23 Chapter 23

---3rd Person View---

One Week Later....

the sound of propellers broke the silence of the base. They were a long way from civilization, so this was highly unusual. the Hydra agents inside instantly locked onto what seemed to be an old timey military plane, the kind from World War two.

as it flew over, it began dropping dozens of small metal orbs. each orb clattered across the old concrete and rolled to a stop. the Hydra agents all ran for cover, assuming the orbs would explode.

they stood behind their barriers for about ten minutes before a few of the braver brainwashed approached an orb slowly.

a sound similar to an airlock could be heard, causing the Hydra agents to halt their advance again, before each orb began releasing dozens of armed combatants, each one wearing the full combat gear of the Foundation.

chaos ensued as there were suddenly hundreds of enemy soldiers all across the compound. those that landed on rooftops and elevated positions switched to high-powered snipers. Some had crashed through windows, which instantly won them a foothold inside the base after clearing the hallways.

Hydra was in chaos as they were systematically eliminated. finally, one of the officers of Hydra was able to stabilize a foothold on one side of the courtyard. he quickly rallied those around him and was able to send out an alarm signal, causing a loud siren to begin wailing throughout the base.

---MC POV---

A small smile found its way onto my face as the bases alarm sounded. I was sitting in a chair looking at the hundreds of monitors on the wall as I surveyed the ongoing assault.

the deployment pods were a resounding success. taking inspiration from one of the most popular games in my previous world, they originally resembled drop ships from Halo, but after Research and Development got ahold of it, they went wild. the blueprints I got back from the level four researchers had science in it, I couldn't hope to understand. the pods had enough room in it for a small armory, an emergency medical room, and living quarters for a full squad. They could even stock enough provisions for five men to last a week.

at first, I was worried about the massive cost, but when three were developed for only a little over a thousand points, I realized that I could have it built manually and only pay for the cost of materials. this meant that it wouldn't be done instantly but also that I could save points for more important things that were necessary.

I quickly focused back on the mission as phase two was initiated.

back on the battlefield, as soon as the alarm was sounded, a group of twelve drones began moving towards the compound. each drone was as quiet as a whisper, only large enough to carry a single transport pod each.

as they zoomed towards the compound, they used the fact that Hydra was all rushing towards the courtyard in response to the alarm to stay out of sight.

they quickly split into three groups of four, each branching, while one team headed towards the server rooms, the other two flew quickly to the prison wing.

the server team spent a few minutes to find their target, but they worked quickly and efficiently. as soon as they were found, the pods were deployed. with the only resistance being a few Hydra scientists and barely a handful of guards, they were quickly eliminated.

after that the team began ransacking the place, anything of value that wasn't tied down was shrunk down and moved into the pods, while larger servers that couldn't be moved were connected to flash drives for the tech teams back at the foundation to establish a wireless connection to copy all data over to be sorted later.

after they were finished, they began planting devices all around the base before beginning the trip back to base with all the information they had gathered. Their part of the mission was complete.

while that was happening, the two prison teams began extracting all the prisoners, each team had a specific type of prisoner to move, one team focusing on anything special or even anomalous as they found a few anomalies that had disappeared from their radar such as a gentleman dressed as a plague doctor who was happily dissecting the corpse of a cow, another object was secured in a cell with three people staring at it, the object being a large crumbling statue covered in graffiti, the men had to be forcibly removed from the cell, but upon being dragged away it was found that the statue had moved and killed not only the prisoners but several foundation personnel, this led to another group of three from the regular group being relocated to keep watch on the piece of stone.

the last anomaly was a mass of orange slime swimming around the small glass jar Hydra had squeezed it into.

in the last cell, they found a man covered in bruises, cuts, and scars. several showed signs of major infection, and upon seeing the men in full foundation gear, the man simply stood up and calmly walked out while being escorted to the extraction point, all the while staying silent.

back at the courtyard, a signal was given when the last drone had left. like a switch had been flipped, each member of the foundation suddenly began landing more shots, becoming more efficient as Hydra began falling like dominoes. after all these were level four to five agents, how could an old Hydra base with an average level of two stand for more than a few seconds to the Foundations elite.

from his control room, Pierce went from frustrated to terrified. the battle went from near even to a slaughter in seconds. something finally clicked, though, and he realized, "It's a distraction, we need to leave now." he turned on heel and starter down the hallway before leaving via helicopter.

how could he have known, though, that in the shadow of one of the corners he passed was a single foundation member the size of an ant, carrying a simple metal box with a now closed lid