Fort Briggs - Hallway > Basement: Ayden, Akito, Mura, Iris, Gunther (NPC), Cora, Dai,

[Reila Tsukino]

"Hi, Reila! Do you, perhaps... Need a hand!?"

...........It would probably help with paperwo--NO she did not need a severed hand!

"Is this really the time for ancient puns?" THANK YOU. But ancient maybe not. It wasn't really clear that cavemen were aware of their hands. That wasn't important right now. She shook the thought out of her head, catching Ayden's next words like a bullet to a baseball glove. Maybe she did need that hand after all.

"That may be so, Miss Tsukino, but as you are undoubtedly aware, outnumbered as we may be, Briggs is never outgunned."

"Still--" they had to fall back.

"Plan what now? I haven't learned that one yet. In any case, I'll be right behind you. I may not be able to work alchemy with metal, but I can shoot."

"Haha, yeah, just follow us." I wonder how many others didn't get the memo.

"Now, I do believe that we've got an exit to carve our way towards, and some filthy Drachman dogs who are just begging for a bullet in the head. Shall we, dear friend?"

"Can you stop twirling the damn hand already!?" Reila huffed, trying to avert her eyes from the swinging object that reminded her of 28 Days Later. Her stomach lurched and she swallowed a slight burn. Even from battlefield to battlefield, despite seeing so many dead, bleeding, killed, you name it, Reila never could quite get a handle on her hatred of blood. Her body had a mind of its own, woozy in the face of so much red. The hand fucking wasn't helping. "But yes, we shall." Reila exited the room, Ayden and Akito in tow. She stealthily slipped out into the hallway, her bright eyes searing as far as the walkway went. Completely clear. It was almost scary how untouched it looked right outside her office. There was nothing; no bullet holes, no dead bodies, no vacant eyes trying to catch hers. She almost wished there were. Loud rattles of gunfire jiggled in the distance like sleigh bells in summer. People were yelling. People were hurrying. Reila's pace was swift, her eyes on the distance, her newly acquired tachi gripped firmly. Nothing moved but them, nothing followed but their shadows. The elevator was right there. Reila typed in the code. The doors flung open and there was Dai. In the middle of a crowd of weary-looking Briggs Brigade soldiers, there was Dai. Immediately, some saluted to her, but Reila was too shocked to do much more than gawk like a fool.

"What happened to your-- It's about time." Her hands went to her hips, a wink in her golden eyes. A few men around the said short-haired Daigoro Ito laughed heartily. Reila shed a smile. "I'll see you down there." They couldn't squeeze in. The doors closed, and she turned to Ayden, her expression shrouding into a serious stare. "Take the next one and make sure Akito doesn't lose you. It'll be dark. I'm going to initiate plan C60387 and figure out a way to get the lights on despite the fort being in lock down. The basement medical wing should have emergency back up power and floor lighting, but it's not enough to see more than five feet in fr--"

"This is Colonel Dauthi, General Tsukino," her radio crackled,
"If you can, or anyone else can. The intelligence division, Medical staff and wounded are moving through the mechanical garage to the basement. If anyone can help escort us there, it would be greatly appreciated and facilitate faster movement. Its hard enough as it is to be down to a few squads defending a company or two worth of people including myself. ETA at best, ten to thirteen minutes, ETA at worst. Thirty Minutes. Over." Thirty. Reila bit her lip and turned from the two with a wave.

"Seeya guys later."

Now, figuring out the medical ward was not going to be easy. Retreating inside their own fort was a precautionary measure that was never imagined to be implemented. Reila's adrenaline was on the fritz, her blood seething in anger. How could this happen? Retreat, no, falling back? It was never something they did, but her own men were shooting her own men. People were dying--people were trapped. Her eyes alighted a window, gracing against the snow outside and wishing her fingertips could trace the outline of victory with snow-covered hands. Not this time, no. This time, RIOTE managed to slowly infiltrate them, drop in from above with aircrafts that could scour over the tips of the Briggs mountain range. Never. This could never in their wildest dreams have happened. It was a nightmare.

"Gunther, I want your team to detour to the medical ward. Help. Them. Down. All of them. There's ten minutes left. Go."

"Roger that." Quick response, but she didn't have time to sigh in relief. Hastily, she ran for one of the control rooms, kicking the door in instead of taking the few moments to type in a code. A loud explosion rocked the walls, coming from the direction of an armory on the same floor. Reila's eyes danced over the many screens lined along the back wall. She lifted a device off the side rack and plugged a tiny card into the slot, wheeling around, she climbed through the glass and sprinted down the hallway, dodging dead bodies and bullets alike. A slew of Drachmans turned a corner just as she did, letting out a collective cry of surprise that told her no one else was on this floor. Good. Her eyes narrowed into slits, bullets freezing in air, blood oozing from a fresh cut on her forearm. They looked shocked. She smiled. And a gust of wind burst from her tachi when she sliced through the air, their bodies hitting the floor just as her boots did whilst still running.

"Lieutenant Colonel Tsukino, again. Sorry to bug you. I hit a bit of a uhh.. delay. I will be there as soon as possible."

"Kay," she panted through the radio, absently dwelling again on how strange it was that they shared last names. She glanced at her phone. Twenty minutes was up. Shit. With a burst of speed, Reila sprinted, practically colliding with the enemies she encountered. Her uniform was sprayed with blood, the smell permeating into her very being. She wanted to throw up. She wanted to wake up. She wanted a shot of vodka. Nearly, slipping in it, she tried to swat away her bangs, sticking to her forehead with the bodily fluid of now dead soldiers. The enemy. They were the enemy. She had to keep reminding herself, but each time she did, Reila remembered just how many of them she killed.

The siren was sounding. Reila looked around her, finally having reached the very middle of the Fort. It was beginning. Waterproof walls started to drop down from the ceiling, drains sealing themselves watertight. "Report," Reila commanded, her voice growing colder with the air around her. Office covers drew down over filing cabinets and desks. Electronics dropped into ducts between floors.

"All medical personnel are evacuated to the basement medical wing. Over." She exhaled slowly, her arms stretched out, eyes closed. Everyone's safe. Water burst out viciously, reaching her ankles in seconds. Shrieks of surprise echoed down the hallways--Drachman shrieks. A shrill cackle left her own lips for a second, vengeful gold slamming open into pure alchemic power. Ice. In moments, everything: every room, every passageway was basked in a sheen of ice. Knees. She kissed the floor, vision sailing sideways into beckoning black. She held her breath for a moment, feeling the cold and knowing their ultimate defense was only an ice skating rink on the inside. But the bombs ceased, gunpowder drenched, legs lost in a block of ice. For now, it was enough to hold them back long enough to regroup. Reila pushed herself unsteadily to her feet, stumbling into a wall of ice that resembled a mirror before gathering herself and finding the elevator.

Her fingers shook as she typed in the code for the only water-locked elevator in the entire fort. Directly in the middle of Briggs, it was placed there for plan C60387 with an entirely different set of passcodes and fingerprint recognition. Once inside, she began fiddling with the device that acted as a sort of remote control. She wasn't the best at these sorts of things, but she was at least briefed on how they worked. Emergencies like these called for desperate measures. So if only she could get the lights on then... The elevator doors opened, revealing a horrible darkness. Flame alchemists were going about creating some sort of light while others were using cellphones, flashlights, even watches as a means to see around them. Reila squinted at the faint glow of the handheld remote, pressing buttons, scrolling through options until finally the basement lights flickered on. What came next was a feeling she could not even begin to describe, for surrounding all of them on the edge of darkness were droves of RIOTE troops.

[EXIT THREAD]

[Onto the Main Mission now! No one post ahead of the timeline in my post.]