Crysis: The Guardian Prophecy

The rear hatch of the VTOL opened up, and the two of them cloaked before running outside into the thunderstorm. The faint distortions their Nanosuits made were masked by the heat from the turbofans and the rain, which made the CELL light infantry located on the designated landing area raise their arms to give a little extra protection to their faces.

The mercenaries leapt into open cargo containers on one side of the area, lurking in the shadows as the contractors below wheeled the containers out of the cargo hold. They deactivated their cloaks as soon as they reached cover, allowing them to recharge.

“Alright. Get moving, figure out what’s so damn interesting that CELL decided to take over this ship. Any intel you can find is good. Radio silence unless you find something or need help; we’re gonna want to stay undetected if we can. Got it, Psycho?”

“Understood.” He cloaked and moved out into the rain, quickly leaving his boss on his own.

Alcatraz then did the same, methodically making his way across the tops of containers on the deck and heading towards the bridge.
After several minutes of carefully advancing, he made it to the bridge superstructure and leapt to the railing in front of the windows.

He let his suit recharge for a moment before recloaking and climbing up. From there, he proceeded to the nearest hatch and rotated the handle to open it. The heavy steel door swung open, and he sealed it behind him.

Footsteps echoed from around the corner, and he leapt up to a pipe on the ceiling, clinging to it. Cloaked or not, he’d be easy to see when standing in a puddle of water in a fairly well-lit room.

A CELL operator, clad in black lightweight armor, a gray hexagonal camouflage, smoking a cigarette and wielding a Feline X3 with a CELL Hammer II sidearm rounded the corner. Switching to his tactical visor, Alcatraz marked him and the other five people present on the deck. Since everyone else was out of sight and behind several walls, he had a fair amount of leeway in dealing with this one. Ships of this size sailed on their own, with almost no crew input required, save for during certain circumstances like particularly heavy storms and particularly difficult docking procedures in troublesome weather.

This’ll be fun.

As soon as the man walked under him, the ex-marine dropped behind him and held a knife to the man’s carotid artery while holding his head up with the same forearm, and grabbing his wrists in his right hand. He’d figured out that technique recently, and it worked well for him. He could secure his target’s neck with one arm and go for either a fatal cut or a neck snap, while preventing any counter with the other hand.

“Do you like my new knife? I’ve been using it a lot. Is it still sharp?”

“Feels sharp.”

“I’m not sure. Tell me something useful before I get distracted and slip.”

“I don’t know. I was told- we already owned the ship and we needed to secure it.”

“You know what’s onboard?” He moved the knife back to his carotid artery, pushing it in just enough that he could feel his own pulse, which beat against the tip of the blade.

“No, I swear. But…”

“But?”

“But I know I’m not allowed in the lower levels of the ship. I don’t have the clearance.”

“Alright. One last thing. When’s the next watch rotation?”

“In five hours.”

“Thanks.” He moved his right hand over his mouth to silence his screams and drove his knife all the way into his throat through the artery, the tip coming out the other side and piercing another artery. The poor man tried to scream and shake free, but that only made the blade dig around more. After several agonizing seconds, he went limp.

Alcatraz removed the blade and sheathed it, the blood dripping off as he did so. He swore he heard faint, unintelligible whispers and something tugging at his consciousness, prompting him to draw his sidearm and look around, before deciding it was nothing.

Just my imagination.

He picked up the corpse’s pistol and holstered it after adding a suppressor to it. He now had two sidearms to use.

In case I feel like going akimbo…

He cloaked and peeked around the corner, into the bridge. They were fairly spread out, and it would take too long to kill them without one raising the alarm. At least, if he used an assault rifle.

Akimbo time already? Sweet.

He drew his twin Hammers and pointed them at opposite ends of the room, crossing his arms. Casually strolling in, he uncloaked and opened fire, putting two rounds into each person’s chest, culminating with the officer in front of him. Hitting the release buttons, he swapped magazines and holstered the weapons. He got his SCARAB back out and held it close to his chest as he scanned the logs.

“Psycho, I found the ship’s destination. It’s a few hundred miles southwest of here, out in the middle of the ocean. Nothing else. You?”

“I found a few logs, but they’re pretty vague. Something about experiments, subjects, and a bunch of other things with numbers for names. No clue what they mean. Out.”

Alcatraz looked over the ship’s schematics and noticed a very spacious chamber in the lower decks. It was connected to the rest of the ship with multiple bulkheads and seemed to be generally isolated.

If I were conducting dangerous experiments, the kind that anybody who’s seen a few sci-fi movies knows gets people killed, that’s where I’d do it. So how do I get in there…?

He downloaded the schematics and entered the chamber as his goal.

“Waypoint set. Footpaths obstructed. Formulating alternate route…”

A new waypoint appeared on his HUD, a few floors down, at the bottom of the bridge structure. He headed back outside and searched for one of the cables that tethered the superstructure to the deck. He then jumped and grabbed it, using it like a zipline to slide down. His dismount was inhumanly smooth. He drew his carbine again.

He went through the hatch to the inside of the structure, cloaking and following a CELL fireteam through a hatch, then hiding on a pipe above them. As soon as they shut the door, he dropped down and took them out.

The first took a boot to the head as Alcatraz dropped. The second was hit square in the face by his left elbow, and then he used that same arm to deliver a neck-breaking punch to another. The last one was grabbed by the throat and headbutted. In a few heartbeats, they had all been killed with barely a peep coming from them.

“Sorry to drop in unannounced…”

The ex-marine proceeded to the staircase, and gazed downwards over the railing. It was easily thirty meters to the bottom floor.

I can make it down with my armor mode and make noise while burning up energy. Or I can take the stairs and hope nobody comes here in the meantime to call backup while I'm vulnerable.

Looking around some more, he saw a pipe that ran down the wall.

Best of both worlds.

He leapt over the railing and grabbed onto the exposed plumbing, sliding his way down. In just over ten seconds, he’d reached the bottom already. One dismount later, he proceeded towards a hatch.

He could hear voices from the other side, and activated his tactical visor. Two people inside seemed to be talking about CELL’s seizure of the ship. Three others were silent, and there was a lone scientist with them. He pulled out his carbine.

“I mean, we’re playing with fire storing these things there. If you ask me, the ponies who found these squids should’ve either shot ‘em or thrown ‘em right back in.”

“Yeah, except they’re so difficult to capture alive that just having one of the fuckers is a boon to us. Every one we get means more Nanosuits, better efficiency, and more firmware for them.”

“So? Those nerfed non-military models are only a few hundred strong.”

“And a few hundred supersoldiers is a bad thing?”

After marking the targets, Alcatraz stormed in, throwing a flashbang. Stunned by the devices, he put tight four-round groups into each operative’s chest, one after another until all six were dead. He dropped the empty magazine to the floor and loaded a new one, though he didn’t need to cock it as he already had one in the chamber.

Looking to his right, he saw dozens of Ceph stalkers and grunts trapped inside transparent tubes. He walked over to one of the tubes and stared at a trapped stalker. He had a faint desire to let them all free.
Nah, fuck that.

“Psycho, I’m in the hold. Looks like they’re playing with Ceph down here. My guess is some ponies must’ve found Ceph on this planet and captured them. CELL got wind and decided to take the squids for themselves. I’mma check out the logs, see what I can find.”

“Gotcha. I’ll keep looking for the original crew.”

Alky casually strolled over to the nearby computers and scanned them with his suit. The data downloaded in seconds, and his Nanosuit 2 automatically parsed it for important information.

“These docs say CELL needs nanocatalyst and other materials derived from Ceph and their technology in order to make their Nanosuits. This ship could help them double their production and improve the tech at the same time. There’s a Kingfisher on one of the landing pads loaded with enough material to make a few dozen more suits. I’ve DL’d the specs for the nerfed production-model N2.3 CELL uses. There’s some other documents, but they’re extremely heavily encrypted.”

“I say we sink this boat and take that VTOL out of here. The original crew’s probably dead already.”

“Yeah, it says they dumped the bodies overboard... Hmm…”

“What?”

“We could jack this tub and use what’s onboard to make our own suits. We could have our own unit of Nanosuit-equipped mercs.”

“Risky. How do you propose we go about doing that?”

“Ships this size usually run on automated systems. I can insert an autopilot routine into the nav system remotely and have it take us to a dock not far from our base.”

“Which one?”

“The one we liberated from the Syndicate a month ago. We airlift the shit to our base and have R&D get to work on it.”

“How long will that system jack take?”

“I just finished,” Alcatraz said smugly. “Wi-fi makes everything better.”

The ship’s course altered noticeably. Everybody onboard had to know something was up.

“In the meantime, let’s steal that VTOL loaded with precious cargo and fly it home. The ship can dock itself, and I’ll send a platoon or so of troops this way. Or failing that, it’ll wreck itself and we can break it down for scrap after we unload the contents.”

“Sounds good. Let’s try and meet near the landing pad,” Psycho said.

An alarm klaxon sounded.

“All personnel be advised, we have intruders onboard the Callisto. Enemies are two in number, wearing Nanosuits, and should be terminated with extreme prejudice. One is unaccounted for, the other is in the research hold. Security locks for the hold are disabled.” A voice said over the PA system.

“Welp.”

Alcatraz looked around. There had to be a way out other than the stairs. It looked like there was a row of elevators on the far side of the room, plus a freight elevator. The freight elevator was headed his way.

Don’t want them damaging the merch. Can’t take them out myself without damaging it. Gotta avoid them.

He rushed to one of the elevators and pushed the up arrow. When it didn’t arrive in the next five seconds, he started mashing it furiously. The door made a “ding” sound and the post-human rushed in, then started mashing the button the close the doors. As soon as they closed, he hit the button for the deck two levels below the surface.

The ruse is in place. They’ll think I’m going to the B2 deck.

The hatch on the elevator’s ceiling came off after it took a few bullets. Getting through the hatch was a bit dodgy, but once he was up he waited until the elevator stopped.

A power jump got him high enough to grab onto the doorframe for the B1 deck. He hoisted himself up and balanced on the ledge. The doors on the elevator he’d come up on opened to let in a flood of gunfire that hit nothing but air and the walls of the empty lift.

Alcatraz wedged his fingers into the outer elevator doors to the B1 deck and pried them open. A pair of CELL skirmishers was in the elevator proper on the B2 level, firing upwards at him.

“Sorry, but not today. Here, have a consolation prize!” He tossed a grenade down into the elevator. It exploded and tore apart the lift, not to mention the men inside. Above the doorway, the “Out of Order” light blinked on.

The ex-marine took a breather and removed the suppressors from his weaponry. They wouldn’t be much use now.

A CELL heavy flanked by light infantry kicked in a door. Alcatraz instinctively activated Armor Mode and began firing his carbine at them. He attacked the skirmishers first, since they were easy to kill and that meant less guns pointing at him. Their bullets flattened on his Nanosuit, gradually draining his energy.

His first burst traced up a victim’s chest, the final shot piercing their skull. He did the same with the other skirmishers. The heavy had trained his machinegun on Alky and begun firing in the two seconds it took for him to kill the escorts. The post-human unloaded the remaining half of his magazine into the enforcer, who fell dead under the sheer weight of fire. He reloaded and rushed down the winding hallways until he found a staircase.

I’d rather get out of here before the shit gets too thick than get drawn into prolonged CQB.

The staircase was short and took him straight to the cargo deck, where the rain poured on him.

“Alcatraz, I’ve got the Kingfisher, but our package is missing. It’s somewhere on the cargo deck. Can you find it for me?”

“Yeah, I got it!”

Alcatraz ran to a container and began climbing the vast stacks of cargo. He started taking fire from below as he ascended, with bullets pinging around him, and was hit a few times before he reached the top. His carbine was swapped for his sniper rifle, and he returned fire.

All the while, he kept moving, keeping an eye out for any recently-placed crates.

“You’re fuckin’ dead, cyber!” A CELL trooper yelled at him.

Alcatraz took aim and shot him blowing his jaw apart.

“Don’t shoot your mouth off.”

A little more looking around and he found a crate with nanotech markings. He marked it with his visor and transmitted the location to Psycho.

“Thanks, mate.”

Psycho came in piloting the VTOL, taking small arms fire from soldiers on the deck. With the only weapons being controlled by the co-pilot, it was almost helpless, but as long as they didn’t use anything large caliber, the VTOL would be fine. The craft came to rest its midsection on the crate and the latches automatically clamped shut on the cargo, securing it.

“Got it. I’m bringing it over to you.”

The craft headed to the tower of crates Alcatraz was standing on. The canopy opened over co-pilot’s seat in the front of the cockpit, giving him a way to board. He leapt towards it, grabbing onto the edge of the cockpit and pulling himself in. As soon as he was onboard the canopy shut, and his suit began syncing with the aircraft’s systems.

“Sync complete. HMG turret operational.”

Alcatraz grasped the controls and looked at the crowd of enemies onboard. A special targeting reticle was projected onto his HUD. He mashed the trigger, opening fire on them. The twin chin-mounted .50 machineguns tore through them in a shower of bullets and blood. It was twelve seconds of nonstop fun, and then they were all dead.

“Psycho, take us back to base. Between this cargo and what’s onboard that ship, we can make the Legion Noire even more of a powerhouse. Cauldron and CELL will have to deal with dozens of Nanosuited soldiers soon,” Alcatraz said eagerly. He transmitted instructions regarding the nanotech, as well as schematics and data to the LN’s research and development team.

When they arrived back at the base, his mercenaries were mobilizing to secure the vessel he’d just left, and crews stood by the receive cargo. His transport landed and its two-man crew hopped out once the canopies opened.

“See you later, Psycho.” Alcatraz said as he headed for the base’s living quarters. “Locate subject: Ruby Gaze,” He ordered his suit. Within a few seconds, he had a waypoint.

As he strode down the halls, he marveled at how much his group had grown in less than a year. Ex-military, former law enforcement, civilians, scientists, technicians; he’d accrued more than a thousand employees, and LN was only getting bigger. Favors and discounts for certain clientele had been reciprocated, allowing them access to more equipment and better technology. The once-vacant hexagonal fortress had lacked even furniture and basic amenities in half of its rooms when he’d first bought it, but it was chosen because of its flexible design and it now was being expanded into the adjacent forests.

He passed by a gaping hole in the wall, blown by a C4 charge. It was being repaired, but the scar would remain even afterwards, in the form of discoloration where the wound had once been.

The bigger they’d gotten, the more enemies they made. An international strike force had done a number on them when they’d attacked the LN’s base a few weeks earlier. There’d been at least one human in a Nanosuit among the attackers, whose body they hadn’t found after they were driven back; they had to assume he was still alive.

So what could we use to keep countries out of our business?

Chemical weapons were fairly easy to make, but they weren’t very effective against modern militaries. Nerve gas was deadly, but just needed a gas mask to counter, and only older masks were vulnerable to combinations involving corrosive agents.

Radiological weapons were even easier to make if Cobalt-60 from x-ray machines was used, but they were more psychological than lethal unless there was enough radioactive material in the bomb. Even then, they were ineffective against militaries with NBC-protected vehicles, and they’d only act as an area denial method against infantry. There was just too much collateral damage against civilians without much actual destructive power.

Biological weapons could backfire, unless they had a termination vector to prevent the strain from existing outside of a lab for too long. If the virus had an artificially limited lifespan that got successively shorter with each generation, it could be controlled. But extensive testing would be needed to ensure it didn’t mutate in a way that eliminates that vector. It was possible.

But those didn’t have the offensive or counterstrike capability needed for a deterrent.

Japan’s stockpile of fissile material is under relatively light guard. A Nanosuit-equipped team could go through a portal back to Earth, infiltrate one of their facilities, and acquire a significant amount of nuclear material, possibly including plutonium.

Acquisition of the resources would be relatively easy, but it raised three questions.

First of all, would we be forced to start completely from scratch, perhaps using gun-type weapons like early US atom bombs? No. The Teller-Ulam design is publicly known, so we could probably skip to more advanced thermonuclear designs, though the compression of the secondary device is the main engineering obstacle. A yield of 200 kilotons would be plenty powerful as an end-goal, but we’ve got to work up to that. It really comes down to engineering know-how and acquiring enough fissile material. Theft of a MIRV warhead would be ideal, for reverse-engineering and as an interim weapon.

Second, what would the delivery method be? A land-based ICBM silo is easier to construct, but more vulnerable to first strike and easily detected. An SLBM needs a boomer submarine to launch from and is only effective when the sub is deployed, but has much better survivability and second-strike potential, making it better as a deterrent. Cruise missiles can be intercepted with relative ease. Conventional bombs need an aircraft for delivery. Suitcase nukes are risky, low-yield, and only Russia and Israel have them. Railguns are promising, but even if we built one ostensibly for long-range AA purposes, it’d be a prime target and vulnerable to first strike. A mobile system using a railgun to launch a warhead would be ideal, but a smaller re-entry vehicle would be needed if the weapon’s size were to be kept under control.

Third, how would we go about proclaiming our deterrent? I’m still considered a terrorist and wanted for killing embassy staff providing asylum to CELL defectors, which I didn’t do. I don’t want the LN to become any more of a pariah than it already is by officially making us a nuclear power, even if that’d be necessary for deterrence. Revealing any hypothetical nukes would have to be a last resort.

He shelved that train of thought for later. For now, he’d shift his intelligence-gathering resources towards proving he wasn’t a terrorist instead of pursuing nuclear aspirations. He’d rather be known as an AWOL cyborg with a private army, which was somewhat less toxic than being a terrorist with a dangerous following.

After another few minutes of walking, he arrived at Ruby’s assigned room and knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” She said from the other side.

“Your ex-roommate.”

“Oh. Come in.”

He opened the door. The room was already decorated with relics of a bygone era. Her era. The sword he’d found shortly after rescuing her was among them. He didn’t mind, really. He never used it.

And that horse I found around the same time doesn’t get out much either. I should probably go slay some motherfuckers with him and my sword sometime.

“Hello,” Ruby Gaze greeted him.

“Hey. Did you do something with your mane?”

Her appearance had changed since he’d last seen her. She had a pale golden mane now, instead of the crimson locks she’d had when she'd taken control of the cybernetic unicorn body earlier.

“Well, I thought I should change things up a bit. After all, I can change my appearance at will now, and I never liked the color of my natural mane, which you saw.”

“Well, you look nice. How’re you doing?”

“Fine, thank you. I’ll definitely need time to adjust, and re-learn my magic.”

“Take all the time you need.”

***

“Hello?” CELL’s Director of Equis Operations had just called his Equestrian benefactor.

“I’m here.” It was the haughty voice of nobility. The individual who’d first contacted them, brought them to Equestria, helped fund them and conspired with them.

“The Legion Noire has captured a vessel we’d requisitioned for R&D purposes. Our Nanosuit production won’t receive the boost we’d wanted without those specimens.”

“What about the HIVE Program?”

“HIVE is unaffected. Ceph won’t be a threat to any of us for much longer. In fact, they might prove quite useful…”

“Excellent. How soon will Operation Ancient Havoc be ready?”

“Progress is going smoothly. We expect the various components will be in place within six months.”

“Excellent. Keep me informed of any future developments.”

“Of course, Prince Blueblood.”

The Director hung up.