Chapter 1: Strike From The Heavens

The Lab: Replicant B types furiously at the console in cinematic hacking style, clearly to much effect as one of the hard ion walls dissipates; 4 walls remain.

Replicant A runs around to the other side of the containment zone, taking cover behind the hard ion walls.

It's Voja's turn.

Fletcher: You’re no medic, but you know enough to get him stable (since you passed by 3). He doesn’t seem to be in a shape to move or give you any advice on the business in the lab, though, as he’s drifting in and out of consciousness.

Amp: You recognise the unit symbol on the side of the Wildcat; it belongs to the 7th Ghosts, a division famed for their impressive trick gunplay and led by celebrity agent Merissa Forgrave, a natural public personality who rose to notability as a relatively fresh agent when her entire division was killed by cultists live on screen and she flipped out and destroyed each of them in more and more brutal ways.

Probably not someone you want to anger.

With a small sigh of relief, James checked Isaac's breathing and pulse one last time.  They finally seemed somewhat steady; hopefully he should last long enough to receive some proper medical attention.  Wanting to give the UIG a bad name and letting a guy get killed horribly for pretty much no reason were two very different things in James's book, even if they did work for a rival.  At least those damned corporate office training courses came in handy for something!

"Zushe, I've managed to stabilise this guy for now.  Heading to your location."  What he didn't mention was that he'd be bringing a plus one along to this party.  Grinning hugely in anticipation of the fight ahead, James scooped up Isaac, hoisting him over his shoulder in a fireman's lift, and started to run as fast as he could towards the central building.  What better way to make a fight more fun, than to give himself a handicap with a self-imposed escort mission?

Voja looked down at the slightly smoking wolf at Zushe's feet. They probably had that handled, Zushe was right, those plasma cannons would be easily the biggest threat. Shouldering his shield to allow for more control of Jonnochka, the huge Russian leaped into the air, bringing the hammer down in a rocket-powered over head swing into the Vigilator. Unfortunately, he was still getting used to his new favourite weapon, and the droid was able to duck slightly to the side, as she pulverised it's cannon.

Agility CC: AT14 (after charge), 12 rolled, 34 damage. Random pulp: Shoulder

"Did we receive any details about extraction? Our insertion has prompted a Fed agent division to respond. ETA," Amp paused, peering into the distance and waving her hand back and forth to indicate 'more or less' to an imagined audience, ".... A minute or so?" She tilted her head this way and that. The situation had already escaped her, what was left to do but relax and see what happened. [Regains 1 HP]

In The Lab: As Voja breaks off the mechanical arms attaching one of its cannons to its body, the Vigilator makes a series of tones resembling a frustrated dialling phone and attempts to shoot him with the other. Unfortunately for Voja, point-blank proves to be a good spot for it and it deals 39 plasma damage, ignoring 55 AV.

The remaining cyberwolf, not wishing to come to the same fate as its comrade, steps up to attack Corva. It swipes hard with its front-left claw, dealing 16 damage before AV.

Cyberwolf B was, by the way, destroyed by Corva’s attacks. I forgot to mention that in a post.

James Fletcher: You’ll arrive after the replicants take their turns, I’ll let you know when it happens.

Amp: Your ETA seems accurate.

Zushe looked around. Those replicants needed to be stopped. Hopefully Voja could handle the Vigilator. And Corva could probably handle the wolf. Or at least keep it occupied. He ran to the nearest replicant, swords already swinging.

First attack is a pass by 10 (AT=18, roll=8), dealing 17 damage after armour.
Second attack is a pass by 10 (AT=18, roll=8), dealing 18 damage after armour.

Corva nodded to themselves as the first cyberwolf collapsed under the combination of lightning and mind lasers. Excellent. Now Zushe could take care of the second one, allowing them access to the control panel and...

Then the second wolf disengaged from Zushe and clawed Corva's face. Hissing a swear in abyssal, they let loose with their rifle once more, but the wolf knew what to expect this time and jumped aside from the first blast.

It didn't, however, dodge the second. Or the telepathic mind laser that followed. ((Rolled a 5 under 8 to hit for the second attack, 13 damage ignoring AV. Free action maximised assault does 12 damage before armour.))

Replicant B is severely damaged, leaking fluid and sparks, but still she still functions. Just.

The cyberwolf, on the other hand, is relatively intact.

Lester watched as Zushe handily finished Replicant B, or as handily finished as the Health Inspector could tell with his complete lack of skill in robotics. Instead, he had two options. One was to go for the other replicant, and the second was to help out Corva who was being menaced by a giant cyberwolf. The good news was, he didn't really have to pick.

He took four shots at the replicant A, hoping to hit her behind the huge walls:
Shot one, pass by 13, 2 bullet damage, 15 damage (max 8 ).
Shot two, pass by 13, 2 bullet damage, 15 damage (max 8 ).
Shot three, pass by 8, 3 bullet damage, 11 damage, (max 8 ).
Shot four, pass by 10, 1 bullet damage, 11 damage, (max 8 ).

And he aimed his other gun at the cyberwolf attacking Corva:
Shot five, pass by 8, 8 bullet damage, 16 total damage.
Shot six, pass by 8, 5 bullet damage, 13 total damage.

Maybe that would make a dent in it?
During it all, Lester was very aware that his hostage was watching him and his crew murder (?) (Could you murder a robot? Did it could as murder if you just turned it off? Would that kill it? What were ascended, broken robots, anyway?) this poor head's friends. Probably wouldn't make him conducive to talking. And even if they were terrorists, Lester couldn't help but feel guilty.

Hitting Replicant A behind the ion walls is an incredibly difficult task, but some of Lester's shots were good enough to pull it off (the ones that passed by 10+, to be precise), threading the needle between tiny gaps and fluctuations in the web of protection to wear Replicant A's shield down entirely and deal a further 20 damage. His other shots killed the remaining cyberworf.

Replicant B's eyes flicked left and right as she took in the situation around her. On the verge of breaking down entirely (1 HP!), she had no chance of successfully retrieving the artefact - but she could do what she could to stop these humans from getting it. Her motors weren't responding at full precision, but she still tried reaching inside her conveniently-opened torso to adjust a certain piece of machinery in there (passing the AT 20 C&R roll to jury-rig by 5). With that, she triggered it, exploding in a sudden burst of fire and dealing 29 damage to Zushe before AV. The console's damaged, too. This could be a problem.

Replicant A looked devastated, crying out in anguish as he collapsed to the floor.

At this point, James arrives! Running over here has used up his turn, but he's around.

It's Voja's turn.

Zushe was flung backwards from the force of the blast, landing in a rather undignified pile across the room that then jerked spasmodically as his internal medpack kicked in. [Zushe loses his next turn to medpack activation]

Voja's face and chest had been partially atomised by the explosion of plasma, the only thing saving his more vital parts was the now exposed metal of his skeleton. As Zushe's life signs briefly flickered into the danger zone the Russian considered going to help, but if he didn't kill this droid now, then he was a dead man. He swung Jannochka round in a tight arc, choosing accuracy over her rocket. and smashed her into the Vigilator's head.

AT 19, 9 rolled, pass by 10. 41 damage dealt (7+8+26)

In the Lab: The vigilator explodes in a burst of flame and plasma, which looks very impressive but not as impressive as Voja standing there with his metal skeleton on show.

We're now out of initiative -  the only enemy left in the room is the last replicant (A) and he's not that capable of fighting back. As mentioned before, the computers controlling the artefact sealing system seem pretty busted, but maybe you can work around that to get it out?

Amp: The Wildcat rolls up to the gate, and five armoured agents pour out, accompanied by camera drones. Immediately, guns are twirled out and pointed at you – three of the agents carry Black Cougars, one in the back has a pair of sniper rifles, and Forgrave herself stands helmetless at the front with her iconic shotgun. “The name’s Merissa Forgrave, Federation Agent. You have ten seconds to explain what you’re doing here, missy. Make it good.”

Amp just rolled her eyes. "UIG special taskforce, Itoma agent Amparo Okawa." Here she used up one of her seconds to give the WF team a nice smile, "We specialise in dealing with the DLA." Expertly, (passed L&A by 11) she pretended to cough, smeakering "Times up. Extraction plan?"

Corva scuttled at max speed towards the damaged consule. Within a moment, they had reconnected some vital wires within it; the controls lit back up as their hands danced over the keys. Their eyes flicked to the ion walls as they began to attempt to deactivate them.

((Int+Computers&AI pass by 2))

[bCorva: The good news is that you're in, and this system isn't marvellously advanced. It's very complicated, but you're good enough that you can handle that. It's just... not the fastest work. Since the DLA started the process for you, you could take the rest down in around 5 minutes. Then again, Amparo just said time is up - you could attempt something riskier, but it's going to mean rolling at -6. (I'm at work so I can't look up the specific hacking rules regarding how difficult what is, but this feels right to me so that's the number.) Of course, you don't have to - if you stick at the straightforward methods you can find the passwords for each wall and take them down slowly, one at a time, without risking any further rolls.

Amp: I'm assuming for time's sake that you submit to an ID chip scan to confirm your taskforce's existence; Forgrave's also Rank 4 for what it's worth. "Well, you seem to have done a very good job clearing out the place. Gathering up your team to leave now?"

Voja took a moment to pull out a couple of medpacks, and as the haemovine took effect, forcing his flesh to regrow over his bones, he also swapped out his shield for a fresh covert shield. Once that business was out of the way he turned to his division leader. So, where do you need me? Once his face had been repaired, it became apparent that Voja was having a good time, and was keen to find some more excitement.

Naturally. "My team? Aww, thank you but no. To both, I'm afraid. I'm not the leader I mean. Also, we aren't finished here yet." Amp's lips twitched, her smile not cracking but not real either. There was only so much she could do to play for time. She could ask questions of her own, she did have some after all but... The lawyer suspected that the feds would just tell her they were the ones asking the questions. A thought occurred to her and Amp's smile became real again. "We could do with your help actually. The situation remains in flux." And Amp begins to lead them to one of the other, non xenotech buildings. Assuming that they are okay with following her, of course.

With a little sigh, Lester unclipped the head that he carried at his side. He looked at it for a moment. "I'm very sorry about all of this, but it has to be done." He let the straps fall slack so the head only fell a very short distance to the ground. At the best of times, Lester was not an interrogator, and witnessing people kill your companions would not a good intel contact make.

The Inspector moved to Zushe, and once he established that he was indeed at least partially conscious, extended a hand to pull the team leader to his feet. He quickly assessed injuries, and got ready to remove another med pack in case Zushe seemed quite injured. He had taken a bomb to the face, after all.

Amp: Gimme a roll to take charge of the situation, obvious ones are Presence + Attitude/Lying & Acting but I'll take anything you can weasel your way into rolling.

Lester: "You could-" clank "-change your ways! You're just so used to the false principles of the humanocentric regime that you fail to see where you belong, that doesn't make what you're doing necessary."

Having arrived mere moments after the replicant had taken the quick way out, James just stood in the doorway for a moment staring, his charge/meatshield/hostage/patient slung over his shoulder limply.  Looking at the state of his 'comrades', and the room at large, he couldn't help but feel (with some frustration) that he'd quite missed out on the more fun part of the mission.  Observing Amp's exchange via U-view with the rather unfriendly new arrivals did not help to assuage that feeling.  "God damn it," he muttered to himself, then stepped forward to help Lester with Zushe, carefully depositing his unconscious charge beside the doorway.

Lester nodded at James, while turning to the head on the ground. "Where lives are at stake, we have a duty to protect them. I must to prevent death." Though what he thought of human death as compared to robot lives, he didn't say.

Zushe took the offered assistance to clamber to his feet with a nod of acknowledgement. "Thank you, guys. Corva, get us through that system - we need that artifact." He took a moment to properly take in the scene that Amparo was facing.

Amp, delay them as long as you can. I'm calling in our extraction as soon as Corva breaches those walls, unless anyone has any better ideas? he smeakered, eyeing the red button on his comms. It was probably a drastic solution, considering that Lazard would have preferred them to wait for the scheduled extraction, but he would rather call in drastic measures than lose the artifact to a WF team.

His eyes flickered to the unconscious Fed that James had brought. "James, he's your responsibility. Keep hold of him. They may want him back on Black Knight to find out about the artifact. And somebody shut that up." He gestured towards the Centaur head.

Jonnochka crunched down into the Centaur's head, finishing the job. The huge Russian stepped over the remains, glancing over towards Corva. They seemed to be busy doing something to the computers, but who knew how long that would take? Should I go give Amp some backup or should we all stay here?