21/Kryo/2467 R.S. 00:05:31
Central Highway District 3, Centralia.
The clock strikes midnight for the Eastern hemisphere, traffic in the Centralian mega-highway is slowly ramping up due to the city's nightlife.
On a nearby rooftop, wearing a tan micro-fiber scarf over her maroon armor, Vera scans the nearby Highway in search of Millitant Diplomat Sagras Nohem, a crucial player to the Millitant Agenda, the Operation's dossier marked him a "possible bearer of important documents and information regarding the recent and devastating conflict taking place in Caloris.", therefore making him a high-value target.
She pans across the bright highway, scanning multiple vehicles until one particular black Sedan to her left somehow prevents the scanner from reading it. She keeps the reticle aimed at the vehicle for an extended period of time until it shines red with warning signs. Vera puts away the binoculars and puts her left hand against the side of her helmet, pressing on the comms button. "Michael, you read me?"
She asks to make sure he is receiving her transmission.
"Loud and clear, V."
He replies while approaching a support column below the highway.
20: "I'm sure I found Sagras, my scanner wouldn't get through a black four-door car, headed this way."
51: "Understood, meet me at the rendezvous point."
Michael grabs onto the support column and climbs his way up reaching a metal catwalk under the Highway's structure. Now on the metal catwalk, he continues his path, walking at a relaxed pace.
Meanwhile, providing overwatch from the rooftops, Vera grabs her black satchel bag from the ground and begins to vacate the rooftop. Hastily she descends via the emergency fire escape on the side of the building, her heavy armor loudly clangs with every step she takes on her way down.
20: "Our window's closing fast, where are you?"
Arriving at the rendezvous point under the highway, Michael drops his black satchel and pulls out a special issue "SIM" tranquilizer pistol, he loads in one sedative charge and chambers the pistol. He looks up and says: "Waitin' on you.".
Vera smirks as she climbs up to the catwalk near the rendezvous point, she sees Michael kneeling in the distance.
20: "Remember, Dovyo needs him integer."
51: "Haven't forgotten, how are we going to stop the car, though?"
20: "How about we stick to the plan? Go topside and extract the target, I doubt it'll be too difficult."
While unpacking his MTR from the bag, Michael looks at Vera with uncertainty.
51: "Go topside and extract the target? That's not much of a plan."
Vera arrives to the designated area, she positions herself in a boosting stance, in an attempt to impulse Michael from the catwalk and into the highway itself.
51: "Never gets old."
20: "That I can agree with."
Michael begins to run towards Vera at a very fast speed, he jumps to her open hands and she pushes upwards, successfully lifting him into the blaring mega-highway.
As soon as he gets there he throws himself to the ground and reaches down so that Vera can grab onto him and reach the topside.
Once there, Vera pulls out her binoculars once again and scans the highway from the shadows. With the Sedan on her reticle, she presses a button on the side of the binoculars that instantly highlights the vehicle in their helmets, allowing both of them to see the Sedan's outline up to Fifty feet and can be seen through walls and solid objects.
20: "He's approaching, get ready."
51: "I see him."
Michael starts to run right, according to the Sedan, he sprints with such great impulse he cracks the ground. After various failed attempts at scanning the vehicle, Vera begins to sprint as well.
51: "We'll get 'em before they reach The Neck."
20: "Got it."
The Troopers sprint in tandem with the mega-highway but they aren't fast enough to meet the Sedan's speed as it approaches them from the left. Vera turns her head and sees the Sedan getting close to them and realizes that at its speed it would leave them behind in no time. She looks at all the cars as they speed past her, then she looks at Michael.
20: "Shit, Michael!"
51: "What?"
20: "Something is wrong, they're moving too fast, I have an idea!"
51: "I'm all ears!"
20: "At the rate they're moving they'll make it to The Neck and leave us in the dust, we have to match their speed somehow, I was thinking jumping on top of the other vehicles."
51: "Is that really our only option?"
20: "For now, yeah, but if you want to think of something else..."
51: "No time, I'll take my chances."
20: "Let's stop here and make the jump."
Vera and Michael stop next to a concrete barrier with metal fencing dividing the road from the sidewalk.
She pulls her bag from her back and searches inside, while Michael remains vigilant. "Damnit!" She yells to herself. She grows desperate and searches with more intensity, until finally she gives up and closes the bag.
20: "I didn't bring a torch to cut the fence."
Michael looks at her and shakes his head. He throws his bag to the ground next to Vera and aims at the Sedan's direction with the MTR.
51: "You could've just asked for it."
Vera growls as she puts her hands into the bag and pulls out a sleek black blowtorch that can also work as a crowbar. She uses it to cut a hole in the metal fencing big enough for them to fit in. Once the fence is melted she grabs the metal fence and throws it behind her, on the distance, the Sedan trips a proximity warning in their helmets that alerts them the vehicle is approaching quickly. Michael leans into the hole and looks at the crazy traffic, looks back at Vera as he grabs his bag and says: "Let's do this!" before jumping through the hole.
Michael lands on top of a white van, it begins to steer violently due to the crash-landing. Seeing this, Vera starts to have second thoughts about the jump, Michael notices the delay and yells: "You're going to miss the window! Jump, now!"
And she snaps out of it. Returning to the task at hand she jumps out of the hole and lands on her feet directly above a truck's cargo container.
The driver of the Sedan notices the two Troopers on top of the vehicles and it begins to speed up, suddenly a nearby black SUV accelerates towards the Sedan.
On top of the cargo, Vera sees this as she starts to run to the front of the truck.
20: "We've got company!"
51: "Shit, I have to get off this van."
The SUV matches speeds with the truck and the windows open, revealing two MilSec Agents that pull out their TTR-21 Submachine guns, Vera's eyes grow wide and she dodges out of the way as a torrent of bullets shred apart the cargo container and all its contents start flying away into the Highway, she recovers and pulls an HBS-12 from her back, "So that's how we're gonna play." she says before unleashing a devastating blast against the SUV that chews off the front left portion of its bumper. The vehicle drives against the truck and crashes into it, the MilSec agents open fire at the tires but she rings out a second shot that kills the passenger and driver of the SUV, but the dead driver's foot pushes harder on the pedal, the SUV accelerates under the trucks's cargo lifting it as the MilSec vehicle gets crushed. The agents inside desperately attempt to escape from the vehicle's sunroof hatch but Vera shoots again and breaks off the hatch, killing one of the agents, leaving one trapped inside. While still accelerating uncontrollably, the SUV goes completely under the cargo, flipping the cargo and forcing Vera to jump to another nearby vehicle. Meanwhile, chasing the Sedan, Michael observes as Vera lands safely on a civilian vehicle, he turns around facing forward and locks on to the speeding Sedan, allowing him to track it down while he jumps from one car to another, until catching up to it.
Suddenly an explosion erupts behind him, coming from the flipped truck.
"Vera, are you alright?"
Michael asks via SatCom, making sure that Vera is handling herself.
"I'm good, more Millitant Security Agents are incoming, whatever you've got in mind, do it fast!"
She replies as she reloads her HBS-12 while riding on top of a dark truck.
Michael reaches the vehicle that is tailing the target, he slides down to the vehicle's windshield and points to the Sedan ahead, the driver looks confusedly at him and does not comply.
"Come on, damnit!" Michael exclaims, bashing the hood of the car in anger as the Sedan speeds away and drives past the other vehicles on the highway. He has no choice but to jump onto the van to his right which is going faster than his previous ride, upon grappling the van, the driver accelerates, even more, to try and shake Michael off, unknowingly assisting Michael. "Vera, I am approaching Sagras!" Michael says, only to follow up with a question: "How's everything back there?".
While standing on top of a MilSec SUV, Vera guns down the occupants with her shotgun and commandeers the vehicle, "I got us some wheels, our timeline is messed up we should've been out of here by now." .
She replies accelerating down the highway. Back to Michael, the Sedan is entering his reach, the van speeds past the Sedan, giving Michael a clear shot at the driver, but he remembers that General Dovyo needs Sagras unharmed, he jumps to it instead, he lands in front of the windshield and stabs his serrated titanium knife into the car's hood giving him a chance to grab on to something just in case. Seeing this, the driver grows worried as he cannot see in front of him and puts the pedal to the metal, eventually crashing with the vehicle that was ahead. Flinging Michael back against the vehicle, hurting his back. The force of the collision made Michael bounce off the back of the van and against the Sedan's hood again, once there he grabs the knife that was previously placed, "Graaah!" He exclaims as he pulls himself up, Michael prepares to punch through the windshield but the driver's desperation reaches extreme levels and he scrambles to find a U-2 pistol, just when Michael's fist was about to crash against the glass...
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*BANG* the agent fires his first shot, the bullets crash against the glass, shattering it, and flies into the highway, missing Michael. *BANG* a second bullet flies right into Michael's armor, "//BARRIER ONLINE//" a helmet overlay says as the barrier system comes online, protecting him from the bullet. The Agent continues to open fire but misses many shots due to his desperation, 51 tries to grab on to the Agent but he shoots three rounds into Michael's hand, staggering him and opening him up to the remaining two shots of the magazine, the agent shoots decisively as his U-2 clicks empty. "//WARNING, BARRIER OFFLINE, SEEK COVER//"
Michael's barrier disintegrates as the capacitor on his chest cracks due to the last two rounds, the agent hastily tries to reload the pistol but before any more gunshots come out, Michael forcefully closes his right hand and thrusts it into the Agent's chest, killing him.
Driving at high speeds evading a hostile SUV, Vera remains on the hijacked vehicle attempting to make her way back to Michael to complete their mission. "Michael, I'm getting close, we can hot-swap Sagras once I'm next to you." Vera says, beginning to formulate an escape plan, but behind her the MilSec SUV is pushing away every vehicle that stands between it and Vera. All this commotion begins to draw the attention of the nearby authorities, a white and green Central Highway Patrol vehicle activates its siren and pulls out from its enclosed garage, hovering into the stream of vehicles in the highway. She looks over her shoulder and sees how the SUV gets closer to her and eventually rams her vehicle from behind, then the vehicle's hatch opens, revealing an agent with a different weapon that looks like it packs a heavier punch. "Mike they're on to me!" Vera says as the Agent loads in the heavy magazine into the rifle and pulls back on the weapon's chambering mechanism. She looks through the rearview mirror and sees how the Agent is aiming down his sights at her. Until...
"Oh shi-" she says as the Agent fires the HAM-R towards her truck. The very powerful round crashes against Vera's SUV with such force that it lifts it off the highway and into the air, she strengthens her grip but the vehicle begins to roll as it hits the ground and continues to roll across the highway floor.
Thirty feet away from the scene Michael hurries inside the Sedan, reaching out towards Sagras as the car dangerously accelerates.
"It's too late, abomination!
Everything is in motion, this vehicle is rigged to blow!"
Sagras yells at Michael.
To which Michael falls back to himself and replies: "We're getting out of this car whether you like it or not, now that you've confessed to terrorist intent, I have more reason to take you in!"
Sagras laughs and says: "You move me, and we're both gone."
Michael grows nervous, he thinks about his options, the thought of failing Dovyo looms in his mind, but he remains headstrong and SatComs Vera.
51: "Vera! This car is rigged to blow, can you do anything about it?!"
20: "Not...right...noooow!"
He looks through the Sedan's rearview window and sees how Vera's SUV rolls off the highway, followed by another MilSec SUV speeding towards him.
51: "VERA!"
Michael grabs the dead Agent by the shoulder and forcefully pulls him out through the busted windshield, Sagras though nervous, remains seated and immobile. The Sedan begins to slow down and veer to the right. Now with enough space to enter, Michael positions himself to crawl inside, when suddenly the MilSec SUV crashes against the Sedan from behind with great force, expulsing Michael onto the highway floor. He rolls sideways and puts his right hand against the ground to recover. He looks forward only to see the Sedan's grille as it rapidly approaches him. From behind the Sedan, the MilSec Agents crawl out of the SUV's top hatch and attempt to regain control of the vehicle.
With no time to react, Michael gets pinned by the accelerating Sedan, he grabs on to the hood trying to stop the vehicle's advancement.
Suspended in mid-air, Vera strongly grips the steering wheel as the SUV rolls uncontrollably towards the ground, "AHH- OOF!"
Vera's scream was cut short as the SUV violently crashes against the empty streets below the highway, the SUV landed sideways with her side against the ground. Loud acceleration sounds faint into the distance, followed by a CHP siren blaring past. She remains conscious after the crash and instantly begins searching for a way out, while looking around she SatComs Michael.
20: "Michael, I'm under the highway, I don't think I'll be able to catch up with you."
51: "Can you try to bypass the explosive device on the car?"
20: "I'll give it a shot."
She grabs the Data Pad from her waist and begins to swipe through the interfaces, meanwhile, a fuel leak is creating a small pond around the vehicle. The Pad's interface opens up and a 3-D render of Vera's surroundings boots up in the screen, She sees the Sedan and starts to scan the vehicle for any anomalous objects, after a couple seconds, bingo, the bomb is revealed.
20: "I've got eyes on the explosive, Mike.
I'm not gonna lie, tech isn't my strong suit."
51: "Get it done!"
"Alright, let's see what we've got..."
She whispers to herself as she taps the explosive and it opens another interface, this one shows more details of the explosive, providing useful information on how to defuse or bypass security systems on the explosive. But she starts seeing red elements that give off warning signs, she taps on these elements and nothing happens, she worryingly raises her eyebrow.
She taps on a blue element and the interface changes accordingly, seeing this she backs out and taps one more time on the red element and nothing happens.
20: "Michael, it won't let me bypass the detonator."
51: "What do you mean it won't- HNNG! HURRY!"
20: "I am trying, what are you doing?"
51: "I'm stopping the car, hurry!"
Vera desperately sighs and continues to try her best, suddenly someone outside shouts and she shifts her attention to them, pulling out her trusty ISP.11 (Integrated Suppressor Pistol). She tilts her head just enough to see through the broken windshield, she aims down her sights with one hand while holding the pad with the other. Something moves through the darkness of the underpass, she holds her fire until the silhouette reveals itself to be a Shock Millitant, Vera's eyes grow and she takes cover once more. Metallic footsteps approach closer to the SUV, the Millitant's chatter can be heard by Vera.
"This the SUV that the Agency is reporting?"
-"Rolled off the highway, target's dangerous, weapons ready."
20: "Shit, shit, shit! I've been compromised."
She looks down at the Data Pad and sees how the red elements have not changed, she continues to press down on them but to no avail.
"Wait, there's something moving inside."
-"Oy! Come on out with your hands up!"
Vera holds herself against the SUV's roof, hiding from the Millitants, one of them starts to get closer in order to investigate, the Shock notices the puddle of fuel around the vehicle, she kneels down and touches the liquid.
"Looks like we got a leak." She tells the rest of the Millitants behind her. Sitting quietly, Vera prepares to make her presence known, she takes a deep breath and whispers: "Fuck it." before revealing herself and unleashing a devastating burst from the pistol at the Shock Millitant kneeling above the fuel, tearing off a synthetic leg and pushing her back to the other Millitants.
"WHAT THE HELL?!"
"MAN DOWN!"
-"Abomination sighted, weapons free!"
The rest of the Millitant forces yell as the corpse lands at their feet. They scramble for any kind of cover, most of them end up using the Highway's support columns, once at their positions the Millitants open fire at the SUV, Vera remains in cover and continues to tap on her Pad to bypass the explosive.
21/Kryo/2467 R.S. 00:48:05
Central Highway District 4, Centralia.
Now entering District 4, also known as "The Neck" due to the dense vehicular traffic that takes place in the area, this district has junctions that lead to every location in Centralia, functioning as a massive exit.
Struggling to keep his hands on the hood, Michael's feet are scraping against the ground, slowly heating his metal boots up. He tries to pull himself up, bending the hood of the car with his strength.
"Grrah!" He exclaims as he finally pulls himself up from under the Sedan, once there he contacts Vera once again. "Vera, status?" he asks.
20: "I'm under fire from Millitant forces, I cannot bypass the explosive!"
51: "Damnit, what the hell am I supposed to do!?"
20: "Just get out of there, let's report to Central!"
51: "No! I am not giving up!"
20: "Mike!"
"//BARRIER SYSTEMS ONLINE//" The suit lets Michael know. This makes him concentrate and take action. With one strong pull he gets back on his feet on top of the hood, the embarking MilSec Agents open fire at Michael but he hastily dodges the rounds, some crash against his barrier only to be deflected. Regardless of the hits he makes his way to the roof of the vehicle, pulls out his SIM (Sedative Introduction Mechanism) tranquilizer gun and aims down through the Sedan's sunroof directly at Sagras, a suppressed shot expulses the sedative towards Sagras' neck. The small container sticks on his skin and administrates the sedative, after the process is done the capsule falls off the target's skin. Sagras holds his neck in pain and confusion, while a MilSec Agent jumps from the SUV towards the Sedan. Michael welcomes him with a strong kick to his chest, the heated metal burns the Agent's suit, burning a hole in his chest, his skin sizzled as he was stopped in mid-air.
The agent falls back to the SUV, cracking the windshield.
Shifting his attention back to Sagras, Michael hops on the driver's seat and attempts to stop the vehicle by stepping on the brakes.
This however does not stand a chance against the SUV's powerful engine, the force continues to push the Sedan forward at great speeds.
20: "Michael you have to get out of there now!"
51: "I'm not leaving without Sagras!"
Michael jumps out and returns to the hood of the Sedan, in his final attempt to stop the vehicle Michael puts his hands on the hood and handstands outwards, "Last try." He thinks to himself before driving his feet against the highway and pushing the Sedan with his hands. Instantly, Michael feels the pressure and is put to the test, he screams as his feet are beginning to heat up, and his barrier becomes active to protect him from the high-velocity projectiles being thrown off the ground because of his boots.
"Grraah!" Michael continues to yell as he struggles to remain strong.
While in cover, Vera is looking at the Datapad and notices how the whole vehicle begins to glow red. She knows something bad is about to happen. As she turns to take a look outside a bullet crashes into her pad, breaking it apart.
20: "Michael! They destroyed my Pad, get out of there!"
51: "We, need, Sagras!"
20: "Forget about Sagras and just go! Now!"
51: "GRR!!"
She remains in cover as the bullets carve out chunks of her cover away, the sparks from the impact fall next to the leaked fuel, igniting it and forming a circle of fire around the SUV, burning up oxygen and creating smoke inside the wreckage that prevents Vera from breathing.
20: "Fuck! Activate auxiliary life support systems."
Vera commands her suit to use the suit's emergency oxygen supply.
She peeks out and dishes a couple of shots, the bullets fly out of the smoke and crash against a Soldier's body armor consequently destroying it, the force of the bullet pushes him to the ground and he pleads for help.
"I'm hit! *Cough* I need help!"
"Don't move, we're coming!"
The nearby Soldiers close in on the SUV to recover the fallen Soldier, they hold their fire as the flames consume the SUV. On the inside, Vera reloads her sidearm, "I've got to get the hell out of here." She thinks while searching around the SUV, alas she spots the door above, she holsters her pistol on her thigh and pulls out the HBS-12 from her back.
Vera kneels down and begins to charge her jump. The metal under her bends due to the pressure being generated, as quick as lightning she springs upwards bashing through the door, a pillar of smoke rushes into the sky. The Soldiers get spooked by the frightening image and flee in search for cover once more, the remaining Shock Millitant lets go of the downed Soldier and reaches for the rifle on his back, before he could grab onto it, *CLANG* Vera lands on top of the SUV, emitting a loud metallic noise and unleashes a barrage of pellets from the smoke towards the Millitants. They yell as their armor gets shredded off, the punch of the pellets pushes the Soldiers to the ground, the Shock Millitant holds his ground with a special hand-held Barrier Aegis activated on his left hand. The smoke clears up and Vera is revealed to the Millitants, the Shock aims down his rifle and commands his comrades to open fire. Without hesitation, he pulls the trigger on his rifle and a burst of bullets fly at Vera. The bullets connect with her Barrier System, seeing how ineffective his attack was, the Shock holds his fire and awaits support. Vera maintains her fierce stance as the Soldiers recover behind the Shock Millitant.
"GRRRR!!" Michael grunts while still opposing the Sedan's advancement with his own body.
20: "Michael are you alright?"
Vera asks worryingly, but to no reply.
Michael is concentrating all his force in order to stop the SUV and Sedan from getting deeper into Centralia.
The MilSec Agents succeed in regaining control of the Sedan as two Agents enter from the sunroof, the first Agent goes directly to the driver's wheel and accelerates. The second Agent tends to Sagras as he begins to grow weak due to the Sedative.
The acceleration pushes Michael to his limit as his legs begin to weaken.
He shouts, releasing energy and regains stability. Suddenly the Agents commence to vacate the Sedan, leaving Sagras alone inside.
"What the hell? Why are they abandoning their objective?" Michael thinks to himself. "This doesn't make sen-... Wait, Vera said I need to get out of here." He comes to the realization that the Agents are indeed following their objective, 51 desperately reaches to the front right fender of the Sedan in order to pull himself out of the vehicle's path. The SUV slams the brakes and the Sedan continues forward on its own, failing to pull himself out of the way, Michael gets stuck under the vehicle and his armor scrapes the ground, the sparks fly into Michael's visor blocking his vision.
51: "Vera! I'm stuck!!"
20: "What do you mean you're stuck!?"
51: "I'm between the Sedan and the- UGH!"
Michael gets interrupted by the front right wheel, as he liberates himself it runs over his right shoulder, his barrier forms a heavy protective layer but the pressure shatters it and his metal shoulder plate breaks off. The Sedan continues forward on its own behind Michael, he sits upright and stares at the static SUV in front of him, "Michael, come in!" Vera radios in. "You need to- *kzzztt*" heavy static cuts Vera off. He looks at the Sedan behind him, suddenly a bright flash blinds 51 so he covers his visor with his left hand, the ground begins to rumble and a massive boom deafens everyone in the area. Michael stands up and runs in the opposite direction of the explosion, the rumbling gets stronger and more erratic as he reaches the center lane, upon seeing the ball of fire the vehicles begin to hit the brakes. Michael slides across one car's hood, however, the flames return to the explosion epicenter and a deathly silence engulfs the area, tired due to the extreme limits he has endured, he pants as his heavy armor thumps across the highway, suddenly a second detonation erupts and it is larger and more ferocious than the previous, the shockwave pushes Michael against the ground.
The great explosion pushes everything into its radius' edge, including vehicles and chunks of structures which crash around Michael, pinning him against the highway floor, due to all the weight of the rubble the chunk of highway he is lying on breaks off and sends him into a free fall. "AHHH!" *THUMP*
Michael blacks out.
The explosion subsides and all that is left is the aftermath, all the traffic froze, and only an eerily lonely CHP Siren blares into the silent night.