Marksman Tales
Chapter 3 – ”Escape”
1 hour. That’s how long it took for them to come up with an escape plan. During that time the attacks had died down a bit and the rest of the base could take care of the wounded. According to the reports, 60% of the TSAB staff were injured or killed in the first attack, making the base go into a state of highest emergency.
All the top leaders of the TSAB had top priority and were moved by special security far away from the base to a hidden, emergency HQ. That is the target of the escape plan.
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“Got that?” Enforcer Harlaown rose from the desk.
“Yes, ma’m,” the others replied in unison. Subaru and Teana had now recovered without any serious injuries and stood a few meters away.
“Vic and Macmillan, your goal is to scout our route ahead and make sure no enemies are present when we move through. The rest of you, prepare to move the wounded.”
Vic and Macmillan nodded and made their way out to the corridor.
“This is just like the old days, huh Vic?” Macmillan said with a smile.
“Yeah. But you know, back then we at least knew who our enemies were,” Vic replied harshly. He didn’t like when Macmillan didn’t take things for what they were.
“Well, I guess. But I don’t think these guys are any harder than what we can handle.”
“Don’t take that for granted,” Vic said and flung himself against the wall, Macmillan doing the same.
Vic pointed past the corner, intending for Macmillan to also take a look. They had never seen anything like it.
3 machines stood behind the corner, two of them looking like boxes with two legs attached and the third were some kind of hovering machine, similar to a fat plate with wings.
Vic and Macmillan looked at each other, both looking equally perplexed. Then they decided it was time to act.
“Barret,” Vic whispered, “Kurzwaffe Mode, now.”
The device replied, as always, in german, “Bestätigter Sergeant.”
Barret grew in size and ejected silverplates around Vic’s hands and it changed its form to that of a handgun, fitting perfectly for Vic.
Vic stood ready and awaited Macmillan’s device, Vanguard, to transform.
“Time for Guardian Mode,” Macmillan whispered to the device.
In fluent English, it responded with, “ Yes, sir.”
The device expanded and formed itself into a shield with poles protruding from its sides.
“You ready?” Vic asked.
Macmillan simply nodded.
“Go!”
The two mages jumped out from cover and immediately took up a defensive position, with Macmillan in front and Vic standing behind him, aiming at the 3 drones. The first 2 drones, the ones on the ground, went down easily. They hadn’t had the time to react, but the third flew around like an insect making it very hard to shoot at.
It fired some kind of energy beam against Macmillan which he easily blocked. Vic still tried to aim at the little drone, but it was just too hard to track when suddenly the roof caved in above the little bugger and crushed it.
“How far have we come?” Macmillan asked, while looking at the rubble.
Vic sighed. “Not far at all. We have at least 100 meters left to the exit.”
“Shit.”
They continued. It was the same procedure at almost every corner. Jump out, shoot, continue. Sometimes there were no drones, other times there were a lot, but they didn’t have any problem dealing with them, it seemed liked it was too easy.
After 45 minutes they finally reached the exit. What they saw outside was not encouraging. Everything outside was destroyed, cars lay spread out over the parking lot, bushes and trees had been cut down. A few bodies lay not far from them, with long burn marks and slashed body parts.
“What the hell happened here?” Macmillan said with anger in his voice.
“I don’t know,” Vic replied nervously, “but let’s report to the Enforcer that the route is clear.”
Vic opened a Com-link to the Fate’s office.
“Finally! What took you so long? What happened?” Fate wondered anxiously.
“It seems like the base has been invaded with small drones and we don’t know more than that, but the escape route has been cleared and you can evacuate the wounded,” Vic replied.
“Good.” She turned to someone off-screen and yelled, “Ok everyone, let’s go! Sergeant, make sure no drones gets in our way and we should be with you within 20 minutes.”
“Roger that,” Vic said and terminated the Com-link. “Macmillan, stay here and guard the exit. I will scout ahead and see if there is anymore of those little buggers around.”
“You really think that’s a good idea? What if you are discovered by some new drone, more dangerous?”
Vic thought for a moment. “I guess I’ll just use Stealth if things turn ugly. Don’t worry; you know I won’t do something stupid,” he replied and ran off, leaving Macmillan staring at him.
He ran to one corner of the TSAB building and checked his surroundings. Nothing, not even a sound. He continued to run until he almost ran into a small squadron of drones, located inside a partly destroyed building.
He hit the ground beneath a window and took a look inside. He counted the drones to at least over 20, a mix between the small ground units and the flying ones. Nothing new in other words and Vic wondered if he should try and take them out. He checked his surroundings again. The building seemed to be a small storage room containing weapons and explosives and it looked like the roof was hold up by 4 pillars inside the room, very instable due to damage.
If I manage to break the pillars at the same time they might not have the time to react, Vic thought.
But how would I do that? Barret in its form now wouldn’t make it.
He positioned himself cross-legged beneath the window and went into meditation. He often did this when he needed something figured out. After a few minutes he knew what to do.
He ordered Barret to switch into Sniper Mode. The device released its hold around Vic’s hand, extended its barrel and grew in size until it looked like an over-sized telescope. Vic aimed on one of the closest pillars.
“Scharfschütze schuß!” Barret ordered and fired. Vic guided the shot with his mind, first destroying the first pillar, closely followed by the second. By now the drones had noticed something was happening but they didn’t know what to do, they just followed the sound of the shot.
The third pillar got destroyed and only the fourth was left, when a drone noticed Vic standing at the window. It fired its beam and he was just fast enough to dodge it, but the shot he had controlled went through the wall, outside. Regaining control of it, he noticed that all the drones were converging on his position and he focused as much as he could on hitting the last pillar. The shot turned in the air and began to increase its speed heading for the pillar when some of the drones seemed to understand what was going on. Without hesitation, they positioned themselves between the shot and the pillar.
Stupid machines, Vic thought and continued to plan the trajectory of the shot. It went straight through the drones and crushed the last pillar. The roof collapsed and loud explosions went off everywhere inside, but by then Vic was already 20 meters away. He ran as fast as he could towards where Macmillan was standing.
Cutting the last corner he saw him stand there, eyes widened and shouting at Vic, “What the hell was that sound? Did you blow up the base or something?”
“No, I just took out a few of those damn drones,” he said, calm as always.
“Well, good thing you got back by now, because the Enforcer is just around the corner,” Macmillan responded annoyed.
“I am always on time, you know that,” Vic said sheepishly.
5 minutes later, Fate came out from the building. “Good job you two. Did you meet any more resistance?”
Vic answered, “Yeah, I took some drones down at a storage building. They were probably more than 20 I think.”
“Considering how many we’ve seen until now I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more inside,” Fate said worryingly, “We should get going.”
She began giving orders to the ones carrying the wounded again. It looked like all of them had gotten out safely.
Vic and Macmillan stood on a distance, overlooking the rubble that once was TSAB HQ. All over the TSAB buildings there were large holes in the ground, walls and roofs. It looked a lot like an artillery bombardment had been launched, which didn’t surprise Vic. Any enemy attacking such a strong building would need some kind of ballistic weapon to break through the walls.
He pondered about that while moving ahead of the rest of the group, scouting for possible threats. Along the way they were supposed to go there were no sign of the drones, so he returned to the group and said it was all okay. The group began to move and headed for the TSAB Emergency HQ.