Fallen Grace

[Eduard]

Somewhere onboard Chante du Cygne - Minutes after the Shuttle's Crash land on the hangar

Meanwhile, just a few minutes after his crash land on the Chant du Cygne, Forlorn and his team reached an intersection, a part where the corridor split itself into four different hallways, each going into separate directions.
Therefore, he had no other choice. He gave a hand sign back to his squad indicating them to halt and took a short break planning his next move. A risky decision as his loud crash would definetly alert the GRN which are no pushovers and his experience made him know that, but he couldn't risk running into a dead end either...


,, Varner, bring me the blueprints! The rest of you, cover the corridor! " He instructed his remaining companions as he peeked around each of the direction the corridor was splitting into


The next moment, Varner, approached Forlorn and took out a PDA from his backpack, after a push of a button, the PDA opened, and lighted up it's blue screen. Then, it revealed a schematic of what it appears to be a Valor.
It was actually the blueprint sketched by Forlorn out of his memory since when he served the Royal Navy, and the piece of intel the crew will rely on in achieving the objective. So, he grabbed the PDA and called a part of his team to join him letting the others to guard them. He then briefed them, pointing at various points of interest he sketched:


,, Bien, so... We appear to have landed here, and by the looks of it, should now be here." he said pointing his finger at an intersection.

,, The intel which we are seeking should be stocked into a main server which is in that room " he said drawing a path from their current position to the designated place.,, There is quite a distance between, mes amis, so I suggest that you should be prepared for resistance. As instructed, fire precise shots, shoot twice, and leave no survivors. In case we are outnumbered we should ... "

But before he closed his last sentence, a loud sound was heard coming from one of the corridors and the next second, one of the soldiers tasked with guarding them was sent crash down on the floor, with a hole between his eyes.
That was just the beginning of the storm as right after the now, lifeless body, a volley of fire followed.

The authors were a group of Gallic Royalists, five of them. It seems like they were sent to seek out what exactly happened in the hangar and they stumbled upon Forlorn and his team.

Being in their current position, they managed to run fast for the wall's cover in order to avoid the volley of bullets and blasters and take anymore casualties.


,, Sacre Bleur! We don't have enough time shooting them" Forlorn yelled.

,, They'll just come again wave after wave. You, throw a grenade! Urgent! " He ordered to the soldier in front of him which stood at the side of the other wall, opposite of Forlorn.


The soldier complied and he grabbed a shrapnel grenade out of his belt, he armed it, and after a quick peek from the corner, he threw the grenade right in front of the hostiles' feet. As if they got their tails tucked between their legs, the guards now ran for whatever cover they could find right before the grenade exploded, spreading shrapnel everywhere, giving Forlorn and his team the perfect occasion to get away from their cover and quickly finish their oppressors as they were trying to regroup.

As moments pass, time is becoming more and more crucial, the more it wastes, the less chances the team has in getting it's job done, and every member knows that.

With no hesitation, after they made their last kill, the team pursued onward heading for the room where the server is located

Ten minutes passed and they reached an arms depot, a large structure formed of two rooms, with dark rust coloured walls, divided by a thin metallic wall and an iron door. The depot stored a considerable amount of munitions and explosives, ready to blow up if any stray shot or bullet happened to hit them


,, Get your knives ready, monsieurs, we don't want to blow ourselves out " Forlorn said as he walked cautiously trough the stashes of munitions trying to anticipate any surprise attack.


The team shortly got to the door and after taking all the caution measures, Forlorn entered first and after he entered, he was surprised to see a Royalist aiming a long dagger, more like a short sword at him. He must have waited for them motionlessly and so, he wasn't heard by Forlorn.

In a matter of seconds, the Royalist carved a deep wound into Forlorn's right arm just before he could retaliate or evade, dropping his knife to the ground from the pain. The Royalist followed with a downward swipe, which Forlorn evaded by moving to the side, hitting a munition box with his shoulder. The Royalist position himself for a strike and Forlorn took the box, and threw it directly into the Royalist's face before he could attack, disorienting him. Given the opportunity, Forlorn pounced for his knife, which he grabbed with his left hand, and thrusted it directly into the Royalist's chest, killing him.

The team gathered around, watching the fight and awaiting for an opportunity to assist, they couldn't jump on the Royalist at the same time as they would have risked hitting each other but luckily, the job was finished. Forlorn’s wound was bleeding, but it wasn’t anything critical, though he wasn’t able to use his right arm properly now. The wound was quickly bandaged and taken care of by one of the team members.

Before they left the depot, Forlorn asked one of his squad members if he had any remote explosives on him. It was obviously a rethorical question as protocol dictates that in covert operations such as this, remote or timed explosives are a must in an agents equipment. Forlorn then ordered the soldier to arm the remote explosive in the depot and detonate it after they leave. This move would give the ONI onboard a helping hand as the Royalists’ access to weapons and armament would be hindered. After that, they left the depot trough a hatch, which apparently, connected the depot to a hallway which would lead them directly to the server’s core, just like Forlorn planned

Caution was invaluable here as they were closing more and more on the Royalist’s critical and most defended positions. Even so, the defence was light, as most of the Royalists were distracted with the trouble the ONI was causing them but, there was no room for assumptions here

Closing in on the objective, they reached another intersection, this time, they weren’t going to take the same mistakes. Forlorn leaned on the corner of the wall peeking in any direction looking for hostiles. His view was attracted by a platoon of Royalists, twenty of them, forming up and preparing for battle. There was absolutely no way his squad could take on a platoon of them and he knew that. Sweat was raining from his forehead as he was peeking at the platoon, and the rest of the squad was standing ready, weapons armed, hoping that they won’t come their way.

After forming up, the platoon took a different corridor and left for another course, it seems like the ONI was a higher threat. How convenient.


,, Tres magnifique...” Forlorn muttered as the final Royalist, at the last line of platoon, dissapeared together with the others, allowing the squad to continue it’s course for the objective


,, Come on, but keep quiet” Forlorn whispered back at his squad, he didn’t want to attract the platoon in any way


Three minutes later, the squad has arrived at the entrace which would lead to their objective. It was of course guarded by a number of Royalists which were quickly disposed with precise shots.


,, Take the bodies with us, they’ll unmask us if we leave them here” Forlorn ordered


The squad dragged the two bodies and entered the room where the server was located. It was a big room with thick walls coloured in a dark, blue metallic colour. The room housed a huge core connected to a terminal. It was exactly what they were looking for.


,, Quick! Varner, hack into the server! The rest of you, guard this place, we don’t want any surprises! '' Forlorn ordered his men as they were checking the room and it’s surroundings


Varner, the one responsible with hacking into the mainframe, took his PDA out, he powered it on and connected it to the terminal, the others quickly took any position and cover they could just in case any Royalist would think of barging into the room


,, Sir, the data is firewalled, I may not be able to get past” Varner said as he was trying to hack the information

,, Of course it’s firewalled, what would you expect!’’ Forlorn replied, frustrated by his soldier’s obvious statement. ,, Can’t you get past it?”

,, There are some data which is slightly less secured, I think I am able to copy those. What exactly do we need?” Varner asked

,, Nommes, List of Persons, Reports, Everything that will give us a clue about who exactly might be infected among the Gallic Ranks.'' Forlorn said

,,Understood” the hacker said as he was trying to get past the tight security and copy whatever he could.

Minutes were passing as Varner was trying to copy the information. Minutes in which, everyone could hear steps and platoons moving here and there on the other side of the door. It’s just a matter of ,,if and when” until one of them decides to check what’s wrong with the lack of guards guarding the server and enter.


,,Varner, have you finished yet?” Forlorn whispered as low as he could so that the Royalists outside wouldn’t hear him


,,Almost, sir, almost” he replied on the same tone.


Despite their silence and precaution, the door separating the server room from the hallway has been opened from the other side. It was a Royalist Officer who wanted to see where the two guards have dissapeared thinking that they have been slacking off again. The same two guards who were actually killed.
Fortunately, everyone hid when the door was read, behind the core, and whatever other hiding place they could find. The Officer didn’t bother looking for those ,,slackers” and so he left in the same manner he entered.

,,Varner, status!” Forlorn said as he was emerging from the shadows next to the door.

,,Wait a second, sir...Done! Everything’s finished. The data has been copied to my PDA and I’ve also sent them to the HC” The soldier replied with great joy

,,Tres bien! Now let’s get out of here!” Forlorn said

,,Sorry if I ask, sir, but, how do you plan on getting us out of here?” Another soldier said as he came from behind the giant core

,,Bon question” Their leader muttered

,,We’ll go to one of their hangars and try to hijack a ship and then get away from this wretched vessel” Forlorn said


The squad complied and the next second, they left the room, with the data stolen.
Minutes later, they arrived at a hangar.This hangar, unlike the other one, was bigger and defended, it had large wallas and a control room, on it’s walls the sign ,,Hangar Vingt” could be read . The squad got splitted into two teams, one responsible of hijacking a ship and taking control of it, the other, led by Forlorn, which was responsible of taking control of the Hangar’s control room and unlock the docking bay.

Still, other than a good number of enemies there was one slight problem. There was no ship in the hangar. And so, the squad had to wait for a ship to come and resupply and launch again for the battle. And so, they waited, adopting any shadow they could, trying to make themselves unseen from the guards in the hangar, waiting the perfect moment.

Their patience has been rewarded. Soon, a Lynx has landed for ressuplies, it has unsealed the hatch so that it will be ressuplied and checked for damages. This was the moment to strike.


,,Everyone, commence attack” The squad leader said through the radio giving everyone the signal to commence this plan.


A most crucial moment, as the squad of six Elite Order men are now engaging a platoon of Royalists in the hangar. The team tasked with hijacking the plane switched from cover to cover, from crate to crate, trying to dodge and change fire with the enemy getting closer and closer to their target. Meanwhile, the other team, rushed for the control room, which was located in the corner of their hangar, shooting anyone in their way.

A blood-gurgling sound of pain was heard as one of the order soldiers was shot down as he was trying to approach the control room. He could not be saved, as stopping in open field to drag him away would make the savior vulnerable thus, he died alone bleeding from bullet holes which targeted most of his vital organs. Precise shots. Not stopping for their wounded comrade allowed Forlorn and his other soldier to enter the control room, which was filled with technicians and a guard.

Forlorn grabbed his knife and sliced the guard’s throat before he could react, leaving the three technicians defenseless. He then coerced them into unlocking the docking bays. They, now defenseless, had no other choice but to comply and so the hangay bays were opened, but only for a limited duration. A duration which was exactly enough for the Order squad to escape, given the fact that they succeed. Right after, the two order agents in the control room have quickly disposed of the technicians. Forlorn couldn’t risk them to cause any problems. After the last technician’s chest exploded, the two then rejoined the other teams in the attempt to hijack the lynx.

After a long struggle dodging the Royalist volley of fire, the five Order agents have reached the Lynx’ hatch which is now slowly closing. An attempt made by the Pilots onboard in order to make this little hijack fail. An attempt which was made a little too late, the hatch was closing too slowly to stop the agents from getting onboard. In a blink of an eye, the pilots’heads splattered as they were shot and the agents have taken control of the lynx which is now undocking.


,, Sefegiru, Forlorn l’ici.” Forlorn talked through his communicator attached to his ear in an attempt to call Sefegiru ,, The operation was a success, we are now returning to space onboard a Lynx. We are undocking from Hangar Vingt...eh...Hangar Twenty. Announce our pilots. We don’t want to be blow up” Forlorn then closed transmission without waiting for reply and then, he assumed command of the Lynx. He really wanted to pilot the ship personally because for him. It was equivalent to a man returning to his childhood.


Soon after it made to space, the Lynx casually left the battlefield, dodging any stray fire from the friendly and hostile forces. When it got to a safe distance, the pilots on board remotely detonated the explosives found on one of the Valor's munitions depot, destroying it. The ship then cruised away to the Order’s Rendenvouz Point and made itself unseen. The operation was a success.

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King Eduard is the greatest