Hacking the Sun - The Re-Remake

Chapter 26 Demon of Dissent 1/3

Jessica was already floating to the 82nd floor, skipping past Monarch and his as they scrounged the divided blocks. They were searching—so far as she could tell—every nook and cranny of Goliath Headquarters. Beelz and her team had to be above the rest.

Past the sensations of weightlessness and wind, she entered the 82nd floor through a gaping hole in the wall, to land on scattered chunks of more wall. She was welcomed by muzzles, again, Gemini Squad's assault rifles. Clad in dark greens and their weight's worth of gear, they lowered their weapons as soon as a black figure stepped at their behest.

She wore slick plates on long legs leading up a utility belt of magazines and other gadgets; then black on a bulletproof vest, all the way up the headphones. Eyes below red hair harbored a burning evergreen. Beelz, stoic, pensively ticked her handgun against forehead goggles.

"Let me guess; 'You're lucky we didn't shoot you'?" Jessica mocked. "That's what you were going to say, right?" She stood up and faced down Beelz's entourage. Meanwhile, Shannon and Valerie tumbled inward, pedaling frantically to control their gravity boots until they unceremoniously hit the floor on either side of her. The fall failed to stop either of their gripes.

"Do that again, Jess, and I will murder you!" Shannon said.

"You crazy ass Puerto Rican!" Valerie jeered.

Neither could muffle the sound of encroaching airships.

"Step away from the windows," Beelz ordered.

Eyeing the redhead, Jessica and her friends stepped further into the damaged room and watched as two gunmen set down a mysterious box. One button-press later, the box sprouted a tripod with a mounted turret.

Beelz held her earphone. "We're transmitting the data." She was likely contacting  Amon and Boros on a separate line. It may have had something to do with the man on the terminal behind her, stealing data. She was still thinking ahead, about the long war.

"Ships will be in range soon," somebody warned.

"Engage noise dampeners." Beelz clicked her headphones. Her squadmates pressed hidden buttons underneath their helmets, spawning blue LED lights on their visors. Their commander then gestured with a two-finger point, as soon as she made eye contact with Jessica. "There's an Asgard squad above us" she warned. Two squadmates took cover by the turret, the rest scattering throughout the room as she lowered her goggles.

A series of loud bursts carved holes in the ceiling, from which multiple grenades dropped. Jessica dived with Shannon and Valerie behind the nearest desk, evading the rumble and thunder. The grenades started spewing smoke when lines of rope unraveled from the ceiling and windows.

"Asgar—"

Beelz thrust Jessica to the ground and tossed a grenade with the other hand. "Cover your ears!"

Jessica punched her own earlobes when the sphere bounced from the ground to the ceiling to the wall, around the room, at high velocity. It fiercely echoed and stirred the eardrums so terribly that, when Asgard descended via cables, their surroundings devolved into a chaotic quagmire. The enemy covered their ears, yelping, one after another blasted off their cables by Gemini gunfire. The action was so automatic, Jessica almost scrunched her shoulders into fracturing. Beelz's team gunned down every Azarean despite the smokescreen.

The gunfire eventually stopped, and Beelz's voice reentered comms. "Our units on the ground are going to have trouble."

From all around, airships descended and hitched beside the occupied floors to retrieve anyone who would not or could not stay. Their proximal engines stirred mild tremors along the tower beams.