Memories of a Better Time Stage 2: The Assault on DC | Teen Ink

Memories of a Better Time Stage 2: The Assault on DC

July 12, 2011
By Anerio_Deorma BRONZE, NULL, Washington
Anerio_Deorma BRONZE, NULL, Washington
3 articles 0 photos 6 comments

Favorite Quote:
NULL


PHASE ONE:
THE BATTLE OF WASHINGTON DC
“MY FELLOW AMERICANS! TAKE THE ARMORS OF THE FALLEN ONES! TAKE UP THE ARMS BESTOWED BY YOUR FATHERS AND RISE UP AGAINST THIS BLATANT TYRANNY!”—Lancelot, during the battle of DC




December,13, 2011 Tactical Time: 1244 hours:


Bygenou stared in awe at the sight, the beautiful black walls around the city and the frighteningly massive TAM base around it contrasting with the setting sun. Lancelot glanced over to him and started to speak “It’s about time I told you the plan. We have several hundred supporters within the walls and at least two-hundred have a power armor of some kind. My compatriots are on their way to fix up The Spirit of America and then join the fight, until that happens we will wait at Galahad’s home. I have a flare gun to signal the assault once we’re inside the walls. By then, Obama’s ace pilot would have shown himself and I will take him, while you take Obama.

This is Check in the game of War, and if we can Checkmate Obama, even a little, then the TAM will lay their weapons down.” Bygenou took a minute for this to sink in. “Here’s a question, how do we get in? There is at least tens of thousands of soldiers and say, a hundred power armors! Not to mention air support and tanks and artillery from the walls.” Bygenou inquired. “Ah, there’s the fun part. We, yes WE, will infiltrate that base UNDETECTED and simply assassinate one of the gate guards and slip right in. It’ll be a challenge, but it’ll get us in. You cannot kill what you cannot see.” Lancelot retorted. “After you.”
Bygenou jumped and slid down the cliff, with Lancelot in tow. They stopped at the edge of the base and crawled up to a low wall.

“Affix silencers.” Bygenou commanded quietly while he screwed the black cylinder into the barrel of his .50 ACP pistol. Lancelot produced an otherworldly looking pistol that was reminiscent of the Desert Eagle but longer and black with upgraded sight posts. “It’s a .454 Sovereign Mk.2 Very, very rare.” Lancelot explained. He attached the Silencer to his pistol and gave the “Ready” signal. They both stood up and shot the nearest guards to the wall in the back of the neck and ducked back down. “Two more are coming.” Lancelot warned. As the two guards reached their comrades bodies they were shot in between the eyes by Bygenou and Lancelot. “This will be so much easier if we look like them, just try to get the blood off.” Bygenou said. They took two of the dead guards, and brought them over the low wall, undressed them and put on their uniforms and helmets. “See? Like a cow in a cow…….field…” Bygenou joked. Don’t get too close, or they will recognize us.” They walked slowly forward, but with purpose. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to do a little sabotage on the way” Lancelot thought. “We need to find the power armors. If we can disable them, it will make the fight much easier on our forces.” Lancelot told Bygenou. They searched around the base, trying to evade every TAM possible until they reached the Power Armor bay, an open air hangar with thousands of power armors, from your regular tungsten, to the commander model.

“Let’s sabotage them all at once” Bygenou ordered with a smirk. He walked to a terminal on the wall separating the “hangar” from the rest of the base and plugged in a flash drive. The screen flashed, “ACCESS DENIED, ENTER PASSWORD” Bygenou typed frantically “Tier 3 entry command RTE #45” into the little box for the password and the screen changed to “ACCESS GRANTED, WELCOME VIKASI KOYURA!” Bygenou clicked around the screen for the “found new hardware” icon when Lancelot whispered “Someone’s coming, hurry up!”
Bygenou opened the START menu and still didn’t find it. For what felt like hours to Bygenou he searched when it flashed “NEW HARDWARE FOUND: TIER 3 ERDEI INITIATIVE DOWNLOAD NODE, WOULD YOU LIKE TO INITAITE DOWNLOAD?” Bygenou clicked the “Yes” button. “God, this is why I HATE Windows Vista.” Bygenou complained. “Bygenou, hurry up with that, he’s almost here!” Lancelot whispered timidly. “And…DONE!” Bygenou declared triumphantly “This way Lancelot!” Bygenou yelled while running down the “hangar”. Lancelot started after Bygenou quickly and caught up with him unbelievably fast. They reached the end of the “hangar” and slowed back down to a walk.


Suddenly, everyone started to yell “ALL STAND FOR THE COMMANDING OFFICER OF THE TAM! BYRON VON KRAUSER!” A man in blue garb walked towards Lancelot and Bygenou quickly. “What do we do? He’ll be right next to us very soon!” Lancelot panted in a worried tone “What they do!” Bygenou reassured. The commander was almost upon them when they mimicked the soldier across from them and placed one hand to their chest in a fist and the other at their forehead flat-palmed. They stood still as a statue, practically holding their breath as Byron walked by, completely oblivious of the danger standing directly to his left and, when Byron walked passed them they released their breath, as Lancelot was turning blue and they went about their business. “Next, we need to take out the Gate Monitor before we enter Washington DC; he regulates the flow and Identification of all of the people entering Washington. TAM is given free access to the city but if that scanner doesn’t recognize us as true TAM then we are screwed.” Lancelot explained. “Where is this…Gate Monitor?” Bygenou asked. A guard started to approach them, fast with a suspicious look on his face. Lancelot reached for his Sovereign 2 but Bygenou stayed his hand. Bygenou approached the guard and said “Good day comrade, what is the problem?” in a smooth tone. The guard looked at him and asked “Did you see the bodies by the southern edge? Who did that? Noreiga and Setus are both dead! We have an interloper in our midst, I order you both to seek out and execute this interloper.” The guard glanced at Lancelot, who, looked like a frightened child and quizzed “What’s with him? First day back from Chechnya?” The guard laughed “Mine too.” He turned about face and started walking in the direction he came from. “I think we have our way to take out the gate guard.” Bygenou hinted. “Lancelot, why is it that, this whole infiltration is YOUR IDEA but, I am doing all the work, you are simply telling me that plan and cowering in fear!” Lancelot turned to face Bygenou slowly, as if checking his options for what to do, and yelled “BYGENOU, IVE SAVED YOUR LIFE AT LEAST FIVE TIMES, NOT TO MENTION THE INCAPACITATED LIEUTENANT IN THE BACK OF MY RIDE! SO IF YOU WANT TO COMPLAIN THEN HOW ABOUT SAVING MY LIFE HUH? HUH?!! HUH?!!! IF I HADNT INCINERATED THOSE SOLDIERS THEN YOU WOULD BE DEAD, IF I HADNT GIVEN YOU THE PLAN YOU WOULD BE DEAD, IF IT WASN’T FOR MY DRONES TAKING SOME OF THE FIRE BACK AT THE CAMP YOU WOULD BE DEAD! IF I HADNT ALERTED YOU TO THE GUARD WHEN YOU WERE PLAYING COMPUTER GAMES AT THAT POWER CONSOLE YOU WOULD BE DEAD! SO HOW ABOUT WE STOP BEING CONSPICUOUS AND GET BACK TO THE PLAN!!!!!!!!!” in an extremely angry tone with an insanely red face comparable to a cherry tomato. Bygenou looked at him with one eyebrow cocked and started to open his mouth “Lancelot, you may have just blown our cover. We need to get to that gate monitor and shoot him and fast!” he argued. They started to run through the compound trying to avoid any roving soldiers or watchmen and they eventually passed a large blue building with an interesting flag hanging from its balcony. The flag was red and white, with the red in two large triangles stretching toward the center on each side, with the seal of the original United States in a star where the triangles intersected. They reached the gate checkpoint after about half an hour of walking. It was a large grey boxy building with an overhang attached to it serving as the ceiling for the checkpoint. “I bet you $50 that the Monitor is in there.” Bygenou joked. Lancelot took point and opened the door. The first room was pretty empty, probably because of the recent alert raised by the discovery of the two exposed bodies. However the second, which served as a break room, was nearly bursting at the seams with civilian volunteers, talking about what they got their children for the upcoming holiday and eating cake. “Mmm, is that vanilla crazy cake? That’s my favorite!” Lancelot asked cheerfully. He approached the civilian serving the delicious yellow pastry and asked him for two slices, a slice for him and one for his friend, the civilian happily obliged and cut two pieces of cake. He handed them to Lancelot and Lancelot walked back to Bygenou and handed him a plate of cake. They ate and rested for fifteen minutes and they proceeded to the next room. The next one was bare as well, with terminals lining long desks that stretch down the length of the room. At the north end, there was a door marked “STAIRS”. They weaved themselves through the maze of desks and computers to the door and proceeded up the stairs.


They opened the door to find a man sitting behind a desk with multiple terminals mounted to it. He pressed a button and the door slammed shut and locked behind Bygenou and Lancelot. “Well, hello interlopers. I have been tracking you ever since you stole those uniforms. I will say, they do not do you any justice.” The man stated with a sinister tone. Bygenou looked down at the cerulean-violet jumpsuit he was wearing and the tan overcoat. “I’m so sorry to have to do this but your journey ends here.” The man continued while rummaging through his desk. He produced dual PM73 submachine guns from the desk and crossed them across his chest. “These little kickers pack a nine-by-seventeen millimeter short round. They’ll tear you to pieces and won’t disturb the Christmas party downstairs. This room was soundproofed for that exact reason. Any last words interlopers?” Lancelot stared at him blankly and placed his hand to his chin “9x17 short is an insanely small round for personal defense. It can’t kill me. It won’t penetrate enough.” Lancelot pointed out with a smirk. The man had a look of distinctive anger on his face, the rough texture wrinkling with drooping eyebrows “It doesn’t need to; it only needs to disable you long enough for the sharpshooters watching the gate to target and fire at your pretty little heads.” He taunted with an evil tone, the words piercing the thick silence of the room. Lancelot made a break for a nearby desk and flipped it over, but not fast enough; the gate monitor had already emptied both of his clips into Lancelot’s leg, most of the rounds hitting the wall, due to the terrible accuracy of the submachine guns, though some rounds ripped into his leg with the intensity of well, a bullet. As he was reloading Bygenou ran for the desk and slid behind it, simultaneously drawing his silenced Gold .50 “It’s like those Tom Clancy games, just real!” Bygenou remarked. He slid his gun above the desk and opened fire, as Lancelot produced a small yellow-green box from the uniform and chucked it at the gate monitor, who again opened fire with his PM73’s. The box opened and flashed bright white, blinding the gate monitor. Lancelot jumped up from behind the desk and blasted the monitor with his Sovereign 2, the muzzle breathing white flares as the massive rounds blew enormous holes into the monitor. The monitor fell backwards and hit the “camera disable” button with his limp arm.


Bygenou approached the corpse and looted the money, ammunition, PM73’s, and key card. He also unlocked the desk and took the ammunition there too. “Bygenou, what are you doing? It is against the rules of engagement to loot enemy bodies.” Lancelot inquired. Bygenou looked at him with an annoyed expression “New rule: When I need supplies, I take supplies.” He stated dryly. They walked downstairs and exited the building, not forgetting to get the last of the vanilla crazy cake downstairs. They walked past another intriguing building, which looked like an armory, and threw a small silver match through one of the windows.

They approached the on-duty gate guard and Bygenou pointed at him and barked “You! By order of the commanding TAM general you are summoned to court martial on the grounds of assassinating two of your comrades. Your court martial will begin immediately, and the sentence for being absent to the trial is death on the spot, sharpshooters are trained on your head as we speak. You have two choices, go to your trial or die now.” The gate guard looked simply terrified, his skin went extremely pale and his cheeks became flushed. He began to sprint toward where Lancelot and Bygenou came from, yes SPRINT, Bygenou’s plan had worked. Lancelot walked calmly into the guard station and pressed the “ENTER” button. A few moments after he pressed it, he massive steel gates into Washington DC swung ajar. Lancelot looked at Bygenou and said

“We’re in.”



December, 14, 2011 Time: 0800 hours


Bygenou awoke in a cold sweat. He had made it. Made it to somewhere he never expected to be. This war would be over in a matter of days. The motto of the conspirators at the house he was staying at was “Christmas in a new country!” Bygenou enjoyed the sweet ignorance of the conspirators; they knew not what Bygenou intended. He had been thinking ever since Caio was shot. Thinking of a place where there would be no war, no fighting and, if it wasn’t for the murder of his own family by Eastern hit men he wouldn’t have started fighting in the first place. He wanted to unite the world under one flag, a “Peace through Power” situation.


He walked downstairs to find Lancelot and four other men and three women enjoying some coffee and eggs .Lancelot’s leg was in a pretty big cast with a blue liquid inside it. “Its an advanced healing agent, causes muscle and bone structure to repair quicker. I will still need surgery to remove the bullets but, for now I can fight.” He explained. Bygenou walked to the kitchen counter and made himself a cup of the coffee. He took a drink to try and relax himself and immediately spit it out. One of the women walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. She had long black hair down to her shoulders and hazel eyes; she had a thin, yet proportionate frame (In lieu of any other way to describe it without sounding boring or perverted). “It’s an acquired taste.” She giggled “I’m Mara, Mara Anei. I’m a power armor devicer and one who shares a common goal with the conspirators, a brighter future.” “Hello Mara, I’m Richard By-” Mara cut him off. “Bygenou? I know, your friend Steven told me!” Bygenou looked befuddled, “Steven?” Lancelot glanced over and back quickly. “I’m sorry; I couldn’t take the chance that you might turn on me. I’ve freelanced before, there is no such thing as a friend in that business, so I addressed them –yourself included- in my codename. The name of the valiant soldier that could fell kingdoms. Lancelot.” Steven explained with a look of embarrassment. “My real name is Steven Jacobson. It’s nice to know someone that I can tell that to. If I may ask a favor however, on the battlefield, I wish to remain Lancelot.” He continued. Bygenou made himself a plate of eggs and sat at the table with the rest of them. Steven introduced the conspirators as their codenames: Gawain, Galahad, Merlin, and Percival. Along with Mordred, Bedivere , and Bleoberis (whose real name is Mara by the way.) Lancelot (Steven) Laid out a map of Washington DC on the table and started to explain the assault plan. “First, Bygenou and I will get close enough to the white house for Obama to see the marker flare, and I will fire it off. Then Gawain and Galahad will deliver me The Spirit of America and I will start to destroy the white house’s defenses while Bygenou is infiltrating it to get just close enough to Obama to assassinate him effectively. Meanwhile Merlin, Percival, and Mordred will destroy the AA guns so that our main force can begin their attack. Bedivere and Bleobris will support the main force in flushing out Obama’s ace; He will be using advanced power armor with never before seen weapons and defense systems. After the ace has been flushed out, I will engage him in combat and when the individual conspirators’ missions are completed they will join me in taking down the ace. My personal detachment of upgraded power armors (Katya, Mora, and Aeria) is travelling with the main force and will join the fight with it. After Obama’s ace is destroyed, we flush out and kill the remaining Obama administrators and any other Eastern soldiers that refuse to lay down their arms. We then simply sit in the oval office and enjoy our victory.” He explained. “What about Caio?” Bygenou asked with a quizzical expression and tone of voice. This time Gawain spoke, he had the voice of a young man even though he looked in his late twenties. “There was no body there. However when we arrived at the crash site, the main force was already there and we presumed they had taken him in for medical treatment. So we only fixed up the Spirit and left.”






“Good. They don’t know yet what I had in mind for him. His injury was unforeseen but it gives me an excuse to try a more extreme version of my plan” Bygenou thought evilly. Bygenou noticed Mara staring at him, not even looking away for a second, when Mara noticed this; she turned away and blushed with a look of embarrassment on her face. “We do not have long before the plan is supposed to begin Mara. We have today, but no more. I know what you are thinking.” Bygenou flirted. And they both left to the living quarters of the house and relaxed for the rest of the day, however that night Bygenou got very little sleep. Tomorrow was the day. The massive turning point of the war, the day that Bygenou had hoped for since the Battle of Texas. If he failed, he failed everyone. And everyone and everything he knew…would wither and die. He couldn’t risk that, especially for Mara, he couldn’t place it, but he felt something for her. Something he had almost never felt before.



December, 15, 2011 Time: 0500 Hours,
Time till operation execution: 5:00 hours

Bygenou woke up on the rough couch with a light blanket over his body. “Must have dosed off.” He thought lethargically. Mara and the conspirators were nowhere to be found, so he continued to lie on the couch and wonder how he will infiltrate the White House. He grew quickly bored of the stillness and walked into the kitchen to find the two of the conspirators eating and taking turns walking upstairs. Bygenou walked to the table with a slight limp, from sleeping on the couch last night and picked up one of the pastries and looked at it curiously. “Mara made them; she says the recipe came to her in a dream or something. They are surprisingly good.” Mordred said. Bygenou took a bite into the little bread hemisphere and went into a state of momentary euphoria, the sweetness of the flaky pastry and the sourness of the rhubarb filling dancing around his mouth. He quickly finished the pastry when Lancelot came down the stairs. “By, you’re up!” He hollered down the stairs. As Bygenou passed Lancelot on the stairs he glanced at him “Where is Mara, she is nowhere down here.” Bygenou asked Lancelot stared at him with that “Oh, Really?” Look he liked to wear when questioned and replied “Doing some Sat-Recon with RN 1 and the SkyComm satellite, she will be done in a few hours. Calculating routes and whatnot. Only you, Mordred, I, and Bleobris (Mara) are here. The rest are on a covert recon establishing entry and exit routes in and out of the white house.” Bygenou continued upstairs and into the bathroom, presumably that is what everyone who was here was doing. And took a shower. There was a Western uniform marked “BYGENOU” with a sticky note on it, and upon comparison with the TAM uniform he had captured, he decided upon switching uniforms. After his shower, he walked over to Mara’s room and knocked on the doorframe. “Hi! B.” She greeted in a soft voice. “I’m doing a bit of Real-time recon with the SkyZero system. Comprised of the Recon Network One and the satellite SkyComm in geosynchronous orbit around the earth. I can see everything that’s happening now, anywhere on earth. And with RN 1 I can use cameras on Recon-adapted planes and fighter jets to get a perspective view of the site in real-time.” Bygenou took a step back. “So she was the one watching the battle of Texas, she has known about everything that’s happened since.” He thought in a scared and confused tone. “Once the rest of them get back we need to suit up for battle. We have. Um. Four and a half hours until operation start.” Bygenou told her.





He exited Mara’s room and went back downstairs into the kitchen and met Lancelot at the table. He pulled out a chair and sat down. “Lancelot, how am I going to enter the white house undetected? A rumor in the military is that there is an agency that is more powerful than the Secret Service, CIA, FBI and MI6 all at once. With weapons that can sear flesh from bone and almost completely bulletproof armor and can blend in with any crowd. ANAX, I think they are called.” Lancelot slumped down in his chair and thought for awhile. “That is not a question for me. Ask Galahad or Gawain when they return. I would use a suit or a jacket of some kind to cover up that uniform. It would blow your cover. Those ANAX agents won’t suspect you. Wait…ANAX? The Association for National Advancement and Xenoresearch? Why would they attack you? They’re a research company. I don’t see why they would attack you. But I guess if a group of civilians can hijack a pod of power armors and start a senatorial conspiracy then anything is possible.” He wore a look of disapproval on his slender face, when his watch went off. “0400 Till Op start” Galahad, Gawain and Percival and Merlin should be back soon. Bygenou walked into the living room and saw that Mara was sitting on the couch watching anime (she was a SERIOUS otaku) though how she got downstairs without Bygenou, Mordred or Lancelot noticing amazed him. She was watching Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. An instantly classic show about a young man starting a conspiracy of his own. Bygenou enjoyed this show before his arrival in the East as it portrayed a very similar rendition of what Bygenou intended to do with the United States. After what seemed to be a Japanese telethon later Bygenou glanced at his watch to see only two more hours before the operation is supposed to start. A rhythmic series of pinging and beeps sounded from the door, signaling that allies had arrived. Lancelot ran in from the house’s study and opened the door to Galahad and Gawain. “We bear news.” They announced with surprising synchronization. “Come in, Come in” Lancelot beckoned. The Conspirators sat down at the kitchen table and Lancelot beckoned for Mara and Bygenou to enter as well.

Bygenou and Mara entered the kitchen and sat down in the oak chairs surrounding the glass table. “Enlighten us...” Lancelot commanded. Gawain was the first to speak. “The white house is surrounded by a three kilometer wide and four kilometer long electric fence, about 1,000,000,000 volts. After that there is a network of hidden turrets and infra-red cameras, along with landmines and other detection devices such as vibration sensors. This network makes a direct attack completely impossible.” Galahad was the next to speak “Although there is a slim chance that Bygenou will be able to enter the white house through the presidential escape tunnel and end up right outside the oval office It’s an underground tunnel about three miles long . The president is hosting a party as we speak, Merlin and Percival are already there, Bedivere is tending to the PA’s and if all goes well, Lancelot will be able to engage the Ace and Bygenou will be able to slip into the oval office disguised as a party guest and assassinate Obama. Lancelot’s watch started to beep in shrill tones.



Lancelot stood up.

“Suit up.”







December, 15, 2011 Tactical Time: 1000 Hours.
Location: Washington monument.
Zero Time.



Bygenou was dressed in a Tuxedo and tie, while the others were all dressed in Devicer suits, he felt kind of embarrassed. “Oh, come on B, You look great.” Mara flirted. “Bygenou, I have the presidential escape tunnel hardwired to open in two minutes, once it does follow it all the way down to the end and plant these.” Lancelot held out two small spheres of clay. “It’s an experimental explosive, C-1 the basis for C-4. Used as a breaching charge, it has just enough power to blow you a little trapdoor to outside the oval office. There will be a light switch on the left of you when you enter the tunnel. I warn you. You must make it to the end of the tunnel, we cannot get you out again without going out of our way too much. You will be out of comms range until at least halfway down. Stay low, or the Vibration sensors will detect you. I cannot say what will be waiting for you down there, Just accomplish your mission. Got it?” Bygenou nodded. “Good” Lancelot added. Long, thin doors opened up
from the bottom of the reflecting pool, scaring several ducks and a couple geese. Bygenou walked into the darkness and out of communications range.



Tactical Time: 1010 Hours


Lancelot and the other conspirators started suiting up to use their power armors in the faux hangar in Galahad’s garage. Lancelot was securing his helmet when he was approached by Mara. “Will he be ok?” She asked with a whimper. “I don’t know. None of us do.” Lancelot answered. He opened the chest of The Spirit of America and climbed into the leather seat, then placed his arms on two joystick-like devices on rails as the chest closed back up. “Activation Code 962854331” he spoke into the speaker of the Cockpit. The Machine hummed to life and unfolded the arms and unlocked the legs. “Weapons Check” Lancelot commanded the Armor. “All systems green. Right arm shell cannon operating at 100%, new multi-loader system added.
Left arm Disabler operating at 100%. Right and Left leg Missile launchers fully loaded, operating at 100% Back mounted jets and Recharger operating at 100%.” The armor chirped in a soft female voice. “Galahad, how did you manage to fix the electronic disturber? It wasn’t working at all last time.”
Lancelot asked. “Had to refit the whole system, all the way down to the generator pack.” Galahad responded

“ALL UNITS STAND BY FOR OPERATION START” Lancelot shouted over his radio.

“START!!”

Tactical Time: 1030 hours.



Its pitch black, and Bygenou is all alone. Without communications and without support. Crawling down a three mile long tunnel… “OW! What was tha….”
Bygenou yelped. Just as his head stopped throbbing and his vision returned to normal a red light flickered on further down the tunnel. A screeching sound reminiscent of compression brakes or an iron nail on chalkboard echoed down the tunnel and the lights on the ceiling glowed to full blast revealing what several potential assassins described as “The tunnel monster”. “A Mark II Power Armor by the looks of it, it’s automated with a central core that runs a motion sensor through the red eye. The arms seem to be dual shotguns or some other type of scattergun… The plating looks to be NXRA Anti-Explosive and hardened against bullet damage. My pistol will be of no use to me against this thing and the C-1 is too small of a charge to do any actual damage.” Bygenou thought to himself. The Mark II reared up and charged with the ferocity of a bull in red sunglasses. Bygenou rolled out of the way just soon enough not to get smashed to pieces by the charging mass of steel. It screeched to a sudden halt and flipped around then crouched to ready another charge. “This thing is no worse than a bull with shotguns for legs… I bet I could take it down the same way” Bygenou theorized.


The machine charged again, but this time with its shotguns poised to kill, it passed by Bygenou, somehow not seeing him, but firing the shotgun on its left at where Bygenou was when he rolled away. Bygenou threw a steel plate at the robot and staggered it enough to knock the shot off angle and the buckshot from the shotgun bounced off the wall and impacted the foot of the Mark II and made it charge right into the wall opposite Bygenou. Bygenou made his move, it was now or never, He grabbed the Mark II by the chest and lit a flare on its back. “CAN YOU SEE THIS!?” Bygenou taunted as he thrust the flare into the red eye of the machine. It flailed around and bucked and tried to get Bygenou off of its back Bygenou let go, all according to plan. The Mark II was blind, it used a motion sensing camera to see through the dark stillness of the tunnel, but with its camera completely melted it was totally blinded. Big mistake. The Mark II wildly spun around firing it’s shotguns at everything, exactly contradictory to Bygenou’s plan. He caught one of the arms as it was coming down to hit Bygenou on the head and stuck a C-1 charge to the elbow joint and jumped away. “And…NOW!” Bygenou yelled as he pressed down on the detonator.


The arm sparked wildly and even caught on fire before melting off of the Mark II. Even though it couldn’t see it still noticed its arm was missing and warbled in anger. It spun to hit Bygenou but only hit air and fell onto its side. “Time for TWO!!” Bygenou yelled while placing and detonating the other C-1 charge on the right arm, it too sparked and immolated eventually melting off. Bygenou picked up one of the shotguns, “I wonder how much time was wasted on creating this device… well” Bygenou sighed “nothing can be done about it now.” And Bygenou shot the doomed device in the dome with the shotgun, ending all functions permanently. He then grabbed the second shotgun and carried on his merry way.


Tactical Time: 1145 hours

Lancelot slashed the Power Armor in front of him in half with the blade on his armor’s wrist, then flipped around and grabbed the one behind him in the cockpit but upon closer examination, his expression turned saddened
“Sorry it all has to end like this, maybe we could have been friends in another time.” Lancelot said solemnly. His expression turned angry then and he flipped the release on the right joystick of the Power Armor and pressed the button inside. The left hand of the armor glowed green and waves of energy emanated from the palm and the Power Armor he was gripping started to spark and twitch like a man being tasered and then it exploded with an extreme energy release. “Sergeant Eli Rakkas, you will be sorely missed” Lancelot said quietly with remorse. “MY FELLOW AMERICANS! TAKE THE ARMORS OF THE FALLEN ONES! TAKE UP THE ARMS BESTOWED BY YOUR FATHERS AND RISE UP AGAINST THIS BLATANT TYRANNY! OBAMA….WILL….FALL!!!!” Lancelot screamed with empathy over the Power Armor’s speakers. Bedivere lanced a Power Armor to the right of Lancelot, and Bleobris, one to the left. “Lancelot, Gawain and Galahad have finished their missions and the main force is moving in, they themselves are joining us in destroying the small fries until we can flush out the leader.” Bleobris reported to Lancelot over the comms system.


“Good, that’ll make this whole thing a lot easier.” Lancelot thought out loud. Bedivere and Bleobris split off to the left and right and Lancelot initialized the right arm shell cannon. He commanded the armor to open the beach and load in a blue shell. A pod of Power Armors rose up on an elevator and Lancelot fired the cannon, the round impacted the center one and burst into a blue electric ball, disabling the Power Armors temporarily. Several rebels lined up and shot the devicers while they were stuck in the cockpits and stole the Power Armors. “Like bowling with a rocket launcher” Lancelot joked.
The soldiers rose in their trusty steeds and advanced forwards towards the Washington DC garrison. An Anti-Aircraft gun burst into flames to Lancelot’s right on the high wall and out jumped a power armor, Mordred, the wielder of the Sky’s Lance. The lance extended from the hands and thrust through the chest of an enemy power armor, skewering two more behind it. “COME ON YOU LAZY FAILURES! FIGHT ME!!!!!” Mordred yelled with fervor while slicing three more power armors in half. Lancelot continued forwards when the cockpit turned red and was blaring “WARNING ENEMY SUPERWEAPON DETECTED! TIER 5 WEAPONS ARE INITIALISED! ENGAGE THE ENEMY”



Tactical Time: 1200 hours
Lower Mesosphere.

“Resonance confirmed from main shell cannon, ready to unleash aerial artillery.”
Announced a man behind a module screen. “Cannon super magnets charged, ready for linear acceleration, captain.” Announced another. “Good, fire control. Fire a warning shot across their nose. They will know the strength of Avalon” Commanded the captain. Under the massive quad-rotored helicopter-like Sky Fortress an even bigger cannon was charging to fire. It looked like something straight out of a sci-fi novel, a massive weapon that is probably capable of annihilating major cities. The barrel took on an eerie purple hue as massive super magnets were charging to full power. “Load Steel Rain Shell.” The captain ordered. “Copy, now loading steel rain round.” One of the men complied. There was a loud clanking sound and hissing as huge robotic arms loaded in the 100 yard long artillery shell. “Ready to fire sir, on your call.” The fire-control officer said. “FIRE!” The captain yelled eagerly. There was a crashing noise, then 30 seconds later a deafening “CLASH!” As the shell exited the cannon. “Super magnets recharging.” The weapon-status officer updated. “Shell path.” The captain ordered. A large holographic screen booted up in front of him showing the shell with a red circle around it traveling through the atmosphere at its terminal velocity of 300 miles per hour. “The shell is entering the upper stratosphere, approximate time to impact, one minute.” The weapon-status officer said. “Shell is detaching Riser system now.” The shell’s outer hull burst off of the main body, shortening it by 20 yards. “Shell is accelerating” The weapon-status officer continued. “Reaching 500 miles per hour and entering upper troposphere, approximate time till cluster release, 15 seconds.” The captain glanced back at the screen. “And….Cluster release.” He said to himself. The shell’s body split in two revealing at least 2,000 cluster bombs inside of it. The clusters ejected and spread out from the shell’s body as the warhead released the cluster carrier. “Time till cluster impact 10 seconds, warhead impact 30 seconds. Warhead is set to a two-minute delayed explosive timer.” The weapon-status officer updated again. Ten seconds later the clusters made landfall, and turned an entire city block to rubble and with it the entire west side of the TAM base. The warhead hit a TAM barracks and began its timer sequence. “Test Successful Sir” The fire-control officer announced proudly.
“YOU FOOL, I SAID ACROSS THEIR NOSE, NOT UP IT!” The captain yelled at the fire-control officer. “Sir, I apologize, I forgot to account for the coreolis effect” The fire-control officer apologized.

Tactical Time: 1202 hours
TAM Barracks.

The warhead from the Avalon hit the barracks next to Private Bryan Peters. He was knocked over, choking on the dirt and rock that the shell impact kicked up, while the rest of the armies were in awe at the destruction that just befell them. When the dust cleared, Private Peters jumped up and sprinted to the wreckage, with the sky choked red and the sun temporarily snuffed out, he started searching for survivors. “CAPTAIN, CAPTAIN, ANYONE!” He was yelling in a frenzy. He started to dig through the rubble when he spotted a large black metal disk reminiscent of a .45 caliber round, just A LOT bigger. It began to beep. Fast, the beeping just sped up and sped up until it was just one continuous sound. Then a red light flickered on. This was the end for the Private. His last words were as so, “WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUU” before the warhead detonated in a massive explosion that leveled the northwest side of the base and the northwest sector of the wall.

Tactical Time: 1203

Lancelot, who was on the ground facedown from the blast, got back on his feet and scanned the area, he couldn’t believe what he saw. Massive casualties, charred bodies and parts raining down from the blood soaked sky. There was a Power Armor to his left that got blown in half by the concussive wave of the blast. And one to his right split vertically from one of the Mora’s claw fingers. Armors both friend and enemy were scattered everywhere, his own was badly damaged and the Energy Disturber was malfunctioning, releasing pulses at random and other times not working at all. Visibility was reduced to at least thirty yards and Lancelot could barely see the hand in front of his own face. Directly in front of the Spirit of America was a blue sphere made of hexagonal panels. It sat there and radiated an eerie blue light. The sphere began to collapse and turn into this fine blue powder that wafted near Lancelot and blew away in the wind. Out from where the sphere was, a peculiar power armor stood. It was humanoid in frame, looked well armored but not bulky with sleek arms and legs with blue plating on the shoulders, chest and thighs. There was a TAM symbol on the left shoulder, and on the right was the designation “Knight of Valor” Its head resembled a knight’s helmet and it had two swords at its sides and a rifle on its back. “You must be Lancelot” The pilot announced in a taunting manner over the speakers of his unit. “I heard about you and how you can grab on to a unit and cripple or even destroy it. This advanced unit should be enough to take you on though. Behold the Obama Administration’s secret weapon: The COMBAT FRAME!” The combat frame drew one of its swords and held it out, pointed towards the Spirit’s cockpit. “Well then. Let us begin.” Lancelot goaded with a bloodlust.

Location: Presidential escape tunnel


Bygenou was toppled over, covered in rubble. The impact of the round collapsed a section of the tunnel on top of him. Bygenou managed to crawl his way out of the wreckage and brush himself off. “OW! What was THAT!” he complained. Bygenou sat and rested for awhile to un-jam the shotguns from the Power Armor Mk.2. It was about ten minutes before he stood once more and stretched out and continued along the tunnel. The ceiling was in shambles (Not that the rest of the tunnel was in any better condition) lights were hanging from their wires and sparking and flickering. The steel walls of the tunnel were cracked and breaking and probably couldn’t hold much longer. Thankfully, there was the exit, marked with a red light flashing at five flashes per second. It is important that it be flashing at this rate. There are many traps farther down the tunnel, with the same light flashing at a different rate. Bygenou pulled the shotgun up to the trapdoor and pulled the trigger. The shotgun blasted out seventy little steel balls that perforated the door with little resistance. Bygenou climbed out into a room full of a blood red smoke comprised of peculiar particles. It was oval shaped and there was a desk at the north side in front of a wall of windows. There was a man sitting behind the desk, His expression hard and his face tense and angered. “Well, Mr. Bygenou I presume.” The unknown man taunted. “And you?” Bygenou asked back. “I am Barack Hussein Obama, and you may have just screwed up this planet’s best chance at survival….”





INTERMISSION


…Enter OSI…

Location: Office of Secret Intelligence Spy Ship “Enriha”
Earth Exosphere


“Deliver your report to Section Eight, Agent Korobai.” Commanded a woman in a black jumpsuit with some armoring on the top layer of it. “Roger that Commander.” Agent Korobai responded. He turned around and walked confidently to a steel door, that was futuristic looking to us, and pressed a button on a panel to its left and the door split in two and slid open. Korobai was in a long corridor lined with steel walls and a black steel floor. The ceiling was crisscrossed with wires which coverings were knocked off in entry to the “Earth Sphere” Korobai was dressed in a black combat suit with what seemed to be a deployable rangefinder on the right shoulder and the symbol of an eye and hieroglyphs on the left shoulder plate. He continued to walk down the corridor, not once breaking his long, confident stride. About halfway down the hallway he turned to his left and pressed a few more buttons and opened a secret door above him and a ladder deployed. Korobai closed the panel and proceeded up the ladder into a dark, circular chamber dimly lit with ruby red lights.
He continued to the center and, as if sensing his presence, a large pillar rose ominously from the center of the room. Korobai stopped at the pillar and pressed a few buttons and activated a screen, which soon glowed with life as a red eye flickered into existence on the screen. A message flashed in front of the eye. “S3k5HuN 8 R35P0nd1Ng, Sp33ch Tr4n5l470r D4m4g3d (Speech translator damaged), sP33cH 0NlY 4o% 7r4N5L4748L3 (Speech only 40% Translatable) D3l1v3R Y0uR R3p0R7, K0r0B4I (Deliver your report Korobai)” Korobai straightened himself and began to speak into a microphone. “TimeOp successful, TAM Artillery gunner killed by Subject 13, and the sniper who would shoot Subject 12 was never given orders to fire, so the events of D-30 to A-31 never occurred, and thus the events of S-10 to O-31 never occurred and so on. I successfully replaced the sniper and shot Subject 12, resetting the events that were damaged and desynchronized back to the way they were before the time split. Agent “SJ-345” is still InOps, do not recover away team and Enriha until SJ-345 returns and delivers his report. There is a 0.1377 chance that my interference will cause an anomaly, I remained undetected until the shot and returned without detection.” He stepped away from the microphone a step or two. The screen flashed another message. “R3p0r7 R3c13v3D 4nD d0CuM3n73D uNd3R 7-0p #334, 7h3 3Mp3r0R w1lL 83 Pl3453D. H41l Kr4Z0r4! (Report received and documented under T-Op #334, The Emperor will be pleased. Hail Krazora!) Korobai left the creepy chamber and went to the nearest viewport. He looked out and gazed upon the Earth. “Its amazing, this view. The Earth complete and unscathed coupled with the fact that only 30mm of heat treated Aurorite separates my unprotected face from the vacuum of space.” Korobai said to himself. “Its hard to believe really, not just what happened to this place, but the fact that we are so advanced that we can actually influence events in the past that screwed up somehow, and see everything exactly as pristine or corrupt as it was then. And believe me, the only thing more exiting that what Agent Deorma got in the 1940’s during WW2 was this. The most monumental moment in history is about to unfold, and since we are still here, I can’t tell who would be at the forefront or who would eventually come out on top…”


END
INTERMISSION

Phase Two:
The Coalition

“I HEREBY ORDER YOU ALL TO STOP FIGHTING! REJOICE! OBAMA HAS BEEN SILENCED! WE HAVE WON!” ~Richard Bygenou, during the final stages of the assault on DC


Location: Washington DC, United States of America
White House Oval Office


The two sat and stared for awhile, sizing the other up. Judging each other. Obama, sadly, had no idea of the major threat staring him down. Bygenou rushed first, drawing his pistol and sprinting up and over Obama’s desk through the smoke, landing precisely with his gold .50 point blank at Obama’s head. Then Obama countered, like lightning he jumped out of his chair and slashed Bygenou with what seemed to be a cane. Bygenou was sent reeling, Obama smirked at his “Victory” “This is the Key to Avalon, I press this button on top and a Nuclear Railgun Shell will blast me, you and your little friends off this planet.” He flourished the long blue cane with small wings near the top. “Oh, by the way, there’s a retractable 20 inch switchblade in the bottom.” Bygenou started bleeding from a cut running from his left eye, around his nose, to his chin. “Obama…such ignorance. You see, since you revealed that information to me, when I KILL YOU, I will have the ULTIMATE WEAPON. Or so you say.” Bygenou laughed slightly and positioned his pistol at Obama’s heart. “And it’s my turn.” Bygenou fired, seeming to slow time; Obama flourished the Avalon key again and deflected the bullet. It fell to the floor with a light ringing noise. “Shunned.” He taunted. Bygenou pulled out one of the Mark 2’s shotguns from his back. “Dodge this NObama.” Bygenou retorted. He pulled the trigger again and everything in front of him turned white. When the smoke cleared, Bygenou could see that his results with this shot were drastically different.


Location: Ruined Jefferson Memorial



Lancelot was locked in pitched combat with the Combat Frame, outmatched, outgunned, and outmaneuvered it seemed to be a hopeless bout of resistance. Lancelot swung The Spirit’s left arm around behind the Combat Frame’s knight-like body and started jamming on the button atop his joystick to activate the Energy Disturber in the palm. The Disturber didn’t fire, but instead the left arm got slashed off by one of the combat Frame’s sheathed swords. The Combat Frame recoiled and sheathed the sword at its waist. “How did he do that? I didn’t even see his hand move, it was just one motion!” Lancelot shouted with amazement. The Combat Frame flew forward at Lancelot just in time for Lancelot to roll out of the way, and the Combat Frame to bring a column down on itself. There was a shrill screeching from below the rubble of the column and out popped the Combat Frame. But this time something was different, it had grown wings and became gold in color.

“WHAT!? HOW IS A SYSTEM THAT ADVANCED EVEN POSSIBLE!? A unit with the ability to enter a state of hyper mode AND change forms at the same time?” Lancelot went on. The Combat Frame made a pose in midair like an angel. “Yes, ordinarily a system like this would be purely sci-fi. However the forerunners of our race left us this technology. When my energy stores reach 20% I can choose to activate super mode and perform my ultimate attack. Knight of Valor, when in super mode becomes Angel of Death!” The pilot taunted, himself full of awe. “Angel of Death, activate wing drone cannons.” The wings opened and deployed hundreds of small orb-shaped robots poured out and formed a ring around the Angel of Death.

“NOW! UNLEASH THUNDERFLASH ALL RANGE ATTACK!” The pilot commanded. The drones whirred and flew all around Lancelot, surrounding him from all angles. Lancelot scanned for a way out frantically flipping from side to side as the little balls flew around and re-arranged themselves. Then a single shot broke the silence, then another, and another until the little robots were firing all at once. The Spirit was taking massive damage. A red light flipped on in the cockpit and a message displayed indicating the leg had been destroyed. “How is this even possible?” Lancelot whined with a strained voice. All the firing stopped and the Angel of Death reared for the kill strike. “There! That’s my chance!” Lancelot realized. The Angel of Death flew forward, full booster with one of its swords drawn. Lancelot commanded the Spirit to raise its shell cannon on the right arm. “It’s all down to this.” Lancelot said. The Angel of Death was almost upon him. The right arm cannon fired and spit a huge 50mm explosive shell into the face of the Angel of Death, interrupting its advance and causing it to fall to the ground. That shot came at a price; the right arm was obliterated from the recoil and no longer usable. The Angel of Death’s head bursted into flames exploded. “My main camera! NO!” the Combat Frame’s pilot screamed. “Drones keep firing!” The small robots arranged themselves again, ready to fire. The last remaining leg of the Spirit of America opened and blasted thirty small missiles at the balls of death, destroying them all. Lancelot’s cockpit turned red, “All energy drained, regenerator activating, and time until energy is replenished into core systems, 3 hours.” A soft computerized female voice said.

Lancelot opened the cockpit and drew his pistol. “Three rounds left, I believe” He whispered to himself. He continued to limp towards the downed enemy, through the wreckage of the battle, the shells of the death balls sparking and crackling. Lancelot climbed atop the chest of The Angel of Death and pried open the cockpit. The pilot saw him and started flailing the Angel of Death’s body around, trying to buck him off. One of the arms hit another column and a piece of rubble hit Lancelot in the arm and made him lose his grip on the cockpit door. He climbed back up the chest of the unit until he was eye to eye with the pilot. “YOU’RE NOT HUMAN! YOU CAN’T BE HUMAN! IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO DEFEAT THIS UNIT! IT JUST CAN’T BE DONE!” The pilot wailed. Lancelot pointed his Sovereign Mark 2’s barrel at the pilot’s head. “Sorry, but the matter isn’t if IM human, the fact is you are and humans in general don’t live from a headshot, then a fall from about 300 feet up. Lancelot squeezed the trigger and killed the pilot of the Angel of Death.


Location: Oval Office, White House


Bygenou’s mouth was gaping, the results of this shot truly was drastically different Obama had somehow caught all the buckshot. “No, human limitations don’t allow that. “ Bygenou reasoned. Obama dropped the buckshot on the floor with a series of thumps. Obama dashed at Bygenou with the Avalon Key’s switchblade out, but ended up impaling the wall and disturbing the occupants of the room next door. Bygenou punched him in the head and kicked him in the back, breaking his ribs up against the Avalon Key’s pommel. Obama fell to the floor, doubled over in agony.

Bygenou flipped him over. Obama coughed blood onto his face. “This was too easy. Maybe in your next life you will be born stronger.” Bygenou ripped out the Avalon key and thrust it into Obama’s chest and produced his gold .50 and shot him in the head. Bygenou ripped out the Avalon key and disengaged the switchblade and walked over to the former president’s desk with the key in hand. It was a heavy thing, feeling about 10 and a half pounds at the hilt. Bygenou placed it on the desk and sat in the comfortable leather chair behind it. He pressed a button on the desk activating a microphone linked to the city’s PA system. “I HEREBY ORDER YOU ALL TO STOP FIGHTING! REJOICE! OBAMA HAS BEEN SILENCED! WE…. HAVE ….WON!”


No Location


Bygenou’s message was broadcast to the entire city, the TAM surrendered, but Byron von Krauser was nowhere to be found. Lancelot recovered the plans for the combat frame and delivered them to Galahad along with the destroyed remains of the Angel of Death and the Spirit of America. The Conspirators returned to their faux base in Galahad’s house and weren’t seen for weeks.


Eight days later


December, 23, 2011
Time: 1230 Hours


Lancelot turned the TV in Galahad’s living room to the news. There was a woman standing in front of the white house, with some reconstruction going on in the background. He turned up the volume. The woman’s voice grew steadily louder. “The president’s assassin will be releasing a statement to the world in five minutes.” She said. “So the guy actually did it.” Lancelot mused. The screen flipped to a podium with an inverted eye symbol with wings cast onto it in metal. “Here he is now.” The woman continued. Bygenou entered from the left dressed in the strangest garb ever seen on a person. He was wearing all white with a hat reminiscent of a sailor’s hat turned sideways with the same insignia printed on it as in the metal on the podium. He was also wearing a robe, stark white with a sash with gold markings on it and another one draped around his neck like a scarf with similar markings. He strode to the podium confidently.

“I am Richard Bygenou. You all know me as the one who killed Barack Obama.” Bygenou said in a flat voice. The crowd erupted into a fury of booing and hissing “I was the commander of the Western United States military and I personally saw combat at the battles of Texas, Missouri and the recent assault on Washington DC.” Some of the crowd cheered and some booed. “I wish to continue serving this country not as its military leader, but as its leader. Starting in this nation, this… Divided States of America. I propose a new age of unity. Out of our fractured bonds and our shattered unity, I bring out of these ashes a nation I call the Bygenou Coalition!” The whole crowd erupted into cheering and Lancelot watched with his mouth agape. “What is he doing?!” Lancelot shouted with disbelief. Bygenou began talking again. “I will now appoint my officers. These people are to report to the white house oval office immediately. Secretary of War and General of the Coalition Military: Steven Jacobson!” The crowd cheered in a fury “Chief Officer of research and development: the man who calls himself “Galahad”. The crowd cheered once more. “Secretary of state: Mara Anei” The crowd cheered again. “My right hand, the man now known as Subject ZETA!” A man clad head to toe in futuristic gray armor walked in from the right. An extremely large and wide Claymore was magnetized to his back. And his face was covered by a helmet with a black T shaped visor. He reached the podium and turned to the crowd and crossed his arms. “My first order of business is the site of the 9/11 Terrorist attacks. It is to be rebuilt into a mile high tower known as Beacon Tower.” Someone’s hand rose. Bygenou pointed to him.

“President Bygenou, I have two questions, one, this sounds very offensive to American citizens and what are you going to do to remember the lives lost at 9/11?” the man questioned. Bygenou thought for a moment. “Which is more offensive, a battle of the country’s wealthiest people clamoring to put a starbucks on the site, or the government placing a huge tower on it? And for the matter of a memorial, on the ground floor of the tower there will be an obelisk with all the names of the 9/11 victims and all of their families will receive a pension of $13,000 and a piece of the original obelisk material with the name of their lost loved one carved into it, free of charge, naturally.” Bygenou stopped for a moment.

“I now wish to issue an ultimatum to the rest of the world I am offering you a spot in the Coalition in exchange for a cease fire between our nations and control of your military and weapons research. Either that or we will need to act on our country’s motto. PEACE THROUGH POWER!” The same man’s hand rose again. Bygenou pointed once again. The man rose and spoke. “Sir, do you realize you just copyrighted Command and Conquer?” Bygenou’s look turned confused. “Then I guess I’ll need a different motto then. Until then, world, just look at that and think about it. Goodbye for now.” Bygenou and Subject ZETA walked off screen. It flashed back to the woman outside. “Well, I hope this Bygenou fellow knows what he’s doing. Well this has been Jessica Easton, IBC News and welcome to the Bygenou Coalition”


Lancelot stared at the TV in awe. “Bygenou Coalition…I…Can’t…Believe…” he stuttered to himself. A voice came from another room “Lancelot, LETS GO!” Galahad called. “Right!” Lancelot replied and he hurried out the door headed towards the center of the battlefield he once fought on.



End of stage two

The author's comments:
The sequel to Memories of a Better time stage 1: Change of Command

Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.