Capítulo 67: TRAITORS' REQUIEM
Phineas called for the UNAME forces to come over to the scene.
"Don't you f***king move!" yelled Sean, restraining Dr Sterling tightly as he pulled him up.
"I won't," sneered Dr Sterling as he bit down on something in his mouth.
"Cyanide!" yelled Phineas, as Frederica tried to stop him, but she is too late, and Dr Sterling soon killed himself, foam flowing out of his mouth.
"At least we have his phone," said Sean. "Let's head back."
Leaving the scene to the UNAME personnel, the 4 operators returned to the UNAME base.
(5pm)
"And that's it," finished Phineas, reporting the events to Xiao Tian and Nanami.
"It's shame we did not bring him in alive," lamented Nanami, scrolling through the phone's contents. "But now, we have confirmation that Dr Sterling and Archangel are involved with Vanguard, evident on the recent emails he received."
"Now this just complicates things further, if Dr Sterling is here, and we know he is with Vanguard, that means that Vanguard is also in Jerusalem," said Jay.
Xiao Tian concurred, asking Xu Qing on the progress of the decryption of the data copied from Dr Sterling's phone.
"Managed to crack it all, but the files here will take days to fully go over," he said, pointing to the sea of pop ups o his screen.
Xiao Tian hence ordered him to upload the files into the UNSSD network first.
After that is done, they readied their equipment and discussed their plan to strike.
The final operation plan they agreed on is to first drop 2 graphite bombs to destroy the electrical grid in the area, disabling their systems, while they attack simultaneously, using 2 sentry robots and an all terrain vehicle to enter the tunnel system to search and rescue.
As they geared up and left the mission room, Xiao Tian stopped before leaving the room. At the last moment, he grabbed Dr Sterling's phone, removed the battery and slotted them separately into his body armour, taking it with him.
(7.30pm)
A C-260S light stealth transport plane flew over the dark sky of Jerusalem, heading to the hill.
The operators readied their equipment, waiting for the green lights to turn on, their signal to parachute off.
Just then, the pilots in the cockpit noticed the radar blaring, realising to their horror that they have been locked on by a missile.
"Zeroes, missile incoming, taking evasive action!" alerted the pilots.
Hearing that, the operators in the back immediately buckled back down into their seats, holding on tightly as the plane began popping flares and speeding up, turning sharply to shake off the missile.
"Ok, this is going to be a rough ride," remarked Sean.
After a series of maneuvers that almost resulted in Sean throwing back up his dinner, the pilots managed to shake the missile off after its fuel ran out and fell out of the sky. Sean is thankful that the passenger cabin is loaded with inertia dampeners, otherwise the G force they are subjected to would have seriously messed them up.
But soon, more missiles appeared on the radar, and the pilots immediately dived down, flying and turning abruptly, while popping off all of their flares and deploying all of the electronic countermeasures they have in an attempt to shake off the missile.
That proved to be futile, and soon a missile blew off one of the 2 engines, warning lights and sirens blaring in the plane.
Seeing another missile approaching and they are locked tightly in the kill zone, the pilots immediately pulled up to a suitable attitude for parachuting.
"Let them jump!" yelled a pilot. The other quickly pulled the back ramp open.
"Go, go, go!" yelled Nanami,
Team Zero quickly jumped off the plane. Sean jumped off last, just in time to see the plane erupting into a ball of flames in the air as the missile hit its target.
Team Zero landed on the ground, using the booster rockets in the heel of their Exo-suits to cushion the landing, a split second later, the burning wreckage of the plane crashed down next to them, smoldering in the night of Jerusalem.
Nanami, Ariel and Frederica quickly condensed water onto the wreckage, while Sean punched open the cockpit glass and pried it off. He and Phineas quickly pulled the pilots out.
(30 minutes later)
"Status report," said Xiao Tian.
"Bad news is, all of our heavy equipment are gone, and both pilots are dead," reported Phineas. "Good news is, we landed just 2km away from the mission objective, if we move now, we can still make it there in time on foot before they scramble or strengthen their defences."
Xiao Tian concurred, reporting the situation back to the UNAME command, updating General Yashar of the situation.
"Hold off the gunship first, there's a SAM site that we need to take care off. Once that's done we will radio again," he said.
"Why not I just send more aircraft to blow it up?" asked General Yashar.
"Negative, something's not right about the SAMs. It shot down a stealth aircraft, which is beyond the expected capabilities of the Zionists. We didn't find any signs of one in the prior recon. It must be very well concealed and not turned on often, otherwise the radiation it emitted would have been picked up by our drones," replied Xiao Tian. "If we send out any aircraft now, it's too risky."
Just then, he noticed a black dot approaching them. He quickly ordered everyone to conceal themselves and mask their heat signatures.
"A drone," muttered Sean, realising what it was. "I see no IFF alert, its not from UNSSD."
Xu Qing opened his left gauntlet, intercepting the drone's radio control frequency, finding its source. He then sent the coordinates to everyone's HUDs.
"Looks like there's a SAM site at the mouth of the tunnel network, no wonder we got shot down," he said. "It must be very well concealed and not turned on often."
After the drone flew off, Team Zero immediately charged towards their objective, moving as fast as they can to buy time.
(Overlooking the tunnels)
"Ok, this is a bigger treat than what I envisioned..." muttered Nanami, overlooking the 2 SAM launch vehicles stationed near the mouth of the tunnel.
"The Zionist's gear is already akin to the armed forces of sovereign states," muttered Jay. "This is worrying."
"Not like we can't handle it," sneered James.
"Go as planned," ordered Xiao Tian. They slowly crawled back from the edge, leaving Sean and Frederica to provide sniper overwatch.
Sean looked through the reticle of his LPVO, scanning the path carefully.
"All clear," he radioed.
Xiao Tian peeked out from the cover, signalling the rest of Team Zero to advance forward.
He led Jay, Louis, Phineas and Ariel forward, while Nanami and the rest remained behind, ready to strike the SAM sites first to cause a distraction, after which they will then join the raid on the tunnels.
The 5 of them carefully navigated across the trenches around the SAM site using their NODs, sneaking to the mouth of the tunnel undetected by the hostiles around them.
Xiao Tian and Jay took the lead, carefully scanning forward, Ariel followed behind, guarding their right flank. Once they cleared the area, Phineas and Louis who are on prone positions on the surrounding rocks to cover them, left their positions, following up on them.
Meanwhile, Nanami, Xu Qing, James and Santos sneaked over to the SAM site, locking their gun optics at the unsuspecting hostiles. James aimed his ACOG sight at the hostiles that are revving up the 2 SAM launch vehicles, seemingly to drive them back into the tunnel. He then adjusted his aim to the refuelling trucks, the incendiary rounds fired from his KAC AMG machine gun will blow them up in a huge explosion like the fireworks on the New Year.
Sean noticed a vehicle coming out of the tunnel, stopping by the SAM launch vehicles.
"All station attention, I have a vehicle coming in."
A person disembarked from the vehicle, which prompted Frederica and Sean to share a stare at each other in disbelief and shock.
"Are you all seeing what I am seeing?" asked an alarmed Sean.
"Yeah..." muttered Santos.
(UNAME base hospital wing)
"...wait wait wait," exclaimed General Yashar, "are you serious?"
"Yes ma'am..." muttered Ismail softly as he woke up from his coma, his condition still extremely unstable. "It was the High...High Commissioner who...shot...he...grabbed...pistol... from...from Ori. Ori...pretended...to...to..."
General Yashar immediately bolted back into the command room, knowing that they had walked into a trap.
Just as she entered, a frantic officer approached her.
"Ma'am, the Special Recon Brigade of the 66th Corps just pulled out of their position," she said. "They are abandoning the attack on the heliport."
General Yashar fumed. "Get me their commander."
"That is not your concern. Its an order straight from military commission," said a voice in a Scottish accent behind her. She turned around, frowning to see Team Ion walking into the office, guns loaded. Behind them are several UNSSD MPs, all armed. General Yashar frowned upon noticing their shoulder patches. They are deployed over from Sulawesi.
"Major Richard William, what's the meaning of this?" asked General Yashar. "I don't recall calling for Team Ion."
Richard handed her a tablet, biting his lips. He is clearly reluctant, but he nonetheless said his subsequent words with firm authority.
"By orders of the UNSSD military commission, Naomi Yashar is found guilty of treason by aiding the Zionists to kidnap the the High Commissioner. You are relived of your rank and duties, please sign this arrest warrant and follow us back to Sulawesi," he said.
"You have the right to remain silent, but anything you said or did will be used against you in the military court."
"YOUR COMRADES ARE STILL AT THE FRONTLINES! HOW CAN YOU DO THIS?" yelled General Yashar. "These accusations are baseless."
"I am not the judge," said Richard. "As for Team Zero, they will need to answer for their crimes in friendly firing the Australians. If they don't comply with the orders to withdraw, the Assault Pathfinders from Europe and Team Phantom will be bringing them in."
Maia walked up to her. "Please do not make this difficult for us," she said, keeping her head low, keeping her tears in her eyes.
Maia's insides are torn into shreds now, when she received the orders to come to Jerusalem to arrest her comrades for treason, she was devastated.
"HOW DARE YOU!" roared the UNAME officers who raised their guns at Team Ion.
Team Ion and the MPs immediately raised their guns. Electra and Ethan aimed their guns forward, but still keeping their trigger disciplines, not wanting to hurt their comrades.
"Stand down," ordered General Yashar.
"But—" protested an officer.
"If you still see me as your commander, stand down," said General Yashar firmly.
The UNAME soldiers reluctantly lowered their weapons, much to the relief of Team Ion.
General Yashar handed Maia her pistol and signed the warrant, allowing herself to be handcuffed and taken away by Electra.
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