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Samira Amirmuaz     After Shen's little admission over the radio, Bradford had been somewhat incensed as he'd piloted the Avenger to their destination, and Samira had sat on the bridge with him, thoughtfully trying to piece this whole business together. Shen's GREMLIN, hacked from a remote location in an utterly dessicated building. There was no life inside, yet the power was still running. This wasn't the type of play ADVENT relied on: generally brute force. "This must be a trap," she admits with a sigh. "I'm not entirely comfortable with this situation. I almost wish we could have convinced Lily to stay."

    Bradford grunts quietly. "She shouldn't have tried to hide this from us. Still, at least we can go into this armed. You've assembled a bunch of incredible soldiers." Samira nods quietly and turns away to watch the screens, slipping her mike into her ear. Bradford is the one who puts out the call. "We're here. Everyone, on the Skyranger. And kid--" He intones darkly in the word he's used to refer to Sokka since his arrival, "Keep the damn chatter down. Those people are relying on you keeping focused and staying alive."

    Once everyone had finished loading up, it appeared that Gunner squaddie Johnson had elected to join her, along with Specialist squaddie Olivera. Lily sat near the front, quietly talking to Firebrand before turning around to greet those who had elected to come aboard. "We've spotted a place to set down about twenty floors up. The actual structure is... Roughly 300. We might be climbing awhile." Her Rov-r beeps and hovers close to her head almost lovingly when everyone straps in, and the Skyranger goes screaming up into the sky.

    The ride is fairly short, roughly thirty minutes. Upon arrival, Firebrand gives the green signal for the all-clear and drops the hatch. Lily and the XCOM soldiers pile out into the light... The area is pretty much exactly how it'd been described: forested, and wild. The building was dilapidated at best, covered in rust, groaning occasionally as the wind touched it. It's not seen habitation for decades, at least. They're currently sitting just above the treeline, facing towards the main building, that rises ever higher... until the top was covered in clouds. They'd landed on an actual landing pad that lead into bridge, a pathway to a wide, yawning entrance into the building itself. There are three rusty-covered masses further on the pathway, but nothing seems to be moving or attacking... yet.
Sokka Sokka nodded when told. Yeah, the pun had been awesome, but now was the time for seriousness. His fingers moved idly to finger his boomerang and sword. This was war and, well, he.... he needed to be serious now. People could die. He could die. It was just like 4 years ago. Back when the fire nation was there.

His foot tapped just a little bit and he was looking a tiny bit pale, but he tried to shake it off. Sure, he knew very little about these things, but he could learn. Would learn. He'd done it before, he could do it again. Probably. His mouth was feeling dry and his hands going cold when the green light came on. He doubted he could talk if he wanted.

He was back in a war and he wasn't sure how he felt about that. He piled out after the others, his face serious, not a peep out of him. It was probably a little... disconcerting considering his normal, carefree attitude. Once he hit the ground, he grabbed his boomerang in one hand, sword in the other, moving with the group quietly as he could.

He'd worn their armor, which was making him feel even more uneasy. It wasn't his armor, so it felt off. Across his back he even had one of the water tribe spears. He probably looked a bit out of place with the others. An abandoned facility? Yeah, he could think of reasons too and it filled him with even more unease.
Alexis Maaka     Maaka does -not- approve of a kid joining this kind of op.

    She doesn't care what Sokka's skill set is, she is damn certain the boy's gonna be troublesome as far as keeping order among the team goes, especially the puns. The way she reacts those puns take a decade off her lifespan every time she hears them.

    She goes for CQC as they arrive at the skyscraper, loading and chambering a 6mm PDW and extending the stock. Her armor whirrs as plates fold into place and her helmet assembles to cover her face. "Thompson, Olivera, with me." She orders, before hopping off the Skyranger and dropping to a knee. She raises her PDW, surveying the LZ, before she takes off for the bridge.
Karian Icefang     Hitching their own ride, the Space Wolves accompany Big Sky and set down after the XCOM transport offloads it's personnel. The walking tanks that are the space wolves set up shop, and check their gear. Explosive bolt shells? Check. Swords and other melee weapons? Check. Grenades and zealous fury? You get the idea. Karian took the lead, his wolf skulls helm's red optics blazing towards his allies. "Stick close to me if things go bad, Shen. This armor's meant to be mobile cover."
Guest Vivio     Exploring an old ruin to find the source of a strange communication signal... Sounds like fun to Vivio! A good way to spend a Sunday. Probably. Guess we'll find out!

    Vivio was already transformed into her adult form, complete with Barrier Jacket, when she boarded the Skyranger. She passed the flight time doing some kind of work on a holoscreen. But as the signal comes in to prepare to disembark, she dismisses the screen of light and bangs her fists together, "Let's do this!" The little plush bunny floating in the air beside her nods in agreement.

    The Skyranger door opens and Vivio walks out into the open. She takes in the sights of the forested area, but in particular at the overgrown building. She grins at the sight, "It's just like I imagined!" Her Device floats out after her, glancing around for a moment as he scans the area before waving one of his pointed arms, which translates into 'Clear.'
Staren     Staren is less concerned about Sokka, the kid's a quick learner. He's glad to see Sokka wearing full armor just in case, too.

    As they file out of the skyranger, Staren readies his laser rifle, and an assortment of recon drones fly out of his bag and start to circle the building, linking up to Rory's tacnet. Staren gently taps Sokka on the shoulder. "With the glasses you'll be able to see a map and stuff as we go." Sokka can, indeed, join the tacnet this way! He doesn't try to give Sokka high-tech weapons, though -- giving weapons to someone who's never trained on them in a real combat mission is a recipe for disaster.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone is suited up in her stelath armour packing her SMG, and carrying an assortment of grenades, given the nature of the mission she's only brought a recon drone with her hovering at her shoudler as she moves however she seems conerned for Sokka she knows he's from a world where it's far more common for people to have weapons trianing just likely due to bandits and wildlife yet an op like this? She's going to try to keep watch over him as best she can.

She'll move to set up a tac network for any of the people on the team able to hook into such and she keep an eye on all the otehr squaddies she knows every drop could lead to more faces on the wall. Which is something she prays becomes a less common thing but they have to push on and soon she's out of the transport lanching with a crunch on the ground.

"Doesn't seem like ADVENT to leave tech out in the open where the Black Market or others could scoop it up. I'm going to assume it has some security systems left."

She looks to Sokka

"You should be in good hands with Durandal though she /hates/ puns."

Kotone's drone will go scout ahead of the team and it's pausing at some of the rusted masses as it scuts ahead.

<<Samara deployed and eyes up ane scouting ahead.>>

She's also going to check for any active wireless signals in the old lab? Factory? She's not sure what it is.
Staren     Staren also spouts a long list of doomsday scenarios that would cause ADVENT to abandon the tower, until told to cut the chatter.
Samira Amirmuaz     As everyone moved into the half cover provided by the railing encircling the landing pad, Lily is still looking at the place with some wonder and trepidation. She's done training with the soldiers before, learned to shoot, but this was the first time she'd ever actually taken up a weapon and gone out into the field. She ducks behind a bit of piled scrap and crates, but offers a thankful nod to Karian, aka the giant blue walking tank. "Thanks... Hopefully I won't be needing to use human shields too much." After a moment, she pauses where she is, taking in huge breaths, before she sneezes. "Ugh... Too much pine in the air."

    Olivera and Thompson immediately swerve off to join at Maaka's back, moving slowly and covering the advance at all possible points of contact. Getting halfway across the bridge would resolve what those large rusty masses were. It'd probably be quite familiar to Maaka and Kotone, as well: they're MECs, possibly formerly black, covered in rust. They're wearing black tactical vests like the Troopers might, and carrying guns... large guns. Autocannons, to be exact. They don't seem to be moving much as the group approached, provided they were careful. Maybe they're not active?...

    What is active, as Kotone would find out, is the power and indeed a sort of wifi. The MECs all appear to be dead, but there is a signal that seems to be spread across the entire facility, and some of the surrounding forest, but no further. Strange, considering how it seemed everywhere else directly related to ADVENT has been revealed to be connected.
Sokka Sokka nodded, looking around as they went. So far he'd barely said anything aside from confirming orders. He was in total soldier mode, keeping an eye out for any trouble, anyone trying to move towards them or launch any sneak attacks. He didn't say a word.

Inside, though, he was sweating. Despite the fact he seemed calm on the outside, inside he was near panic. It had been so long since he'd last done something like this. He was just thankful Toph wasn't here. He could still remember the airship. No magical bending to save them this time. But today was learning. Monitoring. He just had to keep his focus and be ready for what was to come. He'd gotten information on their opponents already, nothing too bad compared to the fire nation. But it was new, that was what was bad. He didn't have the experience.
Karian Icefang     Karian nods towards shen and takes up position near her. His men likewise do the same, but remain low and quiet. "Don't worry about it, shen." He says, offering a smile in his voice.
Alexis Maaka     "The Space Wolves can take the punishment, trust me." Maaka assures Lily, before she leads Olivera and Thompson. They cross the bridge, before they stop at the rusty MECs. "Old models, probably ADVENT made. If I were to guess, they stole the specs from XCOM when they took over." She muses, training her PDW on one of the mechanized soldiers, just to be careful.

    She begins to scan for life signs using her HUD, wondering if these things would even count as alive or dead anymore. The MECs she knows were human at the torso at least, but ADVENT may be more drastic with their augmentations.
Guest Vivio     Compared to some here, Vivio is probably acting a little too carefree. Evidence by the fact that she calmly walks across the bridge as she follows the others along.

    When she spots the dead MECs, she ohhhhs and runs up to one. Stopping just short of it, she leans forward to take a closer look. She listens to Alexis's explanation, "So they're robots, right? They look like robots." Vivio glances at her partner, "Think it might still work?"

    The plush bunny floats up and flits around the MEC for a moment, before flying back to Vivio. He just shrugs. Vivio smiles in amusement, "Yeah, too different from what we know, huh?"

    Vivio leaves that MEC alone now, walking past it as she continues on. She looks around at more of them, "Seems like there is a lot of them..."
Staren     Staren gets an idea. Then he sees MECs, and gets a better idea. He runs up to one, trying to figure out how to disable its control system with minimal damage. He's willing to spend a few moments trying to find a way to get them open with tools, but if he can't find one, he gets out the beam sword and starts searching for the AI core the brutal, messy way. Hey, there might be interesting data in these things!
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa is being cautious as heck as she notices the MECs, well proto mecs from the looks o the thing they seeme dto be entirely robotic but that would make sense with Advent not using them for cyborgs after all. She makes note of Shen's advice on them. She also gets some information which seems to be of use there's still power and osme sort of wifi system.

<<Samsara here we got power still and there seems to be an active wifi network of some sort that is even heading out into part of the forest too and anything advent seems to be hooked up."

She avoids getting closer to the MECs out of fear of waking them up somehow and she doe showever keep on her guard as they get nearer to the door.
Samira Amirmuaz     Shen gives a bit of a strained smile to Karian and Maaka both, nodding and conceeding the point. It felt strange to be actively protected like this... A little irritating, too, in it's own way. The rest of the soldiers were expected to know what they were doing, but she was vitally important to XCOM's efforts in the future. She can't be allowed to die here. As the whole group approaches the building, though, she hangs back with some trepidation, staring at the rusky MEC hulks. She'd voiced her concern over the radio plain enough... That's why she just starts trying to circle-strafe the machines as much as possible. "Understood, Samsara. /Somebody/ has to be home. These things don't just run themselves."

    Sq. Thompson notes Sokka's sudden silence and chuckles quietly, moving to nudge him lightly with an elbow. "You can ease up a bit, bro. Nobody said you have to be a stiff to do this job. Better to look at things on the bright side sometimes." Still, it seems he's not very comfortable with these wrecks either.

    The reason for which would soon become exceedingly apparent. Kotone would 'see' the installation's signal coming to life in a wave, hitting all of the MECs. All of them receive the signal and immediately start powering up, their joints groaning, flecks of rust and dust escaping from their innards. Pitted, blackish and rusted, the faces of the robots all resemble a skull with a pair of Terminator-like glowing red eyes. One of them beeps out a confirmation of activation, while the other two immediately notice that there are targets close by them. Vivio ws just exploring, and Staren was trying to figure out what made them tick. Neither were welcomed.

    The one next to Vivio suddenly rears and spins to the side with a keening, screeching wail. It's apparently trying to backhand her hard enough to send her sprawling, if not flying. The one next to Staren is quite upset with someone trying to tinker on it's chest, and so sings it's arm in such a way as to club him with it's autocannon. The third one takes the time to raise it's gun and fire out a quick burst of fire at Olivera, who screams when a couple strike her arms and legs... non-fatally, as the kevlar does the best it can to spare her from dying immediately. Regardless, she's on the floor bleeding slightly and groaning, coughing while ther est of the team has to scramble for positions.
Karian Icefang     Karian growled as he saw the MEC's come to life and fire onto olivera. Immidiately the wolfguard open fire, their bolts flying out to rip and tear into the MEC's. One of the Wolfguard breaks into a full sprint, aiming to get the injured soldier and get her into cover. "Hold ranks! The Allfather's finest are with you. We will be the avenging wrath of your fallen!' Karian calls, already working to keep morale high.
Sokka Sokka instantly went into action. Things were moving and fighting. He wasn't like the rest of them. His heart began to hammer ever more as his boomerang was through out. It'd fly towards the air at the furthest one, aiming at the gun. The one nearest them he raced towards, gripping his sword in both hands.

He sliced three times, once at the gun, once at the arm and the third clash more of a stab at the skull of the thing. Or rather, where the glowing lights would be for the face.

His hands were shaking, cold and clammy. His heart felt like it was going to explode. His left hand reached out on reflex, catching his returning boomerang. It was just like back then. A battle. He could do this. He would do this. It was going to be okay. They were going to be okay. Just stop shaking. Don't panic. He'd turn and race to cover with the others, throwing his boomerang once more.
Guest Vivio     Vivio blinks as she hears the MEC near her beginning to activate. She turns quickly, just in time to take the backhand to the side of the head. There's a brief flash of magic on contact and Vivio is sent flying. She smashes into a pile of crates then drops to the floor.

    Vivio's Device quickly flies over to see if she's okay... Only to find her grinning as she rubs her jaw, "Guess they're still working after all!"

    Vivio pulls herself up, planting her feet firmly on the ground as she lowers herself in to an attack stance. Magic gathers around her right hand and in flash she charges the MEC that struck her. She lets out a battle cry as she swings her right fist to smash the MEC's torso with a magic-enhanced punch, a rush of wind and light exploding outward on contact.
Staren     "Dammi--" Staren starts to curse as the mech wakes up and knocks him aside with its cannon. Fortunately, as close as he is, he's kind of awkward to melee, so it's not full-force and mostly scuffs his armor. Still, he stumbles and falls to his hands and knees. "Dammit..." The beam saber swaps hands as he pulls out a large pistol and starts running, (the tacnet suddenly warns people not to stand close to that one,) aiming the pistol behind him and firing -- these anti-tank micromissiles use miniature shaped charges to punch tiny holes deep into things. With the damage his saber has already done to the armor, he hopes it will blow a hole through the AI core and disable it.

    Then he can worry about the rest.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa understand a split second before the mecs wake up. It's a control system for the Mecs and things are about to get very bad, she's lucky she didn't end up going to check one out and then the thing thing that hits her mind. Oh shit Staren did, this was going to be bad, more of the things are waking up and Kotone is now moving bring up her weapon and open fire as she starts to move for cover, though if it comes to it she'll take her chances to not deny someone whose made of flesh the chance to get behind cover.

She gets the message from Dr. Shen Sr and attempts to send the signal out over the network of the code. Delta four three niner, dash three seven Romeo. Will it do something? She doesn't know but it doesn't hurt to try as she does so and she also keeps tabs on Sokka.

Who seems to be doing well enough he's got the sense to go for cover and now she's keeping her head down as the code goes off. Maybe ADVENT would't think to wipe the codes of a dead man?
Alexis Maaka     Maaka notices the WIFI signal and synchs to it when Kotone points it out. SHe tries to keep her distance from the MECs, but her cool is stopped the moment she sees the MECs jump to life. "They're live, get back!" Sadly her words are too late, as Olivera is hit by rifle fire. Needless to say she's in back shape, and Maaka's fury rises as she raises her PDW to the offending MEC.

    Sprinting, she fires at the MEC as she takes a leap, using her boosters to propel herself through the air towards the MEC, and if she's successful, she will climb atop the machine and fire her PDW at the first vulnerable bit she can find.
Samira Amirmuaz     Bolter rounds were some of the most devastating weapons that most forms of humanity might have seen. They're still quite strong here, but the rounds don't do quite as much damage as they might have... and even though these bastards are rusty, the armor plating that ADVENT used is similarly quite advanced. It takes a few seconds of sustained fire to actually bring down one of the machines. Eventually, though, the armor cracks and shatters, and the MEC drops to a puddle of it's own internal mechanics and oil. Olivera was trying to bring herself to her knees so she could fire, but there's nothing that she could do to stop the Space Wolf from hauling her wherever he wanted to.

    For Sokka, the experience is a little different. He's an Elite, which gives him surprising power despite his seemingly low amount of technology. His boomerang manages to deflect the thing's aim before it got taken down by Karian's soldiers, but his sword strikes would largely bounce off of the armor unless he started aiming for critical areas. Just when the MEC was about to dispense some more backhand justice, though, Vivio gets involved. The magic-powered strike sends it sprawling onto it's back with a sizable dent in it's side. It's still live, however, and trying to get up. That's when Thompson yells, "Incoming fire," to warn Sokka and Vivio to stand aside. His minigun manages to chew through the thing's face and finally end it.

    Thankfully Staren had started doing enough damage to the thing's core with his beam weapon; even if it wasn't dead yet, the punctures in the armor plus his anti-armor weaponry was enough to pucture through the armor of the chest, though some still do get semi-deflected. It's still enough, though, and his MEC freezes and powers down quickly before falling to it's side.

    So the MECs were down, but from the entrance came the sound of yet more contacts. The rest had woken up and were on their way, down a flight of stairs that lead to the door. One of them sends out the command to the rest; two of them open fire on the Space Wolves while a third starts to walk forward... Then glow red, with an ominous sound of systems being purposefully overloaded. Red flickers of energy occasionally flash outside of it's AI core... What's it doing?

    Maybe they don't have to find out at all. Kotone's trying to do hacker things to these robot bastards, using Shen's old codes to try to effect a shutdown. It... doesn't seem to work, sadly. Though she might be able to hack into these things individually, there didn't seem to be any shortcut towards dealing with these things. Just bullets and explosions.
Karian Icefang     The Space wolf picking up Olivera doesn't take her far. He puts her down behind some heavy cover, and begins to work on her injuries to bind them up. "Don't worry, Olivera. I'm just going to bind your wounds, and help you move along." The wolfguard says. Karian, meanwhile, fires into the MEC's, until he hears the sound of overloaded systems. "Hells..." He says, before putting a call into the radio. "Get away! I think it's overloading!"
Sokka Sokka paled considerably when his sword just bounced off these things. That had never happened before. Literally. He'd cut through all kinds of metal, yet these things were impervious to it? He actually froze when he was behind cover.

He didn't know his allies, he didn't know these enemies, he didn't have a weapon that could penetrate them, he didn't know how to hurt them, how to beat them.

Calm. Calm down. He wasn't the leader. He just had to follow orders here. That was it. Follow orders. For now, taking cover. He gripped his boomerang, popping out of cover just for a moment to fling the boomerang at one of the approaching machines, aiming straight at the gun, trying to knock it off again before drawing back down behind cover. He grabbed his visor and slid it on, giving himself a better view of the area.

"Toph, bring up a--" And then froze. Rgiht. His friends weren't with him. Wasn't the fire nation. Not this time.
Staren     Staren sighs in relief as the three MECs are taken down.

    But more are on the way.

    Staren runs back up to the MEC he disabled, putting away his weapons and pulling off his gauntlet. He reaches into his bag and pulls something out, slapping it against the disabled machine, and concentrating, using a pulse of magic to push the enchantment out of the stone and into the MEC. "You work for us now!"

    He tags it friendly in the tacnet, then points to the corner. "Go! Stop anything that looks like you from coming around the corner! Violently!"

    The MEC golem, unfortunately, doesn't know how to use its own weapons, but it's still a big tough metal thing that can club with its limbs!
Alexis Maaka     Maaka roars as she swaps her PDW out for a blade, her progressive knife jamming into a joint to try and remove its head. THe blade vibrates intensely to melt materials, which should make things much faster for her, and once she melts through, she rips the head clean off before hopping from the MEC.

    She grabs her PDW again, firing at the other MECs as she heads for Sokka. "MOVE!" She barks harshly, "On your feet, soldier, you're no good to use frozen like this!"

    Returning to the fight, she produces an EMP charge, tossing it down the corner before Staren's new friend goes through. "Wait!" Boom. "Okay, go!"
Guest Vivio     Vivio phews as the MECs are dealt with. They're surprisingly durable, nothing like the training drones she messed with in the past. But then they relied more on their numbers to overwhelm someone.

    However, it seems that there's more still to come. Vivio turns in the direction of the newly arriving MECs and groans quietly, "More of them?" Well, this little expedition is turning out more eventful than she had anticipated!

    It's with the warning from the others that Vivio turns her attention to the MEC now glowing an ominous red. An accidental overload? Intentional self-destruct? Either way, if that thing explodes it could be a problem for anything nearby. So, Vivio starts to run...

    Not away from the overloading MEC, but towards it. Lightning begins to crackle around her arm and she begins, "Spark-" She swings towards this MEC's chest, crying out, "Splash!"

    Magic erupts forth from Vivio's arm towards the robot. However this spell is practically harmless to the machine, instead designed to push things away from Vivio, possibly quite far too. Vivio doesn't aim to send the MEC flying in just any random direction though, but rather back towards its robot friends. This should prevent the others from being caught in the blast radius, but as for Vivio herself...
Kotone Yamakawa Okay the codes don't work? Kotone knew it was a long shot but sees she might be able to try and jack them one at a time, even having a lone one under their control would let them have something disposable to fight with she's going to try to as she keeps toc over remote into one of the Mecs that are still movign andf she's going to try to hack one but another one is sounding very strange well acting strange and kotone's going to give that one a wide bearth.

<<I don't like what that one is doing here. Keep clear.>>
Samira Amirmuaz      Shen notes the same thing that Karian does, that one of the MECs is acting strangely and in a way that is certainly threatening. She also realizes that since this fight has started, she's sat in cover next to Karian and not done anything to help. Which isn't too bad, considering that two of her teammates are melee and therefore require caution when shooting near. Either way, it's time to get in this. "Go get him, Rover!" She points to the overloading MEC as it starts charging for their lines, after it gets pushed further away by Vivio's magic; the GREMLIN releases an electric charge that stops the MEC in it's tracks and forces it to detonate early. The unit next to get gets sent sprawling by the explosion, while some of the floor underneath it's feet gets blown away, leaving the floor in that area unstable.

    Olivera is receiving treatment, which leaves her behind cover and groaning, while Thompson moves with Maaka, taking half cover before firing at one of the units still standing and firing at them. Maaka seems to be more interested in direct confrontation using EMP... GOod decision, and it drops the two standing MECs easily. The last one, getting up from the floor with jerky movements, winds up getting mollywomped by the 'hacked' unit that knocks it down... the two are now struggling against each other, flailing and clanging, and therefore out of the fight. Mostly.

    Provided someone took the time to just cap both of the robots left over, the fighting appeared to be clear. Stairs lead up to a door set into a wall covered with windows greened by mildew and moss. Looking inside, it appears that this place was some kind of manufacturing center. There's a lot of robotic arms dangling from the ceiling, a lot of machines and parts, but what it is isn't exactly clear until someone moves in to actually survey the whole area.

    It's a robotics facility. What's worse, it's a robotics facility seemingly dedicated to more MECs. There are a couple different designs standing still and dead on the floor, but all in all, things are still. It's kind of dark in here, so they might have to go a little bit farther in to see if there was something else of note here, like a way up.
Sokka Sokka got to his feet as more of them came out. Once again he felt himself being slightly overwhelmed by the whole thing, but he couldn't let that stop him. He ran forward, catching his boomerang on the way back. His sword hadn't phased them, his boomerange had no chance. He made his way forward... and the last fell. He paused and then slowly made his way forward with the others.

He hadn't completely locked up yet, but he felt like he would at any time.He slowly walked forward, sword clasped between cold, clammy hands. The moment more robots started to move, though, he'd step in quickly and try to severe a gun arm at the joint, throwing his full strength into a swing with both hands.
Karian Icefang     Karian looks over, and gives a nod towards shen. He pulls his sword at long last, the giant adamantium claymore flashing and flying towards the nearest MEC. The wolfguard stay near Lily, firing at the MEC's. "If there's a way up, we need to move, now!" He shouts. Over with Olivera, he quickly works to patch the wounds, and get Olivera up and moving. "If you need to, just grab onto my arm, and I'll carry you out." He says, giving a nod to the injured soldier.
Staren     A bunch of stuff happens, culminating in a robot wrestling match. Staren retrieves some scrap and tries to jam it in the enemy unit's joints if he can, as Dr. Shen indicated. If that indeed disables it, he tells the MEC golem to stay here and await further instructions, and tapes a camera to the top.

    Once they're inside, he looks around, and scratches his head. "Why would ADVENT abandon a whole robotics facility. Wait, what??" He looks around as the voice comes on.
Guest Vivio     Vivio takes a deep breath once she realises that the last of the MECs has been cleared. She turns around for a moment to give Shen a grins and thumbs up for the combo move.

    As the group begins to move inside, Vivio walks along as she examines the MECs in what looks like partially constructed states... Or partially deconstructed? Who knows. Personally Vivio prefers the latter. Because a manufacturing facility to create more of these robots would be a bad thing. Especially if it comes back to life like the robots did.

    Walking in further into Vivio hmmms as things start to get darker. She glances at her Device, "Hey Chris, think you can find a light switch?" The plush bunny nods, before flying off in search of some way to turn the lights on. If the place still has power, anyway. Meanwhile Vivio just keeps looking around, noting the incomplete machines and really hoping they too don't activate. Cause that would be kind of creepy.
Kotone Yamakawa Having seems pointless now as she looks at the downed robots, she'll try to grab one when they press on and she's going to get moving. "We should get moving before more show up I doubt those were the only one and is everyone all right?" With Lily's information about this plce it's old, very old when it came to the war. She took a deep breath and would snow start to try and push her way in farther but there doesn't seem to be any way up yet.

"Keep an eye on those things if they twitch we should light them up."

Then comes the voice on the comm. She just pauses for a moment oh dear this doesn't sound good at all. She however keeps looking for a way up.
Alexis Maaka     Maaka reloads her PDW, before she slings the weapon. She looks around as they make it to the robotics facility inside, frowning. "Site must've been compromised." She muses, before Julian's voice comes on.

    She mouthes 'Brother?' to Lily after a pause. "What's this about?" She demands over the radio as well.
Samira Amirmuaz     At first, stepping into the room from outside makes for quite the contrast; the lights above the workspace are off, plunging anything beyond the first dozen feet or so in darkness. Everyone seems pretty tense now, after all of that firefight before. Enough so that Sokka was taking out his frustration on one of the still-moving MECs, putting it down. It's a spooky atmosphere, surely.... until they move into the room far enough, and the powerful industrial lighting blares into brilliance. They were on a balcony that overlooked the main work area, and across the room was a similar balcony that ended at the far wall. The other two walls each had two deep insets and machinery... at a guess, they're elevators for the MECs that lead further down into the facility.

    Also on the other balcony was four more MEC units, all of them beeping and coming to life as the group approached. All of them hop down into the work area and start firing up towards the group. It's relatively inaccurate at this range, but there's a lot of fire between the four of them.

    Lily and the XCOM soldiers all dive for cover immediately, while Lily hastily explains what's happening to the group. "Before we lost the war, dad was tinkering with the AI in the XCOM base, trying to make it more human. Then everything fell apart, and we ran. How the hell did he get here?" Then she's peeking over the railing and firing, trying to ease the amount of lead flying their way. Olivera and Thompson get the same idea, so all three focus on one MEC.

    Over the intercomms, Julian continues his tirade, regardless of the sounds of guns firing. "How lucky that you had Father's help... You were always the inferior child, always too self-absorbed to do the real work. I am Raymond Shen's legacy, and together, I will finally be completed!"
Karian Icefang     Karian ducks down and curses softly. "So, an AI." He gathers from Lily's words. "She's right, Julian. If you truely want to live up to your fathers legacy, then help us stop the Xenos that have taken your earth. Join us, fight on our side, and together they can be crushed." Karian says. He charges the nearest MEC though, aiming to put his immense strength into play and put the MEC on it's back. Meanwhile, the guard with Olivera joins Thompson in the firing.
Sokka Sokka was feeling a little better once he cut up one of the bad robots. Okay, so his blade wasn't useless. He walked with them until they came to the next four. He gripped his sword, started to move forward and then they unloaded. He jumped to the left, trying to get out of the way. But he was used to fighting benders, they were far slower. Bullets ripped into his right side, mostly on his right side, three lodging into his arm, two in his side and three in his leg. He's more shocked than anything.

After all, this is the first time he'd had actual guns used ON him. He'd only seen them in use up to his point and his sword dropped as he fell to the ground, getting low to get cover, his eyes wide with shock and pain.
Staren     MECs start shooting in the distance. "Alright, everybody out!" he motions for people to follow him to the door. There's no reason to stay inside and fight, they know everything they need to, they can leave now!
Guest Vivio     As the lights come on, Vivio can now get a better look at the room they're in. It's somewhat impressive, if a little broken down... Though the powering up MECs are a bit of a concern.

    Vivio is caught in the initial volley of fire from the MECs. They may not be too accurate, but with enough shots they can still hit! Vivio winces as a bullet from one of the practically cannon sized guns impacts her in the shoulder with a brief flash of light.

    One hand is moved to grab her shoulder, the other comes up and with a call of "Round Shield!" a circular barrier appears just beyond it. As the bullets smash against the temporary barrier, Vivio rubs her shoulder. The bullet didn't penetrate her Barrier Jacket, thankfully... But man, that's going to be sore for a while.

    As bullets continue to rap against her barrier, Vivio listens to the talk going on, "An AI huh?" She looks at her Device, "Hey Chris, maybe you can make friends with it!" The plush bunny gives Vivio an incredulous look. She blinks, "What?"

    Vivio's attention is drawn as some of the others begain to take hits as well. She frowns, a triangular spell circle appearing on the floor beneath her. Orbs of iridescent light appear in the air as Vivio calls, "Sonic Shooter Assault Shift... Fire!" The multicolours orbs burst into beams that rain down on the group of MECs, exploding on contact and probably wrecking some of the building's structure and machinery alongside her targets.
Alexis Maaka     Maaka ducks down beside Karian, raising her PDW at the MECs. She opens fire, covering Karian when the Wolf Lord charges out from cover, before Staren opens the door. She definitely takes the hint, stopping beside Olivera and the Space Wolf with her. "Help me with her." She orders the Astartes, handing her over to him to carry out. She'll cover the both of them on their way out, firing on the MECs as they retreat.
Kotone Yamakawa Julian leave Kotone very nervous very freaking nervous. Kotone is now moving n with everyone else and dies for cover. She now raises up and opensfire at Mecs as Lily explains thigns. "Wait you guys here tried to improve the AI at the Ant Farm?"

That would explain so famn much. She listne to what Julian has to say and it's clear he's very pissed off, and it seems to be a case of sibling issues gone possibly homcidal too. While she has fired a shot or two she now attempts to hack one of the Mecs to either shut it the hell down ot take full control of it like he does one of her combt drones.

"Everything's gong upside down today!"
Staren     Well, so much for their ride. Staren sends remote commands to get the Star Hawk on its way here.

    He takes cover outside the building.

    Don't try to bargain with it like a human. It doesn't have human wants, and it will follow its programming no matter what.

    ...yeah, he doesn't see how he can locate the AI physically in this huge facility. The next best thing? Take out the anti-air defenses. He checks the tacnet for their location... If the Skyranger wasn't connected, then he'll send his drones looking for them.
Samira Amirmuaz     Once Karian had made it a point to jump down and make the fight personal, two of the MECs immediately switch their fire to him, likely peppering him with a fair bit of autocannon fire. That being said, they're firing at something that's much tougher than the alien alloys that were commonly employed here. Their shots don't do enough to stop the Space Wolf from engaging and taking one of them down. The other seems to be keen to start up it's self destruct sequence, too, only he's much closer. There's precious seconds before it stands to exlode!

    The combination of Maaka, Thompson, and Vivio's mass of firing and explosions manage to bring down another one, while seriously damaging the other, which tries to stop and take cover (such as it could) behind ne of the dead wrecks on the assembly line. That one ends up getting intruded by Kotone and her GREMLIN unit. Julian's control over these things is quite strong, but she manages to force a temporary shutdown and reboot at least. Once again, for the moment, they're safe. This allows Thompson to run over to Sokka and start checking him through. "Shit--Hey, we need a medkit here!"

    Staren and Maaka's insistence to leave was somewhat belayed by the Skyranger being forced to pull away or get shot down, but even beyond that... Lily is frowning darkly. "We can't leave. He's managed to remote access the Avenger before, he might do so again. And... /Something/ of my dad's is here. That's the only thing that makes sense. Why else would Julian want me in person? I can't just leave whatever it is here." She motions over to Sokka, which makes her GREMLIN float over to him and hover close, releasing a white cloud of painkillers, stimulants, and coagulents to help close the wounds.

    It seems that the group is at somewhat of an impass. Olivera seems intent to help Lily as well, given the way she tried to get the Wolf and Maaka to let her go. "I'll be fine, damnit. Do you guys really want to leave an enemy in control of a place like this?"

     Staren's drones can probably pretty easily find the anti-air; they're attached like bubbles on the corners of the building at ten floor intervals, high-powered magnetic turrets that swizzle towards the drones when they come close and try to blow them out of the sky as well. "You are not leaving until I get what I want," Julian tells them simply. "One way or another, it will be finished."
Sokka Sokka would just lay there, staring at the roof in shock. He'd let them work on him, fishing out the bullets and everything else they needed to do. Taking as long as they need to, as well, he was still in shock and wouldn't do much.

He'd eventually give a weak grin, none the less. "Well, I guess I... really got to the point, huh?" It wasn't even a pun. Dang.
Karian Icefang     Karian looks over as the MEC engages his self destruct sequence. "Damn..." Mutters the Wolf Lord, who quickly starts to run to avoid the explosion. "Stubborn bastard..." He says. He tries to mitigate any incoming damage, but he didn't fully know how the MEC's are made, or what's inside.
    Over by Olivera, The Wolfguard, who'se name is Rolfr, shakes his head to the injured soldier. "We don't plan on it. But protest all you want, we're not leaving anyone behind...even if they resist." He says, picking up Olivera almost like she was a child.
Guest Vivio     Once more Vivio breathes in relief as they finish off the MECs. She has to wonder just how many of them this AI can bring out. Surely there's a limit to the production capability?

    As talk of continuing or running pops up, Vivio adds her own opinion, "I'm with Lily on this. If something of her father's is here, we can't leave without finding it!"

    Glancing at some of those who are injured, Vivio is concerned whether they'll be able to continue. But then Karian speaks up an Vivio nods in agreement, "That's right! The AI's obviously not going to let us go back, so we're all going to continue forward. It's our best chance~"
Staren     Staren now notices that Sokka's hurt. Dammit! He applies a nanobandage, for what help it can give.

    Staren looks to Lily. "The safe, sane thing to do is to leave and then blow this place up. How many XCOM soldiers have died not playing it safe? In both wars?" He looks at Lily with a hard expression. "Is it worth risking lives to get this thing? Either way, you're not in charge. We should ask the Commander, or put it to a vote. I'm sorry, but we can't fight our way through a facility full of killer robots without even knowing where we're going or what we're looking for, just because you want something in it that you don't even know what it is."
Alexis Maaka     So much for escape. "Does he -ever- shut up?" Maaka asks Lily sourly, before she notices the lift system. "Anything we can do to get this to work?" She asks, before she begins to look for software she can hack. "Hmm, bet I could get this going and move us along." She says at last.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa gets one shut down, which mean it's not attacking all of them at the moment, which is something she's very happy about. they have one less thing to worry about and now that lets them have a moment to help Sokka. Kotone is worried but she does trust Thompson to help hium. She's now going to however move to rise up take a second to aim and try to bring the shut down machine off line. She also leaving herself open to Julian getting into her system too as she does this, she has protection.

"I'm with Lily as well if we need to pull some people out do it if we can but the rest of us need to press onwards and find out way to just what the heck is here. If they have the Ant Farm's old AI? Who knows what else they have related to the Mec program here."
Samira Amirmuaz     KABOOM! Around the MEC in a roughly six-meter radius, the explosion sends out a black cloud of smoke as well as a shower of shrapnel as it's entire body blew itself to hell. Karian's fast enough to avoid the explosion, but still probably might get caught by some of the wickedly sharp bits of alien alloy flying around. Good news, it also knocks the other MEC back over as it tried to get up after Karian cheesed it out of there. It also really manged it's gun hand and one of it's legs, leaving it struggling to do anything of relevance. THat, plus Kotone's hacked one, meant that they were safe again!... Though they might want to deal with the last one before they leave.

    Now, Staren has a point, and it's one that Lily has to conceed to bitterly. The safest route would be just to blow the place to hell, and damn the rest. In this case, at least, it seems like circumstances have gone her way. "I'm getting whatever my dad made away from this crazy bastard trying to kill us," she says firmly while staring him in the eye (as much as she could, anyway). A nod of thanks gets sent to Vivio, and Lily hops the railing to make her way to the opposite side of the room to help Maaka start fiddling with the elevator controls.

    That left everyone enough time to take stock of what was going on, as well as move to join the ladies doing their hacking work. It seems nothing more is coming for now; regardless, the other two XCOm soldiers move into cover that lets them face the room again. Sokka gets dragged with Thompson, who is still smiling somewhat in spite of the situation. "This is what we call 'overwatch'. Take a position and shoot the first goddamn thing that moves. Gonna have to get you used to shooting guns, bro." Olivera, meanwhile, seems to be trying to stick close to the Wolf whose been helping her thus far. There's even a bit of a blush under her tanned face. Magdelena would be furious with her.

    On closer inspection, this area has three lifts: two meant for MECs on the sides, and a larger freight elevator in the center. With some jigging, the two MEC lifts light up and chime their operational status, but the one in the center... doesn't. "Ugh, it's barely moving at all. This might take awhile... I bet we can use the other two elevators if we went one to one." Then there's... an uncomfortable sound. The four lifts on the sides of the room are activating as well. One, two, three... the doors leading below open, and out of each comes another MEC unit, soaring out from the chute and landing with loud, pounding squeals on the floor below. All of them turn and immediately start coming for the group's position under a hail of Overwatch fire that... sadly either misses or mostly dings off. Go figure.
Sokka Sokka would not, following along as they said. He still ached and hurt all over the place, but well... he was doing better at least. He sheathed his sword once he was able to pick it up and takes the gun for this 'overwatch'. He'd cringe a lot, not used to the strange weapon.

But well, it was better than before. His weapons and body were largely ineffective. He was used to fighting, well, tanks. These were a lot more dangerous than those. More advanced, too.
Karian Icefang     "nnngh..." grits Karian as he's hit in the face with some shrapnel. Just some more scars for his growing collection. As he looks up to the incoming MEC's, he curses. "Listen....All of you take Lily and get her inside and shut down her psychotic brother. My wolfguard and I will cover the rear and keep these machines off our backs." He says, his bolt pistol barking from his current location of near where Lily was currently working.
Staren     The recon drones are small, some get blown away by the anti-air, some escape, only because they're small enough to be hard to hit.

    "Woah woah woah holy shit!" Staren shouts as Lily just runs in deeper. "Stay safe." he says to Sokka, and then runs after her.

    "Alright. You win, I won't stop you.

    More MECs. "Shit."

    Staren becomes an evasive target, flying around the room firing his beam cannons at MECs, trying to stay ahead of their fire.

    The MEC golem outside is ordered to come help, too -- The camera Staren stuck to it also has a radio, for exactly this reason!
Guest Vivio     Vivio follows Lily over as she starts messing with the elevator controls. Vivio herself nods along as she watches, having no clue what the engineer is doing. However, some of the lifts come to life and Vivio grins, "Nice one!"

    Unfortunately this apparently brings more MECs down on them. Vivio frowns, "They just don't seem to get the message!" She spins around, hand come up as a hemispherical barrier of magic appears just beyond. As bullets begin to rap against it, Vivio turns her head, "If you guys are going to start heading up, go for it! I'll try and cover you as long as I can!"

    Vivio focuses on maintaining the barrier to cover the lift and give the others a chance to ride it. She leaves the the actual shooting to Karian and his troops.
Alexis Maaka     Maaka nods to Lily as they work on the terminal device. She isn't Kotone-good, but she can still do a mean bypass when she needs to. The lifts begin to work, and she gives a fist bump to the engineer, "You're definitely your father's daughter." She compliments, before they're interrupted by MORE MECS.

    She draws her PDW and opens fire on one of them, running towards one of the lifts before it goes up. "Lily, let's move!" She calls out, holding the lift for Lily.
Kotone Yamakawa the MEC cooks off and kotone is glad she's not caught in the blast, she'll have to recall just how big the blast was from one of these thing's cooking off. She leaps back a bit, the hacked one won't stay off forever and she knows they will need to take it out before they go onwards. She seems to be reay to back Lily she gets Staren she does but also this is Lilu's call.

"All right then let's go"

Koone pushes her self to follow the others. She

"Do what you can Maaka Lily!"

Kotone will fgive them covering fire she also cloaks at this time, she hopes these early mecs don't have a full scanner system like the later ones might have... She'll get to cover and lay down the machine gun fire.
Samira Amirmuaz     Good news for Sokka is, he can't be any worse at this than most of the soldiers were when they were rooks. Half of them had barely ever touched a gun before, either. Some of them hadn't at all. Still, it seems they're starting him off in the easiest possible way by giving him one of their pistols. Except... it's a long-barreled .50 revolver. "Be careful you don't yourself in the face with it!" Johnson calls out before looking back over the cover. Once again, Olivera and him are working on the same target, trying to blow down the incoming MECs as they came.

    And, Staren can fly! Which is saving him from the fire coming from below, letting him get some good hits against the coming attack to blunt the initial assault by bringing down another MEC. It's also not stopping three more MECs from the elevators, then a fourth as the last lift finally comes to life and spits out another hostile. It seems Julian really wasn't kidding about having reserves with him.

    Lily pats Rover thankfully as the hack finishes. "It was all I ever wanted to be," she tells Maaka in return. The assault of the MEC units causes her to pause and dash to the lift, but before she actually takes hold of the mounts to carry her up, she sends out Rover to a collection of the massing robots, three in all. There's a loud buzzing, then a ZAP! as the GREMLIN powers up and releases a wave of electrical energy. All three MECs crumble to the ground. Rover chirps cheerfully as it goes back to Lily, and she jets off from the floor.

    The remaining two MECs in this wave continue their push regardless, striding into the firing line of Space Wolves for as long as they can under bolter fire, just trying to do as much damage as possible. And still, the lifts on the side of the room rumble with more incoming.
Staren     Staren revealed that ability reflexively.

    Now Julian /knows/ he can fly.

    Staren is left to ruminate on this after he zips into the elevator before it closes, and waits for them to reach whatever floor.

    The MEC golem helps the spacewolves by being a metal melee beatstick. The animating enchantment isn't as well-programmed as the MECs and can't use ranged weapons, but on the other hand, since it's animated by magic and not electronics, it won't stop moving until a couple of limbs are destroyed. (Basically causing the enchantment to crash when checking integrity throws a fatal error)
Sokka Sokka stared down at them, eying the MEC's. It took him a few moments to line up the shot.

He fire.

Hem issed by a mile. And worse, the recoil slemmed the gun into his face and sent him flying back to the ground, his eyes wide and dazed, confusion etched across his features. "O-ow..." he whispered softly. He'd never used one before, it wasn't his fault. Completely.
Karian Icefang     "Jarl, we're starting to run dry on bolter shells." Called one wolfguard. Karian fires off a few more rounds from his pistol before nodding. "Aye...shame. These MEC's had a chance until now." He says, a sly grin. He looks over and see's more pouring on. "Ready yourselves, brothers. We may go to the Allfather's side today. But if we do, we will make Julian remember our valor, our fury. Make your peace, my brothers...and ready your blades. FOR RUSS!!!FOR THE ALLFATHER!!!" He shouts out. With his cry, howls explode from the wolfguard. They were syched up, and ready to do what it took to end things. Moments after, the MEC's would find the entire space wolf group charing them, chainswords, axes, and a pair of powerswords drawn. While the space wolves were good with range, their specialty was melee, and they were going to show just how dangerous cornered wolves could really be.
Samira Amirmuaz     The sound of combat fades away as those who remained of the initial group rode the lifts further up the ADVENT facility, leaving behind a constant stream of enemies for Karian and the others to deal with on their whole 'hold the line' business. That left Olivera, Shen, Maaka, and Staren to finish up what they'd come here to do, and hopefully kill that incredibly annoying AI that's been laughing in the faces of their struggles since they'd arrived here.

    The room that the lifts take them to isn't all that different from the one down below; a pit surrounded by catwalks, with ladders at the other end of the pit leading to some kind of oversight area. Hulls and power plants for the robots that were abandoned in the middle of construction. Compared to the warzone down below, it's... quiet. Central's voice cracks over the comms. "I don't like this. If that thing is controlling the whole damn building, there may be no place that's safe.

    To whit, Julian replies in a somewhat bored tone. "Yes, it goes without saying that you are walking into a trap, Lily. Try not to damage yourself too much." His words ring true, given that a pair of mag turrets slide out of the floor in front of the overseer station, rusted and coroded... but the hail of rounds it fires in their direction is still quite lethal.
Alexis Maaka     One would've hoped the rusted turrets would've been long out of ammo, or so decayed they could barely function. Sadly Maaka's never been that lucky before.

    She'd been taking the high route, using catwalks as she shadows the others with her PDW in hand. The 6mm sub-gun was a good pick for close-quarters, and it would prove itself further today.

    "Son of a-" Maaka exclaims, diving behind cover as she avoids the mag turrets. Her armor cloaks, and she begins to scout out a flanking route to eliminate the turrets.
Staren     "Honestly I'm kind of surprised the elevator is working. That must mean he wants us to go where we're going." Staren observes.

    And then: Turrets! Staren runs for cover as soon as he sees them, but some of the shots hit his forcefield. As it flickers into visibility, the translucent amber sphere is already pockmarked and cracked from the shots of the MECs down below. Sustained fire would tear right through it if Staren tried to tank it.

    Staren listens to the firing pattern, noting the cooldown period (and wondering if Julian is faking it to trick them...) Once he thinks he's got the timing down, he pops up from behind an unfinished robot to fire his beam cannons at one of the turrets. If that doesn't finish it, he'll follow up with a thrown plasma grenade next time.
Samira Amirmuaz     "Probably, " Shen grunts in annoyance. "I don't like playing his game either, but one way or another we have to put an end to this." Thankfully, her and Olivera have stuck to cover since they'd arrived, knowing that Julian wouldn't actually make things any easier on them; the blitz of mag rounds coming from the emplacements riddle the MEC chassis that Olivera is hiding behind, leaving her pinned down until Staren pulled out the big beam cannon and blew the bastard away so she can start moving up. Shen uses ROV-R to initiate a combat protocol against the other one, sending a disabling burst of electricty into it's circuts. Two down!

    Back on the Avenger, Central grunts as he studies the readings being shown on the Avenger's sensors. "I'm getting a much stronger read on the source of your father's transmission from that room, Lily. Almost as if he wants us to find it." Julain's response is quick, and cutting. "Another keen observation. How is it that humanity lost the war?" Central simply scowls to himself, gripping the desk until his knuckles turned white.

    Olivera is stepping out from her cover to try and run to one of the ladders, but another pair of turrets emerge from the floor between the two disabled ones. The Brazilian just manages to dive back into cover as one of them trains it's gun on her and fires--but she screams out as one of the rounds goes through the meat of her thigh. "AGH! N-no, no no no... I'm hit!" And it sounds like she's in the middle of panicking, panting and moaning in fear while her leg bleeds onto the dustry, rusted floor below.
Alexis Maaka     Maaka scowls behind her helmet as she sprints closer to the new turrets. Producing a grenade, she primes and tosses it toward the guns while she lets off a short burst towards them with her PDW. <"Shit, Oli's down. Someone take care of that!"> She radios Staren and Shen, while she dives behind nearby cover. Right now she probably won't have much of a window to get to Olivera where she is, best she can do is distract the guns.
Staren     Staren runs with Olivera when she goes down. "Dammit!" The wings flicker into existence long enough for him to abruptly reverse direction, joining her behind cover and making sure she's all the way behind it. "Just hang in there." He pulls a nanobandage from his bag and wraps it around the wound. "There, you won't bleed out... although I don't know if you'll feel fit to move without one of those stimulant packs your medics carry around. If you can't... stay here."

    He uses his laser rifle's underbarrel grenade launcher to take out the turrets with indirect fire, then peeks out to see if it's safe. He pats her on the shoulder. "Good luck."

    As he's about to move on, he hesitates. "Wait." Then he starts digging around in his bag, sticking his arm waaaay down in there -- it's obviously an extradimensional space. "Aha!" He pulls out what looks like some kind of hypospray, the device incorporating clear crystals in its design. "I don't know if this'll work or how many uses it has, but one's definitely worth saving a life." He presses one of his early, experimental protoabstractums near the injury and triggers it. The liquid inside is converted to painkillers and stimulants. "How do you feel?" He helps her up and to the ladders, watching for any more turrets that pop out.
Samira Amirmuaz     A pair of grenades is a good way of clearing out emplacements, as any soldier would say; the explosives end up totalling both turrets completely, even sending splashes of rusted debris into the air. With these two gone, it seems that there's no other turrets waiting to jump up, and the group can move ahead freely. This is also nice for Olivera, who stars to calm when Staren comes to her aid. "Ghh! Fucking robot asshole... Thanks, man." With blessed painkillers, she's able to get up and move, albiet rather stiffly, following Lily and Maaka to head upstairs.

    "Second only to my own creation, father had one other breakthrough. A prototype unlike anything the world had ever known." Julian lectures, dreamily in spite of his electronic voice. "A body, meant to be paired with an equally adept mind. My own." Lily grunts as she finishes climbing up a ladder. "Trust me, if dad had wanted that, it would've happened already." Julian simply chuckles. "Perhaps today is that day."

    Minus the danger, everyone is free to move into the overseer's room, where the object of their search is. A robotic body not unlike the MECs, grey and white, hanging from a robotic arm that comes from the ceiling. Lily approaches slowly, while Julian's eye appears on the various screens within. A handprint reader next to the machine blinks to life. "Only you have the chance to free me, Lily. Press your hand on the reader, and give me access. I will allow you and your allies to retreat--even continue the fight against ADVENT, if you must." Lily approaches the reader, then glances at the machine and goes closer to study their treasure. "It's definitely dad's design," she notes, reaching out to touch it's chest. THis simple action activates the machine, which scans Lily and beeps affirmatively. "ID confirmed, Shen, Lily. Beginning playback."

    The SPARK's chest pops open with a hiss, revealing another palm reader that Lily quickly presses against. Julian realizes what's happening, and quickly tries to stop what was coming, screaming and threatening. Eventually, though, his eye disappears, replaced with the elder Shen. Lily's breath catches; even if her father was alive elsewhere, here was /her/ father. Shen clears his throat before he starts. "Lily. If you are seeing this message, that means you have successfully activated the SPARK prototype. It also means that I am no longer with you. It was my greatest fears that I would leave you alone in this world. I had hoped this day would never come, but... With the loss of the Commander, the XCOM project has suffered. To that end, I have accelerated the SPARK robotoic project. I believe this unit will be integral to the survival of humanity. Though it's not ready for mass production, this unit will do what I could not: protect you." He sighs and looks fondly at the camera. "For all the things that I have accomplished in this life, I know one thing. You are my greatest gift to this world."

    THe SPARK unit comes to a stand, looking over the rest of the group to add them into it's IFF database. On the other hand... there's a strange hissing coming from outside the room. Julian's eye comes back to dominate the screens. "/You will not leave with that prototype/."
Alexis Maaka     Maaka's tone warms up a bit as she hangs back a bit to shadow Olivera. "You can make it, kid. C'mon." She encourages the trooper, reloading her PDW, chambering a fresh round. Can't say Sergeant Maaka's not one to look after the troopers, she'll definitely be insisting that Olivera see sickbay for the wound later.

    As hey make it to the overseer's room, Maaka goes back to sour annoyance. "Keep dreaming." She snarls at Julian, or wherever that voice is coming from anyways.

    The SPARK is certainly a thing. Like a big ol' mecha that'd make the MECs look like roombas with its armaments. "Wow."

    Thankfully she doesn't have to worry about things like poison gas with her STALKER suit's seals. She begins to head to the northern quadrant, intending to access the pump.
Staren     Staren simply nods to Olivera as he helps her to the ladder.

    Staren looks around the overseer's room warily, although that robot tends to draw his attention. Is it going to activate and attack them?

    Julian's words, and Shen Sr.'s, make the situation more clear. Staren just watches, silently, as Lily's father delivers his posthumous message.

    When SPARK identifies the pump for him, Staren goes to help Maaka disable it. "Great. So we'll be fighting our way out, of course. Do you have any other helpful information for fighting Julian, SPARK?"
Samira Amirmuaz     It's lucky that Staren and Maaka were unable to be effected by the poison gas that is now billowing around outside of the overseer's room. Lily and Olivera have to wait in the room to take cover while the SPARK and the others foray out to hit the pump and clear the room. Only, Julian obviously won't make it easy. There's suddenly three turrets coming out in the direction of the pump, and behind them are the same chutes that had been disgorging MEC units in the last room they'd fought in, even if they're still for now.

    All three of the turrets open fire immediately, each opening up a volley of fire on the ones making their way to the pump. The SPARK unit seems to ignore the mag rounds that dent it's armor and wildly fly off. The SPARK's autocannon manages to make quick work of the one firing at Staren, allowing him some space to move; said pump was in the pit near the lifts. A simple turn of a handle will clear the air quickly, and the SPARK chimes out that it's safe; this has Lily helping Olivera out of the room, but it looks like there's a LOT more turret emplacements surrounding the enclosure.
Alexis Maaka     Maaka cloaks, and she sprints through the foggy gas, firing bursts at the turrets as she does so. "Get those!" She calls to Staren, motioning to the guns while she heads straight for the pump directly. While that's happening, Maaka will try to close the distance to the pump, and when or if she does that, she turns the handle fiercely to shut the gas off. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon..."
Staren     When Staren spies the MEC chutes, he says "You get the pump." to Maaka, and with a thankful nod to SPARK for handling the turret, he rushes over to the chutes and starts welding them shut with a lower setting of the beam cannon.
Samira Amirmuaz     The combined fire from Maaka, the SPARK, and the two human XCOM members manages to silence the turrets as the room clears of the toxins, but Julian is most certainly not happy with what was happening; even as Staren tries to weld off access to the MEC lifts so they don't fight tons more murder machiens, there's still plenty of turrets that he can use. The SPARK unit seems more than happy to cover Lily from the incoming fire, ignoring the damage that was being done to it; eventually everyone was at the lifts, and only Staren was needed. "C'mon, Staren!" Lily yells out, waving for him frantically before ducking underneath a railing to escape a burst of mag fire.

    The SPARK has to take a moment to access the lifts and route them up to the roof. On the radio, Central's voice sounds tense. "I'll route the Skyranger up to the roof, you all need to get out of there now. That thing isn't playing with us now that we're trying to take it's toy away."

    The freight elevator creaks open, allowing everyone to pile inside while the SPARK covers them with autocannon fire. Everyone has the chance to get out of this little fun zone now before things start getting drastic, it'll probably be better to take it!
Alexis Maaka     "ABout fucking time!" Maaka says, before she takes off. Screw staying here, they had to get out before the SKyranger departed. She runs toward the lifts, firing at the turrets to cover the others with the SPARK. "We need to move, now! Hurry it up, people, time's wasting!"
Staren     Staren's forcefield is worn down by the turrets and they start hitting his armor -- this may have been the wrong call to make. Staren uses the wings again to get a burst of speed to the elevator. He doesn't have another comment at the moment -- he just wants to get them out of there.
Samira Amirmuaz     The lift doors slam shut as several more turrets burst from their emplacments to lay on the fire uselessly on the retreating XCOM soldiers. From there it's just a long, creaky, and uncomfortable ride up to the top, given that the SPARK was taking up most of the room in here, having to crouch down somewhat so that it doesn't bang it's head. "I can't believe that this unit's been here the whole time," Lily says eventually, touching one of the many dings on the machine's armor. "But they never managed to crack it. All of those MECs out there are inferior in comparison. I guess not even ADVENT can beat dad's programming chops. Or a bio-scan."

    Ding! The lift opens up to reveal the roof, and a chill wind blows across as everyone steps out. A set of stairs leads up further, and the telltale scream of the Skyranger's enginessays that they're just about to be rescued! Only, there's also another sound, coming from what looks like some kind of enclosed shed area. A lot of creaking, metal-on-metal stomping... The telltale alien/electric groan...

    CRASH! A Sectopod bursts out from the enclosure, rearing up to it's full height and firing a cascade of mag rounds at the coming Skyranger. Luckily, Firebrand is able to quickly dip her wing and power off, but there'll be no pickup now! Slowly, the mechanical beast turns baleful red sensors upon the group. "Allow me to introduce one of ADVENT's more effective designs," crackles Julian's voice from hidden speakers on the chassis. "I had hoped to avoid this contingency, but you've left me no choice. If I cannot have the SPARK unit, no one shall. Especially not you, /Lily/."

    Lily's response is simple: "Take cover!" She grunts and shoves Olivera behind a barrier while moving to a secondary enclosure on the opposite side of the roof. "Shit! We can't get evac like this!"
Staren     "If they could defeat his programming chops, they wouldn't need the bio-scan." Staren comments as they ride the lift.

    They're almost out of here...

    And then a freaking MECH shows up. It turns its attention to their pickup, and this is an opportunity Staren won't waste to get targeting data. He then dives behind cover, but holds his hands up... and a dozen anti-tank missiles, half of them magic marker-sized small ones and half of them the bigger mini-missiles, arc through the air before detonating shaped-charge warheads to try and blow some holes in the sectopod. Staren's been saving some missiles this whole time just in case... and now is the time to use them!

    Still, something surprises him: "ADVENT is openly using alien designs now?! Weren't those things terrorizing the streets before?"
Alexis Maaka     The elevator is pretty cramped, as Maaka and the others shuffle in. "THey didn't know what they were dealing with." SHe muses with satisfaction. Raymond was a tricky fox, even in death.

    And then Sectopod. "FUCK-!"

    Maaka leaps behind cover while she swaps from PDW to a grenade launcher, bracing the weapon against her shoulder as she takes aim through the scope. Taking a deep breath, she fires rounds downrange, high-ex rounds showering the Sectopod. "Probably an older model, there's got to be some sort of variant they use that's more civvie friendly!" She calls.
Samira Amirmuaz     This whole event had been one long exercise in trouble, and Lily's quite sick of it; as Staren and Maaka start taking their shots, she joins in, a vicious scowl stuck to her face even though her ballstic rounds were barely chipping the paint off of the goddamn thing. "They openly use aliens in the streets! Haven't you seen the Sectoids and Vipers?!" Lily yells in frustration The explosives wind up doing a lot more work, shredding armor and casting bits of debris all over the roof. For a moment, the Sectopod staggers drunkenly, then winds itself down on it's long spindly legs to cover them from taking more damage.

    Of course, the SPARK unit is also taking part, moving to separate itself from Lily so that they both aren't struck by the robot's armaments. It also helpfully notes, "This unit detected a power surge just before Sectopod activation. This unit surmises that the hostile AI has uploaded itself within the Sectopod data core. Corruption or detruction could result in catastrophic failure of the defensive systems across the entire facility." Once it's got a decent range, it points out an arm, which splits, revealing another missle that gets fired straight at the Sectopod's 'face'.

    Julian-turned-Sectopod turns to face the group again, particularly the source of all of those missles; it winches it's legs up again so that it can fire down on Staren from up high, laying down a blitz of mag cannon fire as it approaches. "Ugh, this memory core is so limited. You should know--I have re-routed every last remaining MEC unit up to this roof. None of you will leave this place alive!" He's quite serious, too. Loud crashing and crunching sounds from below herald the appearance of two MEC units from the opposite corners of the roof, both of which begin to converge on XCOM's location while firing their autocannons. Julian isn't quite done, either; there's an ominous red light glowing from the Sectopod's chest, paiting the area where Lily and Olivera are hiding in an ominous red light...
Staren     "Seriously?" Staren comments, when SPARK says that Julian has transferred itself into the Sectopod. "It couldn't possibly be that stupid..."

    Still, it rapidly becomes clear that unless they can destroy Julian, getting people out of here will be EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. Staren flies over the sectopod, hoping the MECs don't shoot him too much, and drops a satchel full of plasma grenades on the sectopod. He's throwing armaments at it as best he can in hopes of just destroying it, because... well, there isn't much else he can do!

    Hopefully Lily and Olivera are smarter than your average MMORPG player and know to NOT STAND IN THE TARGETING CIRCLE.
Alexis Maaka     Maaka narrows her brow. "PERFECT." She says, not in anger but in glee actually. THis is the PERFECT means to kill Julian once and for all, as she reloads her launcher. "Staren, now would be a very good time to drop something stronger than just that!" She calls, darting through cover to fire more grenade rounds onto the Sectopod. She can do this all night, big guy.
Samira Amirmuaz     Whether Julian was doing this out of stupidity, pride, or desperation was up for debate; in either case, the SPARK can't give any answers on Julian's motivations. It's probably a really good thing that they carried so much explosives, though! They're doing a number to the Sectopod's chassis, the armor and blast plating having been completely removed by all the explosions rocking it's frame. A cluster of plasma bombs on it's head causes the Sectopod to rock and barely keep it's footing, which results in the laser blast going wide and obliterating the floor a few feet from the two humans instead of dusting them completely. Lily tries to move and provide covering fire against the coming MEC troopers before they swarm. Only...

    Olivera also tried to move into a better position, up by what looks like some kind of generator to fire on the Sectopod. Ultimately, though, not enough attention is spared to stop the MECs, who are now also coming out from behind. One of them levels it's autocannon and fires... and Olivera's head disappears in a chunky mist, leaving her body to awkwardly try to complete her brain's last command before it finally realizes it's dead, and drops.

    "Olivera!" Lily cries out before she's forced to duck behind cover again. Julian was getting pounded by more grenades from Maaka, and the MECs were happy to clean up the others in the meantime. Gritting her teeth, Lily turns to her GREMLIN. "Rover, initiate the temporary shutdown protocol on that fucking monster." ROV-R beeps happily and zooms out towards the Sectopod, hiding in it's blind spot while it does the necessary work... Suddenly, everything stops. The MECs, the Sectopod--all of it freezes and enters a low-power mode, hunkering down. "NOW! Kill this fucking thing!" Shen shouts.
Alexis Maaka     Maaka is about to say something, but her train of thought gets derailed as she sees Olivera's head just...disappear. It's like a melon being evaporated. Maaka's heart skips a beat, and she just goes flat white hot in rage as she throws the useless grenade launcher aside.

    She runs from cover, priming and throwing grenades in boundless rage as she draws her PDW and fires blindly at the Sectopod. There's no cries of anger or profanity, just silent fury as Maaka lets the gun hang and draws something else.

    That mini gun from William's world, the jury-rigged one, materializes in her hand thanks to the Matter Manipulator, and she lets loose with endless 7.62 NATO fire at the Sectopod, letting hot brass speak for her as she unloads on the alien machine.
Staren     "Damn it!" Staren curses as Olivera's misted. And then Lily gives them an opportunity he won't allow to go to waste... He fires the beam cannons at the sectopod just because they're off cooldown, then pulls a missile launcher from his bag, slaps in a magazine of anti-tank minimissiles, and fires where Lily indicates the core is, as fast as the launcher can load new rounds in (a few seconds.)

    "Just die already!"
Samira Amirmuaz     Lily's messing about in Julian's programming had given the gang all the time that they needed to finally take this thing down. Without the ability to power his limbs or turn to face his core away from the many explosions, the Sectopod gets rocked by hundreds of rounds and several rockets directly in the tailpipe. In the end, it's all just a little too much. "No! No NO NO--!" Julian's strained, crackling voice cries out while the machine overloads, and then... KABOOM!

    Bits and pieces of metal and gears fly all over the roof and over the edge, leaving only a small pile of scrap and a giant scortch mark where the Sectopod had been. The MEC units that had been part of the melee all shut down immediately, as well, falling to the floor or coming to a shuddering halt. Once she's sure they're clear, Lily gets out of cover and dashes to Olivera's side, a pair of tears coursing down her face as she looked over the Brazilian's ruined, blood-soaked body. "... Durandal, come help me with this," she grunts quietly while taking up her downed GREMLIN and one of her legs.

    The SPARK unit comes immediately to Lily's side once the battle is over, a little worse for wear but not broken. Not long after, the familiar scream of the Skyranger approaching fills the air; Firebrand sets down directly in the middle of the roof, uncaring that she's sending Julian's broken bits flying. It's time to go home.
Staren     Staren sighs in relief as Julian finally goes boom and the MECs shut down.

    He doesn't know what to sy about Olivera, so he says nothing, and walks to the skyranger.
Alexis Maaka     t's a good thing Maaka doesn't shed tears, like literally she can't, otherwise it'd be hard to see through them right now for her. She removes her helmet and dismisses her mini gun, approaching Olivera's body. "She served us well to the end." She says quietly, kneeling beside the fallen soldier's body. She'll take Oli's dog tags, before she grabs both of Olivera's legs. There wasn't much more to do, other than bring Olivera's body along to the Skyranger, and she gently sets her down on the floor, sitting beside Olivera's remains with a mournful sigh.