Chapter Sixteen- Sanctuary Accepted
Sergeant Charlie Redbone covered his nose as they walked into the church yard, the incessant buzzing of flies filled his ears as he almost threw up at the sight he was seeing.
"Bloody hell! What the fuck happened here?" He asked in disgust as he looked away, the sight in question was obsessively disturbing.
Bodies were littered everywhere . . . not in full but in chunks and pieces, the graves and the grass were stained a crimson red as the mammals stood in front of what looked like a massacre.
"An AC130 is what happened, those bastards didn't even know what was coming" Manson said emotionlessly.
Eventually Charlie looked back at it and gave in, turning to the left and puking on the ground beside him, there were multiple gasps from the teams as he wiped his muzzle "ugh . . . There goes my lunch . . ." He said, coughing and covering his nose.
"Come on, let's move before I throw up too" Nick said walking forward, trying not to step on the flesh and blood as he did.
Though it was Manson who opened the church doors, swinging them open to reveal an absolute mess, turned over tables, bullet hole riddled walls and multiple bodies littering the church floor.
"Where's the basement?" Fangmeyer asked as Charlie looked around "I think it's over there" he said pointing at a staircase going down in another room.
. . .
As the four teams of mammals rushed down the stairs and into the basement, Officer Richard Mchorn looked at a single chair in the middle of the room with a pool of dried blood beneath it.
"Mike . . . This is where they held him" he said walking over to the wooden chair "yeah but he's alright now, he said there was something in the walls" Grizzoli said standing in front of a wall.
Mchorn joined him and began knocking on the wall, listening for a hollow spot in the wall, but all of it sounded solid.
"Nothin' here" he said stepping back and looking at the SWAT and SAS teams as they rummaged through the basement.
"Over here . . . It's hollow" Price said as Mchorn sped over and knocked on the wall, despite what the grizzly said, to him it sounded solid "doesn't sound like it" Mchorn said, expressing this as Delgato walked up behind him.
"Only one way to find out, do what you do best Richard" Mchorn grinned as he stepped back "sure" he said before running at the wall headfirst and watching it burst open with numerous sounds of creaking and crumbling.
As he stood up and dusted himself off, Mchorn watched the SWAT and SAS teams walk into a large room.
He saw Price walk forward "holy shit . . ." Fangmeyer muttered in awe as Mchorn got to his feet and looked at what the wolf was questioning.
In front of them laid crates upon crates of ammunition of many different calibers of bullets, and racks upon racks of weapons alike, assault rifles, light machine guns and submachine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles, pistols and even more.
The armory in front of them was far more fitting for a military base than a secret cache in a church basement.
"Kinda puts our armory to shame, doesn't it?" Delgato said as the two teams looked at the wide array of military firearms in front of them.
"Yeah . . ." Fangmeyer said, still in shock "it even puts ours a bit to shame, which means Rouen's got way more guns than we ever thought" Diego said with audible worry.
"These look like they're military issue too, stolen I'd Imagine" Price said as he examined an ak-47 "don't doubt that, it's one of the things Rouen specializes in" Redbone added.
"Why wouldn't they use all of this though? Like Price said . . . These look like military issue" Ivory said, the elephant with a machine gun in his massive hands.
"Well we should count ourselves lucky then, I bet there's something in these though" Fangmeyer said as Mchorn watched him try and move a large ammunition crate from a shelf and across the floor.
Price moved to help the wolf move it, revealing another crate behind that one, then moving the new crate to the center of the room. He watched the wolf open the crate and almost immediately whistle "hey Rick . . ." Fangmeyer called to him with an audible chuckle, "got a present for you here!" The Rhino responded and walked over.
As he came to investigate, he smiled almost maliciously as he saw the contents, it made smashing through the wall entirely worth it.
Inside the crate . . . was an M240 Mini gun, in almost pristine condition and with what he reckoned to be loads of ammunition beside it.
He picked up the death machine with a wide grin "shit . . . it must be Christmas . . . I should buy lottery tickets" he said as he held the huge gun that still somehow looked undersized to him.
. . .
"Damn right it's Christmas" Catherine Frost said behind them as she inspected her new sniper rifle: an L115A3 AWM, she laughed before hearing a whistle in front of her. She looked up to see Charlie Redbone also inspecting the rifle "Arctic Warfare . . . Lucky gal . . ." The wolf chuckled as she nodded.
"I'm assuming you've used one of these?" She asked, holding it in front of him "quite a bit . . . You know how to use them?" The wolf responded before Catherine nodded "I know enough" she said with a smile.
"Bloody hell Mchorn, use that thing wisely" Catherine heard Price speak as the two turned to the grizzly, Charlie spoke beside her "what do you think they had planned with all this, Cap . . . John?" He seemed to stutter for a second as he asked the question.
"I can't even begin to imagine . . . There's enough weapons in here to start a damn war" Diego said, stepping forward "and that's why we've gotta stop this psycho . . ." Nick spoke sternly from behind one of the ammo crates, where nobody could see him. He was still holding his Mp5 and M4A1.
"Wilde's right . . . Central command says that there's another armory like this that's even bigger at a construction site a few miles inward from here, by Wolford's word" Price said, in a very authoritative tone "are you saying we should continue to that then?" Grizzoli asked them both "all of this is more than enough . . ."
Nick unveiled himself now, moving to the side of the shelf and hanging from it, dropping down three feet and landing next to the SAS team.
"I just thought . . ." Nick spoke but was interrupted "with all of this now, I mean how could we not?" Mchorn said, still gripping his minigun "plus, the less guns Rouen has the better" Price added.
"Exactly, getting this bastard is our mission . . . That's what we came here to do" Delgato explained "the only things stopping us were the lack of guns and ammo, both of which we now have . . ."
"We've come this far . . ." Fang agreed "We've gotta finish what we started . . ."
There was no response from the two teams, and everybody watched as Officer Price went to unclip his radio from his gear again, speaking loudly.
"Bravo Six to Checkpoint Alpha, how copy?"
"Copy." Chief Bogo's voice came instantly from the other end "what's the score Price?"
The bear scoffed "in short . . . We should buy lottery tickets . . . We've just hit the jackpot" the bear began to pace back and forth as he explained.
"There's enough ammo to fuel a small army . . . Plenty for us to restock-"
"Alright" Bogo interjected "if it's that bad then I'll see what I can do from here"
"And what do you reckon you can do, Adrian?" The grizzly asked, still pacing back and forth, though the mention of Bogo's first name caught everyone in the room's attention.
"Not much, that's for damn sure . . . I can get other parties involved if you need it" Bogo's voice came through.
"We don't need that yet Bogo, Team 1 and the SAS are still fully combat effective" Price said looking at everyone and quietly chuckled "if not more than we were before . . ."
"Alright" Bogo said as there was a momentary silence "continue on and complete the mission then, don't be a stranger Price . . ."
The bear chuckled a bit louder "10-4, Team 1 will notify Checkpoint of contact" he said putting the radio away.
. . .
Nicholas Wilde stepped forward from the group as Officer Price put the radio away "so what now?" He asked as the bear turned to them.
"Everyone check your gear, we're leaving in ten" the grizzly said, beginning to walk away.
"Where the hell are you going?" Fangmeyer asked, he turned around in response to this "I need a minute, we're leaving as soon as I'm done . . . Everyone make sure you have what you want, cause we're not coming back here" the officer said walking upstairs.
He made a gesture with his hand as he did, and Nick watched Redbone abruptly begin to follow Price out.
After that, Diego turned to the team "well, you heard the old man, everybody got what they want?" "More like what we need" Mchorn said, hefting up the minigun with a malicious smile.
"I . . . Haven't picked any prizes yet" Nick said, then turning to the armory.
In front of him lie the same sight from before, although with a minute lack of weapons. Nick pondered to himself as he looked at all the options.
His attention was first shifted to a P90 submachine gun on the wall, it had a holographic sight and a padded stock, for a moment he considered picking it out but dropped the idea.
His attention was then shifted to an AK-74U on the wall next to the P90, it piqued the fox's interest as he grabbed the submachine gun and looked at it.
This gun was also custom, but not in the way he expected, it had a custom wooden finish with its grip and stock perfectly smooth. Other than that, the 74U was practically plain, there was no sight, no custom stock or grip, no customizations, and surprisingly to him, he was satisfied with that.
He grabbed the many magazines next to the weapon and turned to the SWAT and SAS teams "I'll commandeer this baby" he said maliciously as he cocked the gun after loading it.
"A 74U? Isn't that a little outdated?" Fang asked confusedly "not as much as you'd think mate, lots'a mammals still use it" Manchez said in response, the jaguar looking at the firearm as he explained.
"Well . . . If everybody's ready, then we're just waiting on Price" Grizzoli said, almost taking command of the situation.
"What is he doing upstairs though?" Delgato asked, looking at the stairs.
. . .
Frederick Manson stood inside the tower of the large church, with a cigar lit in his mouth, as he looked up at the stairs above him.
Though he wasn't just wasting his time, he took his radio out and flipped through the channels for a minute or two, until he found the right frequency and held the device up to his mouth.
"Laswell . . . ?" He spoke with an amount of confidence and skepticism.
"Frederick . . ." The voice of Lindsay Laswell responded, her voice sounded urgent and almost demanding "give me a sitrep . . ."
"PID on the armory at the cathedral, Micheal Wolford was right" Manson said leaning against the wall.
"How bad is it?" Laswell asked with more urgency.
"A lot larger than we thought . . ." Manson paused to smoke his cigar "Rouen has enough to fuel a small army, and I'm betting good money that's exactly what he's going to do" there was a frustrated sigh from the other end.
"Damn it . . . Give me some specifics" Laswell pressed.
Manson cleared his throat "in short . . ." He coughed again.
"There's about a few hundred gun racks in the room, ammunition and weapons crates with everything from military issue sniper and assault rifles to LMG's . . . They even had a damn minigun in one of the larger crates with thousands of rounds beside it" Manson explained.
There was a momentary silence from Laswell as he finished "alright . . . What's your status then?"
"SAS and SWAT are still fully combat effective, so far we've had no contact, not even with Raptor One . . ."
"Good, continue further into Happytown then" Laswell tried to conclude, but she was stopped.
"Wait a minute . . ." Manson said before the gazelle on the other end could finish the conversation.
"Rouen has enough guns to fuel an army in this armory alone, Wolford and the CIA say that the one at the construction site is a lot bigger" he said sternly.
"I want the Marines to get involved . . ."
Manson heard a short sigh from the radio "that's unadvisable Frederick, the Marines aren't S.A.D, the CIA doesn't have the authority to drag them in yet" Laswell explained, much to Manson's confusion.
Eventually and fairly quickly though, that confusion subsided and Manson responded "Rouen has more than a thousand men and more guns than we ever thought, what makes you think 50 SAS soldiers will be enough to complete this operation?" He asked angrily now.
"I'm sorry but that's not your call, if the Marines get involved it'll be considered as a military action, then everybody will have questions" Laswell said sticking to her answer.
He was silent for a minute as he thought that over "I thought it already was a military operation, but fine . . . I'll notify you if anything happens" he said stubbornly.
"Wait a minute Frederick, you have assets . . . You're free to use them at ANY time, I can get you a lot of things but the Marines would be too risky, at least right now" Laswell said, now also showing some aggression in her voice.
Manson nodded "I already know that, we're moving in a few minutes, we'll keep in touch" he said, changing the frequency and turning off the radio.
But Manson wasn't done yet, Laswell brought up a good point, he did have many assets . . . And he didn't have to think much of which one to call in.
He took out his flip phone and dialed a number as he smoked his cigar that was just about to run out, with the cylinder being much shorter than it was when he was downstairs.
This wasn't what he'd call 'an asset' though, they were more like an old comrade and a current one whenever the time came, somebody he knew he could trust. Ivan Belikov . . .