Call for Justice (Sovereign Guard)

[Mike]

Seeing that the threat blocking their way forwards had been neutralized, Stros flattened himself against the wall and peered down the stairs. He winced as he caught a glimpse of a Guardsman being consumed in the fire from Garr's flamethrower. It looked like his men weren't making much progress against the terrorists holed up at the bottom of the stairs. At his side Stros saw Skyblade reach for a very nasty looking thermal detonator. His eyes widened slightly at the Taung's ruthlessness, and he hastily clicked on his team's comlink channel.

"Retreat up the stairs!" he bellowed. Whether or not the detonator killed it's targets at the bottom of the stairwell, it would have enough power to delay them for several moments, and maybe even bring the roof down over their heads; more than long enough for the guard to evacuate. "Corlis! You're on rear-guard!"

Stros broke cover, and lead the charge into the third floor proper, opting to leave the confined stairwells and their vulnerability to ambushes like the ones he'd just experienced. Stros found himself in a long twisting hallway with doors to either side. He moved up in a precise military crouch that balanced speed and a defensive profile, and allowed his men to file in against each wall beside and behind him. Stros planned to secure this floor, then come up with a viable way to reach the hostages from there.

 

[Valshot]

Garr watched as the detonator flew over himself. He knew that in a few moments there would be an explosion. One that could not reversed. Whether this explosion aid them in their mission or bring them death, it was already irreversibly set in motion. Those few moments were slow, painstakingly so. Garr turned to the remaining Guard that were with him at the bottom on the stairs and began to charge up the stairs bringing those men willingly or not. He felt that his armor would at least protect himself from minor attacks and he didn't mind sustaining minuscule injuries for the greater good of the group.

"Upwards!" Garr bellowed as he pushed several men with him as he made his way up with flight of stairs. Time continued to move slowly as they transversed the stairwell. The clattering of feet and clambering of soldiers clouded Garr's ears as he wait for the sound of detonation. He turned to look, though it would have been wiser to shield his eyes from the blast, but it still had not gone off.


//Sorry for the wait.//

 

[Santoro]

Tiktiktiktiktiktiktiktiktiktiktik... Click. A beat of silence, followed by a rumble from Hell itself. The hand-sized Thermal Detonator had ignited, a bright white burst of light pulsing out, carrying shards of explosive to pummel the terrorists, the stairwell, and the wall, igniting further. Thermal Detonators had an especially deadly quirk about them- as opposed to the regular fragmentation or plasma grenade which would pierce or burn opponents, the grenade would completely obliterate everything in a fifteen meter radius, turning those caught in its wake into little more than charred lumps of metal and bone. It was startling how quickly the blast spread, catching the stairwell as a rear guard was running, causing him to fall and grasp the railing. Two fellow Sovereigns stopped to pull him up... They left none behind.

The troop appeared on the mostly empty third floor, the awkward silence setting them on edge- the grenade still ringing in their ears. It was a strange floor of middle class offices and computer mainframes- the true heart of the building. Lit by their weapon lights, it was shadowy and concealed, which was no problem for Derin- his rather advanced Mandalorian helmet picked up the writing on the doors, along with a hard copy of the floor's layout printed on the wall. A left at the end of the hall would bring them to the maintenance stairwell, while a right would bring them to the lift. No signs of remaining security were on this floor- devastated by SG's attacks, the terrorists must have drawn upwards.

-----Elsewhere...-----

Aevis watched through his scope as an entire section of wall was blown out- debris, flame, and the remnants of a body falling thirty feet down and slamming to the ground, well within the TPD quarantine. He hadn't felt any further, familiar deaths- it was the dull agony of terror that filled his mind, setting his breath ragged as he tried to feed his troops with the courage and strength they'd need. He felt maliciousness and a smug satisfaction moments before- things were about to get much, much uglier... And he'd never felt so helpless.

-----
Time Left: 45 Minutes
Remaining Sovereign Guard: 18 soldiers, Stros, Garr, Derin, Madrar
Remaining Hostiles: 27 troops, CD-22, Unidentified Leader

 

[Mike]

Picking up no signs of enemy activity on the floor, Stros paused for a moment and signaled to his squad for quiet. His sensitive Farghul ears twitched, straining for a whisper of air, a shuffled foot, or a careless muttered word that would betray an ambush ahead. He detected none of these things, and motioned for his squad to resume their progress forwards. He abandoned his stealthy crouch, but did not forget that he was in enemy territory. Like any career soldier, Stros knew that he who drops his guard in such a situation dies.

Reaching a T-junction at the end of their hallway, Stros made the decision to head for a lift that would take them up, hopefully even onto the floor where the hostages were being held. He knew that it would be tricky to disguise the lift's use - the terrorists no doubt had men stationed to watch it and report any anomalies, and under normal circumstances using it would be just begging for a deadly ambush at their stop - but he had an ace in the hole that they didn't know about. Stros activated his helmcom and switched to a frequency shared between himself, Madrar Ro, and Santoro, with Santoro being included to provide the support and recon that perhaps neither of the deadly beings in the thick of the action would be able to acquire.

"I'm gonna risk the lift." he said into the com, "The stairs is too far and too exposed. We'd bleed troops the whole way, and might not make it in time."

"Copy," Madrar's voice came back, laser sharp as always when she was on a job. There was a short pause, then Madrar's voice returned over the channel. "I see the lift exits. Some are guarded, but they don't have enough men to secure every floor. When you get in the lift I should be able to see which floor is setting up for a trap and give you enough distraction to come out shooting."

As Madrar was speaking, Stros reached the lift and gathered his men around the doors. "Got it." he said to her, "Good hunting." He then switched back to the squad's frequency. "We're taking the lift men." he said, "It's probably a trap, but we've got a wild card that'll see us through it. When the doors open, Chapter Leader Madrar Ro will be giving us cover, so don't shoot at her - assuming you see her at all."

 

[T.J]

" That would be suicide farghul, it would only take one enemy on any of the upper floors to see that the lift was rising, and cut its strings before we would even have a chance to retaliate. "

Derin didnt really notice that he had adressed Stros by his species rather than his name, it was a leftover from the Taung's past. Not to long ago Derin would have laughed and then probably fought anyone who had told him he would fight along side other races outside of the Taung army. It was something he had come to terms with long before he had even found the Soverign Guard, but old habits died hard. Merely the situation he and the other Soverign Guard soldiers around him were in and the brief idlness before the comming battle had put him on edge.

" I will not sit idly by and be killed through your lapse in judgment. "

Though the Taung warrior knew it would be risky to follow through with such a plan, he knew they had little choice. Enemies were bound to be lying in wait in the stairwell leading up, and the way casualties were going they wouldnt have many troops when they got to the top if they actually got there at all. They would have to choose the lesser of two evils, and though Derin's instincts still told him to stay away from the lift, he knew it was the only way.

" But.... If you are certain this... Madrar Ro... has the ability to keep the Hut'uun above us from reacting to the lifts movement... Then I will follow you. "

 

[Santoro]

As the Sovereign Guard soldiers crammed onto the lift, the terrorists spread out on the upper three levels. Madrar was right- the terrorists couldn't possibly guard every floor, so they had taken thirteen to fifteen. The lift raised slowly under the heavy weight of twenty one men, finally locking onto the thirteenth floor. A voice came over the SG commlinks- Madrar's intel.

"Sixteen troops and a commander- seventeen total." Santoro broke into their comm channel with his own information as the elevator slid to a stop, the doors beginning to part.

"This is the executive levels, you have to move across the buildingwide lobby to the glass lift. Expect one hell of a firefight."

The pair was right. Immediately as the lift opened, the SG soldiers executed a perfect fan out maneuver, rifles raised and firing into the dim-lit and fantastically designed room, flashes of blasterfire casting odd shadows of the enemies swarming behind marble statues, stone fountains, and golden support pillars... The most elegant room in the building and possibly the city shred by stray blasterfire. Immediately, four of the Sovereign Guard troopers were downed, only killing one of the terrorists in return. The exchange was vicious, long, and loud, but both sides had taken cover and hunkered down... Ready to fight to the death.

-----
Time Left: 35 Minutes
Remaining Sovereign Guard: 14 soldiers, Stros, Garr, Derin, Madrar
Remaining Hostiles: 25 troops, Trooper Commander, CD-22, Man-In-Black

 

[Mike]

Madrar Ro secured herself on the outer wall of the thirteenth story of the building, strapped into a hands-free harness that held her comfortably. Or at least, would have held her comfortably had she not been upside down, with her head peering discreetly into one corner of the wall-window of the room where the Guardsmen would soon be fighting for their lives. Had time not been such a pressing concern, Madrar would have planned the best way to take them all out without anyone being able to react, but as the Guard elevator was already on it's way up she knew that she'd have to settle for less.

She freed her undersized sniper rifle from it's harness, making sure to leave the shoulder strap secure for when she would have to drop the weapon and switch to pistols, and scanned the room for hostiles. She found plenty, and focused on the commander that Santoro had mentioned. She spent her last moments before the storm easing sideways to get a better angle on her target. The terrorists were focused on lift door, waiting for it to erupt into a firestorm of blaster bolts. They weren't very interested in a sliver of camouflaged helmet protruding from the top of a window behind them, or the subtle telescopic barrel of Madrar's sniper rifle.

Then her time was up and all hell broke loose in the room in front of her. The Guard piled out of the lift and hunkered down into cover with the professionalism of well trained soldiers, but they took casualties and were quickly pinned down into a firefight that could last longer than they had to spare. As soon as the fighting broke out, Madrar began to pump high-powered, tightly aimed bolts towards the enemy commander. Nothing more tried-and-true than chopping of your foe's head after all, and losing their leader might be just what would throw the terrorists into chaos. Naturally considering her specialty as an infiltrator and assassin, Madrar's weapons were silenced, and it was very unlikely in the chaos that anyone would notice a few stray bolts that weren't traveling in the same direction as the rest of the hailstorm of fire.

Madrar lost sight of the commander a moment after she opened fire. She was fairly confident that she'd taken him down, but there was a remote possibility that he'd managed to take cover outside of her view. Either way she couldn't afford to devote any more attention to him at the moment. She dropped her rifle, letting it swing around her shoulders, and drew her heavy blaster pistol. With it she opened fire and began to take out targets of opportunity; the terrorists closest to her, and farthest back from the Guard soldiers. She changed targets frequently, aiming to disable and sow as much confusion and chaos as possible without making herself an easy target. She kept alert for her prey to turn on her, ready to duck back above the window or else hit the emergency winch the moment her position became untenable, but determined to stick it out for as long as possible.

-------------

Stros charged out of the lift and dove for cover behind a large and thick ornamental pillar that quickly began to become eroded by blasterfire. He peered gingerly out to the side and had an instant to assess the situation before he was forced to duck back into hiding. What he saw wasn't encouraging, and as Santoro had said, people were going to die here. Stros however, was determined not to be one of them, and that their foe would pay dearly for the blood of his men.

Mentally bracing himself, Stros swung his powerful mandalorian-inspired blaster rifle out alongside the pillar and sighted down the durasteel sights. He noticed a handful of enemy figures firing towards the Guard, and quickly drew back to stay out of the line-of-sight of all but one. At this unlucky terrorist he loosed a half dozen semi-automatic bolts before ducking back again to check on his squad's status, and see where a command from him could exploit poor enemy tactics, or else save the life of one of his soldiers.

 

[Valshot]

Garr waited as the lift slowly brought the soldiers up to their destination. Garr had his rifle in hand and his fingers lay on the trigger, waiting for the battle to come. Garr dove out as the lift halted and the doors slid open. His massive body awkwardly rolled into cover behind a pillar. He looked back at the lift where four other soldiers had already faced their demise. Garr became angered at the sight of his fallen comrades.

He positioned himself to the right of the pillar and aimed his rifle towards the nearest enemy. The rifle let out a flurry of blasts many of which would most likely miss. Garr looked at the ceiling above a couple of terrorists, he thought he'd be able to blast the ceiling above them, taking out multiple hostiles. He aimed his left arm towards the ceiling and shot a rocket at it. It whipped through the air and would hit it's target unless intercepted. Garr then took cover behind the pillar to avoid the volley of blaster bolts that were given by each side.

 

[Santoro]

"Rifles up boys, Alpha break right, Beta brea-!"

The terrorist commander's head was strewn across his second in command before his sentence could be finished. It was a moment of stunned silence from the immediate vicinity before it broke into smaller divisions- two and three man teams working independently to help them survive. The floor shuddered as a central pillar collapsed, crushing a nearby fountain and immediately beginning to flood the room, a rapid six-inch wave lapping against nearby SG and terrorist boots as they started a bloody melee- electrified stun batons and razor-sharp combat knives clashing amidst the blasterfire.

All was not lost, however- Sovereign Guard commanders weren't chosen because of their experience. They weren't chosen for favors, or for service records- they were chosen for their ability to lead, to inspire, and to do damage to the enemy. Using their specialized gear and training, the SG troopers devastated the middlefield of the area, shredding decoration to rubble and terrorist into pools of blood. Digging into their last bit of territory, the opposing forces had formed a powerful phalanx, igniting an expensive, starfighter grade shield around them, firing from their well protected shell as the Sovereign blasterfire bounced away harmlessly. A specialized carrier moved forward slowly, the entire eight remaining terrorists cutting a swath through the advance Guard troopers.

-----
Time Left: 25 Minutes
Remaining Sovereign Guard: 9 soldiers, Stros, Garr, Derin, Madrar
Remaining Hostiles: 16 troops, Shield Carrier, CD-22, Man-In-Black

 

[T.J]

The second the lift's doors opened, Derin was off like a shot. Long range combat was not his forte', and the mandalorian knew he would have to use the shadows the room provided if he wanted to get close to his prey. Ducking low and making it to a up turned desk, Derin assessed the room he had been so quickly thrust into.

The lights were out, only the gun fire served as a source of light other than the moons glow through the windows. To most it would be a burden, darkness made it awfully hard to hit a moving target, but to Derin it was paradise. Sheathing his saber and pulling his combat knife from his boot, the Taung warrior skulked through the shadows. Before long he was already on the opposing side of the fight, although he doubted any had seen him make the movement. The only problem with that however was that every time he got close enough to strike, his target would fall dead from a shot unheard and unseen.

Though it angered the Taung, his thoughts were drawn to more pressing matters. The remaining enemy had erected some kind of strange barrier that was able to deflect all blaster fire the impacted it. It was something Derin himself was not familiar with, and he decided to test the glowing shields capabilities. Flipping the knife in his hand so that he was holding it by the tip of its blade, the mandalorian threw the weapon at the barrier with practiced aim. It was a test to see what the shield would actually block, and if the blade was allowed to pass through, it would surely bury itself into the neck of one of the lead terrorists.