The silenced snipers made short work of the mercenaries on patrol. The first fat man projectile was a warning shot, barely causing any damage to the building. However, the violent explosion was enough to shake the foundations on the facility.
Sun, Scarlet, Sage and Neptune felt it first. The explosion sounded like a faint boom and it caused dust to fall from the ceiling. The four men reacted almost instantly, working together without one word having to be said amongst them. While Sun and Neptune ran to the mercenary's quarters to ready any soldiers that weren't already awake, Scarlet and Sage – along with other Wukong mercenaries - made a mad dash to the armoury to prepare for what would surely be a very long night.
Yang and Blake felt the impact shortly after, rousing them from their packing. The explosion sounded a little more distant from where they were but the reverberating shockwaves still were powerful enough to violently shake the room. Blake looked to her partner and leader with wide shock, both for an explanation as to what was going on and for a command to do. Yang turned to her with a look of steely determination as she holstered two revolvers to her legs and slipped her hands into Ember Celica's gloves, ready for a fight.
"Grab Gambol Shroud, and find Ruby and Weiss! Looks like the Fort is under attack."
Almost as soon as Blake slipped her blade into its sheath, Ruby and Weiss ran into the room, accompanied by Sun. Instead of his traditional armour, he had adorned a heavy T-45d power suit, and had switched his usual assault rifle for a giant railway rifle.
"Ladies, grab whatever weapons you can and put the rest of your gear in one of the vertibird's. If the worst comes to worst, I want to be able to fall back as soon as possible," Said Sun in a rushed voice. He was silently glad he had a giant helmet on, because he couldn't bear to look the group in the eye. "I don't want to scare you guys, but I will not lie to you either. You hear those guns?"
The whole group stood silent, listening to the explosions that followed, shaking the room violently.
"By the sound of it, they got some heavy artillery. I don't know if we will be able to hold the Fort."
All the girls nodded once, fully comprehending the severity of the situation. Yang was the first to speak up.
"What should we do?"
"Sooner or later, whoever is firing on us will have to push into the fort. The defence system outside may be able to thin down their numbers and give us time, but not by much. My men are creating barricades in the corridors and getting ready for the assault. You should probably do the same," And with that, Sun ran back into the corridor, the power armour mechanically whirring with each stride. Yang turned to the rest of the convoy, who were standing ready.
"You heard the man. Grab what you can, and then I want you guys to take the rest to the vertibird. We'll meet up with the other when we are done,"
Everyone gave a single nod and ran to do their duties. While they did this, Yang put leather armour on over her usual attire and double checked her gauntlets and her two borrowed magnum revolvers to see if they were fully loaded. Satisfied, she ran out into the corridor after Sun, getting ready for the ensuing siege.
oo0oo
Eulogy has purposely ordered his men to attack the facility, but only in a way that provided minimal damage to building. With the firepower he had, he could have easily levelled it to the ground.
However, that wasn't what he wanted.
With the fortifications, the weapon and ammunition stockpiles, and the isolated location, the Wukong facility was a much more beneficial location to the slaver's operation than Paradise Falls ever could be.
Eulogy held up his fist, signalling his men to cease firing on the base. He quickly assessed the damage the building had sustained. A few wild shots hit the side of the building but did very little to warrant any expensive repairs. He turned to his men and spoke out again finally.
"Leave the fat men here. We don't want to damage the interior too much."
The slavers obeyed and stashed them behind a rock. He signalled for his slavers to move forward, unaware that the many missile launcher and fat man projectiles missed the few turrets that Ruby and Sun got running just days ago.
The slavers started towards the facility, close enough for the guns to register the intruders. The four guns fired out rapidly in a simultaneous fashion, striking down a good few slavers. One stray bullet even caught Eulogy on the shoulder before the remaining survivors all raised their weapons and emptied their cartridges and gun chambers as fast as they could, making short work of the machines. Eulogy groaned as he felt a sharp pain where he had been hit, and then looked at the patch of skin where the bullet had gone in. It was lodged deep in the muscle and sent massive jolts of intense pain when Eulogy tested how bad it was. Not thinking twice, he dug his fingers into the wound and dragged the piece of steel out with some difficulty, then stuck himself with a stimpack that sat in the pocket of his red suit jacket. With the effects of the drug taking almost immediate effect and feeling a numbness replace the pain in his shoulder, he ordered his men to continue pushing forward, unaware of what waited behind the double doors.
oo0oo
Despite the short notice Sun had to prepare, he and his men – along with Yang's convoy – had prepared very quickly, creating make shift barricades out of tables and junk, setting up different traps in the corridors, blocking off certain rooms, and swapping out their traditional armour for thicker combat armour and power suits and their usual assault rifles and pistols, for heavier and more powerful weapons – such as miniguns, plasma weapons and light machine guns. Some of the traps were as simple as frag mines and tripwires that triggered grenade bouquets, while some were more technologically minded, like pressure plates that activated shotguns and even some of the facility's robot defences. The men were lined up behind makeshift barricades that were set up at regular intervals in the corridors that from the front entrance to the hangar, where the vertibirds sat prepped for launch in case they were forced to retreat.
A group of eight men, including Sage, Scarlet, Sun and Neptune were waiting patiently for the ensuing invaders to break in, their weapons aimed at the front door. Finally, the door kicked open and the first of the slavers busted in, but the mercenary's made quick work of him. The amount of bullets and railway spikes that came from them shredded the slaver into pieces. However, more and more slavers came in and started to fire on the mercs, to little avail. Sun and his men kept on firing, but it seemed like they were fighting a pointless battle. For every slaver they took down, three more came to take their place. Soon, the bullets were starting to wear down quickly on the heavily armoured mercenaries and finally, the first of the defenders fell when a stray bullet got a lucky shot through the eye slit on his helmet.
" Fall back to the next barricade!"
And so the men did as they were told. They ceased their fire and sprinted towards the next defence line, though with their heavy equipment, they were still fairly sluggish. Luckily, the cleverly hidden traps took out a few slavers and bought the mercs a few precious seconds to move to the next point of defence. One pressure plate activated three nearby sentry bots, but before they could attack on any of the slavers, two of them with leather armour and miniguns tore them apart. They quickly advanced around the corner to the next barricade and started firing upon Sun's group. Luckily, they ducked behind cover before any of the bullets started firing. Sun turned to the others.
"Guys, if we don't deal with these fuckers soon, they are going to tear the barricade to ribbons. Any of you got grenades?"
Smiling devilishly, Scarlet unhooked a plasma grenade off his belt and tossed it lightly in the air. Not waiting for Sun's command, he activated the grenade and popped up over the crates to launch the grenade at the advancing attackers with all of his force. But when the grenade left his hand, a bullet pierced a weak point in his armour, cutting through his shoulder like a knife through hot butter. The power of the bullet sent Scarlet sprawling to the ground in pain. Sun scrambled to his side and tried to pick him up, but Scarlet pushed him away and got back up with a grunt.
"I'm fine, it's just a scratch,"
As soon as he said this, the plasma grenade went off, melting the two attackers, but another group of men quickly took their places.
"Fall back!"
And so the pattern continued, with Sun and his group of mercenaries defending and retreating as soon as the attackers came too close to the barricades or got too thick in numbers. While Sun's men had created the barricades, they also blocked the doorways and entrances to certain rooms, forcing the slavers to go where sun wanted them to. Eulogy was too enraged at this point to notice he was walking right into a trap, but Cardin was well aware enough of what was going on to instruct his squad to stay behind, fearing an ambush.
When Sun, Scarlet, Sage and Neptune – along with their remaining men - had reached the final barricade at the doorway to the hangar area, they were joined by an extra four. Ruby and Blake with their sniper rifles, Yang with a pair of scoped magnum's, and Weiss with a hunting rifle that she borrowed from the mercenary group were all crouched behind cover and read to attack. Like the other soldiers, they had donned thicker armour than they usually wore, which they borrowed from the mercenary group. As they waited for the next wave of invaders to come around the final corner, Sun and Neptune chuckled to themselves. Weiss turned to them with a scowl on her face.
"What exactly is so funny?"
Sun turned to Weiss with a dastardly twinkle in his eye and a sharp, devilish grin on his face.
"Let's just say we got a little surprise for these assholes in the hangar."
oo0oo
Eulogy took a look at the slavers that still stood after the continuous strings of attacks. Many had fallen, but there were still many more standing. Though much of the heavily armoured men had died in the first string of attacks, the remaining men were battle hardened veterans who had worked for Eulogy for a long time. They would be insanely tough to kill.
"Alright, men! Let's push onwards!"
The first group of men ran out and started firing but were very quickly cut down. One of them though – a man named Ymir – was lucky enough to roll out of the way before any round could do any serious damage, the only bullet barely scratched him on the leg.
"We got snipers." Ymir stated, through gasps as he put pressure over the large cut on his leg where the bullet had passed.
"How many?"
"I don't know. Three, maybe four."
Eulogy did a quick risk assessment and quickly signalled for a missle launcher to be tossed to him. Catching it with relative ease, he tried to fire it with one hand. Though he was strong, the launcher was unsteady and it flew out of his hand when he fired. However, its desired effect and hit the barricade square, knocking the defenders flying through the set of double doors
"HAHAHA! THAT'S WHY YOU DON'T FUCK WITH SLAVERS!" Eulogy shouted. He could almost taste victory. "ALRIGHT, LADIES AND GENTS! LETS FINISH OFF THESE FUCKS!"
A giant cry rose from the slavers and they all rushed towards the door to finish the siege and take over the fortress. However, Cardin grabbed his men before they could follow on wards.
"What are you doing?" he asked, in a harsh whisper.
"Come on, boss! We almost got this!"
"You idiot! Think about it, we have seen maybe eight of those mercenaries. where are the rest of them?" The other men opened their mouths as if to talk back, but then thought about what Cardin said. Dove finally turned to Cardin.
"Don't you think we should warn them?"
Cardin shook his head for two reasons. Firstly, Eulogy was too stubborn to listen. Secondly, he had more selfish goals in mind.
"I got a better idea. Come on, we are heading back to Paradise Falls."
oo0ooRuby sat up and shook her head, her ears still ringing from the explosion. While it did little to no damage, the shockwave from the missile's impact was powerful enough to knock everyone flying back into the hangar. Blake was already up, carrying an unconscious Yang, Weiss had just got up and was shaking her head, and Sun was signalling down towards his men. Ruby turned and saw the surprise Sun was talking about.
All of the Wukong mercenaries had their guns pointed towards the entrance, and all of them undoubtedly had itchy trigger fingers. But that wasn't all. Three of the vertibirds were hovering above the ground and had chain guns pointed towards the front entrance, while the two larger models of vertibirds sat grounded, but ready to take off at a moment's notice. It would've been a miracle if anybody could survive the magnitude of bullets that were going to be flying at them.
"RUBY, WEISS! GET OUT THE WAY!" Ruby heard Blake shout, and she obeyed with lightning fast reactions. When Weiss didn't respond immediately, Ruby ran to her and helped her out of the firing zone, just in time for the doors to bust open.
Then chaos erupted.
The sounds that came was deafening as every rifle, pistol, and machine gun unloaded into the ensuing attackers. Ruby dove forwards with Weiss and hit the floor, then scrambled to cover Weiss' body with her own, protecting her from any potential damage. Ruby heard a missile fire from the doorway and saw it collide with one of the flying vertibirds, causing it to spin out of control and crash into a small group of Wukong mercenaries, crushing a few and knocking the rest flying forward. The survivors continued to fire in the direction of the doorways as if nothing had happened for a solid minute. Then, under Sun's order, they ceased fire. He, Sage, Scarlet, and Neptune ran up to see for survivors. Ignoring the damage that was done and the large pile of bodies that had accumulated, they quickly noticed Eulogy at the for edge of the collection of dead, trying to crawl away with a thick bloody trail following behind him. He turned and made direct eye contact with Sun. He tried to reach for his gun with one bloody hand, but Sun kicked it out of reach. Eulogy looked up into Sun's eyes in meek surrender.
"Please…have mercy."
Sun signalled to Sage, Scarlet and Neptune. All three men rushed forward and Scarlet grabbed Eulogy's left arm and stretched it out, Neptune did the same with his right, and Sage held out both of Eulogy's legs. Sun stomped on Eulogy's chest to hold him firmly in place and fired a railway spike into his left hand, pinning it down to the floor. Eulogy let out an animalistic cry of pain and tried to thrash out, but Sun's comrades held him firm.
"Eulogy Jones, you come into home…" Sun said menacingly, letting off another spike into Eulogy's right hand. Eulogy's cries only grew in volume and pitch as small pools of blood started to form where metal had pierced flesh.
"Kill and wound my friends…" Sun shot a round into Eulogy's left foot.
"Destroy my vertibird and damage my place…" Sun shot a final round into Eulogy's right foot, pinning him completely to the floor. Sun's friends took this as a signal that their work was done and stood back. "AND YOU HONESTLY EXPECT ME TO SHOW MERCY?! HAHAHA!" Sun let out a laugh that was without humour and laced with menace, before aiming the end of the railway rifle at Eulogy's forehead, who was hyperventilating and had the look of a hunted animal that knew it was about to receive the killing blow.
"I honestly don't think you are in any position to bargain with me."
The last thing Eulogy heard with mechanical ping of the rifle and whoosh of the spike being delivered deep into his skull, spraying the floor with his blood and killing him instantly. Sun admired his handiwork and felt a surge of pride as he knew one of the greatest evils in the wasteland was finished off by his hands.
"Am I fuck cleaning that up." Said Neptune.
oo0oo
Cardin looked out at Fort Wukong, when his mind started to whir into overload. If Eulogy was dead, then that meant that he no longer had a death sentence on his head and he was finally free of the slavers. He looked out at his old squad, as two thoughts came into his head.
He could take over Paradise Falls.
Or he could simply run free.
Cardin was about to reach for his revolver, but quickly noticed the fat men that Eulogy stashed earlier. He picked one up as quickly and as quietly as he could, aiming it at his old comrades, who continued to march back in the direction of Paradise Falls, unaware that their lives would be shortly ended.
If I am to be truly free, Cardin thought, there can be no survivors of this attack. Cardin let off a round, just as Dove turned around. In those moments, time seemed to slow down for Dove and Cardin. As Dove saw the mini nuke that was about to end him glide ever closer, he reached into his holster as fast as he could and grabbed the submachine gun that hung there, firing off three rounds before the mini nuke exploded at his feet, obliterating him and his comrades in an instant. The first two bullets barely missed Cardin's head, while the final one met his forehead, gliding through his brain effortlessly and killing him just as quickly as the explosion killed Dove and his two comrades.
(Notes: I'm sorry this chapter took longer than expected, I started it after Christmas, but with writer's block and personal stuff, I only managed to finish it just now. The barricade and retreating idea came from the film "outpost". If you haven't seen it, go watch it, it's a good movie. Also, cheers to Ann E. Casap who gave me the idea of Sun killing Eulogy, though I apologize that I pinned him to the floor instead of the wall. As for Cardin killing off his squad so he could be free, that was just a random idea I came up with proof reading this. Also, I have a huge announcement. I have been offered an unpaid position to write for Fortitude magazine, an online magazine. So if you could check that out in the future, that would be cool as hell. Anyway, thank you for being patient with me and I hope you enjoy this chapter. Hope you guys have a happy new year and Adios!)