Lorain shrugged her hands at let out a, and let out a sigh. “This is military intelligence were talking about…for all we know it could be a fucking bakery, but it’s all we got to go on. Ok?”
Jon snorted and threw his hands up in frustration, it was hopeless asking her anything. It was all a game. James and Matt both exchanged frustrated shrugs over the comment. “Let’s just hope Intel got it right for once.” James rolled his eyes just thinking about ‘Intelligence’. There was nothing intelligent about military intelligence…
Matt lowered his voice and let out a deep breath. “Let’s hope we aren’t walking straight into a fucking ambush…”
Cholius heard the comment and nodded subtly in agreement, but they were wasting time now. “Everyone move out... Eyes and ears open.”
Soldier by soldier descended down into the awful smelling sewage maintenance room below, crouched walked through several long and ’muddy’ tunnels, until they finally reached a room that proved just barely large enough for both units to fit in. Ralph had been the last man in after he secured the concrete door behind, but now had to squeeze past the entirety of the group until he reached the next service door on the opposite side. The soldiers were literally crammed together as close as they could be, but he had just enough room to open his wrist coms. “This will just take me a minute…”
One of the commandos spoke out sarcastically. “Please, take your time… No rush at all. I love being squeezed like a sardine with the smell of shit in the air.”
Almost as soon as Ralph began, the section of wall he was working on slid silently open and a fresh warm breeze of unspoiled air began to poor in, much to everyone’s relief. Through the open door was the pristine red carpeted, museum like rail station. The low ceilings were painted with a beautiful sky like mural, and the walls were decorated with a wide assortment of expensive looking photographs and paintings. The station had a single control booth in the center next to the two separate rail lines, and a small garage on the far side of the tracks which held what looked like four, double length train cars. A single very bored looking security guard sat in the booth, along with several others who were chatting on a nearby bench.
Alighten tried to adjust himself, but ended up elbowing someone behind him accidentally. “Hmm… Is it really this easy to sneak into a secret government facility? This place isn’t very secure.”
Ralph pivoted toward him in and snapped back in genuine insult. Was he questioning his abilities? “Easy? No. Having the codes for this certainly helps though. You’d be surprised how much you can do with a little bit of security clearance.”
A commando shushed both of them, then glanced over to Matt and James. “We’ll take the guy in the booth. We’ll walk out and distract the ones on the bench, then you jump them. Non-lethal force if possible.” There was a bluntness to his voice that only another operator would really appreciate, and Matt and James both did. They were speaking to each other as equals, as team mates now. Seemed like the distrust was slowly starting to fade. Maybe.
The teams passed each other understanding nods, as two of the commandos crept out of the tunnel and took cover behind a trashcan. Two Bravo squeezed themselves out, then positioned themselves right behind a nearby pillar, ready to jump the three guards on the bench. The two teams gave each other the thumbs up gesture, initiating the plan. The commandos began casually walking toward the control booth, pretending to laugh and converse along the way. The guards on the bench stopped talking and stared at the soldiers with complete surprise. “Uh, excuse me, who are you and how did you get down here? Excuse me... STOP!”
Two Bravo rushed, tackled, and stunned the three guards as soon as they had left the bench. The two commandos then rushed the booth, pulled the now very confused and alarmed guard out, and knocked him unconscious. The moment it was over, the rest of the soldiers hurried out from the tunnel and began breathing in heavy gulps of fresh air. It really did smell terrible in that other room…
Ralph pushed his way through the crowd of soldiers, entered the control booth, and went straight to work on securing the rail network. Though it would have probably gone faster if both Shake and Baranov hadn’t began asking him questions, but they insisted. They wanted to know how he was doing what he was doing. “You’re Ralph right? What’s your specialty?”
Ralph tried to ignore them and focused solely on his wrist coms. “Intelligence System Specialist.” He said bluntly.
Shake nodded, trying to be friendly. “Cool. So you’re like a hacker for the military, then?”
Ralph looked up toward him with a peculiar look. “Uh, I guess you could say that. I just mostly use pre-coded data stubs…but this time I have to improvise. This is the most fun I’ve had in a while...”
Baranov looked down at the man’s wrist coms curiously. Working on computers all day didn’t seem too fun… “So, computer job ‘fun’ for you? Just look at codes all day?”
Ralph stopped typing for a moment and sighed. His voice suddenly became very quick…and he came off as a know it all. “For me, yes. Normally I just connect my wrist coms to the system and it does most of the work itself. But since this is a-” Ralph made the two finger quotation expression with his hands. “’High security system’… I have to manually enter in the codes in the right order and fool the computer into accepting the fake retinal and DNA scan as legitimate. Furthermore after the initial set of coding was unencrypted, I had to falsify our access credentials and trick security into tagging us all as congressmen. It actually isn’t as hard as it sounds, but for someone who doesn’t know the system it would be a pain in the ass.”
Baranov face twisted in confusion, and he looked at Ralph like the man had just spoken in some alien language. “Yes… I will go now…”
Ralph sighed again and went back to his wrist coms. He definitely was a know it all. “What I mean is I had the right knowhow and the right codes to get in here, but making it all work was just pure art.”
Shake laughed humored at both the situation and Baranov’s lack of caring. His little brother Joe would get a kick out of this guy! He was always playing around on his wrist coms. “A little cocky there…” Shake smirked.
The garage became illuminated and its doors opened, as two rail cars slid onto either track and secured themselves down. Ralph glanced over at them and shut down his wrist coms. “No, I’m just good at my job.” He replied brusquely.
Another Air Force commando began laughing at his comment, then walked away without another word; much to Ralph’s annoyance. “Laugh all you want, Terry! You know it’s true.” Ralph was just a little sensitive. Hah.
Jon made a twirling motion with his hand in the air and shouted out in typical Jon fashion. “Lock it up and move the fuck out! Hydra team in the left train, video team to the right!”
One and Two Bravo, along with half the Air Force team, casually walked aboard the train heading to 21 Whiskey. One and Two Alpha, along with the other half of the commandos, did the same on the train to 97 Lima. The teams gave a final set of quick good luck wishes and a few friendly challenges to their counterparts, as both trains lurched forward and began to progressively accelerate in opposite directions.
Chapter 26 – Station Vacation
Matt stared out the window of the train, as station after unknown station passed by his view, followed by the long darkened expanses of the subterranean tunnels. They were moving quickly enough and without incident, but the unknown still nagged at the corner of Matt’s mind. Though he didn’t like to say it out loud, the waiting part was always a pain in the ass…especially when the next part of the plan was somewhat up in the air. He really should have put music on his wrist coms… Even though that ‘technically’ wasn’t allowed since it was government property and all. But seriously, who would even know? Besides, he’s risking his life to defend the nation…so they can just deal with an unauthorized file or two.
Matt grunted a quiet laugh to himself, then began to glance over the other occupants of the train
car for the seemingly hundredth time. Sarah and her team of Armor enthusiasts were sitting off to the back in a quiet and probably idle conversation. All except Valor who was surprisingly fast asleep against his seat and nearly snoring. Hah! Matt’s team was apparently still playing that game of poker from earlier, and at this point he’d lost track of who was winning and losing. Either way, he’d find out when Krieger Platoon went to the next bar together. From Ramirez’s facial movements, it seemed like he was struggling a little this time around.
Interestingly enough though, Captain Lorain was sitting just across the way, and staring blankly in Matt’s direction…weird. Matt passed her a blank stare right back, but decided to try and strike up a conversation. “Hey Captain, I have a quick question for you.”
She turned her head and stared out the window, before passing him a serious look. “What?”
Matt smirked. “Well besides why you were staring… Why’d you join the Air Force?”
Lorain turned her head toward the window again, and countered back snidely. “Why did you join the Army?”
Matt smiled, and replied like a smartass. “Because I want to kick everyone’s ass and blow shit up. So, why did you join the Air Force?”
She turned to him and spoke in a very bitchy tone of voice. “Why does it matter?”
Wow, she was being unnecessarily defensive and very unfriendly. All he wanted to know is why she joined the Chair…Air Force. If he had to guess now, he’d say family tradition of academy. She was young enough and a high enough rank to fit that category. “For having a cute face, you’re not very nice to talk to.”
Her eyes instantly narrowed, and the look on her face was none too amused. “Did you just fucking flirt with me?” She snapped back at him, drawing the curious glances from several of her and Matt’s team members.
Matt snorted a laugh. He’d gotten under her skin pretty fast. He tried to be nice, but she was just not worth talking to what so ever. “Not a chance… You aren’t my type.” He responded indifferently.
Lorain rolled her eyes and turned back toward the window, prompting Matt to snort another laugh at her expense, and sit back comfortably in his window seat. Good timing too, since the train had begun to decelerate. Finally. They soon passed by station 23…22...and then continued to slow until it came to painfully slow stop at 21 Whiskey…
21 Whiskey was a mirror image of the station they had entered, with the exception of the different decorations and paintings. In the dead center of the back wall, just beyond the security booth, was a set of heavily fortified alloy doors with a Presidential Seal directly above it. The entire room was guarded by a group of at least ten security guards, who thankfully look rather bored. The team still had surprise on their side, and it was possible they wouldn’t even need to use their weapons if things went well. Hopefully it did, but experience tended to leaned the other way. Matt stood up and stretched his arms widely, then motioned over to his team. “Ok, here we are… Alighten, can you wake up Valor, please?”
Alighten smiled and spoke deviously. “Sure…” Then squirted Valor with water from the shoulder drinking tube of his backpack reservoir. Valor jumped from his seat in frustration and growled at Alighten, wiping the water from his face. “Yo, what the hell? Could’ve just shook me or something!”
Alighten and the rest of the team exchanged a few quick laughs, as Loraine walked into the center of the car and took a knee to drop herself below the level of the windows. “Ok listen up! Here’s the plan, I’ll-”
“We don’t have time for this!” Sarah interrupted her sharply, and then walked right out of the train doors and toward the now very inquisitive looking station guards. Loraine’s face went wide, now completely vexed. She opened her mouth to speak to Matt, but he and the rest of Krieger followed Sarah out, humored smiles on their faces as they passed.
Sarah confidently walked directly up to the first two guards who had approached her, and struck a smile. “Hi, we need to get into the Presidential bunker.” She spoke in forced friendliness.
The first guard gave her a peculiar look. “Sorry Ma’am, only authorized members of the government are allowed down here. I need to see your credentials or your orders, please. ”
The rest of the teams grouped up behind Sarah in a defensive, but very relaxed posture. “No, you don’t.” She continued to smile.
The guard looked utterly muddled, then reached for the send button on his radio. Sarah responded immediately. Oh no he didn’t! She raised her rifle directly into his face, which prompted the rest of the team, as well as the guards, to raise theirs. Sarah continued to smile, but spoke in a clearly ‘don’t fuck with me’ tone. “We are not here to harm you, but I strongly suggest you put your guns down.”
The guard was frozen in place and his eyes wide in distress, mostly because he staring down the barrel of her assault rifle. “I suggest you put down YOUR weapons before you’re arrested…” He tried to protest in return, but it wasn’t very effective.
There was a loud ding noise as the large blast doors of the bunker unlocked themselves, and glided open. Ralph disconnected his wrist coms from the system and nodded to the inquiring stares of his team mates. “I accessed the network as soon as we got into range. I have full control of this station. Security systems included.” He beamed, very proud of himself.
Sarah sighed and slightly lowered her rifle. These guards didn’t have a chance, couldn’t they see that? They’d better get the point soon… She spoke slow and deliberate. “We are the United States Military and we are taking control of this station. Like I said we don’t want to harm any of you, but I will end all of you if you so much as flinch toward me. Guns down and you go home at the end of the day. Final offer.”
One of the guards in the back of the group immediately set his weapon down and stepped back with his hands up. “Deal. I’m not dyeing for this.” He exclaimed bluntly.
The rest of the guards glared at him with a variety of anger and disappointment, but one by one they all followed suite. They knew they were outgunned, by a lot, and there was nothing they could do to stop the soldiers. In the end, they choice wisely. Surrendering was never easy though. Matts and Shake, along with several of the commandos, moved right in and began cuffing the guards. “Do NOT resist me!”
Alighten passed the guards a reassuring nod as he walked past. “Don’t worry, we really are the good guys. If you don’t try anything you won’t be hurt.”
Valor nudged him hard on the shoulder with a laugh, then spoke to the guards. “Yo, this kid couldn’t hurt a fly! I wouldn’t worry about him either way, hah!”
Alighten gave him a disapproving shake of his head in an unusually serious moment. He knew Valor was just being himself, but this whole traitor thing had really gotten to him. The entire world was upside, and the hopelessness of it all just made him angry. This was not how things were supposed to be! Alighten silently walked away and left Valor with a jumbled look on his face. “Uh…that was a joke, I mean damn!”
The rest of Krieger Team under Sarah’s command, cautiously stacked up on either side of the doors in preparation for their breach and clear. Sarah did a quick ready-or-not count of her team, then made a forward cutting motion to move in. The two teams entered together and then immediately split left and right respectively, weapons leveled for any potential threats.
The doors gave way to a long hallway, which in regards to decorations was an extension of the rest of the rail station, except the picturing lining the walls were paintings of former Presidents. At the end of the hallway was a circular reception room with an enormous Presidential Eagle seal hanging in the center. Both teams moved silently forward, tightly hugging the sides of the hall, as they cleared either side of the doorway and moved into the next room. Two dark oak doors stood on either side of the large Presidential seal in the center of the carpet, one door marked as Conference Room on the left and the other as Control Room on the right.
The teams stacked up on both doors without orders, and wa
ited patiently for Sarah’s command, which came in the form of a thumbs up. One Bravo kicked the door in and rushed into what looked like a video recording studio with a long rectangular window separating them from the conference room, through which they could see the rest of the team still clearing. The conference room held a large rounded table in the center, and an ornate wooden podium flanked by two American flags, and numerous video and sound recording equipment on the far end of the room.
Alighten took his helmet off and began to fiddle with some of the equipment on the control stations. “This stuff looks like what we used for our college news station… You should be able to plug the data stub into this port…here.” Alighten motioned over to Sarah, and then toward a small port in the center of the console.
Sarah had begun to reach into her pocket for the data stub, when Lorain and the commandos barged in. Lorain had an obviously irritated look on her face, and she glared at Sarah. “Sergeant, why did you move in here without us? Furthermore, why did feel it was appropriate to just walk up to the guards that way? You put the whole team at risk!"
Sarah maintained an impassive expression; her way had obviously worked, so why did it matter? Was Lorain upset because she didn’t get HER way? “To answer your first question, Captain, because we didn’t need more than one team moving down a potential ambush site. Secondly, I have people skills.”
The casual directness of Sarah’s words, and the fact that she hadn’t back down an inch, just added to Lorain’s growing resentment. How dare an enlisted soldier speak to her, an OFFICER, that way! Sarah’s Lieutenant didn’t even seem to care himself! Lorain crossed her arms and opened her mouth to speak, when Ralph interrupted and began typing on his wrist coms. “Captain, I’ll be able to have the whole system online in a moment…”
Alighten leaned over and hit a single button that activated the entire console. “Yeah, I already got it.” He calmly countered.
Krieger Platoon Page 36