Chaos, Steel, and Wolves (IC)

[Raveled]

Ironclad winced internally. Of course they could use a space plane: it would be a lot less visible than a solid-fuel rocket, and if they were down by the airport they could conceivably even hide it as a normal flight. No one would suspect anything was wrong until it reached cruising altitude and kept on going. The first the heroes would know is when whoever was behind this made their demands -- or destroyed a city. Then the Bee-Keeper highlighted two buildings down by Jameson Airport. It only took a few more clicks for Ironclad to confirm it. "They're owned by the same company. And the layout could support heavy machining." She closed her eyes and wished desperately that she'd taken the offer for something to drink: right now she needed caffeine like never before. "Everyone, I don't want to sound like an alarmist. But we have a high-tech group of thieves with a lot of backing and resources prepared to pull of a plan that would let them conquer the world. This isn't some random band of crazies. This all sounds like something the Foundry would do."

[KnightDisciple]

For a moment it seemed like Fenris had been struck totally silent.

Until they heard the synthesized growl that was just barely audible, but almost lifelike. It stopped after only a few moments, and Fenris typed for a few seconds, highlighting lines that led from KST to the suspected Foundry hideout.

"Foundry. Makes sense. Makes it all the more terrifying. Worst case we have maybe an hour until everything is machined, double-checked, and fitted together, then 30 minutes until they're in flight. Should take us 5 minutes to reach the site."

He glanced around at everyone for a moment, then each line gained color. One was a dark grey that matched his armor, one a light blue that matched the highlights of Dragonfly's, one a green not unlike Ironclad's, and the last a yellow like Bee-Keeper's. The line for Fenris seemed to follow the ground or rooftops; Ironclad's was a high arch, while Bee-Keeper and Dragonfly seemed to be set to go in between buildings.

"I lack actual flight capacity, though between my suit servos and the Vacuum Flux Capacitor let me move quickly and at roof-level. This is my suggested approach pattern. If you can't tell, it's color-coded for each of us. This lets us hit at 4 different points on the first building."

The slightly larger building is highlighted, with 4 entry points spread around the first floor.

"It's tempting to split up, but we don't know how many drones they'll have. We should enter at ground level and go from there; this sort of sensitive operation is probably run below-ground. My guess is that the larger building is more of a "front", which is backed up by bits and bobs of news that seem to mostly be about minor press announcements from that building only. The second building is likely the "nerve center", but this one likely has backup forces. We hit that, it warns them sooner, but we don't have to face a pincer movement. That's a lot of "likelies", but obviously we won't know for sure. Either way, all of us should be able to hit hard, hit fast, and shrug off a lot of what they'll throw at us. Any last-minute ideas, suggestions, or objections?"

[Raveled]

"What if the project is in the second building," Ironclad asked. "We might be able to take one building only to have the plane with the kill sat escape. I think we should spread our forces out, at least at first." After a few unsuccessful tries, Ironclad managed to manipulate the hologram to zoom in on the two target structures. "Myself and Bee-Keeper can hit each building from up top. That should draw forces away from ground level, allowing Fenris and Dragonfly to get in there. Whoever spots the space plane or the laser cannon radios it in, and then we converge on that location."

[Fox]

[bg=#555555]"Have to agree,"[/bg] Dragonfly said, tapping a finger against her leg as she pondered the plan. [bg=#555555]"Don't like the idea of splitting up, but don't like the idea of them getting away, either - space plane will be hard to catch if it gets going. Besides - we'll be split in half, but so will they, and buildings are close enough that support is easy; not like they wouldn't converge as soon as they knew they were under attack. Draw fights outside if possible. Disable plane or planes first, sweep enemies next. Don't give them a chance to use their new weapon."[/bg]

[SpicyWaffle]

"Zzoundzz like a plan!" buzzed the Bee-Keeper, smacking the palm of his gauntlet with his fist in solidified agreement as he maneuvered his way beside Jessica. He might not have been completely up-and-up on the situation as a whole, but Baxter had long since picked up the gist: lasers that can destroy a city are bad - real bad.

"I'm with Ironclad then. We'll make zzure they don't get their planezz and zztuff up in the air. Time to ruin their day beefore thezze guyzz make a mezz with their lazzerzz of doom!"

[KnightDisciple]

Fenris tapped his chin for a few moments as the others spoke, before nodding.

"That's sound, though they'd need at least a few minutes to get from the buildings to the hangars. Though...hrm. We should watch for some sort of underground tunnel that goes from one or both buildings to one or both hangars."

He looks around, his "muzzle" grinning as much as it can (which is not entirely comforting to look upon).

"It's what I would do."

He squared his shoulders with a nod.

"Right then. Sounds like Ironclad and Bee-Keeper can hit the bigger building, and Dragonfly and I hit the smaller building. Keep in contact. I'm sure we'll clean their clocks."

He moved for the door, expecting them all to move out.

"Too bad it took something like this for a group like us to get together, really."

***********************************************************************************

Fenris's journey was, if not as straight-line as the others, still comparatively smooth. As he approached the target site, his world went from a rush of light and color and vague shapes, and a vague sense of "up" and "down", to a series of still-shots of the approaching building.

Finally, he reached the entrance of the building. He paused to consider how to approach things...before shrugging and just opening the door. He called out as he stomped into the lobby.

"Pardon me, ladies and gentlemen. Just investigating some corporate espionage and a possible threat to the city! Nothing to see here!"

And that's when the screaming and yelling started.

[Raveled]

Ironclad jetted above the city on a high, ballistic arc. She didn't try to hide her target; she wanted all the sensors and defenses focused on her. The suit was designed to take a beating, much more than Bee-Keeper's or Dragonfly's or probably Fenris's were. The Foundry goons might get a little extra warning because of the non-subtle approach, but that just meant she'd have to move even faster once inside.

The green-and-gold heroine smashed through the roof of the building, landing in a three-point stance in what appeared to be a normal office. Her sensorium confirmed that there were no kill-bots in the area, and she started feeling a little sheepish. "Um, excuse me," she said to someone that appeared to be a secretary, "but I don't suppose you've seen a space plane or laser cannon arou--"

The secretary held up one hand and the flesh peeled away to reveal a long-barreled gun, which spat some kind of plasma at Ironclad. She deflected with one of her bracers and shot back, annihilating the droid. "Huhn. Infiltration units." Another office worker rounded the corner, arm cannon exposed, and Ironclad blasted that one. Her sonar picked up another few behind a wall, so she punched right through it to obliterate them. If all the defenses were this meager, they would have the laser cannon dismantled in no time at all.

[Fox]

Dragonfly was only slightly more subtle than Ironclad, quietly letting others their bigger entrances before she made her own, barreling straight for a window on the opposite side of the building from Fenris; only a few feet from the glass she disappeared, reforming on the other side with gauntlets ready and surrounded with twisted, refracting space just looking for a target.

She was frankly a little relieved when they presented themselves. Angry though she was, she had to admit - as the snarled fabric of the world ate away at a robot's armored shell - it would have been pretty awkward if they'd shown up to harass someone who didn't have attack droids.

[SpicyWaffle]

Following Ironclad's lead, the Bee-Keeper differentiated from the plan only slightly; choosing to enter the rear side of the building by plummeting through the roof just as Jessica had before him. Hitting the ground with a decidedly coarse thump, the Bee-Keeper brazenly surveyed the inner workings of the warehouse -- much to his surprise, it looked like it was only full of regular working Joes in blue overalls moving crates. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe he had the wrong place all together, and this was just a wild goose chase.

At least, that's what he thought until a pair of automatons stepped out from behind some of the concealing crates, the clacking of metal against tiled floors rattling through the Bee-Keeper's ears as they began opening fire on him!

"Holy crap!" shouted Baxter through the shared commlink even as he was being pelted by blasts of energy, seeking cover from the metallic overlords encroaching on him before he had a chance to properly snoop around. "Izz anyone elzze zzeeing thezze robot thingzz? Why izz it alwayzz robot thingzz?!"

Dipping out from behind his impromptu cover, the Hero of the Hive returned fire, pelting the pair of harassing androids with his own high-powered blasts as they crumpled to the ground. But just as soon as they had been dealt with, then the laborers unfurled their dastardly armaments - they were all packing! Dipping back behind the safety of the partially disintegrated crates again to avoid the return fire, the Bee-Keeper bemoaned his situation anew.

"Zzeriouzzly. Zzo many robotzz!"

Between bouts of the robotic adversaries' stream of firepower, Baxter leaned over from his delicate cover to scope out the scene more thoroughly, picking off the androids one at a time as they became readily available. Before too long, the dozen or so automatons lied in ruins on the floor. He was sort of underwhelmed - sure, there had been a lot of them, but they folded like cheap plastic lawn chairs with just a few potshots. There had to be something here other than just a bunch of murderous robots.

[KnightDisciple]

GM Post

As Ironclad made short work of the meatbag-looking infiltrator units on the upper office floor, a couple of actual meatbag humans ran screaming down the hall, heading for the fire escape. Apparently the Foundry had hired at least a couple of real humans, presumably to keep local labor laws pacified or some such. Still, while the arm cannon blasts were annoying and scratched her paint, it was pretty clear they weren't really up to the task of taking down such an advanced enemy.

Which made the purple-haired woman who stood there for several moments just staring as she approached all the more odd.

"You are...earlier than anticipated."

And then she was off like a rocket, down the hall and around a corner while another 4 infiltrator drones dove at Ironclad in a blatant delaying action. An action that worked, because there was no trace of the woman when Jessica finally caught up to where she'd gone off to...

*********************************************************************************************************************************************

The small above-ground warehouse attached to the back of the larger "office building" was at least partially staffed with real people, though they seemed oddly calm in the face of danger. Brainwashing? Hard to tell. But the combat security drones were obviously a larger concern!

There seemed to be a lot of them, but none of them were particularly "beefy", and the rifles they had were pretty basic energy weapons. They went down quickly as he blasted, but there seemed to be a large supply that wasn't draining just yet.

The warehouse itself was filled with plastic-and-metal packing crates with a snappy company logo on them, the usual pieces of heavy machinery to move the crates, and a bunch of moving or broken robots.

And up in a corner, well out of the Bee-Keeper's sight, a pair of eyes narrowed behind reflective lenses...

*********************************************************************************************************************************************

Dragonfly's entrance didn't produce as much fanfare, and so only a couple of infiltrators and security drones showed up. But the scene quickly degraded as the scattering of human employees took up the cry of panic now lacing through both buildings. There were probably going to be at least a half-dozen calls to the police in the next few minutes, but for the time being it was just robots to deal with.

In fact, she seemingly made short work of the security force nearby; her section of the building was emptier, and thus was now empty of anyone but her. And some busted robots. Her search of the floor would show nothing in particular, and the network was seemingly locked down already due to their rather noticeable presence. So tight security, but nothing too flashy besides the robots.

Out of the corner of her eye, though, she might catch a wisp of green light, and a faint sense of the breeze in the back of her mind....

[KnightDisciple]

Fenris sighed and crossed his arms as panicked employees all but streamed out of the building around him.

"Part of me feels like this wasn't the best approach. Oh well, no time to dawdle."

He uncrossed his arms and started gently making his way through the press of humanity, finally making his way to the elevator banks. He pondered trying to call one when he heard an odd whine behind himself. He turned, and there was a single infiltrator, perhaps one of the receptionists, and a half-dozen blatantly robotic security drones with high-energy rifles.

"Wow, and here I thought I would be sticking out the most as a robot wolf. Between that fold-away arm and those wacky guns, you guys could try out for a Star Trek movie!"

The apparently hated Star Trek, because that was the moment a barrage of energy beams lanced toward the armored hero, who took most of them head-on, and dodged a couple.

"Okay, that's all the excuse I needed, guys!"

And with that, two drones were re-arranged into a scattering of parts on the floor as Fenris unleashed twin PPC blasts. The infiltrator turned and dashed off (probably to join reinforcements) as Fenris suddenly appeared between two more security drones and swiped their power cores out with his clawed hands.

"This is going to be some great stress relief."

[Raveled]

Ironclad whirled as the office workers turned the corner and ran at her. Her fingers twitched inside the gauntlets and she came within a hair's breadth of blasting them -- but her accelerated brain gave her an eternity to compare their movements with the robotic impersonators she had dispatched. She realized they were human and relaxed, actually stepping aside to let them get to the door easier. When a group of openly hostile droids rounded the corner, Ironclad moved between the civilians and the robots. It was just happenstance that her three hundred and sixty degree sensorium caught the purple-haired woman's startled statement.

The armored heroine's first instinct was to find the woman and interrogate her, but a fresh wave of attack droids tied her up for a few precious seconds. When she raced after the civilians, they were already gone. She sighed and keyed up the group's comm frequency. "Be aware: not everything in here is hostile. Repeat, there are civilians around, so double-check your targets." She paused and added, "But I'm not sure they're all on our side."

[Fox]

[bg=#555555]"Not just robots and civilians,"[/bg] Dragonfly warned, peering around herself with no small suspicion. She hated the feeling of something brushing her mind - the memories were bad enough, but the rush of mental static she'd get if anyone or anything tried to force their way into her head was anything but comfortable. [bg=#555555]"Possibly super-human presence. Had to expect it, but...be careful."[/bg]

When no threats were immediately apparent - for now, anyway - she took a moment to poke the building's network with her mind. It was locked down, sure, but how well? Little lights danced behind her eyes, barely visible through the lenses of her helmet, as she reached out for their computer system....

[SpicyWaffle]

"Greeeeeat," drawled the Bee-Keeper as he continued blasting his way through the throngs of roboticized infantry. Now he had to contend with the fact there were regular Joes working in the warehouse, let alone something else much more nefarious potentially lurking further in. Suddenly, Baxter felt like he was trapped in one of those cheesy light gun rail shooters, forced to differentiate from friend and foe whilst being caught in the ensuing crossfire. Unfortunately, that analogy was pretty spot on, as the slew of automatons didn't seem interested giving up, their ranks constantly replenished every time Baxter laid the last group low.

"Not zzeing any kinda rocketzz or anything yet. Guezz I'll juzzt follow the trail of murderouzz killbotzz. They've gotta be coming from zzomewhere, right? Find the zzourzze, find the zzecret doomzzday lazzer."

Sure enough, the Bee-Keeper did just that, blasting and frying his way past a dozen more droids armed with blaster rifles as he meandered through the warehouse, idly watching how the normal humans who stood by in stark silence or ran away screaming differed from the incognito vicious automatons. There were more than he'd thought, though the number of automated seek-and-destroy robots were far and away more prevalent. In due time, the Bee-Keeper stumbled across what had to be how the robots were getting back into the warehouse: a large cargo elevator!

"Hey. Think I found zzomething here. Zzome kinda elevator," he murmured over the commlink even as he blasted the last remaining 'bots poised inside the shaft itself. "Pretty zzure it'zz where thezze zztupid robotzz are coming from."

Stepping into the cargo elevator and scoping it out for any remaining hostilities, Baxter snooped around for the control button. Sure enough, there it was, plain as day. Giving it a firm push with his pointer finger, the Hero of the Hive was eager to see where all these wannabe badniks were coming from. He had to of at least been on the right track!

[KnightDisciple]

GM Post

It didn't take Ironclad overly long to finish clearing the upper half of her building, be it of fleeing civilians or of hostile robots. She had a few moments before trying to link up with the others, and there were a lot of computers around. If she took the time, she could probably poke around and discover at least some information. There was no further sign of the purple-haired woman that she could see, though.

******************************************************************************************************************

Dragonfly's section was also cleared out of both hostiles and civilians. If there was a telepath of some sort, they were either very good at hiding, or had moved somewhere else in the complex.

Dragonfly massaged the computer systems enough that a fair bit of data started coming out. Nothing truly secretive; no plans for "Killer Laser Cannnons" or the like, but she did find more specifics on the building layout.

It looked like the underground complex had only a few entrances. One elevator in each of the main part of the buildings led down, the cargo elevator in the above-ground warehouse could reach that space, and a couple of hidden stairwells also allowed entrance. It sounded like Bee-Keeper had discovered the cargo elevator at least. Hard to say what the others were finding....

******************************************************************************************************************

The large metal box that passed for a cargo elevator began moving down slowly, oh so slowly. But it seemed sturdy and smooth; likely it was meant to transport materials that weren't always receptive to rapid movement up and down.

Of course, that didn't seem to stop someone from cutting through the ceiling and floor. And by "someone" we mean "a couple more security drones sporting cutting torches and smaller laser weapons". Thankfully only 2 or 3 could really get in at a time, and perhaps double that were clinging to the top and bottom of the elevator car. But still, something to consider!

And meanwhile, those same eyes watched from further up the elevator shaft...

[KnightDisciple]

Fenris looked around at his now-empty lobby, dusting his gauntleted hands against each other.

"I think all the civilians have left. People in this town learn to run fast when this sort of thing goes down, it appears. I'm also not spotting any more drones. Haven't spotted any units with increased capabilities, or super-human individuals."

He stomped through the hallways of the smaller of the two office buildings, finding....nothing. Then Bee-Keeper reported he was going down an elevator after the source of the security drones!

"Wait! Bee-Keeper, at least let Ironclad back you up! We don't know what's down there!"

He growled as he realized it was pointless. With a flicker of thought, he had a private channel open with Dragonfly.

"If possible we need to link up and head further down. We can't let him get too far ahead without backup. I haven't been in their system; did you find any routes below-ground, as I assume that's where the real target is?"

[SpicyWaffle]

Somewhat preoccupied with the sudden incursion of battle-bots flooding the painfully slow-moving elevator, the Bee-Keeper was busy blasting the would-be interlopers encroaching on his ride to offer an immediate response. With a few telltale shots from his gauntlet-mounted weaponry, the first trio of fervent kill-droids being quickly dispatched as they cut their way through the roof of the cargo lift. The floor proved more... problematic, as it were. For a moment, Baxter almost opened fire just as he had before; but the sudden thought of blowing the floor out below himself seemed like a terrible idea, even with the ability to fly. No -- Baxter was already a big, yellow target for the robots already. He didn't need to give them any sort of clear line of fire!

"Take your time," the secretive teen hero halfheartedly snarked back through the comm channel as he stomped on one of the robots burrowing up in a vain attempt to get him, sending it and one of its comrades clattering to the bottom of the shaft. "Juzzt zzittin' around, zzappin' robotzz that wanna kill me while thizz elevator goezz zzuper-zzlow! Zzeriouzzly. Zzo zzlow."

After another round of blasting and playing whack-a-droid, the Bee-Keeper hailed his colleagues again.

"Zztill no zzign of any kind of zzupervillainzz or thizz lazzer; juzzt an awful lot of thezze robotzz. Zzeemzz kind of zzilly that they'd need zzo many of thezze thingzz; they don't exxactly put up much of a fight, y'know?"

[Raveled]

"Don't be too confident," Ironclad warned. The armored heroine smashed through a few walls and was soon over-looking the loading bay that Bee-Keeper had fought through. It was simple to force her way into the elevator shaft, and from there she could descend slowly while picking off attack-bots. "We haven't found the laser cannon or the delivery system yet. We might be too later, and only fighting a rear-guard intended to slow us down." With the top of the elevator car cleared, Ironclad dropped into the interior of the car with Bee-Keeper. She flashed him a smile, invisible behind her helmet. "Let's not count this as an easy win until we've made sure they're not going to do something like this again."

[Fox]

[bg=#555555]"Multiple paths to underground areas,"[/bg] Dragonfly observed, making her way toward Fenris - or, at least, where she'd last known Fenris to be, judging by the noise and flow of people. She could find him from there. [bg=#555555]"Will meet up with you and take you to the one I am certain off. Underground area seems to connect both buildings, but not entirely sure what to expect - manufacturing area, at least. Bee Keeper is right - has to be where robots are coming from."[/bg]

She paused only when she had to fight, or to let any remaining civilians pass; the former were in her way and the latter weren't likely to be responsible for stealing her designs, her tech. Probably. They could always be found later, if necessary....

She was starting to get impatient by the time she finally found Fenris. [bg=#555555]"Come on. Falling behind."[/bg]

[KnightDisciple]

Magnus managed not to sigh in frustration.

"Perhaps the elevator is a subtle form of torture for invaders. I'll have to use some stairs."

He was just about to look for some when Dragonfly came down into the lobby. He nodded at her curt words.

"Okay, Bee-Keeper, Ironclad, stick together. Dragonfly and I are going to hit them from another spot. There's only four of us, but with what we've encountered so far, we may be able to box them in completely. Right now we have to assume we're here soon enough; the thefts weren't even an hour ago, so they may not be finished producing yet."

With that, the two grey-clad heroes proceeded to one of the hidden stairwells Dragonfly had found on a map. They were stopped for a moment trying to figure out a way to enter, until finally Fenris shrugged.

"You know what, forget it, I'm just going to buy this place anyways and get it thoroughly repaired."

At which point he flattened his hand, charged the fingertip claws with electrical energy, and plunged them straight into what turned out to be a reinforced steel door. A door that sparked and melted, charring the (apparently not drywall) walls and tiled floor. After a moment of securing his handhold, the wolf-themed man planted his feet wide and spoke up.

"Might want to back up a bit, Dragonfly. This door may pop off easier than I was anticipating."

With a metallic groan from the door, he slowly but surely pulled it free from its hinges and locks, until suddenly it ripped free. He'd been anticipating such a change, though, and instead of getting smacked with the door, Fenris smoothly moved it in an arc that had it scraping the ceiling for a moment before slamming to the ground behind him as he released his grip. He took a moment to brush some of the dust from his shoulders before quipping in a surprisingly light-hearted tone.

"I really hope they have more than just a giant awesome wine cellar down there, because boy would that be embarrassing. Anyways, if you would be so kind as to cover my six, milady."

With that, he charged both PPCs, kept them pointed forward, and headed into the stairs.

[KnightDisciple]

GM Post

After Ironclad helped Bee-Keeper clear the last of the drones out of immediate sight, they found themselves riding down the elevator in peace. Other than the slightly worrisome rattling of the rather battered elevator car. Finally, it seemed to increase speed about the time they heard what sounded like the cables snapping....Only for them to land about 10 seconds later after picking up almost no extra speed. The car crumpled in a bit, but was essentially intact; the doors blew outward about halfway, easily shoved aside by their enhanced muscles of science!

What they found beyond was....a somewhat larger warehouse area, with what looked like automated forklifts and other such drones moving about. Off to their right about 50 yards there was a large rectangular tunnel that, if they judged things right, led off to the airport. There was a large lane along that side of the warehouse that was completely free of obstruction; probably a cargo moving area. Half the tunnel seemed set up to allow regular truck or car traffic, one lane each way. The other half sported an extra-wide set of train tracks, with a large gleaming flatbed car sitting there prepared right now. The flatbed itself was empty, but a couple of loading drones stood on standby next to it.

It seemed like Fenris's optimism was likely correct, at least for the moment.

At the far end of the warehouse was a pair of tunnels; one clearly designed for cargo moving back and forth, and the other, smaller tunnel designed for those no more than twice the size of an average human to move back and forth through on foot. The former tunnel was blocked. The latter tunnel had a now-familiar purple-haired woman standing in front of it. Except that instead of the casual business wear she'd had when Ironclad had last seen her, she was now protected by thick purple and black armor plating, with only her head still exposed. She seemed to be waiting for them...Which might explain why she ran off down the hallway when she spotted the two armored heroes at the other end of the warehouse!

**********************************************************************************************************

The stairway was empty and lifeless. The most challenging thing was when Fenris and Dragonfly had gone down about 3 stories (with no doors nearby) and encountered a section of the stairs that had seemingly vanished, perhaps retracted into the walls. The last 2 stories of stairway were just a vertical concrete box with a single person-sized door at the bottom. Fenris studied the situation for a moment before jumping toward the wall opposite his current position, vanishing for a split second before reappearing clinging to the wall, then vanishing again. He repeated the vanish-cling pattern a couple of times before dropping to the floor. Dragonfly herself could of course simply fly down. Fenris opened the door...

To find a dark, metallic workshop awaiting them. The centerpiece was clearly an auto-assembly mechanism, and it was there that the SUV-sized cylinder was being assembled. Over to one side, waldos were gently lifting an oval that, after a moment, was identifiable as the lens design stolen from Dragonfly. They weren't too late.

In front of them stood a glowing green and white figure, arms crossed behind her back, head tilted to one side as she studied them entering the room.

"Your involvement was...anticipated, but not expected so soon. It is clear we will need to enhance our security protocols next time. Hekatoncheire, please stop them from interfering."

From the shadows near the other side of the room stepped a large, menacing figure painted in dark colors. Its multiple arms slowly flexed their fists one by one.

"Directive noted. Engaging."

It began a slow advance toward the heroes...

[Fox]

Dragonfly made a growling noise, the plating of her suit flexing like an insect about to attack. And attack she did: aneon energy twisted into being about an inch from the end of her arm, forming a long, blade-like construct as the world wrapped in around her and she disappeared....

...only to re-appear not near either of the hostile figures, but the machine being put together by the waldos. There was an awful sound like tearing metal as she thrust her spatial blade deep into it, and another as she pulled it away sideways through the rest of the machine's body - though the blade was apparently weightless and incorporeal, everywhere it touched became broken and twisted like someone had put a blunt knife through tinfoil, power units imploding like firecrackers and sparks flying through the air as the weapon gasped its last.

[KnightDisciple]

GM Post

The green and white "woman" seemed a little surprised both at the sheer ferocity of Dragonfly's attack, and the fact that she'd targeted the still-incomplete orbital weapon instead of herself or perhaps the assembly mechanism. More surprising still was the level of damage inflicted!

"Unacceptable! You have set our project back at least a week! Valuable components have been lost. You must be pacified. Your armor's designs will prove useful."

"She" all but glided to a point behind Dragonfly, then lifted both arms. An invisible wave of force smashed into the angry armored heroine, reverberating in her mind as much as it did her bones.

Meanwhile, Hekatoncheire advanced on the wary Fenris. Before the latter could do more than blink, the somewhat larger robot launched a furious fusillade of fists and fingers, an assaulting avalanche of assassination that the wolf-shaped man only barely managed to brace against, his armor taking the brunt of the attack with only a few surface scratches.

"You are resilient. Impressive. Futile."

[SpicyWaffle]

The ride down to the underground warehouse wasn't all bad, killer robots not withstanding. Even with Ironclad's warning reprisal, the yellow-and-black apiary adventurer was glad she'd caught up. They made a good team, he and Jessica -- it was hard to explain why, but Baxter felt like the two just meshed well, and it was this simple complimentary nature that helped steel his nerves as the cargo bay doors swung open as the elevator reached its final destination. Sure, it was a rough landing, what with the cables having been cut by mysterious means, but hey, at least they were here!

"Geezz..." murmured the Bee-Keeper as he strode out, looking back at the elevator with a look of earnest shock that those robots would go so far. "You think they're upzzet about uzz beeing down here?"

Returning his attention to the newfound cargo hold, the Bee-Keeper was rather let down that there wasn't a literal giant death-laser sitting inside; instead, there were just more drones, a bunch of tunnels, and an empty truck! That super-weapon had to be around here somewhere; but that 'somewhere' was very clearly not here! That's when Baxter spied something down one of the tunnels: was that... was that a woman in armor?

"Hey!" he shouted just as the mysterious woman began to dart down the tunnel and out of sight. Whoever she was, she might know where these stolen tech parts were! Gritting his teeth, the Bee-Keeper debated his options. On the one hand, there were oodles of drones and automated forklifts bandying around; their purpose obviously important, and might prove problematic later if not dealt with. On the other hand, that weird purple-haired chick was getting away! Turning to Jessica, the Bee-Keeper readied a closed fist over an open palm.

"Yo. Rock, paper, zzcizzorzz to zzee who chazzezz the lady in the body armor?"

[KnightDisciple]

GM POST

 

The warehouse seemed almost eerily empty aside from the heroes.

 

Oh, there were automated forklifts and drones moving things about here and there, but even that activity was subdued. The storage space itself was, while not empty, far from full. There were just enough items in just enough places to make it impossible to see everything except maybe if you flew up to the ceiling...except it was only about 25 feet tall. Not much considering how wide the place was.

 

Over to one side there was empty space with what looked like drone recharge stations. Likely for the swarm of now-broken robots.

 

But hey, at least they were alone in here. Right?

 

Just that moment, faint sounds of shouting and metal tearing drifted into the warehouse from somewhere down the tunnel where the purple-haired lady had run off to...