The corner of North Racine Avenue and West Cornelia Avenue
Tombstone ignored the ferrocrete and plaster dust blown from the apartment walls by rifle fire, he watched the forces converge at street level, happily exchanging small arms fire between them whilst concentrating fire on their position.
They’d Shepparded the families north, avoiding the predators but aware they were being trailed, the safest thing had been to press on as quickly as they could try and outrun what were hopefully opportunists.
After 10 blocks it had become clear these were no scavengers, the Volk had revealed themselves two blocks south on West Newport, a running battle had ensued, breaking east they’d headed for Racine aiming to cut through the backstreets the final two blocks to Wrigley.
That was when Catherine’s forces had arrived, heading in from the North and them off, for a brief moment Stone had thought the two forces had allied, however as quickly as they spotted each other as they opened fire, that had given Curren and the crew a momentary window to hurry the families into the nearby apartment blocks.
The residents hadn’t been too happy but easily dissuaded, however now they were under fire from The Volk to the South and Catherine’s forces to the North.
In the edge of his vision diagnostics scrolled down his vision, Stone thanked his delta-grade ware it had been several years since maintenance and it was still running at near peak capacity, with all of the nonchalance of a seasoned pro he ignored the rounds chiselling piece of plaster or window frame from the wall.
He’d scattered a number of disposable pin cameras along the top of the window giving him a birds eye view of their opponents both at street level and having now ascended the floors of the opposite building. Periodically his crew returned fire however their shots were fewer and measured, they didn’t have the ammunition to burn and chose their targets carefully.
Either the Volk or Catherine’s killers had now reached floors higher than their apartment block, so fire began to descend upon them, the response was harsh and immediate as Maniac opened up with his HVMG. Stones tac-comp was running between the pin cams, continually mapping, as calm as day he completed the strip down and reassembly of his Colt M22, allowed the smartlink to recalibrate and synch.
He rolled from sitting with his back to the wall to a crouched position, acquired, slid to stand alongside the window frame, with inhuman speed granted by cyberlimbs combined with wired reflexes he swung around the frame four rapid single shots followed by three shots from the underslung grenade launcher and he returned to his crouched stance.
******
Maniac, the crew and Curren watched as figures in windows disappeared in a cloud of red mist, an explosion tore through the apartment floors directly opposite, a store front being used as cover for several VOLK erupted in flames and a car wreck adjacent to one of Catherine’s Humvees, crashed down onto its bonnet.
<Fucking show off> swore Maniac via his datacomm which electronically appeared in Stone’s thoughts
<On a related fucking note, I told you we should have got the fuck out of here when we had the chance>
Again, Tombstone was silent
<Yeah, yeah, I know no one was keeping me, but you know none of the crew would have left without you!”
Again, only silence in Maniac’s mind
<Hello, your comm not working> chided the dwarf
<Working perfectly fine> thought sent Stone
<I get the honour piece, but we’ve never been this sentimental before>
<That was before, in here, we are no different everyone deserves to live not just because they have spells or chrome or training, the scum down there don’t get to decide!> Stone continued <We were left in here same as everyone else, why do we get to escape, and they don’t>
<Because we can!> replied Maniac simply
<Agreed but by that same token its in our gift to help them escape because they can’t!>
<Alright it’ll fucking kill us, but one for all and all for all that bollocks>
Tombstone merely smiled at his comrade in arms before hearing the next burst of hell released by the dwarf
******
From his vantage point on a nearby building Lieutenant Alcim winced as a further volley of micro-grenades were fired from the apartment block with devastating consequences, it took out half a dozen VOLK under good cover and a number of his troops. Three way street fights were messy although he was confident for all their numbers and savagery his troops could easily deal with the VOLK.
But this family being protected by a few runners were frightened rabbits, no they were taking chunks out of both sides and had repelled every attempt to storm the lower floors.
“Thoughts?” he directed towards his number two, a big imposing Salish Tribesman called Rumble
“They’re not just runners, these are ex-military or spec-ops trained, notice how they don’t respond to the VOLK or our fire, they’re choosing their targets. Plus, there’s some pretty big magic guarding the ground floors!”
“Fuck it, be easier to light the entire fucking block up, just bury them!” Alcim replied tersely
“True but that draws attention” Rumble looked skyward, both he and Alcim knew that there was a line, the UCAS Military were happy to let their citizens rot in the CZ but if too much ordinance or firepower came into play then they quickly punished it through a rain of fire.
Plus, Catherine’s orders had been explicit the runners and the mage were taken alive no excuses
“Tell the troop to dig in, we’re going to have to sweat them out they’ll soon run out of ammo no matter how careful their shots are and do something about those fucking irritant Volk”
Rumble nodded before activating his comm
