RP: Bounty Hunts [Bounty 2] Castle Crashing

Raven reached the top of the smokestack and immediately hit the deck, dropping the bipod and starting to scan the perimeter of the facility through the optic mounted on his rifle while waiting for his spotter to get into position. "Set" was all he sent to Desmond.

Drainage Ditch
Thanos lowered his carbine, smoke coming out of the silencer. He gave Danny a nod. As the smaller man proceeded, Thanos stood by, while his more pretty partner walked to follow Danny. She kept a slight distance, enough so she could cover him and get to him fast, but still back enough to not hinder Danny's sneaking. Thanos meanwhile waited, covering the the postion, letting Des and Tannozako could move by him.

By the smokestack

"Okay mr. Hunter," Desmond could hear Jaina's words in his headset. "We are ready to rock'n'roll. T minus sixty. You might want to cover as much space as possible so you do not get too late to the party. Also call more ahead next time, I will get a mortar or two!" She added with laughter. Her eyes following her mercs, smiling under the helmet. It was time to show what her crew could do. Action big as this, could get more jobs, more jobs would mean more money and even better jobs. Smal group of mercs always needed to start somewhere.

Drainage ditch - next to the pipe

With him, but stay behind the merc," Desmond said, glancing back at the other hunter before letting his rifle hang from its sling across his chest. The bounty hunter reached over him, grabbing what was left of the metal bars that at a previous time prevented anyone from sneaking into the complex, but right then were just about two inches high in total, enough to give him a solid grip and climb up the length. The thick and foul-smelling slime that coated at least an inch of the bottom of the pipe splashed once he got up, caking his boots and everybody else's in it.

He pressed his back against the filth encrusted side of the drainage pipe, giving room for Tannozako to go through, before he signaled for the other mercenary to start moving. Although it was broad daylight outside it progressively got darker inside the pipe until it was pitch black only after a few yards away, so he turned the flashlight on his helmet on before moving out after Danny, but stopped on the last second, pressing his hand against the side of his helmet.


Drainage Pipe - Under Industrial Complex

Muffled sounds came from the surface while Danny had to make his way through the uneven and slippery surface of the pipe, trudging through the inch-thick coating of the industrial sludge. As soon as he had moved a couple yards he came across the first service ladder, which were just -rusted- metal bars that there welded into a hole in the pipe that went up. Upon looking up, he could see that very thin beans of light came in a circle, which made it a safe bet for him to assume that these were the hatches that would lead into the facility.

"The service ladder you're looking for is marked with white chalk. It's the third down." Came the reply from Desmond behind, as if on a cue. The light from his helmet was quite noticeable from where he was, even if Danny wasn't directly looking at the bounty hunter. "We have one minute to get set," he added in a casual tone.

Smokestack

Setting up in the smokestack gave the duo a prime view of the industrial complex, as well a decent range to provide the fire support. He could see the buildings almost clearly, if it were not the heat haze. And what little movement he could see inside the complex seemed to be mostly from the combat-bots that the gang seemed to be employing the most, since the delsaurian sun kept pretty much everyone in check inside the buildings, at least until the whole thing started.

"Wait until it begins," Came the answer from Desmond. If Raven bothered to look down, he would've seen that the AFV had two more Outriders parked behind it, and one even seemed to have a electrical turret on top, just waiting for the armored vehicle to lead the assault.

Drainage Pipe - Under Industrial Complex
"Got you," Danny replied back as he walked past the first ladder leading up. He continued walking past the second ladder and saw the third ladder, then paused to find the mark of chalk, deactivating nightvision shining a torch at the bars. "Here we are," he said, turning the torch off and jumping up to grab it, gripping surely to see if it was safe to proceed. Satisfied, he started putting one arm and leg in front of the other, and proceeding up the ladder.

He noticed that the further up he went, the drier and safer the bars became, free from the rising damp of the industrial sludge below. He looked behind him to see who was following him, because they might need to be the ones on his trail. He threaded his elbow through the ladder and put his head to the holes in the hatch and listened carefully for movement, talking or activity before proceeding. With his spare hand, he put his index finger to his mouth, calling for quiet.

Tannozako nodded at Desmond, the orders received, and proceeded down into the ditch, and again onto the pipe. She did seem to notice what she was stepping in, but aside from a cursory glance and a frown at the sullied hem of her cargo pants, she showed no signs of being bothered by the sludge. Quickly she made her way, no flashlight or nightvision used, holding the SMG at the ready, before finally finding herself waiting behind Danny and the other Mercenary whom was in the pipe. She stood, calmly, scanning the pipe ahead and behind them, looking for any signs of trouble.

Anna moved in closely behind Danny, holding her SMG tightly. As they reached the ladder, she put her SMG, leaving to hang at her side. She draw her silenced pistol and nodded at Danny. As the young man moved to explore the ladder. Meanwhile, she dugged up a papel towel from one of her pockets and cleaned the underside of her boots, before stepping on first rung of the ladder. Wet, mosty sounds of dirty, muggy shoes was bad when one wanted to be quiet. With that done she got on first rung of the Ladder and waited for Danny to give a 'go ahead' sign to her.

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Jaina was getting a bit impatient. She readied her rifle, checked it again to see that it is as much ready to shoot badguys as it was a minute ago. The leader of the mercs checked the time count on her HUD. It was almost time. Her eyes looked around the men and women in the APC with her. They were tough and ready. Still there was only part of them here, the rest of her platoon were out in two Outrider vehicles.

"Roll call," Jaina said into the comms."
"Raider 1 ready," said the driver of first Outrider, closely followed by second one. "Raider 2. Ready do kick arse!"
"What is this Raider bullshit Johnson?" Jaina asked.
"Well we are in big fast cars, so we figured they are cool callsigns for our teams." Responded the man leading men in frist Outrider.
"Yeah we got one for you too," Added Carlyle, the female leader of the second team. "Since you are in big clunky APC, you willl be turtle."
"I am gonna show you turtle when I get to your arse Carlyle!" Jaina responded angrily, but soldiers in APC could see that she was smiling.

Jaina looked at the time again. Her head turned to Jacob and nodded. "Okay Apes, we are good to go. LOCK AND LOAD! WE ARE GOING TO KILL SOME BLOODY GANGSTERS AND MAKE MONEY!" Jaina shouted at her merceneries, both in APC and on radio. The soldiers in all three vehicles cheered, adding their own various battlecries.

Smokestack

Having a much better view of the show from his vantage point, Raven could see that the APC's engines had revved, moving the large armored vehicle across the corner, shielding the less armored outriders behind it as the vehicles drove in a line; the troop carrier, however, suddenly braked, and the outrider behind it moved to the side as one of the occupants popped out of the top hatch, carrying a long, tube shaped weapon that the bounty hunter couldn't make out clearly despite his weapon's optics.

There was a short pause, then Raven saw a large plume of smoke rise, followed by a flash where the industrial complex gates were. It was only a fraction of a second later that he actually heard the explosion that demolished the frontal gates, as well as seemingly erased the two guards who were standing in front of it. As if on a cue, the APC sped forward again, emerging from the smoke that the back-blast of the launcher had caused, and punching through what was left of the gate with the remaining outriders following in tow. By that point there was no return fire, as whatever garrison was near the gate were either stunned by the explosion or simply without any initiative to do so from the unexpected attack.

The armored vehicle turned to the side once it got inside the complex, then reversed between two containers so that the mercenaries and bounty hunters inside would exit it safely from any fire, by then, Raven could see a few stray shots ricochet off the hull. Meanwhile, the Outriders spread around the small clear space right after the entrance, driving over the debris and coming to a halt in short order. The show was soon obscured as the doors from the Outriders opened, which was when the APC's smoke canisters shot around the vehicle in a circle concealing it.

Soon afterwards, Raven could see the occasional tracers from weapons firing in random directions, while on the corners of the complex and along the walls he could see movement, most of it from the combat robots running around towards the fight, with only the occasional person among them. Above him, he heard the loud report from Svante's precision rifle, followed by the sound of a bolt being pulled and an empty case ejected.

Drainage Pipe - Under Industrial Complex

Anna didn't have to worry much about making any noise, because as soon as the transmission from Jaina cut there was a strong, booming sound that was rather felt than heard by everyone inside the pipe. Dust dropped from the top of the pipe and service tunnel thanks to the powerful vibration, caking the top of Danny's and everyone's head in the dark dust. Not soon after, the staccato report of automatic fire could be heard, only to increase in intensity until it sounded like there was a full-fledged war going on inside the industrial complex. Danny could hear the cacophony of sounds more clearly, being the person closest to the surface, as well as the random noises of footsteps and shouting in-between the gunfire.

"That's our cue, go!" Desmond said, standing next to the ladder and waiting his turn. The bounty hunter gave a quick look behind, towards the entrance of the drainage pipe, as if he was expecting someone to suddenly come there and discover them.

Danny pushed his hand up against the hatch, and pushed it open with one hand as he slithered out of the pipe as quietly as he could. He knelt with his left arm keeping the hatch open, swivelling around with his pistol and waiting for the others while he provided watch for the other mercenaries to climb out. The din of the combat and shouting orders masked the sound of the rusted hatch opening.

"Hurry," he said quietly, "I'm exposed." His finger was on the trigger, if anyone who wasn't on his team noticed him, he was prepared to shoot them to keep cover. After all, they'd just blend in with the rest of the deaths. He leaned over the hatch and pressed his shoulder against it rather than his left hand, and kept it on the handle of his blade. Close or far, Danny was counting on someone showing up. Sweat would've started appearing on his forehead, but the fluid-wicking properties of his suit absorbed it. What couldn't be masked was the tension in his face, teeth bared as he waited for the others to hurry.

Raven sighted in on the first of the combat bots and began engaging them from left to right, taking single well aimed shots that should in theory be able to punch right through their armor with minimal resistance. "Take the infantrymen, I've got the bots" was all he said the the man next to him.

When the tunnel shook, Tannozako scanned around the roof, making sure it was still in good working order, but, when Danny reached the surface and the Mercenary followed after him, She made her way up the ladder as well, expertly climbing the conveyance one-handed, keeping the SMG at the ready as she breached the surface and scanned around for any nearby signs of enemies, much as Danny was doing at the same time.

The Complex

The APC rumbled through the open space, firing smoke rounds around itself to cover the Outriders and the crew that would soon disembark. It crossed some of the rubble from the explosion and the Machinegun in its turret opened up, firing roughly through the smoke at whatever was there. The merc, who climbed into the turret ring was sure enjoying the spree. Jacob quickly found two of the cointainers that were laying around and reversed. He opened the gate in the back, letting it descent on the ground.

The mercs in the APC rushed out, both Machinegunners first, holding their heavy weapons shouldered and checking corners. The marksman folled them, but he mover to the side as he had not weapon situated for this. The rest of the mercs quickly followed, along with Jaina who gripped her rifle and put the safety off.

"Right," Jaina said on the comms. "Move out, clear the area between the containers, we need to get going and move on to assault the buildings. If anything moves, just shoot! Tally ho!"

On the right side of the battlefield, both Outridesr took a stop for a bit, theit own occupants, jumping out and moving to cover behind the cointainers. They weapons were read and aiming around, each man covering his own part of the surroundings.

Jaina got to her own cover and looked out, through the smoke she could see a lot of bots moving on them. Quite a bit of them indeed.

"Hokay, change of orders. Dig in and start shooting, right now the cars our our top weapon so cover them. Vehicles, try to get some nice spot and open up on those bots!" Jaina relayed to her people and kneeled behind one of the cointainers. She raised her rifle and started firing.

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The Drainage Pipe

Anna climbed right up as Danny gave cover. She holstered her pistol and grabbed her SMG again. The gunfire from the gate was already audible. The merc quickly moved to closest doorway and took position to guard it while rest of the group gets up.

Thanos was down in the Pipe, he gestured to Desmond to go up, while he looked on both side of the pipe to see if anyone was coming up on them. The chance was tiny, but it was here.

Smokestack

Looking through his scope, Raven had brief lines of sight on the enemy combatants whenever they exposed themselves by moving around the containers. Although most of his shots against the moving targets missed, the ones that connected caused a devastating effect, outright disabling the bots if the chest piece was hit or taking limbs off as the I-APE rounds punched through the armor and detonated. Despite that, the combat bots that weren't outright destroyed by the round were still combat effective, and the bounty hunter could see some that had survive the first round to simply limp, crawl or still run if none of the legs were destroyed.

Another thing that he also noticed as he panned the scope around was that more combatants were converging where the mercs had dismounted, and a crushing majority of these numbers seemed to be from the cheap, robotic sentries. Looking back at the group of mercenaries, he could see that one of them was manning the MMG from the armored carrier, while the two outriders moved slowly around the place, with the turreted one in the front while their former occupants moved behind and on the sides of the vehicle.

As the surprise of the attack slowly dwindled, the response from the defenders started to increase, and it was quite noticeable due to how the progress of the main group seemed to slow down.


Industrial Complex

The second group fared a lot better in terms of 'heat' than the main assault, since all the eyes were being laid on the armored vehicles and their occupants. Danny had emerged right underneath a metal pavilion, which completely shielded him from the sun save for a few beams of light that sneaked in through holes on the top. The sound of the gunfire was louder, and anyone there could make out that there were several weapons of different caliber firing, but it wasn't possible to discern anything else other than that. To each 'side' of him there were two disassembled cargo trucks, their engine blocks and wheels taken out for whatever reason. To the bounty hunter's front was a way further into the complex, while behind him was a small dead end leading to the tall wall that surrounded the place. From what little the clear line of sight showed him, Danny could see the ominous figure of the main factory building, with the three smokestacks protruding from its main body. It would be easy for him to get his bearings on the complex based off that.

Before he had the chance to make any decision, however, just after he spoke his piece a person clad in the gang's usual leather jacket ran past the pavilion in a brief moment, holding a rifle of sorts. Not soon after that, a squad sized group of twelve of the same combat robots ran past the place too, following the gang-member in tow. They seemed completely oblivious to the group under the pavilion, partially concealed by the vehicles and she shade as they were, and didn't seem to make any sin that they were turning around and engaging them.

After a few more seconds as the rest of them exited the ladder, a hand patted Danny on the shoulder, "we're looking for that metallic building from the briefing. That's most likely the place where they're controlling all these things," Desmond said, withdrawing the hand and readying his rifle, "lead the way."

Tannozako's SMG went up at the sight of the passing guards, but as they disappeared she lowered it slightly. She continued to look around, shuffling quietly closer to one of the trucks so she could try to use it as cover while she looked around for possible problems, or areas that afforded better cover for their trip to the control center. Aside from this, she simply waited for the order to move.

Danny froze like a stunned animal when he watched the gang-bangers run past with their robots. His stillness seemed to save his skin, as they didn't notice him or the other mercenaries. He unfroze and lowered his gun, then lowered the hatch back down carefully once everyone was accounted for. "Let's go," he said as he turned around and kept a low stance, mentally tracing his route, and mentally tracing the areas of most traffic, using those that'd run past as a reference point on where not to go.

He lead the way by using the trucks first, then keeping an eye out on his predetermined route for any deviations, people running by in the combat and fighting. He remembered that he had a distraction he could use, tossing the magazine he'd picked up from the robotic sentry earlier over the engine blocks and towards the back of the fighting, throwing it in a low arc across the pavilion far away from the team needed to be to get the gang's attention.

Each of his movements seemed to be birdlike, still, then moving quickly, then still again as he moved from cover to cover and towards the three smokestacks in the distance. He had his hand on the hilt of his long blade too, since such close quarters was suited to melee combat if they were discovered. With any luck, that distraction would buy the team some time to run. "They'll come looking for it from where we were," he whispered over the radio. "If we move quickly, we'll lose them."

Raven would continue tracking, slamming rounds into the combat robots to suppress the amount of force the gangsters could bring on the others. If the first shot disabled the bot then he'd move on, if it hindered movement he'd move on and then come back to them, if it only damaged the bot then he'd fire another round to ensure destruction.

Industrial Complex

Anna kept her SMG shouldered, checking the areas around. As usual she tried to keep Danny covered as well as she could. Many corners in industrial are though. Finding the path was Danny's job and her job was to keep Danny alive, she knew that much. She was also glad that there was so much sound around. Her silenced SMG could be fired, without getting too much attention. Still the longer they did not have to fire, the better were their odds of getting through all this and reach the control station. Then it would be bye-bye robots.

Thanos was still in the back, taking the rear-guard. He put the safety off on his rifle and gave Desmond a nod. The masked face was turned left and right, looking for any possible danger. Hopefully all the gangsters and their robots would be now running to the fight.

Industrial Complex

A loaded magazine flew somewhere in the complex, thrown around by a party unknown to the gangers. It passed over a small container with ease before impacting against the 'head' of one of the combat bots. The metallic V-shaped faceplate of the robot twitched from the impact, momentarily stopping that particular unit's action of following its designated leader to pick up the unknown object. The automaton picked up the magazine off the floor, seemingly oblivious to the plethora of noises around it from the fighting, and slowly rotated the object around its hand, identifying it as a Ripshot magazine, compatible with its weapon and fully loaded. It duly followed its programmed logic and stashed the magazine on one of its holding compartments, then moved on.

Not far from where that happened, Danny made his way to the nearest piece of cover before moving on, with Anna right on his heels covering him from a safe distance. Once he was clear from the small vehicle pavilion from which he had emerged he could see that this particular area of the complex was much different from the one where Jaina and her mercenaries had been, featuring a more open environment. There wasn't the maze of containers directly ahead, but instead a clear and paved way to the main factory building, which, save for a few scattered pieces of cover, would be too conspicuous for the group to take, considering it offered no cover and there were regular groups of the automated sentries moving to and from there. To his left was a group of abandoned buildings, that looked the part considering how neglected they looked, which was something remarkable when one took into consideration the entire status of the complex, but that would undoubtedly offer much more cover and concealment than the first choice; taking that small detour would increase the length it took to get to their objective, though.

To his right, if the crescendo of automatic fire was of any clue, was where the mercenaries were currently trading punches with the gangers and their security units. There wasn't much reason to be there.

Behind him, and still concealed by the trucks and the shade under the pavilion, Desmond nodded to the masked mercenary, moving out until he was behind Tannozako. The bounty hunter aimed his rifle over the shorter bounty hunter's shoulder, adding his own potential firepower to her Ripshot's, just in case something happened. "As soon as they stop moving, we move," he said on their comms frequency.

Smokestack

As Raven continued his work, taking down the robots as they moved, he had a prime seat to watch as the main battle unfolded. By that point the mercenaries had simply converged into a single position, using their superior weapons and proficiency to have an advantage. They had stopped not too far from the entrance, but took a position from where the bulk of the robots had to go through a bottleneck of containers, and with the AFV covering the front with its thicker armor, right into the front of the MMG, with the turreted Outrider's weapon right behind that in case the one machinegun didn't cut it. The gist of it, though, was that the mercenaries had to split to cover several other smaller flanks, but without support from the bigger vehicles their ammo or numbers was supposed to die out soon if the same rythm of the battle kept up.

As he panned his rifle left and right, looking for more targets, Raven noticed a small reflection from the distance, like the sun directly reflecting off a mirror or glass towards him. Not soon after that, there was a flash, then he heard a loud, cracking noise right above him as something impacted against the smokestack, showering his backs and shoulders with dust and bits of concrete.

Raven noted the impact above him, and targeted the flash of light with a round and followed up with a triangular pattern in the vicinity of the flash intending to either kill or drive off the opposing sniper. If he was successful at taking it out he'd continue to engage the robots with rounds to cause as much damage to the gang defenses before the mercenaries pushed in.

Danny looked at the open field between his objective and a shiver went up his spine. It was perhaps the ultimate stealth killer, on par with a closed door - moreso than any sentry, camera, sensor suite, or vigilant watchman. He weighed his options, and Desmond could see him counting them on his fingers - index, middle and ring upturned on his left hand while his right hand counted the ways. Option one was to simply up and sprint across the open field, getting the attention of everyone under the Delsaurian evening. Incredibly risky, and too ballsy, it'd take a force capable of dishing out what'd be given to them and surviving if they were caught.

Which was not the force near Danny right now. He curled his index finger and kept it against his palm with his thumb as he considered option two, which was to crawl across the open field and hope that they could keep a low profile, and go from sparse cover to sparse cover. In the end, he judged it as even dumber than dashing through, so his middle finger curled, leaving him with his ring finger up and one last option, edging towards the buildings and hoping that a sojourn through there would work - while time consuming, it certainly was the safest option.

As he surveyed further, he saw a break in the formation and he didn't know how long it had to last. Nobody was watching the court. His index finger curled back up again and his low stance now folded into that of a runner at the blocks. "There's the break, if spotted, buildings. Go." he said as he started moving between the edge of the abandoned building complex to his left and towards the objective.

Smokestack

Raven could see his shots impact near and on his intended destination from his scope, raising a small plume of dust from the impacts, and when the dust cleared out there was just a disabled combat bot, shot to pieces and with thin tails of smoke slowly trailing out from the holes. There was another brighter, bigger flash somewhere in the complex where the fighting was taking place, and a few minutes later the bounty hunter could hear the bang, as well as see a black trail of smoke rising between the containers. Thankfully, none of the vehicles seemed to be the source of that, but he could also see that the perimeter that the mercenary band had set up was slowly diminishing.

Industrial Complex

Upon spotting the breakthrough to advance, Danny shot forward, moving towards the abandoned buildings. Sound was of no problem there, since the firefight nearby concealed anything short of actual fire, and even then someone might still mistake the gunshots from being where the main event was taking place. One of the sounds that caught his attention was a loud bang, which even made it possible for him to feel it as the concrete floor beneath him vibrated slightly, and soon enough a black plume of smoke started to ascend close to where the mercenaries where fithing.

Soon enough, the bounty hunter could hear the sound of footsteps behind him, as well as the distinctive noise of several bits of equipment being shuffled as someone moved, and as he reached the side of the nearest building he could see that it was Desmond, who came to a sudden stop with his back against the wall of the abandoned structure, right next to Danny. Looking further down from where he came from, he could also see that the other 3 bounty hunters hadn't moved, and neither could they then when yet another group of combat bots passed them, and another, and another. Not risking to be cut off from them, one of the mercenaries started to move, and that was when the firefight broke out.

As soon as Thanos stepped out from his concealment, a long burst of automatic fire peppered the ground in front of him. Based from the sound, anyone could tell it was a low-caliber weapon, most likely the Ripshots used by the automated foes that they encountered there, but what the rounds lacked in stopping power, as a few hit against the mercenary's armor for no effect, they made up in volume. As soon as the first burst rang out several more followed in unison, with the punctuality that only a machine could manage, suppressing the two mercenaries and Tannozako and forcing them back behind the cover. Their assailants moved with precision, following their programmed directives; There were five in total, and while two kept shooting from behind cover, the other three started moving directly towards the three of them, firing their Ripshots as they crept closer.

"Go! Go!" Desmond shouted to Danny, shoving the other bounty hunter forcefully towards the corner of the building and raising his rifle. While the latter was faced with a narrow alley between two of the abandoned buildings, which turned right, towards their objective, and left, the former fired a few times with the two-round burst from his rifle, quickly scattering to cover after Danny.