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

[Lisky]

As soon as the big guy fell over, Darkshine lined his cross-hairs up with the oddly featureless helmet.  He held his breath, steadying himself.  He depressed the trigger slowly while exhaling.  He felt the recoil ripple through his shoulder, the vapor trail of the round still visible in his scope.  With any luck, the round should hit about center mass...  If not, he was already adjusting for windage and drop.

Darkshine's focus was the big guy.  Once he was gone, the smaller troops could be taken out in short order.

[Sprocketsdance]

Seeing the big guy go down, Chance almost let out a 'whoop'.. but as things would have it.. his fall seemed to make the grunts act like cornered animals.

"Ffffffffff"

She continued her rigged machine gun spray with one hand and with the other shot 5 more plasma shots towards the closest grunts.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Fetrethar kept to his position, and smiled grimly as the grunts began to charge. Stupid of them, really. Whomever the Brotherhood had running this siege didn't really seem the two way nature of an extraction. They should have called up more force and Fetrethar wasn't sure why they weren't. Perhaps they didn't understand what exactly they were trying to accomplish here.


Still, that was for analysis after they got back. For now, Fetrethar shifted aim to the closest grunt and opened fire on the unprotected warriors. As the plasma burst out towards the rushing figures, Fetrethar wondered how he was going to take trophies from them.

[techmaster-glitch]

   After the bolt stopped flying around Jexx, he quickly took a peek over the bush--and noticed the Brotherhood goons had forsaken their cover and seemed determined to throw as much fire as they could towards the main group up on the hill as the group returned their own fire.
   This was his chance.
   Jexx darted out from behind the bush again, going further in the direction he had been; around and behind the Brotherhood position. He zigzagged as best as he could, running low to the ground, and launched a stream of plasma shots towards the circuit-robed enemies. As Jexx's angle in relation to the group and the brotherhood increased, his shots began coming from the Brotherhood's rear--catching them in quite a crossfire. Hopefully, if the combined fire from everyone on the goon's cover-less forms didn't finish them off now, the crossfire would set that up to happen very shortly...

[Azlan]

Morgan focused his scope on the helmet of the big guy.  Silently he swore an oath to whatever powers might listen that the large enemy better not be some shrew in an exoframe and the head was perfunctory.

The fiery haired lad was struck by how ridiculous that sounded as he pulled the trigger firing his AP rounds at that critical location. 

Had he not been lingering on odd thoughts, he would have had more time to be self-conscious about how odd an averaged sized, slight framed male looked firing a 15.2mm weapon from the shoulder.  The Aestralite AMR2000 was meant to be crew-served after all.  The stature of the weapon made him appear like some Section 2 cyborg agent, except he'd be the wrong side of a fratello.

[Ryudo Lee]

The grenades that Dorcan threw exploded near one of the overturned vehicles, which caused it to roll back over, on top of the grunts that were using it as cover.  It's fuel tank exploded at the same time, having been penetrated by a piece of flaming shrapnel.  The grunts on that side died instantly.

Ms. Clay started to follow Dorcan, but flinched at the explosions.  She froze for just a second, and screamed as a round flew over her head, which caused her legs to start moving again, and she resumed following Dorcan... though much closer now.

Morgan and Darkshine's rounds caught larger soldier in his chest and head, leaving visible holes... though no blood came forth.  Though the others couldn't hear it, there was a beeping noise coming from his uniform, and suddenly smoke billowed out from under his uniform as the built-in self-destruct melted his body.

Chance's, Jexx's and Fet's firing on the remaining grunts brought down all but one of the remaining grunts.  He took cover behind the vehicle.  He pressed a button inside his uniform, and cried out for Mother as the self-destruct bomb exploded, destroying the other vehicle and the other grunts in the explosion.

Once the explosions died down, everything fell silent.

[Tapewolf]

"Well," Dorcan said, breaking the sudden stillness, "I guess we don't have to worry about sniper fire anymore.  Guys, can you confirm that everyone's dead?"
To Ms. Clay, he added: "All the same, we should probably hurry - it's only a matter of time before reinforcements arrive, and we probably won't be as lucky next time."

Seeing as they hadn't got very far anyway, Dorcan turned tail and went back into the dig to fetch the others.  If he didn't have to protect them individually, he might as well lead the entire group.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Fetrethar kept prone on the ground, the butt of the rifle issued to him digging into the pit of his stomach as he fired. The weapon was getting uncomfortably hot. Not dangerously so, but enough to produce irritation. It was difficult to ascertain which enemies he had felled in the storm of fire, but he was certain two grunts, those two, were mowed down by his plasma. He noted with some interest that the corpses tended to explode after a short time, although the explosion only usually disintegrated their armor; an odd feat he was unsure of how it was managed.

The battlefield was still and smelly and silent, and his weapon cooled. No further enemy strikes, no further detected presence. Nothingnothingnothing. He didn't realize he spoke aloud until he heard the crackle of his headset repeating his words "Could it really have been that easy?"


Fusting his belt to make sure the shield was back on, Fetrethar stood up, and holstered his firearm and hefted his backpack. Dashing out of cover, he went to the spot where he felled the two enemy warriors, falling almost on top of each other in death. He grinned ghoulishly at the corpses, and reached into his pocket, pulled out a sharp knife. What trophies to take? Neither of them seemed to have any equipment worth salvaging, and he didn't have any preservatives with him, a situation he would need to rectify. Grumbling, he took a tuft of brown hair from one of the grunts, and noting the other was bald, reached into his mouth and jiimmied with his knife a little until he extracted a molar. He shook off some of the blood, and then hurriedly stuffed both artifacts into one of his pouches, and put his knife back where it belonged.

After that, he headed back to the position of the others. Even if this group was completely defeated, there was little point in staying on this rock any longer than necessary.

[Azlan]

We had a small but useful tactical advantage and a lot of luck, but I would not say it was easy.  Anyone injured?  Status report from all teams, please.

As Morgan spoke into the comm, he swept the field from his vantage point and when it seemed fairly clear the enemy was defeated, he shouldered his cannon, and gathered up his few items on the ground.  He was careful to collect each of his spent clips, but he had no casings to collect as the AMR used caseless 15.2mm.  Doing this he managed to miss Fetrethar's barbaric and utterly reprehensible trophy collecting.

Drawing pistols, he took the easy way down as he leaped over the edge and bounded down the slight incline of the cliff face.  To cover greater distance and to break momentum, he made short hops down.  Landing at the bottom, Morgan bounded over to the Brotherhood's convoy line and made a quick search to see if anything or anyone still lived or anything useful remained.

Let us get everyone from the dig loaded up and ready to go.  Dark, can you keep an eye on the horizon for a bit and verify we do not have enemy reinforcements in bound.

[Sprocketsdance]

With panted breath, Chance uttered a curse to the fallen men, she did not realize how much her heart was racing from the stand-off.

"Everything fine here." She replied over the comm, still catching her breath as she packed up her rifle, strapping it to her back again. While stretching her eyes surveyed the destruction, seeing some comrades she felt relief, hoping they were all without injury. The smell in the air was new to her, she sniffed a bit then snorted. Not great.. but at least it's them and not us.

Dusting off her cargo pants she walked down the hill, looking around for anyone left and kicking various leftovers of small fires.

[Lisky]

Scanning the devastation through his scope, Darkshine continued looking for any signs of movement.  He pulled back and scanned with his eyes as well when going for a panoramic view.  He also took note of where the spent casings had landed.

Bringing his head back into position, he clicked his comm-set on, and replied  "Got you covered, just let me know when we're ready to move."

He started scanning the horizon as best he could, checking for signs of additional vehicles.

[techmaster-glitch]

   "Whoohooo!"
  Jexx, as was par for the course with him, whooped and cheered as he rushed for the fallen Brotherhood convoy. When he got there, he made sure to give every corpse a couple of good kicks, just to be sure, and melted the heads off of anything that looked at him funny. When he was done, he ran back up to the group on top of the hills, still bouncing around and high on the excitement.

[Tapewolf]

"I'm fine," Dorcan replied.  "Ms. Clay is a little shell-shocked, but doesn't seem to be physically harmed."

[Darkmoon]

Unlocked at the request of the players.

[Ryudo Lee]

Ms. Clay was definitely shaken from the whole ordeal.
"If I knew it was going to be this dangerous, I would have stayed home!" She exclaimed.
Though she still stayed close to Dorcan, in case there was more danger.

The horizon was still, there was no sign of any approaching vehicles.  The wreckage from the Brotherhood vehicles burned in various places, and the bodies of the Brotherhood soldiers were smoking, their self-destruct mechanisms had all gone off when each had died, rendering their armor and weapons to useless slag.

"Hey out there!  Is it safe yet?" A voice from the ruins called up.

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan glanced back.  Someone had called out from the ruins, but he was too far away and couldn't make out what they'd said.  Maybe someone closer to the cave entrance had...
"Anybody catch that?" he asked over the comms.  "Is there a problem in the ruins?"

His stride slowed in case he needed to run back there, but in the meantime he kept on moving.

[Lisky]

Darkshine clicked his comm-piece "All clear, returning to rendezvous location momentarily... Judging by the size of the force involved, reinforcements could be ready to move shortly, suggest we ex-filtrate at the up-most expediency"

The speckled feline began collecting his gear, carefully packing the rifle into the bag, along with every spent shell casing, every empty magazine and every fresh magazine.  He wanted to leave as little evidence as possible.  After another visual inspection, he brought the carbine out in front, resting the grip in his right hand, while slinging the rifle bag over his shoulder with the left.  He carefully moved down rock-face, working his way back to the dig site.

[Azlan]

Turning towards the direction of Dorcan, he spoke into the comm, "I did not hear that either.  Chance, Fet, Jexx... could one of you check on the dig site and see what they need.  Let us start moving everyone out and into the vans."

Morgan had just finished scragging any obvious or known (he is an embedded systems programmer) computer units within the enemy vehicles and prepared to head towards the dig site.

"Agreed Darkshine, let us mount up and pull out."  He said with a wave and a pointing gesture back towards the road.

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx was still excited and in a good mood from the fight. He didn't say anything as Morgan's voice came over the comm asking him to check out the ruins, and simply did it, running in that direction energetically. When he got there, he skidded to a halt in front of the archeologists.
   "Hey hey, what's up? Anyone need anything?"

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Confident that one of the others would be more suited to dealing with the diggers, Fetrethar made sure that his trophies were secure, and then went to check on the vehicles. Sooner or later they'd need to depart this barren rock, and he was sure that they'd be attacked on leaving, so best be ready.

[Sprocketsdance]

Chance saw a very jubilant Jexx trot about towards the ruins after Morgan's transmission, so at a jog she caught up with him to also check out what was going on. Everyone else seemed set with their own little tasks and without admitting it to anyone she was slightly without a purpose right then.

She just stood a few feet from Jexx, peering about.

[Ryudo Lee]

The people in the ruins were a little taken aback at Jexx's sudden appearance and more so by his jaunty mood.  Chance's appearance was a little more comforting, as they had seen her manning the gun.
"Uh, we were uhh... umm I..." One young man who was covered head to to in dirt, stammered out.
An older man wearing a similarly dirty outfit, wearing a hard hat, and sporting a thick orange mustache with just a few wisps of grey in it pushed his way to the front.  He was carrying a metal box.
"I am Dr. Woodworth, an archeologist of considerable note," He said, putting emphasis on his position, "and I would appreciate it if we could vacate the premises so that I can get back to my laboratory to study my findings."
His tone was one that only hinted at exasperation.

The whole area had gone completely silent as the dust settled.  Dorcan and Ms. Clay would have no problems making it to the van.  Darkshine and Fet would have no problems getting down from their positions.

Morgan's work on the computer systems in the vehicles would go unimpeded.  They were low-priority systems and contained no data of any value.  The systems on the soldiers bodies were already completely fried.

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan led Ms. Clay to the van and hovered for a bit, unsure whether to guard the vans or help with the evacuation.  "What's our policy on leftover weapons?" he asked over the comm.  "I left some grenades by the ruin, should we retrieve them or is our priority to get away ASAP?"

To Ms. Clay, he added, "Is there anything left in the ruin that we need?  Stuff that we couldn't consider bringing while we were under fire?"

[Sprocketsdance]

Chance's expression softened towards the stammering man.. but once the old guy stepped out and said his notes of supremacy, well, her normal glare hardened considerably. She moved next to Jexx.

"Well, Dr. Woodsworth, forgive us for being so slow.." Much acid was put into her words. ".. we had to bring out your red carpet... and didn't want your assistants' blood and your own to stain it."

Her fists tightened. How dare he act like we didn't just save his a**

[Azlan]

Morgan was satisfied with the destruction of anything that might hold data on their activities here.  Shifting the weight of his weapon a little, to move it to a slightly more comfortable position, he began moving towards the vans.  Unaware of the coarse reception Chance had received from an ungrateful professor, he addressed Dorcan's query, "Hmmm, I would recommend we pull everything we can carry out, especially the weapons.  No one is bearing down on us immediately, but we should not tarry too long."

Reaching the entrance, he was not happy to not find little archaeology peoples not scurrying out and into vans already.  Calling into the area where they were still gathered, he used his best angry officer voice, "Oi!  You lot still in here?  We need to move, double-time!"

[Lisky]

With the others in tow and loading up their respective vehicle, Darkshine proceeded to his ground-effect transport, and stowed the rifle-bag.  He kept the carbine, but given the current situation, a heavy sniper would just get in the way.

Emerging from his own vehicle, Darkshine commed Dorcan: "Anything i can do to speed things along?"

[Tapewolf]

"I'm going to stay by the van," Dorcan decided, as he answered Darkshine over the comm.  "If you're near the dig, you should find a pile of unused grenades near the entrance.  I think that's all I've left behind, unless there is something else belonging to the dig team that we now have the option of retrieving."

[Ryudo Lee]

Without the need for anymore encouragement from Morgan, the group, being led by Dr. Woodworth, came out of the dig site hurriedly.  Each person was carrying tools, boxes, and various artifacts unearthed in the ruins.  Dr. Woodworth was holding onto his box tenaciously.  It was obviously an artifact of great importance.  All of them made their way to the vehicles.  Dr. Woodworth still kept his attitude of importance, while the others in his group were overly grateful for the rescue.  It wasn't long before everyone was accounted for and had a place in the vehicles.  Dr. Woodworth spoke up once everyone was accounted for.
"There we are, everyone's all here.  May we please be on our way now?" He asked, with much more politeness in his voice.

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx was oblivious to Dr. Woodsworth's attitude, but didn't hear him actually say anything about needing anything in particular. Jexx meandered about aimlessly while everyone packed up their things, as Jexx had nothing to pack, and slowing calmed down from his excitement. When everyone began clambering into the vehicles, Jexx happened to follow Woodsworth.
   Inside the vehicle, Jexx sat and stretched, moving his limbs about and nanomorphing his handcannons to hands and back boredly. After a little bit of time, he noticed how tightly Woodsworth was clutching a box.
   "Yo, what's in the box? Izzit what we came for? What's so important about it?" Jexx asked curiously.

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan belted up, and took one last look at the hill.  Aside from all the dead people and other signs of war, it was actually kind of pretty and he could imagine himself as a puppy trying to explore every nook and cranny.

Shaking himself back to the present, the Doberman glanced around and waited for his vehicle to move out.