The Package
Now was the time to make our move, we would split into teams of two, Sanchez and I, and Finch with the sergeant. When Sergeant Hunt announced the teams, Sanchez looked a little perturbed but tried to hide it. I laughed a little inside and realized how cute the childish gesture was.
We split up and made our way towards the stadium, insurrectionists were literally everywhere. Sanchez and I were meant to enter from the west side which was the far side of the stadium and Finch and Sergeant were meant to enter from the eastern side which was the closer side. On my HUD I could see where the "package" was meant to be according to intel.
Somehow it seems wrong though, something just didn't feel right here. Once we finally made our approach to the west side we cued the other team that we were in position, Sergeant gave the go and we opened the door. The immediate hallway was clear and it was very long and brightly lit. A room ten meters ahead on the right was bustling with activity. From the sounds of it there were two or three men talking loudly. Sanchez rushed to the open door and stopped just outside. She holstered her SMG and grabbed her silenced magnum. A man stood just inside the doorway with his back to her. She took advantage of that, swinging her arm around his neck she used him as a shield and fired four shots, two into each of the other men. The man she grasped broke free and spun her around reversing her move, his neck shined as though it was just waiting for me to finish him. I snapped my knife from the sheath on my chest and thrust it deep into he mans neck. He let go of her and grasped his neck with both hands as his scream became muffled by the blood gurgling in his throat. A second later Sanchez shot him in the head point blank, the back of his head exploded into the room covering the walls in chunks of skull, blood and brain matter. She shoved him into the room before his body fell to the ground. I was amazed at her agility. I snapped back and pulled the door closed, leaving the evidence hidden. Again she looked pissed then her velvet voice over my comms said,
"I had it handled, you could have stabbed me!" Sanchez grunted.
I stood, my mouth gaping wide inside my helmet. I didn't know what I was doing wrong, this girl really must hate having someone watching her back.
She spun around and started rushing forward down the long hallway, there were many hallways that we passed along the way but none seemed to be occupied. We came to a stairway and started to descend them. That's when we heard them a small group of insurrectionists were running from our six o'clock yelling, then began firing. We knew the sound would alert more of them so we stood at the top of the stairs and waited, the second they came into view on the bottom steps Sanchez unloaded with her SMG killing the first five. Only one remained and he was running back down the hallway screaming for help. I jumped to the bottom step, leveled my rifle and snapped the trigger back three times in rapid succession, all three landed on target and the man fell to the hard concrete floor without another word. There wasn't time to hide the bodies, we would have to sprint the rest of this out. I updated the Sergeant of our predicament and he just told us to move swift and kill who we can on the way. We climbed the remaining stairs and were now in a large lobby with concession stands and restrooms. There were two men standing at the concession stand filling up a cup at a fountain. Their reaction was too slow. Simultaneously Sanchez and I raised our weapons and released a small burst into each man, they slumped to the floor without a word.
Our HUD showed us the way that led us up another staircase and down a long hallway. Now the package was within two hundred meters of our position, that's when a command filled our comms with another objective.
"Primary objective update: Grab the package and locate Doctor Catherine Halsey and safely evac her as well as the package. No harm can come to the Doctor or that package!" the women exclaimed.
Great, I thought to myself, what's next are we gonna kill all the terrorists and personally evacuate every single hostage outside the stadium? I shook myself out of that thought as an image appeared on my HUD. It was a beautiful women, probably around her early to forties, she had a smooth face, but a serious look. Below the image it showed "Doctor Catherine Halsey" and immediately after the Sergeant filled the comms.
"We will locate the doctor, you retrieve the package and we will meet at new rally point November." a new marker appeared on the map in my HUD "Good luck." were his last words.
For some reason those words chilled me to the core, I couldn't figure it out. Sanchez immediately started rushing the area where the package was suppose to be. We rounded the hall and it straightened out. Instantly yelling erupted from the other end and a volley of gunfire peppered the wall behind us as we dodged back around the corner.
"Shit! We have to get into that room!" Sanchez yelled.
I didn't reply and dove into the hallway landing on my side. I flipped the selector lever to burst and unloaded my first magazine into the crowd, dozens of bullets rippled over me as they tried to anticipate my location. Two were left standing as I began to reload. Sanchez rounded the corner swiftly and rapidly unloaded her magnum into the two as I finished reloading my rifle. I stood up and ran to her side just as she finished reloading her pistol.
Once again we charged down the hallway. As we were about to enter the large office I felt an excruciating pain on my abdomen. Instinctively my left hand reached for the source of the pain and I brought my blood covered hand into view. I had been shot in the left side of my stomach, it seemed to be a clean thru and thru. The burning intensified as I looked at the wound. Sanchez noticed before she entered the room and stepped back pushing me against the wall and examining my wound.
"Shit!Shit!" was all she said her voice was filled with agony and I replied,
"I'm fine it was a clean shot" she bent over and examined both the entrance and exit and said,
"Wait here!" she started to enter the room and I followed rapidly. There were three men inside the room, weapons fixed at the door as we entered. I grabbed Sanchez's shoulder and threw her down behind me as the men unleashed an angry barrage of bullets. As I fell backwards onto Sanchez I felt another burning sting in my left shoulder and unleashed return fire, dropping all three men. I landed hard but Sanchez broke my fall. I laid in her lap dropping my weapon and grasping my shoulder. She held me in her lap removing my hand and examined my new wound. She grunted heavily over the radio and yelled furiously at me.
"Why the hell did you do that!dammit I had it handled!stop saving me dammit, now your going to die." I laughed at her as she said that and she punched my wound snapping me back from my laughing fit. "Ouch!" I moaned and she took her helmet off, tears were running down her face. Then I realized she was seriously worried, that made me start to worry even though I didn't think I was going to die. Her tears made me doubt myself.
"Stand me up please" I grunted trying to overcome the pain. She did what I asked as carefully as she could. I removed my helmet and smiled at her wiping her tears away holding her face in my hands, she closed her eyes momentarily and I said to her in a soft husky voice,
"I'm going to be okay, we have to get this mission done" She looked up at me then and gave me a tight hug, furthering the pain to my abdomen, but I let her continue and hugged her in return. She held me for a few short seconds then wiped more tears away and placed her helmet back onto her head. I did the same and looked around the room.
The package was quite obvious, it was rectangular with rounded corners and what appeared to be the top was lined with an orange glow. I couldn't see any obvious way to open the package so I just picked it up and placed it into a satchel bag that was on a table in the center of the room. I winced as the strap rested on my injured shoulder. Sanchez began to protest but I put my hand up to cut her off. "Package retrieved, moving to rally point November" she said strongly.
"Roger, target in site, we will be there shortly" the Sergeant said promptly. As we exited the doorway she picked up my rifle and handed it to me. I grabbed it with my good arm and lifted my left arm to hold it at the low ready. Pain surged through me as I moved my left arm but I pushed through it.
We quickly ran back the way we had entered, following the same route. Our rally point was a few blocks away on the western side of the stadium. We went into the first building facing the stadium and went to the roof. I attempted to lay in the prone on the roof but the pain was unbearable. Sanchez grabbed the rifle from my hands and did what I was unable to. We needed to provide cover fire while the other team made their escape. I knew they were going to have a lot of insurrectionists on their asses. A few minutes later our radios filled with Hunts voice, he grunted and breathed heavily.
"We need you to give us cover fire, we are being pursued by a whole shit load of them."
"Already in position!" Sanchez replied.
We could here a grunt of satisfaction before the radio went back to standby. Seconds later the west doors flew open and three of them ran out.
"Move to the left!" Sanchez ordered.
Immediately they did as she said and four of their pursuers slammed the door open, she pulled the trigger four times letting a volley of twelve bullets drop them. Then the three of them continued running towards our position, more of them exited the door and she continued to lay fire on them. They found cover behind nearby cars and returned fire. Chunks of brick flew around us as the bullets hit near us. The other team was clear and continued running to the rally point.
Sanchez got to her feet, keeping low and we moved from the building and followed the others. The five of us reached our point and the Sergeant quickly relayed a message to command that we had both packages and were moving to the LZ. We ran onto the street and saw a vehicle large enough to fit all of us. It was a flat bed truck, the Sergeant, the Doctor and Sanchez were ordered into the truck. Finch and I jumped on the back and sat ready to fire on anything that showed itself.
As we took off a few men rounded the corner and Finch fired to keep their heads down. They disappeared from view as we turned down another road and the Sergeant sped up dramatically. Moments later we escaped the city but not without being noticed and shot at several times. Several vehicles followed us with insurrectionists firing from the windows of their vehicles. Good thing these guys have shitty aim.
"Oh wait they shot me twice."
We were ten miles from the LZ and they were gaining on us. Suddenly two pelican drop ships flew in from no where and a mile in front of us dropped two warthogs. Thanks god for that, now we had some serious speed and firepower. Rapidly we approached the hogs and dismounted the flatbed truck. The sergeant, Doctor and Sanchez jumped in the first warthog, with Sanchez on the 50 cal, then I jumped in the driver seat of the second vehicle while Finch jumped on the gun. Quickly I followed the lead warthog as we made our way to the LZ.
Our pursuers lost us as we raced off to our destination. Finally we arrived at the LZ and two pelicans were just landing. We all sprinted towards the birds and got the doctor on the closest one. As we entered the vehicle the comms were filled with chaos.
"What the hell is going on?" Sergeant Hunt asked one of the marines on the pelican.
"Something is attacking our fleet Sergeant, they showed up out of no where and started blasting ships away. We barely made it down here." the marine replied.
Just then a large purple ship shimmered and descended from the sky above the city. It fired a steady stream of what looked like lava and a thunderous roar followed. Our comms filled with static and a mans voice broke through.
"Mission update! To all callsigns! Protect planet Reach at all costs! They're everywhere! Ahhhh..." the comm again filled with static.
The sky was filled with explosions and hundreds of those ships were everywhere. Smaller vessels appeared from these ships and started landing everywhere. The invasion of Reach, has began...