The leaderboard was updated that day.
1. Agent Carolina
2. Agent York
3. Agent South
4. Agent North
5. Agent Wyoming
6. Agent Georgia
7. Agent Delaware
8. Agent Connecticut
9. Agent Maine
10. Agent Florida
It was infiltration but it was inevitably going to be bloody. There was little stealth for them to pull off, the place was flooded with guards and there were no weak spots in security. Carolina, York, Georgia, South, and Delaware were to get through however they had to, and the primary objective was for Carolina alone to obtain while the rest stood guard outside the room and bought her time and scoped out an escape route. A trust thing, they supposed, since the rest of them were all relatively new agents compared to her.
"Yes sir, Director," they'd said in unison, with synchronized salutes, and then turned to Delaware, because that was the first time they'd actually heard xyr voice, which was modified by their armor into a somewhat buzzing gender neutral tone. Xe looked back at them, blinking behind their helmet, and the awkwardness faded soon enough.
On the Pelican ride xe ran through their pronoun conjugation, and proved to be a pretty agreeable person. The unwavering loyalty with which xe'd uttered 'boss' in reference to Carolina had her lips twitching ever-so-slightly upward; it was a title that had yet to get old.
479er dropped them off as discreetly as she could, and they still hit the ground running, quite literally. Georgia tripped. Carolina, covered by York though she probably didn't need it, tore through everything important and South and Del took down everyone else that got too close for comfort, South with a shotgun and Del with grenades and a magnum.
"God! These guys are assholes, huh?" South shouted over to xem.
"Indeed!" Del replied, and then laughed, as if xe'd just been won the lottery and couldn't believe xyr fortune.
Their progress was halted when they reached a particularly large door in the facility and York got to work as swiftly as he could while the rest of the agents turned around to face their accumulating opposition.
"Shit," South cursed in angry bewilderment. Georgia whipped his head towards Carolina. "What now, 'Lina?" he asked expectantly.
Carolina looked around the room, finding nothing with potential use, all the while shooting down as many adversaries as she could. Granted, her improvising hadn't been what it was today, and things didn't look great. From her right, Delaware nudged her soundlessly, pointing to a series of large crates stored on shelves a great deal above them. To bring them down would not only take out a great deal of soldiers but also create a sort of barricade to block shots from the larger weapons set up from a distance. Carolina wasted no time it whipping out her grappling hook, throwing all of her weight into disrupting the shelves enough that they tilted towards the freelancers but didn't fall entirely.
"Thank jesus," Georgia muttered, turning his full attention back to fighting.
When they'd all gotten through the door and York had shut it hastily behind them, Carolina slapped a hand to Del's shoulder as she passed. "Good work, Delaware." The freelancer in question only nodded in response. She didn't take it offensively, being used to Maine's quiet tendencies. There was certainly already enough noise in the top ten.
The next few hallways were considerably smaller than the initial wide spaces they'd had to navigate, a blessing that ended all too soon, right before the room housing the primary objective. A tank welcomed them with open arms. Arms that took the form of brutal fire scarcely missing the group.
"How the shit are we supposed to take out a tank?!" Georgia's voice all but cracked as another shot came flying their way.
"We don't have to," Carolina told him over the blaring chaos echoing through the steel walls that surrounded them, "All we have to do is kill the person operating it."
With that, her grappling hook was out again, and she only shouted, "Distract'm for me!" over her shoulder as she shot it to the ceiling and swung herself across the vast room in a matter of seconds. Georgia was quick to comply, elbowing Delaware for a grenade which he threw towards the vehicle at such an angle that it forced the tank to shoot it down before dealing with the cyan-armored soldier who'd already found cover anyway. York had taken the time to run in the opposite direction of Carolina's incomplete assault, and fired at the driver with no attention to accuracy, jumping into a roll to avoid the shot that came his way. Carolina shot down the soldier in the tank within the next ten seconds, and barked at the group to keep moving as she ran to catch up with them, since at this time she had only her cloaking unit to assist her.
The door to the target room was a bitch, in every sense of the word, and it was a solid five minutes before York was able to get it open, in which the freelancers once again found themselves surrounded by enemies. Carolina rushed to get to work while the rest of them fought off their adversaries, already calling for evac. She exited the room with a flash disk tucked into a compartment in her armor, Del threw a grenade at the side of the building, effectively earning them a path of escape, and York, Georgia, and South held their positions for a moment longer before following their leader out of the facility and back into the Pelican, where it was confirmed that no one was particularly wounded.
The Director was pleased with their work, as was Carolina.
Admittedly I felt like there could have been a bit more character interaction in this one, but I will try to amend that in the next chapter and please tell me what you think! Reviews are very much appreciated, and as always, thank you for reading.