Scene #5381: CARTEL CRACKDOWN: Muzzling the Wolf

Owner	Pose
Alexis Maaka	Bolivia is a jungle that on the onset seems like a rare patch of green on a world scarred by corporate greed and warfare, but within the brush lies a vicious heart. Jaguars and bears are the least of this jungle's worries when it comes to predators. Man is canny, man is ruthless, man is dangerous, and Los Lobos are prime example of that. The tribes of Bolivia have long since resisted efforts by local narcos to get out of the territory, at the cost of many lives being snuffed out, and those surviving being put to work with manufacturing and packaging smuggled merchandise. Today, that ends. Maaka is overlooking a village by the Amazon River, reaching all over South America. She's been laying motionless for hours now, covered in foliage all over her skintight bodysuit, while a rifle is in her hands. She sees Narcos patrolling the village proper, as well as picking up chatter all over the area. Men on boats with turrets, hostiles on patrol through roads leading to and from the village, so forth. These guys are varying levels of adept with their hardware, with surplus chest rigs and body armor, toting assault rifles that look older than they are. "All call signs, this is Durandal. Mobilize." Maaka vocalizes over cyber-comms, before sighting down a guard up in the tower. She takes a breath, exhaling before .338 echoes across the jungle landscape, and that narco's brains splatter the tower. Guards go on alert, beginning to take positions while the patrols intensify, with men sent out into the jungle in droves. Perfect opening for someone to sneak in while the village is less crowded, or to hunt the guards themselves.
Laura Kinney	Another clandestine mission to eliminate some scumbags who're doing their best to make the world a worse place to live in. Just like X-Force. Well, except Laura doesn't actually know any of these people, and some of them recently did their best to murder her. That's a bit different than usual. She'd operated in jungles before though, so it wasn't too new. Memorize the area maps ahead of time, swap out the emblems on her combat outfit, and get out the mask. Still no reason to let any of the people she's with get a good look at her face, and the option to make the red tinted lenses glow has proven helpful with intimidation in the past. And so, Setting aside any awkwardness from the ride over, Talon is now crouched on a tree branch, waiting for a pair of people who are talking far too loudly and smoking too much to be effective perimeter guards to pass under her. Snikt. Dropping from the branch, the guard on the right gets two adamantium claws straight to the brain stem and goes down like a sack of potatoes. The one on the right is luckier, escaping with only a probably broken knee as a well placed kick drops him to his knees, a razor sharp edge poised at his throat. "If you attempt to call for help, i will kill you. If you do not answer my questions, I will kill you. Give me what I want, and I may left you live. I want to know how many patrols there are, how many armed men, and how many hostages." she increases the pressure a bit, just barely breaking the skin.
Septette Arcubielle	Ariadne's Threads allow the bearer to teleport to a neutral location. The inside of a hostile cartel's drug factory is not a neutral location. The upper stratosphere above that factory, however, is. Septette hasn't bothered wearing her purple shawl today- it would've burned off at approximately the same time that her skeletal armor plates began to glow red from air friction. She feels no pain from the searing heat, no fear of the jarring impact; a purpose-built war machine has little use for such sensations. These precious minutes of freefall are almost soothing: a rare opportunity to rest, and compose herself for what is to come. Minute adjustments to the angles of her blades allow her to position herself directly above the south guard tower. In the moments before impact, Septette turns off her eyes, twists around to fall feet-first, and savors the sound of the howling wind and the anticipation of the battle to come. Slaughter comes easily to the little machine, nowadays. It's an almost meditatively rote task. The concrete and metal roof shatters on impact- it does so little to alter her momentum that she barely notices. The floor comes an instant later, and enormous spiderwebbing cracks flow across the tower as she punches through the foundation of the flimsy building with a deafening, shrieking crunch. She leaps back up the side of the smoldering, blackened crater without hesitation, baring her wickedly curved blades and emitting a keening, staticky howl- a scream designed not to express pain, but to induce fear. It's drowned out a second later by the sonic boom from her re-entry rattling the ground, having finally caught up to her supersonic descent. And then the slaughter begins. Superficially, her movements in combat are chillingly precise and efficient; each cartel soldier to stand before her is systematically butchered by her claws and blades and thrown aside in fractions of a second, one at a time. But beneath the facade of robotic implacability, she is putting on a calculated show: prioritizing heavily-armed targets and avoiding their aim gives them false hope that their bullets could harm her at all if they did hit; dismembering them one at a time allows for the more cowardly soldiers to run for help. Good. Let them. More meat for the blender.
Alexis Maaka	LAURA: The border guards are caught with their pants down, literally in one guard's case, as he sees the tower guard go down in a bloody display. "-What the fuck? Oh shit, GUYS, WE'VE GOT COMPANY!" The guard utters, frantically trying to get his pants back on after a latrine stop that couldn't have been timed worse. He gropes for his AK, waving it around as the soldiers mobilize, only to see one of his friends go down right in front of him thanks to a girl that's practically half his size. "F-Freeze!" he barks, only for Laura to rush towards him like a bat out of hell. He fires off a burst of gunfire, firing at the Mutant, but at best he'll piss her off, as she knocks him down and puts a claw to his neck. "I-I-I..." he chokes on his words, fear written all over his face as tears stream down his cheeks. "...W-e got fifty of us out here. Se-seventeen natives at the f-factory..." He didn't need much convincing to get intel out of, clearly. "...what are you?!"
Black Arachnia	Even if there weren't a number of helpful distractions for the drug-dealing gangsters, Black Arachnia likes to think that she could have gotten inside the factory without difficulty. But she's not going to turn her nose up at the assistance - more distractions means fewer thugs to deal with personally, and from what she's heard about this gang, nobody's going to be terribly sorry if Los Lobos are wiped out without a trace. So at the same moment that Septette hits the factory's south tower like a bolt of divine judgment, the spidery Maximal enters the factory from the north side, infiltrating through a window big enough for her robotic frame. Or what was left of that window - these guys probably aren't putting much of their ill-gotten gains into proper maintenance, and who could get in through a window that's fifty feet above the ground in a featureless wall? ... besides her, that is. Black Arachnia lingers on the inside wall long enough to make sure nothing's looking in her direction, and to do some discreet high-angle recon before she plunges into the thick of things. Not that she plans to 'plunge,' exactly ...
Starbound Flotilla	The STARBOUND FLOTILLA are here, in their standard Durasteel equipment! Moonfin, the fishman, is in elaborate full-body durasteel armor that looks like a powered cross between a diving suit and a samurai's armor, glowing cyan at the faceplate. Biteblade, the humanoid plant, is in durasteel plating with elaborately carved wood and bone ornaments over glowing powered components that glow an intense green. Pavo the bird-girl wears a pirate-aesthetic set of mesoamerican-style armor, with yellow bands of energized fabric linking the pieces and powering them. Albert the monkey-man is wearing elaborate dystopian commando armor reconstructed with a 'rebel spy' aesthetic: A sleeker faceplate, a slimmer form, and a more chaotic design that integrates thin, resilient plates of durasteel, and lines of bright white. George (just plain human) wears a set of futuristic EVA-combat and exploration armor in a suit that glows a gentle red at the faceplate. Seft, the robotic Flotilla member, is wearing full-on medieval knight armor with a soft energized blue glow below the plates on her body, and especially around the eyes. Each has a heavy industrial-yellow two-pronged plasma-cutter-like tool strapped to their side, a Matter Manipulator. Biteblade is the one next to Laura Kinney on the ride over. Laura may have to shove aside a few errant hugs. But thankfully, Biteblade doesn't quite insist on staying with her. She's got to join the others, who are part of a mainline assault. They stay near the south side of the base, ready to attack, hidden in the treeline. "Sixty seconds to diversion." "What'cha think her plan is?" "Twenty pixels says it's air drop." "A fine wager. I shall bet another twenty against it. Water predation; she will sow terror among them of a vile creature of the river." "I'd get in on that action if I actually had any pixels." "Thirty seconds. Clear comms of chatter." "Floran think, ssskeleton friend plan dig." "Curious. You believe Septette shall tunnel? Into the enemy compound?" "Yeah! Yeah! Isss ssskeleton! Very frightening, for underground!" "Disturbed. It makes a certain sort of sense." "CUT. CHATTER. Ten. Nine. Eight..." And there goes Septette. The moment she strikes, the Flotilla dashes into action, charging with disturbing speed towards the site of battle. They ready their weapons, with Biteblade, Pavo, and Moonfin closing in hard and striking with bladed melee weapons, and George, Seft, and Albert firing on them with ranged weapons of various caliber. Lasers, bolts, explosives, and stabbings create a brutal whirlwind of tactical violence. Septette's focused on the more armored enemies, so they're focused on the squishier ones, attempting to emphasize her sudden impact with a powerful rush of sheer bodycount. Even Seft, usually the more reluctant one here, has a brilliant firewand blasting bolts of flame into the village; cartels are not any sort of ambiguous moral ground.
Laura Kinney	Laura Kinney's shoulder jerks backward as the wildly sprayed burst has a few rounds impact her shoulder. She reports in, staring down into the narco's eyes as the wounds on her shoulder close in front of his eyes. What is she? What would Logan say.... Ah. "I am The Wolverine." She quickly removes the claws from his throat, before a chop to the back of the neck sends him down for the count. Slicing up any guns lying around, she hefts the unconscious narco into the fork of a tree so the wildlife doesn't get to him and he can pass on his message, before heading for the camp proper. The distraction seems to be going off in full swing, so she heads for the factory proper. Get in, eliminate the guards, get the hell back out with the hostages. But she's got to get a look inside the place first....
Bramble Patch	Soldiers rush into the jungle, looking for a source to the sudden attack on their compound. What they're going to find, well, let's just say it's something else entirely they are going to find. The grove amongst the jungle trees doesn't looke like anything unusual at first. Just a bit of rustling in the leaves as men step into it, doing little to take the edge off of the situation. Eyes of green can be briefly seen lurking through the brush. Until an ominous cackle can be heard, and out of the dense jungle strides .... a pony. An orange pony with ivy hair curled like vines and a wicked smirk on her face, but a pony none the less. With her Special Talent allowing her to move through even the thickest of brush and overgrowth with ease Bramble Patch had plenty of time to find the perfect spot to do what she does best (or so she thinks) -- torment people. "Well now, it would seem like the hunters have become... the hunted." Bramble rears up with a suitably sinister "MUWAHAHAHAHA!" as from the overgrow around her a half-dozen creatures rush out. They look similar to wolves, but rather than fur and fang appear made of wood and smelling like rotten peat moss. All rushing towards the jungle soldiers in a chorus grating yowls and growls. It's an ambush!
Haguro	Although Haguro isn't usually the sort to attack humans, she's more than ready to make exceptions as part of her training. What better way than to target smugglers of war goods, then? "<<H... Um. Ho... Gan here.>>" Yes, that's the best name she could come up with on short notice. "<<Hostages? Okay... I'll hold off on shelling until we get some confirmation on where they are, then.>>" The cruiser in the black skims the water rapidly as she hurtles downriver, keeping a relatively low profile since she's not fully boat-sized. Rather, she's just got her land gear on: Armor, turrets, turrets, and more turrets. The ones on her shoulders calibrate themselves while she holds up a pair of binoculars, peering at the actual boats further downstream. "<<There's some in the water. Hogan, engaging.">> She whispers over the radio, then switches to her more explosive ordinance to fire upon those turreted boats. The shells explode fairly easily, so it's easy to use them even without a direct hit!
Theurgus	Up in the sky! It's a Bird!? It's a Plane?! No! It's Diamond Soul flying in on an attack vector. Clockwork-style Processors adorn her flowing white robes. She's certainly not difficult to spot, as she has a multihue glow around her, and her hair flows in an unflet breeze, wafting in all the colours of the rainbow... She speaks over the radio, then turns her mismatched eyes down to the patrolling PT boats, lifting her left arm up and gathering energy into the glowing marble held within a geordian knot atop her staff. "May your souls freeze in the eternal damnnation of the outer ring of hell! COCTYUS!" The magic within the marble rushes out in a flash freezing fog that washes over the river surface, making the temperature plummet rapidly. It might not freeze the water, but the boats are going to have a nice layering of frost and the crew will likely have some nasty ice damage applied to them.
Kotone Yamakawa	It had been an offical Request to the Paladins the paper work, so she was suited up. She had a few remote drones up and ready. Even with the nature a large segment of the Flotilla had turned up aolive and well. Though it was going ot be a nightmare ofd a sort given the reports? What needed to be done? She would be focusing on going after the nartoics that stuff needed to brun and she'd brought the means to do it too. She's also kitted herself out fully in stealth gear, which is pretty common for her. She also had a tatical faceplate on as well for good measure. She looks over to Biteblade for a momenbt and Laura. "Ready?" With that she cloaks and follows the far more flashing Flotilla out. This was pretty black and white and given the local law seemed ot be make this stuff /burn/ whelp? It's the local law is it not? Often that sort of thing makes Kotone's life as a Paladin mirsabole, today? Not to much. She heads out in search of the coke supplies to put the hurt on the only thing that matters to a group like this. Their bottom line.
Alexis Maaka	Septette comes onto the thickest number of Narcos like a bomb made of stabbing. Utter, uncontrollable havoc ensues as Narcos are cut down one by one, opening fire on the Ygdroid fruitlessly. "FUCK! WHAT IS THIS THING!?" "She's hunting us like fucking churros here, heavy weapons now!" "But that's the merch-" "FUCK THAT!" A few of them run for the storage sheds, smashing open crates and loading heavy weapons. They can rebuilt what is destroyed, but men are difficult to replace out here. A particularly large Narco with a mini gun opens fire on Septette, blazing away desperately. Meanwhile, the Flotilla add to the chaos, cut to bits, shot up with bullets and lasers, and blown apart with heavy weaponry. To say the least, the Flotilla are racking up their own kills too. As patrols grow in number, the guards are caught unawares by what lurks in the jungle. "The fuck is that?" One asks aloud upon hearing Bramble's laughter, and sees a...pony? "Some kinda pony with a vest, fuckin' kill it!" They open fire, but they don't' get lucky as suddenly the jungle itself turns against these cartel gunmen. Wolves of wood and moss and brush, the Timber Wolves fall upon them like the savage beasts they resemble, tearing into flesh and body armor. As much bark and moss they blast away, their bullets are worthless. Theurgus catches the river bound boatmen by surprise, as they see a girl floating in the air. Confused and provoked, they try to open fire with fifty caliber machine guns, only for the first of five boats to be destroyed on the spot. The river freezes, and the first one is frozen with build up pressure. Narcos are either frozen along with it, or they take their chances in the river and dive in. Piranhas are one thing, but getting killed by this floating witch thing is another entirely. SUDDENLY, MORE BOTES. Haguro/Hogan gets the attention of another crew, as they stare in befuddlement. "WHat the-Is that a girl on the river?" "She's got more guns than the Fed navy combined!" "Fire, fire no-" KABOOM! Hogan takes the boat out of the river, and then sends it sinking through splash damage (heh) alone, more of them retaliating with machine gun fire and rockets. A few are dangerously close to hitting both Hogan and Diamond Soul, but it's not likely to do much to either of them. Kotone is unnoticed thanks to her cloaking device, and she reaches the factory when Blackarachnia does. There's a large guard presence onsite, but they're not seen just yet. The hostages are being kept somewhere in the factory's production floor, while narcos are massing near doorways and training weapons on them. All hands are on deck for this one, even the El Commandante is holding a pistol on the entrance leading to the floor.
Theurgus	Bullets rake across the sky, striking small hexagonal plates of energy before punching through and leaving red damage 'decals' in the DCC's body. She doesn't hold still for them to keep the fire up though, her Integrity wouldn't stand up to that withering fire for long. She 'bleeds' broken code briefly, before it vanishes into motes of light. She responds to something on the radio, a smirk forming on her face as her eyes swap sides, Red and Blue shifting between blinks. "You disliked my gift of ice? Then how about Flame to warm you!?" she swoops across the line of frozen or near-frozen PT craft, and with a twirl of her staff, forms a magic circle behind her wings, which then spits out little 'flame' missiles, seeking out the ammo stores on each boat to try and trigger it off. The marble atop her staff shifting from the blue-white of before, to a deep orange-red now.
Alexis Maaka	As Wolverine, Laura, enters the factory, she's greeted by guards up front, noticing the chaos ahead and also a hostile approaching. "Hold it!" "What are you saying that for, we're supposed to kill on sight!" A brief exchange, before they fire upon Laura with their AK rifles. God help them.
Bramble Patch	Bullets fly as men scream and bleed. Splintered wood and burned leaves scatter in the jungle air, but it isn't enough to stem the tide of deadwood predators. If anything cracking them open just lets out more of that horrendous stench. Being more akin to woodland golems than living beasts, losing limbs or having entire chunks of their face blown off by the panicing men does little to end their assault. Bramble Patch turns her attention away from the carnage though. That was but one patrol that's beat their way into the jungle. The more of them she keeps from returning to the compound to harass her allies, the better. And the more appreciation she'll get! As the pony trots back into the brush, the gemstone on her headband starts to glow with its ghastly green light, the same wild magic that makes Everfree Forest the nightmarish woods it is are let loose into the jungle. From the branches above vines twitch and slither to life, dropping out of the canopy like snakes to grab at soldier's necks or lasso away their weapons. Trees come to life like rainforest ents, wrenching roots from the soil to step away and swing their branches like bludgeons. She was doing Bad Things, but it was to Bad Men for a Good Reason. Which is perfectly fine with Nightmare's Gardener.
Haguro	Haguro continues skating across the river as the boats begin to go down from her and Theurgus' combined fire and ice. And then more fire, apparently, when Theurgus switches to LITERALLY FIRE. The cruiser gives her a wide berth, and she flinches at the bullets pinging off her armored plates while maneuvering her arms so those take the brunt of the shots. Her eyes widen for a moment as a rocket comes straight for her, though, and the cruiser gets engulfed by the resulting explosion! There's a great deal of smoke in the area, and it takes several long moments before Haguro zips out of that cloud, moving further down river and switching her aim to the men with the rockets. She's mostly fine aside from some singing of her armor and gashes in her stealthy-ish suit, and it's not enough to stop her from returning fire on the rocketeers. Like before, she's using those high explosive shells, fully intending to blow them and their rockets up with them! The gunners are luckier. Their guns are still frightening, but they still aren't shooting actual explosives at her!
Laura Kinney	Laura Kinney snikt. Her claws slip out again, bullets ripping through her body and splattering blood against the wall behind her. She charges before leaping forward, smoothly flowing from guard to guard. Sparks fly as she slices through a gun's receiver before the weapon blows up in its owner's face. Not that he'll be worrying about it, because he now has to worry about not having any intact arteries in his neck. And as long as they're shooting at her, they're not shooting in the general direction of the hostages. Her foot claws come out as well, one high kick into a guard's throat tossing him over her shoulder before she continues to scythe through them. In their midst, they're probably as likely to shoot eachother as her, and as long as none of them get a lucky headshot, this won't be a problem.
Black Arachnia	Black Arachnia starts picking her way across the ceiling, sticking to the shadows on general principle, and being careful where she tries to latch on for a step; as decrepit as this place is, even one eighth of her weight could be enough to pull a chunk loose, and wouldn't that be embarassing. But stealth is mostly a matter of patience and caution, and she's got a lot of practice at both of those. So she just needs to get over to one of the more precarious-looking catwalks and do a bit of fast cutting ... which may mean a screech of metal on metal that makes her wince at the sudden lack of sneakiness. But then, hopefully the catwalk abruptly plummeting down on top of the narcos will be of greater concern than the indistinct shape of a very large semi-robotic spider on the ceiling beyond it. She's STILL not staying put after that bit of tactical sabotage action, mind you - she actually activates her electro-disruptor and skitters away, keeping a couple of her myriad eyes focused to see how much good the catwalk-drop does at whittling down the bad guys' numbers.
Septette Arcubielle	Tendrils of black, foul-smelling smoke pour off of Septette's arm-blades as blood burns off of them, and she tilts her head back to let out another blood-chilling shriek of triumph. She runs down a cartel soldier with long, loping strides before he can reach the weapons crates, pulling him off the ground and sinking her knife-like fingers into his very bones. She's just about to pull him limb from limb when the minigun audibly revs. Septette doesn't know if a weapon like that could actually damage her, and she's not about to find out: with a mighty heave, she throws the maimed narco at the larger man to knock him off-balance, then leaps through the hail of bullets to slam into both of them a second later. The minigunner goes down with the maimed soldier on top of him, and Septette lands on top of both of them, feet first. A full ton of metal bears down on two footprint-sized points, and she stomps through both of their chests simultaneously. Crunch. She glances back over her shoulder, at the other soldiers- now grabbing heavier weaponry than their earlier peashooters. Just wonderful. Her eyes glow brighter as her other arm-blade unfolds with an ominous crackle of electricity, and she tears across the factory yard to reach them before they can draw a bead on her. The time for putting on a show is over, now that Septette has their attention: it's time to simply make them bleed. The first two narcos she reaches get a superheated hand each to their throats, choking them just long enough to cook the blood in their carotid arteries. She drops them, leaving them to succumb to unconsciousness seconds later, and moves on to the others. Now that they pose a somewhat credible threat, her fighting style has changed markedly from her earlier bestial ferocity: it's practiced, smooth, and swift, weaving between the cartel soldiers to break their line-of-sight just as each of them opens fire while dealing out just enough damage to vital areas to drop each one in turn.
Starbound Flotilla	"Opposition falling back to defensive positions." "No, matey, 'tis them gathering their gear." "Alert. Scans pick up heavy weapons being equipped." "Unfortunate. They have the advantage in such matters, considering the stocks available. We shall have to neutralize the threat." "Floran know greatessst way! Greytide friend! You help!" "Ooohoho, I already know where you're goin'." As Septette goes after the minigunner, so does Biteblade and George. George's Matter Manipulator quickly gathers up portions of the broken structures of the village, while Biteblade... Gathers up the minigun!! George rapidly constructs a sort of minigun emplacement, where Biteblade settles in. Using the superior stability it gives her, she should be able to begin mowing down enemies! She gives a wide berth to the factory where the hostage rescue is going on -- only because Seft immediately screams out for her to not aim there -- but in all other directions, she begins spewing bullets, while George handles rapidly loading the massive weapon. Albert directs Biteblade's efforts, coordinating with the other Starbounders to swap to melee, and some strange other function, and they RUSH forward...! Using Biteblade's new long-range superiority, and their own melee abilities, they attempt to clear the larger area... And to begin firing heavy-duty MINING BEAMS into the buildings when they can get any clear moments! It looks like their effort here is mostly to start just demolishing almost every cartel-controlled here, to remove cover and to destroy as much of the cartel's holdings here as possible.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa is not alone she'll open up a connection to Black Arachnia. <<We should sycth up if we're gong to do this. Look we need to get these people out of here, I'm packing a few less lethal options with me. Kotone is going to be trying to sneak to get a better ide aon what's up with the hotages. She knows wht the mission is but the hotages first, it's always the bystanders first even if some of the scum is able to escape. She will be caureful before she acts, as she moves on towars the hotages and keeping an eye traps, security systems and the like. She'll also check for local wireless or hard jack in points she could get into which might help her spring them. She also takes the warning as Laura moves to distract the guard,s good. So far so good, right?
Alexis Maaka	Maaka takes aim at the narcos. A target rich environment does make it easy for her to pick off gangsters without being noticed too much, spacing her shots out and firing once or twice while the others handle the more immediate threats. She grins, watching Laura cut through narcos like butter. She did a good job picking these people out. SOme of them are old friends of hers, others, others happen to be people she got lucky in having on hand. "Beautiful." She mutters, before another sniper bullet fells a man in a guard tower, sending him over the railing to a nasty fall. Laura will get the bulk of attention in the factory, as soldiers with shotguns and rifles pour into the hallway to engage her, firing with frantic agency while trying to zero in on this spider-monkey with bladed fists and feet. "We can't get a target!" one complains, just before noticing his gun is in pieces, and his arms too. He doesn't even get a chance to scream before he's stabbed in the throat and tossed over Laura's shoulder. Blackarachnica provokes a few of the guards handling the hostages, as they level their guns at the falling catwalk. "Check that out!" One orders, before two begin to approach where they heard the catwalk fall. "Fucking place is falling apart. I told you we should've rebuilt this thing." "And waste time? El Jefe would have your balls mailed to your grandmother for suggesting that." "At this point, doubt it matters." Kotone will find a primitive alarm system blaring out on shortwave, as well as frantic radio operators trying to piece together the situation and figure out a response. They may be calling for backup, which puts a bit of a damper on a quick exfil at this rate. The Flotilla's numbers swap to melee, with Biteblade grabbing a mini gun George puts together. Repurposing the ordinance against Los Lobos, they begin to cut down narcos left and right, as Septette flings one narco at another, cutting others to pieces left and right with ease. Holdings are demolished with ease, revealing stored weapons and drugs in containers as they go through the place with heavy weapons. Septette meanwhile is moving similarly to Laura, going too fast and fighting too precisely for the narcos to get a bead on her, one cut down after another like a slasher movie. Some draw machetes and charge, while others with shotguns and rifles push the offensive, as one ballsy narco with a blade swipes at Septette, trying to sever a limb or two with his large knife. "FUCKIN' DIE, CALEVERA!" He snarls, hacking and slashing in a drugged up fury. Bramble's gone from wolves to vines, as she takes advantage of the jungle's greenery to snatch up narcos, disarming them and snagging them like sentient hangman's nooses, dragging and swatting them around. Machetes and chainsaws are put to use, but every vine they sever, two more grab onto them and drag them away. "FUCK! BURN THE TREES!" A narco orders, as some with flamethrowers, crude models at that, begin to burn at the nearby foliage. An errant shot from a sniper rifle several yards away takes out one of the flamethrower operators, but hissing indicates the inevitable explosion, setting nearby narcos alight with flame. Haguro is fired upon, but the bullets are inflicting superficial damage, before a rocket hits her dead on. Haguro seems to overall ignore the damage for now, returning fire with shells to take out more of the PT boats. Diamond is similarly damaged, but she seems to be well enough to return fire, literally in this case, as she causes a PT boat to go up in a fireball, spilled oil set alight in the process like Greek fire.
Laura Kinney	There really is a zen to combat, and Laura's dipping back into it. She tosses half an AK at the bare light bulb on the ceiling, trying to darken at least her immediate area, before continuing to make her way towards the hostages. She can still hear the minigun from outside, but the pitch has somehow changed, and there is a lot more yelling by humans. Someone's having fun. It also turns out that shotguns at this kind of range hurt a lot more than riflesShe coughs blood from shot to her stomach, before taking the top of the shotgun weilder's head off. And then the rest of the lights go out, leaving the only source of light in the hallway the glowing red eyes of Talon's mask, before those too go out.
Bramble Patch	Bramble Patch lets out a yelp and dives to the ground as flamethrowers are brought out. "Hey watch were you're pointing those things!" Then ducks down again as there's another sweep. Mobilized trees and vines recoil from what is technically a natural 'predator' to them -- fire. And then a shot rings out, echoed by the puncturing of a tank and flammable fuel being spilled out. Trees and brush start to catch aflame, falling still and burning as Bramble Patch scuttles out of the way and taking her magic with her. Partially to focus it elsewhere. The glowing gem flickers a few times as more of its stored energy is channeled out. In unison the remaining Timber Wolves look up from their kills, and even being broken and battered break running back into the jungle. A pack moves as one, acts as one... Which is taken to a logical extreme as instead of a pack the remaining wolves leap over Bramble's hiding spot combined into one by the wild magic. Flames lick at wooden paws as the botanical beast drops in and sweeps low with it's head to scoop the soldier with the flaming, leaking flamethrower into it's maw. Smoke is already hissing out between it's knobby teeth as it peers at the pony. "Not here!" Bramble waves a hoof frantically in the other direction. "The compound! Get in the compound!" The giant wolf-golem turns and starts running towards the narc's lair. "BUT NOT THE FACTORY!" Bramble yells after it. Why not? Well, the sap that got swallowed with his leaking flame weapon will be the first to realize that the insides of the beast stink even moreso. Because it's not just a similar smell, the innards of a timber wolf really are rotting moss and peat. Which stinks because it gives off a lot of gas. Flammable gas. That's already under considerable magical pressure. Bramble does stick her head out of the jungle, if only to hold up her hooves and yell as loud as she can. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" And that would be when the Giant Timber Wolf, due to flame, fuel, gas and magic, explodes like a giant wooden kamikaze bomb.
Black Arachnia	Only good as a distraction? Well, considering she had to drop the catwalk without being able to aim it ... distraction'll have to do. Besides, something else just came up. Black Arachnia reviews her initial recon scans, cross-referencing with whatever schematics were available on the way in, and heads towards the main power supply - probably a generator, given this place is so far away from big cities. Isolation has its price, after all. But whether the factory has its own power generator or is actually wired into an electrical grid even out here, Black Arachnia swiftly disables the electricity for the facility, courtesy of a measured dose of very corrosive cybervenom into the main transformer. That's probably going to draw attention (again), but killing the lights should be worth it ... not to mention anything else that needed a steady supply of electricity.
Theurgus	Theurgus pulls up, and does a half loop, rolling over at the apex. The 'wings' flare briefly with white light. She makes a sweeping circle with her staff. "This is your punishment! Don't even think of trying to run, Death is all that awaits you!" A pair of cogs, and a burning bright Spell Seal appear behind her outstretched clockwork wings, a symbol much like the Eight Point Star of Chaos, set in pure white, sealed inside geometric patterns and ringed on the outside with symbols denoting Elements within The System. She then sweeps the staff towards the remaining PT boats, a swirling vortex of unaligned, raw magic power twists out sinking under the water beneath the two then EXPLODING like a depth charge, sending a vortex of purple light into the air, and lifting the two wooden craft out of the water with it, as the shearing force of the magic tries to tear the hulls and the people inside apart.
Septette Arcubielle	Septette's inhumanly swift, calculated movements spare her the brunt of the gunfire even in close quarters. But soon, the fray becomes too dense for her to keep up her evasion forever: sometimes, there are too many threats for even 'perfect' movement and positioning to avoid all possible attacks. As the crowd of narcos closes in, her perception of time slows to a crawl, and she mentally maps out the precise attack vectors that each of them could pursue at that instant; imaginary laser sights drawn from each of their guns, circles of danger around each one with a melee weapon. Even as she slashes throats and crushes limbs with every movement, her careful dance of blades twists and distorts around every possible route of attack from millisecond to millisecond; high-caliber bullets brush past her hair or fly between her ribs in pre-calculated paths, and reckless machete swings meet empty air where she stood just fractions of a second before. When she backs into the drug-addled machete-wielder's reach, it is not a miscalculation, but a concession: there is simply nowhere left to stand that would not place her in the path of an attack, and she chooses the least damaging one, fading back into a slashing blow rather than stand and be shot with an anti-materiel rifle. The predicted bullet passes through empty space an instant after she falls back- and then the machete strikes her shoulder. It slides between the armored plates of her arm and chest, slashing hydraulic cables that ooze black goop. She winces internally- not at the damage, but at the fact that they now know she can bleed. The illusion of an immortal, invincible machine has bee broken. So it's time to put a new fear into them: that of a savage, sadistic beast. Disregarding the bullets pelting her armor for a moment, Septette grabs the man's arm and turns around, breaking the white bone through the skin in a compound fracture. Then, crushing his wrist in her grasp, she slowly pushes the blunt machete through his skull, even as it remains in his grasp. Only when it exits the back of his head does she let go, and turn to the others, her expression twisted in a wrathful and arrogant sneer. "There is no man or machine that can stop me. Is this the best you've got?"
Haguro	With the majority of the smugglers' boats turned into little more than scrap, Haguro's finally feeling confident enough to try something a ltitle flashier to go with Theurgus' display of... Magic? Sure, she'll call it magic for now. Swapping her explosive shells out for flak that would generally be used more for anti-air, she swoops in to take a position closer to the PT boats. "I don't like hurting humans, but... People like you just make others suffer. THat's why you... You can't escape!" Biting back her apprehensions, Haguro rushes in for something of an inverted strafing run, passing below and firing upwards at the rising seacraft with her anti-air fire to bombard them with way too many metallic fragments at once! Sure, she might feel bad about trying to actively kill humans, but she'll get over it. They're bad people. They're smugglers. That makes it right, right? Right.
Kotone Yamakawa	With Blackarachina getting the guard sgoing she'll move for a moemnt wiating to dfeal with them. She hears them talking she sees them thin out a bit and that's when she readies her taser systems as she moves to sneak up on the guards pouncing them from behing and giving them all the jolts she can to drop them after all they may be borgs nd she should be carefful but for all of it she's a phantom for the moment they wouldn't be abl to make her out very well if at all. She says nothing, what does she have to say to people like this? She will trust in LAura as well to also keepo the guards attention as well. This should give her more than enough room to work.
Alexis Maaka	Maaka takes aim at a tango attacking Seft from behind, dropping him easily with a shot to the chest. He won't be getting up from a .338 to the chest. Septette brutalizes the machete toting coke-head, making a display in butchering him for his friends to see. The others are more hesitant to push the assault, firing before a number of them run like hell. THey go just in time to see Bramble's massive wood-wolf charging for the compound, bowling a number of them over. One of the Narcos notices how it smells, diving aside before calling out "GET BACK, IT'S GONNA BLO-" He's cut off, by the explosion pulping the remainder of the narcos outside. Theurgus begins a display of magic and theatrics, that would look rather bombastic if it weren't' so lethal. An energy vortex forms and blasts towards the PT boats, knocking them into the air as the force alone tears the hulls apart. The narcos that dive just in time are going to have to contend with the waters, as the explosions leave debris showering the body of water. Haguro's fire doesn't help, blasting apart the vessels with high-ex shells. It's almost too easy. Kotone is unnoticed as Laura cuts through Narcos with ease, one unfortunate shotgunner losing the top of his head as he slumps over. Laura will find the light swaying side to side to give her approach toward the factory floor a menacing sort of effect, as she seems to teleport with every shine of the light. One last narco stands between her, Kotone, and the hostages, and he blazes away with an automatic shotgun. "DIIIIIIE, PUTA!" Blackarachnia cuts the power just in time, as the lights go out. THe hostages are tierified, not just because of the chaos outside, but also the mountain casualties. "Search the area, everyone spread out!" the manager orders, holding his pistol at the door. It's a white knuckle situation, lots of trigger fingers getting very itchy. Kotone will notice a few wireless comm signals leading towards the radio hub, something she can take out if she wishes.
Bramble Patch	Bramble Patch seems to almost part from the jungle itself as she trots out of it. "That kind of worked out, I guess." Idly she licks the bottom of a hoof, and turns to smother out the smoldering tip of her tail. Cants an ear at the ruckus still going on inside the factory. "Sounds like the others have inside covered. Wonder what else we can do... oooo." With a cackle Bramble Patch pulls the spade off her back, somehow twirling it despite the lack of opposable finger digits. She can also use it as a prybar. Let's break open some of their supplies, make sure everything these jerks were pushing is, ah, accounted for.
Laura Kinney	Laura Kinney staggers back as the narco magdumps into her, each new blast of incoming buckshot knocking her back further. But all too soon... The weapon clicks empty. Laura spits some more blood onto the floor, before her lips part in a grin, buckshot slowly clattering to the floor as her body pushes the foreign material out of her flesh. "My turn." She walks forward, watching him frantically try to reload, before she kicks high and brings her foot claw across horizontally. Heads roll, literally. <<Hallway secure.>>
Haguro	With the PT boats obliterated, all that's left is the narcos that actually managed to survive getting torn apart by magic and metal. Haguro swings back around in the river with her turrets mostly in working order, skimming the water to seek out whoever's left and poking their heads above water. "Is anyone still alive? If you are, follow me to shore and... And get on the ground!" If there really is anyone still alive, they might be the lucky ones. Haguro's more than ready to help them out of the river, but the turrets are ready to blast them apart at a moment's notice. Who knows? Maybe interrogating any survivors could be helpful. At least it'd give her practice.
Black Arachnia	Ahhhh, the sound of enemies who thought they'd be able to keep seeing what they're shooting at. Black Arachnia just flips her optics to night-vision mode, picking out bad guys by virtue of the weapons they're holding. That loudmouth with the pistol seems like a particular threat ... At least, up until the Maximal's mandible grapnel descends, grabs him by the neck, and hauls him into the air. There's a dose of paralytic cybervenom getting pumped into him at the same time - strong enough to make sure he WON'T pull that trigger, initially, and then the rest of the dose to completely relieve him of any capacity for voluntary movement. Might take out some involuntary movement as well, but either way, he shouldn't be able to affect the battle. Not even after Black Arachnia releases his now-paralyzed form and lets him drop back to the floor. He may break some bones in the process. She doesn't care. And if anyone of the other narcos happen to start emptying their guns into the ceiling - well, this is one of those rare times when Black Arachnia will just play the odds. Besides, the more panicked they are, the less likely they'll be able to put up a significant fight when she makes her NEXT move.
Septette Arcubielle	Many of the remaining goons in the open break and run for the jungle- Septette merely turns her attention back to the factory, after dispatching those foolish enough to remain. Death pursues those who flee; nothing good awaits them in that malicious forest anymore. A trio of small magitech drones materialize around the factory at her summons, swooping in through windows or eaves and scanning it rapidly room by room. It doesn't matter much that the drones are fragile enough to die on contact with the narcs. Septette pieces together a rough mental map of the remaining soldiers' locations within the building from the drones' sensory data, then calculates the swiftest path between her current location and the squad of goons: through one of the factory's metal walls. It takes her a couple of running strides to get up to speed, but when she hits the wall, it explodes inwards in a spray of shrapnel with enough force to embed the shards into the far wall. She comes to a screeching halt, digging her feet into the floor and leaning back while simultaneously carving through the remaining guards with raking strikes that slice through bone. In a matter of seconds, the room is empty save for the rubble and bodies on the floor. The yggdroid pauses amid the clearing dust and puts one hand to the side of her head. "Everyone else cleaning up? Anyone need further assistance?"
Starbound Flotilla	Seft dives in time for the shot to go in. George and Biteblade shout, and take cover, firing blindly when the return fire finally reaches them, but they find the whole thing settles quickly. The Flotilla is actually not too battered by this. For once, you know, they've come through an op without one of their number getting knocked the fuck out. They set about helping Septette clean up, or at least Seft and Biteblade do. Pavo and George set about looting and pillaging while Albert and Moonfin establish a sort of defensive position with a quickly assembled fort of sorts, crafted out of the processed chunks of the old village. Though much of the site is damaged, and much of the goods here are beyond even Pavo's profit-oriented morality (unregulated drugs are just not a sustainable long-term business model! These guys showed that off) there's still some materials and caches to be looted here. And they need every dime they can get these days, not just their contract pay!
Theurgus	Theurgus has been asked to mop up any stragglers, and so that is what she aims to do. The marble changes again, from the clear white, to a shining golden yellow. "I summon forth the great cataclysm, Ragnarok, spear thy thunder and sunder thy lightning, purge these fools from my sight." She intones the spell, a large spell seal appearing in the sky, burning yellow like the Sun itself, crackling with electricity as she holds it back, just barely on the cusp of release, waiting for Haguro to get anyone worth saving out of the river. Once Haguro gives her all-clear, a simple gesture is all that's needed to send a massive bolt of lightning into the river, sending a current through everything within the nearest half-mile. It shouldn't damage creatures at that distance, just give them a bit of a jolt, but the epicenter and immediate area are likely to be devoid of life for a few days after this strike. The accompanying thunderclap would likely shatter windows, if any were present also.
Alexis Maaka	Haguro commands surrender, and as surviving boatmen come to the shore, they weigh their options. All of them get on their knees and raise their hands. "Just don't let us stay here. If word reaches our lieutenant's superiors, we're good as dead, may as well throw us back in the drink!" One fearfully pleads. Theurgus shocking the river with thunderbolts from the gods convinces them all to follow suit, as they frantically escape the drink. Laura shreds the remaining thug in the hallway, his head coming off his neck easily and messily as Laura secures the hallway. Bramble will find a good selection of drugs packaged and ready to distribute, as well as firearms. A lot of them are surplus munitions from long-fallen regimes and foreign countries, as well as explosives and disposal ordinance. As Blackarachnia grapples the manager, he freaks out just before he can get a hostage to threaten the enemies with. He screams and flails, dropping his pistol while he struggles...then stops struggling. The venom works its magic, as he goes limp and slumps over. The narcos shriek in horror at the mechanical spider, firing at Blackarachnia frantically, just before one of the Narcos falls dead from a gunshot. A gunshot that comes from the pistol dropped. One of the hostages, a young woman with some burns on her face and arms, holds the weapon on the narcos. "DROP 'EM!" She orders, putting another bullet in a narco's leg while the remainder are in something of a mexican standoff. The guns that are dropped are policed by hostages brave enough to stand up, like the woman does. "No more enslavement. This village is ours...I don't know who came to our aid, but we're done being your labor force." And then the wall comes in, as the guards are cut down helplessly. The hostages, including the armed ones, are desperate to get out of the way, and those with stolen guns aim them at Septette...before realizing Septette may be on their side. "...uhhh, are you the one that saved us?" The burned woman asks, lowering her gun wisely.
Haguro	With the river clear of the remaining survivors, Haguro gives Theurgus the thumbs up to get to blasting! She cringes at the sheer volume of the all that, but tries not to make it too obvious that her ears are still ringing. Good thing she has that mask on. "W... We'll see. Come with us. Maybe we'll find... Some use for you." Haguro speaks slowly, trying to keep her voice steady and non-stammery to try and put on an air of foreboding! She still has those turrets visibly trained on the survivors, although it doesn't look like she'll be moving very far until the rest of the mission is completed further in-land.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa does try not to focus on Larua's take down, she's got a job to do and in someways? Kotone's still bizzarly innocent abotu somethings. She focus more on the going for the hotage but as she's got a cray guy spryaing everywhere? She's going to have to hit the ground here, thankfully Laura is quick to dealwith him. "Thank you." She notes before she's getting p and moving to take down the wireless radio HUD, cut out the flow of information? That would leave them easier prey to deal with for the rest of the team. <<Taking down some of the comm network now lets get thse people out of here.>>
Laura Kinney	Laura Kinney picks this time to kick open the door and enter the main factory floor. "We are here to rescue you, and destroy the drugs here. We will be taking this one for interrogation." She prods the paralyzed leader in the ribs with one boot, which luckily no longer had a claw coming out of it, before snagging a few lengths of wire from nearby and hogtying him. "Tell anyone else who thinks that slavery and drugs are the right way of life that they will have to deal with The Wolverine." She's surprised these people are as calm as they are, what with the skeletal magical robots, various aliens, a teenage girl with silvery claws who's covered in blood....
Bramble Patch	Bramble Patch puts the lid back on the crate, and uses the remaining charge of her magic to bind everything up, and get a few trees moving to help carrying it out. It's evidence, after all. Also if they take it with them, it won't go slipping back onto the criminal market somehow.
Septette Arcubielle	It takes unnervingly little time, between the last of the factory guards hitting the ground and the hostage pointing a gun at her, for Septette to change her demeanor from berserking killbot to calm, reassuring android. Her body loses the last of its red-hot glow as it's quenched by a subtle application of ice magic, and the carbon-blackened blades on her limbs compress and fold away into a form that suddenly looks more humanlike. The light streaming through the hole in the wall paints Septette in an odd chiaroscuro against the darkened factory interior, but even in the poor visibility, her glowing purple eyes visibly soften. "Yes, we're here to help you. Extraction is coming, and this factory is likely going to be destroyed. Please, come with me if you want to live." She awkwardly pushes a dead body out of the way with her foot to clear the way, and gestures towards the hole in the wall with one clawed hand. "Maaka? How soon can we get extraction and medical care for... about seventeen civilians?"
Starbound Flotilla	Seft surges forward through the hole Septette made. "Urgent! I promise you will be provided medical care and all opportunity for recovery. My allies are already in the process of constructing facilities to provide medical treatment. Please help bring anyone who cannot move themselves out, and follow us!" She urges in that usual pure monotone, but her robotic motions seem quite placating and furthermore, quite caring. "Assuring. I would never let any more of this awful and unethical production to continue." Biteblade, on the other hand, remains, uh. Floran. She looks at the burned woman, with fascination. B...bacon? "Hopeful. We will not force you to follow this, but we promise care and freedom if you do." Seft gestures out, out to where Moonfin and Albert are already assembling a little three-story facility in a sort of strange mix of ornate wood and militaristic concrete. The medical facility already underway, with Starbound's incredibly fast construction prowess.
Black Arachnia	Taking out the 'manager' brings the reward of seeing the hostages taking some matters into their own hands - collecting a few weapons they could lay hands on, fighting back against the remaining narcos, And by that point, Septette makes her presence known ... And that sems to pretty much have put a lid on things. No need for Black Arachnia to even show herself, really. If there are any computers that are still in relatively functional shape, Black Arachnia may descend upon them to see what she can collect by way of hard drives or other storage media to be analyzed, just in case there are any leads to be found from the data - any other gangs, or branches of this one, that might be worth hunting down. And then she's gone, after finishing her search.
Alexis Maaka	The woman with burns nods after a moment. "I guess...I guess we should thank you. These people have held us here for five years now. Killed those of us who resisted and put the rest of us to work." She explains, trying not to stare at Septette and Laura both. She glances back at the other natives, before nodding. "Come on, we should get going." She does get in one last kick at the manager that drove them to work constantly, before they begin to leave. "So uh...what are you guys going to do now? This is our home, we can't just leave it, you know?" As the villagers watch the Flotilla swiftly construct medical facilities, they stare in awe, but grow more uncomfortable at Biteblade. The tree girl is more than a bit...creepy, to say the least. "I don't like the way that one looks at me." the burned woman says awkwardly. "Um..I guess, I guess we could use this, so thanks?" She finally says. The hostages are definitely looking like they could use some assistance in rebuilding their homes, as well as treating their sick. Some of them look like they've been through horrific tortures, with untreated wounds and everything, while others are too sick to even stand straight. You guys did good work tonight, these people may have been saved from a slow and horrible death at the hands of these narcos. The Federation will take care of surviving narco soldiers...later.