Kasao and her two instructors walked towards the meeting place they discussed, the back of the fort where the number of defenders were smaller from what Chris had told them.
As for his plan... she would consider it quite risky if not for the presence of the veterans. She, Wu and Sal would climb up the back wall and silently get rid of the guards placed there.
After that, the sniper and the PA pilot would destroy the towers in a single attack. Her part in the plan was simply to assist the three in the assault until the dropship arrived.
Eventually, they arrive at the back of the structure to see Chris sitting on a large rock, acknowledging their arrival.
[CHRIS: “What took you three so long?”]
[SAL: “I-”]
[CHRIS: “-Don’t care. Anyways, have a look at this. I had a drone check the fort.”]
While Sal was flipping off the vanguard, Chris sends the video captured by the drone to their huds. First thing that catches their eyes are the five power armored infantry inside the courtyard. Three of them are dual wielding machine guns while the rest carried rocket launchers.
Fifty soldiers wielding assault rifles and shotguns accompany them in the open area, hiding behind walls of the fort or barricades set up.
Many more soldiers are peeking through windows all over the fort while thirty five soldiers with assault and sniper rifles were placed on top of the walls to keep watch. Seeing the number of hostiles, they understood what Chris meant.
The soldiers and the power armor weren’t the main threat however as the towers still stood. Even from the ground, Kasao could see the large laser cannons on top of the structures near them.
Before they do anything else, they had to get rid of the anti-air implements. After that, the dropship and the other cadets would appear and assist them.
[CHRIS: “Now with that out of the way, start climbing.”]
[WU: “What? I thought you were going to help me destroy the towers?”]
[CHRIS: “I am.”]
[WU: “Then why the hell are you just sit-”]
The sniper looks at the location of the towers then sees that Chris was seated in between the two targets. Not only that, the two shoulder cannons were already pointed at them.
[WU: “...You fat fuck.”]
[CHRIS: “Work smarter not harder. Isn’t that your motto?”]
Wu just shakes his head in defeat before turning around towards the wall and walking, with Sal and Kasao following behind him. The walls of the fort are approximately 15 meters tall from what Kasao saw on her hud when her helmet’s AI scanned it.
[SAL: “Hey Kasao, me and Wu are gonna head up first. You just follow behind.”]
[KASAO: “Understood.”]
After the conversation, she sees the two agents break away from her and start walking towards a relatively flat surface. Confused why they did that, she gets her answer soon after
The two agents bend their legs before leaping into the air, cracking the stone surface they used as a platform. The two successfully latch onto the battlements of the fort, pulling themselves up and entering the fort.
Kasao follows after them, using her telekinesis to launch herself into the air and land on the wall, just in time to witness Sal and Wu punch holes through the heads and chests of the two guards placed there on watch.
The cadet found the act a bit excessive. The two vets then drag the bodies to the edge of the wall along with their weapons before lifting up the dead guards high and throwing them meters away towards the lake to dispose of the evidence.
After that, all three crouch down to lessen their chances of being spotted. While all the guards seem to be more focused on the fort’s main entrance, it won’t be long till they notice the missing guards.
Wu grabs the massive rifle from his back and aims first at the left tower near the entrance. After taking a deep breath, the agent squeezes the trigger of his gun.
Faster than a blink of an eye, the top of the tower is obliterated in a single shot, the impact strong enough to shake the fort and knock down a few unattentive soldiers.
Before the anti-foreigners could even register what happened, the tower on the right explodes as well. Another small quake knocks down more soldiers and the others who tried getting up.
Following that, the towers beside the three agents are destroyed by the power armor below. As the sirens once again wail inside the fortress, Chris lands on top of the wall in front of the three, causing the stone to crack from the weight of the vehicle.
[CHRIS: “Good job. Now get over here.”]
Kasao, Sal and Wu scramble towards the power armor as Chris deploys two deployable body shields from the forearms of the suit, pointing them in front of the two entrances that lead to their side of the fort.
The three make it between the two shields just in time for the soldiers stationed at the walls to surround them. Accompanying them are two of the three powered infantry units, pointing their akimbo machine guns at the pilot.
Wu pointed his rifle at the powered infantry at the left while Sal and Kasao pointed their guns at the one on the right. The atmosphere was tense as the agents and the whole fort were in a standstill.
As the two sides state each other down through gunbarrels, the four took to their comms as they discussed what to do next.
[WU: “JC, where the hell are you!?”]
[JC: “Calm down, I’m heading there now. Just stall for time.”]
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[SAL: “Easier said than done!”]
The pilot leaves the call just as the four return their focus on the militia currently surrounding them on all sides. The anti-foreigners slowly approach the four as one of the power armored soldiers orders the agents.
“Agents of Arkham, disable your shields and drop your weapons! If you surrender peacefully and comply with our demands, we will let you leave unharmed!”
The orders and promise came off as ridiculous, not just to the other anti-foreigners but also to the three agents hiding behind said shields.
[WU: “What does this guy think we are? Idiots?”]
[SAL: “Fat chance we’re listening to him. Hell, even the others know we won’t listen.”]
[CHRIS: “I’m dropping the shields.”]
[SAL AND WU: “WHAT!?”]
Like the other vets, Kasao was taken aback by the answer of the larger agent. Before any of them could go against his decision, he had already disabled his shields and raised his hands above his head to the surprise of every anti-foreigner present to see it.
The act was so unexpected that they were frozen in shock, processing what happened. Sal, Wu and Kasao looked at their weapons and hesitated to drop them.
[WU: “Fuck it.”]
Wu gently drops his rifle on the ground then slowly stands up and raises his hands. Sal and Kasao look at each other before following the actions of the sniper all while the anti-foreigners continue to stare at the scene in disbelief.
With all of them “surrendered” and surrounded, Wu starts talking to the anti-foreigners on his left.
“Okay, our hands are up! What do we do now?”
It took a while for them to realize that he was talking to them. The same power armored soldier from before answers him, still confused about the whole thing.
“Uhhhh... I dunno! I-I didn’t expect you guys to actually listen to what I said!”
“Well, we did! So what now?”
“Uhhhh... C-can you give me a few seconds?”
The man then leads toward his partner as he whispers to her for help.
“Psst! What do we do now?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t think we’d get this far honestly.”
“Same. Wait... how do we know if they’ll listen to what we say?”
“I’ll ask him.”
The woman in the power armor yells at Wu to get his attention, the agent still holding his hands up.
“Hey! How do we know you’ll listen to what we say?”
“Did we not just surrender after you told us to!?”
The woman goes silent before leaning back to her partner as they discuss more about the situation. As they continue to keep their hands up, they get an update from JC.
[JC: “Yo, I’m above the fort right now. You guys need help with the antis surrounding you?”]
[CHRIS: “Not yet. Wu, keep your mic open so JC can hear the conversation. You’ll know when to shoot.”]
[JC: “Copy.”]
The conversation ends just as the two power armored soldiers finish theirs. Facing the four again, the male soldier talks to Wu again.
“Alright, we’ve made a decision. If you strip your armor and answer our questions, we’ll let you guys leave. Deal?”
“Questions first, then we strip.”
“Fine. Why are you guys here?”
“Extermination mission. We’ve been getting complaints about you guys so we’re here to get rid of the problem. No offense.”
“None taken. Who are the others with you? We saw streaks of fire coming from the other camps.”
“Drones.”
“Okay. How did you guys get here in the first place?”
“We flew.”
“On what?”
The soldier and his comrades on both sides of the wall get their answer as they are consumed by explosions from two wispy streaks of light that came from the sky, causing the entire fort to shake from the sudden attacks.
What remained of the anti-foreigners, the ones that weren’t instantly vaporized by the lasers, flew in the air as burnt chunks of flesh, metal or a disgusting fusion of the two.
Now that they weren’t held at gunpoint and the dropship had arrived, Kasao and the two veterans pick their guns off the floor as they hear Chris talk to them while at the edge of the wall facing the courtyard.
[CHRIS: “I need some assistance here. Too many of them for me to kill by myself.”]
He says before shooting two power armored soldiers with his palm lasers, obliterating their heads before they had a chance to fire their rockets at the now visible ship.
Wu and the others sprint towards Chris’ location to assist in the firefight just as he puts down the other power armor with his shoulder laser.
The sniper focused his fire onto the remaining soldiers still on top of the walls. His bullets tear them all to shreds with no effort as they continue to fly and land hundreds of feet away, forming craters on impact.
Sal and Kasao helped Chris deal with the soldiers below who were torn between focusing their sights on the descending ship above them or the agents massacring them from above.
After clearing all of the enemies on top of the walls, JC moves the ship’s rear towards an undamaged wall and drops the ramp. The other cadets come pouring out of the vehicle and spread themselves throughout the wall, crouching behind the battlements as they unleash a hail of bullets that rip the remaining soldiers apart.
The massacre of the fort finally ended as the last anti-foreigner alive gave his last breath as he laid on top of the bloody remnants of his comrades, his lower body torn to shreds by the bullets from the cadets.
The courtyard resembled the floor of a slaughterhouse, stained with gallons of blood and chunks of flesh. The guns, armor and barricades the antis used were now broken, warped or twisted like their users.
The gruesome sight was something to behold indeed, so much so that many of the foreigner cadets had removed their helmets and started vomiting on the ground, only to vomit again after the smell hit their nostrils.
Some grimaced at the sight of the carnage in front of them while others seemed to be unbothered by it. Kasao was reminded of a bad moment in her past but shook it away.
[WU: “We’re not done yet, cadets. Put your helmets back on and head inside the fort. We need to make sure all enemies have been neutralized.”]
[WU: “When all floors have been swept clean, meet us at the courtyard.”]
[CADETS: “Yes sir!”]
With the order given, the rest of the cadets start going down the steps into the building. Many of them hesitated or outright didn’t want to continue, but they were eventually forced to move by the others.
Kasao and the agents with her see the dropship land on the courtyard, crushing everything beneath its bulk with blood splashing under its weight.
Chris, Wu and Sal jump from the top of the wall to the courtyard, with the former causing a small quake as he lands. Kasao gently floats down using her psionic abilities.
All four walked towards the pilot who had just exited the ship from the back. As they meet up at the side of the dropship, JC started the conversation with an apology.
“Sorry I took a while. Had to deal with a few problems with the other cadets.”
That earned him raised eyebrows from the four. Out of concern, Sal asks the pilot more about it.
“The cadets? What happened to them?”
“Two of them are suffering from mental trauma, one got hit with shrapnel while he was puking and the last one went mental so I had to drug him to calm down. All foreigners.”
“Hmmm... Those three probably never experienced combat before.”
“Then why the hell did they choose to become agents then?”
“Why are you asking me? I’m not their brains.”
“Fair enough.”