RP: Taking It Back [Phase I] Assembling the Team

Chrys laughed out loud. "Okay I got you lamb." She said, threw cigar on the ground and stomped it with one of her boots. "And you though I was coming onto you? That I would do differently then by doubting you? All I was doing bas been to check if I can count on you girl. When things get hot it is always up to somone other to cover you back since you don'T have eyes on the back of you head. That was all, so now you are saying you can kill any bugger that comes against us. Good I wil count on that from now on. I just hope you are not playing tough lass."

She then smiled again put her shotgun back in its bag. It looks like it won't be needed for now and she still had pistol and knifes at the ready. "Oh and lass is just nickname I gave you. I am coming up with one for everybody. Alex is Mr. Stalker for example, out hunter is grandpa and our Id-Sol is Captain Loud. Just don't pay that much attention to it." She explained to Alexis. Not that the explanation was needed on account of others.

Alex was fiddling with the control box in the elevator again, trying to arrange the wires in a more accessible manner. He listened closeley to the conversation between Alexis and Chrys with a well-trained, yet disinterested ear. He glanced briefly at Alexis as she put her foot down on Chrys. The tall brawler did seem a little attracted to women to him, and he hadn't noticed her visiting any male callers during his 'stalking' of her. He just wished he'd been able to monitor Alexis in the same way. He needed information about her. Who was this woman he was so foolish to drag into his party, with no foreknowledge of her at all? He knew he was missing something about it. He just hoped it wasn't the fact that she as a Mishu spy.

His thoughts and his gaze turned next to Lang, who still stood on the roof, outside the elevator. He could see Sammy still bawling just past the grizzled contractor. Angelo and Lyle were, oddly enough, leaving the man alone.

"Colonel Lang." Alex called to him in a firm tone, "We've nothing left for us here. Now that I have this money card, we can discuss payment without these men. Let us go."

In his mind, he added what was to him a humorous quip, 'Pray, tragedy awaits! O, let us make good haste!'

Archie had been leaning against the wall of the elevator in thought, thinking possibly thinking about how he might have ended up like those three men upstairs if life had been different. Scary thought. He perked up as Chrys brought up his nickname “I never married.” He cut in “Although I am otherwise known as the Grey Wolf in a portion of the colonies.”

...I'll bet you any amount of money I can shoot straighter than you and probably better than these guys....

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Rennik perked up at Alexis's attempt at standing tough, bringing him out from dwelling on what he had lost during the invasion.
"Is that a bet you want to place, le maladroit?" he asked, seeming a little offended.
"Because if that's true, then there isn't much point in myself sticking around, ya know?"

"Comme il faut," was the smooth reply, followed by a theatric shrug. She chased it with a smile that came much more easily to her than the aggressive stance she had taken with Chrys. This was something that the young, pistol-toting woman didn't have to bluff about.

Alexis left her hands up only a moment before shoving them back in her jean pockets and leaning back against the elevator wall, in the corner near the self-titled 'Gray Wolf'.

"Name a time and a place, and we'll get it over with, if it's like, so important to you. I think Wolfie could probably outshoot you, too. How about the three of us like, give it a go?"

Waiting for the elevator to grow quiet again Lang spoke up ignoring the.. 'socialization' that had taken place a moment before, "Alright Alex you have your funding when exactly would you like us to move in?" he said, referring to the various Paragon assets that had been forward deployed and now were ready and waiting in assault positions across the area.

"I'll explain the battle plan to you on the way to our rendezvous with the main body of resistance forces, Colonel." Alex poked the button on the control panel he'd just closed up and the elevator shuddered back into motion. This time, they were going down. Back down from the sky and the roof which as silent, save for a the single crying salesman. Back away from the white serenity of that roof and into the blood-soaked ashes and charred corpse flavored rubble.

When they arrived on street level, the group re-boarded the truck. This time, Lucas drove while Alex sat in back with everyone. The blue led in his cybernetic eye panned across their faces as he spoke to them from between the seats, telling them of what was slated to be their first operation. Er, intentional operation, that is.

"Okay!" He steadied himself against the tarp over his airbike, careful to keep it from taking flight in the wind. "We've got our money and a bit of a lead. I sent a message to the local resistance members while we were all still in Neppy's. I wanted them to gather a few blocks from here. We will be leading them in a convoy of trucks like this one, they will be the crew that mans our submarine. We have doctors, former soldiers, electricians, engineers, and even a few entertainers. Let's try to keep them safe as we make our way to the target. Once we get there, we will go out in search of weapons and intel. This is where Paragon will come in as well." He pointed a crooked finger at Lang, "Colonel Lang, I would like to purchase assistance gathering weapons and intelligence. I'd also like to purchase the whereabouts of that submarine. We know it's off of the Southern Shores Docklands, but where can we find it exactly? Can you mark it on the map on this datapad?"

Alex handed Lang a datapad with an overlay of the Southern Shores area. Several red dots covered the shoreline where Alex had at some point in his free time gathered all the information he knew about the boat's capailities and how it came to be dormant, and then used these statistics to pinpoint every possible location of the abandoned boat. He had drawn X's over the more probable locations; far away from police stations, closer to spaceports, crossing over common Red and Black hangouts.

After he passed off the datapad to Lang, Alex shuffled closer to the tarp over his airbike, stamping it down with an outstretched foot. He kept the tarp down and continued with everyone else.

"You three, marksmen." He pointed a sweeping hand across Alexis, Archie, and Cage, "Spread out over the vehicle, if you don't have your own. If you've got your own, and you're adept at firing while driving, say so now, and we'll pick it up from the Neppy's. Otherwise, spread out on the bed of this truck with your weapons.

"Chrys, Lang, you two are fire support." He pointed a finger from one hand at each of them, both hands stuck out for a moment before he finally let his foot off of the tarp covering his airbike. Chromed repulsors shone in the almost-setting sun, a red feuselage with tacky orange flames stretched back to a thick leather seat, and stylishly engraved exhaust pipes extended from the back with diagonally cut tips. There was a holster for the Alex's HHG on the side, and some kind of mounting rack on the handlebars. What was on either side of the bike was of even more interest. Alex had taken the time to procure two Paragon MG-32 Medium Machine Guns while researching Paragon and Colonel Lang. Alex now slid them forward, bringing them into the center of the group.

"These are a little something I purchased while looking into Paragon. I have to admit, between these and Lucas' rambling about 'his old battle-buddy Colonel Lang' my mind was quite made up. Either way, they're efficient and powerful means of support and suppression. Lang knows this, but Chrys: You may want to take just a moment to familiarize yourself with the weapon."

Finally, Alex turned and stuck his head back up front with Lucas and Dimitri in the passenger's seat. "You guys sort out who's going to be driving and who will be the shotgun rider."

Alexis glanced over the machine guns with a discerning, critical, but somewhat appreciative eye which she sought to conceal by donning a pair of what appeared to be simple sunglasses. A thin, nearly imperceptible dial on the edge of the frame adjusted the transparency to match the sunlight, though she kept her finger there as if still fiddling with them.

Meanwhile, they ran a rather subtle check on the silhouette of the weapon against a registry on the Net. Anyone with a cyberized brain or spinal interface could uplink to the net, these days – the unfortunate soul who couldn’t was at a severe disadvantage, and gadgets like this were fairly common, if a little expensive. A lot of dealers used that particular feature, but normally Alexis used them for field work as they also had a wonderful, inventive feature that could zoom and adjust range definition. In a world where most people worth their salt in the targeting field had mechanical eyes or enhanced optics implants, it certainly couldn’t be considered cheating.

The gun itself looked legitimate, but hadn’t been range-tested in any conventional logs. There was surprisingly little information, which didn't surprise her. Perhaps it was simply a professional rivalry beginning, but Ally felt uneasy about a mercenary group manufacturing its own arms - or even having that kind of money. Not even the corrupte and capitalistically minded State allowed NAM to sell openly to civilians, anymore. She saved an image of the gun for later then, gently nibbling at her lower lip, Alexis returned her hands to her pockets, cocking her head at the proposed operators.

“I have an airbike at Neppy’s,” Alexis stated first, “And my rifle is there, too. If we could maybe swing on by, that would be awesome.”

Archie watched in interest as Alex briefed them, as his role was assigned he placed the rifle case he'd been carrying on the floor and carefully began assembling the weapon, keeping an ear on the rest of the group. The rifle came together smoothly, nodding approvingly he gently closed the case that held the rest of his kit.

“For the sake of public decency I require a gentlemen's room for a mere moment.” he requested, pausing for a second and looked at the rest of the group, considering his company. “That would be, a lavatory.” he clarified.

Lang began smirking as he hefted one the 32's into his lap and began looking the machine gun over, with a pair of trained hands he went over every detail checking for any defects. Satisfied with the weapon he opened the breach cover and then reached for an ammunition canister.

Chrys kept quiet for this part of the ride. When Alex slided machineguns in the center of the truck-bed she leaned forward and picked up one. So Mr. Stalker took her because of her strangth it seemed. He had her for common bruiser, which might seemed like logical conclusion. Especially since for few last days all she wanted to do was to punch someones face very very hard.

When Archie asked for a toilet break she chucked. "You can piss of the side Grandpa, I swear I won't look, but if you can keep it in for some more time, you can go at Neppy's."

SHe thenn looked at large gun in her hands. She checked safety and fire mode selector, powered holosight and looked though it. She then opened the bipod and set her gun on the roof of the truck, shouldering it in to try the feeling. "How much does this thing kick? And what's the ammo count Paragoon?" She asked looking at Lang.

Archival sniffed at Chrys's poor use of nepleslian “In actual fact I would much like to change into my hunting kit,” he said cordially, adding somewhat sarcastically “but if you would prefer I can kit up right here. Desperate times and what-not?” hand moving half-threateningly to his belt.

Upon Archie and Alexis request, Alex leaned back and signaled Lucas to stop at the Neppy's which was coming up. The ID-SOL grunted an affirmative response and slowed the vehicle down. Alex turned back towards the crowd and closed his eye, appearing to be in contemplation. The blue LED in his implant flickered and skittered around the group, focusing on each of them very briefly. When he as done with this ceremony, Alex pushed all of his hair over to the right and began scratching his temple next to the implant, regarding the group again with his organic eye.

"I'm going to guess that you'll all want an explanation of that." Alex said. He was scratching his temple really hard. "It's just for logistics purposes."

"It kicks like a mule if your not employing the bipod, from what I see here I figure we have around eight hundred rounds in four ammunition canisters, two for each of us." Replied Lang as he locked one of the canisters on the side of the machinegun.

“Logistics,” Alexis stated, her tongue imbuing every syllable with the sort of suspended disbelief she usually reserved for when scarred, embattled gun-buyers showed her fake licenses and identification. All the picture-taking and scanning was making her more than a little nervous. Did this guy already know? With people like this, the line between being a comrade and a captive was looking real thin. If Ally had learned anything, it was that desperate men would do irrational and illogical things.

She crossed her legs, one over the other, and squirmed down a bit in the back seat, hands still in her pockets, expression skeptical. She had already been handful of inches shorter than either of the other two on the seat with her, and now it was a full head as she slumped sullenly in a juvenile sort of way.

“Like, what sort of logistics?”

"Like the inventory kind of logistics." Alex answered quickly, yet calmly, "If you must absolutely know, I am taking an inventory of my resources both material and personnel. I will use it to calculate probable expenses and budget limitations. Does that satisfy you, Miss 'Ally'?"

Alex studied her features as the information rolled off of his tongue. His implant's gaze ran over her face, zooming in here and there. He was curious to her reaction. Her skeptical expression was different from the ones he usually got for that almost robotic kind of behavior. Usually it was a look of disgust, or a rolling of the eyes from those more farmiliar with him. What a fool he'd been, taking her on without the slightest bit of research. How stupid, to let someone just up and follow them because they could field-strip faster than he could. Still, she'd proved useful so far, if not the unfortunate bait to Lyle and Angelo's chiding. Before he could get further lost in though, the truck pulled a sharp turn into the alleyway from before and rocked to a halt. Lucas had stalled the clutch in the process.

Alex took the opportunity to mount his air bike and start the engine. It became apparent that one of its many modifications was noise control when he adjusted a dial between the handle bars, drawing baffles down onto the exhaust pipes and leaving only a slight hum.

"Also, Ally, you should decide rather you can fire from your bike. If you can, you'll join me as an outrider. If not, stay in the truck with the others and ready your rifle." He hovered the bike slightly as he addressed the rest of them, "Everyone has ten minutes to assemble weapons, change clothes, say prayers to nonexistant supernatural beings, and other assorted preparations! Then we move out."

Rennik didn't say a word when the machine guns were uncovered. He wasn't interested in heavy ordinance like that; he had his rifle, the use of which was entirely the reason he was here. He hadn't returned his rifle to his carrying case and bag, so he spent the time making sure he was all set to shoot. He carefully clipped on his bandoleer, a simple brown leather belt with 4 leather pouches, each filled with magazines for his rifle, and a smaller, 5th pouch holding extra pistol magazines, though he rarely ever needed it. He prided himself on being able to snipe, and he was looking forward to showing these supposed "teammates" of his how to shoot.

"I will handle the recoil, don't worry," Chrys replied and loaded her own gun. She will still use bipod, but mainly for accuracy then for recoil. She was Archangel, her strength was on par with Id-sols so she could handle a little recoil.

She then looked at Alex. "I hope you did not snatch any photos of me nekidd Mr. Stalker." she said jokingly. "And if you did I will go fifty-fifty with you on any profit from them."

Alexis crossed to her bike and immediately jerked the rain tarp from over it. Some of the pools of rain water caught in the fold were disturbed.

A few drops fell on the sky-blue body and the brilliant, polished chrome air manifolds, where they beaded and shimmered on the wing-shaped metal in the dreary haze like abandoned diamonds and sapphires. Idly, she brushed some rainwater off of the leather seat. A helmet hung off of one handle, but instead of taking it and swinging onto the bike – which looked entirely too large for her – the lightweight shootist reached instead for a heavy dufflebag affixed to the side, behind the seat. She removed it from the chassis, and slung it over her shoulder with a little effort. It produced a muffled clink as she bumped it a little, adjusting it on her shoulder.

Then she turned to Alex.

“I can shoot from the bike,” she stated, “But like, I would rather shoot from the truck, since there’s, you know, a bet on that I want to win and I can't if I'm using just a pistol. Can I take my Nightingale along with us anyway? Like, load her up and tie her down, where your bike was?”

Archie quickly disappeared off the back of the truck and into Neppy's. Returning a few minutes dressed for the kill in some sort of modified ghillie suit with strips of IR absorbing material hanging down. He'd also brought back an extra bag he must have stashed somewhere inside.

“Must never forget ones toiletries.” he muttered as he placed the bag in the truck under his seat and put on the rest of his kit. Holsters sprouted from his leg and waist, bandoleers with extra ammo snaked over his shoulders, and a speed stripper with four shotgun shells seemed to latch itself to his wrist. Very soon he was sitting with his feet out the back of the truck casually loading his new rifle.

Finished he took aim at a random point, and sighed. “I still miss the old girl, but I'm sure this will do nicely.” he said, tweaking a dial on the sights. He took the rifle from his shoulder and began looking around out of habit.