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Splicers - I Am Legion - IC Thread

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Chaska looks to the rest of Cerberus, especially their leader, Toni. Over their squad Bio-Comms, he asks, "What everyone think?
 
Jin listened to Stinger, lost in thought a moment. After a few seconds of processing what he said and hearing Chaska’s prompt…Jin speaks up.

“What sort of opposition do we expect to face after we attack the prison transport? What is protecting the transport?”
 
Stinger says, “As of twenty hours ago, the Factory Walker had ten Battle Tracks, eight Assault Slayers, seven Legionnaires, six Fusion Borgs, a dozen Collectors, five to six hundred Steel Soldiers, and a Land Dominator. That was all before Legion made its move on New Harrisburg. NEXUS has been throwing firepower at this army in spades, causing heavy losses. But for every drone destroyed there is another being built inside the Factory to replace it, along with getting more humans converted to Legionnaires and Fusion Borgs and reprogramming the NEXUS robots they run into to serve Legion.”

“I understand that this is a shit-ton of firepower to go up against. But our last report from New Harrisburg is that there’s heavy fighting between Legion and NEXUS, making it possible for us to slip in through the combat lines, set up our Kamikaze Worm strike, destroy Legion, and then slip out without being seen. There is so much attention being spent on each other that neither side will pay any notice to the few of us. We can do it, but it has a better shot at success with your team hitting the prison wagon and pulling the missile guard away from the Walker.”
 
Toni can feel her blood run cold at the description of the firepower around the Factory Walker. That could stomp us flat in short order Toni then considers what Stinger of saying, “You don’t so to scratch an itch from the flea if it doesn’t bite.” All we would have to do is be the distraction and get out alive. We can do that. After all, we’ve all seen the damage done by the kamikaze worms before, so five directed at Legion could destroy the thing and eliminate Legion from this fight.

She hits the bio-coms to transmit just to Cerberus Squad, saying, “I’m inclined to do this unless come to with another idea on the fly to give a shot. This could work.”
 
After hearing no objections, Toni looks over at Stinger and says, "Ok, count us in. We'll give it our best shot to get this job done."
 
Stinger’s body language shows that the tension he was holding onto is finally eased off and the man says, “Thank you. That doesn’t come from just me, but from everyone that your actions will save from being turned into a meat puppet for Legion to control. We all knew that our friends and allies of House Artemis were people we could rely upon and you have just confirmed it again.”

He lifts his head up and says in a louder voice, “Alright everyone. We are three hours from New Harrisburg since we have to work around the bogs and swamps to our east. It would take us longer to go through than it takes going around. Remember to keep your eyes open for any sign of the Machine and call out warnings. We have our four fire teams and will be able to strike a blow for humanity. Let’s go. Best speed people.”

Stinger then says to Toni over the bio-com, “Your one man will have some time to regenerate his armor, but I don’t know if he’ll be at 100% before we have to split up. I wish we had a Saint here to help heal him, but he was one of our casualties earlier. Just so you are aware.”

The time spent traveling is mostly quiet with the members of House Deluvane sticking to their own thoughts and talking only when they need to. They are not rude enough to ignore any direct questions, it is just that they do not initiate conversation with you.

On two different occasions, your radar picks up aircraft flying on their way towards New Harrisburg but you had enough advanced warning to be able to duck and cover to avoid getting detected. It’s either that or you represent a lesser threat than what lies ahead of you.

Once New Harrisburg comes into view, it doesn’t look anything like it used to, with many of the buildings have been reduced to rubble in the heavy fighting. Thousands of robots can be seen even from here, all exchanging weapon fire with one another. Then you see it: the biggest robot you’ve ever even heard of. It looks like a parody of a beetle with a mass of metal ‘feelers’ that at busy taking apart a building bit by bit and feeding the raw materials into its voracious maw to be used to build more robots.

Axel looks at the swarming bots and says, “I do hope that someone has a plan on how to get past all of that. A plan that doesn’t involve suicide. I don’t know about the rest of you, but someday I want a little Axel Jr calling me daddy, and it won’t happen going headlong into that shit storm.”

Archos points at the various tall buildings still standing. “Those look to be prime launch locations. We can try to approach in the storm sewers until we are in the city, then go through the buildings into we are at our chosen spot and make our coordinated attack.”

Stinger nods. “Sounds good. Brutus, take Alpha team to that building on the left. Andre, lead Bravo team up to the right. I'll take Charle team over there. That leaves several good high points for Cerberus to make their shot at the prison crawler and pull the defenses off of the Factory Walker and leave it exposed for our attacks. Lets see that fucker take five Kamikaze Worms and come walking out of it in one piece. Everyone, keep the bio-com lines open so we can all coordinate our strike."
 
As their travels continued, Chaska's wonders mounted. He found himself using the video recorder and pretending he was a Kraken scientist or even a military commander like Chief Rybeck - it is with this mind that he records, mindful of the video's capacity. As opportunity allows, Chaska reviews the video and edits out anything without use.

During their time with House Deluvane, Chaska realizes that they only have so much time together and chances are, these are likely the last hours of some of the very lives present (a harsh reality, but a reality only the foolish ignore). Chaska tries to get over his introverted nature by attempting conversation with any of the House Deluvane Splicers that appear open to it. It is difficult, for these are complete strangers, but humans are still social creatures and the desire, indeed need, for social stimulation is as present in extroverted people as it is in introverts - introverts just have a much harder time starting conversations.

"You have experience fighting de Machine in big numbas. What do you do dat de Machine no like?"

In this way, Chaska hopes to learn battle tips against these new foes for the betterment of Cerberus and perhaps House Artemis, while also breaking the ice between warriors.
 
The Outrider that is on the Behemoth that Chaska is a lady named Maggie Hinton, and as you travel, she tries to answer Chaska’s questions. With a chuckle, she says, “To be honest, Thumper and I haven’t seen this many robots all together before. We’ve gone up against some of the monstrosities that Legion has come up with, and some of those things are enough to cause nightmares. If you ever run into a Legionnaire, the real threat from them is not the small drones that they launch off their backs. They are relatively weak and easy to take out, but if you destroy the Legionnaire that they came from, the drones go inert. The only thing that works independently is the wing board. Those will still work if you toast the operator. It’s not easy to kill the Legionnaire, but it saves a lot of time trying to hit all the stupid drones and then you still have the Legionnaire to deal with.”

Her voice goes hard as she continues. “Once Legion has her claws in them, you can’t save them. It is a horrible thing to see a monster with the face of some kid sticking out of its side, screaming for help. It is a kindness to put them out of their misery. It makes this mission worth my life to keep Legion from doing that to other people.”
 
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Jin listened to Maggie Hinton remembering the autopsy on the head of the human that had been changed by Legion. She agreed with Maggie's assessment that someone could not be converted back to a human after being taken.

"Are there any other weaknesses of these new...abominations...that you know of?"
 
Maggie shudders as she remembers her other encounters with Legion’s creations, saying, “Hard to say. We’ve seen some things that will have me in therapy for years, things with multiple heads all screaming for you to save them. There are few of these abominations that are the same, so there is no one certain way to kill them other than blast the living crap out of them. Just remember that there is no saving them. Don’t hesitate to . . . do what you have to. It is the only way to save them now.”

There is a catch in her voice as she talks, hinting that she is on the edge of tears if not crying already. Clearly this has affected her more than a simple robot encounter would.
 
There is a catch in her voice as she talks, hinting that she is on the edge of tears if not crying already. Clearly this has affected her more than a simple robot encounter would.
"MaggieHinton," Chaska offers softly but firmly in his broken speech, "rememba! They suffer... no more! You and House Deluvane? You... free them!" Chaska smiles. "Though they cannot show you, imagine their spirits smile! They no Legion no more - they... free now! Free from pain! Free from Legion! Because of you and yours! No more pain for them." Chaska tries to speak as clearly as he can. His words come slowly and meaningfully.

"Replace your nightmares with their happy smiles!"
 
"MaggieHinton," Chaska offers softly but firmly in his broken speech, "rememba! They suffer... no more! You and House Deluvane? You... free them!" Chaska smiles. "Though they cannot show you, imagine their spirits smile! They no Legion no more - they... free now! Free from pain! Free from Legion! Because of you and yours! No more pain for them." Chaska tries to speak as clearly as he can. His words come slowly and meaningfully.

"Replace your nightmares with their happy smiles!"
Maggie nods at Chaska's words, sniffing a bit. "Yeah. Yeah, that's right. It's just . . . not easy to let the hurt go." Her voice goes from near tears to having some very real venom in it. "Children deserve a chance at life, not to be turned into a monster like this Legion has done. I will give my all in order to make Legion pay, and that can be taken as gospel truth."

At this point, Archos holds out his arm as one of his war hawks come flying back to him. He says, "Beta here reports that there is a small lake off to our left, a few miles away. It looks like there is a pumping station that we can use to get into the city without being seen, since all of our host armor suits can work underwater without problem. Our four teams can then split up and get to the launch points for the Kamikaze Worms and rid the world of this evil known as Legion."

Stinger thinks for a moment, and then says, "Yep. That will do the trick. It is a little bit out of the way, but we will lose more time and quite possibly lives if we try to go straight in with the sheer amount of Machine we'll have to deal with. I'm going to estimate that we'll be able to get into firing position in under two hours. Everyone, keep in bio-comm contact so we can coordinate our attacks. Remember, hit the front segment of the prison wagon first, then the other teams will light up Legion in the Factory Walker. Lets give this bitch what's coming to her."

The combined force advances carefully, knowing that only a few of the team, Gorehounds and War Mounts are equipped with stealth fields. Since all the members of Cerberus do have the advanced stealth system in their host armor suits, your team takes point under the watchful eyes of Woodstock, Alpha and Beta. With the three war hawks giving advanced warning as to the movements of the robots around you, the combined force from the two Houses makes it to the lake with little incident. Slipping down into the water, you make your way through the lake to the pumping station. The pipes are too small for the War Mounts or even a person, so once more you creep up and out onto the shore. The pumping station is large and mostly automated, but even the androids that were mimicking the old human workers are gone.

Stinger gathers everyone up. "You all know what's at stake here. We have to succeed or this Legion thing will keep on growing. We split off here. Get to your launch points, but don't fire until everyone is ready. Then we launch all at once and get the fuck out of here. Any questions?"
 
Maggie nods at Chaska's words, sniffing a bit. "Yeah. Yeah, that's right. It's just . . . not easy to let the hurt go." Her voice goes from near tears to having some very real venom in it. "Children deserve a chance at life, not to be turned into a monster like this Legion has done. I will give my all in order to make Legion pay, and that can be taken as gospel truth."
Chaska nods to Maggie, his confidence in her increasing. He does nothing to hide this spirit when he tells her, "Time, MaggieHinton. Undastand dis no happen in an hour, a day, a decade. But de happier life you live, the happier de people you free.

Chaska puts his hand on the sword. "Legion captcha dem... you free dem from Legion... and live good life no hating anything. Dis way, Legion have no hold over you.

"If you choose hate, Legion win. If you choose love, you win. Please try? You are strong; you will see, MaggieHinton.

"Now go. Fight well. Armed with love." Chaska salutes her and returns to Cerberus
 
Since all the members of Cerberus do have the advanced stealth system in their host armor suits, your team takes point under the watchful eyes of Woodstock, Alpha and Beta.
Should Axel seem to need it, Chaska provides him some tips on how to remain stealthy, observant, and how to trust his senses.

Stinger gathers everyone up. "You all know what's at stake here. We have to succeed or this Legion thing will keep on growing. We split off here. Get to your launch points, but don't fire until everyone is ready. Then we launch all at once and get the fuck out of here. Any questions?"
"Mmm!" Chaska swiftly digests all of this information and affirms that he understands with a single confident nod.
 
Toni offers a thumbs up to Stinger. “We are good. We’ll get into position and hold our launch until everyone is ready to fire. With any luck, our distraction will expose this Factory Walker to the concentrated attack of the rest of the Worms and we’ll be hoisting a beer at the end if this bragging about how awesome the explosions were. Let’s do this.”
 
Hearing Toni’s affirmative Jin begins to look towards where their designated position begins to try and devise a good exit strategy as they make their way to their point of attack.
 
Toni tries to picture the general layout of the city in her head. “Ok. With this mess in the streets, I want war hawks up in the air providing a lookout for the Machine, and what we’ll do is stick to moving through the buildings, making doors by smashing through walls when we need to. With any luck, we can avoid the most of the fighting and get our Worm to the launch point. Let’s go.”
 
After listening to Chaska offering up his suggestion on the marching order, Toni thinks it over and nods in agreement. “I like it. Sounds like a good idea. Let’s do it.”

Before stepping off, Toni looks over at the team, saying, "Everyone, single file, five meter spread. Archos, you take the point. Out of all of us, you might have the best chance of getting to one of those tall buildings in a line of fire to the prison crawler, and can guide the rest of us with feedback from Alpha and Beta. Axel, take the second spot. Jin, take position number four and be ready with your sniper skills. Chaska and Woodstock, take up the rear and make sure we aren't being tailed or leaving a trail to be followed. I'll be in the middle with our friendly worm here. It will be my responsibility to shield the worm in case we start taking fire, so no one else needs to be a human shield besides me. Don't forget that while I have a stealth field, our worm here does not. Also remember that we are in a city loaded with Nex-Androids that will look and sound like a normal human, but they are really robot skin jobs that are programmed to pretend to be people. What few humans there were in this Ghost Town should have had the brains to run away from the fighting and not get caught in the crossfire, so it's a safe bet that everything moving in this place is a part of the Machine and will try and kill you."

She then looks over at Axel and says, "You got your bell rung pretty hard back there, so don't try and be a hero. Just get the job done. What is your armor status, given the regen time you've had?"
 
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Axel’s armor is still visibility damaged, but after this much time it is looking much better with most if the damage having been regenerated. He glances down at his suit and says, “I would say that I’m up around 75% of full strength. It was a good call on my part to increase the armor strength the last time we were on the Kraken or else I’d have been toasted good. Don’t worry about me too much; I’ll get through this.”

With a nod to Toni, Archos fades from view as he activates his stealth field and sends his two war hawks out to do some recon for a clear route away from robot threats.

Sticking close to cover and moving as silently and carefully as possible, the squad moves out. Since the water pumping station is away from the bulk of the fighting between the two robot armies, there is little activity in this industrial area of New Harrisburg. As you travel through the empty streets, you catch glimpses of the heavy fighting that is blasting the crap out of not only each other but taking quite the toll on the buildings in the area. It is a real mess out there.

Thanks to the trio of war hawks, the squad is able to avoid several Machine threats that are in your path, but as you get closer to the fighting it becomes harder and harder to keep from getting into a fight. This becomes quite clear while you are on one side of a street looking to cross unseen when an Assault Slayer bursts through the wall of the building across from you along with three Collectors. The Collectors and the Assault Slayer are all damaged and are blasting each other to pieces, showing that the Slayer is NEXUS controlled while the Collectors are all a part of Legions' army. They are about one hundred feet away from you and they are directly in your path. If it weren't for the Kamikaze Worm draped over Toni's shoulder, you might be able to just slip past them in the chaos and not be noticed, but there is no way across without being seen.

What do you guys do?

Psychie Psychie Purr Purr Eonivar Eonivar
 
The fight between the Collectors and the Assault Slayer is nearly over, with the Assault Slayer seeming to be getting the upper hand as it has destroyed two of its three opponents. Both of the remaining robots ate badly damaged, but they still have plenty of firepower.

It will not be long before one of the two sides wins. What are you doing in the meantime?

Eonivar Eonivar Psychie Psychie Purr Purr
 
Jin watches the battle trying to figure out the best time to go.

"Toni, we should go soon, otherwise the Slayer will find us. Do you want one of us to cause a diversion? I am certain I or Chaska or Archos can get its attention for long enough for the team to pass and then we can disappear into the city and circle back around later."
 
Toni thinks, then says, “We’re going to make a break for it while they are distracted. Remember that while we may be invisible, we can still show up on radar so let’s not delay. One at a time, haul ass across the street and don’t get split off from the rest of the team. Archos, you’re up. Get moving!”
 
Archos replies, "Yes, Sergeant!" Then, the stealthed Deliveryman crouches down and runs as low to the ground as he can across the street, making his way across to the other side of the road through the rubble and into the gaping hole made in the high rise when the dueling robots busted through. Once he is in the open hole, he calls out on the bio-com, "Clear!"

Axel takes his place as the number two man in the order and swiftly bolts across the road, moving invisibly through the random fire being given off by the two combatants. He skids to a stop behind a large hunk of masonry and says, "Next! Lets go, Sarge!"

It is at this point that Toni might regret the upgrade to the Dreadnaught armor because even with her Running upgrade, her suit is much slower on the ground than everyone else in the squad. Like a freight train, the heavy armor thuds across the open street and Toni manages to weave and dodge across the road and manages to avoid getting hit.

Next in line is Jin. Just as your feet hit the street and you start running, there is a violent explosion of the last Collector, leaving the Assault Slayer the victor, albeit a heavily damaged one. Now that the active fight right next to you is over, I need a Prowl skill check from Eonivar Eonivar .

What does Psychie Psychie and Purr Purr do while this is going on?
 
What does Psychie Psychie and Purr Purr do while this is going on?
"JinLi maybe need help?" Chaska asks Woodstock. "Be ready!"

Chaska changes position, watching the Assault Slayer from a concealed position with his Stealth Field quite active. He places himself preferably in a concealable place that, if he distracts the Assault Slayer, it (hopefully) will turn towards him and take its attention off of Jin (who, if her sneaking attempt fails, seems to be wide open with no cover).

If at any moment the Assault Slayer shows signs of sensing Jin, his plan is this: Chaska is ready to blow on his ceramic dog whistle and activate his Burner. This combination of odd sound and Mega-damage fire is made only to get the Assault Slayer's attention (he is not attacking the Assault Slayer). Distraction made, he seeks to dart back to his original position and then follow Jin to the rest of Cerberus. Since the WyldKat cannot be detected by thermographic means, Chaska thinks to put his Burner on the opposite side of WyldKat as not to be detected by the Assault Slayer.
 

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