Reaper's First Drop: Chapter 5
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Previous Chapter: Reaper's First Drop: Chapter 4
I was currently back at Angel HQ in Japan. It had been a year since the crash landing. We had waited but no attack had ever come. The harbor was filled with boats, the airfields with ships. Still nothing ever came. It was more worrying than having them just attack. I sat at an old oak desk, in the only thing that marked me as an officer, my office. I was going over reports and paperwork when I came across a casualty count for the Reaper program. I sighed and started to rub my head.
"Bureaucratic red tape got ya' down." I looked up to find Rouge in the door.
"Cruiser died in the European front. I need to send a new commander for the western Death Battalion. 12 dead in the west. 2 got sniped and 1 had a premature detonation from his C4 pack. 7 dead here in the east including Joey."
"Not Uplink."
"Yeah. He took a artillery shell in the shoulder. His squad brought back the body in three pieces." I said sliding the request for a new commander to the side.
"Wolf, General Harrison would like you to see something." Sev,our artificial intelligence, said pulling a file up on my computer. I typed in my serial number and password.
"Welcome DA-E27. Would you like to view SJ78654754, or read the report first." A woman's voice, probably Harrison's AI.
"The video please." I said sipping some of my coffee.
"Very well."
A video popped up. I immedeatly recognized it as a infantry helmet's cam recording. The mission clock read 715. It looked like a regular day. I saw what looked like a town, or what had been a town. The buildings were in shambles and the streets choked with rubble. The helmets owner sat in a ditch. He held his carbine down the street. The air was thick with smoke and fire.
"What the heck is going on. They rolled straight through our defenses. Not even our airsupport or our artillery could stop them. They just kept coming." a voice said over the comm.
"Stow it Private. You had time to be scared before you joined the 173rd." A commanding tone replied.
Suddenly the wall of smoke down the street was shredded by bullets.
"Open fire." The commanding voice yelled.
The firefight was violent as men fell and rubble landed around the helmets owner.
"We are not giving up. This is the last sector. We will fight for every last inch. No surrender. No retreat."
Suddenly the dust and smoke was so thick no one could see and the camera spun. Something had happened. The helmets owner picked himself from the ground. He looked to the side. A building had collapsed killing the last of the defenders. All but the cam's owner.
"Sarge. Sim. Oh no. Crap. I'm dead." The man said turning. Shadow's appeared in the dust and smoke and began to walk towards the young man. He stood and fired at the hulking blackness but they didn't stop. He fired until the clip was dry and slapped another one in. He again opened fire but there was still no effect. The soldier dropped his weapon and bolted through the alley behind him. He took a few turns and found himself surrounded by smoke again. He pulled a side arm and began to fire as a shadow appeared in front of him. Suddenly a stream of fire pushed through the smoke and the young man fell backwards screaming. His helmet cam was knocked loose and rolled to the side giving Matt and Jamie a good view of the flaming corpse of its owner. Suddenly the black mass stepped forward. A mass of grey steel and armor. The hulking form was human like and stood a good seven feet tall and almost wider than a car at the shoulders. On its back was a canister and attatched to its left arm was a flamethrower. Smoke swirled around its helmet. It looked towards the camera and brought its foot down crushing it beneath its foot.
"Jesus. The 173rd. That's Nurenburg's boys. How in the world did the Russians get past the new age stonewall." Rouge said.
"That is what we are trying to find out." A voice said from the door.
"Gen. Harrison sir." We both said snapping to attention.
"Sit down boys." He said. He was in his late 40's. His black hair was in a short buzz and he looked much older than he had a few days earlier.
"That was picked up by our scavanger team. The whole town of Sumy Ukraine was levled. There is no enemy prescence. Just decimation. We lost contact at around 5 in the morning. As you can see the whole battle was over by 750 hours. We didn't find a single enemy body. This is the sixth attack like this. A town is hit. The enemy hits hard, fast, and ferociously. The fight is short, and the enemy, unstoppable. The town is raised and left empty. There are no survivors or prisoners. The only man to have come back was found in a sewer babbling and muttering about metal men." He pulled a cigar out of his jacket pocket.
"Why would they leave it. Why not fortify it and use it themselves." Rouge asked.
"They don't care they only want us dead. The question is, what was that thing at the end, and how powerfull is it." I said
"Precisely. I need Four squads of Angels to check out a town close to all the attacks. It is rumored there are very little Russians there, but after the attacks started
