Chapter Twenty-One: Besieged

May 12, 2016. Sanctum Admantum.

While the Children of Homeworld prepared to go to war, Mr. Echo sat back and watched from afar. Using the vehicles and weaponry he had acquired from Polaris Industries, the invigorated cultists made their way towards BAINE's base. It would not be long now before the war was over.

"I must say, Barnabas, I am impressed." Mr. Echo spoke to a tablet with the C.E.O. in question upon its screen. "Your plan to falsify a Children of Homeworld attack in Empire City was quite impressive. And very convincing, by the look of things."

"Why, thank you!" said St. Augustine, clearly very proud of himself. "I figured if I couldn't throw BAINE off the Children's scent directly, I would give them another target. Now, they should be spread too thin to fight back!"

"Quite," said Mr. Echo. "Now all that remains to be seen is whether or not your plan works."

"Beg pardon?" said Barnabas. "Of course it will work! Why wouldn't it?"

"You are too presumptuous for your own good, Mr. St. Augustine," said Mr. Echo. "One small incident like this will hardly destroy BAINE's will to fight. If they truly are to fall today, then the Radiant One must do his job as well."

"And do you trust him?" Barnabas asked.

"We shall see, Mr. St. Augustine. We shall see…"

BAINE Headquarters.

"I just don't understand this," Mills wondered aloud. "What would St. Augustine have to gain from this?"

Everyone had been asking that question for some time now. Why would Polaris hold innocent civilians hostage while pretending to be the Children of Homeworld? The official story was that they were disgruntled ex-employees, but this story held little water to those who knew Barnabas' true motives. His recent betrayal of BAINE, coupled with the presence, and subsequent absence, of his head of security at the crime scene painted quite a different picture of this incident.

"Beats me, sir," said Gina, who was present in his office as well. "There had to have been some sort of profit in it, right? That's what he goes for."

"But try as we might, I cannot for the life of me figure out how this would be beneficial to his company," Mills responded. "If anything, stock prices are likely to plummet because of this. So what did he have to gain?"

"Maybe he wasn't the one getting anything out of it," Gina said. "After all, you did say he was working for Mr. Echo, didn't you? He probably put him up to this."

"Most likely, but that opens up a whole new set of possibilities," said Mills. "We know that Echo is working alongside the Children, do we not? So why could he not simply send them to attack the station? And why even attack the station at all?"

Gina didn't respond. She was seemingly occupied with something else, staring at the closed door in the direction of the rest of the base, completely silent.

"Dr. Packard?" asked Mills. "What is the matter?"

"Can you hear that?" she asked. "Something's going on…" Curious and confused, the Director made his way over to the door to see if he could hear this curious noise as well.

The sound was faint, yet unmistakable. Explosions sounded off in the distance, muffled by the thick walls of the compound. Small arms fire rang out, muffling the panicked shouts of troopers. There was no doubt: BAINE was under attack.

Gina knew exactly who and what they were dealing with when Morgan pulled back, his face turning pale. "Dammit, not this again!" she said.

"St. Augustine's attack was nothing more than a diversion," he said. "A facade to distract us from the real threat. We need backup." He hurried over to his desk to call in every BAINE soldier he could reach. "Dr. Packard, I need you to make your way to the labs. Make sure Dr. Rhodes is safe."

Gina nodded, ready to do just that, but something stopped her before she left the room. The footsteps of at least three individuals, likely more, were rushing down the hallways, getting closer to the Director's office. "Someone's coming!" she announced.

"Hostiles?" said Mills.

"Dunno yet," replied Gina. "We're about to find out!"

Despite being aware that an attack was coming, most of BAINE's agents were caught unawares by the Children's assault. Unlike the small strike team lead by Mr. Echo several months before, the cultist had this time brought a full army-likewise assisted by swarms of Cluster mutants. Their tactics were largely similar, however: break into the base, and break BAINE with overwhelming firepower.

And did they ever have overwhelming firepower. Thanks to Echo's deal with Polaris, they were practically the army of a small independent nation. APCs, helicopters, and guns-lots and lots of guns.

BAINE, however, was far from defenseless. Troopers grabbed their guns and launched into the fray, no matter how outmatched they were. The Children's heavy weapons continued to pound the base from the outside, while the cultists themselves, along with the mutants controlled by their master, stormed the interior.

James and Luke had both been caught in the cafeteria during the attack. Luckily, they had both been able to acquire guns to fend off their attackers. Unluckily, they were still pinned down, with no way of knowing the status of the invasion.

James, with Luke beside him, took cover behind an overturned table. It wasn't ideal cover, but it blocked the bullets well enough. "I should've known something like this would happen!" he said, blindly sending some pistol bullets at the hostiles.

"Well, yeah, they did say they were gonna come to us!" said Luke. "We know this was happening eventually!"

"I meant at a time like this!" James replied. "While we were just minding our own business! I didn't even get to finish my sub!"

Cluster mutants had begun to pour into the room. Able to sniff out the agents in their hiding places or behind cover, the monstrous former Gems rushed at the troopers with no regard for their own safety. Luke shoved one off of himself, poofing it on the ground with a well-placed shot. "Where do we go from here?" he said.

"Somewhere else!" James said.

"Yeah, and how exactly are we supposed to leave without getting pumped fulla holes?"

"We'll figure that out before too long!" James replied. "Help's bound to come eventually!"

At first, it didn't feel like help would come. The invading Children were intent on taking out the soldiers in the room, even though many of them were not actively a threat. The mutated Gems certainly weren't helping matters, either. But help did eventually arrive, in the form of a barrage of bullets from none other than Vargas.

"Looks like I arrived just in time, then," he said, already decked out in full armor. "You're welcome, by the way."

"Vargas!" Luke got to his feet. "Man, are we glad to see you! What's the situation out there?"

"What, like you have to ask?" he said.

Behind Vargas, Daniel walked up. "The Children of Homeworld are launching a full-scale assault," he said.

James looked around. "...I can tell."

"We lost contact with Director Mills once the attack hit," Daniel continued. "You two head to the barracks and get geared up. Fireteam Victor will rendezvous outside his office; we'll discuss strategy then."

"I don't know if strategy's going to help us here," said James, before he and Luke ran off. "Don't get yourselves killed out there!" he called back.

Daniel and Vargas fought their way through the compound. Any specialists BAINE had access to, such as air support, had either not arrived yet or been called in the first place. For now, they were on their own.

Vargas' machine gun tore through waves of Gem mutants, cultists as well. While Daniel was certain that with this firepower, they would be able to meet up with the Director fairly quickly. However, such a thing was not to be.

While most of their enemies fell easily to Vargas' heavy weaponry, they soon came across one that would not be so easily felled. Rounding a corner, they were greeted by the sight of a tall figure, at least eight feet, clad in bright green robes. No doubt this was another one of Echo's machines. With some sort of fuel tank strapped to its back, the figure slowly turned around to face them.

Slightly confused by this strange figure's sudden appearance, Vargas turned to Daniel. "What's with this guy?"

This question was soon answered. The giant held a gun in one hand, which was connected by a tube to the tank on its back. It pointed this gun at the pair, sending out a searing jet of flame from the nozzle. Daniel and Vargas leapt to either side to avoid the fire, which then set the wall behind them alight.

Scrambling to get behind cover, both of them opened fire on their target. Much like their previous encounters with this type of unit, bullets proved ineffective. It only responded with another blast from its flamethrower.

"Great, now what!?" asked Vargas. "How do we kill this guy?"

"There's no time," Daniel said. "We have to get to Mills. Follow my lead!" Once the fire stopped, Daniel vaulted over his cover and sprinted towards the door. Before he could make it, his path was blocked when the entire hallway in front of him was enveloped in flame. He skidded to a halt, stopping mere feet away from the conflagration, before stumbling backwards.

"Captain, no offense, but your lead sucks!" Vargas shouted.

The green-clad titan aimed its thrower at Bridge in his brief moment of helplessness, preparing to incinerate him. Mere seconds before it could do so, a huge tremor shook the entire facility. Both the flametrooper and Daniel (and Vargas) were knocked off their feet by the vibrations, but the latter managed to scramble to what he hoped was a safe distance.

"The hell was that?" asked Vargas. "They got some kind of new weapon, or something?"

"That wasn't a weapon…" said Daniel.

"Uh...the way you said that makes me think you know what it was," Vargas said. "What was it?"

"The Cluster!" cried Daniel. "It's waking up!"