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Kwartz barrels through the floor and checks it before signaling to the other two and proceeding down the each and every floor, alternating with Lima on entry. His set up is practical and methodical. Open up, be prepared to shoot the first thing that pops out, sweep the floor, look for indications of fighting or survivors, retrieve ammo, go to the next floor.
His eyes kept their ferocity.. they were on a mission but his tone was less than impressed. " Damn, looks like they started losing more and more from this point hunh? I don't hear any screaming though. So either they are all dead or they made it deeper, keep your arms up. "
"Form a circle around the Titus! Head for the point we were given! For Jotunheim!"
Audric rushes forward and underhand tosses a grenade at a group of demons. And proceeds to move swiftly to aid Grimm if possible.
Upon seeing Grimm, he will take off the Wyvern from his back and toss or hand it to him seeing how his rail cannon is no longer functional.
But Rattlejack shakes his quills and a low thumping pulse sounds out, the communication relays crackle and die. Rail platforms flicker and die.
Wyvern Pattern, Rail Rifle
So I find a gun that does work
Bob quickly takes in the situation. The Titus are under attack and a grenade is being tossed in the middle of the enemy. Bob can't get close until the grenade is gone. He takes aim and targets the grenade as it lands between the group.
The shot from Bob explodes the grenade as it makes contact, taking out two of the Mortemcursor in the blast and causing the Loricatus in the group to stagger into the building immediately adjacent to Cyrus and the remaining Titus. The wall of the building giving way from the shot, revealing a lone Veneveru who immediately opens fire onto the unsuspecting Titus at point blank.
The glob of vicious acid hits the man immediately next to Cyrus, who unfortunately, is carrying a Deliverance.
The acid cooks off the grenades on his body causing a chain reaction of explosions as he vaporizes instantly.
The alleyway becomes flooded with fire and the building walls on either side of the alley give way and completely collapse into the alley itself.
As the smoke clears, nothing in the alley stirs.
Leaving the Occams standing alone in a rubble strewn corridor of blood.
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Up above on floor 7, the Loki hear an explosion from below.
A moment later, a deafening explosion rocks the building and for a moment the building seems to want to give way, but it holds.
Afterwards, the air is filled with a guilty silence.
Kwartz braces his legs upon the floor as a powerful explosion shook the very foundation of the building they were exploring. That could only mean one of two things, either Cancer was right outside and ramming into the building OR allies had engaged with with the demons and something very wrong went off. When the structure stabilizes for the moment, Kwartz looks to Lima and Serai.
" Alright, that confirms my theory. Occams Oscar Nine has cleared the building and engaged the enemy on the ground floor. That explosion was too big and probably attracted alot of attention. Let's cut to the chase and regroup ASAP. With the sound we will need the manpower. "
Kwartz rushes to the 7th floor window shoots a few rounds through it before crashing through and running down the building front.
........"F%$!!"
Bob looks around at the shocked looks on the others faces. Bob knows this is a horrible situation. "Guys, this is bad but with that noise it is going to get worse fast. We should probably get going."
Serai follows Kwartz to the window and watches, gun readied as he begins his descent. Taking one last look at the room behind her as well as the view below her she follows in suit. "Show Off..." she says through a smile as she drops out of the window and begins running down the building a few paces behind Kwartz.
Lima hits the ground immediately after the other two and looks around, "Son of a b@~&#."
He then turns to the remaining Occams, "Until communications are restored I am the highest ranking field operative here and will be assuming direct control of all remaining forces."
He points to an Occams that Bob and Audric know to be Anthony. "Your captain is dead? You're the most ranking member, get your men ready to move in 10, we're going North."
The Occams known as Anthony immediately objects, "If I'm ranking office then we're not doing a God damned thing but staying here, so go fu - - "
Anthony's response is cut short by a Las-knife that seems to have found his throat.
"My mistake" says Lima, "The smoke in this alley must be playing tricks on my eyes, it looks like you are actually the most ranking Occams." Lima says to Audric.
"We need to move North, agreed?"
A loud two stomps coming from the east lets the group known that Rattlejack is in the move.
Lima moves quickly to the body of Anthony, who is occupied choking on his own blood and removes a Hardline and Viper from his body and takes off up the street.
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Kwartz looked at the situation, it was grim. Less than a dozen Occams left, Longshanks South, Rattlejack to their east and on the move and Cancer last spotted north of their location. That is one which they had to travel to find the Evac. A simple phrase came from the man's lips. " So much effort.. " with the same, uninspiring feeling emanating from the words.
At least it seemed Lima started to take somewhat of a command, less work he had to do. Now it was more energy that can be devoted to getting back to his bed at home. Looking down at the choking man, Kwartz offhandedly commented, " Well that should give us about 6 more seconds, depending on how hungry they are. Convenient. " His deadpan expression looking to the Occams and then to his right at Serai.
" Well, time to move. Juliett Three, don't lag behind too bad. As for Oscar Nine? You know your job, make sure we get back. "
Kwartz then rushed with inhuman speed after Lima, Hardline at the ready.
Bob looks up as he hears a window break. Three figures exit the window and run down the side of the building towards us. Good! At least some of them made it.
Bob listens as one of them take command and starts giving orders. Bob hardly blinks as Anthony talks back, and then falls to the ground with his throat sliced open. Watches our new leader grab supplies and take off.
Bob looks down at Anthony,"Fool, we do our job!"
Bob knows he can't let any of them get too far away without backup. He takes off after the new leader as fast as he can. Bob barely hears someone behind him say "make sure we get back".
Audric searches frantically for a gun that actually is still functional. When the group of three appear and Anthony gets cut down for not following a direct order by a superior officer. Audric will load his new gun with a fresh magazine. "Yes sir!" Audric will announce with his robotic voice. "Occams! Re-equip, V formation on remaining friendlies!"
As the group departs down the road, a whistling is heard overhead, followed quickly by the earth shaking rapport of ordnance.
Two Occams who had been inside the building and elected to stay behind when Audric's group left exit the building to chase after the departing party only to be caught up in the shelling.
Moments later and more whistling is heard overhead and the shelling of the Plaza begins in earnest.
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Kwartz hurried, his weapon trained on all sides as he keeps up with Lima. He calls back to the rest of the group. " Alright, now the hard part is finding Evac. We got to make good out of a shit situation. I'm going to need everyone to alternate radio and communications use every 10 yards. We need to know as fast as possible if and when communications and rail weaponry is operational again. This will increase our survival so I expect you all to do it. I won't be slacking either as much as it pains me to say. "
His Hardline gripped in both hands, as Kwartz spreads his awareness outward.
"Comms aren't coming back." says Lima.
"They just used ordnance in a local with known combatants. They would only do that if they had communications."
"Likely, our proximity to Rattlejack has fried out our comms. Hopefully the rails didn't suffer the same." he says, slapping his Lotus.
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Kwartz sighed, " Haaaaa, Figures. I'm not saying it can't but it doesn't hurt to try. If our comms don't work it can be Rattlejack interfering or them being fried. Same with your Lotus. Use your Lotus, every so often, test the trigger. If it suddenly starts firing then you were wrong. "
"I suspect the weapons will work again soon, they're more robustly designed against power loss due to internal malfunction."
"Comms, not so much." says Lima.
"Let's keep moving."
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Bob smiles when he hears the 'order' to test his gun. He quickly switches his sword for his Lotus. Every 10 yards he tests his comms and with his gun aimed at the buildings test fires his Lotus.
The few remaining members of the drop squad hurry down the streets to the north.
The sound of shelling continues off in the distance and the rustling of moving bodies can be heard on occasion around the group but nothing makes visual.
Right around this time, the groups weapons Humm back to life as the rail platforms begin to power their magnets once again, and Lotus' begin to spin back up their suspension mechanisms.
The comms however cracks, pops and hisses incessantly interrupted only by loud feedback screeching.
Lima quickly annoyed reaches up and snatches the relay off his shoulder and throws it to the ground.
Turning the corner of another alley, the group finds themselves looking onto a street filled with Mortemcursor bodies, at the heart of the carnage stands a man in all black, carrying a red bladed viper and standing in apparent battle stance though no enemies present themselves.
Spotting you, he at once holds his hand up to signal you all to stop.
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Almost imperceptibly you hear Lima utter out, "F+~$ me..."
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Kwartz blinked, then blinked again and finally a third time. He looked up into the sky and closed his eyes. ' Clearly I can't have nice things. '
He did not speak, he did not think, he simply reacted.
Taking his Hardline, Kwartz sheathed it, checked his Longfang aimed and readied for contact.
Bob grins when he hears his Lotus whir to life. Wincing slightly at the sound of the comms.
Bob views the man with a viper standing among the carnage and signaling us to all stop.
Hearing his Wyvern come back to life, Audric switches back to that, holstering the Hardline.
"Occams, check your fire."
Audric will call out in a hushed tone as the man raises his hand signaling a full stop, Audric does the same with the Occams.
Suddenly the street is covered in debris as the building immediately beside the group explodes outwards and an enormous monstrosity barrels out of it and into November, carrying them both crashing into the building opposite where they dissappear from sight.
The concentrated fire of the group blossoming wounds all over the creatures back as it travels.
Cries Lima as he is already rushing through the street where November stood a moment ago.
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Having heavily wounded the creature he was sure was Cancer, Kwartz stays hot on Lima's Heels. That creature was the #2 of the known Primevals, if it was here, Kwartz didn't want to be. November was more experienced than most he knew. From the series of events, November was already aware of what would happen, that was the reason for the warning.
Well, that left one enemy unaccounted for and that worried the Loki the most. Where was Longshanks? ' Man, I can't catch a break. '
Seeing a monstrosity burst from a building terrifies Bob. "F@#&ing Cancer!"
Bob immediately starts firing, along with everyone else, into the beasts back as it runs past.
Bob starts mentally analyzing the situation: mission failed basically before we started, lost most of our people, location of minor enemies unknown, location of evac zone is unknown assumed nearby, given false Intel or Rattlejack behavior or abilities have changed, Rattlejack is behind us, Cancer is beside us, Longshanks location unknown, and condition of November unknown.
Conclusion: We are completely screwed!
Response:'Doesn't matter we have a job to do, get these Loki out of here and report the massive bullshit that seems to be going on.'
Bob shakes his head and runs after the Loki.
Moving is certainly a better option.
Serai continues at Kwartz' flank, holstering her Death adder and replacing it with her longfang once more.
The group rushes down the street, encountering only a few lone Mortemcursor though an Occams is still lost by surprise.
The group, now six Occams and the three Loki find themselves outside of a large building.
Lima looks around, "We should be close to 192, let's get top side and take a look around, if nothing else we need to get the hell off the streets for a while."
Kwartz will nod to Lima and Juliett Three, a slight look goes to the back of Audric. " Well then, standard procedure, send an Occams forward. We'll cover your entry, I don't care which one. "
Kwartz calms his breathing giving a sweeping motion with his Longfang ready to unleash hell on any enemies that show up, inside the building or otherwise.
"Lemon! Get the door!"
Lemon kicks open the door, two Mortemcursor scream at the light, Lemon opens up with his shotgun hitting both, and steps into the room and to the left as Lima comes in behind him and sprays the two dogs down.
In the room aside from the dogs are the body of a man in piecemeal armor, and what looks to be two Occams from another company.
Lima kicks the bodies of the soldiers over, the Occams seem to have been dead for a while, but the body of the man is fresh. All seem to have been slain by Mortemcursor.
"Scavengers, keep your guard up, they've been through here recently, guns are gone." says Lima.
Audric bends down and checks the ID tags of the two Occams, he then announces the division to the group. He also checks the scavenger for anything useful he may have lifted off the dead. Audric stands and motions for Lemon to take point.
Kwartz moves in drawing his Hardline as he entered the building. " God, and Scavengers too? If I didn't know better I would think the higher ups just wanted to test us by throwing everything under the sun to make our guys need new pants. I mean, it's something Langley would do for sure... "
Kwartz scanned the area, keeping his sweeping motion towards any openings. His Longfang held in the left hand. " Well, Anyway we need to get up the stairs and hit the roof. Scavengers or no Scavengers. Nice job by the way Lemon. "
Bob watches as Lemon takes point. Smirking as he blasts two dogs and moves for the lead Loki to finish them off. Bob gives a nod to Lemon as he passes by entering the building.
Bob knowing he isn't great close quarters with a gun switches his Lotus for two Vipers. Walks over to the stairwell and listens for a couple of seconds. Looks around to make sure everyone is ready. Then kicks the door open and prepared to fight anything as he steps through.
Bob kicks in the door revealing two more Mortemcursor in the middle of devouring the body of a scavenger woman.
Bob pulls his Hardline but misses the beasts as they spring to life. Some shots ring out over Bob's shoulder, dropping one Mortemcursor as it closes to combat with Bob.
Bob steps back just in time as the scything blade comes down into his face from above. A nanosecond earlier and Bob would have been bisected, instead the force of the blow sends him sprawling to the floor.
Blood begins to pour from his wound, obscuring Bob's vision further.
His attacker screeches as its scythes twitch menacingly.
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Kwartz sighs and tucks in his elbow as he fires on the Mortemcursor above Bob. " Just sit there and look pretty. I'm expecting company with all that noise. "
Kwartz' shot slams into the eye socket of the Mortemcursor and the front of its face blows off, sending the creature flying back away from Bob.
The beast lands on its back, the skull plate and front of its face totally sheared away. It shrieks as it thrashes about wild and blind.
Lima moves over and puts a second round into it, and the moving stops.
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Lemon hoists Bob to his feet, the wound he took is going to leave a nasty scar but it seems he avoided losing his eye.
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"Thanks Lemon! Damn, I should probably leave entry to you specialists. Ha!"
Bob shakes his head and laughs as he wipes the blood out of his eyes.
"Ready when you guys are."