3,000 views! Wahoo! · 8:33pm Jan 5th, 2017
Holy Cannoli, I have yet another landmark in the amount of views my story's gotten. I wanna thank everyone for the support and critiques I get on my work, every addition can only help further better my writing. As a special treat, I'm gonna show you all a preview of my next chapter. It's only a tidbit, and it's still a work in progress. It is susceptible to a rewrite if I find it necessary and it hasn't been proofread yet, so keep that in mind when you're reading it. Anyways, thanks to all those wonderful people who helped make this possible, enjoy!
"*Osaka 1, we've breached the room across from yours, seems we reached some sort of basement level.*"
Upstairs from Osaka 2 and 5, Andrew had stepped out from the room he had just searched and was ready to search the on next to it.
"*Copy that.*" Andrew responded. "*What do you see? Anything that'll point us in the right direction?*"
Sarah took a more detailed glance over, to get a general summarization of the room's contents.
"*Mostly old books, shelves, and a whole lotta dust. A bit of mismatched furniture. Room's a bit too congested at the moment to get a full layout, but it's big. At least 15 yards wide. Do you want us to search or regroup back upstairs?*"
Andrew gave it some thought. It was clear that it was a storage room of some kind from what details he was given. It might be faster to give that area a skip over, as he doubted Berfield would have gone through there. But at the same time it was better to knock every room out as they go to prevent back-tracking.
"*Search it.*" Andrew finally relayed. "*We don't leave jobs half-assed. Report back with any findings over comms. When you're done regroup back up here. Osaka 1, out.*"
"*Copy*" Sarah replied, disconnecting immediately afterwards.
While she had been in communications with the Commander, Achmed had been scanning over the room coming up with his own assumptions as to what the room's purpose was.
"*Judging from the look, I'm guessing this room serves as the place's storage room, maybe for a library of sorts?*" Achmed said.
"*That or the maid took a holiday.*" Sarah remarked. "*Let's get to it, shall we?*"
Achmed nodded in agreement, ready to do his part. Sarah, recognizing he was ready, gave further instruction.
"*Alright, search the left side of the room, I'll cover the right.*" Sarah instructed. "*Holler over comms if you find anything.*"
"*Wouldn't it be smarter to search together, Sarge?*" Achmed inquired.
"*Yes, but unfortunately that takes a more time, which is something in limited supply at the moment. I know you're used to having Tim sweep areas with you but you'll need to do it on your own this time. We got a lot of ground to cover.*"
Before Achmed could think of something else to say, his Sergeant was already walking off in the other direction to begin her search. And so ended his procrastination, leaving him to carry out the task set before him. Achmed raised his rifle up to his shoulder and began inspecting his nearby surroundings, which entailed mostly dusty old scrolls or books. As he delved deeper into the room the amount of literature only grew in size. Every so often he'd come across something that didn't involve binded paper, such as stacked chairs, folded tables, and the occasional empty shelf.
Like their initial entry into the room everything was rather disorganized, yet tidy in nature. All the books were either stacked shelved or otherwise placed in a manner that would prevent unwarranted damage. Achmed couldn't find any signs of his friend having come through here, or anyone for that matter. The level of dust that had settled atop the various shelves, books, and floor itself indicated that nobody had been through this room in quite some time, at least over year. Achmed's search seemed to have yielded more of the same when he came across something that instantly stood out amongst all else. Laying in wait between a large 10 foot shelf and several stacked chests was what looked to be a ladder. At first glance, Achmed thought it was simply another loose object resting against one of the many larger objects as a means of stowing it away. But upon a second look he noticed that the base was bolted into the floor. Now aware that the ladder was in fact part of the room it no doubt had to lead somewhere, this lead him to look up, to which he found a small hatch upon the ceiling. Achmed was quick to radio his findings to the others, and thus promptly went over comms.
"*Osaka 1, Osaka 2, I found a ladder bolted to the floor on my end. Seems to lead to an upper level.*" Achmed relayed.
Both Andrew and Sarah stopped their current course of action, the former in the midst of searching an empty bathroom.
"*Osaka 5, hold position.*" Andrew ordered. "*Osaka 2, work towards him and-*"
"*Sir.*" Lamond interjected. "*I have have eyes on a guard heading our way.*"
Andrew's instinct compelled him to exit the room to get a visual for himself. Sure enough, another guard was making his rounds down the hall way towards their direction. Unlike the guards at the door this one was clad in armor painted in shades of blue, like that of the night sky. The horn that protruded from his head was glowing with an aural hue in the color of cyan surrounding it. From the horn's tip, a ray in similar fashion to a spotlight emanated from it. He was about ten yards away and closing, signalling that Andrew needed to act fast.
"*Scratch that last order 2, Osaka 6 and I are coming to you. Standby.*"
With that, Andrew closed the door to the bathroom he was in, as it was before, and patted Lamond on the shoulder in a gesture for him to follow. The two quickly darted across the hallway and filed into the open door leading to the basement. Andrew was the last in and thus was the one to close the door behind them. While Lamond stood at the bottom of the stairs, Andrew remained at the top peering through a small keyhole beneath the doorknob. Any thoughts to how cliche that was were overwhelmingly replaced by the need to verify when the guard would pass.
Their he stood as a few seconds went by with no signs of movement. Suddenly the spotlight came into view, illuminating the doors of the rooms he had just searched. A few more seconds and the guard was now in sight. Andrew stood there, hand close to his sidearm holster as he watched the guard pass by. Seconds felt like minutes as he was fully attent, watching each step like a hawk. Suddenly the guard faded from view, and after a five seconds, Andrew began to ease up.
He turned to Lamond, who currently stood in wait with the Sergeant, who managed to make her way to the entrance. He gave relaxed nod before speaking.
"*All clear.*" Andrew said quietly as slowly descended down the staircase.
"*What was in the rooms on your side, sir?*" Sarah asked.
"*Some sort of child's play room and a bathroom. No signs of Berfield having been there I'm afraid.*" Andrew conceded mannerly. "*But frankly, I'm more interested in what your man found, Sergeant.*"
"*A way up it would seem.*" she responded.
The Trio now made their way over to Achmed, who could partially be seen amongst the clutter, standing a few meters away. After winding their way around bookshelf after bookshelf, they were once again reunited at the base of the ladder.
"*So this is it huh?*" Andrew asked, inspecting the height of the ladder.
"*Yes sir.*" Achmed replied. "*Looks to go up about twenty feet. Maybe more*"
"*Well height's not a problem, but will it support our weight? That's the bigger question.*"
"*Why would that be an issue, sir?*" Lamond asked earnestly.
"*Well think about it Private, those who built it are of a much smaller frame then we, and thus of lighter weight.*" Andrew replied. "*As sturdy as it looks this thing might not be able to support more than one of us at a time.*"
"*So we go one person at a time?*"
"*Precisely.*"
"*So who takes point then?*" Sarah asked.
"*I will.*" Andrew replied back.
Andrew slung his rifle around to his back and grabbed the ladder. But before he could make his ascent, the Sergeant grabbed him by the arm.
"*With all due respect sir, it's probably best I take point. Should something happen to you once you're up there or if you fall, it could jeopardize the mission.*"
The comment about falling off a ladder id much to dismay Andrew, as he took it as an insinuation that he was old.
"*I ain't a senior citizen yet Sergeant.*" He scolded.
"*I wasn't suggesting that sir, but if one of us should be taking risk it shouldn't be the Commander-in-Chief.*"
The way she conveyed her argument made her start to sound a lot like Viktor. But her argument was valid, and he was slowly coming around to seeing her point.
"*Alright Sergeant, be my guest.*" Andrew begrudgingly conceded.
As her Commander stood away from the ladder as Sarah took his place. She began by putting her foot on the ladder and applying various amounts of pressure to test how sturdy the steps were. After that was done, she found them up to snuff and proceeded to climb up.
"*Sergeant, when you get up there I want you to peek that hatch open and check for any movement before entering.*" Andrew ordered.
"*Yes, sir.*" Sarah replied.
Sarah made quick work of climbing, and soon found herself at the top within arm's reach of the latch that opened the hatch door. As instructed she carefully undid the latch barring her entry and ever-so-slightly inched the hatch upward. She took a quick 180 degree look of the around. Nothing seemed to be moving around, and any of the room's details were obscured due to her limited view. She then reached to her HUD-set and switched her receiving visual filter to FLIR Thermal. As she took another look around, all she could see were the blue cold-tones of the thermal imaging, indicating the room, at least on that particular side of it, was clear.
Sarah looked down at the rest of her sqaud and the Commander, who stood waiting for a confirmation. Sarah gave a thumbs up, a simple indicating it was safe to proceed. Andrew gave her a nod, and proceeded to climb the ladder as Sarah climbed her way through the hatch. With the room now clear in view, Sarah's first instinct was to turn around to see what was behind her. To her relief, it was only a wall, ornate and decorative. Turning around yet again, she inspected the room, which to her astonishment turned out to be a large cylindrical atrium area. By the time Andrew had made it up the ladder, Sarah had taken in most of the details. The room's most prominent feature had to be the large tree growth stemming from the ceiling, with strands of illuminating crystals of various colors hanging from the thick roots. At the base of the room stood six chairs and a round table constructed entirely out of crystal.
By this time everyone had made their way up from the basement, and now stood staring at magnificence of the room. Andrew however soon regained his focus, and was bent on getting inspecting the room.
"*Alright folks, enough sightseeing. Y'know the drill.*" he said, wishing to continue. "*Sabbag, Lamond, watch the exit.....s*"
With his attention now focused on entry points, Andrew found the the room had a total of six entrances, effectively serving as a hub area.
"*Uhm......which one, sir?*" Lamond asked.
"*Still figuring that out private.*" Andrew replied. "*We may need to use that hatch again if-.*"
"*That's going to be a problem sir.*" Achmed interjected. "*Look.*"
Andrew turned around to find that the current situation had taken a drastic turn. The hatch that was there had in fact been a one way entry, as it sunk into the floor and lacked a means of opening it. Andrew moved over to it, wondering if he could somehow get it back open. Suddenly, a flash of blue light emanated from the edges of where the hatch sunk in the floor. Before his very eyes, the floor began to meld over the hatch, reminiscent of water spilling on the ground. He jumped back, uncertain what the effects of this energy discharge would do if it somehow came into contact with him. And then it suddenly, it was gone. Andrew staring at the floor where the hatch had once been. Several seconds of complete silence went by, with Lamond finally breaking in a perplexed manner.
"*What the fuck was that?!*" he cried out.
"*Does look like I know!?*" Andrew scolded back, still startled and irritated at what just happened.
"*Do you think it was a trap?*" Sarah asked. "*Do they know we're here?*"
"*I think the guards would be here by now if they knew we were here.*" Achmed suggested as calmly as he could.
The effects of the unexplained anomaly was undoubtedly having a withstanding impact on them all. Witnessing something that essentially bent the rules of what was possibly tend to do that. The guard and his horn light was one thing, biology can come up with just about anything, but to see matter manipulate itself over the course of a few seconds left little room for any scientific explanation. Suffice to say, in their mind, it was beyond normal. This Andrew to wonder what else in this place could do the same thing, or other surprises it had in store. Andrew recollected himself, focusing on the here and now. He calmed himself by assuring himself that this place had more than one route to the exit.
"*Okay, best thing we can do is remain calm, we still gotta job to do. We'll find a way back.*" Andrew claimed.
"*Ye-yeah, you're probably right.*" Lamond conceded, wishing to calm his nerves.
"*Well, I guess it wasn't intentional, whatever it was.*" Sarah concluded. "*Next step, sir?*"
"*Figure out where the hell we are.*" Andrew said, hand reaching his comm-link. "*Wolf 4, this is Osaka 1, I need a fix on my location, over.*"
"*This is Wolf 4. Copy on that 1, sending transponder signal to your comm-link...........now.*"
Suddenly a new display appeared on the very top of Andrew's HUD. It displayed several different radio waves winding up a down it their own respected patterns with the words, "Locating Comm CN09. Please Wait...." directly below. A few seconds passed before the entire display was replaced with the words, "Connection established" before fading out entirely. As the process concluded, Nate came back on the comms.
"*Sir, it would appear you're on the second floor.*"
"*What?*" Andrew said in a shocked manner.
Andrew had thought they had simply made their way back to the first floor, but apparently that wasn't the case. Suddenly a new voice came over the radio, one with a heavy Russian accent.
"*I thought we agreed to taking the ground floor first then rendezvousing back where we split up? Was I misinformed?*" Viktor asked sarcastically.
"*Wasn't intentional. Wolf 4, are you certain we're on the second floor?*" Andrew asked once more.
"*I can confirm it. You're position in accordance with the map scan has you placed in the atrium on the second floor. Luckily though, it's sorta of the eye in the storm. The bio scan you had me take earlier indicates the guards seemed to have left that room empty.*"
"*Wonder why?*" Viktor inquired.
"*Osaka 1, I take it you used the room directly underneath the one you're standing in to gain access?*" Nate asked.
"*You'd be correct in that assumption. But why they left it unguarded really isn't important right now, what I need is a way back downstairs.*"
A few passed before Nate responded.
"*That's gonna be tricky.*"
"*Let me guess, the guard presence?*"
"*Well yes, there is that. But the greater obstacle would be the distance and the lack of cover. Unlike the ground floor, the hallways are more-or-less of the traditional design. They kinda "box in" with each other. Some of these hallways are completely guarded with others being patrolled on a constant interval.*"
"So is there no way out of here?" Andrew asked.
"*I can you get you out using the drone no problem, but I'd have to do it one man at a time.*"
"*Seriously? Again?*" Lamond remarked.
"*Shut it Lamond.*" Sarah barked at him.
Andrew weighed in on Nate's plan of escape. It seemed risky. He no doubt knew he could do it no problems, he'd done it before on several occasions in his operator days, with more danger present and a higher risk of getting caught.
Oh yeah, unless they all play the waiting game theyre screwed.