CJ woke up from his nap. He just couldn't keep his mind off of his decision five years ago and kept having dreams about what he has been doing for the past years since he moved to Liberty City. It was nothing but endless flashbacks on his life in Liberty City, and he just couldn't get it off of his mind. He looked at his watch. It was 5:59 PM.
"Damn," he muttered to himself. "I must've overslept."
CJ looked out the window. The sky was now a dark purple with a small shade of pink on the bottom. CJ felt his heart thumping hard and a quivering chill down his spine. It was too silent outside, and CJ felt an impending premonition. He wasn't sure what Toreno was going to send him to do. The missions that CJ was given to were dangerous and almost cost him his life.
So CJ grabbed his jacket and headed out the door. As he got outside, the cold wind blew through his face softly. He turned to his right to see that the airstrip was empty. There wasn't a single sound heard around the desert, except for the blowing wind and chirping crows. The mountains stood stationary in the background. CJ felt his heart pounding out of his chest as he took a wary stroll around the airstrip. He wasn't sure what was coming for him.
"Hail fellow," he heard Truth shout out all of a sudden. "Well met. Namaste. Peace. Carl, brother."
"Hey, Truth!" CJ called looking around for the eccentric elderly man. "Where you at?!"
"Just checking that you were no longer on 'government business'," he heard Truth say once again. CJ finally turned around and found Truth standing on the wing of an abandoned wreck plane. "Where is he?" Truth asked.
"How the fuck would I know, man?!" CJ answered. "He's like the devil. Hey, man, you OK?"
"Everything is transient," Truth replied. He jumped off the wreck and barely landed on his feet "Oof!" he grunted. "Oh, man. Uh. I'm passing through life, same as every man."
"OK," CJ muttered perplexed.
"Do you have any idea what you're doing for Toreno?" Truth asked.
"No," CJ replied dryly. "I seem to be on a need-to-know basis."
"Oh, no, man," Truth grunted. "Two lies don't cancel each other out. You know that. We pay them to lie to us. Is that what our founding fathers wanted? No more, friend. No more. We're not alone."
He started hugging on CJ, prompting the latter to shake the former off of him.
"Get off me, man!" CJ yelled. "What's going on?"
"Everything is going on!" Truth replied. "Don't you get it? There's a place. Not even on the map. A train is about to leave. It can explain better than I ever can. Boy, this is going to blow your fucking mind! We got work to do. You better drive. I'll explain. the elegance does not even touch it."
CJ just shook his head as he and Truth headed over to Truth's Mothership, which was parked just up ahead. CJ got into the passenger's seat while Truth took the wheel and began the engine.
"So what is this about?" CJ asked.
"Black Project!" Truth uttered.
"Black Project?" CJ asked. "What the hell is that?"
"Area 69," Truth replied.
"Area 69?!" CJ cried out. "Dude, you crazy! You actually want to sneak in there?!"
"That's where the Black Project is," Truth said.
"How the hell are we supposed to get all the way out there without getting blasted?!" CJ asked.
"Stealth, my friend," Truth responded.
"Man, what the hell are you talking about?!" CJ asked once again.
"You'll have to find a way over there yourself," Truth responded as he pulled over, just yards away from the area. He handed CJ a sniper rifle and a pair of night goggles. CJ just shook his head.
"Do we have a plan here?" CJ asked exiting the vehicle.
"Go, go, go!" Truth chanted as he rode off.
"HEY! Hold up, dude!" CJ called at Truth. But he could only watch as the vehicle continued riding away until it finally disappeared out of sight.
CJ stared at Area 69, which was yards away.
How the fuck am I supposed to get all the way over there? he thought Security is real heavy there. There's no way I would go there without getting blasted!
So CJ had to think of a way to get though the place. He saw a canyon up ahead. So he crept up top and used his sniper rifle to close in on the guards at area 69. He remembered what The Truth said about being stealthy. He aimed for the guards around the area. He closed in on one on the right corner of the area and aimed for his head. Without hesitation, CJ pulled the trigger, killing the guard as the bullet hit his head.
CJ repeated the process with the other guards down below around the area. He also shot the guards up the towers. Soon, he was running out of view, as the other guards down below were all dispersing around the area, making it tougher for CJ. He knew he couldn't get through Area 69 without the plethora of guards around, as he would be iced in a heartbeat, especially after the time he and Ryder broke into the warehouse in the ocean docks, and there were spotlights everywhere. So he had to snipe every last guard on the outside in order to get through.
CJ needed a set of wheels to make the job easier. So as he made his way back down onto the road, he spotted a person on a motorbike and shoved the motorist off as the latter approached the former slowly. CJ rode off with the bike and rode around the distant area, where he saw more guards trolling around. As he rode around the area, he stopped at one position, used the sniper rifle to aim at one of the guards, and pulled the trigger, killing the guard.
CJ repeated this process with the other guards until every last one of them were shot dead. He also had to watch the open area to look out for cars that might run around his way.. So he was now in the clear to get to the entrance. Of course, that meant that CJ had to make his way inside the area without the spotlights shining on him. So as CJ took a stealthy crawl to the entrance, he quickly slid behind a building right next to the entrance, avoiding the spotlights and the guards. CJ took his sniper rifle and aimed at the guard on top of one of the towers to the left. He zoomed in with the weapon and pulled the trigger, killing the guard distantly.
CJ felt his heart thumping hard. He may have been a gangster in the street, but breaking into a heavily secured area such as Area 69 was truly an imminent death wish on his part. If he was hesitant on taking out a bunch of soldiers at a warehouse at the ocean docks, there's no way he would be down with breaking into Area 69 just to steal the 'Black Project' Truth had been blabbering about.
CJ quickly ducked behind the small buildings, avoiding the shining lights as he shimmied around the place. There were a plethora of guards walking around, and CJ had to somehow make his way inside without getting gunned down by the guards.
One by one, he stealthily crept behind the buildings and surreptitiously shot each guard with the sniper rifle. He saw the spotlights swerving through the area and held his breath as he ducked from them. This then gave CJ an idea. He could just shoot the spotlights out so no one would catch him. So as he crept behind the buildings, he aimed for one of the lights on top of the tower with his sniper rifle and fired, blowing out the light completely. He repeated the process with the other lights on the other towers, and soon, the whole area was dim.
This gave CJ a chance to use one of the towers just adjacent to the entrance to get a good view of the guards down below. But since it was all now dim, he couldn't see clearly. So he pulled out the night goggles that Truth handed to him earlier.
I knew these would come in handy sometime, he thought.
CJ used the sniper rifle and aimed it at each guard below, shooting them one by one. By the time every guard outside had been iced, CJ finally made his way back down. Now he had to think of a way to break inside the place without getting rubbed out. So as he navigated through the area, he finally came across a vent and went through.
CJ followed the path through the air duct and finally made his way inside the base in the underground area, suddenly alerting the place.
"INSTALLATION PERSONNEL PLEASE BE AWARE WE ARE AT CONDITION RED!" CJ heard an administrator say over the loudspeaker. "THIS IS NOT A DRILL! THIS FACILITY HAS BEEN BREACHED, ALL SECURITY PERSONNEL HEAD TO THE RESEARCH LABS NOW!"
CJ felt his heart beating hard. He was inside Area 69 and he was on the search for the security personnel at an attempt to find the mysterious "Black Project" the Truth had been searching for. Only problem was that they had far more guards inside, and it was only a matter of time until they finally caught him and gunned him down.
CJ had to be stealthy once again. He made his way through the next room, where he crept slowly past two guards searching around.
"PERSONNEL ARE REMINDED THAT THE DOWNLOADING OF PORNOGRAPHY IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED!" CJ heard a woman say over the loudspeaker s he continued creeping. "THE COMPOSITES LAB WOULD LIKE TO REMIND DIAGNOSTICS THAT THEIR FRIDGE IS OFF-LIMITS TO DIAGNOSTICS! COULD WHOEVER STOLE THE COMPOSITES LAB'S MUGS PLEASE RETURN THEM?"
CJ was confused, as nothing the woman said was the least bit germane to what was happening at the moment. But he didn't care and was only interested in finding the Black Project alive. As the woman continued indistinctly, CJ navigated through the place and finally made his way inside the research lab, where he spotted two scientists inside. CJ used his silencer to take out the two and disabled the SAM site controls. He also stared at a map as he attempted to leave the lab. There, it showed the entire state of San Andreas, as well as each of their cities. CJ felt a little creeped out.
He just left the room and crept through the hallways. CJ used his silencer to shoot each of the guards from behind as he continued creeping through. That's when it hit CJ. The door that lead to the Black Project might be locked. So CJ had to search for something to open it. At the end of the hallway, he found another lab and made his way inside, where a panicking scientist stood up with his hands in the air, begging for mercy.
"Please, no more violence!" the scientist begged. "Take my pass card and go!" He handed CJ the card.
Well shit, that was easy, he thought.
"I ain't gonna hurt you," CJ told the scientist. "If anyone asks, you ain't seen shit!"
"Loud and clear, sir!" the scientist replied. "Just don't hurt me!"
CJ went to the door to his right and used the card to gain access through the launch bay. To his surprise, however, there were already a bunch of guards inside. So CJ went back inside the lab and grabbed an AK-47 hanging on a wall. He returned to the launch bay and used his weapon to take out all of the guards inside.
One by one, he shot down each guard and navigated downstairs.
"INTRUDER HAS PENETRATED THE PROJECT!" CJ heard one of the guards say over the loudspeaker. "ALL MILITARY PERSONNEL TO THE LAUNCH BAY IMMEDIATELY!"
CJ had to work fast, because soon, there would be more guards on their way inside to take him out. CJ's heart thumped as he made his way down the stairs while shooting each of the guards down below. As he finally made it to the bottom, he found the mysterious 'Black Project' The Truth had been asking for: a jetpack!
This was the Black Project Truth had been telling me about? CJ thought to himself.
Of course, he had no time to question Truth's motives at the moment. He strapped the jetpack around his shoulders and tried to activate it.
"I hope I can work this damn thing," CJ muttered to himself.
As he used one of the buttons on the jetpack, he slowly began descending into the air.
"Take him out!" CJ heard one of the guards say, and looked ahead as he saw a lot of them enter the launch bay via stairs. "That's a $60,000,000 project! Get the General Mills on the line!"
But by the time the guards had the time to do that, CJ had already escaped and made his way out of the military base. He flew through the desert and saw the mountains up ahead.
"I'm actually starting to get the hang of this," CJ told himself.
He flew through Bone County and through Sherman Dam. He also passed over Las Brujas and got a good view from there down below. The dark, purple nocturnal sky and the mountains surrounded it reflected the ocean down below. The moonlight caused the colors of the sky to bounce off the mountains. When Carl arrived at Arco de Oeste, he saw The Truth's Mothership on top of the mountain up ahead. He landed right next to the vehicle and took off the jetpack.
"Carl, dude, man!" The Truth shouted excitedly as he exited the vehicle. CJ handed him the jetpack.
"Hey, here, you go," CJ told him. "You better stash it somewhere else."
"Far out!" Truth said as he stuffed the jetpack inside his vehicle and hopped back inside. "Have a nice trip, dude!"
He drove away, and CJ could only watch as the Mothership drove down the mountain and disappeared down below.
"Hey, wait a min..." CJ asked, but was already too late. "Ah, was it too much to ask to get a lift into town?"
Now CJ was stuck on the top of the mountain, in the middle of the evening, miles away from the airstrip. Just then, he spotted a Sanchez by the abandoned shack. CJ knew that he had Toreno backing him up despite the drama the latter put him through. So CJ hopped onto the vehicle and raced down the mountain. He still had no idea why Truth needed him to steal a jetpack from Area 69 in the first place, but he felt the lesser he should know, the more he'll learn. After all, this was The Truth CJ was thinking about, and eventually, the old man might tell him something about the jetpack and why he needed it.
PS, I'd figured that instead of deleting this mission from the story entirely, I should just re-write it in a way where it's slightly less over the top, like actually make it tougher to get to the base instead of casually being dropped off there in the first place.