Author's Note: Hello guys, and how are all of you doing? I'm actually doing quite fine lately, having gone through a month being in second-year of university already. Anyway, here's the second chapter of the prequel to Reflex! Before I begin, I just want to thank those who have given the original Reflex a chance, and to those who have read and supported this fanfic as well! You guys are the best! I know that some of you have a great desire for a whole lot of action in these types of stories, so I actually will let you in on a special treat for this chapter. With that being said, enjoy this chapter!
Voltage Axe Presents
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Reflex BLUE
PHASE-02: Beyond Limits
Suresnes, France, Eurasian Federation
March 11, C.E. 85
1420 Hours
A blue sports utility vehicle sat idle at a parking lot that was next to an industrial facility. At the opposite side of the two-lane roadway, were the front doors of the head office belonging to Luther Industries. Four men were seated inside the S.U.V., waiting for anything that would occur at the driveway that was in front of the doors. They were all dressed in their ordinary clothing other than their combat uniforms, the only exception being that they had fitted themselves with bulletproof vests underneath their casual clothing. Adams, sitting in the front passenger's seat, peered through his binoculars as he scanned the area around the front of the head office buildings. So far, nothing yet.
Raf let out a prolonged deep sigh, as he relaxed onto the driver's seat, fluttering his lips away.
"Hey, how much longer, man?" He turned to Adams. "It's already past two in the afternoon, and nobody's turnin' up."
"Just hold your horses, Raf," Adams sternly asserted as he continued to scan the area around. "They may show up here at any moment, so let's keep a lookout."
"I mean, what if the Commander's wrong?" Raf queried. "What if they just already cancelled the deal, or they pushed it off to a later time? We'd just be here, wasting away days for nothing!"
"I seriously doubt it," the team leader answered. "The Commander wouldn't have given us the wrong intel, and besides, everything else points out to this place here with the exact time."
"I'm just saying, man," Raf pointed out. "There's no telling what's gonna happen."
The four men inside the vehicle continued to stay in their usual spots for the next half-hour, lying in wait over what was expected to come down. It was only until then, that when Adams was about to put away his binoculars, he began to spot something coming into the picture from the corner of his eye. Raising up his binoculars again, he maintained a visual on what appeared to be a grey, two-door coupe slowing down on the road from Adams' right. Trailing behind the small, grey car, were two larger sports utility vehicles that followed it as the coupe entered the driveway.
Adams lowered his binoculars, before he turned to Raf. "Are you getting this?"
"Sure did, Boss," Raf nodded, before he reached for a wired handset. "Command, Roman. Come in, Command."
"Command is here," the head operator responded. "What do you see, over?"
"We have spotted a grey coupe headed to the meet, along with two S.U.V.s of the same colour," Raf hushed as he communicated over the radio. "That matches the description of what the C.E.O. drives."
"Has the client arrived yet?"
"Negative, Command. We are still waiting for him."
Adams scrunched his eyebrows in confusion, before he put up his binoculars again. Through the viewfinder, he could make out the men that emerged from the grey S.U.V.s parked along the driveway, all clad in military fatigues and toting semi-automatic machine rifles. He then turned his focus towards the ginger-haired man that emerged from the two-door coupe, dressed in his light-black formal suit with matching trousers, as he stood outside the vehicle with the armed men right behind him.
Raf turned to Adams. "Damn, this guy's got some fine security around him, even for someone who makes millions a year!"
"I don't get it," Adams sternly frowned, confusion in his tone of voice. "These aren't the same guys who provide security detail for him! Not in those pictures, at least."
"Keep watchin'," Raf hushed up. "I see something coming up from the left."
Focusing his attention towards what Raf saw from his left, Adams tracked his sights on a black S.U.V., with two other vehicles of the same type and colour behind it. The three sports utility vehicles made their way onto the driveway entering from the left, before they all stopped along the lane and in front of the entrance to the buildings. Peering through the binoculars continuously, Adams zoomed in on an individual that made his way out of the leading S.U.V., all clad in dark clothing along with the armed men behind him that were also in the same apparel of the same colour. He put his binoculars down, an expression of concern was marked on his face, gritting his teeth lightly at the sight of everything in front.
"Command, this is Roman," Raf hushed as he reported to the head operator. "We're picking up on the sights of both the client and the executive. Looks like the deal's happening right now!"
"Roger that, Roman," the head operator responded, before warning the team. "Keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Remember that we need the client alive!"
"Copy that, over and out."
Adams fixed his sights at the front doors of the place, where the armed men on both sides gathered along the driveway, standing in tow as the client and the executive of the company approached each other. Steadying the binoculars, the team leader could see the two men greeting each other by shaking their hands with one another. They talked for a few moments, followed by the client letting out a laugh, before they continued to converse with the other. Not before then, the ginger-haired executive was handed a black briefcase from one of the men in military fatigues, opening up the briefcase to show his client what was inside. Adams could see the face of the client light up in a greatly-impressed expression, before the client received a black briefcase from one of his men, and opened it up to reveal unmarked paper bills of green to the company's executive. Accepting the offer, the black-suited man handed over the briefcase to his client, before he received the briefcase containing the money inside.
Adams sighed. "So far, so good."
Out of nowhere, two white sports utility vehicles sped up from the opposite sides of the roadway, before they screeched to a stop.
Adams tensed up at the sight. "What…the hell?"
In a flash, the doors swung open fast enough, before a rapid series of gunshots were heard from the vehicles. It happened so fast for Adams, that he dropped his binoculars in an instant.
"Get down! All of you, get down, now!" He raised his voice a bit at his squad mates, as they all ducked below the dashboard.
In an instant, bullets pierced through a few armed men on both sides, as they went down without firing back. Nicolas Luther, the man in the black suit, was also caught in the crossfire. Blood splattered all over the place as the executive's body flopped down onto the pavement, after an array of bullets punched through every part of him. The armed men that remained, had taken cover behind the vehicles and returned fire at the occupants inside the vehicles. It was then that out of the bushes lining the ends of the complex, flashes of men clad in black dusters emerged from them, zipping towards the driveway. As the client panicked and rushed into his S.U.V. with the briefcase in hand, the men in the black coats dealt with the armed sentinels, swift and deadly.
Sharp blades hacked past their necks, knives slashing across their throats, all of the armed personnel collapsed in a bloody heap. The client managed to maneuver his way past the driveway and onto the roads again, avoiding the bullets that struck his S.U.V. as he fled the scene. As they had entered a few moments ago, the men with dark-coloured dusters and cloth around their mouths rushed to the S.U.V.s parked along the driveway in a series of flashes, before they drove off and after the client. The two white vehicles had also joined them in the chase.
Poking their heads out from ducking underneath, the four men exerted their breaths before they whipped their heads around.
"What the hell just freakin' happened, man?" Snowden shouted.
"I don't know!" Adams reacted in response. "But it looks like some people crashed the deal, and the client got away!"
"Not to mention the executive got wasted!" Raf snidely remarked.
Adams turned to Raf. "The client went away to the left, let's go after him!"
Punching the acceleration pedal as soon as the ignition started, the rear tires on the blue S.U.V. spun before the car took off from the parking lot in a trail of smoke, as it followed the path of where the client and the other S.U.V.s were.
"Shit, I knew this was gonna turn bad really fast!" Raf angrily snarled.
"Well, it's about get even worse with these men after him!" Adams remarked as he reached for a sub-machine gun from underneath his seat.
Snowden reached for a steel briefcase from the trunk of the vehicle inside, opening it up to retrieve a semi-automatic carbine rifle, and several clips of ammunition. Likewise, the fourth man sitting next to Snowden had pulled out a combat shotgun from underneath the rear seats. As Raf darted through the roads at a blazingly fast speed, the blue S.U.V. began to approach the white and black S.U.V.s that chased after the client in his own vehicle. Weaving around the traffic in his way, Raf managed to get the blue sports utility vehicle right beside one of the white S.U.V.s on the lane to their left.
The hostile sitting in the passenger seat of the white vehicle took notice of the sight to his right, rolling down his window to see Snowden in the left-rear passenger side, rolling his window down as well.
"HEY, YOU!" Snowden shouted over at the hostile male, sticking his middle finger out at him. "STOP THE CAR!"
"What the freaking hell are you doing?!" Adams angrily yelled at him. "Don't flip him off, HE HAS A GUN! SHOOT HIM!"
Snowden then drew his carbine rifle out the open window, before he shot at the tires of the white S.U.V., the impacted vehicle veering off and out of control. Tumbling over and over a few times, the vehicle exploded into flames as it landed onto its wheels.
"WHOOO-OOH!" Snowden hollered as he pulled himself back inside the vehicle. "Only a few more to go!"
Static hissed and popped as the head operator buzzed out from the radio. "Roman, this is Command! What the hell is happening over there?!"
"Command, the client's getting away!" Adams shouted back over the handset. "Deal went south, C.E.O.'s shot up to SHIT! We're chasing him down the freeway, along with some unknown hostiles…they're dangerously armed!"
"Make sure you do NOT let him slip off from the cracks! He's our only lead to this investigation!"
"Hey, Boss," Raf breathed out as he pushed the blue S.U.V.'s engine even harder than before. "Just so you know, we're a few miles away from town!"
"I don't care!" Adams barked out, before he focused onto the next hostile vehicle. "Concentrate on the damn roads!"
The blue S.U.V. sped up to catch the rear bumper of the black jeep in front. Adams poked his head out of the front passenger window to open fire on the hostile vehicle. Bullets deflected and bounced off of the car, as the two hostiles seated inside the black S.U.V.'s backseats returned fire at the undercover soldiers, shooting through the rear windshield that broke apart in shards. Adams managed to get himself inside the blue vehicle again, reloading a spent clip on his sub-machine rifle. The fourth man sitting at Snowden's right, adorning his shades and a cloth covering his mouth, leaned out through the open window and fired a blast from his combat shotgun. The left-rear wheel of the black S.U.V. exploded into shreds, leaving behind a trail of yellow sparks.
"Way to go, Ando!" Adams hollered, as the blue car managed to get right beside it to its left.
Adams opened fire on the driver of the hostile vehicle, taking out both the driver and the passenger of the four-wheeled machine. Raf then slammed into the side of the black S.U.V., causing it to veer to the right and head-on into the back of a slow-moving sedan. The totalled S.U.V. then rolled over a few times and skidded on its side to a smoking stop, as the blue S.U.V. kept on going, barrelling through the stretch of paved concrete.
"I see him!" Adams pointed at the armoured S.U.V. in the near-distance. "Right there!"
Raf steered the vehicle and manoeuvred around the traffic in front of him, weaving around a host of trucks and other cars that were in the way. As he managed to get around an 18-wheeler in front, Adams could spot the armoured S.U.V. turning away from the freeway and onto an exit towards the streets of a town, with the two remaining hostile vehicles still behind.
"Damn it, he turned off from the highway!" Adams cursed.
Distracted by that account, Raf diverted his attention towards the fleet of three vehicles that drifted around to the left and away. Not realizing that the Specter driving the vehicle had lost his focus, Adams whipped his head to the left and saw a fork in the freeway that divided the rest of it from the exit onto the streets. Ahead was a makeshift ramp constructed out of a gravel mound, and Raf was going to drive into it, unknowingly.
"Raf!" Adams hysterically called out. "Hey, WATCH THE ROAD!"
Raf then turned his focus back to the sight through the windshield, before his eyes widened open as big as saucer plates. The blue S.U.V. jumped the gravel ramp at well over 120 kilometres an hour, the terrified Specters letting out the exact, same scream of terror, as they found themselves sailing high up into the air.
"OOOOHHHHHH SSHHHIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTT!"
All four of them then braced for impact, as the blue S.U.V. managed to land onto the very top of an empty auto-transport semi-trailer towed by a moving tractor, before it jumped away and landed harshly onto the pavement. The four soldiers shaken up by the landing, Adams turned to Raf, giving him a nasty look on his face.
Raf let out a sheepish laugh. "I'm just too pretty to die! WHOO!"
The driver had let out a holler of excitement, as he continued to pursue after the hostiles and the client. Far ahead, the client in his vehicle tried to shake off the pursuers in his rear-view mirror. He drifted around the corners of the streets, doing his hardest to lose them from finding him, but to no avail. Suddenly, as he turned his head back to focus on the road in front of him, he could see a pickup truck coming across the opposite road of the intersection. The dark-clothed male tried to stop his vehicle, but it was too late. The armoured S.U.V. ran straight into the side of the truck, t-boning it head-on. It was then ran into, by a bunch of civilian vehicles that lost control, that couldn't react in time to what was happening right in front. Finally, the two hostile S.U.V.s collided with a few of the civilian cars and trucks, the clad-in-black men rushing out of the vehicles and firing away at the armoured S.U.V. caught in the pile-up.
Screams and shrieks of terror erupted in the air, as the locals milling around the intersection panicked and sprinted away from the scene of chaos unfolding before them. Some of the civilian drivers inside their cars within the pile-up were unlucky, as stray bullets struck them in the head and elsewhere. Glass broke apart while spatters of blood were stained all over the windows, as the men in dusters shot at the armoured vehicle ahead. The client inside his vehicle cursed loudly, as he tried to get his vehicle unstuck from the wreck behind him. He backed up and rammed into a station wagon, before he rammed into the side of the truck again as he accelerated.
Speeding down the road, Raf took out a semi-automatic pistol from a driver's-side compartment, cocking the hammer down.
Adams began to freak out. "Oh shit, Raf!"
"Here we go, guys!" He prepared them. "Get ready for this."
As soon as he got closer towards the hot zone, Raf spun the S.U.V. clockwise, the vehicle coming around in a 360-degree circle before he fired his handgun at the first hostile in front of him. The hostile male in his duster turned around and shot back, before being taken out in a hail of bullets as he flew aback onto the hood of a car. Barging out of the blue S.U.V., the four men fired their weapons at the hostiles before scrambling off to different positions behind cover. Some of the hostiles returned back fire, while the others continued to focus their shots at the armoured sports utility mobile that was still entrapped.
Metal crunched against metal as the client cursed angrily even more, slamming his car back-and-forth against the two vehicles in between him. Sirens wailed in the air, before the bright, flashing blue lights of police vehicles moved in to the scene. Two police cars screeched to a stop at the left of the pile-up ahead, before the lawmen burst out from the doors and yelled in French and English at the hostile gunmen, their handguns drawn. Before they knew it, they were clipped down in a blast of bullets coming from the men in dusters who shot with their high-powered assault rifles. Thunderous bursts of gunfire continued to fill up the atmosphere of the usually peaceful streets, as Ando managed to get a shot on one of the duster-wearing men with his combat shotgun, the hostile going down on his stomach and flat on the pavement.
Adams made a series of shoulder rolls to his right, scrambling himself behind a dented mailbox, while Raf fired a series of bursts at the gunmen next to him. The team leader frantically pulled away at the magazine fixed to his firearm, before he tossed it away and called out at Raf to supply him a new clip.
"MAG!"
Raf instantly reached for an unused magazine fitted on his belt, before he tossed it to Adams, who skillfully caught the clip of ammo with one hand. Jamming in the magazine into the slot, Adams pulled at the charging handle before he poked himself out of cover and fired at the engaging hostiles. One of the gunmen in dusters collapsed forcefully from the amount of sharp projectiles passing through him. Snowden avoided the gunfire coming from a few of the hostiles, the incoming rounds breaking away the driver's side window of the blue S.U.V. as he crouched under it.
"GET THE WORLD DOWN HERE!" He bellowed out.
The client continued to desperately get his vehicle unstuck from the chaos happening literally right behind him, as he plowed his S.U.V. back and forth against the station wagon and the truck. One of the men in dusters took the opportunity of his other fellows fighting against the four undercover soldiers behind them, as he snuck up to get right close at the client's vehicle from the back. Climbing up onto the hood of a car, the male hostile leapt onto the roof, before he made a brazen jump onto the roof of the station wagon. Out of the client's rear-view mirror, he could spot the hostile gunman drawing out his rifle and shooting out the glass of the rear windshield. Reaching for a pump-action shotgun with a vertical foregrip on it, the client cocked the pump slide of the weapon, before he fired it backwards. More glass shattered away from the rear windshield, before the hostile shooter flew aback from the roof and lay dying.
Punching away at the acceleration pedal, the client was able to free himself as he pushed away the pickup truck with his sports utility vehicle, driving away from the scene in the process. Shouts of anger came from the hostile men in dusters, before they barged through the pile-up of totalled vehicles, and ran off ahead. Shell casings dropped onto the concrete, as they fired their assault rifles at the policemen that rushed into the scene on foot, striking them down along with a few more civilians that remained in the area.
Adams poked himself out again and fired, before he noticed the client getting away.
"Client's ran off again!" He called out to Raf and the others. "Let's go!"
The four soldiers immediately scrambled back into the blue S.U.V., before Raf took the car and drove off to a different path to get to the client. The remaining hostiles in full-length coats ran towards an occupied tractor towing a semi-trailer loaded with empty cars and trucks, just parked near the sidewalk. Swinging open the driver-side door of the trailer harshly, one of the hostile men dragged the driver of the truck and threw him down onto the pavement with great force, before he boarded the driver's seat. Another had boarded the passenger's seat, while a few others made their way onto the top and bottom levels of the auto-transport semi-trailer, a couple of them hanging onto the sides. The hijacked tractor-trailer began moving, ramming away at a few parked cars before it made its way through a detour to get to the client as well.
The tractor-trailer bulldozed its way through a bunch of yellow water barrels, sending clear liquids everywhere in the air and ground, before it rammed a small hatchback out from the roads. The 18-wheeler gained more speed as it began to catch up with the armoured S.U.V. on the motorways. A few kilometres away, the blue S.U.V. revved its engines loudly as Raf floored the acceleration pedal even harder, the car blowing past slow traffic as it made its way towards the back of the tractor-trailer.
"C'mon, Raf," Adams growled as he loaded his sub-machine gun. "We can't afford to lose him!"
"This is what I do!" Raf snarled back.
Raf held the acceleration pedal down to the floor as the S.U.V. was pushed beyond limits, racing past the multiple vehicles on the freeway. The hostile sitting in the passenger's seat of the moving tractor poked himself out of the open window, before he fired multiple bursts at the armoured vehicle in front. The client cursed loudly, as he continued to weave around the traffic in his path. Sirens erupted from behind the tractor-trailer and the blue four-wheeled vehicle, as more police cars joined the chase.
The tractor-trailer commandeered by the hostiles had mowed down a few vehicles in its path, causing Raf to swerve around them sharply as they all slowed to a stop. As the blue S.U.V. began to have caught up with the back of the tractor-trailer, a couple of the hostiles hanging around the lower-portion of the trailer had fired their assault rifles at the chasing Specters, blowing out one of the S.U.V.'s headlights in the process.
"AWW, C'MON! Shit, shit, and d'ahhhh—MAN!" Raf cursed out. "I could've shot that mother—dammit, holmes! Shot the HELL out of that headlight!"
The couple of gunmen aboard the lower-portion of the trailer continued to open fire at the blue S.U.V. going after them, as Adams returned fire while leaning out through the window.
"C'mon, Adams!" Raf roared out. "Shoot back! Shoot, SHOOT the hell outta him!"
The team leader focused his fire on the individuals that exchanged bullets with his sub-machine gun, before the tractor-trailer slammed into another sedan on the road, causing the S.U.V. and a few other police cars to veer around it. One of the police cars got close to the back of the trailer from the right lane, the gunmen having unloaded clips of bullets on the pursuing vehicle. The police car veered out of control as its driver was riddled with bullets, before it was run into by another police cruiser.
Static crackled and hissed, before the head operator blared out from the radio. "Heads up, Roman! We've picked up radio activity from the Eurasian authorities, and they're sending in G.I.G.N. reinforcements!"
"Dammit, that's the one thing we don't need!" Adams exclaimed angrily.
Suddenly, more bullets were fired at from behind the blue S.U.V., as there were blue and white minivans packed full of men clad in armoured gear with semi-automatic rifles. A few of them poked themselves out of the open windows to fire at the four Specters and the hostiles aboard the 18-wheeler. Snowden and Ando avoided the incoming fire from behind as best as they can, before they shot back at the Eurasian counter-terrorists inside their vehicles. As he concentrated very hard on the roads, Raf tapped a switch on the dashboard that opened up the sunroof of the S.U.V. they were in. Snowden then poked the top-half of his body out from the open sunroof, before he fired his carbine rifle at the pursuing G.I.G.N. personnel aboard the minivans. One of the few bursts of bullets managed to pop out a flat tire on one of the minivans, as the vehicle spun out of control and collided directly into a guardrail of the highway.
Angry shouts came from the hostile men aboard the semi-trailer, before one of them fired their guns to break away at a chain holding one of the empty cars in place. Another gunman used the most of his strength to push down the car off from the trailer, the wrecked vehicle being put in place as an obstacle on the freeway for the four soldiers and the police after them. Raf swerved the S.U.V. sharply around the stationary obstacle, before a police cruiser ran straight into it, causing another cop car to fishtail violently and flip over.
"Oh, these guys are off the chain!" Adams snidely remarked.
Another empty car was sent off the trailer by the hostile men, a civilian coupe running into it head-on, before the blue S.U.V. manoeuvred around the totalled obstacles on the roadways. The hostiles continued to send another empty sedan away from the trailer, but the car itself was still chained to the semi-trailer, making it a moving weapon used by the gunmen. The tractor-trailer swerved left and right, sending the chained vehicle colliding against the police cars and other civilian vehicles on both lanes, like a pinball bouncing off from the flippers. Going around a taxicab, the 18-wheeler caused the chained car to sail over the taxi and sending it over on its roof, dragging it with sparks flying out everywhere.
"This is some sick shit, holmes!" Raf shouted over to Adams.
"Yeah, it's about to get sicker!" Adams remarked back, focusing his aim on the hostiles.
The dragged obstacle of a wrecked sedan continued to terrorize traffic near it, as it curved left and right, smashing itself against other vehicles that were close by. A minivan carrying G.I.G.N. personnel had caught up with the semi-trailer, before the armoured men fired at the gunmen in dusters. The gunmen fired back, some of the bullets hitting away at the chained car's gas tank, setting the whole vehicle ablaze before it was finally unchained.
"Watch out, WATCH OUT!" Snowden cried out, as he focused his sights back on the road in front.
Raf steered the S.U.V. as it went around the flaming obstacle that remained on the roads, before he sped up further.
"Oh, they did not just do that!" Raf growled in anger.
Snowden's eyes were as wide as saucer plates. "OH, HELL YES, THEY ARE!"
A hostile gunman on top of the semi-trailer lifted a lever down, releasing one of the empty vehicles from the top portion of the auto-transport carrier. The empty truck dropped down, tumbling over and over in front of all the traffic coming its way, sending debris all over the roads. Snowden hollered loudly as the blue sports utility vehicle managed to get around the flipping wreckage that came its way. A few civilian cars ran smack into the tumbling truck, the truck having landed on top of a couple of unlucky vehicles.
Raf turned to Adams in disbelief. "Did you see that shit, holmes?!"
"They're throwing cars around!" Adams blasted out indignantly. "How could I not see that?!"
Two hostiles on the top of the semi-trailer then pushed down a coupe with all their might, sending it crashing onto the pavement, where it then tumbled in the way of the pursuers behind them. Raf jerked the steering wheel hard to the right, as the S.U.V. avoided another vehicle that flipped away in in its path. He hollered out terrifyingly along with Snowden in the backseat, Adams giving a shout by himself.
"Alright, enough of that screaming shit!" Adams blared out at Raf. "Just focus on dodging these sons of bitches!"
Another car was dropped down from the two hostiles, tumbling away violently and headed straight for the men in the blue sports utility vehicle.
"Okay, just relax!" Raf shouted over to Snowden.
Snowden could only refuse to think straight, having caught up in the adrenaline rush from all of this. The tumbling sedan flew over the blue S.U.V., the car having sailed over Snowden's head by inches, as he stuck the top-half of his body straight out of the sunroof again. As the flipped car cleared over the vehicle, Snowden put himself back down onto the seats, a thrill shooting past his body as he let out a howling cry of excitement with Raf and Adams.
"That son of a bitch flipped!" Snowden yelled indiscernibly.
"Man, that one puckered mine up!" Adams shouted out.
"The son of a bitch almost crushed my damn head!"
The tractor-trailer continued to pursue after the client in his sports utility vehicle, before the hostiles themselves found a way to lose the men and anyone else behind them. Catching up to a tanker carrying a whole load of gasoline at the right lane, the hostile driving the 18-wheeler steered the tractor into the bottom-right side of the tank trailer. The driver lost control of the tanker, before it jackknifed and tipped over to the right, as it spun on its side with the metallic portion of the tank trailer directed at the blue S.U.V. racing towards it.
"THE TANKER!" Adams screamed, his eyes bulged wide open.
A hazelnut seed dropped down in an abyss from the back of Raf's eyes, before it bounced upward and exploded into a series of "1s" and "0s" that rushed in rapid streams outward from the impact. Time and motion slowed itself down for Raf to make precise movements of the steering wheel, being able to manoeuvre the S.U.V. around the downed tanker in doing so. Having passed by the tanker, time and motion resumed back into its normal pace, as Raf was able to speed up again to catch up to the hostiles in pursuit of the client.
It was too late for the lawmen inside the police cruisers and minivans, as one of the blue-and-white minivans had slammed into the tank trailer that was now leaking fuel all over the roads. A massive explosion tore through the air, collecting several police cars and vans as towering flames rose out amid the thick, black smoke that billowed heavily into the skies. Any other traffic that remained, had come to a full stop before the flames that engulfed all three lanes of the motorway. The force of the explosion had sent the earth trembling away, the four men having felt the shaking from the floor of the vehicle they were in.
"Oh, man!" The team leader hollered out. "How'd we survive that?!"
"Don't know, man," Raf shrugged his shoulders. "I really don't know!"
Having escaped the police units and the G.I.G.N., the Specters focused in on the hostiles and the client, as the freeway began winding down from three lanes to two. The gunmen on the back of the tractor-trailer continued to fire away at the pursuing sports utility vehicle, with Adams and Snowden firing back at them. Suddenly, white smoke began to pour out from the 18-wheeler's front end, before the engine inside began to chug up. The tractor-trailer began slowing down to a stop, just as the sports utility vehicle blew past it.
"Hey, their engine's stalled!" Snowden looked back. "I think we lost 'em!"
"Good!" Adams growled. "Now we can focus in on the client!"
With no one else in between the Specters and the client, the four men inside the S.U.V. continued their pursuit after the man who had dealt with the now-deceased executive of the company. The freeway had terminated into a regular, two-lane road, but it didn't stop the client—who was now far more edgier than ever before—from keeping up on the acceleration pedal of his jeep. Going past a couple of intersections, and down a few curved turns, the armoured S.U.V. began to pull away from the undercover Specters that persisted in the chase. The blue sports utility vehicle could not catch up to the tuned performance of the male client's vehicle that slowly slipped away from their sights.
"Shit!" Adams cursed, slamming a fist against the dashboard. "He's getting away!"
The client could only give one long look at his rear-view mirror, which was devoid of any men with guns chasing after him, as he rocketed down the stretch of road. He gave a deep sigh to himself in relief as he managed to evade everybody and everyone who was after his blood. Just as he was about to take his concentration back onto the roads in front, a distinct sound of bells ringing repeatedly came his way, before the prolonged wail of a train's horn blew out within earshot. Without paying any attention towards what was in front of him, the client was about to drive right into the path of a fast-moving high-speed train that came from the far-right. The client could only elicit a shout of terror, before he was blindsided by the train that came.
In a matter of no less than ten seconds, the armour-plated sports utility vehicle was in the air, after it was struck by the nose of the train. A few violent tumbles later, the four-wheeled transport ended up on all four of its wheels, but it was now in a more totalled state than it was before. The right side of the vehicle was entirely demolished, as if a wrecking ball had its way with it, having gained enough momentum from a swing. Thick, white smoke poured from underneath the jeep's crumpled hood, while radiator fluid leaked from under the car.
Once the train had finally passed through, the blue S.U.V. had finally caught up with the totalled jeep that sat on the wrong lane, metres away from the railroad crossing. The vehicle had slowed to a stop before the wrecked remains of the jeep, before the four ZAFT soldiers had disembarked the S.U.V. and rushed towards the scene of the accident. Drawing a handgun out, Adams raced over to the driver-side door, before he swung it open with all his might. The three other men also had their firearms prepared, as the team leader managed to get the body of the unconscious client away from the airbag, and out of the door. He carried him gently down onto the flat concrete surface of the road, before he made a brief inspection.
"Client's been knocked out cold," Adams turned to his squad-mates, having checked the male's pulse. "But, he'll be alright."
"Man, can't believe it took a whole load of trouble, just to get this one single individual," Snowden quipped.
Raf took out a radio communicating device, before he pushed down a button on the handset. "Command, Roman. We have secured the high-value target. Proceed for extraction."
"Copy that, Roman," the head operator acknowledged. "Extraction chopper should be here shortly."
"Roger that," Raf responded. "Over and out."
A few moments later, the sounds of propellers fluttering in the air came towards where the Specters were, as an olive-green transport chopper hovered over the area they were in. The team leader waved over to the chopper as it began to land, and to pick up all four of them and the client.
Meanwhile, the driver-side door of the tractor-trailer had violently burst open, sending the door itself flying away from the door frame of the tractor. The hostile male in his nightly-black duster had calmly stepped down from the door-less entrance of the tractor, before he had touched ground with his heavy boots of lead. The other few men that remained aboard the tractor-trailer had also gotten themselves onto the concrete lanes of the freeway, before they had approached the man in the black duster. He took a few steps towards them, a stoic expression marked on his face, very devoid of any emotion that would be expressed.
Suddenly, a blue sedan approached them from behind, as it came to a complete stop metres away from them. A male civilian dressed in his plaid dress shirt and blue denim jeans had stepped out from his sedan, a worrying look on his face.
"Monsieur!" The man in his mid-30s had shouted over to them in English. "Are all of you alright? Do you need help at all?"
The hostile male could only stare at him with the same facial expression he had, furrowing his eyebrows irritably, and the cold and deranged stare of his eyes having an effect on the man who only wanted to bring them assistance.
The plaid-shirted man then let out a gasp of threatening fear, as he could see the hostile gunman reaching for a handgun from his holster, attached with a suppressor.
"No," the man gasped again. "NO! WAIT!"
The French civilian then turned around and began to run away from the group of six, a cry of panic tearing out from his throat, before two shots rang out in the air. He collapsed down onto the pavement with a heavy thud, a pool of blood forming from the body of the male civilian who lay flat on his stomach.
Smoke billowed off from the suppressor barrel of the pistol held in the hostile male's hand, before the man had put away his weapon, and turned to his associates. They all had the same, stoic expression he had, as they stood around him. A series of electronic beeps rang out from one of the pockets of the male's duster, before he reached out for a handset device from there.
Venomous green filled his irises, as the man picked up the call from the handset.
"Negative, sir," the assailant responded in a deep, growling voice. "We have failed to terminate the buyer, along with the seller."
An irritated voice came from the other end of the handset.
"We were held back by four men in a blue S.U.V.," he calmly explained in the same growling voice. "They had nothing much to do with our mission."
The same irritated voice on the other hand, had now became stern instead, as the person on the other end communicated to him.
"Don't worry, sir," the male assailant asserted, a sadistic smile crept up on his lips. "We won't let you down. It's only just the beginning…"
To be continued in PHASE-03: "Deep Cover".
And what an action-packed chapter that was! For those of you who may be thinking about what had been gone into this intense sequence right there, there were a couple of movies and video games that I knew very well from before, and they contributed majorly into writing these kinds of scenes. Bonus points for those who know which movies and video games the scenes were taken from!
Final point to make, and that is the fact that there's now new antagonists to be discovered, in the form of these gunmen dressed in dark-coloured dusters. However, they all have special abilities of their own, and they will be the ones to recur later on into the story of the prequel! Stay tuned for more!