The Last Bastion: Bunker Chicago

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BLAIR - BC-SEC OPERATION TRUTHSEEKER

Blair watched Carolyn's hand signals closely, interpreting a few of them that he had only had a day to work on memorizing and relearning. It was not always easy being the new guy. He gave Carolyn the affirmative, and sealed his own cockpit, reclining back into the seat of the heavy mech. He checked an auxiliary display, showing the movements of the infantry beneath him, where he had no direct visual, and when he was assured he wouldn't trample anyone, he accelerated the bulk of the mech to a double time march for the men. He kept an eye on the map, prepared to slow down before coming to intersections, or large rooms; no sense in running straight into an ambush. He could empathize with Carolyn, trying to save her father, as he had tried to do for his mother.

When the Intercom snapped into life, he chuckled at Carolyn's responses, but kept moving. The Leonne hammering down the corridors.
 
Operation Mole Hunt - Omar

Everything moved rather quickly after the door was taken down, but Omar didn't have much time to think it all through before Viper tried to hustle their prisoner out of the room. "Hold it." Omar had his gun pointed at the general's chest, and it remained there as he spoke to Viper and Jenive to explain his delay. "I'd like to find something to bind his hands and maybe keep him on a leash, just to be on the safe side, but we don't have time for that. Just a quick question for the general instead, then we can be on our way." He looked to the general, keeping his face neutral. "I'd rather not deal with any more bullshit tonight, General Anotionette. Are you going to come with us quietly and cooperatively? I'd hate to have to shoot you in the back when you're running away. Even I have standards, you know?" Omar kept his eyes on the general, watching with his mutation-enhanced senses for any sign of a lie.

General Antoinette brings his hands behind his back and crosses them, staring at Omar without so much as flinching. "If I'm given the opportunity, I'll take it in an instant. If that's sufficient cause for you to shoot an unarmed and honest man, then take it already, and cease wasting time with your mockery of morality."

Omar sighed and shook his head. "Fine. Thanks for the honesty, but orders are orders." He'd been expecting either a lie or an unfortunate truth from the general, so he'd already prepared himself to fire. Omar pulled the trigger once, paused for a split second, then pulled it twice more.

The General was no immortal, and the first bullet easily put him down as the sound rang throughout the room. The following pair of bullets were wholly unnecessary, as blood quietly pooled underneath the man. He hadn't even flinched when the trigger was being pulled, instead, facing his death without fear.

Jenive looks at Omar and slaps him. "What the hell is wrong with you! We just had to tie him up and he couldn't have posed a threat as a runaway! He was a god damn old man!" There was something more to it than that, but Omar couldn't discern it for certain.

Omar took the slap without a word or sound, simply accepting it with a condescending sneer. "Yeah, he was. A damned crafty one too. You saw what he was doing, trying to turn Viper to his side, and I wouldn't have put it past the old man to make it work. You heard that he wanted to take Ryan down. You heard him say he'd take the first chance to escape." He shook his head and holstered his gun. "I was ordered to kill him if he didn't comply with the arrest. That wasn't compliance. You got a problem with the orders, take it up with the guy who gave 'em."

"Right, sure... Sure." Jenive says, not having any particular response for the situation than to sigh and pull out her radio. "Ryan Dufont, this is Jenive... Omar has killed the prisoner. We need new orders." Her voice was cold, though as she takes her finger off the talk key, Omar could swear he could hear her muttering a certain, all too familiar word... "Asshole."

Omar simply rolled his eyes at the insult. There wasn't anything more worth saying, and she wasn't wrong: he was, in fact, an asshole. He'd embraced it long ago, so there wouldn't be any point in arguing. Omar moved to put Jenive between himself and Viper, though he kept his hand resting on the butt of his pistol, ready to draw and fire should the raider woman try anything. Or Jenive, for that matter, though she seemed content to express her anger in non-lethal ways. Omar waited to hear whatever the new orders might be, and whatever rebuke Ryan would offer for his actions.

Operation Truthseeker - Spook

As great and presumably important as all the ideological back and forth was, Spook couldn't dredge up a single fuck to give about the whole thing. She figured both sides were being equally stupid by insisting to fight over some damned mutant while a probably mutual enemy was getting in on the action. Odd are it was U-ARM, or some nasty mutants coming to rescue their friend, but instead of going and dealing with the threat they were gonna keep playing the dominance struggle game. "Bickering idiots would've fit in real well with the old raider squad," Spook muttered to herself as she jogged over to the north hall.

She let Brucey go first with his mech and noted that he didn't mention her at all in his bit of strategy. Whether accidentally forgotten or wilfully left out, Spook felt right at home as a loner amongst a group. She followed the mech at a short distance with he assault rifle at the ready, close enough to fire on anything coming down the hall but not close enough to get in the way and get squashed or roasted.

Omar is waiting to hear Ryan's response, in defensive position ready to retaliate should Viper try to attack him.

Spook is following Brucey down the north hall, assualt rifle at the ready.
 
Operation Truthseeker - Liam

The elevator stopped, the entire crew stepped out, and almost immediately gunfire and screams rang out. A sweat had begun on his brow already, and his hopes for survival dipped. Where had they come from? He racked his brain to try and figure it out, but after noticing where everyone had looked it seemed the obvious direction were East. Good. That meant he might not encounter it. The tapping of a foot drew his attention and his gaze rested upon Carolyn giving hand signals. His heart sank into his boots as he saw her order him into the eastern corridor, and into whatever firefight waited within.

No time for complaint or cowardice as the mech pilot launched forth into the corridor. A silent groan escaped as he followed behind one of the mech's legs, far enough to avoid being crushed and so he could still see around it, but close enough that it still provided cover. He could only imagine what they'd find down here, and he did not want to be surprised.
 
“You're looking for a weak point NOW?! Bèn nǚrén! (Stupid woman!)” -Morai Lee, Page 2.

BC-SEC – Operation Truthseeker – North Corridor

It didn't take long for Brucey, Spook, and Xavier to reach a sealed area. The door, however, was frozen open: The lack of main power to the facility knocked out the necessary measures to keep the automatic doors working. Walking through the open doorway, they would find themselves in an unmapped section of the complex: The secret research & development labs, or at least one set of them among potentially many. Here, plexiglass walls lined the walls into laboratories, only separated at four-way intersections. The area had been made in mind for mechs specifically, giving them enough space to move comfortably. Behind the plexiglass walls, there were still medical stretchers and engineer's tools around, but no sign of any personnel or volunteers—the whole area had been evacuated.

As they take a few steps inside, Xavier's hound would growl. There was a single open, small laboratory to their left, though plexiglass walls clearly showed there was nothing inside. Still, near a four-way intersection, they were able to see through the laboratory's plexiglass walls. On the other side, they could see eight lightly armoured and heavily armed people in black and red uniforms, though they weren't Death Watch, nor any other recognizable Council of ADAM soldiers. They weren't BC-SEC either, certainly. With them was a small mech as well. They were one corridor over from themselves, and as Brucey's group spotted them through the red lighting conditions, the other group spotted them in turn. One of them taps the side of their helmet, and the group's radios surprisingly manage to pick the red and black soldier's transmission. “Máfan fāxiàn. Wǒmen zhèngzài fàng huǎn.”

Brucey recognized the voice: It almost certainly belonged to Morai Lee. A reply quickly came through the radio. “Zhǐyǒu shāle tāmen, rúguǒ nǐ méiyǒu qítā xuǎnzé.” The voice belonged to a woman, though her accent was thicker than Morai's was, implying that she hadn't acclimated to the region like Morai had. Still, the orders seemed clear enough as Morai motioned for four of the soldiers to hold their position while he and three others advanced. The four left behind set up several feet down the left corridor from where Brucey and his group were standing: They would likely open fire if they attempted to enter the intersection, but they weren't making any aggressive advances either. Still, they could try to simply cross the intersection and keep moving ahead, looking through the plexiglass walls to keep an eye out for Morai, or they could try to engage the four down the left corridor and then directly pursue him. Perhaps he knew exactly where Adam was, after all.

Still, of the four left behind, one had a flamethrower, two standard rifles, and the last a large sniper rifle—one that could likely punch through heavy armour. The group would have to plan their next moves very carefully.

BC-SEC – Operation Truthseeker – East Corridor

Moving down the East Corridor was easy, for the most part. Carolyn gave the group directions on which way to turn the moment they hit intersections, and a couple minutes of travel later, the group descended upon a strange sight: A dozen dead bodies in a bullet hole ridden corridor. The bodies were still mostly warm, and though most of them were Death Watch, two of them wore black and red uniforms. It was a single, long hallway, wide enough for two to three mechs, and with cover points along the walls. It had been made to hold off attackers from either end, as ordinarily, automated turrets would be enabled to aid in the task. Instead, hanging from the ceiling, two automated turrets on the other end were simply hanging without power. Lucky for them, as it seemed they were packing a large amount of ammunition.

The hallway, everyone recognized, led to the command and control part of the bunker. It also led to secondary housing, and additional catacomb-like routes throughout the compound. Before the group could proceed any further, a pair of metallic canisters bounces down the hallway. A pair of loud bangs go off, and the Leonne and Carolyn's mech both find themselves without power. The lights briefly flicker out before coming back to life, as a hailstorm of bullets starts being sprayed by Death Watch on the other end of the hallway. They were simply covering one of their comrades however, who bursts out with a rather mean looking missile launcher. Peter's goggles also shorted out, though one glance at the partially melted battery told him why: EMP. Or, at least, something very similar to it. Nonetheless, both he and Liam managed to take cover behind the Leonne's legs before any bullets could shred either of them.

On the bright side, it seemed the intercom system in the area had also been permanently shorted out.

Inside the Leonne, Blair was left in near absolute darkness, save for a single screen that was flashing dully. It was attempting to restart the power, and was rerouting to backup systems. The Leonne would be back online in a minute, and there was no concern of mere bullets penetrating the thick armour. How those two devices had managed to send out an electromagnetic pulse at such a small size was a mystery, one he could likely resolve later, if he survived.

CoA – Operation Mole Hunt

There seemed to be a few moments of pause as gunfire erupted nearby. The red lights in the room they were standing in flickered momentarily, as did any electronic equipment they were carrying, though nothing particularly shorted out. The radios momentarily spat out large amounts of static, and then nothing. Still, they were able to hear Ryan Dufont, even as their radios continued to have erratic amounts of background static. “Move back toward the Cafeteria area, but take the first right at a four way intersection. There, you should find a series of crawl-ways. Use them and get to classified R&D-L3. There will be signs telling you where to go. You should emerge in a laboratory a few feet from the main lab. I need you to retrieve Adam from that lab and bring him to me directly at any cost. Do not kill him, even if he escapes your custody. He is far, far more valuable alive.” The sounds of gunshots nearby did not dissipate. “Better hurry. Carolyn is heading your way. She will be... Understandably disappointed with what she finds, and may choose to take it out on... Certain persons, regardless of whether they did anything at all. Are we clear?”

Jenive looked irritated, but nonetheless replied quickly. “Crystal, sir.” Ryan replies quietly, almost sympathetically. “It is a shame that such things happen, but if the mob was not so terrified of the unknown, these acts would never come to pass. Now, go. Hurry.”

Shut-Outs

Manny would find that wandering the alleyways provided no assistance whatsoever, as all the civilians had already been in hiding long before the fighting had begun. Still, wandering near the bunker itself, he could smell smoke, and further investigation revealed a hole blown into the side of it very recently. This hole lead into the walls, and further beyond, the compound itself—if he didn't mind a tight fit. Perhaps he could figure things out himself, if he was careful. Some of them might not even shoot him, if he could negotiate quick enough and convincingly enough. Of course, staying out was always still an option, but that would likely mean nothing much of note happening for several minutes, perhaps even an hour or two.

It was all, ultimately, his decision...
 
BLAIR - BC-SEC OPERATION TRUTHSEEKER


Seeing the two metal objects bouncing and skittering across the floor, Blair reacted to make sure the infantry at his feet were shielded from what he assumed would be simple frag grenade blasts. The massive legs with their slabs of armour could easily withstand any sort of grenade he'd ever encountered.


He had not encountered this sort of grenade before however. The blasts were light, but for a slightly terrifying moment, the Leonne went as dark as a yard up a hog's ass. The lights came back on, low voltage, simple circuits. When the diagnostics screen lit up, attempting the reboot, he grunted. Whatever it was, emp, or some forced hijack shutdown command, he wanted revenge. Someone forcibly shut down the Leonne, and that was not something he was going to stand for lightly, and every soldier was infantry first, specialist second. Unfastening himself from the pilot seat, he reached back with his right hand, and down to the standard issue rifle that was secured to its spot. He hit the release, and the mechanical system unclamped the weapon into his hands.

As he did this, his left foot kicked open a quick-release panel, bordered with luminescent emergency markings, and began pumping the backup hydraulic hatch release. The first few presses releasing the locks, and then began to lift the canopy of the mech, little by little, until he has just enough of a slit to where he could lean out of. Using the fuselage of the mech as cover, Blair braced himself with his legs, to provide himself with a means of quickly retracting himself back into the safety of the cockpit, before leaning out, observing the situation...and firing down a burst of suppressive fire, directed to the person armed with the rocket launcher. Timing himself to conserve ammunition, he used the moment of quiet to yell a taunt,

"SCHWEINHUND!"
 
Operation Mole Hunt - Omar

Ryan's comment on the general's death was far milder than Omar had expected. Based on that, he figured it was entirely possible that the man would accept and respect his ruthless decision once an explanation was given. Tough choices for an individual had to be made for the good of the whole, and who would better understand that better than a member of the Council of Adam? So long as word didn't get to BC-SEC about who pulled the trigger, he could probably get through this with only Jenive's slap as retribution for the murder.

That tiny kernel of optimism was shoved aside for later contemplation. For now, Omar focused on the job at hand, and more importantly on his own survival. His faint hopes to get way with his crime would come to naught if he was caught red-handed, so there was nothing for it but to get away as quickly as possible. He hurried out the door, making for the crawl-ways Ryan had directed them to find. For a moment he considered that this might have been a horrible tactical error, to go first and leave Jenive and Viper at his back, but it was too late to second guess himself. Omar walked as quickly as he was able, gritting his teeth through the pain of the malformed bones in his leg and hip grinding together and keeping his right hand on the butt of his holstered pistol.

Operation Truthseeker: North Corridor - Spook

Being new to Carolyn's squad, Spook had no idea who the hell any of the invaders were. All that she knew was that there were strange enemies present that needed to be eliminated. Hoping that their use of another language meant they couldn't understand English or would at least have a hard time with it, she spoke to her comrades over the radio. ”If either of you have a grenade, give it a toss. I'll try to get their sniper so Brucey can work clean up.”

There wasn't any point in trying to be stealthy, but it was a deeply ingrained habit so Spook stayed close to the wall closer to the four invaders and moved in a crouch toward the intersection while flipping her rifle into fully automatic firing mode. While the plexiglass ruined any real chance at stealth, it did present a lovely opportunity to fire on enemies in near perfect cover without it being totally blind. Rather than waiting to make sure the others had heeded her strategic suggestion, Spook went ahead with her part of her own plan immediately. She held her gun in just her right hand, the cybernetic limb that was designed for steadiness to improve accuracy, and stuck it around the corner as if to blind fire; luckily it wasn't entirely blind, so she was able to take a moment to try to get a solid aim at the sniper. It was an awkward firing position at best, but hopefully her cybernetic arm and the spray of bullets would make up for that. After getting what she thought was a generally decent aim on the sniper, Spook pulled the trigger and held it tight, letting fly the full magazine of electrified bullets and doing her best to fight the recoil with just the one hand.

Omar is hurrying to the crawl-ways as per Ryan's directions.

Spook suggested a plan of action and is trying to “blind” fire her assault rifle around the corner to kill the sniper, using her stability/accuracy cybernetic arm.
 
[BCOLOR=#ffffff]= Peter “Cottonmouth” Tao [/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=#ffffff][BCOLOR=#000000] and Liam Grillod =[/BCOLOR][/BCOLOR]​


Advancing a short distance behind the Leonne seemed standard, professional-procedure in offering lethal force multiplication within any mission and though the journey through the first Eastern Corridor sections progressed without any complications, there were numerous dangers that lurked around every Corridor and threatened to derail their mission. Peter's senses remained sharp and even as the careful advance brought him through the narrow sections, he kept a vigilant watch towards spotting any possible booby traps or possible spots that were ripe for an ambush. Moving through the compound brought sights that offered a much clearer picture as to how engineers had laid out Bunker Chicago's inner defenses.

Damn!” he muttered as he moved past the deceased CoA Elite troops, “Looks like someone hates the Council more than us.”

Any conventional assault would likely have resulted in a massacre to any intruders given the compartmentalized hallway construction and the careful turret placement along the ceilings. Peter was certainly thankful the Captain's intuitive mission planning had ultimately included short-circuiting the Bunker's power grid whilst allowing their squadron to bathe in darkness instead of .50 cal fun time. The gangly sight that followed proved the opposite and seemed much more than worrying given how thoroughly the Death Watch had fallen.

So,” he voiced as his eyes narrowed towards the corridor section ahead, “I never got your name, soldier.”

Liam ran down the corridor alongside Peter. He chose to stay quiet, putting as much of his focus in what may lie beyond the Leonne's mechanical legs. As they passed the CoA troops, his ears perked at Peter's commentary. He found himself wondering. Did he hate these men? How could he possibly? He'd never met any of them, and to extend any anger with the Council he might have to these soldiers was as illogical an idea as he'd ever thought of. Liam wasn't even sure he could describe himself as hating the council. Perhaps there was more to it than that, but he didn't have the experience others might.

"Uh.. Liam,” the Washington native heard, “Liam Grillod."


As soon as it slipped through his lips he saw Blair lurch to a stop before a hail of bullets was fired upon them. The bouncing canisters caught the two completely unaware despite the Leonne and Carolyn's mech having shielded the worst of the ensuing blasts. To Peter's surprise, no fragments or explosives penetrated their surrounding perimeter, however, on a short glance towards the melted battery within his short-circuited goggles, the canisters proved their main effectiveness as disabling EMPs.

The precise hail bullets that followed meant that one of two things; first, that they'd encountered an ambush and second, the blasts were meant as a mean appetizer to the main course that involved blistering Death Watch small arms fire. Peter wasted no time in finding cover and flipping his XM8 to semi-automatic while Liam found his footing behind one of the Leonne's legs and snuck a look ahead to see what they were squared off against. He came to the conclusion he could not tell. He did however see a man standing with what looked like a terrifying weapon that Liam did not relish being fired at them at all.

"I'll cover you,” he heard Liam voice, “You take the launcher out!"

Through a look of complete understanding, Peter nodded and calmly prepared to aim from cover with the sole purpose of terminating the AT carrier through precision shots ...
 
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Operation Mole Hunt - Viper


Viper's reaction to Omar's shooting of the General was absolutely calm as she let Omar and Jenevive advance slightly ahead of her as she considered the situation. He'd just murdered in cold blood Carolyn's father over a mild technicality in an order and a man too honest to understand his mistake in being so honest.

She considered Jenvive's position relative to Omar's and debated what she would do next.

We came here to get away from raiders.
We came here for the security, not the same behaviour with another name.
We came here to get away from people like Omar.


The voices that conflicted her sometimes, the over-loud conscience that had lead to her leaving for the Bunker. And now it was screaming internally for her to wrong a right.

Without hesitation she aimed for a moment and opened up on full auto at Omar. "I came here to get away from people murdering in cold blood." She said after starting the assault ready to turn her weapon on Jenvive as well if necessary. But hoping the woman felt the same way she did.


Operation Truthseeker: North Corridor - Brucey


Brucey studied the people across the intersection. Recognising Morai Lee's voice he frowned. A double cross? Triple perhaps? He didn't get much time to approach the situation with a clear and rational mind before the newbie opened fire on full auto. Even so he'd seen enough, a sniper with a heavy duty rifle, lightly armoured infantry, no visible friendlies, a small enemy mech.

He flicked the ammo selector for the Ironstorm to High Explosive and Incendiary and designated the enemy mech, designated the sniper with the chin gun and designated the Incinerator Array to simply turn the intervening space into an inferno. Cursing the premature attack he stabbed the fire controls.

The Ignis Dei would claim their lives.
 
Manny let out a deep sigh as he ran his fingers through his hair. On one hand, not running into anybody meant that there was nobody shooting at him, but it also meant that there was no one to get information out of. The whole place was dead with residents hiding in their homes and all the Council soldiers nowhere to be found. They must have gambled completely on holding the bunker and having the BC-SEC forces exhausting themselves in an assault. Tactically it was a smart move but it didn't seem in line with how the Council worked. From his experience they were usually more pro-active and didn't bother waiting for an attack. Either something was not what it seemed, or the Council was getting scared. Which ever one it was, Manny couldn't figure out: He knew from the very beginning he was a small insignificant part of a bigger picture that he would most likely never comprehend. To many people that thought was unbearable, but Manny didn't mind it as long as he was left alone. But now the bigger picture was starting to affect his way of life, which became frustrating as he considered himself woefully inadequate to understand such things.

He had looked around the compound itself and found nothing. He was about to branch out further into the City when he noticed a small hole blown into the compound. Looked like some kind of explosion or stray shrapnel tore the metal straight to hell. He crouched over and began to inspect it: it was small, but not unbearable. If he pried the metal a bit with his cybernetic arm he could give himself a bit more room. Where it led to he couldn't guess... but it did lead to somewhere.

He could go back into his hiding spot and wait for this whole stupid thing to blow over. What did he care for the squabbles of a fractured city? When he was out in the country with those brown and green hills, none of that could touch him. Nothing affected him. It didn't matter. Nothing Mattered.

He ducks his head and begins to move in the dark tunnels he had submerged himself in. He had no idea where it would take him. He would have to wing it and go by gut feeling until he found something useful or ran into friendly company. As he descended further and further into the compound, he began to hear the echoes of gunfire, prompting him to pull out his Lahti pistol and hold it close to him as he moved slowly in the enclosed space. It seemed like a ventilation shaft or some sort of Emergency exit tunnel. He was trying to pinpoint exactly where the Gunfire was coming from; somewhere below him it seemed-

Manny fell back startled as two stray bullets ripped through the metal sheeting a few feet in front of him. He cursed to himself as he went frozen for a good 30 seconds, hoping another stray bullet wouldn't go through his cranium. He sighed in relief as the shooting seemed to calm down in the sense that it had not stopped but sounded less frantic and more efficient, which hopefully meant that he wouldn't be getting anymore surprises in the near future.

Manny began to look around the shaft for an exit. Those two bullets suddenly made him very claustrophobic and getting out was number one on his list of shit to do right the fuck now. He began to walk cautiously, hoping he would find some sort of opening up ahead. He wondered if Carolyn's group was beneath him, and with a bit of luck not taking any casualties.
 
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