10-03-2017, 02:14 PM
The transport they were using now was different from the one they'd taken on their way back to the 'racks the other day. That one had been some sort of troop-transport aircraft, which had been sent since speed had been of the essence, due to all the wounded squad-members. This thing, on the other hand, had been chosen for stealth. It was an old, grimy & battered-looking unmarked van with black-tinted windows. In other words, it'd blend right in on Tier Five. Despite its appearance, though, it was actually much sturdier than it looked; those rusted walls could stop bullets and lasers alike.
As the last of them filed in and sat – the interior of the van was a lot like a transport helicopter; with a row of seats at either side of the vehicle, facing in towards each other – someone swung the van's rear doors closed and they were off...
For a moment. Then they pulled out into the street and almost immediately were caught in a traffic jam. The others had said to expect this. Tier Five was poorly maintained and far lower-budget than the upper tiers. It was also far smaller than Tier One, with much cheaper housing, and as such, it was packed. It really was a great indication as to the necessity of civilisation to sentient beings that so many people would actually prefer to live in a crime-ridden hole like this than in one of the other verses, like the Tangled Green or Camelot.
They waited. And waited. And waited.
They moved!
…
… About three feet, then stopped again.
And waited some more. And some more. Then a little bit after that.
The most irritating thing was that the NSW cell's building wasn't even all that far from here. It was actually going to take them substantially longer to get there in this way than it would simply by walking, never mind taking the airborne transport. Sadly, without knowing what they were up against, it would be much too risky to let the gangsters see them coming, which meant driving around in this thing and then hopefully finding some way to sneak in.
As they waited the stormtroopers either sat staring straight ahead patiently or else checked over their weapons to make sure everything was in working order. Taking a cue from them, and feeling like he might as well be doing something with his time, Hijiri focused and held out one hand in front of him. A few of them paid attention as a small globe of Omnilium floated up from his palm to hover just above it as the mystery item was created within.
“Huh? What're you up to now, man?” Trevor asked. Hijiri ignored him.
A few minutes later, the bubble burst to reveal... a rock.
“A rock?” Trevor asked. Hijiri ignored him.
Catching it, then unsheathing his katana, the former Battle Rabbit began running the whetstone across the length of the blade. He honestly had no idea how effective – if at all – sharpening a sword would be in a universe where an overpriced toy could be just as lethal – if not more so – than a highly advanced laser gun, of the sort wielded by his stormtrooper compatriots.
But it wasn't like he had anything better to do.
…
Time passed.
…
“Anyone want to play a game?” Trevor asked. “How about I-Spy? Rock-Paper-Scissors? Tic-Tac-Toe? … No? No one? Really?”
“Shut up, Dodson.” Davion sounded more bored than angry. Though, of course, he still wasn't to the point of being desperate enough to actually want to listen to what that idiot had to say.
They went back to sitting quietly, except for the noises of Hijiri whetting his blade and a few of the others looking over their guns for the fiftieth time or so... this was a pretty long journey.
At one point the Rabbit noticed the guy sitting next to him looking down at his Dataverse Device and realised that the 'trooper had an earphone cable going from the device up underneath his helmet. Glancing at the screen, he saw that the man was watching a video of two kittens playing.
Realising that there were actually better things to do than sharpen an already sharp katana, Hijiri sheathed the weapon, re-absorbed the Omnilium he had used to make the whetstone, took out his smartphone-shaped Device, and began to browse the Omniverse's internet, looking for something to entertain him for however many hours this journey had left in it.
…
At some point, they managed to speed up to something above a snail's pace, and from then it took only a few more minutes before they had arrived at their destination.
The two in the front left the vehicle first, and once they were sure there was no one around, the van's rear doors were swung wide and the rest of the 'troopers spilled out. They'd parked in a dingy back alley scarcely a dozen metres from their target. The good news was that the building appeared to be nothing more than an old warehouse, and it didn't seem like there were any sentries keeping watch. The bad news was that there was only one entrance; a metal gate designed to be large enough to fit trucks. Judging by the rectangular patches of slightly less discoloured brick, it seemed that this had previously had a few human-sized doors as well, but at some point not all that long ago – when the gang moved in, presumably – those had been bricked up.
They had ensured that anyone who wanted to come at them would have to do so head-on. There would be no stealthy lock-picking and sneaking in here. Other than that one entrance the warehouse looked just like a big, cubic lump of bricks. There weren't even any windows.
“Takanomiya, jump up there and take a look around, just be careful you're not seen,” after yesterday's battle, Davion had made a point of taking some time to go through everything Hijiri could do with him; he wanted to know exactly what capacities his new underling had, so as to best utilise him in the field, “it's unlikely we'll find anything so fortunate as a skylight to sneak down through, but it's worth a try, at least.”
“Yes, sir.” Hijiri took a moment to warp gravity around him in such a way as to drastically lower his weight, before jumping straight up, dozens of feet into the air. He had judged the amount of force needed for the leap perfectly, and reached the apex of his jump just in time to grab ahold of the edge of the roof before he would have fallen back down. He could have gone further up had he wanted to, but if there were guards on duty here, that just might give the game away.
Instead, he braced his feet against the brick wall and slowly pulled himself upwards, until his eyes were high enough to peek out across the rooftop. There was absolutely nothing there.
He dropped back down, landed as lightly as a feather, sighed and shook his head at the sergeant. “Sorry, sir, nothing but more brick up there.”
“Yes, I expected as much.” Davion nodded. “Alright then, we have no choice; we're going in through the front. Is everyone prepared?”
“Yes, sir!” chorused most of the squad in perfect synchronisation.
"Yes, s-" started Trevor, before realising he was too late and tailing off lamely...
Keeping to the shadows as much as their gleaming white armour would allow as they approached, it wasn't long before they reached the gate; a retractable metal plate, which at the moment was pulled up and back into the building, leaving the entrance wide open. They were just preparing to storm in when a dazed-looking guy with a cigarette in his mouth walked out with his hands in his pockets. He was dressed entirely in white and grey, and there was a white wolf with the letters 'NSW' printed beneath it on the front of his t-shirt. All things considered, it wasn't exactly a subtle hint that they'd come to the right place.
“... Huh?” asked the man as he slowly turned to face them, not seeming remotely surprised, afraid or angry to see them... whatever he was smoking was apparently pretty effective.
Davion shot him.
“Steve!” someone yelled from inside, a moment later, “Everyone, look! Some asshole just shot Steve!”
This voice was followed by numerous others seemingly enraged by their friend's demise, many of them promising either a swift death or an extremely slow, tortuous death to those responsible for the attack. The first five to reach the gateway bolted through without a second thought, firing wildly and hoping to hit someone.
As almost the entire squad was pressed up against the wall, they did not. Instead, all of their bullets and lasers flew off in completely the wrong direction, and they began turning just in time to get cut down in a hail of blaster fire.
“They're up against the wall!” called someone who apparently wasn't a complete idiot. For a moment, nothing happened. They could hear furious whispering from inside the building, but no one else emerged.
“You think you got us cornered, huh, swine? You clearly ain't got no idea the kinda goods we got stashed in here.” one of them said, seeming completely assured as to his odds of winning this fight... which was a little worrying, given he didn't even know how many stormtroopers his people were up against; if this raid was anything other than a hastily arranged mess, then there would likely be at least three squads this size, if not even larger ones.
“Go!”
Around the corner leaped two men, one holding what looked like a plastic riot shield, while the other aimed a fat, six-chambered rifle of some kind so that the shots it fired would fly over his ally's head. It took Hijiri only a moment to realise that he was looking at a grenade launcher.
Oh, shit.
“Move!” yelled Davion, almost before the pair had even appeared before them, his reaction was so fast.
Hijiri sprung up and forwards, intent upon flying straight over their heads. The others scattered.
There was a sharp bang as the gun fired its first round, followed almost immediately by a huge explosion. Spinning in mid-air to see what had become of his allies, the first thing the ex-Battle Rabbit noticed was the huge cloud of smoke.
The second was Davion. Whereas most of them had ran back or to the sides, their sergeant had accurately predicted that their enemies were probably not all that likely to want to blow themselves up by firing a grenade launcher at close range, and so had dived forwards instead.
Thrown off balance for a second by the shockwave, the shield-bearer was unable to move quickly enough to intercept him. Rolling, then coming up in a crouch with the grenadier directly between him and the rest of them within the building, Davion fired, landing a neat headshot before snatching the launcher from the air the moment it slipped free of the dead man's fingers.
Hijiri drew his katana and dived forwards the moment he landed. Davion was aiming his new gun straight into the warehouse, but was standing barely over a metre from the shield-bearer, who had now turned to place his shield between himself and the rest of the squad, whilst drawing a pistol with his free hand. In a moment, the sergeant would find himself in the same state as the launcher's previous owner.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, those within the warehouse began firing. Miraculously, Hijiri was not hit during the split-second it took him to dart through the air and ram into the shield-bearer, impaling the man on his sword and knocking him back a couple metres as well in the process. The gangster's shot went wide. Davion fired three shots, one after the other, right into the crowd within. Explosions sounded. More than just three. There must have been some other explosive 'goods' inside. Perhaps stashing all that stuff in one place hadn't been such a great idea after all.
There were screams, then wails, then moans, then coughs as the dying died and the wounded ran out of air amidst the smoke which now billowed out of the one exit in clouds. Apparently, this place didn't have particularly good ventilation.
For a moment, nothing seemed to happen and it seemed like Davion might actually have almost single-handedly wiped out an entire building's worth of criminal thugs and lived to tell the tale.
But then he fell to his knees, and just before he collapsed entirely, the former Battle Rabbit noticed that his commander had been shot at the very least six times... it was impressive that he'd even managed to remain on his feet long enough to take those shots.
And then, as Hijiri – along with whoever else had survived that first grenade – rushed over to their fallen sergeant, a slow, sarcastic clapping started up, coming from somewhere in the back of the warehouse...
As the last of them filed in and sat – the interior of the van was a lot like a transport helicopter; with a row of seats at either side of the vehicle, facing in towards each other – someone swung the van's rear doors closed and they were off...
For a moment. Then they pulled out into the street and almost immediately were caught in a traffic jam. The others had said to expect this. Tier Five was poorly maintained and far lower-budget than the upper tiers. It was also far smaller than Tier One, with much cheaper housing, and as such, it was packed. It really was a great indication as to the necessity of civilisation to sentient beings that so many people would actually prefer to live in a crime-ridden hole like this than in one of the other verses, like the Tangled Green or Camelot.
They waited. And waited. And waited.
They moved!
…
… About three feet, then stopped again.
And waited some more. And some more. Then a little bit after that.
The most irritating thing was that the NSW cell's building wasn't even all that far from here. It was actually going to take them substantially longer to get there in this way than it would simply by walking, never mind taking the airborne transport. Sadly, without knowing what they were up against, it would be much too risky to let the gangsters see them coming, which meant driving around in this thing and then hopefully finding some way to sneak in.
As they waited the stormtroopers either sat staring straight ahead patiently or else checked over their weapons to make sure everything was in working order. Taking a cue from them, and feeling like he might as well be doing something with his time, Hijiri focused and held out one hand in front of him. A few of them paid attention as a small globe of Omnilium floated up from his palm to hover just above it as the mystery item was created within.
“Huh? What're you up to now, man?” Trevor asked. Hijiri ignored him.
A few minutes later, the bubble burst to reveal... a rock.
“A rock?” Trevor asked. Hijiri ignored him.
Catching it, then unsheathing his katana, the former Battle Rabbit began running the whetstone across the length of the blade. He honestly had no idea how effective – if at all – sharpening a sword would be in a universe where an overpriced toy could be just as lethal – if not more so – than a highly advanced laser gun, of the sort wielded by his stormtrooper compatriots.
But it wasn't like he had anything better to do.
…
Time passed.
…
“Anyone want to play a game?” Trevor asked. “How about I-Spy? Rock-Paper-Scissors? Tic-Tac-Toe? … No? No one? Really?”
“Shut up, Dodson.” Davion sounded more bored than angry. Though, of course, he still wasn't to the point of being desperate enough to actually want to listen to what that idiot had to say.
They went back to sitting quietly, except for the noises of Hijiri whetting his blade and a few of the others looking over their guns for the fiftieth time or so... this was a pretty long journey.
At one point the Rabbit noticed the guy sitting next to him looking down at his Dataverse Device and realised that the 'trooper had an earphone cable going from the device up underneath his helmet. Glancing at the screen, he saw that the man was watching a video of two kittens playing.
Realising that there were actually better things to do than sharpen an already sharp katana, Hijiri sheathed the weapon, re-absorbed the Omnilium he had used to make the whetstone, took out his smartphone-shaped Device, and began to browse the Omniverse's internet, looking for something to entertain him for however many hours this journey had left in it.
…
At some point, they managed to speed up to something above a snail's pace, and from then it took only a few more minutes before they had arrived at their destination.
The two in the front left the vehicle first, and once they were sure there was no one around, the van's rear doors were swung wide and the rest of the 'troopers spilled out. They'd parked in a dingy back alley scarcely a dozen metres from their target. The good news was that the building appeared to be nothing more than an old warehouse, and it didn't seem like there were any sentries keeping watch. The bad news was that there was only one entrance; a metal gate designed to be large enough to fit trucks. Judging by the rectangular patches of slightly less discoloured brick, it seemed that this had previously had a few human-sized doors as well, but at some point not all that long ago – when the gang moved in, presumably – those had been bricked up.
They had ensured that anyone who wanted to come at them would have to do so head-on. There would be no stealthy lock-picking and sneaking in here. Other than that one entrance the warehouse looked just like a big, cubic lump of bricks. There weren't even any windows.
“Takanomiya, jump up there and take a look around, just be careful you're not seen,” after yesterday's battle, Davion had made a point of taking some time to go through everything Hijiri could do with him; he wanted to know exactly what capacities his new underling had, so as to best utilise him in the field, “it's unlikely we'll find anything so fortunate as a skylight to sneak down through, but it's worth a try, at least.”
“Yes, sir.” Hijiri took a moment to warp gravity around him in such a way as to drastically lower his weight, before jumping straight up, dozens of feet into the air. He had judged the amount of force needed for the leap perfectly, and reached the apex of his jump just in time to grab ahold of the edge of the roof before he would have fallen back down. He could have gone further up had he wanted to, but if there were guards on duty here, that just might give the game away.
Instead, he braced his feet against the brick wall and slowly pulled himself upwards, until his eyes were high enough to peek out across the rooftop. There was absolutely nothing there.
He dropped back down, landed as lightly as a feather, sighed and shook his head at the sergeant. “Sorry, sir, nothing but more brick up there.”
“Yes, I expected as much.” Davion nodded. “Alright then, we have no choice; we're going in through the front. Is everyone prepared?”
“Yes, sir!” chorused most of the squad in perfect synchronisation.
"Yes, s-" started Trevor, before realising he was too late and tailing off lamely...
Keeping to the shadows as much as their gleaming white armour would allow as they approached, it wasn't long before they reached the gate; a retractable metal plate, which at the moment was pulled up and back into the building, leaving the entrance wide open. They were just preparing to storm in when a dazed-looking guy with a cigarette in his mouth walked out with his hands in his pockets. He was dressed entirely in white and grey, and there was a white wolf with the letters 'NSW' printed beneath it on the front of his t-shirt. All things considered, it wasn't exactly a subtle hint that they'd come to the right place.
“... Huh?” asked the man as he slowly turned to face them, not seeming remotely surprised, afraid or angry to see them... whatever he was smoking was apparently pretty effective.
Davion shot him.
“Steve!” someone yelled from inside, a moment later, “Everyone, look! Some asshole just shot Steve!”
This voice was followed by numerous others seemingly enraged by their friend's demise, many of them promising either a swift death or an extremely slow, tortuous death to those responsible for the attack. The first five to reach the gateway bolted through without a second thought, firing wildly and hoping to hit someone.
As almost the entire squad was pressed up against the wall, they did not. Instead, all of their bullets and lasers flew off in completely the wrong direction, and they began turning just in time to get cut down in a hail of blaster fire.
“They're up against the wall!” called someone who apparently wasn't a complete idiot. For a moment, nothing happened. They could hear furious whispering from inside the building, but no one else emerged.
“You think you got us cornered, huh, swine? You clearly ain't got no idea the kinda goods we got stashed in here.” one of them said, seeming completely assured as to his odds of winning this fight... which was a little worrying, given he didn't even know how many stormtroopers his people were up against; if this raid was anything other than a hastily arranged mess, then there would likely be at least three squads this size, if not even larger ones.
“Go!”
Around the corner leaped two men, one holding what looked like a plastic riot shield, while the other aimed a fat, six-chambered rifle of some kind so that the shots it fired would fly over his ally's head. It took Hijiri only a moment to realise that he was looking at a grenade launcher.
Oh, shit.
“Move!” yelled Davion, almost before the pair had even appeared before them, his reaction was so fast.
Hijiri sprung up and forwards, intent upon flying straight over their heads. The others scattered.
There was a sharp bang as the gun fired its first round, followed almost immediately by a huge explosion. Spinning in mid-air to see what had become of his allies, the first thing the ex-Battle Rabbit noticed was the huge cloud of smoke.
The second was Davion. Whereas most of them had ran back or to the sides, their sergeant had accurately predicted that their enemies were probably not all that likely to want to blow themselves up by firing a grenade launcher at close range, and so had dived forwards instead.
Thrown off balance for a second by the shockwave, the shield-bearer was unable to move quickly enough to intercept him. Rolling, then coming up in a crouch with the grenadier directly between him and the rest of them within the building, Davion fired, landing a neat headshot before snatching the launcher from the air the moment it slipped free of the dead man's fingers.
Hijiri drew his katana and dived forwards the moment he landed. Davion was aiming his new gun straight into the warehouse, but was standing barely over a metre from the shield-bearer, who had now turned to place his shield between himself and the rest of the squad, whilst drawing a pistol with his free hand. In a moment, the sergeant would find himself in the same state as the launcher's previous owner.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, those within the warehouse began firing. Miraculously, Hijiri was not hit during the split-second it took him to dart through the air and ram into the shield-bearer, impaling the man on his sword and knocking him back a couple metres as well in the process. The gangster's shot went wide. Davion fired three shots, one after the other, right into the crowd within. Explosions sounded. More than just three. There must have been some other explosive 'goods' inside. Perhaps stashing all that stuff in one place hadn't been such a great idea after all.
There were screams, then wails, then moans, then coughs as the dying died and the wounded ran out of air amidst the smoke which now billowed out of the one exit in clouds. Apparently, this place didn't have particularly good ventilation.
For a moment, nothing seemed to happen and it seemed like Davion might actually have almost single-handedly wiped out an entire building's worth of criminal thugs and lived to tell the tale.
But then he fell to his knees, and just before he collapsed entirely, the former Battle Rabbit noticed that his commander had been shot at the very least six times... it was impressive that he'd even managed to remain on his feet long enough to take those shots.
And then, as Hijiri – along with whoever else had survived that first grenade – rushed over to their fallen sergeant, a slow, sarcastic clapping started up, coming from somewhere in the back of the warehouse...
Quote:Word Count: 2213, according to OpenOffice's word counter.
Total Word Count: 9095/5000-10000.
![[Image: Hijiri_Name_Sig.png]](https://image.ibb.co/k1H7Hd/Hijiri_Name_Sig.png)