RP: 4th Fleet (NSN) [Mission 1.2] Wazu’s Seven

@ Avel, Matteo, (And Laura)

The remaining good that was still standing was hit in the chest by Matteo’s first round, causing him to crumple forward slightly as his clothing absorbed the impact. The follow up shots ended up cutting right through his neck and head, sending him falling to the ground.

“Help me get Avel to the lift.” Wazu said, banking on the lift now being empty of people who wanted to shoot at them. He wasted no time in trying to help carry the marine, putting an arm under her shoulders from her left side before making his way towards the lift. He made sure to pick up the gun she ended up dropping when she passed out, holding it in his left hand.

He would then turn back to the smart phone they had taken from the blacks,

“Laura, Avel has taken damage and will need repairs.” Drei would ensure that Laura got the message.

Finally, he turned to Avel.

“Wake up,” Wazu said sternly, “I can not have you slowing us down.”

There was a lot of stuff still in the way of the lift, and two barely alive bodies were keeping the doors open. Once Avel was placed safely against a side wall of the lift, Wazu would begin moving the bodies so the doors could close.



@ Cedric

The guard Cedric was after had ducked behind the table to keep himself safe from the debris caused by a large portion of wall being blown away by high explosives. By the time he stood up, Cedric was already ontop of him, catching him from behind as he tackled him to the ground. The impact of his face slamming against the carpeted floor of the casino was enough to daze him, leaving him open for Cedric to deliver a follow up attack.

This was certainly enough to alarm the remaining office workers who were no longer willing to stay hiding in their cubicles. Instead, the sound of the explosion caused them to start running out of the administration building, through the Casino, and out the front doors. The office drones in suits and colored ties started to blend in with the guards who wore the black and white suited uniform.



@ Phaedra

Her first round would end up hitting the vehicle’s windshield and sending an exposition through the crew compartment, the blast picking up the man standing in the turret, sending him flying out into the street. Her second shot would cut through another SUV in the same way, splattering the interior with smoke and blood.

The guards at the entrance had a similarly hard time dealing with the sniper. They were busy trying to handle the civvies being taken away to be detained, and the fresh guards coming to help, when the first of their number’s heads exploded in a puff of blood. They would quickly try and hide behind the outer walls of the casino.

“STOP BEING BAD YOU FUCKING SCRUBS!” one of the suited thugs yelled, “Someone get back on that gun!... and you, put some fire on the top of the tower. They are shooting at us from up there SO PAY ATTENTION!”

As guards continued to arrive, one ran back to the SUV that had been hit first, climbing up into the turret and arming the gun, turning it towards the tower and sending a stream of hot led up towards Phaedra. Most of the rounds missed entirely, but a trail of tracer rounds were working their way up the side of the building, sending glass shards raining down.

Other guards would join in as well, firing various rifles and pistols up towards the tower in a somewhat random fashion.

Cedric hit the man . . . relatively prepared.

He had assumed the very worst when he had moved from behind his cover: thinking that the explosion wouldn't even phase the guard, thus causing Cedric to end up with a belly full of lead. He hadn't in fact, expected that he would reach the guard alive, and that even if he did that it would be to no avail because (despite his size) the guard was better armed, unwounded, and would be prepared as well as he could be for the attack. Instead he was caught totally off-guard as Cedric barrelled in to him, full-speed.

Both men fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

Cedric was barely able to stop himself from slamming his face in to the floor in a similar fashion to that of the guard. Pushing himself up with one hand, Cedric raised the knife, and drove it viciously in to the side of the guard's neck. Pulling it out, he drove it in a second time, twisted it around for good measure, and was finally satisfied that the guard was dead. Getting off of him, Cedric rolled the man on to his back. He wasted no time in retrieving the man's side-arm before turning to Laura; looking over his shoulder.

"Take this." He said simply, sliding the knife across the floor, turning his attention back to the guard, "Now what does he have that we could use?"

He proceeded to quickly pilfer the man's pockets of their contents.

Avel groaned as she regained consciousness and instinctively reached for the side of her face which felt like it had been lit on fire only to be rewarded with even more pain from her broken hand.

She opened her eyes to see that she was drenched in her own blood at this point. She then noticed the other marine and Wazu were with her in the elivator.

"Wat's...Going..On?" Was all she managed to say with her broke jaw.

@ Avel and Matteo

“You are damaged, and we are not yet out of the area.” Wazu explained. Once Matteo was in the lift, and the doors were cleared, he pressed the button for the ground floor then returned to try and mitigate the damage done to Avel. He took off one of his gloves and pressed it against Avel’s face to try and stop the bleeding.

“You need to remain awake for the time being. Once we are clear of the area Laura can fix you up.”

It wouldn’t take too long for the lift to reach the ground floor where harm was waiting.

“I see you fucked up again,” Harm said,

“Not my fault this time,” Wazu replied, getting down to try and lift Avel up once again.

Harm was about to assist, when a claw grabbed her neck from behind, digging into her flesh and causing blood to rapidly leak out. “Got you!” Fhion shouted proudly as Harm’s worked came out gurgled, as blood pooled up in her throat. At this point Fhion only had her left arm, her right arm, shoulder, and a portion of her torso had been entirely amputated thanks to Phaedra.

Harm would quickly respond by igniting the CRT organs in her shoulders, sending a burst of flame and smoke that sent both nekos flying upwards into the ceiling. Fhion would then phase out again, passing through the ceiling to the second floor while letting Harm smash herself into the ceiling and fall back towards the ground.


“Matteo,” Wazu said, “Help out Harm, while I get Avel out.” He then began to take Avel towards the Casino.

@ Cedric

This guard was armed similarly to the others, with a .45 pistol and a spare magazine of ammunition in his coat pocket. He also had a wallet complete with a picture of wife and kids, some money, and an ID for the casino. By the time Cedric had gotten to check the man’s other pockets for keys and a pocket knife one of the other guards by the door was taking aim, exposing himself to Phaedra for a moment so he could fire a few shots at Medium range towards Cedric. Luckily, the bullets would end up bouncing off a poker table in front of him, spraying him with wooden splinters instead of with lead.

For the most part, the guards at the doors, and others hiding under nearby tables, were too focused on the sniper to realize what Cedric was up to.

Phaedra heard the heavy weapon firing again, this time in her direction. She heard glass shatter as the stream of projectiles made their way up the tower, and small arms fire zipped by her head.

In her peripheral vision Phaedra saw one guard pop up out of cover to take shots at Cedric, and she promptly aimed at his exposed head and pulled the trigger.

It was then that the fire from the guards and the heavy weapon reached the top of the tower, and Phaedra flung herself to one side to avoid the storm of bullets. Holding her DSR tightly, Phaedra relocated to the left side of the roof, using the cover provided by the boxy machinery. She quickly poked her head around the corner to locate SUV with the heavy weapon before ducking back behind cover.

Working the bolt to cycle a new round into the chamber, Phaedra brought the DSR to rest firmly against her right shoulder. Exhaling a deep breath, she pivoted around the corner of the air vent and quickly aimed for the gunner on the back of the SUV. Taking a precious second to zoom in on her target, Phaedra aimed at the guard's upper torso and then pulled the trigger.

After firing, Phaedra ducked back around behind the air vent, dropped the spent magazine from the rifle and then slammed a fresh one home.

Laura acknowledged the message from Drei. She had no weapon nor any medical supplies. It would have been impossible to hide them in her dress or the dinky purses carried by women in high society.

"If anyone's got medical stuff, let me know." This was stupid... she should have been left with Phaedra with her full kit. As it was, Laura was just a body.

Avel struggled to remain both conscious and focused. The massive amounts of lost blood was making it difficult to think clearly but she was certain that she had just witnessed Harm be taken down by an assailiant who could walk through walls.

She was also aware of the multitude of vans that were parked outside past the glass windows. Wasn't Phaedra out there to take care of these people? If she was shooting at them then why didn't she just aim for...

"Tell Phadera... To shoot...The fuel... Tanks..... Also... Need a gun." She managed to force out.

At this point, Matteo went silent as old yet smooth instincts took over.

As the last fell like a ninepin, Matteo made sure the area was secure, the last few rounds in the magazine keeping him company as he scrounged for additional ammunition. He quickly tore into one of the dead as his mind went through methodical routines, taking off his suit and belt before tossing it over his shoulder, next, shouldering Avel from her right and bringing the wounded Marine into the lift. Even though his heart was pounding away, ss soon as the doors closed, Matteo wordlessly removed the outer layer of his uniform and donned the bulletproofed suit jacket before putting the uniform back on over it. Next, making sure to tuck the excess of the black suit into his pants. And then the belt. He hated the fact that they made him remove his belt. They were going to pay for that.

When Avel started to murmur though, he ignored, a little irritated at her, what the delirious woman had to say as he checked the few magazines he scrounged up, as well as the condition of his handgun. 'Good to go.' He stood in front of the Admiral, protecting the man with his now lightly armored body, gun aimed and ready to shoot anything on the other side of the elevator doors. His body tensed as he got ready to fire; they doors opened, and Matteo flicked the barrel away from Harm. She was chipper as ever. Things were looking up, now that the groups were linking up!

And then Matteo's vision turned red as the Neko's hemosynthetic fluid splashed on his face as Fhion gleefully cheered. He broke his silence. "Shit!" The .45 pointed up again immediately, but he couldn't fire! Harm was in the way! Matteo raised an arm up to shield himself from her rocket exhaust and dust as the Neko blasted off in a desperate attempt to shake her attacker, brutally slamming into the ceiling in the process. The Marine was already striding forward, weapon drawn and alert for any more ghost attacks.

Uso said:

“Matteo,” Wazu said, “Help out Harm, while I get Avel out.” He then began to take Avel towards the Casino.

Click to expand...

"Yeah, surething." He replied. Matteo quickly moved to Harm's side; the wound was bad, but she was from the NH series. If this killed her, it would have been a disgrace to her kind! Still, he decided it was best to play it safe, and quickly tore off a long strip of cloth from his uniform, semi-loosely wrapping it around her neck before grasping one of Harm's hands and pushing it down into the wound. "The cloth's there so it coagulates better. Keep the pressure here, or bleed out and die; I can't carry you and make sure you don't bleed to death at the same time, ok?"

Matteo glanced at Wazu. "Sir, if you can, grab one of their suit jackets! They're rated against handguns at the least."

He quickly but gently lifted the Neko up and placed her over his back in a double shoulder carry; a Corpsman's Lift. His left arm looped around one of her legs while her chest and belly pressed against his upper back, neck and shoulders, leaving his right hand and gun free to aim and fire. If the two of them were just screwing around in some other circumstance, he likely would have enjoyed the sensations. However, he wasn't screwing around, people have been shot, and said owner of fine rack was bleeding.

Matteo was not pleased.

"Out through where sir?" He asked Wazu, dashing from cover to cover as they moved to the Casino. "Front's blocked off and even if the cars blow up to hell from Avel's suggestion, I'd rather not risk going out through the front. She's got overwatch because of the wide open space, but so does everyone else. Plus, the emergency exits are probably under an eye as well. We're stuck here if Phaedra can't keep a side street or back alley clear. Not that she can't, but I don't like taking chances when it comes to you. Unless you have a third option sir?"

@ Phaedra

Phaedra’s bullet dropped enough to slam into the goon’s chest, sending him sprawling into the ground before he could take out Cedric. A similar thing happened with the round fired towards the guard in the SUV. The round would drop in flight, and deflect off the roof of the SUV, slamming into the man’s shoulder. He would duck down into the SUV, injured and not looking to take another round.

By this point the goons on the ground had mostly dialed in her position, and were able to lob small arms fire up onto the roof from their position on the ground.

“YOU FUCKING SCRUBS!” One of the goons shouted, obviously distressed at the quality of the soldiers hired by the syndicate. “STOP BEING SO BAD AT YOUR JOBS!” With that he would move behind the empty halftrack that the Nepleslians had brought with them and whip out his cell phone.

“Yeah… we’re going to need the heavy shit for this one…”

Two more SUVs had slowed to a stop out in front of the building, suited thugs lifting their heads up just enough so that they could use the miniguns mounted ontop of the vehicles. The goons dismounting would head to the trunks of the vehicle, distributing full coverage black helmets, body armor, and heavy rifles.

“Phaedra,” Drei would say over the communications system, “A pair of heavy trucks are converging on the casino now. A pair of helicopters are approaching as well.”

@ Sigma

“There is a medical kit in the halftrack,” Drei explained, “But in the mean time you will need to make due with local resources.”

@ C-Man and Matteo

“Much better, now stay awake. Are you clear headed enough to use a gun?” Wazu asked, trying to keep giving Avel something to think about so she’d have to stay awake to answer. He would then turn to Matteo, “Cedric blew a hole in the walls of the casino. We will have to use that. I do not have limitless vehicles for which to smash entrances into places. We can have Drei remote drive the halftrack over to us once we are on the outside.

We also still have a ship in orbit, but that kind of firepower is enough to level the city. Right now I do not have a good option for getting out of here, though we can use Harm to lay a smoke screen for a retreat. If you have a better idea I am all for it.”

Wazu did not have a lot of time to kit out with the black gear. He managed to put one of their coats over Avel and himself, but that was the extent of his looting. It did not take long for the group to reach the doors that led into the Casino from the administration building either. The slot machines would provide some cover, but the dance floor and its power armored DJ was a flat, open, space that provided no cover between where they were and the exit hole Cedric had detonated.

Harm wasn’t doing much better than Avel, holding onto Matteo with one hand and onto her neck with the other. Her words were simply coming out as gurgles, the blood in her throat making speech impossible as her body rapidly worked to heal itself. Her body would end up squirming around as he carried her, trying to pull away at times, and others trying to just get his attention, waving her hands and finally just forcibly turning them around once they were at the door.

Fhion then fell back through the ceiling and unphased, crashing down into the floor unharmed and then sprinting towards the injured group of marines.

When Avel turned around and saw the NH bioweapon charging at them she did the only thing she could think of that would possibly prevent or at least stall their violent deaths. It probably wouldn't work but what else could they do?

Mustering the last of her strength and forcing herself to stand on her own two legs, she grabbed the coat that was on the two of them and threw it over her shoulders at the neko where it unfolded and obscured her vision as it flew towards her.

Then in the span of a second she reached for the pistol Matteo was carrying, remembering that she had used all of her ammunition, grabbed it and pointed it at the area of the charging neko. She could still see her feet so she raised her gun upwards to where her head should be and fired two shots.

"Sounds good sir." Matteo quickly replied. With Harm placed horizontally across both his shoulders in a fireman's carry, he could move fairly quickly, and took point, handgun ready. The myrad of flashing lights and cacophony of sound from the casino and its horde of slot machines never ceased as the wounded marines moved towards the hole Wazu had pointed out. It all made spotting and hearing hostiles more difficult, and the dance floor; it was a typical pace to set an ambush. They had no choice though, they had to - "Hey! Take it easy Harm!" the marine sounded in surprise. Even down, she was a handful. "Stop trying to speak. Just point or something instead; I'd rather not carry around a corpse you know." he spoke calmly. The Neko managed to get him to turn around instead.

'Shit' thought Matteo, one hand clinging to Harm's leg, the other firmly grasping his pistol, quickly turned and sighted in on Fhion when a bulletproof jacket was thrown up into the air. 'The hell?!' No time. Matteo aimed low and squeezed off shots in hopes of clipping the other bioweapon's legs - the slide was suddenly locked back by a prying hand, preventing the pistol from cycling.

"Dammit Avel!" He didn't know what the hell she was thinking or imagining with a bullet to the face and one hell of a concussion, but his grip was too firm for her to take it; Matteo wrenched it away from the wounded marine's weak grasp easily before she could do anything more. Free again, the slide leaped forward.

It was less than a pair of heartbeats, and as Matteo turned to face back at the threat, weapon in hand, he wondered if that was all it took to end him.

'Is this fear?'

Fhion grabbed the jacket out of the air, tossing it aside as she charged forward. The move blinded her long enough for his first shot to impact Fhion’s leg. He could see exposed bone and blood, but this only seemed to slightly slow her down. With the jacket out of the way, she would simply phase out, letting the other bullets harmlessly pass through her body before phasing back in. Her one working claw reached out, going right for Matteo’s neck as Avel fumbled for the gun. Her claw rapidly closing the distance as the weapon was brought back up to her face, her claw phasing through his neck just as his bullet phased through her face.

In moments her claws would be back at his chest, tearing down into his jacket as Wazu aimed his pistol towards her and took a shot, once again the bullet would phase through her body harmlessly. She’d phase in again for a fraction of a second before Wazu would fire another bullet.

“We need to go now. Pheadra, you better be ready.” Wazu would say over the smart phone as he backed into the casino, trying to pull Avel back with him as he fired off another shot. He couldn’t hurt Fhion with this weapon, but he could keep her phased, carefully timing his shots so she wouldn’t be able to strike back.

He could keep this up so long as he had bullets, but he only had 3 left in the magazine. That would buy him a few seconds at most.

"Sure, sure, Drei! But where are they? I can't see them and I have no clue how to get to them." This mission was a mess.

None of them had anything more powerful than a pistol, with the exception of Sergeant Volkov. As a back up team, Laura thought they were all pretty bad failures. Even, she had to admit, the most brilliant medic in the universe.

"Phaedra, need a latex grenade. At your earliest convenience."

Claws flick and flashed out at Matteo, tearing through his uniform and the black suit he wore underneath. The black cloth gave way to yellow aramid fibers, then exposing red flesh to open air. Matteo grunted, backpedaling away from Fhion as his handgun continued to ring out each time she started to phase in, keeping her just at bay. "You first sir!" he spoke, ushering the wounded Admiral to get out first as he guarded the rear from the bloodthirsty Neko.

"Damn it Harm, why do you have to be so heavy?!"

Later on, in hind sight, he would decide she was of a nice weight for her size, perhaps somewhere between a buck twenty-five to a buck thirty-five. But right now? She was heavy!

“Phaedra, a pair of heavy trucks are converging on the casino now. A pair of helicopters are approaching as well,” said Drei.

“We need to go now. Phaedra, you better be ready.”

"Ready and able sir!" replied Phaedra, "I will clear a path for the squad to the halftrack. Be advised, more reinforcments incoming as we speak."

Phaedra ran back over to the W3301 went prone behind it, tossing the DSR off to one side. She removed the magazine and placed a fresh magazine of Guided Explosive rounds in the weapon. She aimed at the mass of guards and SUVs outside the entrance and fired all three GE rounds in quick succession. Phaedra hoped that the ensuing explosions would kill or disable as many guards as possible to allow the team to be extracted.

Ejecting the spent magazine, Phaedra slammed another Anti-Tank magazine into the W3301, and turned her view towards the trucks approaching the casino. Checking the range and speed of the trucks and taking a reading for windage, Phaedra adjusted the weapon's settings to compensate. She zoomed in on the one of the approaching trucks and aimed for the vehicle's engine. She squeezed the trigger to fire one AT round, and then adjusted accordingly to fire a second AT round at the second truck's engine.

Wazu continued to back up, dragging Avel along with him as he slowly unloaded his pistol

*BLAM* two bullets left, he took his view away from Fhion as she slowly stalked forward towards Matteo. She was within arms reach, but couldn’t attack while phased.

*BLAM* Wazu located the hole Cedric had blown in the walls of the casino.

*BLAM* His last round was spent, Wazu threw his gun at Fhion and turned to run towards the exit, sprinting past the slot machines on his way towards the exit.

---

Harm wasn’t doing too much better, unable to talk or even reprimand Matteo for his remark! This was certainly something she would have to address when they got back to the ship.

“Garrgagghhrllll….” Harm gurgled through the blood still pooling in her neck. For the most part her head was able to stay on without her hand to hold in place so she turned her back as much towards Fhion as possible, took a firm hold of Matteo, and lit her CRT organs once again. The skin on her back would lift up, exposing the boney CRT plates, which unleashed a torrent of smoke and flame, rocketing her towards the dance floor and leaving behind a thick trail of smoke.

---

Fhion was quite pleased with herself. Four down already and two by her own hand. Though there was still one she really wanted to get her hands on and he was currently trying to run away.

She patiently waited while he wasted his bullets,

She waited while Harm lit her CRT organs,

And now it was time to move in for another kill. She would phase out once more, entirely ignoring Matteo and Harm as she made a B line right for Wazu…

---

Outside, Phaedra’s first round ended up exploding against an invisible barrier. The armor the goons were putting on had a built in shield generator that was certainly able to handle a single grenade. The second and third rounds, however, ended up obliterating one of the SUV’s, sending the goons trying to armor up flying backwards.

“SMOKE AND CLEAR, SHOOT TO KILL!” the suited thug hiding behind the halftrack yelled.

As Phaedra disabled the two heavy trucks, the now up armored goons began throwing smoke grenades, filling large portions of the casino’s game area with smoke. They would then start to lay down cover fire, bright hot bolts of energy arcing over the casino area as they charged towards the doors under the cover of smoke.

Finally, the first helicopter would arrive, a light news chopper with a camera, flood light, and NNN markings. Its bright beam would shine down into the casino as a heavy gunship started to dart through the buildings, taking its time in setting up an attack run on the casino.

---

Finally, there was one last person with something important to do. Much of the casino was filling with smoke, energy bolts, bright lights, and lasers were showing up nicely across the dance floor, and the power armored DJ was ready to bring the motherfucking noise.

The current generic techno song stopped…

Then a familiar beat started to play…

And the casino was filled with the sounds of SUPER MEGA DEATH EAGLE FUCK YEAH!!

Phaedra had heard the rotors of the approaching choppers, and the first one to arrive was a news chopper.

"Civilian News Chopper has arrived. Lets make ourselves scarce!" said Phaedra. And that was when she caught sight of the other chopper.

"Contact! Hostile Enemy Gunship!" shouted Phaedra into the comm.

Phaedra drew a bead on the gunship and after exhaling a deep breath, she waited for it to begin its attack run. As it headed straight for the casino, Phaedra fired her remaining AT round at the housing just below the rotor. She kept her finger on the trigger to guide the round using the laser target designator, ensuring to the best of her ability that the round would land on target.

Cedric swore loudly and profusely as the situation went from worse to terrible, and then promptly from terrible to horrific. At first Wazu and his team were getting the crapped kicked out of him, then guards had appeared in SUVs with f'in miniguns, after that Wazu' group got more crap kicked out of them, then even more guards started pumping the casino full of smoke and gunfire, after that the DJ started blaring a distracting tune, and then to top it all off the guards had a fucking gunship to back them up!

Where are they all coming from? Cedric thought, exhasperated.

It didn't matter.

Regardless of where they had been, they were here now.

Cedric held the pistol tightly in his good hand and waited for even the most minute sign of wavering in the gunfire. When presented with such an opporutunity: he proceeded to low-crawl from the table he was behind to a row of slot machines (head to the floor, pushing with one leg, pulling with his arms, and dragging his other leg to minimize profile). Once he had gotten there, he crouched low against the side of a slot machine and tried his best to listen over the gunfire for anybody moving around or near the slot machines.

"Yo: I'll try and keep the goons busy while the rest of you get to the hole in the wall." Cedric said, keying his radio, "Laura, color me curious, but you can revive me if I die even if I'm not in a PA, right?"

He listened for incoming guards, ready to shoot the first one he saw (or heard) in front of or behind him, and simultaniously waited for an answer from his squadmates.

"Probably, Cedric. But that's not a license to screw up and get killed. The Corps charges 500 DA for each revival out of armor so if you do cop it, make sure you have the cash!" Laura was lying about the last part.

She grabbed the knife he had given and frowned. The bad guys were shooting at them and the best he could give her was a knife? Surely the goon he had killed carried a firearm!

There was the exit to cover. But covering that with a knife would be like stopping a starship with a toothpick.

Or there was that crazy Neko trying to kill the Admiral. She was certainly distracted at the moment. And since she seemed limited to hand to hand, Laura would certainly be able to get a knife into her. But she was still phased out. Knife in hand, Laura watched and waited for the wretched Neko to phase back into a corporeal form. She close enough to the Neko that she could very likely stab her through the back of her head.

@ Pheadra

The gunship approaching Pheadra was sleek and corporate looking, a smooth, black airframe hovering through the air and turning sideways just slightly so a side door could be slid open, a pair of soldiers standing just inside armed with a machine gun and rocket launcher. Before they were able to get within range, the AT rounds slammed into the chopper’s engine housing. A dense black smoke would start to pour out from one of the engines and the chopper would quickly loose altitude, descending below the rooftop of the administration building where Pheadra was. It had to back hard to avoid the building, and ended up passing directly over the domed area, trying to head back behind other structures to protect itself while it managed the engine problems.

Meanwhile the Civillian chopper was pointing a spherical camera turret and a flood light down into the Casino dome, sweeping over the goons on the exterior as it took in the sights. The mass of black syndicate goons outside were covered in a thick smoke, as were those at the entrance of the casino. Further away, however, the heavy trucks Pheadra had taken out were starting to unload. The drivers would pile out, running around to the back of the trucks to open up the doors and start up their payloads. humanoid combat bots started to disembark one after another, turning towards the casino and spreading out along the road. The seemingly endless clown cars worth making its way on foot towards the casino, luckily, they were easily ten minutes away by foot.

@ Cedric

There were five goons with body armor and personal energy shields approaching the casino under cover of smoke. Three would go left, heading towards the administration building where they could take the lift up to where Pheadra was, and two would go right, advancing towards Cedric. Before heading in any further, they would toss another smoke grenade, providing enough vision obscuring smoke for them to advance onto the casino floor without being seen from above. The two soldiers were being very careful, moving closely together and checking around, under, and beside the casino tables and slot machines they passed by.

Cedric could certainly hear their heavy footsteps getting closer, even over the dull groan of the chopper overhead. It would only be a few more moments before they reached the slot machine he was hiding behind. The pistols the guards were carrying already had a hard time breaching the bullet resistant jackets of the suited thugs while the heavy ceramic panels, helmets, and energy shields looked far more formidable…

@ Laura

Wazu was only starting to emerge from the smoke, Avel’s body certainly slowing him down considerably as he tried to make it to the exit, Fhion right on his heels and his own injuries leaving his face looking somewhat drained of life.

She would end up catching up to the pair on the dance floor, just short of the hole that Cedric had blown in the wall. She would phase in for just a moment, long enough to swipe at Wazu's legs, looking to tear out his tendons with one smooth motion.