Chapter Text
(October 24, 2062. 11:00 hours)
“Alright men listen up!” Commander James Anderson shouted in front of a large group of soldiers. “Alpha,” he addressed, pointing at Gideon, “you’ll lead your squad to our target! We have intel that our suspect is hidden deep within the facility. This man is responsible for the dozens of child abductions this past year and possibly has important information regarding remaining KVA forces. We need him alive at all costs!!” Anderson’s attention shifted to the second group of soldiers standing to his right. “The rest of you will sweep a facility one mile West from where our suspect is! We believe that is the location where some of the children he abducted are being held. Get as many as you can out! If there are any bodies, report to MS Lewis immediately! Both groups need to move swiftly and quietly: we don’t want our suspect to call reinforcements while we sweep both buildings. EVERYBODY READY?”
“OOH-RAH” the remaining Sentinel squads shouted in unison, signaling that they all heard the mission loud and clear.
“Good luck, soldiers! Move out!”
The two groups separated from each other, one group heading East towards their target, Nikolai Johnson, while the other group headed towards an abandoned apartment building where some kids may be held. Gideon, a member of Sentinel Task Force for approximately two years now, was put in charge of the squad that would confront and capture Johnson. His friend and partner, Jack Mitchell, was placed with the other squad heading towards the apartment building. Both men had tons of experience with missions like this one...so they were both in command. Gideon would lead his squad to Johnson while Mitchell would lead his squad to recover the children.
While Gideon was pretty confident in his leadership abilities, Mitchell was apprehensive about how his squad would turn out while under his command. After all, this was the first time Mitchell was put into any form of leadership position: he always felt responsible for the lives of the people he’s been assigned to protect, but he never felt the weight of being responsible for his fellow soldiers’ and friends’ lives. The pressure was undeniable and daunting, forcing him to constantly reflect on his agreement to lead the squad. He took a deep breath and led his troops West towards the building. He couldn’t afford to mess this up...there were too many lives --lives that he actually cared about-- on the line.
Gideon and his squad came across a worn-down and one story brick building that seemed to stretch out endlessly behind the entrance. Vines and branches wrapped out the outer surface of the building, mirrors were broken, and tiny specks of blood stained the entrance. Johnson was here. Gideon raised his gun upward and leaned his body against the side of the busted door frame. He quietly whispered to his fellow members, whose intercoms connected to each others,
“We need to be quick and quiet. Move fast and look out for any scanners that could scramble our exo-suits or alert guards. Even though our guns have silencers, we still don’t want to risk alerting anyone: weapons free as a last resort Move out.”
He began to quickly move forward down the hallway with his squad right on his tail. The endless hallway had no power, sunlight being the only source of light. Glass and rocks crunched underneath his boots and bones crushed when they came in contact with their shoes. The smell was repulsive and unbearable, making all of the soldier’s eyes water. As they made their way towards the end of the hallway, each soldier took a peek either through the broken door frames, cracked glass windows, or slightly open doors. Every time they looked in a room, there were either dead bodies scattered all over the faded blood-stained tiles or unusable equipment like guns, exo-suits, and AST suits. Ignoring his desire to put the pieces together, Gideon led his squad forward toward the last door on their right. He motioned two soldiers to quietly move toward the other side of the door frame, prepared to fire. He grabbed the remaining two soldiers and pulled them so that they would be leaning against the wall right beside him. Gideon closed his eyes and tried to hear if there was any activity happening on the other side: the sounds of keyboard being typed on and calm humming could be heard. He opened his eyes and nodded to all of the soldiers who were ready to sweep the room. He lifted his fingers and began to silently count down, bringing each finger down as the numbers decreased.
‘Five...four...three...two...one...GO!’
He kicked the door down and pointed his gun directly at a man’s head while the other soldiers quickly followed behind him with their guns pointing in all directions in case someone was hiding out of their original line of view. Satisfied that no other enemies were nearby, Gideon spoke up.
“Stay there and don’t you fucking move!”
He reached for a pair of snap cuffs. However, before he could proceed to handcuff him, the man leaped forward, grabbed one of Gideon’s squad members by their collar, and pressed a knife tightly against his throat. All of the soldier’s raised their guns in the man’s direction.
“Drop the knife. NOW!” Gideon’s voice left no room for compromise.
Once the man got into better light, the soldiers could see that the man was Johnson himself. His blonde hair, brown eyes, and muscular frame were prominent features that gave him a delicate yet dangerous look to him. Johnson moved forward, his hostage moving with him, and walked towards the council he was sitting at. After a couple of seconds of typing, the almost pitch black room lit up with white glares created by the multiple screens. Gun still firm in his hand, Gideon looked up at the screen and froze: he was watching Mitchell and his squad sweeping the building, children right behind their tail. Johnson knew that they were here. Focusing back on the hostage, Gideon pointed his gun right at Johnson’s brown eyes.
“Let him go, or we’ll shoot.” They wouldn’t shoot to kill, but they wouldn’t hesitate to use excessive force to disable the man.
Johnson removed the knife from the soldier’s neck and pushed him back towards Gideon. The commander instantly pulled the hostage behind him and stood protectively in front of him.
“You’re coming with us.” another Sentinel soldier said.
Johnson slowly reached in his pocket and pulled out a trigger of some kind. Instantly, all of the sentinel soldiers raised their weapons and aimed it at Johnson.
“Put the trigger down,” a soldier ordered, “and get on the fucking ground. NOW!”
Johnson put on a menacing smile, looked up at the soldiers, and quietly said, “As you wish.”
Immediately, Johnson slammed the trigger onto the ground...but not on the safe point. The button on the trigger was pressed against the ground, activating it. Alarmed, Gideon and one other Sentinel soldier fired a shot so that the bullets would hit Johnson’s hand and knee. While Johnson moaned in pain, Gideon’s eyes snapped back towards the lit up screens, which suddenly cut off and left him staring at a static screen. Before he could ask what the hell happened he, as well as the rest of his squad members, heard shouting coming from their intercoms.
“SQUAD TWO-TWO IS DOWN! REPEAT, SQUAD TWO-TWO IS DOWN!! ALL SQUADS RESPOND!”
Gideon’s world seemed to freeze in icy and dread when the realization hit him.
‘Squad Two-Two was Mitchell’s squad….’
“What the fuck happened?!” Thankfully, another Sentinel soldier asked for more information for him. Gideon couldn’t talk at the moment because he was still processing the news.
“Myself and Grayson were standing outside the apartment complex while the rest of Squad Two-Two went into the building. Next thing we knew, a series of huge explosions came from the multiple locations in building, causing the it to collapse completely! We tried getting in touch with the squad but nobody is responding. We’re about to begin searching for survivors! Mars out!”
Rage and worry consumed every one of the Sentinel members in Gideon’s squad. Gideon himself felt like his world was beginning to crumble around him.
‘Half of the Sentinel squad is down. Half of their fellow soldiers are out of action. Their friends could be dead. Mitchell could be dead...’
He let out a dangerous growl and charged towards Johnson. He threw his gun aside and grabbed the bastard by his shirt and began to punch him. Gideon always thought the term “seeing red” was bullshit and cliche: he’ll have to let go of his beliefs about that saying for now. He was seeing red and black. After a few punches, Gideon leaned down and screamed right at his face,
“What did you do?! WHAT DID YOU DO?!?!?”
Johnson smirked, blood slowly trickling down his lips, and said, “You all destroyed my work...I’ll destroy all of your worlds’ ”
Swallowing, Gideon released the man and slowly walked back away from the monster. After a few tense seconds, Gideon raised his firearm and fired multiple rounds in Johnson’s legs, preventing him from moving. Once he was sure Johnson wouldn’t be able to get up, Gideon turned on his intercom and whispered,
“We got Johnson. Requesting immediate backup at our location. Most of my squad is enroute to the site. Gideon out.” Once he was done, he directed his attention to his squad, each of their facial expressions revealing thoughts of worry, anger, grief, and heartbreak. Gideon began to bark orders.
“Two of you will stay here and watch him until more backup arrives to collect him! The rest of you will follow me to the apartment building and help look for our friends. Copy?” Satisfied that everyone nodded, Gideon nodded back and began to run out of the building and towards the destroyed building East of their current location. As he ran, his body began to feel numb: he couldn’t hear the other footsteps behind him, he couldn’t see the branches and rocks underneath his feet, and he couldn’t feel the sweat begin to make its way down his face. His only focus was on helping his other friends...and finding Mitchell: his best friend, fellow soldier, and brother.
‘Please Mitchell.’ he began to mentally chant. ‘Please be okay! Please be safe! Please be alive! Mitchell, PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME!’