Storming the HQ!

"We're in! Well... on..."

COLUS took out and booted up the last PDA, whilst passing around the other two to the rest of us. We each took our time to look at the PDA, and the current map it displayed, a little amazed at the scale of the operation that they had set out. We easily located our position; at the bottom left of the island beneath a small, grey rectangle was a flashing white marker indicating out position. We were close to what I could make out was the main facility, which appeared as a large, grey mass more or less in the centre of the display. Of notable worth, four large, circular structures were visible at the North and central positions of the complex. A little confused, I couldn't determine whether they were the structures that SERVERE had informed us about or not. They looked ominous enough to contain the Ender Eyes, but I could only see four. SERVERE had said HoN Co. had managed to complete five. That meant either the map wasn't complete and it didn't work on a satellite-based real time representation, or it wasn't built yet.

"Where's the fifth structure? There's meant to be five of them..."

"Maybe they haven't finished it yet; they could have heard news from the team sent into the Nether that they hadn't got all of them, and stopped building when they reached four... Or, maybe it's hidden..."

"Why are the other four visible then? Why hide one, but not the others...?"

"It doesn't matter. We can cross that bridge when we get to it. For now we just need to get into the facility and work out what we do from there. I suggest we continue with this façade until we can guarantee we're safe enough to take on another one. Once we have, we split up and begin searching the area for any clues as to where the Eyes of Ender are stored."

Taking up our respective positions again, we continued up the stairs to the top of the tunnel, where we were met with an overhanging jungle environment right ahead of us and to out left. To our right was the open body of water that lead back to the South where the island we had just left was, and a small path led off to the South East. We still hadn't managed to see any more guards since the checkpoint at the beginning of the tunnel, and I couldn't decide whether this was a good thing or not. Either the guards were more focused in and around the HQ itself, or they were aware of us approaching them and were trying to lull us into a false sense of security. I felt like voicing this to the others, but I remained quiet for the sake of the cover-up. As we ascended the stairs that led from the tunnel to the path, we found ourselves on a thin, cobblestone bridge that spanned a long distance across a small pool, but hugging large sections of jungle. In the distance, we could see this mass of white, which was hard to focus on because of the position of the sun casting the light reflected back at us.

"Is that a... ship?"

As we crossed the bridge, getting closer to the entrance to the facility, I could see that AMPHIS had been right. It was a ship; an almost exact copy, I was almost taken aback when I saw a replica of the ship that had crashed onto the shore of my house right before us! We could now see numerous figures moving around in and around the ship, heading into and out of an entrance that was currently out of sight, but they didn't seem like they were guards at all. We knew there would be quite a few civilian scientists in the HQ, but unless there were a lot of guards, it seemed they would outnumber them quite considerably. Whether this would make our task easier or not remained to be seen, but at least they weren't threats from our point of view. COLUS whispered to us to remain in character so as to not draw attention to ourselves, but I was wondering whether that would be an issue. yes we'd stand out, but I was sure the civilians would be accustomed to the presence of guards working in this environment.

"Don't let anything slip. We can't afford to fail now, not when we're this close to the end."

We reached the entrance, and, waiting for a team of four scientists to pass from the boat to the facility, we passed through it, where we were met with another checkpoint. This was understandable and to be expected, and we approached it with the same confidence we had the first. At the checkpoint was a single guard, seated behind a glass window, reading something that I couldn't quite make out from being at the back, but looked up when we approached. As he approached the window, I was shocked to see that he didn't seem to be the fitting figure of a guard at all.

"Yes, can I help you.. erm... nine?"

He was a bespectacled man, who seemed to be no more than in his early to mid twenties. He barely filled out his uniform, and seemed nervous and hesitant.

"Yes, actually. We've caught most of the Lone 7 attempting to gain entry to the tunnel and we've brought them here for... processing."

"Er.. right, bear with me..."

The guard disappeared from view as he retreated to a section of the checkpoint around the corner. There were some muffled voices, followed by an exclamation from another, before he returned, with another guard in tow. This guard was the complete antithesis to the first; muscular, and a little older, he definitely fit the form of what we expected from the HoN Co. guards.

"The Lone 7, eh? Not sure how we're meant to proceed with this to be honest with you... Can I see your papers firstly?"

"Sorry, but we left them behind in the commotion of capturing these six. The others guards at the tunnel checkpoint let us through to the HQ, likely from the severity of the situation."

"Tunnel checkpoint? You mean gate B?"

"Yes, sorry, gate B. We're with bridge team theta, and we spotted them attempting to conceal the unconscious forms of the guards past the bridge."

"Right, well, I'll need to contact someone who knows what they're doing; they've more or less left us in the dark about the protocols for this. Jorge, if you let them all through, give temporary passes to these three, and put the Lone 7 ones in the interrogation room."

The guard wearing the glasses nodded, watching the burly one leave, before turning to a PC monitor behind him. Furiously tapping away, he quickly returned to the window with three pieces of stamped plastic with the word "Visitor" written on it. He then leaned under the desk, presumably pressing a button, opening the way through to the lobby, where two more guards met us to escort the other six to a separate room.

"Sorry if this seems a bit forward, but we're not letting this lot out of our sight. Where they go, we go. We can wait."

One of the escort guards shrugged and led us all to a room which had a single row of seating and a long, one-way glass wall. The other guards left, locking the door behind them, leaving us on our own.

"Right... What now...?"

Syeonyx signing off