Pandemic: Resident Evil VI
Chapter Thirty: Back in Action
Waiyip, China
June 30th, 2013
As good as it was to see the Captain back in the field again after his six month long disappearance, Piers had to admit that he had doubts over whether or not this was a good idea. The trauma that Chris went through back in Edonia had been awful, scarring him to the point where he had not only needed to be hospitalized, but also giving the Captain some kind of mental breakdown that made him forcibly escape in the middle of the night. The Lieutenant hadn't been there himself for the event, but Chris's wife, Amelia told him that he had just started screaming and injured two doctors and a nurse in his efforts to escape.
Once he had been made aware of the situation, Piers got into contact with Director Burton, and a global All Points Bulletin was put out to the different branches of the BSAA, but months of searching turned up nothing. Piers was actually a little a little afraid to report that after six months that there was no sign of the Captain, but Chris's wife surprised the hell out of him when she said that her personal detective had located him in Belarus. She didn't want this investigator to approach Chris, since they had a bad history or something, so instead the Lieutenant was given the location and told to bring him in no matter what.
So far every aspect of the recovery operation made sense, except for the fact that Amelia wanted her husband put back into the field immediately; something about using exposure therapy to help him overcome the damage by normalizing it, or… something… the Lieutenant didn't really understand all that psycho-babble. If it had been up to Piers, the Captain would have been put under observation for another six months to make sure that he was okay, but Amelia had a lot of pull with the BSAA, given the fact that she provided most of its funding, so it was a little hard to tell her no.
And now there they were, the Lieutenant, Chris, and a whole new Alpha Team ready to execute a mission of dire international importance. The short version was that a group of bioterrorists had kidnapped some workers from the nearby United Nations building, and were holding them hostage with threats to infect every last one of them with the new C-Virus if their demands weren't met. What were their demands? Where had these people come from? How had they gotten their hands on a virus last seen six months ago? Honestly, Piers didn't really give a shit, he was just there to save the workers and neutralize the scumbags holding them.
In fact, his only real worry was that the Captain would have another breakdown, which made the Lieutenant feel great that he was carrying a weapon so soon, but you know… so far Chris was doing pretty good. Ever since sobering up and arriving in China, he hadn't said anything about all that weird stuff he was saying back in Belarus, and now he appeared to be solely focused on the mission, almost like… almost like the old Chris Redfield had finally returned… not that Piers was ready to let down his guard just yet.
"According to Intel, the hostages are being held on the third floor of this building here." The Captain said, pointing to the local map spread out across some old boxes. "Echo Team is gonna surround the building on the ground and play hostage negotiator, while we drop onto the roof and quietly make our way down."
It was a simple enough plan, and with the civilian authorities constantly patrolling the area in their own helicopters, it would be easy for one of those aircraft to do a quick pass over the building's roof without being noticed. The building in question was actually an old, rundown apartment building that the bioterrorists were using both as a base… and as a kind of shield, since there were still residents living on almost every floor. That was going to make things difficult, since the bioterrorists would probably look just like the civilians, including any lookouts that they might have posted on the other floors.
Trying his best to look at the bright side of things, the Lieutenant told himself that even though this was a highly sensitive mission, at least it wasn't going to be nearly as complicated as retaking that city back in Edonia. All they had to do was leave the empty warehouse that Alpha Team was using as a temporary base, get on the nearby helicopter, enter the apartment building via the roof access stairwell, kill the terrorists, save the people, and get the hell out. Yeah, it was gonna be a bit more complicated than that, but as long as Piers had a step by step plan in his mind, this made it a little easier to deal with the potentially explosive Chris.
As soon as the briefing was complete, the team did a final check of their weapons and gear, before heading over to the exit… and being met with the bright lights of TV cameras as soon as the doors were pulled open. Some of the newer soldiers were visibly startled by this, but the Lieutenant just rolled his eyes… he hated the fact that reporters were allowed to get this close to an operation these days, but then again after everything that happened in the recent past with Tricell and the FBC, the people demanded complete transparency in regards to what these world-saving agencies were up to.
This demand made sense, because after all, Umbrella had dicked the people over, and so had the FBC and Tricell, but that didn't make it any less annoying for the men and women on the front lines to constantly have cameras and microphones shoved in their faces. And of course, the sight of all the news vans and camera crews attracted the attention of the locals, and by the time Piers's vision adjusted from the bright light, he was able to see one of the other teams, uh… Charlie, maybe, doing their best to keep the growing crowd from getting too close.
"Captain Redfield." One of the reporters called while shoving a microphone into his face. "Captain Redfield, have the terrorists made any demands yet? And is this situation related to the crisis in Tall Oaks? Can you give us a comment for the viewers?"
"Yeah, fuck off, and let us do our job." Chris replied, shoving his way past them. "What the hell is Tall Oaks?"
The crowd kept up with their questioning, following Alpha Team as they made their way to the idling transport helicopter, but then the Captain signaled with his arm for the pilot to rev up the engines. As this happened, the rotors on top of the aircraft sped up to the point where the wind made it a lot harder for the reporters' camera crews to hold onto their equipment, leaving them stumbling around while the BSAA soldiers just ducked down a little. It looked like the reporters were yelling some things that were not exactly polite, but it was impossible to hear the words over the rotors, so Piers just smiled and waved at them just as the aircraft was lifting off.
He kept hoping that such treatment would encourage news outlets to cover something else, but no, they just kept coming back. The only reason there hadn't been a big media presence in Edonia was because it was easier to keep a lid on things in smaller, less known countries, but China was a pretty big deal on the world stage these days. Thankfully, it was also a huge supporter of the BSAA, and the pilots of the nearby police helicopters even waved to them as the aircraft joined their patrol formation.
At only five stories tall, the apartment building was perfectly hidden among the taller, newer buildings surrounding it, but at least Piers could see on approach that there were no lookouts on the roof, itself. Still, they had to be careful, so the Captain gave the pilot the signal to proceed, and he in turn contacted the local police on the radio. The Lieutenant didn't speak Chinese, but as soon as the message was out, one of the police helicopters flew down alongside of the apartment building and shined their spotlight.
The point of this was for the bright, obvious helicopter down below to mask the sound of the one now hovering above the roof, allowing Alpha Team to drop down with their ropes without being heard. As soon as everyone was on top of the building, the helicopter flew off, as did the local police aircraft a moment later, and so far it looked like the bioterrorists hadn't noticed their arrival. If they had, there would have probably some emergency radio chatter, or even some gunfire or small explosions, but nope… everything was quiet.
"All right, so far so good." Chris said once the soldiers announced that the roof was clear. "Once the door is open, I'll take point; I want each access door on the way down barricaded just in case any lookouts decide to do a patrol, same with the second and first."
More than likely, a lookout would raise the alarm as soon as they realized that the stairwell was inaccessible, but hopefully by that time Alpha Team would already be entering the third floor. Thankfully, there was only a single staircase in this apartment building, and the fire escape looked like it had broken apart a long time ago… so as long as the elevator hadn't been repaired at any point during the last intelligence briefing, there was no way for the bioterrorists to relocate the hostages.
The Captain requested an update, and as far as everyone knew, the hostages were still on the third floor, but the complicated part of the mission was going to be neutralizing the bad guys without making them do something crazy, like panicking and making good on their threats to infect the UN workers. That meant that every square inch of the third floor would have to be cleared; every hallway, every apartment, every janitor's closet, everything… and as long as no one snuck up on Alpha Team, the silencers on their rifles would be doing most of the work.
"I got it, Sir." The soldier kneeling in front of the locked door reported quietly. "We have access."
"Good work." Chris replied, getting his rifle ready. "All right, look sharp… I'm going in first, and then the next man in ten seconds; watch the damn floor access doors. Piers, you bring up the rear and don't let anyone fall behind."
"You got it, Captain." The Lieutenant answered, getting his own weapon ready. "Okay… let's do this."