Capítulo 45: THE RECONQUEST MOVEMENT
(Logistics Station, Spain, May 2134)
Squad Artemis are hungrily eating lunch. It consists of Paella, a Spanish rice dish made with saffron, vegetables, chicken ham and seafood served in one pan. Eating together with them are Spanish special forces from the GOE, led by Captain Santiago Rodrigues.
"Wow, this is good," commended Cameron, her mouth full.
"Petition to let the canteen at Tokyo include this in next year's menu?" asked Nanami.
"AYE!" all of Squad Artemis raised their hands.
Santiago, who had come over to their table to chat laughed, "I am glad that you all like out dishes," he smiled at Aya.
"It's a shame that you all are here at such difficult and unpleasant times," he sighed. "If you all are here as tourists, I will gladly show you all around Spain!" he exclaimed.
Aya grinned. "Then you better live through this war, once things are peaceful we are definitely traveling here."
"A deal is a deal, Ma'am," smiled Santiago, shaking hands with Aya.
"You too, sir," added Santiago, turning to Xiao Tian sitting next to Aya. Xiao Tian grinned, also shaking hands with Santiago.
Aya turned to her boyfriend and superior. "Not that I am complaining that you are here," she said, "but does relaying mission intel really require you to come here in person?"
Xiao Tian sighed, putting down his plate. "It's an order from Chief Secretary Li Hao Nan himself," he whispered into Aya's ear. "It's too important for me to treat it like a normal operation."
Aya is shocked by the severity of their situation.
"Who exactly are these 3 scientists?" whispered Aya.
"You will understand later," whispered Xiao Tian back.
Aya nodded, returning to her plate.
Xiao Tian then looked at the table of the Spanish GOE behind him.
The majority of UNSSD personnel are at his table, with the exception of 2— Sean and Frederica.
Sean had on purpose chose to sit away from his siblings, and instead chose to mingle together with the Spanish GOE, with occasional laughs coming out from the table when Santiago's man corrected mistakes in his Spanish.
Frederica had tagged along with him, eating in silence. Partly due to her less-spoken and introverted nature, and partly due to Sean neglecting her.
(2 hours later)
In a dark room in the logistics station, Zhou Xiao Tian and Vasily began their presentation, turning on the 3D holographic projector.
3 figures appeared in front of them, they are the 3 scientists from Rhodes Life.
"Dr Joseph Qin, nanobots and micro-organisms expert," introduced Vasily.
"This is Dr Edward Sterling, neurology expert," he continued. He then directed their attention to a female Draco scientist, whom Sean oddly found familiar.
"Then this is Dr Emilia Reinhardt," said Vasily. "She is a genetics expert. In fact, she led the research team contracted by UNSSD to develop a way for cells to emit titanium atoms instead of calcium atoms, allowing for the creation of titanium endoskeletons for living beings. You can say that she is one of our "mothers"," said Vasily.
Squad Artemis and the Spanish GOE all memorised their faces.
"When Rhodes Life was evacuating through the sandstorm in the Spanish desert, the jeep the 3 of them are on broke down, and they ended up separated from the main motorcade," said Xiao Tian, pointing towards the holographic map, where a red flag had appeared.
"They then lost contact with Rhode Life after the sandstorm," said Xiao Tian, "Rhodes Life immediately contacted the Spanish government, who sent out a GOE search party to their last known coordinates."
"They found the abandoned jeep. It had been fired upon. The Spades International contractor with them is killed. Vehicle trails belonging to other vehicles had appeared beside the jeep, heading eastwards, in the direction of insurgent held territory."
"Due to the fact that them getting separated is an unplanned event," said Xiao Tian. "UNSSD suspects that they had a ran-in with the insurgents, and are taken captive to be used as hostages or for ransom," said Xiao Tian.
He enlarged the map. Vasily pointed to the area.
"Due to time constraints as the UN Naval Task Force is leaving in 24 hours, we only have an aerial overview of the area. Their prisoner camp is located here."
"Squad Artemis will join the Spanish GOE in this operation. You all will infiltrate in by road through the desert. Unfortunately, air insertion is not possible as there is another sandstorm approaching the area, and the Spanish government cannot provide aircraft."
"Once you complete the mission, travel to this Spanish airbase, you all will return to Madrid by air. Time given for the mission is 10 hours," finished Xiao Tian.
"This means light gear," Sean thought internally. "No Exo-suits."
(1 hour later)
Squad Artemis and Santiago's men finished gearing up, and are moving out of the logistics station. Vasily is coming along with his siblings as a forward air controller, bringing along an AK-105 as his personal rifle, together with the MP9 machine pistol that is standard issued to UNSSD pilots as their self defence weapon.
"Sean, Vasily, put the suicide drones into the boot," ordered Aya.
"Yes Ma'am," replied Sean.
"Got it, Big Sis!"grinned Vasily.
Frederica walked past them, hoisting her SIG MCX chambered in .300blk, her close quarters weapon, into her gun case.
"Freddie. Mind if you pass me that modem?" asked Vasily.
Frederica handed it to Vasily, and Vasily continued on his way.
Seeing Sean carrying many items, Frederica extended her arms towards Sean, nudging at the case of suicide drones in his hand.
"No thanks Frederica, I can take it myself," he said plainly.
Frederica kept her hands extended, remaining still at the area.
Reluctantly, Sean handed it to Frederica, who then headed towards the armoured vehicles outside. A brief happy smile flashed over her beautiful poker face.
Just as Sean is going to step out, Xiao Tian pulled him into a corner.
"There are some things that you are afraid of, right?" asked Xiao Tian, seeing Sean deliberately keeping a distance from his siblings.
Sean remained silent.
"What kind of age is 23?"he asked, referring to Sean's age.
Sean frowned in confusion.
"23 is the age where one is shameless about one's desire and leave no regrets," laughed Xiao Tian.
"People at 23 years old don't know what's shame. They already have their hands full with judgement from others and will not even fathom about inflicting judgement onto themselves," he winked.
"And as for you? You don't have one ounce of the shamelessness of youth," he said. "It's blatantly obvious that not all of them hate you."
"Sir," said Sean. "I am just afraid that I will make them hate me more if I try to warm up to them..."
"You scared of ghosts?" asked Xiao Tian.
"I beg your pardon?" asked Sean.
"Ah-woo!" said Xiao Tian pretending to be a ghost. Both laughed.
"Of course not," chuckled Sean. "Ghosts aren't real."
"Now that's peculiar," said Xiao Tian, folding his arms.
"Aren't ghosts and the things you are scared of both things we make up to scare ourselves?"
"If I were you, I will be as shameless as possible about making amends," he grinned.
"Because I am f***ing 32 years old and I don't intend to not complete my goals!"
(3 hours later)
"Scare ourselves huh..." thought Sean, looking at the barren Spanish desert outside his vehicle. He is thankful of the weak air-conditioning inside that sheltered them from the harsh afternoon Sun.
Nonetheless, he is already sweating even though they are all wearing FROG suits. He generated ice around his body to help cool himself down.
In the lead vehicle, Aya, Nanami and Santiago are still chatting away.
"Feels like a second Reconquesta," mused Nanami, prompting a laugh from Santiago. Reconquesta, or the Reconquest Movement, refers to the battles the Spanish fought against the Moors to reclaim control of the parts of Iberia that is Spain.
"You are quite right!" smiled Santiago.
"WHAT THE—" cursed the driver as the autopilot slammed the brakes, coming to a halt.
In front of them are civilians running towards them from a broken tour bus.
"HELP!" they cried.
The motorcade had stopped. The 13 members of Squad Artemis, Santiago and 2 other Spanish GOE operators stepped out from their vehicles, alertly eyeing the civilians rushing towards them, maintaining trigger discipline. The rest of the Spanish GOE stayed on the armoured vehicles.
Sean scanned their surroundings. Where they stopped are surrounded by short hills. To their right is a slope leading to a ditch.
"We are journalists," said a woman, showing them her ID. "We are stranded here after our bus broke down. Thank goodness you all are here, there is a sandstorm incoming—"
"Why the hell are you all here?!" reprimanded Santiago. "Just merely a few km away are the insurgents' territories! Are you all insane?"
"Sir, you see, the news wait for no one," explained the woman sheepishly. She saw Squad Artemis' UN patches.
"Are you all from the UN task force?" she asked, excited, hurriedly taking out her phone, gesturing for her colleagues to come over. "Can we give you all an interview on our way back—"
Before she can finish her sentence, she is politely invited away by Maia and and Ethan.
An exasperated Aya asked Walter to alert the UN convoy of this new situation.
"Nan Chang, this is Artemis 8, come in," radioed Walter.
A series of static buzzes are heard.
"Nan Chang, this is Artemis 8," repeated Walter, frowning when he got static again.
"Big Sis," he reported. "I can't get through."
Santiago tried to contact his higher ups, which also failed.
"Must be due to the incoming sandstorm jamming our signals," he suggested.
Aya tried calling.
"This is Artemis 1..."
Suddenly, the sound of a projectile being fired startled them. Alarmed, Aya turned to look, just in time to see the last armoured vehicle in their motorcade getting blown into the air.
"MORTARS!" she yelled, immediately pulling the 2 closest journalists to her, rushing towards the slope to take cover.
Squad Artemis immediately followed her lead. The Spanish GOE operators immediately abandoned the vehicles and headed for the slope to hide, unfortunately, some of them are too slow and are blown into the air together with most of their vehicles.
"Everyone ok?!" roared Aya.
"Nanami fine!" yelled Nanami.
"Cameron and Meari fine!" yelled Cameron.
"Sean and Frederica fine!" yelled Sean.
"Bloody hell," cursed Sean internally. "Those insurgents used the journalists to sprang a trap! They must have expected us to come to rescue the scientists!"
"Maia and Atsumi fine!" yelled Maia.
"Vasily fine!" yelled Vasily. "So is Electra!"
"Atsumi and Walter fine!" yelled Walter.
"Ethan and Liu Zhong fine!" yelled Ethan.
Aya is relived that all of her siblings are alright. She realised that the 120mm mortar bombardment stopped.
"Strange," she thought. "If it was a normal quick anti-personnel bombardment they would have emptied lots of rounds on us in a narrow time frame. The entire area should have been blasted to oblivion."
"This means that they do not have enough rounds and need to be economical, only firing once they are sure that there are targets in sight."
To make things worse, insurgents pulled up behind the now immobile motorcade, opening fire from the back and left flanks, killing some of Santiago's men in the firefight that ensued.
"Great. A typical L shaped ambush trap, not to mention mortars ready to fire on us the moment we step back onto the road," groaned Nanami.
"If we cluster we are all going to the martyr graves in one boom, if we split up, we wont't have enough firepower concentrated to defend against the insurgents flanking us."
"Now what?" she asked Aya, looking at this desperate situation that almost guaranteed their death.
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