Fox dashed from one shadow to another. Even with the fake identity Towns had given him he had to be careful. He didn't have authorization to be in this area at this time and if he got caught he would be in a shit load of trouble. He'd reached garage one-seven without incident, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. He took a few moments to pick the lock before entering the garage and locking it behind him. He crept over to one of the LAV's and removed the panel on the vehicle's body. Inside there were wires everywhere with the data module resting in a small black box. Fox removed the first data module and set it on the vehicles hood, then slipped the data module containing the stolen Brotherhood data into the slot. He was about to close the panel again when the lock on the door clicked.
"Oh shit."
Fox grabbed the data module off the hood and looked around quickly for a place to hide. He would never be able to reach the piles of crates and maintenance equipment in time and the LAV sat too low to the ground to crawl under. In desperation he jumped up on top of the vehicle and leapt with all his strength.
A lone guard walked in carrying an assault rifle. Fox hung suspended between two girders hidden in the shadows of the garages rafters in a classic split jump, still if the guard took more than a cursory glance at the ceiling he'd be in a lot of trouble. The guard walked across the garage casually looking around and was about to head to the door again when he noticed the open panel on the LAV. He tensed and looked around; Fox cursed himself for not shutting it. The guard removed a comlink from his pocket; Fox only had one option now. He dropped out of his split jump and slowly lowered himself down with his arms, hitting the floor silently. The guard was raising his comlink to his face and was about to click the talk button, when Fox sank his teeth into his throat and bit down hard. Even if the guard hadn't suddenly become paralyzed from the neck down he wouldn't have had a chance. The guard tried to scream but his throat was pinched shut and the only sound that came from his mouth was a feint gurgle, he tried to breath but he couldn't feel his chest, and in moments his vision faded and blackness took him. Fox stood up and wiped the blood from his face before shutting the panel on the LAV's hood. He removed the comlink from the guards limp hand and pushed a few buttons, if security command tried to raise the guard it would sound like he was simply having comlink trouble. Fox slipped the comlink back into the guards pocket then dragged him over to the maintenance equipment, making sure not to get any blood on the ground, and hid him in an empty storage locker. He walked over to the darkest part of the room and hid among a pile of storage crates to wait for Krystal.
Krystal entered the dimly lit main room of the base's secondary communication center. With most of the comm. traffic being handled by the main communication center or the command center things were always quiet at this center, a perfect place to send a covert transmission, another plus is was only two hundred meters away from garage one-seven. The center's only technician looked up as she entered and for a brief moment his jaw nearly dropped.
"Hello, what's a cute guy like you doing working the night shift?" Krystal said as she sat down next to the technician and, just for a little added effect moved even closer to him.
He had that love struck look in his eyes and Krystal could see a slight bulge in his pants, just below the waistline. She smiled just a little more, hook, line, and sinker.
The technician looked around, if he got caught he would get seventy percent pay decrease but fuck it, here was a very hot chick that unlike any of the other girls he'd met looked like she had the hots for him. He through his arms around her and began to lick her neck. He was about to reach down and run his hand over her large breasts when her knee suddenly slammed into his groin. Krystal jumped back as the technicians released his embrace on her and delivered a kick to his sternum. He staggered out of his chair and began to stumble to his feet when her elbow suddenly locked around his neck and the cold metal of a gun barrel pressed against the side of his head, the last thing he saw was her raise the pistol above his head and bring it down hard.
Krystal stepped over the unconscious body and sat down in the technician's chair. She messed with some of the settings before switching to the Cornerian Intelligence frequency.
"Attention, attention, this is Krystal McCloud to Cornerian Intelligence, authorization Silent Knife, a large attack is imminent, Brotherhood comm. activity near your base is increasing and I'm tracking enough comm. traffic one of the routes to your base to suggest that at least several thousand soldiers are en route, over."
She had to hurry, while nobody knew what she said they would know that a transmission was just sent. It would take them at least ten three minutes to make sure no messages had been sent to this comm. center to tell her to transmit anything and another five minutes to get someone over here to check it out. By then she and Fox would be out of here… if they hurried. She sprinted out of the comm. center and fighting the urge just to sprint to the garage, stealthily jogged through the shadows the door was already unlocked and she hurried in. Fox was dragging a pair of unconscious soldier behind a pile of crates, the real pilots for the recon mission.
"How much time do we have?"
"By now I'd say about six and a half minutes." She replied.
"We'd better hurry."
Krystal climbed into her LAV and started the engine, while Fox ran over to the wall and hit a button. As he jogged back to his LAV and climbed in the large door on the south wall of the garage slowly heaved open. The two vulpines stepped on the gas and maneuvered out onto the road and headed for the main gate.
Sergeant Cambridge surveyed the long column of troops from his perch on a tanks turret. As far as the eye could see there were countless tanks, APC's, light vehicles, artillery, and thousands of troops, some on foot some riding on or in the vehicle, all arrayed in squads, platoons, or battalions, ready for war. Trees toppled beneath the mighty tanks, underbrush was crushed by APC's and trampled by infantry, the path behind them was a mess of crushed trees and undergrowth covered with the tracks from wheels and treads alike, and countless boot prints in the mud. Just as this forest was being forced into submission and left in ruins so would the base full of enemies who dared defy the Brotherhood. It was early evening but already dark and getting darker. The sky was full of clouds and had that feeling of imminent thunderstorm. This would be a glorious battle.
Fox gunned his engine after passing through the two security gates, leaving the Brotherhood base far behind him. Krystal's LAV raced alongside his as they sped down the Brotherhood road as if they had the very hounds of hell behind them. Krystal turned off onto a side road that soon devolved into a mere trail, and Fox struggled not to lose sight of her. Underbrush and low hanging branches snapped and shattered as they hit the vehicles canopy as the trail got even thinner. Then the two vehicles suddenly burst through the forests and into a large meadow, taking this opportunity to crack their throttles wide open. The view outside the canopy was nothing but a green blur as the speedometer reached its peek. Krystal ramped off the hill at the end of the meadow and flew clear over a river before crashing down in another meadow, and Fox gunned it to do the same. He hazarded a quick look at the darkening sky. It was a solid sheet of dark gray clouds as far as the eye could see, blacking out the sunset and casting their mighty shadow over the entire area. As Fox flew through a third meadow raindrops began to hit the canopy, a quick look around him confirmed that it had begun to rain lightly. As he approached the edge of the forests again he returned his full attention to driving. At this speed it would take them less then an hour to reach the Cornerian base, but even at this speed, he doubted they would beat the Brotherhood army to the base. He coaxed a little more speed form his LAV while outside it began to rain harder.