Fractured Desert: (A LitFPS book) (Call of Reality Book 2)

by Aidan Colyer

  “How will we find them?” Webb asked in a quiet tone.

  “If you cast your eyes upon the main map screen, you will notice that there are three different objectives specially marked for our squads. You will be taking the third one over here on the right. Each of you will also be given equipment that will allow you to track the map so you don’t need to rely on private Webb constantly.”

  “Does that mean we get suits?” Roland asked.

  “You and your suits,” Watts said under her breath chuckling.

  “Yes, you will Mellors. These aren’t like the other suits you have seen so far. They are far lighter and, as such; don’t have the level of armour you might expect from a combat suit. They will give you tactical comms and also access to HUD so you can track the map while you advance. You can also add anything you want from your own menus too.”

  Roland smiled. Perhaps this wasn’t all bad he thought.

  “I shall give you all a chance to process the information. The screens will remain up too so you can plan your assault. Your deployment location is marked on the map so you can work from there.”

  The major left them to plan and exited with the two guards. Roland stood and made his way to the door. He checked it and as he expected it had been locked. He turned and started to walk back but Watts stopped him.

  “What happened?”

  “After you were shot, we fought on. Murden saved me but she took a load of shrapnel. I’m pretty sure Bywaters took herself out as she hit the rebels. I took down the last of the enemy soldiers and that tipped us over into a win. When we faded something went wrong. I woke up in our tent still wounded. We have been out for about a month.”

  “Wait, we were where for a month?”

  “We made it back just about. Everyone who died was in a full coma. They kept me under too because of my injuries, which they couldn’t heal. When I woke up the major talked to me with the lieutenant. He gave me the same speech as here pretty much. The only way they worked out to reset us was to kill us. So, he shot me. No idea how he killed you guys though.”

  Watts put up a hand to stop Roland speaking. She was accessing her menus.

  “I’ve got two deaths recorded now. That means I’m on my last life for this mission. I’m guessing you are the only one with a respawn left too. How can we complete the mission like that?”

  “I don’t know but we don’t have a choice in the matter. It was either this or they stuck you all in storage and wiped my memories.”

  Watts swore. “So, basically, we do this and then we get to be redeployed back to our unit?”

  “As far as I can understand the situation, yes. Unless they want us for something else. This is another capture mission. This time it’s in the middle of a battle though so it won’t be easy at all.”

  Murden walked up as they talked.

  “What are you two whispering about?” They shared a look and Roland started to fill her in. The rest of the squad drifted over as Roland explained everything. All of them checked their profiles and saw the same as Watts.

  They were silent for a while after Roland had finished.

  “We need to plan this carefully. Come on, everyone back to the map.” Murden said clapping her hands to get them out of their funk.

  Chapter 23.

  They drifted back over to the map. Webb was first over to the map. It didn’t take him long to map out several routes they could take. Everyone threw ideas backwards and forwards until they had hashed out the best possible routes. They assigned roles that mirrored the ones they fell into from the last mission. Watts and Roland were to lead the attack. They would take out anyone they encountered leaving only a couple of stragglers for the rest of the squad to deal with. After that they would attack and capture the rebels and drag them back to the interrogation point.

  Not long after they had finished planning, the door opened again, and the major walked in to the room part way.

  “Come with me we need to get you equipped we don’t have much time.”

  They filed out following the major. The corridors were lit with harsh lights set on metal grills along the walls. There were a multitude of different intelligence personnel walking backwards and forwards down the corridors going between the many rooms they passed. Roland tried to get a look in several of them but the doors slid closed as soon as people entered. He caught sounds of comm chatter and various meetings but nothing more distinct.

  They reached the end of a long corridor and went through another door. The door led out to a large space that looked like a re-purposed warehouse. The gantries that ran above their heads contained armed and armoured soldiers from the intel unit. Some were obviously guards but most were units that were going into combat or returning from a deployment. Their squad walked across the concrete floor to a row of resupply units. The major stopped them and ordered them to line up. They shuffled into a line before he spoke.

  “Each of you will be given access to a level of equipment you could not normally access due to the points available for the basic combat units. This covers the suits and the sight enhancement tech you will need. The points for these come from our budget and not your personal budget. Take what you need after you have picked the pre-set packages we have created for each of you. It combines your usual preferences with what we need you to be equipped with.”

  He stepped back and gestured to the units. Enough units had been laid out for them to have one each. Roland stepped towards his and waved his chip across the surface. The equipment menu popped up and spread out in front of him. He picked the package and checked what it contained. Everything he normally chose appeared on the first screen. In addition, the armour he usually used had been replaced with a custom suit. There wasn’t any ammunition with it so after he locked his setup in he switched over to the dedicated ammunition menu. He selected a full load out of tier 4 ammunition. They weren’t his points, and he needed something that would go through the rebel armour. He selected his pistol and upgraded it with a laser sight. He upgraded the chambering too so he could use tier four ammunition with armour piercing add-ons. After added those upgrades to his list he worked his way through the other items on offer. One of them caught his eye. It was a magazine that contained stun rounds. He checked the specs. Their penetration value was the same as the level they were bought for but instead of damage; they stunned the enemy for 30 seconds. He switched out a third of his ammunition for the stun rounds. Second guessing himself he changed some back. They were only capturing one rebel. The other two were optional. Satisfied with his choices, he closed everything down and picked up the kit. Changing rooms were arrayed behind the resupply units for them to use. They changed quickly and then formed up. They kept their cloaks even though the suits had custom stealth technology making the cloaks redundant. Roland had tried on the helmet but took it off again. It felt awkward. He would get used to it when he had too. He played with the switches on the side and managed to find a way to change the visor so it retracted letting him use his scope properly. Satisfied he came to attention and stood waiting. The rest of the squad did the same.

  The major walked back down their line and checked them all. He checked their equipment poking and prodding at their weapons and suits. Once he had checked them all over he led them to the far end of the large warehouse.

  The suits didn’t make a sound on the concrete floor which Roland found slightly disconcerting. He knew it must be the stealth tech working to dampen sound, but it still didn’t sit right with him. They were led to a raised concrete platform placed along the end wall. They climbed onto the platform and turned back to face out across the room.

  “Make sure you capture the rebel. Ignore the battle and only engage the enemy if you have to. I shall see you once you are done.”

  He stepped back and waved to a soldier stood by a small podium. Roland watched as they pressed several buttons on their screen before he faded out.

  They faded back in standing in a basement of a damaged building. The room was dark
, but some light crept in from a hole to the side. A pile of rubble lay scattered underneath the extensive hole giving them easy access. The pipes that surrounded them hissed and steam escaped. Murden led them out of the hole onto the street checking the coast was clear. No soldiers from either side shot at them as they emerged into the sunlight. Buildings made from the ochre sandstone they had seen in the desert surrounded them on all sides. No large edifices of steel and glass loomed over them here. At least they didn’t have to worry about that this time Roland thought. The buildings were tightly packed and set at seemingly random distances back from the road. Roland put his helmet on and booted up the HUD. A small map appeared to the side of his vision. He looked at it and realised that they weren’t just set back from the roads randomly the entire city had been built haphazardly and with no clear plan. Some buildings were connected together and alleys surrounded others. Other alleys were bracketed by walls that enclosed yards. Roland turned down the map until it faded into the background. He accessed his menus and transferred an ammunition count to his HUD. He kept the stamina and health bars up but faded them too so they wouldn’t distract him. Once he finished, he keyed his comm.

  “CM1 to CM2 do you read? Over.”

  “Why are you CM1? I thought of the name,” Watts replied.

  “Fine, you be CM1 then,” Roland replied looking across at her. She turned to him and gave him a thumbs up. He shook his head before turning his attention back to the buildings. Murden had moved onto the road and played her rifle backwards and forwards checking the lines of sight. She scanned the buildings all around and then turned back to the group.

  “Let’s move. If we can get into position by the time night starts to fall, we should be able to do most over this under cover of darkness.”

  There were murmurs of ascent of the comm channel as they moved out towards the buildings across the road. Watts and Roland forged ahead to get some distance from the rest of the squad. They needed to get on top of the buildings and use the walkways up there to their advantage.

  They turned left first moving along a narrow alley that scraped along the shoulders of Roland’s suit. It widened out at the end and curved around to the right. Watts stopped at the corner and checked the next alley.

  “It’s clear. I also see a ladder about 30 feet down the alley. We should head for that and see how far we can get on the roofs.”

  “Sure thing let’s go.”

  She moved out into the alley and ran to the ladder. Roland stopped at the bottom and aimed down the alley. They hadn’t seen any enemy soldiers or rebels yet but they still needed to be careful. Watts signalled him when she reached the top and he slung his rifle. He climbed the ladder to the roof wincing at every creek from its sundried wood. When he got there Watts had already moved to the far side and was laid behind a small wall on the edge of the building. He crept up to her, lay down next to her, and pulled his rifle round.

  “What are we looking at?” he asked as he flipped down his bipod and slid the rifle into position.

  “Up ahead across the roofs. There are larger buildings over there. One of them looks like an ancient fort of some kind.” Roland played his scope across the area. She was right there was a fort, and it looked like the enemy had garrisoned in place.

  “How far off of our objective is it?” Roland asked before realising he was able to check himself. As he moved to change his settings Watts replied. “That is our objective.”

  “How do we do that then? There is no way we can assault a fort, capture a rebel, and then remove them without getting embroiled in a large firefight.”

  “Do you reckon the lieutenant is still on the same channels we used in the last mission?”

  Roland thought for a moment. “We can do one better.”

  Roland played around with his comm settings and tried to find the armoured unit they had been attached to in their last battle. He took a few minutes to find the right frequency, so he locked it into one of his pre-set slots.

  “Commander this is Ochre CM do you read? Over.”

  Roland waited for a few seconds.

  “CM this is the commander. I didn’t think you guys would make it to this one. Over.”

  “We had a stroke of luck commander. We were wondering if you could do us a small favour. Over.”

  “I’ll see what I can do; I have pretty tight orders though. Over.”

  “You see the large fort? Over.”

  “Yes. Over.”

  “We were wondering if you could attack it at nightfall. Over.”

  “I’ll have to get back to you. Our orders are to go in that direction but we have run into resistance. I’ll comm an hour before and give you an update. Commander over and out.”

  Roland turned the channel back to the private CM channel he had managed to find while fiddling with the comm link.

  “I called the commander. He said they already have orders to hit the fort. He doesn’t have an exact time but will let us know when he can.”

  “What do we do until then?”

  “Check out our accuracy by picking off some of the sentries?”

  “That’ll give us away though you moron.”

  “Let’s get into position then spoil sport,” Roland replied and stood up.

  He looked down into the alley and could see that the rest of the team had advanced ahead of them. He slung his rifle and started to move across the roof edge. A sturdy arch lay in front of him which Roland used for a smoother run across the alley. He pulled up his map when he made it to the next roof. The squad were heading for the fort but in a direction slightly off where he and Watts would hit by the rooftop approach. Roland turned picking a new direction to make his route fit and keep them close. They headed off at a faster pace to close the distance between their sections. He drew his pistol as he sped across the sandstone and daub buildings but left the laser sight off. He had discovered a silencer for the pistol when he checked his equipment in the changing room. Pulling it out he screwed it on as they negotiated planks and small rooftop gardens thankful for the extra stealth abilities. They stopped every five roofs to check if the guards were looking in their direction. They weren’t or at least if they were they weren’t showing it.

  It took them the next two hours to approach close enough to get a good view of the side of the fort and their objective.

  There was a dead zone around the fort that the enemy had been using as a road. He saw a few supply trucks drive along the dusty road and into a large stone entrance off to their left. The wall wasn’t scalable here. Even if it they could scale it, the traffic travelled down the road too frequent to attempt it in daylight. Watts checked the other direction aiming down the road. She nudged Roland, and he turned his scope to look in the direction she was aiming.

  “There is an entrance over there. It looks like the fort was a museum, or is in the real world. The kiosks around the entrance should give a lot of cover.”

  She whispered even though their comm beads and helmets would dampen the sound.

  “Are you suggesting that we just walk in the front door?”

  “That is exactly what I am suggesting,” she said.

  Chapter 24.

  Roland shimmied backwards and pulled himself behind a tarpaulin that had been pinned down on the roof. Watts followed him.

  “Are you crazy?” Roland said looking her in the eyes.

  “Sort of but that isn’t the point. The only other entrance is that supply one further down the road. It is heavily guarded at all times.”

  “And the main entrance isn’t?” Roland scoffed.

  “Actually, no. They look like they are relying on the built defences to protect them.”

  “How do we bypass those?”

  “Easy. You checked out the kiosks right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, the one I could see led to a sally port to the side of the main door. That sally port looks like it is a more modern addition. If that is the case then it won’t be particularly solid and we will
be relying on a lock we know we can break. We can use the kiosks to get close. If the enemy distracted by your tanker friend, then they won’t be looking right under their noses. We sneak in and try to extract rebel L.”

  “There is one flaw in your plan.”

  “What?” Watts replied looking slightly offended.

  Roland tapped his rifle.

  “We are snipers. Snipers don’t do well in close quarters fights.”

  “We did alright in the last one,” she replied defensively.

  “Until we got shot. I see your point though. If we can get in and to the battlements, we could probably hit the enemy as well. The rest of the squad can do the close in work while we cover them.”

  Watts brightened up and slapped him on the arm. “Now you are thinking properly.” She smiled at him. “Let’s get the rest of the squad in on this deal.”

  They grabbed their rifles and headed to the edge of the roof they had been using as their base. They descended into the alley and made their way to the back of the building that the rest of the squad were set up in. When they entered Clark stepped out and checked the alley before closing the door behind them.

  “We have a plan,” Watts said taking one of the unused seats.

  Murden turned back from the window shutter she was peering through. “Go for it.”

  “There is a sally port near the main entrance to the keep. If we have a distraction, we should be able to sneak inside. Once in we will have to make it up as we go along though.”

  “We were always going to have to do that second part. We will stay here till dark. Mellors and Watts I want you back out there keeping an eye on the route. When you think we have an opportunity, then call us in and we advance.”