NationStates Jolt Archive

"What the hell are we doing? It's forty below without the wind and we're in a frozen wasteland. What the hell is the Emperor thinking?" Sergeant Scott was part of a Layartebian Black Ops unit, one that was working in the frozen wasteland of Jangian Antarctica. The goal was the takeover of the territory for Layartebian control, what degree that was, however, wasn't known just yet. They had landed about an hour and a half ago, by way of submarine. A Layartebian Scythe Class sub was in full transit for some time, now they were ready. The sixteen men comprised two teams, both independent of the other.

Estimates resistance in Jangian Antarctica was barely any, after all, it was a frozen wasteland! There were two scientific bases, one about fourteen miles from the coast, the other about four hundred miles from the coast. They would attack the closer base first and use its helicopters and/or vehicles to get to the other base. Resistance would be futile.

OOC: More to come. At school on a piece of crap computer.

Jangian Antarctica, Marie Byrd Land for short, was full of mountains and dangerous peaks. The weather was currently calm, dark, and about forty-five degrees below zero, certainly not desireable weather. But alas, it wasn't that bad. From the coast though it was definitely not a fun walk, four miles in total. The sixteen men were all bundled up heavily. As they walked onward, through the miserable cold, they saw, in the distance, the science lab. It was a large complex, large enough for a few thousand people. Best reports put only about eighty to one hundred and forty inside the complex. The complex was completely self-serving, a community to itself. It had medical facilities, communications facilities, air filtration systems, its own power source that came from a combination of wind, solar, and water power.

It was white, meant to reflect as much of the sun's light as possible, which drove the photovaultic arrays. During the winter, when the facility was subject to darkness, it was powered by a combination of wind and water power. The system was complex and expensive, probably what caused the Jangian government to cease its control over the land. Only these two outposts remained. Neither one of them probably could mount an effective fight against the sixteen men of Force Spectre.

They were carrying, per team, six M30A3 Assault Rifles with two hundred and ten rounds each, eight M33A1 Pistols with sixty-four rounds each, one M35 Light Machine Gun with six hundred rounds, and one M36 Sniper Rifle with one hundred rounds. Both teams carried the same weaponry. In addition, each man had a Seal Knife 2000, three M67 Fragmentation Grenades, two M84 Flashbang Grenades, one M14 Thermite Grenade, and one M43A6 Submachine Gun with ninety rounds in six, fifteen-round magazines. Communications equippment was standard and their armor was the usual.

As they approached the compound, something looked amiss. They had recorded life there only three days ago. But, for some reason, there didn't appear to be anyone in the place. Granted it was completely inside, the usual experiments that would have been done around this time were not being done. Something was wrong...

"Alright this is wierd." They had forgotten about the horrible cold. "Something really isn't right. Why isn't there any activity? Could they be expecting us?" They were cautious now, very cautious. "Alright we're going to check this place out and do it now. We're a rescue team from the government."

"Sir, do they know the government compound doesn't exist?"

"Unknown. Take caution."

"Roger that." They were at the main entrance, a steel door that was weather-proofed to the max. They stood closely by it, thinking about their attack. It was just hand signals now, nothing would be said. As the commander of Team Eight went to open the door he found it to be unlocked.

"It's unlocked. Something definitely isn't right." They moved slowly into the main hallway. The compound was big, very big. They'd have to split up to search it effectively. But they didn't get more than six feet into the door when they saw why something was out of the ordinary. What they saw were bodies, at least eight of them, just lying in the main hallway. "What the..." The commander looked at the mutilated bodies. "I've seen wolves leave bodies in better shape than this!" He was apalled. "Alright men, guard up. Split up. Eight on me, Nine go through that way. If anyone is alive make sure they are kept that way. We need to find out what the hell happened here. Understood?" They were in agreement...

tag

cold chill to my bones.... ;)

The men walked through the corridors of the compound. As they got deeper into it, it got colder inside, significantly colder. "What do they have the air conditiong on?" They remarked themselves as they stepped over mutilated and disgusting bodies. They hadn't seen a body completely intact since they had first entered the compound.

"Sir, what kind of animal could do this?" One of the men in Team Eight asked his commander.

"You've got me. Just keep your weapon on auto. I doubt a single bullet is going to stop this thing."

"Me either." They moved slowly, checking every room they passed. They were all labs. Blood was everywhere. Team Nine had got to the kitchen and the main mess hall, the bloodiest of all the places in the entire compound. The west wing of the facility were the living quarters, including the mess hall, the kitchen, and the barracks. The east wing was the scientific area. It was hard to tell which wing was worse.

"Movement..." One of the men from Team Eight said, as they passed by another pair of doors. "Over there. Looks like door eighteen. You think sir?"

"I'm not sure. Let's find out." They moved towards the door slowly and quietly, their weapons up on their shoulders, staring down the sights. They had pulled off their scopes and went to iron sights, it was too close quarters to be using scopes. "Alright. I'm going to open, defensive positions."

"Roger that sir." We're ready. Six men were lined up around the door, all in a sort of horseshoe pattern each covering the door. The team leader was behind the door, about to open it, the eighth man covering him. Standing and crouched, the six men at the door controlled their breathing. It was life or death for them.

The commander yanked open the door, pulling with all of his might. Then men stood waiting, the second or two it took for the door to swing fully open being the longest of their collective lives. "Sir. We've got a live one!" One of the men said. "YOU! DON'T MOVE! STAY DOWN!" They were looking at a man in a lab coat, covered in blood, scowering the floor for something. "STOP MOVING I SAID!" The man stopped immediately and put his hands up.

"Please don't shoot. I'm not infected. I'm not one of them. I'm a scientist." He had rehearsed this. "Please don't shoot. I'm not infected..."

"Infected? What are you talking about? Are there others?"

"Yes but they're infected." The scientist hadn't turned around yet.

"Two inside. Watch the corners." The team leader said as he and the other six men secured the door and the corridor. "You two, the door, you two that way, me and you that way. Get on it!"

"We're coming in. Don't try anything or we will shoot you."

"Understood. I am unarmed." As they stepped in, they saw the bodies of three other scientists, mutilated beyond belief, lying in the corner.

"What happened here?"

"You'd better shut the door. You don't want the infected coming in here."

"What do you mean?"

He turned around to reveal a horrible wound on his shoulder. "The infected ones. There's three left still."

"Where are they?"

"I don't know."

"What are they?"

"Come in, I'll tell you. Trust me I'm not the enemy."

The commander outside looked at his men. "Let's do it. We're safer in there then out here exposed. Move in. Door first, one by one."

"Roger that sir." The men moved in and shut the door behind them.

"Alright tell us what happened, doctor?"

"Doctor Chambers. Boy am I glad you guys finally came. We sent that distress call two days ago."

"Yeah well it's been hell out there."

"We dug something up, some sort of lifeform. It was in the core sample. Depth was, wait let me think." He paused and tapped his chin, looking up at the bloody ceiling. "It was twelve hundred meters down. It was something black, an oil thing. We pulled up a lot of it, two liters I think in all. It wasn't more but it wasn't less than a liter. So we thawed it out to test it and it became alive. The oil, it just became alive! I don't know what the hell it was. It possessed the men in the lab, all eight of them. Then they started killing and killing. I've been hiding here since. We trapped five of them in cold storage and locked them in, dropping the temperature down to two hundred degrees below zero. They're not moving the last time I checked. The other three were down by the other end about an hour ago."

"Team Nine. Beware three hostiles. Three hostiles of unknown power. Use force if necessary." The commander radioed.

"Roger that." It came back, they were alerted now.

"Whatever it was I don't know. It took control of them. Made them do horrible things." He lunged at one of the men and grabbed his colar, staring up at him with wide eyes. "HORRIBLE THINGS I SAY!" The blood squished under his feet. "You have to get me out of here. How many of there are you? Where are the others?"

"We're it. We're all that came. We had a problem though. Whatever it was that you found here was probably found at the administrative center. There's nothing left of it. What's the status on the other complex?"

"We've been out of communication since we sent the distress call."

"Roger that. Alright. How have you managed to stay alive?"

"I've been hiding. The ducts in this place are phenomenal. But cold."

"Yeah no s***." He looked around. "What's the damn temperature in here anyway?"

"About ten degrees below zero. We, well I, no we. We lost a few men just after six this morning. When we put the temperature down to negative five they slowed down a lot. I'm not sure what ten below does to them but I'm pretty sure it has a better effect."

"Interesting."

"Sir, we've got..." Team Nine came over the radio just a split second before gunfire echoed throughout the corridors. "Three hostiles. Engaged heavily. They've got..."

"Alright guys, let's move! You. Doctor Chambers. You're with us. Try anything stupid and we'll feed you to them!"

"Yes sir." They took off running, the gunfire getting louder as they moved through the frigid air.

The firefight in the west wing was growing intense. The eight men were firing single-shots at something and they were firing with resolve. At this rate they would need more ammunition by the time they got to the second complex. "Over there. He's getting away. Get him!" One of the men in Team Nine yelled as one of the three scientists rounded a corner, heading right for Team Eight.

Team Eight saw him come around the corner and the commander and his men stopped. "Halt right there." The man didn't listen. He was closing fast, a scientist. "What the hell?" The man's eyes were black, glazed over and something flowing through them like water. "Drop him!"

All eight men fired two rounds. All sixteen rounds went right into the upper chest and head of the man, putting him onto the ground within a heartbeat. The man crashed down onto the ground but no blood ran from his wounds. From his eyes and mouth seeped out a black oil. "That's the stuff!" The scientist cried out. "That's the stuff! Don't get near it!" He screamed as the oil floated towards the men. "It's coming. Hurry. Help me..." The scientist and the eight men ran down the corridor, the oil flowing towards them.

http://xfiles.webzdarma.cz/images/images_mythology/black_oil.jpg

"Hurry I need to get to the control panel over there." The scientist was moving fast, faster than he or the eight men figured he could run. "It's the emergency fire system. We can trap the oil in there and the other area. We can freeze it. Tell you men to get out."

"Team Nine. Evac. Black Oil hazardous."

"Roger that sir, we're one step ahead of you!"

"Roger that."

The scientist reached the panel and kicked it open. "Alright sector eight and twelve. Yeah there they are!" He flipped two switches and thick, flame retardant glass came down, trapping all three puddles of oil. "Alright now the temperature control." He looked around. "There it is!" He immediately pushed a button that put the temperature down to sixty below zero. "Bingo!" He hit it and a white frost filled both areas. "Got it!"

"Team Nine. Where are you?"

"Backing around. We'll be behind you in ten seconds. We got the other two but this oil came out of their eyes and their mouth. Sir what is it?"

The team rounded the corner. "I don't know! But he does." The scientist turned around and nodded...

The sixteen soldiers were all standing, looking into the frozen glass at the static puddle of oil. "What the hell is that s***!" One of them asked. The commander of Team Eight looked right at the scientist and raised his rifle.

"Want to explain now?"

"Su...su...sure...Let's get out of here though."

"Where are we going to go?"

"LAB 21-10. Come on." The scientist led them away, all sixteen of them cautious that this wasn't a set up! The way to the lab was marred with bodies and blood. It was a beaten path, so to speak, and they were walking over and through blood every few steps. Finally, when they got to the lab, the scientist sat down on one of the stools. The lab was clean, the hand of death hadn't touched it. "Alright. That oil is what we found. We found that in the icecore samples. Whatever it is it's been here since before the last Ice Age, some years ago. It was the original inhabitor of this planet, we believe. There is probably more of it up north in the Arctic. Whatever it is, it possesses the person whose body it enters. It makes them do some crazy stuff. A few guys look like they've been burned by radiation of a nuclear bomb and I think it has something to do with this oil. I don't know much more about it though."

"That doesn't help us out that much. Is cold the only way to defeat this thing?"

"I think so."

"Alright. Transit the findings to command alright. Get them to get out here!"

The compound was to be quarantined, fully and completely. The second compound was to be just isolated for now. An emergency two more teams would be sent in via air drop. The near 6,200 mile journey from San Salvador could be completed only by a C-5B Galaxy with aerial refueling over the South Pacific Ocean. The sixteen men would airdrop out of the back of it via parachute, to the second complex.

Inside the first, the sixteen men and the scientist had retreated to the room where the others were frozen. "See them? That's they." He pointed to inside the glass. "It's controlled in there, a temperature of far below subzero. We're going to have to get them out but ensure they aren't thawed."

"Roger that." The team commander made another call on his radio to inform the central command. "This is Antarctic Guidance reporting in again. We're going to need cold storage units for several bodies, at least a dozen. We'll have to ensure that they have controllable environments for subzero temperature of an extreme nature."

The storage units would come in with the first landing. The runway outside of the complex would be what they needed to use. The only problem though was that there was one aircraft suited for this task, a modification of the C-130H Hercules, the LC-130H Hercules. A pair of KC-10A Extender aircraft would be flying in the South Pacific Ocean to refuel all of these aircraft for this continual mission. A significant amount of supplies would have to be flown in by the LC-130s and a significant amount taken out.

Was it time yet to explain just what happened to the government compound? Maybe later...

They were there for sixteen hours before the first relief forces arrived, another forty-eight members of Force Spectre. They had yet to explain to the scientist just who they were and what had happened to their central government HQ. The sixteen men already at the compound greeted the new arrivals and brought them up to speed. They had brought more ammunition and supplies with them, as well as a quick-response biological containment team (QRBCT).

The scientist was detained for the time being and questioned further as the original sixteen men embarked to the airfield some 200 meters away. They found nobody to be there period and that made it easy for them. A pair of Bell 212 helicopters sat, fully fueled and ready to fly. They would use these to get to the second compound to secure and/or investigate it.

Emergency preparations were already underway in Ynoga. Two merchant vessels were being loaded with supplies and personnel. They would move down to Antarctica soon, making the 5,400 nautical mile journey in just under 10 days. They would, until then, have to secure the site through the use of what they had. More supplies would be ferried in throughout the course of the next ten days. Mostly, they would involve air drops from C-5B Galaxy, C-17A Globermaster III, and C-130J Hercules aircraft.

The two helicopters landed at the facility, nobody there to greet them. "Seems like another crackpot sir." One of the men said. "You think we should even go in there?" He was frightened and obviously so, this was something they had never seen or dealt with before. "Sir?" The team leader was silent. He was too busy contemplating what they were going into. "Sir?"

"Oh what?" He snapped to. "We'll be fine lieutenant. Just keep your bearing."

"Yes sir."

The helicopter went into a hover. "Alright men. This is it. You know the situation and you know the enemy. Don't get near it under any circumstances. Cold temperatures slow and/or stop it so keep that in mind. Maintain the security systems, the red lines mean doors, use them to your effectiveness if need be. This is definitely hostile." He turned off the safety on his rifle. "Keep on your toes men. Now let's get this done!" The skids touched down and they exited. The other helicopter landed at the same time and the men of Team Eight would go through the back entrance and Nine through the front.

Their enemy was definitely something they had never seen before. And so out they went, on a mission they probably would have never been able to see in a sci-fi movie!

The situation was immediately better. Upon entering the facility there were no bodies. As they progressed throughout the building they saw that it was, largely, empty. But alas, there was life here. As Team Eight came to the scientific section they saw people and heard their voices. Team Nine, on the other side of the building came across nothing. It seemed that everyone was cluttered up into the main laboratory, all sixty-two scientists. The lab was a clean room and all those inside not only were isolated from the corridors but they couldn't hear through the walls either.

When the men of Team Eight entered, it shocked them. All of them were crowded around a cylinder of ice, a black substance in it. Immediately, the team leader shouted, "DON'T THAW IT. EVERYONE GET DOWN!" The scientists immediately panicked and some tried to escape but mostly they dropped down, seeing that their only exit was blocked by eight men with automatic rifles and heavy gear. "GET DOWN EVERYONE. DO NOT THAW THAT. WHO IS IN CHARGE HERE!" The team leader yelled and calm looked miles away. "WHO IS IN CHARGE!"

Then a faint voice from the table echoed out, "I am. Doctor Millevidev. Who are you?"

"Never mind who I am. Are there any more samples of that stuff around here?"

"No sir. This is the only one. We're about to see what it is."

"No. Leave it in ice. Whatever it is, it takes over the bodies of those it touches. It's a lifeform. Leave it there." Laughter rang out through the room. "Fine then I'll lock you in here and stand outside and watch you murder each other." Silence immediately followed. "I am not joking. The other facility thawed theirs out. Only one man is left alive." Now it was shock and mutterings. "That substance must be left frozen. Do you have a container to do such?"

"Yes, we have the core container we used to bring it over here. We have a drilling team about sixty kilometers away where we found this."

"Son of a b****!" He picked up the radio and made an immediate call to his superior. A team was dispatched from the other facility immediately. "Alright. Put that back in the container and let's figure some things out here." Nobody moved. "Alright is there a room large enough for all of us?"

"Yes sir. The auditorium."

"Very well. Let's all move there."

"Okay. Shall we ladies and gentlemen." Everyone was surprisingly calm, but not calm. They were no longer in a panic. As they all moved to the auditorium, the team took up defensive positions, guarding the line from the front, rear, and sides. Nobody was going to escape. They counted the number of people in the lab and they would count the number when they sat down in the auditorium. There was no escaping this situation.

It took a few minutes but all sixty-eight scientists and the sixteen men from Force Spectre sat comfortably in the auditorium, nobody having tried to escape. "Alright," the leader of Team Eight spoke, "this is a delicate and dangerous situation. A few days ago we recieved a distress call from the other facility. This black oil they found was some sort of extraterrestrial lifeform, dating back to the last ice age. I know this is hard to believe. At the same time it takes over the victims it touches and becomes a parasite, so to speak. All of the scientists at the other complex were killed save one who found that lowering the temperature back to a state well below freezing would slow and eventually stop the oil. We saw it first hand and engaged three men infected with this oil, three men who took many, many, many shots to die." Someone raised there hand. The display of civility and order shocked the men. "Yes?"

"Are you from our government?"

"No. We're an outside force. The governmental administration building and city was wiped out by a belligerant force." The mutterings sprang out. "No it was not us."

Two days before landing

The Scythe moved slow beneath the waves of the Antarctic Circle. Loaded in her VLS tubes were twenty missiles, all Tomahawk IIs. Of them, sixteen were loaded with high-explosive warheads and the other four were loaded with nuclear warheads equal to 250 kilotons of TNT.

At a depth of 150 feet and a speed of only 5 knots, the Scythe was silent. Her mission was simple, deploy two teams of Black Ops to take over the Jangian territory in Antarctica. There were four targets. The first was a government administration building, the main target. The second was a minor city inside a single structure, the secondary target. The last two were two research facilities, which the men would attack and seize, if need be. The Jangian government had no military and aside from the two facilities, it had a total population of 750,000.

Four of the conventional missiles would be going to the administration structure with the other twelve to the city. Just before dawn, they were all launched, in succession, piercing the icy, frigid water and climbing to 40,000 feet. Moving at 1.2 times the speed of sound, they made their way to the target. Then, in their terminal phase, they attained Mach 2.0 and slammed into the targets. Nothing was left...Any who survived the blast would wind up freezing to death and so they did. A reconnaissance flight later on that day showed both structures completely decimated. Now it was time for the Black Ops.

"So who was it?" A voice echoed from the back. "Who did it?"

"That sir we cannot say at this time. We're unsure to be honest. All we know is that there were, unfortunately, no survivors."

The mutterings continued. "We have no plans of keeping this land inhabited, especially not after what was found here. We want to evacuate all of you with us to our mainland."

"And that is?"

"That is the Empire of Layarteb." The mutterings ceased and silence filled the entire room.

"We won't be persecuted will we?" Everyone wanted to ask it but no one had the guts to. "What?" Someone looked at him oddly.

The commander laughed. "You are to be our guests and hopefully our citizens in due time. We will not persecute any of you but wish to employ all of you gentlemen and ladies in our own government on various work. Given your vast experiences here and your knowledge and intelligence on most matters we would be foolish to harm you. Once you are safe in our land and we have had time to interview everyone you may go wherever you please."

They definitely had no intentions of losing these men and women, especially not since they knew what was going on there in Antarctica.

tag, I like it a lot

tag, I like it a lot

Thank you.

After weeks of drilling, scanning, searching, and cleaning up, the Layartebian forces evacuated the Antarctic territory. They had found no more of the mysterious black oil throughout the ice. The samples that were recovered were all rushed back to the Layartebian mainland along with the captured oil samples. The last forces climbed into the hatch of a Scythe Class submarine on the 23rd of March. As the submarine dove, it fired four more missiles, each equipped with 400 submunitions, each of them incendiary. Behind those, two missiles were launched, each with a BLU-109 warhead. The six missiles were split, three and three, to the facilities. What was left of the facilities after that was nothing more than rubble.