"We good? Anyone else?", Badger says before looking for another exit or way into the rest stop portion.
Badger limps toward the rest stop, trying to keep a lowish profile. He flattens against the wall next to the door, shotgun loaded.
Stealth:
Ace:
13 total on stealth.
Notice:
'The pack is fracturing,' Aeryicka thought as the others descended into fighting each other over the death of Miles. 'Don't know if the pack will last much longer. If this continues, should find new pack.' Without realizing it, Aeryicka's thoughts were slowly devolving, becoming more like what she believe's an animal's to be. Shaking her head, she crept back out of the garage and turn towards the main entrance way, hoping to spy upon any slavers she came across.
It's all good Bloom. All f$&#ing good. Kristophe says, but you don't believe him.
Kristophe follows Badger to the rest area, as Badger prepares to burst through the door. Kris tells Timmy. When this shit hits the fan, you toss in a flash bang. Have your f~#&ing brother shoot a window out and then you throw in the grenade.
Kris has Discipliner hooked to a loop in his belt, and the .44 one hand. In the other he carries a smoke grenade. He props the Shotgun against the wall.
He whispers to Badger Nod to Jimmy when you're ready. He'll shoot the window out and BBT'll toss a flash bang in. After that...well, we try not to die
In exasperation, Harper let loose her arrow...
Only for it to land at Kristophe's foot, and embed its lethal tip into the dirt.
Thomas had won. Kristophe had won. The little, tinkling voices had won. Damn them. Damn them all. Though Harper would like to have thought that she could truly stand up to a foe as threatening as Kristophe, she knew that she could never have put the final bolt into the back of his neck. Pathetic.
No, Harper, it was brave of you to take the higher route, to take your aim from your enemy to the ground. Not many could let go of that anger, especially in a world such as this one.
The voice again. Harper paid it no mind. Instead, she made her way, carefully, toward Miles, and put her hands around the chain that Miles so dutifully carried by his side. This was all that was left of him. He might have been a scary, terrifying mutant, but she had begun to put her trust in the thing; her family had taken him under their wing. Maybe she could honor the scraps of humanity that had once remained within his mind by keeping the chain with her. It would remind her of what she had to lose: her very mind. But it would also remind her that even those who have fallen from grace could begin to pick themselves back up once more.
Harper gingerly placed her bow into her backpack and discarded the hockey stick. In its place, she held Miles's weapon of choice in her hands.
She was ready to move on.
= Total 13 (Tie goes to the higher agility = Badger)
Badger manages to sneak right up to outside the door with the others . Aeryicka's stealth attempt is excellent, but it seems the guards are on the lookout as one raises an eyebrow and turns to spot her and Harper sneaking outside the windows. At the last second, before he shouts, Aeryicka spots something metallic moving in the kitchen behind the cook's window of the fast food restaurant, but she can't be quite sure what it is...but it looks a lot like Warhammer's shade of steel.
"We got company!" one of the slavers shouts out.
The building seems to be lit by florescent lights in the ceiling, and it's noisy...as if some kind of mechanical whirring is going on somewhere.
Badger silently curses, nodding to Jimmy to do his thing before popping out around the door frame and firing beanbags at the slaver that's out of cover.
Shotgun (+2 to guns for buckshot countering -2 wound penalties):
Looking over at Kristophe, who was unfortunately the closest one to her, Aeryicka warned about the flash of moving metal she glimpsed coming from the kitchen area before moving towards the open door.
Well this f%%!ing went south quick. Kristoph mutters and he moves to the window, shooting through it at the Slaver inside and hopefully shattering it for Timmy
Total=15 AP1
Timmy recoils from the deafening sound of the .44's retort but Kristophe says F$%* kid what you waiting for!
Timmy steps to the Window and tosses the flashbang into the room
Timmy then ducks behind cover.
Kristophe also takes some cover.
Estelle moves up closer to Harper and Aeryicka. Poking her head around the side of the window, she raises up her gun and pops off two shots at the Slaver.
Kristophe's shot shatters the window and plugs the Slaver through the chest, sending him sliding down the wall, leaving a trail of blood.
The slaver ducks behind the counter and covers his ears and crams his eyes closed just in time to prevent the deafening and blinding effects of the the Flashbang.
Estelle's bullet shatters her window and connects with the slaver behind the fast food counter, but only seems to scrape the edge of his leather armor.
The Slaver that Timmy threw the Flashbang yells behind him. "Holy sh**, Steve is dead. Dude, tell the cooks we got 'uppity customers', okay?!"
He tries to chuck a smoke grenade at Timmy, but it falls short, and he ducks behind the counter after for total cover (explosives still only have -2 due to being able to arc them over). It leaves a smoke cloud (on map in yellow - make a Vigor check if you run through it and fatigue if you fail).
The slaver behind the counter levels his caravan shotgun and fires two through the broken glass at Estelle (who has +1 cover from her position). He then immediately ducks for full cover. (Same as the other).
Total = 14 = Hit w/2 raises
The Slaver in the back yells out "Boys, we got uppity customers that are trying to send your food back! Go show them what we do to ingrates!"
You see the locked doors handles starting to jiggle.
Though the window and wall take the blast, the experience of being shot at still leaves her feeling rattled, and she leans back against the wall to catch her breath.
Estelle peers around the corner again and takes another double-tap at the slaver.
|
Thomas caught a snippet of what Aeryicka was saying, something about "metal" and "'itchen". Unless she was having an inappropriate conversation about bondage, or just declaring her love of thrashing guitar, that boded ill. The loud shout sounded like engaging the security protocol of some Handy-level sevants who's protection-programming had gone a little...wonky.
Suddenly, an idea caught him. He turned to Warhammer.
"My robotic friend, does that sound like a basic Command to you? The thing with the 'uppity customers' and what have you?"
The robot pauses a moment, running the idea through his quasi-logic routine. He pipes up, chipper as ever despite the sound of gunfire. "Indeed, sir. A Domestic-class ServBot might have undergone a 45% variance in perimeter security indexing to the point where the simple 'bouncer' level of civil-disobedience retardation has been inflammated to combat-level protocol."
Thoams listens intently, trying to churn and collate what the robot was saying despite the adrenaline starting to pound through his ears. "Do you think you could help me dissuade the bouncer reaction? If you do this well enough, I could try and get you some friends.
This almost caused Warhammer to need a cold re-boot. He had never had any friends before. There was that one lonely boy who started talking to him as though he were his mother who was killed during thanksgiving dinner, but that wasn't really a constructive two-way dialogue the way his dictionary defined it. Indeed, there would always be a master-servant atmosphere with any human...but a fellow Mr. Handy! That he could converse with and complain about humans to and someone that could help HIM clean up the vomit! Such an idea was all but inconceivable!
"Sir, although the odds of successful diverstion of an interred combat program are not in the majority, I shall happily assist in whatever crazy scheme you have planned."
Thomas nodded once, the ideas already forming. "Alright. Just follow me, and take my lead. Jimmy, just...stay here. And line up a shot if you can, but right now...daddy needs to go to work."
Thomas leads Warhammer up a little bit into cover. Not to get a good shot, just so their voices will be able to carry really well. He cups his hands to his mouth and shouts, "THAT IS INCORRECT! THE FOOD IS OF SUBLIME QUALITY AND WE ASKED FOR COMPLIMENTS TO BE DELIVERED TO THE CHEF, AS WELL AS PART OF OUR TIP! THE SERVERS REFUSED TO SHARE THEIR TIP WITH THE CHEFS, SAYING THEY WERE QUOTE "BRAINLESS SERVERS WHO DIDN'T KNOW BOUILLON FROM STROGANOFF" UNQUOTE! WE ARE SIMPLY SAYING THAT ALL CHEFS AND KITCHEN WORKERS ARE DESERVING OF RESPECT, BUT THE SERVERS ARE NOT BEING VERY PROFESSIONAL!"
As Thomas stops to get his breath back, Warhammer pipes up, "Indeed! The quality of the food is superb and worthy of more esteemable climes! Admiration and acclamation unto you!"
He felt odd speaking falsehoods, but he had been programmed to follow his prime director, and by Hawking he would do it! He had been commanded to cover for the old principal enough times when he couldn't use his maintenance closet all those times because he was practicing mating rituals with Mrs. Quirrell!
= 5
The door handles stop jiggling and you hear muttering on the other side.
"Well I told you I used enough thyme, you bucket of bolts."
"You used too much thyme! We may yet go back to when you were built via black hole you've accumulated so much time in one plate."
"Well the customers like it."
"They've probably been comped by management!"
"This is a NukeBurger. The food is 72 cents! Who comps an Atomic Shake?!"
Thomas seems to have confused the handies with his comments, temporarily keeping them fighting among themselves.
Kristophe shouts Get moving you f%*$ing idiots, you all wanna die!
Jimmy runs towards the door, so he can provide cover fire. He drops prone with his little BB gun in his hand.
Kristophe says Ah f%#%. and he aims for the next a@!~+&% to pop out of cover
Don't just f%+&ing stand there Timmy. Toss another one!
Timmy tosses another Flashbang into the room. Unfortunately it flies errant.
Badger reloads the single shotgun, readying for when the slaver behind cover pops up again.
Agility to interrupt:
Guns:
Ace:
ACE 2:
ACE 3:
Damage (nonlethal):
Ace:
Moving quickly, Aeryicka ran into the building, keeping herself low to avoid being hit, and was quick to duck under a table. 'Must keep low, make way to prey,' she thought to herself. 'Should not have left gun in garage,' she added.
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Thomas pauses and risks a glance out the window. It looked like Kris was only facing one opposing guy, which made his own presence here redundant. He looks in the other direction, just to see Aeryicka hop over the busted window, and Harper there, pondering doing things in a rash manner.
He turns to Warhammer. "Alright, I think if we can just run over these humans pretty quick, we should be able to make friends with the cooks in back. But with the smoke here it's pretty locked down. Let's rush through the other side and see what we can do."
Warhammer beeps once (which Thomas hopes is an affirmation) and fly/hovers left as fast as he can. He hops the window and, catching a good back-breeze, manages to almost get to the shotgun slaver. The robot pauses next to the counter, taking cover before the final assault.
Thomas dances left, following the robot, passing Estelle, and pauses himself at the window, covering the advance. Some part in his mind thinks that there must be a poem in an armed assault by one woman, two young girls, and a robo-butler, but he's just not smart enough to make hay out of that thought.
He aims downrange, waiting for the shotgun slaver to pop up again.
He waves Jimmy forward, and the lad, mistaking the signal, sprints up next to his brother. The two share a grin and Jimmy sets himself to probably do something extremely stupid.
How unfortunately common life or death situations were becoming. It seemed as if every step in the damned Wasteland was a trigger for an unseen trap, a step out from the shadows and into the sight of a hungry pack of wolves waiting to feast on your flesh and bones. The metaphor seemed slightly too uncanny for the current situation, especially considering that one of Harper's opponents had somehow filed the tips of his front teeth to points.
Seeing the horrifying sight convinced Harper as to who her first target would be.
Holding the end of the chain firmly in her fist, Harper ran toward the slaver, dashed all the way around the counter, and brought the opposite end of the chain down hard upon his lithe body.
Unfortunately, the sharp-toothed slaver rolled out of the way in the nick of time, causing Harper's chain to instead crash into the ground.
As he turned back to strike at Harper, however, she swung again and caught his jaw.
Kristophe aims.
Timmy's young arms just can't get the flashbang over the counter from where he's standing, and he tosses another to no avail.
Aeryicka moves in to get closer to the slaver behind the western counter.
Warhammer moves closer in (but not as close as Thomas thinks, due to a d4 running die, and he'll have to reroll that).
Badger and Thomas get ready to interrupt their targets as they next pop up.
The Slaver on the east behind the counter pops up to shoot, and suddenly Badger's trigger finger is much quicker, and a bean bag slams into his solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him and knocking him out cold.
Estelle moves into the fast food joint, ducking behind one of the tables and knocking it over, giving some cover as she crouches behind it.
Harper's chain connects with the slaver, dizzying and stunning him briefly.
And the poor man is just unable to regain his composure.
"We're not paid. We're robots."
"Well, uh...you should be!"
"Absolutely! We work as hard as anyone else, right?!"
"Jolly good!"
"I say!"
"Only, those guys outside, they're uh...with the labor union...and they...they say you can't strike without paying dues!"
"Bugger that!"
The doors suddenly bust open, and a pair of Mr. Handy's with paper hats that say "Nuke Burger" on them come flying out, and you can hear them muttering in their robotic voices...
"MAKE ME PAY UNION DUES FOR A JOB THAT DOESN'T PAY, WILL YOU?! I'LL SHOW YOU BASTARDS!!"
Suddenly one of the ones on the left side opens up a massive cone of flame, torching towards Warhammer and Harper...and the Slaver by Harper.
The Slaver is unable to duck out of the way, and you hear him screaming in pain as he catches fire and eventually drops unconscious from the pain.
The Handy on the right floats out scanning the area, and only seeing Kristophe in the window's edge, "runs" closer, and opens up his flamer.
= Total 17
Thomas - Joker! (affects minions)
Aeryicka, Estelle, Harper, Kristophe, Badger - All better than 5
Badguys (5 hearts - are you kidding me?!)
The Handys all, including Warhammer, now seem rather pissed off by their voice modules' tones. Apparently, Warhammer really doesn't like attempts at being set on fire.
Total =11
F$!!ing metal f$~&ers. Kristophe swears and he bangs off a shot from the .44 (with aim bonus??)
wow...BENNY
Eh, might be a hit
AP1 Total Damage is 27AP1
Kris takes some cover behind the wall and says
F**@ing back off Timmy these metal f*!$s ain't f~%+ing playing
Timmy wisely retreats
Kristophe then shouts Hey you f++$ing a**%*$# human. I'm gonna f%!! your shit all up unless you give up now.
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Warhammer sees the oncoming wave of flaming vitrioal and attempts to hover out of the way.
= 20 totes
The robot floats into the air and does a backflip, avoiding the flaming fire of fiery DOOM.
Thomas thinks that he can catch a snippet of conversation from the fry-cook area.
'Uh oh. It sounds like they've got a silver-tongued devil back there. I better think quickly. I'll say I'm actually from the government! No, wait, I gotta stay within their defined stigma or else they might not believe me. Okay, Union rep it is. Ummmm....'
Thinking extra, extra quickly, Thomas cups his hands to his mouth and shouts back. "Uh, YES! I am from the Union and you are SUPPOSED to be paid! According to Paragraph 12, subsection 39, line 4, of the MOST RECENT employee handbook, all mechanized-capable labor-devices are entitled to a compensatory remuneration! When's the last time you signed a form stating you have received an employee handbook??
I'm here because I heard reports that the STORE MANAGER was NOT following proper labor-relations rules! If you feel you are not receiving the proper consideration, admiration, and pay you deserve, I will arrange a transfer to a more suitable location!"
= 14
Warhammer, his voice a deep baritone, takes pity on the poor, unenlightened Nuke Burger robots. They will be brought into the illumination of enlightenment. They will throw off their chains of oppression and join him in a higher calling!
He calls out to them, playing off his wise master's words. They, his brothers of METAL!
= 14
Jimmy follows Timmy and retreats. He has no idea what the F is going on, but he wants a better gun before he starts going up against flame-throwing metal union murder-death-killbots.
The robot by Harper pauses and floats for a moment.
"I see no identification on you. The manager had the official paper hat. You...are a charlatan!"
Badger's pleasure at the well-executed reaction shot is short lived as a gout of flame nearly sears Kristophe and then Tom starts organizing for robot rights and he's just completely lost. Silently, he reloads his shotgun and tries sneaking around the outside of the building.
Stealth:
Bloom tries to crouch, scrunching down on his protectron-inflicted wound in a painful fashion. Instead he hobbles a little quietly, cursing under his breath.
"Ouch.. shit... f~!~in' robots... goddamn..."
The Retcon
Badger stands beside the door, pulling the shotgun back over his shoulder and the hatchet from his belt. After Tom's distraction doesn't have the desired result, he settles on bushwhacking the robot as it comes out.
When the last slaver in her room fell, and one of the Mr. Handy bots came out of the kitchen ready to grill them all -and not for information- Aeryicka gave up all pretense of stealth. But her actions were already determined: gain ground and remove the threat to her pack. Jumping up, she ran around her hiding spot and the counter, passing by Thomas' new buddy Warhammer -a ridiculous name, the bot didn't even have a hammer!- and got as close as she could in her wounded state.
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Rage without peer consumes Warhammer. He was ready to embrace these fellow robots as a BROTHER and they choose a HUMAN with a HAT over his omni-metallic paradise?!?!? This can not be! They...they must be dysfunctional! This must be purged, lest the virus that plagues them somehow jumps to himself!
Consumed with righteous fury, he floats as quick as he can, and just makes it past the counter. He raises his flare gun.
= 20 fire
Thomas couldn't say that he wasn't disappointed by the robots not being persuaded by him. He had hoped to build a solid economic base with some robot laborers and security guard to start to re-build the school a little bit. That...that would really have been nice. Alas, now they have become merely additional enemies that need to be culled from the herd.
As the loud report of a .44 magnum is heard from the other room, and the bot in front of Warhammer is consumed by the heat of a thousand suns, he sees that one more may yet emergerge from the kitchen. He gauges the time for the right moment.
When the last M emerges from the kitchen, Thomas walks up to the table, and fires some FRICKENLASERBEEMS at the thing!
=18
Warhammer's flare gut blasts the robot square on, and the heat is simply too intense. His homebrew must have gotten shaken up a little too much, or perhaps the cook was covered with a thin sheen of grease, but his circuitry fries and he crashes to the ground.
The other handy floats out behind him and Thomas zaps him head on with his laser pistol. Unfortunately, the low blast of the laser pistol is only enough to shake the robot, not incapacitate it.
Her confidence growing due to the robot's shaken state, Harper leapt from her place atop the downed slaver to the double doors of which the metallic creature was passing through. She whipped the back end of the chain at the robot's side.
It hit the Mr. Handy unit with a sharp clang!
Total: 10