Chapter 127: I just want to destroy this thing. (1/2)
Once the lock was blown up, everyone burst inside the room. Arima put his rifle away and drew his pistol as he entered first. His eyes scanned the place and his hand immediately started shooting, taking out someone with each shot.
The soldiers with him also fired in all directions, all with an incredibly efficient aim. They took thirty seconds to eliminate everyone without even giving them a chance to retaliate.
”We don't have time to lose. To buy as much time as possible, a group of ten will stay here and scan the pagers and secure our way out. Is that acceptable?” Haze suggested to the other squad leaders and he received an affirmative response.
The biggest squad left ten members behind and the rest went to the hoist load before activating it.
As they were slowly descending, Jin sat down and scrutinized his screen. A few minutes later, when they were about to reach the floor below, his eyes narrowed as he blocked the command of the hoist.
”Wait! If we go lower, we will be detected in a second by actual cameras and both the guys and IAs looking through them will sound the alarm,” he said as he looked through the screen of his computer and pointed at the wall on his left.
”…Arima, break this. We have no choice,” he hesitated but still asked. Arima raised an eyebrow before putting down his rifle case. He inhaled and started hopping. The other soldiers were quite confused at what he was going to do. What did he mean by 'break it'?
Arima put his entire weight on his left leg and spun before giving a roundhouse kick to the wall. The result was a broken wall in which Arima's foot became buried. When he pulled out his foot, he then proceeded to enlarge the hole with his bare hands.
Everyone watched wide-eyed. They were not dumb enough to believe that what they just witnessed could be explained by some prowess in martial arts.
Jin nodded and didn't even comment as he inserted his arm in the broken wall and grabbed a handful of cables set there. He cut the sheath of one of them and then pulled out the conductors which he tinkered with a bit before connecting it to his computer through a rather hefty plug.
The people on the hoist understood that Arima and Jin, and also Tieria, had no intention of talking about what happened and discarded the idea of soliciting them. It wasn't a good situation to risk their mutual trust.
”Here's the deal,” Jin raised his voice. ”I'll cause a blackout with an Eion pulse and then we'll finish the job before everything comes back. At least like this the alarm won't be sounded, their defenses will be weakened, and there will be fewer people coming at us since they can't locate us. The blackout should last around ten minutes. Give or take,” he declared and the captains looked at each other.
”Fine, do it Jin,” Moria said and Jin cracked his fingers before pressing on the enter key. In less than a second, the facility lost every energy supply and the lights went off.
”Cut the cables,” Moria ordered and four people used a laser to cut the cables attached to the hoist.
After they did that, the platform promptly fell down and crashed on the floor below. Everyone felt unsteady for a bit before focusing again. They pried open the steel door in front of them and ended up inside of a spacious hangar filled with Eion tanks.
Moria nodded to one of his subordinates who went around the place to set the G-Mines, just like the ones they had placed above.
”We'll split up from here. Don't forget to install the mines and harmonize their frequency,” Haze said and darted off toward one of the two possible paths along with his squad and the other one that they met earlier carrying the code 'Freiz'.
”We'll go the other way then,” Moria said matter-of-factly and started running. Soon followed by the entire Walker squad.
At that point already, all of the personnel in the facility had been alerted and were preparing to fend off the intruders. But unfortunately for them, the constrained reinitialization of the mainframe made them incapable to locate their enemies or to effectively deploy their forces.
Each group inevitably encountered some guards while exploring the hangars but nothing they could not survive. Arima's squad met a few dozens of guards and immediately engaged the enemy.
”Do you know where the mainframe is?” Arima asked Jin as he fired back from his cover, never missing a shot.
”Not sure. But from the triangulation I made thanks to the cameras' signal, it should be around… there,” Jin frowned and pointed at a place beyond the guards who were blocking their advance.
”I see,” Arima muttered and slipped a hand inside his coat. He grabbed one of his knives and pressed the 'pin'. He stood up and shot the man who was about to shoot him first before throwing the knife. When the tip of the blade made contact with the ground, a muffled detonation resounded followed by a flash of blue light and flames of the same color. The magnitude of the explosion was perhaps even stronger than a regular Eion grenade.
Moria saw an occasion and waved his hand at everyone to rush in. After terminating the resistance, they continued onward and struggled to locate their objective. But after some time, they finally came across another rather important-looking gate.
Arima used another knife to break open the door of the assumed control room and Jin rejoiced as he spotted the rows of hardware obviously accommodating a supercomputer. He ran toward the nearest terminal and began his work. The electricity was about to be restored and he wanted to insert a backdoor on the system before it happened.
Jin typed frantically, executing all of his pre-made programs while the squad covered him and fought back the endless wave of men.
”Aaaand…got it!” Jin shouted and the light returned to the facility in the next moment. ”Sir, aerial defenses are down! I have bad news though. The AI managed to send a warning signal to the two concerned countries just before the blackout.”
Moria nodded grimly and pulled out his satellite phone. ”1K9F55AZ. Airstrike at current coordinates. Come with unregistered planes and blow up the island. Do it in 20 minutes,” he called the airstrike and everyone exited the control room before heading toward the hoist load.
But barely a minute after they started running, a rocket was suddenly fired at them. It came out from a junction of the corridor and everyone reacted a bit too late. Arima's eyes narrowed and moved as fast as he could. He aimed his pistol at the rocket and fired. The two projectiles collided and self-destructed in the process.
But even with Arima's timely response, the blast was still too close and most members of the squad were caught in the shockwave. When they recovered their bearings, they saw what had attacked them.
Arima clicked his tongue in annoyance and swiftly equipped his rifle. He glared as the giant robot that barely fitted between the walls slowly walked toward them.
The robot scanned the targets and raised the heavy machine gun it carried. The squad members could only take cover and flee as the enormous weapon was fired. But some of them inexorably failed to escape in time and were instantly taken down as the bullets opened fist-sized boles on their bodies.
It was the first time Arima ever witnessed one of his comrades die on a mission. He gritted his teeth and fired with his sniper at the robot. Shockingly, the large robot displayed unbelievable dexterity and agility as it dodged the shot.
”What the fu-!!” Arima swallowed his words back as the machine gun was once again pointed at him and instantly threw two Eion knives. The two knives hit the ground at the robot's feet and exploded. The explosion raised a lot of dust and the roof cracked and threatened to collapse.