Re: The Game: Chapter 02
Xander looks down into his beer, deeply uncomfortable with the situation. For a while he silently watches the carbonation rise in his drink.
I wasn't always in R&D, understand, he says at last, surprising Flux and Battalion, who had gone onto other topics.
I was originally in the corporate security division. Protecting Braeburn assets and all that. Was assigned to satellite properties in developing countries. You know, all the factories built in Africa and Indonesia during the end of the 21st. Anyhow, I was in a suit unit. Nothing fancy, just your standard police anti-riot or light military recon models. Strictly terrestrial, no flighty bits. Xander flits his hand through the air. Corporate liked keeping me in the satellite outfits because I kept their tech running when they couldn't get us their regular spare parts shipments.
Xander takes a hefty swig of beer before slamming the glass back down onto the table slightly harder than necessary. Anyhow, got sent out to the Sudanese Republic during the civil wars a few years back. Braeburn stayed out of the conflict, strictly speaking, but they wanted to beef up security to protect their means of production. A couple months into the fighting, we lost contact with one of our supply and distribution centers. Got taken over by one of the splinter factions. Normally it wouldn't be a huge loss, but apparently we had some prototype tech stored there. I have no idea why the hell Logistics was storing prototypes out in the middle of the Marrah mountains, or why they didn't ship them back to the secure central campus when hostilities broke out, but...what are you gonna do?
Got sent out with a full compliment of stompers and the VTOLs to get us in and out. The plan was to march in, light off some rounds, scare off the locals, and secure the site. Simple enough. We weren't expecting any resistance heavier than some Kalashnikovs, and maybe some blasters. Xander lets out a mirthless chuckle. I have no idea how a bunch of mountain yokels got their hands on anti-tank RPGs, but that was an unpleasant surprise. Older models sure, but still. A suit can take a few hits, but a constant barrage? Doesn't end too well.
We were pinned down in one of the mountain passes leading to the supply dump. Several of our suits were down, and a couple pilots needed medivac. Satellite imagery showed rebel forces moving around to flank us. Not a pleasant situation. Corporate made the call to eradicate the site, rather than reclaim it. Couldn't understand why the rebels wanted it so badly. They didn't even know about the prototypes yet; they hadn't opened the warehouse that housed them, or decrypted the manifest. Anyhow, long story short, I picked up one of the dead suits and used it as a shield to get past the rocket screen. Then, with some covering fire, I linked the power core to the site's backup grid and set it to overload. The backlash set off the fusion reactor.
Boom went the dynamite.
All becomes clear later when Corporate was sifting through the rubble, and started pulling out bits and pieces of body parts. Women. Kids. Apparently, the rebels set up shop their with their families as a refuge. They must have thought we were the government coming to 'cleanse' them. It was a common enough thing during the war. Explained why they fought so hard. Put in my transfer request the next day, and ended up in R&D.
Xander finishes the rest of his beer, and slams the glass on the table so hard it cracks.
Sorry, was that a 'fun' story? I'm not very good that this.
Pushing himself from the table, Xander gets up and walks, slightly unsteadily, from the room in the direction of the hangars.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:02, Sat 15 Nov 2014.
