Part 2: Into The Wild

Update 1: Into The Wild

"Continue recording of Commander Vault,

The squad has been prepared and is ready to be sent out. While our current level of equipment is dismal is best, everyone has been outfitted best as possible. We're hoping to secure more supplies quickly. Here is a quick rundown on the weapons and armor currently available,








And we also seem to have a lifetime supply of hand grenades, and enough medical supplies for the immediate time being. Someone even turned up a few demolition charges which will come in handy.

Everyone except Golden took the conventional body armor, who opted for the lighter armor. Golden is also the only one going with only a pistol, mentioning something about preferring to scout over direct confrontation. I'll leave it up to the squad to assign roles and figure out how to work together. Booya and Vallhallan took Uzi's and Hero opted for a shotgun.

With the squad ready, it came down to finding where to strike, and what we hope to accomplish once there. The Counsel will study our situation and give us possible courses of action, however the final say in where Phoenix Company goes and what they do is in my hands.



The Counsel provided a good starting point into expanding and I sent Phoenix Company to handle it. I want to push for new land quickly, we need more resources, and more land means more bases. Lots of the refugees are claiming they have seen strange lights or UFOs in the skies, however we currently do not have a means to detect or track them. Denver base does have a radar array, but we haven't been able to repair it yet. We need an engineering base to preform large scale repairs and equipment tests, there is no guarantee radar will even pick these things up, we're using technology that is a century old.

I have given Booya the position of squad leader for now. Turns out I was wrong about him and he had some prior military experience though long retired, so he is in command of the squad until I have reason otherwise. I gave him clear orders to scout and secure the area, look for any signs of buildings of strategic importance, and remove any hostile forces. I wonder if those monsters I saw before have spread world wide. Above all however he is to bring everyone back alive, we have precious few willing and able to fight the unknown out there.

Currently I am taking the time to see what can be done about our radar problems, the squad won't be back for a day or more. Another problem facing us right now is logistics. The only airborne transport we have in operation right now is a Chinook helicopter. It can carry our men reliably from point a to b, but is slow as fuck. On the positive side it has been modified heavily to carry an incredibly large amount of fuel which gives it an incredible range.

I will update when the squad returns. I'm praying our first mission is a success.


End recording."




Booya: Alright, you heard Vault back at the base, but here's the deal again. We scout the area, report anything that looks important, and kill anything that tries to kill us. Golden, you and Vallhallan go together and scout that way. Hero, you're with me. Call for back up if you run into anything you cant handle. Let's go.



The squad splits up and starts searching...



Vallhallan: Hey Golden, why are we here?
Golden: I don't know man... But I think about it a lot since The Fall. So many people died and we're still here. Why is that? Are we special somehow, was it all just the luck of the draw, or is there some greater purpose or reason to our survival? I don't know man, but it keeps me up at night.
Vallhallan: ...what? I meant, what are we here, sitting in this courtyard browisng some old books on a stand.
Golden: Oh... well... Nevermind.
Vallhallan: you want to talk about it?
Golden: No.
Vallhallan: You sure?
Golden: Lets just get back to the mission.



Golden: I see something... he's human! Hey, wait! Who are- * bang * He shot at me!




Vallhallan: Well shoot back! I'll circle around!




Golden: I lost him!




Vallhallen: I found him!




Golden: I think he's still alive. Booya, do you read? A survivor shot at us. He's down now, but still alive. What should we do?
Booya: Must be a local raider, tie him up if you can, we'll interrogate him when we're done.
Golden: Roger.

Meanwhile, on the other end of town...



Hero: Booya, get down!




Booya: Close one! When he starts to reload, we flank him, you go right, I'll go left. Now, go!



Hero: Golden?!
Golden: I heard gunfire.



Booya: That looked painful. He dead Hero?
Hero: Oh yeah.
Booya: Good work then. Golden, Vall with you?
Golden: Yeah, he's catching up now.
Booya: Good, lets finish up the patrol and get home.


"Commander Vault, first mission debriefing.

The squad has returned, the first mission was a success. Nothing amazing happened, but it's a good start. While we were unable to find a strategic building to set our eyes on for expansion the mission went well. No hostile aliens or monsters were found, instead the squad ran across some human raiders. Vallhallan took one prisoner but he died in transit back to the base. He did give some information though, nothing too valuable, but he confirmed that he was nothing more then a raider and part of a gang that survived by scavenging supplies or taking them from other raiding gangs. This isn't surprising given the condition of things everywhere, and may also be good news. If there are no other forms of government out there, it will be easier to rally the surviving human population to our cause. I've suggested this idea to the CoE, even though we don't have the resources to carry it out right now.



Aside from that, the raiders didn't have much else for us. We did take what little gear they had on them, the only things of note is that they were both carrying Desert Eagle pistols, which have been added to the armory. However the only ammo we have for the guns is what we looted off the raiders, which isn't much so I'm holding off on passing them out for now.

The mission took about two days to complete, though most of that was travel time for the helicopter. While the squad was returning we managed to uncover a little detail about Twilight and Fall.



It doesn't give us the whole picture, but it gives us a nice general idea of what happened. Clearly we were attacked. The information discovered / recovered shows that the attack was caused by UFOs. The rumors were true, we are now looking at starting AW4, and from a very bad starting position. In the previous wars the Ethereal Empire wanted to enslave us, but after the loss of their base at Cydonia / Backup and T'leth we hadn't seen them again until we discovered them as food for the Micronoids. The Micronoids wanted us and our planet for their own purposes, and didn't try to devastate us until they were losing the war. Could this mean that humanity is unlucky enough to face a third alien race that whose opening card against humanity was to very nearly kill us all off?

I don't want to think about that. The research into the events surrounding Twilight and The Fall confirm most of the survivors rumors. Our satellites show many cities and locations world wide have been destroyed by conventional weapons. And tests show the stuff left behind by The Fall is biological in nature, leading us to believe the clouds of Twilight were spores. Further testing is of course required.

End recording."




--Soldiers Logs--


Posted by lilljonas 'Hero' -

Personal Log of Megan "Hero" Okembo. Part 1.
Debriefing.

Well, that's it. My first mission. I actually thought that the Council was overestimating my abilities when they sent me off to this outfit. I used to be a simple hospital security guard, and now I'm suddenly decked out like some kind of special forces member, riding helicopters through the blasted wastelands and everything. But hell, I'm not complaining. It's good to actually do something, and seeing faces high on adrenaline and action is better than seeing sad, apathetic survivors in a rusty bunker, chewing on roots and sleeping in dirt.

The quartermaster had a surprise for me, and handed me a shotgun! That thing was great, and it saved our asses when we got to the mission area. We fought some raiders and more importantly, we got out of there without injuries. These jackals were vicious, but even the little tactical training we had time for proved too much for them. In one way, it really feels bad to kill a human, especially now that there's so few of us. But it was necessary. We have to think long term, letting these monsters roam will kill far more in the end. We need to get this shit together if we are to defend both ourselves and those who are not able to defend themselves. Commander Vault was very specific when he explained it to us. He is a good Commander, but you can literally see the weight on his shoulders. It's a fuckin' mountain. It just makes you want to carry your weight around this outfit: there's so few of us that we can't afford any weak links.

Booya was assigned squaddie, and he was kinda quiet on the helicopter ride. I don't know if he was nervous about his responsibility or if he's always like that. He seems to have some good experience with doing this, though, and teaming up with him worked well. Golden and Valhalla kept to themselves too, but they seem alright. Hopefully I'll get to know them better when we're not as green anymore. Now there's just too much to think about to be social.

I'll leave for dinner now. No more roots! Getting transferred from the shelter seems to have some perks, after all.

End of Entry




Posted by Colander Crotch 'Vallhallan'

Personal log:

Everything, gone. My wife, my baby girl, all gone. And here we are, fighting some freaks and raiders. What has humanity come to? Even Golden is seeming to crack under the strain. He seemed to take a small question as an existential crisis. I think that he has some problems.

Of course that is the same deal for all of us. Look at us, pretending to be a military organization. What makes us much different from the raiders? Sure, we are protecting the innocents, but that does not make us much better. I suppose that we will just have to let history be the judge of that.

History, a funny thing to think about. After all, we have lost much of our history. After the deaths of those of us that were around at the time there will be no memory of what life was before. Before the aliens and before the freaks. Before we had to strive to live.
,br> We were fat, complacent, and none of us cared. I suppose this is the price we pay for our hubris though. And all that those of us left alive can do, is fight.

-Dick McReady, AKA Vallhallan