Ultima Farce

by Del S

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Chapter 1 (2005)	Chapter 2 (2005)	Chapter 3 (2005)	Chapter 4 (2005)

Chapter 4

Part Four
12:00pm
The teams were geared up, and ready to move out. And had been since nearly 11.
What had caused the delay was Tseng arriving with the official orders.
But at lunchtime, he finally did.

He read them out.
"By order of President Shinra, this siege situation is to be resolved by 1400 hours. Use of any and all needed force is authorised," Tseng said. The crowd paused.

"Well, that's it. The President's a busy man, and there IS a game of football on," Tseng said.

The crowd murmured.

"Is the time of 2 PM that has been set in relation to this game?" a voice in the crowd asked.

"Yes. He wants it over by 3 so they can still do the live coverage," Tseng said

"Then why does our president not wait until six, and tell the TV crews not to cover this during the game?"

"We'd be better off, on this overcast and cloudy day, for a Rainbow. Six?!"

"So we can watch the game you see," said the voice again.

A small fly buzzed about.

"Someone swat this thing," Tseng said.
There was silence.

"Well, tell you what, go now, and you'll be able to watch the football."

"Hooray!"

The plan was simple. Crimson Troop element one was to enter via the roof, and reach the second floor. Element two was to enter the basement, and get into position to come up. Once the two teams were there, the MNIP team was to storm the front. This would mean the enemy would hopefully find themselves surrounded by counter-terrorist soldiers and policemen.

Hossceler also had a simple plan. It involved covering the entrances via the roof and basement with machineguns. This meant only two guns were aimed at the entrance, but there were rifles there also.
He knew they would storm soon, so opened his radio network, most probably being listened to, to address his men for the coming battle.

"Soldiers, this is your captain speaking. We must be prepared from the police and Airborne Service to soon storm this building. I will not lie: more of you will certainly be killed. We may all be killed. But if we can stand firm, and repel the attack, and any others after it, we may just spark others. Others who oppose the corporation. Others against how we leech this planet's life dry, how the poor stay poor and the rich get richer, how once proud armies of defence have been degenerated into to mere thugs used to keep power. Opposed to super-soldiers infused with Mako. And inspire people to fight for the oppressed! The man enslaved by the corporation! The child denied a school because the fee is too high! The woman living in fear of criminals, or the police! And those who are not asked if they would like fries with that!"

"Sir?" said Von Kess.

"It was on, I checked , Rupert!"

"Not that sir... it's just that last bit. Why did you add that?"

"Because last time I went drive-thru I realised I had forgot to get fries and the wife was furious. That's why she left me."

"Really, sir?"

"No, it was because of her sister... and her cousin... and her mother... what can I say?"

"You didn't, did you sir?!" the lieutenant said with a sly grin.

"Yes, killed them all in a car crash... Well, I say car crash but... They were on the wrong side of the road during a strange ion storm making everything wavy! Freak occurrence that they should have been the only car of the many hundreds going the wrong way I hit in the Paladin. Well, the only one I stopped on. And reversed onto. And opened fire on."

"PALADIN?! Sir, you got drunk and drove a Paladin Four light tank the wrong way up a motorway?!" Von Kess said, shocked.

"Of course not! I was accompanied... Oh , by the way, why do they call them 'light' tanks? They each weight forty-five tons without fuel or ammo!"

"Sir! How much damage did you cause?"

"Scratched the paint on the tank and..." the captain said.

"Oh good sir... For a second I was worried you destroyed a tank..."


Sadly, he had made this speech just after shooting the rookie Turk, meaning he was to be disappointed at the fact it would take until ten past twelve for them to act...

12:10PM
Element one was good to go in, and element two was making its way to the basement. MNIP officers had moved into position outside.
Element one's demolitions man, Liam Kanokan, placed the charge on the roof door. Meanwhile, E2's woman for that job, Marlene Smith, planted her charge on the door that blocked entry straight to the main hall. E1's blast was to be set off ninety seconds before E2's, giving E1 the time to clear the second floor of the two-floor building. Upon the second blast, the police were to move.

Kanokan detonated the charge, and the metal door flew into the stairwell, landing in front of the machine gunner. The startled solider aimed the gun at the door (or rather, hole) at the top of the small staircase leading up to the roof.
The flash grenades that were thrown in hit him in the face.

Hossceler heard the bangs, first the loud one, then the two smaller detonations of flashbangs. He made his way upstairs...

Silias was first in the door, aiming his SMG P/M5 at the severely stunned soldier below. He fired three rounds into the man's chest, the blue uniform turning dark purple as the 5x35mm(1) rounds tore through his body armour, which wasn't really even designed to tackle a conventional pistol round, let alone an armour-piercing round developed for a specific gun.

"Object down!" said Silias into his radio, announcing the kill of a target.

"Second floor stairwell entrance!" he said, aiming at the door as the team stacked up behind him.

The team carried on through the doorway, kicking it in, and lobbing another flashbang. They then stormed in, and encountered three enemy soldiers, disorientated by the grenade. The SMGs clattered as they fired, their silencers making the gunfire virtually inaudible, and instead, the actual firing mechanism was instead the loudest noise made by the fire, giving a sharp clatter of metal on metal as bullets were fired, ejected, and a new bullet was drawn into the chamber.

"Three Objects down, storage room, second floor!" said trooper three, Max Rawn. He moved to the door leading to the main corridor, and opened it.

The team moved out cautiously. To reach here had taken fifty of their ninety seconds. The corridor they exited into had only the door leading to the stairwell down nearby: one man could cover the rest of the corridor as the other four went down. Andrew Covew took this rearguard role, as Corporal Rawn went into the stairway down.

Hossceler ran in the door of the stairway, carrying two of the police SMG's. The four soldiers behind him held their rifles.
He saw the door above opening, and pointed the weapons at the shape that came through...

"Contact!" Rawn yelled, but even as he did so, drawing his own gun up, the two submachine guns below roared into life. The burst of fire saw him hit five times, four of them stopped by his armour. The fifth went straight into his chin. The trooper's head kicked back, and his entire body followed, the gun he aimed firing into the ceiling above.

Silias swung his gun around, and fired his own shots. Hossceler dived back, and the soldiers ran forward.
The sergeant ducked back around the corner, and pulled a green grenade.

"FRAGMENTATION GRENADE!" He screamed, lobbing the explosive down the stairs. The bang had barely even stopped echoing when the element came around the stairwell, and three SMG's shot down the last two soldiers below not killed or wounded by the grenade. Hossceler meanwhile crawled from the door, shrapnel in his leg. His command looked at the door, aiming their guns.

Hossceler saw the machine-gunner aiming at the basement door had turned his gun around... and the he realised: hadn't there been a much louder bang downstai-
The basement door blew apart, and more black-clad SOLDIERs burst into the reception hall. At the same moment, gunfire erupted from outside, and the soldiers in the reception hall were under assault from three directions...
Hossceler stood up quickly, ignoring the blinding pain of the shrapnel, and ran towards the labs where the hostages were held. In the confusion or by skilful bullet dodging, he somehow made the door, chased by a hail of bullets thudding into the door as it swung shut behind him.

"Man down, stairwell to first floor," Silias said, as the gunfire erupted below. The element burst out, aiming at a force already spent and destroyed by the sudden ferocity of the assault. Even so, the last machine gunner had fired a long burst into approaching police, and three of the officers had gone down. Jamie and 'Tiny' from element two ganged up on the man, both troopers firing rounds into him.

"All assault units regrouped. Moving into rear of building," Silias announced to command outside. The MNIP captain whose task was to go upstairs and clean up also announced his team's movement.
The five AS troopers stacked up by the door, as the sergeants went back to fetch something...

Hossceler knew it was bad. Only six soldiers left alive he could confirm, Von Kess amongst the dead, but three men had their grenade launchers. Two aimed at the hostages, and the third at the door.
Hossceler shouted out.

"Airborne Service! We have the hostages covered entirely. You can't come in without killing at least one of them! Do you want to take the risk?"

"Actually, captain Hossceler, We were ordered not to," Zacharias shouted.

"Good... can we negotiate then?"

Silias waved the team back behind him as he aimed at the door.

"Yes."

"Sirs...Are you sure about doing this?" Jamie asked his Sergeants.

"Don't worry! There is no sugar!"

He and Zacharias fired the GPMGs.

Hossceler could barely believe it. Bullets were streaming in the doors, and they were cutting down his men. Eventually, the shooting stopped, and the Airborne Service stormed in.
Hosscelers last sight was that of an SMGs business end climbing up level with his face, and he could just make out the flash of gunfire before-

12:50PM
Ambulancemen and Medics were attending to the hostages. Not one had been killed during the storming of the building, but more than a few were fairly shell-shocked, and a few had minor wounds.

Silias watched the team load their gear back into their jeeps, whilst their fallen comrades body was loaded into an ambulance.
Filby walked over.
"Successful mission, Henry. Rawn would have felt it was that."

"I know, sir, but..."

"But what?" Filby said. His main fear was that one of his emotionless killing machines (his favourite toys other than Moira, his .45 pistol*) might need the oil of a sharp smack. And as high ranking as he was he didn't want to do that as those emotionless killing machines would still rip his head off and crap down his throat.

"He had a tenner on Midgar Rovers to beat Junon United..."

"Really?"

"Yes. Stupid git. They're playing Junon Athletic..."

Filby breathed a sigh of relief on the inside, and the Troop returned to base...

Meanwhile, a policeman in the lobby of the pharmacy pondered why a fallen locker was swearing at him to move the locker, carefully since it's neck was broken...

*He loves that gun, he really does.

1- Real world note: This bullet is based on the MP7's 4.6x30mm round