LINX

Remnants of a Nightmare

Chapter 14

 The place they had been dropped at was a clear grassland. But even though it was vast stretches of grass, land movement was difficult because the grass was about four feet tall and it was seen throughout the horizon . After a few hours of cordination, they all reunited.

“Ok guys, we are now behind enemy lines, any mistake could get us killed! So, please keep your head straight, I don’t want the same screw ups as last time.” Said Fazil looking at all of them but specifically at Mark and Kabir.

“ The destination is a few miles out of that forest on the left, we have to go there collect intel, get out. Remember no messing around! And for safety we are using only designated codenames on comm channels of which you have been  notified.” said Fazil.

They began marching towards the forest that at was the end of the grassland, it looked very close but was awfully far. By noon, they had crossed the forest and had reached the edge of the forest where the base was seen clearly from.

The Kruztag base was located in a desert, it was windy and sand was heaved into the skies in massive amount. They were all amazed by the topography changes they had experienced over the past few hundred kilometres, first grassland, then forest and then desert, it was like a mystical land.

Fazil remembered this base clearly, the last thing he would ever forget was what happened here. It was the base where Operation Cloud had gone haywire. The base where his brother was last seen.

The base was surrounded by peripheral fence that was five to six feet high, there were three anti air turrets within the base and equal distance from each like the three vertices of a triangle. There were nine ground turrets that were located at random spots across the base, in the center of the base there were two buildings having about twenty floors, they were both connected by a bridge running through their centres. The mapping was fine as they easily got it through as they found it with the help of the SNS device  but the question was how would they get in.

They sat there for about an hour not knowing the way in, they tried out endless possibilities but nothing was working out and then they saw something that gave a positive outcome.

A series of cargo trucks were a few kilometres away from the main entrance and by the looks of it were scheduled to make a drop.

The trucks had the traditional heavy engine in the front, with better protection, totally automatic and robot controlled drive that was built with wheels to go through any terrain because the lower end was built in such a way that hovered over the ground rather then having contact. Further the posterior had steel compartment that loaded all the goods.

It looked more like confederation technology but from a future that seemed hundred years ahead.

They all hopped into the back of the truck discretely not giving the notion to the guard sitting beside the navigating AI of an intrusion. The truck crossed through the base defences without any intrusion.

The team sat in the back of the truck quietly and none of them even dared to move a muscle. The truck was loaded with crates to an extent that even a slight movement could topple off some content and raise the alarm.

By the smell of it they could only guess it was some chemicals used for research.

After a few minutes the truck stopped. By the sounds they heard and the moderately cooler temperatures Fazil deduced they had reached the interior of a building.

They sat there in the truck for just about a few minutes when they began to hear chit-chat, not of a few people but a lot and by the tone of their voices and the languages they spoke it was clear they were not human.

The team got down stealthily and hid behind a few crates that were a few feet away from the truck.

Through a small gap in between two crates they saw  a beastly creature.

Unloading crates from the truck they was a huge creature, who had spikes all across his spine. It was brown in colour, about seven feet tall with broad shoulders. His eyes were dark with no eyeballs and the eyes were curved diagonally. His nose was thin and a tiny mouth .His legs had razor sharp claws, entirely the creature looked like a beast.

And the worst part was there were so many of them and they were all unloading the cargo from the truck. 

The only way to sneak past through them was by crawling behind the crates slowly and silently because these creatures were known to have a very sensitive hearing .

They moved along the cargo bay and after a while reached the fire exit. By the looks of the schematics Ismail got they knew that the information dock was at the eleventh floor. So they climbed the stairs silently up to their destination.

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Jared stood there at the console, behind a three inch thick fibreglass at the mid level of the research centre. 

Desolation protocol was activated a few minutes ago. Any precious cargo present there was to be transported to the central fort in the area. The protocol activated area was sealed and purged.

He stood behind the fibreglass to prevent exposure to the material on the other side that was tagged radioactive and harmful to health, though he was unaware whether that really was the truth.

The Kruztag base was one of the most controversial Alpine possessions, it was the place where the last time confederation troops had set foot.

Even with all the recent technological advancements Jared knew there was still margin for failure.

The console he stood at controlled a metal arm on the other side of the fibreglass that moved the canisters around the rows of assembly. His duty was to put them into the isolation boxes that would finally end up in the pick up trucks at the end of the assembly line.

Most of the process was automated, he was only there to prevent any jams by means of manual override.

The process was almost done with. There were just a few canisters left, when Jared heard the door to the control room behind him open.

Jared went for his gun in the holster strapped above his shirt underneath his crisp white lab coat.

Out of reflex he withdrew the gun and turned to point it at the person when a knock to the back of his head struck him down.

Jared fell to the floor barely maintaining his consciousness which slipped away from his grasp in a few moments following the hit.