Luis curses under his breath as the fabrics of the market stalls trail over his armor and Arketta's, the camouflage temporarily defeated. A few insurgents find the chance to take shots at the motion where no wind should be, but despite the curses they do find only wind, and then he and Arketta are past the stalls and in the clear. He breaks into a run for the central headquarters, trailing behind the others that have already hit the wall.
Angel takes a brief moment to admire Zaef's acrobatics before returning to raining bullets down on one of the natural looking pieces of cover on the roof. If there's someone there, active camo or not, they're probably scared shitless. Switching magazines while the team regroups, he looks around.
"If you still want FTE and I on overwatch in case someone tries to hoof it, you're going to be out of line of sight pretty soon."
Ngawai slid forward to the front and swept the door - first visually, then with a light touch for any resistance or wires.
(Ngawai Traps check: 3d10 vs. 1d8 = 8 vs. 7)
It's simple, but a classic - a basic tripwire, set just beyond the door by someone smart enough to leave it away from the door's first inch of opening. However, Ngawai had also read from a similar book in her time as a Grand Apprehender, and spotted it through the crack in the door. "Tripwire, don't know what it sets off. Could be a grenade, could be something in the wall next to us, could be just a tripping wire. In the Kansat, we'd call for backup, but I think right now?" She nods towards the roll-up doors fronting the large building she saw back when she scouted the marketplace. "I say we use a spearbomb to make a nice big new door."
(Luis Demolitions: 2d10+1d8 vs. 1d8 = 8 vs. 2
Luis Attack: 2d10 vs. 1d6x3 = 7 vs. 4, 2, 6
Luis Damage: 2d8 vs. 1d6x3 = 3 vs. 6, 5, 4)
Rather than wasting a valuable spearbomb, Luis just digs out an old classic: detcord. A quick loop is taped to the roll-up corrugated garage door, wired with a detonator, and then everyone pressed up against the building takes cover around the corner. A thought later shows a 3 second countdown on everyone's helms, and on zero, Luis clicks the clacker twice. The blast echoes off of the surrounding buildings as Luis, Arketta, Garrett, Ngawai, Hale and Zaef rush towards the door. Angel and FTE can see there's no one streaming out, but as the six raiders rush through the smoking hole, they see that there's definitely a welcoming party on the other side - and they already took cover. Some of them are bleeding pretty badly, but they all are behind cover. They're shaking the heads and trying to clear the cathedral of bells in their ears out, but the element of surprise has definitely been lost.
Luis storms in with the others, and as they break through the smoke it's clear that the defenders were ready for something, if not quite that. This is what we have spearbombs for, though, Luis notes, and pulls one out, aiming it at the least currently battered group of defenders. With any luck, it'll help knock all of them off their balance a bit further, at the worst case it buys a few seconds for everyone else to get the lay of the land and look for someplace to push to or take cover. The trick to shock and awe is to keep it up.
Zaef sees Luis pop a spearbomb and decides to not get any closer to the insurgents than he has to. He pulls out a explosive of his own to throw in - why not, right?
Front Toward Enemy trusts in its IFF subroutines and the penetrating power of hypervelocity rounds, firing past its team and hopefully through one of the defender's positions. Its guns stutterstep, cutting out as calculations prevent friendly fire in realtime.
(FTE Shoot: 3d10 vs. 2d12x3 = 8 vs. 7, 10, 7
FTE Damage: 2d8 vs. 1d6 + 1d4 DR = 5-2 vs. 5, 8-3 vs. 5)
Once the inside of the garage was visible to the team's helms, the visual data was relayed to Front Toward Enemy's systems. 1,764 cycles later, that visual data was translated to a 3D model and integrated into its running internal model of the world around it. From there, it was a simple calculation of lining up its accelerator arm with the first target, finding an optimal angle to sweep in order to pass through center mass of all three targets, and timing the shots with regard to the velocity of the sweep. Simple, really.
To Angel, though, it looked like FTE stepped out of cover, paused shoulder-on to the building, raised its accelerator cannon, and fired a three-round burst at what was left of the steel door. The entering team hears three impacts around them, and two screams inside - one that terminates in a gurgle. Press F for that guy.
(Luis Attack: 1d10+1d8 vs. 1d6 = 5 vs. 5
Luis Damage: 2d10 vs. 1d6 = 8 vs. 2
Zaef Attack: 1d10 vs. 1d6 = 10 vs. 2)
And then two spearbombs clean up the rest of the room rather nicely. I mean, in a really messy way. Since, you know, explosives.
Luis' throw doesn't quite hit the target - it hits the crate he's hiding behind. Not that it matters that much when the explosion turns that crate into a blunderbuss of shrapnel that splatters the man all over the wall behind him. Zaef's aim is more true - the spearbomb runs his target straight through. He has just enough time to stare at the shining chrome spear sticking out of his chest before it detonates, spreading him - and the remaining boxes - all over the floor. And walls. And ceiling.
Zaef grades the remaining cover with a harrumph. "Our friends on the roof are probably on their way down. Let's do a quick sweep for remaining threats or traps before they get here."
Zaef does take note of the lone insurgent that was shot and not bombed. "Helluva shot, FTE. Glad you're on our side."
Luis looks around the room at Zaef's comment, eyeing the scattered remains of crates, equipment, and the debris of bodies. "Are we better off waiting here? We seem to be doing pretty well taking the fight to them."
Rather than question why people who supposedly disagree with him are doing what he suggested of their own volition, Zaef shrugs and makes sure that Luis doesn't march off on his own.
The first floor is clean - I mean, not clean by any stretch, after the mess that Front Toward Enemy's shots and two spearbombs made of the items being stored down there and the people that were hiding behind them it's questionable if the floor could be called clean again, but at least devoid of threats. Well, except for the bypassed booby trap on the front door, and anything else that might be waiting between them and the stairs up to the second floor, but, you know, empty. Of everything but the mess of said guards and a lot of debris. And the booby trapped front door. Okay, let's start over.
Luis, Arketta, Zaef and Hale follow Garrett and Ngawai into the smoking hole in the garage door, finding the couple already stacked up against the doorway leading into what looks like a simple hallway connecting the front door to the stairs leading up to the next floor. Another sweep for traps reveals nothing, and Garrett stands at the front of the single-file formation in the narrow hallway, slipping in the haptic to disable his active camo. No reason to hide now. "How's it look upstairs?" he asks.
FTE, from its position on the ground, can't see much through the windows, but Angel's elevated position has its benefits. He sees a man in what looks like his 30s matching one of the holos of Wazir's sons that Ngawai captured on her scouting run walk in front of the window - no Turai armor, no beamer in his hands, not even a Narsai'i pistol. He blocks the rest of the window rather effectively, though.
(Angel Scouting: 2d10 vs. 2d8 = 9 vs. 3)
That doesn't mean the other three windows are a bust. The lighting inside must be from work lights or something else very intense and very directional, because Angel can easily pick out...at least 5 shimmering outlines walking around in the room. Given what he can't see from the remaining windows, there's...another two in there, plus Wazir and his sons.
e of pi
