Keeping her foot on the accelerator, Ilyanna guns the truck past Brian, firing a couple rounds at him as she goes by. Once she's clear of him, she begins swerving the truck back and forth, trying to shake Carla from the tailgate.
Ilyanna swerves the Ural, loosening Carla's grip on the tailgate as Brian dusts himself off and takes chase on foot.
Sprinting at top speed, the truck gets within in reach just as Carla slips off. And in a feat of sheer luck, Brian grapples on to the tailgate, grabbing Carla's hand at the last second.
In the truck cab, Jess' skull begins to bleed out all over the dashboard and onto the cab's floor. Had Ilyanna not been the stone-cold killer she is, it would probably freak her out to no end. Instead, she turns her attention to getting out of immediate harm's way.
----
Back in Kiev, Ayumi continues her one-woman war on the Russian Mafiya.
Speedlines surround her as she jumps up, bearing down on one of the guards and severing his arm nearly clean through, landing in a crouched position and hamstringing another.
Artis finally comes to, seeing Tazerboy in his sights. The hapless guard drop his stungun, Artis emptying what's left of his clip into him
The guard slumps to the floor and as if there wasn't enough excitement in the room, the sliding door explodes with precision demolition. Through the smoke and debris comes Peter and Moten, bearing witness to the heap of severed body parts and bloody agents, Artis gun still smoking over the dead guard.
Artis pops a new mag into his handgun and switches back to his assault rifle. Coughing over the still-twinging pain as well as the smoke, he says, "What kept you? Check 'em for radios, see if we can sound an all-clear. Make it... *cough*.. tell 'em a grenade went off, no survivors. Somebody look for a fire alarm. Goddamn."
Her eyes open, flushed with a sudden jolt of adrenaline and a renewed conviction to stay alive.
In an instant, Jess grapples Ilyanna's gun hand, twisting at the wrist and giving it a good pop before she torques Ilyanna's gun out of hand, the weapon clunking onto the cab's floor.
Still trying to stay on the moving, swerving truck is Brian and Carla.
Brian gets a good handhold on the ribbing of the truckbed's roof, muscling his way up on top. Carla struggles to maintain her grip, preferring to duck inside and catch her breath rather than climb above.
Ayumi takes a beat to clean up. Flicking gore off blades, wiping them on any possible dry patches on dead guards' clothing, sliding them back into their sheaths. She also pulls her glasses off and cleans the stray drops of blood off with a hanky she produces from a jacket pocket.
"At least the Agency doesn't have a ridiculous dress code," she says mostly to Artis as she's wiping away. "Back when I was working in shitty movies, the producers never let the girls wear glasses. Said it wasn't sexy." She slides the glasses back on, then spits a mouthful of blood on the nearest corpse. "Fuck sexy."
Everything is quickly going to hell as the camera spins around the Petrovski's grounds at an insane clip. The action continues aboard the nearly-out-of-control Ural transport as it continues motoring a path towards the helicopters and Spetzies.
Carla pulls out her knife and stabs through the canvas convering the truckbed giving herself and opening to crawl through and out behind the truck's cab. As she slinks her way outside, she sees Ilyanna and Jess maniacly struggling through the cab's rear window.
Brian sees the impending collision-course with the party he was just trying to leave and the volume of fire heading his way. Noticing Carla's blade (and subsequently herself) enter his view through less valiant (yet more sensible) means, he climbs down and joins her behind the truck cab.
Inside the cab, Jess and Ilyanna fight for their lives. Jess pistol-whips the assassin with her MP7, repeatedly hitting Ilyanna at the joint between her collarbone and upper arm.
Ilyanna fights back with her own brand of pain. The Russian reaches down jamming her thumb into Jess' leg wound and gives the agent a "welcome back" elbow across the chops.
All the while, the Spetzies continue to spray the ailing Ural with gross amounts of automatic rifle fire. The windshield is completely blown out as countless rounds pepper the front end of the truck and ricochet about the cab. Bullets and shattered begin cut up Ilyanna and Jess, but the self-preservation takes precedent over anonymous wounds.
Brian and Carla also feel the dangerous whiz of downrange rounds sailing by them, one catching Brian in the ear as an errant bullet penetrates through-and-through the shattered windscreen and out the back window.
The truck begins to sing its death song as the radiator, engine block, and basically all its major components are rapidly being cut to pieces. It doesn't have long to live.
Team A either has cut down most of the opposition or they're regrouping for the final assault. Either option finds the agents standing in a bloodstained lobby with an elevator on one side and a spiral staircase in one the corners. The room is dead silent, save for some shell casings that haven't found time to stop rolling on the floor.
Like spring-loaded ninjas, everyone decides to bail out/off of the rapidly disintegrating truck with less-than-ninja-like results.
Jess jumps out the driver's side, catching her shirtsleeve on a running board and nearly being dragged to her death. Fortunately, the material was already a bit tattered from the bullet holes and it works loose a few meters ahead.
Brian exits stage right, clearing the truck but lands on his arm. It's not broken, but it did crunch a bit on impact. Following Brian's cue, Carla taps on the window but sees that Jess has already left the building. The helicopters and soldiers closing in with guns still blazing, she dives off to the left and manages to roll out of the way but does a number on her wrist.
Ilyanna steps out the passenger side and times her landing well enough to land in a soft patch of grass. She tumbles out of the truck and rolls up to a crouched position with auxilliary pistol drawn.
Artis hobbles over to the dead guards, looking for an ear-mike or walkie-talkie or anything that Peter can speak a Russian Code 4 into. He then looks for any fire alarms or sprinklers, proceeding to pull them, or in the case of sprinklers, pull a "Ripley in medlab" on them.
Take your pick of dead guard headsets. They're the typical earpiece/radio style that the higher-end security-types are fond of these days.
Peter picks up one and hears a variety of chatter varying from the odds on "those bastards" making out alive, who's wife is banging the gardener, to status reports. The conversation rolls eventually rolls around to dead air.
Unit-2, what is your status. Over? Unit-2 two? Goddammit, Yuri...get your thumb outta your ass and answer your radio! It's not like we don't have a situation here! I've got reports of shots fired and possibly an explosion from Unit-1. Come in...over?
During the exchange Artis looks around for fire prevention devices and spots sprinkler heads mounted in the ceiling. A well-placed bullet would easily set them off.
"We got them, but they set off an explosive charge. Nobody move, we're sweeping the area for more surprises."
Copy that. All remaining units stand by and be on alert.
Unit-1. What is the ETA on that chopper? We've been waiting twenty damn minutes for that thing!
Unit-1 here. The pilot had trouble getting the clearance for flight. They were threatening to ground the bird if necessary. Last report from the chopper is that they're ten minutes out.
Dammit. Copy that, Unit 1. Have the principle ready up on the roof in five.
Peter mutes the mike, then turns to the group and relays the info.
"We don't have any time to lose. Toss the place. Call me if you find anything that needs my attention."
He puts his hand against the next wall as his right leg begins to buckle; with some effort, he steadies himself and focusses his perception on his injuries.
Cracked ribs, first-degree burns, my back's a total mess...did it feel like that when they dug you out of the rubble in Dresden, grandfather?
Jess and Carla pick themselves up, limping towards cover. Brian sees them make their move, but also is very mindful of the still-lurking Ilyanna nearby. He empties what's left of his clip in suppressive fire as strafes his way over to the ladies.
Ilyanna drops back and find Brian the best target in range. Her shots zip by the Brit as he beats feet for Carla and Jess.
The driverless truck coasts towards the helicopters, both pilots making emergency dust-offs. Both manage to get airborn as the truck rolls in but their efforts are short-lived as one collides into the other as the two ascend. The lower chopper's blades contact the undercarriage of the higher, killing the crew instantly as both helicopters go tumbling out of control and into death spirals across Petrovski's yard.
Carla, Jess, and Brian brace for the worst, diving into the nearby guardhouse as the two choppers crash down, igniting the entire lawn in a conflagration of burning jet fuel, shredded fusilage, and mangled Spetsnaz soldiers. The shockwave blows out the gatehouse windows covering the trio in busted glass and various bits of metal, dirt, and assorted body parts.
fanchergw
