@Sniblet@Eviledd1984 "Overlord, this is War Thunder. We are en route to the BemaTech facility, break. ETA: five mikes, over."
"Copy, War Thunder. Be advised, NCPD personnel have been spotted outside the facility. Do not fire on them unless ordered. I say again, NCPD are not to be treated as hostile unless otherwise."
"Roger, Overlord. War Thunder out."
"All callsigns, this is Warlock. Our target is a netrunner. Codename: Acid_Burn. Female, Caucasian, early twenties. Possible ties to a cybercriminal organization known as Black_Sun. She is in possession of a data package stolen from the BemaTech. Our mission is to locate Acid_Burn and retrieve the data before she sells it to her clients in the Yamagata Zaibatsu. Once we've recovered the data, our orders are to eliminate the target. Any questions? Good. Let's do this." The blackened skies thundered above Nova city with the galloping sound of nearly tens of hundreds of Milicor Mi-68 transport helicopters, flanked by AH-71 Lakota gunships as they soared over the towering buildings and skyscrapers awash in a sea of glowing neon and holographic billboards. Pretty soon, they began their gradual descent to a lower altitude as the fleet closed in their destination.
Desmond took one last drag off the cigarette he was smoking before flicking it casually out the open door of the chopper's fuselage. He then loaded a fresh magazine into his rifle, racking the charging handle and flipping the weapon's safety to off. A brief looking over of his equipment and his squad's before they were ready to disembark.
"Thirty seconds, gentlemen!" The pilot yelled back over the rancorous chopping winds that vibrated the entire fuselage. Desmond quickly gave a curt nod and stood up.
"Alright, men! On your feet!" He shouted over the roaring and buzzing of the chopper.
"Remember! Do not fire on any NCPD unless I give the order! Are we clear?!" "SIR! YES SIR!" The men all shouted back in unison. By that time, the choppers were already descending upon the facility, hovering over the NCPD squad cars in the parking lot, their flashing reds and blues culminating with the hazy green emanating from the large BemaTech building. Desmond soon gave the order to drop the ropes and rappel down.
"GO! GO! GO!" One after another, the Milicor mercs, clad in full military regalia and combat gear, slid down the ropes fast, taking up defensive positions just as immediately as their feet hit the ground. Desmond followed shortly after, his boots eliciting a resounding clop as his soles landed firmly on the concrete drive and his AR interface suddenly lit up his vision with tactical data of his surrounding area, linking up with his rifle's holosight.
"Team One, set up a perimeter around the building! No one gets in or out! Team Two, I want you to secure the server room and report any intel to me! Let's move!" His men quickly snapped into action upon his orders. Meanwhile, Desmond calmly approached the two mercenaries for hire who were cuffed outside and sitting on the curb nearby. Already, there were three NCPD officers about to load them up in the back of the paddy wagon before Desmond stopped them,
"Hold it right there, mate. I need to speak with those two." A firm, gloved finger he pointed towards the two men.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait a fuckin' minute! What the hell are you assholes doin' here?!" Loudly one of the officers protested, evidently taken aback by the sudden appearance of so many Milicor mercs.
"You can't just barge in here like you own the goddamn place! This area's under our jurisdiction!" "Not anymore, mate." Said Desmond with a stern glare aimed at the fat cop's boisterous face.
"These men have committed a security breach of a facility owned by the BemaTech Corporation. Under our longstanding agreement with BemaTech, Milicor Defense International provides the corporation with top of the line security. That includes my men and I." "Listen, bub!" The cop replied poking his chubby finger into Desmond's chestplate, thus earning him another vehement stare from the merc. He continued to rattle off in Desmond's face, only making the man angrier by the second.
"I don't care what Milicor or BemaTech says! This is official police business! Now you order your men to back off or things are gonna get real fuckin' nasty here! Capisce?" "No." Desmond returned snarling through clenched teeth. He leaned in closer to the bulbous officer, hissing a dire warning,
"And if you ever touch me again, you fucking wanker, I will paint the outside of this building with your fat fucking corpse! Now I won't tell you again! This facility is under OUR control! Leave now!" "Hold up there, Rambo! Are you threatening me?" The officer spat back with equal venom as his jowls puffed and flapped. Things were about to get heated between them until Desmond's comm cracked with static, followed by the voice of one of his men.
"Warlock, this is Team Two, over." Desmond shot the cop one last menacing glare before squelching his mic and replying,
"Go ahead, mate. Gimme a sitrep on the server, over." "Server's wiped clean, sir. All the files have been downloaded. ICE is compromised. Whoever did this was no amateur." "Too right, mate." Bitterly Desmond sighed into the mic, his hand reaching to vigorously yet briefly massage his left temple.
"Do we have an ID on the hacker?" "Affirmative, Warlock." Replied the merc on the other end.
"Intel gathered by cracking the security feed in the building has given us a positive ID on the target. We're sending it to you now." Suddenly, the picture appeared in Desmond's vision. Although it was slightly grainy, he was able to pick out the face of the woman he was after.
Desmond was quiet for a moment, lost in thought. His brow furrowed as another breath of air was exhaled from his lungs in a bothered sigh. Soon, he answered the soldier on his comm,
"Contact one of the Regulator cells nearby. Have them intercept the cruiser but do not, I say again, DO NOT harm the target! Do I make myself clear?" "Roger, Warlock. I'll send an APB to any nearby Regulators ASAP. In the meantime, our UAV is showing another Milicor operative in the area. According to the radar, it's Callsign Pink Dot." "Fuck!" Desmond muttered annoyed.
"Fine. Have her regroup with our squad until further notice. Warlock out." With that, he squelched the mic again and turned to the two mercs sitting cross legged on the sidewalk. Suddenly he whipped out his service pistol, firing two shots that splattered blood and brain matter all over the three cops standing by. Quickly, they too drew their guns on Desmond, which only led to their swift and grisly demise at the merc's skillful hand.
As the last body hit the ground, Desmond looked over them with ill contempt in his glaring cybernetic eyes, hissing under his breath as he holstered his sidearm,
"That's what you get for fucking with Milicor."
Meanwhile across the city, Emma's cruiser was still stuck at the intersection, halted by a red light that seemingly refused to change. Irritated, she huffed and drummed her fingers on the steering wheel, glaring up at the light in disdain.
"Oh, come the fuck on already!" She grumbled.
"I've got a perp to deliver back to the precinct! What, is this light painted red or something? Jesus!" She was becoming visibly annoyed by the second, not just from this damn red light but also the snide comments of the netrunner in the back, a familiar face to Emma, yet the older woman didn't let it show.
Indeed, there was a time when Emma went against the law rather than upholding it, when she outright challenged the corrupt authority, the rich bastards and the oligarchs who used their power to abuse others and take what wasn't theirs. Alas, she had found out the hard way her rebellion would have a price. A price she was not willing to pay, hence why she abandoned Maggie and her crew to become a cop. Emma could recall clearly Maggie's last words to her, the biting, vicious insults and slurs that spewed from her mouth like toxic waste from some drain pipe out in the ocean.
Lo and behold their paths would cross yet again.
A bitter sigh escaped her lips as she glanced in the rearview mirror at the young woman, scowling at her with eyes so sharp they could cut the detective to ribbons. Emma then turned and looked over at the blonde beside her, Nina shutting her eyes and frowning as Maggie turned her hostilities onto her. Yet another girl she threw under the bus for doing what she thought was right.
"Don't let the bitch get to you, rockstar." Emma cooed, albeit with a hint of sass. A wry, assuring smile she offered to Nina in a small attempt to comfort her.
"Sooner or later, she'll realize you did the right thing." Nina returned the kind gesture with a slight nod.
"Thanks." Sadly she whispered, her own smile somewhat fading.
"What's gonna happen to her now?" "Hard to say." Emma replied frowning.
"My guess if the corpos do bail her out, she'll sell the data to them. However...they won't have much use for her afterwards." "You mean...they'll..." Nina gulped, her face losing all color in an instant, leaving only a chalky white complexion. Her eyes widened in horror as she hastily whipped around and began laying into Maggie in the backseat,
"Goddammit, Maggie! I warned you working with the corpos was a deal with the devil! If they bail you out, they'll kill you! End of story! They don't care about you! Only whatever you stole from BemaTech! They'll throw you away like trash once they're done with you! You remember all the shit I told you my dad did! Why I had to run away from him in the first place! These fuckers are all evil! They're greedy, selfish bastards who only want one thing in this world, and that's power!" The blonde girl's voice hitched a little as her eyes began to well up with tears.
"Please, I know you want to do good. I know your intentions are well, but this is not the way to be doing it. Listen to me, will you?" "Uh, Nina?" Emma stammered hesitantly.
"What? What is it?" Nina whipped back around in her seat, just in time to see a blinding pair of headlights speeding towards Emma's cruiser. Suddenly, a barrage of automatic gunfire erupted from the charging armored vehicle, shattering the front windshield into a hail of glass shards.
youtube.com/watch?v=fjDGv4FambQ "MOTHERFUCKER! TAKE COVER!" Emma yelled, immediately throwing herself and Nina down onto the floor of her car. Bullets ripped through the metal and zipped past Emma's ears, thankfully not one hitting her or the blonde. She quickly yanked her revolver out of her hip holster and jumped up returning fire.
"Fucking Regulators!" She shouted over the thunderous bangs of her sidearm.
"What the hell are they doing here?!" The Regulators' Humvee came to a screeching halt, all four doors flying open as men and women garbed in Kevlar vests and wielding Milicor assault rifles poured out and began unleashing hell on the already heavily damaged police cruiser.
While Emma hastily reloaded and returned fire, Nina kept her head ducked down, shielding herself from bits of glass with her hands. This was insane, she thought, but the exact outcome she knew Maggie's lawless endeavors would have. This had the makings of a hit-squad written all over it. Maggie had pissed off the wrong people, and now everyone in this car were going to pay the ultimate price.
"Emma!" She screamed over the rancor of gunfire, the vicious barking of the Regulator leader issuing orders to his men to continue their onslaught.
"Emma, we gotta get Maggie out of here!" "You don't think I know that, Nina!" Emma shouted back, shoving another round of bullets into the chamber of her revolver and firing them off one by one.
"There's a goddamn death squad out there! I need some fucking backup! You still have that gun, right?!" "Y-yeah!" Nina quickly nodded.
"Take your little hacker friend and get the fuck out of here! I'll meet you when I can!" "What about you?!" Cried Nina.
Emma hollered in reply,
"Doesn't matter! Go! NOW! I'll cover you!" Nina hastily nodded back. Amidst the overwhelming volley of lead, she kicked open the passenger side door and crouched as low as she could as she hurried towards the back of the cruiser.
"Shit!" A bullet ricocheting off the roof of the police car caused her to yelp. She reached over and flung open the back door on Maggie's side.
"Mags, come on!
Let's go! Everyone's gunning for you!" Meanwhile, Emma continued to return fire. She quickly reached for the radio on her dash, practically screaming her lungs out into the mic,
"Dispatch, this is Detective Thorley! I'm under heavy fire at the intersection of West and Fremont! Send backup, over! Nishida, if you can hear this, I need you to get out of whatever pair of legs your between and get your fucking ass up here, NOW! They're ripping us to shreds here!" Just like that Emma thought, a gnawing, sickening feeling surging in her gut as bullets continued to hail down on her and everyone else, all hell had broken loose in Nova City, all over some data stolen by Maggie.
