Categories > Original > Drama > Karin: The Inquisition
Chapter 31
Within hours, they were in Quebec. With the aid of Cleric Team, they were able to get across the border without a hitch. Yuuna was in another truck, leading about half the team in the ground assault that would enter via the Quebec Citadel, while the rest would HALO in not long after the assault began. Kouay Adachi, team medic, would be going with the ground team in case any were indeed wounded. However, she was not sure what she would do for the vampires. After all, they were not human, and she was not certain how to apply aid to such creatures. What she did know was that they did use blood for many things, and so she made sure to have several pints of it handy for them. She had heard something about preference of blood in vampires, and she was not sure she had them, but if they were badly wounded, she figured that they would not argue the point. Regan was also with the crew just in case things were going bad, and she needed to use the Neo-Pactio forms. A ground assault from the top was essentially a spearhead attack, which they would feel the brunt of the foe’s might thrust at them. If everything went well, the A-team should be able to come from behind and put an end to matters. The only thing the two of them worried about was if the A-team could keep to the timetables on the assault. Everything had to run like clockwork, or as close to that as possible. One knows by playing enough chess that, quite often, the battle plan oft does not outlive the battle. However, for them, A-team was a rogue factor. They were not used to working with an actual military unit, and she was unsure if they knew how critical keeping to timetables was. Well, there was no worrying about that now. They would have to adapt, improvise, and overcome if it came to that. What did make the two happy was the call that Karin got right before they left. The Clan Company had finally made its way to the outskirts of Paris, and they had rolled like Sherman through Georgia. They were told to wait until all was in place, and when it was, they would beat down the Inquisition like a red headed stepchild. Meanwhile, 30,000 feet above was the other half of the team being led by Hartley. He too had a touch of trepidation about A-team, but he saw in Jean-Claude a born leader, and he knew that he could get them where they needed to be on time. If not, Hondo could step up. All was in place. He just could not wait to see LefFleur’s face when they lead the ground team right to the foe, and when he stands before the Canadian army general court martial for treason! They Canadian government was very cooperative when they heard that they had a traitor in their midst. To see his downfall—that would be icing on the cake!
Under the cover of darkness, the A-team was let off a half mile from the lower entrances so that they could approach silently and virtually invisible. They made it to the entrance, and Jean-Claude looked at his watch. He had made it with ten minutes to spare. In five minutes, the ground assault would begin. Five minutes after that, they would enter, and then start to take them down one by one. They would use their abilities to render them unconscious, or they would just subdue them. All were to be taken alive if possible. Five minutes after they started, the HALO team would drop in, go through the supply doors, and wreak havoc on the flank. Even though it was early, Jean-Claude had Hondo pick the locks, but made sure to keep it so that any guards on the other side would not grow suspicious. When the time was right, they would then open the door and move swiftly. They had four stories to climb, and they expected stiffer opposition as they went. Five minutes passed, and LeFleur was heading for the entrance to report to the Inquisition. All day, officers around him dealt with him as normal, but there was tenseness to the air, and he was not sure if there was a problem. He would have to tell them to be careful, because there might be trouble. However, he was to make a classic nervous man mistake. He, instead of going to another entrance to throw off suspicion, he went right to the door for which Yuuna searched. They would have to get to the door quickly before it closed, because their tinker man was on Alpha squad, and he was on the HALO mission. The commandant of the citadel wanted to offer his aid, considering who and what was involved. Not only was some group of foreigners coming in on Canadian soil and running some illegal clandestine operation, but one of their own was rendering aid and comfort to what they had to assume was an enemy considering that the United States was so willing to share this information and send aid. When the asked the U.S. about why they were doing this, they said that they had had similar issues with what they called a terrorist group, and when they heard that they were operating in Canada, the old NATO rule of “and attack on one of us is an attack on us all” fell into play. However, Yuuna politely refused, not only because the common ground troop would get in the way, and that they were not skilled enough to take what was, in essence, the size of an infantry company, without loss of life. It was bad enough that this O’Malley was with them, and only because his knowledge of how they would react to this would be valuable, it would be worse with a bunch of infantry that only knew to kill and take ground as loudly and boldly as possible.
Above, the doors opened and Alpha squad plunged into the night. It was clear, and it was easy to find their target. The lights around the city practically outlined their landing zone, and so there was no fear of drifting into the St. Lawrence River. Considering the nature of the mission, there would be no way of rescuing that one right away, and by the time they got around to it, the river may have swept that one away, or that one may have drown. It may have been okay, but they just felt it best not to find out. Both teams readied their weapons, and it was decided that both teams would use their SFAR-20 sub guns so that they could move more nimbly, but this time, they were loaded with rubber bullets. It would not kill them, but it would certainly ruin their day! If all went well, and they timed the jump right, they should be able to catch the enemy with a flanking maneuver and with their pants down. A-team should be meeting them from below, and they could then surround them. Making this public would put a scare into their main headquarters, and they could take them in order. As this was happening, LeFleur was going in the door, and just before the latch could close, one of the team was able to swiftly move up and stick an index card in the crack to prevent it from closing and locking. They waited a minute to let him get in a bit, and they then moved in. Quickly and with great stealth, they shot down the hall. They knew it was single file, and then would cone out. When that happened, they would overlap and fan out along the walls, engaging anything they met along the way. Of course, raising Cain was the main point of their phase of things, but that did not mean to enter in such a fashion that it gave the enemy free shots at you. They were not so concerned about security cameras, because they wanted the enemy to see them. However, they were moving into position before the foe could scramble effectively enough to put up strong enough defense to do damage. When the first foes were entering, they ran into a hail of rubber bullets. Because they were only wearing standard body armor, as opposed to their attackers, their arms, legs, and heads were vulnerable, and they went down screaming in pain. Quickly, more came, and were too busy stumbling over their comrades rolling on the ground in severe pain. Many had fractured limbs from the bullets, but it was of no concern to Bravo squad. Just because they were taking them alive did not mean that they enemy would not get out of it maimed. It was as they were exchanging fire when the other shoe dropped.
“Five minutes,” said Jean-Claude, “Let’s move!”
The last restraint on the door was removed, and the door flew open hard. The man standing behind it was struck hard and he went flying. Before he could react, he was picked up and slammed into the wall. Plastic pull ties were applied to his hands and feet, and Jean-Claude then gathered in the team and told them, “Listen, if you can get them without having to pummel them, use the French for ‘Quiet or your dead,’ which is ‘Silence, ou tu es mort!’ Got it?”
They all nodded, and then began to slink down the hallways, making a room by room search. They moved quickly, only checking long enough to see if there were people in there, and then they moved on. There was nothing on the ground floor, but then they met about three on the next. Two found either the wall, or a foot to the temple. The last had a dagger held to his throat as he was disarmed; being told in French to be quiet or he was dead. They tied him up, and moved on. As they ascended, they could begin to hear the sounds of the fighting above. Indeed, it was intense, as the bulk of the base was trying to take on Bravo squad. Despite the armor, they were having a time of it. There was no cover, and they had to keep moving. They were pressing the assault, but it was slow going. In the back, the base commander was chastising LeFleur, rightfully blaming him for leading the assault right to them, and for not using another way in when LeFleur began to suspect something. It got to the point where Yuuna finally held out the cards for Regan. This was always a gamble, but a two out of three chance was good odds when the results could be phenomenal. Unfortunately, this time, the suka, or dud, card came up. Both groaned and exchanged explicatives as Regan went into what was essentially a Chibi form. Yet, Regan quickly snatched Yuuna’s knife and charged boldly into the fray. This was followed by screams of pain as men were being stabbed in the ankles.
While all this was going on, Alpha team was landing. They performed the parachute landing formation, and then were quickly up on their feet. They swiftly gathered the chutes and moved the wood line. After stashing the chutes, they were making a bee line for the service entrances. If all was going well, this would be the coup de gras on the situation. At this point, stealth was no longer a concern, and they lined the cracks on the doors with C-4 and blew the things to smithereens. “Go, go, go!” Hartley screamed, and they all charged in, overwhelming the few that were guarding the points further down, the closer ones having been rendered unconscious from the blast. The few guards that were there swung around in time to see large people in full high-tech body armor charging right at them. They tried to bring their weapons to bear, but they quickly found gun stocks upside their heads, or that they were being tackled to the ground. Jean-Claude and the A-team ran into a handful, but when they heard the blasts, they all headed up to where the action was. That was their undoing, as A-team moved in and surrounded them. It looked like Black Friday at a department store around the prize toy of that season. Once this was done, they headed up to the second level, soon to join the main fray.
Because the going was slow, Yuuna then decided to pull out all the stops and let fly with some of her special skills. She called Regan back, who seemed to be enjoying herself like a 13-year old teen hyped up on sugar at a Sailor Moon convention. It took some coaxing, but she reluctantly came back. As soon as she was clear, she called out, “Ex Somnō Exsistat Exūrēns Salamandra Inimīcum Involvat Igne! Captus Flammeus!”
A number of the foe within a twenty foot area was suddenly surrounded by a wall of flame. They were screaming in agony for the heat, and she hoped that enough of them would be too hit by heat exhaustion fast so that she could bring down the flame, and then the team could capture the enemy. It had a better effect than she expected. Those not caught screamed in absolute terror, and were now fleeing the other way in complete disarray. When they did, they saw Alpha squad coming down the hall hell bent for leather, guns a blazing, and screaming with a rebel yell that would have made Robert E. Lee proud. For the handful that were able to dig their heels in, they cut to the left and started down another hallway, only to run into A-team coming the other way. These men had only been trained to fight vampires. What hit them that night was so foreign to them that many wished their fathers had never met their mothers. Things were going well…or so it seemed.
Jean-Claude was trailing behind the rest, taking upon himself the rear guard. He was at the base of the stairs as A-team was charging up to engage what was left. While this was going on, the post commander—Pierre by name—and LeFleur were trying to make an escape. As chance would have it, they saw in the distance the A-team going up the stairs. Lo and behold, what was going behind them was something they were seeking. “Wait!” exclaimed Pierre, “I know who that is! That is the abomination with the death sentence! He’s too wrapped up in what he is doing to know we are here!”
“Then let’s kill him!” exclaimed LeFleur.
“No, I have a better idea,” said Pierre, “Leo would love to have him as a tool to lure out the rest and destroy them. That would be a greater prize.”
Pierre was near a room where he kept a special weapon for capturing the leeches alive. They were surprised that it worked, considering that they were undead, (or so they thought,) and they had no blood flow as a normal human. However, it worked, and he was going to drop enough into him to take him down soundly. Within moments, he came out with what looked like a pump action rifle, took aim, and fired. Jean-Claude had his saber out, barking orders, and he swung around to see if there was anyone sneaking up from behind. He found out! Just as he came around, he heard the sound of three blasts of air, followed by three tranquilizer darts to his chest. He looked at his attackers as they approached, wanting to do something, but his body would not respond. They were not running to him, but walking calmly, as if nothing was wrong. He dropped his saber and staggered forward a few steps, gasping and fighting the grogginess that was overcoming him, but to no avail. He spun around and then sprawled to the ground on his back.
In Brownlick Manor, both Mickey and Sheila went stiff. They had seen clearly what had happened, and now they were terrified. Their mother was asleep, having exhausted herself from worry awaiting news. The twins then saw the two men drag their father away and go out the rear entrance, taking him to God knows where. They did not want to panic their mother, so they took it upon themselves to go to Richard, who was also awaiting word. As they went, they ran right into Ren, Chiyuki, and Ai. When they asked what was happening, they just said, “Come with us.”
By this point, the Canadian military was taking over, and a debriefing was taking place with them as to what to tell the media that awaited them on the surface. Everyone was milling around, congratulating themselves on a good mission. However, by this point, someone said, “Say, where is Jean-Claude and Anjou?”
They looked around a bit, and realized that, in the commotion, they had lost track of them. Concern began to turn to worry and then urgency as they began to fan out. They did not have to go far for their answer. Walking towards them, holding a United States Marines saber in her hand, with a look of shock on her face, she said, “They captured Big Brother.”
No one knew if he was dead or alive, if he was a prisoner, or where he was going. Joy turned to thunderous silence in an instant. They hoped that there would not be casualties, but if there were, he was the last one they expected to fall. Yuuna then went to a pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. It was something that she hoped that she would not have to use, and still hoped so. She looked at it, using her imagination to put in the right places the names that would be concerned. If she had to send it, it would read thus:
To the Makka Family:
It is with deepest regret that I must place pen to paper in order to write to you informing you of the death of your husband, Jean-Claude D’Amphile Makka. Your husband gave his life in pursuit of the future he so dreamed of in which all beings of every color, nation, preference, and genetic disposition may live together in harmony, without fear of persecution or oppression.
I am shamed that, due to the nature of events, I cannot presently inform you of the Great Cause in which your husband placed his faith, and for which he fought with dignity and honor, and in the hope of the future of which he paid the ultimate price. It is the task I take upon myself, that at the very moment in which it becomes feasible for me to reveal the Dream that he and so very many others shared, that I will personally make known to you that for which he was willing to lay down his own life.
I feel how weak and hollow any words that I might offer in an attempt to assuage the sorrow that such a loss has placed upon you are, but I cannot refrain from offering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the men and women, now and of the future, that his death has served to protect.
In the short, wonderful time that I came to know your son, I learned that he was a born-again Christian, and it is that knowledge and perhaps a Higher Power that moves me to offer you a passage that I, myself, have tendered to muse upon:
The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper, and the finder of lost children.
In the time between the death of your husband and the penning of these words, I have contemplated upon this, as well as many other sayings, and continually reach the conclusion that the actions of your husband served to shepherd through the darkness, countless numbers who could not find their own path, or otherwise would have fallen victim to the tyranny against which your husband stood, and we continue to stand.
And so I conclude that your husband is with God and the angels, in good company amongst all those others who have preceded him in answering the call of Our Heavenly Father. Even Heaven is improved by his presence there, as he and the rest of his brothers and sisters prepare mansions for those of us destined to follow in their stead.
With deepest sympathy and regret,
Akashi Yuuna, MGySgt
1st Mahora Mage Knights Special Operations Battalion
She stared at the letter for a good five minutes, not certain what to do. However, in a moment of resolve, she folded it back up and stuffed it back in her pocket. “No,” she thought, “He’s alive. They must have value, or else they would have just killed him and left his body.”
She then looked up at the people there who were at a loss for what to do as the last of the foe was escorted out, “Listen up! Certain circumstances have forced us to step up our final assault on Paris. There is no time for rest. We must attack now. I am certain they are taking General Makka to Paris even as we speak. However, by the time we obtain standard transport, it may be too late to go after him. As it stands, it is now 1900 hours, and it would be about two hours before we could get the transport, and then another hour gearing up. By that time, they would be halfway across the Atlantic Ocean. However, do not give up hope. We do have something that we have saved as a last resort, and it should be easy for Uncle Sam to provide it for us. We can catch up to them, and long before sunrise. Yet, we must act now. Hartley, call for the ‘special transport.’ The enemy will not know what hit them!”
Meanwhile, A-team was wondering what was to happen next. However, an unexpected voice piped up, and said, “Is this moping the way that Jean-Claude would have wanted to see?”
They all looked over to see Karin with a stern look on her face. “I have been around him for eight years, and I think I know him well enough to know how he would react to this if it were one of us. We have a chance to go get him. For eight years, I have relied on him to protect me and my whole family, and after all these years, I now have a chance to pay him back. I refuse to let him die! Don’t any of you dare write him off now! As of, what did you say, oh yeah, 1900 hours, I am taking command of the A-team, because I know best how he would deal with this.”
While everyone looked at each other, Anjou then said, “I shall support her, and do not any of you dare try to say otherwise. He saved my life eight years ago, and it is time to return the favor.”
Karin’s she-bear instincts, (that she attained when she had Kannon,) were kicking in, and now there would be Hell to pay. Shakespeare said that Hell had no fury like a woman scorned, and Karin was living proof of that. When Hartley heard the steel in her voice, and resolve in her face, he then thundered, “What are we waiting for! Saddle up and let’s go bust some heads!”
Within hours, they were in Quebec. With the aid of Cleric Team, they were able to get across the border without a hitch. Yuuna was in another truck, leading about half the team in the ground assault that would enter via the Quebec Citadel, while the rest would HALO in not long after the assault began. Kouay Adachi, team medic, would be going with the ground team in case any were indeed wounded. However, she was not sure what she would do for the vampires. After all, they were not human, and she was not certain how to apply aid to such creatures. What she did know was that they did use blood for many things, and so she made sure to have several pints of it handy for them. She had heard something about preference of blood in vampires, and she was not sure she had them, but if they were badly wounded, she figured that they would not argue the point. Regan was also with the crew just in case things were going bad, and she needed to use the Neo-Pactio forms. A ground assault from the top was essentially a spearhead attack, which they would feel the brunt of the foe’s might thrust at them. If everything went well, the A-team should be able to come from behind and put an end to matters. The only thing the two of them worried about was if the A-team could keep to the timetables on the assault. Everything had to run like clockwork, or as close to that as possible. One knows by playing enough chess that, quite often, the battle plan oft does not outlive the battle. However, for them, A-team was a rogue factor. They were not used to working with an actual military unit, and she was unsure if they knew how critical keeping to timetables was. Well, there was no worrying about that now. They would have to adapt, improvise, and overcome if it came to that. What did make the two happy was the call that Karin got right before they left. The Clan Company had finally made its way to the outskirts of Paris, and they had rolled like Sherman through Georgia. They were told to wait until all was in place, and when it was, they would beat down the Inquisition like a red headed stepchild. Meanwhile, 30,000 feet above was the other half of the team being led by Hartley. He too had a touch of trepidation about A-team, but he saw in Jean-Claude a born leader, and he knew that he could get them where they needed to be on time. If not, Hondo could step up. All was in place. He just could not wait to see LefFleur’s face when they lead the ground team right to the foe, and when he stands before the Canadian army general court martial for treason! They Canadian government was very cooperative when they heard that they had a traitor in their midst. To see his downfall—that would be icing on the cake!
Under the cover of darkness, the A-team was let off a half mile from the lower entrances so that they could approach silently and virtually invisible. They made it to the entrance, and Jean-Claude looked at his watch. He had made it with ten minutes to spare. In five minutes, the ground assault would begin. Five minutes after that, they would enter, and then start to take them down one by one. They would use their abilities to render them unconscious, or they would just subdue them. All were to be taken alive if possible. Five minutes after they started, the HALO team would drop in, go through the supply doors, and wreak havoc on the flank. Even though it was early, Jean-Claude had Hondo pick the locks, but made sure to keep it so that any guards on the other side would not grow suspicious. When the time was right, they would then open the door and move swiftly. They had four stories to climb, and they expected stiffer opposition as they went. Five minutes passed, and LeFleur was heading for the entrance to report to the Inquisition. All day, officers around him dealt with him as normal, but there was tenseness to the air, and he was not sure if there was a problem. He would have to tell them to be careful, because there might be trouble. However, he was to make a classic nervous man mistake. He, instead of going to another entrance to throw off suspicion, he went right to the door for which Yuuna searched. They would have to get to the door quickly before it closed, because their tinker man was on Alpha squad, and he was on the HALO mission. The commandant of the citadel wanted to offer his aid, considering who and what was involved. Not only was some group of foreigners coming in on Canadian soil and running some illegal clandestine operation, but one of their own was rendering aid and comfort to what they had to assume was an enemy considering that the United States was so willing to share this information and send aid. When the asked the U.S. about why they were doing this, they said that they had had similar issues with what they called a terrorist group, and when they heard that they were operating in Canada, the old NATO rule of “and attack on one of us is an attack on us all” fell into play. However, Yuuna politely refused, not only because the common ground troop would get in the way, and that they were not skilled enough to take what was, in essence, the size of an infantry company, without loss of life. It was bad enough that this O’Malley was with them, and only because his knowledge of how they would react to this would be valuable, it would be worse with a bunch of infantry that only knew to kill and take ground as loudly and boldly as possible.
Above, the doors opened and Alpha squad plunged into the night. It was clear, and it was easy to find their target. The lights around the city practically outlined their landing zone, and so there was no fear of drifting into the St. Lawrence River. Considering the nature of the mission, there would be no way of rescuing that one right away, and by the time they got around to it, the river may have swept that one away, or that one may have drown. It may have been okay, but they just felt it best not to find out. Both teams readied their weapons, and it was decided that both teams would use their SFAR-20 sub guns so that they could move more nimbly, but this time, they were loaded with rubber bullets. It would not kill them, but it would certainly ruin their day! If all went well, and they timed the jump right, they should be able to catch the enemy with a flanking maneuver and with their pants down. A-team should be meeting them from below, and they could then surround them. Making this public would put a scare into their main headquarters, and they could take them in order. As this was happening, LeFleur was going in the door, and just before the latch could close, one of the team was able to swiftly move up and stick an index card in the crack to prevent it from closing and locking. They waited a minute to let him get in a bit, and they then moved in. Quickly and with great stealth, they shot down the hall. They knew it was single file, and then would cone out. When that happened, they would overlap and fan out along the walls, engaging anything they met along the way. Of course, raising Cain was the main point of their phase of things, but that did not mean to enter in such a fashion that it gave the enemy free shots at you. They were not so concerned about security cameras, because they wanted the enemy to see them. However, they were moving into position before the foe could scramble effectively enough to put up strong enough defense to do damage. When the first foes were entering, they ran into a hail of rubber bullets. Because they were only wearing standard body armor, as opposed to their attackers, their arms, legs, and heads were vulnerable, and they went down screaming in pain. Quickly, more came, and were too busy stumbling over their comrades rolling on the ground in severe pain. Many had fractured limbs from the bullets, but it was of no concern to Bravo squad. Just because they were taking them alive did not mean that they enemy would not get out of it maimed. It was as they were exchanging fire when the other shoe dropped.
“Five minutes,” said Jean-Claude, “Let’s move!”
The last restraint on the door was removed, and the door flew open hard. The man standing behind it was struck hard and he went flying. Before he could react, he was picked up and slammed into the wall. Plastic pull ties were applied to his hands and feet, and Jean-Claude then gathered in the team and told them, “Listen, if you can get them without having to pummel them, use the French for ‘Quiet or your dead,’ which is ‘Silence, ou tu es mort!’ Got it?”
They all nodded, and then began to slink down the hallways, making a room by room search. They moved quickly, only checking long enough to see if there were people in there, and then they moved on. There was nothing on the ground floor, but then they met about three on the next. Two found either the wall, or a foot to the temple. The last had a dagger held to his throat as he was disarmed; being told in French to be quiet or he was dead. They tied him up, and moved on. As they ascended, they could begin to hear the sounds of the fighting above. Indeed, it was intense, as the bulk of the base was trying to take on Bravo squad. Despite the armor, they were having a time of it. There was no cover, and they had to keep moving. They were pressing the assault, but it was slow going. In the back, the base commander was chastising LeFleur, rightfully blaming him for leading the assault right to them, and for not using another way in when LeFleur began to suspect something. It got to the point where Yuuna finally held out the cards for Regan. This was always a gamble, but a two out of three chance was good odds when the results could be phenomenal. Unfortunately, this time, the suka, or dud, card came up. Both groaned and exchanged explicatives as Regan went into what was essentially a Chibi form. Yet, Regan quickly snatched Yuuna’s knife and charged boldly into the fray. This was followed by screams of pain as men were being stabbed in the ankles.
While all this was going on, Alpha team was landing. They performed the parachute landing formation, and then were quickly up on their feet. They swiftly gathered the chutes and moved the wood line. After stashing the chutes, they were making a bee line for the service entrances. If all was going well, this would be the coup de gras on the situation. At this point, stealth was no longer a concern, and they lined the cracks on the doors with C-4 and blew the things to smithereens. “Go, go, go!” Hartley screamed, and they all charged in, overwhelming the few that were guarding the points further down, the closer ones having been rendered unconscious from the blast. The few guards that were there swung around in time to see large people in full high-tech body armor charging right at them. They tried to bring their weapons to bear, but they quickly found gun stocks upside their heads, or that they were being tackled to the ground. Jean-Claude and the A-team ran into a handful, but when they heard the blasts, they all headed up to where the action was. That was their undoing, as A-team moved in and surrounded them. It looked like Black Friday at a department store around the prize toy of that season. Once this was done, they headed up to the second level, soon to join the main fray.
Because the going was slow, Yuuna then decided to pull out all the stops and let fly with some of her special skills. She called Regan back, who seemed to be enjoying herself like a 13-year old teen hyped up on sugar at a Sailor Moon convention. It took some coaxing, but she reluctantly came back. As soon as she was clear, she called out, “Ex Somnō Exsistat Exūrēns Salamandra Inimīcum Involvat Igne! Captus Flammeus!”
A number of the foe within a twenty foot area was suddenly surrounded by a wall of flame. They were screaming in agony for the heat, and she hoped that enough of them would be too hit by heat exhaustion fast so that she could bring down the flame, and then the team could capture the enemy. It had a better effect than she expected. Those not caught screamed in absolute terror, and were now fleeing the other way in complete disarray. When they did, they saw Alpha squad coming down the hall hell bent for leather, guns a blazing, and screaming with a rebel yell that would have made Robert E. Lee proud. For the handful that were able to dig their heels in, they cut to the left and started down another hallway, only to run into A-team coming the other way. These men had only been trained to fight vampires. What hit them that night was so foreign to them that many wished their fathers had never met their mothers. Things were going well…or so it seemed.
Jean-Claude was trailing behind the rest, taking upon himself the rear guard. He was at the base of the stairs as A-team was charging up to engage what was left. While this was going on, the post commander—Pierre by name—and LeFleur were trying to make an escape. As chance would have it, they saw in the distance the A-team going up the stairs. Lo and behold, what was going behind them was something they were seeking. “Wait!” exclaimed Pierre, “I know who that is! That is the abomination with the death sentence! He’s too wrapped up in what he is doing to know we are here!”
“Then let’s kill him!” exclaimed LeFleur.
“No, I have a better idea,” said Pierre, “Leo would love to have him as a tool to lure out the rest and destroy them. That would be a greater prize.”
Pierre was near a room where he kept a special weapon for capturing the leeches alive. They were surprised that it worked, considering that they were undead, (or so they thought,) and they had no blood flow as a normal human. However, it worked, and he was going to drop enough into him to take him down soundly. Within moments, he came out with what looked like a pump action rifle, took aim, and fired. Jean-Claude had his saber out, barking orders, and he swung around to see if there was anyone sneaking up from behind. He found out! Just as he came around, he heard the sound of three blasts of air, followed by three tranquilizer darts to his chest. He looked at his attackers as they approached, wanting to do something, but his body would not respond. They were not running to him, but walking calmly, as if nothing was wrong. He dropped his saber and staggered forward a few steps, gasping and fighting the grogginess that was overcoming him, but to no avail. He spun around and then sprawled to the ground on his back.
In Brownlick Manor, both Mickey and Sheila went stiff. They had seen clearly what had happened, and now they were terrified. Their mother was asleep, having exhausted herself from worry awaiting news. The twins then saw the two men drag their father away and go out the rear entrance, taking him to God knows where. They did not want to panic their mother, so they took it upon themselves to go to Richard, who was also awaiting word. As they went, they ran right into Ren, Chiyuki, and Ai. When they asked what was happening, they just said, “Come with us.”
By this point, the Canadian military was taking over, and a debriefing was taking place with them as to what to tell the media that awaited them on the surface. Everyone was milling around, congratulating themselves on a good mission. However, by this point, someone said, “Say, where is Jean-Claude and Anjou?”
They looked around a bit, and realized that, in the commotion, they had lost track of them. Concern began to turn to worry and then urgency as they began to fan out. They did not have to go far for their answer. Walking towards them, holding a United States Marines saber in her hand, with a look of shock on her face, she said, “They captured Big Brother.”
No one knew if he was dead or alive, if he was a prisoner, or where he was going. Joy turned to thunderous silence in an instant. They hoped that there would not be casualties, but if there were, he was the last one they expected to fall. Yuuna then went to a pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. It was something that she hoped that she would not have to use, and still hoped so. She looked at it, using her imagination to put in the right places the names that would be concerned. If she had to send it, it would read thus:
To the Makka Family:
It is with deepest regret that I must place pen to paper in order to write to you informing you of the death of your husband, Jean-Claude D’Amphile Makka. Your husband gave his life in pursuit of the future he so dreamed of in which all beings of every color, nation, preference, and genetic disposition may live together in harmony, without fear of persecution or oppression.
I am shamed that, due to the nature of events, I cannot presently inform you of the Great Cause in which your husband placed his faith, and for which he fought with dignity and honor, and in the hope of the future of which he paid the ultimate price. It is the task I take upon myself, that at the very moment in which it becomes feasible for me to reveal the Dream that he and so very many others shared, that I will personally make known to you that for which he was willing to lay down his own life.
I feel how weak and hollow any words that I might offer in an attempt to assuage the sorrow that such a loss has placed upon you are, but I cannot refrain from offering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the men and women, now and of the future, that his death has served to protect.
In the short, wonderful time that I came to know your son, I learned that he was a born-again Christian, and it is that knowledge and perhaps a Higher Power that moves me to offer you a passage that I, myself, have tendered to muse upon:
The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper, and the finder of lost children.
In the time between the death of your husband and the penning of these words, I have contemplated upon this, as well as many other sayings, and continually reach the conclusion that the actions of your husband served to shepherd through the darkness, countless numbers who could not find their own path, or otherwise would have fallen victim to the tyranny against which your husband stood, and we continue to stand.
And so I conclude that your husband is with God and the angels, in good company amongst all those others who have preceded him in answering the call of Our Heavenly Father. Even Heaven is improved by his presence there, as he and the rest of his brothers and sisters prepare mansions for those of us destined to follow in their stead.
With deepest sympathy and regret,
Akashi Yuuna, MGySgt
1st Mahora Mage Knights Special Operations Battalion
She stared at the letter for a good five minutes, not certain what to do. However, in a moment of resolve, she folded it back up and stuffed it back in her pocket. “No,” she thought, “He’s alive. They must have value, or else they would have just killed him and left his body.”
She then looked up at the people there who were at a loss for what to do as the last of the foe was escorted out, “Listen up! Certain circumstances have forced us to step up our final assault on Paris. There is no time for rest. We must attack now. I am certain they are taking General Makka to Paris even as we speak. However, by the time we obtain standard transport, it may be too late to go after him. As it stands, it is now 1900 hours, and it would be about two hours before we could get the transport, and then another hour gearing up. By that time, they would be halfway across the Atlantic Ocean. However, do not give up hope. We do have something that we have saved as a last resort, and it should be easy for Uncle Sam to provide it for us. We can catch up to them, and long before sunrise. Yet, we must act now. Hartley, call for the ‘special transport.’ The enemy will not know what hit them!”
Meanwhile, A-team was wondering what was to happen next. However, an unexpected voice piped up, and said, “Is this moping the way that Jean-Claude would have wanted to see?”
They all looked over to see Karin with a stern look on her face. “I have been around him for eight years, and I think I know him well enough to know how he would react to this if it were one of us. We have a chance to go get him. For eight years, I have relied on him to protect me and my whole family, and after all these years, I now have a chance to pay him back. I refuse to let him die! Don’t any of you dare write him off now! As of, what did you say, oh yeah, 1900 hours, I am taking command of the A-team, because I know best how he would deal with this.”
While everyone looked at each other, Anjou then said, “I shall support her, and do not any of you dare try to say otherwise. He saved my life eight years ago, and it is time to return the favor.”
Karin’s she-bear instincts, (that she attained when she had Kannon,) were kicking in, and now there would be Hell to pay. Shakespeare said that Hell had no fury like a woman scorned, and Karin was living proof of that. When Hartley heard the steel in her voice, and resolve in her face, he then thundered, “What are we waiting for! Saddle up and let’s go bust some heads!”
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