"I can do it, I can buy enough time, Sleepy; trust me," I heard Emma's voice over comms, and I nodded to myself.
"I am not going to make you, only if you're confident," I said.
"SleepyWonder, I am confident," She snapped.
"Alright, Nyahdia, move forward. Watch for my traps, and we need you to greet some friends for us. Meemee, highlight things you believe we should not hit because it might go boom in red. Then we will give them a good greeting. We will go in no more than thirty seconds; let's go, ladies." I snapped, and they moved. The sudden shots from Emma's assault rifle sounded, and I saw Meemee working hard, but I saw a small drone head out to assist Emma.
"I got three; they are starting to put more pressure on us. How many off shifts were there in the crew quarters, assumed to have?" Emma asked, and her rifle fired more as Nyahdia joined us. Then I started to see them highlight for Emma just in time as they suddenly got smart and threw a bunch of smokes, and Emma had to pick them off in the smoke with the drone highlighting them.
We did not have time to watch her, though. Meemee highlighted large amounts of chemicals that might explode or create toxic gas if hit. We were not sure and did not want to test this. "That is all I can see on my drones," Meemee reported, and we could see the highlighted people in our HUDs as well.
After I quickly finished reloading my shotgun and assault rifle, I chose a fresh magazine over a partially empty one. I needed to get an ammo counter. "Alright," I said, "Nyahdia, got a firing path in mind?" I asked.
"You know it~!" Nyahdia said, sounding like she was having the time of her life. "Let's start this party~!" She announced it over the comms, and it began.
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She quickly fired off bursts, moving the minigun like it was a precision machine laser. I was impressed to see it shooting through the wall, and then she started to reap death among the enemies. HUD displays went dark as they started to scream at each other and die, and I moved up and threw in smoke grenades we got just for this room as they were inert smoke grenades that were made for such areas as labs with open chemicals. The sounds of the enemies yelling at each other and Nyahdia had only taken out about ten as they moved to new cover.
I nodded to Nyahdia, and Meemee launched new drones into the room. Nyahdia moved up for a new angle, and we entered the room where they no longer had a clear line of sight.
Inside the main room, there were five large containers of chemicals that were clearly in the process of something in bulk. We did not want to hit those, but there was also space between each with displays, containers, tables, and other lab equipment, which was our loot after this, but we would only take what we could salvage after winning the firefight. I could see on the HUD that they were taking a position at the far side of the room with boxes, tables, and whatever they thought would give them cover. But there were not as many as they used to be; some fled into other rooms as they fought to defend themselves.
What was about to make things so complicated was that there were going to be ways they could get behind us as soon as we moved forward. "We are reaching the hard part, ladies. Emma, retreat to the next room when you think you're clear. Let the traps make them second-guess," I told her. Then, I put down another trap as Nyahdia watched out, and Meemee set up her drones.
"Ready? Should I say hello?" Meemee asked, clearly looking through her drones instead of her immediate surroundings. I had no idea how she could split her attention like that, but her eyes looked vacant if you saw her watching her drones. It was as if her brain was not watching anything in particular but soaking in the visual stimuli, processing it as a whole, and marking it with her equipment.
"Let's move, ladies. Say hello for us, and Nyahdia will follow up with a handshake," I told her. I then began to be the point watch girl, taking Emma's normal position. I had my assault rifle ready to fire. The sounds of fresh gunfire in the room sounded, and we moved quickly as a group forward. I watched a door on the other side of the large container that we were coming up to while Nyahdia leveled her minigun.
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The long burst came out, but my attention was focused elsewhere as I saw someone not on our HUDs pull out of cover, and I grinned as I released a burst of fire. The small yellow alien with six appendages was ripped into pieces, and the door opened. Two more came out with their guns and shot at us while I killed them. It was amazing how suicidal these people were, and I heard Meemee report, "I was hit with small arms fire, Armor held, Watch any doors as they can come in from our flanks."
"Noted, Emma. Move towards us. We are going to have more and more people flanking us, and I do not want you isolated," I told her. I'm going to see if there are any more through the door. Cover me," I snapped, and I moved.
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"Copy that," Emma replied.
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Nyahdia ripped out more bursts of fire at the enemy, and I moved to the door. The two just left and pulled out a stun grenade, wishing we could just use Meemee for this. Her attention can only be in so many places, so I swapped to my shotgun, and I tossed the grenade through the door. I waited a half second, and the grenade popped off. I ran in and spotted another door, and my gun snapped up as I saw movement in the corner of my eye; I saw someone bringing a handgun to bear on me. We were point blank to each other. I reacted and used my arm to smash their gun to the side as it was pointing straight in my face as they were about to shoot. Whomever this was, they could aim at an optical camouflage person after being stunned. I smashed their arm against the wall, and a feminine scream was let out; I moved in and pushed them into the wall. They coughed, and I backed up and checked the room. They hit the floor, and I stomped on their back and saw nothing else but another door. I noticed that this was mostly foodstuffs for some reason, but I heard cries in the next room.
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A long burst went off, and that meant that Nyahdia would need to reload soon, and I could not waste time here. I moved and roughly jerked the woman's head up after grabbing a collar out of my bag and clasping it around her neck. "Shut the fuck up, stay here, and if you see someone you know, you will tell them nothing. You will not attack any of my group." I finished, moved to the door, and heard random screams and things like that from the other side. I ripped the door open and tossed a stun grenade into the room, and more screams erupted before I moved in and saw cages. Dozens of cages with people and animals alike in them. They looked in rough condition, and I moved around to see if anything could escape. I moved around the room to see if there was anything else there, and I heard cries for help,
"PLEASE SAVE ME!" they cried. I looked around, but there were no other exits or doors, and no one seemed to be armed.
"Clear, I have slaves and animals here in cages; they seem to be test subjects. I am going to leave them, and we can retrieve them later," I snapped, and I ran to join my group as I heard Nyahdia rip off another burst of Minigun.
"I am moving back again," Emma suddenly said over the Comms, and I realized they were tightening up on us.
"Meemee, do you have more information?" I asked.
"I am waiting to kill the ones that Nyahdia can't reach because of the thickness of the wall." Meemee replied, "As for scouting, I have nothing for the two rooms to the side of us. They are almost sealed from us," Meemee reported.
"Got it, we are doing this the hard way. You two, move up as I come out, Nyahdia, ammo situation?" I asked.
"I got a couple more bursts left before I need time to put in a new belt."
"Got it," I replied as I closed the door behind me, leaving the caged people; I grabbed out a welder and welded the door shut. It might not be ideal, but it would either doom them if we died, or we just could come back and save them. It was something to keep people from using them as a distraction.
I closed the next door, rejoining Nyahdia and Meemee. Emma only had one more back of period, and I saw the HUD-highlighted enemies suddenly die from drone attacks, and we moved up. Meemee started to move her drones forward, creating better positions as I moved to the next door and tried to open it. It would not open, and I decided against opening it. I took out my welder once more and welded the door shut, and we moved up to the next position again; the door was locked, and I welded the door shut. Then we were in the colorful minced meat of the enemies, and there was a deeper inlet before the door where consoles were for the operations here.
Unfortunately, Meemee found nothing for the drones to go through. So I opened the door at the end, tossed in smokes, and Meemee tossed me a couple of drones to toss into the room. Then I slammed the door shut. Shouts from the other side erupted. Meemee was making short work, which seemed like a decontamination room. Four enemies were highlighted, and I opened the door. They shot while we were all against the walls. I waited for them to finish their clips, and I heard them start to reload as I ran into the room. My shotgun came up, and I blasted the person through the glass with a slug. The window was now sporting a new hole, and I was thankful I loaded up slugs for this as I moved into the room and aimed at the next who thought they could not be seen. More glass shattered as I shot through the smoke, and they learned that I could see them. The other two brought up their guns and started to blindly shoot through the decontamination room, shattering the last of the glass. I mentally thanked them because the glass was semi-bulletproof, and I shot again.
Moments later, walking over broken shards, they were both dead, and I moved forward, opening up the next room and tossing a smoke once more when suddenly two people with swords jumped through the door. I saw the blue plasma and cursed, "Shit!"
One must have heard me and swung blindly in my direction while the other charged at Meemee and Nyahdia. Nyahdia did not have her mini gun ready.
Meemee, on the other hand, watched with blank eyes, and a drone blasted him through the head while I dodged the plasma blade, but the plasma blade cut through the center of my shotgun as I held it up in defense stupidly in reaction.
I cursed and pulled my sawed off, dropping my destroyed shotgun, and I blasted both barrels at him as they swung the plasma blade toward me. Their body blasted back with a large hole through the center of mass and hit the wall. The blade turned off as it hit the floor, and I cursed again as I opened up my sawed off, put in more shells, and put it away. "I lost my shotgun," I reported.
"I got more company back here; I have killed at least twenty, Sleepy," Emma reported, "They keep throwing grenades now. I am backing off."
"Watch for the traps and come join us," I replied, put my sawed-off back into my armor, and pulled out my assault rifle. "Meemee, Pass me some drones; I-" Three drones landed in my hand, and I tossed them up into the room. Meemee cleared it a moment later, and the rest of them moved in while Emma came to join us, and I put down fresh traps. This room had been a really-
BANG~!
BANG~!
I heard people hitting other doors not far from me. It seemed that welding those doors stopped, but some people were still hitting them. I would not go back for them, and I saw Emma moving up to our position with her back to me. I said, "Watch your steps coming up; I have placed some traps," I told her. Suddenly, I heard a loud explosion from the other room, probably one of my traps, ending another couple of people's lives.
For these traps, I had to ensure they were aimed in a direction that would not hit the chemicals, which meant smaller explosions. But I quickly set them up and brought Emma with me as we reached the next choke point. Meanwhile, people banged on the doors, trying to escape the side rooms.
"Nyahdia, Reload, We are going to be moving into more large rooms, and we need you with more than two bursts," I informed her, "Meemee, I am going to open the door, Emma, cover the door this time with Meemee in case we have to plasma sword morons running in again," I said, and they both nodded in acknowledgment.
I opened the next door up a crack and tossed in another smoke. A second later, I tossed in Meemee's camera drones. Meemee instantly got to work and highlighted things that we needed to know about, and I heard shouting on the other side, "They are shooting at my drones; they have something that is detecting them!" Meemee reported sounding annoyed as she continued to highlight what was needed, probably making it difficult for her drones to hit.
"Move in," I said, "Emma, you got our back, Nyahdia; I will open up a space for you to shoot; be ready," I ordered, and I moved in. The room was another large room, but unlike the last one, this had working things moving around and moving stuff. I had no idea what the room was for, but it was serious and had moving parts. Three people were on the right, with two on the left, and I used the smoke as they were looking to shoot down the drones.
"LITTLE FUCKERS ARE A PAIN IN MA ASS!" Someone shouted on the other side as I moved in with my gun in position, and I put it to full auto. I pulled the trigger, and I swept the location around the first three and saw two go down while a third went behind cover. I turned over to the other two, and I ripped them apart as before, quickly coming back and shooting the guy I missed.
It was quick and clean, but then I heard guns shooting at me into the smoke, and I dove and felt something smash my leg. I felt my one leg move, crossing my leg over the other, and I hit the ground hard but held onto my weapon. My armor shields me from the fall, and I turn sliding. My HUD starts to light up, and I start shooting, killing all that show up on my HUD as they do so.
The room is littered with bodies, and suddenly, more start rushing in.
What the fuck was this?! How are these guys running in as we massacre them? We just keep killing and killing like there is no end to them!
Nyahdia was in position now, though, and she demanded the attention of those who came in the room when she suddenly swept them.
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Another dozen or so died, and I was getting up and felt my leg fucking hurt. It was the type when something bruised, though, or so I hoped, and I moved forward as Meemee scanned. "We should be reaching the end of the manufactory soon. They are pushed up against an old control area of the sewers meant for cleaning the water," Meemee said, and I nodded. It acted as where people would work to ensure the water was cleaned so it was reused. It was a large area, and I pushed myself up against another wall beside another of those doors that were not within the main scope of the facilities.
"We have another room to clear," I said, and the ladies got in position as suddenly, sounds of explosions from my previous traps hit. I opened the door and found a person cowering in the corner, unarmed, with a large stain on their outfit. They were pink and six-limbed, but I did not care. I strapped them with a collar and gave the same commands as the previous times. Then I closed the door, and we did the same for the next, which was a storage area for cleaning.
Now that I thought about it, the place was oddly clean for the sewers. It was like these were professionals and knew that filth could contaminate their drugs. "Rooms clean," I told them, and I turned around and left and sealed it just in case I was wrong with my welder.
It was good practice, anyway.
I noticed notification markers now in my vision and knew I probably had some traits or something related to this mission. Did not matter at this moment, though, and Emma took the back again while I tossed in smoke and then drones. Don't change what is working. This time, I closed the door right back up, and I heard shouting again. This should be the control room for the sewers now, and I backed off while Nyahdia covered the door with Meemee as she scouted.
I laid traps, and soon our HUD started to light up, and Meemee cursed, "Shit," She said, "We have armored figures in the next room. They are guarding someone, maybe our VIP Bounty, but they look grim and ready to fight. Almost like they are looking forward to it," She announced, and I felt my stomach drop.
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