the first hint of what a war could really be like. He would have to do better, make sure none of his crew got hurt, ever. This was one simple mission, and two of his own had gone. What would have happened had they been live rounds? Scar and Malcolm, dead, blink of an eye, without ever seeing their attackers. What was this going to come to?
−
"I found it!" Holly cried after another minute of searching.  
+
 
−
"Alright, now, lets go, go, go!" Tom said urgently. They had 60 seconds to get to Dr. Shang.  
+
 
−
They made it back to the debriefing room with 15 seconds to go. Dr. Shang was visibly annoyed that they had taken so long. He muttered something like: "Most highly paid... Can't even find his own laundry... We trust these guys to be the defenders of America?..." He shook his head, and the four Defenders of America hung their heads sadly at the insult. "Alright, at any rate, you have the device, now give it to me." Dr. Shang said out loud.                  "Yes sir," Tom answered, handing him the device.  
+
This was war.
−
Dr. Shang studied the device for a moment, his deep, concealing eyes taking in everything there was to take in of the device, and, secretly, details about Matt, Scarlett, and Holly. He had already read up on Tom. He had decided that they were obviously very good at fighting, but strangely limited in believing of their Psi abilities. ''"Such a shame,"'' He thought. ''"They could do such marvelous things with their raw power and sheer will alone, and what they could do if properly instructed is just utterly fantastic."'' He glanced up to look at Matt. Tall, broad shouldered, stocky, high chin, thick eyebrows, blond hair, naturally big, and extremely fit. Hardly an ounce of fat on him. But these were just the physical figures that he noticed. He also had judgmental eyes, eyes that could tell a person's personality from one sweep. Matt had experienced pain, and from the looks of his dark, emotion stained eyes and the tight set of his jaw, he had had a lot of it. And he was in love. Truly in love, not a shallow emotion like most relationships showed. Matt probably didn't fully realize it, but that emotion was his one greatest weapon and most dangerous flaw at the same time. Next, Dr. Shang swept over Scarlett. Red hair, thinner, more defined eyebrows than Matt, with thick, ruby red lips that looked like lipstick, but in fact were not. Scarlett hardly ever wore lipstick, or any makeup at all except for eyeliner, which gave her jet black eyelashes mixed with her deep, dark eyes, a mysterious and powerful quality. Muscular body, extremely tight thigh muscles, and slimmer body, but still incredibly powerful. She was most likely able to snap or at least bend a titanium rod an inch thick.
+
 
−
She also was in love, the same burning desire and passion glowed in her eyes, the same as Matt. Scarlett liked to have things her way, and got really mad at anyone who didn't let her have it. She was used to money and a lot of it, from the way she carried herself. She wouldn't have been out of place in a Royal Queen's dress. All in all, an extremely short temper with an attitude of power, but even she didn't realize her full potential.  
+
 
−
Holly. She was... strong. Thick, and solidly built. Tall, and like Scarlett, didn't really use any makeup. Strength emanated from her. Dr. Shang, if anything, admired and secretly feared her.
+
 
 +
==Work In Progress Chapter 14==
 +
'''
 +
 
 +
 
 +
"You guys have got to check this out." Malcolm said as they boarded a cargo lift. "So the new shipments of Croc Armor have come in while you two were away, but the boys have been working overtime developing some gear strictly for the Shock Forces. I've gotten to work fitting our new armor with all our old custom stuff, but with some new toys."
 +
 
 +
"What kind of toys?" Jamie asked, yawning. Upon arrival back at Firebase Bravo, he and Matt had been debriefed, taken several hot showers, and stuffed their guts with the contents of several MREs. Life was good.
 +
 
 +
"Dude DWAI. You'll see in just a sec."
 +
 
 +
The lift sank several stories into the ground, to where Ford had had a Research and Development Lab excavated and lined with a fast-drying concrete substitute while Matt and Jamie were gone.
 +
 
 +
It was the classic Malcolm workshop scene, with tables and workbenches lining the walls, equipment strewn all over the place in differing states of organization. But for some reason the lights were dimmed to half-intensity, throwing the room into deep shadows.
 +
 
 +
They got off the lift and stood for a second. Matt inhaled the stale air and examined the sets of armor that lay draped over tables, gauntlets and shoulder pauldrons dismantled.
 +
 
 +
"I don't see anything." Jamie said after half a minute.
 +
 
 +
"I do." Malcolm said, unable to contain a grin.
 +
 
 +
Matt looked harder. "Oh. Clever."
 +
 
 +
"What?" Jamie asked.
 +
 
 +
Matt reached out with one hand and gently probed the flickering semi-shadow before him. It laughed, so Matt grabbed the camouflage cloak and pulled it off.
 +
 
 +
The figure laughed again. Matt could now see the armor in greater detail, but the invisibility mechanism still worked amazingly well.
 +
 
 +
Scar and Holly tapped some controls on their gauntlets from inside their new armor and solidified into the visible spectrum.  
 +
 
 +
Malcolm hit the lights, and the room lit up.
 +
 
 +
"Awesome! I want one." Jamie cackled.  
 +
 
 +
"Pretty sweet." Matt agreed. "How does it work?"
 +
 
 +
"Unfortunately it sucks up power like a wild hog." Holly said, detaching a power cable from her back. "So the armor can't support it for much longer than a minute in combat situations unless its plugged into something."
 +
 
 +
"It's none of the 'Oh, I'll take a miraculous video of whats behind me and put it in front of me and for some reason it looks like I'm invisible' crap." Malcolm explained. "That would require the entire exterior of the armor to be covered in video screens. Instead, the armor's on-board computer gets a general bearing of its surroundings and then tells its new photo-reactive armor plates to change color and shade depending on what it registers. Like we said, the computer system and the photo-plates suck power really fast, so you can only do it for about a minute on one power cell."
 +
 
 +
"What's the cape for?"
 +
 
 +
Malcolm winced. "Cloak. Camouflage cloak. It's to break up the humanoid figure. Our eyes identify things by shape and color, so if we blur the outline of your body and minimize the difference in color you're practically invisible."
 +
 
 +
Matt crossed to the worktables and inserted his arm into a gauntlet, then pulled a switch and a blade jumped out of the side. "Nice."
 +
 
 +
"Yeah. Retractable gauntlet blades, your custom elbow spikes, high-density non-standard issue gel bladders, M5 fiber gloves in the gauntlets, steel knuckles, integrated sonic pulse emitter in the helmet speakers. And then some of the newer stuff, we've got optional gauntlet attachments, custom-fit for each of us. Jamie's, Scar's, and mine shoot flames. Yours, which is a much smaller attachment, can send an electric shock through the gauntlet and anything you're touching. Holly's shoots a gas grenade loaded with tear gas. Of course, the rebreather and visor in the helmet will make you impervious to gas attacks."
 +
 
 +
"Thank heaven." Jamie snickered. "Finally, a piece of equipment that's been Matt-proofed."
 +
 
 +
"Somehow, I knew you would say that."
 +
 
 +
"And I did."
 +
 
 +
"Yes you did."
 +
 
 +
"Okay."
 +
 
 +
"Alright then."
 +
 
 +
A few seconds passed in silence.
 +
 
 +
"Awkward." Scarlett stated.  
 +
 
 +
"Right. Anyway." Malcolm rolled his eyes. "Mark Two armor, really cool stuff. And it came in just in time, too."
 +
 
 +
"Meaning?" Holly asked.
 +
 
 +
"We're about to get sent out again. All of us, to go mop up that Russian detention outpost you two were at. It's a joint operation between us and the Atlantians - first official mission together, just to kinda test the waters."
 +
 
 +
"So they're sending five Shockers and how many Atlantians?" Scar asked.
 +
 
 +
"Well, a bit more than us five. And you're not gonna like it."
 +
 
 +
The five of them packed their new armor and weaponry into armored crates, and Malcolm lead the crew back up to the ground floor, and from there they commandeered a Humvee for the short cross-camp drive to the armory.
 +
 
 +
Inside the semi-enclosed courtyard was a flurry of pre-mission activity. Soldiers, dressed in the head-to-toe matte black version of the newest Mk II armor, jogged from place to place, securing ammo crates, inspecting gear, loading vehicles.  
 +
 
 +
Ford stood on a raised platform just outside the armory wall in one corner of the courtyard surveying the proceedings. He was dressed in cut-down CROC armor and an eyepiece instead of a helmet. From time to time aides dashed up to him carrying messages, then just as quickly disappeared. Carter stood at his shoulder, helmet in hands.
 +
 
 +
When Ford saw the five 'Shockers,' he motioned them over. The 13's, who had been dubbed thus by the Marine Shock Forces, felt it their due to come up with a name in return. Hence, Shockers.
 +
 
 +
"Guys, suit up. We're going in first to soften up the AA, and then when the main strike force arrives, we breach buildings, grab all the sensitive material we can find, then high-tail it out when the bombing starts. Clear?" Carter asked.
 +
 
 +
"Yes sir!" The crew responded as one.
 +
 
 +
"Right. We'll be dropping in out of the new HALE rocket pods - High Altitude Low Entry Shock n' Awe drop pods. Just like the video games." Carter continued. "AC-130 flies by and drops us off, waits till we hit the AA, then drops down and provides support fire."
 +
 
 +
Ford nodded. "We'll be dropping you guys in addition to Orca Team, so you'll have some more numbers to fill out the ranks at first. Find and destroy as many AA emplacements as you can, then call it in and sit tight."
 +
 
 +
"Right. Let's get this show on the road."
 +
 
 +
"Yeah, lets go plan some more cliches on the plain ride." Scar rolled her eyes.
 +
 
 +
"At least it made sense this time." Malcolm pointed out.
 +
 
 +
"Hey!" Matt laughed.
 +
 
 +
The five of them split up into the locker rooms in the armory and helped eachother into their armor. It took about ten minutes to gear up in their armor, then another five while they signed out and inspected their custom weapons, each enhanced to fit the user. Matt's HK UMP-45 had been modified for higher muzzle velocity, and Matt had custom-ordered his own magazine design that held thirty-five instead of twenty-five rounds, and was fatter and wider instead of longer. Matt had also kept the SMG's distinguishing .45 ACP rounds for increased stopping power.
 +
 
 +
The rest used XM8's in various configurations, with the exception that Jamie swapped his MP7 for a M1014 combat shotgun.
 +
 
 +
Now that the Mk. II armor had an integrated anti-armor missile weapon system, Matt didn't need to carry a rocket-launcher or grenade launcher, but instead strapped an MP7 to his thigh, a Magnum under his shoulder, and an electric-flanged mace across his back.  
 +
 
 +
"I love this new armor." Holly said once they had joined back up and were piling into a Humvee that would take them to the runway. "They updated all the joints and improved the exoskeletons, so it feels like you're floating."
 +
 
 +
"I wouldn't say floating, but we can actually move, yeah. Sixty pounds of armor, another forty or fifty pounds of ammo and equipment while we're fighting."
 +
 
 +
They exited the Humvee and boarded the AC-130, strapping themselves in for the two-hour flight to the Russian encampment. Atlantis was a big place.
 +
 
 +
"We should meet up with an Atlantian Zeppelin about ten miles out from the base, set up a zip line, and Orca will ride across to our bird." An operator told them over their helmet's internal comm. "We've got two hours till the drop, so make yourselves comfortable."
 +
 
 +
Matt pulled an oxygen mask from its cradle behind his head and slotted it over his face. They would be going high enough that it would be hard to breath. His full-helmet had its own internal air scrubbers, but they could recycle air for a maximum of 20 minutes, and anyways he didn't want to use up his oxygen reserves just for the flight.
 +
 
 +
For the next hour and a half, the crew alternated cleaning their weapons, adjusting their sights, fine-tuning fore-grips and mounted grenade launchers and high-intensity halogen flashlights, and taking cat-naps.
 +
 
 +
Carter roused the crew fifteen minutes prior to their scheduled rendezvous with the Atlantians. Each of them went through their final pre-launch equipment checklist, making sure everything worked correctly, then checked eachother's gear.  
 +
 
 +
Matt felt his heart speed up as the AC-130 pulled into a steep dive. They would have to get lower if they wanted the zeppelin to be able to keep pace.
 +
 
 +
"Alright, boys and girls, time to get suited up." The operator said as the red light blinked on. The six of them slid full-face helmets on over their padded skull caps and made sure the oxygen tanks were fully charged. It would suck to black out from the G's taking away the oxygen from your brain, and end up dying because you couldn't hit a control at the right moment.

Latest revision as of 00:37, 27 November 2010

Book One: Atlantis Rising


Written by Brandon Krupczak


Atlantis Rising: Chapter 1 Atlantis Rising: Chapter 11
Atlantis Rising: Chapter 2 Atlantis Rising: Chapter 12
Atlantis Rising: Chapter 3 Atlantis Rising: Chapter 13
Atlantis Rising: Chapter 4
Atlantis Rising: Chapter 5
Atlantis Rising: Chapter 6
Atlantis Rising: Chapter 7
Atlantis Rising: Chapter 8
Atlantis Rising: Chapter 9
Atlantis Rising: Chapter 10

Hello people reading this! You may have accidentally stumbled upon a book that is under way currently. The book is basically about World War Three, in a world where there are eight continents. The eighth is Atlantis, which surfaces in December of 2012. Maybe the Mayan calendar wasn't counting down to this day, but counting up to the day when Atlantis would rise above the oceans once more, supposedly.

Below is a random chapter from the book that I display here on the front page. The link above brings you to the page that the chapter is actually housed at. If you scroll down to the very bottom, you'll find my work in progress section, where I write the next section/chapter of the book. Because I start writing completely fresh chapters, the work in progress section might end in a fragment of thought, or there might not be anything displayed there.

Please also note that none of my writing here is completed and I go back numerous times to a piece to improve it. The chapter below will be changed multiple times and improved upon, so if you read it now you might wanna check back every now and again to see if I changed anything.

Also, please note that any writing I do here is written to entertain, and therefore the story has to fit in with itself, so please excuse any religious or opinionated writing I have here and do not take it into offense. Please don't copy my work. It's not nice.


Also check out my friend Jamie Knox's writing here:

Reaper's First Drop

And here's a new, alternate account of the war, from the perspective of an elite soldier from an elite Black-Ops Spec-Ops division.

Atlantis Rising: Perfect War

And another little project of mine. Here, I'm writing about the video game Fallout 3. The setting, premise, and some of the characters are not my creation, but basically I'm taking the game and writing my own addition.

Fallout 3

An additional project, using the concept and setting of the Fallout universe again. This is an idea I've wanted to explore: A Fallout game in the Carribean.

Fallout: Caribbean

And a Halo project, told from the perspective of a Marine Fireteam. Just regular soldiers, not Spartans or even ODSTs.

Halo: Fireteam


[edit] Atlantis Teaser

"Soldiers, you will be deployed via fast-rope. You will rappel down to the ground and await the indicator in your HUD before beginning. As soon as you see the signal, you may begin. Good luck, recruits. Up first: Echo Squad! Squad Leader, make sure your squad's gear checks out."

The DS gestured to Matt, and all of them went and gave one another triple buddy checks.

"Ready when you are, Frost!" Holly yelled over their Team comm.

"Roger that, Aura." Matt yelled back. Each of them had callsigns. His was Frost. Jamie's was Scorch. Scar was Flare. Malcolm was Spark. Holly was Aura. "Alright. Squad, move out! Go, go, go!" Matt barked.

Scar attached her rappel harness to the line and jumped out the side, one hand on the rope above her, and the other below and slightly behind her butt, the "brake" hand that controlled how fast the line went. Malcolm followed, then Jamie, then Holly. Matt was the last one out, as befitting his status of Squad Leader.

Scar landed, disengaged her harness, and let it drop to the forest floor. A crew would come later and get it.

Soon the entire squad was on the ground, and Matt quickly led the squad under cover of the trees. As soon as the V-22 Osprey was out of sight, they doubled back and went after the bird. They kept the lines from the rappel - there was always a use for thirty feet of tough nylon.

The countdown timer in Matt's HUD read D + 15:07 when Matt raised his fist, the sign to halt. With slow, exaggerated sign language, he indicated for the team to spread out and climb the trees. Jamie went with Matt in one tree. Scar went by herself, and Malcolm and Holly shared a third.

"Frost, requesting permission to re-format to a sniper?" Scar whispered over the Teamcomm.

"Roger that, Flare. Permission granted. Scorch, outfit yours with the AR. Aura, you're our grenadier. Get the XM320 on there." The XM320 was a single-shot 40mm grenade launcher that could be attached to their carbines. Matt put one on his. Malcolm preferred a straight-up assault rifle.

Beside Matt, almost completely invisible in the heavy jungle shadow, Jamie lay prone along two branches, with his AR balanced on a third branch with a clear line-of-sight to the ground.

Matt slid down from the tree. "Spark, get down here and help me create a barricade. We need to push any incoming squads into one firing lane. Scorch, Flare, give me a dot." In response, Malcolm slid from his tree, and both Scar and Jamie highlighted the firing lane that they had access to with red laser-dots. Matt took armfuls of brambles and thin, thorned vines and dumped them to the left and right of the lane, in between the trees, to create a natural-looking wall that would influence the squads to find an easier way through. Right through their lane of fire.

Matt strung triplines further out into the jungle with the Nylon cables, attaching them to frag grenades.

Matt's countdown ended. "Alright people, we can now shoot at and be shot. Let's wrap this up." Malcolm laid the last armful of brambles in place, and then they both scampered up into their separate trees. There were five other squads in this particular mission, all within a square mile. It wouldn't be long before they had some hits.

Five minutes passed, and no one came. The squad was getting impatient. "Spark," Matt whispered. "Be the rabbit. I need you to go along the lane and see if you can draw some fire, then sprint back here. We'll cover your approach. I'd do it myself but I'm not fast enough."

"Roger that, lead." Malcolm said, grinning. "I've always been one for the suicidal frontal charge." He slid down his tree, landing in the brush below. Before he had even gone two minutes, the sound of gunfire erupted through the forest. "Frost, I've got multiple targets here. They've got me pinned, I could use some assistance!"

Matt looked to Holly. She nodded, slid down, and circled around to the right to counter-flank the guys surrounding Malcolm. "Spark, help is on the way. How long can you hold?"

"I've got good cover, I'm inside a shallow cave-thing in the ground. I can hold out a while."

"Roger that. Keep your head down, but keep the attention centered on you. And watch out, they'll try to advance. Watch your flanks."

"You got it, Frost." Malcolm said, and tossed a grenade out the opening of the cave. It exploded, and Malcolm heard someone groan. "Yeah, bring it!" He shouted.

Holly took up a firing position, sighted through her scope, and tagged a soldier in the back of his head. He dropped like a load of rocks, asleep by the time he hit the ground. Return fire peppered the rock she had been hiding behind, and two soldiers broke off to get her. But Holly wasn't there anymore.

A soldier fell as rounds tore into his inner thigh. He dropped to the ground, not out yet but with a crippled leg. He hobbled behind a piece of cover as Holly filled the air with bullets around the second soldier. A grenade rolled to a stop next to her, and at this she turned and fled back the way she had come, then darted back, and got the attention of the two remaining soldiers pinning Malcolm.

At the momentary distraction, Malcolm bolted out of the hole, sprinted from rock to tree, from tree to bush, from bush to ground, and drew the soldiers down through the firing lane, followed a second later by Holly. Jamie adjusted his grip on the AR as the two squadmates ran down the path. 30 seconds later, the first soldier popped into view. Jamie waited until the last soldier appeared, then nailed the one closest to any viable cover.

The steady thrum of the AR set Matt's head pounding, and he opened fire on the last one in the line. Then Scar fired, and a round slugged the first soldier in the chest.

Jamie's target fell from hits to the leg, side, and shoulder. He wasn't quite gone, but almost. Jamie finished him off with another quick, sustained burst.

Matt's soldier dropped to the ground, out for the count with five rounds in his chest and more in his left arm.

Scar's target took the heavy caliber bullet in the chest and sat down with the force, hard, landing on his butt and jarring his head. Before he could recover, Scar punched another round into his chest. He spun halfway around and ate dirt.

Four down. The last soldier turned to flee, but Holly popped out of the shadows and nailed him with a grenade from her XM320, which cast training rounds into a wide arc everywhere, painting the nearby forest a vivid crimson.

"Alright!" Jamie crowed.

Matt disengaged his spent clip and slapped a new one in. "Let's hope the other squads come running for the noise. One down, three to go, gentlemen."


The next squad was slightly smarter. Instead of running pel-mel into the contested area, they sent one scout on ahead through the firing lane, and the rest hung back and encircled the target area. Too bad for them, Matt's squad had moved from the one killing field and into another close-by clearing, where they could easily spot the would-be flanking attack.

"Open fire!" Matt yelled, and the two soldiers in sight twisted around, trying to find the source of the noise. One was slugged by a heavy cal. sniper shot, and the other fell to the combined fire from Jamie's AR and Matt's carbine.

Holly and Malcolm, still on the ground, rose out of a cover of leaves and dead brush and moved around behind the three soldiers left that came running. Standing up, they nailed two with one salvo of fire.

The last one hit the dirt and rolled under a log. Holly and Malcolm pursued.

"Negative! Disengage!" Jamie yelled, and opened fire into the brush to their left.

Holly hit dirt. Malcolm followed half a second later with three rounds stitched across his back. He wasn't out yet, but his entire suit was getting quickly more rigid.

He turned onto his back and fired in the general direction of where the shots had come from. Holly sidled around to him and took out a fake med-pack, wiping clean the Training Rounds and administering an electric shock through the armor. Malcolm's suit unstraightened a little, and Malcolm crawled back into better cover.

Jamie was still firing bursts from his AR at the last squad. Matt held his fire; there was no clear target in view, and to give away his position would be stupid. Scar attached a flash suppressor to her rifle, and started shelling the squad's general position.

"Watch flankers." Matt advised, seeing shadows moving behind her. Scar turned and nailed one soldier who had tried to flank her, and Matt caught another with a grenade.

Matt slid to the ground as Jamie covered him, landed, and ran in a half-crouch to Holly. He saw a rifle barrel poke out of a bush, saw a blast coming their way, and tackled Holly to the ground. The burst nailed him in the calf and he rolled up into a crouch.

Matt rolled off and came up firing. Jamie suppressed the soldier that had just shot at them while Matt took him out, Holly and Malcolm covering his flank.

Then Scar took multiple sustained bursts from the last soldier from the other squad, and toppled from the tree. She was out cold. Fury ignited in Matt. Toppling her from the tree was not necessary, and she could have injured herself. He and Holly outflanked the soldier and drilled him to the ground with long automatic fire.

They split and threw themselves behind rocks, Matt reloading as he went. There were two left on the other team and three left on his; Malcolm had been drilled again in his helmet.

Jamie's AR barked again and again. With his suppressive fire, Matt darted from cover to cover and distracted the two soldiers long enough for Holly to creep around and take the first one out. The last soldier sprayed fire everywhere, panicking, and continued even as Matt, Jamie, and Holly's combined fire drilled him into the ground.

The DS broke through their comm. lines, "Cease fire. Echo team, you have won the mission. We will collect you shortly. Hold position."

"Roger that." Matt responded. "Alright, lady and gentleman. We won!"

The survivors of Echo Team gazed around at all the unconscious forms before them. They may as well have been dead. It was only now that Matt got the first hint of what a war could really be like. He would have to do better, make sure none of his crew got hurt, ever. This was one simple mission, and two of his own had gone. What would have happened had they been live rounds? Scar and Malcolm, dead, blink of an eye, without ever seeing their attackers. What was this going to come to?


This was war.


[edit] Work In Progress Chapter 14


"You guys have got to check this out." Malcolm said as they boarded a cargo lift. "So the new shipments of Croc Armor have come in while you two were away, but the boys have been working overtime developing some gear strictly for the Shock Forces. I've gotten to work fitting our new armor with all our old custom stuff, but with some new toys."

"What kind of toys?" Jamie asked, yawning. Upon arrival back at Firebase Bravo, he and Matt had been debriefed, taken several hot showers, and stuffed their guts with the contents of several MREs. Life was good.

"Dude DWAI. You'll see in just a sec."

The lift sank several stories into the ground, to where Ford had had a Research and Development Lab excavated and lined with a fast-drying concrete substitute while Matt and Jamie were gone.

It was the classic Malcolm workshop scene, with tables and workbenches lining the walls, equipment strewn all over the place in differing states of organization. But for some reason the lights were dimmed to half-intensity, throwing the room into deep shadows.

They got off the lift and stood for a second. Matt inhaled the stale air and examined the sets of armor that lay draped over tables, gauntlets and shoulder pauldrons dismantled.

"I don't see anything." Jamie said after half a minute.

"I do." Malcolm said, unable to contain a grin.

Matt looked harder. "Oh. Clever."

"What?" Jamie asked.

Matt reached out with one hand and gently probed the flickering semi-shadow before him. It laughed, so Matt grabbed the camouflage cloak and pulled it off.

The figure laughed again. Matt could now see the armor in greater detail, but the invisibility mechanism still worked amazingly well.

Scar and Holly tapped some controls on their gauntlets from inside their new armor and solidified into the visible spectrum.

Malcolm hit the lights, and the room lit up.

"Awesome! I want one." Jamie cackled.

"Pretty sweet." Matt agreed. "How does it work?"

"Unfortunately it sucks up power like a wild hog." Holly said, detaching a power cable from her back. "So the armor can't support it for much longer than a minute in combat situations unless its plugged into something."

"It's none of the 'Oh, I'll take a miraculous video of whats behind me and put it in front of me and for some reason it looks like I'm invisible' crap." Malcolm explained. "That would require the entire exterior of the armor to be covered in video screens. Instead, the armor's on-board computer gets a general bearing of its surroundings and then tells its new photo-reactive armor plates to change color and shade depending on what it registers. Like we said, the computer system and the photo-plates suck power really fast, so you can only do it for about a minute on one power cell."

"What's the cape for?"

Malcolm winced. "Cloak. Camouflage cloak. It's to break up the humanoid figure. Our eyes identify things by shape and color, so if we blur the outline of your body and minimize the difference in color you're practically invisible."

Matt crossed to the worktables and inserted his arm into a gauntlet, then pulled a switch and a blade jumped out of the side. "Nice."

"Yeah. Retractable gauntlet blades, your custom elbow spikes, high-density non-standard issue gel bladders, M5 fiber gloves in the gauntlets, steel knuckles, integrated sonic pulse emitter in the helmet speakers. And then some of the newer stuff, we've got optional gauntlet attachments, custom-fit for each of us. Jamie's, Scar's, and mine shoot flames. Yours, which is a much smaller attachment, can send an electric shock through the gauntlet and anything you're touching. Holly's shoots a gas grenade loaded with tear gas. Of course, the rebreather and visor in the helmet will make you impervious to gas attacks."

"Thank heaven." Jamie snickered. "Finally, a piece of equipment that's been Matt-proofed."

"Somehow, I knew you would say that."

"And I did."

"Yes you did."

"Okay."

"Alright then."

A few seconds passed in silence.

"Awkward." Scarlett stated.

"Right. Anyway." Malcolm rolled his eyes. "Mark Two armor, really cool stuff. And it came in just in time, too."

"Meaning?" Holly asked.

"We're about to get sent out again. All of us, to go mop up that Russian detention outpost you two were at. It's a joint operation between us and the Atlantians - first official mission together, just to kinda test the waters."

"So they're sending five Shockers and how many Atlantians?" Scar asked.

"Well, a bit more than us five. And you're not gonna like it."

The five of them packed their new armor and weaponry into armored crates, and Malcolm lead the crew back up to the ground floor, and from there they commandeered a Humvee for the short cross-camp drive to the armory.

Inside the semi-enclosed courtyard was a flurry of pre-mission activity. Soldiers, dressed in the head-to-toe matte black version of the newest Mk II armor, jogged from place to place, securing ammo crates, inspecting gear, loading vehicles.

Ford stood on a raised platform just outside the armory wall in one corner of the courtyard surveying the proceedings. He was dressed in cut-down CROC armor and an eyepiece instead of a helmet. From time to time aides dashed up to him carrying messages, then just as quickly disappeared. Carter stood at his shoulder, helmet in hands.

When Ford saw the five 'Shockers,' he motioned them over. The 13's, who had been dubbed thus by the Marine Shock Forces, felt it their due to come up with a name in return. Hence, Shockers.

"Guys, suit up. We're going in first to soften up the AA, and then when the main strike force arrives, we breach buildings, grab all the sensitive material we can find, then high-tail it out when the bombing starts. Clear?" Carter asked.

"Yes sir!" The crew responded as one.

"Right. We'll be dropping in out of the new HALE rocket pods - High Altitude Low Entry Shock n' Awe drop pods. Just like the video games." Carter continued. "AC-130 flies by and drops us off, waits till we hit the AA, then drops down and provides support fire."

Ford nodded. "We'll be dropping you guys in addition to Orca Team, so you'll have some more numbers to fill out the ranks at first. Find and destroy as many AA emplacements as you can, then call it in and sit tight."

"Right. Let's get this show on the road."

"Yeah, lets go plan some more cliches on the plain ride." Scar rolled her eyes.

"At least it made sense this time." Malcolm pointed out.

"Hey!" Matt laughed.

The five of them split up into the locker rooms in the armory and helped eachother into their armor. It took about ten minutes to gear up in their armor, then another five while they signed out and inspected their custom weapons, each enhanced to fit the user. Matt's HK UMP-45 had been modified for higher muzzle velocity, and Matt had custom-ordered his own magazine design that held thirty-five instead of twenty-five rounds, and was fatter and wider instead of longer. Matt had also kept the SMG's distinguishing .45 ACP rounds for increased stopping power.

The rest used XM8's in various configurations, with the exception that Jamie swapped his MP7 for a M1014 combat shotgun.

Now that the Mk. II armor had an integrated anti-armor missile weapon system, Matt didn't need to carry a rocket-launcher or grenade launcher, but instead strapped an MP7 to his thigh, a Magnum under his shoulder, and an electric-flanged mace across his back.

"I love this new armor." Holly said once they had joined back up and were piling into a Humvee that would take them to the runway. "They updated all the joints and improved the exoskeletons, so it feels like you're floating."

"I wouldn't say floating, but we can actually move, yeah. Sixty pounds of armor, another forty or fifty pounds of ammo and equipment while we're fighting."

They exited the Humvee and boarded the AC-130, strapping themselves in for the two-hour flight to the Russian encampment. Atlantis was a big place.

"We should meet up with an Atlantian Zeppelin about ten miles out from the base, set up a zip line, and Orca will ride across to our bird." An operator told them over their helmet's internal comm. "We've got two hours till the drop, so make yourselves comfortable."

Matt pulled an oxygen mask from its cradle behind his head and slotted it over his face. They would be going high enough that it would be hard to breath. His full-helmet had its own internal air scrubbers, but they could recycle air for a maximum of 20 minutes, and anyways he didn't want to use up his oxygen reserves just for the flight.

For the next hour and a half, the crew alternated cleaning their weapons, adjusting their sights, fine-tuning fore-grips and mounted grenade launchers and high-intensity halogen flashlights, and taking cat-naps.

Carter roused the crew fifteen minutes prior to their scheduled rendezvous with the Atlantians. Each of them went through their final pre-launch equipment checklist, making sure everything worked correctly, then checked eachother's gear.

Matt felt his heart speed up as the AC-130 pulled into a steep dive. They would have to get lower if they wanted the zeppelin to be able to keep pace.

"Alright, boys and girls, time to get suited up." The operator said as the red light blinked on. The six of them slid full-face helmets on over their padded skull caps and made sure the oxygen tanks were fully charged. It would suck to black out from the G's taking away the oxygen from your brain, and end up dying because you couldn't hit a control at the right moment.

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