NationStates Jolt Archive

The planet Konoha...

Once one of the beautiful jewels of the Core Worlds...

As the ten Maho Caste commandos looked over their briefing on the situation, their transport of choice, an old Firefly-class cargo ship, slowly, yet surely, made its way through hyperspace towards the aforementioned planet. It was currently set on auto-pilot, and as soon as it broke hyperspace, the ship would transmit a distress call, and then shortly explode, allowing the ten commandos to smoothly drop to Konoha's surface.

Now, the question was, how would blowing up the ship going to get them to the planet?

Simple.

Within the ship resided five, moderately sized (relatively speaking) drop pods. Each of these pods carried two commandos, who were safely nestled in their stealth battle armor. The pods held the battle armors in place, providing them with shock-support to prevent the passengers from being jostled around too violently.

What was the source of the explosion going to be?

Yet again, simple.

Alongside the drop pods, within the cargo hold of the ship, were several tons of high explosives set on a timer. When the distress beacon activated, the ship's engine would begin to run an overdrive cycle, causing the engine to overheat. Once the engine was ten percent from critical mass, the timer on the explosives would activate, counting down from ten. Upon exploding, the ship's reactor would simultaneously explode, and the combined explosion would both act as a propellant for the pods, and as a visual and radar mask.

"Okay, but are you sure this is gonna work?"

A male voice with a German accent broke over the intra-communications net for the team of commandos.

"Command said that chances of getting on planet were exponentially easier than getting off-planet."

A second male voice, deeper, and with a thick Irish accent.

"So, what's our objective?"

A female voice this time. Her accent was British.

"I'll brief everyone once we're planetside. My AI just confirmed that we're thirty seconds from exiting hyperspace. Cut chatter and go radio silent until planetside."

"Aff," was the combined response, and then there was silence.

Almost thirty seconds later, the cargo ship broke from hyperspace and it soon began playing its distress beacon, triggering the beginning the of the engine overload cycle...

Tagging, you want the cylons you got them :)

Kohona, once a jewel of Coredia, now stood as a barren wasteland. And also a solemn reminder and a warning. "Those who attack the cylons, or their children would suffer the same fate."

Konoha, a mecca of technology, guarded by the Jedi Order, and the AI's of Coredia fell silent, as the cylon virus ate away at their computers. Truly the destruction of Konoha stood as a true landmark. DO NOT STIR THE HORNET'S nest.

As the firefly scanned the landing spot, in one of the central cities that still remained, radation made the ship's scanners difficult to get a clear reading. Of course the big question remained, "Where are the cylons." As the ship's engine's cycled there was no sign of them, no bases that were easily detectable, no base ships in orbit. It was like they were not here...

The distress signal continued to play, spreading out to the ships of the various nations above Konoha, but as the minutes past, the cylons never came. Were they still on Konoha, or were they truly apathetic to a human ship in distress.

The group commander had been observing the situation outside as the ship's cycling process began to reach terminal levels. The external cameras didn't show a thing. Even the radar didn't have anything but the planet itself within detection range, if there was anything at all...

What in Kerensky's name...?

And that's when the engine blew. His connection to the ship was cut as the whole ship blew to fragments. The exterior temperature on his HUD showed that the micro-atomic explosion, combined with the normal plasma munitions, was well over normal survival pod limits. He breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that these drop pods were meant to survive more than what was shown, and that they also provided inertial dampeners so as to keep the occupants safe from harm.

As the pods escaped into the atmosphere, their black forms began to super-heat as the friction from both gravity and the planet's atmospheric content rushed by them. They slowly, but surely, began to spread out, and by the time they had reached the middle atmosphere, the pods had spread to a general landing zone of a forty kilometer radius.

At each impact site, the pods slowly began to crack open, delivering their cargo of stealth-battle armored commandos. The commandos, even in their armor, stretched out their limbs, tired of the cramped space they'd had to stick in for the past twenty standard hours. It hadn't been an exactly comfortable trip.

The team commander, once he had stretched enough, kneeled on the ground, activating his advanced 'Chameleon' stealth system, and his partner did likewise, taking a guard position to keep watch for any ambushing parties.

"Alpha team reporting," he said over the intra-network communications array that isolated the commandos' communications from other communications arrays. "All other teams report."

"Beta reporting."

"Charlie reporting."

"Delta on standby."

"Echo ready to go."

The commander smiled as he heard the calls of his team. He was glad to know that everyone had made it down without problems.

"All teams rendezvous on my position," he said, tapping a few commands in his interior computer. "Uploading now."

As the teams confirmed the receival of the data, the commander placed his suit's hand flat against the surface of the planet. There was a muffled thump as a series of small, burrowing drones were injected into the planet. These tiny drones then began to collect data, using micro-pulse technology that allowed them to scan the terrain of the planet using vibrations emitted by their tiny little bodies. During this process, the tiny drones, no bigger than a Japanese rhinoceros beetle, would zip around through the crust of the planet at seemingly impossible speeds, cataloguing the planet's features within a one thousand kilometer radius. In the process, anything built into the ground, or even touching it, would also be catalogued, providing the commander a real-time sonar data at a regular rate of one vibration per second. Yet, even at the speed at which the drones moved, it would take some time for the data to be processed.

After about an hour, the numerous teams had assembled with their commander, and the map had finally finished being translated to a readable, three-dimensional map for the commander to view. No more than five hundred kilometers off, a network of buildings of unusual design perked the commanders interest, and after a few commands, the group of ten commandos began the long trek over the vast desert that the planet had become. It would be quite some time, at a rate of little more than forty kilomters-per-hour, before they reached this complex...

"What the heck?" As the distress call rang out across the Konoha system, those who responded had to pull back because of the explosion. "Damn!"

The reason for the fact that Konoha seemed empty was because most of the Eight Fleet were cloaked as part of a new directive by the Hokage. If an enemy came in, they would find a seemingly empty world...and then the trap would spring shut.

Other than that, it was still bustling with activity as the Ithorians, Godulans and Dornalians worked with the Coredians to repair the planet. The radiation levels were slowly lowering, but it was still currently too high to lower the shields. Only just though, since the Dornalians and Ithorians were masters of the art of restoring planets.

As the Clan members sneaked down into the planet (which would result in diplomatic protests if they were caught), unbeknownst to them, a pair of Raptors also popped into the system, then disappeared again before the 8th Fleet could get a lock on them. They reappeared inside the planetary atmosphere and swiftly went to ground.

Reika Uchiha, aka Shelly Able, was home!

And a slight disturbance in the Force was felt by a certain blond resistance leader as two sets of anti-Cylon forces appeared to have arrived. The leader only smirked and a swirl of leaves occurred before he disappeared to who knows where...

The commandos moved at a hurried pace as they crossed the planet's barren landscape. The run did not tire them at all. To them, it was a mild jog, and with the added feature of jumpjets, they could cover more ground at a quicker pace. There added power claws also made things easier, because they had to traverse some seriously rough terrain. All in all, it took roughly three days of travel to get within visual range of the complex (it would have been two, but a seriously large canyon had effectively blocked a direct path, and they'd spent a whole day climbing in and out of the canyon).

Finally within visual range, the Commanders signaled for his teams to halt, and they took cover, giving them time to turn on their camo. After everyone had turned on their camo, the Commander gave the order for the teams to begin descending the rocky hills. They were about ten kilometers off, and they'd need to get down to the base of the hill before they could get any good readings from the structures before them.

Once they had made it to the base of the hill, the Commander once again called for a full halt of his troops, and then he began scanning the buildings at distance, using both heat and x-ray scans. They would need to find a couple entrances first...

((Okay, needs OG posts now.))

Man if I only knew how today would have turned out, I would not have gotten out of bed. It was a day like any other really, I got up, and mom had breakfast ready for me. She was a kind woman, but damn she was a horrible cook. Still though I ate it and smiled. Didn’t want to hurt the old gal’s feelings after all.

Although today was not a normal day, today was different. I could feel it, smell it. Something was going on.

As I got up from the table, my mother looked at me. “David.” she said to me.

“Yes mom.” I replied to her, wondering what in the frak she wanted.

“Have a seat, I have something to tell you.” she told me while pulling out a chair for me.

“Um... mom what is going on?” I asked, as my mind raced with the possibilities. Were we finally going to leave this hell hole of a rock? Had she decided to cave in to the one’s and agree to destroy the treacherous bastards that lived here? Oh God, do not tell me she is pregnant.

As I waited, her face drew even more stern. “David, I have decided to enroll you in school, here on Konoha.” she said.

“What!!!” I yelled out. “You have to be kidding right mom?” I shouted out in anger as I jumped out of my seat knocking my chair to the floor.

Mom just looked at me with her brown eyes, you know what I am talking about, that look that all mothers have, the one that can stare into your soul and make you feel guilty, or worse threaten to kill you...

“No David, I am serious.” she replied quickly.

“But why? You know that the only school in this area is filled with humans. You know those frakkers that enslaved us. You know those that keep trying to oppress us and wipe us out. Why in the hell do you want me to even associate with them?” I asked in anger. She had to have lost her mind. Cylons... in school with humans. Did she know what would happen?

She could not help herself as she looked down on the table. “You will be fine, besides if they mess with you, I am sure you can take care of yourself. Just try not to kill any of them.” she said as she walked over to me and gave me a hug. “Now go, I got a heavy raider waiting for you.”

I could not believe this crap. I did not say a word as I stormed out of the house to meet a centurion. I nearly ran in to the damn thing as I left. “Hey watch where you are going.” I told the seven foot tall robot.

Of course the robot never spoke, he just stared at me with his red eye pulsing back and forth. He turned his head down, as the gears in his neck creaked, motioning me towards the ship. I could not help but to laugh. “So you will be my babysitter huh?” I asked it. The Centurion of course could not speak. Good thing too, imagine the dribble it might say. Anyway I walked to the ship. As it lifted off I could not help but to feel uneasy. If just one of those frakking monkey’s tries to mess with me, I am going to rip his head off.

All I knew that day was despair and anger. Little did I know how bad it was going to get. The only clue I had, was when the Raider took off. I looked down to see some of those tree swinging bastards running around about half a mile from the base. Man I wish I knew what I know now. I should have said something, but I didn’t. All I could think about was this day in hell.

The Commander clicked his comm thrice as the Raider passed overhead. The camoflauged troopers waited for it to pass out of sight before they advanced again. The Commander had pin-pointed a single entrance ground-side just ahead of them and it didn't seem to be guarded. More than likely, it was locked.

And, or course, the Commander was right. Scans that his AI made on the door as they got closer showed that it was sealed shut. Either way, the strength of an Elemental plus the mechanical strength of their power suits would make it easy to get inside.

"Adrian, on the door. McKellan, take point. Everyone keep their camo on. Weapons safe. We don't know enough about these things to know what makes them tick."

"Aff."

Adrian was quick to get to the door, grabbing hold of the lock. It took a moment, but it finally snapped as the overwhelming strength of the suit forced it open. He pulled the door with him as McKellan entered the doorway, his arm-mounted PPC scanning the corridor they entered before he gave the hand-signal for "all clear." With that, the team slowly made their way into the base, Adrian being the last to enter as he closed and locked the door behind them.

As the human group entered the base, it became apparent of the alien world they were about to enter. The walls were silver, with small lights out of the side of the walls instead of the ceiling. Along the wall ran a red light that streaked by as the group of humans decided to enact their nature, to destroy the cylon...

The hall was clear as the group walked down the bland corridors. The hall ways twisted around, each hall looking identical in every way. It would be very easy for them to get lost in such an environment if the group was not careful.

They walked for a few minutes, seemingly unnoticed, as the group continued their explorations. Only the distant sounds of screams filled the hall way. Screams, and the sound of metal gears. As they turned the corner, they could clearly see three cylon centurions walking, carrying something that looked like a stretcher. Blood dripped off the side of it, as the centurions walked out of view.

The Commander watched the troop of Cylons carry...whatever it was...away from sight, trying to scan them but failing to catch a good reading off of what they had before they disappeared. He cursed inside his helmet before speaking into the intra-com network.

"Adrian. McKellan. Follow those things. Find out what they have and report your findings. Remember: weapons safe."

"Aff, lead." The two suits, which the Commander could see due to their suits being built with special sensors inside their suits so that they could see one another. The two armored soldiers would slowly follow the trail of dripping blood, their suits rendering them completely invisible to flat visual, and even thermal, scans. They still couldn't see the three Centurions and whatever it was they were carrying, but this trail of blood was making it easy for them to follow their quarry.

In the meantime, the remainder of the team kept moving silently down an opposing corridor, their slow movements allowing them to keep their sound levels to a minimum. The Commander was still a bit ticked that they hadn't gotten the recent sound damper upgrade before they had left, but time was of the essence, and they didn't have much time to get ready for this insertion as it was, anyways. It seemed like the Council was constantly on edge. What for? That was anyone's guess.