The Frontier War

Operation Hellbreaker, Part 2: Discovery

We made our way around the base for nearly an hour, but we didn't come across anyone. Not even a civilian. All we saw were empty rooms, abandoned labs, barren hallways. It was as if they had cleared out just as we came in.

"Boss, this place is giving me the chills. Where the hell is everyone?"

'I don't know, but I have a feeling that there's more to this place than meets the eye. Keep a look out for anything...unusual."

"Will do, Boss."

We kept walking, just the two of us, searching and searching, but with nothing to show. I checked the clock, and we had been scouring the base for about 3 hours now, with nothing to show for it. I tried contacting command, but we had lost signal deep in the tunnels.

Anthony asked if we should just give up, but I said no. There had to be something here that we were missing. Some missing puzzle piece we had skipped over. We went back to where we started and began analyzing the base even more, using all the detection equipment we had, scanning for anything out of the ordinary.

It didn't take very long for us to reach to bottom of this ghost town. We stopped and sighed in defeat. And just by chance, I leaned against a wall and it flickered. This wall flickered. The image itself, it didn't process in my mind quite right for a moment, and then it hit me.

"Anthony, look at this."

I put my hand on the wall, and the wall flickered again. We stepped back, and I nodded to Anthony. We both opened up fire on this fake wall, every bullet making this simulated image ripple and shake, until the projection gave up, and this dusty rock wall turned into a gleaming steel door.

I got my breaching gear out and lined the doorway. Judging by the type of blast door, which I recognized, using a short-range breaching wire should put a hole in it. I nodded to my teammate as we finished placing the explosives on the door, and we got back behind cover.

I put up three fingers, counting down, and when I reached zero, I detonated the explosives, knocking the heavy steel blast door right off the wall. We came out from behind our hiding place, ready for a firefight, but to our surprise, there was nobody there waiting to shoot us. Not even an alarm had went off.

We stepped through the doors and looked around. It was some sort of weapons lab, and it too was empty. Anthony and I began cautiously searching the abandoned laboratory, coming across unbelievable weapon designs, failed chemical tests, and destroyed projects.

Neither of us could believe it. A lot of the tech here was military grade, or higher. This kind of tech...the kind of tech you'd find in the top secret laboratories in the UNGM Core Base Science Division. This stuff was more than classified. Then why were farmers on the Frontier playing around with this stuff? Where were they getting it?

"Okay, this...is a little bit scary, Boss"

"You're right....how the hell are simple farmers getting this grade of tech? And from whom?"

"I dunno, Boss. Should we get some stuff to bring in to our science teams?"

"We should, but scan EVERYTHING. Make sure nothing's live. Cause if it is...well, I don't wanna get caved in here."

"Affirmative, Boss."

We started to take samples, putting tech in airtight cases, taking blueprints, snapping pictures. Everything we could get. It wasn't long before we came across a final door. This one had some heavy duty locking codes, but it wasn't gonna take too long to crack it. Anthony got straight to work as I kept looking for more tech that seemed suspicious.

As Anthony was a little over halfway with the codebreaking, I heard commotion up in the main base area. I went out and looked up, and saw a small enemy force making their way down the pathways. I contacted Anthony on the situation.

"Hey, we have unidentified personnel on the way down. I'm gonna check it out."

"Alright, Boss. I got this codebreaking almost done, so make it quick."

I cut the comms and readied my rifle, prepared for a firefight. I didn't care that I was outnumbered. Those odds didn't matter. I had the upper hand, since they hadn't seen me yet, and I knew how many of them there were.

9 targets, medium strength body armour, one with an LMG, type 702. Three with medium range hunting rifles, penetrating power is zero. Two others armed with light firearms and SMGs, type 33. Last few armed with melee weaponry and light assault rifles. Total group threat? Maybe a...2 out of 10. Easy takedown. And here they come...

They got around the corner and I put a whole mag into the first 4 guys, taking out the LMG, an SMG, and two hunting rifles. The other 5 quickly shook away their shock and got their bearing back, ducking behind cover as I began to open up again. It didn't matter what they stood behind, my rounds were made to shoot through 6 inches of steel. An inch or two of rock was nothing. I took down three others, and the remaining two began to retreat. As they ran back up the sloped walkways, I picked them off with well placed headshots.

I turned around and walked back to Anthony, who had finally finished breaking through the door lock. As we entered in the code and heard the special locking system deactivate, we began getting anxious.

"What do you think is behind those doors, Boss? That was some pretty decent tech for a bunch of farmers...not sure what they were trying so hard to keep locked up."

"I'm not sure either, Lt Varin. But whatever it is...well, it's bound to be pretty big."

And this one little lab's secrets were about to change the tide of the entire war.