Storm Force
Part 1
(Introduction)
Time: 02:10 Captain Peter J Stanton was outside the
enemy base, waiting for the right moment. A lot depended on him carrying out
this mission. In about two hours, thirty troops from the World Army would clear
this area. But they would be stopped – literally – dead if he didn’t destroy
the five T-80 tanks on the far side of this base. Plus the troops wouldn’t even
get here if the anti-aircraft installation was still operational.
He had just finished checking his
weapons: a silenced rifle with grenade launcher, two grenades, a signal flare,
two clips for the rifle with thirty bullets in each, a box of twenty incendiary
bullets, a pair of night vision goggles and ten compact high explosive bombs.
He noticed a sentry talking to the guard on the gate - who had stepped outside
of his post to have a smoke - and decided that now was the time to act.
Slipping under the gate, he saw his first objective. Looming over the buildings
was the rocket launcher with a 30mm cannon on top, luckily it was unmanned at
the moment, so he slipped over to it and climbed the ladder up to the missile
tubes. Grinning slightly, he checked nobody was looking and pulled out one of
the missiles, pushed in a bomb and slid the missile back in.
After getting down from the AA
launcher, he planted another bomb at the base of it and hid behind a building.
As an afterthought, he set the timer on his remote detonator, so what ever
happened to him all ten bombs went off at 02:45. He would never get to the
tanks without some kind of diversion. He had a flare, but if he used that,
everyone would know there was an intruder. It was while he was thinking this that
he noticed some men moving a few ammo crates. Some ammo crates blowing up would
attract people’s attention, and it could happen accidentally. He loaded two
incendiary bullets into his gun and fired one into a crate, which started to
burn. Luckily for Peter, he crept round behind the building adjacent to him,
just as the heat became too much for one of the hand grenades in the crate.
After creeping round a few
buildings, Peter listened to somebody being reprimanded, something about
handling ammo crates with care. He grinned again; he loved getting people into
trouble. After they had gone, he slid towards the T-80s, his next objective. He
stealthily climbed onto the turret of one, primed a bomb and pushed it into a
small space inside the gunner’s compartment. He did this to all five tanks and
was about to find some cover when he remembered the other three bombs he had on
him. After a moment’s thought, he decided to put them at the power plant; that
way he’d be able to sneak out in the confusion.
The power plant was guarded - but
not heavily - and surrounded by a fence. He glanced at his watch. 02:37; he
didn’t have much time, and so quick thinking was what he needed. Another thing
he needed was to get past the guards, who were leaning against a pile of oil
drums. Then an idea entered his head: if he shot at the oil drums, the guards
would think they were being shot at, go and sound the alarm, and he would be
able to walk in. The enemy would know there was an infiltrator, but they
wouldn’t know where he was. He raised his gun, aimed and fired.
The two guards were talking, guns
on their backs.
“What sort of idiot throws ammo
around!” said one.
“Good thing they got that fire
out! One of those crates usually have about twenty hand grenades in them!” put
in the other.
Then they both heard a noise, a
sort of ‘clunk’. They looked down. Then, the barrels they were leaning on
exploded.
“Oops!” Peter whispered. He forgot
about the incendiary bullet he left in his gun. He dashed in and planted the
bombs in and around the plant. He breathed a sigh of relief and started
climbing the fence. It was quite an awkward climb but he made it over. After
looking for the best cover, he decided the best option would be a long
building, which looked pretty solid. He rounded the corner watching the fire
being put out… which is why he didn’t notice that ten soldiers were right
behind him, until one of them said, “Could you put your gun on the floor,
please.”
Peter obeyed, but didn’t turn
round.
“Thank you,” said the voice from
behind him. “Come on!”
He was led to the center of the
base, not far from the AA platform; in fact, it was too close for Peter’s
liking. The commanding officer stepped forward.
“What are you doing here?” he
asked.
“Carrying out my mission, ”
answered Peter.
“What is your mission?” asked the
officer.
“Why are we out here, and not in
an interrogation room?”
“Because the interior walls have
just been painted and we will shoot you if we want to!”
Peter checked his watch, 02:42
just three minutes to go.
“What is your mission?” asked the
officer again.
“There’s an old saying where I
come from. ‘At a time like this, why lie?’ My mission is to scare the living
daylights out of you!”
The officer held up the remote
detonator that the soldiers had taken from Peter. “What is this?”
“You know what it is!” Peter
answered levelly.
“Deactivate it please!”
The officer waited a few seconds
and-
realising he would have to do it himself- and
pulled the antenna off the top. Then a few things happened simultaneously.
The five bombs in the tanks
detonated sending the turrets flying off. The power plant was destroyed by the
three Peter had left there. And the AA rocket launcher got blown apart sending
the cannon flying. Peter made a dash for it as the lights went down. The
officer was about to say, “Kill him!” He would have too, if half a ton of scrap
metal that used to be a 30mm cannon hadn’t landed on him.
The words ‘Mission Completed’ appeared in front of Peter’s
field of view. And he took his headset off and let out a big breath. “That was
so realistic,” he said to the technician who was helping him out of his harness
“Virtual Reality is amazing!”
