Feral dogs are most dangerous backed up against the corner. The Amarr will lose the city. That, Cain already knew. The question was at what price.
The break had happened early in the morning. What remained of the infiltration teams had broken radio silence to report the uprising within the city, and he had immediately reported it up the chain of command, although he needn’t have had, reports from within the city had begin to flood the intel channels almost as soon as they had begun. The time in between was spent preparing for the eventual assault, and when the defenses finally went down, there was a mad dash to the city.
A laser blast above his head on the overhang reminded Cain that even if the city was in the middle of falling, there were still enemy combatants here to make the job difficult. Stubborn bastards. A grudging respect had formed inside the Brutor, despite his best efforts. He knew that if the situation was reversed, he would make every step a living hell for the enemy. As it where, the Amarr had chosen to wait until they were inside the city before making them duck. Three rifles went off next to Cain, almost in unison. His own burst came only seconds after. Enemy soldiers holed up on the second floor of an apartment building had forced his men to stop at intersection, and they now found themselves taking cover inside what once must have been a fancy restaurant. The 4th such engagement of the day.
“Hroda!” Cain shouted, pointing his hand across the street, “Take your unit across and up to the second floor! We’ll lay a covering fire.” Hroda, a tall sebiestor, nodded “Aye, Sir!” and quickly organized his unit to cross. One of the few that carried explosive ordnance, they would quickly destroy the enemy position. As they were ready, Cain gave the signal to the rest of the men and they all began to fire in short bursts at the enemy, the heavy fire making sure to keep the amarr’s heads down. “Keep it up!” Cain shouted, his own riflle flashing as the busts continue. The Amarr did manage to get off a few laser blasts out, but they missed wildly and for most part allowed the explosions team to cross unhindered. Once they were across, Cain slumped behind cover and reloaded. His men continued to fire, keeping the Amarr’s attention. Only a few minutes later, the hiss of a rocket followed shortly by the explosion ended it all.
Cain gave the men under his command only a few moments of respite, mostly to let Hroda come back down, before giving the order to continue. Weapons at the ready the units that Cain had personally taken into the city advanced in two columns on either side of the street. They hugged the walls and maintained a loose separation. In total close to 100 men directly under his command. That’s not to say the rest of Stormwinds was sitting idly as the liberation progressed. The main body of the PMC coalition was engaged in fighting elsewhere, supporting and sometimes spearheading the Republic forces assault. No, Cain and his men were undergoing a special mission. One that fell within the general orders from command to be certain, but they were going after a specific objective. They were hunting for a bigger prize.
Intel had shown that the enemy had been falling back deeper into the city, perhaps to make a last stand at a more defensible location. There was strong confidence that the khanid warlord was located there. It would do the Republic a lot of good If they managed to neutralize the warlord. Who knew what he was capable off, especially now that the city was lost. given the reports from before the city fell, Cain was sure that nothing was beneath khanid. The sooner he was removed from the equation the sooner they could all breath easier. While certainly the main reasoning begind the mission, in truth it wasn’t the only one.
He was also after some of the personal glory. Despite what he had told Elsebeth the other day, there were questions of honor at stake. So here they were, off in a race against time, and likely other republic units looking to take the same prize. Cain had equipped his men with non-lethal ordinance, stun grenades and chemical agents meant to paralyze and otherwise incapacity targets rather that kill them. Capturing the warlord alive and turning him into Republic command would be huge win, for everyone involved, but Cain knew who he was dealing with. A corpse would work just as well.
The Stormwinds commander checked his timepiece. It had been 4 hours since they entered the city, and resistance had been getting fiercer as they progressed. They must be getting close. Taking a last look at the scene of the skirmish, lead his men deeper in.