Nerrone's Rangers IC [Thread 1]

Dagon nodded, "Right! Everyone move back and take up defensive positions — whatever's coming, it's gonna have to enter through that doorway. Let's hustle!"

The pipes and machines around the room provided plenty of places for at least partial cover, and Dagon vaulted over one such duct, hoping the enemy wasn't armed with weapons that could penetrate the pipes.

How are we going to get out of here?

Echoes of heavy boots tramping down the concrete corridor outside just reached him — security was closing in.

As the final vapor dissipated, Quark was once again visible, with a large bloody wound on his right arm. 'Cuna could see that he would need immediate help, but the Lacuna was miles away, and 'Cuna could sense that it wasn't doing so well. She was still in pain, but determined to destroy the filthy Armodies that had caused all this trouble. She stood up and Attempted to punch through the head part of the Wrench Armodie, who was disoriented at the time. 'Cuna would've attacked the flamethrower Armodie, but 'Cuna was weak and felt like attacking the weak first.

(BTW, I just noticed the current mission we're on has lasted a long time. I hope we get somewhere soon. :P)

Bor grimanced; even from a hundred yards away, Kwa didn't look good. As for the Lacuna, she'd always been an ugly ship so Bor wasn't really able to determine the extent of the damage. The hull looked mostly intact (though it was obviously impossible to see what it looked like underneath) but it was smoking in two places, which probably wasn't good.

"Here, come aboard my fighter. We'll have to leave the Lacuna here for now, head back to Las Thaddas and find a way to get everybody off the city. We'll try coming back later, but right now the Coalition is undoubtedly coming to investigate. We have to go!"

((@Lazer, the mechanic wielding the flamer is an Aegraa rather than an Armodie — which means he's quite a bit bigger.))

'Cuna's fist hit the Armodie like a wrecking ball, cracking the visor on the creature's enviro-suit and sending it flying backwards. It landed on its back a few meters away, blind and leaking gas through its breached helmet.

The other Armodie, at this point, had succeeded in dislodging Rhak's blade from his air tank and patching the hole: it wasn't an ideal solution, but it would stop him from suffocating any time soon. He got to his feet and hefted his plasma cutter once more, loosing two shots at Quark and 'Cuna. The makeshift weapon spat white-hot plasma an impressive distance: even at this range it could still relieve any unfortunates caught in its path of their limbs.

IO's second grenade, meanwhile, faired better than his last shots: the Aegraa twisted around as he heard it land at his feet and kicked at it in panic. The grenade flew all of two meters before detonating mid-air, a wave of blue fire catching its target on the right side of his face: the Aegraa howled in pain as his skin burned and he completely lost the use of one of his eyes. He didn't take his finger off the trigger, however, and the flamethrower continued to sweep its jet of fire wildly across the concourse.

__________________

"You're right," Kwa said into her headset, pulling her cloak tight against the cold wind that buffeted her as she descended from the top of the Lacuna. Hopefully, no-one would bother the ship for at least a little while if she left it: when a destabilised drive-core could cause an explosion akin to a nuclear bomb, even the most desperate scavengers would give a freshly crashed vessel a wide berth. She was confident, however, that the damage wasn't nearly so dire as that.

Flank stepped down onto the cold floor from the stairway and ran down the corridor. He had to warn the Rangers about the Coalition ship. As he ran, the sound of alarms reached him. It was followed immediately by the sound of trampling boots.
Security! Was Flank's first mental reaction.
As he drew closer, he activated his stealth helmet, and thus appeared to vaporise from the head down. He could see the security force in the dim light, if not their silhouettes. But whatever he saw they looked like they were heavily armed. The forces arrived at the huge door and poured into it. One dark shape however stayed to guard the door.
As soon as he's alone, take him out. Flank instructed himself.
Flank walked forward at a reasonable pace, taking advantage of the noise the security force made by getting as far as possible before he had to slow down and be silent.

"Here they come!" Dagon yelled from behind cover as the first of the response squad, fully shielded and encased in the orange armour of Las Thaddas' security force, approached the doorway, hefting a blaster rifle.

The enemy meant business.

_______________________

Outside, the Coalition transport had not been idling: as Kwa reached the edge of the Lacuna and dropped down into the dust of the wasteland, the droning of its engines reached her. She turned towards the sound just as a spotlight speared through the darkness, bathing the area around the crash site in harsh white light. The ramp on the transport's back stood open, and a long rappelling cable was loosed as it approached, easing off on its speed. Kwa was momentarily blinded; a fact which nevertheless did not stop her from reaching for her weapons.

"Kwa, hurry!" Bor yelled as the transport's spotlight bathed the area in blinding white light. "Get on board, now!" He powered the engines and resolved to lift off in thirty seconds, regardless of whether or not Kwa was on board.

By Flank's estimation, a few dozen security troops had clambered into the doorway. As the last trooper ran into the pumping station, the guard by the door turned and looked into it. Flank took his opportunity. He raised his cannon toward the ceiling, ran the final few steps between himself and the guard, and tried to grab his wrist. Immediately he brought his raised FLAK cannon down upon the head of the guard like a long, metal club.

Kwa squinted, holding up a hand to mitigate the glare from the approaching spotlight, and broke into a run as Bor's fighter descended; following by sound as much as sight, for at this point anything outside the spotlight's beam stood out as little more than a dark smear. She considered herself fortunate that there was nothing wrong with her legs, though a spike of pain struck her neck every time it moved.

Whiplash. Ugh.

Two Coalition soldiers, wearing desert fatigues and equipped with personal shield generators, had already descended from the transport ahead of three more of their fellows. They gave chase, shouting inaudible warnings that were lost to the wind and firing off shots from their rifles. Kwa zig-zagged as the first bolts reached her, throwing up motes of dust at her feet, but at least half the blasts seemed to be directed at Bor's ship.

____________________

There was a crack as Flank's cannon descended onto the guard's head. His orange-armoured form crumpled to the ground as the blunt impact knocked him unconscious.

Bor, swearing like a Flixxel, powered up the shields and laser cannon. He lifted a few feet off the ground, then fired the thrusters and headed toward Kwa at thirty kph. As he got closer he opened up the cockpit a little bit and came to a stop.

Sixteen...fifteen...fourteen...

Further shots were fired, but Kwa's head-start served her well and Bor's fighter, with its shields at full strength, absorbed the scant few hits it took like a tree being hit by feathers.

Bor was still traveling at just over Kwa's own running speed when they finally met: she leaped onto the prow of the ship and made a slightly clumsy dive through the open cockpit and into the co-pilot seat. She let out a small, wordless cry as another red-hot poker drove into her neck, her body taking its revenge on her for the maneuver.

As he slumped to the ground, Flank pulled off the guard's helmet, charged up his own electric claw attack and ripped at his face. The guard convulsed and then lay still.
Flank stood up straight, but noticed that the backpack he carried was still visible. Learning this, he slung it over his back and pushed his wings through the straps. The stealth field then included the backpack, and it disappeared.

Flank peered around the door and looked into the pumping station. What a mighty space it was. The warehouse he passed through was dwarfed by the immensity of the station. He forced his attention back to the situation at hand: security forces on the rangers' backs and Coalition on the way. He took aim at one of the troopers with the scope on the plate his cannon jutted out from, held his breath, and for the first time that day fired a 17mm anti-aircraft FLAK round.

FWAK-KA!

Celdryc quickly gathered the charges and started searching for the correct pipes. Unfortunatly, finding seven specific pipes in a room made of pipes wasn't the easiest task in the world. After a short while he could here footsteps as the guards drew nearer to the room. At the same moment he found the first of the red pipes tangled in a nearby wall. He promptly placed the charge in the best place it would fit. He searched desperatly for the next pipe, and soon found it. Unfortunatly, this pipe happened to be on the ceiling.
_____________________________

The Aegraa had managed to kick the grenade close enough that IO did not escape the blast either. He jumped to the ground to avoid major injury from the blast, which proved to aid him a second time as a jet of white flames flew over his head, streaming from the flamethrower of the now partially blinded Aegraa. He got up as quick as he could, only to have to duck down again to avoid the flailing fire. He looked desperatly around the room for something he could use to make a big sound, as the Aegraa would now rely more on sound without good use sight.

Though Rhak only had intended do flank the Aegraa. (How many times hadn't stupid mercs fallen for that trick, their target jumping down which they looked for over the edge. Only to get shot in the back).
What met him was here a total chaos. Rhak scanned the area, noting that the Armodie that he'd thrown his knife on was fine. He couldn't make out much more, since the flames disoriented his view.
Here he could make a choice. Either just leave the mercenary's and go on with one of his other objectives. Or help them and hope they won't shot him in the back.
The thought summoned a phantom pain through his spine. Even though the first option was better he wasn't leaving without his other dagger and his pistol.
He could see the pistol at the feet of the Aegraa while his dagger was at the feet of the plasma-cutter wielding Armodie.
Rhak jumped to the walkway, ran towards Armodie and slid past the small mechanic. At the same time taking the dagger that was now free from the gas tank.

Bor - still cussing his head off - sealed the cockpit, yelled "Hold on!" and fired the thrusters. The small ship lifted off the ground and blasted off towards Las Thaddas at maximum speed, leaving the Coalition forces in the dust.

As they got closer to the city, Bor activated the comm. "Bor to Dagon and Xol. Can you guys hear me?" He waited tensely for a response, hoping whatever had been blocking their communications was gone.

'Cuna dodged one shot at the last moment, only missing her face by a millimeter. The other one was about to hit Quark, but 'Cuna used the swift dodge move to block the other blast, burning into her wrist. White hot pain. Dizziness. Absence. Confusion.
'Cuna yelled out a large scream, loud enough for anyone on team B to hear, before the sheer pain that she could barely even notice anymore, for she was fading out of consciousness, caused her to collapse on the floor, her hand burning itself off with plasma.
Now Quark and 'Cuna where knocked out, both burning, yet 'Cuna had the worse injury, and they where at the mercy of the Armodie. Well, the mercy of the plasma gun Armodie, and of course, the rest of team B, who heard 'Cuna's scream.

IO's attacker didn't let up: the Aegraa still had the use of one eye, and though he now lacked proper depth perception it didn't take a sniper's aim to swing a flamethrower. The crates and machinery scattered across the concourse glowed red as flames licked at them — with IO still out in the open, it was a wonder he was still alive.

Meanwhile, the Armodie with the plasma cutter moved in for the kill with his weapon, advancing and taking aim at Quark's neck...

____________________

Static was all that Bor earned by way of a reply as his ship powered into the air once more. Kwa shuffled awkwardly in the seat behind him, pushing herself upright: "Comms are still out then? No surprises there."

She thought for a moment, and then continued: "The last transmission we got was an SOS from Team B. If they require assistance, I would sooner not be kicking my heels up here, waiting for the Coalition to regroup. What about you? Think you can fight?"

____________________

"Fire at will!" Dagon shouted as Las Thaddas' security forces burst into the pumping station. The response team consisted of 13 individuals, each shielded and armed with a blaster rifle. For now, the Rangers had the advantage of already being in cover as the enemy fanned out.

At the back of the enemy squad, one man was sent tumbling forwards, a scorched hole in his armour, as a result of Flank's efforts. There was a hollow clang as his body rebounded from a metal pipe and crumpled to the ground. Suddenly under attack from two sides, the response team scattered: three turned around immediately and opened fire on the source of the shot, momentarily leaving their backs exposed to the Rangers' line, while the others redoubled their efforts to find cover amongst the pipes and machines, squeezing off shots here and there to try and keep Team A pinned down.

Rhak looked back to see his former target walking towards one of the mercs. The merc seemed unconscious.
Rhak looked down at the blade, swearing over his conscience and threw it. This time, he aimed for the head.
((Might be unclear, but it is the Armodie that've allready gotten attacked by Rhak))

Had Flank not been stealthed, the response squad would only have seen a FLAK cannon though the doorway. Flank kept his body out of the line of fire while he aimed his FLAK cannon through the doorway to his immediate right. As the first soldier went down, Flank began to feel excited, adrenalin coursing through his veins.
Flank lined up a shot and fired it. Without looking to see if his target was decimated, he aimed for the next soldier and fired. Each shot spoke with a deafening FWAK-KA!
By that time, however, the response squad had pinpointed the exact location of the invisible, yet noisy cannon. They aimed at what they rightly believed was the source of the noise and bullets, and fired at it. As Flank lined up another shot, a plasma round ricocheted off the panel of his cannon, sending his ensuing shot to the ceiling.
The irritability of missing his target annoyed Flank, and once again tested his short patience. But anger combined with adrenalin combined with Flank was a recipe for madness.
Flank, still under the cover of his stealth field, ran to the other side of the doorway and pressed his back to the wall next to it. This time he faced away from the pumping station, but that meant that the doorway was once again to his right. He swiveled his cannon around and aimed through the door and began to fire like a man man.
FWAK-KA-FWAK-KA-FWAK-KA! The three rounds Flank hastily fired did not land on their mark, but rather forced the three, still standing troopers to take cover from the savage, invisible death.
Flank began to giggle. The giggle grew into a laugh and the laugh took on a crazed, maniacal nature. He kept firing, keeping the soldiers down.

Bor grimanced. "I can fight, but I don't know if it's a good idea. Let's go over the facts:

"We have fourteen people trying to sabotage a flying city, who may be in trouble. The Lacuna has been shot down, and is undoubtedly being turned inside-out by the Coalition. Our only other means of transportation is a two-man fighter with a cloaking device that doesn't work properly inside an atmosphere. We've attacked two Ceris fighters, destroying one and killing its pilot. And to make matter worse, you're injured and this fighter only has a single laser cannon left.

"I think that right now, our priority should be to secure another ship. Whatever happens to the mission, we're gonna have to get everyone off Ariid as fast as possible. Yes, I could go and try to help Team B. But that would mean abandoning the fighter, and since you're injured I don't think you'd be much help down there. No offense."

Kwa frowned, but had to concede on his last point: she would be far more useful in combat when her spine wasn't attempting to work itself loose from her skull every time she turned her head.

"At the very least, the Lacuna should be safe for a while yet. No-one's going to risk going near a freshly downed warp-capable craft: so far as anyone without heavy duty scanning equipment is concerned, it might as well be an undetonated nuclear warhead. One that's leaking smoke."

"...So you propose we steal another vessel?"

__________________

Another of the troopers fell to a direct hit from Flank's cannon, but the others showed enough presence of mind to take cover from their assailant. Realising what they were up against, another two turned their attention to Flank, one producing an EMP grenade, cooking it for a couple of seconds in his hand, and tossing it at the doorway.

__________________

The Armodie took the hit to his arm, the momentum from the knife impact spinning him round and sending his weapon flying over the edge of the concourse. He screamed, clutching desperately at the wounded limb.

"The way I see it, we have two options," said Bor.

"Option one: we try to steal a new ship. That has both advantages and disadvantages. The biggest of the former is that they probably won't be expecting such a raid, so we'd have the element of surprise. Plus when they do find out, they might divert security forces away from the engineering levels, which of course could benefit the teams we have down there. The only trouble with that is, the Las Thaddas spaceport control will have records of each arrival, so they'd have little trouble tracking us once we got away.

"Here's the other option: we help Xol and Dagon complete their missions, then return to the Lacuna. We could bring Quark along; he should be able to determine if it's still flight-worthy and help with any repairs. Hopefully the Coalition will still be hesitant about approaching it. The others will have to wait for us on Las Thaddas. The most obvious disadvantages are that we'll be operating within plain sight of the Coalition, so they'll be able to keep an eye on our progress. And of course we don't know if the Lacuna is salvageable or not, and if it isn't we might as well throw down our weapons and surrender. We'd also have to hide the fighter somewhere, and you with it. On the plus side, we're familiar with that ship and might have a better chance of getting away.

"That's all I can think of right now. It's up to you."

"Whatever we do," Kwa replied, "we cannot afford to leave the Lacuna as it is. I'd like to fly it out of here, see if we can get to Santa Frerraro without shedding too many bits along the way, but failing that we can't let the shipboard computer fall into the hands of the Coalition: they'd know where we've been, who we've talked to, everything."

This conviction laid down, she took another moment to formulate her counter-proposal: "...So we need to at least get Quark or someone else with engineering experience back to the Lacuna. If it can still fly, we bring it around to pick everyone up, and if not we bust up the computer system and... hmm... Maybe flight isn't the only option that can get us away from Las Thaddas..."

On the surface of the wasteland below, traveling in a long line snaking westward, away from where the Lacuna lay, was a line of lights: A trading caravan populated by huge all-terrain wagons, each at least twice the size of the average terrestrial heavy goods vehicle. Kwa quickly explained her thought to Bor: if they could untangle the mess they were in and regroup it would perhaps be easier and less obvious of them to pay for passage or stow away on one of these monsters of the desert. They seemed to be headed towards Santa Frerraro.

Bor considered that. "Good idea, but I'm sure the Coalition will detain them for questioning if and when the mission is completed. We'd have to organize some kind of distraction while we slip away.

"As for the Lacuna, I could transport Quark aboard so he can start repairs, but the Coalition would probably detect him inside." He thought for a moment. "Do you know of any ways to hide biosigns from Coalition sensors?"

"Apart from putting a bullet in their optics? Can't say I do. Not on short notice, at least... but I don't reckon that transport ship has anything more advanced than a basic environment scanner. If they have satellites, though, we shall simply have to take our chances."

Kwa turned and looked out at the city below, "Drop me in the Engineering District. If nothing else, I wish to see what has become of Team B."