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Ok a freind and I have been working on concocting our own sci-fi skirmish game complete with rules, back story and models eventually (I say eventually!!) ive been bashing out a few things story wise and decided to brave Dakka to see what people thought of it en masse. To put the short into context its a slightly futuristic modern day setting where a Bacteria has been released called Quad Helix Bacteria. It does generally nasty things to you and the UN have formed a taskforce to contain the infected and work on a cure... officially, theres also a covert operations organisation and a bunch of humanist terrorists, but thats still in the works. The short is a quick breifing given by a doctor working with the newly formed United Nations Biohazard Containment Taskforce (UNBCT)

He hated the room, it was too clean, too clinical. Too… too damned white, and that smell, antiseptic and lemons , the smell so pervasive you could taste the citrus on your tongue. He noted most of the staff wore those white masks, like the dust masks he’d used on his Dad’s latest DIY project gone wrong. Dust… if only that was the concern of the hour, in truth the masks would do little, they had already been told time and again that QHB had mutated from its airborne origins only days after the first outbreak, still, protocol had to be maintained, appearances kept.
He shuffled about in the uncomfortable metal fold up chairs trying to find a bearable position to sit in for the inevitable several hours’ worth of pointless waffling before the poor sod sent to brief them would come to any pertinent information. In truth he would have rather not known what he was there to be told, he was a soldier, protecting people by neutralising an enemy was his job. Viral weaponry was one thing he didn’t sign up to fight, not that his personal wishes made much difference, Mandatory meant you were going, whether you liked it or not.
It wasn’t a long wait. Not a long enough wait in any case.

The thin waif of a girl didn’t look old enough to have graduated medical school let alone be qualified enough to give a briefing on a new kind of plague, she almost fell into the room before the briefing even began. The men were good natured about it, barely a murmur of comedic snickers while the doctor composed herself.
“Good morning… my name is Doctor Simmons and I’m here to talk to you all about Quad Helix Bacterium, as you all know, QHB was discovered some years ago by accident during a….”

This went on for another half an hour before Corporal Peters raised his hand, pulling the waffling doctor from her riveting bacterial biology lesson
“Yes?” Squeaked the doctor in a manner that suggested she was not exactly prepared for the question segment of the Q&A coming quite so soon.
“Were soldier ma’am could we skip to the bits we need to know?”

It’s funny, the way she wrinkled her nose and heaved impatiently; he would have found her quite cute had it not been for the surrounding, and the damned smell.
“Of course, I merely thought it wise to explain…” She stopped herself mid-sentence that time “I’m sorry, I’m not much one for public speaking” Another quiet murmur through the room sounded through the room.
The doctor made a gesture to the man standing at the rear of the room who turned on the screen at the front to reveal a normal looking average Joe.
“QHB infection comes in 4 stages, stage 1 is relatively harmless, the infection has only just entered the body and will lay dormant for a number of hours, sometimes days-“

The image changed, same guy on the screen, same jacket, same shoes, seemed a little taller though
“-Progressing into stage 2 the QH begins replicating muscular tissues, muscles grow in both size and density, during stage 2 the skeletal structure will also grow in an attempt to match the increased muscle mass. Obvious signs in this stage include a growth spurt, muscle cramps and increased appetite as the body digests food at an accelerated to fuel the increased muscle growth-“

The image changed again, the man now visibly larger and wearing a blue hospital gown that did little to hide the marks on his skin, the mask while hiding his mouth, did little to hide the vacant look in his eyes
“-Stage 3 is where most deaths occur, at this point the body can no longer increase its skeletal mass in pace with the muscle increase, skin lesions form as the victim’s body struggles to hold itself together, mental faculties at this stage are severely impaired due to near constant pain, as a response the brain increases to flow of adrenaline to near constant, making the victim prone to violent mood swings. Deaths in stage 3 are general cardiac related, either the heart simply cannot pump enough blood around the new vascular system, or it is crushed along with the victims other vital organs against his or her own ribcage-“

The doctor put her hand over her mouth instinctively as the last picture came into view. It was unrecognisable. Barrel chested at least 4 feet taller that the stage 1 victim and sporting numerous bleeding tears in its body, the wild frenzied look of agony, the blood dripping from its mouth and massive arms. It was like a condensed image of every horror movie he had ever seen, the thought that the creature on the screen had once been human made him feel violently ill. Composing herself once more the doctor continued
“-There is now official line between stage 3 and 4, generally we place it when the subject is no longer responsive to verbal stimuli, the constant agony drives them into a constant psychopathic state. At this point the body is flooded with a constant stream of adrenaline resulting in extreme resistance to pain, the muscular growth rendering them almost immune to small arms fire. At this point there is nothing that can be done, ending this creature’s life is a mercy, unfortunately a difficult one to accomplish, my colleague will brief you later on the weaknesses of various stages and decontamination protocol. Are there any questions?”


Not a soul moved.

Seriously I would have given the title a better name for the story, but im handicapped in that we havent actually picked a name for our little project.....

It has potential, it definatly has potential.

This looks promesing, I get almost a GDI/Tiberium Wars feel from it

Sounds great I like it alot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This looks like it could be an interesting zombie type story. There isn't really enough to judge it on yet, so write more!

Ok screw chronology, this is something ive just written detailing how the bacteria got out in the first place, also we know have TWO factions named, The United Nations Biohazard Containment Taskforce (U.N.B.C.T.) and the shady Shadowsight Initiative.

Here goes, be gentle, be harsh, please comment, please critisize

“Target acquired, range 20 metres, Carrier 6”2 short brown hair, blue jeans, brown leather jacket”
“Confirmed target acquisition, the case is in play, carrier moving toward check in desk”

The operative heard the exchange through his ear piece, clipped concise and professional, the hallmarks of his unit. The target was a large metal case held in the carrier’s right hand, the mission objective was simple, snatch the case, all other considerations were secondary. It was rare for Shadowsight units to be given such leniency when it came to operations in a public setting. Then again it was also rare for a unit to be deployed so quickly. A deep part of him inherently disliked the premise of the mission, first and foremost, Shadowsight was meant to be a covert initiative, carrying out an operation in the middle of a busy airport terminal in the middle of the day seemed like the least covert setting possible, it left too many unknown factors, too many chances for significant screw ups.
He kept the carrier in sight, maintaining a distance of around 15 feet, far enough not to be noticed in a busy airport, close enough to snatch the case if the need arose.
“Shadow one in position at the baggage train”

“Shadow two in over-watch position”

“Shadow three in over-watch position”

“Shadow four in snatch position, go on 3…”

“…2…”

“Be advised, local armed police on site, all units hold”

He swore under his breath. That would be one of those “unknown factors”
“Comm’s confirm last transmission, what the hell are the local plods doing here?”
A few moments passed while the unit’s communications officer checked and double checked.

“Confirmed, there here on a suspected terror alert two 5 man units full tactical loadout, HQ are handing the abort decision to you sir…”
He grimaced, of course they would, abort and fail or fail to abort and run the risk of a full blown fire fight with local police, not exactly an enviable decision to make either way.

“Abort, all units withdraw to exfil points, we’ll catch them at the other end of the fl….”

A tugging at his jacket sleeve, he looked down to see a little face looking up at him inquisitively, the girl must have been 7 years old at most, barely coming up to his waist.

“Hey mister, why you talking to yourself?”

“Shove off kid” He pushed the girl away, underestimating for a moment the tenacity of small children, the girl held fast to his sleeve, her weight and the force of the shove pulling the jacket half off and revealing the holstered sidearm, the girl cried out as she fell back, causing one too many heads to turn.
The carrier was forced to the ground by his comrade who moved to draw his weapon; a second man’s hand went to his waist. The operative barely has time to shout down his comm’s before diving behind a tourist information map.

“CONTACT”

Screams and gunfire filled the terminal, 2 civilians went down in the opening salvo’s the first barely out of her teen years, the bullet tearing through her purple woolly jumper, pulping her liver before the exit wound tore half her stomach open, she went down in one, barely a whimper. The second was male, mid 30’s wearing a grey pinstripe suit; he had been checking the tourist information map when a round struck him square in the back, severing his spine with split second finality. Shadowsight operative who had been in position moments before opened fire on the carrier and his comrades, 2 more civilians went down in a blind panic as the targets moved to cover.

“Do not breach the case, I repeat do not brea…”

He was cut off mid-sentence by the sound of automatic gunfire, the loud signal that the local police had joined the fray. Unsure about who to fire at, the police had decided the most logical decision was to open fire on both armed groups, unfortunately for them, that put the mission in danger.
From his position behind the map he took two officers off their feet, the armour piercing rounds making a mockery of standard body armour.

It wasn;t enough.

He watched the bullets tear through the case, the hiss of vapour release more visual then audible.

“Case Breached, Biohazard on site, all call signs exfil NOW!”


“Mister Sternbrook, I have received a worrying report, our shadow ops became engaged in a three way altercation… The sample was released into the general public”
“Were we able to institute quarantine measures?”
“Yes sir, however, intel suggests a high likelihood of the infection having breached quarantine”

James Sternbrook observed his head of security impassively from behind his desk, the man stood practically at attention, a holdover from his military days, most likely. He was pleased to note the lack of panic in voice or demeanour, not that he had come to expect any form of emotion from the older man, just stoicism and results.

“Have the project leads on Delta strain brought in and arrange a meeting with the home secretary, I want a report on my desk regarding the projected high infection areas and any measures we can put into effect to contain the threat”