[11th November 2010]
[Waterloo Docks, Bludhaven, New Jersey]
The blizzard howling through the streets of the city made visibly difficult Barsad noted giving a swift hand gesture for the nearest of his assault team to get into position. Still, that annoyance ensured that streets were completely clear of both traffic and people as he moved forward weapon at the ready as the sealed suit, goggles, and heavy winter jacket held away the frigid chill of the storm at bay. While hardly the idea weather for a battle the blizzard would ensure that the Justice League, and whatever local law enforcement was around in this corrupt dump of a city, was too busy to interfere with the mission.
A quick glance at the tracking bracer on his arm to confirm that their target was in the facility ahead, before bringing the assault rifle at the ready as he and the rest of the assault team moved forward through the falling snow. Crusher Crock, aka Sportsmaster, lay ahead, and like Edward Nigma who should be in the outskirts of Metropolis, was infected with what Barsad's Master Al Ghul had termed Ectoderm organism; he must be captured or eliminated, along with any others deemed in a similar state, and the organism contained.
Consider the nature of the foe he had insured his entire team was clad in materials that would prevent any skin contact from the creature, and to strike during the storm when the organism should be more sluggish. Twenty elite members...well, five elite assassins and fifteen adequate members due to recent disasters inflicted on the group...should be adequate to the task at hand. Crock was good, but Barsad had sparred with him before and two Shadows should be capable of handling him, and sensors indicated only four more individuals on site; two of the rent—cop security hovering near the main entrance.
"Phase 1; Initiate" he stated calmly and softly into the communicators as his group of five came to a stop at the line of trucks flanking the side entrance to the snow covered warehouse before them. The soft 'putt-putt-putt' of his silenced weapon echoed out, jerking faintly as he brought his weapon to bear and eliminated the nearest of the rent-a-cops. On the other side of the warehouse, the two at main gate entrance would be taken down, followed by seconds later as the darkness of the warehouse was illuminated by the detonation of flash-bangs as they were thrown through the glass windows.
"Phase 2, Go!"
In unison his five man squad moved weapons at the ready, towards the side-entrance, while simultaneously, another five strong team would be assaulting the main entrance and a third team should be entering through the roof of the rather large building. If all went well the reserve standing guard for anyone who might interfere, or merely stumble upon the raid, would never have to deploy at all. So, he strode forward as the door was smashed open by one of his assassins and brought on the night-vision goggles that turned the black of night into a greenish tinted version of daylight. Check left, check right, but keep moving forward with weapon at the ready as the others flowed in swiftly and silently behind him with identical movements.
"Contact" came across to his ears, and then the flashes of gunfire from the roof above, and further down the warehouse, and he brought his rifle up and forward seeking out the target. Crock rarely used firearms, preferring his nonsense sports theme in that eccentric way of several of the League's more talented, but less sane, assassins but right now he was clearly using them...and some sort of automatic turrets on the roof as Barsad dashed behind the cover offered by some large machinery. Just in time too as mere seconds later bullets were hammering off the metal of the equipment.
"Do we have Crock or the Organism in sight?" he demanded rolling to the other end of the...fishpacking machinery...and brought up his rifle and let loose a burst at the automatic tripod on the upper gantry of the building. Too easy success at that; it looked like one of the unarmoured ones from the safe-house Sportsmaster and Riddler were supposed to have used and nothing particularly hard to deal with as the counter-fire was eliminated by his team relatively...
He jerked back away from the creature that suddenly left at his face from the machinery. Blocking the strange starfish-thing leaping at him with his rifle he brought his other hand back, grabbing one of the knifes under his rifle hand wrist and stabbed it into the hissing creature. Nearby emerging from crates of fish, and the machinery, were several dozen other creatures of identical build "Organism had reproduced, repeat organism has reproduced. Purge and Burn!"
The four assassins tasked with the flamethrowers came forward now the turrets had been eliminated, and Crock pushed back to the far corner of the facility and began to send gouts of flame where he indicated. Orders were orders; if such a scenario occurred then they were to burn the facility and everything within. They only needed a sample of the creature according to his superior and there was to be no taking chances with a mind-controlling parasite. Unfortunately though it meant than Containment would be much more difficult if they failed to eliminate the control organism...
"D-4 Here, Contacts approaching! Multiple Contacts approaching!" came over the comms and he clicked his neck communicator as the flames engulfed the machinery nearby to him and eliminating the alien creatures in one swift move. They'd have to be quick about this as pretty sound the whole place would be ablaze and withdrawing without a sample could be an issue; having cops or some idiots blundering across the operation now would be problematic to cover up adequately.
"Confirm D-4?"
"Shit...people are coming out of the buildings...D-4 confirms we've been made; their converging on us...hard to count in the snow but their running now. Shit. Opening fire, suggest you hurry up" came back followed by the sounds of silenced gunfire over the open mic and the swearing of the assassin. Barsad paused a moment, considered the likely scenario, and opted for emergency withdrawal option. People in Bludhaven did not investigate fire-fights between gangsters, not warehouse robberies that barely made noise...
"All units we are withdrawing, D Squad continue with covering fire, A and B squads moving to your location. C squad plant the detonators and set for maximum charge on my mark..." he tapped the other comm frequency "...Demons Head I am confirming Bug Out, Situation Firebreak"
"Confirmed A-1, evac ready at agreed point A. Eight minutes"
Even as the confirmation came in he was moving in a quick an organised manner back through the entrances they'd taken. E squad in the construction site overlooking area with their sniper rifles and missile launchers would attempt to prevent any escape by their Target and the explosives C squad's assigned demo expert should be enough to take everything within a half-mile radius. Hardly ideal as it raised so many questions, but it was better to destroy the evidence than allow it to be revealed to the public or the Justice League.
As he emerged out into the snow his night-vision that the situation was worse than expected; from all the lights now suddenly blazing in the buildings surrounding them, and the dark shadows pouring out of them, that the organism was more than just active. Much more he noted as he brought up his rifle again and sent out a controlled burst at the nearest of the figures charging out of the snow, then another, and another, as he called for a running retreat towards the evac point. Worryingly the gunfire was having no impact on the howling berserkers rushing towards, and after them, as he flung a grenade towards the mass and continued his run through the snow.
'Not good, these should be normal people and their not falling to far behind us in the chase' he admitted as he dashed, turned and fired as the next squad ran past he and his mean as the seconds ticked away on the planted explosives. Short control burst and another grenade and it was dashing again...
He jumped, using the solid stone wall he was passing to bring himself airborne and smash an armoured boot into the face of the dog that dashed towards him out of a house with starfish on its snarling face. Suddenly another four-legged charging beast came out of the alleyway behind the creature. Even as he sent the dog flying back over the wall with a savage kick to its stomach as he landed and re-balanced a teenage girl, maybe thirteen or fourteen, leapt for his throat in an identical manner to the beast. Just as other dogs started to charge forward from an alley nearby he grabbed the girl by the throat with one hand, while bringing his rifle up with the other and unleashing a full burst into the charging canines.
Emptying it into the beasts, with A-4's help, removed that threat but with the magazine empty and starfish faced girl snapped, grabbing and kicking at him he slammed the butt of the rifle into her stomach and flung her back over the wall to join the seemingly unconscious first dog. Dashing he ran away from the charging horde across the crisp snow beneath his feet, ejecting and replacing the magazine on the rifle as the squad ahead of him offered covering fire...
--
[11th November 2010]
[Beneath LexCorp Corporate Headquarters, Metropolis]
Lex Luthor remained silent as he watched the disaster unfold with unhappy calm. Four strike teams had been deployed, and four strike teams had encountered greater than expected levels of infestation from the Echinoderm organism. The Bludhaven docks, the farming town of Evanstown outside Metropolis, the sewers under The Narrows in Gotham, and the lastly in Patterson New York; all with infestations significant enough prevent elimination by kill squads made up of mercenaries and Al Ghul's armed monkeys. And time had run out now he noted as a glanced at the screens highlighting the Ice Fortresses indicated the last of them had been eliminated.
'Superior response time than expected, and usage of several of the systems LexCorp sold to the USAF...Hmmm, unexpected' he calculated comparing it to the overly optimistic ones of the Caveman, and his own more realistic ones. Unsurprising considering those calculations were based upon the involvement of the Justice League alone and not three of the fortresses being eliminated by a combination of the United States and Canadian militaries usage of aircraft and submarine launched cruise missiles. There was good news from that of course; the LexCorp HX-04 series JDAM used in one of the strikes had easily penetrated the armour on the Caveman's little toys and was likely to result in an increased order from the military. Maybe even a reversal of the proposed cuts to the military and as such more profit for LexCorp in restocking arsenals.
'Still, with the failure to eliminate the infestation deployment of military forces will soon be needed before the situation becomes untenable. If the Kryptonian becomes infested then human extinction becomes a feasible outcome of this scenario, or if the imperfect clone of Project Match, was brought under the echinoderm organism's control. So far the creature had shown a worrying level of adaptability, and its control was improving even if in six separate cases on the combat footage the creature had exhibited imperfect usage of host organisms. Attempting to use humans like different mammals in four, a dog on two legs in another, and managing to have a host shoot itself due to poor weapons handling in the last.
About the only true success in the failure was that none of the assault teams had been infected; eleven had been killed, and four more injured, but the coverings had prevented the parasite assuming control. When the teams had returned they would be stripped, cleaned, and examined to ensure that what was shown on the monitors remained the truth. He frowned in thought. Locking down LexCorp facilities, and Cadmus, was now largely unavoidable...though implementing mandatory scans or strip searches of staff would not be viable till the organism was publically known.
Something that would severely limit his ability to ensure the security of his company's facilities, at least judging from the creature's nature and apparent capacity to gain the hosts knowledge. Now it became a matter ensuring that revealing the existence of the creature to the Justice League and the US government could not be traced back to LexCorp in anyway. And to prevent his less intelligent associates in the Light from causing the situation to become even more problematic; the Plan based on the echinoderm was now a complete failure and a new one put in place.
'But they are unlikely to see it in that manner' he admitted to himself studying all the data-links and searching for news on Count Vertigo and his part of the operation. Considering events it might rather if he failed in such an objective '...The Brain would be amenable to cooperation based on the threat and the mutual self-interest of survival, Ocean Master as well. Though Savage and al Ghul are perhaps likely to be problem I must admit. Perhaps they would serve better as scapegoats? Savage has limited resources on this continent, and the League of Shadows is much reduced...and I know where a significant portion of their remaining resources are located if they were to become...troublesome"
--