Down

Cassandra glanced down at her terminal as it chimed an alert, her eyes taking in the multitude of video feeds and schematics displayed across its surface
“There's the security van" she nodded
Rechecking her pistols for the last time, she slipped them into their holsters inside her coat and climbed to her feet "Are we ready?”
“As ready as we’ll ever be” Katrina said grimly “Let’s get this over with”
“Okay” Cass scooped the terminal up and tapped her fingers across its screen to initiate the lockdown sequence "Let's go”
She turned to leave, resizing the terminal to slip into her pocket
Exiting the suite, the group made their way down towards the lift foyer, where the doors of the one functioning lift left in the building whispered open as they approached
Nobody said a word, either as they filed in or as they rode down to the ground floor; the tense silence punctuated only by the hum and creak of the lift cabin around them as it continued its stately descent
Keeping her eyes fixed on the floor level indicator, Katrina watched the numerals tick inexorably downward, while Cassandra occupied herself with her terminal, silently watching the video feed of the security van reversing slowly into the hotel's subterranean vehicle bay
Eventually the lift slowed to a halt and, with a gentle ping, the doors slid open to reveal the bustle of the main casino floor beyond
“Ready?” Katrina asked and strode from the lift, not bothering to wait for a response
“Vehicle bay secured” Cass murmured, her fingers dancing over the controls on her terminal as she and the others followed in Katrina’s wake “EMP armed... Firing in three, two, one. We’re done”
Quickening her pace, she slipped the terminal back into a pocket and hurried forward to join Katrina at the front, as together they swept down a short flight of stairs and into a small lobby; one wall of which was occupied by a series of glass-screened teller’s desks.
A bored and pot-bellied guard stood in one corner by the security door, his thumbs tucked into his gun belt as he idly rocked his weight backwards and forwards from his heels to his toes. At the sight of Jewel Staite and Shannyn Sossamon he raised his eyebrows and nodded in acknowledgement, only realising, too late, that Ms. Staite was armed, when she produced a heavy pistol from inside her coat and shot him
Cass simultaneously drew her own weapons and shot a second guard through the glass screen, the three women working on the tellers desks screaming in shock as the armoured glass spider webbed with cracks and the guard slid down the wall, trailing blood and brain
Katrina marched up to the security door, and kicking the dead lobby guard out of the way, hauled it open
“Get out!” she snapped, motioning to the three women inside with her gun, before stepping back to allow them gratefully bolt past her and flee away up the stairs
“Not cool!” Jaxx intoned as he scooted through the door and surveyed the dead guard “Not cool – I thought we were only going to teargas them!”
“You can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs” Kat shrugged and hauled her gasmask down over her face “Keep moving”
Snapping on her nanosuit's rebreather mask, Cass hurried along behind them towards the door at the back of the kiosk, and pulled her terminal out from her pocket
“Two guards at the end of the corridor," she reported "both crouching; one left, one right”
“I’ve got these” Kat nodded, her voice muffled by the gasmask
“You sure?” Cassandra asked, eyeing her coiling and recoiling her fingers around her weapon's pistol grip
“Don’t ask stupid questions”
Cassandra shook her head and grabbed the door handle “In three, two, one”
She hauled the door open, Katrina darting around it before it was even halfway open and firing two shots, killing both guards with brutally frightening efficiency
With no further resistance evident, the team hurried down the short corridor towards the single exit at the end, stepping over the two bodies on the way
“You'd best ready some of those grenades" Katrina nodded to Jaxx who was literally festooned with bandoliers of teargas and flashbangs
“Eight employees, three guards in the machine room,” Cass read from her terminal “They heard the gunshots. Panic button’s not doing them any good though” she paused to show the screen to Katrina and Jaxx “Hostiles, here, here and here. We stick to plan: Shelter behind this armoured door, let Jaxx lob the grenades, give it thirty seconds and then we’re in – Okay?”
Frowning down at the screen, Katrina scrutinised location of the guards "Fine" she nodded tersely
“This suit’s armoured,” Cass said to her “Jaxx first, then me, you last”
“Whatever” Kat checked her weapons “Are we ready?”
“Jaxx: In three, two, one, go!” Cass dragged the door open wide enough to allow the little skutter to scoot round the and start throwing grenades into the room, undeterred by the hail of retaliatory fire impacting heavily on the other side of the door
“Done” Jaxx wheeled back to allow Cass and Katrina to shoulder the door closed again
“It’s working” Cass hissed in excitement, and held the terminal up for everyone to see the video feed and watch the guards and employees coughing and retching from the effects of the gas
They gave it another ten or so seconds before Katrina hauled the door open to admit first Jaxx and then Cassandra, who both flew into the room, their guns and holowhips alight as they sought to neutralise any remaining resistance.
After a mercifully short battle, all the guards and a couple of the feistier employees were either dead or incapacitated by Jaxx’s holowhips, and the Dwarfers set about ejecting the remaining members of staff and securing the room; Cassandra using her terminal to lock not only the three security doors into the vault, but all the rest of the doors in the hotel as well, for good measure
"Jay" Katrina snapped over her communicator "Are you in position?"
"Standing by," Jay replied "We've neutralised the guards out here and we’re ready to roll when you are"
"I'm cracking the safe now" Cass called as she hurried over towards the large metal door, dominating the room
Activating another handful of teargas grenades to deter any pursuers, Katrina lobbed the grenades around the room and then took up position near the exit out to the vehicle bay; her weapon remaining trained on the armoured door that they had entered through
Given the complexity of the lock and the length of the combination, it took a few minutes to crack the safe, Cass eventually hauling the door open to a jubilant cheer from Jaxx, to reveal Kenneth clutching the missing pulse rifle
"Fantastic" Cass grinned behind the rebreather "You found it! You okay?"
"The electromagnetic pulse has badly degraded the performance of my sensors," Kenneth reported "but other than that, I am fine"
"We need to go" Katrina shouted "We're wasting time!"
Holstering her pistols, Cass pulled her terminal out to unseal the vehicle bay, but as she was doing so, some of the deposition schematics gave her cause for concern
"Heads up!" she yelled as she dashed across the room towards Katrina and the exit "Incoming!"
"How!?" Kenneth demanded as Kat hauled the door open and motioned for everyone to get through
"Manual override, I dunno" Cass snapped "Move!"
The Dwarfers scrambled to react, each making their way towards the door, held open by Katrina
"Get the fuck out of here!" Cass yelled at Kat, using her suits enhanced strength to bundle her through the door "I'm armoured"
She wheeled as the other door burst open, both hands moving independently to target her pistols on the first two of the crowd of gasmasked thugs that swarmed into the room
Several shots were fired, both the thugs falling along with another couple of their compatriots, who Kenneth had killed with the pulse rifle, but another managed to open fire with a shotgun, the solid slug smashing into Cassandras left knee and felling her with a scream, while yet another pumped a round into her prone form
Flicking the pulse rifle over onto full automatic, Kenneth opened fire on the thugs as Cass moved weakly down on the floor

<tag>
Someone get us out of here
I haven't mentioned Jade or Jamie, thinking that someone might be manning an escape car or something, but if you want to write yourselves in, please feel free – or are you the backup team about to spring a rear-guard action?
Cassandra's nanosuit's only so good against high calibre rounds, so she's got a dislocated knee and a few broken ribs, which, to be fair, is far better than an amputated leg and a ten centimetre hole though her abdomen, but such is life...
Does anyone want to make a call on whether to bring her along and be slowed down by her, or do you want to leave her?
How many more gun toting killers are on the way in?
Are there any waiting outside the vehicle bay?
Does Artie have enough catarantula venom left?
Where are Jackie, Jade, Jamie and Boyd?

Over to you for car chases, and maybe the involvement of the Marshals again? :-)
</tag>