31 Arc 2-Chapter 20 (The Future is now)

1st of August, 2011

Trondheim, Norway

Noon

Europe wasn't much of a war zone as the rest of the was. Most large battles are fought in Asia and Africa, while most criminal activity is in Central and South America. However, Europe wasn't spared from its share of problems.

Religious extremists were the number one problem. In Christian countries around east, west and south Europe, Islamic fanatics are the main targets for UATF forces. But, the same cannot be said for Northern Europe.

Cults have been amassing all over Scandinavia. So much so that Norway and Sweden have created a special Scandinavian Pagan Hunter Force (SPHF), which is mostly comprised of police and special swat teams and tasked with locating and neutralising any cult threat.

Right now, they're main problem was in Trondheim. While it is the area with the lowest cult sighting, it is definitely the area with the highest death and disappearance toll. The reason for this were drones.

A cult hacker, calling himself 'Odin's eye', is controlling an unknown number of drones called 'Valkyries' is bombing local towns and causing a lot of death.

Franklin, Yuri and Takeshi were brought to the Trondheim police department to take care of the problem.

The truck stops inside the gates. Kill team Nemesis exits and heads into the building. They're greeted by two men, one was in his 30s and wearing a swat like uniform and the other in his late 40s and wearing more of a police like  uniform.

The older man speak first:"Welcome gentlemen. I am commissioner Egil Olsen of the Trondheim PD, and this is Bjorn Johansen, Captain of the Beredskapstroppen."

Franklin:"Good to meet you. My name is Captain Franklin Jones, American Special Forces. This is Master Sargent Takeshi Yamato, Japanese Special Forces and Private Yuri Maksimov, Russian Spetsnaz."

Egil:"Good, follow me please."

They enter the main building. After walking down a long hallway they enter a medium sized meeting room with chairs and a projector. The team sits down and Egil turns on the projector to show the sights that have been bombed.

Egil:"This has been happening for about a month. The hacker is using drones packed with plastic explosives to kill our men and civilians. Some people have been kidnapped by the cultists, for what ever purpose we do not know."

Bjorn:"We received a video from the man himself. Take a look."

The screen then shows a blurred out man wearing a black hood. He begins to speak:"Hear me my brothers and sisters! The time has come for us to return home! Do you not see what is happening? Wars are braking out, people are dying and chaos is reigning on this world! It is Ragnarok! The gods are showing us a sign! They want us to return to the old ways! They want to separate the strong and we must be strong! For too long have we been passive and taught to follow the path of the peaceful man! That time is done! Now it is the time for action! Fear not my brothers and sisters, for the Valkyries shall find the worthy who's soles will live on eternally in Valhalla! Such is the will of the gods! Such is the will of the All-Father!"

The video ends. Franklin scoffs:"What a lunatic."

Egil:"That he may be but he is still powerful. We do not know how many drones he has at his disposal nor do we know how many men."

Bjorn:"We already know he attacks our patrol and gathering sights systematically, so we reinforced them and hold our ground. We have undercover officers patrolling the streets, looking for anything unusual."

Takeshi:"Hold on. Bring out the map of the city and the map of the attacks."

The screen shows the map of Trondheim as well as red circles indicating which places have been attacked.

Takeshi:"So he's only been attacking densely populated and heavily patrolled areas. He wants to do as much damage as possible."

Yuri:"The Nidaros Cathedral. It's the only place that hasn't been attacked yet."

Bjorn:"I'll get my men to organise a search party."

Takeshi:"No. He'll use drones again. So we'll need to use that against him."

Franklin:"What do you mean?"

Takeshi:"The drones aren't automated. He's controlling them. And in order to do that he needs to send out a signal. If I can hack into a drone I can pinpoint where he's sending it from."

Yuri:"But they will explode before you can do that."

Takeshi:"Not necessarily. While they will detonate when they get to their target, they still have to get them. Which means, I need to hack into them while they're on the move."

Yuri:"Are you certain you'll be able to that, Master Sargent Yamato?"

Takeshi smirks:"Hell yeah. And start calling me Takeshi already." He turns towards Bjorn,  "I'll need to borrow your men Captain."

Bjorn:"Of course, but what is your plan."

Takeshi:"Just bring all the men that are meant to go on patrol in this area and give me 20 minutes to prepare the equipment."

(30 minutes later)

Takeshi, Yuri and Franklin are standing in front of 50 of Bjorn's men. Takeshi pulls out a small box from a crate. He addresses the men:"Ok. This, is a signal locator. There are 50 of these in this crate. You'll each get one and use it to locate the drones while on patrol."

A soldier spoke up:"How will they work?"

Takeshi:"They will start beeping when you get close enough to a drone. As soon as that happens, contact me so I can locate the hacker."

Bjorn:"While you're on patrol, the other teams will be on stand by along with Captain Jones and Private Maksimov. Master Sargent Yamato will be aboard a helicopter. As soon as he finds the location of the hacker, we will launch the assault."

Soldier:"Rules of engagement, sir?"

Bjorn:"We'll try and take him alive. If proven impossible, kill him."

Soldier:"And the other cultists?"

Yuri:"Expendable."

All the men put a satisfied grin on. They go and get ready for the mission. Takeshi looks at Yuri:"That was good."

Yuri:"I hope this works... Takeshi."

Takeshi:"Hm. It will."

—————————————————

(Evening)

21:47

Nidaros Cathedral

The soldiers are driving around in cars trying to find a signal. A lot are walking around in civilian clothing.

Takeshi is in a news helicopter. It was commissioned from the local news station specifically for this mission. It wouldn't be too subtle to patrol the area in an attack chopper.

Yuri and Franklin are sitting in a van, waiting for the signal. One of the soldiers becomes curious and asks:"So why are you a private? If you're special forces and have years of experience shouldn't you be a lieutenant at least?"

Yuri:"I work alone. Being an officer means I need to have a team."

Soldier:"But you're working with these two."

Yuri:"Not by choice."

Soldier:"What do you mean?"

Yuri:"If I tell you... I'll have to kill you. And everyone in this van."

They start chuckling, but immediately stop when they see Yuri's serious look. He's not joking. He never does. The van was filled with unease.

Franklin:"Ay c'mon now. Let's just focus on the mission, alright?" He grabs his radio, "Takeshi, you got anything?"

Takeshi (on comms):"Nothing yet."

The soldiers in civilian clothing are walking around trying to find a signal. One of the devices start beeping.

Soldier:"I'm picking up something!"

Takeshi:"Follow the signal! I need to find the source!"

The soldier follows the signal to an alley. As he takes out the device he looks for the source. When he gets close to a dumpster his device starts beeping quickly. He opened the dumpster and found two drones.

Soldier:"I found them! They're in the dumpsters!"

All the soldiers start running to different places. They start opening dumpsters and finding drones. Takeshi works his magic.

Takeshi:"C'mon baby. Work for me!" After a few minutes the drones started glowing in green. "I got it! Triangulating the location now."

(Meanwhile)

Trondheim Havn

A few dozen armed men are walking around and inside a building in the harbour.

Inside a man is siting in front of several monitors. He's looking at the drones.

Man:"No! No no no! How can this be?! Someone is taking my Valkyries away from me!"

(Helicopter)

Takeshi:"Found him! He's at the harbour!"

Bjorn:"Roger that! All units, move in on the harbour!"

The vans start driving towards the harbour. All the men are ready. The helicopter follows along.

(Harbour)

Hacker:"My brothers! It appears the non-believers are coming to stop us! You must defeat them! No one must intervene with the will of the All-Father! Valhalla!"

Cultists:"Valhalla!"

The vans move in and the soldiers get out. So do Yuri and Franklin. Everyone gets behind cover and the shooting starts.

Yuri quickly takes out three men. Franklin takes out two more and throws a grenade, killing another one.

They slowly move in, taking out more cultists. But some soldiers starts dying as snipers from the building on the left open fire.

Yuri noticed this and threw his smoke grenades. He rushes through the smoke and kicks down the door of the building. Inside he finds more cultists but also drones. Hundreds of them.

He shoots two cultists in front of him. He moves forward and five more enter through the main door. Yuri gets behind cover and throws his last smoke grenade.

The cultists try to get the smoke out of their faces, but Yuri rushes through, holding his pistol in his right hand and a knife in the other.

He shoots two in the head, stabs one in the neck and moves uses him as a meat shield against his friend, who empties his clip into him. Yuri shoots him in the head and throws his knife at the last one.

After reloading his weapons he takes his radio:"All units this is Reaper! Do not use explosives inside the warehouses! They're filled with drones!

Takeshi:"I know! I'm trying to hack into them but this son of a bitch ain't half bad! Just hold on!"

Hacker:"You will pay for this, demon! I will not let you ruin our plan! The will of Odin shall be fulfilled and you will not stop that!"

Takeshi:"You're forgetting one thing you nut-job! I already took some of your toys."

The hacker looks to his left and his right. He sees the drones he put in the dumpsters. As they move in closer he looks up and closes his eyes.

The drones explode and a lot of cultists die. The others were shot while they stood frozen and the sight of their plan ending.

Yuri already killed the snipers on the other building. One of them was wounded and tried to crawl away. Yuri walked up to him and grabbed by his hair. As he brought out his knife to slit his throat, the cultists spoke:"You're curses aren't you?"

Yuri:...

Cultists:"Yes you are. You're cursed with strength. You'll forever wander the land killing, but you will never be killed. You have strength to save your life, but not the strength to save the ones around you. You will die as you live, alone. And you will rot in hell for eternity."

Yuri:"I'm fully aware." He then slit his throat.

Everyone is celebrating their victory. Takeshi is laughing in the helicopter, but the he sees a red alert on the laptop:"Oh shit. Everyone run! Get out of there now!"

Franklin:"What's wrong?!"

Takeshi:"The son of a bitch had a failsafe! The drones are gonna blow! You gotta get out of there!"

All the soldiers start running away. Yuri runs back to the door on the roof, but then.

*BOOM*BOOM*

Two large explosions, one in each building. The building Yuri's on starts crumbling. He can't leave through the door, so he runs towards the helicopter.

Takeshi noticed him and yelled to the pilot:"Get us closer!"

The helicopter got closer as the parts of the building started crumbling. Yuri gets to the edge and jumps for it. But the concrete of the building couldn't hold his weight, so he started falling.

But just before it got too late, Takeshi grabbed his arm:"Gotcha!"

Takeshi pulls Yuri into the helicopter and they watch as the building collapses. Yuri looks at Takeshi:"...Thank you."

Takeshi:"No problem."

*BOOM*

Another explosives happens. Takeshi looks at Yuri and starts laughing.

Yuri then starts smiling:"H..h..hhh, hehehehe, Hahahahahah, HAHAHAHAHHAHA!" He also started laughing. And laughing hard.

Takeshi:"Why are YOU laughing?!"

Yuri:"I do not know!"

After a short pause, they both burst into laughter again.

Franklin:"We're fine thanks for asking!"

Yuri:"We did not ask."

Takeshi looks at Yuri and starts laughing more. Yuri follows along. Franklin shakes his head and smiles:"Never thought I'd see the day."

End of chapter 20

Thank you for reading