NationStates Jolt Archive

ooc> Staging point:

Sentinal VIII:

Sentinal VIII is a shady pirate sancturary. It used to be a small orderly Gronde colony until the 4th Space Marine chapter moved into the Camari system, thus driving out most of the pirates and outlaws from that system, who all took refuge here. There are a few Gronde research bases, but the rest is free territory and has few Gronde citizens. All of the planets with the exception of one, are either rather desolate or uninhabitable. The one that is habitable is moderately developed and is home to just about anyone who would desire to reside there. There are two outlaw space stations and some other bases. There is an astroid mining operation in the astroid field with about 100,000 workers.


I will be acting as a pseudo infrastructural RPer for this system.

ic>

WANTED:

Damian von Castellan

Crimes - Murder, insurrection, treason against the Great Forge, theft of military technology, and espionage.

Bounty: 3 billion USD Alive; 1 billion USD dead. Extra rewards for returned stolen military technology.

Damian is beleived to be hiding somewhere in the Sentinal VIII system. He is armed and extremely dangerous. It is also believed that Damian has hired a number of mercenary bodygaurds. They are to terminated as well. (with a reward of 300 million each)

Gronde Law and Order council

Most recent picture of Damian (http://store.us.games-workshop.com/storefront/newimage.asp?Size=A&Img=252229)

OOC: Hmm! Gonna haveta update the H&V thread...

The very shady AgentFade heard this over the radio. The kill intrigued him, as he had been out of practice for a while. He went over to his weapons case. He took his portable RailRifle (a railgun condensed into a rifle) and a sleeper dart gun, with ten cases for each weapon.

"This will be fun," he remarked, as he transmitted a message.

Coded message from AgentFade to Gronde's Head of Office (Code UMBRA protocol)

I accept your request for help. I am taking a shuttle and will arrive in 3 days.
-Terminate message.

With that, and a big smirk on his face, he made tickets to go on the shuttle at Quetza'Thalas (the capital of TFR).

3 days later...AgentFade stepped off the shuttle on Sentinel VIII. He pulled out a radio, and quipped on the channel:

"Gronde, this is AgentFade...ready to begin."

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=435179

As is mentioned in the Thread title, ya might wanna read the thread I just linked and get yer name in afore ya start things up here.

OOC:Oh, sorry. Didn´t realise there was a sign up.

ooc> TFR: Just as extra info, this was an open bounty, the only time you would contact our government is when you have A.) captured/killed him and are claiming your reward or B.) have located him but don't plan on capturing him yourself. There have been countless people that have attempted to capture this guy, so we don't pay attention until someone actually succeeds. Other than that, your looking preaty good. All I can say is to try to make your writing a little more descriptive and have a better flow. Just try rereading it to yourself outloud to see how is sounds. Ask Godular, I am a critical little bastard and expect a certain quality from the participants in my RPs. Just remember that I am mearly trying to help you get better. I don't expect perfection, (you wont be getting perfection from me, not even close) but a fair amount of effort goes a long way to help an RP. You are on the right track, though.

Godular: Good god, for the last time, type out "you" or "yes" instead of "ya," it drives me nuts. Lol.

Now to bring in my character for this RP and to set up the...setting.


ic> Two days after Damian's reported sighting on the Planet Chronus in the Sentinal VIII system.

Three black ships entered Sentinal VIII. They entered from the Warp, instead of the system Gateway. The three craft were strangely out of place in the shady pirate system that was Sentinal VIII; unlike the various private or pirate ships in the system, they were heavily armed and marked with Gronde national and space marine insignia. They were from the 4th Space Marine Chapter.

Captain Syberius sat clad in power armor in his massive command chair on the middle ship. It was an Empire Class Battle-cruiser. (ooc> It is basically a bigger, stronger strike cruiser from BFG for those not familiar with my military) It was not the most powerfull ship in the 4th Chapter's arsenal, but it was still a formidable force. The two ships flanking it were two smaller, but fast and deadly Hunter Destroyers. As they neared Chronus, Syberius was descussing some of the concerns brought up by his battle-leader, Cassus.

"Sir, I just don't think that showing up here with Space Marine ships is a good idea," said the Battle-Leader.

"Why do you say that, brother?" asked Syberius.

"Space marines from the 4th chapter haven't entered this system since our chapter moved out many years ago," explained Cassus. "I feel that we are making ourselves into targets for the outlaw scum and pirates that inhabit this hell hole. Also, making such an entrance will only give our targets a chance to escape. We should arrived in civilian vessels to give us the element of suprise."

"You raise some legitimate concerns, brother," admitted Syberius. "However, I have considered them myself. I believe that we are safer in our warships than we would be in civilian crafts. Even the most hard-core pirate would think twice before trying to hit space marines, even if they had the ability to pull a raid off. Plus, bringing space marine warships gives us a little more security should something go wrong." Cassus somewhat disapointed. Syberius always outwitted him, but he was still going to cling to his last point.

"But we are still giving our targets a chance to escape. They would surely know of our arrival as soon as we approached orbit."

"They surely would," said Syberius. "But they are very clever. I think that they would be aware of our arrival even if we attempted to be more inconspicuous. This way, they will at least be more intimidated. Besides, if more they try to escape or hide, the easier it becomes for us to find them. And I already have a few agents on the ground." Cassus gave a grudging nod; he knew that he had lost again. The navigator turned to face the Captain.

"Captain, we are about to enter orbit. We are recieving a message from one of our ground agents."

"What is he saying?" asked Syberius.

"He has located the rougue cyborg Mercarius. It is believed that he is working with our other targets."

"Good, we will need to take him out now or else he will become a major threat later," said Syberius. "Tell our agent to get me the current co-ordinates of Mercarius. Cassus, I need you to lead a small detatchment of marines down there to eliminate him. I have already informed the administration of his planet of our intentions." Both the navigator and the Battle-leader replied with a "yes, sir."

About 15 minutes later, a Thunderhawk gunship was seen speeding down to the planet's surface. They were attempting to close in on Mercarius's position. The ground agent lost track of him after he fled into a group of abandoned buidlings.

***

A sleek, humanoid figure crept from building to building in a run down slum on the outskirts of the primary city on Chronus. There was no one to be seen. The figure looked almost human from a distance and in the shadows. He was covered by a blue, metalic material which held the shape of his body and muscle structure.

It was hard work being a wanted man. He was being tracked by an agent, but was finally able to shake him off. He would need to wait it out until things settled down. He still could not believe that space marines were here, on Chronus. At first, he had thought that the arrival of the Battle Cruiser was mearly a rumor, but then he saw one of their Thunderhawks with his own eyes. He was sure that it was either he or his associate that they were after.

He slid around a corner and began to sprint to the next building when he heard something falling from the air. With a huge thud of metal on concrete, the Massive Armored bulk of a Zues Class Battle Mech landed before him. He had been found.

"This is Zeus warrior Alpha. The target Mercarius has been located. I'm preparing to intercept and destroy."

"Roger that, Alpha."

*** (ooc> I will finish this little sequence once I actually get some sleep)

ooc> I will introduce a few "NPCs" for you (and anyone else who joins) to interact with as soon as I can. If you think you can wing it and do a good job with it, go for it.

OOC: Forgive me, I'm not exactly a pro at this (but not a n00b either.)

IC:
AgentFade entered a local bar. A shady place, but just what he'd call home. He ran up to the bar. "A cold one. Any kind."
"What's the hurry stranger?"
"I'm seeking a bounty, on a Damian von something. Here's a picture." Fade showed the bartender a picture of the bounty.
"I heard he's in the Drunken Bounty. Better hurry though, he's supposedly leaving soon."
"Thank you." Fade left the place, seeking out the Drunken Bounty. He had heard of the place back home. Famous for gang shootouts and pirates were always there.

Godular: Good god, for the last time, type out "you" or "yes" instead of "ya," it drives me nuts. Lol.

BLOIMEY! Neow 'e's makin' mirth of me toipin' stoile!

Edited to add: This accent is purely fictional, any resemblance to speech patterns past or present is entirely coincidental.

Iron Mike had heard about the bounty way the hell back on his homeworld of Khorhal 5, now he was all the way across the Galaxy on Sentinel VII,and he was ready to work.

Since they thought the target had hirewd bodyguards, he decided tro hit up some low-class bars and see what he cold learn about any new Mercs that were crawling the city.

ic> As AgentFade left the bar, a young woman with dark hair, wearing a black dress walked up to the bar-tender from the back.

"Who was that, Jaq?" she asked.

"Just another bounty hunter after our boss," he replied. "I sent him to the Drunken Bounty. He is definately not familiar with these parts..." They both smiled. Jaq dialed someone up on his communicator. "Hey Jack--yep, we got another one."

*** (here is my mechs archive: http://s6.invisionfree.com/International_Mall/index.php?showtopic=436

Meanwhile, in an abondoned part of the city...

..."This is Zeus warrior Alpha. The target Mercarius has been located. I'm preparing to intercept and destroy."

"Roger that, Alpha."

Mercarius reacted quickly, attempting to take cover back behind one of the buildings. However, the Zeus Mech was fast as well, delivering a fierce solvo of anti-matter missiles. Mercarius's armor was singed by the explosions, but he was able to avoid a direct hit. The mech followed its target behind the building. Mercarius waited for its bulk to come around the corner to strike out with a devistating punch that sent his assailent wreeling back. The mech recovered and targeted Mercarius with its chest mounted tactical laser cannon, which was barely dodged by Mercarius. He was unable to dodge the series of light seeker missiles that followed, but when the smoke cleared, he was still standing.

"The target is stronger than expected, I am requesting immediate support."

"Roger that, backup is en-rout now."

"Roger, I will try to hold out until th--"

Mercarius lunged at the mech, which was attempting to get a lock with its particle cannon. He plunged his fist through its armor and proceeded to rip both of its arms off. He delivered the last, fatal blow to the machines head. He stood on top of the burning mass, trying to decide what to do next. But once he saw another Thunderhawk aproaching his position, it became all to obvious what he needed to do: run.

***

Meanwhile, as AgentFade neared the Drunken bounty, he didn't realize that there were eyes, and scopes, on him...

ooc> More comming once I return from work.

That sounded like somethging launching moissles! In the middle of a city, were they nuts?!

He haeded straight for the sounds of explosions, he was safe in his Armored Combat Suit, but he doubted anyone else would be able to take that kind of a beating and survive very well.

AgentFade was approaching the Drunken Bounty when his wristwatch screamed. He looked down; it said, "You may want to duck." He looked around, and he saw something out of the corner of his eye, something like a sniper scope. He drew his sleep dart-gun and fired a shot.

OOC: Was I not supposed to know? If not, please note it as SIC (Secret In Character).

AgentFade was approaching the Drunken Bounty when his wristwatch screamed. He looked down; it said, "You may want to duck." He looked around, and he saw something out of the corner of his eye, something like a sniper scope. He drew his sleep dart-gun and fired a shot.

OOC: Was I not supposed to know? If not, please note it as SIC (Secret In Character).

ooc> I left that open for you to decide. (and I know what SIC is. lol)

MM: Come on man, I know you can do better than that. Let's see some stuff on par with the old space hulk thread.

ic> The sniper didn't think that his target would notice him so soon and react so fast. The dart hit him square in the forehead and he tumbled backwards. AgentFade was not out of the woods yet. The sound of footsteps came from a nearby alley as several figures stepped out of the shadows.

At first glance, they looked like average gangsters. The difference was, they were far too well-armed. Three had military grade pulse rifles, one had a hand-held gatling cannon, 5 had laser rifles, and one even had a plasma gun. All ten of them converged on AgentFade, weapons ready. Following behind was the form of Damian Von Castellan himself.

"So," he said in a rough voice. "Your the latest back-water bounty hunter who is trying to kill me." He paused for a moment and smiled, looking at AgentFade's dart gun. "Or perhaps you wanted to take me alive," he said with a chuckle. His henchmen moved in and prepared to attack.

***

Mercarius darted silently from one building to another. Space marines were all over this section of the city and the adaptive camo in his armor would only help a little against them. As he dove to the next building, he found himself face to face with Iron Mike's Armored suit. Despite this unexpected complication, Mercarius kept his composure.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Mercarius asked in a calm and stealy voice.

ooc> Here is basically what he looks like: http://www.cdaccess.com/gifs/shared/front/large/riserob.jpg

OOC: Just call my guy Fade for now.

IC: Fade saw the entourage approach him. He drew his RailRifle and aimed it at the group. "Take one step, there'll be bullet holes in everything for 6 miles." He drew his dart gun and aimed it at Damian. "So, tell Daddy how you want it. Alive, dead, I don't care. Im just here for your bounty."

ooc> Wait, so does he have his rail rifle in his hand or his dart gun now? I'm so confused. It doesn't matter too much though.

ic> Damian chuckled again.

"Come now, boy," said Damian. "There are 11 of us and only one of you. So tell me, what use would you possibly have for my bounty...except to pay for you tomb-stone!" On cue, the mob of ganster gunmen opened fire onto the bounty hunter.

OOC: Both, aimed at 2 different people

IC:

"This is why things never go as planned." He poked out long enough to take a shot at Damian, who was suprisingly left open, with his dart gun. A pulse rifle shot singed his arms as he pulled back behind his cover. Fade then dove to the other side of the street, spraying the well armed gansters with bullets as he dove, before getting hit in the arm again with more laser fire.

OOC: Both, aimed at 2 different people

IC:

"This is why things never go as planned." He took a shot at damian, who was suprisingly left open. He then spray enough bullets to blanket everyone in lead, but not before taking a few in the leg and a couple in the arm.

ooc> Ok, I'm sorry, but that does not even count as a post. Not to be rude, but that just sucked. As far as I can tell from this is that he just stood there and shot back. There is no way in hell that he would take "few in the leg and a couple in the arm." (not to mention a shot in the arm from a pulse rifle would likely take out the entire limb) I am just trying to make sure you abide by Heroes and Villians community rules.

A better post would have been something like this:

" Fade dove behind some cover on the side of the street in the wake of his opponants fire, though not before taking a laser shot to the leg.

"This is why things never go as planned." He poked out long enough to take a shot at Damian, who was suprisingly left open, with his dart gun. A pulse rifle shot singed his arms as he pulled back behind his cover. Fade then dove to the other side of the street, spraying the well armed gansters with bullets as he dove, before getting hit in the arm again with more laser fire. "

ooc> Ok, I'm sorry, but that does not even count as a post. Not to be rude, but that just sucked. As far as I can tell from this is that he just stood there and shot back. There is no way in hell that he would take "few in the leg and a couple in the arm." (not to mention a shot in the arm from a pulse rifle would likely take out the entire limb) I am just trying to make sure you abide by Heroes and Villians community rules.

A better post would have been something like this:

" Fade dove behind some cover on the side of the street in the wake of his opponants fire, though not before taking a laser shot to the leg.

"This is why things never go as planned." He poked out long enough to take a shot at Damian, who was suprisingly left open, with his dart gun. A pulse rifle shot singed his arms as he pulled back behind his cover. Fade then dove to the other side of the street, spraying the well armed gansters with bullets as he dove, before getting hit in the arm again with more laser fire. "

OOC: ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT! Stop yelling at me. Maybe I'm not the best RP'er in the world, but there's no reason to bite my head off.

OOC: ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT! Stop yelling at me. Maybe I'm not the best RP'er in the world, but there's no reason to bite my head off.

ooc> I'm not yelling nor am I biting your head off. Lol. I am actually being nicer than other Rpers would be in Heroes and villians thread. Rping ability is directly stemmed from the effort you put into it. Effort, that's all i am asking for. I just find it most effective to be strait-forwared about it. So, shall we continue?

ooc: Ok, I think I'll take a roll at it. I need to break in my roleplaying skills, so would you mind if I joined, Gronde?
For reference, here is my team:
http://www.geocities.com/chimpman.geo/NWN/BKRMilitary2.jpg
And the weapons they use:
http://www.world.guns.ru/assault/scar_h.jpg (SCAR I)
http://www.world.guns.ru/assault/oicw.jpg (SCAR II)
http://www.world.guns.ru/assault/xm8.jpg (SCAR III)
http://www.world.guns.ru/sniper/cheytac-0.jpg (HCHP SR)
http://world.guns.ru/shotgun/rem870mcs_10.jpg (TAKEDOWN shotgun)
http://world.guns.ru/shotgun/jackhammer.jpg(shotgun)(JACKHAMMER II)
http://world.guns.ru/handguns/glock26.jpg (Tactical Defense Handgun)
http://world.guns.ru/handguns/deserte.jpg(Heavey Offense Handgun)
http://world.guns.ru/handguns/sw-mp-auto.jpg (Semi-auto assaut handgun)
http://world.guns.ru/handguns/barak.jpg(Disabling Electrical Pistol)
ic:
"So, Rol, what do we have now?"
"Damian Von Castellan, big guy. Supposed to have stolen some sensitive military tech, murder, treason, yadayadayada," Rol, a 6.5 foot giant replied with a casual air.
"What planet, what system?"
Rol quickly typed in a few keys."Ooh, you'll love this one, Jak.Planet Chronos, Sentinal VIII system."
"I've heard of that place. People there aren't nice. But I'm not worried about them. I'm worried about the information they might relay to Damian. Alright, ring up Bertha. She's the only one who'll take us that far and to that kind of hell-hole. Pack up and make sure to bring an extra Flesh-Metal covering. You can never know with those kinds of pirate havens." He strode away into the quarters of the team. Technically, they could be living in a penthouse suite with 5 concubines each, but in those living conditions staying fit was a hard task. He roused Felix from his sleep. He was up in an instant; the drugs made it so that he was always in a half-sleep, eyes closed but ears open.
"Felix, bring your shotguns for this job; I have a feeling we might need them."
"Sure thing," the albino rumbled. "Who's the hit?"
"A Damian Von Castellan."
And hour later 3 black figures were dropped off in a field not far from the city where Damian was last rumored to be. Their hearing enhancers picked up gunfire, but that was always happening here. Either a bunch of drunks, or a gang war, or just a random robbery. Still, just to be on the safe side, Jak drew his SCAR I and Felix and Rol followed his lead by drawing their SCAR's II and III, respectively.
Move out. Blue 2, scout ahead for any possible threats. Blue 3, stay with me.
Roger that.
Rol stalked off, and returned a few minutes later signalling the coast was clear. The moved forward in a Delta formation. Only once did Jak stop them, because of a scurrying sound in the bushes, but it turned out only to be some giant mutant rat. Jak smiled out of relief and grimaced out of disgust, and they moved forward again. When they reached the city, they decided to first check all sources of gunfire.
Hey, it's a start, and we don't have anything to go on, looking like this, Felix smiled and told himself.
There were scattered shots coming from all different directions, but concentrated gunfire seemed to be coming from the North-East. They were crossing a deserted road,guns sweeping in all directions, heading towards the gunfire as fast as possible, when the sound of a group of Marine footsteps reached their amplifiers.
Blue team, scatter! Do not engage Marines unless they fire or I give the command! Go!
The group scattered in all directions and took position in deserted buildings, weapons trained on the street...

ooc: More coming when Gronde posts as the marines who are nearing my group or until sometihng else happens. :)

ooc> I'm not going to post just yet. I don't have enough time to make a good one. Once I get back from work I will get right on it.

OOC: Gonna throw in with Vector a little later. After all, he IS a pseudo-psychotic bounty hunter.

Jaratia: Mind signing up on the H&V thread I linked earlier (And reading it too, if ya gots the time. Lotsa backstory and a few rules)? Just post your nation and characters and I'll get to listing them.

ooc> *sigh* I just assume people are already signed up. Gah.

OOC: Sorry. I saw that the thread was 8 pages long and since I have a habit of trying to read the whole thread, I decided to desist. I assumed that ou first had to read the thread before you could participate. :)

ooc> I left that open for you to decide. (and I know what SIC is. lol)

MM: Come on man, I know you can do better than that. Let's see some stuff on par with the old space hulk thread.

ic> The sniper didn't think that his target would notice him so soon and react so fast. The dart hit him square in the forehead and he tumbled backwards. AgentFade was not out of the woods yet. The sound of footsteps came from a nearby alley as several figures stepped out of the shadows.

At first glance, they looked like average gangsters. The difference was, they were far too well-armed. Three had military grade pulse rifles, one had a hand-held gatling cannon, 5 had laser rifles, and one even had a plasma gun. All ten of them converged on AgentFade, weapons ready. Following behind was the form of Damian Von Castellan himself.

"So," he said in a rough voice. "Your the latest back-water bounty hunter who is trying to kill me." He paused for a moment and smiled, looking at AgentFade's dart gun. "Or perhaps you wanted to take me alive," he said with a chuckle. His henchmen moved in and prepared to attack.

***

Mercarius darted silently from one building to another. Space marines were all over this section of the city and the adaptive camo in his armor would only help a little against them. As he dove to the next building, he found himself face to face with Iron Mike's Armored suit. Despite this unexpected complication, Mercarius kept his composure.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Mercarius asked in a calm and stealy voice.

ooc> Here is basically what he looks like: http://www.cdaccess.com/gifs/shared/front/large/riserob.jpg

OOC: Sorry man, I was in a bit of a hurry, my stuff generally goes sharply downhill when I'm rushed.

"I'm Mike, that's all you need to know, I heard explosions and came to take a look." Mike was a squat juggernaut, at only five feet and two inches tall, he was well bewlow average height, he was however from a triple normal gravity world, and his bloodlines had been genengineered to be able to survive, and even thrive there, as a consequense he could bench small groundcars, and probably snap this scrawy man in half. He wasn't sure what was going opn, but he intended to find out, in fact he out and asked the stranger, "What the hellk is going on, those are Mecha out there, and you are just one guy, just one guy never warrants using Mecha, period. So what's the deal?"

so, u guys wanna kno something special?

:sniper: :mp5: :fluffle: :mp5:

OOC: Sorry man, I was in a bit of a hurry, my stuff generally goes sharply downhill when I'm rushed.

"I'm Mike, that's all you need to know, I heard explosions and came to take a look." Mike was a squat juggernaut, at only five feet and two inches tall, he was well bewlow average height, he was however from a triple normal gravity world, and his bloodlines had been genengineered to be able to survive, and even thrive there, as a consequense he could bench small groundcars, and probably snap this scrawy man in half. He wasn't sure what was going opn, but he intended to find out, in fact he out and asked the stranger, "What the hellk is going on, those are Mecha out there, and you are just one guy, just one guy never warrants using Mecha, period. So what's the deal?"

ooc> NP, I have had rushed moments myself. Mercarius isn't scrawny. (well maybe he is compared to Mike)

ic> Mercarius was supprised by how blunt this stranger was. It might be a little difficult to get rid of him without a fight, but it was worth a try.

"There are mainly just Space marines out there," replied Mercarius. "There are only two mechs, now." He couldn't stop himself from adding on the "now." He looked at Mike, sizing him up as a potential threat. Mercarius figured he could beat him, but it would be tough. "Well, if that's all you wanted, I will be departing now."

ooc> NP, I have had rushed moments myself. Mercarius isn't scrawny. (well maybe he is compared to Mike)

ic> Mercarius was supprised by how blunt this stranger was. It might be a little difficult to get rid of him without a fight, but it was worth a try.

"There are mainly just Space marines out there," replied Mercarius. "There are only two mechs, now." He couldn't stop himself from adding on the "now." He looked at Mike, sizing him up as a potential threat. Mercarius figured he could beat him, but it would be tough. "Well, if that's all you wanted, I will be departing now."

"No, you won't, I wanna know why they're after you, like I said before, you're just one guy, why are they after you? You have thirty, that's three zero, seconds to answer, before I start making you." Mike was shorter han this gy, but he wasn't worried, this was armor capable of taking massed railgun and Hyperveloicity Missile Fire, sure, certain melee weapons(his own Boma Blades, and various energy or beam weapons) could get him out, but no gun this guy could carry was gonna break him free from his protective shell.

He pointedly DID NOT take a combat stance, he might have to chase this guy, and if it came to a fight it'd probably be a draw, he was certain he was stronger, but against someone who was no doubt faster tan he was, it was an open question as to wether he'd wn any confrontation.

Meanwhilst, a rather large vessel registering as the Smuggling Freighter Yargh! came to a relatively clean landing on one of the city's primary landing pads. It was a large, gleaming vessel with enough cannons and missile tubes to turn a vessel the size of a frigate into worm food. A wonderful piece of work indeed, and given enough faux rust finish to make it look like a garbage scow from before the Freespace/Imperial War was even considered a simple rebellion against the empire.

The docking ramp lowered, and two figures walked down, surveying the immediate area with a combination of smug indifference and nostalgia.

The first and somewhat more organic member of the pair wore a large gray poncho over his black combat suit and support harness, along with several of the largest and nastiest people-killers he could afford. Knives, guns, thermal detonators, concussion grenades, poison darts, all in excess and all very well taken care of. Plated boots clanked on the boarding ramp as he stepped off the ship and gave a peremptory stretch.

The second individual was a four armed wardroid with a pair of heavy siege cannons attached to its back and a number of rifles armed and ready. Of course, it also wore a poncho, and the first fellow insisted on calling the two siege cannons "Janitorial Equipment Packs". After all, the wardroid was rather proficient at acting like a maintenance droid, right up until its owner told it to blow things the hell up.

These two individuals were Vector, and his trusty cohort Yargh. Yargh was named for the sound people make when they realize he isn't just a repair droid. His body had been destroyed several months before when Vector made an ill-fated attempt upon the life of Emperor Palpatine, but his new employers had recently given him a new ship with Yargh's emergency memory save set as the governing AI. Now Yargh controlled a goodly portion of the ship, the war droid, and also the support harness presently attached to Vector. That last one was particularly useful to vector as it not only gives him eyes on the back of his head, so to speak, but an extra pair of arms that independently targets and shoots at things... or punches them... or stabs them... or whatever.

"Wish I'd known of this joint before! Look at the scum on the walls! There's fecal matter on the stairs! And look there, five thugs beating up on an old lady!"

"I would suspect it reminds you of your childhood," Yargh replied tonelessly.

"You bet your ass! Those were the good old days, the all or nothin' days, the kill or be killed days! Then I got into middle school!"

"Did the situation improve any, master?"

"Depends on how you look at it. If by 'improve' you mean every kid brought a shiv to class, parent teacher meetings turned into parent teacher riots, and biology teachers had to avoid being dissected themselves, then yeah..."

"I feel it necessary to note that I could have gone the rest of the day without knowing that. Deleting files from the last thirty seconds."

"Suit yourself. I say we just get in, get this guy, get the cash, get some booze, and get the hell out."

"A wise course of action, master. It is important to note that you appear to have your priorities out of order, however. According to past experience."

"Booze'n'Schmooze first, gotcha!"

And so it was that the two very large and very bulky individuals trod into the nearest Saloon-esque establishment, with Yargh taking a position outside the saloon, as a result of a "We don't serve their kind here!" (despite the fact that droids don't drink or get drunk), keeping an eye out for trouble, and because nobody ever paid attention to a sentient combat harness as long as it didn't call people names.

Vector walked up to the bar, banged his head on the counter several times in quick succession, and yelled out: "I want the nastiest load of hogspit you have in this here watering hole!" Then continued in somewhat more hushed tones towards the bartender "And I'll pay a little extra on the side if you can point me in a useful direction towards this honkey here." He whipped out a small photo of Mercarius and slid it towards the bartender.

ooc> Godular: W00t for making me laugh. I may not try to kill you right away. Lol. Although, since you did decide to go to the closest bar to the landing platforms...second time in this RP. At least you used a little more...tact and subtlety.

ic> Jaq looked up from drying liquer glasses when he heard a strange man bang his head on the counter. Walking over, he filled a mug with some of the strongest beer in the bar and handed it to the stranger. Things only got more out-of-the-ordinary when the man slid the picture of Mercarius towards him. Keeping his composure and casual air, the barmen raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Hmm, he looks familliar, that's for sure," said Jaq while pretending to study the picture. The fact was, he knew exactly who occupied the picture. It was the second time in one day that someone had arrived seeking information about either his "second employer" or one of his cohorts. This one would be a little more difficult to deal with. Mercarius was never easy to locate, even for Jaq, and he hadn't gotten word back from Damian's small band of local mercenary-gansters since the last bounter hunter left. He quickly decided that he would need to send in a few of his own agents to deal with this man. "I may have something on him...let me check my computer in the back." Jaq set Vector's drink in front of him and went to the back of the bar...

***

Meanwhile, Mercarius already had his own problems to deal with.

As if Space Marines weren't enough, though Mercarius. Now this guy is giving me trouble.

"Ok, fine," Mercarius finally answered. "These space marines are after me because I am wanted by The Great Forge, Gronde. That lab accident wasn't even my fault--but long story short, they sent space marines here to extract me. So now that you know, I will be leaving." He paused and looked hard at Mike. "Unless, that is, you plan on trying to stop me."

Vector downed the glass as soon as it appeared before him, then gave the empty glass a cursory glance, also being careful to pay attention to the bartender's reaction to the photo.

Vector knew his job well, and was particularly adept at spotting lies and understatement. Not many would have been able to spot a man's eyes dilating slightly as a synapse or two fire in recognition of a close acquaintance. Not many would have kept an eye on just where a man looked at a picture, examining the photo as a whole rather than focusing on the face to remember if he had seen it before. The slight change in demeanor that stemmed not from acting casual but from TRYING to act casual.

He made no perceptible indication that he had spotted any of the telltale signs, and simply signalled for more beer as the bartender went in back to 'check his sources'.

"What'cha got?" He whispered to himself.

There is a communications link being established, Yargh's disembodied voice replied, but whoever this meatbag is, he knows how to scramble his signals. It will take me a minute or two to clear it up.

"Rockin'."

It was always the same. The Bounty Hunter ALWAYS goes into the nearest bar he sees after landing at the starport, and SOMEBODY in that bar is ALWAYS in the mark's pocket. Every single damn time. Its how things worked. You get into town, you hit 'the tavern'. Bartenders know everything. Its a proven constant of universal mechanics. Gods help some unsuspecting 'hero type' if he walked up to a bartender and asked "So what's the chatter?". Poor sod would have had his head talked off. Vector would have chuckled to himself, but he was too busy downing another beer and looking around for a dart board.

TAG for scum under the command of Thrake to enter...

tag for Nistolonian Black Dragon team to enter

Meanwhile, Mercarius already had his own problems to deal with.

As if Space Marines weren't enough, though Mercarius. Now this guy is giving me trouble.

"Ok, fine," Mercarius finally answered. "These space marines are after me because I am wanted by The Great Forge, Gronde. That lab accident wasn't even my fault--but long story short, they sent space marines here to extract me. So now that you know, I will be leaving." He paused and looked hard at Mike. "Unless, that is, you plan on trying to stop me."

"You're not the one I'm here to deal with, you can go, for now, but if you get in my way I'll blow you to hell and gone in a heartbeat." Mike demonstrated exactly what he could do by taking off a cornewr of the nearest building with a stream of what looked like explosive silver lightning, but DU usually got that effect in atmosphere, especially at around .3c.

ic> Jaq was good at scrambling his signals, but even he has been decoded at times. His message was sent to about 25 locations, most of them probobly being decoys. Secondly, it was heavily encrypted. "The hawk is scanning the forest. Protect the rabbit."

He returned to the counter with Vector on his next beer.

"The guy's name is Mercarius. He's been on the run from the Great Forge for some time now." Jaq poured his customer another drink. "I just talked to one of my contacts; your man in this picture was spotted around these parts a week ago. I'm not sure if he is still on this planet, but if you give me a way to contact you, I could inform you if I get any new info."


ooc> I will finish up when I get back home.

OOC: Whatever happened to our friend the fugitive? I shot at him, and now this just went off on some random idea thread.

“But this bounty, it is in the billions! That’s worth several patrols at least! If not a small fleet!” The deep voice came from an equally large skaven, his form twisted by countless experiments and injuries...

The cool and mechanical voice sounded out of place on this dirty and dark room, the monitors were softly glowing with snow except for one which was displaying green words spoken by this voice...

“And what if you fail Thrake? Worm of moulder?”

Thrake was confident, he had already planned this out, “Well you have lost your contact within moulder, I could slip you what you need and strengthen your organization.”

“We have intrest in this, but we shall not give you even a full patrol, we shall grant you a few ships extra, but know if you fail, excommunicon shall be declared, and we shall gladly enjoy the dealing of you in custody.”

The voice was now layered with a twisted joy and promise of agony beyond the threshold of pain...

Some charge in the air seemed to expand as the words were spoken, laced with...fear? or perhaps contempt? “Fine, Thrake of moulder accepts your bargain.”

His mind was already in overdrive as he formed a B plan in case of failure, fuck excommunion, he wasn’t dying like that!

“Good, the ships shall meet you in the sentinel system, we are not delivering them with discretion...”

Thrake’s eyes narrowed a hint of bitterness could be heard, “Of course, I am thankful for your aid and shall take my leave now...”

The massive figure turned after the screens went dead and exited the station to his own Acheron Vessel...

His own deathvermin surrounded him without a word and formed the protective circle as they traveled back to his lab. The Nature’s Curse already moving into the warp, Thrake was cementing his plan B, and plan A...well that’s what improvisation is for...

Sentinal VIII:
One organic looking vessel ripped its way from the warp, lights flashing on as power systems were reactivated. An automated message began looping to the nearby Gronde vessels, might as well announce to some degree...

Greetings, bounty offer accepted, skaven forces en route...

Well, en route isn’t really correct, since three murder class cruisers exited the warp outside Sentinal VIII.

“Good of you to arrive, we’ve been waiting for sometime...”
Thrake was clearly lying, but hey, you need to make an impression and if they’re like most skaven captains...well lets just say they’d love to buy timeshares...

A more machine-like voice, echoing and commanding retorted, “Do not try and lie to the spaven, we know that your engines are still red hot, you came ten point three seconds ago. You can’t cow us into submission, we are simply here for our end of the bargain.”

Spaven? Shit...that’s gonna make things interesting...
“How many marines are with you...?”

“My rank is unimportant, but you may know that we have a full company here, so don’t try anything or the 33rd spaven legion gets to have a hunt.”

Shit shit shit...yeah screw you guys, not even you will get me if I fail!
“All right, I suggest planetfall then. Send down two squads, we’ll simply be observing before we go ourselves.”

The voice was full of contempt now, “Of course disease bag.”

Abandoned part of city:
Twin comets streaked through the sky, trailing smoke in a twirling patter before two massive explosions are heard...

The crater was still smoking as a squad of spaven marines was already slithering into a building cocking their bolters. The other squad was securing this newly formed “clearing”....

Mercarius? Vector thought to himself, taking the picture back and giving it a lengthy glance himself before snagging another brew. Odd. Damian doesn't look like the fellow that'd use pseudonyms. Looks like he's big on the bwa ha ha.

He took a swig, decided what the hell why not. All they can do is ambush me with an internal snicker, and gave the bartender the comm number for his ship. Whatever info came through, Yargh would send it right on through to him. He thanked the man for his help, slapped a healthy number of credits on the counter, far in excess to what the beer was worth, and walked out of the bar.

He turned to Yargh, who was still standing outside, and gave a 'Ninja Vanish' signal, whereupon the droid immediately engaged his cloak and climbed out of sight.

As the avatar moved off, so did Vector, wandering further into the depths of the city. He whispered once again into his comm unit.

"What'cha got?"

Two recipes for slugworm spaghetti, bus directions to Coruscant, a highly detailed description on how to make uranium from common household materials, and something about a hawk scanning a forest, and those are just the interesting ones. The meatbag had it all heavily encrypted and scrambled, as per standard procedure, and I ripped through it like wax paper, as per standard procedure.

"Hawk scanning a forest? It didn't have something about clipping its wings, did it?"

No, something about protecting a rabbit.

"Ah. Yeah, definitely gonna be getting ambushed in the near future."

I take it you are pleased with that assertion.

"Damn right. They have me following a red herring, I think. Some guy named Mercarius."

Damian does not seem like the type to use a cover name. More like the type who would stand on a podium and chuckle gingerly at the passing masses under his absolute control.

"Exactly. Now, all that we need to do, is create a trail of blood large enough that even the REAL bad guy would have to notice."

“But this bounty, it is in the billions! That’s worth several patrols at least! If not a small fleet!” The deep voice came from an equally large skaven, his form twisted by countless experiments and injuries...

The cool and mechanical voice sounded out of place on this dirty and dark room, the monitors were softly glowing with snow except for one which was displaying green words spoken by this voice...

“And what if you fail Thrake? Worm of moulder?”

Thrake was confident, he had already planned this out, “Well you have lost your contact within moulder, I could slip you what you need and strengthen your organization.”

“We have intrest in this, but we shall not give you even a full patrol, we shall grant you a few ships extra, but know if you fail, excommunicon shall be declared, and we shall gladly enjoy the dealing of you in custody.”

The voice was now layered with a twisted joy and promise of agony beyond the threshold of pain...

Some charge in the air seemed to expand as the words were spoken, laced with...fear? or perhaps contempt? “Fine, Thrake of moulder accepts your bargain.”

His mind was already in overdrive as he formed a B plan in case of failure, fuck excommunion, he wasn’t dying like that!

“Good, the ships shall meet you in the sentinel system, we are not delivering them with discretion...”

Thrake’s eyes narrowed a hint of bitterness could be heard, “Of course, I am thankful for your aid and shall take my leave now...”

The massive figure turned after the screens went dead and exited the station to his own Acheron Vessel...

His own deathvermin surrounded him without a word and formed the protective circle as they traveled back to his lab. The Nature’s Curse already moving into the warp, Thrake was cementing his plan B, and plan A...well that’s what improvisation is for...

Sentinal VIII:
One organic looking vessel ripped its way from the warp, lights flashing on as power systems were reactivated. An automated message began looping to the nearby Gronde vessels, might as well announce to some degree...



Well, en route isn’t really correct, since three murder class cruisers exited the warp outside Sentinal VIII.

“Good of you to arrive, we’ve been waiting for sometime...”
Thrake was clearly lying, but hey, you need to make an impression and if they’re like most skaven captains...well lets just say they’d love to buy timeshares...

A more machine-like voice, echoing and commanding retorted, “Do not try and lie to the spaven, we know that your engines are still red hot, you came ten point three seconds ago. You can’t cow us into submission, we are simply here for our end of the bargain.”

Spaven? Shit...that’s gonna make things interesting...
“How many marines are with you...?”

“My rank is unimportant, but you may know that we have a full company here, so don’t try anything or the 33rd spaven legion gets to have a hunt.”

Shit shit shit...yeah screw you guys, not even you will get me if I fail!
“All right, I suggest planetfall then. Send down two squads, we’ll simply be observing before we go ourselves.”

The voice was full of contempt now, “Of course disease bag.”

Abandoned part of city:
Twin comets streaked through the sky, trailing smoke in a twirling patter before two massive explosions are heard...

The crater was still smoking as a squad of spaven marines was already slithering into a building cocking their bolters. The other squad was securing this newly formed “clearing”....


Mikes sensors noted the landing, but he was a bit busy to actually go and investigate, since this Mercarius fellow was still in attendance. He noted the spot on his map for a later look by his team, but other than that there would be no action on his part.

OOC: Here’s a spaven pic... (http://www.espace.cz/People/Honza/Gaming/Gallery/images/other/Spaven.jpg)

IC:
One frightened beggar thought he found space marines, he found a twisted mockery of them instead...

An armored fist was pointing at this huddling crap bag, the order already registered as one marine roughly lifted the emaciated man by his arm, breaking many bones. This prisoner was taken inside the secure building to be...discussed with...

The sergeant walked up, his elongated helmet in the shaped of some shrieking demon, even thins wisps of green smoke grew from the nostrils and mouth...

The raspy voice echoed from within, “Mortal, tell usss and you may live...tell usss who thisss issss....”

Another spaven had a holographic image playing from his helmet...

“I...I don’t know this man! Please let me go! I don’t know anything!”

A swift flick and crunch of bones the man looked down to see a knife embedded inside his ribs...

“Now you see, I just cut through you left lung. You have less than two minutes to live, tell us what we want and we can patch you up, otherwise you get to be rations, either way we win...your choice...”

The man’s breathing was becoming more ragged and wet, bloody spittle was soon becoming darker and thicker. Death was already here and waiting to take his hand...

OOC: Gronde, if he knows nothing I’ll let you say, if he does...then w00t! Yep, most people question, screw that, stab people!

ooc> The Fallen Races: I thought you left the thread, I was waiting for you to say something. I was just about to RP your character's end, but since you are still here, I will continue with that.

But first:

ic> Mercarius would have taken Mike up on his challenge if he wasn't in a hurry to bail from that wing of the city.

"Don't be so sure," said Mercarius. "But for now I have to leave." Barely a second later, the door to their left was kicked in, revealing the grey armour of a 4th chapter Space Marine. He pointed his bolter in Iron Mike's direction; Mercarius was already gone.

"Don't move!" the marine ordered through his helmet. "You under arrest!" Several more marines were behind the first. Two jump pack marines came through a higher window, landing to the right of Mike and another Zeus Mech smashed through the wall behind him. The sound of Thunderhawks flying overhead echoed from above the building.

***

Damian's escort of well-armed gansters were converging on Fade's covered position. Four of them had been killed. Damian was crawling to the side of the road, the effects of the dart's venom seemingly taking effect. The lead gunner tossed a plasma grenade at Fade's position, hoping to either flush him out or kill him.

***

ooc> THR: A random guy wouldn't know anything about Damian. At most he may have seem Mercarius wandering about, but evem that is unlikely. You can RP it yourself.

Godular: I will RP some stuff relating to your characters as you continue on.

"Damn you...Damian..." Fade was on the very brink of death, hoping to live another day. but this bounty seems quite hard to get. He rolled from the grenade, but not far enough. His whole back was burned. He tried to rummage through the bushes, and crawled over to Damian. He found a set of handcuffs on him.

"By order of Gronde...*cough*...you are under arrest." He tried to put the handcuffs on...

ooc> TFR: Lol, and again, your post didn't make very much sense. And again, I will fill in what needs to be so we can continue on...just try to apply a little more effort next time. For now, I will just say that your guy took out the rest of the gansters.

ic> Damian was on the ground and his gansters were dead. Fade kicked the plasma grenade back at them just in time. He was further injured himself, but the last 6 gangsters were burnt to a crisp. As Fade neared Damian, several crows landed nearby.

"Ah yes," said Damian. "The crows must be singing for you as well!" Several beeps and a large explosion followed. This "Damian" was in fact nothing more than a decoy, with explosives. Many-a bounty hunter had met his end by these clever imposters. The real Von Castellan would not be so easy to find.

ooc> Fade doesn't need to die if you can explain how he would get away. Have fun.

OOC: Fallen races, umm, watch out for the remaining guards, BTW, no bushes in a city :)(Just trying to help!)

Alright, I’ve got a way to find them...
I decided to go off in a different line of questioning, screw the bar scene...

IC: Obviously the sergeant thought it was waste of time listening to this babbling human, judging from the fact he just crushed its face with his armored foot...

He was scraping off the flesh in some rubble when both squads froze...

They picked up some key words, like “you” and “arrest” and judging from the Zeus mech and military communications...good chance the target Mecar-whatever-his-name-is was there, and fairly close too...

“Twelfth squad, guard the LZ. Eighth squad, through the building!”

It was fairly simple, ten hulking figures just ran towards the wall and with help of the power armor cleared their way through...

Three targets...human...space marine...blue human...wait...thats the taget! The others? Bodyguards? ah crap, treat em as possible hostiles...

The squad already acknowledged this and had weapons raised at the three...

The sergeant shouted at them “What the fuck is THAT!” He was aiming at the mercenary’s target...

Master.

Vector had learned to take the new comm in stride, and the sudden voice in his ear didn't startle him the least. "What'cha got, Yargh?" he whispered.

There appears to be a disturbance downtown. Southwest of your position. About ten blocks. Apparently some rat men decided to make their own landing pad like a meteor. It would seem that they are also hunting our mark.

"Where you at?"

Presently overlooking the disturbance. Shall I bring the 'Freighter' online?

"How many of them rat people?"

Looks like a squadron worth?

"Leave the ship for now. I've taken more than that," Vector said as he broke into a run and charged towards the disturbance, surreptitiously bringing out his big guns.

"Perhaps we should ask this Mercarius fellow some 'tings!"

ooc> Guys, Mercarius already bailed from that area. Only Iron Mike and half a platoon of marines are there; the marines aiming at Mike, probobly thinking he was/is in league with Mercarius.

Fade was bruised, cut, burned, and broken. An exploding Damian would've meant the end for Fade. He jumped back from the fallen case of a human. He looked at himself, covered in blood, shrapnel everywhere. He thought to himself. "This might be difficult to explain to the nurses, but that's alright." He found a nearby hospital, a few miles away, and entered. The room cleared with the site of him. The receptionist asked him, "My god, what's wrong with you?"
"Oh, a few bullets, a burned back, and some shrapnel, but other than that I'm just fine. And you?"
She turned to her radio. "Get me a gurney and take him to CCU. He needs to be treated as soon as possible." When she looked back he wasn't there. He had collapsed on the floor, passed out from the blood he lost.

ooc> The Fallen Races: I thought you left the thread, I was waiting for you to say something. I was just about to RP your character's end, but since you are still here, I will continue with that.

But first:

ic> Mercarius would have taken Mike up on his challenge if he wasn't in a hurry to bail from that wing of the city.

"Don't be so sure," said Mercarius. "But for now I have to leave." Barely a second later, the door to their left was kicked in, revealing the grey armour of a 4th chapter Space Marine. He pointed his bolter in Iron Mike's direction; Mercarius was already gone.

"Don't move!" the marine ordered through his helmet. "You under arrest!" Several more marines were behind the first. Two jump pack marines came through a higher window, landing to the right of Mike and another Zeus Mech smashed through the wall behind him. The sound of Thunderhawks flying overhead echoed from above the building.

***

Damian's escort of well-armed gansters were converging on Fade's covered position. Four of them had been killed. Damian was crawling to the side of the road, the effects of the dart's venom seemingly taking effect. The lead gunner tossed a plasma grenade at Fade's position, hoping to either flush him out or kill him.

***

ooc> THR: A random guy wouldn't know anything about Damian. At most he may have seem Mercarius wandering about, but evem that is unlikely. You can RP it yourself.

Godular: I will RP some stuff relating to your characters as you continue on.

"I don't believe I am Marine, you just let me go and we can all come out of this alive, understand? You don't and your boss will not be happy when he finds out one man killed all of you, not that you'll care, seeing as you'll be ventilated." Mike's hand strayed to his monomolecular Boma Blade, he knew he didn't want to fire in such close quarters, those explosions would destroy anything he hit, but he might be included in the "hit" part, which was definitely contraindicated.

OOC: uh-oh...siege guns hurt....oh yeah, crap, didn’t see that part Gronde...um...they seen a glimpse of him...yeah...that’s it...a glimpse...

IC: Oh boy, stiff-dicks! Orders were being sent over the hush-coms to twelfth squad,

“The mark is heading west from our current location, find him NOW! And don’t get separated...”

The spaven kept their weapons raised, but visibly relaxed alittle...mostly for show...

“Cocky aren’t you!”

Even so, the spaven backed up a few yards, remembering some small intel on marines similar like this one in some classified action...

Deal with the authorities first...

“Greetings soldiers of the great forge! It seems we are on the trail of the same person! Perhaps we could work together in this?”

Things were going to shit REAL fast. He had to communicate with Thrake fast and request back up to tighten the perimeter and if necesary deal with the space marines...

Master, we have reports of a second disturbance on another side of town, some place called the 'Drunken Bounty'. Shots fired, explosions, people down.

"Should I turn around?"

First disturbance appears to be winding down. Marines are swarming the site and I have negative contact on our mark.

"Check the other one out then. Gimme directions."

Vector's Goggles lit up to reveal a small HUD display showing him how to most quickly reach the second disturbance. A second dot showed the position of Yargh's avatar as it expedited to the site of the second disturbance.

That fucker can really move! Vector thought to himself as he wheeled around and bolted in the other direction, his own speed almost supernaturally fast although he never could figure out why. Almost makes me sad I only have cybernetic arms.

After approximately one minute's hard run, Vector heard Yargh's voice again.

Arrived at second site. There appears to be a number of snipers and several people incapacitated. IDing targets... we have a 99.5% certainty confirmation of Ident on Damian Castellan. He appears wounded.

"If any of those other people move, turn their heads into skidmarks, you hear me?"

Orders confirmed, entering combat theatre.

OOC: TFRs, I've been told to yell at you so....
*insert yelling*

He jumped back from the fallen case of a human.
Do you mean a body? Remember, all the body guards were fried, so you'd be fried to if you were in any way touchng them...

He looked at himself, covered in blood, shrapnel everywhere. He thought to himself. "This might be difficult to explain to the nurses, but that's alright."
Be a little more descipt in injuries, plus I don't even know if there are hospitals in Gronde...

He found a nearby hospital, a few miles away, and entered. The room cleared with the site of him. The receptionist asked him, "My god, what's wrong with you?"
"Oh, a few bullets, a burned back, and some shrapnel, but other than that I'm just fine. And you?"
Humor lol. But again, I doubt there are hospitals and even if there were, nurses in Gronde would be used to this kind of thing...

She turned to her radio. "Get me a gurney and take him to CCU. He needs to be treated as soon as possible." When she looked back he wasn't there. He had collapsed on the floor, passed out from the blood he lost.
Don't know what that means but it sounds important...

So to wrap it up nice and short...

1-Be more descriptive(Don't go by my posts, those all REAL shitty)
2-Don't assume something about somebodies nation, its best to discuss over TG what you're gonna do...

ooc> Post comming tomorrow hopefully. I have been a little busy.

WANTED:

Damian von Castellan

Crimes - Murder, insurrection, treason against the Great Forge, theft of military technology, and espionage.

Bounty: 3 billion USD Alive; 1 billion USD dead. Extra rewards for returned stolen military technology.

Damian is beleived to be hiding somewhere in the Sentinal VIII system. He is armed and extremely dangerous. It is also believed that Damian has hired a number of mercenary bodygaurds. They are to terminated as well. (with a reward of 300 million each)

Gronde Law and Order council

A billion for his head, and three if it's still alive - that's quite a price! Either way, the money's worth getting... and it sounds like this "Damian von Castellan might know something worth even more.

Gorteth Mallorak entered the coordinates for Sentinal VIII on Stardust's control panel and sent the craft through the first of the series of portals that would bring him to the system. The ship looked like an ordinary small freighter, armed lightly enough to look harmless without actually seeming defenseless. It also had the best equipment money could buy in Kendari, and enough concealed weaponry to tear the average light warship to shreds.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Finally emerging about two hours' travel from the planet, Gorteth deployed a set of observation drones and headed for the surface. The drones would keep him updated on what entered and left the area; with luck, they might be able to watch the suurface, as well. The right type of energy field could give a single drone the sort of long-distance viewing capabilities that only a good-sized array could usually match.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stardust settled quietly onto a landing pad, and Gorteth emerged. He was currently in human guise; the carefully produced plastic that imitated flesh wouldn't hide his frame of battle-steel and complex not-quite-electronics from sophisticated sensors, but it generally attracted a great deal less attention in the streets than the sight of an undisguised MX war robot.

First, a bit of scouting to get an idea of the lay of the land. If I here about anything unusual that's been going on, that might be a clue to von Castellan's location. If nothing turns up, it would probably be easiest to let him hear that I'm looking for him. With any luck, he'll send someone to dispose of me... and then I'll have a source of information.

Starting to consider a possible Plan C, Gorteth set his auditory sensors to maximum sensitivity and strode forth into the city.

ooc> Godular, there isn't anyone left at that site for me to RP. There is the exploded remains of the Damian decoy, 10 dead well-armed gansters, and a whole ton of blood. You can handle that I hope.

The Fallen Races: If you try to go into a hospital in my country, especially this planet, you aren't going to fare to well without a good deal of money.

ic> The space marine troops were now completely surrounding Iron Mike. His threat was not taken kindly by the space marines.

"Drop your weapon imediately or we will fire!" the leading space marine took a step forward. The mass of firepower that could be unleashed on Mike was truly epic in level.

***

Meanwhile in the same theatre, Commander Syberius was dealing with the Spaven forces in the area and trying to prevent more losses.

***Message to Spaven commander***
Perhaps we could work together. Mercarius is a resorcefull foe and the more man-power that can be applied, the better.
***End Message***

Vector finally arrived at the scene, and realized that Yargh's assessment of the situation had been a bit of an understatement. A closer inspection of the Damian Decoy's corpse revealed that the little bastard had been a spitting image, but not enough of one, to match Damian's face. That's the problem with that .5% chance of not being correct on a confirmation. It was sometimes right.

So, Vector being Vector, he told Yargh to continue wide-field surveillance of the city entire, and walked into the bar.

The people in the joint were acting as though nothing had happened outside. Chances were stuff like the bloodbath outside happened all the time and were cleaned up by streetsweepers each night.

He sidled up to the bar, and went into his favorite schpiel. Getting the bartender's attention by slamming his head on the counter.

"Gimme the strongest batch of hog spit you have in this here establishment!" He shouted, rattling the windows, "And I'll pay extra if I'm satisfied with whatever in-for-mation you would be able to provide with respect to those corpses outside. From the looks of it, what happened out there was an ambush gone wrong. Somebody tipped somebody off, and I wanna know who.

"Hell!" He continued, turning around to inspect the gathered hooligans and thugs, "If any of y'all at all can get me set in a direction I like, this next round's on me!"

OOC:Bah! My internet ass-raped itself and was down for 4 days. :mad: Missed a lot, I have.

IC: As the klinking of the Space Marines' boots got closer and closer, Jak, Rol, and Felix concentrated their weapons on the street, knowing well that flash and smoke grenades would do them no good.
Blue Two, prepare a plasma grenade
Roger that, Blue One. Rol unclipped a round, orangish-red grenade from his utility belt and got ready to pull the pin.
Several moments later, 4 Space Marines stood in the middle of the street.
Blue Two and Three, they obviously know we're here, they just don't know where. Open fire, now! Jak ordered, and the gunbattle started.Jka and Felix opened fire with their assault rifles, and the Space Marines shot back. Of course, most of the bullets went wide, but some crashed through the window where Jak was huddling, making him jump backwards to avoid being riddled with them. And then Rol threw the plasma grenade. It landed near the middle of the group, which was in a square formation, and sent a wall of fire onto the unlucky Space Marines. Their anguished screams could be heard, for almost 2 long, agonizing minutes. Then they were dead. Slowly Jak, Rol, and Felix crept down.
When they reached the Space Marines, Jak kicked one of them. He didn't move, but, knowing the Space Marine durability, Jak put 3 rounds into each of their heads.
When that was finished, Felix turned to Jak and said, "There's a bar not too far from here. If we go there, we could, ah, extract some information form the bartender. He must hear a lot of rumours which could turn out to be true.
The troupe trotted off, and 5 minutes later were standing in front of the door of a small, smelly bar. These were the kind of places bounty hunters loved, because if it was a small, smelly bar, there would be small, smelly people, who knew dark, devious stuff.
Blue One, Blue Two, on my command, kick down the door and cover me. I'll throw a flash grenade to distract them. Then you go in, finish off the customers and guards, and I retrieve the bartender. Got it? Good. 1..2..3...Go,go,go!
Rol and Felix slammed their giant boots against the weak, wooden door, which immediatley broke down under the force, and barely a second later, a flash grenade was flying through the air and another second later, blinding everyone in the bar, excluding the bartender, who immediatley ducked behind the bar and shut his eyes, at the same time drawing on motherfucker of a blaster.
Then in came the team, cutting down the blinded scumbags, and then turning their attention to the bartender, who was raising his arm to shoot. Jak drew his Magnum3000 and blew the man's hand off, who, with a hoarse scream, dropped to the floor, eyes wide and mouth in an O.
"Alright-y, buddy, now you'll tell us everything you know about Damian Von Castellan, or we'll show you a surefire way of not getting your girl pregnant while fucking her...Of course, you won't be able to fuck her, either. So spill the beans, as they say, Jak growled, sticking the assault rifle down at the man's package.
"Okay, okay, I'll talk, I'll talk!"
"Good. Sweep him, Rol." Rol did so, and after finding he didn't have a bomb or weapon on him, they bound the man and threw him down on the hard wooden floor.

OOC: Gronde, can you RP what the bartender says?

ooc> Jaratia: Ignored, you can't RP my marine's actions or losses. (let alone continue on without giving me a chance to react to your first action) You need to watch out for stuff like that so you don't ruin what would otherwise be a perfectly good post.

Godular: Going for another bar? Nice. Lol.

ic> Derak had been a bartender for most of his life, so even Vector's unusual entrance didn't supprise him. His large, fat form walked up to the counter with its normal jovial grin. That grin vanished, however, when Vector mentioned the scene outside. Everyone around him claimed to know nothing, even Derak himself mearly shrugged. There was obvious fear on their faces.

ooc> Godular, there isn't anyone left at that site for me to RP. There is the exploded remains of the Damian decoy, 10 dead well-armed gansters, and a whole ton of blood. You can handle that I hope.

The Fallen Races: If you try to go into a hospital in my country, especially this planet, you aren't going to fare to well without a good deal of money.

ic> The space marine troops were now completely surrounding Iron Mike. His threat was not taken kindly by the space marines.

"Drop your weapon imediately or we will fire!" the leading space marine took a step forward. The mass of firepower that could be unleashed on Mike was truly epic in level.

***

Meanwhile in the same theatre, Commander Syberius was dealing with the Spaven forces in the area and trying to prevent more losses.

***Message to Spaven commander***
Perhaps we could work together. Mercarius is a resorcefull foe and the more man-power that can be applied, the better.
***End Message***

"I don't think I will, I can't trust that you won't try something when I do, half of you drop yours first." Sure, they could unleash epic firepower, but Mike could take epic firepower as well, and as long as he wasn't hit by too many heavy lasers(to be read as more than one) he should actually be able to make a fighting retreat, or maybe, i he was very lucky, even kill them if they attacked.

OOC: That's Vector's priorities for ya. Besides, it was the bar those well armed thugs emerged from. That's a better lead even than that Mercarius fellow Jaq keeps pointing at. He'll be getting another visit paid to him soon, by the way.

Derak had been a bartender for most of his life, so even Vector's unusual entrance didn't supprise him. His large, fat form walked up to the counter with its normal jovial grin. That grin vanished, however, when Vector mentioned the scene outside. Everyone around him claimed to know nothing, even Derak himself mearly shrugged. There was obvious fear on their faces.

The dead silence made Vector grin with an almost... ferocious intensity. "My my my, y'all clammed up right quick! SOMEBODY has y'all's nuts in his hands, don't he now? Of course, y'all realize that I'm gonna haveta start asking harder."

Returning to your position, master. If you are about to do what I think you are, I do not wish to be absent.

"Good thinking," Vector replied under his breath, then began speaking with the crowd again.

"Pray tell, what'd those thugs tell you? I wish to know everything about them, and I wish to kill the people who paid them. And in the possibility that y'all wish to... defend that knowledge, well... heh."

He brought a small black metallic ball with a trio of red lights blinking on one side out from his poncho, and held it so that everybody could see.

"THIS, my friends, is a thermal detonator constructed to spec by a group with technology somewhat more advanced than you see from your typical gun runner. Heavens forbid I should have to actually use it, as I am banking on the notion that no matter how much you may have been threatened or coerced, I am most DEFINITELY the more immediate concern."

Vector's grin took on an almost demonic edge. "Now, how about those infoz?!"

ooc> Jaratia: Ignored, you can't RP my marine's actions or losses. (let alone continue on without giving me a chance to react to your first action) You need to watch out for stuff like that so you don't ruin what would otherwise be a perfectly good post.

OOC:Okay, understood.I just got bored when you didn't reply to my post on page two. Shall we cut the post to the part where my men start shooting?

OOC:Okay, understood.I just got bored when you didn't reply to my post on page two. Shall we cut the post to the part where my men start shooting?

ooc> Sure. Though I don't know why you are going to try attacking my space marines... If you read most of my posts carefully, you would realize what I have flying around.


ic> The four Space Marines were a sub-group of Squad 2-B of the 4th Chapter's 2nd legion. They were sent ahead to scout out the location of possible hostiles/rebels.

"I have life readings."

"Roger that, can you pin-point their location?"

"Not quite yet, they are still too far away, let me get closer."

"Roger."

"I think I have their location confirmed, relaying it to the squad now. Meet me at poi--" The sudden sound of filled the com-link and then it cut off.

"I didn't get that, what's the situation?" The three other marines ran up just in time to see their squad-mate getting gunned down. "Hostiles are located at 10 o-clock; in that building!" The squad formed up behind some meager cover and returned fire. The two bolter marines attempted to make kill shots while the heavy bolter marine focused on suppression fire.

Meanwhile, in an adjecent building several stories up, a lone scout/sniper. He relayed the information of the incident to the mobile command center.

"The squad group is being pinned down by unknown hostiles," said the scout. "I am requesting immediate air support to eliminate the threat!"

"Request confirmed," replied a voice. "Thunderhawks en-rout."

"Roger."

Two Thunderhawk gunships screached toward their location, fully armed and ready for battle. Their target: the entire building.

***

ooc> Godular: Lol, I swear, if you guys don't stop resorting to cliches all the time, you are probobly going to get yourselves killed.

ic> Derak had heard of this sort of thing before. The newcommer wanted something that he was not getting. He pulls out a detonator or some other explosives and tries to scare it out of them. Derak also had a plan for things like this. Reaching under his counter, he quickly pulled an expensive-looking plasma gun and pointed it at Vector.

"Don't even think about it!" he demanded. "Besides, your bluffing. You would kill yourself and everyone here. There would be no one left to get information from, and you wouldn't be alive to use it even if there was. Now leave before you regret comming here." A pair of large bouncers with various robotic enhancements walked up behind Vector.

Derak had heard of this sort of thing before. The newcommer wanted something that he was not getting. He pulls out a detonator or some other explosives and tries to scare it out of them. Derak also had a plan for things like this. Reaching under his counter, he quickly pulled an expensive-looking plasma gun and pointed it at Vector.

"Don't even think about it!" he demanded. "Besides, your bluffing. You would kill yourself and everyone here. There would be no one left to get information from, and you wouldn't be alive to use it even if there was. Now leave before you regret comming here." A pair of large bouncers with various robotic enhancements walked up behind Vector.

However, Vector had not been ignorant of the bartender's actions. As soon as Derak brought out the plasma rifle, one of his other arms were already moving. With uncanny precision, a strange and very lethal-looking robotic arm erupted out from Vector's poncho tearing at the plasma rifle with enough strength flip a truck end over end.

"Did I ever mention that I have eyes in the back of my head, homeboy?"

Vector performed a slight magic trick with his detonator, making it disappear back into his poncho with a simple wave of his wrist. He then turned slightly and brought his heavily cybernetic arm (not the one that just shot out at Derak's rifle) to point at the bartender's head. A small click-whirr noise sounded, and Vector's arm had suddenly sprouted what appeared to be Rivet Gun.

"Well I must say that you fools have gone and done it. Why couldn't you have taken the goddamn free round of drinks? Why couldn't you have just talked? Well I do have to admit that yes, I was bluffing... at first. But with the ill-advised actions of the man serving the drinks, I'm afraid I just had to step it up.

"Outside of this bar, fully armed and prepped to fire, is a rather tall droid with a pair of very large guns pointed at this bar. As a matter of fact, he can see you, my bartender friend, and has you in his crosshairs. One wrong move and you're wormfood. He also happens to have Thag," he pointed at the most lethal looking of the bouncers, "Or whatever the burly jackoff's name is, dead to rights. Perhaps I should have my friend pick off a finger just to illustrate the point?

"In any event, by the time he starts firing, I will have brought out my own weapons and proceeded to turn every single damned one of you into a skidmark. Now please do not let me lose my faith in the human sense of self-preservation and tell me what I want to know, and I'll give you that blasted free round of beer."

As Gorteth wandered through the city, he came upon an area showing signs of a recent battle. Nearby stood a large droid pointing to quite impressive guns into a seedy bar. Even around here, this hardly seemed ordinary. Finding an out-of-the-way spot just close enough to let him hear what was going on inside, Gorteth leaned against a wall and tried not to look like he was paying attention.

He hoped that the droid didn't happen to notice him; things might get exciting very quickly if it did. If it was equiped with the right sensors, it might even recognize him as a robot.
While he listened, Gorteth did his best to estimate the abilities of what might very soon be an enemy - and a dangerous one.

Yargh did indeed take note of a very strange droid approaching the establishment, strange in that its energy signature was unlike anything he'd seen before. Due to Vector's preoccupied status, Yargh decided to withhold action with regards to the newcomer until any overt hostile moves were made.

"I've got multiple enemy aircrat coming in FAST! Evacuate!" Rol roared into the Com, firing off a few rounds from his SCAR I before typing in a few commands on his portable computer. For the finale, he unclipped a plasma grenade and made a wild throw. it probably wouldn't leave a scratch on the Marines, but it was meant as distraction anyway. In response, he got a burst of heavy suppression fire. Then he ran, and jumped out of the small,dingy doorway, sprinting towards the cover of some nearby bushes, turning on his thermal-cloaking device on the way. it would drain fast, he knew, but it would at least provide some camoflouge. Then he sat and hoped, planning out his next course of action.

Meanwhile, Felix and Jak had received Rol's message, and were sprinting down a flight of stairs, determined to get out of the building before it was leveled. They got down to the ground floor and sped out of the building as fast as they could, but then they heard a roar, and looking back, saw 2 large gunships flying towards the direction of the building where Jak and Felix had been holed up...

OOC: Continue. :)

ooc> I am so sorry for keeping you guys waiting. I have just been really busy. I will post first thing in the morning.

However, Vector had not been ignorant of the bartender's actions. As soon as Derak brought out the plasma rifle, one of his other arms were already moving. With uncanny precision, a strange and very lethal-looking robotic arm erupted out from Vector's poncho tearing at the plasma rifle with enough strength flip a truck end over end.

"Did I ever mention that I have eyes in the back of my head, homeboy?"

Vector performed a slight magic trick with his detonator, making it disappear back into his poncho with a simple wave of his wrist. He then turned slightly and brought his heavily cybernetic arm (not the one that just shot out at Derak's rifle) to point at the bartender's head. A small click-whirr noise sounded, and Vector's arm had suddenly sprouted what appeared to be Rivet Gun.

"Well I must say that you fools have gone and done it. Why couldn't you have taken the goddamn free round of drinks? Why couldn't you have just talked? Well I do have to admit that yes, I was bluffing... at first. But with the ill-advised actions of the man serving the drinks, I'm afraid I just had to step it up.

"Outside of this bar, fully armed and prepped to fire, is a rather tall droid with a pair of very large guns pointed at this bar. As a matter of fact, he can see you, my bartender friend, and has you in his crosshairs. One wrong move and you're wormfood. He also happens to have Thag," he pointed at the most lethal looking of the bouncers, "Or whatever the burly jackoff's name is, dead to rights. Perhaps I should have my friend pick off a finger just to illustrate the point?

"In any event, by the time he starts firing, I will have brought out my own weapons and proceeded to turn every single damned one of you into a skidmark. Now please do not let me lose my faith in the human sense of self-preservation and tell me what I want to know, and I'll give you that blasted free round of beer."

ooc> My, my, always trying the wrong tactics at the wrong times. Lol.

ic> Vector's basic logic was good. People usually worried less about future death than more immediate death. One thing he neglected to consider was how fast local law enforcement could come to the aid of a connected individual. The manager placed the call as soon as the thermal detonator was revealed. Perhaps someone would have talked, but that would probobly never be found out.

A smashing sound was heard as the side door was kicked in by a 6 man SWAT team. They shouted at Vector, telling him to stand down, and leveled their pulse rifles. Outside, 10 more arrived and were moving in on Yargh.

"Disarm your weapons or we will be forced to eliminate you!"

***
ooc> Why is everyone trying to fight their way out of these impossible situations. MM: Mike is about to be vaporized. Lol.

Meanwhile in the abandoned section of the city, another standoff was still in progress, though it was finally about to end. Iron Mike refused to stand down, so the marines took action. In a single, co-ordinated volly, the entire host of Space Marines opened fire, including the partical cannon from the Zeus Class battle mech. Mike would be lucky if there was even a pile a goo where he was standing.

***

Elsewhere in the abandoned section of the city, more fighting was going on. Two Thunderhawks had been dispatched to deal with some, what were thought to be, rebels. The scout continued to moniter enemy movement as the air support was comming in. He detected movement out of the first building, but whatever it was vanished from his sensors just as the thunderhawks destroyed it with a few missiles. He moved on to the second building where he saw two figures bailing out as the thunderhawks moved in. Wasting no time, he zoomed in and delivered 2 shots aimed at the head to each of them with his sniper rifle. Unfortunately, he would have to wait to see what became of them until after the smoke and dust from the second building being leveled cleared.

ooc> My, my, always trying the wrong tactics at the wrong times. Lol.

ic> Vector's basic logic was good. People usually worried less about future death than more immediate death. One thing he neglected to consider was how fast local law enforcement could come to the aid of a connected individual. The manager placed the call as soon as the thermal detonator was revealed. Perhaps someone would have talked, but that would probobly never be found out.

A smashing sound was heard as the side door was kicked in by a 6 man SWAT team. They shouted at Vector, telling him to stand down, and leveled their pulse rifles. Outside, 10 more arrived and were moving in on Yargh.

"Disarm your weapons or we will be forced to eliminate you!"

OOC: Hee hee... NOW THE FUN BEGINS, YAY!

Three concussion grenades were already rolling across the floor amongst the feet of the various bar-goers. Two in the general vicinity of the SWAT team, and one towards the largest clump of patrons. The grenades had been tossed rather quickly, using the smashing sound of the authorities busting in to cover the plink plink plink of the enhanced grenades, by Vector's mechanical fourth arm.

As soon as the first officer had even begun to scream the word "FREEZE!", Vector had already whipped out a pair of Bolters and was pinwheeling his way over the counter, directing all fire at the men in blue, screaming "JUST LIKE HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME!" and eventually coming to a landing on the other side of the counter.

Two things then happened simultaneously: Vector grabbed the bartender with his mechanical third arm by the neck and pulled him to the ground, and the Grenades went off. While the concussion grenades wouldn't kill anybody in the bar beyond the counter, they sure as heck wouldn't let the victims walk away with a sheepish grin on their face either.

Vector was already moving as the bar was subjected to a millisecond-long sonic boom from hell, hauling the bartender along with him through a back door into a storage room.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yargh's new body was fast. Really fast. Really really fast. It had to be. After having the crap beat out of his original body by Emperor palpatine, Yargh expected no less than the best for his new avatar.

The SWAT officer outside had barely uttered the phrase "Disarm your weapons..." before Yargh had already flung a few more concussion grenades and begun a hearty barrage of Pulse Cannon fire to keep them from trying to pick off the grenades before they hit.

Yargh then ducked down to prevent the SWAT from hitting him on his elevated position, letting the roof take any counterfire that would come.

Both Yargh and Vector agreed: Don't kill cops, just knock 'em the frig out.

OOC: You're putting me in a bad situation, Gronde. I do so hate you. ;)

IC: Jak felt the bullet rip the flak helmet and waited for the end, but a wave of relief washed over him when he felt that the bullet had just grazed the helmet. Turning his head,he had just enough time to see a bullet slam into the back of Felix's head.

***

Felix knew from the moment his head was jerked downwards by the force of the bullet that he was a dead man. It ripped through the flak, which offered little resistance, and then met something Felix had totally forgotten about.
A layer of titanium steel.
The bullet slammed into the titanium and made a noticable dent, jamming a piece of the steel into Felix's head. Unconciousness was immediate, and the hole in Felix's head where the steel was stuck in was bleeding generously. Felix dropped to the ground.

***

Jak immediatley went to help his wounded comrade. Lifting Felix onto his shoulders, Jak trotted over to another building, where he activated both of their thermal-cloakers, and waited silently, gun at the ready...

OOC: Mike stands around in an alley, facing down Space Marines, with his thumb up his butt, as he waits for them to act... :p

OOC: Mike stands around in an alley, facing down Space Marines, with his thumb up his butt, as he waits for them to act... :p
OOC: Ahem... *points* I think they're acting.
ooc> Why is everyone trying to fight their way out of these impossible situations. MM: Mike is about to be vaporized. Lol.

Meanwhile in the abandoned section of the city, another standoff was still in progress, though it was finally about to end. Iron Mike refused to stand down, so the marines took action. In a single, co-ordinated volly, the entire host of Space Marines opened fire, including the partical cannon from the Zeus Class battle mech. Mike would be lucky if there was even a pile a goo where he was standing.

OOC: Why is everyone trying to fight? We've got a bunch of people with combat-focused, named characters. Of course they can expect to defeat several random guard/minion type characters, and of course everyone wants to show off how powerful their character(s) is(/are). Speaking of which...
IC:
If this bartender was willing to risk open battle with a clearly dangerous bounty hunter, he obviously knew enough that Damian would be very annoyed if he talked. Gorteth decided that this was the best lead he was likely to find, and he was willing to blow his cover to keep from losing it. He charged the door, reaching it just as Vector's grenades detonated. Ignoring the start of Yargh's battle, he crashed into the bar.

Imitation flesh shimmered into battlesteel armor as the door closed behind him, and Narvok blast rifles clicked into place in his arms. Across the room, another door was just swinging shut. Gorteth headed towards it, blasting anything that moved with a burst of high-power stun charges. As he moved, the faint glow of an energy shield appeared around him.

OOC: You're putting me in a bad situation, Gronde. I do so hate you. ;)

IC: Jak felt the bullet rip the flak helmet and waited for the end, but a wave of relief washed over him when he felt that the bullet had just grazed the helmet. Turning his head,he had just enough time to see a bullet slam into the back of Felix's head.

***

Felix knew from the moment his head was jerked downwards by the force of the bullet that he was a dead man. It ripped through the flak, which offered little resistance, and then met something Felix had totally forgotten about.
A layer of titanium steel.
The bullet slammed into the titanium and made a noticable dent, jamming a piece of the steel into Felix's head. Unconciousness was immediate, and the hole in Felix's head where the steel was stuck in was bleeding generously. Felix dropped to the ground.

***

Jak immediatley went to help his wounded comrade. Lifting Felix onto his shoulders, Jak trotted over to another building, where he activated both of their thermal-cloakers, and waited silently, gun at the ready...

ooc> How did 2 shots each at two people become one shot only?

The amazing IC post comming as soon as HW is done.

OOC: Right, missed that, that seems to be happening to me alot lately...

IC:

Mike dodged, microseconds before they fired, he MOVED, one instant he was there, the next he was gone, unfortunately, it wasn't enough to completely save him, he got hit by almost all of the bolter shells, even though he avoided the energy weapons, which would have pretty much vaporised him in place, but, since it was only a fusillade of bolters, he survived, even if he was pretty battered, he was at least alive, for a little while at least...

He fired as soon as he started moving, his only warniong of their intentions had been the powering of their energy guns, detected by his AID, giving him just enough warning to move and open fire towards the nearest Space Marines as he dodged the center of the fire.

OOC: I can't let him die, or be critically wounded, just yet, plus, he's a hero, they can do things like that...

ooc> How did 2 shots each at two people become one shot only?

The amazing IC post comming as soon as HW is done.

Oh dear. I sort of skimmed through the post when I read it since I didn't have much time. Can we please assume that the first/second bullets missed them?

OOC: Why is everyone trying to fight? We've got a bunch of people with combat-focused, named characters. Of course they can expect to defeat several random guard/minion type characters, and of course everyone wants to show off how powerful their character(s) is(/are).

OOC: Actually, Vector is just working to get the hell outta the bar with the Bartender in tow for later questioning, since he KNOWS now that they were hiding something. Might be an amusing chase scene as Gorteth fights to keep up with a fleeing Vector though.

A fun little romp through the streets with guns and explosions and other randomized 'tings.

OOC: Actually, Vector is just working to get the hell outta the bar with the Bartender in tow for later questioning, since he KNOWS now that they were hiding something. Might be an amusing chase scene as Gorteth fights to keep up with a fleeing Vector though.

A fun little romp through the streets with guns and explosions and other randomized 'tings.
OOC: Sure that's your only motive... ;)
OOC: Hee hee... NOW THE FUN BEGINS, YAY!
Should be interesting, all right - especially with the police and Damian's minions turning up. I'm sure both groups will here about this incident very soon.

OOC: Its my excuse and I'm sticking to it, dammit. :D

Hell, he managed to make an assassination attempt on Emperor Palpatine look like a droid rebellion...

Oh dear. I sort of skimmed through the post when I read it since I didn't have much time. Can we please assume that the first/second bullets missed them?

ooc> Sure, because Gronde always trains its space marines, its best soldiers, to shoot with their eyes closed. [/sarcasm] I understand that nobody ever wants their character's to die. However, you took that risk when you went after Space Marines.

Everyone else: I know that you all want to continue as soon as possible. I should have my post up soon.

You're right, of course.
Maybe if I gave you another chance to kill them? Like they (Felix and Jak) start running towards Rol's direction and their thermal-cloaking devices fail? I'll do that, and if that doesn't work out, I'll let them die off and respectfully bow out of this RP, ok?

IC:
"Rol! Where the hell are you?" Jak roared into the com over the rumbling and crashing of the building that they had just been.
"I'm fine, just a bit nervous," Rol replied over the crackling of the com.
"Listen, Felix got hit, but he's not dead. It didn't penetrate his armor, but it made a helluva big dent in his helmet and knocked him unconcious. And - oh, shit! He's bleeding! Listen, I need to get to you, fast."
"I know, I'm the one with the medical kit. Give him some AeroClot and adrenaline. Shouldn't you sit tight? I'll come to you."
"Negative, Rol. That might not happen for a long time. Besides, the smoke and dust is in my favor, not yours. I'm going."
With this, he drew out a needle and injected Felix with a small dose of AeroClot to stop the bleeding and some adrenaline so that he could at least walk and not feel too much pain.

"Okay, Felix. On three. One. Two. Three!" And they both started running blindly through the smoke and dust, desperatley hoping they wouldn't be noticed.
But then their thermal-cloaking devices gave out.

ooc> Jaratia: Fine, fine, fine, I will let it slide this time. I will RP as though he only shot once the first time.

Mike: The same thing I told Jaratia before. If you don't want your character to die, don't take on impossible odds. Space marines count as impossible odds when they have any numbers at all and/or are being supported by heavy equipment. You had better have one hell of a plan because I am not going to accept "he dodges it" much more.

ic> The scout's targets were there, and then they were gone. He found himself wishing that he had fired more shots. Then, as quickly as the targets had disappeared, they reappeared. The sniper wasted no time and took no chances. The first thing he noticed was that the target he hit was still alive. They must have some kind of helmet strong enough to take a sniper shot. He made his aim in an instant and fired a shot at each of his two targets, this time aiming for their throats. Just to be safe, the scout fired several more shots at each target until his clip ran out.

Meanwhile, one of the Thunderhawks flew back overhead dropping a "present" on its way in the form of a pair Goliath Class War Walkers.

***

Meanwhile in a building not too far away, a platoon of space marines was trying to dispose of Iron Mike as quickly as possible. The Marines continued their bolter volly. Three marines fell as Mike returned fire. However, three other marines answered with missiles launcher fire.

***

Outside of the bar, the SWAT forces were having a very difficult time. Yargh incapacitated most of the SWAT forces before retreating back to make it difficult to be hit from his elevation. The SWAT commander didn't miss a step, however. He called in some support from the special forces response team.

Inside the bar, things were even more chaotic. The remaining SWAT forces had all they could do to keep the bar patrons under control. No one even tried to stop Vector from taking off.

In the middle of the chaos, two figures crept in the back door. One was male and wore a black trench coat. One was female and wore a black Japanese Samurai style robe. They neared the room where Vector had the bar-tender.

NEXT: Enter Malachai and Andessa.

IC: Oh boy, this is going well...

The spaven were gathered in a building outside a quite...explosive encounter in a bar. They were stuck here, sending a transmission to the goddamn backseat driver...

“What do you mean you lost him!?”
Thrake’s voice was distorted over the far-squeaker, but the anger was evident nonetheless.

“We mean that he has left visual, we can’t track him, he has gone poof, get it!”

“You can’t speak to me like that! I’ll ha-“

The communication was cut short by a press of the button, raising a few snickers from the others while the seargent was reprogramming the far-squeaker to communicate with the spaven vessels.

“Yeah, be prepared for protocol 2, send down a wing of thunderhawks. One reconnaissance, two transporters. Send them to this location.”

He didn’t wait for a response from the other spaven before switching it off, might as well make it a little harder for Thrake...

One spaven leaned out a window and was watching the chaos with glee.

Political sway was always useful.

“Sir, civs in the cross fire? Orders?”

“Pretty obvious, wax em all.”

The spaven just started pouring bullets into any living thing in the street, flesh or robot, didn’t matter. Yeah, the plasma gunner targeted the big angry robot, but hey, who said he was really a target...

Gorteth was in his element. He waded gleefully through the chaos, directing his fire where it would be most disruptive. Those he hit were probably lucky; by the time they woke up, the fight would have left the bar, and meanwhile nobody else would shoot them.

An X class robotic brain isn't quite as fast as an ordinary high quality computer, but it is still fast enough that Gorteth could keep track of virtually everything that was going on in the crowded room. He certainly didn't miss the sight of two black-clad figures moving toward the door his lead had clearly vanished behind.

Switching one of his Narvok guns for a Tor Ganot heavy blast rifle*, Gorteth accelerated. The two newcomers would probably reach the door before him, but he wanted to be right behind them.

At the same time, he set one of his observation drones to focus on the area. If atmospheric conditions allowed it, he would soon have access to a view of the building from above.

*OOC: Used against vehicles, heavy armor, and tightly packed crowds. Gorteth wants to be ready to deal quickly and efficiently with anyone that the stun charges don't take out.

ooc> Jaratia: Fine, fine, fine, I will let it slide this time. I will RP as though he only shot once the first time.

Mike: The same thing I told Jaratia before. If you don't want your character to die, don't take on impossible odds. Space marines count as impossible odds when they have any numbers at all and/or are being supported by heavy equipment. You had better have one hell of a plan because I am not going to accept "he dodges it" much more.

ic> The scout's targets were there, and then they were gone. He found himself wishing that he had fired more shots. Then, as quickly as the targets had disappeared, they reappeared. The sniper wasted no time and took no chances. The first thing he noticed was that the target he hit was still alive. They must have some kind of helmet strong enough to take a sniper shot. He made his aim in an instant and fired a shot at each of his two targets, this time aiming for their throats. Just to be safe, the scout fired several more shots at each target until his clip ran out.

Meanwhile, one of the Thunderhawks flew back overhead dropping a "present" on its way in the form of a pair Goliath Class War Walkers.

***

Meanwhile in a building not too far away, a platoon of space marines was trying to dispose of Iron Mike as quickly as possible. The Marines continued their bolter volly. Three marines fell as Mike returned fire. However, three other marines answered with missiles launcher fire.

***

Outside of the bar, the SWAT forces were having a very difficult time. Yargh incapacitated most of the SWAT forces before retreating back to make it difficult to be hit from his elevation. The SWAT commander didn't miss a step, however. He called in some support from the special forces response team.

Inside the bar, things were even more chaotic. The remaining SWAT forces had all they could do to keep the bar patrons under control. No one even tried to stop Vector from taking off.

In the middle of the chaos, two figures crept in the back door. One was male and wore a black trench coat. One was female and wore a black Japanese Samurai style robe. They neared the room where Vector had the bar-tender.

NEXT: Enter Malachai and Andessa.

OOC: I have a plan, it'll be obvious soon.

IC:

"Why the hell are you shooting at me!?" Mike was horribly confused, he had only asked for them to meet him halfway, for his safety, and they'd still have had him outnumbered.

Mike was hit twice in the upper thigh, but his armor was enough to keep him alive for now, even though his leg was effectively shattered, he was still mobile, kindof... He'd taken worse damage before, losing an arm and both legs in a nuclear blast he'd started by hand...

Outside of the bar, the SWAT forces were having a very difficult time. Yargh incapacitated most of the SWAT forces before retreating back to make it difficult to be hit from his elevation. The SWAT commander didn't miss a step, however. He called in some support from the special forces response team.

Inside the bar, things were even more chaotic. The remaining SWAT forces had all they could do to keep the bar patrons under control. No one even tried to stop Vector from taking off.

In the middle of the chaos, two figures crept in the back door. One was male and wore a black trench coat. One was female and wore a black Japanese Samurai style robe. They neared the room where Vector had the bar-tender.

NEXT: Enter Malachai and Andessa.

-----------YARGH----------

As soon as he had ducked, Yargh was slithering his way along the rooftop, and with a grace indicative of his Kython body, he leapt into the air and made himself disappear amongst the surrounding buildings, eventually coming to rest on the top of another nearby building. He found the stairwell, entered it, and moved down three levels, eventually finding a window that had a marginal view of the bar.

Master, I see now why you wished to avoid bringing the vessel over. However, I feel it necessary to note that we must acquire a means of swift egress soon, or we will be very much trapped.

-----------VECTOR----------

Vector dragged the bartender into the storage room and swiftly took stock of his surroundings. Noting a pair of small yet heavy kegs that appeared to be specifically for attaching to bartaps. Testing them with a cursory grasp and tug, he found that both were full.

To his cybernetic arm (number 1), the kegs were quite heavy, but with the assistance of his unoccupied mechanical arm (number 4), he hefted one with ease. With the assistance of his other Cybernetic arm (number 2), he gave a healthy grunt and flung the keg at the door to the main room like a throwing spear. The keg rocketed towards the storage room door like a wrecking ball fired from a mass driver.

As soon as the first keg was out of his hands, he had reached around and grabbed the second one, and gave a similar fling at the wall he knew to lead to the alley outside.

The wall proved surprisingly sturdy, in that it the massive keg only left a keg shaped hole in it. But he simply walked forward and began ripping chunks out of the hole to make a proper escape route for himself. At that moment, Yargh's communication about swift egress came through.

"Busy here. Keep an eye on any 'special happenings'"

Acknowledged. Master, there appears to be a consignment of ratmen preparing to assault the bar, and a humanoid droid of unknown manufacture making haste towards your position. I do hope you are armed, master.

"Yakkity yakkity. If they're trying so hard to get to me, I could really use your help. Make like a ninja and get down here nice and stealthy like. Look for a beer keg lying in the alley."

A beer keg master?

"What? Were you expecting me to hurl MYSELF against this wall?"

Understood, keg sighted and initiating approach.

"Oh would you? How nice. Oh, and get the ship online."

OOC: Thanks, Gronde. I'll probably kill off Feliz now, just to be fair.

"Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" Jak roared as he frantically tried to re-boot the thermal-cloakers, to no avail. He slowed, and so did Felix, who was leaning against Jak for support. That move would cost Felix his life.
In the blink of an eye, blood was spraying over Jak, Felix had been hit in the neck and caught another bullet probably meant for Jak with his head. Before Jak could react, he dropped as the bullets smashed into his leg, shoulder, and stomach. Several seconds of shock followed, until he moaned and started dragging himself with his one good arm towards some cover in the form of a low overhang with a few bushes in front of it. The progress was slow,but the warm smoke was in his favor. After almost a minute of slow crawling, he reached the overhang and slumped down with a cross between a grunt and a sigh.Turning on his com, he gasped out, "Felix...dead.I'm hit, and *wheeze* and don't know how much longer I'll have enough blood to keep me alive. *wheeze, cough* The wound...big. AeroClot might help, but won't save me. *COUGH!* I need the foam...I'm beneath an overhang on....*wheeze* Yarka Street. Quick..." and he drew out a dose of AeroClot, injected it into his veins, and fell unconcious.

ic> As Yargh moved from building to building, avoiding the gaze of the SWAT forces, he was being tracked by enemies far more deadly. Four teams of elite SWAT forces clad in state-of-the-art stealth suits and armed with Gatling style burst cannons were stalking him and watching his every move and preparing to strike.

"My team is in position. Has the perimeter been formed around the target yet?"

"Roger. We are ready to strike the target."

The first team waited for Yargh to stop moving for a moment before they attacked. He was at a window overlooking the bar where the incident was occurring. Teams 2, 3, and 4 formed a perimeter around him as team 1 moved in to attack. Using their jump packs, the 5 members of team 1 flew into adjacent windows on both sides of Yargh wasting no time before opening fire.


***

Nearby, in the bar, Malachai was shadowing Vector. A small arsenal was concealed in his trench coat, though it was not noticeable from the outside. Andessa had already vanished, which told Malachai that she already knew the plan. He reached the broken wall just as Vector finished walking through it. He quickly and silently whipped two well crafted plasma pistols out of his coat and fired a single shot right next to Vector's feet.

"That was your warning," said Malachai calmly. "Now stand down and disarm your weapons. But I should warn you, I am trigger happy and very jumpy. Twitch wrong and it will be the last thing you ever do." In a small where house across the street, Malachai's partner was waiting, her stealth field activated.

***

In the abandoned section of the city, two squads of 5 Space Marines formed a special task force. Supported by two Goliath Class Walkers and 2 of their member's flame-throwers, they scoured the area of any more of the "rebels" that had targeted some of their marines. A scout-sniper had already confirmed multiple hits on two targets. He relocated as the marines and mechs went from building to building, flaming each room before they checked it.

***

Meanwhile, Iron Mike was being closed in on by rather irritated space marines.

"We will give you one more chance to disarm you weapons and stand down!" The Lieutenant's plasma pistol was less than a yard away from Mike's face.


ooc> I will put a Mercarius update in my next post. I don't want to do it right now because I am too tired to write a good action scene.

***

Meanwhile, Iron Mike was being closed in on by rather irritated space marines.

"We will give you one more chance to disarm you weapons and stand down!" The Lieutenant's plasma pistol was less than a yard away from Mike's face.


ooc> I will put a Mercarius update in my next post. I don't want to do it right now because I am too tired to write a good action scene.

"I'm not dropping my gun until you explain why you want me to do so, I haven't done anything wrong, so why are you trying to arrest me?" Mike was getting tired of the damn marines insistence that he disarm, without being willing to meet him halfway.

SIC:

"Shelly, call in some backup, I don't care who you call, or where they come from, so long as its Freespace."

"Understood sir."

Within moments of Mikes call two people who owed him big were on their way, Thomas Catrone, above the planet in space, and The Darchon, farther out in the system, but closing in fast and quiet.

OOC: Since there's a need for money, let's deal with that issue:

IC:
Fade woke up, in the hospital. It had been god knows how long, but it didn't matter for him. He was better, and thats all that mattered.
"Um, sir..."
"Yes?" He looked up. There was a nurse next to his bedside.
"There's a massive bill for what injuries you sustained."
"The Fallen Races National Bank, checking account #FADE-2BLK"
"OK. Let me get the money from there, hold on." She left the room. Grabbing his equipment from the next bed over, wondering why they didn't make it harder for him, he ran to a window and jumped out of it. Two stories wasn't much for Fade at all. He rolled behind a bush to duck out of sight.

The nurse returned to his room, mumbling something about "No account exists..." when she entered the room. The window was smashed out, and the strange man was gone. She ran over to the phone next to the TV in the room and dialed the police, to be on the lookout for a mad-man with scars all over him.

Nearby, in the bar, Malachai was shadowing Vector. A small arsenal was concealed in his trench coat, though it was not noticeable from the outside. Andessa had already vanished, which told Malachai that she already knew the plan. He reached the broken wall just as Vector finished walking through it. He quickly and silently whipped two well crafted plasma pistols out of his coat and fired a single shot right next to Vector's feet.

"That was your warning," said Malachai calmly. "Now stand down and disarm your weapons. But I should warn you, I am trigger happy and very jumpy. Twitch wrong and it will be the last thing you ever do." In a small where house across the street, Malachai's partner was waiting, her stealth field activated.

OOC: You missed something. Vector hurled a Keg at the door before he threw one at the wall. I suspect the first keg would have hit the storage door as the two enemies were stepping through or before, but he would have noticed them attempting to come through otherwise.

Yargh had a wonderful knack for overhearing communications, due to a module within his Kython structure that enabled him to eavesdrop on general transmissions, scrambled or not. His temblor sensors primarily useful for detecting vibrations in solid objects indicative to large numbers of people moving around, informed him of the SWAT teams' general locations. Another Kython sensor module, more or less used on the basis of locating enemy resistance concentrations before the feed protocol was activated.

He transferred all normal weapon power to shields and, as soon as the SWAT started shooting at him, kicked out the wall and was gone. Engaging his own stealth modules and taking another roundabout route through alleys, sewers, ventilation shafts, another sewer, one surprised couple's apartment, and periodically doing foreign object checks to see if one of those SWAT twerps had gotten the foresight to plant a tracker on him. All this was done with surprising speed, the only signs of his passage a number of ruffled papers, a few sewer lids thrown away so hard they were wedged into nearby walls, and one particularly startled man and woman who thought they had just been ambushed by a mechanized poltergeist.

And he closed in on the bar, this time actually coming from where he had seen those interesting rat people, he brought his weapons back online and prepared to make the last jump...

OOC: Not posting Vectors portion yet until we get that first keg issue cleared up. Besides, if you leveled a warning shot at him, he wouldn't have even waited, he would have been running as soon as he heard the gun fire. Or shooting...

OOC: I can't do much until that little question is cleared up, since Gorteth's actions are pretty dependent upon Vector's at the moment. Also, will his observation drones be able to see anything of this area?

ooc> Godular: I didn't realize that Vector was in the hall. I mis-read and though that he was in the storage room. At least I think so, you post wasn't very clear on that. Just assume that Malachai was a safe distance away, down the hall and around a corner. He would approach Vector just as he walked out of the new hole in the wall. Does that help?

OOC: Not to be a pest, but could I get an answer on the observation drone question?
Also, to clarify, did Malachai approach Vector from outside, in the alley, or inside, through the storage room? Either way, remember that Gorteth was watching both him and his partner...

OOC: Vector had moved into the Storage room, whether there was a hallway between the bar and that storage room I left out because I wasn't really certain. From what ya said afterwards, yer people were moving through the same door Vector had. Now right after I'd made the post where he went into the storage room, I had the thought that if any of those swat types had managed to duck outta the way at just the right instance, they'd be right behind him, which meant that if there were any tap kegs, he was going to throw 'em at the door as a 'just in case'.

Now I'm kinda confused as to where yOUr guys are now. From the way ya made it sound, they were durn near right behind him.

OOC: I have absolutely no idea where ANY body is, soooo...

IC: The smoke from the weapons was fogging up the street now, the spaven could only see targets using different view modes(ie thermal, electrical, etc.), even then, who knew what/who they were, waste em all...

“Hey! We could use some heavy support, drop pod some berserkers! Two, along with some more spaven...”

The four comets were streaking through the air, bearing down on top of the bar(the one everyone seems to be in...)One went off corse and smashed its way through the skaven occupied building...poor building...

The wreckage gave birth to two massive walkers, the black armor trimmed with a glowing green and a bloody maroon...

The two warmachines began destroying what they could see from thousands of rounds from their assault cannons, their massive claws spiraling, eager for the blood shed.

This squad came prepared for close quarters as they began torching what little was left untouched...

Previous drop zone:
The last spaven marine fell...well...half of it did. The other half was bleeding in the grasp of Thrake. They had landed a few minutes earlier and with the deathvermin cleared this zone quietly...well...as quiet as any hostile drop can be...

“Prepare to move...we hunt the traitors...”

OOC: So are the spaven barging into the bar like everbody else in the area, or are they still just rampaging through the streets shooting everything? Also, could you be a bit more specific about how big the "massive walkers" are?

ooc> Alright, I am sort of confused to. I will try to clarify everything to the best of my ability so we can move on. (it's just starting to get interesting after all)

Malachai entered via the back door of the bar. He walked down the hall and approached vector from inside, just as Vector was walking out of the hole in the wall. Godular may RP Vector as having seen him and taken some quick action if he wants to. Andessa is now across the street hiding in an abandoned building. Did I miss anything?

OOC: There are 3 squads(twenty) of spaven in a building across the road, they're simply shooting at all non-skaven. Inside the bar(which just got smacked by three drop pods) are 10 spaven(burning/shooting non-skaven) 2 Dreadnaughts, which are alos shooting/burning....

The Dreadnaughts are close to 3-4 times the hieght of a man...Is that right gronde? Or is it more?

Vector didn't even notice the warning shot for the most part, for as soon as he had walked out into the alley, massive impacts struck the bar and sent a cloud of dust and plastercrap flying all over the place.

Still grasping the bartender in his hand, he turned to give a last look into the storage room, checking for anybody in pursuit, and vaguely realized that in the now mostly collapsed storage room, there was a guy in a black trench coat, from the looks of it, he'd been caught in the massive impacts.

Warily, Vector returned into the Storage room, bringing out a Bolter pistol in the event he saw any movement that he didn't like. After all, it was a proven universal constant: dudes in black trenchcoats always work for the bad guy. This one might give even better answers than Binky the Bartender.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yargh ignored the SWAT teams that had been focused upon him. If they were too busy paying attention to him in the light of the sudden ground assault that had been brought down upon the unsuspecting bar, those SWAT officers were just plain STUPID.

Bigger fish to fry, Vector and Yargh only created a nuisance, these rat men were conducting a full scale ground invasion.

Perfect cover to escape.

Ship enroute master, it should be here in a matter of seconds. The cloud of debris should prevent anyone from getting a good radar bead or visual lock on it.

When Andessa vanished, Gorteth noticed almost instantly. A cloak seemed the most likely explanation. Setting one visual receptor to infrared frequencies, he slipped into the hall behind Malachai. The continuing chaos in the bar was more than enough to cover the little noise he made when sneaking.

As Vector stepped into the alley, the Spaven dropships made their noisy entrance. A pile of rubble crashed down upon Gorteth, knocking him to the floor, and severely straining his shield. He switched to a backup shield projector, then pushed himself sufficiently upright to see what was going on - and to free himself from the rubble at a moment's notice. The pile still kept him reasonably well concealed, provided nobody looked at him from the wrong angle.

OOC: Thanks, that's very helpful. Those Dreadnaughts sound a bit bigger than what the Tor Ganot heavy blast rifle is intended to deal with, but not so much so that Gorteth isn't capable of doing quite a bit of damage to them.... [evil grin].
I could still use a yes or no about his observation drones' ability to survey the area, although all they'd see right now is a bunch of dust.

ooc> I should have my post made at some time tomorrow. Sorry for making you guys wait.

ic> Malachai dove to the floor as the massive impacts shook the bar. Several chunks of rubble barely missed him as he rolled out of the way. He was now standing just two yards from his target. Standing back up in an instant, he aimed both of his guns at Vector once more. The original plan had been compromised. Malachai's target was now ready for him, so he wasted no time and opened fire on Vector with his plasma pistols.

Meanwhile, two of the Elite SWAT forces squads continued to assault Yargh. Though the Skaven pseudo-invasion of the bar was a major concern, their orders stayed. Backup was already on its way to deal with the Ratmen. Until then, the 3 other squads moved into position to attack the Skaven. The other two closed in on Yargh from two sides in an attempt to trap him. They opened fire with their gatling burst cannons from his from and back.

ooc> Not my best work, unfortunately. I will the other half done soon. (the part involving THR's forces)

Vector was already moving as the guns came out, but even so, despite his speed, he grunted in pain as a plasma bolt burned into the armor over his right shoulder, but refused to let it stop him. Metal spears erupted from his two mechanical arms, while his left cybernetic arm brought an impact pistol to bear on the assailant's chest.

An impact pistol was a weapon made to incapacitate. A gun that fired bursts of compressed air at the target, it did not kill, but it hit hard enough to crack ribs and render unconscious.

He didn't even wait to gloat, really, he simply fired.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yargh found himself getting more and more irritated by these SWAT operatives. No matter how fast he moved, how many obstacles he threw in their way, the fools just kept coming. This time, knowing that his shield energy was rapidly depleting, he ducked under the water of the latest stretch of sewer.

OOC: Ya assumed you headed him off, despite the fact that he used his own Stealth abilities and took an even more roundabout route than the first one. I'm gonna go ahead and assume where y'all try to face him, since the sewers would be the only place you would reliably be able to do it.

Yargh turned his cannons to the ceiling and opened fire, creating some nice and healthy cave-ins where his fire struck, and rather literally raising the roof. By focusing on the area in front of the SWAT, he essentially forced them to back away long enough for him to rocket into the now open sky and become one with the night. Motility on overdrive, those bastages would need hoverbikes just to keep up with him...

ooc> Post comming tomorrow.

The man in the black trenchcoat was attacking the bounty hunter. Gorteth saw several possible reasons for this...
1. He was another hunter, trying to eliminate competition
2. He was a trying to protect the target, or possibly someone else.
3. He was making an effort to keep the peace.
4. Other. Without knowing more, there was no way to be certain of the man's motives.

Whatever the reason, It was more than likely that he would also try to interfere with Gorteth's hunt. He was already doing so, without even knowing it. The boutny hunter seemed quite capable of taking care of himself, but there was no point in taking chances. Trading his remaining Narvok rifle for a Yamiri Obliterator, the robot stood up and opened fire on Malachai with a high-intensity paralysis beam.

((The Yamiri paralysis beam stifles all voluntary motion in the effected areas, incapacitating the target without causing injuries. Unlike a stun bolt, it only affects the part of the target it strikes, but it goes right through most armor and can leave the captive capable of communicating.))

ooc> Sorry for the delay. This wont be my best work, sorry.

ic> Malachai dodged the metal spears without too much trouble. Unfortunately, he was not quick enough to deal with Vector's multiple arms. The impact pistol sent him back against the wall; knocking the wind out of him. He was just picking himself back up when the paralysis beam hit him.

Meanwhile, Andessa was waiting across the street. As soon as Vector began his attack, she dove out of her building, sprinting across the street towards her partner's assailant. At super-human speed, she drew a katana sporting a mono-molecular blade. Without hesitation, she attempted to drive it into Vector's back.

As the sword approached, Vector's fourth arm swiveled around, very literally hurling the bartender at the oncoming assailant. He was moving as soon as the bartender left his hand, lunging forward towards Malachai to put some distance between himself and this newest arrival. His speed was prodigious in its own right, and his two right hands were already bringing impact pistols to bear upon the woman with the sword, not even bothering to draw a reliable bead before firing away.

At the same time, primarily as a cautionary measure, he pumped another impact burst into Malachai's gut, and his other left hand came out with a syringe of anesthetic. He didn't know how much this fellow would be able to absorb, but Vector had seen exactly how fast the woman had moved, so he was inclined to be generous on the pacification measures.

Master, I believe that I have lost the SWAT teams

"Busy!"

...and here comes the other one. How kind of her to approach, and make herself an easy target.

Gorteth was impressed by Andessa's speed, although he probably wouldn't admit it. The run across the street was still long enough for him to judge her motion with an acceptable precision. As Vector flung the bartender, Gorteth sent a second beam darting towards Andessa with the Yamiri gun. At the same time, he switched his Tor Ganot rifle for a Narvok hand blaster, which was swifter to aim and fire, and set it to high power stun bolts.

ic> **Somewhere in the abandoned section of the city, about 30 minutes ago**

Mercarius pulled his energy blade out of the space marine's torso. He stood in a run-down wearhouse among the bodies of 4 other dead Space Marines.

So far, so good, he thought. Ever since Mercarius's run-in with the Zeus Class Battle Mech, the Space Marines had formed a perimeter surrounding the 8 blocks where he was thought to be. Unfortunately for him, the Marines were never off by much. To make matters worse, the constant pressure of Thunderhawk air raids and land based marine recon teams, he found it difficult to survey the Marine movements and look for a gap in the perimeter. All he could do was sneak from building to building, evading the enemy and waiting for an opportunity. His patience finally paid off.

Thanks to the distraction that Iron Mike unwittingly caused for him, Mercarius was able exploit the newly created weak point in the 4th Chapter's perimeter. It was there that he eliminated the squad of 5 left to patrol the secluded streets. He would now be able to make a run for it and lose these bothersome marines for good. He turned to walk out when he heard the sound of several space Marine bikes coming toward him.

Damn! They must have still been able to alert their command before I finished them off, he thought. It was then that he realized that another opportunity had presented itself. He waited in hiding until the 4 Space marine Bikes were within 10 meters. At his usual super-human speed, he lunged out at the last bike, throwing its rider off. Allowing no time for the marines to react, he sped off into the city. The only thing he left behind was a controlled anti-matter grenade: the last thing they would ever see.

ooc> I still have some more to go before I get caught up. I would like to thank everyone for their patience.

ic> Andessa was trained to react quickly to changing situations and adapt to them. She saw the bartender being flung at her first, but right after she saw the beam comming from the other assailant. Time seemed to slow down in her mind. She knew the beam would reach her first, if only by a fraction of a second. She took a step towards the source of the beam and deflected it with her Katana. Moving closer to it gave her enough time to deal with the bartender flying through the air towards her. She brought her sword around and sliced him in two. The third threat was Vector's impact pistols. The shots were not very accurate; Andessa was able to dodge most of them easily. A couple made it to their mark, forcing her to stop and deflect them.

Malachai was already scrambling out of the way when Vector fired at him again. He had recovered from the impact pistol shots and the paralysis beam at an impressive speed. Malachai dodged the impacts, holstered his plasma pistols, and produced a Gauss rifle from his trench coat. Getting a quick bead on Vector's center of mass, he fired off serveral rounds of spikes into his opponant.

Andessa knew that her partner would be on his feet soon, so she made a snap decision to focus on on Gorteth. She pulled what appeared to be a ball of barbed wire from her robe and flung it at him. It expanded in mid-air and closed in around him just before impact.

***

On the other side of the bar, chaos was everywhere. The Ratmen were destroying everything. With Yargh flying off, the spec-ops SWAT forces abandoned him and went to fight the Skaven. From the sky, 4 Hammerheads landed and openned fire onto the Rat forces as the infantry moved in to surround them.

ic> The sun was beginning to move below the horizon as Mercarius sped through the abandoned streets on his stolen military motorcycle. He was able to lose the Space Marines that tried to pursue him. However, he couldn't breath easy yet. There were at least a dozen Thunderhawks in the sky that, at any moment, could fly overhead and spot him.

That thought had no sooner crossed his mind than a pair of the Space Marine Aircraft flew past him in the air. They circled around and lowered in altitude. They had spotted him; they were following him. He turned left and headed into a wide alley, hoping to come across some cover. The Thunderhawks followed and began strafing the street with laser fire. Mercarius did his best to weave and dodge out of the way, but a shot found its mark, forcing him to dive off the bike.

Mercarius scrambled into the alley. He narrowly evaded the explosion from one of the Thunderhawks' missiles. Proceeding on foot, he ran through the narrow alley until he came to an empty lot. To his horror, he realized that it was completely closed off save the way he came. There was a metal door on the other side. Mercarius wondered if it would be possible of him to tear the door off and escape. His train of thought was interrupted by the return of the Space Marine Thunderhawks. As they passed over him, three oddly shaped figures dropped from them. Mercarius ran to the door and began to pull it off. It proved more of a challenge than he hoped so he turned to face his new threat. With three closely timed thuds of metal on concrete, Mercarius was now being faced by a trio of Goliath Class war walkers.

ooc> Just about caught up. (we can still continue with the bar scene, btw) Who wants to place bets on Mercarius's current fight?

Vector was quicker than the average lightning bolt his own self, but dodging bullets at point blank range was the field of precognitives, and Vector was fairly certain that he wasn't one. He always just considered himself lucky.

So it was that only the first round struck him, across the back, over one of his thicker plates of armor, as he had already ducked and was discharging pulse after pulse from his impact guns so quickly that it almost sounded like a machine gun. As his chest hit his knees, he hurled himself forward, dropping the now discharged weapons and bringing out his bolters in one fluid movement. He refused to acknowledge the pain of one of the gauss flechettes sticking in his side as he brought all four guns to bear, two on each target, and let loose with a growl of visceral fury.

"Quit... shooting... at... ME..."

Master, I believe I am free to assist now.

The communication came in while he was in the middle of his first jump, and he was simply too busy doing everything else to pay attention to it. Although he heard enough not to be surprised when a great frenzy of lightsaber slices seemingly dropped down from the heavens amidst the tumultuous proceedings.

Vector had decided to let Yargh be the one to use all the Lightsabers they'd gained when fighting against sith and jedi alike. After all, if Yargh accidentally lopped an arm off, all he'd need is a spare one. Why, Vector would have to get a whole knew cybernetic fit! It was so much more efficient.

In any event, he was quite skilled in their use, and was not afraid to 'rectify situations' with them. He charged in, leaping towards Andessa with phenomenal speed and calculation, to say nothing of a disconcerting cackle of sadistic glee.

And thus, the duo that had managed to last for so long in these conditions of destruction and slaughter, went to work.

Analysis:
Sword- Variety: katana. Metal: unknown. Either energy-reinforced or exceptional material. Optimal response: avoidance. Counter with VEP if needed.
Ranged weapon- Type and effects unknown. Optimal response: combined counter and avoidance.
Oppenents- Many signs of exceptional abilities. Very high speed and recovery time. Unusual equipment. Standard incapacitating measures cannot be trusted.

Gorteth jumped straight up, firing a perspective-modified kinetic pulse at the incoming projectile and another to his left. Landing several feet behind and to the right of his original position, on top of the pile of rubble, he produced a Variable Energy Projector (VEP) to replace the Narvok gun in his left hand.

The Yamiri Obliterator is an extremely versatile weapon. While it is most often used as a more powerful or longer range version of the smaller Yamiri guns, it can also be set for firing speed. Now, four smaller barrels unfolded near its tip and began spinning. Gorteth promptly sent a barrage of piercers towards Andessa at 100 shots/second, carefully avoiding vital regions. This was primarily a test, and he didn't want to kill her if she failed.

She didn't. A reflective force field sent the piercers back to spatter upon his shield. Trading the Obliterator for a Narvok cannon, he fired a shield-slicer pulse.

Then Yargh entered the battle, and Gorteth shifted his aim to Malachai...

OOC: If anything happens that would interrupt him before that, I'll be happy to modify this post accordingly. Here are a few weapon details that may now prove useful:

Perspective-modified shots expand in area as they move, so that they cover the same area of the field of view at any range. A kinetic pulse of this variety hits basically like a blast of high-speed wind. Piercers travel at light speed. They penetrate the first solid object they hit a pre-set distance (Gorteth usually sets his to 12 inches, which makes them more effective against armor than most), or somewhat less if the target is exceptionally durable, then vaporize everything with a pre-set radius of this hole (usually half an inch, but these are much narrower - about 5 mm). A VEP looks like a large, complicated black flashlight, when turned off.

OOC: Gronde, did you ever even bother killing Mike, or respond to my post at all, or did I end up missing it again?

ooc> MM: They haven't killed him yet. They are just surrounding him, prepared to change that at any moment. IOW: they are going to capture him. I think I posted that.

ic> Andessa wasn't supprised to see her little toy fail to stop Gorteth. She was always fast to adapt. Andessa had already decided on a counter course of action before he even finished drawing his new gun. She took a small reflector force-field generator from one of her pockets and activated it as she darted to the side of the street. As the barrage of peircers came towards her, the force field reflected them right back at Gorteth. Using her Katana, Andessa deflected Vector's shot at her again. She was in her element. The Katana wielding woman prepared to make her attack, but a new threat was arriving and Gorteth was shifting to her partner.

Yargh was truly a sight to behold, lunging out Andessa. She knew that with his multiple arms and light sabers, she would have a difficult time in a straight sword fight. She turned the force field generator off to conserve its energy. Her reaction could easily be persieved as precognative. She cut to the side and got behind Yargh, making a lightening fast slice at one of his arms, hoping to cut it off.

Meanwhile, Malachai reacted fast as Vector unloaded a massive volley of more impact shots. He was already preparing his copy of the same tool used by Andessa; though they had radically different fighting styles, much of their technology was the same. Malachai's force field generator was already attached to his wrist. He activated it just as Vector was about to pull the triggers. He didn't stay still either. Realizing that they were now outnumbered with the arrival of Yargh, he darted to the right, placed his gun in his coat, and flung an illegal military grade anti-matter grenade at Gorteth. It detonated two feet from its target. It didn't need to actually hit him, the explosion would be enough to obliterate anything withing 6 yards.

Yargh was fast. Almost ridiculously fast. He was also watching the fight from multiple points of view, as Vector's support harness contained an uplink and data feed to the supporting AI's remotes. Vector's two mechanical arms could actually be controlled fully by Yargh if the situation was necessary, and Vector had no problem with it as he could kill people just as easily with two arms as he could with four.

As such, as soon as Andessa attempted to make a move on Yargh, Vector's arms immediately brought their bolters to bear on her, opening up with a veritable fusillade of surprisingly well-aimed shots. Yargh himself had already backed away, and his targeted hand reversed with amazing fluidity to parry the attack Andessa directed toward it. Three arms struck, one arm defended. He alternated which fulfilled what role constantly and at random, and hopped about like a jackrabbit on PCP.

At the same time, Vector hurled two kegs, empty this time but still quite heavy, at Malachai while he was in the process of lobbing the grenade at Gorteth. As soon as the kegs left his hands, he tossed three more concussion grenades, set on 'Too Damn Short', and ducked behind another Keg.

It detonated two feet from its target.
OOC: Nope! I've had a counter planned for grenades for a long time. I'd advise you to never use just one grenade against an MX, although it might work on some of the older models.
By the way, have you seen this comic strip (www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20050604.html)? The anti-matter grenade reminded me of it...
IC:
As soon as piercers started hitting his shield, Gorteth stopped firing them. While reasonably effective against armor, they couldn't do much to energy shielding. Trading the Obliterator for a Narvok cannon, he fired one shield-slicer pulse before Yargh's arrival

Turning to face Malachai, Gorteth saw the man produce and throw a grenade.
One of the bigger advantages a Kendaryn X-class has in a fight is the ability to change weapons quickly. Very quickly. Very, very, very quickly. As soon as Gorteth spotted the grenade, his VEP (and the hand that held it, and about half of his forearm) shimmered into a kinetic nullifier. Time seemed to stand still for a fraction of a second as the distinctive descending thrum of the K-N filled the room, and its beam flashed out to intersect the grenade.

There was no impact. The grenade simply slowed almost to a stop as its kinetic energy was drained away. So did all the air molecules in the path of K-N beam. As the grenade dropped in the middle of a narrow cone of frozen and liquid air, Gorteth traded his K-N for a tech disrupter, and hit it with a bolt from that. Depending on how the weapon's trigger worked, this might keep it from going off at all. Either way, though, it was still closer to Malachai than to Gorteth.

ooc> I think it's still fair to say that Andessa is probobly the quickest one there.

I am continuing with Mercarius for now, I should have a reply written sometime tomorrow.

ic> Mercarius was trapped. He had no way of escaping as long as the three war walkers were there. Is response was that of any cornered animal. Wasting no time, he cut to the left and lunged at the first walker and rammed his fist right through its armor. The Goliath Walker fell back from the force of the punch. The other two opened fire with their auto-cannons, but Mercarius ducked behind the mass of his current target. He grabbed the left arm of the first Walker, spun it around, and tossed it at the second Walker. The the third walker's pilote was stunned by something so large being thrown by someone much smaller with such ease. With another fluid motion, he dove to the right and threw two anti-armour grenades: one at the two that crashed together and on at the undamaged walker. The undamaged Goliath tried to gun Mercarius down, but was unable to keep a beed on him.

The three mechs exploded with a satisfying display of flame. Mercarius took a brief moment to appreciate his handy work. His moment satisfaction quickly ended with the return of the two Thunderhawks and the sound of metal Space Marine boots comming from the alley. Mercarius sprinted back to the metal door, tearing it right out of its frame with a single pull.

The building was another warehouse just like the last four buildings he had entered. He activated his hyper-scanners as he neared the exit on the other side. To his dismay, he detected about 30 Space marines on the other side, likely waiting for him.

These guys just don't quit!, he thought. It would appear that his fight was far from over. It didn't look like they had detected his yet. He activated his stealth field and crawled up to the far wall. There were two windows and a less sturdy locked metal door. The windows were also blocked off. Space Marines were deadly opponants, especially in numbers; the only way he could make it past them would be to hit them off gaurd. Moving silently, he placed two powerfull remote charges. One was put on the window on the right and the other on the door. He positioned himself behind the left window. The sound of metal boots came from the side of the warehouse that Mercarius entered from; he didn't have time to hesitate.

***

Lieutenant Lysander was in command of six 5-man squads of Space Marines, the Galaxy's finest warriors. The detatchment had been sent to guard the northern exit of a warehouse that their target, the traitor Mercarius, was confirmed to have entered...right after he eliminated three Goliath War Walkers single-handedly. They were currently only holding the position, waiting for orders from the other side of the building before they entered to actually extract their target.

"*Brother-Captain, are your men in position on the other side?*" Lysander's com-link was crystal-clear.

"*Almost, brother. Get your men ready.*"

Lysander motioned for squads 22 and 23 to move forward and prepare to storm the building. It was then, that out of nowhere, two large explosions rang out. The first two squads were blown apart and chaos began to ensue. The remaining marines opened fire on where the door and window used to be. Lieutenant Lysander was able to keep his forces under controll long enough to set up a small perimeter. It was likely that this act was little more than a diversion for Mercarius to escape.

"Be ready for anything, Brothers," warned Lysander. "Our foe is a formidable one!"

OOC: Vector went one on one with Emperor Palpatine. And by the fact that he's there at all should show just how 'fast' he is, indeed how good a warrior he would be to not be a skidmark. Also, this was before Vector had Yargh put two extra arms on him in order to improve overall performance.

He's also a latent force user, though he never took the time to notice, which helps enhance several little combat-critical traits.

Yargh has taken on three warriors at once, two ninjas and a relatively powerful jedi, and kicked their butts. Of course his first body was destroyed fighting palpatine (same battle as Vector, damn that 'Destroy Droid' power!), and he has since had a very much improved body entered in as a replacement.

And he has three copies of himself on the incoming ship, along with 'Poofy'.

OOC: I've been wondering where the Destroyer of Worlds was...

It might help resolve/prevent arguments of the "My character is fastest!" "No, my character is fastest!" (etc.) variety if we all gave a nice solid OOC description of what our characters are capable of, and why... What d'you think?

ooc> Godular: Well, Andessa is much more specialized with her speed than Yargh is. That and she is the 40k equivalent to a force user herself. Granted, Yargh has more arms, so he might as well be quicker. Lol. But either way, I think this fight has been going on a little too long.

ic> Andessa quickly realized that she was in a tight situation. Her attack against Yargh was parried and at the same time, two of Vector's arms suddenly began firing their bolters at her. She pulled off from Yargh and deflected the volley of bolter shots. She knew she was finished. Her partner was couldn't take on the other two, and she couldn't fight against Yargh and his fire support. She deflected the bolter rounds as easily as ever, but her left side was left open to Yargh's light sabers...

Malachai dove behind some of the rubble to avoid the concussion grenades. He shot his head out in time to see Andessa get cut apart by Yargh's light sabers. He forced himself to suppress his rage at the sight of his comrade death. He wanted to jump out of the rubble and gun all three of them down right then and there. However, he was no match for them by himself. The mission was compromised. He made is retreat, activating his short-ranged teleporter, locked onto a street about 5 blocks away. He was not going to enjoy reporting this to his master.

Vector stood in the dust and bloodspatter of Yargh's handiwork, and heard the short range teleporter take effect.

"Oh... dammit. I was hoping to take one of them alive. I was all psyched for a nice long questioning session."

He pulled the flechette needle from his side with a grunt and walked to the bartender halves. "Yargh, grab the top portion. Hopefully there's still time to save the brain and let the ship have at it. Barring that, I think we'll be paying that Jaq fellow a nice little visit."

"Master, the ship is here, shall we depart the field?" Yargh had already put his sabers away, and was now holding the upper half of the Bartender. "We still have five minutes to sustain the body before the brain becomes inviable, master."

"Alright, lets go," Vector replied, then motioned towards their unknown assistant. "Might as well have you along as well. Bastards would have had me otherwise."

"T'zek drëth!" Gorteth snarled as Malachai vanished. [No exact translation. Old Kherandisar expression of extreme annoyance.]

A quick scan of the site of his departure revealed little about the teleportation method, and no clues to his destination. It wasn't likely that any of the observation drones had been watching the man's destination, but it was possible. Gorteth sent an image of him back to Stardust, and set the ship's computer to scanning the drones' reports for matches.

Gorteth's weapons shimmered back into hands as he strode over to the nearest wall. Grabbing a bottle at random (amazingly unbroken), he opened it and poured the contents down his throat. The fight had been short, but intense enough that he wanted to recharge his energy reserves.

The bounty hunter's robotic partner was picking up the bartender's upper portion; it seemed that they had a device that could get information from the brain of the recently deceased. Perhaps the lead was not lost after all.

Fortunately, he was getting an invitation.

"Glad to be of assistance." Gorteth said, walking with a slight clank as he joined the other two.

They might not appreciate having been spied on, so he didn't intend to bring up the issue of why he had been present to help unless they started asking questions...

The ship had come to a landing approximately two blocks away, well removed from the frenzy of fighting between local authorities and the bloodthirsty and not-at-all-tactful rat people. Running through the alley out the back way and through a couple more alleys, the ship waited for them with an open loading bay and two more Yarghs.

"Medical equipment prepared for action, master."

"Awesome. Having three of you is proving to be all kinds of cool. Get this guy's half-assed self hooked up and begin trauma treatment. He's not dead dead yet, but he'll be pretty damn close."

The two other Yarghs took the bartender away and the third Yargh went guarded the ramp as Vector and the Stranger boarded. The vessel was quick to lift off, conducting expeditious egress from the scene of the slaughter.

OOC: I am assuming that the monoblade cauterized the guy's wounds. Gronde, you wanna rp the bartender or shall I just RP the questioning and have you provide the answers?

OOC: Sorry, been busy and catching up in RL so short post to get caught up…

IC: The squads in the open were cut down methodically by the hammerhead weapons. The massive rail guns wiped out an entire floor in the occupied building. The remaining squad managed not to get buried in a land slide and fell back. The two dreadnaughts had wandered off in a frenzy and were simply running around amok until finally realizing they were in the middle of well…no where…

---Directive--- Find targets
---Inbound vessel---
---Classification--- Unknown---
---Non-Gronde/Skaven profile---
---civilian?/target?/unknown---
---neutralize---

Surprisingly, the two vehicles were fairly close to vector’s ship/ finally, randomness got them somewhere useful!

*remaining squad*
“Death to the weak!” The massive skaven/rat ogre bellowed out as he crushed one of the remaining spaven. The squad had been ambushed and was now being cut down by the frenzied death vermin. One spaven was wielding a whirling chain sword, its blade cutting through a skaven’s throat, spraying arterial blood everywhere. Another stepped up to fire close range with his K-6 rifle, the saw-toothed blade screeched through its chest while it vainly tried to hold in the organs.

The massive beast had his fist entirely inside one spaven’s chest when his rage-filled eyes turned towards the remaining spaven, the sergeant.

“I hope you know you’ve doomed yourself Thrake! You all have all you pathetic weaklings!”

He was probably going to bull out his K-4 pistol and start shooting, but nobody got to find out since he was simply crushed. Thrake’s massive fist producing a crunching noise like that of a squished insect.

“Tell our ship to leave system, but remain on standby in the warp, we don’t want those damn spaven getting a hold of it.”

There was no bother encrypting it, just do it fast and now was the order.

“So now we continue the hunt ourselves, but first, we must find the pair of entombed”

The Yargh! rose up into low orbit and leveled out, but did not reduce speed.

"Master," came a voice from behind Vector as the Bartender was undergoing the final stages of hookup and trauma treatment. Vector turned and looked at the small computer screen behind him, happily displaying a Jolly Roger. "We appear to have two vessels in pursuit. Lifesigns indicate the rat men. Shall I destroy them?"

"No. Commence probability jump. Get us somewhere in the outer reaches of the system. We'll be coming back later."

"Yes Master, initiating targeting solution for short range jump. Stand by for ten seconds..."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

To the vessels attempting to converge on the Yargh!, it would have appeared as through the vessel were effectively ignoring them, right up until it vanished...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

And reappeared in an asteroid belt on the far side of the system, immediately shutting down non-essential systems to reduce power signatures, hiding on an asteroid, and even going so far as to return to its actual registry.

"Welcome to the Four Horsemen, master."

"Good to be back. Yargh isn't a bad name, but there's too damn many of you as it is."

"I could not agree more, master. Its difficult to keep track of myself sometimes."

"Right, lets get this bartender revived."

ooc> Godular: Just post the first few questions that Vector is going to ask and I will post the bartender's answers.

ic> Mercarius timed his move perfectly. As soon as the explosives went off, he ripped off the metal slab in front of the left window. Activating his shield generator, his jumped out into the fray. The Space Marines were rallied and re-organized quickly. Mercarius's personal shield held up as bolter round after bolter round was pumped into him. He dove into the first squad. Mercarius was truly a wonder to behold. With his mono-molecular energy blades in his hands, he cut through the first squad with speed, grace, and terrifying power. With the first squad taken care of, and two others having been blown apart by the explosives, only one 5-man and one 10-man squad remained.

Mercarius threw another anti-matter grenage at the 5 man squad and moved into close quarters with the closer 10-man squad. The 5-man squad tried to scatter, but all of them were ripped apart. The larger squad was disposed of almost as quickly as the last. The Marines did their best to fight him. However, even the legendary fighting prowess of the Space Marines was no match for the abilities of Mercarius. He took particular pride in his killing of their lieutenant. He actually parried Mercarius's attack before having his head sliced off. He took a moment to gloat to himself, only to be reminded by a beeping sound that it was his shield generator that made the feet possible.

The sound of a dozen Space Marine bikes informed Mercarius that he had waited too long already...

ooc> This is all I have time for. I am trying to catch Mercarius up to the current time.

The world was dark and cold, and then it was all white and blurry. Eventually the view cleared to reveal the big, heavily cybered up, and spiky-black-haired bounty hunter who had effectively ruined him, being picked at by a metal monstrosity with a pack of band-aids.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

"SON OF A BITCH! OW OW OW OW OW!"

"Stop struggling, Master. You are making the wound worse with your incessant thrashing. Once I remove this flechette needle you'll be fine."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

A second metallic THING came from beyond his field of view and checked his eyes with a pen.

"Master, our guest is awake."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

"WHAT? Lemme go! Lemme go!"

"Almost there, master... needle removed, you are free to move."

Vector leapt down from the infirmary bed and walked up to the bartender, leaning in close. The bartender's body was held in place by various clamps, and several tubes and wires were attached in random areas. Vector poked the bartender on the chest and growled.

"YOU, ya little bastard, gave me SUCH a hassle. I went to all that trouble to prevent shit blowing up, but you just HAD to be a punk about it. Now your bar is a crater, everybody in it is dead or dying, the biggest battle this planet has likely ever seen started right on your damn doorstep, and two 'special' bargoers got all uppity and attacked me. Oh, by the way, if you were operating under the assumption that me pressing that line of questioning would only get me killed, think again. One of them is resting in pieces, and the other ran screaming like a little girl. Oh, and you've been cut in half. Had to use you as a human shield. Don't look down.

"You got sliced through yer midriff, so I suppose one of the things going through your mind is that you're not gonna be able to walk again, get off a life support system like you are right now, or screw drunken barbabes anymore. Let me assure you that this is not the case. I can get you your life back, hell I can get you fixed up with immortality if you tell me what I would REALLY like to know. Otherwise I could just dump you with the rest of the garbage, depends on how generous I'm feeling afterwards.

"Now, two things in that bar really bothered me, and tell me straight up that you know something. One, y'all didn't even bat an eye when that big honking firefight between several of our mark's cronies happened before I got there, yet you were just ITCHING to call the cops on ME when I showed signs of getting a little rowdy. That tells me that you were either bribed or coerced into cooperating with them, and I would like a nice little description on whoever it was that did the coercing. TWO, those two guys were in the bar, I saw them, and I want to know everything about them... say, Yargh, did you rifle through that bitch's remnants?"

"Yes sir..."

OOC: Mind giving me a listing of whatever the hell Andessa had in her pockets and such? Yargh dismembered her in every possible way, but there could still be useful thingies in the pockets.

"Anyway, I want to know anything and everything you have about binky the bounty mark, and I might just give you your life back, friend."

ooc> Godular: Andessa carried the following: Her Katana, force field generator, 6 grenades, 4 daggers, and a teleporter. No distinguishing marks etc left that could be traced.

More Mercarius stuff and then I will move on to the bartender. I am going to skip over a good deal of stuff and skim over it so Mercarius will be fully caught up.

ic> Mercarius stumbled across the street. The sun had completely set and the Space Marines were nowhere to be found. His armor was shipped, burned, battered, and cracked in countless places. Walking up to a building that was a mere 4 blocks away from the same bar that Vector had visited, the same bar that was now a burning pile of rubble, he found a hidden security number terminal. He punched in a long sequence of numbers and walked through what appeared to be a solid wall.

***

It had been an interesting day for Damian Von Castellan. His primary contact, as well as many of his minor ones, were picking up on an abnormal flow of bounty hunters looking for him. It would seem that the Great Forge finally found out that he was here. Damian turned to one of the many computers in the room and began going over the data one more time. It was then that he realized his building had been entered.

"Mercarius," said Damian as a sleek, blue figure entered the room. "I didn't know what happened to you when your com-link was shut off. Did you get the drop-off?"

"Yes."

"Good. Also, you should know that the Space Marines are here." Mercarius walked slowly towards Damian and placed a black crystal on his desk. In the light, the extent of his damages and injuries could be fully seen.

"Yes, I noticed..." Mercarius replied as he collapsed on the floor.

***

He knew it was going to be difficult after he killed the lieutenant and his men. Space Marine bikes came in force and blocked off the roads. His saving grace was the fact that he still have a few tricks left that his foes did not know about. With the help of a small, sleek concealed jump back, Mercarius broke the blockade and was able to fight his way out. Four Land Speeders, 6 bikes, 43 Marines, 2 more Goliath War Walkers, and a Thunderhawk later, Mercarius lost his pursuers completely. He should have known that the Space Marines were going to hunt him down relentlessly. He was once one of them.

***

Meanwhile, a certain bartender finally decided that he would be better off to help the people going after Damian.

"It wasn't my fault!" said the bartender at last. "Damian had eyes everywhere. No one is supposed to even talk about him, let alone give out information to strangers. He told me that if I tried to double cross him, he would have my family killed." The man finally snapped. He began to cry like a child.

"I didn't want to help him; no one does," he said, trying to hold himself together. "...except maybe for that Jaq guy who runs a bar near the star port. But like I said, Damian has eyes everywhere. No one knows what he is trying to do, all we know is that we can't get in his way. I don't even know who the two assassins were. All I can guess is that they were sent after you if you began snooping around for information and asked the wrong people...HE has eyes everywhere!"

***

*!*Gronde News Update*!*

According to the 4th Space Marine Chapter, the traitor Space Marine Mercarius has been located on the primary world of Sentinal VIII. It has been confirmed that Mercarius stole valuable and deadly bio-technology data. It is also believed that he is working with Damian Von Castellan and is in possession of a stolen prototype of the Black Data Crystal. The reward for his capture is equal to that of Damian. The reward is doubled if all stolen technology is also returned. Mercarius is armed and extremely dangerous.

Vector rolled his eyes when the bartender told him the equivalent of 'I Know Nothing I Swear,' but grinned slightly at the mention of the OTHER bartender.

"That Jaq fellow, huh? I was suspicious as soon as he tried pointing me to that freaky dude named Mercarius. You wouldn't happen to have any goods on him, would you?"

"Now by 'Eyes Everywhere' would that include camera feeds and such? He can't very well afford to have black-jacketed jackoffs roaming about the city reporting each and every little thing that happens. Gets a guy noticed even more than blowing shit up, that does. A guy like him would have to have some sort of electronic intelligence network going."

"You're a lucky man, my friend! While you didn't quite give me the easy street to Damian's head on a platter, I do believe that you have been enlightening enough to warrant my mercy. Now you're gonna go beddy-bye for a while, don't worry, I'm a man of my word when I want to be. I can get you in on some Godulan Mechanical Engineering Doctoral Candidate's final project, they gotta build a full-body cybermod that'll work. Completely free, and there's the bonus of being damn near godlike afterwards! Of course there's that small offhand chance that you'll die a horrible and agonizing death, but hey what doesn't come without a risk?"

OOC: Formatted so you could have the bartender react to each paragraph separately

ic> "I don't know much, but I will tell you everything I do know. Damian arrived on this planet about a year and a half ago. From what I can guess, he's been evading bounty hunters and law enforcement alike for a long time. He wanted to have all of the information contacts in the city under his sway to make sure that he could remain hidden. While most normal people just know not to ask questions or snoop around, people like me had to be forced into silence. That Jaq guy, he was one of them who helped Damian willingly. He could even have agents of his own.

"His information network has camera feeds, surely. However, it is rumored that he had hired many of the local gangs and criminal organizations. Ever since word go out that Damian was here, he's been going through extra trouble to keep people quiet and afraid. That's what makes no sense. A guy like Damian wouldn't normally stick around very long once it was known that he was here. He's planning something, I just don't know what and I don't know where to find him."

IC: The ship had just disappeared. No spike in warp activity either. So this meant no FTLi was present. Finally, indescision struck the spaven. The targeted ship was there, but now…gone. Thrake’s vessel had entered the warp, making it suicide to chase him. No messages from the council either.

“Initiate shadow cloaking and drift to the rim, we’ll wait for orders”

Thrake:
“Master” the gurgling sound came from a bloated deathvermin, clearly marked out by the Horned Rat. “Fighting to the east. Space Marines, many weapons.”

That sergeant ran into space marines before. They were hunting a Mercarius. Good thing those bastard spaven spread some warp dust. Tracking him should be quite easy…

The skaven was looking into a palm sized scanner. On it was a massive circle where they were currently. Trails snaked through the city were the spaven had been, but one singular trail stuck out.

There.

“Move out. We go to section F6”

The rat-men scuttled through buildings, many were forcibly vacated previously by spaven, the others were most likely dead. But they were of no concern to the skaven.

Standing near Vector, Gorteth kept his voice low enough that the bartender wouldn't hear what he said.

"Interesting... That guy may not know where to find Damian, but somebedy sure will. The best spy-network in the universe is useless unless it can get information to the one in charge. The more peole he's hired, the easier it should be to find some of them. The trick will be doing so without him finding out. His reputation for having eyes everywhere is probably overstated, but he can definately find out what we do in his territory quicker than we're likely to find him...



"And again interesting. A bounty has just been announced on that Mercarius person. It seems he's working with Damian, and the same price is offered for each.... What d'you bet they're together when we find 'em?"

The Bartender drifted off into stasis, and Vector turned to the strange mechanical man before him.

"Interesting... That guy may not know where to find Damian, but somebedy sure will. The best spy-network in the universe is useless unless it can get information to the one in charge. The more peole he's hired, the easier it should be to find some of them. The trick will be doing so without him finding out. His reputation for having eyes everywhere is probably overstated, but he can definately find out what we do in his territory quicker than we're likely to find him...

"An intelligence network is all well and good, but the wonderful thing about them is what you can learn when ya crack in. Me and Yargh are pretty damn good at 'entering' such networks. And I think I know just the place to start."

"And again interesting. A bounty has just been announced on that Mercarius person. It seems he's working with Damian, and the same price is offered for each.... What d'you bet they're together when we find 'em?"

"That actually brings me to the person I know to start the search. That Jaq fellow half-ass here mentioned, I've spoken with him. He tried to throw me off Damian's trail by pointing me in the direction of Mercarius. Used some form of computer uplink, he did, likely warning the others about me. Oddly enough he's in... well... the very first damn bar we get to when we get out of the starport."

The two Yarghs took a position by the small infirmary's door, giving Gorteth what would have equated to a 'You ain't goin' nowheres brudda' look.

"Now, I have some questions for YOU. One, Who are you? Two, WHAT are you? And three, how does a third of the take sound? It'd be half, but I have to pay Yargh too. You don't think I can have all this crap for FREE, do ya?"

"My name is Gorteth Mallorak, I'm a Kendaryn MX-38 war robot, and one third sounds quite reasonable. Fair's fair - two people get two shares."

ooc> Waiting for you guys to do something...

Bump.

"Mike, I think you should hear this."

"Not now Shelly, I'm a little busy trying to survive here."

"But Mike, this applies to the current situation."

"Fine, what is it."

"A bounty has been announced for one Mercarius, the photo included matches the image of the man you were speaking with."

"Oh, I guess I should probably take their offer of surrender then, shouldn't I?"

"That would be my advice."

Mike was not a happy camper, he never had surrendered before, and this really stuck in his craw sideways, but he switched on his external speakers and broadcast to the Space Marines surrounding him. "This is Major Michael Leonidas O'Neal, I seem to have no choice but to surrender, I'm putting down my gun, and sword, and de-activating all integral suit weapons."

"Ah well, guess its settled then. A third for you, a third for me, and a third for Yargh--"

"You are too kind, master."

"Yeah sure. You'd kill me in a red hot minute if I didn't pony up the maintenance costs."

"I shall withhold comment with respect to that assertion, master."

"Whatever. Anyway, I guess we might as well just head back down to Sentinel VIII and pay this Jaq fellow a visit. With our new registry, they'll have to ident us visually, and on high traffic worlds like this such a procedure would suck muchly.

Yargh, prepare the Four Horsemen for probability jump back into reentry. Aim for a docking pad some distance away from where we were the first time, as its more likely to be watched. Bring Yarghs four through eight online, and get Poofy ready to go."

"Are you sure we will need Poofy, master?"

"Probably not, but it doesn't hurt to be sure. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to fiddle about with this little teleporter thin--"

A few seconds later Vector walked in from the direction of the cargo bay. "A few meters off and I would have been sucking vacuum. I like this thing!"

About an hour later, the Freighter / Cannon Frigate Four Horsemen came to a landing, and its boarding ramp came down, guarded by a pair of Yarghs, that looked surprisingly sincere in their work loading cargo delivered as a result of a hasty yet large purchase of bulk meats.

Vector wandered off to the armory to fix up for 'the latest outing'.

ic> With a flash, Malachai appeared. He quickly looked in all directions, scanning the empty streets for any movement other than his own. Once he knew that the coast was clear, he sank into the alley and collapsed, slamming his fist into the wall. He and Andessa had gotten into tight situations before, but they had always both made it out. Malachai was still trying to come to terms with what had happened. Andessa was more than a partner to him; he was in love with her. He wished that he had told her that. While Malachai was in the depths of his thoughts, his com-link went off. Taking a deep breath and trying to calm his shaking voice, he answered.

"Agent 3," said Malachai. "Identification code: 400-009."

"This is Damian," a voice replied from the Com-link. "Jaq informed me of your mission, I want a status report." There was a long, silent moment which was broken by Damian. "Malachai?"

"The mission was compromised," Malachai said at last.

"What do you mean "compromised?" asked Damian irritably. "Put Agent 4 on!"

"I'm on my way to HQ right now."

"Where is Andessa, Malachai?" But he had already cut the link.

"She's dead..." said Malachai, now only to himself. This wasn't going to be easy to explain. He made his way to the hidden door.

***

Mercarius entered the office as Damian slammed his communicator on the desk. His armor was now fully repaired.

"Malachai should be here shortly," said Mercarius. Damian's eyes darted up.

"You overheard..." concluded Damian.

"Always," replied Mercarius. "And I'm going to take a guess that he failed."

"You would be correct."

"This isn't good. Whoever it is that is after us must have been formidable." Damian nodded.

The sound of the hydraulic door interrupted their conversation. Malachai's trench-coat wearing form entered the office soon after. Mercarius stepped forward.

"What happened?" he asked.

"There were three of them," explained Malachai.

"When has that ever mattered?"

"These guys were not your average bounty hunters!" said Malachai. "They were armed to the teeth. One of them had light sabers and had most likely been trained by Jedi. Jaq told us that there was only one target."

"Where is Andessa?" asked Damian.

"Damnit Damian, she's dead!" replied Malachai.

"You foolish--" began Damian but Mercarius interrupted.

"Malachai, how could this have happened? You should have both gotten out of there," said Damian. "Because of this, we are now short another good agent."

"Is that all she was to you?" asked Malachai. "Just another person to fight and die for you; just another number?"

"Was she ever more than a number to you?" Mercarius responded. "Were any of us?" Malachai landed a hard punch on Mercarius's face. In response, he spun around and delivered a kick to Malachai's face, sending him against the wall. Mercarius moved on closer but Damian intervened.

"Stop it, both of you," ordered Damian. Malachai turned his head sideways and spit out blood. "We need to figure out what is to be done now. I still have plenty of connections left..."

ooc> More coming tomorrow.

With his power level near full and no major damage to deal with, Gorteth had few preparations to make. The hour that passed before their landing was more than enough time for his shield generator to recover from the strain of holding off a collapsing building.

"So, what's the plan for this little meeting? Are we going to crash in and try to scare this guy from the start, or keep things quiet until we can get him away from his customers, or just walk in and see how he reacts? I can take on a reasonably good imitation of human form; I might be able to slip in ahead of you without attracting attention. I can synthesize a sleeping gas; if you're protected against such weapons, it might prevent interference and reports. Sound useful?"

"Depends really. There's an idea forming in my head that requires stealth, and there's another idea forming in my head that requires things to blow up with a healthy dose of razzle dazzle. I want Jaq's computer at the moment, and access to whatever the hell it contains. If its security measures are a tad over the top, like retinal scans and thumbprints just to get the damn thing to turn on, we're gonna need to splatter his ass, but he gave good booze so lets keep that on the back burner, shall we?

"Can you disguise yourself as different people?"

"With the right equipment, I could construct and install a new disguise. With enough time, I might be able to create a new one with my repair system. At the moment, however, I cannot."

"Damn... best we can hope is that your face wasn't remembered easily in the brawl. We need to get Jaq to access his computer again so Yargh can crack Damian's network wide open. We do that we can hunt him down and mess him up right nicely."

"I don't think either of the two we fought saw my disguise. I tried to time the shift to exactly as I entered the building; with any luck, nobody even noticed. Might as well switch back... even if that one that got away did see me, I'll still attract less attention that way."

A wave of shimmering washed over Gorteth, accompanied by a series of quiet clicks; when it passed, he appeared to be an ordinary human. The metal face of an MX-38 makes little effort at imitating human features, and few traces of his original appearance remained besides general height and build.

"Mike, I think you should hear this."

"Not now Shelly, I'm a little busy trying to survive here."

"But Mike, this applies to the current situation."

"Fine, what is it."

"A bounty has been announced for one Mercarius, the photo included matches the image of the man you were speaking with."

"Oh, I guess I should probably take their offer of surrender then, shouldn't I?"

"That would be my advice."

Mike was not a happy camper, he never had surrendered before, and this really stuck in his craw sideways, but he switched on his external speakers and broadcast to the Space Marines surrounding him. "This is Major Michael Leonidas O'Neal, I seem to have no choice but to surrender, I'm putting down my gun, and sword, and de-activating all integral suit weapons."


ic> The Space Marines moved in closer. One of them bound his hands and another two flanked him and led him out of the building.

"If you try anything," a sargent said, indicating towards a squad of marines with their bolters still locked on Mike. "...you will be a smear on the pavement." The Marines led Mike to a Land Raider waiting outside.

Mike allowed himself to be led away, he didn't have much choice in the matter... For now.

ooc> Bump.

ooc> Bump. Comon guys.

ooc> Bump. Comon guys.


OOC: Don't look at me, I'm so busy it's not even funny...

"Well," Vector said with a resigned sigh. "We'll have to run with it. We just need to get at Jaq's computer, then maybe get Jaq too afterwards. He's likely better defended than the other bartender was, so we'll have to live with contact extraction as a secondary priority. If you will excuse me, I will go grab the big guns."

Vector walked out of the infirmary and headed towards the cargo bay, which now smelled strangely of bantha meat, and towards a back room labeled the following:

ARMORY
RADIOLOGICAL/BIOHAZARD WARNING
If you sprout an extra dick, don't complain.

While waiting for the expedition to begin, Gorteth took the time to update his backup memory. He generally added his recent files about every twelve hours.

ooc> Bump...

ooc> Grrr. BuMp AgAiN.

OOC: Don't look at me, you have Mike to incarcerate, or at least interrigate, I'm letting you decide on this one.

Vector eventually emerged from the Armory, his typical poncho draped over the greater portion of his body, and no other sign that he carried a truly massive amount of firepower today.

He motioned for Gorteth to follow him, picked up an inconspicuous whistle lying on a nearby crate (which got something of an inquisitive bark from elsewhere in the cargo hold), and walked out of the ship. Two Yarghs departed the ship as well, and kept to the Skyline to avoid detection.

A couple blocks from Jaq's bar, Vector stopped.

"Okay you, do your disguise and head on in. Me and the Yargh's are take a roundabout route. Jaq's the bartender. Also see if you can spot any thugly-types so that we're not caught off guard again. I want to be ready for the fools this time."

As Gorteth entered the building, he saved a still image of the room, examining it for potential trouble as he headed for the bar. This way, he could spot any likely enemies without seeming to look for them. Indeed, to anyone without the equipment to detect his unusual compostion, he looked perfectly ordinary. His voice lacked the artificial sound that usually made it so distinctive.

"Gimme a beer - whatever kind's convenient will be fine."

ooc> Sorry for the delay.

ic> Jaq was pacing back and forth, drying beer glasses as he always did. The previous day had been quite interesting; 2 bounty hunters arrived at his bar in one night, Space marines had arrived on the planet, and he lost contact with one of his agents. His boss hadn't given him much information on what had been going on, only the order to keep his eyes open more than usuall. It was that order that stuck in his mind when a new customer came up to the counter.

Any other day, Jaq wouldn't have payed the man any extra attention. However, his intuition was telling him something wasn't right; his cleverly hidden bionic eye confirmed that. He didn't want to try drugging its beer. He didn't want to risk it, especially when chances were high that it wouldn't work. All Jaq did was put out his normal routine.

"Greetings, stranger," said Jaq with a smile, sliding a beer to Gorteth. "It this your first time in Sentinal?"

"Yeah... I'm meeting an old friend. Anything I should see while I'm here?"

Gorteth took a gulp of beer. A quick chem-analysis revealed nothing unusual.

OOC: Is there anyone there that might stand out as potential trouble?

ooc> No, not really.

ic> Jaq turned back to the newcommer. He'd been a bartender long enough to know what "meeting an old friend" usually meant.

"Old friend?" he asked. "What's the name? I may be able to point you in the right direction."

"Alek Värkin" Gorteth replied, naming one of his crewmen on the Dragon's Fang.

ic> Jaq thought for a minute. One in his job heres many names, but this was not one of them.

"Sorry," Jaq replied. "The name doesn't sound familliar."

"Oh well... I'll find him. Thanks fer asking."

ic> Jaq didn't like the look of this newcommer. Especially with the number of bounty hunters that had already shown up recently, he decided that it would be wise to trust his instincts. Jaq went to the back and immediately contacted his employer.

Boss, there has been an unusual number of bounty-hunters looking for you lately. I'm not sure, but there may be another one in my bar right now. I think it would be smart to send of few of your guys over here as soon as possible, just to be on the safe side.

Meanwhile Jaq ran a few searches on the newcommer.

And Vector looked on with X-ray eyes, watching Jaq type in codes and phrases as he worked. A dinky little eavesdropping device would catch any voices roaming about the selected area.

"Yargh, you getting this?"

Yes, master. Matching finger movements to keyboards. He appears to be running computer queries in regard to our shapeshifting friend.

"Be ready to move as soon as he leaves that sucker alone. In and out, quick and easy. Get the locations, bag the boss, and let the booze'n'schmooze'n commence."

ic> After sending the message to his employer, Jaq went to a hidden room in the back of the bar, right next to the beer storage room. He slid open a spot on the wall revealing a room filled with a weapons cache. He prepped a few guns "just in case" and walked back to the front. He might have to close the bar early.

Gorteth switched one of his visual sensors for a tech scanner, carefully timing the trade so that a blink hid the slight shimmering that accompanied it. Aside from this brief shimmer, there was no visible change to his eyes, and he liked getting a nice assortment of views. As Jaq returned, the MX gave ran a brief scan, checking for weapons and anything else that might show up...

OOC: Sorry about the delay - I couldn't log on over Thanksgiving break.

Jaq walked up to the front counter.

"I'm sorry everyone," he said to the various patrons of his bar. "I need to close up early tonight. You'll all need to go home." With a few grumbles and a few drunks being hauled off, the bar began to empty out.

Vector rather nonchalantly wandered into an alley beside the bar, keeping an eye on his HUD as he went. He tentatively fingered the freaky little teleportation device he'd looted from the quickbitch's corpse. He'd been practicing with it a bit and had a rough hang of the operating processes, but he wasn't going to take any chances with a port of over twenty feet.

He noted the sudden appearance of the aggravated crowd walking away from the bar, and grinned slightly. The nature of light in the alley was somewhat... nonexistent. He was just a shadow in the darkness being supported by multiple four armed droids with thermal sensors.

You are directly outside the target chamber, master...

"Oh goody. Poofing now."

He toggled the preset port destination (10 feet in front of him), and vanished, reappearing what appeared to be a few steps from the necessary computer terminal...

"Oh? Sorry to hear that. Well, I'll most likely see ya later..."
Gorteth quickly gulped down his remaining beer, payed Jaq, and headed for the door. As he approached it, he gave it a quick analysis for security measures. Hopefully Vector had gotten in, but if they had to make a less subtle strike, he wanted to know what they'd be up against.