Our Secret War

[GeneralTacticus]

Private Charlie McBain, US Marine Corps, sighed as he looked out across the endless expanse of snow and forest for the thousandth time that morning. It didn't matter where you were in this damned wasteland, it always looked the same. Patrol duty here was almost a form of torture, especially picket duty where there was nothing warm anywhere near the patrol route.

He shivered slightly. There was nowhere in the United States that could even vaguely be described as 'warm', but here, in the northern extremes of the country the cold was mind-numbing. He slung his Aztec-made assault rifle over his shoulder and slipped his hands into his armpits for warmth.

He trudged on down the path through the snow for a few more minutes before he saw another uniformed figure walking quickly in the opposite direction. As they got closer he could see it was his friend Corporal Anthony.

"Hey Corporal," he said through chattering teeth, "cold innit?"

"Cold? Cold??" Antony replied with a grin, "Charlie, this is just a nice bracing breeze."

"Damned Eskimos." Charlie muttered loudly.

"I heard that." Anthony said mock-reprovingly, "Inuit, Private, Inuit. How many times do I have to tell you that?"

"Yeah, yeah."

Corporal Anthony, quite clearly, was an Inuit, who were the only ethnic group that really lived up in the northern states. They'd been defeated by the Americans thousands of years before, but as the only thing the U.S. government cared about up here was oil, neither the Americans nor the Inuit had much reason for enmity.

"Seen anything?" Anthony asked, more seriously.

"Not a blessed thing. I don't think anything in it's right mind except a polar bear or a reindeer would want to come up here."

Anthony shrugged.

"See you at the mess room after we finish patrol duty." he said.

"Right."

The two of them carried on their seperate patrol paths and Charlie's thoughts slipped back to the all-pervading cold. It had been no end of trouble when they were setting up the facility, causing fuel to freze in vehicle engines, steel rods to shatter like glass, and causing incredible discomfort to everyone who worked there. Many of those assigned from the southern states had grumbled about having to set this place up in what was best described by the common joke up here:

"What's the difference between here and a freezer?"

"A freezer's a lot smaller."

Still, the order for this base had come from President Lincoln himself in Washington, and you didn't question orders from Washington. Doing so tended to cause bullets to appear in one's head.

He was jolted out of such thoughts when his radio began beeping with the 'Report In' signal, broadcast every ten minutes. He tapped three buttons on his helmet in the correct order and the bleeping ceased. He then glanced around agin at the landscape. He shook his head again, seeing nothing, but just as he did so he spotted movement in the trees. Immediately after that he heard the slight crunching of snow.

Forgetting the cold, he brought his assault rifle up and squinted between the trees, trying to see what was there. He saw another flicker of movement on the other side of the path, and spinning to face it, he caught the slight, unmistakeable glint of the weak sunlight on a gunbarrel.

He knew full well that no-one would be stupid enough to try and pull this kind of thing as a practical joke on him, and guards at this facility were ordered to shoot intruders on sight - assuming they couldn't be captured. He raised his rifle and squeezed the trigger.

Nothing happened. Charlie swore - the cold must have jammed the gun, yet again. He frantically worked the system fitted to the guns of everyone assigned here for just this purpose - but just as his finger went for the trigger once again, he heard the muffled sound of a silenced gunshot, and suddenly felt a bullet strike him in the back of the head. It was the last thing he ever felt.

* * *

I'm working on the next bit right now. Any comments would be appreciated .

[High Lord J]

Great Work! You are keeping it simple in the begining with a little twist. Good read can't wait to see where you are going with this.

[civman2000]

The Russians are invading! With the Canadaians! And the first thing they're trying to do is get the US in an unpopular war with the eskimos!

[The Bloody Baro]

Go Eskimos!! KIll everyone!!!!! Give the Eskimos nukes and THEN let the story get rollin' !!!

[History Guy]

I can't help, it, General Tacitus...but I love it already. Continue this one, please.

Never can trust them Eskimoes. They are always up to somethin'!

[Sava]

I like it write more!

[Metaliturtle]

Yay a cold story for the HOT HOT summer

[Jethro83]

Great story. Definitely keep going.

[GeneralTacticus]

Right. I'm at school currently, but I'll carry on when I get home.

[GeneralTacticus]

Colonel Julius Gnaeus Pompey felt deep disgust as he lowered his silenced weapon, a Pilum-III automatic rifle. Although he had no compunction against killing, like every other member of the Primus Legio Romanis (First Roman Legion), or PLR, the Roman Special Forces, this had come about as result of incompetence... and it threatened to compromise their mission.

He cursed again as another sentry came down the same pass a few seconds later and saw the body. That one died just as he reached for his radio.

"Lieutenant Marcus," Julius growled into his microphone, "how many times must you be told never to do that? If an enemy picket shows up, hide, or if you're spotted, shoot."

"Sorry, sir." Marcus replied. Julius just sighed with irritation waved for the others to follow him. As they did so he kept speaking.

"Now, according to the intel we have on this facility all pickets are checked by radio every ten minutes. It seems that this one just received his, which gives a bit of time. However, once the signal rolls around again, the alarm will be raised."

The others all nodded soberly. He went on.

"This means that we must move to a strategy of maximum force. The time for stealth is over."

* * *

In the security control room for the facility, Officer Walker was getting very tired. Tired and bored. He'd been stimulating himself with coffee for most of his shift, but it wasn't being very effective any more.

His job was to monitor all of the security systems, especially the cameras, but nothing ever seemed to happen. He'd been on the job for almoist eight hours, and in a few minutes his shift would be over and he could get some sleep. He watched the digital clock tick over to 8:00 AM and smiled. As he stood up he saw the RI signal going out again and decided to stay and see if anything went wrong. As it happened, it did. Two sentries failed to report in during the 15 second window period. Regulation called for a full-scale alarm.

He triggered it.

[GeneralTacticus]

When the alarm the alarm went off Julius and his team had already reached a clump of trees near the electrified perimeter fence. Julius was fiddling with a small radio trnasmitter. He switched it on. A few seconds later it gave a small beep and a voice came through.

"234648" Julius said swiftly repeating a pre-arranged code.

"Gotcha." a voice at the other end replied, "hang on a minute."

"It's done," the voice went on, "the power should start shorting out right now."

Even as he said that all the lights in the camp simaltaneously went out. They came back on again briefly then cut out. Julius and the others then sprinted across to electric fence. Marcus pulled out some high explosives and clamped each one, armed, to the fence wires. They would go off as soon as the power returned. Everyone then ran for their lives.

The bombs detonated about ten seconds later, ripping out an entire length of the fence and blowing a huge hole in it.

* * *

The faceless figure from the other end of the radio broke a small smile of contempt as he saw the pandemonium throughout the base, hears the blaring sirens. The Americans had been too arrogant for far too long, and they would pay dearly. This was just the beginning...

[Metaliturtle]

EXCELLENT STORY I hope the faceless figure is the only gay eskimo

Tenacious D is the shizznittle bam Schnipp Schnapp snappa

[johncmcleod]

More More More More More!!!! I love it already. Please write more! And for the record, I take back everything I say if you beat me in the story contest for Round 9 .

[GeneralTacticus]

After the heat of the explosion died down the twelve Roman commandos sprinted back toward the fence and through the gap. There was little organized resistance, as no-one in the facility actually knew what was happening. Several of the sentries were running around aimlessly nearby, frantically trying to figure out what was happening. The Romans shot them all without a second thought.

As they entered the grounds of the facility Julius was trying to remember the map that they had been provided with. The entrance to the area of the facility they needed to access was near the end of the main road into the base, but he couldn't see it...

'There.' He thought, as he spotted it. He turned to two other members of his unit.

"Seargents Decimus and Tullia, we need a diversion while we break into the base. I want you to use grenade launchers to blow up the fuel depot over there. That should keep them hopping long enough for us to get in. Join us as soon as you can."

"Yes, sir, right away." Tullia replied, and both she and Decimus sprinted away, heading for the fuel tanks while keeping close to the building walls. They both pulled out their grenade launchers as they ran.

It didn't take them long to get in range. When they did they each fired three well-aimed shots, the rockets boosters fitted to each grenade flaring into life as they left the barrel.

When the barrage struck the tanks and detonated, the result was nothing short of spectacular. Four of the grenades all struck the same tank, which exploded in a searing fireball and ignited the other tanks around it. The whole area went up in a gigantic firestorm, which ignited numerous other things nearby as well.

The two Roman soldiers grinned at each other; they had done their job even better than they had expected. This would have to be the diversion of the century. Before either of them could speak, though, another huge blast rocked the base. Their heads snapped round to see that the initial blast of the fuel tanks had shattered the wall to an armoury of some sort, Which was now also exploding. Even as they watched, more detonations ripped through it, most likely deafening anyone nearby. they two of them grinned again before running off to rejoin their unit.

While the two other commandos had been creating a diversion, the rest of the team had not been idle. They had shot two more of the sentries and reached their entrance without difficulty.

Julius pressed the 'open' switch next to the door and smiled as it wooshed open without asking for verification. Their contact had done his work well; the security systems were all offline as well.

As he and the other nine soldiers sprinted inside, Julius checked the immediate vicinity. There were no guards; they were in what looked like a large hangar and loading bay, presumably for supply delivery to this base. This impression was confirmed upon a more careful inspection by the presence of a pair of supply helicopters and several forklifts, along with a large side door marked 'storage'.

Several of the other troops pulled out explosives and started toward the choppers and forklifts. One of them gave a questioning look to Julius. Julius nodded.

"Yes, set the explosives, but set them on a five minute time fuse. We don't want to attract too much attention to our entry here yet."

The explosives were quickly set and armed, and the whole unit moved toward the door marked 'storage'. There was a lever next to it which raised it quite quickly, and they stepped into the room on the other side. As they did so Decimus and Tullius ran in through the door to the loading bay.

"Hurry up and get over here," Julius said over the radio, "the choppers and forklifts are set to blow in a few minutes."

The two of them sprinted across the bay even faster and arrived with the rest of them in under 30 seconds, out of breath. They stood panting for a few seconds before they recovered and they all began looking through the storage area.

It was stacked floor to ceiling with crates marked 'supplies', with more detailed labels underneath. Julius turned up the magnification in his helmet visor to get a better look and recorded it all on the camera built into it:

Supplies

Handle with care

Electronics

Shipment desig. 4826


Supplies

Machine Tools

Shipment desig. 2560


Supplies

Handle with care

Radiation shields

Shipment desig. 992

[civman2000]

[Metaliturtle]

Please request membership in the union, this story is SWEET.

[GeneralTacticus]

'Hmmm,' Julius thought as he looked over the other crates, 'this is starting to look suspicious. The only thing our contact was able to tell us was that this base was very important and that it had something to do with the new American weapons program. Now it looks like this program involves space quite extensively. Virtually everything here seems to be space-related in some way - hang on, what's this?'

'This' was a lead-lined crate that looked as though it had only recently been moved in. Julius read the label and caught his breath.

Supplies

WARNING: RADIOACTIVE

Enriched Plutonium

This was the last confirmation of the fears of Rome: that America was in the process of devloping a nuclear arsenal. The next boxes confirmed an even deeper fear: tanks of deuterium, high explosives and a complicated device for simaltaneously detonating explosives held in a sperical shape - something useful solely in detonating nuclear warheads. The Americans were building no mere atomic arsenal, but a thermocnuclear one, no less.

Even as Julius found this disturbing information, the explosives set earlier detonated. Almost simaltaneously with that guards burst into the loading bay. Julius' unit had become scattered through the storage area, and if they were caught unawares they might be massacred.

"Everyone!" he almost yelled into his radio, "The guards are here! We have to regroup, fight our way out of here and complete the mission! Everyone go to the opposite corner from the entrance!"

There was chorus of acknowledgement as everyone ran for the designated meeting point.

When they all arrived, Julius took stock of the situation. Everyone was still alive and unhurt, which was a relief. They still had most of their ammunition and all of their weapons, though Tullia and Decimus had used up numerous grenades previously.

"Hey, Colonel," one of the other soldiers, Lieutenant Flaccus, called, "I found another way out of here."

"Where?" Julius asked.

"Over here." Flaccus replied, gesturing toward a small door nearby.

"Good work Lieutenant, now there's no need to fight those guards at all."

Flaccus opened the door and the rest of the unit filed though before looking up and down the corridor which the door opened onto. There was a camera at either end, but like the rest of the security network, they were offline.

[civman2000]

BIG NUCLEAR ACCIDENT: Spies infiltrate nuclear base, America's sinister plans revealed!

[The Bloody Baro]

SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[GeneralTacticus]

"WOULD SOMEONE KINDLY TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!?" roared Colonel Wilcox, commander of the facility, "I GET WOKEN UP AT EIGHT AM WITH ALARMS GOING OFF, THINGS EXPLODING AND NOW SECURITY AIN'T WORKIN. WHAT THE **** IS GOING ON HERE?"

His assistants glanced at one another nervously. Being in charge of the restricted facility meant that as long as he followed orders from Washington, he was essentially an absolute ruler here and could do what he liked. He was quite touchy and had been previously executed several assistants after an unfortunate accident with a helicopter refueling had been taken for an act of sabotage. Since then his assistants had tried their utmost not to show any initiative that might find annoying.

"Ah, Colonel," one of them said quietly after a little while, with Wilcox glaring at him, "No-one here is really sure. Apparently two sentries were reported missing at around 8:00, and the alarm was raised. Almost simaltaneously, the power began shorting out and then someone planted explosives on the fence, blowing a damn big hole in it. They've blown up the fuel tanks, the armoury and some of the equipment in the loading bay and we have no idea where they are now."

"Why not?" Wilcox hissed back.

"Security is offline, we can't reactivate it and they've shot anyone who gets in their way, sir."

Wilcox glared for a moment longer before leaning his great bulk over his desk and pressing a switch. A second later the two guards from outside the room stepped inside.

"Yes sir?" one of them asked calmly.

"Take this incompetent fool outside." Wilcox snapped, pointing at the assistant who had given him the report, "Then shoot him. Give his body to the dogs."

"At once, sir." the other replied, and the two of them stepped forward, grabbed the unfortunate assistant by the arms and then dragged him outside, his face white. A moment later there was a gunshot, then the sound of the guards dragging something down the corridor. The other assistants winced.

"Now that that's dealt with." Wilcox said grumpily, "I eant you to go out, find out what's happening and then report back when you find out. AND DON'T YOU DARE COME BACK UNTIL YOU HAVE!"

They glanced at each other again before scampering our of the room as fast as they could.

* * *

The Roman commandos arrived near their objective with little difficulty save for a few enemy guards - all of whom died - But they could see that getting through the entrance would be very difficult. There were dozens of guards surrounding the entrance, which sat in a large square bunker with anti-aircraft, anti-tank and machine guns mounted on it and scattered nearby, plus another electrified, barbed wire fence. This was going to take some very heavy firepower...

[johncmcleod]

I bet inuits who have been in hiding for a very long time come in and help save the day and America wins.

[GeneralTacticus]

"All right, everyone," Julius whispered into his radio, "this is going to be tough. Tullia, Decimus, Flaccus and Marucs, get out your grenade launchers. There are total of 14 heavy wepons positions that have to be neutralised. I figure that we can take out 8 with the grenade launchers before they can shoot back. At that point we get back into cover, wait for the shooting to stop, then take out the rest of them from another position. After that, we can take out the troops."

"Sounds like a good plan to me, sir." Decimus muttered in reply, as he and the other three pulled out their launchers, aiming them at their first targets, while the rest of the squad drew beads on the infantry.

"On my mark." Julius whispered again, "Three, two, one, mark."

In that instant all hell broke loose.

The entire squad broke cover and each of the four grenade launchers hurled three rounds in quick succession, before changing targets and repeating the process. Meanwhile the rifles of the others spat death at 300 rounds per minute, mowing down more than a dozen guards almost instantly. Within 10 seconds Julius' set target of eight destroyed heavy wepons was acheived and the entire unit ducked back, instants before what weapons that remained blazed into life against the positions the commandos had held. Meanwhile it seemed that every one of the guards in the compound was now laying down the a hailstorm of firepower around the Romans' hiding place.

"What now, sir?" Tullia asked, "we can't follow your plan of moving positions if they keep shooting at us."

In response, Julius pulled out what was known as a 'flasher', a grenade that, upon detonation, would create a near-blinding flash of light to confuse and disoreint an enemy, as well as a pulse of energy on other parts of the spectrum to temporarily cripple scanning equipment. He then pulled the pin and hurled it around the corner. It was followed by two more, thrown by other members of the unit. A few seconds later the grenades detonated, and the shooting stopped almost instantly as the Americans instictively winced away from the light, covering their faces and dropping their weapons.

Acting on a mutual impulse, the entire unit then burst out into the open again and opened fire on the half-blinded defenders. This attack was to be less of a success.

Although none of the American guards could see properly, those manning the surviving heavy weapons - anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, the machine guns having been the first target - could still shoot, albeit inaccurately. This they did.

Julius felt the first true fear he had yet experienced on this mission when one of the anti-tank gunners looked up with pained, hatefilled eyes and reached for the firing lever. Julius was already aiming, but he was too late. At the exact instant that a hail of rifle fire reduced the man's head to bloody pulp, his hand fired the gun.

[johncmcleod]

Yeah, go Americans!! And that's flashbang, not flasher.

[GeneralTacticus]

Whatever. Anyway, this is the Romans making up the names, so it's not necessary to use the existing names.

[GeneralTacticus]

Julius threw himself flat as he saw the armour-piercing shell hurtling in his direction, and was most relieved when it hurtled over his head and blew a rather large hole through the wall behind him. However, As he got back to his feet he could see that not only were the guards starting to recover, but the last two remaining heavy weapons - anti-aircraft guns - were also firing.

The first shot fired flew over the heads of the Romans... as did the next two... but the fourth one was devasting.

It had been aimed perfectly, and from the second that it left the gun barrel it was quite clear to Julius that nothing on earth could save the two commandos it was aimed at - Marcus and Tullia. This realization only just had time to sink in to his mind when the shell hit, scattering shrapnel everywhere. He saw that it rather ironically killed more Americans than it did Romans, but this was small comfort - both Marcus and Tullia were killed almost instantly by the shell blast. When the bodies landed he couldn't even recognize their faces.

Julius stared at the broken bodies of his two fellow commandos for only a second, but it was enough to implant one overhwelming desire in him: Kill the gunner who had fired that shot, and the leader who had forced this raid and resulted in this...

As the first object of his anger was right within his mield of vision, he lifted his gun and let rip without a second thought. The gunner and the other two americans who were operating the gun were all killed, seconds before Flaccus fired another grenade volley that finished off both the AA guns.

The gunner he had been aiming for now dead, Julius looked around at the rest of the squad. Their situation appeared good: even as he watched, the last of the American guards were cut down rather inefficiently but very effectively. Only one of them, Decimus, appeared to be wounded, although the others seemed to have used up a lot of ammo.

Satisfied that there was nothing seriously wrong in the team, Julius strode toward the bunker concealing the entrance and waved for the others to follow him. As he did, involuntarily, he relived that last flash of time as he saw that American shell come whistling through the air and detsroy the lives of two dear friends. And he felt again that deep surge of hatred, hatred of Lincoln and the America he ruled, hatred of his megalomanical scheming. He wanted to look Lincoln in the face and kill him.

His reaching the bunker door pulled him from his thoughts. He examined it. It appeared to be made of stainless steel, locked like a bank vault. There was a keypad mounted in a protective alcove next to the door. Julius reached out Pressed the 'open' button at the bottom of the pad. It bleeped at him:

ERROR: INCORRECT CODE ENTERED
ACCESS DENIED

Julius sighed and keyed in a random sequence of digits, then pressed the 'open' key again. It flashed the same message at him. He sighed again in frustration: clearly this door operated on a different network to the rest of the security systems. They would have to blast it open. At that point he heard a voice in his radio again.

"Hey, Colonel, how's the op going?" it was their contact inside the base.

"Not bad." he said back, making his evaluation on mission rather than personal grounds, "However, we're stuck outside the entrance to the underground facility. Can you switch the lock off?"

"Sorry, man, no can do. It can't be switched off. However, I can probably give you the code if you give me a sec."

"OK."

There was some typing from the other end of the radio before the voice came back.

"Got it, Colonel. Type in 205308."

"Thanks heaps. I'd hate to have to blast my way through here. How often is the code changed?"

"'Bout once a month or so. It takes hours to change the code, so there's no need to worry about them changing it and locking you in there."

"Right. Entering code now."

Julius tapped the code into the pad and yet again pressed 'open'. This time there were a few *THUNK* noises as the heavy bolts were removed and the door hissed open. As the commandos stepped therough the door and into the bunker, there was a sudden explosion of sound from the other end of the radio.

"MAJOR O'REILLY, YOU ARE UNDER MILITARY ARREST FOR TREASON AGAINST THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. COME QUIETLY AND YOU WILL BE ASSURED OF A SPEEDY DISPENSATION OF JUSTICE."

Major O'Reilly, it seemed, was not coming quietly. There was a sharp *SNAP* as he punched someone in the face, followed by a pair of gunshots and then the sound of a shotgun firing. An instant later there was a soft splattering noise as blood was splashed all over the place. The radio went dead.

"OK, team," Julius said sadly, "it looks like we can expect no further help from Mr O'Reilly. We will have to complete this mission on our own."

The others nodded as they entered the bunker.

[unscratchedfoot]

This story is very cool. I was expecting that the gunfire heard over the radio was O'Reilly taking out the guards and blowing them apart instead of the other way around.

[civman2000]

[GeneralTacticus]

Once inside, the commandos conducted a thorough examination of it. It's thick were broken only by a hendful of firing slits - firing slits that clearly weren't generally manned, as there had been no-one there when they attacked. Other than that, the place appeared very sparse, with the sole exception of what stood in the centre of the room: A large, cylindrical elevator, which was presumably the entrance to the underground section. Julius shrugged and stepped into it, with the other commandos behind him. There was another keypad set into the wall of the elevator, but upon closer inspection, to Julius' relief iit turned out not to be another code entry pad but merely a floor selecter.

"Hmmm." Julius pondered for a moment what floor they needed to go to. The map that they had been shown had not included anything inside the underground section, so that was no help to them. Eventually he shrugged and pressed the button immediately below the top. The elevator door slid shut behind them and it then moved soundlessly down the shaft. After a brief interval the elevator came to rest and the doors opened with a ping. The commando team stepped out through the doors...

And found themselves staring down the barrles of assault rifles held by half a dozen scared-looking guards.

"Don't move," one of them said, his voice trembling, "or we shoot. Private Jones, raise the alarm."

One of the guards, presumably Private Jones, detatched himself from the group and walked over to the alarm switch on the wall nearby. Julius' eyes flickered to it and saw that it was still on: evidently the security systems here operated on a different network to the ones above.

He was only half-way there, however, when Julius gave a subtle hand signal and the entire team simaltaneously pulled weapons on the Americans. Within the space of a heartbeat, every single American had at least one gun aimed at his head. Julius was aiming at Jones.

The Americans' first reflex response had been to tighten their fingers on their triggers, but the sudden appearance of a mass of gund pointed at them left them completely stunned. A second later the Romans eliminated that confusion by opening fire and shooting down all 6 of the enemy guards.

[Tassadar500]

is that the end if so then it by all means isnt very good

[GeneralTacticus]

No, it's not the end, I just got very delayed in writing up the next bit. Here it is.