RP: Bounty Hunts [Bounty 2] Castle Crashing

♫ Metal Gear Solid 2 - Tanker Chapter: Detect Alert & Evasion ♫

As Danny moved ahead with Desmond towards the buildings together, he could only hear one set of footsteps following him: Desmond's. As he continued his sprint, he did not hear the chorus of the others with him, making his guts churn in worry and his head heavy. He kept his other on his blade, looking like he was ready to quick draw with his left hand.

As they approached the nearest crumbling building, he pivoted and slammed into the back wall of it with Desmond beside him. He looked back at the other Bounty Hunters he was a team with and blinked. "What are they doing?" He asked under his breath to Desmond as he looked over to the robots, and found that their moment of opportunity was starting to diminish. The robots were about-facing and coming back this way, eyesight soon covering the courtyard. "What are they doing?!" he hissed, looking at Desmond through his mask.

Then one of them moved out and tried to make a break for it. The one in the ballistic mask. The sound of disengaging safeties made him gasp. "Fucking-" he cursed in Lor as the bullets begun to fly. He pulled out a flash grenade and had his thumb around the pin. "I'll meet you there! Grenade out!" He pulled the pin out with his thumb and lobbed the flash grenade into the crowd of robots and begun pursuing the remainder of his objective. He only had two of those grenades left on him and he hoped that the flash and noise would disoriented the robot's sensors to give 'em an opening.

He ran through the alleys and corridors of the abandoned buildings, heart racing as he heard the sound of gunshots and lead squashing against buildings and sending up plumes of brick and plaster dust. He hoped that the others and Desmond were able to get their shit together and regroup at the objective. He had his left hand around his pistol and his right against the hilt of his blade. Subtlety was going to be a weakness in a direct confrontation, close or far. He hoped it wasn't much further - looking up through the alleys towards the smokestacks, buildings and chaos threatening to disorient him and make him lose his bearings.

Raven continued panning across the facility, slamming rounds into the bots to attempt to suppress them to enable the mercenaries to continue advancing into the facility. When he expended his magazine he'd grab another and reload the rifle with it.

"Doesn't seem to be any end to 'em, aye?" Svante asked, panning his scope over the compound for targets, "We really thought this one through."

It didn't seem like there were many non-robotic targets. He did what he could, aiming for weak points and joints on the machines to slow them down or try to make them less of a threat. But it didn't seem like he could do very much of that. Instead he would call out opportune targets as he saw them: heavy weapons or enemy bots that were coming danger-close to the ground team's ever-endangered perimeter. And when he wasn't doing that as they burned through ammo, Svante found himself loading spare rounds into Raven's empty magazines when he noticed his fellow sniper running low to keep his new-found partner's weapon operating.

"This whole thing lost momentum quick. Makes a guy want a rocket launcher, or - or a PA or somethin'."

"Looks like this rifle is the best thing we've got to make use of. I don't think anyone else has anything in the way of heavier firepower" Raven replied.

When the bullets began to fly, Tannozako hung back for several moments, analyzing the situation. Her group's cover had been blown, and they were now under attack. She counted her options: The guns; 10mmKZ rounds were too small to do much to a Battlebot, and would likely be just as effective as the bots' own rounds against the Mercenary's armor. That was unfavorable. Tannozako could not exactly simply backtrack, as that would leave the two companions to their own devices, likely compromising the mission further.

What was needed was a distraction, something that would concern the battlebots, while not doing any harm to her own team. Looking at her mostly useless weapon, Tannozako pulled out one of the smaller pistols, and then dumped the Ripshot's magazine. With a swift spin-kick, she launched the ripshot's magazine swiftly toward her enemies, before steadying herself and firing several shots at the flying metal box filled with lead and gunpowder, trying her best to hit it and set off the rounds inside, to provide the distraction she was looking for.

Smokestack

Raven could see the battle rage on from his vantage points, noticing how the mercenaries had stopped by then, but the volume of gunfire still didn't go down in the slightest; There were a few more, smaller explosions, but those didn't compare to the one that had happened a few moments earlier, and from where a slow and steady column of smoke was rising. The bounty hunter managed to take down and disable a few more robots, as well as a Nepleslian, who was promptly dragged away by the non-organic fighters. As soon as that happened, bullets started flying around them again, impacting on the hard concrete of the smokestack like whipcrack.

As if on a cue, both bounty hunters heard something whiz past them, and it was possible to notice that it wasn't the usual sound of a projectile going faster than the sound, but instead a much deeper noise. A few seconds later, the same thing repeated itself, and after the same interval again something detonated over them, shaking the smokestack and completely trashing the ladder that lead to the uppermost platform, soon afterwards the duo was showered with dust and apple-sized debris. Where the grenade had hit, only a crater remained.

Industrial Complex

One robot crumpled and fell as its chestplate was pierced by a pair of rounds, while another had its arm blown off, leaving only a stump from where mangled cables jutted out of. There were some more bursts of rifle fire but soon the attacking bots were soon by a bright, white flash of light before a loud bang resounded around them. The assailants had been disoriented, but not in a way a normal person would; While a human-like individual would be dazed and probably without balance, the robots simply stood still in their positions, their V-shaped faceplates panning left and right as the sensors rebooted. When that was done, however, their attention shifted from the three hunters behind the pile towards Desmond, who had been the only one firing at them. The three remaining combat-effective units turned their Ripshots towards the bounty hunter.

As Danny took off pressing further into yet another labyrinth of small alleyways between the abandoned industrial buildings and using the shade provided by them to his advantage, he soon took distance from new firefight that ensued, hearing the noises drown out the farther he got. A few moments later, he found himself inside a small labyrinth of narrow and somewhat dark paths, considering how the neglected buildings were close to one another, but it was possible to him to keep a general direction whenever he could get a glimpse on the tall smokestacks from the main building from time to time. His slip wasn't perfect, however, since not soon afterwards he could hear footsteps and radio chatter somewhere near him, but their precise location was impossible to pin down.

Meanwhile, Desmond didn't fare as good. When the robots' attention turned shifted to him, the place he was standing on was soon peppered with the small caliber fire from the ripshots, making him backpedal out of there into the alley. The bounty hunter took a round to the chestpiece of his Muur, and while the shot didn't have a fraction of the force necessary to push someone down, it was enough to surprise him and make him slip, falling flat on his back against the concrete. He soon kicked out against the ground, pushing himself away further into the alley right before more bullets landed where his legs had just been.

Industrial Complex - near the Gate

Jaina covered behind whatever cover she found, firing her rifle at any target she could. Single rounds, controlling her fire. It would be stupid to fire all the ammo, before they even got properly in. The woman also realised that the scope of the operation, the gang did here had to be much much bigger. Some smalltimers would not have so many bots to defend their base. Still the mercs were not loosing yet and they were not about to. Still she wanted some eta on getting those bots down.

"Hey Mr. Hunter," she called Desmond over the line. "No pressure or anything, but how are things going on your side? We sure draw a lot of attention just as you planned, but we don't have infinire ammo you know."

Industrial Complex - Inside

Thanos jumped back inside and huddled next to Tannozako. Anna did the same on the other side of the door. Soon the rounds were riddling the place. The female looked at her masked friend, to see if he is okay. He only gave her a nod as his armour seemed to stop whatever hit him. Without much waiting, he raise his rifle and as soon as there was pause in enemy fire, he leaned and started firing back in short bursts. The puffs of his silenced rifle made a strange change to the loud bangs of ripshots tha robots used.

Ana meanwhile moved away, keeping low. She looked for a way to get on the upper floor or a spot where she could flank some of those bots. Just hiding behind a wall and peeking out, worked only in games, but not here. Her smg was loaded and she was ready to turn off few bots, just needed to find right spot.

Industrial Complex
Danny continued ahead with his breath caught, but found that his lack of a clear reference and the sound of incoming footsteps were cause for worry. At the same time though, these cramped conditions, with buildings in close proximity meant that he could climb his way up and be above it all without having to worry about people down below.

The best thing about these buildings was the abundance of things to climb from - pipes, fences, ladders, ivy, balconies, fire escapes, rubbish containers, inexplicable crates or barrels; or the stairs inside buildings if you were out of ideas. Hell if worse came to worse, you could punch your own handholds into the decaying stone and brute force your way up - but that didn't cross Danny's mind.

Before he was with Lazarus, Danny did show quite an aptitude for moving through packed urban terrain with agility. That was what got the Consortium's attention. That, and his lack of resistance to subliminal brainwashing. (later rectified)

The first thing he did was turn a corner away from , leap up and grab the underside of a fire escape, then lift himself up onto the rail. Instead of climbing the ladder up, he leapt across onto the roof of a single storey building and looking up to get his bearings again. Seeing the direction he had to proceed in he started going for it. With every leap from building to building he could make, he was trying to remain above any sort of firefighting and let the elevated position be his cover.

He had an objective to proceed to after all. Getting caught in a firefight would only slow him down, and by himself he was highly vulnerable. All he had on his side were his skin and his speed.

Industrial Complex

A robot exploded in a shower of components and sparks as Thanos' suppressed weapon puffed, then another toppled and fell when its 'groin' was hit by the rifle. On the good side, the original five robots were destroyed, but on the bad side, more had already diverted from their original objective and were already firing at them, although their directives made them pay more attention to the mercenary firing at them, considering him to be the highest threat, and thus virtually ignoring Anna as she moved away.

The other merc managed to evade the group, retreating back a few yards until she managed to find a vantage point on top of a container. Getting on top of it was easy, and it gave her a relatively good higher ground and cover from the increasing group of robots that were being engaged by her partner.

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Bullets impacted against the old concrete of the building after the fire escape ladder collapsed, soon after Danny planted on top of the building. The surface of the abandoned factory building was flat, although several rusted ventilation exhausts, as well as a rectangular glass window which was too opaque with dust for anyone to see through it. The building was relatively tall in comparison to the other smaller abandoned buildings that dotted that side of the complex, giving Danny a good view advantage from his perch, and the bounty hunter could also see the black plume rising more vividly, as well as hear the cacophony of shots like they were happening in front of him instead of something that was happening from behind a wall.

A moment after that, Danny could hear several footsteps echoing from below him on the alley he had just been, followed by the repeated report of rifle fire.

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The rifle fired twice a couple more bursts down the alley, sending two of the robotic sentries tumbling, before it clicked empty, taking advantage on the fact that the robots were looking up towards the roof of the abandoned building, although more were likely to come by. Desmond released the spent magazine, trying to fish a new one from one of the pouches, and in his hurry, wasting more time as he struggled to put the new one in. Once the deed was done, he racked back the control rod of the gun and fired a couple more of the two round bursts until the bots started to return fire, in the same basic yet effective drill where one would keep firing while another continued moving, making the bounty hunter retreat and pick another path, lowering his head and covering it with his free hand as he moved.

"Having a good time!" Desmond spat back on the communicator before shouldering his way through a door, right into another building. What little he was able to glimpse of the dusty machinery inside was soon interrupted when the glass windows on the sides started to implode, one by one, as a hail of small-caliber went through them, peppering the machinery with lead and sending him flat against the ground to protect himself. "Shit!" The bounty hunter grunted after removing his hands from his helmet. He changed to another frequency before continuing, "Jacob, now's the time!" Then started to crawl his way out of there as the bullets flew overhead.

Industrial Complex
With a clear direction and a quick way there, Danny had a way into his objective. He could hear the sounds of footsteps below him and the sounds of the gun battle back where the rest of the team was. He looked back from where he came and thought it'd be prudent to buy himself some time. He holstered his pistol and drew the sword that was hanging by his side.

It drew cleanly, with the sound of a single metal scrape all the way up and ringing once fully out. Danny gripped it with both hands and let the edge of it power up before taking three swings at the fire escape, hoping to disconnect the structure from the rest of building and make it collapse. He gave it a kick for good measure to try and send it tumbling down with his aggressors before turning around, smoothly sheathing his sword and sprinting towards the objective again.

With a running start and the delay against his attackers, he leapt across alleyways, legs fully extended onto other roofs and moving quickly. The clutter and cruft that you'd find on roofs like air conditioning units, antennae or pipework just seemed to be obstacles to be leapt over, slid under or to land on. The pipes on the walls of the buildings were analogous to vines. He gave a radio call to Desmond, "I'm getting close to the objective. Got sentries on my tail but I intend to elude them."

Raven was aggravated at the impacts around him and began searching for whichever idiot it was that launched that grenade up at him. If he was able to spot the person or robot he'd slam a trio of rounds into them. Otherwise he'd continue taking shots at any of the sentry bots he was able to locate to try to reduce the firepower that was holding up the mercenary crew's advance.

Thanos ducked under incoming fire, going behind his cover and using the time to reload his rifle. He stashed the used magazine and inserted another. He then moved to the side, so he would not have to poke out at the same spot. That was asking to get shot. Anna meanwhile climbed onto the container and ducked there. She peeked out to assess the situation and then took out a grenade. She pulled the pin and chose a the biggest cluster of bots. Before throwing she also assessed where members of her team are, so they would not be exposed to the explosion. She then threw the grenade in an arc, so bots would have it harder to notice from where it was thrown.

"Frag out!" She said into the comms and huddles down, to not catch a stray shrapnel.

Industrial Complex

"Shiiiiiiiiiiit!" Desmond yelled as the bullets mauled everything inside the abandoned building, even though he couldn't really hear himself once things worsened. Despite their small caliber, the increase in volume made up for it, and he could guess that more robots were arriving as the time passed. Just when he thought that he would be pinned there, like a cornered cockroach, did the fire subside after a very loud bang. The bounty hunter took the opportunity once he noticed that the volume of fire subsided, pressing himself against the chest-high cover under the broken window and reaching for something in his webbing. He slowly rose, counting two seconds on his head after he pulled the pin from the High-Explosive grenade, then threw it overhead through the wide open hole that had been a window and ducked back on the ground, opening his mouth as he waited for the blast.

Two seconds later came the blast, shaking the ground around him and knocking off the dust and mortar from the walls and ceiling, and the bounty hunter slowly rose from his cover, raising his rifle in case there were any survivors. On one hand, there were none, but instead several bits of metals from what looked like to be a ladder and several other small pieces of components; Even the wall from the building next to him where he assumed the grenade landed was blown wide open. On the other hand, though, he couldn't hear much, and even the sounds from the main fight looked like they were happening on another city.

Not wasting any time, Desmond vaulted over the window, shattering what glass was left in it, and then took off.

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Danny could hear the screeching of contorting metal as both ladder and robot fell back down into the narrow alley. Just when he thought that the deed was done right after jumping onto the next adjacent building, there came a much louder bang down on the same alley, shaking the bounty hunter's diaphragm from the sheer force of it, almost making him lose the balance as he slid under an air-filtration unit. Despite that, his progress was mostly unimpeded; there were a few stray shots that might or might have not been aimed at him, but they were always erratic, as if his would-be pursuers couldn't keep up with his running.

The abandoned part of the complex was fairly easy for him to move through, considered how the old and neglected buildings were so closely grouped to one another, but as the main factory building drew closer, Danny was also in for another surprise. One of the three smokestack suddenly exploded, collapsing into the factory, and as the dust started to rise a shuttle flew overhead, going farther for a few kilometers and then started to turn back again.

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A few more bots were disable by Tannos by the time Anna heard the dry crump of the frag grenade, and when the mercenary rose again to inspect her damage she saw that only two of the bots, which were closer to the black scorch mark from the grenade, were disabled, while the others from the group were simply dented by the shrapnel from the grenade. Worse yet, one of the robots craned its V-shaped visor around, spotting her, and a moment later two others joined it as the small caliber rounds from their Ripshots plinked against the edges of her container, although more than half of their numbers had diverted their attention to her, which gave Tannos and Tannozako more window to operate.

A few moments later, she could see several small rockets trailing over her and going straight towards one of the smokestack of the main building. Soon after they hit, the smokestack collapsed into the structure and the green shuttle that had ferried the bounty hunters in the desert flew overhead, turning around in the distance for another run.

Smokestack

Tracing back the shots fired at him, Raven found himself staring at a well-established firing line facing him. The bots were somewhat different, than the thin bots that were swarming the complex, they looked thicker, faster and stronger than their inferior counterparts. They also weren't equipped with the low caliber Ripshots, and most of them either were wielding assault rifles or heavier weapon. The one with the grenade launcher left his cover again, firing in a split second and ducking back in, while another did the same in tandem.

Another grenade hit the smokestack, shaking the entire structure and showering the bounty hunter in small debris and dust, throwing his aim off.

Danny froze when he saw the gunship but it took him a few moments to realise that this was part of the plan laid out earlier. He tilted his head and remembered that there would be something in the briefing concerning a friendly gunship bringing hell down on the Industrial facility. "That certainly is an attention getter," he commented dryly to himself before proceeding onwards to the remaining two smokestacks.

As he continued his prolonged run, he knew it'd take at least a few more minutes until he reached his objective. Quietly he wondered if the alert status would raise security at the point, making a stealthy approach poor for time and a guns-blazing one better. Danny didn't do guns-blazing. "Desmond, status?" he asked between breaths, hopeful that he'd shook off his pursuers for now. "Want me to regroup with you or shall I proceed as normal?"

Raven reset his aim and began taking shots in rapid succession at the line of advanced bots. He was in hard cover while the rest of the assault force was essentially swinging in the breeze. When he ran out of ammunition then he'd reload with another mag of I-APE to ensure that rounds that hit would cause maximum damage.

Anna did not wait around, she fell back and rolled off the container on the other side. There she checked her area to see if her back was in danger, before her plan was to circle the container and lean out on the side, to fire her SMG on the bots. She hoped that they will think she was still on top of the container. It could give her an edge and there can be one or two bots less. Anna was leant forward a bit, her eyes darting around as she was moving into the position. It was clear that the woman was not in the battle for the first time.

Thanos meanwhile, let his rifle hand on the sling and reached to his thighs, taking two short Fatboys out of their tactical holsters. He was not really concerned with accuracy, at the moment as he leant out again and opened up on full auto on the bots. He wanted to hit as many, or just make them keep their robotic head down. It was all about getting them turned off, destroying them all was not as important.

Industrial Complex

Even in the relative safety in which he was, it took several seconds for Danny to get his answer, but it came as the time passed agonizingly slow. "Go-" came the voice through his communicator, somewhat out-of-breath and most definitely irritated before it was suddenly cut off, and for a few more seconds the comms were silent before it came back again, "I'm working on getting there. Out." The sounds of the firefight didn't subside, making it impossible for him to make anything out of them, although he could see the tall antennas that jutted out from the building he was supposed to be hitting could be seen from his position. It would not be long before he reached it.

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As Thanos leaned out of cover, firing several white-hot beams towards the bots, his partner moved besides the container, surprising what was left of the group as their directives struggled to process the right course of action. Laser and rounds bore into the automatic units for a very brief, and very violent, moment, and by the time that they were done all that was left were several mangled pieces of machinery, some still ember hot from the laser fire.

For a few brief moments, their general vicinity was safe again, giving them a brief window to go on moving.


Smokestack

As the bounty hunter's rifle fired, taking out one of the more advanced bots, the rest of them seemingly scattered, but not for long. A few seconds later, more weapon's fire started to come his way again from a different position, or positions, as the bullets buried themselves in the concrete or ricocheted off. There was another bang overhead, and part of the metal rail above came crashing down, taking a piece of the rail below with it as it tumbled down. The entire structure shook after another hit, and looking back he could see cracks forming along the concrete surface of the smokestack. It appeared that they couldn't directly hit him, so they were bringing the entire thing down.

Anna looked around, the barrel of her rifle checked its surrounding, ready to send more round at anything dangerous. It seemed all was done for now. No more bots in the vicinity, but more were most likely on the way. Usually machines like that were linked and any units that were not fighting the mercenaries up front should know, that few bots withing the complex suddenly went offline one by one.
"Clear for now," Anna said, covering the area.
"Moving up," Thanos replied and ran up to the container, while Anna covered him. He took cover behind it, holstering his Fatboys and taking his rifle again, covering his own part of the yard.
"We got to turn off those bots," Anna said in the comms, looking towards Desmond. "More are most likely on the way."

Industrial Complex
As Danny kept on moving and swirling, he couldn't help but wonder if there was something he was forgetting, or something he could do to make himself useful rather than merely running away from the team. This hasn't gone well so far. All I've done is run and run and run - stylishly as Franz would say.

He saw the forest of antennae, ahead and couldn't help but wonder. An eyebrow raised beneath his mask when he remembered the briefing. All of those antennae were transmitting and receiving data all around. It was an all seeing forest of eyes, their gaze currently upon Desmond, Tanno, Thanos and Anna. The networked brain of the entire criminal operation and it was only a hundred metres away.

He found himself dropping down to scurry between a pair of buildings and climbing back up, spider-climbing using a narrow alley before reaching the roof of one of them. With a few more leaps, a near miss as his grip slipped and more clambering and slithering up the building like a python. "I should have bought an axe with this many trees," he sighed cryptically into his microphone. The sound of his blade being drawn could be heard before the voice-activated microphone cut off.

The thing about wielding a blade like Danny's is that it didn't require the wrist to be perfectly stiff if you wanted the best cutting power. It required you to keep your grip loose at the right moments so the blade would flow into the attack, lacerating, slicing and cutting cleanly as it was intended, letting the blade do the work at its own pace instead of forcing it through the target like a thicker, heavier sword. Like this, it was capable of tearing all sorts of things apart. One forest of antennae and the odd dish were easily cut apart by a flurry of lateral cuts.

Only once most of it had been knocked out, Danny retreated and hid right beside the roof access, sheathing his blade and drawing his pistol and a Stun Baton in tandem as he anticipated someone coming up to investigate what all of those cutting sounds were and why the ultra-porn had stopped downloading suddenly. "Desmond. I have reached the facility and destroyed their communications. I think I will have their attention in a moment." He held the pistol up and waited for someone to walk into his line of fire.

"This is not so good" Raven muttered before going back to slamming rounds into the bots attacking the tower. He intended to slam out as many rounds as possible into the bots and hopefully disable them all before they managed to bring the smokestack down around his head.