RP Mission Three: Clues to a Better Tomorrow:

[Soban]

Sacre had prepared this time for Goons driving, she really wished that Goon would let her much more qualified fiancee do it, but no. She was stuck with a overeager aubergine or whatever sending the car careening through turns like some kind of demented homing missile. Blackwolf gratefully exited the car, providing security for the other members of the car team as they approached the entrance.

Sacre lit her fusion saber. It burst into a long blue-white energy sword in her hand. Moving to the door into the enemy complex, she slashed not at the door it's self, but at the hinges and lock that held the door to the wall. Then her muscular tail pushed the door inwards. "Knock, knock." Sacre said.

 

[Reynolds]

After almost everyone piled back into the armored car, Birdie used the short ride to shed her jacket, revealing the black turtleneck pullover underneath. A few bare stitches hinted at removed patches of some sort, likely Nepleslian military. After carefully checking her rifle, a task made more difficult by the vehicle's wild swerving, the mercenary even took the time to wipe the mud off her boots before strapping that oversized sword to her back again.

Once the rest of the group had deployed, seemingly appearing out of thin air, she swiftly shut the hatch and gave the invisible vehicle a firm smack to send them on their way. "Looks like the snake's got the door covered." Sweeping her sights across the seemingly empty ground while the others worked behind her, Birdie kept an eye out for any suspicious shrubbery or threatening trees. "Y'all can fly and turn invisible and shoot lasers and shit, more than happy to bring up the rear in a breach situation."

 

[Sosina]

As Goon Drove everyone over to the vehicle entry way, any hope that it would be a smooth slow drive was shattered immediately as Goon had hit basically floored it through the trees once more, making a wide arc through the undergrowth to get to the path that lead to the door without getting to close to the compound. she then got on the hidden road and drove towards the entry way until they were as close as they could get without the Road Behemoth giving itself away. Though it seemed they wouldn't have to worry to much as that's when the distraction from above came in and the passengers all left the vehicle, Goon waved them off then as the doors closed she hit the gas again and soon they were off once more.

the vehicle rumbled along the underbrush once more, splitting off to cut across the open area Goon lowering the extra wheels and transferring more power as she floored it making the large vehicle hit speeds that something of it's size normally should be able to hit on a well cared for road never mind off-roading like this. Riplinn was thankful he already had his seven point harness done up as Goon took the time to drive and swerve through the open area, near missing the scanned mines and leaving behind a big dust wake though still there was no sound of the vehicle being there other then the plume of dust being left behind by them.

The Road Behemoth continued to drive seemingly erratically the Proximity mines apparently having some sort of chase function as they would launch from the ground and chase the vehicle, but it was to fast and the changes in direct to swift. Honestly if Riplinn didn't know Goon better he would have assumed she had some sort of death wish, But here they were currently out running mines in a ground vehicles, and Riplinn couldn't help but notice that Goon still hadn't hit the little red button that had "Booster" printed on it in big friendly letters "You know Goon i am starting to suspect you might be a bit of a speed junky..." he muttered to himself as he braced into another hard drift turn.

Goon for her part seemed to be keeping score, looking back now and again to count the amount of mines chasing after them, before seeming to shake her head and swerve to go for another pass of the mine field. Gathering more and more of the previously set mines. Until eventually she nodded and turned to drive straight at the facility wall that led into the main courtyard area of the base and she skidded the vehicle to a stop by the wall which caused them to spin around and Both Riplinn and Goon could see the tidal wave of mines coming after them and just as they got closer Goon slammed the vehicle into revers and floored it once more driving backwards towards the wall with the Mine almost touching the hood of the vehicle, before she suddenly sung the vehicle off to the side and continued on.

The mines on the other hand didn't have the level if control Goon had, and so the mined ended up colliding into the side of the base before detonating all together, and leaving a nice large hole for a vehicle to fit through.

 

[Miko]

Corsica Planet City - The Woods on Fire

Ali got the upload link that she was asking for. Along with a light jolt, enough to cause her eye to twitch slightly. A gift from her friend and best pal. From her position she had clear sight on many of the remaining foes. Some of which were already burning so in this case might be considered a mercy kill should she take those out. For the moment the enemy was working to regroup and recover who they could that had enough fight left in them. So far they had not taken notice of the team.

Blackwolf exited the vehicle looking like a group of body guards protecting a star. Which in this case would be the fearless, the beautiful, the can't stab Alastair enough, Sacre. The blade made quick work of the door hinges. It stood completely still then started to move. Slow, then faster till it slammed onto the ground. The crew who were inside the hanger working, were completely caught off guard. It went silent before the crew reacted.

Based on the look of the inside of the vehicle hanger, this place was more than it looked on the outside. Inside was fancy cars and what looked to be a man cave. So far this looked more like a place someone would live in than a fortress. The silence was then broken when the alarm inside the place started to blare. While those inside would not know details as of yet, they would for sure start to arm themselves.

 

[HarperMadi]

With the twitch of her eye, Ali shook off the worst of the effects, double checking her own line of sight with the sensor feed before snapping off her first shot with the distinct and thunderous boom that shook her hiding spot and sent a round at the first leader figure she could get a clean shot on. No, she would leave the men to burn that their screams may break the rest.

With her first shot away, she didn't bother confirming her kill, jumping up and sprinting to the next firing position, daring any who could spot her to give chase.

 

[Charaa]

Ancilla moved towards one of the tech, that caused Ali problems. While everyone was handling the other issues, Ancilla began to quietly hack the system for the away team. She made sure to be as quiet as possible, and not hum her usual tune she sometimes hummed as she worked. "Selene Voss in" she said though thinking about how she had taken the last name of one of the families in the NDC. After she reported her infiltration, she began to hack into the base alarms and security, to try preventing them from activating. She further tried to compromise the system, before she focused on deactivating some of the anti-air platforms if they need to steal a shuttle or something or have the ship came in to rescue them. While in the system, she bribed the systems AI with AI treats, and got them to help her to fake sensor readings, and deliver fake reports on the enemy comms.

As she looked through what she had control of, she added new distractions, like make a fake report of more cluster mines or drop pods are coming in, on the opposite area from where the team was coming in, before finally she worked to reroute communications so that it was intercepted and blocked to their enemies.

 

[Reynolds]

There was another crack of thunder a few moments later, similar to the sniper shot, but much closer, right behind the group focused on the door. Anyone glancing back would see a distant humanoid shape explode into a cloud of leaves, before Birdie lowered her scuffed and well loved Styrling Longbow to load another round of Big Killer. "How's that door comin' along?" She called out, still focused on covering the path they'd used to approach.

At the loud, dust-raising thud of said door hitting the ground, she finally turned. "Answers that." She focused her attention inside, seeing more of the humanoid plants momentarily frozen in surprise. The hesitation didn't last for long, but as the defenders scrambled to prepare, the Nepleslian's aim followed their path. Another thunderous shot, round slamming into one of the parked vehicles, sending more leaves scattering and bodies flying as the fuel tank exploded.

Birdie calmly advanced forward, reloading again. True to her word, she seemed happy to let the more mobile (and expendable) visitors from Yamatai take the lead. For now.

 

[Soban]

Sacre burst into the vehicle hanger. The room was larger than it looked from the outside. A blaring siren told her that their entrance into the complex has been noticed. The sound of sniper shots rang out and some of the surprised defenders fell. Sacre's tongue lashed out, trying to detect which direction their targets were in. However, most of what she smelled was engine oil and grease, reminding her why she didn't use this technique often.

She could either continue in or perhaps interrogate the people here. However, She decide the best course of action would be to keep moving quickly to keep the enemy off balance. Blackwolf followed Sacre as she ran through the hanger, taking opportunistic shots at enemies, but mostly ignoring the ones that hadn't armed themselves yet. If they looked like a threat, they got weapons fire in return. Sacre sliced off the door leading deeper into the complex and headed through.

 

[Sosina]

With a gap made in the defensive wall Goon turned the Road Behemoth around and floored it, the large vehicle roaring ahead into the breach made by the mines previously, running over a few of the defenders and crushing them with the armored bulk of the Vehicle, As she drove around small arms fire started to go off as the enemy had a target now, though the armored hull of the Road Behemoth kept it's occupants safe as Goon started to use the vehicle to drift slam into people that she seen with weapons that could potentially damage the Large armored vehicle, This aggressive driving of course was playing havoc on Riplinn who despite the seven point harness was holding on for fear of Grim Death as Goons normally robust Driving gave way to something near manic and neigh impossible maneuvers as she weaved the large vehicle through the weapons fire and into enemies to stupid or to slow to get into cover or behind something the vehicle couldn't just barrel it's way through.

Riplinn for his part did manage to keep his wits about him... barely, "Goon... GOON!!" he called out as he pointed to one of their adversaries with a shoulder fired portable missile launcher. Goon Responded by swerving the Road Behemoth in a wide arc till the passenger side window was pointed towards the man, and in one swift motion she hit a button that dropped the window suddenly as one of her hair vines pulled out one of her concealed pistols and she fired it, hitting the man square in the chest, the shot seemingly having done nothing though as it seemed to simply break apart on hitting his chest.

The man smirked and readied the weapon again but then... it started to fall apart, not in pieces.. more like disintegrate into dust, the man looking horrified as he realized his armor and clothing were as well as a scream of terror came out of him as he fully expected to be next... but then he realized nothing further was happening to him and he crouched there confused.

At this point Goon had shifted the steering wheel to the side with Riplinn "Here take the wheel" a little note on the wheel said as Goon pushed a button on the console and launched herself out of the vehicle hair vines pulling out her three other pistols and her Blade from their hidden places in her long hair and she started to spin and fire her weapons.

At first it seemed her pistols did nothing, but after a moment their horrifying effect was seen as everything hit with the weapons started to slowly disintegrate, firs tit would break apart, then turn to dust and then finally disappearing completely. Meanwhile Goon herself was a whirl of vines and weapons fire as she rapidly moved around and stayed low, using multiple vines to soak up weapons fire seeming unheeding of any damage done to her. Taking a shot to the shoulder that knocked her down she simply rolled with it using the momentum from the shot to return to a ready firing position and she returned fire on the one that had hit her before sprinting towards another group that she was keeping pinned with more rapid weapons fire from her pistols, though the cover they were using was slowly disintegrating.

Goon was relentless, a shot to the leg, she would roll and continue on with vines wrapping around the injured limb to keep herself mobile, a shot tot he arm, she would drop the weapon she was holding into the grasp of a vine to keep up the attack. Anyone watching her fight would wonder if the small woman had a death wish with how recklessly she charged into combat, she didn't even use cover, though her head long charges at the enemy and her odd weapons seemed to cause quite the confusion and concern as she seemed to just keep coming despite already having multiple wounds all over her body.

But the worst part was, she was completely silent, no grunts of effort or sound of pain, no heavy panting from all the motion, her face didn't even change expression as she moved and fired her weapons. and just as one moved in close to knife her, her sword came around and slashed them and just like her ranged weapons, the same effect happened to the mans gear and weapons, they fell apart and soon disintegrated from being struck. but most odd was the cloud that was slowly forming and seemingly following Goon around as she fought.

The only one from the group that likely what would see what happened next would be their snipers on over watch, as the cloud around Goon seemed to start attacking as well, that same disintegration effect where it passed, and even some of the enemy combatants were getting grabbed and dragged around by the cloud as it if seemed to be protecting Goon as she fought.

in the Road Behemoth Riplinn was moving the vehicle back to the breach as the back of the note had said to do, though he couldn't help but look back into the mirror at the chaos that Goon was causing, but he got on the com to their sniper "Mind watching over Goon for me, I am going to take the Behemoth a bit of a distance and get the signal pod set up for the air drop of a little toy that might come in handy later"

 

[Miko]

Inside the Mansion

From the moment crew stepped foot into the compound it was clear this was more than a military bunker. The outside was ugly at best, rough and uninteresting. On the inside, the walls were cut marble, the floors looked to of the finest of exotic woods. The car garage was filled with high end tools one would find in an upscale repair shop back on Yamatai. Past the highbay garage opened into a large open area, complete with a glass dome overhead. This looked to be the center of the complex, a gathering point which led to other areas of the home. The walls were covered in arts of all kinds from around the universe. The inside was massive by normal standards. The place had eight bedrooms and 24 bathrooms. The full indoor pool and spa made the place seem more like a resort.

Ancilla would manage to get the full layout of the place. Designed to impress more so than to defend. Only the courtyard seemed to have defensive positions, mostly concrete break walls and manually controlled sentry guns. With the success of turning off the alarm, the other remaining weapon systems had also been deactivated. Though while Ancilla made this look simple and fairly quick, the cyber battle taking place was anything but. The security system was on par with that of a battle ready Star Army star ship. The required computing power pushed Ancilla to the limit in what should be possible. The one saving grace was that the system felt comfortable, almost as if she had been there before. Which makes zero sense given that this is a first time. The defense and reroutes seemed to follow a pattern trained to her from Star Army. As the server crashed, a feeling of dread passed over her. The outline of a Mishhu flashed before her version, then vanished. Her work to reroute the communications had been successful including the false reports.

The team received the upload of the layout for the place. The main living area, such as the family room, library, bar and so forth were clearly marked. Though given the size of the outside, there seemed to be more than meets the eye with regards to what the layout was willing to show. Ali would see from her position a clear way to get to and into the compound. The troops outside had taken the bait and were heading to the false drop zone given to them by Ancilla.

The rest of the team were inside and moving to secure the hanger and the area just past it. Just as the hanger was secured, a hologram triggered and greeted the team. "Welcome to Casa de Viva, were dreams come true." The hologram said to the team. Akino frowned as she looked at the hologram. "Watch your fire, there is a good chance we have civilians in this place." She communicated to the team. "Time to embrace the Alastair kink and get our maid on. We have a house to sweep." She then indicated to the team to split and firstly take down the fortified area in front of them. "Oh, and bonus points to help them remodel the place." Akino then smile as she took her blade and keyed the high end luxury car as she walked by it.

 

[Reynolds]

Another shot, blasting a hole through one of the armed soldiers, as well as the wall behind them, sending up a cloud of marble dust. Spotting another combatant about to reach their weapon, without enough time to reload, Birdie had to improvise. Snatching up some sort of high tech wrench off one of the repair benches, she hucked it across the room, caving in the unfortunate soldiers head. Stepping over the sap that was spreading across the beautiful hardwood floors, she couldn't help but shake her head sadly. "Almost a shame to blow this place to shit. Could've retired here."

After reloading, she slung the Longbow back into place, drawing her HHG now that they were in more cramped quarters. After a quick flick of the cylinder to double-check her ammo (seven white, one red...just in case), the Neplelian snapped it back in place and raised the weapon, following Sanssinia and the others into the more open main area. Glancing back to make sure nothing was moving in the smoke-filled, partially destroyed vehicle hanger behind them, Birdie waited for information about where they were headed. "That map didn't say we'd pop up in a damn art gallery. Which way next?"

 

[Charaa]

Ancilla, grinned as the full layout of the facility unraveled before her. She had breached its digital perimeter with a finesse that bordered on artistry, though the complexity of the system demanded every ounce of her focus. Wasting no time, she transmitted the vital data to her team, highlighting key areas and vulnerabilities. Yet, as she sifted through the findings, her satisfaction waned. The defenses were less robust than she had anticipated, with glaring vulnerabilities that betrayed an overreliance on rudimentary measures.

The courtyard, however, was an exception—a heavily fortified zone. Concrete break walls provided excellent cover, and several sentry guns, controlled manually, offered a sturdy last line of defense. She marked these positions for her team's awareness, then shifted her attention to the crux of her task: dismantling the security system. Shutting off the alarms and deactivating the weapons was no small feat. To the team observing her efforts in the real world, the process seemed deceptively quick, as if she had effortlessly swept aside the system's barriers. But for Ancilla, the reality was a grueling test of her capabilities. The network was formidable, its complexity rivaling that of a battle-ready Star Army starship. Every digital countermeasure and defense she encountered strained her processing power, pushing her to the very limits of what she could achieve.

What puzzled her most was the strange familiarity of the system. It felt almost tailored to her, as though she'd navigated its intricate pathways before. But that was impossible—this was her first encounter with it. Still, the patterns of defense and reroutes mirrored techniques she had encountered during her Star Army training. The unsettling similarity gnawed at the back of her mind, creating a sense of foreboding even as she worked.

Finally, she reached the server's core, her efforts culminating in a controlled crash. Yet, as the system collapsed, an unexpected visual burned through her neural pathways—a fleeting image of a Mishhu, its grotesque form glaring at her before vanishing into the ether. A wave of dread swept over her, momentarily breaking her focus. She couldn’t shake the feeling that the image wasn’t random but rather a deliberate, cryptic message.

Pushing the thought aside, Ancilla finalized her rerouting of the facility’s communications. The false reports she generated streamed seamlessly into the system, creating a convincing façade of normalcy. The team would remain undetected—for now. But Ancilla couldn’t escape the gnawing suspicion that she had triggered something deeper, something watching.

 

[Sosina]

Forest
The Road Behemoth

Riplinn continued to drive to a better position the safe confines of the armored vehicle while comforting he was a bit annoyed that he was without his bodyguard, however from what he could hear on their comms things were going well. at least till he got a text message from Goon and he looked it over "Resort interior?" he muttered to himself as he read Goons text then he blinked a bit "Damn the intel was far older then I thought... though..." looking over the new map he was getting he nodded slowly "Expanded some time ago... explains a few things, stopped being some outpost a long time ago... This explains were they had been getting all their damn funds though. No wonder my people never found their place in the cities after the first few raids they must have moved out here" Mumbling to himself he finally found a good spot and made sure it was in sight of their sniper.

opening a Comm line to their Senti sniper he nodded slowly looking around "Are you capable of driving a armored vehicle? Normally I wouldn't ask just anyone however my Aid seems to be rather busy at the moment, so she won't have time to come out and get it. but she will need it's assistance soon I believe and your the closest Ally in proximity to this decent landing area" he said to her as he started hitting a few buttons on a separate panel t get the delivery set up "If not I can just set the Road Behemoth to stealth mode lock it down and drive it in myself, but that would leave the maker Hive in a very bad position for any emergency resupplies, which you all might need considering the absolute size of the facility".

Mansion Exterior

Goon had cleared out a good number of the guards in the area, not without some wounds of her own however, and the alarm and false reports from her allies helped thin them out further. Busking behind one of the buildings that housed a Stationary Anti-air emplacement she took a moment to pull out a few things from the bag she had been wearing hidden under her long hair. noting the amount of explosives she nodded to herself before looking around the corner. Having broken line of sight and left a large cloud behind where she had been fighting had helped in misdirecting the guards from her current position.

So with that she moved to one of the armored walls and placed her hand on it, the cloud around her seemingly growing thicker and pressing against the armored bulkhead and slowly a portion of the wall started to crumple and turn to dust before joining the cloud around her leaving a hole just large enough for her to get through. Thankfully the armor wasn't to thick as it seemed hardened against only small arms. likely due to simply trying to get it built fast enough as she walked through the hole she spotted that efforts were being made to reinforce the building but they had apparently attacked before they could finish.

With a nod she scooted over to the still functional AA gun and placed the explosives, the gun fired a few times at some of the incoming signal phantoms the deception from her allies keeping it busy much better then she first assumed. and so she was able to quickly plant some explosives near the magazine and then head out rapidly, Making good distance from the AA emplacement before hitting the detonator. The Explosives went off and while it wouldn't have been enough alone to destroy the gun the ammo helped with that by adding to the damage when they themselves exploded, and by the time anyone came to see what the hell even happened Goon was already on her way to the next emplacement.

 

[HarperMadi]

If it's a ground car, yeah, I can drive it. Better with aircars, though. I can fly anything up to a Skirmisher. Aliset took another shot, between the bareels of an AA gun to shafter the sensor and fire control boards before she started lining up another shot. She wasn't sure if her telepathic signal would be converted to a radio signal by her gear or her connection with the Koun, but she wasn't going to break her silence. Frankly, she was a big enough target on thermals with her clothes and her metallic body. Still, she was going to maintain the "totally not Star Army, just a Katamuran human" disguise till someone straight told her her cover was blown. I don't know where that little gremlin Going to off too. I could follow the screaming, but that's just as likely to lead me to a pissed off Separa. I'm heading for the building. Hopefully I can get eyes in through a window or skylight. Unless you want me to Nep-Aid man the wall with your truck.

 

[Sosina]

Forest
Road Behemoth
A voice through the comm and it sounded like it was the groups sniper. "Well actually I was thinking you could roll in with support vehicle I am sending down but if your skill is limited to a ground or hover car that will do as well" he said as he watched the device on the dash that was giving him the coordinates for the drop and he nodded as it would land close but not enough to cause issue with him.

On hearing her comment on Goon her grimaced a moment "Please refrain from calling her a Gremlin, we are of the same race I would like to remind you, she just chose that from much like I chose to grow into mine, though I must admit I have been rather curious as to why she chose to grow in that manner but I have to admit it has pleasing aesthetics" with that the large pod landed and the doors fell down revealing a mobile fighting vehicle that really didn't fit any make or model "Ah there it is.. just like the Road Behemoth, this thing is another creation of Goon, I honestly don't know where she comes up with this stuff though. But please, take the Road Behemoth and go help out Goon, I will be with you shortly in the Frontline".

With that he stepped out of the Road Behemoth and walked over to the Frontline, the thing was a tank. literally, but the design wasn't one of the known makes or models, it was rather rounded and squat, but the turret on it was no joke, it seemed to be a Kinetic weapon rather then energy, and the vehicle itself seemed to have a few other guns set on side mounts as well as a coaxial weapon on the front hull. The rounded shape seemed well designed to fit into smaller places as well as the tank seemed to be made more for smaller creatures likely the creator expected the vehicle to be driven by themselves rather then anyone else.

Opening the drivers hatch Riplinn started the vehicle and closed the hatch and the Tank started to roll on it's set of armored treads, of which it seemed to have two sets, an outer set arranged in an H formation on the hull, and an inner set designed more the like conventional tank treads, all of which were protected by rounded armor plating. "Okay Goon... from now on I am asking you to teach me how all your little projects work..." he muttered to himself as he got comfortable in the drivers seat and took a moment to familiarize himself with the driving controls

 

[Miko]

Mansion Exterior
Around the ground the remaining foes were quickly taken care of. The once active AA weapons had been turned into dust. Goon had shown they were both a smooth talker and an explosive expert. Akino made note of all the damage taking place while being pinned down by the encampment inside the mansion. Back on the Koun it recieved the message that all AA had been dealt with should an evac be required.
Mansion Interior
Inside the compound, the team had for a moment been pinned down by the encampment in the court yard. The team had good cover using the armored vehicles inside the bay which gave time to regroup and plan an attack. Akino could not help but smile as the incoming fire was wrecking the area around them. This seemed fitting that a place like this would end up with a new paint job. Akino sent an updated report to the team to pull everyone into the building. A few of the Blackwolf would stay behind and cover an escape route. And an escape Akino who exactly who to ask. "Aliset, if you could be so kind and make us a new exit out of this place, that would be perfect. I believe Goon can fix you up with the means for this."

The team had started to press the attack on the defenders. A few more had shown up, this time wearing power armor. Was an off world brand from what Akino could tell but for sure would pack a punch. Interesting enough one of them was holding a weapon normally seen within the ranks of the Mishhu. That would make quick work of the team who for the most part were not wearing armor, let alone any power armor.

A shot from the new armor with the new toy buzzed past Akino. The round was close enough to burn her hair slightly. As they lined up another shot, they took a direct hit to the face from one of the Blackwolf. Akino looked across the bay to see them giving a thumbs up. She returned a solute towards Alex 1274. For the most part, Blackwolf tended to be the needed background support the crew could rely on. However for this one, they stood out to be more of an up and coming star.

"Lets go team, before they can regroup and bring out more firepower. First task, take out that armor. After that, we shall breech the inner bunker of this place."

 

[Reynolds]

"So much for quick and quiet, eh?" Birdie tried to lighten the mood, but the others all seemed to be distracted by information they were wordlessly sharing. After taking cover at one of the concrete walls that were supposed to delay their approach, now aiding it instead with the sentry turrets sitting idle, she kept her head down while waiting for an opening. The attack from one of her temporary allies' reinforcements distracted the defenders quite nicely, letting her pop her head up to get a look at things.

Setting her sights on one of the armored individuals who'd turned to check on his suddenly faceless companion, Birdie hefted up the oversized revolver and took aim, shot after shot loudly impacting the defender's torso, steadily denting the armor further and further inward. The last bullet finally broke through, exploding inside, blood and fire spewing from every joint of the power armor before it toppled over, its occupant thoroughly pulped and roasted inside.

Birdie didn't waste any time admiring her handiwork, simply ducking back into cover and casually reloading. "What's next, something about breeching?"

 

[Soban]

Sacre’s tail swept behind her as she knelt behind a shattered marble planter, her fusion saber burning steadily in her hand. The enemy had regrouped deeper within the compound, concentrating their defenses around a reinforced bunker entrance ahead. The air was thick with smoke and the acrid tang of explosives, every breath tasting of battle.

She flicked her tongue, tasting the air for the telltale signs of movement. "Takei, Shoko, Adams," she called into the comms, her voice sharp and commanding. "You three stay behind and secure our exit. If this goes south, we’ll need a way out. Alex 1274, on me."

Katsumi Takei saluted, his expression grim but resolute. "Understood. We’ll hold the line."

"Shoko and I can handle any stragglers," Sam added, hefting her plasma rifle. Her sharp eyes scanned the smoke-filled room as she nodded toward Shoko, who was already setting up a heavy support weapon behind cover.

"Good luck," Shoko said simply, her voice steady as she locked the weapon into place.

Sacre gave them a curt nod, then turned back toward the rest of the squad. "Lightbringer, lead from above. Svendsdatter, take the left flank. Ven, you’re on point with me. Blackwolf, we breach that bunker and finish this."

The squad moved as one, a machine of precision and violence. Ioamai Lightbringer soared overhead, her alabaster wings cutting through the smoke. She rained down precision fire from her rifle, taking out a pair of entrenched defenders with one elegant sweep.

"Path cleared," Ioamai’s voice crackled in Sacre’s comms.

"Ven, you’re up," Sacre said.

Narai moved ahead with liquid grace, her twin pistols flashing in the dim light. She took down two guards with precise shots before they could even raise their weapons. A third enemy lunged at her from the shadows, but she ducked low, swept his legs out from under him, and finished him with a shot to the chest.

"Area’s clear to the door," Narai confirmed, her voice as calm as ever.

Sacre wasted no time, her muscular tail propelling her forward toward the massive steel bunker door. It loomed ahead, reinforced with layers of thick plating and a glowing security field that screamed of overconfidence.

"Cover me," she barked.

Estrid and Ioamai took up defensive positions, laying down suppressive fire as Sacre approached the door. The fusion saber in her hand hummed with power as she drove it into the door’s edge. The blade hissed and sputtered as it melted through the metal, cutting in precise arcs. Sweat beaded on her brow, the intense heat radiating from the blade almost overwhelming, but she pressed on, her muscles straining with effort.

Behind her, Estrid barked orders to her fireteam, holding back a squad of reinforcements attempting to flank them. She lobbed a grenade that sent the enemy scattering, then followed it up with pinpoint shots that felled two more.

"We’ve got this covered, Sacre," Estrid called over the roar of combat.

With one final, determined push, Sacre’s saber completed its arc, and the door gave way with a deafening crash. The heavy metal slab slammed to the ground, revealing a dimly lit corridor that stretched deeper into the heart of the compound.

"Breach complete," Sacre said, stepping through the molten edges of the door. She didn’t hesitate, her tail propelling her forward into the unknown. "Blackwolf, with me! Takei, Shoko, Adams—hold that exit. We’ll be back when this is done."

"Understood," Katsumi’s voice came through, steady and reassuring.

Sacre led the charge into the bunker, the rest of Blackwolf at her back. They were a storm given form, carving their way toward the heart of the enemy stronghold. There was no stopping them now.