by
Chris Musgrave AKA {BZ} Vortex of Team BattleZone
The Great Bio-metal wars. Originally, we all thought that
they would represent the greatest challenge man would ever
face…
We
were wrong.
In the early 70’s, the bio-metal wars raged across the solar
system. Fought in secret by the United States and the Soviet
Union, each side drew eager young recruits from both the astronaut
corps and the military. Given the covert nature of the war,
those who fought it simply disappeared from life on Earth.
Records of our existence were erased, death certificates forged,
names forgotten. At first, none of that mattered to us. We
were pioneering a new frontier for our country. Later on,
it still didn’t matter to us, but for a different reason.
We were too busy
trying to make sure those death certificates stayed phony.
Luna, Mars, Venus, we saw combat just about everywhere. Over
the course of the war, scientists on both sides improved the
level of weaponry used. But usually, the Soviets were one
step ahead of us. The Heavy Bombers on Mars, the Walkers on
Venus. Those of us in the NSDF wondered when it would stop.
We got our answer soon enough.
They say mankind’s
ability to innovate is one of our greatest strengths.
When that innovation
is not tempered with caution, it can quickly turn into our
greatest weakness.
Finally, we had the upper hand. We had discovered a major
secret of the ancients who had created the bio-metal. Among
the ruins of that great race, we found the key to the weapon
that would tip the balance of the war in our favor. Our prayers
had seemingly been answered. No longer would we be playing
a game of catch-up with the Soviets. Now we would finally
be able to make them pay for all the lives lost at our base
on Luna.
Unfortunately,
we never stopped to consider what it was that had brought
such a great race to its knees.
There was a traitor in our midst. Mike Arkin, the man responsible
for the inception of our bio-metal technology, took his loaded
transport and, when our attention was occupied elsewhere,
drove it across the battered surface of Io, behind the safety
of Soviet lines. He gave the key to our new technology to
the Soviets before we could even get started on the research.
At the time, we all wanted Arkin dead, and we all wanted to
be the one to kill him. Later, however, we had mixed feelings.
Sure, he was a traitor. But if it hadn’t been for him, it
might have been us, rather than the Soviets.
The Soviets had
their new technology through R&D and into production faster
than any of our experts thought possible.We thought we were
finished.
Then, in the middle of our last, desperate stand
on the frigid surface of Titan, something odd happened. The
Soviets suddenly sent out a mayday, begging for our assistance.
I could hardly believe it myself, till I saw this thing take
out a Soviet transport not 200 meters from my Razor. The NSDF/CCA
bio-metal wars ground to a halt in less than 20 minutes, replaced
by something far more hideous. A war in which the very survival
of humanity was at stake.
Imagine
all of the hate and anger produced by humanity during the
course of its existence. Now imagine that hate and anger being
formed into a physical weapon. That is exactly what these
things were.
We learned that the ancient race who had conceived
these monsters had called them “Furies”. We learned that this
race had killed themselves in a last ditch attempt to destroy
their creation. We learned that the Furies had one thing on
their mind. To kill every human they could find. And that
meant Earth. Despite our losses, the NSDF and CCA had to stand
together on Titan and stop this new menace. Failure meant
the extinction of the human race. We thought then that the
Furies represented the greatest threat man would ever face…
We were wrong.
The Furies had one weakness. To be blunt, they
were stupid. They were terrifying fighters, but they were
consumed by their bloodlust, and we figured out how to beat
them. I’m still not quite sure how we did it, but we beat
them. When the cloud of debris that had been Achilles cleared,
the Furies were no more. Mankind was safe…for the time being.
They
say you can never go home again…
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