“Okay, go!” Dask murmured as he rose from the narrow gully that had concealed their approach to the data facility and took off at a dead run.
Next to him, Whillem thundered ahead, the feral already had his gun drawn and was scanning for targets in the windows of the first main buildings in the facility.
“That looks like the generator building, the data crypt must be somewhere else.” Whillem growled as he vaulted through the window ahead of Dask and landed with a thump on the steel decking.
Shoutheri and Estra took off to their right side while Midori and P’Hol went to the left of the shed. Somewhere up ahead, the corporate security mercs were being roused from their inattention as the close in perimeter alarms began to warble.
“There is someone over here!” Shoutheri bellowed as he led the charge. A split second later, the southern treeline lit up with muzzle flashes as several rapid volleys from automatic rifles stitched up the ground around Shoutheri and Estra, and one lucky burst found its mark across the alien’s heavy carapace. Shoutheri fell forward with a thump, and Estra threw herself to the ground behind him to avoid the lancing gunfire.
Optional Objective Person of Interest
Dask and Whillem vaulted through the window just in time to see Shoutheri go down.
“Dask, I’ll help them, you find another way.” Whillem yelled as he strode towards the window in an attempt to engage the corpsec shooters.
Dask darted into the main generator room, to find P’Hol already there.
“Midori is going wide to establish a base of fire, this way, captain!” P’Hol yelled as she gestured to an unshuttered window by one of the generator units.
Back in the secondary equipment room Estra grunted and heaved as she dragged Shoutheri into cover, then looked up at Whillem.
“It is no good out there. They have good cover and sightlines for that side!” Estra yelled.
“It’s okay, through the generator room. Follow the captain!” Whillem yelled.
While Whillem ran into the generator room, Dask eyed the dead ground between the generator building and the data crypt shack.
“This is stupid,” he said, then jumped through the window and crossed the ground under the eyes of the corpo guards, a hesitant volley of fire spattered off the wall behind him.
Dask slid into cover and took a deep breath, though from just around the corner, he could hear voices and the sounds of boots on grass.
Midori and P’Hol continued their firefight with the corpos, laser fire and bullets slashed between the two positions, though neither found their marks.
“P’Hol, cover me!” Midori yelled as she snapped off another shot with her laser rifle.
P’Hol leaned out of cover and sprayed the mercs with an extended volley from her machine pistol, but it was enough. Midori used the brief moment of hesitation to Dask from cover to cover, and get a better angle on one of the corpo shooters.
“Got you...” Midori whispered as she sighted in her mark and squeezed the trigger.
The corpo collapsed without a sound as the laser bolt perforated his upper torso, and sent him tumbling to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
Dask caught his breath and looked up in horror as a corpo guard came around the corner. The corpo carred a large barreled grenade projector. As the corpo spotted dask he readied and sighted Dask in.
“Wait!” Dask yelled, but his cry was cut off by the soft thump of the weapon firing, then his world exploded.
“Is Dask okay,” Whillem yelled as he ran through the generator room and peered around the window frame that Dask had gone through moments earlier.
Whillem spotted Dask, still standing, covered with cuts and bruises and his face blackened with soot. Dask staggered into the data crypt shed while the corpo guard that shot at him cursed and fed another grenade into his projector. Without warning two corpos that were crouching behind a crash barricade opened fire on Whillem, and he went down with a grunt.
Dask leaned against the data crypt and looked over his shoulder, just in time to see the grenade projector carrying corpo appear at the window vaulted through.
“You pirate fuckers are going down!” The corpo yelled as he came on towards dask, swinging his grenade projector like a club.
Dask, still dazed, barely had time to react before an incoming blow clocked him on the chin. He collapsed back against the data vault and the guard raised the weapon again, this time to deliver a killing blow. With the last of his energy Dask raised his gun and fired.
The corpo toppled back, a large hole in his chest. Only then did Dask allow himself the mercy of passing out.
Midori gritted her teeth and bolted through the trees, her laser up and blazing. A split second later she had a flank on another two corpos and took one down with a quick and efficient shot. She came on her weapon raised and she sighted in the last corpo in her line of sight and fired.
The corpo collapsed to one knee as she shot grazed his right leg. At the same time he swung his rifle around and held down the trigger for all he was worth.
The burst neatly stitched Midori across the stomach and she went down in a heap. Before the corpo had any time to react Estra and P’Hol came bolting through the trees. While the corpo tried to change magazines P’Hol brought her blade down into the corpo’s neck, killing him instantly.
“This way! You get a flank on the survivors!” Estra yelled as she produced her shotgun from under her robes and took position at the corner of the data crypt shed.
P’Hol didn’t reply, instead she took off and took position at the far side of the data crypt shed, just in time to get a flank on the two guards advancing on Estra. P’Hol’s machine pistol spat a violent burst that took down one of the corpos, while a steady volley of blasts from Estra took down the other.
“P’Hol, we are clear. Is the captain okay?” Estra called.
P’Hol climbed through the window and spotted Dask slumped by the data crypt, down but breathing.
“Yes, you see to our people. I’ll see if I can do the data breach.” P’Hol called out.
Estra ran off to see to the others while P’Hol opened the terminal and tried to remember what her parents had tried to teach her about digital intrusion techniques. It had been years since she had done this work, and she never had any interest in it. For her the thrill had always been the fighting, this technical work, while well paying, bored P’Hol to tears.
Eventually, Dask stirred at her feet and looked up just in time to see P’Hol get the crypt open and plug in a data storage device for a full download.
“Did we win,” Dask asked.
P’Hol looked down at Dask and smiled at him.
“Yes captain, Estra is seeing to our people and we have the paydata,” she replied.
No comments:
Post a Comment