Walls Coming Down

Ascent

"Ready?" Raze said, already shaking a grenade in her hand. Jett resisted the urge to step back; one day one of those would just go off suddenly in Raze's face. She probably wouldn't be that bothered though. She might even like it.

"You say the word." Jett smiled. "You got my back, right?"

"Grenade to Market, I got it," Raze replied, walking confidently down the corridor without a care in the world. "And maybe a few more elsewhere?"

"Raze..." Sage muttered, the barrel of her enormous gun pointing forward. Worst come to worst, she'd just fire it through the wall in front of her. Whoever was on the other side would be shredded in a matter of seconds.

Jett put a hand on Raze's shoulder, and placed one finger on her lips. In spite of her whole deal, Raze sighed and nodded. A heroic amount of self-restraint there.

The mission was simple enough — Kingdom was harvesting radianite from the surroundings again. A squad of soldiers would be the minimum Jett would have to deal with. This time, the team had a spike of their own, carried by Sova. They would collect the radianite for themselves, and then make a getaway. Killjoy and Viper needed it for... whatever they needed it for this time. It could be anything, honestly.

Jett's main worry was that there could be Omega Radiants to deal with too. She knew that they weren't her friends really — she could separate them perfectly in her mind. In fact, sometimes she was a little too mean to them. On the other hand, she would often see Sage apologise to the corresponding agent back home after a kill, just to be polite.

Again with Sage! Jett shook her head, and focused on the feel of the cold metal in her hands. In a few seconds, that metal would be a lot warmer.

"Chamber, are you in position?" Sage asked through the radio. They each had earpieces and a microphone, calibrated to suppress the background sound of gunfire. Handy for Jett, especially. The lesser the distractions, the better.

"Yes ma'am," Chamber replied. "Watching mid. No hostiles yet."

"None?" Sova asked, already suspicious.

"None. No transport either."

"Then they must have landed on the other side," Sage said. "Retain visual. We're going in on my count."

She nodded at Jett and Raze, the latter of whom was already by the doorway, grenades at the ready. One was never enough for her, but it wasn't a bad thing. Not to Jett, anyway.

Jett's heart was racing. She could feel the wind starting to answer her call, and she'd done it more times that she could count now. So why was this time so different? It was Venice, sure, but... it was definitely something else.

Sage. Ah. Jett couldn't let her down again.

"Here goes," Jett said aloud, cracking her knuckles. The buttstock of her rifle dug into her shoulder as she looked down the sights. Any minute now.

"Three," Sage said. Raze slipped a finger into the ring of her first grenade.

"Two." Sova flicked the switch on his drone, sending it into the air.

"One." The familiar feeling of wind whipping around Jett in ribbons was some comfort, but not enough. She was still tense. Oh well; there was no turning back now.

"Go."

A painted canister was sent flying into the open door on their right. Soon it would split into multiple smaller but equally explosive canisters. At the same time, Jett dashed forward at lightning speed into the little cubby near the blast zone. In a fluid motion, she whipped her gun forward to look down the corridor they'd be going down. A single Kingdom soldier, dressed in black and grey.