Maverick Hunter: Behind Enemy Lines IC

[Eshkigal]

Welcome, friends. The year is 21XX, the far future where man and machine have both risen to new heights, the unique and replicable artificial intelligences known as Reploids having taken the stage, working alongside humanity towards a better future for all. Or at least, for the most part. Even as many live and grow alongside their flesh and blood compatriots, some work behind the scenes to their own ends. Sometimes for what they proclaim is needed for the survival of the reploid race, or for their own prejudices, or even because they just felt like it, Mavericks have been a menace even before Sigma, or the two Wars. However, despite even that, peace is returning to the world, or at least to a degree, thanks to the efforts of Hunter Command. A world spanning operation dedicated to the protection of the world and the colonies beyonf from Maverick activity. An organization each of you had only recently joined, as part of the Ninth Division to help man a new base in Brazil. An organization that, soon as you walked through the doors, had a job ready for all of you, as a humanoid reploid waits by the teleportation platform.

The reploid looks stocky and bulky, shorter than any of you but also toting a drill that looked like it was meant to make pathways for divisions. Given the insignia on his shoulders, he also seems to rank as a Major, a rank normally reserved for S ranks and above, as he eyes you all critically. Eventually, he speaks in a deep, yet smooth bass as he cracks a small smile.
"You lot look like you'll do. Now, who here has stormed an actively hostile enemy construction facility?"

[Valmark]

Lightning Claw, The Blitzkriegher

I raised my hand.
"Well, tecnically not. But I was in a stormed facility! Does it count? I say, nonchalantly, leaning on a wall away from the rest.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Mistral shakes her head, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I'm in the same boat as him," She says quietly, nodding at Lightning Claw, "Though our duties included defense of said facility. Do you have any intel on what this facility's layout is like? We might be able to discern where resistance might be if we can take a look at its layout."

[Ridai]

"Ha, storm," Lustrous Leopard scoffs, one hand on her hip, the other shooing the thought away like an annoying fan. "Why bother with such a mess when I can just enter?" And judging by her tone, gracing the Mavericks' senses with her presence is quite far from her desires as well, dovetailing nicely with her preferred way to handle things: with grace and on her own terms.

[DoctorFaust]

"No, I haven't...uh, sir." Inferno Panther replies. The towering leonine Reploid lays his bag down beside him, and scratches at his head. "I've had to decommission a lot of fortifications and was involved in clean-up from assaults previously, but never took part in an actual attack myself."

[Eshkigal]

The Major grins wider, even as he pulls out a bundle of optical wires from a pocket that he bites the end off of, a glowing red light flickering on as he inhales.
"Great, always fun to see what the greenhorns can do."
He tosses a data slate at each of you, not even waiting for it to show the image of a partially charted structure apparently hidden under the sands of a desert. As you sweep through images, five reploid faces show up at the sides, each with a small dossier attached and images of the inside of the factory revealing what seems to be weapons for war being built. As well as reports of what seems to be a rather large mechaniloid design that seems half done, likely why you have a major talking to you now.
"Recon dug this up today. Some clowns calling themselves the Talons of Typhon have set up a base in the middle of the Gobi, and it's just churning out modded mavericks and upgraded mechaniloid frames. Given their squad, the best route is likely underground - meaning I'm stuck with you guys - as Coyote has left excessive minefields nearby, and Moth has full control of their external defenses from what we can tell, and that's just to start. So, storming the base instead of waltzing through a god damn deathtrap to make their job easy. In order to make our job easy, you lot will be with me while I head in to eliminate their super weapon here, split off at the breach, and carry out secondary objectives and assist in the primary objective of turning this place into so much scrap. Any questions so far?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

Mistral examines her slate, noting probable choke points and ceiling heights, if they're known, before going over the Maverick dossier with a slight frown on her face.

"Do we know how complete the superweapon is? And what secondary objectives will we have?"

[Valmark]

I hardly check the first lines of the slate.
"So, what can those mavericks do? How tough are they? I say, cracking my knucles.

[Ridai]

Lustrous Leopard lazily catches the dataslate, then once again as it suddenly flips through the air after a little fingertap on the backside, now the right way around. She bristles at the mention of being sent into a desert, though the worst is quickly avoided by entering from underground.

"Yes yes, what they say," Leopard answers, gesturing with the slate, pretending not to have much of an interest in it.

[Eshkigal]

"Complete enough that Command is worried another Vienna may be coming up. Which is what we're here to stop."
That gives a moment's pause. Last week, Vienna had been under siege by a coordinated Maverick assault that had, according to the news, been of tremendous scale as they fielded a weapon called the Skyjammer. More of a floating fortress that kept any and all other aerial units not approved of by it literally grounded, it had been a massive conflict that had reports even you heard about of multiple divisions of the Hunters going to war. However, the major waves a hand, especially at Leopard and Claw.
"Secondary objectives include capture or retirement of the guards, primary is eradicating this place. As for you two - Look, it's an army of C's and D's, four B's, and an A that we know of guarding a potential G rank threat, we have enough of those around, and ranks tend to underestimate your foe. What you got is what we have, rookies, so read (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22367441&postcount=3). God knows it's kept most of my ass around this long, maybe it can keep you around even longer, eh?"

[Valmark]

I roll my eyes.
"Sure, major Knowing it I'd have applied for a book store...

so, what do I read?

[Ridai]

"In due time," Leopard says laconically, evidently not liking to be rushed about what doesn't need to be rushed. "I do hope you have prepared means of destroying the place that I won't need a demolition team to set up for."

[Eshkigal]

The grin gets downright gleeful at that.
"That's the fun part. Mavericks tend to have their own munition production, and it just so happens that our man found where they hide the party favors before extraction."
He chucks a small beacon to each of you.
"One shot teleporters. You hit the ammo dump while I make sure what they have does not survive the explosion, call it in, and we evac."

(Linked the post of active bosses in the post under "so read". Everything there is what you have in the dossier on them.)

[Valmark]

I muse.
"Do we really need to destroy everything? Something could be reused. Nor that I mind.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Mistral nods at the major, catching the beacon and stowing it on a slot near her holstered weapon. She eyes Lightning Claw with a skeptical expression.

"I believe the idea is to deny anything useful to the enemy. Since we're infiltrating, the front lines aren't there yet. That's why they're calling us in and not the 4th, correct,
sir?

[Ridai]

The teleporter is caught, then seems to have disappeared from Lustrous Leopard's hand as she opens it again. "A graceful exit. That," she says, the beacon suddenly in her other hand. "I do appreciate. Sadly, there won't by anyone left to want for more. Pity."

[Eshkigal]

The major nods to Mistral's comment.
"Got it in one. Basically, too many modes of viral contamination, too much potential resistance, too little manpower available thanks to Vienna to make holding it viable, and not enough time to spare to bother with much more than a smash and run. That said, you find some toys you want to keep, no one's gonna care long as it fits on your person and you get it checked after, or you find a pad to ride it out of there on."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Mistral nods and looks to the others.

"Sounds simple enough." Her demeanor is calm and professional, though inwardly she's not exactly thrilled about the underground infiltration route. Still, one must make due with what one is given.

[Valmark]

"So, when do we start?" I say with a mischievous smile.

[DoctorFaust]

Panther catches the slate and teleporter out of the air, and begins scanning through the data in it. "Yes sir," he says, clearly unhappy. "We can get it done."

[Valmark]

"Why so angry?" I say, clinging Panter with an arm

[Eshkigal]

"Right now. Back on the pad, lieutenants, they ain't gonna retire themselves."
The major pushes through to set the coordinates. As each of you gets on, there is a brief flash of white, and you find yourselves watching the sun sink over the horizon in a cave gazing over the desert sands. To your right is a skeletal looking frame, a Geist if you had to hazard a guess, who fires off a quick salute before stepping onto the mobile teleport pad they had set up.

MISSION START (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VYy8vadLWlQ)
...after about four miles of digging later, anyway
It had been the most boring hours, watching the older reploid clear the path for you. At least until the sirens began going off so loud you could hear them through the rock.
"Huh, better seismic sensors than expected. Welp!"
He pulls a trigger on the drill, the bit flying out of the mount as he tosses the tool aside, dashing after faster than the rest of you can keep up.
"Remember, armory and light it up! Happy hunting!"
The bit screams as it hits metal, digging in deep before glowing red and exploding. The major dives straight through the cloud, slots opening up to vent more plasma as he goes careening out and disappears into the confusion and ruined machinery. Coming to the entrance, you find yourself standing in the wreckage of a Hama Hama line, the birdlike bots and the machines building them scattered in so many pieces at your feet. The factory stretches before you, klaxons blaring loudly and lines beginning to move their construction limbs as if to assault with the clamps, welders, and chargers as incomplete pieces of the Hama Hamas clatter down to the ground.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Mistral claps Panther on the shoulder reassuringly, before stepping on the pad, folding her wings around herself before the major teleports her away. Once on-site, she draws the massive weapon on her hip and takes up a rear guard position while the older reploid digs them through, mostly to keep her wings out of everyone else's way. Once they're through the entrance, she'll move off to the side, stretch her wings, and take stock of the area, including the ceiling height. She -is- the only flyer in the squad, after all.

[Ridai]

The cloud of dust is stirred up once more as Lustrous Leopard rushes through it on a line of ice forming in front of her. In a thoroughly cranky mood given all the grime and dust she has been subjected to for the last 4 hours, only to be greeted by annoying klaxons. She accelerates any and all dust and dirt off her immaculate felinesque frame, dispersing it into all directions, leaving her pristine once more (though she still craves a proper cleaning regardless).

"That is it, I am officially nettled," Leopard huffs, 24 spheres dancing through the air around her in hypnotic (and decidedly peeved) patterns punctuating her words, with one sphere sent crashing into the nearest construction arm with more destructive force one would expect from such a little thing. Not in the mood for dealing with the riff-raff, Leopard launches herself on top of the largest structure nearby and looks for a sneakier way towards the armory, perhaps maintenance tunnels or access shafts. Less time wasted on pointless fights creating even more dirt, more time for fireworks.

[Valmark]

"It's about time! I am Lightning Claw, not Patient Sloth!" I say, after the freackingly long 4 hours of waiting.
Taking in my surroundings, I start scanning the area for enemies.
"Lustruos Cat, Mistral, what do you see?" I ask them. I'd pretty much prefer the most direct approach, but I couldn't run off on my own, so I needed to wait for them to finish.

[Eshkigal]

As Leopard bounds above the line, a trio of arms lunge at where they expect her to be, missing by a tail' s length getting claw or welder on her as she snaps one of the arms clean off with a sphere. However, the construction arms seem to be massing, lunging for each of you in groups of three.

From your perspective, as the smoke clears and you move, you are standing roughly in the middle of a wall in a metal room about the size of a pair of football fields and maybe 75% full of machinery churning out other machines, three obvious exits on the far ends. That said, many of the lines and machines seem to have parts of their processes elsewhere, Leopard being on a line that leads out of the room for example, alongside maybe a hundred other such ways out.
(Rolls in the ooc)

[Nova_Eclipse]

Mistral fires her weapon at an arm guarding the start to another line further up, then gives a short hop, flapping her wings vigorously and takes to the air, heading in the same general direction that Leopard did. She probably won't keep up with the speedy Huntress, but she can at least try and cover her rear. She pauses in mid-air once she reaches the line, to call back to Lightning Claw and the others.

"Enemies inbound. Get ready!" A moment later, she's ducking and weaving her way past the inbound reinforcement arms, doing her best to stay airborne while she dodges their assaults, looping or rolling past them in order to evade their blows.

[Ridai]

(Just a quick response)

Lustrous Leopard lands gracefully on the production line, getting a better view of the area. Even in the chaos, being called Lustrous Cat is decidedly rubbing her the wrong way, but given the situation, she graciously overlooks the gross mistake, just this once.

"No time for dallying, ignore this junk." That and she indicates one of the exits to move to.

[DoctorFaust]

Panther snaps up his shotgun, and fires a round at the group of three arms that look like they'll be attacking him soon. Whether or not they're brought down by the shot, he leaps from the construction line with grace belying his size and charges off after Leopard. "Alright, lead the way."

45 ft. range with a 15 ft. cone, so I'm just going to roll attacks against all three of the arms for if they'd be inside that cone. Unless that's not how cone-shaped attacks work.

Marksmanship:[roll0][roll1][roll2]

Damage:[roll3][roll4][roll5]

[Valmark]

Claws scratch me, earning a grump and thunderbolts on them.
"Right, I agree, let's get the hell out of here, I'm not into this kind of thing!" I tell them, running after Panther.

[Ridai]

Leopard leads the way, dropping back down to the floor as the picture of elegance she surely is, racing along the ground on her ice lanes.

[Eshkigal]

Each of you shears through the arms trying to grab you, though two of Claw's harpoons go wide as you move along. However, even above the klaxons in the area you can hear the sounds of forces moving your way. Above you, half completed mechaniloids drop from above*. Even as you get close to the door, a team of four seem to reach the right door, a squad of four Steel Beret models that look modified. Bright red metal gleams on their frames, as the front most two seem to be armored up, one with a shoulder mounted cannon and shield and the other with a set of four arms, two heavy grippers that clench into flail like hammers and a rifle in his other set. The two behind seem to be modeled lighter, one mounted with small rocket launchers on his back and, with a quick blast of dash systems (notably NOT standard on these tier) and what seems to be a pair of shotgun busters in the arms, takes to a line above you all before getting hazy. The last seems to be a medium armor design, a heavy pack on their back as an energy field covers them all, and carrying a gun roughly equivalent in size to the one on Panther's back despite being modeled as a rifle. Each of their red frames seems to be given a strange emblem, a trio of marks that look like claws over a strange skull. Seems the party has arrived...**

*Incoming debris trying to slow you down or bury you. Either evasion to avoid, marksmanship to destroy inbound incomplete batton bones and mettaurs, athletics to break environment and use it as cover.

**initiatives for the optional fight. Steel Berets with character levels, my god!
[roll0], [roll1], [roll2], [roll3]

[Nova_Eclipse]

Mistral rolls to the left and dives slightly, before rolling back right, placing the line she's following between herself and the dropping debris, following Leopard's lead. She pulls up and hovers as they get close to the doors, halting her forward momentum as the Steel Beret squad arrives, but fails to notice the jumping force recon units, instead focusing on the unit that seems to be generating the shields. A quick thought, and an even quicker movement with her left hand and wing sends a silver and violet glowing streak screaming towards the meduim-armored Steel Beret. A split second later, the air cracks with the sound of thunder as a massive bolt of lighting streaks from her outstretched hand down to the featherblade she just threw. Whether she hits the Beret or the floor, someone or something is about to have a very bad day.

[Ridai]

Lustrous Leopard weaves through the chaos until they are opposed by the Maverick group. "Ugh, more admirers getting frisky," she groans, suddenly stopping on the ice surface, spinning and jumping up and back in one fluid motion. As she flies and spins backwards, one of her spheres is covered in ice as she guides it with her hand, only to have it suddenly accelerate to ludicrous speeds, at the enemy unit most in the back. Her Cold Fusion flies, to burst into a storm of shards, hopefully catching as many as possible enemies within.

Evasion [roll0]
Perception [roll1]

Marksmanship for Cold Fusion attack [roll2]
Primary target damage [roll3]
Secondary target damage [roll4]
(I just rolled a bunch of d8s just in case, not sure how many I'll catch)

[DoctorFaust]

Panther does his best to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge his way through the hail of incoming body parts, hopefully coming out the other side intact. As he moves, the Sunburster starts spinning up, filling the room with a bright orange glow leaking from cracks in the gun.

When the Steel Berets come into view, Pather immediately focuses his attention on the one in back carrying a shield generator, and the Sunbuster begins spewing forth searing hot bolts of plasma.

[Eshkigal]

Each of you makes it through the storm of parts unphased, but it seems that it worked well enough to distract you from the missiles headed your way as well, one hitting Mistral and Claw apiece. However, the smoke trails let you get a glimpse of the Recon unit, shimmering as the field is slightly disrupted by having fired at you all. Even as Panther manages to drag a piece of debris into the way of the assault on himself, causing the claws to drag it back instead, and as each of you opens fire on the medic in back, the focused fire burning away the shielding, armor, and penetrating the LIFE cell as he goes out in a chain of explosions that tear through the traitor Beret. Undeterred, though, the rest still aim at you, the Recon unit jumping away and aiming more missiles your way as they land on another line, moving away from the group and firing back a cluster at Panther, as the melee oriented Beret dashes at Mistral, yelling in rage as they use one arm to reel himself up to her height and then swinging at her like a demented mace.

[roll0] [roll1] [roll2] - Missiles at Panther
[roll3] [roll4] [roll5]

[roll6] - Close Combat against Mistral, roll evasion against to get out of the way in time
[roll7]

[Nova_Eclipse]

Mistral weaves around the incoming buster fire, but loses track of the missile and takes a heavy hit to her right side, the explosion blowing her sideways. She manages to roll with the momentum, though, and uses it to her advantage, tucking her wings in tight around her for a brief moment and spinning past the melee Beret's attack, before spreading them once more and diving away from him, then pulling up to come up behind him a half dozen yards away, firing a trio of bright yellow plasma bolts at him from her battle pistol. She makes a mental note of where the recon missile man was, but since this fool was kind enough to come up to play, she might as well oblige him, for the time being, anyways.

[Ridai]

The noise these louts are making, ugh. And the dirt! Unacceptable! Creating a little ramp in front of her, Leopard suddenly accelerates to top speed and straight up jumps up to the recon unit, dousing it with liquid oxygen as she flies past and lands behind it. "Kindly stop making such a racket."

Did Leopard's Cold Fusion catch anyone with the area of effect part of the attack?

Cryonic Sprayer at the recon unit.
Marksmanship against the recon missile bot [roll0]
[roll1] ice damage and frozen for two rounds

[DoctorFaust]

Panther lets out a grunt of pain as a missile blasts into his side, burning away a chunk of armor. A quick glance in the direction of the fire reveals that Leopard is already dealing with that particular threat, so he shifts his attention back to the Steel Berets still in front of him and fires off another group of shots from the Sunburst Barrager.

Attacking cannon Beret with six shots.

[roll0][roll1][roll2][roll3][roll4][roll5]
[roll6][roll7][roll8][roll9][roll10][roll11]

[Valmark]

A shot grazes me.
"HEY! that hurt..." I say, shooting back at the enemy squad "I swear, if they don'r go down fast, I'm getting up close and tearing them apart!"

[Eshkigal]

The last Beret slams down the shield he was carrying, lining his shoulder buster up along it before unleashing hell at Panther.
[roll0] [roll1] [roll2]
[roll3] [roll4] [roll5]
However, as Lustrous winds up again, there's a blur of motion that blazes through the upper floor. A large frame slams through a wall, a vehicular mechaniloid which unfortunately catches her and the recon unit behind it, the missiles the latter fired detonating off it's armor before the two of them are carried across the factory floor and through another wall. Undeterred, though, your melee foe tries to pulverize Mistral with a flurry of blows.
[roll6] [roll7] [roll8]
[roll9] [roll10] [roll11]