Raynor's group popped off before we did, but the brief delay didn't matter as every Maelstromer outside of the building was blown to pieces almost instantly.

Without my own set of Power Armor, Keighvus's former SOR was almost too much for me to handle. It kicked like a mule and knocked me back a couple of feet.

As bad as that sounded, I hit the Strom I was aiming at, his chest burst into pieces with milky grey fluid splattering into the night air. I knew that trying to handle the recoil again was not a good ideal. So I left the rifle fall, its strap keeping it ready if I needed it again.

I started a shuffle step jog towards the building, while my squad kept pace scanning the roofline for any signs of movement.

My trusty Omaha was swiftly out and I squeezed the trigger at a few borg heads starting to peek out of the garage door. All misses, but they caused the Strom to flinch allowing the rifles of my troops to be brought to bear. The roll-up door despite being made a strong aluminum was poor cover against our iron. The crysbronze bullets, unimpeded by their passage through the otherwise durable material, found their marks in the gangoons. More foul fluid was released all over the garage's bay.

I dropped back a step letting Arvigh plow through the door before me, his armor absorbing the impact like it was nothing. I could see that Raynor and his squad were already in the building and had pinned a few Maelstrom behind some cover. We caught them in a deadly crossfire making short work of their position.

A quick visual scan allowed us to determine that the coast was clear. We had already put down every threat currently above ground. We all took a second to swap to fresh mags.

That was way too easy. My gut churned with suspicion.

After our squads ran a quick sweep around the grounds, Raynor's Squad broke off and descended in to the warrens to aid John if it was needed.

My squad posted up and the corners of the building to wait for the inevitable influx of fresh enemies, that had to already be on their way. I was gathering shards from all the bodies. Credits and possible intel on the Gang's movements was never a bad thing.

However until the others finished up below it felt like the squad was too spread out, so I was trying to keep an eye on all of them at once. Making sure that they weren't surprised by any sneaky bastards. Nerve wracking work. Half my attention was on a feed from the Observer that parked above us. I could make out the swarm of Strom bodies circling the garage. They were painted by the Observers scanners.

We heard gunfire from below several times while we waited, twitching a little with each report. Knowing we were about to be similarly engaged.

Leens yelled, "Contact! Northwest!" Before firing several rounds into the night.

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Arvigh started shooting to the Southeast, his demeaner was calm his voice barely heard above the rounds already tearing through the night. "Contact."

Hopper kept up his watch before a round deflected off his shield, "Orc tits, I didn't see them!" Before his weapon joined the others in their song.

"Coming around!" Tous called out before firing at his guests.

I wanted to start shooting myself, to run out and cut down Strom with my bullets. But that wasn't the plan, I was to monitor everyone and pull them back to cover and/or provide healing if needed. It sucked to be the healer. I could only watch the feed from above seeing many marked Maelstrom fade out as their lives did the same.

Soon enough both John and Raynor's squad returned from below ground. John was covered in spatter as he appeared at my side. Raynor and his boys took up the corners.

"Looks like the still want to play, Hoss!" Raynor barked in amusement.

"Show them how we do it!" I called back trying to be encouraging. Our fire burned into the dark and the enemy fell.

"Fight!" They sounded off.

"You alright, John?" I asked the legend.

"Yeah." He responded. Verbose as ever.

I nodded before turning my attention back to the link with the Observer. The Strom were almost all down, out there.

"We should be able to roll the rest up, and break away." I couldn't see anymore Strom approaching the area.

"You heard the man! Move! Move! Move!" Raynor bellowed.

We formed up and rushed back out into the night steamrolling the remaining borgheads pumping extra rounds into them just to make sure that they wouldn't survive.

Once we got back to the truck, I hit everyone with a Cleanse and a Regrowth just to help keep us pepped up.

Somewhere John had found some earplugs for us both that cut any sudden loud noises but left us able to heard most sounds in a standard range. They were a godsend, and I thanked him for finding them.

Our next target was a long way back towards the bridges where Watson lead into Japantown. We were hunting a Tyger Claw operation boosting goods from the small dock warehouses clustered there. This should be a quick smash and then we'd head for the Outpost in Japantown to lay low until tomorrow night. I figured we'd be starving and tired by the time we got there so decided that resting was a better plan then pushing on tonight.

I kept telling myself there was no need to rush.

We caught the Tygers with their pants down. A dozen of them were just milling around outside an open warehouse door. It was obvious they had just finished stripping the place and the trucks full of goods had already left to drop off their plunder. The remaining Claws were celebrating with synth sake and music. Basically daring anyone to challenge their crime.

They weren't expecting anyone, never mind us.

Despite that, they fought hard, their smart weapons arcing bullets at us in large bursts. Unfortunately for them our shielding held. Our return rounds started picking them off.

Interestingly enough when some of them charged us with katanas, the blades got caught in the shielding. That was odd. maybe something to worry about I'll have to study that when we got back home. At least for right now, it made them easy prey as they tried to free their blades. We blew them away without mercy.

Only one of the Claws stood out as he was a full borg and engaged a Sandy, but John had him covered and both appeared a nanosecond later with John's pistol under the Borg's chin already pumping a few rounds through the top of the Claw's head. The Claw's blade still too far out of line to be a threat to John. Damn!

The last Tyger skinned, we swapped mags again. Looked for any stragglers but finding none, we were all somewhat disappointed. Way too easy.

We gathered all the chips and left.

A good start.