Chapter 3: Shootout Inca
October 25th, 2026
New York, USA
09:35 Hours, local time
Over by the Winters Estate in New York, the Billionaire was in his bedroom with the newly wedded wife, Jacqueline as the two spent their evening on their bed, flipping through magazine pages, booking a location for their Honeymoon.
"So what do you think? A trip to the Caribbean? Or maybe a Venetian vacation? I'm pretty sure that anyone of them would please your taste." Winters quipped as he twirled her hair, prompting Jacquline to chuckle playfully as she held him by the goatee and chin. "How about a nice Greecian vacation? I always want to see the Parthenon on the Acropolis." Said Natla.
Winters and her share a wicked and playful grin on their faces with their glares directed at one another. "Oooh do I get to be your hero in shiny armor?" Winters challenged her playfully before she then gave Winters a kiss on his lips.
"Dye your hair and shave the goatee, then you can be Achilles for all I care." She stated playfully before tossing her hair around. Cameron himself was swooned by her passionate kiss to the point he fell to his bed with his eyes in a loopy expression. "Sure thing babe. Whatever you say…" Said Cameron in a drunken tone.
With Winters down in a drunken daze, Natla let out a smirk and picked up her phone dialing a secured line and waited for the beeping to be done with. She soon heard someone picking up the phone and spoke through it. A male with a thick Arab accent, a high pitched voice and a bad pick up line. "Heeeey babe what's cooking? You like to have a chat with me? How about a dinner date somewhere?" He made smooching sound in the background, driving his point home.
"Ugh save it for the female spotted hyena. I'm sure your laugh will bring her over to sweep you off your feet." Said Natla with a grumble and an animalistic growl over the phone. "Rabi, I want results and I want them fast. Get me info on those Rex Units tech specs." She stated bluntly to Rabi who then made coughing sound on the other end of the call.
"Are you kidding me lady? Lemme guess you're still salty over Ray's death, aren't you?" Rabi asked while at the same time barely able to contain his flabbergasting. "Shut your yaps you Russian with a fake Arab name. Get me those Rex Unit tech specs. $500,000,000 as payment wire to your account." Natla bluntly promised to him, hearing this Rabi made a slow gasp sound. "I'm listening…" He uttered.
[hr]
At that same time in Peru…
They circled back and forth, prowling at each other, both GDI and Orion Sword troops were keeping their weapons trained on one another, one ridgeline to another. Up high in the mountains, there wasn't much of a frontline to speak of other than long winding Incan highways and mountain ridges. Rick Stanton and Sam Coleman were in their cold weather jackets standing by their CH-47F Chinook going over signal reception of Girain on their laptop. Sam's fingers danced across the keyboard as the dark navy blue tinted screen showed a satellite shot overlay of the Andes.
The yellow grid crosshairs moved across the screen with triangulation points trying to identify a fix location of Girain's signal, he sighed out as his effort was repeatedly thwarted by the difficult terrain blocking satellite signals and beacons built into Girain. "Any luck?" Stanton asked as he bounced back and forth between his station and Coleman's. "Nah not a thing, there's something blocking her signal, I can't seem to find her anywhere in this area." Said Coleman as he drank a cup of cocoa Chicha.
"Come on Sam, she got transponders, satellite signal, cell signal, she got everything built into her at least you can pick up one that's authentic." Stanton grumbled as he looked at the satellite tracking of the area. He found that the areas around what appeared to be a misty valley deep in the interiors of the Vilcabamba compound, he blunk and pointed Coleman to the square grid of the valley.
"Any ideas why this particular area is an electronic blackhole?" He asked Coleman who was perplexed by it as he attempted to conduct signal triangulation over the area. Only to find nothing. "No idea, but I think that's a good place to start." Sam let out a curious smirk as he ruffled his hair for a moment before grabbing a radio on the table.
"Angel 1-1 this is Ground Watch, can you make a search at grid Delta 8 Foxtrot 9, over?" He listened to the pilot of the Heron replied to him. "Affirmative ground, be advised our instruments are little wonky, we can't afford to stay there for long." The pilot of the Heron replied over the radio as she then flew towards the valley looking for Girain.
[hr]
Back in the War Room of GDI Blacksite, General Grady was observing the situation with great interest, seeing the symbols and pieces shuffle around with a 1 minute time lag to update their movements one at a time. The situation was effectively a Mexican stand-off with both the GDI and Orion Sword troops set up temporary camps away from one another.
The GDI had their field encampment by the foot of Vilcabamba's footpath while Orion Sword was up on the mountains by a clearing nearer to the site. So far there were no shots fired reports but the intense standoff was the perfect situation for a violent shootout at best, a flashpoint at worst.
He grumbled and stroked his beard frustratingly while his eyes were glued to the monitors displaying GDI and Orion Sword positions, the general was especially focused on a side monitor showing Girain's status to be "SIGNAL LOST" with her status display being in the red, assuming a lost or missing mecha unit.
However he soon had something else to worry about however, he noticed that something else has entered the area, a single MV-22 Osprey flew into the area keeping itself low to avoid radar detection with the craft popping up and disappearing on the radar screen every now and then. With the craft's IFF unresponsive to the GDI he was assuming the worst. "Anybody got a twenty on that VTOL?" He asked the technician and specialists in the room with one of them shaking his head nervously. "Negative sir, assuming hostile bird, but they don't appear to follow the same Orion Sword pack."
A bird lost from its flock? Unlikely to General Grady. He tapped his fingers on the desk and observe it carefully as the MV-22 disappeared one last time near Orion Sword's encampment. "Overlord to all units be advised we have possible hostile bird in the area. Repeat possible hostile bird, engage at your discretion but make sure you have positive ID before engaging." Said Grady over the satellite coms network.
[hr]
On the ground, Rick Stanton heard the broadcast playing over the radio and was immediately startled by it, he knew who this was other than Orion Sword. "Shiit, he's here." He uttered and look ominously over the mountain ridges towards where Orion Sword was. Much to his fear, Jonah's militants were in the region, after disembarking from their MV-22, they maneuvered through the mountain cracks and ridgeline, bounding along the Incan footpaths towards Orion Sword encampment.
The militants were fairly well equipped with FN Mk17 SCAR-H, M4A1, FN M249 SAW amongst other firearms they've procured. As they were approaching the Orion Sword encampment, one of the Orion's snipers in arctic camouflage uniform and snow white hoodie spotted some of the militants passing by. "Heads up, I got contacts incoming. Multiple foot mobiles closing on our 20!" He alerted his fellow Orion Sword troopers before taking a shot at one of the militants, his target fell to the ground in a pool of his own blood.
The others dived to the ground and open fire in full auto or bursts at the snowy ridges. Their weapons were suppressed not to maintain stealth but to avoid causing an avalanche on the high mountains. They tossed frag grenades up at the Orion Sword sniper, seamingly killing him in the frag explosions before pushing up further with the other pockets of Orion Sword troopers, scrambled to assume fighting positions.
"We got hostiles, it's Jonah's mercs! Suppressive fire!" One of the Orion Sword squad leader ordered his men as he opened fired his suppressed G36K rifle at his targets. The firefight saw bullets whizzing pass by the two parties, snow being popped up by impacting bullets, some Orion Sword troopers were hit along with Jonah's mercs. "We got hostiles moving in, looks like they're going for the data server!" One of the Orion Sword troopers shouted out sighting an additional enemy helo flying towards their camp, an NH-90 with snow white camouflage pattern.
Some ground fire were directed at the enemy bird, but with negligible effects as the NH-90 head for its drop zone, another helo flew over them, this one appeared to be a gunship and the Orion troops knew this was an AH-1E Cobra gunship, old model but would suffice with what they have here. The gunship autocannon spun up and fired at Orion pockets, sending some into hiding while others were ripped to shreds.
With the defenders being pinned and hammered down by the gunship, the NH-90 landed by a clearing and out came a squad of mercenaries personally led by Jonah. The aged colonel himself was seen in wintery smeared grey fur coat with his troops fanning out protecting him in a diamond formation as they make their way up to the hill where Orion Sword datacache was.
The Orion Sword troopers defending the datache saw a much larger force coming towards and were reasonably concerned by the prospect of being overrun. The small squad there attempt to suppress the incoming hostiles with their small arms and grenades. But with their elements caught off guard this bad, help might not come soon enough.
[hr]
Over by the GDI encampment, the Task Force saw the firefight going on with concern brewing in their minds. Knowing Jonah's men and their leader's apathy towards human life, they were itching to join the fight. The GDI troops wearing their snowy white mountain top camouflage pattern with black or green gloves held their weapons tight trained their sights on the other side of the mountains and prepared themselves for Jonah's men possible assault on themselves.
As they were preparing for combat, Girain was emerging from the mountain compound's main gate, pushing it out with Stuka's help. The entrance itself had its snow being dug out somewhat by GDI troops using bulldozers they airlifted to the mountain tops using CH-47F Chinooks before, and it made their exit all the easier. "What's going on here?" She asked on the radio confused, her voice crackled and fizzled due to the effects of the artifact she was holding in her hand.
"We have eyes on Jonah's mercs, they're attacking Orion Sword's encampment just on the other side of the mountain. Uhh… should we engage?" The Task Force commander nervously asked Girain while she noticed the dazed and still overloaded Stuka crawling on the ground struggling to hold himself up to much less move to assist his human superiors. "Must… assist… friendly Orion… assets." He uttered wheezing.
Girain herself was in no better shape as she collapsed to the ground on her knees struggling to hold the artifact in her palm. "You're… weapons free, kick their ass." She ordered him tersely, to which the Task Force commander smirked. "Yes mom, we'll do it. All callsigns this is Papa Bear actual, weapons free, I repeat weapons free. Let's kick some ass!"
With that the GDI troops began to mobilize some elements to assist Orion Sword, leading the charge was a squadron of their fast moving AH-6 Little Birds flying in V formation armed with minigun and Hydra rocket pods. Followed by a quartet of Blackhawk utility helicopters flying in similar formation heading Eastward towards where Orion Sword was.
"Angel 1-1, this is 0-6, you're clear 5 mikes to target, weapons free on anything Jonah. Guns guns guns." The radio chatter relayed messages to one another as the AH-6 first strafe over the mercenaries, some of the Little Birds hover and strafe with their miniguns on Jonah's mercenaries. Two other Little Birds were busy buzzing around the larger and more heavily armed Cobra gunship, they used their agile speed to swarm around the slower and more sluggish gunship.
Despite having a sleeker frame, the Cobra was unable to take on two enemies at once and drove off with the Little Birds strafing the Cobra, damaging its airframe and rotors. The barrage of AP minigun bullets managed to take its toll against the Cobra gunship and it began to bellow out a plume of smoke as the helo descend in altitude the further west it went.
Caught off guard by the entry of the GDI into the fray, Jonah's mercenaries began to focus fire on the Little Birds as the flying eggs skirt around the battlefield firing off their weaponry at them. Some of the mercenaries that were being personally led by Jonah were busy pushing up to the data cache tent of Orion Sword with smoke grenades to obscure their movement before sprinting forward laying down fire in bounding maneuvers.
The Orion troopers there were forced back away from the tent to save themselves, one of them was crouching and laying down covering fire for his teammates with his G36K. He was about to make a turn and run for stones and sandbag covers when Jonah gunned him down from behind in cold blood. The Colonel shot his target with a G17 pistol with a well aimed leading shot, the Orion Sword trooper fell to the ground, with his body gone cold on the Andean wind and snow blowing over a pool of his own blood.
"Get to work, set up security and get those Rex Unit tech specs. Our time is shorter than expected." Jonah sighed out nonchalantly as he had his men went to work, some shooters set up by edge of the tent's sandbag covers while others with Laptops and USBs were busy trying to bypass Orion Sword data hub trying to access their Rex Unit tech specs. But their effort was further hampered by the security measures put into place.
The GDI Blackhawks hovered over the clearings and dropped their ropes down on the ground letting the GDI troops onboard fast rope down with their weapons locked and loaded with the troops approached Jonah's mercenaries on the flank and descend upon them. Once on the ground, the GDI infantry squad wearing digital white arctic camouflage wearing MICH with combat goggles to protect their eyes from snow and wind. Armed with M4A1s and M249 SAW Para with various attachments to their weapons, they began to push forward at Jonah's men.
The GDI troops refrained from tossing frag grenades, instead they sneak up behind the mercenaries by the data cache tent and began to open fire at the occupants, catching them off guard. "Damn it, we need to leave now! How's the data cache?" Jonah grunted while ducking in the tent, narrowly dodging incoming fire and bullets that ripped through the tent's fabric.
"We haven't got through the security protocols yet, we-" The technician of Jonah was shot in the back and fell down by a stray GDI bullet. "NO!" The colonel shouted out in a fit of fury. Seething with anger, frustrated by the sudden intervention of the GDI, he gestured for his men to retreat with him off the mountains. "We're leaving. Alternate LZ is 5 klicks from here let's hope we can get there." Said Jonah as he then ran away from the tent with his survivors towards the Amazon jungle basin.
"They're falling back, should we pursue over?" One of the squad leader of the GDI asked his commander over the radio. "Negative, do not, I repeat do not pursue. Regroup and consolidate set up security before they come back."
"Affirmative Papa Bear, we'll do, Black 2-1 out." The GDI troops would then enter a defensive posture with entrenching equipment being deployed to dig up fighting positions and sandbags ready to brace themselves against another assault. Orion Sword troopers there took notice and breathed a sigh of relief at the sudden intervention of their rival the GDI.
[hr]
Monitoring the situation from their hidden base, Mr. Grey and Joe observe the flashpoint played out with concern, though their men were saved by the GDI's sudden intervention, it was too much of a close call for them to comfort. "What do you make of that?" Joe asked casually while Grey sighed out bending over the table looking at the holographic display of infantry and heliborne units move about. "Surprising, but welcome nonetheless. How do you think they were jumped on?" He retorted.
Joe stroke his chin, looking over his shoulder briefly before back at the Tactical map display. "A moe." He claimed, to which Grey nodded. "Just what we need, get me Athena on the line, I think it's time we have a little chat." Grey ordered and Joe quickly turn over to the nearby communication officer and whispered instructions into his ear, the officer nodded to Joe and tapped on his keyboard to track Girain's satellite radio frequency and dial her. While then, Grey watched as Giran and Stuka were being examined by GDI troops at the gates of Vilcabamba.
The young men there were measuring their radiation level before coordinating disinfectant bath on the two while they were lying down on their stomachs. Trucks carrying disinfectant high powered water were brought up to the mountain top with their hoses dragged out aiming at Girain and Stuka before both of them were being sprayed with water. The helmet camera feed of Stuka at first was still scrambled before finally restored to full functionality.
"At least they're providing them with needed services. But we are in no position to trust them completely yet." Grey sighed out.
[hr]
Out in the field as Girain and Stuka were being washed with the ground personnel running geiger meters over them detecting radiation levels being no higher than what a normal Titan would emit. The humans fell back and allow Girain to slowly pick herself up, she was grunting by the stiff and numbness of her body but they were on the downward direction as she took a crack at her neck.
Stuka did the same as he stood up but with his prosthetic legs, he felt twitches of static electricity affecting his nerves system causing him to stump or twitch his toes slightly every now and then. He saw a call request from Joe and answered it on his HUD. He nodded as Joe spoke to him before he then wire the call to Girain's own HUD. "Unit Athena, Orion Command is pending communication with you." Said Stuka in a stiff manner.
"Is there a reason for that?" She asked, to which Stuka simply monotonously remarked, "Your performance has been commendable and Orion Command is pending for communication with you." Hearing this Girain let out a cautious hum in thought before she mentally hit the answer button. Her HUD show a caller ID from Orion Sword with a video call of Joe and Mr. Grey being displayed for both her and Stuka to observe.
"Mr. Grey? Why do I have the pleasure of receiving you?" Girain asked with a bit of sarcasm to which Grey let out a soft huff. "To put it short. Thank you for taking care of Stuka. Your judgement of the situation seems to be rather… reasonable." He stated calmly to her, Girain however felt a bit ruffled by it but kept her calm. "Right… but my concern for Stuka is out of survival." She replied with a sigh. "Not from where I'm standing, if it was truly out of the need for survival, you could have left Orion Sword elements on the mountains be overrun by Jonah's men." He retorted and it made her feel rather unease by her own decision making.
"That was because Jonah is a wanted man. He could have turned his gun on us as well if given half the chance." She defended herself only to let out a sigh in the process. Grey hearing this was feeling amused and interested in the conversation they were having. Each and every word coming out of her voice box, her rhetoric and reasoning seem sound from both a military and political strategist standpoint. "Considering the situation, I would suggest a truce between our forces. For the time being that is, seeing that Jonah is a common enemy." Grey asked her softly.
Girain thought for a moment, she knew that it would make some sense for them to temporarily turn their eyes on Jonah, but she had no authorities to officially agree to that. Furthermore, Orion Sword could potentially do something else behind GDI's back. However, this was not the first time Orion Sword cut a deal and actually hold their end of the bargain.
"I accept that but this agreement is strictly under the table." Said Girain and Grey let out a soft relief sigh. "Thank you Athena. I'll have my men set up a data cache for you and Stuka at the base of the valley. I suggest you two head there to initiate a data dump procedure." Highlighted on Girain's map was a valley area at the base of the footpath where she started her adventure.
Reluctantly agreed to it, Girain and Stuka proceeded to travel down the footpath with the Rex Unit being helped down the footpath by Girain holding him up. As they went down the footpath, VTOLs of Orion Sword and GDI conventional Helicopters such as CH-47F and UH-60V Black Hawks flying cargo lift sorties and MEDEVAC the wounded to a neutral ground where they can be treated.
The troops from both sides were seen setting up new tents for Triage centers, Field Hospital and new data hubs for the Mecha data processing needs. Once Girain and Stuka got down to the ground the air thicken and they felt at last at a more temperate and normal condition.
Girain placed the artifact down in the middle of the camp where they can see it, the humans of both GDI and Orion looked at it in awe and wonder. One of them emerged from an Orion Sword marked technical server tent. A rather pudgy looking man with quite a bit of fat in his stomach.
He appeared to be a middle aged Caucasian man with some bits of grey hair on his head. On his black Orion cold weather jacket he had his nametag "Barringer" on with his cap denoting his role as the organization's Chief Engineer and Technical Expert. He gasped at the sight of the enormous for human artifact as technicians and mechanics swarm around it trying to attach various suction cups and probes to monitor the energy pulses of the artifact.
The two mecha units were given designated pads of their own, hastily assembled together with braces for their legs to keep them in place as Girain and Stuka stood on those pads with the two were plugged into a data hub to conduct data dumbing procedure. This in effect gave Girain and Stuka both metal gurgling sounds and the occasional grumble as they felt their minds were being purged of excessive data forcefully fed into them.
Coleman and Stanton in their tents looking on their Laptop screens monitoring the two mecha data feed and compared that to the artifact. Coleman stroked his beardy chin looking at camera feed and audio recording from Girain and Stuka. The same operation was playing out in Barringer's tent as he and Orion Sword's technicians observe with great interest and concern. Both sides observed the two explore the tomb of Vilcabamba and its underground city of the Inca. Stunned and captivated, at a loss for words. Coleman and Stanton simply sat glued to their screen looking at the majestic Incan refuge hidden in the mountains.
"Jesus this is like The Lost World and we're the crew." Stanton mused as he watched the clips where Girain fought off the Titanoboa with Stuka's help and their wrestling of the python inside its lair deep within the tomb of the strange God-King. "What do you think this is? That thing emits radio and signal interference, like a jamming device that prevents us from finding the place. Possibly blocked their signals along with the mountain caves." Colemen hypothesized.
"Could be. It's probably the sound it emits block off our coms with her. Girain can you talk?" Stanton asked her after putting on his earpiece, she then replied back to him while having her body in a power down mode. "Affirmative I hear you. You're getting the mission records? You'll about to start a new tourist site real soon." She remarked half joking, Barringer who was listening let out a slight chuckle hearing her sense of humor.
"Now that's one helluva woman if you hear one." Barringer commented amusingly. "You think Grey might have other plans for her?" One of the Orion Sword troopers in the tent asked him, to which Barringer nodded to him. "You can bet your nickel and dime on that one." He utter in remark.
"Stuka what's your take on Athena?" Barringer called Stuka from his headset prompting the Rex Unit to reply to his human superior in the usual, dull robotic voice. "Unit Athena's performance is exceptional. Displaying both pragmatic cooperation and sound strategic calculations. She appeared to display genuine concern for my safety and well being."
Hearing this Barringer sat on his comp and forwarded the live conversation to Grey who listened in closely with great interests as the debriefing continue. "Any ideas why she would protect you? Even though you two are enemies?" Barringer asked, to which Stuka replied without hesitation. "Unknown, assuming data collected from previous reconnaissance and observation of her performance with Unit Corsair, it is reasonable to assume that she has experience working with Rex Units."
Barringer nodded to Stuka and stroke his chin in thought. "That explains why the GDI call her 'Mom'. You two better stick together, I think this Op isn't over yet, not by a long shot." He concluded the debriefing while observing the recorded footage of Girain and Stuka's adventure inside Vilcabamba and their encounter with a giant Titanoboa up to discovering the tomb of the ancient Godzilla.
"Alright, from the looks of them, I think I can work out a rough translation here, it says 'Here lies Qualopec, God King of all men. Avatar of Inti and ruler of all under Heaven. One of the Triumvirate of Atlantis'?" Girain paused and blunk seemingly confusion while Stuka remain oddly calm and stoic with the revelation. "Running linguist dialect check, no errors found in translation based on known data. Flawless performance unit Athena." He commented, seemingly missing the point of why Girain was confused.
"Atlantis? Coleman do we have any records of Atlantis in Monarch?" Hearing her request, Sam quickly typed on the keyboard of his laptop and forward to her some video archives of Monarch drones during Serizawa's last day on Earth. "Not a lot, we speculate that it could be real but never actually have concrete evidence to suggest it. Until we found this ruin." Said Coleman and Girain thanked him. "Alright thanks Sam, I think we might have to start working on those Atlantis files now. Sending the translation to you now."
With that Girain began to pack the data she found and translated into a folder symbol and sent it to Sam's email address, once the process was done, she sat down and sighed out next to Stuka. "Well another day, but definitely not another job at the office." She commented prompting Stuka to cock his head aside curiously. "Your statement suggest the experience is… abnormal, beyond intended parameters?" Stuka asked densely.
"Yes… it has been a long and strange day. Normally it would civilian evacuation, Titan deterrent, humanitarian relief efforts. Not tomb raiding." Girain leaned back, arching her head and body before lying down on her back, in the process Stuka trailed his eyes along her body length, he paid careful attention and took meticulous mental notes of Girain's bulkier body build and her albino armor color. He made a slight rumble in his throat as he came over to her still standing upright looking down at her torso where her trio of chest panels were, there he saw a Monarch symbol with an MFS-4 ATHENA insignia painted on.
"What's your daily routine like then Stuka? I suppose it's endless drills?" her voice pierced Stuka's ears and startled him even when she didn't notice him looking at her body. "Uh my routines are training for operation, practice CQC and perform strategic recon into Siberia and Iran." He disclosed to her though his voice became noticeably much more nervous than before. "You… have… a… rather… elegant chassis unit Athena." he stuttered awkwardly causing Girain to perk her head up surprised. "Excuse me?" She asked cautiously.
Stuka of course was growing intensely nervous and looked away from her denying what he had just blurted out. "Nothing, my apologies, I didn't mean to make lewd remarks about your appearance." He sat down but with his back facing her causing Girain to feel somewhat sympathetic towards him as she stood up and walked over to him and wrapped her hand around his shoulder and neck.
"Actually it's… nothing really. I think it was nice to hear that, I mean it was a nice compliment." She awkwardly reassured him as he looked at her face in surprise. "It was nice?" He asked and she nodded. "Yeah it was, look I know that Rex Units aren't the social types but I'm more than willing to help if we're not busy shooting each other." She stated calmly with a soft and soothing tone, giving Stuka a moment of relief as he sighed out and pressed his head against her chest and abdomen region, a Godzilla's sign of affection as he rubbed against her on instinct. "Thank you Unit Athena."
