Killzone: Before The Fall

[Insanity]

December, 2357
Alpha Centauri System, Planet Vekta
Sera-Erin City, Eastern Hemisphere

Profiles/Premise

Sera-Erin had once been bustling city, full of Earth-born colonists who worked in mines, offices, refineries, and a myriad of other jobs doled out by the local government. It was Vekta and the ISA who'd abused the Helghan population, encouraged by the UCN back on Earth who cared only for hegemony and control, for their wealth and greed. And Vekta prospered, while Helghan's people, the original colonists of Alpha Centauri, suffered and changed.

War had been inevitable. It should have been an obvious course of action, violence to answer violence. And yet no one saw it coming: Visari's rise to power on Helghan, the totalitarian government he brought about, and the militaristic expansion and subjugation of his political enemies... and his plans of grandeur.

War came to Vekta, unwelcome, brutal, and sudden. The ISA had been scattered, their forces broken through sheer losses and traitors spreading misinformation. When the ISA got itse;f back together, they fought hard and won just as much as they lost. They held Vekta City, but without hope of salvation. At first, anyways.

As the months passed, the war waged and the world that was once a utopia had become another form of Hell. Both sides suffered setbacks, both sides lost hundred and thousands of soldiers. But the war... is still far from over.

It wages across the south, and in the east. Sera-Erin was one such place: once, it held an ISA garrison before the war, with a defense cannon designed to combat off-world threats. It had been abandoned after the first invasion by the Helghast, the city's civilian populace killed, imprisoned, or enslaved by the Helghast army. But the Helghast left the city soon afterwards, moving to join the assault on Vekta City.

Now, under new command, a second force of Helghast have taken up control of the city and begun fortification of the roads and sewers, turning it into something of a fortress. Their orders are simple: hold the city while engineers repair the defense cannon, which will be used to disable the UCA Navy and ISA ships in orbit over Vekta. Failure to do so will run the risk of allowing those ships to bombard key Helghast positions. To buy time, a Helghast fleet has moved to engage the enemy vessels.

For the ISA, their orders are just as straightforward: take control of the city and cannon to turn it against the Helghast fleet, or if unable to do so, demolish the cannon itself. Demolishing the cannon would, however, destroy Sera-Erin from the sheer blast-wave. No matter what, the ISA are to prevent the Helghast from using the defense cannon. Possible civilians within the city prevent a direct bombardment to weaken the Helghast defenses.

ISA Battlegroup Kilo are planning a three-pronged assault on the city: a direct assault on the main road, a second through the sewers and tunnel network, and a third aerial assault.

 

[Insanity]

7:54 P.M. Local Time
Ruined Refinery on City Outskirts, bordered by woods.
Two ISA patrols in three hours, each consisting of five individuals.

Ten less ISA attackers to deal with later.

Aether knelt beside an ISA corpse, pulling the combat knife from their throat as a spurt of blood came with it. In three hours, two patrols had come along the side-road, checking for Helghast movement, he was sure. The first patrol had been five, each moving cover to cover as they surveyed the ruins of an old refinery two miles from the city wall of Sera-Erin. Aether, a second marksman, and a small fifteen-man demolition force had been present at the time. The first shot had been dead-on, passing through one ISA scout's skull to lodge in another's shoulder.

They'd scattered about then, one trying to drag the wounded scout to cover. The second marksman had wounded him in turn, forsaking a kill-shot. The fifteen-man demo team had reacted after the first shots had gone out, six of them taking up positions behind cover as they watched for the ISA scouts. Four others had gone around to flank behind the ISA. The last five had continued laying down the AP and AT mines.

The next shot had been Aether, sighting the elbow of one of the ISA scouts. Adjusting the scope, he'd sighted in where he figured the head would be and took the shot. Thick steel drove through thin stone, bloodspray confirming the shot as the body fell to the side, weapon landing in the open. He'd looked at the weapon then, noting that it lacked any underslung attachments. No anti-range among the group, he figured.

About then, assault fire came from behind the ISA positions where the last one was trying to keep out of sight. It died down quickly, the four flankers dragging the last two ISA corpses into sight. He joined the search of the corpses, finding mostly personal items. One of the wounded ISA was put down, too far gone to be of any use. The second was bandaged up and taken back towards Sera-Erin for interrogation.

The corpses of the ISA was stripped of their uniforms and weapons, then burned by an old refinery turbine. The demolition team finished their work soon after, heading back towards the city while Aether and the second marksman moved back to their overlooks.

An hour later, a second scout patrol came into the refinery ruins.

They moved quickly and alertly, watching the high spots and lows. Better trained then the previous squad, or just more alert to the dangers of war. They also came equipped with underslung grenade launchers, ruling out any ranged combat.

He'd worked his way back down, his suit's cloaking system kicking in as he drew his combat knife. He'd waited, stalking along behind the tail of the squad as they recoinntered the area. Eventually, one wandered off from the rest and went into a building....

He was the first one to die.

After that, they separated into two groups of two. One found the burnt corpses by the old turbine, where Aether slit one's throat and shot the other with his sidearm. The second group evaded him for the next half hour, before he found them already dead, a bullet to both's head.

Now he was back at the turbine, retrieving his knife as he considered what to do with these ISA bodies. Either way, he decided to move them. Getting a grip on their uniform's collars, he pulled them along behind him, blood tinting the snow red. Propping them up beneath his perch would suffice, for now.

 

[Lupe]

8:05 P.M. Local Time
Ruined Refinery on City Outskirts, bordered by woods.

Two ISA squads gone dark, no signal.

Shadow Marshall Vazquez walked beside the platoon he was apart of, while technically he outranked everyone in the platoon he did not take charge, since he was a separate unit. The Platoon consisted of forty units, previously fifty before the two squads were killed and not counting the ones in the AAPC, and an AAPC, which Vazquez was walking by. The men were hardened and carried anti-range grenade attachments, along with three specialized marksmen, and two specialized engineers. They were assigned to take the nearby refinery in order to make a way towards the Cannon. The Formation was four squads, of ten men, each one surrounding the AAPC at a corner, far enough to avoid an explosion if one happened.

Vazquez walked in the southeast corner along with nine other men. He was still surprised by the fact that two whole squads had gone dark. The good thing though was that before the last squad went dark they sent a message saying that the Helghan had snipers and they were well hidden. So at least now they had a good idea of what they were facing. As the platoon approached the refinery, the men began moving through cover, awaiting the first shot of the skirmish....

 

[Bad Wolf]

Kelly Mckormick and his squad of RRF troops moved through the city, they took it quickly and quietly moving from building to building looking for any sign of Helghast activity, 2 squads had gone dark and he was going to find out why.

Moving into a building he took cover behind a large slab of concrete, peeking over, the coast looked clear as he and his squad moved out and up a set of stairs they were going for high ground and urban combat, snipers were only really good out in the open, so if your quarry goes to ground, give them no ground to go to, Kelly intended just that by taking this fight into a fully urban environment it gave him and the rest of the RRF the advantage.

 

[Nirvana]

Following after he and Aether had neutralized the two squads sent out by the ISA, he had started to move further away from the refinery. Until finally settling with taking up position on the building at the beginning of the street that lead to the refinery.”Hawk is position.” he said over the encrypted comlink, only Aether would hear him.
Readying himself and his sniper he looked down at the street below, it was a good 100-200 meter of road before there was a T-course intersection. Making so that the there was a road on each side of the refinery, but thanks to recent fighting and preparations. Some building on the roads to the left and right of the refinery had been cut off, blocked with ruble and blown to hell.
Picking up the sniper he took a knee, hiding the wall and waited for the right time to fire the first round. Activating his optical cloaking he peeked out and looked out and saw the ISA troops, this would be easy. Taking up the sniper rifle he aimed carefully at the head on the gunner on the top of the AAPC.

 

[Insanity]

He was finished with his work when Hawk sent the message over the com, a small click from Aether's end acknowledging it. Both ISA scouts were propped against the half-fallen wall beneath his perch, a small house that had been built beside the refinery. The view of the upper level, accessible only by climbing up the rubble on the inside of the home, was that of the debris-filled road that led towards the refinery itself, after the intersection. As far as the corpses went, they both had their own knives stabbed into their necks. Exposed to the cold winter weather, which was only more frigid in Sera-Erin due to its geographical location, the blood had started to freeze around the wounds.

As for Aether, he'd already started the climb up to his perch by the time he'd gotten the message. On the second floor of the house, he retrieved his rifle and slung it over a shoulder, leaping down to the first floor in a puff snow. As he moved back out onto the street, he brought his cloaking back up and moved into the thicker ruins. His movement was erratic, his cloak rippling every so often as he ghosted through the rubble and past the old dead from the original occupation of the city, as well as the newly-dead corpses of civilians from a week ago.

He only stopped when he heard movement coming from his left, from deeper in the myriad of structures, ruined and intact alike. He keyed the com, this time talking. "Infantry movement in structures. Watch your flanks."

The warning sent, he started moving again, albeit at a more cautious pace. Soon enough, he heard the voices and sound of vehicles on the road outside as he passed slowly along the ISA column's left flank. Only once did he stop, looking up and back, towards a tall belltower that seemed to loom over the refinery's adjacent town.

~~~~~~~~~​

The belltower was silent in the cold winter night, vigilant over the dead and living alike. Its bell was still intact, the heavy cords that would ring it hanging down to the bottom floor of the tower's insides. A small camera rested on the ledge looking out on the single intact road towards the refinery, shifting and panning as it took in the numbers of the ISA column and their approach. Beside it, a tripod had been deployed with a single-use rocket-launcher mounted upon it... and the bell began to toll.

As the sound of the bell's peals spread over the refinery and town, the rocket launched and lanced out into the night, an angry red-orange flash that held no mercy. The AAPC it had targetted was hit with the full impact, the missile seeming to burrow through the plating to detonate on the inside. The screams of those dying on the inside and those who had been wounded from proximity filled the air.

 

[Bad Wolf]

Another explosion, and bells ringing, Kelly's squad moved tightly through the refinery and across the catwalk into a larger section of the factory, as the 6 soldiers ran across the catwalk they kept low, using the intermittent plating as cover, avoiding any prying eyes that might be watching them.

as they made their way into the larger section of the factory they took cover behind large slabs of concrete and even larger metal buckets, he motioned for 2 of his soldiers to move forward while he and the other 3 moved up on the flank, weapons at the ready.