Usurp pt.3

After a moment to catch his breath, Fuse sent a third of his comrades to destroy the vehicles in the estate in case Suranov decided to escape.

The others went along with Fuse.

If Suranov didn't run, he would probably hide in the basement.

Fuse charged with his team, guns blazing, to the northern wing of the main building, where the entrance to the basement was located.

Without being able to avoid further casualties, they arrived in rough shape at the room with the basement access.

At least those who remained had also covered themselves with the better body armor by now.

Before they could break down the cellar door, however, something intervened.

Stepping around the corner was a particularly heavily armored Kombattant; the suit resembling a bomb suit.

Not hesitating for a second, Fuse and his team leapt to safety.

Some weren't fast enough to get behind solid cover, and a hail of bullets shredded them and any furniture they could hide behind apart; their nicer armor didn't help.

Fuse needed an idea, and fast, because the heavy wasn't waiting.

A comrade lobbed a grenade under his legs, but it had little effect; the bullets continued to cut mercilessly through the air.

They really needed the heavy weapons at that moment, but the team with them was destroying the vehicles, so he had to find another solution.

"I need a stun grenade." Fuse said.

"Stun grenade out." A comrade informed.

With the face shield, it was possible that the flash wasn't good enough, but he had to give it a try.

With the ghosts of his burned comrades watching, Fuse lit a Molotov cocktail and waited for the flashbang to go off.

Bang!

Under the cover of light, Fuse stepped out of his cover and ran as close to the heavy as it would take to safely hit the face shield with the cocktail.

Direct hit.

The blazing flames seeped through every crack in his armor, turning the ground beneath his feet into an inferno.

For a few moments, Fuse watched the man flail in agony until he finally fell motionless to the ground.

"See you in hell." Fuse said.

Fuse kicked the door to the basement open and then carefully descended the stairs along with his comrades.

The basement was befitting of a mansion, having several corridors and rooms.

The corridors were narrower than those upstairs, and also dimmer in lighting.

However, there were no Kombattanten or traps to be found down here; this only made Fuse more alarmed.

He and his team moved slowly down the corridors, finally arriving at the main room of the basement without anything happening.

And there stood Suranov, along with his daughter.

But he seemed to be behind some kind of transparent protective wall, as confident as he stood there.

"Tell the other team that Suranov is here." Fuse ordered.

A small part of the squad split off and made their way out of the basement.

Fuse fired a few times in his direction, and sure enough, he was behind a protective wall.

Mr. Suranov laughed loudly, you could hear him well.

"You want me? Come and get me!" Suranov shouted out.

"But first say hello to my android friends!"

Around the corner came two androids, armed with HAL 96 machine guns.

Fuse had never encountered androids with guns before, which meant he had to process what that meant first.

Androids were supposed to be subject to the laws of robotics, so how did Suranov...?

The other comrades didn't know how to act either and just shot at them with a thunderous yell.

The bullets simply ricocheted off the androids without even leaving anything like a dent; it was nothing more than a storm of sparks.

"Take cover!" Fuse yelled.

But his warning didn't come soon enough.

The androids drew their machine guns and sprayed the wall with blood and bullets.

Fuse felt a sharp pain, his leg got hit and he cursed himself; he should have reacted earlier.

He couldn't dwell on it for long; a plan was needed.

Checking his equipment, he found that he had no more grenades, if they were of any use at all.

Time to for a tactical retreat and regroup; Fuse took the risk and dashed towards the exit.

There, at the exit, Fuse met up with the rest of the troops he now so desperately needed.

"The Kombattanten seem to have all been dealt with." One of the comrades reported.

That made sense, because Fuse hadn't heard any gunfire from outside for a while; his men were doing a good job, he was proud of them.

"Stay alert though; there may be some in hiding." Fuse warned.

Among the men who just came to the rescue was comrade Andrei, a man with so many body modifications that he was almost more machine than man; a cyborg.

Thanks to these modifications, he was also the only one who could tame the heavy machine gun.

But machine gun didn't quite do it justice; the caliber was too large to call it a machine gun. Massive, thick, heavy, and far too powerful. Indeed, it was a machine cannon for use against machines.

That was exactly what they needed.

"Mr. Ikeda, Suranov is downstairs?" comrade Andrei asked.

"Yes, along with two androids, blast them away." Fuse commanded.

"Roger that." comrade Andrei said.

This time comrade Andrei led the way and the others followed, with each of his heavy steps the squad became more confident of victory.

Pushing his alertness to the extreme, Fuse scanned the corridors for the androids.

These killing machines were definitely planning an ambush, because in these low-light conditions, that should be the best course of action.

Fuse's eyes darted around wildly, noticing every rat, every speck of dust that moved.

This operation had to be a success; the weight of the great ambitions he and Marcia had set for themselves rested on his shoulders.

"There!" Fuse shouted out as he pointed towards a couple of wine barrels.

Stalwartly, comrade Andrei raised his MK 22 AM-Portable and began firing just as the androids came out of hiding.

The flesh on Fuse's bones danced to the rhythm of the sound waves.

With the rumble of certain triumph, comrade Andrei dismantled the androids back into their component parts.

Fuse wasted no time, "You three, guard the entrance to the basement! And you two, get Vinganca here!"

Now nothing should stand in the way between Fuse and Suranov; except the wall, of course.

When Suranov saw Fuse, he turned pale; Fuse was now quite sure that no trap was waiting for him.

"What do you want from me? I'll give you all my cars here!" he pleaded.

His daughter seemed to realize the danger they were in.

But Fuse paid him no heed; instead, he placed the hacking device against the door, where he let it work its magic.

With each lock that was lifted, Suranov grew paler and his promises more generous.

A while passed and Marcia found her way into the basement.

"Well, if it isn't Suranov. He looks pretty pathetic behind his little wall." Marcia spoke with her typical cold tone.

"You! What do you want from me?" Suranov asked agitated.

"I'm here to get your head, and everything you have." Marcia explained.

Suranov fell on his butt and the last bit of dignity left his countenance; only his daughter held on to him.

The lock opened and Fuse burst through the door, tackling Suranov and knocking him unconscious.

His daughter was paralyzed with fear and could only watch in terror.

"For such a worm, you were quite a piece of work." Marcia spoke.

"Luckily for us, you're such an idiot and have a BCI installed on your brain. At least that makes this part easier for us." she added.

With step 4 of the operation successful, now came step 5: extracting the data.

It was because of step 5 that this operation was so hard in the first place.

If you wanted to extract the data from a person who had a BCI, you had to get the person alive.

The mountains were an added bonus so no one would get in the way.

Fuse placed the hacking device at Suranov's head and started the hacking process, and then the data extraction.

This data included everything Marcia would need to take over Bystryveter; and more.

It took quite a while to collect all the data, but Suranov didn't wake up in all that time, so that wasn't a problem.

"Extraction Completed, we have everything." Fuse reported.

"Including the customer data of his child trafficking ring?" Marcia asked.

"Including the customer data of his child trafficking ring." Fuse assured.

"Good. When he wakes up, you activate all the pain signals." Marcia instructed.

This instruction was one of the cruelest things that could be done to a human being; but for Marcia, this matter was more than just business; it was also personal.

"Roger." Fuse said.

Anticipating what was to come, Fuse stuffed Suranov's mouth, tied him up, and then took the necessary steps for a pain overload.

Fuse and his comrades searched the estate for survivors; if they were Kombattanten they gave them the coup de grace and if they were comrades they carried them to the helicopters.

At his speech, his comrades were battle-hungry. But now, with victory in their hands, they were far from ecstatic; having only the somber expressions of men who have been through hell.

Suranov and his daughter were left alive and taken to the helicopters, more precisely to Fuse's helicopter, but since Fuse was wounded, someone else flew.

For the few helicopters that had no pilot left, they made an exception and let the autopilot fly without supervision.

At the sight of the blazing flames engulfing the estate, the exhaustion of battle set in; the wind cooling his sweat.

Fuse would keep his fallen comrades in his heart; that was his duty as the squad leader.

After a few minutes of flight and a considerable altitude, it was now time to check off the last item of the operation.

Fuse threw the witnesses out of the helicopter; in such a situation, Fuse could only wonder what was going through the mind of such a man in his final moments.

His daughter, perhaps?

"While fleeing a forest fire, he fell out of a helicopter...what a tragedy." Marcia spoke.

She pulled out her phone and called the arbiter.