It takes everything in him to not punch the bartender for his comment, but Jace only glares. Looking to Doloso he says, "Well boss, I don't like the idea of the kid out there by himself. What say we pay our tab and move on?"
At the bartender's comments, K-8 grinds his...well, they aren't teeth anymore...grinds his metal mandibular joint? "Is the fat Juicer at the door a paying customer, cause I'd sure like to hassle him..."
It is possible that K-8's programming has degraded his ability to make reasonable decisions. The intention of the programming is to make sure that he seeks out the most challenging foes on a battlefield, making life easier for his allies who are still mostly meat. It seems that that programming has leaked into interactions it was never intended to affect.
The trick with running in cities was always to run not much faster than the vehicles that travelled in the city. The words of Hyperkinetic's mentor rang clear in his ears.
Problem was, he wasn't in the city yet.
Watching how the guards were paying attention, he timed the gate just right, taking off at near the speed of sound and then sliding under the gate before it fully opened. Fortunately, the boots on his costume were made for this sort of maneuver, but the dust cloud he kicked up was nothing to sneeze at.
Now that he was in the city, he took his mentor's advice and dropped speed to a fraction of what it was then hit up a couple of alleys before pulling on the poncho and again tracking follow Grease.
[ooc]Last benny to reroll stealth]
Hyperkinetic's inexperience at tailing becomes pretty immediately apparent to him, as he gets spotted by his mark almost as quickly as he acquires him. The 'Borg takes a few random turns, seeing if he can lose him, but as hard as it is for Hyperkinetic to stay out of the sight of a Borg with 360 degree computer assisted vision tracking, it is probably just as hard for a 7 ft, 500 lb cyborg to give a supersonic tail the slip. Hyperkinetic follows the mark for about half an hour, before the Borg leads him back near to where he started, where he walks into a Department of Municipal Security office.
Seeing that he's going to contact the authorities, Hyperkinetic decides to return to the group, doing so by climbing a building and then leaping from building to building before sailing over the roof.
It takes everything in him to not punch the bartender for his comment, but Jace only glares. Looking to Doloso he says, "Well boss, I don't like the idea of the kid out there by himself. What say we pay our tab and move on?"
"Don't want to linger around here any longer myself. Though the kid might be back by the time we get through the line at the gate."
Jace nods as Hyper walks in the door. "You called it."
"So, what next?"
Jace looks at Doloso and back at the kid. "We were just getting ready to come after you. You look to still be in one piece. Where'd that Borg go?"
"I guess we should get into the line He points over the intake.
K-8 lines up with the rest of you, clearly antsy and slightly petulant about not getting a chance at the other borg.
Hyperkinetic will give a quick recap of what occurred, noting that he's not The Catman, whatever that means.
"Seems tha peeps here ain't useta dealn with us speedsters."
Ace gets in the line with the others, then after waiting a minute, says "What exactly are we going to do when we get in again?"
The group moves towards the lineup, getting ready to move through the inspection queue. Because of the hardpoint and the PB Cannon affixed to it, Thumper is directed to move his vehicle over to another line. Boomer gets directed to the same line, though the sight of a glitterboy in the lineup draws considerably more eyes.
Both lines move rather slowly, but with relatively steady progress. Power armour seems to be getting parked and secured in a bunker just down a ramp from the wall. For vehicles like Thumper’s, weapons look like they are either being removed completely, or having critical components removed and a locking mechanism installed (like the way a cable lock disables a firearm by making you unable to close the action). That way the weapon could not be made functional just by popping in a spare part.
On this occasion, the line of foot patrons seems to move faster than the line of vehicles, and the people on foot are through the line and waiting on the inside as Ace and Thumper near the front of their line.
Having passed through the scanner without incident, most of the party waits inside the gate, though some more patiently than others. Hyperkinetic hops up atop the wall, where technically only the city soldiers are supposed to be, in order to steal a glance at where the others are in the vehicle line. When he sees them at the front, and about to have their turn at inspection, he turns to speed back to the others and let them know what he saw, when he hits something.
The supersonic youth slams into something that feels not unlike a brick wall, in what should have been open air. There was literally nothing there when he went to move, but whatever he hit sure felt a lot more solid than air.
Picking himself up off the ground to look past his feet, he sees a man doing basically the same thing. Except this man is about eight feet tall, has bright red-copper skin, a demonic maw, and a variety of cybernetic implants. Hyperkinetic would swear on his life he had not been there a moment ago.
From his position atop the wall, the demon man looks around himself frantically, as if looking for something he dropped in the collision. He apparently finds it, spotting a large brick shaped case with a handle fixed to the top, sort of like a briefcase or toolbox. It rests against the base of the swivel platform for the railgun that was atop the wall. The Juicer sitting in the gunner’s chair regards the box with the glazed eyes Juicers get when they've been bored, and their implants have been providing them with chemical entertainment. The demon-man grins, and holds up a small remote control, which he immediately presses. The Juicer’s eyes have a mere moment where they start to clear, as he seems to recognize the significance of the situation, before the box and everything near it disappears in a flash of white light.
Reacting on instinct, Hyperkinetic moves. He is far enough away when the shockwave hits that he is not so much as hit as lifted up, and relocated to a point some significant distance away.
Everyone near the gate is flattened by the blast. Everyone in the gateway, but not in a vehicle, is reduced to ash. Ace and Thumper are not physically harmed, but both vehicles are covered in stone and concrete and rebar.
Picking themselves up off the ground, the team is able to see the vehicle behind Thumper, a large APC style truck, opens doors on each side to disgorge a dozen or so copper-red skinned figures. All are brandishing weapons, cybernetics, and hostile demeanors.
Dead and wounded lie everywhere. Of the people in line to go through the gate, the first twenty paces or so were incinerated. Beyond that lies a mix of dead, dying, and dismembered.
Combat:
= Ace of Spades
= Queen of Clubs
= 6 of Clubs
= 8 of Diamonds
= Joker
= Ace of Clubs
= 10 of Diamonds
= 7 of Clubs
= 5 of Diamonds
K842 may go any time of his choosing.
Arsensio
Jace
Androva
Thumper
Hyperkinetic
Any remaining city guards
Boomer
Brodkil
Boomer fires at two of the Brodkil with his 457 Pulse laser rifle (ROF 2) :
Hitting one target for
= 23 (AP 3)
And the other for
(AP 3)
This was not the first time Hyperkinetic had been thrown into the air by an explosion, so he simply rolled with the blast and used it to propel him further into the city.
Turning on the speed, he returns to the gate mere seconds after the explosion had occurred, in time to see the vehicle disgorge the demon men. continuing his movement, he stands right next to one and says "Ahm sorry, but were all full on demons at the moment. Please come back next week." before smashing his fist into the creatures face. He then zips away, out of the creature's line of sight and back to the group, saying "Ya'll ok?"
Jace grinned as he saw the demonoids come out of the APC. It was time for a real fight. "I'm going in to cause trouble!"
The chemicals already ramping up his incredible speed, Jace rockets forward, sword slicing the air and any red skinned creatures in his wake.
Thumper's first thought is to bring the PB online and start firing, but that would turn the Zone Ranger into a target. Instead he grabs his 'thumper' from over his shoulder and activates his phase cloak. [Intangibility]
The cloak rips time and space, Thumper moves through the front of the ATV, using a moment in time where there was not a vehicle in that space. and crouches in-front of the ATV. From the Thumper shifts to shades of blue and flickers in and out of view.
Arsenio dives for cover as the creatures pile out of the APC, peeking out only long enough to shoot an experimental fire blast at one and note its effects before ducking back down.
"Anybody have intel on these things? Where they're from, what they might want?" he shouts to anyone that might be near enough to hear him in the chaos.
Androva activates her psi-sword and charges the nearest demonoid.
"Thar demons of sum kind, just like outta da good book." says Hyperkinetic.
Boomer's shot both hit their targets. The first hits a brodkil in the face, and the instantaneous vaporization of his head's water content has rapid, expansive effect that gets everyone's attention quite well. The second blast hits the brodkil next to the first, though it is more of an oblique shot, and this one is merely shaken.
Hyperkinetic's attack hits, but the brodkil’s body feels about as soft as a slab of concrete, and the punch doesn’t seem to have any effect.
K-842 closes and strikes a brodkil in the arm. He drops his rifle, allowing K8 to scoop it up. The brodkil's arm looks somewhat injured, leaving him shaken. K8 levels the rifle and blasts the demon at point blank range. He blasts a hole right through the monster's chest, and it keels over backwards.
Jace charges forward and lays around with his blades. Both strikes hit brilliantly, but the first strikes only a shallow wound, leaving the creature shaken, and the second glances off the creature's bony plates.
Arsenio blasts a demonoid, hitting it solidly, and immolating it in flames. The corpse keeps burning upon the ground, even his gear starting to melt into puddles.
Androva summons her blade and slashes a brodkil. The hit is not her strongest, but due to the power of her blade, it manages to slice through the demon's plated skin, and the monster goes down.
One soldier climbs out of the rubble of the gate, having miraculously survived the collapse somehow. He is missing his helmet, and has blood coating a good portion of his scalp. He brings an L-20 up to his shoulder however, and lays into the closest brodkil with a long burst of pulse laser fire.
Most of the burst is well placed, center mass, and the brodkil goes down.
Another guard crawls out of the rubble, but looks more severely injured, the left side of body looking broken and useless.
The massive Titan Juicer from the bar across the street shows up in the doorway to the bar, hefts that massive hammer of his and runs forward towards the brodkil, almost blurring, in that way juicers tend to do when moving fast.
One brodkil that was previously unseen within the APC, move up to the light railgun atop the vehicle. He turns it on the crowd of injured and stunned who were until moments ago the long lines of people waiting to enter the city. While the first 4-5 meters worth of people were obviously killed in the explosion, the lines further back have hosts of people still living, though many were injured. This attack is turning into a a massacre of the bystanders. The heavy, mega-damage rounds intended to punch through inches of plate armour RIP through multiple people with each shot, sending red mist and detached limbs spinning into the air.
Another of the brodkil, heavy augmented with cybernetics, moves towards the civilians as well, and starts laying about him with a plasma ejector, turning screaming and huddled people into torches. The only saving grace is the noise of the weapons fire drowning out the screams.
The two brodkil that had been shaken by attacks each seem to recover quickly and turn on their attackers with their weapons.
Against the reflective surface of a Glitterboy however, his laser fire is completely useless.
The first shot that connects evokes a definate reaction, and the second is probably fatal, as the man goes down limply.
The large Particle Beam rifle puts an end to the poor man.
With a seemingly lucky blow that slips past the Titan's guard, a brodkil with a two handed chainsword cleaves through his hammer's handle, his glances across his chest, and then finished by taking off the man's leg just above the knee.
The last visible demonoid throws a grenade towards the crowd on the far side of the gate. It lands right up in front of the party members who were waiting there.
One last brodkil steps out of the vehicle, from the driver's seat. He's bigger, taller, and sports more cybernetics than the rest. From inside the cab he pulls out an auto grenade launcher. He aims at the Glitterboy, it being the most obvious immediate threat.
The second and third shots hit off center just enough to allow the armour to deflect them, but the first hits front and center where the helmet joins the chestplate, sending a massive shock through the armour, and to its pilot.
Next Round
= 5 Diamonds
= 6 Diamonds
= Queen Diamonds
= 6 Clubs
= 7 Hearts
= 9 Hearts
= 9 Spades
= 8 Hearts
'Thumper' Steps out from around the side of the ATV, comming fully back into reality.
As he steps around he jams a potato into the barrel of his thumper, he aims and pulls the trigger a needle pierces the projectile and the catalizer changes the atomic nature of the spud. it fires from the tube in a jet of super heated gas, by the time it hits the ground behind the Brodkil it explodes with nuclear fury.
MDC
MDC
"Ah got tha gre-nade!" yells Hyperkinetic.
Rolling to recover from Shaken :
Boomer fires at two of the Brodkil with his 457 Pulse laser rifle (ROF 2) :
Hitting the guy with the grenade launcher for
= 19
and another one for
= 18
Spending a Bennie :
Spending another Bennie :
= 13, 2 Raises
So, no penalties to all my rolls above.
Thumper aims his potato gun carefully, and drops his ordinance directly down on the gunner. In fact, the shot is so well placed, it passes through the space between him and the edge of the turret, detonating on the inside of the vehicle. Every door, window, and panel simultaneously bursts outwards from the vehicle, having been designed to repel attacks from the outside, but not so much from within the vehicle. Of the gunner in the turret, the largest bits are fired 30-40 meters into the air, though it's quite likely some smaller bits will land a few blocks away. The APC is completely destroyed. If there were any brodkil still inside, they have likely been reduced to the consistency of a nice chili con carne.
The explosion also blows out the driver side door, throwing fire and shrapnel out all around the big guy holding the grenade launcher.
Ace lines up two quick shots, shooting first the leader, and then another of the demonoids. The shot on the leader has no appreciable effect, merely impacting on one of his cybernetic armour plates. The second shot drops it's target like his strings were cut.
K842 adjusts his plan on the fly after seeing the APC explode from the inside. He moves instead for the other creature targeting civilians; the one with the Plasma Rifle. He brings up his newly acquired rifle, an NG-L5 (3d6+2, RoF 1, AP2), and takes a shot at the warrior.
This one seems to have some extra cybernetics as well, and the shot goes unnoticed. Nevertheless, K8 charges forward, and strikes at him with an augmented metal fist.
The thing manages to deflect the blow, but K8 has managed to get into close quarters where neither of them will be able to use their long, cumbersome rifles. While the brodkil has a sword strapped across his back, he does not have a melee weapon drawn.
The blow barely slips past Jace's guard, but scores only a glancing blow as a result; a thin, shallow cut that the Juicer likely does not even notice.
The cyber-augmented Plasma Blaster wielder spins around to deal with the sudden onslaught of the 4 armed K842. While trying to fend the borg off with a rifle too big to bring to bear, he draws his sword, and tries to bring it around into a slash, all in one motion.
However, the motion is clumsy, and K842 manages to block his wrist before the blade even gets close.
The brodkil that took down a surviving soldier moments ago adjust his aim, after spotting the crouching Techno-wizard and his potato gun. As the explosion still rips through the ACP behind him, he unleashes a burst of pulse laser fire at the man that cause it.
As the laser fire pelts over the rubble forming Thumper's cover, the blaster in the creature's hands stops firing suddenly, and vents plasma to both sides of the induction chamber; a clear sign of a significant malfunction. Brodkil may love technology, but apparently that love does not extend to doing maintenance on their equipment.
The big brodkil with the big sword roars over the body of the fallen Titan Juicer. He looks around for his next target, and sees K842 wresting with one of his peers. He charges over, swinging heavily with his massive Chain-sword.
The leader throws off the cloak shredded by Thumper's explosion.
The giant cyber-demon steps arrogantly forward, firing his rocket launcher at Ace, while swiping at the nearby Jace with his chain-sworded cyber-arm.
Three grenades pound into Ace's Glitterboy, one after another, though the blinding fast Juicer manages to block the sword strike with ease.