Public Back Alley Exorcism

[Doc Painless]

Denon, Seven Corners District
Outside Hab Block 2279-Cresh​

The Suicide Slums - the lowest, grimiest, most dangerous neighborhood of Seven Corners. Decrepit buildings of crumbling plasfoam and cracked duracrete stood unsteadily over trash-choked streets. The weather control systems that made every day around Sakedo Tower a perfect one didn't work so well down here, leaking moisture and causing odd temperature drops and spikes. The result was either cold, clammy days or hot, humid ones, either equally likely no matter what season this particular hemisphere of Denon was actually in. On that particular day, the malfunction was on the cold side, and light flurries of sleet drifted through the prefab canyons on currents of recycled air.

There didn't appear to be much to differentiate Hab Block 2279-Cresh from any of the others around it. The peeling paint, the flickering lights, the carbon scoring on the walls from old gunfights in the alleys - that was every building down here. But a streetwise eye could pick up key differences. The security cameras on the block were actually on and working, an incredible rarity in this part of the district - but they weren't hooked up to the city network. Someone else was getting the feed. And though there were vagrants camped in the alleys around the building, just like any other, these vagrants were alert to anyone who approached... and they were packing rifles under their ragged ponchos.

Outside the ramp down to the underground garage, no one was bothering to disguise themselves. Several gangers stood just inside the entrance, their exposed metal cyberware and prominent blue and silver holotattoos marking them out as Durasteel Demons. True to the gang's reputation, they were well-armed, boasting light repeaters and heavy pistols that were definitely all kinds of illegal for civilians to possess. But the Corporate Authority's laws didn't really reach down here, mostly because the corps didn't care. It was only the underclass that lived in the Suicide Slums, those who couldn't even hold down jobs as wage-slaves. There was no profit to be made off of them, so the execs paid them no mind.

Just across the street, on the third-floor patio of a boarded-up cafe, the local back alley medic kept an eye on the entrance through a pair of macrobinoculars. Doc Painless, as he was known on the street, leaned back in a rusted chair, his feet propped up on one of the few lopsided tables still sitting on the balcony. He was bundled up against the cold, his ragged leatheris jacket pulled tight around him, but otherwise he seemed at ease. Despite the dangers of the neighborhood, he was one of the few who traveled unarmed. It was partly a "do no harm" principle in action, and partly because he'd never been able to shoot straight. That was why he'd brought in backup.

"That's where they'll be," the Doc said, looking back at the hired muscle and gesturing down toward the garage. "Best intel I could get, and I've been following their runners for a week. No idea what you might run into down there. There's probably some kind of organic chop shop, a butcher lab where they're turning people into those half-head mech slaves. Holding cells, maybe, with living prisoners if we're lucky. Could be an armory, they've got lots of guns. Probably using some of the garage as an actual garage for their swoops." He shrugged. "Wish I could tell you more, but we can't wait any longer. They've taken too many of us already."

The Doc slapped the macrobinoculars down on the table, in case anyone else wanted to use them. "How you want to play this is up to you. I just want them gone."

Sarvod Dravis | Ar'tal Ktruok | @Any Interested Darkwire!​

 

[Sarvod Dravis]

Suicide Slum. It was the kind of chithole that made smug greenworlders think themselves above the great city-worlds of the galaxy just because they had trees and their gutter trash lived in smaller, less memorable, chitholes. Still, he had to admit it was unappealing, but credits were credits. Besides, it had its advantages, from a purely professional point of view - most prominently, he could do almost whatever the feth he wanted without CorpSec attention.

"Surprised there's that much business in headless servants. Corpos going cheap on us?" Cybernetic eyes whirring back and forth as he flagged the various hostiles surrounding their little hideout, Sar's hands were busy almost tenderly caring for the high-end blaster rifle he carried.

"Shame we don't have an eye on the inside, would've been ever so convenient to just gas them all."

That couldn't be done when there was the potential for collateral damage in the form of prisoners, however. There was the ethical part, sure, but equally importantly the client didn't seem the kind to appreciate "an efficient resolution" at the cost of his own's lives.

Doc Painless | Ar'tal Ktruok | [OPEN]​

 

[Ar'tal Ktruok]

Doc Painless Sarvod Dravis
~~~~~
Ar'tal inspected his pistol whilst chittering something in his native language. "What was that buddy? Don't you want that sweet bonus?" From his angle, Ar'tal could see 3 guards. There could be a few more he couldn't see.

Two of the bastards were so teched out that their faces were practically metal. There were many different options for strategies, but one alert of the bastards on the inside, and everything unraveled.

"Alright pal, what's the plan again? Just, one more time, to be sure."

 

[Doc Painless]

"It's a status thing," the Doc replied, disgust dripping from every syllable he spoke. "When you're that rich, anyone can own the newest model of luxury droid. But owning a decraniated, that shows off your life and death power over a real person - at least, as real as any of us down here are to the uber-wealthy up in their towers. It gives those jaded fraggers a thrill." He shook his head, then spat on the ground. "Wish I had a client list. They're too big for me to really punish, but I could at least leak it and make the sleemos look bad."

He paused for a moment, considering that, and then added, "Hell, I'll scape up something extra if you find a client list."

The Doc wished they could have eyes inside as well; he'd patched up enough chummers after runs gone bad to know that going in blind to a hostile situation, especially in tight confines like that garage, was a good way to get yourself punched full of holes by traps and ambushes. "There's probably old security cameras on each level," he said, thinking the possibility through. "Anti-theft devices from back before this block was abandoned. But they're either broken or being used by the Demons, in which case you might be able to hack them."

There were junction points around the outside of the building, places where the block met the power grid, though they were guarded.

From there, the Doc let the two mercs talk it out. At a certain point, you just had to trust that you'd hired the right people, especially if it wasn't something you could just do yourself - and the Doc, for all his augmentations, was not the kind of cyborg that could go all killing machine and wipe out a gang safehouse, even with backup. His talents lay in a far different direction, one that these two might need soon if things went south. He just really hoped that they would use a little discretion; if at all possible, he wanted to get at least a few of the victims back alive.

Down below, clustered around various barrel fires, the Demon sentries chatted and smoked cigarras, their weapons always close at hand.

Sarvod Dravis | Ar'tal Ktruok | Open​

 

[Jan Kryze]

Man she hated being back on this fething planet. The memories were all coming back to her: Scrapping for food, avoiding gangs, those kark-awful times she got caught by the corpos or that one time she threw a rock at a bunch of privileged pricks and she had to lock herself in a holobooth until corpsec could come over to break it up. The Suicide slums were the worse too, seeing the mushy piles of sleet acculumate by the cracked sidewalks was an all too familiar sight for the Punk. Still atleast she was here voluntarily. Sis had asked her to join in on this one... what were her words? It's just a simple bounty, c'mon it'll be fun.

Though she had to admit. It felt good seeing everything behind a T-visor, especially when working on a bounty that definitely deserved it. The Mandalorian sat at the back looking over the pair of Westar 35 pistols she had courtesy of Aloy and becoming an initiate with the Owls. She gives one a quick twirl before the holstering them and getting her shield. Having sat back in the Cafe away from the windows she makes her way to the rest of the group. She didn't trust them that much but Aloy told her you get used to that feeling. Atleast she could trust her.

She looks down below at the entrance to the Garage and the street around it, already getting a sinking feeling. Yep this was going to be doozy. She quickly cross checks everything with the the readings her Lifeform scanner is giving her. Life signatures all around, and definitely inside that garage. They had a lot ahead of them.

"I hope the front isn't the only way in. It'd be hard to be quiet with them overlooking that entrance like hawk-bats" She says running through her head of what to do. Truth be told infiltration and elite tactics were definitely something she still struggled with. Even then a Mandalorian in red and gold armor along with one in blue wasn't exactly subtle... She turns over to Aloy Vizsla .

"Just a thought but you think we could draw these skugs out on a wild beskar chase? Give everyone else a chance to slip in under the radar while we raise hell?" She asks the much more experienced bounty hunter hoping that she hadn't just suggested something colossally stupid.

Aloy Vizsla Doc Painless Sarvod Dravis Ar'tal Ktruok

 

[Aloy Vizsla]

Tag: Jan Kryze | Doc Painless | Sarvod Dravis | Ar'tal Ktruok

Aloy had been leaned up against a duracrete pillar until now, Her hands busy lighting and holding up one of her Nervesticks as she dragged and puffed smoke that was as vibrant and red as her hair and the long scarf she wore around her neck, Contrasted by the blue armor she wore with the white teeth and handprint on her helm, Or the pale blue eyes that watched the Doc intently as he told his tale, Glaring like ice at the mention of Decraniation and prisoners. "Organic chop shop" were words she'd remember for the rest of her life she reckoned.

"I took an oath never to endanger innocent lives as long as I call myself a Nite Owl" She says, Her clawed cybernetic limb whirring as she steps out of the shadows, Approaching the rest of the group with a nod to Jan.

"If there's people inside still than it's my duty to protect them. And like my sister says, We could draw these skugs out. As long as I get my cut, I don't much care what part I play."

She pats Jan on the shoulder as she passes by before her hand slides over one of her Westar-35s, The same nite owl pattern carried by her sister of course.
The other hand flipped and spun her electrical nervestick between her fingers much like a gunslinger twirling a pistol, Holstering her smokes in a specialized pouch and then slipping her helmet over her head.

<"Or we could scout for prisoners. I can see organic signatures through walls, But only for about ten feet. So I'd need roof access, Assuming this is a single floor building. Anymore and we risk missing them.">

 

[Sarvod Dravis]

Status and credits, credits and status. What a simple world the Corpos lived in. "Sounds about right," Sar said, and after a moment's hesitation, a wicked smile spread across his lips. "I trust said client list would be published anonymously with no links to yours truly? Activism's bad for business."

Would be just a bit awkward if he was denied a profitable contract for having caused an embarrassing revelation or two.

Paying close attention to the back-and-forth - especially when a pair of Mandalorians entered, those were always useful, especially since their fondness for glory made them excellent "heat sinks" for more survival-oriented combatants - he eventually nodded and put on his own helmet.

"All very sensible. I'd personally focus on noise and sudden death over distractions. Gangbangers rarely have the discipline to close ranks when their own start dropping left and right; best case they'll run..." and be easily gunned down. "... worst case they'll stand firm on an individual level."

"The confusion's bound to be even greater if we go in from two places, say roof followed by the front door, or backdoor with enough explosives."

A hostage situation was possible, but less likely if they kept up the pressure... and he could always flip to stun and hope for the best even then.

Doc Painless | Ar'tal Ktruok | Jan Kryze | Aloy Vizsla​

 

[Doc Painless]

The Doc was never quite sure what to make of Mandalorians. He had a past, for sure, but he didn't have a culture, not the way they did. Thousands of years of tradition, thousands of years of struggle, a galaxy-spanning reputation as peerless warriors - he couldn't imagine what it was like to live with all that baggage. But hey, if they wanted to take a job from him, he wasn't about to complain. They weren't his usual runners, but for a blaster-heavy job like this he was happy to involve them. If anyone could walk into a cyber-gang den and come out alive, it was a Mando.

"Anonymously," the Doc confirmed, turning back to his other runners. "I don't spill anything about my runners. I'd be a piss-poor fixer if I did." He listened to the plans being hatched, all the while keeping one eye on the gang hideout below. "Hey, however you want to play it. You're the professionals." A distraction might just work; the Durasteel Demons were infamously unstable, and reacted to even the slightest provocation with immediate violence. Drawing most of them out of their little lair with a blaster bolt and a chase probably wouldn't be difficult.

Turning over the building's blueprints in his mind, the Doc considered Sar's suggestion to go in from two different entrances. "There should be a maintenance stairwell around back, though it'll be locked and guarded." He shrugged. "Enough firepower, though, and anything becomes an entrance." He'd seen the kind of gear that Mandos and experienced runners carried, and he wouldn't put it past any of them to be carrying the kind of explosives that would turn a locked door into a steaming pile of slag in two seconds flat.

"I'll keep watch from up here," he finally said, picking the macrobinoculars back up and scanning the scene. "If I see any developments, I'll let you know. Switch your comms to secure channel Aurek-Aurek-Osk, I'll share the encryption key with you." He turned back to face them, giving each a nod in turn. "Good luck out there. These guys are some nasty motherkarkers." He hoped they would all come through this alive. The runners would be outnumbered, and the thugs below were vicious and well-armed. It was a hell of a business.

Down below, around the periphery of the hab block, a dozen Durasteel Demons patrolled the area. They were cold, and wet, and most of them were high, and all of it was making them... irritable, to put it charitably. They moved in teams of three, bickering with each other to pass the time, lingering as long as they could around the fire barrels whenever they reached them. The guards at the main garage entrance had hooked up a music player and were blasting heavy scrak music, the pumping bass shaking the windows of nearby buildings.

It was a miracle none of them had gone completely deaf, the Doc reflected. Maybe that was what the cybernetics were for.

Jan Kryze | Aloy Vizsla | Sarvod Dravis | Ar'tal Ktruok​

 

[Vera Mina]

Wearing: Regenerative Dress

Armed with: 7.62 millimeter Assault Rifle (Armor Piercing Rounds)

Twelve Guage Semi Auto Shotgun

9 millimeter SMG

45. Caliber Longslide Pistol (Laser Sight)

Configuration: Command Form

Objective: Exterminate Gangbangers


Two hours prior...

The Corpo scum screamed as the murderous biot dangled him from a rooftop. A high one, overlooking the slums.

Vera liked to take the occasional off beat assignment. As she was trying to understand what 'evil' actually was from the perspective of her beloved Karlie Lynn Destat , she had decided to take yet another job for the purposes of 'combating' it.

It was a facinating concept, killing someone for thinking differently as opposed to hunger or pleasure like it was for her. She was still getting used to the idea of killing for ideals.

In this case, she was on a mission of mercy. A woman from one of the wealthier areas had disappeared from the neighborhood. The desperate father had offered up all his property to see her returned safe. When Vera had seen the woman resembled Karlie, that slight tinge of empathy she had been slowly developing prompted her to do the Job for free.

"They'll kill me if I talk!" He yelled, staring at the street upside down, the beautiful, curvy and athletic woman that resembled a Chiss with crimson hair and a pale white metallic catsuit with exposed arms, holding him by the ankle.

"You can tell me where the chop shop you are keeping this girl is at..." the artificial vampire hissed, bearing metallic gray fangs as she held him upside down. "Or you can tell your last thoughts to the ground you will meet when I drop you."

"You promise not to kill me?"

"Sure!"

"Alright! I'll talk! We deal with the Durasteel Demons! In the slums! A garage in Hab Block 2279 Cresh! The address is in this datapad! Take it!" He said, removing a small pad from his expensive corpo business jacket and tossing it to her.

"Remember when I said I'd let you live?" The biot asked with a cruel smile.

"That's right! You did say that!"

"I lied."

The Corpo screamed as Vera dropped him to his death...

Present Time...

A black corpo repulsor limo pulled up very close to the Garage, and Vera slinked out of it, following the thundering music from the guards at the front gate, who paused as they stared at her. Vera was fascinated by their clear mechanical augmentations. X-Ray scans confirmed aftermarket mods, highly illegal. (But no one observed those laws anyway except to keep up appearances of legitimacy.)

Lots of second hand military hardware. She was almost shivering in delight at the thought of killing them as she walked up to the first gangmember, who didn't bother to hide the lecherous stare as she walked up to him.

"Whatchoo want lady? Slums at the place for your kind. You look too...high end..."

"Excuse me..." Vera said politely. "I'm a friend of Sera Konnur. I was told that she's here. Could I see her, please?"

"Who wants to know?" The heavily armed ganger scowled.

"Where is she?" Vera asked, more curtly.

"Why don't you piss off, Lady. Go to a nightclub. Flash that catsuit body somewhere else."

Vera scanned the perimeters of the Garage main doors, and smiled, leaned forward.

"I'll be back..." she said, slyly, before walking away...

The Ganger, raised a brow, but shrugged. "Whatever. I'll tell you 'no' again when you come back."

Nothing happened for the next few minutes except the thunder of their sound systems. Bangers banged their head to the beat.

Too late did the guard who had dismissed Vera see the limo racing out of an alley towards them. He wasn't fast enough to raise his weapon before the limo slammed into and demolished his body, crashing brutally through the garage doors and killing 007 more on the other side.

Alarms blared as the smiling biot exited the wrecked vehicle, now armed to the teeth. An assault rifle in one hand, and a shot gun in the other, with ammo belts slung over her shoulder.

One gang member was gunned down by the rifle immediately as they came in to investigate, another getting his head blasted off with the shotgun.

Vera walked calmly through the garage, sustaining chest wounds that leaked gray blood as she fired but was seemingly unharmed as she methodically shot gangmembers in the head with controlled bursts from the weapons in both hands. She entered a passageway, using her X-Ray mode to shoot gangers through the walls with her rifle.

She had the advantage...No one knew what she was here for. This could be an attack from a rival gang for all they knew. Vera was content to systematically kill them off as she walked calmly through the garage facility, aggroing every gangmember in the area to focus on her as she ruthlessly gunned the creeps down, unintentionally opening up a window for others to act to do their jobs while everyone was distracted...

Doc Painless

Jan Kryze

Aloy Vizsla

Sarvod Dravis

Ar'tal Ktruok

 

[Doc Painless]

The Seven Corners district was only one small part of the infinite city that spanned Denon's surface, but it was home to over five million people. That was small on the galactic scale, but to any individual person, well... it was a lot more than you could imagine meeting in your lifetime. In a district packed with so many sentients, all living their individual lives and pursuing their own agendas, everything was interconnected. As a result, things could get complicated in a hurry; whatever job you were pulling often also mattered to someone you'd never met.

The Doc hadn't noticed the woman in the form-fitting bio-armor when she'd first approached the gang sentries; he'd been in the middle of briefing his people, and by the time he'd picked up the macrobinoculars again, she had left. But he couldn't fail to notice her dramatic return, smashing a speeder through the garage entrance - and the bodies of several Durasteel Demons - and throwing the scene into chaos. Bursts of weapons fire echoed up from the hideout, indicating an ongoing firefight inside. The Doc swore quietly. Nothing ever seemed to go smooth.

"Feth it. Looks like you got your distraction. Get in there and get my people out alive; who knows what this newcomer wants."

Within the garage, the Durasteel Demons reacted as quickly as they could to the intruder gunning them down. She'd had the advantage of surprise, but these were hardened street-fighters in their own lair, and they had a few tricks up their sleeve. More than a few of those who'd been gunned down, even with headshots, were only down for a moment while systems rebooted and nanometals stitched themselves back together; they were all more machine than man now, and a bullet to the brainpan wasn't as thoroughly fatal as it ought to have been.

Though he didn't know it yet, the Doc had completely underestimated the number of gangbangers lurking down there. Some forty-three men, most of the gang's strength, were concentrated in its halls; it was shipment day, time for them to send out the latest batch of Decraniated, so pretty much the whole chapter was on security detail. When their standard weapons weren't doing much against the intruder, the Demons turned to heavier measures: they pulled out three smuggled PLX-2M missile launchers, antique but terrifyingly effective.

Crouching behind durasteel-reinforced duracrete blocks, the kind of cover that few weapons could punch through, the gang heavies leveled the launchers at the end of the hallway. Anyone who wanted to find their way to the cybernetics lab would have to walk down that narrow corridor in the dark confines of the garage, an area where it would be incredibly difficult to dodge or fall back from the missile blasts. They'd beaten off gang invasions with this strategy before, tearing apart a dozen attacking Daggerlips in a single PLEX volley a few months back.

Within the confines of the organic chop shop, buried beneath the garage's lowest sublevel, Doctor Gibbs looked up from his work - calmly stripping away the brain of a young woman. Blood, gore, and droid parts were scattered around him, the latter almost ready for implantation. "Keep it down, out there," Gibbs shouted testily, fitting another control chip to the woman's spinal column. "You know my work is delicate!" Rolling his eyes, he cycled his implants to filter out the noise and went back to focusing on his task.

This would be his best set of decraniated yet. Almost all of them were ready... and he had plenty of buyers lined up.

 

[Jan Kryze]

She felt better hearing Aloy backing her up on this. Though seeing her have to twirl her nerve stick and holster it made her smirk under her helmet. Always the gunslinger that one. She had confidence in her though she couldn't say that much about Sar, man was rubbing her the wrong hard. Reminded her of all the other shills that would line their pockets with Corpo money. Sell outs the lot of them were.

Still guarded backdoor the Doc was talking about was right up her alley. Would likely not take too long and create some chaos all on top of it. Me and Aloy can probably take that stairwell no problem. Swoop in and just blow it open just like that." Jan said with a cocky ease as she switched over her comms. Confident with the ball still in their court, these Skugs still had no idea that things we're about to be hell for them...

Then the sounds of crashing speeders and distant blaster fire broke through all of that. Well there went planning now. kark. The Mandalorian acted quickly moving to the edge of the patio as she checked that her shield, beskad and pistols were nicely secured to her person. Hearing the doc be flummoxed by this new development. "We'll take care of it too if we have to. Now if you don't mind I got a back door to clear if anyone would like to help with that." Jan said as she jumped off the patio's edge and activated her rocket boots taking to the cruddy skies.

Jan would fly over the building and descend down to the other side which was a back alley. She could spot roughly 4 of the 'demons' gathering around an exit door. Bingo. Quickly landing on top of the large protruding neon sign the gangsters would quickly all jolt to look at the Mandalorian as they trained weapons on her. Jan would merely offer up a casual wave to the group. "Sup, say did anyone tell ya you make an Aqualish look pretty by comparison?" The cybernetically enhanced freaks took the bait and opened fire on her as Jan leapt into the air and performed a back flip. Activating her Grapple gauntlets her shield and a single pistol would fly into her hands and quickly she would have her shield held up in front of her tanking the repeating fire as she landed onto the ground.

The heels of her boots digging into the ground as she felt the force of each bolt slam into the Beskar shield. The Mandalorian quickly raised her pistol and fired off a series of shots at the group, one bolt managing hit straight into the neck of one of the thugs taking him out of the fight for now. The other shots impacting around center mass and causing them to stutter as they absorbed the blaster bolts' impact and took damage. One of the freaks had their mouth split open revealing a dizzying array of metallic mandibles as it went to the charged the Mandalorian forcing Jan to enter into a melee.

A little too much perhaps for the Mandalorian by herself but it certainly created an opening for anyone else that would like to come to the Mandalorian's aid.

 

[Aloy Vizsla]

B A C K - D O O R

Tag: Jan Kryze | Doc Painless | Sarvod Dravis | Vera Mina |
Equipment: In Bio

<"There's always karking competition!"> Aloy growls while following Jan at a casual pace, Drawing both her blasters as she nears the edge of the patio <"Don't worry Doc, We'll find 'em one way or another.">

She then jumps off the patio, Her ionic jetpack roaring to life in a blue flash that carries her into the polluted skies not long after Jan had taken off, Her scarf flapping in the wind behind her as she trailed Jan from a distance.

It wouldn't be long before she caught up with Jan, Spotting her leaping down from a sign like some kind of assassin, Tanking shots with her shield and certainly dealing damage in kind, Prompting a chuckle from the older sibling as she heard her sister chit-talking and smacking around gangers. Good, They'd make a mandalorian of her yet.
As Aloy began to dive however, The tides of battle changed below her as one of these demons suddenly transformed, Their gnashing mandibles lending credit to the title as it lunged Jan.


Throwing her weight backward, Aloy's thrusters adjust accordingly to slow her descent as she makes ready for a standing landing, Impacting the duracrete below with a metallic thud right next to Jan.
With no time to hesitate, She grabs the demon's face between her three cybernetic claws, Pulling him off to the side and then slamming him face up into the road as she takes aim at the others, Popping off a few heavy blaster shots into the nearest gangers before turning her attention to the one she'd latched onto, Loading a fresh power cell into her pistol and taking careful aim at the demon's forehead.

∗blam∗

She nudges the now lifeless body aside and turns to Jan, Offering her a hand up <"I got'cha, Sis.">

 

[Sarvod Dravis]

No plan ever survived contact with the real world and all its variables, this was no exception.

At the sight of some lunatic or another ramming a hoverlimo into the garage entrance, Sar simply... sighed. Not the approach he would have taken, but it was what it was - and seeing as the newcomer wasn't part of their team, he wouldn't have to share with another. Hmph, free blaster sponge.

"That works, I suppose."

Descending without further ado - though he could hardly match the speed of the jetpack-wearing Mandos - he methodically approached the clusterfeth unfolding before him, calmly unloading a blaster bolt into the beggar-sentries on the outer perimeter along the way.

Taking the cyborgs getting back on their feet in stride, he simply switched to the particle beam setting and reduced their chests to smouldering wrecks, then doubled back and did the same with the downed sentries just to be sure. Doc didn't pay well enough for him to be reckless.

<Some have been modified for brainless operation, I recommend the destruction of all vital organs when possible.>

Seeing as he didn't have the newcomer's comms, she would simply have to figure it out on her own. Maybe she'd go out in a blaze of convenient glory, leaving him to collect on this job - and potentially whatever job she was on. Now wouldn't that be something.

Doc Painless | Ar'tal Ktruok | Jan Kryze | Aloy Vizsla | Vera Mina​

 

[Vera Mina]

Vera cackled in murderous glee and delight as she rampaged, blasting apart ganger scum, who even started to make it interesting by starting to get back up after she shot them in the face.

"Oh, that's good!" she joked, absolutely destroying the head and chest of one she saw rise.

A heavy vibrosword punched through her chest from behind, attached to the cyberarm of a grinning gangmember.

Vera reacted instantly, violently twisting around and snapping the blade off, kicking the heavily augged ganger back, viciously demolishing his head and chest from the concentrated fire of her rifle and shotgun.

"It won't fething die!" one of the gangers screamed as they fired at her, bursting open her back with repeater fire, only for her to wheel around and shred his head and chest to pieces.

Vera took cover to reload, but she was on her last bits of ammo for these weapons. Soon they would have to be discarded.

As four gangers flanked her position with heavy repeaters, Vera popped out of cover to shred one of them apart with more concentrated fire, then broke into a run between speeders as they opened fire back, completely shredding the cover she had been in previously.

Vera popped from cover, shredding another...that was when both her weapons clicked empty.

Repeater spray shredded open her chest, getting gray blood everywhere and knocking her backward, even as she drew her laser sight equipped 45. Longslide and headshot the three remaining ones, growing hungry. As she continued to take chest shots from far off shooters, she analyzed the blood and frowned. Nanites. Likely with booby trapped features. Nothing she hadn't seen before...

Before she could drink she pulled her SMG out and ripped open the face of a very heavily augged ganger with multiple weapons attachments on his arms. It did nothing to stop him.

Vera smiled, and triggered the light absorbing cells in her suit, and for thirty meters around her, everything went to pitch black conditions, as she rushed him, firing, barely evading his rockets and bio-assault spray as her fist crashed into his face, caving it inward but he wasn't down, a vibrosword popping into place on his arm to swing at her with. He succeeded in opening her neck but this did nothing to stop her from demolishing his skull with her bare hands even as blood spilled out of her throat, the suit sealing it up.

She sampled his blood, getting behind cover.

ANALYZING NANITE STRUCTURE.

MULTIPLE MILITARY GRADE SECURITY FEATURES DETECTED.

PROCESSING. APPLYING ORGANIC FRACTAL MATHEMATICS COUNTERMEASURE SEQUENCING TO SECURITY CODING.

PROCESSING...

SECURITY FEATURES OVERRIDDEN. NANITE SECURITY CODES STORED FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.

Vera began to greedily drink her victim's blood, fangs piercing his neck, as her cover sustained heavy fire, her body quickly breaking down the nanites to useless component pieces in her body. Her body and armor quickly repaired itself and she was refreshed, pulling the vibrosword from her chest and the wound began to quickly seal. She dual wielded her pistol and SMG and ruthlessly destroyed the head of a nearby ganger with them.

Her ears detected the sound of a forty millimeter grenade round being fired and zeroed in on its distinct sound pattern as it moved through the air, a squeeze of her pistol trigger sent one bullet at it.

The blast flung both her and multiple others back, her violently impacting against a speeder and breaking multiple bones, shredding her gorgeous appearance with shrapnel, revealing gray blood and muscle. But unlike the others, who had been much closer to the blast, she was the only one who got up a few seconds later, the suit quickly starting to heal her as she staggered about, finishing off stragglers with SMG fire, before exhausting her ammo supply for both. She picked up a heavy blaster pistol and began to walk when her body was sufficiently healed. She detected fire away from where she was. Others were crashing the party. Didn't look like gangsters, from what her X-Ray mode could tell.

Vera began to make her way deeper into the complex, she stopped before she could round the corner to a narrow passage. Her X-Ray mode spotted heavies with Plex Launchers. Multiple warnings in her combat database flared.

Calculating angle and trajectory based off her X-Ray scans and audio systems, Vera popped out of cover, firing a bolt right down thd barrel of a launcher they were aiming down the passage

The blast was fething epic, but Vera had to dodge out of the way. She didn't quite succeed and her left arm was torn off in the blast, and half the skin on her face and upper body were shredded off.

No question: The heavies were dead.

But more came out, these armed with miniguns.

Vera cursed and retreated behind cover temporarily to devise a new strategy as minigun fire peppered the thick pillar she was behind, some of the shots piercing through and forcing her to duck while she regenerated. This clearly wasn't going to be as easy as she thought...

...but Vera loved a challenge...

Doc Painless

Aloy Vizsla

Jan Kryze

Ar'tal Ktruok

Sarvod Dravis

 

[Doc Painless]

If you wanted to be in the game, you had to know who the players were. The Doc was pretty good about that; he knew the gangs, corps, and runners that worked his little corner of Denon like the back of his hand, and he had at least a handle on just about all of the movers and shakers in CAD space more broadly. So it disturbed him when someone he'd never heard of, an unknown variable from out of nowhere, became a major factor in a run he'd set up. It meant sending his people into a situation he didn't know enough about, and that was dangerous.

This one was time-sensitive, though. He couldn't just call it off. Innocent lives were on the line.

As his hired runners jumped into the fray, descending from his balcony hideout to make their own dramatic entrance, the Doc played and replayed the few seconds of footage he'd gotten of the woman, automatically recorded by his cybernetic eyes. He could find no record of her in any database he had access to, so she definitely wasn't local. No gang or fixer he knew had the clout to hire a one-woman army like that, especially one with no connections to Darkwire. That left only one possibility: someone wealthy, someone with offworld influence.

But was she there for similar reasons as the runners, or to cover up a corporate connection to the decraniated? No way to know yet.

Down in the garage, the Durasteel Demons were being cut to pieces. Their regenerative metal implants had allowed them to become the terror of the local gangs, the top dogs in the Suicide Slums... but even with those augmentations, they were no match for the overwhelming force they now faced. They'd deployed their own heavy weapons, missile launchers blowing craters into duracrete floors and support beams, heavy repeating blasters scorching the walls to slag with the intensity of their fire, but it was barely holding even one intruder back.

Up until that day, the Demons had been big fish in a small pond. But now they'd entered the ocean, and it was full of sharks.

A pair of gang sentries burst into Doctor Gibbs's chop shop, sealing the heavy blast doors behind them. "I don't know who they are, Doc, but there's people outside ripping us apart. We can't stop them. They're almost here!" Doctor Gibbs let out a long, theatrical sigh; would interruptions never cease? "Very well," he said, putting down his surgical tools. The woman in front of him was not yet complete, the delicate work of stripping away all higher functions while leaving the brain stem intact only half-done. But now, it seemed, there was no time.

Doctor Gibbs calmly drew a holdout blaster and shot the jibbering wreck point-blank through what was left of her cranium, ending her suffering. "You," he said, pointing a gore-stained glove at the first sentry, "load the completed units into my shuttle and prepare for takeoff. And you..." his hand swiveled to face the other cyborg. "Burn this lab to the ground. Leave no trace of anything we have done here. I want everything incinerated within five minutes. Do that and you may join me on the shuttle."

The thug blinked at the doctor. "What about the unmodified prisoners? They're still worth..." He was cut off as the outlaw doctor grabbed his jacket collar, pulling him in close. "I see I was insufficiently clear." Venom dripped from every syllable, and spittle flew as he shouted into the other man's face. "I. Want. Everything. Incinerated. EVERYTHING!" He shoved the thug away, leaving a heavy bloodstain where he'd grabbed the fabric, and turned to head for the hangar. Behind him, the man he'd grabbed began passing out flamethrowers.

Doctor Gibbs sighed again, hoping that the gangers would be able to complete the lab's destruction before the intruders got inside; he didn't want anything left that might point to him, his hunting methods, or his clients. If only the stupid thugs hadn't grabbed that rich girl, Sera Konnur, when she was slumming it at a nightclub in Lum Rouge. He was certain that was the only reason anyone had come looking for him was to get her back. The others were nobodies: streetwalkers, drug addicts, the homeless. Who would give a chit about them?

He should have killed her as soon as they brought her to him, but she'd been nice to look at, and would have made an attractive decraniated once the brain removal solved all that sobbing. Oh well. In five minutes she would be a charred corpse, erasing his mistake.

Vera Mina | Aloy Vizsla | Jan Kryze | Sarvod Dravis​

 

[Vera Mina]

The gangmembers firing the miniguns had done so in short bursts, to keep her pinned.

Vera had been isolating sounds while her cover was gradually chipped away by 5.56 millimeter rounds isolating individual sounds of breathing. Each would alternate between burst fire, and her computerized mind had already calculated the rate at which their barrels rotated and the pattern they used to keep her behind cover. She timed it down to the second.

She leapt out of cover as one stopped firing for an instant so another two could. She didn't aim at them, as her prior difficulties had already proven that even a good solid shot to the head wasn't surefire.

Instead she aimed at the firing mechanism on each minigun, expertly destroying it with a well placed shot.

Her X-Ray scans alerted her to the power flow on the weapons hidden in their cyber limbs surging, firing at two mechanisms just as the started to come out of a mech arm that split open. The resulting explosion on one as the bolt traveled into the firing mechanisms of a weapon arm just as it fired acting like a powerful grenade blast that took out two but still left the other two standing, but damaged as they revealed their own weapons...continuous Ion Striker Beams.

Vera smiled as she stood up, letting the ionic energy hit her partly, flesh warping and bubbling horrifically everywhere as she staggered to them, glitching only slightly due to the extreme Resistance of her bio armor to Ion Particles, as she charged, slamming violently into both with Wookiee like strength, slamming both into a wall, violently resistant to their attempts to fight back, even though one broke her jaw with a punch, and quickly took the lead by performing a Fatality, hand plunging into the base of one's back, violently ripping both head and spine out, and clubbing her other attacker with it before brutally punching through his skull, getting gibs everywhere.

There, last opponent down--

She wheeled around, blasting off the heads of the two whose regen implants kicked in.

She detected the power source in one ion striker arm still functioning, ripped it oof the body and took a few seconds to hot wire it, then immediately proceeded onto her previous route, coming to the blast door. Her X-Ray scan allowed her to see the thugs doing last second checks on the flame throwers, prisoners in cages screaming in fear.

She had to think. They'd be dead in seconds if she didn't act. But how to get it open?

Vera calculated a possible solution. Her programs were much more sophisticated than any keypad security.

She ripped open the panel, keeping an eye on the situation. One was already starting to torch files. She chewed open a wired, cut a wound into her neck with shrapnel and stuck the wire in. Her systems interfaced with the lock security, quantum level processing overriding it, and the door slid open right as the flamethrower nozzles turned to the screaming prisoners.

The thugs wheeled on her, just as she opened fire with her pistol and the ion striker arm, the ion beam devastating their electronics just as the bolts pierced their, heads. She leaped with super human strength over the wave of flames that shot out towards her, moving in such a way to keep the flame attack following her than accidentally hitting a prisoner, firing her pistol with surgical precision at faces, dodging or sliding under flame thrower attacks. One caught her though and she screamed in pain as her vulnerable flesh violently caught fire like her bio armor did, eating through its limited resistance, but not before she downed the last attacker by demolishing his head with well placed shots.

She looked like a mess, a charred, half cooked mess. The bio armor burned, large parts eaten away, before the flames died out due to the mutagens inside. Since she had ended the fight before the flames could really do damage it would have a chance to recover.

Charred meat and skin hung from a damaged skeleton as she looked around at the terrified prisoners.

"I'm looking for Sera Konnur..." Vera said through a burned mouth before spotting the terrified, bruised woman who resembled her beloved Karlie Lynn Destat (which was the sole reason she had done the rescue for free). She had been a literal half second from being torched before Vera came in.

"A...are you here to kill me?" Sera asked faintly watching in a mix of fascination and horror as Vera's suit and body repaired itself.

"My mission is to protect you..." Vera answered. "We must exfiltrate the area immediately..."

"We have to take these people with us. You have to stop the bastard who did this."

"Not a mission priority..." Vera replied, opening her cage.

"WELL FETH YOU, ITS A PRIORITY TO ME!" Sera shouted, scrambling out of the cage. "That freak almost tore out my brain!"

"There are literally hundreds of doctors just like him. Killing one will hardly make a difference..." Vera protested, flesh healing more.

"It'll make a difference to that woman I saw him kill..." Sera replied.

"Escorting you from the combat zone is my main objective."

"At least look at his computers. He has to have something you can track him by!"

The Android sighed at this do-gooder mentality but acquiesced, checking one of the computers that hadn't been destroyed, getting past its firewalls within seconds. Busy one, this doctor. She had a list of his clients, and a partial pattern of his hunting logic. He went after easy targets.

Vera decided to screw him over, and uploaded his face and a list of his clients to the holonet, but especially the local branch on this planet, along with irrefutable, video evidence of his crimes and the crimes of his clients. She sent it to every law enforcement database on the planet. If that didn't work, she still had his scent basically...she'd torture him to death when she reacquired him if the authorities here didn't.

Right now, getting the prisoners and Sera out was the highest priority.

Now fully healed like her armor she turned to the prisoners, who didn't notice her cute looks at all, only the way she had dispatched their attempted executioners, and opened all their cages electronically.

"Come with me if you want to live..." she instructed.

"The hangar's this way! We might catch him if we hurry!" one if them said.

"Stay behind me. Grab their weapons..." Vera ordered, taking point and making her way to the hangar, the others following...

Doc Painless

Aloy Vizsla

Sarvod Dravis

Jan Kryze