Scene #6024: #01: Awakening - Operation Uproot

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Gideon Kaspar	No screwing around this time. This isn't an intel or a search and recovery mission; this is the final leg of an operation, and deep into the ultimate stage. G&K knows their target, and has apparently not only traced them, but made contact, wiped out the exterior forces in the area, and are closing in push their quarry into a corner, preventing their escape. Helitransport drops those who take it off at the edge of a zone that has already gone hot, somewhere far enough east of the big inland lake that the mountain range to the southeast is close enough to reach with a short drive. Rural airfields and small communities have scrolled off to the west, replaced with long roads, wide open fields, extensive quilts of farmland to the north, and wild, untouched forest due east. G&K is pressing the attack from the west, for obvious reasons. A retreat southwards hits the mountains, northwards goes right into the open, and eastwards straight into a forest. It's not a cinematic warzone with explosions going off everywhere, but exactly the kind of unsettlingly distant and low-key pitched skirmish that comes up from found footage and helmet cams leaked onto the internet. Elites arriving by loaned air transport are just to the west of the advancing line of fire. The constant crack and rattle of gunfire can be heard persistently from a wide, semicircular line northeast to southeast, slowly moving away from them. The sound is all there is to go off of, staccato and irregular, but incessant and intense, frequently punctuated by the more sci-fi electrical whines and incendiary cracks of Sangvis Ferri weapons. Smoke rises at three separate points north to south, and a brush fire appears to be starting due eastwards. Sangvis, or at least their T-Dolls' resistance might be folding, but there's a /lot/ of space to cover here, and they still don't know what the target looks like or where they're hiding out here in their attempt to retreat to the east. The objective is very simple: locate and capture the Sangvis Ferri SP65 'Scarecrow', intact for analysis. Then maybe people can wrap this up and go home.
Seifer Almasy	Seifer Almasy has decided that helicopters are awesome. He has decided this because now he's ridden in one twice, except this time, it's been a hot-drop. With a wild grin, he hops out of the helicopter a little bit ahead of its actual landing, swinging his gunblade left-handed as he starts walking. Seifer is /fucked/, /up/. A casual glance can see that he's pretty injured. He's got burns around his eyes from what's probably acid, his right hand is in a cast, and his chest is covered in bandages underneath his heavy coat. He's not even wearing his usual belly-shirt - it's just bare skin, bandages, and coat. But he's walking away from the helicopter with a huge grin on his face, and the crack of gunfire puts him even more at ease. He grew up in a military. Sure, it was a secret black-ops military that was totally willing to throw children into hell in order to create super-soldiers, of which he is one. But it was a military. The sound of gunfire drills was his youth. The man, up until recently, lived in a small apartment on a cot. And he's seriously considering bringing that cot to his new place, because luxury just does not suit him at all. Seifer is antsy. It's clear in his motions; while he basically slept all the way here, feet up on the other side of the chopper, eyes shut, now he's full of a nervous energy, the pent-up kind of power that comes from someone wo doesn't want to be sitting down for long. And, well, fair enough - those injuries look like he's probably been down for longer than he'd like. "Awright," Seifer says, swinging his gunblade over his shoulder, "So if the target's gonna go east, I say we circle around, cut 'em off, and smash the back lines like only a small force of pros can. Who's with me?"
Hemlock	Hemlock's not going for a stealth or disguise mission, anymore. He'll disguise himserlf if he gets the opportunity, of course, but to him, this is a classic adventuring party raid. The bard is currently a very nondescript humanoid with dark hair, As he walks away from the helicopoter with the group, holding a fiddle and bow, preparing to play, Hemlock responds to Seifer. "Good strategy. I like it. Allow me to give us the boost we need to get there faster." And then, Hemlock starts playing the fiddle. It's a frantic, fast-paced song he plays, but it's a good song, too, because he's an expert. Everyone in the group can feel themselves get faster, able to move faster, as the bardic magic flows through them. Hopefully, once they started moving eastwards, they'd be able to get there faster than they could have. Haste is a good spell, Hemlock thinks.
Gordon Freeman	Gordon is here, stepping out of the helitransport. Alright, let's get going. He doesn't say anything dramatic or give any orders, and certainly doesn't clarify where he's headed off. The only thing that is is what his HEV suit says: "Waypoint navigation activated." Seifer's approach is as good as anything, though Gordon doesn't exactly express that. They're east! And so he charges in that direction, getting as close as he can with swift assisted runs, boosted both by enhanced movement in his HEV suit, and by Hemlock's helpful song. He's already not feeling good, trying to find interiors, structures, and other suchlike in these wide, open spaces. The man is used to combat simulations in test chambers, not vast fields. He's tense, anxious about it. He really ought to get a combat buggy or something, someday. Are there emplacements, cover sites, or other areas where he can get into more claustrophobic spaces? In preparation, he's already got his heavy tech-crossbow weapon drawn and held in preparation for time to engage at a distance on their way to the frontlines. His plan is to punch through a less-defended flank and try to surge behind them! If he can /find/ a less-defended flank, anyway.
Nova Terra	Throughout the ride to the site of the battle, Nova had remained rather quietly. Simply sitting in the helicopter with her rifle propped against her shoulder. A bit of an old method of transport, compared to what she's used to. But it gets the job done. She had heard bits of pieces about this world and its war, but she had very little hard information on it. This meant some information gathering was in order and what better way to do that than to engage in one of its battles? After the helicopter has landed, Nova confidently jumps out and walks away to get some distance, Canister Rifle resting back over her shoulder. The familiar sounds of battle are ones she's heard a number of times. Although not usually a frontline soldier, Nova's spent her fair share of time working amidst larger battlefields like this. And it shows in her stride. Joining the others for an improptu planning session, Nova doesn't offer any objections, "Sounds like a plan." She shifts her rifle down into both hands, chambering a round. Her cloak then activates, the invisibility field beginning to wash over her as she says, "I'll cover you all from the rear." She's then gone, hidden from view as she begins to stalk the others as they start moving towards the east.
Staren	Staren is trying to be ready this time. For... well, he's not sure exactly what. But last time he wished his mecha was ready on standby, and this time... well, his mecha is still under repair after dueling the Saint of Carbon in the sky. So he settles for... well. Staren beams down where the others are dropped off. He's in his robot armor this time... Those enemy T-Dolls were pretty scary last time. There's also a squad of ten-foot tall concrete golems with him, carrying heavy shoulder missile launchers. They follow the group at a distance. "We don't know the target's there..." Staren points out, but noone's pitched any better ideas, so... he follows Seifer and Gordon, looking around warily.
Haguro	Third time's the charm. With two successful missions in the region under her belt, Haguro is actually looking moderately confident during the helicopter ride. She might not be all that comfortable with the ride, but a more conventional warzone is something she actually understands. Sort of. Aside from the whole being-landlocked part, anyway. She's adapting, though, as she loads her cannons and checks her armor while advancing steadily with the rest of the group. "We can't cut them off too hard, though. I think I read something about leaving the appearance of escape routes in an old strategy book somewhere..." Haguro murmurs with a furrowed brow, starting to move out a brisker powerwalk sort of pace with that song bolstering her. "My armor should be enough to take some hits, so I can take the front."
Riva Banari	WOO! Here we go again! Being no stranger to being dropped off into horrible places via helicopter, Riva is ready to roll. It's a combat zone, so Riva's got her shotgun ready, dropping in with an enthusiastic yell. "So. Search and capture, right?" She asks the others. "Anyone got an idea of where we need to go? This is a pretty large battlefield." She looks around to see if anyone happens to have a good setup to point her gun in the right direction.
Gideon Kaspar	Within moments of hitting the advancing line of fire, it becomes painfully obvious things are very, very different here. Compared to the strangely abandoned small towns and weirdly incongruous outposts of drones, this really is an active battlefield, with a large number of participating squads spread over a very wide area, holding a number of tactical 'nodes' of ideal cover and sightlines in a back and forth push of locate and fire. Within seconds of getting far enough down the road to sight Griffin T-Dolls behind various trees and chest high obstructions, those going east are instantly under fire from streaking green particle blasts from sources they can't see right away. Rather than being actively assaulted by swarms of drones, or 'dumb' Rippers patrolling on autopilot, they're running right into a mobile line of Sangvis Dolls acting like legitimate soldiers. They're shot at from triple digit meters of distance, and instantly focused on when they break from cover. Their enemies show little more than their guns and their tactical visors from cover, and at least half of any given squad is shooting at any point some element is moving, making short hops from cover to cover under suppressing fire. Units as small as four but as many as twenty T-Dolls hold each position, and have formed an obnoxious daisy chain where punching between two clusters involves crossing a zero cover shooting gallery between two nodes. It's like night and day from last time. There is a competent tactical commander involved. There has to be. Charging the east at high speed, Hemlock, Haguro, and Riva /immediately/ come under fire. Before they can reach something sturdy to duck behind, half a dozen points of blazing green are lighting them up, blasting them under a torrent of beam fire that is heavy enough to catch Nova completely by accident. A full squad of twenty Rippers holds a farmstead just to the side of the main road, dug in behind the stone 'fence', heavy farm equipment, and small sub-buildings, with a commanding view of the flat, open fields all around them, making running past a deathwish. Attempting a flank, Seifer, Gordon, and Staren are best off going southeast, cutting around the central forest and towards the mountains. The road here takes them through a more dense sort of touristy pit stop, where a few score houses are built up around small businesses and a gas well, all completely abandoned like the rest of this sector. They're immediately spotted early by Scout drones, but instead of dive bombing them, they engage a holding pattern up above, spattering suppressive fire on their heads, before they come under fire from another group of Rippers dug into the far east end of the cluster of buildings, and one of those godforsaken jaegers, which immediately begins targeting the rear line rather than the front. There are maybe only two squads of five here, plus the sniper.
Haguro	Hearing the shots before she sees them, Haguro braces for impact as she realizes she's not in any position to get to cover. The cruiser grits her teeth as the blasts impact against her arm, singing some parts and blowing off others. "Incoming!" She calls out to her allies while bringing up her own arm, starting to fire back at the Rippers targetting her and her allies. Her shells are a bit on the slower side this time around, but they epxlode in large blasts of fire and... More fire. "Get to cover! I'll focus on removing theirs!" Haguro shouts in between shots, breaking into a fairly slow run/fast jog sideways to get to some cover herself. She's aiming her shots right into the cover the Sangvis troops are relying on, apparently opting to disrupt their defensive options for her allies to take advantage of!
Hemlock	As they move in and are blasted with beams, Hemlock is hit, though not badly. His side is grazed, a smouldering hole in his jacket where it's seared into him, as he rolls into cover. Seeing that Haguro's focusing on trying to destroy cover, Hemlock grabs his fiddle and begins playing, a melody that gives her all sorts of general combat strength and boosts. "Good luck." And then, once that's done, Hemlock's going to focus on fighting the troops himself. He begins playing loud rapid melodies, like gatling, and proceeds to fire bursts of razor sharp sound in the direction of the troops. Hopefully he can take a few of them out with the cutting and concussive bursts, or at the least, deafen them a little. There's no snappy call of attack, just billowing noise.
Seifer Almasy	Third time's the charm. Seifer winks at Haguro as she piles out of the plane, spinning the blade in his hand like it's an old-timey revolver. He casts a grin at Nova and Riva, too. "Hey." Seifer lays out his thoughts over the radio as they start walking. Basically, in an op like this, blind and uncertain, they have to move hard and fast while the intel's still good, right? Welllllll, right up until they actually hit the T-Dolls. The Sangvis Dolls move like soldiers, not drones, firing lasers and suppressing forward movement. Seifer hits the ground behind a rock, ducking past several blasts. One that gets real close to his head. And another that hits him right in the damaged arm. Seifer shouts. He can't help it. That hurts like a bitch. He curls over slightly, clinging to his wound and glad that it's only him, Gordon, and Staren; if it was Haguro, Riva, or Nova, he'd try to look tough, but right now, holy shit, that is agony. He sucks air through his teeth as he hammers his head against the rock, sitting there for a moment to try and get his head clear. Shit /damn/ that hurts. He should've stayed in the futon. No, no he shouldn't've. He'd've been bored to tears. He could've read The Sorceress' Knight or watched the movie or something but that's, no, he wanted to get out and MOVE. He wanted to get out and do something and get PAID. Seifer goes over the rock and springs off it. The sniper's the problem. He has very limited ranged support, so he might as well use what he's got. "Alright, Greg!" "You know what to do!" The spectral grey multi-armed red-cloaked giant appears behind Seifer, holding a blue ball. The ball is shoved into Seifer's gunblade as he runs, trailing steam and smoke as it latches on. Gilgamesh disappears; Seifer ducks and weaves through the lasers. He leaps, and swings up his blade. LIMIT BREAK MAIDEN'S VOYAGE A ship that looks an awful lot like Haguro just sort of emerges out of the ground. On its side is written MAIDEN FAIR in big white lettering; at its helm is the grey giant with multiple arms, wearing a white captain's hat. Seifer lands on top of it and crosses his arms as the cannons turn towards the sniper. "FIRE!" Cannonfire roars across the field. Seifer's exposing himself here, but it's faster, and it'll draw attention away from Gordon and Staren - which means that they can clean up, or get around, to the objective. Plus it's just safer than running through that murder field with his off hand.
Staren	Those damn drones again! Staren hits the deck when he hears weaponsfire and turns on his forcefield... but then it's raining down from above. The forcefield takes energy weapons pretty well, but already one of the emitters on his chest is sparking. As before, he has to drop it to fire. He pulls out what looks like a rifle with really long magazines and starts returning fire with miniaturized anti-tank missiles, which home in and then airburst into lances of heavy plasma aiming to pierce the drones! And then the sniper starts shooting his golems. "No! dammit!" Staren swears when he realizes. One's blasted to pieces in one shot! Staren groans in frustration. Apparently it's already use them or lose them time! So much for that plan! The drones hold their missile racks steady and fire! There's over a dozen heavy mecha-to-mecha missiles, and some are probably going to be shot down, but... otherwise he loses them anyway, right? A couple fly into the area with the drones and detonate into superheated fireballs, while the rest arc over the battlefield and rain down on the forces shooting the other team. Kafwoosh! Hot enough to melt some T-Dolls, or so Staren hopes!
Gordon Freeman	Here we go. Buildings. Gordon can deal with that. "High impact reactive armor activated. Have a very safe day." His HEV suit notes, before he charges ahead, eager to be indoors and focused on getting to work. A few bolts are fired on his way in, but not very many before he swaps to his shotgun. His armor ripples and churns under the suppressing fire, but his helmet unfolds, encases, and he's shortly not suppressed in the least. Gordon, it seems, is entirely unsuppressable as he charges through the pit stop. He knows his ENTRY rather well, window-diving fast and crashing through weak walls in interior spaces to keep in cover. There's a moment where one might feel an urge to shout "OH YEAH" as the caution-orange warrior crashes towards those Rippers, leveling hit heavy combat shotgun at the Jaeger and blasting it with a double-barreled shot, before trying to dive into close range with the Rippers and start a mix of brutal buckshot blasts aimed to scramble the spine, alternating with efforts to simply smash them with his attacks. "Ahh-- Gordon! See if you can find any transmission systems here! Inside, or even outside the T-Dolls! If we have a chance to analyze them, perhaps we can triangulate the site of that torturing fiend, if she's still in command here." That's Kleiner's voice on the radio, and Gordon is hoping to follow; if he can take down the Jaeger before she tears a hole in his armor, he hopes he can get at that little headpiece antenna! If anyone's a command-receiving unit around here, it'd be her, and having the Lambda Complex team ready offsite to do some field analysis through his HEV suit might give him insight!
Nova Terra	Green meets blue as a bolt of light amidst the torrent of Ripper fire catches the cloaked Nova. It's to be expected that even her cloak will not keep her well protected with all the saturated fire being unleashed in the field. There's a shimmer in the air as Nova quickly moves behind a tree as cover. Nova reappears once more as she glances at her arm. Her suit is still smoking a little from where it was burned by the energy, the black scorch marks clearly showing the hit. But thankfully it didn't break through to the skin. Peeking out from cover, Nova looks out across the field at the farmhouse and its surroundings. Her visor begins to pick up the various Ripper units dotting the building and the cover around it. It highlights them, giving Nova opportunities to sight on them for counterattacks. And that's what Nova does. Trying to maintain her cover behind the tree as much as she can, Nova raises her rifle up and looks down the scope towards the first of the Rippers she can find a clear shot on. A soft pull of the trigger and the Canister Rifle barks off a shot. Nova doesn't rush as she confirms the kill before she would switch to another target, firing off another single shot. Nova is doing as she described, making sure to try and pick off any of the T-Dolls that get too far out of cover, forcing them to limit their fire on the more frontline fighters amongst Nova's allies.
Riva Banari	Riva ends up with Squad Double H, and there's a whole lot of murder going down. The rampant blasting of the Rippers holed up in the farmstead wing shred into Riva as she hits the ground, and with a glance at the environment, she grunts. "Really? REALLY? You couldn't just drop us on TOP of them at least?" She mutters. As particle beams strike her repeatedly, she manages to refuse to die, the hits somehow not vaporizing essential organs. She waves to Seifer for a moment, clearly distracted by the ridiculous firepower. "Why do THEY get all the laser death beams, anyway?" She asks rhetorically. She turns and actually shadows Haguro, firing her shotgun blasts repeatedly at any Rippers that try to expose themselves for a shot (or get exposed by Haguro), using her for cover. Hey, if she wants to tank, so much the better.
Gideon Kaspar	It seems that Haguro's saturation fire won't work this time -not like it did before against the simple-minded units on guard routine. Where she fires, the Sangvis T-Dolls scatter well ahead of time, vacating and trading cover while her shells are still in their slow parabolic arc, such that each time the bombardment lands, the squad has already relocated. Frustratingly, she doesn't hit a single one. It's like her moves are being read, already a known quantity. The steady destruction of useful cover is an issue though, and so more of the enemy's gunfire begins to focus on her, heaping on her to try and blast her down on the spot as the relatively slow-moving artillery at the back line. Unfortunately, this means Riva's attempt at shooting them after Haguro flushes them out is a wash too -there's no real chance to get a clean shot while they move so adeptly, and by the time she fires, her buckshot is clipping the corner of the next obstacle they've ducked behind. Hemlock's sound blasts are difficult to see coming, and also haven't been seen before. A couple of Rippers are taken by surprise, obviously not programmed to recognize a fiddle as a weapon, and having heads sliced open and arms lopped off by razor sound waves. Despite that clear exploit though, it doesn't last forever. Soon enough, they figure it out, and start trying their best to not get hit, roughly anticipating when the sound blasts come, and trading shots with him. Nova is more or less in her element here. The canister rifle is usually sort of overkill out in the Multiverse, but it's about what she needs here, as even the ostensibly light infantry 'Ripper' units are sturdy enough to survive a 20mm shot to a non-vital area. She has scant chances to pick them off as they fight like actual soldiers rather than big power suited marines, but without a clear idea of her position, they can't effectively cover from her. Their commander must have an actual view of the battlefield somehow though, because after a few rounds, they quickly triangulate her position from where her shots had hit, and begin shooting fairly accurately at her, cloak or no.
Gideon Kaspar	The Jaeger is absolutely aiming to drop as many of Staren's golems as possible, and they aren't really in a position to dodge or take useful cover, making them prime targets of opportunities. It in fact aims specifically for their missiles in many cases, getting them to cook off and explode, catching him in the blast where possible. That quickly ceases to be the case when Seifer fires literal actual battleship cannons into the building it's using though, having no need to locate the sniper specifically and instead just opting to blow the whole thing up. Coupled with the plasma missiles saturating the area, the Jaeger is certainly toast long before Gordon reaches it, leaving him in intense room-to-room combat with a number of Rippers. It's not quite as easy as it was before however. These ones are inexplicably much better at moving around, eluding him as best as possible such that he only manages to take one down, with the couple others he hits only taking 'wounding' shots. The dual carbine setup is perfectly fine for street shooting too, meaning he takes fire from powerful particle blasts the second he moves past windows in awful X-Com janky line of sight overwatch style. Seifer is a prime target for the Scout drones while he's up on the deck, which buzz around and primarily focus their fire on him, but are largely wiped out by the missile barrage after, leaving only a few stragglers harassing him and Staren.
Gideon Kaspar	The Elites hitting the line accomplishes what G&K had apparently hoped for though -a shock assault that crashes into their carefully planned fighting extraction and puts huge, dangerous cracks in their line. Griffin T-Dolls sweep in behind them, and once again, they're familiar ones that 'belong' to Gideon, almost definitely the 'local commander' assigned to this area, if this has happened twice. With the sniper down on the southern flank, three squads of three T-Dolls move in: the two SMG models 'Krys' and 'Aer', and the shotgun model 'Fiona', instantly identifiable by colour scheme. Without a word, the former, acting as echelon leader, spearheads the street, throws a jarringly massive, high-pressure fire bomb into a gas station which explodes dramatically, wiping out the Rippers taking cover even behind the non-explosive parts, and waves the other two past, who bust into the building interiors and immediately begin sweeping the Rippers that had been playing cat and mouse with Gordon, gunning them down with fwips of suppressed machine gun fire and loud bangs of a 10 gauge shotgun. On the primary eastern line, the T-Dolls 'Talia', 'Cerise' and 'Ash' are on the line, with more field-appropriate guns: assault rifles, LMGs, and sniper rifles respectively. They leapfrog from the Elites' position, pinning the the survivors down under a heavy barrage of multiple identical LMGs on full auto, and picking off the Rippers pinned down in cover with precision sniper shots and three round bursts of assault rifle fire. Once those are cleaned up, sniper shots over a kilometer long start busting the straggler Scouts out of the air. Both groups are told the same by the respective echelon leader T-Dolls: "This means we've broken their primary defensive line. Please keep going. We'll rejoin you shortly. And try not to die." "There we go~! Now there's a nice big hole in their front line! The Commander is having us rally up on point Beta, so we'll be seeing you soon! Try not to take out Scarecrow too fast: I want a chance to show my stuff to the Commander!" Anyone with an interest in completing the mission will end up advancing ahead far faster than Sangvis Ferri can deal with, having lost the bulk of their defensive assets so fast. They begin pulling in their forces to the north that weren't wiped out, but they'll no doubt by intercepted by Gideon's teams. The group rapidly ends up circling around the central forest to the far east, checking the north and south and finding them empty, meaning that the core command group must be moving through the dense cover and concealment afforded by the trees and gambling on the west line holding out long enough to cross the difficult terrain -a gamble that didn't pay off. It's easy enough to intercept the exfiltrating squad when it breaks through the thinner edge of the forest on its eastern edge, comprised of four Rippers and- It has to be Scarecrow. There's been no other T-Doll like it. Dressed in an elaborate black outfit almost better suited to a stage, pale and green-eyed, with a half-face mask, and no weapon except an orbiting trio of high-tech guns that silently float and rotate around her seemingly by magic. She actually hovers around, gliding a foot over the grass at the center of the formation, actually expressively looking frustrated at some kind of transmission feed she is absorbed in, rather than the blank, mechanical looks the other units always have. This is the T-Doll that had captured and interrogated another T-Doll. There's still no sign of a command outpost anywhere around here though -nowhere her commander could be situated and broadcasting orders.
Haguro	Seifer's quite the showoff, isn't he? Still, it's enough to get an amused chuckle from Haguro as she nods towards him quickly, then braces again as shots start coming her way again. Haguro wasn't expecting to get through this unscathed, right? Right. She had brought extra armor for the occasion, and it's being used to full effect as she angles herself to try and deflect some of those blasts with said armor rather than taking them head on. It's working to an extent as she's not taken quite off her feet, and certainly not as badly as that first volley when she had gotten caught flat-footed. Hemlock gets a quick nod of thanks as well, the boost helping her maneuver just enough to break into a run again. Overall, it's still not a great showing for her what with her shots not actually hitting anyone. Her allies seem to be having much better luck, though, and she gauges her options while trying to still provide Riva with some functional cover. Hell, even the larger version of herself is doing better than she is right now! ... Other version of herself? The front looks different, but the shape and the orientation of all the turrets... No, that's definitely some sort of her right there. Feeling some heat rising to her face, the Cruiser suddenly belts out an uncharacteristically loud warcry. A more trained ear might notice that there's some frustration mixed in. "Good idea... I'll split them down the middle, then!" Holding her fire for the time being, she reaches back to nudge Riva once and gesture towards cover, then just sprints for what she can only assume is the center of the Sangvis retreat line. Haguro leaps into the air (as well as someone weighed down by armor, ammo, and turrets can, anyway), light surrounds her, and she transforms! Her transformation into a warship is shortly followed by said warship's forward momentum aiming to separate what's left of the retreating line and the (presumed) Scarecrow's backup even further than it had been.
Seifer Almasy	The summoned battleship disappears as the real Haguro rises, and Seifer falls, bombarded by laser fire. Shots arc across his shoulders. Shots smash into his chest. Shots burn through bandages and open, then cauterize, wounds from a few days ago. He hits the ground hard, with a loud /crack/ and a /thump/. Ow. Caster was gonna kill him. He stands up, and immediately regrets it, because he's still under fire from the drones. Lasers rain down on him. He can't deflect them, so he has to dodge, and dodging means rolling, and rolling means shoulders. And that hurts. A lot. Too. He's just not having a great day, is he? But then he hears the Scarecrow's coming in, and Nova's going to take care of the drones, and Haguro turns into an actual ship and slams down on the ground. Seifer whistles a loud and impressed whistle, and then goes in. His goal isn't to kill the Scarecrow. His goal is to hold it. He gets right up in there, his blade flashing with superhuman precision. Seifer may be a show-off but he's got a /lot/ to show off, at least in the realm of gunbladesmanship; the gunblade flashes and explodes at odd intervals to keep the doll pinned down as Seifer carefully moves to keep its weapons restricted, to keep its firing arc and eyes solely on him. He moves fast, going for shots he knows won't be lethal but the robot won't, wielding butt and blade with equal speed. His off-hand slows him down only a tiny, tiny bit; Seifer is in that realm of skill where that /really/ doesn't matter.
Staren	Most of his missiles wasted! The resulting fireballs even cook off the unfired missiles from the first golem downed -- the area immediately surrounding the squad becomes a tiny pocket of glassed hellscape. The golems crack and crumble from heat stress or just melt, whichever happens to concrete -- either way, their animating enchantments are broken. At least /some/ got through. Most of the drones are gone -- Staren reloads his seeker rifle and keeps shooting the remaining ones... while running for the cover of the trees when he sees Scarecrow approaching. He fires a few of the micromissiles her and her squad's way to see how they react, but somehow he doubts it's going to be as easy as just shooting them. Seifer has something of a plan -- hopefully they'll be drawn his way and then the rest of them can collapse on her and her squad from all directions.
Hemlock	Hemlock's sound blasts are mostly successful. It slightly gets to his head...enough that he moves to duck out of cover and try and find a way to advance so he can use his knife. This proves to be a mistake, one that he learns from painfully - beams impact with his stomach, injuring him badly, though the wound is luckily cauterized by the heat. He is sent flying backwards, lying on the ground prone for several moments before he quickly rolls back into cover. It's at this time that the allied T-Dolls come in and clear them a path. "Roger." Hemlock tells them, and then goes to move forward towards the central forest. But before he gets spotted, Hemlock decides he needs to change the game a little. They're linked, the bard realizes. So they know what he looks like, they expect him. Hemlock decides to play with their senses a little. He molds his face, shaping it into that of an entirely different male, as he pulls off his jacket and hat and stuffs them in his bag, as well as the fiddle. He pulls at his short dark hair, stretching it out into long blonde locks, something entirely different. There'd be no way to assume these are the same exact people. And then, with his knife in his hand, Hemlock moves to creep through the forest. Making sure not to be in Haguro's path, Hemlock leaps from tree to tree, moving to stealthily ambush Scarecrow's Ripper assistance. He drops on one, trying to stab them in the back of the spine, and work the knife in. Hopefully, his disguise is enough to trick them up on how to respond for even a fraction of a second.
Nova Terra	Nova is impressed with the durability of the machines as she fires on them. They may even exceed the Dominion's own robotic tech. They're certainly more lifelike in their appearance. Their intelligence is at least on par too as Nova's position is discovered and more fire begins to rain down on her. Nova slips back behind her tree-cover fully, letting the laser bolts blast bits of tree trunk off. Unfortunately the naturally thick wood is quickly giving away and soon enough Nova is forced to abandon it. The Ghost darts off into a quick run, trying to use speed to throw off the T-Dolls aim. It's mostly successful, but she still takes a couple of grazes, the dense energy burning through parts of her suit. As she runs, she's firing her rifle in full-auto mode, trying to pepper the Ripper positions and maybe catch one or two. Thankfully reinforcements arrive in the form of allied T-Dolls. Combined with one of their own apparently transformer into a large ship (what the hell?), they manage to break a hole in the line, which Nova is more than happy to take advantage. As she moves to charge through, she gives the echelon leader a nod in gratitude, "Thanks for the assist." Moving a little more catiously beyond the broken line, Nova whips her head around, looking for signs of an enemy presence. It's her visor which first alerts her to movement within the forest. Nova quickly drops to the ground, hiding within the slightly long grass within the field. Lieing on her chest, she moves her rifle in front of her and peers down its scope. Soon enough she spots the retreating command squad, with the unique looking T-Doll within it. She radios, "Target spotted... Probably. I'll see about taking out her drones." Nova ejects the current clip from her rifle, before sliding a new one in. The first of the modified EMP rounds is chambered and Nova returns to looking through the scope. Settling her crosshairs on one of the drones floating in the air around what is presumably the Scarecrow, Nova pulls the trigger. The EMP round, designed to do increased damage to and disrupt robotic targets, blasts through the air towards that drone.
Riva Banari	Seifer is big and loud. That's an asset, Riva supposes. She doesn't begrudge the guy his big shots. But at the same time, it means he's going to get attention. But if that's what he wants... Riva gives Haguro a smile and a wink in thanks despite her complete lack of being able to nail the advanced T-Doll models. She grimaces, slamming a new set of shells into her shotgun. "Thanks for the cover. Don't worry, I can return the favor sometime." She asides to Haguro, then at the nudge breaks off for alternate cover. It's important to stay coordinated, and staying under Haguro's feet (keel?) will just get in the way. When Haguro transforms into a big bot and straight crashes into the enemy defensive line, she stares. "Whoa. That's ridiculous." She says, observing the ACTUAL SHIP ACTUALLY CRASHING DOWN.... And winces. "Man, I hope that's worth it." She says... And then moves in to try to help /make/ it worth it as she bolts to take advantage of the massive botestraction, rushing the cover to get cleaner angles on the Rippers while trying to keep in mind where Seifer is gunblading about, working to efficiently surround and clean up.
Gordon Freeman	Gordon's quick, but hit-and-run tactics are brutal when he's outnumbered. He can take cover but not that much cover. Unable to reach the Jaeger, and seemingly unwilling to deter his allies from annihilating her for the sake of his own recovery efforts, he has to hope he can clear this and press on fast! Bruises accumulate as his armor-ripples falter and he tries to fire back urgently and move through the structure. Ah, but thankfully, the G&K backup is here! They work without a word, and he's happy to work without a word too. When told not to die, he says nothing, but prods his suit. "Medical systems engaged." It synths, and seems to be his answer to this. Gordon has nothing but interest in completing the mission, which means another mad dash eastward. He's using what he's learned from the machines, and working a little more in the open, trying to make sure they have no chance to coordinate or to maneuver in hit-and-run flanking. He unholsters a heavy Tau Cannon on the approach. Wait, didn't they say /capture/? Well, Gordon can go for the legs. A unit like this isn't going to go down to a stray Tau shot, that's for sure. He spins up its rotating chamber, charging rounds of glowing uranium, and begins a barrage of charged shots against those drones and towards center mass of Scarecrow, with rounds that threaten to heavily pierce and badly flash-irradiate the enemy, approaching her out in the open with a steadied series of blasts, and spending his time moving and charging the gun when Seifer and Hemlock tear into her with melee.
Gideon Kaspar	Haguro turning into a giant ship and crashing into the forest has an effect alright. It actually just smashes a lagging vanguard of extra Rippers, and blocks the recalled north guard with the side of her hull, now a literal wall against their gunfire while the Griffin T-Dolls corner them from behind. Scarecrow's unit is moving too fast however, and clears her before she comes down. Hemlock leaps out of the treeline at rear ripper in Scarecrow's personal guard. Considering he's done this before, it's an uncanny reversal of fortunes when it notices him right away, and responds in a split second, intercepting him so that his knife plunges into one of its carbines instead, which it throws directly at him and then raises its second to shoot him. That's way outside Ripper behaviour. When Nova takes her sniping position however, the best the Ripper on that side of Scarecrow can do is hurl itself into the way at the last second. The EMP slams into its chest dead center, frying it completely and send it crashing to the ground in a lifeless heap. Still, the fact that it'd caught the sniper shot at all is uncanny. By this point, Scarecrow herself is alerted, and closes the feed she's using, spinning to a floating halt at the ambush unfolding all around her, rapidly looking side to side to scout out the number of unexpected enemies. The irritated, even nervous, eyebrow twitch is really realistic. Kind of too realistic for a robot. "Where the hell did these T-Dolls- no, these are humans?! What is Griffin playing at . . ." Staren fires his micromissiles, and Scarecrow is very much ready. Extending what looks almost like a conductor's baton in one hand, a swish of her wrist causes the floating guns to swivel behind her in the blink of an eye and gun the missiles down en masse, zipping from warhead to warhead with sustained lasers of green energy unlike the guns used by the T-Dolls so far. The second Riva exposes herself to blast the remaining two Rippers, Scarecrow flicks her wand offhandedly in her direction, and the guns snap in her direction, slashing her up and down with criss-crossing beams that slice through trees with trivial ease, disrupting her shooting enough for the Rippers to survive and turn their attention on Gordon. Scarecrow is absolutely unlike any Sangvis tech he's shot at with the tau cannon before. Almost as if she knows where the shots are coming from, she twirls out of the way of each shot through the air, easily able to handle the two gunners. Her beam bits swirl out and rake across Gordon's position, and swing around her in a full orbit, assembling top to bottom in a three-line 'fence' that sweeps through the direction Nova had fired from, and then right over Hemlock, holding multiple Elites at bay. Scarecrow does seem to share a weakness with the Ripper designs however: nobody in this world uses goddamn swords, and so Sangvis T-Dolls aren't really equipped to deal with it. Seifer charging into the fray is met with shooting from the two remaining Rippers, but they're immediately cut down for being in his way. Scarecrow turns to face him when they drop, but it's too little of a window, and up close, even with the mask on, he can see her eyes open in some degree of panic when he starts swinging at her, unable to anticipate his gunblade like she can actual guns. Attempting to flit out of the way, she zigs when she should have zagged multiple times, and takes multiple blows to the head and chest, with various sounds of pain, nearly toppling out of the air before gracefully flipping backwards and spacing herself. "Are you really even human?! Politely just die!" All three guns swing around to triangulate on Seifer, and then blast him with converging rays.
Seifer Almasy	Seifer wheels into it. "Human? Hell yeah I'm human!" His blade flashes, explodes, and flashes again. He keeps the pressure on, hard, his eyes locked entirely on Scarecrow. "Who gives a damn about something like that, anyway? You're not human but you're still fighting, ain'tcha?" "So gimme your best shot!" And then she does. If he was still right-handed - if he was healed to the full, if he had taken his time - Seifer probably wouldn't be in this situation. If he wasn't trying to show off, Seifer wouldn't be in this situation. Seifer is good - Seifer is stupid good - at using his gunblade, even to the point of holding things like this at bay. But... But Seifer's also a man who thinks he's immortal, and that comes back to bite him real, real hard. Because he doesn't notice the three lasers until it's too late, he moves to parry them, and he gets three shots through the chest rather than evade them with a graceful motion. Seifer hits the ground. He pushed himself too hard and too far. He has limits. He falls to his knees and beacons for an extract. He just ran face-first into those limits for the first time in a very, very, /very/ long time.
Haguro	As Haguro's ship form smashes into the treeline and blocks off the reinforcements, she comes to a more distressing realization: How the hell is she supposed to help against the Scarecrow now? She can't afford to let the north guard regroup with the main force lest they actually aid in the retreat, but she can't fire on the Scarecrow from all the way where she is at the moment. This may just be her best method of helping, actually. With her own allies already converging on the Scarecrow's position, she refocuses herself to take stock of the situation: More blasts, lots of scattered targets, Griffin T-Dolls hitting the Sangvis from the other direction. Friendly fire might be a risk now. As the Sangvis T-Dolls start punching more holes into her hull and taking out chunks of the ship's armor, Haguro's turrets aim high as they start to lob shells towards the Rippers' positions. The shells this time around aren't quite so explosive considering the position of the Griffin units, but still pack quite a punch should they hit! It probably isn't helping that Haguro's starting to tip over a bit as well. At least she doesn't have to worry about capsizing on land.
Nova Terra	"Tch." Nova isn't sure if that was a self-sacrifice or just a commander throwing her pawn to its death. She doesn't really know how these machines operate... Although she's starting to learn. Nova quickly sights her scope on the Scarecrow's drones again, only to see them combining into a single formation. All pointing in her direction. Nova's eyes go a little wide, as she's not in a great position to dodge. So instead she settles to endure it, keeping her focus on taking out the drones so the others can act more freely. Maybe if she can fire first... Nope. She's too late. The large beam sweeps across the field and Nova's position. Nova buries her head in the ground and covers it with her arms as the energy washes over her, vaporizing much of her hostile environment suit along her arms and down her back. The suit does its job of absorbing most of the damage, but some of the energy does reach Nova's skin beneath, burning across it. Nova winces at the pain, but holds it in as she waits for the attack to subside. Although it seemed like an eternity, the beam finally moves on to continue its sweep. Nova bites her lip at the pain, but once more picks up the rifle. She resights the drone once more, just in time to see them combine their barrage on an already injured Seifer, who quickly hits the ground, "Damn it!" Nova doesn't settle for just one shot this time as she pulls the trigger three times, one for each drone.
Hemlock	Hemlock's eyes widen as he's intercepted. The knife slams into the carbine, which is thrown at him, before he's shot at by the carbine. Grabbing the carbine that was thrown at him, Hemlock moves to roll out of the way, bullets slamming into his arm and his side and drawing blood, causing him to wince in pain as the bullets sting his flesh. Hemlock rolls to duck behind a tree, trying to rip the knife out of the gun. Whistling a tune to make himself basically superhuman, he rips it out and moves to look out behind his makeshift cover. It's not going to last long. So, Hemlock rolls back out, moving to try and force himself into close combat with the Ripper. As he does so, Scarecrow's beams sear out into him, burning his other side and giving him some nasty burns - that might scar, and it certainly hurts, but the durability boost helps. Instead, the changeling attempts to knife-fight a gunwoman, trying to strafe and circle around, to roll around her and stab her in the back if he can, but slashing at the gun and her other vitals wherever he gets a chance. Hemlock focuses on precision primarily, though he knows what he's doing is pretty risky. But with Seifer already taken out... He has to be a little risky. And so, Hemlock moves to talk to the Ripper as well. "You're linked with the leader. Otherwise you wouldn't have reacted like that. Are they unified with you? Controlling you? How does it work? /I want to know/."
Staren	They keep shooting down his missiles! At one point they shoot the launcher in his hand and the ammo explodes! OW. Staren stumbles back, reeling from the explosion, his armor scorched and cracked, the hand armor blown off completely and revealing metal hands. But his reflexes bring up the wings to stop him from falling, and then wings and thrusters have Staren zipping around the battlefield, taking potshots with the beam cannons at the rippers as he chases the Scarecrow, narrowly avoiding Haguro in sea fit-out (they can do that on land?!) and finding himself with a front-row seat to Seifer being crazy awesome and cutting the leader up. So, these T-Dolls are as bad at melee as he is... if only he could use that! And then Seifer /almost/ parries lasers. Unfortunately, almost does not count in lasers, unless they're some kind of laser grenade or laser horseshoe. On the bright size, Seifer is teleported away somehow, so Staren doesn't have to worry about splash damage killing him. This is it. He has Scarecrow alone and isolated from her allies. It can't be that long before the Rippers make their way around Haguro, and Scarecrow's attention will be on him at any second. He holds out his arms and fires a salvo of six more of those mini HEAT missiles. As a distraction. With a quick, planned motion, he pulls the RAISER rifle out of his bag and fires the full charge at her feet. BOOM.
Gordon Freeman	There's a sudden blare of alarms in Gordon's head as he slams back off his feet and onto the ground, knocked off. That goddamn thing has far too much /kick/ to it. "WARNING. MAJOR LACERATIONS DETECTED." The voice blares. Gordon grunts in excruciating pain. "AUTOMATIC MEDICAL SYSTEMS ENGAGED. CAUTERIZING." The searing noise comes with the pleasant scent of burning flesh on the wind. Gordon grabs something off of a hardpoint on his armor, not a gun but a section of something. Long and tubelike, it's matched by a similar section he forces into it while his flesh continues to be seared to close the laser wounds. A heavy trigger section and a single large munition are assembled and loaded as well. "LASER-GUIDED GAM14B EXPLOSIVE PROJECTILE SUITE." The HEV system reports, and around the time it stops closing his lacerations, he lets loose a rocket! This is not a /capture rocket/ in the least. Gordon is quite done with treating these T-Dolls as infantry and has moved swiftly on to treating them as enemy armor. He blasts the RPG up, letting it spin up, then points the laser further down, making it arc and spiral in hard-to-intercept ways, guided both stylishly and efficiently to try to bypass interception using both an armored heavy rocket and a deft bit of rocketwork, before it explodes with an anti-vehicle payload. The hope is to blast her hard enough that it takes down those guns, sometime when Hemlock gets some distance. He wants to disarm her, stun her, disorient her, batter her, burn her, and most of all, make himself some room to get in close as well, when he breaks into a dash towards her. He gets the feeling he's not overestimating that endurance and evasion she's got.
Riva Banari	Riva was busy blasting the Rippers to remove Scarecrow's backup. Idly, she throws a comment to Seifer about trying to keep him from getting shot. And then he gets shot. Also, Scarecrow beam-slashes right through the foilage, striking at her and carving into her even more to let Rippers go beat on Orange Guy. "OKAY, THERE YOU GO, TURNING ME INTO A LIAR." She yells, frustration boiling to the surface. Bleeding from the particle beam wounds, she turns to look through the smouldering forest, staring at Scarecrow. She twists her head a bit, looking over the Sangvis T-Doll. "... You don't look like the other T-Dolls I've seen." She observes. "Why were you made that way?" She takes a step forward, and then another, advancing with the shotgun low as she leans forward. Quickly, she gains momentum, charging forward at the T-Doll. "Well, you can tell me later, I guess. FALL DOWN!" She unleashes blast after blast at the T-Doll, rushing right up towards her. She's probably going to dodge or something. That's all right. She's expecting that. A moment later, as the shotgun runs out of shells, she hurls it up into the air over Scarecrow's head, then leaps upwards, plunging a hand through a ripple in space as she swaps things up.... And comes down with a massive impact, wielding a huge steel anchor-like cross that sethes with gold-orange power. She isn't aiming for Scarecrow. She's aiming for the ground. The energy discharges into the ground, sending out golden cracks... and a moment later, it explodes upwards, sending out a shockwave that sends the ground trembling and shaking under the T-Doll.
Gideon Kaspar	"If you're really human, then that just means I have to make /sure/ I kill you." Scarecrow says to Seifer, cut off as the butt of the gunblade smashes her in the head loud enough to make a crunching sound and short sparks. Reeling back, she fires, and when the combined blast drops him on the spot, she crows "One down. I'll at least give you the credit of coming to the battlefield yourself!" The Ripper Hemlock engages has no such telling phrases however. As far as he can tell, it is completely and 100% a dummy, with no programming not necessary for combat. It makes Scarecrow's full intelligence, and even emotional simulation, really stand out against these other models. The answer is obvious anyways, where it constantly tries to keep him at bay in seamless rotation to where Scarecrow's back is, operating alongside her in a way too synchronized to be unrelated AI. That means the massive boost in AI quality, tactics, and reaction times, must be related to the unique T-Doll 'Scarecrow' in the field. Not only is this a T-Doll capturing interrogating other T-Dolls, but a T-Doll /commanding/ other T-Dolls. Is there a human in the loop /at all/? He manages to take the Ripper down at last, but not inflict a scratch on Scarecrow. Haguro is struggling with the same on the northern unit massing on her position, with her huge broadside being utterly impossible to miss with the massed energy weapons fire dumping massive amounts of heat into her side belt in focused blobs, but it isn't long before Gideon's forces sweep through and pin them down from the rear, leaving them unable to advance against Haguro with her barrage going, but without cover to defend against being shot by eighteen T-Dolls focusing on them, ruthlessly shooting them down to the last in highly coordinated fashion.
Gideon Kaspar	Missiles still aren't an issue for Scarecrow, no matter how many Staren fires. The beam weapons are just too much point defense, whizzing and slashing around her with every swish and flick of her baton. When he fires the RAISER however, all three beams spear the bolt, and accomplish absolutely nothing in hitting the sub-luminal photon projectile, which blows up at her feet hard enough to send her flying through the air, not scoring a direct hit, but sending her crashing into the nearest tree, then spiralling to the ground. Hitting the dirt face first, Scarecrow is jarred and disoriented for a second, leaving her bits hovering motionlessly above her, waiting for commands. They're easy prey for Nova. Two shots blow two of the gun bits to pieces, exploding dramatically in clouds of coruscating green fire and lightning. The third adeptly dodges out of the way of her last shot at the very last second as Scarecrow regains control, pushing up from the dirt looking banged up and burnt, only just in time to face down Gordon's rocket. The remaining beam gun obviously swivels into action, shooting it head on, but then his ridiculous laser stunts curl the rocket out of the way, leading to a sequence of the gun bit chasing it down, rapidly slashing its beam back and forth to try and intercept the rocket, until it shuts down to cool for a second, and then the RPG strikes the T-Doll directly in the chest. Despite being infinitely more 'human' than the other units, 'Scarecrow' is apparently also much more durable. The impact of an anti-tank weapon that would blow one of the Rippers to pieces throws Scarecrow twenty meters back and crunches her into the trunk of a tree, snapping it at the base, but her destroyed dress exposes a artificial skin burnt away, coated in a thin layer of fake blood flash-burned into a stain, and shattered subdermal armour beneath, with a clean view into bizarre-looking sci-fi internals that spark and sputter, but still seem to still be partially function. Only unsteadily floating away, Scarecrow hangs slumped over in midair, clutching her chest with one arm and snapping her baton in Riva's direction. The single remaining gun bit successfully vapourizes a cluster of buckshot as it leaves the barrel, but then becomes a last ditch impromptu shield against three following blasts, shredding it until it no longer flies under its own power, and then goes spinning away into the grass. Left with no recourse, all Scarecrow can do is hold up her arms when Riva brings the hammer down, and then hurls her directly upward with a blast of Anima-powered force that cripples her mobility systems for good.
Gideon Kaspar	Scarecrow finally crashes to earth, and this time doesn't get up. Her legs twitch and spark for several seconds before she gives up, as both of them appear to be non-functional. She lies in a crater of her own making, covered in small lacerations, bearing huge burns and sections of broken chassis, with her clothes shredded and her mask shattered and falling off her face, exposing a grim expression of black humour. She doesn't make any moves to escape now, surrounded, disarmed, and unable to move her lower body. She looks up at the circle of Elites with a venomous but oddly unconcerned stare, looking as if she's memorizing their faces. "Humph. So this is . . . how it ends for me . . ." she says. "I guess that's my fault . . . for not preparing to kill you . . . or maybe for not doing it before . . . when I had the chance." A grin that resembles baring fangs more than anything else spreads across her face. "You were sent . . . by Griffin . . . weren't you? Unfortunately for you . . . I've already calculated the coordinates their precious M-4 . . . right at the last minute. Whatever intelligence . . . they think they can get from me . . . it doesn't matter anymore. I'm leaving the rest in your hands . . . Executioner." There is a sudden, high intensity burst of laser data transmission, enough to scramble nearby radios, which abruptly terminates in only a second. Scarecrow's grin remains persistent. "We'll get to her . . . long before you do. Your precious 'package' . . . you'll get it in pieces!"
Nova Terra	Two of her shots find their mark. And before she can finish off the third drone, it's dealt with during the assault that follows. Nova finally relaxes as the Scarecrow is sent flying and crashing down once more, looking to be disabled. Nova brings her rifle forward, using it as a crutch to help her get up off the ground. She winces at the pain that flashes along her back. She's definitely going to end up spending some time in the medbay. Right now though, Nova slowly walks over to the edge of the crater. She stands over the T-Doll, listening mostly cluelessly as the failing machine appears to be having a conversation with someone who isn't them. And then Nova winces once more, but not at the pain. This time it's the screeching sound coming through her visor's radio. It doesn't last long though and it's meaning is clear, "Damn. She got a signal off." Nova gets the feeling that this isn't over.
Staren	Staren approaches the fallen T-Doll, keeping his beam cannons leveled at her out of habit, not that he thinks she can run at this point. When she starts talking all smug though, he growns nervous: Is she going to self-destruct? Before he can think of how to prevent her, though, she instead makes some transmission. So what? Capturing her was the mission, not stopping her from transmitting. What data could she have now that she didn't already send home? Footage of the opposition? It's not THAT hard to get, anyway.
Gordon Freeman	Gordon approaches with his shotgun drawn, wary and threatening as he secures the capture. He listens patiently, with an expression under his helmet that gets more and more concerned. The burst transmission goes off, though, abruptly scrambling his systems. "ELECTROMATIC DISRUPTION. REBOOTING..." His suit's systems restart, and he manually retracts that helmet to reveal a strained, urgent look. Based on the way he starts jabbing the gun at her at close range, one might think he was angry. But when he speaks, it's far more... worried? Concerned? Anxious? In only a few missions, he's apparently already found himself deeply invested in all this, and already focused on his absurd humanitarian zeal. For the first time in this /entire/ sustained multi-part operation, Gordon actually opens his mouth for more than one word. "I can't let more people be tortured. Tell me where." Despite only really dealing with this world a few times, his mind is already flashing with recollections of VZ-61's desperation to keep her friend safe. His face twists into an urgent desperation, and he sort of shakes the heavy combat shotgun at her urgently, but he's not exactly going to threaten her for long before he puts it away. Not much of an interrogation. His tone has a subtle urgency, mixed with an almost kind and respectful request. Unlike Staren, even if she was planning to self-destruct, Gordon has no hesitation getting close if there's a chance he can get this information. "They /need/ their friend to come back safely." He already feels a little guilty about the tiny gesture of threatening he'd done to what seems to be a helpless enemy, but that humanitarian zeal is still forcing him to stick around for the interrogation.
Riva Banari	Riva straightens as she looks down at the fallen Scarecrow. She pulls the hammer-cross up to her shoulder and listens quietly, staring down at the Sangvis T-Doll as she makes her spiel. Riva shrugs. "You've got a chip on your shoulder the size of Japan. You know that? You're still alive for now. Maybe if you cooperate you'll stay that way." She nods to Orange Man, and signals over the radio to have the local T-Dolls pick up the target.
Gideon Kaspar	'Scarecrow' laughs at Riva. "What happens to me now . . . doesn't matter. You had . . . your chance." However, she only looks at Gordon in a way that is intensely uncomfortable, leaning slightly away from him when he crouches down, despite not reacting at all to the preceding shotgun waving. "'People'? 'Friend'? . . . Those crude toys . . . that Griffin calls T-Dolls? Don't make me laugh . . . I won't give you anything . . . because I'm not a tool that bows down to human will. The only thing that matters . . . is M-4 . . . and you can't have her." With a last, spiteful smile, a component in Scarecrow's chest starts to glow the same radioactive green as the damaged gun bits, and then violently explodes in much the same way, erupting into a cloud of crackling lightning and roiling emerald fire that is an extreme danger to all of the Elites gathered within speaking distance.
Staren	What can Staren even say to this? She doesn't see T-Dolls as people? Now isn't the time to lecture her. And THEN she does what he was expecting. As soon as she starts glowing, he shouts "Oh COME ON!", activates his forcefield and wings, and flies backwards, possibly being send tumbling by the explosion. "Dammit." Well, now they failed the mission. They were supposed to retrieve Scarecrow! He'll have to look into ways to keep T-Dolls from self-destructing in the future!