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All the group, except Hess seemed taken back by the sight.
“My god” Mutters Woods. He wastes no time in getting Hess to access the main computer in the lab. At first he seems reluctant to do it. But a sharp jab from McCallum’s Chayonet soon motivates him to cooperate.
They find the following info…
D-Gen
D-Generation is the fourth generation bio weapon.Common name; destroyer.
TALOS exoskeleton armour; Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit. Making it almost immune to small arms. Equipped with two state-of-the-art weapons. Light MG and smart RPG, able to take down light to medium threats. D-Generation cells are made up of GX gel and has the ability to immediately revitalise its cellular function. Thus, giving it the ability to repair any damage sustained from the battlefield.
“The hell have you created here?” Says McCallum
“The real achievement is with its brain. Up until now, bio weapons have had simple brains. Munchers, eat, sleep, eat, ect….Razor Hounds….well they are just dogs and the end of the day. But the D-gen is different. We created a basic organic brain and interfaced it with a computer. It worked! And was radically advanced, for the first time we had a working complex brain, capable of artificial intelligence” Explains Hess
“All very interesting, but have you managed to access engineering? I need to know what they have been up to in there”. Snaps McCallum.
“Oh no…..this isn’t good…..They’re diverted the water from the reactor. It’s going critical”.
“This facility has been compromised and they are erasing the evidence. Can you stop it?”. Asks McCallum.
“No, not from here. Only from engineering and only then it could take hours to break these codes” Says Hess
“We don’t have that kind of time, containment is lifted right? So we are going to make for the platform and get out of here” Says McCallum.
Then something on the monitor showing vital signs for the D-gen starts to flash and an alarm sounds.
“What…this isn’t possible”. Says Hess. “The D-gen is coming out of hibernation!” He shrikes. “The algorithms which are in place to keep it in hibernation are being hacked!”
“Bet its Rain and his men” Says Woods
“No…no…this is coming from the D-gen itself” Hess says
Then, like smoke screen being lifted, McCallum works it all out.
“What happened here Again”? Asks McCallum
“What”
“How did people get Stricken?”
“Outbreak of drill worm larva. We were incubating young drill worms. They got out….somehow… into the ventilation system and started to infect people. It shouldn’t have happened. We have fail safes in place to prevent this sort of thing”. Says Hess“I think your bio weapon here is more self aware than you think. Its been watching you. Its hacked your system and studied you, learned from you. And now the created is turning on its creator. I bet it’s this thing that released the drill worm lava. It disable the filters and fail safes and by the time you realised what was happening it was too late”. McCallum continues. “When we were in Bio-Holding when someone or something lowered the force fence to release those hounds and it wasn’t those mercs. Now its aware of the reactor, that’s why its coming out of hibernation. Its not going to stand there while the reactor melts down. And we my friend are in it’s way”. The group goes quite, Hess seems to be in a high state of thought.
Meanwhile, something starts to stir in the tube room. It comes from the tunnels with remarkable speed. Soon joined by more.
The team move into the passage and continue making their way to the gate room with caution. They around a corner and stop. McCallum sees a figure in a white blood stained lab coat. The figure snaps around to face the team and charges. McCallum shoots a burst, the figure stumbles but carries on. Another burst and the figure drops. But soon more come, McCallum orders the team back into Bio-Holding.
“Where did they come from?” Says Denials
“Where’s Hess?” Asks McCallum
“Thought he was right behind me. He must still be in the D-gen lab”. Says Joseph
Then a loud bang on the door. The passageway is filling with Stricken. McCallum thinks hard. With time now of the essence they need to get through the Stricken.
Any ideas? What’s the most effective way of fighting the Stricken?
Very cool, will offer some proper comments later.
But for now:Any ideas? What’s the most effective way of fighting the Stricken?
Headshots, ok at close range with shotguns, tricky otherwise.
Failing that Chayonets and or flamers.Or the special thing that the Crimson Alliance have recently discovered that makes you ‘invisible’ to the Stricken.
“Everyone still has their PPE things?” says McCallum. Everyone nods and McCallum gets Woods to lower the force fence for the Munchers cell. At first nothing happens and it takes McCallum and Woods to poke the animals with their Chayonets, to get them to move towards the door. Woods unlocks the door to the corridor and opens it. Despite their size, once a meal is presented the Munchers move fast and wasted no time in moving through the door. Woods then closes and locks the door once the last Muncher is through. McCallum and Denials lower their rifles with a sign of relief.
They wait what seems to be an eternity and slowly look into the deserted corridor.
“Nothing, no bodies, no blood, no Stricken and no Munchers”. Says Woods
“Messy battle field clean ups” Says Denials
The team move into then corridor and suddenly hear a noise from behind. They quickly turn and see Hess who jumps out of his skin and nearly fires a shot into the ceiling with his six shooter.
“You’re not going to stop much with at”. Says McCallum.
“Oh, this” Says Hess, holding the antique Colt 45 at a bit of an odd angle. “It was a 50th birthday present from my daughter. Thought it was better than nothing when all this started. Never was much in to guns really”
“Where have you been anyway?”
“I was trying to stop the D-gen from coming out of hibernation”. He says. “But was unable to prevent it. So I thought I better catch up with you lot. Then I found the corridor full with Stricken. So went back inside the lab”.
“Okay, now lets get out of here”. Says McCallum. The team move outside the gate room, then a loud bang comes from up the corridor.
“It is awake and coming” Says Hess. “The door to the lab is solid and lined with Carbon 7. Should hold for a while”.
They move into the gate room with caution. No sign of any more bio-weapons or mercenaries. But what they didn’t see was number 2 security bot. It turns on its tracks and opens fire on the team. They respond by spliting either side of the force fence opening. Bullets ping and ricochet everwhere. The bot takes several rounds which just bounce off its armour. Denials throws a grenade over the wall which causes the bot to lose a track and become inmobilized.
“We don’t have time for this” Says Woods. “That armour is too thick, we need more firepower”
McCallum thinks hard……
….to be continued
Okay peeps, just one more left to after this. While I’m doing the last instalment for the conclusion. Have a think on what to do with the bot. Sure they can carry on with shooting and throwing grenades. But the D-gen is coming and the reactor is going critical. So time is of the importance. I’ll give a clue, the answer is in the pic.
“McCallum” Comes Joseph’s voice. “Use the HMG…..the controller is in the security office. Just switch it to manual”.
McCallum ducks into the security room and quickly glances over the monitors and various controls. He notes the alarm and flashing lights indicating the reactor status. He notes the sky high core temperate. Then spots a small joystick with a monitor. He switches it on and selects manual operation. The gun springs to life as McCallum moves the joystick. He looks at the monitor and places the targeting dot on the bot and squeezes the fire button. The gun makes a deafening noise as large calibre rounds smash into the bot. Its armour no match for the Heavy MG. He looks over the controls and hits the platform recall button. The lift soon comes to life and within moments begins its decent from the surface.
The lift platform hits the bottom and the team quickly make their way to it. Just then a loud bang comes from the gate room door. McCallum looks around as he jumps on the platform lift and notices its not long before the door starts to buckle and bow. It won’t be long before the D-generation is through that door too. During the ascent to the surface McCallum turns to his team. Quickly notes that Hess is yet again missing.
“Where is Hess gone?” He asks
“We were all busy with that bot. Didn’t notice Hess disappear” says Denials.
“Okay, that thing will be through the door and wanting to access this platform to the surface. We must stop it. Woods, I want to to see if you can lock the platform as soon as we reach the surface”. Woods nods. “Hopefully we can keep it contained in the gate room. Once the reactor melts down that should take care of it. If not and it does make it to the surface. We’ll secure our Pathfinder and use the grenade launcher on it”. The team all nod.
“Woods how’s the reactor?” says McCallum
“We don’t have long. However the good news is the thermal nuclear blast will be kept mainly underground”. He says tapping away on his laptop. “I do recommand getting a minimum say distance of a mile though”.
The lift platform hits the top and the team are faced with an unwelcome sight. Their hopes soon dashed when they seen the smoking wreck of their pathfinder.
“Guess we won’t be using the grenade launcher then”. Says Woods.
“Guess we’ll be walking out of here too” says Denials.
“And radio to call for help. Rain and his men have really made sure that we aren’t getting out of here”. Says McCallum.
“Sir, I’ve lock off the lift platform but it seems it’s overriding it”. Says Woods. “It won’t be long before it’s on it’s way up to us”.
McCallum sighs…….”Okay take up defensive positions and remember this thing can regenerate. So don’t firing until you’ve ran out of ammo”
The team all nods, their grim expressions telling all. Their all know they don’t have firepower to take this on. But they also know they have to other option. McCallum knows he needs a miracle.
They hear a vehicle and turn to see a Camel enter the compound. It stops and a man jumps out.
“Hello” He says “I’m Mike and wondered if you could tell me the way to the Marian Heights Hotel, my sat nav went down in a sand storm”.
“Err….” The group seem a little take back, then Woods answers his question.
“Oh, having problems with your Pathfinder?” says Mike
“That’s not the only problem we have. Anytime now a very bad tempered 10ft tall, fully armoured and heavily armed bio-weapon is going to come up from that lift and try and kill us all” replies McCallum.
“Oh dear” says Mike
“You need to go sir” Continues McCallum “There is a nuclear reactor deep beneath our feet and its going to blow. So you need to be at least a mile away”.
“Um….I see…..you really aren’t having a good day are you?” Says Mike “It sounds that you need one of these”
He walks around the back of his Camel and presses a few buttons. Before McCallum could tell him to get going a large suit of some sort swings down from the back of the Camel on hydraulics.
“Heavy Armour Rapid Deployment suit” He says. “I can show you how to operate it. You are welcome to use it”.
McCallum waves bye to the back of Mike’s Camel as he disappears across the plains. Joseph and Woods take up position, Joseph quickly familiarizing himself with McCallum’s assault rifle. Daniels moves and takes up position across the compound.
McCallum looks over his HUD and checks the suits functions. Then the cover to the subterranean complex opens and McCallum finds himself, for a second time starring at the foreboding sight of the D-generation.
For the first 5 minutes the compound erupts with gunfire. The HARD suits HUD flashes and flickers as MG rounds smash into it. McCallum opens up with a sustained MG burst, followed by the shoulder mounted rocket. The impact makes quite a dent and the D-generation gets knocked off its feet. Not before a smart RPG hits McCallum from above. Warning lights flashed and the suit loses power. McCallum fires the suits MG again, strafing the ground where the D-generation lay. With the suits targeting system offline the shots fall short.
McCallum switches to auxiliary power then checked the suits systems. Hydraulics shot, atmospheric breach, ammo all but spent, power down to less then 10%. He radios the others but gets nothing. The firing has stopped, so they are either dead or out of ammo. He looks over at the D-generation which to his relief was lying still. But something bothered him, this thing had the ability to revitalise its cellular function. And as good as the HARD suit was, McCallum had no such ability. He looked at his HUD and the word Malfunction flashed back. The suit had gave all it had. He exited the suit and collapsed to the ground.
He picks himself up then sees the sight which he was dreading. The D-generation was raising! It was clearly damaged but getting stronger. McCallum drew his pistol and fires until it clicks empty. He looks around, no sign of his team, the HARD suit standing crumpled. No hope……Then a sound of a projectile…
The High Explosive Air Burst round detonated only inches from the D-generation smashing it into pieces.
McCallum looks around and for the first time sees a very welcome sight. A Paladin from Badger troop, but what is it doing this far out?
The Paladin pulls in and two RDF troopers jump out.
“McCallum, you okay?” Says Lt Hunt
“Its good to be recognised”
“Yeah, we recognised one of our HARD suits, but what the hell was that?”
“I’ll debrief you later, but for now we need to get going” Says McCallum
With that Woods comes running up puffing and panting in the thin Marian air.
“I am glad to see you guys” he says smiling.
“Where’s the others?” Asks McCallum
“Daniels is hit, I’ve treated her wounds, she should be fine” He says
“And Joseph?”
Woods shakes his head and explains that the young security guard took a round to the head.
They help Daniels into the Paladin and retrieve Joseph’s body. Within moments the RDF are on their way.
Meanwhile……somewhere else. Sir Timothy stops his vehicle and sticks his head out. He eyes the man up and down. He notices that he is not dressed very suitably for the Marian environment. He also notes the old style six shooter pistol on his hip.
“Need a lift?” He says, puffing on his Ivory lidded pipe.
“Sure, but I’m keen to avoid any RDF interest” He says
Sir Timothy smiles to himself.
“You and me both”
The End
Well, folks hope you all enjoy the pics and the little story with it. That concludes Project Stratosphere. I must say I did enjoy putting it all together. Quite a lot of work, I streamlined the ending a bit, there was going to be more on the intro of the HARD suit. And I changed other bits of the story a bit too. But scenery worked well, I kept the design of the rooms fairly spacious without too much clutter. To give room for the figures to move around, it was hard to do desks and chairs for 6mm. Maybe at some point when time allows I’ll add to it. But for now it made an interesting game board. Ideal for an internal skirmish if I even get around to play a game. Not to mention I have all the bases on all my figures to re-paint to blend with my new Mars mat. Always lots to do.
Nice, like the end.
Like the look of that Mike character too.Thanks for taking the time to do all this, it was not easy and was no doubt at times a chore.
It is very much appreciated.🙂
Nice ending! With a cameo from Mike even
Thanks for putting in the time and effort to put this together.
Any plans for season II ?
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