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Chapter 67 - Defending the Cargo

Chapter 67 – Defending the Cargo

Vertigo Town, Arlington County, VA
Tuesday, May 12, 2076
13:34 EST GMT-5

Ace: Getting the gear and vehicles from the arena wasn't that hard, nor was collecting the security passes from Ross' office. Next thing you know, our radio began to buzz.

"This is Shelley!" said Shelley over the radio. "Austin, I need your help. We can carry a special cargo carrying radioactive material to the mutant lair. They're very insensitive to nuclear waste, but we can't escort it with the mutants and the Battalion men trying to get to it."

"Roger that! We'll be there, ASAP!" I said over the radio.

As if the shield walls going down wasn't already bad enough. But hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Wasting no time, me and Ranger headed to Shelley's bar. It was a pretty tough walk, as we were literally going through a war zone, pitted with mutants, robots, military and citizens trying to fight off the threats.

"We gotta double time this!" I spoke. "For Aurora!"

"For Aurora!" said Ranger.

We then arrived at Shelley's Bar. Conveniently enough, Shelley was already waiting outside, with Nelson and Lauren. I was amazed.

"What are you two doing here?" I asked.

"We're here to assist in fending off the escort." Nelson said.

"We're also providing the citizens more weapons to help us." Lauren added.

"Let's do this!" I exclaimed.

With that, Shelley placed the boxes containing nuclear waste onto the hover-ship, which was bound to fly out of the city, towards the mutants' lair. Then she got the defense turrets on the hover-ship ready. Everything was good to go.

"We can get this transport to the mutant's lair, but it'll take a few hours." Shelley said. "So, I am sending this to Lauren, she'll have it sent to their lair."

"However, we need y'all to defend the cargo from the oncoming mutants." Nelson said.

"That's fine! Anything to help the people!" I said with determination.

"So now what?" asked Ranger.

"We can shoot off the mutants." Ross said. "We'll need the extra firepower."

"Look out! The mutants are on to us!" said Nelson.

I got my weapons ready. Next thing you know, I saw him. It was Gallagher, he was working with the mutants. I then began blazing my guns, shooting every mutant I saw. I fired at Gallagher as well, his armor was impenetrable, but I saw that it was taking damage, even if small. We moved towards the transport, slowly but gradually, fighting off the mutants, and Gallagher himself.

"Keep shooting!" Ranger shouted.

"Shoot 'em all now!" I added. "Sort 'em out later! Don't bother asking questions!"

Yeah, it was on full-swing all right. We just kept those mutants and robots at bay, until finally we arrived at the transport. We then loaded the cargo carefully onto the transport pad, and thus the hover-ship began to fly away. Nelson, Lauren and Shelley got on the transport.

"We'll meet you two at the mutant's lair, be careful!" said Shelley.

My communicator then began to beep.

"Ace, here!" I said as I activated the small beacon.

"Ace..." said Javier in pain. "Jerry... construction site..."

"Javier? Do you copy?" I asked frantically. "We need to get moving, Javier is in trouble."