Chapter 70

Diplomatic Rescue

Egad opened the door to car 10 with the VIP Key Card. Mick stepped through first, Xen close behind him. After Mick signaled that the hall was clear, the rest of the coven followed, with the addition of Tuxa, who had taken parts of the merc's outfit that would fit him, as well as the merc's laser pistol and semi-auto laser rifle. Unfortunately, the outfit was limited to only the pants and bullet-proof ablative torso, arm, and leg plating.

Mick ventured to the top level of the car, Xen and Galen at his side while Egad stopped at a computer terminal with Jet, hoping to hack into the train's security system.

As the two lions and the fox stepped out of the stairwell to the upper level, Mick heard three gunshots ring out from a nearby door! The trio froze, Mick signaling Xen and Galen to be ready. Xen kicked the sliding door off it's hinges, the trio charging into the room to find a very unexpected surprise within! As they stepped through the door weapons ready, they found themselves in a standoff against two individuals: A male liger, with tiger-stripes on his body aside from his dark-red mane, and a lioness! The liger was dressed in a military-spec basic armor suit, baring the Kestrel Kingdom Military insignia on his shoulder! The lionness wore a professional-looking uniform consisting of tight slacks and a jacket, with her blonde mane braided into a ponytail! At their feet lay two dead mercs! But that was not what surprised the trio: Behind the liger and lioness was Iroy, Ofret Goram, and Nimara Dhaelos, huddled in a corner!

"Who are you?!" The lioness demanded, pointing her plasma pistol at Mick's head, the liger aiming two high-caliber laser pistols at Xen and Galen's chests, aiming for their hearts while Mick had one of his Dual-Barrel Pistols, Dante, aimed at the lioness' temple, Xen and Galen both aiming for the liger's heart and head in kind.

"Mick Daniels, former leader of Flux Sqaudron, and Former Commander of SPD X-Squad." Mick answered coolly. "This is Xen Winchester, an independent security contractor, and Galen Dhaelos of the Firebird Guardians. Who are you?"

"I'm Lieutenant Jack Morton of KRSF's 21st Platoon, assigned to guard the Kestrel Ambassador and his family on the Azure Flux." The liger answered.

"Christina Wayborn, the Kestrel Ambassador's personal agent in the Vhaldaria Allied Nations Special Police Force." The lionness answered. "I find it odd that a former commander of SPD is on this train, Mr. Daniels. Care to give us an explanation?"

"Let's just say for now that Cailus Foxmoore and his brother Ryan have a very intense Sibling Rivalry that's gone over the top with this incident." Mick said, everyone lowering their weapons. Galen, after holstering his rifle, ran up to his family and took them all into an embrace. Iroy cried as Galen held her close in his arms, Nimara giving her older brother a kiss on the cheek.

"Mother... Father... Nimara... What happened? How did you get here?" Galen asked, his voice barely a whisper.

"Cailus Foxmoore." Ofret answered. "Serpiente Bastardo attacked Mel'Andrea, dragged all of us out of the house and into a jeep. He had us all blindfolded. Then, when we were brought on the train, we were dragged in front of the Kestrel Ambassador and his family, with Bastardo standing in front of us all with his attack dogs. He said we are all hostages, and that if we try anything funny, we would die..." Ofret took Galen into an embrace, crying on his shoulder for a few moments. "...My brave nino, it's good to see you here."

Galen patted Ofret on the back. "Shh, shhh... It's okay, papa. Everything will be alright."

Ofret collected himself, as the Dhaelos family stood up from the corner and walked up next to Mick, Xen, Jack, and Christina. Nimara immediately noticed the uncanny similarities between Galen and Xen. "Woah! Senor Xen, if you had the same eye and fur color as Galen, I would have sworn you were both twins..."

Xen nodded, looking in their reflection in some computer monitors in the room. "Yeah, I can see where you draw that idea from, Senorita."

"Also, you are in the SP service? I'm surprised." Mick said, looking at Christina as she took off her jacket for better mobility.

"Yes. Why? You think it's only a job for men?" She asked with a sly grin.

Mick chuckled, looking at the mercs with two holes going through their skulls. "No! Not at all! Good shooting, by the way! So, what's the situation, Lieutenant Morton?"

Jack holstered his guns. "Not good, Commander Daniels. Shortly after we departed Kestrel and got out of the city, a few unidentified helicopters popped up on radar, accompanied by VTOL jets. The next thing we knew, the train and our convoy was bombarded by missile fire, then Car 16 was blown up from the inside... I only assume that Cailus and his men managed to plant a bomb on board before we left. After that, the train was boarded and overrun. I think I'm the only one in the 21st platoon still alive. They took out all the SP escorts, too. Me and Christina were brought her to be executed, to show an example to the Dhaelos family what would happen if they got any ideas."

Mick sighed, eyes rolling up to the ceiling. "Sounds like Cailus planned this out to the letter... God Fucking Dammit! Well, we can't just have your family stay here Galen, but we can't put them in harm's way, either." Mick said. "Come with us down to the lower part of the car, Ryan Foxmoore and the rest of the guardians are there right now. Don't worry: All of us will protect you." Mick said, motioning to the Dhaelos family. "Jack, Christina, we could use your help. Both of you know the train's systems better than any of us right now, and we can use every edge we can get."

"Roger." They both said.

# # # #

After the group met up in the bottom section of Car 10, they all agreed on their current objective: Rescue Ambassador Milet and his family. They were currently in Car 9, held hostage by some of the mercs.

They quickly went to Car 9, Jack using his access codes to unlock the first door. After that, Christina used her access codes to unlock the upper level, where the Ambassador was being held. After unlocking the door, Chaos opened it, rolling a flash-bang detonator across the floor inside of the hall before closing the door once more. A few seconds later, the detonator exploded loudly, blinding the mercs inside with a burst of bright light!

That was their cue! Chaos charged through the door with a Semi-Auto Laser Rifle, Hatred at his side with two handheld Pulse SMGs! They both blanketed the hallway with laser fire, Chaos using his heavier-hitting rifle to take out more heavily-armored targets that Hatred's SMGs could not finish straight off the bat!

Jack pointed out a room down the hallway with the Kestrel crest above the door. "That's the Ambassador's personal quarters!"

"Say no more." Mick said, walking up to the door. He walked through it with Xen as it slid open, both of his dual-barrel pistols and Xen's revolver ready! One of the mercs grabbed Ambassador Milet, holding the cheetah in front of him like a shield!

The duo didn't waste any words: Both fired a few shots from their weapons, blowing the merc's head off with precision fire! Ambassador Milet dove down to the floor with his wife and daughter, both taking cover under a nearby table as several more mercs came out from the adjoining room!

By this point, Galen, and Jack had already stepped inside, and all three pelted the mercs with their weapons before they could fire any shots! Mick then walked forward, and fired a few extra kill shots into the merc's heads to be on the safe side.

"Nice try." Mick said.

Jack holstered his weapons as Christina and Egad joined them in the room. Jack knelt down under the table, extending his hand to Ambassador Milet and his family. "Ambassador, are you alright?"

After getting his bearings, Milet spoke up in outrage. "Hardly! My wife has been manhandled by outlaw mercs, my daughter has been scared witless and scarred for life... But on the bright side, all of us are alive." Milet traded his irritated pessimism for optimistic thinking as he, Sidre, and Sousette came out from under the table. "May I have your name, soldier?" Milet asked, dusting off his suit.

"Lieutenant Jack Morton of KRSF, sir!" Jack saluted the Ambassador. "I have your SP agent, Christina Wayborn with me, as well as some... Unexpected help."

"I can see that." Milet said, looking at Mick, Galen, Xen, and Egad. "Mr. Ryan Foxmoore, I presume? Your brother has turned this diplomatic trip into a hell-on-rails experience for me and my family!"

"To be blunt Ambassador Milet, he has turned this trip into a hell-on-rails experience for everyone involved... Though I do profusely apologize and sympathize for the troubles you and your family have experienced."

"I think he speaks for us all in that reguard." Mick agreed. He knelt down so that he was at eye level with young Sousette as she sat on a couch with Sidre, Mick getting something out of his storage buffer: A can of cola he picked up from the kitchen!

"Here. You must be thirsty, young miss. My name is Mick. What is yours?" The fox asked, showing a kind face as he opened the can for her.

"...Sousette." She said nervously with tears running down her face as she timidly took the can of cola. "Mister Mick... I'm scared. Those bad men tried to hurt my mama and papa... Can you make them go away?"

Mick gave Sousette a warm smile as Sousette drank a few sips of the cola. "I intend to, Sousette. But first we have to get you, your mama and papa to a safe place, so none of you have to see any of it. Let me just say that we are going to give those bad men a bunch of swift boots to their rears, and kick them off the train."

Sousette giggled at Mick's simple wording of the battle ahead.

"I hope that you do." Sidre added. "Give them an extra kick for us."

"Again, I intend to madame." Mick said, getting out some seltzer water from his storage buffer for Sidre; another thing he swiped from the kitchen.

"Any idea on what would be the best place for them to hunker down?" Galen asked.

Jack scratched his chin. "The best place right now would be the quarters in Car 15. That would also give us an extraction point if we needed one."

"Good idea." Egad got on his radio. "Amon? Silva? Do you read?"

"Loud and clear, sir." Amon replied.

"We need you to fly the VTOL to Car 16 on this train! We need to evac Ambassador Milet and his family, as well as the Dhaelos family."

"Consider it done." Amon said. "We're on our way."

Mick looked at Sousette. "We're almost out of here, young miss. We have some friends coming to get you and your parents out of here. But we need to go through the train to get to them. We will protect you, and not let the bad men hurt you if we bump into them, but I need you to be brave for me. Can you do that, please?"

Sousette nodded, finishing her cola. "I will, Mister Mick."

"Good." Mick said. "Let's move out for Car 15, and hunker down until the VTOL gets here."

Ambassdor Milet plucked one of the merc's pistols. "I'm taking this just in case. I don't want me and my family to be defenseless."

"No problem, sir." Mick said.

With that, they headed off for car 16. Everyone grouped around Ambassdor Milet, his family, along with Ofret, Nimara, and Iroy, all of them in the center.

As they walked through the train, Nimara held Sousette's hand, covering her eyes, so she wouldn't have to see all the dead bodies strewn about on the way.

Luckily, they didn't encounter any resistance when they got to Car 15. A few minutes later, they all heard the engines of the VTOL outside.

"Sir, we are hovering over Car 15. We're ready to pick up Ofret, Iroy, Nimara, the Ambassador, and his family." Amon said over the radio.

"Roger." Egad said. They all went through a hatch onto the roof of car 15, seeing the VTOL hovering close above. Silva, Anthony, and Alak jumped out onto the train on tethers, Silva carrying one in his hand as well.

"Youngest first." Iroy and Sidre insisted. No one argued, as Nimara stepped forward with Sousette. Silva put them both onto belts attached to the tether, and quickly hoisted them up into the VTOL.

After that, Ofret and Iroy went next. Then Ambassdor Milet and Sidre.

"They're all secure, Sir." Amon reported.

"We're staying with you, Uncle." Anthony said, he, Silva, and Alak releasing their tethers. "I have to settle this score with my father."

"Just be careful." Egad said. "VTOL, get clear with the hostages!"

"Roger." Amon said. "Good luck, and good hunting, sir!"

With that, the VTOL quickly flew away.