The next day. Early morning, before the sun begins to rise.
An Adelon trooper walks along the deck of one of the sixteen primary defense vessels stationed around Arkos’ perimeter. His rifle is in his arms. As he walks along the length of the ship, his eyes turn toward the island. His movement comes to a halt, and he stops to gaze at the several lights coming from the various Sites, and elsewhere. The prisoners were resourceful, that much was undeniable - energy quickly became no issue to them, when this whole operation started.
It was of no consequence to Adelon what they managed to pull off, as long as-
“C’mere!”A pair of arms reach past the trooper, covering his mouth with a rag soaked in some form of liquid. He is lowered to the deck, as he slowly ceases his struggling, and falls into unconsciousness. Above him, a young man dressed in a mismatch of clothes and combat gear, all painted in some variation of black, gray, yellow, and orange. He picks up the unconscious trooper by his armpits, and starts dragging him away.
“Happy birthday, shitlord.” He mutters, as more similar occurrences transpire across several of the defense vessels.
Nearby, another man dressed in similar colors speaks into an earpiece.
“Deck’s swept up. We’re moving everyone down to the cargo bay.”
[Good! You’re the last one. Get your techs on the controls, mask our birds. We’re comin’ in!]
“Gotcha.”
…
Site Aber. Morning, around 10:00 AM.
A gathering of some of the prisoners occupying the large, and relatively empty grounds, stand out in the open as an Adelon aircraft flies by and above them, leaving behind a segmented line of supply crates, descending towards the island with azure parachutes. The group stands around the outside pavement, waiting for the crate to reach them - full of food rations, pure water, fresh clothes, and other boons. Their waiting, however, was quite rudely interrupted as a loud
bang sounded in the distance, and a shot rang through the air, striking the crate and blowing it to smithereens. The crate, its contents, and the parachute all go up in flames, falling to the ground much faster than before. The prisoners all turn their heads westward, in the general direction of the sound. They see nothing over the Site’s surrounding fence, but they hear…
Hush.Suddenly, over the walls, aircraft begin to rise. Not Adelon’s, they weren’t blue or white in any regard, and not quite as advanced. Adelon’s had thrusters, these were older helicraft units. They were gray, with bright orange symbols sprayed on their hulls, in the shape of…
Sunflowers.
Most of the prisoners just stand there and watch, others immediately begin to run, either into Aber’s facilities or out into the wilderness. The song playing from one of the helicopters’ loudspeakers increases in volume as they all simultaneously fire a barrage of missile clusters at the whole of the Site. The prisoners have little time to react as the armaments strike down on them, outright killing a good few of them immediately. Some dodge the explosions, others make use of their powers in defensive maneuvers - force shields, jutting rocks from the ground, the like. The helicopters approach the Site, their numbers proving undeniably intimidating. More missiles and bullets begin to reign down on the surviving prisoners, clearing the grounds as the vessels descend. Some attempt to retaliate, bringing down a few crafts, but it is ultimately futile.
Armed men and women jump from the helicopters, dressed in the same range of colors, who immediately begin firing upon the prisoners with a myriad of weaponry, some arms more advanced than others - assault rifles, pulse shots, grenades, sniper fire, everything they could think of in that haphazard moment. This was nothing like Adelon, so uniform and tidy - these people were here for
war.
The familiar blue light of nullifier signals came into view, as heavy troopers jumped from on high with bulky emitters strapped to their backs. They spread out, covering the grounds with the nullification signal, quickly beating down any retaliation from the prisoners. Those who hadn’t yet been shot begin to retreat, either into the nearby buildings, or out into the jungle. The latter quickly came to regret their choice of direction as the troops unleashed yet another weapon of theirs - dogs.
Dobermans, rottweilers, German shepherds, pit bulls, and more. Ferocious canines barking so loudly, they could even be heard over the gunfire. They were armored in black vests and padding, with the staple sunflower symbol. Nullifier signal emitters rested on their backs, fully operational and glowing bright and blue. They dash into the wilderness, quickly closing in on most of the runaways, jumping them, biting at their throats. Some attempt to throw them off, but in such dismay, they seemed so hopeless without their powers. Blood is shed quickly on the surrounding green.
Back at Aber, troops began moving into the facility. They were tossing nullifier grenades left and right, covering as much of the interior as they could. Prisoners were shot on site, dragged out into the open and quickly fitted with collars - a mixture of their own, much more uncomfortable-looking devices, and Adelon’s, no doubt stolen for this very occasion. The soldiers - many of them look to be enjoying themselves throughout all of this. Some of them seem actually quite young, only in their teens, but still seeming so committed to this act of war. Their whooping and yelling is horrible.
Before long, Aber is completely and utterly dominated, there being few who escaped from the onslaught. The troops quickly begin to celebrate, as more helicopters arrive from beyond the coast, Adelon’s defense vessels seemingly
allowing them to pass unhindered. Troops are dropped off left and right, as well as vehicles - armored trucks and jeeps. Some vessels set down around the Site, while others return to the outward perimeter. Other Adelon ships begin moving away from the cluster that seemed to be under these soldiers’ control - four primary defense vessels, and seven of the smaller ships.
The troops now occupying Site Aber quickly begin turning it into a base for their own utilization. A great deal of them have captured prisoners planted down on their fronts, rods and hoops taught around their necks. Nullifiers, on dog and man alike, are standing by, weapons drawn.
A man walks before them, with others following behind him. He is dressed in an orange shirt, black trousers and boots, fingerless gloves, and plenty of appropriate combat gear. But strapped around his torso and limbs are humming devices, with glowing blue hexagonal plates along them, emitting some manner of protective force. The man is of a sun-beaten complexion, devoid of any strand of hair, with dark brown eyes, and the wryest smirk upon his face. He and his supposed subordinates stand before the line of restrained prisoners.
“Alright…” He starts to say, “Alright!” He turns his head left and right, smiling. “Solid lineup! But you’re gonna have to hold on for a minute, I… got a call to make.”
…
“Four primary vessels and seven secondaries reported captured.” Said Eli, in nothing like his usual smarmy tone. He was with Haliat in the observation bridge, personnel all around them in a rush. A display of the island and all of the ships was on the surface of the flat console before them. The ships that had been reportedly captured were glowing red instead of their normal cyan. “Personnel aren’t responding, no distress signals have been sent out.” Eli continued, “An assault on Site Aber was reported in by several defense vessels before they pulled away. They say it’s-”
“The Sunflower Group.” Haliat said, finishing his adjutant’s sentence.
“Sir, there are
breaks in the perimeter, some prisoners could be escaping as we speak. We may have to launch CDF Proto-”
He was interrupted, again, by an ‘INCOMING VIDEO MESSAGE’ display on the map.
“It’s coming from Aber.” Eli said, “One of our mobile technician signals. PDV-4, one of the captured ones.”
“Put it on the main console.”
Eli complied, moving towards and upright screen by the line of technicians’ stations. He singled out the receiving feed, and accepted the message. On the screen was a live feed from Site Aber, showing the line of restrained prisoners on the ground, and the SG troopers surrounding them. The camera, whoever was holding it, was moving down the line, passing a glance at each of them.
[Can do all kinds of damage, on a massive scale… but you flash a little blue light on them, they’re suddenly
shit outta luck.]
The camera was turned to show the face of its current operator. The bald man from before. Their leader.
“Frank!” Haliat called out, very much angry, even though he knew full well who it was.
[Alex! You remember me! That is
such an honor.]
“What the FUCK are you doing, Frank?” Haliat yelled.
[Putting a stopper on your little,
island enterprise here. You’ve got most of all the superhumans on the face of this earth in one spot, and we’re gonna fucking slaughter every last Goddamn one of them.]
“Son of a bitch!” Haliat called out, turning away and moving towards another console.
[Before you go giving the order to bomb our ships!] Frank continued, [Gotta tell ya, most of your men ain’t dead yet. We’ve got ‘em locked up, restrained, ready to be put down at any moment I say the word. You really wanna sink ‘em with the rest of us?]
Haliat stopped, but he didn’t look at the screen.
[Now we’re gonna sweep this island. Burn it to the fucking ground. You’re
welcome to come ashore and try to stop us. But I’ve got my whole army on the reserve, and you can be damn sure you’re gonna lose
plenty no matter how this ends.
And no matter how it ends… you’re
fucking ruined.]
The feed was cut from Frank’s end. Eli approached Haliat and said to him, “What do we do?”
“We are
not launching CDF.” Haliat responded, “We do that, we’ll lose all of our assets,
and our credibility. People will
know we failed, and we will never be able to come back to this.”
“But if we let Frank rage his fucking
war across the island, we’ll have nothing then!”
“Listen to me.” Haliat said, raising a finger at Eli, “We do
not let word of this reach beyond these waters.
No one will hear of this, and we are going to
fix it.”
“Fucking,
how?” Eli responded.
“Send in our forces, all retrieval teams, everyone. Start recovering as many assets as possible and move them off of the island. We need to clear the field so we can deal with the Sunflower Group without having to worry about losses to our stock.”
“What about our forces on the mainlands? Call them in?”
“No, not yet. Only when I say so, if we can’t handle this with what we have on hand. Understood?”
“Understood.”
“Good. Get to work.”
