Feret
05-20-2002, 10:32 AM
THis next story is the begining of several stories that take place leading up to and during the Key Earth Strike mission. (i am trying to make them in short story format to get the storys up a bit faster so if it seems like one stories leaves some questions un answered its because the next one is focusing on the next part.) All in all the next group of stories will endeavor to show the last of Feret with UF, and then after that you may see a lull from me for a while (just fair warning)
Earth Strike: Visions
It was two weeks ago. Two weeks since the dropships from the Yeshua landed at the Archipelago base; Two weeks in which the mission prepared for its inception. The fight against the Cybrids on Terra, had been a rough one. Lumis Nigh had laid out the situation to Feret over a series of briefing for him, Mosfet, and the rest of the Command Staff at the Archipelago base, “The Archway” as the grunts were calling it.
According to the briefing, the cybrids had indeed hit mercury first. Whether any of the fleet had escaped no one knew. Not long later the cybrids began to hit the ground on Luna. They encountered heavy resistance from the UF Forces that were still entrenched there. The Silver Fox division and the remnants of the Old Night Division had remained behind at their own request when the main pull out to Mars was announced. The cybrids found the road to Luna a difficult one. Each set of Siege guns was heavily protected, but the teddies guarding the non-Ultra Force controlled guns did not fare as well. The few guns that UF successfully defended were not enough to keep the Cybrids from starting a beachhead on the bright side of the moon. Soon it was clear that the Teddies were not going to hold long on Luna, so the UF Theater command decided to evacuate terra side to regroup. Even units of the Illuminate special operations group abandoned terra with the hope that they could push the cybrids back at a later time. It was also hoped that they could thin the glitches out so that the battles would be more manageable terra side.
Gierling platform had done a wonderful job along with the orbital siege guns in keeping the Cybrids from getting multiple beachheads established as they had during the second siege. The truth was that the cybrids eventually found a weakness in the terran orbital defenses and did establish a nexus in the polar region. The following few months were very costly for the Cybrids as they did not establish the nexus undetected. This enabled some of the terran commanders to conduct hit and run raids and set up some rudimentary defenses in preparation for the Cybrid attack that would be to come. These for the most part were successful, but the Cybrids seemed not to care or flinch at the losses they received. They did not seem to stop for reinforcements or to resupply. This fact caught terran commanders by surprise.
Persistent Cybrid attacks were not the only problem prevalent in the theater. Vicious viruses and worms had played havoc with the Omni-web and likewise on efforts to collaborate across sectors. Auxiliary nodes were isolated for the purpose of military communication and cleared up things. By the time communications had been bolstered the Cybrids had made substantial gains in Northam including much of Canada, and the Great Lakes regions. The Cybrids had established bases in several places east of the Missisippi and a few strong holds in the Rocky Mountains, but they seemed to have slowed down their assault recently. Some thought that the Cybrids were planning new offensives or weapons advancements but so far no one new for sure. There had been some successful attempts to hack into the Cybrid Command networks, which oddly enough were very similar to the O-Web Technology that humans used.
In recent developments the Cybrids had been pushing on Nova-Chicago and Nova Pittsburgh not to mention several other places. The UF detachment operating out of the old UF HQ Nova-Allegmon, had dealt many set backs to the Cybrid siege in Pittsburgh. The push south-eastward had stalled, but not all fronts were going as well.
When questioned about EE Tech, Lumis admitted that a Cybrid raid had destroyed or captured much of the facility long before he had arrived. This made it difficult to tell whether Brett’s family was still alive, but that was not his main concern presently. He shared the intelligence information that he had received a few months prior about the Hyrdra Devices. He told the rumor that the cybrids had begun testing and possible full-scale production of the devices. The news was disconcerting to Lumis Nigh, but he understood that the reason Feret was there was because the next mission was all that more critical.
Lumis asked Feret if they could expect more reinforcements, but Feret explained that the Human Alliance had some other plans of which took precedence. He explained that even being here was a violation of the orders from the Alliance command. He also told Lumis that despite those orders he knew in his heart that something must be done. The Cybrids could not be allowed to begin production of the Hydra Devices, or Humanity would have a rougher fight then it needed to be. He asked Lumis to keep the secret of his turning over Command duties to Desructor, as he feared it could affect the morale of those on Terra. Lumis understood his decision and was glad to have them on terra for the time being.
Using the data he had received on the reported location of the Hydra plant, Lumis and Feret began to look at the layout of the area. Geographically the area might be difficult to gain entry. The Facility appeared was located in a group of mountains somewhere to the north of Nova Pittsburgh. There appeared to be multiple avenues of attack on the facility, but with out a recon check there was no way to know the defensive layout. Lumis wanted to try an artillery siege of the facility, but Feret was adamant that a direct strike was the only way to ensure that the facility was destroyed. Against his objections Lumis decided to go along with the Commander’s plan and recommended that during a hit and run assault nearby that a small recon detachment of four hercs be sent to sweep the area. He also recommended that the force be composed of four local pilots and not the usual team lead my Moss and Rydberg. Although Feret believed that Moss and Rydberg were most qualified for the mission, he understood that the secret of their arrival had to be maintained or any intelligence gathered could prove inconsequential.
The plan was for the mission to go down at night, that way there was less chance that the Recon squad being spotted during the diversionary battle. The details were left to Lumis Nigh and the four pilots he had chosen for this mission. For it to work the four pilots had to be transferred to the Allegmon base so that they could begin their mission at near the same time as the main assault force that would be hitting another nearby Cybrid installation.
The mission was slated for three nights hence, and preparations were made. That night, Commander Feret, and the rest of the Shield and UFIC team, had turned in early expecting that any day now the critical mission would be launched. Brett tried to rest for the next few days would be filled with difficult planning. He tossed and turned and finally managed to drift to sleep.
While asleep Feret dreamed. Dreamed about what life had once been prior to being in the force. He dreamed of his family who were on their way to titan and whether he might see them again. Then he had a dream that was different then all the rest. A group of UF Hercs he could see running through the snow of a mountain range. Just at the Horizon a legion of Cybrid Hercs trailed them through the valley and began to open fire on the rearmost of the Hercs, but strange as it might seemed the Basilisk did not turn to fire on the Cybrids, he seemed more spent on trying to catch the Hercs in front of him. The Cybrids seemed to close the space between them and the rear basilisk and began to pummel it with laser and autocannon fire.
“Turn around,” Feret thought as the Basilisk suddenly turned to face the attackers, letting lose a volley of compression lasers and heavy autocannons on the goads and seekers that were engaging them. Looking backward the group of Hercs seemed not to turn to assist their comrade, instead kept running, the lone Basilisk could not stand against such concentrated fire, and soon fell to the ground helpless from a hip shot. The cybrids seem to circle the herc as if to deal more damage to it as he felt that Herc begin to detonate its reactor. At that moment Brett stood up on his bunk a perfuse sweat pouring off his forehead. His breathing began to calm as he brushed some of the sweat from his forehead.
“Lights,” He ordered and the lights came up Brett squinted for a moment as his eyes adjusted and walked over to the sink. He turned on some cold water to wash his hands and face. While he was washing his hands the water began to change from the crystal cool liquid that you would expect at that hour of the night to a thigh dark red blood color. He looked down at his hands as they were now blood stained and took a step backward.
He heard the rain on the roof of the barracks pick up in intensity as he watched the sink begin to fill with the blood choking its drain as it began to spill out onto the floor. Almost at the same time, a slow methodical drip began to hit him on his head. Brett blinked as he held out his hand to see the drip become a slight stream of more blood colored water dripping from the ceiling in multiple places now. His spine began to tingle as he gulped not understanding what was happening. He stepped toward his door, but it seemed not to open. He frantically keyed the sequence into the door to get it to unlock as the room began to fill with the blood from the sink and ceiling. Brett pounded on the door with his fists as the blood began to rise up to his knee. He keyed the sequence again and watched as the door opened but only partially. He wedged his was between the door and tried to push the door open as the blood on his leg rose higher on his thigh. He finally pushed the door open and stepped into the hallway the door shutting quickly behind him.
The hallway was not the hallway he remembered. Instead he was walking in knee high snow walking toward he top of the ridge in front of him to see what he could see. At the top of the ridge he looked out and saw a battle below. Another group of Cybrid Hercs was engaging a different Group of UF Hercs. One of the Herc paint schemes looked familiar an apoc that he just could not seem to remember led a charge at the Cybrids with the other Hercs at its side. He watched the apocs right shoulder get blasted off by a lance from a particle beam as the Hercs fighting beside it fell one by one until only the Apoc remained against some twelve Cybrid.
“No,” Brett thought as he reached for something a weapon anything in his pocket to help the lone Apoc, but the Apoc soon fell from the unyielding assault and the Cybrids turned to charge up the hill where Brett was standing. He tried to turn to move, but his legs remained stiff as if frozen to the ground. He could do nothing, but watch as a closing Adjudicator aimed its beams at him. The bright light enveloped him as he tried to block it with his arms, he felt the warmth, the heat surround him as he shook off the blast the Light hand blinded him for the moment.
When his visual acuity returned he examined his body and to his surprise he was intact. His hands, uniform, and legs all were unscathed by the attack. Upon glancing back over the field he saw another group of Hercs engaging the Cybrids as they turned down the hill. Their black and red insigna appearing almost like a Red demon to Brett’s eyes. They seemed to pick the Cybrids apart bit by bit as the Cybrid’s soon fled at the onslaught. He watched as the Herc’s turned their attention to the hill where he was standing. They began their move toward where he stood and seemed to charge at him as if to attack him next.
This time he turned to run falling down the snowy slope of the hill landing in a small stream that was partly iced over. He felt thirsty and knelt to take a drink, but when he knelt to cup some water to his hand, the water again turned a blood read. He felt something land in his hands as he pulled them back he turned to find the pursuing Herc’s nowhere in sight. He felt an object in his hands cold and like steel as he looked down to see a Golden UF with a Golden command bar underneath it. It was very much like Brett’s own and had a bit of blood sticking to its surface. Brett looked to check his insignia on his uniform to find that it was all still there. He was puzzled at why there had been an insignia in the stream, but his puzzling was dismissed as he heard the deafening engines of a dropship taking off from the other side of the hill. He looked to see it take off as laser fire from the other side of the hill began to impact on its side. Smoke began to pour from the side of the ship as it began to bank into a group of trees on the hillside just out of his view. The ground shook as he looked to see a group of Cybrid Hercs, Goads and Seekers running toward him at max speed. They fired their weapons wildly as Brett again tried to turn to run. Again he was t unable to flee as one of the Herc’s began to step toward him seemingly desiring to crush his body underfoot he watched helplessly as the Herc began to step seemingly in slow motion as he saw its dark shadow fall over him and begin to fall onto his head.
In that instant Brett awoke from his dreaming, his body shaking his pulse racing as he heard pounding on his door. He sat up and replied “Just a minute,” as he composed himself for the moment. “Lights,” He ordered and the luminescence filled the room. He walked over to the door, and pressed his sequence into the door. It opened revealing Mosfet standing in front of him. Before Brett could ask, Scott began to speak.
“I am sorry to wake you commander, but the recon mission just finished final approach now, and from what we can tell they ran into some difficulty.” He said.
“What time is it Scott?” Brett inquired.
“0230 Hours, Brett.”
“Very well let me grab my jacket.” With that he turned to grab his black flight jacket and turned motioning for Mosfet to lead the way.
Mosfet lead Feret to a room where a table and five chairs sat on one side. They shut the door behind them as Feret noticed the window which allowed them to peer into the next room. There Lumis Nigh and a pilot whom Feret did not recognize sat at another table seemingly in a heated discussion. Feret threw his head back wondering what had happened, but clearly something bad had gone down.
Earth Strike: Visions
It was two weeks ago. Two weeks since the dropships from the Yeshua landed at the Archipelago base; Two weeks in which the mission prepared for its inception. The fight against the Cybrids on Terra, had been a rough one. Lumis Nigh had laid out the situation to Feret over a series of briefing for him, Mosfet, and the rest of the Command Staff at the Archipelago base, “The Archway” as the grunts were calling it.
According to the briefing, the cybrids had indeed hit mercury first. Whether any of the fleet had escaped no one knew. Not long later the cybrids began to hit the ground on Luna. They encountered heavy resistance from the UF Forces that were still entrenched there. The Silver Fox division and the remnants of the Old Night Division had remained behind at their own request when the main pull out to Mars was announced. The cybrids found the road to Luna a difficult one. Each set of Siege guns was heavily protected, but the teddies guarding the non-Ultra Force controlled guns did not fare as well. The few guns that UF successfully defended were not enough to keep the Cybrids from starting a beachhead on the bright side of the moon. Soon it was clear that the Teddies were not going to hold long on Luna, so the UF Theater command decided to evacuate terra side to regroup. Even units of the Illuminate special operations group abandoned terra with the hope that they could push the cybrids back at a later time. It was also hoped that they could thin the glitches out so that the battles would be more manageable terra side.
Gierling platform had done a wonderful job along with the orbital siege guns in keeping the Cybrids from getting multiple beachheads established as they had during the second siege. The truth was that the cybrids eventually found a weakness in the terran orbital defenses and did establish a nexus in the polar region. The following few months were very costly for the Cybrids as they did not establish the nexus undetected. This enabled some of the terran commanders to conduct hit and run raids and set up some rudimentary defenses in preparation for the Cybrid attack that would be to come. These for the most part were successful, but the Cybrids seemed not to care or flinch at the losses they received. They did not seem to stop for reinforcements or to resupply. This fact caught terran commanders by surprise.
Persistent Cybrid attacks were not the only problem prevalent in the theater. Vicious viruses and worms had played havoc with the Omni-web and likewise on efforts to collaborate across sectors. Auxiliary nodes were isolated for the purpose of military communication and cleared up things. By the time communications had been bolstered the Cybrids had made substantial gains in Northam including much of Canada, and the Great Lakes regions. The Cybrids had established bases in several places east of the Missisippi and a few strong holds in the Rocky Mountains, but they seemed to have slowed down their assault recently. Some thought that the Cybrids were planning new offensives or weapons advancements but so far no one new for sure. There had been some successful attempts to hack into the Cybrid Command networks, which oddly enough were very similar to the O-Web Technology that humans used.
In recent developments the Cybrids had been pushing on Nova-Chicago and Nova Pittsburgh not to mention several other places. The UF detachment operating out of the old UF HQ Nova-Allegmon, had dealt many set backs to the Cybrid siege in Pittsburgh. The push south-eastward had stalled, but not all fronts were going as well.
When questioned about EE Tech, Lumis admitted that a Cybrid raid had destroyed or captured much of the facility long before he had arrived. This made it difficult to tell whether Brett’s family was still alive, but that was not his main concern presently. He shared the intelligence information that he had received a few months prior about the Hyrdra Devices. He told the rumor that the cybrids had begun testing and possible full-scale production of the devices. The news was disconcerting to Lumis Nigh, but he understood that the reason Feret was there was because the next mission was all that more critical.
Lumis asked Feret if they could expect more reinforcements, but Feret explained that the Human Alliance had some other plans of which took precedence. He explained that even being here was a violation of the orders from the Alliance command. He also told Lumis that despite those orders he knew in his heart that something must be done. The Cybrids could not be allowed to begin production of the Hydra Devices, or Humanity would have a rougher fight then it needed to be. He asked Lumis to keep the secret of his turning over Command duties to Desructor, as he feared it could affect the morale of those on Terra. Lumis understood his decision and was glad to have them on terra for the time being.
Using the data he had received on the reported location of the Hydra plant, Lumis and Feret began to look at the layout of the area. Geographically the area might be difficult to gain entry. The Facility appeared was located in a group of mountains somewhere to the north of Nova Pittsburgh. There appeared to be multiple avenues of attack on the facility, but with out a recon check there was no way to know the defensive layout. Lumis wanted to try an artillery siege of the facility, but Feret was adamant that a direct strike was the only way to ensure that the facility was destroyed. Against his objections Lumis decided to go along with the Commander’s plan and recommended that during a hit and run assault nearby that a small recon detachment of four hercs be sent to sweep the area. He also recommended that the force be composed of four local pilots and not the usual team lead my Moss and Rydberg. Although Feret believed that Moss and Rydberg were most qualified for the mission, he understood that the secret of their arrival had to be maintained or any intelligence gathered could prove inconsequential.
The plan was for the mission to go down at night, that way there was less chance that the Recon squad being spotted during the diversionary battle. The details were left to Lumis Nigh and the four pilots he had chosen for this mission. For it to work the four pilots had to be transferred to the Allegmon base so that they could begin their mission at near the same time as the main assault force that would be hitting another nearby Cybrid installation.
The mission was slated for three nights hence, and preparations were made. That night, Commander Feret, and the rest of the Shield and UFIC team, had turned in early expecting that any day now the critical mission would be launched. Brett tried to rest for the next few days would be filled with difficult planning. He tossed and turned and finally managed to drift to sleep.
While asleep Feret dreamed. Dreamed about what life had once been prior to being in the force. He dreamed of his family who were on their way to titan and whether he might see them again. Then he had a dream that was different then all the rest. A group of UF Hercs he could see running through the snow of a mountain range. Just at the Horizon a legion of Cybrid Hercs trailed them through the valley and began to open fire on the rearmost of the Hercs, but strange as it might seemed the Basilisk did not turn to fire on the Cybrids, he seemed more spent on trying to catch the Hercs in front of him. The Cybrids seemed to close the space between them and the rear basilisk and began to pummel it with laser and autocannon fire.
“Turn around,” Feret thought as the Basilisk suddenly turned to face the attackers, letting lose a volley of compression lasers and heavy autocannons on the goads and seekers that were engaging them. Looking backward the group of Hercs seemed not to turn to assist their comrade, instead kept running, the lone Basilisk could not stand against such concentrated fire, and soon fell to the ground helpless from a hip shot. The cybrids seem to circle the herc as if to deal more damage to it as he felt that Herc begin to detonate its reactor. At that moment Brett stood up on his bunk a perfuse sweat pouring off his forehead. His breathing began to calm as he brushed some of the sweat from his forehead.
“Lights,” He ordered and the lights came up Brett squinted for a moment as his eyes adjusted and walked over to the sink. He turned on some cold water to wash his hands and face. While he was washing his hands the water began to change from the crystal cool liquid that you would expect at that hour of the night to a thigh dark red blood color. He looked down at his hands as they were now blood stained and took a step backward.
He heard the rain on the roof of the barracks pick up in intensity as he watched the sink begin to fill with the blood choking its drain as it began to spill out onto the floor. Almost at the same time, a slow methodical drip began to hit him on his head. Brett blinked as he held out his hand to see the drip become a slight stream of more blood colored water dripping from the ceiling in multiple places now. His spine began to tingle as he gulped not understanding what was happening. He stepped toward his door, but it seemed not to open. He frantically keyed the sequence into the door to get it to unlock as the room began to fill with the blood from the sink and ceiling. Brett pounded on the door with his fists as the blood began to rise up to his knee. He keyed the sequence again and watched as the door opened but only partially. He wedged his was between the door and tried to push the door open as the blood on his leg rose higher on his thigh. He finally pushed the door open and stepped into the hallway the door shutting quickly behind him.
The hallway was not the hallway he remembered. Instead he was walking in knee high snow walking toward he top of the ridge in front of him to see what he could see. At the top of the ridge he looked out and saw a battle below. Another group of Cybrid Hercs was engaging a different Group of UF Hercs. One of the Herc paint schemes looked familiar an apoc that he just could not seem to remember led a charge at the Cybrids with the other Hercs at its side. He watched the apocs right shoulder get blasted off by a lance from a particle beam as the Hercs fighting beside it fell one by one until only the Apoc remained against some twelve Cybrid.
“No,” Brett thought as he reached for something a weapon anything in his pocket to help the lone Apoc, but the Apoc soon fell from the unyielding assault and the Cybrids turned to charge up the hill where Brett was standing. He tried to turn to move, but his legs remained stiff as if frozen to the ground. He could do nothing, but watch as a closing Adjudicator aimed its beams at him. The bright light enveloped him as he tried to block it with his arms, he felt the warmth, the heat surround him as he shook off the blast the Light hand blinded him for the moment.
When his visual acuity returned he examined his body and to his surprise he was intact. His hands, uniform, and legs all were unscathed by the attack. Upon glancing back over the field he saw another group of Hercs engaging the Cybrids as they turned down the hill. Their black and red insigna appearing almost like a Red demon to Brett’s eyes. They seemed to pick the Cybrids apart bit by bit as the Cybrid’s soon fled at the onslaught. He watched as the Herc’s turned their attention to the hill where he was standing. They began their move toward where he stood and seemed to charge at him as if to attack him next.
This time he turned to run falling down the snowy slope of the hill landing in a small stream that was partly iced over. He felt thirsty and knelt to take a drink, but when he knelt to cup some water to his hand, the water again turned a blood read. He felt something land in his hands as he pulled them back he turned to find the pursuing Herc’s nowhere in sight. He felt an object in his hands cold and like steel as he looked down to see a Golden UF with a Golden command bar underneath it. It was very much like Brett’s own and had a bit of blood sticking to its surface. Brett looked to check his insignia on his uniform to find that it was all still there. He was puzzled at why there had been an insignia in the stream, but his puzzling was dismissed as he heard the deafening engines of a dropship taking off from the other side of the hill. He looked to see it take off as laser fire from the other side of the hill began to impact on its side. Smoke began to pour from the side of the ship as it began to bank into a group of trees on the hillside just out of his view. The ground shook as he looked to see a group of Cybrid Hercs, Goads and Seekers running toward him at max speed. They fired their weapons wildly as Brett again tried to turn to run. Again he was t unable to flee as one of the Herc’s began to step toward him seemingly desiring to crush his body underfoot he watched helplessly as the Herc began to step seemingly in slow motion as he saw its dark shadow fall over him and begin to fall onto his head.
In that instant Brett awoke from his dreaming, his body shaking his pulse racing as he heard pounding on his door. He sat up and replied “Just a minute,” as he composed himself for the moment. “Lights,” He ordered and the luminescence filled the room. He walked over to the door, and pressed his sequence into the door. It opened revealing Mosfet standing in front of him. Before Brett could ask, Scott began to speak.
“I am sorry to wake you commander, but the recon mission just finished final approach now, and from what we can tell they ran into some difficulty.” He said.
“What time is it Scott?” Brett inquired.
“0230 Hours, Brett.”
“Very well let me grab my jacket.” With that he turned to grab his black flight jacket and turned motioning for Mosfet to lead the way.
Mosfet lead Feret to a room where a table and five chairs sat on one side. They shut the door behind them as Feret noticed the window which allowed them to peer into the next room. There Lumis Nigh and a pilot whom Feret did not recognize sat at another table seemingly in a heated discussion. Feret threw his head back wondering what had happened, but clearly something bad had gone down.