Thu Apr 14, 2011 2:30 am by EagleRock
Back in the Barracks
by EagleRock
Chapter 10 - Infiltration
2048 hours, Golf Squad
EGSC aldlv thought to himself before his EGB Hummer approached the abandoned warehouse.
Man, this place is deserted tonight. I didn't realize that the General district had such an early curfew. I guess when you have crime as high in this area as Camden, New Jersey, people lock in tight around sundown. The warehouse was a few blocks away, so it wouldn't be long before we were able to start our base establishment. However, I didn't realize exactly how empty the streets were at this time. I wasn't too keen about pulling the Hummer right in front just like they do in the movies. Who the hell always gets a spot right in front of where you're going, anyway? Well, I guess we were, tonight. Even still, I wasn't going to be so stupid as to telegraph our location by sticking a big flashy camo Hummer right in front. Time to shift the plan a bit.
-----
Once we reached the 2800-block of Fulp Boulevard, I pulled into a dark alleyway about a block away from the warehouse.
SFC Calipe gave me a puzzled look. “Sir, this isn't the warehouse, is it?”
“Nope. I didn't exactly want leave a conspicuous Hummer in the front while we just browsed around to see what was there. This is supposed to be covert, remember?”
“Good point, sir. So what's the plan?”
“Well, we'll sneak in through a side entrance and snoop around for a bit to make sure everything is okay. We'll use nightvision goggles to keep it inconspicuous for now. Once we're sure the place is clear, we'll open warehouse doors and bring the Hummer in to start setting up base. Got it?”
“Got it,” replied Master Sergeant Marsupial. “We'll follow your lead, sir.”
“Okay, move out.” We exited the Hummer and locked up. Keeping to the shadows, we quickly and quietly shuffled down the street. The lack of proper street lights were a welcome treat. After about two minutes, we came upon the warehouse on our right. It had large alleyways to either side, which were well lit, unfortunately. It did, however, help us spot a door on the right side of the building, which looked easy to enter. Following my hand motions, the two Sergeants stayed in close proximity to me as we rushed to enter the door. It was unlocked.
Once we got inside and shut the door, it was pitch-black. “Okay, nightvision on,” I whispered. The three of us switched on. Initial appearance showed a rather large main room to the warehouse, which looked relatively empty to me. It looked like it was in disarray, but was nothing out of the ordinary. There was a decently-large clear area by the main doors, which was perfect for a waiting Hummer to park. “Stay in close formation,” I whispered again. “I want this place searched from head-to-toe before we start.”
“Roger that,” I heard from two waiting Sergeants behind me. We quietly crept along the main floor of the warehouse, searching around the high storage racks that looked to have held many items before we entered for any signs of life. We made our way to the rear of the building, where the foreman's office oversaw the warehouse floor, plus additional stairs up to the office area above the main floor. We climbed the stairs up to the railing that ran in front of the floor offices. We used the vantage point to get a quick survey of the area.
Just as I was about to enter the Foreman's office, Calipe tapped me on the shoulder. “Sir...something's bothering me.”
“What is it, Sergeant? Everything seems fine to me.”
“Remember the briefing, though? SC EagleRock said this warehouse was full of stolen flash, right?”
“Right...”
“It looks pretty empty to me now.” I looked out to the main floor again. Sure enough, there were shelves and shelves meant for many full pallets, but most appeared empty. Not only that, but the remnants that scattered the floor was very suspicious.
“Shit, I think you're right. They were here earlier.”
“But sir,” said Marsupial, “That doesn't make sense. How could they move that much stolen Flash out of here in broad daylight?”
“I'm not sure, Sergeant. What's bothering me more is that if they were here before, they could be--”
All of a sudden, all of the lights in the building flashed on. With my nightvision goggles on, the bright lights overhead and coming from the Foreman's Office blinded me. As I clamped my eyelids shut from the pain, I scrambled to pull off my goggles. After the second or two I was disoriented, it'd be my shock to see the three of us surrounded by half a dozen armored men. There wasn't much we could do. We dropped our guns.
One of the gunners picked up my rifle and laughed. “Nice piece of hardware, there. Always good to have a stupid Officer fortify the troops.” He looked at the guy behind him. “Get OrangeBeef down here, he'd love to see this.”
“You got it.” The guy headed up the stairs.
The leader looked back at us. “As for you three, let's get you comfortable until we figure out what to do with you.”
That's when it all went black.
-----
2119 hours
Staff Sergeant phantomlassuk was just returning to the Barracks Headquarters.
I was just getting back that night from the prison. I had hurried back after checking up on SevenStar, since I knew the Barracks was on skeleton staff tonight. I knew my presence would be appreciated. Good thing. It was a nice change-up from not being appreciated at all.
If there was one thing that I noticed about being in this place, it was that your image was vital to being respected. And by 'image,' I mean every little thing about you. It wasn't good enough to be the best B/Per, or to know where to find stolen Flash. You had to be right about everything you did. If not, people would trash you for it. I've had to deal with that ever since I came here, and especially since I became Portal Violations Officer. While I wouldn't call myself the perfect Elite Guard, I had my strengths. I was particularly good at dealing with malicious content on Newgrounds, and did best in protecting the Portal in that manner. SlashFirestorm saw me fit to fulfill the officer position I do now, and it was great.
However, my weakness was apparent: I didn't have the best grasp on the English language. While my gun nor my whistle were no less accurate than anyone else's, it was important to my image. In fact, the way you speak is a big deal in this stupid city. Even fellow Barracks members trash me for it. Why? I have proven myself worthy of being in this Barrack just like everyone else. Slash would not have put me here if I wasn't worthy. Not only that, if I was so unworthy, why the hell was I in an officer position? Seriously. Everyone paid their just desserts to be here, why should I be any different?
It was nice at least to be taken seriously when asked to investigate SevenStar's situation. Since he was in jail for so long because of his stint with child pornography, it didn't make sense he was out in public able to write letters and invite people wherever he wanted. Sure enough, when I got to the prison, SevenStar was there, in solitary, just as usual. I was cleared to visit him in his cell, where I found a man that was quite delirious and looked to have really taken being in solitary badly. He sure as hell was off the deep end. To think he was in charge of some mastermind plot was ridiculous. Obviously the SevenStar that signed that letter was a fake. Now it was time to get inside and see how the mission was going.
-----
When I walked inside, I immediately headed upstairs towards the War Room. When I entered, I found Lizzardis at the Communications Desk, with Slash and Coop sitting at the round table, talking over a map of Newgrounds. I saluted towards the two Supreme Commanders, both of whom stood up and saluted me back.
“Sirs,” I said, as I approached the table. “I have a report back from SevenStar.”
“Good,” said Slash. “Sit down and give us a report.”
I sat down at the table opposite the two. Lizzardis just waved at me quick before he put his hand back to his headset. “Well, I confirmed he's still there. Hasn't left the cell since the day he got there.”
“Hmm,” said Coop. “Hasn't left the cell at all?”
“Nope. He was placed into solitary confinement because of the large amount of charges on him, as well as their nature. He's not allowed to leave his cell.”
Slash asked, “And the records support this?”
“Absolutely, sir. I asked to check the logs, and sure enough, he was accounted for every single day since he got there.”
“Interesting,” thought Slash as he looked up at the ceiling.
Coop was in deep thought as well. “Yeah, but we all know it's not impossible for someone to run a whole crime syndicate from behind bars. How do we know he wasn't working with someone from the outside?”
“Solitary took care of that, sir. Speaking to other people at all is quite a luxury for him. As a matter of fact, every single visit he's had has been law enforcement related.”
“That's still kinda fishy,” said Coop83. “We can't assume nobody was working from inside our ranks, after all.”
“Yes, sir, but I checked that as well. The last visit he had was over eight months ago. Even if someone did sneak in to do some business, it was too long ago. And besides, when I went to see him, he didn't look too good in the head. I couldn't even get a coherent sentence out of him.”
SlashFirestorm sat back in his chair. “Okay, so we rule the real SevenStar out. Therefore, whoever signed that letter is a new SevenStar.”
“New leader for the new Star Syndicate. Makes sense.” Coop nodded lightly as he thought it over.
“Let's just hope we get some clues tonight,” I said afterward. “Speaking of that, how is the mission going so far?”
“So far, so good,” said Slash. “Not too much talk back to base at all, though. Lizz has been getting status updates every hour. So far, only Eagle's group has anything. Has some kind of a lead on a Kitty Krew hideout. He's on the way over there now, so we'll get some word on that soon, I'm sure.”
“Sounds good, sirs. Sounds like we just need to keep our wits about us for when the action strikes.”
Lizz spoke up. “I'll tell you what I need. I need someone to relieve me here so I can go use the little boys room...”
----
2139 hours, Alpha Squad
Fro sat in the back of the armored EGB Hummer as they approached their destination.
“So,” I said, “you think that kid's tip is going to pay off, Eagle?”
“Oh yeah,” he said, as he sat head-back in his seat. “He wouldn't have lied to me after that scare.”
“Scare? You nearly killed him!”
“Pfft. I roughed him up a bit. Anyone that young and so eager to defy authority is going down the wrong path. Both you and I know that the KK got to him, and it would take a good kick to get him away.”
“Well...yeah...I guess so, but...”
“Let me ask you this, Fro.” He turned around again to look at me. “Back before you got in the groups you did, would you have appreciated someone slapping you around and keeping you away, or would you have rather gone through what you did?”
I paused for a second. “He's got a point,” Byte said, not taking her eyes off the road. “Excessive, but effective. Wouldn't be surprised if that kid was an Elite Guard in three years.”
“Yeah, well,” said Eagle, “at any rate, let's discuss a battle plan here. This hideout is above a bar, so it's not going to be huge. Also, it's bound to be defended. Make sure you're ready to shoot to kill, you two. These groups are getting vicious, and they won't stop at hurting you.”
“So I've heard,” I replied. “Cobra's stories were electrifying that night Coop sent him out alone.”
“Yep. I also have a pretty bad name out here for playing the good guy. Every damn malicious Flash that enters the Portal seems to come after me these days.”
“Well,” said Byte, “good thing we brought tons of blammunition, then.” Her driving speed started to slow down, as we seemed to approach the hideout.
“There' s a good place to park, Byte,” Eagle said as he pointed to an alleyway right next to the location. She crept the Hummer to a halt. “Guns at the ready, under your cloaks,” he continued. “Who knows who might start shooting the second we walk in the door. I haven't been in this bar, so I don't really know how loud it is. We might stick out like sore thumbs in there.” Both Byte and I nodded.
Eagle ticked on his radio to headquarters. “Alpha to Nest, come in, over.”
“Nest to Alpha, we have you, Eagle, over.”
“We've reached the hideout, and were going in. Expect resistance. We'll provide updates when we can, but it could get hairy, over.”
“Acknowledged. If we don't hear from you in 15 minutes, we'll send backup, over.”
“Roger that, Nest, over and out.” He clicked open the passenger door. “Move out.”
We got out of the Hummer and strolled up to the bar. When we entered, it was luckily a lively place. Many people laughing and getting drunk certainly made it easier to fall into the background. With huge rifles under our overcoats, three of us standing in the middle of an empty room would have been good cover for about 10 seconds. We cased the place for exits quickly as we made our way around the bar. Two exits were evident, including the one we came in. What interested us more, however, was getting upstairs. Conveniently for the Kitty Krew, the door heading upstairs was right next to the bar where the staff could easily see the door. Not-so-conveniently for us, there would be no way getting up there without being seen.
Surprisingly, it didn't seem to concern EagleRock at all. Once he was done sufficiently casing the bar, he just slowly strolled up to the doorway and looked right at the bartender. When he looked back, EagleRock gave him a silent nod. The bartender, after quickly glancing at the three of us, nodded back and shrugged his head in the direction upstairs. Eagle opened the door and we proceeded inside.
Once the door was shut, we were at the foot of the stairs that lead to the area. We grabbed our guns and locked-and-loaded. As we did, I whispered to Eagle, “You know that guy or something?”
“Nope. He was just an idiot. We just looked the part. Remember, they'll have guns, and they'll use 'em. Move out.” We trotted up the stairs, guns at the ready. The upstairs landing was pretty empty, save a door that appeared to lead to a larger room. We rounded the corner around the stair railing and stood at the door. EagleRock carefully opened it and entered, with the two of us in close formation.
The room was a fair size, and looked like a fair sized meeting hall. This place full could easily hold 50 people. It looked rather sparse, though, with only a few rows of chairs, and two desks at the far end of the room. There was also a TV flickering in the darkness, being watched by two people sitting next to one of the desks.
“Hey, what the fuck?” One of the two grabbed a pistol on the desk. EagleRock quickly squeezed two rounds into his leg, forcing him down to the ground. The other guy just jumped and raised his hands in the air.
Eagle swiftly strode towards him, rifle expertly trained on the bridge of the person's nose. Byte and I quickly followed towards the two people. I took particular attention to the gunman on the ground, wincing at the pain from his shot-up legs. I wasn't falling for it. His pistol was just a bit too close to him for us to forget about him.
"Evening, folks," quipped EagleRock as he motioned for the two men to get on the ground. They sorely complied as I took the pistol on the ground and quickly disarmed it. As Byte and Eagle proceeded to handcuff the two people, I also confiscated an automatic rifle that was propped up next to the television. "Thanks for trying to shoot at us, by the way. Probable cause won't be too hard to prove."
"You're a dead man, EagleRock," said the bleeding gunman. "We know all about you now, and your days are numbered."
"Glad to hear it," Eagle responded, looking unfazed. "I'm tired of fighting oblivious morons, anyway. Speaking of oblivious morons, you might have had a chance to squeeze off one or two shots if you were paying attention to the door rather than watching American Idol."
"I told you to keep the TV off, you moron," said the gunman to his fellow captive.
"Shut up, asshole," was the response. "OrangeBeef will have both of our heads anyway, so what do you care?"
"All right, all right," interrupted ByteSlinger. "As much as I love to hear two men coo to each other, you can save this conversation for your cell. You'll need something to pass the time, anyway."
"Fro," said EagleRock, "search them." I frisked them quickly, only to find two wallets. The amount of cash in them was negligible. There wasn't any form of ID in them, either.
"Clean," I said. "No evidence."
"Don't worry," Eagle responded, "we'll make them talk. Let's search around for a bit before we take the two lovebirds downstairs."
It didn't take long to learn there wasn't much to search. The room was as bare as it could be, save for the two desks. They were obviously emptied, leaving not even a pen cap behind. The layout of the chairs was an obvious tell that this place was meant for recruitment, but as the kid said before, but they knew we were coming.
"There's obviously nothing here, sir," I said after we fruitlessly searched for over 5 minutes. EagleRock stared noiseless at the desks for a few seconds before he kicked an open drawer from one of the desks. The drawer splintered into pieces. He quickly removed the pieces and searched behind the drawer.
"Search the other desk," he stated to me. "They're bound to have missed something behind one of the drawers." I started to dismantle the other desk. There was a lot of dirt and grease behind the bottom drawer, but no clues. The top drawer, however, was more useful. Once I pulled it off the track, I noticed a folded-up piece of paper that was lost behind the back of the drawer.
"I found something, sir!" I peeled it off the gunk it was stuck to and quickly unfolded it. It was a piece of paper writted in some cipher. I handed it to Eagle.
"Ah, very good, Fro. It's a start." Now let's get the canaries into police custody where they can start to sing."
"You're not gonna--"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Eagle said dismissively, as he interrupted the one guy from repsonding. "I've heard it all before. Don't worry, we'll torture you regardless. Now get your ass up." We pulled the two of them up and started them walking downstairs. The one that took the two bullets was having a hard time of it, but he managed.
Once we got down to the foot of the stairs, it dawned on me that it was going to be difficult getting out the front door with two Kitty Krew soldiers in our custody. "I hope you have a plan for getting out of this, sir," I said.
"Sure I do," he replied. "Watch this." Once he reached the foot of the stairs, he kicked the door to make it fall off its hinge. I noticed he liked kicking stuff. The din from the bar quickly shut up as EagleRock proudly raised his rifle in the air.
"Hey! What's the meaning of this?" yelled the bartender. Eagle pointed his gun at him before any form of retalliation could occur.
"Litterbugs. We've been watching them for a while and got evidence on them." He displayed the scrap of paper he found. "Let's hope I don't find any more littering around here, otherwise we'll do more damage than a few leg wounds."
The bartender wasn't so stupid after all...he got the drift. Fuming, he stayed in place and said nothing as the three of us left the bar. Fortunately for us, nobody else in the bar seemed to care. We left the bar as if we owned the place.
Once we were outside, Byte questioned Eagle, "Sir, shouldn't we check in now?"
"Just getting to it. We need to get our friends over to the NGPD, too." He switched on his radio. "Alpha to Nest, come in, over."
Lizzardis responded, "Nest to Alpha, we're here. Way to check in at the last second there, Eagle, over."
"Har har, Praporshchik. We have two KK members in custody. We need to bring them in. Any chance at getting an NGPD car over here, over?"
"Don't think so, sir. We might need to hold them over at the Barracks for now. You know well that the NGPD doesn't tread over there, over."
"Good point. Well, we have leads to go on for now, so I have no objection returning. Any action nearby? Over."
"No sir. Everything's been quiet. Especially Golf Squad, over."
Eagle's brow furled. "What do you mean? Over."
"Well, they haven't even bothered checking in since 2030 hours, sir. Over."
Eagle paused a second. "And you're not doing anything about it?? Alpha to Golf, come in! Come in Golf!" No response.
Lizzardis was silent from that point. I think he realized what happened. Eagle broadcasted to the Barracks, "Attention all Soldiers, this is EagleRock. We have a problem here."
End of Chapter 10