(Mostly) Dead on Arrival
[Hotel Elisa | 1645 Central Time, Day 2]
"Yo, run it by me again?" asked Becks through Mendez' earpiece. Mendez' can barely hear Becks' crackled voice through the loud whirring of the police helicopter he is in. He is without his usual posse though; the familiar faces this time are Isaacs and Leigh Bishop, all decked out in SWAT gear.
"How many more times do we have to run this back, Becky? You, me, Foy, and McConley take the ground floor, Mendez and McConley's partner take the hotel roof! It can't get any simpler than that!" berated Sui.
"Man, I ain't askin' about that, I was askin' about the reasonification behind our lineup!"
"WHAT?!"
"Think Becks was asking about the reason behind the split," mediated Mendez. "Also, there's Officer Bishop with me right now, not just Isaacs. You guys don't know her, but she's one of the survivors of the Richardson Precinct raid."
"Hi, uh... Mendez' associates. He saved my life at Richardson, pretty sure that's why I'm here." greeted Bishop, who sat across Mendez.
"Figures, that makes three of us," replied Sui. "Nice hearing from ya, officer."
"Right, so word is that BP is using the middle floors of Hotel Elisa as their base of operations for their trafficking biz: floors 5 and 6. Pretty smart actually, it kind of protects them from airborne infiltrations as well as ground infiltrations. The location gives them plenty of space to fortify the floors between them and the entry points," explained Mendez.
"That being said, the intel we've received from Isaacs' sources pointed to the roof access being less fortified than the ground access, so that's why we're diverting more of the resources to the ground entry," continued McConley from the other end.
"What are we supposed to do? I know for a fact we are going to shut the entire operation down, but are we after something in particular?" asked Foy.
"Any intel is good intel, but BP is running a human trafficking operation here. That means smuggling routes, ground operatives, methods of shipping, and other places where they stash their contraband. That's what we're trying to get here. We get some live suspects for the badges, all the better for them I guess," answered Mendez.
"Thanks for reminding me that we're on the same team, Mendez," replied McConley.
"Heh, anytime."
"Hey, Mendez! We're here!" announced Isaacs as he tapped Mendez on the shoulder.
True enough, Mendez' helicopter was already hovering over the roof of Hotel Elisa, along with another filled with SWAT officers. The hotel does not look dilapidated from the outside; its walls still maintained a visible reddish color reflected by the afternoon sun and all of its windows seemed free of cracks, at least when looking from the police chopper anyway. The rooftop, while not large, has enough space for Mendez to land alongside his police entourage.
Mendez rappelled down on the roof, being the only member of the roof squad without a bulletproof vest. He is, however, wearing his rainjacket.
"Alright people, you know the drill: breach and clear, floor by floor, room by room, until we reach the target. Weapons tight, there may be civilians inside," instructed Isaacs, while turning towards a SWAT officer. "Spilner, take point."
With that remark, the group descended a fire escape and began their raid.
[Floor 11, Hotel Elisa | 1650 Central Time, Day 2]
There are 8 members of Mendez' squad, including Isaacs, Bishop, and Mendez himself.
The Hotel Elisa management has been notified of the raid and has allowed the police access to all floors, including the floors believed to house BP's human trafficking operations. According to management, the upper floors were sparsely populated. If there were any tenants on the 14th floor, it would be longtime tenants who or squatters outstaying their welcome.
As soon as the group came out of the fire escape, they were greeted with a single hallway dotted with rooms on both sides spanning the length of the hotel. This entails the floor plan of the entire hotel: fire escape on either ends of the a hallway filled with rooms with a pair of elevators in the middle of the floor.
The group was divided into four smaller groups of two; each group was tasked of clearing a room. Mendez was paired with Bishop while Isaacs was paired with Spilner, who was at the group's forwardmost position.
Mendez kicked the door to a room--
--and was greeted almost instantly with screams from the vagrant tenants, who were huddled in the corner with burnt spoons on their hands!
"Hands in the air! Now!" barked Bishop trying to control the situation.
"Could be worse," chuckled Mendez as the tenants marched to the wall. "Could've caught them on the king size, causing all sorts of noise complaints."
After checking the bathroom and ushering the tenants out of the room, the pair declared the room clear.
When Mendez came upon the hallway, Spilner and Isaacs were marching another group of wayward tenants out of their room.
"Elevator, now!" ordered Isaacs.
Mendez watched as Spilner snuck alongside the tenants towards the elevator's direction with Isaacs as his rear guard, MP5SD on their hands. The tenants beside the pair were anxiously waiting for the elevator to arrive, occasionally clicking on the elevator call button.
ding!
Mendez turned his attention to the arriving elevator.
Spilner is right in front of it, taking notice of the opening doors.
The squatting tenants saw it too, but they did not walk in immediately. Instead they just stood there, petrified.
Someone--or something--is in the elevator. But who could it possibly be?
Then, the gunfire!
A bullet flew across the hallway, going through several of the squatters before hitting Spilner on the shoulder.
Of course, thought Mendez.
And that was when the proverbial fecal matter hit the fan. Ambush.
Gunfire sounds filled the hallway as the rooftop squad scrambled to get their bearings during the elevator ambush. Spilner managed to return fire, presumably hitting one of the ambushers, but was quickly shredded with hot lead coming from the elevator. Isaacs was on the ground, struggling to find cover. Bishop was just shifting her attention to the elevator when the ambush commenced.
After ripping Spilner to shreds, the ambushers stepped out of the elevator; there were five of them, each wielding different weapons from a Mossberg 500 shotgun to an Uzi submachine gun.
At this point all of the police squad members including Mendez and Bishop have ducked into cover at the hotel suites, waiting for a window to return fire.
Mendez peeked around the doorway of his own suite...
...only for a shotgun pellet to ricochet off the doorway!
Mendez spun back into cover and glanced at Bishop, who was producing something out of her belt--a flashbang grenade. She pulled her arm back, and after noticing a nod from Mendez, tossed the device to the hallway.
The grenade went off, shaking the entire floor.
The results were what Mendez expected--a disorienting combo of blinding white light and a deafening explosion, which was more than enough to stop the advance of the BP elevator ambushers.
Mendez made his move and pushed on the assailants, noticing Bishop initiating her move at the corner of his eyes.
From there, he saw three of the BP mercenaries covering their eyes, clearly incapacitated from the blast while glimpsing the other two quickly ducking into the suites beside them. Guess he will have to make do with three out of five.
A burst from Mendez' police-issued MP5SD was enough to put one BP merc down--
--while another burst from Bishop took another down to the floor!
As for the third...
...he is Isaacs' kill, who had just appeared from one of the suites beside Mendez with an M1911 pistol!
After the three mercs were taken down, Mendez instinctively spun to his left towards the hotel suite, where he thought--no, KNEW one of the BP mercs was hiding!
Of course, Mendez had parried the merc's shotgun with his own gun, leading to the shotgun discharging against the ceiling.
Without hesitation, Mendez followed up with a kick to the gunman's diaphragm, knocking him to the floor and finished him off with another burst from his gun!
And when he spun to check on the BP merc on the other room, which was supposed to be Bishop's side, he saw the other mercenary collapsing to the floor from Isaacs' M1911!
"We good here?" concluded Mendez as he picked up the shotgun from the merc he fought earlier.
"Suppose so, yeah," answered Isaacs as he holstered his pistol. "Think taking the elevator isn't such a good idea. Pollard, go check on Spilner."
Pollard's pulse check resulted in a headshake. Mendez was not surprised in the slightest; the officer got turned into swiss cheese right in front of him.
"Fuck," cursed Isaacs quietly. "Let's move."
[Floor 10, Hotel Elisa | 1700 Central Time, Day 2]
The team exited the emergency escape with Mendez taking point.
Quite similar to the previous floor, the tenth floor of Hotel Elisa consisted of two rows of hotel suites that span the length of the hotel, separated with a pair of elevators and marked with emergency stairwell on each end.
It was eerily quiet, even more so than the the eleventh floor. Mendez could almost smell it--an ambush, just eagerly waiting to be sprung. Suspecting another ambush from the elevator, Mendez signaled the entire team to continue breaching the rooms while he and Bishop go ahead and check the elevators.
While the rest of the team went and breached the suites closest to the fire escape, Mendez and Bishop snuck forward, getting closer to the twin elevators.
It was then Mendez noticed that one of the elevator doors was broken, leaving it in a permanently opened state and revealing an empty elevator shaft. Definitely a safety hazard, he mused.
At the same time, he noticed the team finishing their first batch of rooms and moving to the next one. Mendez saw one of the officers--Pollard if he is not mistaken--lift his foot to kick the door open.
And the suite door did open up, but it was not from Pollard's boot.
Instead, it was the suite's tenant, who lunged at Pollard with a combat knife, managing to stab him on the collarbone!
Not a second later, the suite doors' burst open, revealing even more of the floor tenants armed with an assortment of bladed weapons, from combat knives to sugar cane machetes!
Pollard's partner might have been able to react accordingly to the ambush by shooting Pollard's stabber down, but he was immediately hacked by another assailant, who came from the opposite room!
Noticing the chaos, Bishop quickly turned around and managed to spray down some blade-wielders coming her way--
--until another machete-wielding ambusher kicked down the door beside her, bringing the blade down on her head--
--only for the downward arc to be interrupted by Mendez kicking the machete off the ambusher's hand upwards, causing it to latch on to the ceiling!
In the same instant, Bishop managed to get her Glock 17 out and use the last bullet of her magazine to put the ambusher down!
Turning around, Mendez fired on the aggressors charging from the other side on the floor.
Three out of four bushwhackers ate Mendez' lead, but there was no time to switch weapons for the fourth--and he's got a long black machete on his hand, which forced Mendez to duck under his wild swings instead!
Mendez saw the first one coming from the assaulter's left side, evaded to the right, anticipated another from the opposite side, dodged to the left...
...and found himself standing by the gaping elevator door!
The machete-wielding madman could have taken another swing. But he did not need to.
He kicked Mendez down the elevator shaft instead!
Mendez saw a wicked grin on the man's face as gravity pulled him to certain death, only for the grin to be erased by Bishop shooting him down from his side!
'Least she didn't forget to reload, figured Mendez as he fell down the pitch-black elevator shaft.
[Floor 9, Hotel Elisa | 1710 Central Time, Day 2]
Mendez was still falling, his arms flailing wildly finding something to stop his lethal descent.
Not just anything--something, as in the elevator cabin support cables!
His hands managed to feel the rough steely texture of the cables, all that's left now is to grip them tight. This is definitely going to burn his hands, even through his fingerless gloves supplied by the SLPD.
Better burnt hands than a squishy mess down below, considered Mendez as he squeezed his palm.
[Floor 8, Hotel Elisa | 1711 Central Time, Day 2]
Mendez felt solid ground beneath him.
There is no way Mendez managed to slide his way down nine floors using the elevator cables.
Unless of course, he had just landed on an elevator cabin going up, which he just did.
Mendez saw a hatch on top of the cabin. Pulling 'La Mutilar' out, he figured that this cabin, too, must have been carrying more BP mercs to ambush his team. Taking them out before they can reach their designated floor will surely save him a lot of headache.
Suddenly, the elevator cable tensed.
Not this one, though. It was the other elevator next to the cabin Mendez was riding. Mendez saw another cabin ascending just below his own. Is that one going to stop on the same floor as this one? Or a different one? Or is it the floor where his team is being ambushed at the moment?
Either way, clearing this one should be a top priority.
Pulling the hatch open, what Mendez saw was just as expected: a group of BP mercs, guns and everything, ready to take ambush positions at their floor.
Mendez counted six BP guards. Six, precisely the same amount of bullets in his revolver. How appropriate.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
[Floor 9, Hotel Elisa | 1715 Central Time, Day 2]
The elevator arrives on the ninth floor with a 'ding', revealing Mendez standing among a bloody mess of dead BP mercenaries.
As for the floor itself, it was empty and quiet, with the only noise coming from the chaos ensuing upstairs. Grabbing a dead merc's G36V rifle like a suitcase, Mendez exited the elevator, peeking the empty hallway as he did so.
Now to check on the other elevator and its destination, which Mendez deduced by examining the floor indicators on top of the doors:
Floor seven. Passed.
Floor eight.
It stopped on floor eight.
That has to be the destination. If the elevator contained BP mercs, then floor eight's ambush party has just arrived. They are probably taking position right now.
Well, it's time to ambush the ambushers, thought Mendez as he hitched a ride downwards.