THE FIRST WAVE
I laid on the ground, breathing heavily as Miller approached me. She reached down, smiling at me, and hauled me off the ground.
“Well, I was wrong, it was only three. But its creepy… they all look the same.” She muttered, looking down at the clone she had killed.
I inspected him;
GENERIC NAVY SEAL - NPC
JOB: SPECIAL OPERATOR
LEVEL: 1
THE VAUNTED UNITED STATES NAVY SEAL. THESE SPECIMENS OF HUMAN PERFECTION ARE THE SOURCE OF ALL BADASSERY; ONCE A SEAL, ALWAYS A SEAL AS THEY SAY. THEY’RE SO AWESOME, I JUST TOOK ONE AND CLONED HIM A BUNCH OF TIMES. 100 BADASSES ARE BETTER THAN 1, AM I RIGHT?
I blinked down at the corpse, and grunted. “So they are clones… but… why? And if they’re so badass, how did a couple of brand new trainees kill them?”
Miller shrugged, “Maybe we are more badass?”
I smirked at that. “Sure.”
I took a minute to check my status, and noted that my right arm and shoulder were all completely red. I also noted a small timer underneath my health and stamina bars, focusing in on it.
TAYS TIDBITS
You’ve figured out how to check on your own debuffs! You have unlocked new settings under your options menu to adjust your layout.
O… kay. But what did it mean? I focused in on it again.
MEDICAL KIT COOLDOWN - 30 seconds left
Ah… so you could only use medical kits every so often. This probably stopped players from hoarding them and just spamming them non-stop.
I looked to Miller, “I have a medical kit cooldown from that one you used on me.”
She nodded, bending over the corpse of the seal, looting it. “Yeah, its a five minute timer. I’m not sure if its static, or gets longer the more you use them, so just be careful when you use one.”
She stood up, smiling as she held a couple items in her hand. “Well, I'd say our time was fruitful!”
I walked up and inspected the items she held. In one hand she had some sort of gun, and in the other a rod. I inspected them;
FLARE GUN
Utility Item - Special
AMMO: 1/1
This is a utility item, it takes up a special weapon slot. This item can be reloaded with the proper ammunition. This is a flare gun, it shoots super bright, super hot flares high into the air. Extremely useful for illuminating areas, or just telling your enemies exactly where you are at so they can blow you up.
“Nice! I mean… it's not a flashlight, but we can definitely make use of these I’m sure.” I remarked.
Miller nodded, “They only had the same M-4’s as the recon soldiers, but hey… we have plenty of guns now.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I nodded, as we looted the other two. One notable difference was there didn’t seem to be a leader in this group, unlike the Recon teams.
As my medical kit timer hit 0, I went ahead and used a second of those kits we had found. My HP raised to around the halfway mark, and the pain in my arm and shoulder eased more. As I checked my status the arm and shoulder turned Yellow, and I found I could move them more, albeit still with some pain.
“Alright, I guess we should get going back towards the meet up spot.” I said, but as I looked at Miller I noticed movement in the distance. It looked like a wave of blue moving our way, all in the same fatigues as the Seals. My eyes went wide, and I started moving.
WATSON TO ALL TEAMS: Guys, me and Miller are in deep shit. Need some backup, we are at the Northwest Cache area. We found some flares, we will launch one, but I doubt we will have time to shoot another. We are retreating further west from our position.
In the distance the bright orange ball of light shot into the air. It had to be at least three or four miles away, if Adam’s had to venture a guess. His team had just reached one of the caches on their side of the valley, which was much less obvious than the others they had found thus far. It contained a few grenades, a heavy machine gun, a second map which Slampa gave to Middleton, more medical kits, and a couple of flashlights.
They hadn’t had time to really inspect anything and make a plan when the message came through.
“Shit,” Slampa said out loud. “How long until you need to go, Middleton?”
There was a pause, then Middleton answered. “Seems like 30 minutes, I’ll head to the meet up.”
Slampa nodded, “Yeah, be careful. Adam’s, lets get going.”
Adam’s sighed and nodded. He hated running, but he also hated leaving people hanging out to dry. They had worked so hard to get everyone together, and he felt like their side was way behind the curve after seeing the state of the base they were to assault. How were they supposed to get through so many enemies in a fortified, well defended position? While Skills and Levels were nice, they couldn’t destroy a wall or a vehicle. They needed weapons and equipment.
As Adams followed behind Slampa, heading north along the tree line, he could occasionally see through the trees into the valley. After about a mile, Adam’s saw something that made him stop.
ADAMS TO SLAMPA: Hey, hold up and come back, quick!
Slampa stopped maybe a hundred feet away, turning back to see Adam’s crouched behind a tree, peering into the valley below.
As Slampa came close, Adams pointed, and down below he saw what made him pause; there was a battle unfolding below at the edge of the valley edge. It looked like five soldiers from the base were fighting a group of NPC’s dressed much like themselves. They were firing from behind the cover of an armored vehicle, lobbing occasional grenades, and several NPC’s lay dead on the ground already. They were too far to inspect, it was several hundred feet to the bottom of the valley, and maybe another 100 or so to the battle.
ADAMS TO SLAMPA: Maybe the NPC’s will help us if we help them? They’re obviously on our side.
SLAMPA: Maybe… but Watson and Miller?
ADAMS: If they’re running further West, we might not even catch up to them. We could do more good here. If anything, there's some equipment and experience for us.
Slampa was conflicted. Adams sighed, “Well, you can go help them, or come help me. I’m going in.” The heavy machine gun they had just acquired appeared in his hands. Slampa frowned, and nodded, as they began picking their way down the cliffs.
Stratton saw the flare in the distance, pushing the gas pedal harder as he drove the commandeered Humvee.
When Trainee Stone had done her… whatever move that was, running towards the Humvee, Trainee Stovall was able to take advantage of the opening and pick off the turret operator. Sadly, Stone had been dead long before she reached the vehicle, but when her corpse disappeared the grenade she was carrying rolled forward, exploding just short of the vehicle.
The positive, the vehicle was usable. The negative the grenade had rolled perfectly to render the turret unusable somehow. It was either dumb luck, or just the AI messing with the team. But either way, having a transport was great, and 6 people was its max capacity with someone hanging out the top. Stratton wondered why the AI didn’t deploy these things full of troops, but figured it best not to question their luck.
It took about five minutes to learn how to drive this thing with his assistant's step-by-step instruction, but once he got it going he felt confident. They were cruising at a great clip, chewing up the distance between them and the flare.
They passed what he assumed was the road toward the base, and as he did he realized that the road ended, leading to the rocky, shrub laden terrain they were used to. The Humvee bounced and rocked, feeling like it would tip at any second. Stovall screamed from the turret to stop before he fell out, Lozano in the passenger seat started to dry heave, as Stratton slammed on the breaks. The Humvee skidded to a stop, steam raising from the hood and one of the tires lit on fire, exploding with a loud bang.
Stratton breathed heavily, he almost killed them all. But goddamn was that a thrill, now he knew why some folks kept around those old engine vehicles; things were a blast to drive.
He looked around, taking account of everyone. “You guys alright?”
Prescott slapped the side of his head, “Thats for almost killing us… but good job.”
The flare had faded about a minute ago, but they had to be within a mile of it, easy. The team piled out, making its way in the general direction of the flare.