“Let’s be sure that we’re not doing the same. That fog was thick. There was a lot out there we couldn’t explain. We were also let go very easily.”
-Aleksa Volkov, Page 4.
The Old Guard
As Catheryn aims and fires, she would feel a reassuring kickback. Unfortunately for her however, the moment her bullet found its mark and took out its target, the second man ducks behind cover to avoid further fire. Not that it would really matter overly much, as she could feel the ground underneath her feet shake as the building The Coalition had been pouring out of starting to tip—mere seconds from collapse. The soldier beside her stares with bewildered wonder for a few moments, before following her to her next nest—he looked shocked, but not panicked in any way.
On the ground, Carolyn pulls her tank back and away from the target apartment, as she puts a little extra distance between her and the collapsing structure.
“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck” she starts muttering as she watches part of the northern structure collapse onto the target apartment.
Meanwhile, inside the apartment itself, the entire building shakes underneath their feet—the sound of concrete, wood, and metal groaning under pressure reached their ears. The northern staircase collapses entirely, leaving a cloud of dust and debris where Coalition soldiers used to be standing. Nonetheless, the structure remains standing—barely, as it seems to have a slight lean to the north. It also seemed likely that most of the first floor would be badly damaged, to the point of being impossible to navigate or exit from. Aside from jumping out of second floor windows and risking injury, there was no safe way out anymore.
Kiku, looking through the door with her thermal vision, would see four figures inside. Three did not have normal heat signatures—instead having random patches of heat and cold side by side: Bright yellows, and dark blues. Then, without warning, one of the figures is ripped out of the room, and an explosion blows the door off its hinges and slams Kiku against the wall behind her. Although bruised, she remained otherwise unharmed.
At the very least, it seemed apparent that the U-ARM presence on The Old Guard side of the street was thoroughly stumped. The forces who had engaged Squad One were pulling back, and Squad One was regrouping. For the moment. This left Hewitt, Box, Kiku, and Bob alone on the third floor.
The Coalition
Outside of the apartment, the combination of shots from Gabriel and Aleksa was sufficient to bring the northern structure crashing down. Large pieces of debris rain down on U-ARM soldiers, crushing several underneath as the rest simply disappear into cloud of dust that appears. Several seconds pass, but it's clear that U-ARM—at least, their forward force—had been completely stopped by the blast. The radio jammer preventing Coalition communication ends, the source of which likely having been crushed underneath tons of concrete rubble.
Meanwhile, Jenive hangs a couple feet from the third floor, with one arm wrapped around Tristan. His turrets had fallen down to the rubble below, while they hung from the ceiling of the second floor thanks to a quick grappling hook from Jenive. Russell was laying on his back on the second floor, a mere foot away from the gaping edge where the nothern staircase had once been. Shlan is hanging off the edge of the second floor, having managed to grab the edge just in time. She manages to retain her explosives, though one glance below her reveals the mangled remains of the other Coalition soldiers—partially buried alive. One of them had pushed her forward as he fell.
Jenive slowly rappels down the grappling hook attached to her SST, and touches the ground. The moment she does, she lets go of Tristan, shakes out her arms, then leans down and reaches to Shlan.
“We need to regroup here for a moment and figure out what happened. They're trapped in here with us now, so long as The Old Guard doesn't try t--” Behind her, there is the sound of another explosion in room 305, along with the building shaking a second time.
“... Perhaps more of the building just collapsed. Keep your wits about all of you, we're sticking together and searching room 205 once I know your conditions. God I hope that was not the sound of our objective going up in flames.”
As Carter watches all of this go down, he would notice movement in room 405, just after the explosion. Though there was a little dust in the air, he could still make out two figures—one being pulled up, and one standing behind it. He could identify enough to recognize the target, and a male in an unknown uniform.
Red Star
As the building shakes, Morai motions for his group to move to room 405. Once inside, the building stops shaking, though it was clear the northern staircase was now gone.
“Lā shǐ. (Shit.)” Yankee mutters aloud, as Morai makes a few hand signs Ozymandias doesn't recognize. Yankee kneels down and enables his thermal goggles, looking through the floor.
“Four targets. I think the one we want is standing to the left of the window—but I could be wrong. There are three unknown humanoids, and one human woman.” Morai nods, and motions for people to take positions.
“We cannot escape into the second floor, so I am adjusting the plan. Línghún jī, grab the target and pull him up through the floor. Pin, drop explosives after—kill whatever else is in that room.” The two simply nod and follow orders, taking positions.
In moments, Línghún jī takes a deep breath, and slams her hand against the carpeted, concrete floor. She breaks through it, creating a hole large enough for her to reach down through and grab Ezekiel by the head via leaning through it. Then, with her legs alone, she pulls him back up through it, and in the same moment, two sticks of C4 fall through the hole.
Pin hits the button, and room 305's entire floor blows apart violently.
Morai looks at Ozymandias, and motions to the bewildered Ezekiel.
“This is our target. Grab him, and lead him out of this room, we're going to the roof.” Ezekiel shrugs and smiles softly, glancing around at the group.
“I have no idea who all of you are, but this is pointless. It is already too late for you to escape. It is already here.”
Children of Eve
As Ezekiel is ripped out through a sudden hole in the ceiling, and the explosives are dropped in, Eve wraps her arms around Florence. The explosion rocks the building once more, and Florence is left in darkness. Landing on the second floor apartment, she feels Eve over top of her, blocking the debris. Lillian, too, survived—though she looked a little slower to recover than Eve did. The entire room on the third floor had been blown apart, leaving little more than the support structure behind—most of the walls, and the floor, had collapsed.
Eve pushes off the debris with little effort, then stands up and stares out at the northern wall—as though staring at something beyond it.
“Clever move, but far too late.” Her eyes wander down to Florence, there was a distant, sanguine look to them.
“Our aid is here.” She offers a hand to help her up.
“We will catch our breath here for a moment, then move out. We will kill every single Child of Sodom in our way, until they give up Ezekiel. Then, we will leave.” Lillian flashes a joyous smirk.
“We will kill them all.” Eve looks softly, though sternly, at Lillian.
“No. Only those that refuse to stand aside.” Lillian pouts, and sighs.
“Fine. This time.”
The Old Guard – Squad One Falls
“This is Zan Richards! Something just came out around the street corner! We thought the shaking ground was from the explosions behind us, but, we have to warn you all! This thing is HUGE! I can't even find where its head is! Carolyn, get the fuck out of here while you can, before—AGGH~”
The transmission to both The Coalition and The Old Guard cuts off with an unsettling sound of metal and bones being crushed underneath overwhelming pressure. At the northern end of the street, at the intersection where Zan's tank once was, now stood a large, amorphous creature. It stood at a height of three floors, and across its body were multiple eyes, constantly folding underneath the surface anywhere it was taking gunfire from the remnants of Squad One. It was as wide as the four lane street it stood upon, and though still making rapid work of the remnants of Squad One, it was clear that it was about to head down the street that The Old Guard was attempting to protect.