Jack, Be Quick.

Jack shoved Sarah back as he quickly moved outside and behind the corner of a building, "Alright let's show the boss what can do, everyone out and fan out. safeties off, but finger off the trigger just yet." he shouted through the team comms channel as he did so.

Sarah hopped out shortly after and went around back as the other four filed out and took position behind various forms of cover from low walls, to building corners like Jack. She climbed up the vans open door and onto the top of the van before leaping to the ledge of the one story building they had pulled up next to. She removed her rifle from the bag she carried and hit the spring release for the folded back barrel and downward folded scope, both flipping into place immediately with a light ding. The rifle's bipod rested on the raised edge of the roof as she set her sights on the three men in the technical.

Jack seeing everyone in place switched to the comm channel for Uso, "In position and on standby, you are clear to bring the rain."

Duncan was honestly quite taken aback at Jack's reaction to Sarah. He was sure he would have to come to the woman's aid regardless of the fact that she had clearly raised the man's ire. This was the type of in fighting that from the outside looked like chaos but Duncan knew, even if they didn't, that that was how you built a true team. A little rough and tumble there, a little harsh word here, it all culminated in honesty in the end.

Duncan slid to a stop as the saber team, Jack and Sarah disembarked. He watched the machine gun in front of him plugging away like a happy father watching his son excel in sports. He noted everyone's positioning looking to where he would be the most helpful, ultimately though he still was completel unsure if the cartel thugs were the enemy or whatever was kicking out the serious heat from inside the building.

"Yo, who are the bad guys here? I can easily man that gun if we can get a hold of it," He said still sitting in the van but ready to duck down rom fire.

"For right now, just consider everything hostile. If it shoots at you then it's hostile." Jack shouted to Duncan as he pulled his Edjia battle rifle out of the concealment of his long coat.

"OK Jack, lets see what you can do..." Uso said, giving him the OK to start shooting, as she took ahold of their new comer's shoulder.

"Alright... localmook," Uso said to Duncan lets get your van out of sight in case we need it again later ok? We're going to get our people out from inside the thing, then we're going to leave... 'course you're welcome to tag along for the rest of it."

Duncan looked back at Uso with his usual grin, "Course I'm coming back, this junk is what I do. I'm not just a pretty face."

"Hey Jack," he shouted," just save some for me k? I call dibs on that machine gun!" With that, after everyone had piled out he reversed the van a ways and slid it backwards into a nearby alley. He turned off the engine and gave the steering wheel a rough tug. Amusingly the steering device popped off like he had done it before, he got out of the van and oddly enough did some brief stretching, secured the wheel to his lower back and drew his Styrling 12 shot from it's back holster. He ensured it was loaded fully, zipped up his Emrys jacket and headed back to the scene ready to see who needed support.

"You heard her people, on three concentrate fire on the targets on that truck. One......Two.......Three." Jack said has he sighted his aim on the gunner.

Sarah depressed the trigger at three with the other four team members, her round hitting the man on the right in the back, the explosive round detonating on impact blasting out his chest. The two remaining men were only shocked by the sudden splashing of gore as antimatter tipped tungsten rounds from five Edjia battle rifles shredded them and the technical's chassis.
"Targets eliminated, tracking next target." Sarah said in the cold manner she reverted to when on the job, her feelings numb, everything not an ally is just a target in her sights.

"Fire at will, watch for possible civilian contacts, hit the scum not the people. Hold position as eliminate any targets you see, after we are sure the majority of hostiles are down, we'll advance on that building." Jack said over the comms as like Sarah, he searched for a fresh target, his feelings numb, his fears non-existent, his rage silent, The only thing important now was the mission.
I'm back bitches, the devil is real, for I am demon. No mercy, no hope, no life, and no victory for those who are my enemy, for your all going to die. As Jack thought this, the other gang member realizing they were under attack began to divide their attention to the new threat.

Looking like a local really helped Duncan as he got back on the scene. He basically mosied right through the crowded on Lookers and as he neared the edge he saw the great job being done by Saber team from a different vantage point.

Of course he didn't rubberneck for long because the cartel thugs we're starting to organizing and one thug had thought, for whatever reason, it would be a good idea to make a dash from cover for the machine gun that was just messily vacated. Duncan activated the force shield from his suit, held it in front of him and dashed in response.

Timing was everything as Duncan met and blindsided the thug just as they both reached the armed truck. Duncan literally smashed the man into the side, rocking the truck from the impact. The thug sunk to the ground, unconscious? Dead? Who cared?

Duncan yelled back, "Sarah! Stop checking out my ass and shoot some more goons!" He smiled broadly and easily jumped up into the truck swiveling it around towards the hunkering cartel goomba's.

"Jack, how about some covering fire," he asked as he attempted to the machine gun.

Uso then called in her two APCs, one swooping in low for a landing by the apartment building while the other circled overhead, the autocannon on top taking aim at the cartel vehicles nearby, quickly turning the heavy metal into a small firestorm. Once the vehicles were on fire, and the goons on the ground were scattering, the APCs would start throwing smoke arounds into the area around the apartment complex, limiting the return fire that could come at them.

"WE'RE FRIENDLY, DON'T SHOOT!" Uso shouted.

*Fzzt*

The APC circling overhead suddenly dropped out of the sky and fell onto one of the slums nearby.

"Damnit... fucking Sute making me come out here and get my shit blown up...." Uso said, pulling out her datapad, "Vier, we're gonna need a new ride."

- No Response -

The surroundings had gotten very quiet. With the exception of feet moving about and the occasional fire. It was right about then that Uso put two and two together.

"Oh Fuck."

*BRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHhhhghghghghghghg......*

Suddenly, Engine noise. In a world where hyperspace taps were common... the sound of a heavy Diesel engine starting up was quite unique and completely unmissable. It drowned out the sound of fires and feet. The sound of very heavy treads could be heard on well oiled wheels, pulling something quite heavy out into the street, crushing slums that were too close.




Uso would drop her Datapad, along with her EMP pistol and much of her other gear, taking only the pistol and two spare magazines that Jack had given her. "Lets find our people and leave," Uso said, making a dash for the most heavily damaged apartment building.

Sewers

Creature and Anne were creeping under the battle. The rumbling of a vehicles, explosions, gun fire. Somebody else had arrived and joined the battle. Creature held Anne by the belt on his heavy coat, that he had given her to hide her battered body. He was shoving her forward as he stomped through the muck beneath Team Uso Twat.

The sewer was not unoccupied. On the walk ways Creature could see small shacks, and small malnourished faces peering out at him and Anne. Different faces. Children. Alien children. A few were gartagen but not many. Some had horns but otherwise looked like pinkies, most were things Creature had never seen. All were obviously kids.

Creature approached a horned pinkie who recoiled. "Ay. Kid. You are gross as fuck. Are you covered in poo? Ugh. What is with this fucked up planet? Anyway, I'll give you some money if you can help me get to a safe spot up top." Creature said as he climb up a man hole ladder.

Creature gave the lid a swift punch and sent it flipping through the air like a flipped coin. He poked his head up to look around only to see that Diesel truck speeding directly at him. Creature dropped his head down and soon listened. When that truck passed over the manhole he'd thrust his sword up to cut through the vehicles cam shaft like butter.

Jack's Edjia stopped firing it's lights dimming to black, "Fuck, everyone using Edjia, drop em and pick up some ballistics, we've been EMP'ed!" he shouted as he dropped the battle rifle and pulled out his short barrel M3 with folding stock and extended mags. He went right back to scanning for targets and firing at those that presented themselves, that was until heard the tank.

"Shit get to the building now!", he barked as he sprinted behind Uso as she passed him, his legs kicking as he remained only a step behind her.

Sarah heard the tank a moment before everyone else, and had already begun to make her way down. Sarah hit the ground and sprinted for the building everyone else seemed to be running like hell for.

The hum of the machine gun died down briefly as things seemed to get strangely quiet to Duncan. He noticed two things, one was that his allies were not shooting their rifles and the other was that the servos in his gauntlets seemed to not be working.

Duncan frowned as he put two and two together. EMP must have pulled through shutting off his new toy, now they were just glorified dusters.

The distinct rumble of a heavy vehicle peaked his interest now and saw his team running for cover. Not knowing if they would make it thanks to all this ridiculous smoke that had been dropped and knowing Sarah had the farthest to go he swiveled the heavy gun towards the rumbling and opened up.

Not expecting it to hurt the approaching behemoth it would serve, at the very least, as a distraction. Once he knew Sarah at least had a lead he would jump off and follow her and the team.

Stoneage

There was something thrilling about driving an old-school tank.

Frank absolutely loved this thing, and genuinely delighted int he hours spent constantly building and rebuilding his machine. There was no quiet hum of an aether-reactor here... only chemical fuels and moving machinery. He would throw the lever on the gearbox forward, the tank lurching up and over some shack, crushing the thin metal box into a thin metal pancake. He'd then look out the forward parascope, his hands working the control levers to start rotating the tank in place until the thick metal plates in front were pointed right towards the apartment complex.

"ARMORED VEHICLE SIGHTED!"

A smile came to Frank's face as he heard his gunner.

"LOAD AP!"

He shouted, a well oiled 'thunk' echoing through his little command area as the breech of the main cannon slid open. He would duck his head down to use the targeting parascope, his vision being directecd out either side of the turret through two more parascopes. He'd sight in the transport, bringing the two dots into focus on the display. Meanwhile the main gun of the tank would elevate up slightly, rotating according to the calculations carried out by a mechanical firing computer machined priceely from a solid block of Zesu.

"READY!"

"FIRE!"

*BOOM*

The main cannon of the tank recoiled back as a solid metal slug was sent flying forward. The small Gumdrop APC had already been disabled by the large, EMP coil situated on the back of the tank... but the fast moving slug penitrating through both side walls disabled it for good, crumpling the APC and knocking it sideways into the wall of one of the apartment buildings.

"LOAD HE!"

Frank then turned his attention back to his parascope, taking a look out of the small panoramic slit on the top of the tank. There were people running about infront of him... someone was shooting at his tank... over the loud rumbling of the engine he could barely even hear the sound of the bullets bouncing off the front armor. Someone on foot probably... not with his attention. The gunner manning the front machine gun would take care of it, responding with a steady stream of machinegun fire towards where Duncan had just been... soon to be joined in by the small machine guns on the sides of the tank As Duncan made a run for saftey, one of the tracer rounds would find the ammo supply for the truck, causing a bright orange explosion followed by a rain of small metal shards. Duncan would feel an intense heat behind him, a twinge of pain... and experiance the sudden realization that his back was on fire.

"Fucking sewer rats...."

The Gart trying to climb his way up out of the sewer didn't escape Frank either. He pulled the lever marked 'SPRAY' as he continued to drive forward, nozzles on the sides and rear of the tank starting to mist fuel out from the vehicle's supply, letting it soak into the ground and start to dribble down into the sewers as the tank rumbled past.

Creature could smell the thick fumes starting to fill up the sewer tunnels. He'd find his sword didn't exactly turn on when he stuck it out of the sewer entrance... and when the vehicle hit it, the sword would bite into the heavy metal of the truck and yank his hand in the direction the truck was moving fast enough to shatter it against the sewer entrance.



---


Meanwhile Uso had just made it to the first building when their APC came crashing through one of the walls.

"Back exit," She said quickly, ignoring the tank and heading towards the back of the apartment.

The smoke was starting to clear from earlier, and Uso would carefully peak outside, staying as far away from the windows of the apartment building as she could. It seemed that the cartel soldier were still there... many armed with basic rifles and spikey bats...

"Ugh... of course it makes sense they'd have that..." She said to herself. There were maybe a dozen waiting for them to come out of the back of the apartment complex... another dozen or two spaced out along the fence around the building. There was no way to dissapear into the slums without charging directly at some group of baddies without cover.

"Jack, get everyone ready to move and don't let that fucking gart run off with whatsherface." Uso said, starting to unzip her bodysuit, "I'll clear the back area so we can get out. Don't get killed by the tank in the mean time."

Jack was just casually loading a fresh magazine when Uso began speaking. He did pull the charging handle until she finished speaking, stripping a round from the clip and into the chamber. He turned to her with with a calm and neutral expression, "If some of us distract it, I can take all the HE grenades we have and drop them on the tank, or down its barrel."

"though it still wouldn't be easy.", he added as if it wasn't important.

Creature reacted to his sword not switching on with mild irritation. He immediately disengaged. "Piece of shit!" He yelled as the sword didn't quite work. He dropped back down into the sewer system. The smell of the Diesel came first then the dripping. The hiss of the spraying.

Creature snarled and grabbed the old Kerocine lighter. He lit it and toss it up through the man hole.

He was just throwing shit against the wall and seeing what stuck.

He then dashed off, and grabbed Ann. Returning he rabble the little alien child. "Get moving you little worms!" He said evacuating the immediate area.

Duncan stumbled hard onto his knees with the impact. He had felt keenly the shards peppering his back. While the fire currently burning on his back would end up being an issue, he was truely was lucky for his tactical suit as it's plating had protected the major areas but he had suffered several shrapnel wounds and while the fire would end up being an issue . Two in particular stood out amongst them, one had embedded itself in his left bicep and the other, a much larger piece, was sticking out of his left thigh.

He stayed kneeling face down with his hands supporting him for a few moments to catch his breath and then, groaning in pain, stood giving a lopsided jog in to the building with the others. Once there he pressed his back against the first wall he came across trying to quell the fire on his back, it was obviously not his first fire rodeo. Once his back was merely simmering he turned to the group with a smile that spoke about his pain, "What can I say? I can't turn this off, I'm just hot." He stumbled a little and caught himself with his right hand on a door frame. He curled his left arm against his stomach and put his weight on his right leg, his breathing ragged as he tried to pushed out the pain.

To Jack's idea on the grenades, "Yo, that thing has a bunch of gun on it's sides and shit. It would be really hard to get that close, but if we can do it my hammer could blow open the hatch I think. It has a custom shaped charge in the maul."

Stoneage

Frank got a good laugh at the small flicker of flame being tossed towards him. It would bounce off the armor of the tank and land to the side in the puddle of diesel fuel. The fire quickly spreading along the sides of the tank... and then down into the sewer where the fuel had been draining.

Even the rats were running now, as a fireball started sweeping both directions down the sewers, causing the remaining sewer lids to pop off like corks, belching flame and smoke into the sky, the sudden increase in pressure helping Creature get out of the sewer by tossing him up into the air, the fires lapping at his armor. The girl he had been sent to get ended up crumpling, landing in the bushes just infront of the apartment building that everyone was currently hiding behind... or inside. As soon as he hit the ground, the machinegun on the front of the tank started firing, taking chunks out of his Edjia armor and shattering what little remained.

Frank would sight in the main gun on the apartment complex. "FIRE!"

*BOOM*

The entire first floor of the structure seemed to be gutted by the blast. What little cover they had began to crumple, the ceiling of the structure collapsing downward and leaving everyone with only a few stone and wood piles to hide behind.


Team Uso

"You don't kill a tank by running right at it!" Uso said, tossing the last of her clothing aside as she activated her innate stealth, her body turning transparent as she dashed off towards the cartel soldiers blocking their exit. She was able to make it all the way across the open parking lot, leap over the fence, and start pummeling the closest soldier without getting shot... though it wasn't clear if anyone else would be able to make that run in full view of the tank AND the soldiers.

Luckily, there were still four other apartment buildings left.

Unluckily, the machine guns on the side of the tank were starting to strafe them with gunfire.

"Who said I was running at it, and I have done this before might I add, with worse odds than this. Hey where's Duncan, did that tank get him?", Jack asked after the walls around them crumbled from the blast of the tank's shell.

"I can fuck up his optics and view ports with a few well placed explosive rounds." Sarah said as she was smacking a magazine with said explosive rounds making up the clip. "What?", she said when Jack gave her a worried look as she was about to smack it again.

"Is that really wise to smack a magazine full of explosive rounds against your leg?" he said scooting a few feet away from her.

"They aren't armed until the primer has been struck dumbass, and as for Duncan, he was on that mounted gun last I checked." she said now looking at the top of the mag, to make sure it was clear of grime before she slapped it into her rifle.
"So we doing this shit, or not? I've always wanted to hunt a tank." Sarah said with a half enthusiastic grin.

Grimacing as he leant against the door frame, Dunan reached over and slowly pulled out the piece of medal in his arm. The hiss of pain clearly evident as it squelched out of his arm.

"I don't think now is the time to go tank hunting. We should at leats move to a different building so we don't get caught with our pants down," he said to the team around him. " Also, if I could bother anyone to pull out this piece of metal from my leg that would be swell." His subtle attempt at asking for some help hopefully not falling on deaf ears.

Regardless he still drew out his Pip so he would have an easier time shooting on the move over his shotgun. Most of his thoughts however will still turned towards the large piece of metal sticking out of his leg.

Shredding the armor with bullets wasn't something that happened, but dinting and beating it was. . Creature was battered by the spray of high caliber bullets. " Shieeeeeeet!"

He needed something. He couldn't fight a tank with a baby girl guns, hopes and dreams. He Saw Ann and her tits strewn about. He could hear the tank moving.

Then it hit him. He reached into one of his jacket pockets and pulled out one of those old anti matter grenades. It was a small magenetic housing for an amount that could take down a small building.

Creature pushed the button and then chucked the egg sized object at the tank. He then dove on top of Ann. The girl would feel warmth and wet coming from the creature. Some of those bullets had bit into his flesh.

Jack walked over to Duncan and took a closer look at the large metal fragment sticking out from the bleeding flesh of his thigh, "As far as I can tell, it hasn't hit an artery, but we need to get that out and treated immediately to prevent infection." he said as he gripped the shard with his left hand while his right reached under his coat to a pouch on the small pack hidden underneath at the back of his waist below a small backpack.

"Fair warning, this is gonna be a bitch." Jack said as he jerked the metal free and discarded it, before bringing a medkit out of his pack. He working quickly, applied disinfectant, coagulants, a pressure sealing bandage, and a decent dose of pain killers.

"Um guys, Some girl and a Gart came out of the sewer. And the Gart just threw something at the tank, I think ducking would be wise.", Sarah said from her spot near a window, as she watched the courtyard outside.

"Sounds like our HVT's, we need to get to them." Jack said looking around at his troops, "Uso we've sighted the targets, and the problem is that our old friend the tank has as well."