Chapter Twenty: SEEN

"I knew it would come to this eventually," said Mr. Echo. "It was only a matter of time that BAINE discovered your little hideout.

Pierce stood nearby, both of them deep within the recesses of Area X. "My hideout? Weren't you supposed to be the leader of SEEN? Or was that only back when we were winning?"

Echo scoffed. "Alex, we were never winning. The issue here was believing that mere humans could ever hope to match the sheer power Gemkind possesses. And I was never SEEN's leader; merely your overseer. I never should have placed my faith in your band of thugs." Mr. Echo turned and made for the door, accompanied by his two hulking bodyguards.

"Now hold on, where are you going?" said Pierce. "Are you just giving up on everything we've worked for!?"

"Alex, old friend, you and I both know our whole operation is crumbling like a house of cards. It would be best to abandon ship while you still can. I highly doubt that your soldiers are competent enough to withstand this invasion."

"You mean the same soldiers who you ordered me to send after Rose Quartz in an ambush, and were still beaten? Are you so sure that you're the best judge of competency here?"

"The issue here is not my leadership," Echo growled. "The issue is that humans are far too fallible. If it wasn't for the Crystal Gems holding your hands for your entire history, we may have a chance against Homeworld when they return, and mark my words, they will. If you believe yourself to be so my superior, by all means, prove me wrong."

With a nod of his head, Mr. Echo directed one of his guards over to Pierce's side. The figure lumbered over to his side, not speaking a word. Their gazes met-or at least, seemed to meet. Pierce couldn't be sure with the soldier's helmet.

"Unlike the imperfection that is humanity, my soldiers do not fail," boasted Echo. "They never disobey orders, they never let emotion cloud their judgement, and above all, they accomplish their assigned tasks without issue. I trust you will only need one to quell this assault."

Without so much as a glance back, Mr. Echo turned around and marched away, the remaining guard following behind him.

"Echo, wait!" Pierce shouted. "You can't just walk out on this now! Echo! ECHO!" But he was gone. Pierce growled. "I don't need that old fool anyway." He looked up at Echo's bodyguard, now having been transferred over to him. He grinned. "I have the next best thing right here."

Both Gina and Hester were pinned down behind the truck. Bullets flew all around them, making it near-impossible to make it safely into the facility.

Gina fired blindly in the general direction of their opposition. "How do you suppose we make it out of this one?"

"Not by doing that," Hester said. "Hang on, I want to try something. Stand up." Hester grabbed hold of the truck and began pushing. Gina followed her lead and did likewise. After getting some momentum, they were able to wheel the truck over to a nearby window.

"Alright, now let's get going," said Hester. She broke through the glass by smashing it with the butt of her gun. The two climbed through, where they were met with more soldiers. They took cover behind some columns, firing at their enemies.

Meanwhile, Ichigo accompanied Vargas through the hallways on the other side of the base. Vargas was easily able to clear the enemy soldiers out of the way with his new weapon. Ichigo mopped up a few stragglers, but Vargas left very few of those.

Ichigo activated his radio. "Where exactly are we supposed to be going?" he asked into it.

"The power controls to the entire base are located in the basement," the voice of Carter responded. "We need to shut down the anti-air defenses to give our fighters access to this airspace. Once that's done, our superior firepower should convince the remaining resistance to surrender."

"And, uh, if it doesn't?" Ichigo asked.

"What else?" said Vargas. As if to illustrate his point, he filled the room they were currently in with bullets, shredding the walls and pillars within to bits. Once he stopped to reload, nobody made a sound-perhaps because nobody was left to make sounds.

The two posted up beside the door to the next room. Ichigo placed a breaching charge by the handle. "Understood, Captain," he said. He and Vargas leaned away from the door as Ichigo triggered the charge, blowing the door wide open. Vargas ran into the room guns blazing, with Ichigo following behind.

Elsewhere, Carter, Daniel, and a handful of other BAINE soldiers were pinned down by enemy fire not far from the basement elevator. "Was this your plan?" asked Daniel. "We just blow our way in here and shut off the defenses, just like that?"

"First off, it wasn't my plan," Carter said. He blasted a nearby SEEN soldier that was getting too close into next week with his shotgun. "And second off, it's worked so far, hasn't it?"

"If you call this working…" said Daniel.

"Actually, I do," Carter retorted.

Just when it seemed like BAINE was taking ground, a soldier to their left suddenly fell to the ground as the sound of a particularly loud gunshot rang through the facility.

"MacConnor's down!" shouted Carter, taking cover behind a barrier. Daniel did likewise. Just before the latter ducked down, he noticed a figure standing on a catwalk above them. A familiar glint of light appeared from off of his weapon's scope.

"They've got a sniper," Daniel said. A bullet glanced off of the barrier, narrowly having missed Daniel's head. He crouched down lower.

"I put that together," said Carter. "Any bright ideas?"

Daniel looked around, seeing that every other soldier nearby was pinned down as well. Another that was firing was felled by the sniper, just like MacConnor before them. "Not unless we have a sniper of our own."

"It just so happens that you do," said a voice from behind them. Both turned to see Hester entering the room. However, a shot narrowly missing her caused her to duck and cover beside them.

Gina joined them. "So, what now?" she asked casually.

"I can't get a good shot on him with him on overwatch like that," said Hester. "I could hit him if he came out of cover, but to make him do that, we'd have to give him someone to shoot at."

"Will do," Daniel said. He stood up and fired a few shots towards the enemy sniper before stepping out of cover.

"Wait, Daniel, that was only a hypothetical situation!" shouted Hester. Nevertheless, Daniel was already exposed. The sniper above lined up a shot on him. As they fired, Daniel correctly assumed they would go for a headshot, and held his rifle in front of his face. Sure enough, the sniper round pierced into the gun, thankfully stopping before it could reach him.

With the sniper exposed, Hester shot a round towards them. The bullet met its mark, felling the soldier, who collapsed onto the catwalk.

"That solves one of our problems," Carter said. "But we still need to clear the room."

"Speaking of problems, that should be one, because my gun is shot," said Daniel. He held it up to indicate this. "Pardon the pun."

"Great," Carter groaned. "Whatever, just take mine." He handed his shotgun over to Daniel.

"You sure about this, Captain?" Daniel asked.

"Just do it before they overwhelm us again. But I'll need your sidearm." The pair traded guns. Daniel now fought with Carter's shotgun, while Carter now wielded a pair of pistols.

After some more minutes of gunfire, someone radioed Carter. "Captain, this is Ichigo. Please respond, over."

Carter grabbed his radio. "What is it, Nakayama? And I told you, you don't need to say 'over.'"

"Right. Is the eastern door on the lower level clear of friendlies?" Ichigo asked.

"It is."

That was when the eastern door exploded. Not only the door, but the wall as well, splintered under the force of the explosion, knocking away the soldiers nearby. Vargas emerged from the smoke, lighting up the SEEN forces. It was not long until the room was cleared.

"Remind me again why we didn't bring more of those things?" asked Gina.

"We did," Carter said. "Your friend here just seems to have special talent with them."

"What can I say?" said Vargas. "I guess being a juggernaut just comes naturally."

The soldiers filed in to the elevator, minus Vargas. "Any reason you're not getting on?" asked Daniel.

"Taking the stairs," Vargas responded. "I'll meet you down there."

Hester and Daniel looked at one another and shrugged. The elevator began to descend into the lower levels of the compound.

The lowest sublevel was lit by dim fluorescent bulbs that cast an orange light on the walls. As the elevator door opened, numerous SEEN operatives turned around to engage the BAINE forces.

More bullets flew through the air as both sides clashed. Gina's eyes settled on the main computers towards the front of the room. "Get me up to that terminal," she shouted. "I think I can access the mainframe from there."

"Will do," said Daniel. Gripping the shotgun tight, he vaulted over the desk in front of him. More soldiers tried to cut him off, but he blew two of them away, punching the third onto the ground. Another soldier tried to shoot him from behind, but was interrupted by a flurry of bullets. Daniel nodded at Carter.

Before long, the room was clear, and Gina connected her PDA to the computer. "I'm in," she said.

"Good," Carter said. "How long until you can shut this place down?"

"Hard to say," she said. "But I think there's something else we should be worrying about right now…"

She pulled up security footage from several of the rooms in the facility. She focused on one in particular. A large hangar filled with a handful of planes and helicopters, with one vehicle standing out-a train.

"What's a train doing in a place like this?" asked Hester. "What, did this used to be a junction or something?"

"Sort of," said Carter. "Back when it was still in operation, our cover story for Area X was that it was an iron foundry. We were able to ship materials in and out by disguising them as raw metals."

"And it looks like Pierce has some goods of his own he means to transport," Gina said. She zoomed in on the footage, showing exactly what was being loaded into the train.

"Breaking Points," Daniel said. "Must be hundreds of them."

"This isn't good," said Carter. "If that train gets to La Vega station, Pierce could distribute those to SEEN operatives everywhere."

"So we just have to make sure the train doesn't leave," said Ichigo. "Does it say when it's shipping out?"

"No," said Gina. "I imagine they'll leave as soon as it's full. Which looks like it's going to be any minute now."

"Then there's no time to waste," Carter said. "Packard, you stay here and do everything you can to shut this place down."

"Yes, sir."

Carter indicated a group of soldiers, including Ichigo. "You all stay here and cover her. The rest of you, on me." Carter led the remaining soldiers back towards the elevator.

A nearby door opened, and Vargas stepped out with a contented sigh. Smoke billowed from the muzzle of his gun. "Hey, where's everybody going?" he asked as they ran by.

"We've got to stop Pierce from arming the rest of his forces. Come on," said Carter, pulling Vargas into the elevator.

"But I just got here!" he said. The elevator doors closed behind them.