Zephyr Assault Pt. 1 - RPLOG
Participants
Date
20/11/2016
Log
Whether you came out from inside the building or fought your way to the center, one thing is clear: the scene outside of Zephyr is one of utter bedlam. It almost seems as though there's an all-out war going on in the streets, with the so-called "safe area" completely overrun with skunk beasts and latex foxes, and blue gryphons circling overhead. Something must have gone seriously wrong, and it's immediately apparent what: the normal sniper fire that would keep the ferals at bay is a tiny fraction of what it should be, less than a tenth, and it simply isn't enough. Agents of all stripe (literally, in case of the skunk girls) are fighting tooth, claw, and everything else to fend off the attackers, but the question remains: where are the snipers who keep us safe? Where are the answers we so badly need, and who's responsible for this?
Arris rushes out into the panic, sniper rifle in hands and railgun slung over hir shoulder. "Holy hell, what's going on?" Sie loads a chamber into hir rifle, then waves back to a fox lady behind hir. "Zophah! Stay close to me!" Arris then looks down hir scope, scouting the battlefield for the most burly-looking feral and opening fire.
Astara looked completely unamused as she walks briskly towards Z's entrance, shoving ferals aside, and occasionally delivering a swift kick with one of her high-heeled boots to particularly agressive mutants. The demoness has a laser pistol in one hand, but she doesn't bother using unless the formerly mentioned methods aren't quite getting the message across to the feral hordes.
Firecracker dashes out of the building to the sounds of fighting everywhere. Her normal cheery smile turns into a cocky grin as she looks around. "Well, time to be a hero!" she says to nobody in particular as she puts on her cape and shades, eyes glimmering with fire. Looking up to the air, she decides it's time to ground some birds. Her whole body is enveloped with a pink aura of flames as she shoots off into the skies, looking to clear them out.
Angus pauses a bit in his tracks on his way to Zepyhr has he manages to walk in on a...riot, revolution, or did someone run out of their favorite strawberry smoothie? Either way this would be a hamper on his day, reaching up to the cigarette he was puffing to throw it off some where. Reaching down he swings around the old Bren gun a friend had given him, reaching into a pocket at his belt to pull out a magazine to slap into the well at the top of the gun, drawing the bolt back. "I really hope this is just black friday and Zeyphr's having a sale on condoms." He mutters as he braces the gun against his hip, taking note of the Demoness pushing her way through part of the crowd as he tries to follow in her wake with his finger on the trigger guard. Sparks popping in the air around him with the smell of ozone to follow.
A RSX operative runs from around the corner of the building, most likely having just gotten off the 'copter, his eyes wide. "What the shit?!" Mal calls out, shrugging off his Remington 700 and aiming at the first feral he can see, firing off a shot. "Seriously, you don't see ferals overrunning RSX, do you..." he mutters, pulling the bolt back and lining up another shot.
Phosphorus slips out from around the other side of the building, dressed in dark, shadowy clothing with her assault rifle at the ready. There's little to no point expending precious ammunition in the middle of this battlefield, 'specially when this mission is off to do something completely different. She tips a friendly nod to those she knows, those she doesn't, and tips a casual pull of the trigger into a hostile that got too close. "Let's get this damned thing done."
Parthenia says, "I always knew this would happen!" Grumbled the armored human as she was leaving the building. Many others seemed to be rushing out as well to provide help. Fully equipped she was lugging a gun... No rather a canon no normal human should be able to lift. Her armor was no big help in toting the massive shotgun that should have been way too heavy for her to wield without bashing herself in the face with every pull of the trigger. Taking a few steps away from the door, she whistled at the Firecracker. Pony got some fire in her! Explains the name! Planting her feet in to more stable position she loaded her weapon."
Zophah reaches the meet point behind Arris with her dragon daughter, Dios, covering behind with Zophah's two drones, her companion wisp, and her spirit bear. She yells "Everyone accounted for?!" before taking a quick look around, directing her drones and spirit bear to guard the door to Zephyr. She then stands next to her mate, Arris, when an angry Dios engulfs a few nearby ferals in Shadow Breath.
While the violence occuring outside the building is a compelling sight, several things become immediately obvious once an attempt is made to quell the riot: 1) There are already dozens of agents doing the same thing. 2) The near-total absence of sniper fire and guards is a major detriment to the agents' efforts. 3) As much as people are needed outside the building to fend off the assault, the other agents are holding their ground for the time being; you can certainly focus your efforts here if you choose to, but getting to the root of this problem might be a good idea. Firecracker will swiftly find herself surrounded and horribly outnumbered in the skies, flying off alone as she has. The gryphons circling her don't appear to be intimidated, possibly due to the sheer number of them.
Arris watches a gryphon take off into the sky through hir scope, pulling hir eye away from the lens to quietly judge whether it's worth it to try and help out Firecracker. "Hmm. Eh, no point in saving someone who's practically done for right now," sie mutters, before returning hir focus back to the ground. "Zophah, if you need any healing, come to me, alright?"
Astara keeps pushing forward until she's at the door, slipping past the line of defense of the dozens of agents out front. She catches the human agent's grumblings, stopping to look down to him... and rolling her eyes. "You don't /usually/ see ferals overrunning Zephyr..." she looks back to the disarray behind her, sighing loudly and shaking her head. "I'm going to go ask someone what the fuck is going on here, try and get to the bottom of this mess." Without further pause, she jogs inside to see if anyone is still at the reception area of the lobby. Maybe they could point the way to something helpful?
"Tch... Why aren't those snipers doing their jobs?!" Firecracker says to herself as she fights in the air. "Damnit! There's just too many up here right now... As much as I hate to do this, guess I gotta fall back." She strikes an intimidating pose with her forelegs crossed in front off her, giving an air of extreme confidence as she shouts, "If you wanna die, go ahead and follow me!" She then goes to drop from the skies and head towards her allies near the front door.
Angus scowls, adjusting his rifle as he picks it up and rests it over his shoulder. Quietly tip-toeing past snapping ferals, trigger happy agents, and whatever else could be going wrong here while ignoring the fact most of them could pass as extras in some half backed Halloween porno before he finally gets to the small gathering behind the agents, hoping his outfit isn't to covered in blood. "Ya so, what's with the mob? Baked goods half off?" He asks, already looking around to see why Zeyphr hasn't called in the big guns yet as his ears perk up, the scent of blood making him a little riled up and ready for a fight.
"Well, let's go find out why this is an exception," the Human mutters, shrugging his rifle back onto his shoulder. He looks around the chaotic scene, and shakes his head at Angus. "I don't know, I just hopped off the helicopter. It was hell; there were gryphons everywhere," he says, adding, "But we need to figure out what's going on, and fast. I don't think we're gonna hold 'em off forever."
"Aye. Let's try to do our jobs. As we see, the snipers aren't by their posts, so I'd recommend going to check those out. And their immediate area. People're welcome to come with -- I'd recommend someone else trying to find out whose in charge and ask them, too." Phosphorus takes out at a casual walk towards one of the aforementioned posts, eyeing the panic with a hint of amusement.
Parthenia probably would have been screaming something like 'I'ma firing mah lazor!' is she was shooting her load from her mouth. And... If it looked anything like, well, laser... Pulling out her shotgun and charging into the fray, she begins to blast everyone and everything she sees. She's not trying to shoot agents, but she isn't trying NOT to shoot agents either, and a pile of groaning, badly wounded bodies is soon laying at her feet... they won't be getting up any time soon. The rapid recoil does a number on her shoulder, but she'll rely on her nanites to heal her... reducing the number of mutants attacking was the main priority for now.
Zophah redirects the drones and her wisp to cover any arial assults while waiting for a response from Zephyr, using the spirit bear as mobile cover. "I won't need any healing, I've got Phoenix in my blood right now." Zophah states, creating a Mirage stacked with her daughter's Mirage to drive back some more random ferals. "Once we find a mental mouse, I have skills to determine if they are responsible."
Astara will indeed be greeted by guards, but perhaps not in the way she intends. "Hands where I can see them!" one of them shouts. The lobby has been cleared of friendly agents, with about half a dozen guards and one Mental Mouse as the only occupant. "P-please, she's going to hurt me - you have to protect me, get her out of here!" cries the rodent in a fairly compelling tone that would convince many that she's telling the truth and Astara is a dangerous criminal! Outside, the scene is continued savagery: bites, flame attacks, sprays, and lord-only-knows what else is being used to keep the assault at bay. Unfortunately, the problem is an extension of what it always was: there's a limited supply of agents and a seemingly unlimited supply of ferals, and for every agent that joins the fight, countless more opponents do the same. Phosphorus will quickly find that if she wants to make it out to a sniper post, she's going to have to fight her way to it, past multiple opponents (and allies). And then Parthenia shoots her load...on the upside, quite a number of ferals are down for the count. On the downside, firing into melee means that several allied agents have suffered the same fate. Oh lord, there's going to be hell to pay, and paperwork for miles.
The gryphons that surrounded Firecracker do seem afraid, but it doesn't seem like they were giving chase in the first place. They go right back to their aerial assault against the building's rooftop.
Arris sees the red panda with the sniper rifle, giving her a nod before focusing on the ferals that are attempting to approach her. Sie keeps most of them down before they can get to Phosphorus, though sie does get startled by the sudden death cannon going off a few meters away from her, ceasing fire temporarily. "Hey! Don't shoot that... whatever that thing is." Sie shakes hir fist angrily at Parthenia. "You're helping us as much as you are hindering us!"
Astara blinks a few times, narrowing her eyes on the scheming little mental mouse before her. "Come now, boys, you're going to fall for something like that? I thought Zephyr trained their guards better... to be prepared against ANY mutant enemies. Even the ones that manipulate more than bite or fuck: much like this manipulative mental mouse here. I've never even SEEN her before, but I've studied mutations enough to know about her ilk and their ways." She casts a glance back to the ones behind her, an annoyed one, at that.
"Guys, I'm bringing the party to you!" Firecracker says as she rockets in to a sharp stop by the other agents at the door. She quickly spins around to see the swarms of... nothing following her. She blinks a couple times then relaxes as she says, "Oh, guess I'm just as scary as I thought, heh." She looks around at those around on the ground, deciding she'll team up with whoever's checking on the sniper situation, seeing that it'll be easy for her to get to the roof. "So, who's checking on those guys who're s'posed to be keeping the skies clear? I'm with you!" She flies off to join the appropriate team member shortly thereafter.
Angus was about to ask another question of the party before what amounts to a bomb goes off in his poor ears, both of them folding as he nearly drops his gun. "Sweet mother of coyote, what!?" He snaps, already digging an finger in his ear to try and stop the ringing, that was worse then one of his own bombs when it came to deafening someone! He blinks, utterly confused as to what just managed to nearly deafen him as he decides it may be best to stay with the rest of the group near the building, as he would have to rely on his eyes and nose for the time.
Mal looks around again, nodding. "Right, right. Let's go find out what's going on," he says, utterly clueless. He grits his teeth at the loud noise, shaking his head and eyeing the scene before following along behind Phosphorus. "I can't hear anything!" he calls out, clutching an ear and grimacing.
"DUUUCK!" Yells the armored human belatedly. Her blasts already carved a path of bodies down the street! The sight was... Beautiful! Groaning, injured, helpless forms laying around all over the place, some of them ferals, some of them undoubtedly agents. Well it happens sometimes. And Zephyr will understand that this sacrifice must have been made! For if they haven't almost giving their life defending the building the damages would have been so much more expensive to repair. Really, who cares about a few agent's where your mega corporation could save a few creds. No one! Well... Aside from their families perhaps. Parthenia's smirk quickly vanishes the second she sees the chasm filling up with more rioting bests. The weapon is simply too hot to handle at this point, and she puts it away, useless. The situation was much worse then she originally thought. Perhaps defending this place was a bad idea? Not like she had anyone important to her inside the building. They guy who pays of course was a person she thought about but the rest? Maybe Mike can help her out here. Or... "Seems like I'm all out of ammo! I did all I could! You got this guys!" She yelled to the gathering. The fact that she still had a pistol hanging of off her persona didn't seem to meter much. No ammo means no ammo! With the 'Death canon' in tow she waddles back inside. "Reloading!" She informed the guard while budging her way through a few mutants who decided to go seek shelter it seems.
Zophah keeps her drones and summons covering Arris and Dios. With illusion nanomagic she creates a small replica of the city, small dots lining the 'safe zone' labeled for Zephyr sniper nests. She speaks loud enough over the fight for those in the immediate area to hear her say "Check the sniper nests for the missing gunners. Here is a layout of possible locations. I'm going to the south. Arris, can you come with me?" Once everyone gets a look at the map she then brings her crew together to fight her way south.
The complaint from Astara is met with a more forceful, "Hands in the air, get out of here, now!" by one of the guards. Weapons are cocked (and cocks are weaponized in some cases), and it looks very much like Astara is about to be the subject of quite a bit of gunfire...and then Parthenia bursts through the door! The good news is that she does indeed get the guard's attention. The bad news is that this means that about half of the guards are now targeting Astara, and half of them are targeting Parthenia! "You are in violation of Zephyr space! Turn back! This is your final warning!" barks one of the higher-ups in the guard team, while the mouse in the background offers a smug smirk now that the attention of the guards is focused elsewhere. Phosphorus and Mal will quickly find themselves embroiled in endless brawling, making painfully slow progress toward one of the towers...except that Mal will quickly realize that he's just not equipped to wade through a crowd this size, getting banged about and bruised quite a bit before being repelled back toward the building. In the meantime, while Zophah, Angus, Firecracker, and Arris decide what to do (with Zophah asking for volunteer, Firecracker looking for a group that does not yet exist, and Angus and Arris holding their position), the structure of the group seems to be breaking...and with it, the safety that comes with numbers.
Arris nods at Zophah, providing a few more rounds of cover fire for Phosphorus before slinging the sniper rifle over hir back. As sie walks over to Zophah, sie starts pulling out the nanite railgun instead. "Alright, Zophah. Where are we going to go?"
Astara holsters her pistol, and raises her hands up in the air, just as ordered... but that doesn't mean she's complacent. Oh no, she's up to something, as the guard who was barking out orders at her finds out when Parthy bursts through the door. He's engulfed by the forest wisp Astara just summoned, confusing him to no small degree as the ethereal fireball makes him vulnerable and distracted... probably some of the other guards, too. She draws out her pistol once again, and makes a beeline to charge at one of the guards to attempt to body-slam him, while she takes aim at the other focused on her with that newly reactivated pistol.
Firecracker's ear flicks at the sounds of fighting going on inside as she was about to head in. She charges in more urgently as a result, shouting out "Hey! We're all supposed to be on the same side in here! Knock it off!" She gives the people a few seconds to indeed knock it off, and if they don't, the most hostile-looking one is getting a hoof in the mouth.
Angus lets out a pent up sigh of relief as his hearing finally starts to come back, that was way to much of a scare for him. Looking over the situation his ears perk, his focus on the mob for a bit as he judges the situation for a few more seconds. Reaching over he taps Zophah on the shoulder, pointing towards Mal as he gets battered around. "To much of a shit storm here to split up more, mind getting skinny over there and seeing if you can't group up with the panda? Doesn't matter what nest you check out they'll have clear lines of sight on the others if they are smart." Reaching into his pack he pulls out what looks to be a Silver canister, putting it in their hands. "This is tear gas, not some little pop and forget shit. If you have to use it for fucks sake stay up wind, cover your mouth and nose and close your eyes." He makes sure to hold his grip on it long enough that they would have to focus on him. "This ain't hollywood, don't drop it and expect you're going to be fine. This shit puts people in the hospital." With that said he stands up to look at where the nests could be before he hears fighting, his scowl deepening as he reaches into his coat, another of those silver canisters in hand as he storms off to the lobby.
Mal kicks a feral away as he scrambles his way back to the wall, leaning against it and muttering obscenities under his breath as he shrugs off his bolt-action rifle. "Oh, good, I can hear the screaming again..." he mutters, slipping a round into a chamber as he looks around, blinking at the charring across the way. He shakes his head and looks to the group. "What's the plan?" he asks, breathing heavily as he looks between the mash-up of mutants and chaos. "I can't get through the crowd," he adds, looking at the canister for a moment.
Heh. Nobody followed. Phosphorus makes her way towards the abandoned post, rifle ready, occasionally spitting out metered shots when enemies get too close for comfort. She slips onto the latter, deftly climbing up to where the snipers normally stand, looking around for clues. The panda keeps an ear open and alert, making sure nothing'll sneak up on her, but hopefully the investigation yields results.
"Wh-what the \fuck\ are you talking about you /piece/ of -shit-?" Yells the human. "I /AM/ a mother fucking Zephyr space! Agent Parthenia Kairis, badge number 36811! I need to reload my weapons!" The leviathan of a gun is let go, it drops down on the floor with a heavy cling. And than that happens... And by that, I mean Astara. The situation was getting more and more retarded by the second. On one hand the guards seem to have been way too worked up, and not at all outside helping to hold the front line... Which of course could have been helpful. And on the other hand we've had a mutant going bat-shit-insane inside the building... First reaction would naturally be to pull a gun on the Pack leader... Second... She didn't have time for a second reaction! Her hand reaches down to pull her shotgun. "No shit Sherlock! Get that demon!" Parthenia yells to the flying in Firecraker, her hand points at Astara. Nope, she didn't see the mental mouse yet! All focus on the guards and the demon.
Zophah greatfully takes the canister from Angus, then 'marks' Arris, Mal, Angus and her own daughter Dios with Biomonitoring Sight nanomagic. "Come with me if you want to live!" She yells as she grabs Mal's hand, hoping to bring him along on her mission. Fighting her way through the ferals she explains to everyone her plan: "If the sniper nests are falling to some unknown force, I think we need to head off whatever is taking them down." She then directs her crew as they progress, taking advantage of everyone's strengths and weaknesses to cover the team as they systematically approach the target location.
Ratta-tatta-tat! Not the pokemon, but the behavior. At the sign of violence, four of the guards open fire on the agents entering the building, with the other two still seeming too groggy to take any sort of action. The good news is that most of the team is either too quick or too well-armored to take any further damage. The bad news is that the mouse in the back sees that the situation is going south, and starts making a beeline for the stairs heading upward! "Save me! They're dangerous!" she pleads one last time, obviously addressing the guards. Phosphorus will find that even with her skill level, weaving her way through the crowds of brawlers will be slow going - she's beginning to near one of the nests, though, with patient effort and care. The team of Zophah, Mal, and Arris (and Zophah's daughter) will have somewhat more success, though care must be taken not to let Mal fall behind. The sniper tower does appear to be manned, and the sniper - an eagle-eyed fellow who is a literal eagle - seems relieved as hell. He doesn't appear to have any idea what's going on, but there's been little communication from the main building, and his station is almost overrun! With that explanation, he goes right back to firing, taking shots of opportunity where he can.
Arris speaks to the eagle sniper. "I think it's best you give your comm unit to the fox woman there, sir. My wife is at least a little proficient with technology. Do you know " Sie then puts away the railgun again in favour of the sniper rifle, aiming out of the tower with the sniper and starting to shoot down ferals from there.
Astara was dismayed as the rodent starts slipping away; she tries firing after her, but doesn't start outright running yet, still trying to recover from tackling the guard like she did. Not that she did all that much damage to him... which she tries to rectify by at least trying to disarm him.
"Now I see you're picking the hard way!" Firecracker shouts as she weaves through the spray of bullets, charging through the air like the little pink fireball she is. "Let's see if I can get a strike!" She roars as she brightens the pink aura and flames surrounding her. She dashes through the air towards the group of guards, making to charge straight through them and into the mouse before it can get anywhere. To make the job easier, she ignites the air in front of the mouse, creating a small explosion 2 cubic inches large a short distance in front of her face. If the force of the explosion doesn't stop it in it's tracks, the surprise should at least do the trick.
Angus blinks for a moment before his armor catches a few rounds, Coyote's crack that hurts! Snarling a bit he dumps the grenade back in the bag, pulling out a bright yellow aresol can instead that he shakes for a few seconds. "God damn just stand down!" He snaps as he points it towards the guards, and sadly the people he's been working with before he lets loose a spray of incredibly fowl smelling yellow liquid that would harden almost instantly upon impact, making sure to spread it around any threat within view as he notices the mouse. His next priority as he starts heading towards that way, drawing the revolver at his hip with a cock back of the hammer.
The Human blinks as Zophah grabs his hand and runs. "What?!" he says, running along to keep up with the team, firing the occasional shot into any feral that gets too close. Mal huffs as they make it into the sniper tower, and leans against the wall, keeping an eye out for ferals and firing off warning shots. Eh, they don't need those knees anyway...
"Need any help?" he asks, holding up his Remington during a lull of feral attacks.
Phosphorus growls. Navigating through this damn crowd is much slower than she would've liked, especially being separated from the others. Thankfully, she's making much better time alone than with dragging a bunch of others along, but still. Her plan to search whatever remains is intact. When she gets there.
Eventually.
Parthenia was so totally ignorant about everything that was happening. She had absolutely no clue why was everyone so worked up about some poor mouse yelling in the back there, chasing after her like a swarm of rabid dogs plowing through poor guards. Guards who were fucking retarded enough to open friendly fire! No-no she wouldn't have any of that and as soon as the first bullet was sent in her direction she repaid in kind aiming at the nearest of her co-workers in zephyr uniform. As the weapon went off, it struck her... This mouse was no ordinary mouse. It was a whole spectrum or rainbow of differences from other mice! Without any deleay she moved with the rest.
Zophah directs her drones to cover Arris and the sniper while her wisp covers arial attacks and her spirit bear covers the main entrance to the building. She then helps Mal with catching his breath, giving some of her nanites to him for nanite recovery. "Judging from your reactions you aren't used to... all this." She then waves her hand nonchalantly. "Just stick by me and we'll all be fine." Once Mal recovers a bit she checks in with everyone in the group before watching out for whatever could have attacked the other sniper nests.
The explosion in front of the mouse has the desired effect...probably? Instead of simply stopping, the mouse squeaks, lurches backwards, and goes tumbling down the stairs...right into Firecracker's charge! That, combined with the gunshot from Astara, is enough to do more than stop the mouse: shi's out like a light! Also SPLAT. The entire lobby is covered in a coating of rancid-smelling glue-like substance, doing a fine job of sticking all six guards (and Astara) securely to the floor; had Parthenia charged forward, she would surely have been pinned as well! That's gonna take some serious work to clean up. Arris gets a look from the eagle guy, who flatly states, "That's a negative. I have two things up here - my rifle and my comm unit - and I'm not about to surrender either. Thanks for the assist, though." Arris will score some good shots - Mal somewhat less so - and the team effort will produce a spot with less ferals around it, at least around the immediate area surrounding the tower. It's...helpful? At least there's plenty of ammo.
Phosphorus, in the meantime, will finally reach her goal! ...and quite possibly wish she hadn't. There's no sign of a person, but there's signs of bits of a person, and copious amounts of blood in the tower; this place was clearly overrun, and the sniper stationed here was no match for the onslaught. A sniper rifle lays discarded on the ground - what use would a feral have for it? - and soon enough, Phosphorus will find herself alone with her thoughts. For the moment.
Something clicks into Arris' head. "Wait. Broken comm unit..." Sie slaps hirself on the head, pulling out hir own comm unit and trying to get a message to Zephyr, but with no reply. "Oh, I guess it's not a problem with the comm unit then, but a problem at HQ." Sie pulls hir rifle from the opening, turning to Zophah as well. "Zophah, Mal, I think we should head back to the main building and check the comm system or something. Are you staying here, sir?" Sie turns back to the sniper.
"What the f-" is about all that Astara gets out before she wisens up and closes her mouth, avoiding getting a mouthful of whatever gods-forsaken substance encases her, cutting her off from the world. There's muffled, angry "Mmmph!"s and copious amounts of profanity, but she's unable to do stuff for the time being.
Firecracker hovers in the air as she looks down at the knocked out mouse, then turns to see the sticky ball of guards plus agent. Then over to the other two in the room. "Well, I stopped it at least. Now, questioning or head on up and figure out what's going on with the guns upstairs?" she asks Parthenia and Angus nonchalantly now that the fighting has stopped.
Angus scowls, waving a hand in front of his nose. "Shit, smells worse then she warned me." Definitly going to have to inform Tova rancid egg smell is not a consumer fan, but for now he walks over to where the mouse is out. Holsting the gun quickly he pulls out some rope to tie up their new mousey friend, an after thought making him tear off a strip of cloth from his under shirt to tie over the mouses eyes before he stands up. "Check comms, see if there is anyone still sane around here." He answers Firecracker, fishing out a cigarette since it seems no guards are going to be able to stop him from lighting it before walking over to Astara. "Give me oneee second, I think she gave me the solvent for this."
"Used to, what? Ferals overrunning professional guards?" Mal asks with a glare, "No. No I am not. I'm not used to wading through a crowd, putting bullets in nuts. I haven't been to a Black Friday sale in 8 years," he adds, grinning after a moment. JOKES! "Ahh, good times." The Human blinks and looks at Arris. "Seriously?" He groans and looks out at the mob. "Right, right. Figures that's how it works," he mutters, slipping a new magazine into his M1911. "So, how are we doing this?" he asks, holstering the gun and picking up his Remington 700.
Damn. Not sure what she expected, but certainly she hoped there'd be something more useful. Phosphorus takes the loaded cartridge out of the sniper rifle left behind, giving it a quick shove into her bag. The panda shakes her head, beginning to descend the latter. May as well regroup with the others, then.
Parthenia raises a brow. Typical mutants even their weapons stink like shit. Walking over to one of the stuck guards she leans over him... Her... It... Whatever. Offering him a backhand to test if the creature is back to its sane state yet, or... Trying to snap it out of it if he isn't. Her hand then reaches down to grab the guard by the hair... Fur... Whatever. "Hey! Snap out of it!" She offers another backhand, the armored glove probably doesn't feel too nice... But hey! They are guards, they should be used to abuse by now. "Are you with me soldier? Do you know what is happening?"
Zophah observes the situation and finds that the sniper nests weren't the problem. "If only I saw it sooner!" She yells to herself, pulling out her comm unit. She then tries to contact the other members of the group to ask "How is the situation inside Zephyr HQ? The snipers aren't getting contact with the main building."
The sniper nods his head to Arris, quick and smart. "I have a job to do. I'll do mine, you do yours." With that, he's back to picking off ferals wherever he can find his targets, leaving the team to its own devices. "Radio me when you can, will you?" Just the one request, it seems. As Angus discusses the options for liberating Astara, one of the guards speaks up. "Um...Angus? How did we get on the ground?" he asks. "And what the hell is that smell? God, it smells like an Excremental ate too many beans!" And then, the backhand. "OW!" The other guards murmur sounds of assent; it certainly sounds like they're behaving like their old selves again. Zophah will find that there's nothing wrong with her comm unit, or honestly, the comm units of anyone present...there simply isn't any response from HQ if prompted.
Arris begins exiting the sniper tower, opening hir comm unit and activating voice message for Astara. "Hey, the HQ isn't responding. Could you go up and find out what's going on in there? Thanks." Sie closes the channel, then pages Phosphorus: "Phosphorus, it's Arris. Uh, what did you find in that tower?"
Astara was a very, very unhappy camper, all petrified in this shell of glue. But not much else she can do at this point - but boy, is she going to do /something/ when she's free. Hell hath no fury like an angry succubus.
"Yeah fine, I'll do that while you clean up your mess here." Firecracker says to Angus as she listens in on the comms. "Anyone still sane around here?" she asks through her unit. As she waits for a response, she calls over to the human in the room. "Hey! Cannon lady! I like your style! Let's head on up to see what's going on." She points to the stairs upwards as she starts going. "Oh and I'm Firecracker by the way, and this should help us a bit." She says over her shoulder. As she moves, she links her vision to Angus, allowing him to see everything she does and at the same time takes his vision into her own.
Angus scowls a little as he swears he can almost hear muffled curses, and see a glare from Astara as he takes out a smaller spray canister. "Look, not the time or place to get angry. So I'll say this once, you move at all while this is working you're going to lose hair." As soon as Firecracker links their vision his eyes go wide in shock and surprise for a moment, not because of the link was new to him but because ther WAS a link before he gets back to his work. His hand only shaking a little bit as he starts spraying down people. "Barry? That you? Hey man, welcome back. The Crazy armored chick with the big gun hit all of you with this shit smelling stuff, you should really get her back for that."
The Coyote then frowns, a flinching just a little as his new vision is cut off from Firecracker, wondering if something went wrong.
Mal grumbles and follows along behind the Gator, popping a new round into the Remington and locking. "Then let's go. I've got shit that needs doing," he mutters, patting an inside pocket of his trench coat and nodding as he slips the rifle over a shoulder and drawing his M1911. "Gonna need a free hand," he murmurs, before looking to the team. "Let's move."
"Tower clear. Signs of personnel fatality." Phosphorus says, into the comm. She's navigating through the crowd and to the doors, again, this time speeding things up a little by shooting ferals that happen to get into her way. You know. Just to speed things up.
Parthenia peers at the guard... Blinks... She is clearly holding him by the hair/beard/whiskers/ears whatever is sticking out the most on his head, and yet the fool is staring off in to the distance. Speaking of some... Beef? Yup he was lost. Gone... The brain is friend and now probably was badly shaken by the backhands. Alas. The woman stand back up, dusts herself off and goes off to make sure Mike the choppa pilot is alright! "Uh... Yes, sure I'll catch up to you in a moment." She said waving her hand dismissively to the flying horse.
Zophah sighs before gathering everyone up. "Ok, back to HQ now. Everyone rested for the trip back?" Once everyone is accounted for, she gives the sniper a last "Good luck." before leading everyone out the building. She displays the same combat leadership on the way back to the Zephyr building, though hopefully the ferals have thinned out since they came out there.
The attempt to create a sensory linkup with Angus is effective! ...for all of about three seconds. For reasons possibly known to Angus and most unlikely to be known to anyone else, the link backfires in short order, leaving Firecracker with a 'loose end' of sorts to draw back. As Angus starts spraying folks with solvent - not enough for Astara and the whole guard contingent, maybe enough for her and one or two guards at most - Barry blinks at Angus in confusion. "The same one who hit me?" he asks, before shooting Parthenia a glare. "We'll be having a talk later." he assures her. It's going to be roughly the same amount of time fighting back to the building as it took to get to the sniper post, with the group of Arris-Mal-Zophah-daughter making the voyage much more quickly than Phosphorus alone. The battle continues to rage outside as the group tries to reconvene, with at least the lobby comparatively secured (albeit very, very sticky). It's a start!
