Escape
Trapped

CHAPTER 3:

TRAPPED

As Peregrine zoomed over lands thatonce used to be countries, images of the destroyed nations are flashed on tothe hologram screen in the plane. The whole of Africa, Middle-East, SouthernChina, and India were naught but ruins. Melancholy flashed across Kanith's facewhen he looked at the screen and saw his homeland - now filled with only deathand destruction.

"So, Capt said that Japan isone of the countries that managed to successfully create Beasts, right? Youthink our troops could win?" Artemus attempted to cheer Kanith up byinitiating a little chatting. Bio-engineered beasts or simply Beasts for short,were a technological advancement that succeeded in around the Year 2112.Military scientists successfully engineered breeds of monsters and beasts forwarfare that were controllable by computer chips embedded in their nervoussystem. England had failed to make this advancement as compared to countrieslike Japan and Russia, but were able to engineer much more advanced weaponryfor human warfare.

"I don't think it's them youshould worry about. You'll encounter them in the base too, y'know." Lingremarked snidely.

"We'll encounter them.We're gonna work together. With or without you." Artemus retorted. Ornelasheard the exchange and came over to break things up before it gets heated. Hemade sure Viper understood to work together and warned Ling against moreunpleasant comments.

Peregrine closed in on the seas ofJapan and Jayce was re-checking his equipment. Ling pulled Rissa to a cornerand started whispering.

"We're going to war. We need toknow who we can trust and rely on. How much do you think we can trust anex-convict?" Ling mumbled while staring at Jayce cynically. Rissa shookher shoulders before Ornelas signaled for them to start gearing up.

Ornelas gathered Viper, who were allgeared up. Infiltration Infantry had a different set of armor as compared toregular infantry. They had much lighter armor, and thus less defense as itcontained lesser armor plates to ease movements. Boots had also no armor platesat all, but in return was almost completely silent. Laser rifles weresubstituted for laser pistols and snipers which were much more lightweight butcarried lesser damage. Also instead of helmets, they wore military shades whichhad same functions as a helmet, but once again had lesser defense.

"Nobody likes repeatedbriefing, but I'll do it again. Remember. Our objective is to infiltrate andgain information based on what the Japan Military had been working on and whatother plans they have. Their Beasts broke free before they could embed thecomputer chips and tore up the place. Which means hey never had the chance toclear the data there. We need to get in, get it, get out. Understood?"Ornelas briefed in a loud tone.

"Yes sir!" Viper shoutedin unison.

Peregrine was now crossing theborder into Japan and stealth mode was engaged. Retro-reflective panels turnedon and engines turned silent. Viper equipped their mechanical wings and stoodby the cargo door readied. It was late into the night at 1am. The skies weredark and perfect for stealth infiltration.

Before leading the jump, Ornelassignaled to the rest of the team. Five Four. Three. Two. One. And he leapt offthe plane. Viper followed suit and jumped off the Peregrine one by one andexpanded their wings. They started to glide down while Peregrine's autopilotled it to land in the vicinity, for escape purposes.

Viper followed the lead of Ornelasand they managed to glide and land safely just outside the gates of themilitary base. They abandoned their wings and sneaked towards the side gates.

"Fox, you're up. Do a briefrecon of the gates." Ornelas whispered in the radio chat.

Rissa, donned in what Viper calledthe "black mamba" suit, crept across the field. The Black Mamba suitwas basically the regular armor suit, but with all armor parts and equipmentdetached. Entirely black, skin-tight and weightless. It was perfect forcamouflage in the dead of night. After several minutes, Rissa slithered back.

"All clear, Viper." Shestated.

"Head for the gates."Ornelas ordered. The team sneaked over to the gates where it was locked with avirtual encryption. Jayce pulled out his decryptor and attached it to the lock.Numbers and symbols popped up on the screen in random orders and patterns whilethe rest of Viper were confused. After mere seconds of fast finger movement andbutton typing the screen showed:

-UNLOCKED -

Ling was reluctantly impressed whilethe rest whispered "Good job" in the radio chat. Ornelas opened the gatecarefully and led the team in. Jayce popped the same magic on the base's maindoor and it slid open loudly. Viper froze and looked at each other, awaitingorders from Ornelas.

They waited silently for a fewmoments and made sure that none of the Beasts heard it. They successfullyentered the military base. However as soon as they entered, the door slammedshut behind them loudly. As soon as that happened, they heard a cry. Ascreeching, eerie cry that was recognized immediately by Ornelas.

"That. That was aBanshee." he explained. Banshees were a highly feared breed of the Beaststhat caused terror just by its signature cry alone. It was known to possesstentacle-like hair all over its head and yet looked very much humanoid exceptfor black spikes all over its overly-slim body. They were capable of crawlingat speeds beyond human capability and could take down a human before beingnoticed. Despite its size, it had known to be strong enough to overpower eventhe bulkiest human and had razor fangs that injected deadly venom oncepunctured.

As Ling and Rissa trembled, Ornelasgestured for Jayce to try for reopening the door. However before Jayce couldmove, the door's lock system self-destructed, turning the door into animmovable, 100-ton metal junk. This time, the self-destruct noise alerted muchmore Beasts. A mix of cries echoed across the hallway and it struck fear intothe hearts of Viper. Intelligence had suggested that this was a top-secretmilitary base and thus had only one door in and out. They were trapped.

Jayce gripped Rissa's arm, steadyingher emotions while Ling was left alone.

"Don't despair. There has to beanother way out. Focus on the mission first."

Ornelas decided to split up the teamfor the upcoming fork in the hallway. Artemus, Ling and Kanith went down theleft while Jayce, Ornelas and Rissa went down the right.

"Keep in touch with the radiochat," reminded Ornelas. Each group made their way down gradually anddiscreetly as they entered a different room.

Jayce, Ornelas and Rissa stopped bya corner before the path turns down into the room. Jayce sneaks a small tube onthe floor around the corner, which then transfers the vision picked up by thetube to the glasses of the trio. A huge, scaly, muscular monstrosity with longblack claws filled with poison was lurking around in the room filled with allsorts of equipment, gadgets and weaponry.

"That's a Bulk. We have a Bulkover in our room over here. Artemus, how is your group doing over there?"Ornelas whispered into the radio chat.

"We've found the data room,Sir." Arty replied. However before Ornelas could show signs of content, hewent on to the burst the bubble. "It's crawling with Reapers, Sir. And acouple of Bulks."

Reapers. Huge, wasp-like monsterswith venom deadlier than that of any other Beast. Fortunately it moves slow andis easy to kill but was still as treacherous as any other Beast. Artemus hadminiature microwave bombs which could take out all the Reapers at once butBulks would take more than that. Also, a bomb's noise would set off the Bulksin the Weapon Room. Viper stayed still while they tried to devise a plan, butJayce had already plotted it out.

"Listen to me guys. I've got aplan."

ENDOF CHAPTER 3