Of Terrorists and Territory (& Crumpets)

[Incindre]

The majority of the mall had been evacuated, the BPA’s side completely and most of the side where the terrorists were entrenched. Close to ten bodies lay on the floor, victims of the wild fire from the sub-machine guns that were used upon entry of the building by White’s gang.
The civilians who were intelligent had gone up a few levels from the ground floor and crossed over to the safe zone on one of the complex bridges out of the immediate vision of the criminals, some of which were now swapping their SMG’s for more accurate assault rifles. This idea evidently did not occur to one person who made a desperate dash past the circular court yard and directly into the path of a bullet.

Jason Sykes swore and ducked down behind the food courts low wall, “They’ve got slug throwers!” he informed the rest of the group. “Really.” said a Constable sarcastically while examining the bullet hole half a meter above his head.
Jason continued unperturbed, “Assault rifles, AR-92’s by the look of them, more accurate than the SMG’s by any rate, keep your heads down or you’ll lose ‘em.”
This obvious show of weapon familiarity silenced any sarcastic persons in the group but also made the officers all the more curious about Sykes shady background.

The ground floor of the building was almost as complex as the mismatch of strangely angled escalators and oddly shaped lifts seen on the levels above. You entered into the dome from either the West or the East doors which brought you straight up to a curve of smaller radius with an information wall directly in front. The curving hallway went each side past a few premium paying stores until one reached either the North or South of the dome where the inner curve ended allowing access to the centre of the mall. The rest nobody could comprehend and this would inevitably cause problems.

Silsbury held two fingers to the panel on her helmet and contacted the Superintendant in her planning room.
“Calvert, I need you to send a schematic of the building to my helmet, I can’t make sense of this place.”
“I can’t make sense of it either; they have cameras in all the strangest places here! I mean who needs to check on the state of the ceiling in the crumpet stand?”
“Sir, I need it now.”
“Alright, patching it through now.”

A download bar popped up on the right of her HUD.
“Oh! There’s sound on these things!” Calvert exclaimed tapping a small icon in the corner of the camera feed. “Targets are in more or less the same position as you just in reverse.”
“Keep monitoring them and tell us if they say anything important or move.”
The Superintendant affirmed this and then turned his attention to a new flag which popped up regarding the building he was currently in.

The map finished downloading and replaced the basic wireframe already sitting in the navigation square in the bottom right of her helmet readout.
“McArthur, Savins, I need you in our half of the food court to look at this map.” She transmitted.
“Coming around now.” McArthur replied and two vested figures came around one of the curves towards them as fast as possible while maintaining a strange crouch.
The members of Silsbury’s group gave covering fire, Sykes’ ball bearing shooter making an impressive noise and prompting all of the opposition to keep out of the way.

Once the two inspectors had reached cover the officers dropped back down behind the wall.
“Are your teams ready?” Lucy quizzed them.
“Aye, both of them waiting at the entrance.” McArthur answered as Savins attention turned towards the nearby crumpet stand.
Sykes leaned over and tapped the distracted Inspector on the shoulder before motioning where his attention should be directed.

“Ah yes, the map!” Savins said brightly, “Would be nice to know how this place worked!”
At that very moment the only rifle grenade in the terrorist’s possession sailed gracefully in an arc preceded by its distinctive ‘Puchunk!’ and landed in the crumpet stand, rendering the small outlet a burning box of kindling and pastry.

“NO!” Savins cried out and he had to be restrained, a reaction similarly mirrored by White’s right hand man on the other side of the building. Adam was glad that he didn’t run to the ruins of the snack outlet as five seconds later the flour exploded in a much larger fireball which singed a nearby Constable.

“Oh well,” he conceded “there’s a much nicer one on the fifth floor.”
Silsbury pulled a few levers on her hefty weapon, spun on her knees and fired an explosive towards the assailants. This one, having been aimed by a woman who spent her spare time either working out at the gym or practicing in the firing range, hit the top of the opposite food court wall and blew a large chunk of rock directly into the head of a thug who collapsed, very dead.

“Ok,” she said, not betraying any hint of satisfaction, “I’ll just send the map to my PDA and we can all see the hologram.”
As is sometimes the way with technology, things didn’t go as smoothly as that, mainly on account of the fact that the wireless device link drivers in her helmet had not been installed properly.
She relayed this grave piece of news to an audience who then proceeded to give all their worldly knowledge on such matters.

After deciding that tricks such as “turning it off and then turning it back on again” were not going to work she grabbed a receipt off the ground and called for a pen.
Once one was produced she began to sketch a representation of the ground floor going off the schematic in her wirelessly challenged helmet.
“There,” she said proudly “What do you think?”

North

The three men gathered around the slip of paper.
“Can you believe that?”
“All those ponds!”
“Insane...”
“I know! Who would pay one hundred and twelve credits for a pair of football boots!?”
“On task Savins please...”
“What are all these squiggly blue patches?”

“They’re trees and shrubs!” Lucy responded slightly miffed.
“Ah... OK so here WE are...” Savins said stabbing a finger at the word ‘Friendly’, “and that’s where THEY are...” he finished slowly examining the two food court areas marked by the inner curves.
“Your powers of deduction never cease to amaze Savins.” Jason said dryly.
“Hey! I have just been through a very traumatic experience Mr. Sykes, and that’s Inspector Savins to you!”
“Alright then, Sir...”
“Cut it out!” Silsbury ordered “As you can see, the only easy ways for them to get over here are over these two bridges in the middle or around the courtyard and through to this side. This applies to us as well, the ground floor being fairly symmetrical; just wait until you see the upper floors. ”

Looking upwards the beehive like mess of strangely shaped mezzanines made their senses of direction and aesthetic design waver in resolution.
“I doubt they will try and come through the centre as the water will slow them down and alert us to their direction.” She continued “If we can get two of the teams up each side onto the first floor then they will not be able to proceed across or up, they’ll have to surrender or fight it out.”

A few bullets pinged overhead, smashing glass and chipping walls, a grenade exploded in a nearby pond spraying water over them. “Alright, are all our personnel present and correct?” Lucy asked?
“Team three, all members uninjured and ready.” Lachlan McArthur stated in his no nonsense Leeds accent.
“Ah, now, Constable Hansen lost four of his men.” Savins said his tone becoming serious. “Must have a rather vindictive group at pillar two.” He finished.

Silsbury sighed, “Need I remind you that you probably should have been on the ground leading them Adam. That number could have been decreased” She only called the Inspector by his first name when she was disappointed with him.
“I know Ma’am, but there was no room in the gunships, I had to take my Hussar and you didn’t give me an order to land when I arrived.”

The Commander relented, it had been negligent of her not to specify in which manner the Inspectors were to lead their teams. “Alright Savins, my apologies, it can’t be helped now.”
Sykes coughed to remind them of the situation.

“Savins, McArthur, head back to your teams; you will take a side each and ascend the stairs on our side, we can’t give you effective covering fire if you go up their side.” She said.
“From there we take one of these strange bridge things to the other side and hold the staircases correct?” McArthur finished for her.
“Indeed, they will be penned in with no-” she was cut off by a communiqu? from Benford Calvert back in The Hub.
“Sorry to interrupt but they’re on the move!” The superintendant was watching the camera feeds as the terrorists mobilized. He turned his head towards another feed playing out a scene in a corridor, a battle between the BPA in The Hub and some unknown commando’s. The Police appeared to be winning. “There’s an attack on Head Quarters that we’re dealing with here, nothing we can’t handle from the looks of it though.”

Sykes stuck his head above the wall and immediately retracted it on being greeted by a squadron of bullets. “Dammit! They’ve got to the stairs on both sides!”
“Ah Hell!” Silsbury swore, “Ok, we’ll leave two Constables on each stairwell and follow them up!”
“You said it yourself, whoever has the top of the stairs will pin the other side down!” Savins exclaimed.
Lucy flicked a few more leavers on her assault rifle before handing a few smoke grenades to the Inspectors crouched before her.

“We’ll do what they do,” she said “If they like flash bangs then they’re sure going to love us!”
McArthur and Savins looked down at the small cylinders attached magnetically to their ammo belts.
“Get up the stairs on our side; we’ll keep them from crossing the bridges to this side of the room! Move!” She ordered.

The Inspectors rushed to their respective teams and ascended the stairs while Silsbury discouraged any who dared cross the North side with stun grenade after stun grenade launched from her gun. Sykes and the Constable’s had the other bridge covered with spread bursts of plasma and small lethal pellets.

“Commander,” It was McArthur “We’ve secured this floor and they can’t come down the stairs on their side without tripping over a claymore or five.”

“Ma’am?” Savins asked tentatively “Can you come here and draw us a map of this level? Would be good to have the edge before they figure out how to get up to the crump- err... the next floor. I’ve found you a lovely napkin you can use!”

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Currently Retired

Signs and Portents