Chapter Eighteen: Stormfront
Before Carter could draw his weapon, each of the SEEN agents had aimed their rifles in his direction. Five muzzle flashes illuminated the stormy darkness as a barrage of bullets was sent his way.
Faster than he could blink, Rose Quartz appeared in front of him. The bullets collided harmlessly off of her shield, falling down to the sand. Three of these soldiers headed for cover elsewhere, while two of them drew their Breaking Points.
"How dare you come here to hurt my family?" Rose Quartz said angrily. Neither of the soldiers gave an answer, instead charging her.
These two soldiers flanked her. One had his Breaking Point outstretched, aiming for her Gem. She easily blocked the weapon with her shield: the drill collided with it, leaving nary a scratch. It was the other soldier that was more concerning. He slid through the sand behind Rose, opening fire with his rifle while she was distracted. Light momentarily shone from the wounds this left, which were instantly healed. Rose retaliated, knocking the first soldier to the ground with her shield before throwing the other several feet away with a punch.
The whole thing happened in about ten seconds. Carter wasn't entirely sure what had happened. "Well, that's one way to get them off your back," he said.
"Your front as well," Rose said with a grin. Noticing something, Carter suddenly dove to the side-the first soldier had gotten back up, and was about to attack Rose from behind. Carter fired with his shotgun, destroying the Breaking Point, while Rose followed up with another shield bash. The soldier was down for the count.
Meanwhile, Daniel and Ichigo were dealing with the other soldiers. The two took cover behind a large stone hand, having fallen off of the large statue. The pair fired blindly at their attackers.
"Give me covering fire, I'm gonna flank 'em!" Ichigo said.
"Hey, what about me!?" said Luke. "I don't have any weapons!"
"Oh, for-here, just take this one!" Daniel slid his sidearm over to the Former SEEN. "Alright, Ich, get going."
Ichigo took off running towards Greg's van. Daniel prepared to distract the soldiers while he did so, but there was no need; the other Crystal Gems had that covered. When one noticed Ichigo leave and prepared to shoot him, his rifle was sliced in half by a spear thrown by Pearl. He was then knocked off his feet by the same Gem, who then finished him off by slamming him into the sand. Another soldier was grabbed and thrown into the air by Amethyst's whip, where Garnet threw them into at the remaining one.
Ichigo, ignorant of this takedown, took cover behind Greg's van, where he caught his breath. The vehicle's owner poked his head out the window, concerned with the amount of gunfire happening outside. "What is going on out there!?" said Greg.
"Nothing to worry about, Mr. Universe, sir!" Ichigo said. "Just a minor skirmish going on, nothing we can't handle!" He took this moment to wipe the rain from his visor. "Jeez, these things should really come with wipers…"
Rose Quartz looked around, noticing that all five of the SEEN agents were unconscious. "Now, that wasn't so bad."
Carter nodded. "Mm. And here I was expecting-"
It was then that they heard the growl of an engine, driving a vehicle that was both large and fast. Everyone braced as a pair of headlights rapidly approached, regardless of whether or not they were in its path. A huge armored truck smashed through the fence, followed by two more slightly smaller ones. All three trucks ground to a halt on the beach as even more soldiers jumped out.
"Aw, crap," said Daniel.
All of the SEEN soldiers opened fire, mainly at the Gems. Greg and Ichigo were caught in the barrage as well, ducking down as bullets ricocheted off the side of the former's van.
"Are you sure you can handle this!?" Greg shouted over the barrage.
"Yeah, you know, pretty sure!" Ichigo said. "See? The Gems have this covered!"
SEEN may have had the numbers, but the Crystal Gems were used to being outnumbered. Three of them, minus Rose, easily mowed through their numbers. Despite being close-quarters combatants, or perhaps because of it, none of their enemies could get close enough to use their Breaking Points. Rose and Carter took a more hands-on approach, fighting the invaders as they exited their vehicles. All the while, thunder strikes lit up the battlefield.
The handful of troopers that had snuck past the Gems moved in on the temple. Daniel did his best to hold them off, but he was only one man. And Luke wasn't the best shot with a pistol.
"You hang tight here, I'm gonna go help my friends!" Ichigo said to Greg. "Well, friend and aquaintence. You'll be fine here, right?"
"I guess," Greg said. "As long as they don't come over here!"
"They probably won't," said Ichigo. "Just lay low until one of us gives you the all-clear." He sprinted towards his pinned-down allies. "I love your music, by the way!" he yelled back.
The SEEN troops had begun to surround the temple entrance. "So, what exactly is your plan?" said Luke.
"That depends: do you know these guys?" asked Daniel.
"Their faces are covered, how would I know if I know them!?" Luke retorted.
"Then no, no plan."
"Well, I got one." Luke ducked out from cover. "Hey, Gems! We could use a hand over here!"
None of the Gems responded, being too busy fighting their own battles.
Luke shook his head. "So much for my idea."
One of the encroaching soldiers was then tacked to the ground by Ichigo. Unfortunately for him, the other soldiers nearby weren't as slow to react as he had expected, immediately surrounding him. "That, uh...didn't work out how I'd planned," he said, looking up at the soldiers.
Just before they could open fire, one of them was knocked to the ground by a shotgun blast. Those that remained turned their attention towards Carter, who strolled towards the group.
Daniel and Luke joined the fight as well, both striking their foes with their weapons. Ichigo stood up and did the same to another soldier before they could fire on his captain. Carter felled the rest with his gun.
While both BAINE and the Crystal Gems fought off the attacking troopers, none of them noticed that the largest of the armored trucks had begun to rev its engine. Starting slow at first because of the sand, it soon gained traction, barrelling towards the combatants.
Rose Quartz hurried in front of the truck's path. Unsheathing her sword, she swung the weapon just as the vehicle reached her. The entire engine was cut through, and the truck itself was thrown onto its side, sliding to a halt.
By now, only a few of the SEEN troops remained, and they were clearly running out of ideas. The last of them charged the Gems with Breaking Points out, only for the battalion to be quickly knocked out by a barrage of laser blasts from Pearl's spear. Pearl swung the weapon around before it disappeared back into her gemstone.
Carter walked over to the Gems. "That looks like the last of them," he said. "We should be-"
But it was not the last of them, if the hand grenade flying out of the destroyed truck was anything to go by. As the humans dove to the ground, Garnet instead ran towards the explosive. She scooped it up in her gauntlets, cupping it soundly between them. A small flash and muffled bang emerged from her hands. She opened her grip, releasing a handful of shrapnel and smoke.
The last remaining SEEN operative climbed out from the truck. In addition to a Breaking Point, this one was also armed with a rectangular shield that seemed to be made from Gem technology as well. He hopped down onto the sand and activated his weapon.
"That wouldn't happen to be the captain, would it?" said Ichigo.
"No, that's definitely him," said Luke.
"The three BAINE members opened fire. The bullets were soundly blocked by the captain's shield, who ran towards his opponents.
Garnet ran in to intercept him, but he fell to his back to slide underneath her punch. He chucked another grenade at the group, a flashbang this time. Rose Quartz ran to cover it as Garnet had, but she couldn't reach it in time. It exploded mere moments before she could encase it in a bubble, filling everyone's eyes with bright white light and ears with a high-pitched ringing.
Luke, who had been savvy enough to duck and cover, was the first for this effect to wear off. Though his vision was still blurry, he could make out the SEEN captain preparing to drive his drill into one of the other humans.
"Hey!" yelled Luke, getting his attention. He then fired a shot from Daniel's pistol, hitting the captain right between the eyes.
The bullet bounced off of his helmet. He didn't even need to block with his shield.
"Huh," Luke said. "That didn't exactly work out.
The captain sprinted to Luke, knocking him to the ground with a shield bash. Upon landing, Luke was able to scoop up a clump of wet sand, tossing it at his attacker's face. It disoriented him enough for Luke to get over to him and grab his Breaking Point arm.
The two struggled over the weapon for a few seconds. The captain struck Luke with his shield. He was dazed, but still held on. Before he could repeat this, Amethyst's whip wrapped around his other arm.
The captain kicked Luke in the knee, causing him to let go of the Breaking Point. He then used the drill to sever the whip, before running after Amethyst rather than finishing off Luke.
Before he could even get close to the purple Gem, Rose Quartz intercepted him with a mighty punch. The captain was thrown into his overturned truck, hitting it hard enough to dent the bottom. He skipped off of it and landed near the ocean.
Rose stood still, panting, before standing up straight and regaining her composure. "Ahem...I, er, seem to have lost my temper."
Daniel took off his helmet and rubbed his eyes. "Urgh. Did we win yet? Or did he kill us?"
"Well, we aren't dead, so we most likely won," said Ichigo. "I think."
"Good," said Carter. "Now let's go see if that guy had one of those tablet things."
Unbenounced to any of them, the captain had not been defeated quite yet. He took off his helmet, which had been cracked by the impact. The Breaking Point had been destroyed as well, so he unholstered a pistol, aiming it at the unaware Gems. Before he could pull the trigger, some kind of wooden object was smashed on his head, knocking him out.
"Uh...w-witty one-liner!" said Greg. "Sorry, I'm still new to this." He examined the remains of his guitar. "Aw, man! These things aren't cheap…"
The next morning. BAINE Outpost near Beach City.
"Well, here goes nothing," said Rhodes. The two tablets were placed side by side, both bearing the encrypted Gem coding language. He scanned both with the translator, which then displayed a map-rather, two maps. There were two circles, their centers being located at the Forge, and Beach City.
"So, the idea is that the part where the edges of these maps overlap is where SEEN has set up shop," Gina explained to her teammates. "Hester, do you have the map?"
"I sure do." Hester placed a world map on the table. Rhodes adjusted the projected map so that it lined up exactly with the paper one.
"So, what you're saying is that it's one of those two spots, is that it?" said Ichigo.
"That's the idea," Rhodes said.
"Well, I kinda doubt it's this one," said Gina, pointing at the map. One of the possible locations was in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.
"Probably not," said Hester. "Still, I wouldn't put it past SEEN. Maybe they have an underwater base."
"Where's the other one, then?" asked Vargas.
"Right...here," Gina said. "Hmm...maybe that underwater base is right. Unless they're in the middle of the desert in Neo Mexico, at least."
At the mention of Neo Mexico, Carter immediately strolled over to the table. "Where?" he asked. Upon seeing where the two maps lined up, his eyes narrowed. "My God. Area X."
"Given the, uh, way you said that, I feel like that's where they are," said Ichigo.
"And what exactly is Area X?" asked Hester.
"It's an old BAINE research facility set up during the thirties," explained Rhodes. "The people in charge were found doing some pretty unethical experiments on corrupted Gems, so the place was shut down and abandoned."
"Knowing Pierce, that's absolutely where he's operating from," said Carter. "Come on. We need to inform the Director right away." He left the room.
Vargas shrugged. "It could still be the underwater base…"