Chapter Twenty-One: All Aboard

Luckily for the group, no enemies waited for them once the elevator doors opened and they all spilled out. "To the rear of facility," Carter commanded. All of the soldiers headed there as one big group.

"What's the play, Captain?" asked Hester.

"We have to stop that train before it leaves," said Carter. "If those Breaking Points are spread across the country, let alone the globe, it could prove disastrous. We can't let that happen."

"Uh, didn't you guys and Rose fight off a ton of SEEN guys with Breaking Points?" another soldier asked. "What's so different about all of these?"

"What, you don't think hundreds of Breaking Points is a big deal?" said Daniel. "Rose Quartz and the others may be powerful, but they aren't invincible. With that many weapons, they'll get overwhelmed eventually."

As they entered the next room, they were greeted by a roomful not of SEEN soldiers, but by BAINE ones. Of course, SEEN soldiers were still present, having been apprehended. The group stopped for a moment as Carter approached another captain.

"Captain Lehman, what's the situation?" Carter asked.

"We've got the entire west wing on lockdown, Kaden," she responded. "Any remaining resistance has fallen back to the north quadrant."

"That's where the hangar is," said Carter. "What's our status on air support?"

"Nil," Lehman replied. "Command was very clear: they aren't sending in air support until we disable the artillery."

"Damn," Carter muttered. "Look, we don't have much time. Radio Command and tell them that Pierce's train is leaving the station. They'll know what you mean." Carter waved for the rest of his troops to follow him towards the hangar.

"So, we're dealing with trains now?" Lehman said as the battalion hurried off.

"So, Captain, do we have a plan?" asked Vargas.

"Prevent that train from leaving by any means necessary," he replied. "I don't care if we have to destroy the rails, blow up the engine, just as long as we can stop it."

"Oh? And what makes you think you can stop it?"

Carter paused. That certainly wasn't the voice of any of his troopers. He considered stopping to discover who had spoken, but decided the situation was far too urgent. He and the others continued on.

The voice, however, followed them. "Such determination, Kaden. You blindly follow the orders of your director, as if what is good for humanity and what is good for the Crystal Gems are one and the same. You, Captain Carter, are a representation of all that is wrong with humankind."

Hester was having none of this mysterious voice's nonsense. "Who's there? Where are you?" She turned to Carter. "That isn't Pierce, is it?"

"I recognize that voice," Daniel said. "That's one of Pierce's cronies."

"Crony?"

A monitor above the group lit up, followed by another, and another. They bore the image of a man obscured behind a gas mask. Even as everyone ran through the facility, more and more screens became activated to bear his visage.

"I am far more that a mere crony. For that matter, I happen to be far more than a mere human. However, that does not mean our goals cannot intersect." The sheer number of monitors meant that his voice reverberated through the hallways. Or rather, it echoed.

Daniel was about to say something, but Carter placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't give him the satisfaction," he said.

"We both want the same thing," Mr. Echo continued to rant. "To make a better world. The only difference is that Mills and his band of merry men seem to be convinced that Gems can exist in our perfect world. Listen to my words, all of you: BAINE is holding us back, as are the Crystal Gems. To be able to move forward as a species, we will need to eliminate both."

"Screw this," said Hester, pulling out her sidearm. She fired repeatedly at the monitors they ran past, inspiring two or three other soldiers to do the same. Echo's monologue still made it through, though it was not nearly as noticeable to them.

"You silence my words, but you know them to be true. The Crystal Gems make us weak. Without them, we-" Carter had stopped the group at the next door, and the last of Echo's nearby monitors had been shot.

Hester holstered her pistol. "What a blowhard."

"This is the hangar," Carter said. "Expect heavy resistance. Everyone get ready to breach. Three...two...one...contact!"

The troopers burst through the doors, guns blazing. A handful of vehicles were within. The train lie in the center, fully prepared to disembark. What few SEEN guards were within were caught off-guard, making them easy targets. A few managed to get behind cover.

"Albrecht, see if you can get a better vantage point upstairs," Carter said.

"You got it, Captain," Hester said. She hurried through another door towards the upper levels.

"The rest of you, get aboard that train," Carter commanded.

Daniel braved the gunfire to get nearer to the vehicle, with a couple of soldiers beside him. But when they approached the entrance, none of them expected what waited for them.

Before any of the troopers could enter the train, a truly massive armored figure stepped out. It stood at least eight feet tall, and carried an enormous underslung gatling gun almost as large as itself. The same figure that had chased him back at the Forge, or at least one like it. Daniel and the others took a few steps back before opening fire on it. The bullets, however, only succeeded in slowing it down. When the barrels of the figure's gun began to spin, they knew it was time to book it.

Mere seconds after Daniel had taken cover behind a concrete wall, an absolute hailstorm of bullets rained down on everyone. Daniel crouched down lower as bits of the concrete chipped off at the goliath's continued assault. Even when it momentarily picked a different target, and Daniel took the opportunity to fire a burst at it, it was unharmed.

One of the bullets that hit the figure in the head had come from Hester from upstairs. Like with all the shots before, this one did little more than stun the figure. It turned its gun on Hester, who ducked down to avoid the spray of lead.

The soldiers watched as this armored figure tore up the hangar around it. None of their bullets seemed to do anything against it. "What's that thing made of!?" one of them asked.

"Who cares? Nothing's bulletproof if you've got enough bullets!" another replied.

Their fire continued to do nothing against it, while its gun continued to tear up everything around it. "You mean like us?" the first asked nervously.

An unwelcome sound then sounded out: a train whistle split the air. A loud hiss emerged from the engine as the wheels slowly began to turn.

"We're too late, it's heading out!" a soldier yelled.

Carter stood up and began to run after it, but quickly ran back as the figure's gatling gun turned in his direction, lucky not to have been shot. "We're pinned down, the train's leaving, and we don't have any air support. Looks like we'll have to fall back."

"Wait," said Vargas. "I think I might have an idea. Look." He pointed out a large tank of fuel just to the side of the figure. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Vargas, don't be crazy," Carter said.

"Too late. Being crazy is my specialty. Distract him for me, would you?" Vargas then took off running. He slipped underneath the figure's stream of bullets, and across the train tracks, before taking cover behind a large crate.

Vargas waved at Hester, trying to get her attention. He gestured towards the fuel tank, miming shooting it, hoping she got the message.

"What are you on about?" Hester said to herself.

Vargas shrugged before turning out from behind the cover, and opened fire on the figure. The bullets, like all before, did not penetrate its armor, but they did have enough force to push it backwards. The figure stumbled for a few feet until its back was almost touching the tank.

The machine gun's shots certainly had quite a bit of stopping power behind them, but they only dented the tank. While they probably would have broken through the metal after a few seconds of sustained fire, Vargas ran into another hurdle: he had to reload.

As the bullets were no longer flying, the armored figure took a hold of its gun once more. Vargas stepped backwards as the barrels spun up again, only to stumble and fall on his back. However, right before it could begin firing, a sniper shot from Hester pierced through the tank.

The gasoline ignited. The tank, and the figure near it, went up in a gigantic fiery explosion that reverberated throughout the whole room. The flames spread around the remains of the fuel tank, leaving no trace of the figure. Not even the remains of its gun.

Vargas stood back up, looking at the flaming mess. "And that's how you do it," he said.

"Yeah, I guess that's one way to do it," a nearby soldier said. "Hey, where's the captain?"

Carter had taken off running as soon as the tank had exploded. His aim was to chase down the train in the only nearby option: a helicopter had been far enough away to survive the explosion. He had climbed into the pilot's seat and was now attempting to start it up.

"Captain?"

Carter turned around to see Daniel behind him, before going back to the control panel. "I'm stopping that train," Carter said. "Don't try and stop me."

"Didn't you once tell me not to run off on my own?" said Daniel, as he climbed into the back of the chopper. The only weapons it possessed were a pair of mounted machine guns on the sides. "Besides, you'll need a gunner."

"Guess I can't argue with that," Carter said. Eventually, the helicopter took to the air. The vehicle floated off into the desert and picked up speed alongside the train tracks.

"Let's go catch that train."