What if?

May 8, 2008

Xenet 71.43.1 System Msg

TTY31201.05.08

Network Connection Enabled
_____________________________

The mission was supposed to be simple. We were to infiltrate a small Bane operation base located in Crucible on the planet Arieki, and retrieve intelligence. Simple huh? Well lets just say we wasn’t as prepared as we should of been, or at least I wasn’t!

We were all deployed to outpost Prometheus. There General British gave us our orders. “You are to access the Bane’s main terminal in Khulago base and retrieve data. A diversion will be set to assist you in penetrating the defenses. Once you are in the facility you are to hack the system, and download the information. Since the time frame for the diversion is minimal you won’t be able to come back the way you came in, so you then will use a squad waypoint to exit the area, and safely deliver the package back here.”

We had our orders, and we were ready. The diversion was placed on the front lines of the trenches while our squad was dropped in further down of the battle field. Breeze used cloak wave to minimize any exposure to bane radar. We bumped into a few small bane patrol, but quickly resolved any unwarranted conflicts. Grex however want to exam the bane bodies, and we had to drag him away. Once inside the main facility I quickly hacked into the security feed to assure no alarms would go off to alert the bane of our presence. A few bots were left in the facility that Freedo just blew up with some nice grenades.

Once we had enter the main terminal room I started a direct feed into the bane system using my data tools. Once I hacked the system I started the download. What I found being downloaded shocked me! The Bane it seemed not only was using POW’s as machine experiments to fuel their war, but also was using residence prisoners of Earth. Before I could decipher any more of the downloaded information Bane teleporters where activated. All of sudden incoming Bane! I quickly disconnected from the terminal to set up shields, and laid down turrets. Deet laid down cover fire while we were setting up for evac. Scat starting using a radial repair perimeter to maintain our armor. Squid, and Freedo kept the Bane off of Grex as he laid down the waypoint. Once the waypoint was up, Breeze threw down a magnesium flash to blind the Bane as we made our escape.

There were no casualties! No complaints! We did our job, and we did it well… but I couldn’t help but to wonder what if? Could Earth still have survivors? Could the Bane be really using more humans to covert them into killing machines? Could one day we see home? General British soon walked up to me and my squad to congratulate us on a job well done. As I handed him the disk I told him about some of the information on it. I asked him if he thought it was true, and what we’re going to do if so? He looked at me and replied “ There’s a lot of questions to be answered, but who has those answers is the real question."

G. Ford, AFS