"Theta," The blue hologram blinked to life "I think it's time to go dark for a little while buddy."
"I don't know Natsu," Theta responded skeptically "What if they make you do another mission?"
"Wait in the personal server in my room, if I don't pick you up in 4 hour's transfer to the sector 375." Natsu said simply.
"All right I will begin now, the timer is set…If you get a mission come and get me before the briefing." Theta warned.
"Yeah all right." Natsu replied.
Theta blinked away and Natsu fell into his hospital bed with a sigh, he stared at the white ceiling of the medical wing, the lights blinked before beginning to flash red and he heard an alarm sounding in the ship, he got to his feet and pulled his chest piece out of a locker in the corner, he placed it over his chest and waited for the metal to snap over his arms and legs with a metallic click.
"Delta frame team report to briefing room C immediately, I repeat Delta to briefing room C immediately." The PA announced over the ship, Natsu bounded down the corridors, he bumped into a fully suited Dertega on the way.
"The Colonel told us about the mission before you joined his team," Dertega said flatly "Do you have any idea what's going on, sir?"
Natsu watched the man impassively before shaking his head "I don't but whatever this is it will be my last mission."
"I heard that." Dertega replied with a wide smile "I am going to request a transfer to the mainland…I don't want to be a field agent with a kid at home worrying about me."
Natsu nodded as the pair entered the briefing room, Makarov stood behind the podium at the front of the room, it was mostly dark, Lisanna sat in the middle row and Conrad leaned on the wall to the right side of the room, all combat ready.
"Have a seat you two," Makarov said flatly "Here's the situation, a Titanite refinery has been hijacked off the coast of Japan, looks like the black hand radical groups M.O, we have received no demands as per the usual with these people."
"Black Hand, Sir?" Lisanna asked
"A group of religious pyromaniacs that believe the world is evil and should purged with fire," Conrad spat "The chosen few are the ones that carry out this 'purification' they target refineries and other 'evil' installations."
Makarov nodded at the explanation "We had a feed from one of the camera's on the refinery for a few minutes before they took control of the structure." Makarov pressed a small black remote and a projected image played on the wall to his right.
There were around 12 men in long black capes with the hoods drawn up, moving in a horizontal line, large tanks strapped on their backs and long cattle prod like weapons in their hands, the man in the centre waved the stick about in front of him before a small arcing spark flew in between the two prongs and ignited the air in front of him. The video was interrupted by one of the men walking up to the camera, he wore a silver mask like that of a skull with two rotating bolts in either side of the jaw, the eyes glowed orange like fire and a small amount of gas sprayed from the mouth before his voice crackled through like on a radio (A/N: Essentially the mask Death Gun wears in GGO with orange eyes.) "To those of evil that are watching this, You cannot stop the Purification." Was all he said before he broke the Camera.
"And that was all we got, we know via PDT'S that 45 of the original 60 crew are still alive, we do not know how much longer they will be though, so we go and we go now, rescue the hostages and eliminate the radicals. Dismissed." Makarov finished with a curt nod.
"Sir!" The four stood quickly and saluted before they ran towards the deck, Natsu looked down the corridor to his room before shaking his head 'There isn't enough time.' He thought flatly as he followed his team.
The boarded the jet black Apache quickly and readied their various weapons. Natsu pressed the radio on the side of his helmet "Keep us high, we want to make sure they don't know we are there for as long as possible."
"Yes, Sir!" Was the pilots response.
"What's the plan boss?" Conrad asked as he loaded a magazine into his assault rifle.
"The more we can get without them realizing we are there the better so we are going silent, Dertega stay in the chopper with a rifle and provide over watch, Lisanna you and I will be the main unit in this mission as we are the ones trained in hand-to-hand and melee weaponry, Conrad you will keep the evac point to the south side of the refinery clear." The three nodded.
Dertega pulled his large rifle from the wall of the Helicopter and opened the side door, Natsu harnessed him to the side of the chopper and his placed his feet on the bar's on either side of the plan before aiming down his scope going over the Refinery "It's not looking too great, boss." He announced over the sound of the roaring wind, his A.I flickered to life.
"That is correct, The Black Hand have shutdown the anti-inferno systems from the control room and have ignited most of the east side of the refinery where Titanite in its most raw form is stored it is only a matter of time before it is detonated taking back the control room should be first priority."
Natsu nodded, blue prints of the refinery glowed to life on the floor and he crouched beside it, "the control room is here," He pointed to a small square on the second floor of the north tower "The PDT'S Show the hostages here," He pointed to a the mess hall closer to the south side "And the detonation will come from here." He pointed to the large storehouse on the eastern side of the complex.
"Our point of entry will be here." He pointed to the western towers Helipad "Conrad and Lisanna will go and retrieve the hostages, I will go to the control with support from Dertega from the chopper and activate the fire suppression systems, when I give the word the chopper will pull to the southern pad and then I will make my way over and we will all get out of here."
Dertega nodded "Put us down on the western pad, as silently as possible!" He yelled into his radio, the pilot answered "Yes, sir!" Quickly.
Natsu pulled the pair of pistols from his legs and pressed the button on the side, the shifted and clicked into his knives, The helicopter hovered slightly above the pad and Natsu pushed himself off, landing with a soft thud and looking around before gesturing for Conrad and Lisanna to follow, Conrad landed first rolling to a crouch and scanning around with his rifle, Lisanna landed deftly and looked around, the Helicopter flew back into the air and began a slow arc around the refinery.
"Remember try to avoid hitting the tanks…I would rather not blow up the refinery today." Natsu reminded as he jumped from the top floor, a black hooded man underneath him, the man heard something like the sound of wind ripping at clothes and managed to gasp as he looked up before Natsu embedded his knives into the eye sockets of the mask. The man crumpled to the ground and Natsu rolled to his feet, he stayed low as he moved along a waist his set of piped, peering over the top off them, Two men stood guard at the door leading into the Western tower, Natsu pressed his Radio.
"Lis, Fissures, you got two at the door leading out of your tower." Natsu relayed flatly.
"Roger that." Conrad responded, Natsu stayed crouched and waited, if he moved they'd spot him so he had to wait for his team to take them out. The door opened and the pair whipped around, it was more of a flash of sliver light than anything else before to headless bodies crumpled to the ground and Lisanna stood crouched in the doorway she flicked the blood from her blade and nodded at Natsu, who nodded back and started making his way towards the northern tower.
Natsu stayed low as two cloaked men walked side by side in front of him, he moved quickly raising his set of knives above them and slicing through their necks, the brought their hands up in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding and gurgled and choked as the fell back, Natsu finished them off quickly and continued in a quick crouch. Another man stepped out in front of him, Natsu gritted his teeth and remembered he couldn't Overclock to get to him before he turned around, flipping the knife in his right hand and catching it by the blade he sent it rifling towards the man in front of him as he turned around, the knife embedded deep into his high and he fell back with a heavy clank.
"Sirus?!" A voice demanded in panic, Natsu mentally groaned and forced his legs to move as fast as they could, as the man rounded the corner and looked down at his friend his eyes followed the path to Natsu, he raised the cattle prod like flamethrower and growled, Natsu raised his knife and battered the thing away, losing his knife in the process, Natsu followed with a quick kick to the inside of the knee, the man in front of him buckled, and Natsu slammed an armored fist into his stomach as the cloaked man lurched forward, Natsu stepped behind him and with a harsh twist snapped the man's neck, he crumpled to the floor and Natsu retrieved his knives before Stepping into the north tower.
Lisanna peered around the corner of the corridor leading to the door of the mess hall, Two cloaked guards stood at the door and another pair walked towards the corner they currently stood behind it was going to prove incredibly difficult to eliminate all of them without any alarms being raised. She turned to Conrad, he leaned forward and nodded cocking the firing mechanism on his rifle before making a silent count with his head nodding three times, on the third the pair moved around the corner, the two walking towards them were taken by surprise as they moved around, Conrad fired 6 shots, three landing in the chest of the one of the right and the other three hitting the man's shoulders before the last hit him square between the eyes, Lisanna's hand tightened on her blade and she took a deep breath as the two at the door suddenly seemed to be moving much slower as they brought their flamethrowers around, she went clean through the weapons the pronged piece at the end fell to the ground and shot flew over her head and hit the man in front of her, she flicked the sword back and relived the other mans shoulders of the weight of his head.
The door to the mess hall opened suddenly and another cloaked man who hand his mask removed walked out smiling before he realized who was standing in front of him, he stopped mid sentence as Lisanna brought her blade through the centre of him from groin through the top of the head, the Woman he was dragging ripped away and dived behind a table.
"It's a frame team! Roast the Hostages!" A man shouted from the other end of the hall, Lisanna pulled the blade up and threw it, it embedded into his chest and pinning his against the wall, she pulled her sidearm as Conrad rounded the corner, Conrad overclocked his hand eye coordination and his arms moved in a blur as he released quick burst after burst, Lisanna fired a few shots before the sound of gunfire stopped and the pair panted.
"Lucky they were still a little surprised to see us." Conrad got out through pants. Lisanna ran over to her sword and pulled it free of the wall, she darted around the room cutting the bindings confining the sets of hostages.
Conrad heard the sound like hissing gas and his eyes widened as he spotted the man at the end of the hall, the one Lisanna had impaled his mask was off and he was smiling manically "Everyone out!"
"Purification by Fire!" The man shouted as his sparked the weapon in his hand, the gas from his pack already spread over the place, Conrad spun around grabbed the closest pair of slower moving people and Overclocked his speed, he slammed back first into the corridor outside the mess as Lisanna closed the door, a small amount of smoke trickled out from under the door. Conrad panted even more heavily and got to his feet slowly, as he placed weight on his left foot his winced his A.I flickered to life "Your Ankle was dislocated in the impact, please refrain from using it till you have reset it, then I can heal it."
"All right everyone get to the southern tower's helipad, that where the helicopter is waiting," Lisanna ordered as she moved to support Conrad with her arm "We are getting you all out of here."
Natsu stood by the door of the control room, his pressed a button on the bottom of his knives and they shifted with a metallic clank and he held his two pistols, he placed the left one into the holster on his leg and pulled a charge from his belt, placing the plastic explosive on the door he took a few steps back before pressing the detonator, the door blew open and he drew his second gun as he bolted inside, the two by the door were already dead, 4 more whipped around to the explosion, Natsu fired at the two by the centre console hitting on in the neck and the other in the chest, he slid along the ground as wave of fire flew over his head he jumped to his feet and fired hitting the third man in the shoulder, he groaned in pain and dropped his weapon Natsu followed it with another shot to the chest and another to blow him into the ground, the fourth mans weapon seemed to be not working so he drew a knife and charged Natsu, The man kicked Natsu's wrist and he dropped one of his guns, he brought the other up to block the incoming knife and punched the man in the stomach, he reared his hand back and moved the gun as if to punch with it before firing, the man moved his head to the side and the bullet hit the wall behind him, The man grabbed Natsu's arm and flipped it around, Natsu let out a growl as a shock of pain went up his arm, Natsu kicked the man's knee and he buckled releasing his arm but pressing the attack again before Natsu could do anything else, Natsu jumped back and slammed his foot into the man's stomach as the man lurched forward, Natsu caught his wrist and pulled him around in a circle before slipping his arm rolling over his back and delivering a powerful roundhouse kick sending the man slamming backwards into the wall, Natsu stomped over to him and put a bullet between his eyes. Natsu rubbed at his shoulder as he moved over to the computer systems, he pulled the bodies out of the way and as he had many times this mission wished Theta was here.
He stared at the screens under him and attempted to fix the systems, the sharp ring of the alarm systems snapped his head up as the east side of the refinery went up in flames the room shook, Natsu gritted his teeth.
"Warning, Titanite storage house compromised…All personal please evacuate immediately." The computerized voice repeated the same thing over and over again.
Natsu beat his hand against the console in front of him, the room shook as another explosion rocked the refinery and the door shook, Natsu got to his feet shakily and made a move towards the door, the roof buckled and the metal fell with ear grating drag as steel dragged across steel. He grabbed the large metal bar and attempted to lift it, to no success.
Natsu stared at the now blocked door and sighed, moving back to the chair in the room he fell against his heavily, pressing the side of his helmet he heard his radio crackle to life "Viper 2-3."
"Sir?" The pilot of their chopper asked.
"Take off, I will not be able to make the extraction point in time." Natsu ordered.
"But, sir."
"That is an order Sergeant."
"Yes, Sir!" The man shouted in the radio.
Natsu left his radio on, he could hear Lis, Conrad and Dertega shouts of protest, the pilot responded with "I can't disobey a direct order."
Natsu looked at the gun in his left hand and out the thick glass window towards the steadily encroaching flames, before chuckling at the Irony of his situation 'One Last Mission huh?'
A/N: What's going to happen next? Who knows you will have to wait and see, I hope you all enjoyed this action packed chapter and I will see you all next week!