NEWS

[5e IC] Sunt Venatores Venationem

  • 297 Replies
  • 97292 Views

Tecumseh

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 3938
« Reply #270 on: <02-04-16/0149:07> »
Achak can't help but smile at the good Sister's eagerness to engage. He had been prepared to withdraw and track from a distance, biding his time, but maybe their current situation was as advantageous as it would ever be.

"Things will escalate quickly, but stay soft until things get loud," he counsels.

He quickly paws through the bottles of chemicals and cleaning supplies, hoping to find something flammable that might be useful.

<<@Team [Achak] There's a metal case they have with them. My bet is that it's the next antiquity to use as bait. Let's not get ourselves killed for it, but it might be a nice infusion to our war chest.>>

"This is Auburn," he says to Sister Rebecca. "We'll have Knight-Errant within five minutes of the first explosion. Once that happens, we should be out in sixty seconds or less."

He thinks about the sentry approaching from behind.

"We'll need a guardian angel to even the odds. Is Raziel up to the task or should we pray anew?"

He sees Sister Rebecca fumble to reboot her commlink and knows that the timeline might have been accelerated again.

"Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong."

He figures the cat must be out of the bag, so he switches on the wireless for his Ares Crusader, setting it to run silently. He palms his popper of Jazz, raising it to his mouth with a rakish grin for the good Sister.
« Last Edit: <02-15-16/1446:05> by Tecumseh »

Malevolence

  • *
  • Ace Runner
  • ****
  • Posts: 1552
  • Matrix Addict
« Reply #271 on: <02-04-16/0421:23> »
I was nice to see, or rather hear, Iki get what he deserved, but they were discovered, which meant that the time for stealth was just about done.


He turns to face Nori as he reaches into his jacket. "I'm glad you decided to tag along, ladybug. Keep 'em off the others and call out targets if you can - I'd like to give you total matrix dominance if you get my meaning. And I have something that might make your job a bit easier." He pulls out the area jammer and activates it, adding the personas of his teammates to its exclusion list.


<<@Team [Mercer] We're made. Fight or flight, your call, but Nori and I will make some noise up front to keep them off ya for a few seconds anyway. If y'all decide on fightin' I'm pretty sure the suitcase is blast proof, Sister. And try to keep one of 'em alive, if'n you can.>>


He takes a quick look around to make sure that there is no obvious sign of Johnny Law and that the civilian landscape is manageable while readying his gear.
Speech Thought Matrix/Text Astral

Tecumseh

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 3938
« Reply #272 on: <03-01-16/2040:55> »
Achak slips out of the supply closet.

<<@Team [Achak] Getting into position. On my mark.>>

He silently moves across the hallway to the doorway of the break room, figuring he can use the doorway for partial cover.

<<Sister, have Raziel address the guard on patrol. Wait for my signal.>>

He recalls Mercer's Fly-Spy so that it won't be caught in the blast radius of Sister Rebecca's grenade, should she fire one.

The Jazz makes him practically vibrate in place. The three seconds it takes Ponytail to walk out the door might as well be three hours.

After an eternity, the man steps through the doorway. Achak waits squares up his smartlink reticle on the man's vitals.

<<Mark.>>

He sends the mental command to fire. The armor-piercing bullets slam into the man.

<<Target still up. Re-engaging.>>

Achak fires off another burst. The man twists and the bullets simply tear up the fringes of his outfit. The drug-addled Achak watches the man's ponytail swing back and forth hypnotically. The ponytail reminds him of his crush, Lola. The man's ponytail made it feel like he was shooting Lola. He unconsciously wonders if that's making him miss.

He tries again. Achak is a sharpshooter less than 10 meters away, but still can't manage to tag the man again. He grinds his teeth, inwardly sighing at his own incompetence, and decides to call in the boom.

<<Target still up. Good Sister, lay an egg on him.>>

rednblack

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 3225
  • TECH-NO-LOGIC-KILL
« Reply #273 on: <03-02-16/1054:21> »
Sister Rebecca kicks open the door of the janitor's closet, leveling her grenade launcher toward the big man in the ponytail.  There's an audible thump as the launcher sends it payload over the man's head and then an explosion, too close for comfort for the good Sister.  The glass in the windows shatter, sending shrapnel into the hall, and the sound of the blast is amplified in the office hallway.  The man, or parts of him and his briefcase anyway, are scattered around the doorway, and along the elevator door itself across the hall.

It sounds as though there's a commotion within the office itself, which is to be expected, but over the ringing in his ears, Achak can't be sure.
Speech
Thought
Matrix/Comm
Astral
Subvocal

Malevolence

  • *
  • Ace Runner
  • ****
  • Posts: 1552
  • Matrix Addict
« Reply #274 on: <03-03-16/0058:41> »
<<@Team [Achak] On my mark.>>


Mercer hoisted Vera up and steadied her on the open window of the Roadmaster, sighting down the barrel at one of the two goons still out front, keeping his profile as low - and discreet - as he could. Measuring his breathing, he waited for Achack to give the go as first one second, then another pass in silence. This was when people's attention started to stray and they could lose their edge, so he took a moment to inject some more energy into the moment.


<< @Team [Mercer] Keep sharp and hit fast, amigos. Stay focused and we'll all be watching the sun come up tomorrow.>>


The distraction caused him to lose his aim for a moment, but he started to regain it almost instantly. Good thing, as Achak chose that moment to drop the hammer.


<<@Team [Achak] Mark.>>


Mercer confirmed that the man's head was still center sight - at this range the bullet drop and wind shear would be negligible making for an easy shot - and gave the mental command to fire. Vera spoke softly, though the crack of the bullet breaking the sound barrier was unmistakable. Similarly, the armor piercing round left a barely noticeable hole in the man's face - the size of a small birthmark, perhaps - but the eruption of gore as the the deformed projectile and accompanying shockwave exploded out of the back of the man's head was obvious. He wasted no time watching the lifeless body collapse as vital matter sprayed from it and instead set his sights on the remaining man, who did in fact appear to be momentarily stunned by the fate of his partner.


<<@Team [Achak] Re-engaging.>>


Mercer lined up the shot and again Vera bucked quietly against his shoulder as the bullet raced at super-sonic speeds toward his target. The guard came to his senses and tried to find cover from Mercer, but it was too little, too late. The bullet finds the man's throat, severing the spinal column, the artery, and the windpipe. Which condition the man succumbed to first was academic, and his body collapsed. Mercer pulled Vera back into the van and commed the team.


<<@Team [Mercer] Two in the front are down. Also, heads up, got some chanting in the office, might be spellcasting - or summoning. >>


Time to provide some close support. Mercer briefly reflected on the screwed up series of events that transitioned him from slaying Infected to slaying the two metas rapidly cooling on the ground. Sure, they were working for Infected, almost certainly of their own free will and with full knowledge of what their employers were, but it still rubbed him the wrong way. And he was pretty sure that the Star wouldn't see things his way with the small amount of evidence they had so far accumulated. He risked a glance at Nori to see how she was holding up - he doubted that she had expected to be party to a mass murder when she signed up for the night's activities. Not much for it now but to make sure we live through this. And hope that that briefcase has something in it that makes this all worthwhile.
« Last Edit: <03-07-16/1955:13> by Malevolence »
Speech Thought Matrix/Text Astral

Tecumseh

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 3938
« Reply #275 on: <03-08-16/0053:23> »
Achak steps back around the corner of the break room just in time for Sister Rebecca to kick the supply closet door open and launch a grenade down the hallway. The explosion is unnervingly close to Achak, and the shockwaves rattle his brains. His ears ring with a high-pitched howl.

<<@Team [Achak] Sister, excellent shooting. An update on Raziel, if you please.>>

He spins back around the corner and advances down the hallway at a trot. He glances behind him to make sure the guard hasn't come up from behind, then stops at the broken glass windows before Sunrise's office door. Quickly leaning around the corner, he spies an ork who is maybe two dozen meters away. His hyper-attuned senses also pick out the unmistakably dead Ikiryo as well as a young woman drawing a pistol.

Achak starts to get a hot sensation at the back of his head, where his neck meets his skull...
« Last Edit: <03-10-16/0028:24> by Tecumseh »

rednblack

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 3225
  • TECH-NO-LOGIC-KILL
« Reply #276 on: <03-08-16/1302:34> »
Achak's magical senses give him a sense of foreboding.  It's as if the mana in the area is rushing at him like an oppressively hot wind; he can feel is flushing his face, and the blood in his veins screams at the wrongness of it all.  As Sister Rebecca moves forward to claim what's left of the briefcase, a spirit begins to take form between them.  Its feet are cloven hooves, which singe the carpet beneath it, giving off the noxious odor of singed plastics.  At the knee the matted and bloody goat legs give way to bare tendons and muscle that pop and crack as the creature turns itself at an impossible angle to regard Achak.  Its torso and arms look human enough, save for the bloody maw that opens from his sternum to stomach, its teeth easily fifteen centimeters long, crooked, rotting, and spitting blood while a meter-long reptilian tongue hisses from within.  At each shoulder sits a dull white pupil-less eye.  Long arms give way to even longer fingers, which look practically formless, as if there is no bones within to hold there shape, and most disturbing of all is the beast's head, which is devoid of any facial features.  It looks as though a thin layer of rotting ochre-colored flesh was stretched across an open pustule, with thin strands of off-white hair trailing down its back.

"Lloryddin bak tur," the maw spits as the spirit approaches the Amerindian. 
Speech
Thought
Matrix/Comm
Astral
Subvocal

Tecumseh

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 3938
« Reply #277 on: <03-10-16/0045:55> »
The appearance of the spirit sets off Sister Rebecca like a rocket. With one hand she attaches her MGL to her back via its gecko grip while with the other hand she draws the Sword of Gabriel, racing forward into the fray.

"The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies!" she bellows as she charges. "You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth!"

Achak, alarmed and jumpy from the drugs, fires a wild reaction shot with his Ares Crusader, which spits out a crudely-aimed burst that misses the abomination and slams into the ceiling.

The machine pistol doesn't have the stopping power for this, he thinks as he drops it on its sling. In an instant, he has his gunstock war club out of its concealed sheathe beneath his lined coat. He uses the motion of drawing it to deliver his first blow, swinging down in a heavy arc.

The sharpened edge of the war club cuts deeply, bursting one of the pupil-less eyes on its shoulder. In a Jazz-fueled rage, Achak yanks the club out and spins in a tornado like a blender. The club catches the obscenity in the bloody maw that spans its stomach. Tearing through the demon, the magical blow bashes out five teeth and severs its long reptilian tongue, sending it slapping against the opposite wall. The goat legs drop to their knees as the cloven hooves continue to sizzle. Collapsing in a heap, the disrupted spirit returns to whatever foul metaplane produced it.

Achak gives Sister Rebecca a wide-eyed stare, his pupils dilated from the fiend and the pharmaceuticals.

rednblack

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 3225
  • TECH-NO-LOGIC-KILL
« Reply #278 on: <03-15-16/1319:43> »
When Achak turns his eyes back to the Sunrise office the ork is gone, as is the woman from inside the suite.  In the ork's place is a man running toward the conference room.  He's ducked low with close-cropped red hair and an anonymous-looking gray suit.  Under his arm he's carrying a weapon of some kind, but from the angle, Achak can't tell what it is, as the man heads for the cover of the conference table. 

He swings his gaze back behind him to check his six to find that the sentry has rounded the corner, if just barely.  He's maybe eighty meters away with a slung SMG at the ready.  He's wearing a black suit with white piping under the arms and a black matte ballistic mask.

Outside, Mercer watches as an arc of blue light passes through one of the intact windows of the office suite and over his head.  It erupts behind him and tendrils of lightning surround the van.
Speech
Thought
Matrix/Comm
Astral
Subvocal

Malevolence

  • *
  • Ace Runner
  • ****
  • Posts: 1552
  • Matrix Addict
« Reply #279 on: <03-15-16/1351:06> »
Mercer mentally grabs the reins of the van and floors it forward, dodging the firehydrant as he guides the van over the sidewalk and off the curb in to the street. Almost immediately, an icon appears on his AR, a flashing red icon in the Sunrise offices that looks like man in a ski mask hunched over a keyboard and monitor - circa last century. How old does she think I am? Mercer muses to himself, but the thought doesn't delay his reaction. He hoists Vera from her resting place and maneuvers her out the window in a practiced action - it wasn't the first time he'd used the armored structure of the Roadmaster as a firing platform. Relying on reflexes and experience, he brings the long barrel up and when his smartlink indicates that it has a firing solution, he commands the rifle to fire, sending the dense projectile through the armored windows and into the icon. The shot connects neatly with the AR image, and he hopes that it has done so with the physical body of the decker as well.


He begins to pull Vera back in, only allowing himself the briefest moment of self-congratulation as he checks his six, when light erupts across the sky, striking near the rear of the vehicle and growing to encompass it. Holy sh- is as far as he gets before the painful prickles of lightning begin to envelop him.
Speech Thought Matrix/Text Astral

rednblack

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 3225
  • TECH-NO-LOGIC-KILL
« Reply #280 on: <03-17-16/1545:31> »
Achak figures that the harried sentry poses less of a threat than what he's been hearing -- and seen -- from within the Sunrise offices proper.  He darts inside, scooping the briefcase into his hand as glass snaps under his feet, and vaults the reception desk in order to take cover from the redhead in the gray suit.  As he lands he finds himself face-to-face with the ork.  He's tall and almost as broad as some trolls Achak has seen, his raincoat still dripping water, which sprays out in a light fan as he flips the jacket back and produces a half-meter length of blue steel which he telescopes into a 2.5 meter staff. 

Achak begins to right himself from the jump as the ork grins, and takes a swing.  "Away with you, nighthawker!" he says as he tries to catch Achak with an upward swing to the chin. 

In the hallway, the sentry raises his SMG and fires at Sister Rebecca as she takes cover around the corner of the hallway.  His shots miss by at least a meter, tattooing the far wall of the office complex, as Raziel tails him cursing the minions of Satan.  The Sister breathes a heavy sigh as she readies her grenade launcher. 

<<@Team [Sister Rebecca] Raziel is seeing to his work.  May all His enemies be overwhelmed with shame and anguish.>>

Outside, as Mercer approaches, a desk erupts from the Sunrise office and crashes down on the parking lot below, splintering and heaving as it is disgorged of its contents -- pens, files, datachips, and a consule that sparks up briefly before going dead in the rain.  Keeping his head about him, Mercer eases the van to the right in order to avoid the wreckage as he makes his way onto the parking lot. 

Speech
Thought
Matrix/Comm
Astral
Subvocal

Tecumseh

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 3938
« Reply #281 on: <03-24-16/1930:45> »
Achak doesn't have any time to contemplate the significance of "nighthawker"; he needs to deal with this ork and this long staff that's racing up for Achak's jaw.

Luckily Achak has his own club at the ready. He swings it in place to catch the upward blow. He parries the metal staff and feels it crackle with magical energy. Between that and the ork's intensely-dilated pupils - which Achak recognizes from his own drug habit - he begins to grow alarmed.

He releases the ork's staff, jumping back to let the trapped staff fly upward. Achak tosses the metal case to the side and steps forward to swing his own club into the ork's gut like a baseball bat. The blow connects but the ork looks less than impressed.

The conference room erupts with another explosion. Behind the receptionist's desk and wall, Achak and the ork are unfazed, but the concussive wave forces them apart by a step. Achak's ears, already sensitive from the earlier explosion, continue to howl unhappily.

Achak uses the extra step to build a bit of extra momentum as he swings again, this time for the ork's face. The taller ork throws his shoulder in the way, intercepting the blow as it bounces off his deltoid.

<<@Team [Achak] Got my hands full!>> he comms as he tries to step out of the way of the ork's counterstrike.

rednblack

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 3225
  • TECH-NO-LOGIC-KILL
« Reply #282 on: <03-30-16/1051:14> »
The ork takes another half step back, twisting to the side so that Achak can see his profile.  He comes back with a low swing, and Achak pulls one leg back, but is caught on his rear knee, which sends him to the ground hard, taking the wind from him.  "Ooph."  The ork smiles, twirling his staff, those bloodshot eyes boring into Achak.

In the hallway, Sister Rebecca hears the sound of breaking glass.  She rounds the corner, to see that the sentry is now gone, though her spiritual link to Raziel tells her that he's still near, and still under the spirit's influence.  Shifting her attention to the more pressing business of who's in the Sunrise offices, she looks for signs of movement and metas, but no one else enters her line of sight.

<<@Team [Achak] Got my hands full>>

The good sister fires up her underbarrel chainsaw, and walks into the Sunrise office, ready to help her comrade.

Outside, Mercer is fast approaching the office building, still going as fast as the van can manage.  Another second or two, and it will be time to slam on the brakes right at the front door.  There's a lot to keep track of, but he sees the two women from within the office move toward one of the interior walls, breaking his line of sight with the drone.  In the next moment, he sees a Knight Errant patrol car with sirens blaring turn onto the main street and begin to howl right toward the office complex.

Drek!  How did they get here so fast?!
Speech
Thought
Matrix/Comm
Astral
Subvocal

Malevolence

  • *
  • Ace Runner
  • ****
  • Posts: 1552
  • Matrix Addict
« Reply #283 on: <04-01-16/1731:27> »
Swerving past the debris in his path, Mercer comms the team:
<<@Team [Mercer] Decker should be down. I'll be at the front door shortly.>>
Through the drone hovering by the hole in the building's glass, he can see the two forms edge away from the opening and back into the darker recesses of the room until the drone loses track of them. Mercer has no doubt that they are still close enough to look out and probably throw around some more Hoodoo. He mentally commands the van to roll up all windows and lock all the doors (except the driver's) to provide a safe haven for Nori. It is then that he catches the flashing lights of a Knight Errant cruiser.
Drek! How did they get here so fast?!
It seemed possible, if they had arrived in a VTOL, but a cruiser? It beggared belief. He couldn't rule out the possibility that this was some magic trick.
<<@Team [Mercer] Heads up, we've got Johnny Law on scene.>>
This would limit the toys he could bring unless he wanted to end some badges, which he certainly did not want to do. They were already on the most nebulous of legal footing as is. Could he play his team off as private security, on scene in response to an alarm and try to paint the others as intruders? If none of them were around to speak, it might work, but they'd all have to burn a SIN since the ruse wouldn't survive a call to anyone connected to Sunrise. The other options were equally unpleasant - a gun battle or chase with KE would eventually bring more to the scene and could require them to go on the run. He'd just spent six months laying low and wasn't looking forward to doing it again. And those options didn't have a much greater chance for success.
Or, they could stick around and hope that the evidence they needed to justify this little assault presented itself and was enough to get them off the hook. He wondered if anyone on his team had a contact in Knight Errant that might make the conversation go a little easier.
All these thoughts went through his mind as he pulled the van up to the front of the building and brought it to a stop. He commanded the Fly-Spy to gain some altitude and look for more KE approaching, then began gathering the tools he would bring inside.
Speech Thought Matrix/Text Astral

rednblack

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 3225
  • TECH-NO-LOGIC-KILL
« Reply #284 on: <04-05-16/1128:52> »
The ork's smile fades as Achak leaps up and finds his footing again.  The ork is clearly not accustomed to combatants who can stand so quickly after such a strong blow.  The pause is momentary, though, and the big meta rushes forward to see that Achak go down again, and this time that he won't stand up after.  He jabs his staff down toward Achak's calf, but the man sidesteps easily, and that's when the ork throws his weight and power into a big swing at Achak's face.  The gunstock war club is up in a flash, and catches the ork's staff between two spear points and absorbs the blow as Achak digs his heels into the carpeting.  The ork lets out a low growl in frustration, even as Sister Rebecca continues her approach.
Speech
Thought
Matrix/Comm
Astral
Subvocal