3858/Taking A 'Shine To Things

Taking A 'Shine To Things
Date of Scene:	28 February 2016
Location:	Brimsteel Frontier
Synopsis:	A moonshine operation is discovered to be darker than it seems...
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, Staren, 279, Rebecca Chambers, 571, 673, Corona Arclite, 750, 770, William Pauwel

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Corona Arclite has posed:
It was business as usual on the frontier of the steampunk world of Brimsteel. In hopes of increasing trade potential Loadstar's administrator has decided to reopen one of the old factories near the northern mountains. But the place is currently being squatted by a bunch of bootleg moonshiners that need to be chased out so a proper business can be established on the site!

The factory, built almost as if wedged between two rock formations, looks old and worn, with no shortage of grime and climbing vines clinging to the exterior. It's just a ploy to keep the curious away though, as lights can be seen on through some windows and there's fresh smoke puffing out of a fume stack on occasion.

Corona has her buggy parked just in front of the rusted old gates in front of the factory, sitting atop the rollcage and watching the building with a pair of anachronistic looking binoculars while waiting for the rest of the posse to arrive.

That's where you all, being the posse to do the chasing, come in.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka, being a mercenary sort, isn't one to turn down cash for jobs like this. Taking out scumbags tends to be a bonus, depending on the job, and she wasn't going to turn down helping a friend out with a job of her own.

    She's already climbing her way into the factory, her STALKER suit keeping her invisible to the naked eye as she uses paramagnetics to climb across cliff face walls.

    Her optics scan out at the factory itself, switching to thermal as she keeps watch for posted hostiles and reaches for her rifle. "Recon ready, searching for guards."

Staren has posed:
    Staren is running some routine tests with his robot body when the call comes in. Corona needs help? Well, it seems to be functioning just fine, so he's free to come!

    Staren teleports in outside the factory, near Corona. "Hey." he offers a smile and a wave, the former a little hard to see through his visor. He deploys some bug-sized drones which fly around the factory, looking for a way in, and personally starts checking the windows through the scope of his trusty laser rifle.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
    Bad idea: Squatting on land that doesn't belong to you.

    Even worse idea: Using said land to make moonshine.

    Near the factory gates, Rebecca has just arrived, and is going about checking her equipment before loading a clip into her Beretta. She got the word about the moonshiners being here, and how they're squatting on land they don't own. A very illegal combination in Rebecca's book, and she'd love nothing more than to see those moonshiners taken down and brought to justice... or at least dealt with in some form. To Rebecca, she prefers to take criminals alive, but knows that dead is sometimes the only solution. As long as they're not the 'walking' dead!

Rebound (750) has posed:
If there's one thing that Corona can count on, it's that when she asks Rebound to come help her with something, Rebound is going to come help her. "So we want to not blow this place up, right?" She asks Corona again, trying once again (poorly) to convince Corona that they should just rain destruction upon the place from range.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa was happy to copme back to Brimsteel, she's learned her lesson about the power of the local booze. She was fare wiser after that little trip with Corona. It wasn't so much a job for her as she was helping out a friend she's arrive on foot fully clad in her form fitting stealth suit she has become known for by this point.. She arrive a bit after Maaka and Staren, she did look chipper though.

"Hey Corona!"

William Pauwel has posed:
    Hunting treasure all day can be fun, but sometimes a guy needs a bit of variety. There's a whole world out there to explore, and it's high time that Will Pauwel gets out there to do it! Even if it's... sort of intimidatingly huge, and going too far starts getting him homesick. The multiverse is a big place, bigger than anyone can ever really wrap their heads around. But the good thing about such a huge, diverse place is that no matter how far you travel, you'll always find something to remind you of home.

A bunch of banditos holding up somewhere important and causing trouble is one of those things that Will really wished didn't remind him of some places back home.

    He rolls up on a motorcycle that's almost definitely too big for him, carrying a gun that's only just a bit more appropriately sized. Will gingerly tips his hat to his host and gives a good-natured smile, "Howdy ma'am. I heard tell that there was some troublemakers out this way?"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rory hasn't come here to be terribly violent. If possible she'd like to see if these people have interest in running more legitimate business. Because she knows a few people who might appreciate this sort of thing. People who know how to make quality 'real' goods are in high demand !

    So hey, maybe there won't need to be any major trouble. She's currently sleeved in her Flexbot, giving her a clearly humanoid-robot appearance... albeit a colorful one. She might be mistaken for a human wearing a lot of armor, but the 'armor' is in fact her body. LArgely silvery-white, with mechanical seams and textures and, oddly... glowing circuit lines, TRON style.

    That world left an impression on Rory.

    And she's configured her feet and hands into WEIRD WHEELS, able to flip her legs and arms around much like a transformer between wheels and hands. So she's not riding a vehicle or anything to catch up with the gruop. She is ALSO the vehicle.

    Wheeling up, she rises and switches to 'humanoid' mode, the wheels snappin back and hands and feet locking into place instead.

    "Is there any chance these people can be convinced to leave for better opportunities?"

Corona Arclite has posed:
"As much as Ah enjoy a good explosion Hoppy," Corona replies as she lowers her binoculars, "That'd kinda defeat the point of reopenin' the place as a proper factory." She puts the binoculars away and hops down from atop the buggy. "Yep, this would be the place. We're just gettin' situated." The foxgirl pulls out her handheld device and flips it open to check something on it. Then snaps it shut again. "They wouldn't be ignorin' the demands to clear out iffen they could be reasoned with, Rory." She doesn't need to reconize the machine, the voice and the topic of its comment is enough for her to ID. " 'Round here, sometimes ya gotta stand up and give 'em a good scare to get 'em going." That said she unslings her breaker and saunters towards the gates.

Meanwhile, sneaking inside Alexis would find the sort of outlaws, lowlifes and nogoodnicks you'd expect out of this sort of situation. Most of them are just loitering about, save a few loading kegs of what's likely their moonshine into what looks like the steampunked version of a hearse from a side entrance. up to her if she wants to screw with people now, or keep sneaking along. They're going to be busy soon...

Like, as soon as Corona takes her hammer and with a mighty swing smashes down the rusty gates. Outlaws scramble at the ruckus, yelling alarms and grabbing their weapons before heading out of the building with guns blazing!

And right into the waiting heroes, most likely.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka is about to switch to knifing one of the guards when Corona announces everyone's presence. Fighting the urge to engage, she waits until the thugs posted are mostly outside and firing at the rest of the gang. She has other ideas...

    She produces a detpack before she approaches the hearse, still cloaked, and crawls underneath to stuff the explosive on the vehicle's underside. While everyone's distracted, Maaka will move along to find anything else to sabotage while she's here.

Rebound (750) has posed:
The first couple of guys to round the corner are promptly sent flying back to the other side of the wall, as Rebound plants her feet into both of them with a solid Kangaroo Kick. With the situation playing out there way it is, she's going to do what she does best.

    She ducks back away from incoming fire from one of those baddies, and then sticks her tongue out, trying to lure a few of them into chasing her and help clear some of them out for the others to attack from behind.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
    Rebecca gives a slight smile and a nod to Staren, someone she recognizes from previous missions. The others just get a slight nod as she's not too familiar with them. When Rory speaks, Rebecca shakes her head. "Odds are if we could do that, it would be happening by now." True, negotiations sometimes work and it's nice to have a peaceful resolution. But that's not going to happen today. Namely since Corona just alerted those inside to their presence.

    "Well, looks like it's standard combat right now!" Rebecca says as she ducks behind a nearby object near the gate to take cover briefly, before popping out and opening fire on the incoming mob of bandits. No need to call out for compliance like a police officer usually does, instead she gets right to the point!

Staren has posed:
    As Corona approaches the gate, Staren lets the rifle fall back across his back. He hopes he won't need it today. He's not sure exactly what he /will/ need, though, until outlaws start pouring out the front doors. Well then. Staren runs for the cover of a nearby car on blocks, reaches into his bag, pulls out a short fat metal cylinder, and hurls it into the crowd! It detonates based on inertial sensors rather than a timer, so it can't be thrown back, and it's a concussion grenade, creating a shockwave designed to knock most people off of their feet and stun many of them while only inflicting relatively minor damage!

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
Maxine's a bit late in arriving, she had to recaliberate her power armor before showing up. "I don't think it would be a good to use anything highly explosive especially with moonshine present." She's a bit concerned about people using guns with live ammo but she suppose they're going to show some force. She's not normally one to get involve in this sort of matter, but Corona's a friend. Besides, it could be dangerous if anyone does drink the moonshine. This certainly isn't a legitmate distillary. She does her best not to alert any of the bandits present to her being here.

William Pauwel has posed:
    "Ah, well," Will murmurs as Corona decides to get the party started early. "I guess with a bunch like this, negotiation wouldn't've gone too far. Still, couldn't we've... tried or something?" Maybe not, with this many bandits involved. The abrupt appearance of a whole host of desperados turning around a nearby corner has him leaping back over the seat of his motorbike. Gunshots ring out against its reinforced frame as the firefight begins.

    Will murmurs nervously behind his makeshift barricade and draws his oversized handcannon from its holster at his hip. The Solano's internal power core spools up with a low whine, filling its barrel with a cloud of white-blue plasma. He takes in a sharp breath before slipping out from behind his bike and firing...

At the bandits' feet?

And everywhere else BUT center of mass, it seems. The ground underneath them, the cover they're hiding behind, the guns and other weapons in their hands, but it looks like he's doing his best to avoid lethal hits.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is honestly more along Rory's line of thought than anything else right now. She fell in with Rory and seemed to smile at her firend for a moment. She got the idea tht Rory had been hving some fun with her form and how it looked shegrins at her frind for a moment agian and moves to keep up with her in a bit of a jog. "I'm hoping we can talk them down honestly."

Well that's what Kotone is relaly hoping and praying for. She falls in with the rest and sighs at the answer she gets from Corona.

"Copy that, Rory can you get us networking?"

Corona Arclite has posed:
While she's under the hotrodded hearse Alexis might catch sight of a large pair of boots stomping past, but whoever it is doesn't see her and by the time she's crawled back out it's gone. She's got free reign of the place with most of the bandits heading out front towards the fight, maybe she can find the actual stills. Or where the illegal booze is being stored.

There's a clattering seemingly from the rafters, but it could just be old machinery, or metal boots and spurs on the higher floors... There are a few riflemen taking aim from the higher windows, less like snipers and more like just unloading their oversized punkstyle rifles at whoever gets in their sights.

Rebecca does a good job getting attention diving right into the gunfight, but then concussion grenades and plasma blasts at the ground send banditos flying in all directions. These guys are so use to wild west style shootouts that the less-than-lethal methods probably took them more by surprise than the raid itself did! The horde is broken up, and a few meet the wrong end of Rebound's big feet. Others are quick to give chase though. With her lack of aggressive acts Maxine has gone pretty much unseen so far. They do have bigger problems to worry about, after all.

Corona is weaving her way through the ruckus in her own dash for the doors. But comes to a skidding hault as a mountain of a topheavy man lumbers out of the doorway. Or at least it's presumably a man, considering there's also a pair of smoking exhausts jutting out of his shoulders, light pipped tubing decorating his chest and arms, and nothing but a pair of beady eyes glaring from the shadows between his oversized stetson and metal neckerchief.

Corona gives one of those meek little finger waves as she backs up a step. "... That ain't no typical desperado." The steam chugging bandit swings, but his broad fist only slams into the ground as Corona uses her smaller size to dive between his bowlegged stance and dart into the factory. "SOMEONE DISTRACT THAT THING!"

Even as her foxy tail disappears inside the hulk of a bandit yanks his fist from the ground, the clicking of gears and hissing of steam audible as he turns after her...

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "But I had some offers for them!" Rory protests... Though not forcefully enough, it seems. She forgets to frown. But all hell breaks loose anyways.

    Staren just gets a frowny emojii briefly over the Mesh. Oh well.

    Reality ripples with power around Rory's hand as she engages her Flexbot's integrated MATTER MANIPULATOR and does two things in quick succession. She deploys blocks of... SOLID DIAMOND?! It sure looks like diamond. But a Rory-tall tower of DIAMOND WALL's erected almost instantly for her to hunker behind. Bullets spang off the two feet thick cover of one of the hardest yet lightest materials imaginable. the other thing that pops out is her SPRAYER. ONe filled with Freezer Foam. The normally two-handed weapon's easily enough to carry one-handed in her advanced Flexbot morph, but she needs to duck out of cover to AIM the thing with both hands and unleash a TORRENT of the stuff in spurts. A few bullets strike the Flexbot, leaving sparking gouges and gashes where some of the microbots that make it up were shredded, but extra mass is being routed quickly to 'fill in' the missing components as limited self-repair.

    "But telling them after they're subdued will have to do..."

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka doesn't need to hold her breath to remain unseen. Her suit is sealed, she does however remain stone-still when she spies boots stomping about right next to her head. Phew. She remains unnoticed as she crawls out, and she begins to head for the stills next.

    Her intentions are interrupted when she detects people up above her with rifles, taking potshots at her friends. This cannot pass, so she takes a detour.

    Planting a charge on the roof after some climbing, not C4 but a breaching charge, she blows herself a hole to toss a few frags out at the bad guys before she hops on out, PDW at the ready.

Target Sparktail (770) has posed:
    "Ya'all know how to put a nice fella in a really bad mood!"

Well, that's a voice a few people may recognize. Others? Not so much. Who does this voice belong to? Well, it seemed to be coming from OUTSIDE the factory but was approaching at a pace that, well, it was pretty fast. Dashing across the floor, all that anyone will see at first looks like a plated metal ball. That all changes when it starts to unfurl, revealing a lunging, armed, Ranger of a Kobold that actually still has a DONUT in his muzzle. His intention is to introduce his fist into the titan-desperado's jaw. And he has some amount of success! ... Problem is when he lands, opposite the man, and near Corona, "AAaaAAAAAHGH THAT HURT!" Engage single hand-arm flailing and the dropping of the remnants of a half eaten donut.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
    Rebecca spies that 'man' coming out, and her eyes widen for a moment, before she remembers that she's supposed to be an elite member of the Union and she shouldn't be getting freaked out over things like that. "At least not like that time, you freaked out while doing a simulated autopsy of a licker," She comments to herself just before a concussion grenade lands near her feet. She yelps and runs to the side a little before diving into a roll. She barely feels the explosion against her as she spins around and switches out her Beretta for her MP5K.

    "You're big, but are you tough?" Rebecca calls out at the strange man that's coming out. She doesn't believe it to be human, but whatever it is, it's definitely dangerous and needs to be stopped.

Staren has posed:
    That... sort of worked! Staren draws his phaser and runs for the front door. "Stay down!" he shouts at the bandits, firing stunbolts to make sure some of the ones that are down /stay/ down... but before he can actually get close to ziptie them, there's a METAL MAN.

    "HEY YOU!" Staren shouts. "PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN... METAL-NESS!" While putting the phaser away, Staren holds out his left arm, and fires the missiles there... /four/ tiny missiles the size of magic markers fly towards him! On impact, they detonate into a directed lance of plasma. Those that miss airburst, but the undirected blasts are much less devastatingly focused, and too small to hurt allies more than a few feet away.

William Pauwel has posed:
    It might be a bit embarassing in some circles, but Will hasn't actually ever killed a man, and he doesn't intend to start now! Besides, they're working for lawmen today, and that means due process, right? Right?? He nods a little more confidently as the banditos go flying, and looks even further encouraged when they seem smart enough not to get back up. But then...

Steamborg.

    It isn't every day that you see a fully armed and operational combat cyborg. In fact, this is just about the first time Will's ever even heard of one that wasn't a horrible amalgamation of steel and flesh bent on smashing Chasers into bits. Not that this one wouldn't do that of course, but still!

    "H-hey, what's with this fella?" Will asks... well, anyone who'd be interested in answering. "Some kind of mechanical outlaw?" Whatever he is, he looks more metal than man! And that means Will doesn't feel as bad about firing great big slugs of plasma at the cyborg's shoulders. He might in fact be trying to melt the thing's exhaust ports shut!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa got the idea that things were going to be a fight. She is taking notes from Rory as she gets ready to move in, she's been packing less lethal weaponry and she's also in the new body that Rory made her today, it's never had a good combat test after all, right?. She wasn't sure what ot think of the attackers but she's quick to take use of the cover that Rory was wetting uo.

<<Maybe we can try to convice them once we have knocked some sense into them.>>

She dives for the cover that Rory has set up and Kotone is now making ready to get into a fight as she tosses a flash bag a tthe mysterious attacker.

<<FLASH OUT!>>

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
Maxine could likely take apart the cyborg if necessary, but getting that close while he's still moving isn't a good idea. Instead she tosses a goo grenade with the intent of holding him place and clogging up his intakes. She's a bit surprised as Rory manages to make walls of solid diamond. She can't help but wonder if any of the bandits would try to steal the material, especially if it's as valuable here as tends to be on many worlds.

Corona Arclite has posed:
Block walls out of nowhere! That reflect bullets! What madness is this?! The 'offworlders' definately have an upper hand in this fight despite the frenzy of their foes. Freezer foam does a good job of making sure the bandits that are down and out stay down and out. Or stuck to the wall. Those that don't get a good stunbolting that leaves them spasming. If it wasn't in middle of a roaring gunfight it would actually be a bit comical.

The big bandit's pursuit gets cut off by DYNAMIC ENTRY KOBOLD!... though maybe he should of gone for the kick instead. What he hit was most definately not flesh. "Hmph. Figures," a growling, grating voice eminates from the brute as he turns back in Target's direction. But it turns into a sadistic cackling snarl as he reachs up with one hand to tilt back his hat, and the metallic bandana slips off like a mouthguard... Revealing the broad ears and a brutish semi-doglike face, though instead of spots there's copper plates and glowing lenses over his eyes like some mechanical bandit mask.

And that mouth, with its rows of serrated metal teeth and an entirely mechanical lower jaw, is all the less pleasant as he sneers down at the kobold, a few sparks hissing from his chompers grinding together before breaking into a big, sadistic looking grin. "Guess who.."

Of course that's when others interrupt with a flash grenade, followed up by plasma blasts and plasma lances, giving Target a chance to scramble out of the way as the monstrousity is engulfed into the attacks.

And a hole in the floor and some shrapnel intervention from Alexis keeps the riflemen from picking up on her allies.

Which would of all been well and good if it wasn't for the brutish bandit stomping out of the attacks, showing a lot more metal where the plasma has burned through his coat. In fact, it's mostly metal fittings and copper tubing than it is flesh and bone, even with the warping from the heat.

And steps right into Maxine's goo bomb. "An' now y'all went and ruined the moment." Despite the topheavy build he yanks his sidearms from their holsters as quick as any gunslinger, the revolvers ratcheting parts to expand more into minature gearwork gatling guns, which he just opens fire on the whole lot of them with grand sweeping motions.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Once Maaka opens herself up a quick route topside, she opts to push the assault. Climbing to the top, she draws her PDW and begins to sweep the area, stalking for riflemen as she goes. A knife between the ribs here, a rifle-butt there, she's methodical as she hunts for those taking potshots at her buddies.

    Of course, the cyborg bandit on ground-level is a threat that needs taking out. She drops behind cover, switching back to her sniper rifle, and takes aim before firing off a round, intending to severely injure the METAL BANDIT while he doesn't realize his sniper support is dwindling.

Staren has posed:
    "Hrm!" Staren is impressed, but more annoyed, that the plasma lance anti-tank rounds didn't put deeper holes in this thing. Well, it's clear what he has to do now! He unclips his beam saber hilt from his waist and /charges/. His forcefield flickers into visibility as he just tanks the gatling rounds. Rapid physical attacks may be a weakness of his forcefield, and multiple layers of it are stripped away, the emitter discs on his chestplate popping and smoking, but even gatling pistols can only do so much in the less than a second it takes Staren to cross the distance. And then he leaps onto the metal man, trying to grab one arm so it can't aim at him while jabbing that beam saber into the shoulder, trying to cut into it! He doesn't need to sever it, just break whatever clockwork is inside!

Corona Arclite has posed:
    Meanwhile, with the steampunk monster stalled at the doors, Corona has managed to make her way farther into the former factory. Considering what was being done here she uses the layout map the proper owner gave her to find one of the storerooms figuring that's where they're storing the rest of their moonshine. Locked and barred doors don't mean much when she can just smash it in with the Corona Breaker.

But what she finds walking in afterwards? Not only several barrels of illegal booze, but a cache of weapons as well ... except it's not just clockwork rifles and junk, there's weird stuff like flamethrowers powered by a furnace-like backpack, and what could be anachronistic rocket launchers. "... Didn't know the Cartel was into gunrunnin' too..."

Then Corona stops, ears flaring up as she looks one way, then turns the other again. Her sharp ears heard something, but there's no one to see...

Target Sparktail (770) has posed:
    The flailing of that arm slows, stops, and then the Kobold ranger slowly turns, peers up at the mutt and just... for a moment, has that deer in head-in-headlights expression. "Um... Hi?" When the gunfire starts, the kobold goes -scrambling- cover. "WHY DON'T THESE JERKS STAY DEAD?!"

Target Sparktail (770) has posed:
After diving to cover, something occurs to the kobold and he peeks up over his cover to yell at the guy again, "AND WHO THE HELL TRIES TO STEAL A BRIDGE?!"

Rebound (750) has posed:
    The battle has been raging between Rebound and several of the goons, convieniently just off screen it seems. Suddenly two of the goons come flying out through upper floor windows. Rebound emerges from the window a few moments later, sailing through the air.

    And now she's falling through the air, angling downwards through the air towards the clockwork cyborg that's harassing Target, "Surprise, asshole! Secret flying kangaroo super technique!" What is her super secret flying kangaroo technique? Falling at full speed, Impact Gauntlets first, and crashing into him with both fully charged gauntlets so she can discharge them into him with the impact.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    As the CYBER BANDIT LORD is revealed, Rory pauses for just a second. "On second thought... maybe these people are not suited for legitimate work!!" She's not sure if this guy is even good for mercenary work. But the AGI's not a very good judge of people, exactly, is she?

    A bit of HYPER-FOCUSED scrutiny on his implants reveals... none of those SHOULD WORK. HOW do they work? She's very curious! "S-such crude cybernetics, how do they even function?!"

    Oh well.

    "Mr. Moonshiner! If your people would just cooperate, you could be guided to better places! Legitimate work!"

    But with a nod to Kotone, she again dives out of cover and SPRAYS GLOBS OF FOAM at the Cyberyena Boss!

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
    A gnoll? That's a new one on Rebecca. At least it's not a Bio-Organic Weapon.

    Still, Rebecca sees that Rory is attempting to use negotiations, so Rebecca doesn't fire just yet. Instead, she keeps her gun at her side, but ready to be drawn again if things don't work out.

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
Maxine takes cover at the gatling gun fire, while she's wearing power armor she doesn't want to expose herself to heavy arms fire unless absolutely necessary. It only takes one lucky shot after all. It might be better to let one of the others equipped for this kind of combat to deal with it. "You're heavily outnumbered, it might be best for you to back down." She suggests to the boss before he tries anything else. She's pretty certainly not everyone here will hold back.

William Pauwel has posed:
    This situation is quickly devolving into something awful. Will is sure of it. It might be that this guy took several slugs of hot plasma, concussive grenades and Heaven knows what else to the chin and it barely phased him. It might be that he apparently has GATLING PISTOLS and has proceeded to fill Will's world with lead, or maybe that he appears to have infinite ammunition for said gatling pistols.

In either case, Will does not like this, not one bit.

But...

    But he is a Chaser, after all. Even when staring down a steam-powered desperado slinging miniguns akimbo, he can't afford to back down! That said, Will can only hide out behind the Mistral for so long before the venerable motorcycle's armor gives way. It's already being pockmarked, the reinforced plates bending and buckling under the onslaught of heavy metal blasting into its flank. But that bike also has a KEY TO VICTORY.

In the form of what looks like a totally inoccuous extension cord that Will slides into the butt of his gun.

    "Never done seen a cyborg like this before," Will asides to Rory as he slides a pair of welder's goggles down over his eyes. "Not one this durable, anyway. What's this guy even made of?" The Solano's whine rises in pitch as plasma begins literally leaking out of its barrel. The palms of Will's gloves begin to smolder as his pistol starts venting far too much heat to be anywhere near safe.

All that means is that Will needs to start firing again.

And so he does.

    Two can play at the game of Spray and Pray. Will depresses the Solano's trigger and the weapon begins disgorging a veritable firehose of condensed plasma. Peering through the wash of blinding light, Will focuses his fire on the desperado's own guns. If he can't burn through this guy's armor, then maybe he can make his ammunition cook off instead!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa say:is attemping to make usre of non lethal tactics today, maybe she's just starting to grow tired of such things and that may very well be the point to be honest. Still they wer emaking progress honestly. hopefilly they could bring this down without further trouble. Still the mention of the Cartel worries Kotone. She doe shave other opptions now and she pops back up behind cover.

"Yes we do want to help you there's other options than this sir! There a whole multiverse out there for you to explode."

She's also lobbing freezer foam grenades now as well. Which will act much like the foam Rory is using.

Corona Arclite has posed:
It didn't seem to be much at first, but Maxine's goo bomb turns out to be a delayed problem when Staren charges, and the steampunked gnoll-bandit can't pull his foot free to move when Staren charges. Getting shot with more goo and foam doesn't help, and even turning his gatling pistols on Staren doesn't stop him from sinking a sword into his shoulder. The sound just rings of screeching metal and jamming gears rather than any sort of organic injury.

William's own gun barrage blows the gatling pistols out of his hands, a small blessing as the ammo in them blows up a few moments later even as they clatter across the ground. Then Rebound slams a kinetic powered double diving punch into the mechanico bandito, which is enough to break him free. By sending him hurtling across the grounds into a riotous crash. Staren didn't cut off the arm entirely, but it's moving ackwardly even by local standards as the fiend gets back up, clearly damaged.

While others are trying to negotiate he grabs the side of his head with the good hand, and gives his head a jerk that would be nearly neckbreaking to a normal person. But in this case it's just snapping back into place what Rebound's impact jarred loose. Then, once they're done trying to talk sense into things... He throws his head back in the sort of manic howling laughter one would expect from a race that shares some visual similarities to hyenas. "Ya have no idea what's -really- goin' on 'round here, do ya?!" That sadistic metal toothed grin is still there on his hideous features. "But Ah ain't the one to be worried about..."

Inside the storeroom, Corona lets a snort out at the radio chatter. Now things were getting really weird... and there's that sound again. Corona turns, bring about her shotgun as she does, but before she can fire a metallic tendril slams into her. With a yelp she lands against the wall, and two more such limbs dig their clawed tips into the surface behind her. In fact, there's a lot of those segmentled gearwork tentacles, the thing is standing over her on some, while others end in various nasty impliments. It's mechanical, and yet the thing has a vagely organic look to it as well, with the elongated upper body having some semblance to a squid. As it's composed of a metal frame bracing a translucent tube of some kind, full of goo. And some kind of brain with a bunch of tubes and wires connected to it floating inside.

"Ah, Ms. Arclite." There's no mouth, so the 'jar' just flashes with the words somehow, along with the rather alien reverbrance that undertones the voice all the more creepy like. "Finally we meet. Unfortunately for the last as well as first time!" Another mechanical tendril rises up, and lunges for the fox!

Only to also impact into the wall as Corona uses her grappler to yank herself out of the way, and get the hell out of the room!

Staren has posed:
    When Staren sees what Rory's about to do (thank goodness for tacnets!) Staren leaps away. At least he managed to damage the arm! Staren stays on that side of him, dodging back and forth, trying not to take fire, while continuing to pump fire into the bossyena. He deactivates and re-clips the beam sword, drawing forth his laser rifle again, and alternating fire between the laser rifle and the beam cannons on his arm, firing one while the other cools down. Dump enough energy into this guy and he /has/ to break, right?

    "Yeah, yeah, save it unless you're ready to surrender!"

Target Sparktail (770) has posed:
"That's not helpful at all!" Target calls out from behind cover, though he's been loading up his revolver while back there. "Well I put ya down once! I'kin do it again!" Let the shooting begin!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa had known there was the odd horror here but this place was starting to get like Kingsmouth, emotionally she's on the verge of tears simply because it's another abombation she's got to deal with. What was it with Brimstone, you'd think it be named due to how hot it was. She doesn't thing it's that here given how many horrors seem to be burried her,e it's like the first colonists knew what they were in here for.

So she brings her weapon aling with the horrible thing and she just opens fire on the thing and just lets out a wordless cry. Kotone is just having a very bad day!

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka notes the radio chatter indicating some seriou havoc is going down on Corona's end. Muttering a swear, she returns to the hole she made before she begins using Rory's tacnet to track the tech-fox down, fighting her way through any remaining hostiles en-route.

    She reaches the storeroom just in time to see some kind of brain in a jar, and she fights the urge to grow ill at the sight of it...it's enough to make her think back to the cyber-labs back home, with unfinished cyborgs waiting in jars before their neural-ware gets socketed into their new bodies. It's nothing short of her greatest fear seeing that sort of thing again, and she draws her PDW again, aiming to get the mechanical squid's attention. "HEY, SUSHIBOT! COME AND GET ME!" She roars with a reverberated shout, aiming to distract it while Corona escapes.

Rebound (750) has posed:
    Well that wasn't right. That guy got back up after getting hit by Rebound's biggest attack. She frowns visibly as he re-adjusts himself, and then turns her head and pops her neck, "Alright dude." She points a finger at the big cyber-gnoll, "You must not know how things operate around here."

    She clenches her fist again, "When I hit you, you go down. Then you stay down. Because that's how this works." She's going to have to hit him again, despite his self-repairing ability.

    She plants one foot and pushes off, her big kangaroo legs forcing herself off the ground, flying through the air with a fist-first strike, trying to give him a full on blast from her diving strike this time. She's aiming directly for that metal jaw.

William Pauwel has posed:
    There's all kinds of awful stuff going down here, and Will can only imagine what the heck they're all talking about over the radio. One thing's for sure, though, this guy they're dealing with RIGHT NOW is an immediate issue, and one that probably needs to be taken out as soon as they can manage.

He manages to overhear something crucial to that process, though.

This guy has been 'killed' before, so...

    So Will turns his gun's terrible fury toward the massive cyborg's face! If nothing else, the sheer, blinding brightness of his favored weapon's discharge will be enough to distract the cyborg--

And then it sputters.

    And begins venting heat like a glorified hot glue gun. "Dangit," Will hisses as he ducks back behind his bike, waves of heat rippling from the now red-hot barrel as its internal temperature begins the slow drop back to normalcy. "I need a sec! Got a misfire to clear!"

Which evidently amounts to 'popping the stopcock out of his canteen and pouring water all over the burny bits.'

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
Maxine's concerned about both Kotone and Corona but they're still in the middle of a firefight here. She would have to give the girl a hug after this is over with and Alexis is moving to help Corona, so she stays put for now. Hopefully, the cyborg would back down before they have to take him completely apart. She could likely fix him but still she hopes that won't be necessary.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    With Kotone breaking to go after Corona... Rory shows a very twisted expression of conflicted emotions that's nothing you'd normally see on a person. LArgely... CONFUSION. But she asides to the Hyenaborg, "You are not being very helpful about explaining!" But she just runs off... and leaves her Saucer behind, to keep an eye (and ear) on things.

    "Good luck!" She yells at Staren and the others... just in time to encounter Kotone FREAKING OUT over a situation that has her own circuits going sizzly. "...."

    MECHANICAL TENTACLES. There's ONE OTHER TIME she ran into those.

    With another ripple-flash, Rory changes her gear! The Freezer's bansihed into the Matter Manipulator and replaced with a MINI-MISSILE LAUNCHER. With a single directive... she launches about EIGHT MISSILES for the roots of those tentacles and the squid thing's FACE.

    These missiles, once they've aligned themselves, SCREAM with high-pressure rocketry - and they're built for ARMOR PIERCING.

    Not just armor piercing, but on impact and embeddeding themselves deep in anything they---...

    .... They don't explode or anything.

    Instead, these painful needles IGNITE with orange-white, EXTRAORDINARILY hot fire. Molten metal hotter than MAGMA.

    ... Thermite missiles. They're apparently a thing now.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
    With Rory going after that MechaSquid, Rebecca follows her. She draws her tactical shield and uses it to provide extra cover as she moves in after Rory. It may not be a BOW, but it's still ugly. With Rory launching an attack with those missiles, Rebecca joins in with her MP5K to add some supporting fire.

Corona Arclite has posed:
Speaking of otherworldly, that THING is definately such, and Corona is booking it as fast as she can. The mecha-tentacled monstrousity turns to pursue her, only to take a few shots from Alexis jumping in. Though as she runs past Corona grabs the cyborg to make sure she follows. Kotone helps clear the way despite the panic, shooting back tentacles as they snap for the girls in pursuit. But it's best not to hang around inside! Because that thing is not far behind, and it's just smashing through whatever factory it can't climb over.

People are talking, people are shooting, and Rebound goes diving right into the fray!... Except he uses those metal jaws to -catch- her arm, and with a screech of protesting damaged parts yanks his head to throw the roo aside again, even as others are still firing away at him. The twist causes William's shot to drill through his other massive shoulder instead of his head, but the damage is still impressive. At this point entire chunks of metal and gearworks are flying off the steampunked boss bandit, but clearly whoever outfitted him, unlike most of the ruffians they've faced before, actually had the threat of otherworldly Elites in mind. Though by the way his augmented body is smoking and sparking, even as he ends up sprawled on the ground.

Corona runs out of the building, hopefully with Kotone and Alexis in tow before they get caught up in the terror behind them. Mechanical tentacles are already snapping after them through the doorway, followed by the monstrousity. Until it gets a full frontal of thermite micro-missiles. Instead of explosions insanely hot plumes stab deep into the horrorific thing. You can see the jets tear out the other side again... and something drips out of the gaps. It's not oil, and it's not the goo that's in that brain-jar, but it's clearly something not of this world. Rebecca follows up by putting several more bullet holes in the now weakened metal.

"It would seem, little foxy," the unearthly reverb crackles from the squid-like machine as it shifts its weight to undamaged tentacles. "I underestimated the tenacity of your offworld friends. Rest assured, it won't happen again." One large tentacle slithers out through the group to grab the clockwork bandito and reel it in. Once he's underneath the other tentacles either retract, or just jettison if damaged, leaving a floating and still somewhat squid-shaped UFO like device, with the brain-jar on top, as it emits with almost chant-like sharpness:

"You've proven it a problem with all your fuss; that you'll only fight my eternal cause
You don't deserve the lives you bear, when you stand before my legend you won't ever compare.
All the failures will fuel success for my elderitch domination quest
Just because you've resisted you'll pay the price, when you face your fate and die for the Animus Device"

And then, much like the UFO it now resembles, the horror blares out of sight in no more than a skybound blurr.

Target Sparktail (770) has posed:
    Target doesn't get to fire all five shots out of his revolver before the the damage is done. Mecha-Mutt is down, but now Clockwork C'thulu is charing out after Corona and Alexis, "THE BLOODY BLAZES IS THAT!?" he calls out before yanking out his shotgun to give the thing a blast, even as it leaves. Cue a few colorful rants at the retreating rabble-rousers before the ranger grunts, shoulders the weapon, and looks at C'rona. "S'the matter, C'rona? You sound like you heard summin ya didn't like ver'much."

Corona Arclite has posed:
If a grey fox could look pale, Corona definately would right about now. "Anythin' that uses 'elderitch' and 'domination' for demonic chantin' can't be good," she relies. Though that's not the only things she heard that's troublesome, but other than a twitch of her tail the vixen isn't elaborating at the moment. "The molemen practically treated that monster like a god... now this THING was manipulatin' one of the gangs? And steampunk cyborged that gnoll."

With a huff she gave her hat an adjusting tug. "Shite just dun got weider." But manages to shrug it off a little. "Thanks fer the backup getting outta there, you two."

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
Maxine's eyebrow raises as she sees the mecha squid fly off, though it can't be seen underneath her helmet. Even she has to admit a mecha-squid reciting poetry is a bit odd. Still she sees no need to panic it did flee after all. "Is there any way we can trace where it's going?" It wouldn't be a bad idea to track it down before it can cause more trouble after all.

Staren has posed:
    Staren turns his fire on the tentacled monstrosity while keeping his distance -- it's not enough, at this stage.

    After they go, he says, "Great. Now we have /another/ group of crazies fighting us..." when Rory points out the similarity to the landviathan, he adds, "...or more of the same group." He puts the sniper rifle back on his back, then removes his helmet to scratch his head, looking at Corona and seeing her expression. "Hey, it's alright. We face messed-up stuff in the Multiverse all the time, we'll handle this too."

    Staren looks at the factory. "...That idiot even gave us a clue: 'Animus Device'... what does it mean...?"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is going after Corona anbd her talk on the com helps Kotone focus somewhat. IT's enough to keep her from being in a panic, prehaps it's just the mental stress of the life she now leads. Also prehaps it's the freaking mecha tentacles as well. That's something kotone really didn't want to see it's not something sh wanted to see and then Rory is just going postal with some very scary technology. Kotone is able to keep mocing and she's firing a few shots of her own but she's trying to save Corona.

<<Rory remind me to NEVER MAKE YOU ANGRY AT ME!>>

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    "...'kay." Maaka stares in bewilderment once she, Kotone, Rory, and Corona escape the explosions as well as the mecha-squid thing. She's nothing short of baffled, but instead of screaming and throwing things, she just does something she should've done before.

    SHe grabs Kotone, and hugs her, sighing as things cool off around them. "Ice cream? My treat." she offers, closing her eyes.

William Pauwel has posed:
So it turns out that this world has horrible robot squid cthulhus.

Who'd'a thunk it?

    Will slowly stares into the sky as the bizarre mechanical... /thing/ vanishes into the aether. He breathes a long sigh as the barrel of his Solano finally cools down to something that isn't hot enough to boil water. "Well dang," the Chaser breathes, pulling the goggles off his face. "That was... Weird. Real weird."

But is it really much weirder than the usual stuff?

Questionable.

"At least we got the Factory back, right? That's what we came her to do!" Small victories!

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite's ears splay back a bit at Staren. She had hoped she'd misheard what she heard, but if others heard it too. "It's somethin' to look into," is the most reply she gives. "Yeah, we did what we were sent to do, let's scat." Followed by a low sigh as she picks up her hammer and shoulders it. Then turns to look in Kotone and Alexis' direction from their questions on the radio. "It knew my last name. Ah'm an orphan: Arclite is an adopted last name. So it's more likely that thin' knew Ol' Rusty... which ain't any more reassurin'. But.. but Ah don't think there's gonna be any answers to that 'round here."

Rebound (750) has posed:
You know with how easily she got taken out of the fight, Rebound doesn't seem very happy, especially when she gets back to the battleground to find the bad guys have evacuated. She frowns again, "Hey Corona.." She says, as she moves over towards the vulpine, "I'm gonna need you to fix the gauntlet...When you can." She says, as she motions to the damaged gauntlet on her right arm, "But yeah, lets get somewhere safe first, then we can sort that out."

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite stops a moment to take Rebound's arm and look at the device. "Well, the good news is he only punctured the casin', so as long as ya don't use it until it's fixed, it won't backfire or nuttin'. The bad news... is that he punctured the casin. Whatevah that freak did to his jaw, it's -strong-." She lets go of the roo's arm, and climbs up into her buggy. "Swing by the shop later and Ah'll replace the panels.... Ah've got answers to look for."