Twenty Four Years

Twenty four years ago...

     Leonid Toptunov watched as the power continued to drop on reactor number four. It was necessary that the power be lowered to test the new fail-safe system. He was in charge of the control rod movement. The further the rods were inserted the less power the reactor put out. He was told the power range for the test was 1000-700MW. They were getting started late due to a failure at another power plant. 'Figures,' he thought, 'Every time we must do something critical like this there is always a hiccup.' He watched as the power output came into range and stopped the control rod's movement. The power settled at 700MW a 0:05. He left the control room to relieve himself of the coffee he had been holding for an hour.
     When Toptunov returned he noticed that the power had continued to descend.This was bad. It was not safe for the reactor to go below the 700MW thermal limit. He called his supervisor and explained the situation to him. He retracted the rods to raise the power but for several moments nothing happened. Then, very slowly, the power began to rise. Relief washed over him. Although, the power did not return to the lower limit. It reached 200MW and would go no further. He advised the supervisor not to continue with the test and was told to go to hell. He could either continue with the test or find a new job. The job paid too well to leave; so he continued.
    The additional pumps were turned on to begin  the test. This lowered the power again; requiring more control rods to be removed. This put Reactor number four well outside of the safe operating configuration. 'The test went off without a problem though,' Toptunov thought, as he pressed the shut down button. This would send all of the control rods home. 
     Rumbling, slight at first, then stronger began. Toptunov wondered what it was. He frantically looked at the control panel and noticed a pressure and power spike. The sound of splintering wood filled his ears. There was no wood at reactor four. The pressure in the core had caused the graphite rods to fracture and jam. 'What have we done,' he thought.


At 1:24:10 Reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant exploded.


Present Day...

     Fate had read the story. He had seen the pictures. He had seen the after effects. Arrogance had caused the hell that Chernobyl had created for millions of people. Now, because of the Spetznaz forces, he had been forced to this desolate place. They had received intel that the enemy had a special unit brought here to extract nuclear waste. To what end, he didn't know. Nor did he care for that matter. Man, he thought, from one idiot 24 years ago to one idiot today.

    They landed in a rural part of Pripyat, the city that had been built to house the plant workers so long ago. His six man team was comprised of two snipers, two fast assault soldiers and  two sniper support soldiers. Fate was part of the latter. He checked his FAMAS and stepped into the Wasteland.

     Eerie. That is the only word he could think of to describe the feeling that desolate place provoked. They made their way through the tall grass to a building. He remembered a story Cpt. Price had told him a couple of years ago.

Seventeen years ago...

     Lt. Price lay motionless in tall grass. Cpt. Macmillan lay just a couple of meters ahead of him. They had been told that Zakhaev was to make an arms deal near the heart of abandoned Pripyat. There was too much radiation in the surrounding countryside for them to make a straight path to the hotel watch point. That meant that they had to make it through an army of enemy soldiers without being seen. If they were, well, they were dead.They made their way to an empty hay barn. Two tangos patrolling met their end in silence. A silenced M21 sounds like a soft breath of air as the bullet leaves the muzzle. They continued on to the first security outpost. 
     Price and the captain looked into the building and saw four men. Macmillan told him,'Don't even think about it.' He didn't, four men and probably a few dogs somewhere meant death. There was a man by a burnt out car. As before, Price terminated the man's life quickly and quietly. 
     Not to far away, the steeple of a church rose above the foliage. They spotted a man patrolling in the topmost tower.  Price settled into the classic sitting shot position. He lined up the ten power scope on a window he anticipated the soldier to come to in the next few seconds. His breaths were light. He inhaled slowly, let it out half way; then pulled the trigger. He had killed a man in the House of the Lord. 'God have mercy on my soul.' He thought.
      Lost in thought they let the next man pass in silence. They made their way to the church building. Pulling out their pistols, they went trough the church in silence. A graveyard of hundreds lay before them. Direct repercussions of the disaster that had happened seven years prior. It was sickening. Helicopter blades thumped overhead. The two men dove for cover just as the chopper paced over their position.
      Price and Macmillan pressed on until they came to a field. It was pock-marked with radiation markers. The field was a maze of death. The captain told him to get down. Thunder field the silent afternoon. There were at least 5 vehicles and 100 men advancing on them. Fear spiked in Price and he quickly stuffed it away. If they lay low and moved slowly, they would be invisible in their ghille suits. Men walked all around them. It was a matter of timing really. He watched the patterns of the men a made micro adjustments, lining him up with the gaps in their formation.
     After a painfully long time, they were clear of the men. They advanced on their way until they came to four soldiers throwing bodies into radiated water. Monsters. Price knew that the radiation in the water would increase the speed of decomposition and erase all traces of the bodies. Macmillan and him killed all four of the bastards.
      Men were talking as they arrived at the next check point. As one of the men walked off, Price watched as Macmillan snuck up behind the remaining guard. The soldier never knew that his life had ended. His captain slit the man's throat and lowered him to the ground. Again, they pressed on.
     Shouts and engine noise came from the road ahead. 'Almost there,' Price thought. They worked their way like shadows through the unaware soldiers and crawled under the vehicles to the back of the procession. Ever onward they pressed to the ghost town of Pripyat.
     They finally made it to the edge of the city. Snipers were on the catwalks and fire escapes everywhere. Silently and methodically they took them out one at a time. Continuing, Price and his captain made their way to the nest in the hotel.
     Price would be the shooter. He settled in behind the .50 Barrett sniper rifle that had been setup by their inside man. The target would be 900 meters away. This would mean that the flight time of the bullet would be approximately 1 second. At these distances everything must be taken into effect. The wind may change directions several times on the flight path. The coriolis effect, earths rotation, also factored in. This was there on chance to stop a war and save millions. The old sniper motto rang in Price's ears.

One shot, One kill.


Present day...

     Fate had to smile every time he heard that story. It was a bad situation with a rough outcome, yes, but each time Price had told it to him it became more extravagant. Ah, good old Price, Soap and him were legends now. The two most wanted men in the world. Fate knew better; he knew his friends weren't guilty. One day the truth would come out.

     He saw movement and called it in. A soldier was trying to flank his sniper's position and he made the man pay for it. It had begun. His men blew their  way into the bunker, taking out several enemies at once. Fate held down his position and took out men until the sniper indicated that it was time to move. He told the sniper to wait while called in firing coordinates to the predator pilot. Seconds later the payload hit and took out two more soldiers. There was nothing left but a crater.

     Fate and his team were bringing the thunder this time. This time there would be no escape for the enemy, Fate thought, as a Harrier strike jet flew over head and began to destroy Spetznaz soldiers. the sniper team worked the perimeter of the fighting. They took out man after man as they made their way to the same church Price had been through those seventeen years ago. He called in the Pave Low attack chopper that they had waiting in reserve. It was a flying tank firing 30mm explosive rounds.

     Sorrow for the enemy attempted to creep into his mind. Fate stuffed the thought in memories of disfigured children, men bleeding to death and comrades that got to close. He had seen what nuclear waste could do and was intent that the enemy would not have it as a weapon. The sounds of dieing men wafted towards him. Crossing himself, he continued extinguishing life after life until there was silence.

    Fate heard a gurgling sound to his left and went to examine it. He found an enemy soldier lying half dead at the edge of a pool of radiated water. The man was dieing, but not dead. Fate looked down at the man and kicked him in.

The body would be gone by night...
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My loadout in this game:

Primary: FAMAS/ RDS
Secondary: SPAS-12/ Grip
Equipment:Claymore
Special Grenade: Stun x2
Perk 1: Scavenger Pro
Perk 2: Stopping Power Pro
Perk 3: Ninja Pro
Killstreaks: Predator Missile, Harrier Strike, Pave Low
Deathstreak: Final Stand

Map: Wasteland
Gametype: Domination
My Final: 21-2

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