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

Placing the weapon on the edge of the truck's bed Lang positioned himself as comfortably as he could while at the same time covering his field of fire, "Locked and loaded whenever the rest of you would like to get this operation started."

It was almost half an hour later that the team arrived at the rendezvous point just south of The Tee in the lower west side. The dark clouds which had hung over them before now parted to reveal just how much the sun had set since their stay on the roof of the tower. A thick orange glow decorated the evening sky, and streetlamps were clicking on as they cruised down the street, the two vehicles in single file. Alex had donned a black open-faced helmet and a scarf. He'd also placed a plain black eyepatch over his organic eye, leaving a bright blue LED as his only visible feature.

Their tiny convoy pulled into a parking lot between two buildings which was empty, save for two more trucks, filled to the brim with Nepleslians. One of the trucks had a crudley painted banner hanging over its side bearing in simple black letters the phrase, 'Take it Back!' Alex pulled alongside this one while Lucas parked the truck behind it. The driver of the banner-laden truck rolled down his window and stuck his head out, smiling a goofy grin at Alex. He had a loose face and crooked teeth, the kind of visage loved only by maternal figures. He spoke through a thick accent to Alex, "How d'ya like the digs, Lexi? We threw it togetha outta bed-sheets, see? Good for the morale, in't it?"

Alex shook his head and lowered his scarf. "No, Jasper, it's not good for morale. It is terrible for morale when enemies on the street can tell who you are and attack you while you're supposed to be making your way quietly across town. Take it down."

Jasper shook his head once with a smile and a waggling finger, "Naw, it's 'Take it Back', Lexi."

Alex wasted no time to reach into the cab and grab Jasper by the collar, his breath hot on the man's face. He was faking it, but the amount of anger in his voice was extraordinary "You know damn well what I mean, Jasper. Take it down or I'll take it down and stuff it up your ass so far you'll look like a pop gun that says 'Take it Back!' instead of 'bang'."

In response to this, Jasper turned quickly and shouted to the men in the back a mixture of similar obscenities laced with a threat. This process continued until someone finally had the sense to reach over one side of the truck and pull in the banner. Satisfied, Alex turned his bike and headed back to Lucas and the others in the truck. Just as he was about to ask Lang for the coordinates of the submarine, the ground in front of him was showered with a spray of bullets. Four identical-looking brown-haired ID-Sols with large rifles had entered the lot and were firing upon the trucks. Alex reeled back on his bike, pulling in reverse to avoid the mystery attackers.

Almost immediately, the other two trucks started and their passengers opened fire on the four ID-Sols, dispatching them easily in a shower of mixed lead and energy. Before they could catch their breath, eight more ID-Sols came in from behind the buildings, four on either side. Alex drew a submachinegun and shouted to the convoy as he sprayed the closest ID-Sol with metal-jacketed death, "Move out, head south!"

Chrys shouldered her machingeun and cocked it. "Eight boogeys! Left to the large building!" She shouted as her training from her time in security bussiness kicked in. She took the safety of her gun off and started firing at the Id-Sols with controlled bursts. So at first NMX are sendind people after them? Cowards.

Chrys also wondered how Ally will cope with firing at human being. Half of her hoped that the cute and innocent looking girl won't fire. It changes you when you kille someone. Not sum tentacled alien but real human, like these Id-Sols. Second half of her wished for Ally to be tought and start killing.

Lang held his fire, his sector wasn't the vector the hostiles had approached on, no point in directing all their attention for a handful of ID-SOLs. His cyberbrain began initiating a point to point communication to Alex's, unsure if the right software was in place Lang attempted a message.

Archie looked out at the last truck in the convoy, the other could get them out but someone had to help cover the rear. Besides, he wasn't here for small fry, let the others use their ammo. He called out to the others in the truck with him “Keep me covered, I'm going over the top!”

Taking a quick peek to make sure there wasn't too much lead in the air, he jumped from the back of the truck with a cry of “, and good hunting!” and sprinted surprisingly fast for his apparent bulk. If their was jiggle it didn't show underneath his clothes.

Alexis leaned back against her tarp-cloaked airbike, the reliable, gunmetal black GP-1 cradled between her knees. The safety was off, and she had loaded fresh AP jacketed rounds into it. It wasn't a sniper's rifle; it was a battle rifle, a combat rifle that could cycle all the way up to full automatic. The 7.62 didn't give much of a kick; it was accurate up to almost 3,000 meters, so long as your aim was steady. Ally had it set to fire single shots.

Bullets plinged off of the bike, as if she were dug down against a dirty trench in some ancient war. Alexis was momentarily startled as the left rearview mirror of her airbike shattered, showering her in glass. Swallowing her anxiety, Alexis managed to flinch only slightly. It was easy to blank her mind under pressure; all she did was focus on the target, and all other things stopped mattering; whether it was on a moving course or a stationary firing range, Ally could keep her calm. However, it wasn't very often that the targets fired back.

And she'd never, ever shot at anyone.

She would have continued to crouch in the bed of the truck, behind her airbike, taking fire and not returning it, if Arch hadn't gone and lept out of the bed like some sort of hero.

"Hey!" she screamed over the din, "You're acting crazy!"

Taking a deep breath, Alexis stood up, swiveled, and settled the butt of her assault rifle snugly against her shoulder. Automatically, she rested her cheek against the peice of tape that she had placed in just the right spot, closed her left eye, and aimed using the hardpoint sights.

Bam.

The casing flew away, the gun's gas blowback hardly jarring her. This was HER gun; the stock was nicked, over and over again, with the story of a dozen competitions won with it. She heard the click distinctly - always had. It was part of the reason she liked the gun so much; because of that singular, unique sound. It eased her.

Bam. Bam.

Somebody would lose a hand, if her aim was true. Someone else would lose a rifle; the third man would get a grazing wound to the knee. But before she could finish the fourth, the truck jarred beneath her, and she had to steady herself. A bullet whizzing by her ear reminded her that she was now standing in full view; the next bump took her down, hard on her ass, and she crawled back to snug against the side of the bike, looking somewhat helplessly at the rest of the group.

Only then did she let out her breath.

"He's crazy!"

Rennik's Rifle had been out since they had gone to the skyscraper. Noone had asked about it, or even noticed it, it seems. He was fine with that; it was all the easier to surprise people. When the shooting started, he was startled badly. Momentarily disoriented, he wildly looked around to see who was shooting. Noticing the ID-Sols, he blanked for a moment, unsure of what was to do. He was pretty positive that they weren't supposed to be there. Then he remembered that he had his rifle out, and it was a simple process after that.

He hit a button on the side of his rifle and loaded a cartridge, a 5 round magazine of .338 magnum rounds; overkill for your average soldier, not the worst but not the best against full armor, but perfect for your average ID-Sol. He stood up on the bed of the truck, the erratic movements and high speed not a problem. That came from years of shooting on the run and just good balance. His first shot would be a dead straight shot at the head of one of the ID-Sols, with a quicker two shots at it's nearest companion...

Chrys' spread with the machinegun took out the four closest ID-Sols and the combined efforts of Ally and Rennik reduced the remaining four to a number that Alex could manage with his submachine gun. He managed to regain balance on his airbike and take out the last ID-Sol just as the passengers of Jasper's truck were helping Archie onto the back.

Seeing that the coast was clear, Lucas headed for the exit, leading the other two trucks behind him, with Jasper's bringing up the rear. Alex stayed behind briefly to whip out his communicator. The implant in his head was rudimentary and bare capable of managing anything other than the functions of his eye, so although he was able to recieve messages, he couldn't send anything back. So, he sent Lang a reply with his communicator while the sound of the trucks faded into the distance.


Alex had added the last part quickly as several strange-looking vehicles blazed past him. He couldn't identify them precisely, but he knew they were not going to help anybody. Without waiting for a reply to his message, Alex shot off on his bike following behind the strange vehicles as they gained on the trucks. Some of them followed close behind Jasper's truck in the back, and there were two of the ID-Sol look-alikes in each one of them along with a pair of rapid-fire turrets, which now began engadging the trucks.

In Jasper's truck, most of the passengers ducked behind the sides of the bed, some firing their ODMs and Little Killers over the side at the bizzare buggies. A few of them simply slumped onto the floor, having already caught the worst they had too offer. Archie could see from his place in that truck a perfectly clear shot at the drivers of the buggy directly behind them.

In the middle truck, things weren't going so good. Those in Lucas' truck looking back at it would notice that most of its passengers were wearing white labcoats or blue coveralls. Very few of them were firing back, and they had very low quality weapons.

Alex was still gaining on them, far behind the whole group.

Archie grunted as he was hauled into the truck, rifle and all.

"'Chaps." he greeted with a small nod to some of the more stunned faces, before turning to keep watch on the back of the truck. As the trucks pulled out of the parking lot he saw the strange vehicles catching up.

He lined up his rifle and fired, the bullet dinged off the transparent duranium of the turret shield, the ID-Sol behind it not even blinking. Archie frowned and and opened the bolt on his weapon, the spent bullet dinging out, Arhie hated wasting bullets. He reached into his breast pocket and revealed a red tipped bullet, obviously something special.

He shoved the red tip into the chamber and closed it, by now the cars were right on top of them. He aimed downwards this time and fired, one of the front wheels on the buggy behind them exploded into flame, almost tipping the vehicle over. The wounded machine tilted sideways with a god-awful noise and fell behind.

Not stopping to look Archie pulled out his next trick, a very short "sawn-off" double-barreled shotgun. He broke it open and slotted in two of the shells from the stripper on his forearm and flicked it closed again. Standing up he pointed the weapon over the side of the truck with one hand and fired into the drivers compartment with both barrels.

CHrys quickly let her machinegun on the floor of the truck bad and slinged quickly her shotgun across her back. "Excuse me coming through," she run through the truck bed between her surprised allies and jumped. One second of flight and she landed on the truck behind them. On of her legs slipped though and she hald fell, half landed on the truck-bed full of civilians.

"Heads down folks!" she shouted and jumped on her feet. Her side hurt a little, but it was nothing that would slow her by much. Her shotgun slided in her hands and she turned the barrel against the buggy on the left side of the truck aiming at the driver. Eat lead! She though and fired at his upper torso.

Lang looked back just as CHrys went airborne and cursed at her for leaving her sector unmanned.

"Repositioning!" he said while lifting the MG lugging it to the back of the truck with the intent to setup in the bed's corner. Glancing toward his allies Lang shouted, "Alexis! Get CHry's machine gun back up! You can handle it and we need all the fire volume we can get!".

Turning his attention back to his own weapon he set the bipod just over the edge and went prone, shouldering the stock and setting the red dot on the closest vehicle's turret. With a small breath Lang squeezed his trigger, sending a stream of heavy 9.3mm bullets into the delicate mechanisms that operated the NMX turret weapon.

Alexis swung the GP-1 over her shoulder by the strap and half-crawled, half-stumbled her way over to the discarded machine gun. As best as she could, with a bit of exertion and a balance she wasn't aware she'd had a minute ago, Ally got it back on its tripod and settled into its grip in the bouncing truck.

Then, she took a deep breath. She was a sharpshooter; guns like this were more along the avenue of large bulky people with armpit hair and breath smelling like acrid booze. Or at least some actual military experiance. Squaring herself off and bracing on her leg, she eased her finger around the trigger and sighted in.

When she started firing, the recoil hurt, but she kept the sights as steady as she could on the nearest machine in her little firing range. But she couldn't bear the full auto function for very long; soon, she adopted a burst pattern that spared her shoulder and allowed her to aim better.

While Archie and Chrys has each removed a vehicle by themselves through carefully targeting the drivers, it was the steady stream of machinegun fire that really did the trick. It started with the front-most vehicle on the left side of the trucks being put out of commision. The resulting game of buggy-dominoes threw a rolling mass of twisted metal away from the convoy. The drivers, all being well-disciplined, kept their wits and their trucks on the road as the strange buggies tossed about chaotically around them and down the roadway. There was an awful sound of scraping and slamming from the projectiles flying backwards, and the passengers in the trucks would have to hold on tight to keep still while the drivers swerved delicately around at intense speeds.

There remained a single buggy panting along behind them, firing straight at the rear-most truck. This action effectively pinned Archie and his fellow passengers in on the back of the rear-most truck. Bullets pinged off of metal around their heads. It was only a matter of time before the turrets scored a hit on the tires and brought the truck to a certain halt.

---

Meanwhile, Lucas was screaming obscenities up front as his eyes caught sight of a roadblock ahead, consisting of more buggies. He shouted warning to the passengers of his truck, "Hold on to somethin' everybody, we're about to bust through something big!" There was very little to no time to react with the roadblock coming up so fast, except for Rennik who was still in a relatively secure position, having yet to fire on the buggies. Everyone else would have to try and prepare for impact as quickly as possible.

---

Over the last few legs of rolling firefight, Alex had finally managed to catch up to the convoy. He skillfully dodged the now-driverless vehicles tumbling along the road behind him and formed up with the rest of the convoy. He had his sights set on the final buggy as it trailed close behind the rear-most truck, and he was quick approaching firing range.

CHrys quickly put her shotgun across her backs on a sling. She then looked forward. Roadblock was getting near very fast. First truck will be one burst through but ther truck won't have it too easy as well. "Ladies and gentlemen! Hold tight, we are going to have some road difficulties." She shouted and techies and laborants on the truck-bed. SHe hersfel quickly caught tight and prepared herself for any impact. Ba her other hands, she caugt a techies sitting in center of truck, who had nowhere to hold.

Rennik didn't feel comfortable shooting at the buggies that had been riding along the trucks. Granted, being shot at made anyone uncomfortable, but he didn't feel comfortable shooting at the light vehicles, especially if one wrong placed should could send them careening into the caravan.
He hadn't come this far in his brief existence by making unsure shots.

Rennik breathed a quiet sigh of relief when the others on the trucks further behind took care of the buggies; he had a track record of not getting innocent people killed that he would prefer not to take chances on. But suddenly, Lucas was yelling at people to hold on. Rennik turned to see the barricade, and he only had one shot to get them through.

Immediately ejecting the magazine in his rifle, he swiftly replaced it with a blue one that he kept on the last pouch of his bandoleer. The magazine contained very special rounds.

"Lucaaas!! Keep Driving!!!!" he roared over the sound of gunfire and vehicles. Immediately in front of the the truck caravan, there were 3 buggies, with 6 ID-Sols shooting. Rennik fired 3 shots. There were 3 powerful explosions, and suddenly the amount of ordinance being fired at the caravan was considerably lessened.

If they struck, Alexis was going to slide, and slam into the side, and probably get thrown or knocked unconscious or something equally as unpleasant if she didn't do something. The GP-1 might even be damaged! She had gone to such lengths getting an original issue even the thought of scratching the gunmetal finish was horrifyingly gut-wrenching.

Weighed against her sense of self-preservation that was a silly concern; but it had crossed her mind, anyway.

Alexis scrambled for purchase in the back of the truck as it careened along, her boots sliding in the metal bed. The machine gun was not suitable for steadying herself either, since it was free-floating as well, and the roll bar was too high for her to grab at the moment, crouched as awkwardly as she was. So she grabbed onto the only other thing in arms reach - somebody else.

The other machine gunner, to be precise.

Lang had wrapped his now free arm around the roll cage bar that came to rest in the corner of the bed, right next to his firing position. When he felt a grip on his leg he looked over to see the gunsmith holding on for dear life as the truck slammed into the barricade, acting on reflex he reached over and grabbed the scruff on the back of the small woman's attire and pulled her snug against him. Both held on for dear life as the truck continued it's insane path.

The first truck opened the door for the rest. Lucas gripped hard the steering wheel in front of him as he felt the vehicle smash through the first of what they would soon realize was many barricades. The whole frame of the vehicle shook while its mass decimated the already damaged buggy blocking its path. Shards of blackened metal and a hailstorm of charred components rained upon the passengers of the first truck. Lucas grunted in pain as one very hot steering wheel rolled across his face and over the back of the truck, leaving a long black streak across his features. The truck swerved, but Lucas maintained his discipline and kept it on the road.

Behind them, the second and third trucks sailed smoothly through the road block and formed up in a line. Jasper sent word down to Archie to look out, having seen a shape in his rear-view mirror. Sure enough, as they'd passed through the road-block, two battle-pods disembarked from either side of the road and took chase. They started off by firing on Alex as he gained on the final buggy.

Alex swerved hard to avoid their fire, watching boredly as they filled the final buggy with lead. He saw the ID-Sol behind the driver's controls slump over, now filled with an exotic amount metals. Without waiting to check on the gunner, he throttled the airbike hard and caught up with Jasper's truck. The blue LED flashed while it acquired targets for him. He could see that there were two more roadblocks ahead, though even with his cybernetic vision couldn't tell what they were composed of. Choosing instead to focus on the here-and now, Alex flipped a switch for repulsor-reversing, and spun around in the air. He was now going backwards, his submachine gun pointed right at the battlepods. A quick burst told him they were impervious to his current weapon, so he began the slow process of switching out to his HHG, calmy calculating their firing range and reload rate as he worked.

Up ahead, the people on the first truck could see another road block coming. This time, it had two rows of buggies, and even more ID-Sols already peppering them small-arms fire. This time, they also had time to react, though. Lucas slamned down the accelerator and pressed on.

In the second truck, a thick, meaty hand grabbed Chrys from on side, and yanked the weapon from her hand. One of the ID-Sols from the buggies had grabbed onto the truck as his buggy flew out from underneath him. She could see he had brown eyes and brown hair, and numerous tiny scratches from the engagement thus far. He also wore a wicked grin as his legs came over the side of the truck, swinging hard for her head.

"Bugger!" CHrys shouted when hand suddenly appeared and caught her. It startled her, but when she saw who caught her she quickly regained her senses. Especially because leg was coming for a kick. She was not sure she would be able to block a kick from Id-sol so she just quickly crouched and pulled herself back under the swinged leg.

Id-sol was still holding her hand. "YOu choosed to mess with bad girl wanker!" CHrys shouted at him while she used her strength and leverage. Quick yank of her hands towards his and know it was her holding his wrist. He could try same trick, but unlike her he was hanging on side of tha truck and CHrys was ready for this trick. She then swung her other hand towards his head, trying ot catch him so she can give him proper knee-full into his face.

//start//

As the last buggy exploded Archie ventured his head up from the bed of the truck, his moustache twitched as he saw the two battlepods begin the chase after them. The other passengers in the truck were drawing away towards the back, huddling up against the wall in fear of the imminent missle-driven doom.

Archie turned to see if any were resolute enough to help him. "One requires a larger weapon, methinks." he asked "Is there one suitable?" hoping someone was carrying something that could scratch the large pods.

At first, no one stepped forward. Soon, one of the men in back stuck his head into the cab to ask Jasper. After receiving a firm back-handed slap, the man came back, pulling behind him a large case. The frightened streeter stepped forwards on wobbly feet with the case in front of him, laying it firmly at Archie's feet with a nod before skittering back to his spot. The battle pod not occupied by Alex closed in on the movement.

Archie raised an eyebrow at this display of near pants-wetting by the rest of the group in the truck. He quickly flipped open the case to reveal some kind of rocket launcher with the Paragon logo on it. He took it out somewhat gingerly, nodding appreciatively as he quietly thanked the Paragon mercenary for being with them.

He'd used devices such as these on prior occasions, for the biggest game, but this was a sight more primitive to what he was used to. He looked over his shoulder at the advancing battlepod and decided there was no time for hesitation, he grabbed one of the rockets from inside the case and slotted it into the tube.

Man and battlepod faced off as Archie stared at it through the sights on his rocket launcher from the back of the the speeding truck, they fired. A white spray of smoke and a roar erupted from the pods belly. Archie stood aiming his weapon a second longer, the enemy missile closing in, then fired. The rocket flew out of its tube with a roar of its own to match the missile. The two white lines visible for half a second before colliding right between the truck and the battlepod.

It was one hell of an explosion. The asphalt of the road cracked in, pieces of metal dinged off the truck in a few places, and a ball of flame appeared tomake an attempt to singe Archies moustache right off his face.

Luckily Archie was only blown back by the concussion and flopped into the back of his truck with a loud grunt, rocket tube landing nearby.

The battlepod took some damage as well, briefly losing control from the explosion it collided with a passing overhead sign and ripped through it, gaining a few scraps of metal stuck onto its hulls, and a thin trail of black smoke emerged from one of its engines. It had fallen behind its partner but quickly resumed the chase.

//stop//