Call of Duty - Equestrian Warfare

by ChromeRegios

Extra 1 - Ground Zero

“Sergeant!” Corporal Craft calls out to his superior.

“Report!” Sergeant Williams replies to his subordinate, who is running up to give information.

The lower-ranked NCO does not have good news. “Sir, we have checked and double-checked the blast perimeter for bodies of the missing team, but there’s nothing there! We can’t find any trace of Lieutenant Vasquez or Sergeant Paul Jackson, sir!”

Williams can only groan and shake his head. The senior noncom is having a very bad day. Not only has a large portion of the rebel force somehow disappeared in the wake of the blast without a trace, but some of his men have vanished as well. Even their tanks and Humvees have been somehow seemingly completely erased from existence not only at Ground Zero, but also from well outside the blast’s immediately lethal radius.

“Dammit, Corporal, this doesn’t make any sense! I mean, how could over a thousand marines and rebels disappear without a trace along with their vehicles? Even if they were killed by the blast, we should at least find the wreckage and bodies! But there’s nothing! NOTHING!” Williams slams his fist down, about to lose his mind in the recovery mission the general has given him. He thought it was an easy enough assignment; his orders were simply ‘Get the bodies, sort them out, I.D them and get out, decontaminate yourself and your team afterwards.’ but he thought wrong, and his superiors were getting even more exasperated than he was the more nonsensical news he give them.

After another hour of searching the entire area, he finally stumbles upon something—the wreckage of a CH-46 Sea Knight transport. He looks up the identity of the fallen chopper from his uplink to Baseplate, pulls up its last order set and finds out that it was assigned to the missing Lt. Vasquez of the USMC 1st Force Recon, which had crashed in the wake of the nuke attack…

“Finally, something…” he exhales sharply, but his relief is short-lived. “But if this is their transport… Then where are their bodies?” Williams stands at the same place where Jackson supposedly died as he gazes up to the sky, wondering what has become of his friend. He still remembers the frantic radio feed from both the NEST team and Baseplate on that tragic day…

Knowing what was about to happen, and that there was nothing he could to to save them…

---

2 days earlier

NEST (Nuclear Emergency Support Team)

Attempt to disarm the nuclear device

“Baseplate, This is Kilo 1 of the NEST team! Confirm that we have a nuclear threat in the capitol! I repeat, we have a confirmed nuclear threat in the capital! We advise that the remaining marines in the field disengage and retreat to the north while we disarm the bomb, over!” Sergeant Utah alerts the entire Base about the nuclear bomb they just uncovered, assembled and put there by the rebel fanatics of Vladimir Makarov, likely intended to both cover their tracks and inflict as many casualties on the marine attackers as possible.

The Baseplate radio operator swallows hard, but to his credit, keeps a level voice. “Roger that Kilo 1; we’ll give our boys an immediate heads-up, out!”

Utah hangs up and turns his attention back to the jury-rigged bomb before him. He instructs PFC Johnson on how to disarm the bomb as Utah looks for the correct wire to cut… or tries to. Halfway into the process, they have the casing open and internals exposed, arriving an inner circuit that consists of three wire segments, each with its own role and colors—one Red, one White, and one Green. He knew one of the wires triggers the detonation while the other starts the nuclear fission reaction. And the third…

The third would simply move them along to the next link in the electronic chain that might lead to eventual disarmament.

His heart going a mile a minute, Johnson is having a hard time waiting for an order on how to proceed, as Utah keeps changing his mind, getting conflicting data from his computer on which is the third wire, his readings on the bomb confused, except for one irrefutable fact:

The bomb is counting down 5 minutes to detonation.

He shakes his head in frustration, just grateful they had a few minutes left. “Command, This is Sergeant Utah reporting. We need some more time to disarm this thing! Have you all told the friendlies to retreat from a minimum safe distance until we give the all clear?” Utah radios Baseplate as he continues to monitor the situation, getting an affirmative answer before turning his attention back to his computer screen and the life-and-death matter at hand.

“I’ve got it! Johnson! You need to cut the red~”

Before he can finish the sentence, the bomb is triggered remotely by a watching rebel on his leader’s orders and explodes, instantly vaporizing Johnson and Utah in a blinding flash of light.

---

The blast killed the entire NEST team, to say nothing of countless marines, rebels and civilians. Williams was on the top floor of a 15-story building and 10 miles from the blast.

His flesh seared and left eye momentarily blinded by the flash, all the Sergeant could do was listen helplessly to the panicked calls of the rescue choppers caught in the blast and thrown down to the earth, presumably killing all inside. The shock wave reached their outpost just a few seconds later and broke more than a few windows, but that was minor damage compared to the carnage closer in, the death toll of their fellow soldiers in the field. Early estimates were over 20,000 dead, and that number was fully expected to climb…

Or would if Williams could find the mysteriously vanished vehicles and bodies.

His failure to do so is exasperating if not outright infuriating. Nevertheless, he has his orders and does his best to carry them out, searching for his lost friends and comrades. Where ARE they? He asks again again frustration. It’s almost like they’ve vanished right off the face of the earth…

Comments

[ANTIcarrot]

PFCs are fat too low ranking to be allowed near nuclear weapons.

Nukes require very precise timings to initiate the first stage fission process. If one is actually ticking, you don't defuse it by cutting a wire, you neutralise it with a very non precise premature detonation; such as a slab of C4 on the side, or impact from an RPG-7, or with mass fire from automatic rifles or machine guns.

[Earthpatriot117]

Hudson can be saved. The stone can be reversed.

[K Bird]

nest team? nest team from king of fighters?

[Edguy0009]

134630
OR Liquid Nitrogen.

[grim dash]

If only he knew

[miniluigi2007]

call of freaking duty