[Prologue] From the Ashes

Trudy was about to continue the conversation with her own remarks about her sister, but the bus plowing into their car stopped her from responding. Trudy managed a groan as the adrenaline started pumping through her veins bringing her back into reality. Quickly glancing around she took a moment to assess the situation, utter chaos was all she could think of.

"OH Shit!" she exclaimed when she saw the limo hit the bus, and quickly tried to make her way out of the damaged car. Using her armored elbow she took a few whacks at the window in an attempt to get out, with the window barely cracking she fired a quick burst from her pistol to finish the job. Knocking out the rest of the glass with her arm Trudy stuck her head out of the car and was greeted with a shotgun blast to the face, knocking her back onto her ass.

Surprised that she wasn't dead, Trudy raised her pistol and fired several rounds into her attacker before trying to get out of the car again.

The impact was intense... Sera only saw clips of what happened. The Van.. glass shattering.. a masked man...

Once the first round hit her everything came back, she was pressed into her seat by the vehicle's chassis that just saved their life. She grabbed the NSP and fought it out of it's make-shift holster.

Each round hitting her she felt it's impact and the force being spread out along her body.

"Get down, everyone!" Sashi shouted at full volume to the Limo's interior as he righted himself with an unsteady foot. He was drawing his NSP and switching it to the heavy setting with one hand while putting an arm over the Mayor's head with the other. Now, all he could do was stay cautious and wait with his eyes on a swivel. If they came in from the top, things would be easiest. If they came in from above, it'd be easiest-- otherwise he might risk injuring the Mayor.

Trudi's NSP started firing its scalar bolts, chewing into the padding her. He did not make a sound as he fell back, while his shotgun clattered on the floor. Trudi did not see anymore targets. Except for the man in front of Sera.

Sera herself was in trouble. She reached for the spot where her NSP was, only it was not there. The force of impact rocketed the pistol who knew where. She only had her armour and its weapon systems now. Luckily for her the Fatboy held by her opponent seemed unable to really damage her armour.

Mayor did exactly as Sashi wanted, he literally jumped to the floor. It was easy to see that the mayor was not fighter. Shisu herself drew her NSP, but remained calm, looking up at the roof.

The limo has been still raising on power not its own. Something was dragging it up. Sashi could hear the bodyguard shouting at the driver to wake up. The cute neko driver seemed to be unsconcious because of the crash.

Sashi whipped his head around on the driver, then quickly shot a glance back at Shisu and made two quick hand signals. He first poked out two fingers at her, and then whipped his NSP wielding hand in the air just above his head. 'You cover this area.' Was the notion.

That done, Sashi crouched and worked his way to the front, stopping to wrap and arm around the Mayor just under his shoulders. Dragging the mayor with one hand, Sashi pulled the sleeping driver from her chair and poked his head out to check the surroundings before giving the ignition a cursory inspection.

After exiting the car, Trudy fired a several rounds from her NSP into the man trying to kill Sera before dashing over to the other side of the vehicle.

"You alright?" she said as she offered her hand to Sera to help her get out.

A grunt was all she could respond with, Sera's chest was screaming in pain. The armor may have stopped the rounds but they still hurt like no other. "Hel...help me outta here..."

The dash and the steering wheel where pinning her legs into place. as she looked down she saw her gun, laying on the floor board by her feet. She was fighting to breath through the pain.

NSP's shots went true and the man fell down to the ground. He had to be very very dead. Trudy quickly climbed out and made her way to Sera's side of vehicle. The doors were bent and stuck. Luckily powered armour was helpful in this case as well as Trudy simply ripped the doors out.

She could now freely pull Sera out. There were more problems though. From behind the bus she could hear more voices and steps. Also the the very noticable clicks of cocked guns.

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Shisu gave a nod to Sashi, her helmeted head looked up at the roof withe her pistol in her hand. She obviously had it covered. Sashi's glimpse into the driver compartment showed him that the driver was indeed out of it. The bodyguard, stopped her attempts at waking the driver.

She drew out her own gun. The good old SEP. As for ignition a simple look at the dashboard told Sashi that the vehicle was without power. It was not going anywhere on its own. Another look told him that they were already at least 20 feet in the air if not more.

"Okay, we're not safe here. Let's find a way out." Sashi whispered to the Mayor tucked under his arm. This, he did more for himself than for the slumped city manager. Without further time wasted on the front of the limo, Sashi returned to the back; dragging the Mayor with him. He whirled a single finger in the air next to his head as he passed between Shisu and the comfy leather seats on his way to the rear-most door.

Then, with whatever military-upgraded Minkan might he could muster, Sashi threw a heavy kick to the door.

with the dash and door out of the way Sera reached down and collected her pistol, but holstered it as she climbed out. With a quick drop to her knee she picked up the weapon the asshole that shot her was using. She nodded to Trudy and pointed to the other side of the Van, motioning to circle around and take them together from two sides. She checked the mag so see the rounds count and then stood waiting for her partner to get into position.

Nodding to her partner Trudy made kept her pistol at the low ready as she made her way around the opposite side of the van. Once in position she signaled her Sera that she had her covered. As she waited for her to move up, Trudy tried to sneak a glance around the van to see what they were up against.

Finally out of the car Trudy and Sera could see what was going on. The bus was well rammed into the side of their Classico car. The sounds they could hear were just behind the bus. A quick glance over their shoulder showed them that the limo was gone and further in the back was other patrol. It's front was on fire and Araiah with Andrea retreated into close alleyway and were returning fire to some figures further down the street.

They could also see what was going on with the limo. Over it was another Kouteki Grav-bus, same as the one that rammed Trudy's and Sera's car. From under it were two cables that were magnetically attached to the limo. On the Limo itself was a man in graycoloured Cyclone Armour. An old PA made by Zen Arms.

Suddenly the side doors of the limo opened. Rather abrubtly as someone inside applied power-armoured foor at them. Sashi kicked the doors and thanks to his PA it flew away. As he peeked out, he felt something grabbing him by a collar and draggin him out of the limo. He felt as if he flew for a bit until he landed. He found himself on the roof of the large limousine. Few meters in front of him stood a man in Cyclone armour.

"Looks like I get me to kill a piggie today," he said. In his hand was a Lorath Hand Cannon. The gun fired and flew at Sashi, hitting him in the shoulder and richoting away. Sashi's Junsa Armour might have been light, but it was still a power armour. Hand cannon was powerful gun, but it was mean to shoot people, not armoured vehicles.

Sashi was okay. Only thing damaged was shoulder of the uniform, he put over the armour. The gun made a large tear in it. The man in Cyclone holstered his gun as he saw it did nothing. Instead he 'cracked' knuckles of his massive gauntlets. "Looks like we have to do it the hard way piggy." He said with an evil laughter.

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Back to Trudi and Sera who watch the beggining of the showdown on top of the limo. They had their own trouble. As the girls were getting into the position the enemy meanwhile managed to exit the bus.

Trudi managed to get around the Bus to peek at what the duo was up against. She saw four men and one woman, all wearing body armour and various anti-personell weapons. Shotguns, rifles, a chainsaw and more.

Sera meanwhile hefted her newly acquired Fatboy. The counter on the side showed it still had 87 rounds ready to be dispersed on anyone who would try to fuck with Sera. Sera was ready to peek out on the other side of the bus, but she did not get chance.

Suddenly the glass bursted and out of the bus jumped a Steve. The robot landed right on Sera dragging her on the ground. And by another shatter of glass she could hear following the first one, it would not be alone.

"M-my uniform..." Sashi did a pretty good job of ignoring the bruiser who'd torn into him with the handcannon. "Y-you... I just had this thing pressed for my new assignment! And my boots! You scuffed my boots! I spent all morning polishing them to look nice!"

It was with embittered tears in his eyes that Sashi stood up and stood his ground. He locked fierce eyes with the overconfident enemy and stomped right up to his opponent, letting out a tiny effiminate grunt as he leveled a full-strength hay-maker right at the spot where the brute's head was.

A Chainsaw? That's highly impractical... she thought to herself before hearing the crash behind her, and turned around to see the robot standing on top of her partner.

"SERA!!" She screamed before thumbing her NSP to heavy and unloading several shots into it, slowly advancing toward it while firing. She would be dammed if she lost anyone on her watch or her first day for that matter.

Cussing a few time and grunting after she bounce against the ground, Sera worked her new gun up to the belly of the attacker and let off a few burst into it.

"Trudy watch out for the second behind it!" She hollered between bursts.

Sashi did not make much of an impact with his scream. "Bring it fairy!" Replied the brute, who found himself being caught of guard as an armoured fist flew in and hit him right in the helmet. The man leaned back and waved his hand to catch a balance.

"You little bitch!" He then shouted and hit Sashi straight at the belly with low hook. Sashi was sent stumbling backwards from the force of the hit. His armour took the hit well, but it still moved back. Luckily he caught onto the wire attached the limousine.

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As Trudi raised her gun she could see Steve-bot laying on top of Sera as they were wrestling. Indeed there was seconds target. A second Steve infantry bot who jumped out of the bus, right between Sera and Trudi. Right in the way of flying heavy shot from the NSP.

The explosion was quiet magnificient, as the shot hit some thing on the robot's vest which caused even bigger explosion than normal heavy shout would make. Sera found herself free as the Steve laying on top of her flew away.

Trudi had a worse luck as the explosion sent her to the ground and dazed her. She also lost her NSP. Then came the shrieking sound of the engine as Trudi, woke up from her daze she could see a large man with assault-vest carrying an industrial chainsaw. Impractical but deadly. The engine revved and the chain started rotating as the saw was sent down. It hit right at Trudi's shoulder and bit into it, starting to cut its way trough.

Sashi didn't respond with words, bust instead chose to throw another powerful horse-kick to his armored opponent; using the thick steel cable as leverage for his powered blow.

Trudi hit the ground hard after the explosion knocked her back, her vision fading for a brief moment before she was jarred awake by a high pitched whining noise. It was like something out of one of the horror movies she'd been forced to watch as the large man started to cut away at her shoulder, causing Trudi to scream out in fear as she felt the whirring blade cut though her protective suit. Realising she didn't have her side arm, and knowing she had precious few seconds before the armor let way to flesh, Trudi kicked as hard as she could with her free leg into her assailants crotch.

Sera was laying there on her back semi-stuned from the fact the robot just was ripped from off of her. Sighing she was about the just lay there for a moment when she heard the chainsaw rev up. looking over she saw the guy get kicks but she leveled her Fatboy on his back and let go a burst of rounds at him... He wasn't going to hurt her partner.

Trudi's assailant recoiled fiercely from her blow and stumbled backwards with his chainsaw waving about in the air. He shook the daze from his face and readied himself to charge. If his momentum was right, Trudi's now-famous crotch-seeking missle-boot wouldn't matter; he'd just mow through her with his twirling durandium teeth.

Of course, this wasn't really possible with a hail of Fatboy pulses coming his way. The chainsaw dropped to the ground as the armored brute made swatting motions against the stinging impacts-- doing the city a little favor by starting work on a new drainage ditch.

That's about the time when all the robots fell over. They'd been doing pretty well on getting up and reattaching a few fallen peices here and there but now, suddenly, they all fell at once. At the same time, each and every baddy stopped what he was doing, even the driver of the van. They all looked straight up at the sky for the briefest of moments-- listening to a voice in their mind. A shared glance passed between them, then the gas grenades detonated.

The area flooded with a thick grey smoke which stung unprotected eyes and clouded protected ones. Aluminum shards peppered the air, throwing off HUDs and crippling wireless communication. And in the thick of it all, the van loaded up its goons and swooshed away; leaving the limo, the mayor, and the unluckiest team of YNP agents in the galaxy behind to clean up the mess.