Cath

The Cradle

Athena gritted her teeth. She’d been watching the cloud of smoke enveloping Knossos and Thebes fighting it out, but couldn’t find a clear shot. Thebes was mindful to always keep Knossos between him and Athena’s line of fire. She could hear the staccato coughs of pistol fire from somewhere behind the flier. The Blue Team was making significant ground off the back of Vreta’s smokescreen tactic, meaning the two duelling operators had been largely left behind by the rest of the Marines.

“I’ll have to change positions to fire inside. Keep me covered.” Athena got up and began running across the street, just when gunfire erupted from apartments on the ground floor. She was hit half a dozen times in a second, and her shield nearly broke. She dived onto the floor, crawling behind a flier. The rest of the drop troopers who’d been killed inside the apartment building floated past her.

“Alright. I go win this.” Kjartan begrudgingly boomed. He started to run down the length of the bus, shielding himself from energy fire. But he screeched to a stop when someone shouted over the din of shooting. “Hey, big man!” He turned, and saw Carthage on the steps by fire exit into the apartments. She held her extensible launcher in her hands, pointed straight at him. Kjartan only had time to bellow the first syllable of her name before a high-explosive rocket fizzed past him and into the bus.

The Cradle

Carthage jetted sideways out of sight to avoid a hail of energy from the two standing drop troopers. They themselves were taking fire from the other team trapped in the opposite corridor, so they rushed after Carthage. She was blocking their escape, and right now they were trapped in a bad spot - they figured they could go on offense and shoot their way out.

One of them chucked a grenade through the ragged hole Kjartan had made, to hold off the Marines pushing forward on their six. Then they grabbed their squad leader off the floor and exited out of the other hole Kjartan made, into the corridor heading back toward their spawn.

Carthage wasn’t visible in the corridor, but she exploded back at them from the entrance to another apartment further down the hall. She knocked the gun of the leading trooper up in the air - he sprayed the ceiling with plasma. What followed was an incomprehensible flurry of jabs, kicks and momentum based control. Carthage twirled her shotgun with inhuman precision to beat all three soldiers to the floor and then finish them at point-blank range.

The two remaining Red Team marines from her initial push jogged down the corridor towards her just as the last body began floating away. Carthage’s visor peeled back when she looked at them, making them flinch. “Come. Let’s end this.” She looked up at the ceiling, where she could hear pounding feet. “Saddam, report.”

“My floor is clear. The top floor is having some issues.” Carthage nodded to herself as they headed down the darkly lit corridor for a patch of light at the end. “Good enough. Take a window, keep them occupied.”

“Copy that.”

---

“I know this! But they are on all floors now. I was held from above, see? They take these windows, fire down on battlefield - I can survive, but who else? Not enough cover to fight on two fronts.” Kjartan motioned to the rows of windows looking out on the street with his hammer. As if on cue, energy bolts began raining down on them from one of the closest windows on the middle floor. Kjartan hid behind his shield and edged into cover beside Vreta. "See!?"

The Cradle

Knossos made it to the other side of the flier and took cover briefly. Stray energy bolts fizzed through the smoke. He looked through one of the holes in the vehicle and saw Thebes’ visor staring back at him. Knossos shot through the hole, fully expecting to miss, before sprinting along the length of the vehicle, On this side there was less chance of him getting shot by accident through the smoke.

Keeping his rifle just below his eyeline, Knossos skirted around the other side of the flier. The smoke was visually impenetrable, but a marker did allow him half a second to shoot before Thebes crashed into him. They clattered to the floor with the Sacred Band’s leader on top. He punched Knossos twice in the visor before he slithered free and they rolled through the rubble.

---

Kjartan surged forward as soon as his shield dropped him delicately on his feet in spawn and returned to active mode. He approached Vreta, standing in the open with his arm-shield raised. “The Witch is free now - we must stop her. How goes it here? I can take men?” He seemed to have calmed down marginally on his trip back to spawn, without losing the bloodthirsty look in his eyes.

The Cradle

The response to Vreta from inside the building was a burst of static and a few half words. “Is Saddam inside?” Athena asked. “Likely. Moving!” Knossos called, fast-crawling toward the crashed flier behind cover. Soldiers on both sides were in a pitched battle now, with energy rounds flying across No Man’s Land. Thebes was still co-ordinating from the front, spraying plasma down range at Athena and Vreta.

Knossos unclipped a smoke scrambler and lobbed it by the edge of the flier pointing back toward Thebes’ own spawn. It exploded in a large puff of smoke, covering most of the vehicle and also providing cover for Knossos’ approach. The veteran soldier tapped the Marine sergeant on the back of the helmet and pointed. “Moving left! Give me cover!” The other man nodded and relayed the order down the line.

Knossos wasted no time getting up from behind cover and sprinting toward the smoke, drawing fire from all angles.

---

The drop troopers supporting Kjartan’s ill-fated push into the apartment building had stacked up around the hole he’d made in the wall. They’d caught the opposite team in a bad spot with sparse cover, and had wasted two of them in the corridor almost immediately. The other two had smashed through into adjacent apartments and were firing doggedly from the doorways.

Unfortunately, they were so preoccupied with trying to stamp out the other Marines that they missed Carthage emerging from the ruined remains of her fight with Kjartan. They missed their opportunity to suppress her position, and only returned fire when she was halfway across the fire-stricken lobby.

Vreta ordered a retreat right when she found them. “We could use some support! Oh, shit. Contact left!” The squad leader shouted as Carthage sprayed the opening with energy. She changed weapon and disappeared from view before bursting through a nearby fire door, ripping it off its hinges as she did so.

She absorbed a few panicked energy bursts from the closest trooper with the loose door before sending him flying with a blast from her freshly-retrieved shotgun. She then pivoted and blocked the butt of another soldier’s gun from smashing her visor.

Carthage flicked the weapon out of his hands, discarding it on the floor and bending his arm the wrong way when he tried to punch her. He screamed as she flung him straight into the squad leader who had started unloading his rifle at her while shouting orders. They both clattered into a wall.

The Cradle

“So that’s why I can’t hit them!” Athena exclaimed. “I can take Thebes on, but that’ll mean leaving centre.” Knossos said. “I think we have another problem too. Kjartan just floated past me - that means we need to prop up the apartments now.”

Knossos glanced up the steps to hole where doors had stood moments before, and could see fire licking up the walls. “Indoor team, Kjartan is KIA. What is your status?” He called. “Could use some support! Contact left!” The squad leader yelled.

Carthage suddenly appeared in front of the opening, moving across the lobby while firing her SMG. Knossos pivoted and shot at her - she skittered away from the door frame straight away. “What are your orders, Team Leader?” Knossos asked Vreta as another tungsten round whistled over his head and dispatched a runner.

The Cradle

Athena sent another round down range on Vreta’s mark. A sizable flurry of masonry burst into the air, followed by the floating shell of a marine. “Good hit, reloading.” Athena reported, just when an energy burst from the newly repositioned peppered her position. She slid back down out of sight and ejected the remains of a tungsten bolt from her chamber.

Thebes ducked back away from the hole he was shooting her from and unclipped the battery from the rifle 595 had thrown him with a satisfying click. He clipped a fresh, undamaged one into the socket and aimed down range again. Athena couldn’t suppress the battlefield if he was suppressing her. “Push up!” He commanded, pivoting to shoot at Vreta again before peppering Athena when she reappeared.

---

Carthage rippled to her feet as easily as if she were a marionette. She looked for her shotgun but couldn’t see it - it must have stayed in the lobby. She unstuck an SMG from the magnetic strip on her back and fired at Kjartan through the hole he’d made into the other apartment. He blocked the energy barrage with his shield, got up and charged back at her.

Carthage glided, ducked and juked out of the way of his hammer at lightning speed as they danced around the apartment, trashing everything around them to pieces. She used her SMG like a knuckle duster, darting in to jab Kjartan with it and get a few shots in under his armour. Stray energy rounds splattered all over, including from the lobby where a firefight raged.

Just when it seemed like Kjartan might be gaining the upper hand - scoring a jarring glance with the edge of his shield, an armoured hand smashed through the ceiling above his head. It reached down, wrapped around the berserker’s neck and lifted him three inches off the floor. He roared and swung his hammer at Carthage, who easily dodged. He then jabbed it at the ceiling, trying to dislodge this second assailant. The hammer got stuck in masonry.

“You’ve gotten sloppy, big man. We’ll need to teach you a thing or two.” Carthage chuckled. “I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!” Kjartan howled in anger as she sprayed his vulnerable body with energy fire until he died. The arm above released him and slid back through its hole. Kjartan began floating back to spawn. Carthage turned her attention to the fight raging through the partition wall.

The Cradle

Carthage’s jump jets pushed her back out of the path of Kjartan’s hammer; she could almost feel it swishing past her face. The soldier to her right didn’t move fast enough and took the full brunt of the swing to his helmet, propelling him against the wall.

Kjartan blocked most of Carthage’s shotgun barrage with his shield and crashed into her. She held onto his shield to avoid being trampled and they crashed backwards through the wall behind her. They tumbled to the floor and Carthage used Kjartan’s considerable weight to propel him over her head with her legs. He smashed through the other side of the apartment they found themselves in.

The one Red marine left alive in the lobby, plus the couple still in the corridor began trading furious energy fire with Blue team soldiers clustered around the first hole Kjartan had made. A grenade bounced off one of the walls and lodged next to one of the doors. A deafening explosion ripped through the lobby setting everything on fire and blowing the doors out into the street.

---

A couple of Blue team members floated back to spawn from the grenade barrage. A couple of Red team members subsequently died trying to push up immediately after. Knossos peeked back out from behind his cover and saw 595 sliding down a pile of rubble on the other side of the street, making a run for the flier.

He unclipped a boxy shape from his utility belt and chucked it at her. It flew through the air, unfolding into a miniature limpet drone with tiny rotors. Halfway through the arc it took on it’s own flight. It buzzed over to the Agent and attached to the back of her body before erupting into a huge fireball before she could reach the flier.

Knossos had no time to celebrate, as a heavy door smacked him on the back of the head, knocking him over.

The Cradle

Thebes quickly returned to a kneeling position once his vantage point had been sniffed out. He peeked through one of the holes the rail gun had made at Athena. He marked her on his team’s HUD. “Agent, give me some cover there. The rest of you, get some more grenades on my secondary marks.” The rail gun fired again, and another hole appeared right by his helmet. “Now!” He shouted.

595 popped out from behind a pile of rubble behind the wrecked car, with a sighted assault rifle. She got a few hits on Athena while she was reloading, forcing her to back down. At the same time, six grenades rained down on the middle ground, near where Knossos and half a dozen marines were keeping the area locked down. They all exploded at once, throwing a curtain of rubble twenty metres into the air.

Thebes grabbed one of the new holes in his mobile cover and pushed it so it was still facing the middle but was more diagonally oriented toward the inaccessible apartment block. Then, he used the hand hold to pull the car toward the side of the arena. Since he wasn’t picking the whole thing up, this went quicker than before, with him making up a few metres.

The Cradle

The flier stopped moving and crunched back onto the floor debris. Athena put another round through the top of the vehicle, but still no one floated out. “Where are they?” She muttered.

“Taking heavy fire!” Knossos reported, crouching behind a street lamp with his shield flaring. Athena could see half a dozen members of the opposite team were staying back and popping up to shoot a few bolts before taking cover. The rest were creeping forward. “Ok, we’re in position! Suppressing fire!” A marine sergeant yelled, peeking out from behind a street food stall counter just as someone peppered him with energy rounds from a gap underneath the downed flier.

---

Carthage moved quickly through the dimly lit corridor, flanked by marines. She kept her shotgun raised and low light vision enabled. Some of the marines who weren’t augmented opted for using torches. The beams fingered shadows gathering all around them and glistened off rivulets of water streaming down the walls. The explosions, energy fire and mag-acceleration from outside sounded muffled and distant. Carthage focused on her slow, even breathing as they advanced.

They emerged from the corridor into a modest reception area. A concierge desk and a pile of military hardware boxes sat opposite a set of heavy double doors. Another fire door presumably led to the other wing of the building. Carthage silently indicated they spread out, as much as they could, and move to that door.

They were halfway across the lobby when she motioned for them to stop again. She felt something. The operator checked her motion sensor; the enemy was through that door, but one object in particular was heading straight for them. Carthage listened hard, peeling back layers of sound until she heard a *crash* and then *thud thud thud thud*. She could recognize those footsteps anywhere.

“Open fi-” She had time to yell before Kjartan exploded through the wall opposite them in a shower of masonry. “I’LL STRIP YOUR FLESH, WHORE!” He roared, swinging his hammer in a wide arc that covered practically the whole room as energy rounds erupted from every angle.

The Cradle

Athena got up and moved from the upturned flier. Staying low, she ran closer to the accessible block of apartments, where a large pile of masonry had fallen from the top levels to the street below. She climbed up the heap until she could peek over, then quickly arranged the bricks into a stable firing platform for her railgun.

“They’re moving the cars!” Knossos reported, firing over the top of the military blockade he was hid behind. Another grenade exploded by a cluster of destroyed vehicles. Two members of his team were propelled through the air and into the window of a small jewellers shop on the spawn-side of the street. Glass sprayed everywhere, and a shrill alarm rang out over the top of rippling energy fire exchanges across the width of the street.

“I see it.” Athena, sending a tungsten round through the top of a flier that was making its way slowly across the battlefield. It kept coming. “Spread out!” Knossos called, firing and moving, an energy round fizzing off his shield.

Kjartan reached the access bay door first, promptly smashing it open with his hammer. “You two, check the upper floors. Sound off if you find anyone.” The drop troop team leader ordered, before setting off after the berserker along the ground floor. The other four troopers followed.