Ralph looked up at him in both surprise and annoyance, as the other commandos grunted a few laughs at his expense. “It’s just not your day today, Ralph.”
Sarah cautiously pulled the data stub from her pocket, keeping an eye on what Lorain did when they saw it, and inserted it into the port on the console. Alighten immediately went to work to begin video upload onto the system, while Ralph watched on in bitter frustration. Alighten had thoroughly stolen his ONE job. He really couldn’t do anything about it either…
Matt and Valor walked into the booth a moment later; Matt passed both teams a respectful nod. “Bad guys disarmed and we setup some motion sensors just in case someone tries to come down the train tunnels. Sarah, did you already radio in to James? Tell him were moving to phase two.”
Sarah shrugged and replied indifferently. “Alighten’s uploading the video right now. I’ll have Gaillard do it afterwards.”
Matt nodded in acceptance, and then leaned his back against the wall. The room felt a little tense... Oh well, things were going fine so far. “Alright then.”
Valor clapped Alighten hard on the shoulder and smirked at him. He was going to cheer him up if it was the last thing he did! “Hah! Yo, so like we can broadcast anything on this right? I got some funny videos on my wrist coms, we should totally harass those bastards! Hah, shit would be dope!”
Alighten half-smiled and snorted a laugh. Matt shook his head firmly, but still laughed. “No, Valor… You’re not going to put your videos up on the government broadcasting system…”
Sarah tilted her head toward Valor, coolly replying. “They probably suck anyway. I wouldn’t watch them.”
Valor chuckled, and smirked back at Sarah. “Oh, no you didn’t...”
Sarah smiled, and replied sarcastically. “Oh yes I did. Now, go be useful and fix a tank or something!”
Alighten smiled widely and laughed, as Valor put his hands up defensively. “Whoa, I almost forgot. We gotta do what Miss big shot Sergeant over here says now! Hah!”
Sarah grinned toward him, and leaned against the wall next to Matt. “Damn right...”
Alighten carefully checked the progress of the upload, then started the appropriate programs and checked the network connection. “Video uploaded and the system’s ready for broadcast.” He called out for all in the booth to hear.
Matt checked his watch. That was fast… “Good… Twenty-two minutes to game time… I hope the other team is having it as easy as we are.”
***
A fierce wave of suppressive fire shrieked over the mobile barricades in front of the Hydra Facility, prompting Kabir and Ramirez to hold their heads down for dear life. The barricades had been a dead giveaway to what the team was about to get into, and though the twenty something Naval Special Warfare operators hadn’t initially noticed the train arrive, that changed when the intercom loudly announced its doors were now open. Thankfully the high speed train had been pleasantly comfortable for the 30 something minutes prior, so it wasn’t too much of a shock when the shit hit the fan. Grunts can never get too relaxed…
Now the NSWs were busy trying to destroy every decorative tile in the floor, ceiling, and walls…or at least it seemed like that with the massive amount of destruction being rained down everywhere. Kabir waited until the NSWs had begun to reload, then glanced over his concrete barricade and quickly scanned the destroyed train station. Interestingly enough, the NSW’s had been trying to plasma cut through the Hydra blast doors when the teams had arrived, but that stopped once the fighting started. So at least the team prevented them from going in right away… Strange they wouldn’t already have the codes though? Shit, the Air Force tech did!
Ramirez sighed with frustration, and whined. “Dude…this sucks…. We’re gonna be past the deadline in like 10 minutes!”
Kabir dropped back behind cover and shrugged hopelessly at him. “It is what it is, man.”
Ramirez glanced back at the rest of the team, all of which were carefully concealed behind various areas of cover, including a large potted plant in Willits case. Any attempt for them to move forward had been met with the same suppressive fire and no real results. “We got to do something… This stalemate shit is killing me.”
Kabir sighed quietly, what did Ramirez expect? No one wanted to be stuck here, it was just as bad for the rest of the team. “Unless we can just shoot right through their cover and drop them, I don’t see what we can really do.”
There was a moment of silence in the tunnels, before Bag took the opportunity and yelled out from behind his hiding place. “Navy Sailors! We are not your enemy! We’re trying to stop another nuclear holocaust!”
The NSW’s responded by firing their weapons relentlessly toward him for a solid ten seconds. When the firing had stopped, Bag yelled back out. “Well fuck you too!”
Jon began to laugh from the opposite side of the room. “If it makes you feel better, I don’t take you seriously either.”
Bag sighed loudly, obviously sour about the joke. Was it a joke? “God Damnit, Jon…”
“Haha! Just kidding, Bag… Love you!”
Ramirez and Kabir exchanged odd expressions. They had very strange leaders… In fact, Krieger was very peculiar all together. It wasn’t a bad thing, Ramirez was actually enjoying the madness of it all. Just going from the seriousness of boot camp, to this, was quite a leap. He leaned back against the concrete barricade let set his weapon down across his legs. “Well, I guess let’s just chill until the other teams arrive.”
Kabir passed him a peculiar glance. “The other teams aren’t coming, dude…”
“What do you mean they aren’t coming?” Ramirez exclaimed.
Kabir shrugged and then leaned back as well. “Their mission was to upload the video and then move into the capital building. They just called in phase two, they aren’t coming to help us.”
Ramirez laughed and shook his head. “Well fuck me…”
The sound of the blast doors releasing their heavy hydraulic locks drew everyone’s attention, including the NSWs. Kabir and Ramirez risked another peak over their barricade. “Shit…they got the doors open…” Ramirez groaned with discontent.
The heavy doors slid fully into their housing and stopped a moment later, and beyond was the pitch-black entrance to the Hydra facility, illuminated only slightly by red caution lights. A group of five NSW grunts rushed straight into the doors, followed by the sound of a fierce but short gunfight from inside. The remaining NSW’s began to act peculiar, and were cautiously glancing back toward the blast doors…which meant they were no longer paying full attention to Krieger!
“Ramirez, I got an idea!” In that moment Kabir grabbed his two remaining grenades, almost without thinking, and sent them sailing past the central control booth near several of the hostiles. He then posed himself, ready to charge forward around the barricade.
Ramirez jaw dropped as he watched the situation play out. Kabir couldn’t be serious, right? It was such a bad idea and Ramirez wanted to explain why it was, but the only words he managed were, “WAIT! NO!”
The grenades exploded soon after, catching the hostile’s off-guard, and blasting a hole in the NSW defense. Kabir leveled his rifle and charged toward the central booth, guns blazing. “YEAH! GET SOME!” He shouted out as he leaped recklessly forward.
Jon called loudly from the rear. “WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?”
Ramirez dropped back behind cover and yelled out. “Damnit Kabir! What the fuck? Uh….damnit fine!” He was just poising to jump over the barricade and follow suite, when the remaining squad of NSW’s tactfully recovered and stopped his and Kabir’s movement with calculated suppressive fire. The last he saw Kabir, he dove behind the security booth in the center, but Ramirez was forced to take cover before he could get to him. The firing had just began to die down when even more intense automatic barrage began to flash overhead from behind, but this was from his team mates… Ramirez hugged the deck for dear life. “DAMNIT! STOP SHOOTING TOWARD ME!”
A few moments later however, all the shooting abruptly stopped, and the last thing he heard was the sound of brass casings rattling on the floor. Ramirez looked up from the cold tiles his face was resting on, to see the rest of his team slowly advancing forward from behind. Shit, what happened to Kabir? He decided to chance a glance up and over the now crumbling barricade. An eerie silence had filled the station…and nothing but the occasional shuffle of one of his team mate’s boots could be heard. He looked frantically around forward for his team mate, but thankfully Kabir began to call over to him from somewhere out of sight. “Hey, Jorge! Jorge! Are you alright, man?”
Was HE alright? That arrogant, reckless, over confident bastard! Ramirez checked himself and noticed his arm was bleeding lightly just above the elbow pad, and several of the ceramic plates on his chest had been broken. He let his weapon dangle from its sling as he removed the elbow pad and checked the wound, which now hurt quite a bit since noticing it. “Fuck…when did that happen?” He grunted in annoyance.
Kabir shouted out again, more dramatically. “Jorge?! Damnit! Speak to me, man!”
“I’m fine! Fuckers hit my arm…”
“Do you need help?”
“No. It’s not bad, it just hurts like a bitch… But don’t ever do that shit again, man! Seriously, what the fuck was that?”
The conversation ended as soon as James’ stern voice screamed out from behind them. “LOCK IT UP!”
Several Krieger and Air Force soldiers started to push even further inward and toward the blast door. Jon and Bag moved around the far left side, and slowly proceeded toward the doors, just as the other team members passed by Ramirez’ position and gave him a quick bio-seal fix. Though as soon as they had passed into the NSW held area, they all stopped dead in their tracks. Before them were the absolutely massacred team of NSWs, most of which appeared to have been shot from behind… Not a single one of them was unscathed. Ramirez shoot his head in disbelief, but then his as well as everyone else’s attention went straight to the blast doors. The shots came from behind!
Jon motioned James and his team to the opposite side of the door, and then motioned at Cholius and the Air Force team to hold the station entrance. Bag whispered over the radio. “Thermals on.”
All teams keyed their mics…ready signal. Jon led the charge into the Hydra lobby, and quickly cleared and secured the area. The room was an undecorated military style lobby with three doors marked Control Booth, Conference Room, and Elevator. Despite the red light, the walls were obviously the bland white paint that all government buildings seemed to use. The only break in monotony was the labelling for the fire extinguisher and first aid kits hanging on the walls. A single plastic looking reception desk lay in the center, and everything about this seemed cheaply made. No surprise there, everything including the team’s weapons were made by the lowest bidder. Besides all that there was nothing… Well, except for the bodies of the five NSWs that had originally rushed in and were now very dead and shot in excess. Though the control room door was slightly ajar…
Joe had spotted it first, patted James gently on the back, and pointed right in its direction. It only took James a second to understand, and he instantly signaled for the rest of his team to fall in behind him. Bag and Jon took up security in the lobby to watch their backs, as the team breached and cleared the very empty control room, passing each other shrugs of confusion. “There’s no one here?” Joe whispered in confusion.
Kabir glanced down at the only active computer work station. How curious… “Uh, Lieutenant? You should take a look at this…”
James walked over next to him and glanced down. “System Secured, Manual Override? Well…hmm.” It shouldn’t have been shut down just yet… Did they do something that would shut it down? Barsha better not have mixed up where the primary facility was! This better not have been a trick… He keyed his radio, and spoke just loud enough for it to transmit. “Hey Bag, you should come take a look at this.”
Jon and Bag strode in a second later and glanced down to the monitor in question. Bag scanned the screen meticulously, and raised an eye brow suspiciously. “Uh…system secured? What exactly does that mean?”
Cholius called over the radio just then. “Bag, Jon, we found something of interest on the Naval Operators. It’s best if you just come see for yourself.”
Jon sighed loudly in frustration, as he always did. “God Damnit…” Then keyed his radio. “Be there in a second…and send that technician in here to start working on this hydra shit!”
Cholius acknowledged calmly. “Doing so now. Out.”
Bag turned to James and motioned back toward the lobby, speaking in a low tone. “Hey, could you take your team and start clearing the rest of the rooms? Let’s try and find out who it was that killed those guys...”
James smiled and did a quick salute. It sounded like a challenge, and that’s all it took to get James excited. “No problem, Bag. I always like being the hunter...and definitely don’t like being the prey…”
Bag and Jon guardedly made their way past the Air Force team, and out into the rail station where Cholius and Willits were crouched beside one of the NSWs. Jon wasn’t too thrilled to be looking at a dead body. The guy was dead. Case closed. “So…what’s so interesting about a bunch of dead Navy fuck heads?”
Willits pulled off the dead NSW’s helmet, and tilted the neck up so a bar code tattoo could be clearly seen. She spoke in a tone that was like an investigator on a crime TV show that had just figured out the big case. She was digging this. “Sir, all these soldiers have a branding at the base of their neck and also have scarring that would suggest some sort of implants. As you know, both of which are very illegal in the military…”
Bag crouched down to get a better look at the tattoo. There was something odd about it, besides the obvious that Willits had pointed out. Bag couldn’t help but get a little excited about the possibilities as well. “Hmm…that’s interesting...”
Jon shrugged toward him, and replied calmly. “What, the bar code? It supposed to signify giving up individuality to become a number in the gang. Unified and the same as the others and all that shit.”
Bag slowly scratched his chin. He suddenly remembered where he’d seen it; Raiders on Earth…during the collapse. Couldn’t be certain it was even related to what was going on now, but it still stuck out in his head. “Yeah, but it’s also a cult thing… There’s a group called the Death’s Head that uses it… I won’t go into it right now. Willits, what did you say about implants?”
Willits pointed at a small scar just below the dead man’s tattoo. “Right there, Sir. That scar’s on all of them and it feels like there’s something hard underneath. It’s just a hunch…but I think it’s some sort of implant. If I had access to a lab I could do a more in-depth analysis.”
She had a subtle grin of pride, rightly so. Wonder why she didn’t become an investigator? Not that she wasn’t an awesome Medic. Bag turned toward her curiously. “What rate did you say you were?”
Willits hesitated for a moment, not sure if he was about to question her credibility. You didn’t have to be trained in something to be good at it, darn it! She stood firmly by that belief! The Sergeant Major seemed to agree with her, after all. “Um…I was a Health Services Technician…but now I’m a Corpsman in Special Operations.”
“I’m impressed.” Bag smiled and nodded to her approvingly. Cholius cut in just then, very seriously. “Bag, I think we should look into this further. I’d like to contact Brett and try to reserve the forensics lab on base just for this.”
Jon grunted loudly before Bag could respond. Why was everyone getting side tracked all of a sudden? They had a time line! Did they forget that? “We have a fucking mission to complete! Stop the traitors from trying to take over the fucking country, remember?”
Willits gave Jon a crossed look, and then turned her head away. Jon was right, but he didn’t have to snap at Willits like that. Bag took in a deep, annoyed breath and extended a can of bio-sea
l to him. “Be nice, Jon… and you’re hit on your left shoulder.”
Jon glared unresponsively at Bag, then rolled his left shoulder into sight. “Fuck it, it’s just a grazing wound.” He said dismissively, and continued to glare.
“Seriously, take the damn bio-seal…” Bag countered sharply, extending the can out further. However, that just prompted Jon to cross his arms and glare back even more determined not to.
Sometimes Cholius thought Brett promoted him to Sergeant Major just to keep Jon and Bag in line… They could either be completely professional, or act like two spoiled rival children. That pretty much summed up his job. Cholius cleared his throat loudly, and gave them both a very disapproving shake of his head. Then he calmly turned and spoke to Willits. “I’ll talk to General Travis about this after we’re done here… That is, if that’s alright with you, Colonel?”
Both Jon and Bag turned and responded simultaneously. “Sure…”
“Good work, Petty Officer Willits.” Cholius nodded to her respectfully, just as James came over the radio. “Bag, do you read?”
Bag keyed and responded. “Yeah, go ahead.”
“Hey, we finished clearing the core and the elevator shaft…there’s nothing. However, the technician made some progress on hydra and wanted to talk to you. We’re in the control room.”
“Got it, were on our way.”
The Colonel’s now accompanied by Willits and Cholius, rushed right past the commandos in the lobby, and straight into the control room where the technician was sitting calmly in front of the primary work station. “Hey Colonel, I got some good news and some bad news. I’ll spare you the option and give you the good news first, which is that the Hydra network has been shut down and secured. The bad news is that I wasn’t the one that did it…and also that the entire server fried itself when I tried to access the missile control program.”
Jon shrugged his hands. “How is that bad news?”
The technician interlaced his hands on his lap, and took a very proud stance on the issue. “Well Sir, I don’t think it’s one of our guys that did it because the last Air Force tech entry was a week ago… But one thing I do know is that whoever did this had accessed THIS very console during our fight outside. The time stamps match the logs.”
Krieger Platoon Page 37