Forge tries to clarify her position to the eagle-crested men. "Wouldn't it be more efficient for you to just say We refuse to identify ourselves, leave the building rather than confuse me with misinformation?  Please, we mean no harm."  Forge's demeanor is certainly diplomatic, but she still speaks firmly.  Her conviction is apparent.

   While speaking plainly to the men in the bar, Forge "silently" transmits another few words simultaneously over the radio to her platoon.
   "This is Sgt. Forge, inside the inn on the main floor.  We are about to encounter resistance.  Requesting backup to make aggressive entry through the main entrance.  We have a paramilitary team of armed humanoids in full body armour who are impeding our search."

   Forge continues to watch the baalrog chase down the hovercycle on the streaming video from her aerial probe, impressed with the demon's speed and tenacity.  But she doubts he will be able to keep up with the hovercycle's jet engines much longer.
   She switches it to a thermal scan, hoping to glimpse any heat signatures in the upper floor of the inn and get an idea of any potential trouble from upstairs.

   At the same time, Forge scans the room for any wireless devices, including walkie-talkies, music radios, a television, or personal computers carried by these men in black armour.  Any of these things may become an effective distraction if she can tap into them remotely.

Of subordinate rank, Shimrod merely holds his magical staff nonchalantly and lets his Sergeant do the talking.

Amy stands around nervously McCloud having beaten her to action when she pauses to listen to the transmission a look of alarm widening her eyes and causing an itching along her back as she tries to puff up inside her suit.

Drano answers Silvermasque first, but keeps the people in the bar from hearing, by turning his helmet's mic. “Are you busy Silvermasque? What your situation? McCould if your not busy go to Forge’s location as well.” Hopefully the Borg wasn’t caught up with an issue in the building he was checking out, nor was McCloud. He then waits to see if the bartender and its patron will answer Van. If not then maybe they’d just take the bartender for questioning.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:10, Thu 27 Aug 2009.

PM

The Adventures of Van and Drano...

Still inside the bar...

The 'tender throws his wash cloth over his shoulder, and leans forward on the bar, looking back at Van. He calls out to the officers, in a tone that was anything but respectful, and this time loud enough to grab the attention of the other patrons inside the bar. "Your soldiers pass through here all the time, you all look the same to us. Don't know nothin about whatever it is you are looking for... but word travels fast in Desire. And the word say your people aren't bein to polite outside. I even heard a girl was brutalized by one of your officers, and a woman has been taken captive. And now two men have just now been killed. What fucking respect do you deserve you fucking PIECE of shit? You want my advice? It would be to leave Desire now, before things get really ugly..."

The dozen or so civilians seem to be slightly more lively, and are mostly watching to see Van and Drano's response.


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The woman allows McCloud to catch her, and she sighs loudly. "Oh my! I can't hold my baby! I'm gonna drop the baby!" She looks up at Amy and begs "Please, please take my baby before I drop her... please.... please..."

A black pick-up suddenly picks up speed from about 100 feet away and drives right for the two pilots.


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"You'll be lucky if we LET you leave bitch." Their apparent leader plainly stated. Another man yells out "Now getda fuck outta here!" then breaks out laughing with a few of the others at this table.

There are maybe 15 like-armored people in the bar, and the bartender is a gorgeous busty blonde in tight clothing currently picking the dirt from her nails with a hunting knife.

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The pictures scroll through and unsurprisingly the mechanics shake there heads 'no', in regards to recognizing anybody on the data pad.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:35, Thu 27 Aug 2009.

Still holding the woman and trusting Amy to catch the baby, McCloud dodges out of the way of the oncoming vehicle.  "Get up over it!" he shouts at the cheetah-girl. hoping she can react quickly enough to use her jumpjets while still saving the child.

OOC: 07:50, Today: McCloud rolled 9 using 1d20+8. Dodge. = 17

So he wants a fight does he? "Funny, I been in this town not half an hour, and I ain't seen nothing BUT ugly. With word traveling like it does I'm gonna assume you know the last time a platoon passed through, so let's start with that. You can tell us, we leave and nobody's shit gets fucked up. But there's always a tough way, for tough guys like you. I'll just remind you that there's a platoon of highly trained specialists and very powerful creatures in this town. A little cooperation and your militia won't waste their lives impeding Tolkeen's search."

Van starts to think that, perhaps in these troubled times, this whole town has a death wish. He's no genie but he is more than willing to grant it.

  Forge remains calm and appears to ponder the situation for a few seconds.  She glances around the room momentarily meeting the various threatening stares she and Shimrod are receiving.  In those few seconds, it may appear that she is weighing her options and trying to decide how to respond.  She is in fact putting on that facade while taking several steps to change her position somewhat.

  With her eye still in the sky, she can see Dyvalis and some of the other members of 2nd platoon walking to her location.  "Lt. Dyvalis, please increase your speed, attack is imminent!" She transmits over her long range radio, trying her best to convey a sense of urgency in her voice.  But her lips never physically move as she generates the speech electronically.

  While transmitting the radio message to Dyvalis, Forge is attempting to access the broadcast frequency being used by the radios carried by these men, using her wireless data transmitter.  In the few seconds Forge took to glance around the room, she hopes to have the access she needs.  The process is fast and would likely cause their radios to chirp once, as if someone had just clicked a transmit button.  Definitely noticeable, but could be attributed to interference or even just someone hitting their button accidentally.

  Forge knows that most people aren't prepared for her ability to split her concentration and so she plans to use that to her advantage by trying to break the concentration of these men.  She will play an audio recording from her memory files of an old movie she watched alongside her squad from Mars Company a few weeks ago.  But before the recording begins, she returns her gaze to the spokesman before her and starts to speak.

  "If we leave, I will have to report to my lieutenant that you have been - "

  Forge then 'cuts herself off' by playing her recording over the radio frequency being used by these men.  Coming from their radios there is suddenly the sound of automatic gunfire and then a man's voice screams "I need back-up assistance now! Now goddamnit, NOW!" There is a crashing sound and then the transmission cuts out.

  Forge looks over at Shimrod quickly and gives him a wink to let him know he doesn't need to worry.  Forge looks back at the troopers and she brings up her own wrist to her mouth and talks to it as if she is using a wrist-mounted radio.  She's just pretending though.  Shimrod would know this instantly when he notices he can hear her voice beside him but nothing over their platoon radio channel.
  "Lieutenant, this is Forge, what is the status out there!?"

  Of course, all this happens in just a few seconds.  The perception of the troopers should be that someone is calling for assistance on their own radio band.  The female cyborg soldier of Tolkeen in their bar then calls her lieutenant, apparently to investigate a possible attack, judging by the sounds of gunfire on the transmission.  Forge's transmission to Dyvalis doesn't actually finish until she is about half-way through pretending to use her radio in front of these men in the bar.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:22, Mon 31 Aug 2009.

Drano allows Van to speak as he listens to the radio, then answers.

Knowing that things were apparently getting out of hand all across the town of Desire, Drano saw no reason to pussy foot around play nice guy anymore. Besides Lt. Lynn had already drawn first blood and the bar’s patrons apparently knew about the incident already

“Sergeant Van, if they don’t wish to talk then they don’t have to.” Then as if on second thought raises his rifle at the Bartenders head and pulls the trigger. The first shot was pulled too quickly, and the laser blast strikes the bottles of booze arrayed behind his head. Drano’s next two shots are aimed center mass. He then moves so that neither the bartender or it’s patrons are behind him. Keeping the rifle raised he then asses if the bartender is still alive or dead, and if the bar’s patrons have chosen to take action.

 "Spasiba." replies 'Masque to the Engineers as he finishes the run of pictures, in tones that make it quite clear that it's some version of 'thankyou', offering the men a small bow of his armoured upper body like some kind of two-tonne community police officer making good with the natives, tucking the pad away while he does so "Then we are done - thankyou for time and I am sorry for inconve..."

 It's about this point that the snap-hiss-crack of laser fire (hitting soft structures (like buildings and bodies) makes itself heard and the big 'borg looks up sharply, his head swinging about to look back towards town briefly, then returning to the engineers, "I am thinking would be good time for you to close doors and hunker down, is sounding like someone has been using dick for thinking instead of pissing, youbet."
 Of course, he has no way to know just who that someone might be at the moment.

 Then it's time for an about-face and movement as he starts to divert onboard power from his miniaturised atomic pile to charge energy weapon capacitors and spin up defensive systems, prepping for anything from a little civic unrest (there are stun settings on his close-combat whips and tear gas in his dispensers) to full-on warfare, "Conmartin, are you having anything less than lethal on board big disco ball?" he asks as he draws alongside the other man.

Van's exoskeleton powers up as energy starts to form from his palm. The air begins to ionize and crackle, threatening to unleash a Dynamo Sphere at anyone who tries to come to the barkeep's defense. He broadcasts in his altered voice, at a higher decibal level. "We ain't even askin' y'all, so don't go throwing your own lives away."

Hopefully the warning will suffice, consider the apathetic nature of the townsfolk. They might just see it as a way of scoring a bit of free booze. If not though, first person to go for a weapon gets smoked. He'll cover their exit otherwise.

Comartin replies to Silvermasque as they run along to rendezvous with Mepshito and the others.

"No sir, Gilda here is basically one lethal lady. I can handle civilians in hand to hand without fear of completely crushing them if need be but generally just pointing this Boomgun in the direction of a hostile group is a great way to send them running. If after seeing the pair of us coming at them they still want to pick a fight they would have to be completely insane."

Amy is no slouch, and despite the rather...questionable nature of the woman's actions and cry she reacts instinctively to catch the baby and cradle it carefully before ducking aside out of the path of the truck, very careful of the baby's neck and head doing her best to cradle it gently.

OOC:
22:16, Today: Amy Weyland-Yutani rolled 33 using 1d20+18. dodge.

 "Understood... if civilians get in way, first shot should be over heads, don't bother with sound damper. If anyone starts shooting well, we deal with that when we know what is going on, da?" the big mercenary replies, matching his speed to that of the far slower (but heavily armed and armoured) powered battlesuit, rather than splitting people all over the place, "If possible I would like to try to contain this rather than escalate, so let's respond accordingly."

"Roger that." Comartin replies. A few months ago he would have scoffed at such talk and probably got into at least a verbal argument regarding his upstanding character. After having participated in this war for the time he has now he no longer has any illusions of what his fellow soldiers are capable of. The worst of it of course of what he believes he is currently capable of.

The adventures of Van and Drano:

   The bartender's lifeless body collapses to the floor. The drunk patrons dive for cover under their tables. Some begin to sniffle, one breaks down crying completely. None of them appear threatening...


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Amy and McCloud :

   The truck makes a sharp turn to avoid hitting anyone, and four humans in black body armour marked with eagles hop out of the back all armed with neuro maces. The driver climbs on top of the truck and yells to the soldiers of Tolkeen. "Drop your fucking shit now, and get in the fucking truck."

The riflemen take aim, while the trappers spread out.

The mother walks up to Amy without making eye contact. She reaches out her arms when she is close enought to take her baby back...


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Forge and Shimrod :

   The armoured men exchange looks after the false transmission, and one of them transmits something back.



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Silvermasque and Comartin :

   A few dozen humans in black body armour have gathered on the rooftops and around Mephisto, Hopper and the vehicles. None of them have attacked, but their numbers are approaching 20...

 Now that's just not good... that's just not good at all.

 "If one of those black-armoured bastards looks like he's going to open fire, I do not want enough left of him to bury, da?" 'Masque remarks conversationally to Conmartin, just in case there was any doubt at any point that the 'borg was no fully capable of ordering someone dead if there was a need, "You are knowing better than I am where best field of fire for boom gun is. Position self for pinpoint fire support." he adds, before checking the power levels on his systems, pointedly unslinging one of his heavy grenade rifles and cradling it in two arms, a drum of armour-piercing striped charges clamped to the underside.

 It doesn't point at anyone, it doesn't even lift - but what it does pretty clearly declare is that if anyone starts anything anytime in the next few minutes, it's going to get real ugly before it gets pretty.

 Which of course is what he has in mind as the big tiger heads towards the nearest, largest or most authoritarian-looking group gathering around the vehicles puffing away on his cigar in the fashion of someone opening a dialogue rather than wave cybernetic dicks, "Good afternoon - is perhaps being reason for all this interest? Maybe we are being illegally parked?"

Drano walks behind the bar and after opening a bottle of whisky, flips the visor of his armor up and takes a long healthy swig from the bottle, downign about half of it in one gulp. Closing the visor back down he utters the words: “Fuckin’ pussies....” to the bar’s partons. “....if any of you had a pair of balls you’d be fighting for Tolkeen, not hiding out in this shit hole you call a bar.”

Walking out from behind the bar Drano looks out a window to see what the fuck Captain Vickor was talking about.

Seeing that Lt. Pierce has the audacity to murder the owner and then sit around in his establishment drinking his alcohol, Van is left feeling unnerved. He watches the quaking stool pigeons, drunk and terrified, and can't help but think how pathetic they are. The fact that they were sticking around didn't sit well, if for no other reason than that there was clearly a bigger problem brewing outside.

Van holds his position, waiting for Drano to take the way out, but seeing that he's not he shakes his head. "Fuck it," he says, going back the way they came. If Lt. Pierce wanted to have a victory drink over his recent kill, he was welcome to, but Van was going to do something useful.

Once outside he makes his way around on his hoverboard, trying to get a good vantage point on the impending squall.

"Aw shit..." McCloud mutters under his breath, then louder, so the thugs can hear, "No, I don't think that's what we'll be doing.  In fact, it'd be wise for ya'll to just go about your business and leave us in peace before the entire armored division we've got backing us up decides to roll over this little shitsplat you call a town and burn it to the ground as CS sympathizers.  Ya dig?"

OOC: Probably should've brought it up before now, but I just realized that McCloud has 6th Sense and Mind Block.  Just FYI...

The Glitterboy suit stops in the middle of the street as Comartin surveys the rooftops using his enhanced vision and onboard targeting system to determine the best field of fire. After only a matter of seconds he takes a couple steps back and to the left pausing only to snatch a small sedan by it's bumper. Using the suits robotic strength he flips the car onto it's side and steps behind his newly acquired "soft" cover. The Boomgun swings forward from it's shoulder mounted position and the hydraulics in the suits legs whine loudly as the stabilizing pylons in the feet drive deep through the hardened surface of the street into the terra firma below. Comartin waits silently his first shot aimed in such a manner that two of the black clad soldiers next to one another will feel the sting of his hypersonic flechette rounds.

   Forge touches her ear as if she is receiving a transmission.

   After a few seconds, she looks back at the trooper with the blue arm band who has been speaking to her.  "It seems there was an altercation between one of our rookies and one of your civilians.  There is a serious injury.  I have medical training and will try to help.  Shimrod, we need to go now, hurry!"

   Forge will give Shimrod a glance that shows she is very serious.  With the information she has gleaned from their radio band, getting out of this bar and into a more strategically beneficial position is her primary goal at this point.  She hopes she has provided enough disinformation to at least prevent them from attacking.  Even with their advanced technology, she doesn't plan to attack fifteen armed soldiers inside their stronghold without back-up.

   Forge will lead Shimrod out the door closest to Dyvalis as he still approaches, in case the soldiers open fire there will be someone who can provide cover.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:56, Wed 02 Sept 2009.

Amy quicky hands over the baby to its mother offering her most reassuring smile through the faceplate of her terrain hopper helmet before turning back to watch the truck and the men with stun batons, wondering just how bad this might get.  Still she does her best to stay calm and doesn't reach for the rifle slung over her shoulder not wanting to escalate things as she moves to stand by McCloud, keeping herself a half step forward given she's armored and he isnt.

McCloud lowers the faceplate of his Free Quebec GB pilot armor (Old Bones special, half off!).  "Well, we gonna go our separate ways or are you guys gonna have to explain to the rest of these folks why they lost their town?" he says to the stone-faced grunts squared off against him and Amy.