Prolouge

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 August 9th, 2559

Avalanche Road North, Noveria, Beta-Aquilae system

2100 hours

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"... and it is gonna be a cool night tonight, our meteorologists expect a high of One degree celsius and a low of negative four here in Port Hope. Partly cloudy skies are expected with a few brief snow showers,much better than the heavy snowfall we got earlier today. Expect slippery conditions on the roads outside of the city. And now, 30 minutes of non-stop music here on 93.7, provided by the Tombough Fortress Broadcast System."

Another fine day in the land of ice and snow gone.

The driver of our M831 MCC, Corporal Stevens let out a sigh, "Hmph... at least the guys at TFBS got something right, im getting tired of fuzzy transmissions from base all the time."

"Yeah, but i'd rather have audible music than having to listen to Sarge's outbursts about 'getting there faster' over the radio all day" I said in response.

Stevens let out a burst of laughter, "Haha! Man, I agree with you on that, music is much better than Sarge's complaints."

Sure, music was better than hearing Sarge over the radio all day, but Stevens had a point. How are the tech boys at TFBS getting clear music to us, but failing to make legit transmissions from the base audible. At any rate, it isn't my problem. Anyways, why would I want to listen to the sarge? He's the one that sent us to deliver supplies to the outpost at checkpoint Theta anyways.

"Why do you think he's sending us to checkpoint Theta, it's 60 kilometers outside of port Hope alone, not to mention 74 from Tombough Fortress, and hot grub."

I could think of two reasons why, "One, we're the ones that embarrased him in front of the Luitenant yesterday." Note to self, wear uniform to all meetings, not shirts with slogans. "Two, Theta station supposedly has defective radio equipment, were supposed to unload the comms systems on this hog when we get there"

"Defective radio equipment my ass! Hell, can't any radio equipment be considered defective untill the tech's at TFBS fix it? Why should we bother delivering new equipment if they can't be sure it doesn't work?"

I remembered overhearing a tech boy yesterday. "From what I know, they had some sort accident and busted most of the hardware a few days ago, we lost contact with 'em."

"What kind of accident?" Stevens asked, the statement a burning question in my mind already. I looked out the window of our canopy covered hog and saw snow start to fall, quickly growing heavier

"I dunno, mayby they hit ice on the way there, dropped a hammer on it, who kno-"

"Ah hell, I though they said snow showers!" Stevens said, almost yelling. "We are gonna have to go slow untill we get to Beta Checkpoint and confirm clear roads" Stevens picked up the radio microphone and dialed in Beta Outpost's frequency. "Beta Checkpoint this is Convoy 'BoomBox', I repeat, this is Convoy 'BoomBox', do you read me? Over.""Roger that Convoy BoomBox, this is Beta Checkpoint, your coming in a little fuzzy. How may we assist?"

"Copy that Beta Checkpoint, do you have the current radar scans for the area between here and Theta Checkpoint? Is there heavy snowfall? What are the road conditions?"" Snowfall is severe, we got a transmission from New Flint a few hours ago saying that the roads were impassible between here and there, we have lost communication with them since. I would advise you stay here for the night untill this front blows over and continue on in the morning. We have a ground line to Tombough Fortress, we'll tell them your spending the night here."

"Alright, thank you for the assistance Beta Checkpoint, we will be arriving within a few minutes. Convoy 'BoomBox' out", Stevens clicked off the radio. "So, I guess were stuck at Beta Checkpoint for the night. Sarge will be pissed that we are runnning late."

"Screw the Sarge's schedule. Im tired lets get some sleep" I said as we diverted from the four lane roadway to the outpost garage. The outpost was a small, bunker like structure. It was large enough for all the interior equipment and the 5 keeeper's. A red light at the right side of the garage changed to green as the door slid open. Inside were supply crates, a loading dock and an M12 LRV, with enough space for 2 more vehicles of the same size.

Stevens parked the hog and we walked through the blast door into the interior of the outpost. Eventually, after greeting the personnel still awake, I wandered into the extra living quarters and layed down on a bunk. Slowly, I slipped into submission...

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