After doing his level best to help out the two engineers (stabilizing one, getting the other back up to a hobble), Luis heads back over to the main area. He mentally rolls his eyes as he notices the idle glances at the laptop, which is displaying...exactly what it was when he left. Wonderful. Sighing, he sets to work getting the IR scan off the satillite.
OOC: If the other guys move out, Luis'll either stay to monitor the satillite, or come if he can do so and still keep up with the data.
Luis taps away. The lag time between surface and satellite drags his commands through molasses. He finally finds the Humvee on the road to Redfield. At their speed they should make the small town in about 5 minutes. The helo could catch them if they're lucky.
Hugh, Luis, Semo, and Angel climb into Coyote One and the pilot (a CWO Stallman) motions for them to grab the headsets. His voice has a bit of Texas to it when it comes through the earphones. "Which way'd they go?"
Luis starts handing out directions and Stallman throttles up. The Black Hawk pitches forward and lifts off, prop wash scattering debris across the surface.
The Arizona desert whips by underneath the speeding Black Hawk as Stallman pushes the helo. Luis has contacted the Redfield sheriff's office and advised caution; now he keeps the satellite's IR trained on the white blob moving across the gray and black ground. The Humvee stops, dust obscuring the heat signature for a brief moment. Luis sees one of the doors open. The Humvee starts up again, stalls out, then peels out in a spray of gravel, heading off-road. A quick check against his maps shows the stolen Humvee on a direct cross-country run for the Redfield nuclear power plant.
---
The stairwell doors creak open, startling everyone in the Pit. Four black-and-gray soldiers move out, their weapons down but held with more than a little anxiety. You can tell the smell hits them like a physical force. Agent Sturgis walks behind them, inspecting one of the Turai beam rifles. Several things happen at this point:
1. The commandoes spot Max in his full Turai regalia.
2. The commandoes spot the charnel house in and around the Gateway.
3. Taylor sees four armed men with no insignia walk in and see Max.
"Fuck! It's one of them!"
"Waste 'im!"
"Friendlies! Friendlies! DO NOT FIRE!!!"
"Jesus CHRIST!" shouts the lead commando. "Could've fucking warned us!"
"You could've warned US, shitbird!" Taylor shouts back. "This level is clear! It's fucking been clear for two fucking hours!"
"That's enough," Sturgis barks in a calm but curt voice. "Sergeant Taylor, apologies. We need to move your wounded up to sublevel 1 and get these prisoners out of here. Where's Dr. Kilgore? And is this the artifact?"
Traffic on the local road is almost non-existent. The occasional semi or late-night joyrider. There's a single Turai standing on the yellow line, standing in defiance with a spear-bomb in each hand.
As they take off, Semo straps himself into a quick-release harness so that he can safely lean out the door. They fly swiftly through the cool night air, guided by Luis' shouted directions to the pilot.
Not long after, the pilot reports a contact on the road ahead. Immediately, Semo gets into position, leaning as far out as the harness will allow. "Orders, Captain?"
Those orders are not long in coming. Sighting down, SSgt Putupu opens up on the target, his Mk 48 making for a loud, chattering opening salvo.
The miniguns roar, drowning out even Semo's heavy weapon. The Turai is a small target at long range (although quickly decreasing), however, and the first few hundred rounds stitch jagged lines through asphalt and dirt. A few of Semo's rounds spark off the armor, bright white flashes in nightvision green. The tracers, dust, and debris completely fouls the satellite IR, prompting Luis to keep his eyes on the Humvee. It's still heading for the nuclear plant.
The Turai regains his footing amidst the hail of bullets. He throws one spear.
The Black Hawk's 300 yards away and the spear hasn't struck home when Angel and Hugh join Semo in landing rounds on target. Nightvision flares from laser-like tracer impacts and the Turai disappears in blood, dust, and fire. There is no second spear-cast.
BANG! The spear-bomb lost its guidance a split-second before it would have skewered Stallman. As it is, the alien explosive detonates off the Black Hawk's nose. Everyone shudders in their harnesses; Semo almost falls out.
"We're OK! We're OK!" Stallman shouts. "We lost FLIR, we lost navigation data... we still got satellite and nightvision." Stallman noses down and urges the helicopter faster. "What the hell'd they shoot? I got no warnin' tone, nothin'!"
Weapons roar, cutting the Turai warrior to shreds, but not before he throws his spear. An ear-splitting boom heralds it's arrival, shaking the craft in mid-air. Only the safety harness saves Semo from a dangerous tumble. He murmurs a quick prayer of thanks and climbs back inside.
"Let's go get that Humvee. You still got a lock on it, Luis?"
"You could've warned US, shitbird!" Taylor shouts back. "This level is clear! It's fucking been clear for two fucking hours!"
"That's enough," Sturgis barks in a calm but curt voice. "Sergeant Taylor, apologies. We need to move your wounded up to sublevel 1 and get these prisoners out of here. Where's Dr. Kilgore? And is this the artifact?"
Max looks up from his laptop, slightly oblivious and mildly amused at the Black-Ops' arrival and Taylor's subsequent smartass (albeit appropriate) remarks.
"I'm Kilgore. First of all, who exactly are you and what, to be more specific, are you labelling an artifact? Everything that doesn't have PROPERTY OF THE US GOVERNMENT down here could be considered suspect." barks Kilgore to the Operator, making him aware of who is in charge down in the Pit.
"I'm Agent-in-Charge Paul Sturgis, Doctor. My men and I were not informed as to the exact nature of this... attack, but we are cleared to handle whatever it might entail. Any information you can give us about... that" - he points to the Gateway - "or them" - now to Varos, mumbling and gagged, then to the as-yet unnamed-but-you-bet-your-ass-she's-hogtied female prisoner - "would be highly appreciated."
Sturgis turns to his team and barks, "Get what you can off these servers and get your charges planted."
Andy's voice is crystal clear as he peeks out from the command room's stairwell. "Charges? You're going to blow it up? How much C-4 did you bring because let me tell you, you're going to need a whole HELL of a lot more to-"
"We're not destroying the artifact, Dr.... Tupolev," Sturgis replies after putting face to briefing photo. "We're burying it, and unless you want to stay here with the thing I suggest you help your team to the elevators."
---
You catch the Humvee just as it plows through the chainlink surrounding the power plant's parking lot. Stallman's gotten you within 400 yards and he's skimming less than 30 feet above the desert scrub.
"There she is, boys!" he shouts. Whapgun beams streak past the helo, incandescent through nightvision. A Turai's climbed out on the side runner to fire his weapon. A second one, this one wearing pilfered Army fatigues, fires from the Humvee's roof hatch. Whoever's driving the Humvee hasn't quite figured out the art of driving a stolen military vehicle through a parking lot at breakneck speed. The heavy truck clips a line of company cars, ripping bumpers and trailing broken glass and fenders.
"I'm Agent-in-Charge Paul Sturgis, Doctor. My men and I were not informed as to the exact nature of this... attack, but we are cleared to handle whatever it might entail. Any information you can give us about... that" - he points to the Gateway - "or them" - now to Varos, mumbling and gagged, then to the as-yet unnamed-but-you-bet-your-ass-she's-hogtied female prisoner - "would be highly appreciated."
Sturgis turns to his team and barks, "Get what you can off these servers and get your charges planted."
Andy's voice is crystal clear as he peeks out from the command room's stairwell. "Charges? You're going to blow it up? How much C-4 did you bring because let me tell you, you're going to need a whole HELL of a lot more to-"
"We're not destroying the artifact, Dr.... Tupolev," Sturgis replies after putting face to briefing photo. "We're burying it, and unless you want to stay here with the thing I suggest you help your team to the elevators.
"Woah! Woah! Woah! Back the truck up there, Agent Sturgis. While I'm all for making sure none of those alien bastards comes through, I'm also obligated to inform you that burying the Gate might not prevent Earth from being attacked by the aforementioned not-so-nice-not-little-green-men-from-outer-space!"
*glances over to Taylor, keying radio to Hugh's command channel*
"...Furthermore, last time I checked, my paycheck doesn't come from the CIA or whatever wetworks-creepy-guys-in-skimasks Agency you work for. I'm under direct orders from Captain Verrill to keep the peace down here. Until he's countermanded, all you're entitled to right now is a front-row seat to the Freakshow that is aliens in heavy bondage!"
The Black Hawk's miniguns roar again but the Humvee proves a difficult target.
"It ain't a laser, cap!" shouts Stallman. "LEAD 'em! LEAD 'em!"
Angel's fire bucks high, but he brings it down and cuts into the rear of the HMMWV. It trails smoke now as well as dust but it keeps barreling down the blacktop. Semo has worse luck - the Humvee swerves left and he's got to slide to the opposite door to get a shot.
Several beams lance into the Black Hawk from below. The bangs from vaporizing metal sound like sledgehammer hits. It's an even match so far, with a few hundred meters left in the race.
Now Angel loses the truck underneath his fire arc; it's up to Hugh and Semo. They pour fire into the Humvee just as the Turai unleash their weapons. The Humvee starts disintegrating under the ridiculous volume of fire - the gunner hanging on the runner catches a few rounds and falls off the vehicle, rolling to a limp halt on the parking lot pavement. The rear wheel explodes along with something combustible in the back; the Humvee flips over on its right side even as beams punch into and through the Black Hawk.
"Instruments out! I'm takin' us down!" yells Stallman. Everyone braces themselves as the Texan pounds and pulls at the controls. The helo lists, spins, then it's like you're stepping through the Gate - everything feels like it just moved 2 inches up. It's a hard landing, but the helo took the brunt of it.
There's a secondary crash from the Humvee. It slides hood-first into the power plant main doors, ripping the double doors and their frame into the lobby.
It doesn't take long to catch up with the Hummer. The down side is that the Turai hear them coming and are prepared. The air between the two vehicles is filled with streams of death racing in both directions. Just when Semo thinks he has the Hummer dead to rights, it jukes to the side and he has to move to the other door of the chopper.
The Humvee begins to come apart, but the Blackhawk takes several heavy hits as well. With a quick shout, the pilot starts fighting to turn a crash into a survivable landing. The landing is hard, but nowhere near as bad as it could have been.
Semo pops the latch on his harness and jumps out the nearest door. The first thing he sees is the shredded door of the plant, which makes that his first priority. Scrambling in that direction, he keeps the Mk 48 up and ready. Anything that moves gets a lead bath.
"I'll be all right," Stallman growls, but the Delta boys are already out of the helo and moving 2 by 2 for the Humvee. The Turai who fell off the Humvee staggers to his feet, swaying drunkenly and raising his beam rifle with his one good arm. Angel pivots in mid-stride and plants a three-round burst into the xenohuman's neck and head. A red spray, a convulsing step or two, and the Turai falls back to the asphalt.
The next few things happen quick. A tan-skinned Turai wearing Army drab climbs out of the Humvee's twisted door just as his similarly-attired female partner kicks out what's left of the windshield. Their beam rifles spit lightning simultaneously with Luis and Semo's thundering firearms.
Hugh's hit dead-on before he can fire. The particle beam slams into his chest, but miraculously his spare ammo slags and explodes like ablative plating on a tank. He's knocked bodily to the ground, his clothing burnt and tattered, his chest perforated with minor shrapnel. He's alive, though.
Luis takes a shot into his left forearm even as he fires back. The water in his cells steams and bursts. His flesh explodes as the Turai weapon blows a golfball-sized chunk out of his arm. His own shots land on target, spattering the wall behind the Humvee with the male Turai's blood, brains, and teeth. The xenohuman slumps down across the flipped truck, blood still pouring from his ruined skull.
Semo and the female Turai trade shots - he's not sure how many beams hit him, he just knows that the next thing he knows he's on the ground and he can see part of his own ribcage. It doesn't hurt - the nerves are burned off. He's still alive. And there's actually smoke curling from the Turai's thirteen exit wounds. The Humvee hood and the power plant doorway are crimson Jackson Pollack masterpieces.
e of pi
