All right! Onto a good sized battle, and more character development for you guys!
Enjoy! :)
Vincent and Haskel had it all planned out:
They would split up into three squads, five members apiece. Lazarus would lead the first squad, the sharpshooters, into drawing Arkansas' fire away from the other two squads. Jaxon would lead the second squad, who would go first and disarm any mines in the path to Arkansas' perch. Then the third group of close quarters fighters led by Vincent would trail the first group and take down Arkansas.
Lazarus, Leon, Jesse, Palmer and Haskel made up the first group who would draw Arkansas into a shootout and hold his attention while the other two groups moved into action.
Jaxon, Rafael, Anais, Felix and Becca made up the second group. They all had experience with disarming explosives or sneaking around traps which made them ideal for clearly the way for the third group.
Vincent, Barnaby, Sledge, Siobhan and Ginny comprised the final group. All five were tenacious fighters in their own rights, and all were prepared for close quarters combat. Given that they were the most likely to sustain an injury during the attack, Barnaby was assigned to work alongside their group and was ready to patch up any injuries that came about from the assault.
The party was preparing to leave when they realized Anais was not with them.
Vincent could not recall seeing her at all the previous night, and she was not present at the briefing they held this morning.
As they took a look around camp, a dusty and slightly worse for wear Anais strolled into Big Town, her face as stony and impassive as ever.
"Where have you been? You missed out on the briefing?" Vincent harshly commanded of the Outcast Assassin.
"Scouting. Cleared a path from here to Minefield and mapped the layout of the town. Undetected." They were the most words Vincent had heard the girl mutter and they came as a complete shock to him.
"You did what?!" Vincent shouted at her. Not at all composed but given the rest of his team's reactions, composure was a commodity they were in short supply of.
"Yes. I cleared a moderately sized path to Minefield, then scouted out the Stronghold without being detected."
"How did you do this? What exactly did you clear out for us?"
"Stealth boy." Anais reacted nonchalantly.
"And the path?"
"Two small groups of super mutants, a pack of wild dogs, several radscorpions, a deranged man with a rocket launcher and a Yao Guai. All taken care of, although the Mutants gave me some scratches." Anais responded calmly.
"That's… Well yes it's impressive. But is it what I asked of you?" Vincent inquired to Anais
Anais cocked her head ever so slightly. "You wanted me to scout the base."
"Yes… Just ask me next time. In the future, before you go off and pull some sneaky commando bullshit please ask one of us first. What if you were seen?"
"I wasn't. I used a stealth boy. Arkansas is holed up in roofless building towards the back of the neighborhood. The interior is understandably laden with Mines, and I didn't get a chance to investigate the houses."
"Give me a man who has never been caught mid stealth field." Lazarus chimed in sagely.
Anais remained impassive. "I wasn't seen and I know how to handle myself."
Vincent's composure stiffened. "First casualty gets docked from your pay."
Almost imperceptibly Anais' eyes widened. Vincent was sure he was the only one who caught it.
She bowed stiffly and moved to join the remainder of the group. As she assimilated into the caravan Vincent turned to his comrades.
"All right! Let's move out!"
After four hours of walking the group came upon the outskirts of Minefield:
Four houses lay scattered haphazardly amongst a collection of rusted cars and debris palisades.
In the center lay a playground, while near the back of the suburb lay a half ruined, five story concrete building. From what Vincent could see it lacked a roof and a top level, but the remaining floors looked relatively stable.
For a post-war building it looked stable. At least enough for a sniper to remain perched on. It was also tall enough to offer an aerial view of the suburb.
The Mercenaries were ready to make their move and began to move into their respective formations. Lazarus led the sharpshooters towards a palisade wall with a clear view of the sniper's perch.
As the other two groups approached the side of the house a loud bang sounded. Arkansas was ready for them.
A chorus of different gunshots rang out from the Palisade: Vincent recognized Lazarus' rifle, Jesse's Lever action rifle, Leon's Chinese Assault Rifle and Palmer's Laser Rifle. The fifth set of bangs must have belonged to Haskel's Magnum.
The Firing wasn't intended to hit Arkansas (Although Vincent was sure that most if not all of the sharpshooters were attempting to do so) but was instead intended to keep him pinned at his post.
Jaxon and the demolitionists, all crouched to the ground, began to work their way through the maze of Mines, diffusing the ones that were in their direct path.
The path before them was a singular road littered with less than a half dozen cars and strewn with Mines.
Arkansas, still unseen by the latter two groups, was still firing on the sharpshooters. Vincent hoped that they were keeping his fire focused solely on him.
Arkansas paused, presumably to reload his clip, and the demolitions team continued clearing a path to the Perch. Vincent and the CQ team were several paces behind them, minding their pathway and the possible mines it entailed. Just because five individuals with moderate explosives experience had combed the path did not mean it was 100% clear of Mines.
A sniper's bullet whizzed past Sledge's head and embedded itself in front of a sedan.
Fuck.
All five CQ members burst forward. At that moment another bullet struck a mine to the right of the demolitions team.
Vincent could hear screaming and fervent swearing. Right now his only goal was to get to the base of the Perch.
The sedan exploded behind them, filling the air with shrapnel and fire. The sharpshooters firing had died down. The CQ's jumped into the ground floor of the Perch.
Outside was quiet, save for the crackle of fire and the muffled cries of his teammates.
Siobhan assessed her teammates.
Barnaby was readying his medical bag, while Sledge had unholstered his sledgehammer and was advancing towards the staircase.
Ginny had taken some shrapnel to her leg, which Vincent was tending to.
Vincent turned to her and urged her to go on, he'd be right behind her.
Siobhan watched Barnaby tend to Ginny as she raced up the staircase, Power Fist on her hand.
Sledge was moving fairly quietly for such a big man, while Siobhan stayed close to the walls in the building.
It was fairly still, with no sniper's rounds sounding or Mines going off outside. Siobhan took care to avoid several Mines Arkansas had placed inside his Perch.
They ascended the next flight of stairs without issue.
The next floor had an open wall facing out towards the rest of Minefield, while another grimy concrete staircase was on the wall opposite to them.
As Siobhan and Sledge advanced towards the staircase Siobhan heard the snap of a wire and the familiar click of a shotgun being cocked.
"DOWN!" she yelled as she dived to the ground. Sledge merely grunted, allowing his armor to take the majority of the buckshot. As he raced to the staircase, an older man jumped down from the ceiling behind him. Sledge swung his hammer in a 180 degree arc, which the old man sidestepped. Sledge tried to bring the hammer down on the man, but he was simply too quick for Sledge to hit.
Then he was on him. Arkansas had plunged a knife between Sledge's neck and shoulders,
When he turned around he was greeted by Siobhan's right hook. Power Fist and all. As the old man's body crumpled to the ground Siobhan rushed to help Sledge.
"You stay with me big man, I'm not losing you to a little knife."
"Fight. Strong." The large man grunted out. He moved to get up, but was dazed. Siobhan noticed that the buckshot had gone deeper than she had anticipated. Sledge was bleeding everywhere.
"Barnaby! I need aid!"
The day's fatalities had been none, discounting the possibility that any number of their casualties died in surgery.
The injuries varied. Sledge took what was considered to be the worst of the damage that day, with buckshot breaking several of his ribs and Arkansas knife still plunged in his shoulder.
The doctor raced up the stairs when Siobhan called to him and instantly began to treat the large bruiser.
Becca went and fetched the sharpshooters and navigated them safely towards the Perch, where everyone waited inside in the aftermath.
Josiah had been grazed n his arm when he moved to fire on Arkansas. The damage was steep, but Lazarus fixed him up with a Stimpack. Given that Arkansas could have taken his head off, Josiah counted himself lucky.
Felix had been the unlucky recipient of the Mine detonation. Fortunately he did not lose any limbs. Unfortunately he was shredded by the shrapnel. Barnaby had Felix brought up to the third floor with Sledge so he could work on both patients at once.
For the first time since they found him, Vincent was grateful that he had recruited the esoteric Ghoul. Despite his eccentricities, he was a master surgeon, working with clean instruments and even medical alcohol, a material Vincent hadn't seen since his middle years.
Ginny had been tended to and was healing with her Stimpack.
Haskel moved to speak with Vincent. "Arkansas is dead?" While it was framed as a question, Vincent thought it sounded awfully like a statement.
"Yeah, Siobhan broke him after he stabbed Sledge." The Irish girl was upstairs playing Nurse to Barnaby's Doctor.
"Good. I've instructed Jaxon and Rafael to begin sweeping for Mines." Haskel stated. Vincent didn't mind Haskel giving out orders he would have given out himself. Haskel was already shaping up to be a strong contender as one of his Lieutenants once they were settled.
"Well done. Now, we need to bring the specialists back here."
"Is waiting until the morning out of the question?"
"Big Town may be hospitable, but by no means is it the safest place to be. I'd rather not take our chances losing three of our most important members to Slaver or Mutant raid. Take Josiah, Lazarus and Anais with you to the town and escort them back here."
Vincent needed input from the team's engineers as to proper base defenses. Palisades were good for keeping Mole Rats out but they were going to do shit against anything bigger.
"At once Vincent." Haskel stiffly bowed and went to assemble his party.
"Still kicking Vince?" Came Leon's voice from the entrance.
Grinning, Vincent shot back. "Are you? I asked for sharpshooters! Not whatever the fuck that was out there!"
Leon laughed but as he approached Vincent his mood darkened ever so slightly.
"Ginny may be the fast shot, but I'm the sure shot. Something was up with that guy Vincent, because Lazarus and Josiah are practically snipers, Palmer is a good shot, and Haskel even had a scope on his weapon. We couldn't get a bead on him. He'd pop out of cover and fire a round pretty much at one of us, and by the time we got a chance to fire back he was just gone. Are you sure Siobhan got him?"
"Leon, she hit him at point blank range with her Power Fist. He didn't even have armor on. Besides, she's up there with Sledge and Felix. If he managed to survive and is trying to kill them, he'll have to get through her first."
"Okay Vince." Leon said. He quietly moved over to Ginny, who was busy working on a locked ammunition box.
Vincent moved upstairs to talk to Barnaby. He had the sinking feeling this would be a very long day, with a very long night to follow.
Writing this chapter was not fun, but I powered through it. The next few chapters are what I am looking forward to, and I do believe you will enjoy them as well ;)
Thanks for reading! :D Please review!