Chapter Fifty Two
September 6th, 2077
Night City, Northern California
NCPD Headquarters, City Center
"Two correctional officers guarding the main gateway." Falcon's tone was hushed as he spoke into the communication channels. "There approaching my vehicle now."
"I see three more monitoring the security checkpoint. That makes ten hostiles on the ground and three on overwatch." Sparrow supplied her own reconnaissance as their convoy ground to a halt in front of the gates of Checkpoint 1-Charlie. "What's the play Lead?"
Iwasaki's gaze narrowed on another four officers patrolling the lower floor with assault rifles in hand. Their strategy relied on a direct and overwhelming confrontation to catch the garrisoned officers off guard and eliminate them within seconds.
They were all screwed if even the slightest error was made, and one of the COs was able to activate the emergency lockdown protocols before the Bloodhounds could gain entry to the isolation chambers. Chamber commandeered the security turrets at each Checkpoint, but they were to be utilized for their exit strategy.
It would be up to the Bloodhounds to leg out the opening stretch.
"Disciple One. Engage the officers approaching our convoy." Eagle relayed as he grasped the handle of his Unity a little tighter. "Disciple Two target the CO's on our flanks. Disciple Three handle the guards on monitor duty."
"Copy that Lead," Tiger replied, sharing a glance with his anxious subordinates. "Ready to engage on your mark."
Acadia curled her fingers and relaxed her shoulders in an attempt to release the tension building up in her bones. The rest of Disciple stood behind her in two constrained columns, with their team leaders upfront.
Jaguar took notice of her wandering gaze and sent her an assured nod that managed to ease some of the tension.
"Standby for engagement." Tiger's heartbeat steadied, and his muscles tensed up as adrenaline reached its peak with every word spoken by Eagle. "3…"
"…2…." Inside the transport, the Bloodhounds clutched the inner shoulder of the colleague in front of them.
"…1…." Fingers curled around triggers, and a flood of tactical information rushed into each Bloodhounds HUD. Targets were identified, engagement zones were assigned, and every piece of necessary data and intel was transmitted and received.
All that remained was for the human element to execute their directives.
"Mark!"
Falcon was the first Bloodhound to fire his weapon, propping open his car door just as one of the CO's approached his driver-side window. A single burst from his silenced Ajax launched a stream of nonlethal projectiles that slammed into the officer's cranium.
Sparrow sat in the cruiser's passenger seat and squeezed off a pair of projectiles that slammed into the female officer's sternum and left cheek. The concussive rounds knocked her out of the fight before she even realized one ever broke out.
"Two down!" Falcon's relay was enough forewarning for Acadia to burst through the transports rear doors and pivot around the truck's starboard side. One of the patrolling officers was completely caught off guard and could barely raise his assault rifle before being set upon by the determined Siren.
Within a blink, Acadia had closed the gap and delivered a right haymaker across the stumbling CO's left cheek, sending him flying to the ground with a spurt of blood dripping from his lips. The unfortunate guard wasn't dead, but he would certainly be waking up tomorrow missing a few teeth along with a splitting headache.
Disciple's Two and Three disembarked and immediately dispersed along the starboard and port sides of the transport, respectively. The surviving officers on the ground had little chance of repelling the Blooodhoudns assault and were snuffed out in a matter of seconds.
Hatcher pulled his SOR-22 and fired three precise rounds at the astonished guards in the exposed monitoring station. All three projectiles landed well and true, knocking out the officers before any of them could raise the alarm.
Once Disciples Two and Three streaked past them, Eagle and Leopard slipped out of their seats and followed their subordinates into a direct assault upon the checkpoint gates.
Micro and Hatcher split from the main assault and rushed up the checkpoint walls, heading straight for the monitoring station. Draven activated his grapnel and slingshotted himself over the station's low walls with his rifle held firmly in his free hand.
The audible puffs of silenced firearms followed by subdued shouts of pain were the only indication that a one-sided firefight was breaking out. Hatcher scrutinized the trio of unconscious bodies before settling his gaze on the gate controls.
"Clear?" Micro inquired as she vaulted into the room with a pair of Unity's in each hand.
"All clear," Hatcher replied and mounted his SOR-22 on the low wall facing Checkpoint 1-Delta. Correctional officers guarding the ground floor had no idea that their colleagues at 1-Charlie were currently comatose. "Let command know we've secured the monitoring station."
"Way ahead of you," Micro strode into Eagle's line of sight and triggered her comms device. "Disciple Six, this is Three-Bravo. Monitoring station secured ready to activate the gates on your go."
"Roger that, Three-Bravo," Iwasaki maneuvered the remaining Bloodhounds into position on either side of the steel gates. "Fury, this is Disciple Six. We have taken control of Checkpoint 1-Charlie requesting orders."
"Take control of Checkpoint 1-Delta immediately, Disciple Six. Badger One is entering the server room now."
"Roger that, Fury. Six out."
"Micro." Hastings was jostled from her thoughts by Hatcher's low voice. "Come take a look at this."
Micro muted her comms device and slid next to a patiently waiting Hatcher. She followed his gaze to a quarry that would give even the most seasoned mercenary pause. Her eyes fixed onto the MAXTAC logo emblazoned on the masked officer's uniform, and she hissed with barely restrained vitriol.
"We were bound to run into them eventually." A scrutinized glance of Checkpoint 1-Delta showed that the dozen or so guards on station weren't your poorly trained correctional officers. All of them were MAXTAC officers, and Micro hoped that these cops were the same assholes that brought in Cypher.
It'd make humiliating them that much sweeter.
"Disciple Six. We have MAXTAC guarding the Checkpoint." Hatcher relayed to their commander as he ghosted his scope over the head of a MAXTAC trooper.
"How many?"
"Fourteen by my count." Hatcher and Mirco exchanged a troubled glance and a shared concern that this rescue attempt was being railroaded. Their strategy did contain a contingency for engaging MAXTAC, but it hinged on securing bot Checkpoints without raising alarms.
There was little chance that MAXTAC would be rolled over like the correctional officers at Checkpoint 1-Charlie. There were about fifty meters of open space between each Checkpoint, and Hatcher didn't fancy their chances of taking MAXTAC down quietly without raising a few alarms.
"Too many for the quiet approach." Iwasaki tossed a few contingencies in his mind before finally settling on an…explosive engagement. "Acadia, bring out the tone-setter."
Hatcher's pulse quickened."We going, lethal boss?"
"We're getting Cypher back, and if that means killing a few MAXTAC along the way, we will do so without reservation. From now on, you are authorized to take them down by any means necessary."
"Copy that." Hatcher disengaged his PAX modification and rechambered a fresh projectile. Micro holstered her one of her Unity's and drew a wicked Katana from its sheath on her back.
Amongst the gathered Bloodhounds, Acadia withdrew a prototype Gauss Rifle capable of delivering a high explosive 15x100mm slug with enough power and yield to bring down the towering gates in one shot.
Chamber specifically designed the Gauss Rifle to provide Cypher with a portable weapon that could bring down most fortifications while maintaining some sense of mobility. Acadia didn't know that her prototype was a bastard child of a UNSC project called Stanchion with more than a few liberties taken.
Acadia lay prone on top of the lead cruiser's roof and shouldered the Gauss Rifle while extending its bipod. The gates of Checkpoint 1-Charlie were the only barrier between herself and their prey.
Acadia's could taste the coming retribution. She nodded towards Iwasaki, who stood poised with the rest of the Bloodhounds to commence their attack.
"Three-Bravo," Micro perked at Iwasaki's words. "Open the gates."
"With pleasure."
The steel gates slid open, drawing the attention of those MAXTAC officers patrolling the ground level. Acadia took a single deep breath and savored the slight stumble in a MAXTAC rifleman's gait as he registered the Siren's massive Gauss Rifle.
It was the last thing he ever saw.
"Boom." There was a glint of humor in Acadia's eyes as her finger wrapped around the Gauss Rifle's trigger.
The 15x100mm slug emerged from her Stanchion's barrel at speeds that reached close to 17,000 feet per second.
The operators from Vulture Two were the assigned MAXTAC squad designated to guard Checkpoint 1-Delta while their sister squad maintained vigilance over Cypher's containment cell. MAXTAC Sergeant Jayden Palmer was the first casualty Vulture Company suffered during the Siege of NCPD HQ.
He would not be the last.
*BOOM!*
Sergeant Palmer's torso was ripped apart by the high-velocity slug, and an explosion of blood was followed by an eruption of metal utterly torn asunder. The gates were blown open, with both halve curling outward and shining a light into the Isolation chambers ever darkened corridors.
The gate's destruction triggered a safety alarm that echoed throughout the underground prison complex.
Warning! Warning! The Isolation Chambers have been breached. Warning! Warning! The Isolation Chambers have been breached. All authorized personnel are directed to contain the threat immediately.
A billow of black smoke choked out the corridor's atmosphere, momentarily blinding the MAXTAXC operators as they picked themselves off the ground. Corporal Declan Carter, a CQC specialist, wiped chunks of Sergeant Palmer off his visor while searching for his missing Ajax. Carter and the rest of his crew were thrown clean off their feet by the concussive blast, and several members, including himself, were scrambling to retrieve their lost firearms.
"Vulture Two-One, do you copy!?" Carter already ringing ears were beset by Commander Enyala's voice. "Vulture Two-One, are you there!?"
"Vulture Two-One here…." A fitting cough fell from his lips as he crawled towards his Ajax. "…The security gate is down! Requesting backup at the ISO chambers n-."
Carter's breath caught itself when a foot slammed onto his Ajax's frame. His eyes trailed up the offending limb camouflaged in a Nomex pattern towards a pair of piercing blue orbs.
There was always the likelihood of Cypher's Bloodhounds attempting a rescue, but their analysts believed their best chance was during his transfer towards NCPD HQ. The sheer impracticality of anyone brazenly attacking the beating heart of the NCPD was never taken into account.
And now that arrogance would cost MAXTAC dearly.
"Fuck." Carter's vision was consumed by the sole of his attacker's boot, and he was sent into the painful arms of unconsciousness.
Eagle stepped over the unconscious operator and motioned his Bloodhounds towards the Isolation Chambers smoldering ruins.
He ignored a select few of his subordinates, ruthlessly gunning down the surviving members of Vulture Two with a succession of faint puffs from their silenced firearms. Falcon and the old guard were not feeling particularly merciful, so the new bloods chose to either temporarily debilitate their prey or permanently put them down.
"Chamber, this is Disciple Six." Iwasaki could hear a commotion building up inside the darkened corridors. "I send Checkpoint Neptune. Disciple Three will maintain rear security. The rest of us will search for Cypher's cell."
"Copy that, Disciple." The AI's soothing voice was a stark contrast to Cypher or Fury's neutral tones. "Badger One has taken complete control of the HQ's internal security systems. You will have ten mikes to locate Cypher before the automatic override kicks in."
Iwasaki set a timer on the upper right corner of his HUD and flashed a few silent hand gestures towards his team leaders. Falcon and Jaguar led their teams into the isolation chamber to search for Cypher, while Tiger directed Micro and Hatcher to post up in the monitoring station they had just cleared out.
"Ten-minute deadline confirmed. Will Badger be joining us?" A tertiary voice jumped onto the comm channel with all the grace a Nomad possessed.
"Your damn right we are!" Iwasaki's ears balked at Panam's harsh voice. "We're taking a service elevator to the Isolation Chambers now. Meet us there!"
"Copy that Badger One, Disciple Six out." Iwasaki let out an exasperated groan at the prospect of being near Panam and V. He didn't much care for their close relationship with Cypher, but his capture had certainly not endeared his Bloodhounds to the pair.
Acadia's hand fell on Iwasaki's shoulder, and the simple gesture managed to elicit a wave of reassurance to wash over him.
"We don't have time to linger," Acadia muttered softly. "I'll rendezvous with Badger at the service elevator."
Iwasaki nodded slowly at Acadia's words, his eyes losing some of their weariness. "Take Falcon's team with you and search the northern cells. I'll take Disciple Two and sweep the southern corridors."
"As you command," Acadia gently squeezed his shoulder before locking eyes with her assigned team. "Come along, Falcon. Time to find my uncle."
"On your six, Ma'am."
Iwasaki stood by and watched Acadia lead her fire team through the empty corridors until they fell from sight. A small feeling of anxiousness crawled up his gut before he ruthlessly stamped it down.
Acadia was an enigma. For a woman who showed little emotion, Acadia's mannerisms detailed a deep compassion for human life that was unexplainable through words alone.
She got along well with the Bloodhounds while still displaying her expertise as a seasoned commander. Her time as the Secundus of the Siren order instilled in Acadia an unprecedented degree of flexibility and confidence within their command hierarchy.
While operating alongside the Bloodhounds, Acadia was both a leader and a follower, which should have resulted in a convoluted command structure, but it all seamlessly worked together.
"Eagle?" Leopard knocked her knuckles against Iwasaki's shoulder, jostling him from his deep thoughts. "We gotta move."
The Bloodhound commander shook his head free of wayward thoughts and nodded towards his patiently waiting subordinates. "Jaguar, take point and keep your eyes open. We're in the wild west down here."
These corridors were the closest thing to home a MAXTAC officer had, and they would make the Bloodhounds pay for every inch of land if they weren't careful.
Falcon found himself hugging a pillar for dear life as bursts of gunfire chipped away at the concrete. Acadia and his team cleared out half a dozen cells before they made contact with a MAXTAC team inside a congested corridor.
The Isolation chambers were separated into four-layered sections that ran parallel to one another. The isolation cells were in the outermost compartments, while those guards stationed inside used the interior sections as a separated barracks.
Falcon surmised that this team was dispatched towards the northern section to delay his team before they could complete their search. The MAXTAC team's attack came at the worst possible time, as they had managed to catch Disciple One in an exposed position while Acadia split off to rendezvous with Badger One.
"Acadia, where the hell are you?" Falcon calmly inquired, his head jerking to the side as a lucky shot skimmed against his pillar. Dusty managed to fire off a single round from his SOR-22 that caught a MAXTAC trooper in his right arm before being forced back into cover.
"Winged one!" Several bursts of gunfire bracketed Dusty's pillar from the MAXTAC squad in retaliation for their wounded comrade. "Fuck you guys!"
Falcon snorted with amusement at his marksman's antics but kept his focus on Sparrow, who was slowly creeping forward. Between the officers and the Bloodhounds was a flight of stairs, and the MAXTAC operatives were able to establish a superior position at the top.
A security station connected the western and eastern sections of the northern containment cells and filtered into the interior barracks.
If Falcon and his team could secure the security station, then they could lock down the northern cells and prevent a drawn-out fight with MAXTAC. Eagle and Disciple Two were already making good headway, but they were still clearing out their assigned section while harassed by a squad of MAXTAC operators.
Falcon's gaze trailed towards a pair of MAXTAC riflemen descending towards Vulture's position off to his left. He adjusted his Copperhead and poked his barrel out just enough to line up a clear shot of the lead operator.
A burst of 5.56 slammed into the operative's sternum, sending him barreling down the last few steps before coming to a rough halt onto his side. His companion didn't lose his discipline and dragged his downed comrade into a cell that was left wide open.
Vulture pulled a fragmentation grenade from his vest and tossed it into the occupied room. A blast of shrapnel and smoke was followed by a scream of anguish that drove the remaining MAXTAC soldiers into a frenzy.
Ten operators charged down the flight of stairs while being covered by a MAXTAC Heavy Gunner bracketing the Bloodhounds position with incendiary rounds.
Bullets pelted Vulture's position, forcing him to beat feet to another pillar parallel to Falcon's position. The tech expert activated his comm channel and screamed into the frequency. "Acadia, where the fuck are you!?"
"Engaging now!" A staccato of gunfire erupted behind the MAXTAC heavy gunner, and he pulled his Mk.31 towards his new adversary before a dagger was introduced into his left eye socket.
V leaped over the howling behemoth, yanking her blade from his eye socket before slashing his throat open. The Gunner stumbled in place for a few moments until a gunshot rang out and blasted his head open.
She kicked the leaning giant down the stairs and unleashed a stream of accurate gunfire upon the MAXTAC operators charging towards Falcon's team.
"Eat shit, fuckers!" Panam pulled her M2067 Defender and gunned down a trio of riflemen scrambling for what little cover they could find.
Vulture One-Two was caught in a kill zone of their own making, and Sergeant Raphael Christensen tried to rally his squad but died via a gunshot wound to the skull by a steely-eyed Sparrow.
"Move up!" Disciple One followed Falcon's orders, bursting from cover and charging towards the leaderless operators.
"Come here, asshole!" Vulture ducked beneath a pair of thermal Mantis Blades and drove his shoulder into a MAXTAC berserker. He maneuvered himself into a full guard and smashed a series of elbows into the operator's skull that knocked out the irate berserker before she could bring her blades to bear.
Before a pair of MACTAC riflemen could engage Vulture, Dusty and Sparrow intercepted them. Dusty incapacitated one operator with a burst of 7.62 that smashed into the man's left clavicle, killing him instantly. Sparrow infected her target with a synapse burnout that overloaded his cyberware and threw his retaliatory shots off the mark.
Falcon took down a pair of operators all by his lonesome, driving his Mantis Blade into both men's chest cavity before they could bring their weapons to bear. He barely noticed a figure charging at him from his blind spot as he pulled his Mantis Blades from their fleshy homes.
"Shit!" The Bloodhound dove to the side, narrowly avoiding a Gorilla arm to the jaw as one of the surviving members of Vulture One-Two fell upon him.
"Die Bloodhound!" Falcon's adrenaline spiked as he ducked another death-dealing blow from the Bruisers Gorilla arms and managed to slide away from a secondary strike. His back slammed into another pillar, and a hand snaked under his throat, keeping him in place.
The MAXTAC Bruiser pulled his arm back, seeking to cave Falcon's face in when a blade flashed out of the corner of his vision. A dagger slammed its way into the brute's skull, poking out the side of his head and killing him instantly.
Falcon removed the clutching hand around his throat and spared a glance towards his grinning savior. "Thank you, Ma'am."
"What did I say about calling me that?" V yanked her serrated blade free of the Bruiser's skull, wiping the bloodstains off the dagger with her sleeve.
"Sorry," Falcon wheezed out. "Force of habit."
"I bet." The Merc turned on her heels, trusting the Bloodhounds to follow in her wake as she stormed up the flight of stairs. She locked eyes with Panam, who was scavenging the security feeds for Cyrus's cell. "Did you find him?"
"Still searching." The Aldecaldo motioned towards another workstation. "Plug in and help me out!"
Falcon ascended the stairs and found the pair of women diligently working on the security consoles when a question crossed his mind. "Where's Acadia?"
V pointed towards the security doors leading to the interior barracks. "She went to meet the locals and see if Rory was rolling with them."
Falcon peeled off towards the barracks even as the sounds of combat grew in intensity. Knowing Acadia, she wouldn't need backup, but he wasn't willing to take that chance.
"Sparrow," Hattori glanced in his direction. "Stay with Badger and find Cypher."
The Bloodhounds hesitated at first but halted her pace just in time to see her team disappear into the doorway. A cursory glance towards V revealed the Merc scanning through multiple screens at an alarming rate.
"Sections 1 and 2 are clear," Panam spoke with a somber tone. "Please tell me you have something?"
V monetarily ignored her companion, the lights of her eyes solely focused upon the monitoring screen flashing numerous cells when she located a dimly lit room. Unlike the other darkened units, this one was occupied by an attendant.
The Isolation Chambers had a few contracted Correctional Officers operating as assistants for their mental conditioning program. Falcon and his team had already discovered several restrained Cyberpsychos that MAXTAC operators brought in, but their interrogators had shattered their already fractured minds.
When the Bloodhounds breached the complex, most attendants fled their posts and left their charges bound in their cubes. This one was acting different and was almost lost in the haze of his…ministrations.
A part of V prayed that Cyrus was not the one being tormented, but her heart sank when her eyes zeroed in on the cube's inhabitant—strapped into the chair with numerous tubes running into the cage was the man who had taken her heart.
Sorrow turned into a potent anger, and V ignored Panam's shout of alarm as she raced towards the containment cell. Sparrow activated her transponder and relayed to Eagle that they had finally located Cyrus.
"3-14, 3-15, 3-16." V muttered to herself as she passed empty compartments bearing the wrong cell numbers before finally spotting her target. "3-17."
The Merc came to a slow stop outside the chamber, and she could hear a sickening cackle alongside sparks of voltage being pushed to their limit. Sparrow and Panam managed to reach V as she attempted to push open the cell doors with her shoulder but to no avail.
"Move over!" V followed Sparrow's command and allowed the Bloodhound to lodge a thermite charge into the cell's electronic lock. Panam pulled V out of the way as Hattori braced against the wall opposite them. "Clear!"
*BOOM!*
When the doors lock blew open, Gaunt was in the middle of adding more toxins to Cyrus' drip. Sparrow was the first to enter the containment cell, and she crossed the distance between them in a blink.
The Bloodhound unsheathed her Katan and lurched forward, sheathing her blade into the attendant's abdomen and lifting him into the sky. Streams of electricity licked off her katanas metal setting afire his uniform and delivering pure retribution.
V ignored the dying sociopath and drove her Mantis Blades into the containment cells tempered glass, tearing open the cell doors with ease.
"Cyrus!"Panam reached the cubes console and disconnected the tubes from their drip, tearing off the plastic package and throwing it across the room. She deactivated the restraints and watched the steel bindings retreat to their standby positions.
V was ill-prepared to find Cyrus in such a devastating state. The clothes covering his body were stained with blood in almost every spot possible, and pieces of skin showed the telltale signs of healing lacerations. His breathing was shallow and hoarse, suggesting extensive damage to his lungs. She ran her hands over his shoulders before gently pulling him out of the cell.
Panam came to her aid and distributed some of his weight against her side, allowing them to gingerly lower him to the floor.
Tears stained V's eyes as she cradled his head close to her bosom, and his lips uttered an incomprehensible moan.
"Cyrus, can you hear me?" Panam gripped his chin and called out to her Spartan with a voice filled with more emotion than she had ever expressed in her life.
The last seven hours had filled her with more anxiety than she had ever experienced in her life, but she channeled her angst into a controlled rage unleashed upon the CO's corpse.
It pained Panam to watch Cyrus endure such a state, but even his ailments could not keep his stubbornness from showing. As his visage was revealed, he appeared cognizant of their collectively held breath amid a haze of exhaustion, chemicals fading away, and no doubt severe torment along with it.
Cyrus detested being fussed over, and despite V's anxious protests and his own screaming limbs, he insisted on getting to his feet, but his body refused to respond to his demands.
"Cyrus!" V cried, her voice wavering as she leaned his ailing form against her chest.
V barely managed to grasp his leaning frame just in time to steer him away from Gaunt's bloody corpse. Acadia burst into the room with blood stained across her armor and rushed towards the trio.
MAXTAC reinforcements had broken down the security barriers and were pouring into the tunnels to cut off their escape.
"We have to go now!" The Siren grabbed Cyrus by his right arm and leaned him against her side. V and Panam shook themselves from their stupor and stormed after the pair leaving Sparrow to mine the security station for personnel files and recordings of MAXTAC's crimes inside the Isolation Chambers.
The Bloodhounds intended to leave MAXTAC's reputation ruined by the end of this night.
While their sister teams completed their primary objectives, Disciple Three was left in the rear guard to fight off a retaliatory force of MAXTAC operators from Vulture Three.
Tiger and his team maneuvered their vehicles in a cordon surrounding the smoldering gates when the operators rolled into the Heavy Containment Zone corridor.
Hatcher and Micro maintained their position inside Checkpoint 1-Delta's monitoring station and used its superior positioning to keep the operators pinned behind their Ironclads.
"Disciple Six, this is Three-Alpha. Where the hell are you guys?!" Tiger and the other Bloodhounds fired an accurate salvo of ballistic shells against the three bullet-resistant Ironclads. Armor-piercing rounds tore into the vehicle's chassis, breaching their interior and carving up their engines.
"One minute out, Three-Alpha," Iwasaki responded over the barks of gunfire. "We're retrieving critical data now! Acadia should be arriving shortly!"
"Copy that!" Tiger disconnected his commlink and turned towards his grimacing team members. "One minute!"
An explosive fragmentation round bounced off the cruiser's hood and impacted the wall behind Tiger, showering him in tiny barbs of shrapnel. Most bounced off his armor with ease, but a single jagged edge lodged itself in between his left shoulder blade.
The sudden jolt of pain lurched him forward enough to expose himself to a MAXTAC sniper.
*BANG!*
A round tore into Tiger's neck, ripping an exit wound that sent his body flopping onto the ground next to Fever, who pulled him into her lap.
"Tiger's hit!'' Silence consumed the Bloodhounds communication channel, and for the first time in their existence, one of their own had gone down. "We need backup now!"
By either luck or circumstance, Falcon and Disciple Two arrived just in time to reinforce their position. Vulture slid next to Fever and gently laid Tiger off of her lap and onto the blood-stained floor. He roughly grabbed Moss by her shoulders and urged her away, snatching her discarded carbine and pushing it into her arms.
"Get back in the fight, Bloodhound." Dusty grabbed Fever by the arm and pressed her against the cruiser opposite of Tiger's laid-out form. He moved towards the angled transport truck and cut off a MAXTAC fire team making a daring push up their left flank.
"Disciple One, friendlies are coming up your rear!" Falcon peered back just in time to catch a glimpse of Acadia slowly dragging a wounded Cypher into view. V and Panam formed a protective ring around the Siren, which he believed MAXTAC would never be able to breach.
Eagle led directed Disciple Two to shore up their flanks before sliding next to his downed team leader. Tiger's recon hood was removed, and Vulture was administering a gauze to stop the bleeding before he went into shock.
"How's he doing?!" Iwasaki inquired, momentarily drawing Motozawa's attention.
"He's touch and go right now." The Tech expert remarked with urgency. "We need to get him the fuck out of here!"
"Chamber!" Eagle called out. "Checkpoint Jupiter. I repeat Checkpoint Jupiter!"
The containment zone lights flickered ominously, and the automated security turrets that had remained silent brimmed to life. MAXTAC Lieutenant Hayden Fletcher was pushing two squads forward when his XO had his arm taken clean off by a .50 Caliber ballistic shell.
The operators were forced to divert their men towards dismantling the security turrets, giving the Bloodhounds an opening to escape.
"Mount UP NOW!" Iwasaki screamed into the comm net as Acadia shuttled Cyrus into one of their commandeered cruisers. "Chamber, how's our exit!"
"You have thirty seconds to exit the containment zone! Get your asses in gear!"
Disciple Twos and Three entered the transports carriage, carefully dragging Tiger's listless body with them. Falcon divided his team into the hijacked police cruisers allowing Eagle and Leopard to drive the transport and chart a course ahead.
V kept Cyrus pressed against her chest, her hands constantly searching for a pulse while their convoy plowed through MAXTAC vehicles. Cyrus's shallow breath was dimming with every passing second, and Panam glanced back in worry when V whispered into his ear.
"Cyrus, wake up." She dragged his chin towards her, trying to find some form of visual cue that showed her was still conscious. Blood continued to seep from his mouth, no doubt a consequence of MAXTAC's torture chamber.
"You don't get to leave us." V pressed her forehead against his and whispered into his ear. "Not now, not ever. You made us a promise."
And he had yet to break one.
In the unlikely event that you are captured. You will give your captors nothing but silence. Headhunters do not exist. Either in life or death, you are shadows, and shadows tell no secrets.
Cyrus never believed he would ever be taken alive, but the last few days have proven that nothing is certain and that Colonel Ackerson's assertions remained relevant. He sat ramrod straight in his seat, his skin marred by injection marks, scars, and electrical burns.
He was lost in a stricken haze, teetering on the edge of cognizance as his mind and body fought tooth and nail to keep him from going insane.
His isolation chamber consistently pulsated hazardous levels of voltage that tortured Cyrus' nerves to the point that he could not tell one pulse from the next. An imperceivable shadow consumed his surroundings, and the only beacon of illumination was a fluorescent beam shining from above.
Rory would come into view at random intervals, a sardonic grin plastered across her infernal features as she pumped his body full of foreign substances and liquids.
Cyrus's…conditioning…as Rory had called it wasn't just a near-lethal application of electrical voltages but also numerous injections containing chemical agents that were designed to either manipulate his nerves with overwhelming pain or make them abundantly sensitive to outside stimuli.
In one instance, Rory directed one of her attendants to inject a toxin that targeted his red blood cells. The dosages did nothing but amuse Cyrus's augmented immune system, but this resistance proved to be temporary once his captors realized that these small doses were getting them nowhere.
Several incisions were made in Cyrus's immobilized limbs', and a series of tubes were connected to a drip installed on the exterior of his confinement chamber laced with the neurotoxin.
When the foreign substance was combined with his daily voltage, the effects were…excruciating.
Blood seeped from his skin as tampered erythrocytes were forcibly ejected from his bloodstream and leaving his tattered clothes stained in a deep crimson hue. If it weren't for his augmented immune system, Cyrus would have died within moments.
The MAXTAC officer was looking for a reaction, a moment of weakness that she could utilize to her advantage. It was nothing more than a game to Rory as she stood in silent vigil for hours, relishing in the excruciating pain she inflicted upon him even as he fantasized ripping her head from her shoulders.
When Rory was satisfied with a particularly painful spike of electricity, she would stride back and forth across his blurred vision dragging a finger against the tempered and raking her eyes over him.
"Give me your name." Rory's demands were simple and to the point, but that was the beauty of torture when one seeks to break the other. She wanted the smallest amount of acceptance from Cyrus, but he would give her nothing more than a contempt-filled gaze.
His lack of reply earned a breath of disappointment, and Rory would turn towards an attendant named Gaunt, nodding her head with sharp eyes. "Again."
The attendant raked his hands over the containment's controls, taking a sick pleasure in biding his time before activating the chamber's lethal remedies.
Cyrus would soon feel a fresh sting of voltage that sent his muscles spasming uncontrollably and his nerves firing off every reception of pain possible.
But still, he refused to show it.
Gaunt derived pleasure from violence, and he was a sadist that Commander Enyala recruited for his…talents. He started out as an average NCPD correctional officer, but his propensity for random violence earned him a reputation amongst those interned within the Heavy Containment Zone.
After Gaunt brutalized a Valentino capo, leaving him a bloodied and incoherent mess, other prisoners began to take notice of him with muted terror. He finally wielded influence over more powerful men due to his outbursts that satisfied a burning desire for control.
He would be the first to die as soon as Cyrus was finished with Rory.
A shift in her gaze on the third day of this grueling stretch altered her countenance from ecstasy to subdued displeasure.
Rory shoved Gaunt away from the console during the third hour of his mental conditioning and manipulated the controls with a venomous gaze. The instruments were dialed up a notch, turning Cyrus into a conduit that threatened to boil his innards until they were naught but fluid.
"Stop resisting." Rory snarled out. "Why do you refuse to submit. We could turn this city into our hunting grounds. We could be something special!"
Her arms shot forward, pushing the containment cells voltage injectors into levels that Cyrus could no longer endure. The neurotoxin coursing through his veins turned his body into an entity of pure agony, and for the first time in days, a sound accompanied the crack of electricity.
"ARRRRRGGHHHH!" Rory's displeased countenance morphed into pure ecstasy as Cyrus's scream of anguish echoed throughout the isolations chambers.
"Finally…." The MAXTAC officer allowed a content sigh to fall from her lips even as her captive bled profusely through his limbs. "…We're getting somewhere."
Rory turned to Gaunt with a narrowed gaze, "Keep working on him. I need to report to Commander Enyala."
"With pleasure." The MAXTAC Lieutenant exited the room leaving Cyrus at the mercy of the psychotic sadist.
A massive boom reverberated throughout the isolation chambers, but minutes turned into hours, and all manner of noise had been jumbled together into an incoherent sound.
Cyrus did not see the alteration in her countenance as his eyesight finally went dark. In response to the excruciating stimulation, his body began to shut down, plunging him back into oblivion.
He often greeted the darkness with open arms, but this time Rory's tortuous applications followed him even into his anaphylactic shock.
Cyrus hovered in an inconceivable plane of darkness, and his body continued to be brutalized for nothing more than a sociopath's amusement. There was nothing he could do but endure, and endure he shall.
Throughout every agonizing moment, Cyrus was adamant that his family would come for him, regardless of the circumstances or rationalizations to the contrary. He had absolute confidence in Panam, V, Acadia, and his Bloodhounds that they would do whatever was required to pull him from this hell.
However, a piece of Cyrus clung to the hope that the one person in the world who truly knew what it meant to be a Spartan would return to the fold. More than ever, he desired his partner's return, and he needed the sister that followed him through the glassed cities of Arcadia to the roving jungles of Heian.
But Headhunters rarely cling to hope.
Still, it was his faith in Chamber, his most loyal companion, that held out above the rest. If he were killed or detained while on a mission, ONI regulation required her to immediately activate her termination routines and erase her existence from reality, but the AI repeatedly demonstrated that she rarely followed these directives.
And even in this dark abyss, Chamber was not far from his side.
I chose you because you were special.
"Chamber?" Cyrus's blurred gaze was drawn towards an ethereal light in the distance.
I knew we would be perfect together.
Slowly, with a faltering step born of misfiring nerves, Cyrus stumbled towards the light. An ethereal hand reached for his chin, and a humanoid shape emerged from the shadows.
And I was right.
Gunfire rang out from all angles and his blurred gaze caught a fleeting glimpse of a Bloodhound driving his blade into Gaunt's abdomen, staining the console and his isolation cell in a spray of crimson.
He barely perceived V's exquisite features stained by tears that marred her elegance and Panam's sorrow-filled sneer as she took his weakened hand.
"You don't get to leave us. Not now, not ever. You made us a promise."
Cyrus reached for the heavens and grasped the ethereal hands with conviction. Fingers brushed across his plasma scar, almost tenderly, and he gazed upon a familiar pair of burning amber orbs shining in the night.
"V?"
Valerie beamed a magnificent smile and embraced his weakened frame.
Welcome home, Spartan.
Eliza watched the convoy disappear over the horizon; MAXTAC earphones took to the skies in a blind search for their escaped prey.
It wouldn't help them. Acadia was leading the Bloodhounds to the one place in the city that no one would dare enter.
Solaria would welcome Cyrus and his Bloodhounds with open arms as far as Eliza was concerned.
"We not going with them?" Chamber inquired as the Matriarch turned away from the high-rise window. The Spartan lingered on the executive levels after taking down a hundred officers inside their Bullpen.
Eliza knew that the architect to Cyrus's capture wouldn't let him go unless she did something about it.
"No." The Spartan replied. "I have a loose end to tie up."
There was an old saying in Reaper team. No matter what happens, all accounts will be settled. Cyrus settled his own debts for Dana Parker by killing Isabel where she could not.
It was time to return the favor.
Commander Enyala looked up from her desk as she heard the door to her office swing open. She had been expecting this visit ever since she lost contact with the Isolation Chambers and Rory.
Her second in command was dispatched to the Bullpen after reports of Cypher began to circulate throughout the building. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that he still remained captive and unable to perform his impossible feats anytime soon.
That only left one culprit.
Enyala was only marginally surprised to see her former Matriarch walk in with a broken Melissa Rory in her grasp.
It was little wonder that Rory had barely put up a fight against Eliza, but the golfing class between Siren and Matriarch was something even Enyala could never hope to close.
Cypher held back.
She did not.
Margaret wondered if they would be here had Eliza shown this type of backbone to Isabel.
Maybe then a civil war for the order's soul wouldn't have been necessary.
"It's been a long time, Eliza," Margaret spoke with a sarcastic manner, glancing towards the critically wounded Melissa Rory. "Did you have to brutalize my subordinates so viciously?"
The Spartan haphazardly tossed Rory at her desk, watching her skull bounce off its edge with amusement.
"Your lucky she's still alive."
"Suppose I am," Enyala conceded the point and nodded towards her oddly organized office. "You'll forgive me for not tidying up. I very rarely receive visitors of your magnitude."
"After tonight, I doubt you'll have to worry about that." Eliza drew her sidearm and pointed it and Margaret's head. The former Siren smiled with amusement at the direct threat.
"Even you aren't stupid enough to kill a public servant."
"I'm not killing you." Margaret's smile vanished when Eliza slid the Unity across her desk. "You're going to do it for me."
"And why would I do that?" A TV monitor flashed on, and Enyala's features turned grim as a breaking news bulletin flashed across the screen. The reporting anchor was muted, but the outraged look was hard to miss
TORTURE CHAMBER UNDERNEATH NCPDHQ? COMMANDER MARGARET ENYALA IS LISTED AS A PRIME SUSPECT FOR UNETHICAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING RING. COUNCILOR PERALEZ IS CALLING FOR THE IMMEDIATE DISSOLUTION OF MAXTAC.
Eliza turned her back on the doomed woman, sparing her little more than a small glance with some parting words.
"In about thirty seconds, Commander Matthews is going to walk in here with a full squad of SWAT officers. What's he going to find when he gets here?"
The emotion played out on Enyala's face before she reluctantly grasped the Unity and pressed it to her skull. A police commander going to jail for her crimes was as much of a death sentence as the trial itself. She'd be lucky if she made it outside the building without catching a stray bullet.
Might as well bite the bullet now.
*BANG!"
Eliza didn't flinch when Enyala's corpse slumped against her chair, leaving a barely alive Rory as the only MAXTAC officer alive.
Not a word was spoken as Commander Gary Matthews stormed into the office and found the disgraced Margaret Enyala with an extra hole through her head.
All accounts have been settled.
What a journey. Today is the one-year anniversary of this story and subsequently the moment I started writing fanfiction. Words cannot describe the emotions playing out in my mind, but I can only hope that this journey has brought a smile to everyone's face.
That being said, this is the end of the MAXTAC arc and the next meat on the menu will be the Valentinos who present a unique challenge to Cyrus's plans. Concurrently events outside of Night City will begin to shape the outside world.
Unfortunately or fortunately whichever way you take this news, I have been given a rare Christmas gift in the form of a puppy that I need to train up for the next few weeks.
As a result of this joyful circumstance and the fact we've reached chapter 52 of this fic over the last year I am inclined to take the next two weeks off of this fic to get the creative juices flowing and devote time to my new dog.
Regardless of either decision, we are far from finished with this story so stay tuned for future updates.
Thank you all for joining me on this journey and please, stay safe out there. Happy Holidays!
Reviews:
padzu: Eliza dying has no future in my plans as of now. You have nothing to worry about, but we shall see. I can't be spoiling life and death so easily in my reviews, it takes away all the tension when out characters run into problems.
Guest: So the old United States Army Security Agency used Semper Vigiles as their motto which they translated as Vigilant Always. I'm sure out of the couple hundred people reading this fic, the vast majority simply don't care about the mistranslation because it is a dead language. So you can take your Semper Vigilans and run away with it because I like mine better.
Guest 2: Possibly but I'm still trying to figure out if a UNSC AI has the knowledge and blueprints of every UNSC equipment in production so we'll see if I can find out that piece of intel.
Lee5566: As you have read they didn't use the political dissidents. A prison riot wasn't the main goal, would it have made his rescue easier absolutely, but Cyrus would not have wanted the prisoners to be used as Cannon fodder.
BoarLord: He's kind of taken a back seat to this story, since V is the only one who can communicate with him it only leaves me capable of referring to him from V's perspective. His opinion will be noted sometime in the future but Johnny is, unfortunately, taking a backseat to all of this.
Next Chapter: January 10th or earlier. Need an extra week to recover from COVID.
The next chapter is available on my Pa t re on for those who would like to see it. The Link is below.
www .(p)at (r) e o n. co (m) /Cypher1597 (remove the spaces and () to access