Nerrone's Rangers IC

The pause in the mech's attack was enough time for Flank to regain his composure, but two whole, precious seconds passed in the time it took him to bring his body to running speed, his body weight slowing what would otherwise be well practised movements and threatening to betray him to a shallow grave in the lawn.

The machine swung its arm at Flank, which he could only avoid by throwing himself at the ground. It raised its arm and brought it down again, but Flank rolled three times to the right while his cannon turned three times to the left to keep the hulking figure in his sight. For each revolution he fired his cannon at what he hoped was the machine's damaged head.

"Attention: Structural weakness found."

Grey woke up, the edges of his vision dimming, and hearing nothing but his heart beat. He saw the fight in front of him, the mech was taking damage, but was still a serious threat.

"Attention: structural weakness found."

His suit was yelling at him again, the voice function was somehow switched on

"Attentio-"

"Shut up and put a marker on whatever you're talking about"

A red marker appeared on the mechanic head, which was currently flooded with yellow sparks.

"Important functions on marked location, reccomend immediate action."

Grey noticed his pistol next to him, he grabbed it, centered the mech's head in his sights. He didn't know who these people are, but he might as well try to help them out.

He fired twice, and slipped back into unconsciousness

Flank's rapid movement was hardly conducive to good marksmanship, but nevertheless his target's size and proximity afforded him some benefit: his blasts scored dents and wide scorch-marks on the mech's body, but the head remained intact.

Grey's shots flew in unexpectedly from the direction of the Lacuna: one sailed wide of the mark, carving another new hole in the paving of the square. The other was more favoured by fortune, and found its mark on the side of the mech's head. It was not the most powerful of blows, but the already-damaged optics sparked and crackled — fully half the visual feed being streamed to the control hub blacked out.

"Almost got him, guys!" Dagon called over the comms, leveling his rifle at the joints in the mech's legs and letting off a volley of shots, "Give it all you got!"

Undeterred, the mech aborted its charge as Flank rolled, stumbling again as it turned to follow his movement, and sent one massive foot pistoning down at the ground in an attempt to very finally stop his squirming. They all felt the earth tremble under the force of the blow.

Bor, finally having a good shot after everybody was done jumping on and off the mech, lines up his sights and fired six shots into the knee of the mech's damaged leg in the hopes of knocking it down. If he succeeded, the machine would essentially no longer be a threat.

Having both contributed in their unique and seperate ways, Xol and Grecsh began firing plasma bolts from their respective weaponry. They were both aiming for the mech's already damaged head.

Flank's roll ended with him mouth down into the dirt. With his cannon still pointed at the machine, he saw it lift its gigantic foot and drive its impending finishing-move at him. Basic instinct told him to get out from under it as fast as he could.

Once again, his jet boots were activated and Flank seemed to slide away from the robot as if he were being hauled away on an invisible rope. Needless to say, doing such a thing while lying on his front successfully crammed a fistful of dirt into his mouth. As the gigantic foot made uninterrupted contact with the lawn, Flank bounced as the ground beneath him shook.

He came to a stop, leaving a trail of overturned earth behind him as a crashed spaceship might, and got straight back onto his feet. He heaved up the dirt from his mouth — an entire fistful — and struggled to regain his breath. Once he had that sorted out, he took flight with his wings and boots, hovering level with the top of the machine. He had to stay off the ground if he wanted to continue occupying three dimensions. Plasma bolts and other such projectiles swarmed into his view as they made a bee line for some part of the machine: a contribution made by the other rangers.

With his new vantage point, Flank began strafing to the right of the machine, shooting at the shoulder of its perilous right arm in the hope of putting it out of the crushing business.

With Flank, Bor, Grecsh, Dagon and Xol all pitching in, the combined small arms fire was finally having a noticeable effect. The mech threw up its one functional arm protectively in front of its damaged head, and stalked towards Xol and Grecsh. It stumbled onto one knee as a flurry of shots from Bor and Dagon found their mark between the plates of its right knee and foreleg; white-hot plasma and flak rounds burning holes in the armour of its chest and arm all the while.

Struggling to return to a standing position with one of its legs damaged, the mech's operator lowered its arm momentarily to push it to its feet.

(Short post alert!)

(Bianca) "That thing isn't going down without some hellava fight huh?" Without thinking she left Flank's side and aimed for the mech's damaged leg. If Bianca could make it's leg more unstable, it's balence will be so terrible that it might not even stand up again.
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(Chalen) "Rghh! Stupid dirt! Why you mean to my eyes?!" Chalen lost the others and had to relie on his hearing. As long he could hear gunshots and occasionly the odd swearing, he'll know where they are. Chalen hoped he hadn't missed out all the fun to soon.

Rhak shot bursts towards the mech's arm. As he did Rhak screamed to the others:
"Concentrate fire on the arm! Don't let it rise up again!"

Bor heard Rhak's order and knew what he had to do. Everything they had done together so far had been leading up to this one moment. He dramatically lifted his Plasma Pulsers, aimed them deep into the behemoth's knee, and...fired.

Seeing that everyone seemed a safe distance from the brute, and that it was beggingin to fail, IO shot a rocket at it. He aimed for its back, where there were several gaps in the things armor to accomodate for motion of its arms. If he was lucky, it may cause enough damage to finish it. Of course, it may also do barely anything and get blocked by its armor completely, or miss its target and slay another evil bush.

Xol and Grecsh stepped back a few paces as a response to the mech's movements toward them. The O'onthos grabbed another magnetic grenade from his belt and chucked it at the near-destroyed automaton, aiming once again for its head.

An explosion of yellow flame blossomed on the head of the mech, and pieces of metal were send flying in all directions as the last of its optics were shredded by the grenade blast.

Its legs and arm buckled slightly as a handful of shots found the gaps in the mech's armour, and finally IO's rocket sent what remained of the machine toppling to the ground — it fell almost in slow motion, like an enormous tree finally giving way under the efforts of a lumberjack. The ground shook once more as its body met the turf, sending little plumes of displaced dirt skyward, and the automaton moved no more.

At the pinnacle of Sapphire Point, the mech's remote operator sat back in his seat as all feed from the courtyard finally ceased.

After a long silence, Bor declared, "Well, that was fun." Turning towards the others, he called, "You guys all right?"

He checked his guns. Since people had been repeatedly jumping onto the mech during the battle, he hadn't been able to fire very much. Both guns were still at 92% power.

Flank hovered for a moment, then eased his way to the ground next to the robot and shot it again for good measure. He was most interested in the heat ray on its left arm. Had he the time and means, he would have removed it and stowed it away for himself. He thought it might even make a good weapon for the Lacuna, as he noticed that is was frighteningly unarmed.

Flank walked around the intricate device of metal, pausing to eject small piles of dirt with great, whooping coughs, and started to look for his helmet. It wasn't very hard; all he had to do was listen for the sound of music playing. Once he found it and stopped the song, he put it back on his head and tested it. The comm. link was still good and the music player was in sound condition, but when he tried to use the stealth field, the only response was a colourful assortment of bugger-all.

"Damn it!" Flank spat, pulling the crimson, square-ish piece of armour off his head. He gave it a cautious shake, and was answered by a metallic rattle.
"How the hell am I supposed to get this thing fixed?!" he yelled to the air in front of him while he turned the helmet over in his hands, as if there would be a sticky-note underneath that read 'Take it to a repair shop, idiot'.

He quickly gave up and rammed it back onto his neck. With shoulders hunched, he marched back to the machine and started yelling and kicking it for fantastic measure.

Rhak stopped the shooting and checked the clip(?). Thanks to his controlled bursts, only a third of the clip was empty. "Better conserve the ammo for later." Rhak thought.
He secured the rifle and walked towards the large body of Dagon, since he couldn't notice Kwa anywhere.
"Seems the plans have changed. The mech was probably remote controlled and if the controlling it got enough brains, he or she will call for support."
Rhak said towards Dagon, holding the rifle in a loose grip.

"Hmph, well, guess we already know time isn't our friend here," Dagon replied.

In the control hub, the lights on the mech's piloting interface dimmed and went out one by one as it registered the catastrophic system failure. Its user lingered over one final switch, which sat on the far side of the controls' layout, encased in a perspex lid and marked in yellow and black stripes.

*click*


Back in the courtyard, something deep inside the corpse of the mech began to emit a loud beeping sound.

Xol and Grecsh both instinctively knew what the beeping meant. They turned on their heels and sprinted away from the fallen mech, Xol jumping behind the metal crate yet again, Grecsh just looking to put as much distance between himself and the automaton as possible.

Rhak also noticed the beeping finding the source and screaming to the rest of the Rangers.
"BOMB! Get down!"
He found a nearby barrel to huddle up behind. As he waited for the explosion, Rhak was supprised he didn't have heard the drumming of artillery inside his during the battle.
"Have I missed it? Am I really such psycotic that I like the battle and war?"

Despite having jet black skin, Flank noticeably paled at the sound of the beeping; he was at high proximity. Without a second thought he turned around, took flight and rocketed away from the robot, flying close to the ground.
He made a bee line for the barrel that Rhak was hiding behind, but as he approached it his jet boots went inactive of their own accord, leaving Flank to once again crash and tumble. He got up quickly and dove behind another, larger barrel.

The mech detonated spectacularly.

Shards of metal and paving were sent flying in all directions as a cloud of orange fire bloomed where the mech lay. Kwa and Dagon shielded their eyes and ducked behind their boulder as shrapnel and clods of earth flew overhead.

The fireball expended itself as quickly as it formed, and when the Rangers peered over their respective scraps of cover, all that remained of the machine were a few dismembered pieces of plating, a couple of small, smoldering oil-slicks and a gigantic scorch-mark radiating out in all directions. The statue that had stood in the courtyard was now a sad pile of rubble. The smell of burning greenery and spilled hydraulic fluid filled the air.

The spilled hydraulic fluid made Bianca's eyes water. They streamed down and into her face mask. Though nothing serious occured to her condition, it was an annoying thing and probbaly such a slight embaressment. Bianca carefully wiped her eyes by the use of her arm before having to cover her own nose. The smell is very bad. "Ugh Spodes that is a really bad stench and I've smelled things far worse then this!" Bianca fustrated and gave a swift quick at the rubble, muttering something like "Thanks a lot.." under her breath. It was only then Chalen had finally caught up with the other NR members. He looked at everyone and then to the sad pile of rubble. "..I miss out fun didn't I?"

Bor had barely managed to get behind a rock before the mech exploded. While he wasn't harmed, he wasn't left in the best of moods and proceeded to spit out a long stream of Lynski curses.

Flank was quite prepared to beat something into its elemental components. All in the space of a few minutes he had been beaten over the head, lost his stealth, almost crushed, sent skidding through the dirt, almost crushed a further three times, pushed through the dirt again, nearly blown up, and once he was sure he could fly away from it all, lost the use of his jet boots and was sent to tumble through the dirt once again.

Now he was fed up — with ashen soil as much as the frustrating turn of events — and wanted nothing more than a good explanation as to why his jet boots had failed him. He hastily sat up and began inspecting his boots. They were coated in dirt, but other than that they seemed completely fine. He decided to check his armour battery instead.

"Oh."

The battery was at 3% charge. Excessive use of stealth and jump jets had caused the battery to enter conservation mode: a power-saver state entered automatically when the charge level was too low to maintain all but the most energy efficient functions. For a few hours, Flank would be without an electric claw attack and sustained flight. His stealth field would be out of order until he could find a place to fix his helmet.

Irritated, he stood up and started toward the main entrance to Sapphire Point, calling out "Hacker team, let's go!"

"Roger that Flank! Time we go do our thing and vice versa with the other group!" Bianca lowerd her mouth mask and mouthed "Good luck" to Chalen. He responded back by saluting while grinning. With that out of the way, Chalen and Bianca went with their groups.