____________Undisclosed Location, Mirage home base___________
“So, anything interesting?”
A female voice, recognizable as Cam’s was speaking as the camera was focused on a terminal screen that displayed on-going processing. From the angle, it was obvious that it was her who held the recording device.
“This is actually quite strange.”
The young man, Rolf replied as he quickly scanned through the documentary contents of the chips they’ve snatched from the Department man’s house.
“I don’t see anything other than files of children—whoa. Hey, hey, hey. What do we have here?”
He grinned as he found something obviously important but the smile faded as seconds passed reading the material.
“Cam, get Boomer.”
The brunette leaned closer, attempting to see what was on the younger man’s screen.
“What?! What is it?”
“Just get Boomer!”
Everyone was seated in the mismatched seats in the room. They were obviously scavenged from different houses, but they looked cosy together. The room appeared old and dilapidated, but has the sense of being well cared for.
“There were kids.”
Rolf sat on one side and shock had taken his usually carefree attitude. Everyone was looking seriously at him, waiting for more words.
“They were taking kids. Little ones, barely old enough to understand. They take them away from their families. And it says that it was a priority to keep their existence a secret. There something else. They keep saying things about laboratories and such. I don’t like this.”
He looked up and turned until his eyes met those of Boomer’s, his gaze reflecting his horror.
“I don’t like this. You say I watch too many old Earth holo vids, but kidnapped children and experimentation in laboratories in a single document never means well, man. I tell you. I really don’t like this.”
Boomer, unlike his usual exuberant behavior, looked every bit the leader he wished to emulate and he shifted his gaze to each of his extended family and returned it to rest on Rolf.
“What do you think we can do?”
There were lists of attending scientists and their station laboratories among the files. Rolf threw himself into gathering intel about the locations. In a matter of hours, he had all he could take about the facilities. He wanted to force Boomer to get the team to all of them, but he knew it was impossible.
Their numbers were few. If they assault one of the laboratories, it would ensure that the others would be wary of their next attack. No, they needed to find the one which they could actually conquer. Any mistake at all and the children would suffer further. In this case, rescuing a few would be preferable to none at all.
By daybreak, he broadcasted a recorded video filled with cheer he didn’t feel as he announced in their channel that they would be making a move soon. He tried for misdirection by saying that they would intercept an incoming shipment of weapons supplying armed forces in one of the Driven’s favorite targets.
Everyone were sober as they prepared for the operation. It was in moments like this that they felt that they were on the right track to help the citizens. In three solar days, they would assault one of the laboratories that had a longer list of test subjects. Hopefully, they would be able to take the children out of that facility. They must not fail.
___________Primitive Jungle near Restricted Sector 19________
“Cam, still alive?”
Cam, who was hunched over the banks of the Traverse River 27C, raised a shaky middle finger behind her without turning to see who spoke. She had been sick for the past two hours that they spent on their transport as it bobbed along the churning liquids of the river. EJ stood beside her, carrying both their packs.
Armed to the teeth, they made their way into the dense, primitive jungle that was all that was the result of the Department’s attempt to re-create old Earth foliage in the natural Mars environment.
“Here,” Boomer said as he handed her a tumbler. “This might help.”
Cam rinsed her mouth with the water and took a few drinks.
“Thank you,” she said as she tightened the lid on the tumbler and giving it back to their leader. She stood, wobbling slightly and got away from the riverbanks.
“Is it always like this?”
Sissy Mae asked as she stepped closer to her cousin watching the other woman.
“Not always, but sometimes. We do what we have to do.”
Cam looked up frowning at the younger members of their team. They looked excited but she thought they should have stayed home. She had asked Boomer if they could, but they cannot. The truth was they all have specialized skills and leaving even one of the team would screw up their efficiency. So in missions like these, they needed people they can trust to fill in the gaps. No matter if they have only been with Mirage for a short time.
“Well, let’s do this.”
After an hour hiking in the dense foliage, Rolf called out, informing them of movement ahead. They got into position and dispersed. They need to dispense of outside guards before they could enter the facility.
Cam nodded at Pup who grinned at her before he rushed ahead. She directed her attention to the guard that caught her sight. This was her chance.
Moving in closer, she crept until she was almost on top of him before she touched her gun. Cam frowned when the man stopped and turned to the tree beside him. She heard rather than seen that he had chosen that moment to urinate. It would have been funny if she wasn’t so tense. Slipping out of the bush she was hiding in, she stopped just behind him and cracked him at the back of his skull with all her strength. She had to save bullets when she can. Because they weren’t meant to kill, the Mirage’s ammo can be expensive to have manufactured.
One by one the members checked in their comms. They’ve all downed their assigned targets and are arriving at their entry point.
Cam crouched outside the facility and she had to admit, the thing was well hidden. The foliage was placed as to block the structure from view and since it was in the middle of one of the wild jungles on the planet, it wasn’t likely that civilians would just wander in by chance. She crept towards Rolf who was fiddling with a microterminal that he carried around when on field. Something flashed green on his screen and he looked up excitedly.
“All cameras down. I’ll unlock the first door the second you get there. I’ll be out here to monitor progress.” He directed as he handed a transmitter to Kitten with instructions to hook it up in a terminal inside. Cam could feel the tension in her friends as they ran to the metal doors. This would be the first time they would attempt to attack and leave with people afterwards. They’re raiders, not rescuers… usually. But those kids inside, if they were really there, would need to be taken out, no matter what.
They waited as the oldest members slipped through the doors first. With a gruff order from the usually cheerful Boomer, they waited outside. Something had gone wrong. Pup, Kit and Sissy Mae exchanged confused glances with her, their weapons raised, on the ready.
“Whatever, I’m going in.”
Cam muttered as she hurried inside. She felt uneasy about the whole thing. And she knew she was right when the scent of filth and death greeted them. In a world of automated sterilizers, only the worst scenarios could end with such fumes. The stench filled the hallway and seeing an opened panel door at the end, she jogged to it. She heard the others following her, but the thought that she should order them back out was lost when she was choked with the concentrated smell assaulted her nose. The sight wasn’t any better.
She willed her feet to take further steps. There were rows upon rows of cages along the wall of what they can now see as a warehouse. In it were tiny bodies, starvation-thin and very much dead. Cam fell to her knees at the sight of a little girl with pretty golden hair. She lain by her side near the bars, one tiny hand fisted around the metal as if she had died trying to get out. Her pallid coloring was mottled with what could only be rotting flesh. Cam slapped a hand to her mouth as her stomach heaved from the sight. They were too late.
“They left them,” she whispered, but the hollow echo was heard by all her friends. “They just left them to die.”
She stood up on shaky legs and approached another cage where a light-haired boy’s body curled up in the front corner. Cam gasped as she grabbed the bars, her other hand grappling with the laser cutter clipped to her pack. “He’s alive!”
The group was there as she finished cutting the lock mechanism. They opened the door and she slipped inside, grabbing the body up to her. She didn’t care that he was soiled and filthy. She dug her face to the little boy’s hair. “You’re going to be alright.”
“This one moved too!”
Sissy Mae squeaked as EJ opened the cage she was pointing out. A little girl with ebony dark hair was inside, EJ carried her out. Boomer looked grim as he commanded everyone to check if any of the others survived. When they were sure that no one else lived, they went out and Boomer blasted the facility down.
The boy in her arms whimpered at the sound, but Cam held him close, telling him over and over that he was now safe and that everything will be alright. She could hear EJ praying over the girl he held. She wasn’t as much of a believer in the greater powers as the cousins were but at the moment, she thanked whoever was listening for letting them at least save the two children and she prayed that the others found their peace.
On their way out, a small contingent of what she recognized as the Department’s special forces was coming into the location. Boomer was quick to engage a smokescreen that allowed them a quick exit. Despite the speed of their departure, Cam was able to recognize familiar bright hair under the protective gear that turned the person the same as the rest of the armed troop.
Hanging onto calm for the sake of the barely breathing child in her arms, she opened her personal transmitter and sent a message to an ID that she hadn’t contacted in a long while. “Get in that building and see what they were doing, sister. See what I fight, what you protect.”
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