Inside The Shining Refuge Compound
Pariah looks up from her place on the dusty earth to wear the RPG had come from, watching as the wood around the portal from which it originated is chewed up by assorted gunfire until the perp slumps over to fall out lazily. It was strange to watch all of this without hearing a thing, and she is only dimly aware of someone shouting at her until they clap her on the shoulder. Pariah maneuvers into a pushup position to make her way back up to her feet, stumbling against the wall as the earth shifts beneath her. The SRT man, incognito beneath his SWAT style gear, shouts at her but she can't make out a word he's saying for the moment.
After what may have been moments or minutes her hearing starts to return as a canteen is shoved at her armored chest."Thanks..."
Captain Jefferson of the SWAT unit says,"Don't mention it. You probably saved those men right there with your quick reaction. They said you handled yourself well in the room clearing too, some damn fine pistolwork with that .45."
Pariah nods at him appreciably as she turns back the canteen. She notes that by now a perimeter of sorts has been set up on the chapel. She upnods that way, the Captain replying,"Yeah. We're staging for the breech. We expect the real resistance will be in there. Your men said you passed out on your feet for a few minutes there, I think you've got a concussion so I'll escort you back to the rear and fill you in."
Pariah walks with the Captain, sipping as she goes. She can't believe she passed out right there,"I want you to know, you've been put in for SRT training. I'm putting in a recommendation for you on our pistol team." He adds that last part with a grin that's cut short as a muffled explosion heralds the breech on the Chapel. No sooner than the team goes in than there's an anticlimatic series of singular gunshots. Jefferson turns around sensing something very wrong, and so does Pariah.
Two men come running out of the chapel, but only one of them makes it to the safety of the perimeter. The other quickly becomes a sight haunting to the men witnessing it as smoke billows from beneath his armor to quickly become a blazing inferno as he appears to spontaneously combust before collapsing in a screaming pile.
"Mother of God," mutters Captain Jefferson as he watches the conflagration that used to be one of his men thrash about on the ground, the man growing silent long before growing still. Tragically they failed to get an extinguisher in time and they were disturbed to find that the flames had literally fused his gear with his body.
Pariah and the Captain were at the staging line double quick where Captain Jefferson demanded to know what had happened. The man is visibly in shock, his reply coming out in frightened torrent of words,"Our guns...our guns failed...they didn't work, he just stood there smiling and shot us one by one, couldn't do anything, guns failed...and then...oh god he was on fire!"
Captain Jefferson is visibly troubled by the man's story. The men of any SWAT team tend to come from backgrounds of elite service, many of them prior SEALs or Marine Recon or similar. To see one of those frightened out of his wits was a novel thing for the Captain who was himself once a sniper for the Navy SEALs.
He leans over the man, resting a hand on his shoulder as he reassures him,"Calm down, you're out of there and we're gonna get this guy. You have to think, though." He gives the man a moment to recompose himself before he asks,"Was there anyone else in there with him, and what were they packing?"
The SWAT trooper is visibly a wreck, but he takes a few soothing breaths and is miraculously a shade or two better. He replies much more sensibly this time,"He had two men in there with him, all armed but just standing there at the pulpit. The two with him, they didn't do anything but they've got what looked like AK-47s. The man himself, he looked like a preacher. He had some kind of bullpup rifle in hand, he did all the work. He shot them with a smile, like he knew our guns would fail."
Jefferson's brow knits deeply at that last part. He snatches up the man's weapon and carries to a light where he could see what he was doing before disassembling it. He knows his men well enough to not even consider such a thing made up out of them. Taking it apart, he can't find anything wrong so he he sets aside the magazine and loads the bullet that had been chambered as he looks around calling,"Test fire, stand by." Sure enough as he fires it into the air, the bullet works fine leaving him muttering,"Makes no damned sense..."
A voice rang out from within the chapel, it sounded to Pariah like Father Holloway. He declared,"I sense the Daughter of Texas is with you. By now you have witnessed the failure of the instruments of man against the true servant of Light. Even from atop mighty Babel, arrows and spears may find no purchase against the Lord and his hosts."
Jefferson irritably mutters next to Pariah,"What the hell is that madman going on about now?"
Pariah snorts mildly,"He means me. That's what he called me on the phone during the hostage exchange. Well, I called myself really."
They exchange a halfhearted chuckle at that before the voice rings out again, they know there's nothing funny about what's happening here,"Send her in. One of you may accompany her if it pleases you."
Jamie is nearby and she demands,"Let me go with you. I'm your partner."
Jefferson snatches up the loudspeaker and bellows,"There's three of you in there at least, she gets two escorts."
The voice comes back,"Fine. More witnesses to the beginning of Babel's collapse."
Captain Stephenson has hurried over in the meantime, his face flush as he demands,"What the hell is going on here?"
@heroup2112@cbishop@impurestcheese@waezi2@prinzessinsilke@poeticwarrior@AssertingValor@stupid1
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