“C’mon old buddy old pal, off we go.” He led Kurt out of the office, walking away from the scene of chaos spreading out in the lobby. GoonStorm players were running rampant over the NPCs, shouting at them and pointing weapons to make them stay on the ground. The occasional gunfire would sound as they popped off rounds over their heads or into the ground in front of them. Hoots and hollering accompanied laughter as some of them rummaged through the teller drawers. As Kurt watched, one young man stepped onto a teller’s desk and tilted his arm to take a picture of himself with his wrist phone while sticking out his tongue and grotesquely posing with his rifle between his legs. Over it all, the tank sat silent in its crumbling doorway, turret moving slightly every few seconds.
Kurt was hustled off down a hallway, through a security checkpoint now being manned by GoonStorm thugs standing over the corpses of blue shirted security guards. They held heavily modified AK47 rifles in a ready position, clearly well trained in their aspect of the heist. The metal detector went off as Kurt passed through it directly ahead of the small group, but none of his handlers seemed to notice or care. They just kept to their forced march, moving down a set of wide concrete stairs and past several doors set into the walls. A simple security door stood before them at the end of the hallway, and the leader of the four-man squad shoved Kurt slightly as he released him.
“Why’d he lock the door?” The man who spoke carried a long-barreled marksman rifle and wore dark sunglasses under his helmet. He suspiciously eyed the hallway they had come through.
A man carrying a street sweeper shotgun with a wide drum magazine built into its underside frowned, turning to face his companion. “What do you mean?”
“He locked the door up there. I’ve never seen him do that before. The manager always goes for the panic button under his desk.” He glanced back at Kurt, who fumbled with the keyring as he looked for the correct one while trying not to panic.
“Shut up, you’re messing him all up. Look how nervous he is, he can’t even figure out the keys.” The leader turned and shrugged at the marksman. “They scramble the NPCs every week Kevin, he does new stuff all the time. He noticed Kurt looking at him out of the corner of his eyes and raised one of his handguns, mimicking the action of shooting him.
Kurt whimpered slightly and squeezed his eyes shut, fumbling at the keys again. The man with the shotgun stepped forward and snatched the keyring from his hand. After picking through it for a moment, he handed it back with a key extended, shaking his head.
“Stop scaring the NPC guys, we’re on the clock here.” The leader put his hands on his hips in a mock display of authoritarian anger. “We have to get the haul out of here before those morons upstairs get bored and start killing civvies on us again.”
The key turned easily in the door and Kurt swung it open, going stiff as the leader slipped an arm around his throat casually and pointed a gun over his shoulder. As the door opened, half a dozen security guards began shouting for the heisters to drop their guns. The heist crew did not bother complying.
The handgun in front of Kurt erupted, spitting out eight rounds in a quick staccato burst. Kurt’s eyes went wide as he watched the scene unfold. The heisters spread out and made quick work of the security guards stationed in front of the vault door. They attacked simultaneously, their leader using Kurt as a human shield to prevent any counterattacks. Within the first few seconds of the battle all the guards were dead and the man with the shotgun stepped forward, dropping the large backpack he wore on the ground in front of them.
As he took items out of it, each member of the crew moved to a defensive position in the small lobby. The marksman shoved a wooden desk between the vault and the doorway, resting his rifle against it while going to one knee. The man with the LMG stood lazily near the door, leaning against the wall with a yawn. The leader shoved Kurt up against the wall next to the vault, before turning to inspect the dead guards remaining gear for any potential loot.
He kicked aside a 9-millimeter handgun, clucking his disapproval. “Never any good loot in here anymore.”
“They drop 9 mills. They’ve always dropped 9 mills.” His shotgun set aside, the technician set about the process of emptying his backpack.
Kurt was left more or less to himself, so he watched the man work. He pulled several items from the backpack and began to assemble what looked like a welding kit. Within a few seconds, he had a small gas tank set next to a hearty looking battery pack. Both were connected to a small red handle that ignited into a bright flare as Kurt watched.
Turning to the vaults locking mechanism with a smile, the GoonStorm technician began to press the plasma cutter into the glass screen meant for a handprint. Kurt suppressed his scowl at the nonsensical vault cracking method, remembering to keep to his cover. He made a point of cowering when the leader would turn back to look at him, but eyed the man’s Glock handguns with a clear sense of greed.
“Waiting on your signal.” Gadot’s voice in his ear was barely a whisper, and Kurt knew better than to respond in any way.
A few minutes ticked by, the heist crew showing varying degrees of boredom and occasionally checking in over their coms with the rest of their operation. The leader began a countdown suddenly, starting at ten and dropping down to one. As he said the last number, an alarm went off overhead.
The technician cursed under his breath as the vault door made a series of loud clunks and swung slightly open. He heaved against the door, swinging the circular chunk of metal outwards. The leader patted him on the shoulder with a Glock as he walked past towards Kurt. “Damn close this time. You’ll get it next week for sure. Right, topside team, you heard the dinner bell. Pigs are on their way, prepare for defense and extraction.
Kurt risked a secretive glance at his wrist while the leader grabbed him by the back of the neck, leading him towards the inner security door. His display confirmed that he was now part of a four bar Heat, and he turned his attention back to the door in front of him. It was a floor to ceiling metal cage, with a simple lock set in the middle of a doorway.
The technician stopped him and took the keyring from his shaking hands once more, picking the correct one and returning it with a polite smile. As Kurt moved to open the lock, he looked inside the vault to see four large bundles of cash wrapped in plastic sitting on a long metal table in the middle of the room.
The door swung open and Kurt stepped back quickly, raising his hands above his head again. “OK, OK…its open. Just please don’t hurt me.”
“Moving up.” Gadot’s low growl in his ear was strangely reassuring as his heart rate increased again. Looking out the doorway behind them, he saw a brief flash of movement as Gadot crossed the hallway in a crouch. She was dressed in all black, with a crimson handkerchief tied across her mouth. Her hair was done up in a ponytail on top of her head, a red plastic clip holding it in place.
“In position.” Jimmy clicked back into their coms from his position on the other side of the doorway. “Neck, armpit, and groin all count as critical hit points. Don’t risk the helmets blocking you.”
The GoonStorm heist crew had moved into the vault, ignoring Kurt as they unrolled four long duffle bags and began loading the cash into them. He reached into his new holster, removing the Maxim 9 and keeping it low behind his back. As they zipped up the last of the money bags, he stepped into the vault.
“Hey guys.” He spoke calmly, noticing which of the crew had their hands full as he took another step into the vault. “You probably should have listened to Kevin.”
Kurt raised his handgun and shot Kevin in the groin. He quickly adjusted his aim and shot the leader in the neck, turning to fire wildly at the technician as he raised his shotgun from the table. He went down in a hail of suppressed bullets while the final heist member struggled to lift his LMG with the duffle bag in his way. Kurt shook his head and casually shot the man in the throat while moving around the table.
A noisy series of alerts came through his wrist phone, as the display fired its
elf up in spite of his having turned off the skill notifications. While he looked at it, an item deposited itself in his pocket, a subtle change in weight.
Class Unlocked
Infiltrator.
Good at getting into places they are not permitted; the Infiltrator can be a powerful ally.
While the Infiltrator class is equipped, a bonus percentage equal to five ranks is applied to each of the following skills:
Liar, Stealth, Cartography, Disguise, and Planning.
Specialty services, clothing, and weaponry have been unlocked for purchase and use. Lock Picking is 25% faster with this class equipped.
He glanced through his skills to discover that Liar had shot up to rank seven, an impressive boost of three entire levels. Cartography, Disguise, Planning, and Stealth had all made the jump to rank five, and were clustered together in his skills list with a yellow outline and the class name beside them. Their ranks stayed at five, but the percentages beside them all indicated his class’ boost. The percentage bar on Small Arms was maddeningly close to leveling up, but he had managed to get another rank in Gunslinger. He frowned to see Perception had crept up a level as well, unsure when and how that skill gained exp. Underhanded had also gotten a boost of two levels, bringing it up to three.
Reaching into his pocket, Kurt produced a thin silver business card holder. Moving the top lid caused it to swivel open in his hand and deposit a single card, with deep embossing. The card was jet black and inked in silver, displaying his name and class prominently across the front.
Infiltrator
Mr. Kurtis
He looked back through the vault door as Jimmy came up alongside of him, hefting his newly modified shotgun. It sported a length of tube underneath the barrel that Kurt assumed was an extended magazine, and was painted with a spitfire’s grinning shark visage.
Jimmy wore a metal tactical facemask, covering all of his face aside from two eye holes and leaving Kurt with no way to see his expression as he bent over the fallen player’s machine gun. Still, he was reasonably certain he knew what it looked like.
“Ooooo! An M60. Don’t mind if I do.” He bent and collected the large gun, slinging his shotgun around to the small of his back as he hefted his new weapon. “What’s that?” Kurt silently lifted the card to Jimmy, a slightly smug expression on his face as Jimmy inspected it. “A class on your second day. Really??” Exasperation dripped from the last word.
Gadot backed into the vault room, focusing her large SMG on the doorway as she went. She walked past the players gear, now sitting atop small piles of silver dust. “Get the bags, we need to leave!”
Remembering his purpose, Jimmy quickly hefted two of the cash bags, one over each shoulder and moved back to the doorway to defend them, his new LMG trained down the hallway. “This fucker just got a class on his second day.”
As Gadot set down her SMG on the table she quickly got one of the bags arranged across her back. Kurt scanned her gun, showing it to be a Heckler and Koch UMP45. It sported a bulky suppressor, and a double magazine link. She lifted it and gave him an impatient look, motioning towards the hallway they had come in from. “Congratulations! Can we leave now??”
Kurt holstered his Maxim 9 and shouldered into his own cash bag, scooping up one of the leader’s automatic Glocks as he walked past the area the man had fallen. The dust had vanished, leaving a bundle of armor, weapons, and helmets. Kurt realized that must mean they had respawned as shouts from above them began moving down the stairs.
He scanned his new gun before pointing it down the hallway as they moved towards the open door near the end. A glance at the scan showed that he was now wielding a Glock Model 17 full auto. Before he could read any further, Gadot shouted a warning while opening fire.
The GoonStorm top-side crew was charging down the stairs, shouting and waving their weapons wildly. They seemed eager as they approached, joking cheerfully to each other, clearly excited for some action. Gadot moved to the side of the stairwell and began firing careful bursts at them, dropping one after the other before they could get into position to return fire. She crouched against the opposite wall, out of line of sight for most of the stairwell, and shouted for Kurt to get in the basement room.
He complied, hurriedly taking cover in what looked like a large employee locker room. Taking a moment to appreciate the consistency, he turned back and held his new gun out the door, blind firing up the stairs. The gun bucked in his hand and clicked empty after barely a second of sustained fire. Withdrawing it, he stared in amazement as the magazine automatically dropped out after the second and a half delay, turning to dust on its way to the floor.
“She’s pinned down!” The shout came from the stairs, and was unfortunately for the Goons, premature. Gadot stopped firing long enough to throw her bag across the hallway to Kurt, dropping to one knee and hunching inward while choosing targets. While they could stop her from crossing the hallway, she stopped them from making any progress, draining their numbers as she did. Kurt grabbed the strap on the bag and hauled backwards, sliding it deeper into the locker room. He grabbed a new magazine, noting the blue band around its base as it clicked into place.
Leaning part way out of the door, his eyes went wide as he looked up the stairs. The staircase was littered with bodies and GoonStorm members attempting to move down the stairs among them. Two riflemen were carefully bringing up the rear, AK 47s at the ready. Not waiting for them to notice him, Kurt sprayed a magazine of 9mm+p at the nearest, smiling in satisfaction as the man crumpled from a cloud of bullets slamming into his legs and chest.
Jimmy exited the vault then, opening fire with his new M60 while walking carefully forward. The rhythmic booming of his weapon coincided with the concrete stairwell erupting in stone chips and GoonStorm members retreating back to the safety of the upstairs hallway. Gadot scrambled under his line of fire, skidding to a seated stop against a nearby locker and reloading her SMG in one smooth motion. Kurt did the same with his new Glock, deciding that he needed some extended magazine upgrades as soon as he could buy them.
The LMG clicked empty, and the GoonStorm officer at the top of the stairs roared at his players to charge, after throwing down a trio of hand grenades. Kurt’s eyes widened as the small green devices tumbled to a stop in the hallway in front of him, but Jimmy calmly entered the room and closed the door behind him. Not stopping to see if the door would help, Kurt scrambled towards the other end of the room while a trio of explosions rocked the hallway outside.
Stopping to cover them with his shotgun, Jimmy waved Kurt through the back of the room. He ducked to avoid hitting his head against the concrete wall Gadot and Jimmy had cut through and moved out into an old crumbling section of subway tunnel. Jimmy came through next, moving backwards while firing his shotgun in a series of eight rapid echoing booms.
Gadot stepped up to the hole in the wall, peeking around it and firing her UMP 45 in bursts. Jimmy leaned back against the wall beside a strange looking machine, tilted his shotgun so the butt was resting on his shoulder and shook his head while he glanced at Kurt. The machine was a bulky blue box on a sled, thick black hoses leading out of either side.
“What the hell is that thing?” Kurt glanced back nervously, dropping out his magazine to look at the number of rounds left before slipping it back in place.
“A water cutter. We used it to drill through the wall.” He popped four shells from a rack on his belt, slipping them into his shotgun two at a time, going back for another handful before raising the gun to his shoulder and nodding at Kurt. “You look like you’re having fun.”
Gadot darted down the hallway and around a corner while Jimmy fired another eight shots down the way they had come, blocking GoonStorm from a viable approach
“I admit, this is somewhat less stressful than when I was with the Goons!” Kurt stepped up to the hole to cover Jimmy’s reload, nervously gripping the Glock as he watched for Goons. Jimmy laughed at him while hurriedly slipping new shells in. He seemed to be covered i
n shell racks, four strapped across his belt with two large sixteen shell count racks on his chest and two smaller racks on the shotguns stock. As Kurt watched his clearly practiced quick reload, Jimmy jerked his head towards the hole.
Turning back, Kurt heard the unmistakable sound of a dirt bike revving its engine. He fired as soon as he saw the Goon driving across the locker room towards them, hitting the man in the chest and knocking him off the dirt bike. It skidded across the room and smacked into the wall in front of them, bouncing to a stop as its front wheel snapped off. Jimmy gave a quick giggle and shoved Kurt’s shoulder, indicating they should retreat with a quick nod.
Around the corner, they found Gadot standing at the ready in front of a long-nosed dune buggy. Its frame was wrapped in a thin sheet of metal, and it housed a locker in its hollow front end. A large rear facing seat was perched at the back, situated central to the buggies body. Kurt dropped his duffle bag into the locker and crouched behind his open door to cover their exit. Gadot moved around the buggy and dropped into the driver’s seat, starting the engine with a high-pitched roar while Jimmy loaded his bags and slammed the compartment closed.
Sitting down in the rear facing seat, he buckled into a harness and readied his shotgun. Kurt dropped into the passenger seat as the buzz of more dirt bikes emitted from the tunnel behind them. He hadn’t even closed the door before Gadot gunned the engine and sent them hurtling down a small wooden ramp onto the tracks. Jimmy immediately had his hands full as a group of dirt bikes bounced down onto the tracks behind them. He began firing the Super 90, cursing as he missed and the goons started returning fire.
The GoonStorm players were using SMGs and automatic pistols in single handed grips, so their aim was not exactly terrific while attempting to drive on the tracks at the same time. They would fall back slightly as they reloaded, and bullets quickly began to fill the air, snapping past Kurt and Gadot while many of them found a home smashed against Jimmy’s armor.
The Life- Illusion Page 11