Chapter 6:
Alive
The military base was in the center of Promise, more than half underground, a huge facility connected to all sixty sectors of the city by hundreds of tunnels, allowing anyone to go anywhere through them. As the large group scattered, each one going into different directions, Rafael and George arrived at their transport, with also another soldier, there was already someone in an ARC, smoking and waiting for them.
"Anna, George and Rafael I suppose" The man stood up "I'm sargeant Vladmir, I will be leading this squad.
"Yes sir" the three answered.
Vladmir was an old man, white hair, almost bald, with a few traces of a beard, like he had forgotten to shave.
"Ah, it's good to have reinforcements" he threw away his cigarette "all right, we are headed to sector eleven, north of the city. We still don't know how many they are, our objective is to arrest as many as possible, but we also are allowed to kill"
"anh... excuse me, sir, why are we going to arrest them right away? They... don't have the right to manifest?" Anna asked hesitantly
"We just follow orders, besides, trust me, those are not manifestants, they are just criminals destroying public property and endangering innocent people"
The transport reached a sort of big platform, there was a SCU on it, ready for action. The four got on the platform as well.
"You guys have seen already one of these mechas, right?" Vladmir, putting his hands on the feet of the 5 meters robot "This one is piloted by Lucy, she will be commanding this mission, since she has an overview of the situation, she will give us targets to take down, anyone she judges a threat, targets will be displayed in your visors. Besides that, just stay behind her energy shield for safety, our bullets passes trough it"
The three of them kept in silence, Rafael stared at his gun for a few seconds.
"take down? just like that?" thinking by himself, then a voice appeared in the communicator
"Basically, I protect you, and you shoot" Lucy established the communication "all right, comms are online, let's go" And the plataform started to go up.
As the plataform was rising, a gate on top of them began to open, allowing them to finally see the sky, but not for long, as a few explosions happened on top of the gate.
"Close, close, close" Vladmir screamed.
"Whooaah, what is happening??" Anna complained almost crying.
"Look like they are throwing explosives to prevent us to get out of the deploy station" Lucy explained while protecting the four from the explosions which passed the gate
"Deploy station?" George asked totally lost.
"Here, where we are, what connect the military tunnels to the surface" Rafael replied holding himself to the ground "there is no way trough now"
"What do you mean there is no way trough??" Vladmir said mocking "We'll use the emergency hatch, once Lucy is out, we regroup behind her"
As they started to follow the plan, the gate opened again, the SCU resisted the bombs with it's energy shield like it was nothing. The manifestants with bombs began aiming at the platform's engines to prevent the SCU of coming to the surface.
"We need to help her" Vladmir told, getting out of the hatch "take down everyone near the station"
"Wait, we will straight up just kill them??" Anna asked, truly worried.
"What? You want to give them roses first? Shoot"
"I- I can't do that" Anna said stepping back
Vladmir started to fire, so did George, Rafael hesitated, looking at Anna crying inside the hatch. Only three bombers survived the array of shots, all manifestants started to scatter, specially when Lucy got out. Then, Vladmir, George and Rafael gathered behind her energy shield.
"You will be fine with the recruits, they said" Vladmir was angrily complaining "Okay, change of plans, we three are going after those bombers, Lucy will handle the rest"
"What about her?" George pointed to Anna, still inside the hatch.
"Let her there, at least she is not getting in the way, now move"
The three manifestants realized they were being chased, and even with the head start, there was no way they could outrun ARC's. One entered an alley, George followed him, while the other two broke into a building.
Vladmir and Rafael went after the other two in the building, as soon Vladmir turned in a hallway, two large drill bits went flying rapidly in his direction, but he manage to avoid them by jumping into the ground. Rafael then turned the hallway, he could have shot both, but he chose to shout to them to surrender, they kept on the run.
"What is your problem?? Do you want someone here get killed??" Vladmir stood up really quickly and continued the pursuit, Rafael stood for a few seconds and went after as well.
After some running, Rafael went separate ways from Vladmir, then he found himself in a complicated situation. He managed to reach one of the fugitives, but too late, the woman broke into an apartment and held hostage a little girl, as the family could do nothing because she had some sort of homemade weapon.
"Stay back, stay back" she was talking to Rafael, threatening to kill the girl "drop your weapon, NOW"
Rafael saw his own family on them, he was scared, thinking of what could have happend to his family on that day, or even now. How could he know, was joining the army a good idea? or is him who is too weak? He putted his rifle on the floor.
"Just calm do-"
"Now get the hell out, and tell your friend to not come closer too, or I kill her"
Suddenly, a tremor hitted the apartment, the SCU punched the building. The moment she took her gun out of the girl's head, Rafael leaped towards them, pulling them apart, the woman quickly aimed and shot, a drill bit pierced the ARC's amor, hitting Rafael's back as he was protecting the girl, after that, he turned himself and punched the fugitive, strong enough to kill her right away.
Rafael stood paralysed for a while, his back was hurting a lot, yet he had only one thought: He had killed someone, there was blood on his hands and on the floor. The news reporting deaths all over the city, and even seeing people die in front of his eyes, nothing prepared him for taking a life.
"Thank you" The man who appear to be the little girl's daughter was hugging her, with tears in his eyes "thanks for saving her life"
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