Objective: Capture Economic Tower Resata
Allies: Sam Deckard | Wraith | Belisarius
Enemies: Open
Thematic Music: Danger - 19:00
Gear: Body | Armor in Digital Urban Camo | Rifle | Pistol | Knife | 1 Smart Grenade
The amount of blaster fire the lobby endured in those next few minutes was a sight to be seen. It was impossible to see through the smoke and flashes of light. All she could do was fire in the direction that shots appeared to come from and hope that she hit the target or at least suppressed them enough to keep their focus off her comrades. It was the best she could do. Being point now didn't mean much until they cleared the lobby and she needed to make them think everyone was where she was, so she strafed back and forth between bursts of fire. Every time she lit them up it was from a new position, drawing new fire.
Somewhere to her right an explosion went off. It was followed quickly by another and screaming. Lots of screaming. This wasn't her first battlefield tussle, but the screaming was something you never got over. It only got worse when Lenses and the Lieutenant opened fire from the left, countering the enemy attempt at a pincer with one of their own. The battle for the bank lobby didn't last as long as it could have, but it also wasn't the only battle to be fought to claim the tower. There was much more to come, and even as the smoke began to settle she noticed that the Lieutenant had taken a shot to the arm, and Gunt was limping a bit from some injury he'd sustained.
"Private, point. Take the stairs," the Lieutenant called, not missing a beat. "Gunt, stun grenades over the balcony."
"Still no response from RDAG Three," Lenses chimed in.
"They're probably pinned down and can't talk. Just sit on it."
Tessa swapped power packs in her rifle as she walked across the body strewn lobby to the stair. The level above seemed to be office centered from what she could tell below. Gunt chucked a few stun grenades over the balcony wall and she charged up the stairs with the others following. The resistance fire was minimal as most were getting over being disoriented. She leveled the squad that had been waiting for them and then trained her weapon on the office doors. There were a lot of them and it was hard to cover them all, but she did her best while she waited for the others to join her on the mezzanine level.
When they were all buttoned up, she led the processional to clear the offices. Most of them had already been tossed by people trying to keep data out of the wrong hands. They'd expected that, but the real goal was to cut off the enemy's access to the tower itself, so even if they tore it down then the mission was a success.
"Floor's cleared," she said. "Moving to the stairwell."
There were still multiple floors above them to be cleared. It was a big building for a single squad to be taking, but that was what they were tasked with and none of them were going to complain about it. None of them would have complained if they'd been sent alone. Orders were orders and they followed them even if it did mean they were ate-up. It was a stormtroopers' job to follow orders and get the job done, even if it meant they died in the process.
The stairwell was clear when she poked her head in, but she indicated for the others to wait as she walked in and took a look up the stairwell and down. She didn't see anything and it was quiet. Positioning on the stairwell might seem a good idea, but it was a bottleneck even for a defender. There was nowhere to go with your back to a wall. Well-placed explosives would wipe out defenders. The Sith troops were dumb, they did follow the Sith, after all, but they weren't so dumb as to make rookie mistakes. Credit where credit was due. They were fighting some hard-nosed soldiers and it was tough going.
She motioned for the others to join her and started up the stairs to the next level. They cleared a few floors in a similar manner. Most were unoccupied, such as the club levels. It wasn't prime time for them to be in use and they weren't good shelters during an invasion. Everything was going well until they hit the hotel floors. Things got hairy there in a flash.
"Check right!"
An explosion ripped part of a wall away, showering Tessa and the Lieutenant with debris. They were alright, though, and she unloaded her rifle into the room, turning two troopers into human sprinklers. She'd lost track of how many they'd killed, but it seemed like almost every room in the hotel section was occupied by a handful of enemies or at least explosives. There wasn't anywhere safe. The corridor was her charge now. She didn't even breach rooms any longer because if she didn't keep the hallway controlled they'd all end up dropped by a lucky foe from down the way.
They stepped quietly along to the next door on their right and she stopped at it, listening to see if she could pick up anything inside. She couldn't so she reached back behind her and tapped the lieutenant's hand where it rested on her back before she moved forward, kicking the door open as she stopped on the other side of the opening. As soon as she did, blaster fire erupted from within, a full e-web setup hammering through the wall right where her compatriots stood. She spun around and took the scene in as if it were happening in slow motion, a sense of horror flooding through her emotional drive and mixing with anger.
The lieutenant took full shots to the chest, leaving a massive hole in his armor and pulverizing his chest cavity into a spray of pink mist that coated the previously pristine wall behind him. Gunt was next, his head nearly taken clean off as his body flopped lazily to the floor. Lenses had enough time to try and dive out of the way before she saw a shot hit him, and then everything went bright as an explosive that had been tossed through the doorway into the hall ripped off, sending a wave of concussive force and shrapnel flying through the air and lifting her off her feet to send her flying back down the hallway as if she were nothing more than wheat chaff.
It all happened in a manner of seconds, but it felt like hours, and it wasn't about to get any better.