The old gray ten-story building stood out due to its short height compared to the two buildings it was sandwiched in between which were 300 stories tall. The target building was quietly being surrounded by the combined raid force late at night when there was little legal activity happening.
Every road leading to the city block that the building was part of was shut down with the use of the traffic control AI system. This included both hover cars and flying cars which would now automatically be rerouted to take different routes.
Captain Fealzit and the men under his command quickly placed holo-tape blocking the streets, sidewalks, and alleyways near the target building to stop any late-night wanderers or drunkards from nearing the raid zone and interfering with the raid.
Kat was standing next to the building's main entrance and had already taken out her hacking equipment so that she could start working her magic. After drilling a small hole and plugging into the building's system she started typing up a storm on the holographic keyboard that popped up in front of her at waist height.
She watched the stream of information pass by quickly on her helmet's visor and adjusted her fast typing to go with what she saw. The flow of data was quick enough to make any normal person without augments feel dizzy to the point of wanting to throw up.
Ward, Knox, and Kix, each wearing an exoskeleton, were standing a few steps away from the main entrance and were ready to breach the front door when the order was given.
The raid team normally did not need to fear being discovered as the civilian security systems that were used in the area were all provided by a mega-corp under the control of Mother and Father, or at least that is what the rumors said.
What Kat was currently hacking into was not under the Mega-corp's control as it was a personalized security system that was supposed to be decentralized, but knowing the Office of Reason and Mother and Father there would always be a backdoor in the security system.
Kat was frowning as the flood of data constantly showed errors and revealed that the backdoor had been illegally tampered with in an attempt to block someone like her from gaining access to the building's full systems. This required brute force to get in quickly or time to slowly chip away at the altered systems.
Arron stood behind the exoskeletons along with Captain Pointer, Bishop, and ten other police officers. They all had their weapons drawn and were ready to start a gunfight if the troubled targets found out they were here.
Looking at the building from the outside Arron could see no lights or hear any sound coming from the building. It was dead silent causing him to wonder if this was the correct building.
“The area is secure,” said captain Fealzit over the agreed-upon comm frequency.
“Take up your positions around the building. Sniper what's your situation?” asked the young commanding gray suit agent.
“I am in place and can see everything below,” said Priss in a cold voice.
Captain Fealzit quickly ordered his men into position around the building covering the doors, windows, and the rusty emergency ladders. All that was left for him to do was wait for the action to start.
Arron looked behind him and saw the gray-suited office of reason agents were all standing in the shadows of another building across the road away from anyone else in the raiding force. They seemed to want to command everyone from the safety of the shadows in the rear.
“I have control of the building's main security systems! If you give me more time I can gain control of everything else,” said Kat.
Everyone gathered in front of the main entrance, tensed up as they waited for the order to breach the front door.
“No need for that. Just block anyone that tries to initiate a lockdown. There are new orders for those of you entering the building. You are to... normalize any threat you find inside. As for any other person or group that you may find you are to subdue them. When in doubt, shoot first and I will decide if questions are needed afterward.”
Arron gripped his Bigboy gun with both hands and checked the ammo readout one last time.
“GO!”
A loud buzz and click was heard as Kat unlocked the doors.
Bam!
Ward kicked the door open and the three exoskeletons rushed into the building's hallway followed by Arron, Captain Pointer, Bishop, and the ten police officers.
“Ward, me, and you three will take the first four floors. Knox, Bishop, and you three have the 5th -7th floor. Kix, Arron, and you four will take care of the 8th-10th floor,” said Captain Pointer, quickly issuing orders to the ERF members and police officers while rushing to the first rooms of the first floor.
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The raiding force split into three groups and did as they were commanded.
Both Knox and Kix led their groups to the stairs not wanting to risk using the building's MagShoot as they might be booby-trapped.
Arron could hear the sound of scuffles from behind them as they began rushing up the flight of stairs.
Knox parted ways with Kix's group when they reached the 5th floor only giving them a silent wave and a thumbs up for good luck.
As Arron and the others arrived at the 8th floor captain Pointer's voice came over the coms updating his situation.
“First floor cleared only light resistance. Most of the rooms were empty.”
“Disarm them and gather everyone you found into one room. Leave someone behind to watch them. This order is for all of you on each floor,” said the commanding agent.
“5th floor is clear. No one on this floor,” said Knox giving a quick update.
Kix led the way down the hallway acting as the metal meat shield for Arron and the rest of the police officers.
The entire 8th floor was silent with no lights on or windows to allow the outside light in. Arron was only a few steps behind Kix and was using his visor's night vision mode.
Bam!
Kix kicked a door open and everyone rushed in after him with weapons ready.
“Clear!”
This process continued for the whole 8th floor.
“8th floor is clear. No one was found on this floor.”
“2nd floor clear...” “6th floor clear...” “3rd floor clear...” “9th floor clear...” “7th floor clear. Heading up to support clearing the 10th floor.”
Arron followed Kix up to the 10th floor ready for another empty floor.
As soon as they entered the hallway of the tenth floor they immediately noticed a difference. There was only one door that was at the end of the short hallway.
With the help of his helmet's sensors, he could hear the muffled sounds of several voices coming from behind the door even though the walls and door seemed to have some sort of cheap soundproofing.
Kix held up his metallic exoskeleton hand stopping the group. He pointed at the door and then chopped his hand down.
Arron and the police officers all quietly nodded their heads. Their fingers were now on the trigger of their weapons ready to shoot any threat.
Instead of kicking in the door, Kix tried to silently open it so they could rush in and take the people inside by surprise. He looked to the others behind him and shook his head. The door for some reason was still locked.
Without any other option, Kix readied his exoskeleton's right leg and...
Bam! Kicked a hole in the door where the cheap locking mechanism was located.
Without missing a beat he pushed the now broken door open with full force and charged inside.
Arron was right behind him as he ran into the room. His weapon was out and swiveling as he searched the large dimly lit room for any hostile enemies. As he scanned the room he noticed the muffled sound from before had been the singing of the large group of people that were gathered inside the room.
The large room was bare of any furniture besides a podium at the front of the room, a large metal table that stood next to the podium.
The podium held a large ancient-looking book while the table held several different symbols and trinkets. The gathered people were all sitting or kneeling on cushions laid out on the floor in a semi-circle in front of the podium.
The music and singing abruptly stopped as the gathered people who had not heard the kicking in of the door, definitely noticed the group of fully armored and gun-wielding officers charging in.
“Ahh!” “What's going on!?” “They have weapons!”
All hell broke loose as the terrified cries and shouts of several hundred people rang out.
The majority of the gathered people began crawling or sprinting towards the front of the room. While the rest sat still like deer caught in the headlights, terror covering their faces unable to move.
Arron quickly scanned each person while pointing his service weapon at them and then moving to the next person as he scanned them for weapons.
Those that had the weapon pointed at them immediately stopped moving not wanting to get shot. Sweat poured down their foreheads as some were caught in difficult positions while crawling or sprinting away having their arm or leg half raised in the air.
“I see no weapons,” said Arron.
“I don't either,” said Kix.
“Same,” said each of the 4 police officers.
Even so, they still held their weapons ready as the large group could still have hidden augmented weapons or at the very least they could mob their small group before Knox and the others could come and support them.
“Calm down everyone! I'm sure there is an explanation for this!” shouted an elderly man with glasses who was standing behind the podium.
The gathered people including the raiding force all looked to the man who had spoken.
“Are you the leader of this gathering?” asked Kix through the exoskeleton's external speakers.
“I am. What is M1 and the police doing barging into our building? No crime is happening here.”
Arron, Kix, and the four police officers were silent and did not answer the man's question because, to be honest, they did not really know why they were here either.
“This is Kix, we have found a group of over 200 people on the tenth floor. From our external scans they all seem to be unarmed,” said Kix using the secure coms to report their finds to the commanding gray suit agent.
“That would be the Den of Evil that we are looking for. Secure the area and make sure no one tries to escape. Everyone else head to the tenth floor. We will be up there to join you in a moment,” ordered the commanding agent.