RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 8] That Sinking Feeling

"Then we'll be quick about it." Kokuten said as he moved into position, readying his pistol for action. He squatted next to one of the boxes and aimed at the the one holding the hostage. His right arm stiffened tightly giving him a precise shot. "Squad, stay in cover when we start shooting, with luck we can avoid revealing ourselves as we make it towards the door. When they hit the ground, start towards the door, we've no time to offer some explanation, if Nell gets in our way, kill her too." Kokuten spoke coldly as he drew his breath in.

"Light them up." orderd the Captain as he squeezed the trigger on his .45 twice, sending two bullets at the man holding the hostage, and then aiming to fire at anyone else.

Claire was about to tell Blake to shut up again, not in the mood to hear it at the moment. But then came the order to fire and she had just gotten into position. She leaned out of cover and sighted the target closest to Nell aside from the one with the hostage. She drew a bead on the man's head and pulled the trigger, trailing her target to fire again if it failed to take him down.

"Well, I was thinking of juryrigging the elevator to an outside power source so we can move it to the first floor." She said, looking over her shoulder. "If we're up there, your rescue by Commander Abeck would be that must faster."

"Aim for a decisive wound. We don't want them able to fire back too fast, we need them down for the count. I'd have liked to 'talk' to one of them, but doubt we'd have time," said the Id-Sol as he slinked down behind a crate, leaning out slightly to draw a bead to one of the terrorists. He chose the one second to the right of the hostage-holder. He lined up the sight on the pistol, took a deep breath and steadied himself.

Killing was something he was well used to, but for some reason he wasn't used to carefully picking his targets. A hail of bullets from a few feet away or with a knife in the heart was his forte, blunt and to the point. He was by no means an amateur, he'd aced the tests during his training. He just needed to centre himself when he did it.

He opened his eyes, refined the line of his shot and whispered to himself, "One shot, one kill" before firing a round through the top of the terrorist's spine.

"...That was a good one, gotta remember to tell Lenny and George about it," he added quietly.

The situation stunk like Kokuten's helmet when he first got it.

Tweak did as she was told, however and took position. Meanwhile, the neko's tactical OS was still cycling through the local radio frequencies, isolating pieces of chatter as keywords came up. When she noticed Morris getting close to Claire, though, she focused in on the frequencies the team's suits were capable of broadcasting on, catching only the last part of Blake's comment.

Lam said:

...on the shuttle. I'm deferring to you in this situation, uh... ma'am."

Click to expand...

What is are they up to? Tweak wondered to herself, but kept quiet until they were all in position. This team was not holding together very well. Nearly everyone was second-guessing their commander, including herself (as loath as she was to admit it) and now two of the team were in outright insubordination. Just let us make it through this...

Taking a quiet breath to calm herself again and focus on the task at hand, Tweak directed her TacOpSys to target the terrorists and place anti-fire safety designations on the Unique, Nell, and the hostages as she retrieved a spare magazine that she would hold in her hand. The anti-fire would prevent her from twitch-firing if any of those marked with the designation were in the line of fire. She calculated shots, accounting for using a weapon she had not tested yet (but she had inspected it back in the elevator; no defects had been found) and picking her primary target before creating a queue of follow-up shots to the other terrorists as a fail-safe measure in case the rest of the team either couched their shots and aimed to injure instead of kill or someone happened to miss. And, if this "Finagle" person Tweak had heard mention of had a say in the situation, then something was going to not go according to plan.

Just before the team opened fire, Tweak sent a message to Kokuten. "If this isn't taken care of in one sweep and she wants me to keep moving...Kess is Cassefin's voice right now, and if she says to keep going, I need to keep going." She paused, then added. "I'm sorry."

The squad began the attack. Tweak drew a double-tap bead on the base of the hostage-holder's skull, angled up, then moved on to her secondary targets. Each terrorist was pre-targeted, tracked, and fired on, misses and exit trajectories calculated and accounted for to avoid hitting any friendlies. The first shot on each was aimed at their head, second shot at either their neck or the wrist of the hand controlling the trigger of their guns; if the bullets hit right, the rounds would make a nice mess of the target's carpas or jugular area. Tweak loosed the bullets as fast as the firearm could handle.

As the tenth round left her gun, Tweak dropped the empty magazine and slid the backup in, missing only the time it'd take to fire two more rounds with the action, and then targeted and fired on the sixth terrorist before pausing for the half-second it'd take for her to determine the status of the situation. If any targets were still firing back, or even alive, Tweak would move to another place further down the line and then try to take out the surviving targets with the last eight shots in her clip before reloading unless ordered otherwise. If ordered to stand down, or if there was no one left, then she would still move to another position, checking the room visually and sonically as she did, then wait in hiding for the all-clear signal or for Kess to tell her to move on.

Deacon stood and listened to the discussion of what was to occur. When orders were given to line up, he made his way over to Claire's side of the door. When Blake shimmied in between them, Deacon's lip curled into a silent snarl.

Then came the order to fire, and with the two others between him and the door, he couldn't get a shot, not to mention that his lower than average eye sight made lining something up nearly impossible. So, with a grunt he got down to all fours and darted through the bulkhead and towards the conveyor system, staying low and pulling his pistol. But then a thought struck him. And he stopped readying his shot and just waited, staring at the terrorists and the kneeling workers. Flashbacks of the Cirrus station incident flooded his mind, forcing him to squeeze his eyes shut and shake his head, trying to get them to go away, he couldn't be slowed now by memories, nightmares, of that incident. He needed to be sharp, to act decisively. Instead, he snapped.

Dropping the 45 to the ground, he reached back to touch the hilt of his sword on his back, jumped up onto the conveyor and began to run along it until he was even with those down on the floor. Then, he looked back to the bulkhead, and waited, his eyes set, hackles raised. The Kohanian was pissed and would be the cleanup if anyone still breathed, or tried to get away, which having Tweak on their side, the oddity that she was, Deacon doubted highly.

Method advanced behind Kokuten and the others as they made their way around the crates, glad that the terrorists didn't seem to be paying much attention to them. She looked down at the .45 in her hand, then back up at the terrorists. Despite her job as Cirrus security personnel, she hadn't yet actually shot at anyone, and she was uncertain about the whole idea.

Well, she reasoned to herself. They're bad people, and they're about to hurt that nice Unique with the cute nose. So I guess it's okay if I get them to stop. She crouched behind one of the crates, having difficulty getting her tall frame fully into cover, but once she'd managed to finagle herself into the right position, she propped her gun up with her robot arm and squeezed off a pair of shots in the general direction of the terrorists.

Serra's explanation gave Cassefin pause for a moment. "... well, I'm not sure what I can do," the Head Administrator casually dismissed Serra in her usual condescending tone as she practically shoved the Elysian out of her way. "I mean, the entire facility is without main power, what makes you believe an elevator would get a special preference." Despite her stated reasons for the plan not working, Cassefin seemed to disregard her own words as she glanced along the conduits.

---

With their combined efforts, the deadly situation took an unexpected turn as gunfire rang out through the assembly room, short screams of surprise from the hostages following swiftly. Nell didn't have much of a chance at her own shots, the lead eco-terrorist falling almost instantly as his hostage fell down to her knees, most likely having fainted from the combined stress. The others seemed to follow suit, having little time to do anything as the .45 caliber weapons pierced through their unarmored flesh. All was not well, however.

Two of the men at the rear of the group were visibly struck by the gunfire, their heads lurching forward in a jerking fashion. However, as they quickly rose back up, the two of them turned in opposing direction, facing each small group from their hiding places. Upon turning around, it became obvious that these two were twins of some sort... and a quick glance at the scaring made from the gunshots present on their heads also revealed that it might not be so simple as a shot to the head to render them incapacitated.

One of the twin terrors began to run towards the storage crates, raising his automatic pistol and firing while sprinting at an unnatural speed towards Kokuten's group using his weapon to cover his advance. Upon reaching a certain distance, the man leaped, jumping atop the storage crates and disappearing from peripheral view.

The other twin followed much of the same pattern, his automatic pistol bursting as he made a mad dash towards the conveyor belt, a look of fierce intent in his intact eye; one of the bullets had pierced his socket, but no blood revealed him to be possibly cybernetically enhanced.

Tweak was about five meters away from her group, toward the far door, when the twins got up and started toward the groups' hiding spots. She noticed the eye and blinked. Of course. Why wouldn't they be cyborgs?

She had heard Deacon move out from cover onto the conveyor after dropping his weapon while she was firing. The Kohanian had been seen carrying one earlier -- so Tweak called over the radio to him, her voice barely keeping from shouting with urgency.

"He's coming your way, take off the head, hands, or legs, don't stab him! I'll be there ASAP!" Taking off the head was a gambit...his neck may be reinforced, it would be stupid for it not to be at this point. Why protect the skull and not the weak point associated with it? The hands likely were also protected (her shots hadn't done anything to their wrists, since they were still working), but a sword might have better luck since joints were weak points by necessity if they wanted to retain flexibility. The legs were a target of desperation, but joints were joints...a sword swipe at the back of the knees would either force the joint to fold or actually damage the motor units if the knees were cybernetic. If they were flesh...then someone would be shorter than he used to be.

Kess hadn't said a word about what to do next, whether to stay or go, so Tweak assumed it was okay to stay. She fired two more shots, pinpointed at the back of the neck of the twin headed toward Kokuten's group, then two shots at the throat of the twin running toward her group until he jumped. Then she jumped too, hopping up onto the conveyor belt to help Deacon when the twin passed by.

As it always did, things went from bad to 'hell in a handcart'.

As soon as the bullets hit, and the twin people didn't fall, Deacon had started his four legged sprint towards them. Luck was on his side as one decided to head for his side of the room, and that meant that he might get a one on one battle.

When Tweak spoke, Deacon nodded, even though he knew she wouldn't have been looking at him, more than likely. He pushed up off the ground to a hunched two legged run, one hand going to the hilt of his sword in an attempt to pull it and slash at the man's stomach in an attempt to eviscerate him, all in one motion. But that wasn't the only part of his plan, as he would continue the motion and ducked his shoulder down to deliver what he hoped would be a devastating shoulder tackle with the Kohanian's full weight.

"Well, and this is just a half asses theory," Serra said, pointing out her train of though it just ramshackle at the moment, "if we can bypass the main energy feed between the elevator and the power systems, we theoretically could move this thing with a strong enough power cell."

"Why does nothing EVER go smoothly?!". Noboru shouted, forgetting to put his fake accent on in front of Nell. His next reaction was knee-jerk at its best.

The expatriate raised his own .45 pistol and took aim at the twin. He scowled and squeezed his other into a squint down the iron sight. The soldier fired three shots, aiming at his knees. "Take out his legs!" Noboru shouted.

Blake stood paralyzed by indecision whilst his comrades fired on the terrorists. When then twins began firing, he did the dumbist thing he could: He dashed for the center of the room and took cover between cargo containers.

When he reached one of the incapacitated terrorists, he commandeeered one of their submachine guns and made for the nearest twin, maintaining as much cover as possible along the way. When he reached his destination, around the corner of a conveyer, he turned the corner and shouted at the top of his lungs whilst unloading the remainder of the submachinegun's clip in his target's direction.

He wasn't sure what exactly he had shouted or how intimidating it had been, but he was sure it was enough to turn the twin in his direction before he hastily sprayed all of the bullets he could and jumped back behind the corner. He silently patted one of the hostages affectionately while he readied his .45 for the impending doom which no-doubt would befall him. He hugged the hostage close with his free arm and kept her on the opposite side of him from where the twin would be approaching.

Blake waited for a few seconds before whispering in her ear, "If he comes for me, you run. You run as fast as you can, alright?"

He had decided: If he couldn't be a body guard for Cassefin, he'd be a body guard for someone, damnit. Government training wasn't going to waste.

Method felt an odd sensation inside as her bullets landed; there would be time for consideration later, though, since she was now being charged by a pair of very angry-looking apparently invincible men. Putting her gun back in its holster, she scrambled on top of the crates she had been taking cover behind, climbing up as high as possible before she simply launched herself at one of the twins from her vantage point, trying to clamp the huge claw of her robotic arm around some sensitive part.

"Well duh," Cassefin chided as she continued to tinker with the exposed conduits. "That's obvious, Evangelle, what I'm saying is that there are no such nodes, because all that's left is emergency power. For the lights, probably for holding the elevator suspended during outage."

While she worked away, faint voices and the sound of footsteps began to chime in from the small crevice of their elevator. Cassefin, he attention fiercely averted onto a cause she herself had proclaimed hopeless, did not seem to notice, however.

---

As one of the twins attempted to vault over the conveyor belt, his submachine pistol blaring, he caught sight of Deacon's approach and turned his fire towards the incoming Kohonian. When the distance between the two began to close, and the cyborg Nepleslian took notice to Deacon's weapon of choice, he narrowed his eyes and used his free hand to pull out a large combat knife strapped to his thigh. In one swift motion, the twin brought the knife up to deflect Deacon's blade, but did not have the necessary balance to completely negate the Kohanian's charge. The man lost his balance, but not before attempted to deliver a hefty blow to the side of Deacon's head using the butt of his submachine pistol.

Meanwhile, as the other single-eyed Nepleslian eco-terrorist leaped atop the series of crates, he was met by two Freespacer women. As he pulled his own combat knife out and brandished it menacing, Method's awkward tackle caught the man off his guard. Her weight caused him to stumble slightly, narrowly avoiding Tweak's shots and he shook harshly to get the Freespacer to dislodge herself from him, or at least free one of his arms long enough to attack the short Cirrus Station Security member with either one of his weapons.

Deacon's blade clanged as it came into contact with the knife, bringing a smile to the Kohanian's face that this would not be over with a single swing. Good, finally he would be able to unleash the skills his race's army excelled at.

What he hadn't been expecting was the butt of the submachine pistol to the head. While his neck was still sore, and the blow did connect to make the pain flare up, the hyena was not about to go down with just one punch. His head jerked to the side, but slowly he turned it back to look at the man and throw a haymaker with his left hand as his right swung back with the blade in a backhanded stroke. With both of the man's hands occupied, Deacon knew it was only a matter of time before he would leave himself wide open to a debilitating, if not fatal, strike.

Tweak sprinted across the conveyor toward the twin's open back, intending to take advantage of Deacon's attack. She tucked her gun away as she ran, her bullets clearly having no effect on either twin. A notice and targeting brackets outlined the second twin across the room, being hassled by Method, causing Tweak to reconsider the situation mid-stride (in a literal sense, her thoughts flew by in the seconds between foot-falls while running).

Bullets, ineffective. That meant that everyone not equipped for melee was out of luck. Unless those machine pistols were more effective, but those were currently in the hands of the enemy.

Grappling might work, and only Deacon seemed to be having any success, such as it was, at hand-to-hand. Stovaa would also have the mass to hold a twin down, but he didn't seem to be going for it at the moment. And, while that was all fine and good, it was likely going to take a dog-pile to bring the twins down and dismantling them to stop their attack.

So, how to do this? Step one: Remove the weapons from action so everyone can get in close safely.

Time returned to its normal flow for the neko as she closed in on Deacon's opponent. Her footsteps were inaudible, especially with the sounds of combat covering her approach; she radioed Deacon before she hit.

"I've got his gun; take out the knife!"

Tweak slipped under the twin's gun-wielding arm, grabbing his machine pistol with both hands. She slid one finger in front of the hammer and in half a second had removed the slide and barrel. She then knocked his arm up, spun back under it, and placed her back to the twin's back, staying in his shadow until she or Deacon got another opening.

Method clung like a tall, gangly limpet to the back of the twin she had leapt upon; at first, she had trouble staying on, but after a few moments of thrashing she managed to wrap her legs around his neck and chest, using them to stay attached. She reached for his knife-wielding hand with her robotic one, her pincer clanging loudly as she tried to either 'disable' his hand or tear the weapon out of his grip.

His target down, Stovaa scanned the room with his pistol raised, noting any of the terrorists that hadn't fallen. The only two that were still up did a good job of being bulletproof, so the Id-Sol holstered the gun, picked up a nearby crate and threw it towards the cyborg Method was tangling with, leaping after it himself, eager to join the fray.

Never simple... Kokuten said, as he watched the situation spiral out of control. The odds were still in their favor, though, they had numbers, despite the twin's superior artificial physique. Kokuten holstered his pistol and hustled over to the twin that Method and Stovaa had been tangling with. Seeing as how he had been occupied with Method's tackle already, Kokuten took the opportunity to get as close as he could to land a decisive punch. His right arm had actuators within them that could generate up to half a ton of force when need be, and he was about to take advantage of that.

The Doctor slipped to the Twin's front, revving his arm back, and throwing up to a thousand pounds of force with his fist into the eco-terrorist's chest.