Chapter XIX

Striking the Heart

On a moonless night a guard is patrolling one of the towers, not noticing Mia dropping onto the roof above him, it had been a close-run thing, as he had thought for a moment that the jet pack that he was currently wearing wouldn’t have worked. Mia looks down below him from the roof he was crouching on, she waits for a minute to wait for the guard to turn his back before dropping down behind him and slitting his throat almost to the bone. As Dave drop down behind her.

“You didn’t have to do that.” Dave said. “I could have finished him.” Mia only shrugs looking down at the dead man as Dave grabs a flashlight from his waist and starts turning it on and off every few seconds, signalling the all clear. The gunship draws open once again to release the rest of the commando team.

Dave's flashlight can be seen in distance, where Codsworth, Barca and two hundred others wait, they were his best troops gathers from across Riveruster and his Imperial forces, this was effectively the equivalent of gathering all the dice and hoping they all came up sixes. Barca looks towards the commander with a wordless glance. Codsworth returns it, nods and starts moving forward with his troops following him.

The gunship was now directly above the castle. As the bay doors continue to open, they release Dmitri, Charlie, Jack and Brydon. The four make there decent using the jetpacks on their backs. As they descend both Dmitri and Charlie get one kill a piece without detection.

Once the four of them land onto the cold stone walkway, Dmitri kills another guard before talking with the rest of his raiding force, relieved to be finally back on a special ops mission.

“Right, we don't have long. Brydon head to the gate house, Jack head towards the main data storage area. Charlie with me.” Dmitri said, turning of the night vision goggles in his helmet, as the four head off in separate directions.

“Where in the gods name do, we go now?” Charlie said looking at the crudely drawn map that Vernon had sketched out for them, for all the good it did. The archives that had been used to draw it were over three hundred years old, and clearly hadn’t been updated in all that time. They had already had to double back as they had encountered dead ends. It was clear that Boris had made serious structural alterations to his home since taking over, which made finishing anything damn near impossible.

“This way.” Dmitri said, he had given up on the map after the previous wrong turn and was going on nothing more than gut instinct. Charlie only shrugged, and pocketed the map, she too was fed up with the bit of paper, only surpassed by her desire to get the job done.

After five more minutes when Charlie was starting to think that disposing of the map was a bad idea they stumbled across their room, a large circle interior full of fires and terminals, much more advanced than the ones they had back at the cave.

“So, which one is it?” Charlie said looking around the room, wondering which wire was the alarm button.

“We could detonate the entire room, that would surely do the trick.” Dmitri said. He was also looking around the room with apprehension, he had never been good with electrical problems, choosing mostly to shoot his way through problems. But that couldn’t happen here, as there were over two hundred troops counting on them shutting down the alarm. Both of them walked forward and began to examine the various terminals and screens looking for anything that even remotely looked like an alarm button.

“Who are you!” A voice shouted from behind them. “Secur…” he never managed to finish his call as Charlie turned and shot the guard that had walked into the room. Dmitri turned around to look at the scene. Then another voice came up from behind them.

“Homebase. Come in. Is there a problem. Report.” The voice shouted.

“Shit.” Dmitri said quietly and walked over to the monitor where the voice was coming from. Then he raised his voice to normal as he addressed the caller. “Yes. Erm everything is under control here.”

“What happened?” The caller asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

“Weapon misfire. That’s all.” Dmitri said quickly.

“Alright then Jenkins.” The caller said and line goes dead once again.

“I guess it’s this one.” Dmitri said to Charlie before returning to the machine and began shooting at it until the screen switched off. “Wonder how the others are getting on?” he asked, more to himself than to Charlie.

As Brydon moves through the stone corridors of the fortress, he found himself encountering similar problems as Dmitri and Charlie. But is quickly brought out of his confusion over the maze he was in when he hears the voices of three guards who by the growing sound of their voices were coming right at him. Knowing that due to his size hat hiding was not an option, and besides there was nowhere to hide even for the smallest of beings, he chooses the one remaining option.

The three guards walk right around the corner and come face to face with Brutus who had morphed into his bear from. For a moment nothing happens the guards simply stare at the hairy from in front of them. Then Brutus attacks. The three never stood a chance. Within a few moments the biggest single part that remained of them was a bloody arm on the floor. As Brydon morphs back into his human from, he looks down at the bloody mess before walking away.

“Sinking creatures.” Brydon said as he rounds the corner, not looking back at the mess he had just created.

Unlike the other members of the raiding force, Jack had had no trouble finding the data vault, although when he walks into a large room filled with data banks lining the room from floor to ceiling. He encounters a new problem when he sees two guards patrol through the rows of computers.

“Here goes nothing.” Jack said to himself

Jack begins to climb one of the data banks as quick as a snake, whilst hoping that the two men patrolling the rows wouldn’t hear him climbing, as if they did, it would almost certainly be game over. However due to what he thought of as blind luck Jack manages to clamber up onto the top. He takes out a gun equipped with a silencer and takes aim at the nearest of the two guards.

A guard walks along the road holding a gun and a torch, before collapsing as a bullet goes through his neck and Codsworth walks out of the treeline along with Barca who looks through his night vision goggles towards the fortress.

“Gods, the doors should be open, what’s taking them so long?” Barca asked, thinking that the worst must have happened, and this raid would have to become a prison break. Codsworth however was a lot calmer

“Give them time, they'll manage their jobs.” Codsworth said, although he too was starting to get worried, as Barca looks down at the dead body. Which was staring up at them with unseeing eyes.

“That's the second patrol we've killed. Anymore and surely, they'll start sending out more guards. We can't hide forever Codsworth.” Barca said.

“Just a little bit longer Barca.” Codsworth said, although he couldn’t fault the lieutenant’s logic, they were bound to be discovered at some point and to boot the small force that had been sent to destroy the bridge that was the main link between Boris’ fortress and the main camp used by The Iron Company had also not checked in yet.

Back outside the fortress Jamerson returns from his mission.

“Bridge is down commander.” Jamerson said quietly as he walked up to Codsworth followed by his two veterans and Dmitri’s Bot’s.

“Good. Now we’re just waiting on the strike team.” Codsworth said, whilst his gaze turned back to the fortress, silhouetted in the darkness.

Now at his desired location Brydon looks around the room, it was a simple square interior with a large window looking out at the lands surrounding the fortress, directly in front of him was a lever, with the words; ‘Door Control’ on a sign next to it. On the other side was a collection of gears that went into the floor below him.

Brydon walked forward and pulled the lever downward, for a moment there was only silence. Then the gears began to turn and the sound of the massive metal doors opening could be heard for miles around.

“So much for the stealth mission.” Brydon said to himself, almost certain that the people in the main Iron Company camp would be able to hear the sound and hoping that this Jamerson fellow would be able to detonate the bridge.

Back up on the tower where they had first landed, both Dave and Mia could hear the sound of the metal gates opening longer before they confirmed it, Dave looked down to see the metal teeth disappear into the ground. He took out the torch and flicked it on, aiming it down at the location he hoped Codsworth and the others were at, and turned the device off and on several times. The signal for the attackers to begin their advance.

The first that Codsworth saw of the signal was when a soldier by the name of Bruce, a native of Bartazer who had served him well as a translator, pointed towards the fortress shouting that the signal had been activated. Codsworth looked up to see the torch light go on and off repeatedly.

The commander put on his helmet and turned to the force he had gathered and bellowed a single word into the night.

“ATTACK!!!” Codsworth shouted and began to charge forward, followed by his troops, all charging at full tilt towards the fortress, a mixture of Imperials, Rivermen and Bot’s all with the desire to end the war once and for all.

Hearing the sounds from outside, Jack slid down the side of the data bank, and stepped over the two corpses of the guards he had shot with ease. Hurrying over towards the main computer, he cleared the desk and set to work. Looking behind him was a stark reminder to hurry up as five guards rushed past the doors to the data room, but none of them paid it any significance as all their attention was the attack outside. But the fourteen-year-old didn’t know how much longer his luck would last, so he returned to his job.

Eventually he manages to gain access to the computer. Inside, as Codsworth had said, was a copy of every plan that Boris had, including battle plans for the direct assault of Docksmouth and The Imperial City.

Making his copy he then proceeds to delete every single item from the computer, no matter how trivial, everything was wiped. Pocketing the hard drive after he was done, he begins to leave the room when his luck as he had previously feared ran out.

In the courtyard area both Charlie and Dmitri could see Codsworth along with his army charge through the doors and begin their attack. As they were about to go out and join the fray, a voice comes over the radio on the hip of the man that Charlie had previously shot.

“Bridge is down, but we’ve found a new way across and are on our way. Hold out for reinforcements.” The voice said.

“That’s not good.” Charlie said looking at the dead man. “We need to warn Codsworth.” She finished looking at Dmitri.

“Yes.” Dmitri said, that at least was clear, if the rest of The Iron Company were indeed able to find another way across the river, then it would mean the deaths of all of them.

As Dmitri and Charlie entered the exterior the huge hairy creature that they knew was Brydon, charged past them and began mauling enemies left and right. Although that was the only good news as they saw Codsworth fighting for his life, taking on at least five opponents at once. Rushing over to him and gunning down enemies left and right as they ran into the battle, it took much longer than they had hoped to reach the commander, who by this time was looking for new enemies to fight, eventually he caught sight of the two.

“You took your time.” Codsworth said grudgingly. “Do you know where Boris is. I fancy having a little chat with him.” The commander finished smiling at the pair.

“Codsworth we’ve got to get these troops out of here!” Dmitri shouted.

“What are you talking about, we’re winning.” Codsworth said in confusion. Wondering what the captain was talking about now, whilst shooting a few more enemy soldiers who thought it was a good idea to try and interrupt the conversation.

On the tower, both Dave and Mia could see what Dmitri was talking about, in the darkness below them, fresh lights had appeared surrounding the fortress. The rest of The Iron Company had found their way across the river a thousand meters down the river and were now setting up outside the fortress waiting for the attackers to try and retreat.

“We’ve got to warn them.” Dave said and turned on the torch and began to wave it towards the forest hoping that Codsworth or anyone would see. After a few seconds of this frantic attempt to alert the commander however, a single gunshot rang out from the forest and torch was shot out of Dave’s hand.

Codsworth looked around at the battle progressing, when the torch fell to the ground a few paces away from him. He looked up but couldn’t see any sign of the two kids, but when he turned around towards the doors, he could see torch light in the forest that they had just come from.

“Fuck!” Codsworth swore and turned to Dmitri. “Call the chopper tell the pilot to go and pick-up Dave and Mia, Charlie go and find Jack. I’ll get the rest of the people out. Meet up back at home base.” Codsworth finished relaying the orders and began darting amongst his troops. As Charlie rushed back into the fortress and Dmitri got on the comm link to the chopper cycling in stealth mode above them, then going to join Codsworth in the evacuation procedure.