Status
Not open for further replies.
Shlan Fletcher - The Coalition

This is bullshit, Shlan thought as Jenive helped pull her up. Just like the last mission, everything was turning to shit, and no small part of it was the fault of her own allies. Only now they'd upgraded from desertion to bringing down buildings. Behind her, she imagined the body of the TC soldier that saved her was staring reproachfully at her. Bunch of fucking lunatics. Oddball gunjumpers more concerned with dramatic glory than consequences.

Looking down at Russel, Shlan snorted in disbelief. "The hell are you doing? If anyone survived that explosion, you think your gun -- any of our guns -- are gonna do a damn thing?" Turning to Jenive, she continued. "On that note, you can go barging in there and flip the coin between finding a room of corpses or becoming one yourself, or maybe we could be fuc- Stopping herself, Shlan took a deep breath, one hand lightly punching her thigh, "-be realistic here. Target's two stories above us, the Old Guard are in a far better place to deal with it, there may or may not be nigh unkillable freaks between us and them, and something outside is threatening our other ground forces."

Grabbing the twisted wreck of a guardrail, Shlan began lowering herself to the rubble below. "So I'm going out there, where maybe I can actually do some good. Y'know, save some damn lives instead of throwing them away."
 
As Kiku was blasted back by the thrown door, Hewitt threw himself against the wall for cover. Taking a few breaths to steady himself, he lifted his gun to his shoulder and looked through the opening.

The gaping nothingness where the room used to be left him momentarily stunned, but he quickly realized the situation with Kiku's relayed message. He waved Box over and pointed up, ready to give chase. He spoke to her as she reached him, opting not to use the communicators lest they be compromised. "Tell me when you hear they've cleared the room."

As soon as she gave the signal, he raised the barrel of his shotgun to the hole in the ceiling and fired off a smoke grenade into room 405. With the smoke spreading, he jet-jumped to the hole, hoisting himself as quietly as he could into the room, listening all the while for hostiles—if necessary, he would have to drop back out of the hole and swing himself back onto the third floor hallway. Otherwise, he would lean back through the hole to catch Box as she jumped over.
 
Last edited:
Trapped in a Bullet-Shaped Box

The woman quickly reaches in her pockets for cotton swabs and spits on them before roughly cleaning out her eyes, wiping some dried blood away. Strange, she must have been hurt more than she thought, and her mutation had taken care of it the same way it smoothed her cuts earlier. She stuffs the soiled swabs back in her pockets, and at the mention of an entity roaming and massacring their squad, Box doesn’t hesitate a second before slipping on her vintage gas mask. She gave the signal to Ziegler to fire his smoke grenade, and headed after him.

“I can hear shit now, but I can’t do crap if the walls are all made of concrete.” She motions towards the larger man and gives herself a few feet of space to sprint and jump towards him, her legs pushing her high enough to reach up towards Ziegler and hover over the gaping floor. "Catch me!"

Though she is reaching for her partner, her curious eyes will wander for a few seconds, wondering if the people she spotted going along the bridges earlier were present in the belly of the explosion.
 
Emergency repairs - Gabriel Desrochers

There was no time to for the helicopter pilot to see the impact of the destructive armament that was unleashed from his vehicle and the artillery tank; Gabriel had set himself down a little bit away from the battlefield. He wasn’t going to be very productive with a smoke-filled cockpit and a nearly-disabled motor.

Once he found ground that was both not too far from other Coalition soldiers and far enough not to be in any kind of immediate conflict. The chopper set itself down and Gabriel immediately shut down all the systems that were active and all the mechanical components still running. He waited for it to stop before he popped the cockpit open to get out.

Taking his laptop and Emergency repair kit, he’d immediately get to work on stopping whatever was creating the smoke and also report to the others. “Gabriel on the comms. The RSH is down. I repeat, the RSH is down. It will not fly. Proceeding on foot.
 
Last edited:
Russell and Shlan: A Lull in the Crossfire
A short collab between @DeadAxl and @HerziQuerzi


Russell wouldn't look up to the affiliate who claimed him to be not in the right state of mind. He did, however, feel obligated to respond, though his focus would stay on the door, ready to pull the trigger at a moment's notice. "Of course. It is a general rule that things die if you put enough bullets in them. And if what I'm hearing from below-" He took this moment to click his radio back on, once it seemed the crude jamming had ended. "-Combined with the fact that our target, as well as any allies the creature may have, are mutants, then surviving a fragmentation grenade doesn't seem too far fetched. Even normal humans can survive grenade explosions, although they aren't usually combat-capable afterwards." He offers a pause for the soldier to respond, wondering why they were so panicked. Sure the situation was getting out of control, he could see that, but it didn't seem much to get flustered about. All there was now was simply a time limit.

Shlan paused, one foot dangling only a few inches above the rubble, head just poking above the floor. "A what? A frag grenade?" a bitter bark of a laugh broke out, "have you never heard a grenade before? Those were explosives. Proper explosives. As the closest thing to a demolitions expert we have here right now, I can say that with confidence."

Russell gave a quick chuckle at that. "While that may be true, it still doesn't change the fact that explosives and ballistics deal damage in different ways. Sure explosives tend to be more effective, but there are ways to reduce the damage done by them, just the same with bullets. It's just mine are harder to resist." The man in the sealed SST offered a slight shrug to the woman. "Besides, what does it matter to you if I decide to hold the line? From what I can hear, you seem to be the type who would appreciate someone holding a line that you may retreat."

"This is not the line. This is a fucking hallway. The line is outside, where people are dying so that we can run around an apartment building for a few more minutes. The mission is screwed, or at least out of our hands. Those people outside we can still help." With that, Shlan let go of the guardrail and landed on the rubble. "I will help."

Russell fights the urge to scoff, but as he hears the thud of whoever it was landing on the ground below, he simply calls out one last time. "Perhaps. But I disagree with you. This mission can still be completed. Though I do not fault your reasoning, as it is rather sound, I believe that this mission can be salvaged." He adds one last note, though under his breath. "Sacrifices are an intrinsic part of conflict. If the forces must give their lives fighting, then I would prefer their sacrifices to not be in vain." Unbeknownst to him, however, this was accidentally broadcast onto the Coalition channel.
 
Aleksa was both elated and distraught at the destruction. The U-ARM was nullified, for the moment, but the loss of life was always quite sad. Poor, sad, delusional fools. At least they died believing what they thought was right—even if it wasn’t. The collateral damage wasn’t lost on her, though. She pulled her tank away from the fallout but still stayed close to the building. With the bulk of the U-ARM forces down, she had a distinct advantage and being fairly alone. Still, that didn’t mean they were out of this mess. She couldn’t unload the big guns for fear of breaking down the structural integrity of the building more. But that didn’t mean she was totally out of options.

With the comm systems back up again, Aleksa sent out a message. “Aleksa here. I’m releasing my drones. They don’t have a heavy carrying capacity, but I can use them to quickly ferry one or two troops per drone between floors. I can only imagine that things are a little rough inside there. I can also fire on hostiles, but I’m at a bad vantage point. Someone will have to give me floor and window coordinates. I can look in each one, but I don’t want to waste time and resources.”

She did release one drone to the floor with the subsequent explosion. Unfortunately, whatever had happened there was quick and the room seemed mostly destroyed and abandoned. The rest of her drones deployed. “Sending a drone to the second floor to help with the cover fire.” The drones were too large to fit through the windows unless someone made them fit. But she could give cover fire for them. Still, while she had a room number that didn't help her much considering she was outside and they were labeling them based on what they saw inside. So, she slowly began to sweep the second floor. "Sending one to the fourth for surveillance." She also sent one to the fourth floor. Unfortunately, there were no coordinates given as to where exactly they were. It was mostly to have eyes, because if the target was with them she couldn’t open fire for fear or ripping through them as well.

Aleksa had her tongue out of her mouth, maneuvering and locating the drones, when she nearly bit it off at the panicked message she received about a monster. Her teeth snapped closed when she heard a tank destroyed. A fleeting moment of possibly helping take down the monster had been dashed away. Carter then burst on the radio requesting an airstrike. She definitely wasn’t going near that thing then. If it didn’t pop her tank like a tin can, then the airstrike would turn her into human and metal mulch. “We should probably expedite this venture as quickly as we can, or there may be no exit route.” She said politely. Acting erratically in the face of danger was no way to stay alive. She still geared her artillery up, though.
 
Caution paid off, as it usually did. Bob grabbed the door frame behind himself to keep steady as the building shook, and he managed to stay on his feet without much trouble. As callouts from various folks came in on the radio, he couldn't manage to suppress a baring of teeth that was half grimace, half grin. He muttered to himself as he pushed away from the door and toward the stairs, veering toward the upward set when he heard someone say the target was on the fourth floor. "Welcome to the shitshow, boys and girls." Might've been worth saying on the radio, but Bob decided now was not the time to share his sour humor with others. His expression turned more properly into a grin as he patted the grip of his rifle. "Let's dance, Ann."

Bob hurried his way up the stairs, pushing himself hard now that shit was really going down rather than taking the leisurely pace he'd used before. When he got halfway up to the fourth floor and the stairs switched back on themselves, Bob took a quick look and saw the doorway up on the landing was completely empty, no door or other blockage. He kept his head low while hurrying up to a point where he could get a clear line of sight and shooting down, then stopped still. If he saw anyone on the floor he would open fire, aiming for the legs to disable rather than killing shots to the torso, just in case the target was caught in the fire. If nobody was visible, he'd continue upward cautiously, looking out and listening for whoever had snatched the target up to the fourth floor, gun ready to take the assholes down if he found them.
 
Tristan Sovres - Decision Time

Before Tristan could finish setting up the turrets, a huge explosion rocked the floor they were standing in. He was blinded by the shock for some seconds, and all too aware that his feet were not touching anything. He felt his blood run cold. Here he was, unable to do anything, and yet his life was forfeit. But then, he felt something keeping him up. Divine intervention perhaps? His vision cleared to see that Jenive was holding him up. She was cradling him in her arms, keeping him safe. He was getting real close to Jenive's b---

His brain swiftly short circuited that thought D*** it Tristan get your act together! Focus on the mission you idiot. and the scientist shook his head. Once on the ground again, he helped Shlan up, and then took a few moments to catch his breath and collect his thoughts. The explosion caused him to think more about his mortality. Sure, he was prepared to defend his homeland, but was he willing to die for this? If he was to perish...what would his family think? Would his cause to provide peace to the Bunker continue on, or would one of the factions, his own included, threaten everything?

His thoughts were interrupted by loud statements issued from the communication channels. There was some kind of kaiju sized monster heading towards them, Carter saw somebody being pulled up to the fourth floor, and Jenive was wanting to check out Room 205. Tristan grabbed his motion sensor. Thankfully, it was not damaged during the blast, but what he saw disturbed him. In the direct epicenter of the blast were two people detected with minor motions, perhaps more, he was not able to clearly tell how many were in the room. The next thing he knew, Shlan and Russell were having a major disagreement about where to go from here, the former wanting to abandon the mission to save The Old Guard, and Russell wanting to continue the mission at any cost. After some thinking, his mind was suddenly illuminated.

He turned to Jenive and said "Sir, if I may make a suggestion?" Tristan paused for a bit, then continued "I'm inclined to agree with Shlan, my motion sensor is picking up some signals from that room, so I can confirm that our enemies are still alive in there. More than likely, they're the Children of Eve, which means there's probably some powerful mutants in there. I don't doubt Russell or your abilities, but all I have to my name is some standard issue equipment, some turrets, and C4 which..." he paused, thinking he did not need to say why C4 would be a bad idea. "I don't know about you, but I'd prefer not to share the fate of Arrowhead Squadron"

"Meanwhile according to our sniper, the target's on the fourth floor. It's...unclear who they are, it couldn't be U-ARM as they'd simply blow up the mutant and sing hallelujah all the way home, and the Children are here. Regardless, their only avenues of escape are down, which means they run into The Old Guard, or up to get air support out of here..." He paused to take a breath before continuing "What if we got ourselves a helicopter, ideally one with a chain gun emplacement to 'negotiate' a prisoner transfer, and flew up there? We could use another way to get up there but I think that'd be the easiest. Meanwhile Shlan and I can help the Old Guard to mend relations with them. Especially after Gabriel's...less than sound decision making."

Tristan took a deep breath before saying "In any event, I'll follow your orders. Goodness knows we already have enough loose cannons around here."

Tristan attempts to convince Jenive to have the group take a helicopter to the top floor to intercept Red Star, while letting him and Shlan help the Old Guard.
 
Florence Morgenstern - Through the Valley

When Eve wrapped her arms around Florence shortly before the explosion and subsequent fall, Florence yelped, like a little dog. Then she was in darkness, with her Mother on top of her, protecting her, embracing her. If this were any other situation, she would have gladly stayed like that for as long as possible, basking in the embrace of the divine. However, it was neither the time nor the place for such things, so with a heavy sigh, she pulled herself to her feet with Eve’s aid. Brushing herself off as Eve went over their new plan of action, Florence secured Ezekiel’s suitcase, strapping it onto the gasoline tank on her back, before using her now-empty right hand to draw Brimstone from its sheath.

Moving towards the doorway, Florence stuck to one side, making sure that she wasn’t in the sights of any heathen troops moving towards them. She had an idea, and while she wasn’t sure if it would work, it would make things easier for them if it did. Clearing her throat, she began to speak, trying to project her voice so the heathens could hear her. ”Children of Sodom. I have a message for you, if you are willing to listen. Stand aside or face the wrath of God. Go assist the heathens and sinners you call brethren, and let us pass. We have no desire to harm you, unless you wish for such pain. Think of your families, your loved ones, the ones you care for and who care for you in turn. What would they do without you? Would you risk the chance of leaving them unprotected, just to follow the orders of some sinner who’ll laugh at your misfortune? So I repeat, stand aside or face the wrath of God, if not for our sake then for your loved ones.” She didn’t know if they heard it or not, but she glanced over to Eve for a moment before reciting a line from Psalm 23 that was particularly apt in her head. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. They would retrieve Ezekiel today, come hell or high water.
 
“By naming us children of Sodom, they have made their intentions clear: they were not telling us to leave them in peace, they were telling us that we are next.”
-Ozymandias, Page 4.​

The Old Guard

As the large creature turns and starts to shamble rapidly down the street, Carolyn’s voice can be heard over the radio. “Squad three—Janice—back off! We don’t have the firepower to take this thing down!” With that said, she starts reversing her tank away, only to see the creature’s attention drawn to a series of bullets raining down upon it. It seemed to barely notice, yet underneath the surface it seems to shift around its mass, until a grey tendril roughly the width of a bus and the length of a half a dozen train cars swings out—much like a fist—toward the building in question. Halfway through its flight, however, the limb is cut in two by a large laser from Carolyn’s main gun.

The room underneath Ryn is slammed into by the grey-ish limb, which explodes into an ooze that damages the walls and floods the room. Yet, the ooze quickly starts drawing itself back to the main host body, racing down the wall of the apartment complex as though it were made of water.

All the mutants in the area could hear whimpers of pain, several voices of all ages and both sexes. Those who were more empowered by mutations also felt a sickening emotion, something depraved and angry in a senseless fashion. Much like a child throwing a temper tantrum.

The three floors tall creature turns its attention to Carolyn as she climbs out of her tank and runs toward the same apartment complex as Catheryn was in. The creature however ignored her entirely as it slams itself against Carolyn’s tank, fracturing the armour at several points and flooding the interior with the same ooze as before. It pulls away, leaving the tank non-functional, but salvageable.

“Stay away from the windows, this thing can brute force its way to you if it wants!” Carolyn shouts into The Old Guard radio, trying to warn them, though with a clear sign of panic in her voice.

Red Star

As Ozymandias grabs the prisoner and moves him toward the doorway, the window into the room shatters, and everyone freezes up for a moment. Pin looks down at the large hole in his torso, and the last sounds out of his mouth are those of him spitting up blood onto the interior of his helmet. He falls forward, dead, as Yankee’s hands clench up in rage. “Dammit” he mutters as Morai motions for everyone to clear out of the room quickly. As they do, a smoke grenade comes flying up into the room through the hole they had made. With Ozymandias already leaving the room, Morai ordered the rest to follow suit—primarily to get out of the sniper’s eyes. Nonetheless, Morai and Yankee position themselves by the door, as smoke floods the room...

The Old Guard & The Coalition vs Red Star

Hewitt’s smoke grenade pops in the room, quickly filling it with smoke. As he swings up into the room through the hole via his jetpack, he quickly looks around the room and spots no sign of hostiles through the smoke. He leans down into the hole and reaches out as Box shouts for him, and as Box grabs onto his outstretched arm, a hail of gunfire rips through the room. Box could recognize the sounds of a rifle, and a shotgun. Nonetheless, though she tries to cling onto Hewitt’s arm, it was clear that what remaining life he had was not enough to pull her in. His grip on her fails, and as blood seeps down his arm, her grip is lost and she falls.

As Kiku takes cover and Bob follows up close behind her, Línghún jī turns and spots Bob, though Kiku remains invisible to her. “Incoming hostile,” she states in a monotonous voice. It was rapidly clear to both Bob and Kiku that she and all the others associated with her were using voice modulators in their helmets, preventing their identities from getting out. As she raises her weapon, Bob’s experience comes into play and he quickly sprays a few rounds into the hall. The odd black-red colour patterned armour they wore seemed to deflect some of the rounds, depending on their trajectory.

Morai takes a hit to the arm and grunts in pain as he takes cover behind Línghún jī. Yankee turns and fires at Bob, who was already ducking below the edge of the floor on the staircase to avoid being hit. A couple more of Bob’s rounds hit Ozymandias, one of which ricochets off. The other penetrates his side, though the majority of the force is stopped, causing him pain and a surface-level wound he could manage. Nonetheless, the pain causes him to stumble, giving Ezekiel his opportunity to break away. He dashes for the northern staircase.

Kiku also opens fire once she gets into an advantageous position, with several rounds hitting Línghún jī straight in the chest, with the unmistakeable sound of metallic pings following suit. “Mild damage sustained,” she states simply as she takes aim and fires several rounds down the hallway. It was clearly a higher calibre, and Kiku manages to avoid them by virtue of her invisibility. However, Yankee opens fire, and appears to see straight through her, hitting her twice in the left shoulder as she ducks back behind what cover she had.

With The Old Guard forces effectively suppressed by Línghún jī and Yankee, Morai turns his attention to the prisoner. Ozymandias and Morai would both see the prisoner being held up half a foot off the ground a couple feet away from the edge of the northern staircase, with a knife embedded in his stomach. An orange liquid rolls down the knife as the prisoner looks up and glares at the invisible man. He growls lowly and furiously as his hands change shape into a pair of blades, though before he can use them, the invisible man’s suit discharges an electrical shock through the knife.

Morai and Ozymandias would see a Coalition Special Forces assassin appear before their eyes, as Ezekiel screeches in pain before being thrown off the side where the northern staircase once was. Morai and Ozymandias open fire, blasting The Coalition assassin twice, causing him to stagger off the northern edge of the staircase. As he does, his orange-liquid covered knife clatters to the floor close to room 408. “Lā shǐ. (Shit.) Wisdom, blind the forces at the stairs!” One of Wisdom’s two small drones flies to the end of the stairs and starts flashing repeatedly, as Morai motions for everyone to dart inside of room 408. Yankee complies immediately, with Línghún jī following suit, though keeping up her suppressing fire until she reaches the room.

The Coalition

Carter would watch his target fall dead a couple seconds after being hit. Whatever satisfaction he may feel about it however would likely be rapidly interrupted by the sounds of someone hammering away at the blockaded door. “I HEARD A GUNSHOT FROM HERE! Must be one of their snipers, let’s fuck him up!” U-ARM, likely. Perhaps someone else entirely, but judging from the battlefield, it was the best guess he had. There were at least two behind the door, perhaps more. It seemed his gunshot at alerted what few U-ARM soldiers had made it into his structure to his presence.

Gabriel would find that his helicopter was damaged beyond the repair of a simple kit. Though it could fly for another few minutes thanks to his work, it would not go much beyond this.

Meanwhile, Jenive looks between Russell and Shlan, shaking her head and sighing. Before she can issue orders one way or another however, a pair of bodies fall from the hole where the northern staircase was. One lands on the edge of the second floor, while the other lands seconds after beside Shlan after she steps out of its way. The body beside Shlan was clearly that of The Coalition’s special assassin, and he was most certainly dead from the fall if not from the dozen or so bullets that had penetrated his suit.

The other body, however, stirs. The orange eyed man slowly rises to his hands and knees as Jenive points a gun to his head. A little, oddly strange orange liquid was dripping out of a rapidly closing wound in his stomach, yet he still seemed quite weakened—his skin shook at points, as though he was struggling to keep himself together. “You’re... The prisoner.” Jenive states with a small bit of realization in her eyes. Without asking about how he survived, she glances over the edge of the broken structure, down at the body of the assassin who she had given orders to not but ten minutes prior. “Vy dali vse eto. Vy budete pomnit'. (You gave it all. You will be remembered.)”

The prisoner spits a little of the orange liquid out onto the ground, then looks up at Jenive, who quickly turns her attention back to him. “You’re a gentle sort, aren’t you?” He asks, with a hint of curiosity, before taking a sharp breath. “A strange game you play, for a Woman of Sodom’s greatest sinners to feel remorse at the sight of death.” Jenive looks at the rest of the squad and pauses, uncertain as to what to do. The threat from those hiding out in room 205 had been received, yet, still: Uncertainty reigned supreme.

Children of Eve

Before Eve could reply to what anyone said, she could hear the sound of a jet pack above her. Looking up, she watches what was happening with curiosity, before hearing gunfire and seeing a woman falling from the fourth floor to the second. Lillian moves to kill Box before she can recover, though Eve raises an arm, and Lillian stops. “Let this one be! She is a lost child, who merely attempted to follow us. There may yet be time for her to learn that those she serves will never care for her like we will.” Box could hear the soft, soothing voice in her mind. It was the same one as from her interrogation, though she was likely more focused on the pain from her side. The pain that told her that she had fractured at least one rib. Lillian nods, though stands between Box and Florence, just in case Box turned violent.

Eve passes by Florence, and rests a hand on her shoulder briefly. “Worry not, child. They cannot hurt me.” As she whispers this telepathically, she steps through the doorway.

Children of Eve vs The Coalition

Russell sees someone stepping through the doorway, and opens fire. Several rounds erupt from his assault rifle, hitting Eve with most of his rounds in the torso area. One shot even hits her in the head, causing her to take a step back as her head tilts backward.

Yet, as his magazine runs dry, bullets fall down all around her onto the floor. Eve stares at him and smiles, sweetly, though with an unsettling intensity in her orange eyes. The bullet in her head is pushed out, and the wounds are healed nearly instantly—though it takes her a couple seconds to seemingly fully recover. She speaks aloud, her tone soft, but authoritarian. “Hand over Ezekiel, and we will allow you to live. Don’t, and your deaths will be as painless as I can make them for you.”

Jenive’s response is to kick Ezekiel down onto the first floor, where Shlan was. “Shlan, take the prisoner across our street. Tristan, Russell, go with her and run—don’t look back. Run as fast as you can to Aleksa’s tank!” Evelyn shakes her head and takes a couple steps forward. “You cannot possibly outpace m--” suddenly, overhead of Tristan and Russel, Aleksa’s drone arrives and starts rapidly firing down on Eve’s position. She raises her arms and, though it doesn’t appear to be killing her, it was preventing her from moving forward. “GO!” Jenive steels herself as she kneels down, tossing aside her rifle in favour of the laser rifle slung on her back. “NOW!”

Though still inside room 205, Florence would see Lillian twitch and turn on her heels toward Eve. “She is being stopped, and is in pain! Destroy that machine that Sodom has sent against us, I will be right behind you!”
 
Last edited:
Russell and Jenive: Big Pictures and Covering Fire

Russell grit his teeth. The woman who had stepped out of the room proved somewhat immune to the rounds spewed by his heavy assault rifle. Perhaps later he'll have to invest in armour piercing- no, incendiary rounds. "You're tough for a mutant, I'll give you that." He mutters under his breath, somewhat annoyed, as if the creature in front of him was simply another setback, rather than the real threat she posed. He was about to toss a grenade forward at the odd abomination that spoke in honeyed tones before Jenieve shouted orders. Ready to comply, Russell took a step back before a drone appeared above him and began raining hell on the odd creature. The armored man took the chance to reload as he shouted confirmation. "Roger that. Tristan, you go first, I'll lay down cover fire!" As the empty magazine clattered on the floor, his hand went to his side to retrieve one of two box-magazines to slap into his weapon. As he pulled the breech to chamber a round, he aimed down sights, but not at Eve. He aimed for the door she had just left, as he had heard a shout from inside the room, and began firing in bursts, keeping whoever was in the room pinned down. While he covered the entrance, he would wait for Tristan to head down to the lower level. He noticed Jenive preparing for something that he could see himself doing, and he kneeled down near her to steady his shots, keeping the door painted. "Sir! Will you follow us out after you take the shot?" He frowns as his mental count of the bullets left in his clip reaches half.

Jenive smiles, a little. "If possible. Otherwise, tell Adrik that I'm sorry."

Russell grimaces, though after a slight pause, he responds. "Negative, sir. I will provide cover fire while you set up your shot. If worse comes to worse, you must evacuate with the target while I keep the forces off your ass, though I hope it doesn't have to come to that. You're far too important to the Coalition to die here, sir."

The man offers a brief glance to the side to look at his CO while he keeps putting the lead out. As soon as his ammo count gets low, he would ready to switch out to his second box-magazine.
 
Tristan - The Fateful Decision

Almost as soon as he finished explaining, bedlam broke loose throughout the building. A person, presumably working for the mutants, came forward vowing divine vengeance. Tristan could hear fighting upstairs, but before he could discern what it was, the target fell into their laps. A lucky break...except for the one who was dead. I'll make sure your sacrifice is not in vain. was the thought that came unbidden. Before they could get any headway in extracting the target though, Russell started firing his rounds into the target. Tristan looked to see who he was shooting at, when he caught a glimpse of his target...

Nonononono. Not her, anyone but her. his mind raced in a panic.

He was only snapped out of the panic by a yelled command from Jenive “Shlan, take the prisoner across our street. Tristan, Russell, go with her and run—don’t look back. Run as fast as you can to Aleksa’s tank!” Almost automatically, the scientist jumped down after the target. It was only after he finished jumping down when he realized that Jenive was not coming down with them, instead choosing to stand her ground against the nigh-invulnerable Eve. Tristan shook his head...did she intend to sacrifice herself to save the team? This result was going to have to be left to fate, let the dice fall where they may. He quickly pointed his rifle towards the target's back, then redirected to his head once he realized a potential weakness of the mutants. The scientist turned to Shlan and said, "Come, let us get him out of here. Can you call Aleska and let her know we are coming? My radio is off and we haven't time to waste." he said, attempting to move to the tank as rapidly as possible.

Tristan heads down to where Ezekiel is, and attempts to escort him to Aleska's tank as quickly as possible.
 
Shlan Fletcher

Shlan jumped back in horror as the assassin crumpled against the rocks, every other bone it seemed was shattered, limbs gaining several new joints. A few seconds later, the target's body joined it, though this one was alive. Shlan was dimly aware of Jenive and Russel talking above, but most of her attention was split between the three TC corpses in the rubble around her, the target's orange leak, and the sounds of the monster out in the street.

It was only when Tristan started talking to her that she snapped back to attention. "Yeah... yeah." Walking over to the target, Shlan almost casually slapped one of directional charges onto its spine. "Get moving, or I pop you in half and drag what's left." That said, she took a step back and turned on her radio, broadcasting to all channels. "Aleksa, we're heading over. You better be ready to get moving right away. Everyone else, we've got the target. Get yourselves out of this fucking mess pronto. Hewitt, that includes you. Keep the heroics to a minimum for once, yeah?"
 
The ground shook beneath Cathryn's feet, forcing her away from the window and nearly onto her ass. She clambered up despite the twisting and churning in her heart and stomach then began to wobble her way to the stairwell. Once she was out of the room she was more steady, walking towards Carolyn. It wasn't hard to locate her due to the shouting, more than happy to see a familiar face. She tried to give the dusty woman a smile, but remembered the situation and instead dropped her head and looked towards the side, pulling her visor back over her eyes.

"I am sorry I could not do more damage, ma'am. Where should we go next? What can I do?"
 
Fractured & Boxed Out


I have to go back to Hewitt. Why does it hurt so much. What have I done. He can’t be dead. Hewitt, you fuckin’ piece of shit, you can’t be dead. Right?

Her mind was racing but Box could barely keep focus once her body fell heavily to the ground. Her adrenaline kicked in again, somewhat numbing the pain at her side, and she instantly knew her ribs were fractured. Shit, she couldn’t heal this, and fuck, she was running low on that energy. She heard the gentle voice in her head again, the same one from her interrogation, and before she knew what was happening, her breathing uneven and shallow. The woman forced her eyes open and she saw two women in front of her, and recognized the crazy religious zealot from their previous mission. Florence? She’s… with them? Box was even more confused. A sudden burst of nausea caused her to cough and writhe in pain, a hand going to her side as she tried to ignore the weird, children-like shrieking in her mind. It felt like nowhere was truly safe, and it took Box every ounce of her remaining mental strength to go through this without crying out herself.

She had to get out of here. She had endured more than fractured ribs before, and she really needed to fuck off. Slowly and with a low grunt, Box got on her feet and leaned against the back wall. She downplayed her strength and limped as though she was in much greater pain. Her semi-automatic pistol was still clenched in her hand from earlier, her gas mask was askew but still covering her face. Her voice was gruff and there was an intended hint of pain in her tone. ”Let me go. I will not hurt you. Please… Just let me go unharmed.” She saw a the woman who had spoken to her get rained on by… something… bullet after bullet, yet there she was, still standing to protect her group. She knew Ezekiel were their target and she had had heard Jenive give three people the order to escort him out. They were winning this. All she had to do was get out of here. She did not want to be wasting lives and she doubted anyone in this room could be killed by a simple bullet… except herself.
 
Last edited:
One More Chance - Gabriel Desrochers

With the quick fixes done, Gabriel’s evaluation gave him maybe four minutes tops of flight time, which was nothing much than maybe one fly-by or one rapid strike. He could hear the voice of the ToG’s leader, which had been worrisome, to some degree. Now though, there was not time to question anything as this would be the last of his actions within his vehicle.

Hoping back in quickly and getting the thing started, he immediately radioed Jenive, preferring doing that than doing the text message. It was faster. “Gabriel reporting. I have max 3 minutes of flight once I get off the ground. If you want me to shoot or missile something, it’s now or never.”

Jenive does not reply, as she is too overwhelmed by her current situation to use the radio.

No initial answer… It wouldn’t stop the pilot from taking off and making his way towards the building, hoping to see something he could help out with. He would circle around, maybe trying to avoid whatever monstrosity was announced over the comms.
 
Ozymandias felt nothing at the death of Pin. The nomad was too accustomed to violent death to let death get to him. He would mourn later; now was the time for action. Ozzy left the room as Morai and Yankee gunned down some poor fool dumb enough to follow them after announcing himself with a smoke grenade.

The firefight with the Old Guard turned messy when Ozymandias got hit. He swore when Ezekiel broke away. Chasing after him, he helped Morai gun down the Coalition Assassin that seemingly killed the apparent mutant and threw his body out of their reach. Ozzy was livid with himself for being lenient with the target. Ezekiel's orange blood, if it could be called that, caught his interest, and he grabbed the knife used to stab him. If we wanted him for any reason, it was to study him: zealots do not give up their secrets easily. Moments later, Morai guided them into room 408, blocked by Coalition reinforcements from upstairs.
 
Carter- Back Against the Wall

The grin of satisfaction that came to Carter's face didn't last long. With the pounding at his door, it faded. He stood and spun to face the door, massive rifle in hand. In one fluid motion Carter emptied the remaining 9 shots into the door and the walls next to it. Staggering the shots to maximize his chance of hitting someone behind the wall. The blast from the muzzle, and the shattering sound of the shots bounced off the walls of the room and beat into him. A piercing ringing swallowed his hearing, and the sounds of the world around him were dulled.

With his rifle empty, he dropped it to the floor. It smashed into the already ancient flooring and left its mark. Carter, with his hands now freed, flipped the table he had been laying on and dove behind it. There he went for his submachine gun, snapping the stock into position and chambering a round. Keeping low, Carter peaked around the right edge of the table with his smg, revealing as little of himself as he could. His hood and other clothing slowly shifted to roughly match the surrounding environment. There he watched the door, finger on the trigger and ready to fire on anyone who stepped through.
 
Last edited:
Bob and Kiku
A collab with @LimeyPanda
For the second time in a very short space of a minute, Kiku was in pain again. Before, it had been when she'd been knocked on her ass by a door. Now though, it was the agony of bullets having passed through her shoulder. She felt the white-hot agony for a second, as she openly swore, despite herself. "Shitty fucking cunty cocksuckers! kuso kurae, Kono yarou! (Eat Shit, you shits!)" In her pain-fueled rage, Kiku slipped back into her mother's tongue. Despite being only taught the basics, she had heard some of her mother's less salubrious terms for people, and picked up on them even if she wasn't one-hundred percent on the meaning.

So intense was the agony of being shot, that Kiku almost missed what happened with the prisoner. The escaping mutant was suddenly shanked by a man who had powers similar to hers. The man possessed a much greater strength than her, as he lifted the mutant off of the ground. She swore out loud again, watching as he electrocuted the prisoner before throwing him out of a window and getting bulls-eyed by the attackers. "Fuck, Bob! We need to get downstairs. Target is downstairs! Fucking Drone piece of shit!" She said, as the Wisdom's drone started to flash; blinding her. She slung her carbine onto her back and withdrew her knife, quickly jabbing at the drone that was blinding her. She didn't want to take shots, in case she hit Bob in her blindness.

Bob heard a clink of metal that accompanied Kiku's knife making making contact, but those irritating flashes of light still seared through his eyelids. Grumbling under his breath, he blindly aimed where the flashes seemed to be coming from, let loose a quick spray of a few bullets, and was rewarded by the damnable light stopping and then sound of the drone falling to the ground. He opened his eyes and found everything seeming much darker than it should, like he'd walked into an unlit building right after being out under the midday sun.

"Fuckin' drone piece of shit," Bob muttered by way of agreement. He started down the stairs, taking them as quickly as he dared with his vision compromised for the moment, and held out a hand to offer Kiku help if she needed it. He didn't say anything about the wounds in her arm, but he'd noticed them before the drone had appeared."C'mon, let's get going then. Sounds like the Coalition has our man and is headed toward their side. Whattaya think, get our asses out of dodge or see if we can help secure the target?" From the inflection added to the word it was pretty clear Bob meant securing it for The Old Guard in specific, not helping the Coalition forces get it back to their people.

Kiku was annoyed at failing to take out the drone herself, but when the flashing stopped, and when Bob made sure to offer a hand; she smiled at him. "Heya boss, I'm having a really shitty day." She said, holstering her dagger and withdrawing her pistol. It was a small, silenced thing, but at least she could almost fire it accurately with one hand. She started to jogdown the stairs two-at-a-time, keeping pace with Bob, despite being aware she could outmatch him pretty easily. "If we wanted to stay out of dodge, we wouldn't be out here. Let's do the job we're out here for." She said, cradling her arm a little but ignoring the pain of jostling it. "We'll need some big guns though. I've only got a pea-shooter, and they've got like...tanks. I still want to try just talking to the target. Get me close, and maybe I can calm him down without more stabby sneaky dudes." She said, still jogging alongside Bob. "Also, can't believe that fuck-head stole my gimmick!"

"Stole your gimmick?" It took Bob a moment to figure out what the hell Kiku was talking about. Must've been something she saw that he hadn't, before the drone showed up. "Well, judgin' from all that gunfire we heard, either he's a hell of a lot better'n you or a hell of a lot deader'n you, and now ain't the time to be carin' about that shit either way. Big guns though, eh? Might be we've got some lyin' around."

Bob's eyes were starting to adjust back to the dimly lit interior as they continued downward, and he was able to squint at his little radio display to make sure he was tuned in to the Old Guard's channel. "Bob here, callin' Carolyn. Feels like time to call in the cavalry, ma'am. Target must've gone down the south stairwell, and you must've heard the Coalition has 'im and they're headin' out to extract 'im. Sounds like there's a real shitshow of a firefight somewhere below us, no intel on that but I'm guessing backup might be needed to secure the target, one way or another."

"Negative, we don't have the firepower to take out whatever that thing outside is. We'll stay bunkered down until The Coalition takes care of it--then I will call in everyone in the area." Carolyn replies, bluntly.

"Well...shit." Kiku said, obviously dejected by the loss of momentum. She looked over at Bob with an awkward grimace before upping the pace of her jog. "Even if we can't get the big-guns, we need to get to the target. There's no way we're gunna be able to snag the prize from up here." She said, shrugging. She was almost certain in her mind that she had the solution to all of this. All she needed was to get to the target; get to the mutant. No one had even tried just talking with Ezekiel yet. That's all she wanted to do. Try talking.

Bob nodded to Kiku and spoke into the radio once more. "Sure thing, boss. We'll play it smart until then." The casual half-lie slipped out easily and without hesitation. He was pretty sure there were a dozen reasons running after the target with just Kiku was stupid as all hell, but his capture was the entire point of the mission so it needed to be done. Bob rose his voice to nearly yelling levels to be heard over the ruckus coming from the second floor. "We're gonna have to get by whatever bullshit is goin' on down there. Let's take a look, eh?"

Kiku nodded, as she jogged towards the final stretch of stairway until they reached the second floor. She slowed down at that point, activating her mutation to try and see the sights of the room ahead of them. She was greeted by two red-ish yellow human blurs, and the slowly advancing form of one of the off-putting blue figures who she'd spotted before the door had been blown her way. She swore out loud, lifting a hand to slow Bob up. "At least One of the scaries from 305 is still alive; getting shot at by two people." She said, reaching for her pistol and thinking about the limp discomfort of her left shoulder. She wanted to shoot ahead and get to Ezekiel. That was her focus; even now. "I just want to help this Listener."

Bob took up a spot just next to the doorway leading into the second floor, for once in his life annoyed at his lack of a fancy mutation of the sort that allowed Kiku to get that useful info. He held his rifle at the ready, still with the roughly half-spent clip that he'd been using, and nodded once more to Kiku. "Well, let's see what's going on. I ain't eager for an extra fight, so maybe we can scoot on by." That said, he went to peek around the doorway, hoping to get a good enough look at the action to make heads or tails of it.
 
“I’ll find you,” Aleksa grumbled to herself as Ray Jr. canvased the fourth floor. Currently, Biscuit was maneuvering through the second floor. One moment there was nothing, and then a loud burst of sounds and people. Her fellow Coalition comrades were squared off against what looked like aggressors. Possibly not U-ARM, as they had just finished inhaling a building, but the situation was obviously not in The Coalition’s favor. She quickly swooped Biscuit into there to lay down some heavy cover fire. Aleksa smirked, only a few rounds should do it. Yet. A few rounds weren’t doing it. дерьмо. What was this person? She sent Ray Jr. to provide Biscuit some backup.

Aleksa’s comm crackled on as Shlan stated their current intention and retreat. “Roger that. I’ll continue cover fire with the drones engaging the hostile. I’ll deploy two more to provide cover while you head across the street. I advise haste, or you’re not going to have a way out if that tank destroying thing breaks through and gets here first.” She was probably going to lose those two drones in this fight. If not from the indestructible person, then losing contact with them after a certain proximity. She could signal them to tail, but the hostiles in return could tail her. Hopefully, she’d just manage to kill them and that would be that. Aleksa didn’t hold her breath.

Her engine was already going, rumbling like an angry beast underneath her. As soon as the Coalition members pile din, she’d get a move on. They had a very thin margin here. She deployed two more drones, Ray Sr. and Daddy Big Guns, for protection of her tank, and Shlan and company. They weren’t far from the tank, but Aleksa couldn’t turn her attention too far from providing cover with Biscuit and Ray Jr.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.