OiM - How it All Began

[NativeForeigner]

Ro followed closely, keeping track of where he was placing his hands and feet.
"Yeah, Ro. I'm a martial artist, what about yourself?"

Henry reached the first step, about five meters down. It was a simple stone slab protruding from the cliff wall, but it seemed sturdy enough.  

[Jokerman-EXE]

"Henry, if you missed it," Henry said, then spelled it. "I play music for a living."
Henry looked for the next step, whatever that was.  

[NativeForeigner]

Ro rolled his eyes as he tested the first step and put his weight onto it.
"Sounds like a living to me." he said, "So, what do you think all of this is?"

The next step was...ANOTHER STEP!
Leh gasp!
And then...another step!

The steps continued deep into the darkness, each evenly spaced out enough for a comfortable step downwards onto the next.  

[Jokerman-EXE]

Henry headed down the steps, cautious but not fearful. "This s**t is just crazy," he grunted. "But at the same time, I don't really want to go home. You know?"  

[NativeForeigner]

Ro nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I guess I do know, but I'd rather be somewhere else than here."

More steps!

((Gotta go, be back in an hour at most.))  

[Jokerman-EXE]

((Leaving shortly, back in the middle of the night, probably.))

Henry shrugged. "Life was just so boring back home. At least now we're doing something."
He went down the steps, pretty sure that soon they would be doing something.  

[NativeForeigner]

"I guess that's true." Ro agreed, giving a small shrug of his own. He let his right hand slide along the cliff wall as they descended into the chasm. As they went deeper into the darkness, Ro turned on the LED flashlight in an attempt to illuminate the steps better.

Henry was right in thinking that they would soon be doing something, but not until the others had done something crazy, like post.  

[SirBayer]

Smith continued providing support; he assumed someone else would take care of it, and someone else did. Juliet, finally reacting, did some crazy combination of foot and hand to bring the live grenade to her hand, after which she hurled it like she had never hurled anything before. If her throw was good (and given her adrenaline, it certainly would be) it would fly right past the friendlies on the far side of the bridge, and hopefully (if improbably) into the midst of the enemies. That was just stretching it, however.

---

Arthur kept dragging himself along.  

[NativeForeigner]

By some miracle, or perhaps just extreme luck, Juliet found the grenade in her hand and launched it. The grenade flew towards the enemy and began to twist and spin mid-air as jets of steam shot from it.

Unfortunately, no enemy soldiers were injured as the grenade blew apart on impact with a boulder.

The gunfire ceased for just a moment as the seven attacking soldiers ducked behind cover to reload. They began to advance behind cover as the other twelve soldiers rose from cover to begin firing.

Shikyo's clip: 8
Orion's clip: 9
Juliet's Clip: 9
Alastair's Clip: 12
Gwen's clip: 5
Smith's Men: 14

***

Soon enough, Arthur found himself directly behind Andreas. Arthur's belly was getting cold and his arms, along with the rest of him, were still tired.  

[SirBayer]

Smith began to reconsider his plans, trying to determine some way to prevent the enemy from advancing. There were more of them, and so they had them pinned down. There really wasn't any support available, so they were kind of stuck... unless Smith could come up with some brilliant idea... or someone in his squad...

Or perhaps him. What could be done about this? What equipment did he have in his arsenal to deal with this? Advancing would get him riddled... not that that would be a fatal problem, just a very large problem. He had a few more grenades, but he didn't want to use them. What remained?

It struck him that he could probably carry something bulletproof, or at least bullet resistant, which would do the trick. He scanned around him for something meeting that description.

In the meantime, Squad One and Juliet all took advantage of the rare chance to return fire, waiting for the enemy to come up before firing as much as they possibly could, assisted by what Squad Two had already been doing. Juliet managed to empty her magazine in the process.

((Juliet's Magazine: -9 Rounds.))  

[NativeForeigner]

Smith spotted several large rocks that would do the job if he could carry them. Wait! He's Smith! Of course he can carry them!

Alastair pulled the trigger of his rifle as soon as the firing had stopped. The pressurized chamber began to rotate and pick up speed. Soon enough, rounds began to fire out of the barrels at about two rounds per second and picking up speed. As the bullets left the muzzle, they made a muffled BADOOM sound as the pressure was released.
Alastair emptied his entire magazine. By the time he had stopped firing, his rate of fire was about ten rounds per second.

Altogether, Juliet, Alastair had managed to kill two of the soldiers and injure another four before the soldiers began to return fire.
One of Smith's men was mowed down by a stream of bullets before the others ducked into cover.

Shikyo's magazine: 8
Orion's magazine: 9 / 12 (rifle)
Juliet's magazine: 0 / 12 (handgun)
Alastair's magazine: 36 / 12 (handgun)
Gwen's magazine: 5
Smith's Men: 13  

[SirBayer]

Smith grabbed an appropriate-looking rock, hefted it so that it would provide the appropriate cover without revealing their feet, and then began half-carrying, half-pushing the rock across the bridge. He appeared to have decided to go alone, which made sense - he didn't want to endanger anyone else with his crazy plan. Hopefully it would work.

Juliet ducked down, yet another bead of sweat forming on her brow as she reloaded as quickly as she could.  

[NativeForeigner]

The soldiers found it rather odd to see a large-sized rock moving across the bridge, but they kept their fire focused of Smith's men.
Two soldiers clad in white trench coats with a large, red cross on the back and front, black rubber gloves and boots, and similar gas masks to the other soldiers, came from around the building and began running towards the injured soldiers, hopping over fences and obstacles as if they were nothing. Within seconds, they had reached the injured soldiers and began tending to their wounds.

Alastair reloaded as well.

Shikyo's magazine: 8
Orion's magazine: 9 / 12 (rifle)
Juliet's magazine: 24 / 12 (handgun)
Alastair's magazine: 36 / 12 (handgun)
Gwen's magazine: 5
Smith's Men: 13
Enemy soldiers: 19, 4 injured [04], 2 medics [01]  

[SirBayer]

"Hit those medics! We don't need more fighting-worthy soldiers!" someone shouted. It wasn't Smith, but Smith confirmed it with a "Do it!" He continued hauling the rock, intending to do so until he was well past the bridge. However far it took to get into safer range or a flanking position - that would be more appropriate, carry the rock around to a good flanking position.

Juliet came back up with her fresh magazine, set it to single, aimed at a medic - and hesitated. Smith had said these things weren't entirely human... but they had medics, people who seemed to be fixing people. Something her father would probably do. Could she just gun them down?

Yes, she could, because they wouldn't hesitate to gun her down, would they? Not a chance.

She squeezed the trigger five separate times, attempting to hit at least the medic nearest her.

((Juliet's SMG Magazine -5 rounds.))  

[NativeForeigner]

Smith, seeing as he couldn't really be shot at, continued to make slow and steady progress.

Alastair rose to make a similar shot, but hesitated. He couldn't fire at a medic, it just wasn't ethical in his mind.
Did they even have guns? He didn't know, but he just couldn't squeeze the trigger.

Juliet's first shot missed the medics completely, going between the two as they brought the injured soldier up and moved on to the next with dizzying speeds. Juliet's second shot managed to hit one in the leg, causing him to fall. As he fell, he rolled to maintain momentum as they arrived at the soldier's side.
The other medic began injected the other with some sort of substance while he wrapped his leg in a bandage. Juliet's third shot hit the injured medic in the chest, killing him. The remaining medic glared at Juliet through red lenses. She felt a chill pass her by. Her fourth shot rang out and almost immediately, the medic twisted his body out of the way and went to work on the second injured soldier, ducking behind cover as the fifth bullet was shot.

Juliet, having stayed exposed for a little too long, suffered a bullet grazing her left shoulder.

Juliet: Grazed shoulder [09]

Shikyo's magazine: 8
Orion's magazine: 9 / 12 (rifle)
Juliet's magazine: 19 / 12 (handgun)
Alastair's magazine: 36 / 12 (handgun)
Gwen's magazine: 5
Smith's Men: 13
Enemy soldiers: 19, 3 injured [03], 2 medics [02]