Hacking the Sun [Old Version]

Chapter 26 Complete the Mission

Jessica was already floating to the 82nd floor, skipping past Monarch and rooms of his subordinates. They were scrambling—so far as she could tell—to secure and search every nook and cranny of Goliath Headquarters. Beelz and her team had to be above the rest.

Past the sensations of weightlessness and wind, she entered the 82nd floor through a gaping hole in the wall, to land on scattered chunks of more wall. She was welcomed by metal muzzles, again, the assault rifles of Gemini Squad. Clad in dark greens and their weight's worth of gear, they lowered their weapons as soon as a black figure stepped at their behest. 

Slick plates on long legs leading up a waist clenched by a utility belt of magazines and other gadgets. The figure wore black sleeves, a black vest, and the sleekest headphones over red hair. Her eyes were a burning evergreen. Beelz, stoic, pensively tapped the barrel of her handgun against her forehead goggles.

"Let me guess; 'You're lucky we didn't shoot you'?" Jessica mocked. "That's what you were going to say, right?" She stood and faced down Beelz's entourage. Meanwhile, Shannon and Valerie tumbled inward, pedaling frantically to control their gravity boots until they unceremoniously hit the floor on either side of her. The fall failed to discourage either of their gripes.

"Do that again, Jess, and I will murder you!" Shannon said.

"You crazy ass Puerto Rican!" Valerie jeered.

Neither voice could muffle the sound of encroaching airships.

"Step away from the windows," Beelz ordered.

Eyeing the redhead, Jessica and her friends stepped further into the damaged room and watched as two gunmen set a mysterious box on the floor. A button-press later, the box sprouted a tripod with a mounted turret.

Beelz pressed her ear. "We're transmitting the data."

Since Beelz wasn't on comms, she likely contacted Amon and Boros on a separate line. It may have had something to do with the operative on the computer behind her, stealing data. The redhead was still thinking ahead, about the long war.

"Ships will be in range soon," somebody warned.

"Engage noise dampeners." Beelz clicked her headphones. Her squadmates pressed the hidden buttons underneath their helmets, spawning blue LED lights on their visors. Their commander then gestured with a two-finger point, as soon as she made eye contact with Jessica, and warned, "There's an Asgard squad above us." Two squadmates took cover by the turret, the rest scattering throughout the room as she lowered her goggles.

A series of loud bursts carved new holes in the ceiling from which multiple grenades dropped. Jessica dived with Shannon and Valerie behind the nearest desk, evading the bangs that shook rumbled the floor. The grenades began blowing smoke when lines of rope unraveled from the ceiling and windows.

"Asgar—"

Beelz thrust Jessica to the ground and tossed a grenade with the other hand. "Cover your ears!"

Jessica punched her own earlobes when the sphere bounced from the ground to the ceiling to the wall, around the room, at high velocity. It fiercely echoed and stirred the eardrums so terribly that, when Asgard descended via cables, their surroundings devolved into a chaotic quagmire. The enemy covered their ears and yelped, one after another blasted off the cables by Gemini's gunfire. The action was so automatic, Jessica almost scrunched her shoulders into a fracture. Beelz's team gunned down every Azarean despite the smokescreen.

The gunfire eventually stopped, and Beelz's voice reentered comms. "Our units on the ground are going to have trouble."

From all around, airships descended and hitched beside the occupied floors to retrieve anyone who would not or could not stay. Their proximal engines stirred mild tremors along the tower support beams.