The Lost

The Ambush

Annabeth had an uneasy feeling, and she didn't know why. They had just reached the checkpoint, but the guards hadn't knocked on the window, and she strained her ears but could hear nothing from outside.

"Something seems wrong." She said to the car occupants at large.

"What do you mean?" Asked the lead guard, Antonio, as he grabbed for the service pistol at his waist.

"Pardon me for my paranoia, but I know we just stopped at the checkpoint. I felt the inertia of the car slow to a stop. But I don't recall it taking this long for the guard to knock on the door to confirm credentials to pass."

Antonio spun around, and reactivated protocols, the view screen of the main windshield lit up as it displayed what they were seeing around the vehicle. His heart jumped into his throat as he grabbed the guard in the passenger seat and tossed him towards the back, jumping that way himself right before an explosion caused the front end of the vehicle to go up, and flip them over onto their hood.

Apparently the guard house had been hit by a rocket launcher from a rebel group that was causing civil unrest, which is why the additional security measures were even necessary to begin with. No one had been wearing any seatbelts or safety harnesses and as such, they were all flung from their seats, landing on top of the guards.

Annabeth was the first to react. "Is everyone okay!?" She looked about to make sure everyone was still alive. They were dinged up and a bit bruised, but everyone was fine.

The Curator looked at Elder Rich. "Emergency release of restrictions, Elder?" He asked, tablet in hand.

"Access Granted. Release Protocol Alpha-3-Niner. Weapon systems hot." Adrenaline was coursing through the Elder, and it was evident that this was not something he was unfamiliar with.

The Curator entered the command and with voice confirmation, he hit enter.

Annabeth suddenly felt a lot stronger, and the message "Weapon systems engaged" flashed behind her eyes. She looked at those who were still in the car. "Stay here. When you see the coast is clear get to safety." She sighed. She was going to miss this dress. She had a feeling she wouldn't salvage it from whatever she was about to get herself into.

She kicked open the door of the car, and it actually flew off its hinges, hitting one of the assailants and crushing them against a wall. One down seven to go. Her sensors were online now, and she could see various heartbeats and heat signatures. There were more than a few civilians running for their lives and safety. She activated her shield as she stepped from the vehicle, and quickly examined the damage around them. The guard house was a blackened mess, and bodies were already in the street.

Her sensors flared as a hail of bullets sprayed her shield, causing it to fluctuate to disperse the kinetic energy and ricochet the bullets elsewhere. She checked her inventory, and two 9mm Berettas with extended clips appeared in her hands from her spatial storage. "Authorization to kill: Granted. Objective: Neutralize threats." flashed behind her eyes, and she zeroed in first on the person who had peppered her shield with bullets. They were on the rooftop with a high powered assault rifle.

She was taking too long to assess the situations because all of her sensors had been offline. She didn't notice the hostile on the other rooftop had reloaded the rocket launcher, and had fired a second shot until "Proximity warning" flashed behind her eyes a second before the car was hit with the second explosive,

The explosion caused her to be hit from behind the car, which sent her forward, and hit the side of the building before she was able to get her bearings and stand. seven targets identified. She turned the corner and was face to face with one assailant. Her shield dropped and she quickly ripped out their throat, and they fell to the ground in a soundless heap, and died soon after. She had lost her weapons, but picked up the first targets machine gun, sighted in on the one with the rocket, and shot a third rocket as it was being loaded into the launcher.

It exploded and roasted two more assailants. Four down. That was half. She leapt up the side of the building and landed on the first roof, bringing the machine gun to bare on the one who had shot at her shield. She heard the ping of bullets on armor, and she kept firing as she walked forward. Out of her peripheral view, she could see that Antonio had emerged from the car, and engaging two others in a spray and pray fire fight.

She focused her attention on the person in front of her. It wouldn't do her any good to be distracted with one of the enemy so close that they could cause her more damage, like when the second explosion had hit the car.

She hit the target in the helmet, which seemed to get their attention as they aimed their own weapon at her, and pulled the trigger until their magazine was empty. Her shield had held against the shower of bullets, and she discarded the automatic weapon, and ran straight for assailant, punching them in the helmet and knocking them backwards.

Damn that hurt! That had been her still injured hand, but this was not the time to stop and complain. The assailant staggered, and dropped their weapon, but drew a knife and squared off against Annabeth directly. She dropped her shield, and got into a ready stance, edging closer, until the attacker lunged. She grabbed their wrist and spun, holding onto them to snap their wrist in a spiral fracture before knocking them out with a blow to the back of the neck. She tossed him and the weapons into her storage, and looked at how Antonio was doing. he had killed the two he had been fighting with, and the last person was in custody as reinforcements arrived.

She jumped over the side of the buildings roof, and braced herself for impact as she landed, hitting her knee and her injured hand on the sidewalk, but she walked it off and walked over to the building where the rockets had been launched and jumped to the roof there as well. She collected the bodies and anything else that might have been important and returned to the city streets to report back to the others.

Antonio acknowledged her with a quick nod and a small salute. He had a cut above his eye on his forehead, which must have happened after the second explosive had hit the car. "You okay, Antonio?" She asked as she neared him.

"I'll be fine." He said, and touched his head and winced. "MEDIC!" he yelled, and a person in a white uniform with red stripes ran over with a box of equipment. They sat Antonio down began to look him over.

Annabeth was going to look at the other bodies, but the security forces already had then bagged and tagged, and the weaponry was secured. She went back to the vehicle and looked inside at the others. She breathed a little easier to find them mainly unharmed, but it did look like Elder Rich has a broken arm. The Curator had a few cuts on him as well, and the other guards were battered and bruised. but her sensors told her they would all be fine.

She helped them out of the vehicle one at a time. Sitting Elder Rich down to be looked at by the medical personnel, and then The Curator. She got the guards out, and on closer inspection, her sensors picked up some broken ribs. "You two get yourselves checked out over there." She indicated to the new medical people that had just arrived. "You have broken ribs." With that she turned her attention back to Elder Rich and The Curator.

"It's good to see you two are relatively unharmed. It could have been much worse. Do we know yet what happened at the guard tower?" She asked.

Both of them shook their heads and winced. "Annabeth. I must thank you. Once again you did not disappoint me. You did not hesitate to quickly neutralize the problem, and yes, even saved our lives."

They looked up into the sky above them as they heard the whirring sounds of a security probe. it was assessing damage and that people were being cared for, and no more hostiles were in the area. "Elder Engrid will know by now what has happened. I'm sorry Annabeth." He said and spoke a stop command. "End protocol override Alpha-3-Niner."

She suddenly felt all of the aches and pains at once from her ordeal, and promptly passed out from the pain overload.