NationStates Jolt Archive

A lone man stood in front of the computer console and closely examined the numerous bits of information the screen displayed. The computer was built into a round pedestal that rested in the center of a granite-walled room. Except for the glare of the screen, the room remained as dark as a cave.

The features of the man were entirely encased in black battle armor that resembled something a medieval knight would wear. In place of an opening where he could see out from his helmet was a metal cover protecting his face. It contained a screen of sorts that allowed him to view the areas all around him in numerous ways including night vision and infrared. At his waist, a long naquadah sword and a dagger hung.

He looked over the screen once more before he spoke into his helmet’s microphone, “My lord, what are my orders?”

A robotic, inflection-less voice answered, “I want you to stage a raid on their building. Seize all materials related to their plans and capture some of them for interrogation. You know what to do with the others. Above all, I want you to make sure that the threat is eliminated. Do you understand?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“On your way.”

The connection between the two was immediately severed. The man nodded out of a force of habit and left the room to gather the other members of the assault force together. Within ten minutes, twelve fully armored people were ready to depart. Along with their standard issue swords and daggers, they carried plasma rifles strapped onto their backs, an extra sidearm at their waists, and a P-90 submachine gun that had been converted into an intar in their hands. One even carried a metal crossbow. They gathered into the teleportation room and were beamed to an alleyway that was a block from the building.

The headquarters of the Sparticist League of Northrop-Grumman was in a run down building in the slums of Caprica City. It was formally a place for crack dealers and prostitutes to run their business from, however the Sparticists had driven them out. The Sparticist League was a revolutionary group, and a small faction of the Sparticist Party of Hallad. Though practically unknown, they had gone about the business of setting up sleeper cells in many different nations. One such cell existed in Northrop-Grumman.

The Sparticists in Northrop-Grumman were mostly Halladis who had left Hallad to carry out their work, though they had recruited several working class companions in Caprica City. At the headquarters this night, only fifteen people were looking over the weapons and plans stashed there, although there were about thirty four Sparticists in Caprica.

There were about five men sitting on crates, which were filled with rifles, around a small table playing cards. The rest of the men in the building were on look out on the roof, or making plans on the second floor. There were also two men in the basement taking stock of the weaponry. They expected nothing to happen tonight, as nothing happened any night. The building was overlooked by the police, and there was never any sign of activity inside. The windows were boarded up, and the door didn't even work. The Sparticists instead had a secret entranace and exit in the basement.

The leader of the assault force leaned his head out from the alleyway and scanned the rundown building with his infrared vision. The walls of the building blocked most of his view, but he could tell that there were several people on the roof. The best solution, he decided, would be to take out those people first.

He turned around to the one of his group with the crossbow. “Eggleston, there are several people on the roof of the targeted building. Head up to the roof and take them down with whatever you have.” He nodded to the large rundown factory next to him which had once contained the main assembly line for an automotive manufacturer.

Eggleston nodded, and with his crossbow and intar along with him, he ran down the alleyway away from the street while he looked for an access point to the roof. He soon found a fire escape ladder that served that purpose and climbed it.

Meanwhile, the leader ordered two of his other men to take up positions where they could get a clear line of sight of at least two side of the building. One ran down the alleyway where Eggleston had gone while the other slowly walked down the street about a block before darting across to another alleyway.

Back on the roof, Eggleston had crawled along the tarmac surface to a central ventilation unit. After checking that had not been spotted, he quickly took out the crossbow and a pile of arrows and loaded one of them. A few moments passed before he confirmed with his leader that he was ready.

The other two men also confirmed that they were ready. One found a perfect place behind a large waste container across the street from the targeted building in an another alleyway. The other had broken into a small convenience store behind the builing and was waited below the window.

The leader of the group leaned his head back out from the alleyway and looked around the streets. They were completely desolate. He decided that now would be the perfect time to strike, and he gave the order. Eggleston peeked up from behind the ventilation unit and found his first target with the infrared vision. He brought up the crossbow, aimed, and pulled the trigger. The wire snapped forward and shot the arrow towards its intended victim.

One man, John Stewart, was starring down the scope of a Halladi-made sniper rifle as a crossbow bolt hit him in the back of the head. He died instantly, letting out an audible "uh!". The sniper rifle he was using was knocked down to the sidewalk and the clanky noise of it crashing filled the street. There were three other men on the roof, and they all looked up from their rifles. Filip Cy, a Halladi, let go of his rifle and drew a HAP-1 automatic pistol. He moved caustiously, telling the others to grab their rifles and head downstairs. The two men, both Halladi, did so immediatly. They closed the door, and armed a small explosive trap, incase an intruder tried to get through.

Filip shouldered his rifle, and inspected the sidewalk around building. He was unaware that the fatal shot had come from the roof.

Eggleston watched the activities of those on the roof and reported them back down to his leader. Then, he loaded the next arrow and brought it up over the ventilation unit. He took aim at Filip Cy, the remaining person on the roof, who was now looking down at the sidewalk, and pulled the trigger. The arrow shot forward through the cold air and towards Cy.

Meanwhile, in the alleyway across from the building, Juan Zamora unfastened the plasma rifle from behind his back and began to power it up. He also took his intar and leaned it against the waste container.

Filip felt a pain shoot into his back. The arrow had hit him in the lower back, but had not hit any vital organs. One hand immediatly reached for the pain, his other dropped his pistol and stabalized him against the rim of the roof. He squated and picked his pistol up off the floor, and turned. The shot had come from behind him. That much as obvious. He raised his pistol at the ventaliation shaft which stuck out on the roof, right next to the entrance. He fired off three, three round bursts at the shaft, and moved cautiously toward the door.

The bullets struck the metal ventilation unit but were stopped by the fans, condensers, and heating coils that were contained inside. Eggleston stood back up from behind it and flipped the intar on. The red crystal jutting out of the bottom of the stock began to glow. The weapon had previously been a P-90 submachine gun, but all of its internal components had been replaced. Now, it fired balls of energy that were to render its victim unconscious. Eggleston pulled the trigger and shot eight red balls at Filip

The leader of the assault force heard the gunfire from the rooftops and ordered his men to prepare to enter the building. Zamora popped up from behind the waste container and fired the plasma rifle at the wooden door on the front of the structure.

Filip dived to avoid the shots, firing his own weapon at his apparent enemy -- something straight out of a action movie! But ultimately, one of the red balls of energy struck him, and he was rendered unconcious. His comrades, meanwhile, were at the bottom of the stairwell that led from the roof into the building.

The the group floor the building, the five men sitting around crates, looked to the door as a bright light grew behind it and it began to get hotter. They opened the crates, which were filled with rifles. Each man grabbed a HAR-1A assault rifle. One man flipped the table over, to use it for cover. The door caught on fire and blew up. Before the dust cleared, the three Halladis and two Grummanites opened fire on the opening.

The people the basement heard the shots form above them and moved quickly. They grabbed pistols, HAP-1s, and destroyed the plans and documents that were stored in the basement. Then they exited the building, via the secret exit. The exit led the sewers. On the second floor, four men hurried downstairs, and opened fire on the door with their own a weapons. One man stayed upstairs for a moment more, destroy their plans and documents.

Nearly all of the shots that Filip had fired missed Eggleston except for one. It struck him in the right upper shoulder and disabled the hydraulic assist for his arm. His elbow was now stuck at a ninety degree angle with only limited movement in his hand. Fortunately, he still had the use of his other arm and took out his M9 Beretta pistol. He then ran straight for the other rooftop, leaped across the alley, and landed on the other side with a loud thump.

Meanwhile, down below, the rest of the assault force was preparing to enter the building but before they did, eight men each threw one smoke grenade in front of the building on the sidewalk. The other two threw theirs into the doorway. The grenades created a thick smoke screen for the assault force so they turned on their infrared vision and slowly crept into the smoke. They then fired into the opening with their intars.

"We're under attack!" Exclaimed one man who'd come down from the roof with his plump companion, catching the attention of the four men on the second floor. "I don't know what's happened to Filip, but John's dead!"

Just then were was the sound of a small explosion -- the front door being desintagrated and destroyed. Gun shots rang out from downstairs, as their five comrades opened fire into a cloud of smoke.

"Fuck, we've gotta get out of here," said Joshua, who grabbed a backpack and shoved documents into it.

Downstairs, the men reloaded. They'd already fired off a magazine, and had hit nothing. They couldn't see anything anyways as the room was being clouded by smoke. All they could do is keep shooting, and that is what they did. The gunfire began to die down as each man was hit by the intars, and
rendered unconscious.

The flustered Joshua led the charge downstairs, not being able to really see anything he fired indiscriminately at the smoke. Three others had followed him, doing nearly the same as him before being shot in turn. Joshua tripped over the body of a fallen comrade. The two men from the roof stayed on the second floor, locking themselves in and loading their rifles.

One could almost hear the hydraulics working in the legs of Eggleston’s power armor as he slowly rose up from his heavy landing. Moving his head left and right, he scanned around the rooftop with his infrared vision trying to see where Filip was hiding. He caught a glimpse of heat but was unsure if it was truly his target. Then he flipped the safety off of the black pistol and ducked behind a piece of the roofing, squeezing the trigger and firing three bursts in rapid succession.

On the ground floor, the rest of the assault force began to cautiously move into the building with their infrared sensors operational, keeping to the sides of the room they just entered. Noticing some slight movement where one of the bodies lie, Zamora reached over and tightly grabbed the arm of Joshua with his metal glove, lifting him up seven feet into air.

“Appears that one didn’t watch his step,” he replied, gazing up at the man, just before firing the intar right into his chest.

Now, using just mere hand signals from the leader, the force split into two groups. One headed downstairs towards the basement while the other prepared to take on the second floor.

The passageway in the basement led into the sewer system, where they headed to a point about two blocks away from the Sparticist HQ. The two men who escaped were both Halladi; one, named Yusuf, a volunteer and former Republican Guardsman, the other, Omar, a Workers' Protection Agency operative. The exit point in the sewer they took had a car waiting, at which point they intended to flee Caprica City.

Meanwhile, on the second the floor, the two remaining men -- both of whom were from Northrop-Grumman -- lit up cigarettes and waitied. They knew the enemy would be busting through the door at any moment.

Creaking and groaning under the weight of only one member of the assault force, the staircase leading up to the second floor appeared to be quite old and incapable of handling this amount of stress. Some steps even cracked, leaving a few on the verge of breaking off. So, in light of this, only one soldier climbed, keeping his feet to the edges of the boards.

Upon reaching the very top, he aimed his plasma rifle for the door with one hand as he readied a smoke grenade in the other. He then fired three bursts that tore into it, and through the shattering debris, he tossed in a smoke grenade and shouted through his microphone at those inside, “Do not even attempt to fire. You are completely surrounded.”

Meanwhile, the second half of the assault force that made their way downstairs missed the two Halladis by only a matter of minutes. Still hoping to capture more of their targets, they carefully searched the dark basement using their infrared scanners, but nothing appeared, for the warm handprints that would have been left near the secret exit had already dissipated.