Chapter 9: This Is War Pt1
Virginia watched as Arkansas and Arizona stepped inside the large group drop pod that Carolina had directed their team towards. Walking inside, she sealed the door behind her and sat down awkwardly between Arkansas and Arizona, who were deliberately looking at anything but each other. They'd been giving each other the cold shoulder since the mission briefing, at least as far as Virginia had seen. She quickly took in her surroundings, never having launched in one of these pods before. It had a very Spartan interior, with a gunmetal grey coloration and four seats all stationed around a holotable. "So…" She began, trying to get some conversation started while they waited to launch. "How about that weather?" Virginia ended weakly, mentally cursing herself.
'Zona snorted and turned away, arms crossed as she gazed out one of the viewports in the pod. Ark shook his head and sighed, reaching up to unhook a bag that was secured on the ceiling of their craft. He opened it up, shuffling through the contents quickly. To Virginia, it sounded as though he was muttering a checklist under his breath. "Ha, gotcha!" He exclaimed suddenly, startling both the female Freelancers in the craft with him as Ark drew a sharpened katana out of the large bag.
Ark strapped it to the back of his armor, retrieving a field health kit as well as a portable armor enhancement from the bag. Virginia opened her mouth to question him about it, but was cut off when Ark suddenly shifted the bag into her lap. "I've looked up your record Virginia, even the bits that they don't want me to see. So I smuggled you in a few presents." Ark added, smiling under his helmet.
No way, he couldn't have gotten tha- But he did! Virginia nearly shouted in excitement as she saw a Prototype Light Rifle inside the bag. She immediately ripped it out, only pausing to stuff a handful of clips into a pack.
Even Zona perked up at this point, reaching over to steal the bag away from Virginia. Said Agent was too busy fawning over her new weapon to care. 'Zona reached in, coming out with a bundle of armor piercing and prototype incendiary sniper clips.
"I've got some contacts in weapons development." Ark stated plainly, as way of explanation. 'Zona was about to grumble a thank you before their pod shuddered, startling the crew.
The Freelancer callsign appeared on the holoscreen in front of them, and FILSS's cheery voice chirped over the onboard speakers. "Team Alpha has been deployed." She reported. Another shudder, then, "Team Beta has been deployed."
The seconds seemed to slow down to Ark and Zona as they frantically secured their restraints. Virginia merely tried not to laugh inside her helmet at the sight of the higher ranking Freelancers screwing up. She lightly tugged at her own restraints, reassured that they were tight.
Ark had just finished clicking his restraints into place when FILSS reported that Gamma had also been deployed. He glanced over to see 'Zona tighten her own restraints to the max.
The Freelancer's simultaneously gripped whatever was closest to them as their pod groaned and shuddered. A feeling of weightlessness passed over the crew as the pod was released. Then gravity took over as the Mother of Invention fired their craft at the planet's surface.
Virginia spared a glance out the viewport, unable to see anything except flames as their craft ground against the atmosphere. The pod bucked as it burst through the planet's atmosphere.
Leaning forward, Ark gripped the controls tightly. "Activating Chute One!" He shouted above the wind noise, deploying the first parachute to slow their descent. They shuddered as the craft rocked under them, before the parachute was stripped away near immediately.
'Zona reached up, flicking the secondary control keys in an elaborate sequence. "Diverting all fuel to the emergency thrusters, sir!" She reported, struggling to keep her voice even.
"I really hate flying!" Virginia cried, eyes shut tight as their pod sped towards the designated LZ in front of the complex.
With a laugh, Ark activated their secondary and third chutes. The thumps resounded through the craft, although Virginia felt their speed gradually decreasing. "Well, it's a good thing we aren't flying then; we're falling!" He shot back.
'Zona couldn't help the grin that crept up under her visor at the newer agent's distress. "We've done this before, perfectly fine! Aside from, Y'know, crashing…"
"You aren't helping! Now I'm feeling even worse about thi-" She was suddenly cut off by Ark cursing loudly.
"Damn it! Last chute is jammed; we'll have to use the thrusters early!" Ark shouted at the crew.
Virginia paled under her helmet at his words. I fucking called it! She thought miserably.
'Zona held up her hands in protest. "But if you do that, we won't have enough to break completely before we become a pancake. I don't know about you, but I don't plan on becoming a fucking pancake!"
Thinking quickly, Ark opened up the control panel on the side of the holotable console. "Zona, I need you and Virginia to help me reroute all nonessential systems power to the main thrusters. I'll fire it in bursts, so we have enough power in the landing jets to prevent… well, pancake-ation. Now move, we're on a time table!" He ordered, already rewiring power from the holotable, followed by the screen fizzling out of existence.
"You crazy son of a bitch…" 'Zona muttered, cracking open a panel on her left and starting to rewire the power from the onboard lights and communication systems.
Virginia opened up the floorboard, receiving the cables she was offered by both Ark and Zona, before wiring them into the thrusters. "Yeah, crazy enough that it just might save our asses." She offered, replacing the panel on the floor. "All hooked up and set, sir."
Ark nodded, reaching forward to grip the controls. "Well, here goes everything!" he cried, tugging on the thrusters quickly.
The change in momentum threw the Freelancers' heads back against the wall. Although not harmful, it would certainly leave a bruise. Grunting in pain, Ark fired the thrusters a second time. Although less debilitating now, the impact still hurt.
Virginia groaned, close to losing consciousness as he fired the thrusters for a third time. Zona was pressing herself against the seat as hard as she could, preventing as much recoil from the thrusters as possible. Quickly, she followed 'Zona's example, noting a significant difference as Ark fired the thrusters a fourth time.
"Alright, that's all we've got! Shouldn't pancake now, but it's still gonna suck!" Ark shouted, watching the ground get closer and closer through the viewport.
Although later they wouldn't admit it, each of the three Freelancers let out a silent prayer as Ark pulled the lever for the emergency thrusters. The craft slowed to a tumble as it impacted the ground outside the facility, right in front of the gates.
Vision swimming, Virginia sat up in her suit, unbuckling the restraints with a groan. That's when she found out that they had crashed upside down, falling to what had been the pods ceiling. A quick look around revealed that the rest of the extra supplies had all scattered around the pod during the crash.
When Ark saw the situation, he quickly remedied it with his combat knife. He cut through the restraints, falling to the ground and dusting himself off. Arizona used a variation of his method, turning in the air so she landed on her feet.
"So much for subtle…" Ark muttered, crouching down to gaze at the enemy compound through their wrecked viewport. "Take what you can carry; I'm not waiting on the welcoming party." He ordered, retrieving his katana, assault rifle, and magnum off the floor.
'Zona nodded, slapping a clip of incendiary rounds into her sniper rifle. She also shouldered a battle rifle, before returning her knife to its place at her side.
Pulling it out from underneath her seat, Virginia powered up her Light rifle with barely contained glee. She holstered a magnum as well; Just in case… Virginia thought.
"Hey, over here…" Ark called, gesturing them over to where he sat crouched by the viewport. He pointed towards the crumbling wall on the right side of the compounds wall. "Change of plans, we're gonna assist Team Alpha in opening the gate. Then we can get to our objective afterwards."
Virginia questioned him nervously, "So Carolina said this is alright?"
Ark froze a second, before reaching to press the detonation bolts on the hatch. With a brief shake, the hatch blew itself off of their wrecked landing pod. It was quickly followed by Arkansas, shouting as he ran, "Move it!" In moments, he had reached the edge of their facility just as Insurrectionists ran to the walls.
Zona waved Virginia ahead, already scoping in with her sniper rifle. Virginia nodded and sprinted out of the pod. Shit!
As she ran, bullet fire strafed around her, a few lucky shots pinging off the sides of her armor. It hurt, but the armor did its job and prevented any penetration from the bullet fire. Virginia made it to where Ark stood, intact albeit with a few new dents in her armor.
He clasped her shoulder as she made it. "Any hits?" Ark questioned, examining the dents.
"None, still 11% intact, Ark." Virginia confirmed, turning back to see how Zona was fairing.
Since nobody had been covering her, Arizona had gotten pinned down behind a large cluster of rocks. Turret fire was rapidly chipping away at her makeshift cover, however.
Unsheathing his katana, Ark quickly gave out orders. "You take out the turrets; I'll keep the main group off of you during that, sync?"
"Sync." They both clambered over the wrecked wall, before charging towards the surprised Insurrectionists. Virginia quickly blasted a hole through one of the soldiers with her Lightrifle.
One brought his rifle to bear at her, but quickly hit the ground as Ark slit his throat. Those training sessions definitely paid off… Virginia thought in amazement, watching Ark whirl through the soldiers like a hurricane. He was a blur of blue and purple, hacking and slashing through the crowd, bodies hit the floor faster than she could count.
"Remember the plan!" Ark shouted at her, as he ducked under a soldiers fist before running him through with his katana.
Oh, right. That plan! She ignored the now screaming soldiers, blasting soldiers off the turrets left and right. With Ark distracting them, Virginia didn't have to worry about retaliation. With one last squeeze of the trigger, all the turrets had been eliminated.
When the fire stopped, Zona quickly climbed over the wall to join Ark and Virginia. "So, now where the hell are those gate controls?" She questioned, crouching down and firing a round into a soldier who had been attempting to snipe. The round hit his chest, and fire blossomed outwards from there, spreading slowly along his body as he cried out in surprise and pain. Oh these are gonna be fun… She thought with a smirk.
"Should be around here somewhere…" Ark muttered, hands gliding over the control panel in search of gate controls. This one looks important... He thought, clicking a large red button. Alarms blared around the facility as soon as it was pressed, and Ark pounded his helmeted head into the control panel with a grumble. "For fucks sake!"
The console dented under his unintentional blow, and the gate below them opened up with a whir. Virginia saw him lean over the edge, watching the gates open. 'Zona stooped next to her, causing the advancing Insurrectionists to falter with well-placed incendiary rounds. "Ha!" Ark shouted in triumph as the gates finished opening.
"Alpha, Beta, Gamma, move in! Sweep the facility, ASAP!" Carolina's voice ordered sharply over the comm systems, startling Delta team. They watched as the Freelancer's simultaneously charged forwards from behind various defenses, firing their weapons as they went. Carolina was a teal blur as she sprinted forwards, leaping the wall in a single bound and rushing into the swarm of enemies.
Florida ran with North, destroying their heavy weapon emplacements with his grenade launcher while North provided cover fire with his sniper. South, Wyoming, and CT ran into the crowd, CT dealing large casualties with her knife skills while South enjoyed her dual SMGs. Virginia could swear she heard him deal a knock-knock joke before beating a soldier over the head with his rifle.
Cali and Rhode were standing back to back, encircled by a large group of Insurrectionists. The tide was turning quickly, as they were fighting against the best hand to hand combat specialists that Freelancer had to offer. Blocking a punch, Cali grabbed the man's arm and yanked him towards her, head butting him into unconsciousness. "You can't touch this!" She gloated, ducking under another strike before punching his gut in.
"Oh please, Cali, I've seen you take multiple hits already…" Rhode replied, snapping a man's elbow with his fist, before elbowing him in the head.
Virginia turned back to Ark and Zona to ask what they should do, when she saw a sniper in the uncleared crow's nest raise his rifle to bear at Ark. The blue and purple Freelancer was too busy reloading his weapon to notice the sniper to his left. Time seemed to slow down as she tried to raise her rifle to bear. I won't make it… She realized, and her thoughts were confirmed by the sharp crack of his sniper rifle.
'Zona whirled around to see Ark falling backwards off the wall, the trail from the sniper round entering through his visor and out the back of his helmet. He went down hard, falling to land in a mess to the right of the main gate.