Saturday 14 June 2014

Betrayal - Part 8

They abseiled down the building. According to the squad leader, Brian was on the thirty-second floor. The team had split up into smaller ones - three per team. The plan was to clear a third of the tower each, then meet up to clear the lowest third. Two of the three teams had already swung in through the windows.
Keating and a soldier she had heard being called Cooper stopped slightly above the window of the thirty-second floor. Cooper had helped her to abseil - they had been attached together.
Cooper shot the glass with his pistol and swung himself in, detaching the clips which had attached him to the rope before he had even touched the floor.
She swung in, but her entrance was nowhere near as smooth as Cooper's. She nearly fell over, but managed to regain her balance and slide into cover as the gunfire started.
Her shields went down almost instantly - warnings flared from her head up display. She allowed her kinetic barrier to recharge before she poked her head from around the corner from the desk and took a quick glance around the floor.
Three soldiers carrying sub-machine guns were the only enemies in the room. She opened fire on the nearest one, driving him into cover.
Cooper's form flickered then vanished altogether - he had activated his tactical cloak. There was only a slight haze but it was unrecognisable as human.
A second later, the soldier she had attempted to shoot dropped with a large hole in his chest. Cooper became visible again, on the other side of the room and in cover.
Keating felt the energy build up again and thrust it outwards - a shockwave rippled from her hand and carried across the room, knocking over all the desks in its path. It knocked the Cerberus soldiers to the floor, which Cooper finished off with his sniper rifle.
"Room clear," she heard Cooper say, "Come on Keating."
She moved from behind the desk and reloaded her Avenger. Before she took a step forward, something caught her eye. An elegant female figure dropped from the ceiling above Cooper and landed silently behind him like a phantom and drew a sword.
"Cooper!" she called urgently. He spun, but it was too late. The Cerberus figure thrust her sword into Cooper's chest and pushed it all the way through. As the assassin pulled her sword out, Cooper dropped to the floor.
Keating opened fire on the assassin - but she simply cartwheeled into cover and vanished from view. Another tactical cloak.
She searched for the familiar haze and flickering which was a tell-tale sign of a tactical cloak - but saw nothing.
Then the air flicked in front of her. She managed to squeeze the trigger of her rifle and fired a handful of shots before the assassin's blood-covered sword sliced downwards and cut her rifle in half.
She dropped the remaining half of the weapon and used her biotics to throw the assassin back. Sophia used the distraction to draw her pistol as the assassin closed in again.
Keating fired with her pistol, striking the shields of the assassin but otherwise doing no damage.
She raised her hand quickly, her arm tingling with energy. The assassin was slammed against the ceiling and she threw her back down to the floor again with a sickening thud. The Cerberus assassin didn't get up.
Keating rushed to Cooper's side. She used her Omni-tool to apply medi-gel to his wound.
"Are you alright?" Sophia questioned, a hint of panic in her voice.
Cooper's breath was ragged and he had lost a lot of blood.
"Keating..." he said in a weak voice, "Look... Out..."
She turned, seeing the assassin had got to her feet and was advancing with a shotgun. Sophia fired her pistol again but the assassin ducked into cover and vanished again.
"Not this time, bitch," she growled, throwing a shockwave at the desk where the assassin had been a moment before. She heard a thud as the desk collided with the assassin, which disrupted her tactical cloak. The assassin was thrown backwards by the desk. Glass smashed, and the Cerberus killer fell out of the window. The only thing left was her sword.
"Cooper?"
There was no response. She turned to see Cooper take his final breath before his body relaxed.
Her hand went to the side of her helmet, activating her radio, "Cooper is down," she said, "... Help. I don't know what to do..."
The reply came a moment later, "Clear the floor. We'll start heading down. We're nearly done here."

2 comments:

  1. Poor Cooper, and poor Keating... just throwing the other woman out the window was a good move, though. ^^ Simple, but effective. ^^

    ReplyDelete
  2. :( . . .

    I really like - "Cooper is down," she said, "... Help. I don't know what to do..."
    And even though she's being an official person person and she has all her gear and her mission and she'd using all her terminology, she's still just helpless and she doesn't know what the do, and the contrast showed up really well in that . . .
    And I know it probably wasn't intentional but I liked it anyway . . . :P

    I've told you before, but you're good at writing action. :) I can take it in, and I often can't take action in . . . my brain wanders off and I have to reread it. :P
    (I think it's because speech has that contrast in tones and stuff . . . my mind can wander off in description as well.)

    Poor Cooper. :/
    I mean, I knew he was going to die, because you established what connections he had to her and personified him slightly, but - :/
    Yeah.

    Keating's good at this, though. :) :)

    ReplyDelete