Main Factory Building - Machine Room
"Door's locked," one of the mercenaries wearing the full body version of the Styrling Everyday Armor said after tentatively trying to open the door. Considering the devastation that had been wrought on the room barely a few minutes before, everyone seemed to be very calm as they got ready for the second attack. Without delay, the man crouched in front of the door and started to attach a strip along the sides of the door. Meanwhile, the other mercenaries went about their way and reloaded their weapons in kind. The distinct 'cha-chink' sounds of the weapons being reloaded was only cut by the noises coming from the other room; muffled yells and sounds of heavy machinery or furniture being dragged could be heard by the attacking force of mercenaries and bounty hunters.
"There's not many of them left there, but I'll bet only the meanest and baddest sons of bitches are the ones that are left," Another mercenary said idly as he inserted shell after shell inside his shotgun, several small cuts and scorch marks dotted the man's gear and exposed skin, which seemed to be the same situation for everybody else. "Your hand alright, man?" He asked Rathe, his voice carrying a slight slur with it as he finally turned his head around to regard the golden-skinned Nepleslian from the corner of his eye. At first, Rathe could see that the mercenary seemed to be grinning at him, but at closer look he noticed that the side of the man's face had suffered a deep cut and it was actually his teeth showing from under the ruined skin.
The rest of the mercenaries seemed to be in the same state of ruination, with only a few of the not injured after the last brawl. A little over half of the original twenty of them remained, counting Rathe and Irene, and the promise of that being the last push was what wasn't keeping them from cutting their losses and getting out.
"Or they picked a better place to kill us," Desmond stated emphatically, glancing briefly at Tannozako before pressing his back against the wall, right next to the left side of the door while the mercenaries stacked up on the other. He was cut off before he could say anything else.
"Charge is set," the mercenary said, glancing over to where Irene had dragged Jaina and making sure that they were out of sight.
"Three," Desmond's hand tightened around the grip of his pistol and blade. His jaw, clenched and mouth, the only part of his head along with his nose that was bare whenever he wore the helmet, curled in a grimmace.
"Two."
"One."
And that was the moment when the door decided to blow.
Instead of blowing outwards, towards the other room, the double doors blew inwards, and the blast was enough to throw everyone -except Irene and Jaina- down on their backs. To one side, one of the mercenaries fell over Rathe, his bulk falling against the golden-skinned Nepleslian's injured hand in a spectacle of pain while the rest scattered back to cover. The same repeated on the other as Desmond was knocked back, hitting Danny with him in a domino effect, but they were held fast before the same could repeat with Tannozako, the mimicon managing to arrest their fall with ease, despite that they now blocked her view of the entrance.
The whole debacle too less than three seconds to happen, and no sooner that what was left of the double doors hit against some bullet-ridden piece of machinery, the defenders surged out of the doorway in their counter-attack. To their very front was what could only be described as an ID-SOL, easily standing at eight feet tall, his bulk still massive despite not wearing any armor. He wore the leather jacket of that seemed to be typical of that particular gang, with a more complex emblem on his left shoulder, simple jeans and heavy work boots that looked more like industrial compressors attached to his feet. The fact that he soon raised a gold-finished HHG at the mercenaries only confirmed that he had to be the guy in charge. The massive gang leader roared his hate at the attackers as he fired, cutting down one of the mercenaries that was too slow to get behind cover, seemingly oblivious at the bounty hunters to his other side.
Desmond took that opportunity to fire, but his target was blocked as he pressed the trigger when another gang-member emerged from the ruined doorway, clad in the everyday vest and a helmet. The bounty hunter didn't recognize them, but those were the goons that had been guarding the building coordinating the robots that Danny shut down. The man staggered as a pistol round buried itself in his sides, digging into the soft armor between the durandium plates, and then fell when the next shot landed a bit higher under his armpits. By then, more people were coming through the door and joining the fight, while Desmond backpedaled away from them to find his own cover. They moved and fought with much more tenacity than the mercenaries. If that was because they were saving themselves to the very end, or if they were fighting to survive while the attackers were simply fighting to win, it wasn't possible to tell.