Lock-Picking

[SandTrout]

He was tired, very tired. If it weren�t for the stimulants his suit released, he would be laying blissfully unconscious on the hard glacier. He�d had 3 hours of sleep in the last 4 days, and it would have been visible if it weren�t for the faceplate of his reinforced armor.

It was worth it, though. The Vanu hadn�t detected his presence on the continent in the week since the lockdown was secured. He�d run into several other Conglomerate soldiers that remained, but there were too few and too far between to be able to do anything at this time. They continued to relay information to their outfit commanders.

The raid was planed for today, and it was his and the other operatives out here�s job to create some chaos in the Vanu ranks. He had been doing hit-and-run attacks on squads near the dropship center that his platoon had been lost at. He was low on Thumper ammunition, especially the jammers he would need to cover the platoon�s re-entry.

A sudden *buzz* and he jumped forward, while spinning, lacing the space behind him with deadly, magnetically augmented rounds. Despite his efforts, he missed his assailant, a 3-inch long, winged insect that had landed on his upper back. �Calm down,� he whispered to himself, �We can�t let these uppers get you killed now.�

He contacted one of the Conglomerate soldiers that was fortunate enough to possess a stealth suit, one from his outfit in fact. �Woland, are you in?�

�Affirmative SandTrout, take your position, their drop coordinates are at 3 clicks south, 1 click west of Point Patton.� This code was derived from one used in an Ancient-Earth conflict before a satellite system provided commanders with needed information on troop locations.

�Roger that, sir, I�ll send the signal on when we need �check�.�

SandTrout could now see the starting trails of flame from the drop-pods and readied his last 4 jammer grenades in his thumper. He estimated the approximate landing area of the pods and fired the first grenade. The radar display on his HUD gave an error message, which would last a few moments, and block enemy radar from picking up the incoming pods.

As the first pods landed, just inside the effective radius of the grenade, two MAX armors burst out, visually sweeping the area, scatter-cannons at the ready. SandTrout stud up, holding his thumper above his head with both hands. The MAXes looked at him suspiciously, but picked up his IFF signal from his suit.

The rest of the pods landed within the radius of the grenade by the time SandTrout had reached the landing zone. AV MAXes carried some extra ammo in their inventory, and SandTrout accepted their offer like a soldier: thankful, but with a tone that implied �Its about damn time.�

As the jammer grenade was about to fade, SandTrout activated his comm. unit. �King�s Knight to King�s bishop 3.� At that, there was a rumble was not so much heard, as felt in the feet of the platoon. The platoon immediately started in a straight run towards the dropship center, the MAXes activated run mode in order to begin the first phase of the attack.

On the run there, SandTrout switched his Jammers for some frag grenades. When he reached the base, there were several dead Vanu laying on the ground, and one Conglomerate MAX, which was being resuscitated by a medic.

A hacker got the first door open, and tossed in a plasma grenade before it was possible to see anything inside. Everyone cleared from the door and listened to the bust of plasma and splatter against the walls. The screams inside confirmed the presence of soldiers, so Trout shot a couple grenades in, bouncing them off the walls. Their explosions ended the screams. The now-repaired MAXes now entered the building, scatter-cannons blasting infantry while shields blocked opposing shots.

Latching his Thumper to his back in favor of a Gauss, SandTrout entered the complex, Dark-Light-Vision picking up the telltale emistions from a stealth suit. Visual range didn�t mater much in this situation anywise, so he left it running.

�Checkmate.� Came over the Comm. channel, it was Woland�s voice. He had apparently hacked the command console. A set of 5 basic infantrymen equipped with DLV guarded the command console from enemy hackers, while the rest manned the walls in preparation for a retaliatory strike against the base.

Engineers repaired the generators which Woland had destroyed prior to the attack, and then placed mines and manned turrets.

5 minutes latter, the strike came. The first wave was a squad of Threshers and Harassers that the AV MAXes made short work of. There were some injuries, but the hackers accessed the medical terminals to provide easy treatment.

Then came the Lightnings and Mag-riders. They bombarded the base with searing energy and explosive shells, but it was obvious they were only providing suppressive fire to keep the Conglomerate soldiers� heads� down until the sunderers and deliverers arrived. The lack of AV fire from the NC caused the Vanu to think the only AV the invaders had was on the MAXes.

They would be sorely mistaken though. Behind the walls, half of the platoon was preparing Phoenix rocket launchers. A Conglomerate sniper peaked over the edge, then shrunk back behind the walls. He gave a thumbs up and the troops launched their TOW missiles into the air, guiding them toward the Transports and AMS that were approaching the scene. The AMS detonated in the middle of the tank column, causing a great deal of damage.

SandTrout had switched to Plasma grenades and was firing over the wall with only a general idea of where the enemy was. It was enough, however, to erode the last bits of armor on a Sunderer, which killed those which is was designed to protect in its death-throes.

The soldiers then stood up, spraying lead and explosive death down at the surviving infantry and armor. Some Vanu took cover behind the vehicle frames, and a few even managed to get some kills. The NC medics had their hands full reviving the dead, and engineers were busy repairing MAXes and turrets.

Snipers picked off any Vanu who tried to run, and explosives killed those who tried to make a stand. SandTrout saw shimmer in the light behind the last Vanu, and recognized the logo as the suit decloaked. Woland viscously slashed at the Vanu with his Mag-cutter, and dropped a grenade before they tore through his body with energy bolts. The explosion killed the last Vanu.

A squad went out and retrieved Woland�s body to be resuscitated, and everyone restocked on ammo and armor as the base switched sides.

The warp gates were now open, and the Conglomerate troops were expecting the Terrans to make their presence know, as well as receiving more reinforcements themselves.

[Destroyeron]

Pretty good! Anymore?

[SandTrout]

I could, but I've been mentaly exausted this week. That story was downright painful for me to write it when I did.

[SandTrout]

Their next move was for the tech-lab nearby. SandTrout and Woland were sent out first to scout enemy posistions and secure towers nearby.

The Terrans had taken the center in their first move on the continent, and this provided them with plenty of Reavers, Marauders, and Prowlers to partrol the area with. However, they had sence moved on to medical labs and AMP stations in a classic "Blitzkrieg" style of attack.

Woland had captured a air tower south of the base, and SandTrout grabed the gun tower east of the terran base, between the Tech-lab and the NC held Dropship center. Towers had been exchangeing hands a lot since the continent lock was broken, so this did not attract much attention.

The NC had been laying low for a while, leaveing their base only to make ANT drops with Galaxies and resecureing towers. They had conviced the TR and VS that they intended to lay low, so now was their window of opertunity. It was a fragile, narrow window, but it was there.

"Trout, what is ETA on the base?" Woland's voice came over their outfit's private channel.

"1 minute, 30 seconds. You?" Sandtrout responded, their efforts had to be quick, clean, and efficient, or the Terrans might figure out what was going on before it was too late.

"30 seconds, tell me when you're ready, and wait for my signal."

By the time SandTrout reached the base, Woland was already inside, disableing turrets and doors. "I'm ready," SandTrout whispered over his radio. The Terrans had moved on, but there were still going to be some gaurds left behind. Sand was one of the best when it came to hideing non-stealth armor, but there was a limit that kind of skill can be taken to.

"You have go," Woland spoke over their platoon chanel. There would be a loaded galaxy takeing off, heading to this base now. Sand had to act quickly.

He premoved his REC from it's holdster and hacked the door to quickly gain entrance. He then ran through the halls, not woried about auditory detection because of his silent-run implant. He pulled out his gauss, already loaded with AP rounds, and entered the Command console room. As he expected, there was a Terran MAX armor gaurding the console, so he imediately began to spray bullets at the armor, which was caught off-gaurd, and strafed toward a support pillar.

The chainguns riddled the walls and pillar with bulletholes, but the MAX's reactions were not quick enough to do any damage to SandTrout. The MAX approached the pillar loudly, and Sand prayed that Woland was where he was supposed to be.

Then he heard someone yell "Fire in the hole!" He had just enough time to crouch and close his eyes before the bright flash a superheated air sorrounded him. He heard the MAX curse and turn to face the new threat, and proceded to quickly step out from behind the pillar and empty the magazine of AP rounds from his gauss into the back of the MAX, and step back behind the pillar before another plasma grenade exploded near the MAX. SandTrout replaced the magazine on his Gauss and finished off the MAX.

He waved to the bacony where an NC stealth-suit was re-activateing. The soldier jumped over the railing and landed softly, then proceeded to hack the command console while SandTrout scaned the room with Dark-Light Vission. "Thanks, Woland, you saved my ass," Sandtrout thanked the hacker, but man in the stealth suit just looked inquireingly at him, and walked off once the console was hacked.

This curiouse behavior interested SandTrout, but his thoughts were interupted by Woland calling at him from the balcony. SandTrout looked at him and froze, only his faceplate kept his jaw off the floor. "How did you get back up there so fast?" Sand asked Woland.

"What are you talking about? I just got finished dealing with some agiles up here. Nice job with the MAX by the way."

"Wasn't me, had some guy in a stealth suit save my ass. I guess there's still some NC around who haven't met up with the main platoon yet," Sandtrout began to look around for the stealth-suit again.

"No, there aren't I've got every NC opperative located, and there aren't any in the area."

"Ok, whatever, the Galaxy landed yet?"

"Just did, they're unloading the Lightning right now."