Background suggestion music: Muse: Knights of Cydonia
Chapter 20: Breakthrough
...
They were reaching their destination. Ian saw the shape of the pyramid clearly in the helmet's night vision mode, and also the wall encircling it.
"Now," they all heard Ice's voice in their earpieces.
The edge of sandstorm preceding them reached the wall, and at the same time explosions went off. The soldiers with callsigns Boris and Claw, the Cowboy pioneers, had set them in the wall during a mission the previous night. They hadn't planted as many explosives they would have liked though.
rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat
Almost simultaneously a choir of the enemy machine guns began to sing their deadly tune. Their hovercraft fleet had now most definitely been detected, as muzzle flashes from the edge of the wall lit the night. At the wall there were not only guards but also turrets. Luckily the explosions had caused at least some chaos - many parts in the wall were now burning. Almost immediately the enemy gunfire was met by the one from hovercrafts. Since they had the open cabins, all of them, except the pilot, could fire. Also, some of the Cowboys were even using sniper rifles, taking down guards one by one. Gudrun, a decent sniper herself now, couldn't quite understand how they could do it from the hovercrafts, in a sandstorm. But they did.
Erik couldn't help thinking that without Gwen's grunt they would have never had the element of surprise. The enemy had prepared for a sandstorm - not for an attack. He felt grateful for her for a moment but then very much concentrated back in kicking ass. The hovercrafts were about a thousand feet away from their first goal, the single gate leading to the pyramid on the southern wall. It was a large metal structure with steel doors, most heavily guarded, having a guard tower on each side.
chakk-chackk-chak-chak
Ian could hear the two choppers approaching from behind and they soon flew over them, followed by the IAC. The helicopters shot an array of guided missiles and the IAC fired the guard towers on each side of the gate. Most of the missiles hit their targets but the some were intercepted by an apparent missile defence. But the other of the gate doors was definitely destroyed, in quite a messy way, but the other still remained.
whoooosh
A missile passed them by.
bwoom!
The other door was now destroyed completely - they'd get through. Ian looked to the direction where the missile had came from. It had been an MSA soldier using a rocket launcher, aboard the hovercraft. They were now changing their formation, no longer riding side to side, Ice leading the way. The Agents' craft would arrive third at the gate. It was a bumpy ride but luckily all the hovercrafts got past the rubble. All the four vehicles now entered the gate. Two of them, the Agents' and Ice's crafts were now heading towards a large structure next to the pyramid, shooting along the way. The structure was built of large black containers connected to each other in three levels. The earlier scouting with the stealth drone showed the security center, all the living quarters and labs were located there.
...
The two teams, other being Cowboys and other Agents entered the container structure. They spread out in order to search either of the NüViking leaders, Tyr Nielsen or Loke Magnusson, their best shot at accessing Bargala. It was probably unwise to kill them.
Ian found Nielsen. They met at a corner and were now very much holding each other at gunpoint. Somehow he recognized Ian despite the desert gear.
"Well, Smith, this is a surprise. Although I cannot really say it's nice to meet you. You seem to refuse to die Tin Man. That's a problem."
"Not for me," Ian shrugged.
It was probably not the best moment to get all cocky about it but he just couldn't help himself. He had noticed Nielsen had a two guns. The one in his other hand, that he was obviously going to use first, was smaller but similar to the one he had seen SCEPTRE use, with plasma, laser and EMP settings. He also noticed the gun was set to EMP.
He was going for his armor first...
...and also his heart.
In a second Ian knew what to do. He allowed Nielsen to shoot him and fell on the floor as if the pulse had impacted him. Yes, it cost him his armor and the comm system. Ian was lying motionless and could see how Nielsen walked closer, to finish him off. As soon as he was close enough, he barged towards him so that he fell on the floor and pinned him down.
"I still refuse, to die, you know."
Nielsen clearly couldn't understand what had happened.
"We wish to meet Bargala and you're going to help us."
Ian didn't like the self-confident grin appearing on the man's face.
"Whatever you try, it will return it to you. Elevenfold. It cannot be destroyed."
He dragged Nielsen with him.
"We'll just have to see about that."
…