It’s kinda funny how this all started: Ronald was boasting about the Pro Forma like he normally did, but when he said something about a weapon, I realized it wasn’t just his usual babbling. So I decided to do a little investigating and eventually found out that it was real and was actually some sort of earthquake device similar to the one Nikola Tesla made in the late 1800′s. After a lot of “discussing”, I finally managed to get an operation authorized.

7/17/10 11:20 PM Time at Johannesburg, Africa

Kris, Tyler, Claire, Kevin, and I are at a concealed position near the Pro Forma base, prepping for the op. Well, the rest of us are prepping; Kris was ready. He’s been really excited about getting back in action.
“Remember guys: quick and quiet; we don’t want the whole base ridin’ our ass.” I whisper. They all nod at me, except for Kris, who just gives me a funny look. He’s not really into stealth, but he’s not going to pass up a mission. I get back to preparing my equipment, which consists of night-vision goggles, standard military Kevlar vest with ceramic plate, C4, a signal smoke grenade, some frags, flash bangs, an MK 23 pistol with AP rounds, a G3KA4 with M948 AP rounds and a sound-suppressor, and a tranquilizer rifle (special request from a friend). It may be packing a little heavy, but it’s required for what we’re going up against.

11:27 PM

After a few minutes of preparing, we get everything together and head to a concealed position closer to the sandbag wall. There are two guards at this little section and in a few minutes, if they do what they’ve been doing for the last week, one of them should leave soon. I look at Kris. “Take out the guard when the other one leaves.” I whisper. He nods and we all look back over at the guards. After a few more minutes, the smaller one gets up and leaves. I signal Kris, who heads off to flank the remaining guard.
“Lock n’ load.” I whisper to the others. I turn off the safety on the G3 and then look back at the guard; he suddenly disappears behind the sandbag wall and we all prepare to run. Kris stands up from behind the wall and gives the ‘all clear’ sign. We book it over to the wall and take cover.

“Body’s gonna be a problem” Kris clicks quietly.
“Put it in the bushes” I answer. He grabs the body, and takes it back to the bushes before running back. I signal for us to move forward.

We continue on through the base for a few minutes without any major incidents, and finally reach Ronald’s tent. I signal Kris to move out, and he heads to the tent, gun at the ready. Suddenly, a poleepkwa comes out of one of the tents. I instinctively raise my rifle and fire a three-shot burst. The poleepkwa jerks from the hits and falls back into the tent with a gargled cry.
“Go now!” I whisper loudly. We run over to the tent as I pull out the tranquilizer. We all burst through the door, and Kris tackles the poleepkwa that’s next to the door as I do a quick scope of the room.

No Ronald and no weapon.

We hear something moving outside, and I pull out my pistol and head over to see Kris and his pinned poleepkwa. I point the pistol right inbetween his eyes and ask, “Ten seconds: where’s the weapon and where’s Ronald?” He instantly starts clicking so fast that I couldn’t even begin translating any of it. I look at Kris.
“Very cooperative; he just insulted you in every way.” he clicks. “Fine” I say, then pull out a dart and tranq the poleepkwa. I then signal for us to go. Kris runs at the back of the shed and bashes the wall down. We all run out the back and start heading to the wall while staying concealed in the mini-alley that’s barely three feet wide between the lines of shacks and tents. We can hear people all around the outside of the mini-alley yelling orders and running around looking for us.

We eventually come to an opening at the end of the line of shacks. I peek out and look around: there are poleepkwa everywhere in a large opening filled with trucks and crates, and beyond that there is a large sandbag wall. I signal for the group to throw flashbangs. We all pull one out and chuck them in different areas of the opening, then take cover as massive flashes erupt all over.
“GO!” I shout, and we all charge out.

We let off some quick bursts at the confused poleepkwa as we run for cover. I dive under one of the larger big rigs and take cover in a group of crates. Shots start flying at us from the wall. I take a quick look at it: about a dozen poleepkwa; no way we’d make it past. A crate right next to me explodes, sending wood pieces flying at me. I grab my radio and yell, “Bravo: this is Alpha; initiate plan B, over.”
“Roger that; over and out.” the radio crackles.

I jump back up and let off several quick bursts at some poleepkwa hiding behind a truck, then duck behind the cover. I quickly reload the G3 and pop back up. Suddenly, something slams into my chest and I fall back behind cover. I feel the ceramic plate and find the bullet. I quickly sigh in relief, then pop up again and let off a few more bursts. Suddenly, the battlefield becomes filled with the distinct thumping of a MI-24′s blades.
“Flash out!” I shout. I grab one of my flashbangs, to see there’s just one left, and decide to save it. The rest of the team throws their flashbang grenades, blinding all the poleepkwa surrounding us. The Russian heli zooms into sight and lowers down into the opening with its guns blazing. The shots spray all over the wall, taking out most of the poleepkwa, then moves on to the other poleepkwa surrounding us. We all get out of the cover and run to the heli.

Then, out of nowhere, missiles fly out and totally obliterate the Blackhawk. It crashes right in the center of the field with a huge explosion, sending Tyler and me flying backwards to the previous cover. Everything instantly goes all slowish-looking and my ears are ringing. I look around and see Tyler lying down on the ground looking dazed, as well as Claire and Kevin booking it to the back of a shack’s wall, which is now vacant due to the Blackhawk. I look over and see that the crew of the Blackhawk is dead from the crash. It was at that moment that an exosuit burst out of the roof of Claire and Kevin’s shack, covering them with debris, and landed on top of the downed Blackhawk, smoke clearing away from his landing.

I grab Tyler from the ground and push him towards the trucks.
“CLAIRE! KEVIN! RUN!” I yell at them. Tyler stops his run for cover and yells something to me, but I can’t hear it. I run out from cover and head to another truck, firing the G3 fully-auto in the general direction of the exosuit, but it suddenly uses its gravity gun and throws my previous cover right at me. I try to avoid it, but the edge if the crate still nails me, throwing me down on the ground and my gun flies away out of my grasp. I pull out my pistol and start unloading on the exosuit while yelling as loud as I can.

“Always predictable.” said the exosuit, whose voice I instantly recognize as belonging to the leader. At that same time Kris, in another exosuit, seems to have appeared out of nowhere with a leap, and lands only about two meters in front of me, causing some sand from the impact to hit my face. He stands up straight and says, “Not always.”

“Leave them alone, Forma.” Kris says as I slowly start to crawl backwards. The voice echoes from the exosuit he was in. Forma tilts his head around slowly as he says, “Well, isn’t this a familiar setting. I knew you would dive into a fight against us.”

“Enough. Get out of your exosuit and turn yourself in. You’ve lost.” Kris says. At the time, I think he’s bluffing because it seems to me like we were in deep shit.

Forma, still on the Blackhawk, says, “I told you once before: the only reason I let you win is because–” Forma never got to finish, because he looks startled by Kris aiming his suit’s armaments at him. He then says, “Have you forgotten our last fight already? Our suits can’t hurt one another with those weapons you enjoy using.”

Kris quickly told him to shut up, and launched a sticky mine. Forma reacted quickly but foolishly, as he puts his arm up to defend himself, only to let the mine stick to it and turn his arm into limp weight, completely deactivated, making Forma fall from the Blackhawk like a cripple.

“What trickery is this?!” Forma says, surprised.

“These weapons don’t work if the protocol is in place. Fortunately for me, Alexander took care of that problem.”

“What?”

“Figure it out, as usual” says Kris, and then turns around to me. “Go get the super weapon. I got this.”

“They won’t get to it.” Forma says. He then grabs the mine and forces it off, but also takes his ARC attachment with it as well. I suddenly realize I’m still sitting on the ground staring in awe like some rookie. The two exosuits clash in battle, Kris firing his guns and the leader charging forward. I instantly run over to the cover with Tyler, but stop just in time to avoid getting smashed from the two exosuits rolling on the ground. I don’t waste time, so I continue on.

“What the hell is going on?!” Tyler asks, totally confused.
“It’s Kris being Kris. Now, where are the others?” I say. He points over at another truck and I look: they are taking care of some poleepkwa that are trying to sneak up on the exosuits. I whistle to catch their attention, then do the hand signal to regroup and they run over.

“Kris is going to cover while we look for the weapon,” I say to them, “From the look of the base, there are two other places it may be at so keep close and let’s go.” They all nod then we run to the line of tents and down the little alley. We run past a few tents then stop by the larger one. I give them the breeching signal, the rest of the team preps by the tent wall. “Tyler, give me your gun for a bit.” I whisper. He tosses it to me and pulls out his pistol. I switch it to full-auto then give the signal to breech.

Tyler rips the side of the tent open with his combat knife and I jump through the hole and the rest follow. The poleepkwa right in front of me instantly turns around looking baffled. I see he’s armed and instantly release a quick burst in his chest, dropping him. Everything from this part almost seems to be in slow-motion, probably because of the adrenaline. The rest of the poleepkwa in the room start to go into action. We go fully auto and do a concentrated spray over the rest of them, dropping them all one by one. One of them gets a shot off, but it hits the ground.

“Search the room” I say, and toss Tyler back his G3. One of the poleepkwa by the side wall is still alive with an AK-47 about three meters from his feet. He looks at it, and then me. I stare right back at him and start walking towards him. I can see how badly he wants to grab the gun, but he knows I’ll shoot him if he does. I get to the AK and pick it up slowly, then look at the poleepkwa: he just sits there and looks like he expects me to shoot him. I shake my head then point to the door which completely surprises him, but he listens and crawls out of the tent slowly. Tyler comes up behind me and whispers, “It’s not here”. I groan slightly, then give the signal to move out, pointing to the breeching hole. We all run out of the tent and I grab a few AK mags on the way out.

We book it down the line of tents for a minute or so, then come upon the shack I expect the weapon to be hidden in. There are two guards in the front of the shack, and I can see a few inside. We sneak to a cover about 100 feet or so from the entrance.

“I’ll distract them while you go around the right side and flank them.” I whisper, then signal them to go. They sneak off back into the alley of tents and continue on. I slowly peek out of the cover and take aim with the AK. I take a single shot at the one on the right, hitting him in the neck and killing him. I then let off a quick burst at the one on the left, dropping him as well. One of the poleepkwa runs out of the shack with weapon raised, looking for me, and I take him down with another quick burst. The next poleepkwa pops out of cover for a second and lets off a few rounds of a plasma rifle, then takes cover before I can get a hit on him. The rest of the guys come into view and run to the shack and hide behind the wall around the corner, then look at me. The poleepkwa pops out again, and this time I get him with my burst, then nod for the team to go in.

Tyler tosses a flash before running in. I get out of cover and dash over to the entrance while hearing major gunfire inside. I run through the door to find that all the threats were neutralized. We all go around and start looking for the weapon, but there is no sign of it anywhere.

“Damn it!” I whisper. There is a sudden explosion, and wood splinters spray over my back. I instantly dive forward, then turn and aim my rifle. There was a massive exosuit where the corner of the shack used to be.

“I told you, you won’t get to it.” remarks the exosuit, as it raises its arm. I then see something coming up behind him, and grin. The arm starts to come down on us in a crushing blow, but Forma gets pulled back and tossed down; Kris has pinned him down like the poleepkwa he had pinned down earlier.

Kris looks inside and asks, “It’s not here?!”

“No, and we’ve searched everywhere!” I shout.

Kris turns around and yells, “Where is it?”, but the leader quickly uppercuts him from below, and does a rolling move to break Kris’s hold on him. Forma gets up and slams Kris again, pushing him back and away from the shack with the empty super weapon room. We run outside only to see the two exosuits meleeing each other; Kris is obviously losing.

“What do we do?” Tyler asks.

I stand there for a second, then respond, “You guys take out anyone that tries to intervene I’ll try to see if I can help Kris.”

I run to a piece of cover near Kris and Forma while the rest of the guys take cover further away.

“You lost before and you’ll lose again!” Forma says, with an impressive kick to Kris’s face. Forma does not make the exosuits look clumsy at all; he is quick and agile. “I thought you would be smarter than this.” says Forma. Kris tries to aim his gun at Forma, but is elbowed in the face with one of Forma’s arms, pushing him down to the floor, while the other tries to tear the gun off. However, Kris manages to get into an armlock before he could get ahold of it.
After a short moment, Kris says, “If you’re so sure, why do you try so hard?” and his mortar launchers aim at the leader.

“…..You wouldn’t even dare it” says Forma.

“I can come back from the dead, how about you?” Kris says with a laugh. The mortars then fire, but not at the locked leader; they launched up to the sky.

“I will NOT play your suicidal games.” says Forma.

“From the very day you met me, you have been; every fucking day.” says Kris, the mortars now taking a curve and starting to go down.

“It doesn’t matter; this was all a trap. There is no super weapon” says Forma, which makes Kris pissed and he smashes the exosuit’s head, destroying the vision-sensors, no doubt. The leader backs away and opens his cockpit a little.

“I won’t hesitate to kill you, and you’re not ready to die. Your vision that you fight for is one you want to see with your own eyes. Either speak up or die.”

I tell from the look on his face that Forma wasn’t gonna give up so easily. I pull out my last flashbang and chuck it at the open cockpit. It lands inside and detonates. Disoriented, Forma falls down and Kris gets the upper hand, holding his arm up and ready to strike, but waits. It was at that moment that the Leader laughs and says, “Canada…”

Kris says, “Well, that was easy.” and stands down. He turns to me and says, “Nice throw.”

“Thanks” I say.

Suddenly, Forma shouts, “Easy? I will live on, and see you fail at protecting your friends from the coming flames of Pro Forma.”

Kris looks at me and says, “I know the leader, and he’s telling the truth–the first part, I mean. Go; don’t wait for me; get to the Canada base. I have a score to settle with him.” Forma starts to stand up again.

The leader is laughing as he gets his footing, Kris seems to be enjoying this and not fighting as he says “Ever wonder why you and Pro Forma are so much alike?”

“Enlighten me” Kris says.

“Ignoring the murders, the lies, the deciet, the hatred, like you,” the leader stands still, now completely in balance. “Like you, we never die.”

“In that case…” Kris says, then comically tilts his head to me and says “…Shawn, I’m gonna try to kill myself, ok?”

“Alright,” I reply. “Have fun.” I look back at the rest of the team and whistle to catch their attention, signaling to regroup. We run back to the line of tents and hide inbetween them.

“Alright, objective is the same, just a different location. Now let’s get outta here.” I say.
“What about Kris?” Tyler asks.
“He’ll be fine, let’s go.” We then take off and run down the alley inbetween the line of tents.

After a couple of minutes, we make it to the wall again and exit the base without further incident. We then head off to the extraction point about three miles west, where we meet up with our driver Johnathan. We then leave in the large van that he brought. The journey is uneventful, and nobody really says anything except for me calling the Tanu plane, and giving them a new location to fly to. We get there in about an hour, and begin our flight to the Canadian base.

Part 2 will be posted later.