"Relocating," FTE sends. It casts around for a position with better sight lines. The bad guys were running out of places and it didn't want to miss a thing, Aerosmith or not.

“Not good.” Is Angel’s simple answer as he sights down his rifle, taking in the scene.

“Five suits - the lighting is fucking up their active camo, they’ll be easy enough to see. Wazir and both sons are up there too.”

(Angel Wits: 1d10+1d8 vs. 1d10 = 9 vs. 1)

It takes him a moment to put into words why “everything we want is in one room” seem like a bad thing.

“One of them’s just standing in the fucking window, unarmed. Lighting’s bright. Wazir didn’t get where he is by being stupid. Feels like a last stand turned publicity stunt. I’ve got even odds on you all ending up on YouTube - or the explosion that’s triggered the moment you come through that door making CNN. Either way, they know you’re coming and they’re not terribly upset.”

edited by punkey on 2018-10-11 19:10:12

"Fuck," Garrett says at the bottom of the stairs, and pauses.
"Any bright ideas, oh Smiling Beast?" Hale asks from the back of the line.
"I'm thinking," Garrett says.
"Might want to think a bit faster, lahna," Ngawai says.

Garrett stares at the stair in front of him for a few moments longer, then snaps his fingers - well, he tries to through the metal gauntlet of the Turai armor. "FTE, how attached are you to that shell?"
“It’s so last 30 seconds,” it responds, catching on. “I was thinking something in red would go nicer with my pumps.”
Garrett nods. "We back out, FTE goes up the stairs. If it's a bomb, we're behind cover when FTE kicks the door in. If it's a camera or set of cameras, FTE should be able to take them out before getting trashed."

Luis nods. "Sounds good to me. He thinks for a second. "Actually, we've had good luck with some bombs of our own. FTE, you feel like having some area of effect if it comes to it? I've got some more explosives."

"No," Ngawai says. "Wazir is ours." It's clear she's not talking about the 815.

Luis nods reluctantly. "If Wazir's got something planned, it might be the only way we can get him, though."

"I'd prefer not to blow myself up on purpose," FTE says. "Otherwise you could just spearbomb through the windows."

It pauses.

"Why aren't we spearbombing through the windows again?"

"Because if he's waiting to broadcast us killing him to CNN, having explosives flying through his windows might be a bad idea," Garrett says.

"Right, off I go then," Front Toward Enemy replies. "I figure it'll be pretty obvious when it's time for you all to move in."

FTE slid past Hale as it stepped through the hole in the roll-up door, popped its cloak on, and stepped up the stairs. The weight of the shell made the stairs creak as it climbed its way up, the thudding of each step making it clear that it wasn't really intending this on being a stealth entry. At the top of the stairs, only one door.

----

Wazir sipped his tea. Honestly, he was disappointed with the traitors and abominations - his tea was starting to get cold, he was expecting to be dead by now. From what his Chinese contacts had said, they were killers of the highest skill that even his best men would be unable to stop. Which, of course, was entirely the point. With three cameras in the well-lit room, all streaming video to a off-site server (fortunately kept off until this moment, or else it would be fried along with his sons' cell phones), their death, unsanctioned by any nation and against unarmed men, would be the rallying cry to force them off of Earth and halt their campaign to eradicate his way of life - all ways of life on this planet. Wazir had recorded a few manifestos in the past, mostly just saber-rattling to keep up appearances, but this one, he believed: the nations of the world would be thanking him for revealing these aliens for what they truly were, invaders.

Finally, he hears steps thudding up the stairs outside the door. Mehtar tries to stand, but Wazir raises his right hand. "Steady, my son. Face them with pride, for they will find their violence returned hundred-fold."

Front Toward Enemy's composite-armored foot makes short work of the door and the Sheen steps into the room, internally wincing as it braces for multiple impacts. It ignores the humans, scanning instead for active recording devices.

"Sarah Connor?" it deadpans.

(FTE Search: 1d8+1d10 vs. 2d6 = 1, 1 vs. 1, 1)

Holy shit that's more dudes than FTE was expecting. Six - not five, six guys in cloaked Turai armor plus Wazir and his two sons sitting at a table sipping on rotting leaves in hot water kinda takes its instincts for a ride, and its sconces only notice the three cameras - one on each wall to either side and one pointed right at him behind Wazir and his sons - because they're literally just screwed onto the wall with no attempt to hide them whatsoever.

Surprise number 2: the barrage of beamer fire, or shit, even AK rounds, doesn't come. Instead, there's kind of an awkward pause as it stands there, cloaked in the middle of the room, while Wazir and his sons just stare at it, eyes wide, waiting for...oooh, waiting for it to kill them.

"Sorry, I think I have the wrong house?" FTE says apologetically before putting rounds into cameras. They're the priority, and whatever happens after that... well, it'd just have to make it up as it went like everything else. It raises its arm and sweeps the room, blowing out all three cameras with a staccato burst from its accelerator. That takes a moment to register with the room before Wazir shouts, "'Kill him!'"

FTE laughs and figures while Wazir isn't gonna last long once the team gets up there, it can at least do its part by killing the man's sons in front of him first. The Sheen charges into the room firing, hoping it lasts long enough to cause some friendly fire at least.

(FTE Shoot: 2d10 vs. 1d6 (x2): 5 vs. 1 = Dead, 10 vs. 5 = dead)

While Wazir's men in the Turai armor scramble for their beamers, FTE's already closed most of the gap across the room. A sweep of its arm puts accelerator rounds through the heads of both of Wazir's sons before they even get out of their chairs and splatters their brains on the wall behind them and splashes their blood across Wazir's face.

(Guards Shoot: 1d6 vs. 1d6: 4 vs. 2, 4 vs. 5, 3 vs. 2, 5 vs. 1 (No DR/Aspects), 2 vs. 4, 3 vs. 4
Guards Damage: 2d8 vs. 2d10: 6 vs. 7 = 12/18 Shock / 7 vs. 4 = 5/18 Shock, 7/10 Wound / 5 vs. 8 = 0/18 Shock)

And then Wazir's guards finally fumble-fuck their way into holding their chamakanas the right way around and open fire. Half of their shots just hit the walls, but the three that splash into FTE's shell are enough to instantly shock its systems into automatic shutdown. FTE suddenly appears in the dataspace of the local Sheen servers, a timer in its consciousness telling it how soon its shell will be back online.

"Don't nobody draw a dick on my shell," FTE jokes. It was exhilarating, being in that position out in meatspace and having its shell shot out from under it. FTE always knew the servers would catch it back during sim, but this was probably the first time it had that sense of what if not this time?

It was a thrill it couldn't share with its teammates. They just couldn't understand.

Luis cocks his head at the long moment of unexpected absence of gunfire after FTE bursts up the stairs. He cocks his head, about to ask if anyone knows what's going on, before it hard, oddly quiet raps of Sheen accelerator fire echo down the stairs. And then finally comes the exchange of beamer fire and accelerators he was expecting. "Somebody's timing screwed up, but I think that's our cue," he says. "Let's go!"

Zaef doesn't wait for Luis to finish his snarky comment, barrelling up the stairs at the sound of beamer fire.

Angel grunts. "So, it was the YouTube option. That was seriously one of the most awkward things I've ever watched."

As the team breaches, he adds his fire to the mix, accelerated bullets slamming through the windows to add a new angle to what the terrorists had to contend with.

Garrett and Ngawai are back at the head of the line, as Zaef, Luis, Arketta and Hale follow them up the stairs as Angel's rifle pop pop pops suppression fire through the open windows.

(Angel Suppression: 2d12 vs. 2d6 = 9 vs. 6)

The snap of his rounds shattering the windows sends Wazir diving to the floor and shimmers moving every which way as the cloaked guards move to cover. The assault team stomping up the steps might not be subtle, but the guards have been suddenly given something else to worry about.

(Initative: Ngawai, Arketta = 8, Luis, Hale = 7, Garrett = 5, Guards = 3, Zaef = 2)

Ngawai is first through the shattered doorway that FTE's...feet, for lack of a better word, left in their wake. Garrett is right behind her, but fans out to cover a corner that turns out to be empty. Arketta and Luis are right behind them, with Hale having to step around Zaef after the Arena Champion puts a foot wrong and stumbles on a step.

(Ngawai Shoot: 3d10+1d8 vs. 2d6 (Cloak) = 5 vs. 5 / Damage: 2d8 vs. 2d6 (Armor) = 8 vs. 5, Almost Dead)
(Arketta Shoot: 1d12+1d8 vs. 2d6 (Cloak) (x2) = 4 vs. 6, 8 vs. 6 / Damage: 6 vs. 4, Almost Dead)
(Luis Shoot (Arketta's target): 1d10+1d8 vs. 2d6 (Cloak) = 7 vs. 6 / Damage: 8 vs. 4, Dead)
(Hale Shoot (Ngawai's Target): 1d10+1d8 vs. 2d6 (Cloak) (x2) = 7 vs. 2, 10 vs. 6 / Damage: 6 vs. 5, Dead, 6 vs. 1, Dead)
(Garrett Shoot: 1d8 vs. 2d6 (Cloak) = 7 vs. 4 / Damage: 7 vs. 3, Almost Dead)
(Guards Shoot: 1d6 vs. 2d8 (x3) = 2, 1, 1 vs. 3)
(Zaef Fight: 2d10+1d8 vs. 1d6 (Cloak doesn't work if he grabs you) = 10 vs. 3, Dead)

Ngawai spots the first guard out of the corner of her eye, drops to one knee in the middle of the half of the room claimed by the invading side and spins as hard as she can to get on target, the beam splashing against the man's shoulder. The shot hits the armor square in the shoulder joint, and the burst of steam and blood that erupts from the hole says that the beam penetrated the armor's weak spot and probably took the man's arm clean off - but it's not the arm that matters, and as the armor's cloak shimmers, it's clear he's still holding up his chamakana.

Arketta snaps a shot off at the first blur she sees, the shot going wild, but the follow up is much more on target. A solid blow to the abdomen sends another burst of steam, blood and flash-fried flesh into the air and the man screams through his helm. Only for a moment, though, as Luis follows up his wife's shot with another square to the man's head, bursting the helm apart as the skull inside pops open like a bloody popcorn kernel.

Hale, following two tenets of Scarlet Banner Doctrine (Strike With Overwhelming Force, Attack The Weakest Point), fires two shots of his own. The first blows the other arm off of Ngawai's steaming and bleeding target, and he's the first to notice the guard standing right next to him, cleverly using the rough plaster of the walls to conceal himself. The disguise works less well as the splatter of blood from Hale's first shot sprays his armor down, and Hale can almost imagine the surprised look on the man's face as Hale's chamakana points his way - just before the shot takes his head off, too. Garrett finally pivots away from the empty corner (a whole two seconds later) and delivers a shot to one of the last three living guards that penetrates the armor at the gut, but doesn't drop the target.

The three surviving guards try their best - diving for cover from FTE's invasion, then Angel's suppressing fire through the windows, and now the rush of the Naranai'i attacking element, it's all a little much. They pop off beams, but all three shots go wide into the walls. One of them makes the fatal error of rolling against Zaef's leg as he tumbles, and Zaef's old Arena instincts of "fucking stab all moving invisible shit I don't recognize until it stops moving" kick in. He jumps up and lands knees first on the man's chest, crushing the wind out of him just before one blade goes into the blur where the man's neck should be and the other stabs down into the blur where an eye should be. Both blades bury themselves to the hilt in the blur, and Zaef only feels a bit of twitching underneath him before the blur stops moving.

Luis sweeps the room as he enters, a step or two behind Arketta. It's enough to give him a clear shot at her target as the spray of gore from her shot renders any attempts by his suit's camouflage moot. The part of his brain that's been counting noses checks just long enough to note that the enemy all missed--let's hear it for shock-and-awe--before continuing to sweep the room for the scattered blurs of the remaining living enemies.

Zaef rolls off the unseen corpse and looks around for more 'invisible' threats to stab.

(Ngawai Shoot: 3d10+1d8 vs. 2d6 (Cloak) = 10 vs. 6 / Damage: 2d8 vs. 2d6 (Armor) = 5 vs. 1, Dead)
(Arketta Shoot: 1d12+1d8 vs. 2d6 (Cloak) (x2) = 8 vs. 6, 2 vs. 3 / Damage: 6 vs. 6, Almost Dead)
(Luis Shoot (Arketta's target): 1d10+1d8 vs. 2d6 (Cloak) = 10 vs. 3, Dead)
(Hale Shoot: 1d10+1d8 vs. 2d6 (Cloak) (x2) = 10 vs. 5, 8 vs. 6 / Damage: 7 vs. 5, Almost Dead, 6 vs. 4, Dead)

Firing those shots was the last mistake Wazir's guards will ever make. There's a reason why Turai carry swords - in close range, beams break your cloak no matter how good your position is. Ngawai pivots to follow the closest shot to her eyeline, and delivers a shot straight to the head of the man that fired it, vaporizing said cranium. Arketta snaps on her target and pumps the trigger twice. One goes wide into the wall but the other tags her target in the side, scorching the armor and staggering the man wearing it. Luis takes advantage and delivers a square headshot to finish the target off. Hale zeroes in on the last one, and follows Turai doctrine with a solid double tap - one to the chest, bursting steam and blood out of the hole, and the second straight to the head.

The last guard hits the deck, blood streaming out of the stump at Wazir's feet. "You might have stopped my message, but my death will be message enough," Wazir says. He slowly pushes himself onto hands and knees as the team finishes sweeping the room and then up straight, kneeling as Garrett and Ngawai walk up to him. "There are those watching and they will know the beasts that you and the abominations are. So kill me -"
Both Garrett and Ngawai draw their sidearms - Narsai'i slugthrowers - and empty their magazines into Wazir's chest and head.
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Garrett says as Wazir's corpse leaks onto the floor below. Ngawai just takes Garrett's off hand.

"Let's clean up and clear out," Zaef says. Mission's over, no point in hanging around.