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#GoingRogue – September 20, 2016
Steve decides it's better to hedge his bets with the poorly-armed carbine-wielding drell than the pyromaniac and sweeps his assault rifle across the group of fresh attackers, emptying the remainder of the antique magazine as a few rounds pelt off his shields. Luckily for him, his breather from the flamethrower was more than enough time for a recharge. As the click rings out, he glances down at the weapon, tilts it briefly to begin
looking it over in an attempt at figuring out how to reload it, then quickly decides now probably isn't the time to begin studying for his degree in antique rifles and simply tosses the rifle aside. In one swift motion, he scoops up a fresh rifle from the hands of the dead drell at his feet and rounds the corner to put some more distance between himself and the flame-spewing drell, continuing to press his attack against the
Nathan is thrown to the ground, crashing into the dust. He curses and quickly scrambles onto his feet, trying to re-orientate himself. "Keep moving!" He calls out to Ehanis, charging towards the nearest cover, firing at the drell setting up the machinegun.
Ehanis is thrown on the ground as well, but gets to her feet quickly enough. The obscured vision works both ways, and she takes fewer bullets to her barrier as she stays low for a few seconds to reload. She charges towards the cover, firing bursts towards the drell behind it.
The machinegun opens fire before either of them can reach the concrete, cover, and between it and the dozens of other drell their shields go down fast, bullets starting to strike high-tech armor. A well-placed bullet could make it through. When they reach the cover the drell behind it brandishes a knife and stabs down at Ehanis from over it, but a moment later a burst of bullets rip through him - the others are not ceasing their fire, the
concrete getting chewed away by the unrelenting hail of bullets. Off to the side, on the other side of the shantytown, some of the vehicles have started moving their way. Indoors meanwhile, The lead drell goes down to Steve's fire, the rest retreating to the doorway, staying behind cover. The door opposite the one full of flames is still closed.
Steve continues down the corridor at a brisk pace, rifle stock pressed against his shoulder as he watches for the drell to show themselves, finger hovering over the trigger and poised to attack at the first sign of an enemy. "Come on, now!" he taunts, "I ain't done playin' with ya'll yet! Stick your ugly ass faces back out so I can blow 'em off!"
Nathan grimaces as his armour thuds, but so far, he's not feeling the sting of a bullet. He pulls off a grenade and slings it towards a group of drell, having it detonate amongst them. He then makes to dive behind the nearest cover, clinging to whatever he can.
Ehanis tries fighting back, but sighs relieved as bullets kill him. Some bullets did hit her during the approach, but none well placed enough to cause more than a grazing wound. She don't care who or what killed him, and she wouldn't be surprised if it was more friendly fire. She reloads and hunkers down behind cover, letting her shields recharge while her biotic barrier takes the few rounds that make it to her. "I see vehicles
The machinegun, gunner still alive despite their best efforts, is chewing away quickly at the cover they're hiding behind, and stray shots that make it through are slowing down the recharge process of their shields. The two vehicles have made it through the fence now, and are circling around to flank them on the flat ground they charged in from. Mounted guns - a heavy machinegun on one, and what looks like some kind of light cannon
grafted from another vehicle on the other both start swinging to aim at the two intruders. As they start to reach a flanking position the gunfire from the rooftops, the machinegun and the other drell hiding behind various slabs of concrete starts to die down. Inside, meanwhile, as Steve makes his way down the corridor towards the carbine-wielding drell, a figure does appear in the doorway. Kell, wielding Steve's Carnifex. "Stop!" he
orders, a drell peeking out from either side, aiming their carbines at the human as well - there's about 8 meters between them. Behind Steve, the last door can be heard opening from out of sight.
Nathan clings to the cover, dropping his pistol and snatching off his launcher. He sights on a car, switching to frags and firing at one, leading it as best he can. "Do one, you fuckers!" He grabs a frag from his torso and quickly slings it at a group of drell, detonating it as it ends up amongst them.
Ehanis aims at the other vehicle and fires a few well aimed Locust bursts towards the gunner. The biotic barrier was eventually taken out by the stray shots, but her shields' recharge is not slowed.
Steve slows his pace, but keeps his rifle leveled on Kell. "Eh. On account of you bein' able to translate that primitive mumbo jumbo you folks speak, I'm gonna go ahead and assume you're the lead primitive. Ol' head honcho. Chieftan." he snickers. "Gonna give ya one opportunity to set that weapon down before ya hurt yourself with it and command the rest of these folks to stand down. I don't give opportunities like this too often,
so I recommend you take it while ya still can. Cuz option B? Well option B is I come on over there with a speed the likes you ain't ever seen before and take a look at what's inside that lizard skull of yours." He sucks in a deep breath as another twinge of pain rings throughout his skull. A bright shimmer begins to envelope him as his teeth clench down. Thump. Thump. Thump.
A loud explosion rings out as the lead vehicle is struck by a grenade, the front end going up in flames as it comes to an abrupt stop. The gunner jumps out, and is soon followed by another drell, but a secondary explosion incinerates him before he can make it out. Ehanis' shots force the gunner of the second vehicle to duck down behind the bullet shields of his cannon, but the cannon still sights in on them. One of Nathan's disk
grenades explodes among the makeshift concrete barricades filled with armed drell, cries of pain and death filling the air before being cut off by the sound of the second grenade's explosion. This causes the fire from those still alive to resume, and a sniper shot rings out from above, punching through what little remains of their cover and hitting the human's shoulderpad. In the factory Kell smiles grimly. "You should not have come
back here, alien filth. We should never have helped you. You will pay for the lives you have taken. Surrender now, or it will be with your life." He stares right at the human, seeming unfazed by the display of his powers. The same cannot be said for the flimsily armed drell behind him.
Steve cocks his head to the side, an uneven almost twitch-like movement as another sharp spike of pain tears through his skull. "Helped us?" he chuckles, "Ya'll tried lockin' me up like an animal! We came with goods to trade and ya'll just-..." he trails off, giving a shake of his head. "Know what? Fuck it. I like option B better anyway." he says, squeezing the trigger to unload a quick volley of gunfire down the hallway as he
begins to charge towards Kell. With a flick of his wrist forward, he whips the rifle at Kell and follows it up by jerking his arm back, aiming to bridge some of the gap between him and Kell by bringing the drell to him... biotically. Forcefully. If the pull succeeds, Steve would attempt to follow right through the drell with a clothesline to the skull.
Ehanis keeps firing tiny bursts at the gunman with the gaol of suppressing him. "You got another one of those, Ten?" She uses her biotics to get the barrier back up.
Nathan grimaces as his shoulder is jerked forwards. "Nope! Last one!" He switches to his rifle and quickly pops out, aiming at the sniper tower and firing a burst towards it. "Relocate! New cover, move!" He starts to make his way towards fresh cover, switching his aim to suppress whoever is still living nearby.
The sniper, high above, seems unaffected by the attempted suppressive fire, and a shot strikes Nathan as soon as he makes a run for new cover - the machinegun opens up on him as well, tearing away the rest of his shields, and shots start striking his armor. As it happens, the gunner's cover is the closest. As the human reaches the concrete the drell abandons the weapon, falling back just in time as rifles open up on the human - from
above and from the sides. He's now far enough in that there are drell behind cover to his sides that have full line of sight on him despite the concrete. He's surrounded in every direction but the one he came from - then again, that's where the remaining vehicle is. Ehanis manages to get her barrier up just in time before the vehicle-mounted cannon opens fire, the supressed gunner firing a blind shot which strikes the concrete next to
her, crumbling a large portion of the wall and knocking her aside. In the building, a kinetic barrier flares to life around Kell as Steve opens fire with the rifle, and the drell leader responds in kind, managing to get off two shots with the hand cannon before the rifle comes flying towards him, disrupting his aim. The biotics pull him in, but the drell moves quickly, blocking Steve's arm and pistol whipping his visor hard, using the
momentum of the pull to enhance the attack. The armed drell by the door hold their fire, unwilling to risk hitting their leader - and perhaps having seconds thoughts about going up against the alien telekinetic.
Ehanis growls and fires another few bursts at him from her knocked down position, hoping it sends the message that he missed. Hearing all the fire that's presumably at Nathan, she remains where she is. After her reload, she tries shooting in short bursts towards the driver.
Nathan immediately turns back around as he realises that the closest cover is the machinegunners. "FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK." He hisses as bullets slice past his undersuit, sharp pains flaring through his body. He dives back into cover with Ehanis, deciding to open up on the incoming vehicle with her.
Steve's shields flare up as the Carnifex rounds impact. Small cracks begin to splinter outwards across the surface of his visor once the pistol makes contact and Steve stumbles back a few feet from the strike, clearly not prepared for Kell to be such a capable opponent. Doesn't make much of a difference. Hit him hard enough and he'll die just like the rest of them. He surges forward, realizing he needs to remain close to Kell in
order to avoid taking fire from his own pistol. His left hand reaches for Kell's wrist to control the pistol while he slams a biotically charges right fist against the drell's ribs, aiming to headbutt him in unison in an attempt at overwhelming the compound leader.
Kell withdraws the pistol hand before Steve can grab it, and while the armor plating beneath his coat absorbs some of the impact of the biotic punch it still causes him to loose his breath and slam into the wall. The headbutt sends him staggering backwards. He lets out a cry of rage as a pale purple omni-blade materializes around his right hand without warning, and he stabs at Steve's chest. Behind them, in the intersection a
shield-wielding drell has appeared, blocking the corridor. Outside, the machinegun and the numerous remaining riflemen are quickly chewing away what little cover remains for Nathan and Ehanis. After firing the cannon, the gunner in the vehicle pops his head out, and takes a Locust to the face, slumping over the controls as the turret starts spinning. The driver remains safe, protected from their fire by the heavier vehicles armor
Steve steps to his left as the glow materializes out of thin air, but it's too late. The omni-tool rends the side of his armor as if it was little more than paper, gouging a chunk out of his side. The searing smell of flesh fills the air as the wound is burned shut just as quickly as it appeared. The glow around Steve intensifies and everything goes silent for him. The pain throbbing in the back of his head grows louder than
anything else in the room and becomes almost blinding in its severity, like a bright white light on every side of him. His own pained, angry roar hardly even reaches his own ears as it rings out through the hallway and across the comms channel. He aims a powerful, biotically charged punch at the side of Kell's head with his left arm. Powerful enough that, if it were to make contact, would probably break his own hand like a
collection of twigs. And a second. And a third. Flares of biotic energy dissipate from his core with each strike, like life force draining from his body.
Ehanis ceases firing at the cabin when her clip is half empty. She winces at Steve's screan. "Fuck, we have to move, Ten," she says. "I'll draw their attention." She scrambles to her feet and sprints towards the back of the truck, hoping that any bullets missing her peppers it.
Nathan nods and joins her, charging towards the car and firing his rifle at the cockpit, teeth gritted as he ducks and weaves to try and throw off some aim of the drell.
Kell brings up his left hand to block the strike to his head. There is a crunch and a cry of pain as the bones inside it break and he staggers back. He just barely blocks the second strike as well with the same arm, doing his best to ignore the stabbing pain reminding him that one of his limbs has just been rendered useless. As the third strike comes he dodges aside and slices down with the omni-blade, hoping to take the hand
completely off, and regardless of success he immediately follows up with an elbow right towards Steve's nose. Outside, gunfire peppers the two fleeing mercenaries, all the drell with a clear line of sight now that they're running across the flat plains towards the vehicle. It's still at least a hundred meters away, and their shields have already given way to the relentless fire. A rocket explodes to their left, too far away to harm
them. Another to the right, closer. They won't make it like this, running across open ground with no cover whatsoever. Bullets are ripping into their armor, and sooner or later the sniper will hit its mark too... ahead the cannon is still spinning, and a shot suddenly fires - right into another vehicle that was being prepped to come after them.
Ehanis sighs. "I said I draw their attention, not both of us," she hisses over the comms. "You, cover to the right; I, left." She uses her biotics to reinforce her shields and hurries towards the cover to the left of her.
Steve's final, wild punch misses, but manages to throw him out of the direct trajectory of the omni-blade swipe, causing it to merely graze across his gauntlet and carve a painful little reminder into his forearm. Embers burn brightly across the edges of the cuts burned into his armor, both gauntlet and chestplate. His head snaps back as the elbow makes contact and everything goes from bright white, to dark black as his vision
threatens to fade. Focus. Focus. Each heartbeat brings another throb of pain through his body and the explosions outside are dulled and distant, as if miles and miles away. His vision returns to him, a crack in his eyepiece segmenting Kell's head from his body. The visual brings him a small amount of joy. He shakes the cobwebs from his head and takes a step back, bringing his arms up to defend himself. It's quite clear that
all the fighting and the use of his biotics have taken a hefty toll on him. But it's not going to stop him. It's his gift. The blue shine envelopes him once more. It's his curse. And if he's going to die, he's going to go down swinging.
Nathan staggers, his balance thrown as bullets strike his armour. "Oh, fuck this!" With a great degree of dexterity, he switches his loadout and cradles his M-100 in his hands. He spins and cycles to his last smoke grenade, spitting out the round into the space separating them and a great deal of the angry natives. As the smoke will bloom into a thick cloud of
obscurity, Nathan varies his movement to a more hap-hazard pattern. "I am not dying on this rock, Ehanis, so shut your bitching and run!" He holsters the launcher and pumps his body, relying on the adrenaline coursing through his body to give him that needed edge. Booster, focuser... and if he gets hit, painkiller.
Ehanis smirks for a brief moment. "Fuck, I thought you ran out of tricks, Ten," she says and ups her pace towards the opening in the chainlink fence. "Have another?" The truck is their only hope, so their only choice is to gamble on the driver not taking off, so... "If you can get one into the cabin, that would be fucking great!"
Kell stumbles back as well, creating some distance between himself and Steve. He glares at the human, blade still active. Gathering strength for another attack. There is a sudden thump as the shield-wielding drell behind Steve brings down a club against the back of his head in the hopes of knocking him out. Automatic fire rains down on the two mercenaries as they try to make the seemingly impossible run to the armored car. Shots
pepper the dry ground, swirling through the thick smoke as many dozen angry drell fire blindly in the hopes of preventing the escape of their attackers. Explosions sound out of view in the smoke, shockwaves rocking the two as they run. Through the fence, across the field. It's not that far now. Perhaps they can make it... dirt is spat up as the wheels of the vehicle start spinning, and it turns towards them.
Steve eyes glow bright with anger, hidden behind the cracked glass. His shoulders rise and fall as he sucks in breath after breath. The glow intensifies as his posture shifts forward and-..... Nothing. As the club slams against the armored plating of the rear of his helmet, his head snaps forward violently and the blackness fills his vision once more, like ink in a crystal clear pool. The glow drains from his body and his hand
reaches forward, clutching at the ground as he struggles to stay conscious, pulling himself forward. His entire body goes slack as he drifts off, the only feeling remaining in his body for the moment being the dull pounding in the back of his head. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Ehanis continues running towards it. She won't give it enough time to react, and thus won't get out of its way until the last few seconds. She's agile, and believes she can dodge this graceless mass of metal and wheels. Her shields maintain a constant low capacity as each recharge is cancelled by a stray shot hitting through the smoke. Fuck, when were they ever going to run out of ammunition? She had seen ancient drell weapons
when helping out back at base, so she knew they would run dry eventually, but it felt like their supply of ammo was boundless. "I left, you right," she shouts over comms. "Let's confuse him."
Nathan grunts as he runs. "I'm down to a flashbang in the launcher, that's it!" As he sees the armoured vehicle turn, he pales as he realises what's likely going to happen. Without even acknowledging his own actions, his launcher yet again reappears in his hands, the weapon having already cycled its last shot into the tube. If he can just buy them a few more
precious seconds... "Don't look!" WHUMP! The flashbang screeches towards the armoured car with the sole purpose of blinding the driver and disorientating him. As soon as the projectile is gone from the barrel, the M-100 is back on his back, rifle instead occupying his hands. He snaps it up and fires the weapon, the meaty thud of its burst fire driving new
zeal into him. Right now, his reasoning is that the metal is strong enough to withstand the ancient ammunition that the locals use, but perhaps not the driven calibre of their modern weapons.
The armored car accelerates, its bulk coming right at them, the flashbang doing little to stop it, but as Nathan fires his rifle at the driver's cabin from head-on it veers off suddenly to the left, making a complete u-turn and starting to go away from the two running mercenaries, seemingly out of control. Bullets continue to zip past them. The increasing distance provides some help to reduce the accuracy of the drell, but the
Ehanis stops at the truck turning, and that's when the sniper hit her. She growls as she feels the bullet plonk against her armor, but it's not getting through her armor plating due to the remainder of her shield slowing it down. "Sniper hit me," she calls out over comms. "We can't let him get away!" She keeps running after it, looking it over for any purchase to climb it with should she be lucky enough to catch up with it. Her
biotics flare around her, and a weak barrier is brought back up, hoping to slow down a follow-up shot.
Nathan groans very loudly as the car goes the other way from them. "Of course it wouldn't be that easy!" He takes a brief moment to snap himself around, bringing his weapon to his shoulder. He fires a burst at the tower, mostly due out of sheer frustration at the bastard still being alive. Even now, with death bearing down on them from every direction, he still
cannot fathom how he managed to miss a large and stationary target such as a smokestack. He's quickly turning back towards the rogue car, his chest heaving with laboured breaths as he sprints in the scorching sun. "Isn't there something you can do?! Bioti-flip the car or pant something?!"
The sniper's response to Nathan's fruitless firing is immediate. A rifle shot, an easy hit as the human slows down to fire. The car continues to turn left, soon enough coming right back at them, with the speed and angle it's turning, it's likely going to pass right infront of them. Inaccurate fire from the rest of the drell continue to come their way, and another rocket zooms past, nearly hitting the out-of-control vehicle.
Ehanis snorts. "I'm not a fucking matriarch," she says. "No, I deal with people-sized targets." She eyes the car's trajectory while attaching the locust to her thigh, and starts sprinting towards it, correcting her course underways. If she gets close without it making another turn, she'll jump and grip the ladder for dear life. Now is the time for stupidly high risks, for the high rewards are sorely needed if they're going to
Nathan staggers, the bullet having lodged itself firmly into his chest as he fired. Now, running and zig-zagging like a panicked deer. As he watches Ehanis, he gawps, breifly staggering at her display of sheer... stupidity. However, he can't really blame her so... "If you survive, I dibs driving!"
Ehanis slams into the side of the car hard. Keeping her grip on the ladder is going to be painful. Arm-getting-torn-out-of-its-socket painful. But once there, it's just a short climb to the roof turret hatch leading inside the vehicle. The armored car continues turning, heading away from Nathan once more. Bullets are still flying after the exposed human.
Nathan is now in a bit of a bind. See, he has no cover, the car is going the other way and he has no chance of catching up to it until it comes back around. So, he does the only thing any sensible person in his position would do. "AAAAAHHHHHHHHSSSSHHHIIIITTTTT!" He starts to duck and run and dive and dance this way and that way and forward and back and holy shit he
Ehanis groans, the overwhelming painful reminder of her desperate effort shouting at her to give up. She says nothing into the comms, gritting her teeth as she clings to the ladder as if it was a mile above the ground. They're dead if she doesn't manage this. Once she finally gets the grip of it and the pain goes from hellish to terrible, she climbs up along the vehicle into the turret, her steps slow and careful. The steps
As Ehanis drops into the vehicle she finds herself standing behind the driver's seat, in which a dead drell is slumped over the wheel. Outside, bullets continue to pepper the ground around Nathan, another two sniper rounds narrowly missing the panicking human. An explosion in the sand-dune ahead, sand everywhere.
Ehanis smirks, as she can hardly believe this herself. She begins sneaking up the drell, but stops and raises an eyebrow as she realizes he's not moving. She makes use of her biotics to lessen his mass to about two-thirds and drags him out of the driver's seat, losing her balance and falling backwards in the process. That evokes another groan of pain due to her arm.
Nathan continues to run around in circles and zig-zags, at one point squawking like a kicked goose. "EHANISHURRYTHEFUCKUP!!!!" He dives out the way of a whizzing sniper round, scrambling towards the car as it likely begins another pass. "STOPTHECAR!" He continues his erratic movements as he makes a beeline for the transport, now having long since forgoing the idea
Bang. Bang. Boom. Hell keeps raining down on Nathan, and they're not all missing. Shoulderplate. Shield generator. Leg. Bang. Bang. Bang. Another rocket narrowly misses the car. How many do they have?
Ehanis scrambles into the driver's seat once she feels the turn's force weigh her down ceasing, and then as problem one was taken care of, problem two is rapidly approaching her from the front. "Turning right," she shouts into the comms before rotating the steering wheel clockwise. "How do I stop this thing?!"
Nathan squeaks and turns off to the side, slipping and sliding in the sand as he struggles for traction in the sand. "Pedals! At your feet! Hit one of them until it stops!" Move, legs, move!
There is no sign of any pedals on the vehicle, but there's a pair of triggers, one on each side of the wheel. The car turns right as the asari spins the wheel, once again heading away from Nathan. Bullets continue to impact around him, but their number is lessening. Shortage of ammunition perhaps?
Ehanis kicks around at the floor looking for pedals, but she finds none. "No pedals," she calls back. She does notice the triggers and figures she might as well try operating them. She presses the rightmost one, and if it doesn't stop it, she tries the other.
Nathan sprints after the car, figuring she has it under control... in the sense she won't run him over. "Steve?! Steve you there? We got a car, man, we got a car! How're you holding?" He asks, ducking under a bullet. He raises his middle-finger up towards the drell compound, waving it at them as he continues after the Ehanis' hijacked car.
The car first accelerates, and then comes to an abrupt stop, likely jerking the unbuckled Ehanis forward.
Ehanis is indeed jerked forward, and the car is as well as she grips both triggers hard for a second. "Hurry up, Ten," she says once the vehicles comes to a second stop about a foot ahead of the first. "These people have rockets too, and their vehicles seems to go out with a big boom."
Nathan catches up to the car and, after managing a panicked climb up the side of it, drops into the car. "Do you know how to drive?!" He asks with laboured breaths, his shields finally having time to recharge. And, as a bonus, he now has a nice selection of antique bullets to sell when they get back home.
Bullets ping off of the vehicle's armor, and a rocket just barely passes over them. Who knows if they'll be as lucky next time.
Ehanis nods. "No time to swap places," she says. "You man the cannon while I circle the compound." She presses the acceleration-trigger and begins turning with the wheel, to both get a feel for it and to evade the next rocket. "How hard can it be?"
Nathan jerks at the sudden acceleration, but manages to stay upright as his shields reach full capacity. "How many terrible ideas started with that sentence...?" He clambers into the gunner's position and operates the cannon, quickly running over its design and layout. I mean, a gun is a gun, after all. It shouldn't be that hard to figure out.
As Ehanis starts to move the armored car another rocket strikes its side, blowing the cannon to pieces, sending a shower of metal shrapnel at Nathan, and nearly tipping the vehicle over as its left side jerks up into the air, balancing on one side for a moment before crashing back down.
Ehanis looks on wide-eyed as the vehicle jerks to the side, and she squeezes the acceleration trigger harder when it hit the ground. "Fuck!" She does carefully turn the vehicle to move towards the west. "Just when things were starting to look up..." She doesn't look at Nathan when she asks, "What do we do now?"
Nathan cries out in surprise and anger as their best chance of kicking drell ass is shredded to pieces. Thankfully, his shields bore the brunt of the shrapnel, so he's mostly just shaken. He retreats back within the car and grabs the driver's seat, using it to stay upright as he briefly mulls over their options. With no contact from Steve, he's either captured...
or dead. And like it or not, they do not have the means of taking on an entire facility of armed foes who clearly have heavy weapons capable of turning them into a burning wreck. "Drive back towards the bunker," he says with a heavy heart, the choice not coming easily to him. "We need to find Jase and the others." He taps the side of his helmet and chimes
into the comms. "Steve... if you're still alive... I'm sorry. We can't get in to help you. But I swear on my life, I'm coming back for you with the others. And when we get off this dust-ball... I'm buying." He lowers his hand and punches the wall of the car, a snarl passing through clenched teeth. "Drive."