"Why the fuck is he here Keener?! Don't you know what this guy has done?" Termite shouted. Keener wasn't hearing any of it though. They had a chance with this guy and he wasn't going to let some irritable-no-shits-given Rogue Agent/Nurse ruin that chance. "I know damned well who he is and what he's done but we've got one chance with him. Marcus Webb can turn the tide for our cause," he said.
"You mean your cause Keener."
"Listen, you said you wanted in on eradicating the weak right? Does this guy look like a weakling to you? Webb is the guy that can turn the tide for us. I need you to see to his wounds, now." Keener's voice took on a dangerous tone, one that practically yells, "Do Not Fuck With Me." Termite decided to not piss off her boss and do as he says. "Alright, clear the room, and set him on that table there. And Keener, I'm not gonna be the one to tell Hornet. That's all you."
"I'll handle Carter. You just see to it that he's alright and that nothing happens to him, got me?" Keener asked. She nodded.
"Good. Theo, stick with Termite for a little bit and get her what she needs. Dragov, come with me." The big man followed his boss and moved out the door with him. They moved into the abandoned lobby of the hotel they were temporarily occupying. Just as they entered the lobby, a hooded figure with the red ring that all Rogues bear came into the building through the front door. The hooded figure removed the hood, revealing himself to be none other than Carter Leroux, aka Hornet. "It's good to see you Aaron, but why did you call me here? You know I'm supposed to be keeping a low profile right now."
"Carter, I appreciate you coming, but you need to know something important. You remember me telling you about the big plan I had right? How you would carry it out in my stead and all that?" Keener asked; Leroux nodded. "Where are you going with this Aaron?" Keener sighed and finally just bluntly said, "We've got Marcus Webb in the other room. He just cleared that Black Tusk occupied skyscraper single-handedly, and took on 5 Hunters as well. That's why he's here, actually. We contacted him the day before yesterday and he agreed to help us. Look, I know you two-" Keener didn't get to finish as Leroux tried to rush past him towards the room.
That's why Dragov had been asked to join Keener earlier.
"Not so fast buddy," was all the big guy said as he grabbed ahold of Leroux who was trying to break free so he could kill Webb. "Seriously Keener?! You bring the guy here that almost killed me, and expect me to just go along with it all? What the fuck is wrong with you man?" he shouted. Keener walked up to his restrained friend and backhanded him. That stunned Leroux, whose attention was now entirely on Keener.
"I brought him here because of what he can do for us, for our plan. He's agreed to help us with our Black Tusk situation, which he just did. He just took a major problem off the board. Look at me man. Have I ever led you astray, in all the time that we've been working together? Have I?"
Leroux looked away, ashamed of his outburst against his only living friend. "No, you haven't," he said quietly.
"I'm asking you to trust me again on this, alright? I know what I'm doing here, and I'm asking for you to work with me on this. It won't be easy, but I know we can succeed. Alright?"
Leroux nodded. Dragov let the man go and Leroux got his act together. He didn't like what was going on, but he trusted Aaron Keener with his life; Marcus Webb, on the other hand, he didn't trust. "I know how much you hate the guy, believe me, I do. If it's any consolation to you, I'll let you be the one to kill him if he steps out of line. Sound good?" Ok, perhaps Leroux could get behind his friend's logic.
Agent Cody Revots was running for his dear life. It turned out, ISAC had not only identified one Rogue Agent, he had identified four. He was being pursued by all four of them, who kept trying to take shots at him as he continued to run. He was less than 100 meters away from Checkpoint Charlie; all he had to do was make it within 50 meters of the checkpoint and the SHD turrets would take care of the rest from there. However, right as he crossed the 50 meter mark and the turrets were activated, a shot pierced him through his shin, immediately causing him to stagger and then fall to the ground.
A massive EMP pulse surged throughout the area, causing the turrets to be shutdown. Cody felt a cold sweat break out across his back and chills shoot up his spine. A Rogue agent dressed in black wearing skull mask approached him. "And just where oh where do you think you're going?" the man asked the downed Agent. He kicked him in the side, causing Cody to yelp; the man had to be wearing steel-toed boots because one of his ribs just cracked. "Am I gonna need to beat it out of you Agent?" he asked cruelly. His fellow Rogues laughed maliciously.
"You won't get the chance to," another voice said coldly. Immediately a spraying of bullets ripped through the leader of the Rogue Squad and one of his subordinates; they were both dead before they hit the ground. The third Rogue Agent swung his rifle up and popped off a shot, but it did him no good, as the shot went wild, followed by a pistol shot that hit the weapon he was holding; standing before him was a very pissed off, RPK-wielding Agent Jared Price, who had received Revots' distress call. With him was Agent James Ferrer, who had his Maxim 9 drawn and smoking; he had been the one to disarm the would-be assailant. The fourth Rogue Agent had attempted to make a run for it, but Ferrer had already thought ahead for that case.
The sniper turret he had set up just moments before surprising the Rogues gunned down the fleeing enemy. He, too, was dead before he hit the ground. The remaining Rogue, who was disarmed, held his hands above him in surrender. While Ferrer and Price slightly lowered their weapons, Revots, still downed, whipped out his double-barreled sawed-off shotgun and fired both barrels into the Rogue's chest. This action both startled and disturbed his fellow SHD Agents; they didn't kill people who surrendered, even if it was a Rogue Agent. They were usually taken into custody for questioning.
Revots caught the look his friends were giving him and explained, "He didn't hesitate in wanting to kill me, so why should I show him any courtesy? Besides, he would've just tried to kill us all as we escorted him back to the Base of Operations. Now will you two knuckleheads pick me up? That Rogue got me in the shin." Upon mention of taking a hit to the shin, both Ferrer and Price let out a sharp, "Ooof," as if that was all that needed saying. The two men picked up their friend and brought him back through the checkpoint. Outside the checkpoint was a Humvee which Ferrer had driven there. Placing Revots in the backseat, Ferrer and Price hopped in and drove back towards the White House.
The helicopter hadn't even touched down onto the landing pad yet whenever Christopher Cage, carrying Alani Kelso in his arms, hopped off and onto the platform, rushing down the staircase to the medical team on standby. There were six doctors there to assist, who helped lower the unconscious Agent onto the gurney they had brought along with themselves. Rushing back to the medical room, Cage wasn't allowed to venture back any further, being held back by guards outside of the operating room. "Alani, I'm right here, I'm not leaving you!" he shouted hoarsely, visibly torn and distressed. As the doctors began operating on Kelso, Manny Ortega approached Agent Cage, and while he was going to reprimand Cage for his reckless behavior, he stopped once he saw the tears that had welled up in Cage's eyes.
In his entire time here at the White House, in all of those 4 months, he had not seen the man visibly distraught, let alone shed a tear. Now, he was seeing both of those. "Agent, she's in good hands, don't worry about it alright?" he said. Cage just looked at a spot on the wall in front of him, only nodding his head in response so that Manny would leave him be with his thoughts and concerns. It was going to be a very rough next several hours. About an hour later, it got worse, as Ferrer, Revots, and Price pulled up in a Humvee. Revots had been injured, and Price and Ferrer were carrying him in on a stretcher. He had what looked like a massive bullet wound through his left shin.
"Boss, where've you been? Didn't you get our calls?" Ferrer asked his squad leader. Cage responded with, "I've been out all night trying to find Agent Kelso, and she was nowhere near to be found. It's a very long story."
"Ok, sure, we'll talk about it later. For now, we've got bigger fish to fry," Ferrer spoke, nodding down to their friend on the stretcher, who was now being put on a cot by a pair of medics. "Revots, you mind telling me how it is that you got that wound? What happened to you?" asked Cage.
"It's not good man, it's not good at all. I was in DZ West when I got a message from a guy claiming that the True Sons had taken over the United Ironworks facility, saying they were working on something massive and terrifying. Something about some Colonel Morozova running the whole operation. I was about to ask for more details whenever ISAC pinged his warning that Rogue Agents were nearby. I ran, they pursued, and the rest is history. Oh, and the informant from United Ironworks said his name was Zach Young. That's all that I got man." Cage was disturbed by the news he was hearing. It sounded like the Division might have to conduct another raid.
Of all the times that bad news would be delivered, it would just so happen to be the Sheriff's luck to hear about such a thing; if what was reported was true, then they were all in grave danger.
"Agent Cage," a voice called out. Christopher looked over to see a paramedic coming over. "Agent Cage," the paramedic said, "Agent Kelso will be alright. We've got her sedated. Also, we need to discuss something with you." Cage had an inkling of an idea as to what this was about, but his teammates seemed very confused. "Alright, I'll be right there," was all he said in response. Getting up from his seat, he moved to go into the clinic.
Schaeffer had an incoming call. "Sir, it's the insider." He nodded for them to go ahead and patch the call through.
"Schaeffer? Are you there?" came a female voice.
"I'm here. The line is secure. What seems to be the problem Lau?"
"It would appear that Marcus Webb, the Agent that I work with, has been captured by Rogues. Of course, this was after he slaughtered half a battalion's worth of Black Tusk operatives."
He was surprised that it was Rogue Agents who had captured Webb, but he didn't let Lau know that. "That's old news. You got anything else for me?"
"I did some snooping around. This wasn't just circumstance. Webb and Keener had a meeting that I tracked down via Echo. They're working together."
Of course they were. It all made sense now as to why Webb had done as he did. He was working for Keener, and Keener had ordered him to clear out that skyscraper as a test of the man's loyalty; how could he have not seen that. Of course, the only issue was, Webb's Division gear didn't have the red ring that most Rogue Agents carry. His was still the same orange as a loyal Division Agent. Perhaps he was trying to maintain cover. It didn't matter though; Rogue or not, every Division Agent who didn't align themselves with the Black Tusk was an enemy of the United States in his eyes.
"I'll make a deal with you Lau. If you get me Webb, then I'll kill Paul Rhodes and Roy Benitez for you. I know how much of a thorn the former is in your side. As for Benitez, consider him a bonus." Faye went silent on her end, and momentarily Schaeffer thought that the call had disconnected, but then he heard her say, "Deal." The line clicked, now signaling that the call had been disconnected.
An entire day had passed by since Agent Cage returned with Agent Kelso, and he sat by her next to her hospital bed. She was worn down and extraordinarily weak due to the amount of blood she had lost. That in itself was enough to drain anybody of their energy. Add in some psychological factors and she was ready to hibernate until next winter had passed. She just needed to rest was all. Cage knew that she would be fine. The doctor, along with Manny Ortega, had a rather interesting conversation after she had been cleared as fine from the procedure.
"Alright Agent Cage, be completely honest with me, no more bullshit this time around. How long have you two been seeing each other?" Manny had asked him. Cage, knowing that he couldn't hide the truth forever, relented finally. "We've been together ever since Operation: Dark Hours," he admitted. The comms director sighed, shaking his head. "And now I suppose you know why it is that I'm having this conversation with you," Manny said. Cage nodded, knowing full well where exactly this was going.
"You say that you two have been seeing each other since Operation: Dark Hours. That was close to two months ago. Did you know she was two months pregnant?" the doctor asked. Cage replied, "I didn't know she was pregnant until I found her the night before. I asked ISAC to run a medical diagnostic on her and ISAC said it detected two pulses. I didn't know what to make of it at first, but whenever it finally registered with me just exactly what was going on, that's when I went into panic mode and practically yelled for you to send the extraction chopper. Look, I know that this is a major concern and it also means that both myself and her are in a shitload of trouble, but we've got bigger fish to fry."
"Agent, I don't exactly see how it is that something could possibly be more important than the matter we're discussing right now. You're not supposed to shack up with someone while you're activated, especially a fellow Division Agent. Do you realize-" he was cut off by Cage, "Manny, I realize we're in over our heads here, and I promise I'm not trying to divert the attention from me, but seriously, this whole thing between me and Kelso can wait. As I said, we've got bigger fish to fry."
"Alright Agent, what could it possibly be now?" Manny asked impatiently. Cage calmly replied, "We have reason to believe that the True Sons are mounting up for a massive assault on us. Retribution for us killing Ridgeway and taking back the Capital. Revots was in DZ West the night I brought in Kelso, and he received a transmission from a guy named Zach Young, located at United Ironworks. According to Young, the True Sons are working on some kind of weapon. Revots said that Young described it as 'terrifying and something worth looking into'. I had Ferrer send in a small group of recon drones after he told me. They should be getting back sometime tomorrow."
And now tomorrow was here, and he was sitting in a bedside chair next to a resting Kelso. However, the peace and quiet didn't last much longer. Ferrer came rushing in, and spoke in a semi-loud voice, "We need you in the situation room. It's urgent." Cage got up then, albeit reluctantly, and followed his friend to the situation room. There, he found Agent Price, Agent Revots, who had a wrapping on his injured leg, Agent Ryder, Agent Ryan, Agent Meyers, Agent Boudreau, Agent Yaremko, and the most recent arrival to D.C., Agent Fisher. This many Agents in one room could only mean one thing; they had found an objective worth conducting a raid on.
"Agent Cage, Agent Ferrer, so glad you could join us," said Ryder. He was young, couldn't have been any more than 25 years old. "I'm told that you and your guys are the ones who caught wind of this whole ordeal."
"Yes, that's correct," said Ferrer. "We dispatched recon drones to the site shortly after we received the report that there was a True Sons presence. Sure enough, the report was credible. These guys are planning something big." Ferrer motioned to the screen, clicking on the remote in his hand to show the footage that had been taken. Everyone in the room let out sighs, groans, and a couple of gasps at what was being shown in the video.
A massive train, decked out in armor and carrying the-mother-of-all-guns on top of it, was being worked on by True Sons soldiers. Aside from the big gun, there were several ports for what appeared to be minigun turrets, mortar launchers, and a few snipers' nests as well. It was a true-to-its-word Iron Horse. There appeared to be at least nine or so train carts in total, each one being about 50 yards in total. There was no telling how long it had taken for such a weapon to be produced, but it was apparent that it was nearing completion.
"We need to take out this thing before it becomes operational," Boudreau said. "As you can see, the shells that go into that godforsaken cannon are about the size of those fiberglass deathtraps that soccer moms and millennial yuppies used to drive." This earned a couple of chuckles around the table, but Boudreau wasn't smiling; he continued, "If I had to take a guess, a round of that size being used on a cannon like that, these fuckers went and built a Paris Gun."
"Uh, do you mind elaborating for some of us who weren't history majors in college?" asked Yaremko. "What in the hell is a Paris Gun?"
"A Paris Gun," said Ryan, "was a weapon used by the Germans in World War I. It was a massive artillery howitzer that fired a shell said to be a 238 mm round. It could hit Paris from 75 miles away. However, judging by the size we're looking at here, I think we're dealing with a weapon that's twice as powerful and can hit twice the distance maybe. From all the files and reports I've read up on, these True Sons guys take their weapons very seriously. A shot from that gun aimed at the White House? It would blow apart the entire damn building, and then some. And if it could do that, then the True Sons would become unstoppable. Destroying this thing before it becomes mobile should be our biggest priority." There were several nods of agreement.
"So it's settled then. Taking out the train is the first priority. Ferrer, what else did you uncover?" Cage asked. Ferrer switched from the clip on-screen to a picture of a SHD-tech equivalent backpack with a blue-light emanating from it. He then spoke up, "We have reason to believe that the True Sons have been experimenting with SHD tech, particularly the nanites that we use in our hives and chem launchers. Combining the nanites from our SHD tech with some of the molten steel from the forges, they produced what we're dubbing the Ironclad system. One of my surveillance drones captured footage of some of the True Sons soldiers testing out its density and thickness, pouring mag after mag into the material once it coated a ballistic vest. We could very well be looking at a gear system similar to that of the kind used by BTSU operative Max 'Boomer' Bailey; in other words, he would be impervious to small arms fire."
That threw everyone for a whirl. A system that made someone impervious to bullets, no matter how many were hitting it? Boomer had been a difficult enough enemy to take down, but that problem had been solved by taking out the generators that emitted the energy signature. A bunch of True Sons running around with this equipped? It would make things damn near impossible to handle. It was at this point that the newest addition of the team, Agent Fisher, decided he would finally speak up.
"Well it'll comfort you all to know that we won't be at a disadvantage," he began. Everyone gave him confused looks, with the exception of Yaremko and Meyers. "We've been working on a new gear system ourselves, one that'll be rather useful in the upcoming fight. I also wanted to say, I'm here not just to help in taking that damned monstrosity down, but I'm also here regarding news on Aaron Keener." All eyes were now on Agent Fisher. He pulled out a file with images, along with using his ISAC smartwatch to pull up footage on the Rogue Agent in question.
"We have concrete evidence that Rogue Agent Aaron Keener is planning a massive attack against the JTF and the Division, both here in Washington, D.C., and in New York City as well. A Rogue Agent by the name of Mary Masters provided information. I'll admit, I was going to kill her, but she provided me with an incentive not to."
"And why is that Agent Fisher?" asked Price. "There'd better be a damn good reason for letting a Rogue Agent go about her way."
"Agent Price, I can assure you and everyone else in this room, there is no need to worry. Masters was working with another Rogue Agent, Molly Henderson. The two of them both have an axe to grind with the Division, but as I said before, Masters valued her life more than her work. During my interrogation with her, she revealed that Henderson was heading up another operation being ran by Keener. As we all know, Keener has possession of the materials used by Gordon Amherst, along with the captive Russian virologist, Vitaly Tchernenko. He's engineered a new bioweapon, which he dubbed the Eclipse virus. It's deadly, and effective, as I've unfortunately stumbled across a market area in New York that had been hit with it." He paused for a moment, taking a drink of water from his canteen.
"The point I'm driving at, my friends, is that both myself and Masters had witnessed the effects of the bioweapon. She wanted nothing to do with it, and neither did Henderson, her head honcho. Masters had been told to get rid of the crate Keener had sent them, which contained five canisters of the virus." He paused again, exhaling as he then said, "She gave that crate to me. I brought it here to the White House so that we could use it against our enemies."
All Hell broke loose from around the table; Ryan and Ryder both were arguing that it would be immoral to use it against anybody, even if it was the True Sons. Ferrer freaked out, saying that Fisher had intentionally doomed them all by bringing such a weapon to the base of operations. Price argued with Yaremko and Meyers, saying that they should've been informed about this development the moment they came into possession, while they said it was better for fewer to know about it. Manny was about ready to lunge at Fisher, who was about to do the same. Cage had finally had enough and turned on his banshee pulse, which shut everyone up while slightly disorienting them all.
"I'm sorry for having to do that, but all of you were about ready to kill each other. I'll let you pull yourselves together before I continue," Cage said coldly. "Now I have a simple proposal for everyone here, and it's quite fair." He looked at Agent Fisher. "Fisher, you're suggesting that we use this as a first strike weapon against the True Sons, correct?" Fisher nodded. "Manny, can you contact Henry Hayes and the survivors from Castle at the Campus Settlement? Tell him it's a matter of utmost urgency." Manny nodded and left the room to do so. "Here's what we'll do. Henry Hayes is currently housing the survivors of the DC-62 attack from the Castle settlement. Now while I do have a strong moral compass, I also am a firm believer of an eye for an eye. So we'll let Henry and the Castle folks decide whether or not we use this weapon against the True Sons. I think that's pretty fair don't you all?" Fisher was the first to agree, followed by Meyers, then Price, and soon everyone was in agreement.
"Well then, that settles it. Now, Agent Fisher, if you could please tell us why it is that you decided to bring the Eclipse virus here, aside from using it against the True Sons?"
Fisher stood back up. "I firmly believe that we could use the bioreactor to mass produce more of this compound. If Keener is going to have an edge against us, wouldn't it be wise to do also have an edge against him?" There were some murmurs of agreement. "Look, think what you will, but at the end of the day, we're all that stands between the Rogues and our other enemies taking over. We all swore an oath to save what remains. I take that oath seriously. And in doing so, I firmly believe that we need to take whatever means necessary to eliminate our enemies and protect those we're oathbound to protect. That's all I've got to say."
Fisher then sat down. As he sat down, Manny came back into the room with Henry Hayes on the comms. "Agent Cage, I've got Henry Hayes on the line. I've already given him a gist of the situation, but he said he wanted to hear it coming directly from you, so go ahead." Cage took the comms piece and spoke into it. "Henry, it's Christopher. We've got a serious threat posed by the True Sons. Worse than what we saw at Jefferson Plaza and the Castle settlement. It's part of the reason why I asked them to be there with you when I made this call. We've got a bioweapon that we can use as a first strike weapon against them before they launch a massive attack on all of us. Because the people of Castle were hit by the True Sons with DC-62, we wanted them to decide the fate of the True Sons with our bioweapon."
There was a very tired sigh coming from Henry Hayes, who finally responded. "You guys heard him right?" He was talking to the survivors from Castle. "It's your decision." More silence followed for about a minute until Henry finally talked again. "They've all come to an agreement," was all he said. Cage, not one for vagueness, asked, "Could you elaborate please? Is that a yes or a no?"
"They said yes. Unanimous. Airstrike approved."
Hey everyone. I hope you've all enjoyed the story so far. So much at stake now! So many twists and now this! Find out next chapter as Operation: Iron Horse begins, with an assault using the Eclipse Virus! What will Webb do when he comes to? How will Kelso and Cage deal with the fact they are parents-to-be now? Who are our new Agents? And how will the Rogues react to this bold and shocking move that the Division makes? See you all soon!