The Tower

"Oh fuck my head hurts!" John cried as he stumbled about.

"Speak for your-" Carl said as he vomited, "-self."

"Everyone else alive?" John asked as he tried to look around.

"Yeah I'm good." Mark replied.

"Here." Alex and Rachel answered as they stumbled around,

"Good everyone is here... Now, to kick the ass of whoever invented those stasis pods." John complained. "Alright Echo squad were going to hold here until we can see again." John commanded.

After their eyesight returned they exited the stasis lab into the apocalypse shelter's control room. "Oh shit, looks like we missed the party." Nix, Mark's call sign, said observing the skeletons of the bases former employees.

"Zen figure out what the hell happened." John ordered Carl; who proceeded to work his magic on the nearest computer terminal.

"Sir. they're dead." Gev, Alex's call sign, Informed.

"No shit, Gev!"  Kal, John's call sign, replied.

"No, Sir. you don't understand. See these fractures right here? These are self-inflicted."

"What, are you saying he broke his own arm on puropse?"

"No, I'm saying that these fractures match those of a D-Tox 24 victim."

"Shit, those Alliance bastards actually used it."

"Well, Sir. your right about one thing... That is D-Tox 24, but... Sir. your not going to believe this..." Zen said looking Kal dead in the eyes.

"Try me."

"The reason we haven't been affected by this stuff is because... the gas strike was over five-thousand years ago."

"Bullshit!" Nix yelled running over to Zen's console.

"Five-thousand years... well fuck me! Zen get that door open." Kal instructed; gesturing to the large vault door.

"Ugh! It's not happening, Sir. Door's busted." Zen cried throwing his hands in the air out of frustration.

"Fine Nix find the armory and our stuff then blow this door." Kal sighed turning to Nix.

"Sir."  Nix confirmed.

A few minutes later Nix returned in his body armor and said, "I'll get to work on the door. Armory's that way just make a left."

A few hours later Echo squad received some answers. "Well, Sir. it appears the power failed and caused a system crash, but that's where it get strange... The system just randomly decided to restart about an hour ago." Zen explained.

"Clear!" Nix yelled.

*BOOM*

The door to the shelter exploded outward into the hangar. The blast not having fazed Kal asked, "Why now? Why did the system just randomly decide to start now?"

"Bad luck?" Gev asked.

"No, Good luck. Those stasis pods don't require power to work so if the system hadn't come on we'd have been stuck like that for ever." Zen explained.

"Damn. Now, can we get out of here?" Nix asked.

"Sure let's go." Kal said as he entered the hanger, "Sty you've been quiet, what's up?"

"Sorry, Sir. it's just a habit I picked up from all my stealth ops." Rachel explained.

"Speaking of which, can you fly an osprey?"

"Of course, Sir." Sty replied entering the pilot's seat, "All I need is fuel."

"Right, Nix fuel, Zen get the hangar doors open." Kal ordered boarding the craft.

A few minutes later the chopper was fulled and the doors were opened letting in fresh air.

After a few more minutes passed they were off.

"Where are we headed?" Gev asked after an hour had passed.

"The nearest city; I tapped into the Republic's satellite network and found the spot with the largest area of movement, then I cross-referenced it with the area that had the most heat signatures. Eta: four hours." Sty answered

"Good call." Kal complimented.

"So, I wonder what the world's largest city looks like. Bet it has futuristic towers and stuff like you read in those sci-fi books." Nix pondered.

"Hey that's what people in the twenty-first century though our cities would look like and they were wrong." Zen reminded everyone.

"Well, whatever it is we'll deal with it together." Kal cheered.

"Sir. we may have a problem." Quantx said in his monotone voice.

"Hm?" Kevin inquired sitting upright in his chair.

"Sir. since I believed you were the last human on the planet I thought I'd take the liberty of hijacking the Republic's military assets."

"Go on."

"Well, when I restarted the systems on one of the Republic's apocalypse shelters the computer pinged me to announce it was reanimating five stasis pods."

Kevin sat there for a moment before yelling, "Those bastards! They stole my design and decided to use it for themselves."

"Sir there is more; one of them logged into the system from a terminal there, so I cross-referenced his password with their operatives database and found out that the guys that got thawed were known as Echo squad."

"What's so significant about that?"

"Echo squad is what you'd call: a black ops Swiss army knife squad. They have over seventy successful ops and have the equipment and know-how to do whatever they want."

"Shit. Any chance on recruiting them?"

"Not likely; they are pretty loyal to the Republic so there is about a two-percent chance of them defecting."

"Great. Well, it could be worse."

"They're headed to the ponies' capitol."

"Fuck!" Kevin yelled slamming his fist onto the chair.