The 53rd MCOH is one of my major Projects, one of only two that have passed twenty pages in length. Born out of the desire to fill in the link between the 53rd MCOH and the Global Defence Army (GDA) it was the third such attempt, and so far the only one to continue. (Another attempt tried a clandestine defence until a major crisis orrcured, at which point the GDA would reveal itself to the world as the 53rd MCOH, something a lot more then 'just' a Global force...)
The setting of the base is one of two of my favourite places in Russia, the other being Novaya Zemlya.
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SDD Comics Presents:
One Man War: The 53rd MCOH
Chapter 1: Rise to Power
January 28th, 2011
--------------Somewhere in Severnaya Zemlya, Russia
Agent Eliza checked her watch again, feeling time slow to a standstill. She’d been doing it constantly almost every ten seconds for the last fifteen minutes, eager to get the hell out of the frozen wasteland.
“What the hell did I say that sounded like ‘Oh sure I’ll go and freeze my butt off willingly’ to the Director?” she muttered to herself.
Regardless of what she said, she had been given the assignment to go and observe a military base on the island that just appeared one day.
“Stupid SatOps probably just made that up. No way a base just up and creates itself overnight like that. Especially one in Russia. Bastards were probably busy goofing off doing who knows what beforehand.”
Checking her watch again, she found that time had actually passed for once. Hauling out a huge arctic camera, she mounted it on her Prone Pod, a very low quadpod built to be useful at near-ground level, fashioned after the base of heavy Triple-A artillery for excellent stability, and coated with a thin layer of felt to avoid the annoying properties of cold metal, and for comfort and to eliminate the clanging during transportation. Attaching the ungodly gigantic three-stage special scope, she aimed it in the general direction of the base, gave it a minute to recalibrate, and removed the first stage section. With the second stage exposed, she gave it a few quick sweeps of the area to map out the GPS grid and allow for pinpoint accurate marking. Once the grid was finished mapping itself out, she detached the second stage scope, and went onto the final stage. The final scope was a partial IR scope as well as a manual Low-Light scope that would operate in either regular light or low-light mode, and display thermal targets without displaying the rest of the viewfinder in IR mode. Of course the technology wasn’t perfect, so one had to constantly sweep the area manually for targets it missed (returns that were too close to the temperature around them were not displayed as thermal hits, and it was useless to quickly locate several important unmanned objects and structures on different missions because they would exhibit ambient temperature and not display.) The low-light portion, although manually operated, did include a small suggestion line whenever the incoming light was less then optimal, although it was optimistic and frequently suggested a switch too early.
Eliza searched first around the four most likely places any high-value persons of interest that might link the base to an organization. The hangar lines produced nothing out of the ordinary, as did the control tower. What looked like the officer’s club again produced about two dozen unknowns, which probably meant a group of ‘generic’ officers- or a cell of people with erased records. Regardless, nothing came back as a threat, so there was no sense wasting time. Expecting nothing again, the results of the main building caught Eliza totally off-guard. Spiking at nearly eighty hits, the bulk of them were people listed as missing persons. Near the bottom of the list, Eliza’s heart skipped a beat. Sixteen returns on high-ranking officers and soldiers coming from nine different militaries, including two from the SAS, one from a German counter terrorist unit, and four from US Military units- one of them a Delta soldier who had gone MIA a month back and was presumed dead.
Eliza lied there for another two minutes absorbing this insane information before finally deciding that the intel boys had to see it. Switching to menu mode, Eliza scrolled around looking for the ‘SatLink’ option. Right about then, a lone figure started up the hill she was on. Eliza went forward and backwards through the confusing array of menu choices, quickly getting annoyed. As she finally found a promising selection, she was interrupted by a voice.
“This is a new one. Usually they send attentive people.”
Eliza barely stopped herself from flying two feet in the air, and prepared to figure out how to escape quietly.
“Oh? I do believe I’m insulted. I haven’t even had a chance to introduce myself, and the woman is already trying to flee. At least now I know it isn’t my face or anything.”
Smirking to herself, Eliza continued on, not about to fall for this idiot’s obvious ploy.
“Well now, usually they at least look at me before they go back to trying to run away.”
‘Fool,’ Eliza thought, ‘you kept talking, and now I know exactly where you are. You talk smooth, but can you move as well?’
“Oh my.”
Pushing off the anchored QuadPod, Eliza slid backward. A split-second later, she pushed up on the ice and aimed a backwards kick at the area where the voice came from. Strangely, she hit nothing but air, and simply fell back down and slid into a wall of ice.
“Feisty eh? You probably aren’t aware of the incredible properties of these ice hills. Simply put, they screw with acoustics to the point where you can’t tell where a sound originated from unless you were beside it.”
As Eliza slid into the wall, she heard the pitch and volume of the voice change substantially, and aimed another kick to her right.
“Jesus woman, watch what you’re doing. You could get hurt up here, and suffice to say, there aren’t many people who wander up here. You could break a leg and get stranded here if you aren’t careful.” The voice said as Eliza flew right.
Before she could do anything, she suddenly froze in midair. Feeling a tight grip on her leg, she expected a burly man on the other end of the arm, and spun her body around to get a quick kidney shot in. But when she swung, she hit nothing, and ended up wrapping her arm around the waist of the owner of the voice.
“Well hello, what do we have here? Suddenly deciding I’m not all that bad after all? But isn’t trying to hug someone you’ve just met a little strange? One could get the wrong image, especially at a large base such as this, where there are quite a few males who wouldn’t think twice about doing that stuff.”
“Oh really? Well I’m pretty sure you need these to do it!” Eliza yelled as she went for a nutshot.
Eliza was bewildered when her fist struck home, and nothing happened.
“Yes, well I’ve been conditioned by years and dozens of instances as this. Frankly, that tickled if anything.” The voice said, amused.
‘We’ll see if you think it’s funny when your jaw breaks bastard!’ Eliza thought as she wrenched sideways.
“Lordy lordy lordy, violent arent’cha?” The voice said, clamping a hand over her fist before it could even get halfway up.
Eliza mentally cursed, and bent back to try to get in a headbutt, but the hand attached to her fist vanished and fell on her head.
“Sweet mother of god, stick to headbutting soccer balls, not walls.”
Thourghly stuck, Eliza finally gave up and sprayed her captor upon seeing him.
“Ah damn it. Never fails. I just bloody clean this thing, and someone gets it dirty.”
‘What the hell is this?’ Eliza thought, completely blindsided by her captor’s image- skinny, all the height in the legs, zero visible muscles, and a face that belonged on TV.
“Confused eh? Wasn’t expecting that someone running a military base could throw their voice and look this good did you?”
Eliza just hung there, jaw slack, ready to die of embarrassment. She’d been able to completely defeat the hand-to-hand combat instructor, who was huge and was probably a pro wrestler beforehand, yet she was totally denied by this?
“Oh c’mon now, not everyone in the military business is a huge mass of muscles and beard. And while we’re at it, intel boys aren’t the only skinny people.” The man said, grinning like a kid.
“Well, now that you’ve got me, what are you gonna do with me huh?”
“Straight to the point, no bullshit. I do believe I like that.”
“Yeah, well you’d have to be stupid to try that in this temperature.”
Shifting his hand from her leg, the man expertly caught her back and bent forward at the same time, sweeping Eliza nearly upside down, face to face.
“Au contraire mes ami. You would be surprised at the stuff I can handle. On that note, haven’t you noticed that I’m in nothing but a sweater and pants?”
“It’s kind of hard to do that when your face is blocking my view.”
“You seem to be quite capable of controlling your emotions. Usually when I do this, they get all red-faced.”
“That may be so, but it doesn’t change the fact that I can’t exactly see your body if your face is in the way.”
“Ahh, so now you want to get a good look at me?”
Realizing that she had just walked right into that one, Eliza’s face turned beet red.
“N-no you idiot! You know what I meant!”
“Ah but one means what they say, and says what one means.”
“It was the classic misinterpretation trick!”
“Doesn’t change the fact I still caught you.”
“W-whatever.”
“Oh la la, I do believe you like it, nyo?”
“OH GET REAL!”
“Well now, seeing as we’ve gotten all that out of our system, let’s get down to the real stuff. I already know why you are here, what you are doing and what you have done already. I will not hold you captive or hold you against these actions, but I will leave you with a promise: If America again spies on us, we will not take kindly to that breach of privacy. We will respond with maximum force without warning.”
“So you threaten war with America if we’re seen spying again?”
“Incorrect. We promise complete destruction if America spies on us, period. We’ve known you were here even before you got to this hill. It isn’t a matter of getting caught- we will retaliate even if we never make contact or even see you.”
“Makes little sense, because if you haven’t seen us you haven’t caught us.”
“It makes perfect sense. Sensors, gut feelings, the sort. Technicalities aside, we will not hesitate to launch an unending stream of special weaponry upon America.”
“So you’re saying you’d nuke America? You do realize that you will be a target for America now that you are known to have nukes.”
“Again, incorrect. We will retaliate with nukes yes, but we do not own or stock any nukes.”
“Wait, what?”
“Our means of production is key. We can set up and deploy a fifteen-shot section of nukes in half an hour. What’s more, if you attack before or even during production, you will be labelled warmongers.”
“And just how is that possible?”
“Simple- our means of production is so refined that we never have weapons-grade nuclear material until the missile is assembled. How we do it, of course, is a secret sweetie.”
“Uh huh.”
“Anyways, enough of this depressing smack-talk. How’s about a guided tour while we wait for the next outbound Albatross?”
“Wait, what th- huh?” Eliza babbled, bewildered.
“We’re not exactly itching for war, and neither is America if I may assume, especially not nuclear war. And we’re not antisocial neighbours either. You’ve got nothing else to do, our Albatross is closer then anything your people can send for you, and a storm is brewing. Might as well go inside, and might as well take a tour before you leave. It would be a nightmare in world politics if someone died in here. We’re actually very hospitable, and we’d rather not have the world mistake a death as torture-based.”
“Couldn’t you just show proof?”
“I wish. Actually, that’s assuming word got out. Corpses aren’t supposed to leave the base anyways.”
“Eerie.”
“Indeed, but it’s a matter of security.”
“We going inside today, or are you going to ironically talk me to death?”
“Well if you died out here you would look like a ridiculous spy. That aside, you seem eager to get it on eh?”
“Wh-”
“Ahahahahahaha, got you again. You did it yourself this time!”
“Bleh.” Eliza muttered, turning red again.
“Ah yes, I forgot to introduce myself. I-”
“I already know. Colonel Cools of the Enforcer Corps.”
“Oh snap, not even close.”
“Wha?”
“I have a thing with identities. Strictly speaking, there’s about two hundred of me lurking around. The name I’ve gone by for the last half of my life, seventeen years, is Ocean Seven.”
“Did you just take Ocean’s Eleven and chance the number?”
“Technically yes, although I didn’t know it until I was asked the first time.”
“I see…”
“You coming?”
“Huh? But I already have a-”
“We can go that way if you wanna walk for three days to circumvent the huge minefield and get to one of the emergency boxes on the outer perimeter.”
“Alright, so how do you propose we get down? I don’t suppose you brought a ladder?”
“Nope. Ladders are for sissies and juicy targets.”
“Your plan?”
Grabbing Eliza’s arm, Ocean yanked her next to him, on the edge of the north face.
“Naturally, we jump.”
“Wait a second! That’s suicide!”
“Do you know anything about artic survival? A lot of these ice hills are pretty damn sloped. So long as you don’t go face first or jump too far forward, you’ll be fine.”
Moving her in front of him, Ocean gave her a smile.
“Wait I’m not ready!” Eliza yelped, pushing back right into Ocean.
“Jesus woman, make your mind up. Do you wanna get warm in there, or do you wanna get warm with me? I seriously can’t tell.”
“Dammit you know-”
As Eliza looked back at him, Ocean gave her a shove.
“Whoopsie! My bad.”
“HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!” Eliza screamed as she went barrelling down the seventy degree slope at breakneck speed.
“Lookout below!” Ocean yelled after her after he backed up and took a running leap off the edge. With expert skill, he landed at such an angle that there was virtually no impact, and he quickly caught up to Eliza.
“I thought you said that was suicide!”
“Not if you know how to do it! Watch your left there.”
Eliza barely had time to face forward before she nearly slammed into a tall spike that was barely visible against all the white.
“Jeez, you can’t die while having fun. You’ve gotta watch where you go, because frankly, I’d like to go do some insane stuff before we go flying off the cliff face.”
“Say WHAT?!”
“Oh I forgot to mention in about five miles there’s a straight drop. Just keep going fast and try to get between any of the pairs of flags. If you don’t I can’t guarantee you that you will land on the next slope.”
“If you had told me that I would have walked for three days.”
“Even if I told you there were no emergency boxes?”
“Oh goodie. What other surprises are there I don’t know about?”
“Oh just a few random mines on this hill. Keep right and you won’t risk anything.”
“Then why are you going left?”
“Because I quite frankly like going really fast. If you go fast enough you pass over the trigger point faster then it can detonate, and you can go REALLY fast.”
“What a confusing man…” Eliza said to herself, dodging another spike.
A minute later, an explosion reverberated as a mine went off, and Eliza looked back to see Ocean go careening off a jump trailing smoke.
“Hoo-E! Man that was beautiful. Gotta remember that spot.”
“Jesus you’re burnt! What the hell was that?”
“I told you I liked going fast. But at the same time I like cheating death too. And I remembered that we had to announce our presence before the automated defences blew both of us to bits.”
“Do you have enough dangerous stuff around here?”
“Not if you count that Bouncing betty you just ran over.”
Sure enough, a small explosion was heard two hundred feet behind her as a Bouncing Betty mine blew up.
“I told you to watch yourself!”
“You distracted me.”
“And you’re supposed to be a dedicated special operations operator. Tisk tisk, letting yourself get distracted on the job.”
“Sort of hard to concentrate when you’re sliding down a hill barely in control at terminal velocity, with a crazy man setting off mines.”
“Oh yea, you might wanna lie down. That Betty you blew off set off an avalanche.”
“How the hell did I get put on this assignment.”
Luckily the Bouncing Betty was a very old explosive, and the snow around here was packed very well. The avalanche was smaller then a typical one, and by the time it got lethally large, the pair was already over the ridge. The rest of the slide was uneventful.
“Well then, lets get inside. I’m sure that suit of yours wasn’t build to endure a crazy slide down a frozen hill, especially not if you’ve been sweating up a storm.”
“I wasn’t sweating up a storm.”
“Oh don’t be bashful. Any sane person would sweat up a storm doing that. Plus being in a counter terrorist group that dealt with innumerable types of gas-based weapons, you develop a really good sense of smell.”
“So you’re saying you’re not sane? I don’t see you sweating.”
“Honestly, if I said I was perfectly sane, I’d be lying.”
“Beautiful.”
“Oh hush you. I’m completely sane most of the time. It’s just when I’m engaged in combat that everyone fears me. Oh, and try not to bring up controversial or philosophical stuff, unless you want me to talk you to death.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Right then. This way, if you will.”
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