| From: | Nightblade <wgreason@*****.OCIS.TEMPLE.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | The Horde |
| Date: | Thu, 10 Oct 1996 23:57:24 -0400 |
+++++loadencrypt: fractalay.enc ... running ...
>>>>>[Sorry about the blow up earlier. We lost Marduk. You'll come to
understand why. Your body was more monster than you let on. Dropped both Ogun
and Chang Ti -- one on one. Fragger is done, though. Believe me, there
are no doubts about this one. NO one survived except us. Anyway, I've
spliced together my surveillance footage from inside, complete with
comm_traffic from the on-base forces. And they were waiting for us. If
your distraction hadn't been there, we probably wouldn't have gotten the
job done. I've also recorded post-op commentary from the rest of the
team and placed it appropriately. Here goes ...
++++begin miss1022.cmp ....
A window opens in the middle of the screen showing a barbed wire fence about
200 yards directly in front of the camera. Focusing in on a sign attached
about halfway up the 20' fence, you can read, "MILITARY FACILITY: NO
TRESPASSING." There is a picture of a piasma's face underneath the words.
The angle then zooms back away from the fence and pans to the left and right.
There are 35' tall guard towers to the extreme left and right, each has two
guards armed with rifles looking vigilant standing in them. In the upper
left corner of the window, the date/time index reads "09-26-57 ::
19.53.16 ... 19.53.17 ... 19.53.18 ..."
A voice breaks in, "Operative four, matrix and physical penetrations are
complete. Autodef shutdown in 90 seconds. Awaiting prelim strike from
East. All standards ops are running."
The image shifts in the window momentarily as the word "ultrasound"
flashes in faint blue across the bottom. Four large, doglike outlines
appear on the screen wandering back and forth along the fence.
"Barghests located. Dispatching ..."
Responding to the voice, the four figures dash away from the fence in
three different directions. However, there is an immediate response from
a three member group, running onto the screen from the right, with large
guns in their possession.
"Oh HO! The boys and girls actually have a pulse. Note: Distraction is
late, minus forty - ... check that"
The soldiers at the gate open fire through the fence into the periphery of
the forest. Because it is night, only the muzzle flares provide lighting
in the first moment. However, seconds after the gunfire, the spotlights
at the two towers, spring to life. Similarly, the "ultrasound" message fades
from the camera window and is replaced by a flashing red "infared" ...
at the forest border, the spotlight reflect off of ... something for an
instant before ...
"Oh that's not fair! No ganging up on our poor boy!"
And the spotlights fade.
A different voice, fighting a great deal of static interference, "Sir! Our
systems have been seized and we're locked out! Furthermore, our spotlights
are down and .... skkkreeeee .... BOOOM!"
Twin shrieks drown out the voice as two streaks of light and smoke trail at
the towers on either side of the screen. The streaks enter the tower's
canopies and utterly destroy them in huge explosions. The initial three
guards at the fence have now been joined by ten compatriots ... eight of whom
are firing assault weapons of various types into the woods, deforesting a
significant area.
The original voice chimes, "So let's see him already!"
But, as the soldiers cease wasting their ammunition against an opponent
they have not yet seen, an eerie silence creeps over the scene.
The clock reads, "19.56.11" when one of the figures in the back of the
defending pack screams as a blue-green flash of magical energy lashes out
from his outstretched arms at a shadow that had somehow remained unnoticed
in the camera's eye.
The figure seems to absorb the bolt and move to its left on the opposite
side of the fence from the soldiers. It is a blur that the camera is
having a problems catching up with.
In nearly a heartbeat, the fence has exploded at its base and the figure is
through the resulting hole. It is wearing black cloak, and seemingly,
reflective armor of some kind. But it moves to quickly to be sure.
The soldiers are firing once again, but because the interloper is so
quick and they are surrounding it, they drop several of their comrades
just trying to hit it.
And as this creature moves in one directions, the opposing flank of soldiers
steps right into an explosion.
The screen freezes unnaturally at this point.
"This is Ogun. After Apollo showed me this bit, it's my opinion that the
thing that made the penetration was receiving mid-range coverage from an
assault cannon of some sort, using explosive rounds. Furthermore, the
explosion at the fence appears to have been caused by an explosive shell.
Shape of the crater, burn marks on the remains of the fence. All point
in that direction."
The screen resumes motion.
The cloaked figure is moving through the stacked lines of the bases defenses.
"Apollo here." This is the same voice that was speaking at the beginning
of the message. "Slowing the images down reveals that this thing isn't
wearing armor. It's moving too quickly and flexibly. However, it takes
literally hundreds of medium munitions rounds before finally being forced
to withdraw by heavy, mounted machinegun fire. It cut down nearly two dozen
of the base's infantry forces, and half of the on-site mages were too
freaked out by it to do anything except get gutted. Furthermore, the two
earth spirits they managed to summon might as well have stayed home because
he carved one into a sod farm and nearly ripped the other in half. Where did
you find this guy so I can be sure to never visit there!?"
"Ogun speaking. Don't let toy-decker-boy here lick your new recruits private
parts too much. It's obvious to me that you've just found a local talent
to match the international squad you compiled. I'm wrong, right?"
"Apollo. Clipped the remainder of the cloak's performance. You know, enough
of the undercards... time for the main event ..."
The window fades to black after the comments, the cloaked figure had just
revealed two cyberspurs in each arm and was moving towards a large earth
elemental.
Apollo's voice intones again, but it is more like the first time he spoke.
"Operative four. Distraction was extremely effective. Forces reduced by a
third due to losses and pursuing weakness. ... Strike team arrival in
180 seconds... Sending the autodef's after the on-base forces. Sealing
target in SB-Delta. Matrix defense active ... all codes rejected ...
Rock and roll never dies!"
The screen fades in again, but this time, you are viewing the main
entrance to the facility. The clock reads "20:08:34" as a GMC Banshee
smashes through the gatehouse under rifle fire from the guards formerly
therein.
"Chang Ti speaking. Marduk was screaming about how he could always make an
entrance. When he spoke the words, I felt the bad karma. I wish he could
have made the exit."
There are five autocannons firing at will on the Banshee ... two on each
side and one on the roof. Any infantry that weren't wiped out by the cloaked
figure are wishing they had been. Shortly behind the Banshee comes a
Yellowjacket copter ... it fires two missiles from an undermounted
launcher, leveling the building that the camera is mounted on.
"Chang Ti. I apologize for that destruction. I didn't realize Apollo was
using that particular camera. I was shot down shortly thereafter. Karmic
retribution."
Sure enough as the window reopens, you immediately notice that it is an
interior camera in use. Through a large hole the wall to the left of the
screen, you can see the burning remains of the Yellowjacket in the background
while the smoking front of the Banshee is nosedown in the rubble remains
of the wall as the base of the screen.
"Mordred here. The Trojan Horse part of the plan was predestined. As
anticipated, in the wake of their losses, they dropped back to the
command center to regroup. This information was relayed to the
second strike team who opened the facility to find that I had removed all
magical resistance. Imagine the look of surprise on the mundane's faces
as their magical "support" disappeared when I dropped the illusion."
"Ogun. Taking them out after that was easy. Their hearts broke."
"Apollo. You know I saved the photo!"
A still image of four men and three women fills the screen. They are looking
in all different directions with their weapons down. Two actually are
slack-jawed. It might actually be funny, if this wasn't the last photo ever
taken of them.
"Ogun. By 20:30, we had made our way down to SB Delta. Apollo had radioed
that he had sealed the target in with a single decker. From the profile,
we figured the target would probably kill the decker out of sheer
frustration. However, we still hadn't located 9 members of the elite
defense."
"Mordred. That didn't last. They didn't count on my being behind the lines
so it was pretty much easy pickins. But you can see for yourself."
The camera angle shows four individuals standing in an elevator. The
camera is behind them, so you can't see their faces, but they're all
wearing night camouflage heavy security armor. As the digital display
directly across from the camera shows "SB <triangle>", the elevator humms
to a stop. Darkness emanates from the individual to the bottom right of
the screen until it fills the elevator. Near silently, but just loud enough
to be heard, the doors slide open.
Muzzle flashes from outside the elevator unnaturally do not create a
strobe effect in the elevator. The normal flashes cease at the elevator
door.
"Chang Ti. Marduk covered us with night substance. Then, once we got out
the battle was joined."
As the picture resumes, the muzzle flashes slow, then cease. And
immediately the darkness expands outside of the elevator ... brilliant
light explodes from outside the elevator, attempting to hold the darkness
at bay.
The light illuminates three heavily armed, heavily cybered individuals with
their backs against a triple, metallic, double-maglocked door. Within three
seconds, all three disappear from the camera's eye, but it was already
too late.
A shadowblur blitzed across the screen the instant the light went up. As
the cybersoldiers faded into invisibility, two of their respective heads
tumbled to the floor and the third was struggling in vain to keep his
intestines from falling to the floor before he did.
"KEEEE YAAAA HEY!"
Two figures materialize -- one in the elevator, which the darkness has
now fully vacated -- and one a meter in front of where the cybersoldiers
fell.
Again, the image freezes.
"Apollo. Mordred--Did you ever figure out how you missed those two?"
"Mordred. Some sort of astral invisibility lock as far as I could tell.
I may have missed them. But the 'Duk didn't. Saved my a_s. Oh yeah,
I had the two covering mages to take out, remember?"
"Apollo. <chuckles> So you admit you were outclassed?"
silence ...
the picture moves again ...
To the upper left of the screen, a shadow figure rises from the mass of
darkness on the floor ... it is hissing and it's tentacles are wrapped around
something ...
A body! An Amerind female ... middleaged and apparently getting older by
the instant ... she's now screaming and her arms are thrashing ... or
rather her hands and feet are thrashing as the rest of her is held immobile.
One of the two figures that materialized ... a muscular Asian male elf, about
six foot and change leaps at her assailant. He looks like a legendary hero
as he flies at the shadowcreature in his tattered and torn fatigues ...
when in mid-flight, his body bursts into flames, and his charred remains
slam backwards against the metal doors opposite the camera.
The shadowcreature never turned its attention from the woman, whose
skeleton is all that remains, and rapidly that is covered by the black
form ... and then it recedes back to the mass, leaving only ashes to fall
to the floor.
<rumble>
<rumble><rumble><rumble>
"KRA-BOOOOOOOM!"
A dent about two feet in diameter swells out towards the camera from the
opposite side of the metal triple door.
"KRA-BOOOOOOOOM!"
Another appears to the upper right of the first!
Frozen picture.
"Apollo. At this point, the base was cleared. With only cuts and
scrapes to the penetrating team. However, the target was restless."
Picture resumes ...
The mass of darkness vanishes, revealing the four individuals in black
secarmor standing among the remains of eight individuals.
"Alright, ... Op 4? Time for us to Go Barca. Let 'im loose."
"Op 1. Uhm ... I can't."
"Op 4, say again? You didn't say 'can't' ?"
"Op 1. Affirmative. Strictly temp. ... Gather yourself for El Toro."
"KRA_BOOOOOOOOOM!"
"Tell 'im to gather himself."
Suddenly, the image goes down. Only the intermittent rumbling and crashing
of the door is heard.
"Uhm. Op 4 ... we're all a bit concerned down here. Lights, please?"
"Op 1. Doors and lights. Coming, sir!"
The lights pick back up ... the door looks like it's a jigsaw puzzle
barely holding together.
"Chang Ti. From this moment on ... nothing would be the same."
"Op 4. We're going in. This guy's in too much pain. We're putting him out."
Responding to the statement, the camera view is abruptly cut off as a
thick metal wall slams to the floor where the elevator doors slid open.
And a computerized voice intones ...
"Auto destruct sequence authorized ... in T-15 minutes ... mark ...
counting ..."
"Apollo speaking. At this point, both comm's and surveillance were all
off line ... The signal couldn't get out, and the camera's were
destroyed. Mordred can probably tell you the most."
"Ogun. Yeah Mordred might tell you the most, but he'll distort it to
favor himself.
We had the lights on, and we could hear the countdown ... Target had stopped
pounding on the doors ... I know now he was waiting for us ... Chang and I
leaned into the remains of the door with a running start. It fell easy
enough.
On the other side, we saw the body of a skinny darkhaired human ... probably
the decker that the target had sealed in with him. The doors opened into
a 35' wide corridor with dimly flickering lights in the ceiling ... he was
at the end of the corridor, squatted down ... at that distance, he looked
a lot like a big, furry boulder ...
Seeing what he did to the door, not me, not Chang, not nobody wanted to fool
around with him. Me and Chang cut loose -- my LMG and his Minigun. We
smoked up til he was just a blur in the fog ... We started to let the smoke
clear and dust settle ...
BIG mistake ... He unloads two of the weirdest biggest guns I've ever
seen (and YOU know I've seen plenty!) on me and Chang. Now I'm wearing
armor ... and have as much titanium in my chest as you can get ... and it
took me two weeks to piece my sternum back together from his cannon ...
Chang took a shot in the leg, but didn't seem to feel it. He just ..."
"Chang Ti speaking. Let me tell my story, Ogun. I felt the pain, but I knew
that if both Ogun and I fell, all of us would die ... so I stood and charged
the beast. Wilkerson was easily a foot taller than me. And he seemed
crowded even in that enormous corridor. He charged forward ... I know now
why he was called "Stampede." We collided and I was thrown backwards
severely ... I nearly lost consciousness from his blow, yet so quick was
he ... that he caught my foot before I had even hit the ground, and that
is my last memory of that night."
"Mordred here. Well, I saw what was happening Chang. Holding you by your
foot, he slung your body head first back and forth against both walls.
Then slammed you down on top of Ogun to make sure you both stayed down.
The files on him were correct cause I cast the Allergy on him and his skin
immediately blistered and popped. He screamed, "At me ... we're all
going down together, mage! I don't care how I feel! You're dead!!"
Marduk stepped forward and touched my shoulder. I felt his mind touch mine.
He said, "Take Ogun and Chang Ti. I will stop this monster."
Now you know me. I never leave a fight, but I think Marduk knew that he
had to die if we had to live. I felt him WILL me to his plan.
I turned and saw flames spread over all of his body and he walked calmly
up to this frothing, bleeding minotaur. The beast smashed a backhanded fist
across Marduk's face, but he just took the blow! Before he turned back to
Wilkerson, he stomped his foot on the ground and a compression wave swept
all three of us up and out of the corridor back to the sealed elevator door.
I cast a manabubble to carry us up to the ground level, and smashed
through the sealed wall with a Ram spell that made my ears bleed. As I
carried us up the shaft, I heard Marduk scream.
I don't know what could have made him make that sound, but I hope I never
ever find out."
"Ogun. Yeah, I heard that too. The sound of victory and defeat, life
and death all crashing together and consuming each other ... frightening."
"Mordred. But I felt this thoughts with me, and I felt his final
casting.
Ogun realized we were out, and gathered his sense enough to mumble the
distress code to Apollo. 'Pollo had figured out something was wrong, so
he was already at the rendezvous with the van.
But that's not the important part. We had gotten about 200 meters off
the grounds, when I felt him sling it for the last time. Even though
Wilk was crushing the life outta him... Even though he was all alone ...
he ... well ... you wouldda had to see it.
It was, like, the closer he got to dead, the more mojo juiced outta him.
He cast his earthquake shot. Normally, anybody's tell you ... he might
throw a bus ... topple a house ... nothing too big. This time--by the
time we got 400 meters away, there was nothing left of the base ... I mean
nothing! Earth just opened up and swallowed the place ... and about
two minutes later, EVERYTHING went nuts.
All the ground that the base was on ... just exploded ... And I felt him
vanish ... and it was raining ... but not water ... soil and rock ...
and metal and blood and flesh ... But he still kept pushing me ... get
Ogun and Chang away."
"Chang Ti. And it is good that you did. Death was mere moments from
claiming both Ogun and myself as well."
"Ogun. True enough. 'Dred won't even admit it, but I saw a salty diamond
escape when him and 'Pollo dragged me into the van. The 'Duk was his
brother. Spirit and blood. Just like the rest of us. I think we'll all
need some time off. I know you'll understand."
+++++end miss1022.cmp
Listen, we'll contact you when we're back in service. But physically,
mentally, emotionally, and especially spiritually, we're never going to
be the same. You know the rite ... meet us at >>encrypted<< for The Passage.
Bring the prize for all this effort. We have a gift for her.]<<<<<
+++++closencrypt fractalay.enc
-- Golem <23:59:53/10-10-57>
