Sean-Michael Argo - Ghost Faction

Before she was fully aware of herself, the merc had put two rounds through the chest of a gunslinger who had been propping himself up against the inside of the barricade. Likely, he had taken a concussion or shrapnel from one of the rockets and was attempting to collect himself, though he now slumped to the ground, having been taken out of the fight for good.

Jada raised the pistol and turned to her right, taking a knee to assume a crouching position. The movement was a keen one, as a burst of fire cut through the air where she’d been standing.

As Jada squeezed the trigger, she marveled at the level of combat awareness she was now capable of as a meta-human. The old Jada Sek would have just died with bullets in her skull, yet here she was, dropping the assailant with fire from her sidearm while she scanned her immediate area for more targets. The merc rose from her crouch as she slid the sidearm back into its holster with one hand while grasping the assault rifle mounted on her back.

Jada brought the rifle to her shoulder and began bounding parallel to the barricade, noticing that Mors and Strega were engaging along the parallel in the other direction.

The gunslingers were in complete disarray, having not been prepared for the seemingly reckless and yet devastating ATV assault.

The merc found a gunslinger with her sights and put several rounds through his side, firing upon a second hostile as the first collapsed in a heap before her. The enemy got off one shot before jerking wildly as the impacts of Jada’s fire sent him sprawling. The merc brought her gun up, and then just as quickly, moved the muzzle aside as Ranec clambered over the barricade and came to land downrange of her. In seconds, the two of them moved in tandem across the parallel, their combined fire laying out three more gunslingers even as Berg and Poe joined them on the other side of the barricade.

“Counterattack on the second parallel!” shouted Poe as he pointed at the compound, his gesture revealing to the others that several platoon strength elements were pouring out of the inner perimeter of the compound.

The gunslingers were carrying mobile flak boards, the sort that Jada had become accustomed to using during her time as a salvage marine, and just as she would have done, the gunslingers used them as shields to cover their advance before planting them on the hard ground.

The Dire Swords were on the other side of the barricade. There was little cover between them and the new line of defense the gunslingers had swiftly erected. In seconds, this area would become a shooting gallery and the mercs who had scaled the barricade would be shot down, even if they took a few of the enemy with them prior to dying.

“ Overwatch, dropships in ten seconds!” came the voice of Marcus over the company channel.

Jada looked at the ten Dire Swords crouching behind the debris left from their initial assault bitterly aware of how long ten seconds of a firefight could be.

“Pour it on, people!” bellowed Womack as he began rapid firing his rifle, focused more on keeping a sustained impact against the flak boards than he was at actually zeroing in on hostile targets.

Jada raise her rifle to her shoulder and took aim, begrudgingly admitting that the gunslingers had responded well and had locked their line solidly. She could find little armor in her sights, and so like Womack, she focused on beating against the flak boards with hard rounds.

The ten Dire Swords would lose a shooting match against that many gunslingers, but they would be able to keep the enemy cowering behind cover with their ten rifles on blast. When Jada’s magazine went dry, followed by the clicking sound of Ranec’s hitting empty also, the merc knew that they only had moments before the gunslingers would return fire as the mercs reloaded.

Instead of bothering to load another magazine, Jada ripped her sidearm back out of its holster and fired, knowing she only had half a magazine. The magnum rounds hammered against the flak boards and soon the only sound coming from the Dire Swords line was the throaty cough of their pistols before they too went dry.

The gunslingers responded immediately. The flak board walls opened up and the muzzles of dozens of rifles began to vomit projectiles. No sooner had the Dire Swords flung themselves this way and that to avoid at least some of the hailstorm of bullets did the static electrical discharges begin to fill the air.

Jada was thrown against the wall of the barricade as she was peppered with small arms fire, and both her HUD and her senses flared with pain and warnings indicating that at least some of the rounds had hit flesh. The merc fell to the ground, landing on her shoulder, scrambling to slap a fresh magazine into her pistol. Her eyes were met with a sight that she was sure would be with her for the rest of her life, regardless of how long or short a time that might be.

Dire Swords were igniting their dropshields, the source of the barrage of electric discharges in the air, and slamming into the ground. Many of the mercs were landing directly in the midst of the gunslinger formations, the impact of their dropshields flinging many of the enemy aside and outright crushing others.

The gunslingers were immediately set upon by the mercs among them as the fresh Dire Swords went to work. In the time it took Jada to get to her feet and swap out her pistol for her rifle, the shooting gallery had become a bloodbath as the mercs blasted through the ranks of gunslingers at point blank range. In seconds, the ten Dire Swords who had been fighting to seize the barricade had been joined by two dozen more elite mercenaries and the tide of the battle had shifted dramatically.

Jada racked the slide of her rifle to chamber the first round of the new magazine and took aim at a gunslinger that was firing upon one of her comrades. Two well placed shots sent the hostile crumpling over. She saw that many of the gunslingers were already throwing their weapons down and thrusting their arms skyward with open palms.

These were working men and women who fought for cash, not cause, and they knew they were beaten. There was no profit in fighting a battle that was already lost and they weren’t about to die for Basepholon now that they saw victory was out of reach.

Jada smacked the butt of her rifle against the temple of a soldier who was kneeling with his back to her. The man had dropped his rifle and assumed a surrender position without realizing she was behind him. There was little point in killing him, but she wasn’t about to give him the opportunity to change his mind and take up arms once more.

Other Dire Swords had landed on top of the compound building itself, and though the shooting had all but stopped outside, her keen ears could hear the muted crackle and pop of small arms fire being exchanged inside the pre-fab complex.

Womack appeared at her side and gestured silently for her to follow him, which she did, noticing that Poe had fallen into step with her, as had Taymar, Womack’s battle buddy.

As the four Dire Swords sprinted across the battlefield, Jada watched the drop warriors make quick work of the handful of gunslingers that didn’t have the good sense to surrender. Most of the mercs were hastily rounding up the surviving gunslingers, though she saw a handful enter the complex ahead of Womack and his group.

The plan had been to cause such a commotion on the defensive perimeter that the Dire Swords could draw out the vast majority of the gunslingers, leaving only a few remaining inside the complex alongside the civilian staff. The mission was to seize the facility intact and that meant keeping the fighting inside the complex to a minimum.

The Dire Swords were elite mercs, not predisposed to avoiding collateral damage, which made drawing the fight outdoors, a critical element. Thankfully, it seemed to have worked, as Jada and the others followed Womack, who was also bleeding from several wounds, into the depths of the facility.