Wither With Me

CHAPTER 56 - WARRIORS

With hurried but calm steps, PT-01 crossed the corridor between cubicles and approached the lockers at the back wall.

Outside, the dogfight between the two helicopters continued without rest. The rumble of the rotors took repeated laps around the tower, and moved up and down on several flanks, accompanied by machine gun fire. Occasionally, projectiles passed close to the office he was in, even getting to shatter some of the windows.

None of it stopped him from remaining calm. He opened one of the lockers and grabbed a bulky case from within. He huddled among the cubicles to stay as covered as possible, and proceeded to retrieve its contents.

The military had gotten into one hell of a mess, it was too big for them from the very start. Any speck of order and security had crumbled apart, which was quite convenient. Nobody could afford the luxury of investigating that place and interrupting him.

He carefully placed the rifle components on the floor, and began the assembly process.

'You know, Nyx...? I should thank you. At least, the tip on Kurtis Tower was useful for something.'

Who did they intend to fool? ZEUS had power, resources and connections all over the place, but that didn't stop them from being a bunch of morons. Nyx was the last bullet in their magazine, a bullet they knew wouldn't hit its mark. Not with Dr. Marcus and Colonel Rowan working against it.

'I wonder how long ago they actually decided to get Hades ready for cleanup. Bah, doesn't matter...'

He had everything ready. He had used Nyx's information to infiltrate the tower and prepare the weapon before the military arrived in the area. He had followed orders until the very end, seeding chaos, triggering the Convergence. Everything so ZEUS would continue with the cleanup as agreed, everything so Hades showed up.

Everything to settle the score with those bastards.

'Hades...'

For how long had they been working together? They used to be more, the members of the group dropped like flies, and all of them knew their time could be up at any moment. They knew what they were getting into. Ares, Persephone, Hephaestus... And now, Prometheus was hanging by a thread. A dying pack of dirty dogs, which Hades intended to finish off for their own convenience.

'Fuck that.'

The rifle was ready. A modified Barrett M82, that beast was capable of perforating a pure praetorian all the way through. It'd do a nice job.

PT-01 crawled towards the outer wall. The battle taking place outside had left a hole under one of the windows. Keeping a low profile, he placed the rifle on the opening, and waited.

The military helicopter passed in the blink of an eye in front of the tower. A trail of smoke emerged from the tail rotor; they had taken some damage.

He kept his gaze fixated on the panorama. A couple of seconds later, there it was, the Hades helicopter, flying over the area some meters below his position.

A moving target, strong winds in the heights, interferences due to the spinning rotor blades... Not an easy shot. But he might not have another chance.

He breathed in, held his breath, and sunk all his senses into the rifle scope.

...

*Bang!!*

He couldn't spot the pilot through the dark glass to confirm the kill, but the aircraft's sudden change in direction was all the confirmation he needed. The vehicle destabilized and began spinning in circles, descending fast towards the ground.