"All teams, execute, execute, execute," I spoke quickly into my comms as Mark shot the first two guards of the estate where one of the corrupt nobles resides in. We approached the gate and shot the lock off, luckily the guards can only rely on a few of their senses as darkness covered our approach. As we moved through the gate, we spotted several more guards patrolling the grounds around the main building. As we moved closer, we started pulling the few guards that strayed too close and subdued them quietly. Quickly snuffing out their torches and pulling them into the darkness. After subduing the last of the guards on the outside of the estate we moved to the door watching the door I tapped Mark on the shoulder signalling him to move and place a shaped charge on the door. After a few moments, Mark slowly backed away from the door and moved back to our position as we stacked up on the wall to the left of the doorway.
"*stchk* Breach charge set," Mark whispered over comms.
"*stchk* Breach, Breach, Breach" I whisper over comms as Mark pushes the detonator. The door explodes and the opening is covered with smoke, we quickly move into the dark foyer and clear it.
*scream*
The scream echoes through the silent mansion and seems to be coming from upstairs.
"*stchk* Mark, James with me. Rob and Fabian hold and cover our rear." I say over comms as I start moving toward the stairs, I stop at the bottom of them and wait for Mark to signal that he and James were ready. A few moments pass and I feel a tap on my shoulder and start moving up towards the top of the stairs. I can hear an almost maniacal laugh to the right I raise my fist to stop our advance and signal Mark and James to stack up on the wall to the right of the doorway. I reach forward to check whether the door is unlocked. I grab the handle and turn it while pulling it toward me, so as to not alert anyone inside.
*clunk*
The door is unlocked, I turn to James and signal him to ready a flashbang, I turn back to the door and reach for the handle and grab it. I feel James tap me on my shoulder, I turn the handle and crack the door enough for James to throw the flashbang in.
A few moments pass until *bang* *bang* *bang* *bang* *bang* *bang* *bang* *bang* *bang*. As soon as the banging stops, I push through the door with my torch on and turn right clearing the corner of the large room, I sweep left looking over the large bedroom filled with expensive furniture.
*Argh!!!*
I look to my left and see a half-naked stout man running toward Mark with a red-hot stoker. Two gunshots from Mark quickly down the man as blood starts leaking out of his chest pooling on the velvet carpet.
"Clear!" Mark shouts turning around
"Clear!" I reply.
"Contact!" James shouts as we all turn to where he is pointing his rifle. The is suddenly quiet until we hear quiet almost silent whimpering from under the covers of the large bed. I slowly approach the bed and pull the covers back, underneath the covers was a small girl with tattered clothing covering her cat ears and curled up with her tail. I look closer at her and see metal cuffs around her wrist and a metal collar around her neck.
"Mark, watch the door, James, check the body," I order as I turn back to the small girl and attempt to comfort her but she flinches away. I wait for a few moments and let her regain her bearings as she begins to open her eyes and look around. She looks at the body of the man and then back at me seemingly confused.
"Finn, this is the corrupt noble we were looking for," James says looking at me.
"Ok well then our mission is done we're bugging out," I say and turn back to the girl gesturing for her to come toward me. She slowly gets sits up and crawls off the bed and tries to stand up but struggles too, I walk over to her and pick her up in my arms, she is surprisingly light, could be malnourished.
"Let's move," I order as James heads towards the door with his rifle raised and Mark bringing up the rear.
"*Stchk* Bravo 1-1 this bravo 1-4 we have multiple enemy contacts pushing towards the front of the estate," Fabian reports
"*Stchk* Copy that bravo 1-4 we're moving to your position now," I say as we move faster towards the stairs and make our way down them. Quickly moving towards Fabian, I ask what the situation is.
"So far the knights have begun to surround the estate and have lit up the grounds surrounding the estate, it's going to be difficult to move out of here," Fabian responds as I put the girl down, who is looking at my team curiously.
"Seems like we are gonna have to wait for an opening then, I don't want to have to fight through all that, especially with our little friend," I say as we look towards the girl.
"What should we do once there is an opening?" Mark asks looking back at me.
"Well, if worst comes to worst we will have to push out and kill all of them however, that comes with a higher risk," I say, "However best case there is an opening when the guards change shift or when they start to push us, that's when we use a Stryker to breakout."
"That could work, the door frame would have been weakened from the explosion, as long as the Stryker gets a run-up, that could work," Mark replies before questioning Rob, "What do you think Rob? You're our resident driver."
"If the Stryker gets a run-up, sure it should be able to break through the wall, if you don't mind a few dents," Rob says while putting his hand to his chin, I look up with a smile.
"I guess we have a plan then, now we just have to wait for them to make a move," I say as I move to the window and look outside at the surrounding knights.
(Time skip: 30 min)
The Stryker is sitting at the back of the foyer as far as possible from the door so our plan can work. I walk over to the Stryker in which the young demi-human girl is sitting looking around in her eyes, at what can only be described as a semi-comfortable metal box.
"What's your name?" I ask the young girl as she looks at me seemingly mesmerized by her surroundings.
"Oh, I-its K-Koko," she replies, "Who are you?"
"My name is Finn and me and my team, are helping the government of this country clean up all the bad people, just like the ones that kept you here," I respond to her question then ask another of my own, "Do you have a family?"
In response to that question, she quickly looks down and shakes her head rapidly, taking that as a no, I figure I shouldn't pry any deeper for now.
"*stchk* Finn! We got movement, they're finally making their move," Mark shouts over our comms, I lean out the back of the Stryker and glance out the window. I can see the knights' marching forwards towards the mansion.
"*stchk* Copy that, everyone, get to the Stryker, we're getting out of here," I say cheerfully over the comms, I turn to look at the young girl, "we're finally getting you out of this hellhole."
She looks at me with a smile as the rest of my team arrives at the rear of the Stryker.
"Rob you're driving and Mark get on the fifty I have a feeling we're still going to need it as cover," I order, now everyone is moving to their positions in the Stryker and as the last man in I pull the door shut and turn the handle locking it. The engine awakes with a rumble and Koko covers her ears again, seemingly wincing from the pain.
"System, summon a PELTOR COMTAC V," I order
[Understood, summoning PELTOR COMTAC V x1]
A single magic circle appears and the headset came into existence and dropped into my hand. I look at the girl and move her hands as I place the headset awkwardly over her ears, having noticed the effect of the noise cancelling headset Koko calmed down, I then sat down myself.
"Rob we're good to go," I say over the comms as I hear Mark disconnecting the fifty and bringing it inside the Stryker to not break it when we barrel through the front wall.
"Okay, buckle up it's about to get bumpy," Rob yells excitedly as he revs the engine before releasing the brakes, we build up speed for about 10 seconds before a heavy jolt rocks the vehicle.
"Okay, we clear of the building, just got to plough through the knights," Rob shouts laughing, clunking can be heard around the Stryker as what I can only assume are the knights that were unlucky enough to be in the way.
"Okay Mark get the Fifty back up, cause we are going to run into trouble going through the east gate," I order as we race down the streets towards the gate.
"Copy that," Mark replies as he moves towards the hatch and stands up pulling the Fifty cal up and reconnecting it to its mount and racks a round in.
Speeding toward the east gate, the guards seemingly more aware this time started casting fire magic however they didn't get the chance to release their fireballs before being shot by Mark. The wooden doors of the gate start to close but they never got the chance to fully shut before we put a Stryker-sized hole through them.
"*stchk* are we clear?" I inquire over the comms.
"*stchk* Yep we're clear, no pursuers either," Mark reports
"*stchk* Finally, we're done with that," I sigh and relax in my seat before drifting off to sleep as we head back to the camp.