Part 12 – Almost over
The next morning, Naruto awoke to the sound of his alarm going off which was the holographic projection of a pair of Orange-Bellied Parrots flying around his room.
Naruto reached up, and turned off the holographic projection, he then looked over, and saw Hinata's sleeping form.
Looking at this angelic figure asleep next to him made him feel proud.
Hinata then turned over, and as she opened her eyes, she saw the smiling face of her team's XO lying next to her, the sheets of his bed hanging low on his hips.
"Hello," Hinata said as she placed her hand on Naruto's arm.
"Hello," Naruto said, "You seem happy."
"Why wouldn't I," Hinata asked, "I had a good night."
"Best night of my life," Naruto said, "Being a sniper, I've taken many lives, and in the process saved a few. Now I have a new mission."
"What is that?" Hinata asked.
"Being part of your life," Naruto said as he ran his exoskeleton-outlined hand up the arm Hinata had on his own.
Naruto then moved Hinata's hand to the back of his head, leaned forward, and kissed her.
There was a banging on the door, and Naruto jolted sideways, looking at the door, "Whose there?" He asked.
"Naruto," Sasuke said, "We've got a lead on Butch! Get up, grab your gear, and report to the briefing room."
"Yes sir," Naruto said, "I'll be right out."
Naruto got up, and started getting dressed while Hinata picked up one of his shirts which was large enough to cover her chest, stomach, waist, and mid-thigh, "I'll see you in the briefing room," Hinata said as she ran up to Naruto, and kissed him once before running out the door, and next door to her quarters.
Five minutes later, Naruto and Hinata entered the briefing room to find Sasuke standing in front of the briefing-table with Sakura, Shino, and Tenten standing around.
Shino and Tenten although were not dressed in their regular blue and gold-trimmed uniforms, they were dressed in black and white-trimmed Special Forces uniforms with Team 7's logo on their sleeves.
"Look who finally made it," Shino said as Naruto and Hinata walked up to the briefing-table.
"Sorry," Naruto said, "We had to grab a quick breakfast."
"Ok then," Sasuke said as he swiped his hand across the briefing-table, "Here's what we know, the rebels have a hold on Atlas's capital of Mantis," a 3-D holographic rendering of the city of Mantis came up on the briefing table, "The Legion is currently planning an attack designed to push the rebels out of the city. While the Army keeps the rebels busy, our objective is this building," Sasuke pointed at a large mushroom-shaped building with a spike stick out of the top, "Intel provided for us by our insiders tell us that the rebels are using this building as a command-post to coordinate their defenses."
"We've been trying to get inside this building ever since Mantis fell to the rebels," Shino said, "We can finally break the stalemate, and punch a hole in the rebels' defenses."
"And that's what we're going to do," Sasuke said, "This outpost is one of only four places we can find intel on the BRD correspondents on the planet."
"How many memory chips do we need?" Hinata asked.
"None," Sasuke said as he looked at Hinata, "This isn't a data-retrieval mission, this is a snatch and grab mission, we are to only engage unless fired upon, and the H.I.V. alive to get information from him."
Six hours later…
Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, Hinata, Shino, and Tenten sat in the cabin of a VTOL on the cliffs overlooking the city.
Shino sat back against the side of the VTOL's cabin, he reached into the pocket of his jacket, and pulled out a small black box, he opened the top, shook it, and a small black electronic cigarette fell out.
Shino placed the cigarette between his lips, and after giving the top half a small one hundred and eighty degree twist, the tip glowed blue.
"You smoke," Sasuke asked as he bounced his knife around his hand.
"Yep," Shino said as he exhaled, a cloud of smoke coming out of his mouth.
"I'm just glad it's an electronic cigarette instead of a real one," Sasuke said, "Otherwise we'd be revealing out position."
Shino nodded like he agreed, just in time to see a green flare fly into the air, and was followed by several explosions from the buildings and the sound of gunfire.
"WE'RE LIVE," Sasuke yelled as he jumped into the VTOL, "PILOT, GET THIS BASTARD AIRBORNE!"
The pilot powered up the VTOL, and as it raised in the air, Sasuke grabbed his M16, loaded a fresh magazine, and pulled back on the cock-drive.
As they were flying over the city, Sasuke pointed at the building the rebels used as their headquarters, "Pilot," Sasuke exclaimed, "That's our objective!"
"I can't get much closer than this," the pilot said, "I've got high-voltage energy readings running all around that building. If I get any closer I could fry this bird's system."
"Alright," Sasuke said as he pointed at the building adjacent to the rebel command-post, "Set us down there!"
The pilot set the VTOL directly on top of the roof of the adjacent building, "Perfect time to test out a prototype," Naruto said as he pulled out an Uchiha Enterprises M202 Flash, "Sasuke, load me up."
"Roger," Sasuke said as he grabbed the launcher-ammo from the back of the VTOL, "Shino, give us a readout on that base!"
Shino grabbed the long-range binoculars from his pack, and looked at the building with the scanner function selected, "We've got five hostiles standing in the command-post at the top of the tower," Shino said, "Three are in uniform, two are in infantry gear. Take four alive and kill another?"
"Too risky," Sasuke said as he grabbed an M79 GL from the VTOL, and handed it to Shino, along with a single 40mm grenade that had a red circle around the rim, "Halothane charge, 1250mL of the stuff, you only have one shot, and I suggest you make it count."
"A sleeping agent," Shino said, "Interesting."
"We're going to capture and interrogate them all," Sasuke said as he pulled the pin out the side of the rockets loaded into the M202 Naruto was holding, "You're set!"
Naruto reached up to the side, and flipped down the sight, then hit a button on the side of the sight that flipped down an enhancement that turned the sight into a scope.
"You're set," Hinata said as she attached the four lines onto a line-launcher post mounted inside the VTOL.
"Ready." Naruto said.
"Fire!" Sasuke exclaimed.
Naruto pulled the trigger, and the top two rockets launched toward the building, once they were halfway across, they dissolved into grappling hooks that latched onto the side of the building.
Sasuke and Shino latched onto the cables, and Naruto fired again, the bottom two rockets launched Sasuke and Shino across the gap.
Once they were five hundred and sixty feet from the tower, Shino fired, the Halothane charge flew through the first two windows, then landed against the floor of the command-post, exploded, and released a concentrated cloud of Halothane that knocked everyone inside the command-post unconscious.
"Prepare to release," Sasuke said as he grabbed hold of the cord attached to his belt, once Sasuke saw their shadows on the glass-dome, Sasuke spoke up, "NOW!"
Sasuke and Shino pulled their cords, and they were released from the cables, and swung toward the dome, they both held out their legs, and they smashed through both layers of glass, and landed feet-first into the control-center where they five rebels were unconscious.
"Secure those three," Sasuke said as he pointed at the two grunts and the first officer as he secured the first two officers to his cable, and then yanked at the cable which sent the officers flying back through the hole in the window, and across the gap toward the VTOL.
After Shino sent the three rebels across the gap while Sasuke picked off two hostiles that came to kill them.
As Sasuke and Shino were defending themselves, the five hostiles arrived at the VTOL, Sakura, Hinata, and Tenten unhooked the men from the lines.
After unhooking them from the lines, the girls handcuffed them while Naruto covered Sasuke and Shino with an L115.
After securing the hostiles inside the VTOL, the girls sent the cables back to Sasuke and Shino.
Sasuke quickly switched to his M1911 as he ran out of ammo in his M16.
He held his M16 between his thigh and calf, and reloaded the rifle then flipped his weapon into his hands in time to run out of ammo in his M1911.
After grabbing hold of his M16 he sent off one grenade, and pulled back on his M16's cocking-drive just in time for Shino to run out of ammo.
Sasuke then felt the cable on his shoulder, he reached up, grabbed the cable, and latched it onto his belt as Shino did the same.
After giving their cords a quick tug, they were yanked back across the gap, and came a few inches from having their armor shredded to pieces by the glass.
Once they reached the other side of the gap, and could touch the other roof with their feet, they unclipped from the cords.
"Release the cords," Sasuke said as he slapped Naruto on the back, and let him know they were leaving.
Hinata and Sakura unhooked the cords, and sent them flying downwards toward the streets below.
The team jumped into the VTOL, and once they were flying over the city while the Army was fighting in the streets below, Shino spoke up, "It's going to be a while before the city is ever the same."
"That's right Shino," Sasuke said, "That's right."
The VTOL touched down at base at sunrise, and the prisoners were taken away for interrogation.
Forty eight hours later, Shino was watching the interrogations take place when he fell asleep in the chair.
As he was asleep, he dreamed of his first deployment as a Sergeant, he was leading his recon team over the sandy mountains of Octavian Four, the standard armor for recon was an advanced-camouflage jacket with knee, groin, chest, and face armor.
Shino carried an M4A1 assault rifle with an advanced red-dot sight, his squad consisted of primarily humans or robots because they didn't attract as much attention, and the robots that weren't his race used were easy to replace.
Upon entering the cliffs above the city they were scouting out, the team came upon an enemy patrol, and was instantly fired upon.
After they fired back, it gained the attention of several soldiers in the town below.
That firefight lasted two hours before reinforcements arrived, they lost three members of the team, but when they drew the soldiers from the town below, it weakened the town's defenses, and let a gap for the Army to come in and take over.
Because of his actions Shino was given a Golden Star of Accomplishment, but he couldn't help but see those three soldiers lying on the battle field, the last memory those families would have of their children would be of them lying in a coffin with the Legion's flag covering them like a blanket.
Shino awoke in a start as he felt Tenten's hand on his shoulder, "Shino," Tenten said, "You ok?"
"Yea," Shino said as he eased back in his chair, "I'm ok."
"Good," Tenten said, "Because we've found Butch."
Shino followed Tenten into the briefing room where Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, and Hinata were waiting.
"Nice of you to join us." Naruto said.
"Sorry," Shino said, "I dozed off."
"Well stay awake," Sasuke said as he turned on the briefing-table, "Yesterday the Enterprise was able to finish off the last of the hostile cruisers. With the space-battle over all the rebels have is a handful of bases. I believe if we take one more base we can secure a place on this planet we can use to eliminate the rebels once and for all."
"And luckily this base happens to be where me and Naruto's squad mate Butch is located, and we're going to take both the base and him." Sasuke said.
"Forgive me for saying Sasuke," Shino said, "But how do we take this place? The Army's been trying to get inside ever since it was taken over by the rebels."
"Back then we didn't have an entire fleet of ships," Sasuke said, "The Enterprise is going to shell the base's main wall, and while the rebels are distracted by the Army, we're going to seize our window of opportunity, and enter the base under the cover of night."
"Where?" Shino asked.
"Here," Sasuke said as he pointed at the base's sewer-drain, "We enter in through there, make our way to the control-room, and capture Butch and anyone else that is important to the BRD," Sasuke looked up at Shino, "Shino, Butch is seven foot one, three hundred and eighty five pounds. Can you carry him?"
"Yes," Shino said, "It'll be a struggle because I'll have to drag him through the sewers but it shouldn't be too much trouble."
"Good," Sasuke said, "Because we're going to need you keep him sedated until we can get him back to the ship so we can transport him to New Alcatraz."
"You say what now boss?" Shino asked.
"You heard me right," Sasuke said as he looked at Shino, "We're going to be transporting him to New Alcatraz, and we're going to personally handle the interrogation."
"When's the assault?" Shino asked.
"That's the spirit." Sasuke said.
Butch is as good as caught…