Scene #7542: Girls Frontline: Yellow Zone PI-2

Owner	Pose
Gideon Kaspar	A 'theft' attempt inside the city has been foiled, and indeed, Commander Kaspar's nose was right on the money; literally. A cakewalk bodyguard mission for a daughter and maid of new money, concerned about 'gang crime' in the city, had absolutely turned into sniffing out and engaging with the source of nasty rumours regarding a 'chop shop' of sorts eluding authorities, by way of said daughter and maid being high-fidelity androids (and being told to just not ask). Fully more than half the people in the big, walled city were, it turned out. So normalized as to be on every street, in almost every store, and even going out together without a human member of the group, with the 'newer models' especially being extremely difficult to tell apart. This would, to the canny observer, have put the human population of such a city, without a building under 50 years old, well below the point of possibly being able to maintain any kind of sufficient infrastructure. And now, with the location of a hideout confirmed, and the opportunity to find out what a 'Yellow Zone' is, it starts to become apparent why. You're 'strongly encouraged' to take a ride from a G&K brand (really just the logo stamped onto a retrofitted surplus military vehicle) armoured truck across the desert; or, it'd seemed a desert at first glance at least. The river keeps running fine from the hydroelectric dam and well out into the parched and yellow surroundings, but the truck's wheels kick up nothing but powdery, sterile dirt, and little pieces of black silicate pebbles beneath. The only shrubs and grass to be seen are right by the water, and there isn't a bird in the sky. The eerie wind outside is best left that way --outside-- with the windows sealed shut. They are obviously leaded glass. Gideon himself is in the front seat, but on passenger side, in his red coat over the three piece suit, poring over a data pad and giving directions to the redheaded girl in a half-assed mechanic jacket and gloves at the wheel; his Adjutant Kalina. Riding in the back are the two 'Tactical Dolls', Vivi, with short silver hair, amber eyes, professional white and black dress, and a submachine gun, and Autumn, with the ludicrously high-calibre rifle, and mostly tactical black and camo gear, but cyberpunk pink hair at length. They're a Statler and Waldorf duo of stoic non-commentary, having already finished with the quadrotor drone on the floor. A long drive divorces from the river somewhat, going by GPS and tracking data alone. The scenery eventually changes from flat nothing to being strewn with worn down concrete, broken glass, and old, rusted metal. The bones of an abandoned town soon litter the terrain. Collapsed overpasses half-buried in sand, broken pillars worn down by wind into nubs, husked out stores filled only with empty shelves through broken windows, and houses having collapsed for lack of maintenance, their original laws and streets invisible under the yellow earth. The ride eventually takes you to a mostly intact, but otherwise completely bleached and barren high school building, only really tellable as such by the sight of rusted and sun-bleached desks piled up against some of the windows, and heavy padlocks on what look like gymnasium doors. It's been comprehensively boarded up, and the amount of sand in the singular, small loading bay for bulk deliveries in some happier time makes it impossible to tell how recently it was used. Importantly, it also seems to have been sloppily insulated as a faraday enclosure, turning electronic signals grainy and mostly useless, but only very close.
Kukuru	Kukuru doesn't need to be told twice to take a ride to a given destination as opposed to actually trying to get there herself. It's a good opportunity for a few naps, and she does just that while interrupting each one just long enough to munch on things from a neverending pocket of homemade snacks (which she offers to anyone brave/bored enough to eat them) and to gawk at the landscape before passing right back out. By the time the drive takes everyone to their final destination at the school, she's ready to get back on her feet. She lets out that straining, vaguely mucusy yawn upon exiting the vehicle, but seems to be fully awake for once as she spies the blocked up doors. She's actually dressed semi-appropriately for the job, too, wearing a dark buttoned-up hoodie and shorts instead of her usual frilly fare. "Hey. Do we need the element of surprise or... Um. Any kind of stealth doing this?" Kukuru asks as she stretches her arms out over her head, then does a few twists to get the blood flowing. Once she's finished, she slips her claws on, wiggles the tips together once, then approaches the gymnasium doors to start clearing a path with brute force. The desks, the locks, and the doors themselves aren't spared in her door-wrecking fury, although she does it with all the haste of someone filing their taxes weeks ahead of schedule.
Nova Terra	Nova rides along inside the armoured truck, casually leaning back in her seat. Her large Canister Rifle rests against her shoulder as she simply stares at nothing. The view outside isn't anything new to her. You've seen one irradiated desertscape, you've seen them all. Well, that and Nova had already spent a bit of time tracking the fleeing thieves through part of the Yellow Zone. She's been silent pretty much the whole ride, having spent numerous occasions such as this in trucks, dropships, whatever, waiting for a mission to begin. There's usually not a lot to say. Not for the Ghost, anyway. As the truck comes to a stop, Nova sits up. She waits for her turn to disembark, her armored boots kicking up a light puff of dust as she jumps out. She raises her rifle, pulling back on the bolt to chamber a round as her eyes scan the surroundings for any signs of hostiles. There doesn't appear to be any immediate threat. Nova turns around to face the school building. She reaches out with her mind, trying to sense anyone within the structure. To confirm if they are indeed at the right place. And to get a rough idea of what kinds of numbers they might be facing.
Kale Hearthward	Kale opts to take a ride. "Everything's so dead here..." he comments. "And..." He looks out at the abandoned town. "Dead in more than one way, it seems," he says as they pass into the abandoned town, before his attention snaps to on something in the near distance - which turns out to be the faraday cage, the hawk seeming to sense it well before anyone else can see it. He's on high alert, and wordlessly he gets up onto the top of the truck they're in, senses perked as he tries to see if any immediate threats are in the area.
Chase	Normally, Chase would rather bring his motorcycle. Unfortunately, they have been STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to join inside the armored truck, and there really is no reason not to. So here he is. They spend the entire ride standing stiffly straight, only ever moving once their destination has been reached. An abandoned school. A perfect place to set up base. Or rather the third-best place. As far as he's gathered, apparently abandoned warehouses are most preferable, followed by aquariums. "Do you have a specific plan?"
Tamamo	Tamamo looks substantially more out-of-place in a mil-surplus transport, under leaded glass, traveling through the ruins of a (mostly) abandoned city, than she had while shopping. Having not found anything on the same plane of reality as "camo" in her wardrobe, she's even wearing the same robes. Though at least capable of remaining almost entirely still, tails excepted, for long periods, sharing small spaces is still a more awkward affair than she'd like, without close familiarity with all present. Mildly to that end, she accepts Kukuru's snacks. She even has some of her own, though they're just black-and-tan sugar cookies. Seeing no reason to maintain a personal silence, she spends part of the ride over asking Autumn about clothing colors. Black and pink she sees as a striking contrast, but why the camo gear, going with it? Or is that in fashion, after all? She'd kept the few effects they'd found on the captured fellows that might work for this purpose, and as they come close, Tamamo takes the time to seek out some connection between those items, the ones that may have changed hands as supplied equipment, and anyone who might be inside the building. Being this close makes it somewhat easier to quickly look.
Gideon Kaspar	Before anyone leaves the truck, Gideon helpfully informs everyone "If you have to be outside, limit it to less than half an hour. It's not like I could magic up hardsuits in all of your weird sizes on short notice, but you'll be fine as long as you don't go running out into the wastes. Probably." He says that, but there isn't a single prickle to the literal one geiger counter in the party. He answers Kukuru through the comms, with "No tactical situation doesn't benefit from it. That said, it's not like they really have anywhere to run to. On the other hand, we don't know how many there are, or how well-armed they are, not to mention we need to avoid potentially damaging and stolen Dolls." She can see Kalina press herself up against the inside of the window in shock when she just starts banging on the doors anyways, turning and gesticulating at it, trying to get the commander to look. "Well, so much for that." says Autumn, pulling the charging handle on her giant rifle. "We're not recon models. It was going to get loud either way. Still, I wish the Commander would have entrusted this to me." "Well, we share that thought." "I don't mind having you here. After all, you'll be far out of my way." "True. But we should still gather topological data first." "Let's just send in the Fairy." "Into that enclosed space? Isn't that really risky?" "It's a Fairy." The two pull the drone out of the back of the truck and activate it, causing the quadrotor to rise on its own to a steady head height, and reveal its namesake by projecting a holographic avatar of some kind of chibi anime fairy. "Hey what gives?! I thought we were done!" it squeaks. "Change of plans. We need you to scout out that building." "What? But I can't do that from the air! You want me to go inside?! Isn't that really risky?" "If you do it, I'll make sure you get a software upgrade when we get back." The drone quickly yells "Deal!!" and zooms off into the breach created by Kukuru, the hole in the faraday sealing now allowing it to transmit pulses of mapping data to the group. "Hey Autumn . . ." "Yes?" "Aren't the Fairies a little too stupid?" "Well, their code was written by Persica on a whim after all." "I don't understand the human obsession with giving their tools personalities, much less stupid ones." Nova can detect a number of mental signatures easily. The majority of them have just been kicked into high alert by the forced intrusion. There's half a dozen clustered in a break room of some kind, maybe twenty all in the former cafeteria, several small groups moving through the halls to converge on the gym, and a few scattered groups in places like the gym storage room and cafeteria kitchen, probably performing menial tasks, and many more engaged in a large room almost dead center in the campus. She also picks up the muted white noise of A-Doll mental activity, in that break room and the cafeteria, being surprisingly dim and monotone, and then the much more active and erratic static of just one more in that central area. Tamamo senses an arcane connection between that one room and the keys she'd gotten after Vivi had policed her attacker's pockets.
Gideon Kaspar	"The specific plan is to enter --which is already decided for us, it seems-- while monitoring exits and intercepting any escapees, sweep the building several times to incapacitate or eliminate all outlaws, confiscate illicit tools, retrieve all A-Doll units and parts for return to their owners --at a minor finder's fee-- and collect the rest for a fat bonus from any outstanding bounties and StateSec benefactories." Gideon says to Chase. "If you can avoid killing them without putting yourself in serious danger, then I'd prefer it done that way, but I've exchanged both Vivi's and Autumn's fire control cores to allow them to target humans if necessary." This is easier said than done. No sooner has Kukuru broken down the door and entered the gym, its cheap vinyl floors now covered in tire tracks and motor grease, where it's visible between plastic military crates, than she has come under attack by a score of armed (and frankly half-clothed) men pouring in through the student access corridors. Pointing wildly in her direction and waving on their comrades, almost classical bandits, strapped with more ammo than sense, and oddly committed to wearing any kind of mask they can find (mostly welding and medical masks) form up behind their superior mounds of crate cover and begin firing at her with numerous kalashnikovs.
Kale Hearthward	"No more than half an hour out here, got it," says Kale, taking that seriously. "Right... so we've got a few in there... shouldn't be too much of a problem, right?" He kicks off of the top of the truck, skimming across the ground to follow Kukuru's path of destruction at a steady clip. "I doubt a disguised option would work, anyway, given that they and we are the only ones out here..." Men come pouring in at them. Kale reverses course, skimming back a bit to give himself some space as he starts casting, weaving a wind spell with both hands as he dodges. "Yeah - no way to have done anything but loud, now!" He throws the spell, aiming it down the closest corridor - and instantly, it's as if a localized hurricane has erupted indoors, fierce winds strong enough to move trees and vehicles now blowing right down the student access corridor in the opposite direction the enemy are pouring out of!
Nova Terra	Nova doesn't include herself in the time limit. She brought her own hardsuit! A very tight fitting hardsuit... Which is also decked out with far more features than your average one. Case in point... As the doors are broken down and the group begin to file in to the gym, Nova provides the results of her psychic scan, "We're looking at around a few dozen or so hostiles. I don't have an exact number." The drone she saw head off earlier can probably provide that at some point. Nova does warn though, "And it appears that some are-" Nova was about to say 'coming right at us' but the gunfire kind of cuts her off. The Ghost quickly ducks down to take cover behind a crate. That's a lot of bullets. And while he suit could probably handle quite a few of them, Nova doesn't want to risk it. Popping up from behind cover to return fire doesn't seem especially smart either. So Nova resorts to a different plan. She takes one of the cylindrical devices attached to her suit on her outter thigh, presses a button on the top, then proceeds to throw it over in the direction of those shooting at them. The hi-tech flash grenade explodes in a blast of energy, to disorient the thieves and reduce the amount of weapons fire being sent at the assault group. Hopefully creating more openings to fire back!
Kukuru	"Isn't it? It's pretty sad to see." Kukuru replies to Kale, pausing in her door-wrecking spree for just long enough to look like she might be considering Gideon's warning before sneezing at all the dust and continuing afterwards. She even holds one arm up to let that Fairy pass through, watching the curiously little machine go on its merry way. "Oh, that's convenient... Hey, can you send us pictures of what you see, too?" She calls out to it as it zooms along, stretching her arms overhead again to give herself a break even as she continues inwards without a visible care in the world. Indeed, she's generally aware that there's people inside, but how bad could it be? Getting shot by a bunch of them at once, for one. Bloody goes flying from multiple exit wounds before she gets those claws up and Kale gets that wind going, and Kukuru's advance halts momentarily as she lets her healing handle closing up those wounds. "Tch... That's not very nice. You really should..." She rubs her face lightly as she hunkers down behind those claws upon hearing Nova's warning of a flash grenade. Using her brain juice feels like too much of a hassle, and she's still waiting for that telltale pop of the flash grenade. Once it does (and after hissing from the noise), she starts to move again. With Gideon suggesting that they don't kill everyone they see, though, Kukuru... Actually listens before acting this time! Picking out a conveniently clumped-ish group of targets behind the farthest mound of waist-high cover, she points at them before disappearing in a dark puff before reappearing behind them. Luckily for them, she's not going to try slicing them in half at waist level! Instead, she's just going to bludgeon the shit out of them with her claws.
Tamamo	"Oh, is the environment poisonous? Perhaps that somewhat explains the erratic senses of our opponents. I shall remember to conduct a purification on our return. Half an hour should be sufficient, I think. Now, let us see... ah, the keys? These do connect... in that direction, there. I shall see to this, then. Please excuse me." Tamamo gathers up her dress and makes her way out. She doesn't head in the same direction as Kukuru's firefight, though she does shout, "Call upon me, should you require healing!" while avoiding the lines of fire created by the broken doors and charging-to-cover bandits. Things might be a bit easier with Kale and Nova knocking them about and blinding them, but Tamamo cautiously concludes that a second entrance would still be preferrable, in deciding on a route. Once clear of the vehicle, she leaps, grabs the side of the building with one hand, then flips herself up in a fluttering of cloth and a soft "Yoi~sho," onto the roof. Guided by her earlier vision, she walks straight for the spot directly above where she expects her target to be, drops half a dozen paper talismans onto the rooftop, takes a few steps safely back, and flash-burns her way down with her curses of the Fiery Heavens.
Chase	"I see. I do not need a hard suit, and do not worry about me, I will bring back as many as I can." 'As many as he can' is code for 'everyone he comes across', in this case. Reaching into their jacket, Chase pulls out what at glance appears to be a gun, taking a few steps forward before jamming the barrel of it into his palm. BREAK UP TUNE - CHASER BAT There's a warbled, gruff announcement from the weapon as Chase is suddenly encased in patchwork armor, followed by an additional one as he slots in a miniature silver car into the Break Gunner, which grants him a pair of mechanical bat wings. Wings that he uses to join Tamamo up on the roof. Though rather than join her, he instead looks for a proper entrance into the school. Like a door. There's always a door that leads from the roof to the inside of a building after all... Unless this is one of those more western buildings. In which case, darn.
Gideon Kaspar	The flash clink-clatters into the the far end of the gym. Nova actually hears one of the men call 'FLASH!' but they aren't exactly a well-drilled unit. Pretty much all of the unit except the ones wearing welding masks (for obvious reasons) begin clutching their heads, rolling around, and/or swearing. Most of them continue firing anyways, but the shots are completely blind and wild, more intimidating than lethal. The majority of them end up laid out by Kukuru in short order. The few who haven't been blinded move from their cover, breaking to other positions and trying to flank with what few numbers they have, puncturing Nova's and Kale's cover as it turns out the corners of plastic crates are woefully underprepared for dealing with jacketed rifle ammunition. The corridor that Kale has covered not only throws an entire reinforcement team screaming through the air to slam into the wall at the end, however, but even blocks off the deafening clatter of gunfire that follows. No matter how many of them form up and blast away, creating the most ungodly hallway echo, the bullets get most of the way down the hurricane hall, and then swirl off and bounce into the walls and blow back. After a little while, they realize it's futile, and split up. Vivi enters the gymnasium, and in a distinct change of pace from Nova, pulls the pin on a black and orange-striped canister that is major league baseball pitched to the far end, and blows up like a modestly sized bomb, spraying what is absolutely war crime levels of white phosphorous everywhere that causes the flanking gangsters to run in terror from behind their cover, out into the open. On the roof, Chase finds the generic rooftop access of a rather low budget Soviet-era school building, and trivially makes the strength check to break it open. As he does, the 'Fairy' drone comes flying up, holographically pantomiming a whole panting in exhaustion sequence. "I got it! I got it! Now I wanna go home!" it blurts at him, in lieu of anyone else, transmitting a full interior map, with red dots showing enemy movements. The quadrotor then begins twisting and turning in the air to mimic the little turns and sashays of the dumb anime fairy, displaying bullet dings and scuffs in roughly similar places to holes in the avatar's dress. "Look at this! I almost got scrapped four different times! I want more than just a software upgrade for that!" it whines, then flying off. The stairwell leads fairly easily to either the break room or cafeteria at Chase's discretion. "Please visually verify targets for interdiction." says the radio, from . . . somewhere? "Since we're hoping to seize on-site materiel, I guess there's a limit to how much we can burn. Let's check the storage and then take the faculty corridor to pincer the middle." says Vivi in the gym, now starting to fill with bitter smoke. "Also, interdiction means being shot." "Please. From this distance, I could shoot a cigarette out of someone's fingers. Just be specific."
Gideon Kaspar	Tamamo burns through a cheap and generic concrete roof without much issue, melting a thin sheet of insulation and crisping the corkboard tiles beneath. Inside is obviously a workshop of some kind, with black plastic wrap pulled down over the windows and bright light focused down on benches from overhead. Rather than an automotive shop or something though, it has a kind of grisly surgical theatre vibe, with the way the lights and benches are set up, the sterile masks and gloves on the jumpsuits men hunched over the tables, and the fact that three different bodies are laid out over them. Evidently comatose,with wires jacked into them running to a thoroughly obsolete server bank that is loudly humming from its straining fans, the sight of them is a little unpleasant. Despite the eerie, uncomfortable effect of blank eyes staring up into space like cadavers, one of them is fully unclothed and partially disassembled, while another has an opened chest port and a whole microscope array focused over it for someone trying to delicately pry microchips loose with tweezers. The illusion is unhelped by the literal stacks of black-bagged bodies in the corners, and literally half a young girl's body held up on wires, evidently having been badly damaged at some point during a struggle or transport, and now just being scrapped for parts. There's a lot of muffled yelling from the workshop types when Tamamo breaches the ceiling and lets the sunlight in, mostly obscured by their masks. Four of them grab a selection of machine pistols and shotguns and begin firing in reflexive self-defense, while one starts scrambling to pull disks from the computers and run a fat magnet over the servers, and one more grabs a duffel bag and breaks into a football sprint with it down the halls. Mixed in with them is a single young lady with short hair, a grease-smudged face, a torn up jacket, and an utterly terrified look on her face. Squealing in panic at the disruption, she clumsily dives under a table and hides there with her hands over her head, repeating a thousand miles per minute "I didn't mean to I'm sorry I didn't want to but they made me please I'm sorry don't do anything don't hurt me I mean it I didn't have a choice I'll never do it again please they were just so scary I just want to go home don't hurt me"
Kale Hearthward	"Hah! You face Kale Hearthward, the Gale Empire's East Wind Regalia!" Shortly after splitting up, the enemy forces have something new to deal with - while the corridor of wind is keeping them from reaching Kale Hearthward, it is not keeping Kale Hearthward from reaching them. ... No, not Kale, exactly. At least, not in the same form. "HENSHIN!" THE TAKE ^ ^ STAGE! by force KAMEN RIDER E N C O R E The caped rider stalks the halls - a combination of wind spells and RIDER KICKS seeking the enemy forces out wherever they might detour through the school!
Nova Terra	Nova notices bits of her cover getting blown off as the weapons fire from the thieves whittles down the crate. Nova could probably handle the lowered volume of gunfire much more easily, though she would prefer a better option. That better option comes in the form of Vivi. Or, white phosphourous to be more precise. Though Vivi gets her share of the credit. As the ones trying to shoot Nova out of her cover are instead forced out of theirs, Nova takes advantage of their more vulnerable states. She leans out from her cover, eyeing up shots and firing off several rounds towards the running thieves. Each shot is well aimed, targetting towards a leg belonging to each of the theives. With rounds large enough to do some serious damage and completely put those limbs out of use. They were told that capture was preferable to killing. There was nothing said about seriously wounding them! Nova moves from behind her cover to begin sweeping foward, taking a corridor different to the one that Kale is currently kicking his way through. The floor plan along with positioning of the hostiles show up on her HUD, thanks to the little fairy. Nova uses it with expertise to try and catch the smaller patrolling groups by surprise. The smaller numbers are easier for the Ghost to deal with too, as any of the thieves that do get off well aimed shots towards Nova will find their bullets mysteriously curving away from her shortly before they can strike her.
Kukuru	There may be some small relief for the defenders that have already gone down, as Kukuru actually takes a moment to move/gently toss them over to a wall where they (probably) won't get stepped on if someone was to tear ass towards the exit. Her priority is still actually clearing out the rest of the place with Kale and Nova, though, pointing out some of the stragglers when she isn't busy bashing people's everything in. Eventually, Vivi gets her white phosphorous in, and Kukuru wisely decides to not go anywhere near that shit. She grabs a few of those plastic crates and hurls it at the gangsters rushing into the open, but her attention is soon grabbed by something a little more meaty to work with. Namely, that Fairy's map. With Vivi putting the attack plan together, Kukuru takes a moment to check on everyone's vitals to make sure they're not too injured (and hurling globs of healing nanites at them if they are) before moving onto thenext step: Hitting the storage! Alas, walking there is too much of a chore. "I'll see you there, then. If something explodes on the way... Um. Eh, it'll be fine." Picking out the spot on the map that looks the most like a storage area (boxy, near a main hallway, not too complicated or awkwardly designed), she starts disappearing and reappearing rapidly, opting to just teleport-dash her way there instead of actually using her legs. She's going for speed over caution in getting there, relying on the map and the indicated red dots to just teleport right over the combatants when she sees them and letting her claws with gravity do the bulk of the actual work.
Tamamo	While reasonably certain that she'd be away from the bulk of the opposing side, Tamamo only hops down her newly created roof access after taking appropriate and reasonable precautions for one venturing directly into clearly hostile territory. Bullets that should pierce her, or at least tear through her clothing, instead impact invisible wards, their outline made briefly apparent in incandescent curves and complex geometry as the rounds spark and ricochet. That might be a bit dangerous, beyond the obvious issue of allowing them to continue firing. Some judicious cursework could handle each in turn without damaging the surroundings. However... "Cease," the flaring, Sun-bright goddess commands, searing into the eyes of those unfortunate enough to be looking directly at her a vision of hopeless, unworthy inferiority. Nothing could be meaningfully said to be held back in that moment. Faced with a workshop like this, even being still uncertain of the specific value of these dolls that behave as humans, there's not a trace of gentlness, nor kindness, in the command. The message of the vision she grants them for just that one moment, if its wordless content could be so verbalized, is of an ant beneath the desert Sun. Not only is it futile to resist, but to even try is foolish. One can only lower one's head, close one's eyes, and seek shelter. Whether sunlight might have some specific, detrimental effect on things exposed in this room does not cross her mind. It's a whole two (or maybe three or four) seconds after she's entered the room that Tamamo raises her hand, gestures, fingers twitching, and pulls her mirror down the hole after her, and bashes it into the man with the magnet. The one who ran will be getting away from her, if probably not from others. She has too many things still in the room to concern her. "Now, now. You may stay there, for now. It is hardly safe. I am not your judge, and so, you may come out when you wish." While speaking, she sees about ensuring that her earlier, explosive-impact-style charm doesn't have a chance to wear off, completing the full stunlock procedure by placing sealing ("paralysis" is another, and fairly apt, term) talismans onto the afflicted.
Gideon Kaspar	Yeeting himself down the corridor on a jetstream of justice, there's absolutely no way for anyone to outrun Kale at the moment. Powerful kicks delivered by a HERO OF THE EMPIRE lay men out pretty quickly, or just completely destroy their weapons where they try to use them as shields. Using the map to coordinate movement with Nova, both of them handle the east and west ends that enemies can split up from, and can see in real time where the red dots grab weapons and pour out of the cafeteria. Getting close to the center, they're menaced by a group that has kicked over a couple of tables and mounted a Vietnam-era machine gun behind it, lavishing their company with the gentle care of several pineapple grenades and a hail of heavy automatic fire. Kukuru, reaching the storage area, finds several men, mostly wearing piles of rags and only lightly armed, organizing shelves of mechanical parts. They aren't big, heavy, steel mould and press parts like from expensive equipment, but mainly sealed tubs and trays of finely machined electric gear trains, pneumatic motivators, fibre optic sheaths, heat sinks, computer drivers, and bundles of synthetic material, with the stripped structures of what look like bionic limbs and eyes in there too. They aren't more threatening than a few wild revolver shots in her direction, but their 'storage' is super creepy. Creepy continues to be a bit of a keyword, even for the Elites in the halls. All the shooting and explosions triggers the sound of women screaming, crashing glasses and trays, and then a handful of rather outrageously dressed young ladies run stumbling from the room trying to cover their heads, with a certain lack of fine motor skills in heels. Nova is the one on site who can pinpoint them as the origin of the fuzzy, mutted A-Doll mental signature she'd picked up before. They almost run straight into a masked and suited runner with a big duffel bag under his arm, sprinting from Tamamo's side of the building. After seeing them run for it, Vivi hooks up her visuals with Autumn, and a moment later, a great big hole appears in the corridor wall, and then in the wall across from it. Somewhere between, the machine gun in the way explodes into a heap of spalling scrap and popping ammo cook off. On Tamamo's end, her enemies slow their fire, and then simply give up on the spot, sinking to their knees or lying listless on the ground, staring miserably at the heavily scrubbed, antiseptic-smelling floor of the workshop --even before being subdued with paralytic curses. Evidently, all that gear is meant to avoid getting dust in delicate Doll components, so the girl not wearing even a face mask stands out. It's a few seconds later that she decides to stand out even more, by crawling out from under the table, staring up at Tamamo, and sighing "Oh thank goodness. I thought you were another human."
Gideon Kaspar	The skinny, terrified looking girl in the threadbare jacket then immediately glues herself to Tamamo's side, clinging to her robe and staring at the door from around her sleeves. "I-I'm kind of an inexpensive model; I don't have the specs to do hard work and I'm not made for service, s-so they were going to just dismantle me for parts. I convinced them not to only because I have the technical softs to make those stupid awful cryptographic sequencers. Plus, none of them really know how to operate a neural cloud server, so . . ." Clutching Tamamo's sleeve tightly, she begins whimpering. "I'm so sorry! I know people got hurt, b-but what was I supposed to do?! It's not like a Doll like me can go against a human, never mind fight! It was that or I . . . I just panicked! Humans are so scary!" The keycard mostly seems to correspond to the door that Tamamo just completely skipped; evidently, locking this room down from the rest of the gang was deemed necessary to maintain order and prevent the merchandise from being disturbed, but may also have been this girl's means of hiding from them. Given the knocked-out technician, most of the servers are still intact enough to scrape for financial transactions and contacts later. The physical keys open up the drawers and storages in the room, which will save everyone a lot of work trying to piece things back together.
Kukuru	<<"I think... Yeah, this looks like the place where they're keeping all the doll parts.">> Kukuru relays back to her allies, furrowing her brow at the sight of it all even as she keeps one claw up to avoid having to facetank those revolver shots instead. With how close they are to the parts, though, actually trying to subdue them without risking damage to those parts could be tricky! "Hey. You know you're gonna die if you stay in there, right? But if you join me, you'll have more opportunities to make money /and/ not die when my friends come along. And if you behave, you'll even get to try have some tasty food when we get back. How's that sound?" She asks in an almost sickeningly sweet tone as she steps into the doorway to ensure that there's no way out but through her. She even lowers her claws after the first couple of shots to make sure they can see that serene smile on her face, making sure to insert a little bit of mental trickery to make it far easier to believe that she can be trusted. Then again, Kukuru probably doesn't realize that smiling so serenely might just look even creepier considering what they're surrounded by. It's still an earnest effort, at least!
Tamamo	Mysteriously, the girl recovers from her fright rather more quickly than Tamamo would have expected. With all of the masked men taken care of, and her lips pressed together in increasing disapproval, Tamamo keeps her eyes roving over the disassembled bits of machine-people. She pats the girl, saying, "There, there. No, I do not know what else you might have done. When one's freedom is taken, to submit is the course more expected than to sacrifice, as it becomes a question of time. So it is with humans, though as for Dolls, I do not know." The keys find a drawer. "Ah, how gratifying. I had wondered at this one's purpose." Neither parts nor digital documents mean very much to her as they are, but others will be able to figure that out. Tamamo unlocks each item as she finds it and, satisfied, repockets the key. "Now, though it is somewhat late, know that I am Tamamo no Mae. I come with others, some of whom may be human," it's uncertain, "to rescue those kidnapped. Tell me, how are you called?" After a moment's thought. "And of these cryp-to-graphic sequencers, are these the hypnosis-like tools the men used?"
Nova Terra	Nova is stopped in her tracks by a rather resilient, if impromptu, fortification. The machine gun emplacement in particular is of noticeable annoyance. Preventing Nova from making any further progress. The bouncing pineapple grenades aren't that difficult to handle, suddenly changing course in mid air and bouncing out of range of her thanks to a little application of telekinesis. Of course, before Nova can formulate a plan to take out the machine gun without killing everyone in the room, it quickly becomes a non-issue thanks to a well placed sniper shot. One which has Nova commenting, "Nice shot." With the machine gun out of the way, Nova turns her attention to the half of the cafeteria that she is responsible for. Letting Kale handle the other half. Reaching out with her mind, Nova takes hold of the tables that the thieves are using for cover. And proceeds to send them flying into the thieves, smashing into them and dragging them along into a wall. To be pinned there, the metal legs warping to dig into the wall to hold it there and finish the improvised prison.
Chase	"Good work. And I am sorry to hear." Mashin Chaser's delivery of these lines are extremely flat, bordering on sounding like some sort of canned reply a robot would make. Which isn't far off, given what he is, but he 'cares' in his own way. A kind of way that's more akin to just shoving someone asid and taking on all their burdens. Any way, with the digital fairy addressed, they proceed further in, their goal fairly simple: Patrolling the halls and checking rooms. The job is, after all, to be extremely thorough, and the only way to fully confirm something with one's two eyes. And so Mashin Chaser stomps through the halls, keeping an eye out while also shoving open any classroom door he comes across. His exploration, even though being thorough, is a bit aimless and wide, up until Kukuru and Nova confirm the location of both some active dolls and parts. <<"Is that so? I am on my way to help.">> With an actual destination in mind now, they cut a line towards the storage area while still unhinging any closed door they come across. Just in case.
Gideon Kaspar	Kukuru, making questionable decisions as always, wins the cooperation of criminal warehouse flunkies on dubious grounds for equally dubious purposes. It doesn't seem like they really had much intent to resist. It seems they weren't here because of a lucrative offer or some ideological reason, so there can't be much for them to stay for. They're almost certainly worth much more just being turned in than trying to make them useful, honestly, unless Kukuru really needs warehouse slaves for some reason. Out in the free fire zone, the remaining situation is wrapped up quickly. With their cover sent flying and the grenades bouncing back, the last bastion of banditry hurls themselves away from the choke point and to ground to avoid shrapnel and cooking ammunition. Some of them get up and start scrambling for an exit, going straight towards the impromptu garage adjacent to the gym, and are quickly intercepted by Vivi chasing them at double their foot speed and rather vindictively putting her forty-fives into the soft parts between vital organs with pinpoint precision. She probably could have just punched them or something, but such is her prerogative. Chase arrives after most of the action, in time for the last few, who aren't far enough away to run, to end up squished tight under warped, rusted school furniture, and those who were in the process of being dragged back, leaving little bloody smear trails. The door to the break room crashes open, with half a dozen men wearing ragged military uniforms (no doubt stolen) who are probably meant to be captains, storming out with their weapons readied. However, upon seeing what has already become of the rest of their men, the leader, with a definitely stolen greatcoat, bids them stand down, not keen to get shot and punched up by an almost equal number of heavily armed foes at point blank. His shrewd eyes don't fail to catch the G&K patch. Unfortunately, he seems to assume that Chase is the leader; military or bounty hunter with hired PMC escort. "Well now. Let's not make any rash moves here. Exchanging bullets this close wouldn't be good for anyone, right? We're both men of action, aren't we? Men of means. Men of experience. I'm sure you know the value of what I mean when I say 'parley', yeah? Because I know the value of folding from time to time, and there's something plenty valuable I can exchange for letting us walk." On Tamamo's end, the terrified A-Doll answers her with "T-Tekla." then a blank stare for a few seconds, mouthing 'hypnosis?' in confusion, before catching on with a start. "Oh! Yes! I'm sorry! Those are --well they're the best I could --no wait, they're bad!" She smiles, weakly, and for only a second, when Tamamo specifically uses the word 'kidnapped'. "U-um, is it okay if I don't talk to them? What I mean is, can't you just talk to them for me? I don't want to . . . I don't like humans and I don't like blood, s-so if at all possible . . . can't I just tell you everything and then you can tell them for me?" As far as deals go, this is probably the most trivially easy to fulfill Tamamo has ever been given.
Kukuru	Ever the master of idiotic decisions, Kukuru will actually try to reform these flunkies once things settle down. Whether they actually take to her insistence on trying to turn them towards a better and more productive path* is a story for another day, but nobody can say she didn't try. Well, unless they die horribly between now and then. Either way, she does get the chance to finally radio in back to her allies. <<"The storage area's secure now. There's a lotta parts here, so that should probably go back to the... Somewhere. I picked up a few friends on the way, too, so maybe they can help us move all this stuff out.">> She pauses to give the flunkies a thumbs up, claws and all. <<"Maybe they'll even know something about who else is in on this thing. Just don't be too rough with them, okay?">> *(as long as it benefits the Concord)
Nova Terra	Nova leaves the battered and broken thieves in the cafeteria tied up by the furniture as she begins to move forward once more. There are still some of the recorded hostiles still unaccounted for... ... And here they come, busting through a door at the other end of the room. Nova raises her rifle quickly, on instinct, but refrains from firing as the captains seem to be willing to talk. Nova lowers her rifle, but only a little, as she says, "Whatever you've got to offer better be damned good. And not just money, either. It'll take more than that for me to let you go. It's a principle thing."
Chase	Mashin Chaser blinks underneath their helmet, before removing the silver car from the top of their gun. There's an audible disengage noise as the pair of folded up mechanic bat wings on their back disappear. It's supposed to be a sign of entertaining the weapon by 'disarming' themselves, but given their appearance and the fact they're still firmly holding onto their gun, it probably doesn't accomplish all that he wanted to do. "All right. What do you wish to negotiate?"
Tamamo	There are certain curiosities over Tekla's capabilities, but Tamamo expects those to be largely resolved if she merely continues to listen. "It would be difficult, I think, for you to avoid humans altogether. However, if it is only 'until I return,' from the mission that has taken me hither, then I shall not ask you speak to them, and instead relate these things on your behalf." She could do several things more, but they haven't been asked of her, and she's still very curious about what kind of story this will turn out to be. Tamamo looks about for a place to sit (floorspace generally acceptable, with some dust inevitable given the recent battle), sets her mirror 'down' (floating still in the air, but ignoring her hand motions), and says, "As you please. Tell me, Tekla, of how came you to be here, and from where you were taken, and how you came by this particular skill, and of whom these men were, and what they have done, and so forth. I shall listen."
Gideon Kaspar	Calming down, Tekla sits down in one of the folding chairs and begins regaling Tamamo a tale of spending half of a year with this criminal outfit, having been taken off the street in a 'fifth class citizen zone' while on a store run when working as an assistant at a computer and device repair outlet. Supposedly, it wasn't all that uncommon for people to just disappear, in places very much unlike the upscale walled city the group has come from. Apparently, she also didn't really like her (confusing grey area between owner and employer) anyways, but quickly found out these humans were even worse. Occasionally, illegal types would want their stuff fixed up where there'd be no credit trail and nobody watching, and would pay a lot better than ordinary clientele, and she'd come up with the idea from schematics she could pull from her memory banks; albeit a real hackjob compared to the actual mafia. Of course, the actual mafia isn't really into stealing Dolls; they happen to be the most expensive thing most people buy, and if the skillset and/or model is in demand, an infinitely cheaper and more convenient form of slave trade. Out in borderland areas like this, AI ethics laws don't really hold much sway, and are transgressed either way all the time. She describes the crime outfit as a 'chopshop gang' that mostly gets money from theft and resale, protection rackets from small communities that are between the wasteland area and walled city area, and with occasional big black box transactions to a much larger, better armed outfit, on which she apparently has a fair amount of information. The big capo, meanwhile, is the opposite in terms of cooperation. "I'm negotiating that me my men take two jeeps, the cash and bug-out bags, and walk. And by my men, I mean the ones who aren't already fucking laid out on the ground or surrendering." So, basically just his inner circle. "And in exchange, I tell you who's buying, the code frequencies to get a meeting set up, and all about that big fuckoff machine they're rigging." A beat. "But I'm no idiot, and I'm sure you aren't either, chum. You get a thumb drive with the information encrypted on it, and I'm gonna broadcast the decryption key when I'm three miles away from here."
Chase	"...No." There's a sudden wave of intense gravity that emanates from Mashin Chaser, slowing everything in the room down to a crawl, right before he slams the Break Gunner into the ground below him. The intense gravity becomes practically suffocating, freezing rather than slowing. A world of silence, one that only the Grim Reaper is permitted to move freely in... It really is just even HEAVIER gravity, but Chase prefers the previous description. Arguing semantics with one's self aside, they take the time they've given themselves to systematically shove everyone's face into the ground. It's a 'nonlethal take down', in the sense that he's applying extreme amounts of force to make them a non problem without killing. That doesn't stop them from acquiring head injuries, though. The gravity subsides once he's done, with Mashin Chaser simply standing where he originally was before this all started as he turns on his radio. <<"We did not come to an agreement.">>