Tower Defence...?
"Look what I found." Ori says, making his way up the semi-blockaded staircase with two industrial fryers on his shoulders, both filled with hot frying oil.
"Hah! We're playing castle defence in this bitch!" Rebecca snorts.
...
"Hey, you guys smell something cooking?" Ori questions, wondering if he'd accidentally dropped something in one of the fryers.
Pilar shrugs, "That's just Falco on the floor above us. He's setting fire to the place, if those doughnut-eating pig-assholes want to stop the building from burning to the ground they'll have to make their move. No starvin' us out!"
"Can't they just wait for us to all burn alive?"
"Don't ask me, 'least they can't get in up top and shoot us in the back." David sighs, "Gonna be a lotta bodies once we're done... If we don't drop with 'em."
*Baang!*
"Sounds like we got guests. Ready up!"
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Marcus Langley; Militech Special Agent rubs the bridge of his nose as reporters flood the hastily erected barrier around New Caesars Palace. This day was just getting worse and worse, the heist in the Crystal Tower hadn't bothered him since those Lazarus schmucks had to deal with it, but the guys starting a shootout here?
They'd already killed a number of squads that tried to get in via AVs, along with two Trauma Units attempting to reach an 'Aliya Hammond', Esther Kerture, and 'Sam Walter', all of which were now dead judging by the lack of life signs from their Cyberware units.
Those deaths alone were a big enough shit show, combined the victims had a minimum wealth in the millions, billions if you included their families. And that's not even mentioning the unfortunate people who were crushed and sliced to death by the glass that fell directly onto a strip.
One guy got caught right down the middle, creating a scene right outta some freak psycho's fuckin' art project. If that wasn't bad enough, the people who lived ended up inadvertently violating the peace order and got fried by the robots before Trauma Teams could collect them.
All in all, a lot of people were gonna lose their jobs today, and if he were honest, they'd be lucky to get killed capturing the criminals in the building. At least then their families would receive remuneration for their service.
"Sir! They've set fire to the-"
Marcus scowls at the Constable "I have eyes god damn it! You think I can't see this shit!?" he waves his hand wildly at the fires bursting through the windows on the third floor. "These guys are crazier than we thought!"
"What should we do? They'll have barricaded themselves inside!"
He wets his lips, "Grab the FRT and head in through the top, everyone else, with me!" he grips his guns and starts ushering the respective teams forward.
Up in front were the heavy units, equipped with low-grade exoskeletons and custom threat prevention suits... Basically, metal reinforced brick walls with legs, riot shields, and custom 447 Militech Vipers, which were handheld shotguns that funnelled ammunition like a belt-fed LMG would.
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Inside the building Marcus kept a hand on the front soldier's shoulder as they advanced, they spread out as the front line reached the stairs, and he wasn't at all surprised when an explosive hit one of the riot shields off of the bat.
The shield took minimal damage, aside from one of the steel-braced corners getting bent to hell... What he wasn't expecting was for a shit ton of hot oil to be dropped on the heavy's heads, were it not for their suits they'd be running around tearing their faces off right now.
"DAMN! I really thought that'd work!" one of the criminals shout from behind the barricade.
"LAST CHANCE TO SURRENDER, WE'LL TAKE YOU TO JAIL AND YOU'LL PROBABLY LIVE!" Marcus shouts, wondering why these idiots always fought to the death. Sure, the Corpos they pissed off might get them whacked in prison, but living slightly longer's better than not, right?
"OKAY, OKAY! ONLY IF YOU GIVE US AN UP-DOG!"
"What's an up-dog!?" Marcus immediately replies, only to scowl in realisation.
"YOU'RE MOM! THAT'S WHERE MY DOG'S UP! GO FUCK YOURSELF, PIG!"
"Alright, enough of this. Move!" he orders, prompting the heavies to start ascending the stairs.
[We've caught their data sets! Should we make for a breach?] one of their Netrunneres report.
[Hit em, we're going in now!] - Marcus
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"Here they come!" Rebecca shouts, trying to find an angle to shoot past the approaching riot shields which covered up most of the staircase.
"Get down you dumb broad!" Pilar yells, pushing her to the ground as the heavy soldier's auto-shotguns open fire, rather easily blasting apart the barricade they'd erected out of furniture and repurposed doors.
"AARGH!" David shouts as electricity crackles off of him, a Netrunner hack temporarily putting him out of commission.
"SHIT! YOU NEED SOME BETTER ICE ON YOU KID!" Maine grouses, putting a hand to the merc's forehead to see how bad his system was overloading. Thankfully, what ICE walls he did have had prevented the worst of the damage.
Ori kicks what's left of the barricade down at the men, causing them to stumble while whipping his Monowire forward. It scratches a deep groove into a riot shield but isn't quite enough to cut it, forcing him to lasso it instead. He takes a shot to the shoulder which barely bounces off from his armour, but he uses the momentum to pull at the Monowire hard, cutting the riot shield clean in half. "Fire for fuck sake!" he exclaims as the solder struggles to fix the breach in his defence.
"Eat this!" Maine growls, stepping up and firing his arm cannon straight down the staircase. The projectile skips off of the wall and over the riot shield, past the heavies and directly at the unfortunate officers at the base of the stairs...
*BOOOM!*
An explosion echoes out and body parts go flying, blood splattering across the clean tiles of the lobby.
"YOU CRIMINAL BASTARDS'LL PAY FOR THAT! MARK MY WORDS! I'LL BURY YOU UNDER THIS BUILDING!"
"DOUBT IT, ASS HOLE!!" Pilar mockingly cackles, flipping them off with a golden finger as Rebecca peaks past the wall and starts firing.