Kapitel 60: Finale

20:44

Suchitra Island Pier

Under the docks, all four of them were getting tired. They had been floating there for hours.

Lt. Malhotra groans. He says, "Ahh. I don't think I can hold on any more. My body is too tired."

Lt. Malhotra's grip on his knife looses, and he starts drowning. Jacob grabs Lt. Malhotra by his vest, just before he was drowning.

He says, "Dude, hold on. Don't drown on us."

Jacob drags him close to his knife, and Lt. Malhotra grabs on to it again.

Lt. Malhotra was breathing heavily. He says, "Thanks, sergeant... But... But my body is giving up on me."

Mitali too was also on his limit's end. Naomi tries to support her with her left hand.

Naomi says, "How long are we supposed to stay down here? Captain's not responding to my calls either. What's going on on the island?"

Just then they hear a loud noise of 25mm bullets raining from the sky and hitting the concrete of the pier. All four of them get startled at the sudden sound. They peek out from under the dock and get baffled as they see bullets raining down from beyond the clouds, mincing everything on the docks.

****************

The Airspace Over Suchitra Island

20:45

A big VToL appears, piercing the wall of darkness in the sky. It's the Artemis. Inside the Artemis, Annabelle was working on the control panel, switching from one panel to another swiftly while also commanding ARIA.

Annabelle says to herself, "Finally, I'm here. But what are those? ...ARIA, give me a good visual of the dock."

"Yes, Princess."

A window pops up on one side of Artemis's front windscreen. The window showed top-down live footage of the pier. As Annabelle looks at the armoured gorillas, she unconsciously says, "What the fuck are these things?"

ARIA says, "From my scans, they look like genetically altered gorillas who've been trained to use modern weapons."

"Looks like that."

"Princess, I'm getting four heat signatures under the dock."

"What? Show me."

Another window pops up on the windshield. This time a 2D map of the pier side of the map with 4 red dots under the dock.

Annabelle orders, "ARIA, connect Artemis's radio with Bravo Squad's radio and ready the 20mm cannon."

"Yes, Princess."

After a while, ARIA says, "The cannon is ready, Princess."

"Good. Give me the control's the cannon and take over as the pilot."

"Yes, princess."

Annabelle takes control of the 20mm cannon. A window pops up before her with the cannon's line of sight.

Annabelle says, "ARIA, keep her steady. If I miss because she was unstable, I'll uninstall every single recreational update."

"Yes, princess."

"Good, time to rain fire."

Annabelle pulls the trigger with a mischievous smile on her face. Soon bullets kept hitting the ground and the gorillas, turning them into minced meat. Annabelle says, "ARIA, load the 105 mm cannon. We'll take them out in one blow."

"Yes, Princess."

In 30 seconds, ARIA says, "Princess, the 105 mm cannon is ready."

"Nice. Hand me the controls."

Annabelle takes control of the 105mm cannon, and after aiming it perfectly, she fires it straight in the middle of the gorilla horde. That missile takes out many gorillas.

ARIA says, "Good hit, 80+ KIA."

"Good. Reload and get ready to fire again."

"Yes, Princess."

ARIA suddenly says, "Princess, connection establishment successful."

Annabelle smiles. She says, "Connect me to the captain."

**************************

21:04

Control centre

Sohel hears Annabelle's voice on the comms: "You missed me, Captain?"

Sohel whispers, trying to hide his voice from the others: "Damn yeah, I did. Was that Artemis?"

"Yeah, I fired the 105mm cannon. Couldn't resist that many targets in one place."

"You're talking like Jacob. But good job. Clear a path for others to reach the middle of the island. We need backup here."

"Roger, Captain. Princess out. "

Dr. Sen was frantically looking around, trying to figure out what to do. He orders Lt. Kumar, "What are you doing? Go check what's going on outside. "

Lt. Kumar orders someone to go outside and see what's happening.

Dr. Sen looks at his monitor, and his face keeps getting more and more distorted out of anger and fear as he sees the vitals of the gorillas go dark one by one.

Just then, another loud boom is heard, and the island shakes again.

All the remaining vital signs on the monitor go dark.

Dr. Sen and everyone from the Seeker 3 squad freak out. The soldier comes back inside and says, "Sir, there's a big VTOL in the sky. It's firing down at the pier."

"What?"

Dr. Sen frantically says, "We need to run. They've killed all my gorillas. I can't let him down. I'm supposed to present my research to him. Come on, help me."

Lt. Kumar says, "Yes."

All of them start packing everything quickly.

Sohel whispers to Yekaterina, "They're distracted. Now's our chance."

Yekaterina asks with surprise, "What are you suggesting we do? We're just two unarmed people. They're nine armed people."

"It's fine. We just need to hold on for a few minutes. I just need to get my hands on one rifle."

Sohel notices Yekaterina still hesitating. He says, "Come on. We can't let them get away. I'll attack first. You watch my six."

Saying this, Sohel doesn't wait for Yekaterina's answers and jumps up. He runs to the soldier closest to him and jumps on him. The push makes the soldier throw his rifle away. Both of them start hustling. Yekaterina was still hesitant, but seeing Sohel, she too jumps on another soldier close to her. Sr. Sen and Lt. Kumar notice the fight. Dr. Sen gets more scared. He says to Lt. Kumar, "What are you watching? Shoot them."

Lt. Kumar says, "But I might kill my own men."

"Why does it matter? You wanna die too?"

Lt. Kumar makes a desparate face and after a while says, "Tch. I'm not going down today." He aims his rifle at Sohel and fires.

Sohel was struggling with the soldier, but he notices Lt. Kumar aiming his rifle at him. He tries a sudden pull and places the soldier between him and Lt. Kumar. 4 7.62*39mm bullets hit the soldier in the back, and he dies. Sohel doesn't waste a single second. He takes out his pistol from his thighholster and fires at Lt. Kumar's hand, making him let go of his rifle. He turns around and shoots the other 6 soldiers straight in the middle of their foreheads, killing them on the spot. Yekaterina too was struggling in her fight. Sohel yells, "Let go, Lt."

Yekaterina suddenly lets go of the soldier and lays down. Sohel shoots the soldier before he could understand what's going on.

Just then Lt. Kumar jumps on Sohel from behind. The push makes Sohel let go of his pistol, and it slides away. Lt. Kumar gets on Sohel and tries to punch him, but Sohel pushes him away and gets up.

They stand in front of each other with a fighting stance. Lt. Kumar throws a punch towards Sohel's face, but Sohel moves away and punches Lt. Kumar's biceps with his metallic left arm. Lt. Kumar groans but still kicks at Sohel's stomach. Sohel goes back a few feet. Before Sohel could regain his stance, Lt. Kumar again threw a low kick on Sohel's leg, making Sohel kneel.

Lt. Kumar kicks Sohel in the face, and it makes him lie flat on the ground. But the helmet protects Sohel's face from critical damage.

ARIA says, "Captain, you may have a light concussion. I recommend taking rest before going further."

Sohel groans and tries to get up. He says, "Shut up, ARIA. Do you think I have a choice?"

ARIA replies, "Sorry, Captain."

SOhel tries to look up and get ready to fight again. Lt. Kumar comes close to him and tries to throw an uppercut. Sohel dodges it and punches Kumar's abdomen from the side with his left hand. Kumar groans but quickly reorganises and punches Sohel in the face. The punch was so hard, it made Sohel fell to the ground. Kumar gets on Sohel and starts punching him everywhere.

Sohel was feeling sick. He could hear ARIA saying, "Critical damage to the upper body. Seek first aid immediately."

He starts feeling nauseous. Just then a slashing sound is heard. Sohel opens his eyes and finds himself covered in blood. He looks to his side and sees a dead Lt. Kumar lying down with his neck slashed open.

He sits up and sees Naomi standing in front of him with her knife in hand. The knife was still dripping blood.

Sohel says with a smile of relief, "You really saved my ass there. Thanks."

Naomi says while extending her hand, "Don't fret. I can't let my captain die."

Sohel chuckles as he grabs her hand and gets up.

He looks towards the control panel and sees Dr. Sen sitting on the ground with a solemn face. Jacob and Mitali were aiming their weapons at them.

Sohel goes to them and says to Mitali, "I'll need first aid when we get on the Artemis."

"You got beaten up again?"

Sohel chuckles and says, "Sorry."

He looks at Dr. Sen and asks, "So? Doctor? What made you do all these?"

Dr. Sen remains silent.

Sohel sighs and says, "Looks like you'll take your sweet time to open your mouth. Fine. Blast, you know what to do."

"Yes, boss."

Jacob takes away Dr. Sen. Sohel says, "Let's leave. ARIA, contact HQ. We need a cleanup crew here."

"Yes, Captain."

As everyone leaves, Sohel looks around the room. Dead bodies lie around everywhere. Sohel sighs, but just as he was leaving, he hears a call on the control panel.

Sohel picks up the call after a moment of thinking.

The voice from the other side says, "Do you have the chips ready? I need them ASAP. We will win this time... Why aren't you talking? Sen? ..... Oh, Looks like you've already taken him. Good job, SNA."

"Who are you? Why are you doing all of these?"

"Let me ask you a question, soldier. Do you think we're in peaceful times right now? Do you think there'll be no wars anymore?"

"What? Yes, we're in peaceful times right now, but a war might be brewing. That's why we're here. So that that war never happens."

"That's why I'm doing this. I want to create a world where people won't have to live their lives thinking anytime they could lose it. I want to create a world without wars."

"That's delusional. As long as mankind is alive, wars are inevitable."

"I want to change that thought."

"Who are you?"

"Uhm....you can call me MESSIAH."

09th March 2032

01:32

Unknown location

An old man wearing a black suit was frantically running away from something. He was really scared. Suddenly a silenced pistol whispers,He grabs his leg, and the man falls down.

He grabs his leg and groans. Naoki appears in front of him. He was holding a silenced Beretta m92.

He stomps on the old man's injury and says, "Just tell me where is Dr. Ito?"

He screams, "I... I don't know. I left his lab years ago. I'm telling the truth. Please...… Please let me go."

Naoki aims the pistol at the man's head and says, "Even if you are, I'm afraid, you have to die. I've taken a pledge to remove every single trace of that hell from this world."

"No…no..n"

Naoki shoots the man in the head.