Operation Grey Thunder

[Korolia]

"Man down, man down!! Get us some help down there, quickly! If anyone receives this signal, pleas-"

The cry erupted from under feet of snow, concrete shielding and metal tunnels, down below the Planetform emitter, down where the missile pad was, re-transmitted up to the surface by powerful radio signals. It froze the blood of all who heard it, especially a certain captain Adams, leading the first group of LMC forces in the missile platform...

Panic, confusion and fear spread through the ranks of the men he lead, and only the firm and solid tone of his 1st sgt calmed his company of men. But his eyes, too, showed doubt.
"Captain, what the hell is going on? There's not supposed to be no one down that shaft!" his sergeant whispered to him discretly as the men set up a defensive perimeter around the emitter entrance.
The officer didn't answer, replying to his radio instead;
"To unidentified transmitter, we have received your distress call, this is Marine Corps captain John Adams, do you read me?"

A long moment of agonizing silence.
"Captain Adams, this is -" the transmission was interrupted by high pitched disruptions that were similar to ones produced by laser weapons, and then was cut short. There was no hesitation now;
"Sergeant Foley, gather the men, we are going in! Private Allan, signal to Home Two; the Rheins are in the missile tubes, if they haven't figured out our joker card, they sure as hell are going to soon!"

--

Few had the chance to witness the process of terraforming from such an upclose perspective. Often, after a planet has been rendered habitable, such monster installations as the gas emitters were abandoned to nature, often forgotten among a new and flourishing vegetation that would grow, replacing the barren lands it once occupied. This one, however, was in full operation, and while already impressive from outside by its sheer dimension - two football stadium the size of the Capital Planet Stadium wouldn't even fit its size - and we are speaking of surface dimension, not even its depth, which crawled within the wombs of the planet, deep down to be self sufficient by draining the energy produced by the planet's molten core heat.

Inside those dark tunnels of steel and titanium, no time was lost to aesthetic; there were no walls that covered the virtually numberless amount of machines that powered the installation. All these automated entities were operating in a near perfect synchronized silence, an eerie spectacle of modern technological advancement.

And in this labyrinth of machines barely accommodated for mankind, walked a company of marines...

Sergeant Foley raised a fist in the air, signaling for his men to halt; the elevator shaft. It was, as far as he knew, the only exit possible from this strange artificial world... So, whoever was down there are still down. He stepped aside, motioning for two men behind him to approach. "Get that elevator checked, make sure it's clean."

The pair jumped in the elevator, inspecting every corner of it, declaring it clear. The company then descended in the elevator in group of a dozen each time, a slow and nervous progression; such silence, covered only by the soft purr of machines, was very alarming...

Very much so.

There was no way it could be seen, hidden among the machines. Suddenly, it was mechanical wheels flying like razor sharp blade everywhere, steel valves collapsing and engines exploding with violent flame tongues in all direction, filling the narrow tunnel with smoke, debris, machine oil and human blood, human pieces, here and there; quite a scene for a massacre. Someone in background yelled "Ambush!!", but it was someone too late for the men who were taking point ahead, blown by the concealed mine.

For sergeant Foley, the scene seemed to go in a very painful slow motion as he saw shrapnel and bodies flying - some in most grotesque, if not totally ridiculous fashion... ahead, small explosions brightened the wall of smoke as shouting in a language, deep and low toned, was issued like orders... his instincts tapped on his humane fear and panic, analyzed the situation rapidly as drills after drills of training taught him. He aimed for the flashes of explosions - those where the gunshots from a laser rifle pointed in his direction, and opened fire as well. The hiss of laser bolts, exchanged...

And then, time came back to very fast paced action, bodies fell, screams were heard, but louder than all, the hiss, again and again produced by the super heated laser bolts... to the ears of a veteran soldier like Foley, it felt nearly familiar, but the alien feel of warfare, would never allow it to become a too familiar face to him. He wouldn't allow it, he thought, as he quickly crawled ahead, inspecting the corridor's intersection.
"All clear!" he yelled, mechanically, as two privates took position to guard the alley.

He stood up slowly, barely believing that just a few seconds ago, people just lost lives...

--

Captain Adams inspected the dead rapidly. 3 men of his company were instantly killed by the mines. Another one had very little chances to make it out, already rushed up the elevator for medical assistance, on a morphine trip. Everyone else was, surprisingly fine, for an ambush in such narrow space.

The five bodies that lied on the other side of the corridor weren't Libertonian. They wore Rheinland standard winter issue body armor, he noted. Not special forces. They were recon. Regular forces. Meaning,
"Rheinlanders have landed en force down here. This is about to get very ugly..."

--

Sergeant Foley nodded grimly as he refilled his rifle with a fresh battery magazine of 100 rounds.
"Chances are, they weren't expecting a whole company to fall on them. These ambushers got their numbers completely wrong."
"Meaning they were here to hold us off while their engineers are trying to set our missiles ablaze..."
Adams and Foley exchanged a quick look, and orders were yelled, immediately. Everyone picked up their weapons and rushed to the next depth, despite the nightmarish knowledge that every corridors might be booby trapped with yet another undetectable mine...

--

"****, what a blood bath..."
"Quiet, private..."
In fact, Foley thought the exact same thing. a ****ing bloodbath...

In total, 15 corpses, all wearing navy uniform were found around what he supposed was the missile control room. The Rheinlanders tried to work their way into the system - the screens showed the self destruction pre-initialization menu, but they were unable to crack the codes for the weapons.

But there was no time for that, not right now. They pushed the cadavers out of their way and rushed forth to the missile room itself in a hurry, regardless of potential booby traps.

--

"Achtu-"

There was simply no strategy involved, truly. Only the drill training that flowed in the blood of each of the men. Sergeant Foley went in first, crashing against the half opened door to the missile room. Inside, the remaining 5 members of the Rheinland recon team were working their way to the missile control chip. Foley opened fire, clipping one of the Rheinlander on his shoulder as the others dropped for cover. Foley's partner, a sharpshooter private entered two exact seconds later, lifted his rifle and threw a shot to the injured man, dropping him cold. The rest of the company entered in the missile room, followed by a massive firefight that ended just as quickly as it began, the Rheinlanders, rapidly overpowered by the sheer number of Libertonian marines.

"All clear, captain." Foley growled grimly as the last of the Rheinlander lied down, his body perforated with holes of dried blood.

--

Back at Home Two, Audrey listened quietly to the report of captain Adams, and ended the transmission calmly.

"Intelligence seems to have underestimated our enemy. Hasten the men" she said simply.
Inside, she felt the cold grip of doubt tightening around her heart.

---

There is no bathroom!