OPERATION SEXY MARIO: CONCLUSION

[initiates]

Date & Time: Sept 19th
Location: The UE Holding Compound, and surrounding area.
Characters: Anyone being rescued, doing the rescuing, or doing the distracting.
Summary: There have been some slackers freeloading off the UE for the past couple weeks or so, so let's go drag them home.
Warnings: Likely violence! Let a mod know if we should update this.

Those meant for distraction and those meant for rescue alike are both loaded onto the same stolen highspeed train. It's a great distance to cover, but the train manages in just under two hours, and deposits both groups three miles from the Holding Compound — a desolate and cold area, with rocky, uneven ground, small but jagged hills well-scattered and covered in scraggly trees — and there they part ways.

The diversion is sent away north, to draw United Earth attention and aggression upward, further into the continent, while the rescue team takes a much slower and quieter route to approach the Compound from the south, closest to Exsilium. The rescue team's orders are to wait a full half hour, to be sure that all forces who can be drawn out of the Compound to meet the sudden onslaught from the north will have already left.

The diversion team won't have an easy job of it. The soldiers are heavily armed, and trained to fight to the death before they surrender. They're grouped in organized squadrons, about 20 in each, and seem to outnumber Transports by three to one. Scattered throughout these soldiers are the Masked, the UE's special forces. These soldiers strike with a deadly precision, enhanced speed and strength, and highly advanced weaponry. Also, oddly enough, they seem to have a few smaller members among them, standing about 4 feet tall, and wielding strange powers… Those familiar with the powers of their kidnapped friends may see distinct similarities.

The Compound itself, when the rescue team makes their way in, will be very quiet. All prisoners had been forced into locked rooms (together or separately — whatever was most convenient) before the soldiers had left to face the encroaching threat. There are still personnel left to man the base, of course, and a few of them are armed soldiers — but for the most part it's scientists and researchers. Careful, though. Even scientists and researchers are perfectly capable of sounding the alarm to bring back the armed threats.

Once everyone is out of the Compound, the train will begin running a return trip. It will be kept as long as possible, while the distraction teams sneak back from the battlefield in small groups, but it can't wait forever. Those on the battlefield for the longest, the hardest hitters or the most dedicated fighters, might just have to find another way home. So… any Transports with relocation abilities feel like lending a hand?

Comments

[ladyspitfire]

[Splitting up at this point might be disastrous. Far be it from her to stop him - and she knows he can take care of himself - but the idea of something happening to either of them once they've come this far over a stupid mistake like this...]

Let's look for your friends first. Mine already have some help coming for them. We'll stick together.

[strategic_guile]

Mine does, too. [Gordon was out there and Blaine assumed he was looking for Johnny, too, though maybe not specifically.]

We'll search until we find someone.

[Blaine checked his gun and his ammo as he looked towards where they were going next.]

[ladyspitfire]

Until we find someone.

[She echoes in confirmation and nods, gesturing to the next door. She pries it open and heads into the next cell block, freeing the next set of people caught there. Voices can be heard next door, though; the guards are trying to get in.]

We need to get this group out now before they get in. Then we can deal with the resistance.

[strategic_guile]

[Blaine nodded and moved towards the released people. He directed them towards where they could exit.]

Come on, this way. Fast as you can.

[He kept his awareness in the direction of the banging of the door.]

[ladyspitfire]

[Elissa stays where she is, waiting for them to come through the door. Almost all of the prisoners are able to slip out before the guards break in, and then she's rushing forward to slam into them, to literally push them back out. One blade serves as a puncture point to injure the front man and she manages to shove them back bodily on her own, and forces the door to close.]

Let me know when they're out, Blaine!

[strategic_guile]

[Blaine was shuffling the last of the imprisoned people out when he heard the door opening. He turned and his motions to move people out slowed as he watched Elissa physically pushing back guards. It was not the first time he was glad they were on the same side.

Her voice knocked him out of his awed gaze just as the last person exited the room.]

It's clear!

[And he drew his gun, ready to handle what was going to come through the door.]

[ladyspitfire]

[The moment he called to her, she nodded. With one last push, she sprang away from the door, and rushed back towards him. It only gave them ten seconds but it would be enough for her to get out of the blast zone so he could do his work.]

[strategic_guile]

[Blaine's gun was aimed at the floor as Elissa dashed to get out of his line of fire. She was across the room and behind him when the doors finally started to creak back open. His arm was up, palm cupping his shooting hand to keep it steady as the first glimpses of their adversaries appeared. Four inches of space was all he waited for before he started to fire. As soon as he could clearly see helmets and shoulders shoved against the door, he was sending bullets at them. One, two, aimed at bodies that fell and them he was onto the next, hoping to kill anyone before they could get their guns out and pointed at them.

He moved back towards the opposite door because there was little to hide behind. He didn't want to start jumping from open cell to open cell. It'd be bad since he had only moved down past two cells in the first place.

If all else failed, there were the explosives in his tactical vest pouches...]

[ladyspitfire]

[While Blaine had them distracted, Elissa could use the shadows to her advantage to get around the cells, to get close enough to reach into her belt for her own trap. Blaine had them pinned down, forcing each of them to go single-file through the doorway or else risk tripping over their fallen comrades. It was a little too perfect.

The flask was thrown and it shattered on a soldier's helmet. The acid inside quickly eroded parts and pieces of his protection and Elissa was all too ready to throw a knife at him. It stuck to his neck and he dropped easily.]

[strategic_guile]

[Well, that was definitely something new. He'd have to ask her what that was when this was all over. It could come in handy... like how he had been firing for a minute now and still hadn't emptied his clip. That was somewhere in the back of his mind as he trusted Elissa to stay out of his line of fire.

He lowered his steadying hand to reach into one of the pouches on his vest for the explosives. It wasn't quite a grenade, but it would clear the room and give them time to clear the room and hopefully bar the door on their way out. He made it clear something else was in his hand to his partner as he called out to her.]

Elissa, clear out!

[ladyspitfire]

[The moment she heard him, she turned her head and made a beeline for the safe zone at his back, away from the opposition. As she ran, one of them shot her in the shoulder, the bullet not piercing her armor but certainly puncturing it. It was painful enough and she stumbled briefly, then ducked behind him.]

All yours!

[strategic_guile]

[That brief stumble didn't result in a fall. As long as she was moving, Blaine could figure out if he should worry later. Maybe. Cousland probably wouldn't tell him if she was bleeding out unless it was detrimental to someone else's well being... but was she as suicidal and sacrificial as that?

The blonde kept firing his ever-full gun and popped the pin from the small tube in his hand.]

Out the door.

[And he gave her a second to comply before he was slipping back towards the door himself, throwing the tube, jumping quickly out the door with a few final cover shots, and slamming it closed.

Then there was a explosion on the other side.]

[ladyspitfire]

[It couldn't be so big of an explosion as all of that, could it?

The nod he gave seemed to indicate so. Elissa grimaced and nodded, ducking outside of the door and waiting for him to follow. He slammed the door and the explosion she heard - and felt - from the other side jostled her. Setting a hand to her shoulder to inspect the damage, she tossed a glance his way.]

Where in the void did you get the firepower for that?

[strategic_guile]

[To be totally honest, Blaine hadn't known just how big of an explosion it was going to be. He had been playing it safe when he closed the door behind him, figuring it would give him a few more seconds after the smoke cleared for them to move on and set up their next blockage.

Welp. He gave her a brief flash of a grin.]

It was bigger than I thought.

[And then his smile was gone.]

We should go.

[Just in case they all weren't dead or more had been outside the room.]