RP: ISC Phoenix [Interlude 5] - The Making Of

One of those little things Origin does to keep their products good. One of those tiny things. Those point defense lasers come in handy for situations such as these. The systems kicked in, if a little late, and caught the rocket before it managed to blow a hole in that custom LEAF.

The problem here was not whether the laser caught the missile. The problem was how FAR the missile was before it was destroyed. Unfortunately for the inventor, it was close enough to blast him backwards and through a table, scattering cards like the infamous 520 pickup. His shields had prevented the most serious damage, thankfully. Still, the inventor was back on the ground and stunned. Again.

"Why does this keep happening to me?" He groaned, groping around for something to assist in getting the machine back up on its feet.

Zeta stood there and fired. Volley after volley she was drainin her energy-pack good. Gamma ray sure did it job, but it proved to be rather weak against the PAs. Not to mention it also started over-heating. Zeta planed to move againg as she got hit hard by enemy fire. Her shields sparkled and dissappeard.

"Bloody wankers!" She shotued and discarder her vulcan, letting it fall on ground while she moved forward. She hit her boosters full time and charged against the armours stanind one next to each other. "CANNONBALL!" Zeta shotued as she flew full speed into them shoulder first.

______

Beta meanwhiel ran into the room and took cover behind neares pillar. He looked out to scout the area, but did nto see anythign for him to shoot.

"Well Mistah Pavone, I have to say there was bussiness going on by the water. Some ship heading towards artificial island. This party will get crowded soon!" He shouted at Luca and took out his communicator.

"Vinny! Gather the men and surround the Casino while me and my sisters buddies mop up inside. No one gets in or out got it? Except for us of course!" He gave orders to his men.

He poked out again to look what he could do to the PAs, but before anything happened PA-clad person flew in full speed into the Demons.

"Hey Mr. Pavone, let my guess? That would be my little sister in that armour right?" He joked as she jumped from cover and moved forward, expecting more reinforcement to the Demons soon.

While the more combative members of the crew handled the Powered Armors out front, Enzo slipped from cover to cover and into a more secluded part of the casino. He plunged through the corridors and into an office on the other side of the fight from the crew. They'd catch up to him, he considered.

The filthy grifter drew his newly-snubbed revolver and poked into the first office he came across, making for the wall whenever the noise of battle pitched high enough to indicate approaching enemies. He thought of his airbike parked outside for a moment before waving it off and shucking the desk drawers, in search of valuables. He payed no heed to the two armors at the end of the hall, backing towards the office door. They'd be more concerned with other things. He didn't even notice the potted plant slide past the door in the claws of the tiny robotic bodyguard.

He did notice, however, just at an angle outside of the door; the keypad to the Boardroom. It called out to him. Keypads, he knew, were meant to protect valuable things. A wicked grin crossed his scarred face and soon Enzo found himself prying the keypad off the wall, with the empty desk-drawer under one arm. The contents of the drawer formed a trail from the office doorway to his position, where he stood busily plucking at the circuit-board which kept him from the potential gain inside.

Robert grinned as he saw Zeta rush into melee with the armors. He slung his Fatboy and charged in behind her with a slash from his close combat claws. His now empty right hand swung out to punch at the closest Demon suit.

A lone figure slowly strode in after the mech, rifle pointed up in the air with one hand while the other pushed the hat's rim up a little for a better look. Smith carefully walked across the rubble to avoid the fighting and stray rounds - they practically had this covered by now, so there wasn't too much 'she' needed doing. Regardless, the OriRep let out a sigh. "This really rings some old bells." Smith's old voice spoke, suddenly coming forth again.

This too made Smith wonder as 'she' took a seat in front of one of the many slot machines within this hive of scum and villainy...actually, even that mental phrase gave off a distinct deja vu and the subtle feeling of an impending lawsuit. Regardless, back to the main topic - why did Luca have a white pill on him, and especially one given to him from Aerin? And why was it a 'delayed release' pill as well? It didn't matter, and now that Smith thought about it, it was likely better left unthought of.

As Smith put in a coin and pulled down the lever of the slot machine, a stray 35mm round whizzed by and knocked off 'her' hat. A hand lanced out, grabbed it and put it back into place. "Do you guys need any help, or you all got these Demons covered?" the OriRep asked over comms.

Naoko went airborne again, vaulting from her position on her toes on the balcony to a new position on the...

Ceiling.

Naoko touched the ceiling with her hand, first, then rolled onto it as if she'd hit the ground instead - suddenly she was standing, perfectly upright, on the barred glass. Then, she was walking perfectly normally onto a concrete portion, manuvering around a complicated chain gaol rung. Her hair hung towards the ceiling instead of the ground, her skirt didn't drop. She was completely defying normal gravity.

The guns were still out. Caw, caw, caw.

Her wrists were purple, but her aim was true enough.

Uriel had come upon a dilemma: he could drop through the hole in the ceiling and attempt to elude the vision of his heavily armored foes, or he could sit here and do nothing. Neither was terribly appealing, but over the course of... oh, five seconds, his bloodlust got the better of him and plunged through the gap.

Once clear of the ruggedly hewn skyline the Archangel's wings unfurled. The strain elicited a grunt and the thought, That's probably going to hurt in the morning. Regardless of pain, he beat the air vigorously, aiming to fly well above and beyond the power armors. If he could bypass them, his quest would simplify exponentially.

"...they're trying to outflank you - from the ceiling. I can see her up there! Fire! There's another one coming! Shoot him! There's another charging towards you in an Origin Armour!"

The lone Ernie could see a man watching the monitors furiously whilst radioing commands, presumably to the two remaining Demon Armours. His desk had a broken mug of what used to be espresso coffee (yes, a MUG of it), and his earpiece was receiving an aural beating. He was Harvey, he abused the Ernies frequently, and he didn't hear the lone Ernie peek its head in.

The Demons were a step ahead of the competition now that the element of surprise had died down, they were able to defend themselves properly. The Demon that Zeta and Robert had opted to shoulder tackle and had raised its rifle upwards to act as an interposing object, and he braced for the impact of the Origin armour. He was able to keep them in a deadlock, and made a left hook at Zeta's head with its strength-assisted arms.

His friend was busy focussing on the Elysian arrival and the Ceiling Cat. Instead of aiming directly at them, he was keeping them pinned down with sprays of suppressing fire, and attempting to ground the Elysian into a position more advantageous for the combat. He had taken a few hits, but he was still determined to keep fighting.

The documents that Enzo recovered were interesting reading, in particular were photos of an artificial island, wherein a large, monumental statue to the spirit of Nepleslian-ness was being built, and key weaknesses of the structure had been highlighted and noted with: "BOMB".

However, another document, printed earlier that morning had a picture of the ISC Phoenix logo on it with a red cross over it. There was a detailed plan to pin the destruction of the statue on the ISC Phoenix crew.

-

"So you're saying that they're running away?" Luca inquired, not knowing what the island's purpose was, "Doesn't that strike you as odd? It'd make sense for a SINGLE boat to head there with the leaders, but not a few."

He then put two and two together and bit his tongue, slapping himself on the head as he realised just what'd happened, "Team, I think we've been diverted from something. Something big, and something we don't know about. We have to end this now!"

He looked out to see the two demons, and Zeta and Robert entangled with one of them in a melee. "Zeta, Rob, disengage! I can't get a clear shot!" He was aiming his grenade launcher, and lowered it to stash it away in favour of his HHG, removing the RED rounds and reloading with WHITE.

He flicked the cylinder back into place and started firing at the Demon that was keeping Uriel and Naoko tied up, making holes in the armour with the rifle grade bullets. It still wasn't belittling the armour, but giving him some distraction, as he pointed his rifle at Luca, prompting him to duck back into cover as the 35mm rounds tore up his cover, prompting him to keep crouched down and moving. What little cover remained was starting to look flimsy.

"Luca," It was Echelon's voice, "I am sensing a counter attack. The Ernie is completely autonomous now, but-" Her voice faded into static, "-cannot- *** - fuck you - *** - Never underest-! ***"
"Ech?" Luca asked as the 35mm death flew over his head, "ECH?"

Uriel gritted his teeth and continued flying forward. He was grateful, then, not to have his wings shot up like last time he took to the skies, and landed somewhat safely behind the enemy's power armors. No time to linger if he wanted to remain in one piece, however, so the Elysian darted down the hallway before him. His keen eyes sought any signs of interest while his hands gripped tools of war fiercely, prepared to engage foes on sight.

Robert heard the command to disengage. He glanced over his shoulder and rolled to the side and changed direction to the other armor firing at Naoko and Uriel. He shouldered the armor and followed up with a slash of claws.

The little Ernie quietly entered the room, leaving the door open behind it, slowly it advanced towards the security operator. A miniature sword, short even for something the size of Ernie flicked out from under its forearm and the handle swung into Ernies hand.

Ernies outside network connection began to weaken, and eventually cut out, leaving Ernies brain as its own. Menacingly the robot sneaked up to the man, but not quietly enough.

Harvey spun to face the little robot “Oh! It's just one of those stupid mac-hey! What are you doing with that kn-”

He didn't get to say the rest, although the Demon pilots heard a sufficient amount of screaming to guess at Harveys fate.

With that business taken care of the Ernie commandeered the security station for its own purposes, the camera panned and Ernie recognised Luca Pavones face on the screen. Primary buddy acquired.

Now Ernie just needed to deal with the two Demons between Ernie and primary buddy Luca Pavone.

Enzo's discovery brought him some sense of fear, then exhilaration. He knew that these findings would bring him some sort of value to Luca, but also take some large value from Luca's bank-account.

"Well, shit." He said, stuffing papers into his pockets. His free hand reached for his NSP. His thumb switched the selector to "Heavy" and his arm canted towards the pair of demons still backing out of the main room. Enzo didn't bother calling out to them a snappy one-liner. Instead, he took a very business-like approach to the matter. They had to be quick. He had to tell Luca about the papers.

Ten heavy discharges, as fast as they could come, erupted from the barrel of the NSP. Brilliant light jumped down the hall and swept straight for the pair of Demons while Enzo prepared himself to duck back into the side-office.

Seiren was really regretting not bringing the rifle he bought when they were at Dawn Station. The Mancannon in the arm was a nice touch, but it was kinda crap when trying to aim at range. Not to mention he hadn't exactly calibrated jack when he was building it. Those Demons were getting really obnoxious at this point, and the inventor in the suit wanted a little payback. And what luck he had to find an Electrolaser Rifle next to a downed Demon. He grabbed the rifle and checked the battery - enough energy for five minutes of fire, it seemed. On low.

"Low is lame! I'm turning this up!" Seiren declared to nobody in particular, turning the knob on the side to High power. The battery bar immediately switched to reflect this change, reading 31 seconds of fire left. "Note to self: Build a charging port," He told himself, heading next to a pillar and taking aim at the Demon in charge of keeping Naoko and the winged guy from doing anything.

"One shot. . ." He mumbled, pulling the trigger.

Coins upon coins scattered and fell to the floor as the slot machine's lights lit up brightly while it chattered away, it's sound lost in the thunder and fury. A stainless steel magazine smoothly slid out of a massive handgun and traded places with another of it's kind before the 17mm was brought to bear. Smith knew that Zeta and Robert had things handled. They were harder skinned after all. Uriel and Naoko however, weren't technically as hardy.

But it was still to them that the weapon was raised, and towards their enemy that the antimatter gyrojet blasted off to when both were forced into cover at once.

If either decided to pop out of cover at the moment of impact, that would be their problem.

It wasn't like temporarily blindness or a bad sunburn was permanent.

It was difficult to describe the violence as it all came tumbling out and folding upon itself before the crew. Enzo's ten heavy grenade shots from his NSP, Seiren's Electrolaser and Smith's 17mm Anti-Matter gyrojet rocket pulverised the Demons. As fortune would have it, the concussion from the force of the grenades was able to push Zeta backwards and into a safer position before Smith's rocket finished the Demons off.

Uriel and Naoko would find themselves with a bad bout of sunburn (Naoko possibly less so) and their eyes temporarily blinded by the flash of light from the Anti-matter.

Needless to say, the crew was showered with bits of viscera and metal, prompting Luca to cringe at the extent of the damage, "Damn. They aren't going to fit in a lunch box!" He couldn't help but remark as he looked up the stairs and found Enzo in the hallway and smiled, "You cheeky bugger. Excellent wor-" He then noticed the documents in his hands, "What're those?"

He moved over and picked up one of the documents on the ground and examined it. Enzo could see him blinking incredulously, his fingers shaking a little, and his face turning red before he tore the paper in half, "They gave us the slip - I'm going to hunt them down and make them regret pissing us off."
If the plan to go ahead and destroy the Statue went through, the damage to the Phoenix, as a name to trust, would instantly vanish, and they would become nothing more than petty criminals - bought down to the level of the very deviants they were fighting.

Luca had a brand name to maintain - and judging by the almost palpable rage in his facial features, Enzo was certain that he'd exact revenge.
"Guys, change of objectives: They're going to destroy a statue on this island out in the bay, and they've got enough evidence to make it look like we did it," Luca radioed as he studied a map containing the island and outlining what was around it, aside from the target statue, "The island is about thirty kilometres away from where we are, and there are anti-shuttle munitions on ships around it - belonging to a small army of crooked cops. We also have less than an hour to get there before the bombs go off 'as planned'." His tone was bitter upon hearing the word 'Planning' - it was always a cold word to Luca, which entailed that someone was going to take a hit.

"How are we going to get to that island before the worst happens - without getting us shot down either?" Something short of divine intervention would do, but that wasn't something the Captain could pull out of his backside on a moment's notice. He was good, but not great when it came to matters of making the impossible happen.

All Luca needed was a stroke of luck in his favour, or he and the crew had to pull a seriously good plan out of his backside and have it executed without a hitch. The whole situation was wrapped up tighter than a Ketsurui Samurai's ponytail, and as dangerous as being a defenceless inmate in an NMX Prison Camp.

Of course, when did odds like that ever stop the crew of the ISC Phoenix? They didn't - they just made victory so much sweeter, and the tall tale to be told so much juicier.

-

Uriel could hear a voice in his earpiece. It wasn't from anyone in the crew, but it was familiar: "Wonderful work there sunshine. I can get a new casino in a month. A new statue for me would also take a year - no biggie. Your captain's reputation? Gone. Zip. Nada. Zilch. Back to Zero."

Now where had he heard that voice before, so meek, so defeated? The answer was anyone's guess, but he knew exactly who. When the truth dawned, he would be vengeance personified.

Zeta got up after she was send back. Enzo's fire was effective as hell and she did not have to fire herself. Bodyguard quickly looked around but could not see any more targets. She ran back and picked up her gatling before returning back to Luca. She listened to the situation and scowled.

"First of all I have all the recording that we were nowhere near the statue, but that is not the point since I bet we will be there soon. But tell me boss, don't we have crooked cop of our own, who owes us a service after we let him live? Beau could help us." She said.

Beta walked up to the captain too. He was quite unhappy that this all ended so soon, not to mention that he and his men got dragged into stupid situation. Zeta was family, but it was not only family Beta now had. He leaned his SMG on his shoulder and lit a long cigar.

"Well Captain, seem you are knee high in shit. I can help you, but I cannot have me and my men linked to the shistorm if you mess up. I hope you understand. We cannot takeh it like that, first my boss would kill me, second Zeroes would run things here withou competetion and trust me.... no one would like that." He said.

Robert came and stood on the other side of Luca. "Well, Boss. I think we need to get a move on if we're gunna get there in time." He sheathed his combat blades and held his Fatboy with one hand.

For some reason, a very loud noise would soon be heard, probably coming from the outside. It would be somewhat familiar, sounding very much like their own Crimson Kestrel, except much, much louder. Soon, through the holes in the ceiling, something could be seen blotting out the sinking sun for a moment before it began to hover above the casino in all its dark green, boxy, gun-covered glory- Origin's SS Raider.

If they bothered to look, standing on the tip of the nose was a small figure in a Jet-black power armor, the model of which looked like a sleeker, sexier version of the familiar Impulse- which is exactly what it was. The tiny Power Armor suddenly dropped from the nose of the ship, falling like a lead brick to poke yet another hole in the ceiling of the Casino, a cloud of dust and debris enveloping its landing site. Nonchalantly, the Black armor walked its way out of the dust cloud, and removed its helmet- it was none other than the CEO of Origin Industries- Aerin Tatst.

She strolled over to Luca, and held out her rightmost gauntlet. "Something tells me you guys might need a hand- and a Lift."

The first words out of Luca's mouth upon seeing what was tantamount to divine intervention were: "Holy shit. I think our prayers have been answered!"

Uriel stumbled in the wake of the antimatter explosion. Even after it was all said and done, he still cringed. The pain was surprising more than truly painful and elicited from the Elysian an audible groan. He blinked several times, trying to work the imprints off his corneas.

It wasn't long after Uriel recovered that he received a voice that sent mental klaxons blaring, and his memory racing. Who could it... For one full second, Uriel was a statue: his mind had ceased thought, his body ceased movement, and he could have sworn his nerves ceased firing in that brief moment. It was as if this suicidal fool opening his dumb Godforsaken mouth opened the floodgates, unleashing a torrent of emotions that drowned the rationality in Uriel's brain.

Just when he thought he might simply go berserk and shoot the whole place down (which would have been a feat, considering the amount of munitions on his person), his mind sorted out the impulses, rationalized them, and formulated a plan. It was vague and it was rash, but it was a plan.

Uriel strode with a lengthy, purposeful, powerful gait. When he stopped before Captain Pavone, it appeared as though he almost didn't have the strength to rein in the forces pushing him forward. "Sir." It was loud, forceful, demanding of attention. As soon as Luca glanced his way, the Patrician continued. "I know the face of the man behind this, and he is mine. The fool dares taunt me with his petty victories, and God with his idolatrous, hateful deceit. I am about to crush this city's evil beneath my boot, blow them all to Hell, and deliver a message to the worms hiding in the filth beneath my tread: that man's head I will take and parade about the city until all know his name and that such Evil will not persist in my presence."

Luca had heard Uriel angry before. He had even heard vengeful. This tone of voice, so dark, and possessed with singular purpose, was well beyond either of those. It would be safe to venture it was impossible to push him any further; it would also be safe to venture that the next 24 hours would be the worst of times to irritate the Patrician.

His next words were to Aerin and delivered passively, as if he didn't care to recognize her existence beyond basic formalities. "I imagine you came prepared... as always." His wings unfurled and thrust, carrying up toward the waiting ship whereupon Uriel imagined he would find a Power Armor that fit just right.

Fear.

That was what was felt by the 'woman' in the singed business suit. The slow release pill of white kaserine was slowly starting to kick in, its effects already obvious just by going off the voice, but overall, most of the changers were just too slow in coming! The fact that this person's boss had just dropped in out of the heavens on a custom built warship descending through the atmosphere didn't help either. What would Aerin think if she saw 'her' like this? 'She' hid by standing off to the side and cranking up the glass's tint, trying to be as nondescript as possible.

Oh. Right. There was also the possibility that the Phoenix crew was going to be framed for destroying a national landmark of Nepleslia as well. That was bad, considering he was working for Mr. Pavone now.

It all felt like some sort of action movie.

But if that were the case, what character role did Smith fall into?

'She' pondered this.