Planetside 2 Story Part 3: Project Doombringer
By Jet Sunstrider
Part 1
The battle was started with a bang, right as the first wave of New Republic soldiers charged out, the Vanu opened fired. Thankfully, the new armor design helped us a bit, but a lot of us did fall. I stood there for a second, forgetting I was in a huge MEC for a bit, just staring off into the glory of the NR, a perfect army of men and women ready to fight on a moment's notice, all thanks to me and the Terran MURDER Squad. Suddenly, a rock hit the cockpit bubble and I looked down to see Mich giving me her classic “God dammit Jet” look.
“Do you not see the massive army screaming towards us? How about you go see what that MEC can really do, like you said 5 min ago!” She screamed. I shook my head, bolted back into reality, and took aim with the giant T9-Carve.
“Here goes nothing!” I yelled, pulling down the trigger. The power behind that thing was amazing! If almost felt like a normal LMG, same recoil patterns, just with EXPLOSIVE ammo. Ok, it was not really explosive, but the way it chewed through the Vanu soldiers, it felt like it. Within seconds, the first wave of Vanu where nothing but high tech scrap, leaving us with a few moments to step back and regroup. I took a minute to step out of the mec and direct our supplies and manpower.
“Alright, that may of been fun… but we're not done! More than likely, the Vanu have more up there sleeve! Mich, get a sundi and pick up all the wounded to be brought back and treated. Black Devil, get the armor division and watch the hill, make a blockade and nothing that is not in red armor, blow it up! Axx, get the air squad and patrol the perimeter, make sure they don’t try to flank us. Everyone else, choose a side and dig in! Be ready for anything!” I shouted over the radio coms.
“Yes Sir!” Everyone replied at once, sending an echo for miles down the cliffs and caves of Indar. I got back in the MEC and walked to the front line, watching, scanning the horizon for anything purple.
Part 2
“There! On the left, Vanu Tank cullom inbound!” I turned my head to look in the direction the soldier was pointing. I could see them on the distant cliff, Magriders… I hate Magriders… always flying over rocks and water with no care in the world!
“Open fire, all troops you have green light!” I shouted as the army all started firing like crazy. The Magriders are on the move now, rolling off the cliff as if they were birds...big, plasma, robotic birds with guns, but birds nonetheless. One of them blew up and sent burning wreckage down to the base below. The other dozen landed in perfect harmony and processed to advance on us. 20+ tanks, aircraft, and sundis now bore down on us. We were in for a long fight, but we will do anything to protect Auraxis no matter what. I got lost in my own world, shooting any Vanu I could see with the MEC while the NR tanks and aircraft bombed the heck outta them. Troops on the ground where taking pot-shots at anything they could kill. It was almost like when the Terran Republic first landed on Aurxius and the war first broke. This time it is the same war, different names. It was also feeling the same because no side was gaining or losing ground. It was a 50-50 fight, even teams means it is hard to push the Vanu back and it is hard for the Vanu to push through us at the same time. We needed an advantage… but I had a few ideas.
Part 3
“Mich, is the Doombringer ready yet?” I asked over comms. The Doombringer is the nickname for an experimental tank NR engineers have been working on in a remote facility on Esamir.
“Hold on, I’m gonna go back to the warpgate and get in contact with Esamir command and find out.” Mich responded, I saw her out of the corner of my eye in a ATV driving toward the warpgate. Soon after it entered the shielding and Mich jumped off and run towards the main building. I turned back around and saw a army of Vanu gatebuster sundis storming towards us. We needed the Doombringer fast, if only Mich would hurry up.
“Alright, it’s ready!” I heard Mich over comms. A few minutes later, I heard a loud rumbling sound as the Doombringer rolled up to the front line. Basically the Doombringer is a massive supertank of pure engineering perfection. With a massive double barreled AP cannon on both the front and rear ends makes flanking this thing impossible. And two modified vulcan machine guns on each side built for anti infantry combat. There is even a walker anti aircraft gun on the top to defend against air attacks. This whole thing takes a 7 man crew to fully operate and nothing is safe when it does get a full crew. I wanted to command the crew inside so bad, but the Mec was our second best tool. Then I got a idea. I told the crew of the Doombringer to wait and pressed a few buttons and brought up a radio mic.
“Mec test voice commands.” I spoke into the mic. The Mec’s radio bussed to life.
“Voice recognition optimal. Ready for new commands.” The mec froze where it was waiting for my command.
“Power auto pilot defence mode. Hold the line and shot any vanu targets that come in range.” I told the Mec.
“Ammeritive. Defensive holding pattern established. Free to leave cockpit.” The mec replied. I jumped out and watched as the hulking beast stomped over to the front lines. I just hope that new autopilot works. Regardless, I walked over to the driver of the Doombringer.
“Are we ready?” I asked the driver.
“Yes sir!” The driver replied.
“Good. I’ll be the commander. Get ready to move out.” I told the driver as he get the engine warmed up. I walked back out to the main deck of the tank. Yes, this tank is big enough to have a main deck. Each gun has it’s own small room with the controls. Like I said before, this is a massive machine.
“Alright people! I’m the commander of this beast. I hope you all are ready to show the vanu what we got! Everyone, quick check in!” I shouted.
“Driver Ricky James, ready to roll!”
“Gunner 1, front main cannon. Jessica Anderson ready!”
“Gunner 2, rear main cannon. Jake Sanders ready!”
“Gunner 3, left front MG. Kate Gunman locked and loaded!”
“Gunner 4, left rear vulcan. Joe Chargestone ready for action!”
“Gunners 5 and 6 right side MG, the demolition duo Greg and Sid Shockwave cleared for takeoff!”
“Gunner 7, topside anti air gun, Dom Redburn ready!” After the roll call, I nodded and turned to the driver.
“Alright driver, roll out! Get us on that front line!” I ordered. The tank roared to life as we started making our way towards the Vanu’s forces, Black and the prowler tank collom following behind us. Off to the left, the MEC was fighting off a small harasser squad, picking off the little things like ants. It did not take long for us to be under fire. As we got closer, magriders on the cliff above Skylock Air Tower started shelling us. We took a couple of hits but this thing was tougher then reinforced blast doors. It would take more than a few shots to take this beast down.
“We got lightening tanks rolling up on our right!” Sid warned as the vulcan machine guns hummed to life. Even though the guns themselves were rebuilt for anti-infantry duty, those still packed enough punch to take down a galaxy with enough sustained fire. A couple of the lightning tanks got dealt with before they tried flanking behind us.
“Where do you think your going?” Jake said before the enemy tanks went up in smoke. We were like a well oiled machine, always knowing where the enemy’s where. Never letting our guard down, never having an open flank.
Part 4
“Guys, we have incoming!” Dom shouted as we saw about a dozen Vanu liberator gunships flying towards us. We only had one walker on the top, it won't be enough. We need skyguard support now.
“Black, this is Doombringer, we have a Vanu liberator squad heading right for us! Send up the skyguards!” I shouted into the radio.
“Copy that, skyguards inbound.” Black responded as the tanks rolled up. They took aim and waited for the word.
“All skyguard units, you have green light! Take those gunships down!” I shouted as they opened fire. All we could hear is the eco of the skyguards ringing out for miles across the valleys and hills of Indar. The gunships made their first bombing run, using the high power dalton belly cannon and the tankbuster nose gun. That nose gun could tear a lighting in half given the moment. That’s exactly what happened to the skyguard to our left, exploding and sending debris flying before the nanites slowly broke apart and caused the broken tank to disappear. But they still kept up the fire, destroying the left engine on one of the gunships causing it to crash some were below the cliff. There were at least a dozen left, and we only had a small squad of lightnings. Dom was also going to town on the Doombringers anti air gun. He managed to fire a barrage into one of the gunships cockpits, most likely killing the pilot and causing the thing to crash just a few feet in front of us. Dirt and mud splashed on the tank, but it did not land close enough for us to get affected by the blast. I looked across the cliff and saw more vanu tanks, this time with sundis crawling across the archway connecting the two cliff lines.
“Agh…. Black, move the skyguards back, and get more prowlers out here! We got more vanu tanks with sundi support moving in fast!” I spat into the radio.
“Roger that, ETA 2 minutes for extra armor support.” Black replied. We waited for backup, trying to snipe out whatever we can as the vanu got closer. Finally, the new prowler column caught up and we advanced once more. I looked to the left of us and saw a friendly harasser squad roll into the warpgate, prob to re arm. The Auto MEC walked over us, almost stepping on a prowler as it was moving it to help with the Vanu tanks. We moved to the edge of our side of the cill and waited for the vanu to get in rage. Once they were, I gave the order to start shelling them. The lead magrider got bombarded by about 3-5 shots at once, blowing up instantly and blocking his friends way for a few seconds. Then the vanu got the hit and started firing back, and combined with the constant rain of the gunships, it was rough. But the gunships were getting shot down, slowly but surely. One of the sundi’s rolled to their side of the cliff, and deployed. However, people did not start spawning on it, but a massive shield wall formed around the sundi. The shield almost covered the whole cliff, and they were able to shot through it. We tried, but even the high powered guns of the Doombringer could not brake it.
“There is NO way we can get through that, what on earth do we do now?” Kate asked. The gunners were still firing on whatever they could hit, but it appears we could use some air support of our own.
“Mich, we could use some air support. Could you assemble a Rave squad and fly by? The Vanu deployed a shield wall and we can’t break through it.” I said over the radio.
“Copy that, I’ll get our top aces together and we’ll deal with it. Where is the source of this wall?” Mich asked.
“The shield is being emitted by a deployed sundi litterty right across from the Doombringers current location, it’s not hard to miss.” I replied.
“Copy that, I see it on the radar now. We will be there.” Mich severed the connection, and a few minutes later of being bombed, the Raves flew past like darts. But the vanu had anti air turrets deployed around the shield sundi, and a couple of our fighters went down. But Mich almost had a full platoon of them.
Part 5
Soon, the sun started to fall and night was upon us. That did not stop the fighting though, the Rave fighters were dealing with the remaining vanu liberators and us on the ground still had a handful of magriders to deal with. The Doombringer was circling cliff side that the magriders were on not daring to go across the archway. We were taking hits every seconded we held up, the gunners taking every chance they could to fire on the magriders. We dwindled them down to the last one, and the driver was lining us up so the front AP cannon could finish the magrider but from out of nowhere, he did the unthinkable. The final magrider charged us, like it was inviting death. But as it was getting closer, I could see a light emitting from it’s engine that was getting ever brighter as it approached. Then the driver screen started flashing with a radioactive symbol.
“Driver, what's going on?” I walked up beside Ricky as he was frantically pressing buttons on the control panned.
“Sir, I have a small radioactive reading on that magrider, I think… I think he is gonna overload his engine and cause a nuclear ejection on us!” Rickly started to sweat.
“Is the blast radius gonna be enough to reach the warpgate? And how much radiation is expected?” I asked.
“Ugggggggh… looks like it will reach the warpgate, b-but the blast will be weaken enough so the dome shield should protect the buildings themselves.” Ricky respond. I turned back to the rest of the crew, the magrider was almost across the arch now.
“Alright, we have a small nuclear detonation incoming, and we don’t have the time to get back to the warpgate from here. I want all of you in your protective suits, now! They are near the back in the storage closet.” Everyone started scrambling towards the storage. Yes, this tank was big enough to have a small apartment sized closet where we store our guns, and protective suits. The suits themselves are like lightly armored max suits that protected us from elemental damage like fire, extreme cold and radiation. They fit easily over our current armor too, so it makes it easy. After we were all suited up I activated the built in radio.
“Attention all NR forces still in the field, nuclear detonation imminent. Everyone get into the warpgate dome shield and hunker down, radiation levels expected to be low enough that the shield should hold but do not take any changes. The Doombringer can handle the bact and all crew has the advanced protective suits. We will try to get as close as we can to the warpgate but we will not make it. Hold tight, we will be returning.” I severed the connection and saw all the NR forces retreat into the warpgate. I also noticed that the dome shield itself got thicker. I guess they did not wanna take any risks, good on them. Regardless the magrider was only just a few meters from us, we all hunkered down in the Doombringer.
“BRACE FOR IMPACT!” I shouted right before the Magrider rammed us and exploded.
Part 6
The last thing I remember seeing is the diver of the magrider, looking straight into my very soul, laughing at me, at us. Now I felt like I was floating in space, weightless, like the stress and pressure of the war as just lifted off my back. I was set free, able to do what I please. I Turned to my right and saw the Doombringer crew, all calling and waving me over. They wanted to celebrate the end of the war, we were finally just people, not soldiers. But as I approached, there faced turned to those of fear, worrisome. They started yelling at me…
I woke up and bolted straight up, almost right outta my armor. I heard a ringing in my ear, looked around and the first thing I saw was a gaping hole in the side of the Doombringer were the magrider detonated. It was all a dream, at least we were still alive. I peaked out of the door bringer and saw a massive, glowing mushroom cloud looming over us. I looked at the arm display on my protective suite, checking the status. It shows minimal damage but for the most part the life support system was fully functional and the radiation suppression system was on full swing. Suddenly I heard faint yelling behind me, I walked over to the main door and saw the crew searching for me. Jessica turned my way and her face lit up, she turned to the others.
“Guys, he’s over here!” I heard sudden cheering as they ran towards me. We meat in a crater made by the explosion.
“Nice to see you actually survived that, sir!” Dom said, the rest nodding their agreement. I took a seconded to take in what the hell just happened. Looking off in the distance, I could see the true devastation the nuke did. Bodies rotted away, buildings collapses, even the archway crumpled. This was the Vanu’s doing… not to mention they destroyed the Doombringer as well. They are going to pay for this, but first we need to find out how far the damage spread. Ricky said it was not going to be that bad, but one can never be so sure. Regardless, I turned back to the crew. But after a second look I noticed some people were missing.
“Wait, where's the rest of the crew?” I asked, their faces went dark.
“Kate, Sid, and Joe didn't make it…” Jessica muttred.
“Poor bastards…” Dom whispered.
“What a way to go, eh?” Greg kicked a rock. I forgot Greg and Sid are brothers.
“We can’t let them die in vain, we have to get back to the warpgate!” Ricky shouted. He had a point, we all looked at the warpgate, the dome shield still holding strong. And it looks like nothing inside was damaged, from here at least.
“The man has a point, come on! Let’s go!” I shouted, the rest of the crew followed suit as we started the long walk back. Climbing over rotten bodies and through craters. We got lucky with our protective suits not breaking or failing when the nuke went off.
After about an hour of stumbling around in nuclear conditions, we reached the warpgate. We all exchanged looks, nodded in unison and stepped through. Almost immediately we were surrounded by the rest of the NR, muttered whispers were exchanged until Mich and Black stepped forward. We stood in silicene then they nodded slowly. No words were needed to understand what the Doombringer crew just went though, and that celebration was in order! It did not take us long to start the prep work for it. We may rejoice now, but deep down we all knew that this war is far from over.
