Post by ingen on Aug 28, 2023 17:04:27 GMT
HappyHydralisk/Rhygan - Quosx
Beef - Canton
The Quosxian Alliance embassy was a modest affair, half a block on the border of the industrial and downtown zones, thick cinderblock walls topped with security measures surrounding a two-storey building with its own walled garden, and a couple of sheds and security huts to provide shelter from the rain for the staff. Roughly two dozen security personnel and soldiers thronged the small compound, a measure that Admiral Aurantiaco supposed was reasonable given the state of things in Marchand.
She herself had not had much experience with the planet, although she had dissected in detail the First and Second Battles over Marchand. She was an instructor with Starfleet, perhaps the instructor. Since the Canton Starfleet had been established as an independent body she had found herself in charge of Starfleet Academy, the former Pelagus Jade Naval Academy back on Sanrin. Her predecessor had remained with the IJN following the creation of the Canton and so had returned to Laptev, leaving her in command, and yet the administration had tasked her with personally overseeing this new exchange, as though she weren't busy enough already.
Starfleet had managed to sell off some of its old corvette stock to a native power known as the Quosx Alliance, and as part of the deal Starfleet was providing two weeks' worth of acquaint and onboard training in the form of a trio of advisory officers. She had assigned one of her lecturers from the Academy the task and requisitioned a pair of line lieutenants into the bargain, but she had been informed that she herself would be expected to oversee the handover, her rank assuring the Quosxians of Canton's goodwill. Apparently this was part of a new initiative to try and repair the Canton's standing among neutral or centre-leaning Unaligned, as in the midst of the Third Ancerious War tensions were higher than ever.
As a result of this international gladhanding, Aurantiaco found herself arriving by roadcar at the Quosxian embassy on a rainy Marchand afternoon. A yokari of middling height, she had bright golden-blonde hair, a rare sight amongst her kind. Before the Curse had settled on her people blonde had been her natural colour, and in defiance of the strange fate they had been dealt she routinely dyed it, to the consternation of some of her more conservative and religious colleagues. Her crisp red-white uniform seemed a dark burgundy in the gloom as she stepped out of the car, swiftly unfolding a small umbrella against the rain and turning a warm smile on their hosts and waited, as was proper, to be welcomed
The building itself stood about two stories tall, with a rather distinct architecture, much of it colored an obsidian black with golden highlights accentuating the art deco aesthetic, tipped at the roof into almost gothic spires.
A strangely imposing yet simultaneously welcoming building, the passion project of a lucky architect who was given (perhaps a bit too much) creative freedom designing a government building.
The car was allowed through the wall via a metal gate which slid open at the command of a guard within an enclosed checkpoint office, and as the Admiral climbed out of the car, she was greeted by a young Dysonian man, bright blue eyes and dark purple hair muted lightly by the darkened, overcast sky. He was on the shorter side, with a rather slim build further accentuated by the dark grey uniform he wore, and his expression was rather bright compared to his surroundings. A nametag on his uniform read 'Ekora'Shau', with a bit of extra space on the end not accounting for his species's lack of Surnames.
"Admiral... Aurantiaco, right?" He said over the din of the rain pounding against the umbrella, quickly regretting his decision not to bring his own out, having thought that he wouldn't be outside long enough for it to matter all that much. "Apologies if you were waiting long, You happened to come by at a fairly busy day." Despite the rain, he spoke with a cheerful, friendly attitude, and he beckoned her to follow him towards the embassy itself. "Come on, we should get inside quickly. Before I catch a cold, really. I didn't think the rain was this bad.."
The admiral nodded. "Thank you," she replied, following him inside where she introduced her companions, Captain Prendergast and Lieutenants Odiwara and Tang. Prendergast was older, portly and bushy-moustached, old enough that his body had aged before the introduction of Telasomere treatments. Tang looked to be in her thirties, trim and squared away, whilst Odiwara was a Frame, a robotic construct. Whether his consciousness was artificial or that of a deceased yokari whose mind had been preserved in a Soul Vault was not immediately clear to the outsiders, although to the other Cantonese the platinum kanji embossed on his 'skin' made it clear he had once possessed a mortal body.
Ekora seemed a bit surprised with the group that had arrived at the embassy- An admiral was already a fairly big deal, and preparations for her arrival already were underway hours before.
The front lobby was fairly ornately built, definitely leaning much more into the art deco aesthetic, with gold and light grey being the primary colors. A pair of guards, a dark blue-skinned Liintrix and a four armed Skarrin, stood next to the door, dressed in simple uniforms, with protective vests and helmets, armed with a pistol and submachine gun each.
"A pleasure to meet you all. My name is Ekora'shau, and I have been assigned to be your adjutant during your stay here. My purpose is to aid you through bureaucracy and... well, what have you." The Dysonian offered a light bow.
"Liintrix Admiral Loska and Ghorran Star Captains Miveik and Vitri arrived just yesterday to discuss these dealings further, more specifically matters of training and maintenance, which should be exactly what your business in your navy is, correct?"
"Exactly," she said with a smile that suggested Ekora was going to get a golden merit sticker for answering correctly "Captain Prendergast and his lieutenants here will be staying with your personnel for two weeks as they learn the ropes."
She gestured to a satchel bag that Odiwara was carrying. "And of course, all the technical documentation too."
Prendergast seemed faintly annoyed by the whole thing, though he didn't actually say anything, whilst Odiwara's robotic face was inscrutable and Tang was busy taking in the decor of the building. The Cantonese were firm believers in aesthetics, reckoning that anything worth doing was worth doing right. Too many nations had embassies and government buildings that were just bare concrete corridors coated in dull pastel paint and filled with bland furniture from the nearest mass-produced outlet, but the Quosx seemed to have taken a little pride in their facility, which was a good thing. It suggested their two week stay would be a comfortable one.
Another nod. "Splendid! Then these negotiations should be rather easy to get underway without too much distraction, in that case!" The young man's words, his cadence, the way he stood up straight with his hands clasped behind his back, they were certainly warm, but simultaneously calculated and trained.
Make the guests feel welcome, able to navigate the environment, and comfortable during their stay, but at the same time keep them at arms length. They were professionals, after all.
"Come along with me, then, your room is on the second floor." Ekora beckoned the envoys to follow, as he led them down a wide hallway with a shallow carpet, the walls decorated with that same obsidian-and-gold color scheme. Occasionally they could catch snippets of conversation from workers, two security guards taking a moment to chat, a phone call from an open office, two workers passing by, providing a tiny window into different aspects and situations the Alliance was dealing with.
'...And with Armiral Akevta making us look like incompetent, unprepared morons in Corona...'
'...the negotiations with the Revekt are going well, at least, a new member of the Alliance is always welcome these days...'
'...fuel costs not getting better. Starting to get worried that I won't be able to get back home anytime soon at this rate. Stupid war has...'
'...Potential of opening talks with the Elvorians! Lots of new opportunities for..."
At the end of the hall stood one of the elevators, which opened before Ekora could call it, with two Liintrix soldiers in full armor jogging out, nearly knocking the startled Adjutant aside, scrambled speech uttering from their mask-obscured faces, as if they were in a hurry.
"...Sorry about that." Ekora said in a more flustered tone, letting out a sigh and gesturing for the elevator, the smile quickly returning to his face.
Outside the embassy, Gysh stared at the wall-ringed compound from her perch in an empty apartment, one of many abandoned in this building a block away from the Quosx embassy. Across the city, her comrades were ready and waiting, but her job had been to keep an eye on the hated Imperials, the worst of the offworlders. She had tailed a small convoy from their lair to this place, and whilst she did not know why the lightbulb goblins were visiting these foreigners nor did she much care. She had not announced herself to the team leaders who had been assigned the task of destroying this nest of aliens once the call went out across the city, but she would soon enough.
A veteran of the Great Gyre, as the Cultists of Carcaros called their insurgency, she had been present when the first shot had been fired more than two years previously. The sniper who had fired that fatal shot, Silotsk, had died that same day along with his victims, torn asunder as part of the noble struggle, but Gysh had survived. She had seen the tides of war ebb and flow, had seen the hated enemy slowly withdraw from the mess they had made, had even seen them change their flag, as though her people would forget that the Canton was just an extension of the Jade Empire which had caused them so much pain and misery.
The vile green aliens, one with ridiculous yellow hair, had disappeared inside the central building, but that was alright by her. They weren't going anywhere....
When it finally began, the attack was not particularly well co-ordinated. Distant explosions rocked the city as other embassies and sites of foreign interest came under attack, some in clusters, some individually, until the morning air was a cacophony of sirens, screams, gunfire and explosions.
Perhaps ten tense, strange minutes after the first signs of trouble, minutes in which an odd air of expectancy crept through the normalcy of the embassy's daily routine, the attack finally materialised. Marchanders, dressed in rags and robes, adorned in symbols and trinkets, unmasked from two dozen different spots and began hosing down the walls and guard positions with automatic gunfire, hurling hand grenades. Their fire was inaccurate and undisciplined, but huge in volume, dousing the embassy in a sudden storm of gunfire, smoke and thunderclaps.
They accompanied their assault with shrieks and yells, venting their inchoate fury, spurred on by something the Cantonese would hesitate to call a god but which most certainly held a dark sway over the local population...
The elevator opened and Ekora stepped out into the second floor. "Now, the meeting room is only-" His blue eyes trailed out to the simulated window lining one of the walls, where a few workers had stood up to inspect with a sort of anxious anticipation, smoke rising into the air.
As short of a time that he had accompanied the Cantonese, the professional mask broke and he froze, a bead of sweat trailing down his forehead, that he quickly wiped off with the back of his sleeve, his voice breaking as he spoke up again.
"W-we need to move." He said, and hurried down the hallway with a brisk pace to his step, panic setting in as he heard gunshots and explosives go off, getting closer, closer, closer... until he had broken into a full run.
Sporadic but accurate submachine gun fire was the quick response to the sudden attack, but it was only a momentary cover for the guards outside to stall, before they began to duck into the building. A ghorran guard took a shot to the abdomen, but she was quickly pulled into the building by a pair of her companions, and the door was shut behind her. Another guard, a Skarrin man, wasn't so lucky, as he was caught in one of the first grenade explosions, which tore through his body before he reached the door, bleeding out before he was even finished being dragged in.
A large scale attack was underway, and the embassy was right in the middle of it.
The building was, thankfully, quite sturdy, and the gunfire and grenades only did some superficial damage... but that didn't mean in was a well defended building. With the few guards outside retreating into the building, the attackers had a direct line towards the front door.
The barracks, the closest thing the guards had to a break room, was a bit of a scene of chaos. With the bulk of the guards getting ready, putting on protective vests and helmets, loading weapons and filling mags, the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.
"One of those Liintrix soldiers mentioned help being able to arrive in a few hours, but I don't think we have the time..." One of the guards spoke up, a nervous Dysonian woman.
"We don't have regular military presence around here other than that squad, but if you ask me, if those Canton folks aren't complete bastards, we might have to rely on them caring about their own people to at the very least stall for time." Replied a ghorran man, gear already on, submachine gun loaded. He figured that if help came, it would be for the important people in the building, most likely leaving the majority high and dry and to the mercy of the attackers.
"Lets just hope that squad pulls their weight. I've heard what Liintrix infantry are capable of, but I haven't had the misfortune to witness it myself..."
As if on cue, the sound of armored boots hitting the ground could be heard as the blue-armored Liintrix infantry ran by, bulky plasma rifles in their hands as they made their way to secure the entrance.
The Cantonese hurried after Ekora, unarmed and nervous. They were not infantry soldiers but rather naval personnel, and lecturers to boot. The two lieutenants had seen naval action recently, but standing on a ships deck and feeling huge guns spit violence into the emptiness of space was a little different to carrying a gun against people behind a dusty barricade only meters away.
"We need arms," grunted Prendergast, huffing a little, unused to exertion, whilst Aurantico was obivously struggling a little, dressed in display uniform not combat fatigues.
The defenders were giving better than they got, and already dead Marchanders were splayed around the grimy streets surrounding the embassy. Lacking the professionalism and the defensive cover of the embassy guards, they were being picked off in ones and twos, but there were so many of them it made little difference.
As the guards fell back towards the main building, there was an ominous roar. A vehicle skidded onto the main street facing the front gate, a slightly outdated hovercar, and accelerated towards the main gate. There was a resounding crunch and the grinding of metal, but no explosion. The Cultists had not laden it with explosives, as one would expect, but were simply using it to breach the gates. Scrambling over the wrecked vehicle and through the jagged gap it had battered into the gates, the first couple of Cultists were mown down by the last guards as they covered the withdrawal back into the main building. Trampling their comrades came more and more behind them, however
A Skarrin man, named Pikta, still in his suit would quickly slip on his vest with haste and chambered his SMG. Minutes ago he was on coffee break, Enjoying a nice chat with a technician, and now hells broken loose!
Doesn't help the fact that he had a headache coming in too from the sudden stress.. It has been a long day afterall and he was feeling the strain. Nonetheless, he sucked it up, grimacing at a sharp sting in his head as he put on his chin strap and looked to his peers.
"Hey.. Brighten up a tad bit! They're here now!" He said, Motioning over to the Liintrix infantry running by.
".. Uhm.. Lets help them the best way we can. Where does chief want us?"
The sound of a crash could be heard by the Dysonian and the Cantonese, and the building could be felt shaking ever so slightly beneath their feet, causing a few exclamations of surprise and fear from nearby workers. A couple of the guards ran up the stairs and barked orders to everyone in earshot to get to an easily defendable room.
The sound of gunshots already was audible from down below.
“Well, the armory is downstairs, and I would very much suggest to you three that we don’t head back down there...” Ekora said, stopping by a closed set of doors, carved from a rich, dark red wood, and he tried the handle.
No luck on that front.
Just before he could knock, however, the door peeked open, one of the Liintrix soldiers peeking out, before opening the door wider. Get in. they said, voice obscured by the microphone scrambling their words lightly.
Within the room were four other figures- a second soldier, holding their plasma rifle at the ready, a tall, uniformed, blue skinned woman with a bright purple symbol, a Liintrix ‘brand’, located on her forehead stood next to a large table, her intense gaze shifting towards the newcomers. The Admiral Ekora had mentioned before.
The second figure was a brown albeit greying haired Ghorran woman, also uniformed, with an eyepatch over one eye. She sat in a chair at the table, acknowledging the trio from Canton with a calm nod.
And last but absolutely not least, there stood a broad shouldered Ghorran man in a simple, fur collared coat, not unlike one that would be seen on a submarine captain’s shoulders, also stood, one eye obscured by shadow, but a trio of red dots indicated a replacement eye in that socket, the other an intense green, staring out from the shadow cast by his cap. The rest of his face was obscured by a large, white beard.
“You two can go. Help the guards fend off the insurgents.” Loska spoke up, gesturing to her subordinates, and they stood upright with a salute, before sprinting off.
“These are hardly the ideal circumstances to be acting as diplomats.” The Ghorran man said in a gruff, clearly annoyed voice, with his massive arms folding in front of his chest. “A shame, really, I was excited to take a look at your side of the offer.”
“Is that really your biggest concern?!” Ekora spoke up in a shrill voice, but he quickly found himself silenced by a glare from the man, taking a few steps back with his eyes cast to the floor.
Loska spoke up again. “I’ll keep introductions brief. I am Admiral Loska. This here is Miviek-“ She gestured to the man. “And Vietri.” A gesture towards the woman. “As you can imagine, we’re much more in the dark at the moment than we are comfortable with. So do you mind telling us what might just be going on, if you are able?”
Within the Embassy's first floor, it was much less quiet.
Some of the guards were directing the civilian workers up to the second floor, others were kicking over tables as makeshift cover, leaving four to five others positioned next to the front door, weapons raised, three with submachine guns while a couple held shotguns firmly in hand, all directed towards the door.
The Liintrix infantry began forming up, six of them setting up a bit further away, but still pointed towards the door, awaiting the horde that threatened to break it right down.
"Yeah, but that's just one squad, Pikta..." The Dysonian replied. "And from the sounds of it, there's... a lot of them out there."
"People who saw the attacks begin from the windows said it looked like it was starting to happen all over the city." Another Skarrin spoke up as he began walking out of the room, all set. "We're just caught right in the middle of it. Whether or not we've been specifically targeted or just caught in the mess by chance is yet to be seen, though."
Aurantico nodded. "I know as little as you do, but my guess would be that the Cult is attacking your embassy, possibly because-"
An explosion outside rocked the room and conveniently cut off Aurantico mid-sentence. By the time they had recovered, she had thought better of finishing the thought. She checked her holo, flicking her finger and thumb open and closed a couple of times to restart the device.
"I can't reach central." she said, a hint of concern in her voice. "Maybe they're jamming the area?"
Outside, there was jabbering as more and more cultists began to flood into the courtyard, some taking cover and spraying ammo at the windows and doors, others rushing around in the open, leaving the occasional comrade behind as potshots from the embassy took their toll. At the guard hut by the main door, a cluster of attackers bustled through the main gates and into the little shed, carrying something bulky between them....
"They just keep coming! What the hell is going on!?" One of the guards shouted as he looked out, teeth gritted as he fired a burst outside with his submachine gun, before shaking his head rapidly at the sight of the overwhelming mob of the ratlike-cultists.
Fear was evidently beginning to spread throughout the defenders, or at the very least the more regular guards.
"What are those two carrying-" A second guard spoke up, before her eyes widened.
"Away from the door. NOW!"
Loska looked at Aurantico with a slight squint. The Cantonese knew more than they were letting on, but this was not the time to confront them. At least... not yet.
"So this is to be a siege." Miviek muttered, his rumbling voice lined with frustration. The way his shoulders were set, the way his mechanical eye peered at the Cantonese, he clearly had been in a scenario like this before.
Perhaps multiple times.
"So there's no way to call for reinforcements?" Loska spoke up.
"Or Extraction??" Ekora said as well, still trying his best to not go into a breakdown.
Pikta would sigh, taking his helmet and following on out.
"Well.. I hope we'll make it through some way atleast. Still, What's the game plan? Or atleast.. Where do we respond?" He replied.
"We need to help the others at the front gate, it sounds like they're being overrun!" The Dysonian said to Pikta, picking up a shotgun and gesturing in the way to the front. "Hurry the fuck up, everyone!"
Odiwara gently placed the satchel full of datastacks and pads onto the table. He did not want them getting damaged in the firefight nor weighing him down. Perhaps when he had been alive, he might have considered the fact that they were easily replacible and it would be better to destroy them in case the enemy broke through and seized the data, but as a construct his mind was a little more rigid, a little more rules-oriented.
Watching impatiently as the spirit-machine place the databag down so delicately, Prendergast slapped a hand on the table. "GUNS! I tell you again if you want our help we need guns!" he boomed, his bristly moustache, beady eyes and thick jowls putting the image of a furious old boar about to charge. Odiwara in fact had a small holdout particle beam blaster in his left forearm, but it only had a small amount of ammunition, whilst Tang and Aurantico simply waited expectantly. As a diplomatic mission, they had not thought it polite to carry weapons into the Quosx embassy, a decision which had been sensible at the time but they perhaps now regretted.
Outside, there was a fizzling boom as the front side of the shed simply disintegrated. The enemy had got their hands on a graviton lance, a Cantonese squad weapon that fired a beam of agitated gravitons which would warp the size of molecules it passed through. Fatal to biological tissue and potentially devastating to delicate machinery, it was a tough weapon to use effectively and the first coruscating beam of rainbow light whipped right through the front door, through the corridor and out of the back wall, not hitting any key metals but just causing the doors to creak slightly as the two leaves pressed against one another. The faint sound of arguing was audible as the Cultists lined up for another burst
HappyHydralisk [Quosx Alliance] — 06/06/2023 19:33
The outburst from Prendergast caused Vietri and Ekora to flinch, the latter letting out a huff and turning to the Cantonese man, holding one finger up to get his attention. "The Liintrix armory is on this very floor, sir." He spoke up. "If you are looking to acquire some firearms there will surely be spares. Most likely a few plasma pistols, though those should be more than enough to defend ourselves. Or, well, I hope."
The Dysonian had regained some of his composure now, the shaky rising and falling of his chest, however, signaling the difficulty of maintaining his professionalism. He was assigned for diplomatic work, not to be caught in the middle of a firefight.
But, regardless of his position, that was the situation he was in now, and he had to get over the overwhelming desperation that this was some bad dream, and do his best to survive.
The beam tore through the door, the wall, and beyond where any of the guards at the front could see, but despite the colorful display, they found themselves... relieved that it wasn't worse.
Pitka, just arriving at the lobby, would be able to see the beam blast through the wall next to him, a sizable hole blasted through the door that a couple guards now were using to return fire on the cultists manning the beam, hoping to at least delay them from firing.
Further into the embassy, he could see the Liintrix soldiers at work, knocking over tables and pushing them to form makeshift barriers, as the guards ahead did their best to buy time.
Helping themselves to handguns, the four officers seemed a little more relaxed, though in truth Prendergast had only ever been in one gunfight during a boarding action and Aurantico had not. The two lieutenants seemed more familiar with the handguns, but all four were professional, kept their muzzles safe and their postures clean.
The defenders managed to pot a couple of Cultists as they unmasked to fire their beam weapon again, and the fire from outside slowly slackened as the besiegers settled around the breached half of the compound, exchanging desultory fire. Although chaos reigned further out in the city, the embassy found a strange moment of relative peace as the attackers regrouped and the defenders waited expectantly.
By the time the foreigners had been issued plasma pistols, however, that all changed. There was a bellowing scream from a hundred voices and a sudden hail of fire beat against the walls of the inner compound. The enemy already established began pouring rounds at the defenders, and a fresh horde poured through the gates and over the walls, aiming to swamp the defenders with a bodily tide.
"Where do you need us?" asked Aurantico. Gunfights were not her bread and butter, but as a military officer she understood that the defenders needed to place their limited resources to best effect, and she had no intention of wasting time by trying to argue rank with them - this was their building and they knew it best
The pistols were surprisingly bulky, a fuel canister/battery combination slotted into the bottom of the weapon, and the entire thing was almost twice as heavy as a typical handgun.
“The squad serving as my escort is preparing a firing line of sorts downstairs as the security forces hold off the attackers for as long as they can.” Loska said. “If you wish to aid them in the defense, be my guest.”
“But if they get injured or killed in the fighting, wouldn’t that reflect badly on us towards the Empire..?” Ekora spoke up. The relative scales of the Alliance and the Cantonese empire arguably gave him reason to worry if relations were to sour, but then again...
What the hell were they supposed to do about it?
“That’s why the choice is up to them.” Loska said back, clearly getting irritated with the Dysonian herself, and she pointed out of the room. “You organize some personnel and try to get a signal out of this jamming. We might be able to get extraction out of here before things get too out of hand if you work quickly. The rest of you-“ From under her coat, the Liintrix admiral procured an ornate revolver- a kinetic one, at that, at least at first glance. “Follow me downstairs. The first line of defense is ready to pull back.”
True to her words, the Liintrix soldiers began shouting to the security guards- pull away from the door and join them behind their makeshift barricades. Doing their best to make a fighting retreat, two guards being struck, needing to be dragged back.
The Cultists now had a door, wide open to break in further.
But, on the other hand, the defenders had a bottleneck.
As the returning fire from the Embassy faded away, the Liintrix soldiers aimed their plasma rifles towards the entrance, a series of electric whines could be heard as safeties were released...
The tide was not far behind the retreating security guards. Like a cloud, the horde suddenly darkened the doorway, blotting out the light beyond as they poured into the building. The carnage was immediately and overwhelmingly obscene, rifles pouring plasma at short range into crowded, unarmoured bodies. The scent of charred flesh and fur rose as a smoky cloud to choke everyone there, whilst the mass of living and dead turned into a being all its own. From within the crowd, projectiles occasionally sailed forth, grenades and bullets alike, though many more went off as their wielders were killed, blasting holes in the morass and adding to the destruction. Already the entryway was a hell of corpses and viscera, tricky to navigate at the best of times, but the sheer weight of the maddened mob pushed the doomed Cultists forwards into the meatgrinder.
Watching from the stairway above, Aurantico had drawn her pistol but had not fired, mesmerised by the carnage. Odiwara's arm was stretched out rigidly, firing neat shots that potted Cultists as they broke free of the chaos to threaten the barricades, whilst Prendergast had taken a weaver stance and was pouring ammunition into the crowd, adding his own weight of fire to that of the Liintrix troopers below.
Tang had thrown up beside Aurantico, and absent-mindedly apologised to their hosts for the mess. Aurantico's habitual officer bearing kicked in and she was about to make a wry comment, but the words died on her lips as another explosion rocked the building, this time much closer to. A second followed it, accompanied by howls and roars from the crowd. The naval officers had all felt that before, whether in combat or in training. Breaching charges.
Pikta upon arriving to the scene would see the soldiers do their work. A bullet whizzed by which interrupted a thought, making him pull himself to a tall wall for cover and began firing away on auto, Firing long bursts at wherever the cultists may be.
"There's.. too many!" He thought,
"We're not a military garrison..!"
He would pull himself back behind to reload his gun, almost fumbling from the explosion. He shoved the magazine in and spoke to his colleages;
<<Something blew up- Are they getting inside?>>
After a series of volleys, the smell of scorched flesh filled the room and the Cultists just kept coming, getting in through the door one at a time, then two, then three, even as plasma scattered their bodies and equipment to ash. It became obvious that without the Liintrix squad, they would have broken in much sooner, but even with their support, the embassy falling seemed inevitable.
And the rumbling of explosions made the situation all the more dire.
Loska managed to head over to Pitka, grabbing his arm and shouting over the gunfire. "We can't hold this floor for much longer- You and the other guards, take a couple of the Liintrix here and try to hold off any hostiles coming through potential breaches while the rest of the squad holds the front door- When you start to get overrun, head up the stairs and hold the bottlenecks up there."
She gestured up to the Cantonese- head back up the stairs, she mouthed, before taking a few revolver shots at some of the Rats who broke in, downing one and wounding another.
And in the meantime, Ekora was up in the second floor, with a few other civilian workers, desperately trying to get the equipment together to try to send a distress signal, attempting to contact both Quosx and Imperial forces.
Given the importance of the personnel present... surely the lack of communication would cause enough worry to send someone to investigate, right?
The Cantonese fell back up the stairs, emerging into an upper corridor. Their eyes on the carnage below, they only turned when a metallic clang heralded a panel in the ceiling being pushed open. Something dropped down with a sharp crack and Prendergast was thrown to the ground, struggling on hands and knees as he gasped for breath. Odiwara's gun was coming up even as the being behind them hit the floor, and his pistol roared in the confined space, punching flaming holes into the being. Aurantico stepped up beside him and added her own shots, a vile hissing and screeching coming from the enemy.
By the time it stopped twitching it was little more than a pile of charred flesh, but the strange shapes they had glimpsed through the plasma flames haunted Aurantico's mind. Tang looked up from Prendergast and shook her head - he had taken a slug to the back and had died of cardiac arrest within seconds.
Before they could recover, there was another resounding boom and the corridor slanted to the left. Smoke and dust billowed into the corridor, propelled by a wave of what felt like solid noise, and Aurantico lost all sense of direction, clinging to the floor even as it tilted. From somewhere below her, she heard many voices crying out in triumph. A strong hand, warm to the touch and yet still somehow inhuman, gripped her arm and helped her upright. It was Odiwara.
"The exterior wall has been breached. Prepare for contact." was all he said, readying his pistol and moving away into the smoke.
At the front door, three huge forms appeared through the smoke. Gigantic rectangles silhouetted against the entry, it took the onlookers a second to register that they were riot shields, glowing with some kind of energy and carried by monstrous beings hidden from sight by the solid metal. From portholes in the slabs protruded huge muzzles which suddenly lit with flame as they launched grenades into the interior of the building. Behind them crowded more Cultists, better armed with long rifles and firearms. Clearly the initial waves had been simply intended to soften up the defenders and buy time for this heavy thrust to move into position
In orbit, far above, the Cantonese fleet was not inactive. "Prepare firing sequence," came Admiral Chase's order, his tone and inflection calm as if he were ordering a Sunday sermon. Along the gigantic hull, lights flared as the colossal powerbanks began to activate. Cantonese ships drifted away from the Otakemaru Station as the first inklings of its artificial accretion disc began to show on sensors across the system.
Meanwhile, deep in the waters of the Merchant Adventurer's Hall on the planet of Zdeno, the nightmarish and impenetrable capitol of the Zdenii race, a concensus was being reached. After the losses incurred at the Second Battle of Marchand, the Zdenii had been reluctant to support the Cult again, viewing even this latest offensive as doomed to fail. Their hand was now forced as the Cantonese began to spool up this vast superweapon. It did not appear to be a bluff - the Zdenii could not risk gambling, at any rate, and so they mobilised what was left of their fleet.
On Marchand, Pikta would flinch, Spooked by Loska grabbing his arm as he was just about to aim back out at some cultists.
"Wait- I need to lead-?" He replied, Grimacing as he then eyed back out and back at Loska.
"Fuck- Noted..! We'll do our best!"
Pikta would look around, then out to see a horde of Cultists. Not just any cultists, but much better teethed one at that. He quickly rescinded back to cover, then looked around at the exits before looking at whoever is the highest ranked Liintrix soldier, Quickly shouting over.
"Hey! I don't think we can hold for long- I mean.. We should hold as long as we can but we should start preparing!"
He quickly popped to fire a few rounds at the cultists in the doorway. It wouldn't be much but, bullets are bullets.
"A-any ways we can stall them when we do have to pull back!? Even crazy will do!"
Loska gritted her teeth and took aim with her revolver as she paced backwards up the stairs, taking one, two potshots at the newcomers, but it was clear as day that they simply didn't have the means to hold this position. "The squad will hold them off." She called down. Her soldiers knew what they were here to do, but the guards were security guards, they realistically didn't have the means to hold off against these forces.
The crack of a grenade going off signalled for her to begin sprinting up the stairs, gesturing for any of the security guards left to follow her up to their next line of defense, the five-to-six Liintrix soldiers beginning their fighting retreat upwards, one of them tossing a grenade of their own at the feet of the shield-bearing cultists, before he fell to a barrage of gunfire from the more well-armed hostiles.
Aurantico and Odiwara could see Loska rushing up to meet the two, and she gave a stiff tip of her cap. "Praise be to the Birds... you two are at least alive." She said, audibly out of breath. "The situation is far more out of hand than I anticipated-" She paused for a moment as multiple vehicles rushed by, full to the brim with those odd Zetyans, one visibly ambushed by some kind of betentacled monster that proceeded to crush it, both consumed by a cloud of dust and rubble.
"Ahem... The situation is out of hand, as I said, but Ekora's managed to obtain contact with our forces above."
"I say again, shuttles 5, 6, and 7 have been launched, escorted by Pau Wing."
Six lights, three transports and three fighters, flew from the hangar of a warship floating in the high atmosphere of Marchand, the Alliance fleet having so far evaded engagement, being preoccupied with reconnecting with their assets below.
The sight from the surface was not pretty.
Three heavy Liintrix assault teams were being sent planetside to hold off the assault and extract any surviving personnel.
"W-we only have thirty minutes left, and I don't think we'll last THAT, so please hurry as fast as you can!"
"Give us ten."
A cracked floor tile decided the fate of dozens of people. The central ogre was grinding its shield forwards, leaving no gap between itself and the floor, but just as the grenade thrown by the Liintrix soldier tumbled towards it, the shield slid over a shattered piece of flooring. The grenade clattered neatly into the gap, unnoticed, and went off a second later, blasting the shield-bearer from below.
With a bellow of pain and rage it collapsed, bisected, leaving a gap in the formation. The retreating Alliance personnel poured fire into the hole, churning up the surprised attackers who had been taking cover behind their larger comrades. A second brute was badly injured, staggering, and the last one hunkered down behind its shield, inching forwards instead of charging now.
In the hallways behind the frontline, the smoke was still obscuring the view, but Aurantico could hear the steady thump of plasma shots and yells of pain as Odiwara fought in the murk below. A scrabbling figure loomed through the dust, and she snapped her own pistol to it. Just as she was hesitating, wondering if she was about to murder an ally, it screeched in Marchander and she squeezed the trigger automatically, punching it back into the gloom.
Beside her, Tang had taken cover in a doorway that gave her a good line of sight down into the chasm the enemy explosives had created, and was firing the odd shot down to keep the enemy at bay. The nervous-looking lieutenant nodded as the admiral cast a glance her way, and Aurantico nodded back. Naval officers were trained for close quarters combat, but they rarely saw it, and she was proud of the young woman for lasting this long.
Turning her attention back to the breach, Aurantico realised with a sinking feeling that she had not heard any plasma fire from inside the smoke cloud in a few moments now.
"Mister Odiwara?" she whispered over their short-range comms. "Lieutenant Odiwara, come in?.
Silence.
With that, Pitka would take about two of his fellows to help stay behind just for a little bit to ensure the evacuation to get upstairs with Loska. Likewise adding onto the intense fire the soldiers were pouring in before then ordering his men to pull back. He would be the last of the security to leave.
"Fuck- I hope we get much more pay for this.." He thought, Quickly de-stressing himself as much as possible with a few breaths before looking around where to setup in the hallway.
"Quick, cover for the troops..! uhm.. We don't have grenades, do we? Any flashes?
Oh, Hey, is shotgun guy still around? We need him at a blindspot or something they'd least expect..-"
There was one thing that was clear, through all the confusion, yelling, and gunfire from below... despite all the losses they were taking, by sheer attrition, the rats were winning. Another rifleman gunned down on the stairs before he could get into cover, one less gun keeping the horde back, the complete overrunning of the place was all but inevitable.
Some of the rats that had made their way into the embassy via a hole blasted into the wall probably were enjoying their time ransacking whatever they could while the primary force threw themselves against the guns of the enemy. They had the easy path in, after all, and a few were taking their sweet time digging through the armory of the security forces, before they heard footsteps.
Loud footsteps.
They ran into the hallway, shouting and jeering at whatever poor employee had gotten separated from the others, prepared to gun someone down, but they were met with a very, very different thing.
A shadow obscured by the smoke, a silhouette of a heavily armored figure stood in front of them, glowing blue eyes piercing through the smoke and dust.
A loud crack could be heard through the entire building.
And then another, another, another, the sound of a very new automatic weapon being fired, accompanied by the sound of screaming, of flesh and bone being vaporized. Looking out of the window, Aurantico could see that an armored, hovering shuttle had practically parked itself a few meters off the ground, the autocannon on top of it firing into the crowd of cultists in tandem with several Liintrix infantryman and a door gunner taking shots outside of an opened hatch on the side.
"Loska, Aurantico!" Ekora shouted, rushing out of the room he had taken shelter in, as well as most of the other employees not trained for combat. "A couple of shuttles landed on the roof, we don't have much time, it sounds like an Imperial Crucible is charging up in orbit!" His tone was strained, scared, but not panicked this time, as there was still yet hope that they could get out of this.
A grey and orange, heavily armored humanoid figure stomped up the stairs. Admiral Loska, apologies for our lateness. We've stalled the attackers for now. As the boy said, our shuttles have landed upon the roof. They gave a nod of acknowledgement to Aurantico, and Loska spoke up.
"Any sign of another Cantonese man on the first floor? Another one of our guests, he was separated from us in our retreat."
The armored soldier shook their head. Negative. The situation was dire down there when we arrived.
Loska cursed under her breath, and gestured to the survivors. "Come, there's a stairway to the roof. Our time is more limited than ever."
-----------------------------------------------------
Pitka, still fighting for his life, could hear footsteps and voiced from around the corner, but not the sound of Marchander. It was at this point that he, too, could hear the sound of plasma autocannons tearing through the bodies of the rats moving to flank him and his remaining security guards.
A trio of power armored figures turned the corner, weapons raised. To the roof. Now. One of them commanded with a booming, authoritative voice. And keep your heads down.
The survivors made it to the roof to see shuttles waiting for them. Aurantico threw one glance down at the masses of dead and living below them and then yelled for Tang to get aboard, before following the alliance personnel into one of the waiting craft.
Out of the viewports, the city was ablaze, tracer rounds and plumes of smoke smearing the sky as aircraft whipped to and fro, some on fire missions, some just trying to escape. Their ships juddered into the sky just in time - a door gunner let loose on the rooftop where they had been just moments before as Cultists burst out of the stairwell and across the roof, spraying fire wildly up after the retreating gunships.
As the pilots made it into high orbit, a communication overrode their inbound and advised them to proceed through the Slipgate ahead of them. As promised, an emerald Slipgate winked into life, and as the Quosx ships dove through it they found themselves spat out many AU away, on the edge of the system, amidst dozens of other ships. Those nearest were an eclectic mix of civilian, commercial and diplomatic ships, but beyond them loomed the great castle-ships of the Cantonese, their prows all angling in-system, their lights riotous and colourful in the darkness of space.
All other lights faded from view as a huge beam of argent light sprang from a huge vessel deep in the Cantonese formation, energy waves buffeting the waiting and confused civilian ships.
"Oh...no..." murmured Aurantico, her expression disbelieving
Beef - Canton
The Quosxian Alliance embassy was a modest affair, half a block on the border of the industrial and downtown zones, thick cinderblock walls topped with security measures surrounding a two-storey building with its own walled garden, and a couple of sheds and security huts to provide shelter from the rain for the staff. Roughly two dozen security personnel and soldiers thronged the small compound, a measure that Admiral Aurantiaco supposed was reasonable given the state of things in Marchand.
She herself had not had much experience with the planet, although she had dissected in detail the First and Second Battles over Marchand. She was an instructor with Starfleet, perhaps the instructor. Since the Canton Starfleet had been established as an independent body she had found herself in charge of Starfleet Academy, the former Pelagus Jade Naval Academy back on Sanrin. Her predecessor had remained with the IJN following the creation of the Canton and so had returned to Laptev, leaving her in command, and yet the administration had tasked her with personally overseeing this new exchange, as though she weren't busy enough already.
Starfleet had managed to sell off some of its old corvette stock to a native power known as the Quosx Alliance, and as part of the deal Starfleet was providing two weeks' worth of acquaint and onboard training in the form of a trio of advisory officers. She had assigned one of her lecturers from the Academy the task and requisitioned a pair of line lieutenants into the bargain, but she had been informed that she herself would be expected to oversee the handover, her rank assuring the Quosxians of Canton's goodwill. Apparently this was part of a new initiative to try and repair the Canton's standing among neutral or centre-leaning Unaligned, as in the midst of the Third Ancerious War tensions were higher than ever.
As a result of this international gladhanding, Aurantiaco found herself arriving by roadcar at the Quosxian embassy on a rainy Marchand afternoon. A yokari of middling height, she had bright golden-blonde hair, a rare sight amongst her kind. Before the Curse had settled on her people blonde had been her natural colour, and in defiance of the strange fate they had been dealt she routinely dyed it, to the consternation of some of her more conservative and religious colleagues. Her crisp red-white uniform seemed a dark burgundy in the gloom as she stepped out of the car, swiftly unfolding a small umbrella against the rain and turning a warm smile on their hosts and waited, as was proper, to be welcomed
The building itself stood about two stories tall, with a rather distinct architecture, much of it colored an obsidian black with golden highlights accentuating the art deco aesthetic, tipped at the roof into almost gothic spires.
A strangely imposing yet simultaneously welcoming building, the passion project of a lucky architect who was given (perhaps a bit too much) creative freedom designing a government building.
The car was allowed through the wall via a metal gate which slid open at the command of a guard within an enclosed checkpoint office, and as the Admiral climbed out of the car, she was greeted by a young Dysonian man, bright blue eyes and dark purple hair muted lightly by the darkened, overcast sky. He was on the shorter side, with a rather slim build further accentuated by the dark grey uniform he wore, and his expression was rather bright compared to his surroundings. A nametag on his uniform read 'Ekora'Shau', with a bit of extra space on the end not accounting for his species's lack of Surnames.
"Admiral... Aurantiaco, right?" He said over the din of the rain pounding against the umbrella, quickly regretting his decision not to bring his own out, having thought that he wouldn't be outside long enough for it to matter all that much. "Apologies if you were waiting long, You happened to come by at a fairly busy day." Despite the rain, he spoke with a cheerful, friendly attitude, and he beckoned her to follow him towards the embassy itself. "Come on, we should get inside quickly. Before I catch a cold, really. I didn't think the rain was this bad.."
The admiral nodded. "Thank you," she replied, following him inside where she introduced her companions, Captain Prendergast and Lieutenants Odiwara and Tang. Prendergast was older, portly and bushy-moustached, old enough that his body had aged before the introduction of Telasomere treatments. Tang looked to be in her thirties, trim and squared away, whilst Odiwara was a Frame, a robotic construct. Whether his consciousness was artificial or that of a deceased yokari whose mind had been preserved in a Soul Vault was not immediately clear to the outsiders, although to the other Cantonese the platinum kanji embossed on his 'skin' made it clear he had once possessed a mortal body.
Ekora seemed a bit surprised with the group that had arrived at the embassy- An admiral was already a fairly big deal, and preparations for her arrival already were underway hours before.
The front lobby was fairly ornately built, definitely leaning much more into the art deco aesthetic, with gold and light grey being the primary colors. A pair of guards, a dark blue-skinned Liintrix and a four armed Skarrin, stood next to the door, dressed in simple uniforms, with protective vests and helmets, armed with a pistol and submachine gun each.
"A pleasure to meet you all. My name is Ekora'shau, and I have been assigned to be your adjutant during your stay here. My purpose is to aid you through bureaucracy and... well, what have you." The Dysonian offered a light bow.
"Liintrix Admiral Loska and Ghorran Star Captains Miveik and Vitri arrived just yesterday to discuss these dealings further, more specifically matters of training and maintenance, which should be exactly what your business in your navy is, correct?"
"Exactly," she said with a smile that suggested Ekora was going to get a golden merit sticker for answering correctly "Captain Prendergast and his lieutenants here will be staying with your personnel for two weeks as they learn the ropes."
She gestured to a satchel bag that Odiwara was carrying. "And of course, all the technical documentation too."
Prendergast seemed faintly annoyed by the whole thing, though he didn't actually say anything, whilst Odiwara's robotic face was inscrutable and Tang was busy taking in the decor of the building. The Cantonese were firm believers in aesthetics, reckoning that anything worth doing was worth doing right. Too many nations had embassies and government buildings that were just bare concrete corridors coated in dull pastel paint and filled with bland furniture from the nearest mass-produced outlet, but the Quosx seemed to have taken a little pride in their facility, which was a good thing. It suggested their two week stay would be a comfortable one.
Another nod. "Splendid! Then these negotiations should be rather easy to get underway without too much distraction, in that case!" The young man's words, his cadence, the way he stood up straight with his hands clasped behind his back, they were certainly warm, but simultaneously calculated and trained.
Make the guests feel welcome, able to navigate the environment, and comfortable during their stay, but at the same time keep them at arms length. They were professionals, after all.
"Come along with me, then, your room is on the second floor." Ekora beckoned the envoys to follow, as he led them down a wide hallway with a shallow carpet, the walls decorated with that same obsidian-and-gold color scheme. Occasionally they could catch snippets of conversation from workers, two security guards taking a moment to chat, a phone call from an open office, two workers passing by, providing a tiny window into different aspects and situations the Alliance was dealing with.
'...And with Armiral Akevta making us look like incompetent, unprepared morons in Corona...'
'...the negotiations with the Revekt are going well, at least, a new member of the Alliance is always welcome these days...'
'...fuel costs not getting better. Starting to get worried that I won't be able to get back home anytime soon at this rate. Stupid war has...'
'...Potential of opening talks with the Elvorians! Lots of new opportunities for..."
At the end of the hall stood one of the elevators, which opened before Ekora could call it, with two Liintrix soldiers in full armor jogging out, nearly knocking the startled Adjutant aside, scrambled speech uttering from their mask-obscured faces, as if they were in a hurry.
"...Sorry about that." Ekora said in a more flustered tone, letting out a sigh and gesturing for the elevator, the smile quickly returning to his face.
Outside the embassy, Gysh stared at the wall-ringed compound from her perch in an empty apartment, one of many abandoned in this building a block away from the Quosx embassy. Across the city, her comrades were ready and waiting, but her job had been to keep an eye on the hated Imperials, the worst of the offworlders. She had tailed a small convoy from their lair to this place, and whilst she did not know why the lightbulb goblins were visiting these foreigners nor did she much care. She had not announced herself to the team leaders who had been assigned the task of destroying this nest of aliens once the call went out across the city, but she would soon enough.
A veteran of the Great Gyre, as the Cultists of Carcaros called their insurgency, she had been present when the first shot had been fired more than two years previously. The sniper who had fired that fatal shot, Silotsk, had died that same day along with his victims, torn asunder as part of the noble struggle, but Gysh had survived. She had seen the tides of war ebb and flow, had seen the hated enemy slowly withdraw from the mess they had made, had even seen them change their flag, as though her people would forget that the Canton was just an extension of the Jade Empire which had caused them so much pain and misery.
The vile green aliens, one with ridiculous yellow hair, had disappeared inside the central building, but that was alright by her. They weren't going anywhere....
When it finally began, the attack was not particularly well co-ordinated. Distant explosions rocked the city as other embassies and sites of foreign interest came under attack, some in clusters, some individually, until the morning air was a cacophony of sirens, screams, gunfire and explosions.
Perhaps ten tense, strange minutes after the first signs of trouble, minutes in which an odd air of expectancy crept through the normalcy of the embassy's daily routine, the attack finally materialised. Marchanders, dressed in rags and robes, adorned in symbols and trinkets, unmasked from two dozen different spots and began hosing down the walls and guard positions with automatic gunfire, hurling hand grenades. Their fire was inaccurate and undisciplined, but huge in volume, dousing the embassy in a sudden storm of gunfire, smoke and thunderclaps.
They accompanied their assault with shrieks and yells, venting their inchoate fury, spurred on by something the Cantonese would hesitate to call a god but which most certainly held a dark sway over the local population...
The elevator opened and Ekora stepped out into the second floor. "Now, the meeting room is only-" His blue eyes trailed out to the simulated window lining one of the walls, where a few workers had stood up to inspect with a sort of anxious anticipation, smoke rising into the air.
As short of a time that he had accompanied the Cantonese, the professional mask broke and he froze, a bead of sweat trailing down his forehead, that he quickly wiped off with the back of his sleeve, his voice breaking as he spoke up again.
"W-we need to move." He said, and hurried down the hallway with a brisk pace to his step, panic setting in as he heard gunshots and explosives go off, getting closer, closer, closer... until he had broken into a full run.
Sporadic but accurate submachine gun fire was the quick response to the sudden attack, but it was only a momentary cover for the guards outside to stall, before they began to duck into the building. A ghorran guard took a shot to the abdomen, but she was quickly pulled into the building by a pair of her companions, and the door was shut behind her. Another guard, a Skarrin man, wasn't so lucky, as he was caught in one of the first grenade explosions, which tore through his body before he reached the door, bleeding out before he was even finished being dragged in.
A large scale attack was underway, and the embassy was right in the middle of it.
The building was, thankfully, quite sturdy, and the gunfire and grenades only did some superficial damage... but that didn't mean in was a well defended building. With the few guards outside retreating into the building, the attackers had a direct line towards the front door.
The barracks, the closest thing the guards had to a break room, was a bit of a scene of chaos. With the bulk of the guards getting ready, putting on protective vests and helmets, loading weapons and filling mags, the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.
"One of those Liintrix soldiers mentioned help being able to arrive in a few hours, but I don't think we have the time..." One of the guards spoke up, a nervous Dysonian woman.
"We don't have regular military presence around here other than that squad, but if you ask me, if those Canton folks aren't complete bastards, we might have to rely on them caring about their own people to at the very least stall for time." Replied a ghorran man, gear already on, submachine gun loaded. He figured that if help came, it would be for the important people in the building, most likely leaving the majority high and dry and to the mercy of the attackers.
"Lets just hope that squad pulls their weight. I've heard what Liintrix infantry are capable of, but I haven't had the misfortune to witness it myself..."
As if on cue, the sound of armored boots hitting the ground could be heard as the blue-armored Liintrix infantry ran by, bulky plasma rifles in their hands as they made their way to secure the entrance.
The Cantonese hurried after Ekora, unarmed and nervous. They were not infantry soldiers but rather naval personnel, and lecturers to boot. The two lieutenants had seen naval action recently, but standing on a ships deck and feeling huge guns spit violence into the emptiness of space was a little different to carrying a gun against people behind a dusty barricade only meters away.
"We need arms," grunted Prendergast, huffing a little, unused to exertion, whilst Aurantico was obivously struggling a little, dressed in display uniform not combat fatigues.
The defenders were giving better than they got, and already dead Marchanders were splayed around the grimy streets surrounding the embassy. Lacking the professionalism and the defensive cover of the embassy guards, they were being picked off in ones and twos, but there were so many of them it made little difference.
As the guards fell back towards the main building, there was an ominous roar. A vehicle skidded onto the main street facing the front gate, a slightly outdated hovercar, and accelerated towards the main gate. There was a resounding crunch and the grinding of metal, but no explosion. The Cultists had not laden it with explosives, as one would expect, but were simply using it to breach the gates. Scrambling over the wrecked vehicle and through the jagged gap it had battered into the gates, the first couple of Cultists were mown down by the last guards as they covered the withdrawal back into the main building. Trampling their comrades came more and more behind them, however
A Skarrin man, named Pikta, still in his suit would quickly slip on his vest with haste and chambered his SMG. Minutes ago he was on coffee break, Enjoying a nice chat with a technician, and now hells broken loose!
Doesn't help the fact that he had a headache coming in too from the sudden stress.. It has been a long day afterall and he was feeling the strain. Nonetheless, he sucked it up, grimacing at a sharp sting in his head as he put on his chin strap and looked to his peers.
"Hey.. Brighten up a tad bit! They're here now!" He said, Motioning over to the Liintrix infantry running by.
".. Uhm.. Lets help them the best way we can. Where does chief want us?"
The sound of a crash could be heard by the Dysonian and the Cantonese, and the building could be felt shaking ever so slightly beneath their feet, causing a few exclamations of surprise and fear from nearby workers. A couple of the guards ran up the stairs and barked orders to everyone in earshot to get to an easily defendable room.
The sound of gunshots already was audible from down below.
“Well, the armory is downstairs, and I would very much suggest to you three that we don’t head back down there...” Ekora said, stopping by a closed set of doors, carved from a rich, dark red wood, and he tried the handle.
No luck on that front.
Just before he could knock, however, the door peeked open, one of the Liintrix soldiers peeking out, before opening the door wider. Get in. they said, voice obscured by the microphone scrambling their words lightly.
Within the room were four other figures- a second soldier, holding their plasma rifle at the ready, a tall, uniformed, blue skinned woman with a bright purple symbol, a Liintrix ‘brand’, located on her forehead stood next to a large table, her intense gaze shifting towards the newcomers. The Admiral Ekora had mentioned before.
The second figure was a brown albeit greying haired Ghorran woman, also uniformed, with an eyepatch over one eye. She sat in a chair at the table, acknowledging the trio from Canton with a calm nod.
And last but absolutely not least, there stood a broad shouldered Ghorran man in a simple, fur collared coat, not unlike one that would be seen on a submarine captain’s shoulders, also stood, one eye obscured by shadow, but a trio of red dots indicated a replacement eye in that socket, the other an intense green, staring out from the shadow cast by his cap. The rest of his face was obscured by a large, white beard.
“You two can go. Help the guards fend off the insurgents.” Loska spoke up, gesturing to her subordinates, and they stood upright with a salute, before sprinting off.
“These are hardly the ideal circumstances to be acting as diplomats.” The Ghorran man said in a gruff, clearly annoyed voice, with his massive arms folding in front of his chest. “A shame, really, I was excited to take a look at your side of the offer.”
“Is that really your biggest concern?!” Ekora spoke up in a shrill voice, but he quickly found himself silenced by a glare from the man, taking a few steps back with his eyes cast to the floor.
Loska spoke up again. “I’ll keep introductions brief. I am Admiral Loska. This here is Miviek-“ She gestured to the man. “And Vietri.” A gesture towards the woman. “As you can imagine, we’re much more in the dark at the moment than we are comfortable with. So do you mind telling us what might just be going on, if you are able?”
Within the Embassy's first floor, it was much less quiet.
Some of the guards were directing the civilian workers up to the second floor, others were kicking over tables as makeshift cover, leaving four to five others positioned next to the front door, weapons raised, three with submachine guns while a couple held shotguns firmly in hand, all directed towards the door.
The Liintrix infantry began forming up, six of them setting up a bit further away, but still pointed towards the door, awaiting the horde that threatened to break it right down.
"Yeah, but that's just one squad, Pikta..." The Dysonian replied. "And from the sounds of it, there's... a lot of them out there."
"People who saw the attacks begin from the windows said it looked like it was starting to happen all over the city." Another Skarrin spoke up as he began walking out of the room, all set. "We're just caught right in the middle of it. Whether or not we've been specifically targeted or just caught in the mess by chance is yet to be seen, though."
Aurantico nodded. "I know as little as you do, but my guess would be that the Cult is attacking your embassy, possibly because-"
An explosion outside rocked the room and conveniently cut off Aurantico mid-sentence. By the time they had recovered, she had thought better of finishing the thought. She checked her holo, flicking her finger and thumb open and closed a couple of times to restart the device.
"I can't reach central." she said, a hint of concern in her voice. "Maybe they're jamming the area?"
Outside, there was jabbering as more and more cultists began to flood into the courtyard, some taking cover and spraying ammo at the windows and doors, others rushing around in the open, leaving the occasional comrade behind as potshots from the embassy took their toll. At the guard hut by the main door, a cluster of attackers bustled through the main gates and into the little shed, carrying something bulky between them....
"They just keep coming! What the hell is going on!?" One of the guards shouted as he looked out, teeth gritted as he fired a burst outside with his submachine gun, before shaking his head rapidly at the sight of the overwhelming mob of the ratlike-cultists.
Fear was evidently beginning to spread throughout the defenders, or at the very least the more regular guards.
"What are those two carrying-" A second guard spoke up, before her eyes widened.
"Away from the door. NOW!"
Loska looked at Aurantico with a slight squint. The Cantonese knew more than they were letting on, but this was not the time to confront them. At least... not yet.
"So this is to be a siege." Miviek muttered, his rumbling voice lined with frustration. The way his shoulders were set, the way his mechanical eye peered at the Cantonese, he clearly had been in a scenario like this before.
Perhaps multiple times.
"So there's no way to call for reinforcements?" Loska spoke up.
"Or Extraction??" Ekora said as well, still trying his best to not go into a breakdown.
Pikta would sigh, taking his helmet and following on out.
"Well.. I hope we'll make it through some way atleast. Still, What's the game plan? Or atleast.. Where do we respond?" He replied.
"We need to help the others at the front gate, it sounds like they're being overrun!" The Dysonian said to Pikta, picking up a shotgun and gesturing in the way to the front. "Hurry the fuck up, everyone!"
Odiwara gently placed the satchel full of datastacks and pads onto the table. He did not want them getting damaged in the firefight nor weighing him down. Perhaps when he had been alive, he might have considered the fact that they were easily replacible and it would be better to destroy them in case the enemy broke through and seized the data, but as a construct his mind was a little more rigid, a little more rules-oriented.
Watching impatiently as the spirit-machine place the databag down so delicately, Prendergast slapped a hand on the table. "GUNS! I tell you again if you want our help we need guns!" he boomed, his bristly moustache, beady eyes and thick jowls putting the image of a furious old boar about to charge. Odiwara in fact had a small holdout particle beam blaster in his left forearm, but it only had a small amount of ammunition, whilst Tang and Aurantico simply waited expectantly. As a diplomatic mission, they had not thought it polite to carry weapons into the Quosx embassy, a decision which had been sensible at the time but they perhaps now regretted.
Outside, there was a fizzling boom as the front side of the shed simply disintegrated. The enemy had got their hands on a graviton lance, a Cantonese squad weapon that fired a beam of agitated gravitons which would warp the size of molecules it passed through. Fatal to biological tissue and potentially devastating to delicate machinery, it was a tough weapon to use effectively and the first coruscating beam of rainbow light whipped right through the front door, through the corridor and out of the back wall, not hitting any key metals but just causing the doors to creak slightly as the two leaves pressed against one another. The faint sound of arguing was audible as the Cultists lined up for another burst
HappyHydralisk [Quosx Alliance] — 06/06/2023 19:33
The outburst from Prendergast caused Vietri and Ekora to flinch, the latter letting out a huff and turning to the Cantonese man, holding one finger up to get his attention. "The Liintrix armory is on this very floor, sir." He spoke up. "If you are looking to acquire some firearms there will surely be spares. Most likely a few plasma pistols, though those should be more than enough to defend ourselves. Or, well, I hope."
The Dysonian had regained some of his composure now, the shaky rising and falling of his chest, however, signaling the difficulty of maintaining his professionalism. He was assigned for diplomatic work, not to be caught in the middle of a firefight.
But, regardless of his position, that was the situation he was in now, and he had to get over the overwhelming desperation that this was some bad dream, and do his best to survive.
The beam tore through the door, the wall, and beyond where any of the guards at the front could see, but despite the colorful display, they found themselves... relieved that it wasn't worse.
Pitka, just arriving at the lobby, would be able to see the beam blast through the wall next to him, a sizable hole blasted through the door that a couple guards now were using to return fire on the cultists manning the beam, hoping to at least delay them from firing.
Further into the embassy, he could see the Liintrix soldiers at work, knocking over tables and pushing them to form makeshift barriers, as the guards ahead did their best to buy time.
Helping themselves to handguns, the four officers seemed a little more relaxed, though in truth Prendergast had only ever been in one gunfight during a boarding action and Aurantico had not. The two lieutenants seemed more familiar with the handguns, but all four were professional, kept their muzzles safe and their postures clean.
The defenders managed to pot a couple of Cultists as they unmasked to fire their beam weapon again, and the fire from outside slowly slackened as the besiegers settled around the breached half of the compound, exchanging desultory fire. Although chaos reigned further out in the city, the embassy found a strange moment of relative peace as the attackers regrouped and the defenders waited expectantly.
By the time the foreigners had been issued plasma pistols, however, that all changed. There was a bellowing scream from a hundred voices and a sudden hail of fire beat against the walls of the inner compound. The enemy already established began pouring rounds at the defenders, and a fresh horde poured through the gates and over the walls, aiming to swamp the defenders with a bodily tide.
"Where do you need us?" asked Aurantico. Gunfights were not her bread and butter, but as a military officer she understood that the defenders needed to place their limited resources to best effect, and she had no intention of wasting time by trying to argue rank with them - this was their building and they knew it best
The pistols were surprisingly bulky, a fuel canister/battery combination slotted into the bottom of the weapon, and the entire thing was almost twice as heavy as a typical handgun.
“The squad serving as my escort is preparing a firing line of sorts downstairs as the security forces hold off the attackers for as long as they can.” Loska said. “If you wish to aid them in the defense, be my guest.”
“But if they get injured or killed in the fighting, wouldn’t that reflect badly on us towards the Empire..?” Ekora spoke up. The relative scales of the Alliance and the Cantonese empire arguably gave him reason to worry if relations were to sour, but then again...
What the hell were they supposed to do about it?
“That’s why the choice is up to them.” Loska said back, clearly getting irritated with the Dysonian herself, and she pointed out of the room. “You organize some personnel and try to get a signal out of this jamming. We might be able to get extraction out of here before things get too out of hand if you work quickly. The rest of you-“ From under her coat, the Liintrix admiral procured an ornate revolver- a kinetic one, at that, at least at first glance. “Follow me downstairs. The first line of defense is ready to pull back.”
True to her words, the Liintrix soldiers began shouting to the security guards- pull away from the door and join them behind their makeshift barricades. Doing their best to make a fighting retreat, two guards being struck, needing to be dragged back.
The Cultists now had a door, wide open to break in further.
But, on the other hand, the defenders had a bottleneck.
As the returning fire from the Embassy faded away, the Liintrix soldiers aimed their plasma rifles towards the entrance, a series of electric whines could be heard as safeties were released...
The tide was not far behind the retreating security guards. Like a cloud, the horde suddenly darkened the doorway, blotting out the light beyond as they poured into the building. The carnage was immediately and overwhelmingly obscene, rifles pouring plasma at short range into crowded, unarmoured bodies. The scent of charred flesh and fur rose as a smoky cloud to choke everyone there, whilst the mass of living and dead turned into a being all its own. From within the crowd, projectiles occasionally sailed forth, grenades and bullets alike, though many more went off as their wielders were killed, blasting holes in the morass and adding to the destruction. Already the entryway was a hell of corpses and viscera, tricky to navigate at the best of times, but the sheer weight of the maddened mob pushed the doomed Cultists forwards into the meatgrinder.
Watching from the stairway above, Aurantico had drawn her pistol but had not fired, mesmerised by the carnage. Odiwara's arm was stretched out rigidly, firing neat shots that potted Cultists as they broke free of the chaos to threaten the barricades, whilst Prendergast had taken a weaver stance and was pouring ammunition into the crowd, adding his own weight of fire to that of the Liintrix troopers below.
Tang had thrown up beside Aurantico, and absent-mindedly apologised to their hosts for the mess. Aurantico's habitual officer bearing kicked in and she was about to make a wry comment, but the words died on her lips as another explosion rocked the building, this time much closer to. A second followed it, accompanied by howls and roars from the crowd. The naval officers had all felt that before, whether in combat or in training. Breaching charges.
Pikta upon arriving to the scene would see the soldiers do their work. A bullet whizzed by which interrupted a thought, making him pull himself to a tall wall for cover and began firing away on auto, Firing long bursts at wherever the cultists may be.
"There's.. too many!" He thought,
"We're not a military garrison..!"
He would pull himself back behind to reload his gun, almost fumbling from the explosion. He shoved the magazine in and spoke to his colleages;
<<Something blew up- Are they getting inside?>>
After a series of volleys, the smell of scorched flesh filled the room and the Cultists just kept coming, getting in through the door one at a time, then two, then three, even as plasma scattered their bodies and equipment to ash. It became obvious that without the Liintrix squad, they would have broken in much sooner, but even with their support, the embassy falling seemed inevitable.
And the rumbling of explosions made the situation all the more dire.
Loska managed to head over to Pitka, grabbing his arm and shouting over the gunfire. "We can't hold this floor for much longer- You and the other guards, take a couple of the Liintrix here and try to hold off any hostiles coming through potential breaches while the rest of the squad holds the front door- When you start to get overrun, head up the stairs and hold the bottlenecks up there."
She gestured up to the Cantonese- head back up the stairs, she mouthed, before taking a few revolver shots at some of the Rats who broke in, downing one and wounding another.
And in the meantime, Ekora was up in the second floor, with a few other civilian workers, desperately trying to get the equipment together to try to send a distress signal, attempting to contact both Quosx and Imperial forces.
Given the importance of the personnel present... surely the lack of communication would cause enough worry to send someone to investigate, right?
The Cantonese fell back up the stairs, emerging into an upper corridor. Their eyes on the carnage below, they only turned when a metallic clang heralded a panel in the ceiling being pushed open. Something dropped down with a sharp crack and Prendergast was thrown to the ground, struggling on hands and knees as he gasped for breath. Odiwara's gun was coming up even as the being behind them hit the floor, and his pistol roared in the confined space, punching flaming holes into the being. Aurantico stepped up beside him and added her own shots, a vile hissing and screeching coming from the enemy.
By the time it stopped twitching it was little more than a pile of charred flesh, but the strange shapes they had glimpsed through the plasma flames haunted Aurantico's mind. Tang looked up from Prendergast and shook her head - he had taken a slug to the back and had died of cardiac arrest within seconds.
Before they could recover, there was another resounding boom and the corridor slanted to the left. Smoke and dust billowed into the corridor, propelled by a wave of what felt like solid noise, and Aurantico lost all sense of direction, clinging to the floor even as it tilted. From somewhere below her, she heard many voices crying out in triumph. A strong hand, warm to the touch and yet still somehow inhuman, gripped her arm and helped her upright. It was Odiwara.
"The exterior wall has been breached. Prepare for contact." was all he said, readying his pistol and moving away into the smoke.
At the front door, three huge forms appeared through the smoke. Gigantic rectangles silhouetted against the entry, it took the onlookers a second to register that they were riot shields, glowing with some kind of energy and carried by monstrous beings hidden from sight by the solid metal. From portholes in the slabs protruded huge muzzles which suddenly lit with flame as they launched grenades into the interior of the building. Behind them crowded more Cultists, better armed with long rifles and firearms. Clearly the initial waves had been simply intended to soften up the defenders and buy time for this heavy thrust to move into position
In orbit, far above, the Cantonese fleet was not inactive. "Prepare firing sequence," came Admiral Chase's order, his tone and inflection calm as if he were ordering a Sunday sermon. Along the gigantic hull, lights flared as the colossal powerbanks began to activate. Cantonese ships drifted away from the Otakemaru Station as the first inklings of its artificial accretion disc began to show on sensors across the system.
Meanwhile, deep in the waters of the Merchant Adventurer's Hall on the planet of Zdeno, the nightmarish and impenetrable capitol of the Zdenii race, a concensus was being reached. After the losses incurred at the Second Battle of Marchand, the Zdenii had been reluctant to support the Cult again, viewing even this latest offensive as doomed to fail. Their hand was now forced as the Cantonese began to spool up this vast superweapon. It did not appear to be a bluff - the Zdenii could not risk gambling, at any rate, and so they mobilised what was left of their fleet.
On Marchand, Pikta would flinch, Spooked by Loska grabbing his arm as he was just about to aim back out at some cultists.
"Wait- I need to lead-?" He replied, Grimacing as he then eyed back out and back at Loska.
"Fuck- Noted..! We'll do our best!"
Pikta would look around, then out to see a horde of Cultists. Not just any cultists, but much better teethed one at that. He quickly rescinded back to cover, then looked around at the exits before looking at whoever is the highest ranked Liintrix soldier, Quickly shouting over.
"Hey! I don't think we can hold for long- I mean.. We should hold as long as we can but we should start preparing!"
He quickly popped to fire a few rounds at the cultists in the doorway. It wouldn't be much but, bullets are bullets.
"A-any ways we can stall them when we do have to pull back!? Even crazy will do!"
Loska gritted her teeth and took aim with her revolver as she paced backwards up the stairs, taking one, two potshots at the newcomers, but it was clear as day that they simply didn't have the means to hold this position. "The squad will hold them off." She called down. Her soldiers knew what they were here to do, but the guards were security guards, they realistically didn't have the means to hold off against these forces.
The crack of a grenade going off signalled for her to begin sprinting up the stairs, gesturing for any of the security guards left to follow her up to their next line of defense, the five-to-six Liintrix soldiers beginning their fighting retreat upwards, one of them tossing a grenade of their own at the feet of the shield-bearing cultists, before he fell to a barrage of gunfire from the more well-armed hostiles.
Aurantico and Odiwara could see Loska rushing up to meet the two, and she gave a stiff tip of her cap. "Praise be to the Birds... you two are at least alive." She said, audibly out of breath. "The situation is far more out of hand than I anticipated-" She paused for a moment as multiple vehicles rushed by, full to the brim with those odd Zetyans, one visibly ambushed by some kind of betentacled monster that proceeded to crush it, both consumed by a cloud of dust and rubble.
"Ahem... The situation is out of hand, as I said, but Ekora's managed to obtain contact with our forces above."
"I say again, shuttles 5, 6, and 7 have been launched, escorted by Pau Wing."
Six lights, three transports and three fighters, flew from the hangar of a warship floating in the high atmosphere of Marchand, the Alliance fleet having so far evaded engagement, being preoccupied with reconnecting with their assets below.
The sight from the surface was not pretty.
Three heavy Liintrix assault teams were being sent planetside to hold off the assault and extract any surviving personnel.
"W-we only have thirty minutes left, and I don't think we'll last THAT, so please hurry as fast as you can!"
"Give us ten."
A cracked floor tile decided the fate of dozens of people. The central ogre was grinding its shield forwards, leaving no gap between itself and the floor, but just as the grenade thrown by the Liintrix soldier tumbled towards it, the shield slid over a shattered piece of flooring. The grenade clattered neatly into the gap, unnoticed, and went off a second later, blasting the shield-bearer from below.
With a bellow of pain and rage it collapsed, bisected, leaving a gap in the formation. The retreating Alliance personnel poured fire into the hole, churning up the surprised attackers who had been taking cover behind their larger comrades. A second brute was badly injured, staggering, and the last one hunkered down behind its shield, inching forwards instead of charging now.
In the hallways behind the frontline, the smoke was still obscuring the view, but Aurantico could hear the steady thump of plasma shots and yells of pain as Odiwara fought in the murk below. A scrabbling figure loomed through the dust, and she snapped her own pistol to it. Just as she was hesitating, wondering if she was about to murder an ally, it screeched in Marchander and she squeezed the trigger automatically, punching it back into the gloom.
Beside her, Tang had taken cover in a doorway that gave her a good line of sight down into the chasm the enemy explosives had created, and was firing the odd shot down to keep the enemy at bay. The nervous-looking lieutenant nodded as the admiral cast a glance her way, and Aurantico nodded back. Naval officers were trained for close quarters combat, but they rarely saw it, and she was proud of the young woman for lasting this long.
Turning her attention back to the breach, Aurantico realised with a sinking feeling that she had not heard any plasma fire from inside the smoke cloud in a few moments now.
"Mister Odiwara?" she whispered over their short-range comms. "Lieutenant Odiwara, come in?.
Silence.
With that, Pitka would take about two of his fellows to help stay behind just for a little bit to ensure the evacuation to get upstairs with Loska. Likewise adding onto the intense fire the soldiers were pouring in before then ordering his men to pull back. He would be the last of the security to leave.
"Fuck- I hope we get much more pay for this.." He thought, Quickly de-stressing himself as much as possible with a few breaths before looking around where to setup in the hallway.
"Quick, cover for the troops..! uhm.. We don't have grenades, do we? Any flashes?
Oh, Hey, is shotgun guy still around? We need him at a blindspot or something they'd least expect..-"
There was one thing that was clear, through all the confusion, yelling, and gunfire from below... despite all the losses they were taking, by sheer attrition, the rats were winning. Another rifleman gunned down on the stairs before he could get into cover, one less gun keeping the horde back, the complete overrunning of the place was all but inevitable.
Some of the rats that had made their way into the embassy via a hole blasted into the wall probably were enjoying their time ransacking whatever they could while the primary force threw themselves against the guns of the enemy. They had the easy path in, after all, and a few were taking their sweet time digging through the armory of the security forces, before they heard footsteps.
Loud footsteps.
They ran into the hallway, shouting and jeering at whatever poor employee had gotten separated from the others, prepared to gun someone down, but they were met with a very, very different thing.
A shadow obscured by the smoke, a silhouette of a heavily armored figure stood in front of them, glowing blue eyes piercing through the smoke and dust.
A loud crack could be heard through the entire building.
And then another, another, another, the sound of a very new automatic weapon being fired, accompanied by the sound of screaming, of flesh and bone being vaporized. Looking out of the window, Aurantico could see that an armored, hovering shuttle had practically parked itself a few meters off the ground, the autocannon on top of it firing into the crowd of cultists in tandem with several Liintrix infantryman and a door gunner taking shots outside of an opened hatch on the side.
"Loska, Aurantico!" Ekora shouted, rushing out of the room he had taken shelter in, as well as most of the other employees not trained for combat. "A couple of shuttles landed on the roof, we don't have much time, it sounds like an Imperial Crucible is charging up in orbit!" His tone was strained, scared, but not panicked this time, as there was still yet hope that they could get out of this.
A grey and orange, heavily armored humanoid figure stomped up the stairs. Admiral Loska, apologies for our lateness. We've stalled the attackers for now. As the boy said, our shuttles have landed upon the roof. They gave a nod of acknowledgement to Aurantico, and Loska spoke up.
"Any sign of another Cantonese man on the first floor? Another one of our guests, he was separated from us in our retreat."
The armored soldier shook their head. Negative. The situation was dire down there when we arrived.
Loska cursed under her breath, and gestured to the survivors. "Come, there's a stairway to the roof. Our time is more limited than ever."
-----------------------------------------------------
Pitka, still fighting for his life, could hear footsteps and voiced from around the corner, but not the sound of Marchander. It was at this point that he, too, could hear the sound of plasma autocannons tearing through the bodies of the rats moving to flank him and his remaining security guards.
A trio of power armored figures turned the corner, weapons raised. To the roof. Now. One of them commanded with a booming, authoritative voice. And keep your heads down.
The survivors made it to the roof to see shuttles waiting for them. Aurantico threw one glance down at the masses of dead and living below them and then yelled for Tang to get aboard, before following the alliance personnel into one of the waiting craft.
Out of the viewports, the city was ablaze, tracer rounds and plumes of smoke smearing the sky as aircraft whipped to and fro, some on fire missions, some just trying to escape. Their ships juddered into the sky just in time - a door gunner let loose on the rooftop where they had been just moments before as Cultists burst out of the stairwell and across the roof, spraying fire wildly up after the retreating gunships.
As the pilots made it into high orbit, a communication overrode their inbound and advised them to proceed through the Slipgate ahead of them. As promised, an emerald Slipgate winked into life, and as the Quosx ships dove through it they found themselves spat out many AU away, on the edge of the system, amidst dozens of other ships. Those nearest were an eclectic mix of civilian, commercial and diplomatic ships, but beyond them loomed the great castle-ships of the Cantonese, their prows all angling in-system, their lights riotous and colourful in the darkness of space.
All other lights faded from view as a huge beam of argent light sprang from a huge vessel deep in the Cantonese formation, energy waves buffeting the waiting and confused civilian ships.
"Oh...no..." murmured Aurantico, her expression disbelieving