Scene #6187: #03: Silence - Defensive Operation

Owner	Pose
Gideon Kaspar	It's not a long trip, but then it rarely is when riding in the cabin of a high tech helicopter going at full throttle. There's no traffic on the ground or in the air, and nobody hails them from a radio unit or air control tower when they close in, despite the fact that even every single small town seems to have one. Ditching the previous urban center, the terrain below quickly becomes unremarkable again, save for the emptiness of the cross-country highways the helicopter ride keeps relatively close to as a matter of geometry. There aren't any signs of anything coming this way, whether robot, Doll, or human. They know that the highway out of town, specifically, was used by a large number of civilians not very long ago, however, so the continued, cricket-chirping absence of people is about as ominous as it gets, given Sangvis Ferri's continued association with a lack of people anywhere, as if they couldn't exist in the same space as one another. The next place over is a little bigger, sitting on the blurry line between country town and river city, build around and inside the bend of a sharp hairpin turn in a meltwater river on both sides, bridged in half a dozen places. It's still very green this way, as they get further from the mountains, which would be something slightly positive were it not helping the place burn. Multiple sections of the urban area are already on fire, gradually spreading blazes having sprung up around the northern, exterior bend of the river, hemming in the smaller section of town built on the south bank, inside the curve. Smoke rises from ten times as many streets as there are fire, and the din of automatic alarms on cars and shops, rupturing water and gas mains, crackling damaged power poles and lines, and the odd explosion of a vehicle, still fail to drown out the incendiary whistle and penetrating boom of volleys of guided munitions being launched from positions on the north side, over the river and straight into the south, laying down a grid of fire that slowly sweeps from the riverbank southwards. All but one of the bridges have been completely demolished, though by the looks of it, from shaped charges rather than missile fire. The one remaining bridge, straight down the center, is currently host to a gunfight so blindingly green that it's almost a laser rave, partially concealed by the heavy steam cloud that is rising from the river boiling away beneath it, simply from the volume of stray energy weapon shots hitting it. Most of the bridge and the adjacent banks are invisible in this way, though the north side is obviously teeming with Sangvis T-Dolls and drones, backed up along the streets, occupying multiple floors of nearby buildings, or circling in the air, trying to get as many guns on the area as possible even when they won't all fit. Chunks of bridge, vehicle, and T-Doll occasionally fall out of the smoke cloud and into the water, rapidly replaced by a fresh charge of purple and black surging down the street to fill the gap.
Staren	Staren was a little late to the mission... but it seems in the interim, this has changed from a talk-to-civilians mission to a... well he's not sure what exactly he's running into, but Tony called a helicopter, so it seems they're done pretending. He'd already swapped to his robot body JUST IN CASE, even if he was going to wear civilian clothes instead of armor... But now it doesn't matter. Already en route to the first city, the Star Hawk stops there only briefly to drop off a case with nanobandages and tools to free the trapped survivor, and then heads for town two. Where he sees... Holy shit. Sangvis is just straight up murdering cities now? Do... do they want the entire world to know they're the bad guys? That's not how you plot, man, you keep it subtle so that people don't KNOW. Which means that they're now in the 'heroes kick in teeth with righteous vengeance' part of the plan, and Staren's one of the heroes. He wonders if it's some weird kind of false flag op. Someone using Sangvis tech to distract everyone else, for instance. But they can work that out later. Right now, destroying every enemy asset here is the most straightforward way to stop more innocents from dying. The Star Hawk arrives in the sky, followed by the sonic boom. Staren tries to link up with his allies' sensor networks and start tracking where those artillery shots are coming from, directing bursts of railgun fire their way. With the tacnet linked up, allies can target missiles FOR him, saving him the cost of any attention to that while he focuses on his own attacking and dodging. Sangvis has repeatedly caught him at a disadvantage. Outgunned him. Left him scrambling to defend himself and just to survive long enough to accomplish the mission. No more. No ****ING MORE! Now HE's in a giant freaking warmachine bristling with weapons, in a target-rich environment. And yet he STILL can't let his guard down, because he does not want to find out exactly how quickly massed sniper energy weapons can tear through his mech.
Tony Stark	While Tony Stark uses his POWERED ARMOR SUIT to fly there, the Swagcopter ferries multiple of the team - the rest, presumably, in Riva's Large Truck with Large Cowcatcher. Once out over open ground, the helicopter, instead of raising up, comes in on a low approach that would defeat most conventional radar, or at least help avoid it. Obviously, Sangvis Ferri aren't 'conventional', but whatchagonnado? As the bridge is closed in on, with the fires, the helicopter begins pulling some maneuvers it'd be wise to hang on for, spinning and yawing to the side so that it continues its approach with the side that Nova is on 'faced out' - and allowing her to start acquiring targets, if she chooses. Before the door opens, a fan of flares bloom out and the helicopter sharply rises to give her an angle - and something for the snipers to shoot at - as it brings the rest of the people close to the bridge enough to just tumble or step out. Meanwhile, Tony switches his vision mode from energy-heat vision - useless, with all the fires and lingering radiation - to magnetic, something that should be much clearer. "Everyone out of the party van, you don't wanna be in it when it gets hit!" Stark announces, his voice transmitted into the cabin of the helicopter, as the Mark XLIII swoops in to buzz the bridge and get a better idea of who-and-what is shooting at who-and-what through the fog of war. "If anyone finds our VIPs, give a shout."
Tomoe	So Tomoe has had a chance to rest for a little bit as she was onboard the chopper Tony was so kind to call in for them. Her thoughts end though as they get near the next settlement she can see the fires, the sounds of car alarms come to her ears. Also, the damage looks a heck of lot fresher here the fires are clearly still spreading, and then there's the weapon fire, yup it's not done here. They might be able to do something, she resolves herself to get back into the fray pretty soon. She speaks on the comm about going after the enemy flyers. Nova lists out a pretty solid basic plan in her mind, which is what she's going to do. She checks her kid for a moment and seems read as she taps one thing on the menu changing from her normal sword and board to an ornate spear of some sort. With Mooncutter in hand, Tomoe will leap out of the helicopter while it's mid-flight and drop for a moment get clear of its blades and when she is? Her wings will flare out, and she'll make a beeline to go after the Aerial units near the bridge, she doesn't go to melee no she'll chant in Norse, sending golden runes about her body. She keeps chanting then comes the barrage of light rays seeking out the drone flyers trying to shake them up, get their attention. Maybe even catch the notice of anyone human or T-doll whose fighting on the ground someone hostile to the Sangvis units has arrived. She is a tank, after all, taking hits and getting attention is what she's good at and this hopefully should get their fliers attention, she'll move the moment her spell finishes though she does not want sit still she damn well knows there are likely Jagers down there and she'll not want to make it easy if they lend support to the flying units she's targeting.
Nova Terra	Nova was still and quiet on the ride out of the city, sitting in the chair hugging her rifle. It's the quiet of a professional who's used to the long waits before a battle. And quite a battle it is. Nova perks up as the flashes in the distance reveal the energy gunfire and artillery blasts. She sits up and leans towards the window for a better look. She's seen plenty of battles and this one is looking like a tough one. Doesn't mean she's going to back down though. Her job has always been to enter dangerous situations like this and accomplish the mission. Nova's very good at her job. As the helicopter flies down towards the battle Nova checks over her equipment. Once she's satisfied she waits. Soon enough the craft begins to come under fire and start taking maneuvers. Nova keeps herself steady in the seat as she raises her rifle. The door opens and soon enough, Nova's Canister Rifle is barking out one shot after another towards the SF forces below. Rather accurate too, considering the fast moving helicopter and the distance to target. But it should help provide cover as the others disembark, after which Nova turns to the pilotless cockpit, "Friday, wasn't it? Make a quick pass over the roof of that building south east of the bridge. I'll jump out there." As the chopper redirects on her request, Nova leans out to look, the wind whipping up her hair. She sizes up the craft's approach and the oncoming building, then pushes herself out. Nova plummets fast towards the building roof, hitting it in a roll and quickly coming up to her feet. Transitioning into a dash, she moves to the edge of the structure before kneeling down and raising her rifle. Sweeping her scope over the battle playing out below, Nova can't pick up on any targets within the heavy smoke. But then she expected as much. So instead she brings her aim up to the buildings on the other side of the river. She makes out the SF units stationed within a number of buildings, raining their fire down on the bridge from their advantageous elevated positions. Not so advantageous any more! Nova sights on the first Sangvis unit, pulling the trigger on her rifle before switching to the next unit and then the next. Assuming those are friendlies on the bridge, Nova and the rest need to reduce the pressure so they can escape.
Gordon Freeman	Gordon is here. He's pre-assembled his RPG. He's tinkered with his atomic Tau Cannon. He's actually, briefly, managed to sort of privately /speak/ with some of his superiors, of all the things. Man, he must have exhausted his verbosity today, because after that, he was silent all through the heli ride. He's when there's mention of a front-line approach, he immediately activates his armor, a wordless expression that yes, he does intend to be the one to crash right into the front lines -- and it helps him keep grimly steady while the helicopter maneuvers. "Welcome to the HEV Mark 4 Protective System, for use in hazardous environment conditions. Power assist movement activated. High impact reactive armor activated. Automatic medical systems engaged. Defensive weapon selection system activated. Xen Relay targeting beacon activated. Have a very safe day." Once they tumble out, leaping from the interior, the front line is where he intends to go. He's heading into battle, and this time he's opening with the Tau Cannon, because /fuck you/, he intends to make damn sure that he hits whatever target is going to get A-15 and S-2 out of this nightmare. He intends to make a break right for the bridge from wherever they land, with grenades halfway to primed, a Tau Cannon already spinning up, and a superhuman dash speed. His helmet is covering his face, but beneath its reinforced hazard hood, glasses gleam with heroically brutal intent. Meanwhile, impossible distances away, Dr. Kleiner speaks with another scientist about a request he just got. "Can you get a lock on him? ... Hmmm, certainly quite a lot of exotic particles, yes. Well, as long as you can get it close to him and not drop it in the river, it ought to be okay, right? ... Oh my, can you waterproof it a little before then? I've some worries about that sort of nuclear disaster. ... Ah, wonderful, perfect. Let's start the delivery." With all the energy weapons going off, and all the probable jamming equipment on the field, it's not clear quite how close one might be able to teleport something to Gordon Freeman. But if it can be anywhere near at all, the telltale signature of green lightning will herald a small delivery from Your Friends at Black Mesa, something to truly hammer home how little Gordon intends to risk letting this rescue operation slip between his fingers. it's time to field test something /very new/.
Raziel	Raziel edge towards the end of the helicoptor provided for them by Tony '.o$$$Swaaaaag$$$o.' Stark. Watching as things unfolded, he was not sure what they were fighting from his position, instead just watching adorable girls shoot really large guns at targets. Green lights were all that they left behind. His eyes narrowed... 'Arriving at the city was a new form of hell that modern warfare had taken. Hiding in cities and firing weapons that could kill at a distance more effectively than a dozen knights could at the height of their age, one might question the true horror of this age. They had scoffed at my old fashioned non-sense, but in the end...is this truly any better? The age where killing someone is as easy as pulling a trigger was a age I feared would truly make the meaning of life even less meaningful.' Leaping out, he dived into the air, not allowing his wings to take air yet, he wanted more time to get closer, incase those weapons were turned on him. At the last moment, he opened his wings up to catch the air like a parachute, aiming to try and grab the edge of the support for the bridge, and dragin his claws around it, slowing his descent as he lept into the field. In his hands the soul reaver cane to life, a green energy in the shape of a wraith blade. Leaping towards the back line, Raziel moved to engage his opponets. This was not a duel, and if they could not see him coming, then it was their own weakness, not trickey, that caused their fall at his hands.
Alexis Maaka	There's no way to fast-rope off the chopper, but Maaka definitely leaps off regardless. She aims herself toward the artillery's position, at least close to it anyways. Her booster rig slows her descent before she lands with a loud thud, clutching her G36K. She's also summoned up a rocket rifle, a gift from Staren, and C4. She'll need all the firepower she can get tonight, because everything is hell on fucking earth right now. Maaka's reaction to seeing SF forces raze this city is much more measured and stoic than Staren's, it's just a fact of life that men with this kind of power will bring it down on anybody they see as deserving it. Or even if they don't. "Staren, I'm on the ground. Synching to your tacnet as we speak, I'll see if I can paint the artillery for you." She messages, making her way down an alleyway with her carbine sweeping corners. The bright green flashes of laser fire are showing up as eye-searing in her HUD, thanks to night-vision. Alexis just growls to herself, switching her optics' NV off. "Right, not doing that for now." She mutters to herself. "Nova, if you're hearing me, I could use some sniper support." Alexis messages over comm, as she approaches her target...
Riva Banari	You guys take the helicopter. Riva's got the Truck. Completely ignoring speed laws and making use of roads in ways Man Were Not Meant To Drive, Riva displays that she might in fact be a vehicular psychopath as said truck skids in towards that blockaded bridge. They have a bridge. They have particle beams. Riva has a quarter tank of gas and a dead guy's truck. She doesn't even stop. She begins driving straight forward, yelling angrily. "COMING THROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUGH!" She yells, apparently expecting to be able to just plow forward and run their enemis the crap over, perhaps breaking the enemy lines enough to clear the bottleneck and end the stalemate on the only land entrance to the area.
Gideon Kaspar	There are numerous points across the river from which the artillery originates, being more than savvy enough to sprinkle small teams all over a dense cityscape with maximum coverage, rather than line them all up at some rear division. They're performing the role usually done by field mortars, but rather than lugging around tubes full of crudely propelled grenades, the job is being done by small, reloadable missile launchers, curving the munitions back down to earth with pinpoint guidance. Only the ones at the very back are out on street corners or deserted intersections; those closer to the firefight have embedded themselves down the steps to subway tunnels, popped open manholes, or sat themselves under architectural overhangs to be as little exposed to counter fire as possible. A torso-sized missile only needs so much clearance, after all. Also because they are missiles, they switch from ground support fire to anti-air fire without trouble. The Stark copter is lit up by targeting beacons almost immediately, whereupon the hard break and flare spray attract a convergence of five missiles all at once; more than extreme overkill for just a helicopter. The combined blast wave rocking the heli would be enough to throw anyone out, were they not all jumping anyways, but they have the reload period to get to the ground while the copter retreats. Tomoe swoops in on a massive furball of her favourite Sangvis Ferri Scout model drones, all of which appear to have been upgraded with some high-grade optic and targeting gear in place of one of their guns. There have to be ten times as many as she's fought before, so their lowered agility and firepower is a cold comfort, as after the first row of them fireballs from her light spell, most of them peel off to surround her, forming a half-sphere in the air around her and pelting her with enormous amounts of 'low calibre' fire. The remainder stay aimed at the bridge and the streets, doing low sweeps and dime turns to try and scout something out from the air. Nova hits her building of choice with a missile flying just overhead and a particle blast cracking the ground a split second before she lands, leaving her briefly standing in a melted pothole before she rolls, singeing her hair. She can immediately identify the shooter from tracing the path back, and a precise shot from her canister rifle blows its head off. Moving from point to point down the ten storey apartment building across the street, there must be thirty or forty T-Dolls occupying it. After she hits a couple of them, all of them on the east-facing side of the building abandon their saturation shooting and turn to her instead, rapidly turning the edge of the floor she's on to melting slag, blowing the lip at the edge of the roof to dust and causing the i-beams to melt and sag. Though they're all well-covered, they still show up to a small degree on her thermals, lacking proper cloaks. Checking them out in more detail, they lack the distinct sensor wear and heavier rifles of jaegers; oddly enough, none of the vantage points contain dedicated snipers, but the generic Ripper assault model.
Gideon Kaspar	That too is a small blessing, because the sheer number of them really makes up for a lack of devastating accuracy. The minute Maaka and Gordon make touchdown, the air around them spikes thirty degrees from the sheer amount of hipfire that follows them on the way down and splatters the streets. The unfortunate reality that there are only safeer ways to slice a pie becomes a problem for Maaka, as each corner she attempts to turn or clear becomes a bullet hell of beam fire, eventually blocking her completely by hitting a gas main and turning her approach into a wall of fire. There are so many enemies that there's almost nowhere she can't be seen on the streets, at least from the air, and these ones are definitely networked. The sound of buzzing high-speed wheels follows her quickly, where a sweet-sweeping team of Prowler drones charges her from behind with fire from the opposite direction. Raziel finds The Soul Reaver has little more than usual trouble biting through the composites used to build the Dolls he ambushes, and their ability to fight in close combat is sub-standard as usual. In the fog and steam, he has a superlative advantage, but unlike typical soldiers, they still shoot at him. Because their positions are all updated digitally in real time, they know exactly when a randomly fired shot would hit an ally, and so fire with confidence the other 99% of the time. Gordon and Tony swoop to the bridge specifically. Tony is put under heavier fire for being the flying target, and in fact a great deal of it comes out of the impenetrable cloud of steam, as he is ranged by the Scouts all around, making the shooting harder to react to. Gordon is mostly charging down the main corridor of missed shot volume, with its inherent upsides and downsides. The radiation and heat is utterly obscene, but only for a short distance. Tony's magnetic vision mode is dramatically more helpful, easily picking out the metallic components and electronics in the bridge, and in the combatants on top of it, one of whom Gordon almost runs straight into. Right off the bat, he is relatively fortunate, because once he's close enough to the war zone that he isn't hearing it all at once, the rattling crack of automatic gunfire reaches his ears, and streams of spent brass roll past his ankles. Out of the fog he can hear "Hahahaha! Louder! Even louder!" followed by a deafening explosion and continued maniacal laughter. He arrives to a blockade made of abandoned vehicles, long since having been blown up and burnt all their gas, turned into a hardened bulkhead of blackened and twisted metal. A maintenance hatch in the bridge has been ripped up, and boxes and crates of ammunition and explosives have been scattered all around, most of them left empty in a sea of brass and Sangvis Ferri corpses. Crude firing steps have been made of stamped metal munitions boxes, where S-2 is stood atop them firing into a crowd he can just barely make out with a rifle grenade launcher, the entire bridge ahead of her and between the opposite riverbank an absolute wasteland of mangled T-Dolls and smashed drones. It's starting to amount to a ramp that they can run up to her barricade at this point. He can slot in easily enough, and firing the tau cannon down the narrow bridge into the packed firing line at the end has the desired result. The slugs punch straight through the kneeling rippers at the front and go through the standing ones behind, one of them smashing a fire hydrant off its main and showering the place in water. Both sides are pretty much firing indiscriminately, but one side could hardly miss.
Gideon Kaspar	The pile of wreckage and ammo is visible to Tony as well, especially when Riva comes tearing down the street in the 'borrowed' truck. S-2 notices right at the last second, leaping from her spot where the truck just rams right through the barricade (sadly, it's way too steamy for Riva to even decide not to by the time she sees it, if she felt inclined), spins out at high speed, flies down the bridge, and wipes out the entire remaining firing line before crashing into a light post. She briefly comes under a massive amount of fire from the reinforcements packing the street, before Staren swoops overhead in a gun run and railgun strafing fire pulverizes the asphalt and a score of Rippers and Prowlers, driving the rest into cover. S-2 gets as far as yelling "Hey, I'll remember-" before seeing the ensuing carnage and changing mid-sentence to "Wow! Wow wow wow! Do that again!" She gets up and rolls over to Gordon, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling down down, unloading another magazine with the barrel of her rifle already glowing alarmingly red. "You really did get here fast! That's super impressive! A-15 is going to look like a dummy now!" Footsteps rattle on the bridge as Clover catches up from behind, taking the opposite chunk of barricade. "We came as fast as we could! How did you even get into this much trouble?! We weren't even two hours!" "Whaaat? This is totally the normal amount of trouble!" Riva's truck seems to want to explode at around this time, given the gas cooking off from the side being superheated so quickly.
Staren	Given the amount of damage that's already been done to the city, Staren's not that worried about obstacles in the way of his shots (Although he'll target the ones in the open first, sure why not.) It's not like concrete is going to STOP a burst of hypersonic slugs. That troublesome sniper from the other day isn't the only one who can shoot through walls! When Riva's... Riva-ing draws a bunch of T-Dolls out into the open, he actually laughs at their apparent foolishness while shooting the targets of opportunity. <"If this is a normal amount of trouble, you must be on the news a lot.">
Raziel	Raziel was caught off guard by the accuracy of those shots. They tear through his undead flesh, though not particularly effective beyond the normal amount of damage something that strikes him takes. He leaps back, once more dashing into the obscuring cloud around them all. He considers his next moves, because after the second attack, he had determined that it wasn't a fluke, that they could somehow determine where he was...but only when he attacked. 'Caught off guard by their accurate attacks, at first I considered simply lucky attacks. However the second and third attacks that ended in my undead flesh being shot by these 'modern' weapons, indicated that it was anything but blind luck. If I wanted to successfully keep pressing my attack, I would have to think of a more clever way to push forward...assuming these things had a soul to devour, should by corporeal form become too damaged...lest I run out of strength and slip into the immaterial realm.' However, Raziel DID have an idea. The next one he attacked, he used his telekinetic powers on, aiming to LAUNCH the T-doll towards him, aiming to put it down with the same powerful strikes he used the others. If successful, he would move onto the next...using the same telekinetic hold...but this time instead of launching her at himself, he aimed to try and launch the doll towards some dangerous looking damaged parts of the bridge, or anything that could be used to impale them. When in doubt...improvise. Making his way through the dolls, the voice of the one shouting over them comes to his ears. Was this their leader?
Riva Banari	Steam is everywhere. Riva just keeps plowing forward. She figures she'll run over SOMETHING on her way through. Yeah, the barricade is right there but she wouldn't stop even if she saw it. She's committed, dammit! Some people might say she should be committed to an institution, but that's another matter entirely. The impact makes a lot of fun things happen, because physics. The truck goes into a spin, sideswipes a bunch of Sangvis, and smashes into a light post while Riva continues yelling 'YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO' like she was riding a bomb. She ends up outside the truck, lying there on the ground as Sangvis blast the living hell out of the vehicle and her general position. She doesn't move. Every part of her feels like pain. Staren comes in to clean up, which is cool. She'll have to send him something nice. The truck then explodes. "Worth it." She says into her radio, and continues lying there while she waits for her body to slowly deal with massive physical trauma. She'll be fine.
Alexis Maaka	There's only so many 'other ways' Alexis can take. She finds herself hounded by a hail of laser fire every time she tries to head a corner. It leaves her absolutely baffled, as she finally reaches a location that hasn't been full of hostiles waiting for her. AND THEN she gets prowlers. "Bloody hell!" She exclaims, diving to cover behind something, anything as she takes aim at the prowler drones with her rifle. The G36K lets off a burst of 5.56 ammo toward the drones, trying to take the one in front out.
Tomoe	They might be drones but Sangvis Ferri's drones are nothing to sneeze at, not with the tale of carnage they have weaved. She's seeing the horror of full automated warfare. There's just so many of them this isn't just a skirmish this is a pretty serious fight, she coming under fire now from flying units. They just open fire with low power guns but there are so many of them, she's done some damage with her spell but there's just so many,m she's been able to keep the attention of a portion of them taking some pressure off the people on the ground. Her HP bar is already dropping from chip damage, each shot doesn't to much but there are so many rounds coming at her they will add up. Even they make the sphere and keep shooting her she will dive into their ranks making use of her Naginata to hack and slash hopefully through a number of them, and maybe if she's lucky a few might stop firing for fear of hitting their own or they might not care and tag a few of their own the point is her allies are dealing with less. She could use some help she admits but she also knows there are more important people to help. She's the tank and she may just have to deal with it. "COME ON YOUR MINDLESS KILL BOTS! GET ON MY LEVEL!" It's a boast, it's hopefully a diversion and it's also a test, is something with a mind watching directly or are these things on full automatic?
Gordon Freeman	Heat and radiation. Exactly what Gordon's HEV Suit is designed for! Thank goodness. The man surges through with all the momentum of a wrecking ball, despite small burns that are likely to accumulate from the experience. Despite the fog, he can at least focus on firing on where he feels pain coming from. Surging down the narrow lane, he can focus on strafing back and forth to maximize his Quake-like multishots to tear through columns of danger. Heading through the battlefield, he's pulled aside and gets into cover, enough to fuss with his Tau Cannon and reload it while the VIP speaks to him. His helmet is off, but only for a moment. It gives clear line of sight for him to prop an eyebrow up, one that's punctuated by the truck explosion. He opens his mouth, as if he's about to say something, but decides well against it, shaking his head. He's about to activate a beacon with a button-press at his wrist, when suddenly he seems to realize something. He looks around urgently! Where /is/ A-15? He clearly has concern for it, and looks to Clover and to S-2 for explanations, as well as peering around for the best probable routes to pull the pair out. And once he's done fiddling around with that Tau Cannon, laying down fire on anything surviving the explosive destruction of the heavy rave-party swarm going on, despite the thickness of the fog. Which, of course, contributes in its own way to the confusion of the dancing lights with his own bright orange shots.
Nova Terra	When the Sangvis Ferri units finally pick up on her location and start raining green death down on her, Nova starts running. The building roof beside her essentially disolves. As does much of the rest of the building around her as more fire comes in. Nova jumps, hitting a partially collapsed section of the roof and sliding down to the next floor. She keeps running as she hits it, more fire ripping up everything behind her. She makes a mad dash for the building's outer wall, before diving through the glass window to the outside. Twisting in the air as she falls, Nova snaps off a few shots towards some of the SF units firing at her. She finally hits the ground with a rather painful impact, before rolling over behind a car for cover. As energy blasts still whiz around her, Nova ejects the clip from her rifle and slides a new one in. All the while she says, "Sorry Maaka, taking too much fire. You're on your own!" With what awareness of the battle she has, Nova knows that they've located their objective at the center of the mess. And it's clear that there's no way they'll be able to destroy the enemy force. Not without leveling half the city with more firepower than they possibly have. So Nova radios to her forces, "Reigel, prepare a dropship with Viking escorts. We may need a combat evac!" Putting aside all attempts at sniping at this point, Nova switches her rifle over to automatic. Taking a deep breath, she jumps up and starts running for the bridge. Her rifle unleashes numerous bullets towards the SF forces in the distance, aim no longer as important right now as Nova attempts to make it towards the position where Freeman as found the stranded Griffin T-Doll.
Tony Stark	The Swagcopter belches smoke and whines as it emerges from the explosive cloud, but it gets everyone there. The noble Swagcopter limps away, no point in getting exploded for no reason, trailing a cloud of exhaust-tinted soot as it does. This leaves Stark, exposed to his own unfair share of interception fire as he goes for the bridge and the cloud of heat and radiation. Weaving through, and being hit by, the plasma fire and potshots, there's a sodium-on-water fizzle at the bolts strike the Iron Man suit, blasts of tangible raw energy and heat merely causing strong scorches and kinetic knocks as he's connected with and beaten about. "The cloud is--" Friday begins. "If you tell me we're not rated for it-" Tony cuts the AI off, the much more illuminating magnetic sight mode allowing him to acquire targets in the fog and blasting his own energetic force-beams back at the snipers and rippers. "It's within tolerances." Tony brightens. "Good! See? Something's working." "But those plasma weapons are still too much for the defense field." "Baby steps." Gordon and M-4 make S-2's cover adroitly, and after a quick loop threshing the perimeter with repulsor blasts, Stark burns his way in. "Afternoon, ladies. Doctor. We've got an aerial extraction coming with cavalry from orbit. Few minutes out I'd guess. Doctor, I've got a flyby of targets - I'll mark objectives and we can hit anything that'd dust our ride out of here." The Mark XLIII's forward shoulder ports open, a spray of guided missiles arcing up and then down into a Ripper knot with mid sized (but satisfyingly boom-y) explosions. "Sound good?"
Gideon Kaspar	"Ah, you think I'd get on the news if I caused a few more explosions?" "A special operations team isn't supposed to be on the news! That goes against the point!" "Aw c'mon sis! We're almost there anyways!" "No!" "Oh by the way, give me some of your ammo. A-15 made sure to leave these caches all around the city, but I sort of can't go back the way they're shelling so . . . ehehehe." ". . . fine." "You're the best, sis!" Clover unstraps a row of six magazines and throws them over to S-2, who immediately decides against letting her rifle actually cool and goes right back to it, leaning over the railing of the bridge to shoot. It's probably only the sheer amount of water in the air keeping the thing functional. Clover looks to Gordon, and clearly has the same thoughts. "Hey, where is A-15 anyways? We came to pick the both of you up." S-2 waits until holding the trigger down stops producing more hearing damage, tossing the empty mag and squirming back under cover. "Ah. A-15 realized our call was being tapped by a Sangvis Ringleader. She prepared this area as a rendezvous point and she said she'd disrupt the enemy pursuit to buy us time." "Time? Time for what?" "The Sangvis Ringleader here is already on the move!" "Going where?" "Ahhh! I'll explain when we get back! For now we need to take care of these dummies!" Clover and S-2 rise at the same time, the former and latter taking the left and right sides of the bridge exit, and gunning down the Rippers still capable of firing on them, before falling away from the remains of the barricade and retreating. Clover motions for Gordon to follow, and he certainly won't be seeing much of anything else from there, though once they get as far as the south bank, the situation isn't exactly optimistic. Going back across the bridge and heading north puts them into the largest section of the city, heavily populated by S.F. troops and densely built up. Continuing to head south takes them into a smaller section of city with less distance to the city limits, but Sangvis Ferri's artillery are already pulverizing it. Gideon connects with the radio a second after the three have cleared the bridge. "If you're going to pull out of the bridge, you should be careful about it. The other bridges all look like they were deliberately sabotaged beforehand, probably so that they could bring Sangvis Ferri to this one chokepoint. Trying to run south through that artillery fire is suicide, north and you'll have to fight your way out to the other side. East and west along the riverbank mean the artillery can move from blocking off your exit and start hitting you directly. Either way, you're not going anywhere until you can clear to a safe distance for aerial extraction, and you'll need to poke a hole in their anti-air coverage to do it." He transmits the next satellite passover scan to Gordon, Staren, and Tony, isolating the spots that Tony has seen missile fire coming from and overlapping their disappointingly wide ranges to provide a graphical indication of their coverage, as well as smaller circles to display the effective anti-air range of massed ground shooting. Going low means getting mulched by lasers. Going high means missiles. Trying to get miles out of the city is a dubious proposition. It must have gone to Clover and S-2 as well, judging by their quick looks, and their surprising readiness when Tony swoops in out of nowhere and blows up the first wave to try and advance over the vacated bridge, warning them not to try a new charge just yet, and keeping the pressure off of Raziel and Nova still there.
Gideon Kaspar	"Yep! Sounds good!" "But A-15!" "She left already! Listen to me: A-15 knows what she's doing! She drew off the Ringleader and her personal forces so that you guys could break the vanguard here! We can pick her up when she reaches her new position!" "But I-" "I know she's always doing stuff on her own, but you have to think about what's best for the team, don't you?" ". . . yes. You're right. A-15 must have rigged this bridge as well, right?" "Oh, yeah!" "Then we can blow that once we need to cut Sangvis off. If we're planning on taking out their artillery, a southbound retreat would be best." "Sure! Just give me ten, no, five minutes to break my record! I'm so close!" Riva is basically lost in the chaos. A 'dead' human flopping out of a burning truck is of no consequence (where are the other humans anyways?). The reinforcements to the reinforcements storm right past her. One is magically yanked flying into the mists and cut to pieces, the next impaled on a piece of broken rebar. Several more T-Dolls go that way, firing blindly across the bridge span, before they very suddenly give up and switch positions, outside of where Raziel can reach them while still remaining concealed. The fact that they can't artillery bomb the bridge if they hope to cross it is still in play, but without them pounding the place with beam fire, the steam is rapidly starting to disperse and thin out, quickly starting to make him a lot more visible, and a lot more attractive of a target. The shift in tactics in that sense is mirrored where Nova and Tomoe are. Where the T-Dolls shooting at Nova had previously been limited to those with a clear line of sight and acting 'defensively', while the bulk tried to focus on S-2, several detachments of Rippers and Rovers split off as seek and destroy squads to track her down, using the downtime to root out the one who keeps picking off their forces from the flanks and fringes. Tomoe's ongoing aerial dogfight comes to an end as the modified Scouts split off and swarm over both ends of the bridge, spreading out into the streets to locate Elites. It isn't long before a missile is fired with a direct visual lock on Tomoe's position, and another is arced onto Nova specifically by coordinates. Maaka herself is all but stranded on the north side by now. Turning around and putting a bullet in the lead Prowler helps in the sense that it's one less gun shooting at her (two, including the one directly behind it that it spins out and hits, while the others strafe dodge it. She's right in the way when the whole line rams her to bulldoze through the wall of flames, careening headlong into gas station across the street. The suicide tactics are acknowledged; the Rippers on that side of the street commit to pouring fire into the gas wells to set off an explosion toasty enough to take the Prowlers out along with Maaka. Staren got his one free strafing run though. If he wants to wheel back around to help Maaka or Nova or Riva or much of anyone, he instantly becomes the target of three ground installations, releasing a trio of missiles in staggered succession, this time such that a spray of flares won't take them all out at once. It certainly seems like someone smarter took over, but then they were working along a solid plan at the start. The Ringleader apparently isn't here, but a huge number of 'dumb' T-Dolls have altered their tactics as a whole to account for the Elites arriving, as if some macro adjustment had been made.
Tony Stark	There's something to be said about interceptor missiles - they're very reliable. They fly out of tubes, and they careen into things, very deliberately. Stark, having shared the plan with the team in the cover. "Friday, dump the package and bring the heli back around. Full tilt, and don't be thrifty." Friday gives the verbal tone equivalent of dead air. "Pardon?" "Dump the crate out the side and run right at the south battery." Stark grumble-explains. Friday ooooooooh's. Seconds later, engine on literal fire, the $tark$wag helicopter listing to the side (for the Swag Rover to fall out, parachuting safely down to the ground below) as it appraches the southern AA/Artillery battery. A big, hot, fast target. Friday activates the helicopter's comm/sensor suite and starts beaming ECM and fake target locks onto the dolls dug in around it, before belching out the entire rest of the quantity of flares, before pitching nose down. Which gives the SF assets in the area two choices: Spend an entire coverage cycle pounding Stark's helicopter out of the air, or let the burning, high tech Too-Good-For-This-World rotor vehicle to explosively slam into the center of the artillery anyway, like a very expensive missile. Stark thumbs south. "That's the signal, by the way." Before taking off.
Gordon Freeman	Gordon's SUMMON WEAPON finally completes. Some distance above where he took shelter, a heavy thing that... actually calls back a bit to Tony Stark's earlier discussion appears. Popping into place with a brilliant green flash, Gordon moves around cover just a bit to catch it heavily, grunting from the weight. It's a huge backpack, the size and weight you'd expect of some kind of hiker's pack. And from it emerges a hose of sorts, with an incredibly elaborate mechanical nozzle. Yes, Tony, it looks like a proton pack. It isn't, though. Because the big 90s-era hardware pack slips easily over Gordon's back, its bulk more reminiscient of a minigun operator. Gordon soon shows that it's similar in function as well as form. He hefts it up, gets on his feet, and gets moving to follow Clover and S-2. As he does, he... fiddles with a concerning number of authentications. He has to put a key into the nozzle, an important-looking one that looks duplication-proof through exotic material composition. He has to punch a lengthy code into the side of the backpack. He has to hook his HUD to it, to monitor complex nuclear reactions. Everything about the Gluon Gun screams that it's a walking nuclear disaster. The Tau Cannon worked well as a good way to handle concentrated, narrow clusters. To the south is dense city, which means narrow roads and alleyways. So sustained down-range columns of fire will be a great idea. Gordon gives A-15 about as much time as Clover does, and then he stops giving time. He's gonna punch south towards the artillery and the probable nearby anti-air. And whenever he finds ground forces, or even those clustered in windows of buildings, he opens up the nozzle. The subsequent beam of brilliant blue light is burst for just a half-second each time, but is swept in a wide beam. It behaves like something that should be projected by a screaming alien octohedron or an advanced alien capital ship: It atomically destabilizes anything it touches, searing away its subatomic gluons and turning it into a very tiny atomic detonation inside the matter it strikes. He intends to swipe it through any artillery, anti-air, or defensive positions he can see (or feel, considering the probable damage he'll draw) on the path that Clover and A-15 take, functioning in a sense as their tank in both senses of the word.
Staren	The Star Hawk flits and swoops from place to place over the city, firing bursts of gatling railgun fire at the less-concealed artillery. It makes sudden speed changes and endures G-forces no human could survive -- Staren doesn't have to worry about blood rushing out of or into his cyberbrain, after all -- to dodge enemy fire, hyperglass reaction rings allowing it to turn and reorient impossibly fast. Maaka calls for help! And unfortunately, whoever's controlling the offenses can take advantage of that to know roughly where Staren's going to HAVE to go. Fortunately for Staren, noone's called down missile strikes yet, so he has... 43 vehicle/shoulder-launcher-scale missiles left (he didn't bring the guns for really big targets, so there was more room for them.) Now that he's using cheaper missiles, the sheer energy of producing concentrated blasts of plasma isn't available, but conventional explosives or less-focused extreme heat should hopefully be enough to serve as counter-missiles -- missiles aren't usually that well-armored, right? The Star Hawk dives for Maaka -- there's a blur of movement in which it launches missiles to counter the ones chasing it and goes from plane to humanoid, and it lands on one knee. Staren tries to block the rippers' massed fire with the shield on his left arm, while holding the right hand out behind him for Maaka. <"Jump on!"> Once he's got her, he leaps back into the air, transforms to hybrid mode, and flies south, hoping to help Tony cover the group's escape with more counter-missiles.
Nova Terra	Nova dashes across the street as green bolts rip up the ground around her. She finally reaches the south entrance to the bridge and moves to take cover behind some handily placed waist-high concrete wall. While she's crouched there, she works out the details of their escape with the others. All the while unaware that her position has been relayed to the SF artillery units and a missile is currently on course. Unaware that is until the guided weapon closes in on her position, its engines alerting Nova to the impending threat. She can't move fast enough to avoid the explosion. So she instead decides to move the missile instead. Acting almost instantly, Nova pushes the missile with her mind, altering its course just enough to avoid a direct hit. Unfortunately the missile still explodes close to Nova, sending her flying and scorching the part of her suit closest to the blast. After a few moments Nova groans quietly, then picks herself up enough to crawl over to some more cover. The bridge group is starting to move south, so Nova shakes off ringing in her head and brings her rifle up to rest on the concrete wall. She doesn't sight in on any of the SF units though, insteading aiming up into the air. As a new barrage of missiles streak over through the air, Nova's rifle begins to blast out well-aimed shots at the flying weapons, trying to shoot them out of the sky before the can land. Thus opening up a clear path to fall back towards a safe(r) landing zone. Speaking of which, well above the loud sounds of battle and obscuring smoke, three streaks of orange stretch aross the sky before eventually fading. Help is coming!
Alexis Maaka	Maaka definitely calls for help. The suicide attack stands very close to blowing her to kingdom come, as she ducks behind cover. LUCKILY, Staren shows up to be a big goddamn hero. She sees the Star Hawk, in mech mode, reach out towards her like a giant robot. Which it is, technically. "...Fuckin' Hell, man. THAT'S your ship!?" She grapples onto the Star Hawk's hand with her grapple gun, clinging to it just as the limb blocks the explosion for her conveniently. Maaka sure won't be complaining about this rescue. She scurries onto the Star Hawk's side, clinging to it as she takes aim with the rocket rifle. Taking aim with the computerized sights, the cyborg opens fire with a barrage of mini-missiles on the enemy bellow.
Raziel	Raziel knows where they are now...but this means that when he runs out he'll be exposed to three of them. His cleverness was clearly at a logical end, and he needed to get closer to use his telekinetic abilities on them. However, before he steps out to launch at them, $wag $tark gives him a heads up about a distraction. Narrowing his eyes...he doesn't get much more of a clue than 'he'll know it when he sees it'. 'Pinned down as I was, and exposed I would be if I tried to launch myselves at these enemies. However, with the brilliant distraction from Stark, I was able to finally move at my enemies unimpeaded...and their distraction was my gain.' Raziel leaps out of the cover, and makes towards the tractical dolls that were left, aiming to lead the way with a blast of psychic power to try and knock one down, before leaping at the next. The blade flashes, the soul reaver hungry for the souls of the living, trying to drain life and cut through armor as anything else does. The goul falling on them like a swordsman possessed. This would only be the first part, but he was told a ghost was around...a ghost able to control these dolls. His eyes look, trying to search for this ghost...because no ghost could hide from him.
Staren	<"No, my ship is a house-sized flying castle. /This/ is my giant robot."> Staren replies matter-of-factly.
Tomoe	Tomoe has done some thinning of the ranks of the scouts first she thinks they are fleeing, or she's taken out enough of them to make them break off for the moment. Then there's the information that Nova has dropships on their way. Her allies are on the move now, so she should get on it too as she pulls off she will find that there's missile coming her way, she will attempt to outrun it for a moment popping her tank skills as best she can while making for the south side of the river much like Nova is. She doesn't get clear of the missile's blast entirely she's hurt and she's flipping forward losing control she'll make a semi-controlled landing on the south side of the river where she'll take a moment to recover as she'll be clearly battered she's got red jagged portions of her body that look like wireframes if she'd taken a direct hit she would be in a far worse. She'll catch up with Nova and will start helping with the defnece firing more light spells at missiles also being ready to use herself to cover Nova if they are going to end up getting hit...
Gideon Kaspar	For reasons not apparent, the artillery position Tony singles out on the southern section of city west across the river bend does not commit its time and resources to blowing his helicopter out of the air. Despite the total willingness to sacrifice pawns shown already, and the fact it inevitably entails the loss of the field mortar, the T-Dolls crewing it abandon the position entirely. One last missile from it goes for Tony himself, going by communications to the helicopter, before it is completely flattened under the crashing vehicle. There is no tremendous Hollywood explosion likely due to the crew carrying away the missiles. The Star Hawk's own missile coverage is perfectly adequate though. It doesn't take futuristic plasma explosions to smash into something that's designed to explode when it smashes into something. Shooting down the three going after him takes up only three of his. Another pair are fired on him when he dives to Maaka's rescue and carries her away, significant portions of his shield starting to slag away under eating eighty blasts from the Ripper teams on the ground. Another three are required to cover his retreat. The complete lack of jaeger units on the field starts to be really apparent. The godawful snipers here would make for a picture perfect tactical composition, especially coming to intercepting his interceptors. Nova has a period of time between the confirmed missile hit and the smoke cover disappearing to let her be reacquired again where the artillery teams don't follow up on her. They notice that her bones aren't scattered all over the road of course, but already after she's going into the south interior side. She and Tomoe form up to create an impromptu missile defense net, which works pretty well for a short while, before the missiles suddenly stop following calculated trajectories. Several of them even redirect in mid-flight, as an entire volley suddenly changes course and comes in for Staren and Maaka. Something somewhere switched them over to manual guidance, and uses it to curve missiles around the canister rifle, light rays, and Staren's own interceptors, forcing him to expend three missiles for every one incoming and succeed only three quarters of the time. With the railgun strafing abruptly wiping out the more visible teams on the street, turning them into flying metal chunks with that satisfying aerial BRRRT turret section feeling, and Maaka dropping rockets on a few more, the number of artillery teams diminishes to the point that a southbound escape starts to become viable. Without being pounded to tiny pieces though, the southern streets are also viable places for enemy T-Dolls to be, and the lack of constant explosions makes firing across the river much easier; even if still on the north bank, there are east and west sides to the river hairpin, and when it looks like the enemy is in full retreat mode instead of going Rambo, T-Dolls start showing up with chunks of wreckage and metal boarding and throwing down impromptu bridges of their own, trying to build on their tail. Raziel is left holding the bag with the bridge. The sole soul still on the choke point, he very rapidly becomes the center of attention for the battle lines that want to cross it. He dices the remaining 'beach head' team to pieces without issue, being borderline useless in hand to hand, but the reinforcements to the reinforcements to the reinforcements round multiple street corners and put him at the center of a tiny green sun right away, with high-speed wheeled drones charging two by two down the street to blitz the bridge by brute force and cross over.
Gideon Kaspar	Gordon has to do most of the work in the latter stage, where the group comes under fire from across the north-southward lines of the bending river, and where the bridges furthest south already are just completed before they get to them. The thing about cities is that they tend to build roads alongside rivers with bridges, though, which are usually just boxed in by fences and vehicle barriers, so that someone can drive along a straight and level path and see which bridges they're between. This means that riverside positions are absolute suicide when facing down a sweeping beam gun, and there's nothing they can do to stop him from raking the gluon gun across each section of roadside and bridge infrastructure. Even a half second is enough to scythe down multiple squads at a time, even those throwing themselves into cover just getting obliterated along with it. The targets are all lined up neatly, the ones coming across the makeshift battle bridges can be hosed back down to the bank or else the crossing itself destroyed, and the only thing he can't really get is the swarm of Scouts now starting to shoot again rather than just paint targets for the artillery that increasingly isn't there anymore. The lack of fast ground options that could handle a river or pinpoint sniper teams to take him out seems like a glaring tactical oversight yet again, like this force had originally been composed with them, but they'd been left out. While flying drones do their damnedest to harass them from the air, the remaining artillery struggles to get past the Staren/Nova/Tomoe triumvirate, most of the riverbank opposition is fucking atomized by Gordon holding M1 and moving left, Clover and S-2 follow at the group's six, cleaning up the drones that manage to get across the bridge, planting grenades into Prowler formations, and staying on a swivel such that the minute a T-Doll squad that squeaked by appears, they get sixty-odd holes in them before they can put more than a potshot on the group. It'll hold only about 'to the city edge' and not the extreme distance they'd need to clear to helicopter out, before the missile defense team run out of ammo and MP, and too many bridges are completed with Gordon having retreated beyond range to shoot them for Raziel to keep them at bay. But the idea seems to be a hot extraction anyways. Terran orbital dropships can probably survive one of these missiles on a good day (so long as they don't hit the cockpit or engine), and calling in several of them at a time is more than the diminished artillery presence can fully blast through. Unfortunately, even when the others are climbing into the jets, Raziel sees no ghosts. There is very frequently, here and there, the flicker of a feeling of one; the barest sense that someone is around, and watching, but only out of the corner of his eye, and only from moment to moment, like only part of a ghost, or a ghost that only appears for instants before leaving again.
Gideon Kaspar	Gordon is only so lucky as to have S-2 piling into the same vehicle as him and viciously pestering him the entire time to be allowed to use the gluon gun. After the conclusion appears to be that she doesn't technically qualify as a 'person' and thus someone he's legally not allowed to let touch it, she takes the hose bit, stands up in the open side door, and produces a detonator with her other hand (which, on inspection, appears to be a geometrically complicated series of black and red metallic 'claws'. "Beep!" she says, pushing the button, whereupon the satchel charges attached to the final remaining bridge's support pillars all blow in unison. Taking the nozzle, she holds it like she probably saw in a movie once, and when lifting off, blasts the beam on the T-Dolls clustered on the opposite bank as long as Gordon will allow before he pulls it out of her hands. Raziel is unfortunately an afterthought with the nuclear laser weaving dangerously around his position. The constant roar of the terrain being violently burnt to so many atoms is slightly louder than the sustained echo of "EAT SHIIIIII-" "S-2!"
Nova Terra	In the skies above the battle-ravaged town, the Terran dropships plummet down towards the ground. Ahead of them, a couple of Viking fighters blast ahead. They dive down towards the city edge, before pulling up at the last moment, thrusters kicking in as they quickly slow to a hover. Their structures then begins to change, wings folding and sliding in, engines rotating to point downwards. Legs fold out and the thrusters holding them in the air cut out, the fighters dropping down to land on those legs. As they rise up to stand straight, large gattling cannons fold out from the side and extend forwards. Turning her head to see the two transforming fighters arrive, Nova radios to them, "Vikings! Provide cover fire!" Following orders, the gattling cannons on the Vikings spin up before starting to spit out streams of bullet fire both at the approaching SF units and the missile artillery in the air. The sheer number of bullets should help reduce the effectiveness of the manual control that the missiles are under and also keep the enemy units at bay long enough for a retreat. Free of her role, Nova jumps to her feet and begins to fall back towards the landing zone. On the trail of the Vikings, the Medivac dropships come in low. Their pilots don't even bother with any landing struts or careful landings as they simply drop the armoured bellys if their transports down to the ground. The ground is ripped up as the craft literally skid to a halt. Their front door-ramps then fold down, ready for passengers. Nova quickly runs up one dropship's ramp, before spinning around and beginning to provide cover fire. Under the barrage of Sangvis Ferri energy fire, the Vikings are beginning to take steps backwards. One suddenly lurches to the side as a shot finds a lucky mark on its cannon, blowing the weapon off. But the mech rights itself and continues counter-fire with its remaining gattling. Nova waits for the last of her allies to arrive, before slamming the button to close the bay door and shouting to pilot, "GO! GO! GO!" The Medivac's engines rotate to point downwards, before lighting up and beginning to push the transport upwards. The others follow suit, the flight of crafting beginning to fly off, heading away from the SF forces. The Vikings follow suit, thrusters lifting them up into the air long enough for them to transform back into fighter mode. Their twin engines then ignite, the fighters rocketing away amidst barrages of enemy fire.
Raziel	'And then I was alone on the bridge. Surrounded with no other options, if I stayed still enough to slip into the immaterial realm, I might not make it before I released my physical body. More then that, in the open I had no way but forward. So my course was set..." Raziel, losing all pretense decides that if he has to go down, it's swinging. Bullets hammer into his form, even as he tries to keep light on his feet. His blade blocking where he could, but in the end he was taking too many shots from the sheer number of dolls. The reaver changed colors to red, as he struck, the reaver would burn his opponets more than the spirit blade would. Until he spun the reaver in a giant circle around himself, aiming to send flames out even farther. For this, he took more shots. Fortinately, his undead body needed very little in the form of internal organs, so most shots were doing little more than filling him full of holes. Blue blood splatters the ground, as his corpse like appearance was even more on display. He still moves, even as his body heaves from the effort like a man running a marathon. Until both sides turned to pause to look at the oncoming really large gun fire. Raziel's eyes squinted... 'Then it was in that moment, in that moment beyond all others...I really hated that Tactical Doll.' No more words, no radio, nothing. The figure of Raziel goes up with the other Tactical dolls.
Tomoe	The missile defence works well enough so everyone does not die and she'll be okay with that. Even if she might end up in worse fighting before they get out of here. She knows they do not have too long and she will run out of MP herself sooner rather than later at this rate, thankfully as the dropships make their landing? She's quick to follow Nova on to the ship and will give what remaining fire she to help cover their escape until the entry point of the ship closes. Only then, will she relax as they are inside the dropship and she's no longer able to fire off any more spells. "Thanks." She notes to Nova. She will not be able to do anything now as she's in the hands of the pilot of the dropship, and she's going to just accept that Nova's people are good and she'll have to trust in them but then comes the grim news about the new guy Raziel. Wait what happened to him can the dead be killed again?! This has been one hell of a day and now she can only have concern for Raziel's well being and feel like did she screw up in her job? She missed someone getting out. Tomoe just isn't sure now what to think about herself on this operation.
Alexis Maaka	Maaka can only watch as she sees the bridge go up in flames, just as Raziel disappears with it. "Raziel? Where are you?" She radios. No response. "Raziel? RAZIEL!?" Still nothing. Maaka's stomach drops, and she stares out at the remains at the bridge as she and Staren presumably fly away. "...waitasecond." She realizes he's technically a ghost already. Maybe he's fine?
Staren	When the missiles start getting hard to hit, Staren voices some concerns. <"I'm not gonna be able to keep this up! Get off or hold on!"> He warns Maaka, and then turns as each missile approaches, using the railgun and laser rifle to try and shoot them down too. He'll try to take hits to his machine so the others don't get blown up, up to a point anyway. And then the cavalry comes. The Terrans have transforming robots too, who'd have thought! Staren sets Maaka down by a dropship if she hasn't dropped off already, and supports the vikings with his direct-fire weapons, ready to retreat when they do or when it becomes clear there's no point in continuing.
Gordon Freeman	Freeman's impulse is to worry as they ascend, concerned with the nature of the encounter. The absence of counter-forces to strike against his strategy is noted and worried about, feeling like something in the machine logic is likely to kick back here, or like he's being led on by it, like the Gluon Gun won't be enough next time. He's worried about A-15. S-2 is good to rescue, but... The other, missing partner. Well, they're halfway there, but there's more they need to go for. He's reminded, in a positive way, by the presence of S-2 with him! He's uneasy, unsure about letting someone else operate such a frankly dangerous machine, but... Well, if she's been out in the wilderness fighting to survive, some part of him wants to make sure she gets something to cheer her up on her way back. And, as he figures, she's not a person -- not in the legal sense, anyway, so Black Mesa is hardly held liable for handing over valuable nuclear materials and technologies reserved and classified by the US Department of Defense. So he lets her use the nozzle, at least. For a little while. Until she starts to eat too much expensive nuclear material for too little enemy killcount, and he has to very gently cut the flow of exotic particles to the hose, and pull the expensive equipment back. He can hear over the radio... Did one of theirs die? Oh no, the one with the ghosts? He looks horribly concerned for a moment, eyes daring around for signs of life, but... Well, he's a humanitarian, but for his part, he can do little for retrieving a corpse. It's the first time an ally has died in battle, but the man's psyche almost seems pre-hardened against its devastation, despite the clear and intense worry he has for a fallen friend. For now, he gets strapped in on the evac dropship, and readies to help as best he can with any repairs he can make to the damage they take on in their hot extraction.
Tony Stark	Stark expects to be entirely free and clear of missiles with the helicopter play. It was perfect. Exactly what would draw tons of interception fire. It only partially works. And, an anti-air missiles strikes Iron Man dead on in mid-air, nearly blowing him out of the sky in a dazed stall, catching himself before actually impacting the ground - barely. "The hell did they get us?" Stark complains lightly, rattled and winded from the strike and his sore ribs reflect the sorry state of his chestplate from the day's missile buffet. Streaking towards the dropship as the Vikings burn in, Stark lets those big twin autocannons on the variable fighters and S-2's weilding of the Gluon Gun do the roaring, as Iron Man vectors in to a quick arrival at their getaway vehicle. His helmet pops open as he slides up next to Freeman and Nova. "We left /two/ people? We only got one. That's a shit trade - and we don't do trades." But Nova's voice confirms - there's nothing there. Tony's enhanced grip, with the suit, begins to crumple part of Gordon's getaway car with the stress. "We. Don't. Make. Trades." He heaves a bracing, ragged sigh. "I've seen Banari take some hits. So if Raziel doesn't re-appear and make me look like a damn fool, we'll deliver Kaspar's precious cargo." "Then we'll go back."