Into the storm

[runmakitarun]

As the last of the team files through the door Makita closes it firmly behind herself and leads the way over to the window. Down in the square below twelve people move purposefully through the snow.

The six women are mostly unremarkable. One stands out as being exceptionally tall, one is short enough to almost look like a child, and hair of various colors and lenghts and styles can be seen escaping from their warm hats. The six men, however, stand out. The smallest is six and a half feet tall and looks to weigh at least 270 pounds. All twelve of them move with the smooth grace of practiced killers.

Makita doesn't bother whispering as she points them out, "See how they move in pairs? Each sorceress has her Guardsman a few paces behind her. You can see that even in a group they're thinking in twos. When we hit them, I want us to concentrate on splitting as many pairs as we can. They operate much less efficiently when their teams are broken up."

"There's another square like this a few blocks down. If they're headed of our HQ, then they'll have to go through it. If we move fast we can get there first and set up." She shoulders her rifle and looks at her team again, "Let's keep it fast and quiet."

So saying, Makita leads the way out the door, heading toward the rear fire escape for the building.

Comments

[slayer_fray]

"Right."

Mel feels the need for no other words, and follows Makita closely, hands free and swinging.

She might not look like she's trying to be quiet or sneaky or anything other than out for a stroll, but her movements are silent anyway. It's just instinct.

[twiststheblade]

Miho doesn't feel the need for any words at all.

She swings a little away from the group - all the better to get the job done. She's not used to working with more than maybe one or two people - she's more effective on her own. Besides, she's been here before - even if she didn't come up against anything like this.

She tugs her scarf down below her mouth - she's going to need as much air as she can get, freezing cold or not. She's bare-headed, not wanting to lose any of her peripheral vision. She's just as quiet as Mel, the only noise from her the slight and inevitable crunch of snow underneath the corrugated soles of thick boots. Her face is a blank mask - but her eyes are bright. This? Is going to be fun.

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Goldy wonders why she can't set up here. She has a clean shot at every single one of the enemies. However, she defers to Makita's strategic knowledge of the area and assumes the next location must have better vantage points. So the instructions are given a nod of understanding, and she follows along.

"Holy fuck, it's cold," she utters through teeth already gritted against the bitter wind. Suddenly Steph's mothering doesn't seem quite so annoying. She pulls out a chapstick and applies it liberally as she walks.

[dead-comrade.livejournal.com]

Add another to the more effective on their own category, although Krauser's happy to play along. He's not antisocial. It's societies he has problems with.

He's also got nothing to contribute right now besides I'm just going to follow along quietly and not give us away. Makita's world, her plan; at least, unless the situation changes.

[song_tra_bong]

Mary Anne tugs her ski cap a little lower down around her ears. She shoulders her rifle, then starts checking her knives in their sheathes as she walks.

The last thing she needs is for the cold to make one of the blades stick when she really needs it.

In the plaza

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

As Miho's blade flicks out, the guardsman's eyes widen in sudden shock, and then pain. He won't be underestimating her any longer, but that's mostly because he's only got seconds before he bleeds to death in the snow. Blood spills down to stain his armor and pool across the surface of the snow, and even though he's a dead man he strives to complete his mission. The massive man stumblingly spreads his arms and throws himself clumsily at Miho.

Re: In the plaza

[twiststheblade]

Too clumsy, too slow, too late - by the time his hands grasp for her, the spot holds nothing but cold air. She's already darting for the woman, and coming as close to a prayer as she's ever been. This is not going to be easy. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Re: In the plaza

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

The sorceress' eyes are already glowing as Miho moves in on her, but the rage behind them is clearly visible. She finishes a mumbling string of syllables with a yell, "Kasting!"

And suddenly, the ground Miho was standing on drops out from under her. A neat circle, about ten meters across, simply falls from around the sorceress. The only ground left is a small spire on which the witch stands and a narrow walkway connecting it to the edge of the circle.

A savage grin of triumph spreads across the sorceress' face. She may have lost her guardsman, but no one is fast enough to survive a Drop protokol.

Re: In the plaza

[twiststheblade]

Correction.

Almost no-one is fast enough. Miho, on the other hand, is moving before she consciously realises that the ground isn't there any more. When she felt the ground collapsing under her, she threw herself up and forwards - because going backwards just isn't an option. Legs that can soak a drop from eight stories can easily manage an olympic-calibre standing jump - and the witch is no longer alone on her spire.

She allows herself a second to grin, before her blade flickers towards the witch's throat. Miho doesn't take prisoners.

To the east

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

The sorceress who's guardsman Mel just blew up shoots a momentary look of intense rage at the... flying girl. Then she turns and sprints to eastward. Her hand darts into her coat and comes out with a small cylinder. She pulls the pin, mumbling to herself, and her eyes glow bright white.

Then, abruptly, she spins in place to reveal that she's holding a massive glowing silhouette. It looks like a really large auto cannon, and there's a cruel smirk on her face as she yells, "Come on then!"

[slayer_fray]

Mel just grins back, ducks down against the board and picks up speed, sweeping from side to side in large arcs as she draws her scythe.

She's used to running from guards and cops on this thing, presenting a moving target for blaster pistols, but she's not so experienced heading towards people.

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

There is a reason that the Gorkas hate and fear the witches. They wield incredible amounts of power, and Mel's about to see just how much. The glowing weapon begins spitting fire at the small dodging slayer at a rate that should be physically impossible.

There are a lot of rounds flying, but despite all the firepower at her disposal, and all her training, the sorceress really isn't sure how you're supposed to bracket in and shoot down a person flying around like that. Of course sometimes, if you have enough firepower you don't really have to aim.

[slayer_fray]

This is true; sometimes you really don't. Mel's at the peak of a flight when she catches a burst of flame to her right shoulder, knocking her off her rug.

She doesn't even cry out, somersaulting in the air and rippnig her burning jacket off as she watches the rug fly off into a drift nearby. No way she's losing that.

It's done what she needed it to do, anyway; sped her after her target so fast that when she finally drops, it's more or less on top of the witch.

To the west

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

After Makita took down her first target, the sorceress started to chase her. But with all the other combat going on, there's a shift in direction. The witch cuts an angle and begins moving west quickly. She needs some space before coming back to kill the ambushers. The sorceress moves with the long, ground-eating lope of someone who actually knows how to move in the snow as she leaves the plaza.

Re: To the west

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

Makita pounds west, watching the way the sorceress moves. The woman is good, and that means this is probably going to be a long chase. With the snow coming down the way it is, it will only take one flurry to drop visibility enough that Makita will lose contact with her target, and that could get her killed.

So as she pursues she fires short bursts from her pistol toward the target. She knows that the shield will stop the bullets, but every time it does so it flares with unnatural light. As long as that shield keeps strobing on and off, Makita can be confident that she won't lose the damn witch.

Re: To the west

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

[ooc: This is where Cait comes in. Elthon, when you make your tag please include a link to the other thread where she runs toward the fight. I'm OCD about cross-linking and that will help. Feel free to have Cait run into the sorceress first. We'll work with a tentative posting order of Cait, Sorceress, Makita.]

Re: To the west

[cf1.livejournal.com]

[ Here (http://runmakitarun.livejournal.com/7355.html?thread=81083#t81083) ]

Oh, someone chasing the strangely shielded woman. From the size of the figure, Cait bets on Makita, and the shielded woman is coming towards the people who are not bulletproof.

Quick action might be a good answer. Cait rips off an as large as possible section of wall from the closest building, maybe a slab of concrete if she can find one; anyway, a LARGE heavy something is flying to intercept the sorceress.

Take that!

Re: To the west

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

Sorceresses are combat veterans, and the ones on this mission more than most. But even they aren't used to giant flying slabs of concrete flying through the air. Her eyes widen, and she just barely ducks out of the way, getting clipped by an edge, as it flies by.

She's dazed for a moment, but continues to stumble forward through the snow as she calls out a protokol. Moments later a blast of high-voltage electricity arcs toward Caitlin.

To the north

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

Despite the sudden outburst of violence, one pair of Reds manages to get through the entire initial ambush untouched. The sorceress and her guardsman are close to solid cover and move immediately into an ordered withdrawal. The guardsman fires a few bursts into the plaza in order to try to suppress any ambushers, but he's mostly concentrating on covering his charge as they run north, mostly managing to keep cover between themselves and the plaza itself.

[song_tra_bong]

Mary Anne follows at an angle, keeping behind and to the left of the pair. She uses what cover she can, but is mostly concentrating on speed at the moment.

If she can catch them, she can get them pinned down. Letting them go isn't an option.

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

The Reds draw their troops from all over what was once a massive empire. Sometimes that means that their troops are extremely well-suited to operate in a given set of terrain, but sometimes it means that troops are utterly out of place.

It's that second option this time, and it's pretty clear from the way that both the sorceress and her guardsman move through the snow that they're not used to moving through the stuff. It slows them down despite the efforts they put into speed.

The guardsman keeps shooting looks over his shoulder, looking for pursuit. His eyes widen and his mouth opens to yell a warning when his foot catches on some unseen obstruction in the snow. He has excellent balance for such a big man, so he doesn't fall down, but the brief stumble slows him and his charge down just a bit while he catches his balance.

[song_tra_bong]

The stumble is enough and more than enough. Mary Anne closes the distance a little further, then opens fire. She sweeps the gun in an arc, aiming at what--for the guardsman--is mid-back height.

She doesn't slow down as she moves in, just uses her momentum to circle around them, reaching down to loosen a knife in its sheath.

To the south

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

When the mines Krauser planted go off, everyone in the plaza can feel the reverberations. Of ccourse the Reds are used to mines, and they know that most of the damage gets done by shrapnel so their shields are supposed to keep their sorceresses alive even in a minefield. But the alleyway is tight and the mines build up enormous overpressure which has nowhere to go.

That much pressure would disorient anyone, and even the Reds haven't found a way to shield against that. Anyone standing inside that alley would need at least three or four minutes to figure out what's going on. Krauser didn't give anyone those few minutes. When he steps out of the alley, there's one less Red sorceress in Bahamut.

Re: To the south

[dead-comrade.livejournal.com]

Hard to tell how many of the others are still alive.

Krauser pauses for a moment just to listen, and then circles around towards the north by the quietest direction. They fled in all four points of the compass, after all; silence probably means either the sorceress managed to get a head start, or that she got through someone and is busy getting as far as she can.

Re: To the south

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

The comm-link crackles slightly as Makita's voice comes through, "Makita here, everybody check in (http://runmakitarun.livejournal.com/7766.html)."