Jimmy fired into the overhead lights as they ran past several doors and joined Gadot at the end of the hallway in a security office. The hallway was darkened significantly behind them with the lack of artificial lighting, the only light sources sliding in from under doors. A bank of monitors showed camera angles from the various stores, and Kurt watched the near military precision of the team of players hunting them as they cleared the store. They split up in teams of two, moving with weapons at the ready and covered all angles of the store before reforming at the door Kurt and Jimmy had just gone through.
Kurt ducked back into the hallway, opening the nearest door that lead to a shop and hiding in the doorway. He could still see Jimmy and Gadot as they flipped over the metal desk in the security office and shoved it up against the doorway. Jimmy fired a burst from his M60 as the door at the far end of the hall clicked open again, pouring light into the corridor. The Russian players rapidly realized their situation, firing their own weapons into the lights around them and taking out the camera overhead they had failed to notice before breaching.
Jimmie’s voice clicked into Kurt’s ear. “Why are you not wearing a mask?”
“Uhh…Am I supposed to be?” Kurt allowed his door to close, moving deeper into the shop he lingered in.
A short sigh could be heard. “Disguise player. Doesn’t carry any masks. Dude, we’re making enemies out of one of the most dangerous crews in the game. Yeah, you should be wearing a mask. Go find one, then do your sneaking around the back thing. I’ll distract em.” A loud gunshot cracked, both over coms and in the air around the shops. “OOO! Close one. We should take out their sniper maybe.”
Gadot’s voice came in next. “If you can somehow get me a shot, I can take him.”
Kurt tuned them out as they came up with a quick plan for the enemy marksman, instead looking around the store and swiping a nearby black hooded sweatshirt. The store was filled with various merchandise from films, animated shows, and video games of the 21st century. He approached a stand in the middle of the shop that featured lacquered masks, and found himself spoiled for choice. Grabbing the closest mask that he recognized and found aesthetically pleasing, he headed for the front door while slipping on his choice.
It was a long nosed white wolf mask, with a streak of crimson running from the nose into a circle on his forehead, and another crimson smear beneath each eyehole, trimmed with swirling cloud designs on the ears and the fringe of the cheek. Pulling the hood of his sweatshirt up over it, he crept out of the building and moved back to the larger store-front he had recently entered.
“Hey comrades! SO weird running into you guys here, how’s it going?!” Jimmy sounded pleasantly confused as he taunted the Russian players. Not having the advantage of being on coms with them, Kurt could only guess at their responses, but the shouting from inside the store sounded rather upset. Seemed Jimmy was performing his distraction well. Kurt crouched low, holding his Coonan magnum in one hand down by his side as he slipped into the store front. He crouched behind the clothing rack jimmy had knocked over upon first entering the shop, scanning for movement outside of the curtain.
“Listen…Listen, no. You guys, c’mon!” Jimmie’s voice rang out from the hallway behind the curtain, as Russian players shouted back insults and curses at him, occasionally taking pot shots at him with their weapons. They ducked back as a spray of bullets from his M60 spattered into the walls and floor around them. “Knock it off! …ok, now listen for a minute. You guys are obviously upset, so I’m going to give you a free shot.” He paused for a moment, listening as the Russian players made confused expressions at one another and the sniper shrugged as he leaned slightly out into the hallway.
“You guys ready? I’m going to stand up and let you shoot me exactly ONE time, then we get back to hashing all this out.” Jimmy was full of mild irritation and condescension as he spoke, as if addressing children. When he spoke next, it was through gritted teeth. “Kurt, I hope you’re ready.”
Choosing to say nothing to reassure his friend, Kurt slid up around the backside of the players, keeping himself out of sight behind a rack of clothing while peeking around its side. From his vantage point he could see Jimmies form down at the far end of the hallway stand up and spread his arms. The Russians sniper shook his head and carefully sighted at Jimmy, exhaling a long breath before he fired. Kurt jumped slightly as he heard Jimmy grunt in pain an instant before a second rifle crack caused the Russian sniper to slump dead in a small explosion of glass and metal from the scope on his long barreled rifle.
Kurt used the opportunity to move up, hiding directly behind the curtain. He could hear the muttering and curses of their opponents as he reached for the curtain with one hand. Jimmy sounded up again from down the hallway. “What happened?! Are you guys okaaay?” He still sounded cheerful, and Kurt shook his head with a smile while he stepped around the curtain and began to fire as the Russians did the same. Their gunfire offered him the perfect cover, and he frowned in concentration as he went to work.
He aimed carefully to start, shooting the first two in the neck and armpit respectively. After that, he doggedly unloaded the Coonan into them at point blank range, taking out their entire squad as they scrambled to understand what was happening. Only one of them turned in time to see the white wolf mask with the crimson smears and the chrome pistol held out in front of it.
Dropping out his spent magazine and replacing it with a fresh one, Kurt slipped the magnum back into its holster. He stepped over the bodies as Jimmy and Gadot both approached with rifles to their shoulders.
Jimmy looked him over as they met in the hallway, taking in his mask and the bodies laid out behind him. He turned to speak to Gadot over his shoulder. “Told you so.”
Gadot looked at him with wide eyes. “Right. I believed you.” She gave Kurt a nod, turning to Jimmy and cocking her head at him for a second before walking out into the shop front. “You guys are weird.”
Peeking around the corner and checking the now vacant street outside, Gadot swiveled her rifle from the entrance area to the skies. Seeing it was clear, she beckoned Jimmy and Kurt to follow her.
“Hey, how come these guys were speaking English?” Kurt asked Jimmy, a confused tilt to his voice.
Jimmy knelt in the doorway, replacing his box of ammunition on the M60. “They aren’t actually all Russian, so far as I know. It’s just their style. A crew transplant from the EU server, and they grew into a real powerhouse.” He clicked the machine gun closed, hefting it as he stood. “Bunch of guys with military hardware and tactics. Plus, the game uses a universal translator for everyone. Part of the game balance. So the guys you hear speaking with a Russian accent are actually speaking Russian, and the rest are just speaking English…or whatever language they speak.” He concluded with a shrug, exiting the building. “This crew is hardcore though…not to be screwed with.”
Kurt happily glanced at his skills as he followed his friend. “And I took out seven of them in one ambush.”
Primary
Stealth Rank 6. (Mobility)
“The shadows betray you because they belong to ME.” -Dark Knight Rises, 2012
Moving without being seen or heard can be useful to any criminal activities. 6% reduction in mini-map presence. 6% reduction in chance for NPCs and players to notice player when engaged in stealthy behavior.
Additional Stealth consumables unlocked.
Secondary
Sneak Attack Rank 3. (Combat)
“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.” -Deepak Chopra
Attacking your opponents while they are unaware has clear advantages in combat. Increases damage and armor piercing of all attacks made while opponent is unaware of your exact location by 6%
Specialist
Ambush Rank 1. (Combat)
“I had this teacher who kept telling me that if I was ever in a fair fight, someone had made a mistake.” -Cold Days; The Dresden Files, 2012
A planned ambush of
enemy forces can be a powerful tool, overcoming even superior forces with ease. Increases the level of all applicable skills used by all parties in a planned ambush by one rank. (only the highest ranked player’s Ambush skill applies.)
“Oh cool! I got another specialist skill. Ambush, matter of fact.” Kurt looked pleased with himself momentarily. “That’s two today!”
Jimmy snorted, moving carefully across the street. “Everybody gets Ambush dude, that’s the easiest Specialist skill in the game.”
“By far.” Gadot’s chime in sounded more annoyed than Jimmies. “Pay attention.”
Kurt glanced up to see another larger squad of Russian players and NPCs heading towards them from the parking lot, filing out of three BPM-97 armored personnel carriers and weaving around the various debris in their path. “Oh.” He started running, trying to catch up with Jimmy and Gadot while grumbling to himself. “…I also got magnum force earlier…”
A claxon alarm began to sound all over the park as floodlights flicked on and automated security gates began to slam closed over storefronts all around them. The sound of sirens started to faintly reach them over the alarm, and rapidly approaching helicopters filled the sky in the direction of the downtown cluster. Kurt glanced at his wrist to see an eight bar Heat flashing at him, and his eyes widened a bit.
As they ran, helicopters buzzed overhead and moved to various parts of the park. One of them stationed itself directly behind them and Kurt turned to watch as several men in heavy armor and helmets rappelled down from the open doors on either side. The helicopter fired canisters of smoke to the ground below it, providing cover for its occupants as they began their drop. They moved in formation, all dropping at once and rapidly traversing their ropes. Two of them were carrying ballistic shields with big white letters that spelled out POLICE, and they moved to cover their allies as the NPCs began to form into groups.
Kurt huddled behind a stand that sold various types of sausages and peeked out at the police, seeing the Ursa players come around a corner. The two groups reacted immediately, opening fire on one another. The Russian players moved as if they had done this a thousand times, and Kurt realized while watching them that couldn’t be far from the truth.
Two men with Saiga semi-automatic shotguns took point, crouching low as they fired at the shields in a coordinated attack. As they crept forward, keeping their individual groups of Police NPCs cowering behind shields, their team-mates darted around the sides and flanked both groups with AK 12 rifles. The police were all down within seconds of having landed, victims of a classic pincer attack, and Kurt realized he needed to start running again as the Ursa moved aggressively forward after taking a moment to perform a coordinated reload, covering each other during the task.
Kurt caught up to his friends and they ran through the shopping center, passing various themed storefronts as Jimmy moved to take up the rear. He placed himself directly between his team-mates where he was sure the Russian attack would come from, lowering his head as he moved. As they ran around a corner, Kurt turned to watch Jimmy take several shots in the back, his clothing puffing up in little clouds of shredded fabric. His friend grimly ran on, ignoring the bullets sinking into his armor.
“Holy shit, how many hits can you take?” Kurt turned back and put on a burst of speed, noticing Gadot had ran far ahead of them.
Jimmy doggedly ran on, slower than either of them, but unceasing in his rate of movement. “Depends. Usually a lot.”
“How though?! I sure can’t take that many bullets.” Kurt nervously glanced over his shoulder.
They were running through a western themed area, past rides and attractions now devoid of any people but filled with refuse and discarded items left in the hurried evacuation of the park. “Armor is moddable dude, just like guns.” They turned a corner, entering a space themed section of the park. Jimmy stopped, peeking around the corner behind them and taking aim with his BAR. “I added plating, tripled the stitch work, reinforced all the fabric, and had it dipped in this stuff that increases its external hardness. Plus, that’s a game mechanic. This eras armor was meant to try and protect you from gunshots, to ensure you survived them, but you’d still be pretty severely injured. In this, it keeps you in the fight, but it’s pretty unrealistic.”
He fired in short bursts, causing the Russians on their tail to take cover and slowing their advance before he turned and started running again. His magazine fell to dust as he went, and he fumbled for a new one with a bright yellow band around its base.
Kurt faltered in his run, trying to keep close to Jimmy. “Jeeze. What’s that kind of thing cost?”
Gadot peeked out from a building up ahead, aiming her rifle at them. Both men diverged in their running path to give her a clean shot. She began to fire, working the bolt on her rifle as Ursa players and NPCs poured around the corner behind them. Kurt darted into the building behind her, realizing it was the entrance to a ride.
Jimmy took Gadot’s place, turning to fire his BAR at the approaching Russians again. The rounds detonated where they struck, causing small explosions and tearing chunks of concrete out of the ground and walls where the Ursa players took cover. He hadn’t bothered trying to hit any of them, just forced them to break their pursuit momentarily.
His magazine empty, he turned and kept running alongside Kurt, moving up to the doorway of the ride. “Dammit this thing is heavy. My best armor, which this is, costs 2.1 mill to replace if I lose it, and about 700 k to repair from zero.” He spoke matter of fact, dropping his magazine and replacing it in a practiced motion. The new magazine had a red and yellow blended stripe around it and his reload was much smoother now that he didn’t have to run while performing the task.
He turned to follow them deeper into the ride. They had entered a space battle themed ride, and the path that led up to the rides vehicles was decorated appropriately. An animatronic soldier stood at the entrance, a jerky mechanical arm extending and retracting. “Keep to the trench civilians! We’ll get you through safe!” The words came from a scratchy sounding speaker hidden beneath the things clothes, emanating from its chest instead of its face, and the jaw moved in jerky motions, not at all in sync with the words.
Kurt gaped at a cavernous room painted with stars on a black background, with huge triangular ships locked in a moment of battle, flames licking on each of them as frozen laser beams struck and were thrown back at unseen enemies. They entered the room in a trench, covered with various instruments of war and several dummies in uniforms ensconced at staggered points behind a cloth rope. Ladders to reach the head-height top of the trenches were also scattered at regular intervals. The areas immediately above the trenches were filled with animatronic warriors, engaged in a frozen laser battle with each other. These trenches were where the line was supposed to file through, Kurt noticed as he climbed up on top to look around more. They snaked through the room, doubling back on themselves more than once and giving the vague impression of a river from above.
“Hey! I think we should hit them here. Set up and let the bulls drive them into us.” He waited for Gadot and Jimmy to stop and briefly discuss the idea.
“I have starburst in the BAR. I’ll paint em, you finish em?” Jimmy held up his oversized assault rifle, a questioning look on his face. Gadot smiled at him and nodded.
Jimmy gave Kurt a wave, settling into the doorway at the far end. Gadot moved to climb a nearby painted support scaffold and perched herself on top of one of the further ships, lying down and flicking out the tripod legs on her rifle in preparation. Kurt backed up against the wall of the entrance, crouching down behind an animatronic soldier and gripping his Coonan. He took a few calming breaths while he waited, hearing the rapid tromp of booted feet approaching, followed by the animatronic soldier. “Keep to the trench civilians! We’ll get you through safe!”
They filed in cautiously, clearly anticipating an ambush. The players entered in groups of two, weapons at the ready and pointing to cover the areas above the trenches as they
moved. Kurt peeked at them carefully from his position and waited for his moment, confident his friend would provide one. As he waited for his friends to make the first moves, he watched the procession stalking through the darkened room on his map.
The Ursa players at the rear shouted a warning, causing Kurt to duck lower. His concerns of being spotted were quickly dispelled as the police NPCs following the Russians engaged. One of the players shouted towards the front of the line; “Grenadier!”
Gadot opened fire in that moment, taking down a player near Kurt with a shot to the neck. As he fell gurgling, the rest of them at the front of their formation shouted and opened fire on her position. She had scooted back, allowing for her own safety and providing Jimmy a chance to select some targets while she was the focus. He aimed for those in heavy armor first, his rounds splashing against them in bright bursts of color and smoke, effectively marking them for Gadot and causing a chaotic distraction among the enemy players. He retreated around his corner with a giggle as the Russians returned fire and hurled insults. The following gunshots from Gadot’s position caused far more damage, but Jimmy managed to maintain their attention with his exotic ammunition.
A hollow thump sounded from the darkened doorway behind the Russians, and Kurt scowled as he crept up to the ledge on his belly to see a small dark grey shell tumble to a stop. One moment he was looking at the strange item in confusion, and the next all he could see was a blinding whiteness. A piercing howl commandeered his sense of hearing and he rolled onto his back with a whimper. Squeezing his eyes shut did nothing to help, and he lay in muted agony for a few seconds before the effects of the flashbang began to wear off. Within five seconds, he was back to normal, and a glance at his phone showed that he had sustained no damage.
The Life- Illusion Page 19