Ah, alright then! Well, if you fine ladies are going to take care of getting your friend home safe then that'll be great. The server smiles Can I get the rest of you something to drink?
"Hmhmhmhm." Leila hums attentively as she listens to the dwarfs story until her company arrives. It was actually sorta nice to have something to take away the tension from what was about to happen. And she really didn't mind gossip.
Though eventually of course Astri had to come and ruin it by putting him to sleep. (How did she do that?) Oh well it was probably time for them to do what they came for anyhow! Leila thought to herself as she struggled to prop-up the dwarf properly.
"Nothing at the moment!" she called out cheerfully to the server and tried really hard to think innocent thoughts. Once the lashunta left she turned to the rest, suggesting: "[smaller]We'll just take the opportunity to whack 'em when they dial?"
Astrianna initially looks surprised before her face screws into an angry scowl. She starts to shout over him. "HEY DRUNKO McBEARD, WHY DON'T YOU DIG A HOLE IN A FLYING ROCK AND DIE IN IT?" She raises a hand and jabs him in the chest with her index finger as he reaches eye height. The force of the poke was seemingly too much for the dwarf (so Astrianna thought), and he goes tumbling into a heap on the floor.
Partially shocked but mostly satisfied, the half-elf puts her hands on her hips. "Serves him right. How rude."
Huffing, she tuts at the dwarf's protraste form as the others deal with the server.
Once the Lashunta leaves the half-elf throws up her hands, clearly in a bad mood after that verbal assault. "Just come on! This place is pissing me off. Either they'll believe us or they won't like Leila said. I'll handle it. I have a plan."
"Oh, a plan?" Fi rolls her eyes, but waits to see how they proceed next.
"I have full charge on my rifle plus a spare battery." Prospero-4 says in his usual flat tone, putting some extra effort to make himself heard over the music.
"I am merely stating an interesting fact. Absolutely not estimating the possible success rate of Astrianna's plan."
Part of Prospero-4's attention is captured by the swaying people all around the club. It took a while for him to figure out that the people were dancing, and doing so deliberately. He fails to understand how the so-called-music translates into the dancing, as he doesn't see a clear pattern match between the frequencies and body movement. But then a new song is mixed into the soundsphere ("010011100" by "Limoncello Death Cult" as the android quick query into infosphere reveals), and Prospero-4 starts feeling the music vibrate through his body. And then, inadvertently, his head starts swaying slightly along the newly discovered rhythm.
The android points at the "Crew only" door. "Let's go, and ... improvise!"
The group makes its way away from the booth to the south edge of the bar. When the bartender's attention is distracted Astrianna tests the double doors leading west and finds them to be unlocked.
Leaving the haze of narcotic smoke of the main area behind the group finds a large storeroom filled with supplies including bottles of hard alcohol, kegs of beer, and boxes of food and recreational stimulants for a wide variety of sentients. One corner holds amplifiers, musical instruments, and costumes for the club's entertainers. There is another, single, door in the north wall.
Right in front of the doors you see a table with three Downside King gangers sitting on them playing cards. There are two Humans and a Vesk wearing the armor familiar to you from the Dock fight. The one facing the door looks up at you and shots HEY! Lady! This area's staff only.
The other two turn as well to stare at the four of you.
Astrianna does not look surprised as the ganger calls out- in fact, she look relieved. "Finally! Someone actually doing their job." She calls back, her voice taking on a slow, measured, and confident candor.
The half-elf slows her walk with the utmost ease, folding her arms behind her back and standing ram-rod straight. "You can call me Ciri. My crew and I are security experts working for Astral Excavations. We were sent to evaluate your territory-wide and on-site security in preperation for an upcoming deal with your boss. Gentlemen, I commend you on being the first to spot and stop us. We evaded all other patrols and slipped inside completely unnoticed up until this point. If you could give me yours names I will mention them in my report for your benefit."
She glances around the warehouse, and not finding what she was looking for, glances back to the gangers. "If one of you could show us your data servers I will have my computer experts run a cybersecurity evaluation and we will then leave to make our report."
The gangers seem very unfriendly and have never experienced anything quite like Astrianna before. They throw each other some confused glances. The Vesk whispers to one of the humans Data Servers? I didn't know we had any data servers! While the third gets up and goes to the north door and opens it to call in Hey, boss? There's some people here, say they're from Astral Excavations? They want to check security? You can hear some muffled shouting from within and the guy nods and then turns with his gun drawn. Yah, I got your data server right here lady. Now either you leave right now or we'll mess your pretty little face up real bad.
The other two stand up and draw their laser pistols as well.
It'd be an even standoff, except they're the only ones that have their weapons drawn and Leila has all your weapons!
Leila who is standing behind everyone else gets a tap on her shoulder. One of the servers is talking. Excuse me Miss? This is a Staff Only room. You and your friends really should leave.. Are you looking for the washrooms?
Astrianna doesn't break character even as the gangers level their pistols at the group. She crosses her arm over her chest, shaking her head slowly. "Regrettable. My employers were looking forward to doing more work with your gang if you could be brought up to professional standards."
Lifting a hand the half-elf flicks two fingers to the group, gesturing towards the door. The bartender is ignored, and she walks to a different side of the club. Letting out a long sigh, Astrianna runs her hand over her face. "What a bunch of idiots! All they had to do was lead us inside. Well... Fi, it's your turn."
Yeah, that's right. Walk away. The thug jeers as the other two laugh harshly before switching his attention to the hapless server trying to get you away from the stock room as the four of you retreat. Hey, beer boy. Get us another round and hop to it. B*!!@
The server's lips tighten. Sir, yes right away
Something about the tones in the waitress' verbal response, makes even Prospero-4 suspect she isn't very fond of those men. The android leans towards Astrianna, whispering "Maybe she could help us past those guards".
Astrianna briefly wonders if this is the time to give Prospero a lesson on gender identity, but decides they have more important things to do. "Hmm." She muses, sharing the android's observations.
"I doubt they can get us past those guards considering how jumpy they were, but I bet it won't take much for the bartender to look the other way while Fi tosses a Gnomish Hot Tamale through the Staff door."
The half-elf glances at her companions, cooking up a new plan.
"I'll go talk to the bartender while everyone gears up and prepares next to the door. I uh..." She looks down at her skin-tight clothes and decides it may be time to change her style to accomodate her new job. "Don't have anywhere to hide my pistol, so I'll bring up the rear when you breach the door."
She briefly digs around in the bag o goodies, taking a tube of bonding epoxy and sliding it into her pocket. "Once we're all inside I'll lock and glue the door shut. Should slow down security and cover our backs."
Astrianna saunters up to the bar, rapping on the stick-rpoof polymer tabletop with her knuckles to catch the bartender's attention. She crooks a finger to try and get him to come in close. "Those guys in the back room are pricks, huh? If you'd... say... tend to your barkeeping duties very seriously for a minute or two, me and associates will teach them a much-needed remedial lesson in respect."
The bartender a floating bluish jelly of some sort with very dexterous tentacles goes rigid for just a moment before smoothly grabbing a bottle from under the bar and twisting the top off with a flick and pushing it towards Astrianna. The label says Avery Karma Ale.
Customer's always right lady! it whistles Hope you have a very good time.
The jelly then floats over to the server who's gathering up bottles to take to the back and starts whispering. The server looks over at the four of you speculatively before nodding and putting the tray down to instead head towards the other servers working the floor.
You guys are up.
Fi nods at Astri as the half-elf smoothly leads them out without breaking cover - or a noticeable sweat. "Good work." No harm in keeping her on-side. "Not a bad idea you had, but not our night for it." She gives a nasty grin. "Not their night either, now."
She gives the group a few moments to get ready and gives the gang some time to relax and get back to their game before giving her team one last sweeping look. "Remember, keep scattered. A grenade indoors can ruin your evening! Now, follow my lead."
Practically skipping across the dance floor, Fi puts her hand on the hilt of her pistol inside her robes, pulling it free seconds before she dives through the door, rolling towards cover. She sights along the gun and pulls the trigger, aiming at one of the gangers.
Fianh bursts through the door in a hard roll and comes up behind a crate of some sort of intoxicant north of the door. As she comes out of the roll and aims she sees the gangers still laughing about having scared the four of you away. The ganger at the north door is tucking his pistol back in his waistband. The ganger behind the table has settled back down to her cards while the Vesk in front of the table has turned back to it. Fian fires at the one right in her sights. The one at the door.
The rest of you see the same thing as the double doors yaw open from Fianh's dramatic opening salvo. You also see the ganger at the north door stumble back with a roar of pain as Fianh's bullet gets through his armor.
The sound of Fianh's heavy pistol is quite distinctive even over the club music especially since it's followed up by a human scream of pain. Heads from inside the club begin to turn..
Human at north door 4 damage
Fi grins at the sudden change in fortunes
Leila starts off by doing the most important thing in a gunfight - being in cover! Then she tries to quickly upload the strobe algorithm from the disco lights outside to the lights closest to the injured ganger. With a bit of luck, that'd distract him while she zaped him with her Pulse Caster!
Leila scampers behind some loose booth furniture south of the double doors and the suddenly flashing lights above the ganger allows her to get a really good hit in. Unlike the oddly strobing lights he was distracted by, the lights coming from Leila's pulsecaster *hurt*
Fi grins at the sudden change in fortunes, blasting away at the gangers as they stumble, caught flat-footed by the speed and suddeness of the attack.
Round 1
Astrianna walks up with her beer, taking a sip. Shrugging, the half-elf knocks back the whole bottle and gulps it down with gusto, following with a loud burp. She still seems like she's in a bad mood, though Fi's compliments cheer her up a little bit. "All those s+@%-suckers had to do was play along. Oh, I plan on ruining more than one night. Give me ten seconds."
She takes out a frag grenade from Liela's pack, and the epoxy tube from her pocket. Squeezing the plunger down, she coats one side of the beer bottle with the glue mixture, then presses the grenade against it. Smiling, Astrianna lifts up her creation for all to see. A sadistic smile creeps across her face, eyes alight with deadly mischief. "Special delivery for our new friends!"
Her (now) signature hot pink pistol in one hand and beernade in the other, she inhales deeply and waits for Fi to breach the door.
As the Tian rolls into the room Astrianna follows, taking cover behind a nearby crate. She pops up with a scowl, shouting over the gunshots, "Here's your beer, a%$#@&&s!" She twists the primer and lobs; the glorious beernade goes spinning through the air, landing with a seemingly innocuous clink onto the table, label side up. A beat passes, and the Avery Karma Ale explodes into shards of glass and lead.
As the first gunshot sounds, part of Prospero-4's brain goes multithreading and predicting the long-term outcome of this situation. Most likely, there will be trouble later on - but hopefully the casualties will be limited to the gangers.
But the more pressing issue is, of course, to survive and win the immediately happening firefight. Where the others wield easily concealable weapons, the android's energy rifle looks like it means serious business. With a flick of his thumb, the safety if off, and he rushes into the room to seek cover. Almost subconsciously, the exocortex kicks on. The telemetry feed helps Prospero-4 to target a wounded ganger, and a pull of the trigger releases a tight laser beam to put the enemy out of its misery.
Fianh's pistol and the sounds of genuine pain are bad enough but Astrianna's Karma grenade seals deal. The patrons of the club realize that some sort of firefight has broken out and start to scream and stampede towards the exit pushing over each other in a panicked mass as the four of you move in to the back room.
There is a scratching sound from the sound system as the DJ abandons his post but a new track clicks itself into place. Apparently the DJ's computer is determined to keep the party pumping.
The booming tune is easily audible in the back rooms.
Inside Fianh's second attack hits the reeling ganger right in the head and that, combined with the exploding grenade is enough to put him down for good. The sudden slump causes Prospero-4 to barely miss his shot.
The sight of their dying comrade, not to mention being hurt by the beernade snaps the other two Downside Kings out of their shock. The woman behind the table ducks behind it to give herself cover and starts firing at Fianh. The laser fire misses her easily.
The Vesk in front though roars with anger and moves forward towards the source of the grenade. It's a small room so she easily gets behind Astrianna's cover and brings her club down on the half elf. Astrianna is *not* able to dodge out of the way of the primitive implement of violence!
Ganger 1 Dead!
Ganger 2 5 damage
Ganger 3 5 damage
Astrianna 7 damage
There's a time for rolling, diving, weaving; and there's a time for standing tall (well, as tall as you can) and executing every last one of the mother####ers in the room.
Planting her feet, Fianh raises her pistol in a two-handed grip and fires again and again at the Vesk, trying to drop it before it pastes Astrianna into bone-flecked jam.
Fianh's first bullet rips through the Vesk's throat and the second goes right between the eyes. Even the storied warriors of the Veskarium would be hurt by that barrage of fire and this low level gang thug is certainly not that.
She slumps back, blood spilling on the floor, with the club still clutched in a very literal death grip.
Round 2
Astrianna sees the Vesk rushing towards her, the half-elf shocked it was able t o survive the grenade blast. She registers that the Vesk was going to hit her with a club too late, merely raising her arms in self-defense.
The muscled blow overloads the kinetic dampeners on her Second Skin force field, smashing into her arms with enough force to draw a short scream from the half-elf. She stumbles backwards, clutching her left arm. "I'll kill-" Fi's semi-automatic not only drowns out her trash talk, but it also kills its intended target. "F~#@! Good enough!"
She crouches back down behind her crate, briefly looking at her bloodied and throbbing arm. Gritting her teeth, she fires a laser shot and yells over the music. "What now, you piece of filth?!"
Leila does her best to pew-pew the last ganger while trying to not worry too much about all the noise they were making. Ahhh! Everyone on this level can hear!! And probably *all* the other Kings. Brr.. She did her best to push the image of a rampaging horde of gangers crying out for their blood. It went so-so. Yep. That would definitely be a problem for future-Leila. Heck it might even be a problem for present-Leila very very very soon! Bleh!!
Stoically, Prospero-4 keeps his ground, and keeps his aim locked at the original target.
Prospero-4's and Astrianna's laser fire pings off the last ganger's cover. Leila's distracting light show though combines with an unerringly precise shot that snakes through the legs of the table the ganger is hiding behind to strike her right in the abdomen.
The four of you can hear some sort of activity happening on the other side of the north door! But for the moment there is no activity inside the stock room. Other than the last twitching ganger of course.
You can hear quite a lot of stuff happening on the dance floor though. Seems like the panicked herd is still trying to shove its way out. With only entrance and exit, the Fusion Queen certainly doesn't conform to any sort of fire code.
Ganger 1 Dead! By Astrianna grenade
Ganger 2 Dead! By Fi crit shot
Ganger 3 Non lethally down!
Astrianna 7 damage
Once it was obvious that all the gangers had stopped twitching Leila quickly got up and nervously headed towards the door they had entered trough. Still with her gun in her hand she quickly peeked back into the club - then shut the door just as quickly and looked around for something to jam against the door. A sturdy chair maybe? It needed to be strong and yet easy for them to remove again. Only when that was done did she dare to breathe properly again and reload her pulse caster.
Astrianna was going to deadbolt the door, but Liela has it covered. The half-elf curses and nurses her arm, which looks horribly bruised. "F&~% I think it's broken."
She's clearly exaggerating, considering she can still move it.
Regardless of the state of her arm she goes to the north for and pounds on it with her fist. "Your cronies are dead. Tell us what we want to know or the exploding splinters of this door will be the last thing you see." Astrianna yells through the door, knowing the boss the four guards consulted with are back there.
"The hit on Duravor Kreel. We want the documents from astral extractions authorizing payment for the job."
Keeping a careful distance from the door, Fi calls out: "Best do what she says - otherwise you have two chances of getting out of this, and I just shot Slim right between the eyes, so sorry."
The door opens inwards and reveals a very very furious Vesk with turquoise scales and red armor.
He also has a very large assault hammer held in both of his hands. He swings it with a double over handed swing that hits Astrianna, in mid pound, right in the chest. She goes flying backwards 2 whole metrons and ends on the floor seemingly completely boneless. Her armor has not been doing a good job of protecting the socialite vlogger from primitive assaults.
That's what you get when you mess with the f@&@ing Kings! comes a female human voice from behind the Vesk. You can't see the source since the Vesk completely blocks the doorway, but it sounds a bit shaken.
Leila watched with a mortified look on her face as Astri sailed trough the air. Now, true, the half-elf could be a bit of an airhead but this was simply ridiculous!
With a wimper she quickly raised her gun again and squeezed of another round while desperately searching for any vesk-be-gone buttons on her pocket computer. Maybe the door could be slammed in his face? Or the roomba ordered to attack his feet? Or or or ... Maybe everything?
Fi remains impassive as the huge Vesk threatens to mash the life out of Astrianna. After all, it could be worse - it could be her. Then who'd be left to win the fight?
She cartwheels a few prudent metrons away, before opening fire on the new threat.
Leila is able to cause a screech in the pounding club music that momentarily distracts the Vesk as her pulsecaster hits him. He barely flinches though, just like he barely budges when Fianh's bullet grazes his neck. It draws blood though, you can see that at least.
Astrinna DYING!
Vesk 4 HP
When the door starts opening, Prospero-4 turns his attention over there. Unfortunately, his position makes him unable to see the Vesk, before it's too late for Astrianna. It takes only a fraction of a second for his exocortex to lock into the hammer-toting Vesk, but by then the half-elf is already flying towards oblivion.
Still, withing those same moments, the android opens fire towards the Vesk, and wonders if he should feel something about the appearance of such terrifying enemy or the possible loss of an ally.
As Astrianna finishes her limp slide Prospero's exocortex kicks into gear and he hits the Vesk dead on.
This time the Vesk does flinch. With a grunt he ducks down to his knee and replaces his hammer with a wicked looking artillery laser and fires it at the android!
From behind The kneeling Vesk you can see a human woman wielding a semi-auto pistol. She searches for targets and settles on Leila! With a cracking sound she sends a bullet at the halfling.
The two gangers show why they've managed to claw to the top of the Downside Kings as, despite the cover both Prospero and Leila are in they get hit.
Astrinna at 1 Hp, prone and in cover!
Leila 4 damage
Prospero-4 4 damage
Vesk 12 HP
Human is unhurt and has soft cover from Vesk
Round 5
Astrianna doesn't really know what happened- one moment she was pounding on the door to the ganger boss's office, and the next she was laying on the floor, looking up into some fluorescent lights. She struggles to get up, but her core feels like it had been put through one of Intora's abdominal workouts, except worse.
Watching that huge Vesk pull out an equally huge artillery laser is enough to motivate her to move, and despite the protest of her entire body Astrianna scrambles into his nearby cover. Throwing herself behind some crates, she sits behind them and makes labored gasps for breath. "I'm not going to die here. I'm not going to die here. You have to suffer to get to the top, pain is part of the process!" She croaks quietly, talking to herself. Sucking in a sharp breath from what she swears is her spleen displacing itself, Astrianna tries to get up to take another shot at the Vesk- her body refuses to move.
A wretched cough escapes her, and she notices her lips are wet. She touches a hand to her mouth and pulls back a deep red substance. Staring at it briefly, she finds herself caught between panicking and laughing. How could this happen to her? She had the perfect plan, if only those idiots had listened, they wouldn't be dead and she wouldn't be bleeding out behind a crate in a nightclub! "I'll kill both of them for this. There's no other way." She hisses, powering through her injuries out of sheer anger and a desire for revenge.
Dropping her bloodied hand, she lays with her back against a crate and shouts as well as she can to her companions. "Pro-PROSPERO! Come on! I took worse than that and I'm still going! You have to take revenge on that Vesk for me, keep shooting!"
"Eeeep!" Leila shrieked in horror as she was shot. Luckily her armour absorbed most of the impact - truth to be told she'd only get a bruise at worst. But still! Ow!
Doing her best to sink further into the cover Leila returns fire, targeting the vesk.
Fi rolls forward, careful to keep as much cover between her and the Vesk as possible as she shoots at it again.
Astrianna's words barely reach through Prospero-4 focused state. But somehow, hearing those words takes away the pain from the Vesk's shot. The android acknowledges the woman's words with a slight nod, and opens fire at the vesk with new resolve.
Leila's distraction works but her attack misses while Fianh's caution causes her fire to do less damage than she would have liked. The first of Prospero's attack misses badly but the second lands. Still the Vesk doesn't fall though you really can't tell what's keeping him together.
Still he refuses to give up his post protecting the human behind him. There is a returning barrage from them both.The android gets hurt by a vicious bolt of laser fire from the Vesk while Leila is able to avoid both shots coming from the human.
Astrinna at 1 Hp, prone and in cover!
Leila 4 damage
Prospero-4 8 damage
Vesk 19 HP
Round 6
With a strained growl Astrianna grabs the side of a crate and slowly hoists herself up, leaning against the plastic exterior and looking at the ragged Vesk with burning rage. Intent on getting revenge for the near-death experience, she lays her pistol across the surface, sneers, and squeezes the trigger.
"I'm going to sell the charred remains of your pet vesk to a street shaman, b&@*%!" Astrianna yells at the woman in the office.
Astrianna's actions backs up her words. Her single burst of laser fire goes right between the Vesk's eyes. He spasms, once, and then slumps forward onto his weapon.
VROKILAYO! NO! You, F~%+ING B&+%#! I'll MAKE YOU EAT S!+& FOR THAT. Comes the anguished yell from the woman.
With the meaty wall out of the way Leila tries a cautious shot towards the woman while trying to make herself as small as possible. Even if she had good intel indicating that *she* wasn't the one about to eat s&#*, one really couldn't be too careful around armed, angry and screaming gangers. Oh well! To the shooting! It would be so much easier to do if she could see her target better, say if all the lights in the office suddenly turned up to the max. Luckily people usually didn't put too much security into their wireless dimmers!