Soldier Part 9 – From the Storm

'No!' Teagan screamed from the rear door of the Halicarnassus (Hali for short from now on), Del lay on the dirt ground a pool of blood staining the dirt around him. Then the water released by the dam swept him away in its foaming brown mass. She went to dive into the water after him; but Smithy grabbed her and pulled her back. 'Let me go!'

'No, it's no use. He wouldn't want you diving in after him. He allowed us to get away. He knew the risks and took them anyway,' Smithy pressed the intercom, 'Ellie, Cassie; put the hammer down. We need to get out of here quick before fast air turns up and try's to take us out.'

'Do we have Del?' Ellie asked.

'No, he didn't make it.' Smithy replied calmly, 'now get us out of here Sky Mistress.' Smithy closed the rear door and headed for the main cabin. The Titans where standing around not doing much. Teagan followed him, her eyes red and tears running down her cheeks.

'Where's Soldier?' BB asked, 'shouldn't he...' Raven cut him off by shaking her head. She looked across at Teagan who had by now plonked herself on a chair, her head in her hands hushed, harsh sobs echoing around the cabin.

Smithy walked right on past them all and on into the cockpit where Ellie and Cassie where flying the Hali as fast it would go. Ellie had the hammer down and was trying to put as much space between her and the group of 4 red triangles on the bottom half of the radar screen. Cassie was working furiously on the keeping them hidden from the enemy. No matter what she was doing she kept getting pinged by something that she couldn't counter.

The red triangles where closing fast, really fast. She wasn't going to out run them, but she could out range them. Assuming they didn't blow her and her plane out the sky before they ran out of fuel. 'How long before they are on us Cassie?'

'7minutes may be less, they are hitting Mach9.' Cassie said.

'Mach9? Nothing flies that fast. Only space shuttles hit that speed, everything else is experimental, isn't it?' Ellie asked. Cassie shrugged, 'get Herron on the radio. Tell him what has happened.'

'STRIKE HQ this is Halicarnassus do you read, over?' Cassie got static in reply. She tried again and got the same. 'We're cut off.' She finally said, 'and we're about to get company.'

'This is your captain speaking, we would like to advise you that things may get a bit bumpy as we've got some buddies outside and they don't look friendly. We advise that you take your seats and fasten your seat belts. Thank you.' Ellie spoke politely into the intercom.

Outside 4 aircraft settled into formation around the Hali; front and back, left and right. 'Python 1 this is Raptor leader we have surrounded target craft and are jamming all transmissions, what are your instructions, over?' the pilot said.

'Raptor Lead, you are cleared to board that plane. I want the occupants taken alive.' Judah ordered.

'Understood Python1; boarding aircraft.' Replied the pilot and manoeuvred into position above and ahead of the Hali. The other aircraft moved to form a triangle instead of a diamond shape. Inside Raptor Lead the pilot held his craft steady, further back unseen by him a 5man assault team checked themselves over and fitted oxygen masks. 'Team1 get ready, you go in 60seconds.'

Inside the Halicarnassus

The Titans stared out of the windows at the craft that surrounded them, they where sleek, everything flowed and nothing jutted out at a funny angle to effect its aerodynamic prowess. They had no markings on them what so ever, apart from one the mark of the 321st Special Tactic Squadron (321st STS). 'What are those things?' Robin asked.

'They are similar to Tantticant fighters. But that is not the mark of their ruling power; this is very odd.' Starfire said. The rest of the Titans remained speechless in confusion.

Up in the cockpit all hell was breaking lose. Buttons being pressed, alarms and raised voices bounced around the small space. They were being locked on, scanned and just about everything else could be done was being done to them. Cassie was furiously trying to counter everything whilst doing some scanning of her own, it wasn't working so well. 'They've got us locked why haven't that blown us up yet?' Ellie asked.

'I don't know but we're in the shit. The emblem on the side; 321st STS and those are X-43s, no wonder they caught up to us. I think we might be forced to land and then take us captive. Sky, try some fancy flying; I'm going to man one of the turrets, see if we can shoot some of these guys down.' Smithy ordered.

'Erm guys, they are changing positions, we have 2 at our 12oclock; a high and a low and the others are at 5 and 7oclock.' Ellie said pointing at the radar. They looked out the front window to see one craft above them one below. The top craft's underbelly opened up and five objects fell from it; they looked like men.

'Oh fuck,' Smithy turned and ran into the main cabin, 'look lively we're about to have some guests drop in pay us a visit.' He stopped at a cupboard and ripped it off its hinges to get to its contents.

'What do you mean? We're in mid flight, how can we be getting guests?' Cyborg asked. Smithy ignored him cocking an MP5 and grabbing some extra magazines.

'You don't want to know, but trust me they are coming.' He answered.

'Smithy, they're in the under carriage. Landing gear doors have just been blown open!' Ellie shouted over the intercom, Smithy went and covered one of the hatches that led up from the under carriage area into the main cabin. Cyborg did the same as did Starfire. 'Shit more of them! The two 43's out in front swapped over and dropped more guys. They're under us now!'

'Have that. Everyone get ready, anything pops out from those hatches slot it.' He ordered.

Up in the cockpit, the Sky Mistress was locked out from the controls of the Hali; the auto-pilot had been engaged and the intercom had been jammed. It was the last thing she remembered before blacking out as did everyone else. They all slumped into their chairs or onto the floor.

The men who had dropped from the X-43s had used a similar device to Del's Maghook, using it to real themselves into the underbelly of the Hali and had blown open one of the landing gear doors and clambered in. They moved through all the innards until they came to the maintenance hatches underneath the main cabin, one man jacked into the computer system and got ready to override the controls. 'Raptor 3 this is Boa1 we are in position and ready to take the plane. Fire the SSD.' (Sonic Stun Device).

'Roger that Boa1, firing... Now!' replied the pilot of Raptor3, he fired a concentrated burst of low frequency at the Hali. Above them the occupants instantly blacked out, they stormed in, unaffected thanks to their specialised masks and radio sets. Within seconds the plane was theirs and everyone was tired up.

'Raptor Lead this is Boa1, we have secured the aircraft. Ready for escort under radar blackout.' Boa1 confirmed. Raptor Lead confirmed and the X-43's moved back into their original position and the 5 all banked off heading north and west; towards Alaska.

Back at the valley.

Marshal surveyed the scene in the valley below him from his helicopter. The water that had been released when Del blew that dam was starting to settle. It would take a while for the water to clear; if it ever would. He was going to follow the Halicarnassus to Alaska; he took one last look at the lake that had formed and smiled. Job done he thought. There were a few people milling around making sure no trace of them remained. His helicopter pulled away and gunned it up and over a mountain and then outwards to Alaska. Halfway up that mountain a small disk shot out from the trees and stuck to the underside of the chopper. A small homing signal bleeped out every so often so it couldn't be detected.

Bering Sea; 100 miles off the Alaskan Coast

Teagan slowly stirred. Her head was ringing. It was cold. Bitterly cold. She could hear the sea. Waves crashing far below her, it was faint but she could hear it none the less. She was in a store room; there were boxes of food stacked onto the high steel shelves. Her hands were bound tight behind her back as where her feet. She looked around to see the rest of her friends and the Titans in much the same state. Soon after Smithy stirred.

'My head hurts.' He groaned, 'well this place is a shit hole? Remind me to complain to the holiday company when we get out of here. Last time I book a holiday with the Illuminati.' Smithy noticed that he was tied up. His arm had been put in a special binding. Same with Cyborg and Starfire.

Soon everyone had woken up. Ellie was most annoyed that she had had her plane taken off her so easily. Robin tried in vain to cut his bindings, but was told to save his strength. 'We can't just sit here.' He argued.

'We can for the moment. It is not the right time to escape. We know nothing of where we are and how things work. If we try to escape now we will only get ourselves caught again or killed. Now shut up and wait; we will think of something soon enough.' Cassandra retorted sharply, Robin went silent. After another hour or two the door to the store room opened and 4 men stepped inside. Two stood by the door, guns levelled ready to open fire on them all. The other two scanned the faces of the prisoners, they found who they wanted; they grabbed Teagan by the scruff of the neck and dragged her to her feet and out the door.

'Tell them fuck all Teagan!' Smithy shouted just before the door slammed shut. 'I hope she'll be ok. Del will kill me again in hell if she isn't.'

'She's tough, she won't tell them anything' Cassandra reassured him.

The process repeated itself for next few hours. One in, one out. Once they'd been through everyone they stopped. Then started again, this time the handling was rougher as was the questioning.

After a day and a half they were dragged out of their holding cell in the storage room and trotted out into the open. It was cold and raining. Lightening split the dark sky followed by a massive boom of thunder. Teagan got the answer as to why she could hear the sea. She was in the middle of it and boy was it mad. 50ft waves raged all around and assaulted the metal islands. You could smell and taste the salt in the air, whipped up by the ferocious wind. Out they where frog marched to a short gangway. Great forced to walk the plank, how tragically ironic she thought. They stopped and waited as a huge platform rose from the stormy grey sea, up to meet them. It clunked into place and lights in its surface flickered on. They were forced out onto the platform; they soon worked out it was a runway; a runway in the sea.

They walked out to meet another group of people on the runway. One of the 30 or so there was Marshal Judah. 'Ah Red Troop nice of you to join us. We have a little party planned and you're all invited. In fact your our tickets in.'

'Go to hell Judah. We won't be part of any of your games!' Cassandra hissed.

'You will have little choice. Because you will be able to do...' Judah waffled on. At the far end of the runway a hanger was settling into place, raising from the sea like the runway before it. A bolt of lightning lit up the dark storm clouds, silhouetting the hanger as well as a small object above it.

It wasn't very big, not big enough to have an engine. It was smooth and had no sharp angles, teamed with its almost non metallic construction made it completely invisible to radar; it was gliding through the bad weather unaffected. It silently slipped past all the defences they had and was about to pounce. Its approach was stealthy but its landing wasn't. The canopy popped open and it slammed into the runway with a crunch, making Judah snap from his monologue. It skidded along towards them, the wind pushing it along the wet tarmac surface. A single black figure rose and stood on the nose and began spewing out red hot furry. Men started dropping, their heads and chests exploding as bullets ripped into them. Those who had the chance to run did, scattering off the runway and onto the safety of the rigs; leaving the prisons to their own devices. The glider came to a stop 10m short of them, the lone gunman still standing on the crumpled nose. Almost instantly the air around them became filled with tracer rounds coming from the sea and from the air. Little darts of light flying out of the black; a battle had begun.

Another lightning bolt banished the darkness away illuminating the gunman on the glider; Red Troop and the Titans gasped as the saw who was there.

It was Del. Back from the dead, soaking wet with rain and he was pissed as hell.