OIC (29)
MegaZone23
"Hello, handsome. If things have gone totally wrong,
I'm talking to myself and you've got a wet towel wrapped
around your head."
--Quaid
Gryphon was the first one "on station". He used his
thrusters to get to the upper windows, which were opened for
ventilation. With the PC-2 Predator Cloak engaged on his VR-
029, it simply would not do for him to enter by the main
doors. He got to the track on the upper deck, where he could
see the situation.
The situation was particularly bad. Out of the two
hundred people on the gym floor, twenty of them were
terrorists. Oh, shit, thought Ben. He turned on his comm.
"Eight-Ball one to Angels and Triple-S. I'm in
position...shit. I'm looking at about twenty shoots and a
hundred and eighty odd no-shoots. This could be messy. I'll
try to ease the burden on you people and start sniping. Tell
me when you get to the door."
He took aim on one of the terrorists, aiming at the
center of his back. Three laser dots centered on the
target's body armor. One of the others noticed it.
"Hey, Eddie, what're those dots on your armor?"
"Have a nice trip, Eddie..." Gryphon muttered.
"What dots? I didn't put any dots on..." his sentence
remained unfinished due to the fact that he was missing a
torso soon thereafter. The effect of an EP-42 on a man
wearing an armor vest is decidedly unpretty. The children,
being children, began screaming their lungs out.
"Whatwuzthat? FUCK!" A terrorist turned around to find
the shooter. He saw a shimmer in the air, somewhat like heat
waves, but...different. He started firing with his pulse
pistol.
"Fuck! They saw me!" Gryph booked it for the nearest
pile of athletic kipple, hiding behind a Musashiball.
"Whutizitwhutizitwhutizit?"
"NofuckingclueIdontcareIdontwannaknowkillit! You, you,
you! Sweep the balcony!" Three grunts ran up the stairs.
Gryphon was ready. He held a Bloody Card and he knew
how to use it. After all, he learned from a master and had a
couple of centuries to dabble in the art. Sort of like the
way he picked up electric guitar.
"Sweep the balcony, eh?" he said softly to himself.
"All right..." Just a flick of the wrist...
The Card's trajectory took it through the necks of the
three thugs. It returned quickly. The thugs didn't...
"Holy shit!" one of the surviving thugs shouted. "What
the fuck was that?"
"I dunno, but whatever it is, we gotta kill it, and
quick! You guys, split up, take different stairways,"
ordered the guy Gryph had pegged for the boss. "He can't get
you all at once. I'll keep the brats under control myself."
"They're right there," Gryphon observed to himself. "I
can't get'em all at once." He moved quickly into the shadows
near the ball, then hit his thrusters and leaped across the
balcony, landing on the other side of the gym. All the men
in black saw were two curls of jet exhaust with an
undefinable area of not-rightness at the end, streaking
across the open space above. Gryphon proceeded to duck
behind some traffic cones (why are there always traffic cones
in gyms?) and wait.
Soon enough, one very nervous-looking thug with a
machinegun of some sort walked past. Gryphon waited until he
passed to pop his right arm's CADS-3 sabre. The thug heard
the hum of the weapon, softer and lower than an electric
shaver, and started to turn, to inhale the breath he needed
to cry a warning--
--too late. His head landed next to the leader. By
that time, Gryphon had targeted one across the gym and blown
him in half. Then he jumped straight up, without using the
thrusters to give himself away, and hung, suspended and
invisible, in the pipes. A sudden burst of violence, then
disappear; it was the only way to approach a situation like
this when you're one man against twenty.
He crawled through the pipes, staying as silent as he
could, around the corner and near to a stairway. He had to
get down from the balcony somehow, and he had just the idea.
He reached down and removed a grenade from his belt, making
certain it wasn't a frag; wouldn't do to have shrapnel flying
about with all the kiddies. He wound up and threw it across
the gym with all the strength his Cyclone could offer. It
cleared easily, tagging the thug directly across the balcony
from him in the chest and blowing him sky-high. At the
instant of the explosion, Gryphon jumped the rail and dropped
behind the stairs.
It worked; they didn't see him. Now it was a matter of
keeping to the shadows under the balcony.
Gordo and his team were heading in through the back.
They approached the building, cloaked, nine Cyclones and an
armored Predator. Not a force to be messed with. Three
guards were watching the back door, and one or two on some
windows.
Sergeant Phelan Satori took his group of four Triple-S
troopers around to the east wing; the other team of four,
under Sergeant Kristina Satori, took the west. Gordo and his
partner, the Praxian Lieutenant Miyu, took the rear entrance
itself.
It was dark by now; the two cloaked individuals
approached the rear steps directly, covered doubly by their
virtual invisibility and the night. The three guards
watching the door were getting rather bored, watching nothing
for hours on end tends to do that. Perhaps if they had felt
at risk they may have been alert enough to notice the
slightly shimmering bits of night that were moving, but they
felt safe. They weren't. Gordo fired his mono-net at the
thug on the left, pinning him to the wall and dicing his
body. As he fired Gordo shifted quickly, one of the
remaining guards turned to fire along the return path of the
net, and was speared by Gordo's staff even as he raised his
weapon. The third guard went for his radio to warn those
inside. The radio fell to the ground along with his hand as
Lt. Miyu's saber passed through his arm. Before he could
scream she slashed again, and his head separated from his
neck. The rear entrance was secure and no warning had been
issued. Perfect.
Gordo and Lt. Miyu slipped inside with a graceful ease
that would put a ninja to shame. Rather amazing for someone
Gordo's size. The corridor appeared clear. The pair headed
left, they would work their way clockwise through the
building. They leapfrogged from room to room, much like the
SAS would have hundreds of years previous. In fact, imagine
if SAS troopers had a couple of hundred of years of
experience and that would be their style. Most of the rooms
were clear, but one room at the end of the corridor contained
two thugs, a small group of students, and their teacher.
Gordo reached the room first and quickly assessed the
situation and waved Lt. Miyu forward. She came as close to
losing her professionalism as she ever did. One of the thugs
was sitting on the floor in the far corner with a number of
students in front of him as a shield. The other thug was in
the front of the room, raping the teacher as the students
watched.
"Bastard!" Miyu hissed.
"Calm. I'll take the corner. You can have him," Gordo
replied emotionless.
"Thanks," Miyu replied with genuine gratitude.
Gordo crouched in the doorway, the thug in the corner
was too busy watching his buddy, and probably waiting for his
turn, to notice. Gordo's targetting system painted a neat
triangle on the thugs chest. One of the students noticed and
seemed about to say something, but he then thought about it
and turned to the doorway. He barely noticed the shimmer and
gave Gordo the thumbs up. "Smart kid, I like him," Gordo
thought, and fired.
The thugs chest vanished in a bloody haze as the plasma
bolt impacted. The rapist froze for a second as his buddy
exploded, then he went for his gun. Unfortunately his gun
was on the floor beneath his clothing. Before he could reach
it Miyu had closed the distance and pinned him to the wall.
All the thug could see was a shimmering humanoid form holding
him in the air by his throat.
"So, thought you'd have yourself a little fun while you
were waiting did you?" Miyu asked, her voice dripping with
hatred.
"He... Hey, I'm sorry ok. So, you got me now. Might as
well lock me up right?"
"If you had just been holding the hostages that MIGHT
have been an option. But after this..." she gestured to the
desk, "I don't think so."
"S...So what are you going to do?"
"Extract vengence."
"Who the hell are you anyway?"
Lt. Miyu deactivated her cloak. "Lieutenant Miyu, Wedge
Defense Force Shadow Security Squad."
"Triple-S?! Shit we're screwed!"
"No. You'll never be screwed again."
Lt. Miyu used her free hand to grab the thugs balls.
Looking him in the eyes she said, "I don't think you're
mature enough to have these." She squeezed with all her
strength, and crushed them.
The thug's eyes bulged out of his head and his mouth
opened to scream. But the scream was choked off as Lt. Miyu
tightened her grip on his throat. She let him suffer for a
minute and then ended his pain with her sabre.
"Sloppy Lieutenant, you're losing your professionalism."
"Shut up Gordo." Then turning to the teacher, "Will you
be ok for a while?" She asked as she gathered her clothing.
"Yes... Yes, thank you."
"No thanks needed. It's our job," then mumbling, "and
the bastard deserved it."
Meanwhile, Gordo addressed the class. "Everyone stay
calm. Stay in here until someone else comes by to get you.
You'll be safe now." Turning to Miyu he added, "Come on
Lieutenant, there's more of 'em waiting out there."
"Roger." Miyu re-activated her cloak and followed Gordo
out of the room.
Sergeant Phelan Satori lead his team in through an open
window on the lower level of the east wing. They quickly
swept through the lower rooms, coming up empty. It appeared
that the terrorists had moved everyone to make it easier to
cover them. After rechecking everything again they regrouped
and moved upstairs.
Again most of the rooms were vacant. But they did find
four thugs holed up in the corner room, apparently acting as
a lookout. Sgt. Satori waved his group back.
"Ok. We've got four clustered against the far wall. I
want to take them out without making too much noise. No need
alerting any of the others, now is there. So I figure we go
in fast, use our sabres, and get out. Agreed?"
All three of his troops signalled their agreement and
they gathered out side of the door. Sgt. Satori gestured to
indicate who would take on whom. One they were all ready
they struck.
Sgt. Satori went in first. Pvt. Shima opened the door
and Sgt. Satori fired his thrusters and leapt across the
room, landing upon the terrorist with the radio. Before he
even finished his leap the other three troopers were through
the door and airborne. The radio operator's head disowned
his body and sailed across the room. Three other heads
followed in quick succession.
"Good work. Let's finish the sweep. Stay chilled."
"Null perspiration," Shima replied.
The squad finished their sweep, finding only a couple of
students hiding under one of the teachers' desk. They were
awed by actually meeting the legendary, and non-existent,
Triple-S. It didn't take much encouragement to get them to
stay put until everything was over. Just a few autographs.
Gryphon had managed to remove three more of the scum
from the gene pool with a grenade. The fools thought they'd
be safe huddled together along the far wall. Dumb. Real
dumb. Dumb de dumb dumb dumb. Ten down, ten to go. The
terrorists were getting jumpy. After all, it was a bit
unnerving to have nothing slaughter half your troops. They
began arguing amongst themselves, which suited Gryphon just
fine. The more disorganized they were, the easier they would
be to kill. One of the thugs backed away from the center of
the gym towards the wall, where he figured he'd be safer. He
would have been right, if Ben hadn't been there waiting. He
heard the hum of the sabre's blade a second to late. He had
time to feel the cool air on his brain and wonder how that
could be before he died. Ben shifted quickly and the gunfire
that followed the thug's death missed him entirely. Fed up
with the situation four of the thugs bolted for the door.
One of the remaining five screamed at them and shot one in
the back as he fled. Fine, let them kill themselves. Two of
those fleeing stopped when their buddy bought it, but one
continued. He got plugged for his trouble too. The shooter
was still screaming epithets at the two who remained.
Actually, he was being quite annoying, and far to loud, so
Ben silenced him with a bolt from his EP-42. Then, since
they were being kind enough to stand in a row, he let the
Bloody Card have some fun. It sailed through both terrorists
and returned to him. Unfortunately a good deal of lead
followed it home. Not that it mattered much, but it was
annoying. The problem was the guy with the M-790 grenade
launcher. The shaped charge wouldn't normally be much
trouble for the force field, but it was using part of its
energy to deflect the hail of lead the other three terrorists
were sending Gryph's way. The explosion overloaded the
cloaking shield and slammed Gryph into the wall.
"SHIT! That was a perfectly good cloaking device. I'm
going to have to kill you all now. I hope you don't mind.
Actually, I don't really care if you do. I'm going to do it
anyway."
Gryphon fired his jets and flew directly into the
oncomming fire. His Cyclone was taking damage, but for now
it was ok. On his first pass he raked the schmuck with the
M-790 with his sabre and neatly parted him. Three left.
Sergeant Kristina Satori led her three troopers into the
west wing. There had been only a single guard at the door,
and he had proven to be little challenge. Her team silently
worked its way toward the central building. As her brother
had found in the east wing, the terrorists had left only a
few members scattered in the outer rooms.
"Seems they left all the peons out here to die," Pvt.
Eco commented. "They didn't want to leave the wings empty,
but they weren't important enough to use their experienced
troops."
"Or maybe they just don't have enough. Or there could
be a few hundred of them waiting in the central building.
Never make assumptions about the enemy. Always treat them as
a superior force and you'll live longer," Sgt. Satori
scolded. "Remember, never assume..."
"...for when you assume you make an `ass' out of `u' and
`me'. Yeah, I know."
"Ok, just keep it in mind. Now, we've got half the wing
left. Stay on your toes and remember, kill 'em quietly."
Sgt. Satori swept down the corridor like a ghost. As
the team leapfrogged from room to room they found more of the
same. Nothing. Until they reached the last room before the
central building. The terrorists had set up a communications
station there. When the team arrived they found the two
occupants engaged in the futile action of trying to raise the
guard they had killed on the way in.
"Outpost Zed. Outpost Zed. Do you read me?"
"It's no use man. He's probably sleeping."
"Maybe they got to him. Maybe he's dead."
"Who got to him? The local cops? They're worthless.
Besides, you can't get near the door without crossing the
field. If he saw anyone coming he could just press the alarm
button on his radio."
"Yeah... But what if he was sleeping and they got him?
They could be out in the hall right now!"
"You are so paranoid. Fine. I'll check the hall."
The terrorist got up and walked over to the open door,
stuck out his head and scanned the hall. Totally missing the
cloaked squad.
"See, no one there," he said as he smiled at his buddy.
The smile didn't last long as his head exploded from an
EP-42 blast. Before his friend's mind could even register
what it had just seen, he suffered the same fate.
The three remaining terrorists huddled together in the
center of the gym. Two of them held their guns leveled on
the crowd while the third taunted Gryphon, who was hiding
behind a stack of equipment.
"Hey! You'd better come out here now, or the kids buy
it! Do you want to be responsible for that? Huh? Well?"
Arrgghh! A single grenade would take them all out, but
they were too close to the kids. Would they actually kill
the children? Yes, they would. Actually, it was surprising
that they hadn't done so already. What could he do? Gryphon
grinned as he hatched an evil plan.
Ben strode out from behind the stack of equipment. "Ok,
I give up. Don't hurt the kids."
"Nice of you to see it our way. Now drop your weapons."
Ben complied and dropped his EP-42 and removed his sabre
arm shield. He just hoped the thugs would be as stupid as he
thought they were.
"Great, now walk over here. Slowly."
They were. Ben slowly walked towards the terrorist, the
two who had been covering the children had turned to watch
him. That made it all the easier. They thought that they
had won and they were letting their guard down. Fools.
"You're going to pay for what you did to our friends
man. I know who you are. That weird cloak means you're a
member of the Triple-S. Doesn't it?"
"You got me. Yeah, I'm in the Triple-S. Now that
you've got me, why don't you let the kids go?" Just a little
closer.
"No way man. You're just added fun. I'm going to enjoy
torturing you." The three thugs laughed, and Ben struck.
He fired his boosters and charged directly at the trio.
In the second it took them to realize what he was doing he
was on top of them. They opened fire on him, damaging the
Cyclone. It wasn't enough. Ben fired his holdout missile
from his forearm guard, directly into the center of the trio.
As he fired the missile he flung himself down on them, using
himself as a shield for the blast. The missile's high
explosive warhead packed enough power to annihilate the three
terrorists and to throw Gryphon, Cyclone and all, several
feet into the air.
Ben dragged himself to his feet. His Cyclone was
wrecked to the point of uselessness, so he discarded it.
It had served their purpose, none of the children had been
seriously hurt by the blast. A few had minor cuts from
shrapnel, but no one had any major injuries.
He told them all to stay put and that someone would be
back to get them in a little while. Then he set off for the
main building.