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Contract Killers (Part III)
Posted By: Havok<tactical_havok@hotmail.com>
Date: 10 October 2003, 2:59 AM
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Contract Killers (Part III)
The Chevy Blazer careened along the poorly maintained access road just outside of D.C. The spaceport was located on the outskirts of the sprawling city, close enough for easy transit to and from locations, but far enough away so the hazardous materials in use at the spaceport would not kill anyone in the case of an accident.
Raven parked his truck just out of line of sight of the spaceport on the other side of a low hill. Sims sat in the passenger seat riveted to his computer, which he was using to hack the spaceport's mainframe. Hardly a challenge for a skill as finely tuned as his.
He sliced into the security system and set the Patriot anti-missile systems on standby while they appeared to be active in the Defense Information Center. Now Raven's missiles would have a few precious second's time to intercept the transport before the systems automatically activated and shot down the airborne missiles.
After the Patriot systems were on standby, he hacked into the security camera network and searched for their subject using the mainframe's face recognition system. After a few seconds the camera view switched to a hallway, and their target strode past, security detail in tow. A few more typed commands and the camera angle followed the target to a private hangar where his transportation was waiting.
The transport was a specially modified government envoy shuttle. It had superior engines and upgraded armor, but it was nothing a few Argent V's couldn't handle. The shuttle began its warm up cycle as Dupont and his bodyguards entered and sealed the hatch. The hangar door opened and Sims gave Raven the signal to get ready.
Raven knelt just beneath the crest of the hill and raised a rocket launcher to his shoulder. Beside him lay three more tubes, each containing a liquid fueled rocket with a fifty pound Ultra High Energy Explosive shaped charge in the nosecone. He flipped out the targeting screen in front of his eye. He spotted the transport slowly exiting the hangar. He locked onto the left engine, waited a heartbeat, and then squeezed the trigger.
The missile whooshed into the air on a plume of fire and took off hot on the transport's tail. The shuttle began to twist and turn erratically, the pilots warned of the danger by the high pitched warble in their headphones signifying a lock. Not three second after the first missile, a second projectile flashed out of its tube.
The two missiles streaked toward their target, their speed quickly approaching mach five. The transport had a slight prayer of evading the missiles, as its top speed was a hair above mach three. The pilot was frantically clawing for altitude, squeezing every last ounce of power from his engines, when the first missile came within proximity range and detonated in a resounding shockwave and ball of hot white light. The fragments of the missile's nose cone and assembly tore through both engines, igniting a fire in the rear of the shuttle. The ship lost power and nosed over into a dive as the second missile slammed into the nose of the shuttle. The pilots disintegrated in their seats, their brains not having the time to contemplate the impact of the missile on their forward windscreen.
The entire forward section of the shuttle sheared off the body. The ship spiraled in a flat spin toward the ground, its important cargo intact in the reinforced passenger cabin. The transport slammed into a low hill, digging a deep furrow and shearing off the stubby wings as dirt and rocks splashed into the air.
Neither Raven nor Sims saw this. The second the first missile struck, they were careening down the hill in the Blazer, trying to follow the doomed ship. The truck was showered with falling fragments of the ship's heat shield and windscreen. Sims was furiously typing commands into his computer, delaying the reaction force by a good half hour as heavy blast doors hut all over the spaceport.
Raven was driving with one foot heavy on the gas, and one knee keeping the steering wheel relatively straight as he yanked his pistols from the harness strapped to the back of his seat. He shoved four extra clips into his waistband and slid the action on his two pistols. Almost as an afterthought, he dug into the hole in his dashboard and stuffed a cigarette into his mouth, found his Zippo, flipped it open and lit his cancer stick with practiced ease as the truck bounced and jumped across the uneven terrain.
He watched as the transport slammed into the hill to his left and burrowed into the ground. Raven yanked the wheel to the left; almost losing Sims out the open window as the truck threatened to roll over. They caught air over the next rise and Raven barely slammed on the brakes in time as the Chevy's grill came within a handbreadth of drilling an interesting design into a very large tree.
In a flash Sims had dumped the laptop in favor of a highly modified assault rifle he had propped between his knees. The two hit men leapt out of the Blazer and split up, circling around the wreckage of the Envoy shuttle. The rear hatch was partially fused shut from the rough landing, but was being forcefully wrenched and dented from the inside as the security detail tried to get out. Sims took cover behind a particularly advantageous boulder and Raven stood in the open, pistols at the ready, waiting for a target to appear.
The hatch flew open from a final powerful kick from one of the bodyguards. The man was huge, and might have been a successful linebacker in the NFL if it had still existed. The man's eyes focused on Raven and drew the obvious conclusion. With a snarl of rage, he lifted a very wicked looking sub machine gun and was about to blow Raven's brains all over the landscape when a single silenced rifle round caught him between the eyes, dropping him heavily to the ground.
Sims opened up on the three guards just emerging from the hatch and dropped them just like the first, single shots to the head. He might be a techno weenie, but that certainly didn't mean that he didn't know how to shoot a gun. Raven stepped to the entrance and squinted to adjust for the dim interior. His guns spat three times, killing two more guards. He disappeared inside and came out seconds later dragging Charles Dupont by his hair. The man was barely conscious, but apparently felt his hair being ripped out and took the time for a scream.
Sims took his place beside Raven as the man became more and more aware of his surroundings.
"Had a rough ride?" Sims inquired lightly as he produced a small video camera from a chest pocket
"Who are you? Where are my guards?" the man inquired. He apparently hadn't heard the silenced gunshots that had eliminated his security detachment.
"Oh don't worry; we took care of 'em." Sims replied as he switched on the camera, and focused on Dupont.
Sims zoomed in a little. "Why don't you tell us who you are and what happened."
"Im Charles Dupont, the political Envoy working on the treaty with the Covenant leadership." He squinted into the rising sun. "We just took off, then I think we were shot down." He looked at Raven. "Who are you?"
"Well, I don't really think that is relevant," Raven said in a sinister voice. "But since you asked, we were hired to assassinate you."
Charles froze and his eyes widened. "So what are you going to do with me now?" he blurted, fear apparent on his face.
"Well I think that much is obvious, mister Dupont. We can't just leave you here." Sims stated, a small smile on his face.
"What?" the man asked again, beginning to panic.
"We're gonna have to fulfill our contract, Charles. Good night." Raven said, and with that, knelt down, put the cold steel of the barrel against the man's temple. "This is for trying to screw mankind, mister Dupont." He pulled the trigger.
The contract killers cleaned up the place a little bit, lining up the bodies of the security guards. Raven felt a pang of sorrow for those men. They followed orders, no matter how wrong those orders may have been. They were good soldiers, and Raven did not relish killing men like them. Dupont, however, was a very different story.
Sims made a copy of the recording of the envoy's death, and left one tape in a bag on the body of the former political diplomat. The original he took with him as proof that the contract had been fulfilled. His employers would be very pleased.
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