Collab between Chuck and Athena
Armory at Raven’s Rock
0000 Local Time
After conversing with Jamie, Athena looked across to Chuck, the other handsome heavy, well, one of three. It was odd to be outnumbered, but well, it sort of made sense. Rolling in with this much heat never made sense, literally one of them alone was enough to make a platoon’s worth of men really reconsider their life choices, but four, well, that was how severe the situation was. The dark navy clashed with the yellow outcrops and tones, a distinct look to say the least, but her own spin on the crimson of her sister. With her footsteps clattering against concrete, she looked to Chuck, looking up a little, but no less imposing. A fellow giant, and one she’d be looking forward to smashing up shit with. Oh yeah, and Duke, who was now armored up and ready to go. The pup seemed naturally tactical- like he was like his owner, made for this shit, and despite the fact that an armoured dog would look rather odd indeed, it didn't seem to impair him, if anything, it made him look even meaner.
“Not bad. Jump jets too. Taste of professionals, am I right?” Athena chuckled, the blonde haired coil carrying heavy commented, looking him up and down, giving a twirl of her own as she looked around him.
“That is a sick looking bat you have there. Impressive.” She added, the small talk continuing, even if a little awkward considering the stakes.
Chuck turned to Athena as he heard her voice and realized she was talking to him. He gave her a polite smile. “I can’t take credit for the armor. I was given a prototype to try in the field. It has since been overhauled by Raven Squad and Samantha to eliminate the glitches I was having with it.” He shrugged causing the heavy armor to go up and down. Chuck’s armor had a matte black undersuit with harder gray colored heavy armor pieces over the top. He grinned at the mention of the jump jets. “I am still getting used to the jump jets. They give me an assist with jumping to get this heavy armor off the ground.” He hadn’t tried to fly. He was more like Buzz Lightyear, he could fall with style.
Chuck stood with Duke gnawing on the reindeer rib at his feet. Duke was making slobbery noises as he gnawed on his treat. Chuck looked over as Athena continued what was a very stilted awkward conversation. He didn’t really know how to respond to her yet. He had worked with women in the field but she pushed his boundaries. Not to mention he was very attracted to her older sister. She was talking about Lucille. “Oh that is my Louisville Slugger, Lucille.” He pulled Lucille out of the sheath and spun it casually making sure to step away from Duke so he wouldn’t hit him. “It is my preferred weapon of mass destruction.” He grinned knowing it didn’t look like much but the damage it caused on the battlefield was substantial. There was nothing like a classic mass times velocity kinetic weapon to show true power.
A giggle came across Athena’s face, as she saw him swing out the slugger, the spiky baseball bat with a chain on it a creative, destructive tool and a half. The kind that used right would cause so much mayhem out there. Shit, even her swords had nothing on that, she had to admit it. She swooned by, a childish giggle on her mind.
“Typical men, swinging your huge bat around and destroying things. I love it.” Athena grinned, teasing away despite how oh so awkward this was, it was gloriously so, as she saw Duke gnaw away at the remaining bits of reindeer. She considered his advice, and made an effort, well, somewhat better than before to not approach too close this time around.
Chuck looked over Athena’s armor and weapons appraisingly. He nodded to her swords. “I appreciate the skill it takes to use swords. I have some knife fighting training but I found swords difficult. I had a hard time finding swords that could hold up to my strength. I tended to destroy the cutting edges when I hit, making the weapon useless. Lucille is based on a Japanese mace.
Blunt force damage worked better for me.” He shrugged and smiled and nodded appreciating that she had taken his lesson in how to treat Duke to heart.
“True. Nothing like smashing shit up, but….ladies do precision. Duke looks so ready to take on shit. I’ve never met an pup in armour. And not one that could gnaw on throats like reindeer bone. Aww. So cute….I swear, you two are goals.” Athena chuckled, looking past her neck brace down to him, shrugging her shoulders, the large plate following the large woman’s form. She didn't reach out to pet him, taking the lesson onboard, albeit holy shit, every part of her was forcing that aspect of her down that she wanted to pick him up and run out of the base with him. How did she never get to have a dog? Was it the moves, or was it her parents, or was it just practicality? It didn't matter. Duke was so friggin' cool.
Chuck laughed at her description of Duke. “The poor guy was hungry. I wanted to be sure he got to eat before we left. Samantha made the armor for him. I was in the marines and he had a kevlar vest but samantha felt he needed something heavier to keep up with me.” He looked down at Duke with a loving warm expression and ran a hand down his back. “I appreciate her efforts to keep him safe. He can be a great asset in the field. He can help locate explosive material and hidden enemies. He guards my back as well. He is a great partner to have.” He looked back over to Athena.
“Enjoy working with Jamie, by the way. He’s got a good hustle, good flow. He can go wild too, so you know. He might be quiet now, but he’ll fuck up a lot of shit. He’s similar to you, I think. Should be a good partnership.” Athena added off-hand, clicking her neck and taking a deep sigh, looking direct at Jamie before then back at Chuck, the blonde, golden girl having that glimmer in her eyes, that sort of….well, excitement that was nervous yet wild. Like not the discipline and order of a Marine, but that of a joyrider, someone very aware they had what they had to offer. Athena may have taken lives, but there's no doubt she is a little removed from it all, perhaps from doing it in armour a lot, rather than through what some of the other heavies would have had in doing it with nothing but violence and spite on their mind.
“Get a hunting trip between the two of you, even.” She giggled, sighing in tone as she adjusted her armoured coil pack with her paw-like hands, checking the charge, the gentle whine pitching up before it came back down.
He laughed at her description of her brother. “I guess we will get to compare styles later. I think we will be okay. Are you going to be okay by yourself?” He was surprised that they didn’t split the giants into two teams. Although he guessed it made sense to have a large team to man the distraction at the main gate. “We helped Tahlia with hunting the reindeer. We both enjoyed being outside. I like hunting.” He shrugged and smiled as he heard her giggle and saw the nervous energy of a soldier knowing that they were headed into battle. He had seen that look before and knew it well. He realized that maybe he had not understood what she meant. He tilted his head to the side as he asked her. “Oh did you mean I should turn the battle into a contest with Jamie?”
”I’m a big girl Chuck, I can handle myself. Just have to see if Marrakesh can handle me.” Athena winked and let go a giggle, listening to him chat, talking it over, the idea of hunting and spending more time with Jamie.
He laughed as she said she could handle herself. “I don’t doubt it. Marrakesh will never be the same!” He winked at her playfully.
“Well. JamJam would probably enjoy spending time with you is all I’m saying. I don’t know why. I just get this feeling, you know? Doing manly stuff like….I dunno, woodwork. And all that. Not for me. Ew.” Athena added, giggling, just you know, teasing away a little. She seemed playful for someone who, in a few hours, might be turning people into ash whilst Chuck was bashing people in, the other titaness in her heavy armor still keeping her levity while they still had it.
Chuck looked confused and tilted his head to the side. He began reviewing what precious little he knew about Jamie. Was Athena trying to subtly set him up with her brother. Was Jamie Gay? Maybe he was trying to read too much into this. Athena had been all over him earlier. He thought he would have to beat her off with a stick. Now she was trying to push her brother on him? “Well we are all still getting to know one another. Who knows what’s in our future.” He let the conversation drop gratefully and kept those thoughts to himself.
Collab between Viper and Chaos
Maison and Jardin Villeneuve, Souk Semmarine, Marrakesh, Morocco
Scouting, Finding, Stabbing
Samantha had settled into her perch on the roof as she monitored Purna’s progress and did her best to aid him. She was working on infiltrating their network even as she kept the drones steady and the alerts off. She had already looped the drone feed so that if anyone was watching it, they would not see any of Raven Squad’s movements.
With Sam getting to work in the background, Purna had his work to do. And there’s something about it with him invisible. Sam may have seen bits of Jaguar in the past doing work cloaked up, but never this close perhaps to someone like Viper, as he slid down the tree and dropped onto the floor with a roll, USP and Kukuri in a tactical position, moving through the tiled floor of the garden, exo-wearing guards on sweep, the mood from loud noise and chaos to clean, beautiful greenery from just being inside. He looked around, and with it, spotted the automated turrets, the first order of business. Finding the VIP was critical, but none of it would matter if he didn’t sabotage that first. Making a hustle, the invisible man kept an ear out for Sam.
“Eyes on automated turrets. Three fifty cals, and a grenade launcher. They are seriously geared. Those are under heavy encryption….and I don’t like the idea of leaving them online. I’ll just set charges and it should give Wilk and Boaro a distraction. Give me a second.” Purna called back, knowing Sam might not agree- hacking them may seem better, but it seemed like before she could reply, he was already on it. There were risks after all following the drone hack that seemed to suggest that with weapons systems, perhaps there was something to pick up. Remotely and from afar, perhaps, but in such a hot civilian area, accidentally spitting lead in any direction that wasn’t the inside of the garden could be chaotic beyond belief. Of course, maybe not something she would agree with, but the infiltrator that turned to a mirage in the courtyard, seemed to just be getting on with regardless.
Samantha acknowledged Purna’s actions. “Acknowledged Viper. I agree.” Samantha understood it was better to disable them so that they couldn’t be taken back over and used against them later. She knew better than anyone that hacking could only get you so far. She also knew that there was always a chance she would brush up against someone just as good if not better than her. Samantha noted that Viper was almost invisible on the camera. She wondered if the drones had infrared and if his suit would show up on that. Something to find out from him for future missions.
Getting on was what he did. Avoiding a couple of patrols, he stuck charges beneath the ammunition of the sentry posts that their optical detection couldn’t see, moving from point to point, between the large white geodesic tent that had been erected in the garden. This wasn’t good. What the fuck were they cooking here, meth? He didn’t want to think of it, but nothing suggested a biohazard, or a chemical hazard, just like it was some temporary covering of some kind for weaponry and other kit, not yet, at least. After moving from the next beam and being careful to not show his figure to the light too much lest it disrupt his cloak, he could see the sight of the building proper where Sam had clambered into a corner, with a number of soldiers coming through. He was in the open, and so with it, darted out after leaving the charge in place, sliding out and under cover.
“A few more my way. We have a bunch of them coming over. I’ll leave them be.” Purna replied, pistol readied as well as the knife, knowing he could just kill all of them…..but, it was probably going to be wasteful. And if the bodies were found, problem. As they passed on by, Purna thought about it. People to get out of the way later, but they would be still a factor. As close as he was, they were likely getting cleaned up when the rest of the team swept through here, and then, no clean up was required. The job was the priority, and he had his part to play, the Gurkha ghosting in the compound as barely a shimmer.
“How’s your hacking going? Need anything from me, want anything else from the bazaar?” Purna gave a light chuckle, knowing Sam was already in the network for drones, but well, now anything else would be handy. He had the VIP to find, likely inside the house proper, and more sabotage to undertake.
Samantha was gleeful as she took control of the internal camera feeds. “Viper be advised internal cameras are showing large numbers of guards sweeping the outer perimeter inside the residence. Working on locating our VIP.” Samantha began to scan internal cameras looking for anyone of interest. There was a man drinking something from a decanter and smoking a cigar in an office. He was wearing the uniform of the local military and appeared to be an officer or general. He had a gold star on his shoulder. ”Potential HVT in an office on the first floor. If I read this correctly, it is the local man in charge.” She giggled a little at such a mundane description for someone who probably acted like an evil dictator and pushed his weight around in this area with the locals. Samantha spotted what she thought they were looking for. “Viper potential location found on the second floor. Guarded room in the back east corner. Two guards outside the door. One guard at each intersection on the second floor.”
Purna nodded, moving around from cover and using the foliage lined alleyway by a pond to make his move, pistol raised, sweeping for soldiers, or anyone on patrol. The intel was useful, a local officer, and someone to have a talk to. Well, that would be just perfect. He moved up a little further and found a shipping container, with a large oil tank next to it. Oh, these fuckers had zero consideration for security. And there’s the thing. Purna doesn’t really need much to think about, as he looks around, watching a couple of guards go out of sight, and him to do his thing. Clip. The tank has a teeny rupture, and spills out black goopy kerosene out onto the floor, the marble slowly getting coated, as he slaps a small charge around the back of the tank, hidden out of sight, on another clacker. He’s not an explosives expert, but it’s a daisy chain. One, to the next, to the next. And the oil is gently pouring out, seeping across and into a nearby fountain, mostly dried but mixing in with the water in the sealed basin that had been left neglected. Little things like that would buy the team time, and before anyone had even come back to investigate the tank area again, Purna had vanished, moving back on towards the building.
Samantha realized she might be closer to the target from her position on the top floor terrace. She needed to support Viper though not run off on tangents or change the mission. The potential target was a floor beneath her. Samantha took a moment to check the camera feeds on the drones. Everything appeared normal. She checked the cameras she had set up and noticed some movement at one of the critical junctures nearby. “Suspicious movement on the south side of the complex. Men dressed as locals but carry themselves as fighters moving in a fast but casual stride coming towards the garden and Valkyrie’s location. Looks like a criminal organization’s hired muscle to me.”
Letting another patrol by, Purna clambered onto the side of the Maison Villeneuve’s aperture, using the first window frame and the grapple to pull him upward, up onto the second floor. He peeked inside, and with it, no VIP. No Henry. Fuck. He had to be downstairs, but well, there he was. The officer like man that Sam described, through the window. Two guards, exactly as described, they looked like Moroccan Army. He threw a couple of cameras down, giving Sam exterior shots of the house and good views in of the garden, back towards the souk-side gate.
“Dry country. They don’t drink here. They aren’t local.” Purna wisely noted, holding onto the window frame and bolting inside, decloaking as he flanked between the two in the corridor, and well, even their exo-clad frames and armour did nothing.
The kukri got buried in the throat of man one as Purna turned the other way and clattered three rounds direct to the face of the other man, dragging the body of the one he had stabbed messily into the storeroom he’d entered, dumping him into the corner, before moving back around, the HVT standing up, moving outside, rifle raised from off his desk. Purna was faster. Purna basically went for the balls from his invisible position, and the weapon suddenly got yanked out of his hand, as he uncloaked. The man tried to yell but Purna was faster. He made it seem easy, hand to throat and pushing, pushing hard as he turned and almost with a ballet dancer’s finesse, yanked him to the floor and used the fat man's weight against him. Bloodied kukri to throat, he eyed him up, gloved hand on mouth, the weight of Purna fully on top of his arm and ribs, and a knife so tight against his throat that any slight movement would ripple blood.
“Yell, and I’ll give you a fate worse than your friends. Understood? Grunt if if you do.” Viper stared dead into his eyes in his clean Arabic, the General nodding carefully, as brave as he may have been, respected, anything he had, it was wiped clean here. This structure, site was secure, plastered in cameras and turrets and guards and well, he had been exposed, all alone. Purna did not have time, he needed answers.
“Where is Henry Simmonds? Talk.” Purna let go of his mouth, but not the knife poised to throat.
“Shit, shit, shit…..no, you don’t understand. I can’t, they’ll kill us all, you…”
“I will make it slow if you don't. Then I start with your friends, and their widows will have no answer because they will never see it coming. So, please answer me.” Purna was courteous, he could say that much, as the General had no choice.
“Downstairs, he’s in a makeshift cell, lots of guards around him but he is co-operating with us. Please, I was just told to capture him and hold him safe until they took him away….listen, the men Artemis paid have families, you can’t let them die!” The General tried to call out, as Purna shrugged, muffling his voice.
“The people you didn’t pay have them as well.” Purna coldly slit his throat on that, and there’s this unknowing sort of cosmic terror that comes from that. He may not have been pleasant, or nice, but holy shit, there’s this feeling of it being good Purna isn’t on someone else’s side. He stood and dragged the body under the desk, badly hidden but at least, out of view for now, as he pulled up the General’s laptop, checking the cabling over, and the dying man. Pulling his arm, he used his finger to open it up with a bloody palm, before sliding a USB inside. He threw a camera down, looking over at the dataset, as the hacking tool did its thing.
“Okay. Chaos. You have access inside to his network. Download what you can, and let’s find out what is going on. I’ll ID the target and figure out what next. Good you’re above me. You hustle well….not bad.” He added, reloading the USP, hearing a few more men heading upstairs, the sound of a radio inside quietly pumping out Bedouin tunes, with Purna reactivating his cloak and going quiet again. No time for IDing. Just action.
Samantha had been following Purna’s progress. She had already taken a good picture of the nonnative general to review and investigate for later. She trusted Bob to keep monitoring cameras for activity. She focused on her hacking and was surprised when Purna advised her he had gotten her access to the network. She did love working with true professionals. “Thanks Uncle.” She grinned, unable to resist teasing the man as she began to connect to the laptop via the program in the modded USB drive. She set the program running to download all the data and mirror the drive. She began using her analyst skills to quickly see if they had anything of value.
Bob’s robotic voice startled her as he reported suspicious activity. She could feel that things were going to kick off soon. There was that sense of impending action in the air. She could see forces shifting nervously and some headed towards the garden. She was not sure how anyone knew they were there but she could see a variety of forces starting to move covertly towards their location. She agreed with Bob’s assessment. She was pretty sure they had been tagged by a local scumbug for hire. The shitstorm they were anticipating was headed their way. “We have forces moving towards the garden. Mostly appears to be local hired muscle. Local army forces seem to already be in the garden. Shit is going to hit the fan soon.”
Samantha went back to the laptop and began to search faster. She began to put puzzle pieces together and swore out loud. She thought back to what Purna had encountered in the courtyard. Fuck. “Be advised, location identified as drug manufacturing and weaponization center. There is a tank of that neurotoxin in the tent. It is ready to be loaded into canisters for shipment. That is now a priority target. It needs to be destroyed before we leave. Intense heat should do the trick. We don’t want to blow it up. That might disperse it. We also want to prevent it from getting into the water supply. Sustained high heat is our best option.” Samantha knew they could blow it up but that might disperse it. It needed to be completely destroyed. She began to search harder for their target. “Viper target confirmed on basement level. Basement entrance guarded by auto turrets and a squad of guards.” Samantha felt her heart begin to race as adrenaline slid into her bloodstream. Things had gotten complicated and dangerous fast.
Purna heard the comms call, seeing the soldiers coming through, reinforcements. Fuck. Not good timing, and they’d pierced inside, joining the existing Artemis contingent. More men meant a problem. They were running on very limited time, and so far, Purna had no chance of doing anything more than fixing the threat.
“Fuck, understood. We have an issue then.” Purna knew things were getting bad. So, a makeshift cell to hold Henry, and his knowledge had been co-opted. Why? Was he somehow able to unlock something out of the makeshift process that had been employed in Colombia? The drug made of proteins and amino acids bonded in Rose’s blood turned into a chemical weapon, now that was a serious threat- so far it was low-level, but activated with the right method, perhaps what the drug lab had discovered to unlock the potential of it could become a terrifying chemical weapon with barely any concentration required to kill thousands. Purna knew that timed wrong, this could all go so much worse- there was nothing he carried that could get rid of that amount, and the base wouldn’t have anything either to do so that burnt hot enough- perhaps only the kerosene from earlier, but that was rigged up in the daisy chain and already spent. Chuck, Jamie or Oliver had a tool for that, most likely- some thermite or something to sort it out. He looked out the window again, seeing more men gather, and in particular, footsteps on the stairwell. Fuck. No easy way out. He couldn’t leap outside, even his optical cloaking wouldn’t hide his profile on the bare wall. The men downstairs needed dealing with. He thought, and thought, and thought. Gears turning. His mind racing. His resolve though, came to something.
“Hold on. I might need to attend to something.” Purna replied, as the men came up, obviously to see the General and inform him of reinforcements. As they rounded the door, Purna kicked one, knife into throat as he swung on him, the other man yelling out as Purna used man one as a guard, firing pistol rounds into his skull, before he could even get a round off. But he’d yelled. Fuck. Brilliant. If Chaos was watching through his visual, then there’s this sort of hard to explain lethality that Purna had in what he did, but now he was going loud.
Suspicions would be up, as Purna bolted from the room and checked the corner, cloaking active once more, thinking, thinking, thinking….and something came to mind.
“Wilk, you read?”
“Affirm, just caught your talk. We are two minutes out, hold tight. How many hostiles are in the house? Can you secure the house, and then go for the neurotoxin?” Adam’s voice came back across comms, as Purna heard more footsteps on the stairs, sighing.
“Fifteen to twenty or so from Chaos’s footage. I’ll warm them up for you. And sure, I suppose I could. Why not add more workload to my jobs. But hey, it’s what we do.” Purna replied, as he put the USP away, and instead, pulled the MP5 into hand.
“Okay, Chaos. I am afraid we just got more work. Mind disabling the automated turret for a moment? I’ll kick it out of shape and confirm our man is there. Keep monitoring the outside, ping any traces to me. Time we secure the target for our friends.” Purna pulled the stock back, and with it, peeked the corner. He then went to draw his gas grenade, and shifting his balaclava, deactivated his cloak, and pulled a respirator mask over his face. With a subtle clink, he lobbed it down the stairwell, and, with two more following, the gas spluttered, the Nepali running downstairs, throwing more bugeye cameras of Sam's type. With the intel Sam was feeding him, Purna wasn’t guessing. He knew where they were. It was like having a third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh eye, and well, when information was king for an infiltrator, he was going to show why he did what he did.
Samantha had swung into high gear as things began to escalate quickly on this mission. Her focus narrowed. She set as much as she could into automation and handed it over to Bob. She began putting away her gear. She pulled out her two pistols. She loaded one with knockout darts and the other had taser darts. She stood and made sure everything was put away. She donned the tactical backpack. She began to move towards Purna, down into the building. “Turret disabled.” She set up an auto feed on the cameras to Purna so that he could see where the targets where.
She moved fast and began to take out guards on the way by. She didn’t go for stealth but speed. The faster she joined her partner the better in this situation. There were not that many left upstairs. She ran down the stairs. She halted at the base of the stairs before stepping out into the main hallway on the first floor. She lobbed knockout grenades one in each direction and waited about a minute as the fast acting gas did its work. She ran down the corridor towards the main entrance. She heard a footstep behind her and whirled, launching one of her throwing knives in reflex at the target. She watched as the guard hit the floor gurgling on blood. ”I am moving towards the entrance now.” She retrieved her dagger and wiped it on the man’s leg before resheathing it.
She slid along the wall at the main entrance with her back to the outer wall. She checked the camera feeds before quickly darting out the entrance and ducked behind a flowy gauze curtain.
Purna moved down the stairs as men choked out, moving through the extravagant hallway of the old art gallery, a group of guards yelling as they swept out, Purna no longer cloaked due to his gas mask, well, at least it would be practically useless considering his head would be visible. But he didn’t really need to be. He just used the smoke to advantage and anyone that came close received a bullet between the eyes, two Artemis operators getting that fate as he moved swiftly through that hadn’t been knocked out in the room over. The VIP’s cell could be seen as Purna lobbed another gas grenade down into the basement and the makeshift site, shrouding the place deep in a haze as he ran through and with it, passed by all the sleepy guards. There was no time to snap necks. The cell mattered, and well, there was Henry…..passed out, inside. Purna kicked over the LMG turret, making sure it was pointing towards a wall at least, and no longer able to function.
“Well, at least he isn’t fucking dead. Or at work.” Purna wryly called to Sam over the comms, as he left that behind, and heading out of one of the doors, made an effort to go not direct into any guards. From the cold concrete inside with thick walls and white paint to sandy effects, he made his way outside. He had a ping on Sam, making her way across to him. Pulling the gas mask off, he pulled his ballie down and gave his cloaking system a minute to reinitialise, making fucking sure to stay out of the way. There’s one thing about an infiltrator that is critical- direct combat was basically a death sentence without finding an edge. Sam could take a few rounds, Purna had virtually no armour and even with speed, would get torn to bits by any machine gun or rifle fire in this configuration. He had to stay out of the way, and well, make his way through the courtyard.
“Wilk, Chaos, VIP is in cell, location pinged. The art gallery basement and ground floor has been gassed, gas should be clear in a minute, and the smoke will last about three minutes to get here and remove the VIP. We are going to secure the toxin now.” Purna called to the two, the device on his wrist buzzing as he punched it and then once again, went blank again, letting the guard patrol past him go by before he rolled out and picked his marks.
"Affirmative, we copy. We're moving close." The reply from the Pole came, and Purna only kept it as background noise for now. The guards were in position, sweeping.
Barely flinching, he put a series of rounds into the Moroccan troops, significantly less well equipped compared to the Artemis guards, and a few shots to the head and thoraxes picked them out, as he knew he had moves to make. He made a move, a few more yelling, moving around, but Purna had to relocate or he was toast. They saw the shots, even from a silenced SMG, they could pick that out.
“Chaos, we may want to make a run on that central tent, quickly, but I have eyes on a few hostiles. Just mark them, and I’ll eliminate them, we’re baiting a few of them out now. Come meet me by the front, watch for hostiles.” Purna added, reloading the MP5 with a beautiful HK slap, hugging the shrubbery in the garden. As a squad ran through, Purna picked off a couple headed towards the entry, one turning but receiving another round as he held in position, clearing Sam’s route down off the residence. With a turn, he pulled the Mk14 off his side and put the MP5 back, stock opened up and two more men running around the side getting shots, the 7.62mm needed for the heavier Artemis troops, who were now responding to the clusterfuck inside the house, using it to cover Sam's movement. The gas was putting them off, considering at best it was like a tear gas, and worst, a knockout the deeper they would get in. It was a little cheap, but well, the best tactics were. Sam would see his silhouette in her visor's HUD, as being invisible of course, he was holding for a moment- the cloaking system good for another few minutes of charge and able to at least hide his signature aside from the rifle rounds he spat out at them.
Samantha spoke quietly into her coms. “Acknowledged Viper. Chaos is moving towards you. There is another squad coming up on your six.” She moved quickly and quietly along the edge of the fancy pavilion hiding in the long curtains. She checked the drone camera feeds. She then grinned and had Bob retask their drones to intercept their men. She smiled as she saw the drones turn their own troops into red outlined targets. The autoguns on the heavier Artemis drones began to fire down at the men. That should ease up some of the pressure off Purna. She hid in the shadows till a four man squad passed her. She stepped out and quickly fired a taser round into each of them.
Purna peeked, watching the guards come along from his quadrant, much more armoured, much more protected, much more set up. Letting the rifle loose back into the position on his side, he drew the knife once again, the sharpened Gurkha Kukuri tight in hand as he cloaked and letting them run close, USP drawn as he put his leg out, tripping one over. He put a round into the other runner as he leaned forward and sliced the man on the floor over, the two others only stopping when they realized what had happened as they charged towards Sam's hacked drones. But it was too late. Purna was already there, Mk14 drawn and with it, clacked both in the head, completing the set. He had to be careful, and moving fast and firing with the cloaking system was a risk, but one lightly armed man against three was going to win. Sam had another squad headed her way, and Purna couldn't get a shot. But he knew they were headed towards him now, after his attention- and she just had to ambush them now.
“All yours.”
She began to work her way towards Purna taking out another 4 man squad. She fired taser shots into two and used a roundhouse kick to take one down as she let fly with a throwing dagger at the last guy. She quickly shot the one she had kicked to keep him down. She was moving fast and with purpose the four men barely slowed her down. She took a quick moment to reload. She saw Purna decloak and began to head towards him. Samantha’s helmet completely hid her face. Currently the visor was down and opaque hiding her features. It was sealed to prevent the knock out gas from affecting her.
Purna saw Sam coming, as he decloaked, reloading his various weapons, the blood barely fazing him. There’s no expression, the balaclava and night vision goggles covering any look of humanity, just some shadow that looks like it only chose to show itself. There was nothing but efficiency, an operator that wanted this done. Skye was cold, but Purna in work here, whilst warm outside seemed almost like he didn’t even cross his mind about what he had done.
“Tent’s that way, stick close on me, Chaos. Wilk, Boaro, are you still en route?” Purna asked, looking to Sam, knowing that there was plenty going on.
“Affirmative....hit charges when ready. We’ll avoid fire on the tent, we have thermal compounds back in the heavies' truck to work on any neurotoxins and let's just hope that it does the job. Secure anything inside before they have the chance to remove it, and we’ll see you later. Out.” Adam’s response was clinical, but not as firm as Purna’s, mostly back to Sam.
“Nice work. That got a lot bloodier than expected.” Purna was understating, holy shit, he was understating that like hell. But it was true- Sam had enabled Purna to basically go absolutely wire there, when needed, and the lethality between the two showed- Purna knowing where men were coming from and how. The plan to gas the room was a little more on the cuff, but it had done the job. The VIP was going nowhere, Adam and Ebrima would turn up and the base had no defences, and well, the troops at the front were probably shitting themselves about where the fire was coming from. Whiiiiich…..was going to be broken by the heavies.
The rest of the orchestra was about to start. Purna vaulted a wall and hoped Sam was behind, making his way across the pavilion and towards the entry of the tent. It was sealed with a large plastic door, and whilst it was clear there was nothing toxic in the fumes inside from what Purna had seen, they had to be extremely careful here.
“Okay. This one is us. Fuck knows what we do. But nobody leaves. Let’s just secure this before anyone has any ideas.” Purna replied, looking across to Sam, getting ready, his MP5 back in hand now, something sub-automatic ready. He slid out his USP.45 spare that he had, and offered it out to her, knowing the situation with her non-lethal rounds.
“Something more lethal.”
She followed Viper into the pavilion and towards the tent. Samantha chuckled softly “Gee thanks Uncle.” She checked that it was loaded and that everything was sliding and working correctly. She handed it back to him. She quickly reloaded her pistols with regular rounds. “I had lethal rounds too. I just didn’t want them to be used in the bazaar before we got here.” She had a pistol in each hand and grinned at him. “Ready?” She didn’t really want bullets to carry inside the tent. They didn’t want to accidentally hit that damn tank of toxic goo.
Purna had no expression to show, but shrugged taking it back, not offended. There was a calm to his tone, not an angry one, not even aggressive, just somehow, settled.
“Fair enough. Hold a second, let me go first, then push. Ready.”
He slid it back into place, and with it, nodded. He pulled the zip open to the door and with it, pushed on through While the enemies were anticipating, Purna cloaked up as he entered, peeling left and going ahead of Sam, giving a little interval. They saw the rustle but didn't fire, as if not sure who was there. As the men focussed on the opened door, Purna appeared as if by magic behind a couple of them in a method Sam wasn’t likely to be able to understand, putting rounds into the two Artemis operators in here with his USPs akimbo, clapping them down with precise and accurate fire, making them turn….and well, opening the door to his operator partner.
Samantha watched as Purna rolled into action. She slid in behind him after a short pause and proved what a good shot she was. She stepped in and fired bullets into the guards that Purna had distracted. She followed his lead, moving with him. Her guns were up as she scanned for more targets. There had been four guards inside the entrance to the tent. Strangely there were no cameras in the tent. The drones were probably meant to be their eyes in this area. Samantha began to go down the opposite side of the tent. She went around the perimeter of the tent and met Purna back at the opening to the tent. “Clear.” She jumped up and placed a camera inside the top of the tent to look out over the tank in the centre. She then did the same outside so they would see if anyone approached. “We just need to hold it now.” She nodded respectfully at Viper as she checked in on how the others were doing.
Purna checked, decloaking, reloading his MP5 as he switched to that instead, dwindling on mags but enough to have done the job. They had done a hell of a mess for light operatives, as Sam swept out the area, Purna mostly focussed on the machinery in the middle.
“Agreed. But I think our friends are about to make that very easy. Wilk, detonator’s been sent to you. On your call, hit it and you have your entry. Base has been rattled, they don’t know where we are, and we’ve dropped about two dozen.” Purna added, pulling his NVGs up to blink, a rare bit of humanity as he looked over to Sam, then back across at the machinery inside, the various tanks, cells and setups in this laboratory-like arrangement.
“Shit. None of this is good. We’ll figure out what it is when the op is done. Or whatever Henry decides to tell us.” Purna added, walking over to it, the tank about the size of two medium-sized propane bottles, the tent area clean as a whistle. Purna knew nothing about bioengineering, but the device off the centre of the room next to the tank was identifiable from the stickers on it, and the other tanks containing chemicals after it.
"Fuck. That's a bioreactor. It's like they're using her blood to take their supply of drugs, and turn it into what they wanted. Shit. They engineered this fast, they knew the potential....." Purna added, looking at the biochemical equipment, looking it over, then back at Sam. This wasn't a proper scale, this, this was a test.
"This isn't at scale."
@StarlanceThe explosions rippled through the garden, a huge rush of boom detonating the turrets, the kerosene tank's flaming embrace cutting it in two. There's an artistry to it- the garden was on fire, and the fountain in the middle was burning bright too, cutting one half of the garden from another bar a gap in the far side of the garden from where they were watching it. Adam had to admit, Purna and Sam were good what they had did. The speed, aggression, it left few men bar those up top, the elite Artemis troops in place, and Boaro and Adam made quick work of them. Boaro aggressively came in on that, and Adam clipped two more across the terrace, taking them out with precision and ease. They wouldn't have known Sam was up here mere minutes ago, the guards that had come up missing her by seconds as her and Purna were in the yard. There was an impressive body count for the lights today.
But he had nothing to add. He had work to do, and on Boaro's call, Wilk prepared, the flashbang prepped and then thrown down the skylight of the terrace, creating an implant into the house. He charged first, and with it, leapt in, leading the way. Shields up, he pressed forward, Boaro getting the two behind him, as Adam fragged one man in the room, the knockout gas effects now no longer affecting anyone new entering the zone, but keeping sleepy bye times on for anyone unlucky enough to be stuck in it. He had no stopping, and the exo was whining, as he heard one more come around, Adam watching him try and respond as Adam pulled him and hurled him into the wall, blasting a round into his face, in a bloody pulp.
The shield up, Adam pulled the USAS tight and pivoted around, the slug rounds now on considering the more armoured, gas mask wearing Artemis troops were on duty to secure the VIP and well, Adam was taking none of it. As they fired rounds, even Adam twitched a little as they went straight at him, Adam firing back and clattering one bloodily with a slug, picking another with the automatic shotgun, moving down to where the gallery room was, and below that, the basement. Switching to the MSBS, Adam checked quarters, seeing men run from out front, where the Heavies, or Team 3 were assaulting. As the Artemis men ran inside, Adam picked up fire, one exo man jumping but being cut down in flight, his exo's path clattering into floor next to him and his friend following, Adam not in many words as Boaro would follow.
Moving down into the basement, Adam saw Henry there, still out cold, and made his move, shields backed down, running across and kicking the door of the cell in.
"VIP identified. We have him." He called, Henry being out cold a rather handy thing. They always recovered people out. It made it easier at least for resistance's sake, as Adam cranked up the exo to lift, and swinging the MSBS into one hand, fireman carried Henry in left.
"Okay. I'll keep this bastard close, the street is going to flood with troops so the only way out is towards that gap in the fire, and the exit to the Souk. Keep me covered, and pick off anyone else brave enough to get into the garden." Adam called to Ebrima, aware that with the shielding, it probably made sense- he could manage the squad. He wasn't like Skye in that regard- able to get hands on and as close in, he was leading this team, and that meant directing others rather than himself. A better delegator perhaps, but he did want it done his way.
"All stations, this is Wilk, VIP secure. Team, we need to leave. Nord, Boomer, Scion, you need to push on, get through the house and head through the garden. I need EOD on on Viper and Chaos's position in the garden, ASAP. We need thermal charges to deal with the chemical tanks they've found." Adam added, Henry groaning a little on his shoulder, as Adam looked across.
"I have no idea if we're saving you or snatching you. Stay still and you'll get to live at least." Adam added, with it, moving out, shields down for a moment but ready to at a moment's notice, following on Boaro's lead out into the garden, knowing the heavies just about had the front sown up now from their breach and from their initial antics. So far, this was going well- but the tide could shift, and Adam knew they had to get to Athena's extract point, soon as possible.
@BigPapaBelial@LadyAmber@JamesycoKicking in the Door so hard it's ricocheting across the room
brawled with Oliver, the mechanised armour straining as he swung his minigun like a club, blocking hits, trying to pick holes in his defence. He would have his way, but he was occupying Oliver- so either he had to end it, or someone else did, the other titan of the bunch making a difficulty here.
"Get off me, you big bastard!" The other heavy yelled, a distinctly Irish accent, funnily enough.
As they headed in, more troops met the Heavies than met the internal team- they were making such a racket after all, and they were assaulting the heaviest guarded piece of the Maison Villeneuve. Chuck, Oliver and Jamie, once they had finished the front would have a portal through the lobby proper and into the garden, the direction of travel for the fight and where Adam and Ebrima were. For Chuck, likely it meant a trip through the lobby past the two and to the tent- and the team would start to move in the direction of the souk, towards the fire-break and from there, out through the souk streets to their RV. If all went well, they didn't have far to go. One thing was clear- everyone was now back on the same wavelength, and the co-ordinated chaos meant they had Henry, the intel, a lot of dead bodies and now, a fight to finish.
The situation in the square wasn't getting any better, with people screaming, people dispersing, and only now, the Moroccan Army troops being told very firm and clear- stay the fuck away from Blue Sword, friendly or foe. Not a nice situation, but one none the less. That was, lest one armoured MRAP charged through, heading straight for the souk it would never fit into.
"Shit." Athena replied, seeing a truck hurtle towards the start of the Souk, Blue Sword troops firing on it as it fired back. Athena growled, pulling the coil tight and with it, pulling up the setting. The truck wasn't stopping from fire, as her guys dived out of the way, from gunfire and getting runover. Athena's coil did not take as long as some would think, and as she hit the clacker, the bolt flew and with it, didn't so much as detonate the engine block as dismantle it. The truck skidded to a halt as Blue Sword teams recovered, swarming the truck and eliminating the hostiles, Athena not so happy about the situation. More of them were coming in, they were fucking swarming out of the rafters.
"You've stired the nest, Wilk, get the fuck out and to my position, it's the path of least resistance, we are holding tight!" Athena called back, other Blue Sword soldiers moving from cover to cover, letting civilians run through, but keeping a swivel. The large heavy's footsteps clattered on tile, the smell of cold static latent in the air as she kept an eye out.
