[h2][center]END OF CHAPTER 1[/center][/h2] (OOC: So first thing's first, real talk, I cut some corners on the editing side of things here, dialogue colors and stuff, just to finally get it up. If general consensus is its hard to read, I'll come back later and fix it up, but for now, lets go!) Edit: I dropped the ball here in terms of tagging everyone, sorry! Mission Summary: Alliance-appointed commanding officer of Squad 3, Sergeant Gunnarson died early in the assault, from there, the objective was all but forgotten as Benny and Sadaet platooned the leadership role to get everyone out alive except Harriet who tragically didn’t survive. The explosives did their job, creating enough chaos within the military depot to cover the team’s escape, the target may very well have been eliminated, but who could say for sure with no way to confirm the kill. On SAL’s side of things, things went better. Their objective was completed, but they still took losses, particularly Pax. Both teams are currently en route back to the ship. Meanwhile…………. [hider=Take The Shot] Take The Shot A (final?) collab between myself and Xandrya Grayson stuck around after the meeting long enough to get his copy of the recon report. He found Amy hanging around near the Armory door. “Hey love, can ya believe this shit? Fuckin’ arseholes bargin’ in like they own the place.” Amy scoffed, turning around to face Grayson. "Well you could easily tell he's one of [I]those[/I] people judging by his appearance. Gotta give props to Stryker though, he kept his cool." She took a quick look inside the armory, figuring he'd get started soon. "You're about to start doing the lord's work, aren't you?" “Aye, but there’s nothin’ holy about my work, except for how damn good it is. How about your job, got a place to set up? If not, come on in, ya can use the workstation terminal if ya want” "I have the set up in the room. Actually grabbed the drive and took it back there but I don't think it'll be missed. Thanks anyway." “Alright, see yas later” Grayson spent most of the next week either working in the armory or with Amy, they split their time together between working on her sharpshooting, and sleeping. By the night of the job, she was more than up to snuff. They’d gone over their plan a dozen times, fine-tuning the details until it was just right, now it was time to finally put it to action. “How’s the upgrades love?” he asked as they armored up. “They seem good, although we’ll really find out when we put them to the test,” Amy went on as she geared up with some of her equipment. She was a bit nervous given it was her first time taking on the role, but she would simply have to rely on the training she’d received. “Aye, that we will. Listen, I know yer a little jittery, but ya don’t need ta be. You’re gonna be great out there. Now, that said, maybe hold on to me tight when we gotta use this” he tapped one of the Spider’s Web modules on his belt “Ta grapple up to our nest. I tested the hook-up as best as I could, but anything could happen in the field. Don’t wanna take too many chances.” He stepped over and hugged her reassuringly. It was only slightly awkward with both of them in armor. “Love ya Ames. Game face on. I’ll carry the rifles, grab me helmet?” “You sound reassuring enough to be believed, so I’ll take your word for it.” Amy pulled away, giving Grayson’s hand a little squeeze before reaching for the helmet. “Just keep up the pep talk and I think we’ll be fine. Even if we don’t come out unscathed, I don’t think it’ll be a total disaster.” “No worries dear, we got this.” Grayson picked up the pair of rifles and gestured for Amy to lead the way down to the cargo bay. They stood off to the side, Grayson silently running some final checks and pre-op diagnostics on his implant, before Stryker, Voss and the other two jarheads arrived. Voss took front and center after everyone arrived, hands behind his back as he proclaimed. [color=gray]"Everybody keep in contact. Remember that this is a coordinated effort. The failure of one, means failure for all. Best of luck to all of you."[/color] Grayson and Amy boarded their assigned shuttle, with SAL’s unit, and quietly went over their plan one more time. Before too long, they had reached their drop off point. Grayson uttered a quick ‘good luck’ to SAL and the squad as he hopped out. He set up a secure comm link with Amy’s gear in case they were separated and reached back to his Mag-sling to retrieve his folded rifle and watched it unfurl itself into a standard sniper configuration. He made sure the readout on his implant was synced up to the rifle’s scope and now that he was set, nodded at his partner. “Ready ta rock darlin’?” She nodded in reply and took point, heading across the rooftop as silently as possible. She knelt next to the keypad on the locked access door and retrieved a small device from her belt. Just as they planned, she easily hacked the security on the door and they headed on, following their agreed-upon route to a ‘T’. At one point, Grayson got a little overzealous, got a few steps too far ahead and was nearly spotted by a civilian, but Amy was there to stop him, her arms barely reaching all the way around him in his bulky armor as she clasped them around him and tried to drag him back into the shadows. “Jeez Ames” he whispered, cracking a smile as soon as he realized that no damage had been done “I know ya can’t keep your hands off me, but we’ve got a job to do.” She could only reply by rolling her eyes and shooting him a look that just screamed [i]’Are you for real?’[/i] “Be serious” she whispered sternly. He chuckled quietly and winked at her. “Just a joke lass. Let’s keep movin’” They proceeded on in near-silence without incident. Finally, after one more expertly-executed door hack from Amy, they emerged onto the half-completed rooftop of a building under construction. Well, [i]a[/i] rooftop. Twenty-story towers reached for the sky on either side of them. This rooftop was merely halfway up, a connecting point between the towers. Grayson quickly scanned the western tower with his implant to ensure structural integrity and locked on to an open space in the scaffolding. “Alright, I see a good spot to set tha’ nest” he said as he beckoned Amy over. With a few clicks on his wrist-mounted computer, three of the grappling nodes on his Spider’s Web activated. Two shot upward and locked into place on the scaffolding seventeen stories up. The other just sat there limply, Grayson slid his rifle around to his back and pulled the cabling out by hand to gently looped it around Amy’s waist before latching it onto the small metal hook on her left hip. “Cable’s strong, there’s no way it’s gonna break” he said confidently “Ya trust me love?” She nodded, but Grayson could see some apprehension on her face. So as an added measure of safety, he locked his arms together around her back before activating the Web. They reeled upward quickly, but not too quickly. After a minute or two, they arrived and clambered over the mass of scaffolding and rebar to finally reach their destination, Amy untangled herself from the grapple cable and unslung her rifle. “West of here right?” “Aye, should be easy enough to spot ‘em.” Grayson replied as he retrieved his own rifle and the two of them walked over to the west-facing side of the floor and set up. The golden hues of the translucent bubble shield were like a beacon in the dark for Grayson’s trained eyes, especially with a large swath of the city coated in darkness because of the power outage. The intel was solid, it was extremely low-grade. Even a standard-issue pistol round could penetrate that. He guessed that whoever had organized Mabar M’raek’s fundraiser didn’t expect there’d be anyone on the planet stupid enough to try to take her out like this. “Soon as ya spot her Ames, we can get this done and go home” he sighted up and focused in on the rooftop. Suddenly, searing pain shot through his head, he yelped and panicked as his vision went dark briefly and the pain ricocheted around his head. “What?! What’s wrong?” Amy said, alarmed. She immediately knelt beside him. “My….. my fuckin’ eye’s gone dead. Bastards musta had targeted EMP refractors installed. Normally they just short out targeting computers and electronic scopes. This one killed my whole damn implant. I’m alright, it’ll reboot in a bit, but my head’s throbbing somethin’ mad…. I can’t take the shot. You have to do it Ames.” He looked her dead in the face and tried to quell any doubts she had. “You [b]can[/b] do this, you got the skill, I believe in you.” "Me. [I]Alone[/I]?" Amy got up, pacing back and forth for a moment as she came to terms with what she had to do. If she was off just the slightest, then they were practically dead. The thought ate away at her, but Grayson was right, she had a job to do. "Well, it's not like I have a choice, let's just do this then." She took his place behind the rifle, adjusting herself until she felt relaxed enough to gently place her finger on the trigger guard. Amy looked through the scope, finding her target and aligning her to the crosshair. Amy slowly breathed in and out as her finger found its place on the trigger, and a few moments later, the shot pierced through the air. Grayson realized his error all-too-late- the shielding around the rooftop distorted the view. Amy’s aim was off by a few inches as a result of that and the bullet struck the wrong person entirely. “We gotta go” he said, putting his arm out to force the rifle down as Amy tried to take a second shot “Babe, there’s no time, we gotta go NOW!” HIs head throbbed and the room was spinning as his ‘normal’ eye tried to focus. The implant was rebooting, but his vision was still pitch-black. He was panicking slightly as he snapped the rifle back to it’s Mag-Sling and grasped at notches on the Spider’s Web. “Here, tie yerself on, I’ll try and sight up on the way out.” They hurried into position and Grayson grabbed Amy tightly as he tried to sight up a suitable grapple point without his usual aid. His vision in the cyber-eye blinked back but the implant itself was still out of action. “Fuck it” he said to himself as he inhaled and fired out a line. The flashing lights of security drones and incoming transports were drawing closer. Best guess? They had a few minutes to get completely clear of the sector. “Hol’ on tight Ames” he said, trying to stay strong for the both of them despite how panicked he was. The duo were flung into the air on the immediate propulsion….. And moments later, they were struck by a phaser blast and the line was severed by a security drone that had snuck up on them. Grayson threw his arms out wildly, trying to quickly initiate another grapple, literally anywhere. Finally, a line struck and held, slowing their descent just enough to save their lives. Grayson and Amy fell in a heap, limbs splayed all over each other. Their suits were disabled by the phaser, so their movement was severely limited. “Ya ok Ames?” he asked, breathing heavily. “Yeah…. Still here” she replied, equally breathless. The lights were closing in. They had no way out. “We gotta crush our comms… right away” He tapped into a secure line and quickly transmitted a one-way message to the Captain. “Stryker….. We got burned. Not gunna make it out of this one mate. It’s been an honor.” Amy had laid her earpiece close to his hand. He took his own out, not even sure if he had ended the transmission. A dozen guards had surrounded them, all of them guns at the ready. They sat up and Amy slowly raised her hands in surrender. He raised one of his own, leaving his fist clenched and pressing down against the two comm devices. “HANDS IN THE AIR!” “Amy… baby, close your eyes, just do it” he said, not moving his hand. The guard who had spoken took a step forward. “I said hands up!” As fast as he could, Grayson brought his fist up and smashed it down, he barely saw the flash of light as everything faded away……….. [/hider] [center]From Action to Action: Growing A Pair A mini-collab between me and Garde[/center] Stryker’s brow was coated in sweat as he exhaled heavily. Halfway through their drink, he and Tibulass had shared a look and just…… pounced on one another like teenagers overcome with lust. One thing led to another and here they were, in his bed, sheet draped across their bodies and Tib’s head nestled against his chest. He chuckled a little bit as he finally caught his breath. “Well…. That was…. Wow. That was something.” “........ y-yeah, it was.” Tibulass stuttered as she snuggled a little closer. Truth is, she was feeling a little weird after that, and was still processing it herself. “Listen, we…. We’ll figure out what to do in the morning. The others’ll be back soon if they haven’t already arrived, but don’t worry about them and what they’ll think. I want you to spend the night… if you’re comfortable with that.” “...maybe we should keep it a secret. Let ‘em find out find out for themselves.” Tib suggested as she shivered a bit “I gotta steal one of your shirts for the night though, because fuck that dress.” “Yeah, maybe…. And sure thing, go ahead” he pondered for a second. “Actually, I’ve gotta get up for a minute” he nudged her head and started to sidle towards the edge of the bed. Tib nodded as she moved… and promptly rolled off the bed, landing on the floor with a [i]thud[/i] before scurrying over to the dresser and grabbing a shirt to pull on. Her face was red as she stated. “..I was too tired to stand up out of bed, in case you were wondering.” “Yeah sure, that’s what happened” he said with a grin as he walked into the bathroom. “Uh... yeah, it is” she called after him. When he re-emerged a minute later, he caught her eye and smiled. She simply pointed towards the desk “Is that supposed to be blinking?” “Hm?” his gaze shifted over to where she was pointing. It was his comms earpiece, a small red light flashing repeatedly on the side of it. He sat and fumbled around with it as he accessed the incoming message. “What is it?” Tib asked as she clambered back in bed “Alliance on our ass again?” Stryker’s face had gone white as a ghost, his breathing shallow and ragged as the transmission looped again in his head. He stopped the playback and silently started typing something into his terminal. “Stryker?” she asked, concerned “What is it?” With one final keystroke the transmission played aloud for her to hear for herself as Grayson’s voice crackled to life [i]”Stryker…. We got burned. Not gunna make it outta this one mate…... It’s been an honor.” A second voice, more distant but clear and booming. “HANDS IN THE AIR!” “Amy.. baby close yer eyes, just do it” “I said, hands up!” A laser blast reverberated around the room before the transmission cut to static.[/i] Tib, eyes wide with shock, immediately jumped out of bed, grabbed Stryker’s pants and pulled them on as she headed for the door “Stryker! We gotta go get them, are you coming or not!?” He sounded utterly defeated as he spun in his chair to look at her. “Tib…. we can’t. The others are on their way back. Assuming things went well, the surface is probably on complete lockdown. Even if they are still alive, they won’t be for long.” “Yeah, no. That was a tazer. The fuckin’ love birds are okay. And you know as well as I do that they’d do the same if it was us, so get dressed.” “....” Stryker was speechless, all he could do was stare with his mouth open slightly. This woman was amazing. “Hey, hey, hey, don’t get sidetracked by me stealing your pants, let’s get moving Cap.” “What?” he snapped back to reality “Oh right, yeah, let’s go.” He found some clothes and got dressed as Tib ushered him along. “Onwards, mister-in-the-know!” she said as she stepped out into the hall “Posthaste!” [i]Literally five minutes later, just long enough for Stryker and Tib to find Voss and explain the situation to him[/i] “No, absolutely not” Voss said defiantly “We had our orders, executed them, and now we leave before reinforcements arrive or investigations start. They knew the risks, not our problem they couldn’t deliver on their end of the bargain. In war sometimes you lose the pawns.” “Fuck you Voss” Stryker said, his voice dripping with venom “none of us signed up for this, we’re not willing soldiers in your little war, and we’re not fucking pawns to be used either. They’re people, they’re my crew, and my friends.” “That’s what you think, is it…. [i]Captain[/i]?” Voss said snidely “you and your little band of misfits are nothing….. Nothing more than tools to be used. With one simple message beamed back to Earth, this project ends and all of you get a swift bullet to the head before I get the pleasure of dumping your corpses at the far reaches of the Expanse, so fall in line, or I will [b]make[/b] yo-” [b][i]CRACK[/i][/b] Stryker’s fist collided with Voss’ face, bones splintered and blood flew freely as the jarhead collapsed backwards. Sergeant Treliving, standing nearby, instantly reached for his sidearm, but Tib was already in his face, grabbing his arm. “Can’t let’cha do that, sorry!” Before the soldier cold protest, the room lit up with a strobe-flash of Tib’s psionics and the sergeant fell to the floor, ears bloody and limbs twitching. Stryker, feeling a crazy adrenaline rush, chuckled uncomfortably. “Hope Sadaet’s countermeasures are ready, because I think we just went rogue” Tib wiped some blood from her nose “Oh… that’s new…. And it’s about fucking time!” She kept rubbing her nose as she looked over to the Captain. “So, what’s the plan for saving our damsels in distress?” “Right” Stryker’s brain jumped into action and he stroked his beard quickly as the plan came together “First, let’s restrain captain dickhead and his buddy here. Get word down to the others to take out the other guy if he’s still alive. Once the shuttles are docked, we’ll load them on their craft and set their autopilot to send them far away from this system. Hopefully buy us a few days to rescue Grayson and Amy and sever the Alliance’s remote controls on the ship. We’ll worry about everything else after.” "On it! I'll have to score us a getaway, so you want it quick and painful, or slow and painless?" Stryker was alarmed at her wording "wait, what?!" "The-the getaway. Quick one, or safe one?" "Oh. Safe, we can't afford to lose any more of us. We're on our own now." "Alrighty, no crashing and banging into other ships on our way out then." Tib rushed her way towards the cockpit, reaching for her communicator to get a message down to the shuttle to warn the others about their plan. Stryker stood over the two unconscious and restrained soldiers in the war room, and for the first time in a long time, a smile crossed his face as he felt genuinely happy, and optimistic for what the future would bring.