The City VIII
#8 of The City
Perpetuum climbed into the helicopter, panting softly. They had gotten the data from Astra's suit and were heading home. Their objectives, even the new one, had been completed to satisfaction. Perp took off his helmet and looked at the floor, breathing lightly and thinking. Scripta tapped his shoulder lightly. Perp looked at Scripta, sniffling slightly, remembering the state Astra had been in. Scripta nodded softly. "Perp, it's okay. He told us to back off and get the data. Sacrifice."
Perp nodded a bit. "Yeah, sacrifice. Gets his name on the company wall, gets his family a compensation fund. Thank the aether that they're given a pittance for his life."
Scripta's head shook in disagreement. "They get good benefits. College funding for a few individuals and so on. You don't like leaving him behind."
Perp sighed and nodded. "Yeah. That... Sits poorly with me. I just don't want to think about it."
Nihilo spoke up. "Perp! It's not fun. It'll be okay though. Just... Come on, this can't go on."
Perp sighed and looked at Nihilo. "Come on."
Scripta finally took off her helmet. The golden jackal nodded, then looked at Nihilo, urging him to take off his helmet as well. "Khopesh, You can't live like this. We might have started a war, we might have eliminated it. Ask Vir, he's got the Poly-Sci major. We did what we needed to do. Even Ire knew what was at risk. We need to think to the future."
Perp looked up and nodded. "I know, Jak."
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Khopesh woke with a start, feeling the convoy stop. He loaded his M416 and slid out of the jeep, walking towards the target building. Vir, Phel, and Haka met up with him.Khopesh sighed slightly. The only way Wilems agreed to the plan fully was for Jak, Chuck, and Yena to be lent over to him,as well as 85 soldiers. They had 82 soldiers to work with to take over the intelligence facility. They sat about 500 meters from the facility, hidden in the shadows and the buildings from the office complex. Suddenly, there was a soft sound of gunfire to the East as the troops in the complex poured out, heading towards the gunfire. A small skeleton crew was left to defend the building.
Khopesh held up a crudely-made suppressor, nodding and waiting for every to secure their suppressors on. Khopesh then nodded as the force headed towards the office complex, quickly firing rounds on the skeleton crew, dispatching them quickly. The force moved in, with Khopesh and Phel quickly moving to the mainframe. Phel slid in his necklace, which had a decryption key in it, into the mainframe. The terminal next to the server cluster lit up, displaying a random assortment of numbers as the server was hacked into. Khopesh coughed a bit, covering a door. "Phel, how much longer?"
Phel chuckled, gun trained on a different door. "About a minute if it's old style encryption. Maybe three if it's a new system."
The computer kept beeping before finally turning green. Phel chuckled and grabbed the USB drive, putting it back on his neck. "All done, we're good to go."
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The group walked out of the complex, breathing in deeply as Khopesh's radio chirped to life. "Civvie, we need you!"
Khopesh grabbed the radio. "Uh, send again, Wilems."
The voice on the other end chuckled slightly. "We're pinned, we need relief. Civvie, we think you might be able to do that. Give us a hand?"
Khopesh nodded, tossing away the water-bottle-and-cloth suppressor from his rifle and having Haka, Vir, and Phel get their troops to toss theirs away. "Copy, give us two mikes."
The group started to jog towards the factory complex, slowly leveling their guns to exposed enemy troops and firing off rounds swiftly. The group made their way forward, taking out snipers, then support, then front-line troops before rallying with Wilems group. Wilems was nowhere to be seen.
Jak jogged up to Khopesh and Vir, making a motion away and leading them to a body on the ground. As they approached, Vir let out a gasp and dashed forwards, crouching over the body and working quickly.
A lion turned towards them, nodding slightly. Wilems needed them to work fast.
Strella had been hit. She was lying on the ground, bullets littering her side, blood pooling from her body. Vir was pouring in medical powder, injecting medical syringes, and wrapping the sounds before lifting her quickly. "Khopesh, we need to go."
Khopesh nodded, following the task force to the infiltration vehicles. He sat with Vir, trying to stabilize Strella as they made their way back to Eagle Rock, a heavy burden overshadowing the hearts of everyone.