I realized this this was to long, so I split it up into several parts.
I also took this chance to do some editing, I've changed some dialouge, changed an event or two (slightly), and I ditched the "Make your own version of the character"shit, I added discriptions later on.
Hopefully people will read it, now... work on the sequeals is already underway, and I want the first to be something people can stand reading...
Anyway, All characters are property of their respective owners (But I'm sure you knew that)
The helicopter's blades spun, propelling it through the dark sky. The inside was scarcely lit, small red lights only barley illuminated the metal walls, and cast dark shadows from the figures inside.
Drenched in shadow were men and women who sat in silence as they clenched their weapons tightly, Dressed in fatigues, Kevlar suits, steel-reinforced helmets with tinted visors, geared up with weapons and ammunition… they were soldiers.
One man stood, one hand holding a rifle; the other gripping a railing that hung from the roof. Stripes where sewn into his shoulder straps, Three stripes up and two stripes down, a Sergeant First Class. He lowered his hand to his ear, pressing the comm. that was placed inside. heard the message.
"Troops, listen up!" He shouted over roar of the copter's blades, "We're approaching the LZ, we'll be arriving in one minute! We all know our mission, neutralize Project Shadow…"
The G.U.N. insignia shined briefly in the dark transport, lit up by the trace amounts of light in the steel interior. "We've finally been able to pin-point his location. As you all know, he's been eluding us for quite some time now, passing under our radar for months, but it seems he's slipped up" The SFC briefed, "We've been sent in to do the job that the others couldn't, because it seems like the rest of G.U.N. is to chicken-shit to handle a psycho fur ball"
"Lucky us…" A soldier in the back said sarcastically after the SFC's brief, The Sergeant First Class glared back at him after that comment.
But… he understood, he could see the depression, the uncertainty, and most of all, the fear of the soldiers... Project: Shadow had wiped out entire battalions of battle hardened soldiers, what chance did a team of 8 have?
A hell of one, if he had anything to say about it…
"I know what you're thinking, but we were chosen for a reason" The SFC began, "We were not sent our here to die, we are going to finish what so many have started. We are the best, of the best! When we find the hedgehog, we are going to blow the hell out of him, until we don't anything left to kill! We are going to avenge the deaths of our friends and compatriots!"
His words seemed to have an effect on the soldiers, they all lifted their heads.
"Do you understand?" He shouted.
He was answered by a cry of, "Hooah!"
"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" The Sergeant First Class shouted.
"HOOAH!" The soldiers shouted, their voice seemed to shake the helicopter.
But, as it seemed, they didn't, because a moment later a female voice called out over the intercom, "We're over the landing zone, I'm touching down, get ready to move!" The pilot said as the copter descended.
"Opening the hatch" She said, and the back of the helicopter hissed and slowly began to lower.
"You heard the lady, we're moving! Try not to trip on your way out!" The SFC ordered as the helicopter touched down, the hatch forming a ramp. The squad piled out, seven of the G.U.N. soldiers left the helicopter and quickly got organized. The SFC was the last one out.
His feet met concrete, he stepped away from the copter and tapped the microphone attached to his helmet, "Pegasi, stay on call, we might need a quick exit"
"Understood, I'll stay just outside the kill-zone, Pegasi out" The pilot replied. The helicopter rose, the hatch closing as it gained altitude. The SFC crossed into field of concrete, just beyond stood a large warehouse. Empty and abandoned, the place was a derelict, but it was their LZ.
He changed frequencies, and tapped his comm. again, "NORTH STAR, do you have a fix on Project: Shadow?" He asked.
"Confirmed, the target is in the warehouse. Based on recent scans, he shouldn't be going anywhere" A female voice replied as a marker appeared on his display. "We'll keep an eye on him, and alert you to any changes, NORTH STAR out"
His squad's FOF beacons came to life, identifying themselves. He approached them, and they all gave him their attention. "Alright, as you know, that's our objective" The SFC said, motioning to the warehouse, "According to the NORTH STAR orbital command, Shadow is inside that building, his exact location however, is unknown."
He quickly assessed his team, it was made up mostly of corporals and sergeants, and a sole private. The team's equipment consists of silenced M4 Carbines, MP5s, and s 9mm Beretta sidearm, they were also armed with several grenades of different kinds. They all carried, in his opinion, sufficient ammunition, but he couldn't help but wonder just how much they would actually get to use. ..
Time to go to work, "Break into Fire Teams. Higgens, Slavik, Duggs, Slay, you're Fire Team Alpha. Wolf, Locke, Davidson, you're Fire Team Bravo." The SFC ordered, and the soldiers formed up.
"Sergeant Kain, sir" Private Davidson spoke up, "How are we going to approach?"
Sergeant First Class Matthew Kain responded, "Alpha and I will head in through the front, Bravo will circle around and enter through the back, we'll meet up on the second level control room" Kain ordered.
Everyone nodded, they understood the plan.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Move it out, double time!"
The squad dashed across the open field of concrete and approached the front entrance, a single door on the far right side. "Bravo, go!" He ordered, and the Fire Team ran across them, moving around back.
"Wait for Bravo's confirmation" SFC Kain said, he and the team held their position, their objective marker still in place. After a few seconds, Bravo chimed in over the radio.
"Fire Team Bravo, in position, waiting for your order." Sergeant Locke said into the TEAMCOM, his words heard by the entire squad.
"Alright, move in, keep your head down and your eyes open" Kain ordered.
"Yes sir, moving in." Locke responded, and broke radio contact.
Kain turned to Fire Team Alpha, "Let's move" He said as he slowly moved to open the steel door. He gripped the large handle and pushed hard, the door creaked and groaned and sent echoes throughout the building.
"Discrete" Corporal Slay commented, earning him a harsh glare from the Sergeant First Class.
Kain led them in, the warehouse was full of boxes, wooden and steel, they towered over the soldiers. He could see the second floor control room, that was where the man in charge would be, had the place not been completely abandoned.
He motioned for his team to form a column, the soldiers quickly moved up and formed in single file, with Kain at the head. He proceeded into the dark warehouse, moving past tall boxes and across looming shadows, his 4 man team behind him.
He activated the night vision in his visor, his team followed his lead. He checked the status of Bravo, the FOF signals displayed in his visor showed that they were on the other side of the warehouse, 100 meters away.
The team moved quickly and quietly, spotting no signs of the bionic hedgehog they were sent to deal with. They maneuvered through what seemed to be a maze of boxes, until they came upon the stairs leading to the upper levels.
He continued to lead the column, while the rest of Alpha watched all angles of approach. They produced up the stairs, taking extra precaution to examine the area, they had an overwatch view of the warehouse. When they reached the top of the stairs, Kain signaled for them to halt, and he looked around.
The tall boxes still blocked his view, but from what he could see, there didn't seem to be any activity. No lights, no movement, no signs that anything was here.
Kain couldn't help but wonder exactly what was in these boxes, but he decided that it was irrelevant. Surely anything important would have been moved out by now, there was no point in speculating.
"This is Fire Team Bravo, we're outside the control room. The door's locked, we're proceeding to pick the lock" Sergeant Locke reported in over the comm.
"Negative on that, you are to hold position until we arrive, do not make any actions that may give away our position" SFC Kain responded.
"Understood sir" Sergeant Locke said, ending the transmission.
Kain was about to order the team to move, but someone spoke up, "Sir, I think I saw movement" Corporal Duggs said, motioning towards the center of the room. Kain looked to where she was pointing, the entire warehouse seemed to be covered in a blanket of darkness, and even with night vision, he couldn't make out anything distinguishable.
"Grunt, are you sure you saw something?" SFC Kain asked the soldier, and even with her helmet on, Kain could see she faltered.
"Not entirely sir… it must have been a trick of the dark… my mind making up images" Corporal Duggs answered, she continued to gaze the point of interest however. Kain looked hard at the ground floor, the rows of boxes began to meld with the shadows.
"Sergeant Kain, is there a problem, sir?" Sergeant Locke asked over the radio, breaking the uneasy silence that had fallen upon the Fire Team.
Kain's gaze left the ground, "No problems, we're proceeding to your position, Kain out" he replied. He gripped his assault rifle tightly and signaled for his team to follow, this time motioning for an arrowhead formation.
The team formed up with Kain at point, they moved quickly across the upper walkways, soon coming across a large room with a bolted door. The room sat on the edge of the walkways, giving the interior a full view of the ground level. Fire Team Bravo was crouched near the door, watching around for activity.
Sergeant Locke greeted Kain as he came near, "Nice to see ya sir, we've had no activity what-so-ever." Kain signaled for his team to break and take up search positions, they were to all be on the lookout for the Project they were sent after.
Locke moved to the door, and Kain followed suite, the Sergeant First Class inspected the door for himself. "When you said locked, didn't you mean bolted?" Kain asked dryly, this wasn't what he was expecting.
"All the same for Wolf over there, he can open anything, he's like a human lockpick," Locke said, tilting his head in the direction of Corporal Wolf.
"Thanks sir!" Wolf said, albeit a little loudly for the situation, which earned his a glare from the entire squad, "Sorry sir"
"Alright, just get it open, and don't take to long, if the Project doesn't know we're here, he'll find soon enough" SFC Kain said.
Sergeant Locke called Wolf over to him, "Alright Corporal, you heard the man, get this thing open, ASAP!" Locke ordered.
"Yes sir, Sergeant!" Wolf said as he moved to the door. He got to work immediately, laying his MP5 down on the floor and pulled out an intricate lockpicking set. He started working on the door, twisting and turning bolts and locks to complete his given goal.
SFC Kain took a glance around, From were he was standing he could see the ground floor, not to mention most of the top floor as well. Most the top was catwalks and the such, but this room was made of the same material the warehouse itself was made out of, which made it stand out quite well.
Kain didn't like this, they had been in the building for… he checked his clock, 15 minutes, and they hadn't found any activity at all, save corporal Duggs's account. Something wasn't right…
He activated a private comm. to the orbiting global military satellite station, NORTH STAR, "This is Sergeant First Class Kain, operation LUNAR ECLIPSE, I need an update" He said to the chosen responder.
The same voice as before answered him, "No spikes in energy levels, no external links, and little movement, but his chaos energy is blurring my equipment, I can't get a lock on his exact position."
That isn't what he wanted to hear, "Has there been ANY movement?" Kain asked.
"None" NORTH STAR replied.
Maybe they did catch him off guard, perhaps for once, everything could go as it should. But he couldn't drop his own guard, he had to be alert, "I'll be damned if I let this bio-freak get the better of me" Kain thought.
"Done! Open sesame!" Corporal Wolf exclaimed as the door unlocked with a whimper, his toolkit now spewn about the area around him.
"Understood NORTH STAR, report if there's any more movement, Kain out" Kain said as he ended the talk. He looked over at the door and couldn't help but be surprised, the heavy bolted door was now ajar, all of the locks and bolts picked and opened. That... was damned impressive...
Sergeant Locke smirked, the guy could be annoying, but he had his perks. SFC Kain motioned for the squad to form up, "Bravo, you take point, check and clear" Kain ordered as Fire Team Alpha grouped around him.
"Sir" Locke said, and he turned his focus to the Fire Team. "Wolf, take point" he said, Corporal Wolf had just finished packing up his lockpick kit when the order was given.
Wolf looked up at the Sergeant and grinned, "You got it boss!" He said as he picked up his MP5 and brought it to bear. Locke sighed, he supposed he would let that one slide, but the guy never seemed to get it. Wolf moved towards the door, with Sergeant Locke and Private Davidson on both sides of the door.
Corporal Wolf slowly pushed the door open and scanned the room. It was an office, a large single room, corporate looking in it's setup. There was a large dust covered desk, dust covered chairs, dust covered file cabinets, dead dust covered plants, and a whole hell of a lot of dust covered dust.
Pressed against the far wall was a large window, one that spanned the entire span of the wall. It gave a perfect view of the ground level... or it would have, if it wasn't covered in dust. "Clear" Wolf said, though it was quite obvious.
Locke and Davidson entered the room, sweeping it themselves. The place was empty, empty and dark, like the rest of the building. Locke left the room and reported to Kain, "Nothing inside sir, what are your orders?" Locke asked.
"That room and the surrounding upper levels will be out command post for this operation" Kain explained. He turned to Alpha, "Alpha, move into the room for briefing." The 4 soldiers complied and entered the room where Wolf and Davidson waited. Kain entered the room, followed by Locke.
The large room now held the entire squad, and each soldier was spaced out as well. Corporal Higgens, Sergeant Slavik, Corporal Slay, and Corporal Duggs of Fire Team Alpha stood in formation around the room, while Corporal Wolf and Private Davidson were in the back, checking out the desk. Sergeant Locke and Sergeant First Class Kain entered the room, and everyone gave them their immediate attention.
"Alright grunts, so far so good, we haven't been attacked, but we still haven't found Shadow" SFC Kain said, "The plan is to use this office as a command post, a place we can coordinate everyone's actions from. We will split up for this, I'll stay here with Wolf and Davidson" He turned to Locke, "Locke, you are now in charge of Fire Team Alpha, I'll take command of Bravo, is that understood?"
"Yes sir, Sergeant" Locke replied.
"Good, I'll keep watch here and try to find Shadow's location, while Alpha will actively search the building." Kain briefed, "I can see most of the warehouse from here, and I'll tell Alpha if I find anything, or Alpha can call in if they find anything, and Bravo and I can provide fire from an elevated position"
"Any questions?" Kain asked.
Corporal Slay spoke up, "Sir, if we do encounter Shadow, how do you suppose we go about bringing him down?"
From that one question, an air of tension rose. How were they supposed to bring down a psychotic, enraged, super powerful bioengineered weapon of mass destruction?
"With cunning and well placed shots, NORTH STAR reports that besides us, there has been no movement in here, which leads me to believe that he's either sleeping, or seriously out of it. If we can get the drop on him, we should be able to deal with him with no trouble." SFC Kain explained.
"And if he's not sir?" Corporal Slay asked.
"Then we handle him with a cool head, don't start spraying, take well aimed shots, panicking will only get you killed" Kain said, he knew his plan was flimsy, but to tell the truth, he wasn't exactly sure how to kill the creature himself.
"You have your orders, maintain constant radio contact, keep your comms. on at all times and link them to Davidson, I'll key in if you encounter anything at all, now move it soldiers, G.U.N ain't paying us by the hour" Kain ordered, Fire Team Alpha quickly departed the room, linking up and moving across the upper level.
"Sergeant, sir, why am I watching the comm. channels?" Private Davidson asked as he adjusted his radio, he could hear the light breathing of Alpha as they moved along, this would get real annoying, real fast.
"Because Davidson, I said so." Kain replied, "Besides, I like you, and I feel like I can trust you with this task"
Private Davidson couldn't help but smile. He had always sought approval from his fellow soldiers, and he always wanted to prove himself to the people around him. He enjoyed being liked, and the Sergeant First Class's words gave him a boost of self-confidence and self-esteem... regardless if he meant them or not.
Kain walked over to the window and began to wipe away the heavy build-up of dust, turning his gloves chalky after only a few swipes. "Wolf, Davidson, help me clean this off" Kain said as he cleared the window.
The two members of Fire Team Bravo walked over and assisted, staining their gloves as well. The dust was slowly cleared, and after a minute, they could now see through the window.
Wolf whistled, he didn't think this place was this big. The warehouse was bigger then the soldiers had believed, looking at it from higher up revealed there was a lot more to explore then Kain had predicted.
He saw the FOF tags of Fire Team Alpha as they moved across the complex, they had reached the ground floor and had begun their search.
"Sir, Alpha is breaking into teams, one 2 and one 3 man group, splitting off in different directions." Private Davidson said, and indeed the group had begun to split.
"Affirmative" Kain said.
Alpha split up, and they went off in different directions throughout the building.
Davidson walked up to Kain, "Sir... why are we after Shadow anyway?" He asked, he hadn't receive much briefing on the subject, just that Shadow a threat that needed to be eliminated.
"I don't know everything myself, but I do know the core details. The official story is that Shadow The Hedgehog was a weapon created by Ivo Robotnick, and that it was designed to eliminate any and all opposition that the doctor faced." Kain explained.
"But, it turns out that Robotnick didn't know exactly what he was messing with, and Shadow escaped. It proceeded to attack, and even destroy a number of G.U.N. installations, as well as terrorizing several highly populated areas.", "We discovered that when Robotnick took control of the Eclipse Cannon, Shadow was providing him with Chaos Emeralds, linking him to that as well, we're not sure why Shadow was working with him, but we believe they came to some kind of agreement"
"When Sonic stopped Robotnick's plot, Shadow was thought dead... until recently. The public still believes him to be dead, but we detected him around a week ago. Several dispatch squads have been sent after them... they failed... We're the fourth strike team. This time though, we have the advanced knowledge and planning needed for this operation, we should be able to neutralize him if all goes as planned."
"And that's what really happened?" Davidson asked.
"As I said... that's the official story..." Kain answered, "Is it what really happened? I don't know... but it's the story that was released, and it's the story we go off of"
Private Davidson nodded, whether the 'official' story was true or not, it was all the information they had.
"Corporal Wolf, keep a sharp eye out for any movement, Davidson, you keep watch as well." SFC Kain ordered, "I'm going to contact NORTH STAR once more."
"Will do sir" Wolf said as he watched the area, he could see the entire complex… save for a tiny corner that sat below the room. Davidson watched as well, his eyes were mainly on the split Fire Team that explored the floor below.
Kain stepped away from the window and activated the comm. "NORTH STAR, is there any movement from the target?" He asked.
"Negative, there had been no movement at all, your team is the only thing moving around out there." NORTH STAR replied.
"What in the hell is going on? Surely the project would know we were here by now…" Kain thought. "NORTH STAR, are you positive the target is here?"
"Yes Sergeant, I am. There is a powerful source of chaos energy emitting from that warehouse, one that matches the wavelengths let off by Shadow" NORTH STAR said.
Kain sighed, "There doesn't seem to be anything h-"
"Sir! Corporal Higgens has found something!" Private Davidson shouted, grabbing the SFC's attention in an instant.
"Kain out" SFC Kain said as he severed the comm. link. Kain pulled up Higgen's comm. "Higgens, tell me what's happening" Kain demanded.
The female soldier's voice entered his ears, "Sir, I believe I might have found where the project is staying"
"I'm accessing your video feed" Kain said as he did so. Through his visor, he could see a feed of what Corporal Higgens sees by a window on his HUD. "Show me"
Corporal Higgens and Corporal Slay slowly made their way towards their destination… the makeshift bed lying inside a cubical of boxes. Higgens signaled for Slay to halt, and she slowly move ahead herself.
From what she could tell, it seemed like a kind of room. There were boxes used as stands with pictures on them, there were counters with miscellanies items spewn about. Pressed against the wall was a fairly new looking matrice propped up on boards and bricks, and covered in blankets and pillows.
But it was the thing on the bed that got her attention the most. There was a dark lump lying on top of the blankets of the bed, it's back turned to her. She couldn't tell exactly what it was, her night vision blurred the image.
"Sir, you seeing this?" She whispered to SFC Kain over the comm.
Kain was in fact seeing it, "Yes soldier, I am…" He murmured. He could see the dark shape on the bed, and even through the grainy night vision and the low quality video feed from the link, he could see what was in front of him…
That was the target… Project Shadow…
Okay, now go read the next part... shit be gettin crazy up in there...