Red to Fade (18 page)

As the RBMs drive down the road that leads to the file hive buildings soldiers on the watchtowers and the ground are firing at the RBMs with their machine guns. The agents are firing back at the soldiers with their assault rifles, machine gun/grenade launchers and RBM mini guns. Soldiers are getting eliminated by shots left, right and centre. Lights on the watchtowers are being blown to pieces. Firearm projectiles are hitting the burning buildings. Grenade shells fired by agents are exploding beside soldiers, killing them instantly, and are also exploding when they hit the watchtowers and burning buildings.

Joel orders, “Victor, Deacon, take out those watchtowers.”

Victor and Deacon respond at the same time, “Yes, sir!”

The Windjets open fire on the watchtowers with machine guns and rockets. Some of the leg-stands of the watchtowers are blown to pieces, toppling them onto the road leading to the file hive buildings.

*

Lanken, Connor, Gabrielle, Dylan, Gragon, Tizer and all of the rest of the soldiers who were inside the file hive building are now at the barrier of RBMs that's in front of the file hive buildings.

Through his binoculars Lanken sees the RBMs and the agents inside them opening fire at the soldiers.

Connor grabs the binoculars and says, “Let me see.”

Connor sees the RBMs and agents firing at soldiers; he also sees that the RBMs containing armed agents are driving towards the file hive buildings.

Connor says, “Lanken, don't wait for these RBMs to come up here; you need to go down there and stop them.”

Lanken says to himself,
Connor's right
. He tells everyone at the barrier that firing bullets at the windscreen of the RBM's will make it difficult for the driver to see where to go and the best way to destroy an RBM is with a grenade round. He also commanded soldiers to take four RBMs and stop Joel and his crew in the middle of the road before they get close to the file hive buildings. Tizer, Connor and two other soldiers get into one of the four RBMs, which are loaded with soldiers.

The four RBMs accelerate fast, side by side, and are heading towards to Joel and his posse. The soldiers open fire on Joel and his crew with the mini guns of the RBMs. Connor and some of the soldiers wind down the windows of the RBMs, aim their machine guns out of the windows and open fire at Joel and his posse. Joel and his posse return fire trying to hit the soldiers aiming weapons out of the windows.

As the agents and soldiers fire on one another with their weapons, the small metallic missiles give off small sparks as they bounce off the RBMs, and create discharges of broken material as they hit the road. The agents and soldiers are also firing grenade shells at one another with machine gun/grenade launchers. The grenade shells blow up on the ground close to the RBMs. Connor takes out one of the agents' RBMs with a grenade shell.
KABOOM!
The RBM explodes into kindling. The agents and soldiers driving towards each other in the RBMs are getting close to one another now. They have to put the brakes on or swerve past each other to avoid crashing into each other. An RBM loaded with soldiers crashes into an RBM loaded with agents. The rest of the RBMs swerve past each other. The remaining soldiers driving the RBMs apply the brakes, turn around and continue to pursue Joel and his crew.

Joel and his crew open fire on the RBM barrier that's in front of the file hive building.

Lanken shouts, “Open fire!”

Everyone at the barrier opens fire with their weapons at Joel and his crew. Soldiers in RBMs who are chasing after Joel also open fire.

*

Joel speaks into the Sound Comm and says, “Victor, take out the guys who are chasing after us. Deacon, blow up this roadblock of RBMs that's in front of the file hive buildings.”

Deacon and Victor respond, “Yes, sir!”

Deacon fires rockets and gun shells at the RBM barrier.
KABOOM!
The rockets explode, making soldiers and RBMs go flying through the air. There is no longer a barrier in front of the file hive building. Joel and his men drive past the area where the RBM barrier used to be. Six RBMs loaded with agents smash through the ground floor windows of the file hive building. Two agents driving two different RBMs swerve and make a hard right, and the agents in the remaining four RBMs swerve and make a hard left.

There is now an RBM barrier inside the concrete file hive building. Some soldiers are still alive following the explosion. Victor chases after the RBMs who are chasing Joel and his men. Victor opens fire on the RBMs with rockets and machine guns.
BOOM! BOOM!
Victor blows two RBMs into pieces.
BOOM!
Victor blows a wheel off of the third RBM with a rocket, making the RBM slide on its side.

Victor is being fired upon by soldiers in the watchtowers. Victor is out of rockets. He makes the Windjet hover in the one spot and shoot at soldiers in the watchtowers with machine guns. Soldiers in the watchtowers on both sides of the road are getting hit and killed. Some dead soldiers are falling out of the watchtowers.

*

Inside the RBM that got its wheel blown off by a Windjet, Connor says, “Tizer? Guys, is anybody conscious?”

Nobody responds. Connor thinks that everyone in the RBM is either dead or unconscious. He decides to get out of the RBM as quickly as possible as he thinks that the Windjet could be coming back to finish him off. Connor climbs out of the RBM, which is lying on its side, and sees the Windjet opening fire on a watchtower. Connor fires bullets with his machine gun/grenade launcher at the Windjet.

The Windjet gradually turns around. Connor knows that if the Windjet gets a lock on him he's dead. Connor fires a grenade shell at one of the afterburners of the Windjet.
BOOM!
The afterburner explodes into small bits. The explosion makes the piloting system of the Windjet malfunction. Victor has no control over the Windjet anymore.

The Windjet is heading straight for the ground. Victor is scared shitless; he sees from the cockpit window that the Windjet is going to hit the ground.

Victor shouts, “
Noooooo!
”

KABOOM!
The Windjet hits the ground in a nosedive and blows into pieces. Soldiers on the ground near the RBM barrier explosion open fire on the last remaining Windjet. The Windjet returns fire on the soldiers with rockets and machine guns. Gragon, who was forced to the ground along with some other soldiers after the explosion at the RBM barrier, sees Gabrielle lying on the ground. Gabrielle is unconscious. Gragon sees the Windjet firing on soldiers.

Gragon grabs a machine gun/grenade launcher that's lying on the ground, aims at the Windjet and fires a grenade shell.
KABOOM!
The Windjet explodes into little fragments. There are some damaged, fiery, smoky RBMs remaining after the RBM barrier explosion. Some soldiers are hiding behind them for cover. Gabrielle starts to regain consciousness. Gragon sees Dylan and Lanken using a damaged RBM for cover, grabs Gabrielle and both of them run for cover. Gragon, Dylan, Lanken and Gabrielle are now using a damaged RBM for cover.

*

Joel has ordered all of his agents to stay by the RBMs and kill anyone who tries to get inside the file hive building. He then orders Edmund and Johnson to follow him. Joel, Edmund and Johnson are armed with assault rifles.

Edmund and Johnson are also carrying Balaxian laptops in backpacks. Joel runs down a hallway that leads to the back entrance of the concrete file hive building. Edmund and Johnson follow. Moments later, Joel, Edmund and Johnson are at the back entrance of the building. The back entrance of the concrete file hive building has glass doors and windows. There are concrete pillars at a distance behind the doors and windows of the back entrance of the concrete file hive building.

Joel sees six soldiers armed with machine guns guarding the glacitone file hive.

He orders Edmund and Johnson, “Take cover behind the concrete pillars.”

Joel, Edmund and Johnson take cover behind the pillars. Joel continues, “When I say ‘fire', I want you to open fire on those guards.”

Joel pauses for a few seconds, giving his men enough time to get ready to open fire.

Joel shouts, “Fire!”

Joel, Edmund and Johnson open fire on the guards. Edmund and Johnson might be IT geeks, but they damn sure know how to fight. The guards return fire. Ammunition destroys the glass windows and doors of the back entrance of the concrete file hive building. Ammo fired by the guards guarding the glacitone file hive create small blowouts of shattered substance as they hit the concrete pillars that Joel, Johnson and Edmund are using for cover.

Joel takes out three guards, Edmund takes out two guards and Johnson takes out one guard. Joel sees that all of the guards guarding the glacitone file hive are dead. There is glass and debris lying everywhere on the ground close to the back entrance of the concrete file hive building.

Joel says to Edmund and Johnson, “Come on, let's go.”

Joel, Edmund and Johnson go out through the back entrance of the concrete file hive building and across to the entrance door of the glacitone file hive building. Edmund opens his backpack and pulls out an access card. A while ago in the FBI building Los Angeles branch, Edmund and Johnson built and programmed an access card to open the doors of the glacitone file hive. Edmund holds the access card to the card scanner.

The first entrance door of the glacitone file hive makes a loud buzzing sound as it unlocks. The first door is now unlocked. All three of them push the door open. Joel, Edmund and Johnson run down the tunnel to the next entrance door of the glacitone file hive. Edmund holds the access card to the card scanner.

The second entrance door of the glacitone file hive makes a loud buzzing sound as it unlocks. They push the second door open and walk into the file hive. There are servers and electrical control panels everywhere. The file hive is freezing cold. The file hive has to be kept at a low temperature because the servers always have to be cold.

Near the servers are four sets of hand railings joined together like a square. The hand railings are there to prevent anyone from falling into the pit of giant electrical fans. The fans operate 24/7 to keep the glacitone file hive cool. The electrical fans are in front of the four sets of hand railings, and are on a lower level than the railings.

Edmund and Johnson run over to a server. Edmund connects the Clandarian laptop to the server with a cable. He turns on the laptop and uses software to find and download the DC file. The DC file is in the process of being downloaded onto Edmund's laptop when some soldiers charge towards to the concrete file hive building. The charging soldiers are firing their weapons at the FBI RBM barrier inside the concrete file hive building.

Bullets and grenade shells fired by the soldiers create big and small explosions of debris as they hit the walls behind the agents and the RBMs inside the ground floor of the concrete file hive building. The agents return fire with their assault rifles, machine gun/grenade launchers and the mini guns of the RBMs, riddling all soldiers who are charging towards to the concrete file hive building.

There are bullet tracers whizzing in the air from the ground floor of the concrete file hive building. From a distance Connor can see agents firing weapons. Connor says to himself,
I have to get inside that building somehow.

Connor has an idea of how to get inside the file hive building. He reloads his machine gun/grenade launcher and spots the two RBMs that crashed into each other. He sees that one RBM is loaded with agents and the other with soldiers.

Connor walks over to the RBM loaded with agents. He sees that some of the agents are dead and some are injured. He hears some agents moaning in pain. Connor opens fire on all of the agents, killing them instantly. He then walks over to the RBM loaded with soldiers. Connor is close to the driver's side of the RBM. In the RBM loaded with soldiers, one soldier is dead while the rest are injured.

Connor speaks to the injured RBM driver. “Do you have any serious wounds?”

The driver replies, “No, I'm grand.”

Connor asks, “Is this RBM still able to run?”

The injured driver replies, “Negative.”

Connor runs over to the RBM filled with dead agents. He moves a corpse out of the driver's side of the RBM and gets inside. The RBM is still running. Connor gets one of the time bombs from his inside jacket pocket. He sets the time bomb to go off in five minutes and places it on the ground in front of the dead agent in the front passenger seat.

He gets the rest of the time bombs from his inside pockets and places them beside the time bomb that's set to go off in five minutes. Connor puts the pedal to the metal and makes the RBM drive off fast. He is trying to aim the RBM at the RBM barrier that's inside the concrete file hive building. What Connor is trying to do is like aiming a bowling ball to hit bowling pins.

Connor is getting close to the file hive building now. Soldiers are jumping out of the way of the RBM that he's driving. The agents at the RBM barrier see the RBM driving towards to them. They open fire with their guns at the RBM that's approaching the concrete file hive building. Some shots hit and whizz past the RBM that Connor's driving.

Connor says, “CPU accelerate.”

The voice of the RBM's computer says, “Computer accelerate activated.”

Connor opens the driver's door and jumps out of the RBM, rolling along the ground. The RBM drives into the concrete file hive building and crashes into the RBM barrier. The five minutes of the time bomb are up.
KABOOM!
The time bomb explodes. A giant burst of fire comes out of the ground floor of the concrete file hive building.

All of the agents are dead. Water sprinkles from some of the sprinklers that are still operational following the explosion. Most of the sprinklers on the ground floor of the concrete file hive building are broken. The operational sprinklers put out some of the fires. Connor gets up off the ground and runs into the concrete file hive building.