The loudspeakers blared throughout the building and red lights flashed in their recessed wall sockets. Commander Lucy Silsbury moved with purpose from her office, a determined look in her eye. This was the kind of thing she lived for.
Trotting alongside her was her secretary, Chelsea Delacey, who was rushing through the projected readout emitted from her tablet answering the questions put to her by Lucy.
Number of hostiles?
We think about ten to twenty
Number of available units outside of The Hub?
There are twelve units on ground patrol at the moment.
Inside The Hub?
Forty three Constables, a Sergeant, Nine inspectors and one Superintendant, everyones gone home Maam!
Lucy Nodded Good thing we chose to work late, Im assuming Calvert is still here?
Yes Maam, hes doing paperwork I believe.
The Commander tapped the lift panel at the end of the corridor, I want thirty Constables mobilized immediately, I want an Inspector in a Hussar at each of the compass points acting as surveillance and contact the Land Transport Agency, get them to shut that bridge down to traffic. The current units on patrol are to cordon off the area, I will go and oversee the operation and the Sergeant can lead the remaining 24 officers in to diffuse the situation.
Chelsea looked a little pained, Maam, the Sergeant is Miss Hidamari...
Silsbury herself looked pained, the childlike Officer was quite sickly at the moment and didnt possess the experience to control a combat situation.
Ok, she can stay here; Savins and McArthur are present so they can lead the main group.
The lift door hissed open revealing one Superintendant Benford Calvert standing in the cylinder.
Where are you going Sir? Silsbury asked genuinely surprised.
Well I'm coming with you" Calvert growled before stalking forward, "You don't think I was going to sit here at twiddle my thumbs do you?
Sir, I would prefer it if someone of high rank remained here to look after the organization as a whole.
"Fine Fine, I'll coordinate from back here, if you need even the tiniest backup, call for me!"
Silsbury pointed towards her Office, the first section of which was a control room, not particularly large but suitably impressive. The roughly spherical room was empty of all but a circular metal holodesk with a glass top allowing a view into the inner machinery. Calvert swept his hand over the panel and activated the holographic interface. He then proceeded to pick the security camera feeds he required and built a system to aid the procedure.
Silsbury descended in the elevator to the armoury room while Chelsea listed the Commanders instructions through the loudspeaker system and informing the mobile units to spread into a perimeter lockdown of the area.
The door hissed open revealing eight inspectors sorting weaponry and armour out for themselves, also filling trolleys with riot shields and bags with standard PPG pistols and caps for the Constables benefit.
Silsbury spotted Inspectors Adam Savins and McArthur who were grabbing ammo cap pockets from a rack in the large room.
She approached and Savins turned and smiled Greetings Maam! through a mouthful of crumpet.
Listen up everyone! Silsbury addressed the room.
Our recon group believe that the subjects are planting explosives on the Burlington rail-bridge foundations, we predict that if it blows the bridge will fall on the East market hub.
There was an intake of breath, Bretonias market hubs thronged with thousands of people at all hours of the day.
Savins, you and McArthur will take the team of 30 constables, split into three groups and take each pillar; Wurtz, Speights, Stirling and Bishop, you will place yourself at the four points of the compass in the perimeter. The four Inspectors in question accepted this happily, You will be in your Hussars, inform and control the ring of Constables we currently have on scene, make sure that no subjects escape. Silsbury Continued.
Lucy turned to the remaining Inspectors And the rest of you ca- she was cut off by Chelsea.
Maam, the LTA have had their control systems hacked, they cant shut down the bridge remotely, theyll need to get teams to switch the rails over.
Silsbury swore, Alright; Rogers, Lindsay, it looks like you will get some action tonight. She spoke to the two remaining Inspectors.
You both will break into two teams, take three Constables each from Savins and McArthurs group, get onto the bridge and break the transport circuits on each end, should be fairly easy, look for the big yellow box trackside. Alright! Move out!
The Inspectors made for the door with their defined purposes and weaponry, Lucy put her hand out to stop Savins and McArthur.
You two werent thinking of leading assault teams in your standard uniform with handguns were you?
The two men looked a little confused but followed their Commander into the Special Firearms Officer section of the rack filled room. There they took a Carbine each from the depleted rack (all the SFOs being on various jobs in the far reaches of the Megatropolis) and then selected the correctly fitting body armour, helmets and ammunition belts complete with a few stun, flash and thermal fragmentation grenades.
Silsbury donned her SRD body armour, Time to get this thing scuffed... she thought with grim satisfaction, grabbing her helmet, gloves and ammo belt before making her way to the back of the room where lay a range of different weapons. She quickly sorted through the different guns until she settled on a multifunction rifle. With her arsenal (and the arsenal of the rest of the active BPA) complete she raced to the elevator where McArthur and Savins were awaiting her.
The elevator took them to the transport floor where they joined the Inspectors in the landing pad destined shuttle. The Constables who hadnt taken staff transports sat nervously in the benches fidgeting with the extra caps they had been given for their sidearms.
A nervous silence filled the compartment; this was something completely new and tangibly dangerous for a group of Officers who usually had the comfort of tasking the SFO experts to a situation such as this.
Having arrived at the destination everyone sprang into action. Lights and equipment activated, the four Inspectors on surveillance prepped their Hussars and took off while the rest of the police boarded the stripped down gunships which soon were being propelled by their noisy turbine engines towards the destination.
Silsbury tapped the communication button on her helmet with a gloved finger.
Calvert, were moving in.
Roger that, I can see everything from here. The voice crackled through the speaker near her ear.
Back in the control room Superintendant Calvert leaned on the circular desk watching as three wireframe ships sped across a holographic city skyline.
I would suggest for pillar one you land at the intersections of Holy and Lake Roads, Pillar two drop zone should be the small park area off Clint Drive and for pillar three theres an empty parking lot half a click to the West, behind the flight training building. He said pulling the camera feeds of the landing zones toward him.
Understood. Came the reply.
Calvert was quietly confident, having seen Silsbury organise combat situations before, she was most effective but often took things into her own hands even if there were conflicting orders from a superior. Her promotion to Commander fixed the problem most of the time and gave her more clout against the BAF and MI5 (although the secret agents still tried to upset things).
The gunships turbines swivelled as the open sided ships dropped down onto their landing zones and the personnel onboard disembarked. Silsbury made a quick check that everyone was in position and then led team one into position. She found the Constable who made the call and exchanged information.
Inspector Rogers stood nearby waiting to fulfil his bridge securing mission. There were four Constables standing nearby who had arrived by staff car.
You three, you go back to the gunship with Inspector Rogers here and secure the bridge. A similar process was no doubt happening at Pillar three.
She turned to the remaining Constable, Your name?
Junior Constable Higgins Maam! he saluted.
Silsbury nodded, Ok youre with me, grab a riot shield from our baggage man at the back.
A rotund jovial chap staggered forward and Higgins took the proffered protection.
Savins, McArthur, are you in position?
Roger Maam! Huzzah!
Copy that Commander, ready to move in.
Silsbury briefed the team quickly. Alright, approach in a curve so we can funnel them towards the strong point of the perimeter, due east; keep your shields in position, your heads down and your PPGs at the ready.
The Commander bit her lower lip.
She pushed the button on her helmet comms.
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