Chapter 49: Race Towards the Satellite

XCOM/Mission Control/2:01 pm

In the control center, one of the workers was monitoring their scanner telescope and noticed something off. "What the heck?" he went, "Excuse me, ma'am." Winter walks over towards the man's station and said in a militant tone, "Report." The worker showed the globe of Remnant with all of Menagerie's satellites which one of them are on a trajectory course towards the eastern parts of Atlas after being hit by an known projectile. "Any ideas on how did it happened?" she asked while giving a stern glare at the hologram. "No ma'am," he replied, "but I did pick-up some chatter about recovering something called the ACS module. It must be very important for them to enter onto our turf." Then they receive a call from General Ironwood from his flagship. "General, sir!" she saluted and standing at attention. "I have received a report about a falling satellite and what Merlot is up to." he says while looking very stern. "Yes, sir. Something has happened to one of the satellites and has crashed landed towards the eastern coast of Atlas." There was a moment of silence before the general responded. "I want that technology to reassure Atlas being the number one technological kingdom once again. I'm sending in the Checkmate Squad on this one since they are the closest unit available there."


Ruin Hideout/2:02 pm

Junior and his henchmen are at a tent with a bunch of monitors and radio equipment. Everything was rather boring until one of the men wearing headphones gave a stunned look. "Boss," the man says while turning his attention towards Junior, "you gotta listen to this." The man unplug the headphones for everyone to hear. Junior walked towards the station and leaned to listen very carefully.

?: "Ghost-01, this is mission control, do you read me?"

Ghost-01: "This is Ghost-01 reporting. We are thirty clicks towards the crash site. Good thing we decided to head back after we retrieved the item from the last mission."

Junior: *looks confused* "Crash site? Item?"

Mission Control: "Copy that, but there is a large blizzard blowing into that area. You may have to be dropped off at the edge of the storm."

Ghost-01: "Affirmative. We'll have to travel on foot to retrieve the ACS module."

Mission Control: "By any chance the blackbox is still in one piece, destroy it. The blackbox should have disintegrated when the satellite was destroyed."

Ghost-01: "Understood. And what about Pawn-06?"

Mission Control: "Darth Vindex is handling that mission so you guys got the satellite job. Furthermore, there maybe some Atlesian soldiers scouting the area. In other words, be quick and don't get caught."

Ghost-01: "Copy that, Ghost-01 out."

Roman Torchwick then enters the tent and asked around, "Hey, what's going on?" Junior got up and said, "We got something. I'm gonna contact some friends at Smuggler's Edge to retrieve some satellite parts." Torchwick raised an eyebrow, "Satellite parts?" "Yes." Junior grin, "One of the satellites came crashing down and we may use them to our advantage." They both exited the tent with the Malachite twins playing chess with each other on some of the crates while the other henchmen where busy checking inventory. "If the blackbox is still intact, we can use it to hide our tracks and blackmail whatever dirty secrets Merlot has. Not only that, we can get whatever tech we can get from some base to help defend ourselves when things get dicey." Roman then started to smirk with some villainous ideas swirling through his mind. With both the blackmail material and some tech taken from a military outpost, well, I think we all get what he is thinking of.

"By the way," Junior looked at Roman, "do you know someone name, Darth Vindex?" Roman's smirked face then started to cringe with his only hand shaking and started to remember the name. That very same name he has known and feared ever since his imprisonment. The very same person that has took his arm and tortured him for countless hours until he escaped. "Hey, you all right?"


Atlas North Eastern Parts/3:00 am/A Few Miles Away From the Crash Site

On-board a white all-terrain APC that has augers on the front and tracks on the back. The special operations unit, the Checkmate Unit [You know, from the first volume. Final Arc: Chapter 7 (108). The one that invaded the Fregata ship? Go check it out if you haven't read it yet.], are now in white armor with snow camouflage and some fuzzy areas on the shoulder pads and neck. While gearing up, King stand near the front of the vehicle to address the troops. "Alright troops, listen up!" he says as the troops in loud militant fashion while gearing up. "We are going to get our hands on some special tech from a satellite that got destroyed and crashed landed here. We have, no, we NEED to get something called the ACS module from the site. Once the tech boys get to work on it, Atlas will be able to gain full control of Merlot's satellites and all their secret tech they have. Queen is going to assist us" Pawn then asked, "Sir, is Menagerie and Merlot supposed to be our allies to track down the humanoid Grimm?" "For now on the surface." King replied, "But once that's over, both sides are going to be at each others throats in the shadows. They may have a special unit similar to ours so be on your toes. Because they may retrieve the so-called ACS module." Then they all start hearing a sweet yet stern feminine voice in the APC. "This is Queen, there is a large storm heading your way. In other words, I won't be able to maintain radio contact until the storm ends." Knight was disappointed. "So much for the sweet voice of her majesty." "I can still hear you." Pawn just laughed at Knight before he got elbowed in the chest by Bishop.

"This is the pilot speaking. Prepare for stationary base mode of the APC." The APC stopped and the augers and tracks extended out and the augers took root. The top part of the vehicle popped up to reveal a satellite dish and some antennas for radio contact. The sides of the APC then extended with the inside of it having all the seats retracted to the floor and control consoles started to appear and two of the regular Atlesian soldiers with green markings on them started to take the controls. The hatch opens with all five members exiting the stationary base. When they step outside, Bishop looked at the new base and said, "Gotta love the technology of Atlas." "We'll keep in contact with the base with shortwave."


Eastern Part of Atlas/Edge of the Storm/3:01 am

On the Merlot Dropship, Ghost Team is all geared up and ready to get started. The dropship stopped with the pilot saying, "Okay boys, you're on!" The door opened with a strong gust of icy, cold winds blowing in and the storm on approach.

Ghost-01: "Sate sate gōsuto buntai wa, anata wa doriru o shitte imasu!"
Translation: "Alright Ghost Squad, you know the drill!"

All the members of the squad jumped out of the VTOL and turned into puffs of smoke. It is hard to stay steady with 50 mph winds blowing for the dropship to maintain altitude, let alone for puffs of smoke trying to land. Yet they managed to make it to the ground and turn into their humanoid form. "Gun wa,-gai ni idō shimasu!"
Translation: "Troops, move out!"
All five members of Ghost Team ran into the storm in order to find the crash satellite before anyone else can reach it.


Smuggler's Edge/3:03 am

Here in this freezing cave covered in beautifully formed stalactite and icicles along with stalagmites. Creating a beautiful scenery for such a cavern system. However, nature's beauty is home to a band of ruthless pirates, mercenaries, and thieves known as the Snow Vipers. This band of criminals have been raiding some parts of eastern Atlas by raiding a few ships in the sea and work for the more devious customers. Deep in this cave, a man sitting in a finely crafted red cushion with his white top hat over the head piece and a white gloved hand swirling a wine glass. Then a woman dressed in a white woman's fancy snow outfit gave a man a scroll.

"Yes?" he said with an aristocratic tone. "Ah, Mr. Xiong. How may I help you? ...Yes...yes...ooo, that is interesting. Sounds like fun. And our fee...Very well then, old chum, I'll send my men at once." He then hang up the scroll and spoke to the woman in white, "Contact the men. We got a new job."


AN: Yeah, sorry for the delay. Work was hard this week. Don't worry, I'm still going to upload a chapter once a week as promise. Yet I would like to ask what everyone's opinion is in the review on what do you think so far.