Two Mercs: Part Eleven

Dave and Emily parked the van in the shadow of a factory Emily claimed was owned by Jaguar Royce. Nearly a dozen roads entered the factory at varying heights, the street the pair was on even darker than those surrounding it due to the virus still keeping the power off.
"How do we get to Sentinel Aegis then?"
Emily pointed at a series of pods clinging to the side of the Jaguar Royce factory like limpets.
"You might not be able to see it but a bridge crosses from that pod into..." She turned and craned her head, squinting at the deactivated sign high above them. "... the Enfield building. It's nearly all roof-hopping from then on to get to Sentinel Aegis."

After making their way up to the highest of the pods using an exterior fire escape system, skirting around families confused by the loss of power, and then crossing a crude bridge, Dave and Emily climbed a single flight of steps, emerging onto the roof of the Enfield building. A single bullet threw up sparks as it ricocheted from the low barrier wall surrounding a delivery lift as the pair walked past it and both Dave and Emily skittered back, each sinking back into a crouch behind the wall, their guns out and looking for the shooter.
"You're not supposed to be here!"
Dave twitched, concentrating on locating the Metallic, before suddenly standing, his pistol outstretched and his finger squeezing its trigger. The lone bullet struck the Metallic's chest-plate, angling up to mangle the gangster's throat and mouth before penetrating his braincase. He fell with a clatter, the noise seeming to echo amid the silence, and Dave hurried to the dead man's side, collecting the rifle and ammo he had.
"Any ID?"
Dave cautiously removed the Metallic's armour and searched his pockets. He retrieved a small token, a stylized 'M' stamped onto both sides of the disc, from a pocket and handed it to Emily before going to check the body for tattoos.
"Shit."
Emily looked up when Dave swore, noticing after a second where his left hand was.
"He has an implant. But the internet is down here, remember."
Dave let out a sigh of relief and stood, glancing around the roof.
"Where next then?"
Emily turned in place, the tablet in hand, before setting off towards another delivery lift, pointing out the hatch set into the roof next to it.
"This way and then down."

"Where are the people?"
They were walking along an assembly line, past countless printers that would have fed a conveyor belt.
"They're probably still at home, either sleeping cause their alarms didn't work or unable to leave their floor cause the elevators are down."
Dave snorted in amusement, thanking whoever had decided that the up-city needed the internet of things or shouldn't have staircases, and poked at the products on the belt.
"Aren't you carrying enough firearms?"
"Eh?"
Dave's inelegant response to Emily's question echoed around the assembly line, as did Emily's answering sigh.
"Enfield makes guns, and have done for years. We must have gone past their headquarters on the drive over." She paused at the end of the assembly line, turning slowly in place. "Through that door I think."
Dave moved to the door and slowly opened it, poking the hand with the Metallic's rifle through first.
"It's another pod. Looks like a control room."
"There should be an exterior door."
"Not in this pod."
"Really?" Emily stepped into the pod, glancing around the small space before consulting her tablet, switching between a series of maps and then looking up. "It'll be that roof hatch then." Dave went to open the hatch before pausing when he began hearing the sound of an approaching rotorcraft. Emily blinked as she also heard the noise, glancing up at the pod's ceiling. "Must be an automated supply drone."

The supply drone seemed to circle the Enfield building for the next few minutes, at one point passing over the pod. In the hallway outside the pod Dave slowly shook his head as the sound of the rotorcraft grew louder again.
"That can't be a supply drone. Find us another way to Sentinel Aegis."
Emily rapidly flipped through several maps before letting out a hiss of success, spinning towards the door opposite the one leading into the pod.
"We could through this door and then down a level. There should be an enclosed walkway that goes to another part of the factory."
"And then?"
"It's only two factories over 'til we get to the target. We'll have to go back onto the roof level."
Shaking his head again Dave gestured up at the ceiling.
"That's someone performing a search. We can't use the roofs."
"Fine. But are you happy with crossing to the office building?"
Dave moved over to the other door, opening and holding it open for Emily, and glanced back along the assembly line before following her onto the walkway.

The room they stepped into appeared to be an office space of some sort, presumably where Enfield employees maintained the factory stock records. After navigating through the small maze of cubicles and descending down an exterior staircase to a large chamber that linked three different corridors together Dave turned to Emily, a question on his face. The woman stared back, eyes flicking down to her tablet for a second, before immediately setting off down one of the featureless passages. Dave followed a second later, quickening his pace so that they were walking level.
"So where will this take us?"
"Up-city road level. If we can't go over the roofs because of that rotorcraft we'll have to go through the streets."
"You realise that they're probably patrolling the streets by now though."
Emily stopped, reaching out to grab Dave by the arm and swing him round to face her.
"So we can't go over because of the rotorcraft and we can't go by street because of patrols? How do you suggest we get to Sentinel Aegis then?"
Dave growled under his breath in frustration before continuing along the corridor.
"Get your pistol out then. And be ready to use it."

They hurried from a rear exit of the Enfield office building, almost expecting something to happen, and cautiously made their way around the side of the tower. The street outside was empty of both vehicles and people, the silence split only the sounds of the rotorcraft high above them, and both Dave and Emily were nervous as they snuck along the road. Pausing at the end of the Enfield office building, peering towards the Sentinel Aegis factory, Emily gazed at a checkpoint at the factory's entrance, and the dozen gangsters manning it. Pulling back from the edge Emily glanced at the rifle Dave held.
"You're probably going to need that."
Dave swiftly checked the rifle, ensuring that it wouldn't jam, and then darted out, shooting in the direction Emily had said the checkpoint was in. Cries of pain and the rattle of bullets bouncing off armour meant he'd hit several of the Metallics and the return fire was less than he was expecting. Thudding into the barrier that prevented vehicles from plunging from the elevated road and into the low-city Dave quickly scuttled back, still with his finger on the rifle's trigger. Four of the Metallics were already down, a fifth falling back as they caught a bullet, and the remaining gangsters were hunkering down behind the checkpoint's barricade.

That was when Emily leant out from around the corner of the Enfield office building. Precise shots dropped a pair of the gangsters, forcing the five that were left to split their fire, and Dave used the distraction to scurry behind a parked car. After a few seconds of suppression fire the Metallics began withdrawing into the Sentinel Aegis factory, leaving their dead at the checkpoint, and both Dave and Emily inched towards the main entrance. It looked like a sturdy construct, designed to impress any customers approaching the building, but yielded quickly to the pair of mercenaries, any stopping power it might have had lost due to the lack of energy. A single Metallic had been left behind in the lobby and Dave let out a cry as a trio of bullets tore through the flesh of his right arm, dropping the rifle as he took shelter behind a thick pillar. The gangster fell to one of Emily's bullets, tumbling down a flight of stairs to end up in a tangled heap, and she crossed to Dave's side, helping him remove his jacket. Blood was running down the length of Dave's arm, dripping from his fingertips to start puddling on the floor, and he grimaced as he shrugged Emily away from him, instead walking over to the Metallic's corpse.
"Help me remove their armour. I'll tear off strips of their clothing to create makeshift bandages." Emily scowled but followed Dave's instructions, pulling the different pieces of shaped metal from the dead man, and kept an eye on the staircase in case more Metallics showed up. "What now then?"
Emily retrieved her tablet and consulted a map before returning the device to its carry-case.
"We go up these stairs, through the doors and then there'll be a large storage depot. Tanks, shells, bullets, guns. Might even be a few landing pads for rotorcraft. We rig something to blow and then the entire stockpile goes up, and takes the factory with it."
Dave had started to frown as Emily spoke and glanced at her as they began climbing the staircase.
"What is Sentinel Aegis, if they have military-style hardware stored here?"
"They're one of the suppliers for the Border Force. But they're not exactly being loyal."
"So Mr Shadow is using us to destroy a company that's what? Selling secrets to the Union? Who's Mr Shadow then?"

The conversation came to a halt when they stepped into the depot, standing on a catwalk that encircled the large room. Dozens of large tanks were lined on either side of the depot floor, their gun barrels pointing towards the row of small tilt-wing rotorcraft in the centre of the room, and crates of shells and small-arms ammunition sat next to each vehicle. Apart from the two of them the depot appeared empty of human life and Dave walked behind Emily when she made her way down to the main floor, watching as she clambered into a tank and began fiddling with the controls.
"We're in luck. This one has a full canister of fuel aboard. It's likely that the others do as well."
"Good. So start setting up the explosives trail so that we can complete this job."
Emily hauled herself out from the tank, a small beaker of petrol in hand, and began to draw a line of petrol from the tank to the crates next to the vehicle.
"All we need now is a match, and the ability to run very fast."
Dave shook his head, instead moving to be next to one of the large crates and broke it open, sticks of dynamite spilling from the damaged crate.
"We cut the fuses from these, tie them together and lay out a trail from here to at least the top of the stairs in the lobby. Then we light it."
Emily nodded and soon they had a long rope of fuses. Taking a match from his own carry-case Dave lit it before touching the flame to the fuse at the end of the trail. Sparks instantly began leaping from the material as it burned, quickly jumping to the next section of fuse, and both Dave and Emily ran, reaching the main entrance as the fuse at the mouth of the depot began sparking.

They were standing by the corner of the Enfield office building when the sparks ignited the petrol. There was a dull roar and the walls of the factory seemed to bulge outwards in stages as tanks exploded. A second wave of dull roars echoed around the empty street as more vehicles exploded within the factory and both Dave and Emily watched as cracks started appearing in the factory exterior, the building falling in on itself as the structural integrity failed. Clouds of dust swept out from the building as its collapse accelerated, the elevated road it was anchoring cracking as one of its support buildings was ripped away, and Dave glanced down in concern.
"Let's get out of here. I don't want to be on the road if it does follow Sentinel Aegis down into the low-city."
Emily nodded and the pair sprinted from their hiding place, returning to the door they'd used to leave the Enfield office building and slipping back into the tower