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[Cainhurst Crow]

"Alright. Three, Two, One, Lift..." Vayne said from his position as he hefted the bar up on his side, the others on the other end doing the same as the bar was now lifted off the ground. Vayne walked it over silently, moving with grunting breaths as he walked the bar into the right position.

 

Essul nodded at the orders, entering the armory as he looked for the locker specified. He kept flexing his hand as he did so, numbness still there as his hand failed to clench all the way. It seemed he was not going to be able to use it fully.

 

He found the locker, and went to the right side as he pressed the plate, and the locker slide, revealing a hidden cache of weapons and resupplies. "Okay. We got a M-76 Revenant. 2 M-560 Hydra's, Enough grenades and Heatclips for use to restock. There's...is that a M-98 Widow?" Essul said over the comms to the others, grabbing the rifle and looking it over, "Any sniper strong enough to use this, let me know. Otherwise, I'm taking it..." He said as he looked through the supplies, "There's another gun here all the way in the back. It's yellow...what is that?" He asked aloud as he brought the heavy weapon closer, never having seen one before, "It's called a...Cain?" He questioned, hoping the others would know what it was.

 

((I can remove the last part if that would make this too OP. I just can't help but think aria would have a Cain ready to go somewhere.))

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Irina laughed at the last one. "Leave the Cain alone, Essul. That thing would kill all of us in these tight quarters." she said over her comm. "I'll take a bunch of those thermals, and some concussion grenades. Do they have any HE rounds?"

[Cainhurst Crow]

"A couple. Some Hammerheads...Incendiary...and phasic." Essul informed the others as he holstered the Widow on his back, looking for a way to get all the stuff. "Might take me a while to get it all, but I can start. I only got one good arm right now." He informed them, shoulder being kept stable thanks to the medigel only.

[Kel Riever]

"What are those?" Iole asked when she saw the M-560 Hydras.

Jenus laughed at the same sight, not from mockery but because she was impressed.  "Seriously, what the void are those?!"

Mira knew.  She'd been with an Alliance military research development group that did a tour and actually discussed some of their concept weaponry with small groups of elite units from the Council species.  Mira had been lucky enough to be part of one of the meetings when the humans came around.  "Those are experimental missile systems, designed to make the crossover for eliminating either single armored targets or multiple opponents.  They're highly effective....and aren't in wide use yet because a few have had problems.  The warhead releases a barrage of miniature missiles, each guided by an independent homing system that seeks out exposed enemies....the problem being that there have been reports that some of those miniature missiles sometimes seek out friends..."  She sighed.  "I think we're desperate enough to use them, though. Just...try not to use them unless you have to."

 

[Redbelle]

Anika kept sentry duty on the door. Her Typhoon held next to her hip ready to come up and fire.

 

It was times like this she wished she'd bugged Jess for the missile system upgrades to her suit. She'd seen the experimental armor models that were experimenting with the concept without risking a missile blowing up right next to the users head..... Maybe she'd get two. She'd seen an old movie one time with a solider called war machine using a similar system......

[Cknarf]

“Frank, go with Anto to the security room. Let me know what they’re doing outside."

 

"K."

 

"So... what's it like working for Aria? Does it pay well?" Frank asked the batarian, who offered no response, as he led Frank to the security room. "I can't believe I was in the same room as her. Crazy, man.  I lived here for half of my life, and never once saw her in person."

 

Frank gasped.

 

"I'm working for Aria right now." He laughed. "You'd better watch out, I might be replacing you soon."

 

Anto stopped before the door, and entered the necessary codes.

 

"Make it quick. And don't touch anything." Anto grumbled. "Go. Get in there."

 

Frank shuffled into the security room.

 

Neat.

 

He stepped up to large monitor, that displayed camera feeds from various parts of Afterlife. Frank began pressing buttons on the console.

 

[Afterlife, Main]

 

"Sup, team?" Frank snickered, zooming in on members of the group.

 

[Afterlife, Lower Level]

 

Aria?

 

The queen herself could be seen pacing calmly back and forth, among several of her people.  There didn't seem to be much going on down there. Frank was surprised at the lack of action below.

 

"Hm."

 

So far, so good.

 

[Main Entrance]

 

Damn, another mech.

 

An YMIR mech stood before the main entrance of Afterlife. Some mercs were preparing to breach the main entrance.

 

"Hey! Uh..." Frank began to speak over comms.

 

F***. I forgot her name...

 

Frank counted the commandos on his right hand

 

Iole... Tallis... J... Jen... Jenus?

 

He ran out of fingers.

 

Mmmm... muh muh... Mira! That's it!

 

"Mira! Hostiles are attempting to breach the main entrance. They have another mech standing by as well... Hold on, I've got something else."  Movement on one of the smaller screens caught his eye.

 

[Rooftop, North.]

 

"There..." Frank spotted some mercs on the roof. They appeared to be carrying some large equipment.  He zoomed in.

 

What are you up to...

 

"Oh, Sh*t."

 

Sparks flew, as the mercs began cutting into the roof.  The image was quickly replaced by a pair of legs, followed by the barrel of a shotgun. The feed went dark.

 

"We've got a large number of hostiles on the North roof. They're cutting their way in. Chances are, they'll be inside before the others manage to breach the main entrance."

[Kel Riever]

"Good catch, Frank," Mira said back to Frank.  She then made sure the team inside had gotten his message.  "Jenus, Iole, cover the breach coming from the roof!  Two more at least should go with them, but we still need to cover the main entrance."

The soft sound of something grinding came from inside the roof where Frank had mentioned.

"Hurry!  Hurry!"  Tallis shouted.

Iole scooted over the bar.  "She's all yours," She told Anika as she ran to get to the upper balcony.  

Jenus moved too, but much faster.  She crouched, took aim for an upper tier booth, then biotically charged her way to the top, getting to the location in an instant and covering it with her Disciple.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Frank had used the club's PA system to inform the team where the incursions were taking place.

 

"That's my gym!" Aria shouted. "Bray, you'd better not let anyone get in here!"

 

Aria ran upstairs to her VIP section and saw Jenus and Iole heading toward the door. "Step aside! I'll let us in," she said and used her palm print to unlock the door. "These bastards won't know what hit them. Which one of you has the better biotics?"

 

"That'd be Jenus," Iole replied.

 

"I want you to go downstairs and report to Bray," Aria said, "And you are?"

 

"Iole."

 

"You come with me. These bastards won't know what hit them," Aria said.

 

"Why don't we wait for them here?" Iole asked.

 

"Because I want to smear them against the walls," Aria said as they moved down the corridor toward her gym. Aria had her shotgun in hand - a fully modded Wraith. "They dare attack my domain."

[Kel Riever]

Iole wasn't thrilled about being with what she considered the equivalent of a mob boss, but it was too late to do anything about it then.  Entering the gym, she got a brief glance at the spartan setting before Aria and she zeroed in where the sound of the break-in was coming from.

The golden eyed asari maiden activated her Hellbringer's motion detector, offering a glimpse of its motion detector to Aria.  "Multiple contacts, each one a blip, exactly at these locations.  They're close enough for this to be pretty specific.  You can let them get in...or just before they breach, I can hit them first with armor piercing rounds, since they're breaking through anyway."

Grinding sounds were loud, indicating the attackers were on the verge of coming through.  Iole searched for something to give her partial cover but the center of the gym was dominated by a practice mat and the equipment on the sides of the room wouldn't be able to be moved in time to be useful.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Aria surveyed the situation in the gym, and moved to a corner and jumped on top of a pi. "If they know we're in here, they'll drop gas or an incendiary," Aria said and turned off most of the lights, "You should stay in the corner nearest the door. Don't fire until I give the word. I want their entire squad to enter. Then, when I drop a flare on them you open up."

[Redbelle]

Anika shook off her musings as the outer door of Afterlife shook with a reverberating clang as something heavy hit it from outside. Anika tilted her head over to the others as her Typhoon came up to nestle into her shoulder.

 

"Guy's...... How are we looking? I think our grace period is over.... What have we got to hold this position"?

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Irina took her position behind the bar with her mattock. The bar had a four inch thick acrylic top. "I suggest we take our positions now. Anika, give the Firestorm to Vayne. I'll handle anything big with the Blackstorm, and the flamethrower can deal with any troops they send through." She took the Blackstorm off her back and set it next to her for easy access. "Let's give these sons of b*tches hell!"

[Cknarf]

Frank remained at the console, and continued cycling through the security feeds.

 

[Main Entrance]

 

The picture went dark, as the mercs detonated their charges. Frank switched to a second external camera, covering the same entrance. The door was severely damaged, but still intact.

 

"They're placing more charges at the main entrance. Get ready."

 

One of the minimized feeds gradually dimmed. Frank opened it up for a better view.

 

[Gym]

 

Afterlife has a gym? Huh. Who'd have thought?

 

Frank hit a few buttons, causing the image to switch to 'white hot' themal. He easily made out the outline of Iole's Hellbringer.

 

Bringing up the floorplan of Afterlife, he traced his finger across the screen.

 

That's where they're coming in.

 

He switched feeds again.

 

[Rooftop, North.]

 

Oh, right. Broken.

 

He switched back to the gym feed, and reduced its size. He moved it to the upper left corner of the monitor, and began checking additional external cameras for other possible points of entry.

[Kel Riever]

Mira preferred the organization of a recognized military power for a reason.

Unlike Jenus, however, Mira understood.  She had Frank with a sniper rifle up high.  He'd been pulled,  She'd had Arian on one side of the tunnel entranceway.  He'd been pulled.  She had Irina on the other side of the tunnel entranceway.  She was now behind the bar.

Sometimes, Mira wondered if people weren't trying to mess with her on purpose.

But then, that's where Mira differed from her more tightly controlling military ilk.  Mira worked with the resources at hand, and adjusted.  She still didn't feel comfortable without anyone on either side of the tunnel.  If, somehow, someone got through, they would have to cut right or left.  So Mira asked Avan to hold one side, where he also set up his sentry turret, and Mira herself would hold the other.

"Try not to hit us with the heavy weapons," Mira called over to the team behind the bar.

The shorter range of Mira's Disciple, even with the smart choke, would work better from her position, anyway.  Combined with her biotics, she'd be a formidable barrier to anyone coming her way.  Avan, for his part, didn't look like he'd roll over either.  Mira glanced over her shoulder to check on the one member of her team that was still within sight, Tallis.  Her Commando friend winked twice and gave her a quick salute.

The team was ready.  Mira waited with the practiced calm of her meditation.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

There was a deafening explosion at the main door as it blew open and fell inward. Irina ducked behind the bar to escape the shockwave. As soon as the door hit the floor, two dozen lightly armored mercs charged through, the ones in front firing their weapons wildly in the direction of the team.

 

Irina opened fire in burst fire mode with her Mattock taking one out at a time.

[Redbelle]

Reaching behind her to her heavy weapon hard-point, the firestorm uncurled like a waking beast. It's grip slapping into her palm which fingers curled around as the hard-point released it's hold and Anika brought the Firestorm up and over till she held it at her side. Looking over to Vayne she started making for the bar, tracing a path that took her near the Krogan.

 

"Here... Have fun. Try to leave a few for the rest of us yeah"? She grinned. An expression lost in her helmeted visage before jogging over to the bar and settling with the Typhoon stabilizer legs on the counter. Hunched over behind it as she aimed down the lobby area of afterlife. Tilting her head over to where Irina was crouched she thought back to the Jeniri.

 

"So.... what do you do on the ship when we're transiting? I've looked for you a few times but I guess we keep missing each other".

[TheMajonese]

The moment the attackers moved through the main entrance Arian realised how bad his position was. He had taken cover in a slightly elevated lounge opposite to the bar because he hadn't expected the mercenaries to be that fast. But with the YMIR mech giving cover fire some of them were able to quickly move out of the deadzone around the door. 

 

Arian had just enough time to scan the mech and send tactical information to the omni-tools of his team members before the machine turned into his direction and fired with his mass accelerator cannons at him. His shields went down before he was able to duck behind his cover. The bullets pierced through the railing and the sofas, forcing him to drop flat to the ground and covering him in scraps of cloth.

 

When the fire stopped Arian waited a second before he crouched to his gun that he had dropped before. The shadow that fell over him from behind warned him just in time to roll aside. The bullet hit the floor next to his head. One of the attackers, a human, had climbed into the lounge and pointed a Carnifex at the turian. Lying on his back Arian fired a poorly directed concussive shot at the attacker to knock him backwards. The mercenary was hit in the shoulder, let out a groan and dropped his gun. 

 

Arian tried to get up but the attacker kicked him against his head and sent him back to the ground.

 

The world seemed to explode, a glaring light blinded him and the only thing he could hear was a screeching sound that became louder and quieter. It was a reflex of him to raise his hand in an attempt to stop the long combat knife from stabbing through his neck. The tip of the blade painfully scratched his skin but by using both his hands Arian was able to prevent the human from killing him.

 

It was a desperate struggle, both trying to overcome the other, Arian was stronger but the attacker put all his weight on the knife. The turian clenched his teeth and let out an angry snarl. His muscles began to shake as he wasn't able to fight much longer.

[Cknarf]

Frank headed towards the main area of Afterlife, immediately after the front door was breached. He linked his omni-tool with the club's security system, allowing him to access the camera feeds on the fly.

 

Approaching the action, he noticed that Arian was having a little trouble.  Frank raised his rifle as he advanced. Not bothering to use the scope, he fired.  The merc, still focused on the turian, didn't seem to notice the round that was deflected by his shields.  Instead of swapping to the Scimitar as he should have, Frank hit the merc with a cryo attack and charged him, wielding his ancient rifle as a club.

 

The slightly frosted merc rose from a dazed Arian, and got to his feet just as Frank swung for the fences.  The stock of Frank's rifle thumped off of the merc's head with a hollow sound, knocking him slightly off balance, but doing no real damage, as he was wearing a helmet.  Frank tried to follow up with a downward blow, but the merc managed to deflect it.  He grabbed hold of Frank's rifle and yanked, launching him into a table.

 

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-"

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Irina fired a couple of bursts and the clip read zero; she slammed a new magazine into her rifle. "When I'm not getting things ready for the next outing, I'm usually down the port cargo bay playing Armali 7 with Jenus, Iole, Tallis and a couple of crew members. You ought to join us some time. We have a lot of fun," Irina said, and heard the scuffle going on between Arian and one of the attackers.

 

Arian felt the human slump against him. "You're welcome," Irina said, and fired over the bar again.

 

The mech kept providing supressing fire for the onslaught, and at the rate it was, it became doubtful that they could hold this position.

 

"Take out that mech!" Mira shouted.

 

"I need some covering fire!" Irina shouted.

 

Anika opened up with her Typhoon. Irina aimed with the Blackstorm, charged it, and fired a tech singularity at the mech. The singularity began to weaken the mech's armor and disrupted its ability to provide suppressing fire for the mercs. The mercs continued to press on, and they were on top of Irina's position before she could get to her assault rifle.

 

A merc leaped over the bar and knocked her on her back and was pinning her trying to stab her with a blade. She had just unholstered her shotgun from her thigh and shot him in the abdomen with one barrel. Then she shoved him off her and Vayne took the butt of his shotgun and smashed in his skull. Irina scrambled to get her Mattock off the floor and did.

[Cknarf]

With a grunt, Frank shoved away the table that had landed on top of him. Expecting a fight, he sat up with his Scimitar at the ready.  Much to his surprise, the merc had already been dealt with.

 

He shrugged, and crawled back to his rifle.

[Kel Riever]

There was no walking through the entranceway of Afterlife with the kind of firepower facing down it and getting away without severe consequences.  What those behind the bar might have failed to notice, but was very apparent to Mira and Avan, was the incredible carnage that had occurred in the tunnel.  By the time the YMIR and the mercs had made it through to the bar, there were bodies piled high in the corridor.  It just wasn’t like some fight that anybody had been in before.  Maybe from the number of casualties, but not from the perspective of being such a meat grinder in a small space.

That’s when Mira realized what it was that bothered her about the attackers.  Sure, there were religious zealots or those who cared nothing, even honored, the sacrifice of their own lives.  But no matter the fervor, or storybook ideals, or outright loss of any touch with reality, there was always someone who changed their mind.  More like some people, a percentage, however small.  Faced with death, someone changed their minds.  It never was a one-hundred percent rate when it came to suicide attacks.

And yet here this cult was, incessant and relentless, with not one person backing off.  They weren’t mindlessly attacking; the enemy took cover where it could, shot intelligently when it could.  But when it came to the attrition, to the push where numbers mattered, into certain death, no one, not a single one, flinched.  Even drugs didn’t do that across an entire group the size of this one.  Only fiction had these kinds of antagonists riddled through its tale for the heroes to defeat.

Avan and his sentry gun put down a group of five specifically heading in and turning his direction.  Two of the enemy took out the gun as they died, pushing him back.  Mira had three turn her way, and was forced to used her stasis bubble to shut them down and prevent others from rolling her way.  There was a break after, affording her a second to see what was happening at the bar.

Tallis was holding her barrier, also preventing countless projectiles from ripping into the rest behind the bar where they weren’t under cover.  Then, Mira saw one merc leaping over the bar from the side, about to tackle Anika unbeknownst to the tall human.  Anika probably wouldn’t have been taken down by him, but he would definitely knock her Typhoon aside, providing precious seconds of reduced fire for others pushing through the tunnel.  With barely enough energy, Mira tossed out her arm in the merc’s direction, and used a biotic throw to hurl the merc above and away from Anika, over the rail, to crash somewhere in the lower bar.

Then Mira heard it, krogan screaming a battle cry from the entryway.  She turned to see several of them leading a charge which included a good sized group of turians and a few other species through the opening the YMIR’s spearhead had caused.  One heavily armored krogan had so much mass he passed through the stasis field as if it wasn’t there and came at Mira.  If she hadn’t had such quick reflexes, Mira would have been crushed underneath.  Instead, she biotically dodged to the side, to avoid the oncoming juggernaut.  It left Mira with no biotic shield to protect herself, or any other ability to focus biotics for the next few seconds, but she had saved herself for the moment.

[Cainhurst Crow]

Vayne heard the scream as he slammed his firestorms butt into a mercs skull, cracking the helmet as he did so. Turning to look, he spotted the charging team of krogans, with turians leading the back, and his eye went wide.

 

"CLEAR THE ENTRANCE!!!" He yelled as he aimed the firestorm and pulled the trigger, a blast of fire shooting out towards the charging figures from the side. Shields shimmered out as highly sticky flaming gel coated the top half of the charging juggernaut, not seeming to phase him as two more on its right caught on fire as well. Vayne held the firestorm in one hand, reaching down as he drew the Bakara Shotgun from his waist and aimed it down the tunnel, firing it as the loud bang and steam hissed out.

 

His shot hit one of the krogans to the right, sending it stumbling down while on fire. The others moved around it like a wave, no one stopping to help up the krogan, and not slowing down as vanye continued to aim the flames into the hall at the attackers.

 

Then a deafening blast louder than any of their guns rang out, and the charging juggernauts shoulder seemed to explode out, the large krogan slamming into the bar hard as orange chunks splattered from the blown open wound. It backed off with a stumble, letting out another rage filled roar as Essul stooed on an elevated point of the bar, frank's former position, and held the Widow sniper rifle in his hand.

 

Its barrel smoked, and essul looked like he was in a lot of pain as he reached forward to reload the gun with his right hand, thermal clip flying as he took aim for the krogan once more, this time aiming for its face before he suddenly switched targets. One of the krogans were closing in on vayne, the flames coating it fully but not stopping it as it ran towards him. Essul fired again, shot blowing apart the helmet the smaller krogan wore and sending its body sprawling forth.

 

Essul grunted in pain, breathing heavily as the gun lowered in his grasp. A small trickle of green blood leaked from his sealed wounds and down his armor, and he gritted his metal teeth as he brought his arm up and reloaded the gun once more. Each shot felt like he was getting blasted with a low level shotgun round to his whole chest. This gun, no matter how specially made it might be, still packed a hell of a kick, and even with his specialized kinetic protective armor, its kickback was doing more and more damage to Essul with each shot.

 

And he was determined to grit and bear it, for the sake of using it to help the others. With only one good arm, there was little else he could do then lie down and use his body as a cushion, while taking down as many as he could.

[Redbelle]

Seeing the influx of Krogan charging at them Anika ducked so the bar provided a temporary shield while the others began shifting their attention to the new threat. She pulled back the slide on the Typhoon. It's thermal clip glowing white hot as it ejected out and Anika slapped in another to replace it.

 

"Devastator mode...... Really should look into Devastator mode".

 

She let out a short sigh and lifted herself back up over the counter. Pointed the Typhoon at the largest grouping of opponents, and pulled the trigger. The Typhoon let out a few spluttered shots before the weapon kicked in and showered those facing her in a hail of block shavings.

 

Small wonder the Typhoon was sometimes called the garden hose.

[TheMajonese]

When the mercenary got hit in the back and fell in Arian's direction, the turian lost no time to grab his own knife and ram it through the attacker's neck to make sure he was dead. Arian threw a glance to Frank who just got back on his feet. Unable to speak Arian just nodded. He tasted blood in his mouth and his jaw felt numb. 

 

While grabbing his Phaeston Arian realised how bad the situation was. With the krogan berserkers the attackers could easily overrun their defense. Most of the krogans were heading towards the bar but from his position Arian wasn't able to slow them down. Instead he targeted the heavy gunners who tried to lay down suppressive fire on the defenders at the bar. He was still suffering from the dizziness of the human's attack but even if his shots didn't hit they forced the mercenaries to stay in cover.

[Kel Riever]

Despite the onslaught, it was looking pretty bad for the attackers coming through the tunnel. A number had broken through, but between the Typhoon, the fire (nothing said burn like a flamethrower), the wrecked YMIR blocking a good part of the tunnel, and all the rest of the hail of bullets, the body count was mounting. Still, more attackers came and Mira thought there had to be a reason.

There wasn’t much time to think about it as three turians taking cover behind the YMIR wreckage aimed Vindicators and opened fire. Still with her biotics exhauseted, Mira was without shields or an effective counter-attack. She sprung backwards to avoid the field of fire and found herself back to back with Tallis, who had gotten out from behind the bar when she could no longer protect with her barrier.

The turians disappeared as gunfire was focused their direction, but three other enemy mercs had gotten through and charged into melee. The Commandos moved to face them, shoulder to shoulder, defending themselves with synchronized martial strikes. Mira and Tallis had trained and fought together for a decade, and it was as if one could read the other’s mind. Bone crunching kicks and fists hit the mercs, and for a moment, they pushed the two asari back, until they fell one by one. Both Mira and Tallis put the heel of a kick through the helmet of the last merc at the same time, with enough force to shatter the visor and fracture the skull. The merc dropped, twitching.

Then Mira’s eye caught sight of one of Vayne’s firestorm shots hitting what looked like a wall. When the flames subsided, Mira saw why. An asari, in brown commando leathers, stood with her feet planted and her arms outstretched. The barrier she created formed a protective bubble, allowing what looked like the last wave of attackers to advance. Mira knew the asari couldn’t hold the barrier forever, especially with the firepower coming her way, but then the enemy commando stepped back behind the YMIR wreck and shifted her position.

Mira shouted at Tallis, “Watch out!”

Without thinking, Mira shoved Tallis out of the way with both her arms. As her teammate was pushed out of the way, Mira’s vision became blurry as she felt herself lift off the ground. If Mira had her barrier up, she would have been able to shrug off the effects of the lift. As it was, she was out of control, rising upwards.

Tallis recovered, and shot at the asari, forcing her back behind her cover.

But then another asari who hadn’t been spotted came out from the other side of the YMIR. She was dressed in a gang outfit instead of a commando uniform, held out both her arms and shimmered in biotic energy. Mira knew what was coming next but there was nothing that could be done to stop it. The Throw, cast by the enemy, set off a biotic explosion when it hit Mira’s lifted form. Its blast, combined with the biotic power’s effect, ripped into Mira and sent her hurtling back through Afterlife.

Mira hit the central video pillar, off-center, shattering the display where her back impacted. Shards lacerated her body but the momentum didn’t end their, as Mira glanced off the pillar and over the span of the room. Finally, Mira crashed into the angled far wall above the second tier of booths with a sickening crunch and dropped to the floor.