Chapter 10
Lighthouse raid
The group slowly approached the lighthouse, Ariela threw a hand up and motioned for everyone to stop.
"SplinterCell commandos… A new class I don't exactly recognize," she said, "…better let me handle this. Yulaura… You have permission to open fire the moment shit goes south."
Yulaura smiled.
"Best thing you've said all night," she said.
Ariela approached the commandos, when she was five feet away, the guards immediately got their guard up. They raised their left arms in front of themselves and activated some kind of shield. Ariela raised an eyebrow.
"Interesting… So, my sister's been busy while I was away," she thought.
"Ma'am, this is a restricted area, I'm afraid that we're going to have to ask you and your friends to leave," said the first commando, "if you do not comply… We will use deadly force."
"Peace gentlemen… Know that I speak on behalf of myself," said Ariela, "I've no quarrel… I only wish to enter this building to acquire some items that I very much need."
The commandos looked at each other, before each of them drew their weapons, which turned out to be some kind of stun lancer. Ariela raised an eyebrow.
"You must be stupid if you think we'll let some… Mercenary… Inside of the lighthouse," said the first commando.
Ariela sighed and started to raise a hand.
"…I won't ask again," she said darkly.
The commandos both looked at each other, then back at Ariela.
"Don't say we didn't warn-"
But with a wave of her hand, Yulaura cut the commandos off with good, clean headshots, killing them dead. Ariela whistled everyone over as she made her way over to the door.
"…Damn," she muttered.
"What's wrong?" asked Corrie.
"I should've asked for the code before I had Yulaura shot them," said Ariela, "…alright Terrell, do your stuff."
Terrell nodded and moved up. He raised a hand over the padlock and his right gauntlet… Transformed into a hacking glove of some kind. Ariela's eyes widened as five razor-sharp claws extended from the right gauntlet's fingertips. Terrell jammed the claws into the padlock and waited a few seconds. A high-pitched "ding" was heard and the door to the lighthouse opened, revealing a spiral staircase and an elevator door that was waiting for them.
"…That's a nice trick," said Yulaura.
"…How did you do that?" asked Ariela.
Terrell's gauntlet changed back.
"You're not the only one with fancy tricks," he said.
The group headed for the elevator, Ariela opened the door and everyone piled in. Ariela hit the button and the elevator headed down. The ride down felt long and quiet, Ariela casually looked at each of the Reverb assassins before looking back at the elevator door.
"…So, what can we expect?" asked Corrie.
"…Well, considering this is a listening post… We should expect some resistance," said Ariela, "usually SplinterCell has Security-class and Tech-class commandos posted at places like this… But after seeing those new commandos… I can only suspect that this listening post is going to be crawling with them now."
Ariela started checking her ammo, seeing how many clips she had left as well as how many bullets left in the clip that was already in.
"If we're lucky and there's only a few of those new commandos… This should go fairly smoothly," said Ariela.
"And if we're unlucky?" asked Terrell.
"…Pray for Tundran soldiers," said Ariela.
The elevator came to a stop. The door opened and standing on the other side was three of the new commandos.
"Intruders!" the first commando barked.
SLASH!
SLASH!
SLASH!
Yulaura and the others watched as Ariela cut the soldiers down in three quick strikes. Ariela looked around and saw that they had arrived inside of the listening station's control center. A lot of the engineers and commandos turned to see who had entered.
"…Sup," said Ariela.
"Intruders! Activate the distress signal!" barked one of the engineers.
Corrie drew her main hand magnum and fired as another engineer hit a red button on the wall, activating the distress signal. The engineer took the hit and fell to the ground dead.
"Damn!" barked Ariela, "we've got to kill that signal, Persephone's going to have reinforcements here quick."
"Men!" barked the station commander, "kill the intruders!"
And chaos. Was. Unleashed. Ryan, Terrell, and Corrie all stormed out of the elevator and ducked for cover, all while firing off a few shots and killing two or three commandos each, while injuring a few of the engineers.
"Don't play nice with these bastards," Ariela said as she started deflecting shots from a few of the new commandos, "kill them all, leave no survivors."
Yulaura grinned.
"Now we're talking," she said.
Yulaura drew her blade staff and engaged two commandos. The Reverb assassins looked at each other.
"…When in Rome," said Ryan.
Ryan moved out from behind cover and opened fire on the engineers, brutally slaughtering a good several on one side before opening fire on the other side. Corrie jumped out from behind cover, squeezing off shot after shot as she gunned down numerous engineers as well, before getting in a fight with one of the new commandos herself.
"This is not your fight, assassin," said the commando.
Corrie holstered her magnums and drew her dao.
"That really hurt my feelings," she said.
Over on the other side, Terrell was making his way over to the distress signal activator, when suddenly he was struck in the face and hit the floor. Terrell looked up and saw a commando towering over him.
"Where do you think you're going?" he asked.
Terrell responded by jumping to his feet and kicking the commando in the face, causing him to stumble.
"Right through you," he said as he drew his katana.
The commando beat his lancer against his shield.
"Heh, show me what you've got… Assassin," he said.
As Terrell engaged his opponent, Ariela was in a fight of her own as she was currently in a fight with five of the new commandos.
"Come on guys, work with me here," she said as she was in a blade lock with the fourth commando, "my sister didn't train me to fight opponents with shields."
The fourth commando responded by shoving Ariela back and jumping forward, knocking her on her ass with his shield. Ariela groaned and jumped to her feet as the second and third commando came upon her, their lancers swinging wildly and keeping her on her back foot. With three blocks and a parry, Ariela jumped and knocked the second commando back with a kick to his shield, which he used to block her counter attack. Ariela turned and rolled backward as the third commando came at her with a heavy swing. Without losing momentum, Ariela hurled a kinetic burst and sent the commando flying to the floor.
"Okay… So, these guys are trained to take physical punishment, but they can't take attacks like that," she thought, "…Okay… I know how to deal with these chumps."
Meanwhile, Corrie was dueling circles all over her opponent, using a combination of speed and acrobatics to outmaneuver the commando's attacks and even go far as to slip past his guard a few times to land some hits.
"Stand still, you little bitch!" he barked.
"You want me to stand still? You'd better fucking catch me!" Corrie barked as she jumped forward.
The commando went for an overhead swing, Corrie smiled and deflected the hit before preparing to go for a right slash like before. But the commando saw this coming and moved back into an all-guard stance, taking the hit from Corrie, before jumping forward and knocking her down with a shield bash.
"…Ouch," she groaned.
The commando moved in and struck Corrie in the chest, delivering a discharge of arc energy into her body.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" she screamed.
Ryan turned around.
"Corrie!" he screamed.
Ryan threw down his rifle and charged at the commando, letting out a battle cry as he jumped and tackled him to the floor.
"Don't! You! Fucking! Touch her!" he roared as he started punching the commando in the face repeatedly.
Corrie groaned and slowly sat up, she turned her head just in time to see the commando knee Ryan in the back and knock him back. Ryan rose to his feet; but was met with the commando's lance to the face, knocking him to the floor.
"You caught me with my back turned," the commando growled as he marched over and swung on Ryan again.
Ryan ducked and punched the commando in the stomach, he followed his first strike with a twist kick, which the commando blocked with his shield and countered with another swing from his lance. Ryan ducked and spun around to his opponent's flank, drawing his knife and slicing open his side. The commando yelped and elbowed him in the face, causing him to stumble.
"Kid… That's a mistake you won't make twice," growled the commando.
Ryan flipped his knife, reverse handgrip style and got in a ready stance.
"No… Hurting Corrie was a mistake you won't make twice," he growled.
Unbeknownst to Ryan, Corrie blushed when she heard that.
"Wait… W-What?" she thought.
Meanwhile, Yulaura was busy toying with her two opponents.
"You're making this too easy," she said.
The second commando swung on Yulaura, causing her to block and counter with a kick. The commando moved his shield and stumbled as he blocked the hit; however, before he could recover, Yulaura jumped and causing the commando to stagger as she thrust her blade staff forward, slamming into his shield. Without losing momentum, Yulaura swung and slammed her blade staff against the commando's shield, breaking his guard and letting her drive her blade staff into his stomach, killing him.
"You're good… But those shields make you slow in a straight up fight," she said as she pulled out her blade.
Yulaura kicked the commando over.
"Perhaps you should've-"
But Yulaura was cut off as she was struck in the back from the first commando's lance, causing her to scream out as she felt the discharge of arc energy course through her. Yulaura dropped to one knee and was immediately struck upside the head, getting knocked to the floor from the commando.
"Heh, somebody didn't watch their six," he said.
While Yulaura laid on the floor motionless, Terrell was having a much better time with his opponent.
"You can't keep blocking forever, you're going to have to attack eventually," the commando mocked as he kept beating at Terrell's guard.
Terrell said nothing, he kept his guard up as he blocked each of the commando's hits, taking small steps back every three to five hits. When Terrell parried the next hit, the commando let out a huff.
"Hmph… So, you're not in the mood to fight…" he said as he sheathed his lance, "fine."
The commando drew his Colt.
"Then I won't bother wasting anymore ti-"
SLASH!
The commando screamed as Terrell… Sliced off his hand. The commando dropped to his knees and clutched his bleeding stump, wincing and groaning, biting back a full string of curses too.
"I knew that taking you in a head on fight would prove to be tiresome," said Terrell, "I knew that if I went on the defensive and stayed on the defensive long enough, it would only be a matter of time before you got tired and decided to want to end this dispute quickly… And thus…"
Terrell swung and sliced off the commando's head.
"…Giving me to opportunity to catch you with your shield down," he said.
The commando's head rolled off and hit the floor, while the body fell over, blood gradually squirted out of the stump. Terrell sheathed his sword and went off to the activator, placing his hand over the button and sending a surge of energy into it.
"Ariela! Signal's down!" Terrell called out.
Ariela, whom had struck down the fourth commando with a stab through the back, turned her head.
"Nice work!" she called out, giving him the thumbs up.
Suddenly, Ariela ducked and delivered a super-charged punch at the fifth commando, shattering his shield as he tried to block the attack.
"Just as I thought… Those shields are made from a type of material that's resistant to all forms of melee weapons," she said, "but when it comes to super-powered attacks…"
The remaining four commandos looked at each other and then back at Ariela.
"Which means," she said.
Ariela gripped her arc blade with two hands and concentrated, the commandos watched in horror as she infused the blade with her own energy.
"Uh-oh," said the first commando.
Ariela jumped at her opponents and started swinging on them again.
Meanwhile, Ryan was in a vicious fight with his opponent, having already disarming him of his shield and leaving him with just his lance.
"Come on punk, come on!" beckoned the commando.
Ryan gripped his knife and charged, deflecting the commando's hit with his weapon before whirling around and delivering a roundhouse to his stomach, causing him to double over. Ryan knocked the commando over with a shoulder tackle and pounced on top of him, taking his knife and bringing it down. The commando raised his arm and stopped Ryan's attack, just only a few inches shy of the knife reaching his chest. Ryan gritted his teeth and growled as he bared the knife down further.
Suddenly, in a flash, the commando reached forward and tried to grab his lance… But was met with Ryan's knife in his chest.
"…Not fast enough," said Ryan.
The commando groaned and started to cough up blood before going limp and dying while underneath Ryan.
Corrie, who had seen the whole fight go down, turned to see Ariela had managed to cut down all but one of her enemies. She gasped and drew her magnum, took aim and fired on the commando, shooting him in the back twice and dropping him. Ariela turned and looked down at the dead commando, and then back at Corrie.
"…You missed one," she said.
Ariela giggled. She turned and looked at the station commander before marching over to him.
"And then there was one," she said as she brandished her arc blade.
The commander started to panic.
"W-W-Wait n-now let's not be hasty here, I-I-I see that ordering my soldiers to kill you was a bit rash but I'm sure we can come to some sort of arrangement," he stammered.
Ariela grabbed the man by the throat.
"Now… Refresh my memory… These listening posts have access to the main SplinterCell database… Right?" she asked as she started to lift him up off the ground, "meaning you have the names of all members of the SplinterCell in your records?"
"I-I-I don't know what you're t-talking about," the commander choked out, "th-these listening posts are only meant to serve as radio-"
Ariela tightened her grip, causing the man to let out a choked cry.
"Liars really piss me off," she growled.
"O-O-Okay! Okay! It's true!" he choked out, "I-I do have access to the records!"
Ariela threw the man to the floor. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the list.
"These names," she said as she flashed the list, "you recognize them?"
The commander's eyes went wide.
"U-U-Uh… I-I-I-I don't uh… I don't…" he started to say.
"Don't lie to me bitch," said Ariela.
She looked over her shoulder.
"You see that alien over there? The one who's cutting off your soldier's heads over there and using them to decorate this place?" she asked.
The commander started to shiver.
"Be a real shame if your head was used as a decoration," said Ariela.
The commander let out an alarmed gasp.
"Now… These names… Do you recognize them?" asked Ariela.
The commander nodded.
"I need the faces of the bastards on this list," said Ariela, "and I need them now."
"Uh… L-Look… I'd love to give you faces of the people on this list but… These people… They were a part of a secret program many years ago…" said the commander, "i-if I just printed off their faces and hand them to you… C-Commander Rush… She'll kill me."
Ariela raised an eyebrow.
"Kill you?" she asked, "skurwysynu, zabiję cię (motherfucker, I'll kill you)."
The station commander swallowed as she started swinging her sword back and forth. It was obvious she was starting to get impatient.
"I-I-If I give you their faces… W-Will you let me go?" he asked.
Ariela pondered for a moment.
"…Yes," she said as she sheathed her sword.
And with that, the station commander went to his computer, accessing the SplinterCell's main database as instructed and pulling up the faces of the people on Ariela's list. Ariela watched the commander diligently as he got all the faces of the individuals on the list together before he printed them off.
"Here, this is all of them… Just as you asked," he said, "I uh… I… Wh-What do I tell Commander Rush if she happens to call though?"
"Let me save her the trouble," said Ariela.
Ariela whipped out her Colt and fired three shots into the commander's stomach.
"Oh…" he said, "…unfair."
The commander fell over with a dull thud, slowly bleeding out. Ariela looked at the pictures of the people on her list. She looked at the commander's desk and started rummaging through his drawers before finding an empty folder and stuffing all the contents inside.
"Alright, let's get out of here," said Ariela.
"You got it boss," said Corrie.
"Alright, let's head back home," said Ryan.
"I concur-"
"WAIT!" screamed Ariela.
Everyone froze. Ariela pulled off her hood and removed her mask.
"…There's one little piece of business," she said with a big grin.
Persephone sat in her office, quietly doing paperwork while listening to music in the background. She gingerly reached over to her lit cigarette, which sat in her ash tray before bringing it to her lips and taking a drag from it.
She let out a small gasp as she heard her communicator start going off. She reached over and brought it close to her lips.
"…Yes?" she asked quietly.
"Ma'am… We've arrived at the listening station just as you requested," a voice said on the other end.
It was the voice of the squad leader, whom Persephone sent along with nine other commandos to investigate the distress signal coming from the listening station that Ariela attacked.
"What's the status?" she asked.
"…Ma'am… The listening station… It's… Decimated," he said.
Persephone suddenly felt a chill go down her spine.
"…What?" she asked in a sudden, shaken tone.
"It's decimated commander… There's no survivors… The listening station is… In flames," said the squad leader.
Persephone started to swallow her dry saliva.
"Ma'am?" asked the squad leader, "…m-ma'am?"
"…Thank you, Colonel, report back," she said quietly.
"Yes ma'am," he said.
Persephone killed the transmission and buried her face in her hands. Decimated? Destroyed, sure. Ransacked, maybe. But decimated? That was one word that made Persephone shiver like a frightened new born Varren pup.
There were only two things that could inflict so much damage to a listening post that her soldiers would say "decimated": HYDRA for one…
"And my sister…" she thought, fearfully.
It was clear to Persephone that Ariela has, in fact, returned from the shadows; and this time she was out for blood.
"…If she's attacked one of the listening stations, that means she must've been looking for information on The Technomancer Program. And if she's acquired that information…" she thought.
Persephone's breathing started to become labored.
"…If she undoes what I did to her all those years ago… If she remembers…" she thought, "…she'll have my head."
The activated her communicator again.
"…Doctor Holiday," she said.
"Yes commander?" a male voice asked on the other end.
"Get the message out to our black sites… Code Revenant," she said.
"…Dear god… You're serious…" said Doctor Holiday.
"Yes… Get the message out quick," she said, "once that's done, get the message to General Locke."
"…Yes ma'am," he said, "I'll see it done."
Persephone killed the transmission and took another drag of her cigarette.
"…So… It's come to this, eh sister?" she asked as she stamped out the cigarette, "so be it. If you won't come quietly… I'll see you dead."