As usual, Authors Note can be found at bottom of my profile.
Chapter Two – Unexpected Accommodation
Slums – Haven
"D'Arvit!" Yelled the Major, as she took a firmer grip on the shuttle controls as she flipped the shuttle around to point back into the chute, the way it came.
"Get on the secure comms to the other points, make sure they get out!" Barked the commander from behind her, betraying various laws of physics by remaining standing after such evasive flying maneuvers.
Major Short punched a code into the comms screen to bring up a secure line with the outer lying LEPL locations.
"This is Major Holly Short with Commander Root. We have been uncovered. This is an evacuation notice. I repeat, Evacuation. Regroup in Port D in chute E12. And hurry!"
Holly turned to her very stoic faced commander.
"What are your orders, commander? Where do we go?"
Root stood still for a few more moments before replying.
"Fowl. Get onto Fowl. We need his help."
Short could tell how much it pained her commander to give the instruction. It pained her even more to follow through with it. They had already accepted too much assistance from that particular Mud-Man to make her fool comfortable.
The Major took up the communicator that Fowl had left them with before they parted ways and entered the code to acquire a secure line to the Mud-Man.
"Fowl!" She called into it once it connected. "We've been outed. We nee-"
She was cut off by the human's smooth tone coming through the communicator.
"I'm aware of the situation. I've picked it all up on my own sensors. Get back to Port D. We're on our way." And with that, closed the line.
The major piloting the shuttle through the veritable maze of chutes muttered to herself something about rude Mud-Men, before rounding the corner to the last straight before the port.
"Prepare to disembark!" The commander yelled to the fairies in the back, holding their stomachs and heads.
The pod bay doors opened before them, giving the impressive looking shuttle barely enough room to fit through into the main port.
"Dead ahead." Ordered the commander. "Focus all weapon dead ahead. Punch a hole right through to the surface."
Short was more than happy to comply. Sending a barrage of missiles and lasers straight into the wall of the port. Within a few seconds, the darkness of the night could be glimpsed through the quickly widening hole.
Behind them, two more shuttles, painted in the LEPL black and grey emerged from the chute. One sporting some impressive looking fresh holes in the side.
"That's Delta and Bravo station's transport sir." Said the Major to her commander.
The short range comms buzzed to life. "Delta and Bravo reporting sir. We have survivors from your Alpha post as well. We have had no communication with Gamma or Omega. Presumed captured or worse."
"D'Arvit." Short proclaimed before answering through the comms. "Affirmative. We will be seeking refuge on the surface. Follow our lead."
And with that, she eased the shuttle forward. Just scraping through the newly made exit to the surface.
Once they had broken through to the other side, she steered slowly to the clearing sitting by the short dirt road.
"Where is that Mud-Welp. He said he would be coming?"
Before the words had fully left her mouth, a moving light became visible from around the bend in the road. A sleek black town car came around. Followed by a procession of four large black SUVs. Two sporting some lethal looking equipment on the roof. Presumably some sort of Mud-Man weaponry.
The convey stopped just next to the clearing where the Commander's shuttle hovered beside the other two, somewhat less impressive shuttles.
All of the car doors opened, letting out two well dressed men, Fowl and his protection, from the town car, and a dozen other men fitted with dark tactical gear and large guns from the SUVs.
"Commander Root and Major Short, you are to ride with me. All the others, follow from the air. We must be quick. They are coming."
Holly Short activated the PA on the shuttle to respond.
"Not a chance Fowl. We're staying in here. You lead the way."
Fowl frowned towards the shuttle, although he could not make out the occupants through the blacked out screen.
"This is not up for debate. You are riding with me."
The Commander's new found life in his temple gave yet another dull throb. Although just a little stronger than the last.
"Bloody Mud-Men." He then leaned over the Major to speak through the PA. "Fine. We're on our way out."
He stood to leave, and shouted at Ash Vein to take the pilot's seat.
Holly stood up to confront the commander. "Sir, you cannot be serious! We need to stay right here, in this shu-"
"D'Arvit Short! Time! We have none of it! We just need to do what he says for now! Order!"
And with that, he opened the door to the side of the shuttle and departed into the clearing, soon followed by a grumbling Major.
The Mud-Man gave a spine tingling smirk as they approached the black car, but was soon replaced with the picture of complete seriousness.
"We need to get going. My sensors have picked up what looks to be half a dozen drones and a few Goblin Needlers."
Fowl moved around to the other side of the vehicle, opening the door for himself and bending down and into the car. The Man's manservant, Jackson, held the door open for the two fairies, who begrudgingly climbed in.
What the found inside was a very impressive sight. The Bentley Mulsanne had been modified to fit another bank of seats facing directly to the original row. In-between the two rows of seats sat a short table piled with an array of different monitors and controls. One which appeared to display a complete layout of Haven, live updated with moving shapes of different sizes and colours.
Fowl, sitting across from them, gave them another of his vampire-like smirks. "Impressive, isn't it?"
"Aren't we in some sort of hurry?" Huffed the Commander.
"Of course." Replied the human. "Jackson, take us back to the manor. As quickly as possible."
With that, the car started to move down the road, followed by the four SUVs. If Holly leaned to see up out of the window, she could make out the shapes of the three shuttles following them from above the tree canopy against the dark of the night sky.
Fowl busied himself with one of the monitors in front of him. "The drones are one hundred metres from the port. This will probably get a bit interesting."
Both the Commander and the Major sitting across from him had a vague idea of what could be meant by 'interesting' but decided not to say anything.
The man pressed a button on the table in front of him and sent instruction through to the other vehicle in the convoy.
"We are expecting hostile forces to be at our position within a minute. Airborne. Minimal shields, standard ammunition should suffice."
He received four "Affirmative's" before shutting off the line and looking towards his guests.
"I do advise you put on your seatbelts for this next part of the journey."
The Major and Commander quickly busied themselves with attaching their bodies a bit firmer to the seats.
Above them, in the Flagship shuttle, Ash Vein looked at the sensors with some worry on his face. He activated the short range comms to the other shuttles.
"This is Captain Vein. We're are being approached by at least ten hostiles. Activate all shields and prepare any weapons. Contact expected in 30 seconds."
At that, the first of the sleek, metallic, bullet shaped drones flew past without more than a hiss of the air.
"Contact! We have contact ahead!"
Down below in the convoy of cars, two of Artemis Fowl's personal army manned their roof mounted 50. machine guns.
The next drone flew past the cars, no more than two metres above the road.
"Open fire!" Yelled the man at the head of the SUV line.
The mounted guns unleashed a veritable storm of lead upon the low passing drone, the large bullets crashing into the side as it came back for a second pass, throwing it into the group of trees, crumpling like tin foil at the speeds it made contact at.
"That was just a recon I presume." Said Artemis, to the two fairies sharing his luxurious Bentley. "The next ones will be a lot less hospitable."
True to his predictions, the next two of the drones to come up to the convoy were staying back, keeping just behind the last car in the line. One without a mounted 50. on top.
These drones didn't hold back with their attacks, sending out beams of high powered lasers at the SUV in front of them.
The SUV, built for these types of attacks, was taking the laser blasts in stride, continuing to power down the winding dirt road through County Wicklow. The rear window of the SUV came down to reveal a huge, six barreled gun pointing out the back.
The drones didn't have time to fly out of the way before the barrels starting winding up to speed, before unleashing a 4000 round-per-minute wave of lead right at the drones, which were torn apart like paper under the minigun's onslaught.
Above this vehicular battle on the read, the shuttles above were in a similar situation. Two more drones were circling around the shuttles, unleashing bursts of lasers, crashing into the shuttles shields, and rocking the inhabitants inside.
Captain Greener, piloting one of the shuttles in the fleet was having a hard time keeping his in the air. He couldn't take much more of this attack.
"Reeves!" He called to the back. "Are the missiles online?"
"Affirmative sir! But the tracking sensors have been knocked out. We've only got manual firing online!"
"Just perfect. I'll have to do this the old fashioned way."
He swiped through the Multi Readout Display in front of him to prep the missiles for firing. He then stared dead ahead. Waiting for the moment. With the tracking offline, his timing would have to be perfect.
A drone buzzed past and he took his chance. Sending the first missile blasting towards the drone. His timing off by less than a millisecond as the explosive scraped the side of the metallic drone, tearing a gash down the side and throwing it spinning, but quickly correcting itself, the missile flying off course, exploding harmlessly into a tree in the expanse of green below them.
"D'Arvit!" yelled Greener, as he prepared the next missile for firing. He couldn't miss this time. Or him and his crew would be going down.
As the next drone flew towards them, sending burst after burst of bright light towards them, he took the moment and let the rocket fly.
This time his aim was true. The airborne explosive colliding with the drone a mere 10 metres from the shuttle, morphing the missile and drone into little more than melted rubble and a ball of fire. The shuttle flew through the explosion, coming through the other end a little worse for wear, with a few panels coming loose or coming off completely. The vision in front of the front screen cleared just in time to see the shuttle at the head of the group blowing up the other drone out of the air.
Down closer to ground level, Artemis Fowl watched the monitor in front of him intently.
"We've got two more kilometers to Fowl Manor. We'll be safe there. But there are still two B'Wa Kell Needlers and a drone coming towards us."
Coming towards them they were, as the unmanned drone and the Goblin piloted Needlers came flying towards the convoy.
The rear SUVs minigun wound up, bursting free another round of lethal metal. The three attackers quickly outmaneuvered the stream of lead, and flew to either side of the SUV. The passenger window came down and the man, brandishing an FI SMG, based on the same design as the H&K UMP 45, with a few added surprises, opened fire towards the cockpit of the small, one man Needler.
The wide bullets punched through the cockpit's screen, smashing through the Goblin's head, bursting into a flourish of blood and flames, before the craft crumpled into the road , crashing to a halt in a large oak by the side.
Before similar action could be taken to the Needler on the other side of the SUV, a blast of molten plasma burst from its cannon, crashing into the side of the truck, melting through the reinforced panels and throwing the car on its side and off the road.
"Caleb is down! I repeat, Caleb is down!"
Artemis frowned at the comms. He looked up to his fellow car goers. "We're just less than one kilometer to the manor. Hopefully we can get the rest of our friends there safely."
This was easier said than done as the shuttles above flying above the convoy as they broke out of the tree line, now on a clean path towards the hill playing host to the huge manor, as the last drone was taking shots at Captain Greener's shuttles, and making quite a bit of progress.
"We have two more hits in us captain, after that our defences are wide open to any attacks!" Called out Corporal Reeves from the back, monitoring the shuttle's shields and sensors.
As if on cue, two booming knocks sent the shuttle shuddering, as the drone flew past.
"Shit!" The seriousness of the situation causing Greener to resort to Mud-Man curses. Into the comms he yelled "Shields down! I repeat shields do-"
He never got a chance to finish his report, as the drone came around for another attack, blowing straight through the cockpit of the shuttle and demolishing the entire interior of the shuttle, before punching a hole through the rear. With no pilot or working parts, what was left of the shuttle collided with the Irish hillside at a high speed, turning the remaining shuttle into un-salvageable scrap.
"Delta is down! Repeat! Delta is down!" Root nearly broke the speaker that dared pass on this ill news, but a glare from Fowl placated him for the moment.
The Remaining Needler continued to play a dangerous game of dodge-ball with the SUV in front of it. Each taking turns to let out a burst of plasma so bullets respectively while the other tried to move out of its way in time.
"We can't keep this up much longer!" exclaimed the driver through the comms ts the other trucks "Is there anything you can do?"
"Negative. We can't risk firing on it with it so close to you. Just hold out a few more moments, were nearly at the gates!"
What remained of the ground and air convoy speed up the drive to the open gates to the grounds of Fowl Manor, followed closely by the remaining drone and Needler. As they got closer to the property boundaries, multiple Fowl Industries Ground To Anything Missile pods mounted in the towers along the huge wall pivoted and swiveled to face the oncoming threat.
The moment the cars and shuttle crossed the line of the border to Fowl's property, and the Needler and drone foolishly attempted to follow, the FIGTAMs unleashed a blazing fury of a bad day upon them, quickly reducing them to flame and dust.
Once safely inside the grounds, the car convoy pulled into the huge garage by side of the manor, while the two remaining shuttles made themselves comfortable on the adjoining helipads.
Fowl turned to his two fellow car travelers.
"Well." He said, looking somewhat relieved, but otherwise no worse for wear. "All's well that ends well."
That earned him a whack on the head by Major Short.
The remaining of Fowl's personal soldiers gathered, and retreated off towards the resident barracks on the property, recently built 100 metres from the main building. What was left of the fairies on the other hand, stood around torn between whether to stand around awkwardly, waiting for fowl to finish his discussion with one of the manor servants, or mourn their fallen comrades, and somehow managed to pull of both.
Once he was done with the servant, leaving him to scurry away to complete whatever task he had assigned, he approached the cluster of 15 fairies.
"Your accommodation will be prepared for you in just a moment. You'll be sharing one room between two of you in the guest wing."
At this, Holly Short looked around, noting that now she was the only female left, as the only other had perished along with the rest of Delta squad. She pushed aside the sudden grief that struck her at acknowledgment of their demise, there was time enough later.
"Errr..." Was just about all she managed to get out. Fowl looked at her and smiled his vampire smile.
"Not to worry Major Short. I've prepared the second master bedroom for you.
Now, if you'll please all follow me through to the house. It's late, and we have a lot to discuss in the morning."
He sent the LEPL soldiers off with his servants to show them to their rooms, while leading Major Short to the upper wing of the house to where her accommodation was.
She was not pleased to be staying so close to the Mud-Man. Not trusting him for one moment and wishing she could at least go back to being various layers of earth away from him. But as the Commander had pointed out multiple times, they didn't have any options, and all they could do was follow the lead of this human. For now at least.
Artemis stopped by a large mahogany door encrusted with the Fowl family seal and turned to Short.
"Here we are. I trust you'll be comfortable." He opened the door and gestured for her to enter. "If there's anything you need, just pick up the bedside phone and press 1 to call for a servant. Please refrain from any outgoing calls though keeping in mind that all calls to and from this property are recorded. And please keep from roaming the manor on your own. You will be woken at nine sharp. Have a good night"
And with that he promptly closed the door in Short's scowling face.
The Major looked around to take in her surroundings. She was in a huge room. Bigger than a small flat back in Haven. Everything screamed of money, old and new. The sparsely placed furniture with it's handcrafted wood and rich velvet cushions. The fireplace with it's gold trim on the mantle. And the enormous four poster bed against the wall to her left. Upon which, Holly noted, had been placed a set of fairy-sized night clothes. A quick inspection of the dresser revealed similar sized clothes folded within. Had the servants just put this here, or was the Mud-Man prepared?
Holly decided she was too tired to care. The day had taken its toll on her. She quickly stripped down her tactical gear and got into the provided night clothes before climbing into the gargantuan bed. It could have easily hosted 4 full sized Mud-Men with room to spare. The three foot high Major felt completely lost in all the covers and sheets on the bed.
It wasn't until she had fully settled in and closed her eyes, awaiting sleep to fall, that the events of the day had properly sunk in.
Oh Frond. She thought, looking back and seeing a pile of broken shuttle crashing into the grass at high speed in her minds eyes. Delta squad... Greener, Reeves, Cudgeon...
Her mind then turned to those who hadn't been in the Wicklow to Fowl Manor chase, but back in Haven, where the danger of being found by Koboi was now a real danger. If they were still alive that is.
Oh Gods... Foaly...
They hadn't heard from the eccentric centuar since before they left initially to meet Fowl, and no-one from his tech centre, hiding within the walls of the main cavern had come out after their discovery had become known.
There was still a chance that he had survived, perhaps not even discovered. The LEPL's technical adviser was possibly paranoid to a fault, but it had saved all sf them many a time in the past.
Holly rolled over at the thought of one of her last real friends being killed. Tears didn't come easily to the major, war had put a stop to that, but her heart still clenched at the thought of never seeing him again.