Beneath the Neon Stars - In Character Thread {MATURE CONTENT}

[RJS]

Useful links

• Character Stat Tracker: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YjCQKJEdiJGDHLygKUXdvrWEuuYeTWj1CdtoJ7mL6yk/edit?usp=sharing
• Character Ability Sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gl_CvcHU5T1oxuQ2HZeVPI1aqvtYl41ZbZpMaVqM6gY/edit?usp=sharing
• J's communal info sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OR8cmGsx7woBieUZ2lho68MGNTBSH37-KKoiuOGAulU/edit

[PARTITION]
The call went out at 2200. All selected operatives recieved an identical data packet to their neural implant, as did everyone else in the Undercity. For the vast majority, those who just sought to live their lives, the packet was a little burst of white noise - static in the network, or so they thought. For those members of the underground resistance force, the message was distinctly different, a specially created program in their implant decrypting the hiss into an audible message.

"You have been selected. Warehouse Epsilon-Gamma-253. 0700 tomorrow."

Those who received this message knew its meaning. A summons, for a mission. Failure to attend resulted in exclusion and elimination, through fear of the system being compromised.


[THE NEXT DAY, INSTITUTE]
A warm siren tone ran throughout the barracks area of the Institute.

"Good morning. Members of Peacekeeping Force, Yeta division, to the Director's office. Message repeats. Members of Peacekeeping Force, Yeta division, to the Director's office."

Many were stunned. Yeta division was full of new blood, often passed over for important business by the Director of Public Security, Marquese. Their summons to him directly was almost unheard of. The muttering spread through the halls, with staff wondering why Yeta division was so desperately needed. Were they really stretched that thin? The murmuring merged with the pounding of boots as the new blood answered the summons.

 

[the_j485]

Sy was just grabbing a bite to eat when he recieved the summons, probably spider organising another attack. Recently he hadn't been called for so many missions, but apparently his ability as a long-range stealth agent was going to be needed for this one mission, probably more to follow if his gut was right. Any action the partition needed him in tended to come in bursts of a few, then a break, then a couple more. He wasn't sure if it was the leaders were just merciful or it was just the nature of groups of missions, but either way it gave him time to rest and train in between the clusters of missions.
He began wondering what he was going to be doing this time as he made himself dinner, some cheap spaghetti bolognese today. Very occasionally he'd be given one or two very high-level targets to take out, but more often it was a support role he was given - taking out infantry to aid an assault group, getting rid of troublesome guards and lookouts for a night raid, at least it was varied.
He checked the news as he did most days; nothing much, a few murders, probably way fewer than had actually happened were being reported, a bit of propaganda from Magnus, pretty standard stuff in the times that they lived in.
He was glad that he left that scum pile of an authority behind him; there was a reason he had joined the partition, and the same reason he'd never told anyone where he got his training. The partition didn't press for who he was - they cared that he believed in the cause, he was loyal, and he had the skills they needed to get their work done.
An early night, he decided, if he was getting up to be at the warehouse at 7:00. Setting the wake-up alarm in his implant and crawling into bed, he let it send him into deep sleep almost immediately, and he slept like a log the entire night until 6:00.
He'd given himself an hour to wake up, shower, eat breakfast, and get over to warehouse Epsilon-Gamma-253. It wasn't far from here, his implant told him, about 20 minutes walk, so he was able to take a fairly safe route even if it took an extra few minutes, maybe half an hour total now.
He arrived there at about 6:50, and banged his fist on the heavy door to gain entry.

 

[Lumaceon]

Ina raised her arm to fire yet another shot from her new mini-laser at the poor, unsuspecting practice target's head. Practice itself seemed like such a foreign concept to her; if she wanted to be more accurate, she'd just redirect some power to her targeting program. Rather than improve skill, this was more to make certain the weapon was properly installed into the shell. The Institute had some very effective weapons, though she couldn't help looking at the bigger ones while being outfitted with this tiny laser. Maybe they didn't trust her enough? If that was the case, she would show the commanders her desire to protect their core 'program' against the virus humans calling themselves the Partition.

As Ina entered the main hallway, the summons began to broadcast. Yeta matched her own designation, but to be summoned so soon? This wasn't the standard human time-wasting behavior she had expected in the real world. Well, if it was efficiency they were looking for, she would make sure to deliver. Ina wasted no time in activating her thrusters and directing most of the shell's energy to increase speed, taking off like a bullet towards the director's office.

 

[Eruantien]

Late in the evening, Leo was entertaining some Undercity children of poorer families, by drawing colorful shapes in the air and sending them off to be chased, when the message arrived. He waved goodbye to the kids, and pulled up his scarf to cover his nose from the fouler odors and smoggy atmosphere he would pass through on his way home. There was no need to hurry, but Leo needed to make sure he was prepared for this mission - whatever it might be. Once home, he headed straight to his room, took out a high-protein bar and munched on it while calibrating his power glove. It didn't take very long, and Leo got to bed shortly before 2300.

After a fitful sleep, Leo woke late, past 0620. He tuned his neural implant toward his destination, the mysterious warehouse. It calculated that he would only need to travel for half an hour at an easy pace, but he decided to leave quickly. Maybe there were some scraps he could trade for or "salvage" from a black market on the way. Leo was far from destitute, but any new gadgets and supplies would come in handy with the Partition's war on the Institute, as well as moving toward some sense of personal security in the future.

As he made his way across the wreckage of buildings and the partially-collapsed durasteel walkways, he started to wonder what sort of mission this might be. After all, he was fresh blood in the Partition, and hadn't really had any chances to prove his worth to them yet. Not that it mattered, being worth something to anyone anymore. Still, it might be nice to land a comfy promotion, one day. Then he'd have all the resources he'd need to strike back at the Institute where it hurt.

Absorbed in his thoughts, which was a rare occurrence, Leo suddenly realized he was walking down the boulevard that led to his target. Dang it, I'll have to remember to check the black market after this is over with. He was still about five minutes early, but he headed toward what appeared to be a cargo bay door, on the southern end of the warehouse. It didn't look as if it had been frequently used, especially of late. Leo hopped onto a crumbling darkstone pillar and did a quick sweep of the area, as his neural implant suggested there were others nearby.

 

[LivingAngryCheese]

Dan jolted awake from his sleep. "Ugh." He groaned. "Good morning my arse." He picked himself up off of his desk and put his glasses back on. Floating in front of him was the programming he had been doing before he fell asleep. Damn. He'd wanted to finish that before he fell asleep. He clenched his fingers into a fist and snapped his wrist forwards. The electricity running through his nerves to tell him to do that movement encountered receptors which told the neural implant inside his brain to close and store the windows. The floating programming faded away. He hadn't expected to report to such a high up office so early in his job, but he was new, so he didn't really have any idea. He looked around and saw the perfect route to lead him to the office. Smiling, he walked along the route. It had shown the route without him having to do anything. His brain readings had worked! Standing outside the door, he made sure he looked as smart as he could given his casual clothing, and walked in.

 

[sgbros1]

Gardenia's father told her she was invited to sit in the meeting with the Yeta Division, justifying that she needed more exposure to how the Institute was governed, if ever she wanted to lead it. She obviously felt appalled at the notion at first. Ugh, I'm not doing the dirty work, dammit. They know what they're doing, I'm not gonna be some outsider, she thought. Her expression of detest was obvious to her father. He tried to persuade her, saying, our peacekeeping forces are the backbone to our security with minimal resistance. As an aspiring leader of the Institute, you have to be aware of how we govern them, if ever an opposition rises. That way we will always have the upper hand.

Gardenia reluctantly agreed, only to shut her father up, and was dismissed by him. He also advised her to take down notes of the meeting.

Clutching some papers, she walked briskly to the Director's Office. Along the way, she thought, it may be good for your career to be the leader of the Institute. Yeah, but as leader I would have security advisors, won't I? I won't have to care, others do it for me, and they tell me where to go. An inner conflict ruptured in her mind.

Upon entering the Office, Marquese and the soldiers routinely nodded and greeted her. Gardenia tried to look diplomatic, erasing whatever argument was in her mind, and curtsied respectfully at them. She took a seat, and politely declined to make a speech to Marquese. She knew she was not in for a fun time.

 

[lenscas]

Wyatt was once again rambling to his AI jumping from one subject to another that most of the time didn't really have an connection while working on a personal project when he received the message.
He cursed as he was planning to work on it for a lot longer but as he will need to get up very early to make it he won't be able to do that.
He then cursed again as his thoughts have been interrupted causing him to forget his last thought.
Wyatt quickly decides that it was probably not important and goes back at his project and soon after the rambling starts again.
Hours pass and before he realizes it he was awake for way longer then planned after the message. Wyatt asks the AI why it didn't warn him which responds that the plan never go changed.
He thinks back, did he really forget to let his AI know the plans got changed? Whatever the case may be the only thing he can do now is get at least some sleep.

The next morning Wyatt quickly prepared for the mission and left his home. While walking towards the warehouse Wyatt was thinking back at the night, he know his mind is a chaos but forgetting to tell his AI to change the plans? That didn't feel at all right to him.
Maybe one of pieces that store the data is at the end of its life? It could be possible considering most where salvaged from various broken devices he found.
Wyatt decides to look into it later even though he is at the warehouse with plenty of time to spare as without the needed tools he probably won't be able to repair it right now anyways.

 

[RJS]

[PARTITION]

The selected team were admitted to the warehouse as they arrived - a ragtag bunch of the disaffected, the angry, and the anarchic. Dust hung in the air of the warehouse, caught in the beams of light which penetrated the grimy windows. Through the half-light, it was just about possible to make out a projector of some kind set up against the far wall. Slouching irritably against the wall was a young man with red hair and mismatched eye colours, fiddling irritably with the foppish coat he wore. "I swear, why can't they have these meetings at a reasonable hour of the day ? Or at least, somewhere less...filthy than here. It's like working with a bunch of heathens." The whiny diatribe was paused for a heavy sigh. "Ah well, suppose it is our lot to suffer, eh? Name's Ravyn. I think the show's going to start soon."

A couple of minutes later, as the team mingled in the dusty chamber, the projector sparked into life, producing a distinctive spider logo on the wall. Speakers coughed into life. "Good to see so many of you here today. For those of you that do not know of me, I am Spider. Please, be seated." The tone was electronically distorted, yet an avuncular feel was carried with it, as if the revolutionaries were sat next to a kindly grandfather. "Now, as you are aware, we are fighting in order to destroy the cancerous growth of the Institute, a parasite that sucks life and freedom from this city. Though once they had noble intentions, they have become twisted by their own power and influence, and no longer listen to reason.

In order to fight them however, we rely on a network of smugglers and agents to 'appropriate' Institute technology so that we can repurpose it for our own ends. We have received word that one of our associates is currently holding a large stockpile of Institute weaponry and ammo, and also that a strike is planned to capture him and regain his stockpile. We cannot allow him to fall into their hands. Your mission is the safe recovery of the smuggler and the removal of as much of his equipment cache as is possible. Should this be impossible, eliminate any possibility that the rest of our network will be uncovered." Spider sighed, pausing. "We do not have the freedom to be merciful. You will be under the command of Omega for this mission - rendez-vous with him in 30 minutes by the scrap market.

Any questions?"


[THE NEXT DAY, INSTITUTE]
As the members of Yeta squadron filed in, they stood to attention in front of Marquese, his stony face impassive. As Gardenia went to sit down, she was intercepted by a fierce woman with auburn hair. Elin grabbed her by the arm, whispering fiercely in her ear "Don't think this is like the other parts of the Institute. Assume military discipline unless told otherwise, unless you want Marquese on your ass." Dragging her into position at the end of the line, Elin took one step forwards from the rest of the group, standing just as rigidly as the rest. Marquese ran his gaze along the line, his lip curled. "I suppose that's passable. At ease." Clasping his hands behind his back, he began to walk up and down. "You have been called here today to support a large multi-pronged offensive against the Partition. We have identified a petty merchant of the scrap market in the Undercity as being a link in their supply lines. Your task is simple: bring him back alive, and destroy any military equipment currently in his possession."

Marquese let his gaze rest on Gardenia for a few seconds. "We have a visitor from the upper echelons with us today. She is to experience the enforcement side of the Institute, at Daddy's request. She will be operating with you in the field, and will be expected to pull her weight of the efforts. No extra protection or consideration is to be afforded to her; if she wants to see how we operate, she should truly experience it. Captain DuVares will be your CO for this mission. Captain?"

Elin took another two paces forwards, swiveling on her foot to face the assembled operatives. "All right, listen up. We currently have a drone squad in the area to monitor the situation, which may have put the mark on alert. We need to move fast - if the Partition shows then our drones won't last. Remember you are representing the Institute to the common citizens. Watch your weapons fire, and show all non-combatants due consideration, courtesy and assistance where you are able to." A small hologram device flared up on Marquese's desk, displaying the visage of a man in his early thirties. Balding, with tired eyes and a flattened nose. "This is Jason Alvares, our extraction target. Don't expect him to co-operate. Any queries before we assemble?"

 

[the_j485]

Sy listened curiously to Spider's short speech, detailing the mission. It seemed like a fairly standard rescue mission, though normally their charge would be just a valuable ally, but this one had that and precious cargo to boot.
Running it through his head, he supposed they would need most likely two armoured vans, maybe some claymore to cover their escape, perhaps a few charges to get the equipment out faster.
But this was the partition, not the institute. He had gotten used to the standard here, that being less throwing equipment at it and hoping it works, and more clever guerrilla tactics.
His mind shifted next to his own role. He supposed that he'd be reconnaissance and long-range support from a high place. He'd need to find a good bird's nest, aka a building with a high 360 degree view, but he'd need easy mobility to similar places if someone worked out where he was. If he was lucky, they'd be focused on the operatives assaulting them from close range.
He began heading to the scrap market after leaving the warehouse, his robotic eyes scanning the entire area in his view at once due to his augmented optical processing. Nothing so far, but when Omega told him the plan, then he would see.

 

[Eruantien]

Right now, Leo was wishing he had "appropriated" some of those drones from last week's Institute shipment. They would've come in handy for this operation. Whatever. At any rate, it sounded like this would be a crucial mission for the Partition's forces; if they failed, it was likely the entire organization would be severely low on munitions until they could find another supplier.

Leo flung up a hologram of the scrap market from his stylus, supplied by the Partition. On the map he could see the location of the surrounding area and vantage points, the standard guard positions, and their target. He spun the hologram around to try and find any back passageways in order to quietly incapacitate the Institute's stronger armed forces, but there were none to be seen. Perhaps when he arrived on site, Leo could personally look into the matter.

It was equally likely that Leo would get assigned to be either an offensive fighter or a defensive "tank". Either one of these assignments could prove to be deadly, as rumors were beginning to circulate that the Institute's forces weren't simply some cookie-cutter 401st brigade this time. Still, all they needed to do was grab this geezer and his weapon cache and run away faster than the bad guys. Right?

As Leo flitted away toward the scrap market, he tried to put away the brewing thoughts of failure's consequences.

 

[dylanpiera]

"Maybe I was a tad bit late. But nobody noticed me entering anyhow. So our mission is to get goods. Should be a job well done." I waited till the first decided to leave the warehouse. I followed them outside. Still nobody had noticed me. I made my way too the market. Once at the market I went to a point high up so I could decloack. Can't waste my whole battery just waiting can I now. And I waited for the others to show up

 

[LivingAngryCheese]

Dan felt strangely nervous around Marquese, after all he was quite an intimidating man, so he was glad when Elin took over. She was still intimidating, that was for sure but she wasn't so... sinister. If Marquese had asked if there were any questions he would have shaked his head vigorously with his mouth firmly shut, but he dared ask Elin one. He quickly realised that he had no idea how they took questions here. He assumed it was like the school he had been dragged out of, so he raised his hand slowly. He was almost sure she would mock him, but it was better than offending her, right?

 

[sgbros1]

God fucking dammit, dad, Gardenia thought to herself. She merely expected an explanation of protocol, not a actual fielding, with her actually required to be involved.

She slumped back to her chair. I'm not a fighter. I have no clue what to do out there, she thought, what if I die out there? She gazed a quick look onto Marquese and Elin, The two bastards up front would have some major explaining to do to my dad.

Elin's words have been a blur in Gardenia's ears. She was plotting a plan. A plan to get out of the field, back to where she'd belong.

 

[Lumaceon]

Ina scanned the others around the room with her abnormally bright, sapphire-colored eyes. Commanding the most presence in the room by far, was Karl Marquese himself; considerably more intimidating in person. Even so, the second most eye-catching human commanded an entirely different kind of presence. Ina watched through the corner of her eye as this presence was forcefully redirected to the back of the line. Everything about Gardenia seemed, in Ina's mind, to categorize her as a 'novelty' human; not the kind she expected to see here.

The mission seemed simple enough: quarantine this viral human and eliminate his dangerous inventory alongside the other viral humans in the area. Ina stored the image of this "Jason Alvares," or rather an image of his image, in her memory banks for easy identification. When Elin paused for questioning, plenty of potential questions came to Ina's mind. As none of them were entirely necessary to ask, she continued to keep silent. Right now, time was just as important as combat skill and every lost minute could become a disadvantage.

 

[lenscas]

"30 minutes to get to the scrap market?" Wyatt taught, "That is not enough time to get back to look at the hardware to see if it shows signs of damage. Even worse the AI had no access to a program to check for errors so it can't even be done that way." Then Wyatt thought of a relative simple way to do the self check, just give the AI a lot of things to remember that relate with each other in such a way that if one thing changed the rest doesn't fit any more. Then the AI just need to read and write the things a lot and after that say it in the correct order. If nothing changed there might be no problems at all, if something changed however it is pretty much proven that something is wrong.
Before heading to the scrap market Wyatt explained to the AI what Wyatt wanted it to do.
Wyatt knows that for those that don't know about his AI it look like he talks non sense to himself, for those that know of the AI it still wouldn't make sense but first going to a place without anyone else would be a waste of time, especially as he wanted to give the AI a few other tasks along the way to see if that has any effect on it.

After 20 minutes had passed Wyatt decided that it probably was enough and let the AI stop and tell the data it remembered. He was both happy and irritated to know it gave no error. Thus either he forgot it, which means his mind is even more chaotic then he taught or the error just didn't pop up.

 

[RJS]

PARTITION - SCRAP MARKET, UNDERCITY

As Ezra perched above the rendez-vous point, she became aware of a very faint whirr behind her. As she began to turn to look for the source of the noise, an angular metallic object slammed into her back, knocking her off her vantage point and smashing her into the floor below. Held flat to the ground by the whirring mass on her back, she was unable to even flinch when a cold blade was pressed to her neck through a crack in her suit.

Wyatt, Sy, Leo and Ravyn were taken aback when an individual in high-tech clothing smashed into the ground in front of them, held down by a metallic android. Raptus slowly raised his head to fix them all with an intense stare. "Took your damn time, sightseers." His voice was a sharp mechanical hiss, grating and malevolent. With one arm holding a wrist blade to Ezra's neck, the other gestured to the far end of the Scrap Market, where a cluster of robots wandered about. "Institute's tin men are already here. Not to mention this one I caught waiting for us. We need to move fast and hit hard. You four go deal with those droids - they'll relay any suspicious activity back to the centre anyway, so they're better off scrapped. I'll find the source of the leak that led them to here. Report back once you're done. Show me some carnage." The eerie metallic visage twisted into a chilling grin.

With those orders issued, Raptus leant over Ezra, his head next to her ear. His voice lowered to a cold whisper. "Now, some people would dangle the prospect of you walking out of this alive to try and get you to talk. I'm not a huge fan of lying, especially not to the dead. Disrespectful, ya know?" A wheezy chuckle forced its way out. "Now, you tell me what I want to know. Do that for me, and I'll slit your throat. It'll only take a second or two for you to lose conciousness, and another 10 before you bleed out. Painless, nearly." His voice dropped, becoming far more ominous. "If you don't, I will disassemble you. Back when I had a fleshy body, I used to take apart robots. Now I have a robot body, I got good at doing it the other way round. Same principle really - just gotta be careful not to damage the sensitive bits. It will take hours. You will feel every second of it. And by about 30 minutes you'll be begging me to stop, to listen, to find out what I want to know. You'll tell me. And then? I'll keep going. Because you decided to be the hero at the start. And I fucking hate heroes."

Raptus's tone returned to normal, conversational. "So then, my little mole, what kind of a person do you feel like today?"

INSTITUTE - DIRECTOR'S OFFICE, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SECURITY

Elin looked over at the raised hand. "Tuite, right? You have a question?" Daniel lowered his hand and cleared his throat. "What do we do if we encounter physical resistance from the target who must remain unharmed?" Elin flinched even as Marquese chuckled. "The target doesn't need to come back unharmed, merely...alive." The disgusted look on Elin's face showed her thoughts on the matter. "Any resistance is to be met with...inducement to co-operate. Try and use minimal force if possible." Marquese looked over at her. "Bring him back alive, preferably in one piece. The less you do to him, the more...opportunity we have to find out the rest of his network." Unlike Elin, Marquese's face was a grim smile as he spoke.

Elin took over the briefing again. "Assemble by the floatcar hanger in 20 minutes. Operational pairings will be INA with Pirose and Graves with Tuite. The AI4s are reporting some suspicious individuals nearby, and we suspect a move is imminent. Dismissed!"

Yeta squad was sent to the barracks to gather their equipment. As they gathered their kit together, Dan was approached by an individual in a full-body combat suit. The visor popped up to reveal a stern face, with striking green eyes. "Tuite, right? Name's Tito. Looks like we're buddies on this tango. You about ready to get moving?"

 

[the_j485]

Sy took a step back and raised his pistol to point at the tangle before him. It took a moment, but he realised soon that it was Raptus Omega, their commander for this mission. He wasn't like the rest of them - they were all cybernetically enhanced to sharpen their senses, make them move faster, hit harder.
Raptus was a different breed. He was entirely cybernetic, no human or organic tissue left within him, the only "natural" thing he had was his consciousness, and even that was twisted by his mechanical body into that of a psychopath, controlled only by his hate of the institute.
Sy hated working under him, and he couldn't bring himself to look at the poor woman he held a knife to beneath him. At least she was just institute, not exactly innocent, but he still didn't like his methods.
In any case, the drones needed to be taken care of. They weren't exactly hard to deal with, but there were a fair few of them and they could alert the institute to their presence. He began searching for a vantage point, using hand-grapples, extremely sharp points that let him dig in and gain purchase on nearly any surface. He climbed to the top of a building he'd noted down earlier as a potential bird's nest, and found it to be a pretty damn good one at that, with 360-degree views and cover if he needed it. Lying prone on his stomach, he checked his railgun quickly, turned off the safety, and took aim at the cluster of drones, ready to pick out his target and hit it in a critical spot - their CPU, located in their chest. He just needed the others to move into position, and either as soon as everyone was ready or someone took action, he'd make his first shot, and it would be a deadly one.

 

[Eruantien]

Leo figured that the leaders of the Partition knew best. While he was far from sympathetic toward the Institute, given all that they had done to him especially, it was likely that not all of their field forces were as warmongering as those in charge. Still, Raptus' behavior was worryingly similar to certain ruthless Institute officials. Anyway, now was not the time for such thoughts; there was a mission at hand. He joined the others, now power-walking toward the droids.

As the Partition agents advanced, the Institute droids swivelled to face them. "Hostiles; armed. Likely designation; Partition. Attention, Partition Rebels, surrender and lay down your weapons. Unit authorised to deploy force in order to suppress insurgent activities." Although Ravyn briefly paused, all four continued their movement. "Supressing insurgents. Civilians please leave the area." chanted the droids in a monotone fashion. The droids then jerked into motion, each one moving to attack a different insurgent.

"Attack and be destroyed, huh?" Leo engaged his cyberskin ability. "Not today." A network of superdermal neural nodes activated across his skin and connected together to form a reasonably strong barrier. Leo looked for any weak points on the drone's body, while evading scattered laser fire. It seemed drones were better off by using strength-of-numbers tactics, rather than single combat. He figured he'd be able to finish this one off rather quickly, and then he could aid the others. Leo fired a round of pyrokinetic flame from his power glove, which struck the droid in its optical sensor.

The gout of flame seared the droid, electrical components fizzing and hissing as an acrid smell arose where the flame had hit. Despite the hit and obvious damage, the droid continued to advance, sparks jumping between its two arms. It thrust the electrically charged appendages at Leo's midriff in an attempt to stun him - however, he was too quick for it to catch him, twisting out of the way.

As he spun, Leo drew his electric sword and activated it, sending it sizzling into a highly-charged weapon that could both reave through metal and overcharge vital systems. Leo kickflipped off an adjacent waste bin, sending him flying vertically over the droid, landing at its back. He sliced at a motley of protruding wires and servos, hoping to disable something necessary for the droid's combat purposes.

The droid had no time to step aside as the blade hit into its back and carved in through the armour. A series of static bursts and pops issued forth from the gash as the droid jerked, slowly dropped to its knees, then collapsed on the floor, twitching occasionally as sparks jumped within its body cavity.

With the droid sparking at his feet, Leo sheathed his sword and deactivated his cyberskin. He looked up; in the distance a few other fights were still going on. As he scanned the area, Leo saw Ravyn roll away from a clumsy swing directed at him. Coming out of the roll, Ravyn raised one of his crude revolver pistols and fired. The bullet punched into the torso of the droid, adding another hole to the one that was already present. The droid collapsed, oil and sparks spewing from its damaged torso. Ravyn dusted himself off and threw a cheeky wink in Leo's direction, unhurt from his skirmish.

 

[LivingAngryCheese]

"Yeah, I'm Tuite. Most people call me Weave, but call me what you want." Dan said. "Nice to see I've got a real soldier with me, we're weak where the other is strong. Well, weaknesses. I wouldn't exactly call you weak." Dan laughed. "I shouldn't be here. I have a family. I'm not a soldier, like you. Better than going to prison though. Anyway, we need to go. When do we leave?"

 

[the_j485]

Syderis, taking careful aim with his railgun, took his first shot at a droid that had split off from the group slightly, using his specialised Full Metal Jacket rounds, and from stealth as well.

Unaware, the droid barely had time to even process the sound of the railgun before the slug blasted through its cranial casing, obliterating its critical systems in a single fell swoop. The wreck collapsed on the ground in an untidy heap.

"Drone taken down. Two others visible taken down, believed to be by operatives Leopold and Ravyn." He said on the radio chip embedded in his throat. He was quiet as a mouse, but he'd be heard loud and clear by all the other members of their rescue team.

Satisfied that he'd done what he had been needed for, Sy decided to get back into cover for a while. He'd use his augmented vision to keep a keen eye on the battlefield, and watch out for trouble coming their way. He decided to radio in to his commanding officer while he did.

"Raptus, clarify. Which building do we expect to find our objectives in? The weapons and the dealer?"