• 10 minutes to drop! This group you are after is supposedly responsible for the 217 missing marines reported from the area in the last 5 months. Word from command is if yall dont radio back 10 minutes after drop, im authorized to drop 'buddy' on the site. Sandra Whitson was a 26 year old pilot. After leaving school in the 7th grade, she immediately went to work with the military who paid her way through school and eventually, she discovered her natural skills for piloting machines. at age 17, she became the first female American accepted into the Air Force under the age of 23. by the time she did reach 23, her skills were better than any other pilot in the military could boast of having. Sandra was selected to start running these 'deep infiltration drops' about a year ago, and now, she was running the most dangerous one of her career.

    "Aww hell Sandy, we can handle a buncha religious nuts holdin swords any day. after all, Lil' Timmy got my back!" Gunnery Sergent John Bishop lovingly patted his .108 calibur mini-gun that he so fondly called 'Lil' Timmy.' Gunnery Sergent John Bishop had been hitting on Sandra for a few weeks now, and, much to the amusement of John's squad, had been denied every time.
    Cut the crap sarge. get your squad ready to drop. ETA 8 minutes. John grinned and turned to his squad.
    "Allright girls, these guys didn't wanna play by the rules so now we gotta open up a can of kick-a** on them." one of the soldiers groaned and said something about jokes older than the sarges mother, and promptly got an elbow from his neighbor in the copter before Sarge Bishop could find him. Bishop glared at the group as a whole and began his debriefing.
    "Our target is a religious sect called the Archaic. Our intel on the group is limited to only a few things. They began in Japan in the 13th century and have spread like a wildfire to every corner of the world. They use no weapons normally and will only use swords, scythes, maces, yadda yadda yadda, when they are in their compound. 217 good marines have gone missing in the area and the blame is put to this group. Their compound is fairly simple. one central building in a style of an old Victorian manner with 5 outer buildings which line up as a pentagram when ya play connect the dots with the map. the outer buildings are all sleeping quarters. Our satellite in orbit got a full 24 hour watch on them and all moving heat signatures stay in the outer buildings at night. The satellite imaging suggests we got ourselves 35 monks ta kill, so keep your kills tallied on the TacCom.."

    ETA 2 minutes. yall ready back there? Sandra sounded nervous, but at least she would stay mostly safe. after drop, she would be hovering at cloud level to watch on their helmet cams and listen on the com.
    "Yeah, we're ready Sandy. Gunna give me a goodbye kiss?" John stumbled suddenly as the transport copter seemed to hit some turbulence. when no apology was forthcoming, several of the soldiers chuckled. John sighed and rigged his combat helmet in place. now he was just another faceless soldier in black armor. he walked over to a switch lodged in the wall and pulled down hard. the rear end of the copter opened with a hole big enough to fit an old fashioned Panzer tank. Sergent Bishop grabbed a backpack off the floor next to him and gave one final shout which was more of a battle cry, before leaping off the edge into the black sky below. than 4 more soldiers jumped after him. 2 were to remain guarding the get-away in case it was needed.

    Sandra than set the chopper into hover directly above the target location, hidden in the shadow of a cloud. "mission start." she mumbled to herself as she turned on the cameras to watch. they hit ground at mission time +1:17 they had apparently gone unnoticed. one of the soldiers approached the guard post at the entrance to the compound and put 2 silent rounds into the back of the guards head. he waved the others out as he took up position inside the booth where he could monitor other cameras and audio communication devices that Sandra just didn't have access to. Mission time, +2:23 and there was now a single soldier at each entrance to the different sleeping quarters. a single click on the com said that John had given the order to continue to phase 2.

    Sandra watched as each remaining soldier placed det charges in the approximate center to each building. The interiors were well decorated, she noticed. clearly, this cult was powerful or at least rich. At mission time +4:49, the squad had regrouped at the front and only door to the main building. Sandra watched through the camera of one of the other soldiers as John gave the command to open the door. A soldier applied a gel substance to the polished cedar wood and immediately, a hole appeared as the volatile chemical ate its way through the lock mechanism. By mission time, +7:33, they had opened doors into a great many rooms, all of which seemed normal at first. a dressing room, a dining room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and so on so forth. Sandra looked at the orbital thermal taken of the building 10 minutes ago and saw that there was no way anyone was in the building. It gave her a bad feeling though, seeing all this unused space that was clearly meant for someone.

    At mission time, +8:02, she lost all video feed. knowing that she would take hell for opening a com channel during an op, she told one of the guarding soldiers to lean out and look. He carefully grabbed hold of a side bar and looked down. his helmet camera automatically zoomed to maximum resolution, giving Sandra a nice aerial view of the building. Something was wrong.....lights were on in the main building. +9:12, Sandra broke the regulation com silence to give the command to retreat.

    This is Hawkeye, looks like you've been compromised boys, make your way to the gate and ill pick you up right outside. The courtyard is too big for this bird. The response she got was far from what she expected. a laughter came over the com, an insane laughter. Than she heard something behind her. a wet squishing sound followed by something heavy and wet impacting with the metal floor. she turned around in her seat to tell the guards to stop ******** around and jump, that their squad mates needed their help, when she saw the nearly 7 foot tall figure standing over 2 corpses with a massive diamond broadsword dripping with blood held at an angel next to him.

    Sandra screamed and reached out to smash the 'launch' button for Buddy, their tactical nuke. As soon as Buddy's whistling began, the figure turned to the exit and leaped, leaving the broadsword behind. Sandra wiped her forehead in relief that the insane zealot was gone when she heard something else behind her. she slowly turned her head again to see the sword floating in the air over the bodies of the guards, tip down. a line of....something, something Sandra couldn't identify, was coming from the corpses and the sword was glowing with malevolent power. she screamed again, but didn't make it past the 2 second mark before she heard Buddy go off.

    Mission time +10:13. The compound below was gone, wiped from the face of the Earth by Buddy, yet this demonic sword was still very much alive on her chopper! Sandra had such angry thoughts running through her head, immobilizing her as the sword drew ever closer to her.

    I am Tachinori, the god of the void, and you Sandra, will soon join me in eternal godhood. You shall soon be one with me. Become a child of the void Sandra, and you will have much more power than you could ever imagine.

    Sandra was immobilized with fear now, but something inside her, something strong surfaced. "NO!" The last word Sandra ever spoke, along with video footage of this sword, were on record to the choppers black box.



    A search and recovery team watching this recording soon brought it to the secretary of defense. a week later, funerary services were held for Sandra, John, and the rest of the soldiers that died on that op. At the massive funeral service, a man of nearly 7 feet tall stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his face reflecting sorrow. "But the hunger must be fed." the tall man said quietly to himself as he turned and began to walk away. "It must always be fed....."