Hello! Please, enjoy what you read at your own will, within reason and respect. Thank you for reading.
Disclaimer: I do not claim nor own anything. All rights are reserved to their respective owners and no copyright infringement intended. This fiction is for pure entertainment only and not for commercial purposes.
Engulfed in the shadows and moderately hidden, Mai gambled and bid her time to enter the outpost. Mai had simply given what Roche and ASIC wanted, but not without a trap to buy her time. As Mai made her way across the forage, the cameras inside the building were unable to see vital locations or the whereabouts of Tia and Roche. The cameras were looking around the perimeters of the fence and on the roof. It allowed Mai to estimate the number of guards on patrols, but there was also the probability that there were more guards inside than outside.
Regardless of the surveillance, Mai has reached before the fence and waiting for the patrol to go by. Yet, something did not feel right. The satchel was still on the move, going in circles from inside the outpost for the past twenty minutes. Why? Resonated in Mai's mind. The interface of her HUD signalled no alarm of the satchel's opening. Therefore it could be a trap and that Roche had warned them of Mai's presence, or something else unknown.
Either way, time was of the essence. While staying in cover, Mai hacked into a camera behind the fence to record a few minutes of footage to be looped. The loop should last for a short second before ASIC found out. Mai would rather not doubt ASIC's skills and cut the loop and the moment she was under the camera. Waiting for the HUD's signal of the start of the record, she cast a quick look to the left and right of the fence.
Positioned slightly further away from the fence and on a running start stance, the loop began to play. Immediately, Mai took a couple of running pace forward and jumped, activating her boosters to go over the fence. The fixed boosts projected her up the air and almost sent her planted to the wall of the building, had she not used the wing flaps of her suit and slapping her palms on the wall with her knees tucked in. Even then, Mai still smacked into the wall with a thump, her helmet protecting her head but not her body that spread the numbing force wide out.
A pained grunt escaped Mai's lips twice, one from meeting the wall, and the other collapsing on her back to the soil. A brief quaking pain flooded inside Mai's body. Mai took the risk anyway. There was no rest for Mai, as the sound should have concerned another guard on patrol on the roof. Quickly, Mai got up with a slight tremble in a hasty, stealthy gait to the side putting her footings along the patrol's footprints. The numbing ache still preceded as Mai lifted her feet from making noises with her boots meeting the soil.
Upon reaching the corner, Mai did a quick peak around to see the previous three guards patrolling by the fence were going over to the entrance post. Thirty seconds based on the distance of the guards reaching towards the entrance posts of the other guards there. It was enough, and Mai gambled as she crouched and leaned around the corner of the wall to look behind her.
Utterly exposed from this side, Mai peaked to the back of the corner to look at the guard on the roof looking down. Mai was thankful to have stepped on soil, as the guard did not find the 'third' set of footprints weird due to the difference of the sole. Along from that height, the details were hard to make out.
10 seconds. The guard on the roof continued his patrol along the roof, now coming over to above Mai to patrol next. Mai turned to look around in her current position.
14 seconds. The guards reaching the post have now quickened their steps. Mai caught a glance of a door ajar across here and a window further ahead from the door. Mai did not hesitate to move onwards to the door.
16 seconds. Reaching the door, Mai quickly peaked in the gap, suppressing a flinching gasp and instantly move away from the door and towards the window. The guard on the roof was now overlooking the guards by the entrance post and soon around and below him.
19 seconds. The door opened and a brief chatter could be heard. The opened door blocked Mai from the guard's vision thankfully, and it would not be long before they close the door. Mai was near the window and a light could be seen inside. A hail of greetings at the entrance post has started, prompting an exchange of their shift.
21 seconds. Mai did not hesitate to enter through the opened windows at the same time she heard the double-doors click and the knob being turning with a squeak. Immediately as soon as Mai was inside, she rushed as quickly and silently as possible to hide at the side of the door that put her in the corner.
25 seconds. The guards entered the room as the double-doors were pushed wide open, hiding Mai. One of the guard went to the window, and three others were following in, but two were outside talking in some heated discussion a little further away.
27 seconds. Mai could see from the side of the door the back of the guard raising his hands to reach for the window. Just as the guard touched the window, the two outside entered and pulled the door hiding her close, chatting without looking back.
28 seconds. After one door was closed, the other followed. Just as the door swung close, Mai quickly slipped behind their backs and got out of the room.
30 seconds. The moment Mai had stepped outside, turning her body such that she was leaning at the already closed door to avoid her figure being seen. Lastly, the door closed at the same time the window was shut close. The guards in the room continue their business inside.
Quickly glancing at the visor's interface, there was a moving camera on the far side of Mai location coming this way. No guards were seen patrolling in the camera, whereas away from the camera and the other side of Mai had them. The map of the military outpost was old and would unlikely be similar with the ASIC here. Although Mai hoped that the outpost had not changed at all, and that would bring up the probability of temporary control of this building.
Mai decided to head towards the camera, where the sub-control generators and power system could be found in another room of this corridor. Mai hastened her pace without hesitating to enter the room the map has shown. The camera behind Mai was a few metres away to have seen her.
Now in the sub-control power room, Mai was visited with a sight of old machines. Cylindrical or oval shaped generators were stacked and polished along a wall. Rust could be fairly seen amongst the bolts and screws, pipes and switches had a small change of casings and safety measures. Based on this overview, Mai supposed the ASIC would not be here for long due to the less than reliable environment.
Hiding behind an unused panel that was probably a network of wires and some inside; there were two guards and four engineers here occupied with keeping the power and systems operating as well as safe. To the far side of the corner, a console panel occupied with a couple of monitors on it were beside some generators. From the panel and a little further away to its side was a door that led to another corridor, and just underneath the corridor led to a basement about two more floors down. The map indicated that the lower floors were storages for weapons and mobile armoured vehicles. There was no training facility, but a testing facility of a range and vehicle tests was amongst the floor.
The satchel was still going in circles that Mai could not determine both the motive and idea behind it. What did come to mind was, had Roche been following alongside the satchel with ASIC since then? Whether it was a trap or not, half-an-hour have passed and anything could have been discreetly passed between Roche and ASIC. On the other hand, this might be an attempt to delay and observe Roche as well as tiring her out. Perhaps stamina was one way to dampen and dull Roche's edge with her hypnosis, considering that Roche did show Mai how she had done it with deep concentrated physical motions.
Nevertheless, Mai only needed to cause a temporary system error in the console panel's computer. A quick hack and the console panel chipped in on the engineers about the error. The engineers did not hesitate to inspect immediately instead of questioning it, asking the two guards to do some physical labour and inspection. The guards complied and followed the two engineers towards the generator. Only the two other engineers by the control panel were left. They did not seem too attentive around them however.
Mai could take the risk and the temporary diagnosis error has bought her a minute to reach the door. Instead, Mai malfunctioned the console's input buttons, short-circuiting with a fritz of shock that had the engineers jumping. Mai watched as the four generator asked their buddies of their concerns.
"Bloody machines are old. The buttons don't work, but the computer is working." Said one engineer as she smacked on the console's keys.
"We'll go get something to fix this up." The other engineer said after a sigh.
The two engineers proceeded out towards the door in front of Mai, but did not follow behind them yet. When the two engineers reached the door and opened it, one of the four by the generators called out to them.
"Get us an extra. We need to change these." The engineer by the generator with his colleagues said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder at the rusted object.
All of them returned to their duties, and Mai took the opportunity to get to the door as the two engineers went out. The engineers did not bother to close the door behind their back. Mai reached for the door before it closed and caught the knob. Waiting a bit until the footsteps of the two engineers were further away, Mai then stepped outside and closed the door.
The sudden winding light startled Mai as soon as she turned and was blinded by the light. A large glass wall showed the two floors below as only one ceiling light hung up on the roof. The light had four spotlights going on a rotation motion, bright enough to light the two floors below. It was huge floor and a very busy one. Guards going up and down the stairs of the first floor platform to grab and move objects to the second floor, where Roche and her members meet with ASIC's leader from the looks of it. Then, the most important of all was Tia, who was strapped on a bed and still unconscious behind the ASIC leader.
Judging by the arrangement and positions on the second floor, Roche and her gang were face-to-face with ASIC. The guards and gangs surrounding the platform of the first floor overlooking the rail, and the second floor as well, except for the openings of the stairs to this floor and the platform. Mai caught sight of the satchel being passed around in circles from ASIC and to Roche's gang on the platform.
What is going on? Mai thought curiously. It answered why the satchel was going in loops, but not the intention of it. Mai did not risk herself to stay in the corridor to figure out the situation, as she was exposed standing out in the open. Mai moved away from the engineers that have gone far off along the corridor. Heading the opposite side, Mai kept going until she found the third door. Luck was on Mai's side as it was empty, and nearly got herself spotted from the front just before they would see her enter.
The room Mai had entered led to nowhere as it was a laundry room. From the looks of it, it had been unused and untouched for a long time. The machines were intact and dusty, and it did not look like ASIC had bothered about this room. Except, only the power lines have been rewired elsewhere as Mai saw leftovers of cut wires from opened sockets. While the powers have been redistributed elsewhere, Mai hoped that the ASIC did not bother with the water and air pipes and ventilation systems connected to the machines underneath or behind them.
"Time to do the chores." Mai muttered quietly to herself, and set out to check 50 machines of washing and cloth dryers.
Originally, Mai could have just set off the smoke bombs in the satchel and broke through glass with her gloves. Whether the glass could withstand hard blunt impact or bullets should be an easy and quick matter to solve. However, even as Mai broke through and use her thermal visor through the smoke, grab Tia and escape back out from the broken window and all through the corridors, she would get Tia and herself shot despite of the shields.
The map indicated that following along the water and air system would lead to two sections of an area: an unused and dried out sewer that went far off from the outpost and out the ditch from under the bridge, and a room where stocks of items needed air-ventilation. The latter was where Mai needed to go, as it lead down to the second floor of the lower level where Roche, the ASIC, and Tia were.
On the fifteenth machine, Mai found the back to have an opening. The washing machine had a loose pipe and was over a vent. The vent was screwed shut. Mai knelt down and brought her shield up, using the edges of the shield to pry open the screws off. While the shield withstand some abuse and misuse, it did the job as Mai pulled out the screws. Mai could now open the vent and put the lid to the side. Looking inside the airshaft, Mai was fortunate to be able to fit in.
Stepping inside carefully, Mai first pulled the washing machine back slightly to the front of the opening, just in case. It would not be a good cover, but at least it blended amongst the rest of the abandoned machines hopefully. Finally, Mai crouched down and took the lid over to her head, closing it back slightly uneven due to the bents of the corners. Again, it was not a good blend, but Mai could only count on her luck.
That aside, Mai crawled along the airshaft that was flat at first, until she found the slope downwards. Faint words could be heard, but it was muffled by air and indecipherable. Mai supposed that it must be the first floor where the satchel was being passed around.
Then, as Mai went down the slope, the satchel suddenly stopped at one spot. The satchel was then thrown to the centre, and Mai had to hurry. Something has gone off! Instead of reaching the designated area where she could rush across Tia out the door on the second level, she went for the first platform. The satchel was opened and the trigger went off. Shouts could be heard, but no gunfire yet.
No choice, Mai punched the vent through and tore it open. Whether they heard it or not from inside the room, Mai was prepared to barge through anyone. The moment Mai dropped into the room, smoke being shouted from outside as it screened their vision, the door burst open with a tackle of her shoulder. The guards closer to Mai were jolted into alert, scrambling to fire at her direction without order. The leader furiously shouted to cease fire, and they did as he demanded their reasons.
"An intruder broke out in this room!' They exclaimed.
"Clear out the smoke! Roche!" The ASIC leader shouted.
As the commotion went out and the smoke rushing to be cleared out by the scrambling guards, Mai had retrieved and carried Tia on her back and stood next to Roche. Roche was now standing with her members mixed within ASIC and her own turning against the remaining ASIC guard and leader.
Roche sighed, "Honestly, did you think such tedious activity would hinder my hypnotism, Mr Jacuzz?" She said, smirking as she stared at the ASIC leader.
The ASIC leader and supposedly the 'detective' that moved Tia away from the camp, Stepo Jacuzz, released a sigh as he looked around the room. The ASIC guards that have fallen to Roche's hypnotism were struggling to regain their will as they pointed their guns at their own. Meanwhile, Roche's own had brief relapse of dozing off. Roche had a way to empower psyche with hypnotism, and Stepo assumed that it should have dulled the trance based on the look of Roche's members.
Stepo had noticed something amongst Roche's members was the missing vanguard, Uzaya. Out of the rest, Uzaya was the only one Stepo knew was not hypnotised, as she was Roche's most trusted friend. Now, there was new weirdo standing beside Roche. Stepo was not pleased, and neither was he going to let this off without what he needed most.
Stepo reached into his pocket, Roche quickly raised her hand to hold fire. The grin on Stepo's face quirked Roche's interest as he pulled out his hand from his pocket and opened his palm, a ring resting on the flat of his palm.
"It's not over yet, or we will die trying." Stepo said with his daring smile and hawkish eyes at Roche.
Author's afterwords:- Hello! I was lazy. Really lazy. Terrible excuse. But I wanted to inform you a small mistake, but huge error on my part of the previous chapter. In that chapter, there was a segment when Mai was entering the hidden compartment of the limo; there was a big BIG inconsistency where the satchel was later said to be with Roche where it was not clearly described if Mai had it took off from her. So I was very disappointed with that and made a small change. Basically, the satchel is with Roche and in the limo and not dimensionally stuck to Mai. So disappointed in that.
I hope you enjoy what your read at you own will, within reason and respect. Thank you for reading.