The Trial of Juno Saga [PG-13]

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 26
A Whisper in the Dark

I had been the first to descend toward the ground and land softly on the rocky, slate gray-colored terrain. Soon after, Vice and Rackal and their Pidgeot mounts headed toward the ground. As the large, crested birds approached the dirt, they flapped their wings harder to ensure a safe landing for their riders. Vice and Rackal had dismounted and told their Pidgeots to hide in a safe place, using an empty shipping container to keep themselves safe and out of sight. Blitz remained right behind me, anxiously looking in all directions for anyone that might suddenly try to ambush us.

Everywhere around us, there were large, rectangular shipping containers in large piles with row after row of warehouses. For now, things seemed quiet here, but that could change quickly if they figured out where we were. Rackal and Vice got their Pidgeots to hide in one of the containers.

“That damn idiot!” Rackal exclaimed in bitterness. “What the hell was he thinking? Lahanas could have gotten us all killed!”

“Well, he's dead now,” Vice replied to Rackal as he gripped his Torchclaw caliber rifle tightly in his claws. “Forget about them. Hopefully these sons of biches think Lahanas and Stevex were the only ones attacking."

Around us, I could hear the faint sound of alarms. I couldn’t believe it. How were we supposed to do this with the entire base on full alert? And I didn’t even know where the missile silos were. If we waited any longer, we were going to be too late. Even retreating would be risky, and I knew Kamax would never forgive nor forget such an embarrassing failure.

“Well, Juno…” Vice said firmly, looking solidly into my eyes, “…it’s your call, squad leader. I hope you know what you’re doing.”

As if I needed even more pressure and stress right now. Still, I knew panicking or crying like a baby wasn’t going to do anything. I felt like I still knew barely anything about Kivistal, and here I was trying to take on one of the most impossible missions the Silver Rebellion has had to deal with.

"I'll keep a watch on these two birds," Blazewing volunteered. "If something were to happen to them, well, there's no way I could fit all four of you on my back. Unless I'd like my spine to look like a pretzel."

I nodded, figuring these two Pidgeots were almost defenseless without riders.

I then looked behind me, and saw the two metal doors of the warehouse. Hanging above was a chain with a lock around it.

“Do you think you can cut that lock open?” I asked Vice, looking upward at the lock.

“Oh, give me a break,” Vice replied, nearly laughing. “That? That’s nothing…”

He had leapt up, and with a furious swipe of his claw, the chain was sliced in half with a metal shrieking sound, and the two halves of the chain fell to the sides and lay limply handing by the door.

“Let’s see what’s inside.” I told them, grabbed the metal door and pushing it to the side. "In the meantime, maybe it'll get those alarms to die down."

But it was too big for me to move on my own. Then, Rackal and Vice had helped me push the door open. Soon enough, the large metal doors loudly rattled along the metal tracks and crashed when they hit the end. It made much more noise than I thought.

“Guys... contact at 12 o' clock...!” Blitz exclaimed nervously.

And then I heard a shout in the distance. I could see in the distance a group of silhouettes heading right for us from between an alleyway of warehouses.

“Get your butt inside!” I shouted to them, making my way in.

"Just perfect," Vice grumbled as he rushed into the warehouse. "Don’t mind me asking, my valiant and prestigious squad leader, but why did we open this again?”

I didn’t have time to answer that as we quickly made our way into the warehouse, which was loaded with hundreds of wooden crates and metal boxes. I was hoping to stay hidden long enough to get the base's guard down, but obviously luck wasn't on my side today. We quickly made our way around a pile of crates and stood behind them, weapons drawn. Vice stood firmly crouched behind a small pile of boxes with his caliber rifle ready and pointed at the opening, just waiting to ambush anyone that came through there. Meanwhile, Rackal and Blitz stood side by side, both hiding with our weapons drawn and ready to fire.

“Well, if isn’t it a beautiful day in the neighborhood,” Vice commented sarcastically. “How the hell are we supposed to get out of here?”

“Simple,” I said to the three of them. “We kill everyone who knows we’re here.”

Recommended Listening: Dos Brains - Lone Survivor

I then heard chatter from behind the warehouse door, and soon enough, two Pokémon soon came into view. We soon saw the black and great wolf-like Mightyena, followed by a patrolling Gabite armed with what looked like a Leadhammer. The blue and red shark-like bipedal dragon was looking around, trying to see if he could find us. I held up my paw, giving the signal to hold fire. I didn't want anyone shooting unless we really had to, because if we did, it was going to make a whole lot of noise and make it obvious Lahanas and Stevex weren't working alone.

"Come on..." Vice whispered, thinking we might as well attack, "they already know we're in here."

I could tell the Mightyena was trying to sniff us out, and then, soon enough, they were joined by a muscular Conkeldurr armed with a large Slugger machine gun. We just kept watching the three of them, but if they entered the warehouse, I had no choice but to have everyone open fire.

"She smells somethin'," the Gabite told the Conkeldurr. "Rebel flesh, probably."

"Scouts reported seeing five or six potential targets," The Conkeldurr told him. "We were able to confirm a few kills, but we're not sure we got all of them."

As they were distracted by their conversation, the Mightyena moved into the warehouse. I knew she had detected us, and it was too late.

"I don't think we-"

Right then and there, I gave the signal. Almost immediately, the warehouse was filled with the violent, thrashing hammering of gunfire. With the four of us shooting first, the Gabite and the Conkeldurr didn't have much time to look up before they were suddenly pummeled by a storm of gunfire.

My Firefang submachine gun shook in my hands, but I was able to keep it braced against the crate I was firing from. The Mightyena didn't even get the chance to bark before she was violently gunned down.

The Gabite quickly tired to return fire, but his chest, face, and shoulder were hit repeatedly as he was out in the open with no cover. The Conkeldurr, however, was able to take bullet after bullet and still grin off the pain with a demonic sneer.

I quickly needed to reload, ripping out the first Firefang magazine, tossing it aside, and then loading in a fresh one. The Conkeldurr returned fire using the heavy Slugger machine gun, and immediately the four of us took cover as the heavy bullets nearly tore and pierced everything in the warehouse. Metallic shards, dust, and debris went flying everywhere as the heavy barrage of bullets tore through everything.

"Ha, ha!" the heavy, tan-skinned Conkeldurr laughed in between suppressing fire rounds. "Eat lead and die, you rebel bastards! Your puny weapons can't harm me!"

He opened fire again, and I knew all that damn noise was going to summon the entire base down here. A nearby metal crate was reduced to a misshapen lump of metal while half the warehouse wall was ripped apart.

As much as I wanted to zap him with a Thunderbolt, any kind of electric attack was going to create a spark and easily reveal our position with the flash of light. And with that kind of gun, he didn't even need to be a sharpshooter. He could spray the general area and it would be enough.

Vice opened fire, taking an opportunity to attack while the Conkeldurr was looking at the other side of the warehouse. Many of the bullets dug their way into the muscular Pokémon's shoulder, and then I took action.

"Drop him!" I shouted.

All four of us opened fire, stuffing his already bullet-lacerated body with even more ammunition. Even with both of his eyes shot out, he tried to lift the heavy machine gun and hope firing randomly would do the trick. And then, just as he lifted the gun to fire, his skull was broken open from too much damage. He let out an angry howl before he collapsed on top of his heavy machine gun.

I couldn't believe it. I was already running horribly low on ammunition and we had accomplished absolutely nothing during our time here. I only had what was left in my current magazine and one more mag in reserve, and that was it for the entire mission.

“I think we found them!”

The sudden appearance of a shouting Dewott and a Wartortle made me snap to attention.

“You most certainly did.” Vice laughed as he pulled the trigger on his rifle.

Vice and I opened fired upon the blue otter Dewott and Wartortle, blasting them with heavy and loud gunfire. The water turtle's shell was instantly cracked and broken in multiple places while jagged, grizzly holes were torn through the Dewott's flesh, forcing them to the ground as they helplessly dropped their weapons. I could already tell more were going to start rushing in here like crazy.

We waited patiently, hungrily grasping our firearms in a rush of carnage and just waiting for something to move in the doorway. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a black Grumpig had poked his head out from the right side of the doorway, whipped out another Leadhammer rifle, and began firing at us before we could even respond. I crouched down as fast as I could as bullets splintered the wooden crates around us. When the gunfire stopped, I peeked one more time, and I saw nothing.

"Get some god-forsaken reinforcements over here!" The purple and black pig shouted angrily.

Then, I saw him come out once more, firing furiously. I had aimed my rifle right at him, when suddenly a sharp blast of electricity blasted out and struck the Grumpig in the face, striking him with enough voltage to paralyze him. Once the blast of glowing blast of white and blue electricity had ceased, the Grumpig lay on the ground, twitching just before Vice followed through with a Dark Pulse attack, launching a dark, shadowy wave of night-black fury upon the fallen Grumpig. The attack was hideously agonizing to the squealing pig soldier before Vice finished him off with the few last shots of his Torchclaw.

"I'm out!" Vice shouted, throwing aside his empty firearm. "I sure hope the rest of you-"

And he was instantly cut off when we had to open fire on yet another Crimson Stars soldier, a Patrat that was within seconds of shooting Vice in the middle of talking. The small, chipmunk-like Pokémon took two shots to the stomach and then one right in the forehead before stumbling backward and collapsing on his back, instantly bleeding out.

Vice quickly backed off and took to cover again.

"I sure hope to god we don't have to kill half of Macomb before we can get the hell out of here!" Vice complained, hating where this was going.

I threw my empty Firefang submachine gun aside, now completely out of ammo. When I turned to Blitz and Rackal, I could see Blitz had run out a while ago and Rackal was already on his last mag.

"Let's grab their stuff and get out of here, before they bring in something even worse," I told the others, knowing this could become a deathtrap if we remained here with all these dead bodies. "Grab what you can, and let's run."

They nodded, and we were quick to head out of cover and grab whatever fallen soldier's weapon we could. Blitz managed to grab the Patrat's Scab submachine gun, Rackal picked up the Grumpig's Leadhammer, Vice got the Leadhammer from the Dewott, and I had to settle using the Leadhammer from the Gabite. To me, this thing was like a heavy machine gun for my size, but it was better than nothing. I took as many spare mags as I could.

I peeked outside, trying to see if the coast was clear. For now, things seemed to quiet down, but that didn't mean there wasn't a patrol heading down this way.

“Let’s get out of here,” I told the three of them. “We’ve got to find those missile silos before they decide to launch…”

“Okay, man,” Vice replied, getting set to leave. “Let’s blow this joint.”

The four of us moved past the door and beyond the pile of bodies back into the outside. I was the first to look out left and right to see if anyone was waiting for us. But something seemed strange. I could have sworn there were more Crimson Stars soldiers approaching us when we headed for the warehouse…

I then realized they were likely waiting at the end of the warehouse, ready to ambush us. I then decided to use one of my other weapons. Inferno grenades. I was just about to grab the one around my belt when…

“You sure about that, man?” Vice asked me, looking at me with a peculiar look in his eyes.

“Yeah, I know they light up the place like there’s no tomorrow,” I replied to Vice. “But chances are they’re waiting behind the warehouse to ambush us.”

“Well…whatever,” Vice replied. “But don’t be surprised if this whole district starts going up in flames.

"Good," I told him. "This whole place going up in flames would make a nice distraction."

He was quiet, and so I reached for the Inferno grenade, and pulled it off. Once I had pulled out the tiny latch that triggered the timer, I threw the grenade furiously ahead of me, and it landed right at the intersection. After I heard a few muffled screams, I heard a loud explosion, and everything was instantly bathed with a fiery orange and red glow. When I had turned to look ahead, I saw the intersection was covered with raging flames that relentlessly consumed everything in their path. Whatever had been waiting there was likely burnt to a crisp…

“I sure hope there's something nice and explosive in that warehouse you just set on fire," Vice grinned wickedly.

We had turned around, since heading forward was going to be impossible. We kept as low as we could, using the massive fire as a distraction to divert attention away from us. Enemy soldiers were flocking toward it, trying to douse the flames and save their precious weapon stockpiles and ammo dumps as we passed warehouse by warehouse undetected. Meanwhile, I figured they probably thought we were close to where the carnage was and were focusing our attack entirely around there.

While trying to keep a low profile, sneaking around warehouses, we heard something explode, and after looking at the fiery chaos, it looked like some kind of ammo stockpile hold was causing the ammunition to get set off from the fire. Explosions that big... I figured they had to be either tank shells or small missiles going off.

Still, now I was in a predicament. I had never seen a missile silo in my life, so I wasn’t completely sure where to find it. But, I knew enough where they would be in the back of the complex, kept away from the front.

After we passed the district, we came across two large metal floors in the ground. They were tan-colored to match the color of the dirt so they would be nicely hidden, camouflaged to make it look like they were never there. There was absolutely no one around, which seemed pretty strange to me.

“I think…” Rackal said in disbelief, “…these are the missile silos. There should be a way to get underground somewhere around here.”

My instinct told me to look for something that wasn’t just another warehouse, and soon I had found what I had been looking for. It was a small metal building, with a thicker coat of metal around it.

“I think it’s over there,” I pointed to the building. “It's way too small to be supply storage.”

“Yeah, I think Juno is right,” Rackal replied, seeing the building I was pointing to. “That should be the elevator.”

We had made our way over to the small metal building, keeping low and under cover, even though it seemed unnecessary. Did the Crimson Stars think we were already dead? It seemed awfully weird for no one to be around. Still, I looked back for a moment to see how the fire was eating up the warehouses. Another one of them suddenly exploded several times over, spreading the fire even further. I figured the tank shells and other explosives that were kept in there were going off, making the situation even worse and even dangerous for even water Pokémon to try and douse the flames. From all the noise and explosions, they probably thought we were still there and that's where all the fighting was when really it was just their ammo dumps going off in the fires.

Once we had arrived at the single metal door that was the building’s entrance, we saw the door required a security access code to be entered into a keypad besides the door handle.

“Oh, great,” Blitz muttered with sarcasm. “What the hell do we do now?”

Rackal had taken his hand, slapped it right on the keypad, and directed a tremendous blast of electricity right into it. The keypad was instantly fried, and after Rackal put the hand down, he slammed the keypad with his fist, breaking it into pieces. Suddenly, the metal door slid open, and we just stared at Rackal with a look of shock on our faces.

“Geez, man,” Vice remarked in surprise, backing away a bit. “No need to lose your cool.”

“Come on!” Rackal exclaimed. “We don’t have all night to do this…”

And then, the four of us entered the dark, metal building. I could only hope we were going to get out of this dark chamber alive…