The Secret World Ch. 06

Do I really want to save her? Well, contrary to popular belief, I do have a conscious. I respond back to Doc, "I'm going after her. You coming along?"

"Hooyah," Doc responded.

I then reported into my headset back to the rest of the team, "Big Papi, this is O. Doc and I are making for the camp. We have an idea, cover us."

We moved back into the room which the cultists had forced their way in fighting our way to the hole. Doc continued shooting out into the town towards the cultists, "Beau, continue doing what you're doing."

"What ya thinkin', O," Beau responded.

"We're going to their camp and rescuing hostages," I responded.

"What?" Penny snapped with a concerned look on her face, "No! That's suicide! You're mad!!" she continued as she grabbed on to the back of my tactical vest.

She wasn't exactly wrong, it would seem to be a suicide mission. But, I can't in good faith ignore the situation, "Well then, in that case you should be relieved. That way I won't be around to piss you off anymore," I responded while I shrugged away from her breaking her grip on my vest. I didn't hesitate to run out of the building while Doc followed behind.

Despite my snarky treatment of Penny, deep down she really did care for my well being. In truth, she was a caring person no doubt. From what I heard, she even broke out into tears after Doc and I stepped outside. Strange, I don't believe I'm worth anyone's tears. I'm a weapon, nothing more. No one sheds a tear when a gun breaks down, therefore there shouldn't be any reason for Penny to weep.

We used the darkness to our advantage and slipped by most of the hordes of cultists. Two technicals faced towards the hospital. Doc and I snuck up to the one mounted with a grenade launcher. We used our knives with stealth to neutralize those onboard. I jumped in the driver's seat while Doc manned the grenade launcher.

"It's time for the Holiday Special!!" Doc yelled as he unleashed hell on the other technical. It blew up, but it also caused the rest to realize we had procured their vehicle. I drove like hell away from the town as bullets began spraying towards us. Meanwhile, Big Papi and the rest eventually made their way downstairs. It appeared Doc and I now had their full attention.

On foot these assholes had no way to catch up to us. The diversion was enough for the rest of the team to make a clean get away. But there was still the question as to how Doc and I were going to get out our current shit-storm. The enemy camp wasn't far, and all things considered we just kept following the road in the direction towards where all the assholes kept coming out from.

"It is I, the Eye. The Eye in the Sky," an automated transmission came in through our headset. "Greetings, Operative O and Operative Holiday. The rest of your team has reported in and are making their way to the beach. But fear not, there is a plan in the works to extract you all. But it will require extra effort. In their camp, infrared satellite images has picked up images of what we believe to be a munition tent. We believe there might be enough semtex explosives to efficiently destroy their surface to air defense. Should you accept this mission, you can go home. This tape will self destruct in... Five. Four. Three. Two. Just kidding. Ha. Ha. Ha. I made a funny. But seriously, destroy the surface to air defense if you want to make it home."

"Man, I swear to god, Eye in the Sky has to be some asshole typing a text to speech program," Doc Holiday complained. The truth is I don't who or what Eye in the Sky is. Some think it's a sentient AI (Artifical Intelligence) of some sort. Others believe it's a person like Doc theorized. Beau on the other hand had a unique theory. He believed the Eye in the Sky to be an alien robot from outer space. Though he tried to draw a picture of how he imagined this robot version of the Eye in the Sky, but Doc saw it and complained, "What? No! Hell no! There's no way we're working for a giant stainless steel dildo with arms and legs!"

We arrived at the camp and found the munitions tent. It wasn't hard to overpower the guards. But as we looked in, not only were Doc and I able to replenish our ammunition, but there was enough semtex plastic explosives to blow this whole camp to kingdom come.

We were in a time sensitive clock, there were three air defense missile launchers here that we needed to blow to hell if we wanted to go home. But, then Doc finally asked the million dollar question, "O, something doesn't seem right. First these guys were just guerilla forces, now they turned out to be a bunch of cultists. But, where the fuck do cultist guerillas get air defense capabilities like this?"

It was a good question. Things didn't add up. A guerilla force that size and yet they only had three technicals but can have highly sophisticated air defense measures? Yeah, something was not right. And then there was something else, a strange satellite dish in the center of the camp. "What the hell is that?" I asked.

"What the fuck?" Doc responded, "O, this camp looks nothing like the Eye in the Sky view we saw back at Proteus."

"Come on, let's finish up with all the launchers. Then we can snoop around," I instructed. But then we were interrupted. Spot lights beamed down on on us. Troops appeared almost out of nowhere. Doc and I drew our weapons back to back with our guns pointed at those within our line of sights.

"Look what we have here," said the leader of troops announced. He then stepped into the light, he was a larger man and looked "roided out" with his body builder like frame. I recognized him right away. "My name is Lieutenant Brock," he introduced himself with his Australian accent.

"I know who you are," I responded, "You're the head of the Phoenician Red Diamond Task Force. Or as everyone nicknamed you guys the elite Crimson Death Squad." Brock laughed as I looked around and saw the other members as they approached.

Rick Saw, his arms had been replaced with robotic constructs. The sophistication to his new bionic arms are too complicated to explain. Just use your fucking imagination. Samir, a known middle eastern terrorist that escaped the Guantanamo Bay facility. But now within the ranks of the Phoenicians, he's even more dangerous than ever.

Then there was this asshole, I have no clue who he is. He was skinny and wore the standard Phoenician uniform with the sleeves ripped out. His skin was covered with tribal tattoos and his nose and ears were pointy. Bald, not even eyebrows with piercings all over his face and his teeth were like tusks almost. Possible heavy body modification. I later learned his name was Shaklar, and his story is unusual. But trust me, you're not ready to learn about him yet.

All the rest were heavily armored soldiers with heavy caliber weapons. These guys normally don't take prisoners. If they show up, chances are you're dead. If by some unfortunate reason they decide not to kill you, well, you'll wish you were dead. At least that's what the rumors say and there were some truth to the rumors.

"Show me ya fears, mon!" said Shaklar. At first I was confused, but then my vision became obscured. I felt dizzy. As I shook my head, I saw her approach from behind the troops. Skinny and petite, angelic with a child like smile. Her pink hair blew in the wind as she walked closer. She was a familiar face, a twenty four year old girl I knew from the past.

"Wran?" I said as my voice began to break.

The pink haired girl named Wran smiled at me. Behind her I also saw her, she who stood with hair as black as death and a white nightgown with ghostly pale skin as she shook her head in disappointment at me. When I looked back toward the pink haired girl, I saw Brock's fist flying right into my face. I didn't expect that, the force of his punch knocked me to the ground. As I fell back, I only saw them dragging Doc Holiday's unconscious body as one of the others grabbed my feet before I finally went out cold.

BOHICA.