Rabite
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Post by Rabite on Jul 28, 2016 21:41:36 GMT -6
[El Nino]
It was a few days after the trio along with the other two groups had taken down the beast known as the Sand Shark, they got their rewards and they had their rest, now it's time to get moving again. The Sand Shark is fairly common enemy that is declared a Wanted target by the Hunter's Organization, they spawn several once in a while, and often cuts off trade routes between cities. However, they're not very powerful, as such they're not given much of a price and are often treated as a tester for the skills of new adventurers. The bits of money, even after they sold the extra shark fin, was barely enough for them to grab some new supplies so it's time to find something else to make a living.
The money did help them purchase new guns, giving the trio enough firepower to take on almost everything in the area. With James and Lilia both having a new SMG Uzi, able to spray a large number of bullets at a short amount of time, and Sarah purchasing a Shotgun of her own that would work well at close range as well. He also bought a new and stronger Engine for the bike, and replaced the armor plating on it for more protection. But half way, he noticed... they ran out of money again, and don't even have enough to replace all the armor plating after getting that new engine. Which is the entire reason why they need to get another job here, at least they won't starve with those shark jerky they got from Mazhe's team, but eating them all the time is starting to get boring.
Each member of the trio had different ideas on what they should do to make money, Lilia for one wanted to sell some of her "creations", expecting them to have great returns. So while James tries to keep the crazy girl from blowing up something or someone, he sent Sarah over to take a look at the boards. However this also proves to be somewhat of a mistake, as she ends up not looking much other than towards the other remaining Wanted target that's up on the board, the Desperoid.
Having that in mind, she looks around to see if she can find others with the same goal. They may have gotten new equipment and a new bike, it's not enough for them to easily deal with another Warned target on their own, so she hopes to seek allies perhaps the same ones as before to deal with this thing. The Desperoid also pays 4500G, which is more than double the amount of the Sand Shark, a decent reward if they succeed. So far she haven't seen anyone with good enough ability to match her eyes, so she's spending her time waiting, and crushing the fingers of the fourth idiot that tries some cheesy pick up line on her.
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Richter
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Post by Richter on Jul 28, 2016 23:27:21 GMT -6
Mazhe and co. were a little more conservative with their funding than the counterpart trio in town. El Nino didn't seem like it had the end-all selection as far as equipment came, so anything they bought they'd likely have to replace in the near future. They weren't too confident that they could con the merchants into buying everything back at full price, so they decided it would be better to pinch their pennies until they got to somewhere with a bit more variety in products. However, they did repair the bike and pick up some loose odds and ends. Amongst those their doctor got a new weapon, useful since his ranged weapon was the weakest of the group's. Granted it was melee range, but worst come to worst he still had the bow.
The other adventurers would probably be able to tell that Gralon's Guerrillas were still in town without too much investigation being required. For one, Rodriguez was constantly acting the part of a street performer, and when not doing that, he was sword fighting with the leader of the party now that their group had two blades again. They hadn't been approached in those couple of days, but luck did see fit to bring the groups back to meet up in the Hunter's Bureau again.
"I say we take 'em!" Rodriguez announced to Mazhe while they stood in familiar positions, although this time it was in front of the desperoid's bounty listing.
The doctor was not so quick to jump to the idea. "The photo is grainy, but if I had to guess, I'd say those weapons it's wielding are lasers. This won't be a walk in the park. I think that might be another gun on its head, as well."
Rodriguez did not seemed deterred. "Mazhe will chop him to pieces with that sword of his. You saw what that thing can do. Won't you, partner?"
The expected answer was slow in coming since the rider had zoned out momentarily. A troupe of Grappler soldiers walking down the road outside had caught his attention. The man was eyeballing their kit, it looked pretty fancy. When they left his field of vision he, at last, turned back to the cyborgs to give a reply. "I'm not sure we can take it as-is. This one's going to be a lot smarter and more dangerous than the shark."
Between his own group and the soldiers outside, Mazhe had somehow missed the fact that Sarah was in the room. A scream of pain from an ill-fated suitor drew his attention the soldier's way. "Ah, there might be our ticket."
The cyclist waved to catch her attention. "You again, eh? My boys and I want to take a stab at the Desperoid. You and your posse want to throw in with us again? We'll cut the loot even, like last time."
Straight to the point. There was money out there and they wanted to get it. Seems they have convergent objectives once again.
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Rabite
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Post by Rabite on Jul 31, 2016 14:37:43 GMT -6
Sarah noticed the three that they had worked with several days ago, and nods in agreement to the offer for another joint operation on the other wanted monster on the list. The group showed significant abilities, much more than these random solo hunters that attempts to leech on the able, they should be able to carry out the hunt with success. She about to respond to accept the offer, but then James' voice enters the conversation.
"Then, you might want to take a look at this too."
James comes out of no where along with Lilia, and drops a bundle of newspaper on the table. The Hunter looks slightly different from the last time they met, mainly since he changed into a different coat of similar design but light green in color rather than black, to replace his old jacket and to have some sort of cover in the wilderness. The newspaper contains an article of several hunters shot to death near the outskirt of the city, with witnesses suggesting that the murderer is a robot with guns.
"I heard a bit of those guys, they're not green, this robot's not going to be easy. It knows how to avoid fighting impossible battles, keeps itself at safe distances, and shoots with great accuracy. I went over and took a look, there's no burn marks, but there's plenty of gun holes near the location. Larger caliber than the average pistol, the bullet angles hints that they're all from around the same location, so the thing can shoot almost as fast as the turrets on our bikes."
He gave the other team some info about the Desperoid, making sure that everyone is informed about their opponent and not rush to their death. Compared to the Sand Shark that's an animal that hunts, the Desperoid is a robot that's out to kill with guns, much more dangerous than the shark.
"But it's still a small humanoid robot, those bullets can't possibly be more powerful than the 7.7mm. The stand up form also makes it weaker in durability compared to four legged or wheeled enemies of the same size. The armor will likely reduce our firepower as well, but the arm and leg parts seems to be just a piece of frame, it should be enough to take down the unit with a good shot if we manage to hit it."
Sarah gets her own opinion on the target from the view of a Soldier, one that'll directly taken on enemies without being in a well protected vehicle. The Desperoid looks like it'll take less hits than the Sand Shark, but their bullets would be much less effective on the mechanical target, so it might actually take more shots to deal with the robot. The biggest problem are the guns, though weaker they'll shot with great accuracy and speed, a deadly combination.
"Whoever designed it have great taste for adding those hair on the back, helps cooling and looks great too! Inventions just got to look flashy or else it's not worth the effort! Those treadmills are a great idea too, moves fast and stable for shooting!"
Lilia's "advice" was more of her personal opinion, not very helpful, but it did pointed out some of the designs that James and Sarah missed. One important part is that it actually does not have feet, but instead have a pair of treadmills instead. Again this adds on to the accuracy of the unit, as it won't suffer as much penalty when it moves in battle.
"Well, we're in if you guys have problem with it. But unlike the Sand Shark this thing seems to know how to hide, if we can't find it by sunset it'll be even more deadly to deal with."
James looks back at the trio after they finished recapping all the information. Unfortunately the Desperoid is a very sneaky robot, and it'll be some what difficult to pinpoint its location, more so when there are other wild beasts in the area.
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Richter
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Post by Richter on Jul 31, 2016 17:46:19 GMT -6
The group moved to peruse the news articles once they were presented, with Mazhe giving a whistle at the body count this thing had managed to rack up. Most wanted beasts don't last too long this close to town, so this one must be pretty good after all. Or pretty lucky. Could well be both.
"Those are standard ballistic projectiles, then?" Dyson asked to confirm. "That actually makes it easier than I had been anticipating. Certainly a strange design, I wonder what the benefit is? Then again, that may just be the poor resolution obfuscating an otherwise normal piece of equipment..."
The rider was more interested in the actual capabilities of the robot itself. "It has treads? Guess I didn't notice that; odd choice. I take it that means it prefers horizontal fights over vertical ones? That might help us in tracking it down, I'd wager it doesn't handle stairs or steep inclines well. You make it sound like all these past fights with it have been in the same general area, so I'd guess it has a base or area it wants to protect for some reason or other. We got enough manpower to force it out once we know where that is, and enough mobility with these wheels to pin it in place."
"It might be quick on the draw, but using pistols means it probably can't engage from very far. Our bikes could outpace it easy, if it's dumb enough to face us in the open. I doubt it will be, I get the impression it'd be the type to hold up in some old saloon or something."
Rodriguez mumbled, "Sounds familiar."
Mazhe went on despite the interruption. "This town doesn't have thunder bottles, I checked; would have made it easy. We'll just have to do it the hard way and break it down, but I have a trick or two to help with that." The man said with confidence while patting the basket hilt of his sword. He was cautiously optimistic and already working to try and divine strategies and habits out of the information provided, a good sign compared to their other companion from last time who was a little too fast to rush into danger. She wasn't around this time, so maybe they were still recovering after getting beat up?
In any case the leader of the team averred his commitment to hunting the Desperoid after glancing to both of his wingmen to ascertain that their stances hadn't changed, "We're still on board if you are. Folks like us didn't take up this job thinking it'd be easy, eh?"
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Rabite
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Post by Rabite on Aug 1, 2016 2:21:53 GMT -6
"Standard ballistic projectile indeed, at least I don't see any burn marks at the site."
James notes to the doctor's question, and turns slightly to Sarah for her to explain the reasoning behind that, who nods and follows up with her own info.
"El Nino is too close to the desert, the heavy dust in the area and the reflection of light would reduce the effectiveness of laser weapons. The bullets would also allow it to attack without being spotted right away, seems to be designed for special operations, hiding and striking when possible."
The team decides to search for their target the old way, at least now with improved equipment they'll do better in battle against these enemies in the wild. With a total of two bikes in the team, they would be able to take on even the Sand Shark with relative ease. They won't be too far from El Nino either, so they could always retreat if necessary.
"Well then everyone, lets see what we can find before the sun goes down. Even if we don't find it, there's a bit of cash to be made from the regular enemies in the area. Time to show off some of our new gear that we got from last time, I'm sure it'll be a lot different from our last operation. With a bit of luck we should be able to take this Wanted down just like before."
[Wasteland near El Nino]
Maybe James jinxed it or something, but the search haven't been going so well since the start. It looks like it's a dangerous day out, with many beasts and robots running about in the area, ones that both teams soon encounter during their search. To cover more grounds, the two groups had decided to spread out a short distance, which gives the team some range that they have to cover before providing adequate support to each other. In the sky there's four Beam Hummingbirds, ready to provide air support for their allies with a wave of low power lasers that rains down on the groups of humans.
Of course, James and his team moves to avoid the waves of lasers, and was about to return fire when four more Road Gunner runs towards the two groups. They were about to fire towards the two teams with the guns on their back, but one were intercepted by Sarah on the White Bike. Being a Soldier, she naturally got the skills to drive the bike effectively, activating the Machine Gun in the motorcycle and gun down one of the running birds before it could attack. A second one begins to fire at her, but with a greater than before thanks to the new engine, she was able to avoid the coming slower shells. The other two began firing at Mazhe's group, mostly at the rider of the other motorcycle in the area.
They could also see coming from the distance, a group of three robots. With two Vulcantula and a Cannon Hopper climbing towards their direction, they don't move too fast so it will take them a bit of time before they could begin their attacks, so James was not too worried. Instead, along with Lilia, the two begins to shoot towards the Beam Hummingbirds with their SMG Uzi, firing a curtain of bullets that couldn't be matched by their earlier weapons. The bullets were enough to shred two of the hummingbirds that took too much time before it moved away, marking down two on the kill score.
There are also five Sand Ants that surfaced to join the battle, offering to increase the numbers of creatures in the area to hunt for some food. However, one ant got ran over by Sarah as she attacks, and one more by her Shotgun at blank range, leaving only some pastes of skin and blood as the two poor ants got torn apart by the attacks.
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Police Motorcycle "White Bike" Defense: 15 Armor Plating: 895/930 Shell Space: 0 C-Unit: "Wireless Police" Engine: "Django" Weapons: Slot 1: 7.7mm Machine Gun
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<El Nino Region> (Total Spawn Roll for El Nino Region 6d30 -> 94, starting encounter 1d20 -> 17) 50x -> 26x -> 24x Sand Ant (2 Killed) (6G) 40x -> 21x -> 19x Beam Hummingbird (2 Killed) (16G) 40x -> 21x -> 20x Road Gunner (1 Killed) (12G) 10x -> 6x Cannon Hopper 20x -> 11x Vulcantula 20x -> 11x Scorpion Gun
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Richter
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Post by Richter on Aug 1, 2016 2:43:04 GMT -6
The search so far had been fruitless, Mazhe checked in with James occasionally via radio to report that. Behind every lump of sand appeared to be another identical one, with nothing else of worth beyond it. For the most part they had managed to avoid the small monsters lurking around outside of town, with none of them catching their eye as remotely out of the ordinary. In the time spent combing the wastes they had plenty of time to think, and the trio kicked around the idea of what that robot's purpose was. If it was made before the cataclysm, or after.
It didn't look like something that'd have been made by the much saner people of the old era, but then again, they'd have also had the resources to blow to produce the thing. It made for an odd paradox. This all assuming some powerful entity post-war with resources to spare didn't make it, a kind of middle road, and this was the theory the doctor put forward. It was a harrowing thing to think about, but it wasn't impossible to believe; look at all the other weird robots and cyborgs out here. But who would do such a thing? No power group back home had that kind of industrial capacity, and the Grapplers here seemed more focused on muscles than metal.
You could probably say they jinxed things too by talking about the desert critters, because now they had wandered into a pack of them and were going to have to fight their way out of it. Luckily they were out here expecting trouble from the get-go, so getting into a scrap didn't take them by surprise. Yet. This all supposing the second Wanted didn't intend to jump in mid-fight like the shark did.
Fingers crossed.
Until now the rider had been driving at a leisurely pace to keep a steady distance from his mates on foot. Well, that changed when he started getting shot at by lasers and cannons. The bike's engine gave a roar immediately as its rider gunned it, jumping forward like a horse under the spurs. Forward and to the right he moved, the scintillating beams fusing glass into sand where he had previously been as he moved out of the way. Glass which was then shattered with a deafening crackling and snapping from the cannon shells that dropped there seconds later.
Mazhe drove towards the two remaining road gunners at speed, a wave of sand following his tires as he plowed ahead. He leveled himself up for an attack run and plowed straight towards the pair with his 7.7mm machine gun blazing, liberally spraying bullets towards the monsters. Not content to remain at range, he reared back with his new sword and hacked at their delicate legs on the way by to cut them down to size before turning around and coming back to do it again. The rider was basically hugging these things, staying so obnoxiously close that they couldn't risk a shot without hurting themselves or an ally. Didn't mean they wouldn't do it, but it'd definitely stress their programming to assess the risk while also calculating ballistics.
Rodriguez and Dyson decided that Gralon could probably handle those, so they'd focus on something else. Neither of their loadouts were particularly good at engaging small, fast, flying targets the way that James's company were; thus, they'd let those guys finish the laser birds. They focused their efforts on picking off the three ants left instead, sending off bullets from crossbow and pistols in their direction. Like their mounted companion, they moved and shot to remain elusive targets for when the enemy backup arrived. They remembered the scorpion gun well from what it did to Zeccika and they did not want to end up as pincushions themselves.
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Rabite
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Post by Rabite on Aug 1, 2016 3:10:19 GMT -6
The exchange of attacks from the Rider and the two Road Gunners were pretty successful, with his bullets shredding the first bird, and his new blade slicing through the leg of the animal like hot knife in butter. The quick movement also prevented the two Road Gunners from their attempts to continue attacking, and ended their lives before further actions could be carried out. The one with its leg sliced off lies on the ground, pretty much disabled.
Two more of the other ants were shot by the Doctor and Artist, with little ability to deal with long range attacks, they were pretty much sitting ducks and are doomed without any means of fighting back. The lone ant that survived decides that this is definitely not worth the effort, and dug back into the sand for its life.
While the other Hummingbirds began to turn to make another dive, they were shot at by James who waited for this moment, and resulting in two more kills and wiping out their air support. Or so he thought when he see another group, this time at a number of five, coming from the distance.
Sarah, just finished ducking another shell from the remaining Road Gunner, and finished it off with another shotgun shell to the face. But then comes bigger problems, in the forms of shells from both the Cannon Hopper and the two Vulcantulas. She managed to avoid the shell, but some of the bullets managed to hit her bike and punched through some of the armor plates. She began to circle around the Vulcantulas, trying to look for an opening, but failed to do so when she noticed the two Vulcantulas covering each other with their shooting arcs. To do get close she might have to risk taking many hits to her bike and perhaps to herself, not a particularly fun experience. Instead she keeps her distance and exchange fire with her SMG Uzi, which eventually do some damage to the slower robot.
Mean while, two more target suddenly appears between the two bikers and their teams, right near where the hunters on foot are dealing with other enemies. Swinging right towards Lilia with one of it's pincer like a hammer, but James quickly grabs her by the waist and pulls back her just enough to avoid the attack. Trusting her teammate to get her to safety, the Artist didn't even try to move, and instead focus on firing her sub machine gun at the Scorpion. The stronger weapon begins to tear own some of the robot's armor, more so when the Hunter beside her joins in the attack. The two only moved when it finally manage to fire it's pincer cannon, but they were able to circle around it to spread out it's fighting ability.
The other Scorpion remained underground and attempt to grab at Rodriguez's leg, it's not specifically built for close range battle, but it'll be a surprise from below. With enough forces to crush any humans it might get its grip on, it's not something that could just be shrug off. Being under the sand also makes it difficult to be hit, adding on to its protection.
As for the newly arrived hummingbirds, they begin to fire at Mazhe, trying to hit him with their much faster weapon. Rays after rays of lasers gets fired in his directions, some cross each other for more difficult patterns to avoid, others spread out in an attempt to limit his speed.
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Police Motorcycle "White Bike" Defense: 15 Armor Plating: 845/930 Shell Space: 0 C-Unit: "Wireless Police" Engine: "Django" Weapons: Slot 1: 7.7mm Machine Gun
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<El Nino Region> (Total Spawn Roll for El Nino Region 6d30 -> 94, starting encounter 1d20 -> 17) 21x Sand Ant (4 Killed, 1 Retreated) (12G) 17x Beam Hummingbird (4 Killed) (32G) 17x Road Gunner (4 Killed) (48G) 10x -> 6x Cannon Hopper 20x -> 11x Vulcantula 20x -> 11x Scorpion Gun
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Richter
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Post by Richter on Aug 1, 2016 3:46:13 GMT -6
"Holy shit!" Came a shout so loud you could almost hear it over the guns. The source was, of course, the cowboy whom had just been seized from underneath the ground by one of the scorpions. It was a damn good thing it chose him to pull this trick on out of the six of them, his metal leg just had some of its armor crumpled rather than what would have happened were it still flesh and blood. Anything ranging from broken bones to outright amputation, but let's not think about that since it doesn't apply.
The man jumps instinctively, and of course, goes nowhere since a massive robot has him by the leg. Adrenaline flooded his system from the danger this situation present, and he hurried to do something about it.
He exclaimed, "Buzz off you hunk of junk!" before emptying his pistol at close range into the limb that was trapping him. But the two footpads here weren't content to trust that this alone would be enough to get the scorpion to let go of Rodriguez and abandon any plans that it had to muck up their day. The doctor swung in as well with his arm reared back and that hellish needle of his extended. This one wasn't an empty syringe, it was a solid cone of pure metal. That must be one of the tips he used for fighting. He slammed it into the claw at breakneck speeds, his own strength and the small point of impact possibly making it more effective than the bullets at punching through its hide.
Then Imanol would try to tug his foot free and leap to the side, with the doctor doing the same regardless of whether or not he got free so they weren't bunched up to make an easy target for burst fire.
Mazhe was having some trouble of his own, those birds were damnably smart. It was almost impossible to avoid the net of beams that were being hurled his way, so he didn't try; they were fairly low powered all told. Instead he hunkered down behind the windshield on the cop bike and sped up, assuring he took fewer hits on his way of outrunning their suppressive fire, rather than trying in vain to evade and probably just making it worse. Several unsettling sizzles met his ears where metal was hit and turned briefly molten, and where paint was vaporized as well. That burned off some of the plating, but the damage wasn't immediately severe.
He whipped back around and arced his motorcycle's gun upwards and began to try and shoot down the birds. They were pretty lightly armored, so even a few bullets from that thing would cause them a lot of hurt. It'd also make coordinating that kind of suppressive fire trickier for them, which was good, because if they kept that tactic up he could be in some trouble. Ideally he could take these down quick and then go to help Sarah out, those were a foe he could deal with. The hummingbirds weren't his forte, being out of melee range.
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Rabite
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Post by Rabite on Aug 1, 2016 14:21:21 GMT -6
As the Scorpion on James' side takes more shots from the two humans, the armor begins to peel off enough for the Hunter to use his Harpoon Gun on it. The Harpoon Gun itself wasn't enough to do much damage, but they're not alone. With a signal, Sarah zooms over on her bike and grabs the Harpoon Gun from James, and attaches the weapon on her bike before zooming away at full speed. The bike was powerful enough to drag the Scorpion away, banging it around like tumbleweeds, before it got crashed into a small hill by Sarah who did a sharp turn. The force was enough to crumble the hill, and destroying any mobility that the Scorpion had. Taking her place in dealing with the other three Robots are James and Lilia, who began a fire fight against the Vulcantulas that had chased after Sarah. It was a fairly dangerous move as neither had any specific armor, with both of them taking scratches as the battle continues. It's a good thing the Vulcantula moves fairly slow, and could not angle it's gun, so they could actually keep behind cover to avoid shots. The damaged Vulcantula from earlier took enough shots that it stops function, laying in a smoking pile of scrap. The Cannon Hopper is a bigger problem, it jumps into the air to stay out of the fire fight, and fire several shells at the two from the air to bypass their cover. Thankfully they got the new gloves that gave them some protection, but the burn did force Lilia to take a recovery capsule. The Hunter on the other hand ignored the minor injuries, he suffered much worse before in vehicle battles. "Owww... don't you robots have any manners to not hit a lady?!" "Do your inventions have any manners? They're robots!" "They sure do, I made sure to teach them to say hi to anyone they meet!" - The Doctor's new needle was strong enough to punch through the layer of armor that the Scorpion processed, and enough to damage the pincer enough for it to let go. Seeing that one of it's main weapons are damaged, the Scorpion surfaces up a distance away, and instead switch to shooting at the two with the remaining nailgun and pincer cannon. Normally it would have tried to use it's tough body to simply tank the attacks, but that needle seems to be powerful enough to do quite some damage to the robot, so it decided to do this the safe way instead and keep some distances. Three of the Hummingbirds are shot down by the Rider's counterattacks, a result of their concentrated formation to get him, however the remaining two continues to fight bravely against the man on the bike. Firing several more rays towards him while he is attempting to fire back. While everyone is busy with their opponents, something changed in their current situation. A small distance away, the sunlight reflected something for a split second, before a volley of bullets are sent towards Mazhe's back. The bullets were fired so fast that only two gunshots were heard, and shot right at the timing when the Rider are busy with the birds. Whatever that fired it had already moved from its spot to another location, but if Mazhe looked back fast enough he might be able to catch a hint of red color from the attacker. If he had extremely great sight, he might also be able to see a few bullet casings in midair, not hitting the ground yet. Then from his right, another wave of bullets, this time the aiming are adjusted according to how the Rider would react to the first volley of shots. The two volleys of attacks make it like a team of gunners had attempted a crossfire from multiple directions, a well calculated assault from their attacker, the thing that they had came to search for: - [WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE: 4500G -DESPEROID-] - The small device on the top of its 'head' seems to be a camera, or its actual head, glowing red as it locks on to its target. As James have predicted, it seems to fire with great accuracy, fierce and active at taking on armed threats, in this case hunters. It did not take on unarmed combatants, mainly because it focus on dealing with possible threats, as a result of the programing from its designer, which was out to slaughter humans. Although it's got flimsy looking arms and legs, they seem to be able to retract or expand to change the height and angle of the robot, allowing it to fire more unpredictably. At the moment it seems to be locked on to the biker riding warrior that had been shooting down the birds, something that was actually summoned by the robot with special signals to support its own operations. Just when you think the robot had finish its assault, within a nick of time, it almost instantly reloaded its two weapons. It fired yet a third wave of bullets towards Mazhe, this time from the front on the right, before breaking from it's movement pattern and start moving backwards. It was about to attack again, but Sarah finally finished with her trip with the Scorpion, and came back to support the rider with the powerful enemy that just appeared. Firing several waves of bullets from her Uzi and from the machine gun on her bike, she forced the killer robot to abandon its intention for a fourth wave of attack, and instead begins evasive movements. Much of the bullets failed to make contact, and the few that did hit only did some dents on it, they need to either shoot it more or hit it harder somehow. In return, it send a wave of bullets back towards the Soldier, but she ducked under her windshield to avoid any shots on the driver. She stops near Mazhe to see how he's doing, keeping her eyes on the robot in front of them, that seems to ready to deal with both its original target and the newcomer. "You ok there? James noticed it when the Desperoid first attacked, and sent me over to help. Your teammates seems to be busy with a Scorpion Gun, James and Lilia's got their hands tied with the remaining robots as well, so it'll be just me and you for a bit." - Police Motorcycle "White Bike" Defense: 15 Armor Plating: 725/930 Shell Space: 0 C-Unit: "Wireless Police" Engine: "Django" Weapons: Slot 1: 7.7mm Machine Gun - <El Nino Region> (Total Spawn Roll for El Nino Region 6d30 -> 94, starting encounter 1d20 -> 17) 21x Sand Ant (4 Killed, 1 Retreated) (12G) 14x Beam Hummingbird (7 Killed) (56G) 17x Road Gunner (4 Killed) (48G) 6x Cannon Hopper 10x Vulcantula (1 Killed) (17G) 10x Scorpion Gun (1 Killed) (18G)
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Richter
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Post by Richter on Aug 1, 2016 18:16:16 GMT -6
It turns out that their attacks were enough to convince the scorpion to let go, and the pair took the chance to split from that spot immediately just before the machine surfaced to try and attack at range. Dyson avoided the worst of the fire because he was close enough to duck under the sweeping arc of its stinger, but Rodriguez lacked that good fortune, so he got sliced up by several of the nails and munitions as they flew past. Or dinged up where they hit metal themselves, but all the same to him, really.
The cowboy thew himself onto the dirt and returned fire at the pincer that was still operational, trying to land a few bullets inside of the claw where it might be less well armored. Jack came at it from its 3 o'clock and pressed into melee, figuring out the same thing that the girls did last match; the scorpionbots didn't like melee combat. He pounded the syringe into the base of its tail with a similar objective to his partner, trying to mess up its gun if not outright disabling the machine itself.
Mazhe was having a lot more trouble, because he jinxed this too. Once again they found themselves ambushed by the bounty target while already stuck in, and this one hurt a hell of a lot more. The rider had basically no defense against the bullets since he had no idea that the shooter was there. The first one buried itself into the rear armor of his bike by luck, but the second tore a bleeding wound into his side. After that he started to jink to avoid the bullets, taking another hit to the body and a few more to the armor. While doing this he did catch some sight of the thing attacking him. No doubt about it, this was the desperado.
By that point the soldier linked up with him, and that was a hell of a relief.
"Thanks for coming," he started, "Doc's gonna need to give me the once-over when we're done, but I'll live."
They needed a plan for this, but luckily, Sarah was probably the best person to send. Both of them could intercept this thing's bullets and apply plenty of pressure so it couldn't keep pulling its guerrilla act. They might just pull this off after all.
"We need to flip the tables and suppress it. Cut down its mobility. Then I can close into melee and tear it to pieces; I don't think it will expect that. But it's too dangerous to do that immediately, it might have traps or some other plan. Better to try and make it sweat and play its cards," Mazhe suggested. It may be a fast shot, but it couldn't outgun two machine guns. Nor outrun two vehicles. The fact it wasn't trying to bail out made the biker uneasy, it figured it had good odds and he wanted to know why. Better to play this smart and not risk eating a bullet directly.
So this is what he did: He approached the Desperoid at a curving trajectory opposite to Sarah, so he'd have to either focus fire on just one of them, or split fire between both. As with the shark, he focused himself right in on the killer robot and peppered him with lead as he approached, swerving erratically between bursts, yet somehow firing at the perfect moment to keep the attacks on target as if he, himself, were a machine...or a WWI era fighter pilot if not that.* Mazhe didn't let himself get too close, yet, because he didn't want to the Wanted to get the idea he was going to try to melee it just yet. Instead he pulled his own hit-and-fade act, driving forward, shooting, then leaning hard in another direction. If he could break LoS with any terrain, he took it.
He kept one hand off the handlebars so that he could draw his sword in an instant to intercept any attacks that might go past the armor. The hope was to distract it himself so Sarah could blindside it and try to strain by contending with a pair of agile targets.
* - Stormy Raid
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Police Motorcycle "White Bike" Defense: 15 Armor Plating: 390/435 Shell Space: 0 C-Unit: "Wireless Police" Engine: "Muramasa" Weapons: Slot 1: 7.7mm Machine Gun
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Rabite
Veteran Member
Emperor of H
Hey, look over here.
Posts: 1,887
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Post by Rabite on Aug 1, 2016 20:38:53 GMT -6
While the Cannon Hopper is in the air, James thought of a plan, and moves out of cover to deal with the artillery robot. His movements would draw the attention of the two robots towards him, which gives the opportunity for Lilia to approach and finish off the Vulcantula with a wave of bullets at close range. The Vulcantula attempts to move in reaction to the Artist, but she was able to move faster and carried out her attack before it could get away. Mean while, James had a Recovery Pill in his mouth, and charges right towards where the Cannon Hopper would land, taking a few hits on his arms and wraps it up with his jacket. Leaving only a small hole for attack, he starts stabbing it with his Harpoon Gun, over and over until it stops moving.
The few shells that hit him did some burns and left some shrapnel on his arms, forcing him to pull them out before taking his medicine to seal up the wounds before they get any worse. His injuries healed, but it sapped a bit more of his strength as the healing medicine takes effect. It was a reckless move, but they need to clear up their opponents fast so they can move on to support their allies. Lilia comes over to give him a hand in getting up, they decided to head towards where the two bikers are fighting their main target, but staying low to avoid detection.
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The Scorpion, kept it's stinger away from the Doctor, now that it knows the needle is enough to punch through it's armor. Instead it turns to shoot at him with nails from its still functioning arm, trying to keep him away so continue the attack. As for the robot like artist, the Scorpion decides that the nails won't be enough to do much damage, so it aims the stinger cannon at him and fires several shots.
Sarah reloads her Uzi before nodding to the other biker in response, they need to press on with their numbers, and try to deal with the robot before it does anymore damage.
"You watch out yourself, that thing is shooting a lot faster than I expected it to be. In the long run it might even fire faster than the machine guns on the bike, and it might still have some tricks up its sleeve too."
Following the Rider's plan, Sarah charges at the robot, firing with her Uzi instead of the bike's gun. Her route is more straight, but at slightly greater speed so force their target to divert more attention towards her. Her straight path also allows her to keep herself under the windshield for more protection, being only vulnerable when she holds out her arms to attack.
The Desperoid, calmly shoots at the two attackers, moving slightly to avoid some of the more damaging shots and letting its armor withstand the weaker ones. It doesn't seem to be surprised or scared at its opponents' plans, if it would be that easily defeated it would have been done so long ago. While Mazhe could take cover to avoid being spotted, so could the robot if at slower speed, it calmly returns fire with much more shots than the two of them could deliver. Even when the two splits up to reduce the attacks being directed towards each one of them, it still fires as much if not more than a machine gun, only taking a second between waves of attacks to reload.
Being the slower one, it decides to not keep chasing the two, and move to get cover. It keeps itself near hills, avoiding a direct fire fight with the two. Right now it tries to focus fire on Sarah with again, four waves of bullets. The bullets quickly do some heavy damage to the bike, peeling off the armor like it is paper, with one even hitting her thigh. It's a good thing it didn't hit anything vital, and she's on the bike so she can keep going without the needs to break out of combat. Her own return fire did not produce much result either, it seems that they'll need to get close for their shots to do more effective damage.
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Police Motorcycle "White Bike" Defense: 15 Armor Plating: 485/930 Shell Space: 0 C-Unit: "Wireless Police" Engine: "Django" Weapons: Slot 1: 7.7mm Machine Gun
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<El Nino Region> (Total Spawn Roll for El Nino Region 6d30 -> 94, starting encounter 1d20 -> 17) 21x Sand Ant (4 Killed, 1 Retreated) (12G) 14x Beam Hummingbird (7 Killed) (56G) 17x Road Gunner (4 Killed) (48G) 6x Cannon Hopper (1 Killed) (22G) 10x Vulcantula (2 Killed) (34G) 10x Scorpion Gun (1 Killed) (18G)
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Richter
Veteran Member
Posts: 1,870
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Post by Richter on Aug 1, 2016 20:58:02 GMT -6
Jack covered himself with his arm to bounce the majority of the rivets, but it was enough to force him back even if the damage wasn't so bad. He retreated behind an outcropping of rock and took a shot at it from around cover with his bow while nails buried themselves into the stone. Rodriguez bounces on spring-assisted feet between the worst of the damage coming his way, though shrapnel buries itself into his skin in several painful places. He's forced to take his healing pill to seal up the wounds before they start to hinder his combat performance.
While digging around in his gear, rather than shoot, he instead pulls out his rocket firework and launches that at the scorpion gunner instead. With the smoke that kicked up, he changed positions to somewhere more secure from the fire of its tail.
Meanwhile the rider continued to be impressed by this robot, which as it turns out, basically could match their automatics in fire rate. It also certainly beat out the targeting capabilities of their own c-units since it was able to drop rounds onto the two of them without much of a delay in speed or drop in accuracy. Bullets continued to ping off of his vehicle's armor, with one in particular smashing into his windshield and causing the anti-ballistic glass to spiderweb right in front of his face. Had that screen not been there, this fight could have suddenly taken a sharp turn for the worst. Still, since he was being evasive, he didn't suffer damage quite as bad as the soldier did. Yet. That would probably change as Gralon continued to carry out his plan.
While it was focused on Sarah he got a bead on where it had taken cover and proceeded on approach. He swerved between hills as if trying to get a clear shot, taking a couple attacks of opportunity, but mostly they were just psychouts to keep it on edge. It was smart of the robot to take cover, it'd make charging him hard; were they still talking in 2d. Mazhe was a master of doing otherwise, a necessity for bringing melee skills to bare on foes that like to try and hang back out of reach. He found the steepest hill pointing in the direction of the Desperoid and took it, the snarl of his engine was briefly deafening while the bike it was attached to plowed up the far side to send the it flying overhead. The objective was to land on top of the robot assassin with a Wheelie Jump, whether it worked or not would remain to be seen.
Naturally, this'd hurt like hell if he got hit by it. But even if it didn't, it still meant the biker was now right next to the thing; Sarah could close on it as well using the distraction. Granted, she'd have to watch her shots carefully now, but if anyone could manage that it was probably a soldier. One thing was for sure, their foe had the advantage at range so the only way they'd make this work, in his mind, was to get to where he could press his own skills to the fullest.
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Police Motorcycle "White Bike" Defense: 15 Armor Plating: 320/435 Shell Space: 0 C-Unit: "Wireless Police" Engine: "Muramasa" Weapons: Slot 1: 7.7mm Machine Gun
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Rabite
Veteran Member
Emperor of H
Hey, look over here.
Posts: 1,887
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Post by Rabite on Aug 1, 2016 22:06:35 GMT -6
While the bolts did little damage to the armored Scorpion, the firework did manage to do some damage, and blinding it long enough for Rodriguez to take cover. Seeing that one of its targets seem to have disappeared, it turn to focus its attacks on the Doctor, without approaching any further just to be safe. The fireworks did some extra damage to it, making its AI shifting more to staying safe than to charge its enemies, which might or might not be a bad thing depending on how you see it.
Sarah, seeing the opportunity to strike along with Mazhe, charges towards the robot as well. Shifting from side to side to avoid the coming bullets being fired her way, and was ready to fire right along when the other bike comes down on the robot... then the unthinkable happened. The Desperoid jumps away and suddenly shrinks by retracting all of its limbs and camera, shrink it's size to a small baby, which allows it to avoid both the bike from above and the shotgun blast that Sarah hopes to land on the robot. The next moment, it expands itself into full size once again, and fires at both the Soldier and the Rider at close range. The move was fairly sudden, without a warning, and at a flash of time, making it very difficult for Sarah to avoid. She quickly makes a sharp turn as fast as possible, but still took two bullets to the side, doing more damage than before with their close range.
Now injured, Sarah tries to keep a fair distance between herself and the robot, so she could have some time to take out the bullet before taking some healing medicine. It's a good thing the bullets couldn't punch too deed to hurt any vital organs, a blessing thanks to the modern humans adapting to the after war environment, but nevertheless this is some heavy injuries.
To cover for Sarah and Mazhe, the newly arrived James and Lilia begins to fire several careful shots at the Desperoid, to try to pin it down and to lure it away from their injured allies. It sort of worked, at least it decided to begin shooting at the two as well and not just towards its two original targets. Being on foot and tired from earlier battle with the other robots, Lilia was unable to avoid the return fire completely and took a shot to the shoulder, causing her to whine in pain and take cover as soon as she could. James continues to exchange shots with the robot, having a bit more knowledge on how to deal with AI operated enemies, and moving in better ways to provoke some delays in the robot's attacks.
"Mazhe! Support your allies! We'll hold this thing for a moment! Sarah! I'll buy you sometime!"
His bullets couldn't do much damage to the robots, instead he aims to fire at where the robot is about to use, hitting its limbs when it attempts to move or return fire. This helps in making the AI readjust to the new damage and action, forcing it to take a second to recalculate what it should do, and delaying it for as long as James could manage without getting shot.
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Police Motorcycle "White Bike" Defense: 15 Armor Plating: 485/930 Shell Space: 0 C-Unit: "Wireless Police" Engine: "Django" Weapons: Slot 1: 7.7mm Machine Gun
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<El Nino Region> (Total Spawn Roll for El Nino Region 6d30 -> 94, starting encounter 1d20 -> 17) 21x Sand Ant (4 Killed, 1 Retreated) (12G) 14x Beam Hummingbird (7 Killed) (56G) 17x Road Gunner (4 Killed) (48G) 6x Cannon Hopper (1 Killed) (22G) 10x Vulcantula (2 Killed) (34G) 10x Scorpion Gun (1 Killed) (18G)
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Richter
Veteran Member
Posts: 1,870
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Post by Richter on Aug 1, 2016 22:34:21 GMT -6
When he went on that crazed jump, he was expecting some turbulence and the sound of metal twisting underneath the weight of his bike. He didn't get that, instead he felt a much more gentle (comparatively speaking) impact resulting from the bike hitting only flat sand instead. He turned his head and found himself almost close enough to the robot to spit on it, which had avoided his attack by curling itself up like a hermit crab. One would now realize in hindsight that this might have been why it was designed with those gangly limbs.
So suffice to say dodging its counter attack at that range would be very difficult, he managed to twist at the waist so the bullet landed in his upper arm rather than in his ribs. That was the best he could do on such short notice, but it still hurt enough to make him howl in pain. Luckily his bike kept rolling forward without his intervention, taking him back behind another hill with a thin trail of red staining the sands as he drove. With one arm having greatly reduced use it'd be a lot harder for him to pull off those stunts he's fond of, so that made it even worse. It could probably still be used to hold the handlebars and steer, but any more jumps like that last one would probably hurt like all hell.
He heard James's offer and gave him a thumb's up in acknowledgement with the arm that wasn't oozing blood. "Hold 'em, I'll be back!" he called out. It was a good plan, Dyson could probably dig out that bullet in a flash and get the rider back to full combat readiness once the target over there was destroyed.
Saying that, he zoomed off back towards the scorpion gun that was keeping both of his ground pounding buddies suppressed. Doc was playing totally defensive, keeping that stone between him and the scorpion even as gritted his teeth from several of those shots starting to rip apart the embankment. Wasn't a good position to be in. However that did give the artist a chance to slink around behind it and shoot it in the rear with a pistol, dropping a quick two rounds into its ass while it was focused on the other cyborg instead of trying to nail them both.
Then Mazhe rode onto the scene after fleeing the immediate area of the Desperoid. He rolled up on it from the side of its damaged claw, identifying it by the smoke trailing out of the hole Dyson had punched in it, and lit it up along its widest axis with his machine gun. What he remembered from last time was that these guys weren't too agile, and it'd be even harder to evade the biker's attack since he had it caught in a enfilade. Since the robot was fairly low to the ground he kept going straight and ran it over rather than erring to the side; it was short enough that his bike could easily clear it and that might compound any damage his bullets manage to cause on it. Even if not doing a wheelie jump, that bike was still heavy and going fast.
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Police Motorcycle "White Bike" Defense: 15 Armor Plating: 320/435 Shell Space: 0 C-Unit: "Wireless Police" Engine: "Muramasa" Weapons: Slot 1: 7.7mm Machine Gun
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Rabite
Veteran Member
Emperor of H
Hey, look over here.
Posts: 1,887
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Post by Rabite on Aug 1, 2016 23:01:34 GMT -6
The Desperoid, now only facing two targets on foot, fires towards James and Lilia just as fast as it had before. Afraid of getting hit when the robot seems to accurate, Lilia had to return fire blindly, which explains much about the lack of accuracy towards the robot. James himself barely took the lag time he caused the the robot to have, and duck behind the same hill as Lilia. Seeing that they need someone to be fighting the robot directly, Lilia quickly applies some of the gold powder from before on the Hunter, and he goes right back out to fight.
Using the movements of his long coat to disrupt the robot's aiming, James managed to avoid a few shots that would have otherwise hit him. Some of shots that did land managed to be deflected by the coating that was applied on him, nevertheless the forces are still transferred into him and causes internal injuries even if they don't create any open wounds. While he takes the hits and return fire to slow down the robot, Lilia goes from the other side and begins firing at the robot as well, however the robot still outguns the two combined and are having little effect on it.
Sarah, seeing that her teammates are in danger, hurries to get her wounds patched up. Pretty much tearing out the bullets that are lodged in her wounds, gritting her teeth to try and ignore the pain, before downing the pill and closing up the wounds. With a Warcry, she goes right back into the fray, with the machine gun on her bike blazing. Her attack of course forces the Desperoid to deal with her again, who lets the bike take the shots so she can conserve some strength. Again she tries to charge close for another wave of attack up close, which causes it to shrink down to avoid the attack again. However this time, the Soldier was ready. In addition to the Shotgun, she also fires the Uzi in her other hand, shooting up the robot a bit at close range to return the favor.
The bullets did manage to do some damage to the robot, weakening its armor and causing some sparks to show, but it's not out of the fight yet. While Sarah makes her attack, James and Lilia goes back behind cover again, reloading their weapons for another wave of attack on the killer robot.
Mean while, the Scorpion looks like is not going to survive for long, the two shots from the Artist managed to hit and damage it's weak armored stinger. As it recalculates what to do, Mazhe comes from the side and runs over it before it could react, causing some heavy damage with the bullets and finally disabling the heavy robot when it was cut in half by the motorcycle that ran over it.
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Police Motorcycle "White Bike" Defense: 15 Armor Plating: 365/930 Shell Space: 0 C-Unit: "Wireless Police" Engine: "Django" Weapons: Slot 1: 7.7mm Machine Gun
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<El Nino Region> (Total Spawn Roll for El Nino Region 6d30 -> 94, starting encounter 1d20 -> 17) 21x Sand Ant (4 Killed, 1 Retreated) (12G) 14x Beam Hummingbird (7 Killed) (56G) 17x Road Gunner (4 Killed) (48G) 5x Cannon Hopper (1 Killed) (22G) 9x Vulcantula (2 Killed) (34G) 9x Scorpion Gun (2 Killed) (18G)
<WANTED> 1x -Desperoid- 4500G
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