Star Army

Star ArmyⓇ is a landmark of forum roleplaying. Opened in 2002, Star Army is like an internet clubhouse for people who love roleplaying, art, and worldbuilding. Anyone 18 or older may join for free. New members are welcome! Use the "Register" button below.

Note: This is a play-by-post RPG site. If you're looking for the tabletop miniatures wargame "5150: Star Army" instead, see Two Hour Wargames.

  • If you were supposed to get an email from the forum but didn't (e.g. to verify your account for registration), email Wes at [email protected] or talk to me on Discord for help. Sometimes the server hits our limit of emails we can send per hour.
  • Get in our Discord chat! Discord.gg/stararmy
  • 📅 October and November 2024 are YE 46.8 in the RP.

RP: Bounty Hunts [Bounty Hunts] Prologue - Meet the Hunters

Within a split second, all hell broke loose in the darkened warehouse. Sam could see several of the gang members scurrying about on the first level below, through the metal grating that made up the catwalk network. As gunshots rang out throughout the building, most coming from the area towards the main entrance, Sam was confident she’d not yet been spotted and quickly surveyed as much of the catwalk network as she could see from her current position. It appeared there was a system of lifts for moving crates and other goods up to the catwalk level and the levels above. Several of these lift panels were stacked with crates and some had been moved off onto the catwalk network itself. If the crates contained something thick and sturdy, they could prove to be invaluable cover. As it seemed cover would likely become quite useful within the next few seconds, Sam chose a collection of crates fifteen or so odd meters away, down the main catwalk and across the room. Still crouched down, the Bounty Hundred cautiously moved forward, keeping alert and staying low. There were gang members up on the catwalk as well, though; they seemed preoccupied with the events unfolding down below. Just seconds before she made a mad dash for the stack of crates across the way, Sam caught movement out of the corner of her eye.

She turned quickly, her automatic weapon rose to eye level and aimed center-of-mass at the first gang member who’d spotted her. He shouted something and reached for his sidearm. Sam squeezed the trigger and her PDW roared, a three-round burst caching the first man followed quickly by two more bursts of fire aimed at finishing off his partner. Quite confident both of the mercenaries were down, Sam turned swiftly and sprinted across the catwalk for the stack of crates as several bolts from an energy weapon streaked though the darkness and peppered the catwalk. Leaping behind the crates, Sam quickly sat up with her back against them, checking to her sides for any other gang members who might have seen her fire upon their comrades. The bounty hunter had no idea what exactly was going on, someone had decided to attack the place, maybe local law enforcement or a rival gang? Who could say? Either way, it would likely complicate finding this Vanderson fellow. If he died, she’d never get any information on the whereabouts of the Mayor’s daughter. If the cops picked him up, well, that would likely end things right there as well. While the battle raged around her, the bounty hunter peeked around from behind her makeshift cover, considering her options.
 
Sam scored two kills, but now she had attracted attention to herself. There were about 10 other gang member shouting and running about the catwalks, all wanting to take a shot at something even if it was an ineffective.

Atverm's punch caused the bird man to stagger backwards. His last moments was seeing the catwalk fall on him, he was still dazed when he looked up at what was falling on him.

This happened to be also where Sam was standing. There was a large square platform that she could easily charge to, with a crane machine on the farthest left corner. She could also try to double back, but most likely would have to jump for it.

The falling bridge-works distracted the investigator from his firefight with a raised eyebrow, “Well shit, your not screwing around,” he said without much emotion and changed his cigarette to the other side of his mouth. He looked about to see what their situation was, and from what he could tell it was not going to go well. “Well I think they are starting to flank us, we can either head back toward the door or take that corridor on your left. Your choice, since I will cover our retreat.”

Taking the way back would lead to more narrow paths with less cover but less likely to be flanked. Taking Atverm's left would lead to an open area with many crates, boxes, and machinery to take cover but is more open to attack from above.

If Atverm took the left to the open area, it would lead closer to where Dimitri was, who had just dispatched another easy victim. There was a single door available which lead to the gun fire sounds as well as to the open area mentioned earlier on it's westward side (Atverm would be coming from the south side if he took this path) and could possibly sneak or flank if he wanted to.
 
“Well I think they are starting to flank us, we can either head back toward the door or take that corridor on your left. Your choice, since I will cover our retreat.”

Atverm peeked out from behind his cover and sure enough, a bunch of gangsters were trying to circle around them. Raising his rifle, he whipped out and fired another set of shots at the catwalks. The laser rifle on it's second highest setting (which could go up against lesser power armors) cut clean through the metal cords and brought two gangsters down to the floor in a loud crash.

After that Atverm ducked back behind his cover just in time as his general area was peppered with a series of poorly aimed shots. "I say take the left. Just give me a second to think of a way to get there without a high risk of getting shot." He said to the detective and looked around for something to use to his advantage, anything. Then he saw his shadow and looked up at the lights in the ceiling. "I got an idea. Move out as soon as the lights go out."

Reaching into his coat Atverm pulled out a fresh battery and loaded it into his rifle. He then began shooting the lights above them and quickly bathed their area in darkness. Then he shot a gangster who had rushed ahead of the others trying to flank them. "Ok, lets go."
 
Once having taken care of that last threat, he searched all three bodies and looked to see if they had anything of worth. No, not credits! Just weapons and ammunition that might come in handy, you know? In case he might need to save his life? A silencer would be nice, too.

If he did find a silencer, he'd grab it or the weapon it was attached to and pocket it. Silencers would be a great addition to his arsenal. If he found any weapon he knew to make less sound than his Zen Arms .45, he'd take it with him just as well. The less sound he made the better, even if he'd be sacrificing fire-power over it.

Regardless of whether he found a silencer or not, he'd head out and start walking along the wall with most crates on it, using them for cover to hide himself among them. He'd always look around, however, making sure that there were no guards around the area -- or, at least, no guards looking his way-- before heading to the next area.

If he had found a silencer, he'd be wielding the weapon attached to it, or he'd try screwing it into one of his weapons before heading out. If no silencer was found, he'd be holding his knife in a reverse grip. If he found a gun that made less sound he'd pocket it, but he wouldn't wield it, considering it still made some noise.

Dimitri, above all, would look for a chair with a person trapped to it. If they were holding the girl captive, he doubted it would be strapped to the floor or something. He wondered where they could've put her, but for some reason he doubted it was in this large open warehouse area here... He'd have to remember to interrogate the next goon that he came by.
 
Atverm's actions resulted in dropping one of the gangsters, with the other holding for dear life on a stacked box he managed to jump to. The blasted lights created a darkened area for them to safely run into and caused some dramatic shadows as the two ran into the lite up area.

The detective was leaning to the edge of cover before lights and bridges began blowing up around him. He took the time to fire a couple of cover shots and then followed the big man down an alley of boxes, "You do realize the more damage to the area around us means less money right?"

The open area had boxes placed strangely like a battlefield, like someone knew they were going to be attacked but wasn't fully prepared. There were two boxes 5 feet apart that could cover the ID-Sol's large body and several chest high boxes. There was a deadzone of cover to the other side by 2 meters with a small campfire between the two lines of cover. Two of the goons waited there when they saw the lights shot up and would begin to fire from their cover when they saw something move. They were using sidearms like most gangsters so far.

There is a passage in each direction, the deadzone area made it difficult to move any further.


Dimitri however did not find the silencer he was looking for, but instead found a dagger, a couple of fake coins, a card with 10 DA on it (probably suckered some other fool to pay for his food), and a couple of aces, both black clovers. The guns were the same guns he was using, giving him a couple of clips of ammo to use.

As for way out, there was a door that exited into the larger room, a door close by that leads to an option of small offices or a staircase leading to the observation area, and a vent that could directly lead to the hostage but was looked to be a tight fit.
 
Atverm stopped when he saw the dead zone up ahead and spotted the goons who were waiting to shoot something. From the look of things there were only two but he wasn't about to get sloppy on his first mission. He took a step to the side so he was behind one of the boxes that were up ahead. If the goons returned fore he would be relatively safe behind cover and the other two could get behind him. They needed the cover more badly anyways.

He then turned to the investigator and civilian dressed person (If he was a cop he certainly didn't dress like one.) behind him. "I'll take care of the one on the right, you two take the one on the left. If they shoot back then just get behind me. You need the cover more than I do."

Raising his rifle and taking aim, he made a quick check to see of the other two were ready. "On my mark.. Fire." With that he squeezed the trigger.
 
The dagger was a definite good addition to his arsenal, as well as the added ammunition for his guns. He packed one added magazine of ammo for each of his firearms, and then inspected the cards. "Ace of clubs, huh...?"

It took him a while, until he finally resigned himself to what Lady Luck had offered him. "I thought you'd give me spades, but clubs'll do."

He took one of the aces and stashed it in his right pants pocket. Standing up, he took to the exit nearest to him and headed to the rest of the offices, slamming the door open while staying well out of the way of the entrance.

To anyone inside, the door would seemingly blast inwards (or outwards, if it opened towards himself) with no one on the other side, slamming against the wall (or slamming as far as it's hinges would take it) and then remaining open. Dimitri would wait a couple of seconds to see if anyone responded to the door's unexpected movement, hearing to see if he could tell if any gangsters inside had seen or heard the door open...

...not that that was easy to do considering all the shooting that was going on. He held his knife close to his chest, staying to the side of the door's frame and waiting for someone to come out of the room to hold them up for questioning. If in a few seconds no one came out, Dimitri would peek his head in for a fraction of a second, scanning the room quickly for anyone inside. If empty, then he'd head inside and proceed with caution.
 
The Investigator slid under the chest high box, he then nodded in agreement and fired on the left gang member. Both gangsters bit the bullet, but were replaced by two more.

Suddenly a familiar cop slid up between the Investigator and Atverm, only he was holding an automatic, "Hey guys, what's up?"

"Glad you could make it Dave, how did you manage to find us?" asked the brown coat investigator.

"I figured yall were in the dark area, I imagine every gang banger is gettin' over here as we speak," he then punctuated his sentence by firing back at the enemy with the automatic rifle, pinning them down. "Look I think I know where the girl is, if I recall there is an office area nearby and the Executive Office is pretty large.”

“You think the girl is held up in there?”

“Pretty sure,” Dave said with a nod.

The Investigator nodded and then looked up at the bounty hunter, “By the way, my name is John. Just want to let you know that if we die from the crazy stunt that I just thought up.” He then spat his cigarette and looked up at Atvern, “Ok, the blasted lights are going to attract more gangsters to come up from behind, so we going to have Dave here fire on their guys and keep their heads down. Meanwhile me and this guy here, sorry I forgot the name, will attack from both sides while they can't see us. It will probably work.”

Dave shook his head, “I'm gonna get a lot of hell for all of this,” he said before placing his gun on the boxes to steady his aim, “Just start running and I'll start shooting.”



Demitri would be either disappointed or pleased to find a gangster in the third cube office to his right not effected by his entry, in fact he would only wake up when Dimitri passed by him. The room is lined with 6 cubical offices on either side of his path with a left turn into the main building and straight ahead being the Executive Office.

“What? Who's there?” the only gangster not dressed up in full animal costume would yelp as Dimitri passed the third cube office. He was young looking brown haired Nepleslian wearing a plain green shirt with some animal on it, brown shorts, and had just dropped his handgun on the floor getting up. If threatened he would raise his hands in surrender, and if shot well, hopefully not in the face.



Sam's bridge buckled under her, and she tried to double back to escape her doom only it was too late. She fell on the unsuspecting birdman who had just dodged the bridge only to have a woman land on him. He broke her fall, but she had a mild concussion and fell unconscious.
 
Dimitri wasted no time. Once he heard the words he was aiming his knife that direction, and found the blade pointing at an unarmed gangster that was looking a bit pale.

Perfect.

He ran into the cubicle and tumbled against the man, his knife only inches away from his throat, and abruptly pinning him against the wall behind him. "Hey there, pal. We're gonna play a little game. It's called 'avoiding other people's mistakes'. You answer a few questions, and you don't end up like a couple of guys back there who didn't answer their questions in due time, understood? "

Dimitri smirked ominously. "First question: where's the girl?" Up close and personal, one could easily smell the blood on Dimitri's hands and on the knife he was using. It was clear he had killed other people just moments ago.
 
Atverm nodded in response. So they had an army of gangsters bearing down on them with only a guess at to where the captive girl was and no backup plan if things went to hell. He couldn't think of anything better at the moment so he went with it.

"Let's hope the girl is there. If not then we're going to have to shoot our way back out." Atverm said to the investigator. "You take the left one and I'll do the right just like before."

The two readied their weapons and jumped out of the shadows when Atverm gave the signal. Both gangsters had just enough time to blink in surprise when the two opened fire and put them down. Atverm and the Investigator both jumped over the boxes and took cover behind them.

"Alright John, me and Dave have you covered. Give them hell the second they step into your sights." Atverm said while kicking the two bodies out of the way and taking up a firing position.

"We can loot the bodies when this is all over."
 
"Please don't hurt me, I'm not even a real member yet!" the young man yelped as the knife came close to his throat. He was beginning to realize joining a gang wasn't as fun as he thought it was, and from the sounds of gunfire from the other side of the wall it sounded like his brother might not make it out alive either.

He was as scared as you could imagine to be with a knife at throat point, "G.g.g.girl?" it took him a moment to figure which girl the bounty hunter was referring too, the fear and the smell of blood didn't exactly help the 30 seconds that went by. "Oh ya sh.sh.she was put in the Executive office right over there man!" he flashed his eyes over the direction which he thought was where the office was down the hall.




Dave laid down some covering fire as both Atverm and John took down their targets. "Dave hurry up and get over here, don't be slow now!" yelled the investigator along with Atverm as he took some cover after he threw the corpse off the box he was leaning down to.

The plain-clothed policeman wished he had went to work today while throwing down the automatic and vaulted over the cover to make a run for it. Meanwhile a couple of gangsters came from Atverm's right side and two more from the cover Dave had just jumped over. Seeing an easy target, they raised their guns and began to fire away.
 
The dark hallways were briefly lit up by tracer fire as Atverm and John opened fire on the incoming gangsters.

Atverm gunned the first one down before he even came into full view. The second one however, a man dressed in striped clothing, opened fire on his position and forced him behind his cover.

While that was going on, John took aim and gunned one of the gangsters down. The other, a man who apparently didn't believe in wearing a shirt, was just about to open fire when he was suddenly shot in the head by Atverm who had decided to check his rear while pinned down.

John repaid the small favor by shooting the cheetah man who had pinned him down before he could get a clear shot off.

Dave then arrived on the scene, jumping behind cover and pulling out a handgun.

"That cannot have been all of them." Atverm said while glancing upwards to make sure they weren't being watched from above. From what he had seen, they had numbers but didn't seem to have much in the lines of tactical sense. At least one of them was bound to have a brain.
 
When he heard the answer, he looked in the direction the rookie pointed to with his eyes, then back at him. He lowered his sunglasses ever so slightly, only to look at the guy with his left eye. "You'll never wake up if you just lied, rookie. Hopin' for your sake you didn't."

And with that he stepped off from pinning him against the wall, retrieving the knife that had been pointed at the goon's neck, only to be replaced with a fast-moving uppercut from his right arm (the bionic one) straight to the chin. It was an attempt at knocking the man out... one that, even if it didn't work the first time, would work the second time, or the third. He'd punch the guy in the chin as many times as necessary to knock him out.

That done, Dimitri would turn around and raise his sunglasses back over his eyes, and head in the direction the newbie had mentioned. The bounty hunter dashed towards the door and performed the same process as with any closed door.

Dimitri kicked the door in with all his might, then quickly flattened himself against the wall next to it's frame, waiting from a reaction from inside, expecting some idiot to come out looking for what the hell happened to the door getting inexplicably slammed in. He was ready to leap and stab, knife held close to his chest with his left hand.
 
Dave fired some cover fire at someone up above, "These guys aren't very smart, if they came at us all at once..."

"Damnit Dave don't give the enemy advice, we got enough to shoot at as it is." The investigator John yelled before turning to Atverm, "Get going big guy, we got this covered. Just make sure that girl is alive you hear!"

"Remember!" yelled out Dave, "It's dead ahead into the offices, take a right then follow your left wall until you reach the 'Executive Office' door got it!"





"Certainly taking them a while to get here, maybe I hired too many men," contemplated a man in his 40's smoking a cigar while leaning on the office desk. Greg Vanderson wore an old uniform with a wolf head patch and the name of his company worn out too much to be readable. He was visibly well armed with a shotgun in his right hand and handguns on his hips. The man was a veteran, with his grizzled looks, small amount of chin hair, short badly cut brown hair, and the red glow of his bionic left eye can be told he was a man who seen many battles in his life.

There was a 17 year old girl behind the table, gagged and looked a little pissed off as she struggled to get out. She has long black hair with a red headband, an expensive looking blue dress with matching heels. Certainly Miss Carpenter has expensive taste.

Carpenter's fierce expression turned to horror however when an automatic shotgun's muzzle was placed gently on her little head, "Just between you and me, I need you alive, but don't think that means I won't shoot you. So either stop makin' so much noise or I can put a damn shell so far up your head it would come out of ur' ass! Now shut up!"

Which then happened to be when Dimitri kicked down the door to the office.

The gun pushed on the girl's head rather roughly when the merc looked up at the door. He was met with a rather anti climatic end when he had expected someone to be doing something fancy from who he assumed was the cause of the noise in the main warehouse. It also doesn't help that he was the only one in the room.

"Why don't you come on in, it's rather hard to shoot a man from behind the door," Greg stated and punctuated his statement by pointing his gun toward the door and unloaded 3 shotgun shells into the door, blasting holes through the wooden material.
 
This was the reason why you never stood in the doorway. Always stay clear of the doorway unless you're going to shoot. The shotgun blasts hit the door, but they didn't affect him in any way. However, Dimitri knew this time that he wasn't going to be able to be stealthy about this one.

A little bit of more firepower was required to get rid of a guy with a shotgun that was aware of his presence. Dimitri frowned but didn't say a word. He instead sheathed his knife and took out one of his .45 Zen Armaments, and dropped himself on the floor staring upwards. His weapon at the ready, aimed for the door, he awaited the enemy to come out from his hiding spot.

The moment the guy in the room came out, he'd put a couple of bullets in his head and rush in to grab the girl. The getaway had to be quicker than the entry... he was going to have a hard time getting through the ruckus with a civilian VIP.
 
"Dead ahead, turn left and keep following the left wall until I reach the office door. Ok got it." Atverm replied and took off down the hallway. The sounds of gunfire could be heard behind him as he ran.

Making his way down the rows of boxe until he reached the office area. The hallway to the left was right where they said it would be. Walking quietly through the entrance he kept his eyes focused on the left walls for the office door. That is until he heard the sound of a shotgun being fired up ahead.

Ahead in the distance he saw a man in a duster and he was leaning against the wall next to a blasted door. He briefly wondered why the gangsters were shooting at each other. Then it quickly became apparent that he wasn't the only bounty hunter looking to rescue the girl who was no doubt being guarded by whoever was shooting at the door.

Keeping his gun at the ready just in case the bounty hunter turned his attention to him, Atverm looked around his position. Maybe there was another way inside that didn't have a gun pointed at it.

He then looked to his left and at the door to the room next to the office. Maybe there was a door that lead in that way? It was worth checking out.

Moving as quietly as he could, Atverm made towards the door up ahead. If the other bounty hunter saw him, well, he'd deal with that when the time came. For now he was content to have him as a distraction for the other guy.
 
Vanderson fired another round at Dimitri's door, "Ya know I hate when rats won't leave thier hiding place," he taunted as he reloaded, "but then again I never get a good chance to use this..."

He shifted the shotgun to his left hand and began to pick up his grenade with his right hand. The hostage saw this and began to freak out, shaking around until finally the mouth gag fell off, "Watch out!" she yelled toward the door. "He has a grenade!"


Atverm found an office next to the exectuive office and noticed a weak patchwork that could be blown or bashed in. It seemed to be close to the hostage taker as shotgun blast could easily be heard through the wall.

"out! He has a Grena..." he could hear through the wall a girl yelling at the top of her lungs.


For perspective from Dimitri, about two feet away was a table he could knock down for cover, after that there was a filing cabinet two feet in front and a knocked over file cabinet four feet away from the other cabinet. Four feet in front of that would be the hostage and Greg Vanderson standing right behind her with an unnoticeable weak left wall. Behind the hostage and Greg was the executive's table, a nice six foot long desk made of mahogany.
 
Eyes opened wide, at the word 'grenade' Dimitri scurried up to all fours and ran to the nearest cover. It was a table. Damnit! This guy ain't stupid!

He got under it, turned around to push his feet up to the underside of it and then violently and frantically tilted it sideways (downwards from his perspective) so that it would be covering him from an incoming grenade blast, causing a huge thud to be heard across the room he was in.

This guy was serious, and he definitely wasn't just any other grunt.
 
Atverm's eyes widened when he heard the girls words and the faint sound of something hitting the floor elsewhere. Ok, this was getting more and more dangerous by the second. If he didn't end this soon, the girl was most likely going to wind up dead. He had only one idea and it was most likely going to end with him being shot.

Quickly placing his rifle on the floor and pulling out his .45 pistol. Atverm got into a running position with his shoulder braced for a collision. Once the grenade went off he'd charge though the patchwork. Hopefully he'd catch the man off guard and shoot him before he could retaliate.

If his plan failed... Well, here's hoping his body armor could take a point blank shotgun blast.
 
The mercenary tossed the grenade underhand towards the door and exploded right as Dimitri had set the table down. The blast knocked him back into the filing cabinet but managed to suffer minimal injuries including wood splinters and shrapnel. Thank goodness he bought a cheap NAM grenade, a Type 30 would have been much worse.

Conversely the kid in the other room woke up to the explosion, remarkable considering he was black and blue with a little bit of red. He slowly approached the noise but reluctant to do so.

Meanwhile Atverm busted through the weak patchwork like some kind of mascot in a holo-ad surprising the merc, though it was really hard to tell being a badass sterotype and used his free right hand to draw his own .45 as well. He took two hits from Atverm, however the armor he wore under his uniform took most of the impact though did manage to force him to drop his shotgun. Greg began to circle around the executive table attempting to use it as cover while laying down cover fire with his .45 in Atverm's direction.
 
RPG-D RPGfix
Back
Top