Road to hell....

[steelyglint]

"This is not good" Steelyglint muttered to himself. "The bronto crap has really hit the proverbial old fan". He watched as the Omni response team began to postion it's self around the building. As good as the distraction created by Stefano and Yin had been, it hadnt been quite as good as expected, and had failed to buy them enough time for a quick and quiet escape. It certainly wasn't Stefano's and Yin fault, But luck being slightly against them. Luck, such a small word, such an important word. As well as plans can be layed, luck always plays a part. The fortunes of war are fickle to say the least.

Steely watched and waited, Ready to give the Captain and Lt Fuzzball likely escape routes, when he saw that same custom yalm owning woman he'd seen earlier, the one who fate had revealed, was directing the assault. Steely took a deep breath as he saw her arm rise and point in his direction. A two man omni unit detached from the main body and began moveing towards his building. The assault teams stormed the building.

"Spotter 1 to spotter 2", Steely commed Lt Albanis. "I have an omni sniper team moveing in on my pos estimated eta, 4 min". He glanced around at the scene below. "Another is moveing to the building to the east. Captain If u are listening to this broadcast, get the hell outta there, try to breakout through the north wall, they dont seem to have it covered.

Listening closely to Albanis's response, a huge, but muffled explosion shook the building opposite, shattering the windows. A hailstorm of glass rained on the ground below. The Captains frantic, pain filled screams cut in over the channel. Sorrow and dismay filled every fiber of his being at the message the captain has transmitted. Albanis struggled to keep her voice under control as she issued steely orders.

"Secure the rooftop so i can give you the disk, then cause enough distraction for me to get in there. Once i'm in, get back to HQ with the disk, you are not to risk yourself. i repeat, get back to hq, that is your mission Lt".

"Roger that Lt", Steely replied calmly, keeping him self detached. Judgements made by emotion were sledom good,"i suggest however, u take out that other sniper team or we'll be in a world of hurt".

"Already doing it". Came the curt reply.

Avioding detection wasnt all that hard, considering all the searchlights were aimed at the building the Captain and the now deceased Lt Fuzzball were trapped in. Steely hopped of the ledge he was perched on and flew upside down beneath it, untill he rached the back of the building. Popping his head up over the edge to make sure the coast was clear, Steely flew onto the roof top and landed behind a huge air-conditioning unit. De-polymorphing back into human form, he sat down with his back pressing against the unit. Steely checked his Joint Clans Arms pistols, and poked his Mosquito armored head around the corner.

Luck was with him. The omni sniper and spotter has their backs toward him, setting up their equipment. Obviously, they felt safe and secure here on their home turf, they wern't watching eachother's backs. Steely pulled his head back, stood up and intitiated Grinning hunter in his ncu.

It was like he was back hunting in the forests, except, the smell's of exotic flora and fauna had been replaced by the bland , man made smell of steel and plastic.
Slowly, slowly he crept up on his unsuspecting prey.

The sniper, his eye's glued to his scope, didnt see the giant sabertooth fangs as they sunk through the weak join between the spotters helmet and body armor. The sickening crunch as the man was almost decapitated, moved him from it. But, too late for him. Two giant paws flipped him over and pinned him to the ground. Yellow eyes stared into his. For a nano second, they looked angry. human. He was trying to comm for help as the big cat's head dipped down and ripped his throat out.

Steely revelled in the salty.metallic taste of blood in his mouth. It made him feel primitive, Close combat and the cruel joy of being alive afterward always made him feel that way.
"Roof top secured Lt".

Steely de-polymorphed back into human form and picked up the fallen sniper rifle.
Albanis landed beside him. She too, returned to human form.
"Take it". The Lt thrust the disk at him. Get it back and dont fail. There were still traces of sadness in her voice. "Do not fail the mission kitty has fallen for, u got me steely".

Steely held her stare level. "dont u worry bout me Leftenant, u just get in there and get her back. In two minutes, they are gunna know these guys are gone, and your distraction is gunna be me shooting that vile omni woman fair through the head. Once i've bagged her, i'm gone".

Albanis gave a wry smile. "Dont miss then", and she was gone.

Steely pulled the helmet off the dead sniper, ripped the comm out and patched it into his. He heard the woman in charge calling for the captain to surrender.
Steely took the prone position, snuggleing the rifle's butt into his shoulder. He Scanned the entire area for his target.

The woman wasnt in the formation area anymore, but, he spotted her thru a hole in the building's wall. Lineing her up in the crosshairs, He slowly squeezed the trigger."This,he thought while grinning to himself under his helmet, she most certainly wont be suspecting".

[Saito]

Ten…
Nine…
Eight…

The general breathed loudly against the breech casing of the Eskorpio resting on her cheek. She had seen enough in her career to know that countdowns often brought tidings of other, more harmful things than cheer in the last seconds of New Year’s Eve.

Seven…

Michelle grabbed the railing to her right and jumped over it to save time instead of running downstairs, taking every single step.

Six…

She landed on her left foot and the sprained bones broke under her weight. A disgusting noise resonated even up and inside her skull, accompanied by a flash of pain and nausea.

Five…
Four…
Three…

She didn’t even have time to scream before she hit the wall violently with her head and shoulder to tumble down on to the lower floor, where she came to a hold, moaning.

Two…
One…

The expolsion was deafening and made the entire building quake. Debris rained down on Jade but she was unconscious.
Gunfire resumed, extenuated screaming trickled slowly into her mind, her vision returned.

Unngh…

Her hand felt wet when she pulled it back from the aching spot on the side of her head. Immediately, her foot sent grim fingers of pain up her spine to her cerebrum, which in turn made her adrenals excrete the soothing, but also dangerous juices to subdue it.

Just when she had disposed herself of the rubble and barely managed to stand up, the door of the staircase to the fourth floor slammed open. Astera’s eyes opened up wide, equally surprised as Jade who limped on her right foot.

Unhidden hatred distorted the clanswoman’s pretty face. She readied her stiletto and ran screeching against the killer of her friend. Michelle forgot the pain and shifted her weight to the rear to softly use the momentum and lead the knife past her stomach and punch Astera into her throat with the other hand.
Again, Jade’s foot failed her and both women fell back, one screaming, the other coughing and gasping for air.

The Omni-Pol officer knew she was at a disadvantage. Thus she didn’t give herself much time to overcome her treacherous bodily signals to just lie down and recover for a couple hours. She crawled towards the intruder and removed the telescope cudgel from her utility vest. She crashed it with all her might onto Astera’s shin only to have it moments after kicked out of her hand. Both slowly moved away from the staircase, fighting against the might of their injuries and each other’s weak attacking attempts, up until they came to an intersection and a gaping hole in the outer wall of the structure, where several grenades had detonated. Cold wind blew inside.

In a tremendous effort, both had managed to rise and stand on their feet, both dragging one foot behind in an awkward angle. From somewhere below or above them, it was hard to tell, human yelling and beastly roaring could be heard.

I… don’t care anymore what brought you here.

Jade mumbled, pressed, with tiny drops of spittle flying from her lips.

All I want is you and me to be there, when soul-disintegrating bullets fly, next time.

Jade took the assault rifle to her shoulder which had hung there loosely by her side, at a cruelly slow speed.

Astera merely returned her stare for a while and then erected herself proudly, closing her eyes.

The officer aimed minutely at the lower part of the clanswoman’s torso, knowing her rifle would rise. Then she flicked the switch to “full auto”.

Taking a broader stance, Jade pulled the trigger and released a crescendo of lead mantled projectiles into the body of the other woman.

Click. Click-Blam. Click. Click-Blam. Click. Click-Blam

Michelle heard every noise and perceived it with cold joy, thanks to her Stare of Cerberus. The breech rocketing back because of compressed air from the bullet travelling along the barrel. The spring of the magazine delivering another parcel of death. The sled flinging forward again with the hammer extended, igniting the next bullet. Seventeen times in the blink of an eye.

When Taren Gorslin hit the ground, her eyes had already turned to lifeless glass.

The Omni-Pol general let the rifle slip from her grasp. A loud whistle drowned out every other sound, caused by the damaged tympanic membranes inside her ears. She established a connection to her team again, almost screaming into her headset microphone:

10-David, this is Blue. Suspect neutralized.

She noticed one of the floor monitors showing a strange message. Usually they were used for news broadcasts, encouraging messages from the authorities or slogans. But now there were cryptic letters displayed. A hacker must have done that.

File Number: 458X82-12
Access Level: White
Prisoner: Portman 908-112
Downloaded at 03:37:46

An unknown voice filled with wrath and grief replied:

Copy Blue. Indeed… neutralized.

An awful certainty took hold of her and she turned towards the hole in the wall. Straining all her senses to their maximum capability, she saw somebody lying on the opposite rooftop. She saw him grin. Then a 50. projectile of the special-purpose sniper rifle frazzled her chest.

[Astera]

Black clouds threatened to forever eclipse the suns and brought forth a light, bone chilling rain. The Captain moved through the assembled Company, head down slightly. A small black urn lovingly created and infused with notum by one of her friends, Maephina, gripped tightly in her hand. Wind howled mournfully over the top of the waterfall as Astera stopped by the edge of the cliff, black cloak billowing, exposing the blood red Sentinel armor beneath.

She stood with her back to the somber Company, her eyes bloodshot, composing herself as her remaining lieutenants moved to her side, facing the Company. Turning and removing her sunglasses, she stared over the group of people that had become her family. A few more faces appeared in the crowd, friends, her sister Xiaojian, Refixit, Zunik, Sentrios and even Maephina stood to the back of the crowd, head lowered slightly. A few more were on their way, giving Astera a bit longer to compose her rage and anguish at the thought of losing Kitty.

She looked at Relle, Steely and Bushrat who stood proudly, leaving a space for where kitty once stood. Relle looked at her, true concern showing through her own hard heart. Steely and Bushrat looked at the Captain, waiting for her to begin, each of them, saddened by the loss.

Tarens eyes met Stefano, then Yin's eyes, both showing the resolve that was a facet of the Company members.


Raising the Urn into the air, it glowed a soft blue as the rain ran down its sides. Astera showed it to everyone present then set it at her side again, her knuckles white from squeezing.

She spoke softly, "Here we stand on front line. Here we walk through the field where we died...." reciting a phrase that a friend told her once.

In an empassioned, loud and clear voice she spoke, looking at the Company and allies, her gaze steeled, "Company...two days ago, we lost someone. One of our own fell at the hands of those god damn Omni. She did not reclaim..." Choking up, she stopped and took a deep steadying breath.

A sudden fire burned in her eyes, "How does it end, Company?!? HOW??", Yelling through nearly clenched teeth, "Will you fade away into oblivion or will you die like she did, giving to the Company so we could carry on our objective?!? Her death was for something! For the Clans!!! It wasn't wasted on vice or personal glory!! It was given freely so that another had a chance to carry on! She knew what she was doing and risked it without question!!! She stopped a moment, taking another deep steadying breath.

"Company!" Taren yelled with anger.

The assembled Company snapped to a rigid attention with a salute as the Captain turned her back and removed the cover of the urn while moving towards the edge of the waterfall, wind threatening to force her off it.

Turning the urn upside down, the wind caught the ashes and scattered them over Tir as Taren whispered, "Those that form it come and go, but the Company is forever..."

[Astera]

((I'd like to thank everyone who participated in this story: Albanis, Steelyglint, Jadeshimmer, Virta, Stefano, Yin "Kittenfu" Koresawa (voyager), Fuzzpaws and Khuri. I hope it reached out to everyone reading and made you long to read the next part. Without this fantastic group of roleplayers here, this story could not have come to life like it did (for me anyway :P). To the readers, there is plenty of revenge/fallout in store, though it may take a bit to focus then write up. My sincerest appreciation to all who participated and to those of you who contacted me because you couldn't wait for the next part Thank you. ))