Thankfully, we had a head start on the ones who were chasing after us from behind so we did not need to worry about them for now.
The leader led us through an alley between a strip club and a bar that had a few turns before stopping at a heavy metal door at the side of an unmarked building.
He went up to pull it open, the door making a loud grating noise as it swung outwards towards us.
Just as he opened a large enough crack for a person to slip through, a bullet came flying from behind the door and hit him right in the head.
I thought he was dead but I realised a shield had materialised itself and protected him from the shot, giving him the opportunity to duck behind the door to avoid another shot taken at him.
"Fuck, they have the area up ahead guarded too! We're going to have to fight our way in! You, you and you! Cover our backs! Everyone else, light the corridor up!"
I was picked as one of the people who covered our backs.
Amber and Lea gave me a look but I nodded at them to show that I would be fine before I followed the two other Mercs who were chosen to engage the thugs running after us.
"Just sending three of us to deal with them? He's definitely sacrificing us to slow them down…" One of the guys muttered.
I turned to him, "Our main priority is to get through the door so he's bringing most of our firepower to clear the corridor as fast as possible. All we need to do is to slow down their reinforcements to buy them time to clear it. We don't need to beat everyone there."
"Easier said than done, lady… Do we even know how many people we're dealing with?"
I shook my head, "Doesn't matter, we just need to slow them down, make them take cover or just be too afraid to come charging in. Let's go, move these boxes there, we can use them as barricades to take cover. It'll also force them to climb over or remove them in the event that they managed to get to us."
The two Mercs looked at the pile of metallic looking boxes I was pointing at and chose to obey my orders instead of questioning it.
We shifted the boxes over to block the alley and ducked behind the boxes in preparation to shoot at anyone who turned around the corner.
I had intentionally made everyone hide themselves behind the boxes and remained crouching behind them even as we heard footsteps running towards us.
Just as it sounded like a horde of them were almost on top of us, I nodded at them and all three of us popped out from behind our cover and fired everything we had at the thugs.
Our appearance obviously surprised them and we easily mowed down a good dozen or so thugs before the rest managed to scramble for cover.
A few of them had tripped over each other making them sitting ducks for us to shoot down, which had the extra effect of creating another smaller barricade in front of the alley.
"Reloading," I warned the other two, dropping behind cover to start slotting in more shells into my shotgun.
The other two were using ballistic rifles which they were firing intermittently to keep the thugs behind cover.
Once I was fully loaded, I took over the second guy who needed to reload and started firing a few rounds down the alley.
Stolen novel; please report.
One of the thugs attempted a blind fire around the corner so I shot off his hand, causing the thug in question to stumble out into the open while clutching his stump.
Another pull of the trigger and the guy was lying motionless on the ground.
"Reloading!" The third Merc cried out, ducking down to eject the magazine of her rifle.
Right then, someone leapt out from their cover and started running towards us from the alley's entrance.
Geez, did this guy think that everyone was reloading and couldn't shoot at him?
I levelled my shotgun at him but the second Merc was faster, his rifle spitting out several bullets at the charging thug.
I expected him to go down with that but what actually happened was the thug leaned his body to the side with incredible speed before straightening himself again just to avoid the bullets.
What the fuck?
The second Merc pulled the trigger again and the thug quickly leaned to the other side and avoided the shots once more.
Does he have some kind of implant that allows him to see the trajectory of bullets ahead of time?
I pointed my shotgun at him and fired as well, surely he wouldn't be able to avoid a hail of pellets coming towards him right?
He reacted by leaping towards the wall with blinding speed to avoid my shot and then using it as a foothold to leap over the boxes towards us.
How the hell is he moving that fast?!
I managed to swing my shotgun towards him and fired when he was midair, fully expecting this shot to land since he shouldn't be able to dodge it in midair.
My expectations were overturned when he suddenly did what I can only describe as an air boost where he propelled himself to the side and completely avoided my shot.
I found him landing behind us in a three point landing before his figure suddenly blurred and he was right in front of the second Merc who was still in the midst of turning around.
The thug flicked his palm forward like he was attempting to deliver a palm strike, only for a blade to pop out from a slot in his wrist which he used to stab the Merc in the side with it.
The Merc grunted in pain but to his credit, he actually swung his fist at him in an attempt to knock the thug down despite the wound.
Once again, the thug's figure blurred and he was already a few steps back before the Merc could complete his swing.
He then shifted his gaze to me and I knew that he was targeting me next.
His figure blurred once more and I somehow had an indescribable feeling of something coming towards me from the side. I let my instincts take over and leapt in the opposite direction while firing my shotgun at the side where I felt that danger.
Surprisingly, I saw the guy reappearing while staring at me with wide eyes, only for the shotgun pellets to hit him a split second later before he got launched back to crash against the wall.
The shot had completely ripped his chest apart so I highly doubt he was going to walk away from that one.
A few thugs had tried to use the distraction this guy caused to rush towards us but the third Merc managed to finish reloading her rifle and lit them up even before they covered half the distance.
I looked at the Merc who got stabbed, "You alright?"
He grimaced, "Give me a moment…"
He then took out something that looked like an inhaler before he pointed the nozzle at the stab wound.
I watched as he pressed a button at the top which caused a layer of white foam to be dispensed over the wound.
It then quickly solidified which stopped the bleeding completely.
Woah… What the heck is that? Where can I get one?
He limped back on his feet, "I'll live… Survived worse than that. Didn't expect that they would have someone with a mod like that…"
Mod? Oh… That must be some kind of Cyware that allows him to move and react that quickly.
Geez, where can I get one for myself too?
"Hey! If you have time to be talking, how about shooting a little bit more?!" The other Merc complained, taking cover behind the boxes just as a few bullets flew past her head.
The both of us quickly rejoined her and started shooting down the alley, killing a few thugs who thought it was a good idea to start shooting out of cover.
Just as I was feeling a little confident that we would be able to maintain this barricade, a loud stomping sound came from around the corner and we were greeted by the sight of a power armour wielding a minigun staring back at us.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck! Run, you idiots!" The Merc with the stab wound shouted, already trying his best to limp away as quickly as he could with his stab wound.
The third Merc was quick to peel away from her cover as well while I followed behind her soon after.
Not even a second passed before the loud whirring sound of the chaingun revving up could be heard and we just managed to turn the corner before a hailstorm of bullets started shredding through the space we had just been taking cover behind.
"The corridor is clear! Hurry up and get in there!" I heard a shout coming from the front.
Oh good! I was afraid that we might have needed to take care of the power armour too!
Let's get out of here!