Penguins of Anarchy IV: Endgame

Nine

Revnos breathed shakily as he sat on the bench in the forest, no one else in sight. He wanted to bail out. He wanted to leave the dirty work to someone else, but he knew in his heart that there wasn't anyone else to do it for him this time. It was his turn to be the soldier. He sure didn't feel like one, though.

He looked left and right. No sign of Sleeson. He was coming, wasn't he? Revnos was sure that as unhopeful as he was about pulling this off with Sleeson, he was a thousand times more unhopeful of doing it without him.

He saw a lone penguin approaching from the distance, through the trees. Revnos sighed in relief as he saw it was Sleeson. "You ready to do this?" Sleeson asked with a grin. He could see the terror in Revnos' eyes, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

"As I'll ever be," the president replied as he stood. Sleeson handed him an assault rifle and hooked a utility belt with a pistol holster to Revnos' waist, shoving a pistol into it. "You think we can actually do this?" Revnos asked desperately.

"After watching Task Force Anarchy in action the past year and a half, I've decided there's very nearly nothing anyone can't do," Sleeson replied confidently.

Revnos nodded. That remark didn't offer too much encouragement, but it was something. "If I don't make it, make sure you still get them out alive."

A grave look crept onto Sleeson's face. "You'll make it," he assured him.

The two soldiers strapped on their body armor. They were about to commit treason of the highest order to save four soldiers whom they believed to be justified in their actions. Never had Sleeson taken a more reckless approach to warfare, nor had he ever determined to harm his fellow Antarctican soldiers until now. But it didn't matter. Anarchy was the new way of warfare.

Sleeson and Revnos crouched low as they made their way through a dense section of the forest toward Blizzard Base. They approached the edge and peered through the foliage at the titanic base looming before them. Sleeson grimaced; he had hoped it would be snowing to provide extra cover.

Sleeson assessed the situation. First, they had to climb over the chain-link fence, which was wrapped with barbed wire on top—plus, there were two guards patrolling this side of the fence. Next, they'd have to evade any security within the main compound. He had seen as many as twelve guards in a concentrated area the last time he was here. They'd then have to reach the stairwell leading down to the underground detainment wing, but to do that, they'd need a keycard, which were issued to the officers every time they entered the command center. So unless they got lucky, they'd have to enter the command center—a large building shaped like a pyramid with a flat top—and steal a keycard from an officer without attracting attention, which would be impossible if they were all in the war room with Brazen. Simply put, this wasn't going to be easy.

Sleeson shrugged to himself. What did he have to lose? It's not like he had ever expected it to go smoothly. "Ready?" he asked his partner.

Revnos gulped and firmly gripped his rifle. He could find no words, so just nodded.

"Follow my lead," Sleeson ordered as he and Revnos emerged from the tree-line while the two guards were walking in opposite directions. Sleeson considered taking the guards out, but since they didn't see them anyway and were, after all, just doing their job, he decided against it.

Sleeson motioned for Revnos to go up the thirty-foot fence first. Revnos quickly obeyed and slung his rifle around his shoulder as he scrambled up the fence. Sleeson's eyes darted between the two guards, making sure they didn't turn around and see them. He glanced up and saw Revnos' vest had gotten caught on some wire. Revnos looked to Sleeson for help, but Sleeson frantically motioned to Revnos to just figure out how to get free.