6901/Retribution Railway - Sidetracked

Retribution Railway - Sidetracked
Date of Scene:	11 November 2019
Location:	Brimsteel Frontier
Synopsis:	Gang comes across a molemen battalion also trying to chase down the demon train.
Cast of Characters:	Corona Arclite, Inga, 960, Lory Thumper, Kotone Yamakawa, Staren, 7099, 1103
Tinyplot:	Retribution Railway

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Corona Arclite has posed:
Once again the heavily modified cargo hauler that Corona had affectionately taken to calling the 'Disaster Transport' (because it's bringing disaster to ruin others' schemes) was roaring across the plains. It was just the easiest way to get around with a small posse of faces old and new and make sure no one gets lost in the process. Brimsteel ain't the most hospitable place to get stranded in the wilds in. But plenty of room for those that don't have their own means of travelling around, or just want to conserve their energy and stay with the group.

"Welp folks, this is gonna be a big'un, so be ready to bring yer top notch," Corona drawled as she was driving the rig. "Windrose's been tailing the demonic train in her barnstormer," that's an old-timey stunt plane for folks, "And we've got a bead right on it's path. So once we catch u--"

She's interrupted by the radio crackling, "Come in, Gunslinger, this is High Flyer."

"--uh oh." Corona grabs the hand unit with one while keeping the other on the wheel. "This is Gunslinger, over. What's got the buzz in your bonnet?"

"Well, you're probably expecting this..."

*** Somewhere in the skies above the steam-driven biplane was barreling along, Windrose leaning over to peer past the side at the large machine that wasn't the Transport that had just chugged its way to the surface and was speeding along in the same direction. "But your new 'friend' was right about the unwanted company. Speaking of which." She glances over her shoulder and the leader of the Illumolenati rebels huddling down in the passanger's seat. "You didn't tell me he was afraid of flying."
"We live underearth, what did stripetail expect?!" Molenard yelps back without looking up. "Only doing this to prove we're up-and-up with Boomfox's surfacefolk!"

"... Yeah, that's an accurate name for her." The skunkette turned back to her controls. "I'll keep buzzing the train, you're probably gonna have those dirt munchers -- no offense back there -- off."

**"Copy that. Over and out." Corona tosses the radio back in the cradle, and the rig gave an extra jostle as she hit the throttle harder. "Guess our moles were right about being the good moles, and not moles like the sneaky backstabbing inside the group... oi, that makes my head hurt. Anyway, hold on!"

The the pedal fully to the metal it doesn't take long for the massive plumes of smoke to come visible over the horizon, followed by the rest of the monsterous hulk of a machine the dual stacks belong to. Various drills and bores adorn it's exterior for tunneling, as well as visible gunports, and molemen tromping various external platforms in their dirt and rock colored armor. "Okay, even Ah don't know how they'd kept somethin' that big underground and unnoticed, but it's noticed now!"

The approaching Disaster Transport is also noticed, as a gun placement turns to pop off a few shots at it. Before being blown up as Corona leans out her window and fires one of her handcannons at it. The guards are already scrambling to get into position, but it's an opening the enemy fire for the transport to start pulling up close to the bigger, more industrial nightmare looking machine. "Time to ignore those safety warnings about getting out of movin' vehicles folks, cuz we ain't gonna be--Crap!" Corona jerks as one of the armored molemen land on the hood, and then gets catapulted off as she pulls the hood release. "Be stoppin' soon!"

Inga has posed:
On today's episode of "Inga Gets Dragged Places Where She is Very Out of Place" the norse witch has been recruited by Kotone because there are demons or something, and Kotone thinks she will somehow be able to help this situation.

So there she is aboard this transport, dressed in a medieval style wool dress and a cloak with a fur mantle, staff in hand. "Excuse me, a demon /train/?" she remarks, then looks at Kotone like 'you didn't mention there would be a high speed chace!'.

Inga tugs on her long white braid in frustration, then gestures to the window. "Well fine, open the window and I'll just hurl lightning out of it," she sighs, remaining in her seat.

Kain (960) has posed:
    Keeping up rather easily behind the transport is a blur of a red-robed individual with a rapier on his hip. Wings of crimson keep the self-proclaimed 'fastest Salamander' aloft in the sky as he races behind the Disaster Transport. Simply introducing himself as Kain and showing his talents in a mix of melee and ranged combat, he also seemed to be a little bit of a showoff... but with good reason! This transport was going rather quickly, yet he was keeping apace with it like he was simply strolling along.

    Of course, though... like those who don't believe what they're told, everybody always wants proof... especially the enemies that choose to attack the convoy with no regard for their own safety. Flying alongside the transport and drawing his Rapier, he just watched as the mole on the hood got flipped into the air! Smiling, he just flew upwards and quickly slashed at the airborne creature, pirouetting in the air as he moved, giving as much a dance as a demonstration in combative movement.

Lory Thumper has posed:
     Today Corona's crew has been joined by...someone who looks right at home in this world. Lory Thumper has been marveling since she got here that there is another world of animal people like her own, especially after so many worlds dominated by humans. She has also been checking out the Disaster Transport since they stepped onto it. Still, even here she looks a bit out of place, wearing the full riot gear of her world beneath the cowboy hat and brown duster that more fit this world. She has also enthusiastically introduced herself to just about everyone, be it Corona's crew or the elites that came with them. Despite the situation she is pretty upbeat. This is exciting after all!

     But, when that moleman lands on the hood and the other train's cannon is blown off, she finally gets serious. She pulls a pistol from one of her holsters and climbs out onto their Disaster Transport, ready to face those moles boarding the train. "Alright you lilly livers! Git yerselves off our train, ya hear?" she says in an overdramatic approximation of a Western accent before she pulls a set of yellow discs from her belt and tosses them while firing off a few shots. "Yeehaaaw!"

     Those discs explode to release riot foam which quickly hardens. It was originally intended to help capture criminals, but it does just as well at evening the field for the small bunny cop.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
When there's magical issues to be handled? Inga is one of the first people Kotone will think of. Given she was one of the first mages she was aware to have ever met and she's come to trust her in dealing with such matters. Given the last time she was dealing with the train, she felt it was best to call on Inga and thus we are here now. She's sitting for the moment clads in her stealth armour

"So any idea what we're dealing with this time Corona?"

Kotone is still not sure about their new allies given her history with the Molemen in general. She is at least trying to give them a fair shake at the very least. Given the help from the Molemen who are seemingly trying to help.

"So we got any more intel from our new allies on this? Still, if they keep being on the level we should have a bit more in the way of options."

She will then take a moment to find a firing point and open up with her assault rifle.

Staren has posed:
    It's those troublesome underground madmen again. Or maybe it's a new group -- Staren's not always great at keeping track of everything going on on so many worlds. When it comes to dealing with giant war machines though, Staren is always ready!

    It's kind of refreshing to have something to blow up, instead of, say, a planet mismanaged by a xenophobic military-imperial cult that was nonetheless one of the only things protecting humanity from demonic and hostile forces.

    Point and shoot. Nice and simple. In staunch defiance of the wild^H^H^H^H Weird West aesthetic, a shiny metal jetfighter soars above the Disaster Transport. It dips its nose and dives as it sprays hypersonic slugs at the mole machine!

Rosa Borrasca (7099) has posed:
Another day, another massive mess to clean up. Corona is lucky that Rosa considers her a friend, otherwise she'd probably be charging for her services. And what services are those, pray tell? Well, in this case, it's going to be jumping headlong into a mole man monstrosity and trying to smash anything that looks important in order to shut it down.

The black jaguar taps her foot impatiently while the machine they're riding inside rushes towards the objective. She's a coiled ball of energy, ready to strike as soon as they get close enough for her to get her hands on their target.

Once the firefight kicks off, she reckons they're close enough. She opens up one of the hatches and climbs out onto the roof, steadying herself for a moment before launching off of Corona's transport and towards the massive mole machine.

Timing it just right, she surprises a pair of gunners as they open their gun port to fire, kicking the weapon back towards them and landing between the both of them. She grabs the gun off of the ground and swings it like a cudgel, smashing one of them in the helmet with it, before launching a snap kick at the other, "Alright folks. Lets see what looks important and breakable."

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    Theurgus is here once more arrived in Brimsteel. Unfortunately, she's glitching slightly, while sitting in her seat. Textures bugging out, her entire form crackling and going insubstantial, before jolting back to 'normal'. "The Organization works in mysterious ways... sending agents to fight their other agents." she says, her voice staticy and disjointed, much like her body.

    When the transport jolts from the angry evil molepeople jumping on it, she summons a crystal from her Inventory, presses it into her chest, and goes through a glitchy trasformation.

    When she emerges, she's clearly not up to power, as her Procesors are broken and she's still glitching out... but she pops the back door, and flies out regardless, lifting up to land atop the Transport, and begin flinging elemental spells at the boarders.

Corona Arclite has posed:
That moleman thought he was going to be brave and awesome and take out the driver right off the bat. Instead he has no idea what hit him, first being slung in the air, and then struck down by a slash before anyone even realizes Kain is there. He slams into the dusty terrain afterwards, leaving an impressively long rut in his wake before crumpling in a heap, armor sparking. One of the external turrets turns to try and fire on the winged figure, though his speedy movements are going to make pinning him down hard. Especially when the hulking machine is being hammered away by gun fire from the overhead craft.

Considering the conversation on the radio before, it might not be a surprise that it takes a bit for guns to get pointed 'up', it's a dimension the subterrainian types aren't accustomed to dealing with. A few do finally get turned at an angle to rattle off fire at Staren though.

"Nope. Never seen a machine like that before," Corona drawls to answer Kotone. "But our 'friends' said the King tends to have his stuff build big and fierce lookin' over practical, so a lot of movin' bits to break. Hold on." Corona fiddles at her controls before remembering the right switch, and opening various additional ports for shooting out of. Igna has her pick of positions now.

Even if not entirely up to processing speed Theurgus puts on a show, magic shots knocking molemen left and right. Or just over, as several are locked up by the hardening foam courtesy of the one actual law enforcer in the group. Meanwhile Rosa takes the fight back to the molemen in the direct approach. THe gunners aren't as armored as the troopers and they're pretty easy to knock around easily. Especially when using their own weapon to beat them. She can find and smash pretty much whatever she wants, but the armored troops are going to be hot on her tail, shooting at her rifles that fire... rocks? Yeah, rocks. Or maybe it's coal, considering it burns something fierce when hit by. Just chock it up to the oddities of technology around here.

The monster machine goes on the offensive itself, heaving to the side to slam into the Disaster Transport and knock about those still on it. Corona growls, pulling away for a moment... only to veer back in and slam right against it herself, sparks flying between the two vehicles as they grind back and forth.

Inga has posed:
Inga blinks when some zippy red guy flies by. She shakes her head and clicks her tongue, "show off" she says. "These people and their flying and super speed," she continues to grumble, as if she's perfectly ordinary herself.

Corona opens mort ports for Inga to get in some shots, which is appreciated except that when the other machine tries to shake them up, Inga nearly falls out of one. She catch herself, but still managed to bang her head.

Now she is /annoyed/.

As promised, she leans over, sticks her staff part ways out the window, and shoots a bolt of lightning at one of the molemen trying to cross over to their vehicle. "No, I think you should remain over there!" she comments after the loud crack from the lightning has subsided.

Kain (960) has posed:
    Spinning around the incoming fire, one of the shots manages to graze Kain's left arm, illiciting a wince from the Salamander! "GAH! That's not very nice! Bye bye, gun!"

    He then turns the Rapier in his hand upside down, holding the weapon as if it were a magic casting staff. He then gives a quick chant! "Ek fleygja þrír geirr muspilli!"

    Upon speaking those words, a narrow gout of erupting flame, almost as if it were a large spear of fire, shoots out the ruby in the pommel of the Rapier, spiriting across the battlefield at high speeds for the external turret that shot at him!

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    Diamond Soul glitches out a moment, just before the giant machine slams into the Transport. She ends up floating in the air between the two machines, then jinks upwards before Corona slams back in, a fragment of the mole machine breaking off and slashing through her as she glitches again, cutting some code, but not doing much more.

    Luckily, she's one of those that can fly, and thus pulls up higher and sweeps her staff in a wide arc. "Ye Lor-or-ords. Massksksksssk in Bi-bi-bits and cod-d-d-de. Truth and tem-em-emper-er-er-erence, Ye who bear the na-a-ame of Program. Blaze and sea-a-ar, Spark an-an-and ember. Wipe this Drive of the viru-s-s-s. Conflagration-ion-ion Dust!"

    A 'beam' of flame strikes down from on high, aiming to slam into the 'midships' of the mole machine, away from where the others are currently engaging the gunners and defenders.

Staren has posed:
    After approaching the ground, Staren pulls up and does a half-roll, presenting a narrower profile against return fire -- the shots mostly graze or deflect off his machine's armor, leaving long scratches and rents all the same.

    At this rate he's at risk of flying AHEAD of the fighting machines and out of engagement range, so he transforms and slows down. In a whir of tiny parts, arms and legs unfold from under the plane, thrusters on the feet braking.

    "What are you going to do with this train, anyway? It's only hurting people... passing down judgement from conceited and ignorant fools. Perhaps you think you can choose who it kills...?"

    Beat.

    "...Interesting idea, but if it works I'm not letting it fall into YOUR hands."

    He hovers above and to one side of the mole machine, steadily dumping more hypersonic slugs into it.

Lory Thumper has posed:
     Lory manages to avoid any retaliatory fire from the molemen and turns to board their train, but stops a moment when she sees Rosa. She blinks, then tilts her head. Is that...?

     When the vehicles actually bump, and Lory times it just right and leaps to avoid getting rattled by the impact and lands beside Rosa. "Hey! Aren't you that MMA fighter turned bounty hunter? You used to be great!" she says as she fires a few shots at molemen that pop up out of hatches nearby. "Once this is over, I'd love to talk! I didn't think anyone else from my world had ventured outside of it!"

     The bunny cop also takes a moment to soak in all the superpowers around them as her duster flutters in the wind from the moving vehicles. And...is that person glitching? That is weird. And kind of cool. And beam of fire is even cooler. After that trip down into bio-horror town, Lory is glad to be on a mission that is more normal.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa says "So long as he's not doing the mecha squid thing again." She will be able to deal with it but it seems things are far from over as the monster machine slams into the transport rattling everyone inside and Kotone goes THUNK slamming into a part of the compartment she's in leaving a dent a proof of just how rattled she'd been. She attempts to brace herself a bit better now as she's going to now fire off a grenade from the underslung launcher on her rifle, the thing is this isn't a normal grenade for her world, nope it's a plasma one and it will explode in a green burst of energy on impact.

"They just never give up do they?!"

Kotone's eyes dart about as she attempts to observe the horror that the molemen have birthed into this world. If she's lucky she might be able to figure out something but for now, she's just observing and attempting to at least get an idea of just how big this crazy thing is.

Rosa Borrasca (7099) has posed:
A flaming rock launcher? What the hell kind of weapon is that? Rosa dodges a couple of shots from it, but catches one across her arm, which leaves a nice burn. She growls and turns around, "Okay buddy, enough!"

She plants her back foot and then launches herself at the trooper that's been shooting rocks at her. She has no intention of backing down from a fight, even as she runs around the inside of the mole machine.

FLying through the air, she brings her right knee up to strike the mole man just under the chin. Maybe she can get her hands on his weapon after she knocks him out with the impressive flying knee strike.

It's hard to miss the impressive hardware Lory is using, as well. Rosa glances down towards her and grins, "That's me. You're that rabbit cop, right? The one who was in the news a while back. Yeah we can chat, maybe when we're not getting shot at though!"

Corona Arclite has posed:
Despite the size and the build of the roaring machine hypersonic rounds don't have much trouble punching holes through it's hull. Staren is slinging technology that, other than a certain vixen that's too busy driving and avoiding crashing the transport, they don't deal with very often. The same could be said for plasma grenades, as Kotone's shot manages to get between some already damaged plates before exploding, sending metal shrapnel showering off.

Blasts of flame come from two different sources, and while they don't do as astounding damage to the machine itself, Kain's fire spear does melt the barrels of the guns shooting at him, while several of the molemen are sent scrambling back inside while trying to stop themselves from being on fire from the spells.

It's also mostly made of metal, so lightning conducts -really- weall, and a moment after there's several eruptions of smoke and sparks as something inside is scorched good, even if their level of anachronistic technology doesn't have much in the way of electronics to fry. Everything is reletave in the end when it comes to blowing up.

The hulking machine stops slamming into the smaller Transport, pulling off in the opposite direction. One could almost think it was stopping it's assault. Almost.

Up until several larger gun ports open up in the sides, and bombard the transport, Staren's craft and other external attackers with mortar rounds. Despite Corona's best efforts several pound the side of her vehicle while she's veering around other's hammering the ground, a few striking and exploding not far from the port Inga is shooting out of!

Inside, Rosa slams a knee into the moleman's head. Wearing a helmet doesn't do much to keep him from toppling over, taking several of the other guards down with him, and others being chased for cover by Lory's support fire. Again the withdrawl is just to make room for something bigger, as a rather large spiked ball on a chain comes hurtling down the corridor towards them! Hit or miss it slams into a far bulkhead, only to be retracted back to a much larger, more mechanical and armored looking bruiser. This one might take more than one flying knee to go down.

Inga has posed:
Inga hits the floor to dodge the mortar rounds, avoiding a direct hit but she's bleeding from more than just her cut hand now. The white linen of her underdress quickly soaks through to red along her right arm. Not wanting to get blood on her cloak, she unclasps it and tosses it (dramatically!) aside once she's pulled herself back to her feet, her teeth clenched. As she's already bleeding, she may as well uses it. She directs a cloud of blood magic around herself as a ward and to heal a bit of the damage she's taken, then begins to let a crimson mist gather around her.

Anyone who's read a fairy tale knows you shouldn't piss of witches. They'll shove you in ovens, curse you, sacrfice you and then make your bones into a centerpiece. Now, /this/ witch is also a blood witch, hurt her and she'll use the blood to hurt you back.

The blood-mist drifts out of the nearest port and over toward the attacking machine, engulfing a group of the molemen opporating it. It smells like honey, but it burns like corrosive acid.

Staren has posed:
    /Mortars/ now? Staren blocks with his shield, but when something explodes against it he tries to take evasive action -- even with minimal direct hits, though, the Star Hawk is buffeted and rattled by the explosions, and Staren inside it. A few bits of broken armor shake off of the machine.

    The Star Hawk is already diving forward through the gauntlet. <"You've stepped up your game! But it's NOT ENOUGH!">

    Tiny pieces whir and change again as it becomes humanoid and... tries to LAND on the enemy machine. And then tear into it with everything he's got, grabbing and bending or ripping out those mortar cannons! And with the gatling cannon and a pair of arm-mounted plasma sabers going the whole time, just to cause more general destruction!

Kain (960) has posed:
    The blast of mortar rounds... while the shell was big and easily avoidable, the shell itself seemed to explode, which the wind pressure alone seemed to absolutely batter the flyer around a fair bit! "Okay, HELL no! Screw you, stupid demon train thing! Thank you for backing away! Rekrya!"

    As he spoke the command word, the Ruby on his sword popped off the hilt and floated a couple of inches up as he just held a hand to the back of it and began chanting again. As he did this time however, his words were loud, thumpy... almost seemed to echo deep in the souls of everyone nearby... not only was it felt, it was seen! As he chanted, a bright orb appeared in front of him, growing bigger and bigger the more he chanted! His chanting was fast, and that orb, now obviously a gigantic fireball, was VERY much going to be fired at the hulking machine!

    "Ek verpa einn brandr muspilli, kalla bresta bani, steypa lundr drótt!" As he spoke the final word in the chant, the large ball of fire shot off like a ballistic missile towards the large machine! This? Oh, it WAS gonna hurt! But it was also gonna hurt him a little...

Lory Thumper has posed:
     Lory almost feels like she is not even needed here as she watches Rosa. She finds herself just watching the big cat work until Lory's ears perk and suddenly...she leaps upward! "Watch out!" she exclaims at the same time. That big wrecking ball hits, and Lory lands on it. As it retracts...the armored bruiser finds a bunny!

     She hops and somersaults over his head to get him flanked with Rosa, then pulls both her pistols. "I hope you don't mind a bit of help with this one!" she says to Rosa before firing the electrical prongs of her guns, sending them into the armor and hopefully sending a powerful shock through the man inside.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
A major hit is scored the grenade goes off it does some serious damage and that raises Kotone's hopes a fair bit that the party can put this down. Kotone is ready to get rattled around this time and she also gets the heck away from the port. She does not end up getting hurt this time, it was just lucky for the most part as she reloads her rifle's magazine there's no time to fit in a new grenade.

She lays down even more fire at the hulking moleman machine and she pauses at the Norse? At least she thinks it's Norse? Wait that wasn't Kirito? Who the heck /is/ that? She'll have to ask later, for now, Kain's identity is a mystery to her and she will just keep slinging lead at the hulking machine's more vulnerable points.

Brass keeps going flying as she lays down more fire and soon this new magazine will be empty as the first one.

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    Diamond Soul is feeling the strain on her Controller Core. As the mortar fire comes in, and starts exploding around her, she jinks and weaves, avoiding the majority but, unfortunately even as nimble as she is, shrapnel continues to slam into her, and one bit punches through her Controller Code. Her transformation suddenly sputters, and she lands hard, skidding and rolling and vanishing into the wasteland as the three vehicles race off. She's out of this fight.

Rosa Borrasca (7099) has posed:
It would seem that the bunny reflexes work a lot better than the jaguar's. Even with Lory's call out, Rosa is too slow to react as she gets slammed into by the wrecking ball. Thankfully her armor blunts the blow somewhere, and she falls off before it hits the wall.

With Lory up close and personal, Rosa decides to play the ranged game, as she scrambles over to pick up one of those rock launchers that she was shot at with earlier, taking a knee and lobbing a shot at the big guy with the spiked ball. She's careful to aim where Lory is not, however.

Corona Arclite has posed:
It would seem the molemen realize they're on the losing end of this fight, as there's an audible screeching blast as smoke belches out of it's stacks and the machine starts to pick up a bit of speed. It's just enough to keep Staren from slamming down directly on the monsterous craft, and when he tears into it all that breaks off is exterior plating that's already been damaged and broken by the onslaught of attacks.

The speed isn't enough to get away from the massive firebomb though and it hits with enough force to rock the machine despite it's size, sending flames shooting off like shrapnel and broken machinery scattering. Including enough of a bulkhead blasted off that it reveals the section the two are fighting the huge armored brute.

The ball clanks back onto its arm with an unexpected passenger, which is stared at blankly before Lory jumps over. Before it can think about turning around it has to raise an arm to shield against the firerock rifle being used to pelt it. Lory gives it a good jolt from behind with her taser gun, but despite the electrical sparks shooting about it's form it doesn't seem too distraught by it. Nor does it seem too bothered by the blood magic, even as other molemen are wailing and wirthing on the decks in the sudden corrosive pain.

The reason why becomes apparent as Kotone takes advantage of the new opening and plants several shots right in the brute's head, blowing off its helmet. And.. there's no head to be blown off underneath. It's just one big animate suit of steampunk power armor it seems, even as it swings around at the waist to try and clobber both critters with it's spiked ball.

The rest of the vehicle just keeps motoring along, but it's breaking and clattering apart with every movement. They're trying to get away, but the machine is falling apart around them. And while they're not attacking back, there's a constant shower of broken pieces and shrapnel off the thing that makes it somewhat dangerous to get close to still.

Staren has posed:
    Staren tries to rip it apart. Instead, only the metal skin tears off, and the unexpected landing on the ground, the torn-off pieces, and the scrap cause Staren to take a step wrong.

    And when you're a forty-two-foot-tall war machine, faceplanting is NOT a good thing. Tens of tons of metal crash into the ground, there's a terrible CRUNCH and the screech of stressed and tearing metal. It arguably does more damage than any of the moles' actual attacks...

    Inside, Staren hangs prone in his harness, the chair above/behind him. He groans. The Star Hawk pulls itself up on its hands and knees, and lifts the right arm to send another burst of gatling railgun fire into the side of the thing. EVENTUALLY it will break.

    Hopefully he won't fall over again and break first.

Kain (960) has posed:
    Kain is showered in a bit of the debris from the exploded machine! His attack did something! Yay! It was nowhere NEAR as strong as an attack by Kirito... but it was grandiose and everything! But something caught his eye as he went wide-eyed! Tiny little bunny! So small and cute! And it was in danger! "Must... Save... Bunny!"

    And his speed kicked into high gear as he just ram-rodded himself towards the large hulking headless behemoth! However... his attack seemed less to deal damage and more to hinder its ability to damage back, aiming a strike at the enemy's legs to throw it off-balance! He then looked to both Lory and Rose! "Hop on!" He says this more to the small rabbit, also offering an open hand to the anthro Jaguar.

Inga has posed:
By the satisfied smile that curves her lips, Inga is pleased with the result of her blood-mist and the fact that with all their combined assaults, the 'demon train' seems to be retreating.

Her expression changes quickly when she sees Staren's machine do a faceplant. Now, she's traveled in it with him before. She knows that's not good, and winces. "Could anyone get me to him? Or him to me? He's going to need healing!" she calls, leaning heavily on her staff, though she doesn't seem to worse for wear. Bloodstained, but not still bleeding. Her injuries have already started to heal, time to focus on the others.

Rosa Borrasca (7099) has posed:
Normally Rosa wouldn't take help from a random stranger. But after that last hit, she felt something inside tear, and that really didn't feel good.

She manages to pick herself back up to her feet, and then reaches out to take the offered hand from Kain. But she's not going to go down without a fight, as she leaves the molemen something to remember her by. It's small and grey and has a timer on it that's slowly ticking down towards 0:00. Once it hits that 0, well, it's going to turn into a flaming ball of thermite, and that's going to melt downwards until it eventually burns out. Whatever of the mole machine it takes with it is just a bonus.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa understands now the machine is more of an animated suit of armour and this gives her an idea she will now take the time to load another plasma grenade into her launcher this succeed but there's a price to pay as the vehicle slams about Kotone gets smacked about leaving more dents. Yes, little miss cyborg is leaving impressions of herself all over the compartment at this rate. Still, the weapon is loaded she's looking more than a little in pain.

She lines up her shot trying to fire down the things' neck and into the insides of the empty armour where the plasma grenade will hopefully go off and help make a mess of the damn thing.

Lory Thumper has posed:
     Lory blinks in surprise as there's no one actually in the armor. "Oh wow! They can have robots with this level of tech?" she says, surprised. It starts to spin, and she leaps upward and over to land on top of its lack of head. And winces as Rosa is hit.

     Then, Kain appears and offers them a quick way out. And Lory's ears twitch and she raises an somewhat indignant eyebrow. "Wait, why must you save the bunny? I can take care of myself you know. I'm a full fledged officer of the MPD -and- part of the Paladins." Not to mention it looks like she doesn't have a scratch on her. Her tone is annoyed but not fully angry, and as Rosa accepts the offer the bunny cop mutters to herself a bit before leaping to land on Kain's shoulders. "I didn't need help, got it? I'm only accepting because it would be rude to refuse." she says, then hangs on as they presumably head back to Corona's transport.

     Now the ultimate question. Is it off-putting for a cute little bunny cop to say these things? Or is it even more cute?

Corona Arclite has posed:
Already off-kilter from the spinning motion and the loss of it's 'head', the brute armor takes Kain's collision with a complete lack of grace and slams into the opposite wall, leaving ample room for him to help get the two anthros off the quickly collapsing machine.
That also leaves it perfectly cockeye for Kotone to shoot a grenade into the armor. It sounds like a pachinko machine as it clatters down inside, followed by a dull *thoomp* and smoke bursting out of all the joints and seams, then the armor collapsing to the ground as it falls apart and some ghastly greenish fumes whisp out of the thing.

At Inga's shout Corona leans out the cab window, and her ears slick back with a sympathetic wince. She's toppled in her smaller ride armor before, that's got to be even less comfortable for Staren since his mech is bigger. "Ah see 'im. Hold on." Corona spins the wheel as far as she can, but the Disaster Transport has a wide turn radius due and the others can easily jump back on the rig before it's rounded about to head back towards the crash.

Not that being haphazardly on the ground stops the Star Hawk for long. If anything the low position makes that gunfire helpfully effective, tearing into some of the undercarriage of the machine. Something major blows out and a hideous crunch is hurd as wheels burst sideways and the back of the vehicle drops to the ground. Metal screeches as it tears and sparks fly until the machine finally grinds to a stop. What's left of it, at least.

And then not even that as the thermite burns into the depths of the machine, and into something it shouldn't of. If the way the molemen are bailing out screaming something to the effect of "Hotboom! Hotboom!" and running off in various directions as whatever the thermite got into explodes within, and nothing but smoldering metal waste is left.

Inga has posed:
Inga lets out a yelp then reaches out to grab onto something as Corona swings the vehicle around to head toward where Staren's mech has fallen. "Bloody vehicles! Worse than horses!" she curses, holding on tightly to whatever is closest. She pops on her linkshell. <Staren? Are you alright? We're headed over. I can heal you if you need. And anyone else, for that matter.>

Kain (960) has posed:
    Kain didn't need to know much about what was going on. All he needed to hear was 'hotboom' and that was enough for him to BOOK it! But he wasn't accustomed to carrying another person. Rosa was taller and stockier than his slightly lithe frame, but thanks to that Salamander strength, it was just enough to fly off and back to the Disaster Transport, making 100% sure both his passengers were safely aboard before he seemed to just... collapse in a nearby seat, groaning and rubbing at the upper part of his right leg...

    His gaze turns to the small rabbit officer for a moment...

    INNER KAIN: "OMG! Why does a small rabbit being authorative sound adorable as hell!? The hell is wrong with me!? Stop it, Kain!"

    OUTER KAIN: "Sorry, officer... but... I would rather make sure all my associates are clear of explosions...!" He grimaced again, still just rubbing his leg a little more as he just took steadying breaths.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa lets out a whoop as the thing finally goes down from the combined efforts of all the responders the thing is finally done she leans back in the compartment and she will end up moving to put her weapon away and she muses

"Nothing but a slag heap now? It just never ends around here does it?"

She keeps herself secured as craft turns about.

"Oh come on they are better than horses a hose would be /dead/ from what we had to go through."

She seems a little miffed after all she does design and repair them for a living when she's not tromping about the multiverse.

Staren has posed:
    It goes down. The Star Hawk pumps a fist, then lifts its main body upright. Armor on the front is buckled all over and armor plating is falling off in some places -- the cockpit, however, is designed for the stress and is fine. It opens and Staren climbs out so Inga can see him. He's... acting sort of fine, but only because his medical nanomachines are releasing painkillers. he doesn't /look/ fine, because those medichines are preventing him from feeling the whiplash and bruising. And bloody nose that smashed into his faceplate. "Hey Inga. I'm fffff..." there's that look of his eyes checking a HUD noone else can see. "...Oh wow. Yeah, if you can heal that before I start feeling it, I'd appreciate it, but how is everyone else?"

Inga has posed:
Inga has known Staren for a long time now, and she can see he's messed up even if he's not feeling it yet. "Yes yes, come here," she says, and hobbles over to meet him half way. As her other wounds have closed, she pulls her seax from her belt and cuts into her inner arm briefly, flicking the red mist that forms at Staren. It pulses, warms, and begins to heal him. "Sit down," she says, and gently steers him toward a seat, hand on his shoulders. "I'll see to anyone else, but I think you might be the worse off that I can see," she replies.

Rosa Borrasca (7099) has posed:
"Well I'm grateful for the assist." Rosa says, in response to Kain, "Even if I don't much like being helped, I'm willing to accept it when I need it." And need it she did, if the wound on her leg is any indication. She's not going to be chasing down any bail jumpers for a while with that.

Lory Thumper has posed:
     Lory gives Kain a skeptical look, and one ear twitches, but she sighs and lets it go. "Well, I guess I can't fault you for that." she says. Her ears perk at the cries from the crew of the molemen transport, then at where Corona was starting to pull away. "...and, I guess it didn't hurt that you helped us out." she says, her annoyance slowly ebbing away.

Staren has posed:
    Staren retracts his faceplate so the red mist will actually reach him, and closes his eyes so as not to get blood in them. "Really? I mean they got up close with people with weapons trying to kill them, I was just in a crash. Maybe these moles were all sucky warriors..." He briefly takes the matter manipulate from his belt, points it at the ground next to his mecha's foot, and suddenly there's a folding metal chair there. He sits down, then offers Inga a smile. "Thanks."

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite just parks the Transport near the Star Hawk so she can help haul it off if necessary, and flops back in her seat. "Welp. Guess Ah'll have to give our new friends more than benefit of a doubt. Speaking of..." She leans over to pick up the mic to the radio. "Ya still up there High Flyer? How's our pal doin'?"

"Not good, and I'm out of vomit bags!" Windrose snaps back, sounding annoyed even with the speaker static. "He's worse than you drunk!" And it takes a -lot- for Corona to get more than a buzz.

"Yeah, yeah. Get him back on the ground. Ah just wanted to see if he'd go through with it. Prove it ain't some sort of trick. Gunslinger, over and out." She quickly puts the mic back down, cutting off what was probably a string of swearing from the skunk. Corona leans out the window again. "Good work, y'all. That's one less monstrousity makin' things difficu--"

She's drowned out by the biplane passing over -really close-, the backflow in it's wake forcing her to grab her hat to keep it on, and yipping as her hair is blown in her face as the aerocraft cruises off back towards Loadstar. "--Yeah. Ah kinda deserved that."

Kain (960) has posed:
    Kain looks to both Lory and Rosa. "Well, I'm glad the pair of you did decide to accept." He finishes and stands back up... but... it's kinda clear that he seems to just be putting more weight on his left leg than his right. But it's not seen for long as his wings kick back on and he's just hovering an inch off the ground now. He looked to be rather ragged, but parts of him seemed to just start to be healing a little bit... not at fantastic speeds, but probably enough to just really need some rest. He breathed a sigh of relief. "That... was harrowing..."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa calls back

"I don't need those anymore! I got an Iron Stomach!"

A far fry from Kotone being terrified of her self with her cracking jokes like that. She now will go to help with any of the post-flight cleanup and she'll be likely trying to drag anyone else after they are done to the nearest place to eat though she'd be avoiding the local booze for reasons only Staren and Corona would know.