Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread.
Vandread: The Unknown Soldier (Revised)
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Endgame, Part One
Location: Secret Weapons Facility Beta
Making their way to the command center far more stealthily than would seem possible for a group of men wearing heavy armor. That just proved how well their training was paying off. That and the fact that so far, security seemed really lax for a place like this. But Lieutenant Garth Kemp knew not to rely on easy circumstances. He'd always been taught to expect the worst, and plan to avoid it, instead of thinking something easy. Still, the personnel at this facility probably believed that an attack on them was next to impossible. What a surprise they were about to receive.
Once his team made into the command center, they proceeded with extreme caution. No sense letting them know they were there before they could carry out their mission, and letting them call for reinforcements. The few personnel that had spotted his team of armored commandos had been quickly and quietly taken care of. They were acting like the team's namesake, moving around, leaving no trace of their movements. They were now just outside the large pair of doors that led to the central control room.
Using a series of hand signals, he moved his team into action. The two point men of the team barged through the door, and before the surprised occupants of the room could act, most of them were gunned down before they could act. The two guards, as well as a number of technicians, were killed in the brief firefight. None of his men were wounded or killed. He walked over to the main terminal, shoving a tech's corpse off of the computer, then started to access the files stored in it.
He brought up the information that was relevant to his mission. It contained a wealth of data on specifications and blueprints of various weapons, and even vehicles, including a prototype Striker design. After copying the information to a disc, he ordered his team to move out. Their primary objective was finished, and now it was time to get out of here. He ordered his team to move out, but before they left, one soldier tossed a couple of incendiary grenades into the room. That would destroy all evidence, as well as anything that could have been of any use.
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"Man, I'm startin' to get a little pissed off here," Hibiki muttered as he dodged even more fire. Vandread Dita took a few glancing hits from various fighter passes, but nothing anywhere near serious. They dished out far more than they received, blasting away yet another fighter that strayed too close to them. The Indomitable loomed before them, but as of yet have not activated that Paksis Nullification Device.
Hibiki and Dita flew their Vandread in to deliver a telling blow to the Indomitable, only to be deterred by an impressive barrage from the Indomitable's guns. They were forced to take evasive measures or be turned into so many atomized particles. Their choice to evade was clear, for neither of them were planning to die any time soon. They had to find a way to destroy this damn ship before it could activate that device.
"You ready?" he asked Dita.
"Yeah!" she replied as they proceeded to attack once more.
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"Admiral! Bulkheads sealed on decks eighteen through twenty!" the damage control officer reported.
Mentally noting the damage the ship, Admiral Graff concentrated primarily on the battle in front of him. As it stands, the Dauntless and the Divine Will were currently in a stalemate, each ship maneuvering to get into a better position while trading hellish fire with one another. Neither ship was able to get the upper hand against the other. He gave yet another order maneuver the ship out of the line of fire, narrowly missing a barrage from the Divine Will.
"Alright, it's time to end this…" he said. "FIRE!"
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Encased in heavy powered armor, Colonel Odom walked with the rest of his men to last known position of the turncoat and his men. What he walked into was the sight of a slaughter. Every one of that turncoat's men lay in some dead heap, taken out by spec-ops troops, he believed. Not one body of the enemy was ever found. He continued to scan over the carnage.
"Colonel! Over here!" one of his men called.
"What is it?" he replied as he walked his heavy armor over there. Once he was there, he saw it for himself.
Lying there in front of him, was the corpse of the turncoat commander himself. It appeared that he'd been killed execution-style, as most of his head was missing. Most likely he'd been shot while he was lying on the ground.
"Poor bastard," he said. Whoever killed him saved me the trouble.
"What now, sir?" the soldier next to him asked.
"We head back to the facility, I believe that's where they headed," he replied. "We'll corner them and wipe them out."
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Dammit, why couldn't I see it coming? Garth Kemp silently cursed himself as struggled to get up, but failing. Pain surged throughout his entire body, due to the fact that his emergency medical pack had been destroyed by that last hit. From what he could tell, as well as feel, he'd been hit at least three times. Where'd those damn powered armor troops come from? That was a futile question now, as they advanced on his position.
His vision started to dim, and he noticed a black silhouette enter his failing vision. He still managed to tell that is was one of his men. "Sir, this is Private Cameron. Are you alright?"
"What does it look like?" he replied sarcastically, then immediately regretting it as it brought another of wave of pain. He took out the data disc, and handed it to Cameron. "Make sure Mercer gets this…"
"But, sir…" Cameron replied.
"I said get going, soldier!" he commanded, coughing up blood a second afterward.
Cameron nodded, gave him a quick salute, then left his field of vision. It wasn't long after that the life finally left his body.
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"You done yet?" Damon heard Deveroux ask Hawkins as he was setting the last of the explosives.
"No," Hawkins replied sternly. "You can't rush this kind of work."
"Cut the chatter," Damon ordered. "Steiner, notice anything?"
"Nothing," came Steiner's reply. "It's quiet…"
"Too quiet," he added. "Hawkins, as soon as you're done, we rendezvous with Mercer."
"Roger," Hawkins replied.
Hawkins was to plant explosives all throughout the facility weapons storage bunker and ammo dump. The reason for this was that it would cause a sympathetic detonation, taking out their stockpiles of weapons and ammo and causing a big enough blast to take this entire facility down.
As soon as Hawkins finished, they left the weapons storage bunker, and proceeded to make their way to the hangar. They were forced to stop when an armored personnel carrier came to a sudden stop about thirty meters in front of them. Acting purely on reflex, Steiner dropped to one knee and unslung the rocket launcher he was carrying. With a quick tap of the firing stud, he launched a single rocket at the APC as the rear ramp started to lower.
As the rear ramp was halfway down, the rocket corkscrewed into the passenger compartment. The end result was the quick deaths of about a dozen infantrymen, as well as the vehicle's driver. The explosion rocked the vehicle onto it's side, then engulfing the rest of it in a fireball. A second later another explosion rocked the ground, throwing Damon off his feet and roughly onto his right side. He could hear the sound of his armor scraping against the tarmac as he skidded at least a few meters.
It took him a few seconds to get to his feet, then figure out just what the hell happened. The explosion had come from a different direction than the one from the APC. That meant… He quickly snapped back to full alert and looked over the area. Hawkins was lying prone, Steiner was already on his feet, and there was no sign of Deveroux. He was gone…
Anger started to boil inside him as a pair of heavy, armored figures came into view, one of them mounting the still smoking barrel of a rocket launcher. Grabbing a hold of his gauss rifle, he quickly pumped at least four shots into the one that had fired the rocket that killed Deveroux and possibly Hawkins. The force of their impact knocked the armored soldier back. The next shot took him in the head, shattering his visor, and going through his head. The first of the enemy powered armor fell to the ground. Steiner finished off the other one with a shot to the head as well.
Damon took the time to check on Hawkins, who was still lying face down on the pavement. "Hey, Hawkins, you still alive?"
"Yeah," came the pain-tinged replied. "Damn, I think my med-pack is trashed. The shrapnel tore into my suit. It hurts like hell."
Damon helped Hawkins to his feet, then used himself as a support to help Hawkins move. Steiner took up position behind them, covering them in case anymore enemy soldiers showed up. "Come on, we need to meet up with Mercer, and the rest of the team."
If they're still alive, that is…
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"Dammit!" Aidan cursed as a hail of laser fire seared over his head, forcing him to duck behind cover. This isn't going according to plan. Not at all.
He glanced over to where Ria DeMarco lay, blood pooling underneath her body. She'd fallen whenever a barrage of laser fire came from the half-open hangar doors. She'd been shot at least seven times, most of it catching her in the chest. She was dead before she even hit the ground. She'd been killed by a mere security force, even before any of them realized it. What a damn waste.
"How do you suppose we get in?" Julia asked, her voice managing to carry over the crack of laser fire.
Before he could reply, he saw a three of his team approach their position, ducking under cover to avoid the enemy fire. As they got closer, Aidan noticed that one of his men was injured, using the other for support, and the third one behind them, covering them. Wait a minute, where's the other? There should be a fourth.
"Report," he barked, as the trooper helped the injured one lean against the wall.
"We got hit one our way over here," Damon replied. "Deveroux's dead."
"Well then, what about the explosives?" he asked. "Are they in place?"
"All set to go, boss," the injured Hawkins replied. "Just press the button, and 'boom'."
"Any word from Kemp's team?" he asked, but got no reply. In this stressful situation, he'd dropped the use of their codenames.
He leaned over and returned fire, distracting the enemy by keeping their heads down.
"Aidan!" Meia called. "Over there!"
He turned his head to where she was pointing, and saw a lone soldier in the same type of powered armor he was wearing. That soldier made it up to their position as well.
"Private Cameron, sir," the soldier said.
"Where's Kemp?" Aidan asked.
"He's dead, sir," Cameron replied. "And so is the rest of my team."
"Did you complete your objective?" he asked.
"Yes sir," Cameron replied as he pulled out the disc and handed it to Aidan. "There's also a large group of heavy powered armor, and I believe they are headed here."
"Alright," he said, coming up with a quick plan in his head. "Damon, you take the rest of the team and get the hell out of here. Get to the shuttle, and tell them to lift off in fifteen minutes if I don't return."
"But-" Damon tried to protest.
"I said go!" he commanded. "Meia, you're staying with me."
"Understood," she replied as Damon and the rest of them started to move.
"I'm staying too," Steiner said. "You're going to need some help."
"Aidan, look!" Meia said, gesturing over to her left.
"Oh crap," he said as he saw what she was pointing at. A large group of powered armor troops were heading right for them…
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First part of Endgame finished. Just two more chapters to go. Feedback appreciated.