Ookay, Leo says to go ahead with the copying and the pasting, so now since i have a while before i SLEEP, i am gonna copy out the whole chunk of his first chapter. Oh, this first chapter's completely Leo's by the way. Just so you know, i'm copying it wholesale, so all comments in there are HIS =)

*Whhhnnzng* *Whhhnnzng* The side-to-side jerk was getting hypnotic and repetitive, making this trip all the more boring.
They really should install Gyro-Stabilizers on these babys. Jerking's giving me a damn headache, targeting's crap now. Gonna strangle a techy when i get back.

M.Sgt Leo was point-operator in the formation. He was currently smack-dab in the middle of a routine mech patrol. In his Lance (or squad) were four other operators. He had personally trained three, the last one was a new guy, he had yet to see what the kid could do, but no doubt he had talent, or else he wouldn't have been posted to his division. They were proceeding in "Stalk" status, meaning a fast walk and the boredom of the situation itself was frustrating. Apparently, there was an important transfer tonight; Some lab bullshit or some such, had the entire Central Command buzzing, and the pencil pushers doing what they do best, "Giving hell for us military personnel". Command had sent three teams out for patrol, in Lances of five. M.Sgt Leo was Lance Leader for Lance Two, or L2 for short.

"Hall, Spencer, Move your mechs up that knoll. Lights off, Passive Sensor, Infra-Red scanners. I want a full circle sweep. Report your findings then cover-camp on that hill, staggered formation," M.Sgt Leo said.

"Yes sir," The two long-range Odin Mech Operators grunted.

"Luz, Troy, into that river bed. Defensive perimeter," M.Sgt Leo ordered again, pin-pointing the improvised ditch with an invisible marking laser.

"You got it, Sarge," The two Soldiers replied. They were riding standard issue Thors, outfitted with All-Purpose Packs."All units, hold your positions. I'm checking the line," M.Sgt Leo ordered."Sarge, I have movement on the northwest sector from my position, over," Hall reported over the closed radio transmission.

Leo was already inching halfway to his waypoint when this report came in. He froze, then turned and crouched the Raven Recon mech. He set the computer for Scan and saw the approaching target. It was a small vehicle, however, in the infra-red HUD display, it was about as conspicuous as Brick pretending to be Jupiter. The computer registered the vehicle in the HUD, a rectangle with a darker tone of green compared to the rest of the HUD marked its location. Numbers indicating the distance and vector locations were decreasing steadily, meaning the vehicle was getting closer.

"Target recognized. Type: Civilian Truck, Model: 1969 Tewyota Taurus. Three lifeforms detected," the computer AI replied in a female voice.

"Hall, it's just a civilian car. Most probably those damned news crews and paparazzis again. Fire a warning shot across it's side," Leo calmly said as he punched out a text report to Command.

The familiar burp of the minigun rang out through the night, red tipped tracers cutting through the air like fire-lit arrows and pinging past the ground next to the incoming car. Requests for the situation came in almost instantaneously from the other Lance Leaders.

"Stupid....paparazzis....in...civilian vehicle....approaching...Firing...warning shots," Leo reciting aloud his report as he typed it out.
"Be...on...the...al-HEY WHAT THE!"

The civilian car had swerved to its left after the warning shots were fired and was driving at full throttle towards their position. The back canvas flap suddenly popped open and revealed a sensor cloaked rocket pod. Alerts and warnings burst out immediately from the computer AI.

"All units, activate AMS. It may have some powerful toys, but it's still just a truck, it won't hold. Ballistics only, no missles. TAKE IT OUT!" Leo ordered and the attack was initiated.

The truck had already fired out several missles and was reloading for the next salvo. The missles streaked towards the squad across the terrain. Low-flying, but fast. The AMS installed on the mechs took out the missles before they even got close, and then the entire Lance opened up on the truck. The miniguns from the Thors farted out bullets while the cannons from the Odins boomed out a deathly roar. The minigun rounds literally ripped apart the front of the truck and killed the driver and the person in the passenger seat. Moments before, through the zoomed in window on the HUD screen, Leo could see the passenger lean out briefly, got shot, then dropped what he assumed was a rocket launcher. Their bodies jerked like ragdolls from the impact of the bullets when they hit them. He also subconsciously observed that their bodies were still warm after they died, the infra-red view mode showed that they were stationary and still having warm heat signatures. The front and hood was shredded and pieces of the truck and more importantly the engine were flying everywhere and past the truck itself as it was still moving. Then, as the engine started smoking, the cannon shells hit, and the entire truck was engulfed in an explosion, its incineration was shown as a white heat signature on the HUD screen. When the explosion receded, all that was left was the burning wreckage of the truck.

"Here's a parting gift for you," Sarge said as he popped off a mortar round and it exploded right in the center of the wreckage.

From the other Lances, he received contact reports as well and they stated that they had several waves of rocket trucks and technicals and also, surprisingly, some state-of-the-art tanks and war vehicles. He then proceeded to send them his report. Then, sure enough, he saw dust clouds in the distance as the rest of the would-be assault force rumbled forward. The truck probably was a scout but it was a bad call on their part to open fire. Lance Two crushed the rest of the force without much trouble.

"What the hell do you boys think they are transporting back there? These idiots obviously came for it," Sarge asked.

"Probably some sort of weapon maybe? I mean, we DO have a prototype weapons testing facility after all," Spencer said amidst murmers of 'no idea's.

"The Sarge knows, Spud, he IS in the testing program after all...jeezus, you fool," Luz said, replying to Spencer.

"Hey, I wasn't saying-" Spencer said before he got cut short.

"Alright, knock it off. Light and noise discipline, be alert on your sectors," Sarge snapped.

He wasn't really angry at them, and he knew it was probably wrong to react so sternly to idle talk, but the Sarge was getting worried. He had already tried to contact Command three times already on the intercom, but he was getting no reply. It had already been more than three hours since the payload was delivered, some chemicals or some such as had he heard from a rumor. This was highly unusual. Normally, Central Command would have been busy sorting out administrative stuff over the transfer and his report would get him an earful from the commanding officer, but now, there was dead silence. Dead. He tried to shake the word out of his head but it sort of stuck on in there like a gut feeling.

No matter what he felt though, there was one thing that could be ascertained: "Something is up."

© Leostrasz™ 2006/2007

Posted by [Look up there ^^^^]