Isolation-Excerpt 34-True Intentions
#34 of Isolation
I went into this job thinking it was just another bug hunt, some Scientist dude who got careless with his vials and spawned nothing more than some blood thirsty flesh craving fruit fly or a huge snake. I thought it would be in, kill the monster, get paid and then go be my normal lazy self while I waited for the next job to come up. I assumed it was nothing to twist myself over. I was wrong. Dead. Wrong
For the next couple of hours, nothing much happened. We had dinner, took showers played a bit on our PDA's and talked about what we needed to do to keep Martin as delayed as possible and keep Sarah in enough resources to find a vaccine for Red star at the same time. We came to a decision that tomorrow, Mike, Alcatraz and I would head into Area 4, where Red Star was coming from and bring back samples of it that weren't contaminated with a hosts DNA.
"Will Hazmat suits keep it out?", Alcatraz asked.
"Yes", Sarah said, "Red Star is much to big to slip through what few weaknesses our suits have."
"Well finally some good news", Magellan said, "how much...."
Magellan was interrupted as the lights in the lounge clicked off and a flash of deep red replaced it.
"Um", Alcatraz said, "that's probably not a good sign."
I was about to ask what was going on when Allen threw open the door to the security room, "Skyline", he said frantically, "get in here."
I quickly rose from my place at the table and went into the Security Room. None other than Dr. Crazy was on the monitor. He was...changing. His face was almost completely glazed over with what looked a little like the material my Visor was made out of. His single showing eye was now a very bright yellow and his teeth looked more like fangs than anything else. His skin was turning Midnight black and there were bony spikes sticking out of his shoulders.
"The fuck happened to you?", I asked.
Martin's face twisted in a sick grin, "my plans. Everything is working perfectly, only lose end left is you, and about 360 million people who inhabit this solar system."
"Crazy fucker", I snarled, "just what are you planing on doing? You have to kill me before you can get to them and as long as there is a breath in my body, you will not leave this facility alive."
"I don't need to", Martin smiled. He reached out and pressed a button on the console. A robotic voice soon came over the PA systems.
"Silo 221 doors opened. Saturn S5-R5 Interplanetary Ballistic Missile ready for launch."
I felt my heart sink into the pit of my stomach and all of the blood leave me. I saw martin grin as the next sentence played.
"T-Minus two minutes and fifty five seconds to ignition, CHDISK said, "recommend all personnel evacuate exhaust tunnels."
"I win Skyline", Martin said, "you lose."
The monitor cut off as James came into the room.
"Is it Nuclear?", he asked.
"How the fuck could I know that?", Allen asked frantically.
"Get on that console and find out!", James ordered.
"Is there anyway we can stop the launch?", I asked.
"No", James said, "but maybe we can blow it out of the sky. We keep Javelins in the armory down the hall, that will be more than enough to knock a S5-R5 out of the sky."
"Can I make it there and to the missile tube in two and a half minutes"?", I asked.
"If you move your ass", James said.
"I ran out of the security room and quickly pulled on my gear, Mike and Alcatraz did as well and soon, Tyler replaced Allen at the computer, and Allen joined us. We had just gotten out the door of the lounge when CHDISK made another announcement.
"T-Minus 59 seconds to Ignition."
"Tyler", I called, "where do we go from here!?"
'You wanna go down the hallway to your right and make a left hand turn at the way end, the armory is right there, from there, head down that hallway to a heavy door that reads "Missile Launch Pad", I'll open the door now."
"Let's go!", I said as my team and I began running down the hall as quickly as we could. At the end of the hall, we turned the corner to find a lone, Armored Juggernaut packing a Minigun waiting for us. Before he had time to raise it and fire, I closed the distance, pulled out my combat knife and buried it in his neck, stabbing straight through his ceramic body armor. I was sprayed with his synthetic fluids as I twisted the knife and yanked it out, pushing him to the ground.
"This will be useful", Alcatraz said shouldering his shotgun for the Jugg's six barreled .50 caliber monster. It didn't take me too long to realize that there were more synthetics inside the armory. So I ordered my team against the walls and put a chunk of C4 on the door.
"Knock knock mother fuckers", Allen said as I blew the door down. Inside, we encountered six guards armed with FN FAL's. Allen's Short barreled M240 sprayed them with about 45 rounds of .30-06 and made very short work of them. The armory was picked clean except for a single metal box bolted to the ground reading.
"Launcher-Javelin-S-445 Stinger Rocket and Ballistics CPU. Handle with extreme care, highly volatile munitions."
"Alcatraz", I barked, "box, opened now!"
Al gave me a not and tore the metal lid off the box. I shouldered my Fal and grabbed the massive rocket launcher before turning around. Allen and Al take the lead, Mike, you bring up our Six."
Exiting the room in formation, I opened up the coms to Tyler.
"Talk to me Tyler", I said, "is that Saturn IPBM Nuclear?"
"No", Tyler said gravely, "it's an MIRV packed full of Red Star. What's worse is that it's got the most powerful engine ever fitted to a rocket. It produces 360 million horsepower and will hit 600MPH shortly after ignition and within ten seconds, the missile launcher you find in the armory won't be able to catch it.
I was about to ask him where it was headed as CHDISK made a third announcement.
"5, 4, 3, 2, 1"
There was a pause.
"Ignition."
The entire lab seemed to sway on it's foundation as the massive rocket engine roared to life. Even through my hearing protection it was still loud enough to make me feel like my brain had split down the middle. The vibrations on the floor were so bad that we all lost our footing and fell down.
"Get up!', I told my friends as I hauled myself to my feet, "use the wall to balance yourself!"
Following my instructions we ran the rest of the way to the launch pad as the giant, Black tipped missile with a "Black Water Defense" logo cleared the silo doors, blasting it's way into Ios' black sky so quickly you'd think that the massive engine was pushing a twig.
"You got six seconds to fire!", Tyler said as I pulled the cover off the front of the Javelin and switched it to laser guided mode. I put the cross hairs on the missile and let my rocket go at the very second a second silo door opened
"Ignition", CHDISK said.
A second IPBM blasted from it's silo and into Ios' night sky.
"Tyler!", I said as my lack of balance caused my rocket to fly irrecoverably off course., "we have a second Missile in the air! Repeat! We have two IPBM's in the air!"
"The second one is loaded with Chemical 240", Tyler said gravely, "it;s destination is the same as the first."
"Which is!?", I asked
"Every planet in the Solar system."
I sighed, feeling my heart drop into my boot as I watched the missiles carry their deadly cargo into orbit, helpless to stop it.
"So", Mike asked, "what the fuck do we do now?