Alpha 451 Chapter 1

A Chapter by Lynx_x

“Come in Alpha 451, this is Falcon one, what is your position?”

I had heard that message several times in the last hour, none of them I responded to. Falcon one is the best kept secret of the British government, it is a huge underground military research and development complex tucked away under a small fire base in Afghanistan.

I am the first successful Bio-soldier, the four hundred fifty before me went mad or died from the surgery. They where chosen at random from all areas of the army and from all experience levels, they had a choice leave the army or join the program , many left not wanting to be part of something that would change them forever, many had heard the rumours of special hospitals set up to treat those failed attempts.

The big difference between myself and those who came before me is that I knew what was happening and I volunteered.

The message played again, I turned my radio off, it was starting to annoy me. It wasn't Falcon one trying to contact me, it was the enemy. The last time the enemy had seen me I was wearing mark I armour, it was a full body armour suit which looked like it had been created by a child. I now had mark III armour which is a much more complex suit of armour and covered me from head to toe. The last fifty before me made it to this stage and chose their armour colour, all went for fancy camouflage with colours such as pink and blue incorporated into it. They were amateurs it just got the enemies attention and they got killed. I went for mat black with a black visor. It reminded my of anti-terror uniform I used to where in the regiment.

I was on my way to the enemies base, it was a small bunker in the middle of the desert. The sun was becoming very hot or so my external thermometer said. Inside my armour it kept my body at its normal temperature and kept me from sweating. As I continued I came to a large dune which I knew was the last before the bunker came into sight, this is where I decided to hold up till night fall.

I dug a small grave and lay in it covering myself with the sand, hiding myself completely from sight of any patrols. My armour is completely air tight so I was fine while I lay and rested.

I thought about what my mission was, it had been justified that I would be able to get through this bunker on my own steal the data inside it and get away, it was true, I had done operations like this while in the regiment just as a part of a fire team but now I was alone and needed to get the data then remove all traces that there was ever a bunker there. Raising the bunker to the ground would usually be near impossible without and air support but I had been given a small brick sized object before I had left, they told me to be careful with it as it had a bomb inside it strong enough to bring the bunker down.

“It is currently 23:00 sir, would you like to get under way?”

The voice woke me from a daze,

“what?” I replied

“Its dark enough to begin sir”

“Oh okay, lets do this then”

That voice had came from Delta, my artificial intelligence program. Delta was the fourth generation A.I. assigned to me. Before I joined the program they had experimented with first Alpha, Beta and Gamma; the first three A.I.

Alpha was a lot like Delta but more human, which caused a problem as they where supposed to be analytical and not emotional, this made it unstable so they made Beta.

Beta was developed more successfully, the problem arose when it was assigned to a neon pink camouflage wearing armature, Beta had his work cut out for him and eventually had some sort of mental breakdown.

Gamma, not many people know what happened with him and the poor soldier who had him assigned to him. It was the reason the program was going to be shut down before I had stepped in and volunteered. The soldiers name, his real name was John, a former paratrooper, in my opinion he was always not fully there in the head department but I served with him when I first joined, he was a good decent guy. I knew exactly what had happened, they had experimented by surgically implanting Gamma into Johns brain, those doctor where clearly not ethical ones, it drove him to a psychotic breakdown where he killed three officers and civilian contractor. That is when the program was ordered to be shut down but what those people on the ethics committee didn’t know was that John had escaped.

At the time I was the head of a special secret wing of the special air service known as F Wing, we had been nicknamed the ghosts as we where the men and women that done the jobs no other could. I also had another position one that gave more power and knowledge than the generals and officers pulling all of the strings. Its was a separate rank given only by the former holder of the rank to the next, the rank was know as a Shade. Through out history they have been the ones on the front lines keeping their men safe, they are warriors and special protectors of the state.

I am a shade it is how when I said that Falcon one was now under the command of F Wing that I came to be what I am now.

I emerged from my shallow grave to find a scared young boy dressed fully in black aiming an Ak74; a more powerful rifle than its cousin the AK47, at my chest. The boy looked no older than sixteen, I felt sorry for him as I tackled him to the floor, killing him with a single silent blow apart from the dull crunch of my fist connecting with the side of the boys temple. I placed him and his rifle in my grave and filled it back in.

I moved slowly towards the bunker in a low crouch, each step I placed ever so tenderly on the sand below me to minimise sound and to defeat any movement detectors. I continued like this across the open land, avoiding detection until I reached the side of the bunker, this all seemed way to easy. I approached the entrance where two men stood guard, both where dressed the same as the boy in all black, I could not see if they where wearing body armour due to the lack of light. I drew my specialized 9mm silent pistol known only to Falcon one as the MRK. Still approaching them I quickly double tapped them both in the head, they dropped within seconds of each other, hitting the floor like liquid.

I told Delta to hack the electronic lock which seemed to take up way to much room on the door. A minute later I was walking into a small windowless room, unlike the Tardis this was a lot small er on the inside than on the outside, the room was bare but in the centre of laying on the floor was a single floppy disk, picking it up I replaced it with the bomb. I turned to see the door filled with a towering dark figure.

It looked like an earlier version of the bio-armour I wore a version that was scrapped as the occupant could not move fast in it as it was too heavy.

The figure charged forward ramming me into the wall behind me, I heard a beeping sound that signified that I had taken damage and that nanites; tiny robots invisible to the human eye where about to be released and repair the armour. Then a long beep told me the armour was fine again, The man was huge and looked like a man shaped tank. He threw his fist towards my head, I moved and dodged the incoming blow which seemed to shake my entire body as it impacted into the wall leaving a tank shell shaped hole. I was struggling but I knew he had me in a hold I wasn’t getting out of.

“Delta, deploy flares.”

“But sir it could kill us” Delta Replied

“just do it” I said at the top of my lungs could manage while being crushed.

There was a ten sharp sizzling noises as as the flares I would usually use to avoid a missile hitting me released into the small confined bunker. As the room instantly turned white my photosensitive visor switched to dark mode as it did I saw the man stumbling back landing in the opposite corner shielding his eyes beneath his helmet. I quickly checked the bomb was intact and left as fast as I could running across the open ground I heard heavy vehicles approaching behind me. I took the detonator from its holder on my leg flicking the safety screen away with my thumb I braced and hit the button.

There was silence, pure dead silence and then the sky lit up and the ground felt an earth quake had just hit. I didn’t dare stop running as the shock wave hit me it launched my flailing body across the open ground and through the sand dune that no longer stood. Once I had finally stopped moving my armour had entered recovery mode. I stood up clutching my chest hearing the low rhythmic thump of recovery alarm along with the armour damage alarm.

“Recovery mode overridden, use emergency nanites” As I said it both alarms ceased.

I pulled out a long cylinder filled with red fluid looking contents, at the end it had three protruding heavy duty needles, I inserted them into the three holes in the chest plate of my armour, as I did so I instantly felt better.

The tube was a special dose of nanites and plasma the nanites repair the damaged bone and flesh and seal the wounds and the plasma was in a concentrated form and replenished all of your lost fluids.

It was a piece of equipment that I had insisted on being developed. I had insisted on a few changes to the program such as the ability to override the systems within the suit including my own personal A.I.

Delta was only programmed to the point where he could understand, unlike the others he was taught nothing before entering the field. I was going to do this my way and so far its worked. He has learnt through doing rather than some scientist telling him. I had told him what had happened to the others and for this he was loyal to me and I to him.

I turned around to see where the bunker had once been there was now just a star shaped scorch mark in the sand, in the distance I saw enemy tanks smouldering black and chard.

I walked away from it, to any observer I was walking towards nothing but after an hour of trekking I was where I needed to be.

“Falcon one this Alpha 451, come in, over”

“Alpha 451 we have you, what is your location”

“I am at the extraction point “

After ten minutes I was in a chopper heading back for Falcon one.