Cliff stood impatiently and gazed at the tall walls that could be seen in a distance. Despite the fact that they were inside the garden of one house, New Birth Fort's sky-piercing wall could still be seen and seemed to have dwarfed the tall fences and walls of the house. Cliff continued to look at his right arm and would check if the small watch-like device he wore on his right arm would flicker.
"Sir!" A soldier approached Cliff.
"The set-up is complete!"
"For the millionth time, man! You don't have to call me, Sir." Cliff gave an angry and exasperated response.
The soldier maintained his serious expression.
"I can't sir. Right now, you have an unofficial rank which is equal to that of a Major. So as of this moment, I have to report to you and address you like this." The soldier gave a frank response.
"Whatever." Cliff sighed.
"I still don't get it. We have rockets and missiles, but why do we have to use this junk?" Cliff asked again.
"New Birth Fort has a system that automatically shoots and destroys incoming rockets and missiles, Sir. It will detect anything with a heat signature and shoot it. This was what made it stand against the armies that surrounded it during the war. Mortars, missiles, and other similar weapons are ineffective against this Fort."
"I still don't get it. Still, I just need to detonate this 2.4 seconds from its launch correct?
"Yes Sir. Colonel Arthur specifically instructed for it to be detonated exactly after 2 seconds and 400 milliseconds any lesser, it would be too far and wouldn't do much damage. Any longer and the impact might destroy it."
Cliff took out his mobile device and opened the timer app. He started it and immediately hit the pause button. It was exactly 2.4 seconds.
"Impressive!" The young Lieutenant complimented.
"This is nothing. Besides Meryl and Alean can do two decimals. Not to mention that Lynd." Cliff complained.
A small light flickered on the armbands of the soldiers.
"It's the signal! Commence Operation Go to Pharaoh and Say!" Golderon transmitted.
Cliff and his team then went on to their battle positions.
Several Exoskeletons zooming high on the sky, zooming towards the Gate. One of the Exoskeletons appeared to have been damaged as there were several charred parts on the armor.
Lander continued to zoom faster and faster.
"General. I am approaching Gate Three."
"Arthur from the Covenant of the Strongest is among the crowd. You must get him."
"I don't play Piercing games. So I don't know why this is important."
"Apparently the BOC's value him and his dad. They were planning to get him during the Stormson raid but he disappeared. So protecting him is important. Find and get him out of there. Otherwise, we can't commence the mission."
"Several of our men may die in the explosion, General." Lander frowned.
"Probably. But if we want to make this look like Lowengren's work then some of our men have to die. Anyway, I'll send the order out. The gates will now be closing. It's time to start this show. Do your job, soldier."
"Yes, sir." Lander sighed and started zooming towards the Fort's entrance.
Suddenly a voice started to resonate throughout the city.
"I will not kill my fellow men!" A loud shout was heard.
Everyone stared at the large monitors on the city but noticed that it was all pitch black.
"This government is cruel as it is rotten! It has decided to kill all Pangean Natives and blame me for it! It has renounced its morals as a country and pursued wicked ends to achieve their goals! They used the love of a father to deceive and kill him and now they plan to use me as a scapegoat for their plans of massacring innocent civilians!"
The transmission this time did not show a clear image but a dark screen with only audio audible. Garland gave a surprised expression as he heard the opening broadcast.
"Lowengren!" Garland frowned.
A video finally appeared. A gagged man was shown. He had a lot of wounds over his body. His legs and arms just looked worthless. As if it was crushed and shot several times.
"Australia! If you kill my people, then I will also kill this person and his entire family! Keep in mind that he isn't the only Bringer of Change I kidnapped! My countrymen! They are planning to kill you! Get out of that Fort!"
Panic ensued as several from the crowd started to rush towards the gate. The soldiers, however, immediately shot anyone who would approach the gate. This caused the crowd to run around in chaos. However, no one could leave the fort as the soldiers kept threatening them.
"Send a ping to all Bringer of Change." Garland ordered.
Several lights appeared on the screen along with pictures of the most prominent personality in Australia. Out of the thirteen, only nine were lit up."
Garland slammed his arm on the desk.
"How the hell did Lowengren manage to kill four behind our backs?" Garland frowned.
"Lander! Move quickly. I'm blowing that place up the moment you get out of the explosion's range."
"What! Sir, he has Grekker!" Several of the soldiers next to Garland argued in surprise.
"Just do as I tell you! Losing one more B.O.C is better than losing all of them! Saving that one is pointless. Send the nearest platoons to the respective headquarters of the surviving B.O.C!"
BOOM!
Several explosions bombarded the top walls of the Fort.
"What the?" Garland gave an irritated expression.
The added explosions caused the soldiers on the Gate to go on full alert.
The large crowd started rushing chaotically and more risked their lives to run through the soldiers in their panic.
BOOM!
Another series of explosions paraded the upper wall. Several soldiers were immediately killed form the barrage of explosions.
"How are we not detecting those!?" Garland demanded.
"We can't see anything, Sir! It's as if those rockets don't have any heat at all!"
"Let me see that!" Garland rushed towards the monitors which displayed the continuing bombardment of the wall.
"General!" Lander communicated.
"Grenades. Their using grenades to cause those explosions. It won't break through the wall. They seem to be using some device to throw these grenades."
"Catapults!" Garland realized. He gnashed his teeth in frustration. The once untouchable wall of New Birth Fort, heavily damaged by some night catapult attacks.
Meanwhile, Cliff enjoyed the fireworks as he stood next to a flat metallic object that would hurl the grenades up reaching the high walls.
"Pretty strong for a small dude." Cliff looked impressed.
"It's not just any catapult. It uses magnetic repulsion technology to throw things. Why didn't our experts think of this?"
"Cool! So this dudes an X-Men!"
"Magneto's not even a part- ugh… never mind." Golderon gave up.
"Well, I guess we need to move with the next part of the plan!" Cliff smiled.
"Sewer team! You're up!" Golderon ordered.
In the dark sewers near the fort, soldiers were awaiting their signal. At Golderon's orders, they fired a larger version of the remote controlled rockets they were using.
Three rockets fired by three different soldiers in three different locations.
The rockets zoomed down the sewers until it finally zoomed out the manholes. Each manhole had a vehicle parked right above it hiding its exposed state.
The rockets swerved with expert precision exiting the manhole and zooming under the car.
The area where they appeared was already near Gate 3.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Large explosions reverberated throughout the city. The sudden appearance of the rocket from under the car did not allow New Birth Fort's defense system to protect itself.
Soldiers were burned up and even the Exoskeleton could not leave undamaged.
"General! Were under attack! We have confirmed three missile hits near Gate Three!"
"Where did those rockets come from?"
"I don't know! The system only detected it before it hit our base!"
"General!" Lander once again called out.
"The rockets aren't coming from the sky! I saw a rocket zooming at an extremely low altitude! It was barely touching the ground! It being controlled! I saw it zoom below cars!"
"It's them! Warfreakz! Lowengren lied! They were all alive!"
Cliff and his team had already switched locations for their next catapult attack. Cliff held the detonator in hand.
"Alright. I'm ready."
"Release the packages on my mark…" Golderon immediately ordered.
The platoon was divided into three different teams and positioned themselves on three separate locations. Each had a miniature canon –like object that would throw the grenades towards the Fort.
Golderon waited for another round of missile attacks to hit another sector of the walls.
"NOW!"
The three teams launched their respective packages together.
The moment the catapults released their load, Cliff watched his timer.
When the timer reached 2.4 seconds, Cliff pushed the button.
BOOM!
A stronger explosion rocked the different parts of the wall. Several large holes could now be seen on the middle of the tall wall.
"Dammit! That's an Area- Eradicating bomb!" Garland cursed in anger.
"Lander! Retreat! I'm blowing up those stupid Pangeans now!"
Lander stopped his rush and went on a full retreat.
"Blow that place up!"
"Sir! But our men!"
"DO IT!" Garland gave an angry scream.
The soldier had no choice but to detonate the bomb.
Turning back time to a few minutes earlier, during the first volley of grenades that shook the wall, Arthur and Meryl were busy making their own preparations. Mixed in between the third salvo of grenades, were two small metallic cases tossed over by their catapults. Due to the commotion as well as the bright explosions and small debris of falling rubble, no one noticed that these small boxes made it over the wall.
It fell towards the large crowd. But before it reached the ground, Meryl caught it.
She tossed one small box to Arthur and immediately the two began to work.
Arthur was wearing a black bag which he found lying in the middle of the crowd. After pretending to be the owner, Arthur confirmed that these were in fact, the planted explosives.
Arthur took out from the metallic box a pair of handguns equipped with silencers. He then dashed towards the entrance while Meryl sniped soldiers from within the crowd.
Their assault was fast and detailed. All shots were headshots. None of the soldiers expected the crowd to be armed and many immediately fell silent without knowing what killed them.
Then the missile attacks rocked the gates further confusing the soldiers. Arthur's speed surpassed a normal human being's speed.
Several Exoskeletons noticed Arthur and started moving to confront Arthur. But then a terrifying explosion blasted a hole on the upper-middle region of the huge wall revealing a hole. The rubbles and sudden confused the soldiers. Using his built up velocity, Arthur then flung bag as far as he can. Immediately Arthur started sprinting backward.
Arthur's sprint was extremely fast and he managed to get out of the blast range.
BOOM!
The large explosion blasted loudly shaking the very ground. The loud rumble sounded and as the dust clears, a large part of the wall was broken down. Soldiers, Exoskeletons and even Tanks lay helpless in the aftershock of the explosion.
The explosion startled everyone. The crowd of Pangean natives looked at the large hole. The blast was just as strong as the Area-Eradicating bomb but did not have the same corrosive effects.
The sudden explosion surprised the soldiers the most. The attacks outside had not shaken them due to the thick and impenetrable wall. But this explosion happened on the inside. The large bang did not happen in the middle of the open field as was planned. It happened right at the very entrance of Gate 3.
The crumbling entrance slowly gave way. The soldiers gazed in shock. In all of their history, this was the first time, their gates were forcefully opened. While the soldiers stared in great shock, the crowd stared at the open gate.
"RUN MY COUNTRYMEN! GET OUT THERE!"
A loud shout was once again broadcasted.
One started to run sprinting out of the Australian death trap. Others followed. Soon the entire crowd was stampeding out of the area.
Arthur and Meryl went towards the ruins of the Gate entrance. And once they were in position, Arthur held a Comm device on hand and shouted the signal to start the next part of the mission.
"Let my people go!"