===Bottomless Cask Bar===
---Afternoon---
Walking down the main market road in Maharombi came a reasonably average looking man in a decent suit with a fedora on his head. He'd heard rumors that there was a group of mercenaries or bounty hunters, the rumors weren't very specific but it was the best lead he had on a new gig since his old funds were starting to run thin. It had been a while since he left Funky city but he'd made it to Delsauria and was looking to make some more money fast. He spotted the nearest bar, "The Bottomless Cask", and headed towards it, his head swiveling to see what was around him.
The street was busy, people bustling about, talking, buying things, drinking, eating, and all sorts of things. It was noisy, cramped, and just another day. The bar, like most bars in Neplesia, was still seeing moderate business despite the time.
The patrons in the bar were undertaking in Nepleslian merriment, alcohol, and making excessive amounts of noise. Bartenders made drinks, waistresses served the drinks and food, and music thrummed throughout the bar. Though the bar was operating normally, there was a small commotion growing in one of its corner, involved a man in a worn Styrling Everyday vest and three individuals. The man had a fresh bruise in his forehead as well as some nicks and cuts along the face and the parts of the arm that werent exposed by the t-shirt underneath the vest; His pants didn't fare any better, the dark cago pants were a little scratched and stained from the dirt of Delsauria. While the man's talk was precise, the other three had slurred speech, and the way things were going they didn't like what they were being told.
Raven took notice of the odd quartet, and looked for a table in that area before waving over one of the waitresses. "Good day ma'am I'd like an Industrial Explosion please." With that he leaned back in the chair and observed the quartet seeing what he could overhear from his location.
The waitress nodded, "Certainly, it'll be right out." She left and placed his order to the bartender, who started to make the drink.
Some bits of the conversation carried over to his table, though the noise of the bar sometimes blotted out parts of it, but it was getting more and more serious up until the man jabbed a finger in the face of the other three. Then a fight broke out.
Raven dipped his chair back to see what the fight was about, he wasn't going to get into it until he could figure out what was going on. No need to get his head bashed in until after he finished his drink at least.
One of the three drunkards attempted to grab the man by his neck, but was decked as the former grabbed a bottle that was sitting on his table and smashed it against the latter's head. A second man tackled him, pushing him all the way to the middle of the bar while the third grabbed a chair and moved to help his comrade.
"Okay that's a bit unfair" Raven muttered as he tossed his drink back and rolled up the sleeves of his jacket and walked up behind the man with the chair and tapped him on the shoulder and when he turned around he'd punch him in the face. The drunkard toppled over and fell, his nose broken.
Meanwhile, the man had gotten off the tackle, and was doing a good job of wrapping his arm around the man's neck, until the first of the three agressors got over having a bottle broken on his head and drew his sidearm, a not-too-uncommon .45 pistol and pointed it right at Raven after seeing his buddy go down.
Raven pulled his own HHG and pointed it at the man with the pistol and smirked. "I think you might just want to walk away and forget this ever happened" was all he said with a somewhat evil look. The revolver was more than enough of an argument as the man raised his pistol and backed away. His buddy with the broken nose got up and followed him shortly after, leaving the third at the bar.
The aforementioned thug wasn't faring any better, having the counsciousness choked out of him before the man let go of him, pushing him down towards the ground and then looking towards Raven.
"Nice save." He said, scanning the other bounty hunter up and down.
"Thanks, you didn't do too bad yourself, I'm Raven who are you?"
"Desmond." He said, pointing over to Raven's HHG, "Wanna make a quick buck with that?" He added soon afterwards.
"Sure, I'm always in to make money" Raven replied. "Although it might be a good idea for me to grab the rest of my gear first" he commented.
"Sure. Lead the way." Desmond said, grabbing his Datajockey and tapping on it.
He placed the datajockey back on one of his back pouches before turning towards Raven. It wouldn't be long before the cops showed up and he wanted to be clear of the bar. He grabbed the uncounscious thug by the lapel of his jacket and dragged him out.
====Crystalbush Hotel===
---Some time later---
Raven made his way out of the bar and headed for the less than spectacular hotel he'd gotten a room in Crystalbush. He needed to get the gear he'd stashed there since it was his heavier firepower and armor. He headed up to his room and grabbed the kit bag he'd brought with him and checking the contents before throwing it over his shoulder before heading back down to meet Desmond "Alright so what's the plan for making more money?" He asked as he handed his key back to the desk attendant.
"We ask this guy over here where his buddies are at, then we rough them up." Desmond said, kicking the barely-counscious thug to wake him up. The man stirred and groaned.
"Sounds like a hell of a plan to me" Raven replied as he looked at the guy laying on the ground. "I'm sure you're probably a better interrogator than I am" Raven said "I tend to just kill people and not worry about asking questions."
"I'm more of a straightforward guy myself too." Desmond said, looking a the now wide-awake thug "But I can improvise." He added, lifting the ganger up before pushing him out of the hotel and towards a back-alley.
He pushed the man against the hard brick wall and drew his sidearm and pointed it right at the man's leg, "Your buddies are gone, and your kneecap is about to follow them unless you tell me what I want to know." Desmond said, watching as the ganger stared at him wide-eyed, but defiantly.
The bounty hunter pressed the trigger, shattering the thug's knee, and watched the man curl up in a ball clutching the bloody hole in his leg with both hands. Desmond didn't let up, however, he pushed the man back up and slammed him against the wall, this time he aimed the pistol a bit higher and more towards the center.
"Okay! Okay- Ah fuck!" The thug said, looking at Desmond. Now that the bounty hunter could see it, the 'thug' looked as if he was barely out of his teen, wiry and slim like most kids and just a little bit younger than him. "We don't meet with the higher-ups- Ah!- they keep it ve-very quiet! We were just mule boys who thought we could rough up some -ungh!- guy after we heard about the spaceport, I swear!"
"That's not enough." Desmond pressed on, keeping the pistol aimed at the man's family jewels. The thug had lost all his composure by then, eyes wide open in fear and looked as if he was about to tear up once he realized he was actually pretty out of his game.
"There's- There's a place we drop the money at! It's not the big -Omph!- thing but it's just one of the places where the- they distribute the 'stuff'! It-It's right besides a bar c-c-called The Three Buns! In an apartment! Just some blocks down from here I swear that's all I know I wasn't even rolling with those guys for long I swear! Please!" The thug pleaded, clutching his wound, but Desmond wasn't even listening anything. The bounty hunter pulled out his datajockey and checked the response from Nicholas:
"How do you feel about shooting up an apartment?" Desmond asked Raven as he waited for a reply from Nicholas. He looked down at his datajockey shortly after, It showed a picture of a much hardened man, although that one wore the same leather jacket and had the same token on the sleeve, which displayed a number 5 under the token.
The picture was followed right after by blueprints on the building, it was a simple two story apartment, with a basement level. The whole building belonged to the gang, but it had some 'decoy' residents living in there as well, and on the plus side that specific group handled the 'monetary affairs' of the gang, which most likely meant they were the ones who went after people who couldn't pay for the 'stuff' that they sold.
"I have no problem with it at all, getting to shoot something or somebody is always fun to do" Raven replied as he pulled out his armor and SGAR to start prepping his gear. "Do we have a plan on what we're going to do when we get to this apartment?" He asked.
"Yeah, we shoot everyone." Desmond said, handing over the datajockey with the blueprints of the apartment to Raven, "That, and we try to get any intel on where their headquarters are." He added.
Raven took a look at the blueprints and replied "Simple plan, I like it, kill everybody, think we might want to just kneecap one of them for intel?"
"If we get the chance, but I'm not taking any." The bounty hunter said, leaving the wounded thug behind and going to the aforementioned apartment.
=====Undisclosed Residential Block====
---30 minutes later- Dusk---
The walk towards the gang's 'financial center' was relatively short. The two bounty hunters could get a clear view of the apartment block from the back alley they were in. The building was battered and would otherwise look abandoned if it wasn't for the occasional civilian or ganger that left or entered its premises. Like the thug had described, the place was right next to The Three Buns and on the corner of the street, and some gangers could be seen milling around the entrance of the bar occasionally. It looked like it was a place that got frequently visited by the gang.
"Seems relatively simple to get into, no obvious guards, how do you want to work this, rush in or go in covert and try to slip up on them unnoticed before we unleash hell?" Raven asked as he made sure his weapons were loaded and ready for the task ahead.
Desmond leaned against the wall of one of the buildings and watched the apartment, "We don't know how many are there, but if they fight like the bums who rushed me and my crew at the spaceport then we gotta take the leadership first, because that makes them dumb as a headless chicken." He said.
From the blueprints that Desmond had received from Nicholas and had subsequently shown to Raven, the duo would be well aware that the first floor consisted of a reception, that took roughly half of the area, followed by two separate rooms, one a large cabinet that was supposed to hold the maintenance supplies for the building, the second a small office for the building's manager. These two rooms were separated by a corridor that was behind the reception's desk, and down the same corridor were the stairs leading to the underground storage basement and to the second floor.
Desmond pondered over the possibilities, making his mind up, "We play it safe. Cut the power from the back and then go in. Though watch out your fire because there are civilians living in there too as a decoy. How's that for you?" He said to Raven.
"Seems like a reasonable plan to me" Raven said as he hefted his SGAR, "This should be up to dealing with the gangsters while not overpenetrating and accidentally killing civilians. Do you have any kind of pyrotechnics that we could use?"
"No, I don't handle the heavy artillery." Desmond said, checking his shotgun as he changed its caliber from the overkilling 4-gauge to the manageable 12-gauge. The bounty hunter patiently inserted one shell after the other, fully loading the weapon with buckshot. He looked out towards the building, waited a couple of moments until the thugs looked busy or weren't looking their way, and then motioned Raven to follow him as he moved around the building.
Raven followed along, rifle slung across his chest, head swiveling side to side to make sure nobody was watching them as they made their way. The duo quickly made their way to the side and around the building, on an alley behind the apartment complex and another building. Right in front of them was a turn to the left connecting to the alley between the Three Buns and the apartment. Voices could be heard and the occasional laughter.
Desmond took a crouching position and moved towards the corner, shotgun lowered as he tried to discern how many thugs were there.
Raven followed behind Desmond as they moved, switching to watching to behind them every few steps to ensure that their backtrail was clear. He'd also be watching to see what they'd have to do in order to shut the power down to the building. "Had a thought, how do we plan to see when we make entry if the power is out?" Raven asked quietly.
"We could lure them out once the power is out, take some of them out, cut the power back in and clear it." Desmond suggested. He'd been so dead on in taking them by surprised that he forgot the simple fact that he hand't brought a flashlight.
Raven would slap his forehead and reach around and grab the pack on his back and drop it and start hunting around in it until he came up with about 10 glow sticks and 2 flash lights with weapon mounts. "Which one do you think would be better for us, the lower light of the glow sticks or the sheer blinding power of weapon lights?" He asked as he continued hunting through the bag.
"Once we lure some outside and take them out we'd lose the surprise element, so I guess we'll go in hot afterwards." Desmond hushed, picking up a flashlight and attaching it to the shotgun as he listened to the thugs around the corner. One of them laughed at something, and then the sound of a door being closed echoed to where the bounty hunters were at. "You got a silencer?" Desmond asked.
Raven hefted the rifle and pointed at the front "it's a laser man, no silencer really needed" he said with a smile as he checked the charge and activated the laser sighting system mounted in the front grip. "Feel like starting the ball rolling?"
Desmond nodded, letting the shotgun hanging by its strap and pulled a wrench from his toolbelt, rotating it along his hand to get the feel of the weight. He looked once towards the thug, waited until he was looking the other. The bounty hunter hugged the building's wall and disappeared around the corner towards where the thug was at. Some time later a crunching sound echoed, followed by the sound of something falling on the ground.
"Clear." Desmond said, barely loud enough for Raven to hear.
Raven moved up and followed Desmond around the corner, waiting to see what was ahead of him while still making sure that they weren't being trailed. Once he turned around the corner, he would see one of the thugs, wearing the same leather jacket with the token on the sleeve. The thug looked older and was bald-headed, and a bloodied bruise adorned the back of his head, blood could be seen slowly trickling from it. He didn't look responsive. The alley was littered with trash bags and junk and two dumpsters, one on each side of it.
Desmond stood behind the downed thug and besides the building's power box. It was protected by a rusted out padlock, which was smashed aside by the butt of Desmond's shotgun, revealing the wires and fuses inside. The bounty hunter grabbed the wires with a gloved hand, yanked them back and then cut them with his wirecutters.
Almost instantly the duo could hear a commotion inside the building, and the bounty hunter put the tools away and drew his shotgun again, taking cover behind a dumpster.
Raven would take cover in a flanking position so that he and Desmond had an overlapping field of fire on any thugs that rushed out. "Well let's see how these fools handle themselves" Raven muttered under his breath as he prepared to start taking well aimed shots.
Desmond nodded, staying behind the dumpster and looking towards the back door of the building. The bounty hunter ignored the foul stench that came out of it, focused on the door and on the weapon he was holding. It took a couple of moments, but then the duo could hear heavy footsteps from inside the building and then four thugs burst out of the door, three of them wielding pistols while the fourth had a Styrling Ripshot slung across his chest. One of the thugs went to check on their downed comrade while the other three looked around.
Raven would set the laser sight on the chest of the one with the Ripshot and fire two shots at his chest and then switch aim and fire a third shot for his head. If the target went down he'd switch aim to one of the other thugs and take them under fire as well.
Desmond had the same idea, aiming his shotgun and the thug with the submachine gun and then opening up with his shotgun. The thug stiffened as the two headache-bright lines of laser went through him, but then toppled over once he was peppered by the buckshot pellets. A second thug shifted to look at his partner and was grazed by one of Raven's shots on the neck, making him clutch the spot of burned skin and retreat back into the building.
The remaining two thugs split, one throwing himself behind a discarded washing machine, while the second went further down, trying to go towards the end of the alley and to the street. Desmond tried to shoot him, but duck back into cover as the thug behind the washing machine shot at him, pinging the dumpster and the wall to his side with pistol fire.
Raven would curse and draw his Type 28 NSP and fire a heavy burst at the thug covering behind the washing machine, hoping the blast would disorient the man or at least destroy the cover he was hiding behind. The thug ducked back into cover as the shots hit the washing machine, but none of them seemed to go through and hit the thug. The fire, however, gave Desmond some breathing space to duck back up, aim his shotgun and hit the thug making it for the street, winding the man on the right leg with buckshot.
The second thug that hid in the building emerged again, and had some time to aim as he was seemingly ignored by the duo. He aimed his pistol and fired twice, the first shot pinging off the dumpster and the second hitting Desmond on the chest. While the shot didn't go through the durandium plates of his vest, it was powerful enough to knock the breath out of the bounty hunter and make him fall back to cover, sitting and weezing to catch his breath back. The thug then shifted his aim and fired at Raven.
Raven ducked back into cover before popping back out and firing another 3 laser burst from his rifle at the thug shooting at him, they needed to suppress these 3 as soon as they could before the firefight drew the rest of the gang out after them. The thug ducked back into cover, but the lasers were strong enough that time that they penetrated the wall, going through brick, mortar and thug. The man slowly slid off the wall he was taking cover from and fell, sprawling himself on the doorway.
The thug behind the washing machine was still taking cover behind it, seemingly too scared to show himself, while the last surviving thug took a sitting position and tried to shoot at the two bounty hunters, but was put down shortly after he had fired his first shot by Desmond, who had re-emerged from the dumpster and dispatched the thug with another shot from his shotgun, leaving only the gang-member behind the washing machine left.
Raven would switch his rifle to full automatic and stitch the washing machine with laser blasts, hoping at the least to keep the other thug's head down while motioning with his head to Desmond to move and flank the thug so that he could take him down.
As the laser fire slowly ate the cover from the last remaining thug, Desmong got out of his cover, shotgun raised, and approached the washing machine with quick steps. The bounty hunter got one, then two shots at the gang-member. Soon afterwards, thug number four was no more.
"He's down!." Desmond said, turning around and facing the backdoor of the building.
"Well we've made enough noise out here, let's head in and deal with the rest of these punks" Raven said after that. Moving up he stood ready to go in and start dealing with the others, turning on the flashlight attachment on his rifle too in order to make it so that as they started clearing the building anyone who looked at them would be blinded by the bright light.
Desmond approached the other bounty hunter, turning on the flashlight on his shotgun and quickly inserting four more shells to make up for the ones he had used. The bounty hunter looked at his partner, and then moved inside, scanning the darkness with the flashlight. The little that they could see from the flashlights would reveal that the painting was slowly flaking off the walls, and what little place hand't been stained with random graffitti would reveal cracks crisscrossing the walls.
The duo would notice right off the bat that they were in the hallway behind the reception, they were on the door besides the stairwell and to their left was the storage closet, while that to their right was the manager's office. the place was at least 10 meters long and they could hear sounds from both the upper floor and below, as well as from the storage area, which was were Desmond headed.
Raven would follow but keep an eye on the stairwell when they reached it, making sure that if someone came down the stairs he had a good line of sight on them while also checking to make sure that the door to the manager's office was still closed and if someone emerged he could deal with them.
Both the doors from the two rooms were closed, but not soon after Raven would see a pair of feet would come out from the stairs leading to the second floor, while Desmond kicked the door to the supply closed open, blinding whoever was inside with the beam of his flashlight.
Raven waited until the figure in the stairs was visible and the switched his weapon up so that the light was directly in their face blinding them and allowing him to see if they were armed or just an innocent bystander. The two feet soon proved to belong to another gang-member, this one wielding a much heavier Infantry Assault Rifle and having an armored vest for protection. The thug quickly shielded his eyes from the flashlight as Raven blinded him.
Meanwhile, in the adjacent room two shots echoed from Desmond's shotgun, followed by the staccato outburst of returning fire from a pistol, this one of much heavier caliber. The firefight contiuned in the supply closet.
Raven would snap his rifle up to the man's head and fire a pair of shots at his face followed by a secondary set of shots aimed at the man's pelvis and kneecaps. If the headshots didn't kill him then the other shots would hopefully disable him long enough for a kill shot. The first of the two shots hit the man square in the forehead, going through both the man's hand and skull, while the other three impacted the wall behind him. A pair of feet quickly followed behind the thug, but retreated back to the second floor as the thug rolled down the stairs. Three more loud shots were heard from the supply closet before Desmond got back out.
"Bastard had a table! I had to eat it away with buckshot before I took him down!" He said to Raven, looking at the stairwell and at the dead thug at the bottom of the stairs. The duo could hear voices and someone shouting an order from the basement level.
Raven would move to the door of the manager's office and nod to Desmond as he hefted his boot and shrugged at the door "Think we should say hi?" He asked somewhat laconically.
"Don't see any problem with that." Desmond said, keeping an eye at the stairwell as he reloaded his shotgun again. One thug poked his head out from the stair leading to the basement level, but recoiled as Desmond fired at him.
Raven smiled and lifted his boot slamming it into the door to the manager's office, if it opened he'd shine his light inside attempting to blind anyone inside. The place would be empty, save for a lone, closed laptop that sat on top of the table and the several file cabinets surrounding the desk.
As Raven checked the office, Desmond had to keep switching his aim between the top and bottom floor, as the gang-members got more and more daring, the one on the top floor even leaning down to try to get a burst with his rifle at the bounty hunter. Someone kept shouting orders from the basement, now close enough that the duo could hear a very deep and bassy voice.
Raven completed his search and then came back out to help Desmond deal with the two stairwells "Should we split up to deal with each level or both go one way?" He asked.
"It's just one guy on the upper floor!" Desmond said, racking the shotgun back and firing at the thug as the man tried to get a bead on him from the top floor. This time the bounty hunter nailed the ganger on his unprotected leg, making him drop his weapon and clutch the wound, partially exposed. Desmond fired again and the thug disappeared on the second floor as he was jerked back by the impact. "Got him!" He called out.
"Then let's head to the basement and finish clearing these guys out" Raven said as he suited actions to words and started down the stairs with his light shining the way as he watched carefully to see if there were any thugs on the sides.
"Shit, wait up!." Desmond called out, bolting after the other bounty hunter. As soon as Raven started going down the stairs to the basement level below, the thugs opened fire. They had been taking the time while the duo fought the gangers outside and upstairs to fortify and consolidate their position. One of the thugs, a dark skinned ID-SOL hybrid much larger than the rest of the group took cover behind a flipped over table, firing his HHG at the stairs, while the rest was still concealed but kept their fire at the stairs.
Most of the shots impacted around the stairs, zipping past the bounty hunter's lower body and midsection, some hitting the hardwood of the stairs and making the splinters graze Raven's face, while two -one of them being right after the bark of the HHG- hit him in the lower leg, being deflected by the armored plate of his suit, while the second, of a smaller caliber, was deflected by the torso plate. Desmond tried to grab the back of his collar and pull him back.
Raven allowed himself to be pulled back while he fired a set of shots from his rifle at the one covering behind the table, hoping that the laser would at least punch through and give the ID-SOL a pause when his cover started to vanish. The laser bolts impacted against the table, leaving bright red incandescent marks, while the ID-SOL ducked back into cover to reload, but not before taking in the minor victory to taunt the duo.
"You're dead, assholes!" The deep voice boomed from the basement, followed by laughter from the other gang member's. The bounty hunters could make out at least three other different voices in there.
Desmond let go of Raven's collar, aimed down his shotgun at what little he could see off the stairs and then lowered it.
"We gotta lure 'em out somehow." He commented.
"Lemme think for a minute" Raven said right before shouting at Desmond "You lying scum, you said that this would be a cakewalk, not that we'd run into a whole group of thugs! I thought this was going to be easy money not a job for a stinking army!"
"I'm having the time of my life here!" Desmond shouted back angrily, aiming his weapon down the stairs again and firing as one of the gangers stuck his head out to see what was up. "Did you find anything useful in that office!?" He asked again.
"Nothing of use, just a junk laptop and some papers, left them there but they're ready to go up in flames when we get the hell out of here!" Raven shouted back while watching to see if any other the gangers was stupid enough to look.
As their time kept running out, the gangers started to get more bold. One of them, another young-looking nepleslian, ducked out of cover from below and fired at Raven with a pistol. While that happened, Desmond realized that the while the important things were likely in the basement, the duo wouldn't have time to collect it; They were not only outgunned and outnumbered, but they had already lost the initiative that the had.
"Keep them pinned, I'll go get the laptop and then I'll start to scorch the place." the bounty hunter said to Raven, letting his shotgun hang by its strap and bolting towards the office.
The first thug was joined by a second, who took cover on the other side of the stairs opposite to the first. This one had a trench shotgun, racking it back and getting ready to fire.
Raven smiled and set his rifle to fully automatic and started spraying rounds towards the bottom of the stairs to suppress the gangers and started making his way back up the stairs to a place that he could find cover.
The laser fire was enough to keep the thugs back in cover, but as soon as Raven stopped his firing, the ganger with the shotgun fired his weapon blindly, peppering the wall next to the bounty hunter with buckshot, while his partner was busy reloading his pistol.
It was then that Desmond emerged out of the office, laptop clutched on one hand and his pistol in the other. The bounty hunter disappeared into the supply closet and got right back out with a red gallon, holding it with the hand that had been previously holding the pistol. The bounty hunter dropped the gallon and kicked it towards Raven.
"Extra crispy!" He shouted as the gallon slid across the floor, stopping next to Raven's feet.
Raven smiled and grabbed the bucket, tossing it down the stairs to the middle of where the two gangers were, he drew his HHG and switching to a red round fired it into the gallon, trusting the explosion to vaporize the fuel before he fired a burst of laser fire into it. The red gallon went up in flames, enveloping the two gangers in a bright yellow burst of light before the flames settled in and did their job of catching fire on everything.
"Let's get the hell out of here before more of those goons arrive!" Desmond called out, drawing his pistol and moving out towards the alley again.
Raven followed right after Desmond with his rifle up and ready in case of other gangers coming up. He looked for any other exits the gangers could take so if they tried to escape the flames he could cut them off.
The duo couldn't see any other exits from the alley they were in, but they could already see that there were gangers that had finally came from the Three Buns to see what the whole sound of a gunfight was being all about. There were a couple of them, all unarmored but every one carrying the token .45 pistol.
"YOooouu assholes are deeeead!" One of them drunkenly yelled at the duo, barely aiming his pistol and firing all over the place. More than half of them were in the same condition, but some were still sober enough to make their shots land dangerously close to the bounty hunters.
"This way!" Desmond yelled, making a run for it towards the way they had previously come from. The bounty hunter jumped over the bodies of the two first victims of their little raid.
Raven followed Desmond after firing a short automatic burst from his rifle at the gangers to at least make them duck for cover if not take a few of them out, he was rewarded with a ganger falling over as a laser beam went through his torso. He'd jump over the bodies as well and head for the corner that they'd come from before.
The duo ran down the alley, then made a sharp turn to the right back from where they came and into the streets, which were pretty deserted both because of the time and nature of the neighborhood, but also because of the gunfire that had been occurring in the apartment. As the two bounty hunters neared another alley on the adjacent block opposite to the gang's hideout. While they crossed the street, an HHG barked twice, the first shot, merely a ranging one, hitting the asphalt next to them, but the second hitting Desmond square in the back, knocking him off his feet and into the other alley. The bounty hunter had his breath knocked out of him again as the shot, which had gone through the durandium plate, had been barely stopped by the ballistic mesh underneath.
"Ohh shiiiiit!" He groaned in pain, dropping the laptop ahead of him and clutching the area where the bullet had impacted.
Raven would spin around to where the shots came from and if he spotted the ganger that shot he'd fire a few shots from his rifle at him before helping Desmond up and grabbing the laptop as well. From what little he could've seen when he looked back, Raven could make out the bigger silhouette of the ID-SOL that was one of the gang's captain.
The large brute cheered once he saw that he had hit someone, and then duck back into cover behind the building as Raven fired, scattering the remaining gang members for a few precious moments. Meanwhile, Desmond got up and moved painfully slow into the alley as he tried to cope up with the new sudden pain on his back.
Raven would follow and take up a position at the edge of the alley to give Desmond covering fire as they withdrew, hopefully getting a clean shot at the ID-SOL so that they could get the money for the obviously high ranking gang member.
He wasn't lucky, the ID-SOL was as smart as the other gang members were dumb in their drunken stupor. The group started to break out of cover again and rush the alley that the duo was in, firing their pistols wildly and yelling.
Raven shrugged and started planting accurate 3 round groups on the gang members running at him, 2 shots to the chest followed by one to the head. Planning to wittle them down before they got close and then switching to full auto and just sweeping the street with laserfire. The angry red beams cut down three of the gangers instantly, going through them, while two more were injured, that happened at the exact same time as the apartment's window burst out in several miniature fireballs, spraying glass shards into the street and on the thugs that were still alive.
Desmond appeared next to Raven, firing his shotgun down and adding hisown firepower to take down two other gangers. That left the two bounty hunters against two remaining gangers that had been sober enough to stay behind cover, and the ID-SOL. One of them and the ID-SOL were taking cover behind the apartment and across the street from the bounty hunters, while the second was on the same side of the street but on the other end of the block.
The duo could also see that the two remaining gangers were the two remaining survivors from the apartment, since they wore partially scorched ballistic vests over their clothes, and still had smoke wafting out of them. Both were wielding Styrling Ripshots.
Raven would carefully take aim at the gangers in cover, even though he wasn't sure where they were precisely he was willing to rake the area they were covering in with laser fire to see if that would draw them out, and if not he'd pull his NSP and fire a heavy burst to see what the effect was. As he fired, chipped pieces of brick flew out from the laser impacts and subsequent overpressure from the high temperatures, but other than that, the bounty hunter couldn't see anything else as the street was gradually covered in a thick black smoke from the apartment's fire.
Desmond turned around and started to insert some more shells into his shotgun, "I'll go around the block and flank them. Keep them busy!" He yelled out as he started to run down the alley and around a corner. The bounty hunter was still a bit hunched over, and every once in a while he would groan when he did a particularly painful movement thanks to the almost-lethal wound he received.
"Can do" Raven said as he changed batteries on his rifle while pulling out a wrench and tossing it to make the sound as if he'd dropped his magazine and cursed loudly enough to let the gangers hear.
Raven would see a small silhoette move about the smoke, darting from one side of the street to the other, while the side where the ID-SOL and the other gang member had previously been was constantly being dotted by muzzle flashes and the stacatto sound of a ripshot being fired in burst and being interrupted by the occasional bark of the much heavier HHG. The shots landed everywhere, since the smoke made it particularly hard to see anything clearly from that distance.
Raven muttered and started firing bursts into the smoke and snapped a few shots at the small silhoutte hoping to at least wing them so they would slow down so he could get a more accurate shot at the target, and as the laser bolts penetrated the smoke, Raven could see the figure trip over and fall. It looked like that it was even harder to see inside the smoky hell that was the viscinity of the apartment.
Almost at the same time, a shotgun barked twice, and the fire that was being directed at Raven suddenly shifted somewhere else, but this time it was just the noise of the HHG openning up.
Raven would make sure his flashlight was on on his rifle and start moving up, rifle raised and looking but he'd have his NSP set on stun for when he got closer to the small figure to knock them out for retrieval after dealing with the ID-SOL, he made sure to be careful to attempt to not lose his balance as the small figure had done. As he moved down the streets, he noticed that the place was now littered both with bodies and debris that had been flung out of the apartment. None of the bodies moved as Raven passed them, something slammed at him from behind, tackling the bounty hunter and throwing him on his chest against the floor. The ganger had stood motionless in the smoke while he lay in waiting.
If he wasn't too busy coughing because of all the carbon monoxide in his blood, he would've been able to attack Raven with the knife he was holding, but the thug just raised it and prepared to stab the bounty hunter with a downwards stroke.
Raven would roll over while drawing his HHG and fire a round from the active chamber at the ganger's chest, but the shot missed as the barrel of the revolver was grabbed by the thug, who fell over the bounty hunter. The thug huffed as he tried to keep the barrel away and bring the knife to bear again.
Raven cursed as he fought the man to get the barrel back on target while he drew his diamond survival knife in case the man deflected the barrel again he'd go for a slash on the man's knife hand to make him drop the knife.
Slowly but surely, the bounty hunter was winning the wrestling competition against the ganger, but Raven could already feel his breath starting to escape him because of the smoke. The ganger saw that and focused on getting the pistol away from him, that was when the bounty hunter managed to slash the man's knife hand, making him yell out in pain and let go of the HHG's barrel to clutch his wound.
With that Raven would pull the HHG back on target, pointing right at the man's head in between the eyes and pull the trigger. The ganger lurched back, tensed and fell over on his side, still on top of Raven and revealing that the penny sized hole in his forehead had turned into a orange sized hole in the back of his head. Meanwhile, the firefight continued to go on the other side of the street, and it was possible for Raven to hear somebody calling frantically for his name as the HHG barked several times.
Raven would get up and holster his HHG but stay crouched to keep as much out of the smoke as he could as he moved towards the other side of the street with his rifle up at the ready so that when he saw the ID-SOL he could open fire on him immediately if the line of sight was clear.
As the bounty hunter crossed the thick smoke and into the street in front and to the left of the apartment, he would be able to see that the ID-SOL had crossed it and was steadily walking towards two parked cars where Desmond was taking cover at. The other bounty hunter was perfectly safe from fire from where the gang captain was shooting from, but he would soon get flanked.
Raven would take careful aim and start firing at the ID-SOL, two shots to the head, four shots to the big barrel chest, two more shots to each knee cap, four shots to the pelvis. There was no such thing as overkill in his mind when it came to one of those genetically engineered hulks.
The first shot grazed the side of the ID-SOL's bald head, making the dark skinned juggernaut turn around and face Raven, making most of his subsequent shots go off their mark while a couple of others hit the ID-SOL in the chest, left shoulder and grazed him on the abdomen.
Desmond, who had been busy getting shot at and trying to reload his shotgun at the same time, emerged from behind the car and fired. The sound was different from the same one that had been when the he had fired the 12 gauge shells, instead sounding much louder because he had taken the time to switch his weapon's caliber to the devastating 4 gauge, which was responsible for taking a big chunk off the ID-SOL's head, killing him.
He got out from the back side of the car and moved to inspect the damage, keeping his shotgun pointed at the dead gang captain and kicking his HHG away.
Raven made his way up, covering the dead gang captain as well "Well that was fun, probably oughta get some sort of photo proof that we killed this guy I guess before we grab whatever gear these guys had for ourselves eh?" He commented as he looked at the massive chunk missing from the ID-SOL's head. "Nice shooting by the way."
"Thanks. You got the laptop?" Desmond asked Raven, reaching for one of the side pockets in his pants and procuring his cigarette pack. The bounty hunter lit the cancer stick with a ligther and then took a deep drag out of it, trying to concentrate on something other than the severe pain on his back and chest. He looked like shit himself, but that was when he noticed that Raven was just as bad because of all the soot that he had acquired when he went through the smoke and wrestled with the other gang member.
Desmond pulled his datajockey out, took a picture of the dead gang captain and, stashed the electronic again as he pulled out the token off the dead man's sleeve; This one having a much better finishing to it and the man's name engraved on the bottom.
"Yeah I got it" Raven replied as he pulled it out of his pack, "so where do we go next?" he asked as he watch Desmond smoke.
The bounty hunter looked up into the then black sky and then back at Raven, "We got some time to grab whatever we can before the authorities show up. Then we head back to where my crew is." He said, gritting his teeth at the end as he shifted his weight from one feet to the other to start moving, causing his back to go up in a flare of pain. He shrugged it off after a while and started to search the bodies.
"Well let's get to it then" Raven said as he suited actions to words, taking his knife and cutting a part of the ID-SOL's sleeve off and soaking it in a bit of water before wrapping around his mouth and nose to block off at least some of the smoke inhalation. He also picked up the dead man's HHG and any rounds he had on him then continued searching the remaining corpses.
===ISC Iron Ferret===
---Several hours later, two hours past standard midnight time---
Aftermath:
It took the duo a couple of minutes to scavenge over whatever weapons from the dead gang members that they could carry with them before the fire got worse and they had to get clear off the apartment as the building crumbled. If any of them paid any attention to the local news, that incident woud be all over it for the next few days, but no mention of any of the bounty hunters were made, instead the media would be pointing the cause as a inter-gang conflict, not too uncommon on Nepleslia.
After they got clear off the area, the two bounty hunters took several detours and random paths throughout the night-time Maharombi to throw off anyone on their tail, until they made it to Desmond's black hovercar and made the rest of the trip back towards the spaceport, picking Haures along the way after the lizard had been treated by a veterinarian.
The group had acquired the laptop, which still needed to have its data looked over for any further intel on the gang. They had also acquired three assault rifles, two HHGs, two Ripshots and one very scratched battle rifle that was caked in soot from the fire and whatever ammo they could also find on the gangers. These findings would go to the Iron Ferret's armory, while the laptop was given to Nicholas to work his magic.
The hovercar parked and landed right outisde the spaceport hangar that the Ferret was docked at. Desmond jumped off, grapped a tarpaulin that was wrapped around the guns he had taken and motioned both Haures and Raven to follow. He took another drag of his cigarette before moving into the semi-open door of the hangar and inside.
Raven followed to see where they were going and stepped into the hangar after Desmond. He could see the ship landed, the cargo ramp facing the entrance of the hangar.
"This is it. Gotta introduce you to the captain." Desmond said, finishing off the cigarette and stepping on the butt after he dropped it.
---Afternoon---
Walking down the main market road in Maharombi came a reasonably average looking man in a decent suit with a fedora on his head. He'd heard rumors that there was a group of mercenaries or bounty hunters, the rumors weren't very specific but it was the best lead he had on a new gig since his old funds were starting to run thin. It had been a while since he left Funky city but he'd made it to Delsauria and was looking to make some more money fast. He spotted the nearest bar, "The Bottomless Cask", and headed towards it, his head swiveling to see what was around him.
The street was busy, people bustling about, talking, buying things, drinking, eating, and all sorts of things. It was noisy, cramped, and just another day. The bar, like most bars in Neplesia, was still seeing moderate business despite the time.
The patrons in the bar were undertaking in Nepleslian merriment, alcohol, and making excessive amounts of noise. Bartenders made drinks, waistresses served the drinks and food, and music thrummed throughout the bar. Though the bar was operating normally, there was a small commotion growing in one of its corner, involved a man in a worn Styrling Everyday vest and three individuals. The man had a fresh bruise in his forehead as well as some nicks and cuts along the face and the parts of the arm that werent exposed by the t-shirt underneath the vest; His pants didn't fare any better, the dark cago pants were a little scratched and stained from the dirt of Delsauria. While the man's talk was precise, the other three had slurred speech, and the way things were going they didn't like what they were being told.
Raven took notice of the odd quartet, and looked for a table in that area before waving over one of the waitresses. "Good day ma'am I'd like an Industrial Explosion please." With that he leaned back in the chair and observed the quartet seeing what he could overhear from his location.
The waitress nodded, "Certainly, it'll be right out." She left and placed his order to the bartender, who started to make the drink.
Some bits of the conversation carried over to his table, though the noise of the bar sometimes blotted out parts of it, but it was getting more and more serious up until the man jabbed a finger in the face of the other three. Then a fight broke out.
Raven dipped his chair back to see what the fight was about, he wasn't going to get into it until he could figure out what was going on. No need to get his head bashed in until after he finished his drink at least.
One of the three drunkards attempted to grab the man by his neck, but was decked as the former grabbed a bottle that was sitting on his table and smashed it against the latter's head. A second man tackled him, pushing him all the way to the middle of the bar while the third grabbed a chair and moved to help his comrade.
"Okay that's a bit unfair" Raven muttered as he tossed his drink back and rolled up the sleeves of his jacket and walked up behind the man with the chair and tapped him on the shoulder and when he turned around he'd punch him in the face. The drunkard toppled over and fell, his nose broken.
Meanwhile, the man had gotten off the tackle, and was doing a good job of wrapping his arm around the man's neck, until the first of the three agressors got over having a bottle broken on his head and drew his sidearm, a not-too-uncommon .45 pistol and pointed it right at Raven after seeing his buddy go down.
Raven pulled his own HHG and pointed it at the man with the pistol and smirked. "I think you might just want to walk away and forget this ever happened" was all he said with a somewhat evil look. The revolver was more than enough of an argument as the man raised his pistol and backed away. His buddy with the broken nose got up and followed him shortly after, leaving the third at the bar.
The aforementioned thug wasn't faring any better, having the counsciousness choked out of him before the man let go of him, pushing him down towards the ground and then looking towards Raven.
"Nice save." He said, scanning the other bounty hunter up and down.
"Thanks, you didn't do too bad yourself, I'm Raven who are you?"
"Desmond." He said, pointing over to Raven's HHG, "Wanna make a quick buck with that?" He added soon afterwards.
"Sure, I'm always in to make money" Raven replied. "Although it might be a good idea for me to grab the rest of my gear first" he commented.
"Sure. Lead the way." Desmond said, grabbing his Datajockey and tapping on it.
Code:
To: NC
From: DS
Got jumped by some of the thugs from the same gang that tried to rough us up at the spaceport.
Will investigate further.He placed the datajockey back on one of his back pouches before turning towards Raven. It wouldn't be long before the cops showed up and he wanted to be clear of the bar. He grabbed the uncounscious thug by the lapel of his jacket and dragged him out.
====Crystalbush Hotel===
---Some time later---
Raven made his way out of the bar and headed for the less than spectacular hotel he'd gotten a room in Crystalbush. He needed to get the gear he'd stashed there since it was his heavier firepower and armor. He headed up to his room and grabbed the kit bag he'd brought with him and checking the contents before throwing it over his shoulder before heading back down to meet Desmond "Alright so what's the plan for making more money?" He asked as he handed his key back to the desk attendant.
"We ask this guy over here where his buddies are at, then we rough them up." Desmond said, kicking the barely-counscious thug to wake him up. The man stirred and groaned.
"Sounds like a hell of a plan to me" Raven replied as he looked at the guy laying on the ground. "I'm sure you're probably a better interrogator than I am" Raven said "I tend to just kill people and not worry about asking questions."
"I'm more of a straightforward guy myself too." Desmond said, looking a the now wide-awake thug "But I can improvise." He added, lifting the ganger up before pushing him out of the hotel and towards a back-alley.
He pushed the man against the hard brick wall and drew his sidearm and pointed it right at the man's leg, "Your buddies are gone, and your kneecap is about to follow them unless you tell me what I want to know." Desmond said, watching as the ganger stared at him wide-eyed, but defiantly.
The bounty hunter pressed the trigger, shattering the thug's knee, and watched the man curl up in a ball clutching the bloody hole in his leg with both hands. Desmond didn't let up, however, he pushed the man back up and slammed him against the wall, this time he aimed the pistol a bit higher and more towards the center.
"Okay! Okay- Ah fuck!" The thug said, looking at Desmond. Now that the bounty hunter could see it, the 'thug' looked as if he was barely out of his teen, wiry and slim like most kids and just a little bit younger than him. "We don't meet with the higher-ups- Ah!- they keep it ve-very quiet! We were just mule boys who thought we could rough up some -ungh!- guy after we heard about the spaceport, I swear!"
"That's not enough." Desmond pressed on, keeping the pistol aimed at the man's family jewels. The thug had lost all his composure by then, eyes wide open in fear and looked as if he was about to tear up once he realized he was actually pretty out of his game.
"There's- There's a place we drop the money at! It's not the big -Omph!- thing but it's just one of the places where the- they distribute the 'stuff'! It-It's right besides a bar c-c-called The Three Buns! In an apartment! Just some blocks down from here I swear that's all I know I wasn't even rolling with those guys for long I swear! Please!" The thug pleaded, clutching his wound, but Desmond wasn't even listening anything. The bounty hunter pulled out his datajockey and checked the response from Nicholas:
Code:
From: NC
To: DS
Did they have the same token from the guys at the spaceport?
---
From:DS
To: NC
Yep. Number 5 too. Pointed out some place near a bar, I'm checking it out.
---"How do you feel about shooting up an apartment?" Desmond asked Raven as he waited for a reply from Nicholas. He looked down at his datajockey shortly after, It showed a picture of a much hardened man, although that one wore the same leather jacket and had the same token on the sleeve, which displayed a number 5 under the token.
The picture was followed right after by blueprints on the building, it was a simple two story apartment, with a basement level. The whole building belonged to the gang, but it had some 'decoy' residents living in there as well, and on the plus side that specific group handled the 'monetary affairs' of the gang, which most likely meant they were the ones who went after people who couldn't pay for the 'stuff' that they sold.
"I have no problem with it at all, getting to shoot something or somebody is always fun to do" Raven replied as he pulled out his armor and SGAR to start prepping his gear. "Do we have a plan on what we're going to do when we get to this apartment?" He asked.
"Yeah, we shoot everyone." Desmond said, handing over the datajockey with the blueprints of the apartment to Raven, "That, and we try to get any intel on where their headquarters are." He added.
Raven took a look at the blueprints and replied "Simple plan, I like it, kill everybody, think we might want to just kneecap one of them for intel?"
"If we get the chance, but I'm not taking any." The bounty hunter said, leaving the wounded thug behind and going to the aforementioned apartment.
=====Undisclosed Residential Block====
---30 minutes later- Dusk---
The walk towards the gang's 'financial center' was relatively short. The two bounty hunters could get a clear view of the apartment block from the back alley they were in. The building was battered and would otherwise look abandoned if it wasn't for the occasional civilian or ganger that left or entered its premises. Like the thug had described, the place was right next to The Three Buns and on the corner of the street, and some gangers could be seen milling around the entrance of the bar occasionally. It looked like it was a place that got frequently visited by the gang.
"Seems relatively simple to get into, no obvious guards, how do you want to work this, rush in or go in covert and try to slip up on them unnoticed before we unleash hell?" Raven asked as he made sure his weapons were loaded and ready for the task ahead.
Desmond leaned against the wall of one of the buildings and watched the apartment, "We don't know how many are there, but if they fight like the bums who rushed me and my crew at the spaceport then we gotta take the leadership first, because that makes them dumb as a headless chicken." He said.
From the blueprints that Desmond had received from Nicholas and had subsequently shown to Raven, the duo would be well aware that the first floor consisted of a reception, that took roughly half of the area, followed by two separate rooms, one a large cabinet that was supposed to hold the maintenance supplies for the building, the second a small office for the building's manager. These two rooms were separated by a corridor that was behind the reception's desk, and down the same corridor were the stairs leading to the underground storage basement and to the second floor.
Desmond pondered over the possibilities, making his mind up, "We play it safe. Cut the power from the back and then go in. Though watch out your fire because there are civilians living in there too as a decoy. How's that for you?" He said to Raven.
"Seems like a reasonable plan to me" Raven said as he hefted his SGAR, "This should be up to dealing with the gangsters while not overpenetrating and accidentally killing civilians. Do you have any kind of pyrotechnics that we could use?"
"No, I don't handle the heavy artillery." Desmond said, checking his shotgun as he changed its caliber from the overkilling 4-gauge to the manageable 12-gauge. The bounty hunter patiently inserted one shell after the other, fully loading the weapon with buckshot. He looked out towards the building, waited a couple of moments until the thugs looked busy or weren't looking their way, and then motioned Raven to follow him as he moved around the building.
Raven followed along, rifle slung across his chest, head swiveling side to side to make sure nobody was watching them as they made their way. The duo quickly made their way to the side and around the building, on an alley behind the apartment complex and another building. Right in front of them was a turn to the left connecting to the alley between the Three Buns and the apartment. Voices could be heard and the occasional laughter.
Desmond took a crouching position and moved towards the corner, shotgun lowered as he tried to discern how many thugs were there.
Raven followed behind Desmond as they moved, switching to watching to behind them every few steps to ensure that their backtrail was clear. He'd also be watching to see what they'd have to do in order to shut the power down to the building. "Had a thought, how do we plan to see when we make entry if the power is out?" Raven asked quietly.
"We could lure them out once the power is out, take some of them out, cut the power back in and clear it." Desmond suggested. He'd been so dead on in taking them by surprised that he forgot the simple fact that he hand't brought a flashlight.
Raven would slap his forehead and reach around and grab the pack on his back and drop it and start hunting around in it until he came up with about 10 glow sticks and 2 flash lights with weapon mounts. "Which one do you think would be better for us, the lower light of the glow sticks or the sheer blinding power of weapon lights?" He asked as he continued hunting through the bag.
"Once we lure some outside and take them out we'd lose the surprise element, so I guess we'll go in hot afterwards." Desmond hushed, picking up a flashlight and attaching it to the shotgun as he listened to the thugs around the corner. One of them laughed at something, and then the sound of a door being closed echoed to where the bounty hunters were at. "You got a silencer?" Desmond asked.
Raven hefted the rifle and pointed at the front "it's a laser man, no silencer really needed" he said with a smile as he checked the charge and activated the laser sighting system mounted in the front grip. "Feel like starting the ball rolling?"
Desmond nodded, letting the shotgun hanging by its strap and pulled a wrench from his toolbelt, rotating it along his hand to get the feel of the weight. He looked once towards the thug, waited until he was looking the other. The bounty hunter hugged the building's wall and disappeared around the corner towards where the thug was at. Some time later a crunching sound echoed, followed by the sound of something falling on the ground.
"Clear." Desmond said, barely loud enough for Raven to hear.
Raven moved up and followed Desmond around the corner, waiting to see what was ahead of him while still making sure that they weren't being trailed. Once he turned around the corner, he would see one of the thugs, wearing the same leather jacket with the token on the sleeve. The thug looked older and was bald-headed, and a bloodied bruise adorned the back of his head, blood could be seen slowly trickling from it. He didn't look responsive. The alley was littered with trash bags and junk and two dumpsters, one on each side of it.
Desmond stood behind the downed thug and besides the building's power box. It was protected by a rusted out padlock, which was smashed aside by the butt of Desmond's shotgun, revealing the wires and fuses inside. The bounty hunter grabbed the wires with a gloved hand, yanked them back and then cut them with his wirecutters.
Almost instantly the duo could hear a commotion inside the building, and the bounty hunter put the tools away and drew his shotgun again, taking cover behind a dumpster.
Raven would take cover in a flanking position so that he and Desmond had an overlapping field of fire on any thugs that rushed out. "Well let's see how these fools handle themselves" Raven muttered under his breath as he prepared to start taking well aimed shots.
Desmond nodded, staying behind the dumpster and looking towards the back door of the building. The bounty hunter ignored the foul stench that came out of it, focused on the door and on the weapon he was holding. It took a couple of moments, but then the duo could hear heavy footsteps from inside the building and then four thugs burst out of the door, three of them wielding pistols while the fourth had a Styrling Ripshot slung across his chest. One of the thugs went to check on their downed comrade while the other three looked around.
Raven would set the laser sight on the chest of the one with the Ripshot and fire two shots at his chest and then switch aim and fire a third shot for his head. If the target went down he'd switch aim to one of the other thugs and take them under fire as well.
Desmond had the same idea, aiming his shotgun and the thug with the submachine gun and then opening up with his shotgun. The thug stiffened as the two headache-bright lines of laser went through him, but then toppled over once he was peppered by the buckshot pellets. A second thug shifted to look at his partner and was grazed by one of Raven's shots on the neck, making him clutch the spot of burned skin and retreat back into the building.
The remaining two thugs split, one throwing himself behind a discarded washing machine, while the second went further down, trying to go towards the end of the alley and to the street. Desmond tried to shoot him, but duck back into cover as the thug behind the washing machine shot at him, pinging the dumpster and the wall to his side with pistol fire.
Raven would curse and draw his Type 28 NSP and fire a heavy burst at the thug covering behind the washing machine, hoping the blast would disorient the man or at least destroy the cover he was hiding behind. The thug ducked back into cover as the shots hit the washing machine, but none of them seemed to go through and hit the thug. The fire, however, gave Desmond some breathing space to duck back up, aim his shotgun and hit the thug making it for the street, winding the man on the right leg with buckshot.
The second thug that hid in the building emerged again, and had some time to aim as he was seemingly ignored by the duo. He aimed his pistol and fired twice, the first shot pinging off the dumpster and the second hitting Desmond on the chest. While the shot didn't go through the durandium plates of his vest, it was powerful enough to knock the breath out of the bounty hunter and make him fall back to cover, sitting and weezing to catch his breath back. The thug then shifted his aim and fired at Raven.
Raven ducked back into cover before popping back out and firing another 3 laser burst from his rifle at the thug shooting at him, they needed to suppress these 3 as soon as they could before the firefight drew the rest of the gang out after them. The thug ducked back into cover, but the lasers were strong enough that time that they penetrated the wall, going through brick, mortar and thug. The man slowly slid off the wall he was taking cover from and fell, sprawling himself on the doorway.
The thug behind the washing machine was still taking cover behind it, seemingly too scared to show himself, while the last surviving thug took a sitting position and tried to shoot at the two bounty hunters, but was put down shortly after he had fired his first shot by Desmond, who had re-emerged from the dumpster and dispatched the thug with another shot from his shotgun, leaving only the gang-member behind the washing machine left.
Raven would switch his rifle to full automatic and stitch the washing machine with laser blasts, hoping at the least to keep the other thug's head down while motioning with his head to Desmond to move and flank the thug so that he could take him down.
As the laser fire slowly ate the cover from the last remaining thug, Desmong got out of his cover, shotgun raised, and approached the washing machine with quick steps. The bounty hunter got one, then two shots at the gang-member. Soon afterwards, thug number four was no more.
"He's down!." Desmond said, turning around and facing the backdoor of the building.
"Well we've made enough noise out here, let's head in and deal with the rest of these punks" Raven said after that. Moving up he stood ready to go in and start dealing with the others, turning on the flashlight attachment on his rifle too in order to make it so that as they started clearing the building anyone who looked at them would be blinded by the bright light.
Desmond approached the other bounty hunter, turning on the flashlight on his shotgun and quickly inserting four more shells to make up for the ones he had used. The bounty hunter looked at his partner, and then moved inside, scanning the darkness with the flashlight. The little that they could see from the flashlights would reveal that the painting was slowly flaking off the walls, and what little place hand't been stained with random graffitti would reveal cracks crisscrossing the walls.
The duo would notice right off the bat that they were in the hallway behind the reception, they were on the door besides the stairwell and to their left was the storage closet, while that to their right was the manager's office. the place was at least 10 meters long and they could hear sounds from both the upper floor and below, as well as from the storage area, which was were Desmond headed.
Raven would follow but keep an eye on the stairwell when they reached it, making sure that if someone came down the stairs he had a good line of sight on them while also checking to make sure that the door to the manager's office was still closed and if someone emerged he could deal with them.
Both the doors from the two rooms were closed, but not soon after Raven would see a pair of feet would come out from the stairs leading to the second floor, while Desmond kicked the door to the supply closed open, blinding whoever was inside with the beam of his flashlight.
Raven waited until the figure in the stairs was visible and the switched his weapon up so that the light was directly in their face blinding them and allowing him to see if they were armed or just an innocent bystander. The two feet soon proved to belong to another gang-member, this one wielding a much heavier Infantry Assault Rifle and having an armored vest for protection. The thug quickly shielded his eyes from the flashlight as Raven blinded him.
Meanwhile, in the adjacent room two shots echoed from Desmond's shotgun, followed by the staccato outburst of returning fire from a pistol, this one of much heavier caliber. The firefight contiuned in the supply closet.
Raven would snap his rifle up to the man's head and fire a pair of shots at his face followed by a secondary set of shots aimed at the man's pelvis and kneecaps. If the headshots didn't kill him then the other shots would hopefully disable him long enough for a kill shot. The first of the two shots hit the man square in the forehead, going through both the man's hand and skull, while the other three impacted the wall behind him. A pair of feet quickly followed behind the thug, but retreated back to the second floor as the thug rolled down the stairs. Three more loud shots were heard from the supply closet before Desmond got back out.
"Bastard had a table! I had to eat it away with buckshot before I took him down!" He said to Raven, looking at the stairwell and at the dead thug at the bottom of the stairs. The duo could hear voices and someone shouting an order from the basement level.
Raven would move to the door of the manager's office and nod to Desmond as he hefted his boot and shrugged at the door "Think we should say hi?" He asked somewhat laconically.
"Don't see any problem with that." Desmond said, keeping an eye at the stairwell as he reloaded his shotgun again. One thug poked his head out from the stair leading to the basement level, but recoiled as Desmond fired at him.
Raven smiled and lifted his boot slamming it into the door to the manager's office, if it opened he'd shine his light inside attempting to blind anyone inside. The place would be empty, save for a lone, closed laptop that sat on top of the table and the several file cabinets surrounding the desk.
As Raven checked the office, Desmond had to keep switching his aim between the top and bottom floor, as the gang-members got more and more daring, the one on the top floor even leaning down to try to get a burst with his rifle at the bounty hunter. Someone kept shouting orders from the basement, now close enough that the duo could hear a very deep and bassy voice.
Raven completed his search and then came back out to help Desmond deal with the two stairwells "Should we split up to deal with each level or both go one way?" He asked.
"It's just one guy on the upper floor!" Desmond said, racking the shotgun back and firing at the thug as the man tried to get a bead on him from the top floor. This time the bounty hunter nailed the ganger on his unprotected leg, making him drop his weapon and clutch the wound, partially exposed. Desmond fired again and the thug disappeared on the second floor as he was jerked back by the impact. "Got him!" He called out.
"Then let's head to the basement and finish clearing these guys out" Raven said as he suited actions to words and started down the stairs with his light shining the way as he watched carefully to see if there were any thugs on the sides.
"Shit, wait up!." Desmond called out, bolting after the other bounty hunter. As soon as Raven started going down the stairs to the basement level below, the thugs opened fire. They had been taking the time while the duo fought the gangers outside and upstairs to fortify and consolidate their position. One of the thugs, a dark skinned ID-SOL hybrid much larger than the rest of the group took cover behind a flipped over table, firing his HHG at the stairs, while the rest was still concealed but kept their fire at the stairs.
Most of the shots impacted around the stairs, zipping past the bounty hunter's lower body and midsection, some hitting the hardwood of the stairs and making the splinters graze Raven's face, while two -one of them being right after the bark of the HHG- hit him in the lower leg, being deflected by the armored plate of his suit, while the second, of a smaller caliber, was deflected by the torso plate. Desmond tried to grab the back of his collar and pull him back.
Raven allowed himself to be pulled back while he fired a set of shots from his rifle at the one covering behind the table, hoping that the laser would at least punch through and give the ID-SOL a pause when his cover started to vanish. The laser bolts impacted against the table, leaving bright red incandescent marks, while the ID-SOL ducked back into cover to reload, but not before taking in the minor victory to taunt the duo.
"You're dead, assholes!" The deep voice boomed from the basement, followed by laughter from the other gang member's. The bounty hunters could make out at least three other different voices in there.
Desmond let go of Raven's collar, aimed down his shotgun at what little he could see off the stairs and then lowered it.
"We gotta lure 'em out somehow." He commented.
"Lemme think for a minute" Raven said right before shouting at Desmond "You lying scum, you said that this would be a cakewalk, not that we'd run into a whole group of thugs! I thought this was going to be easy money not a job for a stinking army!"
"I'm having the time of my life here!" Desmond shouted back angrily, aiming his weapon down the stairs again and firing as one of the gangers stuck his head out to see what was up. "Did you find anything useful in that office!?" He asked again.
"Nothing of use, just a junk laptop and some papers, left them there but they're ready to go up in flames when we get the hell out of here!" Raven shouted back while watching to see if any other the gangers was stupid enough to look.
As their time kept running out, the gangers started to get more bold. One of them, another young-looking nepleslian, ducked out of cover from below and fired at Raven with a pistol. While that happened, Desmond realized that the while the important things were likely in the basement, the duo wouldn't have time to collect it; They were not only outgunned and outnumbered, but they had already lost the initiative that the had.
"Keep them pinned, I'll go get the laptop and then I'll start to scorch the place." the bounty hunter said to Raven, letting his shotgun hang by its strap and bolting towards the office.
The first thug was joined by a second, who took cover on the other side of the stairs opposite to the first. This one had a trench shotgun, racking it back and getting ready to fire.
Raven smiled and set his rifle to fully automatic and started spraying rounds towards the bottom of the stairs to suppress the gangers and started making his way back up the stairs to a place that he could find cover.
The laser fire was enough to keep the thugs back in cover, but as soon as Raven stopped his firing, the ganger with the shotgun fired his weapon blindly, peppering the wall next to the bounty hunter with buckshot, while his partner was busy reloading his pistol.
It was then that Desmond emerged out of the office, laptop clutched on one hand and his pistol in the other. The bounty hunter disappeared into the supply closet and got right back out with a red gallon, holding it with the hand that had been previously holding the pistol. The bounty hunter dropped the gallon and kicked it towards Raven.
"Extra crispy!" He shouted as the gallon slid across the floor, stopping next to Raven's feet.
Raven smiled and grabbed the bucket, tossing it down the stairs to the middle of where the two gangers were, he drew his HHG and switching to a red round fired it into the gallon, trusting the explosion to vaporize the fuel before he fired a burst of laser fire into it. The red gallon went up in flames, enveloping the two gangers in a bright yellow burst of light before the flames settled in and did their job of catching fire on everything.
"Let's get the hell out of here before more of those goons arrive!" Desmond called out, drawing his pistol and moving out towards the alley again.
Raven followed right after Desmond with his rifle up and ready in case of other gangers coming up. He looked for any other exits the gangers could take so if they tried to escape the flames he could cut them off.
The duo couldn't see any other exits from the alley they were in, but they could already see that there were gangers that had finally came from the Three Buns to see what the whole sound of a gunfight was being all about. There were a couple of them, all unarmored but every one carrying the token .45 pistol.
"YOooouu assholes are deeeead!" One of them drunkenly yelled at the duo, barely aiming his pistol and firing all over the place. More than half of them were in the same condition, but some were still sober enough to make their shots land dangerously close to the bounty hunters.
"This way!" Desmond yelled, making a run for it towards the way they had previously come from. The bounty hunter jumped over the bodies of the two first victims of their little raid.
Raven followed Desmond after firing a short automatic burst from his rifle at the gangers to at least make them duck for cover if not take a few of them out, he was rewarded with a ganger falling over as a laser beam went through his torso. He'd jump over the bodies as well and head for the corner that they'd come from before.
The duo ran down the alley, then made a sharp turn to the right back from where they came and into the streets, which were pretty deserted both because of the time and nature of the neighborhood, but also because of the gunfire that had been occurring in the apartment. As the two bounty hunters neared another alley on the adjacent block opposite to the gang's hideout. While they crossed the street, an HHG barked twice, the first shot, merely a ranging one, hitting the asphalt next to them, but the second hitting Desmond square in the back, knocking him off his feet and into the other alley. The bounty hunter had his breath knocked out of him again as the shot, which had gone through the durandium plate, had been barely stopped by the ballistic mesh underneath.
"Ohh shiiiiit!" He groaned in pain, dropping the laptop ahead of him and clutching the area where the bullet had impacted.
Raven would spin around to where the shots came from and if he spotted the ganger that shot he'd fire a few shots from his rifle at him before helping Desmond up and grabbing the laptop as well. From what little he could've seen when he looked back, Raven could make out the bigger silhouette of the ID-SOL that was one of the gang's captain.
The large brute cheered once he saw that he had hit someone, and then duck back into cover behind the building as Raven fired, scattering the remaining gang members for a few precious moments. Meanwhile, Desmond got up and moved painfully slow into the alley as he tried to cope up with the new sudden pain on his back.
Raven would follow and take up a position at the edge of the alley to give Desmond covering fire as they withdrew, hopefully getting a clean shot at the ID-SOL so that they could get the money for the obviously high ranking gang member.
He wasn't lucky, the ID-SOL was as smart as the other gang members were dumb in their drunken stupor. The group started to break out of cover again and rush the alley that the duo was in, firing their pistols wildly and yelling.
Raven shrugged and started planting accurate 3 round groups on the gang members running at him, 2 shots to the chest followed by one to the head. Planning to wittle them down before they got close and then switching to full auto and just sweeping the street with laserfire. The angry red beams cut down three of the gangers instantly, going through them, while two more were injured, that happened at the exact same time as the apartment's window burst out in several miniature fireballs, spraying glass shards into the street and on the thugs that were still alive.
Desmond appeared next to Raven, firing his shotgun down and adding hisown firepower to take down two other gangers. That left the two bounty hunters against two remaining gangers that had been sober enough to stay behind cover, and the ID-SOL. One of them and the ID-SOL were taking cover behind the apartment and across the street from the bounty hunters, while the second was on the same side of the street but on the other end of the block.
The duo could also see that the two remaining gangers were the two remaining survivors from the apartment, since they wore partially scorched ballistic vests over their clothes, and still had smoke wafting out of them. Both were wielding Styrling Ripshots.
Raven would carefully take aim at the gangers in cover, even though he wasn't sure where they were precisely he was willing to rake the area they were covering in with laser fire to see if that would draw them out, and if not he'd pull his NSP and fire a heavy burst to see what the effect was. As he fired, chipped pieces of brick flew out from the laser impacts and subsequent overpressure from the high temperatures, but other than that, the bounty hunter couldn't see anything else as the street was gradually covered in a thick black smoke from the apartment's fire.
Desmond turned around and started to insert some more shells into his shotgun, "I'll go around the block and flank them. Keep them busy!" He yelled out as he started to run down the alley and around a corner. The bounty hunter was still a bit hunched over, and every once in a while he would groan when he did a particularly painful movement thanks to the almost-lethal wound he received.
"Can do" Raven said as he changed batteries on his rifle while pulling out a wrench and tossing it to make the sound as if he'd dropped his magazine and cursed loudly enough to let the gangers hear.
Raven would see a small silhoette move about the smoke, darting from one side of the street to the other, while the side where the ID-SOL and the other gang member had previously been was constantly being dotted by muzzle flashes and the stacatto sound of a ripshot being fired in burst and being interrupted by the occasional bark of the much heavier HHG. The shots landed everywhere, since the smoke made it particularly hard to see anything clearly from that distance.
Raven muttered and started firing bursts into the smoke and snapped a few shots at the small silhoutte hoping to at least wing them so they would slow down so he could get a more accurate shot at the target, and as the laser bolts penetrated the smoke, Raven could see the figure trip over and fall. It looked like that it was even harder to see inside the smoky hell that was the viscinity of the apartment.
Almost at the same time, a shotgun barked twice, and the fire that was being directed at Raven suddenly shifted somewhere else, but this time it was just the noise of the HHG openning up.
Raven would make sure his flashlight was on on his rifle and start moving up, rifle raised and looking but he'd have his NSP set on stun for when he got closer to the small figure to knock them out for retrieval after dealing with the ID-SOL, he made sure to be careful to attempt to not lose his balance as the small figure had done. As he moved down the streets, he noticed that the place was now littered both with bodies and debris that had been flung out of the apartment. None of the bodies moved as Raven passed them, something slammed at him from behind, tackling the bounty hunter and throwing him on his chest against the floor. The ganger had stood motionless in the smoke while he lay in waiting.
If he wasn't too busy coughing because of all the carbon monoxide in his blood, he would've been able to attack Raven with the knife he was holding, but the thug just raised it and prepared to stab the bounty hunter with a downwards stroke.
Raven would roll over while drawing his HHG and fire a round from the active chamber at the ganger's chest, but the shot missed as the barrel of the revolver was grabbed by the thug, who fell over the bounty hunter. The thug huffed as he tried to keep the barrel away and bring the knife to bear again.
Raven cursed as he fought the man to get the barrel back on target while he drew his diamond survival knife in case the man deflected the barrel again he'd go for a slash on the man's knife hand to make him drop the knife.
Slowly but surely, the bounty hunter was winning the wrestling competition against the ganger, but Raven could already feel his breath starting to escape him because of the smoke. The ganger saw that and focused on getting the pistol away from him, that was when the bounty hunter managed to slash the man's knife hand, making him yell out in pain and let go of the HHG's barrel to clutch his wound.
With that Raven would pull the HHG back on target, pointing right at the man's head in between the eyes and pull the trigger. The ganger lurched back, tensed and fell over on his side, still on top of Raven and revealing that the penny sized hole in his forehead had turned into a orange sized hole in the back of his head. Meanwhile, the firefight continued to go on the other side of the street, and it was possible for Raven to hear somebody calling frantically for his name as the HHG barked several times.
Raven would get up and holster his HHG but stay crouched to keep as much out of the smoke as he could as he moved towards the other side of the street with his rifle up at the ready so that when he saw the ID-SOL he could open fire on him immediately if the line of sight was clear.
As the bounty hunter crossed the thick smoke and into the street in front and to the left of the apartment, he would be able to see that the ID-SOL had crossed it and was steadily walking towards two parked cars where Desmond was taking cover at. The other bounty hunter was perfectly safe from fire from where the gang captain was shooting from, but he would soon get flanked.
Raven would take careful aim and start firing at the ID-SOL, two shots to the head, four shots to the big barrel chest, two more shots to each knee cap, four shots to the pelvis. There was no such thing as overkill in his mind when it came to one of those genetically engineered hulks.
The first shot grazed the side of the ID-SOL's bald head, making the dark skinned juggernaut turn around and face Raven, making most of his subsequent shots go off their mark while a couple of others hit the ID-SOL in the chest, left shoulder and grazed him on the abdomen.
Desmond, who had been busy getting shot at and trying to reload his shotgun at the same time, emerged from behind the car and fired. The sound was different from the same one that had been when the he had fired the 12 gauge shells, instead sounding much louder because he had taken the time to switch his weapon's caliber to the devastating 4 gauge, which was responsible for taking a big chunk off the ID-SOL's head, killing him.
He got out from the back side of the car and moved to inspect the damage, keeping his shotgun pointed at the dead gang captain and kicking his HHG away.
Raven made his way up, covering the dead gang captain as well "Well that was fun, probably oughta get some sort of photo proof that we killed this guy I guess before we grab whatever gear these guys had for ourselves eh?" He commented as he looked at the massive chunk missing from the ID-SOL's head. "Nice shooting by the way."
"Thanks. You got the laptop?" Desmond asked Raven, reaching for one of the side pockets in his pants and procuring his cigarette pack. The bounty hunter lit the cancer stick with a ligther and then took a deep drag out of it, trying to concentrate on something other than the severe pain on his back and chest. He looked like shit himself, but that was when he noticed that Raven was just as bad because of all the soot that he had acquired when he went through the smoke and wrestled with the other gang member.
Desmond pulled his datajockey out, took a picture of the dead gang captain and, stashed the electronic again as he pulled out the token off the dead man's sleeve; This one having a much better finishing to it and the man's name engraved on the bottom.
"Yeah I got it" Raven replied as he pulled it out of his pack, "so where do we go next?" he asked as he watch Desmond smoke.
The bounty hunter looked up into the then black sky and then back at Raven, "We got some time to grab whatever we can before the authorities show up. Then we head back to where my crew is." He said, gritting his teeth at the end as he shifted his weight from one feet to the other to start moving, causing his back to go up in a flare of pain. He shrugged it off after a while and started to search the bodies.
"Well let's get to it then" Raven said as he suited actions to words, taking his knife and cutting a part of the ID-SOL's sleeve off and soaking it in a bit of water before wrapping around his mouth and nose to block off at least some of the smoke inhalation. He also picked up the dead man's HHG and any rounds he had on him then continued searching the remaining corpses.
===ISC Iron Ferret===
---Several hours later, two hours past standard midnight time---
Aftermath:
It took the duo a couple of minutes to scavenge over whatever weapons from the dead gang members that they could carry with them before the fire got worse and they had to get clear off the apartment as the building crumbled. If any of them paid any attention to the local news, that incident woud be all over it for the next few days, but no mention of any of the bounty hunters were made, instead the media would be pointing the cause as a inter-gang conflict, not too uncommon on Nepleslia.
After they got clear off the area, the two bounty hunters took several detours and random paths throughout the night-time Maharombi to throw off anyone on their tail, until they made it to Desmond's black hovercar and made the rest of the trip back towards the spaceport, picking Haures along the way after the lizard had been treated by a veterinarian.
The group had acquired the laptop, which still needed to have its data looked over for any further intel on the gang. They had also acquired three assault rifles, two HHGs, two Ripshots and one very scratched battle rifle that was caked in soot from the fire and whatever ammo they could also find on the gangers. These findings would go to the Iron Ferret's armory, while the laptop was given to Nicholas to work his magic.
The hovercar parked and landed right outisde the spaceport hangar that the Ferret was docked at. Desmond jumped off, grapped a tarpaulin that was wrapped around the guns he had taken and motioned both Haures and Raven to follow. He took another drag of his cigarette before moving into the semi-open door of the hangar and inside.
Raven followed to see where they were going and stepped into the hangar after Desmond. He could see the ship landed, the cargo ramp facing the entrance of the hangar.
"This is it. Gotta introduce you to the captain." Desmond said, finishing off the cigarette and stepping on the butt after he dropped it.
