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When we arrived back at Alpha, I went into a briefing with Powell. He told me the soldiers that we had encountered before were mercenaries in the employ of Arab sheikhs. In addition to that, he told me that he had made a deal with one of the sheikhs to work together on siberite research, and thus get an edge on the Russians in this conflict. He didn’t tell me much about what their plans were once the Russians were defeated, which didn’t give me any incredible confidence about the plan, but the chain of command is the chain of command. His orders for me were to take a convoy out to the East and guard the research station that we were to share with the Arabs. When we arrived at the base site, we were welcomed by a group of scientists, among them Dennis Peterson and Joan. Cathy Simms, from the experimental projects group, was in command of their detachment. Also among the familiar faces was Chattam, one of the soldiers in their escort. Joan and I were ecstatic to see one another; it felt as if we hadn’t seen each other for a year. Once the reunions were finished, however, it was on to the more serious business of constructing Epsilon, as the new base was to be called. The Arabs were not too far away, and had already constructed their base and begun their research. I immediately begun construction of a siberite and opto-electronics lab, but they hadn’t even been completed before we were found by the Russians(I). Although it was only two scouts, quickly dispatched, it made me very nervous, as it indicated a large Russian presence in the area. When the lab was complete, I set the scientists to work, and began the more prosaic aspects of building up the base: energy, weapons, and defense. We built an upgraded armory, a barracks, and had just completed our power station when two Russian tanks approached. Due to our skill and determination, the attack was over almost before it began. With the power station online, we had the resources to begin some more power intensive research, the laser sight, as accuracy is always important. After that, I told them to work on improving the available siberite tech. Two more bunkers were added for the sake of defense, but that was about it for the materials that we had brought with us. People were nervous about our tentative ‘alliance’ with the Arabs, so I tried to make them feel better by equipping everyone with better weapons and putting some snipers into the bunkers. And a good thing, too. Before too long, one of the snipers informed me that the Arabs were about to attack us. So much for brotherhood. I had the snipers concentrate on eliminating all of the Arab scientists, while the rest of the troops reordered themselves so to better defend the base. We had only just finished them off when we were attacked by another Arabian group, this time Mammoth riders backed by more mercenaries. The Mammoths were making short work of our bunkers, so we focused my firepower on them first, then taking out the mercenaries. This one was rough. For a long time there, it looked like we weren’t going to make it, but we eventually made it out alive. Chattam had run off somewhere during the fight, saying that he didn’t want to fight against his own people. It didn’t seem, though, that he had any foreknowledge of the attack, or that he had fought with the enemy, so I was almost ready to forgive him. I wouldn’t want to be put in that situation either. We were pretty lucky overall. No one was fatally wounded, and Joan came out ok. But the day had one more surprise in store for me. Who should come stumbling into the base but Andy Cornell! He was half dead when he arrived (II), but we soon got him back into shape. When he was feeling better, he told me that he was captured by the Russians, but that he had been released later by Berezov, the Russian who had been our prisoner so long ago. I was glad that I had let the man live when he had been dropped into the middle of our base. Once we had finished our research, we reported success, and then high-tailed it out of there, as there were reports of another big Russian strike force on its way.  |
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Introduction Mission 1 Mission 2 Mission 3 Mission 4 Mission 5 Mission 6 Mission 7 Mission 8 Mission 9 Mission 10 Mission 11 Decision Mission 12 Mission 13 Mission 14 Mission 15 |
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