CHAPTER 4
0130 Hours, 18th August 3055 (Haven Calendar) / 100km West of the Palace of Acorn. Inside friendly territory. Heavy Jungle.
A jungle bird, bright and fluorescent despite the darkness, croaked wildly it's mating call from a high branch in a gnarled old jungle tree. It had done this every day and would have continued to do so have not a large black gunship stripped off the top of the tree with its underbelly. It happened so quickly the bird didn't have a chance.
Screaming over the tree tops with frightening speed the gunship careened towards its target, a suspected Legion command centre hid inside the jungle, away from normal scanners. They had managed to pinpoint its location with the recovered data from the previous drop and now they were going to wipe it out.
The plan was simple. Go in low and quite, eliminate any perimeter guards and then make entrance into the compound, hopefully unnoticed. They would place a large bomb in the centre of the complex and then retreat to safety whilst it detonated. Evacuation would be from a clearing close by. It was simple; nothing in essence to go wrong.
The gunship stopped suddenly and then descended into the dark jungle approximately a kilometre south from the target. It hovered only feet from the ground, its modified silent engines making only a little murmur in the dark night. The boarding ramp descended and then the team made their way out of the back, dropped to the ground and secured the area whilst the gunship lifted off again.
Jacob signalled the all clear once it had disappeared and then they moved off on foot to the objective. The six figures dodged trees and thick roots, solid with age. Their feet becoming stuck occasionally in the swampy ground. They persevered and after only twenty minutes, Delilah who had moved well up front as a scout called back on the radio.
"Were here, I can see four roaming guards, I had a look through the night vision and it's definitely Legionnaires, looks like a half strength command squad to me"
Jacob stopped them all dead whilst she relayed the message and then took a second to think. "Can you get in without being seen?" he asked.
The channel was dead for a moment. "I don't think so, not without removing one or two first, they've got it pretty much on lockdown. They even have perimeter turrets"
"There are occasions when I wish we weren't so thorough" Julie-su whispered to Jacob, her skull mask relaying the message.
Jacob smiled at the remark and then noted Delilah's position on his command screen on his forearm. He took out a pen and placed four dots on the screen, each a different colour. "Okay guys, you've got your orders, let's move"
Four acknowledgment lights blinked on his display and they moved up to where Delilah had taken up position. He had marked them at different corners of the compound and detailed a target each by the time they all got into position. "This needs to be done quietly, fix silencers" he ordered.
Drake, next to him, rolled onto his back and produced a long thin tube which he deftly screwed on to his rifle barrel. "Im going in" he confirmed. "Cover me"
Jacob nodded and then took aim at one of the patrolling guards. "Don't fire until he makes a move" he told them all.
Drake walked down slowly from his cover and without so much of a flinch he stepped confidently towards the nearest trooper. He got within a few paces before the Legionnaire stopped him.
"Who the hell are you?" the trooper asked, raising his baroque rifle and pointing it at Drakes skull mask. "Where did you come from?"
Drake raised his hands defensively. "Im from the other camp just in the jungle over there" he tilted his head and used his thumb to accentuate the direction he meant.
The Legionnaire looked at him for a moment and then over his shoulder in the way he had just directed. It was all the gap of concentration that Drake needed. He grabbed the Legionnaire's rifle, pulled him towards him and flipped him over silently. The Trooper made a muffled noise as Drake leant down over his prone form and knocked him out quickly with his fist. He took the rifle and threw it away. "One down boss" he radioed.
A dull light streaked overhead with a small whip-crack and struck a Legionnaire that had managed to nearly creep up on him. The plasma bolt hit the Legionnaire in the chest, throwing him off his feet and dropping him with a splash in some murky water two feet away. "Two down" God confirmed.
Delilah and Julie-Su both watched as the two targets were taken out and then both almost automatically opened fire on the two other guards who were completely oblivious to the situation. The first one wondered why his colleague buckled and dropped suddenly. He turned to look at them both hidden in the foliage and then fell silent as he was hit five times. "I think that's the lot of them" Julie-Su reported.
They waited for another minute or so, Drake knelt out in the open, scanning the darkness with his night vision. "I think she's right, I can't see anything else out here"
Jacob got up from his prone firing position and then took a quick look around. "Alright, find us an entrance Drake, everyone else keep him covered". Drake's acknowledgment light popped up in his visor and he could see his marker moving around the far side of the complex.
A few moments later he got a reply. "There looks like an old cellar hatch around the far side, I can't see anything else"
"We will have to take that then, is it open?"
Jacob heard a little crack on the channel followed by a squeaky hinge opening. "Yes" Drake replied.
"Okay, hold your ground there, we'll join you"
"Be quick" Drake replied. "Im scared of the dark"
Knuckles looked around the tree he was hiding behind and silently cursed his own luck. He had narrowly dodged five Legionnaires that had wandered past and now he had another four coming back the other way. This was supposed to have been a simple job; all he had to do was create enough of a distraction so the others could get in and complete the objective at the second site. Now he was running the risk of not just creating a diversion, but creating a miniature war.
Something didn't add up at all about the intelligence he had received. This place should have been deserted. He risked a quick glance again to confirm his suspicions and then took cover. There was nothing more he needed to know here.
He opened a link quickly with Haven, needing to speak to someone who could shed some light on the situation. An image faded into view on his wrist digital screen, it was of his father. "What's up?" the image asked.
"Something isn't right" Knuckles replied, carefully dogging his conversation. "This place is like a fortress and it's got guards all over the place, you told me it would be deserted"
"Intelligence doesn't always get it right, is there too much for you to handle?"
Knuckles rolled his eyes at the loaded question. Locke wasn't trying to taunt him, he looked genuinely concerned. "No, I don't think so, as long as nothing heavier turns up"
"How do you feel?"
"Tired but im still on form"
"Okay, then continue on and we will monitor you from here, we've got three gunship's on standby just under a minute away from your location but please try and go unnoticed for as long as possible you may have to fight your way out if you can… good luck…" The image faded and then disappeared. Knuckles knelt down and then cursed again, it was undoubtedly going to get hairy.
Without so much as a sound he turned the tree and sprinted across the twenty metre dead ground in a flat two seconds, running right past the back of a patrol that had just moved on and coming to halt with a slight thud against the blackened wall. He quickly searched for a way into the complex but nothing immediately presented itself as an obvious choice. He spent the next minute or so circumnavigating the walls, using the shadows to best cover his moves and still he found no entrances. With more than a bit of anger he returned to the front entrance which was guarded by four Legionnaires, their ornate armour and large setting making them out to be house guards of a particularly high ranking officer or person in the Dark Legion.
"So much for silence" Knuckles muttered to himself as he took out a black circular device and tapped an arming code into it. The explosives red light flickered for a second and the digital counter flicked up the number five in its green neon writing. He tapped the arm button again and then the number changed to four and then three. Leaning carefully around his pillar he then threw it gently underarm towards the main door, taking cover again immediately. The black disc bounced on the concrete flooring once and then skidded to halt dead centre of the reinforced doors.
He held his hands to his ears just as the explosion ripped through the area and sent the doors crashing inwards. The four guards that had been standing watch were propelled through the air, their armour smoking, and landed in a heap twenty feet away. Quickly, and with the fury of an angel, Knuckles drew his twin pistols, stepped out of his cover and began his lone assault.
He fired both firearms whilst he jumped up to the smoking hole that was previously the doors and made his way inside. He dodged to his left in order to successfully avoid a few incoming shots and proceeded to punch both his assailants off their feet with well placed return fire.
Taking cover again, he quickly reloaded and then moved off to what he hoped was the centre of the complex at a flat out run, ignoring the klaxon alarm sirens that were now kicking in all over the area.
Drake lifted his hand quickly, clenched it and pushed it to one side. The rest of the team took note quickly and ducked for cover as a squad of Legionnaires ran past them and down the corridor opposite, heading towards some unknown goal at a quick pace. A moment later the corridors were shrouded in a deep red light, emergency strobes kicking in at head height all down the passageways. The red throbbing cast ghastly shadows all over and Drake smiled behind his skull mask. "Looks like the party has started boys and girls"
"You think they found the others outside?" Carlos asked matter-of-factly.
"No" Jacob interrupted. "My reports are showing that the second facility is under attack"
"He's started then…" Carlos silently replied, adjusting his grip on the heavy weapon he carried.
"Yes…it appears so…"
"Well let's capitalise on this turn of events then shall we"
Drake looked at Julie-Su who was using a mouldy drainage pipe as cover and then glanced back down the corridor to the direction the Legionnaires had been running. "I say we head that way, straight after them" he used his hand in a chopping motion, signalling the direction. "The call is yours though boss"
Jacob looked down the corridor and then at the rest of the team. "Remove your silencers, the time for stealth has ended"
God unscrewed the long adjustment from his rifle and deftly stowed it in a chest pocket. "For the Guardians?" he asked.
"Screw the Guardians" Delilah replied. "For the Island…"
"Hoo-rah" Drake cooed as leapt from his position, sprinting towards the darkened door and whatever was beyond.
He punched as hard as he dared and was rewarded with a bone shattering thud. The armoured Legionnaire that had come looking for him buckled for a moment with a cry and then went limp in his hands. Knuckles span him around and used his saggy form as cover as he continued to fire with his left hand. The accurate shots making another trooper who had accompanied the first fall to the floor clutching a terrible chest wound. He threw the legionnaire shield aside and managed to duck into cover quickly enough to avoid a rocket that streaked past him and detonated a few metres away, covering him with dense shrapnel and dust.
It was starting to get interesting. A quick check of the ammo counter on his pistol revealed some more raw facts. He rolled his eyes, it had three rounds left, the other one having dried up nearly two minutes ago.
Knuckles leant down and picked up a powerful rifle the unfortunate legionnaire had been carrying, tearing it out of the trooper's hands which still somehow clung onto it. He flicked it to maximum spread and then tried to move again.
The corridor he was in was pockmarked with holes and smoke from the firefight he had instigated. Every second he wasted with the troops at the end of the tunnel was another second they were being reinforced. When he stepped out to return fire, the entire length of passageway lit up with a fusillade of white-hot shots that was devastating, forcing him stay in cover until it ceased.
He leant down quickly and grabbed the brace of grenades the dead trooper wore. Taking a few practise swings with the belt he pulled one of the pins and then hurled the makeshift device down the corridor. Someone shouted "Grenade!" in a mechanical voice before the detonation rocked the walls and sent a vicious piece of metal spinning down the tunnel past him. He stepped out immediately and fired the full clip whilst sprinting down the tunnel knowing full well if he hit anything it would be by pure chance. He burst through the smoke of the explosion and caught a glimpse of steel to his right.
Lashing out with the rifle butt he knocked a stunned Legionnaire to the floor and then span the weapon around by its barrel to smash his accomplice to the floor also, streaking blood all over the fiends face. Someone tried to grab him from behind and he took the fools arms in his and mule kicked him in the chest, breaking ribs and muscle. The dust cloud covered most of the area but he could still see another group of troops running up to engage him. With a snarl he continued on down the passage at a flat out run determined to get them before they shot him.
Knuckles would have reached them but a large mechanical creature managed to intercept him first. It was a horrible mix of dark technology and mechanics. Somewhere amongst all the tonnes of steel plates, armour, fake organs and wires was a living breathing Echidna, hardly any different to himself. The evil beast hit him in the side with a massive armoured club that was part of its right arm. It knocked him sideways into the wall and he struck his head on a broken stone, cutting it above the right eye. Heavily dazed, he couldn't block the second assault that hit him square in the chest, forcing him backward and down to one knee. His head swimming from the pounding, Knuckles smashed the kneecap of the creature's right leg with his armoured left fist, shattering it and used the moment to shoulder barge it back a few steps.
"You can hit me harder next time little one…" the beast gurgled, as if oil actually soaked its windpipe. "You'll have to do much better than that…"
Knuckles smiled and wiped the blood away from his eye. "Don't worry my friend, I intend to…"
The Legionnaire watched in horror as the Guardian shook violently for a split second, his eyes flashing from a violet colour to a bright pupil-less yellow and then back to a violet again. He was unable to react as Knuckles jumped forward, used his knee as a springboard, and uppercutted him under the chin. Everything at that point went black.
Knuckles carried on with the momentum of the attack and propelled himself over the now decapitated Legionnaire that still remained upright. He landed on his feet behind the monster looking intently down the corridor at the group who had watched over the fight with interest. Slowly behind him, the headless Destroyer fell over with a loud bang; its grinning head rolled and came to a dramatic stop next to Knuckles foot.
"Who's next?" he growled.
The group of troopers at the corridor intersection made a subconscious group decision that it wasn't going to be them. They turned and ran through a reinforced door, closing it tight behind them.
Knuckles shook his head to try and clear the fuzziness and then focused on the job at hand. He had definitely caused enough havoc here now to warrant him getting out and leaving it behind. Some gut instinct told him though that this wasn't what it seemed, and for such a small secondary outpost it was over guarded and over protected. Add to that the fact it was the sixth Destroyer in three months that he had encountered, and the fact the Dark Legion only ever deployed them in places where they really needed security and you started to get a worrying mix. A drop of blood from his head dripped to the floor and splashed. His energy was draining away quicker than he had hoped, a week ago the cut would have healed immediately.
In that moment it all seemed so simple, no red tape or bureaucracy. He didn't really have a choice at all. It was his job to find out what was happening here. Clenching his fists he glared at the reinforced door again, aimed for the centre of it and charged at full speed.
Julie-Su bent back the trooper's weapon, using his own firm grip to lever it to one side whilst she kicked it from his hands. It scattered across the floor, firing a random shot into the darkness. Whilst he regained his composure she chopped him in the windpipe twice in quick succession, making him fall to his knees, clutching his neck.
Jacob stepped up and kicked him to the floor with a powerful attack. The Legionnaire whimpered a little as he fell to the ground, smashing his face on the cold stone floor.
Carlos levelled his heavy plasma blaster and fired off a deafening burst of firepower into a darkened room that a squad of Legion had taken up defensive positions in. The staccato of the support weapon sent dust billowing from its muzzle as it kicked up fallen masonry and particles from the floor. Six power cells ejected from the side of the weapon as he fired, three bouncing off the walls and one hitting Drake in the leg by accident causing his suit to scald with a hiss. Some shots went wild and punched steaming holes in the walls and floor but most landed exactly on target. No one returned fire from the room; they had either fled or taken cover from the overwhelming firepower.
"Enjoying yourself?"
Carlos lifted his visor for a second, a massive smile on his face. He took a deep sniff and closed his eyes. "Love the smell of plasma…" he purred.
Drake rolled his eyes and fired off another short burst down the corridor for good measure. "Cover me whilst I set this up" he asked.
Carlos nodded and replaced his visor. "Sure thing buddy" he replied. "Load me Frank"
God stepped over from his firing position quickly and grabbed another six power cells from Carlos's modified back pack. He slammed them home and then tapped him on the head. "You're good".
The deafening roar of close-proximity heavy weapons fire started up again, mixed in with a maniacal laughing as Carlos tore up the room and corridor for a second time.
Delilah moved over to help drake setting up the explosive whilst Jacob and Julie-Su interrogated the captured Legionnaire.
Jacob pulled the Legionnaires head back with a tug and ripped off the hood. Underneath was a remarkably ordinary looking Echidna male of mid years, his face heavily robotocised on the right side. He scowled at him and struggled to stay conscious through a blood shot eye. "Traitors…" he screeched.
Julie-Su looked at the Commanders skull mask; she knew that underneath he would be scowling deeply. "Where are the rest of you?" she demanded.
The Legionnaire coughed up some blood and spittle. "Screw you…"
Jacob pulled out his pistol and thrust it under the Legionnaires neck, making him raise his head backward as it stubbed into his flesh. "Mark my words heretic, and mark them well. For I have no time for fun and games. Tell me why this place was almost unguarded and ill make sure you get a quick end, don't and ill let you suffer…"
Delilah looked over at the pair, a shiver streaking down her spine as she listened to him threaten the captive. Then she carried on arming the bomb.
The Legionnaire flittered out of consciousness and then back again. When he came around he seemed to way up his options. Jacob cocked the hammer on his sidearm just to reinforce the point. "There is a gathering at the second site scheduled for tonight. The local commanders will be there and so will a few of their lieutenants" he laughed through smashed lungs. "Looks like you picked a pretty crap time to turn up"
Jacob gripped the troopers head and pulled him close up to his mask at eyelevel. Nothing was said. The Legionnaire lifted his hands, gripping the Commanders shoulders pathetically and then silently died.
He held him there for a few moments and then with a sigh he dropped the corpse to the floor. "We need to get out of here and get back to the second site as quickly as possible, the Guardian may need help"
Drake looked up; he had his mask raised and a wire bit between his teeth. Delilah gently took it from him and linked it into the detonator. The arming lights flickered with amber warning and then stayed a steady green colour. "Were good to go here, it's all prepped"
Carlos's heavy weapon screamed to a halt, its rotary barrels sizzling with heat. "I'm out, it might be a good time to move" he shouted.
God tore off a couple of grenades and primed them. He rolled them across the floor and into the room they had been covering. A large blast rocked the doorway and a faint scream echoed from the darkness. "Let's go then, before we overstay our welcome…"
The door imploded with the force of a battering ram, the brace shattering and scything two Legion down as it flew across the room like a rotor blade. Before the confusion had even ended, the pillared room lit up with plasma fire and Knuckles did well to dodge the majority of it, only a glancing hit causing a flesh wound on his left shoulder.
He head butted the nearest Legionnaire, smashing his visor in three places and then punched the next so hard he took off through the air, turning over twice before smashing into a fellow trooper. The next shot he managed to sidestep at close range, the plasma hit killing the trooper behind him. The firer realised his mistake and for a heartbeat made the error of stopping. Knuckles levelled him with a backhander that sent him spinning away with a scream.
The blood was pumping now, a few minor injuries doing nothing to slow his onslaught. The nearest enemy simply dropper their weapons and bolted, only to be cut down by some screaming officer for cowardice. It took him a second to realise that the shots were intensifying again and he needed to find cover. He dived for a large thick square pillar a moment before an enormously loud weapon kicked in, literally cutting down the troopers still stood in the open. Kneeling and using the pillar as a blockade he took a couple of deep ragged breaths, trying to regain composure.
"Give it up fool, you're surrounded and I've got more reinforcements on the way even as we speak"
Knuckles risked a glance around the pillar and was rewarded with a close range shot that pulverised some of the stone, turning it to dust. Behind his mask he smiled. Monologue. It was one of those officers. As a second thought he activated his emergency beacon on his wrist. "Really? So have I" he bluffed.
"I applaud your enthusiasm my friend, I really do, but get a hold of yourself. You're surrounded, cut off and completely outmatched"
Knuckles gritted his teeth and looked around for a way out. In a Legionnaires visor on the floor he could see six or seven of the main guard taking up firing positions behind the pillars opposite him. There was still no sign of the leader. A quick stock take revealed had no ammunition, no explosives and he was getting seriously short of energy. Another heavy hit would probably wipe him out. He tapped the emergency beacon again for good measure.
"Right about now would be a fantastic time for the assistance!" he shouted down his radio mic.
As if in answer to his request there was a loud thud, followed by another three immediately afterward. The room shook slightly for a moment and then the explosions began to get much closer and louder.
"Guardian, we are on route to your position, eta two minutes" It was Jacobs voice, as calm as ever. "Hold on…"
A large explosion obviously pounded the complex directly above because part of the roof collapsed with a deafening crash. The lights died and a small fire broke out nearby. A second explosion sent a super hot fireball roaring across the room, incinerating a couple of the hiding and stunned soldiers. Knuckles smiled at the turn in fortune and made a mental note of buying the gunship pilots a cold beer if he got back. He flicked down his mask again and engaged the night vision.
"I'm still here fool, show yourself…"
Knuckles ducked down low and rolled across the room quickly rising up out of the smoke and haze like a demon rising out of the under depths.
The Legionnaire commander managed to raise his heavy pistol and fire a shot as a reflex action which Knuckles was able to easily avoid with his advantage of surprise. He grabbed the commander's pistol and knocked it to a side making it go off again. Before he could react the officer had drew a long powered sabre and took a few purposeful swipes, making him jump back twice in order to dodge the midriff aimed attacks.
Knuckles grabbed a piece of pipe in both hands from the floor and held it defensively. The next attack was aimed at his head and he intercepted it with the pipe which severed in two. The sword simply carried on downward and cut a deep wound in his shoulder, and then again as the Legionnaire pressed home the attack. Knuckles roared in pain and then directed the strength into two blows to the arm and fist with the pair of foot long pipes he now brandished. The commander didn't drop his sword but it gave him enough time to take a few steps back and reconsider his options. With a snarl he leapt again, sword clutched between his hands in an over head swing that would cut him the Guardian in two.
Knuckles narrowly sidestepped the attack which raised sparks off the concrete floor. He punched his adversary in the ribs, feeling a few shatter and then fell to one knee, completely exhausted. The officer staggered away, clutching his grievously wounded side and cursed at him. "You fool, you think you can stop me?" he cried and then he launched into a last desperate charge towards the wounded Guardian. Knuckles looked up at him as he approached and raised his right hand to hopefully turn the blow aside…
A burst of shots screamed though the darkness and impacted on the charging Legionnaire, literally sending him skidding sideways and coming to a brisk stop against part of the collapsed roof. He sagged over the concrete rubble, a large set of steaming wounds on his side and upper leg.
Knuckles took a deep breath and clutched his shoulder with a hand, he checked it and growled in pain as he realised it was still bleeding.
"You okay?" a familiar female voice shouted through the flickering darkness.
"Yeah, I feel like a million dollars" he replied.
Julie-Su stepped into vision with her rifle raised, her slender form reflecting the light from the flames. She took a quick look around, stepped over to him and knelt down. "I found him" she radioed back in.
"Received, closing in now" Jacob signalled back.
"Let me take a look at that for you"
Knuckles shook his head. "I'm okay, it's just a little tender" he pointed towards the bomb on his back in the black rucksack. "Lets get this sorted and get the hell out of here, I need a rest"
Julie-Su took a quick look over his shoulder and then at the discarded sword on the floor. "He was using a shiver-blade" she took out a bandage from her leg pouch and held it tight against his wound. "They are only given to high ranking officers"
"Jules, the bomb…"
"Screw the bomb" she growled whilst looking directly into his eyes. He could see her stern face behind the dark green visor.
Delilah and Drake dropped down onto the rubble from the floor above a moment later. They crossed the room and Delilah unclipped her medical kit, set it down and took over from Julie-Su.
Drake took a quick look around and then due to curiosity turned the dead officer over with his foot. He leant down and rummaged through the pockets, going as far as to remove the Legionnaires boots and gloves. Finally after a searching his inner jacket he found what he was looking for. "Bingo" he chuckled. "A data slab…"
Julie-Su took it from him lightly and rotated it between two fingers. "Pity it's smashed to bits, could have had some real decent information on here…" she looked over her shoulder at Knuckles accusingly. He was sitting down against a pillar whilst Delilah treated his shoulder and head.
He smiled.
"Are you finished?" Jacobs's voice came over the radio.
Julie-Su put a hand to her ear and replied. "Yes Commander, good to go"
"Excellent, home in on my marker, we've found something interesting…"
They found the other three on the top floor of the complex, studying a large black box with no distinct markings. It was held suspended in the air by a trio of small anti gravitational pillars which basked it in a yellow haze. The object rotated with mesmerizing slowness.
"Any ideas what it is?" Carlos asked Jacob.
He lifted his visor and shook his head. "No idea, it resembles some kind of hologram chip motherboard but ive never seen one this big before"
"Lets take it" Drake purred.
"We don't know what that would do" Delilah scalded him.
"We don't have the time to find out" Knuckles grunted through the pain.
"Indeed, we are sitting ducks here" God added.
Drake leant out and put his hands around the box, like he was clutching the most important piece of jewellery in the universe. "Lets get the hell out of here and let Locke decide when we get back, besides, I want to stroke it…"
Just as the box left the yellow haze, the pillars dimmed and then died with a fizzle. A red klaxon light roared into life accompanied by a high pitched alarm.
"Cant be good" Carlos spat.
Julie-Su walked over to the nearest monitor screen and pressed various touch screens. "The box was a piece of a large jigsaw, some kind of long range device, possibly to boost something. They know its missing, im getting questions from an encrypted location"
"Lie to them, tell them nothing has happened". Delilah stepped up to the monitor to look at the screen.
"Its no good, they know we are here"
Jacob stood motionless for a second and then opened a general radio frequency. "Red sword leader this is red dagger do you receive?"
A heavy hum from inside a gunship's cockpit filled the radios channel. "Reading you loud and clear red dagger, go ahead"
"Request emergency evacuation at site two, possible hostiles inbound"
"Affirmative dagger, evacuation in one minute, we will keep airspace clear for you"
Jacob cut the line and then paced towards the exit. "Let's go, bring the box…"