: Log Entry :
: 05062102132300 :
: Corp. B. Crowski, Comm
Officer :
What was decided was a great plan. 2 demo squads would be dispatched to simply vaporize the living quarters and generator room, 2 men each, quick and light. A group of 6 would be sent out to perform another search and destroy sweep, and 3 would be left to protect the pres. The engineers stayed behind to work on the autosentrys they had just rigged with parts found in the ammo dump and the lazer gattlins. And the admiral stayed behind to monitor the comm unit and warn the engineers when friendly's were coming, and probably to talk the president out of having Jonson executed once we got to DC4.
I was sent with Briggs to take out the living quarters. I was issued a semi-auto railgun, ammo and enough c-15 to take out a city block. Man that gun made a nice reassuring hum, equipped with the latest in autoaim tech and self guiding slugs. I turned all that crap off. I had started my career as a front lines sniper and all this was just insulting. We were also pumped full of so much adrenaline that it would have taken a direct rocket hit to even phase us.
The initial firefight to clear out the hallway and set up the sentries was fierce. We cleared about 15 meters on either side of the ammo dump with plasma grenade launchers and let the engineers go to work. Once they were done everyone got the hell out there as fast as possible as they powered up the sentries. No 'Friend or Foe' recognition here, if you gave off heat you were dead. Briggs and I managed to slip into a side room that had been cleared and shit... it had to be at least 10 minutes before those sentries finally stopped. We took the ventilation system into the bathroom of one of the living quarters, and I quickly put a slug through the head of one of the Scroggs. I guess when ya gotta go you gotta go. Briggs planted the charges while I checked the hallway. There was a group of scroggs running away from our position, so i thought i'd better leave them alone instead of attracting undue attention. We proceeded room to room for about 20 minutes without encountering another soul before the whole situation changed drastically.
We moved down a hallway into an obviously less kept area of the base, and came across the prisoners. They were stick thin and wearing nothing but rags, yet the determination in their eyes was something to be proud of. I contacted the admiral to see if we could get any backup getting these people back to the ammo dump, and the fucker gave me a negative on that.
: 'It'll only draw fire your way if we send the S&D Squad for backup, do what you can'
> 'Well damnit, at least send someone with some weapons or something so these people can defend themselves!'
: 'Negative soldier, we cant get out of ammo dump, the engineers haven't figured out how to turn the sentry's off yet'
> 'WHAT?!? You mean we have to take those fucking sentries out too?!?'
: 'Watch your language soldier, thats an affirmative for the time being. Leave the prisoners where they are and set the rest of those charges. No use taking them along for now. Grab them on your way back and lets hope the situation has changed by that time.'
> 'Yes sir. I'm going to see if i can find some weapons for these people first, then we'll set the rest of these charges'
: 'NEGATIVE ON THAT SOLDIER! Those charges are your first priority! Proceed with your mission as ordered or we'll see how much fun you'll be having before the Tribunal at DC4. Out.'
Fuck him. I quickly sprinted back to the room where i had killed the scrogg on the can and grabbed the hand blaster that was sittin on top of the toilet. Briggs was none too happy about that, but it took all of 2 minutes and i believe that he respected my decision despite the admirals orders. After equipping one of the prisoners, we proceeded down the hallway back into the scroggs living quarters and continued to place the charges. We were almost done when we came across a small partol and shit hit the fan. I fired off 2 quick shots, hittin one square in the chest with one shot, and hitting nothing but air with the other. I fired off another shot as i rolled to the ground, kneecapping the same scrogg, and ducked into a side room. Briggs opened up with his AP-55 removing the head off another, and rolled into the room across the hall. 2 down, one to go. I primed a plasma grenade and ran out into the hall. 'I give up! Don't shoot!' I yelled. The scrogg nailed me in the hip and the plasma grenade went rolling down the hall. Thanks to the adrenaline shot i was able to shrug off the wound and dive back into the room. The blast from the plasma grenade threw the scrogg a good 15 meters, and Briggs proceded to tear apart what was left of the body with his AP-55.
: 'Are you a fucking moron? I cant believe you survived that!'
> 'Oh shut up, I saw it work in an old 2dee.'
: 'Hahahahaha... 'Soldiers of Glory right?'
> 'hehe, yup. great flick. Fuck...I took a hit.'
: 'No shit. Worry about that later. Lets move'
I grabbed the salvagable weapons off the bodies and put a slug in the head of that one scrogg I had hit initially. Somehow he had gotten the weird notion that he wasn't dead. We set the rest of the charges and headed back to where the prisoners were. We were arming some other prisoners when they pointed out a shape in the back corner of the room. The explained that it was the General in charge of the base before the takeover. He was so drugged that we were pressed to get anything more then mumbling gibberish out of him. Briggs pumped him with a spare adrenaline shot and that seemed to bring him to life... oh did it bring him to life.
} 'kill..... me...... kill... me... kill me, KILL ME, KILLLLLLLLLLLLMEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!'
He started screaming and screaming at this point and rushed one of the prisoners, grabbing for the blaster we had gotten from the 1st scrogg. Its a sad site to see someone kill themselves, its a sadder sight to see them do it with a plasma weapon. Before we could even react he was just a pool of bubbling gore. We stood there shocked for a couple of seconds until one of the prisoners mentioned that there were more guards coming down the hallway. I dont think they were expecting anyone to jump out of the cell, nevermind 5 anyones, and open fire on their sorry asses. Its just too damn bad that the other 3 people were civilians who had no aim whatsoever. I took out one of the guards with a clean shot through the eye and Briggs hit another in the left and right shoulders, then in the grion for good measure. The other guard watched stunned as 6 different shots went zooming into the floor and ceiling around him, and ran screaming down the hallway. Briggs hit him in the knee and when he hit the floor I shot the fucker up the ass, a railgun can do an ungodly amount of damage when it has a whole body to go through. Something else I wish I had on tape.
We made it back to the 1st room we had come out of the ventalation system in, and started to make our way back to the ammo dump. It was a long crawl to the living quarters, but it was an even longer crawl back, with 16 other smelly, gassy bodies in those vents with us. Once we got back to the room off the sentry patrolled hallway I contacted the admiral to see if there was any change in the situation, and to inform him of the prisoner numbers.
: 'Negative, the engineers are still having trouble. They say that the controll circutry was fried due to overheating. We've already lost 3 men trying to take them out.'
> 'Um.. any suggestions sir?'
: 'Ya.. TAKE THE FUCKING THINGS OUT! We cant loose any more men!'
> 'Watch your language sir. copy that. out.'
: 'One more remark like that and it dosent matter how many prisoners you save. I didnt make admiral to be assigned missions like this Crowski and you're starting to piss me off. Do what you can or hold tight, just dont get your sorry ass killed.'
Great.. there's one more enemy for life, and an admiral yet.
Briggs, being the ever enthusiatic explosives nut, had an idea. He would rig up a small c-15 charge and pitch it down the hall towards the guns. Great idea... on paper. He made a small charge and set a timer to 15 seconds. I opened the door and he whipped the charge down the hallway. Before it even landed the sentries had torn it to shreds and the resulting explosion wasn't even enough to make a mark on the floor, Briggs almost lost his arm in the process. Great, now the sentries were looking our way. We contacted the other groups to check their positions and came up with a plan. One of the men that came back from the S&D mission would grab a scrogg body and pitch it down the far hallway. At the same time we would throw another charge towards the sentries and hope they shoot for the bigger target. The S&D team threw the scrogg body into the hall and it was promptly torn apart, Briggs threw the charge less then a second afterwords. The nearer sentry swung back and grazed the charge on its way down, sending it spinning back our way and making some really cool scars in the wall. Briggs screamed to close the door and dived for the floor. The door was just about closed when the charge went off, blowing everyone off their feet and making things very uncomfortable for the prisoners in the room to say the least. But it worked, sentry parts anyone? Everyone headed back to the ammo dump and we waited for word from the guys sent out to take the generators. We had been gone almost 4 hours, just a little over 4 to go before evac arrived. The meds unfortunatly couldnt take a look at my hip wound, since one of them was out with the demoman, and the other was killed by the sentries.. but we still had enough adrenaline paks to buzz up an ox. Briggs was itching to set off the charges in the living quarters, but I mentioned how much sweeter the explosion would look from the plane outside the base and he got this weird glint in his eye.. demomen, their buttons are easy to find. The admiral finally got in contact with the other demo team only to be told that they were pinned under heavy fire inside the generator room. They had armed the charges, but coudn't get out of there without some backup.
The generator was 2 levels down and 2 hours away through the vents, We could make it there in an hour though the halls and stairwells, but who knew what kind of resistance would be encountered. Its times like these that i'm glad i'm not called on to make 'command decisions'. Save 2 men while possibly thinning our ranks even more, or sacrifice them to protect the president.
Finally a good decision out of the admiral.. we can't take the chance of loosing any more men. And if the reports from the guys down there are right, there's something down in that generator room that needs to be documented.
4 of us are heading out now. We've armed the prisoners with everything we could find and even gave the president a lazer pistol. The engineers say that we shoudn't worry about the pres since they almost have the anti-matter emitter up and running... but we all know how their last little 'defence' worked out. God I hope this works out for the best.. I can start to feel my hip through the adrenaline, but since i'm the only one that knows how to work the camera equipment from the comm pack i've been elected.
If I dont make it back, someone tell my mom she's a bitch for me.