CHAPTER 14
Capture and S.E.R.E. II
1
Cyrus and Trevor waited outside of the building, overlooking the cargo bay entrance. Ryan and the hedgehogs have been inside for almost an hour. They heard gunfire within the complex, worrying the two furries.
"This is taking way too long," Cyrus whispered impatiently.
"Cyrus, quiet," Trevor whispered.
Queen Aleena stayed in the abandoned building. Not only can she see across at the main building, but she had a good birds-eye view of Cyrus and Trevor far down below. Aleena took one last look at the laptops around her to guide Ryan in, but she soon noticed more electricity running through the wires of the complex on the max. The electrical watts running through the place was greater than expected. The only way this could be explained was the security systems are back up and running again. However, this could not be true because Cyrus programmed an override on the systems.
Aleena leaned out the window and caught a shocking sight. From her distance, she could see the laptop that Cyrus connected to the generator was shut off. Quickly, Aleena whipped out her binoculars and stared down at the generator. To her surprise, she noticed the wires have somehow disconnected. Suddenly, she noticed a group of shadow encircling around Cyrus and Trevor. They were SWAT bots! Aleena looked down at the two furries and saw they had no idea they were surrounded.
Aleena dropped her binoculars and rushed for her radio. After fiddling with the radio in her hands, she switched it to Cyrus and Trevor's signals.
"Cyrus, Trevor, multiple hostiles inbound on your position, locations, one, three, five, six, eight, ten, and eleven o'clock," Aleena quickly spoke in the radio in a harsh loud whisper. Unfortunately, their radios were somehow jammed. There was no way Robotnik knew where Aleena was, and Ryan and the hedgehogs were quickly roaming inside of the structure, so he must have jammed Cyrus and Trevor's radios.
All of a sudden, there was gunfire down below, both lasers and bullets. Aleena quickly rushed over to the window and stared down at the furries and SWAT bots through her binoculars.
All Aleena saw was glimpse of laser blasts, but no details. In an instant, a stray laser blast burst right through the wall of the room Aleena was in. The beam went through the wall and up through the floor almost directly under Aleena. Aleena let out a loud shriek as the laser beam hit. Luckily, only her shawl was synched by the blast. However, Aleena turned and noticed her large radio was severely damaged beyond on-site repairs.
Aleena rolled over to a steel plate behind the wall in hopes of deflecting the laser's crossfire. At that far of a distance, with the exception of a direct-hit, the plate was sure to stop nine-millimeter bullets. The hope of the metal plate stopping laser beams was decreased. Sure, the farter a laser beam passes, the colder it gets decreasing its chances of going through metal, but Aleena was still fairly within range of the battle going on below.
Within seconds, the gunfire and laser blasts stopped. Aleena was too afraid to look, but it was as if her body took control of her. She crawled to the window and peeked down. So was too high up to see what was going on below, so she grabbed her binoculars and took a peek.
Aleena saw that Cyrus and Trevor were disarmed, beaten up, and taken prisoner. The positive aspects were that the two were still alive and seemed well enough since they were walking along side the SWAT bots that held them. They at leased had the power to walk on their own.
Quickly, Aleena had to inform Ryan. The bad thing was that the radio was out of order, so the only option left was to go inside and get Ryan, even at the risk of exposing herself to her children. She grabbed the M8 sniper rifle and swung the strap over her shoulder, she then opened a small hidden compartment underneath a floor board with a small hand-held laser gun in her hand, similar to the one Sleet used in the beginning of the episode 'Getting to Know You' when he cornered the hedgehogs. Aleena then turned to one of her laptops and typed in a code in a window program. Immediately, a timer appeared on the laptop monitor counting down to 60 seconds.
Aleena was done for her job. She stood up and ran out of the abandoned room and into a hallway. Directly at the other end of the hallway was a staircase. Aleena ran down with the rifle bobbing back and fourth over her shoulder and the laser gun in both hands. She descended the staircases as quick as she could; jumping off the last few steps. After six flights of stairs, she ran out of the abandoned building with the door completely gone. As soon as she made it outside, the top room where all of Aleena's communications equipment was, exploded in a muffled fireball! Aleena however, seemed to pay no attention to it. She ran to the cargo bay entrance, the same one where Ryan was taken through, where Ryan escaped, where Ryan and the hedgehogs went through, and where Cyrus and Trevor were taken through. Now, Aleena was about to go through it.
Aleena stopped at the side of the large entrance and took a peek in at the corner of the wall. There were too many SWAT bots to take out by herself, but at the same time, it was the only way inside. Aleena thought that she could initiate a firefight and it as a diversion to get through. It was risky but it was the only option. The queen looked around and saw all the cover positions, such as parked hover vehicles, tool sheds, and cache boxes. She checked the path she was going to take and assumed it was the safest. This was risky, but it was the only option left.
Aleena raised her laser gun with both hands and aimed for the SWAT bot furthest to the right after she sliced-the-pie around the corners. It was now or never. Aleena squeezed the trigger and a laser beam burst through the SWAT bot, emitting a loud pulse squeal sound throughout the cargo bay. The SWAT bot dropped and exploded. Immediately, all the other SWAT bots turned in the direction of Aleena and fired their laser blasts.
A large firefight emerged throughout the cargo bay. Aleena stayed in cover as she kept firing laser pulses at the stationary SWAT bots. The purple hedgehog burst off a few sets of pulse blasts every time the SWAT bots slowed down on their firing. She managed to blow up another one, and quickly spun around the corner to get others. The rest ducked under cover as Aleena continuously and violently shot pulse burst after another. Suddenly, her gun clicked.
Aleena grunted and hid behind cover. Quickly, she ejected the empty batteries from the handle and slid another one in. The lasers were firing at an extreme rate toward her. Quickly, Aleena fired more laser beams at the SWAT bots and two others blew up. Aleena got up and ran inside the cargo bay, sticking to the walls. She dove head first behind a tool shed and that was where Aleena saw an advantage. Right next to the SWAT bots was a large gas tank. It was large enough to take out the line of SWAT bots, but she ran the risk of getting herself blown up as well. It was a risk she had to take.
Aleena aimed at the large fuel tank, which looks no different than the ones on Earth. It was a large cylinder with curved edges like a propane tank. Aleena aimed down the rear sight and the front sight of her gun near where the hose connects to the tank. She focused her vision on the front sight as she aimed for her target. Aleena tapped the trigger and a laser pulse blasted the hose. Fire quickly built into the tank and the gasses created a large explosion throughout the cargo bay. All of the SWAT bots inside were blown and scattered to pieces. Aleena ducked behind the tool shed, which shielded her from the blast. The entire cargo bay blew up to a crisp. The explosion nearly shook the place.
2
"Whoa!" Robotnik yelled as he wobbled. The entire place vibrated from the large shockwave of the blast.
3
As Ryan and the hedgehogs ran down the stairs to get to the main computer room, he gripped on the railing as the place vibrated, keeping his balance. Soon, it stopped.
"Whoa, dude, what on Mobius was that?" Manic asked. This was no time for questions. As soon as the heavy vibration stopped, the three hedgehogs and one Green Beret made their way toward the computer room.
4
FOUR YEARS AGO
"There he is! Get him!" one of the Master Sergeant's called out.
The night was getting old and the jungle was getting chilly for Ryan, but his adrenalin was keeping him moving. He ran through the jungle at high speed towing just his BDU's, his shoulder bag, his heavy jacket, and his wool black cap. With each step he took, more cold breath filled the air around his head.
A large group of Sergeants with flashlights were chasing Ryan along with their German Shepherd search dogs. Ryan climbed his way over large ridges and rocks to get across rivers and pathways. However, Ryan has a disadvantage on him. The night was dark and the moon was only a thin fingernail, so Ryan was running nearly blind. He ran into low branches several times, whipping across his face. If only he had a mirror, he would see multiple horizontal scratches across his face, one directly underneath his right eye.
The instructors chasing Ryan were getting closer. They could tell Ryan was exhausted from all the running. The Sergeants, however, had comfortable rides in small Jeep Cherokees throughout the forest, whereas Ryan had to slave away on foot in his Bates boots which were now acting like weights to him. The bag with his gear was also slowing him down. He could have just ditch it, but he would run the risk of it getting found and, most importantly, get himself identified. So, even if Ryan successfully made the futile attempt to escape, his gear could identify him and lead the instructors, posing as his temporary enemy, to track down and find him.
Ryan then hit a wall. The jungle then made a huge steep incline upwards. Ryan quickly grabbed onto anything he could, such as rocks or tree stumps. He was exhausted and cold, which slowed down his climbing. By the time he was several feet above the incline, he heard the instructors and dogs making their climb as well. There was no reason to look behind him; he could hear that the Sergeants had no problem climbing up the incline.
Ryan panted in pure exhaustion, watching his breath in the air. It was dark, cold, and Ryan was wet with his own sweat as he ran, plus he was out of breath. All of a sudden, it all happened very quickly. Ryan felt a large hand grab his shoulder. He could have fought back with his knife, maybe stab it in the man's wrists, but he was told not to on this training exercise. In that case, Ryan swung his arm around, getting the large hand off of him and then he kicked his boot in the darkness several times. The first kick, he nailed one of the dogs hard in the face, causing the dog to let out a painful whimper. Another kick tripped whoever grabbed him off his feet.
Ryan though he was going to escape again, but multiple strong hand bound him in place. A hand grabbed his face and, for the last resist, Ryan bit his teeth on one of the fingers. It was not a quick bite; Ryan gripped the index finger's knuckle hard within his teeth. He felt blood squirt in his mouth and heard one of the instructors yell out in pain. To stop that, Ryan felt a hard fist blow to the back of his head.
Ryan felt dizzy and light-headed. He remained conscious enough to feel the instructors throw a large black bag over his head and his wrists being bound behind his back with flexi-cuffs. Quickly, Ryan was forced to his feet where he was being taken deep in the jungle to an awaiting jeep. Though the bag over his head was black, he saw headlights in the distance through the bag and the humming of a vehicle.
As Ryan was being thrown in the back of the Jeep Cherokee, he heard several sounds. He heard the sound of one of the instructors taping a bandage to one of the dogs, must have been the dog that Ryan kicked. It was the only time he felt bad for giving pain.
"That son of a bitch almost bit my finger off!" an instructor yelled out in anger. Ryan recognized the voice; it was Master Sergeant George Stevens, the Operations Sergeant assigned to the recruits during the Collective Phase.
There was anger and confusion in Ryan dark world with multiple sounds and voices around him. Then, Ryan felt a jerk. The jeep he was being towed in started moving away down the forest. Ryan came to understand the true cost of what his future job would require him to do. This was now S.E.R.E. for what it really stands for.
5
PRESENT DAY
Cyrus and Trevor were thrown into a jail cell by the large SWAT bots in the dungeon. It was not the first time they were captured and put in such a place. Knowing Robotnik, they were awaiting to be robotosized. This was also not their first time waiting the robotosizer as usual. Cyrus almost faced it right after his father was turned into a robot years ago.
6
Aleena lifted her head and looked behind the tool shed to see the whole cargo bay all charred black. Some minor flames still exist but will go out on their own eventually. Aleena herself was relieved not to be harmed since she used the tool shed as a heat shield. Some of her black clothes were burnt but were hard to tell with the color of her outfit. To stay blended in as a spy, she traded her purple cloak for a black one before setting up in the abandoned building across the street.
Aleena stood up to continue her objective. She had to tell Ryan of Cyrus and Trevor's capture. Aleena ran her way to the stairs at the end of the large room above the platform. Next to the stairs is the elevator, but she knew Ryan would never risk using the elevator, plus her last recon site picked up Ryan on this stairwell.
Aleena ran up the stairs for a few flights, with her sniper rifle bobbing back and fourth on her shoulder. After a few flights of stairs, she looked up and saw four silhouettes near the top. It was Ryan and her children. This could risk exposing herself to her children, but this had to be done. Besides, she remembered sneaking up on Manic when he was asleep and snuck up behind all three in the forest.
"Ryan!" Aleena called up after throwing her shawl off over her head, exposing her entire head. Her long dark purple hair remained tucked into the black outfit she wore.
Near the top of the flights, Ryan immediately stopped in his heels as the yell echoed throughout the shaft. The three hedgehogs froze in their places as well, knowing the voice exactly. They still never came in close contact with Aleena, but they knew the sound of her voice from a mile away. Ryan leaned down the railing and saw Aleena further down the shaft. Although Ryan could not see the details in Aleena, he knew exactly who it was.
"Aleena?" Ryan called down.
"Mother?" Sonia called.
"Mom, is that you?" Sonic asked in shock. Usually, Aleena would shed a tear meeting them temporarily even if it is just through a hologram. However, this was no time to cry, this was business.
"Guys, we got a problem!" Aleena called up. "Cyrus and Trevor have been compromised, and are taken prisoners!"
"How'd that happen?" Manic called down, shaking off the emotional effect of seeing his mother even from many stories high.
"I don't know, somehow the security cameras got back online," Aleena called up.
"We don't have much time left," Ryan called down after checking his watch. Only about an hour remains until the Dimensional Matter Displacer is active and the human shield is active as well. In this situation, the Captain would split the ODA into two elements, one being led by the Warrant Officer of the team. However, Ryan could not order the triplet hedgehogs to be assigned to their mother due to the prophecy. The prophecy said that the triplet hedgehogs are not allowed to meet their mother until a certain time, and this was most certainly not the time. Instead, Ryan decided to meet Aleena himself while the triplets go off onward. "Aleena, I'm coming down! Sonic, Sonia, Manic, I want you to continue upward toward the control room and hold position, I'll be back up soon."
"You got it, Ryan," Sonic told him giving a thumbs up.
"I mean it, Sonic, don't be a hero, we work together," Ryan told Sonic since Sonic does have an ego problem where he thinks he can do everything by himself.
"Okay, we'll be cool, Ry," Sonic told him.
With that, the triplet hedgehogs ran their way up the stairs, panting out of breath. They have been running up the stairs for quite a while and it has been hurting their knees, even Ryan's. Just as Ryan looked over the edge to see Aleena, he quickly noticed a SWAT bot running down the stairs toward her. At the same time, a SWAT bot was running up the stairs, boxing Aleena in.
"Aleena! Danger close!" Ryan called down as he started running down the stairs. Aleena has already long saw the SWAT bot chasing up at her. She made a mad dash upstairs as the SWAT bot chased her far behind.
Up top, Ryan ran down the stairs as quick as he could. He has had experience going up and down stairs almost every day. When he finished Basic Training, he was assigned to a Massachusetts National Guard Military Police unit near his hometown. The large building where his office was is located on the seventh floor. Ryan, when not tired, always took the stairs up the seven floors saying that the elevator takes too long.
As Aleena ran up, she spotted the SWAT bot up the stairs running after her. She aimed her laser sidearm up at it and shot a blast beam, but missed. She could not risk shooting back from her stand-still position, so she continued rushing up the stairs. The SWAT bot chasing her fired a few laser blasts up at her, each one missed. Aleena continued running like she was fine.
Ryan continued rushing his way down the stairs, keeping his head leaning over the side of the railing to look down at Aleena. From Ryan's high point of view, he can see the two SWAT bots closing in on her. On instinct, Ryan stopped and aimed his XM8 down at the SWAT bots. He burst one round near the higher SWAT bot to stop it. Indeed, the SWAT bot stopped and looked up at Ryan. It then fired a laser burst beam at Ryan, barely missing him. Ryan dodged it and started running down the stairs. The SWAT bot he shot at stared running up the stairs at him.
Aleena continued running upwards, still being chased by the SWAT bot several stories under her. Further up, Ryan and the other SWAT bot were running head-on towards each other. She looked up at saw the upward-running SWAT bot clearly in hitting range. Without thinking and on instinct, she aimed her laser pistol at the bot and fired a laser beam at it. It missed and the SWAT bot stopped and turned to face her. Aleena stood on the stairs and fired two more blasts on instinct. The last blast destroyed the SWAT bot.
All of a sudden, laser blasts shot at Aleena from behind. Aleena stood still for too long and the SWAT bot chasing her finally got its sights on her. Quickly, Aleena ducked and started fast crawling her way up the stairs. She acted like a baby or a dog going up the steep incline quickly, avoiding the laser beam fire. The SWAT bot ran as it fired its laser pulses at the fast-crawling Aleena. Just as it got next to the plane where Aleena was on, several 5.56 bullets pierced its metal and fell back gushing out oil. Ryan stood on top of the plane just above Aleena as he fired his XM8 at full automatic on the SWAT bot. It fell over and tumbled down the stairs onto the next plane.
"Clear!" Ryan called out as he ejected the magazine and slid in another one. "Aleena, talk to me if you're alright."
"I'm fine," Aleena called back. She quickly got back up and ran up the remaining flight of stairs to meet up with Ryan. "Cyrus and Trevor have been taken."
"You told me, where are they?" Ryan asked catching his breath.
"Robotnik doesn't immediately robotosize anyone; it takes several minutes to charge up the machine. Until then, he locks them in his dungeon," Aleena explained.
"Where's that?"
"In the basement, follow me," Aleena told him. Ryan allowed Aleena to take lead as they went down the stairs again, passing the oil-leaking SWAT bot along the way.
7
Along the way, Aleena ran to a room just above the basement entrance. This room was full of all different types of explosives and heavy artillery shells. Most of it was familiar to Ryan when his buddy, Davis, devised explosives during their tours with the Special Forces back from Afghanistan all the way to Iran. The room also contained several high-powered bench tools he saw when in woodshop class back in Junior High School.
Ryan looked over and noticed Aleena was carrying a large shell, that looked like it would go into a tank main gun, and placed it on a table with a drill. She measured it using an on-site tape measure. She made a mark where the warhead stops at. She then used the drill press and made a hole where she made the pencil mark. She then carefully placed the shell over a heater that has been activated.
"What are you doing?" Ryan asked.
"Making a bomb," Aleena replied.
While the shell was being heated, Aleena grabbed a frag grenade and carefully took the spoon out of it. She then slipped some wires in it and put the spoon back in. Then she removed the shell from the heater and carefully twisted the top off. Aleena then poured some thick liquid from the shell into a plastic container. She put the grenade's wires into the container and sealed it.
"Hand me a lantern," Aleena told Ryan.
Ryan handed Aleena a lantern, not different from the oil lanterns used on Earth, especially when they are propane powered and used on camping trips. Aleena twisted off the top and removed the ignition fabric from it. Then she tied some other wires to the fabric to the plastic container. Aleena then put the container inside a black bag with the fabric outside.
"Here, Ryan," Aleena said handing the plastic container to Ryan. "You know how to ignite it, right?"
Ryan nodded. "Spark the propane fabric with the spoon of the grenade after placing it where you want it."
"Good," Aleena told him.
"What is this bomb for, anyway?" Ryan asked.
"It's the only bomb powerful enough to break open the door to the dungeon where you and I will burst through and save Cyrus and Trevor," Aleena explained. "Follow me, I'll show you where to plant it."
Aleena ran off in one direction toward the basement and Ryan followed closely behind.
8
FOUR YEARS AGO
Ryan was lying on his side with his wrists bound behind him from flex-cuffs and a black paper bag covered his head. He could not see where he was going, but he was able to hear multiple vehicles with the Jeep Cherokee he was in like a convoy. These vehicles were taking him somewhere and he was sure enough that he did not want to know what or where it is. They were driving miles away from Fort Bragg to a place called Camp Mackall.
The jeep stopped. Ryan, not being strapped in, slid along the jeep's floor. He heard a whole array of jeep doors opening and a lot of grunting. Ryan, unable to see through the paper bag over his head, felt strong hands grab his limbs as he was forced to his feet and thrown to the ground. The ground was hard as dirt. Then he was forced to stand back up and into a certain position.
"Remove the bags," a voice called out, new to Ryan.
In seconds, the paper bag on Ryan's head was whipped off. He was not blinded by any light because it was early morning and the weather was overcast. Ryan looked around and he saw his fellow recruits all standing in a line along side of him side by side. All of the recruits, even the big and strong Davis, looked winded, dehydrated, tired, and fatigued.
Ryan looked up and saw where the voice came from. Standing on a platform high above the recruits was a tall Native American-looking man with broad shoulders and tan skin, revealing the details of his worked-out muscles. His uniform was not the American-standard ACU Digital BDU's, they were tiger-stripped BDU's. Ryan looked around and saw all of the other instructors, only a few he knew, all wearing tiger-stripped BDU's.
"Eye's up! Over here, low-lives," the Native American guy shouted in a booming voice. All 14 recruits snapped their heads toward the soldier. He bore no name tapes or rank insignia, just like the 'nameless-Captain' during Ryan's Selection Course. "Welcome to Camp Mackall, home of S.E.R.E. From now on, you got to fend for yourselves and for your teammates. You are no longer in Fort Bragg and America is farther away than you think. You are all now prisoners of war! Deal with it! There's no going back from here. Sergeants, unbound them, wash them up, and give the trash their new uniforms."
"Yes, sir!" one of the Sergeant shouted. Even though this was S.E.R.E., the instructors still had to follow customs and courtesies, including respecting an officer with the proper address. Obviously, this Native American was an officer and he seems to be in charge of this makeshift prisoner of war camp.
The camp itself looked like photographs of what he saw in Vietnam, bamboo fences, barbed wire, and several metal-plated miniature jail cells. This was nothing like German Stalags from World War Two, this was a torture camp. On the walls and watchtowers of the camp are men roaming around with AK-47's. They made this place look true to life like a real prisoner of war camp.
The Sergeants pulled out a set of clippers and snipped off the flex-cuffs from the recruits. As soon as they were off, they all rubbed their wrists in pain. Ryan looked up and saw another Sergeant approach them with a large hamper full of old Vietnam-era BDU pants, blue raggedy shirts, and over-worn boots. Another Sergeant stood in front of the line of the recruits with a large fire hose in his hand aiming it at the recruits.
"Take off your clothes," the Sergeant with the hose announced. The recruits grunted as they slid their ACU battle dress uniforms off, kicked off their boots, dropped their pants, and stepped out of them. "Your underwear as well!" After another grumble, the recruits slid their underwear's off, leaving all 14 of them butt-naked in the morning dew.
All of a sudden, they were hit. The Sergeant sprayed powerful jet water on the recruits. It was harsher and more powerful than anticipated. The only thing worse was that the recruits heard the S.E.R.E. instructors laughing. Within seconds, the powerful water stopped. Before their eyes could clear up, the Sergeant heaved towels in their faces.
This was being hard on Ryan. Selection was easier than this. Ryan dried himself off along with the other recruits. He was getting cold, his goose bumps easily forming. As he was drying off, the Sergeants then heaved a set of clothes in his face along with a pair of boots; they were the BDU's from the hamper. After Ryan dried himself off, he slipped on the raggedy shirt, then the pants, and his feet in the boots without socks, underwear, or a T-shirt. He was uncomfortable and miserable, but that was the goal these instructors were trying to get at.
Then the recruits saw movement. Two of the Sergeants in the tiger-stripped uniforms were raising a flag on the flagpole. However, they soon noticed that the flag was of different colors, three horizontal stripes. This flag was obviously not American.
"Get your heads down! Off my flag," the S.E.R.E. commander shouted. Immediately, all the recruits snapped their heads away. "You low-lives don't deserve to look at my flag!"
The recruits kept their heads down facing the muddy ground. They were all cold, wet, and miserable and this was just the beginning. The flag rose high and stopped at the top.
"Get them inside!" the Native American commander shouted.
Soon, the recruits were forced to walk forward toward a large makeshift cage made out of bamboo branches and rope. The tops of the bamboo were sharpened at the top, making it impossible to climb over. One by one, the recruits were shoved, thrown, and even kicked hard into the large bamboo cage. With each violent action the instructors made, the more they laughed about it. Once Ryan, who was grabbed at the collar and heaved inside, landing on top of Davis, the S.E.R.E. instructors closed and locked the bamboo gate. They gave one last laugh and left, leaving them all alone.
Ryan felt scared. He felt like he was truly in a prisoner of war camp. If this is what it feels like, he sure hopes he never gets captured while overseas. Luckily, when overseas, rescue units would get him out the next day. Here at S.E.R.E., no one is coming. He just has to tough it out for the rest of the training course which is within a couple weeks, but that felt like months to him.
9
PRESENT DAY
Inside the dungeon, a large handful of SWAT bots remained on guard around Cyrus and Trevor. They were not as tough as Sonic was, but Robotnik was told by Sleet that they were trained Green Berets like Ryan was, so extra security was added. Several SWAT bots stood at the exits of the dungeon awaiting a rescue operation. Of course, Robotnik figured since the two furries were just captured, Ryan would be unaware of it. However, he was unaware that Queen Aleena was within the building as well and warned Ryan of Cyrus and Trevor's capture.
All of a sudden, Queen Aleena burst inside and instantly shot all the SWAT bots rapidly with her laser pistol. She ran in and dove behind a thick pillar while the other SWAT bots shot at her. Quickly, Aleena pulled out a flash bang grenade, which looks like a short pipe bomb with a grenade pin and spoon on it. She used her thumb to pull out the pin and rolled it right in the middle of the large dungeon.
Bang!
The SWAT bots were blinded. Their vision was flashed bright white and their hearing sensors only picked up a low high-pitched white noise. Immediately, Aleena jumped from cover and fired her laser blasts at the SWAT bots as they wobbled around as if they were in pain. Cyrus and Trevor, also affected by the flash bang, slowly started seeing a single image in their eyes. The white was fading away and all they saw was one picture of what they last saw before the grenade went off. Soon, their vision started coming back, fading from the still image to their true sight. The shellshock noise they heard slowly started to fade as well, just in time to see Aleena breaking the lock on the cell door.
"Hi guys," Aleena said while opening the cell door after she shot the hinges with her sidearm.
"Queen Aleena? Is that you?" Cyrus asked in shock. He, too, has never met Aleena before. Unlike the prophecy, Cyrus and Trevor were not forbidden to meet Aleena before time comes; only her three children were banned on that.
"You guys okay?" Aleena asked.
"Yeah," Trevor replied as the two got up.
Cyrus and Trevor were not physically hurt or beaten up. They were able to get back on their feet and followed Aleena out of the cell. Upon exiting, they were cut off by more SWAT bots at the further corner of the dungeon. There was no time to duck for cover or fire back in fear of getting shot at. However, before Aleena could have time to think, the whole half of the dungeon blew up! Aleena, Cyrus, and Trevor, on the other side, were blown off their feet and backwards several yards before landing hard on their backs making a complete stop.
The three furries looked up to see what happened. A huge chunk of the back half of the dungeon was charred and in flames, like the cargo bay when Aleena shot the gas tank. Then a familiar silhouette stepped out into the open just as the white smoke began to settle. Just as Aleena expected, Ryan walked out into the open, waving at the three furries from across the large room.
"Good job using that bomb," Aleena said, giving Ryan a thumbs up. Ryan nodded his head smiling. "Let's get out of here."
Ryan ran up to the furries just as Aleena, Cyrus, and Trevor stood up. They all ran out of the dungeon, the same exit where Aleena stepped in. They passed the weapons room and toward the staircase, the same staircase where Ryan and Aleena fought the SWAT bots. Just as they made it to the double doors leading to the burnt-up cargo bay, they opened them and saw the room with six SWAT bots.
"Don't move," a SWAT Bot ordered. The four froze in their tracks. It was silent after a while, until Aleena holsters her laser sidearm and slowly approached the SWAT bots.
"I got them, Ryan," Aleena whispered.
"You sure?" Ryan replied back.
"Yup."
"Okay."
"Ryan, are you going to let Aleena—" Cyrus began to say, but Ryan interrupted in a whisper.
"Watch this, guys, she's got a gift," Ryan whispered. Aleena stood in front of the bots with her arms still raised.
"You do know that imprisoning civilians over hatred and destruction is a serious crime," Aleena quickly said followed by a chuckle. The SWAT bots kept their imbedded laser guns pointed at her. Aleena slowly approached them and continued to say, "I personally don't think you guys would want to work for a slob like Robotnik. Why no go your own ways instead?"
Aleena continued approaching the SWAT bots slowly with both of her arms rose along her head. The SWAT bot in the front started to get worried; it placed both arms forward cupping its left hand under the gun in his right.
Aleena slowly approached the bot showing no signs of stopping. She then stepped within the attack-zone, which was just in reach of the SWAT bots laser gun. All of a sudden, Aleena snapped her right arm across the SWAT bots' arms, stepped out, and hooked her arm downward around the bots' gun-holding arm. Quickly, she turned her body into the side of the gun to prevent it from shooting at her. She finished by using her body weight to flip the SWAT bot over. However, due to the gun being imbedded in the SWAT bot, there was nothing to grab for her. The bot fell over head first in the ground and the head cracked off.
Due to the fight happening so close, the SWAT bots could not risk shooting which might cause friendly fire amongst themselves. Another one of the large robots ran to Aleena started giving her a high kick. It was too late for Aleena to stop it, so she stepped out and hooked her arms around the SWAT bots leg. Then she licked her legs behind the SWAT bots planted knee and it dropped hard on the ground, breaking many circuits in it.
"Holy," Trevor said as his and Cyrus' jaws dropped.
Aleena quickly got back on her feet to see another SWAT bot charging at her. It threw a simple roundhouse punch toward Aleena. Aleena blocked it with her left arm, stepped in, and used her momentum to strike the SWAT bots' face with her right elbow. While the bot was knocked out for a second, Aleena snapped the SWAT bots punching arm upward and hooked it with both of her arms. The SWAT bot tried to be brave again. It used its left arm to try and punch Aleena, but Aleena simply slapped it away with her left arm, then she chopped her left hand on the SWAT bots neck, forcing her to take the SWAT bot down on its back.
Before Aleena had a chance to get up, one of the SWAT bots grabbed her left upper arm and forced her to stand. In this case, Aleena had the upper hand. She whipped her left arm and hooked the SWAT bots grabbing arm. Then she used her left hand to grab the bots' thumb and forced it down to the ground. Aleena finished by chopping the side of her right hand behind the bots neck, shutting it down.
As soon as Aleena got up, she saw another SWAT bot charging at her with both arms out in front like a wrestler. Quickly, Aleena got up and held her left arm in an L shape. The SWAT bot ran into Aleena's stationary elbow right in the collar, shocking it. While the SWAT bot was shocked, Aleena wrapped both of her arms around the bots' neck and left arm in a headlock. She forced herself to collapse on the ground taking the SWAT bot with her. Within seconds, Aleena pinned the robot down and she hit a button on the back of its beck, shutting it down.
Aleena kicked her legs up in an arch and whipped herself back on her feet. She turned and saw the last SWAT bot standing close-by. Instantly, the SWAT bot grabbed Aleena by the neck, however Aleena remained calm. Quickly, Aleena raised both of her arms and spun on her heel to the right. Her left arm knocked the robot's grip off of her neck. She then quickly used her left arm and chopped her hand on the bots' neck and soon followed up with a kick to the groin. The SWAT bot was deactivated when she chopped her hand to the neck but habits made her follow up with the kick. The kick knocked the SWAT bot down hard on its back, echoing a loud thud throughout the burnt-to-a-crisp cargo bay.
"Nice work," Ryan said after a short pause of silence. Cyrus and Trevor were shocked seeing Aleena perform such tasks.
"Just like last time," she said remembering her fight on the roof with Ryan a few weeks ago. Quickly, the four ran past the grounded SWAT bots and back outside of the building.
"Okay, guys, Robotnik knows you're here, it's not safe for you guys to be here anymore," Ryan told them.
"What?" Cyrus snapped, thinking he meant go away.
"Sonic and his siblings will help me inside from here on out, I want you three to take the back entrances and work your way up to the roof," Ryan explained to them. "I'll keep in touch with you to swing inside, covering the back doors or any other escape routes."
"Got it," Cyrus said with a sigh of relief. As scary as the mission is, he did not want this to end in failure. Neither of them wanted to feel like a liability to the team because of their capture. They only have under an hour left, and they most certainly want to finish this.
"Wait, I can't expose myself to my siblings," Aleena quickly told him, knowing that the triplets will be waiting. Speaking of which, their radios crackled in.
"Hey, Ryan, I'm waiting," Sonic spoke over the intercom radio earpieces.
"Are you guys holding at the control room door?" Ryan asked.
"Yeah, and we looked under the door, only Robotnik, Sleet, and Dingo are inside," Sonia said over the radio.
"What are your positions?" Ryan asked.
"We have the door bladed," Manic told him. So far, they did not give the duress codes, so the place must be safe.
"I'm on my way," Ryan said in the radio. He then turned his attention back to the three furries. "Hurry, time is of the essence. Let's go." Just as Ryan was about to run back inside with his XM8 in both hands, Aleena called out to him.
"Wait a minute, Ryan," Aleena called. Ryan stopped and turned to her. "There's one more thing I almost forgot. After we made out rescue, there will be a lockdown."
"I thought that system was disabled."
"There is still a manual override in the basement. Look for the only fuse box in the basement and just shoot it. That'll get rid of the lockdown's ability."
"Okay, Aleena, I'll see you inside."
Ryan turned on his heel and ran back in through the cargo bay. Aleena, Cyrus, and Trevor ran their way to the back emergency exits to get to the roof, which will be a long journey.
10
Robotnik looks at his monitors and notices that Ryan is heading inside again. Unfortunately, there was a blind spot where Aleena and the others ran through.
"So, that Green Beret is coming back inside, is he?" Robotnik said with a sneer. "Well, he won't be lucky this time."
"How so, sir?" Sleet asked.
"Well, we can manually lockdown the place from the basement secure line," Robotnik advised while getting out of his chair. Sleet understood. Even if Ryan does manage to get the Dimensional Matter Displacer program and the hard-copy disk out, they could keep him within the building and try to kill him.
"Ooh, good idea, Robotnik," Sleet replied. "Dingo and I will get to the fuse box and activate it." Upon hearing that, Dingo shuttered in fear, remembering getting beaten up on Earth, getting knocked out in the interrogation room, behind held at gunpoint in the streets, and being pinned to the wall a short time ago.
"I'm afraid of him," Dingo shuttered.
"Oh, grow up, Dingo," Sleet sneered, but he soon realized Dingo would only be a liability to the basement lockdown fuse box if they were to encounter Ryan again. "Fine, I'll take a SWAT bot with me."
Sleet turned and started exiting the control room. He fingered a SWAT bot to follow him, and it did. They exited the room and toward the elevators, which is the quickest way to the basement.
As soon as the elevator doors closed and headed down, Sonic, Sonia, and Manic popped out of well-hidden hiding spots within the hallway behind the furniture. They stayed in their positions as told by Ryan.
"Ryan," Sonic whispered in his radio. "Sleet and a SWAT bot are heading to the basement. Something about a manual lockdown."
"I'm heading there now," Ryan replied from the crackled radio turned low enough so that Robotnik and Dingo in the other room could not hear it. "I'll ambush them, and then I'll meet you guys up there."
"Good luck, Ryan," Sonic whispered in his radio before turning it off on the sending angles.
11
FOUR YEARS AGO
Ryan has been in Camp Mackall for a few days, and his limits were pushed. Selection was easier than this. Ryan already noticed that Lieutenant Wire and Sergeant Rush have already quit, so now they are down to 12 recruits left; one officer, one warrant officer, all five roll-ins since the beginning of the Q-Course, and five of the original nine to pass Assessment and Selection all the way back to what feel like many years ago. With the exception of Ryan, the original class still remaining are Grimes, Nathanson, Davis, and Tanor.
Ryan held his face over the large wooden tub of water similar to what farmers use to feed their animals. He cupped his hands to catch some water and sucked it out of his hand bowl. He glanced over and saw a few recruits were cold, so they hugged each other to conserve body heat. Then he looked over and saw Lieutenant Falcon, the perfect leader if he ever met one, snatch a worm out of the dirty ground and stick it in his mouth. Ryan ate worms many times during S.E.R.E., but now finds it slight disgusting actually seeing it.
Ryan caught movement at the gate. Some of the S.E.R.E. instructors opened the bamboo door and faced Ryan with stern angry looks.
"Perreault, you're coming with me," one of the instructors told him. Ryan felt it was futile to resist, so he got up and followed the instructors out.
The two Sergeants wearing the tiger-striped uniforms gripped on both of Ryan's arms like police officers and led him to the main office building within the compound. Ryan was led inside the building for the first time, which looked like a run-down abandoned building, but saw armed soldiers everywhere he went. Soon, Ryan was led into a room at the end of the hallway.
The room Ryan was led to looked run-down. The only thing inside was a table and two chairs. Sitting behind one of the chairs was a random instructor wearing his tiger-striped uniform. What was worse was that there was no window in the room.
"Sit down, Perreault," the instructor said. Ryan quickly voluntarily sat down before the instructors go the chance to shove him in the seat. "Guards, leave us."
The two Sergeants that carried Ryan in the room left and closed the door behind them. Then the Sergeant behind the table looked at Ryan with a stern mean look in his eyes, the stare that could kill from a mile away. However, Ryan did not feel total fear because if the Sergeant were to drop and have a seizure, Ryan would stare at him and let him die. His luck, however, was not at the maximum today.
"I was told that one of the recruits took a huge bite out of Sergeant Steven's finger, do you know who that could have been?" the Sergeant asked.
Ryan said nothing. He stared back at the Sergeant. His goal was to make sure the instructor did not even know what his voice sounds like. The Sergeant glared at the pause but continued.
"Whoever that recruit was also kicked one of the dogs in the face. We can go easy on you if you rat out the one you knew who did it. What's it going to be?" the Sergeant asked.
Ryan said nothing.
"Come on, be smart about this. Your team doesn't care for you, they want you to get in trouble as well. Now, tell me, who hurt the Sergeant?"
Ryan said nothing.
"God damnit! You will talk!" the Sergeant yelled snapping out of his chair. "Guards!" Immediately, the two Sergeants ran in the room. "Take the garbage out and teach it some lessons."
"Yes, Sergeant," one of the men said.
The two Sergeants whipped a paper bag over Ryan's head, forced his wrists bound with a flexi-cuff, and they both forcefully grabbed Ryan out of the chair and ran him down the hall. They were going so fast that Ryan could not catch up with his legs. Ryan felt he was being dragged outside somewhere.
The S.E.R.E. instructors dragged Ryan to a junkyard near the makeshift POW camp. There, they threw Ryan in a ball within a small cage. Then they covered the top of the cage with a metal sheet and started banging it hard with on-site baseball bats. The loud ringing of the sheet metal created chaos and noise throughout Ryan's skull.
After several minutes, the two Sergeants grabbed Ryan's arms and dragged him off somewhere else. The paper bag was still over Ryan's head, so he had no idea where he was being taken to. The instructors stopped and made Ryan stand up in the middle of an empty road. All of a sudden, two other instructors sped their cars around Ryan in complete circles. In Ryan's head, he felt like he was in the middle of a highway and, if he moved, he would get hit by a car. He remained still hoping a car would not hit him. Luckily, the instructors at S.E.R.E. were required to be expert drivers. Many applicants who wanted to be S.E.R.E. instructors failed because their driving skills were not of the maximum.
After what felt like hours gone by, the cars stopped. Ryan panted out of fear but was lucky to still be alive. Soon, both of his arms were grabbed by the two Sergeants and taken away. After a while, he was thrown down to the ground where he felt his cuffs getting snipped off his wrists. Then the bag whipped off of his head and Ryan realized he was right in front of the cage where all of the recruits saw him pale from fear.
"Get back in there," one of the Sergeants shouted. One of them grabbed Ryan and angrily tossed him back in the bamboo cage with the other. He took one last look at the instructors and saw that they were leaving while laughing.
"Ryan, you okay?" a voice spoke above him.
Ryan, still shuttering, looked up and saw Davis kneeling over him. He soon saw the other recruits notice him and were worried about what he went through.
"Come on, let's get you some water," Davis said.
Davis cupped his hands in the tub of water and brought it to Ryan's face. One of the other recruits, Tanor, held Ryan in a sitting upright position as David carefully fed Ryan the water. Ryan felt relieved a bit. This was hard on Ryan, but it was also hard on everyone else too. It has only been a few days, but Ryan actually went through 58 weeks to prepare for this. If this S.E.R.E. course was one of the early first phases of training, he would not have been prepared or even strong enough to continue. Ryan knew he could pass this course. It was a shame when Wire and Rush quit, but now Ryan understood why, but that is not going to get in the way of his ultimate goal he worked so hard to get to.
As Davis was feeding the shivering Ryan water, Ryan remembered being in his living room with his mother the day he left for Airborne School. He was hoping he would be one of the 20 to pass this course. His biggest hurdle he wanted to get over at the time was Assessment and Selection, but now he has got one larger hurdle to pass over, and that hurdle was titled, 'Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape.'
TO BE CONTINUED...