Joe saw three quick flashes of light in the distance and knew that Decypha was giving them the sign that they should be ready to move any moment. A few seconds later he heard a slight grunt followed by two the distinct sound of two bodies hitting the ground in the distance. At that moment, he saw a guard step out of the gate tower to see what his counterparts were up to – he didn’t seem too worried about what he would find, however; he had no reason to. Joe had only guessed what the sound was because he knew what was happening on the other side of the gate.

As they stepped out Joe quickly but silently rushed out of the bush he was hiding in and toward the gate tower. As they began to run around the corner of the building he closed within 20 yards and let one of the silver throwing knives Merci had given him fly. Their precision engineering combined with Joe’s skill showed as it flew straight and caught the man in the back of the neck just below his skull, felling him instantly.

Joe quickly made his way to the man and retrieved his knife – wiping it on the man’s shirt before returning it to his holster – and drug the man back inside the gate tower. Finding the correct lever he pulled down allowing the front gate to open so that his counterparts could come onto the grounds.

“D, Gregos, and Stormwaver, get in here quick. We need to get this gate closed again before it draws attention.”

The Courier joined the trio entering the gate, and the four of them waited for Joe. He had been covering Joe, ready to provide suppressing fire upon anybody who interrupted while his friend sneaked up onto the guards. "We need to move quickly. I think one of 'em buggers at the house noticed somethin'" he tells the party once Joe returns. Without further ado, the team sets off towards the mansion, hugging the shadows cast by the vegetation, and hoping that their cover had not been blown. "At least we have two, very voluntary human shields." he whispers to the group, chuckling with dark humour as he pointed at the two limp forms they were dragging behind them. 

The team worked its way from shadow to shadow as they approached the worker’s entrance to the mansion. The_Courier quickly picked the lock on the door and they all slipped into the building and crept quietly down the hall toward the stairs they knew would be on the other side of the kitchen they were approaching. Seeing a guard ambling toward them, not really paying much attention, Decypha quickly levelled his gun and fired off one silent shot, dropping the man. Gregos and Stormwaver quickly picked the man up and moved his body into a nearby closet.

Heading down the stairs at the back of the kitchen the crew made their way quietly through the basement until they came to the room which held the vault. Three guards were posted in the room Decypha signaled to one of the guards and then to one each for The_Courier and Joe. Joe readied a throwing knife as Curry and D leveled their pistols. As they fired and the two men they aimed for fell the man in the middle went wide eyed for a moment and began to seek out the threat but fell a second later as well as a silver blade lodged into his eye.

Joe quickly chirped on his radio to Kathryn

“Boss, we are in place at the vault. Say the word and I’ll blow it.”

"Hold up a moment Joe my friend." D added.

He walks over to give a thorough inspection of the vault door. Then, he walks around to the walls surrounding the vault, putting his ear against them and giving them a knock in several places. The team look at him wondering what on earth he was doing. Then, he turns to them to explain.

"As I thought, the thick steel on the vault door would be impossible to penetrate. Unfortunately for us, the walls surrounding the vault are actually supporting the structure of the building. In short, blowing one of these walls to enter the vault may very well result in part of the house collapsing on top of the vault. Or worse, us." He said with great concern. As the amount of activity they could hear upstairs increases, he realises they are running out of time.

"But, we don't have time to improvise now. Merci's team need the distraction from the explosion so they can advance on the building and set up their perimeter to allow Kathryn and the others to get in and take out that bastard once and for all. Joe, get your explosives set up here on this wall instead." D continues as he watches Joe run over and set up the explosives he'd brought from the mine. He could hear noise upstairs from where the guards were well alerted to their presence and there were too many to fight through. There was no way out, it was make or break.

"Well, this exercise may cost us our lives if this explosion goes south. At least we can rest assured that we did our part in taking down that son of a bitch for our dear Kathryn - just in case, it's been a pleasure, chaps." He says as he looks around at the team. The_Courier, Joe_Scalise, Gregos and Stormwaver.  Each one of them followed his lead on this mission, without question or doubt. For a bunch of criminals, they were the most honourable people you could ever have the pleasure of calling your family.

Decypha looks over to Joe who was stood readily to let off the explosion and give them hell. "Are you ready, mate?" He asks Joe.

Joe returns with a nod.

He then raises his comms device and announces "Miss Renford, Merci, are you receiving? We are in position. Awaiting the go ahead to detonate. Over." He glares up at the ceiling for a moment as he awaits a response, then he hears their voices both giving the green light.

Looking back towards Joe, the team watch the words leave his lips and duck for cover as he says "Joe, light them up."

Boom.

The explosion shook the ground a few miles out, and the other teams knew that was their cue to advance. As the thick dust clears and last pieces of rubble fall down onto the floor outside the vault, there was silence. Kathryn and Merci radio through, desperately trying to get a response from any one of the team but to no avail. They were quiet as they struggled to come to terms that they may have just lost a huge part of the crew. A cloud of sorrow surrounded their minds as they tried to prepare themselves to continue on with the job without them.

But then, they heard a crackling on the radio. They called through again to check for a response "Guys? Are you there?"

And after a moment of silence...

"WOOOOOHOOOOO!" They heard the whole of Team I cheering and jumping for joy.

After scaring the shit out of the others into thinking they were dead, they had indeed survived the blast.

They then heard D's voice over the comms device.

"We made it. I repeat, we all made it. And the vault is full, looks like we hit the jackpot! You are clear to engage, we will empty the stash and await further instruction. Over." He said.

And with that, they got to work and waited on standby to provide reinforcements to any of the teams.

Kathryn waited in the van, listening to silence over the radio after the explosion. Her hand was digging into Merci's shoulder, but neither woman particularly noticed. When the cheering came through, Kathryn flashed a dangerous smile before responding to Decypha.

"Good work, Team I. I'd expect you guys to get swarmed soon by everyone currently inside the mansion- which is exactly what we need. So empty the vault- but get ready to take up a defensive position. When the first round of guards are dead, make your way to the van out front. We'll make sure there's no other reinforcements heading your way."

Kathryn took a deep breath as she addressed the people in the van. Tacky was behind the wheel. Merci was next to her. Gracie was off the side with some basic medical equipment. Jack, FrancoMascalzone, Kinsey, and Finn were seated in a cluster around her. Kathryn looked around and took a deep breath before flicking her eyes to Merci.

"Slight change of plans. Jack, you'll lead Team O."

He glowered, but nodded.

"Merci, I need you with me inside. Tacky, you're with me as well. Jack, Franco, Kinsey, and Finn- you'll need to use cover, the vans, the front door, whatever- and hold them off. Team I should be up to reinforce you when they've handled the first wave of guards. Keep the van clear- it's bulletproofed and it's our only way out of here. Gracie, stay in the van. If anyone gets shot, try to make it to Gracie. If they can't, someone else can try to get them there. But Gracie... lean out and pop off a few shots now and then... but no risks for you. If we get hit, you can help us. If you get hit, well... you're fucked. So be careful. Tacky, start it up."

The engine of the van roared to life.

"If we work together, we can do this. Tacky...GO!"

The van's acceleration threw everyone off balance- and all the occupants braced themselves for the impact into the gate. The gate was iron; if it had been a wall, the van most likely would have been destroyed, but the point that joined the two sides was a comparatively weaker chain. The van smashed through, blasting the gates backward. Tacky approached the front door diagonally, skidding to a halt and spinning so that the back of the van faced the front door. The van had come to a halt before any of the surprised guards even managed to get a shot off. Jack and Finn were the first two out of the van, followed closely by Merci and Kathryn. shooting the couple confused guards outside the door. The doors of the van were pushed wide open, providing cover (well, except for the feet).

"Covering fire!"

About a dozen guards were approaching from the gate and the grounds and Tacky quickly limped from the driver's seat toward the front door. Merci was the first one through the door. She knew the layout of the building- Moreau would be upstairs with a handful of guards.

Quickly following Merci and Tacky inside, hearing Merci shooting, Kathryn spared one look back at Jack, Finn, Franco, and Kinsey. They had cover- but they'd be overwhelmed within a few minutes unless Team I could reinforce them. Saying a silent prayer, Kathryn turned and stepped into the home of the man who'd had her father killed.

Hesitating for just a moment, Kathryn couldn't shake a nagging worry and stuck her head back outside.

"GRACIE! STAY IN THE FUCKING VAN!"

She jumped at the sound of her name, the gun she was holding nearly flying from her grip. She resisted the urge to let out a smart ass reply, but if something happened she didn't want her last words to her friend to be upsetting. She looked around the van and grumbled to herself. "Stay in the van, Gracie. Bring bandaids, Gracie. No Gracie, you can't lick Finn's stomach." she muttered to herself before letting out a shriek as a bullet tore through the side of the van a foot or two away from her. She threw herself on the floor and covered her head with her arms. "Yeah no, staying in the van is good." she said finally in a muffled voice. 

The Courier's eyes went as wide as dinner plates, as he stared around Moreau's vault, taking in the gold bullion, the chests of precious gems, the fat stacks of dollar bills and numerous works of arts. The entire treasure trove The Godfather of New Orleans had hoarded throughout his life. He nearly came in his pants at the sight of the wealth, but he pulled himself together. "Alright gents, I can't carry all o' that by meself. Help me clear it out!" he tells his companions gleefully, as he steps into the vault and begins to empty the valuables into his duffel-bag. 

As the shelves start to empty, The Courier suddenly stops in his tracks as he notices a gorgeous statue, made of solid gold. Walking forward, he looks into the face of the statue. It was a stunningly attractive woman, and The Courier had a strange feeling that he had seen her somewhere before. After thinking for a couple of minutes, he finally hit on it. He had seen her face on the posters, advertising Lust for the Fire and Ice Club! Now what would a statue resembling one of the dancers from the club be doing in Moreau's vault?

Out of all the possibilities that cross his mind, one in particular is terribly nasty. Surely it could not be possible? He flips open his switchblade, and draws the tip across the arm of the statue. What he sees makes his stomach clench. "Fella's, I think I just found yer missin' dancer. This right here is a corpse, cleaned out, stuffed and coated with gold." he tells his companions with a grim expression, wondering what on earth they were going to do with her.......

Kinsey would peak out from behind his cover as often as he dared. When the bullets got heavy, he'd barely even take the time to aim. Probably not a good idea, but hey. Maybe he'd hit someone anyhow. By now, he knew that he'd at least shot one man in the leg. The man was no longer behind his cover. May not be a killing blow, but it may keep the guy occupied for a few moments. Long enough to take the shot. Despite all the gunfire ringing around him, this one shot rang out the loudest. The first man he had ever killed.

He hid behind his cover and took a few gasps of air. Was this who he was?

It didn't really matter. Not right now. What mattered now was doing what he could to protect the others. He took a deep breath and held it. Kinsey leaned out from behind one of the vans and, although with a shaking hand, took care to aim. He got another man in the shoulder, though he couldn't be sure if he had killed him or not. It was hard to tell with all these people practically slithering over each other to get a shot at his team.

He occasionally glanced around for the others of Team O, but the bullets pelting the van in front of him were rather distracting.

Joe quickly spun around from were he had been filling his bag with loot and stared over at the statue . . . woman . . . in front of Curry.

"I heard all kinds of rumors about what might have happened to her - can't say any of them came anywhere close to being correct. As much as I would like to ensure proper respect is paid to the dead I'm sorry to say I think we are going to have leave her behind. Carrying something that heavy across the grounds is like painting a gigantic target on our backs - if it was one of us injured that would be one thing, but a corpse dipped in gold? I don't know man, what do you think?"

Merci, Tacky, and Kathryn moved quickly through the mansion- guns raised and ready for a guard to appear at any moment... but none did. Gunshots were audible from the front of the building and the vault downstairs... but the inside was as quiet as a tomb. So they moved quickly up the carpeted stairs and through the halls, following the layout to where Moreau's office was. A simple wooden door blocked their way. Kathryn took a deep breath.

So close.

Moreau would be in there, surrounded by 4 or 5 guards, while everyone else was responding to the vault.

Kathryn looked at Merci and Tacky.

There wasn't anything to say. It was time to end this. They all raised their guns. They'd moved silently down the hallway; hopefully the guards wouldn't already have their guns pointed on the door. Silently, they arranged themselves and, for a brief moment, the only sound was the quiet intake and exhalation of breath.

Then Merci kicked the door and all hell broke loose.

Kathryn and Tacky already had their guns out- Kathryn had dropped to a kneeling stance in between her Right Hand and her most recent Made Man. Merci had kicked a lot of doors in her life, and she knew exactly where to apply pressure to bust the lock- and Kathryn was nevertheless grateful that Moreau hadn't installed something stronger- perhaps he never expected to be attacked here...

Kathryn saw the next few moments in slow motion. The door flew open to reveal five men: four guards milling around with their guns in their hands, but not pointed at the door- and there, Moreau, standing behind his desk. 

Based on what she knew about Tacky and Merci, she suspected that they'd both go for Moreau first. The two bullets slamming into his chest seemed to confirm that. Instead, Kathryn made a difficult choice: she shot a guard instead. Two, in fact, as the two on the left dropped down. Merci's gun had already moved to the right, with Tacky's soon following, and the one immediately to the right of Moreau dropped as well.

Then things got fucked. The guy on the far right had managed to raise his gun and, at the same time, two other men walked into view from the left. Kathryn saw and heard a shotgun go off as well as a couple pistols from inside the room. A shotgun blast to the door sent small pieces of wood and dust flying up into Kathryn's face, and she was suddenly blinded- firing at where she guessed the bad guys were standing. She heard a couple thuds, followed by Tacky grunting- and felt him lean against her.

Blinded, hopefully temporarily, Kathryn kept shooting- praying that Merci could finish them off. 

One guard remained...the fella standing next to Moreau. He moved to block any further shots to his boss as Merci lifted her hands and fired simultaneously with two handguns. Tacky falling into Kathryn caused Kathryn to fall domino-like into Merci, so her left gun missed, but the right hit center mass, dropping the man instantly. Moreau remained standing, pale and holding his gut wound as he began a slow decent to the floor.

Sparing a glance at her teammates, Merci can see Kathryn isn't hurt...just blinded by debris. Next to her, however, Tacky has been hit twice, critically. She kneels down, searching his eyes without saying a word. 

He already knows. And time is closing in on him quickly.

Standing abruptly, she circles Moreau's desk and holds a gun to his forehead. "Crawl."

"Wha...what?"

"CRAWL GODDAMN YOU!" She screamed in his face, and the fat bastard did, creating a gruesome blood trail in his wake as he made his way towards the door, and her two team members. 

There wasn't a person involved in this chaotic mess that didn't want a piece of Moreau. But here was Tacky, having lost not just his family, but soon his life, to this man. He'd earned this honor, several times over.

"Tacky. He's right here in front of you. Finish him," she said.

Joe reflexively caught the hammer and chisel while giving The_Courier a peculiar look for a moment. He started to protest but it died in his throat - the kid did have a point. With a sigh he started to work chiseling away at the gold statue . . . yes, he thought, best to just think of it as a statue.

Decypha felt a cold chill run through his spine as they uncovered Lust, the girl that was chatting him up at Fire & Ice not too long ago. Bastards. Fucking bastards. He couldn't watch as they carved the gold away from her lifeless body, so he kept himself busy in unloading everything else from the vault. He dread to think if something like this was to ever happen to Lysol...

In order to stop these thoughts from rushing into his head, he radioed through to the others to see if they'd nailed that son of a bitch and were ready to pull out as the vault was almost emptied.

"Miss Renford, do you copy? We are almost ready to fall back to the van, please give me some good news..."  He asked Kathryn over the comms device.

While he awaited a response, he turned to the others and looked around to see an empty vault, with the exception of the horrible task Curry and Joe were carrying out. They needed to wrap it up quickly before some uninvited guests arrive blasting their sirens.

"Good work Gregos, you too Stormwaver. Curry, Joe, you better hurry and finish that off quickly or you'll find yourselves a lot deeper underground than what we already are. We need to get a move on boys, before the bobbies turn up to crash the party." He said to his team in an attempt to wrap it up quickly and get the hell out of there, if the cops turn up they will start shooting rather than try to arrest them.

"I repeat, Miss Renford, are you receiving? What's the situation up there..." He asks again over the radio as he began to worry about the others.

Kathryn blinked, rubbing sawdust from her eyes and squinting, then she turned away from Merci, Tacky, and Moreau for a moment.

"Team I, grab what you can and get to the vans now. Hold them off; Team O, reinforcements are on the way. Team A will be leaving shortly, and we'll need to punch our way out together."

Decypha felt relief to hear Miss Renford's voice return through on the comms link. From the sounds of it, both teams are still operational so hopefully everybody is alright.

"Roger that, Miss Renford." He responded over the radio.

Looking around at the rest of his team, he could see it in their faces that they were also grateful to hear from the others. It was a beacon of hope that they would all make it out of this thing together and return to the City of Sin, safe and sound with the final nail in the coffin for the brothers that have caused so much shit.

"You heard the boss, we need to move now! Take the rest of the shit back to the van, we need to hold that perimeter until the others arrive so we can all get the fuck out of here." D exclaimed to them.

With that, Team I ran out of the vault back to the van while dodging bullets and popping off shots at guards closing in on them. While the other two loaded up the van, Stormwaver, Gregos and D provided covering fire until they had finished. Then, they all set up around the van and kept the pressure on the enemy, waiting for the others to come out.

Tacky lay on the floor, his body becoming more limp by the second, the man that had caused his hearache on the floor in front of him. He'd been quiet so far, doing as he was told. But now, he broke character his mind rushing with thoughts. Moreu lay before him, in the same state as Tacky, a strange feeling, almost as if the two men could relate on the level of pain and fear.

He reached into his waistband and weakly removed the 44 tucked into his pants. 3 bullets, like the last man he killed. He raised the handgun, the sights in line with Moreu's head. 

'You..' Tacky struggled to speak and watched on as Moereu's eyes filled with terror, now certain his end was near. 

'You caused more shit than you could imagine for me and many like me' Tacky lowered the gun and stared into his eyes.

'So for that, I say fuck you'

3 bullets tore out from tackys weapon, square into Moereus head, sending him backwards into a puddled of his own insides.

Merci watches as Kathryn lifts her radio to call for help, and reaches out to push the other woman's hand away. It was too late for that, now. Tacky's lifeless eyes stare up into nothingness, and Merci reaches over and closes his eyelids.

"Rest well, Brother," she murmurs quietly before standing up, then turning to grab Kathryn and hoisting her to her feet, as well.

"We've got to move, now. I know you can't see; just stay behind me, okay?" she says as more backup approaches. Where were they all coming from?!?

Making their way down the hallway and eventually the stairs, Merci paces herself with her ammo, systematically dropping every guard they encounter on their way out through the front door. She's running low on ammo as they reach the van, and calls out to Grace as she pushes Kathryn inside, letting her know she was blinded. 

Dropping her handguns, she picks up one of Frankie's automatics and starts walking forward slowly, spraying the lawn full of men blocking the van's exit.