Assault on City 17: Team Dunkirk

[acts_of_gord]

The group of fighters tasked with getting civilians out of the line of fire opens on an unremarkable side door of a thoroughly unremarkable building. The walls here are largely grey brick, scribbled here and there with graffiti in a mingle of languages- English, Spanish, something that might be Russian or Ukrainian. A tattered poster of a white-bearded man in a business suit hangs limply from the wall next to a roll-up garage door.

Barney leans forward to rap swiftly on the smaller door, as there's no handle to open it from the outside. The first thing anyone sees of what lies beyond is the muzzle of a shotgun. Before any hostile reaction can happen, the wielder leans forward: a bald, bespectacled, lab-coated figure, blinking in the light of day. "Barney?" he says. "Alyx? My God, when did you get here? And who are these people?"

Comments

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon's data sheets were very, very good, but they can't really describe the screech that suddenly rings out as the first headcrab leaps out of the muck- or the vile, gorbling wail that the two half-gutted, clawed, faceless corpses make as they stagger forward under the control of the alien parasites completely encompassing their heads.

Dr. Kleiner gulps, but raises his shotgun to take aim.

[vance_prime]

"Aim for the heads!" shouts Alyx as she opens fire. "That's the only thing keeping them moving!"

[subject-lj-here.livejournal.com]

Chell backs away from the fight, wishing she knew how to fire a gun, and wasn't such a--

"Hey, Alyx?... have another gun?"

[vance_prime]

She shakes her head. "Just--stay out of the way!"

[subject-lj-here.livejournal.com]

Chell does so, careful to stay away from Kleiner.

[smelltheashes]

Probably for the best. Kleiner turns out to have decent aim with the shotgun, but poor recoil control. The first zombie he shoots down drops like a brick off the twenty-second floor, but he stumbles backwards a little himself in the process.

[subject-lj-here.livejournal.com]

Chell sees this, and steps in between rounds. She clips her gun to her cargo shorts, and asks, politely, "Mind if I borrow that?"

[smelltheashes]

"If you can put it to better use than I, be my guest," says Kleiner. "It's got a dickens of a kick."

[subject-lj-here.livejournal.com]

"Hmm." She ponders this as she takes it, and then decides. "I believe I can handle kick."

After the portal gun? Any amount of kick is easy. Except maybe from some advanced military system. She carefully takes aim with the shotgun, and shoots a zombie in the side of the stomach. Then the neck. The next shot, though, hits the head square on. "Aims a little different than mine, but same basic principle." She nods.

[vance_prime]

Alyx glances in Chell's direction long enough to let out a low whistle. "Nice."

[subject-lj-here.livejournal.com]

"It's not all that different from... my other gun?" She shrugs, honestly not seeing the big deal.

[smelltheashes]

It's all well and good, but one of the crabs got past both women and is heading straight for a leap at Charlie.

[52-dropoff.livejournal.com]

He shoots. Eight rapid shots, calmly if not entirely perfectly aimed. He is steady. He only hears the shots and his heart.

[smelltheashes]

Headcrabs are tougher than they look, but even they can only stand up to so much. By the time the guns' echoes die away, the headcrab- and all its associates- are dead. Some for the second time.

[subject-lj-here.livejournal.com]

Chell breathes a sigh of relief, and looks around. No more immediate threats. She sets down the shotgun, makes another portal, for progress. Then she waits for Alyx's signal, since she's the de facto leader.

[vance_prime]

Alyx looks around one last time, then nods. "Right. Let's keep moving, people."

[52-dropoff.livejournal.com]

Only now does Charlie's heart begin to race. That was more than a bit scary. And also a rush.

[smelltheashes]

"Well done, the both of you," says Dr. Kleiner to the two he doesn't know. "Shall I take that back?"

He's indicating the shotgun. Sonia and the others are already on the move, though, peering nervously through the tunnels and moving as fast as anyone can who's heavy-laden.

"Keep an eye out for the old stations," says one of the rebels. "We should be able to make a straight run for the evacuation area once we get to Grove."

[subject-lj-here.livejournal.com]

Chell shrugs. "Do you want it back? I wouldn't want to steal it."

[smelltheashes]

"Thank you, my dear. I'm no Dr. Freeman, but I do find it reassuring," says Kleiner as he accepts the gun back.

[vance_prime]

"How far have we gone? I always get all turned around down here..."

[smelltheashes]

"We're a couple of streets over from where we started," reports Sonia. "I know these tunnels pretty well. We've still got a ways to go, but-"

"I'm hearing manhacks," reports the male rebel. "This just couldn't go easily, could it."

[52-dropoff.livejournal.com]

"Honestly? It never does." He wished, however, that he knew what a manhack is.

[smelltheashes]

He should've paid more attention to Gordon's data sheets, then. They were written up there in pretty good detail. Not that it matters; the buzzing sound of engines and whirring, rotating blades can be discerned coming from up ahead, and the glimmer of the flying crowd-control robots' red lights begins to appear shortly thereafter.

[subject-lj-here.livejournal.com]

Chell gets a crackle on the radio, and then she hears the member of the resistance with Team Ninja coming through.

"This is Team Ninja! Dunkirk, can you hear me, come in, over!"

Chell picks it up and hits the talk button. "Yes, we can hear you. What do you need, over."

The resistance member's radio crackles, and then he replies: "We're almost out of this alley! You should start heading this way so we can get out of here, over!"

Chell replies quickly, glancing around to make sure there were no manhacks nearby. "Copy, will do. Over and out."