Our Secret War

Private Charlie McBain, US Marine Corps, sighed as he looked out across the endless nexpanse of snow and forest for the thousandth time that morning. It didn't matter where you were in this damned wasteland, it always looked the same. Patrol duty here was almost a form of torture, especially picket duty where there was nothing warm anywhere near the patrol route.

He shivered slightly. There was nowhere in the United States that could even vaguely be described as 'warm', but here, in the northern extremes of the country the cold was mind-numbing. He slung his Aztec-made assault rifle over his shoulder and slipped his hands into his armpits for warmth.

He trudged on down the path through the snow for a few more minutes before he saw another uniformed figure walking quickly in the opposite direction. As they got closer he could see it was his friend Corporal Anthony.

"Hey Corporal," he said through chattering teeth, "cold innit?"

"Cold? Cold??" Antony replied with a grin, "Charlie, this is just a nice bracing breeze."

"Damned Eskimos." Charlie muttered loudly.

"I heard that." Anthony said mock-reprovingly, "Inuit, Private, Inuit. How many times do I have to tell you that?"

"Yeah, yeah."

Corporal Anthony, quite clearly, was an Inuit, who were the only ethnic group that really lived up in the northern states. They'd been defeated by the Americans thousands of years before, but as the only thing the U.S. government cared about up here was oil, neither the Americans nor the Inuit had much reason for enmity.

"Seen anything?" Anthony asked, more seriously.

"Not a blessed thing. I don't think anything in it's right mind except a polar bear or a reindeer would want to come up here."

Anthony shrugged.

"See you at the mess room after we finish patrol duty." he said.

"Right."

The two of them carried on their seperate patrol paths and Charlie's thoughts slipped back to the all-pervading cold. It had been no end of trouble when they were setting up the facility, causing fuel to freze in vehicle engines, steel rods to shatter like glass, and causing incredible discomfort to everyone who worked there. Many of those assigned from the southern states had grumbled about having to set this place up in what was best described by the common joke up here:

"What's the difference between here and a freezer?"

"A freezer's a lot smaller."

Still, the order for this base had come from President Lincoln himself in Washington, and you didn't question orders from Washington. Doing so tended to cause bullets to appear in one's head.

He was jolted out of such thoughts when his radio began beeping with the 'Report In' signal, broadcast every ten minutes. He tapped three buttons on his helmet in the correct order and the bleeping ceased. He then glanced around agin at the landscape. He shhook his head again, seeing nothing, but just as he did so he spotted movement in the trees. Immediately after that he heard the slight crunching of snow.

Forgetting the cold, he brought his assault rifle up and squinted between the trees, trying to see what was there. He saw another flicker of movement on the other side of the path, and spinning to face it, he caught the slight, unmistakeable glint of the weak sunlight on a gunbarrel.

He knew full well that no-one would be stupid enough to try and pull this kind of thing as a practical joke on him, and guards at this facility were ordered to shoot intruders on sight - assuming they couldn't be captured. He raised his rifle and squeezed the trigger.

Nothing happened. Charlie swore - the cold must have jammed the gun, yet again. He frantically worked the system fitted to the guns of everyone assigned here for just this purpose - but just as his finger went for the trigger once again, he heard the muffled sound of a silenced gunshot, and suddenly felt a bullet strike him in the back of the head. It was the last thing he ever felt.

* * *

Colonel Julius Gnaeus Pompey felt deep disgust as he lowered his silenced weapon, a Pilum-III automatic rifle. Although he had no compunction against killing, like every other member of the Primus Legio Romanis (First Roman Legion), or PLR, the Roman Special Forces, this had come about as result of incompetence... and it threatened to compromise their mission.

He cursed again as another sentry came down the same pass a few seconds later and saw the body. That one died just as he reached for his radio.

"Lieutenant Marcus," Julius growled into his microphone, "how many times must you be told never to do that? If an enemy picket shows up, hide, or if you're spotted, shoot."

"Sorry, sir." Marcus replied. Julius just sighed with irritation waved for the others to follow him. As they did so he kept speaking.

"Now, according to the intel we have on this facility all pickets are checked by radio every ten minutes. It seems that this one just received his, which gives a bit of time. However, once the signal rolls around again, the alarm will be raised."

The others all nodded soberly. He went on.

"This means that we must move to a strategy of maximum force. The time for stealth is over."

* * *

In the security control room for the facility, Officer Walker was getting very tired. Tired and bored. He'd been stimulating himself with coffee for most of his shift, but it wasn't being very effective any more.

His job was to monitor all of the security systems, especially the cameras, but nothing ever seemed to happen. He'd been on the job for almoist eight hours, and in a few minutes his shift would be over and he could get some sleep. He watched the digital clock tick over to 8:00 AM and smiled. As he stood up he saw the RI signal going out again and decided to stay and see if anything went wrong. As it happened, it did. Two sentries failed to report in during the 15 second window period. Regulation called for a full-scale alarm.

He triggered it.

* * *

When the alarm the alarm went off Julius and his team had already reached a clump of trees near the electrified perimeter fence. Julius was fiddling with a small radio trnasmitter. He switched it on. A few seconds later it gave a small beep and a voice came through.

"234648" Julius said swiftly repeating a pre-arranged code.

"Gotcha." a voice at the other end replied, "hang on a minute."

"It's done," the voice went on, "the power should start shorting out right now."

Even as he said that all the lights in the camp simaltaneously went out. They came back on again briefly then cut out. Julius and the others then sprinted across to electric fence. Marcus pulled out some high explosives and clamped each one, armed, to the fence wires. They would go off as soon as the power returned. Everyone then ran for their lives.

The bombs detonated about ten seconds later, ripping out an entire length of the fence and blowing a huge hole in it.

* * *

The faceless figure from the other end of the radio broke a small smile of contempt as he saw the pandemonium throughout the base, hears the blaring sirens. The Americans had been too arrogant for far too long, and they would pay dearly. This was just the beginning...

* * *

After the heat of the explosion died down the twelve Roman commandos sprinted back toward the fence and through the gap. There was little organized resistance, as no-one in the facility actually knew what was happening. Several of the sentries were running around aimlessly nearby, frantically trying to figure out what was happening. The Romans shot them all without a second thought.

As they entered the grounds of the facility Julius was trying to remember the map that they had been provided with. The entrance to the area of the facility they needed to access was near the end of the main road into the base, but he couldn't see it...

'There.' He thought, as he spotted it. He turned to two other members of his unit.

"Seargents Decimus and Tullia, we need a diversion while we break into the base. I want you to use grenade launchers to blow up the fuel depot over there. That should keep them hopping long enough for us to get in. Join us as soon as you can."

"Yes, sir, right away." Tullia replied, and both she and Decimus sprinted away, heading for the fuel tanks while keeping close to the building walls. They both pulled out their grenade launchers as they ran.

It didn't take them long to get in range. When they did they each fired three well-aimed shots, the rockets boosters fitted to each grenade flaring into life as they left the barrel.

When the barrage struck the tanks and detonated, the result was nothing short of spectacular. Four of the grenades all struck the same tank, which exploded in a searing fireball and ignited the other tanks around it. The whole area went up in a gigantic firestorm, which ignited numerous other things nearby as well.

The two Roman soldiers grinned at each other; they had done their job even better than they had expected. This would have to be the diversion of the century. Before either of them could speak, though, another huge blast rocked the base. Their heads snapped round to see that the initial blast of the fuel tanks had shattered the wall to an armoury of some sort, Which was now also exploding. Even as they watched, more detonations ripped through it, most likely deafening anyone nearby. they two of them grinned again before running off to rejoin their unit.

While the two other commandos had been creating a diversion, the rest of the team had not been idle. They had shot two more of the sentries and reached their entrance without difficulty.

Julius pressed the 'open' switch next to the door and smiled as it wooshed open without asking for verification. Their contact had done his work well; the security systems were all offline as well.

As he and the other nine soldiers sprinted inside, Julius checked the immediate vicinity. There were no guards; they were in what looked like a large hangar and loading bay, presumably for supply delivery to this base. This impression was confirmed upon a more careful inspection by the presence of a pair of supply helicopters and several forklifts, along with a large side door marked 'storage'.

Several of the other troops pulled out explosives and started toward the choppers and forklifts. One of them gave a questioning look to Julius. Julius nodded.

"Yes, set the explosives, but set them on a five minute time fuse. We don't want to attract too much attention to our entry here yet."

The explosives were quickly set and armed, and the whole unit moved toward the door marked 'storage'. There was a lever next to it which raised it quite quickly, and they stepped into the room on the other side. As they did so Decimus and Tullius ran in through the door to the loading bay.

"Hurry up and get over here," Julius said over the radio, "the choppers and forklifts are set to blow in a few minutes."

The two of them sprinted across the bay even faster and arrived with the rest of them in under 30 seconds, out of breath. They stood panting for a few seconds before they recovered and they all began looking through the storage area.

It was stacked floor to ceiling with crates marked 'supplies', with more detailed labels underneath. Julius turned up the magnification in his helmet visor to get a better look and recorded it all on the camera built into it:

Supplies

Handle with care

Electronics

Shipment desig. 4826


Supplies

Machine Tools

Shipment desig. 2560


Supplies

Handle with care

Radiation shields

Shipment desig. 992

'Hmmm,' he thought as he looked over the other crates, 'this is starting to look suspicious. The only thing our contact was able to tell us was that this base was very important and that it had something to do with the new American weapons program. Now it looks like this program involves space quite extensively. Virtually everything here seems to be space-related in some way - hang on, what's this?'

'This' was a lead-lined crate that looked as though it had only recently been moved in. Julius read the label and caught his breath.

Supplies

WARNING: RADIOACTIVE

Enriched Plutonium

This was the last confirmation of the fears of Rome: that America was in the process of devloping a nuclear arsenal. The next boxes confirmed an even deeper fear: tanks of deuterium, high explosives and a complicated device for simaltaneously detonating explosives held in a sperical shape - something useful solely in detonating nuclear warheads. The Americans were building no mere atomic arsenal, but a thermocnuclear one, no less.

Even as Julius found this disturbing information, the explosives set earlier detonated. Almost simaltaneously with that guards burst into the loading bay. Julius' unit had become scattered through the storage area, and if they were caught unawares they might be massacred.

"Everyone!" he almost yelled into his radio, "The guards are here! We have to regroup, fight our way out of here and complete the mission! Everyone go to the opposite corner from the entrance!"

There was chorus of acknowledgement as everyone ran for the designated meeting point.

When they all arrived, Julius took stock of the situation. Everyone was still alive and unhurt, which was a relief. They still had most of their ammunition and all of their weapons, though Tullia and Decimus had used up numerous grenades previously.

"Hey, Colonel," one of the other soldiers, Lieutenant Flaccus, called, "I found another way out of here."

"Where?" Julius asked.

"Over here." Flaccus replied, gesturing toward a small door nearby.

"Good work Lieutenant, now there's no need to fight those guards at all."

Flaccus opened the door and the rest of the unit filed though before looking up and down the corridor which the door opened onto. There was a camera at either end, but like the rest of the security network, they were offline.

Julius brought up his mental map of the complex again; their objective was located somewhere in the underground section of this facility. The main entrance to the section was located at the centre of the complex, under heavy guard. Although the current pandemonium and the loss of the security systems would make breaking in much easier, it would till be difficult. However, there was no other way in. He gestured for the others to follow him and set off at a brisk walk for the centre of the facility.

"WOULD SOMEONE KINDLY TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!?" roared Colonel Wilcox, commander of the facility, "I GET WOKEN UP AT EIGHT AM WITH ALARMS GOING OFF, THINGS EXPLODING AND NOW SECURITY AIN'T WORKIN. WHAT THE **** IS GOING ON HERE?"

His assistants glanced at one another nervously. Being in charge of the restricted facility meant that as long as he followed orders from Washington, he was essentially an absolute ruler here and could do what he liked. He was quite touchy and had been previously executed several assistants after an unfortunate accident with a helicopter refueling had been taken for an act of sabotage. Since then his assistants had tried their utmost not to show any initiative that might find annoying.

"Ah, Colonel," one of them said quietly after a little while, with Wilcox glaring at him, "No-one here is really sure. Apparently two sentries were reported missing at around 8:00, and the alarm was raised. Almost simaltaneously, the power began shorting out and then someone planted explosives on the fence, blowing a damn big hole in it. They've blown up the fuel tanks, the armoury and some of the equipment in the loading bay and we have no idea where they are now."

"Why not?" Wilcox hissed back.

"Security is offline, we can't reactivate it and they've shot anyone who gets in their way, sir."

Wilcox glared for a moment longer before leaning his great bulk over his desk and pressing a switch. A second later the two guards from outside the room stepped inside.

"Yes sir?" one of them asked calmly.

"Take this incompetent fool outside." Wilcox snapped, pointing at the assistant who had given him the report, "Then shoot him. Give his body to the dogs."

"At once, sir." the other replied, and the two of them stepped forward, grabbed the unfortunate assistant by the arms and then dragged him outside, his face white. A moment later there was a gunshot, then the sound of the guards dragging something down the corridor. The other assistants winced.

"Now that that's dealt with." Wilcox said grumpily, "I eant you to go out, find out what's happening and then report back when you find out. AND DON'T YOU DARE COME BACK UNTIL YOU HAVE!"

They glanced at each other again before scampering our of the room as fast as they could.

* * *

The Roman commandos arrived near their objective with little difficulty save for a few enemy guards - all of whom died - But they could see that getting through the entrance would be very difficult. There were dozens of guards surrounding the entrance, which sat in a large square bunkerwith anti-aircraft, antii-tank and machine guns mounted on it and scattered nearby, plus another electrified, barbed wire fence. This was going to take some very heavy firepower...

*waiting for next bit*

Heh... I spent several day writing what I just posted, don't expect any more for a little bit.

"All right, everyone," Julius whispered into his radio, "this is going to be tough. Tullia, Decimus, Flaccus and Marucs, get out your grenade launchers. There are total of 14 heavy wepons positions that have to be neutralised. I figure that we can take out 8 with the grenade launchers before they can shoot back. At that point we get back into cover, wait for the shooting to stop, then take out the rest of them from another position. After that, we can take out the troops."

"Sounds like a good plan to me, sir." Decimus muttered in reply, as he and the other three pulled out their launchers, aiming them at their first targets, while the rest of the squad drew beads on the infantry.

"On my mark." Julius whispered again, "Three, two, one, mark."

In that instant all hell broke loose.

The entire squad broke cover and each of the four grenade launchers hurled three rounds in quick succession, before changing targets and repeating the process. Meanwhile the rifles of the others spat death at 300 rounds per minute, mowing down more than a dozen guards almost instantly. Within 10 seconds Julius' set target of eight destroyed heavy wepons was acheived and the entire unit ducked back, instants before what weapons that remained blazed into life against the positions the commandos had held. Meanwhile it seemed that every one of the guards in the compound was now laying down the a hailstorm of firepower around the Romans' hiding place.

"What now, sir?" Tullia asked, "we can't follow your plan of moving positions if they keep shooting at us."

In response, Julius pulled out what was known as a 'flasher', a grenade that, upon detonation, would create a near-blinding flash of light to confuse and disoreint an enemy, as well as a pulse of energy on other parts of the spectrum to temporarily cripple scanning equipment. He then pulled the pin and hurled it around the corner. It was followed by two more, thrown by other members of the unit. A few seconds later the grenades detonated, and the shooting stopped almost instantly as the Americans instictively winced away from the light, covering their faces and dropping their weapons.

Acting on a mutual impulse, the entire unit then burst out into the open again and opened fire on the half-blinded defenders. This attack was to be less of a success.

Although none of the American guards could see properly, those manning the surviving heavy weapons - anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, the machine guns having been the first target - could still shoot, albeit inaccurately. This they did.

Julius felt the first true fear he had yet experienced on this mission when one of the anti-tank gunners looked up with pained, hatefilled eyes and reached for the firing lever. Julius was already aiming, but he was too late. At the exact instant that a hail of rifle fire reduced the man's head to bloody pulp, his hand fired the gun.

WELL THIS IS A DEFINITE FIRST...ANOTHER AMERICAN STORY!
no offence but sheesh! does everything have to be about the US Marine Corps or Delta Force or Force XXI? cant we hear about, say...the french leading the 'Marine Corps' into victory? anyone else agree with me?
P.S. good story anyways man, sorry to rat out on you like this but, yea

This is a good account of a commando attack. It'll be interesting to see if they actually succeed in the mission. Keep the goods coming!

Its a roman commando squad infiltrating an american base maty-69.

Julius threw himself flat as he saw the armour-piercing shell hurtling in his direction, and was most relieved when it hurtled over his head and blew a rather large hole through the wall behind him. However, As he got back to his feet he could see that not only were the guards starting to recover, but the last two remaining heavy weapons - anti-aircraft guns - were also firing.

The first shot fired flew over the heads of the Romans... as did the next two... but the fourth one was devasting.

It had been aimed perfectly, and from the second that it left the gun barrel it was quite clear to Julius that nothing on earth could save the two commandos it was aimed at - Marcus and Tullia. This realization only just had time to sink in to his mind when the shell hit, scattering shrapnel everywhere. He saw that it rather ironically killed more Americans than it did Romans, but this was small comfort - both Marcus and Tullia were killed almost instantly by the shell blast. When the bodies landed he couldn't even recognize their faces.

Julius stared at the broken bodies of his two fellow commandos for only a second, but it was enough to implant one overhwelming desire in him: Kill the gunner who had fired that shot, and the leader who had forced this raid and resulted in this...

As the first object of his anger was right within his mield of vision, he lifted his gun and let rip without a second thought. The gunner and the other two americans who were operating the gun were all killed, seconds before Flaccus fired another grenade volley that finished off both the AA guns.

The gunner he had been aiming for now dead, Julius looked around at the rest of the squad. Their situation appeared good: even as he watched, the last of the American guards were cut down rather inefficiently but very effectively. Only one of them, Decimus, appeared to be wounded, although the others seemed to have used up a lot of ammo.

Satisfied that there was nothing seriously wrong in the team, Julius strode toward the bunker concealing the entrance and waved for the others to follow him. As he did, involuntarily, he relived that last flash of time as he saw that American shell come whistling through the air and detsroy the lives of two dear friends. And he felt again that deep surge of hatred, hatred of Lincoln and the America he ruled, hatred of his megalomanical scheming. He wanted to look Lincoln in the face and kill him.

His reaching the bunker door pulled him from his thoughts. He examined it. It appeared to be made of stainless steel, locked like a bank vault. There was a keypad mounted in a protective alcove next to the door. Julius reached out Pressed the 'open' button at the bottom of the pad. It bleeped at him:

ERROR: INCORRECT CODE ENTERED
ACCESS DENIED

Julius sighed and keyed in a random sequence of digits, then pressed the 'open' key again. It flashed the same message at him. He sighed again in frustration: clearly this door operated on a different network to the rest of the security systems. They would have to blast it open. At that point he heard a voice in his radio again.

"Hey, Colonel, how's the op going?" it was their contact inside the base.

"Not bad." he said back, making his evaluation on mission rather than personal grounds, "However, we're stuck outside the entrance to the underground facility. Can you switch the lock off?"

"Sorry, man, no can do. It can't be switched off. However, I can probably give you the code if you give me a sec."

"OK."

There was some typing from the other end of the radio before the voice came back.

"Got it, Colonel. Type in 205308."

"Thanks heaps. I'd hate to have to blast my way through here. How often is the code changed?"

"'Bout once a month or so. It takes hours to change the code, so there's no need to worry about them changing it and locking you in there."

"Right. Entering code now."

Julius tapped the code into the pad and yet again pressed 'open'. This time there were a few *THUNK* noises as the heavy bolts were removed and the door hissed open. As the commandos stepped therough the door and into the bunker, there was a sudden explosion of sound from the other end of the radio.

"MAJOR O'REILLY, YOU ARE UNDER MILITARY ARREST FOR TREASON AGAINST THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. COME QUIETLY AND YOU WILL BE ASSURED OF A SPEEDY DISPENSATION OF JUSTICE."

Major O'Reilly, it seemed, was not coming quietly. There was a sharp *SNAP* as he punched someone in the face, followed by a pair of gunshots and then the sound of a shotgun firing. An instant later there was a soft splattering noise as blood was splashed all over the place. The radio went dead.

"OK, team," Julius said sadly, "it looks like we can expect no further help from Mr O'Reilly. We will have to complete this mission on our own."

The others nodded as they entered the bunker.

Once inside, the commandos conducted a thorough examination of it. It's thick were broken only by a hendful of firing slits - firing slits that clearly weren't generally manned, as there had been no-one there when they attacked. Other than that, the place appeared very sparse, with the sole exception of what stood in the centre of the room: A large, cylindrical elevator, which was presumably the entrance to the underground section. Julius shrugged and stepped into it, with the other commandos behind him. There was another keypad set into the wall of the elevator, but upon closer inspection, to Julius' relief iit turned out not to be another code entry pad but merely a floor selecter.

"Hmmm." Julius pondered for a moment what floor they needed to go to. The map that they had been shown had not included anything inside the underground section, so that was no help to them. Eventually he shrugged and pressed the button immediately below the top. The elevator door slid shut behind them and it then moved soundlessly down the shaft. After a brief interval the elevator came to rest and the doors opened with a ping. The commando team stepped out through the doors...

And found themselves staring down the barrles of assault rifles held by half a dozen scared-looking guards.

"Don't move," one of them said, his voice trembling, "or we shoot. Private Jones, raise the alarm."

One of the guards, presumably Private Jones, detatched himself from the group and walked over to the alarm switch on the wall nearby. Julius' eyes flickered to it and saw that it was still on: evidently the security systems here operated on a different network to the ones above.

He was only half-way there, however, when Julius gave a subtle hand signal and the entire team simaltaneously pulled weapons on the Americans. Within the space of a heartbeat, every single American had at least one gun aimed at his head. Julius was aiming at Jones.

The Americans' first reflex response had been to tighten their fingers on their triggers, but the sudden appearance of a mass of gund pointed at them left them completely stunned. A second later the Romans eliminated that confusion by opening fire and shooting down all 6 of the enemy guards.

Hey matty-69, I agree there are a lot of american war stories but, bad example do you really think the french will have a victory, since napolean they surrender before the war starts

great story general!

When the shooting stopped, the commandos spread out and searched the room they were in. It was rectangular in shape, with several other elevators along the walls. There were a number of corridors branching out from the room, and the machinery surrounding them indicated that they could sealed off with blast doors when neccesary. In the middle of the room was a large square hole, and looking down it one could tell that it was some kind of heavy equipment elevator platform. As they moved around the room they heard a grinding sound from the heavy elevator. Decimus looked down into the shaft.

"Colonel, the elevator is coming up again. I guess we can expect something to be happening reasonably soon."

Julius nodded. "Very well, let's go. Keep looking through here for what what we came to find."

He and the others loped off towards the nearest door and down the corridor.

They ran down it for about 50 metres, noting a number of sealed doors along the sides. At the end was a T-junction.

Julius looked both ways down the junction and saw nobody. then he heard a loud *THUMP* From back down the corridor. He and his squad spun around and saw that the elevator had now reached the top. And it carried at least two squads of guards... as did, it seemed, the other elevators whose doors pinged open almost simaltaneously.

"O ****!" Julius whispered. He knew that his team could probably win this - hell, they hadn't exactly had much trouble with the 60+ guards around the entry bunker - but it was going to involve quite a few casualties on his side. Besides, there would probably be more turning up as well.

He shrugged slightly. In the final analysis, the only thing that mattered here was their mission. They could defeat these guards, and they would. Then they would finish the mission.

He raised his own gun and could see that the others were doing the same around him. Flaccus and Decimus were aiming their grenade launchers and the rest were using their rifles.

"Fire at will." he said softly. An instant later the hallway erupted in gunfire as eight automatic rifles and two grenade launchers fired in unison.

* * *

Adjutant Fletcher, one of Wilcox's assistants, was not a happy man as he hurried through corridors of the underground section. He had just seen one of his best friends executed for delivering bad news, and he was now having to go out and find more bad news, for which he would probably be executed as well. As he was still absorbed in his dilemma, he walked out into the room in which the security guards were massing. He actually didn't notice them until the Romans started shooting, and then he froze in shock.

"What's happening?" he squealed as he looked around. He was, quite frankly, terrified; he wasn't a soldier, his job was to do gopher work for Colonel Wilcox. His fear was being amply fed by what was happening around him.

His body seemed to unfreeze as he saw the first rocket grenade detonate aboard the equipment elevator, sending shrapnel everywhere. He winced and looked away from the carnage; at least seven guards were dead, horribly dismembered or shattered by the blast, and numerousothers were wounded, many with limbs severed or shrapnel stuck in their bodies. Some would clearly die very soon.

In addition to his mind-blanking terror, Fletcher was also very confused. The guards at this facility were supposed to be some of the best in the country, yet they were being mown down with ease. What was happening?

* * *

Julius felt a kind of fierce exultation as he and his squad poured fire into the security squads. Here was something he knew how to do, something that required little more than the automatic reflexes of aim, shoot and dodge. Virtually everything else he did required him to think carefully, but this didn't. He found it refreshing.

Both the guards and the Roman commandos were concentrating so hard on the immediate business of staying alive that none of them noticed the ubiquitus security camera mounted in one of the other corridors.

There was no warning for anybody of what was about to happen. As the firefight between the Romans and guards seemed about to end, the heavy blast doors at either end of the corridor ground shut.

"What the hell?" Julius cursed.

Then they saw the ventilation shafts slammed shut as well.

"Uh oh." someone else said.

The catastrophy was completed as some new vents opened in the ceiling and sprayed a thick, colourless gas down into the corridor. Decimus had the bad luck to be standing under one of them and the effect was immediate - his eyes rolled back in his head, his legs gave way and he dropped to the floor as though he had no bones.

"Nerve gas." Marcus whispered in horror.

If this is a very heavily guarded base THEN WHERE ARE THE SEALS!!!????(The special ops forces not the animal) I mean a bunch of those could mow down a group like this squat.

P.S They can dodge bullets easily and mp5s are silenced right?

Fletcher and the guards on the other side breathed a sigh of relief as the doors slammed shut. They were built out of at least a foot of solid metal, there was no way anyone could creak them down. The intruders would die in the sealed corridor.

One of the guards called by radio for medics, and shortly after the base medical unit stepped out of one of the elevators. They unpacked their kit and began examining the surviving guards, deciding which would live, which would die, and easing the pain of those who would not live.

About a minute later everyone in the room jumped as a deafening, hissing blast reverberated across the room. As one, they looked at the blast door. It seemed to have melted in several places and had been greatly weakened. A few seconds later there was another explosion, and the entire door vanished in a cloud of molten metal.

Through the gap came an absolute hailstorm of gunfire. Those standing close by by were shredded, and the others fared little better. Those that could move fast enough fired back, but it did little good; they had no idea where the enemy were, and the rain of bullets made aiming of any kind unbelievably difficult.

Within minutes the American guards were all dead, and the Roman commandos stepped through the shattered doorway. The reason for their curvival was now clear; the builders of the facility had obviously not planned for gas masks. The Roman shots were single now, headshots directed at the medics. They all died swiftly too. One last shot took care of the security camera.

During this time Fletcher had not been idle. He had watched the blast door destroyed and the guards massacred, and when he saw the intruders step into the open, he ran for one of the elevators.

As the Romans finished off the last American medics they looked around and spotted him fleeing. Julius opened fire but Fletcher hurled himself down and slid through the open doors. He stood, hit the bottom floor button then flattened himself against one of the walls next to the doors. The doors slid closed and the elevator descended. Fletcher gave a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, Julius just shrugged as he watched his target get away.

'You can't get them all.' he murmured.

He and the rest of the squad then took another lift (after blowing out the security camera), following Fletcher down to the bottom floor.

When the elevator reached the bottom, it was greeted by another hail of gunfire, however the doors weren't yet open so it had little effect. Julius hit a button next to the elevator doors to stop them opening, then pulled out another explosive charge. he set it in the middle of the doors and gestured for the other to stand well back. They all flattened themselves against the opposite side of the elevator, and Julius detonated the bomb.

The resultant explosion ripped both doors apart and splattered molten metal across the walls for more than a dozen metres. They heard high-pitched screaming from the other side of the doors as some unfortunate guards were hit, but the Romans' armour protected them. A second later they all started shooting through the ruined doors.

As they did so, they stepped forward, across the elevator. As the heat died away their thermal imaging equipment kicked in and they could see seven guards still alive and moving in the room ahead of them. Seven pinpoint shots later, none still lived.

Having double-checked to make sure there was no-one still alive, they left the elevator and stepped fully out into the room, after having destroyed the camera as per usual. It was very different from the one at the top level. The walls were made of smooth, stainless steel, with a blue tinge, and the area was square. It looked as though the equipment elevator was used most commonly for this level, as there was a stack of supply crates and various paraphenalia nearby. Julius strode over and examined the pile carefully. It consisted mainly of supply crates similar to those in the storage room above ground; there was nothing to be learned from those. The uncrated equipment next to the crates, however, was far more interesting.

There was a large, thick metal shell of some kind, cigar-shaped. It was in two halves, and there was onyl one obvious use for it: the casing for a nuclear bomb. Around it, there were a number of large fuel tanks, suitable for multi-stage rockets, and a small device that, upon closer inspection, turned out to be an ultra-high speed camera - used for recording tests of long-range missiles and nuclear explosives. Julius dutifully recorded all of this on his camera and was turning away when he noticed something else amongst the supply crates.

It was a steel briefcase, of a type that had recently come into fashion for wealthy business executives. With a number of heavy combination locks, it was virtually a portable safe... although it's portability meant that it could quite easily be stolen. Julius decided to take advantage of this and picked it up, placing it in the space in his backpack intended to contain stolen items.

Having done so, he looked around at the doors set into the walls of the room. One of them was labelled 'Commander's Office'. The commandos headed straight for it and examined it. It was a metal sliding doors much like all the others they had seen in this section of the facility, and had the ubiquitous keypad set into the wall next to it. The Romans met this with the method they had used twice before; they set thermal explosives on it and stood well back.

The explosives detonated with the same searing heat blast that they had done before, vaporizing much of the doors and leaving the remains either melted or twisted and scattered across the floor. They ran straight through the smoke and heat, guns ready to fire.

Inside they found Colonel Wilcox listening intently as Fletcher gave an account of what had happened. There were no guards in the room, and neither of the two were armed.

'This is almost too easy.' Julius thought, as he and his squad aimed their guns at the two Americans.

"Don't move at all," he barked, "or we will shoot. And we won't shoot to kill immediately; we'll make you suffer first."

Fletcher just gulped and raised his hands, but Wilcox, arrogant as ever, reached for the pistol on his desk. One of the Romans carried out Julius' threat and shot the American Colonel directly between the legs. His eyes bulged and he collapsed to the floor, whimpering.

Having neutralized both of the others in the room, Julius now went over the office in more detail. It contained a number of computer mainframes, no doubt containing useful information, and a large safe which probably served the same purpose. Julius turned to Fletcher.

"What is the code to open the safe, American?" he demanded. Fletcher took a deep breathe, glanced at the guns pointed his way and his commander curled up on the floor, then answered.

"635 285 412" he said softly.

"Thanks." Julius replied sarcastically. He strode over to the safe and opened it. Inside it was filled with papers. Julius pulled them all out and slipped them into a folder, before handing them to Marcus, who placed them inside his own backpack. He then shifted his attention to the mainframes. He pulled out a small laser sutter and began slicing through the outer shell of the first one. He cut off one entire side of it, identified the hard drives and cut a few wires before pulling them out and handing them to other members of the team. He reapeated this for all of the other mainframes, then smiled.

"All right team," he said, "we're finished here. Erase the evidence."

On cue, the commandos all opened fire at once. Wilcox was still curled up in his own little world of pain and had no idea what was going on, but Fletcher was already running by the time the Roman trigger fingers tightened. A hail of bullets kicked upspraks around his feet, but none hit him. He sprinted out of the office and into the room the Rommans had come from, and actually managed to escape by elevator a second time. Julius just shook his head.

"Let's go." he said softly.

They all swiftly walked to one of the undamaged elevators and went up. Arriving on the top floor, they found no-one there, and then once again called the elevator they had come in on. The doors pinged open a second later, revealing more than a dozen very surprised guards. None of them lasted more than five seconds. The Romans all got into the elevator, kicking the bodies out, and went up. No-one impeded them in leaving the base, and once out they made a beeline for their rendevous point.

It took them several hours of walking to get there, but when they arrived they found a black, unmarked helicopter waiting for them. They got in, and the helicopter lifted off and raced for the coast, heading for the helicopter carrier Marcus Aurelis, the one which had brought them here.

Once they arrived on board the carrier, they handed in the spoils of their mission and Julius went to his quarters to prepare his report. He listed the casualties on the Roman side, the spoils they had gained, the only witness (his nametag identified him as Adjutant Fletcher), and the approximate damage to the base. A few days later, the Marcus Aurelis and it's supporting battelgroup arrived at the Roman military base of Tyrus, only about a thousand kilomateres from the American coastline. From there, the commando team and the stolen items were flown by jet direct to Rome, to report personally to Consul Cicero.

_________________________

btw Obsessed Nuker, if I was trying to make this resemble the real world it would be Americans infiltrating an Iraqi base.

Julius made his report to Cicero, who commended the performance of his team during the mission, but was depply disturbed by the information that was borught back. Before Julius left, he was told that there would most likely be another raid quite soon.

A few days later, the dead from his team having been replaced, Julius was summoned once again to the Republican Cabinet Room. There he saw the Roman Commander-in-Chief, Julius Caesar, the Foreign Minister, Marcus Germanicus, the PLR Commander, Cornelius Scipio, the Intelligence Chief, Publius Octavian, and the Director of Research, Flaccus Aquinus, along with Consul Cicero. Scipio stood and shook his hand warmly when he entered the room.

"Sit down, Colonel." he said in a friendly way.

Julius sat. Cicero stood; he looked as though he hadn't slept for three days. He probably hadn't. He strode to the front of the room and began to speak.

"Friends, Romans, countrymen," he began, "we have a matter of utmost seriousness to discuss. We all know of Colonel Julius' succesful raid on the American base known as Omega Central. The information he brought back confirms our deepest fears.

The Americans are, as we speak, in the process of developing a nuclear arsenal. The equipment found at their base strongly suggested it, and the documents that we stole have confirmed it. According to their own reports, the Americans have already constructed a functional fission bomb, and will be prepared to explode a thermonuclear weapon within twelve months. This alone is bad enough, but the other information we discovered makes this worse by an order of magnitude.

As Colonel Julius reported, a significant proportion of the equipment at Omega Central has no direct relevance to a nuclear program, and is instead space-related. The stolen documents reveal that these two programs are running under the same command, towards the same end. The Americans plan to develop a thermonuclear arsenal, then mount it in space aboard a fleet of armoured satellites. They have already developed functional ICBMs, and if they were mounted on the planned satellites and fired from directly above the target, the missiles would strike before anyone knew what had happened. It does not take much imagination to see what the implications of this would be, should the Americans develop this.

Now, we are here for two reasons. First, to alert you all to this threat, and secondly and more importantly, to counter it. Does anyone have any ideas on this?"

Cicero sat. The occupants of the room looked around for a few moments, avoiding one another's eyes. None of them even wanted to consider the implications of this threat. This had been the policy adopted by virtually every nation in the world over the past twelve years, as the Americans engaged in an ever more costly military build-up; they had closed their eyes to the problem, hoping that if they ignored it it would go away. No-one wanted to be at the receiving end of the ever-growing military might of the United States.

Eventually Scipio cleared his throat and stood.

"Gentlemen," he said, "I believe I may have a suggestion. According to the stolen documents, Omega central contains virtually all of the important aspects of their programl collectively known as Project Omega. A few other facilities are engaged in producing equipment for it, but they fulfill only a subsidary role. If Omega Central were to be destroyed or badly damaged, the Americans would be set back by at least five years. We may then have the time to complete our own nuclear program as a deterrent to the American one."

Aquinus nodded to this. "You are quite correct, General Scipio. Though our nuclear program is not as advanced as the maerican one, we expect to be able to test an atom bomb in three to four months, and hydrogen one in around two years. If we can set the American program back by five years, that will be ample time to finish our own one."

Julius frowned at this. "Research Director," he asked, "are you not forgetting the other aspect to Project Omega? The concept of MAD may have kept the peace between Persia and Babylon for three decades, but if a nation gains the capacity to launch a first strike without any possible retaliation, the whole system collapses. And that is what the Americans are developing. You are right that Omega Central needs to be destroyed, but we must follow this up and prevent the Americans from ever resuming their current course."

"I agree with you, Colonel," Cicero put in, "but That is something which will have to be looked at later. At present, we do not have the capacity to do as you suggest. It would take a full national mobilization and a very bloody war to remove the American government, which is what your suggestion would entail. And if we attempted this, public opinion and the opposition would tear us apart."

Julius felt his anger rise. "Lord Consul, with all due respect, this is a matter not just of national security, but of world peace. The Americans CANNOT be allowed to continue with what they are doing. Are you willing to hand them the power to blackmail any nation in the world with impunity for the sake of political expediency?"

"I can understand what you feel, Colonel," Cicero replied gently, "but I am afraid that we have no choice. The opposition is, as you know, quite friendly towards America and would be perfectly happy to let them go ahead with their nuclear program. If we allow them to get into power, the consequences will be far worse than those of what we plan to do now. Besides, if Lincoln does something stupid we may be able to gain public support for furhter action."

Julius subsided somewhat, deciding not to argue any further. Cicero went on.

"So, it seems we all agree that we must destroy Omega Central, regardless of anything else. Does anyone object?"

Silence.

"Very well, let's vote. All those in favour, raise your hands."

Everyone in the room voted in favour.

"Well, that's settled then. Colonel Julius, I want you to begin planning your return to Omega Central. General Scipio, you are to co-operate with him as far as possible. The two of you are to present your plans to this cabinet in one week's time."

The two soldiers saluted before getting up and leaving the room. The others quickly followed suit.

But It IS'nt The Americans attacking an Iraqi base.

Oh well it dosnt matter Fletcher got away so the Americans are going to know who did this raid, so the Romans are going to get thier butts wooped

LIVE ON AMERICA!!!!

:tank: :soldier: :soldier: :soldier: :tank:

:die: :die:

But It IS'nt The Americans attacking an Iraqi base.

Oh well it dosnt matter Fletcher got away so the Americans are going to know who did this raid, so the Romans are going to get thier butts wooped

LIVE ON AMERICA!!!!

Click to expand...

Note that I said if I meant this to resemble the real world.This is a Civ world. The Americans here are the equivalents of the Iraqis in the real world.

Whens the next installment?

I cant wait for the shooting to start.


<-----American soliders gunning down Romans.

One week later, the council that had met before once again filed into the Cabinet room and sat. Julius and Scipio strode to the front of the room and waited for everyone to settle down. Once the other were ready, Julius began to speak.

"Gentlemen, the plan that General Scipio and I have prepared is simple, so I will be brief. Firstly, let us examine the structure of Omega Central.

It is divided into two main parts: the above ground section and the underground section. The above-ground section seems to be of little major significance: it is the underground section where the critical research and development is being conducted. Both sections are heavily armoured, and recent satellite photography has revealed greatly increased security.

Now, the plan that has been constructed is this. As a prelude to the attack, we will use precision airstrikes to cripple as much of the base defensive infrastructure as possible: The guard towers, electric fences, and the defences around the entry bunker. While the air-strikes continue, we will drop two commando squads nearby via helicopter. The airstikes will then cease, and the two squads will enter the base and begin the second part of the plan.

Every commando will be equipped with a fuel-air explosive, the most powerful bomb we currently have in our arsenal. These explosives shall be planted in the following places:

1) In the storage area.

2) The main communications dish.

3) The base launch silo, designed for test-firing American missiles.

and

4) The top and bottom floors of the underground section. As each explosive is equivalent to a small tactical nuke, and we intend to use several of them at each point, this should be more than enough to destroy the base. After the laying these explosives, the surviving commandos will exit the base and be picked up by helicopter some distance south of the base. That is all. Are these any objections?"

There were none. Cicero nodded and gave his authorization, and the preparations for the next raid began.

* * *

Flying Officer Orbilius glanced nervously at his radar screen every few minutes as he flew his aircraft. It had been eight days since the plans for the next attack had been laid, and now they were being put into action. He was flying the first Roman bomber to in the air attack; he didn't know whether it was a curse or an honor.

He firmly decided in favour of the latter as American F-4 Phantom jets appeared on his radar screen. He wondered for a moment why the Americans would still be using these aricraft, then put it out of his mind. He hit the alarm switch and the crew of the massive Juptier-class jet bomber prepared to fight.

First, the communications officer activated the aircraft's jamming system. This eliminated the threat of American radar-guided missiles, and they carried flares for use against sidewinders. Meanwhile the gunners waited for the Americans to come within range.

Orbilius was watching the Phantoms like a hawk and he spotted their missiles the moment they were fired. He could see that they were sidewinders. He triggered the flare release switch and could imagine the fury on the American pilots' faces as their missiles veered away from the target and destroyed nothing more than a few heating devices. He chuckled.

A second later a shudder went through the bomber as the gunners opened fire with 40 mm cannons. The leading American jet shuddered for a moment as tracer shells converged on it before going down in a blaze of fire. It's wingmate then broke off and raced for the airfield near Omega Central. The gunners kept firing but it was obvious that they would acheive nothing, since the F-15 was going so fast it would virtually outrun the shellfire. Orbilius' aircraft was now approaching the base and his bomardier was setting targets for the laser-guided bombs it carried. As they flew over the target the bomb-bay doors swung open and rained death on the facility below.

EDIT: F-15s to F-4s.