Mission 2 - Sanctum
"Information tells us this Firebase has some sensitive Cerberus information. We want you to infiltrate, and acquire said information; do not fail this time" the voice on the speaker finished.
"You're sending us into a Cerberus stronghold, expecting us to go in secretly, and hack some information without being seen? Place must be swarming!" Delta complained.
"This ought to be fun," Zeta remarked.
The ship entered the atmosphere, and they were instantly buffeted by roaring winds and the ship rocked heavily.
"Th-this is bumpy!" Eta shouted over the noise.
"It should only be temporary," Kappa replied.
"How are we supposed to get in and out without being seen?" Delta asked.
"Mu has a tactical cloak," Zeta announced.
Mu didn't seem to notice, she continued staring out of the window.
"We create a diversion, and let her get in," he finished.
"No way, it'll be too dangerous for a woman in there alone," Delta said, standing up, "I'll go instead, I can handle things once I get close."
"Difficulty's gone up boy, we're not talking about a squad, we're talking about a whole base full," Kappa argued.
"I can do it!" Delta shouted.
"You couldn't even protect yourself last time, what makes you think you'll be any better this time?" Mu said, speaking for the first time that mission.
"Can't argue with women, Delta," Zeta laughed, feeling a bit annoyed with Mu's negativity.
Delta didn't reply, he just sat back down and started fiddling with his Omni-tool.
Zeta caught Mu looking at him out of the corner of his eye, he turned, but she quickly looked away. He felt a stab of pain, but thought nothing of it.
"Something going on?" Kappa interjected.
"None of your business," Mu replied quietly.
Zeta just shrugged at Kappa.
"If you're going to have little fall outs and arguments, I'm not staying. We're here to get this information, let's keep things professional shall we?" Kappa said, in a more than mocking voice.
Neither of them answered, so Kappa sat back and smiled under his helmet.
"You know, I heard group therapy's supposed to be really good for couples, are you two together?" Delta said loudly.
He instantly found a sword to his throat, with Mu staring him in the eye.
"Shut up," was all she said, and moved away.
"Sorry, I tried to help," Delta replied quietly.
Eta was giggling to herself in the corner, but stopped as they felt the ship start to decelerate.
"We're here," Zeta announced; being closest to the window, he could see a large structure built going into a glacier, it had two platforms, but was soon clouded over by the storm.
"Looks like ASA chose the right day for a sky infiltration," Kappa said.
"I'm taking you to a position further down, they shouldn't see us land there," the pilot said.
They landed on a rocky terrain, and soon found a small pathway, rarely used, leading up to the facility. The stairs were steep, but it didn't take them long to ascend to a point where they could see the entrance.
"Anyone see another way in?" Kappa asked.
"We could try opening that one," Delta said.
"Are you stupid? There'll be all manner of security cameras, guards and traps set on that. They'll see us coming a mile off," Kappa hissed.
"Never done infiltration before have you?" Zeta asked.
Delta shook his head.
"Alpha! Get down!" Delta said.
Alpha had been stood behind them, not bothering to get behind cover. The big man fell like a rock to the ground.
"I could t-tear that thing away w-with biotics?" Eta announced, "Not v-very secretive, b-but they'll hide f-f-from me."
No one answered. Mu suddenly pointed to a small window high up, near the top of the facility.
"Great! I'll go!" Delta said, and started running for more cover.
"No!" Kappa roared, but it was too late. Alarms suddenly sprung out from nowhere, and the base lit up with flashing lights.
The door opened up and Cerberus troops swarmed out, the first cascade of bullets hit the rocks they were crouched behind, and they all ducked.
"You idiot!" Zeta shouted.
Delta had made it to the other rocks, and fell down, "I'm sorry!"
"Sorry is not good enough!" Kappa said.
Suddenly Alpha stood up and took out two typhoons. He opened fire and bullets flashed in every direction as he ran towards the troops.
"Great, an all-out war, just what we need," Zeta remarked.
Mu flashed invisible and ran off to where Delta had headed.
"Kappa, cover my ass," Zeta ordered, he teleported after Alpha and biotic charged straight into the mass of Cerberus troopers.
Kappa watched as Alpha just ran straight to them, taking down as many as possible, and hardly taking a hit. Zeta on the other hand had buried himself within them, causing confusion, and was flashing in and out of existence, taking many down with his sword. What they couldn't see were the two ATLAS machines just coming out of the base. Kappa swore under his breath.
Eta had been throwing biotics at the odd one or two troops, causing them to fly up into the air and melt away; she seemed to disturbingly enjoy it.
Elsewhere, Mu had bypassed the soldiers just in time for her tactical cloak to wear off. She was crouched behind some crates, waiting for it to recharge. In front of her, two Cerberus snipers were trying to pick off Alpha and Zeta. As soon as her cloak recharged, she flashed out of sight and finished them both with her sword. The hardest part was next, getting up to the window.
She looked around for ways up, but there weren't any easily accessible routes. She decided on one up the glacier on her right, it wasn't well covered, but it was more direct, and she could jump straight off onto the ledge.
She heard footsteps behind her, and turned to see Delta.
"What the hell are you doing?" she asked.
"I'm going with you! It's the plan," he replied.
"There's no plan!" she shouted, "You've practically ruined this mission already, don't you think you should be helping them fight off Cerberus?"
A bullet ricocheted off the rail next to them, and they both ducked. Delta looked over and quickly put up his large shield as a rocket exploded into it.
"That was close!" he said, still holding the shield.
"Go back, and lure them away from me!" Mu said, "Eta, get over here, quietly."
"O-on my way," cam the response through the inter-com.
Delta shook his head and lost the shield, sprinting behind cover.
It wasn't long before Eta came, black tendrils of smoke following her. She stunk of burning.
"Do you think you could lift me up to that window?" Mu asked.
Eta looked at it, "Yeah."
"Without killing me?"
"P-probably," was all she said.
Mu sighed, "I'm activating my cloak, don't be too long."
She turned invisible, and Eta grabbed her with biotics, and started lifting her up.
The hold was constricting, but Mu could hold out until her foot reached the ledge, and the cloak wore off yet again. She looked inside the window, and saw no one around, so she got to work opening it.
"Anyone in there?" said a voice directly behind her.
Mu turned quickly and pointed her gun at the speaker, who appeared to be Eta. She had somehow lifted herself up.
"How- Never mind, no, there's not," Mu replied.
Eta laughed and smashed open the window with a biotic blast.
They both slipped inside, "We're in," Mu said.
"Why'd you send Delta back? He's just kneeling with his shield," Zeta complained.
"We're almost through, this Alpha guy's tougher than I thought, one of the ATLAS's have been taken down," Kappa added.
Zeta rounded a corner and saw the final ATLAS preparing to shoot at him. He closed his eyes and hurled himself forward, projected by biotics. He felt the rocket fly straight past him, and he crashed into the large machine. It tried to strike down, but Zeta teleported through it and started shooting at its rear whilst he ran behind more cover.
From afar, Kappa shot at it with his sniper, and Alpha loaded shotgun rounds into its metal structure. Zeta fused biotics into his sword, spun and slashed it away, into the ATLAS, finishing it off.
Once it had exploded, they were free to enter the facility.
"Reckon we can get away with this?" Kappa asked Zeta.
"No idea, but still, it's worth a try," Zeta replied.
They started running through the halls, twisting deeper and deeper into the facility.
More than once, they encountered resistance, including another ALTAS.
Delta fumbled around with his missile launcher whilst the others got to work trying to break its shields. He soon pointed the missile at it and fired. The explosion reverberated through the facility.
"Really? You wasted it on that?" Kappa asked.
"Well, now we can get through faster!" Delta pointed out.
"Next time save it for the way out, there's always heavier resistance," Kappa said.
ASA provided them with one missile and four medi-gel each.
"Where are we heading anyway?" Zeta asked.
"Well, now that the facility knows we're here, we can look everywhere," Kappa replied.
"I said I'm sorry," Delta interjected.
"We may not get paid for this, I hope you know," Kappa said, "Infiltration usually means without detection."
"Why did they send all of us then?" Delta asked.
"ASA are funding this 'team' project, I suggest you stop questioning their methods before they kick you out," Kappa finished.
"Noise, up ahead," Zeta announced.
They slowed to a crouching walk, and waited at the corner for whatever it was passed by.
After a minute, nothing came, and they looked around. It was clear, yet there were no other passages they could have gone into.
"Guard up everyone," Zeta said.
Before they could however, two swords swung into life behind them and struck at Delta and Alpha. The two fell to their knees, and behind them were two Phantoms.
Alpha tried to turn and punch one, but she swung away and turned invisible. The other one tried to finish off Delta, but Zeta teleported behind her and blocked her sword with his own.
Kappa tried to fire with his Vindicator, but Zeta and the Phantom started duelling, whilst the other one hadn't shown up yet.
He felt something strike his shield from behind, and turned to see the Phantom in his face, sword in mid swing.
He instinctively grabbed her hands and tried to kick her stomach, but she just flipped over him, forcing him to the ground. The Phantom was about to stab him, but she took a shell of rounds from the still grounded Alpha and his Piranha.
Kappa noticed her barrier broke, and she started bleeding from the arm. At that, she turned invisible and retreated.
"I've got her!" Delta said and ran after.
Kappa couldn't stop him, he was faster than he appeared to be, and stormed through the tunnel behind her.
Zeta was still duelling, the two locked in a spinning fight. The Phantom turned invisible, but Zeta teleported behind her, knocking the air, or what was her head, with the butt of his sword.
He took a bullet to the arm from her hidden gun, and she flashed back to existence. Zeta barely blocked the sword blow with his weaker arm carrying the sword.
Kappa still couldn't get a good shot to help him, and Alpha tried diving on the Phantom, but she manoeuvred away. It gave Zeta a fighting chance, he biotic charged into her, knocking her back a few steps, teleported behind her, and stabbed her through with his sword.
They stood in the hall, breathing heavily.
"How's your arm?" Kappa asked.
"Shot, buried itself straight in it, but it's nothing serious," Zeta replied.
"Medi-gel up?" Kappa suggested.
Zeta shook his head, "I can still move, I'm saving them. Where's Delta?"
They heard a cry through the intercom, "Guys! I'm down!"
Kappa cursed and started to move down the hall Delta had gone, but Zeta put up his hand.
"I'll go, you two get to Mu and Eta, make sure they complete the hack and get out of here, don't worry about us," Zeta said, and flashed away.
Kappa looked at Alpha and nodded, "Follow me."
"This must be it," Mu said, tapping lightly on a heavy door.
Eta flashed out of existence, and within the minute, the door opened.
"You can teleport too?" Mu asked.
Eta nodded, and the two moved into the room. It was strangely cold, but no windows or ventilation appeared present.
They only needed one to find what they were looking for however, ASA had uploaded files onto their Omni-tools, and Mu set out to work.
"Once the hack starts, they'll know what we're doing, and where we are, get ready to fight," Mu said.
Something clicked on the console, and Mu's Omni-tool flashed, the hack had started.
"Here we go."
Alarms sounded around the tunnels again, and the sound of running feet came from every direction.
Kappa stopped Alpha and the two hid in small gaps within the tunnel walls. A small squad of troops ran past without noticing them.
"I guess we follow them," Kappa said.
They started running, keeping a safe distance. Alpha retrieved his Typhoon from his back, Kappa claimed some grenades, and they soon found where the commotion was centred.
A small room, littered with consoles, housed Mu and Eta as they fought against the oncoming waves of Cerberus troopers.
When Kappa and Alpha took out the ones they were following, they crouched down where Mu and Eta were positioned. Kappa unloaded his supply pylon.
"Why's my Omni-tool flashing?" Kappa asked.
"I set it as an area hack, the more Omni-tools there are, the faster it'll go," Mu replied.
Kappa nodded and started firing the Vindicator at troops who arrived next. They were crouched in a corner; behind them were large planes of glass, showing an almost outside section with numerous large boxes.
"Where's Zeta and Delta?" Mu asked.
"Delta ran off again and got taken down by a Phantom, Zeta's gone to get him," Kappa explained.
"Ooh, sword f-fights! Exciting," Eta remarked, "I'm going to lead them off over there!"
She suddenly got up, threw biotics and ran away.
"No!" Kappa roared, but she had already teleported.
"Every man for himself," Mu said to herself. She fired and killed another trooper.
Two combat engineers entered the rooms and hastily set up turrets behind cover; they couldn't shoot at them. Mu was forced to duck or be riddled with bullets.
"Hack's at 25%," she told them.
Zeta flashed behind another trooper and ran him through with his sword.
He was getting close to Delta now; the soldier was around the next corridor. What worried him was getting back.
He almost laughed when another trooper turned the corner, allowing him to activate a biotic charge and clear the lengthy corridor in a tenth of the time. However, he was met with a sword to the shield, as the Phantom showed herself.
Flying backwards, Zeta crashed into the floor, his shield broken.
The Phantom moved to finish him off, and he barely dodged with his weak arm.
He activated another charge, letting the Phantom fall back, momentarily stunned.
Zeta used this to run around the corner, to find Delta lying of the ground.
"Get up!" he shouted, and helped him get to his feet.
It appeared his leg was broken, or stabbed, he had trouble standing.
The Phantom was already running to them, shooting at them.
Delta operated his shield and fell behind it, absorbing the damage.
Zeta decided he'd better use a Medi-gel, and felt his arm stop bleeding instantly as the bullet fell out and the wound closed. He cracked his knuckles and slashed out his sword.
"Zeta, get behind me, I can protect you!" Delta shouted, though he could barely move.
"I can take her," Zeta said, and charged into the Phantom again.
As she fell back, Zeta teleported away from her counter and gun strike, prepared himself, and charged again, teleported back, waited, charged, teleported, waited, charged, and soon the Phantom was left lifeless on the ground, and Zeta fell to the ground, exhausted.
"We… need to… move," he said.
"Use another Medi-gel," Delta said as he crawled next to him.
"No, no need… Come on!" with a sudden energy burst, Zeta jumped back up, and grabbed Delta.
They started running back down the tunnel, trying to find their way to the others.
Eta warped a Centurion, but it didn't disrupt his shields that much.
She was exposed, with nowhere to hide. The Centurion in front of her kept her distracted, so she didn't notice the combat engineer frantically trying to up a turret behind her.
"This is w-w-why we bring g-guns Eta," she said to herself, her biotic exploits had tired her out, and she was struggling to throw as many.
It didn't stop her trying, she let out an annihilation field that stuck to the Centurion, and started hurtling throws, that shook her to her knees. The Centurion was ripped apart, but Eta didn't have time to laugh, she turned and saw a turret staring her in the face.
"She's down," Kappa said.
Mu swore, and Kappa jumped over the console, throwing grenades at the troopers shooting at him, and went off running for Eta.
Alpha had walked into another room, out of the range of the hack area, which was now at 32%.
Mu surveyed the scene in front of her; troopers were closing in, fast. She couldn't fight them all off by herself.
"Alpha, get back in here," she said, but she didn't know how far he had gone, and how long it would take him to get back.
She shot at one of the troopers, killed him, and crouched back again, her shields almost broken.
"Damn it," she muttered.
She activated the cloak, and ran out unnoticed, looked at how many more incoming troopers there were, and doubled back, running for Kappa; giving up on the hack.
Kappa dived down behind a console when he noticed the turret. Eta lay not too far away forwards, but was out in the open. It would take him too long to redeploy a supply turret, so he exhausted his supply of grenades and threw them all at the turret.
It finally exploded out of life, and he rushed over to Eta.
"Come on Eta, no dying today!" he said.
She struggled, but couldn't carry herself.
He looked and saw the combat engineer still alive, rigging up another turret. Kappa thought it was over at this point, until Mu revealed herself behind the engineer and silenced him with her sword.
"It's over Kappa, we can't survive this," she said, "Cerberus has us surrounded. I say we go out into that area outside and call for evac."
He didn't have time to think, Kappa just picked up Eta over his shoulder and nodded, following her lead.
"Everyone, we're calling for evac, make your way to our beacon," Kappa said to the intercom.
"We'll never make it, can you pick us up?" Zeta replied.
"Get to the entrance, pilot can pick you up from there," Mu replied.
They reached the outside and called for the pilot. Although it wasn't technically outside, it was in a tunnel within the glacier that could easily accommodate a ship. The pilot responded and made his way to evacuate them.
It wasn't long before Alpha came out of a tunnel on the right, splattered with blood, and still shooting behind him.
"Hold the position everyone, he's coming," Kappa said.
Zeta and Delta limped on through the tunnel, eventually finding their way back to where they had originally split up from. The tunnels had been strangely quiet so far.
They also hadn't heard anything from the others since they were told to get to the entrance.
Zeta regularly looked over his shoulder, expecting to see Phantoms following them, but once again, there was nothing. The entrance wasn't too far away, but when they got within sight of it, they discovered why it had been quiet.
There were turrets, troopers, Centurions, Engineers, ATLAS's and a few Phantoms guarding their exit.
Zeta quickly moved back, "Damn, we're not going to get through. My rocket won't take all of them out."
"What do you mean? We can't stay here," Delta replied.
"Why'd you do it Delta? You ran off twice, almost died twice, what are you trying to prove?" Zeta asked.
Delta looked down, "I just want to show you I'm not an idiot. I want to prove myself. You and Alpha took out that entire platoon by yourselves, Kappa seems so cold and strong, I just wanted to show you I'm no push over."
"Fighting's not the way to show us anything Delta. Back there, you could have let the Phantom go, we weren't aiming to kill her, we were aiming to defend ourselves, and that's what fighting's all about," Zeta said, "You'd have proven yourself a worthy ally if you'd stayed and helped us all out. Now, I don't know if we got the information, but we're all split up, and vulnerable," he looked away, "That's what's wrong with this team, no one works together."
"I'll try harder next time," Delta muttered.
"I'd be very impressed if you could figure a way out of this," Zeta added.
Delta nodded and struggled to get himself up.
"I'm a sentinel, I've got a few tricks up my sleeve," he said.
Zeta also stood up, "Can you hear me?"
"Just about," replied the very blurry voice of Kappa.
"We're going to charge for the opening, there's heavy resistance, so we'll need to time it right. We also need a distraction, get them to turn around, and we'll start running," Delta said.
Within a minute, they heard the sounds of fighting; Zeta looked around and nodded to Delta. Most of the force had been turned by the ship, from which Mu, Alpha and Kappa were firing.
"Run," Zeta said.
Together, they limped onwards, breaching the line of Cerberus.
"I'm gone in twenty seconds!" the pilot shouted.
Troopers started turning their fire on Zeta and Delta.
Zeta had no more energy for teleporting, focussing on running only, trying to dodge bullets. His shield was battered, as was Delta's.
"They're not going to make it," Kappa said.
Delta was limping hard, almost being pulled along by Zeta, the two jumped over blasts at their feet, ducked when they heard bullets whiz past their heads, and stormed on.
Two ATLAS's suddenly turned their attention to the fleeing soldiers. They aimed, and fired rockets. Direct hit.
"No!" Mu shouted from where she watched. She quickly turned invisible, jumped out of the ship and started running to where Zeta had landed.
"Damn it, hold the ship pilot!" Kappa shouted, and jumped down after her, Alpha following.
"Ten seconds!" the pilot replied.
Mu reached Zeta, he wasn't dead yet.
"Delta!" she shouted.
Delta was still conscious, he finally got to his feet, and ran over to her.
"Help me!" she cried, and they grabbed the vanguard's arms and dragged him beyond Kappa and Alpha, who were holding the line.
"Hurry!" Kappa shouted.
The ship lowered, and they practically threw Zeta in. But Delta wasn't finished, he saw Kappa and Alpha being overcome, and ran back to where they were. He forced his shield into existence.
"Get behind me!" he ordered.
The two complied, and slowly they started moving back towards the ship.
"Five seconds!" the pilot roared, "I'm going without you!"
Just when they thought they'd never make it, Kappa and Delta felt themselves being picked up, and Alpha threw them into the ship, jumping in after them.
"Go!" Kappa roared from the ground, and the ship, whilst being pelted with bullets and rockets, started turning, and flew away…
What felt like days later, they were back in ASA's protection.
Zeta and Eta had been rushed to the medical clinic, but were expected to recover. Delta had been led away later, and Alpha went with him. It was just Kappa and Mu.
"This is an unfortunate turn of events," said the chief of their operation.
"We failed to complete the hack," Mu added.
The chief looked at them both, "This mission wasn't a failure, it was a disaster. You six are a disgrace, I put hours into researching the 'best of the best' and I get a few renegades who don't know the difference between a quiet investigation and all-out war," he shouted.
Kappa and Mu didn't reply.
"Get out of my sight, your next assignment will be here when your friends recover. We've wasted money forming this project, this is your last chance; we signed you up for three missions. I'd put my money on you lot not having a future after this anyway, dismissed!"