●　● Akkadia One, Eden Space Territories

Amelie was right, Sam is about to be way the hell in over her head.

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“Who requested that spy drone launch and who in here authorized it?!” Vincent roared as he stormed back to the Board Director’s room from his office.

Al calmly placed his hands flat on the desk, suppressing his desire to erupt as the stress from the current unfolding of events had piled up at an alarming rate. “We needed eyes. Ever since Bogota we have not been able to get clearance for any more sweeper satellites and we are not about to let our boys go in half blind,” he firmly responded.

“And if the capital thought that missile delivery was a weapon?!” he blasted back as he stood behind his chair at the table. “I hired you to keep things clean, not stir up a potential storm! Do you know the responses we just got from that?”

“We as a group of five, sir,” Lucian spoke from his seat trying to keep the peace but showed in his tone he took some offense from the outrage. “We made that decision just moments ago. The request came, the opposing units were many, and we can’t say no to that clear a safety precaution.”

“And all of those carrier units carry one, sir,” Nabransky added in from next to Lucian.

Vincent took a breath as he calmed down. “It’s after the fact, which has me still upset, but we will take things as they are, fortunate to have no further negative reactions beyond what we did receive. I still did ask, however, who requested that drone be launched.”

“Director Norris,” Al flatly responded with his eyes back fully returning to his work station.

Vincent shook his head once, taking his leave back towards his office. Always her. I am seriously starting to question my hiring of her in the first place.

With the room back in focus, Al continued with the preparations for Kolkata to move search and rescue resources along with coordinating the distribution of personnel between there and the rest of Southeast Asia. Singapore had been well set up to handle it as was, but that was only until it started to reach its limits as far as its operating capacity was concerned. The debacle in Bangladesh had disrupted much of the system they installed, and as much as Al wanted to focus on that, he still couldn’t keep his head fully out of the extraction op in Dhaka City. Amelie has surprisingly stopped bugging me since then. It almost has me suspicious of to what extent she said she would tie up loose ends for Danielle and Gabe. Makes me think she made talks with them personally to the side without my knowledge. Wouldn’t surprise me, but that’s what scares me.

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Halfway across the satellite nation, the Raven residence was quiet as Saff found herself enjoying a rare evening to herself. She had a song playing over the kitchen’s in-ceiling speakers that helped keep the stresses from work away as she enjoyed her cappuccino, staring into empty space, lost in thought. Taking another careful sip, she remembered then there was a TV program she wanted to see and that now would be the perfect time to watch it without disruption. She placed her cup down, hearing a shot ring out from the Union standard issue anti-mech rifle. The most innocent of sounds such as that from her weighty mug softly hitting the table with a muffled thud sometimes triggered that effect, never causing an arousal or a gasp as she had been dealing with the problem for almost two decades.

Not right now… please, not right now. Let me enjoy my evening, please.

…

She turned her head over to where her mobile lay flat near her on the kitchen table and rotated in her comfy stool, letting out a sigh of defeat. She flipped on the holographic display, bringing up a search tool and starting typing in the search bar.

I promised myself I wouldn’t do this, but damn it…

“Trouble in the capital? We bring you as close as we can to the Parliament building, locally known as the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban,” a reporter spoke through a heavy British accent, standing with the massive structure behind him in the distance. Military personnel had the access street taped off, allowing the man to do what he could with only a few tanks visible from where he stood. “Thank you, fellow Eden viewing families, for tuning into us this morning, and we bring you the latest news breaking from early this dreary morning turned over on its head. The Rakib Hossain-led military secession group has garnered what looks to be hundreds in manpower hired from unknown foreign sources, marching on the capital as you see here, storming the Parliament with absolutely no resistance...”

Are you fucking kidding me, Al? You never even hinted this kind of shit was going on!

Her coffee mug sat undisturbed over the next few minutes as she intently and nervously stared at the screen.

“This seems to have stemmed from much more than just financial matters that have boiled over since the split from the Indo-Asian Union of the Confederacy days that once spanned a financial singularity from Pakistan to Vietnam. As explained by son Sharif Hossain earlier, the more intense situation brewing is between the incoming government and Hexa International, now labeled as terrorists with multiple counts of excessive force and murder.”

Murder!?

“With Hossain taking power, one of the first moves is sending his newfound military force directly at a field base Hexa’s own military-esque force ‘Infinity’ just took back from guerilla forces just last night. To make things worse for the hired hands, they had been doxed, faces plastered all over local media with Hexa official bios, followed by home addresses and other personal history. But what remains to be seen is what the remaining Bangladeshi Military still loyal to the BNP will do, perhaps being the cause behind these tanks you see here still parked. You can even see,” he said as he pointed the camera to zoom in further towards the Parliament, “that LTAC forces are also lined up, holding their positions as if expecting a separate attack. But let’s take you to one of the demolition zones once known as Tejgaon…”

Saff was no longer listening, however, as she was now at the computer just beyond the bar separating the kitchen from the living room, searching up said information. She found herself speechless upon seeing Sam’s entire crew including Danielle up on display, wanted for capture dead or alive as enemies of the state resisting arrest. Her heart started racing as she ran back to her mobile, stopping the streamed news site and brought up her call screen, typing in “Amelie Delacroix” frantically.

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●　● Dhaka City, Bangladesh

“Keep moving!” Sam heard Gabriel’s voice booming over their private team channel as her heart pounded, fearful from not only unknowing of the full strength of the forces bearing down on their location but from the thought of having to fight with no way of retreat as it was. The ever-looming concrete walls surrounding them became more of a threatening existence, feeling as if it were the walls of the gladiator’s den and a pack of hungry lions were set free. All the while feeling such sensation, her Axiom’s feet continued to pound the still-soft earth below, steadily headed straight for the heart of the abandoned skyline ahead. “Pick-up arrives in fifteen, let’s move it-move it!” Gabriel continued as constant updates in enemy movements poured in.

The city center was a ground once cleared, housing a large plaza-style arena of office buildings and commercial establishments, prime landing area for a large platoon such as the one Gabriel was trying to lead behind the scenes, utilizing Kerry’s verbal commands as liaison.

“Troop A, Troop B, status!” Kerry shouted with intensity and urgency. “We’re losing time!”

“That’s everyone! Both troops and all vehicles in motion!” a voice shouted back over the open line.

Finally! Sam felt her knees at the ready the instant the words were shouted, confirming their clearance to speed things up. “Leading the way!” she joined the channel with a holler, slamming the pedals that sent the Axiom airborne, quickly followed by the three other Ap50’s just behind her in formation. “Confirming holding pattern 6!”

“Roger that,” Kerry responded as their frames began to ease off their ascent, preparing to slow to landing speed. “Keep eyes to the sky!”

“Negative!” Gabriel suddenly interrupted over the private channel. He spun his drone back out and through the cloud cover, picking up on what he sensed was approaching. “Two gun boats trying to sneak back up over the top! Navarre, get an angle on them!”

“Yes, sir,” Sebastian calmly replied as he eased his descent to the east by a touch, just narrowly putting his landing trajectory over the only parking garage in the area. [Almost brings back memories.] As he touched down gently as to not cause the structure below to give way, he caught sight of the other three units sailing past, touching down not far from his location on the old, broken, quickly crumbling asphalt stretch.

A few locals who had holed up in the garage below with cameras quickly made their way to the ledge where they looked below to see the two Ap50’s and the Axiom adjust, stop, and turn back to the other side of the street. They were quick to start their recordings, full of intent to broadcast live what they knew the media couldn’t. [Hey, one of you get the other side! Someone else, go run up top! See what landed!] one of the young men shouted to the others in Bengali.

The youngest of the four, appearing to be in his late teens, made a dash for the stairwell just in front of him at the corner of the building, instinctively ducking mid-dash as a team of Ai20’s roared by, landing beyond the point where the Axiom stood. Hurrying up the stairs until he saw dim daylight, he stopped to pull up his camera and hit record before proceeding carefully. [This is where I heard something big land. Let’s take a look,] he quietly spoke to the recording, easing up the last corner of the stairwell as he rose into the open air, spotting right leg of the blue-gray camo-decorated Ap50 easing its way back a few steps. He ducked back around the corner out of caution before once more slowly edging forward, camera pointed where he knew the monstrosity stood. Just as the top of the Ap50 came into view…

TAH!!

Rang out the unwelcomed, much-maligned hybridized round, sending the young man almost careening down the stairs backwards, narrowly grabbing the rail with his right hand after dropping the camera, desperately reaching for his ears to cover them tightly as if it would stop the deafening, scream-inducing pain.

TAH!! TAH!! TAH!!

Rang the shots three more times in succession with thunderous echoes sent down the stairwell. He quickly gathered himself, fearing for his life as he reached the floor below in full sprint for the opposite corner where he knew there would be a safer exit. Through his loss of hearing, however, he wouldn’t notice Sebastian’s Ap50 quickly evacuating his post for the opening behind the building as the sounds of missiles approached quickly.

Sebastian landed with a thud, quickly spinning back the other way, rifle up as he backpedaled, taking note his two acquired targets were gone, inbound missiles dodged just in time. Over a dozen rockets rug into the garage building, sending it into a rapid collapse, pushing the team back another fifty meters. “That was close!”

“Alright, eyes, what’s the sky looking like?!” Kerry shouted as the groups re-established themselves behind new cover, having lost their largest building.

“Hold tight, sky clear! You got ground units coming in first,” Gabriel continued as he circled around, trying to keep himself mobile as possible before what he feared most happened.

-Beep-Beep-Beep- went the target acquisition alarm from four different directions. “Shit, I need to bail guys- you got this!”

And that was what I knew would happen. No one is that dumb to let that go for long, Sam told herself as she took a deep breath. She looked around, seeing Sebastian across the open plaza from him at one corner, Kerry to her right at her corner of the plaza, and noted Andre directly behind her, watching the back entrance to the plaza. The last time she felt herself cornered, she was alone with an enemy she couldn’t find. This time felt different, however. Not only were there numbers, there were three others who had proven their mettle in front of her own eyes. She had to be more confident this time. Think… think… It took the waiting in silence for the next thirty seconds for her to realize something.

“Hey!” she shouted over the team radio, remembering not just how missile tracking was pre-war level, but also what she had long questioned about the controversial performance Gabriel put on for them in the simulator back in Singapore. If we are to win this, we can’t let them move first! We have too many technological advantages to NOT hit them first! “Kerry, listen real quick, I have an idea!”

“It’ll have to wait!” she firmly answered without pause. “They’ve crossed into the airfield!”

“But them being in that open field is our advantage!” Sam fired back intensely, unable to hold back this time. “We have the operating system to pull it off if you let us!”

“Sam is right! I would prefer to be the one to shoot first in any situation!” Sebastian added on, boosting her confidence but only for that brief moment.

“This isn’t a vote, damn it!” Kerry seethed. “Barrels up- hold positions! Here they come!” She then took note the distance the two Av25 squads had put between them and the heart of the abandoned district. “We’ve got to keep them from crossing that field bordering street!” Just as she started to focus down the open streetway facing what little field she could see, a tank round took out the corner of that same intersection’s office building, blinding everyone’s visuals with columns of dust and debris, causing everyone to flinch and lose focus for just a split second. That was all the time it took for a rocket angled over the building to point its nose right back down, diving in on Kerry’s position without proper warning.

“Kerry!” Sam erupted. “Shield up-” she was interrupted by the deafening thud that felt what set off every nerve in her body. “Kerry!” she shrieked as she caught herself in a moment where she felt the strongest urge to hit the jump boost and back out to safety as she knew to do once before, but yet something conflicted within her that instant, causing her to dash in on Kerry’s location through the falling gravel rain without a single calculation. “Everyone, pinch in!” she barked, expecting the worst of what had just happened but couldn’t simply dash off to safety for her own sake this time around.

Sebastian followed suit without hesitation, and Andre anted up with the tossing of two successive grenade tosses over and through the intersection where the tank shell erupted. Just as the three rotated and touched down just steps away from the fresh crater, they heard movement behind them. That special ordered shield fell from the Ap50’s grasp and landed with a bang, freeing Kerry from the building she was pinned against, stumbling away, shaken but in one piece.

“Gotta get moving!” she said with a cough, losing some of her sense of equilibrium from the wind knocked out of her. The following set of two explosions from the grenades and their thunderous echoes exacerbated the dizziness. “Don’t just sit there! Get us moving!”

Sam took the initiative rather than argue her intentions, sending a rocket from each of her shoulders to the same location, timing it with her sidestepping toward the empty street leading them to where the other teams had holed up. “Best bet we batten down the hatch over there and hit the first things we see move while the dust cover is up! Sebastian, cover our back! Andre, help Kerry until she’s a hundred percent back with us!”

“I’m staying here! Get Kerry to safety first!” he argued, already barrel up and locking in on what seemed to be faint NOx signals on the other side of the smoke.

“Sebastian!” she angrily shouted back as she led Kerry and Andre down the street, tempted to stop and turn.

“We have to slow them down before they think we are running away! This is how they fight! They always fight dirty!”

“You don’t even know who they are!” she wailed back, convinced Sebastian had a screw knocked loose in the explosions.

“These aren’t locals! They marched in with foreigners and I- hold on!” he cut himself off as he started firing several bursts through the intersection, assuming the faint traces were LTACs approaching. [Right there, those should be their knees.] He carefully sidestepped with every burst, never holding still as moments later the expected return fire came zipping through, innocently tearing through the concrete in the building behind him. [Fuck me. Can’t seem to land a shot AND they came with high power rifles this time,] he thought to himself, expecting grenade rounds. [Maybe she was right. And damn it, I don’t think I hit a single one- that can’t be right!] A large buzzing object zipped by just meters in front of him, blazing a trail through the plaza clearing and through a narrow alley, causing him to throw his barrel in that direction before noting the green glow around its location. [Mr. Silva?! I thought he left!] He then watched as it suddenly flew upward, streams of ECM bursts and a friendly shout over their radio:

“I had to hide out! Can’t just leave you four lost in the jungle!” Gabriel sung over the squad channel. “This time for real! I got one good pass,” he continued with a full speed burst across the open airfield.

Sebastian noticed the newest updates in target information light up his sensors like a Christmas parade, seeing exactly what he was shooting at. The tracings showed the approaching LTACs to be holding full height shields in hand, followed by a rank of about five tanks just behind.

“Sebastian, get out of there!” he heard Sam shout as he too realized he wasn’t the least bit prepared. “We can’t fight this in the streets OR the open field We need heavy… heavy artillería!” he shouted through his lack of vocabulary as he hurried through the continued return fire towards the others.

That means I was wrong to ever suggest going in the open. What was I thinking we were about to face? What was I thinking at all?! Sam suddenly found herself in doubt, hunkered down behind an apartment building not far from Sebastian as she propped her heavy launcher against the corner and kept it aimed down the street. Who ARE we up against if it’s not the Bangladeshi Military? “Speak to me Sebastian, what did your rounds do?”

“Nothing! Their shields are so low they touch the ground!” he said as he passed her, spinning back to face the same street opening, standing just across the street from her. “They can’t be hit!”

“Hold on,” she answered back after a second’s pause with an idea. She readied her trigger finger just as the scanned outlines of each unit quickly began to fade from view.

“Had to scram the drone, sorry but that’s the end of the show!” they heard Gabriel say with a collective sigh from stress in response.

Sam pulled the trigger anyway, expecting the previous movement rate to put the frontmost LTAC right in the traveling path of her tank buster round. The ensuing explosion carried not only asphalt and dirt further into the air, but they saw the firework display follow suit, signaling the hit they were hoping for.

“Hell yeah. That’s a kill,” Andre spoke up in relief.

“Nailed that bitch,” Kerry added. Her head had been fuzzy for the past minute, but was now shaking the last of the haziness off as her surroundings finally came clear.

But those words coldly reminded Sam of what she just had taken no hesitation in doing after multiple attempts to scold others for the same. The thought brought a second’s worth of humiliation, but she knew she had no time to think on it any further. All she could worry about now was to keep the rounds loading and firing. Only got eight shots… And I can’t just call for a reload… WAIT! she thought with an epiphany.

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Sebastian fired all those shots, no hits, nothing, which confirms they are in fact running refractive coating on those shields. But yet… the tank buster went right through it? The shields that should’ve stopped it just enough like for me and Kerry!? That’s a hack design! They really are running nothing more than fucking knockoffs! That means-!

“Sam!!”

She heard Sebastian shout, waking her from her thoughts as she noticed an approaching NOx cloud through where she just shot, causing her to pull her trigger once more. “We need those Av25 squads to beat them! Move back one block and run A-1 formation- no time to explain!”

“No, tell us now if you want us to re-expose ourselves!” Kerry argued back, holding her position as a tank shell hurdled into the building where Sebastian had once stood earlier, causing both her and Andre to flinch.

“Oh, NOW you want to hear my ideas?!” she belligerently replied, continuing her dash deeper into town as the streets grew narrower. Well, shit, that just slipped right out my mouth.

“Bitch, what?!” Kerry snapped back, seemingly lost in the heat of things herself.

Damn it! NOT what I intended on starting! “Look, we need those A-V’s! Hurry before they get smart enough to bust through!”

“Stop it! Move first, then argue!” Sebastian shouted as he split between the two, kicking up asphalt as he knew the streets were becoming too cramped to boost around. He continued up to the next smaller courtyard where he turned to find a few Av25’s to his immediate right, almost like they were a welcoming party of some sort. “Sam, I know what you are thinking! You don’t do a pinching trap like that! If they have tanks, we have to be the bait first!”

He knew what I was thinking!?

“The basic launcher they have isn’t fast enough travel to targets far away!” he continued as he watched the other three file in behind, reluctant but with no other choice as things stood. “You, you are too heavy. You stay and shoot. Me, Andre, Kerry, we have to be bait.”

“That was the plan!?” Kerry fussed back initially, but soon realized with the next series of exploding shells nearing their position that they had no choice but to try, and something was better than nothing. “Aerial or cross-town?” she said with a suddenly straight, honest tone.

“In the air. We have to be fast.” He realized the entire Av25 crew behind them seemed bewildered, dumbfounded, and mildly offended. “Sorry, teams. Listen, we need you to aim down this street. Don’t fire until after we drop down and they turn to us!”

“Sir,” one of the Av25 pilots spoke up. “Understood, holding ground!” He wasted no time, as did the five behind him as they took up cover behind what they could at each corner. “Spread the word to the others, and get them lined up on every street parallel to this one facing the airfield!” The units quickly moved into position, holding up launchers that were somewhat similar to the one Sam had, save the simpler design that only shot one type of round: armor-piercing post-entry detonation rounds. The build of the Av25 was similar to the Ai20, but lacked the riot shield mount and instead carried a host of anti-vehicle tools on a set of multi-compartment cases in the left shoulder, upper arm, and forearm mounted locations. “The rest of you,” he continued before being interrupted by increased shelling of the buildings nearby from more than one direction this time. “Haul ass and start trapping the flanks with the claymores! Don’t let anyone sneak up!”

Sebastian hadn’t barked orders since leaving Bogota, feeling a sense of confidence he too had not felt since. He then realized perhaps it was not the best mix of talents between he, Sam, and Kerry as all seemed to want to be the leader, yet then again, he knew this wasn’t the time to ponder such things. “Sam,” he said with a slight jump in reaction to rifle fire he heard quickly closing in, “you fire first, bring them in this way if you can.” He then turned to launch, knowing he had plenty in the reserve to bail out the second he was to touch down. Where? That was what he had all of a few seconds to determine. He looked around, surveying several building tops, spotting a rather large, flat-roofed apartment complex seeming to be prime landing space, albeit for even only a second or two. “There!” he shouted as he laser-painted the building. “Up there when Sam shoots next!”

“On it!” Sam responded, carefully timing her next pop around the corner, knowing someone would be waiting for her. She checked her launcher status one last time to make damned sure she had the right round locked and loaded before pivoting, shield out and launcher between it and the corner of the building.

THUNK!!

Went her ECM charge right into the midst of a tank surrounded by several Kappa LTAC frames, sending sensor frazzling charges throughout the courtyard like fireworks as it detonated. “Enemy blind!”