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

[song_tra_bong]

Mary Anne tracks the guard whose sorceress Goldy sniped in the beginning. He's moving still, from cover to cover, and still carrying the woman's body. With his size, it's not exactly slowing him down.

The snow messes with her vision, but it's not too different than fighting in the underbrush or the rain. You just have to look past it, look through it, and focus on nothing but that flash of real movement--

Her first round of fire catches him across the knees. He falls, bellowing, the dead sorceress landing beside him. He tries to drag himself upright and her next shots open his throat.

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

Even a group as experienced as a Red commando team can be disoriented during the first moments of a well-laid ambush. The Reds are used to dealing with snipers, after all. They're terribly common within the city. But full-scale ambushes are far less so. Scattering for cover, they fall into old patterns. And they forget to watch their backs.

Mel's grenade bounces off her target's head. Considering how strong she is, that would be enough to stun him on its own, but then the grenade goes off and his helmet isn't really designed to stop that much shrapnel that close. He goes down and the concussion staggers the sorceress next to him.

At the same moment the explosives in Krauser's arrows go off just as the guardsman's sorceress turns to look at him, and she's thrown back a few feet by the shockwave. He shields keep her from taking any hits, but the force stuns her for a moment.

Miho's first shuriken is blocked by the sorceress' shield and the red-haired woman in question spins to see where it came from. The guardsmen spins at the same time, so instead of taking an instantly fatal blow her merely loses an eye and takes a long bleeding gash across his face.

As Mary Anne's target goes down, one of the sorceress', presumably their ranking officer, yells, "Case Blackthorn! Scatter!" Two guardsmen and five sorceresses survived the initial onslaught to some degree or another, nearly half the people in the plaza died within seconds.

The two sorceresses staggered by grenades stumble to their feet and join the other survivors in scattering out of the plaza, each heading off on their own. One surviving guardsman-sorceress pair sticks together as they head north, a lone sorceress heads in each of the other cardinal directions.

The pair facing Miho decide to deal with her before leaving themselves. She's just one tiny woman, it shouldn't take long even with the guardsman going into shock.

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

"They're scattering," Makita yells into her com-link. It's an observation that probably wasn't needed, but... "I've got the one heading west! Don't let any of them get away!" She scrambles up from cover and sprints after the sorceress who's guardsman she just killed.

[slayer_fray]

Mel's already flying after her stunned sorceress before it occurs to her to use her com-link.

"I've got mine!" she says, having no idea which direction that is, and even less idea how to penetrate her shields.

[twiststheblade]

Miho rolls her eyes and goes for the guardsman's throat, skipping to the side before slipping in under his guard and drawing him a new smile. She hasn't lost the element of surprise after all - her stature has them under-estimating her. Good.

[dead-comrade.livejournal.com]

"South," Krauser says, calling it as he moves across the uncertain rooftop and drops to the ground past it. He doesn't move into the alleyway, since he doesn't want to have to heal burns until he has to. He was there already, after all, and he's waiting for--



That.

He slips into the alley when the light's faded, picking his way with more speed than care; there's the faintest chance she didn't die right away thanks to her shields, and that means he has to finish it now.

Shortly after, he doubles back, circling, knife in hand, headed north.

[song_tra_bong]

"'M after the set heading north," she says, bolting out from behind her cover and working across the courtyard.

She thinks for a moment about asking for back-up, but figures they will when they've dealt with their own (prey) quarry.

Then, the thought gets pushed aside and it's time to think about fighting a man larger than her--about Achilles tendons and the abdominal aorta and the weight of the knives at her hips.

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

There's a crackle of static, and then Goldy's voice can be heard over the airwaves again.

"For future reference, Hot Stuff, there are four M's on the team. Others may not be as familiar with your sexy tones as I am."

It's wry rather than chastising—apparently she feels a lot better now that her position isn't under attack. While it was, she couldn't get any more shots off, but her eye is back on the scope now, scanning the square for targets.

"G holding," she reports. "Tiger, I still see you and a sorceress. No clear shot though. Get her out in the open and I'll try and take care of those shields."

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

An ambush is utterly chaotic. Even the attackers, who know its coming, can't really keep track of everything that's going on. In the first few seconds a full half of the twelve-person Red strike team are hit. Against most opponents this would be enough to break the enemy, and the rest of the action would simply be mopping up the disorganized survivors. But these are some of the most elite troops the Reds have, and they respond immediately.

As Goldy looks on from her perch, Miho finds herself in the center of the plaza (http://runmakitarun.livejournal.com/7114.html?thread=84938#t84938) facing down a furious sorceress and her bleeding guardsman.

After literally blowing off a guardsman's head, Mel finds herself heading east (http://runmakitarun.livejournal.com/7114.html?thread=85194#t85194) after his sorceress.

Once Makita's found cover she looks up to see her own target sorceress running westward (http://runmakitarun.livejournal.com/7114.html?thread=85706#t85706), so Makita leaps up and sprints in pursuit.

Mary Anne finds herself moving north (http://runmakitarun.livejournal.com/7114.html?thread=86218#t86218) pursuing the only surviving sorceress-guardsman team to make it out of the ambush.

Krauser already prepared the south path (http://runmakitarun.livejournal.com/7114.html?thread=89546#t89546) out of the plaza, after the explosion all he'll need to do is walk in and finish things.