Background music suggestion: Muse: Knights of Cydonia

Chapter 19: The Wind Rises

No one's going to take me alive
Time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive

-Muse: Knights of Cydonia

...

A woman walked into the tent, in deliberate strides, holding a file in her hand. She was quite sturdy, wearing shorts, combat boots and a tank top. Her brown hair was cut short military style from the sides, the middle part longer, combed back.
"Adler," she said putting the file on the table.
"Ice."
"The desert again, huh?"
She lifted her reflective sunglasses to her forehead and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"The desert indeed," Adler said.
"You're not taping, right? I hate when you tape."
"I'm not."
"Good. Because I want to say this to someone. The effing sand, it gets..."
She opened her eyes and noted Agent Adler nodded behind her. Someone who was standing there.
"Later," she said and turned around.
"Lieutenant Cooper," she said holding her hand out.
"Agent Legion," Ian said shaking her hand. She had the most tight grip.
Christine "Ice" Cooper had read a lot about the Agent standing in front of him.
"I just hate the desert. I'd rather go to Antarctica."
She had sounded friendly but she didn't smile. Looking at her face Ian had the feeling she probably never smiled - or laughed out loud. Ian just nodded.
"And I've read the file...You have the "heart of steel' - so to speak."
"I guess I have," he found himself replying.
He still didn't feel like correcting everyone's misassumptions about the heart. If she'd ever find out the truth, he'd claim to have misunderstood her referring to the Manowar song.
"Right. Adler, are the vehicles here?"
"Not yet, Ice. But the rest of the gear is."
"You gonna ride with us, Adler?"
"Yes, Ice, I will."
"Good. Let's go Legion. It's time you Metalheads meet us Cowboys."

...

"...and this here is Corporal George "Gun lover" Mills."
Corporal Mills made a small gesture greeting them.

All the introductions had been made. Ice Cooper led the Cowboys, a team of twelve - seven men and five women - including herself. These were military men and women so Ian initially thought there was a strange feeling of cloning in the air. All that similar clothing and those similar haircuts. But when looking closer the human variety was still definitely there.

...

Orfeus and Gudrun barged inside the tent, carrying a laptop.
"We finally had a breakthrough with Loke Magnusson's computer. We decrypted a lot of messages, mostly between him and SCEPTRE. They have some committee he's been corresponding with."

Orfeus put his laptop on the table, quite out of breath. Gudrun continued.
"We managed to find out the eleven souls in Bargala."

Ian read the names.

Ahriman
Apollyon
Baphomet
Dragonmother
Suhrim
Lilith
Loke
Nihil
Samael
Sigyn
Tiamat

"I do believe you know most of them," Gudrun said.

Ian looked at the names again. Most of them gave him chills.

Apollyon? Dragonmother? What did this mean?

"They're been doing some strange things there," Orfeus said.
"Who is Dragonmother?" Ian asked. He instantly had a gut feeling about it.
"She is referenced several times...She's connected with Namma," Gudrun said.
"They found her body. From the coast of Uruguay and extracted the soul...There was a lot debate whether this was wise but SCEPTRE wished to have understanding of the enemy. Also they believed the body was sacred as the dragon saved her."
It took some time for the information to fully sink in.
"Blowfish."
They actually had her soul and her body...It was too incredible to be true.
Orfeus rushed to continue.
"I know that was the most interesting part but I should also tell you we found something else, Loke's messages addressed to Sigyn, his former partner Sigyn Berg. First I thought it was a correspondence but it turned out these messages were actually never sent."
Gudrun stepped in again.
"He demanded Sigyn to be one of the souls. There was a long debate and he said he'll provide her soul. It was basically his condition for becoming part of the plan."
"We'll ask Helena."

…

"Soul fusions…I didn't know they could be done successfully. And what? You say he's been writing to Sigyn?"
Helena read the messages, her expression becoming more and more sad as she went on.
"She was already dead when he wrote these…"
She shook her head.
"He's writing of souls, dragons, how she'll return to him and they'll be together…"
Her eyes were becoming teary.
"I should have guessed..."
"Her soul…" she said almost to herself.
There was something she now definitely connected.
"I think...that was her breakthrough."

...

"These are like...black astronaut suits. Cool," Mitsuko said looking herself in the suit designed for desert warfare. The gear was slightly heavier than the regular Agent clothes and it had a helmet.
"So do you guys have a lab with someone like Q? Like in the Bond movies?"
"Yes. But it's run by two people - Bonnie and Wizkid," Agent Adler said. He was showing her the gear.
"Bonnie and Wizkid?"
"I might be able to pull off an audience. If you're interested."
"Believe me, I'm interested. You could do that?"
"I could…" Agent Adler said almost absentmindedly focusing on the suit.
"I believe the armor is similar to your Agent one. But in addition, you can change the color of the suit from the menu in your visor. It's part of the camouflage system. You control it with your eyesight..."
"Cool."
She was obviously in the menu now.
"So it seems it could be like...any color. "
In few seconds there was a pink desert soldier standing next to him.
Agent Adler shook his head.
"Hello Kitty," he said suppressing a smile.
Mitsuko was now taking a selfie with her phone.
"Hey...Laurie," she began.
She still couldn't quite get past using his first name.
"Do you have a callsign, nickname, whatever those are?"
Her voice had sounded a bit muffled behind the helmet.
"I actually don't. Everyone just calls me...Adler."
Perhaps Mitsuko imagined it but he had looked a bit down when saying that.
"Right...Hey, what's the thing with that soldier Gun Lover? Or do I even wish to know…?"
"Oh, you mean Mills. He just likes to stroke his USAS-12 gently before going into battle...You know, to bring good luck. Soldiers..."
"R-right."

…

August 18th, 2014, 0015 hours

"Let's get this show on the road," they heard Ice's voice in the communication system.

As they moved on the ground they were off the aerial radars. The four hovercrafts were moving in the night of the desert, three occupied by Cowboys and Agent Adler, one by the Metalheads. The crafts were quite loud but the hackers disguised the fleet as a natural phenomenon, a small sandstorm, in weather radars. But the most amazing thing was that they actually had a small sandstorm travelling with them. The cabin was open but the suits protected them from the sand.

"So HAARP is not a legend?" Jo had asked.
It was the weather weapon of conspiracies.
"Well, this is something...smaller that Bonnie and Wizkid put together. Don't ask me how it works," Agent Adler had answered.

Gudrun had insisted coming with Jo, Ian and Erik claiming they needed one fighter/hacker on the ground with them. She was now driving the hovercraft. The visibility was quite poor because of the sand - they could barely see the other hovercrafts riding about a hundred feet on their both sides.

The three hackers, Orfeus, Cosmo and Mitsuko, were in one of two helicopters with Helena. The choppers were flying much further behind. They all knew there would come a point when it would no longer matter if they would be detected on the radar or not. Also, Erik had teached one of the MSA pilots to fly the IAC that was also part of their fleet of Metal Cowboys.

They would arrive to the pyramid soon.

…