Case 010 - Nobody expects....(Part 2)

Long bursts of fire and screams filled the church building once we stormed in. Quick aim and my SMG sends bullets toward the nearest fanatic that tried to attack me. That was enough to knock him down but he still wanted to shoot me using Budget Arms' cheap 3-D-printed handgun. Without much hesitation, I sent one more bullet right into his chest.

However, shock and surprise didn't last long. Fanatics started getting back to their senses and decided to fight back. Cult is situated in a large ex-office building. So with every room and corridor resistance started to intensify. Enemies attack us from every direction possible. Even from above as Daru got crashed by some fanatic who used ventilation and "para dropped" from above. A few swearings and rough kicks later we got back to storming through the building.

Sometimes we got ambushed, well if you can call ambush attack of an unarmored fanatic with screams once we pass near their cover. One or two shots were enough to calm them down. But, things changed when we started getting closer to cult leader-preacher's private rooms. Mob with crappy guns and kitchen knives changed with some well-trained bodyguards.

"Fuck it. We are going full throttle. Everyone, turn on lethal mode. Enough playing around. We are already short of time." - I ordered to team members. Those bodyguards turned into some pain in the ass.

"Robert, Daru toss a frag grenade and make them duck. In case someone tries to fight back just pin them down. Win me time to get close and personal!" - I took out a grenade and prepared to dash forward.

The explosion was a signal for me to start sprinting. Halfway I sent my grenade flying just above the cover used by bodyguards. I made it just in time. Bodyguards either tried to duck down or spread to minimize the damage from the hand grenade. However, to their big surprise grenade didn't explode and thus leaving me unharmed once I landed next to it after jumping over the barricade. Unable to fight back and out of cover bodyguards were like sitting ducks for me. A short spray of bullets and we got four dead bodies.

"That was some trick with a grenade. Left safety pin and just played on their reflexes?" - Lile asked after picking up a grenade and passing it back to me.

I just nodded in response but then we got a notification from the client's health monitor. Seems that situation is getting worse as a client will probably die within the next few minutes. Need to hurry up. Shit, this is going to be very risky, and I need to improvise again. A quick look for the least damaged bulletproof vest that I decided to put on as additional armor. Feels uncomfortable and a bit restraining but an extra layer of armor in the current situation is the only option to survive. We don't have time to look for a workaround so we must just storm in and hope for the best.

The next few rooms were cleared on a run only doing some basic scanning. Only to identify enemy numbers and their position. Not enough to use our smart links to the fullest and optimize firepower. Yet, the situation turned worse when we had to face fanatics whom I considered cult elites. Ex-criminals, veterans, and corpo soldiers. Those bastards had skills but the most dangerous part was their fanatism.

We decided to fight them from a distance but some thugs armed with blades and other melee weapons made it impossible. We tried to shoot them down but other cultists pressed us down. I had to activate my implants to try to turn the tide.

"Guys! I will take out their fire support while you must take out those bastards sprinting towards us." - without wasting time I activated implants. Time slowed down so I had enough time to clarify priority targets and start taking them down.

First was a machine gunner. I tried to make bullets hit his chest or machine gun. Two bullets hit him right in the chest and one damaged belt feed of a machine gun. The next target is a guy with an assault rifle. That bastard had a column as a cover and fired at uncomfortable for me angle. So I had to shoot in such way that bullets would reach him from a side. Finally, the last guy with a precision rifle. A long burst of fire and at least half of the bullets have a good chance to reach him behind a large container used as a cover. Even if all my bullets miss that will make him duck down and give us time to deal with melee.

Time started getting back to normal. The machine gunner fall down without a scream, while a guy with an assault rifle screamed in pain holding his side trying to stop the blood loss. The precision rifle guy screamed and dropped it, bullets hit him in the hand severing his fingers. Now we can deal with melee. But what I saw made me shiver. One of the fanatics instead of what I thought was a large metal tube had an improvised flamethrower. Shit.

I started firing at him but the damn fanatic still managed to send one long stream of fire. Bullets managed to kill him but too late, the flamethrower got loose. It kept unleashing streams of fire burning and damaging everything on its way. Some cultists got covered in fire completely and screamed in pain while we had to put off the fire and keep firing at approaching enemies and suffer from burns.

However, the situation got sour when Robert and Daru got attacked by surviving melees. Daru got hit in the head by a baton and fall down unconscious but managed to kill his opponent. Robert got knocked down by bull charging thug and now they roll on the floor punching and trying to strangle each other. Lile was fighting off an axe-wielding brute using his medkit as a shield, I wanted to help him but I also got charged by a burning cultist.

"DIE! DIE! DIE!" - he roared and attacked me with a combat knife.

"Fuck!" - I cursed holding his hands with a blade of combat knife just a few centimeters away from my neck. That dumbfuck is really strong. Centimeter by centimeter his blade was getting closer while I tried to change its direction. Suddenly cultist screamed and pushed with all his might.

"Arrggghhhh" - I shouted as motherfucker managed to pierce my shoulder muscles. Just a few centimeters a side and I would have at least five centimeters of steel shoved in my neck. I headbutted him in a desperate move. This caused to knife go deeper into my muscles but at least cultists let me go. Forgetting about the pain I kicked him in the knee to put him off balance. Grab him by his head and kneed him right in the face knocking him down completely. Then I just stepped on his throat crushing it. The angry glare of dying cultists pissed me off so I just stepped a few times on his head to make sure that he is dead and the last thing he sees will be my boot on his face.

I turned around and saw that Lile got almost overwhelmed by his opponent. Without much thinking, I sprinted toward his enemy and jumped on his back. I grabbed the knife still stuck in my shoulder and start hitting brute in the neck non-stop like a sewing machine. With a loud scream, he started falling down but I still kept hitting him. Blood start spilling all over the place but I didn't care. Only when he stopped twitching from the agony did I stop. Panting I started looking for Robert. He and his opponent were busy trying to twist each other necks. I got Kang Tao little shit out of a holster and shot the last remaining cultist in the head.

"Lile, go and check Daru. If his completely out you will carry him. I have no idea how many cultists may be hiding here so we can't leave him here." - I said in a coarse voice.

"Robert, you are the least injured of us so you will be our vanguard. This is the last room remaining. Let's hurry up." - he just nodded in response.

Lile tried his best but Daru was still out, so Lile had to carry him on his back. So our rag-tag team finally got into the last room. There we saw a young man bleeding on an altar while a prophet is performing some jackshit ritual. Lile carefully left Daru on the floor and proceeded to pale as death client.

Prophet tried to shout something about sin and other bullshit. He tried to act all strong and mighty but I saw how scared he is and barely manages to keep his voice from trembling in fear. I told him to shut up yet he kept pestering us about committing a sin and other shit. I just aimed my gun at him hoping to make him shut up but fucked in a brain moron started shouting that he is a client and so on. Angry Robert just shot him in the knees and then knocked him out with a punch. Yeah, you are just a silver while here we have a platinum client to whom you caused harm. So you have no authority here.

"Lile, report." - I said in comms hoping that we made it in time.

"I stopped the bleeding but he needs to evac now. We have less than 10 minutes to make it to ER."

"Fuck. Ok, I will stay here with Daru and our "another" client while you two bring platinum to aerodyne. I will just wait for another Trauma Team to arrive and will evac with them. Clear?"

"Yes."

"Got it."

I decided to use the altar as a cover for me and Daru while we wait for "always late cavalry". Gosh, what a day. Saved one client then we beat him to save another client.

"R-4, Markus. Respond. This is Trauma Team A-09."

"A-09. This is Trauma Team R-4, Markus. You can move in."

Now I can finally relax. Cavalry is here. Let them do the rest.