ic Incursion: Backwater

[Brown Dynamite]

Details different.  To say that was something that sounded like it needed explaining would be putting it mildly.  But, they were now in a rush.  Roulette looked at the door firing off an optic blast in the blink of an eye.  Hitting the frame with an immense amount of concussive force in the aims of knocking it open.
 
"They said the collateral damage couldn't happen to a nicer sort."  Roulette knew sneaking around wasn't on the table anymore.  Least of all if they've reached the goody room.  So, they could at least be as loud and destructive as possible.  The more damage done to the operation in the immediate, the less chance of their planetary exit being hampered.

[Darksider42]

"Looks like the Job got more complicated." Ruby explained to her alien companion as she lifted the device up. "This thing here? Doesn't hold weapon schematics. Holds a recording of one of those ships that were part of the fleet that cracked Lor-Van along with all sorts of analyses and readings. Looks like the Republic want any data on what nearly destroyed the empire from what I reckon." She finished her explanation. 

 

"I'll go into detail when we get back to the ship. For now we-" She stopped as soon as Roulette spoke up. She tilted her head. "What are doing Turk?" Right now she preferred to get out now and make a dash for the Voidrunner so they could get paid. Considering what she had found out she was not int he mood to pick her way out of a building brought down her head. Again.

Edited January 20, 2015 by Darksider42

[Gizmo]

The door frame buckled under Roulette's sudden assault, blocks of carved stone and sand-cement crumbling and toppling into the open space and blocking the hallway deeper into the underground facility. The largest gaps weren't much more than a few centimeters across and anyone looking to clear the blockage was in for hours of back breaking lifting, which was a comfort as Zaul appeared from around the corner on the other side of the obstruction. "Well now, that just strikes me as bein' rude," the sheriff commented, lining up an eye with one of the larger gaps so that he could raise a nonchalant eyebrow at the three bounty hunters. "Normally I'd figure tryin' to hire you chummers my own self would be the thing t'do but I got a notion that'd just end in tears anyway so how about we skip the middle bit, huh?"

Zaul stepped forward into the fallen stone, his teal flesh turning pale brown and rough before crumbling into sand as it slid through the various cracks and gaps, spilling onto the floor on the other side. The resulting pile of sand rose upward on its own accord, reforming itself into a humanoid shape before regaining its colour and definition, leaving the corrupt lawman standing in the same room as the Voidrunners with a predatory gleam in his solid black eyes. "Sure you understand, that ain't something pl' Zaul lets folks see and live, a'course," he explained with a genial smile as one hand expanded into a sand coloured mace covered in rocky spikes and the other into a long machete-like blade.

[Darksider42]

If her helmet had not been one, one could see Ruby rolling her eyes. At some point there was gonna be a talk about the handling of Collateral Damage in the team and how this might have an effect on  their finances at a later date. Such talks would have to be delayed however as she found herself facing down what could possibly be one of the worse individuals she has met since coming down to Ke'Pinree. "Zaul, I've met Lunar Kittens more threatening than you." She said as she raised her gun. "Cryo." She intoned. A faint cyan light on her nano-pistol flickered to life before she pulled the trigger. A supercooled cryogenic round slammed into Zauls body.

[Gizmo]

The round from Ruby's pistol penetrated deep into Zaul's sternum, a small puff of grainy particulates exploding from the point of impact... and then another cloud from his back as the projectile passed clean through and struck the rubble Roulette had created, coating the fallen rocks with a layer of ice. Well now, girlie, I reckon you surely did show me," the sheriff drawled, tipping the brim of his hat up with one index finger and smirking. The other arm her rose to point at the Voidrunner as it instantly transformed into a torrent of sand blasting hard enough to strip paint from metal, a cone of deafening, blinding force that encompassed both Ruby and Roulette while Bliss watched!

[TheAbsurdist]

The tendrils shot out then, as she moved her arms to go with the form of what she was doing, and then swinging them down, as the numerous synthetic connective tissues, muscles, motors, all of it kicked off.  They snapped out swiftly then, and hit the ground, hard in a form.  Silence was out the window, so she didn't just make the standard whip crack, it was an explosion, as the force of it crested out a blast of force.  Slamming into Zaul's discorporated form.  He was sand, so she wasn't just going to grip at him normally.  She had other means to strike at him.  And she was going to do it.

[Brown Dynamite]

Roulette peeled himself off the wall.  The torrent of sand having rocked the Zultasian for a moment.  "Alright, he's a shifter.  Particulate body.  Plans Exus 12 through Hexron 2 seems good enough for him.  He's just another distraction from collecting our payday.  We've handled worse."  Roulette called out reasuringly to his partners.  Punctuating the rally shortly after by calling out, "Voidrunners, let's run this scum down!"

 

Roulette was ready to ride the wave of momentum.  Ruby needs time to recover. Bliss it is then.  Roulette braced himself before taking aim of Zaul.  His visor glowing as he began to pull out another Optic Blast.  This one was not intended to actually hit the sheriff head on.  Instead, the goal was to re position him by threat of firepower.  Opening Zaul up to a real attack by doing so.  All Zaul had to do was move.  Even flinching would have sufficed.

 

And if Zaul were actually worried about taking the blast head on the deceit may have worked as intended.  Instead the corrupt lawman was left unphased as optic blast shot out.  Harmlessly scraping sand off his shoulder.  "The first shot is always the warning shot"

[TheAbsurdist]

Bliss, however, was much less concerned over such.  As she swung back out towards him with both hands, the tendrils together in a double lash as it struck the... whatever Zaul was.  Could they turn to sand?  She'd read up later.  If there was a later.  As the 'sheriff' had been pretty insistent on killing them.  So she had little to not compunction about hitting him.  Again and again, until he was unconscious.

 

"How about we just knock the tcholop out and not give him warnings!"  Her voice going to that raspier state as she uttered a curse in her native tongue.  Something to do with the waste product of something very nasty from one of the more fetid regions of her homeworld.

 

It seemed fair.  Well less than fair, but she was really aiming to be a murder today.  This man wasn't on her list.  Despite what he had done to others, like that kid.  If he went down from this, she was likely to kick him.

[Darksider42]

"Oh-" Anything else that could have been said by Ruby at that moment was interrupted by the sudden wave of sand that left her smashed against the wall. The Recorder had left her hands and now her head was left pounding. There was some suspicion she might have gotten a concussion from that attack alone. Shock seemed to overtake the bounty hunter, for a short time she struggled to pull herself from the wall and get back into the fight. 

 

...When the hell did we have plans? She wondered when Roulette started rambling off numbers and codes. She raised her arm, still surprised her grip on her Nano-pistol had not lessen from the corrupt lawmans attack. Taking aim, she fired another Cryo round right into the center of Zauls chest. Instead of passing through him, the round broke and started to cover him in a thick layer of ice down to his legs. "Just shoot 'em Turk." She muttered.

Edited February 3, 2015 by Darksider42

[Brown Dynamite]

Roulette rolled his eyes from behind the visor.  Of course, she thinks it's that easy.  Moving closer until he was practically in front Zaul he began to concentrate.  Light was tricky.  His beams may have been concussive in nature, but the hardened photons were still light.  Which meant it was capable of working around the incredibly reflective iced shell around the lawman.  But the very concept of his visors showed that he could.  Refracting a second time after doing so from his visor was simply easier said than done.

 

He concentrated on aiming, which due to a natural talent for figuring out angles that wasn't that difficult a task, before firing out another optic blast.  The beam refracted upon contact the ice.  Moving towards the center of Zaul's chest.  Striking him dead center without smashing his entrapment with a little extra kick to boot.  For a moment it appeared as if Zaul was glowing as the ice made it seem as if he had taken.  "There, I just shot him."

Edited February 5, 2015 by HG Morrison

[TheAbsurdist]

She shot the tendrils out, grabbing at the walls themselves for leverage.  Then they pulled her towards the 'face' of the 'Sheriff' with all of the strength and power of those trendrils and her modified body.  She slammed against him like a slingshot.  One leg lifted, and bent to drive a knee into his face.  The lattice through her muscles, around her sinews, her bones, and reinforcing that joint to make it a weapon.

 

It was a trick she had used in the pits.  It meant she was hammering against him with greater force.  Which was the goal.  Unlike Roulette she did not have to worry over piffle things like her powers refracting or her gadgets not working.  At least at the moment.

[Darksider42]

"Good." Ruby said back. Her mind was still swimming. She wasn't sure if Zaul was still trying to put up a fight anymore. Perhaps the blow to her head was even worse than she guessed. "Keep shooting." She rambled as she aimed down the barrel of her gun and fired another round at the corrupt sherrif. While she was certain the slug slammed into the officer, she could have sworn she saw another puff of sand escape from behind. A growing sense of annoyance for the aliens anatomy was growing.

[Gizmo]

While the Voidrunners hammered attacks into the uneven chunk of ice encasing Zaul they sent sprays of fine shards and tiny droplets flying out in all directions. Barely audible over the cacophony of slugthrowers, tentacles and optic beams were more ominous cracking sounds as the Sheriff's largely obscured form shifted and twisted under the ice, contracting and slamming outward to slowly wear down the prison. At this rate it was clear that he would break free before the bounty hunters would be able to wear down his considerable resilience.

[Brown Dynamite]

Roulette stood his ground examining the iced ensnarement as best he could.  Repeatedly being smacked and chipped by the others wasn't helping his thought process as far as making sure they took Zaul out as quickly as possible.  Frankly, at this point just running off with their prize seemed like the smarter play.  But, Zaul had already made them work for it.  Least they could do is continue to make him regret it.

 

So Roulette visually scanned not only the trapped sheriff but everything.  Examining every angle, every inch of reflective material there was to take in.  He was going to make sure the next shot counter.  Be it the computer or even Ruby's guns.  Everything was taken under consideration.  Even if the ice didn't hold under his allies attack if Zaul still stood it wouldn't be for long.

 

Roulette just had to ready his shot or rather shots...

Edited February 14, 2015 by HG Morrison

[TheAbsurdist]

Sneering as she released the wall with her tendrils and then she pulled them back, seeking to bring them back against the back of the frozen Zaul.  "Are all of these things as touch as Sckaza rat?"  Normally people like him just went down.  He wasn't going down, because... he could turn to sand?  She hated sand!  It got everywhere!  And it was so... dry... coarse.  Her people preferred humidity, their world was a big humid swamp world.

 

But right now she felt like she was flailing at something that could was absorbing every bit of her efforts, and she was not overly known for out of the box thinking.  Apart from thinking of knew ways to hit someone.

[Darksider42]

"Hrm" Not getting anywhere. Ruby observed from the fact the sheriff was still going despite the relentless assault by the Voidrunners. Most would have fallen unconscious by now. The pounding in her head was not helping in this situation either. She raised her gun up, aiming down the barrel.  "Cryo." She spoke just before firing another round at the sand alien. Thankfully for everyone involved the round did not break through Zaul's body and slammed right in the aliens head. Ice started to rapidly cover him in a thick layer of ice. 

 

"Frack it. Lets just make a run for it." She said as she grabbed recorder and stood up properly. In a brief moment she felt like she was about to fall over and land face first onto the floor. Shake it off Ruby. Zorla would tell you the same.

[Brown Dynamite]

Ruby seemed content to high tail it.  Even, Bliss was showing frustration at wrecking something.  Roulette almost let out a smile at the turn of events.  It wasn't easy to convince that combat loving pair to settle things with less destruction.  It would have been a great example to hold on to future endeavors .  If only Roulette were less spiteful.

 

Angling his head upwards Roulette let loose a purple stream of energy from his visor.  Tearing through the roof above in a circular shape Roulette readied his body to roll out of the way when the rubble came crashing down.  He didn't give his teammates any more warnings than Ruby's initial call to retreat.  Knowing they'd react by getting out of the way as soon as he let loose.

 

"Let's just add him to the list of those with a grudge.  Good day, only one more added"

[TheAbsurdist]

She wrapped up her compatriots in one tendril, and pulling them up as the other moved up to grab up at the roof, and she pushed up, and pulled them all up through the hole made.  Not needing to be told what she could do next then.  She could easily hold them up, even without her tendrils.  "Hang on, this is faster if you do."  Her voice a raspy growl as her helmet reformed around her face.  And when they did she took off at full clip, before leaping from the foot, and shooting both tendrils out, and starting to swing through the narrow streets, heading back towards the bar at a mad pace.

[Gizmo]

The underground base came down around the Voidrunners just as Bliss yanked her teammates along with her the relative safety of the warehouse through which they'd entered. Metal and stone shrieked against each other as computer equipment was crushed, mixed in with the loud, rumbling thuds of hardened sand falling apart into boulders and tumbling into the hollowed out cavern. The stairwell quickly collapsed behind them and one pile of crates of hoarded supplies was knocked over as the ground beneath them shook. It didn't look like Sheriff Zaul would be going anywhere any time soon but after what they'd seen none of the bounty hunters truly believed they'd seen the last of him.

 

Despite looking like they'd been through the wringer - or perhaps because of it - none of the locals bothered them on the way back to the spaceport and even the throngs of displaced refugees filling the streets seemed content to given them a wide berth. While Ruby checked in with the still unenthused and disinterested attendant Bliss recognized a familiar juvenile Lor, feet swinging distractedly as he sat atop a dented and sand-scored power box looking like he was deciding if he needed to bolt. "Um. Hi."

[TheAbsurdist]

She had stopped by the roof she had seen him on, and feeling a bit worried.  Not that she cared much about the Lor stink ape, or anything...  And then well, good.  Her eyes narrowed, as she moved to the boy, teammates in tow, as she was running point, her mobility was a bit of an assent for that, and both of the others were better at range.  So it worked.

 

"Good, you are coming.  We are leaving."  As eloquent as ever and she reached out to him. and scooped him up easily.  And in response she was scouting around looking for an ambush, in case the Sheriff had gotten a missive out to his goons.

[Darksider42]

"That much? We were barely on this dustball.' Ruby grumbled as she paid out the undocking fee. From what she could tell the attendant did not really seem to care. The pain was starting to dull and focus was returning. She was gonna need that if she was going to get the Voidrunner out of the system. With a quick swipe of her card through the device she got the payment out of her way and started returning to her team mates. At some point she was gonna have to have a talk about collateral damage and grabbing team mates.

 

And then she saw Bliss picking up a child along with what she is saying. "What the bloody hell are you doing? I know we have some cultural differences between us but you just don't grab kids off the street and take them off planet!" Faint memories of cold rooms, stinging force fields and cruel creatures crawled from the back of her mind. 

Edited February 27, 2015 by Darksider42

[Brown Dynamite]

Roulette watched the exchange in front of him.  Opened his mouth.  And then shut it with not a single word uttered.  Frankly, he didn't care.  They had all been taken from their homes when young and turned out alright.  And the quickest way off the planet was not engaging in that mess of an argument.  "I'll be on the ship.  Try and settle this quickly we don't now how many thugs of Zaul's may want to come after us still."

 

He doubted Bliss would just take a random kid off the streets without reason.  And after taking a moment to assume that reason was not to have a bipedal dinner.  He figured it would probably be a go enough reason for Ruby.  As long as the kid wasn't getting a cut of the pay it didn't involve Roulette.  So he walked past his teammates not even stopping to pay the absurd toll for recovering their ship.

[TheAbsurdist]

She stopped, still holding the boy, and she looked at Ruby.  "Zaul doesn't like him, and he has no family.  He help me, I don't want that to come back on him.  If we find a nice place, he can go if he wants, but I told him to come here if he heard more, or if something was wrong.  Either way, we are leaving, so he is coming."  Bliss kept moving, her strange face inscrutable as she kept moving along with him.

 

"You want off this dustball, let's do it.  I am covering the costs, and we can teach him some stuff so he is useful."  She wasn't snapping at Ruby, she just wasn't going to have an argument, she wasn't someone who wanted to modify or abduct the kid.  But he was alone, and frankly she didn't know what Zaul would do, because dropping a building on a pile of sand probably just angers off the sand.

[Darksider42]

Ruby sighed as she watched Bliss walk into the ship. Apparently Bliss was the sort not to discuss things with everyone else. Starting to regret this whole venture. She thought as she reluctantly followed after the rest of her team into the Voidrunner, recorder in tow. She slipped the device into storage before making her way over to the cockpit. "Everyone stay strapped in, we will be heading into orbit in a few." The bounty hunter said as she started flipping switches and started up the ships engines. 

 

"We'll be dropping off the property Tiggs ran off with. Then I guess we will be going for drinks. I'm personally gonna need it assuming I don't have a concussion." She continued on over the Comm systems as she pressed a small button on her neck. Her helmet dissolved and retracted back into her armor.

Edited February 28, 2015 by Darksider42

[TheAbsurdist]

Looking to Ruby when got it and she made sure the young Lor was all strapped in, and she moved to the other.  "We find a good place for him to be be, we can set him there.  But I wasn't going to leave him behind.  I will cover costs for him."  And then she was moving back to get to her own seat.  While a competent pilot, Ruby was a lot better, and it was her ship, mostly.  Though Bliss would cover the costs for this, it was her obligation, or maternal urge.  She had planned to speak with them about it, and then things changed.