Everybody Walk the Dinosaur http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeNbJQ6naJs
Walking the Dinosaur An Apocalypse D story
By Bill Knight
Apocalypse D is a game by Exploding Goat Games
http://www.explodinggoatgames.com/
Part 1(I)
Shater eased the pitch control and tapped the foot slightly pedals until the Kiowa helicopter eased up from behind a cluster of trees, just enough so that its rotor mounted sensor ball had a clear view over the tree tops.Shater was a warrant officer in the U.S. Army, Aviation branch to be exact, and in almost twenty years of service, he had never seen anything like what they were seeing today.
He and his co-pilot, Lt. Flore had been tasked with observing a group of dinosaurs. Real, frickin dinosaurs!He still couldnt believe it.
At first he thought the Colonel was joking when they were called in for the briefing, but quickly realized the senior officer wasnt being funny.In fact, he had been dead serious.He even produced pictures showing something called an Allosaurus.Pictures showed a dozen of them strolling down a country road.Shater couldnt hold back and said the first thing in his head, Are you sure you shouldnt be calling Spielberg and let him know some of his dinosaurs are missing?The Colonel smiled slightly and agreed.
The military didnt know where the creatures came from, yet; but he had his orders, and now Shater and Flore had theirs.Theyd been told that the pack of dinosaurs had been found roaming just outside the nearby city.Shater and Flore had been sent aloft in their Kiowa OH-58A reconnaissance helicopter to track them while ground forces were being organized.
Lt. Flore watched the dinosaurs on the video feed coming from the sensor ball.Like Shater, he still thought this whole situation was a bit surreal and half expected some Hollywood special effects crew to come tooling along and pick up their new props that gotten loose.
He snorted for a moment when he thanked the powers that be, that at least they didnt have to worry about these things shooting an RPG or AK at them, not like the targets they used to track back in Iraq.His attention was yanked away from mental images he conjured of smaller dinosaurs carrying AK-47s, when he heard Shater cry out.
What the hell was that?
Flore looked up in time to sweet a dark image fly past the helicopter. To fast for him to get a good look at it.He did notice that it was dark, and large.
Did you see that Lt?Shater jerked his head back and forth, trying to catch another glimpse of whatever it was he had seen.It was huge, and fast.
What? Another helicopter? A plane?
Neither, I didnt get a good look at it.It dived on us from above.
The Lt. looked back at the information coming in from the mast mounted sensor pod above the helicopter.Nothing. No other aircraft anywhere around.Puzzled he looked up in time to see the thing coming right at them.Oh my God.He whispered.
The creature slammed into the side of the Kiowas windshield.The force wasnt strong enough to break the toughened material, but it was enough to spook Warrant Officer Shater for a second.During that second, WO Shater jerked on the cyclic stick, tilting the helicopters blades down to the side.The whirring blades dug into the wings and back of the flying creature, shredding it.The thing screeched out load and latched onto the Kiowas landing skids with its leg claws.
The momentum of the creature, and the damaged helicopter blades made the helicopter spin out of control.
****!Were going down!Cried out Shater.
Lt. Flores keyed his mike and began calling back to their airfield.
CAP 1 to Base, we have been hit. CAP 1 to base, we have been hit by unknown..object.We are going down.I repeat, we are going do.
The Lt. never finished as the trees below them smashed into the bottom of the helicopter.The whirling blades catching on branches, causing the helicopter to whipsaw around, only to crash into other tree limbs and trunks.The three thousand pounds of military helicopter slammed into one tree trunk and slid heavily done to the ground only to catch itself on a sturdy limb.With a final groan, the Kiowa sagged slightly down and finally came to a rest.
Surprisingly the helicopters radio still worked.Base to CAP 1, advise current location. Over. Came the voice.After a moment, it repeated the message. Then once again, only to be answered by silence.
Part 2 (II)
Sergeant Tucker and Sergeant Travis surveyed the area around them for any new movement.They had taken up a position on top of an overgrown tractor shed and had a slightly commanding view of the field and woods around them.
Tucker panned his scope across the field before them and stopped to focus on a black dot that was darker than the shadows of the trees around it.With a slight blur, Sergeant Tucker refocused the scope and the inky black dot now showed up on a field of white.With a slight adjustment, the scope changed power and the image changed again, now showing the black dot in an oval shaped patch of white, surrounded by bumpy gray-green material.The image flickered for a moment, on its own.
With another adjustment, Sergeant Tucker zoomed out once again.The black dot and white patch flickered on its own accord, but Tucker now could make it out for what it was. An iris.He was looking at the eye of a tremendous beast.The flickering was the creatures eyelid closing and opening.
The Sergeant noted the features and characteristics of the dinosaur and after a moment, he looked away from the scope to the book laying between him and Sergeant Travis.When they had been first tasked with this mission, and given the facts, Tucker had been skeptical.As a soldier, and one for that last eight years, he hadnt made it this far without covering his bases.A quick stop at his base quarters and the procurement of one of his sons dinosaur guide books and he was ready.
Now, that stop had paid off.There the creature was, right in the DK dinosaur book.The thing was called an Allosaurus; whatever the hell that was.He just knew that four of the things were in the field between him and one of their recon helicopters that had gone down while scouting the things.
He could make out the heavily damaged fuselage of the Kiowa helicopter hanging in the line of trees lining the edge of the field and next to it lay the very mangled body of something his sons book called a Pterosaur.Apparently, it had a fatal encounter with the helicopters blades.
As he scoped the chopper, he looked for any sign of its crew.They had been advised that contact with the downed helicopter had been lost initially and the worst feared; until a broken transmission was picked up from the crafts co-pilot; Warrant Officer Shater, but that too had stopped.
At the moment, he could see no movement in, or around the helicopter, at first.Sergeant Tucker thought he saw a play of shadows that moved out of the ordinary.
On a hunch, he whispered to his spotter.Trav, you still got that laser spotter thing your kid gave ya?
Ah, yeah.Why?
Call it a hunch.Shine it on the inside of that helo if ya can.
Roger that.Travis fished the bullet shaped thing from inside his ACU.He kept it close, a present from one of his kids who thought it might help him out.A good luck charm.Perhaps it would be, he thought.
He painted the intense, focused beam of light across the inside canopy of the helicopter. The bright red dot zigged, then zagged about.Sergeant Travis then flashed it quickly in a series of dashes and dots.
--------------------
It's still a work in progress so stand by for further as it develops. ;)
Alrighty now, here's the rest. It picks up where the last part left off. -------------------
He painted the intense, focused beam of light across the inside canopy of the helicopter. The bright red dot zigged, then zagged about. Sergeant Travis then flashed it quickly in a series of dashes and dots. R U OK. R U OK. R U OK.
Nothing. No response and then Tucker saw a flash of light on the inside of canopy. Slow flashes and dashes that translated to Morse code letters. NEED MED. ONE INJ. ONE OK.
The two sergeants smiled at each other and quickly used the laser pointer to send back a message of their own. OK. HELP ON WAY.
Part 3 (III)
The Stryker armored troop carriers rumbled down the road. Four in all. In the lead was a mobile gun version, sporting a 105mm tank gun in a top mounted turret. Behind it followed a Medical Evac Stryker with two standard troop carriers trailing after it.
The road they followed was an asphalt, backcountry road. On one side of it, fields of plants grew with occasional green houses and equipment sheds. On the other side lay groves with baby trees filling them that would eventually end up in the Home Depots and Lowes around the country. The plant and tree groves were broken every mile by stormbreaks, consisting of thick tree lines and irrigation ditches. The lead vehicle slowed as they approached their designated GPS coordinates just before a wide swath of trees separating one field from another
The mobile gun commander popped his hatch and pulled himself up. PossumBoss to Red Eye. Was all he said into his radio mic. As he waited, he scanned the area about him taking in the row upon row of plants and small trees. Multiple locations for enemies to be hiding he thought.
Within moments, a crackling voice came over his headset. Red Eye, PossumBoss we have you in sight. Proceed northwest one click. Four heavy targets bearing to the southwest one point eight click. Helo is one point eight click, danger close to targets.
Check. He answered back, and then keyed over to the frequency the rest of the vehicles were on and gave them the update. With a chuffing of diesel engines, the line of vehicles started ahead.
The eighteen ton armored lead vehicle chugged forward, while its turret swung to a bearing to where the targets would be. As they passed the stand of trees the scene was clear to the commander. The snipers had been spot on with their information as he noted the four heavy dinosaurs clustered near the damaged helicopter, eating something on the ground, what might have been another dinosaur. Each of the things was easily twenty feet tall with long tails. Two of them were almost as tall as a three story building. Later he would be told they were Allosaurus, but at the moment he didnt care if they were aliens or smurfs; it only mattered if they were being friendly or aggressive and these critters were on the aggressive side at the moment.
The closest of the four raised its head as the vehicles grumbled closer, staring at the troop carriers as they approached. The vehicle commander watched as the beast opened its mouth wide in a soundless roar and charged at them. In his rational mind, the commander was amazed at the creature pounding across the field, crushing plants under its taloned feet. How could something from primeval history be here and now? His trained mind though didnt hesitate as he ordered the gunner to target and fire.
The 105mm howitzer round crossed the distance from the Stryker to the dinosaur in the blink of an eye. The shell impacted into the creatures chest, tearing through and out the backside. The thirty foot tall dinosaur screamed and roared as it died, pumping gallons of blood onto the ground around it.
To the gun commanders rear, a fifty caliber machinegun on one of the infantry Strykers opened up, quickly followed by the second. The finger sized bullets zipped down range to find their targets, the three remaining dinosaurs. The others had only taken a moment to see what the lead beast was doing and where now charging at the small convoy. The dinosaurs were covering the ground quickly, much quicker than the commander liked. He figured they must be lopping along at roughly fifteen miles an hour and theyd be making contact in seconds at that rate.
The Allosaurus in the front faltered as the heavy bullets chewed into its side. Lumps of leathery flesh and droplets of blood flew outward and behind, splattering to the dirt, staining it a dark brown. Stumbling, the thing tried to keep its feet going but fell as its hip was finally shredded and gave out. Its heavy jaws digging a furrow as it slammed into the ground and for a moment, the Allosaurus was hidden from view by the dirt cloud it kicked up.
The M2 machine gun on second Stryker had focused on the next Allosaurus. The first half pound .50 caliber bullet hit the Allosaurus in the neck, tearing through the leathery skin and tumbled out the other side, while the sixty other bullets that followed, helped separate the neck from the rest of the body. The head and upper neck hit the ground with a thud; but like a chicken with its head cut off, the rest of the body continued to run on. The things two massively muscled legs drove it forward and into the side of the Stryker where the two thousand pounds of dinosaur body struck the armored vehicle like a giant hammer. With a screeching of metal and yells from the men inside, the vehicle slid across the road and canted at an angle as its wheel went into the ditch alongside the road. The now dead dinosaur slide off the side of the troop carrier and flopped about in the road.
The mobile gun commander saw the last Allosaurus coming at his vehicle and two things happened then. He let himself drop down from the hatch pulling it shut with a clang just as the hulking Allosaurus lunged, its jaws snapping against the hatch rim. At the same time, the driver of MedEvac Stryker surged his vehicle forward, bouncing over the tree trunk like tail of the giant reptile. With whip like reflexes, the enraged dinosaur whirled about, snapping at the retreating vehicle.
The remaining dinosaur paused for a moment, watching the MedEvac vehicle bouncing across the field towards the down helicopter, then back to the rumbling Stryker next to it. When it looked back to the helicopter a second time, it took a step that way. The crack of the rifle shot reached the dinosaur a second after the rifles bullet punched into its iris and lodged in the skull bone behind the eye. The Allosaurus screeched in pain and fury, faltering away from the Stryker, shaking its head.
The gunner in the mobile gun Stryker sighted on the ailing dinosaur as it moved further away and pressed the fire button. A smile creased his face as the 105mm tank round impacted in the things abdomen and knocked it back and down to the ground. The .50 cals on the infantry Strykers finished it off in a flurry of bullets and then turned on the remaining crippled Allosaurus still thrashing about in the field. In a moment, it, like the others, was dead.
The convoy commander shoved on his hatch, but couldnt get it budge. Exiting through the back ramp, he looked up and saw where the dinosaurs teeth had crimped the edge of the hatch shut. He turned to look across the field and saw the medics ahead of them loading both pilots into its back. To his right he heard a voice call out from an overgrown shed. Two coming in. Dont fire.
Looking over he saw the sniper team trotting on towards them, broad smiles on their camouflaged faces. One of them pointed at the silhouettes of kills on the Stykers turret the team had garnered while in Iraq.
Nice work, think you can get a dinosaur marker for em? The sniper nodded to the dead Allosaurus around them.
Damned if I know, but well try.
------------------- That's it for now, I have to start cracking on the other project.
Wow Bill, that is really good. The world of D is alittle more apocolyptic but your pretty much right on. The backstory of D starts with a corp. messing with time travel and instead creating a rift in time. The rift causes things to De-evolve and the Nevada desert where the faucilty is located becomes a jungle. The rift causes other problems of course and the De-evolution is not specific to the Nevada desert for long. The jungles and dinosuars start appearing around the world and countries start to quarintine the areas "infected". The rule book will explain this alot better but that is basically the background. I really enjoyed your story and keep 'em coming.
I figured I'd be off, so I thought I would try to capture a moment when the dinosaurs first make an appearance and before everyone becomes a jaded Turok until I secured more of the backstory :)
Dino's in Vegas.....ka-ching. A family of Raptors stops by Ceaser's Palace to play the slots. Oh yeah, I can see it now.
"Hey Animal Control, there's a stray T-rex on my street and you know how T-rex's are. We have children who play around here and this T-rex isn't wearing a collar. I hear that once a T-rex tastes human blood they become aggressive."
Hmmm, if a T-rex tastes human blood before it becomes aggressive then what made it taste human blood in the first place? So many questions.
I have been toying around with another mini-story idea about an exploration team going in to check out the new jungles forming. We'll see.........you know how it is, so much game stuff to do, so little time for it.
