(I swear, this was -not- intentional)

*Click*

Through all the excitement (and perhaps the overwhelming anger), Jess fails to notice her clip's run dry. Swapping out spent magazine for a fresh one, she snapshots a round at the fleeing Elena. The bullet hits, grazing Elena in the head.

Son of a bitch...

Cursing ol' Mikhail Kalashnikov, Jess takes aim again. Lather, rinse, repeat...

Sam's ground forces begin regrouping by the river, again using leapfrog tactics to keep casualties to a minimum.

Jess pulls back her Kalishnikov's receiver and takes aim at Elena, who now has put a significant distance between herself and the boathouse.

Steady...Steady.

The AK barks, its bite marked by a small cloud of blood spraying from Elena's thigh. She goes down, clutching on to her leg in agony.

It's a small short-lived victory as the hovering chopper above decends and begins to unload on the boathouse.

*takatakatakatakatakatakatakatakataka*

The boathouse is peppered with bullets, busting out windows and blowing holes through the roof.

*f-woom f-woom f-woom*

From Brian's position, he sees the tell-tale plumes of grenades raining down from the chopper and arcing for the boathouse.

[color=red:e1b8da4bd9]BOOM! BOOM! BOOM![/color]

Airbursting over the boathouse, they explode in white clouds of searing hot gas and chemicals which immediately set the entire structure (and surrounding areas) on fire.

From within the boathouse, the temperature rises in dramatic fashion as the wood begins to burn and collapse under the conflagration.

(Edited by Dieter at 11:29 am on Aug. 15, 2005)

Carla rushes towards the bad guys, weaving and rolling. If they're trying to kill her, Nightengale has a better chance of getting out.

The concussion wave from the explosion wipes the small smile right from Jessica's face. Seeing her teammates scattered, she lets out a blood-curdling scream, barely managing enough self-control to operate the headset and shout

"BRIAN! CHOPPER! RIGHT THE FUCK NOW!"

That done, she turns back to the attackers and opens fire, trying to draw their attention while the others reposition.

Quote:

Quote: from Gatac on 11:33 am on Aug. 15, 2005

"BRIAN! CHOPPER! RIGHT THE FUCK NOW!"

Copy that. Don't get your knickers in a bunch.

Brian accounts for rage and windage, adjusting the AK's sights appropriately.

The sidegunner's HMG bristles again, pouring more fire down on the flaming boathouse. Brian waits for the grenadier to show himself. He catches the man's shoulder poking out the cargo bay.

Wait for it. Wait for it.

He spots business end of the MGL and takes the shot. The bullet goes downrange, hitting the gunner just below his armpit. Quickly, switching to field glasses, Brian watches as the man staggers to stay up, the MGL dropping to his side by its shoulder-strap.

"Go! Go! Go!" shouts Brian over his mic, knowing that the shot will only give the Team a minor reprieve.

(Edited by Dieter at 3:14 pm on Aug. 15, 2005)

Ayumi, Nightengale, and Jess attempt to cover themselves as best they can as they charge through the chemical fire. The flames burn with a hellish intensity, something no one could be prepared to endure. They make it through the inferno badly burned, but alive...only to be met by the door gunner and his HMG.

Brian peers through his binoculars and sees that Jess & Co. are out of the frying pan and into the fire. He picks up his AK and snapshots two shots at the door gunner.

The gunner sprays the emerging team with a long burst from his HMG, the bullets stitching a swathe of blood and destruction in its wake.

Bastard.

Brian's first round skims off the chopper's fusilage, the second burying itself into the gunner, marking a temporary end to the grim staccato of HMG fire.

Meanwhile, Carla engages the backpeddling ground forces, taking liberty to shoot as many of them in the back as she can before jumping into melee. Her approach is marked with the arrival of three hovercraft skimming along the frozen riverway and approaching from the north at a high rate of speed.

----
Out on the road, Artis increases his lead on the trailing SUV, nearly making it disappear from his rearview mirror. The sounds of screeching tires fading in the background, he now hears the *whup* *whup* *whup* of a helicopter closing in.

"Die, die die!" Carla shouts maniacally as she pops shots into the retreating gunmen. As she leaps into combat, her knife blade glitters to match the gleam in her eye.

Brian continues to try to hold the helicopters off, or at least give them something besides the rest of the team to think about. It's clear that he's forgotten to close the channel on the radio.

"Bloody Red bastards...c'mon then..." burst of AK fire "ah, like that now do we?"

The chopper's gunners momentarily taking a powder as it were, Brian trains his sights on the pilot's windscreen.

*b-dap* *b-dap*

Two tight patterns of bullets hit the cockpit, the first spiderwebbing the windscreen near the pilot's feet and the second stitching his door panel.

Brian swaps out his rifle for the binoculars, accessing the damage done. The pilot's still alive, but there's blood all over the compartment. The helicopter's steady hover is momentarily disrupted by the gunfire but is quickly rectified.

On the ground, the hovercrafts are now within close visual range. They move in towards the skirmishers just as Carla engages them. Her knife swings wildly, slicing one of the soldiers across the arm, spraying blood all over the snowpack.

The residual effects of exposure to white phosphorus linger as the chemicals eat through the top layer of clothing and into the skin.

Nightengale winces in pain, throwing off his coat.

"Discard anything that's on fire. It's the only way to keep yourself from getting burned any further!"

Artis vanishes down a side road, completely dropping off the pursuing SUV's radar. He's managed to find himself in an alleyway of a small burg several miles from the boathouse.

*Cutscene*

The helicopter that gave chase is now doing passes over the small town, looking for Artis and Katarina without any success.

Tango Two to Foxforce One. No sign of the vehicle. Over?

"You -will- find her, or so help me...I'll have you and that jackass co-pilot shot down and flay your bodies with a dull knife!" barks a woman's voice over the channel.

"Is -that- understood. Over?"

I...er...yes ma'am. Understood.

The helicopter continues its surveillance of the town, dropping lower for a better look.

"It's so hard to get good help these days." says the woman, looking out the rear window of an SUV.

-She will be found, Samantha.

-I know, but will she be alive? You two let baby get away. I'm sure I couldn't forgive you or myself if something were to happen to her."

-There's only one town within ten miles of here and that's where we're heading now. The others are about five minutes behind us and know what to do when they get there.

-I hope you know what you're doing, Tracy. She's my only daughter.

-I know and me and sis have a score to settle with the fucking bastard who took her.

-Fucking A right, we do!

Artis takes his hands off the wheel and wipes the sweat off. He re-checks the AK sitting in the seat next to him and a plan begins to form in his mind.

A little demonic Artis appeared in a puff of flame and a gray nehru suit, stroking a fluffy white cat.

"Now's your chance to get away, Mr. Gossard. Just go, leave those untrustworthy, backstabbing, distributor-cap-breaking fools. Leave it all and don't look back - you were going to quit anyway, weren't you? Weren't you?"

Another little Artis drove up in a miniscule Aston Martin. No wings or halo were present, although the "good" Art was tuxedoed and had a half-empty martini in his hand.

*hic*
"Sorry, looked you didn't need me for a while there so I was just enjoying myself. Don't listen to him, he's obviously evil and you've done enough of that lately. You and me both know you don't want to be a spy anymore, but don't leave your friends to their fate-"

"Friends?!" coughed Evil Art. "Your 'Agency' is leakier than a screen door on a submarine. This car we're sitting in was sabotaged right under your nose by one of your so-called friends. You're smarter than this - you can run, you can escape, and with luck they'll all kill each other and you'll get away clean."

"Hey now, Ayumi and Carla are stand-up gals. And Brian - well hell, if there's one good guy in the bunch of us it's him. And you've known Jess forever -" at this point Evil Art rolled his eyes - "OK, it seems she's a bit psychotic at the moment, I'll grant you that, but she's the reason you're over here in the first place, isn't it? She got herself kidnapped and if she gets herself killed here there won't be a point to any of it!"

"Yes, but you'll live."

"That's true," conceded Bond Artis.

"Spiner could have contacted the Agency at nearly any point, but she chose to lead you all on a dangerous goose chase across fucking Siberia while she went on her little psychotic murder-spree."

"So punch her when you're all safe, but go back for Brian and Ayumi and Carla."

"You're actually going to listen to this smug asshole?!" shouted Evil Art. "I kept you alive! That girl in the back, the only thing that has kept you from being shredded by gunfire, is there because of me! You owe me!"

"You- you're not considering this, are you? You can't be..." muttered a dumbstruck Bond Art. "You can't be the bad guy, what would your mother say?"

"You leave Mom out of this!" retorted Evil Art.

The two little Artises threw themselves into each other, rolling over the hood of the Aston Martin and pummeling the crap out of themselves. In the momentary lull provided by the fight, a third mini-Artis appeared. He wore black pants with a stripe down each leg, carried a handgun slung low on the hip, and stood there chuckling to himself in his vest, watching the fight.

"If you don't wanna listen to them, kid, listen to me. You've got enough doubts about it, but since you don't have a Wookiee, I'll have to knock some sense into you. Go back there and save the fuckin' day. You'll thank me later. But first you gotta get this chopper off your back..."

After slapping her pistols back into their holsters, Ayumi steps up to a snowdrift and, bending at the waist with her arms out straight, shoves her torso into the snow. She pulls out, leaving the smoldering remains of her Red Army surplus coat. She casts a disapproving glare at the holes in her fine leather jacket she'd been wearing underneath, but blows a stray lock of hair out her eyes and slips her handguns back out again. Assuming a warding stance between Nightengale and their foes, she brings the guns up and resumes firing at the targets closest* to her.

*see ooc note

The boiling point has been reached on the frozen river way. Brian observes the helicopter ascending higher and flying a course towards his position. He doesn't think he was spotted; it's just that the attack vector of the bullets would put the shooter in his general area. The door gunner resurfaces, laying down suppressive fire on the Team as the pilot repositions the chopper.

On the frozen glade of river, the hovercrafts announce their arrival with several full-auto bursts of their own. Their plan appears to be keeping everyone’s head down while their skirmishers climb aboard.

Carla’s in the thick of it, her opponent putting up a good fight. The soldier knocks one knife out her hand, following up with a rifle butt to Carla’s solarplexus. Knocked to ground, Carla musters enough energy and hamstringing her assailant in the right leg, putting him down next to her.

Jess spots a very bloody Elena trying climb on to one of the hovercraft. One of the men on board assists the huntress, grabbing on to her arm. She is then given a helmet headset and goes about assuming command of the squadron. Elena’s hand signals denote a plan of evasion as Ayumi, Jess, and Nightengale approach with guns blazing.

Bullets whiz by from all angles, their shots being fruitless as the amount of suppressive fire is simply too intense for accuracy.

”Just try and board them! Returning fire is only to get us all killed!” shouts Nightengale through his earpiece.

Meanwhile…

Artis rolls down his window, listening for the turbines of the chopper above. He can hear the helicopter closing in, seeing it pass within 100m of his position. From his experience, Artis ascertains the chopper crew is using a figure-eight search pattern. They’ll be directly overhead in a matter of minutes.

Throwing caution to the wind, Artis makes a quick decision. He gets out of his vehicle and steps out into the street. A few seconds later, a truck comes into the view.

*blam* *blam*

Artis stitches the driver's side window of a passing motorist in his mud-caked SUV, compelling him to stop.

"Out of the fucking car now, motherfucker!" screams Artis with AK aimed at the driver's head, opening the door with his free hand and dragging the man out by the scruff of his neck.

The poor guy falls to the ground and sees Katarina. She's currently gagged and blindfoldied with her face sticking out one end of a duffelbag. Artis is unsure if the man is understanding the cut of his jib, but when the aging motorist is shown a fat stack of Greenbacks, the man's petrified stare and terrified pleading eases up.


(Edited by Dieter at 1:28 pm on Aug. 18, 2005)

Art pushes his previous car keys into the man's hand along with the money. "Take THAT car and drive THAT way!" he shouts, gesturing with his AK barrel, before carrying the bound child to his newly acquired vehicle.

Keeping her grip on the AK, Jess sprints towards the hovercraft, ignoring the incoming fire. No matter what, they need to commandeer one - or they'll die pinned down here.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them

Volley'd and thunder'd;

Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell

Rode the six hundred.

Brian watches Jess sprint forward towards one of the hovercraft, getting her idea quickly. He moves from his perch to cover her, and to give the bad guys something else to shoot at.

"Right behind you luv...do make sure you don't get yourself shot. I'm running out of heroic rescues."

Artis' new ride is fairly surprising. While lacking basic accoutrements such as heat and power steering, the ride itself is extremely overpowered and handles the icy terrain like mountain goat.

Leaving a trail of diesel exhaust in his wake, Artis quickly is back in the game and heading towards the river.

Back at front, the shit has official hit the fan.

Ayumi’s nearsightedness comes into play as the fast-moving hovercraft is even harder to track with blurry vision. Her shots go wide, but she will be within decent visual range soon enough.

Jess attempts to climb on board one of the idling vehicles but her advance is met with a short burst to the leg from one of the crewman on board. It’s not enough to take her out, but the it’s
a painful shot all the same.

Nightengale’s approach is spotted before he can get anywhere as suppressive fire from the hovercrafts keeps him pinned down and unable to move.

Carla struggles with her opponent on the ground, giving him a hard elbow to the kidneys, finishing him off by plunging her blade into his spine. The soldier’s body spasms for a brief moment before going completely limp. Carla withdraws her knife and gets up, moving to assist Jess.

By now, both remaining skirmishers climb aboard. From Brian’s perspective, it looks like they will be making a run for it any time now. He goes to radio in the latest developments when the he (again) sees more smoke plumes streaking down from the helicopter above. The grenades land long, exploding about 15m from his position. Brian dives for cover underneath a fallen tree as the white smoke and incendiaries fly.

He gets cooked but the cover does prevent his complete incineration. Along with himself, Brian notices that the fallen tree above him is now completely on fire. Brian will have to make a run for it otherwise he’s (literally) going to be toast.
--

Driving towards the town; Sam, Annie, and Tracy have a rather surreal conversation about what they’re going to do to Artis when they find him.

"...I’m cutting off his balls and feeding them to him!" hisses Annie, accelerating at the thought of getting to the wheelman quicker.

"Not before I gut him like a fish and hang him up by his intestines." remarks Samantha, filing her nails with impatience.

"He better pray the helicopter finds him before we do." barks Tracy, reloading her weapon with anticipation.

They both wait for Annie next reply, but she is staring far too intently at the oncoming truck.

"Ann…you ok, sis?"

"Better than ok, baby. I think we’ll get our chance at that fucker a bit sooner than later..."

"..."

"That son of a bitch just passed us in the other lane!" growls Annie, slamming on the brakes and doing a bootlegger turn.

"Are you sure???" shrieks Sam, hanging on for dear life as the Annie swings the SUV around.

"Pretty fucking sure..." growls Annie, turning the wheel while simultaneously easing off the parking brake.

"...It’s hard to forget the face of the asshole that gunned you down and ran you over."

Constantly checking his rear-view mirror for anyone trailing him, Artis sees the SUV he just passed stop abruptly and take chase. It just so happens to be the same SUV what tried to t-bone him.

"Shitballs," Artis spits. He keys his radio. "Jess! Jess? Anyone alive on this channel? I need that channel you were negotiating on - I got an idea."

"Thanks for your help," Artis says to the little Art Solo in the vest and striped pants. "But I need to talk to that little guy with the cat..."