"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!"