"Fuck me!" Tahlia yelled out, watching another explosion, Jamie deciding to bring all of the firepower to Southern Greenland this morning. If that didn't wake her up, she wasn't sure what coffee would. Picking off another flanker, she sniped the exo-wearing operative with a headshot, smacking him out of the picture, covering Jamie's rear.
"You are gonna love me someday, Scion. They're seeing you alright." Tahlia added, pulling the bolt ready, adjusting and finding another target.
Raph stayed close with Enri, staying in front, clipping another stray operative that had somehow avoided getting his head kicked in, as the distinctly-non superpowered feeling Israeli could see Jamie pulling troops away, and had decimated the building they were heading towards. Every launch of his shoulder-launched munitions a comma, every yell a very bold full stop, and bodies everywhere in the small compound, as Jamie had decided to make a ruckus away from where Raph and Enri needed to work. Looking to Enri, he hoped she had what she needed radio wise, and after going from H-barrier sandbag to sandbag, now they could at least enter the structure. It was quiet enough, and with a few servers posted up, had a high-tech interface that she immediately could get on. Checking the mag, the Israeli knew combat wasn't his usual wheelhouse, certainly personal protection wasn't either, but given the fringe of the base and the fact so much fire was going on down there, a light team was a better way to go than not.
With a check around, Raph stepped over the bodies from the bullets Jamie had littered through the metal frame of the building, .50 cal holes punching their way through two walls at a time and leaving equally big holes in the people they hit inside, mostly techs but well, all Artemis affiliated. Which was not confidence inspiring, but hey, so long as nothing more than that came, all gravy. Plus their sniper was keeping an eye out too.
"All yours. I'll cover, you hack." Raph added, knowing she was on her ball, as he checked any other corners, for any hidden surprises. He was dry as ever relative to the Japanese hacker's jovial tone, but well, working with the enemy was always strange. Even if it was at what felt like Ragnarok come to life. "For the record, you may not be my favourite person, but right now, I'm fucking glad you're with us." Raph joked, knowing a stare like a thousand daggers was going to come from Enri, but well, at the height of it all, the tension needed some breaking. And even the usually dry Israeli couldn't help observe it.
Meanwhile, outside, Tahlia continued to impersonate a tuft of moss, sniping another target on a ridgeline, cycling the bolt and trying to refocus on another target. Not before she saw the rumbling in her distant scope, that of a pair of armoured vehicles.
"Scion, break. Eyes on a pair of BMP-3s, rolling in over the hill, and about a platoon's worth of troops, well equipped, and likely are going to charge you. Nothing I can do to it, and they'll give you a bad day. Looks like you may be able to ambush it, he won't be able to get his gun on you from there. Scion, it's your call, tell me when and I'll start picking off people. Or, get the fuck out of the way, and Enri can light that thing up for some fire support. I'll cover your six either way." Tahlia called into the comms, adjusting her position, seeing another enemy on Jamie's flank, picking him up and exhaling, putting a bullet through the helmet, in a comic moment of quiet in the gunfire from Jamie's end.
"You are welcome! Keep fragging them, big man!" Tahlia replied, chuckling as she continued to pick up targets, knowing full well the rest of the attack was going about as well as planned. A lot more troops were moving in, and whilst not in the immediate vicinity of Jamie, one Scion was about the same as a platoon's worth of firepower up here, and they were all trying to pick lines. Attack helicopters dodging MANPADS, more armour getting bombed by F35s and dodging ZSU batteries, the overall scene unfolding like WW3, in a very condensed mine. The wider hollow had pretty intense fights taking place, with Royal Marine and US Marine amphibious vehicles laying down grenade launcher fire, soldiers going from plant machine to gravel pits, and all manner of hell raising.
There was a distinct feeling that a hard, sharp kick to the balls was taking place to Artemis here, but it would be for nothing if they didn't sort that transmitter tower out, and the other two teams didn't do their bit, as from Tahlia's vantage point, she could tell what was coming. Enri had some more hacking to do, and Jamie some ambushing.
Adam Stanislaw Kajtanowicz
The sound above was that of people getting hacked apart, and a distinctly Wilhelm-like scream coming from the likely quarter of a ton of cloaked heavy literally shuffling their way up an oil rig leg, and then clearing the position above. Well, that indicated the rest was good, if Freya had personally seen to it that close. With it, Adam started clambering up, the ladder strong, but my god, it was going to have to hold for Chuck. That lovebird was going to need to hold on well, or else they were all going down. Clambering over, the gentle patter of rain and sea-spray now fading, Adam sighed as he looked at them. They were distinctly squished, he could tell from the bruises and marks.
"Death by snu-snu, Frigga? That's new." Adam dryly joked, as he gave a hand to the next operator up the ladder, pulling them up, with the entire team now up onto here.
From being up in the platform now, the team moved slow. Adam peeked the corner, silence still kept up, just about, but how long they had would be questionable. First corner was clear, but before moving, a plastic sheeting was in front, and he knelt.
"Divider here. Algal labs are that way. Command is this way. If that merc is around, be really, really fucking careful. Boaro knows the horror stories, if she comes out, expect a hell of a fight. If it's in our way, clear it out. No friendlies on deck. I trust you guys to get it done. Once you've secured it, dump the counteragent and stop anything that moves. Me and Freya will get air support to lend us a hand, because it's going to be intense." Adam called out, and with it, the team split into two. Freya with Adam, whilst Chuck, Ban and Ebrima had the algae lab.
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FC4Dq7UXsAs0kYl?format=jpg&name=large)
The algal plantation and lab itself, when they got there would be highly manned, not set up for defence. It looked like a gigantic vertical farm, at least three storeys high, and a massive warehouse-like structure full of enemies, nooks and corners everywhere, corridors between them and gantries, and tight, confined corridors that were basically so tight only hand to hand would really work. An exo's paradise in the centre, and in the centre of the lab past all the pipework, the large store for the Sol Hestia that needed killing. There was going to be serious resistance all the way, and likely as the team moved into position, sneaking on the first few guards past the plastic sheeting that were on patrol, flashlights on with only the glowing green tanks illuminating the place outside of the gigantic floodlights that would be activated on movement, making the scene.
This was a prelude to a serious, if not insane fight. And the team had the chance to spring their trap, when they want.
Moving through, Adam led the way in front of Freya, the scene a little funny, like a lion following a cat really, given their relative heights.
"Clear." Adam called back, peeking the corner. More of them on patrol, and whilst Adam felt Freya push against him, almost like a lion wanting to just clothesline them with ease, Adam let them go. With a gentle patter, Adam pinked a round into the far man's head, then the one behind, both falling down the stairwell with ease, as they headed up, the tight corners near impossible for Freya, but more navigable for Adam. The next door revealed a lot more contacts through, in an overlook and large control room looking down into the algal lab below, as well as then spiralling onto the roof, and ultimately, the command point for the rig.
"Well, we went as far as we could quiet. I'll throw a flash in, you might have a few seconds of cloaking to smash into a few of them. I'll lay down fire. You ready?" Adam craned his neck up to the Kantaario, even though he was further up the stairwell than she was. On her ready call, he prepped a flashbang, and opening the door, flung it in with the pin popped, and then got the fuck out of the way, and it smacked bright light, and then, the party was on.
Meanwhile, Luisa was eyes on the PDA. Structure breach. Well, that only meant one thing. As she stepped through the shadow, the floodlights lit up, sequential through the lab.
"Intruders! You came to the wrong facility, surrender now or face the wrath of Seniorita Vasquez and her merry men! All guards, find them and make them suffer!" The tannoy announcement was nothing but cheesy, but as Adam reflected on it, man, it made her want to kill her even more. Jesus, she had a voice like a cheese grater....
Skye cursed, as she turned and saw Sam's attempt at first fail, but well, buy enough time. With it, Skye turned up the bolt, and unleashed it at the drone in a brief moment of its disability.
"Have that! Appreciate it Chaos, no pressure but that's one problem down!" She called, as the M31 barked out and spat a tungsten round that carved the top half of it away, the Scot giving a wry chuckle before darting into more cover, more operatives coming.
"Fuck me! Where they hell were they hiding?! Viper, hold off that, we may need that as a contingency, make your way to our flanks as we're headed up!" Skye yelled out, as she moved out, peeking from the server at another side and lacing a round into another merc's legs then head, back in as Athena moved to another set, MP412 REXes in both hands like some sort of fucking Wild West shooter, putting rounds into Artemis mercs filling the voids between the racks, filling the air with custom-made .357. The REX really was a revolver after Athena's heart, a bespoke, weird, non standard thing. But well, when you didn't really have much to deal with in recoil, it made sense, as even she made note to keep in cover.
The fight was intense, as Skye kept on her toes, Athena spraying rounds past a server, a charging exo-equipped operative no match for her, as she at first had to resist getting a hand on her face, before flipping the woman in the exo over and suplexing her into the floor, crushing her out between her legs. Skye DEFINITELY gave her a look for that, before more gunfire interrupted, Skye using her flank to lay some more charged fire down from the gauss-gun like weapon, the penetration a bit too high for what she liked, but given the internals of this thing, unlikely to go too far.
"Contacts down! Keep moving!" With it, Skye moved forwards, laying down fire, Athena grabbing a rack and throwing it in front of Skye, slatting a guy out as Skye double tapped, Athena roaring as she lept over a rack and sprayed three more mercs, hosing them out with fire, cackling.
"Eat that, fuckers!" Her voice seemed to carry, and stealth was now very much out of the window, as Athena seemed to not be approaching unarmoured combat with a feeling of a lack of weight, but like anything could be, and would be thrown. Sam was probably loving this, the part-armoured heavy showing what she was capable of in this sector of the server farm. Skye looked around, trying to find an access point, but there was nothing here.
"Chaos, we need to keep on. I can't see any access into Rose's digital brain here. She must have it configured to her own place up there."
Coming around the corner and up the next steps, the two kept moving, the end of the server room coming up to another corridor that was immediately filled with bullets, from an over-reactive killzone forming drone.
"Well, no way through there. Viper, a hand here?" Skye called into the comms, the Scot taking a breather, checking herself over, as Athena did the same, another drone blaring intermittent fire above them to create a killzone in the stairwell.
"Gotcha. On my mark. Keep your oxygen on, there'll be a breach." Purna replied cooly, as that felt like the understatement. What felt like a suddenly pulling could be felt as the entire ship lurched as the glass smashed and the turret blew up, Skye chuckling as the automatic shutter on the frame shut the opened up frame, as if knowing the thing was going down.
"That's us! Let's move!" Skye called, as she kept a move on, heading out of the industrial-feeling servers and up into what felt like...well, living quarters. A gigantic penthouse, this was Rose's home from home, clearly. Athena whistled.
"I will redo the decor, but this'll do. Where's the steering wheel?" Athena chuckled, the blonde reloading her MAC-10s as Skye could hear more around the corner. The light beamed in through the windows, made of heavily reinforced glass, creating a feeling that were in a skyscraper, albeit one ridiculously high up.
"Another storey up. We need to move through this. Fuck me, what a place. Careful with your rounds here, more breaches are gonna hit. Purna, think you can get to the wheelhouse?"
"Affirmative. I'll move to secure." The reply was cool from Purna, as Skye leaned in against the hyper-modern black wooden framing, peeking it, before looking back.
"More bad guys. Ready?" Skye asked, as the taller blonde chuckled behind her, nearly knocking over Skye.
"Let's fucking go!" Athena roared, running around and spraying rounds, her scream almost eliciting a chuckle before Skye herself had to make a move. This was all action, no thinking, and right now, they had to keep on. In the next room, what looked like more tubes similar to the kind Skye had seen were visible- not that Skye had the bandwidth to entirely explain to the rest what that meant- and the penthouse's open-floored layout was quickly becoming a killzone.
"Nord, Valkyrie, keep point, Chaos, see if you can find this hacker!" Skye called, as more gunfire barked out as Skye skidded behind a couch, spraying fire above it in a burst, catching a couple of guards off kilter with that move. With a turn, she peeked a corner and laid down some fire, as Athena just ran over the couch and kicked another guard in the chest, fumbling over after taking a couple of rounds herself, sighing a little in pain as she rolled back into cover. If not anything, really fucking cool, but her body armour was only gonna want to take so much.