Post by Sunstar on May 19, 2010 12:17:04 GMT -5
Well here is the rewrite of the 2007 Movie, I did it from an OC's POV from the attack on SOCCENT to the battle in Mission City. I am posting what I have up so far.... so please be nice! And any help for a title would be appreciated.
Chapter One
Qatar - Middle East, 2007
Captain Caliene Meredith, sighed as she made her way over to the rest of her squad, she was tired, dirty and wanted nothing more than to have a warm shower and just sleep on her cot in her shared tent for the next 72 hours (She shared a tent with the only other 8 females on the base, and they were either Medical or Communications personnel).
Captain Lennox was getting everyone ready for the airlift back to base after a grueling two weeks out in the deserts of Qatar looking for any problems from the locals that had been reported in to the US SOCCENT Base they were currently working out of.
She walked over to the Commander of the squad, the sound of incoming V-22 Osprey’s cheering her up somewhat. “Hey Lennox, looks like the birds are here, everyone is ready to head on back to base, and I really want to put my baby away clean into the armory, this sand just doesn’t help her any.” she said as she patted her M-24 SWS, it was possibly the only thing she could stake her life on other than her squad and Lennox.
Lennox looked at her and smiled, “Yeah, well this blasted sand doesn’t do much for any of our weapons let alone where it gets into the uniforms, Cali. And don’t worry about your baby,” he said pointing at her weapon, “I know you’ll get the chance to clean her right, but after you help me with the reports for the Colonel, all right?” he asked, a slight smirk on his face as he waited for her response - it was well known that Caliene hated paperwork with a vengeance.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up Sir! Just wait till I write to Sarah about your jokes on the squad when you’re bored out of your mind on a mission. Not something she would want to hear now is it, William?” she replied with an evil smirk on her face now - they were constantly bickering back and forth about stuff (all in the name of fun), but it kept everyone from going stir crazy on these missions, Spec-Ops teams were hard working almost all of the time, and it wasn’t unheard of for a few to go completely insane either from the pressure of the job or just because they couldn’t handle the solitude at times.
Caliene knew all about solitude, she was the only female in this squad, but she was the best damned Sniper they had, and she was good at hand-to-hand fights also. It didn’t hurt the fact that she knew some of the languages of the surrounding areas.
Now here they were loading up the last few pieces of their gear, she looked around trying to figure out who was missing as she watched everyone else climb aboard the V-22 Osprey, Lennox turned to her and whistled. “Hey what ya waiting for Cali, get in here they wanna leave and if I don’t mind saying so, so do I.” he said after she looked at him. “Hang on a second, Lennox we’re missing someone again, care to take a guess as to whom?” she asked him as she turned her attention back to a small patch of hillocks about 10 feet away.
“Oh let me guess, either Fig or Epps. And my money is on Epps, and I am guessing you are betting it’s Fig?” came his response. She looked at Lennox, nodded and walked forward towards the Osprey then looked back and yelled over her shoulder, “Anyone who wants out of this sandbox needs to be here in the next 20 seconds and onboard before we either make you walk back to base with all of your gear or sling you from the undercarriage of the Osprey, your choice!” Both she and Lennox laughed when they heard a yelp and cursing in Spanish, yep, definitely Fig, she grinned as Lennox handed her a twenty dollar bill. But the question remained where was Epps? That thought was answered when she reached the seating area of the bird and saw Epps coming out of the cockpit and sitting on the opposite side from her.
Donnely was sat down the same side as Epps, who now had his iPod plugged into one ear and listening to some of his music, she smiled at Donnely seeing as he was younger than her and the others maybe mid-twenties by her guess, whereas everyone else in the squad was late-twenties to mid-thirties, he was sat cradling his rifle almost like she did her M-24, as if it was the most important thing in his world - to most of them it was, they either lived or died with that weapon, he smiled at her as he pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, she nodded at him in return and settled down to think.
Soon after take off a conversation was struck up by Fig and Caliene just sat back to enjoy the ribbing that would happen to him.
“Oh, God, five months of this. I can’t wait to get a little taste of home. A plate of mama’s alligators etouffee.”
“You’ve been talking about barbequed ‘gators and crickets for the past two weeks. I’m never going to your mama’s house, Fig. I promise.” came Epps’ reply as he shuddered a little at the thought of crickets being ate or any bug for that matter.
“But Bobby, Bobby, ‘gators are known to have the most succulent meat.” came Fig’s comeback, Caliene just shook her head as the conversation kept going, “I understand.” was all Epps said as Fig kept on going just this time he had switched back into his native tongue of Spanish. Caliene reached over and slapped Fig on the back of his head as Epps smirked slightly at that and said “English, please. English.”
It was after Epps said that that Lennox went on to add, “I mean, how many times have we…. We don’t speak Spanish. I told you that.” Caliene was trying her damnedest to not laugh, especially since she could speak Spanish, but they all liked to tease Fig about it - it boosted morale for the rest of the squad. It was then that Fig came back at them with his favorite response: “Why you got to ruin it for me, man? That’s my heritage.” then he started rattling off in Spanish again, making Caliene snort with suppressed mirth as she understood what he was saying, Lennox looked at her one eyebrow raised in question, and she mouthed back to him that she would tell him later what was said by Fig. So Lennox decided to respond to Fig’s Spanish outburst again, “Go with the Spanish. Whatever.”
Donnely decided that he was going to add something to the conversation by asking, “Hey, you guys remember weekends? Huh? The Sox at Fenway; Cold hotdog and flat beer.” Fig answered this time in English, “Perfect day. What about you Captain? You got a perfect day?” he aimed at Lennox knowing as we all did he was still highly strung about his wife and baby girl back stateside.
“I just can’t wait to hold my baby girl for the first time.” Lennox said as he tilted his head back and looked at the ceiling of the Osprey. “He’s adorable.” came Fig’s laughing tone closely followed by Epps’ “That’s too….” just to have Lennox face them and tell them “Shut up!” with a smirk, and Caliene just nodded at him until he asked her what her perfect day would be. She looked shocked but she had to be honest she really hadn’t thought about it all that much, the Military was her career since she graduated High School, and after 10 years of service she was thinking of re-upping that fall for another 5 years, gotta love being in an all Military backed family - Dad was Navy, Mom was Air Force, and her, well she was Army all the way - SpecOps no less and of only a handful of women in the group made her folks proud that did.
“My perfect day…. Hmmm, never really thought on it that much guys, but I guess I could say spending down time stateside with Mom and Dad, go fishing, or even make it home for Deer Season - get that 10 point that’s been running around the pastures, maybe give you guys some of the Venison.” Caliene replied as she saw their eyes widen at the mention of hunting, and the possibility of fresh Venison - men they all think with either their guts or their little heads.
They heard over the intercom from the cockpit that we would be landing in about 45 minutes and to make sure everyone and everything was strapped in for landing. Caliene was sooo looking forward to that shower now, maybe some real food and not MRE’s like the past few weeks - they could get rather boring after a while, so Lennox and Caliene checked over everyone and everything and then strapped themselves back in for the landing. Caliene just wasn’t looking forward to the paperwork that was awaiting them once they landed, and apparently Lennox thought the same thing as he cringed - great minds think alike.
End Chapter One
Chapter Two
US SOCCENT Airbase, Qatar
Outside
Caliene’s POV
After the landing and disembarking from the V-22’s we all headed over to the trucks that had been sent to collect us and take us back to ‘Tent City’ as it was known. As we got closer you could here the music blasting in the background, someone had some Rap music playing out of a radio and had it hooked up to the PA system, just hope the Colonel doesn’t find out or someone will be on KP duty, not something I would want, drives you bonkers it does (shudders).
As the trucks came to a stop we all climbed out and headed to our respective areas, Epps headed straight for the Ball Court and started playing against what looked like a Newbie, boy was he gonna loose, especially against Epps - guy played Basketball in college, but decided to join the Air Force after he graduated, guy cold have gone pro he’s just that good.
“Hey I’m ready to do this.” he said as he shucked off his jacket, “Hey, any of y’all grow some balls come see me on the court, man.” he yelled to us as he played, I shook my head and yelled back, “Sorry, Epps, gonna have to do a rain check on that match. Some of us have paperwork and such to actually take care of here, can’t all be slackers!’ making him miss the basket and making the others laugh, and getting a “Hey, hey!” from Lennox as he glared at Epps.
I watched as Sgt. Burke went to the rudimentary open-air shower and pushed other soldiers aside, by saying “Step aside, ladies.” much to their consternation and yelling of “Hey, Man.” I laughed he was a great guy to have in the squad, almost as gun happy as I was - except he actually slept with his rifle on his cot, this bit of info coming from Lennox, so the intel should be accurate.
I went and cleaned up, placed my M-24 on my bunk and left a note for the others in the tent to leave be since she was going to be cleaned when I got back from doing paperwork (I hate paperwork!) Then grabbing my clipboard, pen and the report forms to be filled in I headed on over to Lennox, we could suffer this together. On my way there I met up with the young lad that had all but adopted our squad, Mahfouz, “Hey, Cali, have you seen Lennox?” he asked me as I walked up to him smiling, he’s a good kid, always willing to do anything for us, even getting our water packs filled ready for our next recon and such.
“Yes I have, Mahfouz, follow me and you’ll be able to give him his water pack, alright?” I said to him, he grinned up at me, handed me my water pack and then started to jog in front a little ways, stopping every so often to make sure I was following and that we were going in the right direction. We finally made it over to Lennox and I gentle tapped on Mahfouz’s shoulder and pointed at Lennox who was busy writing up some of his report, Mahfouz smirked and ran over yelling “Lennox!” that got Lennox’s attention as he looked up and smiled.
“Hey, what are you doing?” asked Lennox as he looked between me and Mahfouz. “Me? I’m just doing some of the paperwork we all despise so much and wondered if you’d like the company.” I replied as I sat opposite him on another crate and started in on the essentials of the report.
“Water?” asked Mahfouz as he handed Lennox his water pouch and smiled widely. “Thank you. Are you gonna help with the gear?” asked Lennox as he stood up and stretched out a kink in his back, then turned to face me and Mahfouz. “You gonna come with us, Cali? If I remember correctly you still have an M-24 that needs some TLC before we turn in for the night.” he asked as he took the offered water pouch again from Mahfouz and took a quick swig of the cool stuff.
“Yeah alright, and then once my rifle is clean I’ll collect your report and mine together and hand them in to Colonel Sharp at the Ops Center.” I said as I too stood up and headed on out with the pair to the tents we called home for now, so that I could do what was needed. It was going to be a long day from start to finish, I just never realized just how long or how bad it was going to be.
Later
After helping Lennox and Mahfouz with the gear for our squad, I went and spent a good couple of hours cleaning my rifle - a clean rifle is a working life saving rifle (the life of me and my squad, anyway.)
After all that I headed over to the tents that the rest of the squad used as a home out here, and collected Lennox’s report as offered earlier. Once I had our reports I headed over to the Ops Center beneath and to one side of the Control Tower to hand them in to Colonel Sharp, a fair but strict man who had the respect from almost everyone on his base. As I handed over the reports I heard a (from his number of 3 arm stripes) Senior Airman say: “Colonel Sharp, we have an inbound unidentified infiltrator, 10 miles out.”
Colonel Sharp looked at him and then me as I nodded that I understood he needed to see to this as he reached over and grabbed one of the radios.
“Unidentified aircraft, you are in restricted US Military Airspace. Squawk ident and proceed out of the area.” he said to the pilot of the aircraft, before relaying a request on another frequency to the airstrip. “Raptors one and two, snap to heading two-five-zero to intercept. Bogie is in the weeds ten miles out, not squawking.” This meant that two Raptors were going to identify the intruder incase it was one of ours having radio problems, if not they would be dealt with.
Sharp looked at the radio, nodded and switched back to the frequency used to contact the unidentified aircraft. “Unidentified aircraft, we will escort you to US SOCCENT airbase. If you do not comply, we will use deadly force.” After he said that we all waited to see what would happen. Huh… this had possibly been the most action we had all experienced since we set up here.
“Copy the bogie. Tail 4500 X-ray.” came the response from one of the pilots over the radio. The Senior Airman had been going over a print out of the details for the identified bogie for the past five minutes before he turned to Colonel Sharp and I and said “Sir, Ma’am, says here 4500X was shot down three months ago. Afghanistan.” I shuddered lightly, that had been a bad intel operation, causing the loss of some fine men and one of our Helicopters.
“There’s got to be a mistake. Check again, then recheck.” said Colonel Sharp as he looked at the Senior Airman slightly bemused, hell even I wished that the crew were alive and well, but since we hadn’t heard or seen any indication that they were they were listed as MIA/KIA. One thing I never wanted my folks to go through ever.
“I did sir, A friend of mine was on that chopper.” came the response from the Senior Airman, I could see that it hurt him to say this, must have been a close friend to him then.
As we stood, there we heard one of the pilots talk over the radio. “Unidentified aircraft, we will escort you to US SOCCENT Airbase.” Colonel sharp then turned to the Airman at the Radar terminal and asked, “Radar, where’s the inbound?”
The Airman just looked at Colonel Sharp before answering, “Bogie’s five miles out, sir.” ‘Hmmm,’ I wondered ‘that would make their arrival time shortly before dark, which meant the flood lights would need to be switched to face the landing area near the Control Tower.’
Colonel Sharp looked between me and the Airman, “I’ll be up in the Tower for when the bogie arrives, I want to confirm this thing really is 4500X myself.” he said and headed up the stairs to the main room of the Control Tower. I just hoped that it was going to be a quiet evening, but knowing the ‘Powers of Worse’ it wasn’t to be.
End Chapter Two
Chapter Three
US SOCCENT Base, Qatar
Middle East, 2007
Control Tower
Colonel Sharp was watching out of the observation windows of the Control Tower with his set of binoculars as the bogie flew by to the designated landing area. “4500 X. Something’s not right.” came the response to what he had verified with his own eyes, there was something not quite right about that Helicopter but he could not for the life of him figure out what it was.
He watched as some of his Security personnel went to surround the Helicopter when it landed. “Bogie’s on the deck.” came the voice over the PA System. Colonel Sharp watched with interest as the scene played out as trained.
Meanwhile back in the main control room below the Tower, another Senior Airman noticed something weird with the terminals. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Radar’s jammed. It’s coming from the chopper.” as he turned and picked up the phone next to him to contact the Colonel upstairs. “Sir, we have interference coming from the chopper that is messing with our Radar, we need them to power everything down to stop this.” he said as he updated the Colonel on what was happening.
“Thank you, Airman. Keep us posted on anything else that happens.” said Colonel Sharp as he hung up the phone and grabbed the mic for the PA System. “MH-53 Pilot, power down now.” he watched as the Helicopter blades slowed as it powered it’s engines down. “Have your crew step out or we will kill you.” said Colonel Sharp over the PA System, as his men readied their weapons.
As soon as Colonel Sharp had said that, the Helicopter rotors stopped completely and suddenly, then with a move he had never seen before the Helicopter started to break apart and rearrange it’s parts till it stood up as something he didn’t recognize as other than some sort of robot. By now his troops were shooting at whatever this thing was. “My, God!” was all he could come up with as what happened next left him speechless.
The robot-looking thing started firing at his troops and then he heard a high-pitched whine before ducking as he saw a pale blue pulse wave heading straight out in a circle from the robot. Part of the wave hit the Control Tower breaking the windows out, by now Colonel Sharp was heading down into the main computer area of the building and was now trying to evacuate all the remaining personnel that were there.
Just as he was yelling orders to the remaining personnel the roof of the building was removed and a giant robotic hand attached itself to the Base mainframe, he knew this was not good. “Go! Move! Move!” he yelled to everyone there as he paused by one of the computer terminals, what he saw made his blood freeze; the robot - type - thing was downloading files from the DOD Mainframe, he caught a glimpse of a file with S7 on it and looked up as he heard the robot screech something he couldn’t decipher.
“It’s going after the files! Cut the hard lines!” he yelled to everyone who was running to get out of there. One Senior Airman - probably the same one from earlier, Colonel Sharp’s mind suggested - yelled out “I need a key! It’s locked!” as he yanked on a huge padlock holding the power lever secure.
Colonel Sharp looked around and grabbed a fire axe off of a nearby wall, running over to where the Senior Airman was standing and having him move out if the way. Colonel Sharp then proceeded to hack away at the main power lines to the mainframe and computer terminals. By this time Caliene had run out of the building to her tent for her weapon and pack and was now looking for Lennox and the rest of her squad.
Caliene’s POV
I hoped beyond all hope that Colonel Sharp would survive this attack, he was a great CO to have and no-one had anything negative to say about him, he was a fair but just CO - huh, wish all CO’s were like that, he must be one of the few decent ones.
I had managed to get back to my tent, grab my M-24 and shoved a few MRE’s into my pockets on my jacket and TAC vest, with some extra clips of ammo. Now I was running trying to find Lennox and the rest of the squad, I ducked just in time to see an M-1 Tank fly low over my head and then land on top of a couple of Jeeps, whatever this thing was, was out to destroy our base and so far was doing a damned good job.
I finally spotted Lennox, Mahfouz, Fig and Burke near another cluster of M-1 Tanks, hiding underneath the front portion where there was a slight overhang. I watched as Fig went to grab his gun from his back where he had obviously been carrying it, when I heard “No!” screamed, looking around I spotted Epps with a digital recorder aimed at the thing as he was laid out on the sand between the robots feet, I hope he got enough footage because I doubt anyone would believe we were attacked by a giant robot, that had been a Helicopter.
What happened next shocked me as much as it apparently scared Epps, the robot morphed a fricking huge canon out of it’s chest area. Epps was still scampering backwards away from the robot whilst recording the thing on the digital recorder, I guess he thought that he was done for when I noticed a signal flare hit the robot near it’s face; good idea that since it was night out the robot had to be using some kind of night vision to see us or thermal imaging, which meant that a flare could screw it up really easy, enough so that we could get the heck out of dodge.
I watched from where I was positioned at and saw Lennox head on over to grab Epps, so to help out I too fried off a couple of flares at the towering robot, the darn thing had to stand an easy 25 - 30 ft tall. I didn’t move from my spot till I heard Lennox yell “Epps, let’s go!” and all but hauled him up by his shirt collar. As I headed towards Lennox, Epps and Fig who had by now met up again with Mahfouz and Burke, I turned around to see the robot spread what had been it’s propeller blades on it’s back and launch something out to hit the sand behind it. I was definitely not going to hang around to find out what that thing was either so I sped up and caught up with Lennox and the guys.
I told Lennox what I had observed before mentioning that since that thing was at the south-east end of our base that we head of to the north end and try and find some sort of safe spot to rest and regroup. We all hoped that others had survived this attack and that whoever was responsible for it was now in for major can of whoop-ass coming their way; failure was not an option for us at all.
End Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Somewhere in the Desert of Qatar - A full day after the Attack on SOCCENT Base.
Lennox’s squad had been walking at a fast clip for a full day into the desert of Qatar, and already a few of the squad were complaining about the lack of water and food they had on what packs had been salvaged from the base whilst they were escaping from the destruction that that huge robot-thing had caused.
They were moving between the sand dunes and large boulders, guns at the ready as they tried to find a safe spot to rest, that had some shade and water. Finally after 4 hours of scouring the sand and boulders they made it to the top of a large sand hillock with an old disused tank sat on it, those who could find shade from it’s hulking mass did so, whilst Epps, Lennox, Caliene and Burke were talking and keeping watch out around the base of the tank whereas Fig was sat o the top keeping lookout from the high part of the remaining part of the turret.
“I’ve never seen a weapon’s system like this. The thermal shows this weird aura around the exoskeleton like it’s cloaked by some sort of invisible force field.” said Epps as he finished looking through the shots he managed to get of the robot-thing before handing it off to Lennox.
“That’s impossible. There’s no such thing as invisible force fields except in, like, comic books stuff, right?” commented Donnely as he glanced down at us from his spot on top of the tank with Fig. “Hey Donnely? Where the blazes do you think the writers got the ideas from in the first place? Think about it, the Government and Military have been working on secret stuff out in Area 51 since the mid-40’s and onwards, how do you think we got the stuff we got now?” Answered Caliene as she reached for the camera from Lennox.
Donnely just looked at her slack jawed and then snapped his mouth shut after shaking his head as if trying to grab what she had just told him. Surely she was kidding right? Instead of replying he just sat back down and kept lookout with Fig, whilst trying to wrap his head around everything.
Fig decided to speak up at this point. “I don’t know, Man. My mama, she had the gift, you know? She saw things. I got the gene, too and that thing that attacked us? I got a feeling that it ain’t over.”
“Yeah, I understand Fig. I keep getting the sense that we’re being watched but we can’t see them, who or whatever these things are.” Caliene added as she smiled up at Fig, at least until Donnely put his two cents worth in.
“How about you use those Voodoo powers and get us the hell out of here, huh?” Caliene glared at Donnely after he said that, “Don’t joke about Voodoo, Donnely. There are things that you don’t wanna mess with and joking about Voodoo and any other type of religious magic is just wrong, it may come back to bite you in the ass.” she told him as she reached beneath her shirt and pulled forth her Triquetra and showed it to him watching his jaw drop once again, before he turned away and mumbled something about witches and Voodoo crazy people.
Meanwhile Epps and Lennox were still talking about the camera shots.
“When I took that picture, I think it saw me. It looked right at me.” said Epps as he shook his head as if trying to shake the idea from his brain and having nightmares about the big terrifying robot-thing attacking the base.
“All right, we got to get this thing back to the Pentagon right away. They got to know what we’re dealing with here.” said Lennox as he handed the camera back to Epps for safer keeping.
“My radio’s fried. I got no communication with aerial at all, and I bet ya all the other radios are out of commission too.” said Epps as he took the camera and placed it in his pack on the sand. Lennox walked over to where Mahfouz was stood looking around. “Hey, Mahfouz. How far do you live from here?” he asked the boy as the rest of the squad got ready to leave the tank behind.
“Not far. Just up that mountain.” was the lads reply, and when Caliene and Epps looked at the direction Mahfouz had pointed in, they sighed, more hiking and climbing to come and hopefully it wouldn’t be too much since they were very quickly running low on water.
“Do they have a phone?” asked Lennox, at which point the others smirked knowing that Lennox hated phone calls that weren’t to his wife, or friends. “Yes.” was the response he got from Mahfouz and Caliene then thought about it…. The military should make Satellite Phones mandatory for any Squad out here for emergencies where radios would not be beneficial.
“All right, let’s hit it.” said Lennox and everyone picked up what they had brought with them, which wasn’t at all much, and headed out on the hike to the mountains in the distance where Mahfouz’s family lived and hopefully a working phone to contact the Pentagon with their info of utmost importance.
End Chapter 4
This is all I have for now - but chapter 5 is in the pipeline and will be up here before long.... this is to see what you guys think before i even attempt to post it on FF.net.
Transformers 2007 Movie based story
By Sunstar Crystal
By Sunstar Crystal
Chapter One
Qatar - Middle East, 2007
Captain Caliene Meredith, sighed as she made her way over to the rest of her squad, she was tired, dirty and wanted nothing more than to have a warm shower and just sleep on her cot in her shared tent for the next 72 hours (She shared a tent with the only other 8 females on the base, and they were either Medical or Communications personnel).
Captain Lennox was getting everyone ready for the airlift back to base after a grueling two weeks out in the deserts of Qatar looking for any problems from the locals that had been reported in to the US SOCCENT Base they were currently working out of.
She walked over to the Commander of the squad, the sound of incoming V-22 Osprey’s cheering her up somewhat. “Hey Lennox, looks like the birds are here, everyone is ready to head on back to base, and I really want to put my baby away clean into the armory, this sand just doesn’t help her any.” she said as she patted her M-24 SWS, it was possibly the only thing she could stake her life on other than her squad and Lennox.
Lennox looked at her and smiled, “Yeah, well this blasted sand doesn’t do much for any of our weapons let alone where it gets into the uniforms, Cali. And don’t worry about your baby,” he said pointing at her weapon, “I know you’ll get the chance to clean her right, but after you help me with the reports for the Colonel, all right?” he asked, a slight smirk on his face as he waited for her response - it was well known that Caliene hated paperwork with a vengeance.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up Sir! Just wait till I write to Sarah about your jokes on the squad when you’re bored out of your mind on a mission. Not something she would want to hear now is it, William?” she replied with an evil smirk on her face now - they were constantly bickering back and forth about stuff (all in the name of fun), but it kept everyone from going stir crazy on these missions, Spec-Ops teams were hard working almost all of the time, and it wasn’t unheard of for a few to go completely insane either from the pressure of the job or just because they couldn’t handle the solitude at times.
Caliene knew all about solitude, she was the only female in this squad, but she was the best damned Sniper they had, and she was good at hand-to-hand fights also. It didn’t hurt the fact that she knew some of the languages of the surrounding areas.
Now here they were loading up the last few pieces of their gear, she looked around trying to figure out who was missing as she watched everyone else climb aboard the V-22 Osprey, Lennox turned to her and whistled. “Hey what ya waiting for Cali, get in here they wanna leave and if I don’t mind saying so, so do I.” he said after she looked at him. “Hang on a second, Lennox we’re missing someone again, care to take a guess as to whom?” she asked him as she turned her attention back to a small patch of hillocks about 10 feet away.
“Oh let me guess, either Fig or Epps. And my money is on Epps, and I am guessing you are betting it’s Fig?” came his response. She looked at Lennox, nodded and walked forward towards the Osprey then looked back and yelled over her shoulder, “Anyone who wants out of this sandbox needs to be here in the next 20 seconds and onboard before we either make you walk back to base with all of your gear or sling you from the undercarriage of the Osprey, your choice!” Both she and Lennox laughed when they heard a yelp and cursing in Spanish, yep, definitely Fig, she grinned as Lennox handed her a twenty dollar bill. But the question remained where was Epps? That thought was answered when she reached the seating area of the bird and saw Epps coming out of the cockpit and sitting on the opposite side from her.
Donnely was sat down the same side as Epps, who now had his iPod plugged into one ear and listening to some of his music, she smiled at Donnely seeing as he was younger than her and the others maybe mid-twenties by her guess, whereas everyone else in the squad was late-twenties to mid-thirties, he was sat cradling his rifle almost like she did her M-24, as if it was the most important thing in his world - to most of them it was, they either lived or died with that weapon, he smiled at her as he pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, she nodded at him in return and settled down to think.
Soon after take off a conversation was struck up by Fig and Caliene just sat back to enjoy the ribbing that would happen to him.
“Oh, God, five months of this. I can’t wait to get a little taste of home. A plate of mama’s alligators etouffee.”
“You’ve been talking about barbequed ‘gators and crickets for the past two weeks. I’m never going to your mama’s house, Fig. I promise.” came Epps’ reply as he shuddered a little at the thought of crickets being ate or any bug for that matter.
“But Bobby, Bobby, ‘gators are known to have the most succulent meat.” came Fig’s comeback, Caliene just shook her head as the conversation kept going, “I understand.” was all Epps said as Fig kept on going just this time he had switched back into his native tongue of Spanish. Caliene reached over and slapped Fig on the back of his head as Epps smirked slightly at that and said “English, please. English.”
It was after Epps said that that Lennox went on to add, “I mean, how many times have we…. We don’t speak Spanish. I told you that.” Caliene was trying her damnedest to not laugh, especially since she could speak Spanish, but they all liked to tease Fig about it - it boosted morale for the rest of the squad. It was then that Fig came back at them with his favorite response: “Why you got to ruin it for me, man? That’s my heritage.” then he started rattling off in Spanish again, making Caliene snort with suppressed mirth as she understood what he was saying, Lennox looked at her one eyebrow raised in question, and she mouthed back to him that she would tell him later what was said by Fig. So Lennox decided to respond to Fig’s Spanish outburst again, “Go with the Spanish. Whatever.”
Donnely decided that he was going to add something to the conversation by asking, “Hey, you guys remember weekends? Huh? The Sox at Fenway; Cold hotdog and flat beer.” Fig answered this time in English, “Perfect day. What about you Captain? You got a perfect day?” he aimed at Lennox knowing as we all did he was still highly strung about his wife and baby girl back stateside.
“I just can’t wait to hold my baby girl for the first time.” Lennox said as he tilted his head back and looked at the ceiling of the Osprey. “He’s adorable.” came Fig’s laughing tone closely followed by Epps’ “That’s too….” just to have Lennox face them and tell them “Shut up!” with a smirk, and Caliene just nodded at him until he asked her what her perfect day would be. She looked shocked but she had to be honest she really hadn’t thought about it all that much, the Military was her career since she graduated High School, and after 10 years of service she was thinking of re-upping that fall for another 5 years, gotta love being in an all Military backed family - Dad was Navy, Mom was Air Force, and her, well she was Army all the way - SpecOps no less and of only a handful of women in the group made her folks proud that did.
“My perfect day…. Hmmm, never really thought on it that much guys, but I guess I could say spending down time stateside with Mom and Dad, go fishing, or even make it home for Deer Season - get that 10 point that’s been running around the pastures, maybe give you guys some of the Venison.” Caliene replied as she saw their eyes widen at the mention of hunting, and the possibility of fresh Venison - men they all think with either their guts or their little heads.
They heard over the intercom from the cockpit that we would be landing in about 45 minutes and to make sure everyone and everything was strapped in for landing. Caliene was sooo looking forward to that shower now, maybe some real food and not MRE’s like the past few weeks - they could get rather boring after a while, so Lennox and Caliene checked over everyone and everything and then strapped themselves back in for the landing. Caliene just wasn’t looking forward to the paperwork that was awaiting them once they landed, and apparently Lennox thought the same thing as he cringed - great minds think alike.
End Chapter One
Chapter Two
US SOCCENT Airbase, Qatar
Outside
Caliene’s POV
After the landing and disembarking from the V-22’s we all headed over to the trucks that had been sent to collect us and take us back to ‘Tent City’ as it was known. As we got closer you could here the music blasting in the background, someone had some Rap music playing out of a radio and had it hooked up to the PA system, just hope the Colonel doesn’t find out or someone will be on KP duty, not something I would want, drives you bonkers it does (shudders).
As the trucks came to a stop we all climbed out and headed to our respective areas, Epps headed straight for the Ball Court and started playing against what looked like a Newbie, boy was he gonna loose, especially against Epps - guy played Basketball in college, but decided to join the Air Force after he graduated, guy cold have gone pro he’s just that good.
“Hey I’m ready to do this.” he said as he shucked off his jacket, “Hey, any of y’all grow some balls come see me on the court, man.” he yelled to us as he played, I shook my head and yelled back, “Sorry, Epps, gonna have to do a rain check on that match. Some of us have paperwork and such to actually take care of here, can’t all be slackers!’ making him miss the basket and making the others laugh, and getting a “Hey, hey!” from Lennox as he glared at Epps.
I watched as Sgt. Burke went to the rudimentary open-air shower and pushed other soldiers aside, by saying “Step aside, ladies.” much to their consternation and yelling of “Hey, Man.” I laughed he was a great guy to have in the squad, almost as gun happy as I was - except he actually slept with his rifle on his cot, this bit of info coming from Lennox, so the intel should be accurate.
I went and cleaned up, placed my M-24 on my bunk and left a note for the others in the tent to leave be since she was going to be cleaned when I got back from doing paperwork (I hate paperwork!) Then grabbing my clipboard, pen and the report forms to be filled in I headed on over to Lennox, we could suffer this together. On my way there I met up with the young lad that had all but adopted our squad, Mahfouz, “Hey, Cali, have you seen Lennox?” he asked me as I walked up to him smiling, he’s a good kid, always willing to do anything for us, even getting our water packs filled ready for our next recon and such.
“Yes I have, Mahfouz, follow me and you’ll be able to give him his water pack, alright?” I said to him, he grinned up at me, handed me my water pack and then started to jog in front a little ways, stopping every so often to make sure I was following and that we were going in the right direction. We finally made it over to Lennox and I gentle tapped on Mahfouz’s shoulder and pointed at Lennox who was busy writing up some of his report, Mahfouz smirked and ran over yelling “Lennox!” that got Lennox’s attention as he looked up and smiled.
“Hey, what are you doing?” asked Lennox as he looked between me and Mahfouz. “Me? I’m just doing some of the paperwork we all despise so much and wondered if you’d like the company.” I replied as I sat opposite him on another crate and started in on the essentials of the report.
“Water?” asked Mahfouz as he handed Lennox his water pouch and smiled widely. “Thank you. Are you gonna help with the gear?” asked Lennox as he stood up and stretched out a kink in his back, then turned to face me and Mahfouz. “You gonna come with us, Cali? If I remember correctly you still have an M-24 that needs some TLC before we turn in for the night.” he asked as he took the offered water pouch again from Mahfouz and took a quick swig of the cool stuff.
“Yeah alright, and then once my rifle is clean I’ll collect your report and mine together and hand them in to Colonel Sharp at the Ops Center.” I said as I too stood up and headed on out with the pair to the tents we called home for now, so that I could do what was needed. It was going to be a long day from start to finish, I just never realized just how long or how bad it was going to be.
Later
After helping Lennox and Mahfouz with the gear for our squad, I went and spent a good couple of hours cleaning my rifle - a clean rifle is a working life saving rifle (the life of me and my squad, anyway.)
After all that I headed over to the tents that the rest of the squad used as a home out here, and collected Lennox’s report as offered earlier. Once I had our reports I headed over to the Ops Center beneath and to one side of the Control Tower to hand them in to Colonel Sharp, a fair but strict man who had the respect from almost everyone on his base. As I handed over the reports I heard a (from his number of 3 arm stripes) Senior Airman say: “Colonel Sharp, we have an inbound unidentified infiltrator, 10 miles out.”
Colonel Sharp looked at him and then me as I nodded that I understood he needed to see to this as he reached over and grabbed one of the radios.
“Unidentified aircraft, you are in restricted US Military Airspace. Squawk ident and proceed out of the area.” he said to the pilot of the aircraft, before relaying a request on another frequency to the airstrip. “Raptors one and two, snap to heading two-five-zero to intercept. Bogie is in the weeds ten miles out, not squawking.” This meant that two Raptors were going to identify the intruder incase it was one of ours having radio problems, if not they would be dealt with.
Sharp looked at the radio, nodded and switched back to the frequency used to contact the unidentified aircraft. “Unidentified aircraft, we will escort you to US SOCCENT airbase. If you do not comply, we will use deadly force.” After he said that we all waited to see what would happen. Huh… this had possibly been the most action we had all experienced since we set up here.
“Copy the bogie. Tail 4500 X-ray.” came the response from one of the pilots over the radio. The Senior Airman had been going over a print out of the details for the identified bogie for the past five minutes before he turned to Colonel Sharp and I and said “Sir, Ma’am, says here 4500X was shot down three months ago. Afghanistan.” I shuddered lightly, that had been a bad intel operation, causing the loss of some fine men and one of our Helicopters.
“There’s got to be a mistake. Check again, then recheck.” said Colonel Sharp as he looked at the Senior Airman slightly bemused, hell even I wished that the crew were alive and well, but since we hadn’t heard or seen any indication that they were they were listed as MIA/KIA. One thing I never wanted my folks to go through ever.
“I did sir, A friend of mine was on that chopper.” came the response from the Senior Airman, I could see that it hurt him to say this, must have been a close friend to him then.
As we stood, there we heard one of the pilots talk over the radio. “Unidentified aircraft, we will escort you to US SOCCENT Airbase.” Colonel sharp then turned to the Airman at the Radar terminal and asked, “Radar, where’s the inbound?”
The Airman just looked at Colonel Sharp before answering, “Bogie’s five miles out, sir.” ‘Hmmm,’ I wondered ‘that would make their arrival time shortly before dark, which meant the flood lights would need to be switched to face the landing area near the Control Tower.’
Colonel Sharp looked between me and the Airman, “I’ll be up in the Tower for when the bogie arrives, I want to confirm this thing really is 4500X myself.” he said and headed up the stairs to the main room of the Control Tower. I just hoped that it was going to be a quiet evening, but knowing the ‘Powers of Worse’ it wasn’t to be.
End Chapter Two
Chapter Three
US SOCCENT Base, Qatar
Middle East, 2007
Control Tower
Colonel Sharp was watching out of the observation windows of the Control Tower with his set of binoculars as the bogie flew by to the designated landing area. “4500 X. Something’s not right.” came the response to what he had verified with his own eyes, there was something not quite right about that Helicopter but he could not for the life of him figure out what it was.
He watched as some of his Security personnel went to surround the Helicopter when it landed. “Bogie’s on the deck.” came the voice over the PA System. Colonel Sharp watched with interest as the scene played out as trained.
Meanwhile back in the main control room below the Tower, another Senior Airman noticed something weird with the terminals. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Radar’s jammed. It’s coming from the chopper.” as he turned and picked up the phone next to him to contact the Colonel upstairs. “Sir, we have interference coming from the chopper that is messing with our Radar, we need them to power everything down to stop this.” he said as he updated the Colonel on what was happening.
“Thank you, Airman. Keep us posted on anything else that happens.” said Colonel Sharp as he hung up the phone and grabbed the mic for the PA System. “MH-53 Pilot, power down now.” he watched as the Helicopter blades slowed as it powered it’s engines down. “Have your crew step out or we will kill you.” said Colonel Sharp over the PA System, as his men readied their weapons.
As soon as Colonel Sharp had said that, the Helicopter rotors stopped completely and suddenly, then with a move he had never seen before the Helicopter started to break apart and rearrange it’s parts till it stood up as something he didn’t recognize as other than some sort of robot. By now his troops were shooting at whatever this thing was. “My, God!” was all he could come up with as what happened next left him speechless.
The robot-looking thing started firing at his troops and then he heard a high-pitched whine before ducking as he saw a pale blue pulse wave heading straight out in a circle from the robot. Part of the wave hit the Control Tower breaking the windows out, by now Colonel Sharp was heading down into the main computer area of the building and was now trying to evacuate all the remaining personnel that were there.
Just as he was yelling orders to the remaining personnel the roof of the building was removed and a giant robotic hand attached itself to the Base mainframe, he knew this was not good. “Go! Move! Move!” he yelled to everyone there as he paused by one of the computer terminals, what he saw made his blood freeze; the robot - type - thing was downloading files from the DOD Mainframe, he caught a glimpse of a file with S7 on it and looked up as he heard the robot screech something he couldn’t decipher.
“It’s going after the files! Cut the hard lines!” he yelled to everyone who was running to get out of there. One Senior Airman - probably the same one from earlier, Colonel Sharp’s mind suggested - yelled out “I need a key! It’s locked!” as he yanked on a huge padlock holding the power lever secure.
Colonel Sharp looked around and grabbed a fire axe off of a nearby wall, running over to where the Senior Airman was standing and having him move out if the way. Colonel Sharp then proceeded to hack away at the main power lines to the mainframe and computer terminals. By this time Caliene had run out of the building to her tent for her weapon and pack and was now looking for Lennox and the rest of her squad.
Caliene’s POV
I hoped beyond all hope that Colonel Sharp would survive this attack, he was a great CO to have and no-one had anything negative to say about him, he was a fair but just CO - huh, wish all CO’s were like that, he must be one of the few decent ones.
I had managed to get back to my tent, grab my M-24 and shoved a few MRE’s into my pockets on my jacket and TAC vest, with some extra clips of ammo. Now I was running trying to find Lennox and the rest of the squad, I ducked just in time to see an M-1 Tank fly low over my head and then land on top of a couple of Jeeps, whatever this thing was, was out to destroy our base and so far was doing a damned good job.
I finally spotted Lennox, Mahfouz, Fig and Burke near another cluster of M-1 Tanks, hiding underneath the front portion where there was a slight overhang. I watched as Fig went to grab his gun from his back where he had obviously been carrying it, when I heard “No!” screamed, looking around I spotted Epps with a digital recorder aimed at the thing as he was laid out on the sand between the robots feet, I hope he got enough footage because I doubt anyone would believe we were attacked by a giant robot, that had been a Helicopter.
What happened next shocked me as much as it apparently scared Epps, the robot morphed a fricking huge canon out of it’s chest area. Epps was still scampering backwards away from the robot whilst recording the thing on the digital recorder, I guess he thought that he was done for when I noticed a signal flare hit the robot near it’s face; good idea that since it was night out the robot had to be using some kind of night vision to see us or thermal imaging, which meant that a flare could screw it up really easy, enough so that we could get the heck out of dodge.
I watched from where I was positioned at and saw Lennox head on over to grab Epps, so to help out I too fried off a couple of flares at the towering robot, the darn thing had to stand an easy 25 - 30 ft tall. I didn’t move from my spot till I heard Lennox yell “Epps, let’s go!” and all but hauled him up by his shirt collar. As I headed towards Lennox, Epps and Fig who had by now met up again with Mahfouz and Burke, I turned around to see the robot spread what had been it’s propeller blades on it’s back and launch something out to hit the sand behind it. I was definitely not going to hang around to find out what that thing was either so I sped up and caught up with Lennox and the guys.
I told Lennox what I had observed before mentioning that since that thing was at the south-east end of our base that we head of to the north end and try and find some sort of safe spot to rest and regroup. We all hoped that others had survived this attack and that whoever was responsible for it was now in for major can of whoop-ass coming their way; failure was not an option for us at all.
End Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Somewhere in the Desert of Qatar - A full day after the Attack on SOCCENT Base.
Lennox’s squad had been walking at a fast clip for a full day into the desert of Qatar, and already a few of the squad were complaining about the lack of water and food they had on what packs had been salvaged from the base whilst they were escaping from the destruction that that huge robot-thing had caused.
They were moving between the sand dunes and large boulders, guns at the ready as they tried to find a safe spot to rest, that had some shade and water. Finally after 4 hours of scouring the sand and boulders they made it to the top of a large sand hillock with an old disused tank sat on it, those who could find shade from it’s hulking mass did so, whilst Epps, Lennox, Caliene and Burke were talking and keeping watch out around the base of the tank whereas Fig was sat o the top keeping lookout from the high part of the remaining part of the turret.
“I’ve never seen a weapon’s system like this. The thermal shows this weird aura around the exoskeleton like it’s cloaked by some sort of invisible force field.” said Epps as he finished looking through the shots he managed to get of the robot-thing before handing it off to Lennox.
“That’s impossible. There’s no such thing as invisible force fields except in, like, comic books stuff, right?” commented Donnely as he glanced down at us from his spot on top of the tank with Fig. “Hey Donnely? Where the blazes do you think the writers got the ideas from in the first place? Think about it, the Government and Military have been working on secret stuff out in Area 51 since the mid-40’s and onwards, how do you think we got the stuff we got now?” Answered Caliene as she reached for the camera from Lennox.
Donnely just looked at her slack jawed and then snapped his mouth shut after shaking his head as if trying to grab what she had just told him. Surely she was kidding right? Instead of replying he just sat back down and kept lookout with Fig, whilst trying to wrap his head around everything.
Fig decided to speak up at this point. “I don’t know, Man. My mama, she had the gift, you know? She saw things. I got the gene, too and that thing that attacked us? I got a feeling that it ain’t over.”
“Yeah, I understand Fig. I keep getting the sense that we’re being watched but we can’t see them, who or whatever these things are.” Caliene added as she smiled up at Fig, at least until Donnely put his two cents worth in.
“How about you use those Voodoo powers and get us the hell out of here, huh?” Caliene glared at Donnely after he said that, “Don’t joke about Voodoo, Donnely. There are things that you don’t wanna mess with and joking about Voodoo and any other type of religious magic is just wrong, it may come back to bite you in the ass.” she told him as she reached beneath her shirt and pulled forth her Triquetra and showed it to him watching his jaw drop once again, before he turned away and mumbled something about witches and Voodoo crazy people.
Meanwhile Epps and Lennox were still talking about the camera shots.
“When I took that picture, I think it saw me. It looked right at me.” said Epps as he shook his head as if trying to shake the idea from his brain and having nightmares about the big terrifying robot-thing attacking the base.
“All right, we got to get this thing back to the Pentagon right away. They got to know what we’re dealing with here.” said Lennox as he handed the camera back to Epps for safer keeping.
“My radio’s fried. I got no communication with aerial at all, and I bet ya all the other radios are out of commission too.” said Epps as he took the camera and placed it in his pack on the sand. Lennox walked over to where Mahfouz was stood looking around. “Hey, Mahfouz. How far do you live from here?” he asked the boy as the rest of the squad got ready to leave the tank behind.
“Not far. Just up that mountain.” was the lads reply, and when Caliene and Epps looked at the direction Mahfouz had pointed in, they sighed, more hiking and climbing to come and hopefully it wouldn’t be too much since they were very quickly running low on water.
“Do they have a phone?” asked Lennox, at which point the others smirked knowing that Lennox hated phone calls that weren’t to his wife, or friends. “Yes.” was the response he got from Mahfouz and Caliene then thought about it…. The military should make Satellite Phones mandatory for any Squad out here for emergencies where radios would not be beneficial.
“All right, let’s hit it.” said Lennox and everyone picked up what they had brought with them, which wasn’t at all much, and headed out on the hike to the mountains in the distance where Mahfouz’s family lived and hopefully a working phone to contact the Pentagon with their info of utmost importance.
End Chapter 4
This is all I have for now - but chapter 5 is in the pipeline and will be up here before long.... this is to see what you guys think before i even attempt to post it on FF.net.