Jane is stripped down to her waist, and humming, while she reapplies her clan markings in the de-con room that houses the troop's cabinet. Something, she's done weekly since she worked out how to exclude the dye from the suit's auto-clean function for several hours.
Her hand pauses in mid-air as the all-hands alarm goes off across the ship. A second later she's stowed her mirror and dye, and is efficiently pulling her suit up around her neck. A thumping from the observation window has her give a thumbs up before heading for the cabinet and opening the door.
Jane shouts through the open door, "All-hands! All-hands! Suit up and report for briefing."
For good measure she activates her omni-tool, as she slides it back on her hand, and sends the same message directly to the suit speakers of everyone inside the cabinet.
As she's in the de-con airlock, Rodrigues and Toots both rush out of the cabinet, hastily fitting their masks. As they see her in the airlock they give the hand-signs that mean they've checked the cabinet and it's now clear.
Jane nods as the airlock finishes it's 30 second cycle and opens the outer door. Running out of the airlock, she ignores the hiss of the door as it cycles to allow the next person through, instead concentrating on reaching her officers quarters and getting into her armour in quick, practiced, movements, the helmet and her omni-tool going into her pouch to save precious seconds once it's on.
As soon as the armour is in place, she grabs her pouch and runs out of the door, and through the barracks as Frank's Fists are starting to filter in from the mess to get into their own suits and gear.
After slipping through the door, Jane starts a fast-paced jog past the armoury, where the first of her troop has just finished donning their own armour, and is starting to help the slower members get into their own armour.
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As Jane jogs into the briefing room, she feels a slight vibration run through the floor under her feet. Inside, Commander Moua is already standing pensively by the podium.
As her presence is noticed, Moua turns towards her, "2nd Lt Shepherd, this will be quick. We've just dropped out over Elysium, and they are currently under attack. Relay comms are out, so we're on our own until Alliance reinforcements arrive. The Agincourt is exchanging fire with the attacking pirates so space support will be sporadic for both sides."
Jane can't help sagging in relief at that news.
Relentlessly, the commander continues, "Charlies Angels are already on route to the surface. As soon as your troop get here you're heading for Illyria to reinforce the milita there. Both because you already have PS, and also because intelligence says they're under heavy assault. The Angels will be trying to disrupt incoming troops, and we will be dropping ground vehicles as soon as we have spare capacity."
The sound of armoured boots interrupts the commander, and he looks over Jane's shoulder as Frank jogs in, in the middle of her own troop, "Lt Frank, good of you to join us, as I was saying to the 2nd Lt, you're going to be harassing enemy forces as they land, we've already sent a message for reinforcements, but they have to get here from wherever they are."
As the last of her troop file into the briefing room, Jane tunes out the commander and turns to her men, "Sergeant, everyone ready and accounted for?"
Sarge nods, "Yes Ma'am."
Jane nods, "Everyone, on the double! I'll give what I know on the drop. Let's bounce."
Setting a brutal pace, Jane runs out the other side of the briefing room for the available dropship, before counting each member on board.
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As Jane hits the door button, the rear of the dropship snaps shut and the launch catapults fire to push the dropship clear of the Agincourt.
Under her breath, Jane curses as the grabs for an overhead handhold while activating her magnetic boots. As soon as she's got her footing back, she slowly makes her way to the cockpit door.
"Listen up, check your weapons, we're going in hot. Elysium is currently under attack by pirates and, presumably, slavers. Our objective is to reinforce the Illyria militia and defend the city. I know we've all done the training exercises, but this is the real thing."
Jane looks over at the suddenly sombre faces of her troop, as the dropship hits atmosphere, "Rodrigues, Toots, you're squad leaders, Jones, Dall, Ferman with Rodrigues. Shaw, Kusason, Church, you're with Toots. Sarge, you've got Chambers, Clarke, and Melnykas. Everyone else you're with me. Do not lose your squad, McGill you're 2ic for my squad. We have a tacmap link to the city. Milita will be marked in green, identified bogies in red. Grey markers are for civilians or unidentified bogies. Space support will be sporadic, so remember to tag and bag anyone that shoots at you. The pilot has marked our insertion point, squad leaders plan your routes and get ready. And for goddess' sake Clarke, make sure you're part of the troop tacnet. Melnykas, Church, you've got the supply bags."
As the ride smooths out, signalling that they're slowing for landing, Jane only just has time to check her own gear before the dropship touches down roughly, and the ramp opens with a thunk, and she's running out of the ship to cover her troop while they hit their releases and file out in their own squads to take their own objectives.
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Seconds before the dropship lifts off, Jane's HUD fills with red spots as her troop come under fire. Ducking down, Jane and her squad all make for the nearest cover and start to provide covering fire for the other three squads.
At the same time, Jane brings up her omni-tool to get an overview of their current position, and that of the militia forces. Quickly, she sets up the destination marker in the centre of the highest concentration of black dots. At the same time, she places a series of waypoints for each squad that should allow them to provide covering fire for each other.
Slowly, street by street, building by building, her troop moves forward through the terrified civilians, that are streaming towards the bunkers and away from the pirates. As they progress Jane notes a smattering of red icons making their way into the city, presumably tagged by the Angels or Fists when they couldn't prevent them from leaving their landing areas.
As her squad rounds one corner, they come across a batarian slaver crouched over a human woman, her torn clothing scattered around the street ahead of them. As her eyes take in the scene, she spots a turian mercenary bringing his rifle to bear, and she ducks back around the corner. Less than a second later, she reaches out and grabs Johanssen's arm, before pulling him back behind cover.
As she does, there's a spray of blood as a flechette from the turian's rifle goes through his arm where his heart would have been if Jane hadn't pulled him to cover.
"McGill, make sure he's ok, then take point. Dobs you're on cover, Bell you're with me, cover my six."
As Jane backtracks to an alleyway, Bell following her, she smiles as McGill tags the hostiles around the corner. Briefly she curses the lack of magical support, as a simple wall, or even a flock of birds would have made this situation simple.
The sound of sporadic gunfire tells her more than the moving dots on her HUD do, about how both sides have taken cover and are being careful not to let their weapons run dry or overheat. After nearly a minute of carefully moving around the building, keeping an eye out for ambushes, Jane and Bell finally make their way to the other side of the engagement.
Switching off her external speaker, Jane opens a comm channel direct to Bell, "Private chatter only. There's a set of stairs just round the corner. Cover me while I reach them, then I'll cover you while you head to the stairs over there."
Bell's voice sounds loud in her helmet, but there's no echo, "Copy. Ready when you are."
Jane moves back from the corner so that Bell can take her place. Once she gets the all clear, she duck runs softly to the concrete stairs, and readies her rifle. Once she's sure the enemy are still looking away she calls out "Go go go!" and watches on her HUD as Bell's dot makes their way across the street.
With both of them in cover, Jane takes a moment to properly assess the situation and assign target priority. Her mouth sets into a grim line as she sees the human woman lying motionless on the floor, her throat cut and bright red blood pooling around her like an obscene halo. Ducked down behind their own stairs are three of the enemy forces, only popping up to fire their own bursts when McGill and Dobs are at the end of their bursts.
Opening up her comms to the squad she calls, "McGill, Dobs, full auto on my mark, then duck back… Mark!"
Bless his heart, Dobs steps full out and screams, "You bastards!" before unloading his entire clip and McGill pulls him back down into cover. Predictably, all three of them break cover, with the batarian providing overwatch for the mercenaries. Not that it matters, as he's the first one to be shot as Jane and Bell both take opportunistic shots at their backs.
As the squad takes up a guard position, Jane looks at the bodies of the enemy, and spots an active omni-tool on the arm of the batarian. With a grim expression, she takes a knife from her pouch and takes the batarian's arm off at the elbow, before tossing the hand and omni-tool to Johanssen. "Look after that, maybe the militia will have someone that can do something with it."
Dobs looks like he's going to be sick as he stares at the scene with panicky eyes, "How could they do that to her?"
Jane follows his gaze to the body of the woman, "They're slavers, they don't see people like her as anything more than property. To their mind, it was like a toddler and a toy they want. If they can't have it, no one can. I'm more concerned about these
vermin," she kicks a turian corpse for emphasis, "What other species have they hired to aid in this raid? Come on, the militia need our help."
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Another 15 minutes pass as Jane and her troop make their way to the militia lines. By the time they push their way through the pirates cordon and meet up with the beleaguered militia outside the primary civilian bunker. Much to her dismay, of the 35 black dots that were there when she landed, only 20 still remain.
Once the militia realises that her troop are friendlies, she directs them inside the hasty fortifications. Once inside, Jane looks around the different barricades and tags their locations with her omni-tool, giving each one a number.
"Toots, relieve position 1, Rodrigues position 3, Sarge position 5, McGill you've got position 7. Johanssen, how's your arm?"
As each of her squads moves to cover a different barricade, Johanssen shakes his head, "Useless sir!"
Jane nods, "Johanssen, you're on quartermaster. Find out our supply situation and run diagnostic on your suit. If you're arms broken, I've got a vial of skelegrow."
Jane can hear the expression of disgust as Johanssen responds with, "Yes sir!"
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Once the change over has completed, Jane marches over to one of the resting militia, "Where's you CO?"
The exhausted militiaman looks up at her with exhausted eyes, "Dead."
Jane nods decisively, "Right. I'm 2nd Lt Shepherd taking command here. Is there a tech around?"
The militiaman nods, "That's me. I'm the tech."
"Johanssen, this is your tech! Give him the arm to work on." Talking to the tech she continues, "We captured one of the pirates omni-tools, I need you to hack it and feed their comms data into the local tacnet. Work with Johanssen to get the militia hooked in too. Then take 10."
Over the next 10 minutes, the pirates recover from the hole Jane punched through their formation, and start to converge on their position, driving civilians before them and using them as cover to break into nearby buildings to take sniper positions.
Jane climbs up to the roof of the city hall in order to take overwatch, and monitor the map in real-time. As the scattered red dots slowly build up as more and more pirates are identified, Jane curses, and calls the Agincourt. "Agincourt! This is the Dogs; we need reinforcements at City Hall. I don't know what's going on, but what I can see looks far too organised for my tastes."
A world map appears over her omni-tool as the response comes through, and Jane curses when she sees the Agincourt is far over the horizon. "Lt, we are redirecting a dropship to redeploy The Sloths to your position, ETA 5 minutes, I repeat ETA 5 minutes."
Jane only has time for a shouted, "Roger" as she spots some pirates in a window 200 yards away about to open fire on her troops. Raising her rifle she takes a second to highlight one of them before aiming two fingers high and pulling the trigger.
As she spots more movement, she flicks her rifle to point at the next window and stops when she sees the grey dot in the building next to the red dot, "Johanssen, where's my tacmap! We have snipers or hostages, I need to know which!"
"Tech says five minutes sir!"
Jane curses and stabs a control on her omni-tool to broadcast every friendly in the local area, "Eyes up everyone, we have snipers and rifle nests. Check your cover and watch each other. Reinforcements ETA 4:30, tac-map update ETA similar. Continue to tag and bag. Until further notice, rest in place, I repeat rest in place."
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Over one of the longest four minutes of her life, Jane's world narrows down to the spots of red on her scope and the muzzle of her rifle, as she gives covering fire to the troops below. At 4:10 seconds the sound of an incoming dropship gives her hope, at 4:20 seconds her tacmap expands as a sea of red dots fills the city.
As she's brought out of her near trance, by the shift in the map, Jane's eyes widen as she sees that the projected landing site is surrounded by red dots inside buildings.
Dropping her rifle, Jane stabs the Emergency broadcast button and nearly screams, "Alpha Bravo 2, abort! I report, Alpha Bravo 2 abort."
With fatal fascination, Jane lifts her head to look over at the landing pad when the dropships thrusters rise in pitch to a sharp whine, and she watches as it dips below the building cover, out of sight. Her heart sinks as the sound of heavy weaponry forces the battlefield to pause for a few seconds. Moments later, she cheers as the dropship drags itself back into the air, smoke pouring from a few new dents in the hull, and one engine.
Over her comms comes the voice of the pilot, "Lt, thanks for the save. Where should we drop our cargo?"
Jane shakes her head to bring herself back into the now, and brings up the tacmap on her omnitool. As she does, a group of black spots becomes apparent nearly a km from their position, and it's clear that they're fighting their way into an ambush. Highlighting the group, she responds, "Find a suitable spot near here, Lt Calker, you need to defuse this ambush, then escort the sheep into the pen."
"Alpha Bravo 2, acknowledged."
"Sloths, acknowledged."
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As the Sloths punch through the cordon surrounding City Hall, escorting an equal number of militiamen into the fortified area, Jane heaves a sigh of relief.
Flicking on her comm, she says, "Lt Calker, I'm glad you could make it. Are you hooked into our local tacnet yet?"
Calker replies, "Lt, what's the situation here?"
"Snafu sir. If you could send a squad up to replace me, I'll come down and debrief you."
"What do you need?"
"Spotters and sharpshooters, sir. There are snipers in the buildings surrounding the square."
A minute later, a squad makes its way from an upper story window to her position while she distracts the snipers with covering fire. As they lie down under the decorative facing over the entrance, she looks at them, before biting back a curse when she sees eye pieces beneath the I4 face masks.
Looking at the four, Jane says, "Who's the squad leader?"
A woman raises her hand, "I am."
Jane nods, "You're on oversight, keep down and use your omni-tool to prioritize targets for the spotter and shooters. Spotter, your job is to tell the shooters what they missed by, so keep a good eye out."
The squad leader shakes her head, "Sir, I don't know how to do that."
Jane looks heavenward for a second before looking down at the squad leader, "Bring up your tacmap on your omni-tool and make sure you're registered as their squad leader. If not, ask your Lt to assign them to you. In the meantime you can limit your view of the map to the square and the surrounding buildings." Jane demonstrates with her own omni-tool, "What you're going to be doing is looking for red dots that are near, or approaching a vantage point. Why doesn't your omni-tool have exploration mode activated?"
The woman looks at Jane confused, "Why would we want it active? We get all our intel from the ship, or ground station."
Jane resists the urge to put her hand on her faceplate, "We are in an active warzone, the terrain is constantly changing, and exploration mode will up date all the tacnet with those changes. Including any holes that get made in the side of buildings to provide new vantage points. Turn it on now, and select one of the red dots with your finger. Good, see the menu that's appeared around the dot, with one item at the bottom, that's your target selection. If you touch that bottom button it adds it to your queue. Selecting another dot will allow you to select a second target, and also increase or lower the priority of that target. Once you're squad leader you'll have an option to the left to assign a target for your squad. For the moment, just call out the buildings and floors as you spot them."
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On the ground, under the shelter of the City Hall porch, Jane marches over to Lt Calker, "Lt why aren't your men in squads on the tacnet?"
Calker looks up from his discussion with Johansson and the tech, "You think I have time for that? We've been on the bounce constantly, and then we were reassigned here."
Jane growls, "Make time, and why didn't your squad leader know how to assign targets. Don't tell me, you didn't have time."
Calker draws himself to his full height, "2nd Lt Shepherd, you will not take that tone with a superior officer."
Jane's armoured elbow catches Calker around the temple in just the right place to dislodge the faceplate and continue into the Lt's temple, where he drops like a sack of potatoes.
Activating her comms, Jane calls up to the Agincourt, "Agincourt, this is 2nd Lt Shepherd. Lt Calker is currently unresponsive, permission to take command of his squad."
Jane pretends not to notice Johanssen and the tech's muffled laughter, as the comms officer responds with, "2nd Lt, please wait a moment, the captain is reviewing the tactical data."
While she's waiting, Jane pulls up the local map on her omni-tool and tags four of her troop, "Toots, Shaw, Kusason, Church you're on babysitting during your rest. Pick a squad of Sloths and make sure they know how to use the tacmap features on their omni-tools. And for the love of the goddesses, make sure they've got exploration mode switched on." Selecting another four dots, she continues, "Sarge, Chambers, Clark, and Melnykas, go around the militia and make sure their eyepieces are all on the tacnet with their callsigns."
Selecting the last squad, she says, "Rodrieges, Jones, Dall, Ferman, check out the City Hall building, I want to know if there are any other entrances or exits other than the shelter."
With a deep breath, she finally selects McGill, Dobs, and Bell, "McGill, Dobs, Bell, work with a couple of militia to locate any other shelters and pockets of militia throughout the city. I want them marked on the tacnet asap."
As she finishes speaking, her omni-tool chirps and the Agincourt comms speaks up, "Acting captain Shepherd, your omni-tool is being updated with your temporary rank."
Then the lights blink out, before coming up again. Jane can only stare at the device in surprise. As it does, she reactivates the local map and raises her eyebrows in surprise when she sees a list of names and rank to one side of the map. Touching Sgt Atiyeh's name allows her to highlight their icon in her HUD.
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Jane slides in to the barricade beside Sgt Atiyeh before popping her head up and taking a few shots at some incoming pirates, "Sargent, I need to know who the squad leaders are in the Sloths."
Atiyeh glances at her, "Really? Right now?"
Jane fires off another burst, "Uh huh, you talk and I'll do the hard work. What happened to Shaw, she was supposed to be making sure you had your tacnet functions setup."
Atiyeh rattles off four names, including his own, then continues, "I sent her off, as we're too busy for that sort of thing."
Jane nods, "I see, Andrews with me! Shaw take Andrews's place."
Using her eyes and fingers as the two of them are withdrawing, Jane assigns Andrews as the squad leader for this squad, while also assigning the other squad leaders. Once they get behind more substantial cover, Jane opens a private channel, "Private Andrews, You're the new squad leader of S3. I'm going to give you a 60 second crash course in using the tacmap, so pay attention."
"…and finally, this option here will add the wireframe and FoF indicators to your eyepiece. Got that?"
Andrews looks up at Jane wide eyed, "Yes Sir!"
"Good, return to your squad, I'll be assigning you some militia shortly, try to keep two N-series active at all times."
Andrews salutes Jane, "Yes Sir!"
As she's making her way back to the Quatermaster, her HUD flashes red and a skull appears in the upper corner. Just as she's about to check her omni-tool, Rodrigues calls her, "Lt, we've secured City Hall. Dall… He walked into a hall and they gunned him down."
Jane's expression goes blank as she shoves her emotions down the way Juvetana taught her to, "I copy. Have you marked their entry point?"
"Roger. But…"
"But nothing, Rodrigues, we don't have time for grief now. You didn't kill him, they did. I'm going to send some militia to reinforce your position, then I want you to take 10. Once your breaks over, we're securing the surrounding buildings, and you're with me."
Walking back to the porch, Jane sees that Calker is having a loud conversation with the Agincourt. Bring up her omnitool Jane selects the City Hall, and designates as a field HQ before assigning 8 of the resting militia and Lt Calker to the building, at the same time she assigns Johanssen as Quartermaster, and the tech as the official tech. Marching over to Calker she covers his omni-tool with her hand, "Lt Calker, if you have time to complain you have time to work. You're assigned to securing the field HQ, I need you to relieve Private Rodrigues and his squad as well as locate any other potential entrances and secure them. Once you've done that, find a holo table and link it to the tacmap. Quatermaster, I need you to find some rooms that can double as bunks, and set up some cots for those on rotation. Tech, keep an eye on enemy comms and let me know if they work out how we're tracking them. I'll make sure you get a new omni-tool asap. Also try to identify any of our men who are captured or killed so that we can isolate their device."
Calker shakes off his shock and rounds on Jane, "2nd Lt you are overreaching yourself."
Jane looks him in the eyes as she says, "Acting Captain Shepherd. You have your orders Lt."
While Calker gathers his unit and heads into the HQ, Jane makes her way over to McGill to get an update on the situation elsewhere in the city, along with prioritising which positions need relief first.
Up on the roof, the counter sniper squad begins to get faster and more accurate now that they've been given the tools to do the job properly.
A couple of minutes after that, shutters drop down over all the ground floor windows in the City Hall.
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Once her troops have had their break, Jane prepares to take the first of the buildings with entrenched enemies. The first thing she does is number each of the buildings, based on their end profile, with two each to the left and right, and another 3 across from City Hall.
With a sigh, Jane selects all the squad leaders including Lt Calker and sets a waypoint for the room with the holo table. "All squad leaders report to the war room. A waypoint has been set."
As the nine leaders are making their way to her position, Jane brings up the city map on the table.
Once the last of them arrives, she looks up, "This is the wider situation within the city. Outside the city, the Angels and Fists are still harrying the pirates on the ground in attempt to stop them from taking the smaller settlements. They're being supported by the regular S1's from the Agincourt. The Agincourt itself is handicapped by the fact it can't use it's big guns, because the planet doesn't have a life shield. That means we are on our own until reinforcements arrive.
"Lt Calker is in charge of HQ defense, and once we start operation breathing space, he will be in charge of the war room and keeping command appraised of our situation. Johanssen, will be working with him for supply drops if we need them." Calker looks surprised at Jane's choice of delegation, "I've assigned each of your squads a letter and number for easy identification, check it and remember it. Fire team, I'm sorry we don't have any militia to support you, but until we clear these buildings we don't have the manpower to spare. D1 and D2 will be with me as we start clearing building 1. S2 will be our rear guard to ensure no bogies try to circle around behind us. Fire team, we're going to need you to keep the snipers busy until we get to cover. Everyone else, make lots of noise, but watch your ammo. Any questions?"
Calker nods, "Why are you only taking the dogs room by room, we've had lots of practice doing that."
Jane looks up at him, "With all due respect Lt, I4 compared to I5 suits. We can turn off our external speakers, and set up a local suit to suit comms net. You can't." She taps her faceplate, "We also have a full HUD, while you're using eyepieces. The I5 suits also have built in light and sound stabilisation."
Calker sags, "You've made your point."
Jane nods, "Any questions?" When nobody says anything Jane steps back from the table, "You know what you have to do, let's move soldiers."
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"Shepherd to fire team, we are ready to go on your signal."
From her crouched position by barricade 1, Jane doesn't have to wait long before the fire team starts to take shots at all of the sniper nests they know about. Seconds later, each of the barricade teams pop up and alternate fire at the entrenched positions the pirates have in the streets.
Jane holds her hand up, and counts down from five on her fingers. As she reaches zero, she and the three squads hustle around the barricade and hustle over to the wall of building 1. Sliding over to the corner, Jane first pokes her gun round, and then the bare minimum amount of eyes to check the coast is clear.
"S2, take cover by the stairs, then provide oversight on my mark. Mark!"
As Andrews squad crab runs to the stairs for cover, a few pirates poke their heads up, and Jane quickly persuades them to keep their heads down. "D1 take the corner across the street."
As that squad traverses the intervening space, while S2 covers the street, Jane keeps an eye on the street leading past City Hall. With covering fire established, she calls, "D2 breach."
While D2 take positions either side of the door, Jane spots movement down the street past City Hall. She frowns for a moment as they don't show up on her HUD, and sends a couple of rounds nearby just in case they're pirates.
"HQ, I have an unidentified contact behind HQ."
Calker's voice comes back, "Copy that, I'm assigning a patrol to check the windows."
The sound of gunfire from the doorway pulls Jane back from her thoughts, and she cautiously takes a look at the entry team before returning to her overwatch while the other two squads send suppressing fire down the street.
After a tense few seconds, Rodrigues' squad establishes a breach head in the building, and number of grey dots appear on the tacmap before rapidly turning red. Trusting Calker to notice, Jane instead calls out, "D1, breach… S2 take the door."
Once the last squad is inside, Jane sprays bullets down the street as she makes her way over the steps and into the door. As she does, the elevated activity at the barricades dies down.
Slowly, over the next 20 minutes, Jane and her squads take on the gruelling job of clearing this four-storey building room by room, and corridor by corridor. With stiff opposition the entire time. That is until they reach the fourth floor, and Rodrigues says, "Lt, you need to look at this."
Jane makes her way to what should be the last room and stops as she walks through the door to a small cupboard with a massive hole in the ceiling, and a larger hole in the back wall.
"Shit! Give me your hands."
As Rodrigues cups his hands, Jane fishes her makeup mirror out of her bag and opens it up. Boosting up to the hole with Rodrigues' hands, Jane pokes the mirror out of the hole and turns it around slowly, "Clear."
Jumping back to the floor, she shakes her head and comms HQ, "HQ, request a flyby to check the local roofs, as we've found an entry point at the top of the building."
Switching channels to S2, she says, "S2, send two members upstairs to provide overwatch on a sky access. Once you've arrived we'll take the other side of the building."
On their way down the other side, they find a batarian with an omni-tool. Something that Jane runs back to the barricade personally, before returning to the building.
Over the next few hours, each of the surrounding buildings are cleared one by one, even though Kusason takes a round through the shoulder in building 5, as it skips off the breast plate of her armour. After assuring everyone that she's fine, Kusason keels over dead not even five minutes later. Her autopsy will show that the round nicked an artery, and she bled out internally because the suit automatically constricted the wound to prevent infection from setting in.
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As she walks into HQ, Jane fishes out her first pepper up potion, and attaches it to her intake port so she can drink it. As the potion takes effect, her tired posture straightens up, and she marches to the table. "Lt, what's our situation?"
Calker looks up from the map, "I've moved the fire team to the roof of building 5 to prevent a repeat of last time. We're short-handed, and the pirates have started bringing in heavier weapons. Shelter 1 is almost overrun, shelters 2 and 3 are holding steady, and shelter 4 has the most defenders because they're on the opposite side of the city. But the pirates are starting to make progress there."
Jane nods, "Can this shelter hold everyone in shelters 2, 3, and 4?"
Calker shakes his head thoughtfully, "According to the specs, no, but… If we get reinforcements in the next 24 hours, we could probably house them down there. What about Shelter 1?"
Jane shakes her head grimly, "We don't have the manpower to relieve them. Do you think you could lead three squads to Shelter 4, and escort them and the civilians back here?"
Calker stands up straighter, and opens his mouth to reply, before sagging, "Honestly, no. Your HUD is too large an advantage to ignore. I've already put a recommendation through to the brass for the I4's to have a similar setup."
Jane sighs, "I'm officially informing you, as my 2ic, that I've taken a pepper-up potion. Do we have communications with the other Militia forces?"
Calker nods, "We do."
"Inform Shelter 4 that we're coming to escort them here, and to prepare their civilians to move. With them added to our number, we should be able to open a corridor to Shelter 3, and then 2. If they're still hanging on at Shelter 1, we'll make a push for them too. What's our potion situation?"
Calker shakes his head, "Poor, we've used three blood replenishers, and two skeligrows. We now have 3 pepper-up potions, as you've used one. And there's whatever you're carrying. We also lost two militia and one of the Sloths during the push to take the surrounding buildings."
Jane puts her fist on the table, and then pushes down angrily, "We can't afford losses like this, as the pirates out number us. Lt, take your Sargent and go down to the shelter. Find any volunteers that have ever fired a gun, and anyone that's willing to help with refilling water rations or cooking food. I'll keep an eye on stuff while you're gone."
Calker salutes before he turns and leaves.
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30 minutes later, Jane finds herself leading squads s1, s3, and d3 west away from the main staging area for the pirates towards Shelter 4. While the shelter is less than 2km from HQ, it's still going to take them the better part of an hour to get there safely, as they have to check every alleyway and intersection.
By the time they arrive, Jane is already starting to feel the strain of managing the local map despite the fact she's never once taken point.
The return journey is just as bad, as despite the addition of a further 30 militia, they're also escorting 2,000 civilians.
As the column passes her by while she's maintaining overwatch, it dawns on Jane that this one shelter had almost as many people in it as the entire population of Mindor when the slavers attacked.
"HQ, this is Shepherd."
"Go ahead Shepherd."
"I've just realised why there's so many pirates here. This one shelter had almost as many people in it as the entire population of Mindor nearly 8 years ago."
"Agincourt concurs, reinforcements ETA 10 hours."
Jane breaths a sigh of relief, as a weight she didn't know she was carrying lifts slightly, "That's great news."
Once they return to HQ, Jane immediately sets out with s2, s4 and d1, along with 10 rested militia, towards Shelter 2. A journey that, while more dangerous, only results in three injuries as the rested militia from Shelter 4 are able to meet them halfway back with d2 and d3 providing intel and direction.
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Less than 100m from Shelter 3, Jane curses as the magazine for her rifle falls to the floor as a salarian pirate jumps over the same stairs she's using for cover. Obviously with the same idea. After a brief, one-sided struggle Jane loads the spare magazine, and takes a moment to look around for her missing magazine. A search that's cut short by a group of three pirates coming around the corner behind her. A short burst of fire makes them take cover, and she calls, "Incoming on my six!"
As a couple of squad members turn to provide covering fire, Jane leans down and pulls the rifle from the salarians corpse.
"G1 how are you doing with getting us some support?"
"We're through, and waiting for them to open the doors for us."
"Tell them to hurry, as we're surrounded."
Jane searches around for some new cover, before diving into basement stairwell as a hail of fire scatters on the stairwell she was just hiding behind. Wincing in pain, as she stands up, Jane starts a diagnostic out of reflex, even as she climbs up the stairs until she has the smallest vantage point she needs to shoot back.
As her Alliance rifle runs dry, Jane lets it drop to her side as she smoothly picks up the salarian rifle. As she raises it to her face, she curses as the display is written in one of the salarian dialects. Fortunately, all Citadel weapons have similar trigger systems, so it only takes her a couple of seconds to find the trigger and pull it in controlled bursts.
As the salarian rifle over heats for the third time, the doors of the police station behind her open, and the rapid retort of a heavy weapon rings out. At the sound of screaming, the remaining pirates retreat out of sight leaving Jane and the others to breathe a sigh of relief.
"Thank the goddesses for your timing. What took you so long?"
Over the comm, Rodrigues says, "Well, it took me a few minutes to persuade them that I was with the Alliance and not the pirates. Then we had to get this beauty setup."
Jane sighs tiredly, "Ok, everyone inside and take stock of your health and equipment."
With groans of relief, the militia and squads all bundle into, what seems to be a police station.
As the doors close behind her, one of the militia walks up to Jane, "Good afternoon, I'm Detective Inspector Morse, no relation."
Jane leans against a doorframe, "I'm not sure it's a good anything. I'm Acting Captain Shepherd of the Systems Alliance corps. What's your situation here?"
Morse looks down, "We've got 500 people in the shelter, and 300 corpses in the fridge." He points a shield leaning against a wall, "We held on as long as we could, but we were cut off from support early in the invasion."
Jane follows his finger to the shield, "What are those?"
"Eezo powered riot shields. An aluminium frame with an alloy front and funky viewing hole. The large thing on the back is a souped-up personal kinetic shield. It's virtually impervious to anything smaller than a krogan shotgun. Sorry, I'm rambling, I've lost good friends today."
Jane makes a conscious effort to place her hand on the mans shoulder instead of a more turian gesture, "It's ok, we're going to survive this, and then we can grieve for those we've lost. But for now, grief is a luxury we can ill afford. How many of those shields do you have?"
Morse looks up, "30, no 25, we lost 5 when they brought in an artillery piece."
Jane nods, "Do you have anymore specialist weapons?"
Morse nods, "We have a couple of sniper rifles, several shotguns for door breaching, and another autocannon. There's also 100 stun batons, but I don't think you'll be interested in those."
Jane shakes her head, "You'd be wrong then, as it will provide the militia with a viable option if our defences are breached. Do you have any pistols?"
Morse shakes his head, "The colony felt that they sent the wrong message, so they banned concealable firearms."
Jane nods, "I understand. While we're taking 10, I need you to have your people hand each of the N series soldiers a riot shield, then distribute the rest to those you think will best be able to use them. Grab all of the specialist weapons and make sure each militiaman has a baton, any spares hand out to the civilians. Make sure that everyone, including the civilians, knows we're going to be pushing hard when we leave, as this is a hotspot."
Morse nods, and moves off with a sense of purpose pushing against his sense of loss.
Once he's gone, Jane tiredly pushes off the wall to find Rodrigues.
"Rodrigues, how well do you know how to use that autocannon?"
Rodrigues looks up, "I don't really. I pulled up the instructions on my omni-tool."
Jane punches him lightly in the shoulder, "Great, that makes you our expert then. Grab a couple of Sloth members and practice setup and teardown on the spare a few times. The three of you will be the first through the door with that one to form our corridor. Once you've cleared the way, you need to tear it down and carry it back to HQ. I do not want anything left here that could be used against us."
Rodrigues nods, "Yes Sir! Ma'am."
As she turns around, a militiaman hands her a riot shield and points out the power button. Making her way back to her doorframe Jane inspects the shield and curses when she finds the magnetic clamps. It doesn't stop her from using the straps. However, Alliance armour tends to be made without ferrous metals, due to the risk of encountering Sleepers.
While she's resting, Jane takes the time to figure out how to connect the rifle and the shield to her omni-tool, and thus her HUD.
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10 minutes later, the autocannon crew push open the doors to the police station, and shuffle out with their riot shields active in front of them. As they start to take fire, Rodrigues begins to return fire with the autocannon, clearing the path as it cuts through pirates like a hot knife through butter. As he swings the weapons across the front of the police station, the rest of the N soldiers hustle out with their own shields, each one taking a stance to shield in the direction the autocannon is firing, while also making a wall to the street they need. As the shield wall is completed, Jane is first out of the police station with her side arm in one hand, and the shield on the other arm. Fanning out behind her come the militia with their own shields followed by a line of militia with rifles to provide a phalanx as a vanguard to push through the pirates. The rest of the militia are next and they peel off in pairs as the vanguard reaches an alleyway or road, in order to provide covering fire for the civilians that are following after them.
The journey back to HQ is slow and bloody, as it seems like the leaders of the pirates put all of the green and greedy pirates around the police station.
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An exhausted Jane staggers into HQ covered with blood and gore from their mad rush back.
"Lt, report!"
Calker looks down at the table, "Whatever you just did has stirred up the hornet's nest. The Agincourt is reporting that pirates across the planet are starting to abandon their objectives to head for the city. They've also started moving their people around in a more deliberate way than they were before. I'm seeing signs of military formations, and not just small squad tactics. What did you do?"
Jane leans the shield against a wall, and drops the rifles to the ground, "We got two autocannons, a couple of sniper rifles, several shotguns, 25 riot shields, and a boatload of stun batons, as well as the rifles the militia had. I think we slaughtered all their green troops on the way back, just to add the cherry on the cake."
"I see."
Jane slides down the wall, "How's Shelter 1 doing?"
Calker looks at the map, "They're still there."
Jane activates the comfort and sleep functions of her suit as she nods, "I need to crash. Bring the Sergeants in to watch the map and take the shields and some rested squads. Punch through to the shelter and bring them back here. Oh, and make sure the fire team get the sniper rifl…"
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Jane wakes to the sound of a piercing alarm going of inside her suit. Jerking her head up, she opens her eyes to see Calker leaning heavily against the table.
Shaking her head, she takes a couple of tries to push herself to her feet, "Sitrep!"
Calker pushes himself up awkwardly and holds his side, "We got Shelter 1 safely back here around 10 minutes ago. Though there were injuries on our side, but no fatalities. 30 seconds ago, the pirates used a heavy weapon against one of the autocannon emplacements and I hit the all hands alarm. The emplacement survived, and took out the heavy weapon, but the stone facia they were placed behind is gone. I've sent two riot shields up a piece to give the crew a fighting chance, but I think this is it. We've got nearly 10,000 civilians here, and it's too big a prize for them to resist.
Jane nods, "Is the fire team rested?"
Calker nods, "They've been resting in shifts since we cleared the building."
Jane nods, "I want them on tagging duty. Tagging the heavy weapons is more important than sniping pirates. Their second priority is to counter snipe. Only if there's nothing else should they be picking off pirates. Make sure the militia all have stun batons, and set up three rotations for them. Active, resting, and rifle swap, 20 minutes a piece. 20:20 rotations for the soldiers. Finally, send one of the civilians down to request any medically trained civilians come up to help in HQ."
As Jane picks up her rifles, Calker asks, "What about you?"
"I'm going out, as we need every gun we can get. Oh, and make sure the back door is reinforced. They came in that way once, so they'll probably try it again."
Calker nods, "The goddesses watch over you."
Jane salutes the Lt and makes her way out of the door into hell.
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Jane's not sure how long it's been since the offensive began, but she knows she drank another pepper-up… Actually she doesn't know when she drank the pepper-up potions.
As she seems to be in a moment of quiet, she absently silences the suits heart rate monitor, so what if 200bpm. Reaching into her pouch she tries to pull out a water bulb, only to root around stupidly as she can't find one.
Suddenly she's lying on her back, a child's face looking down at her, and a shower of brick raining down around them.
Blinking, she smiles at the kid, "Hey kid, thanks for the save. If you're going to stick around, could you get some water please?"
Mutely the child nods before scrambling for a drain hole cover.
Pushing herself to her feet, Jane collapses, and opts to crawl to cover instead as she drags her rifles with her. Sitting behind cover, she lifts the rifle and pulls off controlled bursts, just like she did when she was with Juvetana and the pirates attacked.
At some point, she remembers the kid coming back with water, that she sucks down greedily as she silences the heart alert when it reads 220bpm.
Blinking owlishly, she stares at her HUD as green dots start to appear. As it dawns on her that they're the reinforcements, her rifle falls from her hands and the world slowly goes dark.
