The radio crackled, "Boxer six niner check in. Boxer six niner, check in." The Rikti soldier picked up the handle and stared at the radio before leveling his blaster at the base of the unit and melting it.
The low, sandbag wall on the side of the hill marked the observation post's location. Other than that, a few soldiers left their kits when the attack came, and the radio was left behind. Usually one doesn't leave a radio behind, but when you're trying to lure their communications officer into a kill zone, it's handy. Of course, in this case, the communications officer didn't get there before the radio got melted and set off the trap.
There was a bright flash and dust jumped off the ground for meters around the FOP. When it cleared, three Rikti were standing.
"Fire!" Master Sergeant Riley ordered as he cut loose with a sniper round that took down the communications officer. The other four soldiers he had with him were emptying their guns at the Rikti, with little to no effect.
As the communications officer tried to sit up, he was hit by a stream of fire that saturated the area from Riley's gun. The return fire slammed into the small rise they were hiding behind. Riley opted for the less tactically sound position in favor of taking them from an angle they weren't prepared for. When the Rikti set up, they paid attention to the high hill nearby and were watching it.
The communications officer went down and didn't get back up. Riley had to fire several more rounds to drop two of the other three. The last took what cover he could and returned fire, wounded. Even though the communications officer didn't open a portal, the response was quick and numerous. Six more Rikti swarmed up the hill into firing positions and soon fire superiority switched hands.
A beam slammed into the shoulder pad of one of the soldiers, sending him backward and down the tiny hill into a gully, screaming in pain. "Carlson! Young, get Carleson!"
Riley fired off his rocket into the enemy formation, then ducked down into the gully and rolled over onto his back. "We're pulling back!"
The master sergeant pulled a smoke canister and tossed it over the ledge toward the Rikti. Then he grabbed Mathers's OBA and yanked him down behind cover just as a plasma bolt whizzed through the area he was using for a head. Mathers screamed in pain and grabbed his face. "Get the [censored] down you [censored] ing idiots!" He reached across and pulled Hernandez down as well, just as dust and rock started exploding along their cover.
"Sorry sarge, didn't hear you!" Hernandez stared at Mathers as the young soldier screamed in pain and held his face, writhing in the dirt.
Riley grabbed him and pulled out his canteen. "Hold still!" He poured water onto his face. "That's all you get until we're out of here, now we need to MOVE soldier! Can you do that?"
Mathers hissed through his teeth as he made an effort to keep his hands from his face. "Yes sergeant! Ahhhh! Yes sergeant!" He fumbled for his rifle and followed Riley away from the enemy. Young followed behind, with Carlson over his shoulder.
"Move! Move! They're behind us, get into that ravine, keep going until you get to the LZ!" Riley stopped and took aim at a Rikti charging forward with a huge piece of metal. He let loose a round, which penetrated the Rikti shielding and slowed the advancing soldier, but not as much as when he ran over the spiked traps that Riley left for him and the following Rikti. Two more bursts later and the soldier was down, but there were more, and they were running out of ravine.
As was common with landing zones, it was a large, flat open space. That meant a lack of cover. Cover is an infantryman's friend.
Hernandez tossed green smoke onto the LZ and they hunkered down as Young applied a pressure bandage and burn patch to Carlson's shoulder. Soon they could hear the fire of plasma rifles, and Riley began returning fire, his M-41 making a distinctive report that rose above the din of M-16 fire. The ground around them splashed up with energy bolts and occasionally Riley rocked back from a direct hit. He kept directing fire though, through it, and positioning his soldiers behind himself so that he would receive most of the fire.
When the chopper was audible it was only two hundred yards away, the sound of fighting overshadowed its approach. The thing about the Blackhawk is that it doesn't have the downblast of some of the other helicopters its size, which means you can run to it as its landing. This is not advised under fire, but always seems to happen anyway.
The Blackhawk didn't even touch down before it was under intense fire from the Rikti forces. Plasma and energy bolts slammed into the fuselage and tail as the soldiers tried to pile in. Riley was facing away from the chopper when it went up. He skidded to a stop, face first in the dirt and rocks. Riley scrambled to get his weapon out in front of him and fire from a prone position, as flaming debris landed around him and soldiers screamed behind him.
He threw his last smoke canister toward the advancing enemy and rolled over to look down his body to see if he still had legs. One looked broken and the other was on fire, but they were there. Two Apache's curled in over the war wall and engages as close air support, suppressing the Rikti advance as a Blackhawk medical chopper landed near the crash site.
Upon standing, Riley found that his leg was merely perforated by shrapnel not broken, and though painful, he could walk on it. He reached into the flaming remnants of the first chopper and pulled free an extinguisher, to douse the bodies near him.
Two medics rushed out of the medical Blackhawk, under fire and started looking at the fallen soldiers. Mathers, Young and the door gunner were alive, the others didn't make it. Carlson burned to death while Riley was engaging the advancing forces. They simply picked up the wounded and muscled them to the chopper, which sustained four direct hits during the extraction. The pilot never flinched, he just kept the wheels barely touching the Earth, with the smoldering carcass of another bird right in his view the entire time, both pilots dead inside.
The Apaches expended the remainder of their ammunition and rolled out as Riley loaded Mathers. He turned and fired two bursts as the last medic tried to load the door gunner from the other chopper, but was hit in the leg. Riley pulled the medic up, and the other medic got the door gunner. Energy bolts slammed into the side of the chopper, hitting Young, Riley and the other medic as the chopper began to take off. Smoking and making all sorts of alarm type noises, the chopper hopped the war wall and headed for Peregrin Island.
No one said anything except one of the pilots, who was constantly talking over the radio. One of the Apache's flew close on the left side to assess the damage. The pilot only said, "understood". That wasn't good.
Riley pulled his sat phone from inside his armor and called General Hammond. When the general answered he simply said, "this is Master Sergeant Riley, we lost the crash site", then hung up.
Mathers held a bandage to his face and stared at Riley the whole way to the island. He never spoke once, even when Riley fell asleep somewhere over the water in the smoking helicopter.
Finally arriving at their destination David walks out looks back at his companion still standing at attention realizes he will be going the rest of the way alone, David immediately speaks up.
"See to it that my daughter makes it to practice and tell my wife I will be working late again and don't wait up."
"Yes sir" The driver shot out, " Would you also want me to give the usual flowers and apology to your daughter for missing her birthday?' immediately David felt shamed for forgetting his little girl's birthday so quickly, rubs his fingers over his eyes. "Dammit again." exhaling again hating himself for allowing work to cloud an important day like this and like so many others before thinking how will he make up for this one.
"I know it is a conspiracy, they purposely make these meeting on the child's birthday to make me look bad to her" he muffles to himself.
"Well sir, if your looking for a conspiracy your working for the right people" The driver shot back with a smile. David looks up shocked and smiles back. "Have Karen assist my daughter in picking out a gift. Let her know she can have anything she wants, I want my daughter to be happy today. And oh, have Karen make sure the party is well catered...."
Just then two gentleman walk up to David and tap him on the shoulder both looking almost identical in suit and mannerism as one speaks up. "Sir, they are waiting for you. If you please come with us" Shaking his head the driver allows the elevator door to shut to go about his assigned and menial task.
As David follows the two suits and walks with them down the hall as several people come up and give him updates and more reports to read while in his meeting. One man swipes his card that unlocks the door and opens it for David. As he enters he could tell he was in for a the long haul, the dark room with a almost cliche' huge lamp hanging over a table right out of a movie and several monitors on the wall showing activities world wide whether it was hero or militant and up to weather reports it were shown. Several people were bickering on how to deal with the crisis at hand, it was like being in college debating new breakthroughs in science class and how quickly skeptics try to dismiss it. he sits down and opens the reports and begins reading all the reports people kept handing him.
"So what does I.S.A plan to do about the Ritki David?" as a representative from SERAPH sharply attacks David breaking him of his solitary thinking. Jan Grubner was one of the representatives who really never liked David or his department not after the Arachnos incident that freed the supercriminals from the Ziggraut and caused the death of many under her command. But it was well known that his department dealt in interplanetary security not International, but to her since Arachnos fliers were sub-orbital this was his responsibility and to her the blame should be on his head and should have known and did what it took to prevent the incident.
"Well were waiting to know what the Interplanetary Security Agency has planned to counter the Ritki?"
He looks he could swear he could hear her body tense up, a woman of 43 red hair and dressed as if she should be in a board meeting downtown and not here and with hate in her eyes he could tell she was wanting a fight and he knew the next few words would either make or break him here, calmly he responds and takes off his glasses.
"According to I.S.A reports were still monitoring the situation with the Ritki and had finally devised some new countermeasures but it would seem that SERAPH continues to hamper some of our operations such as the New York incident and the South American planning that would have provided needed information that could have prevented this current attack." David just bluffing his way through knowing he didn't get a chance to read anything and just skimmed on some of what was in the reports banked on previous incidents with her department she would be to upset to check on anything he said.
"HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE US AGAIN!!" She shouted aloud. "Those where our investigations and your team was in our way, you had no right to be in either place you arrogant (censored)hole".
Smile entered on his face knowing his hunch worked and saved his backside but also stirred old General Adams from his normal quiet state. Normally quiet he is content to keep silent and let the room vent but swear or plan to sacrifice military lives for nothing this ol' 53 year old will speak up and spoke he did,. Standing up he looked at both of them.
"Alright knock it off little lady, I am really gettin' tired of that nasty mouth of yers and you..... wipe that smirk off your face or I will do it for ya. Were not getting anything done with you all just flappin you gums like a married couple pissed off over who ain't giving it up to the other.
The general still believes a lady should act like a lady and a man conducts himself like a man at his mothers house. Shocked Jan sat down as to not to rile the old general again and David went back to reading his reports.
"Agreed nothing is getting done by bickering."
A voice coming from the other side of the room, Peter Raand an immortal who was in charge of C.T.U. and had kept it a secret for years was always the voice of reason in most cases and hated at times when they fought for not reason other than to blame another department. No one knew his true age and by looks of him looked like a normal 37 year old man with hair combed back and always nicely dressed. At times always surprised that this group ever got anything done.
"The Ritki attacks are becoming more bolder and open and the public are wondering what is going to be done about it? We have a theory of what they are doing so what is going to be done to stop them?
Jan stands up to address the table " SERAPH is currently working with the military but are still limited cause you won't let us use the vigilantes currently...."
You know what they will do if they find out the Ritki is possibly doing they will attack and we can't guarantee we can keep this from the public. And if public found out what happened on the moon and the International Space Station....."
At that moment the door opens and a lone figure enters the room and gives a slip of paper to Carl Ganther head of a Illuminate Society, looking up at a young woman saddened and scared he looks at the report and is horrified at what he is reading cuts Raand off in mid sentence...." We better decide on something." The room goes silent and looks and Ganther, " ...As of 2 hours ago the RCS is officially no longer a contested zone and has fallen to the Ritki".
Shock and horror overcomes the room.
To be continued.
[[Hey, I tried]]
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[[Hey, I tried]]
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((I know and thanks for adding it was really cool and I saw the action as I was reading it 
. You did a great job))
I would like to give it a shot at the upcoming event with a prestory told from different angeles behind the scenes you welcome to join and offer any input its open and tell it how you want. All I ask just keep it fluid. And please note it is a work in progress so help would be nice or a nice critique if I may have missed anything.
An alarm goes off as a poor soul once again tries to find the strength to get up this morning, clasping his blanket he tries to cover his head to muffel the sound of the alarm so he could once again enter the restless sleep of the previous night. Turning over to peek out of the covers and tries to resist the urge to look at the clock, he stares at the time with blood shot eyes and anger swelling up. "5:43am?" he mummbled to himself "the hell did I set it that early for? He remembers how this day is a big day, a day that will change the face of the world." Reaching over to shut off the alarm instead like so many other morning he hits the button only for it to drop on the floor to make a loud thud. "dammit". taking a deep sigh he unccovers himself with the blankets and lays there for a few minutes to wake the last of his sleep from himself as the body next to him slept soundly, he felt a feeling of envy at how calm his wife is sleeping and what a good sleep and a great day she is and will have. He gets up and begins his daily routine, put on a robe and heads down stairs past his childrens room, looking in he could see his 2 boys sleeping soundly on their bunk beds as one boy has his leg hanging over the edge the other laying on his stomache content and the room across from them the eldest girl is also fast asleep as he peeks into her room. He thinks if she knew he opened her door to enter her private domain she would have been upset at him all day even if it is her 15th birthday.
Closing the door he continues down the hall and down the stairs and outside to get the paper, another cold morning in Paragon City he thought as a shiver bombard him. Grabbing the paper he comes back in he looks at his neighbors homes and see many others are awakening to the new day, inside he puts the paper down and starts a pot of Coffee he heads back up to take a shower. As the steam fills the room after his shower he wipes off the mirror to look at him self, his name David Hunnings and his a important man and today is will show how important he is. Standing up he see that for a man of 40 he is not to bad he thinks to himself, getting a little round in the middle but with a few rounds in the gym against the new recruits should do the trick for the next couple of days as a smile entered on his lips and best part no Grey yet on his head makes him feel even more confident. Out of the bathroom he gets dressed in his suit and tie as his wife finally awakens to his clicking close of his briefcase as she does every morning. " Morning lover" she moans as she stretches refreshed from her sleep. "Morning you hun. How is my darling wife feeling this morning?" David smiling back at her and looking in a mirror one more time to make sure he is presentable. "I feel fine, refreshed and aware that pill you gave me made me sleep like a baby David." She says. "Who gave you those?" Dave looks "Well lets just say I know someone who knows someone in D.A.T.A who gets me things off the books. So whats your plans for the day Lindi?" He name is Linda calling her Lindi is like asking for trouble but he still likes to tease her, "When are you ever going to let that name go?" Remains calm she gets up, "When your name is forgotten on the wrestling circuit" Linda being a former professional wrestler of a world wide federation origination in her younger years Luscious Ravenous Lindi was her name silly at the time but one her husband who comes up with new teases even after 20 years of marriage. Punching him in the arm as she heads to the bathroom is meet with him being ready, he smiles as she slams the bathroom door shut. "I love you hun" David yells, "I love you too, now Go to hell David! a muffled sound comes back from the door, this brings a smile to his face. Grabbing his suit case he runs out downstairs as the horn of his ride is here, rushing down he sees the kids are up and as usual got their own breakfast and his 15 year old drinking his coffee and eating a doughnut he has no time to talk grabs his paper hugs the boys and kisses her on the head he hears the boys scream bye dad and the oldest say she needs a ride to practice tonight don't forget gets in the black 2007 Sedan with a man holding the door, the man who is also dressed in black suit and white shirt with a black tie and with hair shorter than David's standing at attention late 20s obviously a former or current David never knew or never bothered to ask and just assumed was military, the driver seeing him rush into the car and knowing he forgot something "I have a fresh cup of coffee for you sir" says the driver, David looks at his driver and says thanks and finally settles down inside as the driver comes around and gets in and drive off.
After 2 minutes the driver speaks up, "Have you read the paper today, sir?" Looking away from the sights he has seen so many times before over the years "huh? No, no I haven't had a chance yet to look at the paper yet" begins to unravel his newspaper, "Allow me tell you myself sir, there was another Ritki attack last night. This time at a Crey manufacturing company and have made off with several million dollars in research and development equipment. This will make it 23 in the last 6 months" taking out his glasses he looks over the paper and there it was in large print another attack, RITKI ATTACK CREY. "Like the Crey need anymore publicity like this. With their 'Countess" in our care and not in prision, and able to keep tabs on her company it won't look good to what's left of her shareholders. humph! oh well. Any word from Homeland Security or the NSA? As David picks up his coffee and continues he could feel the heat on in his throat as it goes down looks back to reading the paper. "None so far but it were expecting something from Interpol due to the escalating attacks world wide. "As the driver looks through his rear mirror at David, "But the F.B.I. and the C.I.A are currently continuing their investigation and building a profile on the attacks. There is talk of getting Statesman or other heroes involved in it" David shot up from his paper looking over his glasses F.B.I and C.I.A. couldn't find a zit on their own backside and as for Statesman and his cronies? I rather keep them out of this, too many loose cannons looking for a.....hmm." Driver looking back as to waiting for David to finish."as to what sir?" David just smiled and takes another sip,".....You know...I don't have a good analogy at the moment, at least one that won't be crude" Both men begin to chuckle as the pull into a building in Steel Canyon and head down a slope as a big metal door shuts behind them. the car stops on a area marked handicap and stops, driver lowers his window and reaches out to a control arm that extends and allows the driver to swipe and after a beep the floor beneath them slowly drops on a concrete elevator and is quickly replaced by another floor sliding into its place.
"The point is Statesman and Freedom Phalanx if they knew what we knew would ruin everything before were ready and frankly I don't trust them or Longbow." as dave looks out the window. "Think people feel the same way as me to supers as well." Driver looks back again only showing his eyes in the mirror. "Think your right sir, this is not the 40s anymore" the driver folds his arms from the stirring wheel. Finally resting on the bottom they see the floor bustling with activity with personnel all in suits as well some scientists talking with other scientists and suits, getting out of the car David with the paper still in hand lays his brief case on the car and puts it away begins to walk with the driver as one of the suits come up and gives him a status sheet and field progress report, two tall husky Marines standing at attention as they walk up salute and open the door fro the pair. "Busy aren't they today" Dave looks back at the parking lot/ command post sees everyone rushing to get reports to the proper people and departments and glances as the car is rotated behind a wall till it was out of sight, and in the reception room being no less busy. "People are scared sir worried over where the next attack will come from and where? this way to the elevators sir." The driver guides David to the elevators. "Why do I have a feeling your not telling me everything I should know? What is going on? How bad was the attacks this time that were not releasing to the public?" David beginning to become agitated and upset looks at the driver, the driver giving a big sigh as if a preconfession to a upset parent, "I am not at liberty to tell you yet sir" As David and the Driver walk into the elevator the they turn to see the doors shut and more people rush by. The elevator begins to move and the music begins to play. "Its C.T.U isn't it? I have a meeting with those jerks at C.T.U.?" Looking through his glasses still on his face he looks at the driver looking for the truth only to get a eyebrow and a quick glance as if pretending David didn't see it. "Oh @!$%! it's C.T.U and SERAPH.