People under siege turn to us in complete frustration and I get a chance to go in when it's do or die - Curtis Sliwa
Jacques Schnee sat upon his throne within the Airship; the favours he cashed with the general were certainly worth it since the men and machines arrived in less than an hour. Now they were only a few Kilometres off the coast of Altamura (The true name of the colony which he'd picked himself).
"Sir" approached one of the flight staff "We'll arrive there in around thirty, what should we tell your other ships?"
"Tell them to split away and deploy on different sides of the City, keep collateral damage as low as possible; not including civilians of course…" replied he with a sip of cool Atlesian Wine "Tell the men; both mine and yours to prepare for landing. I'll leave the actual command to the lieutenants on the ground; I don't pretend to have much experience in the matter"
As the small airfleet advanced upon the green shores of the continent all he could think of was exactly how much would be made by this venture.
Ruby's team was watching TV and generally faffing around aside from one of the guys who they sent up top to watch for any hostiles. A siren began to wail in the distance as they all got up and equipped themselves. There was an air of tension on the floor as each soldier thought of their lives and offered prayers to whomever for protection in the coming days.
"Alright people, I want us split into four groups; in in each corner of the building. Watch for hostiles and radio us if you see any hostiles. Open fire only if you are shot upon, prioritise the 'bots if they have any and good luck to all of you… Orah!"
"Orah!", saluted the group as it split into the desired pockets. Ruby found herself with the squad lead and some other lanky dude, they moved into their corner and the lead spoke into the radio
"2-2 Echelon do you read, North-right is in position"
She listened for a few moments longer before walking over to where Ruby was opening a window to fire through "Overseer, do not shoot until I say so, we must have them in the optimal position before we strike. Understood?"
"Yeah" replied Ruby "But what if we face something more heavily armoured? I mean I have some thermite charges but nothing I could use from up here"
"Well that's what the boys they attached to us are for, they'll shoot the thing to immobilise or even kill it. Then we come in and deal with any survivors…"
A long while passed, the only thing left in the air being the occasional distant crack of firearms in front of them. They stood watchfully, peering with either binoculars or well-rested eyes into every crack and corner until the squad leader decided to break the silence "I'm going to ring up command and ask them if they have any idea where them lot are… watch my back"
As she brought up her radio Ruby continued looking around the area until she saw a streak of white in front of the building in front of them. "Hey" she whispered "I think I see someone"
"Excuse me I'll call you back later" quickly finished the leader before running over to Ruby and looking through her binoculars "Oh shit… that is where 2-3 Foxtrot is located… I'm going to contact them, Ruby contact the others and have them come over here, Desmond get sights on those soldiers"
Swiftly carrying out her order Ruby radioed the rest of the squad and told them to rush over as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the aforementioned Desmond peered through his iron sights and commented "they're not coming in for some reason. Oh wait… they've left two men there and are coming over here. They have a single APC and at least five androids if I'm seeing right"
The squad leader finally finished speaking, "alright they're placing down tripwires as we speak hopefully that should alert them and us if shit happens" she told the now gathered squad "All of you line up along the windows and prepare to fire on those lot below"
Nodding and whispering the whole squad spread out along the window line and took aim… A small explosion went off in a nearby building, sending a single 20mm round right into the engine block of the transport; stopping it dead instantly.
The air was immediately filled with rifle fire and broken glass along with the screams of those unfortunate enough to be hit with the bone breaking force of the 9.23 cartridge.
It was no fair battle as robots were relieved of their limbs and slowly destroyed while their human counterparts were ended by the suffocation caused when your lungs no longer work due to the many fragments of broken bone within; a few lucky ones going more cleanly as a headshot snapped their necks. The element of surprise allowed their squad to sustain no significant casualties apart from one guy who was hit on the helmet but far enough from his head to simply pass through harmlessly.
Now all that was left was to check the inside of their vehicle. Heck perhaps there was a driver still there waiting for them to turn their backs and shoot them or something. As the squad descended to ground level and inspected the scene they were met with… sobbing? Coming from the half-open doors of the APC. "Whoever is in there, come out before we toss a frag and burn yo ass" yelled one of the squad
"Please don't… I'm coming out" said an almost crying voice before a young man emerged
"check him for weapons" ordered the squad leader and the man was patted down and stripped of his armour and helmet "Under the rules of war you are now a prisoner of war, you will not attempt to escape or otherwise harm my men and in return your needs will be met and you shall not be tortured in any way. Is that understood?"
"Yes, please just don't hurt me; I have a wife and child"
"Hey boss, you actually bothered to learn the whole thing by heart?" asked one of the other squaddies looking over the interaction
"Yeah, because unlike you I have a tendancy for actually doing my job. Anyway, we need to get him back to camp, anyone know how to hotwire a car?" Desmond raised his hand "See about getting one of the civie cars working, we don't need any friendly fire now"
Yet Ruby did not watch the interaction, she stared blankly at the soldiers that lay on the ground, some still twitching and others with necks at odd angles who were no longer moving. She walked up to one of those who was still hanging on, his breath now barely a sigh as his lips trembled. She took his head in her arms and looked straight into where they eyes were meant to be, looking past the helmet into the soldier's eyes, they looked back at her; in pain and about to lose their life at any moment now.
The soldier's breath calmed as he looked into her face, it was a nice face and he certainly hoped to meet a girl as pretty as her one day. Perhaps marry and start a family. Living in a cosy cottage on the coast of Atlas… but that would not happen, he knew he would die, his lungs hurt like hell and he was coughing up blood. He knew what that meant.
Slowly he lifted his hand, it shook until it met the girl's red-trimmed black hair. It was soft and fine, just like the girl he'd hoped to meet one day…
A swift twist of her hands and his breath stopped, the hand falling back to the bloody tarmac, never to rise again.
Ruby wanted to cry, to know that she had just killed this man… no, she mustn't think like that. No, she had just saved him a lot of suffering and a slow death as his lungs filled with blood and he slowly suffocated under the morning sun.
Standing back up she walked over and checked that all the others were at peace, those not were swiftly put down in her soft hands with a sharp twist of the neck.
Her business concluded she took to her legs and walked over to the rest of the squad, her usual attitude replaced with the solemn silence of mourning.
"Overseer?" approached the squad leader "we'll be delivering the prisoner with us back to central base… Overseer?" the woman said slightly louder
"Oh? Yeah, I'll be right with you" Ruby gave the bodies a last look and walked over to the car. A gust kicking up gravel as they left the ghastly scene.
Winter Schnee definitely regretted picking this mission. It was one thing to see your friends literally sold into (temporary) slavery to fight for the highest bidder, yet it was another to be guilt tripped into following them to make sure 'everything went smoothly'. Heck she hadn't even heard about the place before the events of today; having been more occupied gathering intelligence and the such for The General.
She was looking over her scroll's map of the soldiers' positions when they began to quickly disappear, one after the other whole squads went dark as they went further into this god-dammed city. Having no other way to vent her frustration she continued polishing her rapier's smooth side.
Her task was of her own initiative; get down there and take care of the enemy command structure. Given that the few lights who survived their squad being dimmed were moved there had now huddled around in a small area which she assumed to be the prison. 'I'm coming you guys' she thought as they drew closer and the Bullhead dropped her off. She was fortunate in having a cloaked Bullhead, otherwise she would have ended up shot down like most of the others sent in…
Waking to the edge of the roof she was dropped on she withdrew her blade from its sheath as well as a pair of binoculars. And there he was, it was definitely him considering he was the only one to wear such a garment in addition to the manner in which he carried himself.
Zooming out and checking for sentries she dropped down with a thump and begun to make her way past the patrols. ' if only I'd brought a rifle, this ould be so much easier' she thought as a guard once again missed her form creeping along the trees until she was not too far from the target.
Knowing that she needed some sort of distraction she summoned a glyph on the other side of the Park and out came a large ice golem. Of course having no subtly whatsoever the golem was swiftly spotted by a patrolling sentry who directed the whole base's attention exactly where she wanted it.
As shots were fired at the golem she crept through the maze of trenches and bunkers until she was in sight of the target; a mere five meters from where he yelled some nonsense at his men about firing at the golem. Of course it was a thing of her creation and through her mastery of glyph summoning it's skin was thick enough to withstand whatever these men could throw at it.
Getting up from her crouched position she walked up right behind the general and with a quick jab got him straight through the heart. His pained cry being masked by the gunfire. Unfortunately though it was not enough to completely conceal her presence…
(Five minutes earlier)
Ruby's squad had finally made it through the checkpoint, their stolen vehicle was noted but allowed given the current circumstances. Now they stood before the quartermaster and received a refill for their empty magazines as well as one of the soldiers receiving a Breaker Rifle to replace his useless MR37.
Just as they were leaving to return to their post a shout from one of the sentries directed everyone's attention to the presence of a… huge ice golem? They had no time to process the oddity of one existing, never mind appearing in the middle of summer when the thing began to overturn trucks, wreck tents and even crush one particularly slow man.
Of course it took them no orders to start firing on the damn thing, yet even the powerful cartridge of the breaker rifle had no luck in penetrating the beast's thick skin. Amongst the panic a yell broke out; the culprit standing unusually behind them. The general was clutching at his chest in panic as a straight silver sword withdrew from his heart and he fell to the ground.
The woman with the bloody sword behind him quickly dashed at the closest soldier and before he could bring up his rifle stabbed the sword into his neck withdrawing it and running at the next.
Ruby watched this in horror before snapping out of in and yelling at the soldiers to focus fire on her before yelling at some of the other men to get into the single tank which was currently having its engine repaired and fire at the golem, if anything that was all they had which could possibly destroyed it. Ruby ran past the flock of men firing at the woman and drew her sword; unfortunately she did not have much practice actually using it in combat unlike her scythe. If anything she would hold the woman in place for the men to shoot her…
"Stop firing" she commanded and the men stopped shooting the woman turned around just fat enough to block the blade heading at her chest and thrust back with her own rapier missing Ruby by millimetres. They each jumped back a few paces before re-engaging in struggle; pushing sword against sword in a duel of strength before Ruby decided to try on of the techniques Blair taught her
Now remember, the key in this one is surprise" said the Overseer as he demonstrated "One of your hands leaves the hilt and grabs the opponent, pulls down on them while stepping back and then brings the sword down like this"
Of course things don't work as effectively in real life and Ruby soon found herself disarmed. Seeing the woman's sword come for the kill she did the only thing that could save her now…
"OPEN FIRE!" a hail of bullets hit the woman like a truck and being so immersed in the fight she was only able to doge some of them on instinct. The remaining impacted against her aura; sending blue sparks flickering all over as well as literally throwing her over Ruby.
She raised her hand to hold the fire and declared "You cannot win, you are surrounded. Surrender and be treated as a prisoner of war!", to illustrate her point the ice golem was finally hit with the now-operational tank's armour piercing rounds and exploded into shards; the shell continuing on to hit a building on the other side of the park and making a large hole in it.
She had certainly underestimated them, now there was no chance of escape given the sheer volume of rifles pointed at her so Winter Schnee did something she'd never done before…
She put down her sword and raised her hands in surrender; for better or worse at least she would live through this lost cause.
OK ppl, no more updates for a while. I've got to focus on exams
