Disclaimer: I do not own Vandread.
Vandread: The Unknown Soldier
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Endgame, Part One
Location: Weapons Testing Facility Beta
Sergeant Garth Kemp advanced forward with his team, covering the area to the command center. There objective was to storm the command center and secure it. After that, they were to download all available data from the computer’s main databank. This was going to be easy, as they had managed to make it in without the slightest amount of attention to themselves. Apparently, they believed themselves to be so secure that they had thought of an attack on them was next to impossible. So far the only personnel who spotted them had been silently taken care of.
“Alright, Ghosts, once we enter the building, we head straight for the command operations room, our objective is to secure the room and download the info,” he went over the objective with his team. “Move out.”
Like the team’s namesake, they moved silently despite the fact they were wearing heavy armor. Once they made it to the doors leading the control room, Kemp gestured for one of his men to plant a breaching charge on the door. About ten seconds later the doors blew open and the team bolted into the room, gunning down the stunned guards, as well as several technicians. Kemp walked up to one of the consoles and shoved aside one of the dead techs and accessed the computer terminal. He inserted an encoded disc and began to go to work. It took a few minutes to complete the download, and then he removed the disc and but in a pouch on his combat webbing.
“Alright, Primary Objective Complete, let’s get out of here,” he said to his team. One member of his team stayed behind and pulled the pins on a couple of incendiary grenades and tossed them into the room, then rejoined the rest of the team.
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“Alright, you guys are startin’ to piss me off,” Hibiki cursed as he had to dodge yet another blast of laser fire from the Indomitable. He and Dita then combined to deliver a more telling blow to their enemy, which for some unknown reason, had yet to activate that dreaded P.N. Device.
Vandread Dita suddenly moved in to attack the Indomitable, only to be deterred once again by an impressive barrage from the Indomitable. They were forced to take evasive maneuvers or get blasted into molten particles. The choice was obvious, given to the fact that neither of them were planning to die any time soon. They took aim and blasted yet another turret on the ship, destroying more of it’s weaponry.
“You Ready?” he asked Dita.
“Yeah!” she replied in her ever cheerful manner as they charged yet again into battle.
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“Admiral, we’ve just lost life support on Decks thirteen and eighteen!” the damage control officer reported.
Admiral Graff sat in his chair, giving out orders and watching the battle unfold as his ship, the Dauntless, traded salvoes of hellish fire with the enemy flagship, the Divine Will. He cringed as another salvo from the Divine Will struck the Dauntless’ port bow. He gave the order open up the remaining portside weapons batteries to fire as they came to bear on the enemy.
“Alright, it’s time to end this…” Graff vowed silently.
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Garth Kemp was in pain. Not too long after they had completed their objective, they had been ambushed by a platoon of heavy powered armor troopers. He had been hit at least three times, a couple from automatic weapons fire and another from a laser. Damn it, I shouldn’t be in this much pain, unless… that last hit damaged or destroyed my medical pack. He coughed up blood, and it spattered on the inside of his helmet. He began to have trouble breathing, and started to fade in and out of consciousness. He barely noticed his only surviving soldier approach him.
“Sir, all you alright?” the soldier shouted over the gunfire. He identified the soldier as Ghost Four, Private Leon Cameron.
“What does it look like?” he asked sarcastically, as his body was wracked with pain. “Cameron…” he said as he took out the encoded disc and handed to him. “Make sure Spectre One gets this.”
“But what about you?” he asked as he instinctively ducked as shots flew all around where they were taking cover.
“Forget about me, just get that info to the commander, complete the operation,” he said, after which he coughed up even more blood. Cameron gave him a quick salute and left his commander. He knew he was going to die, but he would know that Ghost Team’s part of the operation was a success. It was after that thought that he slipped into the darkness of oblivion…
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Second Lieutenant Heinrich Steiner stood guard with Deveroux as Hawkins planted some explosives on a stack of ammo crates. They were located in the ammo dump, which is where all of the ammunition was stored. Once the explosives went off, the whole facility would go up in a sympathetic detonation. He knew the enemy had to be somewhere, but they’d be foolish to fire while they were taking cover in an ammo dump. That was when he heard the sounds of heavy gunfire and small explosions. He glanced back to where Hawkins was planting the last of his explosives.
“You’d better hurry it up, we’re going to have company soon,” he said.
“Just finishing up here,” Hawkins replied as finished planting his last explosive device.
Once they were finished, they immediately set out to rendezvous with Aidan. They crept around trying to avoid enemy contact if at all possible. They managed to get past the armory when an armored personnel carrier stopped about fifty meters in front of them. Steiner immediately dropped to a knee and fired a rocket from a rocket launcher he’d looted from the dump into the back of the now opening APC. The rocket went through the half-open rear door and exploded. About ten unlucky soldiers and the driver were obliterated in about a second.
But before they could move any further, another explosion ripped into Deveroux, literally tearing him in half. The enemy showed itself to be a heavy power armor identical to the Krieger model, except this one had a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. It had a rocket of it’s own, and it used it. The force of the explosion knocked him off his feet, and he knew from experience that the same happened to Hawkins. He got to his feet as quickly as he could, he looked around and saw Hawkins lying on the ground, Deveroux was nowhere to be found. He unslung his gauss rifle and fired at the approaching armored trooper. Three, solid slugs slammed into the heavy suit, penetrating it’s armor to deliver a telling blow to the soldier inside. The soldier fell to his knees, and Steiner finished him off with a final shot to the head.
He pulled Hawkins to his feet. “Are you alright?”
“No I‘m not, that rocket tore some of my armor and it felt like I was hit with shrapnel,” Hawkins said as he moaned in pain.
“Come on, we need to rendezvous with the rest of the team,” Steiner said as he supported Hawkins. If they’re still alive…
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This wasn’t going as planned at all. Not at all. Aidan ducked behind cover as several more laser bolts lanced overhead. Meia was crouched right next to him, they were pinned down by a large number of standard infantry. He returned fire, but only enough to keep their heads down. The hangar proved it was defended pretty well.
“Damn, they sure don’t want us to get in there,” he said.
“Apparently so,” Meia replied. “But we need to.”
“I know that, but how do we-” he cut off as he saw Steiner help drag Hawkins to their position. “What happened?”
“We got hit on our way over here,” Steiner reported.
“Where’s Deveroux?” Aidan had gotten tired of using the codenames assigned for this mission.
“Dead,” Steiner replied flatly.
“What about the explosives?” he asked.
“They’re all set to go, chief,” Hawkins said, biting back pain. “All you gotta do is push the button, and this place goes boom.”
“Has Ghost Team completed their objective?” he asked.
Before Steiner could answer, a lone trooper with the same camouflage and ‘Ghost-4’ painted on the left shoulder of his armor approached them, crouching, so as to avoid laser fire. The soldier identified himself as Ghost Four, Private Leon Cameron.
“What happened to the rest of Ghost Team?” Aidan asked.
“They’re… dead, sir,” he said dejectedly. “We were ambushed by a large group of heavy powered armor. I believe they are headed here.”
“Shit,” Aidan muttered. “Alright, do you have the disc?”
“Yes, sir,” he replied.
“Then take Hawkins and meet up with Marks and Akida. Tell them to head back to the shuttle and prepare to dust off,” he said. “Tell them to leave if we are not there in fifteen minutes. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir,” he replied as he took Hawkins and left, under the cover of fire from the remaining Spectre Team members.
“Alright, we’re breaking through to that hangar. I want you to toss your grenades, that will distract them as we make a dash towards the hangar,” Aidan said as formulated a quick plan in his mind.
“Understood,” Meia said as she readied herself.
“Major! Look!” Steiner said as he pointed to a large group of powered armor soldiers approaching their position.
“Oh shit…” Aidan said.
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Chapter 28 Finished. Things are coming to an end. Feedback is appreciated