"Thunderclap! Cover Hemorrhage and Raptor!"
"Affirmative!"
The team had been fighting through the arena for the last hour-and-a-half. It was obvious that the Hyenas had radioed for help cause more and more were coming from behind them.
"Alpha Tango One to Rallypoint Omaha! Come in!" Stryker spoke into her earpiece; trying to be heard over the roar of gunfire.
"This is Rallypoint Omaha. Go ahead." Manny responded
"We are taking heavy fire from multiple directions! Requesting civilian militia attack the arena as a distraction!"
"I'll see whose close to you. Stand by." Manny cut off the transmission.
"Stryker! We got a tank!" Hemorrhage reported.
"Concentrate all fire on his chest plate!"
After only a couple seconds, the combined fire from the team broke the armor on the tank, it took only a few more shots to put him down. The Hyenas still didn't let up.
"Rallypoint Omaha to Alpha Tango. Do you copy?"
"We're here!"
"Three squads of militia totaling 12 men and women are on their way, ETA, 10 Mikes. Callsign is Golden Buffalo. How copy?"
"Tell 'em to make it 5 or we'll be overrun!"
"Copy, transmitting." The line went dead for a few moments as Manny relayed the orders. "Buffalo copies all. They'll get there."
"10-4!"
"Listen up, we gotta hold out a little bit longer!"
Just then, the Drone Controller at the White House radioed them. "Be advised Alpha Tango, thermal imaging is picking up a large mass coming from the highest level, expect more resistance."
"Copy!" Stryker responded before turning to her team. "Raptor! Get your…" she never finished her sentence. All of a sudden, the world went black around her.
The world around her was slow, and cloudy. Blinking a couple times, Stryker finally managed to open her eyes. Although the M249 B SAW that Thunderclap was using could potentially burst your eardrums, it was just a distant noise to her. Thunderclap was laying down fire with Raptor. Right above her with a worried look was Hemorrhage.
"Stryker do…focus on…listen…look at." This was all that Stryker could make out, her ears still fuzzy.
It was too soon when the world around her went black again.
"Rallypoint Omaha! This is Alpha Tango Two, is anyone there!" Hemorrhage spoke into his earpiece.
"This is Manny, what's going on?"
"Be advised! Alpha Tango One was near a grenade when it exploded! I say again, Alpha Tango One is down! Where's the fucking militia!"
"Received. They're a Mike out, you're in range to speak to them, Callsign is Golden Buffalo. Will the med wing need to be prepped?"
"Affirmative! She's lost lots of blood, we'll send her with the militia!"
"Understood. Prepping the wing now. Rallypoint Omaha out."
Before radioing the militia, Hemorrhage took some potshots from behind cover.
"This is Alpha Tango Two to Golden Buffalo! Is anyone there!"
"This is Buffalo, go ahead."
"We are in dire need of support. Be advised, this is a hot zone! Requesting two people to evac one of our own!"
There was no response for a couple seconds as Hemorrhage just rolled his eyes.
"It means, get the fuck in here, we have wounded! Be careful, there are lots of 'bad guys'!"
"Understood, sending some people up."
"Jesus. We've definitely gotta teach 'em more." He muttered under his breathe.
The team spent another two minutes swapping fire with the Hyenas before they seemed to break off finally. They all heard gunfire outside, they assumed it was the militia.
"Anyone here? We were sent in here to help!"
"Identify yourselves! Now!" Raptor aimed her rifle toward them.
"Woah! We're just here to help!" both civilians put their hands up.
Hemorrhage took only a moment to analyze them. There were two. One man, one woman. Both tall, both relatively fit. The woman carried a shotgun, the man, an SMG. Both were by their torsos, still connected to their combat loops.
"You two made it just in time. We got a wounded here." Hemorrhage let them through and walked over to his leader.
"She's lost a lot of blood. We need to keep moving forward." He straightened his posture as the militiamen nodded. "As an agent of the Strategic Homeland Division, operating under Presidential Directive 51, I hereby have supreme tactical authority." Both of the civilians looked intimidated.
"You two, as well as the squads sent here, are to escort this woman safely and swiftly to the White House. If any of your comrade's protest, I am hereby authorizing you to subdue them. Get. This. Woman. To the White House. Understood?"
They looked at each other for no more than a second when they turned toward him again. "Yes sir!"
"Good, get outta here." He turned to the others. "Let's go."
Raptor was impressed. While Hemorrhage was almost exclusively child-like, when the moment came, he stepped up. Gone was the joking, gone was his trademark smile. In its place, determination. She'd have to ask him what he did before all this when they got back to base.
"Hemorrhage, I'm picking up multiple targets." Thunderclap said as he analyzed data streaming in from his recon seeker mine.
"Affirmative." The team took up positions by the door, inside was the arena itself. They had passed tons of greenhouses, the arena looked like the biggest one so far. Waiting only to grab one of his explosive seekers, Hemorrhage popped out of cover and threw the modified mine into the center of a group of panicked Hyenas.
"What the fuck is that?" One of them bent down to pick it up.
"Bad idea son." Thunderclap muttered.
All of a sudden, it blew. Of the 10 or so hostiles, 4 of them died instantly, the one who picked it up was in even worse shape. Considering he was in multiple shapes. All of the floor. Bloody.
"Spread out and eliminate with extreme prejudice!" Hemorrhage ordered.
Soon, there was a full-blown firefight in the arena. Not nearly as bad as the one before though. When the last of the Hyenas' leaders graced them with his presence, the team decided to end the fight here; lasting no longer than 10 minutes, the hostiles were put down. The leader was crawling away, injured.
"Please, I surrender! I'll stop."
Hemorrhage was conflicted. Although he was always merciful to those who were injured, he started to remember both the gruesome videos of Hyenas brutalizing civilians and the briefing given by Stryker. 'We are to eliminate them to the last.' She said. Wasting no more time, he did what he though was best.
"Unfortunately, we ain't taking prisoners." Hemorrhage said before blasting his skull open with his shotgun.
Raptor flinched but noticed Thunderclap not react at all. She always had a tough time with the 'no prisoners' method.
"Gather up all the intel you can find and let's get the hell out of here."
Manny was waiting on word from the doctors. The militia had gotten to the White House in record time. Stryker was rushed into surgery immediately. He was leaning over a map of D.C. when a nurse came in.
"Colonel. Agent Collins sustained a major injury, but she's pulled through. Both from the doctors and that division tech they got. She may not even need physical therapy with those nanites repairing her body."
"Thank you. Dismissed."
The nurse left the room. Manny let out a huge sigh of relief. Looking down at the map, he flicked the Hyenas off of the arena. Finally, progress. Manny hadn't been this happy since before the Green Poison.
