Rabite
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Post by Rabite on Aug 5, 2016 0:43:35 GMT -6
After their latest success in defeating the killer robot Desperoid, the team had experienced some peace and quiet, with the only tough battles they had was to try to analyze the remains of the Desperoid for extra information. From what they could salvage, it seems to be another Noah droid, the machine responsible for the Great Destruction. Noah was originally build as a means to regulate the declining climate, one of the ways to help find a solution on how to fix the environment of the planet, and was built by the great genius Professor Bias Vlad.
However something went wrong, or perhaps it was what it was doomed to decide in the end, Noah ended up seeing humans as the reason why Earth is dying and must be exterminated. And of course humans did not just lay down and died, when Noah sent killer droids to wipe out the humans, they went into battle against the now killer AI with their own advance and powerful weapons. Vehicles were redesigned and used as the main weapon of war, featuring stronger guns, thicker armor, all sorts of new technology that allow the humans to combat with Noah who have much control over machines. In the end, no one emerged as the victor of this war, with Noah suffering tremendous damage and with humans losing much of the former glory in what was now known as the Great Destruction.
From what they found out in the robot's database, Noah is very much alive and active, just not as powerful as before. It occasionally send out robots to finish off what it hoped to have started, sending out killer droids with different types of machines to support these droids, such as ones that deliver the ammunition that they might need. Unfortunately they would have to be disappointed, as the supply drops will no longer be delivered after the Desperoid are destroyed, but such information could be useful in future hunts.
Nevertheless, they got some good drops from the killer robot, and a good amount of reward cash from the Hunter's Organization for dealing with the Wanted target. The money should be enough to let them slack a bit for a while, but your daily pay is not always the reason why you need to fight.
Today, the Hunter's Organization had requested all registered hunters nearby to gather at the El Nino Hunter's Office for an emergency quest, sent by the nearby town of Mado. When James arrived, he was surprised to find how little hunters were in the area. But it couldn't be helped, El Nino's not a popular location for hunters to use as a base, and what remaining ones that did came were killed by the Desperoid. There's usually a few more, but they seem to be busy with other things, and are out of town at the moment.
You might wonder if it might just be the hunters not responding to the request, however it is highly unlikely as it risks them being blacklisted by the organization, and that's pretty much the same as the death penalty to go hunt without any support from the organization. James looked around for the trio that he had worked with several times before, and maybe even that girl from before might be here. Emergency quests don't happen often, and when they do it's because of serious happenings that needed immediate attention, not exactly the kind of missions that you might consider easy so he hoped to find some decent allies to come with him.
The quest itself mentions the approaches of a band of Grapplers, which seems to be heading right for Mado, so they hope to call for assistance. Grapplers are highly threatening to settlements, as they tend to plunder for riches and to capture prisoners for manpower. Although the Hunter's Organization do not directly fight the Grapplers, they do so remotely by acting as the middleman for these settlements to hire hunters for assistance, which helps deal with Grappler threats.
James himself was not too keen on fighting an army, but with only this number of hunters in the area, if he don't accept it then it might be the end for Mado. Thankfully they don't usually come in full forces, so lets hope this won't get too ugly. On the bright side, he can see several famed hunters had already departed to help Mado, including the Falcon Fei, Berserk Buggy Garcia, Man of Iron Apache, and the Immortal Woman Maria. These four hunters are from different parts, but each of them are fairly famous in their own area, so they should be able to handle most of the enemies. James' team could also go and help deal with the remanent, which could bring some extra funds and maybe some useful items.
Sarah seems pretty interested in fighting an army, perhaps so that she could test out her new weapon. She looks at James with sparkles in her eyes, urging for him to accept, which got James to be quite worried about her warmongering tendency. There's also their new machine gun that they used to replace the old one on the bike, seeing that the last one don't have enough punch to punch through thicker armor, so they used a part of their new income to get some stronger firepower.
"But I'm tired~ It's only been a few days since we last fought something big! Then the boring android wanted me to stay up overnight to crack the robot's files... next time I'll crack his parts to see what was he thinking!"
"You yourself was somewhat interested in it too. Besides, it's not like we have much choices, it's emergency quests from the organization, can't really refuse those. And Sarah stop having your fingers on the trigger, you might accidentally kill someone, like me!"
".....Right."
Mean while, Lilia is ranting about what happened these past few days, seeing how she seems to be the only one around that could do the data data collecting, and then some more work on data mining it into useful information. That said, any fatigue she may have does not seem to put any stress on her overly excited mood, so she's as crazy as usual.
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Richter
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Post by Richter on Aug 5, 2016 9:45:55 GMT -6
The data on the robot was pretty interesting. Noah was a name that got tossed around every so often back home. Some government types, word is the same bureau that built him, was rumored to have had a facility up north that dealt with the environment issue before the world went to hell. It was locked up tight behind a militarized border known locally as the "Hell Gate", not-so-coincidentally manned and guarded by robots with itchy trigger fingers. Other machines would pour out of it on occasion, but few people have managed to cross it in turn.
Except Bad Valdez.
Mazhe had tangled with them once under contract to defend the town of Hell Gate West from a robot onslaught at a point, even working with an outlaw known as Ghost Rommel to do so. No one had seen any movement out of the frontier since then, but who knows how long it'll last. Started to make them wonder if that might not be where this Noah lived, or at least a part of him; AIs and all not necessarily having to have the entirety of their 'bodies' all in the same place.
But that was a topic for another time.
In between missions they used the rather lucrative payout from the Desperoid and its flunkies to continue kitting out their outfit. Some replacement meds, another repair kit, some armor and guns, and a new engine for rider's bike. Not that it ended up to matter much at the end of the day, because that computer almost outweighed any benefit they got from the thing. Hell, there might as well be an AI in there for how much it weighed. It didn't really matter now either since they couldn't yet mount a second gun, but soon enough it'd pay off. Plus, more speed was always something the biker was interested in.
It went without saying that they got the memo about an emergency request, and it just so happened that they did show up in time to hear the briefing about it. Here's how James would find out that they had showed up:
"Crack whose parts now, girlie?!" a certain android said from behind them. It seemed that there would be no immediate end to James's headaches. "I know you're not referring to me! Because the Vagabond Guitarman don't crack under pressure from nobody!"
Luckily that group had its own level-headed leader to square away the hotheaded one. "Calm down, buddy. Save for for the Grapplers."
"Gah!" was all that the artist had to say in reply. It seemed a trend was starting to form here.
Mazhe struck up conversation to change the topic. "So, what do you think about the mission? I'm pretty excited to get to grips with this army. They sound like scum, the world doesn't need 'em."
As always, the rider seemed to hold some kind of niche position halfway between the hunter and soldier in the counterpart group. Fitting, considering that was about where riders fell on the vehicle/personal expert scale. He continued, "But I'm a little worried about the numbers, this whole city barely held them off last time. We have a lot fewer people in this room than El Nino's army had."
"Don't know what you're talking about, we got a one man army right here." Rodriguez added in with a laugh. "You and Doc ain't so bad either. Three armies with just us. Good odds, if you ask me."
"You're damn right. Speaking of that, I hear some famous hunter quartet was dispatched ahead of the rest of us. I hope there's some bounty money left over. Those four have quite the reputation around here."
Mazhe furthermore mentioned that his team was basically ready to go and was just waiting for the Office to give the go-ahead on it. They looked much more heavily geared than last time, which should ease James's concerns somewhat. Right now the association was waiting to see if anyone else would show up before sending out everyone whom had responded to their summons, those four having been dispatched as an emergency vanguard while the mustering was going on back here. Gralon stood on his toes to look over the heads of the other people present, he was looking to see if the fist fighter from before would show up as well.
"I still wouldn't mind a few more bodies going with us. I wonder where that girl went off to, the martial artist? I think she got cold feet after seeing her own blood," he concluded.
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Post by Pitman on Aug 5, 2016 21:52:22 GMT -6
The days continued to drag on as Zeccika moved another piece of machinery into another crate. After what occurred earlier she was all intents and purposes, grounded. Her father gave her an ear full especially in how dangerous and how stupid she was. Mecks never left her out of sight for days on end and forced her to come with him on his odd jobs throughout the city fixing what little thing to some big things. Never the less she was full of oil and sweat as she continued to help her father put another generator back into order.
"Pass me that wretch please.", Mecks soon stated from his spot which she soon gave to him.
The building she was at was some building she wasn't even sure what was its purpose. Never the less her father continued to work until they raised enough cash to move on to the next town or city.
"This is boring...", Zeccika soon commented as her father snorted from below.
"Its work hun, sometimes you just need to realize the beauty of life and how it is.", Mecks stated as he finished up his work.
Soon after they left the building both were walking back down towards the hotel, as they were doing so she was overhearing someone speak of an emergency call for all hunters for something. Her eyes perked but one look of her father told her it was still a no. Though in truth she wondered where those others were after the first mission she took. She still had to return the jacket but with her father not having any bull there was simply no way for her to even go over to give it back. As they arrived at the hotel there was a person in a suit who was near the reception desk which he turned Mecks' face darkened and soon says, "Head up I will be with you in a moment."
Not sure on what to do Zeccika soon nodded as she headed back to her room for a nice shower to take off all the grim and oil. As time progressed she got herself dressed once more and as she finished to put her shoes back on her father soon came in but with a not so well looking face.
"So what's up?", Zeccika soon asked her father soon soon replies, "Get ready we need to get going. Bring ya shot gun and that new armor you had made. Do not ask how I found ya hiding spot."
Unsure what just occurred she finished getting ready she soon was worried what was going on. Soon she followed her father out and into the direction she least expected. Before was the Hunter's Organization as she followed her father inside, leading to see not many people she noticed the other two groups from earlier but unsure what was exactly going on. On hearing what was happening she wondered what that all meant and why her father would even arrive in time. As the emergency mission was issue her father suddenly disappears off to talk to someone in the organization itself. Leaving her alone with her armor and shot gun which was hanging on her back.
When she turned her head she soon noticed the others remembering she had to return the jacket. Waiting for her father not paying attention she soon walked up to James group and then throws his jacket over.
"I believe this belongs to you.", Zeccika soon stated.
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Rabite
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Hey, look over here.
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Post by Rabite on Aug 6, 2016 0:47:57 GMT -6
"Ha! Maybe not from pressure from anyone, but who needs to use brute force to deal wi-?"
"Alright you guys, that's enough. Lilia you can go to sleep or something if you want, I'll fill in the story for you later, but don't go picking a fight."
After hushing up the Artist, he goes back to dealing with the serious business on hand. James felt more at ease after seeing the others' eagerness to go into combat, at least he have confidence in their abilities and experiences. There's also the group of hunter that went on ahead, so it should be enough to deal with anything, right? As he finish up on going over the information they have on hand, he notice the girl from before, and catches the jacket that was thrown back towards him.
"Hm, I hope the jacket didn't shrink, it needed to be dry cleaned you know. I guess you're here for the mission as well, if so then welcome to the team."
He started the conversation with a light joke before extending his invitation to the Martial Artist. As Mazhe had suggested, at this moment, any extra hand could be helpful. After confirming that everyone is good to go, James and his team leaves the office and heads towards their destination, the small town of Mado.
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On their way to Mado, it was strangely peaceful for a lack of words to use. Unlike the usually days where wild beasts and random robots would try to attack travelers, the reinforcement team had not encounter any hostile beings. As they pass the East Mado Desert, they could see a large number of trails, left by some sort of vehicles. After some cautious advancing, they found out the reason why there are so little creatures today... they already got taken care of.
Huge numbers of remains, both corpses and scraps are left here and there as the Grappler forces advanced, leaving a trail of destruction behind them. Many of them were shot by bullets, showing the capability of the Grappler forces to carry out ranged attacks, but these numbers were dwarfed by the charcoal and ashes that are left behind. Judging from the conditions of the remains, they were hit by great level of heat within split seconds, enough to burn even the armored Scorpion Gun down to ashes rather than melting it. While being a hostile forces to the regular citizen of the wasteland, the Grappler are in no way friendly to the many killer robots and fierce animals in the region, and would not hesitate to destroy these targets that might be threatening to whatever the Grappler treated as a goal to their means.
Soon they could see Mado in the far distance... and the black smoke that are coming out of it shows that it does not look good. James had the team stop for a moment, and sneak forward a bit to take a look with a pair of binoculars to see what kind of enemy are they facing here. From what he could see, there's 10-15 vehicles ahead, with the number being a bit unclear thanks to the heavy smoke in the area. He could also see a large number of infantries near the vehicles, with many of them pillaging, raping, killing, and burning the settlers of Mado. There were signs of rough battle, with many dead soldiers and even several destroyed vehicles in the area. What's strange is that he could see that some of the buildings looks like they got grinded down to ashes by something, while the other parts of the building seems to have been molten by extreme heat.
As for the equipment, the vehicles are more of tankettes than actual tanks, lacking the thick armor that a tank would otherwise have and a turret that would have help it aim in battle. They're armed with a single machine gun at the top of the vehicle, and a small cannon that is barely bigger than the machine gun. It is pretty weak in vehicle spec, but they mainly fight with numbers instead, so that would not be too much of a problem. The infantries are armed with what seems to be armor made out of scrap metal, and have some roughly made guns, machine guns perhaps.
Lastly, there's a handful of charred corpses and a burning car near the center of the town, possibly the remains of the four hunters that had came in advance.
James hurries back to the group, and share his information with them.
"I see tons of them, around two platoons of troops, and a dozen tankettes. Something roasted the town, and the troops are looting whatever they could find in the remains. Those tankettes have paper thin armor that even our pistols can shoot through, while the infantries are only using make shift guns that won't cause much injuries. But they have numbers, that's a big number difference we got here, what do you guys think? If we take them on it could be a blood fest, but if we leave them then Mado's going to become a ghost town from now on."
Now is the time for the team to choose to follow their brains, or follow their hearts. But with this overwhelming differences, no one could be blamed even if they decided to run away, it would just be treated as bad luck just like all those other settlements that the Grapplers had destroyed. Just bad luck...
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[Grappler Hunting Force] 11x Grappler Tank 48x Grappler Hooligan
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Richter
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Post by Richter on Aug 6, 2016 1:14:00 GMT -6
Mazhe and the group stopped on occasion to briefly examine the corpses of the various wild monsters that they were passing. While who killed them was readily apparent, knowing with what could well prepare them for the battle ahead. It looked like machine guns, small-caliber cannons...and some kind of extremely powerful heat-based weapon.
"I've never seen anything like it," Dyson commented about the carcasses once they had returned to motion. He kept at it, "The Grapplers must have some kind of potent energy weapon with them. Perhaps some kind of laser? That would be my guess, but the damage seems too widely dispersed for any beam weapon I've ever seen. Those tend to be pin-point accurate. I'd be tempted to say this fits the pattern of a flamethrower, but those don't usually reach temperatures nearly high enough to produce these kinds of results."
It was troubling news to say the least. But what could they do? They were already rolling, and this just meant that the town needed them more than ever. Which was true to an extent, but by the time they arrived it appeared that they were too late. The smoke being put off by burning buildings was visible for miles before the structures themselves came into view. Some of the city was still standing, but it looked like that might not be the case for long if nothing was done. What looked like cars were parked at the city's edge, but it was hard to get a good look from where they had stopped. James helped with that by scouting ahead and coming back with a figure.
The trio looked between each other with hard expressions once the situation had been explained. Rather than look frightened, however, their resolve hardened if anything. Their leader spoke up, "Our stance was and still is 'put them to the sword', long as the rest of you are in."
"Sounds like they're celebrating their victory, so between that and the smoke, they might not see us coming behind them. We could probably swoop in and carve them up before they know we're there," the rider ventured. It erred fairly heavily on luck, but most plans did to some extent. "Maybe we could swipe a few of those tanks in the initial attack? I doubt they're operating on full compliment right now. Maybe each of our bikes could go in with a passenger, quickly dismount them and grab a pair of vehicles while we lay into the rear guard. What do you think?"
The question was mostly pitched towards James and his crew, but Zeccika was welcome to offer input as well. For sure, doing something about the disparity of vehicles between the two groups would go a long way in evening things out. The hunter of the bunch, in particular, would be much deadlier behind the wheel of a combat vehicle.
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Post by Pitman on Aug 6, 2016 5:04:00 GMT -6
As Zeccika and Mecks made their way with the group her father kept an eye on the others. Specifically on James especially finding out who's jacket that was, which made him weary of the man. Never the less as they moved toward their destination the mess that was occurring was soon seen. Zeccika was speechless on what she soon saw unable to make word on what could of done this Mecks on the other hand eyes narrowed.
"Well it seems its exactly as I feared.", Mecks soon stated as he observed the destruction.
He knew and recognized many things in his life and what he saw showed how grave the situation was. With not much he soon says, "They will not be expecting another attack anytime soon. Whatever caused all that destruction will be the main problem. We shouldn't go guns blazing either. There must be a way to get rid of them without losses on our end."
Zeccika was a bit disturbed and hearing and seeing the smoke afar she understood what sort of enemy they were fighting. Her father being here though feeling a tad bit safer it didn't mean it was safe at all.
"If we strike then we better have a plan to take them out. There is a ton of them and it could end up badly.", Zeccika soon noted.
Never the less she readied her shot gun though both her and her father were mostly worried on what did all this damage.
"Alright what is the plan here? At most anything mechanical I can completely handle. Expert at this so I can easily break down practically everything.", Mecks soon requested as they were now fully ready to fight.
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Rabite
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Post by Rabite on Aug 6, 2016 23:53:11 GMT -6
"Alright, good to see everyone's still up for this. It won't be easy, but I'm not willing to just let these people die either. We'll go with Mazhe's plan, Mazhe, you and Sarah can take Lilia and... the older Mechanic over there. See how much of those tanks you can disable or hijack. Lilia's not too bad at driving so she'll be able to carry out that role while I stay back with the other team, and you know Sarah's combat ability. The rest of you, come with me, we'll approach as fast as we can and strike after the biker team disrupted their formations. Remember, don't risk your lives. If possible, escort civilians to safety, retreat if it really gets impossible to fight them."
After some discussions, James handed out the assignments based on their plans, with Mazhe being the leader of the assault team and himself leading the rest of them. Most of the main fighters are actually in the assault team, which James hopes they could do enough to the enemy forces before the main forces of both sides joins in the battle. Their element of surprise won't last for long, so if they hope to win then they'll have to make use of this advantage as much as possible.
"Mechanic, you're... Mecks, am I right? I know it might be difficult for you to split up with your daughter, but we got a job to do here, with many lives at stake. Bear with us here, you do your job and I'll do mine. Don't worry, I'm not one to sacrifice my own for success."
At least no one that worked under him had died so far, with this setup, the more Mecks do then the safer Zeccika would get. If he really refuses then James won't have much choices but to leave Sarah behind and take her role himself, which of course impacts the overall combat ability of both teams, but an extra hunter could achieve more if they get their hands on one of those Grappler Tanks.
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[Grappler Hunting Force] 11x Grappler Tank 48x Grappler Hooligan
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Richter
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Post by Richter on Aug 7, 2016 0:19:04 GMT -6
The rider saddled up when the plan was agreed upon. He already had his saber out and resting on his left shoulder, proving that the man was evidently skilled in fighting with both hands. After the last confrontation he had polished and honed it to a gleaming, razor's edge; no one would want to get hit with that thing. He gave his crew some orders as well before it was go time.
"Rod, Doc, watch each others' backs. Zeccika, stick with my boys and follow in my wake. Keep your heads down and move fast, the sooner you get to the edge of town the better you'll be; not much hard cover out here in the wasteland, so in there is the safer place to be. Now let's roll, this town ain't gonna save itself," he said as a small pep talk. He figured that the fighter would want to go with his men since that'd get her back in touch with her father sooner, which was just fine with him. No doubt they'd fight better as a team and have higher morale.
Then he had something to say to Sarah too to try and maximize the lethality of their initial rush. He pointed out the squad that was closest to their position, the one they'd probably want to begin with to take advantage of the element of surprise. "I'll hit right flank and sweep west, you do the opposite; catch and destroy anyone caught between us. The tanks can push up the center when they're under our control and finish any stragglers, and rapid responders that show up to help them."
It was up to her if she followed or not, but it was a pretty standard cavalry tactic. Roll the flanks to throw a foe into disorder so that slower units could mop them up.
Once done with that he motioned for the tinker to hop on his bike, and then he signaled the advance with a sweep of his sword. His engine jumped into action without a groan of protest, as if the machine itself hungered for blood, lurching forward like a beast snapping awake and straight into a sprint. Mazhe rolled forward at about 60 miles per hour. The hog could have done a lot more, but it would not be safe at all for an old man to jump off it at those velocities...so he kept things conservative for now.
He tore up the ground towards the cluster of Grapplers closest to the edge of town. Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of a dozen men loomed around the rapidly growing silhouettes of their cars, which they were probably in the process of loading loot into or taking supplies out from. The riders were on them in moments, and he dropped speed by 1/3 and called to his passenger to commence operations once they were fairly close to one of the armored cars.
"Tuck and roll, Mecks! The sand will break your fall. Good luck!"
Once the man had departed he cranked his speed back up to 70 upon hitting the town's dirt roads, and he flew forwards straight into the squadron of Grapplers milling around the vehicles. At the very last moment he turned hard, though momentum continued to carry him forward to sideswipe the nearest cluster of soldiers*. Supposing it hit, the impact would be bone-jarring even for Mazhe, but nothing he couldn't handle. It'd be much worse for the poor bastards getting smashed into, that's for sure. That move would cost him some speed whether or not anyone got turned into a stunt dummy, but he cranked the gas to regain it as he thundered away in a new westward heading as per the plan; his sword reflecting the firelight as it lashed out to try and dismember anyone he could get into arm's reach with along that course.
Other than just the damage, another benefit to this maneuver was that it tossed a huge wave of sand into the faces of the soldiers that didn't just get rammed into, which would impede the ability of any survivors and their friends to rapidly react to their assault. Those seconds saved could make all the difference.
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"On your marks...get set...go!" Rodriguez called out to everyone else on foot as the bikes moved ahead. He broke into a sprint at almost the exact same moment as Dyson, the two rushing towards the town and the retreating forms of their vehicle-borne comrades heading in the same direction. Wasn't much else they could do at the moment until they closed in. The artist gave an overarm wave for the fist fighter to follow along with them.
The whole bunch of them were clearly madmen, but maybe that was what the world needed in times like these.
* - Wheelie Jump
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Post by Pitman on Aug 7, 2016 20:01:50 GMT -6
After hearing the plan, Mecks soon nods at the way to deal with the situation.
"Excellent plan, ya got a good brain there for tactics it seems. I seen countless hunters and most would be too stupid to even think right. I will handle those tanks you just need to handle the rest.", Mecks soon replies as he turned to Zeccika and gives her a look.
"Father-", Zeccika was about to say only for him to interrupt, "Do not fret, this old man has some more still inside these old bones. You take care of yourself and follow the order of these experienced hunters. They will keep you alive."
Giving a moment and gives you better face to the others then adds, "Ya?"
Of course they should reply well now they knew where they had to go Mecks splits off with Mazhe well Zeccika with the others. Getting on the vehicle it was soon time as he ready his pistol as they were about start. As they moved Mecks soon rolled on the ground into the stand and soon yells back, "I maybe old, but doesn't mean I don't know how to do that!!"
Moving quickly he took took out a wedge at the nearest armored car and began to go to specific parts specifically the wheels. It was a not completely perfect solution but if the armored vehicles were permanently unable to move until they got new wheels. Well they were simply a still vehicle. Working hard he knew time was the essence, and longer he takes more chance of not surviving.
Meanwhile with Zeccika worked with the others and stayed close to Rod and Doc. She had to due to her father telling her as well she knew her chances of survival were increased with being with them. As they would move she took out her shot gun ready to go at anytime. When the order to fire is given she would join with the others with her shot gun.
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Rabite
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Post by Rabite on Aug 8, 2016 0:54:14 GMT -6
"We'll have to try and coordinate our movements then, so that we know when to regroup."
Sarah nods in response, in general terms it was just what they have done last time against the killer robot, to hit from multiple directions so they won't get swarmed. But the two bikers fight with different styles, and that might affect how fast they'll finish their runs. They might want to create some sort of signal as they fight, maybe blow up a vehicle or two to allow the other side to spot them.
And they zoom off, with Lilia still being relaxed like she usually does, and waves back at the group as they heads off into the distance. Sarah was a bit surprised that the other bike is traveling at similar speed as her own, looks like it's got a new engine just like the one they got before the last battle. At least now she won't have to worry about the needs to match their speeds and could simply go at maximum level.
As they approach the town, the noises from the bikes had alerted the tanks that are waiting outside the town. They start to reverse in order to turn around, but it'll take a bit of time, and that is all the attackers need to get close. Lilia, grabs a different weapon, James' Harpoon Gun that was given to her and fires it at another tank. The Harpoon was not nearly enough to destroy or even seriously damage the vehicle, but enough to punch through the weaker plating and gets lodged inside.
"I got it~!"
"Alright, take care then."
"Wheeeee~"
Seeing they're close enough, Sarah slows down for a moment so that Lilia could get off safely. The Artist the retracts the weapon after jumping off, and swings herself on top of the vehicle using the chain of the harpoon. The tank seems confused, or not know what's going on, but Lilia managed to wedge open the hatch using the harpoon after she retrieves it. She was ready for a battle against the driver, but was surprised that the tank is empty. Jumping in to take a closer look, she realize that the tank seems to be controlled by external means, something is controlling these vehicles and possibly that the rest of the tanks are the same. Good thing she's the one that came along, being one of the people in the team that can actually hack a computer. Lilia starts to get to work to take over the vehicle, while the rest of the team continues their assault.
Mazhe's assault hits right on, running over one of the soldiers, and serious injuring another with the bike. The remaining two of the squad of four are then sliced apart by his sharp cutlass, it was a clean kill that ended before they could react. The injured member lies on the ground, with one of his leg and arm as pastes. It was some serious injuries, but he's still alive, after realizing what happened the remaining Grappler Hooligan tries to fire back at his attackers using his makeshift rifle but with little results thanks to his injuries and the sand from the rider's moves.
Sarah, attacked in a similar on her end, but with guns instead of a sword. As another group of Grappler Hooligan appears in her field of vision, she drives right by them for an attack. Before they noticed that it was an enemy that just appeared, Sarah pulls out a revolver like weapon and fires six shots in their direction in a short amount of time. The Desperoader, one of the pair of revolvers that the Desperoid uses, Sarah had taken one of them as her primary weapon. The revolver fires at great speed, faster than regular automatic weapons, and reloads as if it uses a clip system. The four Grappler Hooligans gets hit by the barrage of bullets, killing two of them instantly with headshots, disabling another with a near fatal hit that rips out a chunk of his neck. The fourth one was lucky enough to avoid getting shot at by the wave of bullets, but that bit of luck ran out when the Soldier stops right in front of him and presses the barrel of her shotgun on his forehead.
"You bi-"
But he never got to finish his last words as the slug tears apart his skulls and the brain that it protects. Ignoring the last dying Grappler, Sarah increases speed and continues on with the raid.
Mecks worked pretty fast, and it wasn't too difficult for a professional Mechanic to take apart the wheel of a vehicle, even if it's trying to move. The tank that the Mechanic worked on gets disabled pretty quickly, it still tries in vain to move around to get itself out of its situation, but there's nothing it could do without any external help. Mecks might noticed that no one is trying to bail out from the tank, or try to open the hatch to shoot at him, it is as if the tank is empty.
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"Alright, lets get those legs moving! Everyone's lives depends on our success here, so run like the Sand Shark is right behind us! Zeccika! You stick close to some of us! I know your techniques are mostly close range, but jumping in without support is suicide, so coordinate our assault!"
James would be sprinting as they advance as fast as they could, giving out orders as he moves. Until they arrive there wasn't much that they could do other than watch the assault team do their jobs, but there is a bit more than that. The Hunter watches the movements of the enemy forces carefully, trying to predict their next moves and what kind of plan the hunters might want to carry out in response. He did have some worries when Lilia climbed into a tank but doesn't seem to have any reactions from it, he might have to deal with that first once they get close.
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[Grappler Hunting Force] 11x Grappler Tank (1 Wheels disabled) 41x Grappler Hooligan (7 kills, 1 heavy injuries) (224G)
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Richter
Veteran Member
Posts: 1,870
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Post by Richter on Aug 8, 2016 1:23:04 GMT -6
A bullet from behind catches the rider's attention only because it smacked off the steel shutter of a half-burnt building he was driving beside, otherwise he might well have missed anything other than the brassy *PING!* in his current adrenaline-fueled state. He swerved back around quickly and rode past the only surviving trooper of the four he attacked, slashing at him to try and end that little mistake to make if a full 4/4 kill count.
As he moved to do that he saw the only tanks in the city start to whip around and start heading in their direction, and it just now dawned on Mazhe that these things had casemated guns. That right there was a small blessing for the group, it meant they'd have to turn themselves entirely to start taking shots at them. In the city, even if it was in ruins, that'd be to their advantage. Not that it'd be easy for them to hit the agile bikes that way to begin with either, they'd probably be considered to have the edge if they weren't so massively outnumbered and gunned.
Or so he thought since he didn't know those cars were ran by some kind of computer. No telling how good those were out of hand, they'd just have to find out the hard way.
However, the tanks weren't the only one with a powerful CPU in them. The vulcan box, for the massive weight it had with it, actually came with a pretty sophisticated targeting array. According to the artists, it was about 5x as powerful as the C-unit being sold in El Nino. An impressive figure for sure. How that relates is like this: The rider swings around and moves in a wide parabolic course, with the closed end of the shape facing towards the Grappler's front line. The entire way there he let his machine gun blaze, allowing the advanced computer to help him pick and nail anyone that got stuck in the weapon's angle of fire. He tried to shoot the tanks in the side, where their armor would be weakest, but if infantry got in his way there was 0 compunction against lighting them up too.
As before, he tried his damnedest to hack anyone to pieces that came within a few feet of his looping circuit, if they were lucky, or outright run them over if not.
While doing that he got on the bike's radio, whose default signal he had been using since the Sand Shark mission. Sarah's was probably still keyed to that frequency too. "So far so good. Engaging targets and beginning to loop back around," he informed the soldier. He estimated it'd be maybe a minute or two until he had returned back to point of origin, whereabouts their allies should have those tanks under control - and the rest of the armored cars could begin to shoot at them. So if all went well, and no one got sloppy/clever, they should rally back before they can get encircled at the flanks.
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The two adventurers on foot already had their weapons out while moving at a measured stride, posture upright and feet falling on the flat of the foot rather than the heel the way a track runner would. It was the most efficient way to move, it saved energy and strained the muscles least. This was handy since they had a lot of ground to cover.
"I hope that greasemonkey is as good as they say he is!" Rodriguez commented. They could seeing him stripping one of the vehicles not far ahead now, which didn't appear to be happy at the idea.
"He comes highly recommended, you know," Jack replied.
"For grunt work, don't mean he can handle himself in a fight. And I think he's gonna find himself in one soon, the driver seems to know what's up!"
They'd be in for their own surprise once they got closer and round out the truth.
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Post by Pitman on Aug 9, 2016 0:47:20 GMT -6
As the battle begun Mecks worked hard as all the wheels came off very rapidly. It was not shocking he did it in his sleep sometimes and have done this for years. As it was fully completed he soon looked to notice no one attempting to come out to stop him or even attempt to bail. Mecks wondered about this and soon moved quickly then opened the hatch with his pistol raised. As he looked inside he saw... nothing which dawned on him that they were controlled by an outside source.
"Fuck... its being remote controlled. That means...!", Mecks soon stated as he jumped right in and began to look around.
As he looked inside he noticed the various wiring on how it was likely rigged to be like this. Using his own memory he began to look at each wiring and looked to see how they did it. Once he figured it out he soon using logic trying to find the part where it recieved signals. As he soon saw he soon says, "Bingo."
He began to work on it as quickly as he could in hopes to shut down this tank at least.
Meanwhile Zeccika followed the others in formation, her shot gun at her hip as she followed the others orders and kept up with them as best she could soon replying, "Right!!"
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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 9, 2016 2:04:38 GMT -6
The injured Grappler could only watch as his last resort failed, and was sliced in half by the sharp Shark Cutlass. Without the use of one of his leg, there was little he could do to save his own live, and departed from the world of living within seconds.
The advance C-Unit that is mounted into the bike helps greatly with the firing adjustment for the raiding Rider, further increasing his success in the attack... or so it might have if they were still striking from the shadows. By now, the rest of the Grappler has realize the attacks, and had dropped what they were doing to deal with the attackers. Larger numbers of Grappler Hooligans flushes the streets, ready for a coordinated battle. The biggest difference here between these Grapplers and the wild enemies they have dealt with so far is that they clearly understand the necessity of tactics, and are not shy to make use of anything they could find. Many of them take cover behind buildings, while others do so in the shadows of the newly arrived Grappler Tanks, which provides a bit of extra protection for them as they fire back with their Pipe Machine Guns.
Something obviously lead these troops into battle, it's just a matter of who it is, and have they left yet. But for now they have a lot more to worry about, the mechanical wave and the armies of raiders. These troops may not have much training, but they are still of higher ability than your average bandits, and would support each other in battle. As seen when Mazhe managed to run over yet another unlucky Grappler, and hits two more that was taking cover behind a Grappler tank. The first one was a fatal wound, and was abandoned, however the other two received a better deal. The two were hit in non-fatal areas, with the shots weakened after punching through the thin armor of the Grappler Tank they had taken cover behind, and were then pulled to safety by their allies.
In exchange, at least a dozen of the Grappler Hooligans return fire at the rider, trying to take down this sword waving fool that dares to challenge the Grapplers. Not only do they fire from their cover, but they do so in formations to attack from multiple directions in order to make up for the disadvantage in mobility.
Another eight would encounter Sarah as she finishes up her round, and are forced to exchange fire with them. This time it wasn't as lucky, and she only managed to hit one of them with the revolver before turning away to regroup, it's too risky to try and wipe out these enemies here. The one that she managed to hit suffered some injures, and falls back to the main group.
"They're coming in large numbers, I think we should regroup as soon as possible."
Sarah cuts off her call just in time to make a sharp turn to narrowly avoid a coming shell, fired from a Grappler Tank that had moved to try and cut off her retreat route. The shell is not very powerful, the armor plating on the bike should be able to block it, but nevertheless she now have to deal with an armored vehicle head on. Not wasting anytime to complain, she accelerates and turns to the side, avoiding the tank's line of attack. Shooting at it from the side as it attempts to turn around, she noticed that bullets aren't doing as much as they should have, despite piercing through the vehicle's body. Having a decent guess on what's going on here, she decides to take the opening and fall back, leaving the tank here until it can turn itself around.
The Tank that Mazhe shot at was fairly frail, the bullet punches right through the tank's paper thin armor and goes right out the opposite end. However as they are remotely controlled, killing the driver is not an option, they would have to disable or outright destroy the vehicle. It had finished making it's turn and was going to fire at the Rider that attacked it, but was cut short when a small shell hits it from the opposite side, creating a small explosion that was enough to knock it silent.
"Driving without a C-Unit is tougher than I thought... but bulls-eye! Score one for the great inventor!"
Just in time, Lilia had finished reprogramming the Grappler Tank, and turned it around to fire a shot at the one that was about to attack Mazhe. The shell was weak, but the tank are even weaker, which also means her tank would explode just the same if she gets hit by one of those. It took a while to carry out the attack due to the lack of a C-Unit, and had to be manually controlled, which is a very difficult task to do so alone.
The tank that Mecks was messing with gets disabled completely by the wiring, though really it was already immobilized and couldn't use its guns without a turret, so it didn't really bring any extra advantage to the fight. But at least it proves that he has the ability to do the same for the other tanks, which is a handy skill.
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The first sight that James noticed as he approached, are the two on the bikes that are fighting with the Grapplers, using their mobility to avoid being tangled by their formations. The second is the one tank that is shooting at the other Grappler Tanks, and successfully destroy one. Lastly, is the way that the Grapplers are fighting with a decent level of tactic, which would make this fight a bit tougher than they had expected.
"Get in there and have yourself by a wall! We'll jump them while they're distracted by Sarah and Mazhe! We'll use the building as cover ourselves, this will even the playing field. There's tanks seems to be pretty light weighted, but keep yourselves away from their guns. Strike them from the sides or the rear, hit their wheels or disable their weapons!"
As he carries out his plan and give out directions, Lilia pops up from the hatch of the Grappler Tank she's in, and waves at the rest of them despite some of the Grapplers trying to shoot at her. She must have some amazing luck here since none of the bullets managed to hit her, despite being a semi-stationary target.
"Over here James~ I got one of them! Take that metal man, I bet you can't do something like this!"
Seeing an opening, James runs from cover to cover and heads towards the captured vehicle. Pulling out another revolver, the other one of the pair of the Desperoader, and gun down one of the Grappler Hooligan that was about to fire a landing shot at the Artist. He vaults himself on top of the tank, and pushes Lilia back inside before jumping in himself.
"Ow!"
"You can complain later when we're not in a life threatening situation, hows this thing working?"
"It's got no comp, but there's manual controls."
And that's all he need to hear, jumping into the driver's seat, and stomps on the pedal on reverse just in time to avoid a shell that was fired towards their tank. Within a few seconds, he determined where the shot came from, and turned his scrap vehicle towards their attacker.
"Load the weapon and take that thing out!"
"You got it, shell's in."
"Fire!"
A direct hit from the shell hits the front of another Grappler Tank, blowing it away and turning it into a pile of burning scrap against the wall. So far James had been fighting on foot with decent success, probably enough for everyone around to forget that he's a Hunter, the ones that rule the battlefield on wheels. There's no radio in the tank, so he flips open the hatch and yells out of it.
"It's the two of us in here, watch it with the friendly fire!"
Now they have some artillery, if a very light one, still going to be much better than before. They'll just have to be very careful so they won't get roasted inside this tin pot worth of armor.
"Rodriguez! Dyson! Give me some covers on the sides! This thing is less protected than if I would to take the hits on foot! And I can't see very well in this thing, whoever designed this needed to be shot! Zeccika! Stick to the walls and attack the enemy groups after I hit them, they should be more shaken and easier to get close! Machine Guns! Firing!"
"This thing's so rusty it can barely move!"
Lilia complains as she fires the not exactly in best condition Machine Gun, it could barely turn so it won't be hitting much targets, but at least it's not going to blow up any time soon. The bullets would cause a squad of four Grappler Hooligans to duck and take cover, but did not managed to hit anyone of them.
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[Grappler Hunting Force] 7x Grappler Tank (1 Light armor damage, 2 Destroyed, 1 Disabled, 1 Reprogrammed) (352G) 38x Grappler Hooligan (10 kills, 3 injuries) (320G)
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Richter
Veteran Member
Posts: 1,870
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Post by Richter on Aug 9, 2016 2:55:29 GMT -6
The Grapplers were evidently not happy with the fact that they were reaping an impressive kill count here. All around him men were dying, running, or screaming. They rallied themselves quickly and with more cohesion than the rider had hoped for, heavy return fire started to come his way. The weapons firing those bullets were as crude as the men shooting them, but lead was lead, and he didn't want to be hit by any of it. The tanks were able to bring their guns to bear too now, so from here on, they'd have to be even more careful. One tank in particular turned around to try and take a shot at him...only to get nailed first by a direct cannon shot from a stolen armored car. Mazhe raised his sword in salute to the artist as he cruised through her line of sight. That was the biggest immediate problem dealt with, but not the only one. No bullets hit him dead on, but they did start to shave some armor tiles off of his bike. He was moving fast enough no one could draw good beads on him yet, but as the troops continued to move forward and close ranks, that could change. While rolling between the enemy's lines he couldn't help but notice that the cabs of all these tanks were empty, which certainly put into perspective why his bullets weren't doing much despite tearing into their chassis from the get-go. They must be unmanned. He ducked into an alley for some cover and then finally gave a reply to the soldier. "I'm on my way back too. Don't get too close to our allies, stay loose so they can't blow us all up with one shell," he advised. Those guns were low powered, but none of them were exactly driving around in actual military vehicles out here. Even one of those could cause a lot of hurt. In case she hadn't figure it out he also dropped his suspicions about these machines. "Think these tanks are remote controlled, I didn't see a single driver. Means we gotta shoot the engine or guns to do any real work. Watch out for that." As he said, he planned to fall back, but it'd be a fighting retreat. The rider tore out of the side street he had drove down and back onto the main road that ringed the town, tossing gravel and loose rock behind him as he accelerated. He knew he'd be a big target here so he tried to compensate for that two ways: driving fast and being evasive. He ran through ruins, jumped burned-out cars, and put any barricades and other debris he could between himself and the shooters wherever possible on his course back to their lines. What he did was known in the old days as the Parthian Shot, where he'd turn and fire with his pistol while moving in the opposite or a perpendicular direction. The machine gun would be stronger, but it was pointing the wrong way for the moment. It was another one of those suicidal moves for anyone not an expert to try and pull off. Since he was forced to use a much lighter weapon this time the biker only took shots at infantry. At the end of the attack run he ended up beside Sarah. Now that he knew the capabilities of these guys a little better he had another plan for the next move. "I say we curve around the edge of town and hit them from behind. It'll force their lines to split fire." This would be especially disastrous for the tanks, those would have to completely whip around to shoot them. The soldiers would have an easier time of it, but they'd have to pick trying to suppress the bikers, or focusing on James and the footmen at risk of being ran down. It'd make poor troops panic. These ones might be sterner than that, but no doubt the psychological effect would be as useful as the tactical benefits. - The aforementioned metal man and Dyson threw their backs against the freestanding wall surrounding Mado once they had reached the town's outskirts, after all, they had two tanks right next to them. Once they realized that their allies had finished hijacking or dismantling the pair successfully, they relaxed a little bit. Not too much, bullets were still zooming by them, but there was no immediate risk of a point blank cannon shell ruining their day. The cowboy's got ruined in a different way instead as he was put on the spot. "Just you wait, girl! You'll see what I'm all about before the night's over!" Rodriguez called back in challenge. How would he make her eat those words? He wasn't sure, but by god, he'd find a way! But for the moment the bigger objective was to support their allies, so he focused fully on that despite some babbling at his teammates. He was an artist, running his mouth while doing real work was part of his job description. The pair did as they were instructed by James and leaped the wall they were hiding behind and moved forward about 20 feet after splitting up. James's tank had the guitarman on the left and doctor on the right, both kneeling for cover behind a tank barrier and burned out husk of another Grappler Tank, ironically enough. The two had area of effect weapons now, and while both were eager to use them, only Dyson did so at the moment. A heavy *KA-CHICK* punctuated the chambering of each shell before it was fired at the groups of thugs bearing down on them. The Grapplers were staying in formation for the moment, which meant they might be extra vulnerable to the spread-fire it possessed. Rodriguez decided to give his team a boost with his fire breathing guitar instead of a gun, hauling that bad boy out and starting to jam out another one of those frantic, heart-pounding songs that he had played during their fight with the shark. Just like that time, it fired up his allies...and split the ears of the poor bastards closing in on them.* That was his way of providing support, in both the offensive and defensive terminologies. In either event, they were positioned to where it'd be hard to get a good shot in on the flank of their stolen vehicle without opening themselves up to getting hit in return by these two. *- Adrenaline Song ----- Police Motorcycle "White Bike" Armor: 485/500 Shells: 0 C-Unit: "Vulcan Box" Engine: "Django" Sub weapons: Slot 1: 7.7mm Machine Gun
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Post by Pitman on Aug 11, 2016 5:08:20 GMT -6
With that done Mecks knew he had to move quick, the other tanks were still out there and he soon would come up from the hatch. With his own pistol he looked around and spotted the nearest tank which was quite a ways from his own position. Now looking seeing his allies engaged with the others he has to make it to the next tank. He soon slowly but carefully move using any building to hide as he moved toward the next tank keeping out of sight at the best of his ability.
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