Part 8 – Target Practice…
As Guts and Casca were arriving on target, Serpico's drone was leaving sight, having made three passes over the warehouse.
Guts examined the footage captured by the drone: the men patrolling the area were dressed in full tactical gear, but had masks that resembled an angry wolf, and had weapons that were painted a matte grey.
One of these guards was patrolling the perimeter around the warehouse when he was suddenly grabbed from behind and had a 7-inch knife sheathed into his back.
Guts simply removed the knife, and placed the man's body against the side of a crate, out of sight.
"I never knew a sniper could kill so well at close range," Casca said as she crouch-walked next to Guts.
"Never underestimate a Marine," Guts said as he swung around his rifle, "Keep moving."
As the two of them moved up further, they noticed the entrance to one of the warehouses was unguarded and moved up to the side of it.
As Guts tried to turn the knob, he found it locked, and was about to bash the lock when Casca stopped him.
"Let me try," she said as she knelt down to the lock, and pulled out a small pin that was octagon shaped, and bent at a ninety-degree angle towards the top, and then removed one of her hairpins.
After a bit of twiddling with the lock, the door simply swung open, and the two of them walked inside before shutting the door.
"How'd you do that," Guts asked.
"When you have a life as messed up as mine, you pick up a few skills," Casca said.
"I can understand that," Guts said as he raised his rifle, "Let's move."
The two of them walked up the stairs into the warehouse, and as they walked up to the entrance, Guts grabbed the door and signaled Casca to stand by.
As she raised the Little Devil, she nodded, Guts then threw the door open, and she charged in.
"Clear," she said from the other side of the door.
As Guts entered, there was nothing inside, just a few boxes, and some standing shelves.
"What the hell," Guts asked, "Perimeter like this should have a few snipers in areas like this."
Before Casca could speak, a light shined over the windows, and the two of them jumped into cover next to the windows.
As they looked out the window, an Oshkosh MTVR painted black with small hexagons that varied in shades of grey pulled up in front of the warehouse, and a very large individual wearing a long outfit that seemed to be made of interwoven sheets of leather and thick-rimmed glasses, and a sensually-dressed woman stepped out.
"It's them," Casca said, "The God Hand."
The person that walked out next was the man that Guts wanted more than anything to kill: it was Griffith, dressed in a thick suit made of paneled Kevlar and leather, and wearing a helmet that looked like the head of a black falcon.
"What is that," Guts whispered.
"Some kind of specialized suits," Casca whispered, "Apparently completely bullet resistant."
"I'd disagree with that," Guts whispered, "Everything has a weakness."
Casca shushed him as the three members of the God Hand started talking, "The heist in Detroit was a bust," the large one said, "Bazuso is dead."
"Killed in hand-to-hand combat," the female said as she looked at Griffith, "By your former friend."
Griffith inhaled and exhaled blissfully, "Ah, Guts," he said, "So glad you could make it."
"You knew he survived," the female asked.
"It is of no consequence, Slan," Griffith said, "All part of the plan."
"You anticipated this," the large one asked.
"He survived an ambush, killing one hundred out of three hundred fighters, Ubik," Griffith said, "All it cost him was an arm and an eye, which he has back. Bazuso was sent into hiding because he fired on five men. I knew he was no match for a Tier-One Marine like my former XO. The operation was successful nonetheless," he turned around to walk toward the last warehouse, "We shall proceed as planned."
"What about the hacker," Ubik asked.
"No loose ends," Griffith said.
"Hacker," Casca asked.
"You're the C.I.A.," Guts said, "Shouldn't you know that?"
"We'll find out," Casca said, "Shouldn't we move?"
"Ok," Guts said as he walked over, picking up a crate, and placing it against the window, "Keep me covered while I give us some breathing room."
Casca knelt behind guts as she aimed the Little Devil around them, "Man I hate wearing a skirt," she thought as she adjusted it, and knelt down.
The helmets the soldiers were wearing were probably bulletproof, and a controlled fracturing round to a piece of Kevlar will do the same amount of damage a BB gun will do against someone holding a piece of cardboard.
The first shot he placed into one of them was into the collar of a soldier leaning against one of the buildings on the perimeter.
The side of his neck exploded with a small pink mist, causing him to fall sideways.
Guts then adjusted his aim towards two soldiers and fired. The first soldier was hit in the area under the arm and dropped sideways.
The second swung around his rifle and was about to raise the alarm before a second round hit him below the chin, dropping him like a stone.
He then changed target again to target the final guard standing next to the entrance to the factory.
The shot was placed in the same areas as the last target and dropped him against the side of the building.
As Guts was retracting the bipod on his rifle, he heard the sound of two suppressed bursts from an SMG and turned around to see Casca had taken down two of Griffith's men who walked into the area they were in.
"Nice shooting," Guts said.
"You're not a bad shot yourself," Casca said, "Let's move."
As Casca tried to stand up, the heel on her shoe snapped off, and she would have fallen if not for Guts catching her arm.
"You good," Guts asked.
"I'm ok," Casca said as she picked up the heel that broke off, "Man I fucking hate these things."
"Take them off, then," Guts said.
"Better than walking around with blisters," Casca said as she stepped out of the shoes, and gestured towards Guts' bag.
Guts turned around, allowing Casca to unzip the bag, and stuff the shoes into the bag.
"I'd keep this handy," Guts said as he held out the spike on the heel, "You never know when something might come in handy."
Casca tucked the spike into her sleeve as the two of them walked out of the building, and took cover next to the entrance, "Cover me," she asked.
Guts nodded, and switched the grip on his rifle, aimed down the sight mounted on the sidewinder, "Go," he said as he balanced the rifle against the side of the building.
Casca jogged over to the opposite building, clearly enjoying the fact she wasn't wearing heels anymore.
As she arrived, she signaled Guts to move and raised the Little Devil.
Guts stood up and hurried across the open area toward the entrance to the building where Casca was waiting.
"I'll get us in," Casca said as she turned toward the keypad.
She searched the soldier lying dead against the door before finding an identification card in a pouch on his armor.
She reached up to the door, and it swung open. She walked up to Guts and slapped him on the shoulder.
Guts quickly ran into the building behind Casca and shut the door behind them.
The inside of the building turned out to be a series of hallways, Guts went right, Casca went left but eventually ending at a single door.
After swiping the key-card, the door opened to reveal an elevator, the two of them looked at each other before Guts shrugged, and gave the Casca the 'ladies first' gesture.
As they entered the elevator and began their descent, they soon found themselves staring at a large complex, "What is this place," Guts asked.
"I don't know," Casca said, "But I don't like it," he then pressed two fingers to his earpiece, "Puck, patch me to Cross."
"Go ahead Guts," Mr. Cross said.
"Boss, my former CO is here," Guts said, "He hired the men that attacked our warehouse."
"Ok," Mr. Cross said.
"That's not all," Guts said, "They've been doing some serious renovations in this warehouse. We're at least two stories below ground here."
"What do you see," Mr. Cross asked.
"Some kind of forward operating base," Guts said, "Highly militarized."
"Let me know when you clear out," Mr. Cross said, "I'll send Chicago PD out there."
"I have a better idea," Guts said, "See if you can get Miss Cunningham here a secure line."
"I'll do what I can," Mr. Cross said.
Guts removed his earpiece, wiped it clean with a handkerchief he pulled out of his jacket, and handed it to Casca.
"Thanks," Casca said as she placed it in her ear.
"Miss Cunningham, you there," Mr. Cross asked.
"Yes," Casca said.
"I've made this line as secure as I can," Mr. Cross said, "What do you need?"
"Get me a line to Langley," Casca said, "Extension twenty-two five."
"Roger," Mr. Cross said as he typed in the codes, "You're on."
"Caller, please identify," the automated voice over the other line said.
"Access code Ice Breaker," Casca said, "Connect me to Caretaker."
"Stand by for voice verification," the automated voice said before there was a beep, "Voice verification confirmed, connecting."
"This is Caretaker," the person on the other line said.
"This is Gardener," Casca said, "Slight problem at Soldier Field, south by southwest. Bring the deep cleaners."
"Copy that," Caretaker said, "The elves will be there in three hours."
"Roger," Casca said, "Gardner out."
As she hung up the line, she handed the earpiece back to Guts, "Caretaker," Guts asked as he wiped the earpiece clean, "You're going to have to explain that one."
"They gave it to me for this mission," Casca said.
"Sorry about that," Guts said as he placed the earpiece back into his ear.
"Don't worry about it," Casca said as the elevator opened on a very dark room.
As the two of them walked out of the elevator with their weapons drawn, Guts heard something and exclaimed, "Eyes!"
The two of them turned away and shielded their eyes as a wall of light that would have blinded them suddenly sprung to life.
"Hey, brother," Griffith's voice said over a loudspeaker as the two of them looked toward the wall of lights, "Long time."
"Three years," Guts said, "Not long enough."
"For you maybe," Griffith said, "Glad to see that you're back to the man you were. And who is that lovely young lady standing next to you?"
"My name is Casca," she said, "CIA."
"Indeed," Griffith said, "I have to say, you had amazing tastes in women Guts, amazing tastes," the lights cleared, "You can look now."
As the two of them turned toward the lights, they saw what appeared to be the one Griffith called Ubik sitting in what appeared to be a copy of the ED-209 from RoboCop with the top of the robot removed and replaced with a seat that was surrounded by glass, the right arm replaced with an M134 Gatling gun, and the left with what appeared to be a flame thrower.
"Hello, war hero," Ubik said, "I'd like to welcome you, to the future of war!"
"It was good to see you again, Guts," Griffith said, "If you survive, we should do this again."
The machine sprung to life as Ubik grabbed the controls, and target the two standing in front of it.
As the minigun started spinning, Guts grabbed Casca's shoulder and shoved her to the side as he dove backward towards one of the pillars.
The minigun unleashed a barrage of bullets toward Guts who took cover behind a pillar that was acting as a support for the building.
Casca stood up with the Little Devil, and opened fire herself, only to find that the weird glass that surrounded Ubik was bulletproof acrylic.
"Nice shooting," Ubik said as he whipped the robot around to fire the flamethrower at her.
As the flames shot around her, Guts aimed, and fired toward Ubik, arriving at the same conclusion as Casca did as she found the back of her shirt catch fire.
Casca ripped the shirt off, revealing the bulletproof bodysuit Guts gave her and threw it aside.
"She's stripping for us," Ubik said, "What do you say you dance for me when I'm done with the Marine?"
As Guts dropped his magazine, and reloaded, Casca blind-fired toward Ubik.
Before he could fire again, Guts pulled out his Kimber, and fired towards the back of Ubik's robot, causing it to start leaking some kind of fluid.
Ubik turned toward Guts who reloaded his Kimber and holstered it only to turn around and be hit in the side with a 7.62 round from the minigun.
"Seems I got you," Ubik said as he continued firing, "Too bad I missed anything important."
Casca reloaded the Little Devil, and turned toward Ubik, realizing that the hose going into the flamethrower was exposed.
Hitting something like that would be like trying to shoot a penny at twenty feet, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Casca aimed, tilting the gun sideways so the recoil would carry it in an arc.
As she pulled the trigger, the bullets did pierce the hose, and also shot the line that Guts pierced along the back of the robot.
As the canister started leaking, and as it started leaking, Casca took aim and fired several times.
The fluid was defiantly hydraulic fluid from one of the hydraulic pumps in the bot mixed with napalm from the flamethrower because it went up like a match, traveled at a rapid speed toward the machine, caught the tank on fire, and caused it to explode.
After Guts and Casca shielded their eyes from the flash of the explosion, the two of them looked back at the robot only to see it was resting on its side, Ubik having spilled out the side, his face heavily burned, his arm missing, and a shrapnel wound in the side of his neck.
The two of them walked over, and Guts spoke up, "Good thinking, you ok?"
"Yea," Casca said.
"You're good," Ubik said, blood coming out of the corner of his lips.
"Don't die yet," Guts said as he stepped on Ubik's arm, causing him to scream in pain, "This one's got a few questions to ask."
"You can't do this to me," Ubik said as he coughed blood, "I'm a God Hand, I'm," Guts pushed his foot down harder against Ubik's arm, causing him to scream more.
"Where's Griffith going," Guts asked.
"Pham Duc Island," Ubik exclaimed as Guts removed his boot, "Go to Mi-li towers, and tell them…" Guts noticed Ubik's arm move as if he was dying, but then he reached into his pocket, and pulled the pin on an octagon-shaped grenade, "Tell them Ubik sent you two straight to hell!"
Guts unloaded one round into Ubik's skull before grabbing Casca, and jumping out of the way, shielding her from the explosion as best as he could.
To be continued…