Doom Comes To The Rookery

Doom Comes To The Rookery
Date of Scene:	03 July 2014
Location:	TARGET: The Rookery (TR)
Synopsis:	Doctor Victor Von Doom decides it's time for the Feds to take the Rookery back.
Cast of Characters:	27, 38, 276, 318

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Victor von Doom (318) has posed:
The Rookery is a patchwork fortress, at best, and serves little strategic purpose other than the breeding ground for the multitude of dragons and dragon-based organisms that literally cover the landscape. They're the area's most precious resource by far, and are likely the reason that the Rookery has become such a hotly contested area between the various interests of the Multiverse.

Just as the anonymous warning comes over the radio, a large, distant shape can be seen coming in the direction of the Citadel from over the horizon, and it's advancing quickly. Soon enough, the dim outline comes into focus: It's a zeppelin, of sorts, and a massive one at that. Judging by the gleam coming off of the ship, it appears to be made of metal, and looks particularly well-armed. The dragons nesting around the Citadel begin to scurry for cover away from the rumbling sound of the approaching Flying Fortress, and Union personnel scurry around the post, hurrying to evacuate any non-essential, non-combat personnel. Most of the Non-Elite, grunt-types don't seem to know -who- exactly they're evacuating from, though the order said to get them out -now-.

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
Kari Wolf peers out the window of the Flying Fortress, watching all the dragons swarm and move as the ominous shadow of the airborne machine sweeps across the countryside. She might be humming the Jaws theme right now. Of course, she's here to help Von Doom take back the Rookery for the Confederacy.
"I wonder if dragons eat chicken. Everything else seems to." She wonders aloud.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
At the warning given by the Confederates, Noble Six went into action. After deploying to the Rookery, she went about initiating the evacuation protocols that are in place, sending any civilians and non-combat personnel to safety, while any combat soldiers, reinforced by a platoon of UNSC Marines, reinforce their positions and stand by for the Confederate arrival.

Of course any who don't want to accompnay the SPARTAN into battle are free to leave with the civilians, as they will need guards as well for the evacuation. Noble Six has set up her fighting position near one of the more reinforced buildings, having brought along several UNSC weapon crates to use in the coming battle.

Jonothon Starsmore (27) has posed:
You have no idea the string of curses Jonothon Starsmore let loose when he heard that voice on the radio. Just. So much cursing. Not one for blustering, heroic declarations, Jono just got himself to the area. The Rookery. Dragons. Hopefully they didn't eat him while he was there.

A motorcycle is loud, so he left it some distance away and just went the rest of the way on foot. He also still has his face wrapped up, so the light shouldn't give him away. Right now he's just trying to get close to the area without being seen.

As it turns out Chamber is particularly well-suited to such a task. Sneaking around, that is. Visually, he's wearing all black, and more of his body is covered up than normal due to the wrappings. He's learned to walk quietly since his powers manifested. He doesn't breathe. He has no heartbeat. More that that, he doesn't show up on life-scanners.

He does, however, show up on mutant and psionic sensors. Fact, he will light those up like a Christmas tree! This poor kid can NOT hide from Sentinels. And of course motion sensors work - he's moving. Well, until he isn't. Which he stops doing when he sees that huge zepplin overhead. More cursing! Mentally, of course. He may not see who all's in it - or who else is coming to defend - but he's still looking at the situation for now.

Of course, he smells like ozone and psionic energy, so he's liable to make any dragons he's near uneasy, even if they DON'T see him.

Victor von Doom (318) has posed:
The massive outline of the Fortress continues to come into sharper relief, growing and growing as it continues to advance. The zeppelin really is massive, almost impossibly so, nearly dwarfing the Citadel itself in size. The warship comes to a steady halt as it hovers over the large valley immediately in front of the patchwork structure of the Citadel.

For a few minutes, the zeppelin merely sits there, without moving, and without making any noise other than the steady purr of it's engines.

Somewhere inside the structure, there's the sound of footsteps. Heavy, purposeful footsteps. Advancing somewhere behind the Shinki and the large window overlooking the Rookery.

"The first wave will be landing momentarily," says a deep, metallic-tinged voice belonging to the shadowy figure standing a few meters back in the shadows of a large bulkhead.

"They called for their Elites," the voice adds, before the figure turns, and begins making its way down the narrow hallway, presumably heading towards the rear of the warship, judging by the hall's direction. "As planned."

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
"There are always elites." Kari says, sighing. She turns and skates away, following the metallic voice to wherever it is going.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
She's got no idea who this is, but Noble Six doesn't care, either. She has gone toe to toe with foes ranging from Serori to Samael, and even some people who's names don't start with S. Readying herself, she figures one attempt to get the Confederates to leave couldn't hurt.

"Approaching Confederate forces! This is SPARTAN BRAVO THREE ONE TWO. You are in violation of Union controlled airspace. This is your only warning to recall your forces and leave the area!"

She knows it won't work. It never does. They might not be as big of zealots as the Sanghelli are, but they still are extremely dedicated to their cause. A trait she would admire if they weren't attempting to kill her on a weekly basis. She checks the ammo counter on her assault rifle and prepares for her warning to be ignored as they land their forces.

Jonothon Starsmore (27) has posed:
Bloody hell, are they marching out already? Jono should have expected that, really. Doom's always very efficient, and he doesn't waste time when he has a goal in mind. But what IS his goal? The Rookery's just... a bunch of dragons. Surely there are more efficient means of transportation? Like the zepplin above! Maybe they're magical or something, and Doom has a need for magical creatures for some plot of his.

There's no way Jono's going to be able to take that whole army out by himself, and he knows it. And he's still not aware that there's anyone else here besides him. Well, until Noble Six calls out. He doesn't know the voice. He pauses, to peek out form behind something to see who spoke. Red armor. He doesn't recognize it. He does, however, recognize that's a really dumb thing to do. But since he doesn't know the radio frequency for the person, he can't warn them.

He makes the decision that the best thing to do would be to just try to sneak around and board the zepplin while that person has Doom's attention, and try to disable it enough to force a retreat. He may or may not be successful! But it's as good an idea as any.

Victor von Doom (318) has posed:
The Spartan's warning has about as much effect as you'd think. The zeppelin continues to simply sit there, and given the lack of large-scale air defenses, it's liable to just continued to do so for as long as it pleases. Noble is right about one thing, though, and that's the imminent landing of offensive forces, as shortly after her radio transmission comes through, there's a large shuttle that descends from the zeppelin, making it's way down towards the old embattlements of the Citadel's structure.

And out come marching robots. Lots of robots. Robots with glowing green eyes, and glowing green weapons. And they don't look like they're here to try and pet the dragons, either.

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
The shinki ums and watches the robots march. "Um, so you want me to keep an eye out for jerks coming from the rear, right?" She radios, spotting Jono on his motorcycle.
"Does this thing have guns?" She asks Doom, wondering if she can shoot the motorcycle out from under the guy before he gets too close.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
"Alright boys, let 'em have it!" Six calls out to the troops that had stayed. The Union and UNSC forces open up on the assaulting Doombots, though how effective those weapons will be is anyone's guess. Most of the UNSC stuff is small arms. The Union forces might have a wide variety of weapons but none of them are known for being superior combatants.

Noble Six, on the other hand, is. She pops up from behind cover, and opens fire with her assault rifle into the first of the oncoming robots. This isn't the Elite presence that she knows the Confederates are undoubtedly sending. She'll need to be on guard for their inevitable arrival. The ship might even be a decoy.

Jonothon Starsmore (27) has posed:
Jono is thus far unaware he's been spotted, and he's been moving from one cover to the other. Though if Kari has indeed spotted him, following his movements shouldn't be too terribly hard. He only moves at human speeds. Though when she starts trying to hit him from there, she'll need to be able to hit him past the rocks.

Victor von Doom (318) has posed:
The figure just continues to stomp his way down the hallway, metal clanging against metal. His face still remains hidden, the only defining feature visible is the swirl of the cape that trails behind him. The figure reaches out with a large hand and taps a button on the wall. Shortly, a panel slides out from the wall close to the shinki and the window.

There's a screen on the panel that seems to be streaming a camera feed from some external feed, showing the figure that the shinki has spotted. There's a small sort of trackball on the panel as well, and a pair of flat red buttons that probably aren't meant for taking pictures of whatever's in the crosshairs on the screen.

Meanwhile, the Doombots begin to assault the Union's positions at a run, without taking cover, even as the defenders open fire. Flashes spark from the metallic skin of the androids as bullet impact, most of the rounds seeming to have little effect at first.

However, not all of the Union ground troops or even the UNSC Marines are as heavily armed, or as good of a shot as the Spartan. A robot drops with a trio of holes drilled through it's forehead, and then a second falls, missing a substantial portion of it's chest.

But that's just a drop in the ocean. The robots continue to pour out from the shuttle, and begin to open fire as they close on the defenders. Large, green breams concuss through the air, and explode into whatever they happen to impact, be it sandbags, buildings, or body armor.

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
Kari Wolf gleefully hops onto the gun controls, blasting away at the landscape around Jono. The trackball and button combo is a little hard for the shinki and her mini-machines to coordinate, with Kari controlling the trackball and two drones mashing down on the buttons. The Howling is making explody sounds as the guns fire.
It's not terribly accurate though, chewing up the landscape something awful as she tries to track Jono down with them. Sprays of dirt, exploded rocks fly everywhere as the guns also put small craters in the landscape and pulverize the rocks that dot the landscape.
"Blam! Boom! PEW PEW!"

Noble Six (38) has posed:
The robots are clearly very well designed. Shame they're on the Confederate side, no doubt bots like these would vastly improve the Union's combat capabilities. Six takes out another robot, rolls from behind cover and then takes one of those green blasts to the chest. Her shields absorb the blast, and flare golden around her, before she returns fire and scrambles back to new cover.

"Come on out, whoever is leading this attack! I really don't feel like wading through robots all day!" Six calls out to whoever is behind this assault, wanting them to show themselves so she can do what she does best.

Jonothon Starsmore (27) has posed:
So. Looks like he's thus far managed to get to his target without being seen--

BOOM!

OR NOT, Jono realizes as the rock he'd had at his back literally EXPLODES, sending him sprawling. Quickly he gets to his feet before he gets hit with another shot; one impacts the place his head had been only a second ago.

It's a good thing no one else is currently privy to Jono's thought processes. There's some words up there right now that would make a sailor blush. About the only thing up there that's not explicitly far too rude to be mentioned here is 'Sod all this sneakin' about'. Stealth abandoned, Jono just... runs at the airship.

As he does, he begins pulling at the cloth wrapping around his face, revealing the fire emanating from his chest via the missing lower jaw. It looks pretty damn freaky, honestly. But he has more to worry about than doing this in any elegant way. Because there's the little problem of those shots being fired at him. That's a problem. He's having to dodge left and right, duck, jump - yeah this is totally a platform-jumping nightmare.

Suddenly, as he nears the airship, one of those shots hit a large rock behind him. And just as he jumps to grab onto the ship, the rock explodes. On the bright side, his forward momentum is suddenly increased! On the other hand, that concussive wave of force from that explosion would probably have killed him if he hadn't more or less already been dead.

The upshot is that he manages to grab hold of the ship and pull himself up. Now to find the manky git who was shooting at him and give 'em a bat 'round the earholes...

Victor von Doom (318) has posed:
The robots just continue to rush onwards in droves, a few more falling to the Spartan's fire, and fewer falling to the bullets of the UNSC Marines and Union defenders. The green blasts continue to ripple through the air towards the defenders positions, as the androids rapidly close in on the Citadel's fighting positions.

Meanwhile, a second shuttle has begun to descend from the Fortress, shortly after Jonothon's rather spectacular boarding of the zeppelin. It's slightly smaller than the first shuttle, though appears to be holding something underneath the belly of the ship, which itself seems to be a transport, albeit slightly smaller.

When the shuttle comes in for a landing, the object hanging beneath the ship is dropped, revealing itself to be a scaled-up robot, two twin cannons built into its two arms, and no head. It moves slower than it's normal-sized counterparts, though seems to be much more heavily armored.

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
The guns stop abruptly as whoever is manning them figures out that the person being shot at is boarding. There's the tang of seared metal as the barrels begin to cool, and the quiet hum of the zeppelin. There's the sound of groaning metal, even though the air ship is stationary. Clanking, motion maybe?
The shinki bursts down from the pipe on the ceiling she was hiding on, going for a vicious mauling of Jono's head. "Wow! What a freak! Does that hurt more than this?!"

Noble Six (38) has posed:
Well then. With a giant robot like that, it seems that the Elite has presented itself. Or at least the most elite among the robots. Six doesn't know if it's some kind of mech suit or if it is sentient in and of itself. No matter. She moves from her covered position, weapon aiming at the larger and more dominant looking robot.

Although these are normal bullets fired from an otherwise normal gun, it's the hand that the weapon is in that are special. Six knows how to aim for weakpoints, and how to make each shot count. She opts to fire a couple of test bursts at what are normally weak points on mech suits. Depending on how it's constructed, it may have weak joints or opticas as well.

Jonothon Starsmore (27) has posed:
Jono pauses when he's on the ship proper. Looks around in the area he ended up in. He doesn't see or hear anything out of the ordinary. And he doesn't have a sense of smell, so the scent of seared metal escapes him. However what does not escape him is the unmistakeable sensation of something falling on him from above and giving the top of his head one hell of a BONK!

"OW! What the bloody hell?!" It's not verbal. It's telepathic. Somehow Kari shouldn't have any problems understanding him. It's weird how that works. It's almost as if that works EXACTLY WHEN HE NEEDS IT TO. Something else that works just fine is his fire. Which reflexively increases in intensity all around him. And just might hit Kari if she's not careful. "Geroff!"

Victor von Doom (318) has posed:
The larger robot is noticeably slower than the human-sized androids, which can move at a quick run. That being said, the two cannons mounted into the arms of the hulking automoton are each about the size of one of the smaller robot's torsos.

The armor seems to be pretty sophisticated, as well, though there's not a set of armor in existence without its weak points. And probably nobody better at finding them than the Spartan. A few of the assault rifle's rounds impact the robot's joints, slowing it down, and causing it to skip a step, but still, it continues on, largely unscathed. As it nears the defenders' positions, the two large cannons open up with a pair of massive green beams, rushing right for the large, armored Spartan.

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
The shinki seems un-confused by hearing voices in her head, probably assuming it's just the radio installed there or something. She hears voices all the time, really, usually saying "That's a terrible idea, Kari." and "Kari, why did you turn the living room into a Fortress of Doom?" or "No Kari, that only works on television."
And off she goes, landing awkwardly on her legs and taking some damage with a clunk. She erfs, rubbing her helmeted head a bit. She has to do this... cleverly. Big people spell trouble for shinki. She attacks the guy's boots as quietly as she can, trying to try the laces together and then distracting him with a mini-machine that will zoom around the deck plating and around a corner, hopefully tripping the fiery intruder and giving him a good crack on the noggin when he hits the deck.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
Thankfully for Six she manages to get mostly out of the way of those two big blasts. She dives to one side, two explosions going off behind her, the heat itself from those blasts causing her shields to flare up. It's not plasma, like the Covenant uses. It's something else. She's not sure what, she's no techie, but it sure seems to hit like a Fuel Rod Gun. She'll have to do her best to steer clear of any direct hits.

Momentarily Six wonders about a power source for this thing. Something big, probably. Inside the chest, if it's going to be that large. Probably extremely well armored, too. She decides to test her theory, but she'll need to destroy the chest plate first. Pulling a plasma grenade off of her side, she arms it, the sphere glowing blue, before she releases it in an arc towards the robot.

Victor von Doom (318) has posed:
STUCK!

The sticky lands smack in the middle of the robot's chest, and blows a hole right through the middle panel of the android. It staggers a step, though manages to regain its balance, somehow, and continues forward. It's probably only one more clean shot away from falling over, if it's to the chest, though.

The weapons on the droid's arms are still fully functional, though, judging by the growing light forming at the muzzle of each. Two concussive blasts sound, and another pair of ring-like green beams issues forth towards the Spartan.

Jonothon Starsmore (27) has posed:
Who what where?! Suddenly the thing on his head isn't there anymore. But then there's a thing zooming around and - "WHOA!" His feet don't want to move! They can't, he realizes with a quick look down, because of his shoelaces! And he's also unbalanced too far to save himself from a fall. TIMBEEEEEEEEEEEEER! CRASH! SCORE!

Except uh, unless Kari moves pretty fast, she might end up being his landing pad. If so, she might notice that he's not as heavy as he looks. Not having most of your internal organs will do that. Not only that, if she's caught under his chest? It gives. Like there's nothing there under the wrappings. Because there isn't.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
So much for avoiding direct hits from those cannons. Noble Six takes the blast dead on, and winds up sailing through the air, her sheilds flaring out and failing as she does. She lands hard and rolls several times, before coming to a stop.

Taking a moment to shake her head and clear it, she turns back towards the robot. She'll need to put that thing down somehow. She gets an idea...It might not be the best idea ever, but it'll work. She knows it. She turns, rises to her feet, and charges right at the robot.

Insane as this plan might seem, she will be able to track it's cannon movements better this way and evade them. She primes a frag grenade as she gets close, and then leaps up into the air, trying to land on the robot's chest, throw the grenade into the hole, and then backflip off of the robot, to clear the blast radius.

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
Oops. Clearly the shinki did not think this through entirely.
Kari gets crunched under a leg as the Mutant With No Chest falls. Pinned! Oh crap! Jonothon can feel the tiny robot struggle to try and get loose, and some awkward punches from the Howling's pawntlets in the calf muscle. "Augh! Stupid barking leg."

Jonothon Starsmore (27) has posed:
Jono has a moment to panic before he realizes whatever's been attacking him is underneath him. And then stuff starts punching him in the legs and OW okay that hurts! He kicks out with the leg that's being punched at, more out of reflex than anything else - also his legs can't move far because his shoelaces are still tied together.

He collects himself and then lifts himself off the floor, scrambling back to aim a small blast at his shoelaces. He'd deal with them later. For right now, he takes the opportunity to get a look at his opponent now that he can...

'Wot.'

It's not spoken, merely thought, and thus kept to himself. It's so tiny! What is it? A fairy? No, there's no wings. And there's joints like an articulated doll. What IS it? Er, she.

Victor von Doom (318) has posed:
Well, needless to say, that was pretty spectacular. The Spartan dodges one, two, three blasts from the large robot as she races towards it and leaps into the air to plant the grenade in the hole created from the earlier blast. The android hurriedly tries to turn, but Halo grenades always blow up before you want them to, and then promptly explodes in a spectacular shower of sparks, debris, and bits of Doombot.

The human-sized robots are still assaulting forward, though seem to be at a bit of standstill with the Union and UNSC defenders, the tide not turning in either direction. There haven't been any reinforcements from the second shuttle, though, and the first shuttle has long since been depleted. The second shuttle sits there, aside the first, until at last, with a hydraulic hiss, the ramp descends and slams into the ground with a dull THUMP.

Heavy metal footsteps slowly begin to descend the ramp, and a green cloak slowly comes into view as that same figure from before makes his way down and onto the battlefield. Two large metal boots crunch the dirt beneath as the figure steps down onto the ground, then turns in the direction of the Citadel, the Union defenders, and the Spartan.

The most prominent feature of the figure is the metal mask that he wears. That awful, cold mask. Frozen in a permanent snarl, and colored the same dark metal as the rest of the metal skin that he wears. He slowly steps around the shuttle, and stands there, still.

"You're in my way..." says the deep, metal voice.

The figure raises a hand, palm forward, aimed for the Spartan that's just taken down the large robot in such spectacular fashoin. A semi-translucent beam issues from the Iron Baron's hand, rushing towards Noble. It's much smaller than the beams shot by the large robot, but moving quicker, and it's clear that one would probably prefer to be hit by the creation's weapons than the creator's.

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
Kari Wolf bounces as she's kicked aside by a flailing Chamber, skidding across the deck plating. Well, she looks like an armored doll, not just a doll.
The shinki materializes her Boneshaker Bazooka in a flash of light and points it in the vague direction of Jonothon's... groin. TV logic: The bad guys tend to curl up into little balls of pain when the plucky female main character kicks them there. Well, Kari can't really kick that high, so she works with what she has. She takes advantage of his momentary hesitation when he tries to figure out what the hell he's fighting. The 'bazooka' fires a greenish laser at the mutant.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
Six's shields hadn't had time to recover yet, and the MJOLNIR armor gets put to the test as she absorbs the blast from Dr. Doom's hand. She actually lays where she stops rolling, dazed, trying to figure out just what the hell happened there. She's not entirely sure who this guy is, but she definitely needs to take him down.

She rises back to her feet and rubs the armor where it's been scorched black from the blast, "Oh am I? Well you're tresspassing. So you leave, and I won't be in your way anymore." Realizing she lost her assault rifle in the blast, Six reaches up behind her back and grabs the other weapon there, the 10 gauge shotgun, leveling it at Dr. Doom, and unleashing a blast of high gauge buckshot at him.

Jonothon Starsmore (27) has posed:
Jono's hesitation is not just trying to figure out what he's fighting. It's trying to figure out how he can disable such a tiny thing without hurting her seriously. On the one hand, her body's artificial, and can be repaired of damage that would kill a human. She's probably got a 'black box' of some kind that holds vital data, and that can probably be preserved. On the other hand, she's TINY. So what if he did something and she got disabled seriously and couldn't be fi--

PEW!

Urk--!

Jonothon pitches forward, catching himself on a hand. Ow.

...On the other hand, she DID just shoot him in the nuts with a laser. So that... kind of requires retaliation. It's a very slight warning, very mild. When Jono's eyes turn the same color as his fire? Probably not a good thing for someone. And sure enough? Local fire. So much fire. It actually doesn't burn, though. But it DOES produce a kinetic force wave.

He's not on his feet yet though. Give him a minute. That really hurt.

Victor von Doom (318) has posed:
While Six gets knocked back, the green-cloaked figure steps forward, grass bending and rocks crunching underneath his heavy, metallic boots. Somehow, the Spartan pushes herself back up again, then levels that shotgun over in his direction. The Iron Baron lowers his hand as the gun gives a report, and recoils, then stands still, as though waiting.

Much like the shields integrated with the spartan MJOLNIR armor, there's a semi-translucent green field that flares into visibility as the buckshot impacts the green, sphere-shaped bubble. It causes the Latverian to pause a step, but the shotgun blast doesn't seem to have really penetrated through, as there's a few erratic sparks on the figure's heavy metal armor, and little else.

The green bubble-like shield fades back away a moment later, and the metal figure takes a step forward once more, raising his arm as before.

"I am no longer amused by your pathetic display of mediocrity..." grates the deep, metallic voice.

Another beam hurtles forth, rushing towards the Spartan with a pulsating, ominous sound.

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
The shinki tries to grab onto the deck as Jono's kinetic wave buffets her, straining her arm servos as she does so and losing a few feet of ground. As the blast calms down a bit, she gets her feet back to the floor.
Kari rushes forward on her skates. "You need to leave! Lord Doom doesn't take tresspassing lightly!" And the tiny claws on her paws go for what Jono calls his face, raking across the eyes.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
It seems that it's time for a tactical withdrawl. Not from the fight, just from this particular situation. Noble Six pulls back away from Dr. Doom after he blasts her a second time, armor starting to sound warning alarms that the integrity is failing. She moves away from Doom, ducking between cover, until she reaches the miniature staging area she had set up prior.

Her retreat wasn't really one, it was a chance to rearm with something that packs a bit more punch than her shotgun. Rising up from behind cover again, Noble Six fires one of the tubes on her twin-tube rocket launcher, sending the projectile sailing down towards Dr. Doom. If he blocks it with his shield again, she's got a second one ready for him.

Jonothon Starsmore (27) has posed:
Being rather disabled, and down on the floor, Jono's almost on Kari's level, height wise. This proves to be a bad idea when suddenly he has a clawing dogShinki on his face. "AUGH!" Falling back in shock, He starts flailing at the Shinki on his face. Surprisingly? He bleeds. Blood wells from the cuts as if she had cut a normal man in the face.

If Kari's on his face, she's also very close to the source of his psychokinetic fire. Perhaps surprisingly, it makes no sound inside his chest. The fire is completely silent. Until he fires it, that is. Which he does, reflexively, to get the clawdogfairy off his face. The fire makes a thunderous BOOM, like thunder. This close, even if Kari manages to get away in time, her audio receptors are probably going to be very unhappy.

Victor von Doom (318) has posed:
Rocket launchers tend to have a way of getting people's attention. Especially those awesome, double-barreled ones that the UNSC came up with.

The shot from Six hurtles towards the metal-clad Latverian, and impacts that green envelope about two feet out from his armor, exploding spectacularly. It forces Doom to take a half step back, bracing against the explosion, which sends fragments of shrapnel hurtling to spark against his armor. The explosion whips around him for a moment or two, all but obscuring the Latverian from view.

When the smoke clears, he's somehow still standing. His hood has been knocked from his head, and now dangles behind his shoulders, and his cloak is torn through in a few places from the shrapnel.

"Fool..." spits the dark, angry voice.

The Latverian reaches up to return his hood over his metal-masked head, before spreading his arms at his sides. This time, the beam issues forth from his chest, speeding quickly through the air, heading for Noble Six, or for whatver cover the Spartan has taken. It really wouldn't matter, in the end.

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
Kari Wolf somehow manages to avoid the worst as she slides to one side as Jonothon falls backwards, grabbing onto an ear to avoid getting smooshed under the man's shoulder, cracking an armored gauntlet to reveal some of the workings underneath, audio receptors shorted out and busy rebooting (leaving her unable to hear for the time being). She finds it a weird sensation, not hearing. She blinks a few times, trying to sort it out. Nope, system rebooting. She snarls in anger and brings one of her fists crashing towards the side of Jono's head.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
This guy's tech is good. Too good, it seems. The rocket manages to get some shrapnel through but not nearly enough to hurt the guy. The chest beam far outsizes any of the ones she's seen before. And she's seen chest beams before. From Stark. Is this guy using Stark tech? She doesn't have time to think about it, as the blast ahnialates all of the area around where she had taken cover. Her armor is burnt, blackened and damaged, both her shotgun and rocket launcher rendered unusable.

She has one more trick up her sleeve, though. Kept in a case designed to survive re-entry, Noble Six has a secret weapon. Once she has recovered from the blast she just survived, she kicks the case open and pulls free the weapon from inside. Another shoulder mounted heavy weapon, this one won't fire any normal projectiles. Called the SPARTAN Laser for a reason, once it's reached it's full charge while aimed at Dr. Doom, it unleashes a huge, red colored blast of energy, enough to easily rival the chest blast he just sent at her.

Jonothon Starsmore (27) has posed:
Ouch! More pain from tinybot! Jono's starting to realize that taking it easy on tiny robot fairy was not a particularly good strategy. These tiny robot fairies are a hell of a lot tougher than they look. Research is necessary. Of course, FIRST he'll have to get out of this fight in one piece. Or in as few pieces as possible.

This realization does not, however, hit him quite as hard as the tiny Shinki fist. It probably hurts that much because it's such a tiny fist and the damage is concentrated to one single area. That's going to be a bad bruise. In response, Jono tries to shake the Shinki off of his head. With any luck, he'll be able to follow that up with a blast of that psychokinetic fire.

Victor von Doom (318) has posed:
Normally, SPARTAN lasers are reserved for taking out things like tanks and small ships. It's not too much of a stretch of the imagination to group the Latverian ruler into that category, and plus, anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

The massive red laser smacks into the Iron Baron and his shield, knocking him back, and searing his armor. Once again, the Latverian's hood is blown from his head, and this time, he's actually a bit slow to step forward once more and regain his position. There's a few tendrils of smoke rising from his armor where it's heated to a dull orange glow from the laser blast.

It's clear the Spartan is going to keep getting back up no matter how many times she's knocked down. And while the concussive beams seem to be working, they're not working quick enough. This time, the metal-clad figure depresses a button on his right forearm, causing the arm guard and glove to unfold into a blade roughly the length of a shortsword, though it's thick and dull; clearly not intended for cutting.

"None can stand before Doom..." grates the deep voice behind the mask, hard brown eyes narrowing behind the thin slits cut into the dark metal.

With that, the Latverian lowers the blade, then swings it diagonally up in a slow sort of motion. As he does so, a bright arc of energy materializes where the blade's edge would be, and hurtles in a bright rush of light towards the Spartan.

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
Kari Wolf doesn't so much get hurt by Starsmore's blast, but by a loose bolt from an earlier blast of psychokinetic force. The bolt hits her with a crunch into her chest armor and kind of sticks there like some kind of weird wooden stake through the chest of the shinki. Kari nudges it a bit with a claw tip, wondering how the devil /that/ happened. The bolt falls off, leaving the impression of its hex-nut head in Kari's chestplate.
For Jono's trouble, she uses her jump assist and attempts to plant both tiny pawed feet directly in his forehead. "DEATH FROM ABOVE!" the tiny robot shouts as she does this.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
There's one thing Six knows for sure, and that's the fact that she just cannot win this fight. If she'd known they were going to send out somebody like Doom, she'd have brought bigger weapons. Anyone who can take a SPARTAN laser shot like that, though, she knows when to fold.

And the time to fold is when the blade slashes clean through her armor. She feels it dig into her flesh below, and that stinging sensation of the bio-foam injector working it's magic. Six quickly gets over short-band radio and informs any remaining UNSC and Union troopers that it's time to fall back, and then she does so as well.

Putting space between her and Doom, she quickly backs off, keeping an eye on him in case he fires again, but doing her best to withdraw. The Rookery is his, for now.

Of course she's unaware of the battle taking place onboard the ship high above, or she'd know this isn't quite over yet.

Victor von Doom (318) has posed:
The blade retracts back into the arm guard of the Latverian's armor with a smooth metallic -snap-. Smoke still rises from the Latverian's armor as he flips his hood back up over his head.

"None stand before Doom.." repeats the cold, metallic voice.

"Only kneel."

"Finish the survivors. When you're done with them, bring me the eggs," instructs the Latverian, turning from the Spartan and the retreating UNSC troops towards a nearby Doombot. The humanoid robot quickly turns to regroup with the others, who have the remaining Union defenders nearly surrounded, and hopelessly outgunned. That fight is over.

The Iron Baron walks slowly back over to the shuttle, and steps inside the raised door. Closing it, the shuttle slowly rises from the ground, turning to make its way back to the Fortress, covering the short distance in perhaps half a minute. It docks in a small area near the bottom of the zeppelin, where it first emerged.

Jonothon Starsmore (27) has posed:
"OW!" Jono complains as he finds tiny feet in his forehead. That HURTS! Now he's going to have a big red mark right in the middle of his forehead! He steps back, trying to put some distance between them, 'grumbling' a string of curses. He doesn't quite realize that the battle on the ground has been lost, otherwise he'd get out of there. Particularly since Doctor Victor von Doom HIMSELF is headed up there.

For the time being, he's concerned about getting the crazy robofairydog off him! His eyes blaze again, signalling there's about to be some serious trouble. And then his fire sparks higher, burning around him, surrounding his whole body with an aura of staticky flame. And then?

BOOM!

It's a tremendous explosion that, even if it misses? It's going to call a lot of attention to his situation. It's also going to leave him without his fire for a few moments, until he recharges...

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
The shinki goes tumbling, hitting seemingly every painful protrusion and bump on her way through the corridor. Her armor dematerializes from the sheer impact, Kari getting wedged painfully between two pipes.
The shinki extricates herself from the pipes in time to see Doom striding down the corridor, and mutely points in the direction Jono is in. She shouts down that way.
"I warned you about tresspassing!"

Victor von Doom (318) has posed:
The shuttle docks without any issue, and the green cloaked figure makes his way down the ramp as a few busy-looking robots scurry up towars the ship to check for repairs, and refuel. Going to have to replace that large robot that it dropped earlier, at least.

The Latverian seems content to head back towards the control center of the ship and wait for whatever it is that his robots on the ground are hell-bent on bringing him until the ship shudders slightly from the force of an explosion. From the inside. Ships shouldn't be exploding from the inside. And so, the metal masked man changes course.

The sound of steady, metallic footsteps echoes from a passageway leading to the room that the shinki and Jonothon are continuing to brawl in. The sound is faint at first, though grows louder by the second. Steady. Even. Ominous. Clang....Clang....Clang....CLANG....CLANG....CLANG!

And then silence.



"You dare trespass on Latverian property?" says the dark, metal voice.

The Iron Baron is standing in the room, now, hood drawn and cloak flluttering slowly. What happens next happens very quickly. There's no beam. No concussive blast. No arc of light from a fancy tech-knife.

Just a simple, incredibly powerful kick aimed right at center mass from one of those heavy, metal boots attached to the powered suit that covers the Latverian ruler. And given the proximity of the window that the Shinki was aiming out of earlier, there's a chance that's Doom's intended target.

Jonothon Starsmore (27) has posed:
Well, the robofairy seems to not want any more of Jono. What now? he hears her voice from down the passageway, hears the clanging sound... and then catches sight of what's making those sounds.

"...Oh bollocks."

Yes, he sees Victor von Doom. And yes, he knows who he's looking at. He also knows the battle on the ground must have been lost, so he's probably here all by himself.

More importantly, he knows EXACTLY how screwed he is right now!

Jono's eyes widen at the Iron Baron's approach. With his fire drained, that's the only thing he has time enough to do before...

POW!

Despite not having much of a chest, or perhaps BECAUSE of it, Doom's kick breaks most of his ribs, even as it carries him bodily through that window with a telepathic cry of pain and shock. The glass is the least of his difficulties, he wears leather. It's that boot, and the fact that he's now falling onto a rocky landscape from the window of an airship, that he's worried about. His fiery shape can clearly be seen falling from the airship, looking a little bit like a falling comet! Jono relaxes for the inevitable termination of his fall...

WHAM!

Future reference! Mountainous terrain doesn't make for a good landing pad when kicked Spartan-style out the window of an airship.

Fortunately, he's not dead. Nearly, but not quite. He's in a lot of pain, but he knows he can't collapse yet. He's still in danger as long as the Doombots are around. There's nothing he can do put push the pain aside, struggle to his feet, and limp to where he left his motorcycle.

It's going to be a tough ride home, considering the lousy absorption of his motorcycle's shocks...