"What do you mean, they 'failed'?" Adam asked, rising from his seat fast enough to shake the table. The White Fang leader had sent 'two of his best' to ensure Eric would no longer be a problem, and yet his best had ended up dead, and Eric was nowhere to be found. This 'Ilia' girl was simply acting as the bearer of bad news, and judging by the way Adam was pawing at his sword, that was not a good position to be in.
Cinder was beginning to question her choice in allies, if only on the basis of competency.
"I do believe she explained it quite thoroughly, Adam," Cinder replied coolly, "Your operatives died in an attempt to kill an injured, Aura-less outsider. It's almost as if you're trying to compromise our plans."
"I sent them because I knew they could get the job done!" Adam protested.
"Evidently, you didn't 'know'," Junior stated, folding his arms as he looked to Cinder for direction. She quickly deduced that he was worried that Eric would connect the dots between him and her. She wouldn't admit it aloud, but she felt much the same. No matter. She'd deal with him herself when the time came.
"So, what now?" Junior asked.
"We start making our moves. The dance is just around the corner, and now that I have the worm from our friend up North, we're almost ready to execute," Cinder explained. "Roman, I assume you've gathered all the Dust we require?"
"Of course," Roman said, brushing a few stray locks of ginger to the side. "We've just gotta figure out a timeline, but we can do that after the dance. There's no rush."
"Excellent, then we're still on course." Cinder turned to Emerald, cocking a brow. "And the good doctor?"
"She says she'll be done in Mountain Glenn soon."
"Perfect."
Cinder turned back to the group at large. "Adam. I want the White Fang to lie low for a little while. After your little stunt, there will most certainly be more eyes on us than I'd like. Roman, continue as you do. Junior, if Eric returns to your establishment, you're to contact me immediately. I'll be taking care of that problem myself."
"Yes, ma'am," Junior replied. He didn't hesitate, but the look on his face betrayed his trepidation.
"Is there a problem?" Cinder asked.
"No, ma'am. I'm just worried about the bar getting mixed up in a murder investigation."
"Oh, don't worry," Cinder assured him, smirking. "I'll be… discreet."
"Oh, boy…" Bradford muttered as he looked over the map plastered on the briefing room wall. This was not good.
"What's going on, John?" Grace asked, turning away from her desk. She'd just finished calling the team up, and they'd likely be arriving within the next few minutes, depending on just what they were doing.
"The train. It's moving."
Grace turned back to the desk for a moment, seemingly unfazed by the revelation. "Yes, John, that's what- wait, what?" She wheeled around so fast that it gave him secondhand whiplash. "How long ago?"
"I don't know. At least an hour, considering its position. What's strange is that it's not moving on its intended trajectory. It's moving backwards… towards us."
"Hm…" Grace paused, likely consulting that Ethereal in her head— God, he still was getting used to having that wonderful little nugget of information— before seemingly calming down enough to formulate a plan. "We can still go ahead with the op, we're just gonna have to be a bit more… proactive."
"You think they can make it onto a moving train?"
"Can't be that hard, right? I know Adam's done it before, at least."
Bradford distinctly remembered the last time Jones had inserted onto a moving train. It hadn't been a very pleasant landing. "Hopefully there's no sprains this time. Or breaks. Or people falling under the train."
"Yeah, well, here's hoping. We should probably send the Skulljack along with them. You got any ideas? Tygan didn't exactly offer any glowing endorsements."
"Probably someone who has CQC training, so for this op… Adam or Roderick would be the best choices."
"Right, I'll ask 'em when they get here, then."
"Speak of the devil," Bradford noted as he looked at the cameras in the hallway. Adam and Eric were already walking up to the door, with Roderick, Jaune, Jerry, Ren and Lawrence coming up fast behind them. Soon, everyone was filing in one after the other, with Ruby, Blake and Howland bringing up the rear.
"Alright, that's everyone?" Grace asked, looking over the room. "Looks like it. Thanks for the hustle, team. Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but… we've got a problem. The train we're supposed to be hitting left the station approximately one hour ago, and it's heading backwards along the track."
"So it's headed east from Omaha?" Adam asked, orange-tinted blue eyes focused on the map. God, giving him the Overdrive Serum had been a mistake, even if the little bit of Meld in it was keeping him stable. "Odd that they'd suddenly just turn around. Gotta be a reason for it."
"Maybe they missed their stop?" Ruby asked.
"ADVENT don't miss, knee-high," Howland replied, narrowing his eyes at the map, before looking to Grace. "Think they might have gotten tipped off?"
"Resistance hasn't reported any raids anywhere in the West, not where they'd have information leading back to us, anyhow," Grace said, turning to confirm such on her computer. Bradford had his suspicions about what could have happened, but he didn't dare voice them, not while Adam was in the room.
What surprised them was that Adam was the one to voice them.
"When was the last time we changed our communications cyphers, Commander?" Adam asked.
"Start of the month."
"So it's not that they broke into our systems. We've got no intrusions in the system, Stark would have told us," Adam said.
"Tell him to check again," Lawrence said.
"I will," Bradford replied. "Still, I'm not sure why the train would leave so early… ADVENT doesn't change their schedule for just anything."
"There could be a lot of reasons," Blake stated, matter-of-fact. "Rail-based supply lines require constant coordination. Maybe their destination requested whatever cargo they're carrying delivered earlier. Or, they could be changing the timetables randomly to ensure that any civilians that might be feeding you information wouldn't be able to give you an accurate position on the train at any given time. There's also the chance it's just because of a mistake, either from your sources or the rail coordinators themselves."
"You know an awful lot about trains, sheila." Howland cocked a brow, pointing a questioning finger at Blake.
Blake gave a slightly unsettling smirk. "I may have some relevant experience.."
"Still, that leaves the question of what exactly made them bugger off so fast."
"I don't know," Roderick said, "and I'm not sure I want to know. Commander, maybe we should scrap this op."
"We can't," Adam said, his visage grim as he turned away from Grace and back to the others. "Avatar Project's advancing too fast for us to just sit one out because there's the hair of a mite's arse it might have been compromised. The data on this train is valuable. This could set them back for months if we managed to get it before they do."
"Is it worth risking a whole team of ops?" Howland asked.
"I know this is going to sound rich coming from me, but…" Adam trailed off, jerking a thumb towards Jaune. "We've got an insurance policy. One of these kids was able to take on the Chosen on even footing. If they weren't here, I wouldn't be advocating for this big of a gamble, but at this point the odds are in our favor, if only just. If there are no objections…"
Adam's eyes, along with Bradford's, trailed around the room. Everyone seemed to be looking to each other for confirmation. Nobody said anything, but it seemed to Bradford that the majority consensus was more a resigned 'guess it'll do' shrug and a few nods here and there from the group.
Well, everyone except for Jerry. He was just staring daggers at the wall.
"One question, though, ma'am," Lawrence said, a look of concern on his face. "Nine's a big team, even for our new SOP. Why do you have me coming along?"
"The Skyranger's gonna loiter over the train to provide overwatch and evac, since the train's gonna be moving," Grace explained. "You're gonna be her gun."
"Right, right. So we're not stopping the train."
"That's correct, Sergeant."
"Miss, with all due respect," Jerry spoke up for what had to be the first time this meeting- unusual, because the man wasn't normally one to be quiet. "Stopping that train in the middle of Assfuck, Kentucky is a hell of a lot safer than trying to do a moving infiltration. There's plenty of potential for injury or death in the landing phase alone- someone could miss landing and hit the wall, or worse, fall under the tracks, and again, with all due deference? I don't know how this 'Aura' stuff works, but I don't think Aura can stop you from getting mulched by a freight train."
"I think that's a reasonable assumption to make," Ren stated flatly. From anyone else, it would have sounded sarcastic.
"Jerry, I know the risks. Trust me," Grace said. She was using that tone of voice again, the tone that belied a silent 'you're not going to budge me on this'.
"And I'm this chief's CMO, so I'm going to call you out when I think that's not the right choice. This isn't a good idea."
"Corporal Hall, when I need you to make the judgement calls for me, I will let you know," Grace stated, her tone now progressing into the 'I'm not listening anymore, shut up' phase that this damn alien in her head seemed to be trying to force out of her more regularly these days. "Until that point, I need you to trust me."
"Ma'am, I'm sorry if I sound a mite disrespectful," Howland piped up, "but I'm startin' to see his reasoning. Let's say the best case scenario is that they don't get slapped off the train by the bitch we all know as gravity. Then what? They have a limited amount of time to clear what's likely a killhouse on wheels and bug out, while still on said mobile killhouse, mind you. How do you propose they do that?"
"Look, Grace wouldn't be giving this order if she wasn't willing to go through with it herself," Adam said, putting his foot down firmly in Grace's favor, as he'd always done. Notably, Eric seemed to be ready to jump out of his seat, although to what end, Bradford wasn't sure.
"I'm not questioning her integrity, Adam," Jerry said, "I'm questioning why she's not giving me something to work with. Yeah, the kids are here. We've got the humanoid equivalent of pocket nukes now, I get it, but you're still asking me to put our people's lives on the line, including these kids, who never asked to be here and fight in our war, without giving me a good damn reason why-"
"Hey, Hall," Eric interrupted, "how about we all get a turn to talk at the big kid's table." He then turned his attention to Grace. "Look, ma'am, I'm a big boy. I don't know how you XCOM people did shit back in the Big One, but me and Lawrence know better than anyone that a rushed operation is nine times out of ten going to explode in your face. If you know something, and you're not telling us, that's compromising opsec, and putting your operator's lives at risk based on a hunch that they don't even know about. If there's something you know that we don't, tell us. You stay one-hundred with me, I'll jump when you say jump, no question, but there's something missing here."
"I agree," Lawrence seconded his fellow Delta. "This is a military operation, isn't it?"
"I think we need to know, too," Ruby spoke up, taking Bradford by surprise. "I don't want anyone getting hurt because we don't know what's going on. I'm not calling you a liar or anything, Grace, but please, at least tell us why we can't stop the train?"
Grace sighed, and Bradford wondered, for the briefest of moments, if she was actually going to tell them about Asaru.
She didn't.
"The train's gonna be hitting a major ADVENT intersect by the time we reach it. If you stop the train, ADVENT's interceptors will be on you so fast that there's no feasible way for Firebrand to extract you. If the train is still moving, you'll have less time boots-on-the-ground, which means less time for ADVENT to scramble after they sound the alarm. I've planned for the alarm, I want Jerry and a wingman inserting at the front of the train to shut down the thing, but we can't risk stopping the train. That's a red flag ADVENT can't ignore, even if we manage to kill the alarm."
There was silence in the room as all involved digested Grace's half-truth. While that made sense from a tactical standpoint, it wasn't the reason she gave Bradford. 'This is just how it has to be', she said. 'He's got a plan. It's the only way.'
Fuck, he hated Asaru.
"Alright, yeah," Jerry agreed. "Makes sense."
"I still dunno myself, but I guess I'll work with it. If something goes wrong, y'all have me for a reason," Howland said. "Gimme a holla if you need a fast mover."
"So, wait," Jaune interrupted, raising a hand. "How are we supposed to get on the train if it's moving?"
There was a pregnant pause.
"Jaune," Ren started, as calm as ever. "We're going to have to jump onto the train."
Jerry frowned as he looked at his hand, the metal joints of his fingers clicking and whirring as he attempted to steady the ever-moving appendage. It had gotten a lot better, with a combination of training and the liberal application of Pyrrha's Semblance, but it was still a bit of a pain to keep the thing still.
Unfortunately for him, Pyrrha wasn't here.
"That thing still givin' you guff, Peace?" Roderick asked, pointing to the appendage in question.
"Yeah. It's just what it is."
"Fuck, figured you'd have the thing sussed out by now," Roderick muttered, turning away from Jerry. "I'd rather die than end up with that kinda fuckin' annoyance. Let me bleed out."
"Duly noted."
"You wouldn't actually let me bleed to death, though… right?"
Jerry simply smiled, not saying anything. He'd let the man suffer for a few moments.
"Jerry, come on, work with me here."
"Relax, Roddy, I'll only let you exsanguinate a little."
With that, Jerry's attention turned to the rest of the team for the mission. Eric was still fiddling with the Skulljack, the hard-light projection sitting awkwardly on his forearm as he gave it a couple of experimental slashes at the empty air, each one causing Adam to flinch a bit more than the one before.
"Can you not?" Adam asked.
"Sorry. Just feels like it should have some weight," Eric replied, turning the thing off. "Think I saw some shit like this in a video game once."
"I wouldn't know."
"So, train's still on course?" Roderick asked, looking out of the open door of the Skyranger. "I'd rather not get any more surprises tonight."
"Yep. Still headed east," Firebrand called back. "All quiet."
"I still don't feel quite right about this," Lawrence said, leaning on his rifle. "We still don't know why they changed the timetable.."
"If they were going to ambush us, it would have made more sense to leave the train where it was," Blake assured him. "Still, we should keep our eyes open."
"I just don't like it when I can't explain things," Lawrence said, shrugging his shoulders. "I didn't live this long by just walking in blind."
"We're not completely blind, and worst case scenario… we have them," Adam said, jerking a thumb towards Jaune. "We'll be fine."
"Gee, I'm so glad that I'll be a good meat shield," Jaune droned sarcastically. "Thank you so much for the resounding endorsement."
"Alright, alright, alright, ladies and gentlemen," Firebrand called back. "We're getting ready to hit the target! Gird your fucking loins and get off my ship! We're gonna be landing hard and fast on different points of the train- you know your targets! First pair, stack up!"
Adam stood up and cracked his neck. Jerry watched his orange-veined eyes scan the team one by one, before eventually settling on Ruby.
"Oi, pipsqueak. Think you can keep up?"
Ruby practically beamed as she hopped to her feet. "Betcha I can get down there faster."
"Then let's get it on."
With that, Adam took flight, leaping onto the descent ropes while Ruby careened off the airship in a burst of rose petals.
"I will never get used to that," Eric stated.
"Took the words right out of my mouth, Frost," Jerry replied. "Who's next up?"
"I'll go," Blake said, standing up. "Eric?"
"Well, since you asked so nicely…"
Eric followed suit, grabbing the shotgun off his back and racking the action. "See you guys on the ride!" He then turned back to Firebrand. "Second pair, up and ready!"
"Alright," Firebrand replied, starting a countdown. "Five, four, three, two, one… go!"
With that, Eric and Blake were both off, both sliding down the ropes to the train below, leaving Jerry with the men's half of JNPR, Lawrence, and Roderick.
"So, what exactly are they moving?" Jaune asked, looking over at Roderick. "You didn't tell us."
"Sensitive Avatar project data," Jerry explained. "Reapers have been looking for the Chosen's hideouts, but they managed to stumble on some goodies in the process, figured we might appreciate the heads up."
"What are we gonna do with the data?" Jaune asked.
"Read it," Roderick answered, taking his rifle off of the rack next to his seat. "Burn it. Maybe even remix it into a chiptune song, I don't fucking know, ask Tygan."
"What matters is that ADVENT doesn't get the data. Ren and I are gonna make sure this train doesn't get where it's going."
Jaune nodded. "Okay. What do you need me and Roderick to do, then?"
"While the bionic commando and Zen Motherfucker do that," Roderick continued, "Me and you are gonna clear the rest of the cars and make sure ADVENT doesn't get reinforcements on board."
"'Zen Motherfucker'?" Ren repeated, incredulous.
"Yeah," Roderick responded nonchalantly, "Zen Motherfucker."
"You really reached for that one, my man," Jerry said, grabbing his own weapon. "See yourself out."
"Gotta agree with the sawbones here," Firebrand said. "Off ya go, Roderick!"
"Woo, flying," Roderick grumbled, jumping up to his feet. "Jaune-athan, try not to land on your face this time!"
"Stop. Please," Jaune protested weakly.
"See you on the flip side, Jerry!" With that, Roderick was off, and Jaune followed, pale as death as he jumped onto the descent cable. He seemed to be getting a bit better with flying, if only by exposure. Poor kid.
"Just us now, 'Zen Motherfucker'," Jerry said, turning back to Ren. "How are you feeling?"
"Not good," Ren responded. "This seems like a setup to me."
"You would know?"
"Not necessarily, but I feel like it's common sense. Why would the train suddenly turn around and move towards us? From how you've described the ADVENT regime, they don't seem to be the type to forget cargo or make a sudden schedule change without some sort of reason."
"Couldn't tell you, man, couldn't tell you."
Ren looked at the floor of the Skyranger, obviously putting a lot of thought into the matter. After a short pause, he spoke. "Suppose it's too late to back out now."
"Yep. You ready for this?" Jerry asked, extending his good hand in a fist. Ren simply nodded in reply.
"Ready," he replied.
'Dude really is Zen. Too Zen. Throws me off,' Jerry thought to himself. "Firebrand, we ready to go?"
"Hit it, Peace!" she shouted.
Jerry stood up, examining his metal hand as it twitched, more subtly than usual. He never thought that he'd get used to the thing in the first few months, but Pyrrha basically holding it steady with her brain seemed to have given him a bit more control over the thing. Just in time- this wasn't an op he wanted to bungle.
Ren was out of the door first, and Jerry followed, gun in one hand while the other was on the rope. The descent was fast- almost too fast, really, and the Skyranger was moving so quickly to keep pace with the train that Jerry regretted not putting on some goggles and a tac mask, or something of the like. The wind hurt, icy and biting against his skin. He idly wondered if that 'Aura' stuff would keep Ren warm.
The landing was rough, too, especially considering that when Firebrand heard 'front of the train', she assumed that meant Jerry was going to land on the cab itself, which was a difficult proposition considering the only door to the thing was on the back of the car. He'd landed, as luck would have it, right at the front of it, the only thing saving him from getting mulched by the train being his metal hand digging into the glass at the front of the car, the sheer power in his metallic grip enough to punch through the glass and give him a foothold long enough to look the two ADVENT driving the train in the eye
"This is a robbery," he stated, raising his gun. "Mercy!"
M3-RC slipped beneath Jerry's feet as he shifted his grip and fired into the glass, killing both of the drivers in quick succession and shattering the glass in the process. Luckily, with the aid of his GREMLIN foothold, he'd managed to grab a hold of the windowsill, his metal appendage locking shut around the dangerously sheer surface.
"Ren?"
"Just two guards, lightly armed." he said. "I don't think this is a good sign."
"You and me both, buddy. I'm coming in from the front window."
Jerry forced himself through the window slat, broken glass and all, landing on his feet on the other side of the control console, between the two dead ADVENT. Ren wasn't far behind, kicking one of the doors open and jogging over to his side.
"How do we stop it?" he asked.
"I got an idea, but I'm not sure." Jerry put his hand up to his helmet. "Hey, Adam, we've secured the cab. Want us to stop this thing?"
"Absolutely not, Jerry, you're still in ADVENT's hot zone," Grace stated firmly, and Jerry could feel his stomach dropping. Even if he had no concrete evidence that this was a setup, he just knew it was. Ironic, considering that seemed to be the entire reason Grace believed it wasn't a setup, but the fact remained, his gut hadn't failed him yet..
"Yes, ma'am." He then turned to Ren. "You heard the man. Watch my ass, I'm gonna do some digging in the train's systems. I'm gonna try to figure out why these guys made a sudden 180. If I don't like what I see, we're hitting the brakes."
Ren nodded, giving Stormflower a little twirl before heading back a ways in the cab, leaning up against a small alcove that led to a chair and a series of cameras that held a view of almost the entire train. The only thing Jerry could tell from this distance was that there was a measly platoon on the train. Four squads- no more, no less, not counting the four that he and Ren had just dispatched
"Why are they so understaffed… ever since JNPR came back, they've been running two platoons on our damn 'milk runs'" he muttered to himself, turning back to the train. "Mercy, help me out here."
The Gremlin flew to his side, already attempting to crack the trains' security algorithms. One wrong move, and the console would explode- ADVENT had notoriously vicious failsafes. He silently hoped it wouldn't come to that.
"You know, I'm no Sun Tzu." Eric noted as he finished reloading his shotgun, before swinging out from behind the doorway of the caboose to hit an ADVENT soldier across the way, "I'd like to think they'd have a few more than two or three guys in each car when you're transporting precious cargo. Not that I'm a veteran of the longest armed conflict in the history of the United States, or anything."
While Blake wasn't exactly the most knowledgeable about this new enemy's force deployment, she was inclined to agree with him.
"You're right, something's definitely wrong," Blake replied. "Still, there's not a lot of places to hide warm bodies on a train. Maybe the surprise is waiting for us at the destination?"
"Guess we'll find out" Eric jerked his head towards the next car, smirking. "You should be clear. Go get some. Remember-"
"-The officers are yours. I got it." With that, Blake took off, jumping across to the other car and landing atop the body Eric had just left on the floor, springboarding into the car itself and immediately creating a clone to draw fire. It seemed most of the ADVENT took the bait- all except for the one she'd happened to land right in front of, which caught Gambol Shroud in its throat for its trouble. Eric wasn't far behind her, shotgun roaring as he cleaned up behind her.
"None here?"
"Nope. Next car, I suppose."
As Eric reloaded, Blake hopped across to the next car, noting that the door was shut. She jerked the handle, but it wouldn't budge.
"Door's stuck!" she called.
"Got it," Eric replied, grabbing an X-4 charge off his back and walking up to the door. Compared to the man she'd met in the Emerald Forest, he seemed colder now, more composed. He moved with the practiced strokes of a professional. Compared to the violent smash-and-grab style when she'd assisted… him...on similar operations, it was night and day. "How you doin?"
"I'm fine. Ready to go when you are."
"Alright. Back off the door a bit."
Blake did as she was asked, reloading Gambol Shroud and preparing for entry. If her mental count was right, she'd run out of Dust soon. She needed to ration her shots.
"Hitting the switch," Eric said, and then, flame. The charge blasted open the door, leading to frantic cries from the inside as Eric stuck his shotgun through the opening, firing three blind shots inside as Blake moved through. Two of his shots had found a home in a now-crumpled ADVENT soldier, while another, and the Officer that was no doubt in charge, were making a break for the other end of the car.
"Found one!" Blake shouted.
"He's mine!"
With that, Blake rushed ahead, creating a clone behind her as she leapt through the air and landed right in front of the panicking ADVENT duo. While the Officer turned back towards Eric, the soldier chose to stand and fight. Brave? Perhaps. Dead? Definitely.
With ease that Blake wished she didn't possess, Gambol Shroud found the alien's neck and cut it wide, leaving the ADVENT to crumple lifelessly to the floor. That only left the officer.
The more Blake watched Eric fight, the more she'd begun to see him as an anomaly, but more of one than her new 'comrades' in XCOM. He wasn't entirely alien. His time on Remnant had irreconcilably changed him, made him more like the world he'd been stranded on for two years on, from the ugly, half-kitbashed handgun forced to fire Dust-laced bullets it couldn't possibly have been designed for (she wondered exactly how Ruby had managed to make his shotgun work) to the almost Huntsman-like movements he used to close the distance, switch to said handgun, and-
Her thoughts were derailed by a blast from Eric's dust-enhanced handgun that sent the ADVENT officer's rifle flying off to the side as Eric quickly kicked aside the arm the officer was using to attempt to draw its sidearm, before swinging with a vicious uppercut, the 'Skulljack' flaring to life in a flash of blue as he jammed it into the alien's jaw.
"In the system, Shen," he called out. "Says something about an 'ADVENT Codex', that what we're looking for?"
"Hit it, Eric," Shen replied.
Eric twisted the weapon, causing the officer to scream, and then fall slack as he withdrew the weapon and allowed it to drop to the floor. Several seconds passed, the only sound being both of their labored breaths and the rolling of the train on the tracks.
"I got nothing," Eric said, as a haze of orange light began to form behind him, taking a humanoid shape. A sharp beam of purple brought forth some sort of robotic skull that connected to the lights, bringing along with it one of the long firearms Blake had seen many of the aliens' heavy soldiers wielding.
"Eric, behind you!" Blake warned him, immediately pulling and firing a round from Gambol Shroud that struck true, sending the being head over heels as Eric dove to the floor of the train, holstering his pistol on the way down and pulling his shotgun off his back. The light construct seemed to be unfazed by the damage, however, instead screeching like some sort of possessed demon as an exact copy appeared right next to Blake, its weapon level with her head. Blake managed to escape with the aid of her semblance just in time, the fire Dust-infused clone exploding behind her as the attacker fired its weapon.
"Jesus, fuck, I wanna know where these guys get their antivirus," Eric shouted, quickly scrambling to his feet and behind a stack of metal crates. "Blake, you good?"
"I'm fine," she responded. "You?"
"I'll be better once I clock this motherfucker," he responded, cocking his shotgun. "Knew this was too easy."
"How's it looking, boys and girls?" Adam asked, throwing his sniper rifle over his back as he resumed his run across the train cars.
"Looking a bit rough, boss man," Eric replied. "I got a new best friend who not only refuses to die, but also actively procreates every time I try to fucking kill it."
"You need a hand, Frost?"
"Nah, I think we got- Blake, watch your fucking head!"
Adam sighed, and kept running. Frost seemed to be doing quite well to consider he hadn't even gotten proper training yet, at least not in XCOM's way of doing things. He'd seen enough of Lawrence's work to know Delta Force was the real deal, and the way he'd gotten that ADVENT Officer only proved it further in his eyes.
Still, the data was the main objective, and the front of the train wasn't much farther. The server room car was one of the last ones before the objective.
"Ruby, you still with me?"
"Yep!" came the call from alongside the train, as Ruby put a rapid halt to her flight, smashing her scythe into the side of the train and stopping her momentum long enough to converse with him. "What're we looking for again?"
"Box with the green lights. Do not touch it. Leave it to me."
"You got it!"
With that, she was off again, a blur of red and roses that Adam was hard-pressed to keep pace with. God, even when he got his old groove back, he was still not quite good enough. As he jumped down through the sunroof of one of the cars, he drew his pistols, the bioelectric sensors in his skin immediately tingling with the sensation of nearby contact. The 'sixth sense' scared the shit out of him back when it was brand new, but now, it was as natural to him as his eyes. Immediately, he whipped around, firing one pistol into the ADVENT trooper already trying to get a bead on him, sending him back into a stack of crates with a hole in his head, while he drew the other and took aim once more, firing a few rounds from both into a Muton that seemed more stunned at his audacity than anything. Wounded as it might be, Adam was on a roll, and he wasn't about to stop. He'd leave the cleanup to the others.
"How we doin' out there, lads?" he asked.
"Fighting our way to the front of the train," Jaune responded. "Almost there!"
"We're still at the front of the train. If you want us to stop it, now would be the time," Ren replied.
"You heard Grace's orders, do not fucking stop this train under any circumstances."
"Alright."
"Adam," Jerry interrupted, "There is something very, very wrong with this train. I'm hitting firewalls and black bars everywhere, there was barely a platoon of ADVENT on this train, and ADVENT isn't scrambling reinforcements to hit us again, but I've got confirmation right in front of me that they've been tracking the train., and the turnaround wasn't given any specified reason. You know good and well ADVENT doesn't change shit on a whim. We need to hurry up and get the hell out of dodge."
"Roger that, we're almost to the target. Are there any more hostiles between me, Ruby, and the package?"
"Absolutely none," Jerry replied. "I don't fucking like this."
"Yeah, we're completely clear on my end, sir, moving to assist Frost and Black Cat now," Roderick said.
"I haven't seen a damn thing up here this whole time," Lawrence said, his concern evident in his voice. "Say the word and we'll pick you up. This is a damn trap. Has to be."
Adam couldn't help but be inclined to agree at this point. ADVENT was many things. Cruel to the point of being petty, brutally efficient, viciously vindictive, and most certainly, not bloody stupid. That being said, his money was on the package being trapped somehow. Maybe rigged to detonate.
"Peace, send the Gremlin back here and break into the package when I get eyes on," he ordered.
"Sure thing."
"Eric, is that thing down yet?"
"We got it, finally," Blake replied as staccato shotgun fire punctuated her sentence.
"I got the thing's head too, don't know if it might be useful. The rest of it just fucked off," Eric said. "What do you want from us now, Sarge?"
"Move up, we'll link up with you when we grab the package."
"Right on."
With all that said and done, Adam didn't doubt he was close to the center car now. "Ruby, you there?"
"Yep! Found the car, I think the doors are open, though. Is that bad?"
"That's fucking horrible, wee lass, let's see if we can figure out why."
Adam pushed ahead to the car in question, noting that, indeed, the doors were open. Ruby stood next to it, seeming for all the world unperturbed as she looked over the side rail at something fast approaching. Said something quickly revealed itself to be Jerry's GREMLIN, which flew over to his side and chirped something fierce.
"No contact?" Adam asked.
"Nothin'," Ruby replied, stepping away from the rail and peeking back inside. "Just the box."
As much as he wanted to believe Ruby could simply tank any detonation from a booby-trapped box, Adam had no doubt in his mind that Grace, Bradford, and possibly dozens of others would be on his arse for days if he used her as a makeshift bomb shield, and he'd likely not survive Yang's wrath long enough to get through half the lectures. As such, he was gonna have to be the one to take point on this.
"Oi, bot," he ordered, "take a look-see at the box. Let me see what I'm working with."
The GREMLIN flew past him and scanned the box a few times. Notably, the light never changed from its uniform blue, and the drone made nary a peep. That wasn't what he'd expect from a trap.
The bot chirped and flew back over to him, revealing… absolutely nothing. No data, no trap, no electronic lock, no nothing. Just an empty, unlocked box.
"Ruby, I need your weapon," he said, extending an arm.
"What? Why?" she asked, clutching Crescent Rose to her chest like a mother would her babe.
"So I can open the bloody box, that's all, don't get your knickers in a twist."
Ruby paused, and Adam distinctly noted the lack of gun-scythe being pressed into his hands. "It's name is Crescent Rose."
"Lass, I couldn't be fucked. Can I please have Crescent Rose so that I can open. The bloody. Box?"
Before he could say anything, Ruby stepped forward with uncharacteristic ferocity, and swung the blade into the box, the curve of the scythe catching beneath the latch and throwing it open. Adam, completely taken aback, leapt backwards and braced himself for the inevitable explosion...
… one that never came. No bomb, no shock, no thermite, nothing. Not a single trap in the box.
"Fuck me, it's safe, Adam muttered, stepping back forward. "Do me a favor and never pull that shite again."
"It worked, didn't it?"
As Adam peeked into the box, his blood ran ice cold. The intel wasn't in the box. As a matter of fact, there was nothing in the box.
This was absolutely, beyond the shadow of a doubt, a setup.
"Firebrand," he barked, switching over to comms. "Firebrand, extract, this is a fucking setup! We're out in the-"
"Multiple psionic pings in the area, team," Bradford interrupted, sounding for all the world as if he'd just seen the specter of death. "I count four, and at least one of them's the Assassin."
"Four!?" Roderick shouted. "Tell me this is a fucking trick, there's no way-"
"Confirm four hostiles!" Lawrence shouted. "Star, hold her steady, I'm taking a shot at 'em."
"If there's four of these fuckers, I'm not gonna be able to safely close in," Firebrand warned. "What's the play now?"
"Loiter and provide fire support, Team, converge on the front of the train, we need to get off this bloody ride! Jerry, stop the fucking train!"
" Fucking- I can't! I'm locked out! I can't access anything anymore- cams are out, controls are out, I'm fucked here!" Jerry responded, half-frenzied. 'He saw it coming, somehow, and we all dismissed it,' Adam noted. 'Boy's smarter than I thought he was.'
"That's not going to happen, XCOM," a thundering voice boomed out, seemingly all around Adam at once.
"What was that?" Ruby asked.
"Where?" Adam followed, quickly scanning the room. He was barely getting any bioelectric signatures other than their own. 'No, wait. There's something above us. Weak, but it's the-'
The roof of the train in front of him tore open, and Adam was now confronted with a mass of armor at least eight feet tall, all black and red, and armed with what appeared to be some sort of heavy firearm.
"Afraid this train's got no brakes," it stated, slowly rising up and cracking its neck, "until you do."
