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[TheMajonese]

In his exposed position Arian was faltering and had trouble keeping his balance. He hadn't expected the tremors to be such a problem for himself. It took him a few moments to remember his task and ready himself. When the worst shockwaves had ended and the vibrations set in people started to panic and he could not blame them for it. Arian looked around to see how the others were doing. They seemed to do much better than he did, the commandos even used biotics to keep their balance.

 

Even though he had known about this plan and was aware that one part of the station was just cut off, it had taken him by surprise. When the ground finally stopped shaking he just felt relief even though the dizziness and the nausea remained. At least he was able to hide his increasing unease. Just by standing there towering almost everyone around and with his Phaeston ready, Arian could still show outward strength even if he had to clench his teeth. 

 

But he wasn't nearly as relaxed as he behaved. Now the worst part of their job began.

[Redbelle]

Anika's mag boots were locked and she in turn locked her armour, allowing her to stay upright. She was essentially imobile, except for her arms and upper torso. The advantage though was that she couldn't be budged and could spend the time watching the effects of what was going in around them.

 

The shaking of the station was punctuated with screams of panic and terror. The shell of the station suddenly exposed for the flimsy defense it was against dedicated attack and suddenly people were faced with the prospect of facing hard vacuum and temperatures that would flash freeze them in an instant if the mass effect fields failed from the assualt.

 

Under the walkways, under maintenance covers, enrgy conduit's overloaded and exploded upwards, showering the walkways and people there in sparks. Anika looked to her HUD in her helmet which showed a timer. VERA's best estimate of when the Jeniri would no longer be required to fire.

 

The timer hit zero and the shuddering ceased. Anika unlocked her armour and hefted her rifle, still looking about. Her team loked to have come through okay and her armour wasn't detecting atmospheric loss.

 

"Looks like the easy part's over with". She announced to the group. Taking a step forward and scanning the immediate surroundings. "People are going to start taking stock soon.... They'll be afraid". she looked to the group. "I'll set up for containment. Better get the emergency response teams on our comms. We're liable to get people coming to us asking for us".

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

The shaking stopped. It was quiet. People started talking to each other wondering what was going on, wondering if it was really over. Some of the lighting in the area still sparked. People started milling about.

 

Two shuttles landed in the parking lot near Afterlife, and two squads (about 28) of heavily armed mercs exited. People started screaming and running away. The mercs fired into the crowds clearing a path of blood in front of them as they moved quickly toward the main entrance of Afterlife. The reports sounded like Vindicators and M-8 Avengers.

 

A third shuttle landed on the opposite side near Harrot’s and a platoon of very heavily armed mercs exited. This group was engaged by a fire team of Bloodpack mercs, all Vorcha and Aria’s team led by Bray.

[Cknarf]

"F***! Contact right!"

 

Frank directed his rifle toward the landing area.

 

While many in the crowd instinctively headed away from the gunfire, there were a few that returned fire with their personal sidearms. This was Omega, after all.

 

Frank watched through his scope, as a turian fired into the group of armored mercs,  only to be cut down seconds later. Frank winced, as he fell to the ground. One of the mercs casually raised his rifle to the turian's head, to finish the job, but was hit with an overload charge from the turians omni-tool.

 

Frank took advantage of the turian's final stand, and squeezed the trigger. The merc's head snapped back, as the armor piercing round from Frank's rifle passed cleanly through both sides of his helmet.

[Kel Riever]

The four Commandos instinctively dropped.  Tallis went to one knee, placed her open palms upwards, and created a barrier to protect herself and Afterlife’s main entrance.

“Let me engage!” Jenus demanded.

“Hold your position,” Mira ordered her calmly, “The team’s got it.”

Iole took cover behind a nearby strut by the club’s entrance as shots were fired in her direction.  She called out the number of attackers loudly to the team and followed them with a series of hand gestures to visually convey the same message.  “Too many civs for the machine gun!” She added at the end.

“Watch your targets,” Mira said to the others by com.

A couple of mercs returned fire at the attackers, but were caught ill prepared.  Those who came out of the shuttle were looking for people with weapons and targeting them first. 

[Cainhurst Crow]

As soon as the shuttles touched down, Essul realized that something was off. They were large shuttles, first off, and secondly was the way they parked, a position that seemed to make some convient cover and didn't seem natural for a normal civ group to do. Than the mercs emerged, and essul realized what this was.

 

"Armed hostiles! Form up behind the cover now!" Essul barked at the men aside, right before the shooting started. To give credit where credit was due, many of the mercs did find cover, and began popping out to fire at the advancing group. Essul activated his tactical cloak as he found a nearby covered railing to use as his cover, and turned his head to see one of the mercs drop to his side, not having expected the firefight.

 

Essul cursed as he loaded his omnitool with a submission net, cloak wearing off as he drew a flashbang from one of his pouches and popped out of cover. "Eyes off, incoming." He said, giving the codeword the SIU used for flashbangs before lobbing it at the group, firing his submission net a second later in the same target, and ducked behind cover.

 

The flashbang landed in front of a group of the armed assailants, one reaching down to grab it when the submission net wrapped around him and began electrocuting him. The others tried to rip it off of him, getting shocked themselves, before the flash went off and filled their optical sensors on their armor, or their unprotected eyes, with blinding white light. Essul popped out and opened fire with his Cazador, the shots going in a cluster as they peppered the group, taking down a few of their already weakened shields and striking one unlucky shooter through the side of the neck.

 

"Frank, Iole! Hostiles to our left. We need sniper fire now." Essul said as he got back in cover, missing shots at his position by mere centimeters.

 

"There are mercs coming up the market, on your right. Get ready to thin out their numbers." Vayne said immediately after, as he focused on his own problems.

 

Screams and gunfire had been the only clue before the armed gunmen came up from the market side, only to get sprung on by Vorchas and some of Aria's men. Most of the unarmed civilians had ran towards the docks, heading through the docking tunnel or fleeing to lower walkways as the fighting broke out. He could spot a few others firing with handguns, one with a shotgun, but the losses were piling up.

 

It was clear whoever was attacking wasn't amatuers at this, even as the vorcha's leaped onto them, clawed away armor and shields, light some on fire even with their omnitools, and weaved around like a pack of trained atttack dogs with military grade weaponry. Aria's men seemed to keep their distance and peppered them with gunfire, taking down shields and hitting unshielded targets. One of them knocked his elbows into a vorchas face before blasting it in the chest and face, pulling a grenade and tossing it at brays team before heading to some cover.

 

Vayne drew his chakram launcher as he squeezed the trigger down, spinning the explosive disk before he fired it towards one of the groups. It struck one of the attackers in the shoulder, the explosion blasting them back. Smoke cleared as the gunmen stepped forward, armor blasted off but not all the way pierced as he returned fire towards vaynes position, forcing the krogan to duck in cover from the shots.

 

"Irina! Tell me you got something that can pick these bastards off?" He asked her as gunfire kept keeping him pinned, already charging his chakram launcher for another shot.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"What do you think this is, Vayne?" Irina was firing her Mattock in semi-automatic mode at the mercs.

 

People ran screaming down the concourse into the terminal to get out of the line of fire.

 

Another shuttle hovered nearby the parking lot and dropped an Emir Mech into the lot, and it began providing artillery support for the mercs.

 

"Sh*t! Mech!" Irina shouted. "I suggest we pull back into Afterlife, and set up a barricade in the foyer. Vayne, we could move the bar while they're trying to get in through the front door. What do you think?"

[Kel Riever]

Without even a crowd in front of them, the second tier of defenders was exposed.  Eteon and Jenus had to move forward and crouch just behind and on either side of Anika to avoid shots coming from in back of them.  That left them still with no cover from the attackers in the direction of the markets, but at least their guns were facing that direction. 

“Come on, Too-tall,” Jenus shouted to Anika, “Light it up!”  Now that she was up with the towering, white armored woman, Jenus was looking for a clear path or shot through the innocents caught in the crossfire, something the attackers weren’t worried about.

Mira and Avan had to crush against the barricade to their right, leaving the middle open if someone got past Arian and Vayne.  But the threats were coming from the flanks.  To at least partially block the push from the car park, Mira held out her hand and focused.  There was the odd absence of sound where her biotics were directed, then a shimmering bubble formed and captured several of the forward attackers.  The stasis field Mira created helped not only to eliminate a group of the enemy, but temporarily bottlenecked the assault there.

Iole heard the call for sniper fire, but with her machine gun, she could only go to single shots and had no scope.  Again, there were too many people in the way towards the markets for her to help, so she had to leave it to Frank to give support.  Sadly, if people were killed her field of fire would improve, but she tried not to think about that. 

The shuttle with the YMIR mech dropped in at that moment.  Iole called out, “I have a target!”  It was too late to hit the shuttle to prevent the drop, but Iole brought the barrel of the Hellbringer around the strut and opened up on the mech, full bore. 

Mira had heard Irina, and said into the general com, “Hold while you can!”  She hoped her message got through over the furious sound of Iole’s machine gun.  There was something about the way the enemy was coming that bothered her, but with only seconds into the battle, Mira couldn’t quite figure it out yet. 

[TheMajonese]

"Screw this!" With wild curses Arian sprinted towards Essul's position and jumped on a row of seats next to the wall. It gave him cover while the slightly elevated position to shoot from over the wall provided him a good overview of the parking lot. He immediately realised how bad the situation was.

 

It was the same with every mission Arian had participated in. Whenever there was a worst-case scenario it was safe to assume that it would occur. The mercs were heavily armed and knew what they were doing. They lost no time to move into cover and targeting anyone who was wielding a gun.

 

Because of the extremely short distances Arian would have considered engaging them in close combat using the crowd as cover but he doubted that his team would give him proper backup. Besides he didn't have the right equipment. With nothing more than his phaeston, his omni-tool and an already damaged armor he wouldn't be very effective.

 

Instead he sent the attackers several bursts of armor piercing rounds with his rifle. Their reply was heavy suppressive fire on his position that forced him to duck behind the wall. The shots flew over the wall where his head had been just a second ago. 

 

Unable to get into firing position again Arian looked around. Aria's troops were dropping everywhere, even the tough vorcha hardly stood a chance against the well prepared attackers. With mercs on the parking lot and on the walkway near Harrot's the team was surrounded, it was nearly impossible to hold this position. 

 

Arian saw Vayne being pinned down and then spotted the attacker. He aimed his omni-tool at him and electrocuted him with an overload.

 

When Mira used her biotics in the direction of the parking lot Arian realised that the rain of bullets on his position had stopped. He immediately used the pause of fire to emerge from his cover and opened fire on the attackers that had been caught by the stasis field. But even that wasn't enough to stop them from closing on the Afterlife's entrance.

[Cknarf]

"I got you, buddy."

 

Frank took some shots at the mercs near Essul, but their shields made clean, one-shot takedowns nearly impossible. He laid his rifle down, and shouldered the much heavier Kishock. He lined up a shot, and pulled the trigger. 

 

What the hell?

 

While Frank had seen and handled a Kishock in the past, he had never fired one. The brief delay threw him off. His shot missed the first target, but embedded into the torso of a completely different merc.

 

Frank shrugged.

 

Release to fire, then?

 

He took aim at his original target once more, sending a fully-charged shot into the shoulder, causing the merc to do a half-spin before falling to the ground.

 

Holy ****. I've got to see Marius about getting one of these.

 

Simply by using the Kishock, Frank had made himself a priority target.  Rounds started to fly in his direction.  His shields ate most of the barrage, but one of the last projectiles skipped off the top of his helmet. A nervous fart escaped. He made himself flat, and slid back a few feet, to avoid losing his head.

 

Out of the corner of his eye, Frank saw the YMIR drop.  He farted again.

 

"Sh*t! Mech!" Irina shouted. "I suggest we pull back into Afterlife, and set up a barricade in the foyer."

 

Seconded.

 

"Hold while you can!"

 

Wait, what?

 

"Uh... okay?" He shouted into comms, over the noise of the Iole's Hellbringer, as she pounded away at the mech. Putting his Savant to use, he hit the YMIR with a sabotage attack. Before he could withdraw his arm, he took a round in the hand. a small amount of blood spattered his visor.

 

F***.

 

Upon closer inspection, Frank noticed that his right hand was now missing two fingers.

 

"F***!"

[Kel Riever]

"Frank!  Frank!"  Tallis shouted.  Her brow furrowed as she concentrated, and she pushed out her biotic barrier to include Eli.  It weakened the overall strength of the shield but gave her ally a much needed protection.



"Hold on!" Iole encouraged him.  The barrel of the Hellbringer was visibly heating up.  Down below, Mira focused her own biotics and the YMIR became blurry as it succumbed to a structural warp.  There was a groan as the mech collapsed from both the warp and the last rounds of Iole's machine gun before it overheated.  The Hellbringer forced itself to shut down and Iole unfastened the harness, removing the weapon before running over to Frank.  "Dose yourself!  I'll take care of what's missing!"



There was fright in Iole's golden eyes briefly.  She scanned the ground while under fire.  Finally, she found the two blasted digits and moved to put them in a belt pack.  Shots were landing on Tallis' barrier, causing her to grunt as she pushed out harder with her biotics.



Down below, Jenus cursed and yelled, "I'm not taking this without giving something back!"  She pulled two grenades from the pack on her back and hurled them towards the attackers clustered at the doorway to the markets.  There was a muffled explosion sound, then those hit groaned in pain and  started to float from the effects of the Lift grenades.

More attackers wasted no time in pushing through, but Jenus dropped to a sprint ready position and launched.  The biotic charge covered the distance instantly, and when Jenus rammed into the pack of enemies, there was a ripping detonation.  Her targets were either torn apart, blasted back from where they came, or were cast from the walkway, falling off the walkway where they would crash into a lower level or worse, into the eventual vacuum of space.  The vanguard followed up by drawing her Disciple and shooting through the doorway at anything thinking of closing the gap.  Grinning in satisfaction, Jenus then retreated from back the way she came, with covering fire from her companions.

Mira looked at what was happening, and there were more hostiles coming.  At a minimum, the team needed a better defense.  What was a crowd control mission was turning into a siege, and soon, the civilians would flee or be dead.  The other mercs the same, or those who would fight might be whittled down. Her hope was that they wouldn’t have to go completely into Afterlife but if things got worse, they might have to amend their plans.

“Fall back in pairs,” Mira called, “Covering each other!”

A vorcha from one of the shuttles had made it through, close to Vayne and Arian, leveling a weapon with a large barrel, and long hose running out of it to a pack on its back. 

Flamethrower!

The vocha’s head erupted in gore.  Iole had picked up Frank’s Hammer sniper rifle.  She fired again, failing to breach the shield of another who tried to take its place, but rounds from Avan finished the job.

Iole screamed, “Come on!”  She was crouched next to Frank, keeping up a steady rhythm of fire, attempting to give the team some relief.

[Cknarf]

Frank wiped at the blood on his visor, but it just smeared.

 

"Aw, f*** it!" 

 

Using his left hand, he unlatched his helmet and tore it from his head, letting it fall to the ground behind him. Blood from his wound had gotten just about everywhere at this point.

 

"This is so going to stain!"

 

A crude application of medigel stopped the bleeding, and provided a minor analgesic effect to the mess that was now his hand.

 

Trigger finger's still there.

 

Frank reached out for the Kishock, and dragged it closer. He shouldered the weapon, and resumed shooting.

[Cainhurst Crow]

Vayne snarled as he saw the mech, and the deteriorating situation as he heard the order. "Fall back!!! Don't let these bastards take one pace without giving them a full clip to the chest!!!" Vayne bellowed out as he looked down to the group where bray and the blood pack had been fighting. Their numbers were low, but still useable, as they began to fall back. Vorchas used their flamers to try and keep the advancing group at bay, setting a couple on fire before they were gunned down, and buying the rest time to pull back to their level.

 

Vayne pulled out an incendiary grenade, and chucked it towards the group coming up from harrots, following up as he began to double back towards afterlife when his omnitool formed the launcher for his grenades. He launched the multi-frag grenades over the railing and raining down towards the advancers, their efficiency making short work of any would be survivors down there, as the grenades detonated into a mass cluster of kinetic and shrapnel damage.

 

He pulled back with the others, looking to Arain as he realized something, "Irina, Essul, Pull back and take down as many as you can in the retreat." He said, hoping to hear a snap from Irina and a confirmation from essul. His eye scanned the battlefield, not spotting the batarian, "Where's our Batarian!?" he looked around.

 

=============================================================

 

Essul had been busy while the YMIR mech was being engaged, throwing out submission nets and taking down enemies best as he could with the others. Their position was serving as a nice fork within the road, the two paths the enemy troops could take allowing the forces to stay in cover and pick off the advance force easily.

 

Or rather, that had been the plan, before the units they were fighting seemed to have gotten wise on the strategy. They had a large amount of their forces in cover, laying a constant stream of fire on their cover positions as the forward group snaked their way up towards the first tier. They took both sides, and by the time essul had managed to spot the attacker, there were many starting to come in a full advance, the firs tier finding itself surronded.

 

Essul snarled as he activated his cloak, holding his smg in his hand as he flicked out his wrists, the cables deploying as he ran up towards the first group. He channeled his biotics along the cables, increasing their mass exponentially as he whipped them forward. The two whips hit the center troop, and his armor caved with the intense increase of mass, a smash sending him and his two comrades flying back as essul came out of his cloak.

 

His cables dragged on the ground as Essul fired his Cazador at the group, finishing off those he downed as he began to come under fire from other soliders. Essul ran at a full sprint as his shields depleted, activating his cloak once more before he maneuvered himself to flank them group. He channeled his biotics up his whips, unleashed another smash from their flank, and did a quick spin as his whips knocked more soliders onto the ground. He pulled another flash grenade from his belt, activating it and tossing it towards his attackers when he heard his shields drop, electricity surging through his armor.

 

Essul turned to see one of the mercs, a smaller sized human, holding a strange looking heavy weapon. The YMIR exploded, and essul gathered his bitoics in his hand and threw the warp at the heavy weapons operate, just as he fired off another bolt from his arch projector, and essuls flash grenade detonated. Essul fell to one knee as the world went numb, hands shaking and head aching as he tried to move his mouth, finding it usually hard to feel his face.

 

The small weapon user was knocked back by the warp, biotics shredding their armor as essul worked to get back on his feet. He was without his shields, and disoriented, and suddenly saw a shadow standing over him. Essul looked up to see one of the armored attackers, aiming a lancer down towards his face slowly as essul felt the world slow around him. His right hand was still numb, but his left hand he could flex, and he slammed his head forward as hard as he could as rounds tore into him at close range, piercing his armor at his shoulder, a loud crack audible as his HUD developed a strange static line along its vision. Essul drew his knife from his vest, holding it in a reverse grip as the shooters stumbled back, and essul lunged forward with his knife aimed.

 

Both of them went down, essul on top of the man, his knife buried into the soft section of the mans neck armor, essul standing and drawing it as rich blue ran down the blade, turian blood. The man he stabbed had been a turian. He stumbled forward, activating his tactical cloak just as more of the attackers had come, and his position was being shot up by the reinforcements.

 

========================================================================

 

"Where's our Batarian!?" Vayne demanded as he looked around for essul, only for him to seemingly come out of no where, his tactical cloak failing. Vayne looked towards where he'd come from, spotting enemies moving up as he snarled. He reached up to his vest and threw out a inferno grenade, the fires erupting up from the enemies position as they fell back a bit.

 

Essul retreated, stumbling forward and still clutching his knife as he made it towards afterlife. The cables from his armor dragged behind him, and his right arm seemed to dangle slightly, a bullethole sealed with medigel able to be spotted at his shoulders, two fo them next to one another. The batairan looked up, and his helmet showed that on one of his eyes, just below the lower one, was a bullet hole, a crack running along the surface with the round barely being stopped by the faceplate.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

“Hold while you can!” Mira shouted.

 

“What the f*ck?!”  Irina muttered, “Oh well, what the hell. I’ve been in worse situations.”

 

She heard Iole’s Hellbringer let loose against the mech. Hellbringer. I always liked that name. Always thought it was rather a strange name for an Asari weapon.

 

“Frank! Frank!” Tallis screamed as she pushed out her biotic field.

 

Somehow that sounded almost normal. Weird. Good, Jenus got him. Irina thought as she was firing bursts at the mercs, more to keep them from firing at her than anything.

 

Concentrated fire finally brought down the mech, but Mira saw the situation was dire. They were going to get flanked. “Fall back in pairs!” she shouted.

 

“Finally! I asked you that a while ago! If you’d f*ckin’ listened, Frank’d still be in one goddam piece!” Irina said as she moved provided cover for the team to move to a new position.

 

It was Irina’s turn, and she moved and quickly, but Mira decided to get into it. “Do you give up so easily?”

 

“No, but when it’s f*ckin’ hopeless, I look for a better position.” Irina said. “I’m not out here putting people at risk holding a weakened position just to prove how tough Asari really are to the others.”

 

“Is that what you think I’m doing?” Mira said as she threw a shockwave in the direction of a trio of mercs, knocking them off their feet and throwing one out of cover. Irina shot him in the head as he skidded across the floor. “You’ve been questioning my every move since we got here.”

 

 

“That’s exactly what you’re doing! You’re putting on a show for the newcomers, showing them Asari don’t cut and run. That ship of ours is a f*cking luxury liner compared to the garbage scows they’ve been on. They get on the ship and see us and think ‘soft.’ Admit it.”

 

Mira became exasperated and chose to ignore Irina. Now was not the time. “Just… fall back!”

 

Irina fell back inside. Essul and Arian provided covering fire and the main door shut and sealed. It was a heavy security door.

 

“That’ll hold them, but not for long,” Irina said, and pointed at the centermost supported area of the foyer. “We should set up a barricade about here.”

 

“Good idea.” Eteon said. “Aria isn’t going to like this, but I suggest we use the bar.”

 

“You’ve got to be sh*tting me.” Irina said.

 

“No, I’m not. You’re b*tching about everything today, aren’t you?” Eteon commented. “Vayne can handle one end and we have enough people to carry the other end. What do you think, Mira?”

[Cainhurst Crow]

"I can lift it all right. But we're gonna need more than just a bar to really slow them down..." Vayne said as he looked towards the place, wondering what they could do to add to their defenses, "How much flammable liquor we got? We could make a few improvised inferno grenades. I'm running low of them myself.." He said as he pointed to the two he had left on him.

 

"I believe you humans call them, Molotov Cocktails?" He asked as he looked to Irina, suspecting she'd know what he was talking about. "Wont stop them, but lighting a few on fire couldn't hurt our chances taking them down."

 

Essul retracted his whips back into his gauntlets, taking off his helmet as he looked to it, seeing the bullet it caught as he looked up towards the others. "We have to secure any other entrance this bar might have. If we force them to walk here, we can funnel their forces and concentrate our fire to widdle them down..." He said as he rolled his shoulder, dulled pain not registering fully with his brain that his shoulder was wounded.

 

He knew, but he didn't care, there were more important things at the moment, "We lost ground because they flanked us. If they can't surronded and overwhealm us again, we'll be able to hold a line and push them back."

[Kel Riever]

Jenus had been second to last through into afterlife, walking backwards as she kept her Disciple trained towards the threat.  When the door closed, she kept walking backwards until she got to Irina and shoved her enough to get noticed.

"I'll take care of your mouth later, Red," Jenus said quietly but intensely, "But right now, shut it.  Mira's the leader, you had your chance like the rest of us and now its over.  If you're pissed, you take it out on the people trying to kill us."  Her dark eyes were fierce as she stared at Irina to make sure she knew she was serious.

"The bar is fine," Mira said.  "Anika and Arian can handle carrying the other end themselves.  Molotovs are fine as long as we don't end up burning ourselves up in here.  We'll have to leave it to Aria to hope she designed Afterlife to handle pyrotechnics."  Irina had gotten to her somewhere, distracting her from what she thought was wrong with the attackers.  "There is a lower entrance, with some of Aria's heavies guarding it.  Up to four can reinforce if they think its a good idea, we need everyone else here."

[Cknarf]

Frank stared at his right hand, while wiggling his thumb and remaining two fingers. Although he was well aware of the loss, it hadn't really sunk in yet.

 

Weird... I wonder if this is how they feel all the time?

 

"Hey, Eteon? How do you guys like, I dunno..." He flexed his fingers, as if she was supposed to know what the hell he was asking. He looked to Arian, and made the same movement, before looking back at his hand.

 

"Ah, never mind." He waved his three fingers in dismissal.

 

Maybe I'll ask Faed later.

 

He noticed the bullet lodged in Essul's helmet, and it reminded him of his own.  He scanned the area, but quickly remembered that he had left it behind.

 

Damn.

 

"Send me wherever you think is best. Preferably somewhere high."

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Irina saw the look on Mira's face. The lapse in the fighting gave her a moment to reflect and she didn't feel right. She approached Mira and spoke to her in a quiet voice. "Sorry about back there. I'm not feeling that great. I didn't mean to take it out on you. I'll see how Aria and her group are holding up and report back." And she trotted off down stairs to the lower entrance.

 

Aria was with her group. They'd made a barricade in the doorway. With Aria's biotic artillery and the weapons fire and with Patriarch's biotics the mercs made no progress on this front.

 

"Aria, you guys need anything?" Irina asked.

 

"We're fine. These bastards learned quickly not to attack this entrance, which means they're all headed your way," Aria replied strutting around in a protected area of the lower bar.

 

"Are there any other ways in?"

 

Aria smiled. "No, and that's why I picked this spot for the club. It's practically a fortress, but remember a fortress can fall if you don't defend it. Tell your team that if they're successful in their defense of my fortress they will be rewarded."

 

Irina nodded, left and reported back to Mira.

[TheMajonese]

Arian had no idea what Frank was trying to tell him and looked at him with a puzzled expression on his face. This human made no sense at all. Arian didn't have much experience with humans but he doubted that they are were like Frank. At least he hoped so.

 

"I really need a good armor...", Arian mumbled while looking at his left arm. Two bullets had hit the thin armor plating on his forearm but were stuck between his arm and the armor. A third one had cleanly punched through his palm and left a small hole in it. Now that the fight had stopped for a moment he began to feel the pain but it was bearable. Arian had been through worse and as long as he could still use it on his rifle everything was fine.

 

He turned to the other entrance of the afterlife and then looked at Anika, the unusually tall woman. She certainly looked capable of giving the attackers a hard fight. Reloading a new thermal clip Arian nodded to Mira and said: "We should be fine." 

 

"I'm not sure if that's what you mean with molotov cocktails", he turned to Vayne, "Take some alcohol, plug some clothes through the bottleneck until it's soaked in the alcohol and then light it? The humans under my command used to call them Mollys."

[Kel Riever]

Mira had wandered over to where Iole and Frank were.  Iole was offering Frank a field bandage, which was like a flexible, square, rubbery tile that would fit completely over the wound and seal to the skin or suit.  “How are you holding up?” Mira asked Frank.

Irina came up to Mira then and gave her report.  Mira nodded, still sore from her friend’s criticism while under command, but as she watched Irina and her mannerisms, she began to understand.

“Not everybody has a bad day in the same way, right?” Mira said to Irina.  “We need you as much as anyone.  Let’s show the ‘mutts’ they messed with the wrong people.”  Mira then looked up and around, picking out strategic points.  “Aria knew what she was doing.  The entrance hall is a funnel to pour fire down.  If they get through, they have to break left or right, and can’t pass through the room directly.  There are vantage points up high, also, where anyone coming through will be able to be fired on before they can get to any cover.  Our biggest issue is that the enemy is decently armed and there are enough of them that they could get through if we don’t hold them.”

Pointing as she talked, Mira picked out what she thought were good tactical points of defense.  “Frank, if you are still good to fight, take one of the top tiers in the back of the bar, maybe one of the booths where you can brace your rifle or fire the Kishook, and cover anyone who breaks through the hallway into the room.  Maybe you can get a good view partially down through the tube as well.  Iole and Anika, I think you should be center behind the bar with the Hellbringer and Typhoon.  You’ll pour fire directly through the hallway at everything coming in.  Tallis will also be with you, protecting anyone behind the bar with her barrier.

“The walls on either side of where the entrance hallway dumps out here are also good cover.  Irina, if you take one side, you can hit the whole corridor with your Firestorm.  Arian or Essul, either one of you, could be on the other side.  Both of you have good rapid fire weapons in what will be a target rich area.  I’ll stay on the same side as you to drop stasis and warp, Jenus will be with Irina, backing her up.  Gavorn, Vayne, everybody else, I’ll leave it to you to pick your positions to compliment, though Avan I could really use you and your tech to help shut down anyone who may push us back and break through the entrance hall.”

“Need some more eggs,” Jenus said.

Mira pulled her own lift grenades from her belt and tossed them to Jenus.  “Use them well.”

[TheMajonese]

Arian listened to Mira's plan. It was good considering the situation they were in but he didn't like their lack of any proper equipment. Sure, the biotics would be useful and they had a very good position but the attackers had the number advantage, maybe they even had some mechs to throw them at the afterlife.

 

"I will take the other side of the entrance", Arian said to Mira. If any of the attackers would get too close he could easily engage them in close combat while being covered by the commando.

[Redbelle]

Anika nodded. "Behind the bar in the center position. Got it. That entrance into this place is a kill zone though. One corridor with little cover on the way into the main bar area. If their smart they'll come up with a way around that problem. Either use more mechs to push up their position or find alternative ways in.... Or make new ones".

 

Anika paused and her helmet swiveled to take in the sight of the main entrance that would surely be battered down soon. "Recommend hi yield ordnance in the center. If mechs come in we want to be able to hit them hard. That entrance lobby needs to be held if we want to hold them back. If we have anything we can use to mind the tables and chairs in that area we can spring a surprise on anyone behind any mechs while we hit the front line".

 

Anika's head swiveled around to take in the room entirely. "No idea how tough these walls are but I'd bet they have breaching strips. They'll be looking for other ways in to flank us as well. I think they'll hit us in waves up the front to distract us from what else they'll be doing outside..... Shame Jess isn't here I could use her drone right about now. Anyone got something we can use to keep eye's on outside"?

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

“What about the security cameras?” Irina asked. “Every place like this has security cameras.”

 

Mira smiled and got on her communicator. “Aria, we need access to your security room. I need what they’re up to out there.”

 

“Good thinking. It’s the locked room off the armory. I’ll send Anto up to let you in.” Aria replied. “If you need more clips, grenades, and some more supplies, there’s a small plate on the right side of the right most locker. Press it. The locker will slide to the left. Make sure you return everything after you’re done.” Aria cut communication.

 

In a minute, Anto arrived, and Mira got Frank’s attention. “Frank, go with Anto to the security room. Let me know what they’re doing outside. Essul, check out the armory locker.” Mira gave Essul the instructions.

 

Aria paced around in the lower level of Afterlife. “Bray, they’re afraid of me. If I were to make my presence known upstairs, they would shift their assault down here. They want to eliminate everyone and leave me isolated.”

 

“That’s not going to happen, Aria.”

 

Aria smiled. “I know, right Patriarch?”

 

Patriarch grumbled, and turned to face the outside, watching for attackers.

[Redbelle]

Anika smiled inside her helmet. "Okay, this sounds like we can make ready. Let's setup for a holding action so we can maneuver our enemy into the killing field. I'll stay down here, someone else get the gear, snap. Frank! Stop bleeding everywhere! Jess knows people who can help you afterwards! One doctor she knows has a lighter in his thumb"!

 

Anika started moving the bar to setup for the coming assault. "Some kind of fallback position would be good. And make sure any other entrances are either sealed or have people or anti personnel, if we have any. Let's get this done folks the one thing I hate more than a kill zone is a kill zone that the bad guys can walk through unmolested"!

[Kel Riever]

...on the Medusa

“They went and took the water off the comet, which of course they weren’t supposed to do…”

“You mean like we weren’t supposed to be leaving Calleston Docks ‘till this ship was ready.  ‘Supposed to do’ seems to be a bit of a loose term anyway, when we’re talking water and being Shanghaied…”

“Yeah, but if we weren’t putting the water in our holds, it would just sit there on that crippled ship, being useless.  Look, where they got some of their tanks breached the stuff’s turned to ice.”

“What’s the problem with ice?  Don’t we need ice for what we do around here?”

“How’re you going to get that over here, then, genius?...”

Amy Hayashi was eavesdropping on the conversation between two dockhands from around a corner.  Ice.  What do they need that much ice for?  Maybe this is just the start.  They’re going to roam around, and…tricking people onboard…and then they’d ‘prepare’ them in that room and…

The drunk was definitely hitting Amy.  She realized that for a half a second, because she knew she had never been this hammered before.  And she was even coming down.

But then that half a second was gone and she thought, This ship is stealing people and selling them for Cannibalism!

The thoughts went away for a moment when Amy was aware of movement from behind and above her.  She turned to see a small bird studying her curiously.  It was very pretty, with black feathers that had a blue sheen, and a long, thin, pointy beak.  The bird had alighted on a door frame just next to her.

Hayashi looked up.  “Hey, little bird…”

The bird suddenly chirped angrily, swooped at her, and pecked her in the head.

“Ow!”

The bird chirped more angrily and swooped again.

"Owie!  Ouch!"

From the dockworkers’ perspective, they heard shouts, and when they glanced down the passageway to see what was happening, they saw a woman with wild, black hair in shiny T-shirt, pants and socks running across the corridor, away from them, flinging her hands in the air and being chased by a little bird.