Difference between revisions of "5808/Two Aftermaths"

Latest revision as of 19:33, 16 May 2018

Two Aftermaths
Date of Scene:	19 April 2018
Location:	Sector Zero - Space
Synopsis:	Pending
Cast of Characters:	Starbound Flotilla, August Kohler, 215, 1161, Lyria Mason, 632, 385

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    STARBOUND-CONCORD BIOMEDICAL MICROGRAVITY PLATFORM

    The Flotilla's holdings are not difficult to find. Their renewed expansion could only be managed by a partnership with the Concord, and a partnership with the Concord meant they needed to integrate it into more well-known supply lines and distribution networks. It's no difficulty tracking the biomedical materials trade from one end of Sector Zero to another end, where a space station uses selective microgravity chambers to assemble and produce all manner of biomedical apparatuses; auto-surgeon nanotech systems that could perform advanced surgery automatically, field implant devices that can safely inject augmentations in the field, even Glitch-type robotic parts of all sorts.

    It's also not /too/ well-guarded. Part of a network of space stations in orbit around the metal-rich barren planetoid below, there are many workers who fly into and out of the large industrial station on small shuttles, and it's not difficult for a Watch member to sneak their way in using the Watch's own stolen intel. The interior, once they have the chance to see it, is also not too cramped. It's got some high-capacity high-ceiling cargo areas, mixed with rather tall and wide corridors, and even several exterior loading zones bounded by oxygen fields so that people can work here without issue.

    Most of the workers here are low-level members of Pavo's slow-building self-improvement-obsession cult, and wear a few mesoamerican-style accessories to mark them as such; there's a diverse array of them, mostly Avian bird-people, though a few three-eyed Hylotl fishmen and some medieval robot Glitch are among them too. Others are simple non-human drones, whirring through tiny drone-sized hallways on little hover-engines or clicky spider legs.

    The primary target staging area for outgoing shipments of completed biomedical technology is right near a fairly open spacedock with a bounded oxygen field and space transports that could be hijacked, adjacent to a high-ceiling cargo area linked up with a small maze of more intimate hallways that feature, somewhere among them, a control room that could facilitate getting what the Watch needs out of here. There's also a number of teleportation pads that nobody seems to be using; no doubt the Flotilla, and perhaps one or two other people inclined to defend them, will arrive not too long after the alarm sounds.

    The design of all this, with the drones and people involved, seems like it wouldn't suit a stealth operation very well, but may be more vulnerable to a louder smash-and-grab approach, as long as people can get the materials out of the cargo area, through the hallway to the shipping zone, hit the control room at some point to make sure nothing locks a transport here or shoots them down, and then hijack a transport.

August Kohler has posed:
Leading the assault is August Kohler, Cloak of the Watch. He is not wearing his fancy cloak, because this isn't a declaration of war, but he is dressed in a hoodie with a minor ballistic vest over his chest, a pistol and a knife at either side, and a mirrored bracelet over his wrist. He'd given everyone their orders and objectives. Primary objective was to secure auto-surgeon tools and a pair of prosthetic arms. Secondary objective was 'take anything else they could squeeze into their pockets once primary mission is accomplished'.

August is aboard a shuttle, and as soon as it pulls into the station, is drawing his pistol and pulling his hood up. Once the doors open, he's pushing his way out, trying to find a path towards the cargo bay - the closest one possible. He doesn't have a way of breathing in space, so instead, he's going to just run his way in that direction, and shoot anything that looks like security trying to stop him. He needs to get inside that bay first and foremost.

Iria (215) has posed:
The Flotilla's holdings are definitely something that could be utilized on a skit on how not to make your belongings vulnerable to intruders. That is, if they were more vulnerable than they already are. Consider the fact that the place isn't very well guarded nor is it hard to find and there you'll have the reasoning behind this thought.

But that's a thought for another time in the mind of Iria, the elite bounty hunter who had that thought as a bit of a joke, but has put the humor out of her mind. In fact, upon learning about the place they're heading for and what they're after, Iria adopts a unique look on her face, a mixture of intrigue and suspicion. "These could be quite useful for the Watch, but in the hands of the Concord, it's another story. Not to mention, what if someone else with the wrong intentions got their hands on them?" The brunette bounty hunter scowls a little and narrows her eyes while sighing. "That's for another time. Right now, our goal is to help our colleague, and to do that, we're gonna need to break into their station and take what we need while showing them that we mean business!"

The scowl softens a little as Iria's frown changes to a smile of sorts. "I'm gonna make them regret trying to stop us!" All this is being done while Iria is piloting her craft to the station, choosing to dock not far from where August has docked. Once she's docked, Iria quickly makes her way into the station itself as well. She, too, is looking for the cargo bay, but doesn't know where exactly that is, so she decides to let her agility and her instincts take the initiative while she goes for her pistol and loads a clip into it. "Stay out of my way!" Iria says to no one in particular, although she knows there will be trouble.

Ryu (1161) has posed:
    Ryu accompanies August, sitting in the cargo hold of the shuttle he had been using up until they arrived. Once the door is open, he doesn't stop to think. He moves, and he moves very fast.

    The dragon extends his wings, ready to use them for short bursts of speed. He launches out of the shuttle hard enough to rock the whole vehicle, thankfully after everyone else is already off of it. He takes advantage of the slower Watch members having to pause to handle the crew and drones more frequently. His maneuverability in tight quarters is limited, so it's also very loud. His claws dig into surfaces as he's forced to make sliding, sparking turns, and his wings thrum like an engine as he moves. His head snaps to and fro like an overclocked hummingbird, eyes flicking to locate anything that fits the bill, heading toward the cargo bay and then, ideally, bolting around the open area like a bat outta hell, heedless of smashing anything in the process.

    For normal systems and people, Ryu will be very difficult to keep track of. He's counting on that. He's just looking for their objective, not stopping to even look at the active occupants of the station.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
August's and Iria's approach does get stopped by security, only a minute or so after a drone nearby takes a look at him and flashes crimson red anxiously. Before they reach cargo, a pair of security guards have raised their hands. "Both of you drop your weapons." Says a large robotic Glitch man, while his Avian friend near him draws a flintlock-looking weapon. They're likely to go down to to the shots pretty fast; these are minor folks, though they're likely wired to page a major alarm if they go down.

Once they get to the cargo bay, they'll have found it divided into six sections, each corresponding to the Flotilla's various technological aesthetics. Sleek and stylish Hylotl tech, heavy industrial human tech, harsh laboratory Apex tech, brassy armored Glitch tech, etched gem-encrusted Avian tech, and scrappy rugged Floran tech all abound; they just need to choose which style they intend to loot from, and can easily split up. Though an alarm is already likely to be setting off...

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
Ryu's faster approach gets him past the guards easily and through with minimal alarms, but it also means he's the one in place to be able to locate, specifically, the limb replacement parts, wherever they may be categorized among the materials on display here. Moving so quick to the zone, his major alarm comes when he smashes through a wall of crates, sending them spinning into varied and selective gravity, but arrives at the spot in the Glitch section where various replacement arms have been made. There's presumably corresponding parts of the other aesthetics, so if he reports this data, this should tell anyone else exactly where to find one of the two biomedical objectives in the other sections as well.

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria had a long hate for Pavo and general dislike of the Starbounder so when this op came up? She was so into it. Also seeing Pavo has gone full on cult leader? That's just another reason to deal with the Stabrounders. She was not evne hiding whom she was today and she was loaded for trouble too. She had her own Serpent suit on which hid her face behind a helemt and fully clad her body in a form fitting body ssuit with August to give him cover and see what she can loot here as well, though she'll veer off trusting August for the stuff for Will. For her she's going to see what else she might be able to snatch.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
Lyria will find no shortage of options for extra loot to snatch. The other, secondary part of this mission, finding an auto-surgeon unit, might fall to her. That's less likely to have representation in every tech-type, so if she's looking for other things to snatch, she'll need to select her objective, and which region of the cargo area she's planning on focusing on! If she guesses right, she might be able to get the other objective more easily.

Septette Arcubielle (632) has posed:
     Septette isn't aboard the station when the Watch begins their assault- that much is easily verifiable, if the motley band of heroes has any sensor equipment at all. Her outsize readings are impossible to suppress, and the telltale shortband radio shriek and thaumic radiation that herald her presence are distinctly absent.

     That does not remain true for long, thanks to their loud approach. The energy blip of a teleporter activating is replaced with a distinctive fireworks display on radar as she beams in. Given her known association with the Flotilla and use of their teleporters, it isn't difficult to guess what team she'll be gunning for.

     A few moments later, a five-foot-tall young lady in a simple purple shawl and headphones steps into the Apex-styled cargo bay, seemingly wandering about aimlessly. Those unfamiliar with her might take her for some sort of off-duty cargo technician, but she's in quite an inconvenient location for anyone searching for the auto-doctor systems...

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
To say that Yuna has mixed feelings about raiding the Flotilla is a pretty serious understatement. On the one hand, she *has* been on quite a few missions with them in the past - generally on the same side, as memory serves; she even has a couple of friends among the Flotilla's Elite members.

On the other hand, this is very specifically to help Will Pauwel, on top of giving the Concord a bruise or five, and this came through as a Syndicate mission. Besides which, it's not like she's done that much to help the Watch as a whole since she joined them - and it never hurts to give your allies a hand when you're able to do so, right?

While Yuna's usually happy to take point (and tank) position, she's content this time to let August and others take the lead; Elner is taking advantage of that time to scan the area, trying to identify patrols (automated security bots or otherwise) and pin down a map of the area around the shuttle's docking bay. Once the robo-faerie's done with that initial scan, Yuna slips out of the hatch, beam pistol in her right hand, and strikes out in a different direction with Elner sticking close to her. Yuna *was* hoping to have the Matrix of Light with her in full for this - additional arms to carry things, if nothing else - but the shuttle wasn't that full and she did *not* want to use her cruiser, so Elner's the only help she has.

Well. That, and Yuna's regular suite of skills.

Iria (215) has posed:
"Sorry, but the only thing we're dropping is YOU!" Iria exclaims with an evil grin as she aims her pistol at the nearest guard and fires off three rounds before diving forwards in hopes of avoiding potential gunfire from the other remaining hostiles. With a swift rolling motion, Iria continues on her way towards the cargo bay. "Get in, get out, seems like an easy equation, but if it were that easy, it wouldn't be as fun," Iria comments to herself.

Upon arriving in the cargo bay, Iria scowls upon seeing that there's not one, nor two, but SIX sections to search. The bounty hunter waits for August to arrive before looking to him and quickly saying, "Why don't we split up and see what we can come up with? But let's not waste time." Odds are if there wasn't an alarm going off before, it's definitely going off now.

Ryu (1161) has posed:
Ryu doesn't even bother thinking about the debris he kicks up in his mad dash. He got a little bruised on impact but instantly healed the damage as if it were nothing, and the cacophony behind him is nothing but a distraction from his ultimate goal. The dragon immediately relays the information to the other Watch members, even telling them all the serial numbers and other info he can immediately see on any containers in the section. Then he would grab ahold of one of the crates, jamming both of his claws into it, and then lift it up over his head...

Then he'd start making his way toward the shuttle they came in on. He follows his EXTREMELY CONSPICUOUS trail of claw marks back to the vehicle, moving about as fast as his loot will allow him to... which is still pretty fast, but nowhere near the blistering pace he normally can accomplish. He has this strained look to his muzzle, clearly exerting a lot of effort in moving the big metal box around. If anyone gets in his way, they'll discover real fast that he isn't helpless when carrying this thing. He doesn't pause to banter, he just fills the hall with white dragon fire at the first sign of an obstacle.

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason makes up her mind to go looking fort the Auto-Surgeon unit, if she can get other things? The unit's likely in whatever passed for a medical bay, so she's going to go look for that. Hopefully she'll not run into too much.

Sadly for her things are going to end up badly for her, given someone is intent on preventing them from capturing the medical unit. Unaware that a seemingly harmless tech or labours, is in truth, a murderous kill bot that's quite infamous in the multiverse as a whole.,

So she's moving along with her own death bot, swimmer slithering along right after her. Now just where in this mess is it? Maybe she can find a terminal to get into, and pull the data that way.

August Kohler has posed:
"Fuck off." August responds to the Glitch, firing his pistol several times into his torso. He's a robot, it should be fine, and he'll allow Iria to take down the Avian. August doesn't dawdle, though, taking a few moments to look at the different cargo bay sections and then heading in the direction of the Apex bay. He's singlemindedly focused on his objective right now.

Therefore, once he's inside, August isn't paying close enough attention to the aimless cargo tech, moving to push her out of the way. "Out of my way. Tell me where the auto-docs are and-" And then, August recognizes her, finally taking a moment to look. Almost Failed A Spot Check. The gun is pointed at her firmly, as he speaks.

"Arcubielle, out of my way. I'd ask you to help me get this stuff out of here, but I assume you have a prior contract. Give me juat a second." The pistol is kept levelled on her, but the mirrored bracelet suddenly rises to his eyes, a shout as blue energy swirls around him. "Persona!" The Tin Soldier manifests in front of August...and then, while Lyria's looking for the auto-doc, August glances around trying to find it himself, before blasting a small burst of fire forwards, trying to both burn that shawl, and also momentarily trip up Septette so he can start repositioning. She's a killbot, he's not. He needs any advantage he can get.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
With the main Watch forces heading elsewhere, Yuna's off in another direction, presumably to draw fire, and this one's coincidentally a little more close to the control room objective; there's a whirring noise of a volley of massive tungsten "arrows" screaming down one of the hallways right for Yuna! "Preyyyyy!" Biteblade's teleported in, it seems! She's blasting away with her heavy magnetic bow! And then... Diving to one side before Yuna can glance to her, or so she tries. Then she blasts from another angle, and tries again. And before she tries the third, she leaps out of a vent in the ceiling, trying to pounce onto her from above with a pair of gleaming POWER DAGGERS. "Haha! Floran isss greatessst hunter!!" She's seeming quite confident about this three-strike approach!

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
Iria's right, there's an alarm going off properly now. Flickers of light outside, visible through wide windows, show that the Flotilla's forces are beaming in. As Iria splits off to loot elsewhere, she'll find herself more in the Human section, where the tech looks more industrial. There's even probably one of those crates of heavier-duty arms here, but before she gets to it, she'll be at risk of running into a hidden mine of some sort! The blasting explosive was planted recently, just to mess up anyone here! Even if Iria manages to evade the blast as it goes off, though, she'll have to deal with... George! The heavy EVA-powersuited man rushes between stacks of crates and opens fire with a hefty shotgun, trying to drive her into cover! "Hi there! Here at the Starbound Flotilla, we appreciate /enthusiastic/ customers like you! Let's test that enthusiasm!" He calls out, giggling while he opens fire, trying to keep her away from her objective!

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Arrows fly pretty fast, but unless Biteblade's archery is supersonic, Yuna has barely enough time to spot the arrows heading towards her and dive for cover, letting out a yelp in the process. Then she calls out, "SHUGOSEIHEKI!!" and materializes her kite shield -

Just in time to start taking fire from the teleporting Biteblade, getting pinned down in the teleport-abetted crossfire. The second arrow caroms off the shield's surface rather than trying to puncture Yuna's Light Suit ... and then those daggers come screaming down, screeching over the Wall of the Guardian Star.

"Um ... hi Biteblade," Yuna says weakly from behind (well, *under* to be technical) her shield's protection. "This really wasn't my idea -"

If Biteblade's still close enough, Yuna abruptly lunges into the Floran shield-first, trying to drive her opponent back and hopefully leave Biteblade off-balance for a split second. (And if Biteblade *did* back off to prepare for her next strike, well, Yuna's getting to her feet in a hurry no matter what.) "- but I'm trying to help another friend of mine, and people figured this was a good place to raid for it. So ... no hard feelings?" the blonde asks, her tone both hopeful and sheepish, peeking around the edge of her kite shield.

Septette Arcubielle (632) has posed:
     Attempting to shove Septette out of the way might have given August his first clue, even before seeing her face- it's like trying to shove a brick wall. Her expression remains remarkably placid with the gun pointed at her face; she shows a hint of surprise first, then confusion, and finally... glee?

     "How wonderful. I was afraid we had a false alarm."

     Before he'd started to glance around, Septette had a plan formulated to take him down. A millisecond of objective time after being lit on fire, she has a second plan. The burning shawl is ripped from her shoulders with a single smooth motion and thrown into the air, momentarily blocking her from the Tin Soldier's line of sight. Then she takes one step closer to him with inhuman speed and twists her upper body to put her full weight into a back-handed strike levelled at August's head, timed simultaneously with the curved blade unfolding from her forearm.

     She's trying to hit him with the blunt edge, at least. How polite.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
When Ryu gets down one of those hallways, already blowing gushes of fire that have well driven off the rushes of security forces, he runs into a problem. Namely, he runs into two problems: A heavy riot shield, and the man behind it. The shining brushed white steel thing looks perfect for quelling a rebellious spirit. "Crate down, NOW." Comes the voice from behind it, as the shield and the man both swiftly move down the hall towards Ryu. A heavy POWER HAMMER swings out the side, intent on smashing the dragonman square in the chest and halting his momentum so that they can engage in a little bit more intense up-close combat, though Ryu's already made it most of the way to the docks!

Iria (215) has posed:
"Looks like I picked the right spot to check out," Iria comments as she sees she's found the Human section. Ignoring the alarm, as she's used to them going off all the time, she attempts to peruse the various crates and their labels to try to find what she's looking for. "Let's see here, there have to be arms around here somewhere, but where?" Her thinking is done out loud, as she tends to do that when she's under pressure, but the pressure suddenly increases on her as she just barely notices a planted trap in the nick of time. "Oh hell no!"

Jumping backwards quickly, Iria finds it's not good enough as the blast still hits her with its shockwave, sending her flying through the air. Fortunately, she manages to right herself in the air and land on her feet, skidding back a little and drawing her pistol, aiming at any possible threats that might have appeared, only to realize that her pistol is more like a pea shooter now. Especially considering that George is in a powersuit and has a shotgun while Iria merely has her armored bodysuit and her pistol.

"Sorry, but I'm not here for a test," Iria comments loudly as she cartwheels sideways and attempts to take cover behind a nearby pile of crates while she switches her pistol for her assault rifle. She slaps a clip in and peers out carefully, gauging the distance between herself and George, then pops out to fire a three-round burst of gunfire as she says, "I'm here to help a friend, and I don't need your help!"

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
Lyria manages to find a terminal! A big fancy holographic one, even, and she gets to enter her search terms. As the search sifts through the database, though, she'll hear the only noise that warns her ahead of time of the incoming fire. A piercing hawk-like call can be heard from above, before a trio of heavy golden sphere comes whooshing from above, bouncing against the crates violently, and trying to smash Lyria. The gleaming golden-armored Pavo is standing high above on one of those cargo stacks, brandishing a cutlass!

"Better take your heresy out of the house of this kind of lord, otherwise I'm about to teach you a lesson in devotion." She says, pointing the cutlass at Lyria as the spheres whirl back to her and return to an orbiting position around her bracer. She's planning on keeping Lyria from seeing those results, however she can!

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
August's search can give him hints, but he'll need Lyria's results to complete it. All the automated systems are around the Hylotl, Human, and Apex sections, which narrows things down to about half. When it comes to the auto-doc unit they need, this could halve Lyria's search time, though now August clearly has more to deal with.

August Kohler has posed:
August didn't expect this to be easy whatsoever. He very much respects Septette both as a person and also a dangerous murder machine, and so, as he moves to start repositioning, the throwing of the shawl and the blocking of his vision isn't /too much/ of a surprise. It's the strike that comes out that almost gets him, as August reflexively throws his arms up, just fast enough for his hands to divert the majority of the blow away from his head. It's still a hard hit, sending the redhead tumbling away and certainly already covered in bruises, but it stops him from getting knocked out literally instantly.

"Fucking hell, you hit like a freight train. Then again, you weigh like one." It's not rude if it's factual, is it? The Tin Soldier positions itself between August and Septette, moving to try and take any of the further blows to dampen them, as the gun-leg points up and begins trying to riddle her with bullets. August doesn't stop moving, even if he's lagging a little and holding his arm up. "I'll try and be out of here quick. Just need to borrow a pair of arms for a friend. You know how it goes."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
"Whaaaat, why hard feelingsss? Floran would never!" Biteblade calls out eagerly, cackling as the shield bash catches her halfway through a blink-teleporting dive. The bash leaves her stunned, but laughing wildly, in a manic, giggly battle-mania. She rolls out of the impact, tossing the handful of further arrows to one side, and then nocking a few that have a much more glowy tip! Now that Yuna has a clear view, her scrappy armor covered in hunter ornamentation and its shining green glow is clear, as is the array of fantastical arrows strapped to her back. "Hunter alwaysss ressspects PREY!" And she fires a spread of three of the arrows, which slam... Around the shield, not into it. They beep two or three times, and then, suddenly, detonate! She's trying to stun Yuna heavily! She then tosses that bow aside and closes in with those power daggers, trying to get into much more immediate combat with lunging stabs!

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason hears something as does her drone that's with her the serpant liek thing reacts hissing a warning and springing into action as Lyria moves to evade the attack oshe's got a vibro cutlass out in short order looking to clash with Pavo.

"Oh this is just perfect."

While August is dealing with Septette she's got to deal with Pavo and it would be a lie that she wouldn't enjoy this.

"Cut the crap, your just another two bit cult leader. Fleecing people for coin in the end."

She's going to have to make use of her drone but for the moment Lyria pulls a pisttol with her off hand and fires off a shot from Pavo as she darts backwards to avoid further shots hopefully.

Ryu (1161) has posed:
    "Okay!"

    Ryu's chipper response may not be comforting. As the fire clears and Albert readies for an attack, the dragon swings down just enough to release the crate right for the ape man's dome and shield, sacrificing his window to defend himself to get a smug comeback in on the Flotilla's most serious member by far. The crate probably won't do much to someone prepared as Albert is. He does not, however, just sit back and take a power hammer in the chest, an arm and his tail snapping up with a blur of motion to interrupt the most lethal amount of its momentum and prevent his ribcage from getting caved in. This results in a CRACK of bone and flesh, showcasing he isn't even close to invincible. His claws dig into the floor and his wings flutter, then he makes a strange motion.

    He ducks, and his tail tries to wrap around the power hammer. He quickly darts forward, trying to judge the momentum of the crate as he does, and whips his body in a quick pivot that sends up more sparks from his claws getting purchase in the station panels. He tries to YANK the hammer away from Albert with the speed and force his draconic body can muster... and use him to send the crate flying through the threshold to the ship bay to a point pretty close to where the crate can be loaded onto it.

    This'll leave both of them alone in the hallway to duke it out, ideally!

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
"Ghhhk!" George takes the impact of the burst fire square on the chest, and heavy chunks of armor are blown out, forcing him back. If Iria wants to get that crate going, she'd better do it fast while his armor does the first rush of medical aid! There's a moment she'll have spare to get one of those fancy crate rollers (but these are fancy HOVER crate-rollers) onto the crate, but only a moment before beeping, flashing grenades start rolling towards her from out of cover. "Gift for a friend, huh? We've got plenty of gift-wrapping options, bounty-chaser. Have some samples, on the house!" The grenades detonate with sudden rushes of electrical shockwave energy! Oh fuck, better get out of that zone. George peeks out from his cover, trying to keep closer and less exposed, firing cautious shotgun blasts. "Wanna upgrade? 'Cause I've got some /great/ looking bodybags to send you back with, if you're really wanting to keep going after our stuff."

Septette Arcubielle (632) has posed:
     "You think we can count this as our sparring match?" Septette visibly winces when the back of her blade hits his arms- a performative act, he'd know by now- but she recovers to a smile when he rolls back. No broken bones, she judges. "Listen, I know I have to manage my weight, but I barely eat anything as it is..."

     As the Tin Soldier interposes itself, she turns her body slightly to the side relative to the other robot, like a tank angling its armor corner-on for maximum survivability. Where the bullets strike her tan exoskeletal plates, they ricochet off, but those that slip through the cracks of her armor find more purchase: black hydraulic fluid bleeds from the muscle-like tubing inside her ribcage and right arm.

     Septette raises her arm above her head, and the blade glows a cool blue before it's coated in a rime of razor-sharp icicles. She lurches forwards again and brings the armblade down at a diagonal towards the other robot's neck.

     Standard elemental mage practice: probe for weaknesses until one sticks.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
Pavo releases that hawk-like shriek again, diving towards Lyria. "What, you think I'm STEALING from them?" The shot forces her to maneuver and twist in the air to roll with the shot while keeping her momentum, causing her to sustain an awful G-force stress and a heavy bruise, but it doesn't stop her from going for a heavy overhead strike on Lyria! "I'm showing them what they /could/ be! I'm showing people that they can become equal to gods by taking and building everything they need, that they don't have to live in /mediocrity/! You start spewing that blasphemy, you're liable to get SMITED!" The heavy strike's blastwave, hit or miss, is enough to rattle the shelving of all the crates. The search pings that it's done though! If Lyria can just drive Pavo back, she can get the location -- in half the time! -- of one of those autodoc units!

Iria (215) has posed:
"No thanks, Iria replies as she starts to move away from her cover towards another set of crates. "I'm fine doing my own wrapping!" Of course that's all sarcasm on Iria's part, but at least she wraps better than Fujikuro ever could. Unfortunately, she's not expecting such a sudden explosion, and one of the grenades explodes just in time to send Iria flying across the cargo bay. Fortunately, she manages to roll like a log then get into a crouched position.

"Sorry, but I'm not about to go home in a body bag today!" Iria exclaims as she runs parallel to George, firing off another three-round burst as she desperately searches for cover. "I'm gonna find what I came for and I'm gonna get outta here in one piece! Although I dunno if the same can be said about you!"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Glowy arrows are inherently more worrisome than non-glowy arrows, and when the arrows are loosed in a wide enough spread to miss both Yuna and her shield, she's already expecting trouble. The sound of beeping behind her just confirms it - and Yuna rushes forward, trying to shield-bash Biteblade *again* before the arrows can detonate.

But the explosion is enough to leave Yuna off-balance, even if she's not outright stunned - and the Floran is already shifting back into melee combat, leaving Yuna trying to keep her defense up. Swapping her pistol for her sword (not the Matrix Divider, just a sleek-looking sci-fi-ish sword) helps a little, but Biteblade is going to keep a serious speed advantage no matter what Yuna brings to the table.

... at least as far as *attacking* goes.

Yuna's not too shabby with self-defense; she's had Shugoseiheki for a while, and as long as Biteblade keeps going for stabs over slashes, Yuna doesn't anticipate much trouble either blocking or sidestepping - plus, she knows she can take a few hits if she has to, unless Biteblade's daggers are a *lot* more deadly than they look. Not that she can turtle up and defend herself for ever; even hits to her kite shield are a drain on the Light Suit's defensive reserves.

Still, when Yuna finally spots an opening and tries to bring her sword down in an overhead slash at Biteblade, the Floran will probably notice that even the 'sharp' edge of the sword isn't going to cut deep enough to draw blood ... or sap, or whatever Florans have. There will be a very notice 'spark' on impact, though - not electrical, just the same concussive hard-light that marks most of Yuna's weaponry. She's serious about not killing, *triply* so when she knows her opponent and counts her as a friend.

August Kohler has posed:
The fluid 'bleeding' from Septette causes him both a twinge of guilt and also a twinge of 'okay, this is working'. He wants to keep the pressure on her so Lyria can get the information she needs. "Things aren't that impersonal See, unlike a sparring match, I can't lose this." No broken bones, but certainly bruised ones. At the least, having a Persona means August is a bit hardier than a normal person.

Though, he still takes damage, and definitely feels pain, as the icicle-coated blade comes down on the Tin Soldier's neck. It tries to jerk out of the way, not fast enough to dodge, but fast enough to move it less towards the neck and more towards the shoulder...which is still painful and fucks August up, causing him to drop his pistol as his arm spasms, which misfires in a loud bang that slips him up briefly. The Tin Soldier takes the blow and mimes a painful expression, eyes rolling back as it tries to scream, but it's mute and cannot. However, the ice doesn't seem to be specially effective against it - it's just painful.

Being in close combat range, the Tin Soldier moves to try and grapple Septette, close enough that it can try and spray the gun-leg across her, coating her in flames, before attempting to break off. It might not be fast enough, though, which may lead to it getting coated in the flames as well if Septette can pin it!

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
Albert loses the crate, but follows along with the hammer, suffering a brutal over-strain to his heavy lab-tech power armor, causing systems in the right arm to overload and spark badly. "Grrrrhhhh...!" He grunts in pain in there. The arm with the hammer needs to reboot, if not once then maybe even twice, and Albert needs to duke out hard. "You small-minded imbecile, you're here to take revenge for refusing to follow a failed plan and for doing what /needed doing/ to save /millions of lives/!!" His huge riot shield will do fine; while the crate flies out, Albert rushes in at Ryu, taking huge shield-bashing swings and jabs, meant to keep him from ever effectually using that breath weapon and to just batter him over and over and over amid Albert's ranting. Angry though he may be, Albert's trying to go along with Septette's strategy, and he'd rather bash and smash Ryu towards the docks than away.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
George moves up in cover towards Iria, suffering mostly minimized bruising through the creative use of his cover. If Iria wants to start abusing George's tremendous cover-mobility, she's gonna need to start doing a lot more spraying, or move in for something more close-quarters! Having gained some territory, he starts going for the crate she was after. "Me? I'll be fine! I'm just gonna head out with a delivery, you know." He says, now spraying his shotgun fire in a sort of vaguely directed way intending to keep Iria in cover.

He's activating the crate hover-roller on her objective! He's trying to roll it /away/ from the docks, while driving Iria back towards them. If he gets away with that crate she's after, the whole skirmish will have been for nothing! She should probably find a way to hijack his crate-rolling.

Ryu (1161) has posed:
    Ryu is ready to scrap with Albert, and thankfully he isn't so foolhardy to just allow his body to get smashed to a pulp by the armored Apex. Albert will find that Ryu is frustratingly fast, however, demonstrating blistering speed and movements that are far more like the alien beasts he would encounter in his travels. The dragon's claws whip out to clash with blows, more sparks arising, and at one point he actually HEADBUTTS the shield hard enough to create a very loud impacting noise.

    "You are so full of yourself!" he barks back at Albert, "People like YOU get manipulated by people like HER because you just think you KNOW SO MUCH BETTER! Ever think about why I didn't go on arguing with you about it earlier!? I don't--" Clang! Headbutt! "--actually--" Clang! "--disagree! That guy was a piece of shit! But oblivion is way worse!" Clang! "We're supposed to keep that from getting worse! You just fed into that woman's plans like a damn stooge!" BOOM! "Because you KNOW BETTER!"

    Each clash has him stepping back somewhat to avoid a direct hit, and he is gradually making his way back to the ship. He's not leaving immediately, though, not willing to risk a potshot once he turns away from Albert.

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria has been wanting to collect on a bounty that was posted on Pavo. She has Pavo shrieking at her, good. She's got her pistol out still and she's forced to bring up her blade to intercept the blow from Pavo. There is the clang of blade on blade and Lyra is force, then an idea comes to her. She has a trick that might just work, the blast wave is coming at her it shakes things, and with the search done? It's time for her to act, she's forced to holster her pistol, then she pulls a small sphere.

Which she lobs at Pavo, who has turned this fight into a game of rocket tag. She knows if she gets hit she's going to get messed up pretty hard. The sphere actives causing a powerful wave of sonic power, set to some of the most annoying bad corp pop music form her world. If this works she's going to make a dive for the terminal to get the data, and hopefully break off.

Septette Arcubielle (632) has posed:
     If it assuages August's guilt at all, Septette's gleeful expression is unmarred by her mounting injuries. Wherever her line is for 'acceptable damage', this seems to be well inside it. Her eyes glow and flicker from the Persona to its user, scrutinizing their microexpressions of pain and instinctive reactions in subjectively dilated time. It's genuine- some kind of sympathetic link or shared 'health'? That might explain why his bones didn't shatter.

     All speculation at the moment. What she knows now is that August can be incapacitated by torturing his robot, and her plan updates accordingly.

     She's caught off-guard by its willingly engaging her at close range rather than backing off- so few intelligent opponents are gutsy enough to do that to her that it's largely outside her predictive models. Her defensive reflexes are instantaneous, but with the inertia of her heavy limbs working against snap movements, that isn't quite fast enough. A gout of flames bathes her upper body in fire, blackening the tan plates with soot and cracking the lens of one of her eyes.

     Septette tries to say something witty- a coded reassurance to August that she's still fine, perhaps- but it comes out as a garbled, staticky shriek. Her talons dig into the Tin Soldier before it can disengage, crackling with electricity as they try to find purchase in its chassis or even puncture through to its inner workings with her superhuman strength. All the while, the flames lick at her- and threaten to jump to her adversary.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
Whoosh whoosh whoosh. The duel goes intensely, Biteblade pushing for lunging stabs and Yuna going for those opening-exploiting strikes. Biteblade seems to be far more focused on keeping a certain distance between Yuna and the control room, but the unfortunate thing is that she just can't match the range flexibility of a sword, which leaves openings! When Yuna goes for those slashes, Biteblade either has to overload major actuators in order to manage a block, or outright suffers the intense non-lethal strike-sparking. "Gaaaaaaauuuuuuh!!" She cries out, then goes for a heavy forward push to leap onto Yuna... And then, instead of pouncing on her and stabbing, doing a massive kick off of her chest, intended to fire her back many yards down the hall, back towards the docks so she can't get anywhere near that control area, but leaving her vulnerable as she has to close back in and re-engage.

August Kohler has posed:
August stares as Septette's caught off guard, a slight but sheepish grin, which is wiped off his face as she stabs her talons into the Tin Soldier. The electricity courses through it easily, the Persona looking as if it's screaming even though it can't. There is no actual 'inner-workings', Septette would find, because it's not an actual robot, but a construct of self-ego, and so it doesn't function like an actual robot. It's like stabbing through plates of metal, but the pain still transfers, as August clutches his gut and screams in pain.

And then the fire spreads. This causes August to drop to his knees, and appears to be his actual weakness, because horrible black marks appear across the Persona, and August is barely keeping together. If he's going to get the tool he needs...he needs Septette to back off, fast. Fire alone isn't going to do it, it's going to need to be a threatening blast. The Tin Soldier's leg begins to build up heat...

And then in a mimed /roar/ from the Tin Soldier, a massive burst of fire blasts, hopefully exploding and knocking both of them back. Which is probably going to feel /terrible/ for August when it's done, as he's in the direct radius, if Septette doesn't stop it.

Iria (215) has posed:
At first, Iria is surprised that George isn't attacking her, but then she realizes why. Apparently, he wants to make a delivery of the goods she's been assigned to take back to William. And Iria isn't going to stand for that at all. "Oh no, you don't!" Iria exclaims as she first attempts to dodge the spray of shotgun fire coming at her, which fortunately isn't as hard as she expects thanks to her agility. "I'm afraid your delivery will have to wait!"

Rushing towards the crate, Iria opens fire on where she thinks the controls for the roller are, hoping to stop the roller from doing its thing while she races for the crate. "I came here to get those goods, and they're coming with me!"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Even if Yuna's taking pains not to do any lasting damage, she *still* doesn't like inflicting pain on somebody who's normally at least kind of a friend - and while Biteblade isn't exactly the Flotilla member she knows best, Yuna still *knows* the Floran, so that scream actually makes Yuna draw back a bit, looking apologetic.

And it turns out to be enough of a lapse in her guard for the shield to be shoved aside, followed by Biteblade kicking her HARD in the chest, sending Yuna staggering, then sliding, down the hallway. She's back on her feet in a split second -

But she doesn't HAVE to close into melee range again. Instead, as soon as Yuna's got her feet under her, the sword in her hand is replaced once again by that bulky yet sleek pistol, and she opens fire on Biteblade with a rapid series of concussive bolts. Again, nothing that's going to punch through the Floran, or even into her ... but if Biteblade thought Yuna would be vulnerable at a distance, she's finding out otherwise in a hurry. And Yuna was *slower* with the sword than she is at pulling that trigger, too - even if it means the individual shots are fairly puny (compared, at least, to what Yuna *could* put out if she were serious).

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Albert can't overcome Ryu's speed enough to land many solid hits and pulp the dragon, but the shield's broadness and resillience means that the strikes back with claws and headbutting means the impact is reduced, spreading into an overall overload and strain in his arm, making a spreading web of bruises up and down his entire left side. His right arm's rebooted though.

    "MANIPULATED?!" He shouts out, roaring. "I'm doing what's /necessary/. To purge that dystopian sociological disease before it /ever/ spreads, /anywhere/. You hate the scalpel more than you hate the /cancer/! If you think the reality of the world has room for your moral outrage, you're /far/ more 'full of yourself' than I would ever be!" His hammer comes down for a heavy overhead strike, meant to shake the ground under Ryu's feet and force him off-balance, before rushing him with a heavy thruster-blast! He's going to try to smash him up against the shield, bash him straight through the airlocks, and then pin him to the railings out in the shipping docs, inches away from being thrown over the edge.

    It's a vulnerable place for both of them, and the tensions have clearly taken them both to the edge of things in more than a few ways.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
Pavo's spheres move to create a shield to protect her from an explosion, but they do nothing at all to a detonation of pure sound. "Aaaaaaargh!!" She screams, stunned badly. The orbs, seemingly controlled by her mind and focus, wobble and waver, while Pavo herself falls to one knee long enough for Lyria to surge past her and get that data. She gets the exact crate location, hidden among the Apex cargo! Trying to break off is just as successful, though Pavo fires a rush of those magnorbs yet again, clanging them around as they veer on erratic courses but carrying just as much heavy, dangerous punch to them; Pavo intends to pursue, though maybe Lyria can make it away...!

Speaking of the Apex area, Pavo's likely to be knocked off her feet while trying to gather herself and pursue Lyria, downed by the sudden blast of heat and pressure that comes from August's detonation! That's over near, though not on, where Lyria needs to go!

Septette Arcubielle (632) has posed:
     Building heat. Septette can feel it, convection carrying hints of the ominous charge to her sensors even above the blinding flames still licking at her chest and face. This is bad. This is bad for everyone involved.

     Her irises display a spinning radial light circling the pupil. It ramps up to a dizzying speed until it blurs together into a smooth purple. Her cognition ratchets to dizzying speeds as she weighs her options, scrutinizing a world that appears nearly still.

     What she knows: damage to the Persona causes pain to the user, but not necessarily physical injury. Persona users are hardier than normal humans by a small margin. The Tin Soldier is vulnerable to fire, and it's about to nuke them both with a fire attack. August himself may also be vulnerable to fire, and he may be within the blast radius.

     Conclusion: August needs to be protected from himself, but damage to the Persona may safely incapacitate it.

     There's no leverage for her to throw the Tin Soldier a safe distance away; she can't turn it around to interpose herself between it and August. Options here are narrow. She finds one anyway.

     Septette lifts one taloned foot off the ground and makes a gesture with it. A small spherical drone materializes in the air in front of August, and creates a hexagonal shield of magical ice between himself and the Tin Soldier.

     One last line of insulation; the only way to interpose herself between August and the damage. In the instants before the charging attack fires off, she arches her back and suplexes the Tin Soldier into the ground.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
Damn! The console right near George goes up in a series of blasting sparks, stunning the man who was pushing it so casually. "Gahhh! Hey!" The crate's not getting away now, at least not until George can manage to properly reboot its full manual control systems. "Dammit, you know how much those things cost? Sheesh!" He tries his sprays of fire, but Iria's daring rush manages to bypass most of them, until his ammo runs dry!

He looks like he's about to reload -- at a dangerous distance to try that at -- but then instead he shifts his shotgun into a fresh, new grip, maneuvering suddenly to one side as Iria closes in, and trying to get the two-handed shotgun grip around her neck and use it to smash her face directly into the electrified console! It's a RISKY maneuver, though, and if she can fight him away from the control, disarm that shogun, and land at least one solid attack, she'll probably be able to make a daring escape with the crate!

Ryu (1161) has posed:
    The anger in his opponent isn't missed. Ryu knows he won't stop until the weapon kills him, and he flutters his wings to avoid the brunt of the hammer blow, but isn't ready for the follow up and gives a loud "HRNGFH!" of pain as he is shoved bodily backward and into the railing like he got hit by a truck. The dragon's body bends and his eyes briefly widen in distant agony, mouth opening and muscles seizing from the bizarre shock of nerves climbing up and down his spine. His claws soon snap in to grapple with his opponent, and he struggles to avoid being thrown over the railing.

    "That's right," he hisses through the pain, "Manipulated. You wanna be the greater good? Don't play by that woman's rules. She doesn't care about the millions you keep shouting about. She showed that much when she killed Lookshy. No one won that fight. No one. You just traded one genocide for another, and the one you got killed all the damn USEFUL PEOPLE!"

    He looks right toward Albert's face, or whatever helmet he's got.

    "'Reality of the world,' that's just to make you feel better about commiting evils to stop evil. Why should you, of all people, accept that? You're more of an idiot than I am if you expect me to believe that!"

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
Biteblade's advance down the hall is stylish and acrobatic, flipping and twisting and cartwheeling in a savage, tribal series of motions towards her, a manic hunter's feeling. But there's only so many shots that can be dodged that way; impacts to her legs are common doing the flips, and by the time she makes it to Yuna, she's worn down badly when she's going for that stab! If Yuna can manage a single heavily-stunning counterattack, it's likely she can exceed Biteblade's speed for a bit and get to the control center to disable defenses.

August Kohler has posed:
The exploding fireball was bigger than August expected it would be. It might have killed August, if Septette didn't specifically want him alive. The ice luckily stops most of the blast from impacting with him, even if he's still burned quite a bit and senting rolling back. The Tin Soldier is held hostage in the process, though, and suplexed into the ground. This does two things. One, it puts out the fire.

Two, it /really/ hurts. August groans out in pain again, he can feel the impact hard, and can barely start crawling to his feet, having to push himself against a wall. The Tin Soldier starts to rise...and them promptly vanishes, as August desummons it.

August's movements are wobbly, but now he knows the location of the crate...and he rushes in its direction, to grab it. "F-fuck this, I'm out!" He's going to try and book it, even if he's not as fast as possible, towards the shuttle. Hopefully the others have the Flotilla distracted enough that they won't intercept him, and he definitely hopes Septette doesn't pursue, because then he's out of luck. He's running on fumes, here.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Albert keeps the shield pressed down hard on Ryu, though his hammer gets disabled and he can't get a good angle to throw the dragon over just yet. A rush of fire comes from one of the hallways nearby, and the sounds of gunfire from another; everything is far too chaotic. "I do what is /necessary/. If it fits some ghost's /plans/, I don't care; I care more about the safety of millions than your personal, spiteful /feud/ with a woman who seems more willing to do what needs doing than you have /ever/ seemed, you soft-hearted, small-minded little /mutant/!"

    His microthrusters flare wildly, creating a gush of white fire behind him. "I know more about the dangers of what was almost unleashed by your experiment than you'll ever learn about anything in your entire life, you childish lizard. I do more to save the millions than your revival magic has ever done! I've made the deaths that were necessary to make LIFE still WORTH LIVING! You want to call me a man /manipulated/? You crave a rush of emotional gratification that you would have gotten for risking the health of millions. I've no interest in the judgments of a REPTILE more interested in TRIBAL EMOTIONAL CHEMICALS than he is in the SAFETY OF MILLIONS!"

    With a brutal bash, he tries to stun Ryu. He lets loose a gorilla-like scream, and go for a massive overhead hammerstrike, strong enough to take out that section of the spacedock entirely, meant to send the dragon, and a chunk of the entire docking balcony, right over the edge.

Iria (215) has posed:
"That's your problem, not mine," Iria says in response about the cost being expensive. "I've got plenty more crap to worry about than that!" She's right, too, as there's more gunfire coming towards her, but then the gun clicks empty. "I think I've got him down now..."

Or does she?

Apparently, Iria's mistaken as she moves in to try to get the crate, because suddenly she's caught by George and finding herself in his control. "Unnngh... let me go, dammit!" She struggles to say, widening her eyes as she sees she's being forced towards the shocking punishment awaiting her. "No, I won't let you..." Iria attempts to try to shift her weight forwards enough to deliver a backwards kick to George, knocking him off of her just long enough for the bounty hunter to break free. What she does from there is based on what George does next.

Lyria Mason has posed:
The music seem to be doing it's thing if you could call it that. She's surges past Pavo she's looking to get where the data is. She now knows where her target is and she's got to move before Pavo recover, whom is already back on her feet almost. She's now moving to run, she's got one thing on her mind, get the target and get the heck out of here. The Watch could certainly use that after Will is patched up as well.

With Lyria hot on the trail and she's being chased. She drops another sphere is it a sonic grenade, nope, this time it's a flash bang hopefully that would be enough.

Things are far from over though she nearly loses her footing, but that blast?? Was that August? Oh Bismark it might have been. It seems Septette's reputation is earned, given August is being made to push himself pretty hard. She's got to hurry and she's likely not going to shake Pavo forever either, she might have to use Swimmers full on assault mode at this rate.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
If Yuna weren't trying not to get beaten up - or, well, if she weren't trying to beat the Floran without doing lasting damage so she could get past Biteblade - she'd probably take a few moments to be deeply impressed by how she *moves* like that. But Yuna's own adrenaline is up as well, and she's a bit too freaked out to appreciate the view.

Still, the stab is telegraphed enough for Yuna to make sure she catches it on Shugoseiheki - and in that split second, she *finally* focuses enough power for a serious shot from her pistol. And when she gets an opening - maybe while Biteblade is winding up for another stab - she whips the pistol up, pulling the trigger and discharging the blast, not at Biteblade's face (that'd just be *rude*) but at her upper chest, trying to knock the wind and the fight out of her.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
George flies back from the kick -- he's a surprisingly light guy! -- and lands heavily on his back. The gleaming lights on his crimson EVA armor indicate a lot of combat stimulants and painkillers are being dumped onto him, especially having already suffered those gunshot wounds. He's trying to sit up and get a pistol out of his Matter Manipulator, this time without one of his usual jokes. He's out in the open this time though, if Iria can manage a couple shots on him she could definitely get away with that crate! The control system has finally rebooted into manual mode, leaving the hovering system to be easily pushed around by her if she needs it.

Septette Arcubielle (632) has posed:
     There's still one more obstacle to August's escape.

     One of the larger hallways on the way back to the Watch's shuttle is almost completely dark. The lights have been deliberately smashed out. Standing in the center is a familiar figure: Septette, still dripping hydraulic fluid and slag, and lit by the ominous red glow of her core. Her eyes are black sockets, burned out by the kamikaze explosion.

     She doesn't seem to notice August's approach at first. After a moment, however, she takes a halting step forward and opens her mouth. A staticky screeching and clicking sound pours out, incessant but quavering in its tone as if sweeping across frequencies. Her ears twitch and angle, trying to catch the bounces of the makeshift echolocation.

     She's listening for him. For the shape he leaves in the echo, for his breath, for his heartbeat. And she takes another step forward, feeling her way along the walls with her knifelike fingers...

Ryu (1161) has posed:
    "She WORKS for the SAME FUCKING THINGS that SEVEN DESPAIRS DID!!!" And that last bellow is his final input on the matter.

    Ryu is clearly not pleased with the Apex's mountainous high horse, but he doesn't have much time to banter now, because said Albert is preparing for an enormous strike built on the fury this philosophical battle has boiled up into his blood. The dragon knows he's going to attack, because the heavy-weight Apex has become a little more predictable when he's trying to beat sense into a dragon that just isn't seeing reason. Ryu jerks to the side just enough, slipping loose of the pinning as stars dance in his vision from the shield bash and blood chokes his nostrils. He takes full advantage of the hard swing of the hammer, weaving away narrowly enough to make it hard to tell if it's going to hit or not... He doesn't want Albert to compensate too much.

    His body whips around, and he tries to SPIKE Albert down off the balcony as hard as he can with a titanic tail whip, in an effort to give himself room to flee. He's quick to start stagger-sprinting to the ship to collect the loot and get aboard before this gets any worse, hoping he doesn't get shot in the spine while he's fleeing.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
Looks like Lyria's data managed to pin down exactly what they needed, and now August is getting away with it! Pavo continues her pursuit, unable to muster the balance to start flying or gliding, but well willing to keep firing off those orbs! Heading out into those hallways ought to be a good way to break line of sight, though when Pavo does get too close, it comes with not much ability to dodge the gleaming, violently bouncing spheres. Then again, that works both ways, Pavo won't have much room to dodge if Lyria manages to take her out.

Of course, she's shouting and ranting! "You'd better goddamn run, you blaspheming little self-righteous raider! I can skip your judgment and send you /straight to a smiting/!" She doesn't realize Lyria's already gotten what she was after, in a sense. Her screaming also has to be all sorts of uncanny to hear in distant echos for August.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
Yuna catches the green-glowing blade right on, and just as she suspected, her dual-wielding goes for an off-hand stab, preventing her from doing any sort of block when the pistol blasts a huge concussive impact straight into Biteblade's chest. The impact shatters an outer layer of her salvaged armor, launching her straight up towards the ceiling, crashing her against it before she slams into the ground, groaning and struggling to get back onto her feet. Even if Yuna were the type to finish off her opponents lethally, she might not have had time. But she DOES have time to get to the little nook on her map where all the space defense systems are routing data, and shut them down (explosively, if she prefers), forcing the exterior turrets on the station to reboot for a nice five-minute escape window.

Iria (215) has posed:
Thinking quickly, Iria swiftly draws her pistol and fires a couple of shots at George in order to keep him off of her case for the time being. Meanwhile, she's got the crate in sight and attempts to grab onto it. Unfortunately, it seems to be a bit heavier than she expects, but she manages to steady it and start moving towards the exit with it. "I got the goods, now to get out of here!"

As Iria is exiting with the crate, she stops to toss a firecracker-styled grenade into the room. The goal isn't to hurt George any further than he already may be, but instead to distract him for the time being as the huntress attempts to get the crate back to her craft. "I've heard of a hard-sell approach, but that was ridiculous!"

August Kohler has posed:
As August sees her, he almost screams. That's way too horrifying, and he does not want to deal with psycho monster Septette. He'll need to sneak past her...no, not possible. But he can't brute force his way past. He needs a distraction, for even a second. She's smart...but she's also blind right now, and even if she hits him, he can keep running until he gets close to the shuttle, and one of the others can grab the crate. August takes a breath, reaches for his knife...

And throws it at the wall in a diagonal across the corridor. He then immediately runs to the /side/ of the hall, instead of forward, and then diagonally back up and left, trying to make confusing footstep patterns and rattling of noises, even as he has to try and lean on the wall and is sort of huffing along the way. Positioning the crate away from Septette, August finally barrels down the corridor, trying to get straight past Septette. She has the perfect reach to stab him along the way, especially since his distraction wasn't the best.

But maybe she'll appreciate the attempt? No, August, that's a silly thought.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
Albert goes over the edge, roaring more apelike rage at Ryu as he slips into the void. As he falls, his presence of mind returns just enough to manage to launch a grappling hook shot towards a less precarious segment of the space-pier, and start reeling himself up. Ryu has put him into that kind of unique rage that brings one crawling their way up out of the cliffs of death, roaring with frustrated, screaming anger.

He can't make it in time though. No matter how intimidating it is for the murder-rage determinator to clamber his way out, it can't hit Ryu if he's already aboard the shuttle out of here.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Going while the going is good sounds like a REALLY good idea to Yuna, and she leaves Biteblade sprawled and in pain while she sprints down the hall, even dismissing her kite shield along the way.

Once she gets to that nook, she gives the control systems a quick looking-over. The others are already on the way out with the objectives the Watch came here for, so ... yyyyyyyyeah, being able to leave without getting shot down WOULD be nice, wouldn't it?

Especially since these turrets don't look like they have a stun setting. At least, not that Yuna can pick out with a quick little inspection, particularly since she's not familiar with the systems involved. Elner could probably figure things out in more detail but they don't even have *that* kind of time, as far as Yuna can tell.

Her pistol is dismissed as well, and the Matrix Divider forms in Yuna's hands as she takes a step back from the alcove, hefting her weapon and focusing as much power as she can quickly gather. One trigger-pull later, and --

Well, Biteblade is almost certainly going to be able to hear the discharge *and* the explosion. She might even think to be grateful that Yuna makes such a painstaking habit of holding back in a fight.

Whether she has time to thank Yuna on the blonde's way back past her is another question, but Yuna's not slowing down to fight if she can help it. "Sorry for the beating, Biteblade, looking forward --"

She SHOULD just keep going, but Yuna can't help coming to a stop and giving Biteblade a hand back to her feet. "Really sorry we had to fight this time," the blonde girl says, her tone wistful and her expression rueful. "I *do* look forward to being allies again sometime, though. You gonna be okay?"

Please don't start fighting me again, she thinks while she's saying that. It's liable to show on her face, mixed with the apology.

Septette Arcubielle (632) has posed:
     The moment that the knife hits the wall, Septette's shrieking rises to an almost painful volume- hard confirmation that August's nearby. As quick as thought, she lunges at the source of the noise- and her claws pass through empty air.

     The blind murderbot turns on her heel just as quickly, abruptly falling silent as she listens to the footsteps. Arcs of arcane electricity lash out from her raised hand, striking the wall and floor just feet away from her adversary, but none connect, and soon he's out of range...

     If August looks back over his shoulder as he flees, he'll see Septette standing there, her eye sockets aglow with the same red light emitted by her core. A strange distorted, irregular noise echoes through the halls after him. It almost sounds like laughter.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
George suffers another barrage of shots; his heavy EVA hardsuit keeps them from being lethal or piercing his body, but the intense impact gives him no shortage of contusions. The blast of pain makes him lose his grip on the pistol, and he shouts, "FUCK!" It's enough time for Iria to get a good headstart, and it means George isn't right on top of her when she drops that firecracker; he's on his feet and pursuing with a freshly loaded shotgun when he winds up barraged by the spray of multiple explosions that blocks the way into the halls long enough for Iria to make her way into them, and lose his line of sight, escaping!

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
The power relay explodes! Outside, various turrets die down for just a few minutes, flickering as they reboot. It'll be enough to get out of here. Biteblade looks a little disappointed, somehow, that Yuna didn't stick to the more consistent fighting. She was really into that! But, c'est la vie, she takes the hand and isn't the sort of battle-crazed tribal who would turn on someone offering help. "Rrrrrrh... Yeah, Floran isss okay, sssavior friend. Could be more okay if had a bit of fresh meat!" She looks with wide, hopeful eyes at Yuna. Just a finger or two? No, okay. Biteblade's daggers and bow are elsewhere in the hall regardless, thrown aside during the battle, so she can't start up fighting again without telegraphing it badly, or taking more than enough time for Yuna to book it out of line of sight.

Which she should do, because there are only a couple minutes before those turrets reboot!

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"Sorry, I didn't bring any snacks - and I kinda need all of my body," Yuna says apologetically as she goes back to sprinting down the hall, heading back to the docking bay where the Watch's shuttle was parked. She does, however, spare one last wave for Biteblade before passing out of view.

August Kohler has posed:
Oh, thank god. Once past Septette, August barrels with the auto-surgeon towards the shuttle, moving to get the hell out of here. Over radio, he calls out, clearly injured, and panicked. <"Everyone, retreat! We've got the goods. We should have enough, with two sets of arms, to sell some of this. Good work!">

This will have absolutely no repercussions at all! Well, no, that's probably not true, but that's what August is hoping.

Iria (215) has posed:
Repercussions or not, right now the biggest issue is getting out of here. Despite the heaviness of the crate, Iria makes it back to her craft and straps it in securely. "All right, now to get out of here!" Iria says as she throws her craft into gear and makes a swift getaway from the station. "Nothing like my daily dose of adrenaline for the day," Iria says with a smirk.

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason has the location, she's got to make it there now, but Pavo is just as doggedly determined as Lyria is at this point in time. She will take hits she will get hurt her suit will be ripped and she's taken some injuries but Pavo is up close with her. She shifts for a moment in her stance. She's clearly been hurt she isn't running now, or it seems.

"You can't even do a cult right, you can't even stand on your own. Can you?"

then she slams her feet into the plating and the ground near and possibly under Pavo's feet will rise up attempting to hem them in and block their way, she might have to fight her way through it, whatever happens? Lyria is on her way once more.

She knows time is running out and they got to move, she seriously knows how little time they have left here. Hopefully she can get her objective and get the heck out.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
Iria manages to get out to the stolen shuttle with her crate of illegal arms! That's two of the three objectives now properly wrapped up!

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
Lyria doesn't need to grab the Auto-Surgeon, she'll find after checking that August used the data she pulled to grab it on his way out. Thankfully, the Apex section it was in was something that was closest to the exit zone, so she can slip out easily on her own anyway.

It's a lot easier to do it when Pavo runs headfirst into a wall of metal that just rose out of the ground and blocked the path to the hallways. Dammit! Pavo start digging through as fast as she can with the Matter Manipulator, but it's not nearly fast enough to catch up to Iria.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
August gets aboard the shuttle, auto-surgeon in hand! That's three of the three objectives, and their escape route is clear for... Maybe two minutes, maybe one at worst. By now, thankfully, everyone's aboard, and the escape is made! They've got enough time to clear the cetain targeting zone and escape into a nearby warpgate!

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason does not need to get the Auto-Surgeon as, August got it already. It's time to fo so rahter than go for it? She's going to make for the exit and the shuttle with her drone Swimmer right behind her. She doesn't even pause to drop any explosives on her way out, it's time to get out and soon she's on the transport out.

Difference between revisions of "5808/Two Aftermaths"

Latest revision as of 19:33, 16 May 2018

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