-Advance Wars 2
--Death Array
---Chapter 9: Orange Station
I was angry at the little sucker. I had always heard stuff about Andy and his seemingly off and on below average intelligence... And I believed it too, after seeing him run off like he was invincible or something. But he did get us away from all those Neosuit soldiers. Maybe he knew what he was doing, maybe he didn't, but I was just too frustrated to sort it all out.
"Geez..." I sighed. "You know what? Just sit down, and shut up. I gotta tell Sami we barely saved your ass."
Andy shook his head like he didn't know what he did wrong and turned toward Groling to talk to someone else. I turned toward the moving rock on one of the walls of the shaft and radioed Sami.
"This is Wolf. We just rescued Andy."
"That's great news! Where are you now? We're about to send the mini-sub back to the docks."
"That might be a problem ma'am. You see... Andy put us on some lift and I don't know where we're going."
"This is a cargo elevator!" Andy explained. "It takes us all the way to the bottom of the cliff to the train depot."
"Train depot?" I wondered aloud.
"Yes." Sonja cut in. "It's a classified area that Black Hole had been using to develop some kind of war train. Orange Star decided to take it over and continue the work. Only COs and key personnel were notified about it's existence."
"Sonja!" Sami exclaimed frustrated. "Can't you stay out of other people's business just once?"
She sighed and paused as if trying to calm herself down.
"Yes yes... it's a top secret location." She admitted after a time. "Nell made it clear to me that you wouldn't be notified unless it was critical to mission success... I'm sorry for keeping you in the dark about it."
"Oh yeah? What else is top secret in this place?"
I don't know why, but at that point, I was kind of pissed off. They send me out here to save Andy and Jess and don't properly inform me about the all the bases locations. How am I supposed to locate a Death Ray weapon when I don't even know about all the places to hide it. I figured they thought I would find it on my own or work my way around it. I sure as hell didn't know about that cargo elevator.
"There is a second site to the installation Wolf." Sonja began. "Past the train depot is another large part of the island. It's where Lash has her laboratory and where Hawke is orchestrating this whole ordeal."
"Well, it's nice to know now." I groaned. "And another matter is getting Andy off this rock. There's no way I'm about ready to drag around two people on this mission. There's too many of us here as it is."
Sami and Sonja eventually coughed up the fact that on the second part of the island was a small runway. Where they launched their jet to blow up Eagle's rescue team. Truthfully, I had totally forgotten about Hawke's fighter jet and where they would stash it. If it was a harrier, they could have put it on the helipad or something. But it was just a straight up fighter they had hotwired once they had taken control of the installation.
Why was this all important? Well, cause there was copters and other planes Andy could use to escape the base. Good enough for me. All I knew is that I had no intention of dragging around Orange Star's youngest Commanding Officer when I don't even know if he's taking the situation seriously. We barely made it out of that mess hall as it is.
"So, Wolf," Groling began. "What's going on with your superior?"
At that point, I had just finished the call.
"We're changing the evacuation strategy to the air option. Andy, you're gonna get off the island via copter. There's a cruiser that you can land it once you get it up in the air."
"Whoa whoa." Groling exclaimed. "Not so fast man. Are you forgetting about Hawke's fighter? The moment Andy gets a foot off the ground, the radar will pick him up, and he'll be sitting on the bottom of the ocean for sure."
"We could sabotage it." I stated confidently.
Groling simply scoffed at that idea and rolled his eyes.
"If you find it that is. Hawke knows that's the only fighter he's got. He's probably got more security on it than what they had on Andy."
"Damn." I exclaimed. "I suppose you want me to shoot the fighter down once it's in the air? Maybe I'll just whip up some stinger missiles and pop him as he takes off."
"What's wrong with you man?" Groling asked suddenly.
I had just realized it when I was making my sarcastic comment about the stringer missiles. What was wrong with me? I was bickering with my ally on a critical mission in the middle of a battlefield. I liked Groling too. I turned away, totally confused by my recent behavior. My mind was searching for answers... so I could find the reason and snuff it out before it kicked in when he would need me the most.
It couldn't have been Lash's treatment kicking back... could it?
I'd be stupid to try and think it wasn't possible. But too many abnormal actions had been happening lately when I felt like I was on the wrong side, working with the wrong people, and taking orders from the wrong COs.
"Groling... if I... keep this up. You'll shoot me won't you?" I asked him after a time.
"Phhh. Shoot you? I'll blast you." He grinned, making a joke.
The problem was, I was being dead serious. I had a horrible feeling like I was going to lose it at any moment. The cargo elevator soon stopped and I suddenly felt better, giving a weak smile and turning toward our only route. It was some kind of tunnel... reminded me of those tunnels that would cut through mountains. And I could feel the cold air rushing toward us. We walked down it for awhile until seeing a light in the distance.
We soon stepped out of the tunnel, and I could immediately see a pair of train tracks going off in both directions to the left and right of me. Groling and Andy went a bit further than I did and actually stepped onto one of the tracks as if to tell my eyes that I was seeing right. Man, why the hell did Black Hole build a train station on an island anyway? There was no bridge connecting to their old Macro territory or Orange Star.
Funny thing was, there actually was a train on one of the tracks. It was pretty long, about twenty cars or so and reminded me of the train Lash used to move her stuff between the battlegrounds of Orange Star and Blue Moon. My attention soon timed out on the train as something slammed into my leg and I remember grimacing in pain while looking down to see something had hit me... Dammit to hell! Snipers!
"Groling! Andy! Run for it!" I remember crying out while falling to the ground.
I desperately began to roll as bullets fell all around me. Plink, plop, plink, bing, zing. All memorable sound effects as I kicked up snow all around me in my roll. I remember, Andy and Groling seemed to get away just fine... then the snipers were just after me then. I guess I earned it since I was the one doing so much damage around the place. I soon found myself running out of room and got behind a rock.
Damn, the way they were firing, they could have just shot the rock to pieces. It wasn't the work of professionals. I knew somehow. It was the firing of someone who was really emotional. It was almost automatic fire, I swear they were just shooting to ease some devil they had cooped up inside their body, as if it made them feel better to keep me under constant fire.
I carefully curled up to see how my leg was doing. Luckily, the suit was more than enough to keep it from shattering my bones and simply just wounded it. A little first aid and I would be fine. But I didn't have any sniper rifle, and I don't think anything I had was going to be of use. After a time, they stopped shooting at me, and I figured they were reloading.
I took a second, at the most, to look up over the rock and see where they could have been nesting. The train was too far away to provide any cover, and I'm sure if I ran for it, they'd pick me off before I'd be able to hide behind it. There was some sort of control tower on the train station, but none of the windows were open, so they couldn't be hiding there.
Damn, I couldn't see them, but they had definitely taken up position somewhere on the train station. Something I did notice was that Groling and Andy had seemingly disappeared... At least they got away. If these guys were real snipers, they would have taken everyone down or made some bait to draw me out. But now they had nothing, and they were just shooting for the sake of shooting.
It was then I realized that I hadn't heard them shooting at me for awhile. I couldn't help myself, and I peeked over the rock to take another look. To try and find them so I could return some sort of fire, however ineffective it might be. But there wasn't any more shooting, it seemed the snipers had moved on or something. Maybe they were waiting for me to get out into the open... Then there was a call.
"Hey, Wolf. You alright? How's your leg?"
"What? Groling? Where are you?"
"Take a peek... just below the control tower."
I did, and I could see him standing on the roof waving a sniper rifle in the air. I just kind of waved back wearily just wondering how the hell he got up there so fast.
"What's going on? Did you take care of the snipers?"
"Yeah, you're covered. The thing was, they were the Blue Moon guys. They were talking to themselves as they pounded your position with gunfire. They were awful hell bent on taking you out for taking down Winchester."
Well... that would explain some things. They were just pissed cause I axed their boss. Guess Adder wasn't the only one around here who took a liking to the little green haired psycho. I thought about it for awhile, and then tried my leg. Seemed good enough, all they really did was nick me, I originally though they had hit me pretty good. But I guess all that emotion made their aim haphazard.
"Don't worry Wolf, Andy's up here too. We're gonna cover you. You see, there's a nasty looking bridge going over a river to the other site of the base. You have to see this for yourself."
"Andy? Work a sniper rifle? Is that even possible?"
"Hey! Cut it out already!" I heard him demand.
Oops... I forgot Groling was using a standard radio and not a high tech earpiece like I was. Andy heard me perfectly.
"Just because I'm young doesn't mean you have to treat me like a child. I went through all the basic training... and the drills... and everything! Besides! Grit showed me some techniques on sniping one day during the second Black Hole War. So cut me some slack!"
"Heh... He's got you there Wolf." Groling muttered.
Well... since he was my superior... I guess that was a prompt chewing out. Groling couldn't help but laugh and tell me that I deserved it. I guess all that paranoid thinking about turning to the other side was just me being a flat out jerk to Andy. Before I ended the call, Groling told me about some access stairs inside the building. Now that I wasn't being shot at, I could see a pair of tracks making their way in-between two of the cars.
The depot pretty much blocked any attempt to go around, I guess it was made that way to add length to the station platform, which I soon climbed up onto when I finished squeezing through a pair of train cars. Man... it was abandoned... But then again, why would you guard a station that probably leads nowhere anyway? We were on an island in the middle of nowhere...
Inside was even emptier. All I could tell you that was worthwhile was the stacks of ammo crates, as if they were gonna load the train and move it out somewhere... Heh, probably ten feet to another area. I suppose it was smart on the account you wouldn't except a train depot on an island like this... but it was also kinda stupid cause you weren't gonna move it out anywhere.
I moved up some stairs to the roof where Groling and Andy were waiting, handling their new sniper rifles. The bodies of the two guys who were shooting at me were neatly moved to the side... but you couldn't really hide the blood from where Groling shot them.
"Take a look at this." Groling pointed.
And I turned to see the bridge he was talking about. Damn, it was a freaking bottleneck. But it did lead right up to the large fence doors of the second site of the facility. If you could make it across there... well... it would be a whole lot better than standing on the bridge. Hm... kinda reminded me of a highway because of the light poles that lined the sides of the bridge.
I easily expressed my feelings on the whole bridge idea. But a quick call to Sonja confirmed it was the only way across to the second site. Well whoop de do... Cyanide kind of had a point when she was saying that Black Hole doesn't have to do much to set traps.
"What do you think?" Groling asked. "Me and Andy can cover you until you're in the clear."
"You should try and locate some sort of copter or plane we could use to escape when you make it across. Once you find it, we'll come after you." Andy added. "Like you said, there's too many of us here already."
Well, that's a plan. No sense in three guys trying to act stealthy when it only takes one to find something. From the satellite images, this part of the island didn't look very big. I'm going to assume it wouldn't be hard to find a copter or two and direct Andy and Groling to it. I really had to get them out of here before they got shot.
"Uh sure... Maybe I'll even fly it over here if I can deal with Hawke's fighter."
"Humph. You still on that kick? I'm telling you. You ain't gonna do a thing. Just complete whatever objective you're supposed to do so your guys can evac you."
I wasn't going to give up my plan on sabotaging Hawke's fighter and Groling wasn't going to give up on telling me it wasn't worth it. We could have gone on forever about that idea, but as long as I was going over alone, I figured I could see what I was dealing with and then decide what to do. When I think about it, unless I'm in my unit, I get kinda nervous putting my safety in the hands of others.
Maybe it's just my idea of Andy covering me is that gets to me.
Oh well, if he was paying any attention at all to Grit's lesson on sniping... I should be in good hands. Then there's Groling, which makes me feel a bit better. I was running it all through my head as I got back on the ground floor and went out through a cargo door that was halfway open. There was some trucks and APCs parked in a small area before I reached the bridge, and I took one last look to see Groling and Andy take position before moving on.
Hell... Where'd all this fog come from? We must have been pretty close to the sea or that bridge crossed it to have put the kind of white mist I had to deal with. It took me seconds to begin to worry about Groling and Andy. I knew the deeper I went, the less they could see me. I hoped they wouldn't shoot me by accident... But here goes nothing...
It was quiet on the bridge, with the exception of the howling wind, and I had only the little yellow stripes to guide me. Every couple of paces, I would look over my shoulder to see the train depot slowly disappearing behind me. At least any sort of sharpshooters on the other end would have just as much trouble seeing me as I did them. I must have been halfway when I heard a metallic groan just up ahead.
Oh hell... It sounded like a tank... Oh please, not out here... not on this bridge. Just not now...
But I realized it was heading away from me and I soon began to move faster as if chasing it. I don't know why, but if it was moving away from me... maybe there was a good reason for it. The gates I had seen to the second site was wide open and I took a quick look behind me before entering. I hope whatever had just entered didn't move on four legs and had a cannon able to blow buildings in two...
-To be continued...
--Next Chapter: Closing Time
---------------------------------
The little control room was quiet. Quiet enough for me to hear the alien grunts patrolling up and down the stairs. Then I saw it, up on the largest screen in the room. Diagrams for a Death Ray of some sort. Except it wasn't as huge as Sturm's model, it was way smaller and the dish section seemed to be able to fold up or something.
"Wonderful weapon isn't it?" I heard a voice ask.
I just realized the voice came directly in front of me, and one of the rolling chairs spun around to reveal Hawke, sitting comfortably in it with his legs crossed, and Desert Eagle in his right hand.
"It's the only glimpse of Death Array you'll ever get."
---------------------------------
Author's Note: Yeah, I'm gonna take this time to talk to RustyD about his Thunderbolt guys. I'm really bad about these little messages, so sorry for not getting back to you sooner. Anyway, yeah, I'm planning on using them just incase I cause some confusion with my little e-mails. I've got the chapters all written up, and it's coming pretty soon. So I'm sure if you stick around, you'll see what I've done with them. Hope you like it, it's coming up soon.
--Death Array
---Chapter 9: Orange Station
I was angry at the little sucker. I had always heard stuff about Andy and his seemingly off and on below average intelligence... And I believed it too, after seeing him run off like he was invincible or something. But he did get us away from all those Neosuit soldiers. Maybe he knew what he was doing, maybe he didn't, but I was just too frustrated to sort it all out.
"Geez..." I sighed. "You know what? Just sit down, and shut up. I gotta tell Sami we barely saved your ass."
Andy shook his head like he didn't know what he did wrong and turned toward Groling to talk to someone else. I turned toward the moving rock on one of the walls of the shaft and radioed Sami.
"This is Wolf. We just rescued Andy."
"That's great news! Where are you now? We're about to send the mini-sub back to the docks."
"That might be a problem ma'am. You see... Andy put us on some lift and I don't know where we're going."
"This is a cargo elevator!" Andy explained. "It takes us all the way to the bottom of the cliff to the train depot."
"Train depot?" I wondered aloud.
"Yes." Sonja cut in. "It's a classified area that Black Hole had been using to develop some kind of war train. Orange Star decided to take it over and continue the work. Only COs and key personnel were notified about it's existence."
"Sonja!" Sami exclaimed frustrated. "Can't you stay out of other people's business just once?"
She sighed and paused as if trying to calm herself down.
"Yes yes... it's a top secret location." She admitted after a time. "Nell made it clear to me that you wouldn't be notified unless it was critical to mission success... I'm sorry for keeping you in the dark about it."
"Oh yeah? What else is top secret in this place?"
I don't know why, but at that point, I was kind of pissed off. They send me out here to save Andy and Jess and don't properly inform me about the all the bases locations. How am I supposed to locate a Death Ray weapon when I don't even know about all the places to hide it. I figured they thought I would find it on my own or work my way around it. I sure as hell didn't know about that cargo elevator.
"There is a second site to the installation Wolf." Sonja began. "Past the train depot is another large part of the island. It's where Lash has her laboratory and where Hawke is orchestrating this whole ordeal."
"Well, it's nice to know now." I groaned. "And another matter is getting Andy off this rock. There's no way I'm about ready to drag around two people on this mission. There's too many of us here as it is."
Sami and Sonja eventually coughed up the fact that on the second part of the island was a small runway. Where they launched their jet to blow up Eagle's rescue team. Truthfully, I had totally forgotten about Hawke's fighter jet and where they would stash it. If it was a harrier, they could have put it on the helipad or something. But it was just a straight up fighter they had hotwired once they had taken control of the installation.
Why was this all important? Well, cause there was copters and other planes Andy could use to escape the base. Good enough for me. All I knew is that I had no intention of dragging around Orange Star's youngest Commanding Officer when I don't even know if he's taking the situation seriously. We barely made it out of that mess hall as it is.
"So, Wolf," Groling began. "What's going on with your superior?"
At that point, I had just finished the call.
"We're changing the evacuation strategy to the air option. Andy, you're gonna get off the island via copter. There's a cruiser that you can land it once you get it up in the air."
"Whoa whoa." Groling exclaimed. "Not so fast man. Are you forgetting about Hawke's fighter? The moment Andy gets a foot off the ground, the radar will pick him up, and he'll be sitting on the bottom of the ocean for sure."
"We could sabotage it." I stated confidently.
Groling simply scoffed at that idea and rolled his eyes.
"If you find it that is. Hawke knows that's the only fighter he's got. He's probably got more security on it than what they had on Andy."
"Damn." I exclaimed. "I suppose you want me to shoot the fighter down once it's in the air? Maybe I'll just whip up some stinger missiles and pop him as he takes off."
"What's wrong with you man?" Groling asked suddenly.
I had just realized it when I was making my sarcastic comment about the stringer missiles. What was wrong with me? I was bickering with my ally on a critical mission in the middle of a battlefield. I liked Groling too. I turned away, totally confused by my recent behavior. My mind was searching for answers... so I could find the reason and snuff it out before it kicked in when he would need me the most.
It couldn't have been Lash's treatment kicking back... could it?
I'd be stupid to try and think it wasn't possible. But too many abnormal actions had been happening lately when I felt like I was on the wrong side, working with the wrong people, and taking orders from the wrong COs.
"Groling... if I... keep this up. You'll shoot me won't you?" I asked him after a time.
"Phhh. Shoot you? I'll blast you." He grinned, making a joke.
The problem was, I was being dead serious. I had a horrible feeling like I was going to lose it at any moment. The cargo elevator soon stopped and I suddenly felt better, giving a weak smile and turning toward our only route. It was some kind of tunnel... reminded me of those tunnels that would cut through mountains. And I could feel the cold air rushing toward us. We walked down it for awhile until seeing a light in the distance.
We soon stepped out of the tunnel, and I could immediately see a pair of train tracks going off in both directions to the left and right of me. Groling and Andy went a bit further than I did and actually stepped onto one of the tracks as if to tell my eyes that I was seeing right. Man, why the hell did Black Hole build a train station on an island anyway? There was no bridge connecting to their old Macro territory or Orange Star.
Funny thing was, there actually was a train on one of the tracks. It was pretty long, about twenty cars or so and reminded me of the train Lash used to move her stuff between the battlegrounds of Orange Star and Blue Moon. My attention soon timed out on the train as something slammed into my leg and I remember grimacing in pain while looking down to see something had hit me... Dammit to hell! Snipers!
"Groling! Andy! Run for it!" I remember crying out while falling to the ground.
I desperately began to roll as bullets fell all around me. Plink, plop, plink, bing, zing. All memorable sound effects as I kicked up snow all around me in my roll. I remember, Andy and Groling seemed to get away just fine... then the snipers were just after me then. I guess I earned it since I was the one doing so much damage around the place. I soon found myself running out of room and got behind a rock.
Damn, the way they were firing, they could have just shot the rock to pieces. It wasn't the work of professionals. I knew somehow. It was the firing of someone who was really emotional. It was almost automatic fire, I swear they were just shooting to ease some devil they had cooped up inside their body, as if it made them feel better to keep me under constant fire.
I carefully curled up to see how my leg was doing. Luckily, the suit was more than enough to keep it from shattering my bones and simply just wounded it. A little first aid and I would be fine. But I didn't have any sniper rifle, and I don't think anything I had was going to be of use. After a time, they stopped shooting at me, and I figured they were reloading.
I took a second, at the most, to look up over the rock and see where they could have been nesting. The train was too far away to provide any cover, and I'm sure if I ran for it, they'd pick me off before I'd be able to hide behind it. There was some sort of control tower on the train station, but none of the windows were open, so they couldn't be hiding there.
Damn, I couldn't see them, but they had definitely taken up position somewhere on the train station. Something I did notice was that Groling and Andy had seemingly disappeared... At least they got away. If these guys were real snipers, they would have taken everyone down or made some bait to draw me out. But now they had nothing, and they were just shooting for the sake of shooting.
It was then I realized that I hadn't heard them shooting at me for awhile. I couldn't help myself, and I peeked over the rock to take another look. To try and find them so I could return some sort of fire, however ineffective it might be. But there wasn't any more shooting, it seemed the snipers had moved on or something. Maybe they were waiting for me to get out into the open... Then there was a call.
"Hey, Wolf. You alright? How's your leg?"
"What? Groling? Where are you?"
"Take a peek... just below the control tower."
I did, and I could see him standing on the roof waving a sniper rifle in the air. I just kind of waved back wearily just wondering how the hell he got up there so fast.
"What's going on? Did you take care of the snipers?"
"Yeah, you're covered. The thing was, they were the Blue Moon guys. They were talking to themselves as they pounded your position with gunfire. They were awful hell bent on taking you out for taking down Winchester."
Well... that would explain some things. They were just pissed cause I axed their boss. Guess Adder wasn't the only one around here who took a liking to the little green haired psycho. I thought about it for awhile, and then tried my leg. Seemed good enough, all they really did was nick me, I originally though they had hit me pretty good. But I guess all that emotion made their aim haphazard.
"Don't worry Wolf, Andy's up here too. We're gonna cover you. You see, there's a nasty looking bridge going over a river to the other site of the base. You have to see this for yourself."
"Andy? Work a sniper rifle? Is that even possible?"
"Hey! Cut it out already!" I heard him demand.
Oops... I forgot Groling was using a standard radio and not a high tech earpiece like I was. Andy heard me perfectly.
"Just because I'm young doesn't mean you have to treat me like a child. I went through all the basic training... and the drills... and everything! Besides! Grit showed me some techniques on sniping one day during the second Black Hole War. So cut me some slack!"
"Heh... He's got you there Wolf." Groling muttered.
Well... since he was my superior... I guess that was a prompt chewing out. Groling couldn't help but laugh and tell me that I deserved it. I guess all that paranoid thinking about turning to the other side was just me being a flat out jerk to Andy. Before I ended the call, Groling told me about some access stairs inside the building. Now that I wasn't being shot at, I could see a pair of tracks making their way in-between two of the cars.
The depot pretty much blocked any attempt to go around, I guess it was made that way to add length to the station platform, which I soon climbed up onto when I finished squeezing through a pair of train cars. Man... it was abandoned... But then again, why would you guard a station that probably leads nowhere anyway? We were on an island in the middle of nowhere...
Inside was even emptier. All I could tell you that was worthwhile was the stacks of ammo crates, as if they were gonna load the train and move it out somewhere... Heh, probably ten feet to another area. I suppose it was smart on the account you wouldn't except a train depot on an island like this... but it was also kinda stupid cause you weren't gonna move it out anywhere.
I moved up some stairs to the roof where Groling and Andy were waiting, handling their new sniper rifles. The bodies of the two guys who were shooting at me were neatly moved to the side... but you couldn't really hide the blood from where Groling shot them.
"Take a look at this." Groling pointed.
And I turned to see the bridge he was talking about. Damn, it was a freaking bottleneck. But it did lead right up to the large fence doors of the second site of the facility. If you could make it across there... well... it would be a whole lot better than standing on the bridge. Hm... kinda reminded me of a highway because of the light poles that lined the sides of the bridge.
I easily expressed my feelings on the whole bridge idea. But a quick call to Sonja confirmed it was the only way across to the second site. Well whoop de do... Cyanide kind of had a point when she was saying that Black Hole doesn't have to do much to set traps.
"What do you think?" Groling asked. "Me and Andy can cover you until you're in the clear."
"You should try and locate some sort of copter or plane we could use to escape when you make it across. Once you find it, we'll come after you." Andy added. "Like you said, there's too many of us here already."
Well, that's a plan. No sense in three guys trying to act stealthy when it only takes one to find something. From the satellite images, this part of the island didn't look very big. I'm going to assume it wouldn't be hard to find a copter or two and direct Andy and Groling to it. I really had to get them out of here before they got shot.
"Uh sure... Maybe I'll even fly it over here if I can deal with Hawke's fighter."
"Humph. You still on that kick? I'm telling you. You ain't gonna do a thing. Just complete whatever objective you're supposed to do so your guys can evac you."
I wasn't going to give up my plan on sabotaging Hawke's fighter and Groling wasn't going to give up on telling me it wasn't worth it. We could have gone on forever about that idea, but as long as I was going over alone, I figured I could see what I was dealing with and then decide what to do. When I think about it, unless I'm in my unit, I get kinda nervous putting my safety in the hands of others.
Maybe it's just my idea of Andy covering me is that gets to me.
Oh well, if he was paying any attention at all to Grit's lesson on sniping... I should be in good hands. Then there's Groling, which makes me feel a bit better. I was running it all through my head as I got back on the ground floor and went out through a cargo door that was halfway open. There was some trucks and APCs parked in a small area before I reached the bridge, and I took one last look to see Groling and Andy take position before moving on.
Hell... Where'd all this fog come from? We must have been pretty close to the sea or that bridge crossed it to have put the kind of white mist I had to deal with. It took me seconds to begin to worry about Groling and Andy. I knew the deeper I went, the less they could see me. I hoped they wouldn't shoot me by accident... But here goes nothing...
It was quiet on the bridge, with the exception of the howling wind, and I had only the little yellow stripes to guide me. Every couple of paces, I would look over my shoulder to see the train depot slowly disappearing behind me. At least any sort of sharpshooters on the other end would have just as much trouble seeing me as I did them. I must have been halfway when I heard a metallic groan just up ahead.
Oh hell... It sounded like a tank... Oh please, not out here... not on this bridge. Just not now...
But I realized it was heading away from me and I soon began to move faster as if chasing it. I don't know why, but if it was moving away from me... maybe there was a good reason for it. The gates I had seen to the second site was wide open and I took a quick look behind me before entering. I hope whatever had just entered didn't move on four legs and had a cannon able to blow buildings in two...
-To be continued...
--Next Chapter: Closing Time
---------------------------------
The little control room was quiet. Quiet enough for me to hear the alien grunts patrolling up and down the stairs. Then I saw it, up on the largest screen in the room. Diagrams for a Death Ray of some sort. Except it wasn't as huge as Sturm's model, it was way smaller and the dish section seemed to be able to fold up or something.
"Wonderful weapon isn't it?" I heard a voice ask.
I just realized the voice came directly in front of me, and one of the rolling chairs spun around to reveal Hawke, sitting comfortably in it with his legs crossed, and Desert Eagle in his right hand.
"It's the only glimpse of Death Array you'll ever get."
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Author's Note: Yeah, I'm gonna take this time to talk to RustyD about his Thunderbolt guys. I'm really bad about these little messages, so sorry for not getting back to you sooner. Anyway, yeah, I'm planning on using them just incase I cause some confusion with my little e-mails. I've got the chapters all written up, and it's coming pretty soon. So I'm sure if you stick around, you'll see what I've done with them. Hope you like it, it's coming up soon.