Brotherhood of the Machine (IC Thread) [PG/14] {03}

[Lisky]

Darkshine leveled his scope on the closest of the halted scout-cars while comming Morgan, "Think you can stop the big one, or should i re-prioritize targets?"  His tone, flat and level, as he line the cross-hairs of his scope up with the center mass of a brotherhood zealot.  He gently depressed the trigger, sending another heavy 12.7mm slug down range.

[Sprocketsdance]

Chance stopped firing the machine gun for a moment, crouched back for her plasma riffle and sent off three shots towards the oncoming vehicles. Then went back to spraying them with bullets.

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx kept up his strafing after one vehicle overestimated the power of his plasma shots and wound up crashing itself desperately trying to avoid them (something Jexx found inherently amusing). However, even though his plasma wasn't very effective over distances, the fire he kept up should be enough to make sure those goons taking cover behind the vehicle stayed in cover. During that, Jexx scanned ahead, looking for any possible path down the hillsides that had reasonably enough cover to at least allow him to get into a position to flank the crashed vehicles, if not get behind them.

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan stood at the entrance, glancing around.  So far the others seemed to be keeping the Brothers at bay, which was all to the good.  He took a chance and ran back into the works.
"How's progress?" he called.  "Anything I can do?"

[Azlan]

Morgan had already zeroed in on the large vehicle and switched to his API (Armor Piercing Incendiary - designed to penetrate armor and fill the space beyond with incendiary material).  His AMR2000 had an amazing penetration of 40mm of rolled homogeneous steel armor, so getting through such armor should be possible easily.

He took aim and engaged hoping for better results than earlier.

Darkshine, I have the large target.  Continue to engage other targets keep people pinned down as muxh as possible.

[Ryudo Lee]

Morgan's shot went clean through the larger vehicle's cab, but didn't stop it's progress.  Darkshine, and Jexx, and Chance's attacks were able to take down a few more of the grunts near the lighter vehicles.  The grunts from the other vehicles that hadn't been shot down by Darkshine, Jexx, and Chance all took cover behind their crashed vehicles and returned fire as best they could.  It was quickly becoming a stalemate, except for the larger vehicle barraling towards them.

The transmitter shattered only after a few shots from Fet's assault.  It sparked and there was a puff of smoke, and the signal instantly died.  It was nothing more than a little spy device, not much armor on it.

Activity in the ruins went quiet except for deep within, where the most excitement was.
"It won't be long now!" A voice from inside cried out.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Fetrethar started back slightly as the device disintegrated, but after a short moment, it became apparent that it didn't have any sort of dying retaliatory ability. After a short pause, to think, the small man scuttled over to a fragment of the device, and trusting the heat resistance in his gloves, seized it, and put it in one of his pouches at his belt. A poor trophy, to be sure, since the thing did not really defend itself, but still, it was a victory against the enemy.

The rumble of fire below him on the mountain slope reminded him that he might yet collect a more prestigious trophy yet, but for now, there was duty to endure. Clicking on his headset, he coughed out "eliminated enemy transmitter. Should I head out back to my previously prepared position, or head into the fray?"

Either way though, he'd have to go downslope, and started picking his way down the mountain face, trying to attract as little attention as possible.

[Tapewolf]

 "Dig seems to be going well." Dorcan reported over the comms. "What's the situation outside?"   In other words, are we going to need to evacuate at a moment's notice? he added mentally.

[Lisky]

Darkshine adjusted his zoom on the scope for a more panoramic view, hunting for the darting zealots as they moved from cover to cover, often times blind-firing in the general direction where they thought people were.  Darkshine waited for a target to pop up, carefully lining his sights up, hoping the zealot would stay out just a few moments more as he depressed the trigger again.

The weapon roared, then bucked slightly as Darkshine began to slew the rifle onto a new target, whether or not his round actually hit, the shell whizzing by the soldier's head would make him think twice about standing up again.

[Sprocketsdance]

Grunting in frustration Chance replied to Dorcan's inquisition as she continued to fire at whatever would pop out of cover long enough to get a piece of metal lodged into their skull.

"We got most of them to hold back, but they're still pretty angry with us. One vehicle still coming... hrm.. should take care of that."

She crouched back, grabbed her plasma rifle and sent six shots towards the on-coming vehicle.

[Tapewolf]

"Roger," Dorcan replied.  "Let me know if it looks like they'll break through."

[Azlan]

We should be able to hold them back.  Concentrate on keeping them pinned down, let the snipers and big guns concentrate on taking them out.  Though by all means take a shot of opportunity if one presents itself.

Morgan poured three more shots into the front of the vehicle with Armor Piercing incendiaries.  Saving a few rounds of the incendiary, he switched back to AR rounds and concentrated on taking out engine mechanical, tires and drive-train.  Something had to be moving this vehicle and this weapon could penetrate 40mm of rolled homogeneous steel armor.  It was just a matter of time.

[Ryudo Lee]

After a few more fell to Darkshine, Chance, and Jexx's attacks, the remaining few grunts behind the overturned vehicles resorted to blind firing, sticking only their guns over their cover in the general direction of the ruins and opened fire as best they could.  Their shots were wildly inaccurate and wholly unpredictable, but they kept on shooting anyway.  One of them chanced a peek around the corner of the vehicle nearest to Jexx and fired at him.

The larger vehicle finally bellowed out a stream of black smoke and sputtered to a halt.  The door opened, which the grunt inside used as cover, and fired through the window.  The back of the truck opened and a larger man, clad in black robes adorned with bright red circuit lines and his face covered with the same featureless metal mask, came out carrying a large metal shield and large rifle.  He stuck the shield in the ground and used it for cover.  The rifle whined as it charged and there was a "THOOM" as the round fired, going just over Chance's head into the rock wall behind her, leaving a large black mark, surrounding a hole.  The remaining grunts cheered, and followed his example.  Gaining renewed vigor, they came up over their cover and opened fire again.

Around that time, an excited voice came up from the ruins.
"This is it!  I have it!  Give me the box, now!"
Ms. Clay came to the entrance, but didn't stick her head out.
"We're ready to move as soon as you guys are!" She cried out to Dorcan.

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan's heart leapt.  He thought for a moment - was it worth him personally carrying the crystal himself, on the grounds that he was less easy to kill?  The idea of then driving off into the sunset with the others and leaving the dig team stranded made him smile and he shook his head.

"Stay here for now," the Doberman said.  "The crystal is important but our main objective was to protect Dr. Woodworth.  And his staff," he added hastily.  "Your own safety aside, we may need to consider sealing the entrance with explosives to deter the Brotherhood from taking the site.  We can get you out of here but we don't really have the manpower to defend it indefinitely, I'm sorry to say."

"Okay," he asked over the comms.  "We are ready to leave.  Are you providing cover, or should we wait for the current wave to end?"

[Sprocketsdance]

"F--K!  WAY TOO CLOSE!" Chance could only blink once at the large hole that now was behind her... taunting her saying 'heh, heh.. you're next.' Grumbling a bunch of curses she put down her metallic friend, laid down, rolled onto her back, lifted her hips ever so slightly as she unbuckled her belt and slid it from the loops on her pants. She rolled back onto her belly, raised to a low crouch, and carefully strung the belt through the loops for the triggers. Before tightening the belt to depress those triggers she replied to Dorcan over the comm.

"Well.. some fruit cake just paraded out and shot a freakin' hole into the rock behind me.. looks like he has a shield too.  If we can take out that pompous prick we'd be set, but honestly I wouldn't let anyone out of any sort of cover at the moment. That's just my opinion, though. Perhaps the others have a better viewpoint."

With that she tightened the belt, setting the machine gun into a constant fire, and dragged her plasma rifle to point at them between the turrets as she lowered herself to her stomach. She'll have to have a nice, relaxing time cleaning her rifle after this.. hopefully. Chance swayed the machine gun from side to side, spraying the jerks while she concentrated her plasma fire on the flamboyantly robed bas***d.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Still making his way downslope to a firing position, Fetrethar was in a position of relative calm to make tactical assessments.


Most of the hostiles were simply firing blindly, although still active, and that meant a breakout would either have to be armored, or allow for saturation fire to keep them suppressed. Some sort of heavily armed enemy had just entered the fray, and a lot of the baddies seemed to look to him for leadership, ceasing fire to admire the cannon-like instrument in progress.


Thumbing on his communicator, he stated. "I agree with Chance's assessment, provided we can keep the hostile grunts in a panicked state. It would not do if we were out of cover when they decided to fire for real. Furthermore, do we have any information as to how many enemy vehicles might be able to mount pursuit? I am still worried of a sort of loose blockade, one we can't see.


Either way, we need to take down that leader. He seems to have some sort of odd shield. Would it be vulnerable to plasma fire? I am certain I could kill him with my gloves, but, I don't think I can get close enough to him to grab him, not in the open like this. Still, descending to a firing position. If we can fire at him from two directions, he won't be able to block both at once."


Making his way from rock to rock, Fetrethar clambered down, trying to reach a firing position unobserved.

[Lisky]

Darkshine hadn't been watching for Jexx's approach.  Instead, he'd been watching for anyone to stick more than a rifle out and spray.  The large 'man' walked out from the smoking wreck carrying a shield that looked more like the front end of a tank, than a shield, and Darkshine couldn't get a clear shot.  However the metal-plate on leg's mere presence seemed to instill more courage in the foolish grunts.  One clambered out of cover to get a shot at someone somewhat nearby,  the zealot's rifle was raised and his attention was one someone else.  Darkshine lined the cross-hairs up with the man's throat, and depressed the trigger.  He then fired the rest of the magazine into the surrounding Zealots. 

As the 10th and final casing came to rest under the camouflaged netting, the spotted feline clicked his comm unit, "Morgan, Darkshine here, I had an idea about how to take this guy down, but it'll take some very expert timing.  The next time he pops back up to take a shot, i'll try and knock him back with shot, see if you can't drop a shot clean through while he's still recovering...  The problem is, you'll have to guess where his head and body are going to end up..."

As he finished passing along his plan, Darkshine unlatched the magazine, setting it gently in his rifle-bag, retrieving the still loaded mag, inserting it into his weapon, and cambering the first round.

[Tapewolf]

"Looks like we may be here a little while," Dorcan said, glancing at the dig team.  "If there's any tools or stuff you've left on-site, there's still time to pick it up."

[techmaster-glitch]

   As Jexx was ducking, dodging, and always moving erraticaly, one of the zealots caught sight of him and loosed some fire his way. The bullets whizzed by and impacted the area around him as he passed behind a tree. Jexx immediately twisted his body to return more concentrated fire, but just as he finished the volley and began focusing forward again, he noticed that the zealot's head suddenly jerked around as bullets impacted that general area. That was good.
   The thing that was not-so-good, however, was that Jexx noticed that a large Enforcer was in the Brotherhoo'ds midst, and-
   THOOM!
   -he had a really big gun. Fortunately, that shot had not been aimed at Jexx, but...that kind of heavy-impact, large-area-effect weapon was the most dangerous kind to the completely unprotected Jexx. If it was turned towards him, he would be in big trouble...
   Jexx was now almost perpendicular to the Brotherhood position in relation to where his allies were, and running out of cover fast. Putting on a last burst of speed, Jexx quickly dove behind the nearest thing just barely big enough to conceal his curled-up form, a small bush, and held still. Hopefully, he had escaped notice of that Enforcer, and the Zealot that caught sight of him wouldn't be telling anyone else. If not, well...running wouldn't be much more help than the bush.

[Azlan]

From above the action, the still concealed sniper observed the change in events.  The large man in robes appeared to be a leader, and his actions renewed the determination of the remaining grunts.

Morgan smiled to himself and thought out-loud into the comms, If we can take down the big guy... Oh, that actually is a good idea... everyone, focus all your attacks on that big robed guy.  Taking him out should break morale somewhat, plus with that cannon, we will not be able to make a run for it too safely.

He took stock of his ammunition supplies and marked off his AP Incendiaries, having just used up the remainder.  He still had two clips of HEAP and more than enough of the standard KEPs.  Loading the first clip of his High Explosive Armor Piercing rounds, he brought his cross hairs on target for the large, cannon wielding, robed person and fired quickly spreading shots between head and upper torso.  Rounds that penetrate armor and then explode are considered excessive on soft targets, but Morgan had a feeling the big guy was more akin to a tank than an infantry soldier.  Good thing he uses an anti-materiel rifle.

[Ryudo Lee]

The larger soldier, with more agility than it appeared that he actually had, dropped to a kneeling position behind the shield, just as Darkshine's and Morgan's rounds penetrated the vehicle and his shield, missing him by just a tiny bit.  Morgan's round exploded over his head, causing black marks on his mask and making the hood of his robe to burn, revealing that his mask was a full helmet.  He pulled a lever on his rifle, it made a loud clack as it ejected a fat steaming shell, which hit the ground with a thud.  He pushed the bolt back in which loaded up another shell and primed the rifle.  This took some time, and he stayed behind cover while the rifle charged.  Unnoticed by him, as he worked the rifle, the underside of the rifle was sparking.

The grunts renewed their attack, but quickly dived back behind cover when Chance's spray reminded them that they weren't fighting unarmed civilians.  One of grunts caught sight of where Jexx had gone and patted his comrade's shoulder and pointed to where Jexx was hiding.  They both started firing on Jexx's position.

A voice came up from the ruins.
"We have everything we need!  We can leave now!  What's the situation out there?"

[Tapewolf]

"It still looks pretty evenly matched out there," Dorcan said, taking a quick peek out of the end of the tunnel.  "We did have a warbot on our side at one point, but I guess there must be a problem there.
"Anyway, I think we'd better say here for now.  In the meantime, what artifacts have you actually obtained, and what do you hope to learn from them?"

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Nobody seemed to be paying much attention to him, on either side of the battle. No new orders or information flooded in from the headset, and the chafe and heat from that armor vest the quartermaster had doled out seemed to be a wear on him this battle. Still, better to have and not need, than need and not have, he supposed. But the hostiles weren't even firing at him, although Fetrethar did not feel bold enough to walk normally, instead dashing in a crouch from covered position to covered position.

Finding what he wanted, Fetrethar went prone, poking the end of his rifle out from some wiry scrub. He had skirted the worst of the battlespace, and now had a bead on that big one, the one with the shield and what looked like a portable cannon of some sort. No matter how quickly he moved his iron pavise, he wouldn't be able to cover both Fetrethar's vantage point and the one's firing from near the dig. As of the moment though, he was ducked against the barrier, reloading his massive weapon.


Smiling grimly, Fetrethar suppressed a war cry, took aim at the large figure, and opened fire with his plasma rifle.

[Lisky]

Rather than try and take down the shield, Darkshine tried taking out the weapon.  Looking for signs of the large cannon from behind the shield, whether it be sights, barrel, or grip.  If the weapon was taken out of action, that should crush the rest of the opposition's will to fight.

Tapping his headset, Darkshine sent on the team channel, "Things are at a stalemate, if people aren't ready to move, i'd recommend getting them to do so.  I'd like to pack up and head out as quickly as humanly possible." 

[techmaster-glitch]

   As bullets and bolts started impacting around the bush Jexx was hiding behind, all he could think was Well, at least it's not the Enforcer's gun...
   Since he couldn't return fire effectively, and those small, powerful bolts wouldn't be stopped by the itty-bitty bush, Jexx was rather trapped. However, there was one thing he could do, he laid on his back and drew up his metal legs in front of him, facing the Zealots shooting him, creating something of a shield, as any glancing shots should just bounce off the meal of his legs. He vaugely remembered doing something similar to this, some time ago...

[Tapewolf]

"We are definitely ready to move out," Dorcan confirmed to Darkshine over the comms.  "But our mission was to safeguard the professor.  I can't risk these people's lives if it's still too dangerous."

[Azlan]

We are going to have to take out the Brotherhood forces that are already here.  With their weapons, fleeing would be too risky and we would have to have cover, meaning some of us would have to stay behind.  Dorcan, if you can do it safely, start getting people into the vans and have them prepped so we can get out of here.  Morgan stated over the comms.  DK, can you get a clear shot on the big guy from where you are?

Morgan took aim and angled his shot downward for a penetration that would impact with the lower torso or legs, which should detonate the HE right into the large soldier.  He did have to expose his otherwise nicely hidden position in order to make such an angle, so he prepared to relocated if they attempted to engage him.

[Tapewolf]

"Roger that," Dorcan said, and turned to face the archaeologists.

"Okay," he said, looking very serious.  "I've been asked to try and move us to the vans.  I'm assuming that the Brothers are more interested in taking the site itself than... than eliminating people who have seen it, but I don't know for sure.  So I'm looking for volunteers, I guess.

"I'm no strategist, but I'm thinking that I should escort small groups of people to the vehicles, maybe just one or two each.  I will be on the outside - try and stay so that I'm between the enemy and you.  if I get hit it probably won't be as fatal, or so I hope."

Dorcan paused.  A real 'Cubi would have wings that could be made stop small-arms fire, but he wasn't quite sure if his fake wings were armoured or not.

"Any questions, or suggestions?"

[Ryudo Lee]

There was a silence from the group in the ruins, and then silent murmuring.  It seemed likely that no one wanted to risk their lives.
"Oh for crying out loud, I'll go!" Ms. Clay's voice rang out.
Ms. Clay came out of the ruins.  She was a feline, a grey tabby, with black hair, cropped short, with green eyes.  She stayed just inside the entrance to the ruins.
"What do you need me to do?" She asks.

The larger soldier came back up and angled the rifle towards where he thought the snipers were.  But just as he was about to fire, Morgan's round caught him and the force threw him back, away from his shield, and making his rifle shoot up into the air, harmlessly.  Curses came from the grunts as they realized just how bad of a position they were in.  They were outgunned here, but they were determined to fight on, to choose death over retreat.  They all came up from their positions and started firing randomly at the ruins.

[Tapewolf]

"The vans are in that direction," Dorcan pointed from the edge of the cave.  "I will go in front, I want you to stick close behind me.  Use me as a shield and try to keep yourself hidden as we make our way there.
"We will do that in a moment," he said, noticing that some of the gunmen had made themselves visible.  "First..."

He took a couple of frag grenades from his pile, chose a couple of targets who seemed closest, and threw the grenades at them before ducking back into the cave.  "Hopefully that will reduce our fire a little."  He picked a couple more grenades just in case, and began the journey.