บท 98: HOMO DEUS part 1
(Tao Yuan Airport, Taipei, Taiwan, October 2134)
2 UNSSD cargo planes belonging to the Task Force Prime landed in a cordoned off area of the Tao Yuan airport, isolated away from the , escorted by PLAAF fighters.
Franz Schulz stepped out of 1 cargo plane , with Bryan Soong following after him. Team Raptor and Team Phantom followed after them, all armed and ready for battle.
Aya, Liu Zhong, Albert, Vera and Clara saluted them.
"Thought you all were dead," said Franz.
"Sorry to have made you worried, sir," replied Aya apologetically.
"What the hell have you all been up to?" asked Franz.
"It's...complicated," sighed Aya. "Let's hope this operation clears everything up."
With that, the Tier 1 operators left in armoured vehicles, driving out of airport.
They drove on the streets, passing by PLA and Taiwan police checkpoints.
As they left the last checkpoint, a Taiwan police officer reached for his phone, dialing a number.
Franz noticed it in the rear view mirror.
"All stations attention," he radioed. "The fish has appeared, get ready to hook, over."
"Copy," replied Xiao Tian, currently hiding in Makassar city, the largest city in Sulawesi, where the UNSSD headquarters is.
"Copy," replied Maia, currently driving through the deserts of Libya, together with Spades International Team Bravo.
Wanting to find out who and where are the high ranking traitors of UNSSD, Task Force Prime came up with a plan.
Firstly, Franz claimed to have uncovered a Vanguard plot in Taiwan, and led Team Phantom and Team Raptor there to put it down, and to ensure the security of the Khaosiung lab. In the meantime, Maia and Team Ion is sent to Libya, after Charlotte and their friends in Team Bravo managed to identify Chris Adler from Aya's descriptions, and tracked he and his team's latest job to New Benghazi , Libya, meaning Sir Howard may be hiding there.
The aim of these 2 operations is 2 fold. The first goal is to arrest Sir Howard and bring Archangel to justice while ensuring that the ALF technology is not compromised, the second goal is to let the traitor expose himself or herself, by seeing which of the 2 operations are compromised.
Once that's determined, Team Zero, who had hid themselves in Sulawesi, will swoop in and detain the traitors, since all UNSSD high ranking personnel with the right to oversee their operations will be present in the headquarters for the annual general meeting held in October.
"So the traitor is in the military commission," said Bryan, too noticing the anomaly.
The route taken by the armoured vehicles through the streets of Taipei is soon blocked by a traffic accident, which led to the Taiwan police closing the road.
Franz turned the steering wheel, and the armoured vehicles detourd to the reserve route, which would lead them onto a bridge that is built across a canal.
Soon the armoured vehicles appeared at the bridge. Their UN symbols and special license plates given to them by the Chinese authorities allowed them to drive on the emergency lane, granting them faster travel on the vehicle bridge crowded with cars.
"Long time since we were back here," said Aya, looking out of the window at the busy streets of Taipei.
"Indeed," replied Atsumi. "Once the operation is over I am going to grab all the street snacks I can get my hands on."
Just as they passed the middle of the bridge, a loud "boom" is heard.
More explosions erupted underneath them. 3 of the armoured vehicles are blown into the air. The wreckages suddenly bursting into flames before they landed, consuming the occupants in flames.
"SH*T!" exclaimed Bryan. A few civilian vehicles around them were destroyed too in a similar fashion, burning their occupants alive.
The chaos immediately caused the panicked civilians and their vehicle AIs to go haywire, and soon a chain traffic collision trapped the UNSSD vehicles, rendering them stuck on the bridge.
"Damn it..." cursed Franz. He did not expect the enemy to be so bold, daring to openly attack them in broad daylight, and incurring massive civilian casualties. The worse thing is they are all in light gear mode, meaning no Exo-suits.
"The bridge is a kill zone, we need to get off...RPG!!" yelled Franz in horror as a rocket came flying at their vehicle as several masked gunmen disembarked from the surrounding vehicles, opening fire.
The rocket hit the vehicle, exploding. Aya, Reza and Franz managed to jump out of the vehicle seconds before the rocket hit, the blast still disorienting them.
The remaining Task Force Prime operators jumped off their vehicles, engaging the enemies. "Suppressive fire!" yelled Bryan. "Quick, tend to the wounded!"
"Stay hidden, don't move around!" yelled a human operator at the panicked civilians.
Clara noticed a suicide drone flying over.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" she warned, aiming her HK-416, trying to intercept the drone.
She was too late, and the drone exploded, killing her comrades and the civilians in its blast radius. "F***!" she cursed in Korean, shielding her face from the blast wave.
"Ahh..." groaned Aya, still dazed from the RPG attack.
"Big Sis, you alright?" asked a panicked Meari.
Aya assured her that she is fine, and groggily stood up, recovering herself.
"Reza come with me!" she yelled, rushing to the wreckage next to her.
"Atsumi! Walter!" yelled Aya.
"Here..." Walter's voice came from underneath a wreckage.
Aya ducked to avoid the gunfire, Franz covering her, firing his HK-416 at the enemy position.
Aya channeled her Cosmic Energy, generating air bursts underneath the wreckage, managing to lift and push them away, finding Walter to be largely fine. Atsumi is not so lucky. One of her legs is blown off, leaving behind a huge trail of blood.
"Help her..." Walter said as he pushed himself up, ignoring his pain, instead reaching for his PTT on his body armour, radioing for reinforcements.
Reza pulled Atsumi out, quickly cauterising Electra's wounds and giving her a shot of adrenaline to suppress the pain somewhat.
"How are things back there?" radioed Walter worriedly.
"Not good," replied Cameron. "For the vehicles that were blown into the air, only the former Squad Artemis members survived, the other occupants inside are all killed."
Bryan reloaded his QBZ-192, firing and advancing forward, trying his best to pull the wounded civilians around them to safety.
"Cover Bryan!" yelled Liu Zhong, firing his QJY-201 machine gun.
Bryan pulled one more civilian behind cover, gesturing for Reza to come over to tend to him.
"We are sitting ducks here, we need to break out!" yelled Franz into his radio.
Aya peeked out of cover, seeing that they are not too far away from the other end of the bridge, if they fight open a path, they can create an evacuation route to pull themselves out.
"How long more?!" yelled a angered Walter into the other end. "10 minutes?! We can barely last 10 seconds!"
As if to prove his point, the Sellardraxian operator covering him is killed by a headshot.
That leaves only the former Squad Artemis members, Franz, Bryan, Clara, Herbert, Reza, Albert and Vera as the only survivors, and they have a heavy casualty in the form of Atsumi, as well as civilians to tend to.
"We need to push!" yelled Aya, reloading a magazine.
"Liu Zhong, Albert, Vera, Meari, Cameron, cover fire!" ordered Franz.
"Understood!" said Vera, training her SVD on enemy machine gunners and drone operators. Meari and Cameron doing the same.
Albert quickly unfolded the bipod of his AXMC sniper rifle, taking out the enemy sniper, allowing Liu Zhong to charged forward unhindered, letting loose his machine gun's heavy firepower.
"Clara, you and Walter stay here and guard the wounded," said Reza, removing his SIG-516 magazine briefly to check the ammunition levels. "They need more firepower up front." He then charged forward, taking cover behind a vehicle and shooting.
Seeing several enemies trying to flank them, Herbert peeked out from behind a vehicle, firing his Benelli M4 shotgun at the incoming enemies.
Taking advantage of the weapon's high levels of destructiveness at close ranges, he managed to punch back their advance.
He then stopped, quickly grabbing more shotgun shells from his body armour and loading it into the internal tube magazine of the shotgun, only for a grenade to land on the vehicle, right next to his head
He jumped aside and crouched, while managing to avoid being killed by the blast, he is still wounded badly by the shrapnel, crying in pain.
(Vans outside UNSSD headquarters, Makassar, Sulawesi, Indonesia)
"Oh no..." muttered Sean in horror, hearing the battle in Taiwan from his radio set.
"No point worrying about them," said Jay. "We have our confirmation, let's move!"
"Everyone ready," said Xiao Tian.
They changed their magazines into those loaded with rubber bullets.
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