After that they did a quick stock take on what they had, what condition they were in and what options they had available. They set up strategically, Hurwitz to the side of the door that gave the best vantage point for the side they were likely to have more mercenaries appear from, Häni on the other. They rapidly fashioned a vantage point for Kempa out of the desks, consoles and containers available to them. That left Ali and Revlu with the main security console to hide behind.

The waiting was horrible as Ali watched the data feeds on her visor. Even with something to do she felt it as keenly as the rest of the team. Finally, when she reckoned that the group outside had reached a critical mass so that they wouldn't be overwhelmed but could do maximum damage, she gave the order to strike to Hurwitz. Opening the door just enough, he threw another grenade before closing the door again. Ali's feed lit up as the explosion went off after which she cleared it so that she wouldn't be tempted to use it in preference to her own senses and confirmed the detonation to her team.

With that, they opened the door again to start their offence. They needed to control the battlefield - if it could be called such - otherwise they might as well quit now. Cosmos' Champions' initial attacks were rushed and over confident, so they were able to dispatch them without much difficulty. Using their cover and timing their shots, working concurrently to provide fire whilst preventing their weapons from overheating.

After that the mercenaries left cottoned onto the fact that they hadn't opened the doors out of some foolish desperation or aim to surrender, so their attacks became smarter. Ali and her team were forced to duck more frequently to stop themselves being caught foul of some more inventive shots. A brief stalemate ensued when they were matched for cover and firepower. Both sides ducking and shooting in and out of their cover in valiant but often futile attempts to gain an advantage. Ali decided she still had some tricks to turn the tables and shifted to be able to access the console again, thankful for the way it was shaped, meaning that so long as she stayed low and took the occasional shot that she would be unlikely to be shot herself.

It didn't take her long to deactivate the lights in the corridor, and once he'd spotted what had happened Hurwitz hurled another grenade into the mix. Cosmos' Champions heard the sound of it skittering along the corridor, and they heard the panicked queries about where it had gone before it detonated. Not only did it do a lot of damage, but the flash in the dark corridor would disorientate those left.

Ali hit the lights again so that they could take some sort of advantage, before being thankful that Hurwitz wasn't complacent enough to over-press their new advantage. He kept his position but simply poked out of cover more frequently in the immediate aftermath. Those longer periods gave him the opportunity to take stock of their opposition's status as well.

Once he'd taken out the initial stragglers from the latest grenade there was a period of quiet, as the remaining Cosmos' Champions mercenaries stayed out of range. Ali and her team weren't willing to be pulled out of their advantageous position just yet, so they patiently waited until the other side made a move.

"Okay, maybe it's time to ask what USEP wants with this base," a voice called out down the corridor.

Ali recognised that voice; Petra. "Why? You offering a surrender?"

"No, but if it'll save any more of our guys I might as well find out what you're after. Maybe we can come to an arrangement that doesn't get us all killed."

"And how do we know you won't just shoot us anyway?"

"I could ask you the same thing, Ali."

Ali flicked her visor back on to properly take stock of their options. She had rather been hoping Petra wouldn't recognise her voice. Ali scoffed to herself, when had she ever been that lucky? A part of her supplied the fact that she was somehow still alive as proof. "Then why start a dialogue, Petra? Trying to distract us?"

There was a telling pause. "You engaged with it, you must want to keep your people alive as much as I want to keep mine alive."

"How sweet," Ali retorted. Her eyes landed on an energy spike in the readings on her visor. She almost grinned but instead turned back to the security console, she had work to do and she needed to do it quickly. "What're you offering?"

"Offering? You're the one who broke into our base!"

"Yeah, but just how far are you willing to go? Just what are you willing to concede to stop us fighting our way out?" Ali questioned as she continued to press buttons and swipe through processes and diagnostics.

"Tell us what you're after and then we'll talk."

"Now, why would I do that?" Ali asked as she finished countering their attempt to overload the console she was currently working at. Her team were safe again. But she'd spotted a junction, and she was more than happy to use their tricks against them.

"You're stal-" Petra was halfway through the realisation when Ali finished her hack and the junction in the corridor blew out above Petra's unit.

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They had been far enough removed that they hadn't needed to take cover again. They didn't move until they had confirmed that Petra's unit were either dead or unconscious. They couldn't dawdle though. They turned to their injured man. "We'll keep up," Revlu assured them as he wedged himself under Häni's shoulder in a way that allowed them both to continue shooting. Ali nodded once, but Hurwitz gave them both a look that suggested they better be ready to make the choice if it turned out to be untrue. They nodded back to their superior.

Ali didn't examine Petra, she didn't want to know if she was dead or alive. If she did so and discovered that she wasn't, then there was a choice she didn't want to make. Risk leaving a powerful enemy behind them, or risk killing a potential ally backed into an unhappy corner. Not to mention that Spud would kill Ali if she took the shot. Self defence was one thing, but execution was another. She just hoped she didn't live to regret the decision.

From there they had a straight run to Touchard's offices, or at least, what looked like the leadership's command centre from the data they had. They ran into a few remaining Cosmos' Champions mercenaries on the way, but given that they didn't encounter more than two at a time it didn't provide them with much trouble.

The main problem was that - not unexpectedly - Touchard had sealed the doors to his offices. That left them at a dead end with no cover. It wasn't ideal but they rearranged so that Ali had access to the controls as they covered the remaining angles as best they could. Naturally Hurwitz asked her how long it would take, but Ali had no answer for him as she set up with her scanner and a computer spike to hack the code. She didn't know and it would take as long as it took.

Due to her work in the security offices no one had been able to break through the bulkheads to get to them before she'd finished hacking the door controls. "Okay, I'm done," Ali reported as she hooked her scanner back onto her belt so that she was free to wield her pistol properly.

Hurwitz automatically rearranged their team so that they were ready for the resistance they would expect from the head of an armed mercenary group. "On my mark," he ordered and everyone nodded. He counted down and as he reached the end Ali entered the final command to open the door.

They had expected to be fired upon almost instantly so the fact that they weren't was disconcerting. They carefully stepped into the room, slightly lowering their weapons as the scene of Touchard sat at his desk trying his utmost to look like a businessman surrounded by armed guards. "Captain Turner, this seems very heavy handed, don't you think?"

Ali raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure you'd have rolled the red carpet out for us if we knocked, wouldn't you?"

Touchard chuckled - though it was clearly forced - as he leant forward on his elbows, hands clasped together as he scrutinised her. "What are you here for?"

"I plan on arresting you, Mr Touchard. You can either come with us voluntarily or we will use force."

Touchard sighed as if this was all very mundane and uncivilised. "How much to convince you otherwise?"

"The time for that passed when you started blowing up embassies," Ali assured him.

He cooed patronisingly and sarcastically. "Don't tell me you are feeling guilty because the weapons you sold me were turned against you?"

"So you have issued those weapons to your men?"

"Of course, they are of such a fine quality, why wouldn't I?"

He was baiting her and she knew it. Ali shrugged nonchalantly. "Maybe I have more to sell you," she joked.

He didn't even pretend to laugh that time. "We could have been allies."

"No we couldn't."

"You don't really expect me to let you arrest me, do you?"

"Depends whether or not you want to get shot." For a moment neither of them blinked, but everyone reaffirmed their aim down their weapons. A pin drop would be enough to set everyone off. The air was tense and no one dared let their guard down for as much as a nanosecond. Finally Touchard nodded and Ali clocked movement in her peripheral vision. "Grenade!"

Her entire team ducked into their nearest cover to avoid the grenade. It landed near Ali's feet where she'd thrown herself against his desk. She kicked it and it skittered down the corridor they'd traversed to get here. They still felt the heat from the detonation, but thankfully it had been far enough away to not cause them any harm. Ali quickly scanned around the room to check on her guys, Kempa and Häni were holed up behind a filing cabinet someone had knocked over - she assumed deliberately given the location. Hurwitz was tucked away in an alcove formed by a large bookcase and Revlu was ducked behind another desk.

Confident that her team had themselves sorted, Ali turned to crawl under the desk, carefully sliding herself through the legs until she was close enough to two of Touchard's guards to shoot one whilst kicking the legs of the other out from under them so that her team could finish the job. One of his guards realised what she'd done and so ducked to shoot through the table's legs, but she had expected that so she spun and took her shot faster. That allowed her team to push forward into the space she'd created.

"Where's Touchard?" Hurwitz shouted.

"Back exit!" Kempa replied, "I've not got an angle!"

Ali was busy pushing herself back underneath the desk so that she could resurface in a better place otherwise she would've replied. Instead she finally got herself where Touchard had been sat earlier, grabbing his chair with her hands and shoving it as hard as she could into another of his guards. He went flying and landed heavily before one of her team shot him. That left them with three more.

She had to admit that she never thought she'd be using a chair for cover in a firefight, though given some of her other improvised solutions it didn't seem that unusual. Her targeted shots at one of the remaining Cosmos' Champions mercenaries gave Kempa an opening to take the guard out, and they were down to two. Frankly Ali didn't know why they didn't surrender, five versus two were bad odds. Especially when the five had managed to get through their entire base.

It didn't take them long to take out the remaining two mercenaries, then they were pushing on through towards where Kempa had seen Touchard heading. "We can't have lost him…" Hurwitz grumbled under his breath.

Once they had shoved open the door to Touchard's emergency exit Ali's smile finally broke through. "Thanks for opening the door," Rila replied, before promptly shoving a handcuffed Touchard at their feet.

"Never leave the emergency exits uncovered," Ali said with a shrug as she looked at Hurwitz.

"Yes, ma'am," he agreed. Though Ali knew it was really an apology for doubting that she had a plan that covered this eventuality.