7Seven Secret Space Guppies
The second part of the delivery of Gil, enjoy!
Chapter 11: Stay strong Gil, we're coming.
"Gravity squadron approaching the battlefield. Stay ready for infiltration..." A pilot of the squadron said.
"Affirmative, outpost just in front of us. Ready for the rush towards it. Casualties will be inevitable, the terrain is flat and there will be fierce resistance. Flynn, over."
"We just got over the inner walls, ready to attack, too. Nonny, over." The gravity squadron could already be heard in the distance. Nonny turned to the rest. They were all hiding behind a destroyed buggy.
"Time to deliver Gil." Zooli said.
"This will be dangerous. Never stop running until we reached the outpost, okay?" Nonny explained. His team nodded.
"Look, the squadron!" Oona pointed at it.
"Stay ready Nonny, we won't have a second chance..." Flynn said via radio. From the already damaged outpost came gunfire against the spaceships.
"Dropping our delivery now!" The bombs fell. An explosion followed, and the outpost almost completely dismantled and started levitating. The large elevator platform just got revealed.
"What is this?" Goby said, staring at it.
"Let's run. Good luck everyone." The 5 left their cover and sprinted across the battlefield.
"Come on soldiers! Go go!" Flynn yelled.
The OD forces were disorganized for a moment. Some flew away with the metallic debris. A small group of them gathered on the platform.
"It doesn't go down!" One said, pressing on the command panel.
"Fight back!" A loudspeaker. "They want their compagno! Prevent them from reaching the platform!" The soldiers sighed and started taking cover behind the few walls that rested on the ground.
"Half way there. Easier than I thought... Wow, watch out!" Soldiers aimed at the ETS. They were just on time to take cover.
"Argh, they are too far away! I can't aim properly!" Goby complained. Only Nonny could shoot from there with his laser rifle.
"I hope Flynn attacks from another direction. Hey Nonny? Hurry up please!" Deema said.
"I'm doing my best, sniping is mostly waiting..." After a minute, Deema got bored and abandoned her cover.
"No, Deema! Come back! You'll get shot!" Goby screamed. And he was right. Deema got a few meters closer, but her arm got shot.
"Hurry Nonny! I must check on her!" Goby yelled.
"Are you starting too?! How does Molly handle them..."
"I heard that!" Nonny didn't care.
"Ahhh haha! Unfortunately for you all, Flynn is here!" Flynn said through the radio. His team reached the outpost. "Area cleared. Come quickly before the bombs stop working... Wow, already a wall that fell. HURRY!"
"It's the moment." The ETS rushed across the Moon. Goby helped Deema. Finally, the 2 squads united on the platform. Itself was still surrounded by a metallic floor. On the platform self were a lot of metallic boxes.
"I can still fight!" Deema said to Goby. "Just, with one arm."
"Oona, can't you help her?"
"I'm sorry, not in 'space'... When down there, maybe, if we can remove our spacesuits." She replied. During that, Sergeant Flynn struggled with the command panel.
"Access denied! Bullshit. Tech guy!" He screamed. Nonny looked over his shoulder. "Yes you! Hack this panel before we get covered in tons of metal layers." Another piece just fell from the sky.
Nonny connected his hacking tool, and broke into the OD systems. "Obsolete networks... I saw them on Earth too. Access granted."
"Good job. Let's find Sonic now." Flynn pressed on the panel. On the sides of the platform, security fences appeared to prevent from falling off. The platform started going down, and a hatch closed above it. Another hatch opened underneath them. When they passed, and it closed again, the room became pressurized. A large, rectangular cave emerged.
"This will be dangerous." Zooli thought. The platform reached the bottom, but continued horizontally, transporting the WPP forces to the facility part of the cave. It was a high-tech OD-coloured storage deposit area, followed with a metallic wall in the Moon stone. The entrance of the base. The main entrance was on the ground level. Above that was a balcony.
"We're exposed, take cover behind the boxes." Flynn said. The platform finally stopped. A bridge was deployed to connect it with the rest.
"We can deactivate our suits here." Oona said. The rest did it too.
"It's calm, too calm." Nonny whispered.
"Good for now, I can help Deema then..." Oona whispered back, who already was busy with her friend.
"Let's, advance, and see..." Goby said. Nonny, him and Zooli carefully walked over the bridge. In the darkness above the balcony, was a large screen that just got activated.
"Oh, no. That guy!" Nonny thought.
"Buongiorno everyone! I'm impressed you made it so far. And discovering your friend was missing... How, insightful! But you still have to get to him..." Cesario walked to the side, showing Gil attached to a chair, unconscious.
"What could they have done to him?" Nonny thought. Goby looked mad.
"I could just lock everything and send my soldiers in. Woops, missione fallita! But that's not fun, right? The main entrance is unlocked. You can try and find your amico, or die... Buona fortuna, hahaha!" And the screen went offline.
"I never knew Italians were so evil." Flynn commented.
"This guy is a real psycho!" Goby added.
"Let's face this bastard, come on!" Flynn and his soldiers crossed the bridge. The screen went on again.
"Oh, no no no! Only the ETS. If anyone else enters, then ciao, ciao Gil." Cesario added.
"We'll bring him back, or try..." Nonny said to Flynn.
"No, you'll bring him back. We don't move." Nonny nodded.
"I'm coming too, oushh!" Deema said, trying to get up.
"Keep her here."
"Yep! We will take care of spaghetti hair! Is she Italian too?" Flynn asked.
"Nope. You just think that." Nonny turned around. With the rest of the ETS, they crossed the bridge and went through the main entrance.
The door behind them closed. The 4 were in a glass tunnel.
"The Moon rocks are very beautiful, aren't they?" Oona said, admiring them through the glass.
"We don't have time for art stuff." The end of the tunnel was in sight. Nonny turned to the rest. "From here, stay attentive. I have no idea what this guy is planning." The rest nodded.
The group left the tunnel and arrived at a long and wide stairway, build in another part of the cave. It didn't go up in a straight line, sometimes there were small flat sections. On both sides of the stairway were pipes going up. Loudspeakers went on.
"I thought you guys were with more! We only captured 1 of you? That's bad luck for you, I planned to deploy a large amount of troops. Now it will be more, difficile!" The entryway at the top of the stairways opened and soldiers came out of it.
"Take cover behind those boxes!" Nonny ordered, pointing at piles of them. Gunfire started to get exchanged.
"They have the high-ground! It's hard to hit them!" Goby shouted. He looked, and saw a little object fly to them. "Watch out! Grenade!" Everyone laid down. The grenade fell just in front of Zooli.
"No!" She thought. Zooli stood up, took the grenade and threw it away against a pipe. Shortly after, it exploded.
"That was close!" Goby commented. The pipe was damaged, and exploded near the OD soldiers. All got stunned by the noise.
"This is the moment, let's get closer! Zooli, go via the pipes, you can climb that, right?" Zooli nodded and went in her own direction. The rest climbed half-way up the stairs, and started shooting the remaining OD soldiers. Zooli climbed over a security fence near them and shot the last ones.
"Is it clear?" Nonny yelled.
"Affirmative! You can come!" Zooli yelled back. The 4 regrouped.
"This was not the plan! invia truppe sulla piattaforma!" The loudspeaker said.
"Zooli, what did he say?" Nonny asked.
"He is sending troops to the platform!" Zooli translated.
"We must warn the rest!" Oona said, panicking.
"Deema? Deema! Respond!"
"Yes, Nonny? What's wrong?"
"The Pizza man is sending troops to the platfo..."
"Nonny? Nonny? You're signal broke. Pizza man, Pizza man, troops... Platfo... Oh, shit!"
"I hope she got it, we have to continue." Nonny said.
"But the door is locked, we are stuck here..." Oona replied.
"Not for long." Zooli approached the broken pipe. "We can go through here, you use your belt grappling hook."
Zooli went in first, the rest followed her. It didn't take long before the pipe continued horizontally.
"I hope this isn't transporting any poisonous gas..." Goby whispered.
"Probably oxygen, in case of..." Nonny added.
"Ah crap, wire mesh. Give me a moment to cut it..." Zooli said. She used her laser hands for that. "Here you go..."
"Zooli look out!" The rest shouted. A battle drone appeared in front of her. It shot at Zooli several times. Zooli grabbed the thing and tried to overheat it with her laser hands. The rest couldn't do much.
"Hmpf! Flying tin can!" The drone was overheating, and it looked like it was about to explode. "Take some distance! This bastard will explode!" The rest crawled back a bit. The drone was glowing more and more, until it exploded!
"Cough cough! Zooli, cough, are you alright? Cough!" Nonny asked. Smoke was hindering the view. He crawled forward and found Zooli.
"I'm alright. Lost a part of my skin..." Zooli touched her face and felt the metal. She looked at her hand. "... And my index finger."
"Oona?"
"I'm a medic, not a technician, unfortunately..." Oona said.
"I can still fight. There's no other way than this one, so..." Nonny nodded. The group resumed their travel in the pipe. It went up again. The end of it became brighter.
"What do you see, Zooli?" Goby whispered.
"It looks like a generator room. 2 guards spotted..." Two giant metallic disks were turning around in the high-tech room.
"Can you take them out?" Nonny whispered back.
"I'll try..." Zooli sneaked out of the pipe and landed in the room. The guards were in front of the generators, with their backs to Zooli. Her Guppy friends landed too, still not detected.
"I wonder what Cesario will do with the prisoner..." One guard said.
"Why do we keep him alive? His teammates are searching him right now!" The other said.
"Don't you understand? We use him to attract the rest, and trap them!"
"Thanks for the information..." Nonny said. He took his knife and stabbed one guard. Zooli eliminated the other one. Nonny turned to the rest. "Let's stay even more wary now!"
Via the door now, the squad left the room. They entered a pentagonal chamber, their room being in the top corner. Directly in front and above them were stairs to the first floor. The first floor was in fact only a catwalk against the walls, leading to 2 small doors.
"This looks like a hub or something..." Oona whispered.
"There are rooms in the left and right wall. It looks like a cafeteria and the other one... I can't see from here." Goby commented.
"Alarm! Intruders detected! Send backup!" A loudspeaker said. It came from the right room.
"Sending backup commander!"
"So that's a security room.." Zooli said.
"Every time..." Nonny thought. "Take cover behind the security fences next to the stairway!"
OD troops came from the cafeteria room and from the first floor, and the gunfire exchange began.
"They are too numerous, we can't possibly shoot back!" Oona said.
"Let me try something..." Goby said. He took an explosive and threw it at the catwalk. "And bip..." The bomb detonated, destroying a part of the catwalk, making it fall and hurting the enemies underneath it.
"Shoot shoot! This is the moment!" Nonny yelled. Everyone sprayed on the confused enemies, winning another battle.
"It's safe, I think." Zooli commented. She looked up, no enemies anymore. But then she looked at the security room. "Ah yes, of course!"
The Guppies stood nose to nose with the OD officer.
"Send more backup!" He shouted through his radio. Goby shot the alarm in the corner of the room. Nonny opened the door.
"Ah Scheiße!" The officer draws his pistol, but was shot before he could.
"He said 'shit', for translation." Zooli added.
"We all knew that, don't worry." Goby answered. Nonny started searching around. On one of the tables he found a map.
"They still work with paper maps?" Oona questioned.
"It's this part of the facility... There's another room if we go to the first floor. I guess we don't really have the choice."
"Nonny? N..onny. Ah g...sh the si...nal isn't the ...est. Nonn...y!" Deema said via radio.
"I don't hear you well, what's going on?"
"We got att...cked, like you sa...d. ...no choice, but t... go b...ck up, with th... pl...tform!" Nonny sighed silently.
"We won't leave without Gil. Come down when we are back."
"Imp...ssible! The pan...l got destr...yed by a metalli... pl...te, from t...e gra...ity ...ombs. We m...naged to cl...se the h...tch so no ot...er debr...s can f...ll on us."
"We'll find another way, Nonny over." The rest looked at him, worried. "Let's move..."
The group went to the first floor and went through one of the doors. A long hexagonal walkway followed.
"Bene, you made it. Be proud of your achievements, but this adventure will soon stop." Cesario said through loudspeakers. The four continued advancing, arriving at the hallway's end. The door opened.
A big cavity under the Moon's surface. In it was a circular central platform. 4 stairs were connecting it to a wider catwalk as a ring around it. The Guppies walked down the stairs carefully until they arrived at the centre of the room.
"I have a bad feeling about this..." Zooli said. In front of them was a hexagonal gate that slowly opened. All turned to it and pointed their weapons.
"Oh, attenzione with your weapons! Let's talk first." Cesario said, approaching them.
"We could shoot you now!" Goby said.
"And then your friend will be no more either! Let's be friendly for once."
"What do you want to talk about? All of this feels like a little game! Where is Gil?" Nonny explained.
"Ahaha! Si, I did plan to make it look like a game. But I wasn't expecting you all to survive..."
Zooli was suspecting something and started to scan Cesario with her eyes.
"That doesn't answer my question!" Nonny replied. Cesario noticed Zooli.
"What are you looking? Do you want a picture of me?"
"It's a robot..." Zooli thought. Everyone looked at her. She looked at Cesario, and unleashed fire on him. The robot melted.
"A machine?" Goby was confused.
"How did you know?" Oona asked.
"Scanned his body. And his accent wasn't on point..." A loudspeaker went on again.
"You found out this quick? Ma come? Anyway, that's not important anymore! You can't even dialogue, you all have an obsession with violence! You are all so naive, and the world would be a better place without you!" Cesario screamed.
"We don't want to dominate the world like the OD! We strive for world peace!" Nonny replied.
"Così credulone! You have no idea... Ma basta! You won't know! You won't make it out here alive! Eliminarli! Uccidili tutti, fino all'ultimo!"
"He ordered to kill us all..." Zooli translated.
"I suspected something like that..." Nonny replied. The door in front of them closed as they wanted to go through it.
"Ahh God! We must open..." OD soldiers arrived in the room and started shooting. Everyone hid behind the security fences.
"Goby, go place an explosive on the door. We can hold them off!" Nonny ordered.
"I don't have any left!" Goby answered.
"I'll hack this thing open then! Cover me in the meantime!" Nonny sneaked to the control panel of the door and exposed the wires to connect his hacking tool.
Zooli's new weapon seemed very efficient. They managed to beat this wave.
"Sono solo quattro contro tutti voi, idioti! Invia uno squadrone di droni!" Cesario screamed.
"Drones incoming!" Zooli translated.
"Attiva la modalità kamikaze!"
"Did he say 'kamikaze'?" Oona asked. The drones came from special pipes into the room.
"Nonny are you ready?" Goby asked, worrying.
"Ah screw it! Other way!" Nonny cut the wires and made them touch each other. The drones were numerous and approaching rapidly. The Guppies couldn't shoot all of them down.
"Access granted." The panel showed.
"Open! Get in quickl, AAAHH!" Nonny fell unconscious.
"Nonny!" Oona dragged him in the room. Zooli covered them. Goby closed the door from the inside. They were safe from the drones. It was a rectangular, dark room, with only one door leading to a tube elevator.
"Is he, dead?" Zooli asked.
"He received a shock, but his heart is still beating. I can't leave him alone. You go find Gil." Oona said.
"It's dangerous here! the enemies could come at any second!" Goby explained.
"I'll be fine, hurry before it's too late!" Goby and Zooli obeyed to Oona and entered the elevator. It went up. It was finally time, to find Gil.
And again, I stop here, not because of a cliffhanger, no. Just because of the length, again. But don't worry too much, you'll know how it will end soon... By the way, I hope you learned some Italian today!