After the End

Chapter 4

LIVE RECORDING

GUEST 193641

Date: 03/07/3172

Sudden gunfire diverts the attention of the approaching robotic squad, from the hidden trio to the small army that suddenly crashed out of the sky. As the CKMs are getting blasted before they have time to react, Kyle sighs in relief. That is before Charles shouts from the comms, "Hey Kyle? Are you gonna do something or what?"

That snaps him back to reality, and he takes a look at his situation, before responding, "Still to many near the objective. We need them to cross past us before moving in"

"Fair enough, we'll draw em in, but after another five minutes your *ss better be moving, or I'll start aiming at you instead. Charles out"

The fireteam is in a makeshift trench created from the impact of the "drop box", slang for the container held by Low Altitude Transport Carriers, our ships that deploy most of our ground vehicles onto... well the ground obviously. Charles is busy inside one of them, recklessly blasting the enemy force with the mounted M247H. Neo is relaying orders from an imaginary commander in the virtual gunship orbiting the planet. Maria deploys a shield suddenly, saving the fireteam from an artillery strike. They're performing rather well, but the internal bot foundries won't stop producing more anytime soon.

"Alright. Simple mission, we destroy the base before they send in reinforcements," Kyle says. "I still don't get why we have to do these. Why can't they just send in heavy units and blast it out? Or bomb the f*ck out of it from orbit?" Soraya asks.

Now, there's a really simple answer to this. We don't want to waste munitions or units on something like this. If enemy reinforcements show up, then all field personnel get evacuated if they can. If not, then all airborne personnel take off, unless of course this is a battle worth fighting for. These people die, technically they can be replaced. They win? Gain some pride and reward, and off they went to the next battle. It's really not that hard. They go into every battle knowing fully well they might have a chance of dying, yet they still do it. Seems suicidal to me. DELETED [But again, you wouldn't know. Relaxing up there in the command centers, f*cking whatever you feel like. It's a good life isn't it? Enjoy it while it lasts]. Sorry about that, I got a bit off topic. Point is, they're expendable. And I'm pretty sure she knows that.

Instead of giving an intellectual answer, Kyle shrugs and walks off into the abandoned streets, gunfire in the distance. They follow suit, and eventually find the clearing where the base is. If we're correct, the majority of these black bases are mobile foundries which can be used as command centers. Why is this a theory? Simply because they self destruct without fail every time we win. Doesn't help with the analysis process, and also makes us lose a lot of men. But in the simulation, they're based off what we think they are: bases that mass produce bots, which are slowly overwhelming Squad 2 and co.

A few shots, and the guard CDUs are dead. The path to their objective now appears to be clear. However, they know it's not. Up ahead are landmines, because for some reason the enemy today wants to risk blowing itself and what it is guarding to kingdom come. The trio doesn't know what it is, but they have a pretty good idea. Kyle takes out a stick like device, and starts to scan in an arc. Several beeps confirm their existence, and he sighs. "You know the drill. Cover me," Kyle orders, as he starts to step into the maze.

Wise of him to do so. This is standard procedure anyway, and there's always a decent chance of something going wrong if you rush in at the pace he's doing. But he knows he can't really die, and that they need to finish this fight before the fireteam back there is finished off. So, he runs straight ahead.

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Surveillance Footage

Analyst 2015812