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To: Max Wallingbottom III
From: ArcNox
Subject: Re:Re:Troubling events
Priority: HIGH

Cryptography has successfully decrypted the first set of documents, and it appears to be a battlefield diary. Three things concern me about this. First, it was written in our Command level cypher. Second, its latest entries date several years into the future. Third, and most unsettling of all, it was apparently written by me. While I do recall writing some of the earlier entries, there are several written in the near future. Most of them aren’t worth a second glance.

Enclosed is a particularly disturbing entry.

SEES at home, SEES in the world

Attachment: File 5597844-b



Occupation duty. How I absolutely loathe sitting, freezing my ass off waiting for some partisan, after drinking lethal levels of vodka, to get the courage to run out with his AK screaming about a free Russia or some such nonsense. We quickly silence him, and get back to rotting in solitude in this frozen wasteland. I was about to return to the barracks for shift change, when I heard a call from one of our patrols. “SEES patrol 3 to base, do you read?” As the ranking officer on watch, I quickly picked up the radio, eager to get this over with and back to some semblance of comfort. “Watchtower 2 to SEES patrol 3, we read you.”

“Sir, you may want to send some reinforcements, we found something interesting over here. Some kind of cave or something, and it looks manmade.” I sighed, and signaled to my men that they should get their gear together. “Copy that, I’ll vector all patrols in the field to your position, and come over there to see what’s so penguin bowling interesting.” By the time I relayed the orders to the patrols, my men were ready to go. I walked over to my tank, and prayed that the engine hadn’t frozen solid. By some minor miracle it started, and I rolled out, painfully slow as I followed the riflemen.


---

I rolled up to the entrance of a cave, with several riflemen manning heavy caliber machine guns in fortified positions. I quickly got out of my tank, grabbed the closest militiaman to me by the front of his uniform, and promptly asked what in the name of DIO warranted this? He stammered something unintelligible and pointed inside the cave. I sighed, and dragged him through the cave with me.

---

We traveled for 300 feet down, before coming to a wide chamber cut from solid rock. It was obviously manmade, judging from the perfectly smooth walls. However, what struck me the most were the bodies, all wearing Russian military uniforms. They all had died from gunshot wounds, and judging from the trails of blood leading outside, had moved there before they died. They were arrayed in front of a capsule in the middle, guns hanging from dead hands pointed towards the only entrance. Then I noticed a body behind the capsule, with a gunshot wound to the head. Judging by the blood splatter behind him, it seems that he had been shot and died there. Lying next to him was a small journal. I picked it up, and skimmed through. It appeared to be a log of the operations here.

---

“Day 1 - Recent shelling during the liberation of Far Eastern Russia has unearthed a mysterious cave. It is obviously manmade, and made quite recently at that. I have been appointed leader of this expedition, and we will begin digging shortly”

For several days, entries were mundane, listing progress reports, weather, etc.

“Day 6 - If what we’ve found is true, buried just beneath our feet is the answers to everything. With this, we can be the most powerful nation in the world!”

“Day 7 - It wasn’t supposed to end like this. We finally have the knowledge of the gods in our grasp, but to try to escape with it means certain death. I can already feel the shaking from the American artillery, and I’m sure the soldiers who had left are dead by now.

Perhaps I can use the device located in the artifact. Yes, it is surely better than sitting here waiting to die, and maybe I can take some of those bastards with me. I can only hope my countrymen find this, and continue our work”

The entries stop there. Blood and tissue dot the page.

---

I looked inside the capsule. This was obviously very valuable to the Russians, and I contemplated destroying the entire thing outright. Inside was a device with a red button on it and a small memory stick. Almost escaping my observation of the contents, however, was a piece of the interior which hung slightly away from the frame. I peeled it back, and inside was a letter.



“To whom it may concern

As my last act on this world, I bequeath to whomever uncovers this the knowledge of the gods. Do with it as you may wish, but I ask you to remember that my battle is left unfinished, my cause remains for another to champion.

With Regards,
GF

P.S. The device enclosed is a last resort only, as it can cause”

The ink trails off from there.

I quickly called on my radio for an assembly of the senior staff, and detailed everyone at the site to guard that capsule with their lives. I ran back out of the cave as fast as I could, letter in hand. I scrambled back into my tank and maxed out the throttle, scattering snow and mud behind me as I sped forward to the command center.

---

I quickly disembarked from my tank, and ran inside the SEES command center. I had not taken two steps before I ran into Emerick THE GREAT. “What do you have there Knox?”



“It’s a letter a patrol found” I handed over the letter to him

“Well, let’s see what this is abo-” He stopped abruptly. “Where did you get this!?” He grabbed me by my uniform, and asked again, “Where did you find this!?”

“A patrol found a cave a-” I was interrupted by the enemy detection warning.

“All forces, Russian airborne units are landing to the west, all units prepare to defend the region. This is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill!” Before the announcement could finish, Emerick was running towards the armory, yelling at me to get the men ready to counterattack. Within 5 minutes we had the platoon on standby ready to mobilize.

---

My tank whipped up mud and snow into the air as we sped towards the advancing Russians.

“All lead tanks, once you get in range of the targets you are clear to fire at will. Wallingbottom should be here with the air support any minute”

I loaded two HEAT shells, and took aim at one of the Russian tanks leading the formation. I waited until it was on fairly level ground, and fired. Both shots went wide, and the Russian tanks turned to engage us. As I loaded two more shells, I heard Emerick’s voice on the radio, “Enemy mechanized infantry has broken off from the Russian armor, and is heading to our patrols. ArcNox, link up with the SEES mechanized infantry en route from Fort Scrabman, then rendezvous with me. I’ll have Wallingbottom keep those tanks busy.”

“Copy that, breaking off from the main force.”

I disengaged from the fight and headed east. Just as the battle was about to disappear over the horizon, I saw several attack helos bear down on the Russian tanks. I briefly watched as Wallingbottom and his men lit the tanks up with rockets, anti-tank missiles, and fire from their 20mm cannons. Satisfied that he had everything in hand, I continued on my way to the infantry.

---

The APCs raced to keep up with me as I maxed the throttle on my tank, heading for Emerick’s position. He had stopped right outside the cave, but I couldn’t raise him on the radio. My fears were confirmed when I saw his tank, a smoking wreck. Bodies of the men from our patrols littered the ground. I ordered Fergusen to get a squad ready to enter the cave, and detail the rest to search for survivors. I pulled my submachine gun from my tank, and entered the cave with the squad of infantry.

---

I signaled for the squad to stop. I slowly moved to the corner. I pulled out my signal mirror, and looked through it into the chamber. Two dozen Russian paratroopers were standing guard at the entrance. Any attempt at entrance with the forces on hand was suicide. I was about to send one of the men for reinforcements, when the Russians started talking. My Russian was a little rusty, but I think I could make out what they were saying.

“Captain, what are we doing here? Why are we not out fighting to reclaim our homeland?”

“There is something I have to do her- Ah, here it is!”

He reached in, and pulled out the device. “This is going to be awesome. That is all you need to know my little hamstas.”

“What are you talking about Ca-”

The Russian soldier was interrupted by a spray of gunfire. Standing there, dressed in the clothes of the dead scientist, whom the Russians had failed to check was actually dead, with a submachine gun pointed at the Russian captain, was Emerick. “Don’t penguin bowling do it Hank! You know exactly what that’ll do. Do you want to be responsible for the slaughter of millions?” Hank Scorpio only responded with a deranged smile



“Thought so,” Emerick said, as Hank pushed the button on the device, and perforated him with gunfire. I watched the device start to glow as it fell from Hank’s hand, and shouted at my men to take cover, and dove away from the entrance, as a blinding light came out of the chamber.

---

I woke up inside a medical tent. I tried to move, and instantly regretted it. Most of my body was covered in bandages. “Glad to see you’re awake” I looked towards the voice, “Careful, you have severe burns over most of your body. It’s a miracle that you’re still alive.” Wallingbottom said.

“What the hell happened? Where’s Emerick?”

“We couldn’t find him, or his body. We couldn’t find the bodies of those Russians either.”

“Max,” I repeated, “What the hell happened here?”

“See for yourself.” He wheeled my bed over to the door of the tent, and opened it. Outside, the sky was a hellish reddish-gray, with ash falling like snow. Not far away, I could see the burning ruins of Khabarovsk. “We can’t get a hold of The DoD, Kongress, or the White House. It’s probably like this all over the world.”



“Dio save us…”