Chapter 44: MANY LIVES FOR ONE
Squad Artemis advanced down from the 4th floor of the bank, carefully checking all of the rooms and areas. As they are expecting hostiles now, they have activated the integrated night vision in their Exo-suit helmets, activating the IR lasers on their guns, which can only be seen under night vision. In this way, they can navigate through the dark building without using weapon lights, ensuring that they remained concealed.
Their individual radars are switched to passive mode, meaning that it only responds when it detects foreign footsteps and gunshots. This is so as active searching, meaning that the radar actively emits radar waves to search for enemies, may result in them being caught by detectors,
Their way of walking, which they had been drilled their entire life in, is also designed to minimise noise, consciously stepping with their heels landing first to minimise noise and prevent stepping onto things. They also used their thighs as the main muscles when walking, to ensure more uniform strength and balance.
In the meantime, the 5 contractors of Spades International have hidden the civilians and embassy staff in a bank vault at the 2nd floor. They then spread themselves out along the 2nd and 1st floors, forming a defence perimeter.
On the 2nd floor, Shirley is together with 2 other contractors, guarding the floor.
They heard footsteps coming up, immediately concealing themselves in the rooms, guns ready.
Maia led Squad Artemis in the downward search, taking the front centre position, armed with her FN 5-7 pistol and deployable bulletproof shield. She has a mini robot deployed in front of her. It rolled forward, serving as an extender for her individual radar.
Aya covered her front left, aiming her custom L119A2 rifle forward. Nanami covered her front right, aiming her AK-19 forward. Liu Zhong and Atsumi stayed at the end of the column, aiming their machine guns backwards. The rest of Squad Artemis are wedged in between the 5 of them, keeping their guns at high ready.
They arrived at a cross intersection.
Nanami switched to her left hand, aiming her AK-19 at the right corridor at low position, ensuring that her exposed body area is kept to the minimum. Electra filled up her place, walking forward with her CZ BREN 2 rifle, aiming rightwards as she passed by the right corridor.
Aya aimed her L119A2 at the left corridor at low position, while Walter filled her position, walking forward and aiming with his HK-416 rifle. Ethan covered Maia's front right position as they continued to advance forward with his HK-416. Once Maia, Ethan, Walter and Electra passed through the intersection, Liu Zhong and Atsumi passed, then followed by Aya and Nanami.
(2nd floor)
A Vanguard terrorist stepped onto the floor, looking around. He noticed a cluster of fresh footprints belonging to at least 10 people.
He gave a signal to his fellow terrorists below, advancing forward, knowing that the Americans are right ahead, and it's only a matter of time before they find them.
Shirley breathed, giving hand signals to her fellow 2 contractors. They readied themselves.
The moment the terrorists appeared in range, the 3 of them peeked out from hiding, throwing grenades and opening fire on the terrorists. Shirley instantly emptied one magazine of her Noveske N4 rifle, switching to her SIG P226 MK 25 pistol to maintain her fire suppression. Each of them managing to kill 2-3 terrorists each, but they are soon overwhelmed by the sheer number and fire intensity of the terrorists. Shirley herself is shot through her knees, collapsing, screaming in pain.
The gunshots alerted Squad Artemis, who are moving down from the 3rd floor. Maia looked at her individual radar, seeing the red icons that appeared, indicating shots fired.
"2nd floor, right below us!" she yelled.
The civilians are shivering in fear in the bank vault, hearing the shots fading and the screams of the wounded contractors. Ambassador Cooper tried his best to calm them down, especially the children among them.
The terrorists are about to advance forward. In the nick of time, Aya, Nanami and Maia arrived behind them, promptly opening fire with their suppressed guns, gunning the remaining terrorists down.
Aya, Nanami and Maia advanced forward, remaining alert. Seeing a right turn and detecting breathing, Aya raised her rifle at the area first before turning her body over, using the video feed from her rifle's smart optic to scout ahead.
Seeing a wounded, armed Lita by the wall, she turned in, keeping her gun raised.
"Identify yourself!" she yelled.
"Spades International Team Bravo, Shirley Miller!" said Shirley, relived to see members of the UNSSD SOC, recognising their unit patches. She pointed in the direction of the vault weakly.
Aya nodded, withdrawing her gun. "Electra, check her," she said, walking into the vault with Nanami.
The American civilians looked at them with fear, after all, Aya and Nanami are also Sellardraxians.
Aya smiled, "United Nations," she said. "We are here to recue you."
The American civilians' expression immediately turned to relief and joy. Ambassador Cooper walked up to Aya and Nanami, introducing himself and then thanking them profusely.
"Khai," radioed Shirley as Squad Artemis tended to her and her fellow contractors. "Reinforcements have arrived, where are you guys?"
A voice in pain is heard on the other side. "We are surrounded in the office at the 1st floor!" he gasped.
Shirley relayed this information to Squad Artemis, Aya ordered Liu Zhong and Walter to come with her, while Nanami and the rest are to escort the civilians and wounded contractors out.
(1st floor)
Aya entered the corridor. Walter and Liu Zhong followed in CQB formation, with Aya taking the lead, Walter covering her corners and Liu Zhong at the rear. As they moved, Liu Zhong's dragon horns hit a door frame, causing dust to fall onto his Exo-suit helmet visor, which he brushed aside.
They entered the office, just in time to see a firefight breaking out.
Nguyen Khai took out a terrorist with his Galil ACE rifle. While he withdrew back to reload, a grenade rolled near him, exploding and wounding him badly. He cursed in Vietnamese as he is pulled away by his fellow contractor.
Aya and her team immediately fired on the terrorists, gunning 2 down, while the other 3 threw grenades at them in retaliation.
"Grenade!" yelled Walter, and the 3 withdrew back, dodging the explosions.
Seizing the opening, the 3 terrorists hid and readied themselves.
Little did they knew that Walter had live-streamed their movement using his rifle optics.
"1 outside, 2 in the washroom!" he said.
Aya threw a flashbang, using her magic to telekinetically guide it to explode in the face of the terrorist, instantly blinding and disorienting him.
"AHH!" he roared, firing his rifle blindly. Walter simply waited for him to run out of bullets, before extending his rifle and gunned him down.
Liu Zhong walked into the room, raising his QJY-201 machine gun, the others readied themselves behind him. Aya held on to Liu Zhong's shoulder.
"Pin those motherf***ers down!" she ordered. Liu Zhong opened fire at the washroom while the 3 advanced slowly.
The many rounds of 7.62 full powered cartridges fired by the machine gun tore through the concrete like paper, turning the terrorists inside into meat mush.
"Clear!" yelled Liu Zhong once his individual radar no longer showed any alerts.
(Outside on the street)
Amid the smoke of smoke grenades, Atsumi fired her PKP general purpose machine gun, covering the column of civilians moving. The rest of Squad Artemis also fired on the terrorists' positions with rifle grenades and guns.
"RPG!" yelled Shirley. A RPG landed beside them, exploding, causing a giant explosion, the shockwave throwing Shirley and Electra off balance.
They climbed back up, shooting at the terrorists.
Nanami launched more smoke grenades. "Move! Hurry!" she yelled.
"Ahh!" groaned a limping Khai as he is helped off the battlefield by Ethan and Walter. "Hang in there comrade!"yelled Ethan.
Nanami moved with them, radioing Captain Yang. "We are coming over! Cover us!"
"Suppressive fire!" ordered Captain Yang. The PLAN Jiaolong commandos, Spanish soldiers and US Marines all opened fire, covering Squad Artemis as they moved over.
"Keep your heads low!"shouted Maia, shielding the civilians with her body, opening fire on the enemies.
(Sniper nest)
Sean noticed another car charging towards the Spanish position.
"All stations attention, suspected vehicle bomb attack!"he reported.
Frederica loaded in an EMP bullet into her rifle chamber, trailing the vehicle.
"Vehicle bomb, stop it!" yelled the Spanish commander in Spanish. The Spanish soldiers opened fire.
"Ah!!" screamed the man at the driver seat in fear.
Frederica aimed her TAC-50A rifle, tracing the car. She pulled the trigger. The bullet did not penetrate into the car and explode, but rather it latched onto the vehicle shell, emitting an EMP burst that instantly fried all of the circuits in the car, disabling the electric motor, stopping it.
"Please help!" the man shouted in Spanish. "I am not one of them, they made me do this!"
"Hold your fire!" yelled the Spanish Commander. None of them dared to go up to help though, having learned their lesson.
Nanami and Atsumi stopped by the Spanish position as they retreated to the motorcade.
"What's wrong?" asked Nanami, speaking Spanish.
"The Vanguard terrorists used civilians as meat shields for their vehicle bombs," said the Commander through gritted teeth.
Nanami gulped, after some deliberation, she turned to him.
"I will handle it," she said, taking out her bomb disposal tools.
"Sniper nest, I am going to the car, cover me."
"You sure about this?"asked Sean, worried.
"I am sure," said Nanami firmly. "Cover me will ya, sweethearts?"she said in a flirtatious tone.
Sean sighed. All of them know the extreme risks of such an action.
Counter terrorism, to put it bluntly, is basically many soldiers/police throwing their lives away in exchange for the life of a civilian. Such an "exchange rate" is unacceptable from a pure tactical standpoint, but to the operators themselves, if the civilians did not make it out, it will be a worse evil.
Cameron shot off the Cosmic Energy amplifier on the man.
Nanami took off her Exo-suit, wearing only the basic body armour and high cut ballistic helmet. She fastened her tool kit onto her body armour using Molle strips, then rushing over to the car, popping a smoke grenade to cover her.
She formed an ice dagger, prying the door open, climbing into the car. She immediately froze the Cosmic Energy ores inside to prevent them from exploding.
"Calm down, calm down," she assured the panicking man inside, taking a laser cutter, carefully cutting him off from the chains.
The sniper nest continued picking off the heavy weapon operators of the terrorists, hiding their shots in the loud and messy battle using suppressors and flash hiders. They also concealed their heat signatures using both the specialised material of their disguise nets, and using Cosmic Energy to cool the air around them.
Sean provided target information to Frederica. Frederica adjusted her aim based on the bullet trajectory shown by her fire control AI, Sean's inputs and her experience. The 2 cooperating and taking out the targets. Sean also fired from his suppressed SCAR-H when needed.
Aya and Liu Zhong noticed what Nanami is doing, they immediately popped more smoke grenades, they rushed over, deploying their shields which can stop intermediate rifle rounds, firing at the terrorists, covering Nanami.
Finally, Nanami managed to cut the man free.
"Thanks..." muttered the man, cold sweat raining down. "There are others...save them...too....please..."
Nanami gulped, nodding slowly. "Let's go," she said.
The exited the car, with Nanami covering the man, running back towards the motorcade. Nanami re-wore her gear at the same time. Aya and Liu Zhong then followed behind. Spanish forces and their reinforcements, including multiple heavy war robots and tanks advanced forward, turning the tide of the battle and engaged in a direct assault against the insurgents, raining destruction on them.
Sean, Frederica, Meari and Cameron abseiled out of the window, rushing over to the motorcade, where they loaded the civilians onto. Once they are done, they immediately drove off, heading back to the harbour.
"Mission accomplished," said Walter, wiping sweat on his face. The rest of Squad Artemis celebrated.
Frederica is chewing on gum. She offered Sean an orange flavoured one.
Nanami is discussing things with Aya.
"You know, when he told me to save the rest, I felt horrible. I saved his life here, but I am unable to save everyone."
Aya sighed. "This nation is already in a state of anarchy. All we can do is to complete our missions. There is nothing else we can do."
Just then, Squad Artemis are ordered to detour to a Spanish logistics station where Vasily is waiting with supplies and mission intel.
It turns out that 3 top scientists from Rhodes Life, a leading pharmaceutical company in the world, had went missing when they were evacuating from their headquarters in Spain. A subsequent search party conducted by the Spanish Special Forces found their abandoned vehicles in the Spanish desert, close to insurgent held territory.
Hence, Squad Artemis are ordered to infiltrate behind enemy lines together with the Spanish Special Forces, and rescue the scientists.
Sean gulped nervously, almost accidentally swallowing the gum. This mission is nothing short of hell.
"We are really exchanging many lives for one here," he thought.
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