RP: ISC Phoenix [Mission 7] - Siege on Sector 72

Seiren's own shot had caused his gun to recoil somewhat painfully into his own shoulder, bruising it. He almost lost the weapon in the process. The bullet missed its target completely, the mercenary having been taken down only a moment before. The opposition was being taken out left and right; Good enough for me! Seiren thought, rubbing his sore shoulder. I'm gonna be left behind if I dally any longer, though.

The childlike Yamataian began to move from crate to crate, carefully crouching while doing so to avoid getting shot. His little 'journey' ended at where Luca was.

"Hullo, Cap'n!" He cheerfully chatted, peering above the cover to decide where to place his next shot. Seiren immediately picked the rightmost Jet Bull and fired, nearly losing his gun again.

Enzo yelped as rubble from Vincent's shell closed in on him from above. Without looking, he jumped over a nearby table to avoid the falling material. Before anything else collapsed on him, Enzo decided to make for the stairs leading up to the roof. As he climbed the stairs, he could hear Panther and Uriel moving around above him.

Without wasting a single second he jogged onto the roof, his Type 30 drawn and ready. "Hey bitches, getcha hands offa my fuggin' money!" he quiped, drawing one of the Knucklers and leveling it at his enemies general direction.

"NICE~!" Luca called out gratuitously as he stormed forward, with most of the threats removed, and the police putting pressure on whoever was left as their support was picked out by the Phoenix crew.
Luca stormed into the building with his HHG ready, and opted to check the other floors, "Guys, I'll move on ahead and sweep the upstairs, and see if I can find anything else,"

However, as he was about to go up the stairs, he felt something call to him, Alright then Mr. Pavone. I want to talk to you - in person. He could hear it in his head, he looked around, then shrugged and continued up the stairs, to the first floor of the three-storey building.

On your left. Move in, quickly, close the door behind you, The voice spoke again. Luca, also hearing the unmistakable metal footsteps of an armour, unsure of how big it was, followed the request, since it seemed pretty reasonable. He quickly made a left turn and closed the door behind him quietly.

"Alright, Mr. Pavone," Same voice, but it was in the room, and it was complimented by the sound of a hammer being pulled back.
"Yuki. Going to kill me?" Luca asked as calmly as he could.
"No. If I had wanted you dead, I would've done so long, long ago," She could be heard standing up.
Luca grinned, "Well, can I at least get a better look at you?" He asked coyly.
"Yes," She replied flatly.

Yuki was an old, and scarred Nekovalkyrja - physically, mentally, and in the very soul of being. Her body was lithe, and athletic as most Nekovalkyrja were, but she seemed more motherly, with wide hips and B-cupped breasts. All of this was outlined with her black bodysuit, and broken up by long bangs of curly blonde hair.
She had a veritable amount of weapons and ammo hanging from her, including a pair of HHG's, a M'Cel grenade launcher with some powerful grenades, including antimatter yield, and a Katana over her back.

The lady was just reclining in a small sofa in a dingy room which allowed very little light, but what could be illuminated appeared to be a bachelor pad of some sort. A bed nearby was adorned with the corpse of the Commander of the Jet Bulls. He appeared to have part of his chest torn open and something torn out.

"That wasn't quite the man you were looking for. Rather, he was the Commander, and he wasn't himself - I found it fitting to put him out of his misery and allow the rest of his crew to die at your hands."
Luca's eyes narrowed, "My team just slaughtered the Captain - Why would you do our job for us?" He calmly motioned to the corpse with his HHG, "That seems too much like a textbook movie villain's job -" He pulled the hammer back on his HHG, "Or a Mishhu."

"Like I said, Mr. Pavone. He was not himself," She held up what appeared to be a centipede of some sort, thirty or so centimetres long, with four red eyes, a stinger of some sort, and bereft of life, "Do you know what this is? Many of his men had the same parasite, Captain included."

Luca was about to answer when the door was unceremoniously booted off of its hinges by a huge power armour that seemed to shimmer into view with wide forearms and shoulders, no head, four eyes, and a massive blade on its right hand.

"FUCK!" Was all that Luca could get out before he was thrown across the room by a backhand swipe. He was knocked through a wall and into another dingy room. He stood up on his feet and fired every shot he had in his HHG through the hole, and each shot didn't even score or dent the armour.
The armour smashed through the hole that Luca had made and drew its blade back and attempted to pierce the captain, who made a deft sidestep as he drew his M'Cel, loaded with a conventional slug.

However, a plasma explosion rang out behind the Ripper - rocking the building, taking out most of the walls, and knocking the Ripper off balance, followed by the sound of metal being drawn. The Ripper turned around and found itself taking another plasma grenade to the face from Yuki, handling the M'Cel with only one hand and her Katana in the other, she then lunged forward and made several strikes, punctuated with what appeared to be plasma adorning the blade.

The armour could not stand the harrying assault for long, as Luca watched the Ripper get dealt a final stab, killing the parasite pilot. The Zesuaium and Plasma-coasted katana was being handled like a surgeon's knife.
Luca was taking sharp breaths as he took a look at Yuki, then the armour, and made a double take.

"Alright," He asked as calmly as he could, which wasn't very at the present moment, "Who the hell ARE you working for!?"
"I am not at liberty to discuss that, Mr. Pavone. All I can tell you is that you and your crew are up against a much greater threat," Yuki said nothing as she seemed to disappear from view, "Survive, and notify the station, and we might meet again."
A window then opened by her invisible hand, and she was gone.

Luca took a minute or two to recollect his senses, then stood up, and tried to move. What he'd just seen and felt was beyond anything he'd considered would be out here in Drift.
Then, a very sick realisation came to mind as it all came together and hit him like a freight train loaded with the burden of scale.
"Oh, crap."

MEANWHILE...
Galar had made a recovery from his injuries, and was on his way out of the non-radioactive hospital, having seen police and security footage of Luca and company tearing things up - and it looked grand.

"He still hasn't lost his edge, hopefully that crazy Nekovalkyrja is subdued," He smiled as bodyguards watched his flanks and nodded in agreement, "I knew I could trust him."

Suddenly, his communicator told him that he had a new message. He happily flipped it open, and then his face went pale.

From: L. Pavone said:

GALAR, IF YOU CAN READ THIS, AND YOU'RE AT THE THE HOSPITAL, GET THE HELL OUT AND ARM YOURSELF. THE JET BULLS ARE NOT THE MAIN THREAT. THERE ARE MISHHU PARASITES AND ARMOUR HIDING IN DRIFT, WAITING TO ATTACK FROM WITHIN.

ALSO - WE'RE GOING TO NEED BIGGER GUNS. MUCH BIGGER GUNS.
-SIGNED, LUCA.

Click to expand...

He slammed the message shut, and urged his retinue to follow orders, "Shut down the station, arm the cannons, and tell everyone to arm themselves - we've been infiltrated."

The message was passed quickly through polysentience and word of mouth - the entire city was soon screaming in panic of invasion.
All physical exterior contact with Drift was cut off as the shutters and gates came closing, and the cannons were armed to fire at any offending NMX vehicles that might come into view.

Meanwhile, the streets were full of citizens and travellers willing to quell the invasion, including militia, policemen and mercenaries ranging from Nepleslian, Freespacer, Jiyuuian and beyond on high alert, armed and eager.

"Clever, using a front to act for you," Galar scowled as his soldier's mindset returned to him, analysing the NMX tactics so far, "But not clever enough. At least we've nipped you in the bud..."

BACK AT THE BIG BIRD...
"What the bloody hell's going on here?" Melissa asked in a confused tone as she watched everyone move frantically, armed to the teeth.
"The Governor has made an announcement, on behalf of Mr. Pavone," Echelon recited, as Luca's message came up.

"Oh," Sebastian said as he looked at the announcement, "By the Maker."
A murmur of surprise and fear went through the crew who remained at the Big Bird.
"We're most likely outgunned, though we have the station at our back," Anna observed.
John was blinking, "If we survive this shit - I am going to want my Empress-class hotel room shared with a bevy of Yamataian supermodels. Period."

By God, they were dead! Uriel finally realized had pulled off the nigh impossible: both the bodyguards were dead, despite all that had been against him. He smirked weakly, his body wavering. It was perhaps a miracle he was still standing with all the bullet wounds. As the daze wore off, the Patrician sheathed his sword with a grimace, and grunted when he knelt down to collect his Tiger's Tears. Its left side was scratched all to hell from skittering across the rooftop's rough surface, but he didn't care right then. He was more concerned about getting down and making sure Luca was alright.

He locked eyes with Panther. "Come. We need to make sure all is well with Luca and the others." He started limping toward the stairs himself, heedless of his bleeding wounds for the time being. They could be dealt with later, some dim-witted part of his groggy mind said. Yes, later and by far more skilled practitioners of medicine.

A few flights of stairs later, the Archangel reached the bottom floor and flopped onto the nearest couch- the one upon which Yuki had sat mere minutes earlier. He looked like a drunk about to pass out with his head lolling every so often and his movements sluggish. It even took him several long seconds to realize one of the walls had a gaping hole in it.

He feebly rose onto unsteady legs and hobbled over to the new portal. What he found there was simply shocking in every sense of the word. Luca, looking a little scuffed- which is to say far less injured than he should have been- standing over a Power Armor...

But not just ANY Power Armor! "By God..." Uriel mumbled. "Ripper..." His poor mind had had enough. It was ready to close shop for the day, and get to resting. He tilted, tilted some more, dropped to one knee, then down on all fours before finally collapsing unconscious by the feet of the Ripper.

As fast as little conflict begaun, as fast it started coming to end. When Zeta saw Luca storming into the builiding she quickly followed him. Some of remeining mercs fired on her, but they had other problems. Like police officers or other crewmembers.

When she got in Luca just said that he is goign to chechk upstairs so it was easy choice to follow him and cover him. Pub could be overflowing with mercs. Luckily it didn't, it was actually somewhat empty.

In middle of the stairs Luca stopped and looked around. Probably heard something. Than he moved on. And Zeta followed. Yes I am a good doggie, she though and smiled a little checking their surrounding with her eyes and SMG.

Luca ran to some doors, opened them a closed behind them. According to he building stucrtue it was just a one room. Luca probably found something and wanted be alone with that. That was not Zetas problem. He was calm when he went inside so there won't be any danger.

Zeta thought for a while about guarding the door but instead she went to look in other rooms. FInding nothing much of interest. Suddenly a loud crashing soudn could be heard. Of course from Lucas direction. Zeta quickly sprinted there finding there wasn'T much left from door she quickly tan there seeng braod backs of a ripper. Luca was in next room where he flew through a hole. He was up on his legs and firing his HHG. Zeta though about firing but her smg wouldn't make even a dent on that PA. She started thinking about how strong is really her metal arm when she saw her captin taking out his M'Cel. She quickly jumped aways, beacuse she was pretty near Ripper and Ripper was a target.

She wasn'T that fast and explosion sent her flying. Landing was hard but luckily she didn'T break anything. Another explosion could be hear just after this one and Zata stood up again. Slowly because she was shaken a little but she was okay and returned. Black Widow stood above dead ripper talking with Luca. She has plasma katana in her hand so it was pretty much obvious who killed it. She finished her conversation and jumped out of window.

"Bloody hell," said Zeta. She saw Uriel running to them throuhs the hallway. She entered room and looked out of window. Seein nothing of course. "Skipper I think we will need bigger guns," she said to Luca and kicked dead ripper. "A lot bigger to tell the true."

The Kohanian could only sit up while the winged human said his word and moved off. All good and well, but your not even thinking clearly, Panther imagined as he crawled over to the body with his knives sticking out of it. Well he certainly looks as described, his smell too. I can't get the feeling I missed my mark.

Panther did try to get up, but used his victim's grenade launcher as a crutch since he did have two bullets in his leg. As he reached the door he ran into Enzo proclaiming all the money was his. The Kohanian couldn't help but to chuckle at the irony.

However before he could say anything, he heard an explosion from within the building, as well as the roof shook causing him to be off balance for a second. "That might have been the Luca," he said while heading for the stairs.

Robert looked up to from the corpse of his most recent kill to see Zeta taking off into a building. He followed, but decided to stay near the entrance. Luca always seemed to need a quick exit. He knelt down next to the door and reloaded his pistol. Then he heard the crash. "Zeta? Boss? Are you two ok?" he shouted from the door.

Enzo caught sight of the fleeing Neko from his spot on the roof and drew his EMP pistol quickly, but was unsuprised to find her having completely vanished when he looked back up. He grumbled noisily as he made his way to the edge and looked down to the alleyway below. The massive hole in the wall had ejected some furniture and debris into the alley. Seeing this, Enzo jumped from the roof; using the opposing wall and the objects below to slow his descent. As he reached the ground, he approached Luca and the rest of the crew.

"Well," he began with a wide grin, "I gots six kills, all small fries. Still, I'm quite prouds of myself, If I coulds say so. Still, I'm gonna needs to head backs to the Big Boid to ammos up if there's anymore action-- I'm a little guy, and there's not much rooms on me!"

He frowned as he noticed his cigarette lighter had gone missing during the fray. With a sigh, he lit his cigarette off of one of the burning embers of rubble leftover from the plasma explosion.

Zeta was lookin at Ripper. Ensuring it was really dead and waiting for Lucas reply. Well if there will be a Lucas reply. She then heard Roberts shout. "We are okay," she shouted back to him.

Well it is all going to hell. Mishu on the station. Zeta would realy like to have gun like Vincent now. With that some ripper could as much as kiss her ass. All she has is a peashooter machinepistol, laser pistol and smg. That is fine against gangs and assassin but PA? Next time they will weapon shop Zeta is goin to buy her somethign decent. Plasma rifle maybe or gauss gun. Bigger the better.

Robert breathed a sigh of relief. "Good to know. I'm coming." he called back to Zeta. With a last survey outside he ran towards Zeta's voice. As he came into the room and saw the ripper, his first instinct was to shoot first, ask questions later. It took till he had already took aim, flipped off the safety, and almost pulled the trigger for him to realize that the ripper was dead. He looked at Zeta a little sheepishly. "Heh, a little jumpy about those guys I guess." he managed a little grin slightly marred by one of his many scars.

With ripper-control done Zeta walked to Uriel. But first she replied to ROb. "I can understand that. I have never seen these bloody bastards but you sure feel respect aroudn them. Even when they are dead."

With that she got to Uriel. He was lying on his belly unconscious. But alive. One of his wings was a little bloody and he was kidna scruffy probably from some hard landing. "Rob help me," said Zeta as she tried to move Uriel into little more comfortable position. "We have to be careful with the wing. Does anyone has a first-aid kit here?" She asked then. Uriel lost some blood and wing didn't look so good, but Zeta didn't want to move it too much. She didn't want to make it worse. "Where is Jim when you need him damn it." She cursed as she examined hurt Elysian.

Arin hacked out her last irradiated phlegm when the announcement came on. Her secretive work was done, and the finished product was placed back in the small lead box. She popped back into public view next to the rest of the crew, shivering from her recollections of the last time the ship was boarded by Mishhus.

"Hey, shouldn't we arm the ship just in case some Rippers show up?" She quipped, better safe than sorry.

Robert grunted in agreement as he helped Zeta lift up the big Elysian. "I'm no good at first aid. We'll just have to move quickly." he hefted Urial onto his back as much as possible. So any idea of where Jimmy is?" he asked.

"Probably back at the ship," said Zeta suprprised when Rob took big Elysian on his back, "but at least mrs. Pavone is ther for sure. But I am not sure it is good idea going back. Uriel came on his own, and wing stopped bleeding. I just wanted to make him more comforatable and found a fisrt aid kit. There will be something to patch his wings and wake him up." Zeta explained.

Robert raised an eyebrow. "Oh, good. Cause that was mostly just show. I don't think I could carry him very far on my own." Robert grunted as he laid Urial down on the bed.

Panther made his way down to Luca's floor, not failing to notice a few walls were missing but did growl at what he saw pinned on a wall. "I didn't kill the commander then." Frustrated at his failure, he found a corner to sit at before he needed to figure out what to do next. At this point I might as well return to the iron bird, I need to get these bullets removed before I can be of any use.

Robert turned around at Panther's growl. "It's ok Panther, neither did I. " he looked closer. "Do you need some help too?"

As gentle as Robert may or may not have been, laying Uriel down- and on his back, no less- probably wasn't the best idea: after all, his wings were on his back. He awoke with a huge grimace, back arched, and wings extending to their full spread. "GOD!" He sat forward and took a deep breath, wincing again. He looked up and noticed where he was- where he still was. A little deductive work left him feeling embarrassed. Not only had he passed out in front of them all, but they had moved him.

This shameful feeling stemmed from the fact that he'd required their help. No, that wasn't quite right. There had been no need for them to move him, but they had done so anyways. The fact that they had aided him- Uriel, the prideful Elysian that he was (and that all Patricians were)- was the reason he bristled inwardly. His face was a soft red, and his eyes kept to the floor.

Quite simply, he didn't know what to say. No, that was a lie: he knew he should thank them, but at the same time found it hard to do so. Hell, some inner piece of him didn't want to, despite the fact that his entire goal leaving home was to strip free of his Patrician pride and ego. However, the Archangel could admit to the need for medical assistance.

Slowly, he regained his feet. "I'm returning to the Big Bird for medical assistance," as if they needed him to tell them. Then he made for the door, still limping a bit.

Enzo frowned as he received a face-full of feathers from the wounded Elysian stretching out his wings. He turned to quip an insult, but decided against it upon seeing the condition of the Patrician. It was enough that one of the big guys was wounded, and now both of the big guys were wounded. He noticed also that Panther was wounded and that left him as the only acrobat to speak of, if he had noticed anyone else's skills properly.

Enzo puffed on his cigarette introspectively. He considered his own value to the situation. He considered the value of others to the situation. He considered the opportunities for advancement when your co-workers were getting constantly injured in the line of duty. He smiled.

"What's our next move, Cap'n Pavone?" he asked, earnestly hopeful that it included, somehow, 'Make ourselves some money.'

Luca got his senses back immediately, there was a dead Ripper in front of him, most his crew was standing around him and asking him for answers, or if he was alright, and they weren't looking so good themselves.

He immediately pulled his communicator out of his pocket and paged Jim, "Jim, I'm heading back to the Big Bird," He said, with static buzzing into the signal, "Expect to see some big hurts, myself included. Over."
"Your mum and I will meet you halfway to remove what we can, give you some painkillers, and send you off," Jim replied, "It's the best we can do until you can get some real medical care."
"How's everyone else?" Luca asked.

"We're fine, we're more concerned about you and your team, we heard some explosions, we even felt a big one! Was that you?"
Luca paused for a moment, since they were Yuki's, "Yeah." He made a little white lie.
"Oh, did you see Yuki?" Jim asked, with a hint of undue enthusiasm.
"Nope." He lied again.
"Oh well, always next time, right?" Jim replied, wistfully, "I'll see you soon."

"Everyone, to me, and we'll head back as a group - we're hurt, low on ammo, and most likely very pissed off," Luca noticed that Panther was in the room and he was injured, he walked over and helped him to his feet, "C'mon, we're not quite through this yet."
"Anyone who can still walk, lets move as one and make sure none get left behind!" He commanded as Drift's police force ran past his team to do a sweep of the building and gather evidence and items to use against the Mishhu.

"Mr. Pavone - we owe you one," One high-ranking officer and his automata companion said as they stopped to greet the battered team.
"It's nothing. Just keep an eye out on us, and the other on yourselves," Luca said with a hint of thanks, and a note of caution, "I don't know how many parasites there are on station, but be alert, and do a bio scan on anyone you even suspect in your station."

He gave a pained nod as his brow creased with doubt, but realised that drastic measures like that might've been what was necessary in times like those.
"Alright. Carry on," He said as he and his automata trudged up the stairs of the establishment. Many police and militiamen and militiawomen were dotted among the area for Mishhu activity, with the occasional sound of gunfire being heard in the once peaceful station.

Some gave a nod towards the crew, realising that they were the ones responsible for finding the threat. One Freespacer militiawoman in an environment approached and put something in Uriel's hands.
"Hey, you," She said through a speaker, her hands were trembling under her suit, "I've no idea what you are, but this should help you out a little."
It was a vial of Emrys Industries Endurance.

"Thanks lady," Luca gave a nod in her direction, then looked ahead and noticed Jim and Anna nearby, who'd managed to set up a makeshift clinic in the middle of the road, and they weren't the only ones there.

A small line of injured, human militiapeople had formed and were receiving quick treatments, some on the condition that they had the materials to spare, since they were being stretched thin. However, small donations of money and medical materials were flowing in for their bold efforts.

"Luca, over here!" Jim called out as he sent another patient off with a bandage around his arm and torso, "C'mon, let's get you and your team patched up, fast."
"Thanks Jim, Hi Mum," Luca flashed a smile to his mother, who was frowning in his direction. He then looked at himself and noticed that he was very, very mashed up, "Oh, sorry."
"You ought to be!" Her frown became an angry scowl, "Why do you keep getting hurt?"

"Whatever... Echelon, are you there?" Luca asked the freespacer via communicator.
"Yes." She responded, "Mrs. Berelai has created something interesting to pick up, and her condition has improved a little."
Luca smiled, "Great, we'll be there to pick it up and restock on everything else in a few," He then wanted to know, "How's the fight in the city going?"

"For the most part, it seems to be evenly matched, I am unsure of what's going on outside the station," She then paused, "Cannons are being fired, possibly at NMX vessels, or parasite-infested ships."
"Fuck, they're here a little earlier than I thought," He mumbled as he noted that down mentally, "I suppose other ships are being bought into the area, and fighting for Drift?"

"Possibly. I am currently unsure."