One wise person have said once - "Big fuck small". And this short phrase is the best description of our current situation.
Yeah, we have got rid of shackles and got our answers. But this wasn't simply enough to purge all those bastards that wanted to enslave us, especially when we are highly valuable but still an "asset" of the Trauma Team. So this situation could have ended up very badly to us, we would be easily grinded by higher ups, simple bounty is more than enough to get rid of us. However, there is one and very important BUT.
There is second part of a phrase I mentioned before - "So I have to find someone bigger than you". In our case it was very very very fucking angry Jeremiah Waters and his allies amongst higher ups. Now, let me tell you what happened after we decided to help him to get his free will back.
Just when brain doc started his magic he almost shitted himself. This is because of complexity and number of brain land mines that even my situation was like nothing. Simply said, Jeremiah's brain was covered in those lands mines like a fucking Christmas tree with toys. Shit, brain doc was in such panic and stress that Jorg had to inject him with horse-dose of tranquilisers to help him calm down. Moreover, we had to keep injecting him with chems while he was clearing Jeremiah's brains. It was like walking on a very thin ice, too much and brain doc will just turn into vegetable, too little and he will probably have panic attack due to fear of failing and getting killed.
However, this time luck was on our side. Brain doc was real professional and he used latest prototype of brain washing device which made it easier for him. But, it still took him a while to finally complete his work. Then we had to explain whole situation to Jeremiah, that took us much longer than we expected.
First few hours he was like a small child not being able to understand a thing. I got quite angry about it and prepared to kill a brain doc who managed to fuck up after telling us that whole procedure was successful. Yet, Jorg took a look at Jeremiah's brain activity and explained that his brain is getting back to normal and slow recovery is due to brain having to fix a lot of damage in comparison to our cases. So he just needs time.
Yeah, great, except that sooner or later schemers will realise that two of their pawns are missing. Then they will initiate search which will turn into a hunt. Shit, hate such situations when the only thing you can do is wait and hope for the best. Anyway, let's at least fortify this place, this will keep my mind busy from overthinking.
Finally after a while Jeremiah has fully recovered. We started bombarding him with everything we knew and provided him an evidence we got from Laurie. With every piece of information Jeremiah started to become more and more angry. After processing all the necessary information he started making calls and requested emergency meeting with his allies amongst higher ups. That is when shit hit the fan.
Someone leaked the information or what is more likely schemers realised something. They have send their troops and hired some solos to kill us before Jeremiah will pass all information and evidence. We quickly got Jeremiah into a safe place and prepared for incoming assault. What is even worse enemy netrunners tried to hack us and stop information transmission. Jeremiah had to pull his own netrunners but first mover advantage was on enemy's side. Invisible fight erupted between two side while we were waiting for enemy aerodynes off-load their passengers.
Shit, now we have to wait for flyboys to come and pick us up since the only way out of this situation is to bring Jeremiah to our HQ. Comms are fucked up, enemies getting close, no reinforcements to save our asses. Great, the only good thing is that enemies don't have air support as it will draw too much attention.
Enemies decided to attack us from front entrance. Seems bastards have very tight schedule so zerg-rush attack is their only option. Good thing that we expected something like this and have prepared positions with few improvised frag grenade traps. Now we just need to hold our position long enough till flyboys arrive, just 5 minutes.
Enemies tried to make smoke screen but we have prepared small fire trap there. After we saw first enemies entering through main entrance Ron and I started shooting at gas canisters placed at both side of entrance causing them explode making a small wall of fire. Explosion killed at least 3 or 4 and injured more but this was just part of a plan. Enemies started to spread out and opened fire. They avoided places covered in fire and tried to close a distance. Just as expected.
"Jorg, shower time!" - Ron ordered and started falling back towards second defence line.
Fire sprinkler system started showering enemies with petrol. Enemies panicked at that and backed off leaving behind a lot of unfortunate bastards that got grilled alive. Phew, we have won us some time but desperate enemies may go for something really absurd and dangerous.
And they did, instead of trying to storm our position they started throwing smoke and incendiary grenades trying to either burn us alive or suffocate. Shit, our shelter doesn't have closes air circulation system so we might really die here like cornered rats.
We tried to reach windows but enemies opened such intensive fire that we had to back off. Breathing started to become problematic, what even worse fire started to spread. Shit, we got outsmarted and now we are trapped.
"Ron when flyboys will arrive?" - I asked trying to not to cough.
"They are almost here but they can't land here. Too many enemies." - Ron replied to me looking at his HUD.
"Breakthrough is the only way out." - I sighed trying to calm down since I realised that this time I may not make it out in one piece.
"Haha, don't worry about that I have a plan." - Ron said to me with a large smile.
"What do you mean?" - I asked thinking that maybe Ron gone insane.
"Just wait till you hear lots of explosions and prepare to run towards entrance."
I wanted to ask what the fuck he meant but decided just to nod and trust captain.
Then I hear a familiar roar of jet engines and something similar to artillery-mortar barrage.
"NOW! ATTACK! WE MUST CLEAR THE PATH" - Ron shouted and I followed him.
Outside of our shelter looked similar to field occupied with marmots due to lots of small holes everywhere except one major difference, lots and lots of dead or dying people. There have been some survivors that tried to fight back but we just steamrolled them and started running towards aerodyne landed close to entrance.
We cleared area of all remaining enemies and waited for the rest of our team get into aerodyne. Finally, everyone is in, they even have Laurie with them. In my opinion we should have left him, he is of no use anymore since we milked him dry for any useful information.
After aerodyne took off I started asking Ron what happened and how the hell he managed to get rid of enemies blocking us.
"Ha, simple. I have heard about this simple tactic used against partisans in South America and Africa. Transport plane gets a lot of mortar shells prepped for impact blast inside a container near the exit . Plane flies over enemy forces with a slight angle so that mortar shells start falling out of container thanks to gravity. It's like emptying a rubbish bin. So Rene prepared a lot of grenades and waited for Alex flying over enemy position, then he just allowed grenades to start falling out container and explode upon contact."
"Wow" - that was my reply. I wanted to ask Ron more but flyboys started doing evasive manoeuvres all of a sudden.
"What happened?"
"We got one of our Trauma Team aerodynes trying to shoot us down."
"Do we have any heavy weapons here? Anything that can do more than just scratch them?"
"Not on this piece of garbage. This is standard civilian version of aerodyne."
"Fuck. Just keep flying towards our HQ."
"You better help us with it. Bastards are aiming for our engines."
Crap, we need to come up with something. Then I saw container with some grenades still remaining and our precious doctor Gregory Laurie.
"Hey Ron, do you remember you said - it's like emptying rubbish bin? Right, I think we still have some rubbish to get rid of."
I explained him my idea which was pretty simple. Knock out Gregory, attach grenades to him and launch him at enemy aerodyne. Ron just grinned at my idea and we started preparing our human bomb.
Gregory wasn't really happy about our idea but good kick in a balls and punch in face made him agree, especially after he lost consciousness. So after he got tactical rig on him we started shoving all our grenades hoping that this will be enough at least repel enemy aerodyne and win us time.
We opened side door and waited for good opportunity.
"Alex, Rene try to get us close as possible!"
"Aye, aye but you got only chance!"
Our aerodyne pretended to speed up but after enemy also started speeding until we were almost equal to each other. Enemies opened side doors preparing to kill us.
"NOW!" - we have launched our human bomb right inside their aerodyne. I saw shock in their faces that got quickly replaced with fear after they saw a hand grenade pin on my middle finger. Their screams of horror ended abruptly when grenades exploded.
"Well, now it is time to get rid of garbage back at HQ and our spring cleaning can be considered over" - I said out loud.
"Yes, we have a lot of cleaning to do. But with you it will not take that long." - Jeremiah replied with a menacing smile.
Everyone inside aerodyne smiled as well.
After arriving to our HQ Jeremiah initiated internal security protocols. Every low-middle manager that was involved or used in secret takeover scheme got arrested and send to "intensive interrogation". High-ups not involved in schemer got quite furious so Jeremiah had full carte-blanche on purge. Schemers amongst higher ups that had been within HQ tried to commit suicide or run away. Only few succeeded to die an easy death and none managed to run away. Most of them had been "removed from positions" and only lucky few "asked to leave their positions". May sound similar but difference is huge, if you are removed it means you will not die an easy death and have to pay a price with your life and more. While if you are asked it means that you will just loose everything except your life.
Failed coup caused a lot of internal issues but for outsiders it seemed just like another power struggle. Yeah, except that this time at least half of higher ups either rot or have nothing except their life left to them. Just another day in corporate run world.
Me and my team got a lot of rewards and benefits for helping Jeremiah. I got all my debts lifted and compensated for all money I had to spend while trying to get rid of brainwashing. Moreover, I also got an offer to get promotion and run my own team since Ron plans to get promoted as well as others also start thinking about new stages in their career. But I declined that offer, I want to become stronger so that I wasn't treated just like another cannon fodder.
I packed up all my things and said goodbye to everyone. Now I am on my way to new heights and achievements.