RP: YSS Goban Episode 01: Communiqué

Galar's expression became horrified as he saw the custodian's head turn slowly towards Luca. "Shit.." He muttered. Grabbing Luca by the stirt, Galar threw him behind the crate they were next to. His eyes widened as he realized that if the custodian saw him standing there, it would think he fired at it! He threw himself behind the crate in a dive to the floor.

"You idiot!!! look what the it did to the shoi, he's not dead, nor is Hanley! Travkai wasnt going to get anymore punishment than those two!! You didnt need to fire at it! Now it's angry and is hunting for us.

He turned and looked at the neko floating in the tube with pure wonderment. How could something so tranquil be in a place so violent?

Galar's move saved Luca's bacon from imploding.

The 10 mm rounds squished against the war android's synth-skin, then fell to the floor. Its special mesh underlay removed much of the damage from the NSP shots, though Luca's automatic blasting had singed it some and certainly taken out much of the droid's clothing.

However, as Galar had pulled him away, the Custodian had hurled his fist toward Luca. It smashed through one of the cargo crates, sending thin metal splinters everywhere.

The Custodian kicked away the remainder of the the crate it had just destroyed and started looking for Galar and Luca.

"Remind me NEVER to trust my gut, because they're gonna be on the floor once this THING runs me through and the Military court gets a hand on me!" Luca said to Galar as he sprinted through the maze, "Maybe if it 'said' or at least told us what it was DOING, I wouldn't have fired at it, of all things it should be able to communicate!"
Luckily, in his school days, he was a champion sprinter, managing to do a 100 metre dash in roughly 14.2 seconds, so outrunning the Custodian wouldn't be a challenge unless it could compare.

I can outrun this thing... it's just another obstacle... he chanted in his mind, the mantra washing his fear away as he sprinted through the iron corridors of the storage room and stowed his weapons away favouring his survival knife.
If bullets and blasts won't work... this will

Galar followed Luca well, even though he was getting very tired. He thought even if we run, it has superior weapons! Why are we fighting our teammate anyways?!

"Aw damn." Galar sighed. Then his eyes widened. "Yo! Luca! C'mere!!" Then more quitely in his ear, Galar said, "let's lure it over to that neko. When it sees the mission objective, it might forget about us!"

"What did you say, Vanatosk?" Luca asked him as the two kept on charging down the halls, then he heard what he said and he snapped his fingers, "Great idea!"
Luca quickly skidded and began running back through the maze, grabbing Galar by the arm and sprinting towards the containment tube and luring the custodian towards him and the tube.
"Remind me to buy you a round when we get back on deck!" Luca told Galar as he continued his mad dash towards the containment of the Neko.

Lucas flew across the room and landed with a sick thud. He hadn't seen the toss coming, and certainly wasn't ready for it. Gasping for a breath, he realized that he was still holding his 28. He whipped it around as he jumped to his feet, and pointed it in the face of the silhouetted person. "Freeze....don't.....move." he gasped in between the breaths from the fall.

Jason turned when the first set of screams were heard and saw only the custodian behind him. "Aww shit..." However Luca's shooting had made the custodian change his mind of Jason and now went for Luca and Galar. "Wow this day just keeps getting better and better" he muttered. Turning back to the person at the control panel he would raise his pistol and keep a bead on them. "You their at the controls freeze, put your hands up into the air." echoing the command Lucas gave.

The Custodian had two choices.

As he watched Luca and Galar dash away from him, he considered using his HEX guns to simply fry both of them. However, as they dashed out of the room through the back entrance, he figured they were retreating. A wise strategy, for he surely would have killed them. Besides, there were only two ways in -- the one they had entered through, and the one they had exited through.

The map in his head suggested an overhead ventilation shaft was a choice they could theoretically exploit. But they would fall nearly eight meters straight down. Not wise.

Lucas was staggering to his feet. No matter. The master could handle a single injured Nepleslian with a pistol. However, an uninjured second pistoleer provided a complication. He could not have that.

The choice was clear.

Raising his palm, the Custodian turned and used his right arm's HEX gun to blast the barrel of Jason's NSP. The gun left Jason's hands in a small whitish flash. Then, the Custodian began to walk toward Jason.

<center>* * *</center>
Lucas' target didn't move. But he did speak.

"She's beautiful, isn't she ... she's perfect now." The man's face was still turned away from Lucas, but as he turned, just part of it was visible. Visible bumpy lines seemed to fall down from the top of the man's head and over his cheeks and temples. The cuts appeared ... surgical.

"I was going to hide my identity from you. Hide what I am. But why bother?" Lucas could now see one side of the man's head fully -- and a cat's ear that looked shortened, as if someone had attacked it with a knife. "My Custodian will solve that problem. See, he's about to kill your friend?"

As soon as Lucas regained his breath the crazy-ass bot blasted a round off at Jason. Lucas squinted his eyes at the flash of the HEX shot, but they never wavered from the strange man. Neither did Lucas's gun, which was nearly point blank at the man's face. It was then that the custodian started walking towards Jason, and towards Lucas at the same time. He saw all that out of the corner of his eye, and knew the kid was doomed. If he didn't take off now, then he was...

Lucas stopped his thoughts as two red blurs flashed out of his periphrial...just behind the bot. His eyes flicked for just an instant to see Luca and Galar moving up behind the custodian. Lucas's eyes were locked on the man once again, before even he could get a real good look at the two. He needed to buy Jason a few seconds to scram, and let Galar and Luca spring their trap behind the bot, and he knew just how to do that.

Lucas's eyes were hard as he pulled the trigger once without any preemptive warning. Then twice...and a third time...a fourth as he aimed from the head of the man to his chest. He had learned the hard and painful way about small-talk in a gunfight, and his brothers died for it. He wouldn't let this...thing see it coming, or let Jason be blasted into oblivion.

Hopefully this will knock him out Lucas thought as he realized his gun was still set to heavy stun.

The man was taken off his feet by the first shot from Lucas' NSP, bending backward over the control panel. The second shot caught him in the hip as he fell behind the panel, which absorbed the other shots. Buttons and screens threw sparks into the air as the scalar energy shortened the panel out.

A few flickers was all the tube suffered before continuing its yellow-green glow.

The Custodian turned away from Jason and to Lucas. It raised its palm at him.

Luca, who was still gripping Galar by the arm had just came to a halt behind the Custodian and just witnessed Lucas' shooting of the unseen man.

Jason's safe for the moment... but I gotta help Lucas now... Luca thought as his brow furled. He picked up a piece of scrap metal the size of a fist and remembered having seen an entire container smashed to into scrapmetal, so decided to utilise what was left.

Time to interject!

Luca then whipped out his 28C, set it to 'Single Auto' with his left hand as he aimed it at the Custodian's head and hurled the piece of metal with his right hand at the Custodian, hitting it square on the head with a lovely BONK!!
"Hey shit-for-brains, forgetting something!?" Luca mocked as he fired a well-placed burst at the Custodian's head and made a dash for the Containment Tube and dove behind it with Galar.

Luca took a moment to whisper into Galar's ear:
"This one's my battle, I started it, so I'll finish it!"

With that, Luca stood up behind the tube and began firing repeatedly at the Custodian's Body and head, using the tube as cover. I hope this tube can take a blast of whatever the thing can do... He pictured in the back of his mind, It does seem pretty sturdy...

"Lucas, Jason, take up arms and kill the fucking custodian!!" Luca ordered as he let his version of hell lose on the Custodian, "Jason, stand back, I'm gonna let some canned-hell lose on him!"

The piece of metal did indeed bounce off the Custodian's head, resulting in no damage. Its synthskin was tougher than that.

As soon as the Custodian turned its head, it saw Luca's gun. Calculating he did not have enough time to stop a shot, he simply raised his arm in front of his head, letting the special mesh of his body absorb the shot without taxing him. He was unable to see where Luca went.

He turned his attention back to Lucas.

At that moment, the Custodian saw Luca pop up again. He put his arm in front of him again and fired a shot from the palm that had been aiming at Lucas. The first shot blasted into Luca's cover, promptly penetrating through most of it, but not quite all of it. The hail of shots did not let him get another blast off so easily, but he fired several more times in Luca's general direction. He was taking several shots to his stomach and arm, so he retreated to some cover of his own away from Jason.

In yet another strange twist, the old man burst into the room from where Luca and Galar had come from. He was carrying a NovaCorp Xaser Rifle, and he quickly put several rounds toward the Custodian's way, sending it to the ground behind its cover.

"You bloody KFY bastards are too bloody fucking slow!" he shouted, firing several more shots before finding cover of his own.

As the custodian's shot had blasted away Jason's pistol he turned and look at the death machine. "I swear today is not my fucking day. " He though as it came closer to him. However with the distraction that Luca had given him and the firefight from both him and the old geezer he decided to make a mad dash for some crates opposite of which he believed the custodian had gone. "If I make it out of this alive I am so requesting heavy weapons training cause this is BULLSHIT" he thought. With one last breath he took off towards the create which was not far from both Luca and Galar

Lucas was glad for Luca's actions. It bought him enough time to jump behind the panels that the mystery man had fallen behind. He rolled over to look at the neko-man, who was still out from the shots. Lucas sat on him, lest he try to get up, and set his gun to kill. It was then, with his back to the console and his ribs still aching, that he finally got agood view of the neko in the tube. She actually was as beautiful as the man said, but he couldn't stare for long. He grabbed the man's collar and started dragging him from crate to crate, dodging blasts from Luca and the Custodian along the way, until he came upon Kyosuke's body. He looked around as he ducked behind another large crate with two unconcious men. Just fucking great he said as he motioned for Nick to come over and help drag the man away from this battle.

"LUCA! JASON! GALAR! BLOW THE TANK!" he yelled from behind his crate.

The man Lucas was dragging was covered with horrible scars, which were visible for just a moment in the dim light of the tank before he pulled him off into the darkness.

Kyosuke managed to groan finally as he was dragged away; he came to as Lucas was yelling. He was still clutching his SMG. He took a look at Lucas, and with a great deal of pain to his own ribs, he hurled himself up onto their cover and started firing full auto at the Custodian's cover.

The Custodian turned as soon as its synthskin had detected Kyosuke as a hostile target, but it turned too late. Its cover was quickly reduced to zero thanks to Lucas and Kyosuke, and it suffered several more shots on its arms. It ducked behind a much larger stack of crates and assessed its situation. Both of its HEX guns were effectively destroyed, but it still had its Keel.

It followed protocol to the letter. Its voice boomed painfully throughout the room.

"YOU WILL CEASE AND DESIST IMMEDIATELY. IF YOU DO NOT, I WILL BE FORCED TO KILL ALL OF YOU. PLEASE DESIST NOW."

Luca, injured and battered from his previous battle was hiding behind a crate near the containment tube, he could see Lucas but he wasn't sure where Jason went though. He felt the shots from the Custodian's HEX cannon puncture most of his right arm and stomach, he was bleeding through his chest panel quite heavily. He was able to move, but the aches would restrict him from any major movement.
"Argh... took one for the team..." Luca muttered to himself as he coughed up blood, "Urrrhhh... I feel terrible..." Luca was beginning to black out from the pain, but he kept steady and resisted the pain.
I will never give up... He chanted in his mind, the mantra giving him strength, I will never give up...

Luca then saw Kyosuke wake from his comatose state and watch as he pumped some of the heavy stuff into the Custodian. Then the booming voice of the Custodian filled the room. With that, Luca looked at his 28C and set it to 'Heavy Auto', it had roughly four bursts left. Luca's head swiveled around his cover to peek on the Custodian while it was in the middle of it's message and turned back to his blood-stained pistol.

I heard this has the power of a small bomb... This should give that fucker a headache. He thought to himself, remembering reading the instruction manual for the gun. He quickly peeked at Kyosuke, gave him a wave and a hand signal for "I'm gonna grenade him." with a wink. Luca waited for his response anxiously.

(OOC: Heavy/Auto means you're using 5x the power of normal shots. So you've got basically four grenade shots.)

"I'VE HEARD THAT BEFORE YOU FUCKER!" Lucas screamed as he continued to fire at the bot. He then ducked back down behind the crate and looked at Kyosuke. He's banged up, but he'll live. Lucas thought as he checked his 28C. It was half-charged, but still working, and he lifted his head over the crate slowly to see Luca signaling for an overload of his gun. He also saw the blood on his hands, and realized that he'd probably been hit pretty good. Lucas ducked back down. "Shoi. Watch him," he said, jerking a thumb at the unconcious neko-man, "Make sure his lights stay out while I go grab Luca after he bombs that thing. And a little covering fire would be nice too." he said quickly and popped his head over the crate once again, surveying the 'battleground'. He withdrew and took a deep breath. "Oh, and how are you feeling by the way?" He said as he pulled out his 10mm and cocked it.

"Like I've got a hangover," Kyosuke huffed, taking out his flask. He had jumped back down after firing a bunch and now was slumped against the back of the cargo crate. As he unscrewed the top, he lifted it slowly to his lips and turned his NSP in his hand so it was pointing backwards. He stuck the gun over the cargo without looking and, as he sipped, fired a few bursts.

He brought gun and flask down, then handed the flask to Lucas. "Take a swig. Good luck and all." Kyosuke glanced at his watch, which was still in pristine condition. "Shit, we are so late getting home."

Kyosuke's head lolled to the side so he could see Luca's hand, just barely. "Careful with that grenade, dammit; don't hit us!"

Something strange was happening, though. The old man, who had been firing irregularly at the Custodian, was now slowly closing in on it. Lucas and Jason could see it clearly, especially Jason, as shots were criss-crossing over his head constantly.

Luca, as he looked down at his wounds, could see small splinters coming out of him -- the blood was from shards of cargo crate that had stuck into his chest. He hadn't been hit with HEX beams yet -- a good thing too, as he'd be dead if he had.

Luca nodded at Kyosuke, then he doubled over with an ache in the gut and another bloody cough, hopefully smaller than the last. He kept his mantra going and continued to move on painfully. He'd lost quite a bit of blood, which was now spilt on his uniform and weaponry.
He peeked around the corner of his cover and noted that the Custodian was disarmed.

Luca took careful aim at the Custodian's chest with his '28C turned hand-cannon, making sure nobody else was in the area. Fortunately, nobody was near the Custodian... but he then noticed the Old Man was walking towards it and Jason was taking cover behind a crate close to the Custodian.
Not wanting to let Jason come to harm, he decided that he'd hold his fire until Jason had scrambled. Luca began to feel weak, he dropped his gun and recessed back into cover and took his gun with him, he'd taken way too much of a hit beforehand. He set his gun to safety and sheathed it.

"Jason! Move it!" He stressed as he peeked around the corner, "I'm gonna have everyone drop a big one on the Custodian!"
With his last ounce of strength left, Luca gave a frantic signal to Kyosuke for everyone to clear the area near the Custodian and to fire some heavys at the android, because he won't be able to do it.

And with that, Luca blacked out behind his cover. He was still breathing but the pain overcame him and the blood loss was getting severe. He had to rest and get some serious medical attention soon.

Must... Keep... Going...

((OOC: Not dead, just dying. Think of it as -3/100 HP with -10 being dead and 0 being disabled a la DnD.))

Lucas took the flask and put it to his lips. He took one big gulp and handed the container back to the Shoi, as he savored the warm burn that slid down his throat. There was something flittering in the far back of Lucas's mind, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Lucas peeked back over the container, noticing the strange firing of the old man, and lack of explosions on Luca's part.

"Dammit!" he whispered as he took another large breath and sprinted to Luca's container. As he got there, he noticed the severe bleeding from shrapnel wounds. "Shit." he whispered again as he holstered his own 10mm and ripped his sleeve to tie off Luca's wounded arm. He leaned back on the crate and keyed his comm to the ship.
"Ann! This is Hanley-Hei. We need some reinforcement...We have one severe injury and multiple minor injuries." Lucas said into the comm as he winced now as he thought about his own ribs. Nepleslian gang fights had given him an experience with bruised ribs, but one could only ignore pain for so long. He cut the comm, and snatched up Luca's gun. It wasn't like he would need it, thought Lucas as he snapped the safety off, wheeled around the crate to see Jason moving away, and let two huge blasts fly at the custodian.