[center][h1]Port Ibex, Île de la Tempête, Reunion [/h1][/center] [center][h1]Fireteam Shadow[/h1][/center] [center][h2] Crowd Reprise [/h2][/center] [center][h2] 0630 Hours [/h2][/center] Purna broke into a roll as soon as the arrow hit, keeping head down as Bakker caught a series of knives, and Eloise, well, Eloise royally saved his ass. Eloise had the firepower but was hopelessly outnumbered, a couple of Artemis mercs shielding Bakker as they fired on Purna's and Eloise's last known position, Sam unwilling to use his quiet voice for this reaction while Eloise heroically battled the heavy, and left a tracking arrow on him. One that got a witting reply. "Hunt them down!" His Dutch bark roared, as unarmed, Purna was back to feet, and running, at sprint. No weapons, but then again, he had the knowledge that Bakker was trying to pull a fast one, breaking from Eloise, knowing they'd make a bigger target. "Hawk, hellfire direct onto that marker!" Purna yelled, and with it, threw himself over a crate, out of bullets, out of range. He moved up into the next container, a group of guards coming over, Purna returning the favour for Eloise and tripping one, yanking his F2000 back into his head and clattering the trigger, before dumping the mag and finishing up, pushing away to create a buffer. The sound of the Heavy roaring out was emptied by what was many people running from him, and then an enormous bang that was the heavy literally getting face to face contact time with a AGM-114 Hellfire missile, enough to burst open a tank, and in this case, fittingly opening a person. Bakker did not sit tight though, and had put distance between them. FiveSeven in spare hand, he burst through the area, and before he knew it, found Eloise in position covering Purna, and was there to make his revenge. With a push, he easily threw her into the container as he decloaked, pistol aimed to head, ahead of his men that were still in shock and horror. "Some adventures end before they begin, new girl. They didn't teach you this in Raven." And Bakker went to pull trigger, keeping her weakened state pinned, and wanting to enjoy this. But Purna wasn't quite out. He pushed back against Bakker's grasp on Eloise by peeling on his leg, kicking hard and dodging a knife, before pivoting with a swinging kick into his crotch even in spite of his short stature, reverse tackling onto him into the floor, before in a brutal fashion, stabbing him in his gut with his own stolen Kukuri from Bakker's side, peeling the Kukri upwards, and severing his spine in the same motion, before sliting his throat clean and simple. Bakker was a fighter, and would have known how to counter, throwing a fist, but it landed and connected to a shadow. Purna was so full of rage, so full of whatever was inside of him in that moment, a certain kind of adrenaline that even Eloise wouldn't have expected the typically cold, calm, quiet Gurkha to have. It was a moment of pure anger, to a point where it almost looked like Purna was about to feast on the blood of him, rip out teeth and an ear while he was it. Gurkhas were known to do the latter. He had no time for sentimentality, not with this turncoat. Exhaling hard, Purna wiped the knife on Bakker's side, the warm breath leaving his lungs. "He knew a lot of tricks. Just forgot infiltrators work best when they're in the shadow, that one he forgot." Purna coldly remarked, as he peeled his USPs off Bakker, stolen pistols taken bacl, hearing the comms of Skye on the other end. [i]"“Hammer’s on course too, not a bad view this! Happy hunting Anvil, see you down there.”[/i] The voice was distinctly Skye's, and meant they were in sync with the assault. Fireteam Shadow had done their job. Succeeded, given the sheer amount of explosions in the far end of the port that had sent containers raining into the sky, and put a corvette, and any serious firepower the PLA's Naval remit here had, thus making the path significantly easier for the other teams. But an infiltration didn't end till they left the place, after all. "We need to make a move. Best we don't hang around here." Purna commented as he dusted himself down, the rest of the explosives occupying the other soldiers, outside of the enormous explosions from both Purna's and Eloise's charges, as he took a hold of Bakker's modified MP7A2, and the mags off his dead body, reasoning it was good as a tool improvised after everything. Cleaning up, he exhaled hard, the bloodied Gurkha still trying to get thoughts into his head. "Any ideas how we get to the launch site? Cloaking kit should work still, but they're about to have a big fight over there. We're out of explosives, so the only other place I can think of is getting to the launch site's command bunker, and seeing if we can sneak in. Soften up things when Skye and the team plan to hit it, then regroup with them. Bikes, quads, jeeps. But we have a window." Purna noted, as another explosion casually rocked the port, another fuel tanker going up in the extreme heat at the far end, and punctuating the morning's chaos that had kickstarted Raven Squad's full blown assault on Tempest Island. [hr] [center][h1]Near Camp Bravo, Île de la Tempête, Reunion [/h1][/center] [center][h2] Warm Healer [/h2][/center] [center][h2] 0645 Hours [/h2][/center] As the lone man made the walk through the forested track, a group of PLA soldiers stepped out into his way, Shimura hurt, but not outclassed by them. The crack of a silenced shot slapped through two of them, and before the third could turn, was filled with an accurate burst of semi-automatic fire, which quickly rippled through the last man standing's helmet, turning the group into a collection of lifeless corpses and one Shimura still standing. Crawling out of the ditch, a rather sodden, shrub-looking Kiwi looked across at Ban's wound, shaking her head as she drew the moss and lichen off her boonie, so she didn't entirely look like a mobile tree to himi. "You need to tell me when you've got a hole the size of a cricket ball in you, mate. Come off the road, let's get a look at ya. None of this stoic ronin shit on me anymore." She commented with a certain motherly charm, not all too dissimilar to Skye's, yet perhaps even more disappointed. As if she wasn't concerned with the fact he had been pouring blood, but rather, wanted to just get straight into fixing this. With it, Tahlia, took a look, and started to pack the wound, whether he would like it or not. He wasn't dying today, not on her watch. Overlooking was one thing, getting up close and personal was another. "You did a pretty decent job. So, I reckon we're a bit far back. But we might be able to at least hold up anyone else that tries to interfere. Once you're fixed, that sound good to you?" Tahlia asked, the Kiwi blunt, if not a little bit too direct, but in a situation like this, honour and nice words weren't much use, but honesty and keeping the enemy at bay were another. She couldn't do that if he was dead, after all.... [hr] [center][h1]Vulpine Space Checkpoint / Command Centre, Île de la Tempête, Reunion [/h1][/center] [center][h1]Fireteam Hammer/Anvil[/h1][/center] [center][h2] Counter Strike [/h2][/center] [center][h2] 0645 Hours [/h2][/center] The counter attack was fierce. But with Adam charging in on the CAV and then mounting up on the GMG that was attached to it when he skidded to a halt, and then Sam bringing the mech, the firepower in response was significant, and allowed them to turn the tide. The PLA forces that had charged in, supported by Artemis were now being turned back, as Skye flicked a new box into the Mk46 and sprayed rounds down range, Athena single-handedly holding a flank and raining electricity that turned PLA soldiers even in exoskeletons into an acrid ozone smell. So it meant one last assault. One last run. The far away hangar doors opening, however, were omminous. A feeling that Skye all too well knew, as she finished up, Athena dominating the battlefield and chasing after those trying to peel back and lay down more fire, Athena having none of it as she boosted onto enemies and either blew them apart with the coil, or used the sword to literally hack them up, moving far, far too fast for a heavy of her size and wasting the enemy's ammunition on her carbon-reinforced titanium armour. "Wilk, Boaro, with me...rest of you, whatever the fuck that is over there, kill them and hold our flank!" Skye retorted, Adam bringing the CAV into the checkpoint and making it a good point for Ebrima and her to board. With a quick ride past all the smouldering IFVs and infantry that stank of burns and gunpowder, it was a rolling affair as they fired from the vehicles, mopping up enemies posing resistance on the last stint to the command centre past a destroyed set of warehouses, radar domes and R&D facilities that were in ruin. All irrelevant, to the main target itself. They had a clean run, at least, as clean as they could on approach to the command centre. The half-buried, bunker-like complex was modern, with an enormous blown-up entry point marking where Artemis had clearly brute forced their own way in via a tunnel. It made sense to follow that route inside, as Adam peeled the CAV to a stop, and immediately raised the field generator, blasting rounds down range with the MSBS as Skye picked out a couple more troops rushing out to meet them, the combined firepower from the three and the GMG on the CAV making mincemeat of them before they disembarked and moved in. Skye moved fluid, graceful across terrain, the red-haired, grey-exo and MTP wearing operative moving on the door, using the last of the Mk46 to spray rounds into a group of PLA mercs, running hard with an exo-based leap to almost pirouette onto the wall and back into cover, clearing the way forward for Adam to charge through and lay down a wall of shrapnel with his USAS, pasting another fireteam and letting Boaro keep his own flank going. As Skye charged around the corner, the exo-equipped Artemis merc kicked her hard into the chest, sending her into the wall, as the other operative lept on her, knife forwards for Skye's neck, the Scotswoman instead dodging and feeling significantly weaker, using the M31 to puncture a hole into their stomach that dropped them immediately, before backing away. Getting clattered hard, Skye was lucky to not break her ribs right there and then, feeling the carrying servo of the exo give way. She swore a very Scots swear, and shook her head, the quiet as they were about to approach the lab-like precision of the command centre, from the central offices to the command room itself, where it was suspected Zhao and Rose were hiding, was ahead. Looking to Ebrima, she unholstered the M31, and the heavy coil pack off her back, leaving the tactical pack in place. It was an instant look of disappointment on her face, a feeling that the exo had gone this far, kicked this much ass, was no use now. "Fuck....exo's fucked. You're gonna have to carry this, I'm afraid Boaro. Don't go too wild with giantslaying. Pull for normal fire, hold the clamp for the coil to charge then pull and it'll send a tungsten piece through anything it hits." Skye offered across the rifle, the railgun and the energy pack, as well as flicking out her mags for it- diminished, but plenty enough to do what they had to in here. Picking up the dead mercenary's VHS-02 Rifle, she knew the armour was still good for something, but like this, she was moving a hell of a lot slower, the explosion from outside rocking the structure from the pure anarchy that the heavies were causing. It felt like as the fight drew on, everyone was fatigued, everyone was running out of the absurd amount of ammunition they had brought, and they were scavenging, foraging, and finding a way to get through. "More hostiles, incoming!" Adam yelled, keeping the suppressing fire down, as Skye now shuffled significantly slower than before, grateful for the protection of the exo, but now not able to leap and sprint like she had before. The redhead, reluctantly, was holding back more now, like the power had been ripped from the team leader and instead, she was a little more cautious. "On it! Wilk, you have point, Boaro, clap anything that stops us, we're getting to this bloody control!" [hr] As the sight of the hangar doors opened in the far horizon, the figures that emerged were not exactly Athena or Freya sized, they were a hell of a lot bigger. As Athena had learned recently, getting blasted in the face by one of those was not exactly that fun, but this looked like just another level compared to Marrakesh. "Chaos, might need a bit of help over here....." Athena's voice cracked a little, unexpected even, because even with Sam's towering bipedal mech, holding the line was not going to be fun. "Where's your power now!" The booming call across the empty launchpad, that of Laura's mic was clear. This was not a mech made entirely for....tactical purposes? It felt more like a clarion call of someone who had bought a car, done it up and decided in a moment of insanity, to palm off the fuzzy dice and instead make it as garish as possible. If there was ever a time for a showdown, it would be right about now. Finding a weakness would be difficult, but while two mechs versus one seemed a sure fight, with Athena, Freya, Jamie and Chuck in the play, it was at least somewhat made more even. "Your ex-girlfriend has a hell of a fucking thing for fire, Frigga! You didn't tell me she was this fucking unhinged!" She replied, using her jump jet to leap out of the way of a massive belch of flames that roared across the massive concrete launch pad where another Arianne rocket would normally be parked, sitting in the shadow of the enormous one that still sat on its pad, payload and contents unknown. Athena blasted a bolt at the legs, watching it harmlessly clatter, cursing. Well, this was going to be plenty more difficult....