Rebellious Citadel IC [Project Warfighter Thread]

[Hurtful Thoughts]

As the hurti squad trundled out into the water, Kayora looked back, thinking she heard a noise...

"Kayora we have need of you"

Amidst the smoldering embers, it wouldn't be hard for her to press up against a wall, let the others pass, and investigate. The PCU John had given her would also need some investigating, but that would take time and privacy... It, like almost every Congrevetopian piece of electronics, was intrinsically networked with Nexus, allowing her to perhaps find some answers... Outside, a nearby thunderclap reminded her of painful memories, as she instimctively took shelter from the storm, inside the burning and sinking airship... even as it filled with smoke. She had to find Lieghton...

She was keeping her eyes on the ground letting her senses and instinct guide her search. There was no feeling like the air rushing across her skin as she flew through the open sky the warm sun shining on her. She suddenly paused as a couple of the trees below her flashed different colours for a moment before returning to normal

In a dimly lit room filled with computer screens several men started scrambling there fingers flying across keys entering line after line of diagnostic code

"Someone want to tell me what the hell that was?"
"We are checking now sir. But it would appear to be a minor software glitch"
"Software glitch? The system was supposed to be isolated"
"It is. We are trying to get a better idea of what happened"

"What about the subject?"

Kayora stared at the trees for a moment longer before moving on dropping to the ground to search through the trees more closely. as she walked around on her search it slowly began clouding over until the sky had turned black and the wind had picked up and the weather continued to worsen, it started raining and there was the odd thunder clap which actually scared her making her heart rate increase as she huddled under a tree to avoid the rain she hated the thunder and being wet and now she was out in both and she wasn't liking it with every thunderclap startling her

"Can you stop it or not?"
"No sir. Whoever programmed it knew what they where doing. Its rewriting its self as it moves through the system"
"Pull the plug!"

The airship, however, was in a precariously unstable state. Beams were starting to buckle, rivets popped, welds cracked, and structural members were soon crashing down and punching holes into the floor. She did her best to avoid these hazards as she braved the inferno that no engulfed the previously-clear escape-route.

Kayora screamed as a flash of lightning hit close to her flinching at the immediate thunder that went with it

"Someone get in there yank it manually!" it wasn't the best option as there was the risk of damage to the subjects neural pathways but it was a damn sight better than having her brain cooked by an electrical overload

She screamed again as another strike hit near her again she took off running the lightning strangely seeming to following her as she ran

Kayora jumped backwards and fell down screaming as lightning hit right in front of her she huddled in the fetal position for a moment before looking up to see a bolt of lighting coming right at her.

Deeper in, the halls were already starting to flood with icy water as he passed several dead bodies that were shaken loose from the computer-room during the crash. Lieghton had to be near here somewhere... A large beam was blocking her path, even in her exoskeleton, she'd already spent the emergency-boost for her frame... She had to find another way through the twisted wreckage...

The sudden shock of cold water on her face woke her up enough to see that the rear door had been knocked open and water was rapidly filling the inside sure to drown everyone. She forced herself up and out of the van only to be carried down the river by the current not being able to swim against it due to her weakened state only to wash up tired and exhausted on a riverbank somewhat farther down stream.

Working through John's PCU, he worked out a message to send to Nexus, to send to someone it hopefully didn't know...

Code: Select all

>> From: John
To: Alexi Montoya
Re: Calno?

Looks like I'll be getting some time off thanks to Nexus... [i]Sooooo[/i]... mind  coming over to the usual place? Bring Santa, their number is #-###-###-####.

I look forwards to seeing your smile.

Best wishes,
Your better half,
John

Kayora had kept in-touch with the hyper-religious Hurti-trained man-hating sniper ever since the Shizuku-incident in Foxlandish, even through the course of 3 false deaths and several more false identities. They were both mildly amused at how close they'd come to meeting each other during each of their missions, but also thankful they never had to line each other up in their crosshairs... aside from that one time.

[Congreveopia]

Leighton, Vindication:

Leighton shoved open a door and a wall of smoke washed over him from the other side. He inhaled before he knew what he was doing, and collapsed coughing as his lungs screamed out in pain. Two coughs, and he gasped for air, but only found more hot ash. His vision swam and he pulled the small oxygen tank out of his vest and greedily sucked down a gulp of air. His vision cleared a little. It still felt like his whole chest was on fire, but he was getting air again. Only for three minutes, though. Then the tank would be dry.

Leighton glanced over at John. His eyes were closed as he sat slumped against the wall that Leighton had leaned him on while he opened the door. The lump of gauze that Leighton had passed him to compress the wound with was soaked with blood and rested loosely in John’s left hand. Smoke had filled the corridor, and John wasn’t even reacting. Leighton knelt down and checked John’s pulse. Then he checked again. Then he just sat down next to the body for a moment and rested his face in his hands.

He didn’t know how much time passed, but it couldn’t have been more than a minute before he was pulled back to the situation at hand.

“What the FUCK happened here?” said a voice. Leighton glanced up. Vladimir was standing in front of him, wearing one Vindication’s emergency smoke masks.

“I fucked up,” thought Leighton. “I trusted Nexus. I trusted Nexus one mission too far. I trusted Nexus all the way up until one member of my squad shot another in the chest, and just for a moment, for an instant there, I knew that the rulebook said I should side with Charles. That Charles was ‘right.’ And that was one rule too far. One objective too far. One mission too far.”

Leighton just shrugged. One of the other Namiens was checking John; shook his head at Vlad.

“Get Leighton onto a helicopter,” said Vlad. “Take his weapons, toss his comms gear into the ocean. Maybe that’ll get the Congreveopians to stop threatening to shoot down the helos.”

Someone gestured for Leighton to follow. Leighton glanced at John, and stayed sitting.

“Oh, and get… John onto the helicopter as well,” said Vlad. “Everyone else, on me. Let’s find Kayora and get the fuck out of this mess.”

Doris Walker, Manta Two:

“You got her yet?” the rescue swimmer grunted as Doris grabbed the hand of the V-22’s copilot, who was helping her onto the ramp of the V-22 from the rescue swimmer’s recovery harness.

“Yeah, I’m good,” said Doris as she pulled herself onto the ramp, the dark water swirling fifty feet below.

“Great,” said the rescue swimmer, clambering onto the ramp himself. He checked his harness, then sat down near the edge of the ramp and started peering out for more people in the water.

“You look like you’re doing okay,” he said, glancing back at the two other occupants of the cabin “But no reason to take risks. You should get out of those wet clothes, and check yourself out for hypothermia. I can tell you the tests if you want; my PCU’s gone weird from all this jamming and counter jamming, and apparently we’re just communicating with Overwhelming Silence by the cockpit radio now.”

“Nah, I remember survival training. Thanks, though,” said Doris, peeling off her soaked shirt. “So, this operation’s gone south rather quickly, hasn’t it?”

“You’re telling me,” said the copilot, rummaging through a medical kit for a thermometer. “Nexus never thought the Namiens would try jamming us, let alone fire on Vindication. Now we’ve got Dark Division troops scattered everywhere, and we don’t know whether we should be retrieving them or if they’ve all still got SCUBA gear so they can reach Injunction. It’s a mess out there.”

“I didn’t know Dark Division was supporting TFA in this OP-” began Doris, then stopped mid sentence as she connected the dots.

“Wait, you’re not-” The copilot started to talk, then was cut off by Doris’s elbow landing squarely in his solar plexus, sending him sprawling against the far wall of the cabin.

The rescue swimmer turned as Doris spun towards him and kicked him directly in the chest. He slipped off the ramp, and was caught by his harness, hanging outside the Osprey. Doris turned back to the copilot, who had recovered and was advancing towards her. She dodged a clumsy punch from him, ducked around behind him, and got him in a sleeper hold. A few seconds later, he was unconscious. She pulled his pistol from his belt, and hit the winch retract button, pulling the rescue swimmer back into the V-22.

“Zip ties. In the medical bag. Him then you.” said Doris, gesturing with the handgun. The rescue swimmer complied. Doris headed for the cockpit.

“Data link to Nexus is down,” said the pilot, as soon as he saw Doris with the handgun. “You shoot me, and we crash.”

“Did. You. Kill. My. Crew.” said Doris slowly, never pointing the gun away from the pilot’s head.

“No, they’re aboard Injunction,” said the pilot. “We just couldn’t risk one of them identifying a Dark Division soldier.”

“Thank god,” said Doris. “Get in back and zip tie yourself to a chair.”

“But the aircraft will crash,” said the pilot.

“I can fly an Osprey, you moron.” said Doris. The pilot got up and withdrew into the cabin as Doris sat down in the copilot’s seat, turned off the position hold, and shut down the comms.

[Hurtful Thoughts]

As the main group of the Hurti squad bobbed in their recently acquired floaties and tried to ignore the stinging pain of the salty brine that was the big blue sea against their burn-wounds, Gibbons raised his assault rifle out and clear of the water, bracing the butt against his palm and pointing it at the Congrevtopian squad-members as he informed them through gritted teeth: "You're all under arrest. Hands. Up. Now. "

"Foyt, drop their kits"

Vladimier would not find Kayora, as the data on John's file confirmed that the masked bandits were operating on behalf of Nexus. The AI, if given enough time, would be able to downplay this as some sort of glitch and find some way to try until they succeed, one costly mistake after another...

She knew the darkies were performing their "usual extraction", which did not entail walking out the side, the deflating envelope even when combined with efforts to pitch the hull as much into a 'Titanic' posture would have limited their choices of escape to the water's surface to roughly the same route Lieghton's team took... plus being a secret capture so she could be listed as MIA... implied waterborne-exfiltration.

She proceeded belowdecks, amidst the fuel and water, down to the flooded cargo-hold. It was the only place big enough to take a semi-submersible able to allow them to tend their wounded en-route to... wherever they were going.

The hangar, aside from being entirely flooded, was barren aside from a wrecked hulk plugging the hatch, and a few scuba-kits.... So, she strapped herself into a diving-set and opted to investigate...To where she goes, nobody knows.

[Hurtful Thoughts]

Epilouge:

The Namien helicopters pulled away as the last of the Hurti raiders took stock of their prisoners aboard the departing craft. Up until now Kayora had been seen as so much dead-wieght to the team and a liability rather than an asset; not one of them could have asked her to do more than she had for them in those brief seconds. Gibbons snapped his fingers, "Get me a webcam and an uplink to Nexus." He ordered, pointing at Adrian. "Foyt, bag the prisoners."

As they'd done so, he made ready to make his presentation as Adrian made the final connections and gave him the go-ahead.

"Nexus. I suspect you know the group responsible for the attack upon the Vindication, and the attack upon our unit; I would like you to relay a messege to them." He stated, trying not to conjugate any words, as formality in such declarations was a thing of importance. "As you can see, we have taken some prisoners. These people would attack us again if at all given the opprotunity in the future. We have already interrogated them. We have very little use for them, except to bargain with their leader with."

Foyt could be seen, the sturdy fellow that he was, running his finger along the sharpened edge of an un-sheathed trench-axe.

"I'd like that leader to know that he can end this, at any time. But until then, we shall work, we shall save, we shall sacrifice, we shall endure. We shall cheerfully and do our utmost, as if the issue of the whole operation depended on ourselves, and ourselves alone. But also we wish to let them know that peace is our highhest aspiration of all Hurti people; we will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it. We shall not surrender for it, now and forever. If they do not wish for peace with us, well..."

In the background, Foyt could be seen raising his axe over Charlie, swinging down and landing a harsh bludgeoning upon the specialist's back as he finished, removing him from frame, Gibbons merely turned as a red viscus fluid was splattered across the cabin, some of the matter hitting Lieghton's hands.

"We shall hurt 'em plenty for it."

He then signaled for Adrian to cut feed.

"Alright, let's get Wengermarsh on the horn, tell him we've got a cyan-contingency to take care of, and that we'd like to volunteer for the first wave."

---

Elsewhere, as the order spread, the Hurti workers began removing assets from Atlas bases, and ejecting all foriegn nationals from Hurti bases.

In one of these bases, was a fierce red-haired Froxian, awaiting news of Kayora's recent mission by the radio. Instead, she was being requested to leave the radio-hut, just as her phone rang. It was a text messege.

< Santa. Kayora in grave danger. Nexus responsible. Meet you at Pelsgord war memorial for more details. >

[Congreveopia]

Epilogue:



Guardian, Presidential Suite:

The President bowed his head for a moment as he watched the Hurti soldiers end Charles’s life. By the time he looked up, the video had ended.

“Orders, sir?” asked Nexus, his robotic avatar standing calmly in the same position it had been for the past several minutes, head turned slightly to watch the President.

“Continue with the mission,” said the President. “We’ve gone too far to back out now. So… just… see it through.”

“You should get some sleep, sir,” said Nexus. “I’m looking at your vital signs, and you’re no use to us in this shape.”

“Jesus, that was Charles,” said the President. “I met him several years ago. He was a defense contractor. I shook his hand. He was so full of life. Did he have any family? Do I have to write a letter for him?”

“No, his parents are dead,” said Nexus. “You have to write a letter to John’s wife, though. And three to the parents of Dark Division soldiers on Vindication. And several more to the families of the former crew of Vindication.”

“Assuming someone doesn’t have to write a letter for me first,” said the President. He looked out the window and saw a flight of Dassault Raffles enter formation around Guardian.

“You have no living family,” said Nexus. “Go to sleep, sir.”

---

New Hochburg, New Conglomerate Headquarters, CIGMA Intelligence wing:

“Miss Walker, can I speak with you in private for a moment?” Commander Julius Lombardi, the head of the Congreveopian CIGMA contingent, gestured towards a nearby SCIF.

“Of course, sir,” said Catherine Walker, following him in. “What is this about?”

“I want you to know that you have been an excellent administrative assistant,” said Commander Lombardi, shutting the soundproofed door. “Truly fantastic. And I can tell that you genuinely care about your job and believe in the work we are doing here.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“I’m not finished. You have done excellent work in your time here, which is why I am going to give you one chance to explain yourself.”

“I don’t understand, sir. What’s the problem?”

“I just got off the phone with an old friend of mine. Hadn’t talked to him in years, but he called me up on a whim. He said we’d been emailing back and forth for weeks now. Talking about old times. He said that I’d asked to borrow the DC-8 in his private collection for a military event. Now you’re the only other person who has access to my personal email. And I really do care about you, Miss Walker, so I went along with it and told him to continue as planned, but now I need to hear a really good explanation from you about what’s going on, or else I’m going to need to have you arrested.”

“I am really sorry about this,” said Catherine Walker. “I honestly, genuinely, do want to tell you what’s going on here.”

“Just go ahead and tell me, Cath,” said Commander Lombardi. “I can fix this if you just tell me what’s going on.”

“You can’t, though,” said Catherine. “You have too much faith in the system. And I don’t have enough time. Nexus accelerated the timetable on the Vindication operation, and now I’ve just run out of time. So I really am very sorry, Commander. For what it’s worth, I had a lovely time working with you.”

“Miss Walker, what are you talking about?” said the Commander. “How do you even know about Vindication?”

“Sorry, Julius,” said Catherine. She pulled a taser out of her purse and shot him in the chest. She quickly took out a gag and a pair of handcuffs and locked him to the table while he kicked and screamed, then tied the gag around his mouth.

“Sorry again,” she said. “This was not the outcome I wanted, but right now I need a plane old enough that Nexus can’t hack it, I need to figure out what that message from Kayora was about, and I need to warn whoever she sent it to before they walk into a trap. And I need to grab my sister before a Dark Division kill-squad gets her. And I just don’t have enough time to make this any more comfortable for you. I’ll call the base staff and let them know where you are in six hours if they haven’t found you by then.”

With that, Catherine stepped out of the SCIF and walked off towards the airport.