| From: | "Brian E. Angliss" <ANGLISS@******.BITNET> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Maxim Raid, part 5 |
| Date: | Sun, 5 Feb 1995 15:50:59 -0500 |
Group 2, comprised of only Shadow and Diana, have joined Group 4
for the time being, as they are heading in the same direction.
Group 4, made up of Irish, Claw, and Masque are headed off toward
the Orange level to leave by the same way they entered, since
it's the best retreat at this point. Group 4, Caine, Slash, and
Hard-to-Catch, are headed off in a different direction, trying to
get out via another Orange level, hopefully before the Maxim
forces cut them off.
Group 2 is the first to encounter resistance as they round a
corner, in the form of a group of cautiously advancing troops,
coming from the direction of one of the Blue level stairways. By
the looks of them they are RDF members, equipped with sealed
medium security armor, SMGs, some rifles, and at least one mage.
Luckily, Diana and Shadow only have to cut a corner and they do
so, running off up another corridor. However, Irish, Claw, and
Masque aren't so lucky as they will have to fight their way
through.
Diana: Sec coming down the corridor!
Irish: Got it.
The advantage of having Maxim uniforms is the ability to have
"snuck" weaponry into the building and have it not look unusual.
In this case, Masque has unslung an M22A2, Claw is using his
Ingram Smartgun, and Irish has an Alpha combat gun, all ready for
the instant that the RDF members arrive around the corner. And
arrive they do, with Masque in front providing covering fire,
followed by Irish on the opposite wall to limit his profile to
damage, also providing suppression fire and lobbing gas grenades
down into the oncoming security. Explosions and smoke are
already beginning to fill the air when Irish shudders and bruises
appear spontaneously on his hands and face from a mana spell of
some kind.
Claw: Mage. Cut the fire--Barrier up.... Move!
Claw, his fingers and face twitching, begins to sweat terribly as
the strain of maintaining a physical barrier begins to take its
toll. But Group 3 advances up to the corner that Diana and
Shadow just disappeared down, and begin to back away when, the
RDF members realizing that their opponents have a magician,
collapse the barrier somehow. Claw suddenly staggers as the
drain hits him hard. They begin a fighting withdrawl, with
Masque taking up the rear and helping to sheild Claw with his
semi-armored body. Between the people you see a single figure
stand up, take careful aim with a rifle, and fire at Claw, who is
rapidly recovering. Luckily for Claw, Masque also noticed the
sniper targeting the obvious mage and got Claw out of the way.
But in the process, he got himself caught in the chest with a
single shot from a sniper rifle. The bullet, you see, has left a
ragged hole in Masque's armor and also the torso beneath it. But
somehow, Masque is still standing, if screaming in pain. Irish
responds with a single grenade, a defensive frag grenade, and the
blast, channeled by the thin corridors, blasts all three people
on thier backs and faces. Due to the smoke, you can't see what
the effect was on the armored RDF troops, but even thier armor
isn't indestructable.
Claw and Irish begin to drag Masque with them, as Masque is
apparently unconscious and definately bleeding....but bleeding a
different color--clear, as if it's lubricant or water rather than
blood.
Back with Diana and Shadow, you see the two of them round the
next corner and almost get mowed down by automatic gunfire from
the gun outside the power generators.
Shadow: Buzz, someone, get the guns outside Red 4!
But nothing is happening, and Shadow, even with his unholy speed,
has already taken a shot in his arm while attempting to blow out
the sensors on the gun. But the gun stops. Someone shut the
damn thing down, luckily for these two, and Group 3 when they get
here. Shadow takes off, rushing up to the closed security doors
while Diana races to get there behind him.
Shadow: CB, get the killzone and the doors.....anyone? Drek!
Diana, can you open the fraggin thing?
Diana: Sorry, wrong spell.
Shadow: Well, I guess I can hotwire the thing....
Shadow pulls a rather large knife and begins to pry off the
armored casing of the locking panel and gets shocked, burning his
already wounded arm as electricity surges from the innards of the
lock up the knife. However, he did tear the panel off...
Shadow: Drek, that hurt!
Diana: Stand aside...
Diana motions Shadow to the side and takes careful aim with her
Ruger Superwarhawk and fires two shots into the innards of the
lock. Both explosive bullets send shocks through the system and
blow the lock all to hell and gone. The two of them approach the
door cautiously and begin pulling apart, slowly opening it.
Shadow: Sledgehammer approach. Slash wouldn't approve.
Diana: It worked, didn't it?
Inside is another, inactive gun, a camera, and enough gas ports
to flood the area, were it sealed, in less than a second. But it
is very likely that the killzone is set with a safety so that it
won't flood unless it seals, to keep from contaminating the rest
of this level with whatever gas Maxim chose to put into the
dispensers. You hope, as Diana and Shadow must as well, that the
manual overrides haven't been tripped yet....
Through the other door you hear the quite rumble of generators
running, powering the facility. That's when the opposite door
slides open and two grenades come lofting through, as the doors
are still opening. Luckily for Diana and Shadow, they both
detonate behind them and they are partially shielded by the doors
they had forced open. But enough of the blast catches them both
to land them flat on thier backs. Shadow, the first to recover
with his augmented reflexes, rolls to the side, using what little
cover the security door provides and begins to return fire, as
well as lobbing a gas grenade into the inner chamber. Diana,
stunned by the blast, is a little slower to recover and takes a
bullet through her shoulder, leaving a tattered hole in what used
to be her shoulderblade. Her left arm is now effectively
useless.
Through the smoke and gas, you see bug-like armored figures
inside the generator room advancing slowly, the lead one
targeting Shadow with some kind of pistol type weapon. But
before he can trigger it, the figure arches his back and then
goes limp. Behind him, literally ignoring the bullets that are
striking his unarmored back, stands a very tall black man,
wearing a bloodstained and dirty white longcoat, blood red T-
shirt, skin-tight black leather pants, alligator boots, and top
hat. Peircing the SRDF trooper's back is the end of a ebony
stained, skull headed human bone cane. There is only one person
who you know looks like this: Micheal S. Baron, the free spirit.
How he got through the astral barriers around this building is
not your department, but he did somehow.
Micheal: Run, mons.
As he says this, two large spirits manifest around him, appearing
to be Earth and Water elementals, and they close to do combat
with a creature that only magic and unquenchable willpower can
defeat. Behind him advance four more SRDF troopers, similarly
clad, one of them wearing armor that appears to have magical
symbols on it. Diana, cursing in creole, casts a spell at all of
them and catches one of the elementals in what appears to be a
sudden darkening of the room. It appears as if all the shadows
and hidden evils of Hell have manifested in that room and they
begin to tear into the SRDF troopers, and even through their
armor you hear thier screams. Micheal S. Baron, now facing only
one real attacker, is doing rather well, and covering Shadow's
and Diana's slow retreat.
Back at the corner that Shadow and Diana are approaching, Irish,
Claw, and Masque are about to round it as well, still falling
back as quickly as they can with wounded. Diana and Shadow join
them, and they fall back some more, heading toward the stairs up
to Orange level before they set up shop and perform some
emergency healing on thier members. Masque, however, appears to
be forced to endure the still dripping wound. But in most cases,
all they try to do is releive the pain, as true healing magic
will take too much time, and then the five move on and up the
stairs.
Nearing the top, Masque and Shadow both stop and listen, and then
the two of them advance slowly upon the corner and lob one of
Irish's thermal smoke grenades down the corridor at the automated
gun they know is there. The motion the rest of the team to
follow, and then the two of them advance and do something that
the smoke obscures. The end result, however, is a very inactive
gun. They begin to head down toward the exit point, until
something rounds the corridor.
A group of troops, apparently 4 or 5 of them, all dressed in what
appears to be full military armor. But more than that, the armor
appears to be powered, judging by the speed at which they are
moving, and they are carrying some weaponry that looks like it
could take down a small aircraft.
Just as bullets begin to fly and the five runners take off down
toward another hatchway they hope is clear, you hear this over
the security channel.
"Infiltrators forced toward Hatch 6 as per orders."
Skulkin: Excellent. Carve them up some, but don't kill them.
"Understood."
And as this happens, something lances through the smoke and tags
Irish in the left leg. The beam, probably from a laser weapon of
some type, slices through his armor and the leg and the damage
trips him up as his muscles spasm. A second, slightly different
beam strikes out at Claw, sending him into spasms and throwing
him to the ground with his armor charred and his back probably
burned. Diana and Masque spin to return fire and cover the
retreat of the others, only to take bullets themselves. The five
members, still moving somehow, begin to return some fire and lob
several more grenades down the corridor with the grenade
launcher, and this appears to make enough of a distraction to
cover thier retreat to the closed hatchway. Climbing up it, it
suddenly opens....
And the camera log jumps to the other group, comprised of Caine,
Slash, and Hard-to-Catch, as they race inward, hoping to get up
to the Orange level, section 1, the one immediately above Main
Security and the most direct route out. However, as they round
the corner, a gas grenade detonating immediately in front of them
changes thier mind and, after Slash sets a flash grenade trap in
the settling gas, turn and race back the way they had came.
Advancing up the corridor and keeping away from the areas they
know there are guards, they appear to be heading toward the same
elevator that they had come down in. And by the look on thier
gas-mask hidden faces, they don't particularly enjoy the concept.
Coming to another corner, you see a small group of troops
approaching the same corner. In an action that would seem
comical under other cirucumstances, they literaly peak around the
corner at each other, only to have Slash jam his fist into the
armored guard's stomach with all his strength....and hurt his
fist in the process. Caine, with his pistol and a knife drawn,
closes in with Slash, who has no choice but to fight melee.
Slash, his limited pacifism meaning that he refuses to kill(thus
the use of knock-out gas in Main Security earlier), pulls a funny
looking weapon called an Ares Squirt, probably loaded with some
cocktail that Slash cooked up just for this occasion. Caine,
however, has no such problem when his life is on the line, and is
fighting tooth and nail with two troopers. HtC herself, however,
is still out of the fight, slumped against the wall as if asleep.
Until Slash and Caine are literally thrown into walls by their
opponents and something goes off, centered on a specific trooper.
A spell, grounding out through some focus or another on a
magician or adept, and all the troops save one fall, apparently
unconscious.
The remaining one, standing over Caine, is about to pulverise the
stunned runner when Slash, barely able to focus, fires a single
shot from his squire into an exposed area on the back of the
trooper's head. The trooper stops, then grabs his head and
begins to scream as Slash's cocktail kicks in. Taking the
trooper's weapon, Caine brings his gun butt down on the troopers
neck/helmet joint, pincing the juggular vein and knocking him
unconscious.
HtC, however, has yet to return to her body, and then you see it
begin to manifest blotches and wounds as she begins Astral combat
with something or someone. Then her awareness suddenly returns
to her body, and she collapses on the floor, shaking for about 5
seconds as Caine and Slash pick her up and carry her onward
toward the elevator. They meet no additional resistance.
Until they begin the upward trip on the elevator, up two floors.
The elevator stops, stuck between the first and second floors of
the building section of the facility, finally above ground.
Slash, Caine, and the more or less recovered HtC look around and
then begin to work on the doors as they hear clunks on the roof
of the car, a signal that someone is up there.
HtC: Move aside, guys....
Slash: You'll kill yourself!
HtC: We'll die anyway if I don't try. Now move!
Slash moves aside with Caine and they take up positions in
opposite corners, covering the roof hatch and the rest of the
roof as best they can, while HtC centers heself and then reaches
out and touches the elevator door with a singer finger, blowing
it clean off the mountings with enough force to knock the first
floor access door off it's mounting as well. The three of them
drop through the tight space and onto the first floor,
security/drone area, immediately before the entire interior of
the elevator gets peppered with armor-peircing bullets. By the
sound of it, they are being fired from a minigun, and a few still
manage to hit Slash and HtC. The three of them again encounter
some resistance, but this is in the form of drones, for the most
part. They head toward the nearest door and superimposed over
the noise you hear the following:
"Infiltrator group 2 leaving, South door."
Skulkin's voice: Take them. Alive.
"Understood."
+++++Temporarily ending Download+++++]<<<<<
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