08:27 The National Institute for Technological Advancement –Level 6 Central Core
John silently, well as silently as he could in his armor, stepped out into the corridor from the stairwell and looked around. He didn’t know the exact floor he needed to be on. Hell, he was actually running on an assumption that there’d be a command-and-control type of room somewhere in this building.
He desperately wanted to cut off the head of the resistance. Doing that would weaken the defense and make it far easier for John’s compatriots to secure the facility. Although securing the facility mattered little at this point. The server room was no more, nothing could be recovered from it. Though who knows, it was possible that some hardware could be snagged from an outer building.
John shrugged as he looked around. Those other thoughts could wait. For now, he needed to find the C&C room. He walked down the hallway a bit and connected his suit to a terminal. It wasn’t behaving normally, the heightened security measures coupled with the lack of a central computing core made getting any data hilariously difficult.
“Fucking hell, a schematic would make this so bloody easy,” John whispered to himself.
John was about to curse some more but noticed a pair of soldiers jogging down the stairs. Curiously they stopped at the foot of the steps and looked around. Both felt like they weren’t alone.
“You hear that?”
John commanded Eve to detach from the terminal. He slowly and quietly turned around. Then he dashed forward and grabbed both men. Both squealed and screamed in terror. They tried to move but were pinned to the wall three to four inches above the ground.
“First one to answer gets to survive,” John said.
“What the fuck is going on?” growled the man being held up by John’s normal hand.
“I can barely breath,” the other said through labored breathing.
“Where is C&C?” John asked.
“I’m not telling you shi…” painfully shouted the man who was being held in the powered fist.
John squeezed the man. The sickening sound of bones breaking loudly rang out in the stairwell. Blood was coughed out by the man before he went limp. The invisible hand dropped the man as his body crumbled to the ground.
“You’re next. Where is the C&C room?”
“What’s in it for me?” the man coughed as John pressed down on his chest.
“You are in what I’d call a dubious bargaining position.”
“I’m a dead man walking. What’s the point of helping? I get nothing out of it.”
John nodded in his helmet but then looked at the firefighting cabinet to his left, “Well spoken, the roof on this addition is two floors down from here. I’ll hoist you down on that rope. I’d recommend changing out of that garb quickly and then running far and fast from here.”
“What makes you think I’ll be able to get away from here safely?”
“I’m giving you a chance at freedom. The alternative is dying now.”
“How do I know you won’t backstab me?”
John sighed loudly. He picked up the dead man and chucked him at the glass window on the other side of the stairwell. The glass shattered but didn’t fully break. Creating a proper exit would be child’s play for John now.
“Last chance, where is it?”
“You’ll seriously get me out of the building?”
John responded by squeezing the man’s chest more tightly.
“You win! You win!” the man exclaimed, “Stop! Stop! It’s up on level ten.”
“One more question. Where is Norman’s secret lab?”
“I’ve never been to either. Honest to God. Rumors have it on the thirteenth level, the door is supposed to be in a conference room near his office. No one I know has actually been in it though.”
John let go of the man. He fell down to the ground and squinted as he tried to see who was attacking him. The loud thump of armored boots was easily heard. The man was genuinely terrified when he saw what the invisible attacker did to his former compatriot. The dead man was used to smash out the window.
The body broke through the window. Glass was sent flying everywhere. The body landed with a very loud and grotesque-sounding thump. The bewildered man then saw the firehouse get ripped from its housing.
“Tie it up,” John ordered after tossing it to the man.
“Holy fuck, you are really getting me out of here?”
“Whether you live or die will be up to your resourcefulness. I’d avoid our troops; they aren’t taking prisoners.”
The man hurriedly tied an arm and foot hold into the hose. True to John’s word he helped lower the man down to the roof. John didn’t even bother looking at the man, once he made good on his word he turned and crept up the stairs. Whether the enemy soldier lived or died would be up to him.
John had Eve print out the transcript of the coms from his platoon. More troops had come to attack them. Lager platoon suffered their first casualty, a private had taken their helmet off and a grenade landed nearby. He winced at seeing that report, death was also a step away from them while deployed on an operation but that didn’t make it any easier seeing those reports.
The tenth floor was John’s goal. He walked up the stairs methodically, though the pace was too slow for his tastes. Caution was needed though; he was apart from his platoon. There would be no backup where things to head south for him.
When John reached the tenth floor, he peeked down both sides of the corridor. One way was deserted but the other had a pair of guards waiting outside a door. John sighed as he noticed that both guards were wearing the Mercantilist’s variant of heavy power armor.
“Fuck me sideways,” John said quietly.
The goal, which John hastily came up with, was to eliminate one suit by surprise and avoid taking any serious damage by taking out the second. John couldn’t help himself chuckling at such an elementary and wishful goal. That wasn’t really a goal, though that psyched up with his general lack of plan at the moment. Unfortunately, that was all he had going for him, but at least surprise was a powerful ally.
Neither guard was holding a rifle and there weren’t any shoulder mountain external weapons. A pistol could be seen on the hip of the nearest guard. Suddenly the plan didn’t seem nearly as dumb as it had. It switched back to being that dumb when one of the guards was holding the Union’s version of a Gatling gun. Both guards were making it relatively easy for John to take them by surprise.
The trick though was how close he could get to the guards and how soon they’d detected him. There was no point in waiting any longer as he stepped into the corridor and began hugging the far wall. He was careful to not scrape against it. Each step was taken gingerly and slowly. Step by step he got closer to the enemy.
Two hundred feet shortened to a hundred and seventy-five feet. Then he was inside one hundred fifty feet away. There was no reaction from the guards. John cautiously continued his stealthy advance. It wasn’t much later that he was fifty feet away. There was still no movement from the guards.
John figured when he was twenty feet away, he could attack. He was fully convinced that the first guard could be taken out quickly with minimal risk. The trick was chaining that attack into the second guard. The second guard was a wildcard and incredibly risky.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
It wasn’t until John was twenty feet away did, he see any response from the guards, though the response was not what he had expected. The guard nearest him turned his back on him. That was the opening John needed, and he leaped into action.
John deactivated the stealth field and dashed forward. While doing so he activated the plasma blast gun. It was fully charged by the time he reached the guard. He raised his fist and fired at point-blank range. John wasn’t sure where the reactors for the suit were, so he picked a location on the rear plate that he presumed would be about where the occupant’s chest would be.
There was no resistance from any shields. The plasma cut right through the armor and fried the occupant. John shoved the suit forward into the other suit. The dead guard’s fall was arrested by the surviving guard, but more important for John the two suits were touching, and the Gatling gun had been hooked on his dead comrade. The personal kinetic shields were less than reliable when projectors were being blocked.
The strong right hook John through caught the other guard square in the chest. The kinetic shields of the guard did reduce the impact somewhat, but not near enough to make any difference. The breastplate was caved in nearly ten inches. Whatever damage was done to the suit was minimal compared to what he did to the poor bastard inside the suit. The enemy suit went limp and slid down the wall. When its butt made it to the floor it leaned over to the side and slowly drifted until the left shoulder was resting on the floor.
“Whew, lucked out there,” John said as he exhaled loudly, “Eve, are these doors locked?”
“No, they can be unlocked using the console on the left side of the doorframe.”
John looked over and saw the little black device. He then looked back down at the suit at his feet. He saw a small, at least in comparison to the one he had wielded throughout most of this operation, underslung Gatling gun. A thought came to mind immediately.
“Eve, can I use that gun?”
“Please interface with the gun or the suit.”
John snorted. He leaned down and began pushing it around and looking for some sort of port. The port was hiding in the grip, which was made visible when he yanked the gun out of the dead soldier’s hand.
“Bingo,” John said as he directed his suit to interface with the gun via its wrist I/O controls.
“The gun is usable, but it cannot connect to our suit's power grid without an adapter.”
“How much of a charge is left?”
“Forty-five to sixty seconds of firing.”
John detached the magazine and let it hang by its metallic links. Then he thought better of that and attached the magazine to his hip. The last thing he wanted was to start firing it and then the linkage break. That could be a deadly mistake for John and as he was nearly at the finish line, he didn’t want that to happen.
“Fire control has been achieved for the gun. It will run on its reserve power. There will be a one to two-second delay between pressing the trigger and when rounds will shoot,” Eve said.
“Disengage the stealth emitters,” John said as he stood up and walked over to the door, “Time to get some.”
The stealth field crackled as emitters were powered down. The armor plates quickly separated and allowed them to recede back under the armor before the plates locked themselves back into place. John stood there staring at his HUD waiting for the suit to finish reconfiguring itself. A green light lit up. John used the barrel end of the Gatling gun to press against the door command console.
The door opened quickly. Only one individual bothered to look up from their desk to see who entered the room. They stood up and pointed. The gun barrels were already spinning up. Before that individual was able to warn his compatriots the bullets began to fly.
John didn’t especially care where he was firing. Just that he was filling the room with the lead. He also activated his fist’s gun and began firing random plasma blasts at the desks near him. Dozens of individuals were cut down in the initial fusillade of fire.
The doors on the far side of the room opened and a lone soldier wearing heavy armor walked in slowly. John got a bead on him and focused both his weapons on him. As he did so he could see the power reserves and ammunition in the gun fall.
He let go of the trigger on the Gatling cannon and fired off two more blasts of plasma at the heavy armor. Their shields were shredded because of the volume of fire. The blasts of plasma were a coup de grâce, the soldier came crashing down at a terminal.
John once again pressed the trigger on the Gatling gun and sprayed fire at the rest of the room. Those that were still alive were panicked and desperately trying to run for cover. But the moment they popped up from hiding John gunned them down. He methodically cleaned up the room until the gun’s barrels began to slow down, and no further ammunition could be fired.
Every single console was damaged or outright destroyed save the central command dais at the center-middle of the room. Wails of wounded or dying individuals could be heard. John disengaged the magnetized lock holding the ammunition crate to his suit and discarded the gun like it was a piece of trash as he walked through the room.
And through the room he walked, consoles or the dead didn’t impede his purposeful stride. His goal was to access that central dais. When he reached it he set the large fist on the metal railing as Eve interfaced with it.
“You can’t be doing this,” a wounded man grabbed John’s left foot, “We’re doing good.”
John pulled the pistol from its holster and aimed it at the man, “Committing eugenics crimes and trying to hybridize people with plants and animals isn’t good. Injecting innocents you captured or lied to isn’t good. Literally, nothing in this organization has been good. Worry not my boy, I’ll be joining you in hell, but you’re going there first.”
John pulled the trigger and killed the man. Then diverted his attention to what Eve was doing. At the exact moment, John entered the room the defense of the base crumbled. It was destined for failure as they simply didn’t have sufficient forces or weaponry to repel the attack. But with the heart of their operation now lying-in ruins three was no one left to direct where troops should go to fight the intruders.
“Dagger actual, how copy?” John asked.
“Read you loud and clear,” Erica said over the comms, “Fucking bloodbath down here.”
“How are y’all doing?”
“Injured, a little beat up but otherwise good. We’ve suffered three more casualties, but two of them are still able to fight. It’s not affected our ability to hold this position, I’d be lying if I said I wanted to continue holding this position any longer than we need to.”
“Do you know what the most optimal route to exit this shithole is?”
“Not as of yet, no,” Erica replied.
“Have Arianna work on that. C&C is destroyed, I suspect the base defenses are going to be less focused and organized from this point forward.”
“Track down our target yet?”
“Negative, but I have a lead to investigate…” John was interrupted by an incoming message, “I’ll expedite my search so we can get the fuck out of here.”
“Dagger Actual, this is Phoenix Wing. Do y’all have a problem if we take out a couple of VTOLs on the landing pad on the top of the central spire?”
“Negative,” John said, “I insist you take them out, but no gun runs. I don’t want to test whether or not my suit can withstand those rounds of yours.”
“Solid copy, we’re going to collapse the hangar as well.”
“Erica, get working on an ex-fil plan. I’ve got other things to do now.”
“Roger that, sir”
John disengaged the connection with the dais. As he did that, he could feel the missiles destroying a portion of the building. Dr. Norman’s plan to escape was destined for failure. There was no way they would be able to fly out of the combat area. A more practical solution was to escape on foot to a waiting vehicle outside of the operational area. But that ship had sailed.
“Eve, can you confirm where his offices are?”
“Level thirteen. The primary boardroom contains a stairwell to the private labs of Dr. Norman. The boardroom is adjacent to his office.”
“Display the quickest route to level ten please,” John asked.
The route was overlayed on a schematic that was displayed briefly on his HUD. It then shrunk to a small size in the upper right corner of it and displayed where he needed to go. He began jogging out of the room and back to the stairwell.
Up three more floors he went. He was surprised by the silence in this portion of the compound. Everywhere he had been the sound of distant gunfire or the familiar sound of boots running on the ground. But here, aside from John, it was deathly silent.
John strode forward and looked down the corridor. One way was a dead end. The other was the only door he could see. He walked towards it with a purpose. The console to open the door wasn’t working when he pressed it.
He looked at the door and saw that his oversized fist could latch on and likely force the door to slide open. John moved the fist in place and slowly began to apply lateral force to it. He could feel the door’s resistance to the opening but he simply applied more and more force. The servos in his suit groaned under the increased loads. Bit by bit the door slowly slid open.
Once it was open enough, he grabbed hold of the other door with his left hand and began to apply even more force against the door. The door’s locking mechanisms broke and freely gave way. Both halves were shoved with such force into their frame that they were significantly bent.
John stagged forward but was able to prevent himself from falling down. He immediately drew his pistol as he looked around the room. The waiting room was a rather plain-looking room. Two chairs were placed side by side near the lone door to the office space inside. The terminal at the secretary’s desk was offline. The desk itself had several data pads.
He walked over and transferred their encrypted contents to his suit’s storage. Eve could begin decrypting them at a later date. For now, he needed to find Dr. Norman. He walked over to the door and pressed the console.
This one opened without any resistance. Down the hallway, he could see a laboratory of some sort. In the middle of the hallway, there were a pair of doors on either side. To his right, it was Dr. Norman’s primary office. His boardroom was across the hallway.
John decided to investigate the office first. To his surprise, the door opened. What he wasn’t prepared for, was to find someone besides Dr. Norman sitting behind the desk. The man, equally surprised threw his hands up in a panicked look.
“Don’t kill me! I can help. I’m MIB,” Agent Paul Leonard said, “I’m just an attaché here.”
“Give my regards to the devil,” John said gruffly.
John pulled the trigger immediately. The man had barely heard the last word he spoke before a single armor-piercing round struck the man in his chest. He fell backward slightly into his chair before slouching over to the side and then tipping over and onto the floor.
He quickly walked behind the desk and interfaced with the terminal. There was no server data to be found, but John quickly copied over the local contents of the computer to his suit. Then he quickly searched for any access codes to the secretive labs. In a stroke of good luck, the secret entry was open, and the sensors showed no one left alive besides John on the floor. After so many years he was finally able to confront Dr. Norman and God-willing, put an end to his madness.