Boros Underground Tunnels:

Safe hunkers down at the base of the ladder where Citizen, Bobbie and Jack crouch. “Where do we stand?”

“There’s a garbage bin or something over the hatch,” Citizen says, starting to shake his head. “We can only open it a bit, just enough to have a look around.”

“There ain’t no way we’re getting’ outta this gorram tunnel quiet like.” Jack says. “An’ there’s no room for your rifle up there either.”

Safe nods as he considers the situation.

“How’d it go with them two?” Jack jerks his head in the direction of Bride7 and Stan who stand watch a bit further down the tunnel.

“I’ll say one thing, “Stan” is good at laying down a false trail, real good. Still I don’t quite understand him. He’s got an unnatural attachment to that bomb he’s wearin’…” Safe says, glancing down the tunnel where he can just make out Stan’s form.

“Ain’t no good can come from a man what has that little regard for his own life, let alone those around him. Loose cannon’s gonna get us killed,” Jack concludes.

“So why’re we worried about makin’ a little noise getting’ out of here?” Safe asks, focusing back on the task at hand. “We count about eight Alliance soldiers standing guard at the back entrance to the compound.”

Bobbie pouts. “Alliance?? How’d they…”

Safe trails off as he glances down the tunnel at Stan. “No, couldn’t have been him, Stan had been with them the whole time. There was no way. Even if he had a tracer on him, the Alliance would’ve just been showing up, not already waiting for them. As much as Safe didn’t trust the man he couldn’t have led the Alliance here. Then who…?”

Then his thoughts turn to the other newcomer. Someone whose business was all about making connections.

“Needy!! How could he have been so stupid! It all made sense.” The only thing Safe couldn’t figure out is why.

A hissed warning from Stan interrupts Safe’s thoughts. “Hurry up and do what you’ve gotta do people. We’ve got company coming…”

Stan sticks some plastic explosive to the wall and gently inserts a laser trip wire fuse to it, then he and Bride7 sprint back up the tunnel to join the rest of the group."We have, maybe ten minutes," Stan says as he crouches a little off from the rest.

Safe climbs the ladder and lifts the hatch until it bumps on the bin above it. It opens all of two inches only allowing for a look. Not even enough room to properly aim a gun. Safe puts his back against the hatch and slowly pushes up. The bin moves a little and then Safe eases back down. He can lift it, barely, but he won’t be able the shoot at the same time and there was no room to get Jack up there beside him. If only Jack were a little thinner…

Safe scans those below him. Citizen wasn’t that much smaller than Jack, Bride7 he didn’t trust plus he hadn’t seen her fire a gun yet. Stan was out, the explosives were too bulky and Safe didn’t want to take a chance of them going off because he bumped them. Bobbie! “Bobbie Sue!” Safe hisses. “Come up here, I have an idea.”

When Safe calls her name, Bobbie comes immediately. But then, she realizes what he wants of her. Her face reddens and she crosses her arms. “Well, I just don’t know, Mister Safe. That’s a dreadfully tight space to squeeze through, and you can see that I’m a bit top-heavy, and…”

Bride7 laughs. “She means that her ass is too big to fit!”

Bobbie blushes even more and turns to her companion, waving her finger in Bride7’s face. “No, no, no! You have no cause to be like that!”

“Hit a nerve,” Bride7, somewhat taken aback.

“You are mean and nasty and do nothing but sit around and complain all the time and hurt people’s feelings.”

It was apparent Bobbie had been keeping this in for time. Sighing loudly she turned back to safe, now with new determination in her voice. “Tell me what you need me to do, Safe! I’ll do it!”

"Yeah and do it quick.” SR butts in. “Did I mention that we have movement back here? Our back door is closing behind us." SR shoots a dirty look at Bride7. Bobbie dumps all her bulky gear, including her pack, and clambers up the ladder. Safe steps one foot off the ladder and leans against the wall to allow room for Bobbie to climb up next to him. As Safe is explaining his plan face to face with her, Bobbie is blushing furiously. For she is, as she described herself, rather “top-heavy,” and the tight quarters with Safe makes her uncomfortable. But if Safe noticed exactly how they were rubbing together, he gives no sign.

“Here’s what I need you to do.” They were face to face. “I can lift the bin over the hatch, but just barely, which makes trying to shoot at the same time impossible. So, when I lift, I need you pop up and take out or disable as many as you can.” Safe lifts the hatch to allow them a final look and then lowers the hatch again. “I count eight at the gate across the alley. I figure the distance is about 30meters or 120feet. Make every shot count, but don’t take your time. Moving the bin is going to make noise and it’s going to get their attention. You’ll only have a small window of surprise. Ready?”

Safe looks into her eyes. Expecting to see fear and uncertainty, he’s shocked to see eagerness and grim determination. Here is yet another person he has underestimated today.

He looks back down the ladder. “Jack, I want the rest of you ready to move as soon as the shooting starts.”

Bobbie takes a deep breath, wraps her legs around the ladder (ruining her new dress), and balances herself there while drawing a Desert Eagle with each hand. “Don’t worry, Mister Safe. JC and I spent a lot of time together. He taught me to shoot. Said I had a gift…” As Bobbie hooks her legs around the ladder rungs to free her hands, Safe puts a leg on either side of her on the ladder and braces his back on the hatch. “1…2…3…”

Safe eases the hatch up until it touches the bin above, takes a deep breath and pushes. The bin moves slowly at first, and then starts to rise, metal against metal shrieking fills the air. Still holding to the ladder with her legs, Bobbie pops up out of the opening and immediately starts shooting.

The recoil pushes her back into Safe. At first, she falls into a steady rhythm firing first the left pistol, then the right, in order to minimize problems with recoil. The first four guards are hit squarely in their kneecaps and go down writhing in pain, but the remainder return fire and start to fall back to protected positions. Gravel and asphalt are scattered about the heads of Safe and Bobbie by a hail of near misses.

“Squeeze, don’t pull. Squeeze, don’t pull,” Bobbie mutters to herself.

It's at this point where Safe realizes just how big a target he makes and how little he can do about it. With the gravel and asphalt chips from the return fire stinging his face, and his muscles screaming at him, Safe desperately tries to think of a way to move the bin without squashing them.

As if a higher power was listening in on his thoughts, an answer presents itself to Safe, not exactly the answer he would have liked, but an answer none the less. A ricocheting bullet hits him in the left arm, surprising him, causing the strength to leave that arm. The bin starts to shift. With all his energy being channeled into trying to hold the bin up, Safe can only manage a weak grunt of warning to Bobbie that is drowned out by the gunfire.

Bobbie takes careful aim with her right-handed pistol while blazing away randomly with the left-handed one. * BANG * She hits a guard in the right forearm, making a ruin of that limb. * BANG * She misses, placing a large hole in a barrier their foes are attempting to hide behind. * BANG * She hits one in the shoulder, and he goes down. * CLICK * * CLICK * Both pistols are empty. By this time, the survivors among the guards have retreated into the hanger out of sight. Bobbie drops her left-handed pistol and uses that arm to launch herself out of the hole, while simultaneously releasing the empty clip on the right-handed pistol. She gets to her feet, slams home a new clip and advances while firing at one of the kneecapped guards who was fumbling with his gun. There is blood everywhere.

With Bobbie out of the tunnel, Safe’s left arm collapses and the bin, miraculously, slides to the left, leaving the tunnel mouth clear. Safe rolls out of the tunnel onto his back in the alley exhausted.

“Six out of eight, Safe!” She calls out as she moves forward. “That’s not bad. But that leaves two hiding, and whatever friends they might have in there. And anyone who heard the gunfire…”

“Ya… that’s great kid…” Safe pants.

“I’m not a kid!” Bobbie complains to Safe.

Suddenly shots ring out from either side of them. It seems that some foes are trying catch them in a crossfire. Asphalt and concrete chips are kicked up around Bobbie's feet. From his vantage point on the ground, Safe sees that the bin is on casters, putting his feet on the bin, he shoves. The bin rolls into the alley blocking one end. Rolling onto his stomach Safe hollers back down the tunnel. “We could use a couple extra guns up here!”

Below ground in the tunnel, a sudden heavy concussion blast from the direction the group had come from carries a cloud of dust down the tunnel onto and past the group. "The back door is closed guys! It's check out time! Up and out or forward down the tunnel!" SR yells.

Safe pushes the rolling trash bin to block gunfire from one end of the alley. Several shots hit the metallic obstacle, ringing out like a hammer striking a bell. Bobbie stops to shoot down the other end of the alley, taking a stance that minimizes her silhouette. She rapidly fires a number of shots in that direction, drops the empty clip, and reloads.

Then, from the open end of the alley, a shot strikes Bobbie’s hand, sending her remaining pistol spinning out of her grasp. “OW!” Bobbie falls to her knees, right arm dangling at her side.

Bride7 jumps out of the open hatch, and in an instant, takes in the situation. Some bullets fly past her as well, one grazing her shoulder. “Great! Gorram tunnel’s safer!”

In the tunnel, SR picks up the dopped automatic and shoves it into his waistband. "Citizen, you'll need these top side." SR hands Citizen a pair of grenades. "The cylinder is smoke and the other one is white phosphorous. If I go further down the tunnel is there another manhole or hatch that will allow me to get a flanking position so we don't get pinned down?"

Citizen clipped the two grenades to his belt. He looked at 'Stan' for a moment. "Not so much a hatch..." He started. 'Stan' looked at him questioningly. "Well, there is a sewage outlet that leads into the Cess pit; you can get out through there..." Citizen started up the ladder. "If you're going to go that way I'd go now." He said as he ascended. "It's not getting any cleaner..."

SR takes a bandanna from a pocket and ties it around his face bandito style and sprays the outside with breath spray. "That should help with the stink," He thinks to himself "It's already helping with the dust."

As Jack heads up the ladder, SR moves down the tunnel.

Fifteen meters on he encounters standing water, stagnant and fowl. SR moves on and soon the water is up to his knees. The footing is not too bad, for the most part it feels to be gravel and sand. He moves at a quick pace not wanting to trip and fall yet realizing that time is clearly fleeting. He tends toward the right hand side of the tunnel fearing a possible drop off into a deep pool in the center. The stink is not of raw sewage, but of a marsh breaking down biomass - rank, but not unbearable. After another twenty meters the water is up to the middle of SR's thighs, but on the right the tunnel branches upward, a draft of fresh air is clearly felt and there is light. He notices the sound of gunfire that had faded behind him is now more audible from the right. Unslinging his weapon and holstering his pistol he enters the right hand tunnel.

--

"Hey! Six!" Bride7 flips the safety on her pistol and tosses it to the exposed Bobbie. It bounces once, then slides along the asphalt until grabbed by Bobbie's left hand. From a prone position, Bobbie flips off the safety and begins to carefully pick off the assailants at the open end of the alley. Meanwhile, foes from the blocked end of the alley seem to have arrived at the dumpster, and are attempting to maneuver it out of their way. Bride7 tosses a grenade over the dumpster, then jumps back down into the tunnels. There is a satisfying explosion. From her prone position in the middle of the street, the wounded Bobbie continues to fire the pistol, picking off opponents from the open end of the alley. But the dumpster blocking the other end of the alley begins to move. More Alliance troops have arrived from that direction, and are trying to squeeze around it.

With much effort, Bride7 heaves Bobbie's pack full of weapons out of the tunnel entrance and plops it on the asphalt. "Six! Get your fat gorram ass back here! You have no cover!"

"Can't!" Bobbie answers. "Got hit in the right arm and right leg. But I think I took out seven more! And it's not THAT fat!"

Meanwhile, close to the tunnel hatch, Safe crawls over to the bin and puts his back against it, pushing with his legs, to stop it from moving any further. He draws his gun, puts it under the bin and starts firing blindly. Safe allows himself a small grin when screams of surprise and pain echo from the other side. The grin is quickly replaced by a grimace of pain as he draws his other gun with his left arm. Bobbie squeezes off the last round of her pistol. She releases the empty clip, and fumbles in vain with her mangled hand to pull another from her belt. "Can't reload!" With bullets still flying around her, she whimpers for a moment. Bobbie then carefully places the pistol by her head and reaches for a new clip with her left hand. She inserts the clip into the pistol, then uses her hand to slide the pistol toward her, jamming the clip into place with her chin. She picks it up and resumes firing. "Okay!" Bobbie calls out.

"Got it!" Bride7 pulls a random weapon from the pack. She sneers at Jack, Citizen, and even the wounded Safe. "Say, do you he-men think you could be troubled to help? Or do you like to think of yourself as spectators?"

Not being able to hold the gun higher that his hip, Safe fires at the guards at the other end of the alley, trying to take some of the heat off Bobbie. Each recoil causes another grimace as he struggles to hold the gun steady.

Jack sneers and stands, seemingly oblivious to the flying bullets, draws his machine gun pistols and unleashes a hail of bullets, pinning down the guards at the gate.

This gives Bride7 the opportunity she was looking for. Running in a crouch, she slides in beside Bobbie popping off a few shots at the guards at the end of the alley brave enough to try to show their heads. Grabbing Bobbie by the back of the shirt, Bride7 drags her back to the alcove near the tunnels hatch. “There, I saved your sorry butt again.” Bride7 gets to her feet, tosses a smoke grenade ahead of her, and charges the open end of the alley, randomly firing off her shotgun as she goes.

The commotion allows Citizen the opening to scoot over next to Safe.

“Where’s “Stan”?” Safe says between grimaces.

“Spelunking…?” Citizen shrugs, drawing his gun “Said sumptin’ ‘bout flanking”. He pulls out the phosphorous grenade, pops the pin and nonchalantly chucks it over the bin.

-- --

SR shoves up a storm grill at pokes his head clear to see that he is on a street that the alley opens into. Around the alley's mouth are concentrated a squad of troopers all firing in. SR quickly lobs a tear gas grenade in the direction at the troopers and ducks back down as he comes under fire from somewhere off to his 10 o'clock. "Well it's not a counter ambush, but it's better than nothing. Wish we had communications." He mutters to himself. He tosses his last two smoke grenades out of the hole and scrambles out as they pop off.

-- --

On the second floor of a dilapidated apartment building, overlooking the firefight, a young woman looks on behind a pair of binoculars. Beside her, another young woman, clutching a radio. From the receiver, a voice crackles. “I need confirmation on that, is it them?”

“Yeah, Needy,” Amy says lowering her binoculars. “It’s them. Looks like they’re pinned down.”

Standing close to the outside wall of the building, Needy and Flechette hide in the shadows.

“It’s as we feared” Needy says turning to Flechette.

Flechette nods and replies “I told ya it was them.”

The loud gunfire and cries of their allies were what had drew their attention, so much so that Flechette had insisted on checking it out. Needy would have preferred to carry on towards their destination, but he knew that she was right.

“And what good is getting to the hangar if they never show up due to being riddled with holes” she had argued, and he knew he couldn’t make a reply

“Alright, are you ready for this then?” Needy now asks her

“You betcha” Flechette eagerly replies, cocking her shotgun

“Because I’m not” he thinks about replying, but decides against it. Needy taps the communicator to send one last message to the rest of their team. “Get back downstairs to the entrance I told you about, we need to be ready to move”

“Copy” Amy replies, sharing nervous looks with Versa.

The second he ended the call, Flechette was on the move.

BANG

The loud shot causes Needy to jump as Flechette fires off her first round, hitting an officer in his head, blood exploding out of the other side of his head She was not messing around. He didn’t know what sort of training she had been given, but even with his years of schooling at the Companion House, he had yet to feel comfortable with such crude weaponry. But it was all he had. Needy ran to Flechette’s position, a gun in each hand, shooting off at various targets. He was unsure if any of them had hit their target. Needy was not a soldier and as a result, he was confused as hell about the situation. He was not shooting with intent, but out of panic.

Suddenly an officer pops up from behind a group of metal bins. He shoots at the companion and the cook, a bullet piercing the latter’s shoulder, sending her spinning to the floor. His eyes closed, Needy points the gun up towards the general direction and shoots. As the shooter ducks for cover, the bullet unsurprisingly misses, ricocheting off the bin and hitting a dead body on the floor. Needy opens his eyes to see the officer pop back up, take aim and fire.

In shock, the companion simply stands and stares. Then, he feels a sharp pain in his chest. Looking down, he watches as blood seeps through his top and begins to drizzle down.

Needy drops to the floor