Black Market Beatdown

Victoria got up in her room. She was mostly over the three shots of CEILING she took yesterday. She was over all the effects except the taste. The potent aftertaste was not something that could be simply walked off. It would take time to get over, but thankfully she was sober enough to stand up straight, walk in a straight line, and perform tasks that involved motor skills.

Victoria sat in her room and reviewed the job listings. She saw one that involved stopping a black market syndicate that operated out of Rose Garden. She picked it up and returned the listing to the downstairs bulletin board. Victoria then went to get a shower.

-30 minutes later-

Victoria had just gotten dressed in a green t-shirt, black skirt and bike shorts underneath. She hurriedly put on her socks and white tennis shoes. She had to hurry to the Rose Garden police station for more details. Victoria had just walked down the stairs when a pair of police officers entered the inn. Did they come to her?

"You're Victoria Sheridan, right?" One of the officers asked her.

"Yes, Officer." Victoria answered.

"We've got a problem. We'll tell you more at the station." He said to her. Victoria wordlessly followed the pair to the police station.

-Rose Garden Police Station-

"The black market syndicate has been making some moves, Victoria. They've been taking over a lot of the Rose Garden underworld lately because they're violent and packing a lot of firepower. A LOT OF IT. None of the other syndicates can even come close to matching them." A male officer with close-cut blond hair said to her.

"We're not talking bargain-basement stuff you get from a milsurp store. We're talking brand new military-grade equipment. Weapons. Body armor. Vehicles." The second officer, a balding male with salt-and-pepper hair, chimed in.

"Do you know where they're getting all that gear from?" Victoria asked them.

"We've got nothing. We can't even begin to trace their source. And we can't slip an informant in because everyone's too scared to inform on them. Everyone we asked all said they'd rather go to prison than cross the syndicate. I can't say that I blame them." The blond officer answered.

"We're not dealing with an amateur outfit. The syndicate's got tight operational security. The last undercover agent we slipped in ended up dead a day later. We found their body parts in trash bags left on our front doorstep. The bags didn't have any prints on them." The second officer added. That was grim news. Victoria paused for a moment to consider the sheer nerve it took to put the remains of a dead officer in front of the police station.

"Where do they work out of?" Victoria asked.

"They work out of a private airport in the town limits. We can show you on the map." The first officer informed her, pointing to a large city map tacked onto a corkboard. The airport was circled in bright red marker and helpfully labeled "AIRPORT." Victoria studied the map carefully.

"You'll have to do this job alone. We can't spare anyone to help because we're afraid of reprisals against the town. We need every officer available in the town in case they decided to lash out against the citizens." The blond officer laid it out for her.

"Since they're so dangerous, we don't care if you bring them in dead or alive. Just stop them. The airport's fair game, but try to keep damage to the rest of the town to a minimum." The second officer requested.

"OK. I'll do it. I'll take the job." Victoria replied.

"Great. We appreciate it, kid. How can we help?" The older officer asked.

"Do you have any body armor?" Victoria asked.

[Word Count: 628]
[Total Word Count: 628/5,000]

-Private Airport-

Victoria managed to slip in unnoticed through an unlocked gate. She expected to set off security measures like alarms or catch the attention of a surveillance Lacrima, but none of those measures were there. This was easy. Almost too easy. Did they have a mole on the force who had tipped off the syndicate that she was coming?

Victoria did not know. It did not matter. She had already committed to this job and she was going to see it through because the Rose Garden police were counting on her. She took cover behind a stack of crates and glanced at the private airport. She noticed a tarmac that was the standard size and length for passenger planes, at least a dozen helipads, eight large hangars, and all the other essential support buildings that an airport needed.

She also noticed a air traffic control tower. Besides being necessary for controlling traffic, it also made an obvious perch for sentries and snipers. The runway itself was wide open and heavily patrolled by men traveling in pairs and in fours. The police were right. This was no amateur outfit of smugglers.

Stealth might not be an option here. She was heavily outnumbered and outgunned, so she could not charge down the runway like an action hero and expect to survive the job. She also could not afford to play around when she was spotted. The brunette might have to kill to stay alive. She had been given clearance by the police to stop the syndicate by any means necessary, but killing was not her first choice of action.

Victoria would do what she had to. In this case it was fully justifiable. They would not show her any mercy. She would not pull her punches either. Victoria took a deep breath and did her best to sneak to the next available bit of cover, a stack of metal crates near the first of the large hangars.

[Word Count: 326]
[Word Count: 954/5,000]

Victoria somehow avoided detection and dropped down behind a stack of crates. With so many guards walking around, it was only a matter of time before she was discovered. In fact she would be discovered sooner than she planned to be. A single person in all-black clothing rounded the corner behind the hangar and spotted her. He started pointing and shouting. Victoria brought out her sniper rifle and knocked him out with a Kinetic Shot to the head, but it was already too late.

Ear-splitting alarms sounded and more shouting could be heard. Victoria was caught out in the open and needed to get to shelter. With no other options, she pried open a side door of the hangar marked "01" in large white numerals and rushed inside.

-Inside Hangar 01-

Victoria paused a moment to get a look at her surroundings. Inside the spacious hangar were wall-to-wall shelves lined with spare parts, spray paint nozzles, and other items needed for aircraft maintenance. There were rolling tool chests spread throughout the hangar. There was also a single-engine plane, but Victoria did not know how to fly one. She needed a way to cut down on her pursuers, which would be numerous.

Victoria took one of the rolling tool chests and maneuvered it in front of the door she had just entered; it would not hold her pursuers for long, but it would buy her a few precious seconds to think. She did not have the firepower or the protection for a stand-up fight. Her loaner body armor could only take one or two hits before it was rendered useless. She needed options and she needed them fast. The syndicate soldiers were already starting to pry open the main hangar doors and were pounding on the side entrance.

Suddenly she had an idea. Spotting a few barrels of aviation fuel left carelessly standing in a corner, Victoria muscled one onto its side, rolled it to the hangar door, and kicked it in front of the guards. She then threw a Sticky Grenade onto the barrel and ran for cover. Five seconds later she heard a loud BOOM and some panicked shouting.

Repeating the procedure, Victoria rolled a flammable barrel over to the side entrance and threw a Sticky Grenade on it. The explosive went off just as a team of three guards stormed inside the hangar. The guards were flung like ragdolls across the hangar. With more soldiers streaming in through the hangar doors, Victoria raced through the fire and smoke to the outside through the side entrance she had just blasted open.

[Word Count: 432]
[Total Word Count: 1,386/5,000]
2 posts remain until the boss spawns.

Victoria burst through the fire and smoke right into the arms of a startled guard, who she instinctively punched in the face. She punched him in the face until he toppled to the ground and began running away while under a hail of gunfire. She only won that "fight" because the syndicate guard was too startled to put up any resistance. The mage needed to find cover fast. Where could she go?

A stack of wooden crates. Victoria sprinted and ducked behind it for a temporary refuge. Where could she go? Dipping into another hangar might not be the best idea because they would be prepared for tricks such as exploding barrels. Staying out in the open was also a bad idea because of the sheer number of guards firing at her.

Her crates were getting chewed up. They offered about as much protection from magic bullets as a sheet of notebook paper. They would not last much longer, so she had to do something and go somewhere the cover was a little more durable. Maybe taking shelter near a hangar would buy her a little time to come up with another plan. Maybe it would just delay the inevitable result of getting in over her head.

Victoria formed a Grenade in her hand and lobbed it in the general direction of footsteps and booked it for the right side of Hangar 02. She fled while zig-zagging and changing speed, anything to avoid at least some of the rounds whistling her way. By some miracle she made it to the opposite side of the hangar without getting any bullet holes. She had escaped one scrape but was not caught in another. A team of syndicate guards were waiting for her just outside the hangar's side entrance!

"Damn." Victoria muttered. She just could not seem to catch a break. Oh well. Since stealth was not an option, she would just have to fight her way out of this mess. That was easier said than done.

[Word Count: 334]
[Total Word Count: 1,720/5,000]
1 Post until the boss spawns.

Face-to-face with a trio of guards, Victoria had to think fast. She threw a Sticky Grenade and made them scatter. She then summoned her shotgun and began firing at them. She hit one twice while running away. Five seconds later the Sticky Grenade went off.

The guards had scattered by then, but that was the whole point. She wanted them to break up so that she reduced her chances of getting hit because they were too busy running away. Victoria ran behind Hangar 03 and came in contact with a black market dealer who was wielding a shotgun like hers.

"You're worth a lot of Jewels! The boss don't care how-" He said before Victoria cut him off. Two shots of magic buckshot were enough to knock him out. He had her in a bad place but was too busy talking to take care of business. He would not be the one to collect the bounty on the mage. Some other syndicate goon might get that honor.

She took cover behind a large metal crate next to the unconscious dealer and spotted three more guards coming after her; they were streaming out of the hangar she was hoping to hide behind. This time she spotted them before they spotted her, so she had the luxury of preparing a Flashbang for them. She flung it right in the middle of them and listened for the bang, then came up shooting. Victoria focused down one guard until he was knocked out, then knocked out a second with three more shots. She rushed the third guard and slammed him against the back of the hangar.

He punched her in the face with a gloved fist and hit her in the mouth. Victoria returned the favor with a bare fist, then punched him again before he kicked her in the right knee. She backed off and he raised his submachine gun and fired from the hip. Bullets whizzed by her as she raised her shotgun and knocked him out with a Solid Slug to the stomach. She did not have long to celebrate because the three guards from Hangar 02 had picked up her trail again... not that it was too hard.

"There she is!" The guard in front shouted. Victoria put away her shotgun, brought out her sniper rifle, and prepared for a hostile reception. She took cover behind the metal crate and aimed a Kinetic Shot at the chest of the first, then fired. He was knocked back and rolled over onto his stomach. The remaining two jumped over his unconscious body and kept closing the distance.

She aimed and fired a normal shot to the chest, hitting one and making him wince as he hit her in the face with the butt of his shotgun. Victoria fell over onto her back and retaliated with a Derringer spell, knocking him out with a hit to the nether regions. The third guard grabbed her by the right forearm and started dragging her towards more approaching guards. Victoria formed a Knife in her left hand and jammed it into his leg, making him scream and release her. She jumped up and punched him three times in the chest and finished with a punch to the face that knocked him out.

Victoria was a bit winded, but she was still good to go. She had to be because a tan helicopter gunship soon arrived. It was armed with missiles and minigun turrets and a large main cannon under the cockpit. The police were not kidding when they said that the syndicate was packing military-grade firepower.

"FIND HER AND KILL HER! I WANT HER DEAD!" A male voice ordered over the helicopter's sound system.

"Oh damn." Victoria said to herself. She was trapped between guards on the ground and a helicopter gunship in the air. There were no handy antiaircraft guns or surface-to-air missile sites to use, so this was going to be a tough battle.

[Word Count: 660]
[Word Count: 2,380/5,000]
The Boss has spawned.

The sound of the gunship's captain giving orders drowned out her thoughts. Victoria was going to need better weapons if she wanted to take on the airborne threat. She had an idea. Since this was a smuggling depot, maybe she could find some military-grade weapons with which to take it on. With any luck the syndicate would have stashed some portable anti-air weaponry since they had to deal with the threat of police helicopters.

As it stood Victoria had nothing but her bare hands to fight with. Punching a gunship to death was simply not going to work unless the pilot was stupid enough to land it and let her do so. Victoria brought out her sniper rifle and took aim. She needed to aim for critical parts in order to actually hamper its performance, but that was easier said than done. It was maneuvering erratically to throw off her aim.

Victoria fired a shot at the port minigun turret and watched it hit a magic shield around the craft. She frowned. Of course it had a magic shield to supplement its armor. She would just have to shoot the shield until it finally broke. Since the gunship was such a big target, shooting the shield would not be too difficult.

She aimed and fired again. The shield took another hit and dissipated. Now was her chance to do a bit of damage. Victoria aimed for the cockpit and fired a Kinetic Shot, but it hit the right side of the minigunner's window and punched through. The minigunner stared at her for a moment before aiming the weapon and firing a burst.

The brunette had to scramble for cover to avoid getting turned into Swiss cheese. She ran and ducked behind a set of wooden crates. She turned around and watched the shield reform. That was going to make bringing it down more difficult, but at least the damage she had already inflicted did not somehow repair itself. That was a small mercy.

Victoria looked around for something that could offer more firepower. A rocket launcher would be nice. So would an anti-material sniper rifle. A man-portable surface-to-air missile launcher would be a gift from heaven. She would take anything at this point.

The brunette looked around for a building that vaguely resembled an armory. They had to keep their good weapons around here somewhere. Maybe that large building next to Hangar 07 had something useful inside. Once the minigunner finally let up, Victoria sprinted for Hangar 07 to take cover from the ground forces rapidly approaching her position. They just did not give up.

She rushed through a storm of lead and ducked into the hangar. It was not the best shelter, but it would keep the gunship off of her for a few moments while she tried to figure out where the building was. There were six guards inside with weapons ready and calling for her to surrender. It was time to fight. She lobbed a Grenade and watched them scatter.

Victoria took out one guard with a shot to the chest and knocked out another one with a shot. The third joined up with his friends and the quartet fell back to hide behind a single-engine airplane. What should she do?

[Word Count: 544]
[Total Word Count: 2,924/5,000]

Victoria was trying to decide what to do about the guards when the ceiling of the hangar began to collapse. She ran to the edge of the structure and hugged the wall, praying that the entire roof would not hit her. She heard a loud explosion and the middle of the roof fell in on the guards, killing them all beneath a lot of metal and crushing the single-engine plane they were taking cover behind. Victoria heard the gunship hovering overhead.

"DAMN! SHE'S STILL ALIVE!" The pilot bellowed. She had been spotted. So much for that plan.

Victoria was surprised that the pilot would try and bring down a roof just to kill her. He had just killed four of his own loyal men in the failed attempt. That kind of reckless behavior was why the syndicate needed to be stopped. If they would do that to their own men, she shuddered to think what they did to enemies. The minigunner started firing again... it was time to go.

-Outside Hangar 07-

Victoria burst out of the side door and knocked down a dealer armed with a pistol. She rushed past him and made a beeline for the locked building she spotted earlier. She made a left and spotted the black building with a distinct NO SMOKING sign plastered on the door. That had to be a munitions storage building. Victoria looked up and noticed that the gunship was missing a missile from its missile rack... hopefully its ammunition did not replenish like its shields did.

She fired a shot at the craft just to show them that she was still able to fight, then made a dash for the suspected armory. She ran to the door and worked the handle. To her considerable surprise, the door opened without any resistance. Victoria raced inside and shut the door behind her.

-Inside the armory-

The armory was pitch black. Victoria fumbled for a light switch, groping along the wall until her palm came into contact with the switch. She covered her eyes with her free hand and flipped the switch up. Once the light came on and her eyes had adjusted, she lowered her hand.

A cursory glance inside the building showed that the brunette had hit the jackpot. There were weapons placed on wall-mounted racks and in conveniently labeled lockers as far as the eye could see. Pistols, sniper rifles, submachine guns, assault rifles, light machine guns, anything that could send lead downrange, and every last piece of it was modern. She even spotted a minigun with an ammunition belt sitting on a metal table, but she lacked the strength to even move it from its table, let alone actually use it. That was an impressive array of weapons to choose from, but she was looking for something in particular.

She needed antiaircraft weaponry with some serious punch. An anti-materiel sniper rifle might do the trick. A rocket launcher would do nicely. Even if the projectiles could not track the gunship, a few good hits would bring the syndicate craft down. A Talon man-portable surface-to-air missile launcher would be exactly what she needed. Its projectiles had some tracking abilities due to its ability to home in on the heat sources.

"I need a Talon. C'mon, have a Talon." Victoria muttered to herself as she searched the various weapons racks and lockers. They were a well-armed and well-funded crime syndicate that sold its wares far and wide. They were bound to have some antiaircraft weaponry lying around.

[Word Count: 586]
[Total Word Count: 3,510/5,000]

-Inside the armory-

Victoria scrambled to find a Talon missile launcher and the appropriate ammunition before the syndicate soldiers broke down the door and came after her. She would have to hurry. The gunship was still outside and the pilot might just decide to bring the building down on her head to keep the weapons within out of her hands. The brunette jogged and looked inside the helpfully labeled lockers. She saw plenty of weapons that were ready to use but nothing that could seriously hurt the gunship.

Victoria despaired of ever finding what she needed. There was everything under the sun but an anti-air weapon. She was about to grab a light machine gun and some ammo and pray for the best when she spotted a long rectangular box lying on a metal table. She rushed over to it and examined it. Written on the box in white letters was "TALON MAN-PORTABLE SAM SYSTEM."

The brunette opened the box with shaking hands and found the launcher inside of it. She took it into her shaking hands and checked all the parts. It was fully assembled and ready for use. All she needed to do was find the ammunition for it. Thankfully finding the ammunition for the Talon was easier than finding the weapon itself.

It was in a nearby weapons locker that had been thoughtlessly left ajar. Inside were six missiles for the launcher standing up neatly in a rack. There were fewer missiles than she wanted, so she would just have to make them count. She quickly located a tall, deep olive green backpack and placed the missiles inside of it so that she would not have to keep running inside the building to reload. The backpack and Talon launcher were heavy, but they were the mage's best hope of surviving this job.

While the improvised ammunition backpack gave her an advantage, it also gave her an equally powerful drawback. She would have to be very careful not to get shot in the back while the missiles were inside. All it would take was one stray shot and the mage would go out with a bang. All things considered, wearing it was worth the risk. Victoria now had a fighting chance against the gunship.

Victoria put the backpack on and shouldered the launcher. She was about to leave when she heard pounding at the door. The guards were outside! She paused and prepared to defend herself. There was no way out except through the door she entered, so a fight was unavoidable.

Talon Missile Launcher and Ammo:

[Word Count: 424]
[Total Word Count: 4,034/5,000]

Victoria prepared to face off with the syndicate soldiers trying to break in when she heard a loud explosion rumble at the top of the building. The soldiers ran away while shouting. It sounded like the gunship pilot was trying to bring the building down on her head. Victoria had a tough decision to make and not a whole lot of time to make it in.

Did she stay and risk premature burial or did she run outside and become exposed to gunfire? When the ceiling above her head began to crack under the weight of debris from the floor above her, the choice was easy. She would risk the hazards outside instead of risking being buried in rubble. Shouldering the launcher, Victoria rushed outside.

-Outside the armory-

Narrowly avoiding being crushed in the building's collapse, Victoria rushed through gunfire and hit a guard on the head with her Talon, knocking him out. She took shelter behind some metal crates and set down her launcher. To make best use of the missiles, she would have to overwhelm the gunship's shields before firing. A quick Hand Cannon shot made the shields flicker and disappear. Now was her chance.

She loaded the Talon with one of the six missiles and aimed carefully by keeping the aircraft framed in the weapon's scope. When the display indicated a target lock, Victoria fired a missile and watched it slam into the side of the gunship. The craft rocked and a manhole cover-sized hole was made in the armor of the port side. It was still flying, but it had clearly taken damage.

The shields flickered back in place as Victoria quickly reloaded the launcher. The minigunner's weapon whirred to life and the giant cannon on the gunship's underside rotated to face her. Victoria had to move!

Rushing just ahead of the bullets, the main cannon fired a shot that exploded near the mage and almost knocked her down; only her vest saved her from the worst of the blast. She needed to find a new firing position. She rushed past a surprised weapons dealer and ducked around the corner of Hangar 08, then put down her launcher and readied her sniper rifle. She first knocked out the weapons dealer with a shot to the chest, then aimed and fired a Kinetic Shot at the gunship as its port side minigunner pointed towards her location.

The shot hit and made the shields vanish. Victoria scooped up the Talon, aimed for the port side, and fired when a lock was achieved. The missile streaked for the side and slammed into it, making the craft wobble and knocking a hole just to the left of the minigunner's position.

"DAMN!" The pilot roared while the gunship turned to face her. Victoria quickly reloaded the launcher and began running for another hangar. It was a good thing she did because a gunship missile streaked towards the corner she was formerly sheltering behind. When the smoke cleared the corner was turned into rubble. No vest could have saved her from that kind of firepower.

The brunette saw that the gunship had only three missiles left in the rack. At least they did not replenish like the shields, which were soon up again. Victoria was doing some damage to it, but she would have to do more if she wanted to bring it down for good.

[Word Count: 564]
[Total Word Count: 4,598/5,000]

Victoria had hurt the gunship badly. It looked like the pilot was struggling to keep it aloft, which was good for her because it could not maneuver as quickly or as smoothly as it once could. She only needed to finish it off to break the syndicate's power over Rose Garden. However, its soldiers were doing their best to keep that from happening.

Victoria had taken cover behind the former armory. It sheltered her from aerial view and provided cover on at least one side. She spotted the gunship hovering just above her. Victoria lowered the launcher and fired a Hand Cannon that destroyed the shield. She quickly grabbed the Talon and aimed straight up.

She fired as soon as it locked on and hit the belly of the gunship, knocking a hole in its floor. A bit of debris rained down on her and forced her to scramble to safety, but it was a small price to pay for the opportunity to deal some damage without much threat of retaliation. Speaking of retaliation, it began to hover away from her and the main cannon swivel in her direction.

Victoria started to run just as it fired. She scrambled away from the armory but not quite fast enough to avoid the shockwave from the cannon shot. She was buffeted and fell to the concrete, the weight of the launcher and the remaining missiles pinning her to the ground. She quickly let go of the launcher and forced herself to get up. if the missiles in the backpack took a single hit it would be game over.

Victoria used a Hand Cannon shot to knock out a guard sprinting towards her, then formed and threw a Flashbang into a cluster of three guards. She fired three more Hand Cannons and knocked out the guards with shots to the chest. She grabbed up the Talon and sprinted away from a team of six guards running towards her. The mage found cover behind another stack of metal crates.

Victoria's hands shook as she reloaded the launcher. She set it down and fired a Hand Cannon shot that took out the shield. She hefted the launcher to her shoulder, aimed, and fired. The missile hit the front left side of the gunship, tearing an exposed engine to shreds and rocking the vessel. It slowly turned to her and stayed still.

"I'LL SEND YOU TO HELL!" The pilot bellowed. The rear cargo bay door opened and fired a large missile. The missile streaked out of the cargo bay and began to home in on her. The Talon had not been reloaded, so that was not an option. Victoria set down the launcher, summoned her sniper rifle, and aimed at the incoming missile.

This was stupid. Even if she shot it down, she might be caught in the blast radius. There was no other choice. Victoria steadied her aim, fired a Kinetic Shot at the nose of the projectile, and held her breath. She was rewarded with a spectacular explosion.

The brunette screamed as she was thrown to the ground by the shockwave. The rifle was flung from her hands and out of reach. Thankfully she did not need it. Victoria got up, loaded the launcher, set it down, and fired another Hand Cannon. The shields disappeared and the gunship was vulnerable.

Victoria steadied her shaking hands and ignored the rain of bullets heading her way. She focused, aimed, and fired the Talon. Its missile slammed into the nose of the gunship, sending it spiraling out of control and slamming into a hangar, then going off with a loud explosion.

"She... she killed the boss!" One of the guards commented.

"Oh damn!" Another exclaimed.

The guards gave up all thought of killing her and began to flee as the police arrived on the scene. They tried to fight their way out but were all killed by heavily armed police. Victoria set down the Talon and the backpack with the last missile still inside. She watched calmly as police began to raid all the hangars and deal with any remaining syndicate resistance.

She had done it. She had survived this job and had destroyed the power of the syndicate. Its grip on Rose Garden was released. But something felt strange. Why was that?

"I can't believe it, kid. You did it!" A police officer exclaimed in happiness.

"Yeah." Victoria said. She was still in a daze. This was definitely a highlight of her brief but eventful mage career. Not too many mages could boast of defeating a gunship with a missile launcher. But some nagging questions remained.

Had Victoria peaked early? Was it all downhill from here? Or was her adventure just beginning?

"We'll handle things from here. You go home. Thanks for the assist." Another officer said to her.

"I'm glad that I could help." Victoria said as she began walking towards the airport exit. The wind began to blow for the first time since the job started. She felt the wind blow through her sweat-soaked hair. Change was on the way. She had a feeling that things were going to change for her very soon.

[Word Count: 860]
[Total Word Count: 5,458/5,000]