583/Behind the Circuit

Behind the Circuit
Date of Scene:	13 September 2014
Location:	Planetary Plains
Synopsis:	Ferham and Miss Clokwerk raid a base storing Energon Cubes. Some uninvited guests show up to crash the party. (Besides blue team, that is.)
Cast of Characters:	61, 304, Blurr, 516, 539, 548, 564

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Ferham (516) has posed:
     Deep in the plains of the Americas, there rests a small but decently setup Union outpost and refuelling base for some of their more mechanical members. What might not be generally known is that said base's warehouse had just received a rather sizeable cache of Energon cubes that is on it's way deeper into Union territory where it would be safer no doubt. It would appear a number of operatives of the confederacy have picked up intel on this transfer and are going to live up to their name of 'reclaiming' that particular portion of the multiverse, ohoho.

     The night is already covered the sky and small search lights cut through the ebony mass all the way to cloud cover as a small but fast aerial transport zooms in between them, it only appears to be lightly armed, but it is very fast and able to dive swiftly under the lights AND radar, the rear cargo bay doors opening as a peculiar red speck drops free from it, almost entirely unseen in the darkness.

     The party has just started, the confederates have arrived.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Black Arachnia being as tapped into Union operational traffic as she is, this seemed like a convenient place to stop off and recover on the way back from that Swarm incident on Blurr's version of Cybertron. Not for the energon ... well, not *specifically* for the energon; she has something of a vested interest in making sure it reaches its destination, but she's also honest enough not to take any of it for herself without proper authorization.

She's perched atop one of the warehouses to observe the local night sky - despite the clouds, some starlight gets through on non-visual spectra - when the transport comes tearing through; her audio sensors pick up on its passage more than her optics do, but the transport's passage is noteworthy enough that she does a quick visual sweep back along its vector and notices the descending red speck.

Time to call for backup, she thinks - but after sending the alert out, she engages her electro-disruptors for good measure, going into full stealth mode, and starts making for the perimeter facing towards where she saw that 'drop' ...

Xau'ra Tayuun (548) has posed:
The male miqo'te, more correctly one of the Keepers of the Moon is walking across the roof of the warehouse on guard duty. He is wearing his leather armor this time, though it has been dyed black to help blend in with his favorite environment--the darkness. For /once/, he doesn't need his goggles and the only part that makes him slightly obvious are those gold eyes, the dark grey fur that almost blends in with the shadows, and the streaks of white hair he has against his original black hair.

There is also the fact that as he walks and keep a part of his attention on the environment, while his hand fiddles with a charm of some kind on his necklace. Its a very beautiful silver pendant with the emblem of his goddess etched into it including surrounded by aether crystals of her element.

Yet his attention is brought away from the charm when he picks up something for a moment. His eyes drift out over the horizon, as he scans the sky ever closer. He-- may have missed whatever it was that got his attention and as such, his tail twitches faintly.

Yet on the union band it confirms that /someone/ was out there and he crouches down as he readies his bow. The metal mythril tip catching the light of the sky. "..tsk.."

Miss Clokwerk (539) has posed:
Clokkie is definitely on the 'smash' end of the smash and grab. Still, she at least knows how to do a night drop. Disconnecting herself from the transport, she leaves the flying job to a flunkie, before soon kicking a trio of high-speed-impact rated boxes out the back. Then, she herself leaps down, resisting the urge to perform her usual loud introductions and utter lack of stealth.

Still, she quips to her companion. "No better night to fly, huuuuh, Ferry? Whoooo! This is great!" Less fly, more fall, but the elf seems to be enjoying herself. Soon enough, poomf! Out goes the parachute as she floats down.

Anivia (61) has posed:
Night has fallen, but Anivia can see everything as clear as day. A Phoenix's eyes are not the same as human, no where close, so the approach of night did nothing to slow the Cryophoenix's flight. After hearing Black Arachnia's call over Union broadband, Anivia swiftly took one of the closest Warpgates to the Plains of the Americas, heading directly for the Union outpost. With the advantage of flight, and the wind at her back, it did not take the Phoenix very long to reach her destination.

The temperature around the entire outpost takes a noticeable drop in temperature as the Cryophoenix circles the facility from high-over head. Her magically-enhanced avian eyes were able to locate the stealth transport after one pass, electing a echoing shrill bird-cry from the Phoenix's beak. Obviously not pleased to see Confederate forces once again making a push into the Union's territory... she could only wonder what they were after this time.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr is preparing to escort the transport to a more secure location, and at the moment is making sure the entire inventory is accounted for as well as scanning the immediate area for any potential incoming hostiles. This isn't exactly his job, but it kind of was, since he'd been leading the recon team that discovered the cache.

    Speaking of incoming hostiles, there's a transmission from Black Arachnia. <<Any ID on the hostiles yet? What's it look like? Decepticon or something else?>> he asks, putting the base's defense gride on high alert. It's bound to be either Decepticon or someone else mechanical.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     Klaxons are firing as well as auto turrets as whatever that has descended from the sky, which happens to be... Ferham and Miss Clokwerk? Well, as somewhat irregular the dastardly feminine duo are, they do appear to mean business. Artillary shells and bolts of plasma from the ground based turrets knife through the night sky past them, Ferham generally only needing to swerve to avoid them, though Clokwerk might find a bit of that heat too close for comfort.

     Drop the temperature does even more, as Ferham nears ground level she swoops down, body mere feet off the ground with a large trail of what can only be large ice crystals coated in hoarfrost racing along behind her, finally pulling up into an arc, the trail zooms ahead of her and crawls along one of the auto-sentry turrets, coating it in ice. There is a flash of what must be an incredibly long, pink energy whip not seconds after, and what few soldiers are stationed there at night scatter as the entire turret EXPLODES in a gush of fire, steam and shards of ice going every which way. Harmless melting globs by the time it reaches the humans, of course, but it's still enough to give them incentive to move.

Miss Clokwerk (539) has posed:
Clokwerk doesn't stick the landing as well as Ferham, the incoming shells soon knifing through both night's sky, and her parachute! There's a bit of a screa from the woman as she activates the alternate chute just in time to go crashing through the trees! After a long tumble, cut up, and looking bruised, she gets up.

"Ferry, remind me to wear a helmet next time we do this!"

So professional. While auto-sentries and soldiers fire, Clokkie recovers her boxes. Kicking them open with the butt of her assault rifle, a pair of Dobermen assault drones walk out of the large containers. They swiftly aim the large-calibre anti-personelle machine guns atop them at the turrets, firing a heavy stream of bullets. Clokkie doesn't join in immediately, fiddling with her cyberdeck.

No, she's scanning for any wireless signals, trying to hack into the building's security, and hopefully take down security cameras, communications, and best of all, turrets if she can manage it. It might be difficult, though, between bullets and the fact she isn't properly jacked into her deck right now.

Xau'ra Tayuun (548) has posed:
As Ferham comes down with ice, the pendant on Xau'ra's necklace flickers softly. Those ice-blue gems seeming to react ever so faintly to the element being so near by. Yet his eyes are not on her, but on the one coming down far slower.

That arrow gets pointed up into the sky, drawn back on his bow. His breathing steadies, his eyes narrow. For a Keeper of the Moon you see-- Night is day to them. The darker it is, the easier its for them to see. He is also a hunter-- and it would seem the Runner's parachute has his ire.

As once he releases the arrow, he aims it right for the parachute itself.

However just as he does, she cuts herself free and he snarls in mild frustration. "Hrmph."

So he places away his bow and then leaps right off the side of the building, he does a flip in the air before he lands right in front of Ferham as she approaches. One of his swords is drawn and he is pointing the edge of the blade right at her.

Menphina-- protect him..

"Confederates.. you shall go no further."

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr receives images of the perpetrators from Black Arachnia. Eh, they're certainly no Megatron or Starscream or Soundwave. He opens the comms to the other Union forces in the area. <<Keep them occupied for half a breem, I'll set the coordinates into the transport. Sounds like we're going to need to get this thing moving ahead of schedule.>> He darts to a terminal in the main control room and jacks directly into the system as he is wont to do in situations where rapid responses are required. Thus, if Clock does get in, she will have to go through Blurr first.

    As the two hostiles approach, the drones and auto-turrets' attacks suddenly seem more directed, as they begin to concentrate their fire at Ferham, and attempt to jump Clok as she's busy activating her own devices.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     Ferham is taken back by the sudden appearance of the bow-wielding, dark-skinned... cat boy? Well, cat man, technically. Ferham blinked as she might have been briefly, for a nano-second, scanning her files on just who or what Xau'ra /was/ before she swept her whip back and to the side, cracking it lightly. "You just attacked my teammate, didn't you?" she had seen the arrow fly by. "You shouldn't have done that," she made a face as if she was feeling a mixture of sympathy and disgust towards the Male Mithra--I MEAN MIQO'TE, hovering nearby him and swerving lightly to avoid sentry fire and debris.

     From the transport that had swooped down to hover, a cloud of what seemed like green dragonfly robot drones descended and began zipping through the small base, apparently trying to locate the cache of the energon cubes and reclaim if if they could--however they're going to have to go through whatever soldiers and defenses are already there.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
As Blurr surges ahead and Xau'ra stops to aim, Black Arachnia falls back, skittering over to the hardware and antennae for a turret with an access point. The sudden uptick in wireless traffic from one of the bogies has caught the Maximal's attention ... so.

First things first: make sure the wireless security for the outpost is at 'impenetrable fortress' levels. She's no idiot when it comes to wireless security - and while there ARE ways to log in, and even to hack in if you're dedicated enough, Black Arachnia knows all of the tricks for getting INTO a system.

It's not often that she has to turn those skills to defense - keeping somebody else OUT - but she knows plenty of theory ... and in short order, Clokwerk's hacking attempts are going to start running into layers of extra-'sticky' firewalls. The Maximal spider is throwing Clokwerk a bone, though, or at least a good imitation of one: it looks like there's a fairly straightforward 'backdoor' ...

A totally dead end, but hopefully it'll keep the hacker distracted while Black Arachnia indulges in some cybernetic skulduggery of her own.

Some of the turrets seem to be shutting down, too - maybe because of Clokwerk, maybe because of Arachnia's gambit. (It should be mostly the latter ... she has a little surprise in mind.)

Miss Clokwerk (539) has posed:
Suddenly swarmed by drones and auto-turrets, Clokwerk ducks behind one of her drones for cover! the cat-man doesn't get much response, as she finds herself assaulted by deliberate turret shots as well as a sudden hardening of defenses.

"AW FRAG! Got a rigger and...yeah, that's gotta be a decker, Ferry! Frag, frag, frag! Deal with the kitty! Setting the drones on auto. I'm jackin' in, make sure I don't end up full of holes!"

Then, she plugs herself in. Her consciousness leaks into the local wireless net.

Arachnia would soon find the assault by Clokwerk to triple in intensity. Whereas most hackers try to be sneaky, Clokwerk wields a cyber-hammer without much finesse, but a frightening amount of precision and skill. Brute force is the name fo the game here, as she quite literally tries to make drones, turrets, and many of those 'sticky' firewalls turn into molten slag by overloading them.

That weak, side route? Clokwerk's too harried to take it. No, she's going to bust through, guns blazing, cowboy style.

Blurr has posed:
    So Black Arachnia is in the system, too. Good. Now that the Maximal--oh slag. The Fed isn't falling for the fake backdoors. She's going for the aggressive route, is she? Well Blurr can do aggressive, all right. That's the danger of jacking into someone else's system, or really any system. It's always a two-way street if either party is clever enough. So instead of trying to mislead Clok, he simply bombards her with massive uploads of scrambled nonsense code, attempting to overload her right back and corrupt her databanks.

    Meanwhile, he begins to put the base into full lockdown mode, now that those drones are attempting to push their way in already. Doors slam shut and seal themselves, doing everything they can to keep the Feds' machinations out. Hopefully this base has some form of long-range weaponry...

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Big, dumb, and ugly - just the way Black Arachnia likes them. Except Clokwerk's version of 'dumb and ugly' mostly describes her technique - the 'big' part is pretty hazardous to the Maximal's health if Black Arachnia lets her guard down.

Fortunately, Black Arachnia can do brutal pragmatism just as well as anyone else - in this case, by trying to 'pen up' Clokwerk's cybernetic presence, backtrace the signal to its source, and --

Attempts to simply *jam* Clokwerk's wireless signal with as intense a shriek of static, feedback, and across-the-board *NOISE* as the transmitters she's working with can offer.

Because that's the weakness when you go on all-out attack to the detriment of subtlety or defense: the more aggressive you are, the easier it is for your opponent to pinpoint where you're coming from and go after you directly. As long as Clokwerk's mind hasn't left her body, it won't be fatal - but it should give her one whopping doozy of a headache.

Xau'ra Tayuun (548) has posed:
Xau'ra chuckles softly, "Do what-- stare at your ugly face only a Vanguard could love?" His eyes narrow dangerously, "I don't know what you confederates are after--- But your not going to get it!" He roars out as he then back flips onto the side of the building and then shoves off.

As he does so he draws out his other sword and in a whirlwind with the two blades, tries to catch Ferham in it and maybe bring her down to the ground.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "Well, now you're just being insulting," Ferham scoffed, giving her whip another lashing as the long pink cord snapped out and tried to wrap around the cat man's legs--as he jumped right up into the air. She had to struggle to follow the Miqo'te's movements, barely able to follow him as he jumped from the ground to the nearby warehouse building, doing a gainer off the side. She had to draw back and pull her whip back hard--bringing her arms up just in time to try and defend herself. Whips unfortunately did not fare well against other weapons in such a... close proximity.

     "Aieeek!" her clawed, gloved hands were crossed in front the flying femmebot as she raised her hands and tried to form an icy shield in front of herself to block the sword strike, the cat man's weight forcing her lower to the ground as they clashed.

Miss Clokwerk (539) has posed:
Note to self, next time bring dampeners. While her attack seems successful enough at first, Clokwerk is suddenly assaulted by a twin blast of cybernetic noises of two different frequencies at once.

Thankfully, her cyberdeck is a damn good filter, and the resulting shock of both Arachnia and Blurr merely has Clokwerk fall to her knees screaming as she grabs her head. Blood spills from her mouth at the feedback. Luckily, the two drones keep firing at the various mook soldiers and turrets. They'll even target any cameras they see!

The dazed and hurting decker taps her hand. There's a light swoosh, and Bliss lights up her system. After a moment, the screaming stops, and she /laughing/. "Ohhhhh Ferrrrryyyyy! Got some new emails and links for you after thisssss~." Even to a layman, Clokwerk sounds utterly high as a kite.

Then, she's rather unwisely back into hacking. With so many pain-dampeners in her? Those blasting screeches of noise barely phase the decker. The two, however, might notice the speed of her attacks is far slower now as the Bliss hurts Clokwerk's reactions. Yet, the attacks are all the more brazen. From a hammer, to a bulldozer are these, and the programs she's using both must have cost a fortune, and should probably be illegal across the multiverse. Subtlety: not in Clokwerk's dictionary.

Xau'ra Tayuun (548) has posed:
Xau'ra is successful but he /almost/ gets whipped. When they do land down, he rolls a bit due to the rough landing and then twirls around with a graceful side flip to get back on his feet. His tail moving side to side as both blades held in his hand with ease.

Those gold eyes looking right at Ferham. "Call this off." He says as his brows furrow. "..and no one will get hurt any further!" Xau'ra then runs right at her, doing a quick step to the side and then moving in with a quick slash of his sword.

He was trying to be quick, not give Ferham much chance to get one of those whips around him-- because that-- could be really bad.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     Indeed, Xau'ra can feel the air being rent passed him as Ferham's whip slices through the air just shy of him, the long glowing pink cable of Fer's whip retracting swiftly back into the handle, as it seemed to be an emitter for it, however it's not fast enough to try and counter the airborne Miqo'te as he comes down on her, swords slashing out in a whirlwind. "You're ALREADY hurting me," Fer's brows furrowed as she hastily formed that ice shield over her front, trying to block his weapon--but the ice crumbles with that last sword stroke and she's left with a slice across her belly, the hunks of ice falling and shattering against the ground.

     "More than one way to hang a cat!" Ferham growled and that glowing energy whip of hers snaked out from the handle again, this time brandishing it with her off hand pulling on the receiving end of it like a garrote, trying to wrap it around Xau'ra's neck--and possibly more of him as she darts forward in the air, trying to grapple with him.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Well, instantly incapacitating Clokwerk *was* extremely unlikely - but the scream of agony is quite satisfying to Black Arachnia. Less satisfying is the fact that the hacker resumes her work - and then a blast from one of the drones forces Black Arachnia to flatten herself even tighter against the ground.

A pair of 'offline' turrets - by hacking rather than damage - immediately come to life, attempting to catch the drone in question in a devastatingly focused crossfire. Whether it explodes or not, they go 'dead' again two seconds later, and the Maximal spider turns her attention back to countering Clokwerk's hacking. This is her specialty, after all - she literally wasn't built for heavy firepower. Sneaking around, ferreting data out of inadequately-guarded networks, rigging enemy fortifications to collapse, and generally acting like she's an embodiment of Murphy's Law come to horribly malicious life?

*That's* Black Arachnia's specialty.

And she's figuring Clokwerk's approach out well enough to start anticipating where she'll strike next ... and to counter it with another focused jamming signal, this one much like somebody slammed her head into the bass end of an electronic organ, turned the volume up to 22, and slid her face up the length of the keyboard to hit every note along the way.

She's also trying to start rebuilding the electronic defenses where Clokwerk's smashed holes in them, but that's a secondary task. Primary is stopping the assault in the first place.

Miss Clokwerk (539) has posed:
The second jamming signal seems far less effective. More coughing from the feedback, but this time there's no dumpshock. The attacks slow only momentarily, and when Clokwerk taps her hand again? The volatile cocktail of chems gets worse. Her entire body reddens breathing increases, and her assault becomes reckless and heedless for finess. Her cyberdeck grows hot, but between the Bliss and now Frenzy in her system? Her heart hammering at dangerous levels, mind in drug-fueled overdrive, she's likely to keep hammering away at Arachnia's defenses heedless for damage to herself.

It's a lot like someone driving a tank over your walls, while drunk, and really angry. Inbetween hammering defenses, Clokwerk leaves nastly little viruses that pop up /very/ offensive messages when opened, and general cyber-graffitti. 'Clokwerk wuz here'. How mature.

Xau'ra Tayuun (548) has posed:
Xau'ra lands down and smirks, "Then you already get the-- HURRK!" The whip snaps around his neck, he actually drops his swords to try and undo it-- but to late! When Ferham flies up and the whip becomes taunt, it was-- not good.

His fingers where grasping to undo it. His fanged teeth native to his tribe, clenched tightly. Everything was-- getting dark. He couldn't breath...

Yet Ferham would notice a flicker from the charm around his neck, that pendant. It suddenly flashed a bright light and the whip itself broke free as if some hand reached out and removed its snare upon him. Xau'ra dropped back down to the ground below. Nearly gasping for air, as he coughed. His hand reaching for his threat as he coughed out again.

Yet the crystals glow was not done here-- as flickers of ice-blue wisps of energy could be seen rising up from the ice left behind by Ferham. Something was happening there-- but what-- what was the unknown part..

Ferham (516) has posed:
     And so, Ferham had the cat in a noose, more or less, giving him just enough pressure on it to give him a bit of incentive--an incentive to drop those swords perhaps. Clearly the femmebot was working on de-clawing this cat! However, she did not jerk the whip or try to simply drop him and let his own weight fracture or snap his spinal column, though she gritted her teeth and bore a slash down her front, she did not seem to have it in her to actually try and kill him... but why? She did not get another chance, however, as that large corona of light suddenly blinded her, forcing her to dis-entangle from Xau'ra anyway.

     "Gah!" she looked around, not noticing the wisps eminating from the ice trail she'd left. No, it seems at the moment... Ferham was unleashing the hounds. Not the ones with bees in their mouths that when they barked shot bees at you, unfortunately not--these one's just were packed with high-calibre machine guns!

     "Ruff ruff, arrooo!" Ferham had called Clokwerk's robot dobermen to fight. And everyone knows Dogs just LOVE to chase cats!

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
NOW she starts sowing viruses? Black Arachnia's not sure whether her opponent - Clokwerk, to judge by what she 'sees' of one - is that desperate or just that careless ... Black Arachnia would tend to *start* with the viruses to help co-opt the system and use it against itself.

But the viruses are also easy enough for Black Arachnia to interdict a generous selection of, freeze their processes, and peel the offensive code back out of the system, saving it to a supplementary databank for later leisurely analysis. But if that's the way Clokwerk wants to play things ...

Black Arachnia tries for another fake-out - encasing the 'tank' in a system emulation, with heavier and heavier security ahead for Clokwerk to keep plowing through. If the drugs are screwing up Clokwerk's perceptions enough, the deception should be even easier to carry off - and Black Arachnia is juggling the 'difficulty' to try and keep Clokwerk's interest right there. Not so easy as to let her get bored, not so hard that she'll turn her attention elsewhere.

And if that much works, Black Arachnia tries to slip one of her own viruses into Clokwerk's system - nothing flashy, nothing special, just a feedback loop that'll start corroding away at her computer's processing power. It's not as direct as, say, a dose of cybervenom to the spinal column would be - but until she can get to Clokwerk physically (assuming she gets that chance), it's the best Black Arachnia can do.

Blurr has posed:
    "Primus, she's going back in? Ha!" Blurr scoffs at Clok's recklessness. She's going to have one monstrous headache after this, that is if she even -survives-. But then Black Arachnia is directing him to focus on downing the transport. <<If you're sure you can handle her.>> he replies, and finally pulls out of the system. The base doesn't appear to have any weapons that would be suitable for taking out the Fed craft, so he'll just have to take things into his own servos.

    He makes his way to the roof, and dashes up a slanted section of it, using his momentum + boosters to launch himself into the air and attempt to simply punch it in the wing, given its diminuitive size. Well dimuitive compared to -Cybertronian- transports. Also, he attempts to direct the impact so that when and if it does go down, it will be headed straight for where Clokwerk is sitting as she attempts to bulldoze down Black Arachnia's cyber-defenses.

Xau'ra Tayuun (548) has posed:
Trying to or not, apparently it wasn't a smart idea. Even as the dogs come in. The Miqo'te glances up about then to stare at the metallic hounds, "You have to be bloody kidding me.." Yet the dogs would find themselves under assault from the very ice that Ferham had left behind, more correctly-- ice elements!

Creatures with gem stones in the center and floating ice shards around them, go to blast the very dogs and perhaps freeze them in place. Though by the fact the elements are starting to melt, tells Xau'ra one thing.

These elements don't have enough aether here to support themselves, yet-- how? Why? It be something he have to ask later as he leaps across as a dog lets loose a set of machine guns at him and nearly nicks him in the boot. He rolls and snags his swords, before running to actually /run up/ the wall, flip off and with bow in hand. He goes to fire not one, not two-- /Three/ arrows at Ferham at the same time!

Crazy archer tricks.

Though as he lands down, he rolls a bit to only then wince. Something--- wasn't right. Did one of those dogs get him? More then likely, but where he didn't have much time to think on.

Miss Clokwerk (539) has posed:
Meat-Clokwerk is still a seemingly unconscious elf, as she leans against a tree. She doesn't even react to the bullets barely missing her.

Cyber-clockwerk however, falls to Archania's plan rather well. Too blasted by conflicting chemicals, she doesn't even realize she's being entrapped by Archania's web of cyber-warfare. She simply keeps smashing ahead, even as physically the drugs take their toll.

The transport gets slammed by Blurr, hit upon the wing, and goes tumbling downwards! However, it levels out, slicing trees in half as it falls. Clokwerk loses a good half-inch of hair atop her head, but otherwise? She's miraculously ok. Seems the confeds will need an alternate way out now!

Ferham (516) has posed:
     The transport that Blurr was jumping onto was essentially a personnel and cargo helicopter, modified for such a fast approach of course by confed engineers--the craft sported two sets of blades at either end, with a cockpit at the front and a large ramp-door at the rear. Likely the weight of the large cybertronian would prove a bit... difficult for the vehicle to stay in flight.

     Meanwhile, Ferham was still busy with the sword-slinging cat man below her. The howling robo dogs that Clokwerk had unleashed howled and their machine guns blazed as they tried to fire back at the floating ice spirit/elemental entities, though how well that would work was up to however much firepower Clokky had packed them with. BUDDABUDDABUDDA.

     One of the dogs rears up and tries to follow Xau'ra with it's gun still firing, the trail of bullets and concrete being blown into powder following the cat right up the wall. The first two arrows ping and break off of Ferham's wings as she is able to deflect them--but the third buries itself in her shoulder with a cry, the android lady swinging herself around and swooping off to the side, seeming to be favoring one side as she tries to prise the arrow free.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
So far, so good. The transport is down, which is a sizable step in the right direction; Xau'ra seems to be okay - but Black Arachnia pings a quick inquiry to the mi'qote. She's got Clokwerk's hacking somewhat contained for now - that may not last, so she needs to take the hacker down for good. But at the very least, it means the Maximal spider can divide her attention a little more ....

Enough, at least, to put the turrets to some more pop-up work. Three turrets, this time, rise back out of their housings and attempt to catch a robotic Doberman (or whatever they are) in a three-way crossfire, tracing a triangle around it before the triangle closes to a single point of intersection - the only way out would really be 'straight up' long enough to get clear. The turrets retract again thereafter, but it might still be long enough for a fast shot to take one out, or more than one.

Never play tower defense games against Black Arachnia, BTW.

Back to Clokwerk: Black Arachnia starts trying to slow the tank down, entangling its virtual 'treads' with layer upon layer of extra-sticky code-webbing - bogging Clokwerk's hacking down in extra processor cycles, in actual computer terms. Whether it's the outpost's network or Clokwerk's own deck that's going to suffer the load ... well, if it stops the hack, Black Arachnia personally doesn't mind THAT much if the outpost's mainframes need some repairs.

Xau'ra Tayuun (548) has posed:
The dogs continue to be a problem and so, Xau'ra fires off a few arrows to aim them right down the mutt's machine gun shooting mouths as he pulls a few flips and quick twirls. One of the bullets clipping a few hairs off his tail!

In turn he then grabs several more arrows before he blasts them straight up into the air, before flipping back. The arrows come up-- and then the rain of arrows come down right for Ferham and the dogs! While Xau'ra himself moves for cover, now taking just a quick moment to figure out where he did get hit.

Blurr has posed:
    With that done, Blurr hops off of the roof, landing smoothly on the ground as he watches the craft crash and burn with satisfaction. Now with that dealt with, it's time to send these Feds packing. He takes in the situation, and sees the mechanical dogs going after Xau'ra. They're, well...kinda tiny compared to him, so he attempts to pick them up in one hand and just throw them at Ferham.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     It seems that bullets is not the ideal way to skin a cat, as Ferham is finding out, hanging off to the side as she tries to snap her whip down in the middle of the cat's elaborate dodging, when the cybertronian's massive fist hurls one of the caught dogs into her back, the femmebot knocked sprawling as the dog impacted with her back. Ow. Robo-Rover has become improvised projectile!

     "Auuugh!" Ferham tried desperately to right herself as she tumbled over, the mechanoid dog falling to the base's pavement with a CRASH. It doesn't look too good for the femmebot in this one, however as she begins to retreat back she tries to pin the cat, by sending out a volley of ice shards at him with a sweep of one clawed, gloved hand.

     "Gah, how did he do that?" she cursed, finally breaking the haft of the arrow sticking out of her shoulder in the process of trying to pull it out. Damn.

Xau'ra Tayuun (548) has posed:
The Ice shards come and Xau'ra pendent glows brightly. As if the charm itself commands it, the ice shards become that of snow and impact Xau'ra with powder good news as he has to dart out from his hiding spot.

Yet-- something is wrong as he is slowing down and in that moment, its kinda obvious. A bullet found him in the side and the leather armor wasn't enough to stop it. Yet as he takes new cover he readies another arrow. Shaking his head as he tries to clear his vision.

He then steps around the corner and unleashes another arrow for Ferham, trying to strike her actually in the hand. Maybe that will knock off her ice throwing ways!

Miss Clokwerk (539) has posed:
Clokwerk knows when the game is up. Just before her cyberdeck becomes a molten bar of slag, the woman finally frowns as she realizes just what's going on. She /grins/.

And sends her opponent a message. "Hoiiiiii chummer! You're good~. Let's talk shop some time, huh, when we're not slamming code up each other's hoops! You've won today." -Miss Clokwerk.

There's even an annoyingly catching jingle, along with adware for various Ares-brand weaponry.

Then, just before she jacks out, Clokwerk lays out a number of data-bombs, just to give the IT crew something to deal with later. Wink! She's gone, back in her own battered body, comeing down off of her high.

It's then that she taps her cyberdeck one more time, and from the crash sight of the transport? There's a zooming motorbike with room for two! She starts to pilot it over to the pair, the woman aiming her gun now at the cat-boy.

The sound of a gunshot, and Clokwerk falls to the ground, blood blossoming from behind her as a round goes straight through her enhanced chest. Roaring out of the woods, a trio of black humvees crashes through, laying covering fire down over Confederates and Unionites alike! Two of them act as shields for the thirds from gunfire from drones and turrets alike. Out of the third, a trio of men exit the back, and start firing on Ferham. Rather than bullets, these projectiles are closer to needles. At the ends are electrodes, which swiftly spark, and begin to electrocute whatever they strike! Poor ferham is fit to be covered in electrocuting stick-n-shock! Should she fall? One of the men will point, and the other two try to gather her up.

For her part, Clokwerk gasps on the ground, barely conscious, and bleeding out as she reaches for Ferham.

"N...no! F...ferry! FERRY! NO! DREKHEADS, TAKE ME, LEAVE MY FRIEND ALONE!" she cries out desperately, more fear put into her than imminent death.

A message arrives in her systems. 'Payback'. It's unsigned.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     Thankfully, Ferham had been able to catch that last parting shot arrow from Xau'ra and snaps it right in half with her left hand, however she's taken by surprise by the sudden volley of what seemed to be long metal darts. Her green eyes went wide as the electricity rocked through her, leaving the winged femmebot spiraling to the ground--not quite unlike a bird after a strike against glass. She's left in a heap somewhere off in the dark desert, and soon she is apparently spirited away.

     Back at the base, the remaining robo dog is likely trying to still fight and flee, whichever comes first, however it is soon caught by a peppering of the turret crossfire and yelps as it explodes in a red and orange blossom of fire and shrapnel. It's how you say... a ruff deal.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Black Arachnia goes even flatter on the ground again as the humvees come out of *nowhere* and their occupants start showering bullets all over the place. The fact that they seem more focused on the Confederates than the Union personnel is, all things considered, relatively small comfort ... the Maximal spider HATES not knowing what's going on at a moment like this.

For a start, she goes for a high-resolution, trans-spectrum scan of the vehicles, trying to find ANY kind of identifying marking - heck, she'd take a license plate number. She also takes the precaution of re-engaging her electro-disruptor, going completely invisible (which state she did not maintain while she was hacking, of note), and seeing if she can sidle out from under the machine-gun fire that was intended to keep her from going anywhere.

If that doesn't work, she plays nicely and stays hunkered down where she was. Intel on somebody who's got it in for your enemies isn't worth extraneous bullet holes.

Xau'ra Tayuun (548) has posed:
Xau'ra lowers his bow, there is a bit of sweat on his brow mixing in with that thin dark grey fur of his. The battle is over and he ends up putting his bow away with a bit of shake in his hand, before he slides down against the wall he was using for cover, as his hand goes to his side.

"..seven hell dogs.." He mutters to himself. "..worse then Vanguards they are.."

Blurr has posed:
    Suddenly strange men in black vehicles drive up and appear to be after Ferham. Not to kill her, but to stun and capture her. Hm, what could they possibly want? The machine gun fire clatters against his armor but doesn't do a whole lot of damage.

    He ends up doing the same thing Black Arachnia is, attempting to scan them as determine who or what they are. Any kind of clue as to where they may have come from, or any sort of identifying mark or signature he might be able to use to track them.

Miss Clokwerk (539) has posed:
Clokwerk's in too bad of shape to help her friend, as she's spirited away into a van! The efforts of Arachania and Blurr prove relatively fruitless; there's no identification to find, nor liscense plate. They definitely have commlinks from a decently advanced society, but they're /very/ difficult to read, and likely modified versions of cheap, throwaway gear.

These guys are good. They're soon driving away far too swiftly. All Clokwerk can do is bleed, and eventually, pass out. A close observer might hear the woman sobbing.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr grumbles as the scans don't seem to yield much of anything significant. But one thing's for sure. These guys are good, and they -don't- want anyone knowing them.

    Still, they may be swift, but Blurr is swifter. He transforms, his body folding up into a blue and white hover speeder before taking off after them. The speedster doesn't go -too- fast however, just fast enough to keep barely enough distance between himself and the humvee caravan. Enough distance for what? Well, for a small disc-shaped tracker to fold out of a panel on the right side of his hood and fire itself forward in an attempt to take hold on the bottom of one of the vehicles. He belongs to the Intelligence division, as Black Arachnia probably does, so he's equipped for that sort of work. However, given how good these people are, they'll probably get rid of the humvees...but maybe it'll at least result in some kind of lead...hopefully.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
A tracking device. That's one thing Black Arachnia doesn't have handy. She'll have to get the frequency from Blurr - or just tag along when he goes looking for it later.

For now, though - the attempted raid on the depot has been thwarted but good, one Confederate abducted by a third party, the other clearly no longer possessing the will or ability to put up any kind of fight.

As tempting as it is to let Clokwerk bleed out, Black Arachnia actually goes so far as to spin some webbing into bandages of a sort ... admittedly, it's the 'sort' that's going to enfold the hacker in a mildly adhesive coccoon, like a custom-fitted sleeping bag that somebody forgot to sew a zipper into. But she can still breathe, and it SHOULD help staunch the bleeding from bullet wounds or other injuries. Which is really the important part.

Honestly. She's a *Maximal*, killing an incapacitated enemy is a bit too cruel even to her - and showing some measure of mercy to a Confederate helps encourage a similar favor if Black Arachnia (or another Unionite) should wind up similarly helpless at a Confederate Elite's mercy down the line, or so the thinking goes.

Miss Clokwerk (539) has posed:
Clokkie doesn't resist being cocooned, too busy sobbing and calling Ferham's name in equal parts cursing of her captors, and /apologies/. It's only partially the horrific post-drug haze. MOst of it is honest feeling of failure.

The tracker hits the hood. It'll be a good hour before the vehicles stop...and predictably are abandoned. Then the tacker stops, investigations later showing burnt-out wrecks that were once humvees.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Once Clokwerk is suitably webbed - I mean *BANDAGED* up, really - Black Arachnia leaves her in what's left of the battlefield, and starts making her way back to the depot's perimeter proper. She's not entirely sure who's gonig to do the picking-up part, but it's best if the turrets don't open fire - so all the work that went into disabling them is left in place for now. As long as the 'retrieval team' doesn't decide to try wading into the depot to finish what Clokwerk and her buddy started, it's all good.

She might have to make a similar coccoon for Xau'ra, if those bullet wounds are too bad for the mi'qote to deal with until he can receive properly-trained medical attention.

Vertigo (564) has posed:
    SUDDENLY.

That's the appropriate word to describe how Vertigo shows up. She simply unravels out of a point in space in a way that just seems.. well, sudden. Thankfully for everyone involved she's standing at a modest 7 feet tall, rather than towering over everyone. "Ok, Ok! EVERYONE JUST CALM DOWN! I'm going to take care of everything!" she yells, despite the situation as it's going on now. "Now where is ... Um.." she blinks, mumbles something, then comes back, "Where is Clockwerk?!"

Miss Clokwerk (539) has posed:
Clokwerk happens to be about eight feet away, against a tree. There's a pair of elf ears coming from the web-sack, and there's sobbing within.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
"That was quick," remarks the spider, before turning to face Vertigo. "That's your passenger, sitting against the tree," Black Arachnia responds calmly, pointing a leg (and a manipulator arm) at the coccooned Clokwerk. "I presume you'll handle with appropriate care."

Blurr has posed:
    Later, Blurr will have marked the coordinates where the humvee caravan had finally stopped, for investigation later.

Vertigo (564) has posed:
    A sideways look is given the cocoon, then BA, then the cocoon again, then BA again, "What'm I gonna do with all that?" Vertigo asks before she manages to hear Clockwerk inside. "Oh. OH! Oooooooh. You did that thing that spiders do," she mutters. Siiiiiiigh. "Spiders are so weird," she mutters before marching her way over to the cocoon. She pokes it once with a claw, then once with her tail, "You in there? I'M GOING TO GET YOU HOME NOW."

Miss Clokwerk (539) has posed:
Clokwerk mutters something about Ferry, drekheads, and then makes horrible sounds. Eww. Someone's going to need a bath, detox, /and/ healing.

Vertigo (564) has posed:
    The lack of response causes Vee's head to tilt, then there's a thip, and then she pokes again, "OK. I'M GOING TO PICK YOU UP NOW." she yells, and then she scoops up the Cocoonwerk with both arms. "Blech," then she looks over at BA again, "Why did you do the cocoon thiiiing..?"

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
"She was bleeding," is Black Arachnia's simple response. "Any other questions before we go our separate ways?"

Vertigo (564) has posed:
    That actually gets Vee thinking. Pondering. Considering, then, "Oh, I always have questions! I doubt you have time to answer them all. You can go now. Shoo. go spin a web," she says, making a shoo-motion with the end of her tail before glancing at the cocoon again. "OK. I'm going to TELEPORT us now! Don't get sick in there!" And then fwip. She vanishes as suddenly as she arrived.