zombie_dog
in
aoc_lj
(no subject)
"Okay, Sabian, the glassbreakers are in position."
Sabian slowly rose from a crouch and looked over the edge of the meter-high barrier that separated the roof on which he stood from the empty space beyond it. The building across the street, a massive citadel of Polyglass and Plasteel, was the target of his scrutiny. Specifically, it was a single window a fair distance down.
"Glassbreaker team," Sabian murmured into his commlink, "Please confirm target and engage markers."
The response was immediate.
"Glassbreaker Alpha confirm; floor thirty-four, fifteenth window, upper left-hand corner."
"Glassbreaker Beta confirm; floor thirty-four, fifteenth window, upper right-hand corner."
"Glassbreaker Gamma confirm; floor thirty-four, fifteenth window, lower left-hand corner."
"Glassbreaker Delta confirm; floor thirty-four, fifteenth window, lower right-hand corner."
Sabian quickly switched his vision to the Federal marker frequency of the week. Four small red circles hovered on the four far corners of the window. Satisfied, he switched his vision back. "Glassbreaker team, engage five seconds from my mark."
Sabian walked briskly several paces away from his target building, trying to calm his racing heart. He had completed entries like this before, but this was to be one of the most dangerous; he ran over the briefing in his head. One sentence in particular chilled him: use Matter-Energy Displacement technology freely. Sabian was used to heavy MED restriction, to be used on specific targets or only in the worst situations. The targets he faced today were the sort that the government wanted dead at all costs.
He turned and looked back at the building. This was about right. He let his software re-run the calculations to be sure that he was headed for the right window, then tensed his muscles and primed his boosters for entry.
"Mark."
Five. Sabian leaned forward sharply and broke into a full-tilt run. Four. He thundered toward the edge of the roof at breakneck speed, his shoes punching divots into the IHDP material of the roof. Three. He reached the barrier, leapt onto it, and vaulted from it, casting himself into the no-man's land between the two buildings.
As always, time seemed to slow down as Sabian sailed through the night sky. Two seconds. He felt his electromagnetic boosters engage to correct his falling path, carrying him dead-on toward his target window. It approached with agonizing slowness, giving him time to notice the crowd of people inside. One of them happened to be watching the window, standing near it. It was a figure dressed in some kind of bodysuit, a full mask covering his face. He carried a rifle. One second. The figure had a terrifying moment of realization, then pointed toward Sabian and turned his head back toward the rest of the people in the room. They would be ready for him.
... well. As ready as one could ever be for a Guardian raid. Sabian crossed his arms in front of his face and turned his ambient weight boosters off. Zero.
The four snipers fired their Glassbreaker sonic rifles, whose focused beams of sound punched through four points of the window's Polyglass and sent spiderweb cracks through the rest of its surface. Only milliseconds later, one hundred and thirty-five kilograms of Alhamra Sabian slammed into the window, sending its shattered pieces flying into the room and knocking the soldier near the window forcefully to the ground.
When Sabian hit the floor, he was already rolling. He felt the force of his impact diffuse as his ambient weight boosters kicked in, and he used his increased mobility to reach for and draw his MED pistol in a fluid motion. The feared instrument of sleek white plastic slid from its sheath smoothly and booted in an instant, stylishly colored subsurface lights dancing across its surface. Sabian rolled to his feet and ran, the pistol in his hand and already rising toward its first target.
The room into which Sabian had broken was a desk farm whose barriers were thankfully only about a meter tall. Navigating a cubicle maze was nightmare work for a raider. Sabian saw three men with rifles, not counting the one he had bowled over as he broke in, who currently lay unmoving on the floor. Since he had the leisure to do so, Sabian aimed at their rifles' firing chambers. His arm moved with superhuman speed, the MED pistol's lens flaring once, twice, three times. The men's guns detonated spectacularly in a shower of shrapnel and they fell back, one clutching his face and screaming. Sabian heard shouts from further down the desk-filled room. One soldier rose from beneath one of the barriers, but he did not have time to hoist his rifle: his head erupted in a gory firework.
Sabian set his jaw as he ran for the door. He did not much care for killing foot soldiers, but his timetable was extremely limited and the government soldiers would kill them anyway. He was a few meters from the doorway when three soldiers leapt from the desk enclosure just before it, two near him and one further away. The nearer two had what appeared to be swords bearing dangerous illegal enchantments that could cut through Sabian's dermal armor, and the rear trooper carried a high-caliber rifle. All brought their weapons to bear with impressive speed, but they were not nearly fast enough.
Sabian lunged and his hand shot forward, grasping the barrel of the rifle of the man furthest from him. A flick of Sabian's wrist tore the gun from the man's hand and sent the stock into his chin with enough force to break his neck, which it did; his head snapped back with a sickening crunching noise. Sabian released the gun. As the rifle began to fall, Sabian grasped the uniform of one of the sword-bearers, who had no time to react. He spun the soldier and drove his body toward the wall and into the man's comrade, who let out a grunt as he had the air knocked out of him. Sabian grasped the soldier's hand that held the sword and reversed it, then drove the sword through the body of both soldiers and into the wall, pinning the two men there. The rifle that Sabian had dropped clattered on the ground as he leapt over the body that lay there.
With a loud report, the door to the gallery tore itself free from its hinges and flew inward, propelled by a savage kick from the Guardian behind it. Sabian himself leapt onto the balcony and surveyed the situation with a single glance. There were four soldiers on the long balcony with him, two on his side and two more on the other side. Below, hostages kneeled on the ground in neat rows. Sabian could see that two had already been shot on the far corner, obviously the incentive that had led to his immediate summoning. Ten men with rifles below reacted to Sabian's entry, and he read their movements-- while six were bringing their rifles toward him, four turned their guns toward the hostages.
Sabian activated the sympathetic link between the MED pistol and his head computer and kicked his time-sense into slow motion. Triggered shots would not move quickly enough.
Sabian's arm blurred, ignoring the men aiming at him and targeting those who intended to shoot the hostages. He had fired all four shots by the time the lens flare from the first shot had faded. The first soldier's head detonated before he had even brought his rifle to bear. The second found her arm detached at the shoulder just as she raised the gun. The third had a hole blown in his chest as his finger curled about the trigger, and the fourth fell with both arms from elbow to shoulder as well as a chunk of his gun gone just before he fired.
Further action from Sabian was interrupted as he felt something slam into his bulletshield from the right; one of the soldiers on the balcony had gotten a bead on him. Sabian braced himself and vaulted from the balcony, turning a somersault in midair. As he was upside-down, he targeted the two soldiers on the balcony, firing twice even as he rotated away from them. On his way down, he tagged the other two soldiers as he faced them, one of whom fell over the balcony's railing and plummeted to the ground ... straight toward a line of hostages.
Sabian cursed silently and readjusted his aim, then released a volley of burst fire from the MED pistol via a mental command. The body of the soldier erupted into an ugly spray of red mist and limbs. Sabian hit the ground between two of the lines of hostages, then heard screaming from the end as what was left of the soldier rained down on them. Sabian lifted his pistol as he rose to his feet, turning it in a wide arc and casting MED bolts at the remaining soldiers. He could not give them time to return fire. There was a series of detonations as the soldiers were struck by the bolts, the matter of their clothes and flesh expelling away from the sphere of the MED's effect. All fell in a matter of seconds, and the room was clear of hostiles.
Sabian stood and quickly surveyed the room. The hostages' reactions were mixed; some were stunned by the sudden eruption of violence, but others were visibly relieved, even overjoyed. Sabian checked his mission timer. Thirty-four seconds and change; he needed to move. As organized as the soldiers were, they would know by now that a Guardian was in the building.
"The Gallery is clear," he reported. "I need a team up here to cover the hostages; Orwen isn't here."
He turned to the hostages. "I need B-Rank rifle certs or greater! Raise your hands!" A handful of the hostages raised their hands. "Any specialists?"
A few of the hostages shouted out combat magic certifications. One raised a badge. "S-Rank rifle!" she shouted. "I'm an off-duty REACT officer."
"Then you're in charge until backup gets here," Sabian said to her, picking up a nearby rifle and tossing it to her one-handed. "Give me your operations address and keep the channel open." She did so. "Arm these people with whatever guns are left. They'll be focusing on me but may try to get in. Magic certs, don't hold back! Support will be here by the time you drain your energy. Hold your ground!"
With that, Sabian turned and headed for the door as the REACT officer started shouting commands to the hostages, who, for the most part, moved to obey with the fluidity of a military squadron.
Sabian smiled a bit as he turned away and ran for the door. I love New Washington.
With a powerful kick, Sabian smashed the door that led from the Gallery to the hallway, following the mental floorplan that he had studied. By the distribution, there was only one other place that Orwen could be using as a hiding place, and that was the Conference room.
Halfway down the hallway, Sabian's suspicions were confirmed: there was a small squadron of guards hiding behind a shimmering wall of transparent gel and riot shields.
An Anti-MED shield, Sabian thought, grimacing. He fluidly holstered his MED pistol; it'd be useless. Anti-MED walls were made of a crystal-clear, regenerating gel. MED bolts would harmlessly splatter the front of the wall, which would replace itself quickly, but ballistic ammunition and spells would travel through it without interruption.
As if on cue, magic detection alarms blared in Sabian's head. Incoming!
Sabian crouched and leapt fourteen feet upward, nearly reaching the ceiling, as a magical bolt hit the ground where he had just been standing. A deafening roar split the air as a fiery explosion detonated where the bolt had struck. On his way down, Sabian was jolted by a volley of gunfire that literally shot him out of the air, interrupting his path toward the blockade.
He rolled as he hit the ground and took a closer look at the blockade. Eight gunmen behind riot shields, who must have had wired reflexes in order to hit him during his leap. Behind them, a single combat mage standing behind a shimmering force field.
Knowing that standing still would mean death, Sabian allowed the severity of the situation to hit home-- adrenalin drove his actions. He sped from one side of the hallway to the other, outrunning the gunfire, and pulled a golf-ball-sized grenade from his belt. A quick shot from his boosters and he ran up the wall, at an angle where he could see the soldiers clearly behind the shield. He pushed off from the wall and released the grenade, allowing it to fall behind the shield as Sabian turned a somersault toward the ground below. As he fell, he drew the other gun from its holster-- a Guardian Tetragram automatic pistol.
The soldiers noticed the grenade and hurriedly moved to take cover. Sabian was upon them in a moment, firing a fusillade of perfectly ordinary ballistic rounds through the anti-MED shield and gunning down the soldiers who were foolish enough to move their riot shields. The grenade went off, obscuring the mage's vision and causing chaos in the rank of what gunmen had survived Sabian's attack.
Sabian cleared the Anti-MED barrier in a single leap, extending the antenna of his MED sabre and holstering the Tetragram as he landed. A blazing field crackled around the wire as it activated and Sabian immediately attacked the nearest soldier with it. The first blow glanced harmlessly off the soldier's riot shield, and the soldier pointed his rifle at Sabian, but the Guardian grabbed the gun with his free hand and seamlessly severed the soldier's wrist with the MED sabre. He turned in time to see the two remaining soldiers about to fire. He lunged toward them and was struck by several high-calibre bullets just before being struck by a spell from the mage.
Pain wracked Sabian's body as he was slammed forcefully against the far wall, cracking its plastic surface and denting it. He was unable to move for a moment, feeling his reinforced skin actively resisting the charring effect of the fire. After a few excruciating moments, he regained control of his muscles and pried himself from the divot he had made in the wall. He could hear shouts from beyond; the soldiers were unsure whether he was dead. He tensed his muscles for a moment and surged forward.
The soldiers were unready; their shields were at their sides. Sabian's MED sabre bisected one of them neatly at the waist and Sabian grabbed the other by the throat. He held the body between himself and the mage, and the spellcaster hesitated for one fatal moment.
Not a second later, the body of the soldier-- which the forcefield was not designed to stop-- flew at the mage and struck him, bowling him over. As the mage struggled to get up, Sabian ran to him, placed a boot on his face and forced the back of the mage's head against the ground. The Guardian then tensed his jaw and pressed down hard with his foot until the mage's head crumpled like an eggshell.
Sabian breathed hard for a few moments, feeling the regenerative processes of his system kicking in, numbing his pain, repairing the damage done to him by the bullets and explosion. He checked his mission timer. Two and a half minutes. Too long.
He started running, then commlinked the REACT officer. "How are things?"
"Engaging hostiles," she replied. "Doing all right for now, but get that backup team here."
"About ninety seconds away," he said to her. "Out."
Nearly at the edge of the hallway, he contacted the mission coordinator. "Approaching Conference hall."
"We've confirmed Orwen there. Expect a Chimera. Out."
"Oh, I do," Sabian muttered to no one.
Sabian did not kick the door to the Conference room down. When he reached it, he pedaled to a stop, then slapped a sticky explosive charge to it. He jogged down the hallway a short distance, then ran full-tilt at the door. The shaped charge went off, blowing the door down, and Sabian sailed through the open entryway.
There was, of course, a Chimera waiting for him. The beast was a massive, shelled monster, its yellow carapace shining in the harsh lights of the conference hall. The creature took up nearly a quarter of the sizeable hall, the size of a light tank. Its head was set on a neck pulsing with ropy muscles and had a wicked-looking beak, as well as eight beady black eyes. The mad archmage Barakul Orwen sat on its back on what appeared to be a saddle sculpted from its shell. Orwen looked down at Sabian with scorn.
"One Guardian?" He said indignantly. "One?!"
Sabian's response was a well-aimed MED bolt to Orwen's head, which glanced harmlessly off of a magical forcefield before it found its mark. The massive Chimera screeched and lunged at Sabian. The Guardian leapt out of the way just in time, tucking and rolling. An ornamental pillar was nearby; Sabian made a run for it.
"I am the Archmage Barakul Orwen!" Orwen roared, then jabbed a clawed hand at Sabian. Blue lightning fired from his fingertips. The Guardian shuddered as he was struck by a bolt of magical electricity, but did not stop his retreat; he was well-enough insulated that his circuitry was not damaged. Orwen continued his tirade. "I am the scourge of New Washington!"
Sabian leapt behind the pillar and braced against it, then shouted to Orwen. "That last part's not in your dossier, Orwen. You might want to file a formal complaint."
Orwen ignored him. "The government DARES send a single Guardian after me? Do they truly think that will be enough to defeat ME?!" The Chimera struck at the pillar, which shuddered dangerously. Sabian turned and fired a few potshots at the creature's head. It seemed to be magic-resistant, so the MED bolt was unable to properly absorb and expelled only a small chunk of the creature's head, but it had the intended effect: the beast roared in pain.
"I'd tell you your numerical threat rating," Sabian offered, "But I'm afraid it's confidential." He moved out from behind his cover, and Orwen immediately jabbed a hand toward him. With a booster-assisted leap, Sabian dodged the magical bolt by running halfway up the high conference wall, then drew his MED sabre and dove back downward. He landed on the Chimera's head and slashed at its eyes with the sabre's disruptive field. The creature roared in pain and thrashed its head, slamming Sabian back against the wall and letting him tumble to the ground. He was then forced to scramble away desperately to avoid a beam of pure fire sent by the archmage.
Sabian vaulted up quickly and discovered the Chimera's head snaking through the space between the wall and the pillar, its dangerous beak snapping in anger. Sabian grinned and backed up, firing a few potshots at the beast with the gun held in his left hand and his sabre ready in his right. The beast kept advancing through the gap, lashing at him with his beak when he got too close. "It's best to trust the Feds about this sort of thing, though;" Sabian said to the Archmage. "They're usually right."
"Insolent whelp!" Orwen shouted, then raised both of his hands. Sabian's muscles locked up suddenly, struck by a paralysis spell of ancient origin and fearsome power. His MED pistol tumbled to the floor, his sabre lay active but motionless. Orwen saw the effect of his spell and grinned.
"You Guardians think you're immune to this kind of magic," he said triumphantly, urging his ugly steed forward. "But I know things, powerful things that the likes of you will never understand."
Sabian sent a distress signal mentally. Little help here!
Tricky, responded the coordinator. That's a new one. We've got the federal technomancers working on it.
Low on time! Sabian replied.
"Now you have felt the bitterness of defeat," Orwen continued to gloat, "And soon you will feel the oblivion of death. I hope you enjoy whatever hideous fate befalls your freakish machine soul in the afterlife."
Hang in there, Sabian, we've almost got it.
He thumped the shell of the beast. "You may eat him, my pet."
The huge creature shifted its weight awkwardly and actually managed to look sheepish.
"Go!" Orwen commanded it, annoyed now, but the creature did not comply. It was at this point that Orwen realized that his beast had managed to wedge its shell between the pillar and wall. Orwen glared at it, then at Sabian. "Fine," he said, and raised a claw. "You die by MY hand."
Now!
As a stream of electricity flowed through Orwen's hand, Sabian sprang to life, launching himself at an angle against the wall. He struck it, crouched, and launched away, landing on the Chimera's head, which roared angrily. Sabian moved too quickly for it to shake him off, and he clambered up the shell of the beast.
The Archmage Orwen managed a quick "NO--" before Sabian ran through his forcefield and beheaded him in a clean sweep of the MED sabre. Beneath them, the Chimera shuddered and died as its master's life was suddenly gone.
Sabian stood atop the dead creature, his heart racing and the sound of blood rushing through his ears. After a moment, he commlinked back to the mission coordinator.
"Barakul Orwen has been executed. Mission complete."
Sabian slowly rose from a crouch and looked over the edge of the meter-high barrier that separated the roof on which he stood from the empty space beyond it. The building across the street, a massive citadel of Polyglass and Plasteel, was the target of his scrutiny. Specifically, it was a single window a fair distance down.
"Glassbreaker team," Sabian murmured into his commlink, "Please confirm target and engage markers."
The response was immediate.
"Glassbreaker Alpha confirm; floor thirty-four, fifteenth window, upper left-hand corner."
"Glassbreaker Beta confirm; floor thirty-four, fifteenth window, upper right-hand corner."
"Glassbreaker Gamma confirm; floor thirty-four, fifteenth window, lower left-hand corner."
"Glassbreaker Delta confirm; floor thirty-four, fifteenth window, lower right-hand corner."
Sabian quickly switched his vision to the Federal marker frequency of the week. Four small red circles hovered on the four far corners of the window. Satisfied, he switched his vision back. "Glassbreaker team, engage five seconds from my mark."
Sabian walked briskly several paces away from his target building, trying to calm his racing heart. He had completed entries like this before, but this was to be one of the most dangerous; he ran over the briefing in his head. One sentence in particular chilled him: use Matter-Energy Displacement technology freely. Sabian was used to heavy MED restriction, to be used on specific targets or only in the worst situations. The targets he faced today were the sort that the government wanted dead at all costs.
He turned and looked back at the building. This was about right. He let his software re-run the calculations to be sure that he was headed for the right window, then tensed his muscles and primed his boosters for entry.
"Mark."
Five. Sabian leaned forward sharply and broke into a full-tilt run. Four. He thundered toward the edge of the roof at breakneck speed, his shoes punching divots into the IHDP material of the roof. Three. He reached the barrier, leapt onto it, and vaulted from it, casting himself into the no-man's land between the two buildings.
As always, time seemed to slow down as Sabian sailed through the night sky. Two seconds. He felt his electromagnetic boosters engage to correct his falling path, carrying him dead-on toward his target window. It approached with agonizing slowness, giving him time to notice the crowd of people inside. One of them happened to be watching the window, standing near it. It was a figure dressed in some kind of bodysuit, a full mask covering his face. He carried a rifle. One second. The figure had a terrifying moment of realization, then pointed toward Sabian and turned his head back toward the rest of the people in the room. They would be ready for him.
... well. As ready as one could ever be for a Guardian raid. Sabian crossed his arms in front of his face and turned his ambient weight boosters off. Zero.
The four snipers fired their Glassbreaker sonic rifles, whose focused beams of sound punched through four points of the window's Polyglass and sent spiderweb cracks through the rest of its surface. Only milliseconds later, one hundred and thirty-five kilograms of Alhamra Sabian slammed into the window, sending its shattered pieces flying into the room and knocking the soldier near the window forcefully to the ground.
When Sabian hit the floor, he was already rolling. He felt the force of his impact diffuse as his ambient weight boosters kicked in, and he used his increased mobility to reach for and draw his MED pistol in a fluid motion. The feared instrument of sleek white plastic slid from its sheath smoothly and booted in an instant, stylishly colored subsurface lights dancing across its surface. Sabian rolled to his feet and ran, the pistol in his hand and already rising toward its first target.
The room into which Sabian had broken was a desk farm whose barriers were thankfully only about a meter tall. Navigating a cubicle maze was nightmare work for a raider. Sabian saw three men with rifles, not counting the one he had bowled over as he broke in, who currently lay unmoving on the floor. Since he had the leisure to do so, Sabian aimed at their rifles' firing chambers. His arm moved with superhuman speed, the MED pistol's lens flaring once, twice, three times. The men's guns detonated spectacularly in a shower of shrapnel and they fell back, one clutching his face and screaming. Sabian heard shouts from further down the desk-filled room. One soldier rose from beneath one of the barriers, but he did not have time to hoist his rifle: his head erupted in a gory firework.
Sabian set his jaw as he ran for the door. He did not much care for killing foot soldiers, but his timetable was extremely limited and the government soldiers would kill them anyway. He was a few meters from the doorway when three soldiers leapt from the desk enclosure just before it, two near him and one further away. The nearer two had what appeared to be swords bearing dangerous illegal enchantments that could cut through Sabian's dermal armor, and the rear trooper carried a high-caliber rifle. All brought their weapons to bear with impressive speed, but they were not nearly fast enough.
Sabian lunged and his hand shot forward, grasping the barrel of the rifle of the man furthest from him. A flick of Sabian's wrist tore the gun from the man's hand and sent the stock into his chin with enough force to break his neck, which it did; his head snapped back with a sickening crunching noise. Sabian released the gun. As the rifle began to fall, Sabian grasped the uniform of one of the sword-bearers, who had no time to react. He spun the soldier and drove his body toward the wall and into the man's comrade, who let out a grunt as he had the air knocked out of him. Sabian grasped the soldier's hand that held the sword and reversed it, then drove the sword through the body of both soldiers and into the wall, pinning the two men there. The rifle that Sabian had dropped clattered on the ground as he leapt over the body that lay there.
With a loud report, the door to the gallery tore itself free from its hinges and flew inward, propelled by a savage kick from the Guardian behind it. Sabian himself leapt onto the balcony and surveyed the situation with a single glance. There were four soldiers on the long balcony with him, two on his side and two more on the other side. Below, hostages kneeled on the ground in neat rows. Sabian could see that two had already been shot on the far corner, obviously the incentive that had led to his immediate summoning. Ten men with rifles below reacted to Sabian's entry, and he read their movements-- while six were bringing their rifles toward him, four turned their guns toward the hostages.
Sabian activated the sympathetic link between the MED pistol and his head computer and kicked his time-sense into slow motion. Triggered shots would not move quickly enough.
Sabian's arm blurred, ignoring the men aiming at him and targeting those who intended to shoot the hostages. He had fired all four shots by the time the lens flare from the first shot had faded. The first soldier's head detonated before he had even brought his rifle to bear. The second found her arm detached at the shoulder just as she raised the gun. The third had a hole blown in his chest as his finger curled about the trigger, and the fourth fell with both arms from elbow to shoulder as well as a chunk of his gun gone just before he fired.
Further action from Sabian was interrupted as he felt something slam into his bulletshield from the right; one of the soldiers on the balcony had gotten a bead on him. Sabian braced himself and vaulted from the balcony, turning a somersault in midair. As he was upside-down, he targeted the two soldiers on the balcony, firing twice even as he rotated away from them. On his way down, he tagged the other two soldiers as he faced them, one of whom fell over the balcony's railing and plummeted to the ground ... straight toward a line of hostages.
Sabian cursed silently and readjusted his aim, then released a volley of burst fire from the MED pistol via a mental command. The body of the soldier erupted into an ugly spray of red mist and limbs. Sabian hit the ground between two of the lines of hostages, then heard screaming from the end as what was left of the soldier rained down on them. Sabian lifted his pistol as he rose to his feet, turning it in a wide arc and casting MED bolts at the remaining soldiers. He could not give them time to return fire. There was a series of detonations as the soldiers were struck by the bolts, the matter of their clothes and flesh expelling away from the sphere of the MED's effect. All fell in a matter of seconds, and the room was clear of hostiles.
Sabian stood and quickly surveyed the room. The hostages' reactions were mixed; some were stunned by the sudden eruption of violence, but others were visibly relieved, even overjoyed. Sabian checked his mission timer. Thirty-four seconds and change; he needed to move. As organized as the soldiers were, they would know by now that a Guardian was in the building.
"The Gallery is clear," he reported. "I need a team up here to cover the hostages; Orwen isn't here."
He turned to the hostages. "I need B-Rank rifle certs or greater! Raise your hands!" A handful of the hostages raised their hands. "Any specialists?"
A few of the hostages shouted out combat magic certifications. One raised a badge. "S-Rank rifle!" she shouted. "I'm an off-duty REACT officer."
"Then you're in charge until backup gets here," Sabian said to her, picking up a nearby rifle and tossing it to her one-handed. "Give me your operations address and keep the channel open." She did so. "Arm these people with whatever guns are left. They'll be focusing on me but may try to get in. Magic certs, don't hold back! Support will be here by the time you drain your energy. Hold your ground!"
With that, Sabian turned and headed for the door as the REACT officer started shouting commands to the hostages, who, for the most part, moved to obey with the fluidity of a military squadron.
Sabian smiled a bit as he turned away and ran for the door. I love New Washington.
With a powerful kick, Sabian smashed the door that led from the Gallery to the hallway, following the mental floorplan that he had studied. By the distribution, there was only one other place that Orwen could be using as a hiding place, and that was the Conference room.
Halfway down the hallway, Sabian's suspicions were confirmed: there was a small squadron of guards hiding behind a shimmering wall of transparent gel and riot shields.
An Anti-MED shield, Sabian thought, grimacing. He fluidly holstered his MED pistol; it'd be useless. Anti-MED walls were made of a crystal-clear, regenerating gel. MED bolts would harmlessly splatter the front of the wall, which would replace itself quickly, but ballistic ammunition and spells would travel through it without interruption.
As if on cue, magic detection alarms blared in Sabian's head. Incoming!
Sabian crouched and leapt fourteen feet upward, nearly reaching the ceiling, as a magical bolt hit the ground where he had just been standing. A deafening roar split the air as a fiery explosion detonated where the bolt had struck. On his way down, Sabian was jolted by a volley of gunfire that literally shot him out of the air, interrupting his path toward the blockade.
He rolled as he hit the ground and took a closer look at the blockade. Eight gunmen behind riot shields, who must have had wired reflexes in order to hit him during his leap. Behind them, a single combat mage standing behind a shimmering force field.
Knowing that standing still would mean death, Sabian allowed the severity of the situation to hit home-- adrenalin drove his actions. He sped from one side of the hallway to the other, outrunning the gunfire, and pulled a golf-ball-sized grenade from his belt. A quick shot from his boosters and he ran up the wall, at an angle where he could see the soldiers clearly behind the shield. He pushed off from the wall and released the grenade, allowing it to fall behind the shield as Sabian turned a somersault toward the ground below. As he fell, he drew the other gun from its holster-- a Guardian Tetragram automatic pistol.
The soldiers noticed the grenade and hurriedly moved to take cover. Sabian was upon them in a moment, firing a fusillade of perfectly ordinary ballistic rounds through the anti-MED shield and gunning down the soldiers who were foolish enough to move their riot shields. The grenade went off, obscuring the mage's vision and causing chaos in the rank of what gunmen had survived Sabian's attack.
Sabian cleared the Anti-MED barrier in a single leap, extending the antenna of his MED sabre and holstering the Tetragram as he landed. A blazing field crackled around the wire as it activated and Sabian immediately attacked the nearest soldier with it. The first blow glanced harmlessly off the soldier's riot shield, and the soldier pointed his rifle at Sabian, but the Guardian grabbed the gun with his free hand and seamlessly severed the soldier's wrist with the MED sabre. He turned in time to see the two remaining soldiers about to fire. He lunged toward them and was struck by several high-calibre bullets just before being struck by a spell from the mage.
Pain wracked Sabian's body as he was slammed forcefully against the far wall, cracking its plastic surface and denting it. He was unable to move for a moment, feeling his reinforced skin actively resisting the charring effect of the fire. After a few excruciating moments, he regained control of his muscles and pried himself from the divot he had made in the wall. He could hear shouts from beyond; the soldiers were unsure whether he was dead. He tensed his muscles for a moment and surged forward.
The soldiers were unready; their shields were at their sides. Sabian's MED sabre bisected one of them neatly at the waist and Sabian grabbed the other by the throat. He held the body between himself and the mage, and the spellcaster hesitated for one fatal moment.
Not a second later, the body of the soldier-- which the forcefield was not designed to stop-- flew at the mage and struck him, bowling him over. As the mage struggled to get up, Sabian ran to him, placed a boot on his face and forced the back of the mage's head against the ground. The Guardian then tensed his jaw and pressed down hard with his foot until the mage's head crumpled like an eggshell.
Sabian breathed hard for a few moments, feeling the regenerative processes of his system kicking in, numbing his pain, repairing the damage done to him by the bullets and explosion. He checked his mission timer. Two and a half minutes. Too long.
He started running, then commlinked the REACT officer. "How are things?"
"Engaging hostiles," she replied. "Doing all right for now, but get that backup team here."
"About ninety seconds away," he said to her. "Out."
Nearly at the edge of the hallway, he contacted the mission coordinator. "Approaching Conference hall."
"We've confirmed Orwen there. Expect a Chimera. Out."
"Oh, I do," Sabian muttered to no one.
Sabian did not kick the door to the Conference room down. When he reached it, he pedaled to a stop, then slapped a sticky explosive charge to it. He jogged down the hallway a short distance, then ran full-tilt at the door. The shaped charge went off, blowing the door down, and Sabian sailed through the open entryway.
There was, of course, a Chimera waiting for him. The beast was a massive, shelled monster, its yellow carapace shining in the harsh lights of the conference hall. The creature took up nearly a quarter of the sizeable hall, the size of a light tank. Its head was set on a neck pulsing with ropy muscles and had a wicked-looking beak, as well as eight beady black eyes. The mad archmage Barakul Orwen sat on its back on what appeared to be a saddle sculpted from its shell. Orwen looked down at Sabian with scorn.
"One Guardian?" He said indignantly. "One?!"
Sabian's response was a well-aimed MED bolt to Orwen's head, which glanced harmlessly off of a magical forcefield before it found its mark. The massive Chimera screeched and lunged at Sabian. The Guardian leapt out of the way just in time, tucking and rolling. An ornamental pillar was nearby; Sabian made a run for it.
"I am the Archmage Barakul Orwen!" Orwen roared, then jabbed a clawed hand at Sabian. Blue lightning fired from his fingertips. The Guardian shuddered as he was struck by a bolt of magical electricity, but did not stop his retreat; he was well-enough insulated that his circuitry was not damaged. Orwen continued his tirade. "I am the scourge of New Washington!"
Sabian leapt behind the pillar and braced against it, then shouted to Orwen. "That last part's not in your dossier, Orwen. You might want to file a formal complaint."
Orwen ignored him. "The government DARES send a single Guardian after me? Do they truly think that will be enough to defeat ME?!" The Chimera struck at the pillar, which shuddered dangerously. Sabian turned and fired a few potshots at the creature's head. It seemed to be magic-resistant, so the MED bolt was unable to properly absorb and expelled only a small chunk of the creature's head, but it had the intended effect: the beast roared in pain.
"I'd tell you your numerical threat rating," Sabian offered, "But I'm afraid it's confidential." He moved out from behind his cover, and Orwen immediately jabbed a hand toward him. With a booster-assisted leap, Sabian dodged the magical bolt by running halfway up the high conference wall, then drew his MED sabre and dove back downward. He landed on the Chimera's head and slashed at its eyes with the sabre's disruptive field. The creature roared in pain and thrashed its head, slamming Sabian back against the wall and letting him tumble to the ground. He was then forced to scramble away desperately to avoid a beam of pure fire sent by the archmage.
Sabian vaulted up quickly and discovered the Chimera's head snaking through the space between the wall and the pillar, its dangerous beak snapping in anger. Sabian grinned and backed up, firing a few potshots at the beast with the gun held in his left hand and his sabre ready in his right. The beast kept advancing through the gap, lashing at him with his beak when he got too close. "It's best to trust the Feds about this sort of thing, though;" Sabian said to the Archmage. "They're usually right."
"Insolent whelp!" Orwen shouted, then raised both of his hands. Sabian's muscles locked up suddenly, struck by a paralysis spell of ancient origin and fearsome power. His MED pistol tumbled to the floor, his sabre lay active but motionless. Orwen saw the effect of his spell and grinned.
"You Guardians think you're immune to this kind of magic," he said triumphantly, urging his ugly steed forward. "But I know things, powerful things that the likes of you will never understand."
Sabian sent a distress signal mentally. Little help here!
Tricky, responded the coordinator. That's a new one. We've got the federal technomancers working on it.
Low on time! Sabian replied.
"Now you have felt the bitterness of defeat," Orwen continued to gloat, "And soon you will feel the oblivion of death. I hope you enjoy whatever hideous fate befalls your freakish machine soul in the afterlife."
Hang in there, Sabian, we've almost got it.
He thumped the shell of the beast. "You may eat him, my pet."
The huge creature shifted its weight awkwardly and actually managed to look sheepish.
"Go!" Orwen commanded it, annoyed now, but the creature did not comply. It was at this point that Orwen realized that his beast had managed to wedge its shell between the pillar and wall. Orwen glared at it, then at Sabian. "Fine," he said, and raised a claw. "You die by MY hand."
Now!
As a stream of electricity flowed through Orwen's hand, Sabian sprang to life, launching himself at an angle against the wall. He struck it, crouched, and launched away, landing on the Chimera's head, which roared angrily. Sabian moved too quickly for it to shake him off, and he clambered up the shell of the beast.
The Archmage Orwen managed a quick "NO--" before Sabian ran through his forcefield and beheaded him in a clean sweep of the MED sabre. Beneath them, the Chimera shuddered and died as its master's life was suddenly gone.
Sabian stood atop the dead creature, his heart racing and the sound of blood rushing through his ears. After a moment, he commlinked back to the mission coordinator.
"Barakul Orwen has been executed. Mission complete."