I flew high above the road, keeping a close eye on the mix of cars and trucks speeding down the road beneath me. There were six vehicles in total, four SUVs and two larger trucks. We had abandoned most of the equipment we couldn't quickly load back at the camp, so the vehicles had plenty of room to carry everyone. Still, that didn't mean we were moving as fast as I liked. While the border was only 25 miles from where we has set up camp, the roads in this part of the country were not that well developed. That plus the mountainous terrain meant that it would take over an hour before the border was in sight.
"If anyone sees anything, be sure to let me know," I said over the radio, my head swiveling every which way to keep an eye on as much as the surrounding area as possible. "I can't see everything at once, so I'm counting on you guys."
I got a couple of confirmations from below, but other than that we moved in silence. I could still hear the occasional explosion in the distance, and once I was pretty sure I saw a rocket shoot between distant mountains, but there was still nothing near us. I had expected to see a base or military force nearby considering the men who went after us, but there was nothing. Those men that had come after us must have come a long way, we weren't just a target of opportunity. So, what did that mean?
I didn't have long to think about it though, as I then noticed what was coming up ahead. Damn it, I forgot, I thought as the road in front of us went into a thick forest. The canopy of trees made it impossible to see the forest floor from the air, and even the road itself was blocked from view in a few places (The overcast sky was not making it any easier either). As such I dropped low as the convoy reached the tree line, so that I could keep the vehicles in my sight.
I was pushing my senses as far as I could, but to be honest it was difficult to sweep the entire area around the moving convoy as much as I liked. There was too much area to see everything at once, and the cars were moving too quickly for me to really look at any one place for long. It was probably fine… so long as I was only dealing with normal human soldiers. With average level tech. Yeah, given my track record, I probably shouldn't count on that.
I needed to step things up a bit… and I had an idea as to how. I just had to not fall out of the sky while doing it.
I mentally prepared myself as I pulled up an Algorithm script I had been working on. It was something that I had made to help me parse through large amounts of data, and had found that it also helped my physical senses take in more input as well. The problem was that it was a little overwhelming, the sensory overload making it difficult to think properly. I was sure that I could adapt to it as some point (I had with my current array of senses after all), but that would take time. For now though...
Holistic Sensory Manifold.
My world expanded yet stayed the same size, details filling in the gaps I didn't know were there. Lines of light and darkness, informing hiding spots. Temperature gradients affecting wind flow. A myriad of sounds from the forest, isolate positions and distance. Create map, connections flow from one to the next, all connected.
Time passes, expected values established. As soon as pattern forms, an aberration. Something that should not be there. Visual.
A line of wire stretched across the road, 20 meters in front of the lead car.
I snapped out of the script and shot forward to the front of the convoy. "Stop the cars, now!" I yelled over the radio as I landed just in front of the wire.
The cars hard braked and slid to a stop about 10 meters away from where I was. I glanced back at the wire suspended a foot off the ground, each end disappearing into the underbrush on either side of the road. I wasn't sure what the wire was made out of, but it was a dull material that blended into the dirt road beneath it. If I hadn't been using that script, I probably wouldn't have noticed it. So now the question was, just what did this tripwire trigger, and how I could disable it without-
That is of course when the when one end of the wire snapped on its own.
A pair of explosions detonated from either side of the road, and a fraction of a second later dozens of steel ball bearings slammed into me at supersonic speeds from both sides, causing me to stumble a little. It wasn't too bad, but a few of them hit my relatively unprotected face, embedding themselves in my 'flesh'. In spite of this, my attention was focused on the trees around me. That wire hadn't snapped on its own, which meant that-
Sure enough, a moment later several lines of wire shoot out of the underbrush to my left, propelled by some unknown force. I ducked out of the way of them as I yelled into the comm "Everyone reverse, now!" The caravan of cars started backing up as quickly as they could, and a smooth helm formed over my head. My arm formed into a freeze ray and I fired into the underbrush where the wires had come from, freezing much of the area.
For a moment I stood still, waiting for something to move or attack, but there was nothing. I took a few steps towards where I had frozen the plant life, but suddenly the ground underneath me crumbled and fell away into a pit. Who the hell had time to dig a pit?! I thought as I dipped a little before I floated upwards.
There were several low thumps from the wood around me, and I saw several grenade sized objects arcing up into the air above me. I leapt into the air as hard as I could, deftly moving between the projectiles. Sure enough, the road beneath me exploded as all the grenades hit the ground. This is a mess, there's no way I'm dealing with this and protecting the civilians. We need to pull back.
Before I could do anything though, the sound of an explosion caused me to look back towards the cars in time to see a massive tree fall over and block the road. The cars were trapped, with nowhere to go.
Suddenly, I detected a rapid buildup of electrical charge around me. The ionized air stretched upwards to the cloudy sky, and was getting stronger by the second. I threw myself to the side just before a bolt of lightning sliced though the space where I once was. I skid to a stop in the air, but I was forced to drop to the burning ground when a rocket shot up from the woods at me.
That's a bit of a wrinkle, I thought as the air started to charge again. That lighting strike didn't appear to be related to any of the traps or devices I had seen. And the kind of tech that could bring down lightning like that was way more advanced than anything my assailant had used against me thus far. My guess, there was someone else in those woods, a metahuman.
Another set of wires shot out and connected to the trees on the other side of the road, forming a metal spider web I was forced to dodge around. I still couldn't see the source of all these attacks, so that meant I would have to dive into the woods and flush it out myself. Before I could though, I caught a hint of motion out of the corner of my eye, and my head turned to look at the convoy. I saw a lithe figure in dark green combat gear and facemask approaching one of the vehicles.
Juking to the side of another rocket, I fired a freeze ray at the figure. They were quick enough to duck back out of the way of the beam and dive back into the forest. Judging by the ionized air I was detecting in that direction, it was likely they were the source of those lightning bolts.
Good to have confirmation, but this made things even more complicated. My sensors weren't good enough to pinpoint my targets amid the foliage, but the moment I dove in after one of them, the other would go for the convoy. I was caught in an untenable situation.
I danced like this for a few more seconds, dodging explosives and lightning bolts. I fired off a few lasers into the underbrush, but I had no idea where to shoot. These people knew how to use the foliage to hide, and everything was so chaotic that I couldn't focus on any one point long enough to see anything. Still, I had to try.
Everything in my perception paired down as I focused as hard as I could on the forest in front of me. Another tripwire shot at me from forward left, dodge. Grenades arching from above, step in to avoid. Stop, mines on the side of the road. Position lets me see line launching device attached to tree. Assailant is using remote turrets, need to find the person. Not autonomous, controller needs to be nearby to see target. Average the center of area from all locations attacks came from-
I went a little too deep into thought. As such, I couldn't quite dodge the next attack. Another line shot out from the trees, this one much thicker and tipped with a harpoon. I expected it to bounce off, but the moment before it impacted my side the head split apart into a claw which clamped onto me. I expected to be pulled by the line, but the metal shaft connected to the claw suddenly split apart and extended, forming into an array of rods.
Lightning rods.
"Oh, fiddlesticks-" I managed to say as the pillar of ionized air ignited and found its shortest path to ground through my body.
I was also rather painfully reminded that while the Faraday mesh was a good defense against electricity, it wasn't an absolute one. I screamed as my outer surface burned and sizzled, dead nanites flaking off of my body. As quick as it started it stopped however, and I was left stumbling in the road. Even as I reformed my armor another rocket shot out of the trees and slammed into my chest, throwing me across the road and causing me slam into a tree hard enough to crack it.
I could have landed on my feet, but I let myself crumple to the ground instead. I fell onto my side and lay still, counting on the fact they didn't know what I was and would think I had been knocked unconscious. I took a few seconds to pull myself back together (and add a few extra layers of Faraday mesh) and think. I was only going to have a few seconds of surprise, I had to capitalize on it. My mind raced as I thought of different solutions, and a few came to mind. And in all of them, I first had to get rid of who or whatever was controlling the traps. The forest in general was being a problem too.
I… could just destroy that whole area, I thought. My Artillery Plasma Cannon could make a pretty big crater. That would almost certainly kill whoever was out there. But, do I really want to do that? Yes, there are civilian lives on the line, but… am I really at that point again? Is this going to just keep happening? Do I want to repeat what happened in Bialya?
…No. No I don't.
I just had to be better.
The moment my body finished healing I rolled to my feet and shot into the air, flying just above the tree line to the spot right above where all the explosives and wires were coming from. To the lightning controller's credit, the instant I came to a stop they had already started to charge the air around me. Before the bolt came down though, I formed a powerful electromagnet in my chest, created a magnetic shell around myself. The ionized air was pushed away from me and when the lightning bolt fell it was channeled around me through the shell. The sheer power of it meant that some of the electricity arced to me anyway, but it was much more manageable for my Faraday mesh.
My left arm formed into a multi-barrel grapple launcher, with over a dozen grapple heads sticking out of my limb. Now. The lines shot out from my arm covering the small area beneath me. Each one struck the ground without hitting my unseen assailant, but that was fine. The electromagnets on the end of the grapples activated, pulling them towards the biggest source of metal in the area. A few went in random directions, but most of the lines converged on a single point in the underbrush, latching onto a large object. Hoping that I hadn't just found yet another bomb, I reacted the lines and pulled it up to me. It was…
I blinked at the blurry, transparent shape held in my lines. It was roughly the size and shape of a person, but the light around it bent in a very familiar manner if you had seen certain movies.
I hesitated for a moment before I grinned. "Is that optical camouflage? Because if so, yoink." My other hand split into multiple tendrils and creeped over the figure's body, consuming anything technological I could find. After a few second I found what I was looking for and the translucent figure flickered for a moment before it turned into a short man in combat gear, covered head to toe in pouches, grenades, wires, and a few different types of launchers. Some of the fabrics were torn, but it was hard to tell where the equipment ended and the man began. "Now, who are you and why are you attacking us?"
The responded in Rhelasian, speaking with a reedy tone of voice. He talked… and kept talking. I waited a few seconds for him to wrap up, but the man just kept going. If the man was just cursing me out, he was doing it in a surprisingly non-aggressive tone. Eventually I interrupted "Err, could you perhaps start over in English?"
Before he could oblige me, the air around us started to charge. Was his teammate trying to kill him to keep him from talking? Either way, it was a bit awkward holding him as I reactivated my magnetic shell, seeing as how all the metal on his person was trying to pull the man out of my grasp. I managed to hold on, but enough of the electricity from the bolt that followed slipped through the shell and coursed through him. The man screamed and twitched before he fell limp in my grasp.
I cursed dropped below the canopy of trees, falling straight to the ground before checking on my captive. He wasn't dead, but he'd be in a lot of pain when he woke up. I dropped him before taking a look around for the one who had been dropping lightning bolts on me for the past few minutes. I didn't see anything around me, but with the trap man out of the way I could move through the woods without problem. The trees would actually give me a little cover from the lightning, too.
I sensed another ion build up, but this time it wasn't on me, but on the lead car of the convoy. Shit! I shot out of the trees and towards the convoy. Looked like the metahuman had found a way to draw me out. Well, I had to hope that my plan B would work.
Lucky for me my assailant was making a big one, so I had time to fly above the line of cars into the center of the ionized air. I moved my main electromagnet from my chest to my arm, the limb bulging into a cylindrical shape. I then switched the polarity of the magnet, so that all of the ionized air got pulled in to the tip of my limb. A few more adjustments drew and compressed the air into the impromptu device that was my arm: A mix of a coil gun and an air cannon.
My arm opened up along four seams and braced the densely packed and charged ball of air. I then swung my arm down and fired the ball at the other source of highly charged ions I could detect.
How do you counter attack someone who can create highly ionized air? Move the air somewhere else.
The lightning bolt fell among the trees with a shattering blast, with several of said trees being blown apart. Much of the underbrush was lit aflame, and dark smoke started to rise upwards. I remained floating where I was for a long moment, waiting for any sign of movement, or for another attack to come. I had to wait half a minute before I got the former.
Stumbling out of the burning underbrush was the lithe figure I had seen earlier, a woman now that I could get a good look at her. Bits of her uniform were singed, but overall she seemed uninjured. As I figured, the woman could protect herself from her own lightning. But that didn't change the fact that lightning was both incredibly loud and bright. That last bolt had stunned her quite a bit.
She pulled the smoking and burnt facemask from her head to reveal a pretty Rhelaisan face and short cropped hair. She blinked blearily at me as I float down in front of her. "Now, I don't suppose you could oblige me and tell me what all this is about?" The woman, like her comrade, replied in Rhelasian. At length. She was a bit more heated than her partner though, and as her tone rose I could feel the air around us start to charge. She didn't get very far though, as a moment later my fist collided with her sternum, causing her to double over. While she was stunned I slipped around the woman and put her in a sleeper hold, knocking her out.
I feel like I just missed out on some pretty crucial information due to my lack of language skills, I thought as I carried the woman over to where I left trap man. I should probably remedy that. I do still have that translator…
I tied the unconscious pair of… operatives to a nearby tree, using some of the wire that the man helpfully had on his person (and disarming both of them in the process). I then spent some extra time checking the immediate area for more traps, as the man seemed like the type to go overboard. Sure enough, a good part of the road in front of me had a few more tripwires and explosives. No mines buried deep, thankfully, so it didn't take too long to clear out the path.
While I did that, I had some time to think about what just happened. Just what the hell was I dealing with? Why were a pair of high end special assets gunning after me, especially when I'm trying to leave the country? Were they trying to capture me at all? No, the woman was not being careful with her lightning, and it didn't seem like she was panicking. Maybe they were after some of the tech we brought with us? We left most of it behind though… what did they think we had that was worth chasing us down for?
I finished up with the road and flew back to the caravan, taking a head count. I stopped when I got to Serling's car, my eyebrow arching at what I found. "Really? Is now really the best time?"
Serling didn't respond to me, continuing to type away at her laptop. I wait for a few second for her to respond, but she continued to ignore me. Wait, or was she… "Serling?" I asked with a bit more trepidation. "Serling, are you alright?"
She still didn't respond, but I heard her muttering under her breath. "…delta over one half lambda by normalized matrix such that vector theta exponent sigma-"
I reached out and touched her shoulder. "Serling?"
The woman gave a start and turned to look at me. "What?! What is it?"
I was silent for a long moment before I said "Is there something up with you? You've been acting really weird lately. And more importantly, haven't stopped being weird even after people started trying to kill us." Did she even notice the operative that was near her car?
Her eyes flickered between myself and her laptop screen. "I… don't know what you're talking about?"
"Serling, you're so obsessed with whatever you're programming that you are literally having trouble talking to me right now."
She clenched her jaw for a few seconds before she forced herself to relax. "Is… is this really the best time?"
I glanced at the other people in the car, before looking back at the scientist with a sigh. "I suppose not." I said as I lifted back into the air. "But we need to talk about this later."
It was a relief that we made it to the border without incident after that, even if there was a massive number of guns pointed our way as we approached. Most of the land around the border between the North and South Rhelasia had been cleared away to make a barren hillscape that allowed both sides to see the other easily. The part we were coming up on was mostly populated with squat, concrete fortifications, leading up to a heavily guarded bridge to the other nation.
There was a brief tense moment as I 'negotiated' with the North Rhelasian guards to let us pass. Of course, since I couldn't speak Rhelasian, that mostly entailed me handing over my Kord Tech ID and standing around awkwardly while armed men stared intently at me while things were being verified. Fortunately I only had to wait a couple of minutes before the officer waved us all across the bridge.
Once we were on the other side though, the reception wasn't much friendlier. The South Rhelasian soldiers instructed us to head into one of the nearby administration buildings. The lot of us were broken up into different rooms and told to stay there.
Lucky for me, it wasn't long before the door to the room opened. Two Rhelasian soldiers walked in, followed by an officer. Followed by, thankfully, Ted. "Jacob, good to see you in one piece." He said as he sat down on the other side of the table. "Everyone made it back safely, right?"
"Glad to be in one piece, and yeah everyone's fine. But what is all this?" I asked as I gestured to the room.
The officer sat down next to Ted and said "It is standard procedure to debrief civilians that have been in a military incident, especially one that is still ongoing. Any information gained could be crucial, and must be obtained as soon as possible." The man shifted slightly in his seat. "You… are technically a civilian in this context. I am Officer Sung Jung-jin, please tell me everything that has happened since you and your… coworkers crossed into the North."
I wasn't certain of the authority the man might have held over me, but I saw no reason to deny him. So, I gave them a quick recap of everything that had happened since our camp was attacked, going over our brief flight from the country. Officer Sung made me go into detail about the operatives we ran into along the way, what they looked like, what they were capable of. The man jotted down notes while I spoke, but he did very little other than that.
As I wrapped it up, I leaned back in my chair and asked "So, that's everything. Just who are these guys?"
"A faction of the North Rhelasian military," Officer Sung said. "Lead by one of their most highly trained Special Operative groups. Only known by the title War Dogs. Our government has been keeping an eye on them for some time. From what little we know of their training, their members are selected for and trained at a young age. In a very real way, combat is the only life that they know. I imagine that they took issue with the peace treaty being signed."
Ted gave a start and looked at the man. "Wait, what?! I've been asking that for the past hour, and no one has told me anything!"
"You're not a superhero." The man replied coolly before he looked back at me. "The ones you encountered were Dokkaebi and Inmyeonjo. Ah, they are a mythological goblin and bird." He explained. "They are two are among highest ranking operatives of the War Dogs. They in particular have a sordid history. Two decades ago there was an incident in a small-"
"Yeah, whatever. Look," I interrupted. "I left the two of them unconscious and tied to a tree about an hour up the road. Do I really need to know their backstory right now?"
"Oh, ah…" The officer stumbled, not expecting to have his story cut off. "I… suppose not." He collected himself before he said "Are you sure they didn't reveal any specific objective? Any clue as to what their overall plan is?"
I shook my head. "No, couldn't understand them." I paused before I continued. "This is just speculation, but I think those two were trying to steal something from us. They hedged in the caravan without trying to damage it. Well, too much anyway." That first claymore mine would have shredded anyone in the first car. "It's possible they knew that Kord Tech was launching satellites, but didn't know that I was the one doing it. I can see access to obit-reaching rockets being appealing to a military group."
Officer Sung nodded in thought. "That would make sense… the first wave of attacks came in the form of raids on North Rhelasian military bases, stripping out everything before reinforcements could arrive. They're trying to weaken the proper military and strengthen themselves at the same time. Advanced technology would help as well."
Ted pursed his lips. "What other corporations had a presence in the North before this happened?"
"Thankfully, only Lexcorp is of note today, but we haven't been able to get in contact with them."
Ted's expression turned into a full scowl. "I remember hearing some rumors about Luthor selling both the North and the South weapons as part of this treaty."
Officer Sung looked at Ted neutrally, then proceeded to ignore him and look back at me. "At the very least, Machina can relay this information to the Justice League when they inevitably ask about what happened here."
I didn't know what he thought my relationship with the League was, but I didn't question it as I said "I'll be sure to pass it on. Is there anything I can do to help right now?"
"No." The man said firmly. "The North only tolerated your presence as a civilian contractor, and we have been repeatedly assuring them that you were leaving the country as soon as the fighting started. We can handle this affair ourselves."
My mouth twisted a little, but I nodded. It felt… wrong of me to just leave before everything was resolved, but this really wasn't my fight. I guess I was getting used to getting involved in random combat situations that popped up around me on a weekly basis. I should probably be more concerned about that, but for the moment… "So, what happens to us now?"
"I imagine that it will be a while before things calm down enough to let civilians cross the border again." The officer said. "I suggest that you and your coworkers head back to the States for the time being. I don't believe any of this will spill past the border, but…"
Ted let out a sigh, but nodded. "Well, we got most of the net up already. I'll arrange for transport back home for everyone else." He looked at me. "I assume you'll make your own way back?"
I nodded and rose out of my seat. The South's capitol had a Zeta Tube which I had used to get here in the first place. "I should go talk to Serling before I leave, make sure she's all right. Where is she right now?"
"The debriefing for the rest of Kord's employees is happening now, but it will not take long." Sung said. "We have a few people who have been doing nothing but debriefing people since the incident started. Another 15 people shouldn't be that taxing on us."
I made to leave, but what he said made me hesitate for a moment. I turned back to look at him and asked "Wait, are you including me in that number?"
The officer shook his head. "No. I meant that there are 15 Kord Tech employees, and then yourself."
"…We only came here with 14 employees."
We stared at each other for a long movement before we moved at the same time, him shouting into his radio and me sprinting out the door and down the hallway.
=====A=====
A/N: Can you imagine how impenetrable a Metal Gear Solid game would be if you didn't speak the same language as any of the characters involved.