Boraro
Souk Semmarine, Marrakesh, Morocco
1350 Local Time
”Did he just say ‘Mech’?” Ebrima sounded almost annoyed,
”Pick a side.” He offered to the Gurkha before making his way upstairs himself. Ebrima was glad he got sent up top. Yes, having been raised in Central Africa’s rainforests, he thrived in close quarters. Heck, it was one of the pillars he built his career on. But not having to mind stragglers when shooting was better. He had to hauů ass to keep slightly ahead of the main team, but not too far ahead in case someone came at them from behind.
”Chaos, if you still have drones up, would appreciate early warning.” He asked as he sent two frag grenades over the heads of a machine gunner and his assistant mid-leap, slamming a new magazine of frags into the M25 and transitioning to the rifle. He kept it moving, thinking less like an infantryman and almost like a fighter pilot - don’t move in a straight line for long, attack with speed and altitude - until he misjudged the material of the roof on landing and crashed through into the room below, feeling something moving under the piece of corrugated metal under his feet.
Three heads, two regular and one exo, snapped to face him. One immediately erupted into pink mist as an armor piercing round went through it. Ebrima’s brow furrowed when the exo-clad operative grabbed the other guy to use as a shield, a surprised “Wat de fok?!” indicating this wasn’t standard Artemis procedure. Some leader this was. Not that he sympathized with the South African, just that his commander pissed him off, even more so when the meat shield turned into a meat missile launched at Ebrima. He dodged him quite easily, leaving a foot behind to help the hapless guy on the ground. A groan from under the metal sheet he initially landed on confirmed the guy under it was still a factor as well. Boraro got his weapon up quick, but the Artemis Exo had a head start, a salvo of 9x18 mm from a PP-19 hammering against Ebrima’s chestplate. In true Russian fashion, the weapon’s designer seemed to compensate quality with quantity and gave his creation 64 round helical magazines, and although neither bullet found any weak spots, it would be a big bruise tomorrow.
The endless stream of lead was only interrupted by the MDR’s barked reply, the Artemis operative recoiling just enough for Ebrima to close in and grab the business end of his weapon and wrench it away from his face. Unfortunately, the other guy had the same idea, landing them in a bit of a stalemate. After a few seconds of pulling at each others’ guns, Ebrima took advantage of his enclosed helmet over the Artemis Exo open-faced design and headbutted him in the face, letting go of the Bison a split second later and throwing the other guy off balance, buying himself enough time to draw his kukri. A quick slash across the torso caught the sling and disconnected the Bison from its wielder, allowing Ebrima to hold the kukri under his right arm and yank the Russian submachine gun away and throw it to his right side. A dull thud and a hissed “Ow!” confirmed he hit roughly what he was aiming at, but the Artemis exo made good use of his now-empty hand and grabbed Ebrima’s rifle with both.
The Cameroonian made the mistake of fully trusting the sling and grabbed the kukri again to make sure he didn’t drop it, but with a sharp pull and a rip of tearing nylon, his weapon left his grip. Okay, now the guy was just copying Ebrima’s homework and slightly changing the answers. The pale merc pushed forward, under no circumstance intending to allow the other guy to aim. The kukri never stopped as Ebrima circled around the other man, the Artemis operative too busy using the stolen rifle as a shield to keep the Nepali blade away from his unprotected face to use it for its intended purpose. Moving around turned out to be a prudent decision, as it allowed him to see the South African picking up the Bison and put the enemy exo between himself and the Russian lead hose. The spray hammered against the back of the artemis exo like rain against a metal roof, the exo and shooter both startled by that turn of events enough for Ebrima to lean around him and finally shut the South African up with his USP, raising his left knee to catch the descending head of the exo operative a split second later as he bent over from the spray, following up with a kukri under the armpit as he straightened up from the blow. Exosuit or not, functioning with that was difficult, even if Ebrima wasn’t sure if he got the axillary artery or not, but the slowdown was enough for Ebrima to shove the USP into a soft spot and keep shooting until the noises stopped.
Another safety round belonged to the South African.
The man under the rubble finally got himself from underneath it just in time to be shot in the face before Ebrima retrieved his rifle, hastily tied the torn sling together and jumped back up to the rooftops to rejoin the fight.
”Still alive.”