As Lee practically marched them out of the server room and back down the hall (Selina taking care to avert her eyes from the two Wardens still sprawled dead on the floor), for once it didn't occur to her to argue.
"Ms Hernandez. You're welcome to begin at any time."
"I... of course Colonel." Selina replied meekly. In this at least, Lee was right. To hell with clearance! Whoever was attempting this assault clearly had access to technology originating from Project Condor. Improved technology, if it could hoodwink RACDI-Alpha's improved counter-measures. That was technology no-one, not the Songbirds or anyone else was supposed to have; and Le Saux...
There was a lot going on here that had passed right beneath Selina's nose, and she was just as invested in learning how it had happened, and stopping it, as Lee was.
"A group known as the Songbirds have been claiming responsibility for terrorist activities around the globe for almost a decade now." she continued "Up until now, there was nothing to class them as a major threat. Guerilla activity in a few contested regions, a handful of bombings, and the odd minor political assassination. Nothing linked back to them ever went beyond a Category 3 hostile action. In fact, more then once Venture has exploited activity by the Songbirds against our rivals to expand our power base, so while they were attacking everyone equally the top brass never thought it a priority to stop them. From what intelligence Venture has gathered on the group, we've deduced that the structure of the Songbirds is likely nebulous rather than strictly hierarchical, with various cells acting independently from each-other across the continents, united only by their shared banner. Such a group should never have had the organisation to carry out an attack such as we're seeing, let alone the capability."
There was silence as Lee shot her a quizzical glance.
"That's as much of the truth as I know, I swear it!" Selina asserted, some of her self-assured fire returning. "Besides Colonel, the reinforcements that you have made to RACDI-Alpha appear to have been in anticipation of precisely this sort of action, if perhaps of a smaller magnitude. I would hazard a guess that you are a deal more in the loop than I am right now. We're under serious threat here, and yet you ordered your own men not to send an SOS. Why?"
For a moment, a look passed over Lee's features that might have been guilt, or something similar to it.
"Ms Hernandez, when the smoke clears from this, assuming that our defences hold, I believe it is high time you and I had a long and truthful discussion. I have kept intelligence from you and your superiors because I did not trust you with the responsibility of what I have learned. I'm still not entirely sure I do, but our common enemy is emerging from the shadows, and I for one am truly sick and tired of playing games. Right now, however, I have a battle to win."
=========================================================================================================================
The Talon advances, steady and methodical with her forces at her back, as the Venture troops charged with holding the facility and its deadly cargo continued to fall away before them. The enemy was numerous, well armed and well trained, but neither were her own forces the rag-tag band of rebels that Ventures representatives in the region had grown to expect. She had snipers on over-watch encompassing the entire facility. As well as picking off their own targets, these snipers provided her with real time intel on any pockets of Venture troops that looked to be effectively rallying, so she knew where next to deploy her heaviest barrages. Now that the assault team was well inside the perimeter, the mortar crews had stopped firing. However, they did still have support from the rocketeers.
She, and the men she lead directly, made a short dash across open ground to where a trench lay waiting. As they approached, the opposing soldiers who had managed to make it to the safety of the dug-in position poked their heads up and opened fire. Fortunately, they possessed no mounted machine-guns. Still, in her peripheral vision The Talon saw at least two of her own men go down as the two sides exchanged fire. With her pistol she shot the man in front of her through the right eye as he levelled his battle rifle, and two strides later she was jumping down into the trench, before the man's body had even quite fallen. The rest was bloody slaughter as the rest came piling in behind her. As a Venture soldier two her left turned to engage in hand to hand combat with one of her own, The Talon grabbed him by the scruff fo the neck, with her right arm, before driving her artificial left into his back. There was a ripping sound as the advanced alloy punched though two layers of Kevlar armour, as well as the flesh and bone beneath, and before he quite knew what had happened, the soldier found himself staring down at his own still-beating heart, as it protruded from the empty, shattered cavity in his chest, clutched in long, razor sharp fingers.
===============================================================================================
Nikolai nodded and followed Kusanagi inside. Striding over the smoking corpses to the other end of the bunker, Nikolai peered through a narrow slit in the concrete to survey the battlefield ahead of them. A machine gun nest was still active over the other side of the landing pad, in front of one of the hangars. Pointing the muzzle of his machine-gun through the firing slit, Nikolai squeezed the trigger and sent a volley of bullets over in that direction to suppress them.
A few seconds later, a hand came shooting up from outside of Nikolai's peripheral vision, and closed around the long barrel of the M60, wrenching it clean from his hands. Through a combination of surprise and strength, Nikolai was pulled forward against the front of the wall as the strap that secured the weapon over his shoulder stretched taut, before snapping. That was when two hands, wearing heavy black gauntlets of some lobstered metal, came through into the bunker to fasten around his throat. Instinctively, Nikolai brought up his own arms to try and prise away whoever was attempting to choke him. However, the surprise attack had pulled him off balance, and his field of vision was already beginning to narrow. He beat against the arms furiously to no effect, before thrusting his own hands through the gap to try and throttle his assailant in return. His nails scraped against something cold and hard, but Nikolai couldn't find any where with which to get a sure grip. The blackness was encroaching further and further into his vision, and stars were bursting in front of him. In one last, desperate attempt to wrench away from his attackers grip, Nikolai jumped, brining his knees up to his chest and curling all his body, before kicking forwards.
As if it had been struck by a tank shell. The concrete wall that had been dividing the two of them exploded outwards beneath the force of Nikolai's hydraulic leg, and suddenly Nikolai found him self toppling forwards in a shower of rubble and dust. The grip of the arms was gone, and Nikolai, sprawled on the ground, hurriedly gulped in lungfuls of filthy air. Raising his head to look around, Nikolai spotted his assailant, clad head to foot in Behemoth armour, sluggishly rising to his feet, either winded or just weighed down, chunks of concrete falling off him. The thick metal of his breast-plate was dented where the full force of Nikolai's kick had struck him, but otherwise he appeared unhurt.
Shaking his head rapidly from side to side to clear his vision, Nikolai bounded to his feet and ran at the Behemoth, getting the jump on him before he was spotted again and sending the both of them crashing to the ground, pummelling each-other with their fists as they rolled around in the dirt and debris.
