Guns for Hire - Script Twenty

JSBFS 5.17pm - 13/06/2015

As the buzz of the jungle filled the aftermath of the gunfight Alex slid down the rise & prodded the cooling corpses, she recognised two of their erstwhile opponents as technicians from the mugshots seen during the previous evenings reconnaissance of the riverside research station, Anko Yuko, a lab technician, & Cyrille Calisto, a electrical engineer, the other two antagonists were a mystery.

Both were dressed in unmarked fatigues & were fitted with standard military issue cyberware including body plating & mastoid comm units as well as being armed with US infantry issue M18 assault rifles, like the base technicians neither carried any form of personnel ID. One of the unknowns, a female toasted by Alex's LF19LR , reacted to Alex's prodding, however she didn't open up to Alex's threats of more violence or surprisingly even when Alex toyed with her wounds, disgusted at the lack of reaction Alex put her out of her misery.

Ignoring the deceased & dying Skinpin administered to Gonzales & Vrasten, the latter's left foot was a mess, in fact Skinpin reckoned that even with half decent surgical facilities Vrasten would likely still lose it, the best he could do for now was to pump Vrasten full of endorphins & wrap it in slap patches to keep it clean.

Grimacing, Vrasten gingerly pulled his boot back on & put his weight on it, it wasn't good, in fact it was excruciating, even pumped full of painkillers, but it could be worse, at least when, if they got out of this fuck up, he could afford a new foot. Cutting open Gonzales's Flak Vest Skinpin wasn't sure just what he could do, with infinite care Skinpin began easing out shrapnel from the grenade blast & applying spray skin to the worst of the burns however there was nothing he could do about the fried cyberware,

"OK dudes, best I can do with what I've got, go careful yeah, seriously, your fucked up, be careful"

Shaking his head Gonzales took stock, he felt like shit, sure, Skinpin had done a pretty neat job of patching him up but he still hurt like fuck all over & the control systems for his left arm, although shielded were still felt unresponsive, slow, like it was wrapped in tar or something equally thick & gooey, worse, he could see/hear jack shit out of his left eye/ear, everything sounded as if he was hearing it through water, muffled, dead, bollocks thought Gonzales, at least those bastards won't sleep comfortable tonight.

Shrugging off Skinpin's fussing Gonzales rose unsteadily to his feat & staggered off in search of the bastard who fried his circuits, even if he was dead at least he'd have the microwaver for himself.

JSBFS Bunker 5.24pm - 13/06/2015

Stood with the others in front of the steel grey blast door Gonzales shuck his head,

"Not a fucking prayer of blowing that bastard with what I've got left " muttered Gonzales as he plied the remaining Cemtex between his fingers.

Mariusz however was more confident about his own talents & began to unscrew the face plate from the coded panel, aided by Alex some twenty or so minutes later the dull grate of steel withdrawing suggested success however the door lacked any form of handle externally & remained solidly closed, cursing, Mariusz again set to & was relieved a few minutes later when the door eased open a few inches, before anybody could open it further Mariusz raised his hand,

"I can't swear to it but I'm pretty fucking sure that I heard someone on the other side of this mother about ten minutes ago"

Locked & loaded Alex gently pulled the door ajar & peered warily inside, as she did so there was the deafening retort of lead slamming into the back face of the blast doors, throwing herself away from the opening Alex looked sheepish & flicked off spent shrapnel from her flack jacket,

"Bastard cannon about thirty yards in, couldn't see anybody behind it but then the lights aren't good, fucker must be on a motion sensor, looked like a couple of doors on the left as well, anybody care to go first"

When nobody volunteered Alex shrugged & crouched by the foot of the open door, removing the pin from a frag grenade she waited a few seconds before then rolled the grenade through the opening, seven seconds later there was a dull thud as the grenade detonated. Risking a quick glance around the door, Alex grinned & pulled the door open, down the exposed corridor the autocannon was lying on its side spraying shells harmlessly against the wall of the corridor. As the others looked past her they could see the corridor was as Alex had described, concrete lined it sloped steeply down away from the blast doors & was dimly lit by recessed lights in the ceiling, on the left were two doors & what looked like a window between them, at the far end of the corridor closed doors barred there way, in front of the the doors however was a second trolley mounted cannon, strangely it pointed inwards rather than towards the intruders.

Limping Vrasten & Gonzales took up the rear, Alex, followed by Skinpin & Mariusz slid into the shadow of the corridor, Gonzales, still groggy, took hold of the blast door inner handles & pulled the door closed, in the silence of the corridor, the sliding of the doors hydraulically operated dead bolts was remarkably loud, glancing around the frame & surrounding walls of the closed doorway it was clear there was no internal keypad,

"You complete twat" hissed Alex as Gonzales shrugged in apology.

Distracted by Gonzales's closing of the door Alex was paying scant attention as she walked forward passed the first side door intending to disarm the fallen autocannon, as she drew level with the ignored door it was flung open & shots were fired from within, unhesitatingly Alex emptied off a full clip through the open door & was rewarded with a crash of furniture, before the others could react Alex reloaded & kicked aside the remains of the door firing as she went, again there was a brief scream of pain as a figure slumped behind an overturned desk,

"All clear" muttered Price as she turned back towards the fallen autocannon.

JSBFS Bunker 5.58pm - 13/06/2015

Leaving the injured Vrasten & Gonzales in the corridor for the moment, Mariusz & Skinpin moved in to the cleared side room, sprawled on the floor were two bullet riddled corpses butchered by Alex, it wasn't pretty but then hey, it could be worse, it could be us thought Mariusz.

Whilst Skinpin rifled through the desk & filing cabinets Mariusz checked out the two doors leading from the room, the first was unlocked & open, peering through Mariusz could see several bunks, brew facilities, microwave, personnel entertainment system etc, as well as three further doors, one leading back, a second onward & the third obviously back into the corridor, kicking open the second door Mariusz could see the room beyond housed the grunts shower block, from behind Skinpin called him back,

"Security day files" said Skinpin, pointing to the documents removed from the filing cabinets, " They list who's in, who's out, funny though, it shows the three Doc's, DeBreu, Goodday & Satish as regular Joe's from down below as well as eight security grunts & four technicians, but the diving guy, Netuno, is listed as well, don't now what the fuck he's good for up here."

From the other side of the observation window Alex shouted through,

"Artillery's off line, reckon we could lug it out of here when we go, its the real deal, 20mm Barrett-Araska, none of that cheap Chinese crap we offered back in NC, anyway's what's through the other door"

Leaving Skinpin flicking through the files Mariusz gave the second door the once over, unlike the other internal door it was locked with a similar pad to that on the blast door, assuming similar operation he quickly opened it up,

"Shit" blurted Mariusz, "Used the same fucking bypass as outside & its locked up on me, only way were going through this one is if Gonzales makes a baby"

Wary of his fuck up Mariusz went back through to the bunk room & gave the second security door a pull, locked, muttering he carefully removed the face plate & started from scratch, four minutes later the door released.

Gonzales shuffled in to the security office & after a quick poke around tried to resurrect the security monitors almost immediately he realised he was wasting his time, they were, courtesy of Alex, shot to fuck,

"Fuckin' women, give em' a gun & they think there fuckin' John Wayne"

JSBFS Bunker 6.07pm - 13/06/2015

Shit thought Vrasten, I'm fuckin' goosed, whilst Mariusz pissed about with the locks Vrasten hobbled in to the security bunk room & fell back on to a cot grunting with the effort,

"Fuck, I'm gonna have to sit this one out, fucking foot's fragged, I'm gonna sit tight here & cover your backs"

"You do that" murmured Alex "Be fuckin' safer for all of us"

As Mariusz tossed about with the second security door lock Alex peered over his shoulder & offered a few disingenuous tips, when the door finally opened Alex got nice,

"Guns, lots of guns, big guns, autocannons, more autocannons" slavered Alex "Shit, we need a bigger boat"

Whilst Alex drooled over the armoury's contents Mariusz announced he'd found the sister panel for the external blast door, it was inside the armoury, outside Skinpin gave Vrasten a quick once over,

"You'll live Vrasty, just don't plan on dancing for a while yeah"

JSBFS Bunker 6.09pm - 13/06/2015

With Vrasten holed up in the security bunk room the others moved back to the corridor, still unsure why the second autocannon was pointing away from them Alex slunk forward & deactivated its auto sensor unit.

Through the bleary vision panels of the double door at the end of the corridor they could just about make out a large open space lit from above however it was difficult to make out any details, trying the door handle, whilst not locked, it was secured somehow from the other side.

With Mariusz covering them Alex, Gonzales & Skinpin put thier combined shoulders to the doors & heaved, it gave suddenly & all three stumbled forward, as they did small arms fire rang out from either side of the doorway, pulling back Gonzales grunted & dropped, examining him Skinpin looked up,

"Poor bastard's taken a bullet in his other fuckin' shoulder, nothing serious but I reckon its dislocated, is he a Jonah or what"

Whilst Mariusz made the unconscious Gonzales comfortable Skinpin & Alex looked at each other & then as one dived forward on to the steel walkway beyond the doorway guns blazing,

"That's two more mo'fuckers K O'd" added Mariusz "According to the security tag-out there can only be a couple a grunts plus the techies still in the place"

JSBFS Bunker 6.14pm - 13/06/2015

Whilst Alex & Skinpin checked out the cooling bodies Mariusz took stock of where they were at, the doorway they'd entered by fed on to a steel gantry that ran around the perimeter of the bunker which was probably some sixty feet in diameter, above there was a domed concrete roof littered with ventilation ducting, light pods & other junk whilst below amongst the various work stations & cabinets there was what looked like a operating theater & what could be freezer motors or air tanks, he wasn't sure. To the left a spiral steel steel staircase linked the gantry to the floor below whilst on the right was what looked like lift doors recessed into the wall, lazy bastards thought Mariusz, having a lift to serve two floors. In the dim light Mariusz could also see two double swing doors, one behind the spiral staircase & one directly opposite, in the gloom he could also see several doors opposite & below, the lower lift exit to the right as well as maybe sliding doors & windows on the left.

As Alex reloaded following the failed ambush he spotted a stenaphone to the left of the corridor door, glancing around the dome he pressed the speak icon & leaned forward,

"If any of you faggots can hear me you've got exactly two minutes to bus your shitty asses to where I we can see em' cos if you don't you is dead meat"

On cue two white coated goons stepped through the gantry door behind the staircase whilst a third rose from behind a lab bench below, nodding to the lone figure below Alex whispered under her breath'

"Its Goodday, maybe now we can get some clue as to what the fucks going on here"

JSBFS Bunker 6.17pm - 13/06/2015

With Skinpin still playing doctors & nurses with Gonzales, Mariusz & Alex herded the two techies down the staircase & secured all three captives below, glancing around the lower level they could see all sorts of shit they didn't recognise but Skinpin from above shouted down that there was some state of the art surgical kit in this place fit enough to grace any half decent ripperdoc unit in NC, unimpressed Alex turned to Goodday,

"What the fuck is this shit"

At first Goodday kept quiet, however as Alex & Mariusz pushed him Mariusz let slip Melody Uzzit's name, immediately Goodday spilt his guts,

"Melody was here from the start, her SCC profile was OK & I needed somebody competent enough to deal with the day to day data logging but who could think for themselves & not get freaked out or go all moral on me about what we were doing here, she was good & cute with it mores the pity, I didn't mean to fall for her but I did, big time, she was pretty cool to me at first but after a while we hooked up, outside of this place she'dnever have looked at me twice. Anyway things progressed & we bunked up together.

Then she died.

We'd had a bit of a tif, nothing important, its just difficult when your cooped up like this, small things matter. The next morning we kinda made up, ate & she came down to the lab, I told her we needed some time outside & that I'd persuade DeAbreu to give us a day or two of fresh air, the last time I saw her alive she was smiling.

Maybe her mind was on the thought of the impending time off, I don't know, but Mel & Triador were due to run some tests on our first hybrid, it wasn't pretty but we were getting some good data & it had been pretty docile up to that point.

Something went wrong that morning though, the CCTV footage shows Triador coming out of OB3, then, well, it just happened. Protocol says they should have had one of Netuno's boys kited up & with them all the time they were in there but they didn't, they just got sloppy. Triador, Triador died, it wasn't nice, she, Mel, tried to help him, she could have got out, shut the door, she could have run but she didn't, Triador was gone, dead, fucked, Melody would still be alive if she'd just shut the door.

DeAbreu blamed me, said I took her mind away from the project, figured she was probably right too, DeAbreu sorted it all out, she's one mean bitch when she wants to be, pulled some strings & it all went away, nice & clean, accidental diving incident on the river, but it didn't go away for me, it was all my fault.

I was struggling, DeAbreu was threatening to get me kicked off the project but really she new she needed me what ever happened.

From what Melody had told me of her old fella I tracked his details down, next time I was out of here I sent him a text, dumb really, I didn't know what to say, I just wanted to let him know how sorry is & that somebody else cared but I couldn't face phoning him, stupid text really, guess it didn't help him, didn't help me I know that"

With Dr Goodday spilling his guts Mariusz wandered over to what Goodday had pointed to when he'd mentioned the Observation Room, OB3, the sliding doors were open & Mariusz could see six doors, each was tagged obviously OB1, OB2, etc, observation windows were sited adjacent to the doors so there was no need to try & bypass the keypad operated doors.

Checking out the doors themselves it was clear they were intended to keep in what ever they contained, each door was festooned with warnings & protocols to be followed as well as controls to monitor & alter the internal room temperature, humidity & ventilation etc.

Peering through the heavy plasteel glass of OB1 Mariusz could see a second egg type thing on a trolley, that Skinpin had whinged about earlier, funny though, this one had burst open at the top like ripe fruit, on a second trolley was the naked body of a woman, she looked dead, well, presumably she was as she had been opened up across her abdomen from the look of things, on a third trolley was, well, it looked like some sort of crab with a tail, pretty weird really, look dead but you never could tell with crabs.

Through the window of OB2 Mariusz could only stand & stare, there was some weird shit going on here, the room was clouded with mist, frost rimed the glass, not surprising when you looked at the temp read out, if he was reading things right it was nearly two hundred thirty degrees below freezing in there, through the mist Mariusz could just about make out some sort of lizard, two maybe, curled up on the floor, incredibly they were moving, sluggish, but at those sort of temperatures it was a fucking miracle they were alive.

OB3 was empty however OB4 was definitely occupied. There was a kid in there, a girl, maybe six, seven years old, difficult to tell as her head had been shaved, she was wearing pajamas & playing with a doll & some crayons, apart from a metal bunk & a low table the room was pretty much bare, what didn't make sense was the temperature, it said that the internal room temperature was minus fifty seven degrees, as Mariusz turned away the kid ran to the glass & smiling held up her doll to the window.

Shaking his head Mariusz walked towards the lift still not believing that there was really a lift for only two floor levels, above on the gantry Skinpin, satisfied that Gonzales was stable, rested his Ronin assault rifle on the gantry handrail finger hovering nervously over the trigger. At the lift Mariusz peaked inside, seems like it really does only serve two levels thought Mariusz, funny though, it's big enough to a coffin in.

Dismissing Goodday's confession for the moment, Alex crossed the deck & again put a final warning out on the intercom for the missing security grunts, Skinpin, still edgy, wandered around the gantry & down the spiral staircase, like Mariusz he began to check out the cluttered kit on the lower level, at one point he let out a low whistle as he stared at some sort of leathery egg about a foot high held in a portable cryotank, according to the display the temperature inside the tank was some thirty degrees below freezing.

Returning to the prisoner's Alex's impatience grew, drawing her Armalite 44, she casually put a slug into the back of the head of one, then the second technician, turning to Goodday she asked,

"Anything else you want to tell me"

As Goodday vomited Alex turned back towards the entrance corridor & the door beneath which one of the now dead technicians had said was DeAbreu's office, Mariusz, stepping out of the lift was startled by Alex's cold blooded slaughter of the technicians but then hey, he thought, like the man says, no witnesses, unfortunately it distracted Mariusz sufficiently not to notice the figure emerge from the lower level door on the opposite side of the lower deck, fortunately however when the slugs peppered the lift door & walls around him he wasn't hit.

Spooked by Alex's actions the gunfire across the bunker was the last straw for Skinpin, unhesitatingly he spun & sprayed the lower deck with a fusillade of 11.0mm full metal jacket shells from the Ronin, amazingly not body was hit however the copper alloy cased bullets ripped into the monitors & lab fittings as well as hitting the one of the nitrogen bottles attached to the portable cryo unit.

The sudden explosive release of gas from the bottle was incredible, the bottle itself, trailing the remains of the tank, was launched towards the domed roof of the bunker where it ripped through the ventilation ductwork & suspended lighting trunking magnificently, as it clattered back down to the floor, the bunkers main lights flickered & died however they were replaced moments later by the systems emergency lighting, illumination from these lights was minimal however the small fires triggered by Skinpin's barrage were enough to supplement the emergency lighting but unfortunately also to trigger the bunkers sprinkler system,

"Oops" grinned Skinpin

JSBFS Bunker 6.22pm - 13/06/2015

Leaving Skinpin & Mariusz to deal with the sole intruder Alex checked out DeAbreu's office, it was compact & unlike elsewhere there was a small printer attached to the work station however like elsewhere there was no access to download data to an external drive or memory stick, tapping the keyboard Alex realised the system was unlocked, before her eyes appeared a list of files relating to the bunkers activities, maybe later thought Alex, we've got what we came for after all however she did take time to rifle the desk draws. Most contained little of interest however her eye was drawn to a file containing a single page report, Alex whistled, she had to give it to deAbreu, she really was a cold hearted bitch, stuffing the report in an inside pocket she glanced through the internal window of DeAbreu's office Alex could see Skinpin & Mariusz buggering about with the door from which the current shots had come. Shaking her head she steped out of DeAbreu's office but before joining the others had a quick look at the door to the room next to the head honcho's office, it was clearly a security door, welded hinges, keypad & two heavy looking locks, on the door was a small adhesive sign;

SERVER UNIT - AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY

Turning back she could see that the far door was still shut, dumb fuckers thought Alex.

From above she heard a noise, glancing up, gun at the ready, Alex saw that Gonzales was back on his feet, she watched as he unsteadily began to make his way around the gantry towards the staircase, dismissing him Alex slung her rifle & started to walk across the deck towards Mariusz & Skinpin, out of the corner of her eye however she realised there was a second figure hiding on the gantry behind the staircase support steel work, before she could react gunshots again echoed across the bunker.

Ducking, both Mariusz & Skinpin turned & fired through the smoke & spray from the bunkers fire suppression system, the target was indistinct but still firing, they had no intention of waiting for the fucker to run out of bullets.

On the gantry Gonzales clumsily cradled his right shoulder with his damaged cyber enhanced left arm & slowly made his way towards the staircase. Bastard Skinpin thought Gonzales, put so many fucking needles in my arm that it hurts more than the fucking bullet did, muggy, he shuck his head, who was that coming out of the doorway behind the stairs, didn't look like one of the others, Vrasten maybe, no wait he was back at Security, fuck, its a security dickhead & he's armed, got to get him quick before he takes out one of the others.

Rushing forward Gonzales struggled to draw his holstered pistol, all most on top of the goon Gonzales fired point blank however in his current condition his shot was miserable, as the goon spun to face him shots from below ripped into both the security jerk & Gonzales, below Mariusz & Skinpin stopped firing happy that they'd got the bastard.

Alex stared in disbelief,

"Er fellas, I think you've just terminated Gonzales"

JSBFS Bunker 6.27pm - 13/06/201

As Mariusz & Skinpin realised what they had done, Goodday, trussed on the floor, shouted across,

Please be careful what you do through there, its the main cryoplant.

Mariusz shrugged, what was done was done, there was no going back,

"Shall we see what the bitch had in her pockets then"

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