Scene #4546: My Buddy

Owner	Pose
Danse	Once the business in the Memory Den is concluded, the Elites gathered in and around Goodneighbor are once again free to roam the streets. People here...well, they exist. The streets have a few makeshift shacks constructed, for at least a little privacy, though it seems most of the residents either bed down on dirty mattresses underneath the awnings of buildings, or hope not to get stabbed in the local, otherwise-abandoned warehouses, or pay the cheap rent at the Hotel Rexford. On the topic of that establishment, which even from its exterior has seen better days, a man on the extreme end of his middle age, but still in decent shape, has been watching the comings and goings from the Den for a while now. When he finally senses the opportunity to approach, he seizes upon it. "You the newcomers I've been hearing about," he greets by way of question, with uncommonly well spoken hospitality, considering the toughs and chem addicts most commonly encountered on the streets? "The name's Rufus Rubins. I keep things running smoothly here in Goodneighbor. You know, infrastructure, whatnot. If you're ever in the market for junk, I have a side business out of the Hotel Rexford, too." Yet, something about his tone, and the fact that he's wearing a pre-war mechanic's jumpsuit, says that there's more than just giving out his virtual business card, here, and after a moment, he gets right to it. "If you're up for a job for me, though, I've got a small proposal. I don't know if you've sampled the alcohol of our fine establishment," he seems to have a cynical bite to his tone, there. He knows the Rexford is a dump. "But it's no real secret that a lot of our goods have gone flat and sour. Fortunately, while fixing up some of the terminals, I found something that might help us out. A piece of pre-war tech out there was scheduled for delivery to the Rexford before the bombs fell. I've even got the access codes. If you could go out there, to the Shamrock Taphouse, and fetch that for me...hmmm. Well, caps are fine and all, but if it'll help, I've got other options." His eyes seem to sweep meaningfully toward the giant that looms over Goodneighbor, and in fact most of this side of Boston, the Mass Fusion Building.
Kyle Katarn	There's really no opposition to doing small-time favors for the odd local around here, Kyle's decided. He feels it's a good idea to help around, "We know anything about the tech itself?" Kyle asks, arms folded as he listens for the briefing.
Rory White	Being approached by a wizened-looking man in working clothes has a positive effect on Rory, who turns to face the man and stops her trek across town to acknowledge the man with a polite nod... and listen. "Rory White. Scientist and roboticist, bit of an adventurer these days... if it's technology you're after we should swap notes and work on some trade ledgers! ... afterwards, that is. I'd be glad to go have a look if you're paying." Well, in all honesty, she'd be glad to go have a look and really doesn't care about the caps. But they'll be useful for making an impression in this godforsaken wasteland... When in Rome, as they say.
Silica	"OH! A quest!? Sure!" chimes Silica, grinning internally, and externally. Quests are something she's familiar with! "So, go into the Dungeon, fight the Boss and get the item it's guarding? Sounds simple enough!" she comments, hopping a little in place. "Hmm, Guess I'll have to play Healer still... we don't have anyone else specced for it, do we?"
Jim Raynor	Goodneighbor's not so different from home, really. Reminds Raynor of Mar Sara. Dusty, windy, with a lot of good ol'boys and girls working to make ends meet. The Raiders have been listening for work and, one way or another, James Raynor has made his way to this place at this time. His black power suit is a bulky thing, not too dissimilar from some of the Wasteland powered armors. "Flat and sour? Somehow I get the impression that we're looking for more than a fridge."
Kotone Yamakawa	SO here they were again Kotone was able catch up with her friends and comrades in the wastelands. So here she was clad in her stealth gear and seeminglypretty relaxed all things considered. She listens as the local offers them a job. "So you want us to recover it? Sounds good and fair to me." She looked over to Kotone for a moment. "The name's Kotone Yamakawa by the way." Kotone pauses for a moment as she takes note of style of power armour she's seen before some years ago. She gives Jimmy a look over for a moment. "Sounds like it sir and I'm sorry if this sounds odd but are you from the Koprulu sector? I seen armour like that before from there." She seems friendly enough and honestly just seems curious about the hardskin. <<All hooked up here Rory and if that man is on the job we can likely hook his suit into the network.>> She seems more curious to explore and to find random junk she could tinker with when it came toe the reward.
William Pauwel	The words 'salvage' and 'tech' used in short succession attracts all Wills within a half mile radius. It's like catnip. Or perhaps, Willnip? The Chaser somehow seems to materialize out of thin air just behind Kyle-- or maybe he was always there, and only now chose to poke his head out of the Jedi's silhouette? Whatever the case, there is a Will, now. He is watching intently. "Someone say they needed somethin' retrieved and then repaired?" Will cats, "I think I heard someone say they needed somethin' retrieved and then repaired."
Danse	To Kyle's question, Rory's introduction, and Jim's (correct) guess, he gives a look around again. Just to make sure no competitors from the Third Rail might be listening. "I probably shouldn't say out in public, but it looks like there's nobody untrustworthy around. It was a robot. Some guy that worked there modified a Protectron, and replaced its chassis with a microbrewery. It was a move of utter genius, but...the Taphouse only served a particular brand, and that's when he started to run into roadblocks. It delayed it so much that the planned truck delivery was never made, before, well...you know." After pausing a moment to let the ruins around them speak volumes for him, he continues, "Ideally, it's spent the past two centuries in its charging pod. You can just activate it and it'll find its own way here. Couldn't be easier!" Rory gets a particular followup, though, "Scientist, huh? Not too many of those around nowadays. Or at least, that'll admit to it. The Institute bogeyman's got everybody spooked." Just a bit of friendly advice from a man that's survived longer than most in the Commonwealth, enough to have seen the current environment develop in real time. "If that's the case, though, you'll probably be even more interested in what I've got to sweeten the deal. If, for example, the computer network in the old Mass Fusion building happened to be mostly working, and the Gunners happened to pay somebody to get it up and running...but that somebody also made certain to leave the back door a bit ajar." Purely hypothetically speaking, of course! He takes just a moment to size up Jim Raynor, in particular. He's seen plenty of suits of power armor -- most without a power supply and basically useless, but none quite like that. Silica's enthusiasm gets a slightly uncomfortable laugh. She's not exactly a kid, but young enough to make it a bit awkward. Still, seems that at least somebody is an enthusiast for some of those old holotapes. "Yeah, that's...basically it, young lady. I honestly don't know what might be in the Taphouse. Possibly a bunch of drunken Raiders. Or drunken Radroaches? The usual for this side of town." Map database crosschecks, by those capable, would reveal that the Taphouse is practically on the waterfront, but not terribly far away. It'll be a wide loop from Hubris Comics' headquarters, that Kent Connolly asked to be checked out, but an achievable one nonetheless. With Kotone also seeming to be on board, he gives a broad grin toward her, making the wrinkles on his face furrow in a friendly way, "Good, good. You folks stay safe. I want that robot, but don't stick your necks out too long over it, alright?" At Will's sudden appearance, he hesitates a moment. Stealthboy!? After taking a moment of adjusting his cap, he coughs lightly, "Well, retrieval, definitely. Repair, I don't know. The charging pod was responding to my diagnostics commands, and everything seemed fine. If I had actual admin access to it, though, I wouldn't need folks like you!" With this, he turns to move back toward the Hotel Rexford, greeting a few of his fellow locals as he goes. Seems that he's well known and liked around this town, at least. Hopefully that reputation will extend to strangers! Otherwise, there are no more interruptions by locals, despite a few glances and murmurings from the less chem-addled among them. The men dressed like they're out of an old gangster movie similarly give a wide enough berth, simply watching over things and keeping the peace with their seemingly standard-issue SMGs. The gates out of town are similarly unimpeded. If no other business awaits, then it's back out onto the streets of Boston, or what's left of them.
Jim Raynor	Raynor nods, listening. He'll have to remind himself to sample that brew. Something which people have been waiting two centuries for must be a good recipe. Kotone gets a nod. "I am, ma'am. The name's Jim Raynor. Raynor's Raiders. If you've heard of Koprulu, then I guess you've heard of us. As for the armor, well, it's just a standard-issue CMC-400. Paint's an aftermarket job, though." He stomps out along the dusty Commonwealth streets. "Helluva sight. What happpened here?"
Kyle Katarn	Kyle double takes at Raynor, finding something oddly familiar about the Terran, before he looks back to Rufus. "Built-in brewery huh? That's pretty impressive, I think I've seen a few droids back home with those on. I can see how that might be valued around here..." He rubs his jaw, looking back at the others. "So we got two options, the tap house and the comics shop. Question is, which do we hit first tonight?"
Silica	Silica beams at the older man. "We'll get your item for you mister!" she chirps happily. She may look a little disappointed for a moment when there's no 'QUEST ACCEPTED' banner appearing for her, but eh. "Alright! Lets go beat us a dungeon!" she chimes out, looking around to see who else'll come with her.
William Pauwel	"What, like a brewery-brewery?" Will asks, having emerged from whatever bizarre engineer-dimension he stepped out from. "Tarnation, of all the things to be left behind out here in post-apocalyptia, someone preserved a walkin', talkin' still. Well, can't complain. Ain't like developed got our booze-makin' gear completely on our own." A few helping hands from the past never hurt anybody! "Don't worry! We'll get your 'bot back, sir." And they'll go after that SILVER SHROUD stuff. Will could never think of leaving such an EARNEST FAN without his precious merchandise. The Chaser gives Raynor a big old grin and extends a friendly hand. "Nice to meet you, partner. Name's Will Pauwel, explorer, engineer, gunslinger! I like your armor--" He glances to the others briefly, " I'll need to go pick up mine 'fore we go too far out into the wasteland, though, iff'n that's alright with all y'all."
Kutsuuko Shiratori	Well, she was here last time. No reason not to be around again, right? Kutsuuko is present in the near vicinity at least, somewhere between 'significantly taller than Silica' and 'significantly shorter than Raynor', and wearing that flashy Fenrir jacket again; the scarlet metal armlet clamped around her right wrist goes without saying, as is her left hand being gloved in bulletproof black. Divested of the gargantuan, bright-gold superweapon, she doesn't stick out nearly as badly. Aside from the colour coordination, and stylish, gritty-postmodern look of her outfit, it does come down to tough outdoors wear and military gear slung around her waist, aided by the fact that she's toting around a local machine gun she'd bought from this very neighbourhood, though it, and the associated ammo, looks like it should be far too heavy for her. "Bombs." she inserts unintroduced the moment Jim asks. "Everyone on the planet went missile happy, nuked each other into the stone age, and a couple centuries later, people picked up enough pieces to have guns and beer. Good priorities, but still." She sounds older than she necessarily looks, though mostly in a smooth, cynical, and faintly imbalanced way, since she doesn't present as a teenager. She waves absently at Kyle with her left hand, then gives Will a surreptitious thumbs up with a little smirk involved. "As fun as that ghoul guy was, I feel like something going on at a fusion plant is a little more important. Not the brewery part; getting drunk falls below beating the crap out of criminals, in my factual opinion. Just the fact of where it is."
Rory White	"So retrieving a costume and a booze robot." Rory White ponders quietly... noting mentally that this place is STRANGE, and the amount of favors everyone in this world wants is a bit disproportionate to others. But maybe that's just the nature of being surrounded by dangerous ruins? She files this one away for further debate! "With good reason. Having encountered them once already, I must say their methods are extreme and goals unknown. It's evident that as much as they are hated, the Institute similarly distrusts the Commonwealth. Beyond that... the truth remains unknown. One day I'll turn to ferreting them out, but for now... how does trade in pure water sound to you? I don't believe you can produce good drinks without it!" She offers a brilliant smile to Rufus! "When I visit next time after these errands, it will be with some shipments. A sizable supply." Well... if he has anything to say to that, she'll stay and listen. But for now... out they all go. "Is it just me, or do people seem unusually apt to beseech strangers for favors and jobs in the Commonwealth?"
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa is listening to the man with the plans to hire them explains the item is a robot with a microbrewery. The means to make fresh beer in a place like this? She could see why they'd want it recovered. She listens now thinking for a moment. "Don't worry we'll see what we can do." She looks back to Jim now grinning. "Well it's a good after market mod and I have heard of you to be honest." She doesn't seem intent to go after the bounty it seems. Good new for Jimmy but it's also clear she's interested like hell in that hardsuit. Her own gear might remind Raynor a little bit of a ghost suit, but who knows how things are in the multiverse. Though the rifle on her back looks like something that would be very old where Raynor's from. I'm ready, Rory you got the tac net up? If you do patch Mr. Raynors armour into to it if you can, should you want that support Mr. Raynor. Sorry a force of habit with working with my friend Rory here. She also gives Kutsuuko a look over she's not had many encounters with her but she's been reliable from what she's seen, and that counts for a lot in the multiverse.
Danse	Maybe they're just desperate for help? Or they see relative newcomers as not having prejudices against what they're going to ask them to do. Or, if they can get somebody else to do it, that's less danger they're putting themselves in. Just short of going inside the doors, Rufus stops to say his thanks, before Rory's counter-offer causes his eyebrows to quirk. "Well, can't say I have much use for clean water, myself. I mean, sure, necessities, but in my line of work, it's more about scrap. Stuff to break down into gears, screws, bearings. For water, you're more likely to have luck with Daisy." They run shop just differently enough that he doesn't feel bothered sending potential business to the competition. Anyhow, the streets, yes, if you can still call them that. Piles of debris, and long-abandoned rust heaps that were once automobiles, nestled in the valleys between decaying and neglected buildings. If not the occassional burst of gun fire and explosions heard in the distance, and the fact that Goodneighbor still stands among it all, it might be hard to imagine this place is populated at all. With the multipath reflections of sounds, it's hard to get a good fix on where the sounds of combat come from, and sporadic as they are, it's just as likely that they are isolated and short encounters, rather than a protracted battle. The Mass Fusion building itself dwarfs everything around it, by design, and still has those sandbags, barricades, and alert 'soldiers' stationed outside it. Despite the Gunners' reputation, however, they don't interrupt traffic, as long as they stay far enough away. Perhaps one of those concessions with their, heh, neighbors. Nonetheless, the passages through the relics of the past still do their job. A few of the doors on storefronts even still have oil lanterns that have been recently lit, perhaps marking territory or points of recent interest, by some group or another. The observant might also notice that a few buildings have chalk marks of some sort on the outside, perhaps some kind of signage to alert members of their group to hazards or caches. It's difficult to make educated guesses with such a small sample size. The trail to the Taphouse leads through some of the more historical districts of old Boston, and for those familiar with Earth at all, it might be a bit sad to see the shape of some of these old landmarks and colonial era buildings. Some have collapsed from the weather and neglect, but others have been purposefuly defaced in the intervening years. The sounds of the sea slowly filter in over the creaks and groans of failing infrastructure, before the relative quiet is once again punctuated by sounds of a scuffle, and it's far closer than before. It's, in fact, in the general vicinity that the Shamrock Taphouse should be, and upon approach, or view from the air, the stately and relatively well-preserved building has been fortified, mostly by use of the local choice of defenses: Barbed wire and welded and bolted together sheet metal. The once spacious front windows, below the clover-emblazoned sign, have been boarded up completely, though a string of bare cage lamps have been wired across the facade, along with a single dim lamp illuminating the one obvious point of entrance, the front door. The gunshots are coming from a group of three, one woman and two men, that look like they haven't bathed in several months, while wallowing in the street filth in the interim, and covered in what can only loosely be called armor, having been cobbled together from whatever durable substances they could find. They are under attack by two of the Gunners; one in purely military fatigues, the other with a chestplate and arm plates of actual ballistics armor, and with mirrored shades perched on her face. The former, the raiders, seem to favor improvised weapons made of whatever gun-like materials they could find. The latter, on the other hand, are equipped with laser weapons, the well-armored Gunner possessing one tuned for rapid bursts of fire, the h
Danse	The gunshots are coming from a group of three, one woman and two men, that look like they haven't bathed in several months, while wallowing in the street filth in the interim, and covered in what can only loosely be called armor, having been cobbled together from whatever durable substances they could find. They are under attack by two of the Gunners; one in purely military fatigues, the other with a chestplate and arm plates of actual ballistics armor, and with mirrored shades perched on her face. The former, the raiders, seem to favor improvised weapons made of whatever gun-like materials they could find. The latter, on the other hand, are equipped with laser weapons, the well-armored Gunner possessing one tuned for rapid bursts of fire, the hot red light and bullets intermingling as both shoot at a stalemate from behind cover. Even the Gunners hate Raiders. Or maybe they've also heard of technology here?
Jim Raynor	Jim turns to look at Kutsuuko as she talks. "The more things change, the more they stay the same, huh?" He says it like it's a precious bit of wisdom. "A reporter told me that, once. Ain't nothing growing in nuclear fallout." To Kotone, he says: "All good things, I hope?" The sounds of combat keep him alert, and his hand close to his rifle. "Looks like a stalemate," he surmises. "If they ain't friends of anyone here, we might be able to charge 'em, catch 'em unawares."
Kyle Katarn	Kutsuuko helpfully lays out for Raynor the situation better than Kyle can, and quicker than the Jedi can actually think to do so. "Yeah, what she said." He asides, before he claps the Terran on the shoulder. "Kyle Katarn, Republic special ops and New Jedi Order. I -think- we met once on Mar Sara, but I'm not sure, there's a lot of duplicates out there." He introduces quickly, without slowing down given the circumstances. Introductions out the way, he's quick to lead the way as they head outside the settlement, and move to the streets. He unclips his lightsaber hilt from his belt, and as the team gets to the fusion plant, alert and moving for cover. "Maybe a good idea. Jimmy, can you and the others give me and Silica some cover?" He asks, about to leap over the barrier and spring into action.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa seems to get the idea of what they have to do and she will depart hoping to be able to return with what Rufus had asked them to recover, it. She'll be keeping alert on things as she heads out. She'll not be looking to fight with the Gunners if she can avoid it. She would be happy to get in and get out without any real fuss. After all the Gunners do hate the raiders and might be markedly less worse than other gangs in the region. Then speaking of raiders there's some and it looks like the Gunners are up to something. Are they just cleaning house? Or are they after something in the ruins as well. "Mostly good things, I can scout ahead if you like. They shouldn't notice me once I have my cameo up. Right scouting ahead. Then. Kotone's form will flicker for a moment and fade from view, unless someone looked really damn hard where they would pick up some distortions. <<All hooked up and head on ahead.>> Kotone will figure out who to attack once they have a bit more information. Either way she's going on a head to scout where she can.
Kutsuuko Shiratori	"Yeah . . ." Kutsuuko replies oddly noncommittally to the big guy in power armour. She almost wishes she could say the same. The streets aren't much of anything she recognizes. The time period is much too old, and over the ocean from where she had grown up. Her only exposure to urban areas, for the longest time, had been the faux setup inside the arcology, and the already ruined cities outside. The desolation isn't unfamiliar, nor are the hobo marks designed to lead any other survivors around for the common good, but the sound of those people fighting amongst each other makes it far more depressing, as is the fact that the damage seems to come from pure neglect; or at least, she hasn't /seen/ any perfect holes eaten out of buildings yet. The gun battle takes her a negligible amount of time to assess. She zeroes in on it like a hawk the instant she can hear it, immediately shifting to have her back to a building, gun across her chest, and only turning her head enough to peek the corner with one eye. The short sequence bespeaks someone with very significant combat experience, though not something that seems standardized. "Friends are not, the three are scum, the two are scum to constructive ends. The Gunners are drugged up thugs with guns, but they at least do something like keeping the peace here. The others aren't worth spitting at. Raiders, murderers, thieves, rapists, or some combination. Probably on drugs too. Just kill them. Might as well get points with the people who we'll be seeing a lot of here, right?" She sounds about as dispassionate as she could possibly get, as if she'd consciously written off the people up ahead as even being human. Kyle asks for cover, and he gets it. She advances up two buildings, finds the nearest section of brick, concrete, or reasonably bulletproof metal, then wheels the corner, just enough to fire, and begins laying down rattling salvos of 7.62 from the oversized 'assault rifle' she'd purchased earlier; likely a familiar sound profile out here. She isn't stingy with the ammo either; she has belts of it, and they weren't scavenged here. She burns through a full set of 200, though it isn't spent wildly to suppress the raiders' position either, because the notion of recoil seems like a funny joke in her hands, leaving it up to the grouping she can get out of the chamber and barrel itself. She ceases firing only once Rory's tac-net tells her Kotone is danger close.
Rory White	JIM RAYNOR will find that, if he has the proper communications gear, Tactical Network information's being opened to him - map data, telemetry, and various IFF signatures being provided by a few small drones hovering in the sky and micro cameras and other gadgets that are being carefully placed around town in hard-to-reach locations by tiny drones, powered by solar panels. Rory's working on COVERING the area in surveillance for tactical superiority, though it's taking a while... And Super mutants occasionally being dumb and hitting a building with a rocket launcher for shits and giggles isn't helping, but... In either case, it's startlingly like an Overhead RTS view of the situation complete with color-coded map, so yay! "I'm starting to lose interest in trying to convince people not to shoot each other up." Rory exclaims, sighing, at the sight of yet more violence in the distance...
William Pauwel	Will said he'd be getting his armor. He wasn't lying. The Chaser reappears shortly after the group's departure, but perhaps not in a way they'd appreciate. Bright, fist-sized bolts of blue-white plasma lance right across the no-man's-land that's sprung up between the Raiders and Gunners. The source quickly becomes obvious as an eight-foot-tall suit of armor emerges from behind a burning car. It's an old T-45, festooned with strange plates of jet-black armor that seem to drink in whatever light is unfortunate enough to encounter them. There's a weapon in its hands, glowing blinding blue like some kind of primordial star. "Alright, alright, now see here!" A familiar voice echoed out of the T-45. It's been heavily modulated, but it's also undeniably... Will. Will, who decided to provide the world's most eyesearing unintentional distraction. "Y'all put down your weapons and come along peacefully now! Ain't nobody here needs to get hurt." Crackling spheres of ionized air blossom wherever the Solano's shots land, filling the air with the distinct scent of ozone. "I'll give y'all till the count of three, else I'm gonna have to do some proper law enforcement! And then we'll ALL be regrettin' it come morning!" Welp. Looks like the boy fancies himself a sheriff.
Danse	"Prepare for breach," shouts the mirror-shaded lady Gunner, raising from her shielded position in time to hold up what looks to be a grenade of some sort, but whatever it is, it isn't the familiar and ubiquitous fragmentation pineapple. Her timing might have been perfect for only dealing with the raiders, but it's the worst possible when an incoming hail of small caliber but high velocity begins to spray the vicinity. "What--!? Take cover!" She quickly dives back behind the cover, which more or less amounts to some old, metallic shipping crates that fell off a truck that has long since been removed from the area, even if its trailer remains. The shots mostly bounce off, though a few do penetrate, causing the silt-like remains of whatever it was actually being transported to file out like damaged sandbags. Short of a spectral chemical analysis, it'd be hard to even guess what that dust was originally. The Raiders, unfortunately, due to their positioning, had their backs turned and mostly exposed to all of this. When you're high on chems, you can only focus on so many thing at once, after all. They'd had similar ideas as the Gunners, in their own ways, though instead of a grenade, one had taken an old but durable flip lighter to the cloth end of what must one of innumerable liquor bottles from inside the Taphouse. After lighting it, he'd just prepared to throw it over, when the storm of lead comes in. A few shots graze deeply into his bare and muscled shoulders and torso, but they aren't immediately fatal. What does happen, though, is one shot happens to find the glass of his molotov cocktail, and shatters the vessel of the gelled, and highly flammable, concoction inside, causing both him and his immediate vicinity to burst into flames, "Fffffuuuu---" He immediately drops to the ground and tries to roll it out, but that only makes it even worse. By the time Will makes his stunning appearance, it seems that any hopes for everyone putting their guns down has long since been thrashed. The remaining two Raiders are still alive after the initial cover fire, though one has several blood trails leaking from her body where it has been blasted through by Kutsuuko. This would normally be cause for concern, until she retrieves a syringe of some sort she'd stowed away in the outer belt of a tire she's wearing as body armor, and jabs it into a long-tortured vein directly on her neck, before injecting whatever it was. "Sweet Med-X, what would I ever do without you," she drawls, before she and her remaining comrade begin to shoot at the most convenient and obvious target, the glowing power armor thing. The Gunners, for their part, aren't sure what the hell to make of the current state of this standoff, and are laying low behind their cover, though they do duck as an old bus further down the street, that took more than its fair share of potshots, suddenly catches fire with a small explosion, before being followed by a second one that absolutely rocks the streets, and the bus all but bursts apart into a gigantic mushroom-shaped fireball. Also, the tac-net probably senses a significant rise in ambient atomic fission byproducts. Though not too dangerous this far away.
Kyle Katarn	BYOOOOOSH! Kyle's lightsaber goes to life, a blue blade emerging from the hilt as the night sky is lit up. He's a nimble dude for a guy of his build, running straight for the melee themselves. He's quick to leap towards the Raiders, running in an erratic fashion to evade their fire and he gets within lightsabering distance. LIke Kutsuuko says, these Raiders are dirtbags of the worst kind; really he's more keen on taking them out to ensure they can't keep endangering the mission, and he tries to get at one of the raiders with a swift chop of his saber.
Jim Raynor	Raynor's armor pings the rise in atomic materials but, providing the visor remains down and his armor remains sealed, he'll be fine. Hopefully. No telling when the last time his armor got a good check over was. "They don't seem like the type who'll be coming all peaceful-like, Sheriff!" Raynor calls to Will. As Katarn charges the Raiders, Raynor lays down some covering fire with his gauss rifle, sending a whole heap of megnetically-propelled and incredibly sharp metal spikes down the line. Rory's map is appreciated, too. It allows him to know which angles he should be covering more than others.
Kutsuuko Shiratori	Kutsuuko's face twitches as if she is about to grimace sympathetically, but retains neutrality long before it expresses itself properly, only tossing aside the cap on the disintegrating belt feed into the mess casings that litter the ground around her feet, drawing up another one from around her waist like a seat belt, and fixing it with the bolt in record time. Medical stimulants are far from unfamiliar to her. It complicates things, but not excessively. "Count to three and close your eyes." she commands over the tac-net, suddenly sprinting straight out of cover and right across the open street. In her hand is a cylindrical canister grenade with Fenrir's moon-devouring wolf logo emblazoned on it, which she arms, cooks, and tosses straight away. It tumbles almost artfully into the space between Kyle and Kotone advancing, and the Raiders themselves, detonating exactly on that count of three. Rather than acting like a typical flashbang, with a blinding pop and deafening boom, it hisses and screeches like a rocket, and saturates the area with a full second of sustained brilliance; much of the light and sound in spectrums that lie outside of human senses. It's not something anyone wants to look at, except, apparently, Kutsuuko, who has augments that allow her to stare right at it, for the explicit purpose of taking advantage of those few seconds in combat. Her own gunfire joins Raynor's gauss salvo, sweeping an opposite lane of fire that scissors across his, so that dodging to neither side is safe. She keeps the grouping flat and stable while running, using the gun one-handed after tossing that grenade, until she finds the next building across the road. The radiation at this distance doesn't seem to concern her.
Rory White	Rory's packing very little heat compared to the others here. She decides to take cover behind the rusted hulk of an old car... though her eyes aren't blocked. Those in the sky give her a perfect view of what's going on! She decides to focus on the Tac Net... As she diverts processing power and attention to analyzing the remaining combatants the level of detail increases! Estimated ammo counts based on weapons she can spot, who's been wounded and how badly by visible blood, and likely commanders are all pointed out with various hilighting! "The chance that either the Raiders or Gunners decide to surrender here are basically non-existent." She complains, curled up mopily.
William Pauwel	Gunfire! Will is being shot at! Fortunately, while the T-45 isn't the most amazing suit of power armor ever devised by the US Military, it's still built like a damn tank. Even moreso now that Will's worked his horrifying Frontier magic on it. The ancient war machine stands there and takes it, small arms fire battering its reinforced armor even as its master continues to fill the air with BLINDING PLASMA SHOTS. "I'm warnin' y'all! Count of three! One! Two--" A FLASHBANG GOES OFF. Worse than a Flashbang. This one actually sticks around. Will is fortunately using a scanning mode that filters out most forms of radiation, and by happenstance just so happens to be immune to (most) of Kutsuuko's grenade. It's still pretty awful, though-- some kind of exotic radiation. He switches to thermal feed... Just in time to realize that things are already pretty much FUBAR. "Thr-- aww, y'all ain't even listenin' to me! Shootin' with your guns instead of your mouths!" Will returns fire, but it's kind of half-hearted. He's not even aiming to kill!
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone moves in on the raiders and she just is forced to back up as the cocktail get them she can't help but cringe at the whole affair. She does however move to make an attack on the raiders. Only a few shots here or there. Then the bus goes up and Kotone just inward curses who ever thought fission powered cars was a good idea, with engines like that. Seriously what the hell? She'll focus on bringing down the raiders like some kind of ghost, given how chaotic it is? It would be possible to miss Kotone as she dances about trying to bring down these guys. Kutsuuko's warning is taken and she closes her eyes as she's warned to and she's thankful. For Kutsuuko has saved her from falling prey the munitions that Kutsuuko has made use of also dang those might be quite effected, though with all the firepower here? She really wonders if she should have brought something heavier along with her today. <<Thanks for the warning!>> Kotone will back off to try and help finish the raiders off, the Gunners might be able able to be talked down, but she'll be focusing on the Raiders first given her history with such. <<The Gunners I think are sane enough they might take terms! Rory do what you can with them I'm focusing on the raiders.>>
Danse	Raiders are good for mainly one thing: Raiding the primarily defenseless. While they know well enough to try to duck and weave behind cover, ultimately they're not going to last long against Elite assaults of this caliber. The poor guy that had foolishly tried to drop and roll just ends up being scalded even worse for his troubles, and after a while he eventually stops moving. Rory's tac-net would discern that his life signs will be extinguished completely not long after. The two still standing are basically caught between the Gunners' positions and the advancing force of Kutsuuko, Kyle and Jim. Whether through bravery or being too high to care, they do put up a fight, their improvised pipe weapons firing round after round in response, branching out from the initial tin can (Will) to the others they can readily see, before their own bodies become too damaged to function, even with industrial strength pain killers coursing through their blood, and true panic sets in. The fact that their senses become overwhelmed by the star shell-like device only makes it even harder for them to concentrate, much less to see Kotone advancing on them from a different direction. "I can't see shit," proclaims the lady raider, and she just begins firing wildly at roughly person-level around the street. She actually puts a few bonus holes into her partner while she does so. Even if Will's shots are relatively non-lethal in their aim, his counterparts don't hold back as much. In between gauss shots from Jim, more bullets from Kutsuuko and Kotone, they're slowly succumbing to the inevitable. As wild as they are, their bullets are probably easily deflected by a skilled force wielder as Kyle approaches, as well, and once he's in close, while they do move to try to club him with the butt ends of their guns, it's way too late for their bodies to hold together that well. They're easily sliced and diced into...compliance. The female raider takes it all...laughing, for some reason, as she bleeds out. The male raider, however, doubles over and crumples, seeming to gain a moment of uncommon clarity at the end, "Wish I'd...never started usin'... Wonder how, the old farm's doin'...heh..." He then coughs up some blood, before falling completely unconscious. Scum, certainly. But they still had to come from somewhere. The Gunners had been watching all of this unfold, and the field commander-like one actually looks to be talking into something like a radio handset. Given that it's enormous, it's probably capable of cross-Commonwealth communication, with whatever command structure they may have. "You're certain, sir? ...roger." For whatever reason, after a few moments, something is thrown over the crate she had been using for cover. It looks like a white bedsheet, with the Gunner's iconographic 'skull' logo emblazoned on it. So, not quite surrender, but at least non-interference, maybe? They seem to be cautiously watching, having dug in at their positions. One of their hallmarks from previous encounters is that they're still about the business of things. No use burning assets on something that might be worthless. And if these people do the bulk of their work for them, that'd be just fine.
Jim Raynor	Raynor lets out a sigh, an electronic hiss from his armor's speakers, as he stands over the bodies of the raiders. "They wouldn't listen," he says, probably to Will. "Like some of the Confederate marines during the war. Out of their mind on stims, eyes like pinheads. Jus' chompin' at the bit to put some holes in folks." He glances back, towards the Gunners and their position, and takes note of the white flag. Close enough to surrender for them not to be a problem, yet. "I think things look clear. Move on?"
Kyle Katarn	"Well. That's settled." Kyle tries to not focus too much on the mumbling Raider he DIDN'T cut to ribbons with a laser sword, instead dropping a bacta pack at the survivor's feet. It's practically idiot proof, anybody can use one of those things. "Yeah, cover our backs. Never know if these guys might be faking." He nudges one of the prone Raiders, deactivating and holstering his lightsaber. "Doesn't look like it though."
Kutsuuko Shiratori	Firing wild is one possibility. Hell, Aragami do it sometimes. Kutsuuko is sufficiently far downrange though, i.e. not point blank enough to eat it, that it doesn't seem to faze her. One bullet actually flies directly at her head by pure luck, but the God Eater covers her face with her forearm, and the slug hits with a dull thump, squashes on her skin, and ricochets loudly into a busted window, as if she'd been hit with an overpressurized airsoft gun. Once the firing stops, concurrent with the last raider dropping dead, she shakes her hand as if she'd just banged her wrist, but aside a mark resembling a paintball hit forming on her skin, she seems otherwise fine. She releases the trigger of her weapon, resting her finger on the guard instead, and lowers the gun a few degrees as the flag comes over. Hell if she knows if that's a surrender flag, but they aren't firing now are they? "You guys go inside. Retrieve the pickup. I'll wait out here." she intones blandly into her radio, thumbing her earpiece briefly. She makes no hostile moves towards the Gunners and their cover, but remains close by, like a bouncer watching a group of undesirables to see if they'll try to bluff their way through the door. She briefly checks her armlet display for . . . something.
William Pauwel	Well. Will did try to warn them, but as he watches the heat signatures dwindle away on most of the raiders, EXCEPT THAT ONE GUY WHO IS STILL ON FIRE, his heart sinks just a little bit. Sure, they were drug-addled morons, but... Well, one might still be alive. Maybe. Right? And the Gunners seem to have their heads on straight, so... "...Maybe, still would've been nice iff'n they decided to do the smart thing instead," Will admits to the Ex-Marshall. "Best get a move on ourselves, though, 'fore our friends decide to change their minds." The Solano doesn't actually get holstered as they move into their destination. Its light dims somewhat as Will eases up on the trigger, turning it from a blinding flare to an amazingly effective torch. "I'll take point," he says to the others. "Got this here to light our way, after all."
Kotone Yamakawa	Things are getting a bit crazy and she's more than a bit surprised the Bandits keep fighting. She's not sure what to do however she's going to keep fighting the raiders. There is a lot going on here and she's not even sure about the raiders now as they keep taking the punishment. She hears one goes down and she wonders as they pass out? Dead? She's not sure but for now Kotone is lowering her weapons. Kotone sees the sheet and it seems her faith in the Gunners having sanity is rewarded she breaks off from any attempt to go hostile on them and decloaks now. She seriously does wonder what the hell the raiders were on? What kinda drugs let them ignore that much pain? Still they got an unit to recover and since the Gunners don't seem to be wanting to fight anymore now is the time to do it.
Rory White	Rory emerges from cover once the gunshots stop... and she wanders over to the fallen raider. Her sensors had picked up his show of regret... and as they can also see he's more unconscious than dead... she slaps some weird plum-shaped object on the most obvious wound. Exactly WHAT this thing is, well, only Kotone would know. But one of her larger drones, an Arachnoid, emerges from around an Alley and moves to retrieve the wounded Raider and drag him off after a tactical application of riot foam to bind him up. She might have at least saved a life, maybe. Maaaaybe. "Simply discouraging... these Raiders don't even seem aware of basic tactics and discipline. More firepower than sense..."
Danse	For their part, the Gunners not only don't interfere, they actually pull up stakes shortly after and begin to move out. Perhaps they have somewhere else to be, or they're pulling back to one of their locally defensible positions for other orders, such as where they're holed up in the Mass Fusion building. They do take their blanket-flag with them, though, so THERE. If they are a continued threat, it would have to be through another entrance than the one that is immediately obvious. Pushing into the Taphouse itself is a somewhat cramped affair: The door was never made to accomodate more than one patron coming or going at a time, much less two of them in the trappings of powered armor. The interior is...well, it could be worse. The flooring and most important parts of the structure are intact, even if the bar itself has long since been smash-and-grabbed, probably in the first looting following the bombs. The various bits of furniture, however, such as the tables, chairs, stools and the railings on the second floor billiard hall overlooking the entrance area, are thoroughly smashed up, however. There are a few in decent shape, but they're in the minority. The dust isn't as thick as one would expect with neglect, though. And the bottles of beer on the few intact tables look relatively fresh, in use if not in vintage. This is made doubly clear, in true Goldilocks fashion, by the fact that one of the chairs still has someone in it, as a streak of sunlight beams in through one of the boarded up windows falls over a passed out raider, much like the ones immediately outside, snoring loudly and obnoxiously. At the sounds of footsteps, some heavier than others, though, he suddenly jerks and sits upright, "Nnnh? What the hell? ...shit, boss, there's people here!" After he nervously pulls his gun, a handheld pipe pistol, he suddenly seems not so sure of himself, "You guys are real, right?" You can never be too certain when you had a bad jet trip the night before. It's not too long before said boss emerges. More durably built than the others, he also is packing considerably more firepower than a pipe pistol. Namely a missile launcher, likely looted from a military arms depot in the years immediately after the water, that's not quite levelled at the intruders, but is nonetheless held ready enough to wreck the rest of those stables, along with worse. "You've got ten seconds to explain what you're doing in here, after you shot things up outside, and I better like your answer, scavvers." While they aren't seen, scanners would reveal three more lifesigns than these in the immediate vicinity, likely waiting in ambush on orders. NOT giving life signs are the sickening sight of settlers and even other, rival raider gang members that have been attached to meat hooks for fun and torture. Not to mention the farmer that looks to have been used as a dart board for combat knives, in the old billiard room upstairs.
Jim Raynor	Raynor tries very hard to get his bulky armored form through the doorway without taking out the frame in the process. He doesn't quite succeed and the rest of the time inside the Taphouse is just as cramped. Place looks like a whirlwind has gone through it, that's Raynor's first thought. He stomps along, gauss rifle held loosely in his arms. He stares from sickening sight to horrifying thing, face hidden behind his skull-painted visor. "Ten seconds, huh?" Raynor says, as if he's really considering it, and he draws his huge revolver. "I'll give ya /five/ to drop your weapons and get down on y'knees. I read five of you. Got six bullets. Your choice."
William Pauwel	Will has seen a lot of shit during his time in the Wasteland. A lot of really, really awful shit. But this is the first time he's seen humans stringing other humans up by literal meathooks. Killing people is one thing. Despoiling bodies is another. Mutilation? The display of corpses as TROPHIES? Will feels the blood in his veins run cold. An unfamiliar feeling washes over his brain. The Solano rises in tandem with Jim's own enormous handcannon. Its barrel hinges open, the insides suddenly blazing with the stuff of newborn stars. "Don't think for a second now that those oversized fireworks will do you any good now. You even look like you're going to try anything, and I'll shoot your damn hand off. This thing fires concentrated plasma, so I'm willin' to bet that those rockets will cook right off soon as I pull my trigger." "And unlike my friend here," Will drawls, his armor modulating his voice an octave lower- and adding approximately one-hundred-and-fifty-percent to his intimidation factor. "/I/ don't run out of bullets."
Kyle Katarn	Kyle's one of the first in along with WIlliam, and he's alert and ready for whatever lies in wait. He senses the soldiers in position before he even realizes they're already prepared for guests, and THEN does he see the bodies. "You're welcome, we just got done cleaning up some raiders your people were dealing with." He says dryly, keeping his nerve as he grabs his lightsaber. "I get the feeling you're not gonna let us leave peacefully anyways, fine by me." -BYOOSH- He brandishes his lightsaber again, two-handing the weapon as he takes off in a run. "FINE BY ME!" These thugs he has no sympathies for, that's for damn sure. His lightsaber stabs at one of the door facings, pinpointing one of the hidden raiders' hiding spot.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa either way seeing the Gunners pull out has left her confident they won't get their backs shot out by the. However she's not sure just what the hell is going on in here. Then she sees the boss of the raider band and worse she sees some of the other are the human remains which tell her all she needs to know about these raiders. Something in Kotone snaps and she cloaks again trying go get in around she's gong to try and while everyone else is fighting. She's going to go after this guy likely with her knife. <<animals....>> She tries to keep her anger under control but this isn't going to last long if someone wants to stop her from attacking they better yell at her on the comm asap.
Kutsuuko Shiratori	Kutsuuko does not have one of those fancy sensors that picks up life signs. Well, technically she does, but it picks up Oracle activity, since other people, or even animals, are basically the last thing you expect to find on missions back home. She can hear all that outrage over the radio however; she can hear it echoing out the front door even, and with the Gunners gone, probably hoping the group would wipe the rest of the raiders out, there's no reason to stick behind. She slings the machine gun for the time being, not wanting to test if it'll survive what she plans to do. /Remarkably/ quietly, she slips around the back of the building, and checks the windows one after the other with enhanced senses to scan for an ambush spot. Once she finds one of those raiders lurking in the back, undoubtedly waiting for the heroics, she takes a couple of steps back, a deep breath, a running start- And then crashes straight through the wall. Depending on whether there is any brick or concrete in that wood and drywall, she may be doing this with her shoulder, but either way, she busts in on the unlucky guy she picks out without a hint of subtlety, sweeps her leg out to kick his straight off the floor, and follows up with a hammer fist to his chest before any part of him can return to the hardwood. It's not a secret agent nerve pinch maneuver. Successfully executed, it should probably destroy all of his internal organs.
Rory White	Into the old building the group goes... Rory's straightforward stroll comes to an abupt halt upon detecting movement. She scans left and right, sensors taking in the... rugged environment... and spots the hooks. Her expression goes utterly cold, complete with a scowl. "Scavvers is a badge of honor compared to the term you deserve. Is that grisly display your doing?" She's going to give them one tiny chance to explain just HOW it is not, apparently, their doing. Because MAYBE, just maybe, they only moved in yesterday, but... she doubts that. But her eyes take note of the missile launcher. That could be trouble if it isn't disabled... "Anyone who had NOTHING to do with that, drop your weapons and take cover." In these few seconds, her tactical software works out a firing solution for the missle launcher's main body. She's quite ready to quick-draw a weapon and try to destroy that thing with SmartLink targeting even if it's the only thing she contributes here...
Danse	"Heh...used to know some guys like you," the grizzled and heavily warpainted raider leader, Gaff, says to Will first of all. Something about his speech, even though his fighting spirit has been truly awakened, reminded him of some before times. "The Minutemen were bad for business. Bunch of do-gooders that wouldn't look the other way. Since Quincy, they haven't been a problem." He gives a shrug of his shoulders and rolls them around his neck lightly, loosening it up with a few bone joint cracks. He regards Jim's counter-proposal, as well, with it bringing a grin to his grim visage. Rory gets a glance, as well, and he seems flippant about his answer, "You start going soft and some other gang's just going to show up and take your turf. That's how the world works. Guess we all know how this is going to turn out, might as well get the party started." With this, his finger immediately depresses the trigger on the launcher, practically the same instant that Kyle takes off in his possibly force-assisted sprint, the tell-tale expulsion of gasses blasting out of the vents. The Raider that was still in the dining area panics, holding up his hands, "Wait, boss, I'm still--!" Doesn't seem it matters to Gaff, or that he'd be blowing up most of his hideout. That's when the thing misfires, from a well-aimed and timed shot from Rory, the missile slamming into the roof and exploding the wood and plaster into fragments, as well as shredding and exposing weathered insulation and duct work. Well, it could have been worse, definitely. "...get `em!" The others, that had been hiding out behind cover, soon emerge, just as Jim and others had predicted. The other two are on the second floor balconies, aiming down with their own pipe weapons, one fully automatic, through some miracle of junk engineering. The third concealed raider also appears -- only to stumble with an enormous, cauterized gash torn out of his abdomen. He still tries to jump on Kyle and stab him with his combat knife, a testament to the effectiveness of the cocktail of chems swirling around in his system, but he's quite literally gutted. Gaff, after firing off the guided rocket, wisely and immediately tries to dive for cover behind an overturned pool table, reaching from a cache of additional missiles to try and load another one, before tossing it aside as the misfire jammed it. He's instead got a proper, military grade 10 mm handgun as backup, heavily modified. The sudden forces rattling the building somehow kick a long-disrepaired jukebox into gear, a lever arm plucking a holotape out of its selection and loading it in. Soon after, over the time-worn loudspeakers, and accordingly somewhat tinny, a ballad plays: "He keeps hackin' and whackin' and smackin'!" Yeah, Butcher Pete is probably not the most appropriate music choice for the moment. The stanza plays just as Kutsuuko comes barreling through at one of the ones upstairs (through a quite solid, if mostly wooden, wall, so we'll call it leading with the shoulder for the physics involved). The completely unexpected maneuver not only leaves a gut-melting 'splurp' kind of sound hanging in the air, the now 'you are already dead' raider goes sailing through the half-destroyed railing, falling into the mass of empty bottles behind the bar counter. Kotone, for the most part, remains undetected. The raiders are focused on what they can see. Well, except that one raider that was sleeping when they just walked in, whom is cowering under a piece of collapsed ceiling. "Christ...I just wanted to do chems and drink. I gotta get out of here." Very slowly, he'll start trying to inch his way toward the front door.
Jim Raynor	Even in his armor, Raynor can't help but flinch slightly as that rocket is launched and screams into the roof, throwing wood and plaster and pieces of ceiling all over the place. Pipe bullets are pinging off his heavy armor as Raynor brings his hand cannon of a revolver to bear, opening up with a series of deafening cracks. Bam! Bam! Five bullets, six targets. That's one bullet to spare. He swings to bear on a target, but Kutsuuko is taking care of that one, and so Raynor scopes for another target, in the middle of one of the most interesting bar fights he's been in.
Kutsuuko Shiratori	In some distant, non-preoccupied part of her mind, Kutsuuko feels as if she should congratulate Kyle on his initiative, even if it was hot-blooded half-dark side initiative. Instead, she snags the pipe auto from the dead raider as he crashes off the balcony, plucking it out of the air with one hand, and hitting the butt of her machine gun with her elbow to swing it around her shoulder on its sling, and grab the pistol grip with her other. Thus equipped, she wheels on the second raider at her level impossibly fast, holding down the trigger on both automatic guns at the same time for the few instants it takes her to close in, knock him over and -- just to be thorough, with how many stimulants these guys are on -- empty most of the currently loaded ammo into his chest whilst straddling him against the floor. There are only so many bullets a human chest cavity can stop while retaining its kinetic properties, and so this should also have the effect of suppressing Graff behind the bar once the stronger 7.62 rounds start over penetrating the balcony floor and rattling down behind the bar counter.
Kyle Katarn	Kyle...did not account for the amount of drugs in this guy's system. He blinks as the raider just kind of tries to shrug off the fact he got IMPALED with a LIGHTSABER. He yanks his weapon free from the door, and then refocuses his efforts. He feels a cut along his arm, but manages to keep the pain under control as his lightsaber flourishes and slashes downwards upon the wounded raider, to finish the job then and there. You couldn't even comprehend the light/dark scale Kyle has going on.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone meanwhile is not detected while the riders fight the raider who just wanted to booze and drink will be ignored she's going after the leader. Kotone is nor visible she hears and sees the guy isn't going down. She mutters a small prayer for forgiveness and then rushes in. She's a ghost, a phantom and one that is going use her knife and body's strength. She knows that the guy isn't going down. Gaff and she'll be on him attempting to not slit his throat as he'd keep going but to take out his shoulder joins with the blade and her cyborg strength kotone also switches thermo as she goes trying to use that knife for all it's worth. "Animals! YOU USED THOSE PEOPLE LIKE THEY WERE MEAT AND NOW YOU WILL FACE UP FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!" Kotone is enraged and Rory would know why, Kotone had once basically been a victim of some one with all the power in the world over her. With her attempts on the arms, she'll start going for actual killing blows, she wants this guy down, she will not relish she will not prolong his death she just wants him down.
Rory White	Rory White dives for the bar once the missile goes off. She's not dressed the best for combat, but somehow manages to clear half of the room, robes flapping wildly in the winds of war. She skids awkwardly across the dilapidated bar and drops over behind it. Her weapon is a shredder pistol, insanely lethal against soft targets. Like a rapid-fire shotgun, really. And easily concealed. She doesn't use it though... unless any of the raiders take aim against the one guy who's trying to escape.
Danse	The raider on the second floor that isn't Gaff, well, it's kind of hard to ignore when someone Kool-Aid Mans right through the wall directly down the hall from you. "Ho-lee shit," he barely gets out, before he wheels around to try plugging Kutsuuko with point blank shots from his pipe pistol. Maybe he should have had more situational awareness, however, as it presents a pretty open target profile to Jim, as well, one of the high caliber rounds catching him square in the shoulder, and practically sheering it off once the flesh there stops the impact rippling, "Augh! You, bastard!" He's highly conflicted on who to actually target, but Kutsuuko taking the moment to close in wins out, desperately blasting away with his remaining good arm before she's right upon him. Every round pumped in causes him to convulse, but not immediately pass out. Eventually even chems can't win out against a body's systems shutting down, though, and his head eventually lapses back onto the hardwood floor, gasping out a few last breaths. Kyle is meeting a similarly and surprisingly resilient foe, but he's ultimately not even close to the level that Kyle is. He gets his ounce of flesh out of it, but he's just madly scrambling now, and has left himself completely in range and vulnerable of a follow up strike. He still twitches with weakening force, still trying to shank away, but eventually he slides off the light saber and into the cluttered remnants of the ceiling and a few broken chairs. He's still alive, just barely, somehow, but it looks like he's in enough shock at this point that he's not going to be doing any more stabbing. That leaves Gaff. Well, and the guy currently trying to just leave, that Rory in particular has passively taken note of. Having recovered, Gaff leans over the railing, exchanging hand cannon for pistol shots with Jim, trying to dive back behind the cover of the pool table, every so often. It's thick and was well-made in its era, but it's slowly beginning to ablate from how much it's been shot at by both Jim and Kutsuuko, and by how heavily. He then notices the raider trying to leave, and above all else, this makes the raider leader visibly angry, "You yellow-bellied son of a bitch. You're not making it out if none of us are!" His 10 mm points directly at the barely-concealing table the escapee is cowering behind, and it looks like Rory might have to stage that intervention after all, except... Ugh, why does there always have to be one with a stealthboy? It takes a moment for his body to register the stinging sensation, his shoulder and its various supporting structures being targetted first. Raider armor is made for mobility, but it's not much use against someone literally standing next to you and going for you with a knife. "Ffff--!" He wheels around with this, trying to pistol whip Kotone with his remaining good shoulder, but she makes a difficult target on top of everything else, and the billiard balls spilled on the floor make footing even more treacherous. "Law of the jungle, kid! The strong dominate the weak in this hellhole. You better get used to it!" His preoccupation with Kotone opens him up to more shots from across the bar room, however, and the wounds opening up on his back, while not immediately killing him, do leave him open to far more lethal stabs from the girl. "Gngh...heh. Not bad..." With this, he joins his earlier lackie in falling into the bottles immediately behind the bar. He's still breathing, raspily, but probably not for long unless he's physically treated.
Danse	Once the gun shots have died down and the building grows quiet, including the jukebox which has mercifully gone back to its centuries long slumber, a different sound emerges in the Taphouse. In addition to the expected creaking wood sort of sounds of an old building that's just been wounded, there's...well, there's lights on, definitely. And not just the cooking fire in the old kitchen area that it's probably best not to squint at. (For once, no humans! But who knows what animals some of this meat belonged to.) The power has to come from somewhere, which is where the low thrumming from the basement access comes into play. There's definitely something still working in here, something mechanical. It's likely that's where the 'pre-war tech' would be.
Danse	An investigation of the basement would turn up that it used to be a storage area, but there are also the signs that a tinkerer once lived here, with lots of workbenches, tools, and even a few old RobCo terminals. Sure enough, still loaded into a charging pod, there is a robot of Protectron make, though most of its body has been replaced by a roughly cylindrical tub, with several access buttons on the front. It looks utterly ridiculous, though whomever made it went the extra mile of actually applying a paint job to it, as well as its name, 'Drinkin' Buddy!' in stylized font across the front. There is a terminal directly wired to the charging pod, which seems to issue the commands, but only if the access codes are used. (Or it is hacked.)