Location- Abandoned El Nath Mines
Objective- Find evac
Squad- Sergeant Alpha, First Sergeant Lee, Warrant Officer Santiago, Sergeant Sleyin, Corporal Jenkins

Cipher blasted down another Taurogunner with an entire clip of ammo. He slapped a fresh clip into his MA5C before he slung it for the S2 AM. He had very little experiance using a sniper rifle for close range purposes, but its better to learn now then never.

“Which way Warrant Officer?” the First Sergeant asked, letting his railgun recharge its magentic energy. Santiago busily typed along her portable data map, storing data of maps that werent needed but keeping ones that were needed.
“Nowhere else beyond this passage way First Sergeant,” she replied with a sigh. Sleyin cursed.
“Now what?” Sleyin muttered.
“Even if you mutter I can still hear you,” Lee barked. He grunted as he picked up a dead Taurogunner and tossed it to the wall. “Search!”

Without a word, excluding Sleyin and Jenkins, they started to move the corpses around, and thats when Cipher heard an echo. He dropped a corpse and placed his ear on the ground. He knocked on it a few times and heard echos, which could only mean one thing.

There was a gigantic hole underneath them.

“Everyone!” Cipher shouted, his voice echoing the cavern. “Get out of this room now!”
They barely had anytime to blink when an explosion was set off, causing Alpha Squad and Bravo 5 to fall down into the abyss.

Shackles killed another Taurogunner with his Blue Screamer, along with his Paladin spells. He nearly dodged a fist from a Red Golem. He activated his Sanctuary spell, causing a holy hammer to appear in his hand. Shackles brought the hammer onto the Golem. More and more infantry died from the invasion, even with his help. All of a sudden, a series of particle bullets fired onto the Red Golems. Shackles turned with a semi-smile.

“You recovered well Private Argus?” the Major asked. Argus jumped off the rock that he stood on and covered Shackles’ back.
“Yes sir,” Argus replied. He aimed his rifle at the contacts around his area. Shackles sheathed the Blue Screamer and equiped his claymore rifle. “We got a lot of uninvited guest.”
“Well then, what kind of hosts are we?” Shackles joked. He saw Defiler get in between them.

They also saw a giant ball of fire heading towards them.
“Rather not have that hit us Argus!” Shackles shouted.
“Defiler, activate the Divine Shield Generator!” Argus commanded. A shield covered them from the impact. “The shield isnt the real deal so we might have only a few seconds to think of a plan!”
“What plan?” Shackles asked.
“You do have a plan, dont you sir?” Argus asked, curious if the Major didnt have a plan.
“I have a plan,” Shackles replied, readying the claymore rifle before the shield broke. “We blast them all to hell.”

And then the shield collapsed.

Status- Unconsious
System Error
Activating Shock

Cipher felt a slight shock in his body. He got up and rubbed the back of his head.
“The Military has got to make better reawakening systems these days,” Cipher grumbled, trying to get back up onto his feet. He found his S2 AM and MA5C on the ground and stared around his area. Nobody in sight, exlcuding a dead corpse of what seemed to be of Private Jenkins.

Cipher walked over to Jenkins and relieved him of his M9 and ammunition. Thats when Cipher checked his ammo for the MA5C and S2 AM. He was short of a couple of clips for the assault rifle and all of his ammo for the S2 AM sniper rifle was gone. He slung both of the guns and equiped the M9 handgun. There was only one tunnel in the cavern. Cipher walked through the tunnel and found dead bodies of Taurogunners, Taurospears, and other monsters. They all died with bullet holes in their chests. Cipher turned a corner and heard gun fire up ahead.

Cipher clicked the safety off of his M9 handgun and rushed into the combat zone. He spotted a couple of Taurogunners armed with gauss cannons fired the bullets using the magnetic polarities. Cipher took aim and fired the handgun. The rounds made contact with the enemies armor, but it barely gave any damage. One of the Taurogunners turned to Cipher.

“Suppress!” First Sergeant Lee ordered. A hail storm of bullets and magnetic shots plundged onto the Taurogunners. Cipher lent them a helping hand, but the rounds from the M9 barely gave damage. After the two monsters fell over Lee walked over to him.

“Thought you were dead,” Lee told Cipher.
“Good to see you too,” Cipher replied. He looked at the rest of the squad. “How are you guys fairing?”
“Well Im alright, just good enough fire my rail gun and M16. Santiago has some minor cuts and bruises but she’ll be fine. Sleyin on the other hand is in pretty bad shape. He broke his left arm and right trigger finger, so he pretty much cant fight at the time being.”

Cipher took off his helmet and scratched his hair.
“Well what do we do now? We cant leave for evac,” Cipher pointed out. Santiago walked over to them.
“There seems to be a transport bay at the end of this shaft,” Santiago told them. “Strange that there is a transport bay though.”
“Who cares,” Lee replied. “We got a wounded soldier here and we sure aint leaving him here for these monsters to eat his flesh!”
“Uh sarge? I can hear you,” Sleyin pointed out.
“I know.”
“Oh.”

The squad quickly ran through another tunnel, killing anything that moves and is hostile. They stopped when they saw a big door. It wouldnt open, even if Lee started firing his railgun at it like a maniac.

“Watch my back, I’ll try to open this thing,” Santiago commanded. Cipher placed the handgun into its holster and equiped the assault rifle. They found a few guests coming there way and they werent getting to them- at least not an entire body.

Firing the last few bullets Shackles had left in his claymore rifle, the last of the assault troops were dead. The rest of them bugged out. About time too. He tended to the wounded and tried his best to heal wounds with the limited healing that a Paladin possess. After a few minutes the entire platoon, or what remained of it, were patched up. Shackles then realized something.

Argus was nowhere to be seen. Shackles opened up the COM channel and set it for a private channel with Argus.
“Argus, can you hear me? Over,” Shackles spoke into the radio. No response. He rushed over to the last location Argus was. There seemed to be a struggle but it stopped as soon as the assault troops bugged out.

Argus had been taken hostage.

Protecting a girl while trying to unlock a door with only a limited amount of ammunition might’ve sound easy, but it is more difficult then people realize. Cipher was close to running out of ammunition when they heard a click and the hiss of a door opening.
“The doors opened,” Santiago reported.
“You think we didnt hear the door open?” Lee asked.
“Lets just hurry!” Cipher shouted at them.

They rushed through the door, and then Santiago locked it again. They were in the transport bay and they tried to look around for something they could use to get out of there. They spotted a couple of HummingBirds, Panthers, and other vehicles but nothing seemed to be able to get them back to base. Thats when Cipher spotted it.

Black Raven 12 was docked in the bay.
“A Black Raven!” Cipher shouted and pointed to it.
They didnt waste a second. They climbed onto the bird and Santiago was able to fly the bird. The ship began to take off when the door that led to the transport bay broke open. Cipher felt the impacts onto the birds hull from the gunfire but it didnt matter now.
“Punch it!” Lee barked. The bird flew up and then its acceleraters fired. They were out of the bloody hell zone.

Cipher sat on a seat when he felt something in his pocket. He drew it out and it was a disc. He played it on his helmets camera and alot of data flew through his HUD so fast, he couldnt see anything. He didnt know what it was, but he’d better let the techs figure it out.

A few days later

Cipher, now a Staff Sergeant, sat on a bench and wondered what did the techs wanted. Cipher inhaled and exhaled. Alpha Squad now consists of Kelly Nguyen, Adam Sanderson, and now as a permenant member of Alpha Squad, Zhlink Sleyin. Argus disappeared, probobly taken hostage. Cipher had a tough time deciding what to do. Santiago and a couple more techs appeared.

“Cipher I want you to see this,” Santiago said. Cipher got up and entered the room. A piece of battle armor, painted black with slight streaks of orange, and a full helmet sat on a rack.
“You made this thing with that data?” Cipher asked.
“Yeah, it was strange but that data contained the blue prints of a Taurogunner’s armor,” Santiago replied, brushing her hair aside. “Major Shackles ordered us to make the armor and here it is. You will test it.”

Cipher checked the armor out. It was strong, strudy, kind of heavy, but it seemed alright.
“Whats the catch?” Cipher asked.
“Well the test consists of you entering Victoria Island and fight those Evil Eyes and Curse Eyes,” Santiago sighed a little. “Survival is not gurantied.”

Cipher was already putting on the armor. For some reason, he liked that idea.

To be continued. . .

~Burning Soul