Bellatrix had seen the satillite photos of the lab. Since the bulk of the building was dug into the rock, getting into the lab would be tough.
However, there was a weak spot. A small loading bay also served as a garage. And since they were moving the heavy equipment first, trucks were going in and out of the base frequently.
Bellatrix was flying low near one of the main roads leading to the base. On the road was a single truck, heading to the lab to get cargo.
After checking to make sure the driver wasn't paying attention to the right side of the trailer, Bellatrix flew out of the underbrush and snow and settled right behind the trailer. Her chin was just a few inches above the concrete. At seventy miles per hour, the wrong angle could have torn the flesh from her bones.
Now it was a simple matter of getting under the truck. Bellatrix sped up until she was beneth the undercarriage. She had rehersed the next stunt several times earlier. In one graceful, fluid move, the metal wings tucked until her back, and she spun around to grab the truck with her clawed hands and her metal feet. There was no reaction from the driver. Too busy with an Alan Jackson CD.
Bellatrix remained motionless during the entire ride. She went over and over the plan in her head. The mission was to retrieve a portable drive from Dr. Faber's office, located all the way in the back of the building.
If all goes according to plan, I wont have to deal with a single scientist or soldier. She felt a shudder from the metal and wire that had replaced her spinal cord. Pity the fool that threatens Bellatrix.
***
Such a contrast between Bellatrix's HARPY and Faber's Legionaire. The Legionaire was a very complex piece of machinery -- from what Bellatrix read on the files, a sort of supersolider. The HARPY Armor had been designed a few years earlier by a herpologist, of all people. His study of reptilian brain allowed him to develop a machine that wasn't as intellegent as the Legionaire, but there was something brutal about it's simplicity.
The herpologist reasoned that human-like computers and machines thinked too much, while an animal-like machine only reacts. And so, three years ago, when they bound the HARPY Armor to the body of a dying mercenary, Bellatrix was born. The metal and the flesh has merged together creating not a cyborg, but a true mechaniod, a perfect harmonic blend of human and machine.
But there was no harmony in the mind. Harpy was quick to attack any threat, and the human mind had long ago given up any hope of controlling her metal exoskelaton while in berserk mode. Bellatrix was a rational being...until she was in danger. Then, she was unstopable.
***
The truck's engine went off and Bellatrix realized she was in the garage. She dropped down quietly and waited to figure out when the workers were in the garage or too busy loading the truck. She spied a vent shaft and ducked into it while the boys were loading cargo.
The shaft was narrow, so Bellatrix concentrated and pulled as much of her exoskelaton back into her body. The alloy used on the HARPY Armor was meant to collapse on itself, so that user could blend in with a crowd as a normal human. However, due to the complexity of the arms and hands, the limbs couldn't collapse, so Bellatrix was stuck with two super-strong metal arms with talons. Lucky for her, a pair of gloves and a jacket usually compensated for that.
She tapped her wrist, and a light turned on. Using her other hand, she pulled out a paper with the schematics of the building.
"All too easy."
