Frozen

At first, I thought my Nanosuit was malfunctioning. I felt the temperature dropping by massive levels. When I looked out over the tropical paradise of this island, I realized that paradise was lost and had been replaced with sudden Antarctica! In a matter of seconds the temperature spiraled from 80 degrees to somewhere between minus 30 and minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit! Talk about El Nino!

My Nanosuit could hardly keep functioning at normal levels. Any time I remained still for more than a few seconds, I could feel my suit begin to freeze up. I could feel frost building on the glass protecting my face. It was cold. The entire island was as cold as the research facility where Dr. Rosenthal was frozen in an instant.



At this point, I was pretty sure that any Korean People's Army (KPA) troops and US forces were frozen without warning. The VTOL went down around the same time the island was frozen. The unknown, was if the team navigating the ship were still alive. My mission is to locate the crash site and seek out any survivors.

I saw a ton of those machine-things fly out of the cave just after I escaped. So, I am certain I will have to deal with them along the way. The question is, how many will I have to face?

I made the trip down the cave exit by dodging rocks flying off the mountain above. It is only a matter of time now before the rest of those machines came flying out of the rock and the all out attack on Earth begins. Here's hoping those of us still alive can stop the attack.

I recalled sitting in my recliner just before I got the call for this mission. I was watching the nightly news and very much remembered the leading story for the day. The story was called "Sudden Wealth Syndrome in American Youth." It was a story about the children who had became wealthy nearly overnight, due to investments by their parents/guardians in Iso-Solio-Mathien (ISM) technology. The technology which has been earmarked as the replacement for the semi-conductors which became the center-piece for all technology beginning in the mid-1970s.

With ISM, the amount of energy required to power the technology is a mere 0.034E-3 percent when compared to semi-conductor technology. The rights to the ISM technology were what the investors bought into and quickly led to massive wealth. So far every major manufacturer has licensed the rights to employ the technology. It is believed that automobiles powered by ISM will be able to function using a battery the size of a car battery from the late 1990s. Portable devices will further shrink in size, due the advancements introduced in the ISM specification.

The article discussed how some of the investors were first time investors and placed their entire savings and credit limits to buy into the ISM concept. Within three months, their return on investment was close to 750:1. In one case, the family invested $75,000 in ISM stocks, only to sell them 85 days later for a return on investment of 56 million dollars. Now, the children of these investors had no idea how to adapt to being suddenly massively wealthy.

Just a few weeks later, I am walking down the mountain in a tropical island turned ice bowl, knowing that an all-out alien attack is on the verge of happening. I am pretty sure that family could have 56 bazillion dollars and it wouldn't keep them safe from the things I've seen in that rock. I guess it's all about perspective. When the news is slow, they have to find something entertaining. I remembered the story after the fact, so I guess I was entertained.

I found some discarded ammo and weapons near the bottom of the path leading down from the cave. I dropped the machine gun, because it was heavy, empty and there was no extra ammo that I could use. I replaced it with a shotgun. I had a feeling that a shotgun might be the best defense against the smaller machine things that left the cave. The larger things would have to simply not see me for a while, because I have no clue how to take them down. I picked up a pretty new FY71 and found some ammo for that gun as well. I still have the SCAR ammo from my fallen colleagues Aztec, Jester and Prophet. I hope to use these bullets to taken down some of these machines.

When I reached the bottom of the hill, I noticed there were quite a few of the small machine things patrolling the area.



I used the FY71 in single shot mode to hit one of the machines from a distance. Soon, it came over to explore. Once it got within 3 meters of me in cloak mode, I discharged three rounds from the shotgun directly into the core of it's body. I think I call it a body, I should say.

This caused the machine to drop to the ground. Unexpectedly, a second later, the machine exploded. I went around behind some rocks, hid and recharged my suit. I continued using this approach until I had eliminated all of the small machine things in the area.

As I continued onward, I turned around and looked up at the rock behind me. Most of the rock was gone by now and had been replaced with an outer shell similar to all the machines I've seen.



The overcast skies from the snow and clouds certainly made for perfect cover from any planes or satellites from above. For now, the secret was hidden from the rest of the world. I have a feeling that is their plan.

I am guessing that once they are ready, they will send all the machines toward the key areas of the planet, to try and take over control of Earth. That is, unless we can stop them first.

I continued toward the location on my radar to be the estimated impact point of the VTOL that tried to rescue me. When I arrived into the area, not only were they not alive, but an entire area of US forces were also frozen in their motions.



They were frozen instantly. Some were even walking, while others were simply in their guarded positions. All frozen. All no longer alive. Tragedy.

I began to hear louder noises. It sounds like the bigger machines have decided to find me. After all, I've invaded their turf and probably broke some things inside their home. So now it's time for them to make me pay for my actions.

They arrived at different locations. My weapons were certainly not going to be enough for all of them. I know that the shotgun won't do anything to the big machines - especially when they are more than 3 meters away from me. So I guess this might be it for me.

If it is going to end here, I am going to certainly go out with a bang. So I charged into the area and began to focus on the smaller machines first. As I took out my first machine, I saw a red streak of light catch my eye as something flew over close to me. Was this a new type of machine that I had not seen before?

No, this machine was very familiar to me!




At first I thought it was Psycho. Then I heard him speak. IT WAS PROPHET!

PROPHET WAS ALIVE!!!

He is holding some wicked gun in his hand and blasting these machines as if they are made of paper. How did he survive? Where had he been all this time?

No time for questions now ... time to clear this area!

I will be back in touch soon. With Prophet at my side!

Nomad ... signing out.

Passage

The entire island has been covered in ice. Some unknown entities, which might be referred to as aliens - yes, I said aliens, are decimating the remaining US troops that are on the island. I am guessing the same could be true for surrounding areas soon.

Prophet, my US Special Forces team lead was written off as dead earlier in the mission. He recently jumped into action to rescue me from a situation where I was surrounded by these machine-like things, that others might call aliens. I still have no idea what happened to him, but we have not had much time to talk.



During the battle, Prophet's Nanosuit was hit by one of the machine things. He is having trouble keeping warm. So, now it is my job to protect him. He has switched to his pistol and I have picked up the gun he acquired somehow from our visitors. I also picked up a SCAR and a ton of ammo from the frozen US forces in the area.

I need to escort Prophet out of the sphere, but he can only survive about two minutes in these cold conditions. So, I have to plan way points between the burning fires in the area.

Quickly we moved into a destroyed base and found a spot next to a burning Hummer. A few seconds later, the first of three large machine things arrived to find us. At a distance, it shot a blue pulsating charge toward us. It missed.



I used my new weapon to shoot a tremendous charge into the machine. I saw the body flash red, this had to be a good sign for us. The gun had to recharge, so I changed to my SCAR and shot 41 rounds into the ship hovering above. When it got closer, I changed back to my new weapon and pushed the trigger while keeping the cross-hairs directly at the mid-section of the machine. It exploded into a blue flame!

Before I knew it, two more similar ships moved into the area. There wasn't another flame anywhere close to keep Prophet warm, so we stayed in the area. We continued to dodge the shots by the ships and I used my new weapon and SCAR to take both ships down - just like the initial ship of this size.

We moved out of the area and I found another fire to warm Prophet. I looked into the next area and found a handful of the small machines I had eliminated before. The new weapon made them very easy to destroy. When I checked for more machines, I noticed one last big machine remained near the bridge that appeared to be our destination point.



I took a second to reload my SCAR. This time I placed the ammo from Aztec, Jester and Prophet into my SCAR. I was going to push every round into this machine's body. It was payback time. Even though Prophet was now still alive, he was hurting and that was enough in my book to take an enemy down.

Leaving Prophet near the fire, I charged the area and hid behind a rock. When the ship came over to investigate, I pulled the trigger and sent 41 bullets directly into the ship from underneath. Quickly I reloaded and sent another 41 bullets directly into the ship. Prophet had arrived into the area, so I had to finish this ship off fast. I switched to the new alien-like gun and destroyed the large ship above us. The ship exploded and we found another fire near the route to the bridge. It felt good to use the ammo from my fallen soldiers (and wounded soldier) to take an enemy down. It would not bring Aztec and Jester back, but I am sure they would have done the same for me.

As we warmed up near the fire, the ground began to rumble. The loudest noise of all began to pulsate through the island. When I looked up, I saw one huge ship exiting the mountain.



I had to take a second shot as this machine flew over us.



This machine was huge. This ship would require some massive amounts of ammo to take down. We might even need something of Nuclear proportion.

We need to head toward our next way point before this machine sees us.

Prophet and I will be back in touch soon!

Nomad ... signing out.