RP: ISC Phoenix [Mission 5] - Anger Management

"I'm sure you'd react the same way to someone who just eliminated your entire unit relatively unscath-" Luca conversed to Vincent before he heard the sharp explosion. He thumped the temples of his head and turned around with his pistol raised, "Cripes!"

The tree was uprooted somewhat by the blast and some of the leaves were shaken out by the small bomb, but it needed just a little push to go down and over the river. It was on an angle just steep enough to walk up and shake.

"Cool." Luca commented as he walked over to the tree, and inspected the damage, and took a step up on it, "Let's see if we can shake it down further. We'll have a bridge!" He began to squat up and down, making the whole tree vibrate.
"I don't think that's a wise plan," Sebastian said, "What if you fall off?"
"I won't!" Luca remarked as he kept bouncing - then a loud SNAP could be heard as the last of the tree came down across the bank, forming a bridge, and leaving Luca with his back to the bark and his eyes rolling around in his head.

John shrugged, "Go time~!" He walked across the fallen tree and stepped between Luca's legs, picking his way through the foliage and getting to the other side of the river. Hitori, Mel, Mitch and Sebastian followed suit, almost trampling the poor captain, who got up and gave himself a slap in the head and continued forward.

Arin didnt reply to Vincent, she just gave a toothy grin while follwing the rest of the group across the new bridge. She felt so snug with herself that she didnt realize that she was already on the otherside of the riverbank, otherwise it would have taken more than twice the time just trying not to fall in the water.

Vincent sighed. "I guess we just have that kind of luck," he said off-handedly to Robert as he stepped onto the log. Making sure he pushed Robert across the log first, Vincent made it about halfway over before the telltale crack, crack, crack of snapping wood filled his ears.

"Oh geez..." Vincent said, taking several large steps across the log before it snapped entirely. He was on the end of the log and stepping down when, destabilized, he was washed away along with the current. There came the familiar thudding as Vincent rolled over and over on the log, repeatedly becoming submerged before he finally managed to push away from the log and drift to the surface. With powerful strokes, he came ashore about six yards downwind from the rest of the group, sopping wet.

He immediately pulled off the chaingun and barrel and dis-assembled the components. The interior was pretty water-logged, with several components thoroughly soaked and floating in some of the cold river water collected from Vincent's roll down the banks. He opened the casing, dumped out the water and quickly dried the components. Then he sprinted up the bank and back to the group.

"Sorry about that guys... Maybe I shouldn't have pounded that last beer at base."

Robert laughed as Vincent was swept downstream. "And that's why you don't push short people around." He called down after him, just before slipping on the bank and rolling into the water, but didn't go anywhere but the shallows. He gave a sheepish grin as he climbed back up to the group.

Luca's communicator buzzed with the arrival of a new message..

Vincent sighed, rubbing his temples as he shook out some of the water pooling in the folds of his clothing. He approached Sebastian as he re-assembled his chaingun's dried components.

"So Sebastian," Vincent inquired as he re-attached the gun to his back, "Where do we go from here?"

Biddlybeep, Biddlybeep... Luca's communicator rung. He picked it up and read the message from Galar, "...sweet." He responded as he shut it and put it away.
"Who was that?" John queried.
"Old friend of mine. Says he's getting himself a ship, and that he's heard of our exploits."
"Great, we're famous." Mel mumbled to herself.

"This way." Sebastian told Vincent as he stifled a laugh for his act of clumsiness. The group crossed about three kilometres through the wide plains, forests and shrub land. Every now and again they'd pause for a moment to take in the serene scenery - and stare at the incoming fortress of grey, considering what would await them inside it.

It was just as Danny the Rifleman had told them, there was an area where the river flowed into the base. It had some defensive measures put in, but with hopefully a bit of subtlety and subversion, one could make it through. Night had begun to fall as the sun made its final trip down over the horizon, providing the crew with concealment.

Mel looked ahead with the scope of her rifle. "Up ahead..." She stated as she saw 6 Reds soldiers patrolling the area, "Six of those red guys. Two have rifles, three have machine guns, and the last one..." She lowered her scope with a frown, "...over near our only way in has a big fuckoff chaingun like Vincent's..."
"Hmm," Mitch considered on this information, "Thanks to the cover of night, it should be easier to just crawl along the ground and get inside," He scanned the surrounding land, "Amongst all the shrubbery and stones at our feet. We'll then see if we can get in through the water."
"Wise move," John said as he got down on his belly with his rifle on his back and his .45 in his hands.

"Let's go, then!" Luca commanded as he hit the dirt with his shotgun cradled in his hands.

"Affirmative." Vincent slumped down to his chest in the dirt and rocks, slipping the chaingun into its holster on his back. He hesitantly picked a path towards the river again, constantly scanning the path ahead for reds who may have picked up his position.

Eventually he reached the riverbank. Muttering a low curse beneath his breath, he inhaled deep into his lungs and slipped into the water. Having already been in the clear river was enough the first time, but it seemed that the water had grown even colder at this point in its course, and Vincent cursed fate for the water's temperature, which he felt was just above freezing. He skittered along the bottom of the riverbank like a massive, irradiated crab with a large, drum-shaped deformity on its back, staying surprisingly well hidden for a man his size as he slipped downstream towards the fortress, thus far undetected...

Robert grinned, after all breaking and entering was his specialty. He dropped down and drew his knife and dashed quickly and quietly as he could after vincent. He entered the water with barely a ripple and treaded water at about head-level when he resurfaced.

"Aaah..." Arin sighed, she took some time to fasten her gear more securely to her body as so they won't jiggle. She took a deep breath and pulled the strap that adjusted her inner body armor.

She also crawled a lot slower than the rest of the group due to all the heavy stuff she was carrying. And when they got to the river she quickly went in without a second thought concerning her ability at floatation to catch up with the rest.

Suffice to say she sank like a rock and never surfaced... But somewhere along the reeds a black rifle barrel, invisible in the night, popped up vertically through the surface of the water forming the upper portion of a hastily assembled snorkle.

Robert glanced around looking for Arin after she didn't resurface. He relaxed when he saw the barrel sticking out of the water. "I bet that has to taste bad." He whispered to Vincent.

Over the headset radios, Jim said, "Guys, I heard on the news that Neplesia as well as Yamatai have begun to take precautions against the virus created by that Cain fellow," He paused as the news kept coming to him, "I think the Nepleslian precaution is you guys! Stay sharp out there!"

"Got ya..." Luca said as he slipped into the water and sunk further underwater, holding his breath and performing the breast stroke under the weight of his clothes and gear. His communications became unresponsive as they submerged. The river heading in was roughly 9 or 10 feet deep, and vertical iron bars could be seen ahead, blocking access.
Sebastian and Mitch followed suit, but John, Hitori and Melissa were swimming clumsily, occasionally having to come up to breathe, but they did so at either of the shores.

Meanwhile, further ahead on the guard's end of things, they were busy discussing something from across the river. They were standing on metal platforms which were built into the walls of the fortress, and supported by shafts of lumber. A door up there lead through the wall and into the complex.

"Why'd I get assigned to this dump?" A guard with tied-back black hair, short sideburns and an attitude problem muttered to another, nondescript guard.
"Get used to it." The other guard mumbled, "This is work we're doing."
"Fuck it. I'm going to get a beer, you want one?" The guard with a mean temper asked before walking through the door and into the base to get some snacks.
"Yeah yeah... be quick." The guard replied as he glanced around at the river, "I heard we're gonna have company from the higher ups..."

He kept looking at the river, then noticed a couple of moving blurs in the water. Fish, he thought.
"I wonder if it's possible to shoot one of these suckers?" He wondered aloud to a guard on a platform on the other side of the river as he picked up his rifle and rested it on the railing.
"Dunno, let's try it. Beats searchin'!"

PAF, a bullet whizzed through the air and splashed into the water, nearly hitting Luca. It was his instinct was to pull his handgun out and return fire blindly.
When his 10mm pistol-wielding hand surfaced and began firing blindly, the guards were surprised as a couple of shots flew past and one hit the railing.
"THE FISH ARE SHOOTING BACK!!" The guard on the other side of the river yelled as he scrambled to get his rifle ready.
"THAT'S NO FISH, YOU NOBSOCK!!"

Sebastian immediately pulled Luca down from near the surface and got tapped him on the head for a moment, Luca just shrugged with a frown. Looks like a fire fight was happening and the crew had to swim deeper, and faster, and avoid the occasional stray round from a rifle - or engage them from water.

Vincent definitely didn't like the new situation. He was underwater and people were shooting. The trajectories would be screwed up six ways to sunday, sure, but if one chance round did hit him, the soldier-turned-merc would be toast. So he did the one rational thing left.

He surfaced quickly, took in one last breath and sank right to the bottom of the river. Once there, he took off, clawing his way along the silty bottom of the river, faster than a champion civilian swimmer.

Arin is a think first-act later person to a fault. While she admired Luca to be able to get out and do anything he wanted, she figured that he should have thought of the other people he was endangering. Noting that there was one soldier on the platform a little too close for comfort. Sticking the snorkle a little higher, she sprayed water into the guard's eyes before letting off a more lethal spray of .22 from her ESG.

After he tumbled down into the water with a splash, she quickly drew him under and even quicker still ransacked his pockets, tearing at the cloth to get to anything useful. Incidentally, having her victim so close to her the unfortunate guard became her manshield and absorbed a few bullets coming from above water.

Pocketing a few electronic devices and a handgun, Arin's fingers wrapped around a roundish object that she could only guess was some kind of grenade. She pulled the pin and let it fly just after breaking the water surface for some air, hoping that it would buy them some time.

Robert grunted mentally as a bullet wizzed right by his head. He shrugged it off and swam to the iron grate. He grabbed at one and started yanking, he looked at Vincent as soon as he swam up.

Vincent surfaced near the iron grate, close to Robert.

"The stuff isn't cast iron, and it looks like it's started to corrode. Give me a minute." With that, Vincent dove back down to the bottom. He gave a grate a mighty tug and managed to break the grate off of its bottom mount. A few quick jerks and the grate was gone. He surfaced for air.

"This isn't a one man job, Robert, help me out here!"

The grenade that Arin tossed flew through the air, towards the guard who was trying to shoot at her, but it missed him, flying a couple of metres shy of him, but it still sent him running for cover and hitting the deck with his rifle down.

WHAM!! The grenade exploded, leaving most of one of the platforms in ruin, and blackening the concrete walls of the complex. As he got back up and dusted the soot off him, he found Vincent's head as it bobbed up for air and attempted to make quick work of the ID-SOL.

Then a .44 calibre bullet from Sebastian's revolver rattled the guard's insides to pieces as the mighty bullet tore through him, sending him falling into the water.
Seemed like no other guards were coming, but Sebastian was sure that they had to work quickly.

Luca, John and Mel swam towards Vincent and assisted him in tearing out the bars, in a couple of minutes, one by one were pulled out, eventually making a hole big enough for Vincent to fit through with relative ease.
The river flowed northeast into a large, concrete grey building which had "WATER PROCESSING & LIVING" in big white letters. To the north and south (The crew's left and right) there were walls that went into the small complex, smaller than the main ones that were just broken through, but the smaller walls did not hide the fact that a large fortress to the south - which could be where Cain was hiding.

Luca surfaced, then signalled for everyone else to surface quickly so he could blurt out orders.
"Two choices - either we run through this complex and disrupt operations as a distraction," Luca was making this estimation based on another thing he saw in the movies, "Or we can try and climb the walls and get right to the fortress."

Arin came out of the water shivering from the cold and adrenalin. All that running, swimming and shooting around made her tired too. "C-c-an we stop somewhere for a m-m-moment?" She drew her coat closer around herself. "T-t-there could be a change of clothes, food..." She was thinking of the essential things they discarded for the jump but her mind wandered off soon after to more superficial comfort items. "... E-e-electronics, rare-materials, limited-run items..." and then wandered back to mission relevancy. "... I-i-intel in that b-building?"

Vincent removed his leather longcoat from beneath the straps and his combat harness and handed the surprisingly dry (though still moist) jacket to Arin while speaking with Luca and shaking out his clothes.

"Scaling the wall would be impractical, without some sort of powered rig it would take too long and we would risk being spotted. Arin's vote sounded best for now, so unless someone has a better idea I'm sticking with hers."

Somewhere in there, Vincent's mind processed- "If that really is a her..."