5:28 PM, March 23rd, 1989.
Location: Fleur-de-lis' car.
"Would you be willing to aid the French people once more?" Fleur asked. "We could use some help with a particularly thorny problem."
"Something you need help with? I can assume it is unusual, something other than regular crime." I shrugged. "Okay, I'm listening."
She nodded. "It is serious. We have lost contact with a nuclear research laboratory and anyone who enters is killed."
"Is there risk of explosion?" I asked quite worried, this could be anything.
"The experts looked over the records and nothing that was fissionable was stored there, but a dirty bomb is possible." She answered seriously. "It was a medical facility, not a weapons lab."
"Okay, that is something. I don't have any ideas about who in particular might do this, but I recommend some heavy weapons be prepared, anti-tank or higher. A lot of the really bad guys are practically immune to anything conventional. And I wouldn't completely trust your experts, people able to make technology do things that seem insane will start cropping up as well. You must have seen reports of that machine that rescued the Gorilla. That is the tip of the iceberg. Alien tech exists that can do similarly ridiculous stuff. The same spark of genius that makes one an innovator tends to drive the owner insane if they face rejection, hardship or censorship. They try to solve all of their problems with their inventions… even if that is a deadly, exotic weapon."
"Do you need any equipment?" She asked.
"A truck filled with steel rods and sheets. If it is magnetic, I can use it freely. To a certain weight, somewhere around seven tons." I supplied.
"Ah… the metal you wore around your wrist as we flew. You use it to fly." She nodded with understanding.
"Exactly."
"I'll drop you off, so you can gather your costume… such as it is. I have a radio here, already tuned to the correct frequency. Ask for directions as you fly, military air traffic control will guide you there. I'll be on a helicopter following. Just wait at the designated zone until I arrive. From there you will be under my command and I have been issued tactical command." Fleur explained.
"Okay. I understand."
7:12 PM
There it is.
The facility is dark. No lights on. It is all glass and white foundation. Brand new, it looks like.
Spread out around the facility are several dozen armed men, soldiers in uniform and several lightly armed military vehicles. IFV's unless video games have deceived me.
Spotlights are focused on a field and the voice on the radio indicates I should land there. I descend slowly and deliberately, to avoid being seen as a hostile.
An officer in a green beret comes to me.
"Operative Metal Storm… correct?"
I nodded.
"Please wait and Operative Fleur-de-lis will be with you in fifteen. That is the extent of my orders, beyond being assigned as your escort. But may I just say… holy shit, kid. I can't believe you're real." He added with astonishment.
"Yep." Floating, I leaned back into a reclining position hands behind my head as I hovered nearly horizontal. "But I'm just a civilian contractor. So who are you?"
"Sous-lieutenant Daniel, sir." He responded briskly.
"How long has this siege been happening?" I asked.
"At 1120 all communications from the facility ended and have not been answered since. We were called in at 1400 by the local police after their initial check, due to the potential for terrorism." Daniel shook his head. "We lost the first squad we sent in abruptly and their relief squad managed to reach the exit before collapsing and subsequently expiring from an unknown toxic gas."
"Shit. That is bad. Do you have any gas masks available? I'm just as susceptible as the next person." I asked sitting up, feeling a thread of doubt.
"Standard issue with radiation and bio-hazard duty. I'll make sure you get one." He added.
As time passed two things happened, a truck stacked with building materials entered my range and Fleur's chopper landed.
She spent several minutes issuing orders as I waited and I found I had been placed on the new breaching squad, at least they handed over a gas mask and ensured it fitted.
The truck was moved to the parking lot of the building, inside my range. And then we entered the building… and the strangest thing… I couldn't sense a single living being in here besides us. No nerves, no flowing blood. Nothing obvious.
Which just creeped me out even more. Something is coming. Metal objects began to move, in response to the sound of our advance, but nothing obviously humanoid… several objects? A squad of drones perhaps? Too much steel reinforced concrete cluttering my view of the things on the floor above us.
I was in the middle of the squad, with Fleur armed with a sub-machine gun at the front.
I whispered our opposition was above us and pointed their exact location.
The soldiers were sceptical but Fleur rolled with it.
"Everyone, prepared?" She asked as we stacked up around the door to the second floor.
I nodded along with the rest, as several dozen hunks of steel hovered outside the building, waiting for my command.
Time to kick the hornet's nest and see what falls out.