CNRD facility codenamed: RAINDROP
Sierno, Providence
November 29, 2557
Sierno's city hall looked just like all other governmental buildings with an older column Georgian architecture that was prominent in the southern United States during the 1800s.
With an entire war being fought around the area, the building had taken the brunt of terrifying banshee airstrikes. The roof had been caved in and the spire at the top was lying on its side, looking as if a slight movement could bring it crashing down at any moment. Blackened ashes were on the side of every building, suggesting that fires had raged out of control. The rain had come along to put the blazes out, but the damage to all the structures it hit was irreplaceable. Expensive architecture costing nearly a billion was ruined forever.
Eon saw no hostiles in the entire area, save for their objective marker in the city hall.
"My HUD's getting worse." Austal whispered.
Pine put his left hand up to the visor of his Deadeye helmet "Mine too."
"Eyes up gentlemen." Bowman straightened, "We need to focus on rescuing Adrian."
Eon had moved inside a hotel to get a good visual on their approach of the city hall. They knew that every second wasted at details like their planned approach could mean that Adrian would have to suffer from her captors, but the survey had been done in ten seconds, with a plan to get inside formed in half that time.
On the way down, Austal took a look at his motion tracker noticing two sudden blips in his corner. The signature they gave off was about his size…humans.
"I got contacts."
He stacked up at the edge, careful not to present himself and quickly rounded the corner, leaning out from the wall to minimize his exposure to close range gunfire. If they had a shotgun, his day was over.
Nothing. The hallway was empty.
"The hell?" His motion tracker indicated that he had two contacts literally five feet in front of him.
"Austal, what's going on?" Pine asked.
"There's two contacts right in front of me, but the hallway's empty."
"You're sure?"
"I'm looking there right now dumbass. Regardless," He leaned back and looked over his shoulder, "Hallway's clear. Bowman, we got our approach planned?"
"Affirmative. Straight up the center."
They slowly began to egress through the courtyard to the entrance of the city hall. The coldness began to be felt in their bodies. It was all the horrible stories of death and fighting that occurred there rather than the weather that made the four shiver.
The HUD scrambled again.
"SON OF A BITCH!" Fowler made a growl of pain and kneeled over, "This shit is getting on my last nerve!"
"Tyrant, mission is in danger of being compromised!" Bowman snapped as Pine and Austal helped Fowler up. "We need our VISR hardwiring to be functioning properly or we may not be able to continue on mission."
"Eon, we're going to bring down the system until we can get it fixed or operating smooth. I have no timetable when we'll be able to bring it back online. Tyrant out."
Bowman let out a groan of frustration. Without the HUD, they would have to rely more on one another for support. No longer would they have motion trackers, shield and ammo indicators and identifiers on who was friend and foe. Now they had to simply trust one another and their own ability to make it out alive. This was now on his top ten list of most challenging ops ever done.
A second later, the entire digital displays winked out. It was like being hit by an EMP grenade.
A sharp cry of pain interrupted their wordless griping, coming straight from their left. There were a flurry of other voices too but the female voice was unmistakable.
Adrian.
The entire left wing of the city hall looked as if a tornado had ripped straight through. Papers were covering the floor with desks, paintings, chairs and other décor items knocked askew. What struck Bowman as odd was that no guards were posted outside and if his HUD was being screwed with, there was no way electronics could be used with such frequent shit happening to be reliable enough. Something didn't quite add up.
"What the hell do you think you're going to get if I keep suffering like this?" Adrian angrily stated in between her heavy breathing. "I've already told you for the sixth time that I am not giving up its location!"
"Listen love," A male voice calmly said, "It's nothing personal. Just what my boss wants."
"Even if I told you the location, there's no way you'll get it. The Brutes won't hesitate to chop you down at the slightest opportunity."
Another voice laughed, "Those dimwitted furballs are the least of our worries. There are far more dangerous people out there."
"We certainly can test that." A third male voice said.
The Spartans had triangulated her location in an office just by the atrium. All the windows had thick tape over them, blocking a good visual on the other end so the Spartans instead relied on their hearing to estimate their enemies' location. The area had two doors that were along the farther edges of the room.
The conversation had carried on for a couple of minutes and by that time; Bowman had deduced that there had to be six hostiles inside. They had to act fast especially when they heard the sound of a lighter being lit and something catching aflame.
"What happens when we put fire with a pretty little face like yours? Still don't want to give up its location?"
"We'll go through both doors." Bowman gave the signal before taking off with Austal.
In less than five seconds, the Spartans had gotten into position and they all flashed green lights to show they were prepped. Weapons were ready and despite their HUD being down, all of them knew what they were up against.
At the same time, Bowman and Pine kicked down the doors with a thunderous crash. In a split second, all four Spartans surveyed the room and already identified five hostiles.
Two of them had their pistols halfway out of their holsters when Austal and Fowler drilled them with a stream of automatic fire. Pine had drawn his own pistol and put a bullet through a third. All three collapsed in a heartbeat.
Bowman snapped a three round burst into another before swinging to his left, rifle stock outstretched. The fifth hostile flew back as the weapon collided with his face and he crashed into the corner unmoving.
Austal had already secured Adrian and shoved her inside the chair to the floor. His pistol was aimed squarely at the desk.
The sixth and final hostile rose up, an M90 shotgun in hand. Once he did, he went straight into the iron sights of the young Spartan's pistol. It coughed once and he toppled over with a neat bloody hole in his upper chest, dropping the shotgun.
"Agent Adrian." Bowman leaned down with his knife and he sliced through the tough ropes binding her to the chair. By one of the human interrogators, there was a long torture stick that had an orange glowing ember at its end.
"My Spartan friends." She gave a cute smile, "You came just in time."
The lead of Eon judged her to be in her mid-thirties, perhaps just about his age too. She was roughly six feet with light brown hair that ran just beneath her shoulders. She stared back at the Spartans with equal intensity from a pair of sapphire eyes. Her figure was slim and curvy. The men there had guessed that she could've been featured on the cover of a model sports magazine when she was a decade younger. Still, her frame had changed little since.
"Tyrant, this is Eon Lead." Bowman had no idea if the comms would still be offline, "VIP has been located and secure. Moving to designated extrac point."
Adrian snagged one of the assault rifles and picked through the nearby corpse for a few magazines of ammo.
They moved out, Bowman and Fowler on point with Austal and Adrian bringing up the rear.
"We can't leave." Adrian breathed. "Not yet at least."
"Agent Adrian, I know you're tired." Bowman said, "However, we're here to get you out. Whatever fighting is needed, me and my team will take care of."
"You don't understand do you?"
The last thing Bowman needed as a protesting VIP. He held a particular hatred for VIP escorts because they just wouldn't comply with his orders. He specified ones that protested more than an ardent follower of the Hollow Societea could make his job a hell of a lot harder that what it needed to be. When it came to it, the team wasn't just responsible for their VIP's safety, but also their comfort and well-being.
Adrian didn't look like she was one to be intimidated by a Spartan. A matter of fact, she held a deep respect for them. There was no way he could get her to back down.
"I'm afraid not." Bowman said as they crossed out of the city hall. "You'll have to explain it to me."
"Can we find a better place to do it?" She asked.
"Yeah." He waved over Pine and Fowler, "Clear that shop over there." He pointed to a small convenience store across the street, "Agent Adrian has to explain something to me."
After a few minutes, Fowler flashed a green light and they covered Bowman, Adrian and Austal's movement into the shelter. The rain had finally settled to a drizzle, but the city sewer systems had long overflowed, creating miniature rivers and four inch deep puddles everywhere. Walking on the wet surface was a noisy affair.
The Spartans crouched down at the entrance and did a check on their gear. Of course there was nothing that could be done with their HUDs, but their weapons and armor conditioning were in solid shape.
"Something tells me that there is more to this rescue then what meets the eye." Jacob began, "Now that my team is here, you're free to explain."
Adrian took a deep breath and shared a gaze with each Spartan, "Okay, Diamond and I were dispatched to the facility RAINDROP under orders from the Department's vice director board to retrieve a priority one package. Upon our approach we encountered the brutes and were subsequently separated. My team held them off temporarily while we made it inside the facility."
"Were those warthogs on the road yours, abandoned after the encounter?" Fowler asked.
"Yes. We proceeded on foot from then into the facility. That's where I lost contact with my team."
"We encountered multiple casualties inside the facility close to your location." Bowman bowed his head, "Their identification matches CNRD personnel and they might be Diamond."
Adrian looked outside, "Listen Captain. I appreciate the timely rescue, but I have my mission. I have to go back there to retrieve project Gaia otherwise it could be disastrous if the brutes get their hands on it first."
"What the hell is project Gaia?"
"Some very classified information that could seriously halt humanity's rebuilding efforts if it falls into the wrong hands." She paused, "Captain, you want to know why you and every other man and woman has been fighting on Providence for? They're fighting for this."
Austal spoke up, "I say we go with her." When they all turned to him, he elaborated further, "Our mission is to bring her back and going to the facility with all those brutes is complete suicide alone."
"I agree." Pine added.
"Looks like we're three to two." Bowman put his head in a free hand. He needed some sleep.
"Make that four to one."
"Fine."
Eon is going back into enemy territory to retrieve a MacGuffin project that could be why the brutes are attacking in the first place!
Thanks for reading and reviewing. You give my writing purpose.