Perfect World VR (25) - Command and Conquer

"I think I might have a way to take care of that," Nathan remarked. "You do?... You realize that your earlier suggestion to detonate the Crawler is no longer possible."

"I'm aware. I am taking a more simplistic approach." Elena felt intrigued. Nathan was quite resourceful as a teammate. "Alright let's hear it."

"It's like this…"

***

/An hour later/

The battalion of Tanks that were to attack Leah and Nathan, returned to the Crawler. The barrier protecting it was promptly opened to allow them entry.

At that moment, a black object dropped from one of them and immediately burrowed into the ground. It was quick and the active scanners present in the barrier did not pick up anything.

"Careful now. We can't afford to be hasty. Slow and steady." The dark object manifested spider legs and a tiny drill came out of its top hatch.

With that, it began to burrow its way towards the location of the Crawler. Once there, it drilled its way out of the land and swiftly and deftly, crawled its way into the Crawler's edges.

It was small enough to fit in as it abandoned its drill and made its way to the mainframe of the Crawler. "Do you think this would work?" "So far so good. Let's just be hopeful."

Nathan and Leah remained in the safety of the Mammoth as they remotely controlled the black object. A few minutes later and the black 'spider' found its way into the core chamber.

Spread about the core which was a pillar of nuclear energy, were several Drones armed with heavy artillery. Their scanners were out as they moved about ensuring the safety of the core.

"I don't think it can sneak to the Crawler. Maybe we should detonate it now." Elena's response came across. "Don't worry, Leah. Don't overthink it. Just carry on with the mission. I trust you."

She and the rest of the Squadron had taken up position close to the Crawler location, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

Nathan placed his palm on her shoulder. "This will work." She nodded in agreement as she prepared to finish the mission. The distance between the black 'spider' and the core was a few meters. She would be able to cross it with a maximum of five steps.

She swallowed some saliva as she felt her palm become sweaty. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and then.

The spider was on the move again. It charged forward without a care for the several enemies present. It was halfway through when the scanner of a drone caught sight of it. [Intruder alert… Intruder alert!!!]

It quickly notified the others. "Shit." The spider move faster as she hoped to get to the destination before it was too late.

***Pew***

They fired beams at it, each beam strong enough to disintegrate it if it made contact. Leah controlled the spider to leap ahead and land squarely on the transparent core of the Crawler.

They quickly charged to fire again. "Do it," Nathan remarked coldly. She obliged as she pushed a bottom down.

***Boom***

The 'spider' detonated and blew up the control room, taking everything around it along.

There was a loud sound as the Crawler alarms went off. The shield protecting the area was shut down and the Crawler entered a hibernating state.

The attack had caused severe damage to the Crawler's source of power. Without it, nothing could be carried out, including the very troublesome, production process.

"Now!!!' Elena screamed at the top of her lungs as she charged down first, the others following after. With the shield destroyed, they did not have to waste time destroying it.

Of course, they still had to take down over twenty-five Turrets and twenty Tanks. This was an acceptable exchange for Elena thus, they charged forward.

The battle resumed once again and this time around, Red Wing Thunder had the upper hand.

***

"You see. Everything went well." Nathan remarked satisfactorily as he moved to take his seat. "I guess it did. I'm so sorry, I can't help but feel pessimistic at times."

"I understand. I would be like that as well if not for particular circumstances." The particular circumstance being the system, Nathan lampooned in his head.

"I guess we can only wait now for the good news." "Yep. Elena and the others would be able to take care of the enemy as long as there is no additional reinforcement."

At this point, their work was done thus they could afford to be relaxed. At least, that was the case for a little over a minute when warning signals began to echo from the newly installed Mammoth detection system.

"What could it be now?" Nathan sighed as he got up and moved to the screen pop-up to investigate. A moment later and his eyes went wide as perspiration formed on his forehead. "This is bad."

"What is it?... Is the third Crawler sending reinforcement?" Nathan shook his head as he brought his wrist up to his mouth. "Thunder, call Herald Elena."

[Linking call with designated recipient… Call is successfully linked.]

"What is it, Nathan?... I'm kind of busy." Her voice made it clear that even talking was a chore for her at that moment. Unfortunately, due to the severity of the situation, Nathan could not care less.

"You guys have to get out of there now." "What are you on about?... We have to take down the Crawler, remember."

Elena was at a loss as to why Nathan would say something like that, but the tone of his voice suggested some level of urgency. "It doesn't matter, it would get destroyed soon enough, anyway. You guys need to leave that place, now!!"

"I'll ask again. Why?" "Because an ICBM is making a beeline for your position right now."

Elena was shaken by his response. She froze for only a split second as her eyes went wide in realization. "What!!!... How far away is it?"

"I have no idea. Just get out of there with the others." "This is too much…" She trailed off as she ended the communication link with Nathan and connected with everyone else.

"Everyone, retreat now!!" The order came as a surprise as they had already decided to push the Crawler but they chose not to argue as they followed Elena's words.

King and Gary protected their backs as they made a run for it. In the Mammoth, Leah had her eyes on the screen depicting the approach of an ICBM. She remained speechless as she stared.

"How can these guys be spamming ICBM's like they are casual bombs. This is crazy." Nathan was confused as he scratched his head to make sense of what was happening.

At that moment, the Mammoth alarms reached a peak as the ICBM came within proximity of it. Thankfully, it passed overhead and continued towards the Crawler location.

"You guys have only thirty seconds left!!" Nathan screamed into the intercoms as he watches the missile move past them.

"Run!!" Elena yelled as she picked up the pace. Alas, thirty seconds was not enough time to create distance between themselves and the missile target which was the entirety of the area where the Crawler had made its territory.

***Boom***

A massive explosion caused dust to rise into the sky, creating a mushroom design. "Ah… Did they get caught?" The explosion knocked Leah out of her frozen state. Nathan slowly shook his head. "I have no idea."

They were left with no choice but to head toward the site to figure out what the outcome was.

The dust cloud cleared to reveal the area void of life as the machine units were destroyed without a trace. Unfortunately, there was no sign of Red Wing Thunder.

"What are we going to do now?" Nathan merely looked over the scenery before he caught sight of what looked a lot like a depression in the landscape, several meters away from the impact point of the missile.

They quickly headed over to it. Nathan and Leah disembarked from the Mammoth and approached the depression by foot when their wristwatches buzzed. "Nathan, Leah… Are you guys out there?"

Nathan heaved a sigh of relief and Leah burst out in a nervous laugh as they rushed over to the depression to find all their squad members safe, for the most part.

"Whew, I was worried. I thought you guys were goners." Nathan said without thinking. No one took offense, save for say, Jeremy, no surprises there.

Elena pointed at an unconscious squad member with a hammer in his left hand. Victor was holding him up. "He used up his entire tachyon core gauge to charge up his hammer and create this depression for us to hide in and cover-up to protect ourselves from the blast."