Chapter 120: Explosive Assault


    <strong>Thorne - Halls Corporation</strong>


    “Have you guys seen Randolph and his team recently?” An armed guard asked his partner as he strode down the hallway within hispany’s base.


    His partner breathed out heavily through his nose.


    “They’re probably gone. I heard the executives are furious about it and have a fight to pick with some upstart corporation.”


    “...Damn, I didn’t think he would get taken out so easily with his fancy power armor…Makes me feel uneasy when I don’t even have that.”


    “Oh, quit it! We all die someday, no point worrying about it.”


    “You’re right…Not sure why I feel all sentimental all of a sudden.”


    “It’s probably the fatigue getting to you. It’s been almost twenty hours since you started your shift. Go put away your gear and get some rest already.”


    The patrolman nodded and made his way toward a heavily guarded door with two guards standing beside it. They waved as the patrolman approached.“You’re finally off, Omar?”


    “Yeah.”


    The guards nodded and remained still as their colleague walked by them.


    The patrolman, Omar, quickly produced his security card and gained ess to the room with a quick tap. Inside were numerous munitions and weapons, all neatly kept. He quickly unloaded his equipment on the racks, keeping only his pistol on him, and left.


    Just as Omar was about to exit the room, he felt something touching his neck and mouth, and a powerful force abruptly pulled him back, choking him unconscious. His body gentlynded on the ground and several figures materialized into existence from thin air.


    Two men of medium build and one particrlyrge suit of armor exchanged nces as they inspected the armory.


    “I still have the camera ess, but it won’t be long before they notice if I keep it up.”


    “Let’s be quick, then. Polrath, throw anything usable into the bag. We’re leaving in a minute.”


    “Yes, sir!”


    A minute went by in a blink of an eye, and the door to the armory soon opened. A lone man walked out, and the guards turned to him and gave him a nod.


    “See youter, Omar.”


    The man wordlessly nodded and walked away. Once he turned the corner, the man suddenly vanished.


    Just like that, Thorne and his team continued to raid every armory they came across. They weren’t able to build up an impressive stockpile because they would make use of everything as quickly as they received it.


    “That should be thest one. Unless this High Grain Corp was crazier than I thought, they shouldn’t have any more armories on this floor.” Thorne muttered.


    This floor already had more weapons and explosives than normal, as it was one of the uppermost levels. That meant it was closest to the surface where their men must pass through as they made their way to the surface, making it an ideal ce to store weapons for fast mobilization.


    “Our allies are on standby tounch the surprise attack at our signal. Are you ready, Polrath?”


    “Yes, sir! I still rmend we get a bit further away, but I’m ready to carry out your orders always, sir!”


    “We’ve wasted enough time. Get ready to ambush the reinforcements that jump out from the stairwells!”


    Thorne then nodded toward his men and Polrath quickly sent the remotemand from his SAID to all the charges they had set so far. It would alert the enemy, but the explosions would also go off instantly.


    Multiple explosions rang out consecutively throughout the entire base, making everyone in the base feel as if firecrackers were set off. The difference was that it was much more powerful, with the entire ce rumbling at each explosion. Many people in the base were caught off guard and tumbled onto the ground as they failed to keep their bnce.


    Even for those who expected the explosion, the ground’s shaking soon overwhelmed them. Thorne took a knee while his two teammates were t on the ground. Polrath had lost bnce, while Aiden had smartly taken a prone position of his own initiative.


    Unfortunately for them, the shaking didn’t stop.


    The ground beneath them began to crack. The concrete began to split and Thorne could only watch everything slowly unfold with no power to do anything about it. The splitting exponentially intensified, and the ground below abruptly tore apart, swallowing Thorne and his team.


    The fall was short, as only one level gave out. Landing on his rear, Thorne quickly found himself in the middle of a changing room. Unlike the main characters of some stories he had read before, the changing room he had fallen into wasn’t the one for the opposite sex. Instead, it was filled with half-naked men who all wore shocked expressions.


    With the power armor’s protection, Thorne was the quickest to recollect himself. He didn’t wait for his two subordinates to get up and instantly turned invisible once more.


    “Those aren’t friendlies! We have intrud—” A man who only had a towel wrapped around his lower half was quickly interrupted as he suddenly spurted outrge amounts of blood.


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    The people in the room were already shell-shocked from the copse of their ceiling, and the bloody scene didn’t do them any favors. Blood began to flow as various body parts were sent flying away from their owners.


    The few who were armed began firing randomly around the changing room, but they were swiftly neutralized as they were the priority target.


    By the time Aiden and Polrath regained their footing, the entire fight had already ended. They turned to find Thorne trying to pry a door open.


    “Sorry, Polrath. I should’ve listened to you and should’ve gotten further away, but we’ll need to focus on staying alive for now until our reinforcements arrive.” Thorne nced up at the hole above them. “The Nyes show that the path upstairs is blocked, and this door here won’t open. We’ll have to hunker down.”


    The changing room they had fallen into didn’t have much space, especially with the rubble taking up space around them.


    There were cameras around the room, so whoever was in the control room must’ve spotted them and locked down the room. By the time Thorne and his team had taken out the cameras, it was toote.


    Thorne watched the feed directly in his optics of the Nyes doing a pass of the hallways outside. The Nyes showed groups of enemies were gathering outside the room, building a defensive position.


    “They should’ve seen us use our Shades from the cameras just now. They’re probably guarding the door as they gather enough forces to storm us. Aiden, can you get control of the doors?” Thorne turned over to the man in question.


    He swiftly moved over to the door and kneeled beside it to plug into the wall terminal.


    “...No, their cy-sec operatives are on full alert. They have too much processing power for me to go against head-on.”


    “We’re out of explosives as well, sir,” Polrath added.


    “We’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way, then.”


    Thorne then unsheathed his wrist de and sliced the lockers up. He then stacked them to use as cover before destroying the lights as well. While all corporate soldiers had optics to fight in low-light conditions, the darkness could still hinder their perception and target recognition.


    He ced his subordinates in defensive positions and he himself got ready by the entrance.


    They didn’t have to wait long before the door suddenly clicked open without warning. They threw shbangs and concussive grenades inside before charging in, but the cover was able to protect the Halls corporation employees.


    The doors quickly closed behind the assault team, as a measure to prevent them from slipping away while invisible, and Thorne took that as the signal to begin. He dropped from the ceiling he was clinging to and plunged his wrist de into the guard at the very back.


    The vibrode got caught on something inside the guard, so he opted tosh out with a fist to take out the closest guard to his left, who was turning back toward him. The power armor’s enhanced strength sent the man crashing into hisrades, giving Thorne the time to free his de.


    <em>If only I had a de from Ferrumus Corp, it wouldn’t have gotten caught by some cybeics so easily.</em>


    Polrath and Aiden began firing their weapons too, adding to the chaos. Like a wolf locked inside a room with a flock of sheep, Thorne darted around and made short work of the remaining assault team.


    <em>Let’s hope that teaches them a lesson and they stop attacking…I don’t know how long we canst if they keeping at us in waves…</em><hr>


    Izily stretched my back as I stood up from my terminal for a break. I had been coding for hours on end, and it was really draining my stamina.


    <em>Huge props to all those in IT who had to deal with daily overtime. How they manage that in my old world without cybeic optics is beyond me.</em>


    I took the time to go over my messages and alerts and found nothing particrly urgent.


    There was one thing that was interesting, though, which was the attack on our adversaries from the High Gate Group had begun. The alliance had a live feed I could watch from their virtualmand center.


    <em>I wonder how Thorne is doing…</em>


    Having remembered that my friend took part in the operation, I quickly ordered a milkshake before going to my meeting room and connected to the West Coast Agroindustry Alliance’s server. The holographic projections around me sprang to life, but this time, they didn’t depict a meeting room.


    I found myself at the back of themand center, where severalrge screens were disyed at the front, and smaller screens could be found all over the ce with live body cam footage from various personnel.


    The people here seemed to be hard at work, coordinating everything, so I discreetly walked around myself, searching for the screen showing footage of the attack on High Grains Corp.


    As the operation was of a smaller scalepared to the other two, I found a small section of the room cordoned off for this particr raid. The other screens had dozens of armored trucks and fancy flying vehicles, all marching toward various facilities. While the footage for the raid on High Grains Corp was all from the perspective of body cams, as only infantry was deployed there.


    I couldn’t find any of my employees, but I was able to see the overall situation with all the perspectives I had ess to.


    I watched as teams of cyborgs rushed into the underground level of an office building, shooting down the defensive turrets before they could even react. They all must’ve some decent reflex enhancements or they simply knew where all the defenses were beforehand.


    They quickly demolished everything that stood in their way until they made it down a hatch. The assault team was stunned for several seconds before they reported to themand center.


    “...Command, this is Team Leopard, we’re on the first floor of the High Grains Corporation’s base and it’s mostly…rubble.”


    “Team Leopard, you are to proceed with the attack. Quickly find your way down before the defenders can organize themselves.”


    “Copy that, over.”


    I watched the poor field agents making their way into the rubble. Every piece they moved aside had a chance of releasing more rubble onto themselves, but the cyborg trucked on unflinchingly. Luckily, they had the power of technology and their sensors told them exactly where they needed to go.


    It took some time with the rubble in the way, but the assault team soon found the stairwell that was still fully intact. They quickly charged down as the sound of gunfire reached their ears.


    The shots weren’t directed at the assault team, though. The sound of fighting had already begun before the team arrived.


    <em>It must be the vanguards…my employees… What are you guys doing taking such a big risk?</em>


    The security personnel on the other side of the body cams immediately rushed into action at the sound of fighting. From the way they moved, it was easy to tell that each and every single one of them was a veteran who was fully aware of how to make the best use of their cybeics.


    I watched them take the enemy by surprise with ease, pelting them with their heavy caliber rounds while remaining unharmed with their thick armor.


    When their rounds were blocked by the enemy cyborgs, they threw concussive grenades forward before I witnessed a member of the assault force turn into a blur as they closed the distance in an instant. They unsheathed a machete and cleanly cleaved through the enemy armored infantries.


    At the end of their short but deadly battle, numerous base defenders were in and the sound of fighting vanished. The team didn’t waste any time and continued to move forward into one of the rooms. Immediately upon the door opening, they were forced to stop as the room was dark and bodies obstructed their way in, with a small pool of blood seeping out.


    I took a deep breath as the assault team cautiously scanned the room while remaining outside of it.


    <em>…Thorne?</em>